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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an inspection apparatus, and more particularly to a surface inspection apparatus which can automatically inspect for defects in the surfaces of objects to be inspected as they are carried along on a continuous belt conveyor or the like, by the use of a single optical image sensor or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, many types of devices have been proposed for automatically inspecting objects, as a replacement for the personal inspection conducted by the human eye. In these devices, the appearance or surface of the objects are viewed through optical image sensors such as video cameras or the like to produce video signals thereof and then such video signals are processed in electronic circuitry or the like to automatically determine whether or not a defect in the objects exist.
However, in the above known prior art inspection devices, the video camera is normally fixed and its visual field is limited to one direction. Accordingly, when an object to be inspected is a cubic body such as a cup or the like, its entire round surface cannot be inspected at one time.
Alternatively, methods of inspection have been suggested that use a number of video cameras to view a single object to be inspected so that the inspected object may be simultaneously inspected from several different directions at once. However, this method contains a defect in that it necessitates a number of video cameras as well as multi processing circuits which make the system expensive and which also requires a large inspection space.
Further, proposals have been made to use one video camera and to stop the cubic object, such as a cup at the inspection position, and thereafter rotating the object, so that the inspection area is changed. By thus repeating the inspection several times, the entire round surface of the object will be inspected. This method requires a long time to inspect a single object which makes it impossible to adopt this method to the inspection of a plurality of objects, such as cups or the like, that flow on a belt conveyor. | {
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1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to plastic product manufacturing processes and more particularly to a process of manufacturing a plastic product with decorated surfaces (e.g., an inner surface of the plastic product) by forming a thin film structure made of natural or synthetic fiber, placing the thin film structure in a mold, and injecting a thermoplastic material into a space between the thin film structure and the mold.
2. Description of Related Art
Plastic products are widely used in our daily life. Further, an aesthetic surface of a plastic product is desired. Therefore, techniques for decorating plastic surfaces are available. For example, IMD (In-mold decoration) is a type of plastic molding for decorating plastic surfaces with color and/or with an abrasion resistant coat. Thus, continuing improvements in the exploitation of processes of decorating plastic surfaces are constantly being sought. | {
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FIG. 1 is an exemplary schematic diagram of a capacitor 100 in accordance with the prior art. The capacitor 100 includes a first plate 110, a first electrode 115 coupled to the first plate and permitting interconnection with other circuit elements (not shown in FIG. 1), a second plate 120 together with a second electrode 125 coupled to the second plate 120 and a dielectric 130 disposed between the first 110 and second 120 plates of the capacitor 100.
The capacitor 100 operates by storing and releasing charge in response to signals coupled to the first 115 and second 125 electrodes. It is generally desirable to form capacitors 100 together with CMOS circuit elements but without requiring modification of standard CMOS processes. This allows greater choice of foundry for CMOS IC manufacturing, simplifies production, and reduces expense in realizing ICs that include the capacitor 100.
Some applications for capacitors 100 require larger breakdown voltages than are needed for most of the other circuit elements forming the IC. Such applications may include power supplies associated with programming circuitry for programmable or nonvolatile memory elements.
The first 110 and second 120 plates may be realized in a number of forms in ICs using standard CMOS processes. These forms can include metal or semiconductor layers comprising the capacitor plates 110, 120, separated by a layer forming the dielectric 130, or interdigitated conductive patterns comprising the capacitor plates 110, 120.
Capacitors 100 formed using interdigitated conductive patterns for the capacitor plates 110, 120 tend to provide relatively high breakdown voltage. These also tend to be relatively large and to provide relatively little capacitance per unit area of the IC in which they are formed.
Capacitors 100 may also be formed by using a first conductive plate 110, which may be relatively planar, formed on or in a substrate, a relatively planar dielectric 130 disposed atop the first plate 110 and a relatively planar second conductive plate 120 formed on and supported by the dielectric layer 130. The first plate 110 may be formed from metal or from a conductively doped semiconductive layer. When formed on a semiconductive substrate using conventional CMOS processing techniques and employing a dielectric analogous to a FET gate dielectric, such capacitors may be referred to as MOS capacitors or MDS (metal-dielectric-semiconductor) capacitors, although the dielectric may or may not be an oxide or silicon dioxide, and the first 110 and second 120 plates may be semiconductive or other conductive material rather than including metal.
For example, first 110 and second 120 plates may be formed using polysilicon or metal layers separated by a dielectric layer 130 formed using polyimide or an oxide such as silicon dioxide. Such capacitors 100 may be formed to have relatively high breakdown voltage using a relatively thick dielectric layer 130 but then provide relatively little capacitance per unit surface area of the IC because of the thickness of the dielectric layer 130.
Alternatively, MDS structures may be formed either as FETs or as MDS capacitors, using the same material for the dielectric 130 as is used to form gate dielectrics for other FET structures that are also part of the IC. This allows the capacitor 100 to be formed via the same processes that are employed to form transistors and the like. However, gate dielectrics are typically made relatively thin because, among other things, the transconductance of a FET per unit gate width (i.e., per unit area of the IC) decreases as the gate dielectric thickness increases. As a result, while use of dielectric layers 130 that are also suitable for FET gate structures provides relatively high capacitance per unit area, the breakdown voltage of the resulting capacitor 100 is relatively low.
Various prior art capacitors have been employed to address these conflicting aspects of high-voltage capacitor realization. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,637, entitled “Monolithic High-Voltage Capacitor” and issued to Embree describes a capacitor employing multiple dielectric layers and a guard ring but requires process steps not normally associated with CMOS IC fabrication, while U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,869 entitled “High-Voltage Capacitor Manufacturing Method And High-Voltage Capacitor” and issued to Azumi et al. describes a high-voltage capacitor not suitable for monolithic integration.
Various prior art capacitors have been employed to address the conflicting aspects of high-voltage capacitor realization in the context of CMOS ICs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,153, entitled “Floating Gate Capacitor For Use In Voltage Regulators”, issued to Le et al. describes a single floating-gate NMOS transistor used together with other circuitry as a constant-capacitance capacitor in a voltage-divider structure for voltage regulation, while U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,469, entitled “Capacitor For Use In A Capacitive Divider That Has A Floating-Gate Transistor As A Corresponding Capacitor” and issued to Le et al. describes one or more floating-gate NMOS transistors used together with other circuitry to provide a capacitive voltage divider for voltage regulation. These circuits are not intended to provide high-voltage capacitors; they also require a conventional control gate disposed atop the floating gate in order to operate, but the processing required to fabricate such control-gate structures is not available in many modern CMOS foundry processes.
One approach that has been employed to address these conflicting aspects of high-voltage capacitor realization in CMOS ICs is to stack a pair of FETs with source/drain contacts connected together, or a pair of MOS capacitors, in series by forming each capacitor structure so that they share a contact in the form of a well of semiconductive material. FIG. 2 is an exemplary schematic diagram of a high-voltage capacitor 200 formed from two MOS capacitor structures 205 and 210, in accordance with the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,064, entitled “Floating Gate MOS Capacitor” and issued to Hariton describes a voltage-independent capacitor circuit analogous to that of FIG. 2 and describes the associated biasing circuitry required for such.
Each of the MOS capacitor structures 205 and 210 of FIG. 2 is illustrated as comprising a PMOS FET-like structure having a respective externally accessible capacitor electrode 212, 214, a floating gate 231 and control electrode 232, source/drain electrodes or power electrodes 215, a channel 220 electrically coupling the source/drain electrodes 215 of each structure 205 or 210, and a body or well contact 225. In each of the structures 205 or 210, the gate structure includes a dielectric 230 such as a conventional gate oxide, and is capacitively coupled to the source/drain electrodes 215 and channel 220 through the dielectric 230.
Each FET structure 205, 210 is shown as comprising a floating-gate electrode 231 formed on a first portion of the dielectric layer 230 and a control-gate electrode, 232, formed on and separated from the floating-gate electrode 231 by a second portion of the dielectric layer 230. Conventional floating-gate transistors incorporate separate floating gate 231 and control gate 232 structures, with only the control gate 232 typically being electrically accessible.
A conventional stacked capacitor 200 is formed by interconnecting one of the source/drain contacts 215 from each of the FETs at a common intercapacitor node 235 and employing the control-gate electrodes 212 and 214, respectively, as the first 115 and second 125 capacitor electrodes (FIG. 1). One issue with such stacked capacitors 200 is that conventional MOS or floating-gate transistor structures have no means for adjusting charge on common node 235, and, consequently, are unable to avoid one of the two structures 205, 210 carrying a disproportionate amount of the voltage impressed across the electrodes 212, 214.
Furthermore, the semiconductive structure forming the common source/drain region has leakage currents associated with it. As a result, a bias circuit (not illustrated) is required in order to maintain the intercapacitor node 235 voltage and to provide a path for addition or removal of charge caused by leakage currents. Requiring such bias circuitry for each high-voltage capacitor 200 undesirably increases the complexity of the resulting integrated circuit that includes the high-voltage capacitors 200 and results in poorer form factor, i.e., a larger circuit layout.
Accordingly, improved techniques and structures are needed for realizing high-voltage capacitors having a compact form factor using standard CMOS processes. | {
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Typical impulse communications systems make a number of assumptions. For example, many impulse communications systems assume that the impulse power of the signal will exceed the background noise level sufficiently to provide adequate signal-to-noise ratio for operation. Also, many impulse communications systems assume a quiet spectrum in the frequency band of operation. Typically, very little coding of the signal is done in impulse communications systems. The coding that is typically done is usually error detection and correction rather than coding to ensure signal integrity. One example of error detecting and correcting coding is Reed Solomon coding.
It is not always valid to assume either a quite spectrum or that impulse power will always sufficiently exceed background noise level. For example, impulse noise sources can cause a pulse to be detected when no pulse was transmitted in the original signal. Some systems reject noise by using multi-bit symbols and monitoring for pulses when a pulse is expected. If the pulses received match the pulses expected, the multi-bit symbol is considered a valid symbol. However, it is still possible that, in these systems, noise can cause pulses to be detected when expected even though no pulse was transmitted at that time. When this happens a symbol may be considered a valid symbol even though the symbol is the result of noise and not a transmitted data signal.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a communications system which has improved noise immunity. | {
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Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to field of display technique, particularly to an organic electroluminescent display device, a method for producing the same and a display apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
Currently, an organic electroluminescent display (OLED) device has been widely used in a display apparatus due to its characteristics of quick response, wide color gamut, ultrathin structure, and the capability of becoming flexible and the like as compared to a conventional liquid crystal display (LCD) device.
The OLED device generally comprises a thin film transistor array substrate and an organic electroluminescent structure. In the OLED device, a thin film transistor generally includes a gate electrode, an active layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode. The organic electroluminescent structure generally includes an anode, a luminescent layer and a cathode. Specifically, a bottom-emission-type OLED device as shown in FIG. 1 mainly comprises a substrate 1, and a gate electrode 2, a gate insulating layer 3, an active layer 4, a etch stop layer 5, a source electrode 6, a drain electrode 7, an insulating layer 8, a color filter 9, an anode 10, a pixel defining layer 11, a luminescent layer 12 and a cathode 13 which are sequentially disposed on the substrate 1.
When producing the OLED device of the above structure, components formed by a pattern process using a mask comprise at least the gate electrode, the active layer, the etch stop layer, the source electrode, the drain electrode, the insulating layer, the color filter, the anode and the pixel defining layer. Since the color filter is generally composed of monochromatic filters formed by alternatively arranging three primary colors (red, green, blue), it is necessary to use three masks to perform patterning operation respectively when producing the color filter.
In overview, when manufacturing the conventional OLED device, it is necessary to use a plurality of masks to perform the patterning process. Therefore, the manufacturing process of the conventional OLED devices has problems of complicated production process, many manufacturing steps, high cost, time-consuming and the like. | {
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This invention relates to improvements in method and apparatus for injection molding of material such, for example, as thermoplastic resinous material.
In the injection molding of thermoplastic material, the material is plasticized prior to injection into a mold by means of a reciprocating screw plasticizing unit. In such a unit, the material to be molded is fed in granular, powder or other form to a plasticizing barrel to be transported by rotation of the screw to the head of the plasticizing barrel. The material is heated and mechanically worked to a plastic state during its movement by the screw through the plasticizing barrel.
The accumulation of material at the cylinder head results in the displacement of the extrusion screw, thereby pushing the screw backwards in the plasticizing barrel. When enough material has been accumulated to fill the mold, a valve in the injection nozzle is opened and the extrusion screw, acting as a ram, is pushed forward by means of an injection piston mounted for reciprocating movement and operatively connected with the screw. This forward movement of the screw under the action of the piston causes the plastic material to be injected from the plasticizing barrel into the mold. Upon completion of the injection stroke, the screw is rotated again so as to replace the injected volume of material and the cycle is then renewed.
It has been found that on rotation of the screw, the interaction between the helix of the screw and the plastic material, which latter has a high viscosity, causes the screw to push back along the plasticizing barrel before the plastic material reaches the head of the plasticizing barrel. To offset this effect, it has been the practice heretofore to restrict the backward movement of the screw by restricting the displacement of hydraulic fluid from the injection cylinder in which an operative piston is connected with the screw. This can be achieved either by including a flow restrictor in the hydraulic return pipe or by causing the displaced fluid to return to a pressure relief valve. There is a disadvantage in the use of the flow restrictor in that the pressure generated in the injection cylinder is dependent upon the plasticizing rate and will therefore vary with changes in the speed of the plasticizing screw. A disadvantage in both systems suggested is that the screw would start to rotate before the back pressure has been produced. This would cause pockets of gas and volatile substances to be present in the volume of material to be injected. Also, with the systems at present in use, the low pressures involved, especially at low screw speeds, result in difficulties of accurately controlling the valves. | {
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Tactical radio communications rely heavily on ad-hoc mobile radio networks and systems. Emerging tactical battlefield networks typically include a collection of autonomous host nodes or terminals that are mobile. These nodes move into and out of radio communication range with each other, and generally cannot rely on a pre-defined fixed infrastructure within their environment. The nodes in an ad-hoc communications network may move, be destroyed, or new nodes may join the network. In other words, the network environment is mobile, wireless, dynamically changing, and is “infrastructure-less.”
Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks
In a wireless ad-hoc network a group of autonomous nodes or terminals communicate with each other by forming a multi-hop radio network and maintaining connectivity in a decentralized manner. The nodes represent radio communication devices which may be with a person (such as a warfighter), a ground or an air-vehicle platform, an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV), an Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) or the like. The network can be represented by a graph, where the graph vertices are the network nodes and two vertices are connected by an edge if the corresponding nodes can be reached (or communicate) by a radio link. In other words the nodes can be depicted as a set of points. Connections between these points can be shown as lines with each line representing a radio link over which one node can communicate with another node. Two radio nodes are said to be communicating if the link quality is above a predefined threshold, such as, if the signal-to-noise ratio is above a predefined threshold.
The mobile nodes must be able to communicate with each other over a wireless media without any infra-structured network component support such as fixed radio relay base stations. Each mobile node can typically communicate with its neighboring mobile nodes which are a single radio hop away. Each mobile node operates not only as a host but also as a router, forwarding packets of information to other mobile nodes in the network that may not be within direct wireless transmission range of each other. Each node participates in an ad-hoc routing protocol that allows it to discover “multi-hop” paths through the network to any other node. Control of the network is distributed among the nodes.
The network topology is “ad-hoc” in that it dynamically changes over time because the connectivity among the nodes may vary with time. For example, because the nodes are mobile, the network topology may change rapidly and unpredictably over time due to node departures, new node arrivals, and the mobility of the nodes. Nodes can fail, for example, if they are destroyed or due to hard or soft failures which occur in the battlefield. Moreover, since the nodes communicate over wireless links, the nodes have to contend with the effects of radio communication, such as noise, fading, interference and the like. Factors such as variable wireless link quality, propagation path loss, fading, multi-user interference, power expended, topological changes and the like may become relevant issues. Connections between nodes may also be broken or established due to, for example, distance factors, variations in signal strength, weather, mountains, buildings, loss of node and the like. Thus, changes in propagation conditions and the environment, as well as the unpredictability of node movements and sporadic node failures, can contribute to the dynamic nature of an ad-hoc network. These problems are even further complicated in a military environment where the preservation of security, latency, reliability, intentional jamming and recovery from failure are significant concerns.
Accordingly, one of the most important features of any an ad-hoc mobile network, is the ability to adapt well to link changes, namely changes in the interconnectivity between mobile nodes.
Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)
The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is a Department of Defense (DoD) initiative designed to provide a flexible new approach to meet diverse warfighter communications needs through software-programmable tactical radio technology or “software defined radios” (SDRs). It is desirable to provide SDRs which can provide a warfighter with voice, data and video communications across a battlespace. Beyond the battlefield, JTRS holds great potential for initiatives such as homeland security, federal, state and local law enforcement, search and rescue, commercial aviation and international commercial applications. The JTRS implements the concept of relay and translation nodes (land, sea, air and space based) to help ensure that tactical users can access required information no matter where it resides.
There are several issues facing dynamic ad-hoc networks. For example, links between nodes are the frequently broken as nodes move or are destroyed. In addition, nodes can randomly fail due to enemy or unintentional attacks.
Thus, a challenge in ad-hoc networks is to maintain network-wide connectivity. In this context a network is “connected” if there is a communication path, either node-to-node or multiple-node-hopping, which can allow any two nodes in the network to communicate with one another. As noted above, as nodes move the links between the nodes can be broken and the network can partition into isolated sub-networks. A break in the network can create a situation where the node cannot communicate with another node (absolutely no paths). In this case, the network is said to be “partitioned.”
A number of tools have been developed to assist with network planning and management of ad-hoc radio networks, such as operational tactical networks. DoD programs such as JTRS Enterprise Network Manager (JENM), Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) Network Manager (SRWNM), and JTRS Wideband Networking Waveform (WNW) Network Manager (JWNM) have designed and implemented planning and configuration tools requiring complex input XML files in the form of Communications Plans (CommPlans). The input files typically include hundreds of parameter types and thousands of parameter values to plan waveforms such as SRW, Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), or WNW running on radio types such as Handheld, Manpack, Small Form Fit (HMS) or Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular Radio (MNVR). Here, a waveform represents a partial implementation of a communication networking covering one or more layers of a multilayer protocol stack. In one example, a waveform may cover the bottom three layers of the Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI), namely, the physical layer, data link layer, and partial or complete network layer.
Recent releases of JENM have provided editors allowing a network planner to fully create a CommPlan from scratch or to modify an existing CommPlan. Due to lack of usability requirements, the use of such editors is limited by design to expert engineering personnel trained on the technical network planning, configuration, and operation. It has been observed in several Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) events that creating a CommPlan for a medium size mission consisting of tens of radios hosting WNW waveform and hundreds of radios hosting SRW waveform can take up to two dedicated work weeks of a team of six highly trained engineers. Accounting for other threshold waveforms, e.g., WNW and MUOS, and adding objective waveforms such as Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT) and Adaptive Networking Wideband Waveform (ANW2) as well as legacy waveforms such as Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) and Satellite Communications (SATCOM) will only increase the time needed for creating a mission CommPlan.
As evidenced in recent NIE events held twice per year by the US Army, the inherent complexity makes the fielding of the above network management products prohibitive to the US Army operational personnel. To the best of our extensive field knowledge, there is no product in the landscape addressing the complexity of fielding of network management products having cost DoD hundreds of millions of dollars to date. | {
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A “model” generally describes one or more complex application artifacts (e.g., business processes, data structures, structure and behavior of software systems or other technical and/or business components, etc.) in a formalized fashion. A model can use modeling primitives and/or conventions of a well-defined “abstract language,” which oftentimes is referred to as a metamodel. Some common metamodels are the UML family of modeling languages (e.g., UML class diagrams, UML collaboration diagrams, etc.), the BPMN metamodel, the ARTS family of modeling languages (EPC, VAC, FAD, etc.), the entity-relationship (meta)model (ERM), the relational (meta)model, etc. A metamodel, being an abstract language, may be thought of as a collection of modeling elements that can be used or “instantiated” to describe the actual models. For instance, in a UML class diagram, modeling elements include classes, associations, properties, etc., whereas the model elements in the relational model include relations and their attributes. These modeling elements can be arranged in a variety of well-defined ways to build formal models representing potentially complex business and/or technical processing or other flows.
A metamodel is in principle independent of a concrete notation and therefore may be thought of as an “abstract language,” as indicated above. For instance, a metamodel may define only the language concepts and the rules for their use to form a valid model for the metamodel itself. To do actual modeling with a metamodel, however, a concrete notation is required. Notations of metamodel elements include, for example, boxes with three “compartments” that represent UML classes, labeled rectangles and diamonds used to represent entities and relationships in the ERM, etc.
A common trait of many metamodels is that corresponding models can be represented as a graph including nodes and edges, which collectively can be referred to as the graph's “elements.” Computer systems handling different “kinds” of models (e.g., so-called model management systems) often use some kind of graph model as internal representation for all kinds of models.
Model merging involves creating a single merged result model C, from two models A and B (where A, B, and C can be expressed in the same metamodel), that possibly describe the same or overlapping sets of application artifacts (e.g., the same software system, the same business process, etc.), but describe these artifacts differently. For example, A and B could be two versions of the same original model that were modified independently. As another example, A and B might describe different aspects of an application domain that share some overlap.
It would be desirable to run a merge function to deliver a merged model C that does not contain redundancies. That is, it would be desirable to help ensure that all model elements that appear in both A and B appear at most once in the merged model C. Depending on the exact purpose of C, it oftentimes is desirable to preserve all elements that are either in A or B. Doing so may help to reduce the likelihood of information being lost from the input models. However, this is not a general requirement for merging. It also would be desirable to have the merged model C be consistent and well formed, e.g., so that it meets the constraints of its respective metamodel.
With models being some kind of graphs, model merging is a different challenge than the more common (and usually line-wise) merging of text files as it is done, e.g., in version control systems. Text-based merging of models is theoretically possible if there is a textual (e.g., XML-based) notation for their respective metamodel. However, text-based merge tools are not natural tools for handling the merging of models. For example, most textual representations are ill-suited for direct use by humans and are only meant as storage formats or for model interchange. In particular, the structure of the (linear) textual representations usually differs considerably from the non-linear, graph-like structure of the model itself, making it difficult and cumbersome to work directly with these representations. Second, even small changes of a model can lead to significant changes of its textual representation, making it hard to differentiate between the actual changes on the model level and purely “syntactical” changes implicated by the textual representation. Text-based tools therefore are not really appropriate for model merging.
When designing a merge system for merging two models A and B, a function may be provided for identifying pairs of elements ai and bj from A and B, respectively, that are considered identical (or at least elements that after a successful merge operation should appear only once in the resulting merged model C). “Identical” element pairs are discussed herein as a mapping relation mapAB: A×B.
It will be appreciated that mapAB, being a relation, need neither be injective nor surjective nor a function. In general, model elements from A need not have counterparts in B, and vice versa, and an element ai from A could possibly have several “identical” elements bi1, . . . , Bin in B and vice versa. In literature, techniques for producing such a mapAB from two models A and B are called schema or model matching techniques. In other scenarios, such a mapAB can also result from the process that created models A and B.
Based on the content of mapAB, it is possible to distinguish different categories of (pairs of, groups of, individual, etc.) objects from A and B: If two objects aiεA and bjεB are identified as identical by mapAB (e.g., (ai,bj)εmapAB), and if no other entries involving ai or bj exist in mapAB a (∃ax s.t. (ax,bj)εmapAB∃by s.t. (ai,by)εmapAB) and if ai and bj agree on all properties that are relevant for the merge method (e.g., certain attributes, etc.), then ai and bj can be called equal. If ai and bj differ in some of their merge-relevant properties, these objects can be referred to as having been changed. Objects aiεA (bjεB, respectively) for which there exists no object bjεB (aiεA, respectively) such that (ai,bj)εmapAB (∃bjεB s.t. (ai,bj)εmapAB) (∃ai s.t. (ai,bj)εmapAB, resp.) may be called added in A (added in B, respectively). If two objects aiεA and bjεB are identified as identical by mapAB (e.g., (ai,bj)εmapAB), and if other entries involving ai or bj exist in mapAB ((ax s.t. (ax,bj)εmapAB)(by s.t. (ai,by)εmapAB)), these objects may be referred to as being conflicting.
With this information, a merge method may create a consistent result model C. While the handling of objects that are equal is seemingly straightforward, it may be the case that decisions have to be made for all other kinds of objects if and how to accept them into the result model C. These decisions may depend on, for example, the intended purpose of C, the details of the conflicts, the context in which A and B where created, etc. These difficulties demonstrate that model merging currently is inevitably a manual task of which only certain trivial tasks can be safely automated. This also implies that, in general, a human has to decide which elements and which properties to take from A and which from B, for inclusion into the result C.
The ARIS model transformation component, provided by the assignee of the instant invention, allows users to declaratively describe how models of one type can be transformed into a semantically related model of a different (or sometimes also the same) model type. An example for such a transformation is shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, a business process modeled using the event-process chain (EPC) metamodel is transformed into an equivalent process in the “business process model and notation” (BPMN) metamodel. This transformation can be referred to as an EPC-2-BPMN transformation. Although the EPC metamodel may be meant to be used by business-oriented users to capture business processes as they are (or should be) handled in an organization, BPMN is a metamodel and notation that also covers more technical aspects. Using the EPC-2-BPMN transformation, a BPMN can be created from an EPC to be used as starting point for enriching the business view of a process with technical details to ultimately make the process executable by a suitable runtime environment like a workflow management system (WfMS). However, the present invention is not limited to the modeling of business processes, but may well be used in other scenarios such as, for example, the systems engineering of complex technical products. For example, the development process of a vehicle is nowadays largely model based. In this scenario, the various vehicle components are typically modeled on a system-wide level defining the main mechanical components such as the chassis, engine and power train, as well as electric/electronic components such as rain sensors, speed-limiters, embedded processors and the related software. Further, the individual vehicle components are themselves defined by more and more concrete technical model as the development process continues, ultimately leading to a variety of technical component models on different levels of abstraction, but yet strongly interrelated.
The description of the transformation is given by so-called transformation patterns or rules, which specify how individual or groups of elements of the source model type are translated into corresponding elements of the target model type. The ARIS model transformation, in particular the graphical way to describe transformation patterns, is discussed in detail in U.S. Publication No. 2009/0265684, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. A transformation pattern includes a source pattern, a target pattern, and a mapping. The source pattern can be understood as a graphical query over the input model(s) that describes the structures of the source model to be found and transformed. Each region of the input model that conforms to the structure described by a source pattern can be considered a match for this rule. A transformation pattern's target pattern describes what elements and structures of the target model type are to be created for each match. The structure that is created in the result model for each match can be called a fragment. Of course, transformation patterns or rules may be defined in other ways such as, for example, by hard-coding specific functionality.
Using the mapping part of a rule, the developer can graphically define how attributes and properties of the source model elements matching the source pattern are to be transferred into the attributes and properties of the target model elements. By placing additional operators in the mapping and connecting them accordingly, the creation of complex mappings can be done graphically, e.g., without the hurdle of handling a complex expression syntax, as it is found in other model transformation languages.
Several simplified examples for transformation rules are set forth below. FIG. 2 is an example pattern for transforming a function to an abstract task. The source pattern of the rule “Function to abstract task” in the upper-left of FIG. 2 includes only an EPC function. The target pattern shown to the right declares that such a structure is to be translated into a BPMN abstract task object, which is to be placed into a lane, with the lane being placed into a pool object. The mapping shown in the lower part of the drawing indicates that the abstract task object is to carry the same name as the matched source function, and that the lane into which the manual task is to be placed is to be named “default lane.”
FIG. 3 is an example pattern for transforming a function with an organizational unit to a manual task. The rule “Function with organizational unit to manual task” shown in FIG. 3 can be considered a special case of the rule “Function to abstract task” from FIG. 2. As above, the source pattern includes an EPC function, but the function in this example is connected with an organizational unit. It is noted that objects that do not directly describe the main process flow but which instead are placed adjacent to an element of the main process flow (such as the organizational unit element in this example) may be referred to informally as satellite objects. The target pattern in FIG. 2 seems to be very similar to the one from the FIG. 2 example rule. However, instead of creating an abstract task, a manual task object is being created. Further, instead of placing the task into a “default lane,” the lane is now named based on the source organizational unit element.
The degree of complexity transformation rules can have can be quite large. For instance, FIG. 4 is another example rule that creates a special kind of task based on a specific constellation of EPC elements. In FIG. 4, an EPC function connected with a business service is translated to a BPMN service task. As can be seen from FIG. 4, the source and target patterns of this rule include assigned models. For the source pattern to match in this example, an assigned model must exist at the business service. In this model, an additional software service type object that describes the business service in more detail has to exist. This object itself in this example must again be detailed by second source side assignment, as shown in the lower-left corner of FIG. 4. The rule will match and create a corresponding Service Task only if this exact structure is found, and an assigned model will be placed at this service task that holds additional information about the service task based on the assignments matched by the source pattern.
Similar specializations may exist for different constellations of EPC functions and satellite objects that create different types of tasks. With additional rules that specify how to transform other elements of an EPC model, like events and rules into corresponding elements in BPMN, the EPC-2-BPMN transformation can translate all elements of an EPC model that are also relevant on the technical level into a semantically equivalent BPMN model.
One challenge in the design of the EPC-2-BPMN transformation involved the handling of ambiguities. Consider, for example, a function that is connected to both a business service and an organizational unit. In this situation, both the “Function with organizational unit to manual task” and the “Function with business service to service task” patterns would match, but would disagree in their result (e.g., symbol type, placement into a lane etc.). One possibility for addressing this issue involves prioritizing the patterns in a transformation (e.g., preferring the creation of a service task in this situation). Another option involves designing patterns that could “compete” about the same source model elements in such a way that they are only applicable if exactly one of them matches unambiguously for a given function. Following the former approach, the ambiguous example function would be transformed to a manual task, as the manual task pattern has a higher priority.
Business process management (BPM) aims to capture, analyze, and optimize or improve how companies perform their processes, and attempts to provide IT support for conducting the processes more efficiently in everyday business. One aspect of BPM involves introducing workflow management systems (WfMS) that control the execution of processes, both regarding activities performed by humans (e.g., with varying degrees of IT support) and activities performed in completely automated manners and possibly with the help of software and/or other technical systems. In the conventional, manual approach, BPM starts with human experts analyzing how an organization is currently conducting its business processes. The results of this analysis are captured in various ways, either informally as requirement documents, or in a semi-formal notation like the aforementioned EPCs. After an optional optimization step, these business-centric process descriptions are cast into a technical process description that can ultimately be executed by the WfMS. As part of this implementation step, aspects that are not captured by the business process descriptions may be filled in, e.g., by identifying and connecting information systems that are needed for a process, etc. Being a fully manual development task, this approach is both slow and costly.
Model-2-execution (M2E), however, aims to reduce the enormous manual development effort of BPMN by automating parts of the translation of the business-centric process descriptions into executable, technical specifications. An aspect of M2E thus involves adapting the concepts of model-driven development (MDD) to the BPM world, e.g., by replacing a large part of the manual work with model-2-model transformations. The EPC-2-BPMN transformation introduced above may be used as a transformation in model-2-execution approaches. In MDD terminology, the EPC-2-BPMN transformation can be understood as a transformation from the computational-independent model (CIM) that does not capture aspects related to the implementation with an IT system, to the platform-independent model (PIM). A PIM may cover aspects relevant for the implementation, but may nonetheless still be independent of a concrete implementation technology used (e.g., in the case of BPM, the concrete workflow management system that is used, or how the WfMS communicates with other required IT systems, etc.).
In the context of the model transformation in model-driven development in general, and specifically also in MDD for BPM as it is pursued by the M2E approaches, the situation often arises that after a creation of the initial transformed model T via a transformation run, the source model S is changed by a business user, yielding a modified source model S′, as illustrated in FIG. 5. To propagate these changes to the technical BPMN layer, it may be possible to transform S′ again, yielding a new transformed model T′. However, in the meantime, a process engineer might have modified the original BPMN model T and augmented it with technical information, that way yielding a modified BPMN model T″. In this case, it is not desirable to simply replace T″ with T′ to get the business-level changes to the technical level, as this would lose all changes by the technical user that yielded T″. Unless either T′ or T″ can be discarded as a whole and the changes from only T″ or T′ can be taken into the result, the independent changes in T′ and T″ may need to be combined into a single, consistent merged model TM by merging these two models T′ and T″. In this merge process, T′ (e.g., the model resulting from transforming the modified source model S′) may be referred to as the new transformed model, and T″ may be referred to as the merge target model.
In the FIG. 5 example, the business user adds a function F3 to the process as an (exclusive) alternative to F2 to create S′. In the original transformed model T, the process engineer adds an additional task F2b to create T″. F2b could represent a task that is necessary from a technical standpoint, but need not be reflected on the business level. When S′ is now transformed to obtain T′, it can be seen that T′ and T″ differ and that a merge may need to be performed to obtain a result that reflects the changes in both models as good as possible.
As discussed above (e.g., in connection with the general model merge problem) to be able to successfully merge the two models T′ and T″, it would be desirable to provide a way to identify elements that are to be considered “identical” for the purpose of merging, e.g., a way to obtain a mapT′T″. Instead of using inherently fuzzy methods such as, for example, guessing pairs of identical (e.g., mergeable) objects based on their properties (e.g., name, type, etc.), or even leaving the identification of pairs of identical objects completely to the user, the transformation itself my place “trace” information on all elements that it creates. This trace information may include for each element ti in the transformed model, among other things, information about which transformation rules were involved in the creation of ti, the identities of the source element(s) in model S that were “responsible” for the creation of ti (e.g., those source model elements that were matched by the source patterns of the different transformation rules that helped to create ti), etc. Two objects t′εT′, t″εT″ may be considered identical (e.g., will be found in a tuple of mapT′T″) if they agree to a sufficient degree in their trace information and some additional properties. While this may sound counterintuitive at first, this merge semantics may be valuable because, in practice, models tend to have many objects whose properties (e.g., type, symbol, attributes such as name, etc.) are equal, and that are consequently transformed to result model objects that are also equal. Thus, if the identity of their source model elements were not used as a distinguishing criterion, it might not be possible to disambiguate these equal (but not identical) result model elements and thus it might not be possible to perform proper non-ambiguous merging. Further, by merging via source object identity, it also may be possible to transfer changes of properties (e.g., a renaming of an EPC object) during the merge. If the merge decision were based on properties and if these properties were modified on either source or target model, the objects could not be merged.
In the existing implementation of the model merge in the scope of the ARIS model transformation, the transforming of S′ into T′ and merging T′ with the merge target model T″ with T′ is an integral process. The user may pick the source model, the merge target model, and may be presented with a single model that illustrates the conflicts between T′ and T″, as shown below in FIG. 6. This model may be referred to as the conflict model TC. In the conflict model, the user may resolve the remaining conflicts to create the final merge model TM. Conflicts may be indicated, for example, with graphical icons next to the conflicting elements. These icons may also be referred to as the corresponding element's “merge state.”
With the mapT′T″ obtained via the transformation's trace information as discussed above, the conflict model may be created as follows:
Pairs of elements aεT′ and bεT″ that are identical or changed are shown only once in the result, like the functions F1 and F2, the start and end events, the lanes, and the pool in this example. These elements have no conflicts or “merge state” associated with them. It is noted that that attribute changes that occur in S′ may be written into the existing objects, e.g., the source model silently overwrites any attribute changes in the target. Thus, for the purpose of the merge in the ARIS model transformation, equal and changed objects may be handled identically.
Elements that are found in T′ but have no counterpart in T″ (according to mapT′T″) are added to the conflict model and flagged with the merge state “added by transformation” (or “added in source”), indicated by a green plus icon next to these elements. In the example, it can be seen that the BPMN gateway created from the new XOR rule, the task F3 created from the new function F3, and the new “End 2” end event are marked as such, as are all connections between them. Further, the connection between task F2 and the end event “End” is marked with “added by transformation.” This might seem non-intuitive, as the corresponding connection has not been changed from S to S′. However, the corresponding connection in T″ had been deleted when F2b was inserted by the process engineer. In an ideal scenario, the actual merge state of this connection might have to be “deleted in target.” The merge, however, may not be able to distinguish between these two situations. To be able to correctly flag this connection as “deleted in target,” it may be necessary to maintain the complete change history of T′, which could be difficult or impossible or simply not worth the tradeoffs between size, space, complexity, possible processing gains, etc.
For elements that are found in T″ and have no counterpart in T′, two situations can be differentiated. If such an element t was created by the (original) transformation (that can be determined based on the presence of trace information on t), this may indicates that the source model S′ has changed in a way such that an object corresponding to t is no longer created by the current transformation. Consequently, it may be added to the conflict model and flagged with the merge state “deleted by transformation,” e.g., as indicated by a red minus icon. In this example, the connection between F1 and F2 that was in the original T and was preserved by the process engineer when creating T″ is marked as such, because the connection no longer exists in T′, since the corresponding connection in the EPC has been deleted by the business user when going from S to S′.
If an element t was manually added to T″, which can be recognized by the absence of trace information, it also may be added to the conflict model and flagged with the merge state “added in target,” indicated by a blue plus icon. In this example, the function F2b and incident connections are marked as such.
Together, each object that has one of the three merge states can be referred to as an atomic conflict.
Via the user interface, the user can individually accept or reject the individual atomic conflicts. When accepting an “added by transformation” or “added in target model” conflict, the corresponding model element is retained and the merge state is removed, to indicate that the conflict has been resolved. When rejecting such a conflict, the model element is deleted. When accepting a “deleted by transformation” conflict, the element is deleted. When rejecting it, the element is retained and the merge state is removed.
While it is possible to handle the resolution of merge conflicts by individually accepting or rejecting atomic conflicts, this approach is not very convenient and can sometimes confront the user with internal details of the model representation in ARTS. Business users may be presented with potentially complicated technical details, technical people may be presented with business aspects that they do not necessarily understand, etc. To make the resolution of merge conflicts easier, the concept of high-level conflicts has been introduced by the assignee of the instant invention. In this regard, it is possible to use the basic information obtained during merging as described above including, for example, the different merge states of objects (equal, changed, added in A/B, conflicting, etc.) and their constellations in the models being merged, to recognize high-level merge conflicts. Instead of leaving the user to resolve the merge conflicts on the level of the atomic elements (e.g., objects and connections with a non-empty merge state), high-level merge conflicts may capture the semantics of the differences between the models being merged on a larger scale (e.g., possibly covering a very large number of model elements in one conflict) and—most of the time—allow the user to resolve them easily and quickly within a single operation. This approach to making conflict resolution both easier and more convenient is described in detail in U.S. application Ser. No. 13/024,646, filed on Feb. 10, 2011, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The merge view is a tool that helps make the task of interactive merging easier for the user, especially for larger models. It displays the source model and the conflict model side-by-side, as illustrated below in FIG. 7. It then allows the user to find out how each element in the target model, shown to the right, corresponds to element(s) in the source model, shown to the left (or vice versa), simply by selecting the element the user is interested in. If an element in the source model is selected, the corresponding elements in the target model are selected, and vice versa, as shown in FIG. 7 for EPC Function F1 and its corresponding BPMN task. In addition to selecting the corresponding elements, the respective other view's viewport is automatically scrolled to the selected elements, a feature that can be beneficial when working with models that are too large to fit on one screen. The correspondence information displayed by the merge view is derived from the transformation trace information discussed above.
In general, the relationship between source and target model elements can be of any cardinality up to many-to-many, e.g., such that each source (target) element can have zero, one, or many corresponding elements on target (source) side.
As indicated above, the assignee has provided merge functionality (including the complex conflict detection covered by U.S. application Ser. No. 13/024,646) in the ARIS model transformation component. In addition, the ARIS model merge component, provided by the assignee of the instant invention, works with ARIS, which offers XML-based import and export modules for transferring ARIS models between different ARIS databases. For example, a model M may be created in DB X, exported to a file, and imported into DB Y. Assume that model M is now changed in X, yielding a modified model M′, and at the same time, the originally imported model M is also changed independently in DB Y, yielding model M″. M′ is now exported again into an XML file, and imported into DB Y. Because M′ and M″ are different versions of the same model (a fact that can be recognized via unique identifiers on the model and its model elements), a model merge may need to be performed. When importing M′, the user can select whether or not model M′ (setting “source overwrites target”) or model M″ (setting “target preserved”) will prevail in case of conflicts. These settings can be set differently for objects, connections, models, etc. However, this merge technique does not offer selective control over how individual conflicts are resolved. In this sense, it is not interactive. It further does not allow users to bring a selection of changes from model M′ back to M″.
A large number of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools claim variable degrees of MDD support. However, aside from some “convenience” features, the actual application behavior typically has to be implemented by hand, e.g., by “filling out” empty method bodies or adding and detailing aspects that were not fleshed out in full detail in the models. Other manual work includes the customization of the aforementioned out-of-the-box features (like customizing the default object serialization so that it conforms to existing storage formats or database schemas).
