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The present invention relates generally to optical filters, and more particularly to an optical filter having variable spectral transmittance function of selectable shape.
In the calibration and use of certain optical instruments, such as a photometer, colorimeter, spectroradiometer or spectrophotometer, a specific spectral transmittance function (STF) is required. For example, the spectral sensitivity of a photopic photometer must closely match the CIE 1924 photopic luminosity function, which requires passing incoming light through a filter having an STF tailored to the spectral sensitivity of the photodetector of the photometer, the STF of the optical path, and the CIE luminosity function. Simple single-layer absorption filters can be used for this purpose but often yield poor accuracy because of deviations from the ideal STF at various wavelengths.
Accuracy can be improved by combining filters so that the composite filter more closely matches the ideal STF, but selection of the correct set of filters for a given photodetector and optical path STF is laborious; in a layered filter, photometer sensitivity suffers because light is lost in each layer; for a mosaic filter, the correct filter material and size for each piece of mosaic must be determined; aging or contamination may cause changes in spectral sensitivity of the photodetector or in the STF of the optical path or the filter; and component replacement in the photodetector or associated optical system may require a new filter to match unique spectral characteristics of the component.
A fixed-template filter defining a spectrum forming element and a spatial aperture with shape required to produce a desired STF can yield both high accuracy and sensitivity, but construction is an iterative, time consuming process which results in a device not easily adjustable to changes in spectral sensitivity.
In fixed-template filter colorimeters, each of three templates must be positioned in turn with respect to the spectrum forming element so that the corresponding tristimulus value can be measured, which means that the three tristimulus values cannot be measured simultaneously and a highly accurate positioning mechanism must be provided. Beamsplitters may be used to illuminate the three filters simultaneously,but this reduces sensitivity and yields a bulky device.
In certain spectroradiometers and spectrophotometers an STF is required to measure the spectral distribution of light, and is typically achieved using either a grating monochromator or prism monochromator to disperse light into a spectrum, portions of which are selected by a mechanically movable slit the measurements from which may be subject to positioning errors because of mechanical imperfections.
Finally, special STFs can be desired when designing light sources for light-modulating displays. Often the spectral selection characteristics of these displays are less than ideal because materials are not available which have both the desired spatial and spectral light modulating characteristics, particularly for color displays.
The present invention substantially solves or reduces in critical importance problems with existing systems by providing a general purpose light filter having an STF which can be altered rapidly and easily under computer control and can assume substantially any shape, but having no moving mechanical parts. Practical uses involve the visible wavelengths, however, the potential spectral range is theoretically much broader.
The invention has substantial utility for systems which do not require passing an image containing spatial modulation but which do require passing light (which need not be spatially homogeneous) through an STF which is not readily obtained with ordinary optical filter. These systems may include photometers, colorimeters and devices using monochromators, such as spectroradiometers and spectrophotometers, and light sources for light modulating monochrome or color displays for which an ideal illuminating spectral radiance distribution is difficult to achieve.
It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide an improved optical filter.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an optical filter having variable spectral transmittance function.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent as the detailed description of representative embodiments proceeds. | {
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The present invention relates to a device for accessing an information database, and, more particularly, to a device and system that uses an information database to access information about a landmark that is located at a geographic position where the device is located.
People often desire to obtain information about a particular location at which they are located, whether it be a famous or historic landmark, an office building, a business location, a piece of real estate, an airport, a hotel, shopping mall, a sports arena, a tropical rain forest, a redwood forest, a mountain range, a river, a single island or a string of islands, a war zone, or a hostage area. The traditional methods of obtaining such information include using printed materials such as guide books, maps, etc., communicating with people knowledgeable about the particular location, and researching the particular location either before or after being physically present at the location.
Such methods of obtaining information may significantly detract from the person's ability to appreciate or experience the location at which they are present. Put more simply, the person may not be able to gather or access enough information about the location because it is not readily available. Additionally, the person may not be able to access information about the location that is based on time. For example, if a person is visiting a famous landmark at a time when there are no tour guides available and the local gift shop is closed, the person may not be able to obtain valuable information about the landmark. While tour guides typically are associated with famous landmarks, landmarks as used in this context may be a famous or non-famous landmark, including, but not limited to the following types of landmarks: a historic area, an amusement park, a house, a restaurant, a store, etc. Although the person may be able to get location-centric information later, that isn't always a suitable alternative. Even in the event where a person is able to obtain printed materials, they are often cumbersome to carry around and read through while traveling from place to place. Moreover, as a person visits numerous locations, they tend to accumulate vast amounts of printed materials.
Another example in which location-specific, or time sensitive information is not readily obtained is during a real estate search. The traditional method of buying real estate requires the prospective purchaser to transact through a real estate broker for virtually every aspect of the transaction, from finding a desired property to completing the sale. Often the most difficult part of the process, from the buyer's perspective, is locating a desired piece of real estate. There are generally two methods employed to locate a desired piece of property.
The first method relies solely on the real estate broker to use his or her contacts, including listing services, to locate property that meets the buyer's specifications. The second is more random, in that if a buyer happens to pass a piece of property that is displaying a “for sale” sign, the buyer can write down the phone number shown on the sign to later inquire about the property, which then places the transaction totally within the broker's hands, as the broker controls all the information relating to the property (e.g., size and cost).
People are also often interested in gaining information about what a particular business has to offer. For example, when a person is located near a particular business they may want to know more information about the business. For example, a person may want to know such things as, what types of items a store offers, what specials or sales are occurring at a store, what type of food or menu items a restaurant offers, just to name a few. In addition, after visiting a particular business or landmark a person may want to share information about their experience. For example, a person may want to provide a review of a restaurant or store so that others can be better informed when they visit that business.
There are systems that relate to an address retrieval system based on the position of a cellular telephone. A cell phone user can request information relating to businesses that are located in the proximity of the user, based upon the geographic position of the user as determined by pinpointing the location of the cell phone. Once the location of the user is determined, a database that is keyed on geographic location is searched, looking for businesses of the type requested by the user (e.g., restaurants, gas stations, hotels, etc.) that are located in the area around the user. The system disclosed in the '699 patent may inform a user about a location of a restaurant (or other service location), but does not give the user real-time information pertaining to table availability, hours of operation, current specials.
Other systems include a mobile computer system having a built-in global positioning system (GPS) locator and an associated database that displays relevant information to the user based upon the user's current location. The database is accessed in real time as the user's position changes and is primarily focused on task-based information. For example, if a stored task is to buy milk, as the user approaches the grocery store, he or she is reminded to buy milk.
Thus, a need exists for a system and method of obtaining information about a landmark located near a user's current location, and for receiving information about the landmark from a user while the user is located near the landmark. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electrical enclosures and more specifically it relates to an electrical enclosure system for effectively containing a pump control and alarm system within a single protective structure and providing convenient access to the electrical components within.
2. Description of the Related Art
Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Electrical enclosures have been in use for years for various applications (e.g. telecommunications, alarm circuits). FIG. 1a illustrates an exemplary electrical enclosure for an alarm circuit and pump control circuit that has an enclosure with conduit connected to the enclosure. FIG. 1b illustrates another exemplary electrical enclosure that is an improvement upon the structure shown in FIG. 1a. FIG. 1b illustrates the usage of (1) a tubular base A, (2) a mounting bracket B attached within the tubular base for supporting wiring and electrical components, and (3) a cap C removably attached to an upper end of the tubular base.
One problem with conventional electrical enclosures as shown in FIG. 1a is that they do not adequately protect the cables. A further problem with conventional electrical enclosures as shown in FIG. 1a is that they require attachment of the enclosure to a post or other support structure. A further problem with conventional electrical enclosures as shown in FIG. 1a is that they are time consuming and costly to install.
One problem with conventional electrical enclosures as shown in FIG. 1b is that they have multiple components required to be installed (tubular base, mounting bracket and cap). A further problem with conventional electrical enclosures as shown in FIG. 1b is that they are time consuming and costly to install.
While these devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they are not as suitable for effectively containing a pump control and alarm system within a single protective structure and providing convenient access to the electrical components within. Conventional electrical enclosures for pump control and alarm systems are relatively complex in structure requiring a significant amount of time and labor to install and repair.
In these respects, the electrical enclosure system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of effectively containing a pump control and alarm system within a single protective structure and providing convenient access to the electrical components within. | {
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A standard motor-vehicle door latch that secures a door to a bolt projecting from a door post is mounted in the door and is operated by a handle assembly fitted to a hole in the outer door panel. This assembly comprises a body which is fixed in the door, a handle movable relative to the body and coupled to the door latch, and structure that secures the body in the door. Often a lock cylinder is also mounted on the body and connected to the latch so it can be used to operate the latch, and in some systems a similar assembly is mounted on an inside door panel.
To speed manufacture, it has been suggested to replace the customary screws and rivets used to secure the body to the door panel with a latching mechanism. In German patent 3,615,440 of Leistner an outside cover plate engages with hooked feet through holes in the door panel and through the assembly body. A slide mounted on the body is formed with holes that can be engaged over these feet to lock the outside cover plate in position and secure the body to the door panel.
Assembly of such a latch is easier than with screws or rivets but still comprises several steps. First the body is fitted to the inside of the door panel at the hole, then the outside cover plate is fitted to the outside face of the panel and with the body. A tool is then inserted through a hole in the door edge and the slide is shifted to lock the parts together. Of course at a later date the slide can be shifted back to allow the assembly to be taken out.
Such a system has several disadvantages. First of all it is fairly cumbersome to install. The installer must dispose of a special tool for the installation and take several steps just to secure the handle assembly in position. Furthermore the slide can move with time and release the outer plate, in particular if suddenly decelerated in a collision. | {
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To help vehicle drivers lower their speed before reaching critical road passages like curves or congested areas, Curve Speed Warning (CSW) systems have been developed. Such systems alert the driver by providing warnings (audible, visible, haptic, etc.) to make the driver aware that the vehicle speed may be too high for a safe and/or comfortable negotiation of the upcoming curve. Such systems may, for example, compare the predicted or projected speed of the vehicle with a predetermined maximum limit when it approaches a known or expected traffic environment (an area of congested traffic, for example) requiring low speed in order to be managed safety. If the speed is above the limit, the system warns the driver. Also known are so-called Curve Speed Control (CSC) systems which autonomously lower the speed of a vehicle before a curve or any other known traffic environment requiring lower speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,400,963 B2 discloses a vehicle curve speed control system that includes a map database representing a current vehicle path and a locator device communicatively coupled to the database and configured to determine the location of the vehicle on the path. The system further includes a controller configured to identify approaching curve points of a curve in terms of curvature or radius, and determine a desired speed profile based on driver preference and/or vehicle characteristic input. An acceleration profile is determined, based on the current vehicle speed, and desired speed profile. An acceleration or deceleration command at the present control loop is modified towards achieving an optimal curve speed and is delivered to either a brake or an acceleration module to automatically accelerate or decelerate the vehicle accordingly.
A natural limit for a vehicle's acceleration and deceleration is established by the friction available between the vehicle's tires and surface of the road on which it is travelling. Systems as described above take into account a maximum possible acceleration in either the longitudinal direction (which may be caused by braking or adding power) or the lateral direction (which may be caused by centripetal force), but fail to take a combination thereof into account. If, for example, a driver brakes at the same time as steering through a small-radius curve, the lateral acceleration limit may not be reached, but due to the longitudinal acceleration caused by braking the combined lateral/longitudinal limit may be exceeded, with the result that the tires may lose grip with the road. | {
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The present invention is directed generally towards gas turbine combustors and more specifically towards an apparatus and method of providing a self-purging pilot fuel injection system.
A typical gas turbine engine comprises at least a compressor, a turbine, and at least one combustor. The compressor takes air from the surrounding atmosphere and compresses it by directing it through a plurality of stages of rotating and stationary airfoils, raising its pressure and temperature. This compressed air is then directed into a combustion system, which is most commonly annular or can-annular, and comprises a plurality of fuel injectors. Fuel, either gas or liquid, is mixed with the compressed air and ignited to form hot combustion gases. The hot combustion gases are then directed through a multi-stage turbine, which is coupled to the compressor, and for power generation, to an electrical generator.
The combustion system of the gas turbine engine typically has a number of operating points, depending on the power output required from the engine. The various operating points can generate different emissions levels, especially carbon monoxide (CO) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). As a result, the combustion system will have different fuel injection points in order to maintain emissions levels within acceptable standards given the different power output requirements. Therefore, depending on the power output requirement, a higher emissions level operating point may be required.
A majority of combustion systems operate in one or both of two modes: diffusion and premix. Premix combustion systems offer lower emissions levels due to their ability to premix the fuel and air prior to igniting the mixture. On the contrary diffusion combustion systems operate where fuel and air mix along the flame front to produce a diffusion flame. That is, there is essentially no mixing prior to combustion. As a result, molecules of fuel remain unburned and result in higher level of emissions. However, some combustion systems utilize both modes of operation in that they employ a diffusion type mode during engine start-up, since a diffusion combustion system has a richer fuel content and results in greater starting reliability. Once these engines have started they transfer to a premix operation for extended periods of running so as to produce lower emissions.
An area of concern with any type of combustion system is the issue of flashback. Flashback occurs when pressures within the combustion system fluctuate such that a flame can travel upstream from the combustion zone into a premixing zone or fuel injection region. This is especially of concern for pilot fuel nozzles that historically have high fuel-air concentrations and that are fuel rich to support a pilot flame. Fuel injection adjacent to and in direct contact with the flame zone typically requires purging to ensure that when the fuel is shut-off the flame does not travel up a fuel line. Should there be a leak in a fuel line, hot gas can be drawn back up the fuel line and ignite, causing extreme damage and possible failure of the combustion hardware.
The present invention seeks to overcome the shortfalls of the prior art by providing an apparatus and method of self-purging a pilot fuel injection system that also provides an ignition source for a combustor. | {
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The detection of shock wave velocity and damage location provides important information to researchers or technicians concerned with underground nuclear and explosives testing, earthquake detection, and structural failure diagnostics. Electrical sensing systems are susceptible to electromagnetic interference which tend to affect the accuracy of typical electronic measurement systems. Optical detection systems employing bulk optics, as opposed to optical fibers, often suffer from loss of alignment and cleanliness of their components, particularly in a field environment.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,107,129 (Lombrazo) and 5,142,141 (Talet et al.) disclose fibers that are broken as part of their detection process. Talet involves the detection of cracks while Lombrazo detects burn rate, both using optical fibers. The primary embodiments of Talet's multiple-loop arrangement is used. The breakage of one loop after another indicates the arrival of the burn front or the crack at the position of the loop. Both disclosures implicitly assume that each loop will be broken in an equivalent position. Although both disclosures differ in terms of proposed function, they are essentially structurally identical.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,234 (Berthold et al.) involves the measurement of the length of a single fiber using Optical Time Domain Reflectometry, which is a well known technique for determining the round trip travel time of a light pulse down the length of an optical fiber. The shortest length change detectable depends on the pulse repetition rate and the pulse length based on reflection.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,649 (Lymer et al.) mentions interdigitated optical fibers and "volume backscattering" as a means of determining the location of structural damage.
Copending patent application, Ser. No. 08/083,223, provides a continuous fiber optic means of measuring shock location wherein an optical fiber is doped with impurities and, depending on the strength of the cable surrounding the fiber, the device could be designed with virtually any threshold crush pressure. Light is transmitted into the sensor cable via a light source and received by a receiving means at a different wavelength because of the induced fluorescence from the impurities. As the cable is crushed or destroyed along its length the receiving means provides the changes in light volume within the cable. One could also have considerable latitude in choosing the length over which this device is sensitive to shock pressure.
As with the copending application, the optical nature of the present sensor invention causes it to be immune to electromagnetic interference and incapable of transmitting electrical signals that may contain sensitive information to the outside world. The optical nature of the sensor also reduces inaccuracies in the system that could be caused by various sources of electromagnetic interference. These features are in contrast to those of the leading existing devices, such as the SLIFER (Shorted Location Indication by Frequency of Electrical Resonance) and CORRTEX (Continuous Reflective Radius Time Experiment) coaxial cable type transducer devices whose outputs are discrete and electrical, and whose minimum crush strength is known to produce misleading measurements at low shock pressures. The present invention also overcomes the shortcomings of current fiber-optic devices that suffer from poor spatial resolution and bulk-optic devices that suffer from alignment problems.
Thus, there is an existing need for a simple fiber optic damage location and shock velocity sensor that overcomes the shortcomings of the current art electrical and optical detectors. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to brooms and more particularly pertains to a new Combination Broom and Vacuum Cleaner Assembly for easy pickup of dirt piles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of brooms is known in the prior art. More specifically, brooms heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art brooms include U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,976; U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,582; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 317,678; U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,443; U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,292; U.S. Pat. No. 4,841,594; U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,112; U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,084; U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,314; U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,159; U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,782; U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,139; U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,610; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,572.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new Combination Broom and Vacuum Cleaner Assembly. The inventive device includes an upper handle, a lower handle, a broom portion, a means for creating suction, a vacuum manifold, and an attachment head.
In these respects, the Combination Broom and Vacuum Cleaner Assembly according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of easy pickup of dirt piles. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to thermoelectric modules and processes for producing the same. More particularly, the invention relates to a thermoelectric module using a small amount of material per unit output thereof, and a process for producing thermoelectric modules of the kind as described above in high yield and at low processing cost.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional thermoelectric modules are produced by a process comprising cutting a melt-grown ingot thermoelectric material into bulk thermoelectric elements and bonding electrodes to the thermoelectric elements through soldering or the like technique. According to an alternative process, a chalcogenide alloy powder as thermoelectric elements is vacuum-sealed or sealed with inert gas in an ampule sintered to produce thermoelectric elements. Thermoelectric elements which are formed in these processes have a high figure of merit to provide an advantage of giving good thermoelectric conversion characteristics to thermoelectric modules.
However, the conventional production of thermoelectric modules in which use is made of an ingot thermoelectric material involves the following serious problems:
(1) since the yield of thermoelectric elements notably lowers when the thickness thereof is reduced to 1.5 mm or less, miniaturization of thermoelectric elements is difficult, with the result that the amount of a thermoelectric material used is inevitable large per unit output of a thermoelectric module and the material cost is high;
(2) because of cracking of a thermoelectric material in the cutting step and of high liability to poor electric conduction or short circuit across electrodes which is caused by failure in bonding of electrodes to thermoelectric elements through soldering or the like technique, the yield is notably lowered through the process of production of thermoelectric modules with high liability to formation of defective modules; and
(3) since thermoelectric elements not only are produced one by one but also are brittle, the automation of the production process is difficult and hence the processing cost is high.
The process in which use is made of sintering of a chalcogenide alloy powder has a problem of low productivity because pressure molding is necessary and moldings must be sintered in a state of being sealed in a container such as an ampule. And by this process, thermoelectric elements are produced one by on in the same manner as the former process, so that the automation of the production process and the reduction of the processing cost are difficult. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to executing instructions in a processor. Specifically, this application is related to optimization of instructions within a group priority issue schema for a cascaded pipeline.
2. Description of Background
Currently, modern computer systems typically contain several integrated circuits (ICs), including a processor which may be used to process information in the computer system. The data processed by a processor may include computer instructions which are executed by the processor as well as data which is manipulated by the processor using the computer instructions. The computer instructions and data are typically stored in a main memory in the computer system.
Processors typically process instructions by executing the instruction in a series of small steps. In some cases, to increase the number of instructions being processed by the processor (and therefore increase the speed of the processor), the processor may be pipelined. Pipelining refers to providing separate stages in a processor where each stage performs one or more of the small steps necessary to execute an instruction. In some cases, the pipeline (in addition to other circuitry) may be placed in a portion of the processor referred to as the processor core. Some processors may have multiple processor cores, and in some cases, each processor core may have multiple pipelines. Where a processor core has multiple pipelines, groups of instructions (referred to as issue groups) may be issued to the multiple pipelines in parallel and executed by each of the pipelines in parallel.
As an example of executing instructions in a pipeline, when a first instruction is received, a first pipeline stage may process a small part of the instruction. When the first pipeline stage has finished processing the small part of the instruction, a second pipeline stage may begin processing another small part of the first instruction while the first pipeline stage receives and begins processing a small part of a second instruction. Thus, the processor may process two or more instructions at the same time (in parallel).
To provide for faster access to data and instructions as well as better utilization of the processor, the processor may have several caches. A cache is a memory which is typically smaller than the main memory and is typically manufactured on the same die (i.e., chip) as the processor. Modern processors typically have several levels of caches. The fastest cache which is located closest to the core of the processor is referred to as the Level 1 cache (L1 cache). In addition to the L1 cache, the processor typically has a second, larger cache, referred to as the Level 2. Cache (L2 cache). In some cases, the processor may have other, additional cache levels (e.g., an L3cache and an L4 cache).
To provide the processor with enough instructions to fill each stage of the processor's pipeline, the processor may retrieve instructions from the L2 cache in a group containing multiple instructions, referred to as an instruction line (I-line). The retrieved I-line may be placed in the L1 instruction cache (I-cache) where the core of the processor may access instructions in the I-line. Blocks of data (D-lines) to be processed by the processor may similarly be retrieved from the L2 cache and placed in the L1 cache data cache (D-cache).
The process of retrieving information from higher cache levels and placing the information in lower cache levels may be referred to as fetching, and typically requires a certain amount of time (latency). For instance, if the processor core requests information and the information is not in the L1 cache (referred to as a cache miss), the information may be fetched from the L2 cache. Each cache miss results in additional latency as the next cache/memory level is searched for the requested information. For example, if the requested information is not in the L2 cache, the processor may look for the information in an L3 cache or in main memory.
In some cases, a processor may process instructions and data faster than the instructions and data are retrieved from the caches and/or memory. For example, where an instruction being executed in a pipeline attempts to access data which is not in the D-cache, pipeline stages may finish processing previous instructions while the processor is fetching a D-line which contains the data from higher levels of cache or memory. When the pipeline finishes processing the previous instructions while waiting for the appropriate D-line to be fetched, the pipeline may have no instructions left to process (referred to as a pipeline stall). When the pipeline stalls, the processor is underutilized and loses the benefit that a pipelined processor core provides.
Because the address of the desired data may not be known until the instruction is executed, the processor may not be able to search for the desired D-line until the instruction is executed. However, some processors may attempt to prevent such cache misses by fetching a block of D-lines which contain data addresses near (contiguous to) a data address which is currently being accessed. Fetching nearby D-lines relies on the assumption that when a data address in a D-line is accessed, nearby data addresses will likely also be accessed as well (this concept is generally referred to as locality of reference). However, in some cases, the assumption may prove incorrect, such that data in D-lines which are not located near the current D-line are accessed by an instruction, thereby resulting in a cache miss and processor inefficiency.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods and apparatus for executing instructions and retrieving data in a processor which utilizes cached memory. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to an automatic phase extraction device which automatically conducts preprocessing manipulations for analysis of organic chemical components that are contained in drug substances, agricultural chemicals, and water, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid chromatography analysis is conducted, for example, to analyze chemical substances that are contained in a sample solution.
This is a device which analyzes components after sample solution has been added by drops from above into a long, cylindrical solid phase extraction tube packed with solid phase adsorption agent. The solute is adsorbed into solid phase, and after preprocessing has been conducted to dissolve out the target components using a solvent flow to separate the solute that has been adsorbed into solid phase, the components are analyzed by placing this in a detector (for example, a differential refraction detector, an ultraviolet absorption detector, an ultraviolet spectrophotometer, or a fluorophotometer).
Then, because it is inefficient to manually conduct these operations which require a great deal of time particularly in preprocessing until the target component is dissolved out, in recent years there have been proposals for devices that automatically conduct these preprocessing manipulations in order to increase processing efficiency.
This is done such that, after sample solution within a test tube has been taken in by a needle nozzle, the position of which has a controllable in 3 orthogonal axes X-Y-Z, and this solution has been injected into a solid phase extraction tube, the eluate which contains the desired components is extracted by adding a solvent by drops into said solid phase extraction tube at a stipulated flow rate.
Because the injection of sample solution and the infusion of solvent into the solid phase extraction tube can all be done automatically, preprocessing up to dissolving out the target component can be conducted without human intervention, and consequently the processing efficiency is greatly improved by, for example, operating day and night. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telephone communication control apparatus, a telephone communication system, and a telephone communication control method used for the same, and more specifically to telephone communications for an individual using a fixed telephone, a portable telephone, and a communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
No one can make a phone call to communicate over a telephone without knowing the telephone number of a person to call. In other words, a telephone user needs to open a number, which identifies the user such as the user's portable telephone number, to a person from whom the user wants to have a direct phone call.
Communication carriers have provided services for transferring an incoming call destined to a fixed telephone (a service for transferring a call between fixed telephones, a service for transferring a call from a fixed telephone to a portable telephone, and the like), and services for transferring an incoming call destined to a portable telephone (a service for transferring a call between portable telephones, a service for transferring a call from a portable telephone to a fixed telephone, and the like).
For the abovementioned communication systems that enable a receiving terminal, which is a fixed telephone or a portable telephone, to be freely changed, methods for alleviating user's time and energy in deciding an optimal receiving terminal and preventing the user from losing a chance of having a session by automatically deciding the optimal receiving terminal based on presence information at a residence of a person who is called (information on a locked/unlocked state of the lock of the residence) have been proposed (for example, see patent document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-222621)).
In the telephone communication system related to the present invention, the user needs to open a number, which can identify the user such as the user's portable telephone number, to a person from whom the user wants to have a direct phone call. For that reason, the user needs to notify the person of a new portable telephone number each time when the portable telephone number is changed. Even the technology described in the patent document 1 cannot solve the problem.
Further, even if the abovementioned telephone communication system simply transfers an incoming call, the calling subscriber cannot necessarily reach the called subscriber like in the case where a session cannot be made when a transferred terminal telephone is busy. The abovementioned technology described in the patent document 1 neither can solve the problem, as it transfers a call simply based on the presence information at a residence. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that provides user services relating to image forming processes such as copying, printing, scanning, facsimile and the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a scanned data process method for transferring scanned data to a Web server and the like on the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an image forming apparatus (to be referred to as a compound machine hereinafter) that includes functions of a printer, a copier, a facsimile, a scanner and the like in a cabinet is generally known. The compound machine includes a display part, a printing part and an image pickup part and the like in a cabinet. In the compound machine, three pieces of software corresponding to the printer, copier and facsimile respectively are provided, so that the compound machine functions as the printer, the copier, the scanner and the facsimile respectively by switching the software.
Since the conventional compound machine is provided with each software for the printer, the copier, the scanner and the facsimile individually, much time is required for developing the software. Therefore, the applicant has developed an image forming apparatus (compound machine) including hardware resources, a plurality of applications, and a platform including various control services provided between the applications and the hardware resources. The hardware resources include a display part, a printing part and an image pickup part, and are used for image forming processes. The applications perform processes intrinsic for user services of printer, copier and facsimile and the like. The platform includes various control services performing management of hardware resources necessary for at least two applications commonly, performing execution control of the applications, and image forming processes, when a user service is executed.
According to such a compound machine, the scanned data produced by scanning a document by the scanner is immediately printed or stored in a storage such as a hard disk.
However, there is a case in which it is necessary to store scanned data in a computer on a network rather than in the compound machine. That is, since the compound machine is frequently used by many users, failure of the compound machine or failure of a storage in the compound machine may arise. In such a case, the scanned data in the compound machine can not be read out.
In addition, in a case in which many compound machines are connected on the network, if the number of pieces of scanned data managed in each compound machine increases, it is necessary to determine which compound machine stores scanned data to be used. Thus, efficiency for using scanned data is not good. | {
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This invention relates generally to brush making apparatus, and more specifically to automatic equipment for filling bristles into elongated cores.
There is continuing demand for rotary brushes especially of large size, of various diameters, and axial lengths, bristle concentrations per unit brush area, and bristle lengths. Along with this demand, there is need for efficient, easily adjustable, and easily operated equipment to produce such brushes, as for example have cores of considerable lengths--6-12 feet for example. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the area of glass processing, and in particular, the production of glasses in which bubbles or porosities have been reduced or eliminated entirely.
Fluoride glasses have been employed in fabricating ultra low loss optical fibers and high energy laser windows. Optical fibers made from zirconium, barium, lanthanum, aluminum, and sodium (ZBLAN) fluorides have the potential for ultra low losses, with a theoretical lower limit of 0.01 dB/km. However, the process of melting and casting glass preforms from these materials results in the formation of bubbles in the core and at the core clad interface. Thus, fluoride glasses have yet to replace existing materials due to the problem of high extrinsic scattering in the glasses due to such bubbles. The elimination of such bubbles can provide the high quality optical materials required for ultra low loss optical fibers and high energy laser windows.
The use of fluoride glasses for ultra low loss optical fibers is limited by the transmission loss or attenuation in these fibers. Since the ultimate application of ultra low loss fibers is for long length, repeaterless communications systems, both low transmission loss and length of low loss fibers are of equal concern.
Numerous preform processing techniques have been attempted to provide ultra low loss fluoride glass fibers (Comyns (1989) Critical Reports on Applied Chemistry 27:187-92). All these techniques resulted in fibers with large extrinsic scattering losses, due primarily to bubbles in the center of the preform core and at the core-cladding interface. State of the art glass casting processes have reduced the severity of bubble formation by casting the glasses at lower temperatures to minimize contraction, yet micro-bubbles remain a problem.
The lowest loss achieved with fluoride glass optical fibers has been reported to be 0.7 dB/km for a fiber 30 meters long (Kanamore et al. (1986) Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 25: L468-L470). Due to the short length of the fiber measured, some laboratories have questioned the accuracy of this measurement, and most researchers believe that the fiber should be at least 100 meters long to obtain accurate measurements. The lowest loss reported for a 100 meter length fluoride fiber is 2.6 dB/km (Williams et al. (1989) Extended Abstracts of the 6th International Conference on Halide Glasses, Clausthal, FRG, pages 521-25).
Fluoride glasses have been estimated to have an intrinsic loss of <0.01 dB/km. The use of such glasses would therefore theoretically increase the distance light signals could be transmitted by an order of magnitude relative to present silica optical fibers, which have intrinsic losses of 0.16 dB/km. The problems in achieving the intrinsic loss values for fluoride fibers are associated with absorption from transition metal ions and rare earth metal ion impurities, and the extrinsic scattering sources which result from glass processing and fiberizing. Presently, the impurity absorptions contribute very little to the measured losses in these fibers, while the scattering losses are the dominant cause of such high optical losses. Therefore, to reduce the scattering losses in these fibers, the method of glass processing requires modification so as to eliminate the sources of defects which give rise to extrinsic scattering.
The lowest losses achieved for fluoride glass optical fibers have all been achieved via a glass melting and casting process to fabricate preforms which are then drawn into fibers. The preform making processes all involve the casting of a core glass into a slightly lower refractive index cladding glass tube. When the core glass is cast, bubbles can be entrapped at the core/cladding glass interface. Then, as the core glass solidifies, a large thermal contraction occurs, creating bubbles in the center of the core. These resultant bubbles not only scatter light, but also provide nucleation sites for crystal formation when the preform is subsequently drawn into a fiber.
While attempts have been made to remove bubbles from fluoride glasses by isothermal heat treatments, this technique has not proved successful (McNamara et al. (1987) Jour. Non-Cryst. Solids 95 & 96:625-32). Some bubbles were eliminated by these heat treatments (presumably vacuum bubbles), but most collapsed to only a minimum diameter, while others broke up into many tiny micro-bubbles. In addition, the temperatures required to remove even the vacuum bubbles were excessive, causing the glass to crystallize and slump or distort geometrically.
As far as the present inventors are aware, no documented methods exist which will produce bubble-free fluoride glass preforms or bulk fluoride glass. Also, while HIP has been used previously to provide reduce defects in the production of conventional silica glass, conventional silica glasses, because of their greater viscosity and the large spread which exists between their glass transition temperatures and their melting points, are less prone to bubbles and crystallization than are fluoride glass fibers. Thus, the ability of a procedure to prevent or reduce defects in a silica glasses is not indicative of that procedure's ability to provide similar benefits in fluoride glasses. | {
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Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to development of Web-sites and Web-applications. More specifically, the present invention relates to server-side access to the dynamic Web.
Description of the Related Art
The online experience of Internet users is important to Web-site owners. Internet users expect Web-sites and Web-based applications to work properly, to be highly responsive, and to load quickly in the user's browser. Slow responding Web-pages often lead to searching for other Web-sites that are faster, more responsive and work correctly.
Prior to Rich Internet Applications, traditional Web applications involved a client-server architecture with all of the processing on the server side and the client-side used to display the HTML web-pages served by the server. Each time a user desired to view a new Web-page, a HTTP request was sent to the server and the requested Web-page was served to the Web browser on the client-side. Such a traditional system is shown in FIG. 1 with a Web-server 1000 on a server side receiving requests over the Internet 1005 from a Web-browser 1003 on a client-side.
Rich Internet Applications, such as Ajax, greatly improved on the traditional client-server architecture by allowing the client machine to dynamically render and partially refresh web pages based on an initial set of instructions from the server, user input, and small amounts of subsequent data dynamically requested from the server. As shown in FIG. 2, the client machine processes Ajax instructions to render a Web page for the user.
Early Web applications allowed a user's browser to send a request to a server. The server processed the request and responded to the browser with a Web page. When the user wanted to view a new page, another request was sent to the server and the server responded to the browser with a new Web page. Such a process resulted in a waste of bandwidth since much of the Web contents in the first Web page were also contained in the second web page. The need to resend the same information led to a much slower user interface of a Web application than that of a native application.
An emerging technology, called Ajax (Asynchronous and JavaScript XML), was developed for refreshing part of a page instead of refreshing the whole page on every interaction between the user and application. In an Ajax application, when a user submits a form in a page, a script program, usually a JavaScript program, resident on the Web browser receives the user's request and sends a XML (Extended Markup Language) HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) request to the Web server in background so as to retrieve only the needed Web contents instead of the whole page and perform corresponding processing to partly refresh the page when receiving a response from the Web server. In this way, the application response time is shortened, because the amount of data exchanged between the Web browser and the Web server is greatly reduced. And the processing time of the Web server is saved because much of the processing is performed at the client side.
General definitions for terms utilized in the pertinent art are set forth below.
Ajax is the use of dynamic HTML, JavaScript and CSS to create dynamic and usually interactive Web sites and applications. A more detailed explanation of Ajax is set forth in Edmond Woychowsky, AJAX, Creating Web Pages with Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, Prentice Hall, 2007, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Applets or Java Applets are mini-executable programs named with the .class suffix and are placed on a Web page and provide interactive and multimedia uses.
Application Programming Interface (API) is a collection of computer software code, usually a set of class definitions, that can perform a set of related complex tasks, but has a limited set of controls that may be manipulated by other software-code entities. The set of controls is deliberately limited for the sake of clarity and ease of use, so that programmers do not have to work with the detail contained within the given API itself.
Aspect Oriented Programming (“AOP”) is a software programming paradigm that increases modularity through breaking down a program into cross-cutting concerns. AOP introduces aspects which encapsulate behaviors that affect multiple classes into reusable modules.
An Attribute provides additional information about an element, object or file. In a Document Object Model, an attribute, or attribute node, is contained within an element node.
Behavioral layer is the top layer and is the scripting and programming that adds interactivity and dynamic effects to a site.
Binding in a general sense is the linking of a library to an application program usually to prevent repetition of frequently utilized code.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a W3C standard for defining the presentation of Web documents.
Compiler is a computer program that translates a series of instructions written in one computer language into a resulting output in a different computer language.
Document Object Model (DOM) Element is an object contained in a Document Object Model (DOM). The term DOM is generally used to refer to the particular DOM held in the memory region being used by the Web browser. Such a DOM controls the Graphical Respondent Interface (GRI) or Graphical User Interface (GUI). The DOM is generated according to the information that the Web browser reads from the HTML file, and/or from direct JavaScript software instructions. Generally, there exists a unique DOM element for every unique HTML element. DOM elements are sometimes referred to as HTML/DOM elements, because the DOM element exists only because HTML code that was read by the Web browser listed some HTML element that had not previously existed, and thereby caused the Web browser to create that DOM element. Often specific elements of the greater set of HTML/DOM elements are identified by specifying an HTML/DOM checkbox element, or an HTML/DOM text input element. A more detailed explanation of the document object model is set forth in Jeremy Keith, DOM Scripting, Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model, friends of, 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a method of mixing text and other content with layout and appearance commands in a text file, so that a browser can generate a displayed image from the file.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a set of conventions for controlling the transfer of information via the Internet from a Web server computer to a client computer, and also from a client computer to a Web server.
Internet is the worldwide, decentralized totality of server computers and data-transmission paths which can supply information to a connected and browser-equipped client computer, and can receive and forward information entered from the client computer.
JavaScript is an object-based programming language. JavaScript is an interpreted language, not a compiled language. JavaScript is generally designed for writing software routines that operate within a client computer on the Internet. Generally, the software routines are downloaded to the client computer at the beginning of the interactive session, if they are not already cached on the client computer. JavaScript is discussed in greater detail below.
JSON is JavaScript Object Notation format, which is a way of taking data and turning it into valid JavaScript syntax for reconstituting an object at the other end of the transmission protocol.
MySQL is a relational database management system which relies on SQL for processing data in a database.
Parser is a component of a compiler that analyzes a sequence of tokens to determine its grammatical structure with respect to a given formal grammer. Parsing transforms input text into a data structure, usually a tree, which is suitable for later processing and which captures the implied hierarchy of the input. XML Parsers ensure that an XML document follows the rules of XML markup syntax correctly.
PHP is a scripting language that allows developers create dynamically generated Web pages, and is used for server-side programming.
Platform is the combination of a computer's architecture, operating system, programming language (PHP, JAVA, RUBY ON RAILS), runtime libraries and GUIs.
Presentation layer follows the structural layer, and provides instructions on how the document should look on the screen, sound when read aloud or be formatted when it is printed.
Rendering engine is software used with a Web browser that takes Web content (HTML, XML, image files) and formatting information (CSS, XSL) and displays the formatted content on a screen.
Serialization places an object in a binary form for transmission across a network such as the Internet and deserialization involves extracting a data structure from a series of bytes.
SQL (Structured Query Language) is a computer language designed for data retrieval and data management in a database.
Structural layer of a Web page is the marked up document and foundation on which other layers may be applied.
User is a client computer, generally operated by a human being, but in some system contexts running an automated process not under full-time human control.
Web-Browser is a complex software program, resident in a client computer, that is capable of loading and displaying text and images and exhibiting behaviors as encoded in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) from the Internet, and also from the client computer's memory. Major browsers include MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER, NETSCAPE, APPLE SAFARI, MOZILLA FIREFOX, and OPERA.
Web-Server is a computer able to simultaneously manage many Internet information-exchange processes at the same time. Normally, server computers are more powerful than client computers, and are administratively and/or geographically centralized. An interactive-form information-collection process generally is controlled from a server computer, to which the sponsor of the process has access. Servers usually contain one or more processors (CPUs), memories, storage devices and network interface cards. Servers typically store the HTML documents and/or execute code that generates Web-pages that are sent to clients upon request. An interactive-form information-collection process generally is controlled from a server computer, to which the sponsor of the process has access.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an unofficial standards body which creates and oversees the development of web technologies and the application of those technologies.
XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) is a language for describing the content of hypertext documents intended to be viewed or read in a browser.
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a W3C standard for text document markup, and it is not a language but a set of rules for creating other markup languages.
There are three types of JavaScript: 1) Client-side JavaScript; 2) Server-side JavaScript; and 3) Core JavaScript. Client-side JavaScript is generally an extended version of JavaScript that enables the enhancement and manipulation of web pages and client browsers. Server-side JavaScript is an extended version of JavaScript that enables back-end access to databases, file systems, and servers. Core JavaScript is the base JavaScript.
Core JavaScript includes the following objects: array, date, math, number and string. Client-side JavaScript and Server-side JavaScript have additional objects and functions that are specific to client-side or server-side functionality. Generally, any JavaScript libraries (.js files) created in core JavaScript can be used on both the client and the server without changes. Client-side JavaScript is composed of a Core JavaScript and additional objects such as: document, form, frame and window. The objects in Client-side JavaScript enable manipulation of HTML documents (checking form fields, submitting forms, creating dynamic pages) and the browser (directing the browser to load other HTML pages, display messages). Server-side JavaScript is composed of Core JavaScript and additional objects and functions for accessing databases and file systems, and sending email. Server-side JavaScript enables Web developers to efficiently create database-driven web applications. Server-side JavaScript is generally used to create and customize server-based applications by scripting the interaction between objects. Client-side JavaScript may be served by any server but only displayed by JavaScript-enabled browsers. Server-side JavaScript must be served by a JavaScript-enabled server but can be displayed by any browser.
Dinovo, United States Patent Publication Number 20020069255 for a Dynamic Content Delivery To Static Page In Non-Application Capable Environment discloses a system for incorporating dynamic content into a static page from a non-application capable server.
Mocket et al., United States Patent Publication Number 20010037359 for a System And Method For A Server-side Browser Including Markup Language Graphical User Interface, Dynamic Markup Language Rewriter Engine And Profile Engine describes a system and method for a server-side browser including markup language graphical user interface, dynamic markup language rewriter engine and profile engine. The system includes a user computer and a destination server computer separated by a server computer hosting a server-side browser (SSB). The SSB includes a markup language graphical user interface (MLGUI), a dynamic markup language rewriter engine (DMLRE) and a profiling engine (PE). The SSB may be configured as an intermediary infrastructure residing on the Internet providing customized information gathering for a user. The components of the SSB allow for controlling, brokering and distributing information more perfectly by controlling both browser functionality (on the client-side) and server functionality (on the destination site side) within a single point and without the necessity of incremental consents or integration of either side.
Lafer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,382, for Method And System For Web Site Construction Using HTML Fragment Caching discloses storing HTML fragments in a tag cache.
Buchthal et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,308,648 for a Method, System, And Computer-Readable Medium For Filtering Harmful HTML In An Electronic Document, discloses parsing an HTML document into HTML elements and attributes and comparing these to a content library using a filter of an API to remove unknown HTML fragments.
Daugherty et al., United States Patent Publication Number 20020016828 for a Web Page Rendering Architecture discloses a system and method for caching function calls.
Lipton et al., United States Patent Publication Number 20070143672 for Partial Rendering Of Web Pages discloses updating a Web page without having to download the entire Web page, with some rendering instructions represented as HTML fragments.
Irassar et al., United States Patent Publication Number 20040250262, for Business To Business Event Communications discloses an event handling mechanism that allows communication of event information among providers and subscribers across a network using an event handling server.
Jennings et al., United States Patent Publication Number 20070073739 for a Data-Driven And Plug-In Defined Event Engine, discloses an event engine that enables application developers to define finite state machines for implementation via a data-driven approach using executable plug-ins.
Lindhorst et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,981,215 for a System For Converting Event-Driven Code Into Serially Executed Code, discloses an event-driven server model that uses active server pages that appear to other files as objects with associated method and properties for developing Web pages.
Wilson, United States Patent Publication Number 20070240032, for a Method And System For Vertical Acquisition Of Data From HTML Tables discloses passing a HTML document's content from a table to a DOM interpreter and parsing selected data to a formatted data structure on a browser.
Monsour et al., United States Patent Publication Number 20050278641 for a JavaScript Calendar Application Delivered To A Web Browser, discloses a JavaScript application that generates HTML on-the-fly from within invisible frames and renders such HTML on a user's screen in visible frames.
Alderson, United States Patent Publication Number 20040201618 for Streaming Of Real-Time Data To A Browser disclose's means for sending real-time data to a browser in batches at a predetermined time by storing data in a queue either on the browser or server.
Dillon et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,389,330 for a System And Method For Pre-Fetching Content In A Proxy Architecture discloses a system that uses an upstream proxy server in communication over a WAN with a downstream proxy server that communicates with a browser, which allows for pre-fetching of objects by the upstream proxy server over the Internet from a Web-server.
McCollum et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,269,636 for a Method And Code Module For Adding Function To A Web Page discloses a means for adding function to a Web page on Web browser.
Collins et al., United States Patent Publication Number 20070027768 for a System And Method For Collection Of Advertising Usage Information discloses a HTML tag that is operative to request an instrumentation script from a script server, with the instrumentation script being operative to collect visitor event information on a Web-site.
Mechkov et al., United States Patent Publication Number 20070214239 for a Dynamically Updated Web Page discloses updating less than an entire Web page using an active server page authored using ASP.NET.
Abe et al., United States Patent Publication Number 20040268303 for a System, Method, And Computer Program Product For Generating A Web Application With Dynamic Content discloses a technique to use objects and Web contents dynamically generated on a server to generate a Web application model to support a change of a system.
However, current technologies that operate Server-side JavaScript fail to offer complete interactions which are the hallmark of rich web sites and applications. More and more of the world wide web is not available as in the HTML delivered by web servers. Rather than serving up a largely static DOM with a few JavaScript event handlers, rich web sites and applications are served as containers or skeletons, whose meaningful content is only instantiated on the browser via JavaScript and Ajax calls. | {
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The invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for providing scaleable, flexible, and interactive views of dynamically changing data stored in a cache, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for flexibly interacting, controlling and collaborating, in real-time, the display of data stored at a remote location and provided for interactive display over a network or locally.
The invention relates to many Web-based applications and as one example, to financial fields, such as financial portfolio and market data applications. In particular, in order to function effectively, users need the proper tools to research, monitor, and analyze portfolio and market information, and to communicate with one another, with customers and with suppliers. Existing software systems currently provide only partial solutions to these needs. These systems do not provide a flexible, outsourced, real-time, collaborative, Web-based total solution. It is further important for these professionals to have real-time tools which enable up-to-date data to be effectively displayed, manipulated and shared in order to allow fully informed and current decisions to be undertaken. Flexibility in user presentation can also be important to understanding the data and the relationship between different data points and entities. | {
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This invention relates in general to frequency dividing circuits, and more particularly, to a fractional frequency divider for providing an output clock signal operating at a frequency equal to that of the input clock signal divided by the ratio of two integer values.
The need to generate a lower frequency clock signal from a higher frequency timing base signal is common in many of the electronic arts. In the field of data communications, for example, common operating frequencies for transmitting data over a modem link are 1200, 2400 and 9600 baud which may be realized by dividing a 1.152 MHz input clock signal by 960, 480 and 120, respectively. The conventional technique for generating the lower frequency output clock signal typically involves decrementing a counter preset to an integer value N once for each period of the input clock signal, hereinafter referred to as linear frequency division. The output clock signal remains logic zero until the counter reaches zero at which time the linear frequency divider generates one pulse and reloads the counter with the integer N. Thus, the linear frequency divider produces one output period every N input periods, i.e., the input clock is divided by N. The 1.152 MHz input clock signal is typically developed via a dedicated crystal oscillator designed specifically for such data communication purposes. It would be desirable to eliminate the 1.152 MHz crystal oscillator thereby simplifying the system design and reducing the manufacturing costs. This could be accomplished by using another high frequency clock signal, say a 10 MHz microprocessor clock already available in the system; however, in order to develop the appropriate operating frequencies, i.e., 1200, 2400 and 9600 Hz, the 10 MHz clock signal must be divided by the non-integer values 8333.33, 4166.67 and 1041.67, respectively. In practice, the high frequency timing base clock signal is typically divided in multiple steps of smaller increments per step to achieve the aforementioned operational frequencies.
Consequently, fractional frequency dividers have been developed to divide the frequency of the input clock signal by a non-integer value such as the ratio N/D where N and D are integers and N is greater than D. One such fractional frequency divider is the well known phase lock loop which can produce a virtually jitter free output clock signal having a predetermined frequency and duty cycle. However, many applications in data communications require synchronization between the edges of the input clock signal and the lower frequency output clock signal; a feature not available with phase locked loops. Furthermore, the phase lock loop is relatively complex and expensive to implement requiring substantial logic circuitry and a reference clock signal operating at a much higher frequency than even the input clock signal being divided. Hence, the phase lock loop is not a viable solution for many data communication applications because of the synchronization problems and excessive complexity.
Another fractional frequency divider may be achieved with the linear frequency divider wherein, for the example of a 7/2 (N=7, D=2) divider ratio, the frequency divider must generate two output pulses for every seven pulses of the input clock signal. For such an implementation, the output clock signal may remain logic zero for five decrements of the counter followed by alternating logic one and logic zero at the rate of the input clock signal during the next two consecutive cycles of the input clock signal thereby producing one longer period (six cycles of the input clock signal) and one shorter period (one cycle of the input clock signal) over the seven cycles of the input clock signal. The repeating output clock signal comprising alternating long and short periods is noticeably non-symmetrical and can be even more so with other divider ratios N/D, such as N=13 and D=5. Since the output clock signal is often applied as the input clock signal to another frequency divider circuit further downstream for providing the multiple division steps to reach the desired low frequency operational clock signal, the non-symmetry of the output clock signal can be a major problem in form of undesirable jitter in the operational clock signal.
Hence, what is needed is a frequency divider circuit for providing an output clock signal operating at a fractional frequency of the input clock signal while maintaining a substantially symmetrical output waveform thereby reducing the jitter for lower frequency operational clock signals generated therefrom. | {
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This invention relates to superconducting circuits employing devices such as those known as Josephson junctions (JJs).
It is known in the art to employ JJs integrated together according to a rapid-single flux-quantum (RFSQ) methodology to manufacture ultrafast superconducting digital circuits.
The RSFQ technology is a low-voltage technology producing pulses having amplitudes in the range of 0.5 millivolts (mV) which are very fast (e.g., 4 picoseconds wide). In order to transmit the digital information generated by and within these RSFQ circuits for processing by standard semiconductor circuits, several stages of amplification are needed to increase the amplitude of the pulses while maintaining high speed of operation without introducing noise and distortion.
A prior art superconducting circuit for amplifying signals is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a highly simplified schematic diagram which shows a current source, 10, supplying a current (Ics), to a stack 12 of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) connected in series between an output terminal 17 and a point of reference potential 19, shown as ground. A load resistor RL is connected in parallel with the stack 12. FIG. 2 shows the stack 12 includes “n”, generally identical, SQUIDs (12a through 12n) connected in series with the same SQUID current (Ics) flowing through each SQUID of the stack 12. Each SQUID (see for example 12i) includes an input node, 121, and an output node 123 and two JJs (JJ1, JJ2) interconnected (in parallel) by inductive elements defining an inductive loop. SQUIDs have a settable critical current (Ic) and are characterized (as shown in FIG. 3) such that: (a) when the SQUID current (Ics) flowing between the input and output nodes of a SQUID is below the critical current (Ic) of the Josephson Junctions of the SQUID, the SQUID is in its superconducting state, exhibiting essentially zero resistance between its input and output nodes; and (b) when the current, Ics, flowing between the input and output nodes of a SQUID is above the critical current (Ic) of the SQUID, the SQUID is placed in its resistive state, exhibiting a finite resistance (e.g., 1 ohm) between its input and output nodes. A control current (Icc or Is) may be electromagnetically coupled to a SQUID, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, such that the SQUID's critical current (Ic) is raised to a higher value (Ic=Ich) or is decreased (i.e., depressed) to a lower value (Ic=Icd). Thus, for a given Ics flowing through a SQUID, it can be driven between a superconducting state and a resistive state by varying the Icc electromagnetically coupled to the SQUID.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a critical current control circuit (a signal generator) 14 whose current output, designated as Is or Icc, is distributed via a line 15 to the SQUIDs of the stack for electromagnetically controlling/setting the value of the critical current (Ic) in the SQUIDs of the stack.
For purpose of illustration it may be assumed that the resistance of a single SQUID, in its resistive state, is in the range of one (1) ohm. In order to amplify the signal and generate signal voltages of several millivolts it is necessary to have many SQUIDs stacked in series. Assume, for purpose of example, that 50 SQUIDs are stacked in series and, when in the resistive state, the SQUID stack has a total resistance of Rs and that an RL of 50 ohms is connected in parallel with the stack.
When the stack 12 is in its superconductive state, the output line 17 is clamped to ground. When the stack 12 is in the resistive state, the voltage on output line 17 is equal to [Ics]×[(Rs)(RL)/(Rs)+(RL)]. This enables the production of a unipolar amplified signal. However, the prior art circuit suffers from some significant limitations in that the output for the resistive state condition is not well defined. That is, the output signal condition is a function of the value of, and limitations, on Ics and of the Rcs of the stack. For a given Ics, within the range of Icd and Ich, flowing through a SQUID, the SQUID can be driven between a resistive state and a superconductive state. However, if Ics is made greater than some value of Ich, the SQUID can not be readily switched from the resistive state to superconductive state. Thus, the prior art circuit provides for a degree of signal amplification, but does not ensure that the output signal is driven to a known and fixed voltage level when the SQUIDs in the stack are in the resistive state.
When the SQUIDs in a stack are in the superconductive state, they have essentially zero impedance. Therefore, if the SQUIDs in a stack were driven by a voltage source excessive currents would flow through the short circuit (zero impedance) condition. Thus, in accordance with the prior art, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the SQUIDs in a stack are driven by a current source whose current, Ics, flows to ground either via a short circuit or via the parallel combination of the stack resistance in parallel with the load resistance. The stack of SQUIDS cannot be driven by a voltage source because of the short circuit condition which would cause undesirably large currents to flow.
Another problem with the prior art circuit (see FIG. 2) is that it is desirable for all the SQUIDs in the stack to be turned on to one condition, or another, at the same time. However, when there are a large number of SQUIDs, it is difficult to distribute the control signal to achieve this result. For example, in FIG. 2 the control line 15 is shown to be wound around all the SQUIDs of the stack so as to distribute the control signal in a serial fashion to the SQUIDs. At the operating frequencies of interest even small differences in the length of the control signal line between different ones of the SQUIDs results in different propagation delays and the application of set or reset signals at different times to the different SQUIDs. The operation of the stack and the speed of response are then adversely affected.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an improved amplifier which can provide ultra fast voltage amplification reliably. | {
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In order to improve the reliability of data storage in a storage system, data are stored after being multiplexed (duplexed, for example) in a plurality of logical volumes and, in cases where a fault or the like occurs with any logical volume, data restoration is performed by utilizing the data of another logical volume.
As technology that utilizes data duplexing, technology that performs high-speed restoration based on a data update history in cases where a fault occurs in one of the duplexed systems has been disclosed (See Japanese Application Laid Open No. 2007-86972, for example). Further, a technology that reduces the processing load of a higher level device when data are duplexed is also known (See Japanese Application Laid Open No. 2005-196490, for example). Further, technology that performs a high-speed restore with respect to storage constituting the source from storage which is the target when data duplexing is performed is also known (Japanese Application Laid Open No. 2005-339554, for example).
In addition, a backup server system that improves the reliability of data storage more reliably and at a lower cost by saving duplexed data to a magnetic tape cartridge is known.
FIG. 1 illustrates a backup server system according to a conventional example.
In a backup server system 100, a task server 101 stores data which are used in the task in a P-Vol (Primary Volume) 105 of a disk array device 102 and, in the disk array device 102, data which are written to the P-Vol 105 are duplexed to an S-Vol (Secondary Volume) 106 with predetermined timing. Thereafter, a backup server 103 backs up the data of the S-Vol 106 to tape cartridge 107 of a tape library device 104. Thereafter, when data restoration is performed, the backup server 103 reads data from the tape cartridge 107 by means of a tape library device 104 and stores this data in the S-Vol 106. As a result, the data of the S-Vol 106 can be restored. Subsequently, by starting a reverse copy from the S-Vol 106 to the P-Vol 105, in the case of a low load task, the task server 101 is able to re-start the task utilizing the P-Vol 105. However, in the case of a high load task, when the host access performance drops as a result of the reverse copy from the S-Vol 106 to the P-Vol 105, the task cannot be re-started until the reverse copy is complete.
According to the technology of the above backup server system, the S-Vol 106 that holds the backup is restored, whereupon the task can be re-started by re-starting the reverse copy to the P-Vol 105.
However, in a task restart immediately after restoring the S-Vol 106, the data have not been completely restored to the P-Vol 105. Hence, in cases where read access to an uncopied region of the P-Vol 105 takes place, a response to the host device can only be made after copying from the S-Vol 106. Further, data required for the parity generation of the RAID configuration must be copied from the S-Vol 106 even when the P-Vol 105 is write-accessed. As a result, the host access performance is reduced still further.
In order to prevent a drop in the host access performance of this kind, a direct restore operation from the tape cartridge to the P-Vol 105 has been considered.
In this case, the user unmounts the P-Vol 105 from the task server 101 and mounts the P-Vol 105 on the backup server 103. The user then designates the tape cartridge 107 for storing the backup data of the S-Vol 106 corresponding with the P-Vol 105 that the user has mounted on the backup server 103, and instructs the P-Vol constituting the restore destination to execute a restore to the P-Vol 105. Thereafter, the user unmounts the P-Vol 105 from the backup server 103 and mounts the P-Vol 105 on the task server 101. As a result, the task can be restarted if the task is a low load task. In such a case, because there is no need to read-access the S-Vol 106 in the case of read access and write access by the task server 101, there is no drop in the host access performance as a result of accessing the S-Vol 106.
Thereafter, by performing a copy from the P-Vol 105 to the S-Vol 106, a task can be performed without hindrance following copy completion even in the case of a high load task. In addition, following restore completion to the P-Vol 105, the high-load task is started immediately, whereupon an operation in which a copy is made from the P-Vol 105 to the S-Vol 106 in a low load time band such as at night or during a holiday is also possible.
However, in cases where a restore to the P-Vol 105 is performed, the user must perform an operation of the kind described earlier, which is time-consuming. Moreover, it is necessary to designate the P-Vol 105 rather than the S-Vol 106 which is the save source of the data as the restore destination for the data from the tape cartridge, and there is a risk of error in this designation. In addition, whereas the user is normally conscious of the logical volume name of the OS file system, in a basic operation, the user must be conscious of the LU of the disk array device. In addition, in the case of a user with no detailed knowledge of the disk array device 102, there is also the problem that it is difficult to find out the P-Vol 105 which corresponds with the S-Vol. | {
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Electronic fund transfer over mobile phones is growing popular. Many systems include combining a point of sale (POS) device with a wireless communication device such as a cell phone.
These POS devices include a processor as well as an input device to receive and process information from a transaction card such as a debit card, a credit card, a cash card, a stored value card, an ATM card or combinations thereof and the like. The input device may include a bar code reader, a magnetic stripe reader, an integrated circuit reader, a smartcard reader, a fingerprint scanner, an optical scanner, a signature pad, an alphanumeric keypad (including a PIN pad), a proximity detector, an audio recording device, a camera or combinations thereof and the like. The processor of the POS device receives information from the transaction card and sends it to a remote computer via a communication network. This information can be transmitted by the processor via the wireless communication device. The wireless communication device includes a transceiver, a communication port or any other type of similar communication device capable of transmitting information received by the portable transaction device processor from the transaction card to the remote computer. The communication link between the remote computer and the wireless communication device can be provided by the processor of the wireless communication device. The portable transaction device can also include a Global Positioning System (GPS) locator chipset so the location of the POS can be tracked by the remote computer. The remote computer sends the information it has received to the processor of the institution that has issued the transaction card that is being used. The processor of this institution validates the requested transaction and sends this information to the processor of the portable transaction device via the remote computer and the wireless communication device which are linked to each other by way of the aforementioned communication network.