In roundtrip engineering for software engineering, the artifacts generated from the model are in general not other models, but rather program code (e.g., structured text). Further, a general common assumption of roundtrip engineering approach in the software engineering domain is that in general, all changes performed on the PSM level that could be represented with the modeling language used for the PIM should be propagated. In contrast, in the scope of the M2E roundtrip, only selected aspects that have been added to or changed in the BPMN model should actually be propagated. Consequently, in M2E, the decision to propagate a change is a conscious choice by a user on a case-by-case base, guided by the semantics of the artifacts involved.
Another issue that arises with roundtrip engineering in software engineering contexts is that many aspects that can be represented explicitly with dedicated model elements (e.g., containment or aggregation associations) are mapped to the same basic elements of the target programming language (e.g., object references). Therefore, it is often difficult to recognize such aspects of modeling based on the code and properly propagate them back to the model level.
The functionality of the ARIS model transformation and the interactive merge as discussed allows merge conflicts to be resolved by accepting or rejecting changes in the BPMN model, whether they result from changes in the EPC or from direct changes in the BPMN model itself. As an example, consider FIG. 8, which shows a very simple merge scenario. EPC S is first transformed to a corresponding BPMN model T. Here, the process engineer makes a technical change by deleting the connection from task F1 to the end event, adding a new task “F2 added in BPMN,” and connecting it with F1 and the End event, thereby creating the modified transformed BPMN model T″.
In parallel, a business user makes a business change to the EPC by inserting another function F0 between the start event and the function F1, yielding the modified source model S′. If S′ were to be transformed without a merge, the new transformed model T′ would be obtained. If either T′ or T″ were taken as the new BPMN model, the changes of either the process engineer or the business user, respectively, would be lost. To avoid such scenarios, interactive merge techniques can be used to reconcile the parallel changes. By merging T′ with T″, a conflict model TC is produced. In this model, the high-level merge conflict detection discussed above identifies two high-level conflicts, namely, the addition of F0, and the deletion of the direct connection between the start event and F1 is recognized as a “replacement in source” conflict. This conflict can either be accepted (leading to the removal of the direct connection marked with the red minus sign in the conflict model and keeping F0 and its incident connections and removing their green plus sign merge state), or rejected (which causes the deletion of F0 and its connections, and removes the red minus sign merge marker from the connection between the Start event and F1).
The second high-level “replacement in target” conflict shown in detail to the left of FIG. 9, which demonstrates the options for resolving the “replacement in target” high-level conflict, is caused by the addition of the new Task “F2 added in BPMN” to the BPMN model by the process engineer. If this high-level conflict is accepted, the newly added task and its incident connections are kept in the result, their blue plus sign merge state is removed, and the green plus sign connection from F1 to the end event is removed, as shown on the upper-right of FIG. 9. If the high-level conflict is rejected, the connection from F1 to the end event is kept, its green plus sign merge state is removed, and the new task “F2 added in BPMN” and its incident connections are removed, as illustrated on the lower right of FIG. 9.
Although the concept of high-level conflicts makes it easier for the user to resolve the merge conflict caused by the addition of an element in the BPMN model, this conflict resolution only affects the BPMN model. The EPC is left unchanged. While this is a desired result in those cases where the additions and changes in the BPMN model only represent a technical detail that has no implications for the business view of our process (e.g., do not require changes of the EPC source model), there are many situations where it would in fact be desirable to have individual (but not necessarily all) changes made in the BPMN model to be reflected on the EPC, because they are in fact relevant for the business user. Thus, this current approach does not support the person performing the interactive merge in propagating such changes from the technical BPMN level to the EPC level. As explained below, however, there are a number of drawbacks to manually solving these issues.
With a manual propagation, the user has to change the EPC in a way such that the new transformation result after the change gives the same result as currently provided in the BPMN, or make the changes made in the BPMN that had been propagated to the EPC appear as if they had “always been modeled like that” in the source EPC model.
FIG. 10 illustrates how a user performing an interactive merge can manually perform a propagation of the BPMN-side addition of the abstract task “F2 added in BPMN” (referred to below as F2BPMN) as in the FIG. 8 example. Here, the user manually creates a like-named function in the EPC F2EPC and connects it analogously to how F2BPMN is connected with its surroundings in the BPMN model T″. The result of this manual propagation is shown on the upper-left of FIG. 10 as EPC S″. The user basically creates a situation so that the corresponding transformation pattern(s) (which here would be the “Function to Abstract task” pattern we introduced above in FIG. 2) match and in the next transformation run would create the same situation that exists in the BPMN model because of the manual changes that were made there.
One disadvantage of such a manual approach relates to the effort involved for the user. While it may seem straightforward in this simple example, once more than a few changes have to be propagated to the EPC, this approach can quickly become a repetitive, time consuming, and error-prone task.
In addition, a correct propagation is not always as simple and obvious as in this example where the creation and connection of only a single object in the EPC was involved. Consider, for example, the “Function with business service to service task” transformation rule discussed in connection with FIG. 4. If there were a desire to propagate a service task that was added to the BPMN model so that this rule now matches, a quite complex object structure, including several assigned models, would have to be created correctly. To be done correctly, it may be necessary to have a very detailed understanding of the semantics of our EPC-2-BPMN transformation, which cannot always be reasonably expected from the users performing an interactive merge. The problem of correct and consistent model propagation is similarly severe in the above-mentioned systems engineering context. For example, strong interrelations exist between the different technical models of the vehicle components of an automobile, since the vehicle components typically have multiple interaction points (consider, for instance, an optical or radar-based distance sensor component that is shared by both a software-based speed-limiter and an emergency breaking component). Such strong interrelations as well as other feature interactions can make the correct and consistent propagation of model elements between different model levels quite difficult.
Even if the manual effort and the required internal knowledge about the transformation were considered acceptable, such manual change propagation may also have technical restrictions. Referring still to the example manual propagation from FIG. 10, if S″ were transformed again, a new result model T′″ including a task “F2 added in BPMN” (F2EPC′) created by the transformation of F2EPC would be created. At first glance, this model appears identical to the modified transformed BPMN model T″ where the user manually added the new business-relevant task F2BPMN. Consequently, one might be tempted to expect that if these two models were to be merged that no conflict would be shown involving the Task “F2 added in BPMN,” and that the manual change propagation was successful. However, as we discussed above, the transformation's built-in merge functionality does not rely on the properties like object type, symbol, or name of a pair of objects to determine whether or not they are mergeable, but instead uses the transformation's internal trace information. As explained above, this trace information includes for each result object of a transformation both the set of source model objects that contributed to the creation of a transformation result and the transformation patterns that were involved in its creation. Consequently, if a user were to perform a transformation plus merge of S″ into T″, the Abstract Task F2BPMN′ created by the transformation from the manually added EPC function F2EPC could not be merged with the Abstract Task F2BPMN that was added directly to the BPMN, since they disagree in their trace information, inasmuch as F2BPMN′ indicates that it originates from F2EPC, while F2BPMN does not indicate any source object because it was never created by a transformation in the first place. The conflict model TC as shown on the bottom of FIG. 10, which contains both Abstract Tasks F2BPMN and F2BPMN′, therefore would be produced.
The high-level “replacement in target” conflict could be resolved, and either the task F2BPMN′ coming from the EPC via the transformation (marked as “added in source” with the green plus sign) or the task F2BPMN from the BPMN (marked as “added in target” with the blue plus sign), could be kept. Doing so, however, would still not provide the desired result. If F2BPMN′ were kept by rejecting the “replacement in target” conflict, a proper correspondence between the objects in the EPC and the BPMN model would be produced, but any additional technical details the process engineer might have put into the discarded F2BPMN (e.g., setting technical attributes or adding assignments with information about the invoked service etc.) would be lost. On the other hand, if F2BPMN were kept instead, this technical information would be preserved, but no proper correspondence would exist between F2BPMN and F2EPC. Not only would these two objects not be shown as corresponding in the merge view, but changes to F2EPC (e.g., a renaming) would not be propagated to F2BPMN in future merge operations.
The example discussed immediately above dealt with the propagation of model elements that were new to the target model. Another common type of propagation oftentimes needed in MDD scenarios involves not only additions of new elements, but also augmentations, refinements, or other changes to existing target model elements that were created by the transformation from elements in the source model that are to be reflected by corresponding changes in the source model. In the example shown in FIG. 11, the Abstract Task F1 created by the transformation out of a simple EPC function without any “satellite” objects is refined by the process engineer into a service task. The service invoked by the task is specified in an additional model assigned to the service task.
If transform and merge operations were now performed, a merge conflict would be produced not because the trace information differs, but because the objects deviate in symbol type (abstract task vs. service task) and the number and type of assignments (no assignments vs. a function allocation diagram), as shown on the bottom of FIG. 11. Again, it is possible to resolve the conflict if it is found that the BPMN-side change is not relevant for the business user. As before, this would come at the cost that any renaming, etc., of F1 in the EPC would not be propagated. However, if it is thought or needed that the EPC should reflect the change, a manual propagation of the BPMN-side change as shown below in FIG. 12 can be performed. To make the EPC function F1 be translated to a service task that looks just like the one the process engineer created in the BPMN model, the set of assigned models and associated objects shown at the upper-right of FIG. 12 can be added, that way helping to ensure that F1 is now successfully matched by the source pattern of the transformation rule “Function with business service to service task” from FIG. 4. This example helps illustrate that once one tries to propagate a change involving a more complex pattern, the effort involved and the knowledge needed to “get it right” quickly becomes prohibitive in practice. If the manually modified EPC were again transformed and merged with the BPMN model, a similar situation as before would arise. That is, although the two would look identical, the two service tasks F1 from T′″ and T″ could not be merged successfully, with all the negative consequences that this has for the correct functioning of the merge view and the future automated propagatation of changes to F1EPC to F1BPMN, discussed in the previous example from above.
Thus far, problems of manually propagating additions or changes in the (BPMN) target model to the (EPC) source model have been discussed. As shown above, there oftentimes will be a manual effort involved in such a task for anything but the most trivial cases, and limitations of this manual approach that are related to the way the model merge decides whether two objects are mergeable have been described. Aside from additions and changes, a third kind of modification operation that can be performed on the target model relates to deletions.
FIG. 13 illustrates an example for a deletion on BPMN side: The process engineer removes the manual task object “F2” and “bridges” the gap that is created in the process flow by adding a direct connection between F2's former predecessor manual task “F1” and its former successor end event “End”. If transform and merge operations were now performed again, a “replacement in target” high-level conflict would be generated in the resulting conflict model TC, as shown near the bottom of the drawing. Accepting this conflict (accepting the replacement of F2 and its two incident edges with a single edge) would lead to the result shown to the lower left, whereas rejecting it would retain the original transformation result as shown to the lower right of the drawing.
If the change on the technical BPMN level is now considered relevant for the business level, the deletion could again be propagated manually, as shown in FIG. 14. Here, the EPC is changed in accordance to the change on BPMN level, such that the function “F2” and its neighboring occurrence of the “Otto” Organizational Unit object are removed. If the modified source model were now transformed, the result would be structurally identical to the original BPMN model modified on source side. If transform and merge operations again were performed, the result (whether there are conflicts in the merge) would depend on the details of the merge method (or the way the mapping relation mapAB is obtained) used. If the merge method considers two connections mergeable if their start and end objects are mergeable, no merge conflict will arise, as shown to the left on the bottom of FIG. 14.
If, however, the merge method uses the identity-based mergeability decision discussed above not only for deciding the mergeability of objects, but also for connections, a conflict like the one shown in the lower right of FIG. 16 could arise. In these situations, as with the addition and modification operations discussed before, a manual propagation of the changes on the technical level to the business level would not be possible, as the user would need to manipulate the internal trace information, etc.
Thus, it will be appreciated that there is a need in the art for techniques that help support users manage model transformations and/or merges, and/or approaches that help overcome the above-described and/or other complications that arise when attempting to transform and/or merge models. Those skilled in the art of model-based systems engineering will appreciate that these problems are equally relevant in all of the above-described use cases, including the manufacturing of complex technical products, the model-based controlling of manufacturing machinery as well as the modeling of business processes.
One aspect of certain example embodiments relates to an automated approach for propagating (or pulling up) business relevant changes made in a technical model (e.g., BPMN model) to the business-oriented model (e.g., EPC model). Doing so may reduce and sometimes eliminate the need for manual change propagations. According to certain example embodiments relates to avoiding conflicts, e.g., by making certain changed objects appear as if they were created by the “pulled-up” EPC object by changing its internal attributes needed for the merge. Optionally, the BPMN model may be “corrected” so that the merge is possible without conflicts.
Another aspect of certain example embodiments relates to a selective, partial inversion of a transformation from the technical model to the business-oriented model, or vice versa.
Another aspect of certain example embodiments relates to a pull-up operation that includes enablement checking (e.g., determining whether the pull-up can be applied to a selected object) and pull-up execution.
According to certain example embodiments, enablement checking may be separated into multiple phases. In a first example phase, a coarse check may be performed to determine whether the pull-up operation makes sense, possibly returning a Boolean true/false value. In a second example phase, a more detailed check may be performed to determine whether the pull-up really can be executed, possibly returning a list of reasons informing the user why the pull-up cannot be applied.
According to certain example embodiments, the pull-up execution may include, for instance, creating the object(s) in the business-oriented (e.g., EPC) model; updating relevant internal attributes of the technical (e.g., BPMN) objects that allow for the successful merge; optionally correcting user-introduced errors in the technical (e.g., BPMN) model; and properly connecting the pulled-up objects with their surroundings.
Another aspect of certain example embodiments relates to connecting pulled-up objects with their surroundings so that, after the propagation, the objects appear as if the current business-oriented (e.g., EPC) model was used for the merge. According to certain example embodiments, the connecting may be deterministic, e.g., such that the result will be the same regardless of order or sequence in which the propagations are made.
According to certain example embodiments, the connecting algorithm includes finding the target-side successor and predecessor elements (together referred to as border elements) of the target model object that is being propagated; using trace information to find the source-side elements corresponding to the target model predecessors and successors; optionally deleting border-spanning connections (e.g., if a change propagation action is performed during conflict resolution); and creating connections to and from the propagated object.
Still another aspect of certain example embodiments relates to propagating changes notwithstanding internal inconsistencies in a model.
In certain example embodiments, a method of propagating changes made in a first computer-represented model to a second first computer-represented model is provided. Input corresponding to at least one change to the first model is received, with the at least one change indicating that at least one object in the first model has been added, modified, and/or deleted. An instruction to propagate the at least one change made to the first model to the second model is received. At least one corresponding change propagation action (CPA) is executed, via at least one processor, to cause the at least one change made to the first model to be propagated to the second model in whole or in part as appropriate in achieving consistency between the first and second models following said executing. The at least one CPA including instructions that, when executed, comprise: determining whether the at least one change propagation action can be applied for the at least one change, and when it is determined that the at least one change propagation action can be applied for the change, linking the at least one object to at least one other object in the second model. Each said CPA corresponds to one or more corresponding transformation patterns or rules and includes program logic executable by the at least one processor to carry out the respective transformation pattern(s) or rule(s) in inverse direction(s). The first model is a technical-oriented model and the second model is a corresponding business-oriented model, or vice versa.
In certain example embodiments, a modeling system is configured to enable a user to propagate changes made in a first computer-represented model to a second computer-represented model. The system comprises processing resources that include at least one processor and a memory. The processing resources being programmed to: accept input corresponding to at least one user-specified change to the first model, with the at least one change indicating that at least one object in the first model has been added, modified, and/or deleted; receive an instruction to propagate the at least one change made to the first model to the second model; and execute at least one program logic bundle, selected from a group of executable program logic bundles, in order to selectively cause some or all alterations associated with the at least one change made to the first model to be propagated to the second model so that the first and second models become consistent with one another at least in one or more area(s) affected by the propagation. The at least one program logic bundle being programmed to: determine whether the at least one program logic bundle can be applied for the at least one change, and when it is determined that the at least one program logic bundle can be applied for the change, link the at least one object to at least one other object in the second model. Each program logic bundle corresponds to at least one respective transformation pattern or rule to be selectively applied in inverse direction(s) upon execution. The first model is a target of a transformation and a source of a propagation, and the second model is a source of the transformation and a target of the propagation.
According to certain example embodiments, the linking may includes, for an object added in the first model: (a) creating one or more corresponding elements in the second model; (b) searching for border objects adjacent to the object added in the first model that do not have a merge state conflict; (c) for each border object in the first model, identifying a corresponding border object in the second model; and (d) for each path from the object added in the first model to a border object in the first model: when there are one or more objects along the path, adding a direct connection from the object added in the first model to the respective border object, setting a merge state of the direct connection to indicate that it was added in the first model, and creating one or more corresponding connections in the second model; and otherwise: removing an added in target merge state from the existing single connection and adding one or more corresponding connections in the second model.
In certain example embodiments, there is provided a method for selectively propagating changes made in a first computer-represented model to a second computer-represented model across a modeling system comprising processing resources including at least one processor. An instruction to propagate at least one change made to the first model to the second model is received, with the change corresponding to an object being added in the first model. At least one corresponding change propagation action (CPA) is executed, via at least one processor, to cause the at least one change made to the first model to be propagated to the second model. The at least on corresponding CPA is practiced by: performing an enablement check to determine whether the at least one CPA can be applied for the at least one change, and when the enablement check indicates that the at least one CPA can be applied for the change, connecting the at least one object to at least one other object in the second model. The connecting is practiced, in connection with the processing resources, by at least:
(a) finding first model side border elements of the first model object that is being propagated o1st including: (i) storing all outbound directed paths that start at o1st and follow added-in-first-model connections to a list of outbound paths, pathout={path1out, . . . , pathnout}, (ii) defining a multiset of end objects for the outbound paths succ1st={s11st, . . . , sn1st}, this multiset being first model successors to o1st, (iii) storing all inbound directed paths that start at o1st and follow added-in-first-model connections (in an inverse direction) to a list of inbound paths, pathin={path1in, . . . , pathmin}, (iv) defining a multiset of start objects for the inbound paths pred1st={p11st, . . . , pn1st}, this multiset being first model predecessors to o1st, and (v) defining the union of the first model predecessors and successors succ1st∪pred1st=border1st, this union being the set of first model border objects;
(b) using trace information to find elements in the second model corresponding to the first model predecessors pred2nd{p12nd, . . . , pn2nd} andsuccessors suce2nd={s12nd, . . . , sn2nd}, and
(c) for each pi2ndεpred2nd (or each sk2ndεsucc2nd): (i) creating a connection from pi2nd to o2nd (or from o2nd to sk2nd) in the second model, wherein o2nd is the second model counterpart to o1st.
According to certain example embodiments, (c) may further include: (ii) if a length of the path pathiin length(pathiin) (pathkout length(pathkout)) corresponding to pi2nd (sk2nd) is 1: removing an added-in-first-model merge state of this path's single connection in the first model, and otherwise creating a connection from pi1st to o1st (or from o1st to sk1st) in the first model and setting a merge state thereof to added-in-second-model.
According to certain example embodiments, it may be desirable to, between (b) and (c), determine whether the corresponding CPA is performed during conflict resolution and, if so, for every pair (pi1st, sk1st) with pi1stεpred1st and sk1stεsucc1st for which there exists a connection cxn1st from pi1st to sk1st (or from sk1st to pi1st) whose merge state is added-in-second-model, deleting this connection cxn1st and delete cxn1st's corresponding connection cxn2nd in the second model from pi2nd to sk2nd (or from sk2nd to pi2nd) in the second model.
In certain example embodiments, a computer-implemented method of propagating changes made in a first computer-represented model to a second computer-represented model is provided. Input corresponding to at least one change to the first model is received, with the at least one change indicating that at least one object in the first model has been added and/or modified. At least one enablement check is performed to determine whether the at least one change can be propagated to the second model; and if so, the at least one change is propagated to the second model. The propagating comprises connecting the at least one object to at least one other object in the second model in accordance with at least one transformation pattern or rule.
In certain example embodiments, a modeling system for propagating changes made in a first computer-represented model to a second computer-represented model may be provided for carrying out this method.
Non-transitory computer readable storage mediums tangibly storing instructions for performing the above-summarized and/or other methods also are provided by certain example embodiments, as well as corresponding computer programs.
These features, aspects, advantages, and example embodiments may be used separately and/or applied in various combinations to achieve yet further embodiments of this invention. | {
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In a modulated signal subjected to voltage conversion, in particular, a modulated signal subjected to multi-level modulation, such as QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), linear operation is required in a high-frequency power amplifier for transmitting power to an antenna. Hence, class A or class AB has been used as the operation class of the high-frequency power amplifier.
However, as broadband communication is promoted, a communication system that uses subcarriers, such as OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex), has begun to be used; hence the conventional class-A or class-AB high-frequency power amplifier cannot be expected to attain high efficiency. In other words, in OFDM, subcarriers are overlapping, whereby high power is generated instantaneously at random. That is to say, the ratio PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio) of the instantaneous maximum power to average power is high. Hence, in order that a high-frequency signal having this kind of high power can also be amplified linearly, it is necessary to hold high DC power at all times. The power efficiency of the class-A operation is only 50% at the maximum; in particular, in the case of OFDM, since PAPR is high, the power efficiency is only about 10%.
For this reason, in the case of a portable wireless transmitter wherein batteries are used as a power supply, its operable time is short, thereby causing a problem in practical use.
In order to solve this kind of problem, the conventional EER (Envelope Elimination and Restoration) method has been proposed, which is known as Kahn's method (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,256,482B1 (FIG. 6 on page 3 of the drawings)).
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the schematic configuration of the EER method. In FIG. 6, a high-frequency modulated signal 46, such as a QAM signal, input to a terminal 40, is divided into two branches; in one of the branches, the modulated wave 46 is subjected to envelope detection by a detector 41, whereby an amplitude component signal is generated. A power supply voltage Vdd is voltage-converted by a voltage converter (an amplifier for amplifying the amplitude component) 42. At this time, a class-S amplifier (a switching regulator or the like) capable of operating at high efficiency (up to 95%) is used as the voltage converter 42. In the other branch, the amplitude of the modulated wave 46 is controlled by an amplitude control amplifier (limiter 43), whereby a modulated wave having only phase information is obtained. The modulated wave having the phase information is input to the RF input terminal of a switch-type amplifier 44, whereby, for example, the gate voltage of a field-effect transistor, an element of the switch-type amplifier 44, is modulated.
The switch-type amplifier is herein a class-F amplifier wherein harmonics are controlled so that the waveform of the drain voltage becomes rectangular, or a class-E or class-D amplifier wherein load conditions are optimized so that the waveform of the drain voltage and the waveform of the drain current do not overlap each other.
The conventional class-A amplifier has a period in which the drain voltage and the drain current are generated simultaneously, thereby consuming power. On the other hand, in the switch-type amplifier 44, such a period in which the drain voltage and the drain current are generated simultaneously is made as short as possible, whereby power consumption can be reduced.
When a DC power of 200 mA and 3 V is supplied, for example, the DC power is 600 mW. When the switch-type amplifier 44 is OFF, no current flows and only the voltage Vdd is applied; hence DC power consumption is zero. On the other hand, when ON, a current of 200 mA flows; however, since the transistor conducts completely, the voltage VDS between the drain and the source can be assumed to be about 0.3 V at most. In this case, a DC power of 0.3×0.2=0.06 W, that is, 60 mW, is consumed inside the transistor. The power efficiency reaches a very high value of (600 −60)/600=90%. This effect is significant since the power efficiency of the class-A amplifier is only 50% at the maximum.
In other words, high power efficiency is attained by using the switch-type amplifier. However, since the switch-type amplifier is a nonlinear amplifier, the switch-type amplifier cannot be used because a modulated signal, such as the QAM signal, in which the amplitude level of the modulated wave changes, is required to be amplified linearly.
In order to solve this problem, the EER method separates a signal including amplitude information into an amplitude component and a phase component, and only the phase component is amplified by the switch-type amplifier. When the amplitude component is input to the power supply terminal of the switch-type amplifier, output power proportionate to the amplitude component is obtained; hence, a signal including the original amplitude information is reproduced eventually.
With this configuration, a highly efficient amplifier, such as the switch-type amplifier, although nonlinear, can be used, whereby high efficiency can be attained.
However, since the frequency band of the voltage converter 42 (for example, a switching regulator) for modulating the amplitude component is 5 MHz at most, the conventional EER method cannot be used in the modulated wave frequency band width of 20 MHz stipulated in the IEEE802.11a Standard, a wireless LAN standard.
In order that the frequency band is widened, it is necessary to decrease the inductance of the low-pass filter incorporated in the output of the voltage converter 42. However, since the Q value of the inductance is lowered, the amount of heat consumed by the inductance becomes unignorable, and the efficiency of the voltage converter 42 lowers. In addition, noise increases.
Furthermore, in the case when a series regulator is used as the voltage converter 42, the product of the amount of voltage conversion (the difference between the power supply voltage and the voltage of the amplitude component) of the series regulator and the drain current of the high-frequency power amplifier is power consumption. In OFDM, the average voltage value of the amplitude component is not more than a half of the power supply voltage; hence, high efficiency is not attained even in this case. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser cutter, and more specifically to a piercing device for a laser cutter that is highly efficient at carrying out the piercing operation performed to initiate a cutting operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
When employing a laser to cut a thick (6 mm or more) steel sheet, for example, it is the typical practice to perform a piercing operation first, followed by the intended cutting operation.
In general, as shown in FIG. 7, the piercing operation consists of irradiating a material 3 to be cut, such as a steel plate or the like, with a laser beam 2 from a cutting nozzle 1; supplying an assist gas 4 along the same axis as the laser beam 2, to heat and melt cutting material 3; and expelling molten metal 6 using the kinetic energy of assist gas 4 from a pierced hole 5 which is formed in the cutting material 3. When carrying out the piercing operation, a portion of the molten metal 6 accumulates around the periphery of the pierced hole 5 while another portion spatters onto sites away from the pierced hole 5.
Oxygen is typically used as assist gas 4. When the piercing operation is carried out using oxygen gas, high energy is produced due to oxidation of the steel plate material by the oxygen gas. Accordingly, this is advantageous to carrying out the piercing operation efficiently. A pulse oscillation of 100 Hz or less is typical as the radiating conditions for the laser beam 2 during piercing. However, by placing the laser in a continuous oscillation state, output of the laser beam 2 can be increased, enabling the formation of the desired pierced hole 5 in a shorter period of time. Thus, the time for performing the piercing operation can be reduced.
Various problems arise when the output of the laser beam 2 is increased, however. Namely:
a) The diameter of the pierced hole 5 increases
b) Bubbling of the molten metal 6 becomes excessive
c) Damage may be caused to the cutting nozzle 1 or the condensing lens due to b)
d) Spattered material adhering to the cutting material 3 increases
e) Poor cutting occurs when initiating the cutting operation due to d)
In light of these problems, attempts have been made in recent years to carry out the piercing operation at high speed by increasing the peak output of the laser beam pulse. However, since such problems as adherence of spattering to the lens or nozzle occurs, this has not fundamentally resolved the problem.
Attempts have also been made to prevent bubbling of the molten metal and adherence of spattering by controlling the output of the laser beam during the piercing operation. However, since the piercing speed is contingent upon the control speed, the improvement in speed has been limited.
The present inventors accordingly developed the laser cutter shown in FIGS. 8 through 10 (Japanese Patent Application, Hei 9-29380).
This laser cutter has a side blow gas nozzle 10 provided at the side of a cutting nozzle 1. The side blow gas nozzle 10 is a separate member from the cutting nozzle 1 and is held by a moving means 11 at the side of the cutting nozzle 1. The side blow gas nozzle 10 jets a side blow gas (side assist gas) 12 at the piercing site (i.e., the site where the pierced hole 5 is to be formed). Accordingly, the jetting of side blow gas 12 jetted by the side blow gas nozzle 10 is slanted toward the optical axis of the laser beam 2. The laser beam 2 radiates the cutting material 3 by traveling through a laser beam hole 7 which passes through the cutting nozzle 1. Thus, the jetting of side blow gas 12 is inclined with respect to the assist gas 4 which is being jetted from the laser beam hole 7. The moving means 11 has the structure as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, and is for moving the side blow gas nozzle 10, which it holds, closer to or further away from the piercing site.
In FIG. 9, the moving means 11 is a rotational driving member 13 that is attached above cutting nozzle 1 (i.e., at the upper part of FIG. 9). Using the driving force of an electric motor for example, the moving means 11 supports the side blow gas 12 supply inlet side of the side blow gas nozzle 10 in a manner so as to be freely rotating about an axial line perpendicular to the optical axis of laser beam 2. The rotational driving member 13 moves an end 14 of the side blow gas nozzle 10 near an end 15 of the cutting nozzle 1 during piercing, and rotates the side blow gas nozzle 10 during the cutting operation to move it away from the end 15 of the cutting nozzle 1.
In FIG. 10, the moving means 11 is an elevational driving member 16 that is attached above the cutting nozzle 1 (at the upper part of FIG. 10). Using the driving force of an electric motor for example, the moving means 11 supports the side blow gas 12 supply inlet side of side blow gas nozzle 10 in a manner so as to be freely elevating along the optical axis of the laser beam 2. The elevational driving member 16 moves an end 14 of the side blow gas nozzle 10 near an end 15 of the cutting nozzle 1 during piercing, and elevates the side blow gas nozzle 10 during the cutting operation to move it away from the end 15 of the cutting nozzle 1.
The numeric symbol 17 in FIG. 8 indicates a side blow gas control mechanism. This side blow gas control mechanism 17 is provided with a pressure sensor 18 for measuring the supply pressure of assist gas 4 to the laser beam hole 7; a level converting mechanism 19 that changes and sets the supply pressure of the side blow gas 12 in response to the measured pressure at the pressure sensor 18; and a pressure adjusting mechanism 20 for adjusting the supply pressure of the side blow gas based on the pressure set by the level converting mechanism 19. The pressure sensor 18 is attached to the cutting nozzle 1 and measures the pressure of the assist gas 4 inside the laser beam hole 7.
In other words, at the side blow gas control mechanism 17, when the measurement signal for pressure P1 of the assist gas 4, which is measured by the pressure sensor 18, is input to the level converting mechanism 19, the level converting mechanism 19 calculates a suitable supply pressure P2 for the side blow gas 12 according to this pressure P1, and sends a directive signal to pressure adjusting mechanism 20. As a result, the pressure adjusting mechanism 20 adjusts the supply pressure of the side blow gas 12 to the pressure P2.
The flow rate of the side blow gas 12 which is jetted from the side blow gas nozzle 10 must be adjusted to be within limits that do not impair the supply of the assist gas 4 to the piercing site, and which can promote formation of the pierced hole 5 by ensuring sufficient kinetic energy is imparted to the side blow gas 12. This flow rate is determined based on the supply pressure P2 of the side blow gas 12 with respect to the cross-sectional area of the gas flow path at the end of the side blow gas nozzle 10 from which the gas is jetted.
This laser cutting device performs the intended cutting operation on the cutting material 3 by moving the cutting nozzle 1 in three-dimensional directions using a driving mechanism not shown in the figures. The side blow gas nozzle 10 is also moved accompanying the cutting nozzle 1 at this time, and is typically disposed near the cutting nozzle 1.
When cutting a thick plate using this laser cutting mechanism, the pierced hole 5 is first formed during the piercing operation, after which the process proceeds to the intended cutting operation. In the piercing operation, the side blow gas nozzle 10 is moved to the piercing site by the moving means 11 and maintained there. The assist gas 4 is jetted from the cutting nozzle 1 and the side blow gas 12 is jetted from the side blow gas nozzle 10 so that molten metal is removed as the pierced hole 5 is being formed by irradiating the cutting material 3 with the laser beam 2. When the desired pierced hole 5 is formed, the jetting of the side blow gas 12 from the side blow gas nozzle 10 is stopped, and the side blow gas nozzle 10 is withdrawn from the piercing site. At the same time, jetting of the assist gas 4 from the cutting nozzle 1 is continued and the intended cutting operation using the laser beam 2 is initiated.
In the piercing operation, as the molten metal 6 and spattering is generated, they are gradually blown away from the piercing site because the flow rate of the side blow gas 12 is two-fold or more greater than that of the assist gas 4. Thus, the molten metal 6 and spattering does not adhere to the cutting material 3 or the cutting nozzle 1. In other words, in the piercing operation, the pierced hole 5 is formed as the molten metal 6 and spattering are simultaneously being removed from the cutting material 3 when the molten metal 6 and spattering is generated. Accordingly, the molten metal 6 does not adhere around the pierced hole 5, so that the intended pierced hole 5 can be obtained. Since the adherence of the molten metal 6 and spatter to the cutting material 3, the side blow gas nozzle 10, and the condensing lens incorporated in cutting nozzle 1 are also prevented, there is no concern that poor cutting will occur during the intended cutting operation. Thus, the quality of the cut product is improved.
Thus, in this novel laser cutter, the adherence of molten metal or spatter on the cutting nozzle and the cutting material is prevented, so that piercing can be carried out quickly.
However, the side blow gas may not be stably supplied to the piercing site. For this reason, it is difficult to pierce a steel plate having a thickness of 20 mm or more in which a large amount of spattering occurs during piercing. When the piercing of a 20 mm or thicker steel plate is performed, a large amount of spattering occurs which adheres to the cutting nozzle and the lens. As a result, the cutting operation following piercing cannot be carried out.
The present invention was conceived to resolve the above-described circumstances, and has as its objective the provision of a piercing device for a laser cutter which is capable of stably supplying a side blow gas to a piercing site.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a piercing device for a laser cutter that can perform piercing of a cutting material such as a thick steel plate while strongly limiting spatter adherence.
In order to achieve at least one of the above objectives, the invention according to the present invention is designed such that a laser cutter is provided with a cutting nozzle, in which there is formed a laser beam hole through which the laser beam for radiating the cutting material passes, this cutting nozzle blowing an assist gas sent through this laser beam hole toward the cutting material on the same axis as the laser beam; and a side blow gas nozzle for blowing a separate side blow gas from the side of the laser beam hole toward the laser beam""s radiating site on the cutting material, at an incline with respect to the cutting material""s surface; wherein a hood having a communicating hole which transmits the laser beam and the assist gas is provided in between the cutting nozzle and the side blow gas nozzle.
In this means, the laser beam and the assist gas pass through the hood""s communicating hole and, respectively, radiate or are jetted onto the cutting material, thereby piercing it.
In this case, the hood guides the side blow gas jetted from the side blow gas nozzle to the piercing site, and prevents the adherence of molten metal and spatter to the cutting nozzle.
Highly pure oxygen, air, nitrogen or various other inert gases may be used for the assist gas and the side blow gas. The assist gas and the side blow gas may be the same or different. It is desirable that the angle of inclination of the side blow gas nozzle with respect to the surface of the cutting material be 45xc2x0 or less.
It is preferable to attach the hood to the side blow gas nozzle.
In this design, the hood moves together with the side blow gas nozzle, improving operability.
In the above piercing device for the laser cutter, it is desirable to provide a guide projecting toward the cutting material on either side of the hood along the direction of flow of the side blow gas.
In this design, the hood guide correctly guides the side blow gas to the piercing site by preventing the side blow gas jetted from the side blow gas nozzle from escaping in the horizontal direction. | {
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This invention relates to the application of a diffusion aluminide coating on a surface, and in particular, to the application of such a coating from an aluminum-containing paint.
In an aircraft gas turbine (jet) engine, air is drawn into the front of the engine, compressed by a shaft-mounted compressor, and mixed with fuel. The mixture is burned, and the hot exhaust gases are passed through a turbine mounted on the same shaft. The flow of combustion gas turns the turbine by impingement against an airfoil section of the turbine blades and vanes, which turns the shaft and provides power to the compressor and fan. In a more complex version of the gas turbine engine, the compressor and a high pressure turbine are mounted on one shaft, and the fan and low pressure turbine are mounted on a separate shaft. The hot exhaust gases flow from the back of the engine, driving it and the aircraft forward.
The hotter the combustion and exhaust gases, the more efficient is the operation of the jet engine. There is thus an incentive to raise the combustion and exhaust gas temperatures. The maximum temperature of the combustion gases is normally limited by the materials used to fabricate the turbine vanes and turbine blades of the turbine, upon which the hot combustion gases impinge. In current engines, the turbine vanes and blades are made of nickel-based superalloys, and can operate at temperatures of up to about 1900-2150xc2x0 F.
Many approaches have been used to increase the operating temperature limits of turbine blades, turbine vanes, and other hot-section components to their current levels. In one such approach, the article is protected by a diffusion aluminide protective coating with an optional ceramic thermal barrier coating overlying the protective coating.
During service, the portions of the hot-section components that are exposed to the most severe conditions of temperature and environment are sometimes damaged so that some of the underlying material is lost, thereby changing the dimensions of the hot-section component and adversely affecting its functionality. When such damage is detected, the damaged article is removed from service. If the damage is not too extreme, the damaged article may be repaired and later returned to service.
When the article is repaired, the protective coating and the thermal barrier coating may be removed, and the damaged region is built up by welding. A new protective coating and new thermal barrier coating may be deposited to complete the repair.
The removal of the entire protective coating and thermal barrier coating, and the deposition of new coatings, is an expensive and time-consuming process. For some types of repairs, it would be desirable to leave these coatings in place in those areas which are not being repaired, so that only the repaired area would be recoated. However, this partial recoating is not possible with the existing approach for applying the diffusion aluminide protective coating.
There is accordingly a need for an improved approach to applying a protective coating to hot-section components of gas turbine engines and comparable articles, which permits partial removal of the protective coating and partial recoating. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.
The present invention provides a technique for applying a diffusion aluminide coating to a surface of an article such as a nickel-base superalloy. The coating is performed by painting techniques from a paint composition that is distinct from a slurry that contains a halide activator. Upon heating, the coating proceeds by a condensed-phase (solid or liquid) reaction. There is substantially no gaseous phase beyond ordinary vapor pressure that can coat those portions of the article which are desirably not coated. Vapor-phase masking of these portions that are not to be coated is not required during heating, although paint masking may be used during application of the coating precursor paint in the same manner as conventional painting.
A method for coating an article includes providing an article to be coated such as a gas turbine component made of a nickel-base superalloy. A coating precursor paint comprising aluminum-containing pigment particles, a temporary thin-film-forming binder comprising an organic resin such as an acrylic, and a solvent for the temporary binder is prepared. The coating precursor paint is applied to a surface of the article, and thereafter the coating precursor paint is heated to a temperature of from about 1200xc2x0 F. to about 2100xc2x0 F. in a non-oxidizing environment. The heating step may be performed in vacuum, a non-oxidizing atmosphere such as an inert gas, or in a low partial pressure of oxygen gas in some cases.
The aluminum-containing pigment particles may be substantially pure aluminum. In another embodiment, the aluminum-containing pigment particles may comprise aluminum and at least one other alloying element selected from group consisting of platinum, hafnium, zirconium, yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, chromium, palladium, silicon, nickel, cobalt, and titanium, and mixtures thereof.
The temporary organic binder is present to aid in holding the pigment particles together during processing and to the surface of the article during application and prior to completion of the heating step. The temporary organic binder is depolymerized during heating and leaves little if any residue in the final diffusion aluminide coating. The temporary binder is an organic material, preferably an acrylic, and most preferably a methacrylate such as butyl methacrylate resin, ethyl methacrylate resin, methyl methacrylate resin, or methacrylate co-polymer resin. Other less-preferred temporary organic binders include alkyd resins, shellac, rosin, rosin derivatives, ester gum, vinyls, styrenics, polyesters, epoxies, polyurethanes, and cellulose derivatives, and mixtures thereof.
Other layers may optionally be applied in conjunction with the diffusion aluminide coating. For example, a first coating layer comprising platinum, palladium, or chromium may be applied to the surface of the article prior to coating with the diffusion aluminide. A ceramic thermal barrier layer may be applied overlying the diffusion aluminide coating.
The coating precursor paint may be applied by any operable method, with examples being dipping, brushing, and spraying. The amount of solvent is selected consistent with the application technique. Spray painting requires more fluidity and thence more solvent than does brushing, for example.
There is no activator such as a halide activator present in the coating precursor paint. The activator is used in slurries to effect coating by a vapor phase mass transport from the source particles to the surface being coated. While the activator approach is operable and widely used, it has the disadvantage that the aluminum-containing vapor is difficult to contain so that it does not coat portions of the article surface that are desirably left uncoated. Vapor-phase maskants to prevent penetration and coating by the aluminum-containing vapor are known, but these vapor-phase maskants are difficult to use and not always fully effective. In the present case, the aluminum is transported to the surface of the article in a condensed phase, typically the liquid phase, and there is very little aluminum vapor present except for that associated with the normal vapor pressure. Thus, in some cases the coating precursor paint of the present invention may be applied to only a portion of the surface of the article. The step of heating the coating precursor paint may be performed without a vapor-phase mask overlying the portion of the surface of the article to which no coating precursor paint is to be applied and is not to be coated.