Known systems which combine POS devices with wireless communication devices present certain drawbacks such as the inconvenient length of time to receive information regarding whether or not a given transaction has been accepted or refused. Other systems currently available include PayPal mobile, Obopay, Swipepay mobile. These solutions use either SMS or FPRS as the means of communication. However, these communication methods often suffer from an unbounded delay or become unavailable in locations where these services are not provided. Another drawback of existing systems is that they require registration and installation of software which are usually inconvenient for users to install. More importantly, these systems do not work for all mobile phones given the many different combinations of hardware and software platforms. Moreover, these solutions are not secure. They are prone to spyware or keylogger. Hence they are not compliant with payment card industry standards such as PC1 PED. | {
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Medical devices such as stents, stent grafts, and vena cava filters, collectively referred to hereinafter as “stents,” are often utilized for treating various types of disease of tubular organs having lumens. A medical prosthesis, such as a stent for example, may be loaded onto a stent delivery device and then introduced into a tubular organ lumen in a delivery configuration having a reduced diameter. Once delivered to a target location within the body, the stent may then expand or be expanded to an expanded configuration within the tubular organ to support and reinforce the organ wall while maintaining the tubular organ in a patent, unobstructed condition. Stents can be used to treat intracranial aneurysms, which can rupture and are a major cause of stroke. When implanted in vessel at the site of an aneurysm, a stent reinforces the vessel and reduces the probability of rupture. Stents can also be used to treat atherosclerosis, in which the diameter of an artery is narrowed by a buildup of plaque on the artery walls. When implanted in an atherosclerotic artery, a stent reinforces the artery and reduces restenosis following angioplasty to open the narrowed artery. Further, Stents can be used in other tubular organs with anatomical lumens, such as bile ducts and ureters. Moreover, Stents can be used to expand a segment of a tubular organ.
Stents are generally tubular devices for insertion into body lumens. However, it should be noted that stents may be provided in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Balloon expandable stents require mounting over a balloon, positioning, and inflation of the balloon to expand the stent radially outward. Self-expanding stents expand into place when unconstrained, without requiring assistance from a balloon. A self-expanding stent may be biased so as to expand upon release from the delivery catheter and/or include a shape-memory component which allows the stent to expand upon exposure to a predetermined condition. Self-expanding stents are biased to an expanded configuration. Some stents may be characterized as hybrid stents which have some characteristics of both self-expandable and balloon expandable stents.
Typically, a stent is implanted in a blood vessel or other body lumen at the site of a stenosis or aneurysm by so-called “minimally invasive techniques” in which the stent is compressed radially inwards and is delivered by a catheter to the site where it is required through the patient's skin or by a “cut down” technique in which the blood vessel concerned is exposed by minor surgical means. When the stent is positioned at the correct location, the stent is caused or allowed to expand to a predetermined diameter in the vessel. Many delivery devices include sheaths or catheters, and delivery members having bumpers thereon to push and pull stents through the sheaths and catheters. A catheter may be configured to be bent without breaking while navigating through tortuous vasculature.
Stents can be made from a variety of materials, including polymers (e.g., nonbioerodable and bioerodable plastics) and metals. Bioerodable polymer stents are desirable for some applications due to their biodegradability and generally increased flexibility compared to metal stents. Stents can be made from shape memory materials, such as shape memory metals (e.g., Nitinol) and polymers (e.g., polyurethane). Such shape memory stents can be induced (e.g., by temperature, electrical or magnetic field or light) to take on a shape (e.g., a radially expanded shape) after delivery to a treatment site. Other stent materials include stainless steel, and Elgiloy. In drug delivery stents, the surface of the stent can be coated with a polymeric carrier, which can include a bioactive or therapeutic agent.
Stents are typically cylindrical scaffolds formed from a set of stent elements (i.e., struts). The struts can interconnect in a repeating pattern or in a random manner. The scaffolding can be woven from wires, cut out of tubes, or cut out of sheets of material that are subsequently rolled into a tube. Tubes and sheets from which stents are cut as also known as stent “preforms.” The manner in which a stent's struts interconnect determines its longitudinal and radial rigidity and flexibility. Longitudinal rigidity is needed to expand and maintain a lumen of a tubular organ, but longitudinal flexibility is needed to facilitate delivery of the stent (e.g., through tortuous vasculature). Radial rigidity is also needed to expand and maintain a lumen of a tubular organ, but radial flexibility is needed to facilitate radial compression of a stent for delivery. Stent patterns are typically designed to maintain an optimal balance between longitudinal and radial rigidity and flexibility for the stent.
Stents can be cut from tubes and sheet using a variety of techniques, including laser cutting or etching a pattern onto a tube or sheet to form struts from the remaining material. Lasers cutting or etching may be performed on a sheet, which is then rolled into a tube, or a desired pattern may be directly cut or etched into a tube. Other techniques involve forming a desired pattern into a sheet or a tube by chemical etching or electrical discharge machining. Laser cutting of stents has been described in a number of publications including U.S. Pat. No. 5,780,807 to Saunders, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,922,005 and 5,906,759 to Richter and U.S. Pat. No. 6,563,080 to Shapovalov, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, as though set forth in full. Stents may also include components that are welded, bonded or otherwise engaged to one another.
Laser cutting a stent from a metal tube typically includes mounting the metal tube onto a mandrel. A “mandrel” is generally a metal rod or bar on which a stent may be shaped or cut. The mandrel provides structural support to the tube as it is being cut and shaped to form the stent. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,780,807 to Saunders. However, strut widths are limited in laser cutting of tubes to form stents because tubes supported by known mandrels vibrate (to a certain degree) when impinged upon by a laser. This vibration places a lower limit on the size of struts (and other stent features) that can be consistently cut with a laser. Such known supported tubes can also sag, which would move the focus point of the laser, thereby affecting the cutting of the tubes.
Accordingly, there is an ongoing need for systems for and methods of laser cutting tubes to form stents with fine features such as struts with small widths. | {
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1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to a method and system for managing interactive communication campaigns.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known to provide systems or hosted solutions through which a business entity can create and manage an “outbound” communications campaign. An example of an interactive communications campaign is a telephone campaign to determine whether a target person desires to take a given action, or to remind that person about some event. Such outbound campaigns may also offer the person an opportunity to be connected to a customer representative. One such system may be an outbound telemarketing service. In this example, a business entity accesses the service through a web-based portal and provisions an outbound calling campaign. The targets are identified and managed by a campaign and list management (CLM) process, which typically uses historical connect patterns or demographic modeling to determine when a connect to a given target is most likely to be completed successfully. The output of the CLM process is a set of targets (or their respective phone numbers) ordered in a best time-to-call sequence. At a designated time, the service provider initiates the campaign, e.g., by providing the contacts to a set of telephone servers that set-up and manage the telephone calls to the targets of the campaign. During a given outbound call, as noted, a recipient may be afforded an option to connect to a contact center, e.g., to speak to a customer representative. In such implementations, the hosted solution typically is integrated directly with the contact center's on-premises automatic call distributor (ACD).
Workforce management systems are well-known in the prior art. Such systems integrate many management functions, such as workforce forecasting and scheduling, skill planning and scheduling, multimedia contact management, real-time schedule adherence, and the like. A representative commercial system of this type is TotalView®, from IEX Corporation. Such systems generate forecasts of call received volumes and call handling times based on historical data to determine how much staff will be needed at different times of the day and week; they then create schedules that match the staffing to the anticipated needs.
While known CLM and WFM systems are useful for their intended purposes, these functions have been independent. Moreover, CLM systems have several problems, foremost in that historical connect patterns are derived from data evidencing when agents have been scheduled in the past rather than data concerning when agents should be scheduled in the future. Moreover, CLM models do not consider skills-based agent availability, and they do not have the capability of optimizing the contact list as staffing changes occur, as they do inevitably. | {
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Example embodiments relate to semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to semiconductor devices and methods for repairing the same.
Generally, semiconductor memory devices are classified into volatile memory devices and non-volatile memory devices. Volatile memory devices lose their stored data when their power supplies are interrupted, while non-volatile memory devices retain their stored data even when their power supplies are interrupted.
Flash memory devices are non-volatile memory devices and may be classified into NOR-type flash memory devices (hereinafter referred to as “NOR flash memories”) and NAND-type flash memory devices (hereinafter referred to as “NAND flash memories”). A NAND flash memory is configured to control a string of memory cells at the same time, while a NOR flash memory is configured to control memory cells independently.
A typical NOR flash memory includes a cell array region, which may include a main cell array region and a redundancy cell array region formed at one side or both sides of the main cell array region. The main cell array region includes global bitlines and local bitlines that are connected to the global bitlines. The redundancy cell array region includes redundancy bitlines and local redundancy bitlines that are connected to the redundancy bitlines.
The memory cell array region may include a number of memory cells disposed in a matrix of wordlines and local bitlines. Even if only one of the memory cells is defective, a NOR flash memory is generally not capable of performing operations. As integration density of semiconductor devices increases, the likelihood that a memory cell of a NOR flash memory is defective increases. A defective memory cell (hereinafter referred to as “fail cell”) is a major cause of yield reduction in a NOR flash memory. Thus, if a fail cell is generated in a NOR flash memory, a bitline connected to the fail cell must be replaced with a redundancy bitline to compensate for a defect. For example, if an address is provided to select a fail cell, a redundancy bitline connected to a redundancy cell may be replaced with a global bitline connected to the fail cell to enable a NOR flash memory to operate normally.
That is, if a fail cell is generated in the main cell array region, a global bitline electrically connected to the fail cell is replaced with the redundancy bitline to be repaired. For this reason, repair technology for replacing a bitline connected to a fail cell with a redundancy bitline connected to a redundancy cell is important. | {
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The invention relates to an optical disk apparatus for enabling the use of different optical disk media by one apparatus and, more particularly, to an optical disk apparatus for enabling the use of both of a compact disc such as a CD-ROM or the like and a cartridge enclosed media such as a magneto-optical disk with a motor hub or the like by one apparatus.
A compact disc (CD) starting from an audio-use has been remarkably developed in about ten years and can presently be regarded as a primary multimedia component. Particularly, in recent years, a personal computer having therein a compact disc read only memory (hereinafter, simply referred to as a "CD-ROM") has rapidly spread. It is regarded that the position of a CD player for reproducing a CD-ROM has been established as a third file device subsequent to a floppy disk drive (FDD) and a hard disk drive (HDD). On the other hand, a rewritable type optical disk apparatus using a magneto-optical disk enclosed in a cartridge is also gradually spread by using advantages such that it has a large capacity and it is removable. The use of such a rewritable optical disk apparatus is also being progressed as a file device using a magneto-optical disk cartridge (MO cartridge) of 5 or 3.5 inches with a motor hub according to the ISO.
In a device using such a conventional optical disk media, however, an exclusive-use drive exists for every kind of the optical disk media such as CD-ROM or MO cartridge. Therefore, when the user wants to use both the CD-ROM and the MO cartridge, a CD player and an MO drive have to be separately prepared. Particularly, in recent years, in many cases, the CD player or MO drive is built in the apparatus main body as a peripheral device of a personal computer. In such a case, it is difficult in terms of the space to build two devices and there is an inconvenience such that only either one of the two devices can be built in the apparatus main body. Toward a full-scale multimedia age, with respect to the CD player, it is not limited to a function as a simple reproducing apparatus of the CD-ROM but a necessity of a rewriting function which has already been realized in the MO drive is strongly demanded. With regard to the MO drive, on the other hand, it is not limited to the use as a simple file device but it is strongly demanded that the MO drive can cope with a CD-ROM, a video CD, and the like which are provided as a part of the multimedia.
Particularly, when considering the MO drive, it is an indispensable condition to make it possible to fetch CD resources provided in the field of a personal computer which is rapidly being spread. In the CD player, in addition to a conventional CD-DA for music and a CD-ROM for reproducing dictionary data, an image data program, and the like, the edition and storage of a large capacity of data using those media simultaneously become the necessary conditions. On the other hand, the MO drive using the readable, writable, and further removable MO cartridge having a large capacity according to the ISO is also a device that is indispensable for processes of a large amount of data which is provided by the CD-ROM or the like. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical apparatus having means for controlling the position shifting movement of a focusing lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many focusing lens driving devices for accurately bringing the position of the focusing lens of an automatic focusing camera to a stop within an in-focus range by driving the lens at a low speed when an out-of-focus degree of an image on a focal plane (hereinafter referred to as a defocus degree) is small and, in the event of a great defocus degree, by driving the lens first at a high speed until the lens position comes to a point which is at a given short distance from an in-focus point before the speed is switched to the low driving speed, have been disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. SHO 56-94334, SHO 58-18611 and SHO 59-26709, U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,676, etc.
Roughly stated, the procedures taken according to the automatic focus adjusting method employed by these known devices are as follows:
1) The defocus degree DEF is detected by a focus detecting device.
2) The defocus degree DEF detected is converted into a focusing lens driving degree DL by using a degree of sensitivity S which is an amount of movement of the position of an image forming plane relative to a predetermined driving degree of the focusing lens. The conversion can be accomplished according to the following formula: EQU DL=DEF/S
In the case of a single lens which is arranged to be drawn out as a whole, the degree of sensitivity S can be considered to be nearly equal to "1". However, the degree of sensitivity S varies according to zooming, i.e., with the focal length in the case of a zoom lens and also varies with the focusing in the case of an inner focus type lens.
3) The focusing lens driving degree DL is converted into the rotating degree of an actuator used for driving the focusing lens. In this instance, the rotating degree is expressed in general by the number of pulses FP generated by an encoder which is arranged to monitor the rotating degree of the actuator. It is, therefore, expressed as follows: EQU FP=DL / PTH
wherein "PTH" represents the coefficient of "focusing lens driving degree vs. the number of pulses generated" determined by the lead of the helicoid screw of the focusing lens and the gear ratio of the gear train of a driving power transmission system.
4) The focus actuator is driven in a accelerating-and-decelerating pattern in accordance with the value of the pulse number FP outputted. The focusing lens is thus driven to reach an intended in-focus position.
5) The focus detection mentioned in Para. 1) above is again performed. If the defocus degree is found to be within a given in-focus range. The lens is regarded as in focus and the sequence of focusing steps are brought to an end. If not, the sequence of steps of Paragraphs 2) to 5) are continued.
In accordance with the above-stated method, the focusing lens driving degree DL is obtained from the defocus degree DEF by using the degree of sensitivity S. However, in driving the focusing lens, the driving pattern is irrelative to the degree of sensitivity S and is determined only by the focusing lens driving degree DL or the pulse number FP. This is further described as follows with a lens of 35-105 mm/F4 and PTH=0.01 taken up by way of example:
In the case of a zoom lens in general, the degree of sensitivity S varies in proportion to the square of the focal length f of the lens. Assuming that the degree of sensitivity S is at 0.5 when the focal length f is 35 mm, the degree of sensitivity S at f=105 mm is 4.5, which is a very high degree of sensitivity. The in-focus range (or width) is determined by the F number of the lens. However, in the case of the lens taken up by way of example, the F number is assumed to be unvarying over the whole area of the lens. Therefore, the in-focus width remains unchanged irrespectively of the focusing distance of the lens. In this case, the in-focus width is assumed to be plus or minus 0.1 mm (on the focal plane). Then, the value of the ratio between "the in-focus width and the focus shifting degree per pulse" becomes the smallest at the telephoto end position of the lens (f=105 mm). Therefore, the resolving power of the encoder, the gear ratio of the gear train, the focusing lens driving speed, i.e., the accelerating-and-decelerating pattern, etc., are arranged to give a prescribed lens stopping accuracy at the telephoto end of the lens.
With the lens arranged in this manner, a case where the defocus degree DEF is 9 mm at f=105 mm is compared with another case where the defocus degree DEF is 1 mm at f=35 mm as follows: In this instance, the focusing lens driving degree DL is 2 mm in both cases. Then, the number of driving pulses FP is 200 also in both cases. Therefore, in both cases, the lens is driven in the same accelerating-and-decelerating pattern. The driving time T and the stopping accuracy .delta.FP are also the same in both cases. Let us here assume that the driving time T is 0.2 sec and the stopping accuracy .delta.FP is plus or minus 1 pulse. Then, the stopping accuracy at f=105 mm on the focal plane is pulse or minus 45 .mu.m, which is adequate for the in-focus width of plus or minus 0.1 mm, while the stopping accuracy at f=35 mm is plus or minus 5.0 .mu.m, which can be considered to be a somewhat excessive accuracy. The accelerating-and-decelerating pattern obtained in this instance is shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 of the accompanying drawings.
In FIG. 9, the axis of abscissa shows the number of driving pulses and the axis of ordinate the driving speed. Accelerating-and-decelerating curves A1 to A5 show values obtained when the required driving degree FP is at a value FP1. The driving speed is at first accelerated to reach a maximum speed .omega.max when the lens is driven to the point of a pulse number FPa. The speed comes to be decelerated at a point preceding a stopping target point by a number of pulses FPb. After that, the lens is driven at a low constant speed .omega.low. The brake is applied at a point preceding the stopping target point by a number of pulses FPc. Then, the lens position comes to the target point after overrunning to a given degree. A curve shown by a one-dot chain line represents a lens of a heavy driving load. A curve shown by a two-dot chain line represents a lens of a light driving load. The fluctuations in the stopping accuracy due to the weight of the load become .+-..delta.FP.
Curves B1, B3, B4 and B5 are obtained in a case where a required driving degree FP2 is smaller than the required driving degree FP1. In this case, the driving speed is decelerated before the speed reaches the maximum speed .omega.max. Then, the lens is driven at the low speed .omega.low and, after that, the brake is applied to stop the lens. The stopping accuracy thus obtained is also .+-..delta.FP.
FIG. 10 shows the driving speed in relation to time. The axis of abscissa of FIG. 10 shows time from the commencement of lens driving. The axis of ordinate shows the lens driving speed. Curves C1 to C5 correspond to the curves A1 to A5 of FIG. 9, while curves D1 and D3 to D5 correspond to the curves B1 and B3 to B5 of FIG. 9.
During a period up to a point of time t0, the back-lash of the gear train is removed. During this period, a very small current is applied to the focusing lens driving motor for the purpose of canceling the backlash of the gear train between the motor and the helicoid screw. Therefore, several pulses might be received at a pulse encoder during this period. However, this causes no movement of the focusing lens. The pulses received during this period are, therefore, not counted. After that, the lens driving speed is accelerated to the maximum speed .omega.max and decelerated to the constant speed .omega.low before the brake is applied to stop the lens.
A feature of the method lies in the following point: While the area of the constant driving speed is not very long in terms of the driving pulses as viewed on the curve A4 in FIG. 9, it becomes much longer in terms of the time base as viewed on the curve C4 in FIG. 10. In other words, the constant speed driving time occupies a relatively large portion of the whole driving time. A driving time Td, therefore, does not much differ from a driving time Tc, as shown in FIG. 10, even if the number of driving pulses FP2 is one half of the number of driving pulses FP1 shown in FIG. 9.
As described in the foregoing, the accelerating-and-decelerating pattern is set in such a way as to have the driving speed appositely balanced with the lens stopping accuracy at the telephoto end (f=105 mm). Therefore, in a case where the lens is to be used at the wideangle end (f=35 mm), the stopping accuracy is higher than a necessary degree. On the other hand, in a case where the number of driving pulses is 200, for example, it corresponds only to a defocus degree of 2 mm at the wide-angle end on the focal plane while it corresponds to a defocus degree of 9 mm at the telephoto end. Therefore, if the lens is arranged to be driven for an unvarying length of time of 0.2 sec, the speed of a focus adjusting action on the image of a photographing object, as viewed within a view finder, would appear to be extremely slow at the wide-angle end.
When the lens is used on the side of the wide-angle end where the degree of sensitivity S is low, therefore, the operability of the automatic focusing device can be improved by varying the accelerating-and-decelerating pattern of the lens driving speed in such a way as to ease the stopping accuracy and to shorten the driving time.
To solve the above-stated problem, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. SHO 58-194005 disclosed an arrangement whereby the shifting speed of the focused state of an image obtained on the focal plane can be made constant irrespectively of the focal length of a zoom lens by varying a focusing lens driving speed according to information on zooming. According to this arrangement, the lens driving speed is lowered at a fixed rate on the side of the telephoto end from the speed used on the side of the wide-angle end. Therefore, while it effectively renders the image shifting speed, uniform this effect is achieved at the expense of the focusing time required when a great defocus state occurs on the telephoto side. In other words, while it is possible to drive the lens at the maximum speed of the motor covering a fairly large part of the first half portion of the driving area for shortening the driving time when the lens must be driven to a great extent on the telephoto side, it is impossible to do so in accordance with the arrangement disclosed.
Another drawback of the arrangement lies in the following point: In a case where the zoom lens is of the so-called rear focusing type, the degree of sensitivity S varies not only with the focal length of the lens but also with the distance to the object to be photographed, i.e., with the position of the focusing lens of the zoom lens. However, in accordance with the arrangement, it is impossible to make any correction in this connection.
Meanwhile, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. SHO 56-162728 disclosed a focusing lens speed adjusting method for a rear-focusing type zoom lens. In accordance with this method, the lens driving speed is changed according to the focus adjusting distance. An example of embodiment of this method is arranged to lower the lens driving speed on the wide-angle side which has a shorter focus adjusting distance However, as mentioned in the foregoing, the degree of sensitivity S varies approximately in proportion to the square of the zooming ratio of the zoom lens. Therefore, the requirement for stopping accuracy in terms of the rotation angle of the focusing actuator should be eased to a great degree on the wide-angle side. In view of this, the speed adjusting method disclosed cannot be considered to be always appropriate.
Further, in accordance with this method, the maximum speed is also lowered in lowering the lens driving speed. This, therefore, presents the same problem as in the case of the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. SHO 58-194005 mentioned in the foregoing.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. SHO 62-215217 disclosed a method of varying the focusing lens driving speed according to the degree of sensitivity S in the event of a low contrast search. That method is, however, intended to prevent an in-focus point from being lost to sight in searching for the in-focus point by driving the lens at a lower speed when the defocus degree for the object is located outside the focus detecting range of the camera. Hence, the speed of the constant speed driving area immediately before stopping the lens is not changed. Referring to FIG. 11, this is further discussed as follows: In a case where the degree of sensitivity S is low, a focus detecting action is repeated by driving the lens at the maximum speed .omega.max for the search as indicated by parts E1 to E5 in FIG. 11. Upon detection of the in-focus point, the lens driving speed is slowed down at the part E3. The lens is then driven at the constant driving speed at the part E4. After that, the brake is applied to bring the lens to a stop. In the case of a high sensitivity, the search driving is performed at a speed .omega.2; and, when the in-focus point is detected, the lens is driven at the constant low speed .omega.low before bringing the lens to a stop. In both cases, the lens is driven at the speed .omega.low when the brake is applied. Therefore, the stopping accuracy is plus or minus .delta.FP in both cases. However, on the focal plane, the stopping accuracy of the former (in the case of the low sensitivity) is better than that of the latter to a degree more than necessary.
The examples of the prior art described above are thus considered to be incapable of performing optimum control over the whole lens driving range, because the balance between the driving time and the stopping accuracy is lost when the degree of sensitivity is changed by zooming, etc. | {
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Natural cheese varieties (hard and semi-soft) are produced from milk with the addition of a fermented starter culture and a suitable coagulant (rennet) so as to develop the proper flavor, aroma, and desired acidity. The resulting fermented coagulum is then cut and the curd is cooked in its whey. After cooking the whey is drained from the curd and the curd can then be cheddared or stirred while additional acid is produced by fermentation of the lactose to lactic acid in the curd. If cheddared, the curd is then milled, salted and pressed into blocks or hoops for maturing.
The processing conditions are controlled to yield a product in which the residual lactose and unused buffer capacity of the curd are balanced, so that complete fermentation of the residual lactose in the curd to lactic acid will result in a cheese with the proper pH, normally about 4.9 to 5.6.
In order to increase the yield, it has been proposed to alter the composition of whole or skim milk by utilizing ultrafiltration or reverse osmosis ("Composition Of Hard Cheese Manufactured By Ultrafilatration", B. J. Sutherland and G. W. Jameson, Australian Journal of Dairy Technology, pp. 136-143, December 1981). In a process of this type, milk is concentrated by ultrafiltration and diafiltration to about one-fifth of its original volume and the resulting concentrate is then transferred to conventional processing to form cheese either by a batch or continuous process.
In the production of hard type cheese such as cheddar, colby or stirred curd, the curd must be formed, cut, and handled under conditions that allow sufficient whey separation to reduce the moisture to levels acceptable for these cheese varieties. Since the milk has been concentrated by ultrafilatration and diafiltration, less whey is separated than in traditional cheese making. During or following whey separation, the curd must be moved or held for an extended incubation period to allow fermentation of sufficient lactose to achieve the desired final pH in the product. It is this incubation period that has created problems for the continuous manufacture of hard cheese without building large curd incubation systems into the processing equipment.
More recently, a process has been developed in which the moisture content and pH of the final product can be controlled to any desired level. In this process, as described in "Cheese Base For Processing: A High Yield Product From Whole Milk by Ultrafiltration", C. A. Ernstrom, B. J. Sutherland and G. W. Jameson, Journal of Dairy Science, 63, 228, (1980), whole milk is concentrated by ultrafiltration to about 40% of its original milk weight and then diafiltered at constant volume until a desired ratio of lactose to buffer capacity is established and then concentrated by ultrafiltration to about 20% of the starting milk weight. The retentate thus produced is inocculated with a bacteria starter culture and with or without a coagulant and fermented by conventional procedures to completely ferment the residual lactose and obtain precise control of the final pH. | {
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This invention relates to apparatus for producing engraved printing forms, especially printing form cylinders.
The invention is an improvement on the apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,698. That apparatus serves to produce screen-point printing forms, particularly printing form cylinders, by means of electron beam engraving. It provides an electron beam producing device which is located in a vacuum chamber that has a side which is open and faces the surface of the printing form and defines with this surface an air gap. The vacuum chamber and/or printing form can be moved relative to one another, while maintaining the gap. To permit engraving of the printing form up to the edge thereof without having to install the printing form in a vacuum chamber, the U.S. Patent in question provides an annular body which extends the edge of the printing form, for example, it has an outer circumferential surface that constitutes, when the ring is located adjacent an axial end of a printing form cylinder, an extension of the peripheral surface of the cylinder.
This concept of the aforementioned U.S. Patent is highly advantageous. However, its practical application is frequently hampered in that many of the printing form cylinders which are currently in use in the industry are of such a character that it is difficult to secure the annular body to an end face of the printing form cylinder. The peripheral surface of conventional printing form cylinders, and a portion of the end faces, is galvanically coated with a thin copper layer according to the Ballard method, for reasons which are well known to those conversant with this field. Since the edge of this copper layer is located on the axial end faces of the printing form cylinder, where the layer terminates, a precise mounting of the annular body on these axial end faces has in practice been found to be impossible. Moreover, even if such a mounting were not precluded by the aforementioned consideration, it would not be practical because the axial end faces of the printing form cylinder must be left free, since after the use of the cylinder it is necessary to peel off the copper skin, a process which starts at the axial end faces, in order to ready the cylinder for the application of a new copper layer. Special adaptations to overcome these problems are also not practical, since printers usually have a large number of printing form cylinders which represent a substantial monetary investment and must be re-useable time and time again, so that special-purpose adaptation is not practical. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates generally to boiler design, and in particular, to a new and useful Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (“SAGD”) process boiler with natural circulation for operating with sub-ASME feedwater quality for oil sands, heavy oil and bitumen recovery.
The SAGD boiler design of the present invention has a basis in B&W drum boiler design, knowledge and standards. General boiler design standards are used and then expanded on where required to address specific design issues unique to SAGD.
Improvements have been made to enhance recovery of heavy oils and bitumens beyond conventional thermal techniques. One such technique, for example, is Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage or SAGD, taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,485 issued Aug. 17, 1982 to Butler. This method uses pairs of horizontal wells, one vertically above the other, that are connected by a vertical fracture. A steam chamber rises above the upper well and oil warmed by conduction drains along the outside wall of the chamber to the lower production well.
The recovery of bitumen and subsequent processing into synthetic crude from the oil sands in northern Alberta, Canada continues to expand. Approximately 80% of known reserves are buried too deep to use conventional surface mining techniques. These deeper reserves are recovered using in-situ techniques such as Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage in which steam is injected via the horizontal wells into the oil sands deposit (injection well). This heats the bitumen, which flows by gravity to the other horizontal well lower in the deposit (production well) where the mixture of bitumen and water is taken to the surface. After the water is separated from the bitumen, it is returned to the process where, after treatment, it is returned to the boiler for re-injection into the well.
Re-use of the water resource is a key factor for both conservation and environmental regulations.
Even after treatment, however, the boiler feedwater can still contain volatile and non-volatile organic components as well as high levels of silica. Once Through Steam Generator (OTSG) boiler technology currently being used have experienced tube failures due to poor boiler feedwater quality. Further, the OTSG technology has exhibited limitations in steam quality produced and cost of operation such as high pumping power and cost of condensate handling to satisfy zero-liquid discharge requirements from SAGD plants. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Memory reclamation is a key issue for computer systems. It is often difficult to implement memory reclamation correctly and efficiently. As computer hardware moves to provide increasing amounts of memory and increasing numbers of processors, memory reclamation is becoming an even greater concern, given the large amount of resources to be managed and the higher degree of concurrency in modern processor architectures.
Conventionally, memory reclamation is performed “manually” by the programmer, who explicitly specifies a memory release action in the program code. This approach leads to significant development cost as well as complex and difficult-to-diagnose errors.
In response, automatic reclamation techniques are developed. Some automatic reclamation techniques are based on scanning memory for unreferenced objects. One common approach is referred to as a tracing or “mark and sweep” approach. The technique becomes increasingly expensive as the size of main memory grows because the running time for performing a “mark and sweep” action increases, creating more interference with application progress, and often causing long pauses. This approach also makes the time to reclaim memory unpredictable, making it difficult to determine the amount of physical memory required to satisfy application requirements.