The present invention thus provides a technique for applying a diffusion aluminide coating to a surface. The source of the diffusion aluminide coating is a non-activated paint that is mixed and applied by conventional painting techniques. The diffusion aluminide coating is confined to the areas that are initially coated with the coating precursor paint, without the need for a vapor-phase mask to be present during the heating that transforms the applied precursor paint to a diffusion aluminide coating.
The present approach is particularly advantageously utilized in repair operations. The halide activator used in other techniques for applying a diffusion aluminide coating may chemically attack the portion of the ceramic thermal barrier coating that is not removed in the repair process. The present approach has no halide activator, and therefore the paint may be applied in areas adjacent to those where the pre-existing diffusion aluminide coating and ceramic thermal barrier coating have not been removed without concern that there will be a halide activator present to attack the ceramic thermal barrier coating. As a result, the present approach allows a partial removal of the pre-existing coating only in the areas where there is to be a repair, and then recoating of those areas after the repair, without damaging the pre-existing coating. | {
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Among wireless communication devises, demodulator is often seen as one of the most important component in receiver end. Demodulators are utilized at the rear end of the receiver to demodulate the signal modulated from the front end, matching the initial information signal. Bit Error-Rate (BER) is the important key to rate such demodulators. Current Binary Frequency-Shift Keying (BFSK) signal demodulation methods can be categorized as coherent demodulation and incoherent demodulation, where the incoherent demodulation has lower resistance to noise. Among several coherent demodulation implementations, differential demodulator is easily structured and it also provides lower Bit Error-Rate. In addition, differential demodulator does not require local carrier wave, and it also demands lower precision of the resonator while it has lower phase error caused by the carrier signal. It is one of the most common demodulation methods, as it is referred in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, the traditional differential demodulator multiplies the information signal with a delay signal (delay time is normally T/4), and produces an output signal before a 2ωIF signal being filtered out by a low-pass filter. Then the filtered signal is compared with a reference voltage signal before a digital signal is produced. Phase-shifting circuit is normally implemented by forming an external RLC loop circuit. However, this implementation is especially difficult in dealing with functional dispersedness caused by external implemented elements.
In addition, since the reference voltage is also important as it affects the Bit-Error Rate (BER) directly, the reference voltage has to be flexibly set according to its fabrication and implementation environments.
The major disadvantages of differential demodulator are the lager circuit board design, which causes power consumption, and a necessary addition of an external phase-shifting circuit. Such large board and external circuit design is easier affected by fabrication processes. Therefore under the circumstances when the information signal is similar to carrier signal, the demand on the filter is higher, such a differential demodulator is not appropriate anymore. | {
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This invention concerns a semiconductor manufacturing technique and, more in particular, it relates to a technique effective to application for the improvement of the cleaning effect for cleaning inside a molding die for use in semiconductor devices, as well as improvement for the productivity.
The technique described below has been studied by the present inventors upon study and completion of the invention and the outline is as described below.
In the resin encapsulating step for resin encapsulation type semiconductor devices, since resin molding steps are repeated again and again, contaminants such as resin burrs, oxide films, oils or dusts are accumulated to an inside of a molding die in which an encapsulating resin is filled, that is, in the cavities and the runners, as well as the periphery of air vents and cull blocks of an upper die and a lower die forming a pair of molding dies.
Since such contaminants give undesired effects on the quality of molding and lower the releasability upon releasing of products from the molding die, an operator has to clean the molding die on every predetermined cycles of resin shots.
However, since cleaning for the molding die by the operator, being conducted by manual operation, requires a considerable period of time, a technique capable of cleaning the molding die in a short period of time has been demanded.
For coping with such a demand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Hei 1(1989)-95010 discloses a cleaning method of clamping a lead frame not mounted with a semiconductor chip (hereinafter referred to as a dummy lead frame) between main surfaces (mating surfaces) of a molding die and injecting and hardening a cleaning resin formed, for example, of a melamine resin in the molding die, thereby depositing contaminants on the surface of the cleaning resin and removing the contaminants together with the cleaning resin.
Further, there is also a method of directly flowing a cleaning resin at a high pressure and a normal pressure into the cavity without using the dummy frame.
However, since an expensive dummy lead frame is used for cleaning in this technique, it is not economical, and a high accuracy is necessary for positioning the molding die and the dummy lead frame since the dummy lead frame of a predetermined shape adaptable to the molding die has to be set and clamped at a predetermined position of the molding die. Further, the cleaning resin formed in the cull portions or the runner portions are separated being detached from the lead frame and it requires a considerable time to remove the separated resin from the molding die to worsen the operation efficiency. Further, the separated culls and runners are put between the sliding portions of the molding apparatus to sometimes result in disorder.
In view of the above, for overcoming such problems, the techniques to be described below have also been proposed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Hei 6(1994)-254866 discloses a method comprising the steps of clamping a sheet-like material made of a cotton fabric (non-woven fabric) capable of impregnating and permeating a cleaning resin between opened molds, and filling a cleaning resin in a molten state into the cavity of closed molding dies.
As has been described above in the known literature, since a liquid cleaning resin is injected in a state where a sheet capable of impregnating and permeating a cleaning resin and a chemical is put between the main surfaces (mating surfaces) of upper and lower dies, the positioning accuracy required between the molding die and sheet can be lowered and the cleaning resin and the chemical penetrate also to portions where the sheet is put between the main surface of the upper and lower dies, thereby to conduct cleaning for the molding dies. | {
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This invention concerns a control device for evaporators and similar vapor handling systems. One such use is as a seal in a small scale solvent recovery system of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,805.
In evaporators in general, and heated vapor handling systems in particular, seals have a primary function to limit the flow of vapors, gases, or liquids and to restrict them to a particular area or volume for purposes of process requirements, cost, efficiency, safety or other reasons. Many types of physical seals are known and are all prone to defects and failures due to physical abuse, chemical attack, and thermal over limiting, etc.
Because of these problems with physical seals, there is a need for an improved type of seal which obviates these concerns when dealing with vaporized liquids. | {
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In the planning phase of a building, the building owner and the architect need to decide whether or not an elevator installation is to be installed in the building. During that process, building owners and architects increasingly consider parameters such as energy consumption, eco-friendliness and overall operational costs of elevator installations. In certain countries, the reliability of the public power grid is an additional parameter since power outages may shut down an elevator installation leaving it unavailable during a power outage.
Several approaches that address some of these considerations are known. For example, JP 4-272073 discloses a “clean” elevator system having solar cells that charge a battery. The battery provides energy for driving a motor of the elevator system. In addition, the battery absorbs regenerated energy provided by the motor when is acts as a power generator.
Also, CN101544332 describes an elevator system powered by a switchable power supply. The elevator system has a commercial power supply, a power supply input identification interface, an intelligent power supply controller, a power supply output identification interface, an elevator driving controller, a solar energy generating device and an energy storage. The solar energy generating device is connected with the power supply input identification interface and the energy storage; and the energy storage is connected with the power supply input identification interface and the elevator driving controller. The elevator is powered by a stand-by power supply supplied by the solar energy generating device, wherein the energy storage stores the electrical energy to ensure that the elevator runs normally in case that the commercial power supply is cut off.
Even though these approaches address some of the parameters building owners and architects increasingly consider, they are individual approaches and provide as such limited flexibility and adaptability to various circumstances. There is, therefore, a need for an alternative approach with improved flexibility and adaptability. Accordingly, the various embodiments of such an alternative approach disclosed herein relate to an energy management system, in which various operational modes regarding optimization of energy usage are integrated and which selectively executes these modes depending on at least one predetermined parameter of a variety of parameters. | {
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(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a packing can. More particularly, the present invention relates to a packing can which has an excellent resistance against deformation caused by the reduction of pressure at the cooling step after filling the can with contents or during the subsequent storage, and which makes it is made possible to reduce the thickness of the blank used to form the can.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Metal is mainly used for a packing can and sometimes, a resin material is used. In the case of utilizing a metal sheet, a three-piece can is prepared by forming metal sheet into a cylindrical shape, joining confronting edge portions by welding, bonding or soldering to form a can barrel having a side seam and thereafter wrap-seaming both the ends of the can barrel with top and bottom lids. Alternately, a two-piece can is formed by deep-drawing or further ironing the metal sheet into a bottomed can barrel and wrap-seaming the top end of the bottomed can barrel with a lid.
In these packing cans, efforts have been made to reduce the thickness of the blank as much as possible to lower the material cost of the can and reduce the weight of the can per se. However, reduction of the thickness of the blank should naturally result in reduction of the mechanical strength of the can barrel. Particularly, during the cooling step after filling the can with its contents or during the subsequent storage or transportation thereof, conspicuous deformation (profile deformation) of the can barrel is caused by reduction of the internal pressure. Moreover, in canned products, during handling or transportation, collision of cans cannot be avoided, and deformation of can barrels is also caused by such collision.
If deformation is caused in a can barrel of a packing can, the appearance of the product is degraded and the commercial value is lost, and furthermore, coating defects such as pinholes, cracks and peels are caused in inner and outer protecting coating layers of the metal sheet and such troubles as corrosion, elution of the metal and leakage by pitting are readily caused.
As the conventional means for reinforcing the can barrel member, there is known a method in which beads are formed in the circumferential direction of the can barrel and beads are formed in the direction of the can height (the axial direction of the can).
If beads are formed on a barrel member, the above-mentioned deformation is considerably effectively prevented, but in the case where circumferential beads are formed on the front face of the can barrel member, the increase of the deformation load by the external pressure (the increase of the strength against the deformation by the external pressure) is about 2 times at the maximum, as compared with the case of a similar can having no beads formed. Accordingly, even if the thickness of the blank is considerably reduced, the object of completely preventing deformation by reduction of the pressure is not sufficiently attained.
Furthermore, if beads are formed on a can barrel, undulations appear on the printed outer surface and the appearance or commercial value of the can is lowered and coating defects are also caused on the inner surface of the can, and a defect of increase of the metal exposure (ERV value) attractive. Accordingly, in beaded can barrels now practically used, only circumferential beads are formed at a limited part of the can barrel. | {
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Recently, the work of locking the electronic parts on a print-circuit board of an electronic equipment has been carried out by the use of an automatized machine.
The conventional automatized machine supplies, as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, electronic parts 2, such as ICs, resistors, or condensers, linked on a tape onto a print-circuit board 1 and inserts lead wires 2a into attachment holes 1a of the print-circuit board 1. Then, the ends of the lead wires 2a are bent by a clinch head 3 on the opposite side of the print-circuit board 1.
Generally, the number of lead wires 2a of the electronic parts 2 to be mounted on the print-circuit board varies from two, three, to four or so, depending upon the type of parts. In order to meet the difference in number of lead wires 2a, in the prior art, the clinch head 3 was interchanged according to the type of the electronic parts 2 to be mounted. Thus, the working efficiency was low and poor.
Further, in case the electronic parts 2 have three lead wires 2a each, its orientation ofmounting may take any one of four poses or patterns as shown in FIGS. 15(A)-15(D). Accordingly, the clinch head 3 must be turned up to 360 degrees correspondingly to the respective orientations shown in FIGS. 15(A)-15(D), and this makes a rotary mechanism of the clinch head 3 into a more complicated one.
Furthermore, though it might be possible to improve the working efficiency by equipping the clinch head 3 with a mechanism of detecting whether or not a given electronic part 2 is mounted correctly on the print-circuit board 1, in order to detect the number of lead wires 2a of this electronic part 2 and to discriminate if it is the given one, a complicated mechanism must be incorporated in the clinch head 3, thereby resulting in the drawback that the clinch head 3 becomes a large-sized one. In addition, in case the electronic parts 2 have three lead wires 2a each as shown in FIG. 15, a detection mechanism as well as the clinch head 3 had to be turned up to 360 degrees in response to the orientation of the lead wires 2a. | {
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Large structural components which are part of larger structures and which must be fabricated to close dimensional tolerances are typically assembled on hard tooling and fastened together by hand. This entails high labor costs and continual calibration and maintenance of the fixturing tooling, which can experience very hard usage in the factory. An example of such a structure is an airplane wing spar, which is a structural component of an airplane wing that couples the upper and lower wing skin and provides stiffness to the wing. Each wing has a forward and a rear spar, each bent to accommodate the swept configuration of the wing. As a consequence, there are four unique spars on each airplane, each of which would normally require its own tooling and associated periodic calibration and maintenance.
The cost of manual assembly of large mechanical structures can be considerable, especially when the structure must be built to very close dimensional tolerances. The assembly procedure requires highly skilled labor and often requires rework when stringent quality requirements, such as exist in the airframe industry are not met by some rivet or other fastener. Moreover, the hand assembled structures require long assembly times which can increase the number of tooling sets required when high volumn production is needed.
The parts to be assembled to make the structure should be easily loaded onto the assembly machine and be positionable thereon with great accuracy and speed. It is probably necessary to provide a fine adjustment on the machine to ensure that the parts are located thereon at the exactly correct position, within the required dimensional tolerances.
An automated assembly machine must perform all of the operations performed by the manual process, including all the routine ones such as rivet insertion and threading nuts on bolts. All these processes must be performed with speed and precision and must be repeatable for thousands of cycles without fault to avoid the need for time consuming operator intervention.
Flexibility is a desirable attribute of an automated assembly machine. In the event that one of the machines requires service, it would be a valuable feature if one of the machines could be reconfigured temporarily, and quickly, to enable the assembly of the structure normally made or another machine on that machine, thereby maintaining the necessary flow of completed structures to the factory. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a map indication device and to a navigation device which produces route guidance to a destination (goal) that is set by a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional map indication device can be represented by, for example, a car navigation device mounted on a car. The car navigation device stores a plurality of items related to places, such as geographical names, telephone numbers and addresses of buildings, parks, companies. These items have been stored in the navigation device together with representative coordinates that specify the geographical location of each facility. When an item, such as the geographical name, telephone number, or address is specified by the user, the destination desired by the user is thereby input to the navigation device. According to another navigation device, a particular point can be designated on a map presented on a display using a cursor. In such a navigation device, when a point, which is the destination, is designated by the user on the map picture using the cursor, the coordinates of the designated point are set to the navigation device as a destination point.
As described above, designating the destination using the means described above makes it convenient to reliably select the destination. However, the above-mentioned navigation devices require list data in which geographical coordinates of destination points are corresponded to the items, such as geographical names, telephone numbers, and addresses, that are related to a plurality of possible destination points on a map. Such list data must be stored in a memory having a very large capacity. The navigation device equipped with the memory having such a very large capacity results in an increase in the cost of production.
Therefore, the conventional navigation devices have been provided with a memory of limited capacity to avoid an increase in the cost of production. That is, the list data stored in the navigation device consists only of that data associated with major places. In other words, the navigation device does not store list data related to all possible places.
Therefore, when geographic places, that are not included in the list data, are to be set as destinations, such destinations must be designated by a separate method such as the one in which a map picture of a region including the destination is indicated on the display of the navigation device, and the destination is designated by using a cursor on the map picture displayed. It is, however, difficult to move the cursor to an exact point on the map picture.
In the conventional navigation device, furthermore, setting the destinations and detecting the present position of the car are effected by using a road map based upon road data. Besides, searching the route up to a designated destination from the present position of the car and road guidance along the searched route are performed using the road map.
In order to offer proper route guidance while the car is running, the map on the display of the navigation device indicates only a minimum of data. This is to easily allow the driver, or user, to know the present position of the car and the principal roads along which he/she may proceed.
As described above, the conventional navigation device indicates small amounts of data and, hence, offers relatively small amounts of data from which the user must confirm the destination or a particular facility desired by the user. Accordingly, the user may often find it cumbersome to determine the exact point. With the map data consisting of conventional road data, the user may overlook the destination on the displayed map despite the fact the user is approaching the destination according to the route guidance. As a result, the user passes by the destination and must take a detour to arrive at the destination; i.e., the function of the navigation device is often not efficiently used.
In the conventional navigation device, the roads on the map indicated on the picture generally consist of straight lines coupling a plurality of coordinate points. Besides, large facilities are surrounded by lines so that the entire site of the facilities can be observed. Further, names of the facilities are often indicated on the map picture. When map coordinates are input for setting the destination, there may often be searched a road in the vicinity of the coordinates or an intersection closest to the coordinates. The point or the intersection on the searched road is set as an end point of the route guidance, and a route is searched from the present position of the car to the end point.
With the facilities being surrounded by lines as described above, however, it is not often obvious on the picture where the entrance to the facility is located. Moreover, since the end point of the route guidance is set and the guide route is searched based on the input point, the route is guided to the vicinity of the destination. When the surrounding of the facility at the destination has a complex shape, however, the user is often finally guided to the back door or to a byroad of the facility at the destination if the principal entrance is not known by the user. | {
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Mobility, being capable of moving from place to place or of moving quickly from one state to another, has been one of the ultimate goals of humanity throughout recorded history. The automobile has likely done more in helping individuals achieve that goal than any other development. Since its inception, societies around the globe have experienced rates of change in their manner of living that are directly related to the percentage of motor vehicle owners among the population.
Prior art automobiles and light trucks include a body, the function of which is to contain and protect passengers and their belongings. Bodies are connected to the numerous mechanical, electrical, and structural components that, in combination with a body, comprise a fully functional vehicle. The nature of the prior art connections between a vehicle body and vehicular componentry may result in certain inefficiencies in the design, manufacture, and use of vehicles. Three characteristics of prior art body connections that significantly contribute to these inefficiencies are the quantity of connections; the mechanical nature of many of the connections; and the locations of the connections on the body and on the componentry.
In the prior art, the connections between a body and componentry are numerous. Each connection involves at least one assembly step when a vehicle is assembled; it is therefore desirable to reduce the number of connections to increase assembly efficiency. The connections between a prior art body and prior art vehicular componentry include multiple load-bearing connectors to physically fasten the body to the other components, such as bolts and brackets; electrical connectors to transmit electrical energy to the body from electricity-generating components and to transmit data from sensors that monitor the status of the componentry; mechanical control linkages, such as the steering column, throttle cable, and transmission selector; and ductwork and hoses to convey fluids such as heated and cooled air from an HVAC unit to the body for the comfort of passengers.
Many of the connections in the prior art, particularly those connections that transmit control signals, are mechanical linkages. For example, to control the direction of the vehicle, a driver sends control signals to the steering system via a steering column. Mechanical linkages result in inefficiencies, in part, because different driver locations in different vehicles require different mechanical linkage dimensions and packaging. Thus, new or different bodies often cannot use “off-the-shelf” components and linkages. Componentry for one vehicle body configuration is typically not compatible for use with other vehicle body configurations. Furthermore, if a manufacturer changes the design of a body, a change in the design of the mechanical linkage and the component to which it is attached may be required. The change in design of the linkages and components requires modifications to the tooling that produces the linkages and components.
The location of the connections on prior art vehicle bodies and componentry also results in inefficiencies. In prior art body-on-frame architecture, connection locations on the body are often not exposed to an exterior face of the body, and are distant from corresponding connections on the componentry; therefore, long connectors such as wiring harnesses and cables must be routed throughout the body from componentry. The vehicle body of a fully-assembled prior art vehicle is intertwined with the componentry and the connection devices, rendering separation of the body from its componentry difficult and labor-intensive, if not impossible. The use of long connectors increases the number of assembly steps required to attach a vehicle to its componentry.
Furthermore, prior art vehicles typically have internal combustion engines that have a height that is a significant proportion of the overall vehicle height. Prior art vehicle bodies are therefore designed with an engine compartment that occupies about a third of the front (or sometimes the rear) of the body length. Compatibility between an engine and a vehicle body requires that the engine fit within the body's engine compartment without physical part interference. Moreover, compatibility between a prior art chassis with an internal combustion engine and a vehicle body requires that the body have an engine compartment located such that physical part interference is avoided. For example, a vehicle body with an engine compartment in the rear is not compatible with a chassis with an engine in the front. | {
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1. Technical Field
Aspects of this document relate generally to apparatuses for propelling individuals participating in rolling or sliding-based recreational activities.
2. Background Art
Conventional watersports paddles are typically formed of rigid inflexible material that may be inefficient during use. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a composition for treating hearing loss. More specifically, the present invention relates to a composition for treating hearing loss that includes components that function through different biological mechanisms and provide an additive effect that is greater than the effect of the most effective of the individual components alone, and a method of treating hearing loss including the step of administering the composition to a mammal prior to or within 3 days following trauma to the inner ear.
2. Description of the Related Art
Extensive studies have been performed on compositions for treating hearing loss, along with methods of treating hearing loss using various compositions. In particular, antioxidants, among numerous other components, have been found to play a role in the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss. Specific antioxidants shown to be partially effective in reducing noise-induced hearing loss in animal models include glutathione (GSH)/glutathione monoethyl ester, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), resveratrol, allopurinol, R-phenylisopropyladenosine, salicylates, and vitamins A, C, and E. Otoprotective effects of the above individual dietary antioxidants are well known in the art.
To date, little, if any, additive effects have been found to exist by combining many of the known components for treating hearing loss. Additive effects, as used herein, refer to effects that are greater than the most effective of the individual components alone. For the most part, no greater effect is observed by combining many of the different components that are effective in treating hearing loss than the effect of the most effective individual component in the composition, i.e., combinations of agents are only as effective as the most effective single agent delivered alone. For example, FIG. 1 shows the results of experimentation relative to additive effects of Trolox®, which is a water-soluble analogue of alpha-tocopheral (vitamin E), in combination with vitamins A and C, as compared to the effects of Trolox® alone. The experimental conditions are described in further detail in the Examples section below. As is evident from FIG. 1, the combined effect of Trolox® and vitamins A and C in minimizing threshold shift, i.e., hearing loss, is no greater than the effect of Trolox® alone. As such, the combination of Trolox® and vitamins A and C does not produce an additive effect in treating hearing loss.
As the understanding of the mechanisms by which the various antioxidants work to treat or prevent hearing loss has become clearer, it has been found that combinations of certain antioxidants that act via complementary, but different, biochemical mechanisms may be more effective than the individual antioxidants alone. However, given the volume and variety of components that are known to affect hearing loss, as well as lack of knowledge relative to specific mechanisms by which the components function, additive effects between components have not been recognized to date. Further, significant treatments for preventing hearing loss, specifically noise-induced hearing loss, using a post-trauma treatment paradigm have yet to be achieved. There has been a long-felt need for such a treatment, since the vast majority of treatments to prevent noise-induced hearing loss are needed post-trauma.
In spite of the fact that additive effects between various components have not been recognized to date, certain disclosures have been made that generally group together many components for treating hearing loss. These disclosures do not teach with sufficient specificity combinations of specific components that exhibit additive effects in treating hearing loss or which are effective in post-trauma treatment paradigms. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,417 is directed to a composition to treat ear disorders. The composition is topically applied into an ear canal to treat the hearing disorder. Although the U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,417 is directed to a composition that may include many components that are known to be somewhat effective in reducing hearing loss alone, including vitamin E and zinc salts, such as zinc salicylate, there is no recognition of an additive effect between any of the components, when applied topically. As is evident from FIG. 1, many combinations of components do not exhibit additive effects. As such, the random combination of agents disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,417 would not provide any greater effect for treating hearing loss if included in the composition. Furthermore, effectiveness of the individual components greatly varies between oral, intravenous, and topical administration, and compositions for treating hearing loss are formulated differently depending on the contemplated mode of administration. Finally, the U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,417 does not teach with sufficient specificity biologically effective amounts of each component that would be sufficient to produce an effect individually, let alone additive effects between the various components. Thus, the disclosure of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,417 patent provides no further teaching than what was already known about each of the components, i.e., that each component, when used individually, is modestly effective in preventing hearing loss.
The use of vitamin E alone, in biologically effective amounts, has been disclosed for treating noise-induced hearing loss. More specifically, Hou et al., Effects of alpha-tocopheral on noise-induced hearing loss in guinea pigs, Hear Res. 179:1-8 (2003), discloses treatment of acoustical over-stimulation with 10 to 50 mg/kg of alpha tocopheral. Further, the use of salicylates, in biologically effective amounts, has also been disclosed for treating hearing loss. More specifically, Kopke et al., Reduction of noise-induced hearing loss using L-NAC and salicylate in the chinchilla, Hear Res. 149: 138-146 (2000), discloses treatment of noise-induced hearing loss with 50 mg/kg of salicylate twice daily. However, none of the prior art suggests combining vitamin E or a salicylate in biologically effective amounts, and none of the prior art recognizes any type of additive effect that may be achieved with such a combination, or an ability to administer a combination of vitamin E and a salicylate post-trauma with excellent results for which, as set forth above, there has been a long-felt need. Furthermore, the fact that other similar combinations of components do not produce an additive effect, as shown in FIG. 1, illustrates that such additive effects would not be expected.
Although many of the components that are used to treat or prevent hearing loss provide other beneficial functions and are included in multivitamins, known multivitamins likewise do not include salicylates or biologically effective amounts of the components sufficient to treat or prevent hearing loss. Furthermore, multivitamins are generally used as part of a regular dietary regimen and there is no data that suggests the use of multivitamins that include a specific combination and concentration of components to prevent hearing loss induced by noise or other stress.
Thus, there is an opportunity to provide a composition and a method of treating hearing loss including the step of administering the composition that includes a specific combination of components having an additive effect that is greater than the effect of the most effective of the individual components alone in treating hearing loss when used in biologically effective amounts, and that is effective even when first administered as late as 3 days post-trauma. | {
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It is a requirement in a large number of situations to provide a mounting whereby a component is resiliently fixed despite being subject to loads as a result of thermal cycling or mechanical pressures. Ideally, these loads should be accommodated in the form of relative slippage to avoid overstressing of the component.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical prior mounting arrangement of a vane 1 secured between an inner mounting ring 2 and an outer casing 3. The vane 1 is secured to an inner platform 4 and an outer platform 5 from which a tang arm 6 extends to a tang 7 which is engaged in an interference fit with a slot or groove 8 formed in the respective ring 2 or casing 3. This engagement may be an interference or close clearance fit. Although illustrated with respect to a tang mounting arrangement it will be appreciated that other mounting arrangements and fixing mechanisms could be used. The vane 1 may typically be formed from an organic matrix composite aerofoil material. The vane 1 may be held in place in a bypass, fan or compressor module of a gas turbine engine. Alternatively, the vane 1 could be formed from relatively high temperature materials which would allow operation in the turbine stages of a gas turbine engine.
The arrangement depicted in FIG. 1 as indicated is typically used to anchor a vane in place in forward and rearward positions through insertion of tangs into circumferential slots in the casing 3 and inner ring 2. In such circumstances as can be seen there is a four point fixing arrangement constituted by the respective tangs 7 in the slots or grooves. There is a semi freedom for the respective tang 7 to slip, subject to any clearance gap and any interference friction within their respective slot or groove 8 in order to provide a mechanism for damping any vibration in the vane which may be induced by periodic variations in gas stream flow, such as due to blading, or structural vibrations transmitted through the inner ring 2 or casing 3. It will also be understood that the tang 7 may also provide a gas seal when required.
A particular problem relates to the fact that four-point fixing with the arrangement as depicted in FIG. 1 can cause over-constraint upon the vane 1. It is accepted that a structure needs three distinct displacement and three distinct rotation constraints in order to provide positional retention. In practice, there are also design clearances and thermal growth effects, etc., to consider, but it is broadly accepted that a fourth tang is largely redundant and, as indicated, provides over-constraint. In such situations vibration, thermal growth or direct loading of the component, that is to say the vane 1, can result in stress or strain distributions which give rise to constraint forces at the respective fixing points. With four fixing points these constraint forces are accentuated.
FIG. 2 illustrates a typical prior mounting arrangement whereby a vane 21 has a platform 11 which is secured to a tang element 27 by an adhesive layer 12. Such an arrangement is relatively easy to manufacture whereby the vane 21 and platform 11 can be formed and secured through the adhesive 12 to an appropriately shaped tang element member 27 with limited machining and other manufacturing processes necessary. Unfortunately, the constraint forces tend to limit the load potential of the arrangement as depicted in FIG. 1. It will be understood that the bonding provided by the adhesive layer 12 between the element 27 and platform 11 may be subject to straining forces or potentially more importantly the area, known as the tang arm, connecting the tang end of the element 27 with the remainder of that element will be subject to such loading. In such circumstances there is a possibility of peel failure between the element 27 about the adhesive layer 12, or failure of the tang arm. | {
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This invention generally relates to improved multi-layer steel gaskets. More specifically the present invention relates to an improved anti-fret primer coating for a multilayer gasket.
Gaskets are used in a variety of locations in an internal combustion engines. The primary requirement of these gaskets is that they be able to maintain sealing capabilities at the operating temperatures of the engine for suitably long operational life. Known gaskets are typically made with rubber sealing layers applied to a metal layer in such a manner that the resultant gasket has alternating rubber and metal layers. One challenge faced by use of gaskets is wear.
Indeed, wear will often be the limiting factor in the operational life of a multilayer gasket. Typically, wear will eventually compromised the ability of the gasket to maintain a seal. The seal may be compromised by the break down of the metal layers caused by wear or abrasion of the metal layers against the engine parts. The vibrations/thermal expansion motions inherently present in an engine are the source of the abrasion. The abrasion eventually leads to cracking or fretting of the metal layers.
The seal may also be compromised by the delamination of the rubber sealing layers from the metal layers. Delamination results from the combination of poor adhesion between the metal and rubber layers and the motions of the engine. Forestalling fretting for as long as possible will increase the service life of the gasket. Currently, primers are only used to enhance adhesion and do not provide sufficient resistance to fretting.
The inventors have recognized a need for an improved primer that provides good adhesion with anti-fret benefits
The present invention relates to an improved primer coating for a multilayer gasket. The coating includes an elastomer, an epoxy resin and a particulate lubricant. The coating may also employ other components such as cure accelerators and reactive diluents. Also disclosed is a method of making the primer coating. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Ammonium and nitrate are primary nitrogen sources for plant growth and development. Plants require transporters for acquisition of both ammonium and nitrate. Transporters of ammonium and nitrate exist not only in plants, but in almost all organisms. Ammonium transporters (AMTs) usually exist in a genome as gene families, for example at least: six in Arabidopsis thaliana, eight in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Gonzales-Ballester et al. (2004) Plant Molec Biol 56: 863-878), fourteen in poplar (Couturier et al. (2007) New Phytologist 174: 137-150), six in diatom Phaeoactylum tricornutum (Allen (2005) J Phycology 41).
Based on phylogenetic analysis, three subfamilies of ammonium transporters were identified (Loqué & von Wiren (2004) J Exp Bot 55(401): 1293-1305): 1. the AMT subfamily, including the plant AMT1-type transporters, and cyanobacterial ammonium transporters; 2. the MEP subfamily, including the plant AMT2-type transporters, the yeast MEP transporters, the E. coli AmtB, and other prokaryotic homologues; 3. The Rh subfamily, including only human and animal Rhesus blood group antigens.
All AMT polypeptides are highly hydrophobic membrane proteins with at least 10, more commonly 11, putative transmembrane spanning helices. The AMT polypeptides have been shown in numerous reports to be able to uptake ammonium over a wide concentration range, although with different affinities from organism to organism. Within certain organisms, such as plants, high and low affinity ammonium transporters were identified (Gazzarini et al. (1999) Plant Cell 11:937-47). In addition to affinity properties, several other regulatory mechanisms have been identified for ammonium uptake, for example at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels (Yuan et al. (2007) Plant Phys 143: 732-744).
Over-expression of a nucleic acid sequence from rice encoding an AMT1 was performed in two rice cultivars (Taipei 309 and Jarrah), using a maize ubiquitin promoter for constitutive expression. Shoot and root biomass of transgenic lines decreased during seedling and early vegetative stage compared to wild type, especially when grown under high ammonium nutrition (Hogue et al. (2006) Functional Plant Biol 33: 153-163). The authors concluded that decreased biomass of the transgenic plants at early stages of growth might have been caused by the accumulation of ammonium in the roots owing to the inability of ammonium assimilation to match the greater ammonium uptake.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,620,610, is described a nucleic acid sequence encoding an AMT1 polypeptide from Arabidopsis thaliana, plasmids comprising the nucleic acid sequence encoding an AMT1 for expression in yeast and bacteria.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,833,492 are described nucleic acid sequences encoding an AMT1 polypeptide from soybean, corn, wheat, and rice. A nucleic acid sequence encoding an AMT1 polypeptide or an AMT polypeptide having 90% amino acid sequence identity to the isolated soybean AMT1 polypeptide is described. Plants and seeds comprising a recombinant nucleic acid sequence encoding such a polypeptide sequence are described, as well as methods to produce such plants.
Surprisingly, it has now been found that increasing expression of a nucleic acid sequence encoding an AMT polypeptide gives plants having increased yield-related traits relative to control plants.
According to one embodiment, there is provided a method for increasing yield-related traits in plants relative to control plants, comprising increasing expression of a nucleic acid sequence encoding an AMT polypeptide as defined herein, in a plant. The increased yield-related traits comprise one or more of: increased early vigour, increased aboveground biomass, increased root biomass, increased total seed yield per plant, increased seed filling rate, increased number of filled seeds, increased number of flowers per panicle, and increased harvest index. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and its control method that are preferable to be used when an input and output line (IO line) and the like, which output data and the like, are commonly used between banks.
2. Description of Related Art
In a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) having a plurality of banks, there are some cases in that a main input and output line (hereinbelow referred to as a MIO line), which inputs and outputs data from a memory cell to a peripheral circuit, is provided to each bank. The bank includes an address decoder, the memory cell array, a sense amplifier, and the like, and corresponds to a unit that is independently controlled in response to a command input from the external thereof. In addition, a plurality of local input and output lines (hereinbelow referred to as LIO lines), which inputs and outputs data to each memory cell via the sense amplifier and a bit line, connects with the MIO line.
In DRAM having a lot of MIO lines, if each bank is provided with the MIO line, the total number of the IO lines in a chip considerably increases, and the circuit line highly affects chip layout and space in DRAM that has a small storage capacity. In order to reduce the number of the MIO lines, the MIO line, which is provided with each bank, is commonly used between the banks. In this manner, a control of a bank unit is applied to a transistor and the like, which output data to the MIO line, and hence, a reduction in the number of the MIO lines is attempted.
On the other hand, in order to reduce testing cost, there are a lot of cases in that DRAM includes a circuit which achieves a parallel test (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication, No. 2000-40397). In the parallel test, a lot of data are simultaneously written to a plurality of the memory cells from the limited MIO line, and then, the data is simultaneously read and compared with each other. Thereby, it can be simultaneously determined that a plurality of the memory cells correctly operates when the data is compared and agrees with each other. It can be said that the parallel test is an indispensable technology to DRAM at present.
There are a lot of technologies in which a parallel number of the parallel test is increased by simultaneously activating a plurality or all of the banks. However, in the above-mentioned circuit in which the same MIO line is commonly used by a plurality of the banks, the same MIO line is connected with a plurality of the banks. For this reason, a conflict of data output from each bank takes place in the same MIO line commonly used by a plurality of the banks, when a plurality of the banks are simultaneously activated so as to input and output data in the parallel test. Therefore, a control method is necessary to avoid the conflict of data in the parallel test of the chip in which the same MIO line is commonly used by a plurality of the banks. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 7 to FIG. 9, each bank has to be operated in serial at a stage, in which data is output to an external data input and output line DQ after all the banks are simultaneously activated so as to input the data. When this serial operation is employed, testing time increases rather than the case operating in parallel entirely, so that the testing cost increases.
FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 show a typical example of a semiconductor memory device that includes 4 banks. More particularly, FIG. 7 shows a connecting condition of a normal operation mode, while FIG. 8 shows a connecting condition of a parallel test mode. FIG. 9 shows a timing chart of a read operation in the parallel test mode.
As shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, 4 pieces of banks, or a bank 0 to a bank 3, which include a memory cell array and the like, are commonly provided with the 4 MIO lines. Each of the bank 0 to the bank 3 is provided with a bank array which includes a plurality of the LIO lines (unillustrated) connecting with each MIO line via transistors Tr 0 to Tr 3 and the like, a sense amplifier, a bit line, the memory cell, and the like.
The 2 MIO lines connect with a peripheral circuit 11 placed at a bank 0 side, and the other 2 MIO lines connect with a peripheral circuit 12 placed at a bank 3 side during the normal operation mode, as shown in FIG. 7. The peripheral circuits 11 and 12 include a main amplifier, a data latch circuit, and the like. The data is input and output to the memory cell in each of the bank 0 to the bank 3 via the peripheral circuit 11 or the peripheral circuit 12, by using the external data input and output line DQ (unillustrated).
On the other hand, all of the 4 MIO lines connect with a comparator circuit 21 during the parallel test mode, as shown in FIG. 8. After data is written in the banks for the test, the data is sequentially read out from each bank at a timing shown in FIG. 9. The data read to a plurality of the MIO lines is compared by the comparator circuit 21 for every adjacent memory mat. The compared result is output to the external data input and output line DQ in the serial operation. A clock signal, a command input from the outside, a variation of the data of the external data input and output line DQ are shown, from the top to the bottom in order, in FIG. 9. When a bank active command for all banks “ACT (All Bank)” followed by a read command for all the banks “Read (All Bank)” is input, the compared result of each of the bank 0 to the bank 3 is sequentially output to the external data input and output line DQ. After that, a precharge command for all the banks “PRE (All Bank)” is input, all the banks are precharged, and then, each bank is in an idle state.
As described above, when the parallel test, in which a signal of a plurality of data input and output lines is compared, is carried out, it is necessary to sequentially read the data from each bank in the serial operation in the semiconductor memory device in which a data input and output line, such as the MIO line or the like for at least outputting the data, is commonly used by a plurality of the banks. For this reason, the testing time increases due to the serial operation, and hence, there is a problem in that the testing cost increases. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to tire vulcanizing apparatus, and more particularly to a charging device for such apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art vulcanizers for tire recapping are roughly classified into two types, namely one using an air bag and one using a bladder. In the air bag type, a doughnut-like air bag made of rubber and having a comparatively large wall thickness is charged into a tire to be vulcanized by using a separate charging and discharging means, then the tire with the bag in it is loaded in the vulcanizer for vulcanization with a vulcanizing medium such as steam or hot water under high pressure charged into it, and after completion of the vulcanization, the bag is removed from the vulcanized tire by using the aforementioned means again. This system requires an air bag charging and discharging unit separately of the vulcanizer, thus dictating an increase in the system's cost. In addition, the charging and discharging operations involved are rather complicated and disadvantageous from the standpoints of saving man-hours and automation.
The bladder type is an alternative one, in which a rubber bladder of a cylindrical form having a comparatively small wall thickness is provided as part of the vulcanizer. The bladder is applied over the inner surface of a tire within the vulcanizer for vulcanization with a vulcanizing medium supplied into it from its inner side, and after vulcanization it is removed out of the tire. This type of system is technologically advanced over the air bag type with respect to the saving of man-hours and facilitating the operation, and this technique is already in extensive use as a vulcanizer for new tires. However, vulcanizers for recapped tires do not usually adopt this bladder system. This is partly because of the facts that in case of a recapped tire, the percentage of use is small and also the vulcanizing plant is small in scale and less efficient in the saving of man-hours. Another ground is that in this case special technical difficulties are posed.
More particularly, in the case of recapped tires, adoption of the bladder system presents difficulties in that the distance between the upper and lower beads of a tire to be vulcanized is narrow compared to the non-vulcanized radial tire so that with the conventional vulcanizer for new tires the bladder is not smoothly applied to the inner tire surface. Accordingly, even in the presently used bladder type vulcanizer the cylindrical bladder is charged from the upper side. In this system, the state of the bladder disposed within the vulcanizer and not charged in the tire is inverted 180.degree. with respect to the state of the same bladder charged in the tire. This means that the bladder is subject to compulsive forces at the time of its charging in the tire, thus leading to short service life. Also, since the vulcanizing medium is supplied from the upper side, difficulties are involved when discharging the drainage from the bladder. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In the beverage industry, food industry, and in other industries, it is common to fill a container and then to put some sort of a cap on the container by spin-welding. In spin-welding, the cap (typically plastic) is spun and placed on top of the container (also typically plastic). The contact between the cap and the container creates friction and heat, thereby welding the cap to the container and providing a good seal. However, known capping equipment generally suffers from driving the cap onto the container with a certain torque, which can damage the container or cap. Known equipment also tend to require the use of lubricants, and can allow such lubricants or particulate matter to fall into the material held within the bottle or container. Also, known prior art capping apparatus tend to be large and massive and can require substantial maintenance.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need yet remains for a capping apparatus and a coupling therefor in which the cap can be applied without the presence of a drive torque, which does not require a lubricant, which prevents lubricant or particulate matter from contaminating the material within the container, and which is small and easily maintained. It is to the provision of such a capping apparatus and a coupling therefore that the present invention is primarily directed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to the production of microchannel and microcavity systems, and more particularly to an improved method of bonding plane layers together in such production.