Alternatively, automatic reclamation may be based on maintaining a reference count per object and freeing the object when the reference count goes to zero, which indicates that there are no other references to this object. This approach, however, cannot reclaim memory when there is a cycle in the references. For example if object A points to object B and object B also points to object A, then A has a non-zero reference count independent of whether there are any other references to A; similarly, B also has a non-zero reference count. Thus, neither A nor B is ever reclaimed even though neither is reachable from the rest of the application. Some improved techniques combine mark and sweep with reference counting; however, these techniques tend to be inefficient and complex. | {
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The creation of an Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) reservoir involves fracturing a subterranean formation or a plurality of subterranean formations. Water is circulated from an injection well, through the fractures where it is heated. The hot water or heat from the formation is produced from one or more production wells some distance away from the injection well and used for generating electricity. Fractures within subterranean formations are typically created in an un-cased or open-hole environment by pumping water from the surface down into the well. Water pressure opens a network of fractures in the open-hole section of the subterranean formation having the lowest fracture initiation pressure. The fracture network propagates away from the wellbore in a specific orientation that is related to existing stresses in the subterranean formation. However, a relatively small section of the open-hole section of the subterranean formation is actually fractured. Other locations in the open-hole section having higher fracture initiation pressures that are typically deeper in the subterranean formation remain unstimulated. Unstimulated regions within the subterranean formation are an untapped source of energy for power generation and the efficiency of power generation on a per well basis remains relatively low. The cost of drilling and completing wells can range from half to 80 percent of the total cost of an EGS project. Therefore, reducing the number of wells for a given project can have a significant impact on the overall cost of the project and ultimately the cost of power production. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to tunable RF networks and, more particularly, to apparatus for rapidly switching selected inductors in and out of a series network of such inductors.
2. Description of Related Art
The need has arisen for a variable RF inductor having no moving parts for use in an antenna matching network for matching signals in the 2 to 30 MHz HF range and subject to RF voltages on the order of three kilo-volts. It is further desirable that such an inductor be controllable by binary switching signals compatible with computer control at high speed. Theoretically, such an inductor may be constructed of a series connection of binary incremental inductor values of the required range and resolution with shorting switches used to remove unwanted inductive elements. Such switches must have low "ON" resistance and low "OFF" capacitance to avoid detuning of the RF circuit and power losses. PIN diodes meet these requirements but need a DC forward bias circuit to provide DC current for turn-on and a DC back bias voltage for turn-off.
Providing the appropriate switching signals for turning the PIN diodes "on" and "off" is not a straightforward matter because the DC bias circuit is also a path for shunting RF currents to ground. The resulting capacitive and resistive loading also causes unwanted RF losses and detuning of the RF network. An RF choke placed in each of the DC bias lines to the diode switches could theoretically provide the required RF isolation; however, the design of an RF choke that maintains a high impedance over the 2 to 30 MHz HF radio band is not practical. In addition, with voltages on the order of 3 kilovolts applied to the RF choke, the choke must have a very high impedance to minimize RF losses due to RF currents through its lossy elements.
In order to eliminate the foregoing problems, other workers in this field have proposed constructing the inductor windings using a tubular conductor with the control wires for PIN switches inside. The control wires then emerge from holes in the wall of the tubing where needed to control the PIN switch. Although conceptually simple, this construction is difficult to make. Extracting numerous control wires through the tubing and bringing them out small holes in the tubing wall is not a practical task in production. Thus, paralleling of multiple control wires with the inductor and choke windings is physically difficult to implement in a producible form. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to hot wire anemometers of the type employed to measure wind velocity turbulence and the like and more particularly to such anemometer and a method for constructing the same that affords improved high temperature operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,286,214 discloses a resistance thermometer structure formed in a rod shaped ceramic element in which the conductive portions of the device are sealed by employment of sintered glass-like material. All conductive parts of the patented device are enclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,435,400 discloses a thermal probe constructed on a hypodermic needle or the like for measurement of fluid flow velocity, such as blood flow in animal and in man. The patented probe is formed on the tip of an oblique surface formed on the hypodermic needle; a thin homogeneous metallic membrane of platinum is coated on the oblique surface and the resistance across the membrane is measured to afford measurement of the fluid flow.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,827 discloses a thermo couple supported by ceramic spacers within a sheath of tantalum. All electric elements in the thermo couple are enclosed within the sheath.
Hot film sensors employing a thin film formed on a quartz rod or wedge are commercially available from Thermo-Systems, Inc. of St. Paul, Minn. Because the temperature sensitive material is in the form of a thin film, the temperature operating range of such probes is limited to about 400.degree. C. | {
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In the field many bags are known provided with means for removable engagement on suitable fastening plates mounted on the motor vehicle. Often, such bags comprise a sliding bolt element that snaps onto or into a suitable projection in the plate to stably fix the case to the plate. A button mechanism, possibly equipped with a lock, allows the bolt to be withdrawn to unlock the case. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a white heat-curable epoxy resin composition that has a high strength and toughness, and is superior in heat resistance property, an optical semiconductor element case made of the white heat-curable epoxy resin composition and a semiconductor device whose light receiving element and other semiconductor elements are encapsulated by a cured product of such composition.
Background Art
Optical semiconductor elements such as LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) have come into use as various indicators and light sources such as displays on the streets, automobile lamps and residential lightings. Among such LEDs, white LED products are being developed rapidly in various fields under the sloganizing keywords of reduction of carbon dioxide and saving of energies.
As one of materials for semiconductor and electronic devices such as LEDs, a polyphthalamide resin (PPA) has been widely used at present for the material of a photoreflector. Reflector materials using PPA are advantageous in that they have a high strength and flexibility. In recent years, however, as a result of optical semiconductor devices having a progressively higher output and shorter wavelength, PPA has become unadaptable thereto due to a reduction of the optical output being induced by a violent severe deterioration such as a change in color when used around optical semiconductor elements (see JP-A-2006-257314).
JP-B-2656336 discloses an optical semiconductor device using, as an optical semiconductor encapsulating resin, a B-stage epoxy resin composition comprised of an epoxy resin, a curing agent and a curing accelerator, serving as encapsulation resin composition for optical semiconductor elements, and having a cured body of the resin composition in which the foregoing constituents are uniformly mixed on a molecular level. This composition mainly uses a bisphenol A-type epoxy resin or a bisphenol F-type epoxy resin as the epoxy resin. Though JP-B-2656336 also discloses that triglycidyl isocyanate or the like may be used, triglycidyl isocyanate is added in small amounts to the bisphenol type epoxy resin in the working examples, and examinations by the inventors of the present invention show that there has been a problem that such B-stage epoxy resin composition for encapsulating the semiconductor turns yellow particularly when left under a high temperature for a long time.
JP-A-2000-196151 discloses an LED encapsulated by an alicyclic epoxy resin obtained by oxidizing a cyclic olefin. JP-A-2003-224305 discloses an epoxy resin composition for encapsulating a light-emitting element containing a triazine derivative epoxy resin and an acid anhydride curing agent. JP-A-2005-306952 discloses an epoxy resin composition for encapsulating a light-emitting element containing: (A) an epoxy resin containing a hydrogenated epoxy resin, a triazine ring-containing epoxy resin and an alicyclic epoxy resin obtained by epoxidizing a cyclic olefin; and (B) an epoxy resin composition for encapsulating a light-emitting element containing an acid anhydride curing agent. The epoxy resin compositions for encapsulating the light-emitting element of the JP-A-2000-196151, JP-A-2003-224305 and JP-A-2005-306952 also failed to provide sufficient solutions to the problem of yellow discoloration that takes place when left under a high temperature for a long time.
Though JP-A-2000-196151, JP-A-2003-224305 and JP-A-2005-306952 refer to the use of triazine derivative epoxy resins for the epoxy resin compositions for encapsulating a light-emitting element, any of them uses the triazine derivative epoxy resin and an acid anhydride, and there have been pointed out the problem that when they are used as a reflector for LED backlight installed in a modern flat-panel TV, the reflector may be destroyed due to lack of strength and toughness since the reflector is ultraminiaturized and highly reduced in thickness.
In order to solve such problems, there are proposed some epoxy resin compositions for semiconductor in which the acid anhydride is denatured by a linker or an acid anhydride having flexibility is used, as disclosed in JP-A-2013-100440 and JP-A-2014-95051. It has been, however, not possible to realize such composition that satisfies all of the strength, toughness and heat resistance property since a part thus denatured and a framework having a flexibility itself have a comparatively low heat resistance property, as well as a comparatively low reliability with respect to heat or light. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a valve positioner using digital communication; and more particularly, to an improvement thereof, wherein the current to be allocated to a current-to-pneumatic conversion module can be increased; and wherein, the invention can be applied to convert electrical signals to pneumatic signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A valve positioner directly controls the opening of a valve and its feedback signal uses a valve opening signal or a stem position signal. A current-to-pneumatic converter converts an electrical signal, such as, for example, 4 to 20 mA, into a pneumatic signal such as 0.2 to 1.0 [kgf/cm2]. An example of a prior valve positioner is disclosed in Japan Unexamined application 9/144,703.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional valve positioner 100, wherein an operating signal for valve positioner 100, using an electrical signal, such as for example, 4 to 20 mA, is inputted to terminals T1 and T2. Variable impedance circuit 3 and shunt regulator 4, connected in series, are connected to input terminals T1 and T2. Internal power voltage V2, which drives the internal circuits of the valve positioner 100, is generated on/the positive side of shunt regulator 4. The shunt regulator 4 may comprise one or more Zener diodes, integrated circuits, or combinations thereof with their peripheral elements.
Impedance control circuit 1 is connected to input terminals T1 and T2 and operates to adjust the impedance of variable impedance circuit 3 to control the voltage between input terminals T1 and T2 normally to an approximately constant voltage of 12V or less. The operation maintains the impedance between input terminals T1 and T2 in a low state in the DC region of the operating signal. The variable impedance circuit 3 may comprise npn transistors, pnp transistors, or field effect transistors (FET).
DCxe2x80x94DC converter 5, connected in parallel to shunt regulator 4, is used to increase the current capacity by stepping down internal power voltage V2 supplied by shunt regulator 4. Thus, DCxe2x80x94DC converter 5 supplies operating voltage V3 to current-to-pneumatic conversion module (called xe2x80x9cE/P modulexe2x80x9d) 14 which consumes high power and micro-controller 9. Since the valve positioner 100 must be operated so that its minimum operating current is 4 mA at most and normally is 3.6 mA or less because of the limitation of the input signal current, the desired current capacity is achieved by using DCxe2x80x94DC converter 5. The DCxe2x80x94DC converter 5 may comprise a voltage stepping down DCxe2x80x94DC converter, such as a charge pump type or a switching regulator type.
Current detecting or sensing element 2 and current detector 7 detect a current signal inputted to input terminals T1 and T2 and the detected signal is set to A/D converter (ADC) 8. The current detecting element 2 is a resistor and the current detector 7 is an amplifier using an operational amplifier.
Transmit-and-receive circuits 6 receive a request signal, sent from a corresponding instrument (not shown) and transmit a response signal to the corresponding instrument via digital communication. In this case, the corresponding instrument is connected to input terminals T1 and T2 via a two wire transmission line.
Micro-controller 9, which carries out digital communication with and position control to valve 16, comprises a microprocessor and peripheral circuits, such as a memory, and stores communication processing programs, such as request signals, and response signals, and control programs, such as PID control and fuzzy control. Digital to analog converter (DAC) 10 converts a digital control output signal of the micro-controller 9 to an analog signal. Driver 13 carries out amplification and impedance conversion of the analog signal, sent from DAC 10, and transmits the resulting signal to E/P module 14. Sensor interface 11 processes the signal from the position sensor 12 and sends the resulting signal to analog to digital converter (ADC) 8. ADC 8 digitizes the input current signal, sent from current detector 7, and the position signal, from valve 16, and transmits the digitized results to micro-controller 9.
The pneumatic system operates as follows. E/P module 14 converts the input drive current to a corresponding pneumatic signal and, for example, controls the air pressure of a nozzle using a torque motor. Control relay 15 amplifies the pneumatic signal and thus, for example, drives valve 16 to be in an open or closed state using the pneumatic signal of 0.2 to 1.0 [kgf/cm2]. Since the opening of valve 16 is correlated to changes of its stem position, the stem position is detected by position sensor 12.
In the FIG. 1 system, digital communication is provided between the corresponding instrument and the valve positioner by superimposing digital signals according to a predetermined protocol on a two wire transmission line that sends and receives operating signals, such as of 4 to 20 mA value. In addition, for implementing digital communication with the corresponding instrument, it is necessary to keep the impedance between the input terminals T1 and T2 at a definite high value in a communication frequency band in order to generate digital communication signals sent from the corresponding instrument between terminals T1 and T2. Accordingly, impedance control circuit 1 controls the impedance of variable impedance circuit 3 to high values of, for example, 230 ohms to 1100 ohms in the communication band.
Valve position control is provided as follows. A position signal of position sensor 12 is sent to micro-controller 9 via sensor interface 11 and ADC8, is subjected to control computation in micro-controller 9 and a resulting control output signal is sent to drive circuit 13 via DAC 10. Valve opening is controlled to a target value by driving valve 16 via the signal route of drive circuit 13xe2x86x92E/P module 14xe2x86x92control relay 15xe2x86x92valve 16.
Typical operating specifications are as follows. Minimum operating voltage between terminals: 12 V DC (between input terminals T1 and T2). Minimum operating current: 3.6 mA. That is, the digital communication function and valve position control must function within the range of 4 mA supplied to the input terminals T1 and T2. On the other hand, in the case of using a microprocessor for the micro-controller 9, even though power consumption of electronic devices is decreasing due to energy saving techniques, the current consumption for E/P modules 14 is still limited in efficiency as compared with circuits that do not use a microprocessor. However, since most E/P modules 14 are current operated devices, a problem exists in the prior art in that decreasing the current allocation to the E/P module worsens the valve response or eliminates the stability margin due to disturbances such as due to temperature.
In the microprocessor itself, the control cycle for control computation must be shortened by increasing the clock frequency to obtain stability in valve control. However, disadvantageously, another problem arises, in that current consumption in the microprocessor itself increases when the clock frequency is increased.
Hence, in order to effectively utilize the power provided to a valve positioner as an operating signal, a technique has been tried to achieve a supply current to internal circuits,including E/P modules 14, using DCxe2x80x94DC converters 5, which step down the power voltage, such as shown in FIG. 1. To realize such DCxe2x80x94DC converter 5, a charge pump type, using a capacitor or voltage stepping down switching regulator using an inductance, has been considered. However, such methods all have a further problem in that the manufacturing cost thereof increases because of the necessity to increase mounting surfaces and/or the number of components. Furthermore, disadvantageously, if the voltage stepping down switching regulator is used, adverse effects on other circuits due to switching noise, cause other problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,182 suggests another technique for effectively utilizing as an operating signal power provided to a valve positioner. This method connects two power circuits in series between the input terminals and uses one power circuit for supplying power to the digital circuits and the other power circuit for supplying power to other circuits. However, a level shift circuit to absorb differences between the two power systems is required to exchange signals between the circuits connected to the two power circuits. Thus, this prior method also has a problem in that the circuits are more complex.
The foregoing problems are also applicable to current-to-pneumatic converters.
Accordingly, as can be appreciated, the prior art needs improvement.
An object of the invention is to overcome the aforementioned and other deficiencies, problems, and disadvantages of the prior art.
Another object is to provide a valve positioner and current-to-pneumatic converter which has a reduced number of parts or components and which is simple, and wherein current allocation to the E/P module is increased. | {
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Clearance of mucus from the respiratory tract in healthy individuals is accomplished primarily by the body's normal mucociliary action and cough. Under normal conditions these mechanisms are very efficient. Impairment of the normal mucociliary transport system or hypersecretion of respiratory mucus results in an accumulation of mucus and debris in the lungs and can cause severe medical complications such as hypoxemia, hypercapnia, chronic bronchitis and pneumonia. These complications can result in a diminished quality of life or even become a cause of death. Abnormal respiratory mucus clearance is a manifestation of many medical conditions such as pertussis, cystic fibrosis, atelectasis, bronchiectasis, cavitating lung disease, vitamin A deficiency, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and immotile cilia syndrome. Exposure to cigarette smoke, air pollutants and viral infections also adversely affect mucociliary function. Post surgical patients, paralyzed persons, and newborns with respiratory distress syndrome also exhibit reduced mucociliary transport.
Chest physiotherapy has had a long history of clinical efficacy and is typically a part of standard medical regimens to enhance respiratory mucus transport. Chest physiotherapy can include mechanical manipulation of the chest, postural drainage with vibration, directed cough, active cycle of breathing and autogenic drainage. External manipulation of the chest and respiratory behavioral training are accepted practices as defined by the American Association for Respiratory Care Guidelines, 1991. The various methods of chest physiotherapy to enhance mucus clearance are frequently combined for optimal efficacy and are prescriptively individualized for each patient by the attending physician.
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common inherited life-threatening genetic disease among Caucasians. The genetic defect disrupts chloride transfer in and out of cells, causing the normal mucus from the exocrine glands to become very thick and sticky, eventually blocking ducts of the glands in the pancreas, lungs and liver. Disruption of the pancreatic glands prevents secretion of important digestive enzymes and causes intestinal problems that can lead to malnutrition. In addition, the thick mucus accumulates in the lung's respiratory tracts, causing chronic infections, scarring, and decreased vital capacity. Normal coughing is not sufficient to dislodge these mucus deposits. CF usually appears during the first 10 years of life, often in infancy. Until recently, children with CF were not expected to live into their teens. However, with advances in digestive enzyme supplementation, anti-inflammatory therapy, chest physical therapy, and antibiotics, the median life expectancy has increased to 30 years with some patients living into their 50's and beyond. CF is inherited through a recessive gene, meaning that if both parents carry the gene, there is a 25 percent chance that an offspring will have the disease, a 50 percent chance they will be a carrier and a 25 percent chance they will be genetically unaffected. Some individuals who inherit mutated genes from both parents do not develop the disease. The normal progression of CF includes gastrointestinal problems, failure to thrive, repeated and multiple lung infections, and death due to respiratory insufficiency. While some patients experience grave gastrointestinal symptoms, the majority of CF patients (90 percent) ultimately succumb to respiratory problems.
A demanding daily regimen is required to maintain the CF patient's health, even when the patient is not experiencing acute problems. A CF patient's CF daily treatments may include: Respiratory therapy to loosen and mobilize mucus; Inhalation therapy with anti-inflammatory drugs, bronchodilators and antibiotics for infections; Oral and intravenous antibiotics to control infection; Doses of Pulmozyme to thin respiratory mucus; 20 to 30 pancreatic enzyme pills taken with every meal to aid digestion; a low-fat, high-protein diet; Vitamins and nutritional supplements; and Exercise.A lung transplant may be the only hope for patients with end stage cystic fibrosis.
Virtually all patients with CF require respiratory therapy as a daily part of their care regimen. The buildup of thick, sticky mucus in the lungs clogs airways and traps bacteria, providing an ideal environment for respiratory infections and chronic inflammation. This inflammation causes permanent scarring of the lung tissue, reducing the capacity of the lungs to absorb oxygen and, ultimately, sustain life. Respiratory therapy must be performed, even when the patient is feeling well, to prevent infections and maintain vital capacity. Traditionally, care providers perform Chest Physical Therapy (CPT) one to four times per day. CPT consists of a patient lying in one of twelve positions while a caregiver “claps” or pounds on the chest and back over each lobe of the lung. To treat all areas of the lung in all twelve positions requires pounding for half to three-quarters of an hour along with inhalation therapy. CPT clears the mucus by shaking loose airway secretions through chest percussions and draining the loosened mucus toward the mouth. Active coughing is required to ultimately remove the loosened mucus. CPT requires the assistance of a caregiver, often a family member but a nurse or respiratory therapist if one is not available. It is a physically exhausting process for both the CF patient and the caregiver. Patient and caregiver non-compliance with prescribed protocols is a well-recognized problem that renders this method ineffective. CPT effectiveness is also highly technique sensitive and degrades as the giver becomes tired. The requirement that a second person be available to perform the therapy severely limits the independence of the CF patient.
Artificial respiration devices for applying and relieving pressure on the chest of a person have been used to assist in lung breathing functions, and loosening and eliminating mucus from the lungs of CF persons. Subjecting the person's chest and lungs to pressure pulses or vibrations decreases the viscosity of lung and air passage mucus, thereby enhancing fluid mobility and removal from the lungs. These devices use vests having air-accommodating bladders that surround the chests of persons. Mechanical mechanisms, such as solenoid or motor-operated air valves, bellows and pistons are disclosed in the prior art to supply air under pressure to diaphragms and bladders in regular pattern or pulses. The bladder worn around the thorax of the CF person repeatedly compresses and releases the thorax at frequencies as high as 25 cycles per second. Each compression produces a rush of air through the lobes of the lungs that shears the secretions from the sides of the airways and propels them toward the mouth where they can be removed by normal coughing. External chest manipulation with high frequency chest wall oscillation was reported in 1966. Beck G J. Chronic Bronchial Asthma and Emphysema. Rehabilitation and Use of Thoracic Vibrocompression, Geriatrics (1966), 21: 139-158.
G. A. Williams in U.S. Pat. No. 1,898,652 discloses an air pulsator for stimulating blood circulation and treatment of tissues and muscles beneath the skin. A reciprocating piston is used to generate air pressure pulses which are transferred through a hose to an applicator having a flexible diaphragm. The pulsating air generated by the moving piston imparts relatively rapid movement to the diaphragm which subjects the person's body to pulsing forces.
J. D. Ackerman et al in U.S. Pat. No. 2,588,192 disclose an artificial respiration apparatus having a chest vest supplied with air under pressure with an air pump. Solenoid-operated valves control the flow of air into and out of the vest in a controlled manner to pulsate the vest, thereby subjecting the person's chest to repeated pressure pulses.
R. F. Gray in U.S. Pat. No. 3,078,842 discloses a bladder for cyclically applying an external pressure to the chest of a person. A pressure alternator applies air pressure to the bladder. A pulse generator applies air pressure to the bladder to apply pressure pulses to the chest of the person.
R. S. Dillion in U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,925 uses an inflatable enclosure to cover a portion of a person's extremity, such as an arm or leg. The enclosure is connected to a fluid control and pulse monitor operable to selectively apply and remove pressure on the person's extremity.
W. J. Warwick and L. G. Hansen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,838,263 and 5,056,505 disclose a chest compression apparatus having a chest vest surrounding a person's chest. A motor-driven rotary valve allows air to flow into the vest and vent air therefrom to apply pressurized pulses to the person's chest. An alternative pulse pumping system has a pair of bellows connected to a crankshaft with rods operated with a dc electric motor. The speed of the motor is regulated with a controller to control the frequency of the pressure pulses applied to the vest. The patient controls the pressure of the air in the vest by opening and closing the end of an air vent tube.
C. N. Hansen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,453,081 and 5,569,170 discloses an air pulsating apparatus for supplying pulses of air to an enclosed receiver, such as a vest located around a person's chest. The apparatus has a casing with an internal chamber containing a diaphragm. An electric operated device connected to the diaphragm is operated with a pulse generator to vibrate the diaphragm to pulse the air in the chamber. A hose connects the chamber with the vest to transfer air and air pulses to the vest which applies pressure pulses to the person's chest.
N. P. Van Brunt and D. J. Gagne in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,769,797 and 6,036,662 disclose an oscillatory chest compression device having a wall with an air chamber and a diaphragm mounted on the wall and exposed to the air chamber. A rod pivotally connected to the diaphragm and rotatably connected to a crankshaft transmits force to the diaphragm during rotation of the crankshaft. An electric motor drives the crankshaft at selected controlled speeds to regulate the frequency of the air pulses generated by the moving diaphragm. An air flow generator, shown as a blower, delivers air to the air chamber to maintain the pressure of the air in the chamber. Controls for the motors that move the diaphragm and rotate the blower are responsive to the air pressure pulses and pressure of the air in the air chamber. These controls have air pressure responsive feedback systems that regulate the operating speeds of the motors to control the pulse frequency and air pressure in the vest.
C. N. Hansen and G. E. McNamara disclose in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,254,556 and 6,605,050 a vest used to apply repetitive pressure pulses to the front, sides and back of the thorax of a person. The vest has a cover with a pocket accommodating an air core. The air core has a plurality of upright air chambers and a bottom manifold passage connected to an air pressure pulsator. Air introduced into the manifold passage flows through a central back opening in the air core into the chambers thereby apply air pressure and pressure pulses to both the front, sides, and back of the chest of the person wearing the vest. | {
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In the field of matrix printers, it is, of course, well known that a printer may include one or more print heads which are caused to be moved in a reciprocating manner across the printer for printing in serial fashion. The print head may be moved by a cable and pulley arrangement, a lead screw, or a cam drive or like drive mechanism. Each of the print heads includes a plurality of printing elements supported in a group and each of the elements is actuated or energized at high speed to cause printing of dots in a matrix character by movement of dot-making elements including droplets of ink or printing wires, attached to the printing elements, and wherein the wires or droplets are caused to be impacted against the paper. The print wires or ink jet nozzles are usually closely spaced in vertical manner so as to print the dots which make up the characters as the print heads are moved across the printer. In this manner, a line of printed characters is completed upon travel of the print head in one direction across the paper. Printing may also be performed in the other direction if the required controls are included in the printer.
Another form of matrix printer includes the use of a plurality of printing elements supported from a carriage in a manner wherein the printing elements are aligned horizontally across the printer and upon each pass of the carriage, respective dots of characters are printed in a line or row and subsequent passes of the carriage and printing elements cause additional lines of dots to be printed to complete the dot matrix characters in the line of printing. Common arrangements include the use of four or eight printing elements supported from the carriage.
A timing strip with slots or like indicia is commonly used to dictate actuation of the printing elements wherein one or more sensors sense the slots or other indicia to print dots in precise columns across the paper. While the printing has usually been performed in one direction, for example, left to right, it is more recently that printing has been done in both directions of travel of the printing element carriage.
The control systems for matrix printers have included input converters, shift registers, buffer storage, character generators and solenoid or other print element drivers for printing a line of dots in successive manner across the paper to form a line of characters.
Representative prior art relating to control systems for matrix printers include U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,949 issued to R. Howard et al. on Nov. 28, 1972, wherein input information is loaded into a buffer in parallel and printing does not begin until the buffer is loaded to print a complete line. Detection of the location of the carriage moving the print head is performed independent of the carriage to actuate the print wires at the appropriate locations.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,719,781 issued to J. R. Fulton et al. on Mar. 6, 1973, shows a control system having a line relay for receiving the input signal, an input clock and a shift register as a buffer store, an operational store, a load detector, and operational control means to actuate the printer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,969 issued to R. Howard et al. On Feb. 5, 1974, shows a control system wherein input data is fed in parallel into a multistage shift register, the output going to a character generator to provide signals representing a line of dots for the characters to be printed, and which trigger the operation of the print wire solenoids.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,833,891 issued to R. Howard et al. on Sept. 3, 1974 shows input data into a multistage shift register, selected stages of the register applied to a character generator to form signals representing the top line of characters to trigger operation of the print wire solenoids.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,304 issued to J. T. Potter on Sept. 10, 1974 shows logic circuits which include a read only memory for storing signal sets representing dot patterns to be printed in rows. The sets are read out to shift registers to control actuation of the hammers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,858,703 issued to H. Duley on Jan. 7, 1975 discloses a bi-directional dual head printer which uses a registration strip with a plurality of equally spaced narrow transparent slots and wherein a recirculating shift register stores all of the characters until a full line of characters is printed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,051 issued to G. B. Barrus et al. on Mar. 2, 1976, shows a printer system of bi-directional printing wherein a reciprocating shuttle system forms part of a dynamically balanced system wherein a cam motion engages an oppositely moving counterweight system.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,970,183 issued to P. Robinson on July 20, 1976 shows a bi-directional printer wherein monitoring is performed by detecting both the direction of print head movement and print head position at any time. Information is detected by a pair of optical channels and the registration strip has a pair of displaced sets of transparent slots therein. Circuitry is provided for storing data representing the next line to be printed in both the forward and the reverse formats.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,868 issued to P. Robinson et al. on Nov. 16, 1976 discloses printing of double and triple sized characters in segments which are stored in readable memories. The apparatus comprises a shift register having a plurality of stages equal to the number of standard size characters capable of being printed along a single line.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,506 issued to H. Spaargaren on May 17, 1977 shows control devices which include a starting position device, an address counter, a buffer store, a character generator and a row counter and column counter.
And, U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,402 issued to W. J. Byrd on May 31, 1977 shows a line printer which provides for either a single character or a burst of characters and a registration system serves the dual function of locating the proper position for a character to be printed and determining the direction of movement of the print head. A storage capability is in a recirculating memory and the data memory is a multistage shaft register which tracks the data in the recirculating memory. | {
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It is known that certain fluoroalkylphosphoric acid esters are useful as dispersing agents in the emulsion polymerization of fluoroelastomers (WO 2009/094344 A1). These esters are of the formula X—Rf—(CH2)n—O—P(O)(OM)2, wherein n=1 or 2, X=H or F, M=a univalent cation, and Rf is a C4-C6 fluoroalkyl or fluoroalkoxy group (branched or non-branched). In the first step of the synthesis of these fluoroalkylphosphoric acid esters, the phosphorodichloridate is prepared by reaction of the corresponding fluoroalkanol with phosphorous oxychloride. The di-and tri-esters are not as suitable dispersing agents as are the mono-esters in the emulsion polymerization of fluoroelastomers. Thus, it would be desirable if the phosphorylation reaction yielded exclusively the polyfluoroalkanoyl phosphorodichloridate.
Kudryavtsev, I. Yu. et al., Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 11, pp. 2535-2540 (1982) discloses catalytic phosphorylation of a series of polyfluorinated alkanols by phosphorous oxychloride using Group I metal chlorides as catalyst. The results indicate that the LiCl catalyzed phosphorylation reaction of polyfluorinated alkanols with POCl3 produced predominantly polyfluoroalkanoyl phosphates and polyfluoroalkanoyl phosphorochloridates and very little or no polyfluoroalkanoyl phosphorodichloridate. | {
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The present invention relates to mobile communication systems, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses for setting maximum power parameters at mobile communication system base stations having multiple antennas.
Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) processing is an advanced antenna technique for improving spectral efficiency and, thereby, boosting the overall system capacity of a telecommunication system. The use of MIMO processing implies that both the base station and the user equipment employ multiple antennas. There exist a variety of MIMO techniques (or modes). A few of these are: Per Antenna Rate Control (PARC), selective PARC (S-PARC), transmit diversity, receiver diversity, and Double Transmit Antenna Array (D-TxAA). The D-TxAA technique is an advanced version of transmit diversity that is used in the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN).
Irrespective of the applied MIMO technique, the notation (M×N) is generally used to represent MIMO configurations in terms of the number of transmit antennas (M) and receive antennas (N). The common MIMO configurations used or currently discussed for various technologies are: (2×1), (1×2), (2×2), (4×2), (8×2), and (8×4). Configurations represented by (2×1) and (1×2) are special cases of MIMO and correspond to transmit diversity and receiver diversity, respectively.
The above mentioned MIMO modes as well as other MIMO techniques enable various types of spatial processing to be applied to the transmitted and received signals. The ability to use spatial diversity in general improves spectral efficiency, extends cell coverage, enhances user data rate, and mitigates multi-user interference. In essence, each MIMO technique has its own benefit. For example, the receiver diversity technique (1×2) particularly improves coverage. By contrast, (2×2) MIMO techniques, such as D-TxAA, lead to increased peak user bit rates.
Although MIMO can be used to enhance the data rate, MIMO transmission also involves an increase in processing complexity and consumes more User Equipment (UE) battery power than non-MIMO transmissions. Therefore, MIMO processing is particularly feasible for high data rate transmissions. In UTRAN, high data rates are mapped onto the downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH). The embedded or in-band higher layer signaling, which may also be multiplexed on the HS-DSCH, could therefore be transmitted using MIMO.
By contrast, separate signaling or channels containing dedicated physical or higher layer signaling should preferably be transmitted using a conventional antenna technique (e.g., single antenna case). An example is UTRAN's use of an associated dedicated channel to run power control; sometimes this channel also carries higher layer signaling. Similarly, in soft handover the low bit rate dedicated channels could still be transmitted via one antenna.
The use of MIMO leads to significantly better performance compared to the baseline scenario of single transmit and receive antennas. But since a network may have to support both MIMO and non-MIMO user equipment, those user equipments supporting MIMO inform the network about their capability at the time of call setup or when doing registration processes. Certain technologies may support more than one MIMO mode. This means that, in one scenario, a particular base station may support all possible MIMO modes allowed by the corresponding standard while, in another scenario, the base station may offer only a sub-set of MIMO modes. In the basic arrangement, the base station may not offer any MIMO operation; that is, it may support only single transmit antenna operation. Therefore, the actual use of a particular MIMO technique is possible in scenarios when both the serving base station and user equipment bear the same MIMO capability.
There are two basic MIMO deployment scenarios: In a “MIMO only” scenario it is assumed that the serving base station, as well as all user equipments served by that base station, support the same MIMO technique, e.g. D-TXAA in case of UTRAN. This scenario is not very realistic because, in practice, there will almost always be low-end user equipments that do not support MIMO. However, it might be the case that, at times, all users in a cell have MIMO capability. At any given moment, the serving base station or the corresponding Radio Network Controller (RNC) in UTRAN will be fully aware of the multi-antenna capabilities of the user equipments it is serving. However, even when all users are MIMO capable, there might still be scenarios and occasions when the network may use single antennas for transmission of data and/or user-specific signaling. For example, low data rates could still be transmitted using single transmitted antennas. Also, congestion may force the network to use only single antenna transmissions even for high data rate services.
The second MIMO deployment scenario involves a mix of MIMO and non-MIMO users; that is, a mixture of users that are MIMO capable and those that only support the baseline configuration (i.e. single antenna transmission). This is a more realistic scenario. The baseline users (i.e., non-MIMO users) are likely either legacy users from earlier releases of the standard or are low end users.
In many densely populated areas, such as hotspots, an operator deploys more than one cell in the same geographical area (e.g., several cells in one sector). Each base station or Node B typically provides coverage to three sectors. As an example, a deployment with two carriers per Node B implies two co-located cells per sector and six cells per Node B. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a Node B 100 in a UTRAN system. A user equipment 101 is representative of one or more user equipments that might be served by the Node B 100. The six so-called “co-located cells” are supported by the Node B's use of co-located carriers 103 which, in a UTRAN system, are each 5 MHz, as shown in FIG. 1.
A similar arrangement is conceivable in an evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN) system. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an eNode B 200 in an E-UTRAN system. A user equipment 201 is representative of one or more user equipments that might be served by the eNode B 200. The six co-located cells are supported by the eNode B's use of co-located carriers 203. Due to variable carrier frequencies in E-UTRAN, the co-located cells may have different bandwidths and, therefore, different maximum transmission power levels. The co-located carriers 203 having different bandwidths is shown in FIG. 2. However, even in E-UTRAN, the most common deployment scenario involves the co-located carriers 203 having the same bandwidth as one another.
In UTRAN systems, the co-located cells are likely to have the same maximum transmission power level. However, the value of the maximum transmission power level depends upon the base station class. For example, the maximum transmission power level in macro-cells can be 43 dBm, whereas in smaller cells (e.g. pico-cells), the maximum power budget is much lower (e.g. 24 dBm).
For E-UTRAN systems, in which the frequency bandwidth of a cell can be between 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz, the maximum cell power for a 20 MHz bandwidth can be up to 46 dBm in macro cells. By comparison, in cells having a smaller bandwidth, the maximum transmission power will be lower. The transmission in co-located cells will be served by multi-carrier power amplifiers (MCPA). An MCPA imposes limits on the maximum total transmission power per base station (or Node B or eNode B) as well as on the maximum transmission power per carrier (or co-locate cell). For convenience, the term “base station” is used throughout this specification and claims to denote not only traditional base stations, for example those employed in a system in accordance with Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) standards, but also Node Bs, eNode Bs, and any other equivalent node in a telecommunications system.
The total transmitted power per cell is limited. Therefore the maximum power available in a cell will be split between the transmitted antennas. If it is assumed that there are K co-located cells (or, equivalently, frequency carriers) and L antennas in a base station (e.g., Node B or eNode B) and that the maximum power setting per antenna for antenna “j” for a given carrier frequency “i” at a base station BS is denoted Pij, then these terms can be used to form a maximum base station power matrix, MmaxBS, for the base station, ‘BS’, on a linear scale. The maximum total base station power (PmaxBS) can be derived as follows:
M max BS = [ p 11 p 12 K p 1 L p 21 p 22 K p 2 L M M M p K 1 p K 2 L p KL ] where each term pij(1≦i≦K and 1≦j≦L) can be considered to be a coefficient, cij times a maximum transmission power budget for a carrier i (Pmaxi).
Thus, the total maximum transmitted power of all the antennas for a particular carrier frequency ‘i’ can be expressed as
∑ j = 1 L p ij = ∑ j = 1 L c ij P max i = P max i . The total maximum transmitted power of all the antennas and of all the available carrier frequencies within the base station, ‘BS’, can then be expressed as
∑ i = 1 K P max i = P max BS . The maximum transmission power in a base station will be set and maintained according to the equations above. However, these are general expressions that offer no guidance with respect to how to determine actual maximum transmission power settings. The settings used in state of the art technologies (e.g., UTRAN, E-UTRAN, etc) are described below.
The extent of cell downlink coverage is determined by the setting of common channel power levels. When MIMO is used at the base station the common channels (such as BCH, SCH, or channels containing pilot sequences) are generally transmitted from all or at least more than one antenna. However, their power settings can be different on different antennas. For instance, one of the antennas can be regarded as the primary antenna. The transmitted power of the common pilot sequence (e.g. as transmitted on the Common Pilot Channel—“CPICH”—in UTRAN) can be larger on the primary antenna than on any of the remaining antennas. For example, in the case of (2×2) MIMO, in a typical arrangement in UTRAN the CPICH power on the primary antenna can be twice that of the CPICH power set on the secondary antenna. This ensures good cell coverage of the non-MIMO users, which are generally served by the primary antenna.
The UE identifies cells and estimates the channel from the pilot sequences sent on the common channels (e.g., SCH, CPICH, etc.). Further, important radio resource functions like cell reselection, handover decisions, and the like, are also based on the measurements performed on the signals sent via the common channels. Therefore, in order to ensure consistent cell coverage, the power of the common channels on all the antennas remains fixed even if the maximum power per antenna is varied.
Regarding the UTRAN maximum power setting, the available transmission power budget per cell (i.e., PmaxC) is equally allocated among the multiple antennas. Since the same bandwidth (e.g., 5 MHz) is used in all of the co-located cells, the maximum base station transmission power matrix (MmaxBS) can be expressed as
M max BS = [ P max C L P max C L K P max C L P max C L P max C L K P max C L M M M M P max C L P max C L Λ P max C L ] .
The value
P max C Lincludes the power of the common channels, MIMO users and non-MIMO users. As there are K cells per base station, the maximum total base station power (PmaxBS) can be expressed as PmaxC×K=PmaxBS.
To illustrate the point, for the case of (2×2) MIMO in a macro-cell environment and assuming two carrier frequencies per base station, the maximum base station power matrix can be represented as:
M max BS = [ 10 10 10 10 ] .
Regarding the E-UTRAN maximum power setting, the available transmission power budget per cell in cell “i” (i.e. Pmaxi) is also allocated equally among the multiple antennas. However, the maximum power per cell within the same base station (e.g., eNode B) may be different for the different cells if they have different carrier bandwidths from one another. In case the same bandwidth is used in all the co-located cells, the maximum base station power matrix (MmaxBS) will be the same as that set forth above for the case of UTRAN. However, if different carrier bandwidths are used in the co-located cells, then the maximum base station power matrix (MmaxBS) will be given by
M max BS = [ P max 1 L P max 1 L K P max 1 L P max 2 L P max 2 L K P max 2 L M M M M P max K L P max K L Λ P max K L ] .
As before, each component
P max i Lof the matrix includes the power of common channels, MIMO users and non-MIMO users. As there are K cells per base station, the maximum total base station power (PmaxBS) can be expressed as
∑ i = 1 K P max i = P max BS .
To illustrate this with an example, for the case of (2×2) MIMO with two carriers per base station (e.g., eNode B) used in macro-cellular environment and assuming that carrier#1 and carrier#2 have bandwidths of 10 MHz and 20 MHz, respectively, the corresponding maximum power budgets per carrier for carrier#1 and carrier#2 are 40 W and 20 W respectively. The total maximum power per antenna is thus
M max BS = [ 20 20 10 10 ] .
For both UTRAN an E-UTRAN, it is the case that the base station can make full use of the base station transmitted power resources only if all users served by the same base station support MIMO and if all of these users are served by using the full MIMO capabilities of the UE and the serving base station. However, in practice, it is unlikely that these conditions will often be satisfied because it is highly probable that there will be a mixture of MIMO and non-MIMO users (using single transmit antenna) in a cell whereof the latter users will be served by the primary antenna. Secondly even if all users are MIMO capable, some of them may not be served with all possible antennas all the time. For at least these reasons, the strategy of allocating a maximum transmitted power budget equally among multiple antennas is not optimal.
It is therefore desired to have methods and apparatuses that allocate maximum transmitted power budgets among multiple base station antennas in a way that allows the base station to make better use of its total transmitted power resources. | {
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There is a need in the art for a renewable energy microgeneration system in a single, modular, portable configuration that will allow users to convert organic waste into sustainable energy onsite. There is also a need in the art for a renewable energy microgeneration system with a reduced footprint, with separate containers for its different components, with modular interconnectivity between those containers, and with increased throughput. | {
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Scientific studies have determined that bacteria and viral microbes often collect in the bowls of water closets. The swirling of water during the flushing of conventional water closets causes the release of bacterial and viral aerosols into the air around the water closets, contaminating the air within bathrooms. Photographs taken of germy substances collected on gauze pads placed adjacent to the outer peripheries of water closets confirm that significant quantities of microbial and viral aerosols have been ejected from water close bowls and floated around the air of bathrooms for at least two hours after a flush. The microbial and viral aerosols ejected into the air land on various surfaces in the bathroom, including household items such as toothbrushes. It is suspected that ejections of microbial and viral aerosols from water closets have resulted in the spread of diseases and infection. The microbial aerosols range in size from two to ten microns. Research has shown that the concentration of similar sized aerosol particles is significantly reduced when passed through filters of a Merv eleven rating at an eighty percent minimum composite efficiency, based on ASHRAE Standard 52.2. | {
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New and different types of DRAM array architecture as well as tighter design specifications for integrated circuit chip size require new designs for implementing redundant row lines and the circuits for enabling them. The provision of redundant row lines allows faulty word lines to be replaced in order to repair the DRAM to a sellable status.
One conventional row redundancy method is to blow a fuse between a bad word line and its respective decoder circuit, thus disabling the faulty word line. Fuses are also blown in a redundant decoder in order to program the redundant decoder to connect a redundant word line to a global drive/boot signal line when the redundant address is selected. This replaces the bad word line or row line with a redundant word line. A disadvantage of this conventional method is that each word line must have a fuse located between it and its row decoder. This can take up large amounts of space and may not even be possible to implement on chips with small row pitches. This method is however efficient since only the bad word line is replaced and not several other good word lines along with it.
Other conventional methods of enabling redundant row lines and disabling faulty word lines will be discussed below, but may be briefly reviewed here. In order to program a redundant row line according to another method, a fuse is blown in the normal decoder to disable it and all word lines connected to it. Fuses are then blown in a redundant decoder to program it to replace the decoder and its bad word line. Although only one fuse is needed for every four word lines, this method is relatively inefficient in replacing bad word lines since one bad word line will cause three other good word lines to be replaced in addition to itself.
A third conventional method is to blow fuses in a redundant decoder in order to program it to the address of the bad word line. Then, once this redundant decoder detects the redundant address, it completely disables a global drive/boot signal generator that would drive the bad word line through a decoder, and enables a redundant drive/boot generator which then drives a redundant word line through the redundant decoder. Therefore, the replaced word line does not become active since the normal drive/boot generator is disabled for this cycle. Although this method does not need a fuse for each word line or even for each row decoder, it is disadvantageous in that a separate redundant drive/boot generator is required in the peripheral area of the chip. In view of the drawbacks of each of these conventional methods, a need has arisen for a redundancy scheme that will have the capability of replacing a single word line but nonetheless does not require a fuse for each row or an additional drive/boot signal generator. | {
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1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to medical equipment, and more particularly to an infusion system that operates to introduce fluid into a patient.
2. Background Information
It is often necessary or desirable to infuse a flowable material or fluid, which may be a liquid, a gas, or a combination thereof, into a patient. One example is the administration of parenteral fluids to a patient.
A typical infusion system includes an infusion device (or flow control device) for delivering the fluid and conduit means for conducting the flowable material from the infusion device to the patient. The conduit means typically comprises flexible tubing leading from the infusion device and a cannula, such as a needle or catheter, for insertion into the vascular system of the patient. In normal operation, the infusion device delivers the fluid through the tubing and the needle to the vascular system of the patient.
One problem with infusion systems of that type is a condition known as infiltraticn. Infiltration is a condition in which infused fluid finds its way into extravascular tissues rather than simply being released into the blood stream. Such a situation occurs when the needle is not in communicator with the interior of the vessel into which the fluid is to be infused. When that occurs, fluid is infused into the interstitial spaces between layers of tissues. Thus, the patient is deprived of proper intravenous drug administration and is further subjected to possible toxic or caustic effects associated with infused fluids being in direct contact with body tissues.
Infiltration is not the only possible type of anomaly associated with intravenous therapy which can cause the fluid to be improperly supplied to the patient. Other conditions which can cause abnormal infusion, i.e., the fluid to be improperly supplied to the patient, include venous inflammation and swelling at the infusion site (phlebitis), clotting, and a wide variety of obstructions of the conduit means, such as kinking of the tubing which supplies the fluid to the patient. Many of these affect fluid flow characteristics in a manner similar to infiltration and can, therefore, be detected by infiltration detection devices.
The goal of an infiltration detection system is to identify an abnormal infusion condition as early as possible without generating an excessive number of false alarms. Early detection allows the attending medical staff to rectify the problem before significant damage has been done by the infiltration and before the patient has been deprived of a significant amount of the intravenous therapy. On the other hand, if the detection system is too sensitive, false alarms will result. That is very undesirable since, from a clinical perspective, establishing a new intravenous site can be difficult and time consuming. During the time necessary to start the new IV, which can be hours in some cases, the patient is not receiving the desired treatment.
Bobo U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,869 discloses a significant advance in the field of infiltration detection systems and methods. According to the Bobo patent, an infusion system infuses a test pulse of fluid to a patient. The test pulse creates a pressure wave response which can be monitor and used to detect if abnormal infusion has occurred.
Butterfield U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,163 discloses an infiltration detection system which uses the test pulse-pressure wave response concept of the Bobo patent. However, the Butterfield system compares the pressure wave response with a reference pressure wave response which represents the normal response when there is no infiltration. Specifically, the area between two curves representing these responses is used to attempt to detect infiltration. Thus, the Butterfield approach has the disadvantage of requiring that a normal pressure wave response be first determined and then stored for later comparison.
In other words, those infusion systems include a pressure transducer coupled to a microprocessor and suitable firmware or other programming that operate to monitor fluid pressure for purposes of detecting infiltration or other abnormal infusion condition. Such testing is sometimes called site checking or performing a site check and the Bobo and Butterfield systems perform the site check by infusing a test pulse of fluid to the patient, the test pulse creating a pressure wave response which can be monitored to detect infiltration or other abnormal infusion conditions.
The test pulse may be initiated in various ways, such as manually by depressing a pushbutton, or automatically under program control. In any case, the microprocessor examines the resulting pressure wave response and activates an abnormal-infusion-condition alarm if an abnormal infusion condition exists. The alarm serves to alert the attending medical staff that an abnormal infusion condition may exist so that corrective action may be taken before significant consequences develop.
It has been found that patient activity can induce artifacts in the pressure existing in the infusion system. These artifacts can be sufficient to create a false alarm condition or possibly to even mask a correct alarm condition. False alarms can mean wasted time and extra expense, effort, and patient involvement, as well as increased stress on responding personnel and adverse affects on morale, and so they represent a problem that needs to be overcome. | {
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The present invention relates generally to manufacturing semiconductors and more specifically to a manufacturing method for Metal-Oxide-Semiconductors (MOS) which employ lightly doped drain (LDD) structures.
Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) is the primary technology for ultra large-scale integrated (ULSI) circuits. These ULSI circuits combine two types of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) devices, namely P-channel Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (PMOS) devices and N-channel Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (NMOS) devices, on the same integrated circuit. To gain performance advantages, scaling down the size of MOS devices has been the principal focus of the microelectronics industry over the last two decades.
The conventional process of manufacturing MOS devices involves doping a silicon substrate and forming a gate oxide on the substrate followed by a deposition of polysilicon. A photolithographic process is used to etch the polysilicon to form the device gate. As device sizes are scaled down, the gate width, source junctions and drain junctions have to scale down. As the gate width reduces, the channel length between the source and drain is shortened. The shortening in channel length has led to several severe problems.
One of the problems associated with shortened channel length is the so-called xe2x80x9chot carrier effectxe2x80x9d. As the channel length is shortened, the maximum electric field Em becomes more isolated near the drain side of the channel causing a saturated condition that increases the maximum energy on the drain side of the MOS device. The high energy causes electrons in the channel region to become xe2x80x9chotxe2x80x9d. The electron generally becomes hot in the vicinity of the drain edge of the channel where the energy arises. Hot electrons can degrade device performance and cause breakdown of the device. Moreover, the hot electrons can overcome the potential energy barrier between the silicon substrate and the silicon dioxide layer overlying the substrate, which causes hot electrons to be injected into the gate oxide.
Problems arising from hot carrier injections into the gate oxide include generation of a gate current and generation of a positive trapped charge which can permanently increase the threshold voltage of the MOS device. These problems are manifested as an undesirable decrease in saturation current, decrease of the transconductance and a continual reduction in device performance caused by trapped charge accumulation. Thus, hot carrier effects cause unacceptable performance degradation in MOS devices built with conventional drain structures when channel lengths are short.
Reducing the maximum electric field Em in the drain side of the channel is a popular way to control the hot carrier injections. A common approach to reducing Em is to minimize the abruptness in voltage changes near the drain side of the channel. Disbursing abrupt voltage changes reduces Em strength and the harmful hot carrier effects resulting therefrom. Reducing Em occurs by replacing an abrupt drain doping profile with a more gradually varying doping profile. A more gradual doping profile distributes Em along a larger lateral distance so that the voltage drop is shared by the channel and the drain. Absent a gradual doping profile, an abrupt junction can exist where almost all of the voltage drop occurs across the channel. The smoother or more gradual the doping profile, the smaller Em is which results in lesser hot carrier injections.
To try to remedy the problems associated with hot carrier injections, alternative drain structures such as lightly doped drain (LDD) structures have been developed. LDD structures provide a doping gradient at the drain side of the channel that lead to the reduction in Em. The LDD structures act as parasitic resistors to absorb some of the energy into the drain and thus reduce maximum energy in the channel region. This reduction in energy reduces the formation of hot electrons. To further minimize the formation of hot electrons, an improvement in the gradual doping profile is needed.
In most typical LDD structures of MOS devices, sources/drains are formed by two implants with dopants. One implant is self-aligned to the polysilicon gate to form shallow source/drain extension junctions or the lightly doped source/drain regions. Oxide or oxynitride spacers then are formed around the polysilicon gate. With the shallow drain extension junctions protected by the spacers, a second implant with heavier dose is self-aligned to the oxide spacers around the polysilicon gate to form deep source/drain junctions. There would then be a rapid thermal anneal (RTA) for the source/drain junctions to enhance the diffusion of the dopants implanted in the deep source/drain junctions so as to optimize the device performance. The purpose of the first implant is to form a LDD at the edge near the channel. In a LDD structure, almost the entire voltage drop occurs across the lightly doped drain region. The second implant with heavier dose forms low resistance deep drain junctions, which are coupled to the LDD structures. Since the second implant is spaced from the channel by the spacers, the resulting drain junction adjacent to the light doped drain region can be made deeper without impacting device operation. The increase junction depth lowers the sheet resistance and the contact resistance of the drain.
In most typical LDD structures for CMOS devices, sources/drains are formed by four implants with dopants, each implant requiring a masking step. The four masking steps are: a first mask (a P-LDD mask) to form the P-LDD structures, a second mask (an N-LDD mask) to form the N-LDD structures, a third mask (a P+S/D mask) to form the P-type doped, deep source/drain junctions, and a fourth mask (an N+S/D mask) to form the N-type doped, deep source/drain junctions. Each masking step typically includes the sequential steps of preparing the semiconductor substrate, applying a photoresist material, soft-baking, patterning and etching the photoresist to form the respective mask, hard-baking, implanting a desired dose of a dopant with the required conductivity type, stripping the photoresist, and then cleaning of the substrate. These processing steps associated with each masking step adversely increase cycle time and process complexity and also introduce particles and defects, resulting in an undesirable increase in cost and yield loss. Hence, there is a need to provide a method for forming MOS devices and CMOS devices with LDD structures that lessens the number of masking steps required.
Further improvements in transistor reliability and performances for exceeding smaller devices are achieved by a transistor having LDD structures only at the drain region (asymmetric LDD structures). Parasitic resistance due to the LDD structure at the source region of a transistor causes a decrease in drain current as well as a greater power dissipation for a constant supply voltage. The reduction in drain current is due to the effective gate voltage drop from self-biased negative feedback. At the drain region of the transistor, the drain region parasitic resistance does not appreciably affect drain current when the transistor is operating in the saturation region. Therefore, to achieve high-performance MOS transistor operation, it is known to form LDD structures only at the drain regions but not at the source regions.
One significant problem with the LDD structures is the formation of parasitic capacitors. These parasitic capacitors are formed due to the diffusion of dopants from the LDD towards the channel regions underneath the polysilicon gate as a result of RTA and other heating processes in the manufacturing of the transistors. These parasitic capacitors are highly undesirable because they slow down the switching speed of the transistors. The adverse speed impact increases disproportionately with shortened channels. Basically, the parasitic capacitance due to LDD structures as a percentage of the total transistor capacitance is higher for sub-0.18 micron transistors than it is for a 0.18 micron transistor and even worse for a sub-0.13 transistor, making the adverse speed impact much more significant in smaller transistors.
The conventional approaches to reduce parasitic capacitance have been to reduce LDD implant dosage or scaling down the operating voltage. However, these approaches also degrade the performance of the transistors.
Methods to minimize the formation of hot carriers by improving the gradual doping profile in LDD structures, to simplify the process for forming LDD structures by lessening the number of masking steps, and to reduce the parasitic capacitance due to LDD structures without comprising transistor performance have long been sought but have eluded those skilled in the art.
The present invention provides a method of manufacturing semiconductors having reduced parasitic capacitance.
The present invention further provides a method of manufacturing semiconductors having LDD structures in which process complexity is minimized by reducing the number of masking steps.
The present invention also provides a method of manufacturing semiconductors with LDD structures having reduced parasitic capacitance and graded doping profiles which reduces hot carrier injections.
The present invention additionally provides a method of manufacturing semiconductors using a single-step ion implantation to form both LDD structures and the deep source/drain regions of a transistor device.
The above and additional advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the separation of materials, produced for example by a mining operation, into fractions of different densities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In for example the mining of coal, a mixture of coal and shale is produced from the face being mined, and it is necessary to separate the coal from the shale by the use of automatic machinery. Conventionally used for this operation is a wash box (hereinafter referred to as "a wash box of the kind specified") essentially in the form of a vessel divided vertically into a stratification compartment and a reject compartment, with a perforate grid plate extending across upper parts of the compartments. The vessel is filled to a level above the grid plate with a liquid, such as water, and the raw material is deposited on the grid plate at one side, flow of water across the grid plate tending to carry the material across the grid plate.
Means is provided to cause generally vertical pulsations in the liquid in the two compartments, disturbing the raw material on the grid plate, causing the heavy material (the shale) to sink to the bottom adjacent to the grid plate, and the lighter material to rise to the top. Thus, as the raw material moves across the grid plate, and in particular across that part of the grid plate extending over the stratification compartment, the raw material is stratified. The heavier material adjacent to the grid plate falls from the grid plate into a reject extraction chamber, and the light material passes over a gate or sill (located a short distance above the grid plate) and from the wash box through a primary outlet.
It is desirable in wash boxes of the kind specified to be able to control the operation of the wash box as accurately as possible, and preferably by means which permits the utilisation of automatically operating mechanisms.
For example, in such wash boxes, it is necessary to control the thickness of the layer of the heavier material on the grid plate in the stratification compartment so as to ensure reliable separation of materials. If the layer of the heavy material becomes too thick, particles of the heavier fraction will pass out with the lighter material over the gate or sill. Conversely, if the layer of the heavier material is too thin, particles of the lighter fraction will be discharged into the reject extraction chamber with the heavier material.
Thus, it has been proposed in a wash box of the kind specified to sense the thickness of the layer of the heavier material in the stratification compartment and, when a reduction in the thickness of this layer is required, to cause pulsations in the liquid in the reject compartment, or to increase the amplitude of the pulsations being applied thereto, so that the particles of heavier material will pass over the grid plate and fall therefrom into the reject chamber more readily.
Conventionally the thickness of the layer of heavier material on the grid plate has been measured by the use of a float which rests on the top surface of the heavier material, and the position of the float has been used to control the pulsations applied to the reject compartment.
Additionally, since the pressure which is generated in the stratification compartment will be dependent upon the weight of raw material resting on the grid plate, proposals have also been made to connect a vertical tube to the stratification compartment from beneath the grid plate, into which liquid from beneath the grid plate flows, and to sense the mean or average position of the surface of the liquid within this tube by the use of mechanical means which includes a float in the tube, thereby providing an indication of the thickness of the layer of the heavier material. Thus, the position of the float may be used to control the amplitude of the pulsations applied to the reject compartment.
Alternatively, electrodes within such a tube have been used to sense when the level of the liquid within the tube rises to a predetermined point (corresponding to an undesirably high thickness of heavier material on the grid plate) to cause an increase in the amplitude of the pulsations applied to the reject compartment, or to sense when the level of liquid within the tube falls below a predetermined point (corresponding to an undesirably small thickness of the heavier material on the grid plate) to cause a decrease in the amplitude of the pulsations applied to the reject compartment.
Whereas all previous suggestions have been to varying extents satisfactory in the past, they do not readily lend themselves to the solution of problems now being encountered in the field of materials separation, particularly as it concerns the mining of coal.
Thus, when coal was extracted manually from the face being worked, the raw material would contain a relatively small proportion of reject materials of a heavier density, for example, ten percent of the raw material would be shale. However, even with the use of coal cutting machinery, until recently coal seams which have been worked have been relatively thick, and of a reliable nature. Thus, it was possible to use the coal cutting machine in a manner such that the proportion of reject materials of heavier density cut from the face with the coal was still relatively small, although usually higher than the figure which was obtained with manual extraction.
However, there is in present times a tendency to work seams of decreasing reliability, involving at times the cutting of predominantly reject material, and to work seams of shallower depth, and/or over and undercutting to an extent which ensures that all the coal is removed, despite the increase in reject material which will necessarily be produced at the same time.