Microchannel or microcavity structures are used in inter alia chemical analytical techniques, such as electrophoresis and chromatography. In one type of such microfluidic structures, a channel and/or cavity system is defined between two plane material layers, the recesses which correspond to the channels and cavities, respectively, being formed in one or both of the opposed layer surfaces. The layers are usually bonded together by gluing. Alternatively, if the two layers consist of thermoplastic material, they may be fused together by the application of heat.
When very small channel dimensions are concerned, however, these conventional joining methods tend to deform the channel or cavity system to a great extent by partial clogging with glue or molten material.
The object of the present invention is to overcome this problem by providing a method which permits convenient bonding together of the material layers substantially without obstructing the channel or cavity system.
According to the invention, this is achieved by a method of forming a microchannel and/or microcavity structure by bonding together two elements (1, 2) having opposed plane surfaces of the same or different materials, one or both surfaces having open channels and/or cavities, characterized in that said bonding is effected by applying to one or both element surfaces (1, 2) a thin layer (3) of a solution of a material capable of fusing with and having a lower melting point than that of the material or materials of the two element surfaces (1, 2) in a solvent which substantially does not dissolve the element surface material or materials, removing the solvent, bringing the two elements (1, 2) together, and heating to a temperature where the dissolved material is caused to melt but not the element surface material or materials.
The invention is based on the concept that in order to bond together two planar element surfaces of the same or different materials, preferably thermoplastic, which surfaces when brought together define a channel and/or cavity system between them, there is applied to one or, preferably, both element surfaces a thin layer of another, preferably also thermoplastic, material dissolved in a solvent which does not dissolve the material of the two element surfaces. This dissolved material should, on one hand, be capable of being fused with the material(s) of the two surfaces on which it has been coated, and, on the other hand, melt at a lower temperature than the melting temperature of the element surface material or materials. After evaporation of the solvent, the two surfaces are brought together, e.g. by rolling, whereupon the assembly is heated to a temperature that melts the intermediate (preferably thermoplastic) material but not the material of the element surfaces for effecting joining of the two element surfaces.
The applied solution layer should, of course, have a very small thickness in relation to the width and depth of the channels and microcavities, respectively, which width and depth may be of the order of magnitude of 50 to 100 xcexcm, for example.
When a thermoplastic material is used for the two material surfaces, this thermoplastic material is suitably closely related to the thermoplastic material responsible for the bonding of the channel/cavity structure. As an example of a suitable type of thermoplastic for the present purpose may be mentioned fluoroelastomers.
Suitable combinations of surface/bonding materials and solvents for practising the invention will readily be devised by the person skilled in the art guided by the present description. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an object gripping device, and more particularly to an object gripping device using a electromagnetic assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
In general physical stores or exhibition venues, actual portable electronic products of many brands, (such as mobile phones, tablet computers, cameras, game consoles or alike) are usually placed on showcases for customers to have free trial and conduct comparison. However, if field personnel are inattentive, the portable electronic products are likely to be stolen, thus causing losses.
To prevent the portable electronic products in exhibition from being stolen, most of the physical stores use exposed security locking means, such as steel cables or locks, to lock the portable electronic products to the showcase.
However, the aforementioned method of locking the portable electronic products to the showcase may let customers feel like potential thieves, and is disadvantageous to store atmosphere and promoting purchasing intentions of customers or users. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a device for measuring gas permeability through a membrane; more particularly, the invention is an improved gas permeability measuring device which permits such measurements to be accomplished at substantially constant temperature and relative humidity.
Gas permeability measuring devices are generally known in the prior art, including a number of such devices which are manufactured by the assignee of the present invention. Such devices typically include one or more sensing heads which are adapted for holding a membrane material across a chamber, wherein a gas such as oxygen may be admitted into the chamber on one side of the membrane, and a detector such as an oxygen detector may be coupled via passages to the other side of the chamber, to measure the amount of oxygen which passes through the membrane. Since all membranes are permeable to some extent, it is usually possible to detect a measurable amount of oxygen passing through the membrane over a finite period of time. In the prior art, gas permeability measuring devices utilized one or more of such measuring heads coupled via hoses and tubing to sensors and the like, to perform fairly accurate measurements of membrane permeability.
Measurement of gas permeability through membranes requires extremely sensitive gas detectors or sensors, for the quantities of measured gas are frequently quite low. It is therefore extremely important that the entire system involved in such measurements be maintained under tightly sealed conditions, particularly with respect to all of the gas flow passages leading to the gas detector. Prior art permeability measuring instruments typically utilize hoses or tubing to interconnect the necessary instrumentation, wherein each of the connecting junctions is susceptible to leakage. Since the performance of these instruments can be critically degraded by gas leakage, it is important to the design of such instruments to provide a minimum number of connections in the gas flow path.
It is also known in the prior art to construct gas permeability sensors operating under various conditions of relative humidity of the gas. Relative humidity becomes an important factor in measuring gas permeability through membranes, because the permeability of certain membranes is affected by the relative humidity of the membrane and the surrounding gas. Measuring gas permeability under conditions of high relative humidity is exceedingly difficult to accomplish, because relative humidity and temperature are closely interrelated, and it therefore becomes necessary to maintain precise control over temperature if permeability is to be measured under relatively high humidity conditions. Under these conditions it is necessary to control temperature of all of the gas flow paths in the system, for a 1.degree. C. change in temperature can easily result in a 5% change in relative humidity. Furthermore, under high relative humidity conditions a slight decrease in temperature can cause immediate condensation of the gas, resulting in liquid accumulation in the gas flow passages. Therefore it becomes extremely important to control the temperature of the entire measurement system whenever permeability measurements are desired with respect to humid gases.
Among the systems devised in the prior art for measuring permeability are a line of products manufactured by the assignee of the present invention under the general model designation "OX-TRAN." These systems have proved very effective for measuring gas permeability under widely varying conditions, although permeability measurements under high humidity conditions have necessitated relatively expensive and complex improvements to the basic system models. Examples of patented prior art technology can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,590,634 "Instrument for Determining Permeation Rates Through a Membrane," which describes a simple permeation r measuring device utilizing dry gases. U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,927 "Apparatus for Measuring Gas Transmission Through Films," Aug. 14, 1984, describes another simple measuring device utilizing multiple permeation cells.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,389 "System for Controlled Humidity Tests," Aug. 1, 1989, discloses a gas permeability measuring device capable of operating under different conditions of relative humidity in the gas. This last patent illustrates the complexity of equipment which has been necessary in order to accurately accomplish permeability measurements under conditions of controlled humidity and temperature. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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A Gilbert Cell type variable gain amplifier (hereinafter referred to simply as a “differential amplifier”) may be used as a circuit for driving an optical modulator in an optical transceiver or the like. The differential amplifier has a variable gain which can be varied in accordance with a gain control signal given to bases of four transistors provided in an upper stage (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-205470). Proper adjustment of the gain control signal with respect to a fluctuation factor such as temperature, for example, allows the optical modulator driven by an output signal of the differential amplifier to stably generate an optical output signal having a constant amplitude. However, when the gain is changed, an average potential (center potential) of the output signal undesirably moves to cause malfunction of the amplifier in the next stage or distortion of the output signal. Further, in a case in which a current source of the differential amplifier is set to provide a large source current enough to suppress distortion with respect to a maximum input amplitude, a smaller input amplitude decreases power efficiency of the differential amplifier. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The field of the present invention relates to optical devices incorporating distributed optical structures. In particular, multimode planar waveguide spectral filters are disclosed herein. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for generating x-rays, and in particular to an x-ray radiator having an elongated cathode.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,816 discloses a radiation source having an anode which is either elongated or arcuately curved, arranged opposite a plurality of cathodes. These cathodes can be individually driven in succession for the emission of electrons. The electrons can then be accelerated onto the anode as an electron beam for generating a ray bundle. The ray bundle that is generated is thereby conically fashioned. The individual, successively generated, conical ray bundles penetrate an exposure subject and are incident on a radiation receiver that is synchronously driven in a direction opposite the drive of the cathodes. A grating can be provided between the anode and each of the individual cathodes, the emission of electrons of each individual cathode being capable of being controlled with its associated grating.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,835 discloses an x-ray examination apparatus having an x-ray tube which generates an x-ray beam which is gated to form a thin rectangular ray fan by a focus-proximate primary radiation diaphragm. This ray fan penetrates an exposure subject and subsequently penetrates a further slot-shaped gating apparatus before it is incident on an image layer carrier. The primary radiation diaphragm and the gating mechanism are aligned relative to one another such that they are adjustable uniformly and in a fixed relationship relative to one another above the image layer carrier for preparing an x-ray exposure of a subject. This x-ray examination apparatus allows x-ray exposures to be produced that have a low proportion of scattered rays. This is desirable since the scattered radiation contains no information about the exposure subject and deteriorates the x-ray exposure.
A large part of the useful x-ray cone of the x-ray tube is blanked by the focus-proximate primary radiation diaphragm, so that only a slight part contributes to the generated x-ray for imaging. The x-ray tube is thus highly stressed in order to provide the x-ray dose needed for producing an x-ray exposure.
British Patent No. 949 312 discloses a cathode of an x-ray tube for generating a uniform and elongated electron emission on the anode. To this end, this cathode comprises an elongated, uncoiled glow wire that is convexly arcuately shaped opposite the propagation direction of the electrons. A metallic shielding having a slot that accepts the glow wire is provided, whereby the front surfaces thereof, which project beyond the glow wire in the direction of the anode, are also convexly arcuately shaped. Glow wire cathodes have a high evaporation rate of the material that emits the electrons during the operation of the x-ray tube, as a result of which the service life is limited. Moreover, the electron emission of an elongated (uncoiled) glow wire is relatively low.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,833,494 discloses a cathode for an electrical discharge tube that has a high electron emission and a long service life. This cathode is composed of a rhenium carrier on which a lanthanum hexaboride layer is applied and sintered in a cataphoretically. A pronounced formation of boride occurs, however, during the operation of the cathode which can lead to the rapid exhaustion and, thus, to the rupture of the rhenium carrier. The service life of this known cathode is consequently reduced.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,713 discloses a glow cathode for an electron tube having high emission capability. This glow cathode is composed of a heat-resistant, metallic or ceramic member serving as carrier and a metallic activation substance that promotes the electron emission. This activation substance is composed of an alloy of a group VIII metal and rhenium and an element from the group of Ba, Ca, La, Y, Gd, Ce, Th, U, or by an intermetallic compound of the same elements. This activation substance covers the entire surface of the carrier and may be, for example, a lanthanum and platinum alloy. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Maintaining appropriate anesthesia during surgical operation is difficult. Clinicians providing anesthesia to a patient have to continuously respond to changes in the patient's condition and, when needed, take emergency actions. One key to managing anesthesia is maintaining an appropriate sedation level for a patient, which requires accurate assessment of a patient's sedation level and an understanding of how that particular patient will respond to the administered anesthetic drugs.
Prior art anesthesia care and monitoring has focused on responsive data—determining a patient's current sedation level as a result of anesthesia that has already been administered. For example, the common indicator for sedation level is depth of anesthesia monitoring, such as State Entropy (SE) or Bispectral Index (BIS). However, depth of anesthesia monitoring only provides responsive data, information about the effect that previously administered anesthesia has already caused. Such monitoring does not provide proactive information regarding the patient's future state. Depth of anesthesia monitoring is important; however, anesthesia care would be significantly improved if clinicians could predict a patient's future state, such as how a patient will respond to administration of an anesthetic drug. It is desirable for clinicians to be able to predict patient response, and to be able to apply that prediction into the monitoring and anesthetic maintenance for patients.
Point of care modeling, which is modeling patient state during operation to aid clinical decision making, is a new and promising information source in anesthetics that aims to provide an indicator for patient sedation level. Population models are available that offer information about average patient responses to anesthetic drugs for a particular demographic or population. Typically effect site concentrations predicted by a drug model are presented in population scale. However, when predicting the sedation level according to population models, the result may not be accurate for a single patient. Population data is not patient-specific and often provides information that varies dramatically from data gathered by depth of anesthesia monitoring. Thus, population models are not a reliable source on which a clinician can depend to predict a patient's drug reaction, and actually have the potential to lead clinicians astray. The difference between the population model results and the depth of anesthesia monitoring can increase cognitive load to clinicians by adding yet another parameter to track.
Accurate anesthetic drug administration, for example during a surgical procedure, is extremely important because incorrect dosing can have large consequences; under dosing may lead to patient waking up during operation and overdosing can cause hemodynamic instability. Further, high sensitivity to anesthetics is a known risk factor when administering anesthesia. Because clinicians are unable to predict in advance what a patient's sensitivity level will be, they cannot predict what the sedation level will be. Since anesthetic drugs may take long time to take effect, clinicians are often stuck trying to react to situations of overdosing or under dosing. Thus, a parameter is needed that allows a clinician to better estimate the risks of anesthesia and to make more informed decisions about courses of anesthesia administration. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates to determining the relative concentrations of oil and water phase fluids within subterranean reservoirs by measuring the chromatographic separation of tracers having distinctly different partitioning coefficients in mobile and immobile phases, i.e. the respective water and oil phases, of fluids within reservoirs. More particularly, the present invention relates to improving a process for making such determinations by radioactively analyzing tracers formed by injecting an aqueous solution of reactants arranged to form CO.sub.2.
A method for determining the relative amounts of water and oil fluid phases within a subterranean reservoir by injecting carrier fluid containing a reactant, such as ethyl acetate, capable of forming within the formation at least two tracers having different partitioning coefficients between the carrier fluid and the oil, and then measuring the chromatographic separation of the tracers, was described in 1971 in U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,842. U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,226 by R. J. Hesse and R. F. Farmer relates to improving such a process by injecting a solution in which the tracer forming reactant is a hydrolyzable beta-keto ester such as ethylacetolacetate. U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,548 relates to improving such a process by injecting carrier fluid containing tracers which partition differently with respect to temperature changes and injecting that fluid at a temperature different from the reservoir temperature. U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,468 relates to improving such a process by injecting carrier fluid containing both a precursor which forms a tracer material that partitions between the fluid phases and a tracer material which is inert and substantially completely dissolved in the mobile phase. U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,298 relates to improving such a process by injecting a carrier fluid containing a plurality of precursors each of which forms a tracer which has a distinctive partition coefficient with at least one mobile fluid phase within the reservoir. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,099,565 and 4,168,746 relate to uses of such a fluid saturation determining process for evaluating the effectiveness of a design process for recovering oil.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,896 by R. F. Scheuermann, E. A. Richardson and C. C. Templeton relates to acidizing a reservoir by injecting an aqueous solution of halocarboxylic acid salt so that the rate of the acidization is limited to the rate of its hydrolysis. The disclosures relating to the hydrolysis of halocarboxylic acids contained in that patent are incorporated herein by reference. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to the field of management analytics. More particularly, the present invention relates to predicting vintage behavior.
2. Description of Background Information
Businesses have available a wealth of customer account management tools. These tools can suggest the products that a customer is likely to buy, the most valued customers, whether customers will pay their bills on time, whether a customer may have fraudulent intent, or the best time of day for a telemarketer to solicit. These tools manage information at the account level.
Very few tools exist to assist in the management of groups of consumers. Management, however, may need to know how demographic segments of its consumer base will likely evolve over time in terms of their revenue generation, maintenance expense, and credit losses. Today, few businesses know how their own policy decisions, competitive environment, and economic environment impact these aspects of their customer segments.
In certain direct business models, tests may be designed to measure such effects, but many businesses do not have this capability. In the absence of such knowledge, businesses cannot properly target-market to specific customer demographics; balance their products and customer segments for maximum profit and risk management; or hedge their business risks through capital reserves of financial instruments.
Unsatisfactory attempts have been made to perform cash flow and risk management analysis. Banks, for example, have studied the natural maturation of all customers in the average (referred to as “Vintage Analysis” in consumer banking). Banks, however, have not calibrated the behavior of specific vintages to the average or analyzed external effects on consumer behavior. Accordingly, banks, like many businesses, are in need of a tool that may project the impact of policy decisions, competitive environment, and economic environment on their customer segments. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Integrated circuit devices typically include a semiconductor die or chip that is assembled in a package. A package typically has a substrate portion that the chip is electrically connected to. Usually the substrate is larger than the chip and has a larger array of leads or electrical contact points than that of the chip to allow for ease of assembly of the packaged chip onto a circuit board. One such package configuration is a flip-chip package.
An example of a conventional flip-chip package 20 is shown in FIG. 1. In this example, the chip 22 is electrically connected to the substrate 24 by an array of solder bumps 26. The substrate 24 in this example has an array of solder balls 28 (i.e., ball grid array or BGA), which may be used to attach the packaged chip 20 to a circuit board (not shown), for example. Typically, an underfill material 30 is fed into the free space or gap between the chip 22 and the substrate 24 after the chip 22 is electrically connected to the substrate 24 via the solder bumps 26. Because the distance between the chip 22 and the substrate 24 is often very small (e.g., between about 30 μm and about 50 μm), the underfill material 30 may be fed into the gap between the chip 22 and the substrate 24 by capillary action. After the underfill material 30 is placed between the chip 22 and the substrate 24, as shown in FIG. 1, the underfill material 30 is often cured. Such curing may include heating the package 20 up to a temperature of about 150° C., for example.
At some point after the chip 22 is electrically connected to the substrate 24 and the underfill material 30 is placed and cured, a lid 32 is typically placed over the chip 22. The lid 32 is shown in phantom lines in FIG. 1 for purposes of illustration. In addition to protecting the chip 22 in the package 20, this lid 32 may be made from aluminum and act as a heat sink to provide better cooling for the chip 22, for example.
One of the purposes of the underfill material 30 is to more evenly distribute the stresses between the chip 22 and the substrate 24 to reduce the stresses experienced by the solder bumps 26, solder bump joints, and/or circuitry layers above/below solder joints. Such stresses are caused, at least in part, by different coefficients of thermal expansion between the chip 22, the solder bumps 26, and the substrate 24 (i.e., coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch). The chip 22 is typically made from a silicon wafer, the substrate 24 is typically made from organic material having copper lines and vias extending therein, and the solder bumps 26 are typically made from a metal compound having a low melting point, for example. Thus, temperature changes (e.g., during use of the chip 22) cause stress on the solder bumps 26 connecting the chip 22 to the substrate 24 due to the different rates of material expansion/contraction between the chip 22 and the substrate 24 as the temperature changes. The underfill material 30 may also act as an adhesive to help retain the chip 22 to the substrate 24 so that not just the solder bumps 26 are holding the chip 22 in place. This further reduces stress exerted on the solder bumps 26.
When the underfill material 30 is cured, it is preferable that there are no voids or air pockets remaining between the chip 22 and the substrate 24 and/or within the underfill material 30. Such voids create points of stress concentration and may act as crack initiation sites. Once a crack initiates, it will often grow and propagate through the underfill material 30 until the stress is relieved. A crack may propagate into the chip itself and/or through a solder bump or some other line in the chip or substrate. This may cause a failure site or an open connection, either of which is highly undesirable and may cause the chip to function improperly or fail to function at all. Also, if a void happens to be located between two solder bumps, the material from those solder bumps may eventually extrude into the void causing a short between those bumps. This is also highly undesirable. Thus, one of the main goals in dispensing an underfill material 30 is to avoid the formation of voids or air pockets therein.
FIG. 2 shows a top view (chip side) of the substrate 24 without the chip 22 electrically connected thereto. In FIG. 2, the contacts 34 where the solder bumps will connect the chip to the substrate are shown to illustrate an example contact pattern. There are many possible variations for contact patterns. The contact pattern on the substrate 24 is typically the mirror image of the contact pattern on the chip 22. The solder bumps 26 may be formed on the substrate contacts 34 and/or the chip contacts. Hence, the pattern of the solder bumps 26 is usually the same as the contact pattern on the substrate 24 and/or the contact pattern on the chip 22.
FIG. 3 shows the substrate 24 of FIG. 2 with a chip 22 electrically connected thereto via solder bumps 26. The solder bumps 26 are shown with dashed lines in FIG. 3, as they are located between the chip 22 and the substrate 24 (see e.g., FIG. 1).
FIG. 4 illustrates the flow of underfill material 30 as it is drawn between the chip 22 and the substrate 24 of FIG. 3. In a conventional process, the underfill material 30 is typically dispensed at one end of the chip 22 and capillary action draws the underfill material 30 into the gap between the chip 22 and the substrate 24. Generally, the underfill material 30 is distributed faster or the capillary force is stronger in areas where the solder bumps 26 are located because the solder bumps 26 provide more surface area for the fluid (i.e., the underfill material 30) to grab onto. Hence, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the areas with higher densities of solder bumps 26 may be filled with underfill material 30 faster than other areas having lower solder bump density.
In FIG. 4, numerous phantom-lined outlines are shown to illustrate the progression of the underfill material 30 as it is drawn into the gap. A first phantom-lined outline 36 in FIG. 4 illustrates the area where the underfill material is initially dispensed. Note that by the fourth phantom-lined outline 38, the distribution of the underfill material is beginning to be uneven, as the underfill material is distributed faster at the outer edges where the solder bumps are located. By the sixth phantom-lined outline 40, the distribution of the underfill material is even more uneven. At the tenth phantom-lined outline 42, the underfill material has reached the other end of the chip 22 on the outer edges where the solder bumps 26 are more densely distributed. At the eleventh phantom-lined outline 44, the underfill material is beginning to be distributed along the end of the chip 22. Meanwhile at the central region of the chip 22, the underfill material is being distributed slower and has not reached the end rows of solder bumps 26. At the twelfth phantom-lined outline 46, the underfill material coming from the outer edges has met near the middle and formed an air pocket or air bubble 50, which remains trapped between the chip 22 and the substrate 24 within the underfill material 30. As discussed above, such air pockets or voids are highly undesirable. Hence, there is a need for a way to ensure that the underfill material gets distributed more evenly and preferably without voids or air pockets. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Steroid, thyroid and retinoid hormones produce a diverse array of physiologic effects through the regulation of gene expression. Upon entering the cell, these hormones bind to a unique group of intracellular nuclear receptors which have been characterized as ligand-dependent transcription factors. This complex then moves into the nucleus where the receptor and its cognate ligand interact with the transcription preinitiation complex affecting its stability and ultimately the rate of transcription of the target genes.
The interactions of the liganded receptor with the specific elements in the promoter region are mediated by two classes of molecules; corepressors, which inhibit transactivation and coactivators, which enhance transactivation.
SRC-1 (also known as steroid receptor coactivator-1, F-SRC-1 and NcoA-1) is a member of the growing family of transcriptional coactivators. SRC-1 was first isolated as a protein that interacted with and enhanced human progesterone receptor (hPR) transcriptional activity in a hormone-dependent manner without altering the basal activity of the promoter (Onate et al., Science, 1995, 270, 1354-1357). Subsequently, SRC-1 has been shown to enhance the transcriptional ability of other steroid receptors including the estrogen receptor (Kalkhoven et al., Embo J., 1998, 17, 232-243), glucocorticoid receptor (Onate et al., Science, 1995, 270, 1354-1357), thyroid hormone receptor (Jeyakumar et al., Mol. Endocrinol., 1997, 11, 755-767), retinoic acid receptor (Yao et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 1996, 93, 10626-10631) and retinoid X receptor (Westin et al., Nature, 1998, 395, 199-202), all in a ligand-dependent manner.
SRC-1 contains an intrinsic histone acetyltransferase activity specific for histones H3 and H4. It was proposed that this intrinsic activity allows the protein to disrupt the compacted chromatin structure and enhance the formation of a stable preinitiation complex (Spencer et al., Nature, 1997, 389, 194-198).
SRC-1 has also been shown to mediate transactivation through interactions with c-Jun, c-Fos and NF-kappa-B subunits (Lee et al., J. Biol. Chem., 1998, 273, 16651-16654; Na et al., J. Biol. Chem., 1998, 273, 10831-10834).
Tissue distribution studies showed that SRC-1 message is expressed at high levels in the heart, placenta, skeletal muscle, and pancreas but at very low levels in the lung, liver and kidney (Li and Chen, J. Biol. Chem., 1998, 273, 5948-5954). In the rat, a gender-related difference in expression was found in the anterior pituitary, with females expressing 40% less SRC-1 than males (Misiti et al., Endocrinology, 1998, 139, 2493-2500).
Variations in SRC-1 levels have recently been used as a predictive marker of tamoxifen response in recurrent breast cancer. These studies showed that SRC-1 levels were lower in tumors from patients that did not respond to tamoxifen treatment, suggesting that high levels of SRC-1 indicated a favorable response to tamoxifen (Berns et al., Breast Cancer Res. Treat., 1998, 48, 87-92).
To date, strategies aimed at inhibiting SRC-1 function have involved the use of mutant forms of the protein and gene knock-outs in mice.
By localizing functional domains within the protein, it was demonstrated that a truncated version of the protein lacking the C-terminal domain could act as a dominant-negative repressor of transcription (Onate et al., Science, 1995, 270, 1354-1357). These results lend further support to the role of SRC-1 as a coactivator.
In studies of mice lacking the SRC-1 gene, both hetero-and homozygous SRC-1 null mice appeared to be normal with no obvious external differences from the wild-type. However, internal organs such as the uterus, prostate, testis and mammary glands showed decreased growth and development in response to steroid hormones. These results indicated that SRC-1 is required for efficient hormone action in vivo (Xu et al., Science, 1998, 279, 1922-1925).
Currently, there are no known therapeutic agents which effectively inhibit the synthesis of SRC-1. Consequently, there remains a long felt need for additional agents capable of effectively inhibiting SRC-1 function. Antisense oligonucleotides, therefore, may provide a promising new pharmaceutical tool for the effective and specific modulation of SRC-1 expression. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The invention is concerned with random selection devices, and in particular with such a device useful with an overhead projector to enable an audience or class to view the process of selecting a random number or other symbol.
"Spinners" for selecting a number or symbol to be used in the playing of a board game are well known. A typical spinner comprises a cardboard base with angular field divisions or domains divided by lines which are radii from a central spinning point, with each field division having a number, letter, game symbol, color, etc. In these devices a spinner arrow or needle, usually of thin metal, is mounted on the center of the base, usually with a type of rivet connection. A flick of the finger would activate the spinner.
In these spinners there typically was no attempt to provide perfect balance of the needle or to provide a bearing which could maintain the needle in a balanced position, so the needle would drag against the face of the cardboard base when spinning and would come to rest rather quickly, without any particular suspense or drama.
Compasses have used balanced needles in which a needle hub rested on a point for low-friction operation.
In the setting of a classroom or seminar, particularly in educating students using an overhead projector to demonstrate various principles, there is often a need to select a number, letter or symbol randomly. Although there are various ways to effect random number selection, including some designed for use on overhead projectors, none has been available wherein the selection can be demonstrated for the class on an overhead projector with low-friction spinner device that gradually stops at a random number with drama and suspense for the classroom. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to (1) a process for the production of a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or an addition salt thereof, (2) a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or an addition salt thereof, (3) a water-resistance-imparting agent for use in an ink, which contains the same, and (4) an ink composition containing the above water-resistance-imparting agent. More specifically, it relates to (1) a process for efficiently and industrially advantageously producing a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or an addition salt thereof, which is improved in coloring, has little ignition residue content and is useful for use in various fields, (2) a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or an addition salt thereof, of which the ignition residue content, the unreacted monoallylamine content and the coloring are small or low and which is useful for various uses in the field of fine chemicals, (3) a water-resistance-imparting agent for use in an ink, which contains a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or its addition salt having the above properties and which is suitable for use in an inkjet recording ink, and (4) an ink composition, particularly an inkjet recording ink composition, which contains the above water-resistance-imparting agent and is excellent in water resistance and shelf life.
It is hitherto known that allylamine does not easily undergo polymerization due to degradative chain transfer, and there is not much that is known concerning any effective method for producing an allylamine polymer. As a general method of producing an allylamine polymer or an addition salt thereof, there is known a method in which a monoallylamine addition salt is polymerized in water or a polar solvent in the presence of a radical polymerization initiator having a molecule containing an azo group and a cationic-nitrogen-possessing group at a temperature in the range of from 40 to 70xc2x0 C., to obtain an addition salt of an allylamine polymer, and optionally, the so-obtained addition salt of an allylamine polymer is neutralized with an alkali (e.g., JP-A-58-201811). An allylamine polymer or an addition salt thereof obtained by the above method is relatively free from being colored, and is used in the fields of dye fixing agents, binders for paper making and additives to various chemicals.
On the other hand, in recent years, a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or an addition salt thereof is demanded in a variety of fields. When the radical polymerization initiator having a molecule containing an azo group and a cationic-nitrogen-possessing group is used as a radical polymerization initiator, however, it is required to use a large excess of an inorganic acid such as hydrochloric acid for producing a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or an addition salt thereof, as is described in JP-B-6-2780, so that there are involved problems that the removing of an excess of the inorganic acid is complicated and that a polymer solution obtained is liable to be colored.
Further, as another method of producing a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or an addition salt thereof, JP-A-5-195450 discloses a method in which an aqueous solution of an addition salt of a monoallylamine is provided and allowed to react in the presence of a large amount of a peroxide-based radical polymerization initiator at a high temperature.
In the above method, however, the radical polymerization initiator is used in a large amount and the polymerization is carried out under severe temperature conditions. There are therefore caused problems that an aqueous solution of an obtained low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or addition salt thereof is inevitably colored in brown or the like, and that the coloring is liable to proceed with the passage of time.
Further, when a solution prepared by polymerization according to the above method is treated with activated carbon for overcoming the above coloring, procedures of removing the activated carbon by filtration are required. Moreover, a fine powder of the activated carbon is liable to be contained in the end polymer during the filtration, and it sometimes causes a problem in some use.
As a printer, a dot impact printer, a laser printer, a thermal printer, an inkjet printer, etc., are known. Of these, an inkjet printer is widely used in recent years due to characteristic features such as fast printing with a low noise, a low printing cost, downsizing and weight-decreasing feasibility based on a simple mechanism, an easiness in multi-color printing and image size increasing, non-necessity of development and fixing and adaptability of a record pattern.
In the above inkjet printer, conventionally, recording is carried out by an inkjet recording method in which an ink blob is generated and ejected by an electrostatic suction method, an air compression method, a method using electric deformation of a piezoelectric element or a method using a pressure caused by heat-blowing, and further, the ink blob is allowed to adhere to a recording paper. As an ink for use with the above recording method, generally, there is used a water-based ink prepared by dissolving or dispersing a colorant such as a dye or a pigment in water, a water-soluble organic solvent or a mixture of these.
In recent years, inkjet recording is required to satisfy water resistance on an ordinary paper, and as a water-based ink composition for attaining the above requirement, combinations of polyethyleneimine and polyamlines mainly including modified products thereof with dyes have been studied in various ways.
For example, there have been proposed (1) a water-fast inkjet composition comprising a hydroxyethylated polyethyleneimine and a dye component (JP-A-62-119280), (2) a water-resistant water-based ink composition comprising a polyamine having a molecular weight of at least 300 and having primary amino groups, an anionic dye, a stabilizer and a wetting agent (JP-A-2-255876 and JP-A-3-188174) and (3) a water-based ink comprising a specific anionic dye and amino acid type polyamine or polyethyleneimine (JP-A-8-113743).
However, the inkjet composition in the above (1) has a problem that since polyethyleneimine contains hydroxyethyl groups and hydrophilic nature increases depending upon the degree of a content thereof, so that water resistance decreases. The water-based ink composition in the above (2) involves a problem that a shelf life is poor since polyethyleneimine specifically described in Example highly possibly attacks an anionic dye. Further, the water-based ink in the above (3) has a problem that it is required to select a dye suitable for imparting water resistance from an anionic metal-containing dye, a metal-free dye having an anionic group and an azo group in specific positions or a metal-free azo dye having an aromatic ring, which limits dye selection to a narrow range, so that it is difficult to prepare an ink having a desired hue and a desired color density.
On the other hand, attempts have been made to use an allylamine polymer as a water-resistance-imparting agent in an ink composition. In this case, however, there are required complicated procedures of reacting an allylamine hydrochloride polymer with a dye (dye containing acid salt such as sulfonic acid salt, etc.) to prepare a dye containing an allylamine polymer as a counter cation and removing an inorganic salt, etc., by isolating it as a solid before use, as is described in JP-A-63-33484. Further, for avoiding the above complicated procedures, an allylamine polymer is converted to a free polymer in advance, and further, an inorganic salt, etc., are removed. Even in this case, when the allylamine polymer is used in an ink, the ink is liable to cause aggregation, which causes a problem in use.
Under the circumstances, a first object of the present invention is to provide a process for efficiently and industrially advantageously producing a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or its addition salt, which is improved in coloring, has little ignition residue content and is useful for various fields.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer or its addition salt, which has a high quality and is useful for various uses in the field of fine chemicals.
Further, a third object of the present invention is to provide a novel water-resistance-imparting agent for use in an ink, which is suitable for use in an inkjet recording ink, and a fourth object of the present invention is to provide an ink composition, particularly an inkjet recording ink composition, which contains the above water-resistance-imparting agent and is excellent in water resistance and shelf life.
For achieving the above objects, the present inventors have made diligent studies and as a result, have found that the first object can be accomplished by distilling a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer solution containing an unreacted monoallylamine and salt to distill off the unreacted monoallylamine, then subjecting the residue to electrodialysis, and optionally, further carrying out acid treatment.
Further, it has been found that a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having an ignition residue content equivalent to, or lower than, a specific value, having a weight average molecular weight in a specific range and preferably having an unreacted monoallylamine content and an absorbance, measured by a certain method, which are equivalent to, or smaller than, specific values, or an addition salt of a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having the above properties can meet the second object, that a water-resistance-imparting agent containing a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having the above properties or an addition salt thereof can meet the third object, and further that an ink composition comprising a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having the above properties or an addition salt thereof can meet the fourth in object.
The present invention has been made on the basis of the above findings.
That is, the first object of the present invention is achieved by a process for the production of a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having a weight average molecular weight of 250 to 4,000 or an addition salt thereof, which comprises distilling a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer solution containing an unreacted monoallylamine and a salt, thereby distilling off the unreacted monoallylamine, then, subjecting a residue to electrodialysis, and optionally carrying out acid treatment.
Further, the second object of the present invention is achieved by a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having an ignition residue content of 5% by weight or less and a weight average molecular weight of 250 to 4,000, or an addition salt of a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having the above properties.
Furthermore, the third object of the present invention is achieved by a water-resistance-imparting agent for an ink, comprising a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having an ignition residue content of 5% by weight or less and a weight average molecular weight of 250 to 4,000, or an addition salt of a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having the above properties.
Moreover, the fourth object of the present invention is achieved by an ink composition comprising (A) a colorant and (B) a water-resistance-imparting agent containing a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having an ignition residue content of 5% by weight or less and a weight average molecular weight of 250 to 4,000, or an addition salt of a low-molecular-weight allylamine polymer having the above properties. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The invention relates to lamps, more specifically reflector lamps with lenses.
Lenses are glued to reflectors in many reflector lamp configurations such as halogen and discharge lamps. Epoxy adhesives are typically employed to fix the lenses in place. Epoxies, however, have many limitations. Epoxies have limited life at elevated temperatures. They are relatively expensive, they discolor, and they are subject to both ozonolysis and radiative degradation. Among reflector lamps using epoxy adhesives to affix the lens, a substantial number of lenses have been reported to have fallen off of their lamps due to slow decay of epoxy strength and adhesion over time. Furthermore, epoxy adhesives become brittle upon cure, and embrittlement is exacerbated over time and through exposure to high temperatures during use.
Condensation-cure silicone adhesives have been used as a substitute for epoxy adhesives, but these adhesives generally have low green strength and low cured strength. Furthermore, condensation-cure silicone adhesives require long cure times and may produce corrosive byproducts during cure. Condensation-cure silicone adhesives also usually produce gaseous byproducts, which can result in gas bubbles being trapped in the adhesive layer, impairing the adhesive strength. It would be advantageous to utilize an adhesive for reflector lamps not subject to the limitations of epoxy and condensation-cure silicone adhesives.
A lamp comprises a reflector and a lens. The lens is secured to the reflector by an addition-cure silicone adhesive. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The applicant's prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,768,252 and 4,825,489 disclose a fitted sheet having an elastic cross extend therebetween at locations spaced from an end panel of the sheet, and elastic corner bands attached to the side panels of the sheet at the ends of the cross band and extending to the adjacent end panel. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,252, the cross bands and corner ends were formed of a flat elastic band with the ends of the cross bands and corner bands attached by stitching to the side and end panels of the fitted sheet. U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,489 and my copending U.S. application Ser. No. 07/365,353 filed June 13, 1989, disclose fitted sheets in which an elastic cross band and corner bands are formed as a harness that is detachably attached to the side and end panels of the sheet by fabric clasps. However, these prior arrangements used a flat elastic band and stitching to secure the cross band and corner bands to the fabric clasps.
The arrangements disclosed in my prior patents have been found effective to retain a fitted sheet in position on a mattress. However, the sewing operations required for attaching the cross band and corner bands to the sheet or to the fabric clasps added to the cost of production. Further, the tension in the cross band and the corner bands was dependent on the length of the cross and corner bands and points of attachment to the side and end panels of the sheet. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to portable electronic device accessories, and particularly to a stand mechanism for enhancing a magnification function of a portable electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
Many portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, include a display and a digital camera. It is common for the digital camera to have a zoom function. As such, a user may sometimes use the portable electronic device as a magnifying device, wherein a lens of the digital camera functions to allow an enlarged view of a tiny object to be observed by the user.
However, the portable electronic device is typically a handheld device. Therefore because of problems such as hand shaking etc., it can be difficult to ensure that a distance between the digital camera and the object is steady, and so it can be correspondingly hard to obtaining a clear magnified view of the object.
What is needed is to provide a means that can overcome the above-described limitations. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are systems which are developed using thin film technology and which include both electrical and micro mechanical components. MEMS devices are used in a variety of applications such as optical display systems, pressure sensors, flow sensors, and charge control actuators. MEMS devices use electrostatic force or energy to move or monitor the movement of micro-mechanical components. In one type of MEMS device, to achieve a desired result, a gap distance between electrodes is controlled by balancing an electrostatic force and a mechanical restoring force. Typically, digital MEMS devices use two discrete gap distances while analog MEMS devices use variable gap distances.
Such MEMS devices have been developed using a variety of approaches. In one approach, a deformable deflective membrane is positioned over an electrode and is electrostatically attracted to the electrode. Other approaches use flaps or beams of silicon or aluminum, which form a top conducting layer. With optical applications, the conducting layer is reflective while the deflective membrane is deformed using electrostatic force to direct light, which is incident upon the conducting layer.
One approach for controlling the gap distance between electrodes is to apply a continuous control voltage to the electrodes, wherein the control voltage is increased to decrease the gap distance, and vice-versa. However, this approach suffers from electrostatic instability that greatly reduces a useable operating range over which the gap distance can be effectively controlled. In addition, the speed with which the gap distance may be changed depends primarily on the physical characteristics of the MEMS device. When the voltage is changed, the gap distance between the electrodes lags the change of voltage as the MEMS device settles to its final position. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Recently, in conjunction with increasing performance of vehicles, there are strong demands that pneumatic tires perform both steering stability on a dry road surface and steering stability on a wet road surface to a high degree while running at a high speed.
Generally, as a method of improving steering stability on the wet road surface, drainage is ensured by disposing many inclined grooves and sipes on a tread surface of a tire. However, with this method, because a rigidity of a land portion formed on the tread surface decreases, there is a problem where it becomes difficult to ensure steering stability on the dry road surface.
With regard to such a problem, a pneumatic tire that performs both steering stability on the dry road surface and steering stability on the wet road surface to a high degree is known (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-215221A).
This pneumatic tire has four main grooves extending in a straight shape in a tire circumferential direction in a ground region of a tread surface and has five land portions partitioned by the main grooves on the tread surface.
A groove width of the main groove positioned nearest to one side in a tire width direction from among these four main grooves is formed narrower than a groove width of any of the other three main grooves, and a ratio Wmax/Wout between a maximum groove width Wmax of the three main grooves and a groove width Wout of the main groove positioned nearest to the one side in the tire width direction is set as 2.0 to 3.0.
Additionally, only the land portion positioned nearest to the one side in the tire width direction from among the five land portions is formed in a block column by being partitioned by inclined grooves disposed at predetermined intervals in the tire circumferential direction, and the other four land portions are formed as ribs that continue in the tire circumferential direction.
A ratio Sin/Sout between a groove surface area ratio Sin of another side in the tire width direction and a groove surface area ratio Sout of the one side in the tire width direction with a tire equator in the ground contact region as a center is set as 1.25 to 1.35, and regarding the groove surface area ratios in the ground contact region of the three land portions which do not include the land portion nearest to the other side in the tire width direction and the land portion nearest to the one side in the tire width direction from among the five land portions, the groove surface area ratio of another side in the tire width direction is larger than the groove surface area ratio of one side in the tire width direction when a center line of each land portion is defined as a boundary.