Thus, not only is the reject content of the raw material becoming increasingly higher (often up to seventy percent) but also the proportion of reject material may vary considerably over relatively short periods of time.
Present techniques for controlling the operation of wash boxes of the kind specified have heretofore become insufficiently accurate, and have produced difficulty in ensuring that a minimum of reject material is included in the coal, and in ensuring that a minimum of coal is included in the reject material. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Holey optical fibers have microscopic holes or voids for guiding light. In holey fibers, the core is solid (e.g. SiO2) and is surrounded by an array of holes containing inert gas or air. The light guided in the optical fiber may be confined to the central core region by one of two basic mechanisms. In the first mechanism, light is confined to the central core region by a refractive index difference between the core and cladding material. In conventional solid glass fibers, the refractive index difference is produced by dopants in either the core or cladding material in order to raise or lower the refractive indices of these regions. In general it is desired for the core region to have a higher refractive index than the cladding region. This can either be accomplished by doping materials such as germanium or similar elements in the core to raise the index or doping fluorine or similar in the cladding region to lower the refractive index. The index of the cladding region can also be lowered by introducing porosity in that region. The microscopic holes have a much lower refractive index compared to the solid core, so light is confined to the core. In the second type of confinement mechanism, the size and spacing of the holes is controlled in a very uniform and well defined pattern such that a photonic band gap is produced. The holes must be periodically spaced and carefully arranged and maintained in the fiber to achieve the photonic band gap effects. These fibers are often referred to as photonic crystal fibers owing to their period arrangement of air holes in the fiber. The microscopic holes provide unusual optical properties such as single-mode operation over a wide wavelength range, low zero-dispersion wavelength, and highly controllable birefringence. As a result, holey optical fibers are expected to have a wide range of applications in optical sensors and telecommunications.
Holey optical fibers are conventionally manufactured by stacking an array of hollow silica tubes to form a preform. The tubes are carefully arranged to control the spacing between them and to ensure the crystalline arrangement. The preform is then heated and drawn into fibers as known in the art. The tubes generally experience a uniform scale reduction during drawing so that the tubes create the microscopic holes in the fiber.
One of the drawbacks of the conventional method for making holey optical fibers is the complexity of assembling the stack of tubes. Also, the tube-stacking method cannot be used to produce fibers with random arrays of holes. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Spark plug connectors define the electrical connection between a spark plug and an ignition voltage source and are pushed onto the connecting tip of a spark plug. A contact element of the spark plug connector establishes the connection between the center electrode of the spark plug and the ignition cable of the voltage source. The spark plug is usually for use in internal combustion engines. The electrode or electrodes project into the combustion chamber for the purpose of igniting the mixture.
Such a spark plug connector is disclosed in German patent publication 195 15 623. The housing of this spark plug connector is made of electrically insulating material and a contact element of electrically-conducting elastic material is mounted in this housing. A sleeve-shaped cable holder for the ignition cable is formed onto the housing of the spark plug connector. This cable holder includes an inwardly projecting cable connector which is in electrical connection with the contact element. The contact element is configured as a contact ring made of electrically-conducting elastic material such as silicon having a specific graphite content or an insert made of metal wires. The contact ring is held as an inserted component in a cylindrical recess of the housing. The housing itself is rigid. When the spark plug connector is pushed onto a spark plug, then the connecting tip of the spark plug penetrates the contact ring and widens the same. The restoring spring force of the expanded contact ring presses the inner surface of the contact ring against the connecting tip and ensures the electrical contact.
The elastic material of the contact ring makes possible only small spring deflections so that the restoring forces of the contact material are only adjustable with difficulty. Vibrations caused by the operation can lead to wear at the contact element whereby the contact force of the elastic ring can become scattered.
If a helical spring is used as a contact element in a spark plug connector, then the helical spring must be pressed axially upon the connecting tip of the spark plug. The helical spring too defines only short effective spring deflections so that large forces are required for pushing the spark plug connector onto the spark plug in order to ensure the required contact force of the helical spring. When disconnecting the insert connection, often very large pulling forces act on the helical spring which can lead to a permanent deformation and reduction of the spring action. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user-controlled device, in particular a mouse or a joystick, with 3D motion detection. The invention is however also applicable to game pads, trackballs and other screen pointing devices for a computer system as well as to devices for pointing or selecting predetermined tasks or information according to their position, which are connected to a computer or a computer-controlled system. The invention is also applicable to the control of an electrical appliance, e.g., for switching on an electrical appliance and activate particular tasks, on the base of a 3D movement signal generated by the user-controlled device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is known, mice are now the most common interface between a person and a computer or a computer controlled device and are hand-displaced on a plane or two-dimensional surface to control a cursor or pointer or activate particular tasks. To this end, typical mice comprise a plurality of sensors detecting a 2D movement of the mouse; a plurality of buttons for entering commands and a communication interface for communication with the computer system.
In view of the ease of operation and spread in use of mice as a convenient interface with computer systems, a number of functionalities are being developed to make mice still easier to use, to reduce operation stresses and damages to arms and shoulders, to increase the number of tasks that may be controlled or selected through a mouse, to adapt to various specific requirement and operation environment or to detect movements with more degrees of freedom.
For example, a mouse has been proposed, having improved movement detection capabilities, including detection of tilting in four different directions, rotation about its axis and a little vertical movement. This mouse, described, e.g., in “The VideoMouse: A Camera-Based Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Input Device,” by K. Hinckley et al., ACM UIST'99 Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology, CHI Letters 1 (1), pp. 103-112, uses a video camera for detecting the movement. However, although the image processing systems are becoming cheaper and smaller, the costs and dimensions of these systems do not allow their use in all systems. Furthermore, this type of movement detection has a functionality highly dependent upon light conditions and/or optical features of the surface the mouse rests on.
Furthermore, the known solutions do not always allow operation by disabled persons, having limited or no hand control. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In a data storage device, for example a data replication product DATA DOMAIN of the EMC corporation, prior to replicating a large amount of data to the storage device (such as a disk), a duplicate data removing operation is firstly required, which is also named as de-duplication, to replicate updated portions in the large amount of data to the storage device, thereby saving storage space.
However, in such a data storage device, relevant operations including the de-duplication, such as data segmentation, compression/decompression, encryption/decryption, or the like, are all performed by a central processing unit (CPU). Hence, a network interface card (NIC/FC) connecting the large amount of data to be replicated and the storage device conventionally does not have any programming functions. Though the above operation for data replication may be performed through the CPU, this CPU-based solution often occupies a large amount of CPU resources and results in a lower performance per unit power output (for example, the performance per Watt), and besides, the CPU does not have any advantages in certain single-threaded processing as compared to hardware devices, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or the like.
Dedicated hardware for performing the above operation (for example, Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC) may be used to replace the CPU to perform the above mentioned operation. Although such kind of dedicated hardware-based solution may achieve a higher performance per unit power output, the extendibility or the design flexibility of the dedicated hardware-based network interface card are dramatically restrained due to difficulty for changing the hardware. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a magneto-optical high-voltage current measuring transducer and more particularly to a measuring transducer utilizing light polarization changes created by a magnetic field associated with the high-voltage current.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Magneto-optical measuring transducers are known. In a known measuring transducer, polarized light flows through a first Faraday rotator which is arranged as a measuring sensing element in a magnetic field which is dependent upon the high-voltage current to be measured. On the passage through this Faraday rotator, the polarization direction of a polarized light beam is rotated in dependence upon the magnetic field. The polarized light which emerges from the Faraday rotator and is altered in respect of its polarization direction, now passes through another Faraday rotator, the so-called compensator, which carries earth potential. The compensator is connected to a regulatable magnetic field so that the polarized light, which has been altered in respect of its polarization direction is returned to the original polarization direction. The strength of the regulatable magnetic field is then consequently a gauge for the current strength of the current to be measured.
It is already known to design a Faraday rotator as a light conducting coil. A light conducting coil of this type consists of a glass fibre which serves to convey the polarized light beam, whereby the polarization direction of this light beam is rotated on its path through the glass fibre in dependence upon the prevailing magnetic field.
Such Faraday rotators in the form of light conductor coils have limited measuring accuracy, however. As a result of the curvature of the light conductor fibres in the coil, unsymmetries arise which cause birefringence.
It is known how this curvature-dependent birefringence can be compensated. The starting point is the recognition that in terms of their influence on polarized light, coils composed of light conducting fibres can be described by way of a model as a birefringent crystal. For reasons of symmetry, a main axial direction is identical with the coil axis. In a birefringent crystal, main axial directions are to be understood as those directions of polarization in which a linearly polarized light beam can pass through the crystal without the polarization of the light beam becoming altered.
Each birefringent crystal possesses two main axial directions which are at right angles to one another. If it is traversed by a linearly polarized light beam exhibiting a polarization direction which differs from the main axial direction, elliptically polarized light is formed. If two similar crystals are optically connected in series to one another in such manner that the direction of the main axis with the more rapid light propagation in the one crystal is identical to the direction of the main axis with the slower light propagation in the other crystal, i.e. if the similar main axial directions are crossed, the differences in transit time for different polarization directions are compensated, so that a linearly polarized light beam which enters this crystal combination emerges linearly polarized again, and in fact independently of its polarization direction.
On the basis of this knowledge, it has been proposed that two identical light conductor coils be optically connected in series, the coil axes to be aligned at right angles to one another. The one light conductor coil serves as a measuring sensing element and carries a high voltage potential, whereas the other light conductor coil serves as a compensator and carries earth potential. In this arrangement the curvature-dependent birefringence can be compensated.
However, the strength of the curvature-dependent birefringence is also temperature-dependent and as the measuring sensing element and the compensator are generally relatively widely spaced from one another in order to achieve insulation from the high voltage current to be measured, it is difficult to ensure an equal temperature on the measuring sensing element and on the compensator. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In recent years, various cigarettes with a desired property imparted are known. The wrapping paper of such cigarettes has a band for imparting a property, and the band is formed by applying one of materials, which vary in the property to be imparted, onto the wrapping paper.
For example, a cigarette disclosed in PCT Application Published Japanese Translation No. 2001-509366 has a low ignition propensity, and this low ignition propensity is imparted by a plurality of bands. The bands are formed on the wrapping paper, at predetermined intervals along the axial direction of the cigarette.
A cigarette disclosed in the pamphlet of International Publication No. 01/84969 has a property of improving burning by suppressing the production of an undesired substance or aldehyde at the time of ignition. This burning-improvement property is imparted by a single band. Specifically, the single band is formed on the wrapping paper to be located at the distal end (ignition end) of the cigarette.
Further, a cigarette may have a band for improving the taste and flavor thereof, and such band is also formed on the wrapping paper.
In order for a cigarette as mentioned above to fully show its property, it is desirable that a band be formed on the wrapping paper accurately. Particularly in the case of the cigarette disclosed in the above-mentioned pamphlet, unless the band is accurately located at the distal end of the cigarette, the band cannot impart the desired burning-improvement property.
However, in making cigarettes of this type, it is very difficult to locate the band accurately at the distal end of a cigarette. Specifically, the common cigarette making machine comprises a garniture tape for making a web of wrapping paper travel at a fixed speed, a wrapping section, and a cutting section. While passing through the wrapping section, cut tobacco on the traveling web is continuously wrapped in the web, and the wrapping section continuously delivers a resultant tobacco rod to the cutting section. Then, while passing through the cutting section, the tobacco rod is cut to a predetermined length, so that individual cigarettes are obtained.
If the bands are formed on the web at predetermined intervals in advance, and the garniture tape and the web are made to travel in an integrated manner, the common cigarette making machine can make cigarettes having an above-mention band, accurately.
While the tobacco rod is being formed, however, if a slip occurs between the web and the garniture tape, no matter how slight the slip is, the slip causes a band for a cigarette to displace from its desired position, so that the band cannot be accurately located at the distal end of a cigarette.
In order to obviate this problem, it is thinkable, in the cigarette making machine, to relatively change the traveling speed of the garniture tape with respect to the timing of cutting the tobacco rod, or in other words, change the advance phase of each band in traveling relative to the timing of cutting the tobacco rod.
However, in the cigarette making machine, high-speed and stable manufacturing of cigarettes is ensured by keeping the traveling speed of the garniture tape and the timing of cutting the tobacco rod constant. Therefore, it is not realistic to relatively change the traveling speed of the garniture tape or with respect to the timing of cutting the tobacco rod as mentioned above. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This disclosure relates to medical devices and more particularly to an implantable lead.
The medical device industry produces a wide variety of electronic and mechanical devices for treating patient medical conditions such as pacemakers, defibrillators, neuro-stimulators and therapeutic substance delivery pumps. Medical devices can be configured to be surgically implanted or connected externally to the patient receiving treatment. Clinicians use medical devices alone or in combination with therapeutic substance therapies and surgery to treat patient medical conditions. For some medical conditions, medical devices provide the best and sometimes the only therapy to restore an individual to a more healthful condition and a fuller life. One type of medical device is an implantable neurological stimulation system that can be used to treat conditions such as pain, movement disorders, pelvic floor disorders, gastroparesis, and a wide variety of other medical conditions. The neurostimulation system typically includes a neurostimulator, a stimulation lead, and an extension such as shown in Medtronic, Inc. brochure “Implantable Neurostimulation System” (1998). More specifically, the neurostimulator system can be an Itrel II® Model 7424 or an Itrel 3® Model 7425 available from Medtronic, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minn. that can be used to treat conditions such as pain, movement disorders and pelvic floor disorders. The neurostimulator is typically connected to a stimulation lead that has one or more electrodes to deliver electrical stimulation to a specific location in the patient's body.
Implantable leads have conductors that are connected to contacts to form electrical path. The connection between the conductors and the contacts should have solid mechanical connection and a low impedance electrical connection for efficient operation and reliability. Conductors manufactured from low impedance materials such as silver make forming a connection with good mechanical properties challenging because silver has substantially less tensile strength than a more common conductor material such as MP35N. Additionally, silver content in the weld joint between a conductor and contact increases the chances of separation, silver exposure to tissue, and weld corrosion during lead operation. Conductor bending moments should be avoided at the connection because bending moments can stress the conductor and reduce the reliability of the connection. Previous conductor to contact lead connections involve creating a bending moment in the conductor at or near the connection. An example of a lead with a joined conductor and electrode is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,181,971 “Joining Conductor Cables And Electrodes On A Multi-Lumen Lead Body” by Doan (Jan. 30, 2001).
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an implantable lead with coplanar contact couplings to reduce conductor bending moments to improve lead reliability. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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“Scratch-off” or “instant-win” lottery tickets have enjoyed immense popularity in the lottery industry for decades. These games offer distinct advantages to the lottery authorities and are attractive to a broad spectrum of players. Typically, the tickets are printed in the primary language of a targeted population base. For example, the same themed ticket may be printed in different runs in English, Spanish, German, and so forth, depending on the intended country or other distribution locale.
However, as the population base grows more culturally diverse, particularly in larger metropolitan areas, one single language may no longer be dominant over a broad population spectrum. Entire sections or neighborhoods of a city or other locale may speak one language, while an adjacent neighborhood may primarily speak an entirely different language. The residents of these neighborhoods may not be comfortable with the other respective language. This pertains to play of lottery tickets in differing languages as well. Persons who are not fluent or comfortable with the language of the scratch-off (“instant”) lottery ticket may avoid playing the game for fear of not understanding the game rules or, even worse, not recognizing that their ticket may actually be a winning ticket. As the games continue to add greater prizes and more complex entertainment features, the reluctance to play the game by those not comfortable with the language of the ticket will correspondingly grow.
In the past, it has not been economically or commercially feasible to provide a multi-lingual game card or lottery ticket. The available surface area on a scratch-off ticket (often referred to as the ticket “real estate”) for the various game features, such as a game play area, instructions, security features, graphics, and so forth, is limited and cannot reasonably accommodate repetition of the pertinent game rules or instructions in different languages. Essentially, the only option was to provide separate production runs of tickets in the different languages.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,434,792 proposes a solution wherein a game on a single paper game card includes a game play area, and a first set of game instructions provided on the game card printed in a first language. A second set of the game instructions in a second different printed language is superimposed over the first set of game instructions. An indicator is provided on the game card to convey that the first set of game instructions are present and accessible by removing the second set of game instructions. Thus, the player has the option to read the game instructions in either or both of the first or second printed languages. Although this is a useful method and system, it requires substantial additional printing time, expenses, and materials.
The industry and public would benefit from still more improved methods to facilitate multi-lingual play of a game on a printed game card, such as a scratch-off lottery ticket. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Many map-based applications available today are designed for a variety of different devices (e.g., desktops, laptops, tablet devices, smartphones, handheld global positioning system (GPS) receivers, etc.) and for various different purposes (e.g., navigation, browsing, sports, etc.). Most of these applications generate displays of a map based on map data that describes relative locations of streets, highways, points of interest, etc., in the map. Some map-based applications provide a navigation feature, which provides the user with turn-by-turn instructions to a destination. Most of these applications, however, do not have sophisticated features that today's demanding users wish to have in their map-based applications. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Trouble shooting cable television systems is a very difficult endeavor because such systems and their associated electronics are spread diversly over a large geographical area. The majority of systems are one-way with signals originating at a headend and being transmitted to many extremities. Failure of any one component in the chain is never witnessed or acknowledged at the central operations point. A subscriber loss of service complaint, received via telephone, is normally the first notification of a malfunction. However, as reported by the subscriber, it is often very difficult to judge the nature of the problem. A report of "no picture" can be a symptom resulting from a problem as severe as a total CATV system outage to simply the failure of the subscriber's television set which has no bearing on the cable plant operation.
Once a complaint has been lodged in a system operations center, the technical staff is dispatched to drive the length of the cable system in question, stopping occasionally to determine whether the signal is present at that point or if the problem is further down the line. Many times, this trouble shooting technique involves knocking on doors and asking subscribers to view their television receivers to see if they have the same complaint. This is both inconvenient and troublesome to the subscribers, very time consuming and therefore costly to the cable operator.
In order to ensure the integrity of shielding and thus minimizing intolerable interference from sources outside the coaxial environment and to comply with regulatory agency rules, most operators of networks place a uniquely encoded signal within their network, the sole purpose of which is to test for unacceptable radiation from the network. Using a detecting device with known characteristics, the user of the detecting device may isolate the location of any area within the network which exceeds predetermined radiation levels. Leakage in excess of established limitations can be traced to a lack of shielding integrity which will allow equally reciprocal amounts of ingress and egress. In most instances, tolerable ingress must be much less than regulatory agency rules allow in order to avoid interference to desired signals from those outside the network.
In the ideal network, one should expect never to sense the radiation control signal. It is therefore obvious that the same signal which is placed on the coaxial network for purposes of radiation monitoring cannot also be used directly to assist the network operator to isolate the location of an amplifier/repeater station which is malfunctioning. However, this signal can be used as a pilot signal the level of which can be sensed by interface hardware physically mounted directly to the output port of an existing broadband network amplifier. Duplicating the use of an existing signal is of extreme importance to the network operator as no additional bandwidth is required for non-revenue purposes. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) refers to a communications network including base stations, or Node Bs, and for example radio network controllers (RNC). UTRAN allows for connectivity between the user equipment (UE) and the core network. The RNC provides control functionalities for one or more Node Bs. The RNC and its corresponding Node Bs are called the Radio Network Subsystem (RNS). In case of E-UTRAN (enhanced UTRAN), no RNC exists and most of the RNC functionalities are contained in the enhanced Node B (eNodeB or eNB).
Long Term Evolution (LTE) or E-UTRAN refers to improvements of the UMTS through improved efficiency and services, lower costs, and use of new spectrum opportunities. In particular, LTE is a 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) standard that provides for uplink peak rates of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) and downlink peak rates of at least 100 Mbps. LTE supports scalable carrier bandwidths from 20 MHz down to 1.4 MHz and supports both Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) and Time Division Duplexing (TDD).
As mentioned above, LTE may also improve spectral efficiency in networks, allowing carriers to provide more data and voice services over a given bandwidth. Therefore, LTE is designed to fulfill the needs for high-speed data and media transport in addition to high-capacity voice support. Advantages of LTE include, for example, high throughput, low latency, FDD and TDD support in the same platform, an improved end-user experience, and a simple architecture resulting in low operating costs.
Certain releases of 3GPP LTE (e.g., LTE Rel-10, LTE Rel-11, LTE Rel-12, LTE Rel-13) are targeted towards international mobile telecommunications advanced (IMT-A) systems, referred to herein for convenience simply as LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).
LTE-A is directed toward extending and optimizing the 3GPP LTE radio access technologies. A goal of LTE-A is to provide significantly enhanced services by means of higher data rates and lower latency with reduced cost. LTE-A is a more optimized radio system fulfilling the international telecommunication union-radio (ITU-R) requirements for IMT-Advanced while keeping the backward compatibility. One the key features of LTE-A is carrier aggregation, which allows for increasing the data rates through aggregation of two or more LTE carriers. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Surgical aspirators are used to remove fluids from the body of the patient. A surgical aspirator typically includes a tip that is inserted into a surgical site, wound, or other bodily orifice. The tip is generally elongated in shape and may include a handle or grip section to facilitate using and holding the aspirator. The proximal end of the tip is connected to a tube that is connected to a suction pump that provides suction to the tip. The distal end of the aspirator tip is inserted into the patient and has one or more openings into which gases, fluids, and materials may flow.
Pieces of tissue and other debris may be suspended in the fluids and can clog the aspirator tip. Thus, the distal end of the aspirator tip may be covered with a sleeve that is formed with a plurality of small holes. The holes prevent the tissue from reaching the opening of the aspirator tip while allowing the fluid being evacuated to flow into the sleeve through the holes.
This action could be further enhanced by using internal projections defined on the interior surface of the sleeve to maintain the position of the sleeve relative to the aspirator tip. Projections may also be used to ensure adequate space between the aspirator tip and the sleeve. Therefore, fluids and small debris may flow freely to or through the aspirator tip end opening.
Venting channels may additionally be formed between the sleeve and tip to sustain uniform distribution of suction in the event that the holes in the sleeve become clogged. The venting channels should be properly aligned with the sleeve to ensure that airflow reaches the interior of the sleeve if any of the holes become clogged. Without such airflow, suction will no longer be uniformly distributed among the unclogged holes. This may result in excess suction in particular areas of the sleeve that may pull surrounding tissue, thereby causing injury to the patient. It would be beneficial to use a sleeve locking mechanism to secure the position of the sleeve relative to the aspirator tip such that the venting channels are maintained between the sleeve and tip during use.
Based on the foregoing, a need exists for an improved surgical aspirator tip and sleeve combination that allows air flow into the interior of the sleeve and towards the tip end opening and through properly aligned venting channels existing between the sleeve and tip. A need also exists for an improved surgical aspirator tip and sleeve combination that enables a user to vary the level of suction within the sleeve to safely and efficiently drain fluids from a body cavity. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field
Example embodiments relate to substrate structures and display devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
A display device, e.g., an organic light-emitting display (OLED) device may include a stack of insulation layers that contain different materials. The insulation layers may cause optical characteristics (e.g., transmittance) of the OLED device to be unsatisfactory.
An active member of a thin film transistor (TFT) included in the display device may be influenced by insulation layers disposed on and/or under the active member. As a result, electron mobility of the TFT may insufficient, and thus performance of the TFT may be unsatisfactory. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The adoption of packet transport technology is flexible enough for many applications. Some of those applications have strong requirement on end-to-end, E2E, delay, so they use a transport level packet per each information unit. Other applications have less restrictive E2E delay requirement, so they may use a transport level packet for transporting as many information units as possible. The technology that allows gathering many information units on the same transport level packet (toward the same destination) is known as “bundling” and permits a better usage of transport network and processing resources. It is well known that, under specific traffic and incoming bandwidth profile, bounding could significantly reduce resource usage, causing a better utilisation ratio of the Transport Layer.
Unluckily, bundling requires or causes a fixed delay in transporting the information units, time needed by the bundling itself to decide when to round-up the received information units and send them in the same transport level packet. This delay is unwanted, especially with a low incoming bandwidth rate when the delay may become quite intrusive.
Bundling is based on timing and size, meaning that on each request for sending a packet from an upper level protocol, e.g. an application, the transport level protocol will start time supervision. Further requests from upper level protocol will be gathered within the same transport level packet until the timer supervision expires, or the transport level packet is full, in both cases the packet will be sent. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for establishing a connection over user computers in heterogeneous networks, and a domain name system proxy server for controlling the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for supporting communication between user computers included in Internet-compatible heterogeneous networks through a gateway based on an Internet public network.
(b) Description of the Related Art
The address shortage problem in Internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) was brought out about two decades ago, and many solutions have been suggested since then and they have been integrated into Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6).
The IPv6 provides a larger address space, but the use of the address space is limited.
Accordingly, new schemes have been suggested and standardized. Among the new schemes, Network Address Translation (NAT) is a method by which IP addresses are mapped from one group to another, and are transparent to end users by using a residual network address.
The NAT provides a connection from an IPv4 private user-network to an IPv6 public network using one or few public network addresses through a gateway without modification of protocol stacks in a user's computer, but it depends on end-to-end consistency.
Similar to the NAT, a Realm Specific Internet Protocol (RSIP) has been suggested as an IP address translation technique, as an alternative to the NAT. The RSIP has been standardized for solving the problem of the NAT, but it also has a problem of requiring a change of a protocol stack in a user's computer.
A NAT Protocol Translation (NAT-TP) is a method for translating network addresses and TCP/UDP ports into TCP/UDP ports that correspond to one network address, and providing a transparent connection to IPv4 public network users in the IPv6 network by using the NAT.
A Translating, Relaying Internet Architecture Integrating Active Directories (TRIAD) connects two IPv4 private user-networks through gateways based on an IPv4 public network.
Therefore, communication between one private user-network and another private user-network can be achieved. However, similar to the RSIP, the TRAID also requires protocol stack modification within a user-computer and therefore it is inappropriate for common use.
Therefore, the prior arts cannot support communication between Internet-compatible heterogeneous user-networks due to the protocol stack modification and end-to-end consistency requirements.
For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the prior arts cannot support communication between one IPv4 private user-network and another IPv4 private user-network, communication between one IPv4 public user-network and an IPv4 private user-network, communication between an IPv6 network and an IPv4 private user-network, and communication between an IPv4 public user-network and an IPv6 user-network.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cleaning article.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automobile interiors accumulate dust which needs to be removed on occasion. Although a duster can be used for this purpose, dust tends to adhere to the duster, thereby reducing its effectiveness.
Over time, a dirt film forms on the interior surfaces of automobile windows as well as on the surfaces of other types of windows. This film is normally removed by means of a cloth or paper towel. However, no effective manner of gripping the cloth or paper towel has been developed to date, with the result that it is difficult to manipulate the cloth or paper towel. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Integrins are heterodimeric Type I transmembrane proteins formed of two subunits (one alpha subunit and one beta subunit), and mediate many different cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. Functionally, integrins have been shown to be involved in diverse biological processes, including leukocyte migration and recirculation and the immune response. In mammals, there are 18 known alpha subunits and eight known beta subunits, which combine to form 24 distinct integrins. Ligand specificity is determined in large part by the particular combinations of alpha and beta subunits expressed, while affinity for ligand is modulated by integrin conformational changes and is divalent-cation dependent.
The ligands for integrins form a structurally diverse group that includes extracellular matrix proteins such as collagens, fibronection, vitronectin and laminins; counter-receptors such as the cellular adhesion molecules (for example, vascular cellular adhesion molecule or VCAM), and plasma proteins. Numerous pathogenic microorganisms also utilize integrins to initiate infection or as sites for toxin binding. The structurally diverse ligands share an exposed glutamic or aspartic acid residue, usually present in an extended, flexible loop, which is important for recognition by integrins.
The alpha4 integrins (alpha 4 partnered with either the beta1 or beta7 subunit) play an important role in the immune system. Alpha4beta1 is expressed on lymphocytes and myeloid cells; it appears to be the major binding partner for vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM). VCAM is ubiquitously expressed on vascular endothelium, is up regulated during inflammation, and binds alpha4beta7 as well as alpha4beta1 (albeit weakly to alpha4beta7). Though also detected on d peripheral T cells, B cells, NK cells and eosinphils, alpha4beta7 is most highly expressed on a subpopulation of CD4+CD45RA-memory T cells which has been shown to preferentially home to the gut. The primary ligand for the alpha4beta7 heterodimer is mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule 1 (MAdCAM-1 or MAdCAM), which is expressed in gut endothelium.
In addition to pairing with the alpha4 chain, the beta7 subunit also partners with alphaE to form alphaEbeta7, which is primarily expressed on intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) in intestine, lung and genitourinary tract. AlphaEbeta7 is also expressed on dendritic cells in the gut. The alphaEbeta7 heterodimer binds to E-cadherin, which is expressed on epithelial cells. The IEL cells are thought to provide a mechanism for immunosurveillance within the epithelial compartment.
Antibodies that bind alpha4 and inhibit binding of alpha4beta1 to VCAM-1 and fibronection mapped to a 52-amino acid region of alpha4, between residues 152 and 203 (Schiffer et al., J. Biol. Chem. 270:14270; 1995). Tidswell et al. (J. Immuno 159:1497; 1997) identified domains of beta7 that are important in binding to MAdCAM-1, utilizing a panel of antibodies that bind beta7 in a mouse/human chimeric beta7 subunit approach. They found that six of seven antibodies that inhibited binding to MAdCAM-1 and E-cadherin mapped to a region comprising amino acids 176 through 250, which appears to have homology to the metal-ion dependent adhesion site (MIDAS) of other integrin subunits. One of the antibodies used by Tidswell et al. was an alpha4beta7 heterodimer specific antibody referred to as ACT-1.