While the known pneumatic tire described above can provide both steering stability on the dry road surface and steering stability on the wet road surface at the high dimension, situations are increasing where an additional improvement of uneven wear resistance of the pneumatic tire is still further demanded so the pneumatic tire can be used continuously for a longer period without a tire exchange or a tire rotation. With the known pneumatic tire described above, improvement of uneven wear resistance is not considered. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Acne is the most common skin disorder in the US, and although this condition is generally associated with puberty, it is not confined to adolescence and can persist well into adulthood. The acne condition is a complex one, impacted by a number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and, as such, must be treated with a multifaceted approach. Treatment should address overproduction of sebum, hyperkeratinization, overgrowth of P. acnes, and the ultimate blockage and irritation of the pilosebaceous follicle. Extrinsic factors, which exacerbate the acne condition, involve exfoliation via harsh abrasives or mechanical scrubbing, UV exposure, and some topical and oral substances.
Salicylic acid is a relatively mild beta-hydroxy acid, which is proven effective at correcting abnormal desquamation, the natural shedding of the outermost stratum corneum cells. Its treatment benefits extend beyond that of the acne condition to include psoriasis, keratoses, and ichthyoses. By penetrating into the follicle, salicylic acid encourages the sloughing of dead skin cells and other cellular debris and, ultimately, clears blockages. Further benefits of its exfoliating action are improvements in skin texture and hyperpigmentation.
While there are a wide variety of products on the market containing salicylic acid for treating the acne condition, most are in the forms of lotions, creams, and liquids, including liquid foundation makeup. Incorporation of salicylic acid into color foundations is advantageous, as it helps to clear current breakouts while concealing them. Furthermore, continued use will help to prevent future breakouts. Loose powder foundations are currently enjoying much popularity, as they impart a lightweight, natural feel on the skin while providing great coverage, long wearability, oil absorption, and diffuse the appearance of blemishes and other skin imperfections. Providing a loose powder foundation with acne treatment benefits would represent an improvement over an already popular product type.
However, the presence of free salicylic acid may serve to irritate the skin. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a loose powder foundation that provides the benefits of salicylic acid, while minimizing the degree of skin irritation. The present invention provides such a foundation. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magneto generator which generates electricity under the electromagnetic induction action of magnets and magneto coils in accordance with the rotation of a flywheel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a known alternator, in order to suppress the generation of heat due to eddy currents, magneto coils are arranged on a laminated core which is formed by laminating a plurality of magnetic thin sheet steel plates one over another, and a plurality of permanent magnets, which are fixedly secured to an inner surface of an outer peripheral edge of a flywheel in a circumferentially spaced apart relation with respect to one another, are disposed on the outer peripheral sides of the magneto coils. A pair of hollow disk-shaped end plates comprising magnetic steel plates of high strength each having a thickness larger than that of each thin sheet steel plate are disposed on the opposite side surfaces, respectively, of the laminated core. The outer peripheral portion of each end plate is bent toward the magneto coil side so as to hold the magneto coils in place and to induce magnetic fluxes in the windings of conductive wires of the laminated core (for example, see a first patent document: Japanese patent laid-open No. 2001-275283).
In the alternator as constructed above, particularly in case of a magneto generator, the following problems arise. That is, heat generation due to hysteresis losses and eddy current losses are caused by alternating fields generated by the permanent magnets when the flywheel is rotating. In particular, at the L-shaped bent portion of each end plate, there are induced magnetic fluxes, and hence the density of magnetic fluxes is high, resulting in large hysteresis losses. On the other hand, heat generation due to eddy current losses becomes large because of the large thickness of each end plate. As a result, the temperature of the laminated core rises, in accordance with which the temperature of each magneto coil also increases, and hence the resistance value of each magneto coil increases, too. Thus, the temperature of each magneto coil rises due to the copper or ohmic loss thereof which is in proportion to the resistance value of each magneto coil, resulting in reduction in the electrical efficiency.
In addition, copper wires used for the magneto coils are each covered with an insulation film of a high polymer material. This poses another problem in that the service life and reliability of the magneto coils are reduced when the temperature of each magneto coil rises, with the high temperature state of the magneto coils being continued for a long time. | {
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This invention relates to an improved system for maintaining a positive mesh between certain gears of a type used to translate power from a motor to a wheeled axle.
In the field of toy miniature powered vehicles, it is common to have the motor drive a rigid rear axle through direct gearing. Since the motor is usually located forward of the axle, the motor drive shaft is oriented perpendicular to the axle, so that the gearing must shift the plane of rotation 90.degree.. The gearing usually has a substantial reduction ratio to keep the vehicle speed reasonable given a relatively high motor RPM.
A commonly employed gear system fitting the above requirements comprises a pinion gear on the drive shaft, meshed to a relatively large diameter crown gear on the axle. This combination is simple and inexpensive, both important considerations in view of the low cost nature of the vehicle product, and yet it quite adequately meets the requirements demanded of a gear train for toy vehicles.
A major problem with this gear system lies in maintaining a positive mesh of the crown gear teeth with the pinion gear despite lateral movement of the rear axle. One solution has been to provide a sleeve or spacer on the axle between the frame of the chassis and the crown gear. The sleeve may actually be an integral extension of the crown gear itself. Other possible solutions include collars on the axle on either side of the frame, or a sleeve between the frame and a wheel of the rear axle. However, there are shortcomings in the systems described above. Large contact areas between the sleeves and frame or wheel cause increased frictional drag. They are also susceptible to binding if the frame or axle is slightly bent or if a piece of debris should get wedged between the surfaces. If the frame or axle is significantly bent, the gears may come out of mesh.
The present invention is directed to an improved method of maintaining a positive gear mesh between the motor pinion and axle crown gears. | {
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Benzodiazepine derivatives are useful compounds for treating various disorders, and include medicaments such as, antiepileptics (imidazo [2,1-b][1,3,5]benzothiadiazepines, U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,688; U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,852), antibacterials (pyrimido[1,2-c][1,3,5]benzothiadiazepines, GB 1476684), diuretics and hypotensives (pyrrolo(1,2-b)[1,2,5]benzothiadiazepine 5,5 dioxide, U.S. Pat. No. 3,506,646), hypolipidemics (WO 03091232), anti-depressants (U.S. Pat. No. 3,453,266); osteoporosis (JP 2138272).
Recently, it has been shown in animal tumor models that benzodiazepine derivatives, such as pyrrolobenzodiazepines (PBDs), act as anti-tumor agents (N-2-imidazolyl alkyl substituted 1,2,5-benzothiadiazepine-1,1-dioxide, U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,746), benzo-pyrido or dipyrido thiadiazepine (WO 2004/069843), pyrrolo [1,2-b] [1,2,5] benzothiadiazepines and pirrole [1,2-b][1,2,5] benzodiazepine derivatives (WO2007/015280), tomaymycin derivatives (e.g., pyrrolo[1,4]benzodiazepines), such as those described in WO 00/12508, WO2005/085260, WO2007/085930, and EP 2019104. Benzodiazepines are also known to affect cell growth and differentiation (Kamal A., et al., Bioorg Med Chem. 2008 Aug. 15; 16(16):7804-10 (and references cited therein); Kumar R, Mini Rev Med Chem. 2003 June; 3(4):323-39 (and references cited therein); Bednarski J J, et al., 2004; Sutter A. P, et al., 2002; Blatt N B, et al., 2002), Kamal A. et al., Current Med. Chem., 2002; 2; 215-254, Wang J-J., J. Med. Chem., 2206; 49:1442-1449, Alley M. C. et al., Cancer Res. 2004; 64:6700-6706, Pepper C. J., Cancer Res 2004; 74:6750-6755, Thurston D. E. and Bose D. S., Chem Rev 1994; 94:433-465; and Tozuka, Z., et al., Journal of Antibiotics, (1983) 36; 1699-1708. General structure of PBDs is described in US Publication Number 20070072846. The PBDs differ in the number, type and position of substituents, in both their aromatic A rings and pyrrolo C rings, and in the degree of saturation of the C ring. Their ability to form an adduct in the minor groove enables them to interfere with DNA processing, hence their potential for use as antiproliferative agents.
There still exists a need for novel benzodiazepine derivatives as effective and safe therapeutics for treating a variety of proliferative disease states, such as cancer. | {
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Numerous methods and devices are known for producing continuous bags of thin material, such as polyethylene. One well known example is the plastic bag commonly used in grocery stores or supermarkets. These bags are characterized by being in a continuous row on a reel with perforations through the bag separating one bag from the other. To use each bag, the shopper grasps a bag, tugs the bag thereby tearing it from the reel along a line of perforation which marks the end of one bag and the beginning of the adjacent bag on the reel. Thus, the line of perforation serves as the connection between one bag and another while on the reel as well as the opening of a bag once torn along the line perforation.
It is, however, desireable in certain applications to manufacture such continuous bag with each bag connected to the adjacent bag but having an opening along one side of the perforation. Such continuous bags are used in other manufacturing processes in which items are inserted into each bag through the opening in a continuous fashion. Thus, in such applications, it is desireable to manufacture continuous bags of thin material with each of the bags having an opening on a side.
Methods and apparati for the manufacture of continuous bags wherein each bag has an opening on a side are known. For example, my U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,307 entitled "Apparatus for Producing Continuous Bags of Thin Wall Material" (issued Feb. 19, 1985) discloses one such method and apparatus. In my previously patented invention, a length of continuous tubing is transformed to a length of continuous bags, each bag having an opening on a side and yet connected to one another by a line of perforation, is produced by twisting the tubing 90 degrees in one direction, passing the twisted tubing in a direction of production over a roller wherein one half of the roller has a cutting edge and the other half has a perforating blade, twisting the tubing 90 degrees in a direction opposite to the first twist to return it to its original orientation, and passing the tubing through a means for sealing the two layers of tubing together further down along the direction of production.
My previous invention had suffered from several disadvantages. Firstly, it did not conveniently allow for the adjustment of the length of the bags produced. The length of the bag product in that invention was a function solely of the size of the outer diameter of the cutting/perforating roller, which also functioned to advance the tubing along the direction of production. Bags produced from that method and device were roughly equal to the distance around the perimeter of the cutting/perforating roller. Thus, in order to change the length of the bag produced, it was necessary to use a different roller with a different outer diameter.
Secondly, the means for sealing the tubing to form the bottom end of bags is disposed a substantial distance away from the cutting/perforating roller along the direction of production. Thus, the tubing is perforated, advanced a distance and sealed. The sealing means seals the tubing to form the bottom of a bag by making physical contact with the tubing at a point adjacent to one of the lines of perforation/cut which had previously been made by the roller some distance before. Thus, the precision with which the perforating/cutting roller and the sealing means work together in synchronicity is an important factor in the successful operation of my prior device. Such synchronicity is difficult to achieve given the fact that the perforating/cutting roller and sealing means are separated by quite a distance.
There is, thus, a need for a method and apparatus for producing continuous bags having an opening on one side in which the length of the bags produced are easily adjusted. There is a further need for such a method and apparatus wherein the synchronicity necessary for the cooperation of the perforating, cutting and sealing steps is more easily attained.
The present invention addresses these needs and others. | {
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The present invention is concerned with speciation of organisms, for the purpose of improving differential diagnosis of disease. The assays currently available to distinguish between or among species have not always met the expectations of consumers because they are either too costly, cumbersome or unavailable.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serological assays are currently used to distinguish among species. Serological tests present problems with cross-reactivity and available PCR tests are complicated. Typically, PCR-based assays require three steps: 1) conducting PCR using a primer set which distinguishes among members of different genera, but not among members of the same genus; 2) digesting the PCR products with restriction enzymes and 3) distinguishing among species on the basis of restriction digest patterns. One assay uses several sets of species-specific primers instead of digestion with restriction enzymes, with identification of the PCR products made by size. Minnick and Barbian, 31 J Microb Meth 51 (1997).
One genus of microorganisms, Bartonella, causes a variety of species-dependent disease states in humans, and is therefore important to speciate prior to treatment. Humans infected with bacteria from the genus Bartonella display a variety of pathogies, and appropriate treatment has been surmised as dependant on the species causing the pathology. For instance, the species B. henselae (relatively common in flea-infested areas) presents as cat scratch disease or atypical cat scratch disease, and health care professionals continue to debate the appropriate antibiotic treatment. Bass et al., 16 Pediatr. Infect. Dis. J., 163 (1997). B. clarridgeiae, another causative agent of cat scratch disease, can be treated with antibiotics, but it is not clear which are the most appropriate. ibid.
B. bacilliformis is the causative agent for Carrion's disease (Oroya fever), and is typically treated with chloramphenicol, penicillins or tetracyclines. ibid. Another species, B. elizabethae has been associated with cardiac valve abnormalities, and is so rare that appropriate antibiotics have yet to be determined. ibid.
B. quintana causes trench fever (rare except for unsanitary living conditions or in the immunocompromised), and has been successfully treated with penicillins, tetracyclines and cephalosporins. Kordick et al., 35(7) J. Clin. Microb. 1813 (1997). B. vinsonii sub vinsonii and B. vinsonii sub berkhoffii have only been found in dogs and voles.
Available Bartonella PCR diagnostics require several steps, and are therefore inconvenient for laboratory analysis of samples. For instance, PCR assays on the basis of differences in citrate synthase sequences have been performed using a first step of conducting PCR and a second step of digesting the PCR products with restriction enzymes, followed by gel electrophoresisis to distinguish among species. Joblet et al., 33(7) J. Clin. Microb. 1879 (1995); Norman et al., 33(7) J. Clin. Microb. 1797 (1995). PCR assays on the basis of differences in 16S rRNA sequences have also been conducted, using restriction enzymes to distinguish among species. Birtles, 129 FEMS Microbiol. Letters 261 (1995).
Likewise, primers have been used to amplify the region between the 16S and 23S genes (called "the intergenic region") of Bartonella. In those assays, restriction enzymes were also used to cut and distinguish the PCR products. Matar et al., 31(7) J. Clin. Microb. 1730 (1993) and Roux and Raoult, 33(6) J. Clin. Microb. 1573 (1995). In Roux, a difference in size of PCR products (prior to digestion by restriction enzymes) was noted (page 1576); however, the differences are so small as to be indistinguishable on a gel. Moreover, no suggestion is made in Roux to use the pre-digestion PCR product size differences for the purpose of differentiation. In Matar, page 1732 that all three species had "an approximately 1,600-bp fragment" and bacilliformis had a 1,000 bp fragment prior to digestion.
In a different approach, Minnick and Barbian, 31 J Microb Meth 51 (1997) designed one set of primers from the 16S/23S intergenic region of Bartonella, and amplified fragments from B. bacilliformis, B. elizabethae, B. henselae and B. vinsonii. The fragments were of different, but indistinguishable sizes (FIG. 2), and the researchers therefore conducted a second, species-specific amplification using different sets of primers for each species represented (FIG. 3). Minnick, at 55 (1997).
Citation of the above documents is not intended as an admission that any of the foregoing is pertinent prior art. All statements as to the date or representation as to the contents of these documents is based on subjective characterization of information available to the applicant, and does not constitute any admission as to the accuracy of the dates or contents of these documents. | {
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Users who wish to access data stored at a remote location and/or remote computer-implemented services typically do so via a telecommunications network, such as the Internet. In order to transmit and receive data via a telecommunications network, users conventionally subscribe to a telecommunications service provided by a telecommunications service provider. A telecommunications service typically provides access to a wider telecommunications network for a given subscriber client device, a group of subscriber client devices, or a residential or commercial premises network associated with a given subscriber. The service provider network typically performs subscriber authentication and comprises a routing fabric for routing traffic between an authenticated subscriber and the wider telecommunications network. A service provider may comprise a carrier, a mobile network operator (MNO), a wireless network operator or an internet service provider (ISP). Subscriber client devices may include personal computers, laptop computers, mobile telephones (including “smart phones”), tablet computers, personal digital assistants, etc.
FIG. 1A shows a simplified example of a telecommunications network 100. A subscriber client device 102 may initially access a service provider network 104 of the telecommunications network 100, which contains various entities provisioned by the service provider. A service provider network 104 for a carrier or a mobile network operator may comprise at least one of: a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network and a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network, e.g. implementing one of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standards. In certain cases, the service provider network 104 may comprise a radio access network and a core network, e.g. as coupled by one or more service edge components. The radio access network may comprise one or more base stations (such as node base-stations—NBs—or enhanced node base-stations—eNBs). User equipment (such as mobile telephones, so-called smartphones, laptops and tablets, amongst others) may attach to the core network via the radio access network. The core network may comprise a serving gateway, a packet data network gateway and a gateway general packet radio service (GPRS) support node. User equipment may connect to other public packet switched networks, e.g. the Internet, via the core network of the service provider. Service provider entities may be responsible for authentication of subscribers/subscriber client devices, access management, billing, etc. This may be performed in association with a home subscriber server or user profile server function (or an authentication centre for GSM) within the service provider network 104. In this manner, the service provider network 104 typically acts as a gateway between subscriber client device 102 and a wider network 106, such as the public internet. The wider network 106 is, at least in part, used to route data between service provider network 104 and one or more server devices 108.
Telecommunications network 100 may also comprise a number of further network parts (not shown), and a number of border/gateway/caching entities (not shown) used to translate between the various network protocols used in each network part where necessary, cache and serve commonly-accessed data so as to reduce load between network parts, and/or manage access to each network part.
Access to data and/or computer-implemented services via telecommunications network 100 is typically enabled using browser software or other applications (hereinafter “a browser”) on subscriber client device 102. Other applications on subscriber client device 102 may include games or software utilities that also require access to content via telecommunications network 100. For example, some applications accrue revenue by displaying content to their users. Such content is typically regularly updated and hosted at a server device in telecommunications network 100. The application may therefore require access to the server device via telecommunications network 100 in order to obtain up-to-date content to display to its users.
A browser enables subscriber client device 102 to take part in a browser session, which comprises a series of one or more requests and responses made to and received from one or more remote entities, such as server device 108, via telecommunications network 100. A browser may be used to view web pages, obtain files, conduct services such as instant messaging, etc. via telecommunications network 100. Browser session requests and responses typically comprise one or more data packets. Such packetized data is formatted and transported according to one or more network protocols, used in a given part of the network.
In patent publication WO 2013190334, an intermediate network device 110 is introduced into service provider network 104 between subscriber client device 102 and wider network part 106. This is shown in FIG. 1B. Intermediate network device 110 may be physically located in service provider network 104, or logically located in service provider network 104 through the use of, for example, a virtual or backhaul private network, but physically located/hosted elsewhere. Service provider network 104 may be adapted to route browser session traffic between subscriber client device 102 and wider network part 106 via intermediate network device 110.
Intermediate network device 110 may be configured to modify a browser session request or a browser session response. For example, FIG. 2 illustrates the operation of intermediate network device 110 in the context of a browser session taking place between subscriber client device 102 and server device 108. At step 2a, a browser session request is transmitted from subscriber client device 102 into telecommunications network 100. The browser session request of step 2a could comprise a request for a web page, web page element, data file, service, etc. As service provider network 104 is configured to route all browser session traffic via intermediate network device 110, the browser session request is then received at intermediate network device 110 in the service provider network.
Having received the browser session request in step 2a, intermediate network device 110 then processes the received browser session request according to the one or more browser session processing modification rules. As a result of the processing, intermediate network device 110 may modify the received browser session request at step 202. Having processed the browser session request, the processed browser session request is then transmitted, in step 2b, to server device 108.
Upon receipt of the browser session request transmitted in step 2b, server device 108 processes the browser session request in order to generate a corresponding browser session response. At step 2c, server device 108 transmits the generated browser session response into telecommunications network 100, directed at subscriber client device 102. As service provider network 104 is configured to route all browser session traffic via intermediate network device 110, upon entering service provider network 104, the browser session response of step 2c is then received at intermediate network device 110 in service provider network 104.
Having received the browser session request in step 2c, intermediate network device 110 then processes the received browser session response according to the one or more browser session processing modification rules. As a result of the processing, intermediate network device 110 may modify the received browser session response at step 102. Having processed the browser session response, the processed browser session response is then transmitted, in step 2d, to subscriber client device 102.
Some browser sessions may contain a series of multiple browser session requests and browser session responses. This will be the case, for example, if the subscriber browses to multiple web pages consecutively in the given browser session. Often, a series of multiple requests and responses will be required to view a single web page. This is particularly true if different elements of the web page are hosted at different server entities and/or if the web page or service is implemented dynamically, e.g. if HyperText Markup Language (HTML) data is generated in real-time by server device 108 following receipt of a request using one or more server functions. A common example is encountered when a web page includes one or more advertisement elements.
The examples above give an outline of methods and systems for processing browser sessions in a telecommunications network. However, it is an object of the present invention to provide improved methods and systems for communicating over a telecommunications network. | {
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The present disclosure relates to earthmoving equipment and, more particularly, to technology for controlling the position of an implement thereof. For example, and not by way of limitation, bulldozers and other types of earthmoving machines typically have a hydraulically controlled earthmoving implement that can be manipulated by a joystick or other means in an operator control station of the machine. The user of the machine can control the lift, tilt, angle and pitch of the implement, which may, for example, be the blade of a bulldozer or other type of track-type tractor. | {
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As mounting space is usually at a premium in supermarkets and grocery stores, it is desirable to have bag dispensing systems that use a minimum of such space, are adaptable to a variety of dispenser mounting systems and provide means for keeping bags neat and orderly in the store. Roll mounted bag systems, typically used for fresh produce, can help with limited space problems when they are designed to use folded bags. These relatively large bags are folded two to four times along vertical or horizontal axes and then formed into compact rolls. The bags are typically joined to one another using perforations. Some bags, known as star-sealed bags are folded twice and then sealed across their bottom edges. This produces a bag with an extremely strong bottom.
When using roll mounted bags, it is critical that the bags are correctly loaded into the bag dispenser and that the bag roll cannot accidently leave the dispenser when a user attempts to pull a bag from the roll. Should this happen, the bag roll could end up on the floor of store, providing a potentially hazardous condition. It is even possible for a bag roll to fly out of the dispenser and strike a grocery patron when he attempts to pull a bag from the roll. Dispensers for roll mounted bags should ideally provide a means to insure that the bag roll will remain in the dispenser. Some examples of dispensers for roll mounted bags and related inventions include the following.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,019, issued to Morris, discloses a bag separator and dispenser used for separating and dispensing plastic bags linked together to form a roll structure. The bags are linked one to another by means of perforation lines and are dispensed from a wire frame structure with channels that support the core or axle of the rolled bags.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,806, issued to Simhaee is directed to a plastic bag dispenser in which the mounting plate is not perpendicular to the slots which receive the rolled bags on the axle.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2011/0073629, published for Tseng illustrates a plastic grocery bag dispenser with side panels and guide bar. The attachment means is connected to the bottom section which is attached to the plastic bag dispenser. The bottom section is at an angle to the roll mounting slots that exist in order to accommodate the roll of bags rotating about the axle and resting on the sides.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,585, issued to Simhaee is directed to a dispenser for plastic bags. The mounting section is at an angle with respect to slots that would accept the roll of plastic bags that rests upon and rotates about an axis while supported by the sides of the dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,953, issued to Simhaee is directed to a plastic bag dispenser which holds a continuous roll of bags connected by perforated separation lines. The roll of bags rests in curved grooves in the dispenser that cause the roll to abut and frictionally engage an interior surface of the dispenser, preventing free-wheeling of the roll. The curvature of the grooves causes the component of force which creates the frictional engagement to increase as the size of the roll decreases. The mounting means is supported by the pole that is positioned at an angle to the grooves which are mounted with respect to the vertical orientation of the dispenser. The roll of bags is mounted in the dispenser so that the roll frictionally engages an interior surface of the dispenser, thus allowing a bag to be removed and separated from the roll while the frictional force prevents the unwinding of the roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,222, issued to West et al. discloses a dispensing system that utilizes a roll of folded-gusseted bags in combination with a dispenser comprising: (i) a support member for attachment to a support surface; (ii) a pair of guide channels carried by the support member for rotatably supporting the roll of plastic bags for rotation of the roll on the core; (iii) a tongue spaced apart from and carried by the support member in a predetermined position corresponding to the predetermined position of the slit in the tear line.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,535, issued to Kannankeril et al. discloses a bag dispensing system providing plastic bags from a roll of bags where one end is attached to the top of the next bag by perforation lines with a slot therebetween. The roll of bags provides a core having an indexing member on at least one end. The dispenser comprising a wire frame formed into channels to support the core. The channels include a core retaining member for restraining the core in the channel. The dispenser includes at least one brake attached to a support member and disposed at an angle thereto to provide tension to the edges of the roll of bags as the core passes through the channel passageway as bags are removed from the roll.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a bag dispensing system that provides large size film bags that are folded and provided as compact bag rolls. It is a further objective to provide a system that keeps the bag roll securely within the dispenser at all times. It is a still further objective of the invention to provide a dispensing system adaptable to a variety of different mountings. It is yet a further objective to provide such a system that provides a visual indication of the need to refill the dispenser. Finally, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a bag dispensing system that is durable, inexpensive, easy to keep clean and simple to use.
While some of the objectives of the present invention are disclosed in the prior art, none of the inventions found include all of the requirements identified. | {
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The invention relates to the field of switching power converters and amplifiers. More particularly, the invention relates to switching power converters and amplifiers having a low power mode for conserving power.
In a conventional switching-mode power converter, a current from a power source, such as an unregulated supply, passes through an inductor when a main power switch is closed. This charges the inductor with energy. When the switch is opened, the energy is discharged into a capacitor. This forms an output voltage across the capacitor which may then be used for driving a load. This output voltage is maintained at a constant desired level by appropriately controlling the opening and closing of the switch, such as by pulse-width modulation (PWM) or frequency modulation.
In accordance with PWM, the duty-cycle for opening and closing the main power switch is controlled. For example, a periodic ramp signal is compared to a variable signal to control the duty cycle of the switch. A level of power delivered to the load depends upon a duty cycle of the main power switch.
In accordance with frequency modulation, the frequency at which the main power switch is opened and closed is controlled. For example, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) can be utilized for controlling the main power switch. A level of power delivered to the load depends upon the switching frequency.
A conventional switching power amplifier is a type of switching power converter in which the output is varied in response to an input signal. This is in contrast to a switching power converter in which the output is typically maintained at a constant level. In a typical switching power amplifier, the opening and closing of the main power switch is controlled in response to a level of the input signal. Therefore, the output of the switching amplifier tends to follow the input signal.
A class D audio amplifier is an example of a conventional type of switching power amplifier which provides a differential output signal across a speaker using an H-bridge arrangement of four main power switches. Each pair of the switches is coupled serially between a high potential of a power supply and a low potential. Nodes intermediate to each pair of power switches are connected to opposite terminals of the speaker. By controlling the opening and closing of the four main power switches in accordance with an input audio signal, the audio speaker generates sounds related to the input signal. Because the output signal is differential, such an amplifier is typically operated in open loop (i.e. without feedback). A drawback to open loop operation of such an amplifier is that the output signal is susceptible to distortion.
Conventional switching power converters tend to provide efficiency advantages over other types of devices. This is because switching power converters tend to draw power at a rate commensurate with the requirements of the load and tend to have relatively low energy losses. Energy loss in a switching power converter is typically referred to a switching loss and is largely due to energy dissipation in the main power switch(es) and in the reactive elements, such as inductors or capacitors. When a load consumes a level of power which is near the maximum capacity of the switching power converter, the switching losses are low in comparison to the total power drawn by the switching power converter. Thus, the converter operates with high efficiency. As the level of power consumed by the load decreases, however, switching losses become more significant in comparison to the level of power drawn from the power supply. Thus, at low levels of load power consumption, switching losses can significantly reduce efficiency. Efficiency, however, is often an important performance criteria for a switching power converter. For example, where the power is drawn from a battery supply, such as in a portable telephone, low efficiency results in reduced periods of operation between battery charges. Therefore, conventional switching power converters tend make inefficient use of battery power when a load draws a low level of power.
Therefore, what is needed is a switching power converter which does not suffer from the aforementioned drawbacks. It is to these ends that the present invention is directed.
The present invention is a low power mode and feedback arrangement for a switching power converter. Two or more main power switches, such as transistors, transfer energy from a supply to a load by their opening and closing. When the load requires a relatively low power level, this condition is detected. In response, one or more of the transistor switches is disabled from switching and the reduced power requirements of the load are handled by the remaining one or more transistor switches. As a result, switching losses are reduced. This is because parasitic gate capacitance and on-resistance associated with the disabled switches no longer consume power from the power source. The invention provides significant efficiency advantages during periods when the load draws a low level of power. This is especially useful for battery-powered devices which may operate in a low power mode for extended periods of time, such as standby mode as in a portable telephone. The prevention of power loss may contribute considerably to operating time before battery re-charging is needed. However, when additional power is required, one or more previously disabled switches may be brought back into operation to ensure that the power requirements of the load are met.
In an audio amplifier having a H-bridge arrangement for providing a differential output signal, the invention also provides a feedback path from only one side of the load. This reduces distortion associated with open-ended operation.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a switching power converter is provided having first and second transistor switches. Energy is transferred from a supply to a load by opening and closing the first transistor switch; energy is transferred from the supply to the load by opening and closing the second transistor switch; and the second transistor is disabled from switching upon detection of a low power condition.
The first switch may transfer energy from the supply to a first reactive element upon closing and the first switch may transfer energy from the first reactive element to a second reactive element upon opening. The second transistor switch may transfer energy from the supply to a third reactive element upon closing and the second transistor switch may transfer energy from the third reactive element to the second reactive element upon opening. Switching of the first and second transistor switches may be interleaved. The first and second transistor switches may be coupled in parallel to each other. Switching of the first transistor switch may be synchronized with switching of the second transistor switch when the second transistor switch is actively switching. The first transistor switch may be disabled from switching when the second transistor switch is actively switching. The switching power converter may include a pulse-width modulation switch controller coupled to the first and second switches. The switching power converter may include a frequency modulation switch controller coupled to the first and second switches. The low power detector may detect the low power condition by monitoring a voltage provided to the load or by monitoring an error signal representative of a difference between a voltage provided to the load and a desired level for the voltage. The low power detector may include a comparator having a hysteretic transfer characteristic. The first and second transistor switches may have substantially different current-carrying capacities. Energy may be transferred to the load by a current which is synchronously rectified. The switching power converter may also include a third transistor switch and a fourth transistor switch, the third and fourth transistor switches for performing synchronous rectification on the current, wherein the fourth transistor is disabled by the low power detector upon detection of the low power condition.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a switching power converter is provided which includes a switch controller and a plurality of transistor switches including a first transistor switch and a group of at least two additional transistor switches. Each transistor switch is coupled to the switch controller for transferring power from a supply to a load by the switch controller opening and closing the corresponding transistor switch. A low power detector is coupled to the group of at least two additional transistor switches for selectively disabling switching of one or more of the transistor switches of the group in accordance with a detected level of power provided to the load.
The plurality of transistor switches may be coupled in parallel to each other. The transistor switches of the plurality that are actively switching may be synchronized. The switch controller may be a pulse-width modulation switch controller. The switch controller may be a frequency modulation switch controller. The low power detector may detect the level of power provided to the load by monitoring a voltage provided to the load or by monitoring an error signal representative of a difference between a voltage provided to the load and a desired level for the voltage. The low power detector may include a comparator having a hysteretic transfer characteristic.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a switching amplifier is provided for receiving an input signal and for generating and output signal representative of the input signal. A first pair of transistor switches alternately raises and lowers a voltage potential of a first terminal of a reactive element upon switching of the first pair of transistor switches; a second pair of transistor switches alternately raises and lowers a voltage potential of the first terminal of the reactive element upon switching of the second pair of transistor switches; a switch controller controls switching of the first and second pairs of transistor switches in accordance with the input signal for forming the output signal at a second terminal of the reactive element. A low signal level detector is coupled to the second pair of transistor switches for disabling the second pair of transistor switches from switching upon detection of a low input signal level condition.
The input signal may be an audio signal. The switching amplifier may include a speaker coupled to receive output signal. The switching amplifier may include one or more additional pairs of transistor switches for alternately raising and lowering a voltage potential of the first terminal of the reactive element, each additional pair being selectively disabled by the low signal level detector upon detection of a corresponding low signal level condition. The transistor switches of the first pair may have substantially equal current carrying capacities which are substantially different from current carrying capacities of the transistor switches of the second pair. The low signal level detector may detect the low power condition by monitoring the input signal or by monitoring an error signal representative of a difference between the input signal and a reference level. The low power detector may include a window comparator. The window comparator may have a hysteretic transfer characteristic. The switching amplifier may include a feedback path from a terminal of the reactive element to the switch controller for limiting the output signal. The first pair of transistor switches may be actively switching when the low signal level condition is not detected. The first pair of transistor switches may be disabled by the low signal level detector when the low signal level condition is not detected.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, a switching amplifier is provided for receiving an input signal and for generating a differential output signal representative of the input signal. A first pair of transistor switches alternately raises and lowers a voltage potential of a first terminal of a first reactive element upon switching of the first pair of transistor switches; a second pair of transistor switches alternately raises and lowers a voltage potential of the first terminal of the first reactive element upon switching of the second pair of transistor switches; a third pair of transistor switches alternately raises and lowers a voltage potential of a first terminal of a second reactive element upon switching of the third pair of transistor switches; and a fourth pair of transistor switches alternately raises and lowers a voltage potential of the first terminal of the second reactive element upon switching of the fourth pair of transistor switches. A switch controller controls switching of the first, second, third and fourth pairs of transistor switches in accordance with the input signal for forming a differential output signal across a second terminal of the first reactive element and a second terminal of the second reactive element. A low signal level detector is coupled to the second and fourth pair of transistor switches for disabling the second and fourth pair of transistor switches from switching upon detection of a low input signal level condition.
The input signal may be an audio signal. The switching amplifier may include a speaker coupled to receive the differential output signal. The switching amplifier may include one or more additional pairs of transistor switches for alternately raising and lowering a voltage potential of the first terminal of the reactive element, and one or more additional pairs of transistor switches for alternately raising and lowering a voltage potential of the first terminal of the second reactive element, each additional pair being selectively disabled by the low signal level detector upon detection of a corresponding low signal level condition. The transistor switches of the first pair may have substantially equal current carrying capacities which are substantially different from current carrying capacities of the transistor switches of the second pair. The low signal level detector may be detected the low signal level condition by monitoring the input signal or by monitoring an error signal representative of a difference between the input signal and a reference level. The low power detector may include a window comparator. The window comparator may have a hysteretic transfer characteristic. The switching amplifier may include a feedback path from a terminal of the first reactive element to the switch controller for limiting the differential output signal. A corresponding feedback path from the second reactive element to the switch controller may not be present. The first and third pairs of transistor switches may be actively switching when the low input signal level condition is not detected. The first and third pairs of transistor switches may be disabled by the low signal level detector when the low input signal level condition is not detected. The switching amplifier may be implemented in an eight pin integrated circuit package.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, a switching amplifier is provided for receiving an input signal and for generating a differential output signal representative of the input signal. A first pair of transistor switches alternately raises and lowers a voltage potential of a first terminal of a first reactive element upon switching of the first pair of transistor switches; a second pair of transistor switches alternately raises and lowers a voltage potential of a first terminal of a second reactive element upon switching of the second pair of transistor switches; and a switch controller controls switching of the first and second pairs of transistor switches in accordance with the input signal for forming a differential output signal across a second terminal of the first reactive element and a second terminal of the second reactive element. A feedback path is provided from a terminal of the first reactive element to the switch controller for limiting the differential output signal. A corresponding feedback path from the second reactive element to the switch controller may not be present. | {
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Children's products may be used to soothe children, such as babies. For example, motorized swings, bouncers, and the like may provide entertainment for babies. However, children's products may be unable to monitor a baby's status, and may therefore be unable to react to a change in a baby's status. For example, a motorized swing may be unable to monitor whether a baby has fallen asleep, and may therefore be unable to change, in one example, a swing speed as a result of the baby falling asleep. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a thermocompression bonding tool used for mounting a semiconductor device or element such as IC, LSI, etc. on a substrate plate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lately, various electronic devices using semiconductor elements have been developed and technical progress in this field has become remarkable. In order to draw out the electric properties of semiconductor elements and allow the properties to sufficiently be shown, it is required to bond electrodes formed on the semiconductor devices with leads of a package (inner lead bonding) and bond the leads with outer terminals of a printed circuit substrate (outer lead bonding).
Bonding of the electrodes of semiconductor devices with the leads of a package has hitherto been carried out by a method comprising bonding metallic fine wires (bonding wires) of gold or copper one by one by a tool called capillary, namely, by wire bonding. A mounting method by a wireless bonding technique, using no bonding wire, has lately been watched with keen interest, instead of this wire bonding technique, by excellent features, e.g. high mounting efficiency, large degree of freedom in package designing, etc.
TAB (Tape Automated Bonding) system in which all electrodes of a semiconductor device are in a lump thermocompression-bonded to a film carrier (a printed pattern is formed on a laminated tape of a Cu foil and resin, followed by plating with Sn or Au) has been put to practical use, for example, in mounting ASIC (Application Specific Integerated Circuit) or a liquid crystal display driver. Mounting of TAB system has often been used not only in the inner lead bonding but also in the outer lead bonding. In the outer lead bonding by TAB system, the outer lead of the film carrier is bonded with the printed circuit substrate or lead frame as an outer terminal. In the case of bonding with the printed circuit substrate, a lead of Cu plated with, for example, Sn is bonded with a substrate electrode of, for example, Au using a solder. In the case of bonding with the lead frame, Au on the film carrier tape is bonded with Ag on the lead frame by thermocompression.
For the thermocompression in the mounting by TAB system, there are used tools called bonding tools which can be classified into two kinds of a constant heating system and pulse heating system and can be used properly depending upon the properties of materials to be bonded, etc. Herein, the constant heating system is a system in which a tool is constantly heated directly or indirectly, pressed against a workpiece to be bonded and subjected to heating and melting bonding or thermocompression bonding. The pulse heating system is a system in which a tool is pressed against a workpiece under directly or indirectly heated state for a constant time, cooled to a predetermined temperature, followed by release of the compression against the workpiece, and then subjected to heating, melting and bonding or thermocompression. Namely, this pulse heating system is a system for carrying out heating and cooling of a tool with a constant cycle.
Furthermore, tools having markedly improved properties have lately been developed by the use of diamond as a tool end material. In particular, a tool using a tool end material comprising polycrystalline diamond coated on a specified substrate by a gaseous phase synthesis method (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 224349/1990 and Japanese Patent Application No. 62905/1994) has widely been used because of the excellent heat resistance, wear resistance, etc. of the tool.
The constant heating tool is, for example, a tool having a shape as shown in FIG. 1, which comprises a tool shank 1 with a penetrating hole 2 for mounting a heater (not shown) and a tool end material 3 to be always maintained at a thermocompression temperature of 500.degree. to 600.degree. C. by passing electric current through the heater to heat it. This tool is mainly used for bonding other bonding materials than solders.
On the other hand, the pulse heating tool is, for example, a tool 4 having a shape as shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 and the tool of FIG. 2 is the most commonly used pulse heating tool made of a metal or alloy. This tool is mechanically fixed to a bonding machine via a hole 6 for fitting, and after pressing the tool end surface 5 to a workpiece to be bonded, the tool body 4 itself having electrical conductivity is self-heated by passing electric current with a pulse of several second unit corresponding to the cycle of bonding. The tool of FIG. 3 is designed in such a manner that a tool material 3 is bonded to the end of a shank 7 via a bonding metal 8 in the similar manner to the constant heating tool of FIG. 1. This tool aims at improving the wear resistance, heat resistance, etc. of the tool of FIG. 2 by the use of another material than the metals or alloys used in the tool body of FIG. 2. These tools are often used in the case of mainly using a solder for a workpiece to be bonded.
The pulse heating tool is preferably used for soldering, because in the case of a tool of the constant heating system, there arises a problem that the tool is still heated after bonding and the melted solder, adhered to the end surface of the tool, is drawn up with the tool, resulting in contact of bonded parts with each other, while in the case of the pulse heating system, the tool is withdrawn after cooled to a temperature of lower than the melting point of the solder and thus, such a problem does not arise to result in good bonding.
Even when a solder is not used, in many times, the pulse heating tool is more preferably used, since the inflow of heat into a bonding machine is less and the thermal breakage of the machine is hard to occur, as compared with the constant heating tool.
In TAB mounting of ASIC, TCP (Tape Carrier Package) mounted by semiconductor elements by the above described inner lead bonding is bonded with a lead frame using a bonding tool having a different shape. In this case, mounting is carried out by a system (constant heating system) comprising constant heating directly or indirectly a tool having an end shape of a hollow square frustum with an end surface of a rectangular frame to be a pressing surface as shown in FIG. 10 and pressing it to a workpiece to be bonded, made of Au or Ag, thus effecting the thermocompression thereof.