The ACT-1 antibody was originally described by Lazarovitz et al. (J. Immunol. 133:1857; 1984) as an antibody developed by immunizing mice with human tetanus toxoid-specific T lymphocyte line from PBMC. Later it was shown that ACT-1 binds to the alpha4beta7 heterodimer specifically (Schweighoffer et al., J. Immunol. 151:717, 1993). While ACT-1 does not bind murine alpha4beta7, it does bind alpha4beta7 from least some non-human primate species, and has been shown to attenuate spontaneous colitis in captive cotton-top tamarins (Hesterberg et al., Gastroenterology 111:1373; 1996)
ACT-1 has been humanized and evaluated as a human therapeutic in ulcerative colitis (Feagan et al., N Engl J. Med. 352:2499; 2005), and recently in Crohn's disease (Feagan et al, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 6:1370, 2008), Humanized ACT-1, also known as vedolizumab, is described in WO 98/06248 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,147,85, as well as WO 07/061,679 and US 2007-0122404. Another humanized antibody, natalizumab (Tysabri®), has been used to treat Crohn's disease. Natalizumab is a humanized version of an alpha4-specific murine antibody. Vedolizumab has been shown to lead to a neutralizing anti-humanized antibody response in a portion of patients, and natalizumab has been associated with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a neurological disorder that is associated with reactivation of prior infection with JC virus in immunocompromised individuals. Accordingly, there is a need for a therapeutic agent that ameliorates these disadvantages while disrupting the alpha4beta7/MAdCAM-1 pathway. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a catheter having enhanced pressure sensing capabilities. More particularly, the invention relates to a balloon catheter having a micromanometer connected to the catheter and also a fluid-filled transducer system for adjusting micromanometer pressure measurements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A key function of many catheters is that of continuously monitoring blood pressure. In many cases, this monitoring must be performed with accurate measurement of high frequency components. For example, reliable detection of the dicrotic notch of the aortic blood pressure waveform typically requires a pressure signal having a bandwidth of 15 Hz or better. Detection of the dicrotic notch is generally used for the inflation/deflation timing of an intra-aortic balloon (“IAB”) catheter.
Conventional invasive pressure monitoring is performed with low-cost fluid-filled transducers. A typical disposable monitoring kit, inclusive of all tubing, a continuous flush device, and a pre-calibrated transducer is very affordable. Unfortunately, these systems have several drawbacks. One major drawback is that bubbles or clots in the monitoring lines can reduce the frequency response of the system to a level below 15 Hz, creating an “overdamped” condition. In other cases, the characteristics of the catheter and tubing can result in “ringing”, which is associated with an underdamped condition. Furthermore, fluid-filled catheters can suffer from “catheter whip” (motion artifact), which is manifested as one or more high frequency deflections in the pressure signal. These problems can degrade the usefulness of the signal in applications such as intra-aortic balloon pumping (IABP). In particular, it is difficult, if not impossible, to automatically provide optimal timing of IABP using a pressure signal with a frequency response below 15 Hz, or using signals with ringing or whip artifacts that mimic the physiologic dicrotic notch.
Another means for monitoring blood pressure is to use a micromanometer, such as marketed by companies such as Millar, Endosonics, and Radi. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,431,628 and 5,902,248, herein incorporated by reference. These devices can have excellent frequency responses, with system bandwidths greater that 200 Hz. They are not subject to the negative effects of bubbles and catheter whip, and retain good performance even in the presence of small blood clots. Unfortunately, they are very expensive, prone to signal drift, and can suffer from electrical interference. A common source of electrical interference in the setting of IABP therapy is the use of electrosurgery. In this situation, it is desirable to maintain a reliable pressure signal with which to trigger the balloon, as the ECG signal which normally triggers IABP operation becomes completely unreliable. Conventional fluid-filled transducer systems are relatively immune from this type of interference.
If the above problems were solved, micromanometers could potentially be used in conjunction with IABP systems and other catheters to measure blood pressure. Attempts have been made to use micromanometers for IABP timing, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,585,983 and 4,733,652, herein incorporated by reference. These attempts proved to be unreliable, as the device may be damaged during insertion and is also prone to signal drift. To address the drift issue, U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,529, herein incorporated by reference, discloses a method for rezeroing the micromanometer by using the pressure from a partially filled balloon as it rests in the aorta. However, this method requires momentary interruption of IABP, which may be harmful to the critically ill patient.
While standard IAB catheters incorporating a fluid-filled transducer pressure measurement system or IAB catheters incorporating micromanometers may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to a semiconductor pressure sensor making use of the piezoresistive effect and a method of fabricating the same.
By making use of the fact that a resistance is varied due to the piezoresistive effect by applying a mechanical stress, there is used a semiconductor pressure sensor for detecting the change in the resistance due to piezoresistive effect to measure the pressure by thinning a portion of a single crystal silicon substrate to form a diaphragm, by forming a strain gauge of a diffusion layer in an epitaxial layer formed in the diaphragm and by deforming the strain gauge under pressure.
The manuscripts of the 6th "THE BASIC AND APPLICATION OF SENSOR" symposium, P 27-28, entitled "Micro-Diaphragm Pressure Sensor" disclose a semiconductor pressure sensor which will be described with reference to FIG. 20. That device includes a substrate 100 having a crystal plane (100), which has an etched recess or cavity 100a. A silicon oxide film 101 is formed in a predetermined region over the main surface of substrate 100 A polycrystalline silicon layer 102 is formed in a predetermined region in the portion, which is not formed with the silicon oxide film 101 (but is formed with the cavity 100a), and over the silicon oxide film around that portion and which is removed by etching. A first silicon nitride film 103 is formed over the polycrystalline silicon layer 102 and the silicon oxide film 101 and has an etch-hole 106 therein. Over this first silicon nitride film 103, there are formed a strain gauge 104 made of polycrystalline silicon of a predetermined pattern and a second silicon nitride film 105. An undercut-etching is accomplished through the etch-hole 106 to form the cavity 100a in a desired position by making use of the relatively high etching rate of the polycrystalline silicon. The silicon nitride film overlying the cavity 100a is used as a diaphragm. Finally, the pressure sensor is constructed by sealing the etch-hole 105 with a third silicon nitride film 107 which is formed by the CVD (i.e., Chemical Vapor Deposition).
In the semiconductor pressure sensor thus constructed, the single crystal silicon substrate 100 is etched from its surface at the side to be formed with the stain gauge 104, to form the cavity 100a and use the silicon nitride film thereover as the diaphragm. This makes it possible to reduce the volume of the single crystal silicon substrate 100 to a relatively small value and to thin the diaphragm thereby to reduce its size. Since, however, the strain gauge 104 is made of the polycrystalline silicon, the semiconductor pressure sensor has a lower sensitivity than that made of single crystal silicon so that its characteristics are not very uniform. In this connection, there has been proposed a technique in which a single crystal strain gauge is formed by recrystallizing the polycrystalline silicon. According to this technique, however, it is difficult to make the characteristic more uniform, and the recrystallization raises the production cost.
Since, moreover, the diaphragm is not smooth in the portion in which the etch-hole 103 is formed, that portion is weak against a mechanical strain. When the etch-hole 106 is to be sealed with the third silicon nitride film 107, on the other hand, the dispersions are liable to cause the third silicon nitride film 107 to bury the etch-hole 106 so that the pressure sensor's output characteristics are unstable. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The invention disclosed herein relates generally to data storage systems in computer networks and, more particularly, to improvements in administering data on storage media by providing the capability of selectively deleting stored data.
There are many different computing architectures for storing electronic data. Individual computers typically store electronic data in volatile storage devices such as Random Access Memory (RAM) and one or more nonvolatile storage devices such as hard drives, tape drives, or optical disks, that form a part of or are directly connectable to the individual computer. In a network of computers such as a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), storage of electronic data is typically accomplished via servers or stand-alone storage devices accessible via the network. These individual network storage devices may be networkable tape drives, optical libraries, Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID), CD-ROM jukeboxes, and other devices.
Storage media used for storing electronic data in such computing architectures include, for example, tapes, hard drives, disks, optical disks and other storage media. In some storage operations performed by a system, data is written to storage media, which is stored in a storage device in the system. Often, there is no logic associated with selecting a particular piece of media that is appropriate for the storage operation. In addition, there is no post storage operation check to determine remaining media capacity. Thus, there are storage systems which maintain storage devices containing media that is not entirely filled with data, which results in the system having to utilize more storage media than is necessary to accommodate its data storage requirements.
Another problem with existing storage systems, is that data stored to storage media may include more than one data file. Currently, to remove, or otherwise delete data files from storage media, all files stored to the storage media must be deleted. There is therefore a need to remove one or more selected stored files from the storage media, while retaining some of the non-selected stored files, without removing all of the data stored on the storage media. This results in storage systems maintaining data files on storage media that are no longer needed, and precludes the ability to delete certain files, for example, when a certain data type is no longer needed to be stored. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In a general radio communication system, an evolved Node B (eNB) may assign uplink resources to a User Equipment (UE), in order to enable the UE to perform uplink transmission to the eNB. In addition, a UE having data to be transmitted in uplink may transmit a Scheduling Request (SR) to an eNB to request uplink resource assignment.
Scheduling request methods include methods based on random access of a UE and methods enabling a UE to use a dedicated channel.
In the random access method, since a plurality of UEs share resources for a scheduling request, resource use efficiency is high, but scheduling requests of a plurality of UEs may collide with each other and thus time required to solve such collisions may result in considerable delays. In the method using the dedicated channel, since discriminable resources for a scheduling request are assigned to each UE, collision between UEs does not occur, but the amount of resources required for the scheduling request may be increased.
In addition, in the case where one UE transmits scheduling requests for a plurality of uplink transmissions (that is, a plurality of uplink traffic flows) to an eNB, each scheduling request for each uplink traffic flow may be transmitted to the eNB. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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To improve the efficiency of multimedia applications, as well as other applications with similar characteristics, a Single Instruction, Multiple Data (SIMD) architecture has been implemented in computer systems to enable one instruction to operate on several data simultaneously, rather than on a single data. In particular, SIMD architectures take advantage of packing many data elements within one register or memory location. With parallel hardware execution, multiple operations can be performed with one instruction, resulting in significant performance improvement.
Although many applications currently in use can take advantage of such operations, known as vertical operations, there are a number of important applications which would require the rearrangement of the data elements before vertical operations can be implemented so as to provide realization of the application. Examples of such important applications include the dot product and matrix multiplication operations, which are commonly used in 3-D graphics and signal processing applications.
One problem with rearranging the order of data elements within a register or memory word is the mechanism used to indicate how the data should be rearranged. Typically, a mask or control word is used. The control word must include enough bits to indicate which of the source data fields must be moved into each destination data field. For example, if a source operand has eight data fields, requiring three bits to designate any given data field, and the destination register has four data fields, (3×4) or 12 bits are required for the control word. However, on a processor implementation where there are less than 12 bits available for the control register, a full shuffle cannot be supported.
Therefore, there is a need for a way to reorganize the order of data elements where less than the full number of bits is available for a control register. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
A typical data storage device includes a medium for storing data, typically in magnetic, magneto-optical or optical form, and a transducer used to write and read data respectively to and from the medium. A disk drive data storage device, for example, includes one or more data storage disks coaxially mounted on a hub of a spindle motor. The spindle motor rotates the data storage disks at speeds typically on the order of several thousand or more revolutions-per-minute. Digital information, representing various types of data, is typically written to and read from the data storage disks by one or more transducers, or read/write heads, which are mounted to an actuator assembly and passed over the surface of the rapidly rotating disks.
In a typical magnetic disk drive, for example, data is stored on a magnetic layer coated on a disk substrate. Several characteristics of disk substrates significantly affect the areal density of a disk drive. One such characteristic that significantly affects the areal density of a disk drive is the uniformity of the surface of the disk substrate, i.e., the absence of substrate surface defects. It is generally recognized that minimizing the flyheight, i.e., the clearance distance between the read/write head and the surface of a data storage disk, generally provides for increased areal densities. It is also recognized in the art, however, that the smoothness of the surface of a data storage disk becomes a critical factor and design constraint when attempting to minimize the flyheight. A significant decrease in flyheight provided by the use of data storage disks having highly uniform recording surfaces can advantageously result in increased transducer readback sensitivity and increased areal density of the disk drive. The uniformity of disk substrate surfaces affects the uniformity of the recording surfaces because the layers sputtered onto the disk substrate, such as the magnetic layer, replicate any irregular surface morphology of the disk substrate.
Conventionally, disk substrates have been based upon aluminum, such as NiP coated Al/Mg alloy substrates. Coating the aluminum magnesium alloy with a nickel-phosphorus plate provides a harder exterior surface which allows the disk substrate to be polished and superfinished. A conventional superfinishing process and slurry is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,542 to Hartog et al., which is assigned to the assignee of the present application. Typically, the Al/Mg—NiP substrate is superfinished to a smooth finish with a colloidal slurry, e.g., a pH adjusted aqueous slurry containing colloidal silica and/or colloidal alumina particles and an etching agent such as a nitrate, prior to sputtering with thin film magnetic coatings. The colloidal slurry is then cleaned from the substrate by the general cleaning mechanisms of mechanical scrubbing, dispersion and etching. Surfactants and pH are generally used for dispersion cleaning, where the surfactant and pH act to separate the slurry particles from each other and from the substrate. Etching is generally accomplished by acids and acid soaps that erode or dissolve the substrate material beneath embedded slurry particles (under-cut) to release them from the substrate. Typical acids in use for NiP plated Al-based substrates include, for example, straight phosphoric acid, nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid-based soaps and phosphoric acid-based soaps. The straight acids generally have a pH less than 1 and the soaps generally have pH's above 1.
After cleaning, the substrates are sputtered with a series of layers, e.g., a chrome underlayer, a magnetic layer and a carbon protection layer. If residual slurry particles are left on the substrate or there is galling to the relatively soft NiP layer, the sputtered layers replicate the irregular surface morphology, creating a bumpy surface on the finished disk. When the read/write head glides over the surface, it crashes into bumps created by the residual particles and/or damage that is higher than the glide clearance. This is known as a glide defect, which can ultimately cause disk drive failure. These bumps further cause magnetic defects, corrosion and decreased disk life. Thus, the residual slurry particles and/or damage needs to be removed from the polished substrate surface so that the substrate is as smooth as possible.
Unfortunately, aluminum-based substrates have relatively low specific stiffness, as well as relatively low impact and dent resistance. For example, the relatively low specific stiffness of the Al/Mg—NiP substrates (typically 3.8 Mpsi/gm/cc) makes this type of disk substrate susceptible to environmental forces which create disk flutter and vibration and which may cause the read/write head to impact and dent the disk substrate surface.
More recently, glass substrates have been used for disk drives in portable devices, such as laptop computers. Glass substrates have a higher impact and dent resistance than aluminum-based substrates, which is important in portable devices where the unit is subject to being bumped, dropped and banged around, causing the read/write head to bang on the disk substrate surface. As discussed in more detail below, glass substrates are typically strengthened by immersion in a strengthening melt. Moreover, the specific stiffness of glass substrates (typically ≦6 or 7 Mpsi/gm/cc) is typically higher than that of aluminum-based substrates.
An additional benefit of glass is that it is easier to polish to and maintain as a smooth surface finish (as compared to NiP) than aluminum-based substrates. A smoother substrate allows the read/write head to fly closer to the disk, which produces a higher density recording. Glide height for some computer disk drives is on the order of 20 nanometers (about 200 Å) and less, which is an extremely small interface distance. Thus, the fact that glass substrates can be polished to smoother finishes makes an industry shift from Al-based substrates to glass substrates desirable, not only for disk drives used in portable devices, but for disk drives used in stationary devices as well.
Just as with aluminum-based substrates, the surface of the glass substrate needs to be polished and superfinished with a slurry to provide an atomically smooth surface. Such a conventional superfinishing polish process and slurry is also described in the above referenced U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,542 to Hartog et al. Typically, the glass substrate is superfinished to a smooth finish with a colloidal slurry, e.g., a pH adjusted aqueous slurry containing colloidal silica and/or colloidal alumina particles and an etching agent such as cerium sulfate, prior to strengthening in a strengthening melt and sputtering with thin film magnetic coatings.
In this conventional superfinishing polish process colloidal silica particles attach to the surface being polished not only by the usual London dispersion forces, van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonding, but unlike NiP, also by molecular bonding even though the slurry has the usual stabilizing agents used in the colloidal silica to prevent the silica particles from sticking to each other (interparticle siloxane bonding), charge repulsion and/or steric stabilizers. Standard methods of scrubbing with soaps using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) pads, ultrasonics or megasonics will not remove any significant percentage of such molecular bonded silica particles. Just as with aluminum-based substrates, if these particles are left in place on the glass substrate, glide defects occur that can ultimately cause disk drive failure. These glide defects further cause magnetic defects, corrosion and decreased disk life.
A less-than-optimal solution to this problem is to use stronger acid or base solutions than the cleaning soap, to etch the glass substrate or undercut the slurry particles similar to what can be done to remove hard alpha alumina from Al/Mg—NiP substrates after non-superfinish polish slurries. However, the surface finish of glass substrates can be damaged by such a technique through surface topography change such as pitting and chemical composition changes. Glass has low resistance to acid etching and overly aggressive acid solutions, such as hydrofluoric acid, and caustic etching at high pH's and temperatures. The damage to the superfinished glass surface may be sufficient enough to adversely affect the morphology of layers deposited by subsequent sputtering processes and can cause magnetic, glide and corrosion failures.
A better solution to this problem is to use a cleaning polish etch solution/process (a process performed by running disk substrates on a polishing pad using an etch solution instead of a slurry, i.e., there are no slurry particles in the cleaning polish etch solution) with acid, neutral or base solutions to etch the glass substrate and/or the attached slurry particles under polish conditions thereby maintaining the superfinish surface while removing the superfinish polish slurry debris by etching and dilution. Such a cleaning polish etch solution/process is disclosed in the copending application Ser. No. 09/976,412 entitled “CLEANING POLISH ETCH COMPOSITION AND PROCESS FOR A SUPERFINISHED SURFACE OF A SUBSTRATE”, assigned to the same assignee as the present application. Etching by itself (i.e., the first solution discussed above) with PVA scrub, ultrasonics or megasonics is what has been done to remove slurry particles from Al/Mg—NiP or glass substrates, but with the less than 20 nm glide heights now in use, a cleaning polish etch solution/process ensures 100% surface cleaning of particles that small (i.e., the lower the glide height, the smaller the particles needing to be removed, and thus the more difficult they are to remove) while maintaining the surface finish. The cleaning polish etch process, however, adds equipment and handling costs. Nonetheless, without the cleaning polish etch process the surface of the glass substrate can be damaged by using only chemical etch due to the low resistance of the glass material to acid etching or overly aggressive caustic etch solutions.
An even better solution to this problem is to use a self-cleaning colloidal slurry and process, such as disclosed in the copending application Ser. No. 09/976,167 entitled “SELF-CLEANING COLLOIDAL SLURRY COMPOSITION AND PROCESS FOR FINISHING A SURFACE OF A SUBSTRATE”, assigned to the same assignee as the present application. The slurry comprises a carrying fluid, colloidal particles, etchant, and a surfactant adsorbed and/or precipitated onto a surface of the colloidal particles and/or substrate. The surfactant has a hydrophobic section that forms a steric hindrance barrier and substantially prevents contaminates, including colloidal particles, from bonding to the substrate surface. Subsequent cleaning with standard soap solutions removes substantially all remaining contamination from the substrate surface.
After cleaning, the glass substrate is typically subjected to chemical strengthening. Chemical strengthening is known in the art of treating glass. In chemical strengthening, the substrate is immersed in a strengthening melt, e.g., molten potassium nitrate and/or sodium nitrate, typically for at least 1 hour to strengthen the glass against breaking. In the strengthening melt, an ion exchange process strengthens the glass substrate by exchanging smaller ions near the substrate surface for larger ions of the strengthening melt below the transformation temperature of the glass to generate pressure stress zones at the substrate surface.
It is known that by slightly etching, or microetching, the surface of glass disk substrates, the performance and durability of data storage disks made therefrom can be improved. Microetching is conventionally accomplished by immersing the glass disk substrates in a strong acid bath, e.g., a hydrofluoric (HF) acid bath, typically after the substrates have been superfinished, cleaned and strengthened. Unfortunately, immersion of substrates in strong acid baths involves safety risks and additional process steps. Moreover, the surface finish of glass substrates can be damaged by techniques such as this that employ strong acid or base solutions. The damage can include surface topography change such as pitting and chemical composition changes. Glass has low resistance to acid etching and overly aggressive acid solutions, such as HF acid, and caustic etching at high pH's and temperatures. The damage to the superfinished glass surface may be sufficient enough to adversely affect the morphology of layers deposited by subsequent sputtering processes and can cause magnetic, glide and corrosion failures.
If the market trend toward glass substrates in disk drives is to succeed, an enhanced mechanism for microetching glass substrates is required. Preferably, such an enhanced mechanism would not involve additional process steps and safety risks. Also, such an enhanced mechanism would preferably not cause undesirable damage to a superfinished surface of a glass disk substrate. | {
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Semiconductor modules, particularly when operated at high power levels, develop a very large amount of waste heat that has to be dissipated by suitable measures. There are many concepts for this purpose, but these concepts may be very complex and/or a hindrance during the operation of the semiconductor module arrangement. One practicable solution for cooling is liquid cooling, for example. However, this generally requires a closed liquid circuit during the operation of the semiconductor module. In some instances, pumps are also used to convey the liquid through a heat sink. Liquid-cooled heat sinks can have a compact and lightweight design, with the result that such heat sinks can also be integrated into a module (e.g., by direct soldering of substrates onto heat sinks), without giving rise to an excessive module size and weight. Such designs can still be dispatched all over the world at low cost.
Particularly in arrangements where liquid cooling is not available, air cooling may be used, which requires large heat sinks. In these arrangements as well as liquid heat sink arrangements that are large and heavy in comparison to standard modules, modules having planar base surfaces are used. In order to fill small uneven surfaces between the module and heat sink in a thermally conductive manner, a thermally conductive paste is introduced between the module and heat sink. The thermal conduction of such materials is defined by 1 W/(m*K) (where W=watts and m*K=kelvin-meters) and is better than air, but constitutes a certain heat barrier in comparison with the metallic contact partners. | {
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1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to pressure sensors for measuring body pressure at a selected site, and more particularly to an implantable pressure sensor which can be interrogated by X-ray of the body in which it is implanted to observe changes in pressure therein.
2. Description of the contemporary and/or prior art
There are several situations where the monitoring of pressure is necessary. In some of these situations, particularly in the biomedical arts, it is desirable to have a device which is entirely implantable within a body. For instance, it is frequently desirable to monitor ventricular pressure in hydrocephalics so that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) can be drained from the ventricle if necessary or appropriate, or so that drug therapy can be initiated. Many prior art devices have been proposed which are transcutaneous, i.e., a portion thereof extends through the scalp of the patient to an appropriate readout device. The major drawback of these devices is the chance of infection at the site where the device breaches the scalp and the severe limitation on mobility of the patient.
Others in the art have sought to avoid this problem by using various fully implantable electronic devices which are interrogated by induction or which transmit coded information to an appropriate monitor. Aside from the requirement of having complex precision electronic equipment which must be implanted inside the head of a patient and the attendant cost, sophisticated monitoring apparatuses must also be employed. In addition, many of these apparatuses measure pressure across the dura rather than in the ventricle, a pressure, which in many medical circles, is not considered to be the same as ventricular pressure.
The treatment of hydrocephalus frequently involves implantation of a ventricular shunt and flushing valve arrangement for draining cerebrospinal fluid. None of the apparatuses presently known for monitoring and providing a readout of pressure are configured to be integratable with presently known shunt and flushing valve arrangements.
Of some of the known pressure monitoring devices, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,977,391 and 4,124,023 issued to Fleischmann et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,735 issued to Hittman et al teach pressure sensing apparatuses wherein a tambour is exposed to pressure and a fluid in the tambour is forced thereout. In these apparatuses, this moving fluid is used to shift radioactive material relative to a shield in proportion to pressure changes so that the quantity of radioactive material can be statistically analyzed to determine relative pressure. While these configurations avoid the necessity of implanting electronics in the patient, a sophisticated monitoring apparatus is still needed to determine the amount of observed radioactivity.
Other pressure monitors which employ a sac or bladder filled with a fluid which is subjected to pressure include U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,902 issued to Delpy and U.S. Pat. No. 2,566,369 issued to Putman. These references teach the forcing of fluid through a calibrated tube so that pressure can be read by direct observation. Alternately, in Putnam, electrodes can be placed in the tube to determine position of the fluid. In Delpy, a liquid/gas interface shifts in a capillary tube thereby varying the capacitance between two wires disposed in the tube. By detecting changes in capacitance, a relative pressure can be indicated. Unfortunately, these apparatuses cannot be totally implanted and either the pressure readout scale or the wires of these apparatus must be transcutaneously positioned for readout. Therefore, the previously mentioned problems of immobility and infection exist.
The present invention overcomes the problems associated with the prior art by providing a totally implantable pressure sensor for measuring body pressure at a selected site within the body wherein a radiopaque material is mechanically shifted in proportion to changes in pressure. The subject or patient can then be X-rayed on widely available X-ray machines using known techniques to determine changes of pressure. This avoids the necessity of complex monitoring apparatuses or the use of transcutaneous configurations which not only subject the patient to a great risk of infection but also severely limit the mobility of the patient and therefore the possibility of long term pressure monitoring.
In several embodiments of the present invention this is accomplished through the use of a radiopaque fluid which shifts in position. Radiopaque fluids are known for use in variable pressure valves and are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,886,948 and 3,924,635 issued to Hakim. However, the radiopaque fluids in these apparatuses are used primarily for dampening and so that the position of the pressure sensing bladder of these devices can be determined by X-ray. Interrogating the relative position of the radiopaque fluid to determine changes in pressure are not shown or suggested and these devices merely use the shifting of the radiopaque fluid to trigger mechanical structure to perform the desired function.
In a further advance over the art, the present invention teaches the integration of a pressure monitoring device with a ventricular shunt. In a vaguely similar manner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,593 to Imbruce et al teaches an esophagal pressure device wherein a multiple lumen tube is employed, one of the lumens communicating with a balloon cup filled with a gas, the other lumen being used for typical nasogastric applications. As pressure acts on the balloon cuff, the gas is passed through the associated lumen so that changes in pressure can be monitored by an external monitor. This device is basically for transitory use and implantation is not shown or suggested.
Shifting of radiopaque material in a pressure monitor is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,449 issued to LeRoy et al. LeRoy teaches a body fluid pressure monitor wherein a radiopaque fluid disposed in a chamber distends the wall of the chamber, the curvature of the wall of the chamber showing relative changes in pressure. In another embodiment several radiopaque dots disposed on the outer surface of a balloon shift relative to each other as the balloon expands. Additionally, a Bourdon tube arrangement wherein a radiopaque marker shifts in response to pressure is also shown. Unfortunately, none of these configurations can supply precisely readable indications of pressure changes since the curvature of a membrane or the separation of radiopaque material in a non-linear manner is not easily calibratable when the angle at which the radiopaque material will be X-rayed cannot be exactly repeated. The present invention provides significant advantages over these configurations through the use of readily calibratable movement of radiopaque material which can read out giving direct quantitive indications of pressure changes. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for medically treating hip joint insufficiency, or the like, which is suitably used for treating a contracture or relaxation of joint muscle such as that of the hip joint, lumbar, and shoulder joints, and adhesion of the sacrum.
2. Background of the Invention
Relaxation and contracture of a joint muscle of a shoulder joint or a hip joint, adhesion of the sacrum, etc. are examples of a disease which greatly limits the movable area of the joint and which disturbs a smooth swinging motion of the hand, leg, waist, etc. thereby to make it difficult to walk or to perform a normal manual task.
In the wernicke mann contracture as a representative example thereof, the joints of the right or left hand or leg are caused to be dislocated. As a result, the so-called circumduction gait is obliged. If the shoulder joint muscle is contracted, the upper arm bone and the shoulder blade must be moved simultaneously.
Heretofore, as a method for enhancing a recovery, there has been performed, for a long time, rehabilitation such as a pendulum motion exercise using something heavy, walking/manual work exercise, or various kinds of stimulation treatment. Since this is the actual situation, there is a need for providing an effective medical treatment device in which the contracture or relaxation of muscle can be fundamentally cured. | {
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Generally closure devices such as screw-threaded caps of containers with a screw-threaded opening such as a neck can be removed relatively easily by unscrewing. This can be dangerous when the container houses drugs, dangerous chemicals and the like and a child for example unscrews the closure device and gains access to the contents and then takes the contents with possibly harmful or even fatal results.