Such a tool as having the same shape can be applied to a use of mounting a lead of an integrated circuit on a bonding part of a printed circuit substrate precoated with a solder by soldering. In the case of mounting by soldering, the constant heating system results in a problem that since the pressing of the tool is released and the tool is drawn up while a melted solder is adhered to the pressing surface of the tool, adjacent bonding parts are brought into contact with each other. This is not preferable. In this case, therefore, another system (pulse heating system) is employed comprising pressing a tool to a workpiece for a constant time while directly or indirectly heating the tool, then cooling to a constant temperature, releasing the pressing to the workpiece and heating, melting and bonding.
Among mounting techniques by the wireless bonding, in particular, mounting by the flip chip system is capable of corresponding to pitch-narrowing of substrate leads because of directly bonding with the substrate utilizing bumps formed on LSI and has been developed as a mounting method which can be expected to improve the mounting efficiency. In fact, this mounting method has been employed, for example, for mounting MPU of work stations or personal computers, mounting of driver LSI on glass substrates in the production of liquid crystal pannels, etc.
In the mounting of MPU, there is used a mounting method comprising using a tool directly or indirectly heated at a temperature range of 200.degree. to 400.degree. C. to melt and bond a bump consisting of a solder, adsorbing in vacuum and transporting LSI, then pressing it for a constant time and cooling to 200.degree. C. or lower, after which the pressing of the tool is released.
Since in a process for the production of a liquid crystal panel, driver LSI is mounted on a glass substrate via a thermosetting ACF (anisotropic conductive film), in addition to the above described method, there is used a mounting method comprising adsorbing in vacuum and transporting LSI and then pressing it for a constant time under such a sate that the tool is directly or indirectly heated at a temperature range of 200.degree. to 400.degree. C.
As to the properties of such a bonding tool, excellent heat resistance and wear resistance are required, since any one of the tools is constantly or intermittently maintained at a high temperature and a concentrated load is repeatedly applied to a thermocompression bonding part on the tool surface. From this point of view, a hard material consisting predominantly of diamond has been used as a tool material of bonding tool.
Of the tool materials having been used at the present time, single crystal diamond is most excellent as a material property, so this material corresponding to a size of 10 to 15 mm square as a shape of standard tool end under the existing circumstances in the constant heating tool as shown in FIG. 1 is very expensive and application thereof is limited to a small size tool.
On the other hand, sintered diamond can be obtained with a relatively large size, but has a problem, in particular, when using an iron group metal as a binder material as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 12126/1977, that the heat resistance is insufficient to result in a shortened service life. When the sintered diamond is used as a tool material, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 33865/1986, this sintered body has a problem, due to use of Si and/or SiC as a binder for the purpose of improving the heat resistance, that bonding of diamond grains with each other is too weak to maintain a practical wear resistance.
In contrast, ceramics such as sintered bodies consisting predominantly of Si, Si.sub.3 N.sub.4, SiC or AlN, coated with polycrystalline diamond by a gaseous phase synthesis method, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 224349/1990, exhibit excellent properties comparable to single crystal diamond and can be produced with a low cost, so that they have lately been applied to many uses.
From this point of view, it has been proposed to use a hard material consisting predominantly of diamond, instead of metals such as Mo, W, etc. as in the prior art, for the end material of a tool for the outer lead bonding. The inventors propose, as a first embodiment of the present invention, to use cemented carbides coated with polycrystalline diamond by a gaseous phase synthesis method as a tool end material of a tool capable of exhibiting excellent properties for uses of not only the inner lead bonding but also the outer lead bonding. FIG. 4 is a schematic view of one example of the tool structure of the present invention, comprising a diamond-coated substrate 3, tool end surface (polycrystalline diamond) 5, machine fitting parts 6, shank 7 and brazing material 8.
As described above, the tool described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 224349/1990 having various excellent features has broadly been used, but has some problems to be further solved. Firstly, in this tool, ceramics are used as a substrate to be coated with diamond and accordingly, a problem on strength often takes place depending on the using conditions. That is, the problem is lowering of the durability of the ceramics when a bonding load is large or the heating temperature of the tool is high.
Lately, the shape of a semiconductor device itself tends to be large-sized or long-sized with the increase of functions or integrations of the semiconductor device and for the purpose of improving the efficiency, it is begun to employ a system for mounting in lump a plurality of semiconductor devices. Correspndingly to this tendency, it is required for bonding tools to render the shapes thereof large-sized or long-sized. However, in the tool of such a shape, a lowering tendency of liability as to the strength of a ceramic substrate by a larger volume effect is undeniable, as compared with that of a small-sized shape.
Furthermore, another problem than the strength relates to a heat response when this material is used for a pulse heating tool. As apparent from the structure shown in FIG. 3, a pulsating instantaneous heat generation in a shank is propagated through the ceramic substrate and reaches the surface of polycrystalline diamond. Accordingly, the heat response of the tool, determining a mounting cycle, largely depends on the thermal conductivity of the substrate. In the case of the substrate disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 224549/1990, in fact, if its material does not have highly thermal conductivity, the thermal conductivity of the tool is not sufficient and the mounting cycle is thus lengthened by at least two times as long as tools of metals or alloys, as shown in FIG. 2. This is a problem.
Therefore, it is considered most suitable to use a high strength and high thermal conductivity material as a substrate for an ideal TAB tool, which is coated with polycrystalline diamond by a gaseous phase synthesis method. From this point of view, cemented carbides are considered suitable as a substrate for a TAB tool.
The coating technique of polycrystalline diamond onto a cemented carbide substrate has actively been developed for the purpose of mainly aiming at applying to cutting tools and as to the bonding strength of a diamond film having hitherto been considered to be a problem, various improving methods have been proposed. In particular, a surface modifying method comprising subjecting cemented carbides to a heat treatment under special conditions, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 330959/1993, is effective for improving the bonding strength. According to this method, the bonding strength between a cemented carbide substrate and diamond coating layer is improved by subjecting a WC-based cemented carbide having a composition comprising, as a binder phase component, 0.5 to 30% by weight of Co and, as a hard dispersed phase forming component, (a) WC, (b) Group IVa, Va and VIa metals of Periodic Table except W or solid solutions thereof with at least one of carbides, nitrides, carbonitrides, oxides, borides, borocarbides, boronitrides and borocarbonitrides thereof and (c) WC and/or (d) WC and Group IVa, Va and VIa metals of Periodic Table except W or solid solutions thereof with at least one of carbides, nitrides, carbonitrides, oxides, borides, borocarbides, boronitrides and borocarbonitrides thereof and unavoidable impurities to a heat treatment, thus modifying the surface thereof and then coating it with polycrystalline diamond by a gaseous phase synthesis method. In this publication, it is further described that when at least one of carbides, nitrides and carbonitrides of at least one of Group IVa, Va and VIa metals of Periodic Table except W is further contained as the hard phase, the high temperature hardness of the substrate can be increased by the presence of these carbides, nitrides and carbonitrides, preferably in a proportion of 0.2 to 40 weight %.
However, the materials,described herein include a broad range of compositions varying in property and it has not been made to study which composition or which property is suitable as a material for bonding tools, of these materials.
When using a tool having the structure shown in FIG. 4 for soldering for a long time, there arises a problem that the polycrystalline diamond of the tool end part 5 is stripped from the brazed part to shorten the service life of the tool, in spite of that the polycrystalline diamond itself of the tool end part 5 is not so damaged. The cause of this problem consists in that the solder is melted and evaporated during bonding, adheres to the soldered part and diffused through the solder to change the composition of the solder and to form a brittle intermetallic compound, thus resulting in lowering of the bonding strength by the solder.
Furthermore, in order to improve the mounting efficiency by carrying out at once mounting of a plurality of electronic parts, a tool of several tens mm in length is not sufficient and accordingly, a long-sized tool has lately been desired. For example, in the mounting of a liquid crystal driver, a tool with a length of about at most 400 mm has been required. Even in the case of such a long-sized tool, it has been required for realizing a uniformly bonded state that the flatness of the pressing surface of a tool is at most 3 .mu.m and the maximum temperature gradient is at most 10.degree. C.
As the above described tool, for example, a tool of the pulse heating system using molybdenum or tungsten as the tool material is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 30142/1990. In the tool using such a metal, however, a part in contact with the bonding material is gradually subject to damage by the repeated heating and pressing, thus resulting in a problem that it is difficult to maintain a uniformly bonded state for a long period of time. In such a metallic tool, however, a cleaning working to remove periodically the solder or oxide adhered to the pressing surface is required, during which damage by a cleaning grindstone changes the flatness of the tool pressing surface and unfavorably affects the bonded state. This is a large problem.
In order to solve these problems, it has been considered effective to use a hard material consisting predominantly of diamond or cBN (cubic boron nitride) excellent in heat resistance and wear resistance as a tool end material. However, single crystal diamond is has poor practical utility because of being limited in size. In the case of a diamond or cBN sintered body, moreover, there is a problem that it is difficult to work it into an end shape as shown in FIG. 10 and to maintain the flatness of the end surface at a high temperature within a precision range required for a long time since the property of the sintered body is affected by a metallic or non-metallic binder.
In any mounting method, the bonding tool must have an excellent heat resistance as its property, since it is constantly or intermittently allowed to be present under high temperature state. That is, it is required of the tool to directly press LSI without breakage of LSI and to maintain the surface roughness and flatness of the tool end surface under good state without thermal damage for a long time. However, the use of a metallic tool of an Invar alloy or Mo, etc. having hitherto been used up to the present time results in a problem that the property is gradually deteriorated.
Furthermore, as referred to above, the tool surface should periodically be cleaned since the heated and sublimated solder or resin is solidified and adhered thereto. The cleaning is generally carried out by mechanically removing the adhered material, but during the same time, the tool of the prior art meet with a problem that the end surface is scraped to change the shape and a good mounting operation cannot be continued. | {
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Medical lines of various types are typically present in the clinical setting in connection with institutional and at-home care for patients. Medical lines can include intravenous lines used for the delivery of fluids, blood, and therapeutic and prophylactic agents, device monitoring lines, feeding tubes, and tubes for delivery of gas, such as oxygen. Such lines are affixed to the patient at a first end and to a medical device, such as an infusion pump, monitor, or valve at a second end. The length of the line is typically sufficient to allow for some range of movement of the patient away from the medical device, and most medical lines are flexible. Thus, such lines commonly become intertwined, leading to the risks of confusion and damage to the lines or to the patient or equipment. Further, such lines are likely to be contaminated by contact with the floor, the patient bed, persons in the patient room, and devices near the patient, thus increasing the risk of the entry into the patient of pathogens. Moreover, in many instances, such medical lines are prone to entanglement with the patient. In most circumstances, the harm associated with such entanglement is kinking or breakage of the medical line, or disengagement from the patient or the medical device, or some other form of damage to medical equipment. In some more unfortunate circumstances, entanglement with the patient can lead to patient injury or death by asphyxiation. This is a more significant concern with pediatric patients and with disabled or unconscious patients. Thus, there is a need for devices and methods for securing medical lines so as to minimize the risk of dangerous entanglement with patients, and to minimize the likelihood of confusion between medical lines and line contamination. | {
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There exist two main types of computing platforms, personal computers and mobile devices. A personal computer includes a processor a display monitor, and a keyboard. A mobile device includes a processor and an I/O device such as a touch screen. In terms of performance, operability, and visual display, the personal computer excels when compared to a mobile device. However, a mobile device is better in terms of portability and accessibility. Therefore, in comparing the applicability and functionality of the respective platforms, there exists a problem where a trade-off is necessary between mobility and operability. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for detecting a speech endpoint, specifically to a method and an apparatus for detecting a speech endpoint using a WFST.
2. Background Art
A speech recognition technology extracts features from people's speech transferred to a computer or a speech recognition system through a telephone, a microphone, and the like, analyzes them, and finds a closest result from a pre-inputted recognition list.
The key to increasing speech recognition performances in the speech recognition technology depends on how accurately a speech section is obtained between noises from a speech inputted with the noises. There has been a growing demand recently for a real time speech recognition technology, with the increased popularity of devices implemented with a voice-operated user interface. Accordingly, there have been a variety of studies on a speech section detection technology for accurately detecting a speech section, which is between the time when a speech is inputted and the time when the speech ends, of the speech inputted with noises.
It is generally known that the accuracy of the speech section detection technology depends on the performances of detecting the speech endpoint representing the end of the speech section. Moreover, the current level of the speech endpoint detection technology is the biggest reason why the speech recognition technology has not been very popularized. Therefore, it is urgently needed to improve the speech endpoint detection technology.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional apparatus for detecting speech endpoint.
As FIG. 1 shows, a conventional apparatus 1 for detecting speech endpoint mainly includes a frame-level decision 10 and an utterance-level decision 20. The frame-level decision 10 receives a feature vector fv of a frame unit created by converting an input signal, and decides whether the feature vector fv of a frame unit is a speech or a non-speech. Then, the utterance-level decision 20 decides whether a speech section is detected from the result of the decision by the frame-level decision 10.
The frame-level decision 10 includes a speech decision portion 11 and a hang-over portion 12. The speech decision portion 11 decides whether the inputted feature vector fv of frame unit is a speech or a non-speech. However, error can be included in deciding a speech signal in frame units. Therefore, the frame-level decision 10 corrects the frame units of error by additionally implementing the hang-over portion 12. The hang-over portion 12 compensates the frame units of error in deciding the speech signal with an assumption that adjacent frames have high correlations.
The utterance-level decision 20 includes a state flow control portion 21 and a heuristic application portion 22. The state flow control portion 21 controls an internal flow for detecting an endpoint of an utterance unit according to a preset rule by use of the result decided by the frame-level decision 10. Moreover, the heuristic application portion 22 verifies whether the speech detected as an endpoint by the state flow control portion 21 is a speech endpoint or not. The heuristic application portion 22 verifies a speech endpoint generally by analyzing whether the length of speech detected as an endpoint satisfies a preset minimum length of speech (generally 20 ms) or not.
In the conventional apparatus 1 for detecting speech endpoint of FIG. 1, while the frame-level decision 10 uses a statistics-based decision logic, the utterance-level decision 20 mainly uses a rule-based logic. Accordingly, because the frame-level decision 10 and the utterance-level decision 20 use logics that are independent from each other, the independently configured logics need to be optimized individually even though they have a relevance of analyzing speech, and they often fail to manage overall optimal performances despite their individual optimization. Namely, global optimization is frequently not made. Moreover, as the utterance-level decision 20 mostly uses the rule-based logic, conflicts can occur between the rules when various rules are added, greatly hindering the optimizing of endpoint detection. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile communications systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and techniques for controlling the power radiated by cellular transmitters.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a cellular network a large number of mobile telephone system users, each having a cellular phone, communicate through repeaters or terrestrial stations organized in a number of cells which extend over a limited geographical area. The terrestrial stations are referred to as `base stations`.
Each mobile station (MS), e.g. cellular telephone, broadcasts a signal that is received by a base station. The signal is then relayed to a mobile switching center (MSC) which in turn routes the signal to the public switched telephone network (PTSN) and to telephone lines or other mobile stations. Similarly, a signal may be transmitted from the public switched telephone network to a mobile station via a base station and a mobile switching center.
In certain cellular systems such as GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communication) there is a requirement to control, inter alia, the radio frequency (RF) power level of each cellular telephone transmitter in order to maximize the capacity of the system. The output power must be controlled over a wide range i.e., 30-40 dB.
One conventional technique for effecting control of the power level of each cellular phone is a closed loop approach wherein a signal is transmitted from a base station which sets the required output power level. The conventional, closed loop approach involves a feedback of the transmitter output to the input thereof via a peak detector, comparator, and variable gain amplifier.
However, this technique has been somewhat problematic inasmuch as the peak detector is generally implemented with a diode and a low pass filter. The response curve of the diode, with regard to its output voltage as a function of input power, is nonlinear over a wide range of input power levels. The nonlinearity is most extreme at low power levels. As a result, the feedback loop is nonlinear and extremely sensitive at low power levels. Inasmuch as the control voltage is typically applied using a digital-to-analog converter or `DAC`, a high resolution DAC is required to provide adequate resolution in the control of the applied voltage at the low end where the detector is most sensitive. Moreover, to ensure loop accuracy is maintained, steps must be taken to ensure the closed-loop remains stable. Methods such as changing the loop gain of the transmitter have been employed with limited success.
Hence a need exists in the art for an inexpensive system or technique for controlling the output power of a cellular telephone transmitter. | {
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The present invention relates to authenticating application programs, and is particularly directed to a method of authenticating an application program for use in an unattended system such as at a self-service terminal (SST) or an automated teller machine (ATM).
A typical authentication scheme to authenticate a user in an unattended system having a number of installed application programs relies upon the user having some secret knowledge (such as a personal identification number) to allow the user to gain access to valuable system resources of the unattended system. While this authentication scheme may provide adequate security in an attended system, such an authentication scheme may not provide the level of security desired in an unattended system, such as at a SST or ATM. The level of security desired may not be provided by the known authentication scheme because it is still possible to introduce an altered and/or fraudulent application program into the SST or ATM without subsequent users knowing the application program has been altered and/or is fraudulent. | {
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One of available methods for treating diseases such as malignant tumors is particle beam radiation therapy. Particle beam radiation therapy is a method for treating diseases by irradiating a malignant tumor or the like with particle beams, such as heavy particles, to kill cells in the malignant tumor or the like. Particle beam radiation therapy may cause damage to normal organs and the like around a malignant tumor or the like, because normal organs and the like around the malignant tumor or the like are also irradiated with the particle beams.
In particle beam radiation therapy, particle beams irradiated to a tumor can damage any gastrointestinal tract being present at a position in contact with the tumor, resulting in gastrointestinal perforation; and thus some arrangement is needed to avoid concentration of the particle beam radiation dose on the gastrointestinal tract by creating a space between the tumor and the gastrointestinal tract (intestinal tract). To reduce damage to gastrointestinal tracts caused by particle beams, a spacer is conventionally embedded between a tumor and a normal tissue.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example spacer embedded between a tumor and normal organs or the like in the body. According to the example in FIG. 1, a spacer is embedded between the tumor and the normal organs or the like. In addition, the tumor is irradiated with particle beams from outside the body. The size of the irradiation field, which is the area irradiated with particle beams, is to be greater than the size of the tumor. Embedding a spacer between the tumor and the normal organs or the like reduces irradiation of the normal organs or the like with particle beams, which are irradiated toward the tumor. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical system for a holographic microscope.
2. Description of the Related Art
Popescu et al. (Optics Letters, v. 31, pages 775-777, 2006 (Diffraction phase microscopy for quantifying cell structure and dynamics)) have developed diffraction phase microscopy, which is shown in FIG. 1, as a technique for quantitative phase imaging of biological structures. The method combines the principles of common path interferometry and single-shot phase imaging and is characterized by subnanometer path-length stability and millisecond-scale acquisition time. The potential of the technique for quantifying nanoscale motions in live cells is demonstrated by experiments on red blood cells.
An experimental setup is illustrated in FIG. 1. VPS means a virtual source point, RL is a relay lens, G is a grating, IP is an image plane, L1,2 are lenses (f1,2, respective focal distances), SF means a spatial filter, and CCD is used as a detector.
In this Letter by Popescu et al., they introduce diffraction phase microscopy (DPM) as a novel quantitative phase imaging technique. DPM uses the common path geometry and provides quantitative phase images that are inherently stable to the level of the subnanometer optical path length and at an acquisition speed limited only by the detector.
The second harmonic (λ=532 nm) radiation of a Nd:YAG laser was used as illumination for an inverted microscope (Axiovert 35, Carl Zeiss, Inc.), which produces a magnified image of the sample at the output port. The microscope image appears to be illuminated by the virtual source point (VPS). The relay lens (RL) was used to collimate the light originating at the VPS and replicate the microscope image at the image plane (IP).
A phase grating G is placed at this image plane (IP), which generates multiple diffraction orders containing full spatial information about the image. They isolate the zeroth and first diffraction orders to be used as sample and reference fields, respectively, similar to typical Mach-Zender interferometry. To accomplish this, a standard spatial filtering lens system L1-L2 is used to select the two diffraction orders and generate the final interferogram at the CCD plane.
The zeroth order beam is low-pass filtered by using the spatial filter (SF) positioned in the Fourier plane of L1, such that at the CCD plane it approaches a uniform field. The spatial filter allows passing the entire frequency content of the first diffraction order beam and blocks all the other orders.
The first order beam is thus the imaging field and the zeroth order beam plays the role of the reference field. The two beams traverse the same optical components, i.e., they propagate along a common optical path, thus significantly reducing the longitudinal phase noise. The direction of the spatial modulation was chosen at an angle of 45° with respect to the x and y axes of the CCD, such that the total field at the CCD plane has the form described in the following equation (1).E(x,y)=|EO|ei[φ0β(x+y)]|E1(x,y)|eiφ(x,y) (1)
In Eq. (1), |EO| and |E1| are the amplitudes, and φ0 and φ are the phases of the orders of diffraction 0, 1, respectively, while β represents the spatial frequency shift induced by the grating to the zeroth order. Note that, as a consequence of the central ordinate theorem, the reference field is proportional to the spatial average of the microscope image field described below.
E 0 ⅇ ⅈϕ 0 ∝ 1 A ∫ E 1 ( x , y ) ⅇ ⅈϕ ( x , y ) ⅆ x ⅆ y ( 2 ) where A is the total image area. The spatial average of an image field has been successfully used before as a stable reference for extracting spatially resolved phase information. The interferogram is spatially high-pass filtered to isolate the cross term, |EO∥E1(x,y)|cos [φ(x,y)−β(x+y)−φ0]. For the transparent objects of interest here, E1(x,y) is expected to have a weak spatial dependence. The spatially resolved quantitative phase image associated with the sample is retrieved from a single CCD recording via a spatial Hilbert transform.
The efficiency of the grating G depends on the angle of use. On the image plane IP, where the grating is placed illustrated in FIG. 1, the signal beam has wide angular contents which carry the information of interest. Therefore, the grating will modify the angular contents of the signal; thus, may change the image of the object under investigation. | {
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(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the production of a magnetic powder for use in the magnetic recording. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process and apparatus for the continuous production of a cobalt-modified magnetic iron oxide powder by which a high-density recording is made possible.
(2) Description of the Related Art
As an example of the process for the production of cobalt-modified magnetic iron oxide particles, there can be mentioned a process comprising dispersing magnetic iron oxide particles in an alkaline solution and adding a cobalt salt along or together with another component such as a ferrous salt to the dispersion to form cobalt modified magnetic iron oxide particles. According to this process, a cobalt-containing layer is formed on surfaces of magnetic iron oxide particles and the magnetic characteristics are improved. For example, the coercive force and the saturation magnetization per unit weight are increased. The thus-obtained cobalt-modified iron oxide particles are very suitable as the magnetic powder for magnetic recording.
The conventional process for the preparation of such a cobalt-modified magnetic iron oxide powder for the high-density recording is a batchwise process in which the whole reaction is completed in one reaction vessel.
This conventional batchwise process is defective in that the reaction time is very long and the operation efficiency is low. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Radiofrequency transmissions may be easily intercepted, in part because of the fact that RF signals are designed to radiate signals in all directions. Radiofrequency transmissions are also regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which controls the frequencies that may be used by individuals. Radiofrequency transmissions are also susceptible to interference and produce noise.
In contrast to RF communications, light sources used for communication are extremely secure due to the fact that they are focused within a narrow beam, requiring placement of equipment within the beam itself for interception. Also, because the visible spectrum is not regulated by the FCC, light sources can be used for communications purposes without the need of a license. Light sources are also not susceptible to interference nor do they produce noise that can interfere with other devices.
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) may be used as light sources for data transmission, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,879,263 and 7,046,160, the entire contents of each being expressly incorporated herein by reference. LEDs have a quick response to “ON” and “OFF” signals, as compared to the longer warm-up and response times associated with fluorescent lighting, for example. LEDs are also efficient in producing light, as measured in lumens per watt. Recent developments in LED technology, such as high brightness blue LEDs, which in turn paved the way for white LEDs, have made LEDs a practical alternative to conventional light sources. As such, LED technology provides a practical opportunity to combine lighting and communication. This combination of lighting and communication allows ubiquitous light sources such as street lights, home lighting, and office building lighting, for example, to be converted to, or supplemented with, LED technology to provide for communications while simultaneously producing light for illumination purposes.
Regarding office buildings, building management is a complex science which incorporates and governs all facets of human, mechanical and structural systems associated with buildings. As a result of the complexity, most commercial buildings are managed by commercial property management companies with great expertise. Both at the time of construction and throughout the life-cycle of a building, the interrelationships between people and the mechanical and structural systems are most desirably evaluated. Where possible and cost-effective, human interactions with a building and associated mechanical systems will be optimized, in turn providing the greatest benefit to both the owners and those who use the facilities afforded by the building. Noteworthy is the fact that building users may include both regular occupants such as individual or commercial tenants, and also transient occupants such as visitors, guests, or commercial customers.
Building management includes diverse facets, some which are simply representations of the building and associated systems and people, and other facets which are tangible. Exemplary of representations are accounting or financial monitoring responsibilities which will including record keeping control and assurance of financial transactions involving tenants, owners, and service providers. Exemplary of the physical or tangible responsibilities are physical development and maintenance, including identification of need for features, improvements, maintenance and the assurance of the execution of the same. As is well understood by those highly versed in building management, the diverse responsibilities and extent of information required to manage a building is often quite overwhelming.
One very important area associated with building management is lighting or illumination. While often perceived as a simple task of providing lights, this seemingly simple task has much research and science behind a well-designed lighting system. This is because safety, productivity and general well-being of occupants depend heavily on proper lighting.
Many factors need considered at the time of construction or remodeling to facilitate proper lighting design. Intended usage of a space is important in illumination design consideration, since this will dictate necessary illumination levels, times and duration of use, and anticipated cycling of the illumination. In other words, a supply closet will not ordinarily be designed for around-the-clock illumination, and may instead be configured to operate on a switch. The use of appropriate switches helps to reduce the energy required for a building to function with occupants, and simultaneously increases the life of many illumination components such as light sources (light bulbs and equivalents thereto) since the light sources are only required intermittently. As another example, a room where movies, slides, computer or other visual or audio-visual presentations are given, such as a boardroom or classroom, will preferably have light controls such as separate switches or switches and dimmer controls which enable the entire room to be well lit or alternatively maintain a minimum level of illumination normally opposite to where the presentation is displayed. This minimum level of illumination enables occupants sufficient light for note-taking, safe movement and other important activities, without interfering with the legibility of a presentation. In yet another example, a primary work-space such as a desk or kitchen counter will require illumination that does not cast shadows on the work space while work is being performed. Complementary illumination, such as windows or skylights, is also important in design consideration.
Nearly all public buildings rely on a great many lamps positioned throughout the interior of the building, such as along hall corridors and in each room, and also about the exterior. These lights have historically been activated manually. Architects are commonly employed to assist not only with a floor plan of physical spaces, but also with the proper selection and layout of lighting to best complement the floor plan and usage of each space within a building. As may be appreciated, illumination of a space is determined at the time of production of blueprints, in anticipation of construction. The illumination that has been chosen for a space is essentially fixed during building construction. Changes may be made later, but not without substantial additional expense that will, for exemplary purposes, often include removal of parts of or entire walls, with the accompanying disruption of the space. Often the space is unavailable for use during the entire duration of a remodeling project.
Further complicating the issue of illumination is the type of light bulb that may be most appropriate for a space or location. Original electric light bulbs were incandescent. With sufficient electrical energy, which is converted to heat within an incandescent bulb filament, the filament will emit visible light. This is similar to a fire, where with enough heat, visible light is produced. As might also be appreciated though, incandescent bulbs produce far more heat than light. The color of the light from these bulbs is also most commonly quite yellow, casting a warm hue at a color temperature typically in the vicinity of 3,000 degrees Kelvin. Warm hues are often prized in relaxed settings such as those of a living room or dining room, more closely resembling gentle candle light. However, in contrast thereto, work and study environments are more preferably illuminated with light of more blue content, more closely resembling daylight with color temperatures of approximately 6,000 degrees Kelvin. Daylight color temperatures are not practically obtained using an incandescent bulb. In addition, these incandescent bulbs have only a few thousand hour life expectancy, even with more than a century of improvements, because the extreme temperatures required for the filament to light also gradually evaporates the filament material. Finally, the thermal mass of the filament greatly influences how quickly the filament both illuminates and extinguishes. In spite of the many limitations, incandescent bulbs are still in fairly wide-spread use today.
An alternative to incandescent light bulbs in common use today is the fluorescent bulb. A fluorescent light bulb uses a small amount of mercury in vapor state. High voltage electricity is applied to the mercury gas, causing the gas to ionize and generate some visible light, but primarily UltraViolet (UV) light. UV light is harmful to humans, being the component that causes sun burns, so the UV component of the light must be converted into visible light. The inside of a fluorescent tube is coated with a phosphorescent material, which when exposed to ultraviolet light glows in the visible spectrum. This is similar to many glow-in-the-dark toys and other devices that incorporate phosphorescent materials. As a result, the illumination from a fluorescent light will continue for a significant time, even after electrical power is discontinued, which for the purposes of the present disclosure will be understood to be the latent period or latency between the change in power status and response by the phosphor. As the efficiencies and brightness of the phosphors has improved, so in many instances have the delays in illumination and extinguishing, or latency, increased. Through the selection of ones of many different modern phosphorescent coatings at the time of manufacture, fluorescent bulbs may manufactured that produce light from different parts of the spectrum, resulting in manufacturing control of the color temperature, or hue or warmness of a bulb.
The use of fluorescent bulbs, even though quite widespread, is controversial for several reasons. One source states that all pre-1979 light ballasts emit highly toxic Polychlorinated BiPhenyls (PCBs). Even if modern ballasts are used, fluorescent bulbs also contain a small but finite amount of mercury. Even very small amounts of mercury are sufficient to contaminate a property. Consequently, both the manufacture and disposal of mercury-containing fluorescent tubes is hazardous. Fluorescent lighting has also been alleged to cause chemical reactions in the brain and body that produce fatigue, depression, immuno-suppression, and reduced metabolism. Further, while the phosphor materials may be selected to provide hue or color control, this hue is fixed at the time of manufacture, and so is not easily changed to meet changing or differing needs for a given building space.
Other gaseous discharge bulbs such as halide, mercury or sodium vapor lamps have also been devised. Halide, mercury and sodium vapor lamps operate at higher temperatures and pressures, and so present undesirably greater fire hazards. In addition, these bulbs present a possibility of exposure to harmful radiation from undetected ruptured outer bulbs. Furthermore, mercury and sodium vapor lamps generally have very poor color-rendition-indices, meaning the light rendered by these bulbs is quite different from ordinary daylight, distorting human color perception. Yet another set of disadvantages has to do with the starting or lighting of these types of bulbs. Mercury and sodium vapor lamps both exhibit extremely slow starting times, often measured by many minutes. The in-rush currents during starting are also commonly large. Many of the prior art bulbs additionally produce significant and detrimental noise pollution, commonly in the form of a hum or buzz at the frequency of the power line alternating current. In some cases, such as fluorescent lights, ballasts change dimension due to magnetostrictive forces. Magnetic field leakage from the ballast may undesirably couple to adjacent conductive or ferromagnetic materials, resulting in magnetic forces as well. Both types of forces will generate undesirable sound. Additionally, in some cases a less-optimal bulb may also produce a buzzing sound.
When common light bulbs are incorporated into public and private facilities, the limitations of prior art bulb technologies often will adversely impact building occupants. As just one example, in one school the use of full-spectrum lamps in eight experimental classrooms decreased anxiety, depression, and inattention in students with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). The connection between lighting and learning has been conclusively established by numerous additional studies. Mark Schneider, with the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, declares that ability to perform requires “clean air, good light, and a quiet, comfortable, and safe learning environment.” Unfortunately, the flaws in much of the existing lighting have been made worse as buildings have become bigger. The foregoing references to schools will be understood to be generally applicable to commercial and manufacturing environments as well, making even the selection of types of lights and color-rendition-indexes very important, again depending upon the intended use for a space. Once again, this selection will be fixed, either at the time of construction when a particular lighting fixture is installed, or at the time of bulb installation, either in a new fixture or with bulb replacements.
A second very important area associated with building management is energy management. The concern for energy management is driven by the expense associated with energy consumed over the life of a building. Energy management is quite challenging to design into a building, because many human variables come into play within different areas within a building structure. Considering the foregoing discussion of lighting, different occupants will have different preferences and habits. Some occupants may regularly forget to turn off lights when a space is no longer being occupied, thereby wasting electricity and diminishing the useful life of the light bulbs. In another instance, one occupant may require full illumination for that occupant to operate efficiently or safely within a space, while a second occupant might only require a small amount or local area of illumination. Further complicating the matter of energy management is the fact that many commercial establishments may have rates based upon peak usage. A business with a large number of lights that are controlled with a common switch may have peak demands large relative to total consumption of power, simply due to the relatively large amount of power that will rush in to the circuit. Breaking the circuit into several switches may not adequately address inrush current, since a user may switch more than one switch at a time, such as by sliding a hand across several switches at once. Additionally, during momentary or short-term power outages, the start-up of electrical devices by the power company is known to cause many problems, sometimes harming either customer equipment or power company devices. Control over inrush current is therefore very desirable, and not economically viable in the prior art.
Energy management also includes consideration for differences in temperature preferred by different occupants or for different activities. For exemplary purposes, an occupant of a first office space within a building may prefer a temperature close to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, while a different occupant in a second office space may prefer a temperature close to 78 degrees Fahrenheit. The first and second office spaces may even be the same office space, just at different times of day. For exemplary purposes, an employee working in a mail room from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. may be replaced by a different mail room employee who works from 4 p.m. until 12 a.m. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) demand or need is dependent not only upon the desired temperature for a particular occupant, but also upon the number of occupants within a relatively limited space. In other words, a small room with many people will require more ventilation and less heating than that same room with only one occupant.
With careful facility design, considerable electrical and thermal energy can be saved. Proper management of electrical resources affects every industry, including both tenants and building owners. In many instances facility design has been limited to selection of very simple or basic switches, and thermostats, and particular lights, all fixed at the time of design, construction or installation.
A third very important area associated with building management is security. Continuing to use a school as but one example of a public building, a one-room country school fifty years ago was made up of one teacher who knew well the small number of pupils. Security consisted of a simple padlock on a wooden door. The several windows on one side of the room provided light. They were locked but almost never broken into, for nothing of major value, even during the Depression, enticed potential thieves.
Architecture changed as the years passed. Buildings were enlarged as school populations increased. Students started to conceal books, outerwear, valuables, and occasionally even weapons in enclosed lockers. Indoor lighting was required. Eventually as society became more hazardous, security had to be provided in many schools in the form of personnel who were required to patrol both outside and inside schools in order to provide a measure of safety.
In many public buildings, including schools, modern security presently screens a building's occupants to ensure that they belong or have proper authorization to enter the building. Security must also check for weapons, drugs, and even explosives. Thus, modern security personnel are often responsible for property as well as people. As the types of potential perils increase, so does the need for personnel, to process occupants through more and more stations. For exemplary purposes, in schools, airports, court houses, and other public facilities, one or more guards may check identification, admission badges or paperwork, while one or more other guards monitor metal detectors. One or more additional guards may be monitoring drug sniffing dogs or equipment, or spot checking bags. Unfortunately, the possibilities of duplication and/or forgery of credentials, or of hostile powers infiltrating security, or other criminal methods demonstrate the potential weaknesses of the present system, which depends upon a large number of security employees. Motion sensors and other prior art electronic security measures, while often beneficial, occasionally fail even when used in combination with security personnel to provide adequate protection. On the outside of a building, motion sensors may be activated by strong winds, stray animals, passing vehicles, or blowing debris. Inside, they operate only for a specific time; a room's occupant, if not moving about, may suddenly be in the dark and must re-activate the light by waving or flailing about.
An increasingly complex, and therefore hazardous, society requires increasingly extensive patrols and safeguards. Current security system, which must rely on increasing the numbers of guards and security devices, are subject to inherent defects and extraordinary expense, generally rendering them inadequate even with the best of intention.
Yet another very important area associated with building management is guidance control and indication, which impacts building security, as well as building convenience and efficiency for occupants. In buildings having many alternative hallways or paths, such as are commonly found in hospitals and other large public facilities, directions are often clumsy and difficult for visitors or emergency personnel to follow. Old-fashioned directories may be hard to locate or decipher, especially for non-English speakers or for persons with little or no time, again such as emergency personnel. Consequently, some buildings provide color stripes along walls that serve as color coding to guide visitors to various areas within the building. Unfortunately, the number of color stripes that may be patterned is quite limited, and the expense and defacing of appearance associated therewith is undesirable. Furthermore, such striping does not completely alleviate confusion, and the color stripes can only serve as general guides to commonly visited areas.
The art referred to and/or described above is not intended to constitute an admission that any patent, publication or other information referred to herein is “prior art” with respect to this invention. In addition, this section should not be construed to mean that a search has been made or that no other pertinent information as defined in 37 C.F.R. §1.56(a) exists.
All U.S. patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention, a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.
A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. §1.72. | {
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Autonomous in-vivo imaging devices, such as swallowable or ingestible capsules or other devices may move through a body lumen, imaging as they move along. In-vivo imaging may require in-vivo illumination, for example, using one or more illumination sources positioned inside the in-vivo imaging device, behind a viewing window of the device.
In such imaging devices backscatter and/or stray light from surfaces inside the device may often present a problem and reduce the information in the image obtained.
In order to avoid backscatter, designers of in-vivo imaging devices place, illumination source(s) and optical systems and/or imagers in specific positions relative to the viewing window, calculated to reduce backscatter to a minimum.
There is a need for a device and method that may avoid the damaging effects of backscatter and/or stray light while not being limited to specific design and positioning of illumination sources in an in vivo imaging device. | {
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The goal of hybrid development is to combine, in a single hybrid, various desirable traits. For field crops, these traits may include resistance to diseases and insects, resistance to heat and drought, reducing the time to crop maturity, greater yield, and better agronomic quality. With mechanical harvesting of many crops, uniformity of plant characteristics such as germination, stand establishment, growth rate, maturity, and plant and ear height is important. Traditional plant breeding is an important tool in developing new and improved commercial crops. | {
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Various techniques by which a p-type region is formed on a surface of a silicon semiconductor substrate have been conventionally known, including dopant host, counter BN and thermal decomposition techniques.
The dopant host technique is a technique which involves positioning a wafer of B2O3-containing glass-ceramic and a semiconductor wafer parallel to each other in spaced confronting relationship, allowing B2O3 vaporized from the glass-ceramic to deposit on the semiconductor wafer and then thermally diffuse therein (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The counter BN technique is almost the same as the dopant host technique but differs therefrom by the use of a boron nitride wafer which has been subjected to an activation treatment (converting BN to B2O3), instead of using the glass-ceramic. The thermal decomposition technique is a technique which involves vaporizing liquid-form BCl3, BBr3 and others through bubbling and allowing the vapor to deposit on a preheated semiconductor wafer and then decompose to obtain a deposition film of B2O3, followed by thermal diffusion.
According to the procedure disclosed in Patent Document 1, the dopant host technique can be carried out at a lower process cost compared to the case of using boron nitride, because there is no need to perform the activation treatment when a dopant host is used. The thermal decomposition technique involves deposition of a gas on a semiconductor wafer and accordingly raises a problem that the deposit variation becomes large when B2O3 is diffused into a large-sized wafer. However, diffusion of B2O3 is maintained at a low degree of variation by the dopant host technique in which a silicon wafer and a glass-ceramic wafer having the same areal size are positioned in a confronting relationship and then subjected to a heat treatment.
Boron dopants for a semiconductor have been conventionally proposed for doping a silicon substrate or the like with boron, including those produced by sintering a boron nitride powder and those of crystallized glass type that are produced by crystallizing a molded glass containing boron and then cutting it into the wafer form (see, for example, Patent Document 2). A doping process is employed which involves heating a surface of a boron dopant for semiconductor in an oxidizing atmosphere to vaporize B2O3 and allowing B2O3 to deposit on a surface of a substrate located opposite to the boron dopant's surface, such as a silicon wafer, and then diffuse into the substrate.
The boron dopant for a semiconductor is required to have the following properties; (1) it can liberate a boron vapor from its surface when heated so that boron is allowed to diffuse sufficiently into a substrate, such as a silicon wafer, located opposite to the dopant, (2) it is durable for repeated use, (3) it can liberate a consistent amount of the boron vapor at each use, and (4) it can be readily processed into the same shape as the substrate. Patent Document 1: Japanese Paten Laid-Open No. Sho 52-55861 Patent Document 2: Japanese Paten Laid-Open No. 2002-93734 | {
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A large number of people enjoy outdoor sports such as hiking, backpacking, camping, hunting and fishing, etc., where extended periods of time are spent in an outdoor environment, being subjected to a wide variety of environmental conditions. In many cases, tents and other types of portable shelters are utilized to provide comfort and protection from the effects of certain environmental conditions. In many cases where outdoor activities are enjoyed in remote locations, the equipment involved is desired to be sufficiently light and portable that it can be transported by the user such as by means of a backpack, pack animal, etc. It is to such lightweight and portable camping and sleeping facilities that the present invention is directed. | {
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Internal combustion engines are known on the market which have exhaust systems in which for example lambda probes are used for analyzing the exhaust gas. To ensure the required accuracy of a lambda probe or else of a NOx probe, it is necessary from time to time to carry out an adjustment of the exhaust-gas probes. This is achieved by supplying to the vicinity of the exhaust-gas probe exhaust gas which has an oxygen proportion approximately equal to that found in the ambient air. This may be achieved for example when a vehicle driven by the internal combustion engine is in an overrun mode for a certain minimum period. Such an overrun mode arises for example during downhill driving, during which a sufficient oxygen proportion of the exhaust gas can be expected. When the exhaust system is in such a state, it is now possible to carry out an adjustment of the exhaust-gas probe, for example the lambda probe or the NOx probe. If a vehicle is in contrast operated under other conditions, for example in city traffic, relatively long overrun phases of the internal combustion engine required for said adjustment occur relatively rarely or not at all. | {
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Agricultural planters often have a seed tube sensor which counts the seeds being planted. The sensor normally includes a photo-electric cell with a light emitter which generates a light beam, which in turn is sensed by a light receiver. The photo-electric cell for each seed tube is operatively connected to a monitor mounted in the tractor cab. The monitor has lights corresponding to the seed tube sensors. A monitor light for each seed tube sensor is normally on and will momentarily blink off each time the light beam from the photo-electric cell is broken by a seed passing through the seed tube.
When a monitor light remains off during planting, the operator cannot tell if the planter is properly planting seeds. For example, the seed tube may be blocked with chaff or the like such that seeds cannot pass therethrough. Another problem may be that dust has collected within the seed tube so as to prevent the sensor from functioning, but without effecting the passage of seeds through the seed tube. There may also be a problem elsewhere in the electrical system of the tractor, such as a corroded wire or a burned out monitor light. Thus, the problem may be anywhere between the discharge end of the seed tube and the tractor monitor. Such problems make it impossible for the operator to know whether seeds are being properly planted.
Since the photo-electric cell sensor is a key component of the planter system, it is desirable to know whether the photo-electric cell functioning properly when the monitor indicates that a problem exists. The seed tubes cannot be visually checked for blockage. Therefore, it is normally necessary to disassemble the planter and take the sensor and other components, or alternatively to take the entire planter, to a remote service station in order to check the operation of the photo-electric cells. Both of these alternatives are time consuming and therefore undesirable, particularly during the short planting season.
Agricultural combines also may have a sensor which monitors the combine speed. The sensor senses the rotation of a shaft on the combine and generates a signal in response thereto. The signal is transferred to a monitor in the combine or tractor cab which indicates the RPM of the shaft, and thus the combine's speed.
There are two basic types of combine sensors. The first type of sensor, commonly found on John Deere and Massey-Ferguson combines, includes a magnet mounted on the shaft with a spaced apart electronic pickup which generates an electrical impulse as the magnet passes by the pickup during each revolution of the shaft. The second type of sensor, often used on New Holland combines, includes a slotted disk or tooth gear mounted for rotation on the shaft, with a magnet spaced closely to the disk or gear so as to generate an impulse each time a slot or tooth passes by the magnet during the rotation of the shaft.
When the monitor indicates a malfunction, the operator cannot tell if the problem is in the combine, in the sensor, in the monitor, or in the electrical system of the tractor. Such problems make it impossible for the operator to know whether the combine is functioning properly.
Since the combine sensor is the easiest part to physically replace, it is common for a new sensor to be bought and installed. However, if the problem is not in the sensor, time and money have been wasted.
Accordingly, the primary objective of the present invention is the provision of a portable diagnostic device for testing seed tube and/or combine sensors in situ.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a portable testing device for checking the operation of seed tube or combine sensor which can be quickly and easily connected to the harness of the sensor.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of a portable diagnostic device for agricultural implement sensors which is economical to manufacture and easy to use. | {
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The present invention relates to communications systems, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for mitigating the effects of disruptive background noise components in communications signals.
Today, technology and consumer demand have produced mobile telephones of diminishing size. As the mobile telephones are produced smaller and smaller, the placement of the microphone during use ends up more and more distant from the speaker""s (near-end user""s) mouth. This increased distance increases the need for speech enhancement due to disruptive background noise being picked up at the microphone and transmitted to a far-end user. In other words, since the distance between a microphone and a near-end user is larger in the newer smaller mobile telephones, the microphone picks up not only the near-end user""s speech, but also any noise which happens to be present at the near-end location. For example, the near-end microphone typically picks up sounds such as surrounding traffic, road and passenger compartment noise, room noise, and the like. The resulting noisy near-end speech can be annoying or even intolerable for the far-end user. It is thus desirable that the background noise be reduced as much as possible, preferably early in the near-end signal processing chain (e.g., before the received near-end microphone signal is supplied to a near-end speech coder).
As a result of interfering background noise, some telephone systems include a noise reduction processor designed to eliminate background noise at the input of a near-end signal processing chain. FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram of such a system 100. In FIG. 1, a noise reduction processor 110 is positioned at the output of a microphone 120 and at the input of a near-end signal processing path (not shown). In operation, the noise reduction processor 110 receives a noisy speech signal x from the microphone 120 and processes the noisy speech signal x to provide a cleaner, noise-reduced speech signal SNR which is passed through the near-end signal processing chain and ultimately to the far-end user.
One well known method for implementing the noise reduction processor 110 of FIG. 1 is referred to in the art as spectral subtraction. See, for example, S. F. Boll, xe2x80x9cSuppression of Acoustic Noise in Speech using Spectral Subtractionxe2x80x9d, IEEE Trans. Acoust. Speech and Sig. Proc., 27:113-120, 1979, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Generally, spectral subtraction uses estimates of the noise spectrum and the noisy speech spectrum to form a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) based gain function which is multiplied by the input spectrum to suppress frequencies having a low SNR. Though spectral subtraction does provide significant noise reduction, it suffers from several well known disadvantages. For example, the spectral subtraction output signal typically contains artifacts known in the art as musical tones. Further, discontinuities between processed signal blocks often lead to diminished speech quality from the far-end user perspective.
Many enhancements to the basic spectral subtraction method have been developed in recent years. See, for example, N. Virage, xe2x80x9cSpeech Enhancement Based on Masking Properties of the Auditory System,xe2x80x9d IEEE ICASSP. Proc. 796-799 vol. 1, 1995; D. Tsoukalas, M. Paraskevas and J. Mourjopoulos, xe2x80x9cSpeech Enhancement using Psychoacoustic Criteria,xe2x80x9d IEEE ICASSP. Proc., 359-362 vol. 2, 1993; F. Xie and D. Van Compernolle, xe2x80x9cSpeech Enhancement by Spectral Magnitude Estimationxe2x80x94A Unifying Approach,xe2x80x9d IEEE Speech Communication, 89-104 vol. 19, 1996; R. Martin, xe2x80x9cSpectral Subtraction Based on Minimum Statistics,xe2x80x9d UESIPCO, Proc., 1182-1185 vol. 2, 1994; and S. M. McOlash, R. J. Niederjohn and J. A. Heinen, xe2x80x9cA Spectral Subtraction Method for Enhancement of Speech Corrupted by Nonwhite, Nonstationary Noise,xe2x80x9d IEEE IECON. Proc., 872-877 vol. 2, 1995.
More recently, spectral subtraction has been implemented using correct convolution and spectrum dependent exponential gain function averaging. These techniques are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,175,602, entitled xe2x80x9cSignal Noise Reduction by Spectral Subtraction using Linear Convolution and Causal Filteringxe2x80x9d and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/084,503, filed May 27, 1998 and entitled xe2x80x9cSignal Noise Reduction by Spectral Subtraction using Spectrum Dependent Exponential Gain Function Averaging.xe2x80x9d
Spectral subtraction uses two spectrum estimates, one being the xe2x80x9cdisturbedxe2x80x9d signal and one being the xe2x80x9cdisturbingxe2x80x9d signal, to form a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) based gain function. The disturbed spectra is multiplied by the gain function to increase the SNR for this spectra. In single microphone spectral subtraction applications, such as used in conjunction with hands-free telephones, speech is enhanced from the disturbing background noise. The noise is estimated during speech pauses or with the help of a noise model during speech. This implies that the noise must be stationary to have similar properties during the speech or that the model be suitable for the moving background noise. Unfortunately, this is not the case for most background noises in every-day surroundings.
Therefore, there is a need for a noise reduction system which uses the techniques of spectral subtraction and which is suitable for use with most every-day variable background noises.
The present invention fulfills the above-described and other needs by providing methods and apparatus for performing noise reduction by spectral subtraction in a dual microphone system. According to exemplary embodiments, when a far-mouth microphone is used in conjunction with a near-mouth microphone, it is possible to handle non-stationary background noise as long as the noise spectrum can continuously be estimated from a single block of input samples. The far-mouth microphone, in addition to picking up the background noise, also picks us the speaker""s voice, albeit at a lower level than the near-mouth microphone. To enhance the noise estimate, a spectral subtraction stage is used to suppress the speech in the far-mouth microphone signal. To be able to enhance the noise estimate, a rough speech estimate is formed with another spectral subtraction stage from the near-mouth signal. Finally, a third spectral subtraction stage is used to enhance the near-mouth signal by suppressing the background noise using the enhanced background noise estimate.
The above-described and other features and advantages of the present invention are explained in detail hereinafter with reference to the illustrative examples shown in the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the described embodiments are provided for purposes of illustration and understanding and that numerous equivalent embodiments are contemplated herein. | {
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Vehicular traffic can be greatly affected by disturbances in the normal flow of traffic. Blocking one lane of a multi-lane highway may result in traffic congestion that stretches for a mile or more. Furthermore, in some cases traffic may become congested in multiple directions, such as where the blockage occurs within an intersection. Often, the traffic disturbance is the result of someone committing a traffic violation such as running a stop light, speeding, reckless driving, or colliding with another vehicle.
When a traffic violation occurs, the individual committing the traffic violation may or may not be caught. When caught, either by a photo enforcement system or by a police officer, the fine is generally pre-determined based on the violation that has been committed. The entity pays a pre-determined monetary fine and accepts a predetermined number of violation points associated with the particular violation or the entity appeals the violation to challenge it. However, the fine associated with the violation has no relationship to the impact of the traffic disturbance that resulted from the traffic violation and may have less of a deterrent effect as a result. | {
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This invention relates to a method for manufacturing magnetostrictive materials. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a method of inexpensively manufacturing rod-shaped rare earth-iron magnetostrictive materials having good purity and quality.
Since the 1970's rare earth-iron magnetostrictive materials having a Laves structure of RE-Fe.sub.2 have attracted considerable interest since they can create large room temperature magnetostriction due to their high Curie points. They promise to be suitable for a wide variety of technological applications including generation of ultrasonic waves in sonar, as drive elements in small transducers and actuators, as vibration dampers, and as switches or valves. Many attempts have been proposed to manufacture such materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,474 discloses a grain-oriented polycrystalline or single crystal rare earth-iron magnetostrictive material of the formula Tb.sub.x Dy.sub.1-x Fe.sub.2-w wherein 0.20.ltoreq.x .ltoreq.1.00 and 0.ltoreq.w.ltoreq.0.20. The rare earth metals may be partly replaced by Sm and/or Ho.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,258 discloses another rare earth-iron magnetostrictive material of the formula R.sub.x T.sub.1-x wherein R is a rare earth or mixtures thereof, T is Fe, Ni, Co, Mn, or mixtures thereof, and 0<x<1.
Other publications disclosing rare earth-iron magnetostrictive materials include Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-33892(1986) and Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 64-73050(1989).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,178 discloses a sintered rare earth-iron magnetostrictive product with a grain oriented morphology manufactured by the powder metallurgy method. The grain orientation is created by magnetically aligning powder particles of the magnetostrictive material prior to sintering. The product is essentially polycrystalline.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,402 describes the manufacture of a single-crystal rod of a rare earth-iron magnetostrictive material by a free-standing zone melting (FSZM) method. This method provides a product with excellent magnetostrictive properties. However, the productivity of the method is rather low.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,704 describes a modified Bridgman method in which a grain-oriented polycrystalline magnetostrictive material rod can be manufactured more efficiently. According to this method, a previously-prepared alloy which is usually in the form of buttons or fingers is melted by induction heating in a crucible having a bottom outlet. The melt is discharged through the outlet and deposited in an elongated mold which is either fixed or movable downwardly. Heat is removed from the deposited melt through the lower end portion of the mold to progressively solidify the melt from the bottom. The solid-liquid interface of the melt moves upwardly toward the top of the mold. The unidirectional solidification of the melt produces axial grain orientation in the product.
Other methods which can be applied to the manufacture of a magnetostrictive material having a Laves structure include powder bonding and casting.
Since an optimum magnetostriction of a magnetostrictive material of the Laves structure is obtained along the <111> direction, it is desirable that the grains be aligned or oriented in the <111> direction. In the above-mentioned FSZM method and modified Bridgman method, however, it is difficult to prepare magnetostrictive materials having <111> alignment along the longitudinal axis of the rod. Instead, these methods tend to grow crystals with <112> alignment. Therefore, <112> aligned materials have been used for practical purposes.
According to the powder metallurgy method, it is possible to obtain <111> aligned magnetostrictive materials by magnetic aligning. However, it is difficult to align all the powder particles in this manner. As a result, the magnetostrictive properties of a product prepared by powder metallurgy are inferior to those of a <112> aligned polycrystalline or single crystal rod prepared by the FSZM or modified Bridgman method.
In the FSZM, modified Bridgman, and powder metallurgy methods, a previously-prepared alloy having the same composition as the product has to be used as a starting material in order to assure that the product has a uniform microstructure. A powdered alloy is used in the powder metallurgy method, while an alloy in the form of buttons or fingers is usually used in the other methods.
Thus, prior to the manufacture of the magnetostrictive materials, the metallic raw materials must be melted together in a crucible to form an alloy having a uniform composition. For this purpose, either high-frequency induction melting or arc melting can be employed.
Induction melting greatly activates the rare earth metals in the raw materials. Therefore, when a crucible for commercial use is used, the rare earth metals tend to react with the material which constitutes the crucible and it is practically impossible to avoid contamination of the product with the crucible material, resulting in degradation in the magnetostrictive properties of the product. For this reason, alloying is frequently performed by arc melting of the raw materials in a water-cooled copper hearth to form an alloy in the shape of a small button or finger. This method, however, is not suitable for commercial-scale production of the alloy.
Regardless of the alloying method, the formation of an alloy from metallic raw materials in a separate step, i.e., the use of a preliminary alloying step adds to the manufacturing costs of the magnetostrictive materials.
Casting is an inexpensive method which can be applied to the manufacture of a magnetostrictive material. For this purpose, metallic raw materials are melted by arc heating or induction heating and then solidified in a mold. However, this method tends to produce a polycrystalline product with randomly oriented grains unless a special technique is employed to cause unidirectional solidification. As a result, the properties of the product are much inferior to a <112> aligned polycrystalline or single crystal rod obtained by the FSZM or modified Bridgman method. For example, the magnetostriction of the product is as low as one-third to one-tenth that of the aligned rod.
A unidirectional solidification technique has been applied to the manufacture of industrial materials such as turbine blades of a superalloy, e.g., a Ni-based superalloy. The powder down method and the high-rate solidification method have been developed to perform unidirectional solidification. However, these methods usually involve melting of the material by induction heating. Therefore, it is difficult to adopt these methods in the manufacture of a magnetostrictive material, since contamination of the product with the crucible material may occur as described above. | {
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In plumbing installations, copper tubing has been widely employed. In risers, used for connecting tubing to fixtures or tanks, the end of the copper tubing is shaped to form a bulb sealing surface and such bulb includes a shoulder permitting the tubing and thus the bulb sealing surface to be drawn into biting or sealing engagement with the fixture. The cost of such copper tubing and the cost of forming it to permit the connection to such fixtures or tanks fluctuates frequently and widely and thus the cost may be substantial.
More recently, polybutylene has been approved for use in plumbing. Because of its flexibility, if it can properly be formed with the suitable bulb sealing surface, it is highly desirable as a tubing or plumbing material.
In order to provide such polybutylene tubing with a bulb sealing surface or an end cap for such purposes, a variety of techniques have been employed. A common technique is to employ a separately molded bulb which is spun-welded to the O.D. of the end of the tube. Another technique is to form a flange on the O.D. of the tube and again to insert a separately molded neoprene or like concave washer on the flange for sealing purposes. Both such processes have cost and performance drawbacks.
In applicant's above noted prior copending application, there is disclosed a method of reforming plastic tube end to form such bulb sealing surface with the projecting tube end to be reformed being heated externally. A pin or mandrel on one of the forming dies or molds fits within the tubing end to maintain the I.D. of the tubing during the forming operation. The tube is formed between mating dies or molds with the tube end projecting through one of the dies or molds and onto the guide pin or mandrel projecting from the other. The mold or die from which the pin projects is normally cooled or chilled which affects the temperature of the pin. In such process, the tube end to be formed is normally heated only externally and not uniformly radially from both its inside and outside surfaces. The process disclosed in such prior application, while producing satisfactory tube ends, may form minute fold lines on the interior of the tube end which indicate that the reformed tube end is not completely or integrally formed. Moreover, the heating and cooling steps of the prior process are somewhat counterproductive resulting in reduced production efficiencies and increased energy consumption.
In order to provide a completely integral formed tube end, it is desirable that the tube end be uniformly heated both from its interior and its exterior. The entire wall thickness of the tubing should be brought to a uniform forming temperature and this may not be achieved by heating the tubing simply externally. Since the mandrel or pin must protect the I.D. of the tube end during forming, it is desirable that the pin also be able to provide sufficient heat to obtain such uniform heating and yet be isolated or heat insulated from the cooling or forming mold from which it projects. It is also desirable that the pin not become or remain too hot that it cannot be withdrawn from the reformed tube end without affecting the quality of the interior or I.D. surface of the reformed tube end. | {
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It is difficult to start an internal combustion engine with a fuel such as methanol which has very low vapor pressure characteristics at low temperatures. An impractical but common method to start and warm-up an engine using such a fuel at these low temperatures is to provide a second fuel just for starting and warming the engine. This second fuel has a higher vapor pressure characteristic. Such a dual fuel system is used experimentally and requires separate fuel tanks and fuel lines as well as a control to direct the use of the two fuels. That makes this solution unacceptable for general use. This is a reason that methanol based fuels have generally not been well received as a serious alternative for automobiles and trucks.
A partial solution to the low vapor pressure problem is the practice of blending fuels to raise its low temperature vapor pressure. An example of such a blend is a 15% gasoline--85% methanal fuel known as M85.
There are a number of earlier patents disclosing systems and apparatus to heat fuel prior to engine use at low temperatures. The U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,868,939 and 3,999,525 disclose apparatus to heat fuel prior to injection into the engine by means of a housing with a resistance heater.
The U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,223,124 and 3,648,669 disclose a device with a resistance heater located downstream from the outlet of a fuel discharge device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,799 discloses a carburetor in which a fuel inlet is encircled by a resistance heater.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,001 discloses a throttle body in which an injector is mounted so as to spray fuel towards a heater located opposite to the injector outlet. | {
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1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a connection apparatus circuit, and more particularly to a connection apparatus circuit provided with protection concept under a high-voltage surge.
2. Description of the Related Art
A connection apparatus is used to be a component adapted to connecting to other devices and is easy to be affected by the surrounding circumstance. Hence, it is important that the connection apparatus or a circuit thereof usually needs to pass any relative identification standards regardless of the physical or electrical concerns, so as to meet the durability requirement and reduce the erroneous rate. For example, a so called DWV test (Dielectric withstanding voltage test) is performed to apply a test voltage higher than the normal working voltage to an electrical terminal of a device under test for the duration in compliance with the standards, and the device passes the test if an electric breakdown never occurs. Moreover, a plurality of withstanding voltage tests, such as an electrostatic discharge test and so on, are performed to examine whether the device is tolerant of different kinds of high-voltage.
The objective of the withstanding voltage tests is to ensure that the electrical terminals outside the device and the circuits inside the device are well electrically insulated. Generally, a high-voltage surge may occur when suffering lightning stroke, electrostatic discharge caused by human or malfunction of a remote apparatus, which may take place in use of the device.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a connection apparatus circuit 100 of the prior art which is adapted to an Ethernet system or a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) system. The connection apparatus circuit 100 comprises an isolation transformer 110, an impedance matching network 120, a high-voltage capacitor 130 and a ground terminal 140, wherein the isolation transformer 110 has a first coil 111 and a second coil 112, and the first coil 111 has a first terminal 113, a second terminal 114 and a center tap 115. The impedance matching network 120 and the high-voltage capacitor 130 are applicable to any matching networks for suppressing common-mode EMI (Electromagnetic Interference). That is, as a common-mode EMI signal exists between the first terminal 113 and the second terminal 114, the impedance matching network 120 and the high-voltage capacitor 130 are integrated to suppress the signal, so as to reduce impacts on the circuit. Besides, the ground terminal 140 is usually coupled to outside casings of the device and connected to the ground point via power lines.
As the FIG. 1 shown, the first terminal 113 and the second terminal 114 are used to be input/output terminals when connecting the connection apparatus to any external devices or circuits, and the signal thereof is a fully-differential AC signal. The second coil 112 is connected to inside circuit of the device. Therefore, the first coil 111 and the second coil 112 not only provide an effective insulation protection on the DC signal, but also transfer the AC signal between the inside circuit and the outside circuit, such that configuration of the connection apparatus circuit is widely used.
As the FIG. 1 shown, when a high-voltage surge occurs between the first terminal 113 and the ground terminal 140, such as suffering lightning stroke or electrostatic discharges caused by human, the high-voltage will conduct a current via the path of minimum impedance of the circuit, as the current path 150 shown, so as to release electrical charges induced by the high-voltage. However, the impedance matching network 120 is not designed to sustain the high-voltage, thus the impedance matching network 120 may suffer damages under several high-voltage surges to form an open circuit. At the same time, if one more high-voltage surge occurs, the current path generated by the high-voltage may change from the path 150 to path 160, which leads to the high-voltage being coupled inside the circuit to damage the circuit. As a result, the durability is poor and the running cost becomes higher.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another connection apparatus circuit 200 of the prior art. The connection apparatus circuit 200 is provided with two voltage surge suppression units 210, 220 (Transient Voltage Suppressor, TVS), which are connected between the first terminal 113, the second terminal 114 and the ground terminal 140 respectively. Besides, a parasitic resistance 240 is located between the ground point 230 and the ground terminal 140. The voltage surge suppression units 210, 220 are usually constituted of p and n type semiconductors. When a reverse bias voltage thereof is lower than a default value, such as a breakdown voltage, so as to establish equivalent high impedance, and when the reverse bias voltage is higher than the breakdown voltage, so as to establish equivalent low impedance and generate a path for conducting the current.
As the FIG. 2 shown, when a high-voltage occurs between the first terminal 113 and the ground point 230, the high-voltage is higher than the breakdown voltage of the voltage surge suppression unit 210, so as to generate the path 250 for conducting the current. When the high-voltage is caused by the electrostatic, the voltage surge suppression units 210, 220 well perform electrostatic discharges due to the response time not too long. But if the high-voltage is sustained for the duration, such as the first terminal 113 or the second terminal 114 erroneous connected to a 220-volts AC, the path 250 is generated and an AC high-voltage occurs on the ground terminal 140, so as to lead the users to expose to dangers of the electric shock when contacting the casing. | {
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The current invention generally relates to devices, systems, and methods that are configured to oxygenate and/or perfuse a bodily tissue for the extracorporeal preservation of the tissue, and more specifically, to such devices, systems, and methods that are configured to facilitate self-purging of excess fluid and that are configured for a programmed sequence of pumping oxygen for oxygenation of the perfusate and for perfusion of the tissue that helps to minimize usage of oxygen and/or a power source.
One known technique for preserving a bodily tissue for transplantation is nonperfused or static cold storage. Such cold storage, however, limits the period of viability of the bodily tissue, which can be attributable to insufficient levels of oxygen in the storage carrier to meet the tissue's metabolic need. Another known technique for preserving a bodily tissue for transplantation includes the use of hypothermic perfusion devices. The portability of such known devices is limited, however, because such known devices are large and require a significant volume of compressed gas and electrical power. Furthermore, such known devices are very complex, which can lead to increased manufacturing costs.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved device for the extracorporeal preservation of bodily tissue that is compact for improved portability, that reduces the need for at least one of an amount of oxygen and a power source, and that has a simplified system for oxygenating a perfusate and for perfusing the bodily tissue. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a display device, and more particularly, to an electronic paper display device.
2. Description of Related Art
With the progress of electronic technology, applications related to electronic paper have become increasingly popular in our daily life, and can allow an electronic paper display panel provided and designed based on user demand for high display resolution or low display resolution. However, in current production of the electronic paper display device, because a circuit layout space and production costs are required for disposing a driving circuit of the electronic paper display panel, the circuit layout space is quite limited. Therefore, to improve range of application and save the circuit layout space so the electronic paper display device may be favorably integrated with other functional circuits, it is currently an important issue to be addressed as how to reduce the production costs and save the circuit layout space for the electronic paper display device. In view of the above, several embodiments of the invention are provided as follows. | {
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In software support, a customer will often provide evidence of a software problem in the form of output provided by the computer program itself, called “dump files.” Dump files contain the recorded state of the working memory of a computer program at a specific time, generally when the program has crashed, and are used to assist in diagnosing errors in computer programs. Dump files can include reports of the problem, recent activity, and the current state of the computer at the time the problem occurred. Dump files allow a computer program to be analyzed without monopolizing the operating system and can be used to retrieve information from a no longer running program. Dump files are written in machine code, which can be converted into a readable form by dump formatters to allow service engineers to determine a cause of, and potentially a solution to, the customer's problem.
In addition to reviewing dump files, service engineers and software developers also use debugging software to study the computer program's behavior in detail. One example of debugging software is a source level debugger (SLD), which allows the service engineer or software developer to analyze line by line the problem source code. Debugging software can be used to debug dump formatters, either in the case of a customer problem or during the debugging of new code. When a dump formatter converts a dump file into readable form, the dump file itself is loaded into the dump formatter's memory. As a dump formatter is executed, the service engineer or software developer may want to browse specific memory locations or modify stored values. The dump file contains storage addresses, which are used to locate specific parts of memory. However, the dump formatter's memory locations are different to the memory locations where the contents were originally held for use by the computer program. | {
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1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to accessory interface system.
2. Description of Prior Art
In prior arts, user can use an accessory for replacing the traditional ticket or a door key function. But, only one credential is stored in the accessory, and the credential cannot be changed by user. Only one function can be achieved by the accessory at one time. That is, for executing or processing a plurality of different functions, many accessories are needed for the user.
Along with the rapid development of science and technology at the present, a handheld electrical apparatus becomes a useful tool. Nowadays, user can download one or more credentials from at least one security provider to the handheld electrical apparatus (such as a mobile phone). Then, the mobile phone may be a ticket, a wallet and/or a door key for executing or processing a plurality of different functions. But accessory remains single function. | {
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The present invention relates to a throttle valve position-detecting device for a vehicle for detecting a position of a throttle valve in a throttle body provided for an internal combustion engine mounted on the vehicle, e.g., the engine for propelling the vehicle.
In the past, there has been provided a conventional throttle valve position detecting device comprising a first rotary element having a projection, this first rotary element being fixed to a throttle shaft, and a throttle position sensor for detecting the position of a throttle valve from the position of the projection. The conventional throttle position sensor comprises a rotary shaft having the same rotary axis as the throttle shaft, a second rotary element fixed to the rotary shaft and engaging the projection of the first rotary element to be rotated by the projection, a coil spring to press the second rotary element to the projection, and a detecting circuit for electrically detecting the position of the throttle valve from rotation of the rotary shaft. The throttle shaft has a butterfly valve as a main part of the throttle valve and intersects a throttle bore through which air is lead to the internal combustion engine. The throttle shaft is supported by a bearing provided in a throttle body in which the throttle bore is formed.
When such a prior art detecting device as described above is used for a long time, the clearance between the throttle shaft and the bearing becomes large by virtue of abrasion therebetween. As the butterfly valve in the throttle bore strongly receives a negative pressure from the internal combustion engine during the idling condition thereof, the throttle shaft moves downwardly as permitted by the clearance.
In the above-mentioned conventional detecting device, the moving direction of the throttle shaft is perpendicular to a contact face of the second rotary element and the projection of the first rotary element during the engine idling condition, that is, the crossing angle of the moving direction of the throttle shaft and the rotary power transmitting direction from the projection of the first rotary element to the second rotary element during the engine idling condition is 0 degrees. Therefore, as the projection of the first rotary element causes the second rotary element to move in accordance with the moving of the throttle shaft, the throttle position sensor no longer properly detects the idling position of the throttle valve irrespective of the engine idling condition. | {
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With increases in the amount of data communication in recent years, the need has been intensified for a mobile communication system having higher spectral efficiency, and various techniques have been proposed with the aim of actualizing the system. OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) is one of techniques having the possibility of enhancing the spectral frequency, and is determined to be applied to the downlink access scheme of the E-UTRA (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access) system of which standardization has been proceeding especially in 3GPP (The 3rd Generation partnership Project) (Non-patent Document 1).
This OFDMA system is a system in which users in a cell access to respective resource blocks divided by time and frequency, and is capable of performing scheduling for assigning users to resource blocks providing good quality, and controlling transmission parameters such as a modulation scheme, coding rate, transmit power and the like for each resource block. Herein, in order to perform scheduling of users and controlling the modulation scheme/coding rate for each resource block suitably, it is necessary for the transmitting side to grasp channel conditions on the receiving side. Therefore, the need arises for the receiving side to notify (as feedback) the transmitting side of reception conditions. Such feedback information about channel conditions is called CQI (Channel Quality Indicator) in the E-UTRA system.
As described above, the receiving side needs to send back the CQI to the transmitting side in adaptive control of a modulation scheme and the like, and when a lot of CQIs are sent back, the problem arises that the spectral efficiency on uplink severely degrades. One of means for solving the problem is a CQI compression method using discrete cosine transform (hereinafter abbreviated as “DCT”) (Non-patent Document 2).
Shown herein is an example in the case of performing DCT processing on reception quality information (reception quality measurement result). FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the reception quality information, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a result of performing DCT processing on the reception quality information as shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 1 shows the reception quality information (CQI (Received SNR)) in association with the subcarrier number (Sub-carrier Number). Further, FIG. 2 shows an absolute value (Absolute Value after DCT) of a sample value subjected to DCT processing indicative of a result (signal component) of performing DCT processing on the reception quality information in association with the sample number (Sample Number).
As shown in FIG. 1, in the case of performing DCT processing (the number of points is “1024”) on the CQI (the number of subcarriers is “1024”) varying continuously in the frequency region, the result of the DCT processing is indicated as shown in FIG. 2 as an example. The DCT-processed signal components gather in the low-frequency region as shown in FIG. 2, and high-frequency components are an extremely small value (nearly zero). By exploiting such a property, Non-patent Document 2 provides the method of sending back only the low-frequency components without sending back the high-frequency components of the signal subjected to DCT, and thereby compressing the feedback amount of CQI. FIG. 26 is a diagram showing an example of a state where the low-frequency components are only sent back. After receiving CQI which is compressed in this way, the transmitting side inserts zero in sample points of deleted high-frequency components, performs inverse discrete cosine transform (hereafter abbreviated as “IDCT”), and is able to reproduce the CQI observed on the receiving side, while hardly undergoing the effect of deleted high-frequency components.
Non-patent Document 1: 3GPP, TR 25.814 v0.3.1, “Physical Layer Aspects for Evolved UTRA”
Non-patent Document 2: 3GPP, TSG RAN WG1 ad hoc meeting on LTE, R1-060228, “Sensitive of DL/UL Performance to CQI Compression with Text Proposal” | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid electrolytic capacitor, and a method of manufacturing the solid electrolytic capacitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a small solid electrolytic capacitor to be mounted on a surface of a printed circuit board or the like is manufactured by resin-molding a capacitor element including a dielectric layer formed by anodizing valve metal. In response to a demand for an increase in capacitance of a solid electrolytic capacitor, one using niobium oxide serving as a dielectric layer has been attracting attention.
In comparison with tantalum oxide, niobium oxide is susceptible to a heat treatment, and a leakage current tends to increase. For this reason, there are proposed some solid electrolytic capacitors each having a certain element structure (refer to Japanese Patent Publication No. Heisei 11-329902, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-252224). In these solid electrolytic capacitors using niobium oxide, it is made possible to achieve suppression of a leakage current by adding nitrogen or fluorine in a niobium oxide layer.
In the solid electrolytic capacitors including the aforementioned niobium oxide layer, however, there are some cases where a leakage current increases when the produced capacitor element is resin-molded. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a magnetic recording medium such as a patterned medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a recoding medium wherein protrusions and recesses are formed on the surface thereof, such as a discrete track recoding (DTR) medium, in order to write and read by means of a flying head, it is necessary to reduce the protrusions and recesses on the surface to a degree which allows stable flying of the head. In a conventional DTR medium, in order to separate adjacent tracks completely from each other, for example, 20 nm of ferromagnetic recording layer and 5 nm of protecting layer, 25 nm in total, are removed. On the other hand, a flying level of the head is designed to be about 10 nm. Thus, there has been used a method to smooth the surface of the medium by filling the grooves with a nonmagnetic material, or to modify the non-recording region into nonmagnetic material without forming a construction of protrusions and recesses on the DTR medium.
In a method disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication Nos. 2005-50468 and 2006-12332, after patterns of protrusions and recesses are formed by using two-layered hard mask, grooves are filled with a nonmagnetic material to smooth the surface of a medium. However, such a method may require increased number of steps of manufacturing, and can increase the cost and decrease the yield.
Moreover, in such a process that only modifies the non-recording region into a nonmagnetic material without forming a construction of protrusions and recesses, the boundary between the non-recording region and the recording region is fluctuated, which may be a cause of noise. At the same time, there is a problem how to modify the magnetism of the non-recording region without modifying the magnetism of the recording region.
Therefore, there has been a need for providing a method of manufacturing a recording medium which efficiently inhibits the magnetism of the non-recording region with minimum deterioration of the smoothness of the surface of the recording medium. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The inherited porphyrias are a family of disorders resulting from the deficient activity of specific enzymes in the heme biosynthetic pathway, also referred to herein as the porphyrin pathway. Deficiency in the enzymes of the porphyrin pathway leads to insufficient heme production and to an accumulation of porphyrin precursors and porphyrins, which are toxic to tissue in high concentrations.
Of the inherited porphyrias, acute intermittent porphyria (AIP, e.g., autosomal dominant AIP), variegate porphyria (VP, e.g., autosomal dominant VP), hereditary coproporphyria (copropophyria or HCP, e.g., autosomal dominant HCP), and 5′ aminolevulinic acid (also known as δ-aminolevulinic acid or ALA) dehydratase deficiency porphyria (ADP, e.g., autosomal recessive ADP) are classified as acute hepatic porphyrias and are manifested by acute neurological attacks that can be life threatening. The acute attacks are characterized by autonomic, peripheral, and central nervous symptoms, including severe abdominal pain, hypertension, tachycardias, constipation, motor weakness, paralysis, and seizures. If not treated properly, quadriplegia, respiratory impairment, and death may ensue. Various factors, including cytrochrome P450-inducing drugs, dieting, and hormonoal changes can precipitate acute attacks by increasing the activity of hepatic 5′-aminolevulinic acid synthase 1 (ALAS1), the first and rate-limiting enzyme of the heme biosynthetic pathway. In the acute porphyrias, e.g., AIP, VP, HCP and ADP, the respective enzyme deficiencies result in hepatic production and accumulation of one or more substances (e.g., porphyrins and/or porphyrin precursors, e.g., ALA and/or PBG) that can be neurotoxic and can result in the occurrence of acute attacks. See, e.g., Balwani, M and Desnick, R. J., Blood, 120:4496-4504, 2012.
The current therapy for the acute neurologic attacks is the intravenous administration of hemin (Panhematin®, Lundbeck or Normosang®, Orphan Europe), which provides exogenous heme for the negative feedback inhibition of ALAS1, and thereby, decreases production of ALA and PBG. Hemin is used for the treatment during an acute attack and for prevention of attacks, particularly in women with the actue porphyrias who experience frequent attacks with the hormonal changes during their menstrual cycles. While patients generally respond well, its effect is slow, typically taking two to four days or longer to normalize urinary ALA and PBG concentrations towards normal levels. As the intravenous hemin is rapidly metabolized, three to four infusions are usually necessary to effectively treat or prevent an acute attack. In addition, repeated infusions may cause iron overload and phlebitis, which may compromise peripheral venous access. Although orthotrophic liver transplantation is curative, this procedure has significant morbidity and mortality and the availability of liver donors is limited. Therefore, an alternative therapeutic approach that is more effective, fast-acting, and safe is needed. It would be particularly advantageous if such treatment could be delivered by subcutaneous administration, as this would preclude the need for infusions and prolonged hospitalization.
AIP, also referred to as porphobilinogen deaminase (PBGD) deficiency, or hydroxymethylbilane synthase (HMBS) deficiency, is the most common of the acute hepatic prophyrias. The prevalence of AIP is estimated to be 5-10 in 100,000, with about 5-10% of patients being symptomatic. AIP is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by mutations in the HMBS gene that result in reduced, e.g., half-normal activity of the enzyme. Previously, a mouse model of AIP that has ˜30% of wildtype HMBS activity was generated by homologous recombination. Like human patients, these mice increase hepatic ALAS1 activity and accumulate large quantities of plasma and urinary ALA and PBG when administered porphyrinogenic drugs, such as phenobarbital. Thus, they serve as an excellent model to evaluate the efficacy of novel therapeutics for the acute hepatic porphyrias. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This present disclosure relates generally to communications between a vehicle and ground systems and, more particularly, relates to integrated power and communications interfaces.
Systems operating on-board a vehicle may generate significant amounts of data. For example, in the case of an aircraft, advanced avionics, in-flight entertainment systems, catering systems, passenger systems and other on-board systems generate and/or utilize substantial amounts of data. As just one particular example for an aircraft, significant data is generated in connection with on-board monitoring systems, such as engine monitoring systems. Engine monitoring data includes, for example, compression ratios, rotations per minute, temperature, vibration, and other engine operational data. In-flight entertainment systems also can involve significant data, e.g., terabytes of data for a suite of movies.
With some known aircraft, when the aircraft arrives at a gate, a power source is coupled to the aircraft via a power cable so that certain systems on-board the aircraft continue to function when the aircraft engines power down. Paper copies containing collected data are carried off the aircraft and delivered to the back office or forwarded to another office to be logged. Utilizing paper printouts of data creates certain challenges with respect to the physical transfer of the data from the aircraft, and subsequent analysis and processing of such data.
Rather than paper copies, and if the aircraft arrival gate is configured for electronic data download, data is downloaded from the aircraft by physically coupling an umbilical cable from a ground system to an interface on the aircraft. Such cable may be used for the dual purpose of supplying power to the aircraft on-board systems and for communications using power line communications techniques. Data is transferred via the power cable from the aircraft to the ground system.
The bandwidth for data transfer using power line communications typically is not sufficient to support all data transfer needs for the limited time an aircraft is at the gate. For example, with respect to a movie for the in-flight entertainment system, one or more movies may require a transfer of over a terabyte of data and the aircraft may only be at the gate for about twenty minutes. Rather than attempt to transfer the movie content to the in-flight entertainment system via power line communication and thereby consume most if not all the bandwidth available on the power line for transfer during the twenty minute window the aircraft is at the gate, more typically a ground crew support person manually delivers the movie to the aircraft on a storage medium (e.g., a movie prerecorded on a DVD). To make such manual transfer, the support person is scheduled to arrive at the gate at a certain time, wait for the appropriate time to board the aircraft to make the physical delivery, board the aircraft at the appropriate time, and then depart the aircraft. Coordinating the logistics for such deliveries across many different aircraft and gates can be complicated and generally time-consuming to plan and execute.
Wireless communication systems for transferring data between an aircraft and ground system also are known. With at least some such systems, when an aircraft arrives on the ground (sometimes referred to as weight on wheels, WOW), data is downloaded from a central server that resides on the aircraft to a ground system. Data may also be uploaded to such central server as well. Such communications occur, for example, using a low speed VHF based network or a wireless local area network.
Optical fibers also have been considered for use in aircraft data transfer applications. Utilizing optical fibers is attractive at least in part because such fibers have much more bandwidth as compared to at least some other known techniques. With optical fibers, however, the aircraft environment is a challenge due to potential exposure to weather as well as the environment on the ground at an aircraft gate. For example, with the activity that occurs at the gate, it is very possible that carts and other vehicles could run over the optical fibers which could damage or even break the fibers. In addition, adding a separate optical fiber connection to an aircraft generally requires significant engineering and other efforts, which can be costly. Requiring the ground crew to be trained on making an additional connection to the aircraft also requires time and investment.
Demand for additional communication channels and data transfer needs is driving rapid change in connection with such communications. Such increased demand is due, for example, to increasing reliance by ground systems upon data from the aircraft, as well as increased communication needs of the flight crew, cabin crew, and passengers. In addition, data diversity along with an increasing number of applications producing and consuming data in support of a wide range of business processes puts additional demand on communications. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to the bulk growth of large, high-quality, silicon carbide crystals for electronic and related applications.
Silicon carbide (SiC) is a compound of significant interest as a material for both substrates and active layers for high voltage and high frequency semiconductor devices as well as being of interest in the manufacture and structure of certain types of light emitting diodes.
From an electronic standpoint, silicon carbide has a number of theoretical and practical advantages that make its use desirable in microelectronic devices. Silicon carbide has a wide band gap, a high critical breakdown field (approximately two mega-volts per centimeter), and a high thermal conductivity (about five watts per centimeter-Kelvin). Silicon carbide is also physically very hard. Silicon carbide has a high electron drift velocity, excellent thermal stability, and excellent radiation resistance or “hardness.” These advantages have been recognized and described thoroughly in the patent and non-patent literature.
As is the case with other semiconductor materials, silicon carbide can be grown as “bulk” crystals or as epitaxial layers. Bulk growth generally (although not necessarily exclusively) refers to growth techniques that produce larger crystals for use as substrates and related purposes. Bulk growth techniques, although not necessarily “fast” in an absolute sense, generally proceed at a rate sufficient to make the techniques economically worthwhile and the resulting bulk crystals economically obtainable. Bulk crystal growth typically refers to growth from a seed, but as used herein can also refer to the growth of layers which are sufficiently thick to share the functional characteristics of bulk grown crystals.
By way of comparison, epitaxial growth is typically used to produce smaller portions—most often layers—of a semiconductor material with high purity, high crystal quality, and specific doping parameters. Relatively speaking, epitaxial growth generally proceeds more slowly than bulk growth, but produces a higher quality crystal. Furthermore, because epitaxial layers can serve their purpose even when relatively thin, the longer time required to grow them is acceptable in exchange for their higher quality.
Bulk growth of silicon carbide is typically carried out by one of two methods: sublimation from a source powder or high temperature chemical vapor deposition (HTCVD).
The HTCVD technique uses a seed crystal, but instead of a silicon carbide source powder, silicon containing species (typically silane) and carbon containing species (typically propane) are introduced as gases.
The HTCVD technique can produce high purity, highly uniform material with controlled electronic characteristics. Nevertheless, longer (larger) crystals are hard to obtain because the growth efficiency is relatively low and parasitic reactions compete with the desired silicon carbide growth. Additionally, silane tends to decompose in significant amounts at relatively low temperatures (in some cases below 400° C.) as compared to those needed for bulk SiC growth (e.g. about 2000° C.). HTCVD suffers from other disadvantages including the tendency of the reaction products to deposit everywhere—i.e. throughout the deposition chamber as well as on the desired surface—which wastes material and requires the deposition apparatus to be cleaned frequently.
Furthermore, the displacement reactions characteristic of HTCVD typically generate hydrogen as a reaction product. In turn, hydrogen will tend to etch silicon carbide at HTCVD temperatures.
Sublimation, also referred to as physical vapor transport (PVT), is usually carried out in the presence of a seed. In this technique, a seed crystal of silicon carbide and a silicon carbide source powder are both placed into a crucible (typically formed of graphite). The crucible is then heated in a manner that creates a temperature gradient between the source powder and the seed, and with the powder generally being warmer than the seed. At appropriate temperatures (i.e. at least about 1900-2000° C.), silicon carbide source powder will sublime to form gaseous species (dominated by Si, Si2C and SiC2). The temperature gradient encourages the species to migrate to the seed, which is typically maintain about 100-200° C. cooler than the source powder. The migrating species condense on the seed crystal providing the desired crystal growth.
Although relatively well understood and well-established (e.g., commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,005) the static use of source powder in a closed crucible can limit the quality of the crystal eventually produced.
In this regard, it will be understood by those familiar with electronic devices and semiconductor materials that the term “quality,” is applied in a relative sense. Sublimation produces very high-quality silicon carbide crystals for many purposes. Nevertheless, when SiC devices are used at extremely high power—which represents one of SiC's advantages—even a small number of defects can degrade performance noticeably or even lead to device breakdown. Thus, increasing the quality of silicon carbide bulk crystals always remains of interest.
As one particular problem, and because of the thermodynamic differences between silicon and carbon, silicon carbide tends to sublime in a non-stoichiometric fashion. Although the mechanism is not totally understood, the silicon content of the source powder tends to deplete more quickly than the carbon content. This produces a carbon-rich source powder, a characteristic referred to as “powder graphitization.” Even source material that is intentionally made or selected to be silicon-rich becomes graphitized over time.
In turn, powder graphitization causes the ratio of the vaporized silicon and carbon species to change during any given growth run. Such changes can produce undesired changes in the growing crystal. For example, higher silicon-to-carbon ratios tend to produce the 3C polytype of silicon carbide even when the 6H polytype is being used as the seed.
As another potential factor the composition of transported gases that produces the best initial nucleation on the seed crystal may be different from the composition that produces the best bulk growth (and vice versa). Thus, in the conventional physical vapor transport (sublimation) systems, neither nucleation nor bulk growth may be optimized. Instead, both may be compromised based upon the fixed starting material.
Stated differently, in conventional physical vapor transport growth techniques, the relevant system is loaded with a starting material and then heated to drive the sublimation growth of the resulting crystal. The application of heat, however, is typically the only step that can be manipulated during the growth process; i.e., the starting materials are locked in and cannot be modified as growth proceeds.
Other problems exist. For example, where nitrogen is used as a dopant to create n-type material, the normal and expected process is for the nitrogen dopant atoms to replace carbon atoms in the crystal structure. Changing the ratio of silicon-to-carbon, however, causes the nitrogen to compete with a different amount of carbon for a given position in the growing crystal. This, among other factors, can result in intrinsic defects such as silicon vacancies and carbon vacancies. Furthermore, it is generally expected that the formation (or prevention) of micropipes is affected by the silicon to carbon ratio in the vapor phase.
Additionally, these growth issues are of greater concern as the diameter of the growing crystal increases. In this regard, in a commercial context growing larger diameter crystals is usually more efficient than growing smaller diameter crystals. In silicon-based technology, wafers as large as eight inches (200 millimeters) in diameter are commercially available and widely understood. In silicon carbide technology, however, three and four inch wafers (75-100 mm) still remain as a commercial upper limit.
Accordingly, interest continues to exist in improving the techniques for bulk growth of silicon carbide end in correspondingly improving the resulting bulk crystals.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention and the manner in which the same are accomplished will become clearer based on the followed detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. | {
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Radio-frequency switches (RF-SW) configured to turn on and off a radio frequency (RF) are used for front ends of portable communication terminals such as mobile phones. In such radio-frequency switches, a low loss of a radio frequency passing therethrough is an important characteristic. For such a low loss, it is important to reduce a resistance (on-resistance) of an FET in an on state or a capacitance (off-capacitance) of the FET in an off state, i.e., to reduce the product (Ron*Coff) of the on-resistance and the off-capacitance.
The off-capacitance includes a component (an intrinsic component) generated in, for example but not limited to, a diffusion layer and a substrate, and a component (an extrinsic component) generated in, for example but not limited to, a gate electrode, a contact plug, and a wiring line on the contact plug. For example, in the field of ultra-small MOSFETs, it is proposed to have an air gap around a gate electrode to reduce a parasitic capacitance between the gate electrode and a contact plug, thereby reducing an extrinsic component (for example, refer to Patent Literature 1). | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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As one of ophthalmic laser treatment apparatuses, a photocoagulation apparatus is known. For photocoagulation treatment (e.g., panretinal photocoagulation treatment), a treatment laser beam is sequentially irradiated on a spot-by-spot basis to fundus tissues of a patient's eye to thermally photocoagulate the tissues. For irradiation of the treatment laser beam, a visible aiming beam is first irradiated for aiming of the treatment laser beam (for example, see JP 2002-224154A). In recent years, an apparatus has been proposed in which a scanning unit including a galvano mirror and others is installed in a laser-beam delivery unit to scan a treatment laser beam in the form of a spot onto fundus tissues based on a plurality of irradiation patterns of spot positions set in advance (for example, see JP 2006-524515A and JP 2009-514564A). This apparatus stores in advance a plurality of predetermined irradiation patterns in a memory, for example, a pattern of spots arranged in a square matrix of 3×3, 5×5, or others, a pattern of spots arranged in a circular form (including a fan-like form), and others so that a desired irradiation pattern is selectable by an operator according to the condition of the tissues. Further, the aiming beam is also irradiated based on the irradiation patterns. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to data converters and, more particularly, to multi-bit analog-to-digital data converters such as delta-sigma modulators and, more particularly, to digital dither in data converters.
2. Background Art
A common limitation in the performance of audio analog delta-sigma modulators is quantization noise, including idle-channel noise. With small input amplitudes, performance is typically degraded by limit cycles in the modulator loop. The quantization noise spectra typically includes high-powered spectral tones at frequencies close to fs/2, where fs is a sampling rate of the modulator. There are two common causes for these tones to fold into the signal passband and degrade the performance of the analog delta-sigma modulator. One cause is due to interfering digital signals which couple onto the reference voltage for the delta-sigma modulator. When these interfering digital signals couple onto the reference voltage they intermodulate with the high-powered spectral tones and cause them to fold into the passband. For this reason analog delta-sigma modulators are sensitive to coupled digital noise. The second common cause of for the idle tones to fold into the signal passband is due to nonlinearities in the analog signal processing path in the analog delta-sigma modulator. In the presence of these nonlinearities the idle tones typically intermodulate with each other, causing them to fold into the signal passband. This results in audible tones that are often detectable by the human ear. Accordingly, it is desireable to reduce the amplitude of the idle-tones near fs/2. Quantization noise is described in xe2x80x9cDelta-Sigma Data Converters, Theory, Design, and Simulation,xe2x80x9d edited by Norsworthy et al., IEEE Press, 1997, ISBN 0-7803-1045-4, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
A conventional solution to quantization noise in an analog delta-sigma modulator is to apply analog dither, or noise, in the modulator loop. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,846, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod of Tone Avoidance in Delta-Sigma Converters,xe2x80x9d incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, appears to teach applying analog dither to an input of a quantizer and reducing the input signal to a very low level to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal. The resulting noisy input signal is applied to the input of a comparator in a single-bit analog delta-sigma modulator loop. The increased noise level in this signal acts as analog dither and helps to break up the spectral tones in the delta-sigma modulator.
The technique utilized in U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,846 is not suitable for use in a multi-bit analog delta-sigma modulator loop because performance is limited by errors in the thresholds of the quantizer. In a single-bit delta-sigma modulator a single comparator is used with the threshold set equal to zero. In this case comparator offset does not effect performance. In a multi-bit delta-sigma modulator the quantizer thresholds should be reduced in proportion to the reduction of signal amplitude. The quantizer thresholds should be placed very close together if the signal preceding the quantizer is attenuated. Inaccuracies in the quantizer thresholds cause an increase in the quantization error. This degrades the modulator performance.
What is needed are methods and systems for applying dither in analog-to-digital data converters, such as multi-bit delta-sigma modulators.
The present invention is directed to methods and systems for applying digital dither. In an embodiment, digital dither is applied in data converters such as, without limitation, delta-sigma modulators. For example, in a delta-sigma modulator that receives an analog input signal and includes a first path including a quantizer that outputs an m-level code, an n-level dithered digital feedback signal is generated from the m-level code. In an embodiment, m is greater than one. In an alternative embodiment, m is equal to 1. In an embodiment, n is less than m. In an alternative embodiment, n is greater than m. The n-level dithered digital feedback signal is converted to an analog feedback signal and fed back to a second path of the delta-sigma modulator.
In an embodiment, the dithered digital feedback signal is generated from one or more portions of the m-level code. For example, in an embodiment, the m-level code is an m-bit signal, such as a thermometer coded signal, and the dithered digital feedback signal is generated by selecting between sub-sets of bits from the m-bit code. In an example embodiment, n equals mxe2x88x921, a first sub-set of n-bits includes bits zero through mxe2x88x922 of the m-bit signal, and a second sub-set of bits includes bits 1 through mxe2x88x921 of the m-bit signal. In another example embodiment, m is an even integer, n equals m divided by 2, a first sub-set of n-bits includes even bits of the m-bit signal, and a second sub-set of bits includes odd bits of the m-bit signal.
In an embodiment, the dithered digital feedback signal is generated in inverse proportion to an amplitude of the input analog signal and/or the m-level code.
Further features and advantages of the invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the invention, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawing in which an element first appears is typically indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.
It is noted that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described herein. Such embodiments are presented herein for illustrative purposes only. Additional embodiments will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) based on the teachings contained herein. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Most current bonding systems use chelating or mineral acids to remove the mineral from the smear layer and from the intact subsurface dentin in order to enhance penetration of the primer and the formation of a hybridized dentin layer (Nakabayashi, 1982). Demineralization by acids may be responsible for destabilization of the mineral-depleted collagen (Scott and Leaver, 1974; Okamoto et al., 1991). Bonding of composite restoratives with acetone-based, carboxylic acid-containing adhesives and a water-based primer to such acid-conditioned dentin dried after conditioning and rinsing results in significantly lower shear bond strengths (SB S) than bonding to dentin kept moist after conditioning (Kanca, 1992; Gwinnett, 1992; Racean et al., 1992; Swift and Triolo, 1992; Dickens, 1995).
Drying of dentin after conditioning with acids has been shown by scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM, TEM) to result in collapsed surface collagen (Sugizaki 1991; Inokoshi et al., 1993; Gwinnett, 1994; Dickens, 1995). Pashley (1993) reported that conditioning hard tissues with aqueous phosphoric acid (H.sub.3 PO.sub.4) and a subsequent drying step caused reduced porosity of the upper demineralized dentin and produced a dense collagen crust. He also observed that collagen collapsed to a certain degree even on surfaces that had been kept moist after conditioning and hypothesized that the surrounding water, although hydrogen-bonded to the collagen, was not strong enough to support the mineral-depleted collagen in the same way as original dentin mineral.
Various approaches to preventing collapse of surface collagen have been published: Sugizaki (1991) showed that treatment of conditioned, dried dentin with various hydrophllic monomers re-expanded the collapsed collagen to its original level. Conditioning with 10%.sup.1 citric acid containing either 20% calcium chloride or 3% ferric chloride (termed `10-3`), was effective in preventing the collapse of surface collagen (Sugizaki, 1991). Nakabayashi (1985) speculated that ferric chloride suppresses the denaturation of collagen fibers, thereby contributing to higher bond strength. The latter point was supported by Mizunuma (1986), who reported that collagen fibers treated this way are less susceptible to trypsin digestion. The theory was questioned by Imai et al. (1991), who suggested that ferric ions adsorbed onto collagen may act as polymerization initiators and accelerators. TE micrographs of dentin, which had been conditioned with 10-3 and then dried, showed deposition of electron-dense material along extended collagen fibrils (Dickens, 1995) and confirmed Sugizaki's observations. Precipitated Fe- and/or Ca-salts had strengthened the collagen fibrils sufficiently to prevent them from collapsing when dried. When similarly treated specimens were tested in a shear bond test, they still showed significantly lower SBS than specimens for which dentin surfaces were kept moist after conditioning. That suggested that other parameters, e.g., decreased wetting of the dried surface, may have resulted in less complete infiltration of the primer.
Infiltration ofthe primer in the acid-treated dentin surface to a depth less than that altered by the acidic conditioner is thought to be responsible for a potentially weak collagen-rich band between conditioned and unaltered dentin. (Kiyomura, 1987; Nakabayashi 1995; Dickens-Venz et al., 1992; Van Meerbeck et al., 1992; Tam and Pilliar, 1994). Use of acidic polymerizable primers e.g. phenyl-P (2-methacryloyl phenyl hydrogen phosphate) in 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA; Watanabe et al., 1994) or 2-acryloyloxyethyl hydrogen maleate in water (Inoue et al., 1993) without any additional conditioners, was reported to have penetrated throughout the smear layer and formed with the unaltered dentin an acid-proof, hybridized layer.
Several currently used bonding systems use primers based on carboxylic acid monomers (Bowen, 1965; Bowen et al., 1982; Bowen, 1985; Bowen et al.; 1987; Bowen, 1994; Suh et al., 1994), e.g., PMDM (reaction product of pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and HEMA) and are combined with a second primer, an N-compound that has surface-active properties, e.g., N-phenylglycine or magnesium bis-(N-p-tolylglycine glycidylmethacrylate) [Mg(NTG-GMA).sub.2 ]. Bonding to dentin with these systems is achieved by conditioning the dentin surface and then coating it with a mixture of the two primers, also called adhesion promoters. The priming resin that is currently used in these bonding systems is PMGDM, which is the addition reaction product of PMDA and glycerol dimethacrylate (Venz and Dickens, 1993; Bowen, 1994). The primer is activated by combining in a dappen dish 40 .mu.L (two drops) of a 20% solution of PMGDM in acetone and 20 .mu.L (one drop) of an acetone solution of 5% Mg(NTG-GMA).sub.2. This mixture is brushed onto the conditioned surface. An unfilled bonding resin that may consist of bis-GMA (2,2-bis[p(2'-hydroxy-3'-methacryloxypropoxy)phenylene]propane) and HEMA is placed on the primed surface, thinned with a stream of air and light-cured. A composite resin is adapted to the prepared surface and also light-cured.
In some investigations acidic, carboxylated monomers in combination with other hydrophilic monomers for priming tooth surfaces have been used. Fukushima et al. (1985) reported syntheses of such monomers by reacting 2,2-bis[p(2'-hydroxy-3'-methacryloxypropoxy)phenylene]propane (bis-GMA) and other hydroxylated monomers with the aliphatic succinoxy anhydride resulting in a compound with two aliphatic carboxylic acid groups. Their approach was to use these compounds as primers on dentin and enamel with or without prior conditioning of the tooth surfaces with 37% phosphoric acid. The mean tensile bond strengths between 2 and 12 MPa were considerably lower than shear bond strengths obtainable with the invention presented here.
The 3M company (Minnesota Manufacturing and Mining, St. Paul, Minn.) has developed bonding systems (trade names: Scotchbond.RTM., SB2; SBMP; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,553,941 1985; 4,719,149 1988; 4,880,660 1989; 5,554,030 and 5525,648 1996) with primers that contain HEMA and maleic acid. Although maleic acid has a polymerizable functionality, it cannot polymerize without the more reactive HEMA. Therefore, if the maleic acid penetrates into the dentin more deeply than the hydrophilic monomer, the above described phenomenon of nonimpregnated collagen may occur. This incidence has been observed by transmission electron microscopy when Scotchbond 2 was applied to dentin (Dickens-Venz et al., 1992). Since both maleic acid and HEMA are monofunctional monomers, upon polymerization they form a linear polymer.
Organic phosphonates used to promote adhesion to enamel were described by Anbar and Farley (1974), who added vinyl phosphonic acid (VPA) or vinylbenzyl phosphonic acid to composite resins. The authors also claimed that precoating of enamel with a 0.12% neutrazed solution of the said acids improved the bond strength significantly. However, in contrast to the approach taken in this invention, they ensured that the precoating had no etching effect on the enamel.
Acrylated phosphonate esters described for use as adhesion promoting agents for dentin and hard tissues were used as primers and/or admixed with composite resins (Cabasso and Sahni, 1990). The shear bond strengths obtained with such modified composites ranged from 2 MPa to 7 MPa.
A series of primers based on dipentaerythritol-pentaacrylate phosphate esters was developed by Dentsply Int., (trade names: Prisma Universal Bond, PUB, PUB2, PUB 3; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,514,342, 1985; 4,6657,941 1987; 4,814,423 1989; 4,966,934 1990). These primers are applied to unconditioned dentin. Since they are only weakly acidic compounds, they do not completely remove the smear layer and cause only minor, if any, subsurface demineralization and subsequent formation of hybridized dentin. Mean shear bond strengths of Prisma Universal Bond 2.RTM. were reported to be about 7 MPa (Stangel et al., 1994).
The dentin and enamel priming agent of the bonding system Optibond.RTM. (Kerr, Santa Ana, Calif.) contains HEMA, a HEMA-phthalate derivative with carboxylic-acid functionality, and glycerophosphate dimethacrylate. This agent is a primer and is applied to acid-etched dentin or enamel (Van Meerbeck et al., 1996). That is, the Optibond.RTM. primer acts on already demineralized tooth substrates. In addition, like other priming agents, it remain on the tooth surface, leaving dissolved and loosely bound matter.
There is a need in the art for new methods and compositions for restoring teeth in which the bond strength is good and the time required for the restoration is short. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tufting machine used for carpet manufacture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tufting machines are distinguished over other carpet making methods in that loops of yarn which constitute the pile of the carpet are inserted in a backing medium or cloth, which may be fibrous or woven according to the carpet application. The loops are held in place by the retentive pressure of the backing cloth having been expanded locally through the insertion of the yarn. A subsequent operation covers the rear face of the yarn and backing cloth with a retaining adhesive. The adhesive also holds a further layer of backing material, usually hessian.
The yarn is inserted into the backing material by a multiplicity of needles which perform a reciprocating motion. The needles have eyes at the lower extremities through which yarn is both fed and captured. Generally, the needles are connected to one or more transverse bars known as needle bars so that all needles may be reciprocated together into and out of the backing material. In certain specialized tufting machines, the needles are carried by needle holders that may be selectively latched to a reciprocating latch bar so that the needles are capable of individual selection and only those needles selected are subject to the reciprocation, whilst those not selected are not reciprocated. The reciprocating action usually is delivered through a series of pistons or push rods couple by various conventional means to a rotating main-shaft driven by electric motor or similar means. The coupling mechanism is of a crank-shaft type so that the extent of the needle motion is the throw of the crank. Other more complex arrangements are also known which endow features to enable the motion envelope of the needle to be controlled and easily set to any desired range.
The loops of yarn may be of varying heights on the face side of the carpet in order to provide a patterning effect. There are several techniques for causing this effect, such as changing the tension of yarn from low to high from one insertion of a yarn loop to the next (high pile to low pile). Yarn tension may be set by modulating the speed of the yarn feed mechanism controlling the length of yarn delivered for each loop (stitch). A simple form of yarn feed mechanism uses a pair of rollers with a high friction surface between which the yarn is pinched. Variations in the speed of the rollers allows control of the length of yarn delivered for each tuft of carpet pile. There are many more complex mechanisms for exerting control over the yarn delivery. Some of these deliver control over individual strands of yarn, some over subsets of all the strands.
Additional patterning features include the use of cut pile as opposed to pile formed from loops. The cut pile effect is achieved usually during the tufting process by catching the loops formed by the insertion of yarn through the backing cloth on a suitably formed hook on the face (lower) side of the carpet. A knife shears the yarn on one side of the hook after several further loops have been inserted in the backing material. The knife is articulated to move in synchronism with the insertion of yarn. The hooks involved in the loop capture during yarn insertion are also arranged to move into position in synchronism with the yarn insertion process.
The foregoing is a non-exhaustive illustration of some of the features of tufting machines and the mechanisms for controlling carpet patterning. Further features of tufting machines include the ability to introduce a plurality of colors. Tufts of different colored yarns can be made to form attractive carpet patterns such as can be achieved in woven carpets in which any chosen color may be inserted in any location in the carpet by correct design of the patterning commands. One way in which this is done is by burying one colored yarn by giving it a very low pile height in an area of higher pile height of different color by the well known process of backrobbing yarn from the previous stitch to reduce the pile height of that previous stitch. When the buried color is required, the pile height is set high whilst that of the other color in that area is set lower. This results in patches of different colors but has a number of disadvantages in the wastage of yarn which cannot be seen and in the straight line arrangement of the colored yarn. Means for altering the lateral position of the yarns have consequently been developed to overcome some of these limitations.
There are normally up to two needle bars on a machine although more may be fitted. These are reciprocated by the main-shaft rotation and crank means in the vertical direction. An additional degree of freedom of motion is afforded to the needle bars by a mechanism which allows side to side motion, that is across the width of the tufting machine laterally. Yarns may thus be moved from one needle position to others. This provides greater flexibility to produce a required pattern, as needles containing a particular color can be shifted laterally to a position where that particular color is required in the pattern.
Mechanisms for moving the needle bars include cam driven systems, hydraulic actuators, pneumatic actuators, and electric servo controlled motors with a rotational to linear conversion device. This latter mechanism is typified by WO 97/15708 and EP 867,553. In these cases, the rotational to linear conversion devices include screw thread and nut arrangements (including those with acme threads and other thread profiles; ball screws; inverted roller screws and similar equivalent devices). These mechanisms provide the necessary motional requirements from a functional view but also limit the speed capability of the tufting machine. This limitation may arise due to the speed, rate of acceleration and slackness or free play in the mechanisms connecting the servo motor with the sliding needle bar; other relate to the amount of force required to provide the acceleration, inertia effects and control loop stability.
Further, with these systems, the sliding needle bar drive system, servo motors, or equivalent hydraulic or pneumatic actuators have been mounted on the external and faces of the tufting machine. This has required the provision of holes in the end plates or housing to allow the servo motor output shaft to feed into the sliding needle bar assembly. The servo motor output shaft has been coupled to a ball screw or equivalent device (such as an inverted roller screw or screw and nut assembly). The motion sensor for the servo motor has usually been coupled directly to its rotating shaft so that lost motion in any coupling mechanism between the servo and the sliding needle bar has remained uncompensated. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an operating panel device for an elevator system, and more particularly, to an improvement in such an operating panel device in which operation switches on an operator panel are formed of photoelectric means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has hitherto been known a conventional operating panel device for an elevator system which is disclosed in a Japanese Utility Model Application laid-open No. 59-33872 and which is illustrated in FIGS. 7 through 10. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of an elevator car seen in the direction from a car's interior toward an elevator hall; FIG. 8 is a schematic cross sectional view of an elevator car taken along the line VIII--VIII in FIG. 7; FIG. 9 is an enlarged front elevational view of a portion of an elevator car surrounded by a dotted line A in FIG. 7; and FIG. 10 is an enlarged cross sectional view taken along the line X--X in FIG. 9.
In FIG. 7, there is shown an elevator car 1 which includes a ceiling 2, side walls 3, a floor 4 and a car door 5 at a doorway 3d. The elevator car 1 also has a front or door-side wall 3a on which a conventional operating panel device 6 is installed.
In general, as clearly seen from FIG. 9, the operating panel device 6 has on its front panel 3a a variety of buttons including, for example, call buttons 6a for registering destination floors a door opening button 6b for intentionally opening the car door 5 or holding the car door 5 open for a longer duration than usual, a door closing button 6c for intentionally closing the car door 5 for an early start when a passenger gets in the elevator car 1, and an interphone button 6d for enabling a passenger in a closed elevator car 1 to communicate with the outside during emergencies such as when elevator car 1 has not landed at a normal floor due to a malfunction and the car door 5 is closed.
As illustrated in FIG. 10, mounted on the back side of a front panel 6e of the operating panel device 6 are switch units 7 which are adapted to be actuated by depression of the above-described various buttons and which are housed in a switch box or housing 8.
In this manner, the conventional operating panel device 6, including the various buttons 6a to 6d, the switch units 7, the switch housing 8 and the like, is usually installed on the front or door-side panel 3a adjacent the doorway 3d so that passengers in the elevator car 1 can operate the elevator system by means of the buttons 6a to 6d on the operating panel device 6.
With the conventional operating panel device 6 as constructed above, however, as shown in FIG. 10, the switch housing 8 requires a depth l of about several tens of millimeters so as to accommodate the switch units 7, as a consequence of which the door-side wall 3a of the elevator car 3, on which the operating panel device 6 is installed, must have a space h for receiving the switch housing 8, as illustrated in FIG. 8. On the other hand, if the operating panel device 6 is mounted on the side walls 3b or the rear wall 3c of the elevator car 1 having only a limited available space, there will be an undesirable interference thereof with other component members or devices of the elevator system.
In addition, the above-described switch buttons are mechanically operated so that there will be considerable wear and/or fatigue on the mechanical portions thereof after a long period of use, thus resulting in relatively short lifetimes for the switches. Moreover, there are certain restrictions and/or difficulties involved in taking effective measures for protecting the operating panel device from vandalism by thoughtless passengers such as drunks or some children. | {
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The present invention relates to an absorbent article containing a superabsorbent polymer, which effectively prevents skin rash development without reducing the absorbing performance of the superabsorbent polymer. The present invention also relates to an absorbent article having an agent which has hardly been subjected to thermal history and by which scratches, rashes or inflammation of wearer"" skin can be suppressed or cured. The present invention also relates to fiber or a fiber aggregate having skin-care effects and suitable for use in these absorbent articles.
Absorbent articles developed for preventing rash development on wearer""s skin include those disclosed in WO96/16681 and WO96/16682. These publications show disposable diapers having a lotion containing an emollient applied to the topsheet. The lotion used contains an immobilizing agent for fixing the emollient to the topsheet.
Immobilized on the topsheet, the emollient hardly migrates to the wearer""s skin so that not all the emollient applied to the topsheet participates in antiinflammation. Some immobilizing agents used for fixing the emollient irritate the skin to produce a rash. The lotion sometimes gets hard to cause small scratches on the skin, which can also result in a rash.
In producing the above-described disposable diapers, the emollient is melted together with the immobilizing agent, and the molten mixture is applied to a topsheet. That is, the emollient is repeatedly exposed to high temperature for a long time (thermal history) and, as a result, often undergoes thermal denaturation or thermal decomposition. The immobilizing agent itself and the emollient in the presence of the immobilizing agent tend to become hard to scratch the skin. These agents are difficult to apply uniformly, which is a false economy.
Further, the disclosed disposable diapers are liable to leak because the immobilizing agent used is hydrophobic so that liquid waste discharged on the topsheet is not allowed to quickly permeate through the topsheet, rather tending to flow thereon. In order to secure smooth permeation of liquid, the amount of the lotion applied should be reduced, or application of the lotion must be discontinuous, but such manipulations will ruin the effects that should have been produced. In addition, the area in the topsheet where the lotion is applied interferes with smooth permeation of the liquid waste, resulting in remaining the liquid waste on the topsheet. The liquid waste remained on the topsheet causes swell of the wearer""s skin which leads to unfavorable skin rash due to, for example, scratch and infection of irritating substances.
There are some other known absorbent articles having a pharmacologically active ingredient to prevent a rash. However, without a proper choice of the active ingredient, the crosslinked structure of a superabsorbent polymer would be severed by the active ingredient to reduce liquid absorptivity and increase a back-flow. An increased back-flow brings skin overhydration, which accelerates a skin rash. A reduction in amount of the active ingredient only leads to a failure to exert the anti-rash effect.
Apart from the absorbent articles disclosed in the above publications, fibers having adhered thereto a skin-care agent have been proposed. Japanese Patent Laid-Open 5-44165 discloses chitosan-containing fiber, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open 8-60547 proposes sericin-containing fiber.
Chitosan and sericin generally have high crystallinity and low water solubility and are therefore not easy to apply in fiber processing. Specifically, chitosan or sericin precipitates and falls off while being adhered to fibers. As a result, the production equipment is soiled, and the resulting fiber has an insufficient add-on, and the adhesion is not uniform. A manipulation for increasing the add-on could result in more precipitation and fall-off, making a vicious circle.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an absorbent article containing a superabsorbent polymer, which effectively prevents rash development without reducing the absorbing performance of the superabsorbent polymer.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an absorbent article having an agent fixed thereto with reduced involvement of thermal history so that the agent keeps effective in suppressing or curing scratches, a rash or inflammation of wearer"" skin.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an absorbent article which prevents discharged liquid waste from flowing on the skin-contacting surface thereof.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an absorbent article containing an agent effective on the skin which exhibits improved stability while dry and manifests sufficient performance while worn.
A further object of the invention is to provide skin-care agent-containing fiber the skin-care agent of which has high water solubility to produce sufficiently high skin care effects.
A furthermore object of the invention is to provide skin-care agent-containing fiber having high skin care effects which can be produced by a simple process.
To accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides, in its first aspect, an absorbent article comprising a liquid retentive absorbent layer containing a superabsorbent polymer and a liquid-impermeable leak proof layer, wherein an agent having a skin care effect and substantially no decomposing action on the superabsorbent polymer is fixed on a prescribed region of the absorbent article in a state ready to be released from that region on contact with moisture.
The present invention also provides, in its second aspect, skin-care agent-containing fiber comprising fiber and an effective amount of a skin-care agent fixed on the fiber in a state ready to be released on contact with moisture.
The present invention also provides, in its third aspect, an absorbent article comprising a liquid retentive absorbent layer and a liquid-impermeable leak proof layer, wherein an agent having a prescribed effect on the skin of a wearer is fixed with a water-soluble thickener on a prescribed region of the absorbent article. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic pedometer for measuring the number of steps by detecting a walk of a person or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, there has been developed an electronic pedometer for measuring the number of steps of a user by detecting a walk of the user using a walk sensor.
A watch type pedometer which is used by being worn on a wrist of a user like a watch has been developed as the electronic pedometer (refer to Patent Document 1 for example).
With the above conventional watch type electronic pedometer, since a pendulum sensor is used, the number of steps can be measured in a normal walk in which a user walks while he/she naturally swings his/her arms. However, there is encountered a problem that the number of steps cannot be measured in a case where a user walks with his/her arm being fixed to a predetermined position (e.g., at the ear) without swinging his/her arms, for example, in a case where the user walks while he/she communicates with someone using his/her mobile telephone.
In addition, while not being of a watch type, a product has also been developed with which the number of steps can be measured even in a state in which no arm is swung as in a state in which an electronic pedometer is held in pocket or the like. In this case, two sensors are used and are disposed so as to perpendicularly intersect each other. As a result, the number of steps can be measured even in a state in which the electronic pedometer is held in a pocket or the like. However, there is encountered a problem in that a volume increases and circuits for amplifying signals from the sensors are required to be doubled in number because the two sensors are used, or when the electronic pedometer is driven in a time division manner in order to prevent such a situation, a time period required to drive the circuits increases, and hence the electronic pedometer of this type is unsuitable for the watch type pedometer.
<Patent Document 1> JP 2002-221434 A
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic pedometer, used at least by wearing a walk sensor on a wrist, which is capable of being miniaturized and of detecting a walk in a state in which no arm is swung. | {
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Fuels such as gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil, jet fuel, and kerosene tend to undergo oxidative deterioration during storage whereby solid deposits, gums, or sludge may form in the fuel. Obviously the formation of such materials is detrimental.
Similarly, lubricants and functional fluids such as crankcase lubricating oil, gear oil, electrical insulating oil, spindle oil, automatic transmission fluids, hydraulic fluids, and the like usually require protection against oxidative degradation. In such substrates, premature oxidative deterioration manifests itself in a change in viscosity (usually an increase in viscosity) or an increase in acid number. Such effects are likewise detrimental. | {
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In many industries, the system for fluid handling must be extremely sanitary and easily cleanable. For example, industries such as biological R&D, biological pilot plants and biological and food production facilities require steam-in-place (SIP) sterilization and clean-in-place (CIP) sanitization for process systems. Thus, valves used in these systems must have certain characteristics to be SIP/CIP capable. Specifically, these valves should be able to withstand the pressure of SIP/CIP procedures, should be completely drainable and should have product contact surfaces that do not yield byproducts that can leach into the process stream after SIP/CIP.
In the sanitary industries, the most prevalent type of valve used is the diaphragm valve. To date, diaphragm valve technology has been the only valve technology to develop multi-port or valve clusters that minimize dead leg. Historically these valves have been viewed as sanitary and easy to clean. However, diaphragm valves possess specific drawbacks that can be significantly improved upon for applications in the sanitary industries. One such universal limitation is that diaphragm valves do not provide a smooth, seamless passageway for fluid flow, as the diaphragms themselves have sealing points and fluid must travel up and around a weir.
Several diaphragm valves have been designed to be SIP/CIP capable and drainable to meet the requirements of sanitary processes. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,561, Kerg et al. describe a radial diaphragm valve having an elongated stem with a circumferential recess that receives a seal whose function is to separate the process fluid from the interior of the actuator.
Though Kerg's valve is SIP/CIP capable and drainable, this valve is incapable of having multiple ports and does not possess a product contact area that is entirely disposable. Also, the seal in the elongated stem creates crevices that can potentially trap and harbor contaminants or can potentially leak.
Cordova (U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,566) and Kovacs et al (U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,637) provide diaphragm valves that have multiple ports and are SIP/CIP capable and drainable. Cordova provides a multi-use sterile access/GMP diaphragm valve housing block having a main flow axis and having a first port and an opposing second port extending to a first and second passage, respectively, separated by a main flow weir.
Kovacs' invention is a diverter valve casing that includes a body with a base and plurality of walls that cooperatively form a chamber, a partition within the chamber dividing the chamber into a plurality of compartments. The partition further includes a surface partially defining the first compartments that is partially sloped. Drawbacks to both the Cordova and Kovacs valves are that these inventions create large sealing areas that can be sites for contamination, and they do not offer an entirely disposable product contact area(s). In addition, Cordova's valve requires difficult installation, as the valve must be of a particular orientation to achieve proper drainage.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,134, Browne et al. also provides a diaphragm valve that is drainable. Browne's sanitary valve is comprised of a valve body, a diaphragm and an actuator. The valve body features a cavity defined by the inventor as a “fluid chamber”, which has holes in the side and bottom of the cavity for passage of fluid. Passages connect the holes to ports outside the valve body. A diaphragm is mounted over the cavity, a raised area that controls fluid flow through the valve. Though this valve provides drainage, again the diaphragm creates a large seal to protect the contents of the valve from the outside and does not offer a product contact area that is completely disposable, limiting the sterility and easy cleaning of this invention.
Hoobyar et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,500) also provides a drainable valve that is SIP/CIP capable. This sanitary bottom tank valve features one inlet flow passage to communicate flow into the valve body and to at least one outlet passage. An actuator is secured to the valve body to move a diaphragm in an open or closed position in relation to the inlet flow passageway. The main valve passage is typically mounted to the bottom of a tank, which does provide drainage. Hoobyar's valve is limited in its ability to be incorporated into a standard piping system. This valve also has the same shortcomings as those previously described, in that the diaphragm creates a large seal and the valve does not provide a completely disposable product contact area.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,523 to Trimble, a valve comprised of a body defining a through passage, a branch passage and an aperture in the wall of the through passage. A diaphragm, which the inventor defines as a “closure member”, is movable between an open and closed position to establish communication between the through and branch passages. Trimble's valve is drainable and SIP/CIP capable. However, the diaphragm creates a large seal that is necessary to protect its fluid contents from the outside environment, and it does not provide a completely disposable product contact area.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,259,985, Bergmann provides a three-way pinch valve operated by a solenoid with one pinch valve mounted on each end and constructed such that one valve is normally open while the other valve is normally closed. The valve is made three-way by connecting the tubing from the two pinch valves to a T-fitting with a single outlet. Bergmann's valve eliminates the sealing surfaces and weirs associated with the above diaphragm valve designs, but this valve is not SIP/CIP capable, and the three fluid channels cannot be engaged independently.
Valves used for sanitary fluid transfer must not contaminate the fluid product, nor allow internal or external sources of contamination to enter the process stream. Sources of contamination from inside the valve can include material from the valve itself or accumulated residue from cleaning that is entrapped in the valve. Sources of contamination from outside a valve include any material that can enter through seals or diaphragm sealing surfaces. Such sources include germs, viruses or microorganisms in fluids used to actuate the valve. To eliminate internal and external sources of contamination, it is necessary that the valve's product contact surfaces be noncontaminating and the valve body does not have sealing points.
To effectively eliminate contamination, valves for sanitary applications should have a smooth, reliable passageway that is completely drainable to prevent any entrapment of fluid material. In order to be compatible with the often complex configuration of fluid-handling systems, it is critical that the valve be small, simple and equipped with tubing elements that are easy to change out.
Valves used for sanitary fluid transfer should also be designed to minimize dead leg. A complete discussion of the phenomenon of dead leg can be found in the ASME/BPE Guidelines 1999, Part SD “Design for Sterility and Cleanability”; Part SG “Equipment Seals.”
There is a need in the industry for a pinch-type valve arrangement that overcomes the problems of multi-port diaphragm and pinch valves currently used in the sanitary industries. Specifically, there is a need for a valve arrangement that provides multiple smooth, seamless and reliable fluid pathways that are SIP/CIP capable, easily disposed of and fully drainable with the valve in any position. | {
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Subsets and Splits