Closure devices which seek to provide for safer or authorised opening of the container has been proposed, but they are generally complex and expensive. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a rotatable member that is able to achieve a balanced condition throughout a range of rotational speed and, more specifically, a system that dynamically balances a rotatable member through continual determination of out of balance forces and motion and takes corresponding counter balancing action.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many different types of balancing schemes are known to those skilled in the art. When rotatable objects are not in perfect balance, nonsymmetrical mass distribution creates out-of-balance forces because of the centrifugal forces that result from rotation of the object. Although rotatable objects find use in many different applications, one particular application is a rotating drum of a washing machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,304,032, which issued to Yapes on Feb. 14, 1967, discloses a self-balancing support mechanism that includes a cabinet designed to receive a washing machine. One side of the cabinet is provided with a strap member which extends across the lower end of the cabinet and includes a pair of space upwardly diverging slots. The invention also provides a mounting leg for operative attachment of the strap. The mounting leg includes an elongated, generally horizontal central portion with one of a pair of downwardly extending support feet formed at each end thereof. The mounting leg includes a pair of spaced threaded holes and an attachment stud is securely threaded into each of these holes and extends through a cooperating one of the slots. When the machine is mounted on a base surface, the weight of the machine causes the studs to slide within the slots until the machine assumes a position in which the weight distribution among the various support contact members or feet is balanced.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,275,146, which issued to Severance et al on Sep. 27, 1966, describes a laundry machine with an improved balancing mechanism. It relates to washers and dryers of the horizontal axis drum type in which it is desirable to have the rotatable cylinder rotate at a speed as high as practicable during extraction of liquid from clothing. As is well known, any unbalanced condition in the load within the drum causes serious vibration conditions. The mechanism provides application control means that are operatively connected between the rotatable drum mounting means and the support means of the machine including a relatively thin leaf spring member which is alternately placed in tension and compression to control water balancing and clutch control functions. The device described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,275,146 is an improvement of the means for overcoming imbalance and vibration that are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,151,067.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,149,502, which issued to Caruso et al on Sep. 22, 1964, discloses an automatic balancing apparatus. The invention relates to an apparatus for continuously balancing a rotor while the rotor is rotating. It provides means to produce a signal that is indicative of the dynamic unbalance of the rotor while rotating. Electrically responsive balancing means are positioned on the rotor to vary the dynamic characteristics of the rotor. Means are connected to the signal producing means to energize the electrically responsive balancing means in accordance with signals received from the signal producing means in a manner to thereby vary the dynamic characteristics of the rotor to continuously tend to counterbalance dynamic unbalancing forces in the rotor during rotation. The apparatus comprises several modifications over previous balancing techniques. In one, portions of the rotor are electrically heated to change the dynamic characteristics of the rotor and, when such heating is selectively performed, the dynamic characteristics of the rotor may be changed to continuously tend to counterbalance any dynamic unbalancing forces in the rotor during rotation. Another modification comprises a pair of balancing members positioned on the rotor to be balanced. The balancing members can be dynamically unbalanced by relative movement between the members and, by changing the angular relationship between the two balancing members, the dynamic characteristics of the rotor to be balanced may be varied to continuously counterbalance any dynamic unbalancing forces in the rotor during rotation.
Previous methods for dynamically balancing a rotatable member have experienced severe limitations in the degree of balance that can be achieved and in the rotational speeds under which they are workable. In addition, previous balancing methods have based their operation on certain assumptions that minimize the need for certain sensed parameters, e.g., the support of the equipment being balanced is rigid and rigidly fastened to a significant mass such as a concrete slab. It would therefore be beneficial if a dynamic balancing scheme could be provided which accounts for both forces and motion caused by an imbalance condition of the rotor. | {
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This application claims the priority of German application 198 52 127.8, filed Nov. 12, 1998, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention relates to an expansion element for an air conditioner and to a valve unit which can be used particularly for such an expansion element and has a fixed throttle between an upstream valve high-pressure side and a downstream valve low- pressure side.
Air conditioners, as used, for example, in motor vehicles, conventionally contain a refrigerant circulating system which is divided, on one hand, by a compressor and, on the other hand, by an expansion element into a refrigerant high-pressure side and a refrigerant low-pressure side. On the high-pressure side, between the compressor and the expansion element, a heat exchanger is situated for cooling the refrigerant. The heat exchanger operates as a condenser or a gas cooler depending on whether the refrigerant on the high-pressure side is operated in the subcritical or supercritical range.
On the low-pressure side, between the expansion element and the compressor an evaporator is situated over which an air current to be cooled is guided. Conventional expansion elements usually contain a control valve which variably adjusts the passage cross-section of the expansion element as a function of an influencing correcting variable. Typically, the overheating of the refrigerant behind the evaporator is controlled by influencing the refrigerant flow rate. Thus, EP 0 438 625 A2 describes an expansion element with a control valve for which the low-pressure-side refrigerant temperature behind the evaporator is used as a correcting variable.
EP 0 701 096 A2 discloses a vehicle air conditioner which operates preferably with CO2 as the refrigerant. Either a fixed throttle or a control valve is provided as the expansion element. When the control valve is used, a so-called COP control of the CO2 air conditioner is endeavored. The coefficient of performance (COP) , defined as the ratio of the supplied cooling output to the spent power, if possible, is held within the range of a maximum which the COP assumes as a function of the refrigerant pressure on the high-pressure side. For this purpose, the adjustment of the control valve is correlated with the control of a throughput-controllable compressor, whereby the refrigerant flow rate is varied by regulating the refrigerant throughput in the compressor.
EP 0 786 632 A2 discloses a CO2 air conditioner with an expansion element which contains a control valve which is acted upon by the high-pressure-side refrigerant pressure. The differential pressure, which acts upon a movable membrane and which exists between the high-pressure-side refrigerant pressure and the pressure in a closed chamber which is filled with refrigerant and is in a thermal contact with the high-pressure-side refrigerant flowing past, operates as the effective correcting variable. In this manner, the high-pressure-side refrigerant pressure can be varied along a curve which, in the supercritical range, corresponds to a curve of constant refrigerant density, whereby the COP again is to be kept at a maximum.
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel valve unit which, when used in an expansion element for an air conditioner, particularly a CO2 air conditioner, which, on the high-pressure side, also reaches the supercritical range of the used refrigerant, permits a comparatively reliable and energy-optimal control of the refrigerant circulation at relatively low expenditures. The present invention is also based on a novel expansion element by which particularly also a CO2 air conditioner can be controlled in a comparatively easy and reliable manner.
The present invention achieves these objects by providing a valve unit having a fixed throttle between a valve high-pressure side and a valve low-pressure side, and at least one additional component comprising one of a pressure control valve arranged in a bypass line bypassing the fixed throttle and of a control valve influencing the passage cross-section of the fixed throttle, as well as an expansion element having a control valve configured to adjust a flow cross-section of the refrigerant from the high-pressure side to the low-pressure side as a function of an effective correcting variable and to be acted upon by the refrigerant pressure on the low-pressure side or a physical quantity connected therewith as the correcting variable or an expansion element characterized by a valve unit, or configured to be coupled on the valve high-pressure side to a condenser, gas cooler or internal heat exchanger of the air conditioner and on the valve low-pressure side to a low-pressure-side refrigerant flow section of the air conditioner.
The valve unit according to the present invention characteristically contains a fixed throttle between the valve high-pressure side and the valve low-pressure side as well as at least one additional valve component in the form of a pressure control valve which is arranged in a bypass line bypassing the fixed throttle, or in the form of a control valve which influences the passage cross-section of the fixed throttle.
The combined arrangement of the fixed throttle and the pressure control valve is suitable for use as an expansion element, which can be implemented in a comparatively easy manner, specifically also of a CO2 air conditioner which can be operated supercritically on the high-pressure side at least in certain operating situations. The fixed throttle saves the control expenditures which are connected with a control valve and, because of its pressure-dependent throttle characteristic, nevertheless to a certain extent permits a high pressure regulating. The pressure control valve acted upon by the high-pressure-side refrigerant pressure provides a high-pressure safety limitation and is advantageously arranged in an associated bypass line so that it does not at all affect the refrigerant flow through the fixed throttle.
As required, the use of a control valve influencing the passage cross-section of the fixed throttle permits control of the air conditioner which is refined in comparison to the sole use of an uncontrolled fixed throttle. Nevertheless, also in this case, the implementation and control expenditures clearly remain lower than when conventional expansion element control valves are used which have no fixed throttle part and have a partially external control.
A further development of the valve unit has a second fixed throttle connected in parallel to the first. The two fixed throttles preferably have different configurations so that, if an expansion element is used in contrast to a sole fixed throttle, a two-step and therefore refined control of a refrigerant circulation is achievable.
In a further development, the valve unit has, in addition to the two parallel fixed throttles, a pressure control valve in a bypass line bypassing the fixed throttle arrangement as well as a control valve which influences the passage cross-section of one of the fixed throttles. This permits a particularly sensitive control of a refrigerant circulating system still without the implementation and control expenditures of a conventional expansion element control valve complex. The reason is that, because of the presence of the fixed throttles, the control valve used here may have a relatively simple construction and must carry out a comparatively simple control function.
In a still further development of the valve according to the present invention, all valve components are advantageously integrated in a common valve housing so that the valve unit with the several valve components can be implemented as a uniform compact constructional unit.
A valve unit according to the present invention can also have a mechanical control valve which influences the passage cross-section of a fixed throttle and which is acted upon by the pressure of the medium on the low-pressure side as the correcting variable. When the valve unit is used in an expansion element, a simple refrigerant high-pressure control is permitted with the low-pressure-side refrigerant pressure, also called suction pressure, as the correcting variable.
In another valve unit embodiment according to the present invention, a thermal control valve influences the passage cross-section of a fixed throttle and is acted upon by the temperature existing on the low-pressure side as the correcting variable. When the valve unit is used in an expansion element of an air conditioner, a refrigerant high-pressure control is permitted with the low-pressure-side refrigerant temperature, also called suction gas temperature, as the correcting variable.
In a further developed valve unit according to the present invention, a thermal control valve is provided which influences the passage cross-section of a fixed throttle and to whom a heater is assigned by which it can be controlled by an associated heater input quantity as the correcting variable. When the valve unit is used, for example, in an expansion element of a vehicle air conditioner, this correcting variable may be an electric heating current signal which depends on the ambient temperature or the rotational speed of a motor vehicle engine driving the air conditioner compressor. In addition, the thermal control valve can also be influenced by the low-pressure-side refrigerant temperature.
In yet a still further developed valve unit, the low-pressure side of the control valve, which can be influenced by a low-pressure-side physical quantity and acts upon a fixed throttle, is connected by a valve-housing-internal connection line directly with the low-pressure side of the fixed throttle. As the result, influencing of the control valve is implemented by the low-pressure side already in the valve unit itself and must no longer be caused externally so that a single low-pressure connection is sufficient for the valve unit.
The expansion element according to the present invention characteristically contains a mechanical control valve which is acted upon by the low-pressure-side refrigerant pressure as the correcting variable. This permits a refrigerant high-pressure control with the low-pressure-side refrigerant pressure in front of or behind the evaporator which, specifically also for CO2 air conditioners of motor vehicles, on one hand, is found to have relatively low expenditures and, on the other hand, is found to be comparatively reliable and favorable in terms of energy consumption.
The expansion element characteristically contains a valve unit of the above-described types coupled on the valve high-pressure side to the refrigerant high-pressure side of the air conditioner and on the valve low-pressure side to the refrigerant low-pressure side of the air conditioner. As a result of the valve components contained in the valve unit, this expansion element permits a reliable air conditioner control in the different operating situations which is advantageous with respect to the energy consumption, meets the output demands and is simple with respect to the control, specifically also of a CO2 vehicle air conditioner with the load fluctuations typical of the use in a vehicle.
In a further developed expansion element according to the present invention, the control valve of the valve unit influencing the passage cross-section of a fixed throttle is arranged with its low-pressure side fluidically either upstream of an evaporator or between the evaporator and a compressor of the air conditioner, in front of or behind a possibly existing internal heat exchanger.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. | {
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“Acoustic echo” arises from the acoustic properties of a room as in a teleconferencing system. Acoustic echo originating at a near end location will be heard by a far end observer. Acoustic echo originating at a far end will be heard at the near end. An example with acoustic echo originating at the near end, while the far end transducers are acoustically isolated is shown in FIG. 1. From that figure it can be seen that acoustic echo will be heard at the far end of a conferencing system when the far end talker's voice gets acoustically coupled with the near end talker's microphone at the near end room. This coupling is almost always unavoidable. However, the strength of the coupling is affected by the designer's setup of the room and any acoustic treatment applied to the room. “Line echo” originates from the physical transmission of a signal between the near and far ends through the Public Switched Telephone system. From FIGS. 2a, 2b, and 2c it is apparent that the line echo source comes from the Telephone Company transmitting and receiving two signals over a single wire while not accurately matching an internal balance impedance. The type of transmission system that allows transmit and receive signals to affect each other in this manner is referred to as a “two-wire” system. If the transmit and receive signals are isolated from each other it is called a “four-wire” system. The line echo is said to arise at the interface point of a “two-wire” and “four-wire” system. It is possible for a signal to go through multiple two-wire to four-wire interfaces on its trek between near and far ends.
A main factor affecting the severity of both types of echo is the amount of time before the talker hears his own voice back as an echo. The longer the delay the more perceptible the echo. For line echo the delay will increase as the phone company digitally processes a signal or as it is physically routed over longer distances. For acoustic echo both the acoustic path delay and transmission delay contribute to the delay of the echo.
Both types of echo problems (line and acoustic) are conventionally addressed using an echo cancellation system in generally the same way. However, the specific differences in the sources of echo require differences in their solutions.
In both types of echo cancellers an adaptive filter is typically used to create a model of the echo path. The model is formed by sending a reference signal through an estimated model of the echo path at the same time it is sent though the actual echo path and forming an error between them. This error is used to adapt the filter until the model becomes accurate (the error is minimized). When the model becomes accurate the echo is also minimized. Obviously the echo estimate has to be rather accurate to have a significant effect. If the model is poor the echo can actually be enhanced instead of attenuated.
The adaptive model can be formed off line when no one is talking by sending a random noise sequence through the path being modeled as well as through the adaptive filter. A gradient search can be performed on the received signal to minimize the mean squared error difference between the actual and modeled paths. When the path changes significantly this “training” process can be repeated. This process is time consuming and very annoying to those located at the near end. An acoustic path changes more often than an electrical path so this “off line” training method is used for line echo cancellers a little more often than acoustic ones.
A conventional method of forming the adaptive model is to use the actual speech signal being transmitted to the near end location as the training signal. This is much more desirable in an echo cancellation system because of its non-intrusive nature. However, great care must be taken so that the on-line training is done only when noise (which includes near end speech) is minimal. Any excessive noise will cause divergence in the filter model being formed from the actual echo path, reducing the effectiveness of the echo cancellor. The primary cause of noise at the near end is speech originating at the near end. Most echo cancellers employ a “double-talk” detector to determine if it is safe to adapt the filter model or not. Examples of “double talk” detectors are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,535,194, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Echo Cancelling with Double Talk Immunity”, issued Jul. 9, 1996; and 5,295,136, entitled “Method of Performing Convergence in a Least Mean Square Adaptive Filter Echo Canceller”, issued Mar. 15, 1994; both assigned to Motorola, Inc., the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by this reference.
The number of filter weights (also called taps or filter coefficients) is directly related to the amount of delay that can be modeled by the adaptive filter. The amount of delay that can be handled by the adaptive filter is referred to as the echo canceller's “tail length”. An acoustic echo canceller is located at the acoustic source of echo so that it will not have to model the transmission delay. The source of line echo is electrical in nature and usually requires a smaller tail length than an acoustic echo canceller. Line echo cancellers usually require a tail length on the order of 30 ms. An acoustic echo canceller requires a tail length anywhere from four to eight times the length of the line echo canceller (120 to 240 ms).
Complete echo removal in an actual system is unachievable so echo suppressors are placed after the adaptive filter to remove any remaining echo. Suppressors work by strategically attenuating a signal being sent to the far end when far end speech is present. Echo suppression is a non-linear process.
The adaptive filter is only capable of modeling a linear system. If suppressors or other non-linearities are in the path being modeled then poor performance will result.
Sub-Band Echo Cancellers
Sometimes the adaptive filter model is broken up into multiple frequency bands using a separate adaptive filter for each band. This sub-band approach is obviously more complex but has two potential benefits, and a drawback.
A sub-band echo canceller speeds up the training process when speech is used. Speech utterances have limited frequency content. If speech is being used to form the adaptive model then the adaptive filter will seek to minimize the error of the dominant frequency components used in the training signal. This results in the “learning time” for the adaptive filter being increased when training is done with speech as opposed to training with random noise. A sub-band echo canceller uses multiple adaptive filters, each operating on a limited band of frequencies. This requires each filter to only be accurate over a limited frequency range, reducing the training time.
A second benefit is that once the processing cycles have been spent for splitting the frequency into sub-bands each band may be processed at a lower sample rate. The lower sample rate makes it possible to increase the number of filter weights processed allowing an increase in the canceller's tail length.
The main drawback to the sub-band approach is an increase in the canceller's signal throughput time. The delay through a standard echo canceller is primarily due to anti-aliasing and reconstruction filters on the converters (about 3 ms to 7 ms). A sub-band system has the delay of the analysis and synthesis sections required to split the signal into sub-bands and sample rate convert each signal (about 30 ms to 40 ms). This is a noticeable time lag that enhances undesirable echo in systems with an otherwise low delay.
Adaptive Filtering
Adaptive filtering may be done in either the time or frequency domains. There are many adaptive weight update techniques in use today. Due to its minimal computational requirements, the most common adaptive filter weight update algorithm is the time domain Least Mean Square, or LMS, adaptive update algorithm. If the training signal used has a large dynamic range (such as speech) then a Normalized Least Mean Square (NLMS) algorithm is frequently used.
A comprehensive discussion of the NLMS algorithm may be found in Adaptive Filter Theory, 3rd Ed., by Simon Haykin, Prentice Hall, 1996 (pgs 432-439). A summary of the algorithm appears on page 437 of that reference.
Coefficient Leakage over time, the adaptive filter coefficients may slowly drift away from their adapted solution. To ensure long term stability for an adaptive filter, “coefficient leakage” is often used. In essence, a small percentage of the filter coefficient values are reduced or leaked out over time. A discussion of coefficient leakage may be found in Adaptive Filter Theory, 3rd Ed., by Simon Haykin, Prentice Hall, 1996 (pgs 746 747).
Divergence
When an echo canceller tries to adapt in the presence of far end speech (double-talk) or other sporadic or impulsive noise the weights of the adaptive filter diverge from their solution resulting in an increase of echo and noise artifacts. Most echo cancellers rely on the use of a double-talk detector to determine if it is “safe” to adapt the filter weights, and halt adaptation during double-talk to minimize a filter's divergence. Once it becomes sufficiently safe the filter re-adapts, removing any divergence that took place during the time it took to detect the initial double-talk. Such an approach prohibits the use of higher adaptation gains due to the delay in detecting the double-talk. While smaller adaptation gains keeps divergence at a minimum until double-talk can be detected, it also slows the adaptation process, leaving periods of increased echo, when the echo path modeled by the adaptive filter changes. This solution requires the added complexity of a double-talk detector implementation.
There is at least one other major train of thought in the literature on minimizing divergence due to double-talk or other impulsive noise. This method relies on the adaptive filter to decorrelate the input signal Xn from the error signal En, a process that happens normally during filter adaptation. A cross-correlation between Xn and En is formed (a digital signal process). This cross-correlation is monitored and used as a metric in determining if the adaptive filter has sufficiently converged. When the filter is converged there is little correlation between Xn and En. There is much stronger correlation when the adaptive filter is a poor match for the echo path. Once the filter has converged, adaptation is stopped, thus removing the possibility of divergence because it is no longer adapting. When the echo path changes it is reflected in the cross-correlation metric, and adaptation is resumed. This method ignores the presence of double-talk during adaptation and seeks to minimize divergence by adapting only when necessary. If the acoustic path changes often (the case for many acoustic echo applications), or if frequent speech, sporadic or impulsive noise is present (the case when a classroom is the target application) this method provides little benefit. This method also carries an added complexity equivalent to that of the main filter convolution.
A description of double-talk detectors and the use of a cross-correlation metric described above are given in the paper “New Double-Talk Detector”, IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 39, No. 11, November 1991. See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,854, entitled “Detecting Loss of Echo Cancellation”, issued Apr. 27, 1993 and assigned to AT&T, which uses a newer method.
There is one other significant method for avoiding the problem of divergence due to adapting the filter in the presence of noise. The method is outlined in the figure labeled as prior art (FIG. #5). A description is disclosed by Ochiai et al. “Echo Canceller with Two Path Models”, IEEE Transactions On Communications,Vol. COM-25, No. 6, June 1977, pp. 589-595. FIG. 5 shows a diagram illustrating the manner in which a digital echo canceller is generally used as part of a teleconferencing system. Ochiai et al. used an adaptive background filter running in parallel with a foreground filter. Each filter produces an estimate of the echo. When the adapted background filter provides an estimate that proves better than the foreground filter, its filter coefficients are copied to the foreground filter location. The echo-attenuated signal is taken from the foreground filter so that divergence due to noise is not heard.
There are a couple of drawbacks to the method they proposed. First, when the background filter's coefficients diverged due to the presence of noise, they would either need to adapt out the diverged signal or be reset to zero and start over in the adaptation process, producing a time delay before improvements could be made to the foreground filter. The other significant problem comes when making decisions to copy the background filter coefficients to the foreground filter. If the adaptation process uses a high gain/fast convergence algorithm, the coefficients will diverge quickly in the presence of noise, causing errors in determining when it is valid to update the foreground set. If a diverged set of coefficients is placed into the foreground filter, system performance is severely degraded.
Computational Burden
To help put the computational burden issue into perspective a discussion of the computational requirements is in order. The computational load (# of required clock cycles) for a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter and a LMS update on a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) such as the Motorola 56362 is on the order of 3*N where N is the number of taps of the FIR filter. As stated previously a key feature of an echo canceller is its tail length. The tail length is the amount of time that can be represented by the FIR filter being used to model the microphone to speaker acoustic path where the echo arises. The longer the tail length the larger the acoustic delay that the filter can represent and the larger the room that the echo canceller can handle. The amount of time that can be represented by the FIR filter (Tail Length) is a function of both N and the sample rate that the FIR filter is being processed at. The following equation illustrates this:
Tail Length in seconds=N*T=N/Sample Rate (Hz).
Where: N is the # of filter taps and T is the period of the sample rate in seconds
For example at an 8 kHz sample rate a 2000 tap FIR filter would have a Tail Length of 250 ms. This 2000 tap filter would use 3*N clock cycles.
In the world of real-time processing the constrained resource is time represented by the number of instruction cycles available for signal processing. The Number of instruction cycles M, that are available on a processor such as the 56362 are as follows:M (instruction cycles available for processing)=Processor Clock Speed/Sample Rate of processing
In a DSP system in order to increase bandwidth the sample rate must be increased(see Nyquist Rate in DSP sampling theory). From the instruction cycle equation an increase in sample rate results in a linear decrease in instruction cycles that are available for processing. The Tail Length equation shows that a direct increase in sample rate (by some factor L) results in a decrease in Tail Length by a factor of L, so when the sample rate is increased by a factor of L the Tail Length of the echo canceller must decrease by a factor of L squared in order to perform the needed processing (for a fixed processor clock speed). Another way of viewing this is that in order to increase the Sample Rate by a factor of L and still maintain the same Tail Length the processor clock speed would need to increase by a factor of L squared.
To increase Bandwidth from 3 kHz (telephone quality) to 20 kHz (professional audio quality) would require an increase in Sample Rate by a factor of 6. For the example above the 250 ms tail length would shrink to about 7 ms for the same number of processing clock cycles. | {
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1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the cryogenic field, and more particularly, to an arrangement for effecting a low thermal impedance path between two relatively movable cryogenic heat pipes within a vacuum environment.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Heat transfer has been effectively achieved in space and other low vacuum conditions by the use of a heat pipe consisting of an envelope or tube carrying internally on the surface or by separate member a capillary flow path and being provided with a mass of vaporizable working fluid such that by heating one end of the tube, working fluid in liquid form is vaporized and travels through the internal space of the tube to its other end, where heat is rejected during condensation of the working fluid. The condensed working fluid by capillary action travels back to the end of the tube being subjected to heat input and is again vaporized to repeat the process.
Conventionally, wick material such as a porous mesh screen or the like forms the capillary transport structure internally of the heat pipe tube and extends from end to end. Such heat pipes have been employed particularly in the cryogenic field under spacecraft applications where heat may be transmitted in the absence of a gravity field, since the liquid moves by capillary or wick effect, irrespective of the presence or absence of gravity. Obviously, in a static arrangement, a heat conductive member such as metal may be employed for connecting the end of one heat pipe to the end of another to effect a low thermal impedance path between multiple heat pipes in a given system. However, where the heat pipes are carried by members which continuously move relative to each other or which may be angularly adjusted relative to each other, the means permitting such relative movement creates a very high thermal impedance path at the interface between the two moving members forming elements of the joint means between respective heat pipes. | {
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The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for conveying timber.
In particular, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for conveying a batch of timber pieces in such a way that the batch is dispersed into individual timber pieces
As is well known, in modern, high-capacity processing plants for handling timber which is sawed or planed, it is necessary to disperse batches or heaped packages of timber, or timber packages with spaces between layers of timber, in such a way that the timber pieces derived from the batch are conveyed individually one after the other while at the same time avoiding any damage to the timber pieces during dispersing thereof from a batch into individual timber lengths which are conveyed one after the other.
With presently known methods and apparatus of the above general type, in order to disperse timber packages or batches into individual lengths of timber which are conveyed one after the other, the timber batch or package is fed forwardly, usually by a conveyer, up to a discharge point where the batch or package of timber is dropped into a scattering shaft having upright walls one of which takes the form of a vertical log lift provided with projections for engaging the timber pieces and raising them individually up from the batch which has dropped into the scattering shaft. The angle of ascent of such a lift is so great that timber will not rise upwardly from the scattering shaft without engaging projections or grippers which form part of the lift. The extent to which the projections for engaging the timber extend from the conveyer is adjustable so that the timber pieces will be advanced upwardly from the batch in only a single layer or in other words with the timber pieces being conveyed upwardly in such a way that they must be situated only one after the other.
With constructions of this latter type, it is essential to lift timber pieces from the batch of timber initially from the lowest part of the batch, so that the lowermost timber pieces are initially under a load imposed by the timber pieces which are on top of the lowermost timber pieces. It is thus natural and obvious that the timber pieces will be damaged as they are pushed upwardly through higher timber pieces which are in the path of movement of the lifted timber pieces as they rise up out of the heap. It is furthermore a fact that the timber pieces frequently must be rotated so that they can be properly engaged by the grippers or projections of the lift. Particularly in this last connection the edges of the timber pieces are damaged and breaking of the timber pieces frequently occurs. However, such handling of the timber pieces is conventionally carried out only because the latter type of procedure are relatively fast, and the economical losses incurred by damage to the timber pieces are considered an inevitable evil. | {
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Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), and more particularly, to an interleaver, an interleaving procedure, a deinterleaver, a deinterleaving procedure applied to a Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) in a High Efficiency WLAN (HEW), a transmission method, reception method, transmission apparatus, reception apparatus, and software using the interleaver, the interleaving procedure, the deinterleaver, the deinterleaving procedure, and a recording medium that stores the software.
Discussion of the Related Art
Along with the recent development of information and telecommunication technology, various wireless communication techniques have been developed. Among them, the WLAN enables a user to wirelessly access the Internet based on radio frequency technology in a home, an office, or a specific service area using a portable terminal such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a laptop computer, a Portable Multimedia Player (PMP), a smartphone, etc.
To overcome limitations in communication speed that the WLAN faces, the recent technical standards have introduced a system that increases the speed, reliability, and coverage of a wireless network. For example, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n standard has introduced Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) that is implemented using multiple antennas at both a transmitter and a receiver in order to support High Throughput (HT) at a data processing rate of up to 540 Mbps, minimize transmission errors, and optimize data rates. | {
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Multilayer capacitors are used extensively in electrical circuits. Such capacitors, which comprise a plurality of alternating dielectric layers and conductive layers, the latter serving as internal electrodes, may be formed as rugged monolithic units with a very high capacitance per unit volume. A common procedure for their production comprises the casting of thin sheets of the desired dielectric ceramic composition in finely divided form, using a resin as a temporary bond. Metal-containing electroding paste is then deposited, frequently by a silk screen procedure, in predetermined areas on a plurality of the sheets, a number of electrode areas being produced on each sheet. The thus-coated sheets, after proper orientation and stacking are consolidated by pressure. Individual units are obtained by suitably cutting the green ceramic block of consolidated sheets. These units are subjected to a heating and firing procedure to burn off the combustible binders in the sheets and the electroding layers and to sinter the ceramic material whereby to obtain integral, dense, ceramic-metal structures. When the sheets are properly printed, oriented, stacked, and cut, the several electrode layers in each unit are so arranged that each layer is exposed only at an edge face of the unit and immediately adjacent electrode layers are exposed at opposite edge faces of the unit thus forming two sets of unconnected internal electrodes. Termination electrodes are then applied to the edge faces at which the electrodes are exposed to tie-together alternate internal electrodes electrically.
Since in the above-described process the ceramic and the internal electrodes are co-fired, the metal of the internal electrodes and the ceramic must be compatible at high temperatures, e.g. 1100.degree. C to 1400.degree. C, and the metal must be resistant to oxidation at those temperatures since the best dielectric properties of the ceramic are obtained when the firing is carried out in an oxidizing atmosphere. Consequently, manufacturing costs of such multilayer capaciters are high because high-melting noble metals such as palladium, platinum, and alloys thereof with gold must be used for the internal electrodes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,919,483, issued Jan. 5, 1960 to C. K. Gravley, a method is disclosed for producing multilayer ceramic capacitors which does not require the presence of internal metal electrodes while the ceramic is fired to mature it. More recently a method for producing multilayer ceramic capacitors and multilayer ceramic circuit boards using relatively inexpensive metals for internal electrodes has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,950, issued July 25, 1972 to Truman C. Rutt. The procedure disclosed therein involves forming sintered ceramic units or chips having porous internal strata or layers alternating with dielectric layers, the porous strata being the same size and shape as the conventional noble metal electrodes and being oriented the same, i.e. with immediately adjacent ones having open ends at opposite edge faces of the chips. Metal is then introduces into the porous ceramic strata and termination electrodes are applied, thus forming multilayer capacitors. This method permits the use of such metals as lead, tin, or silver for internal electrodes. A similar procedure is employed in producing multilayer ceramic circuit boards that have internal conductors.
It has been found that a particularly convenient way to introduce metal into the porous strata or layers of ceramic units prepared as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,950 whereby to form internal electrodes therein is by introducing the metal under pressure. However, a problem arises at times because the cooled metal from the metal bath employed may bond together two or more units. It is, therefore, desirable to keep the units separated while metal is introduced, but heretofore no entirely satisfactory method of accomplishing this has been found.
In the production of multilayer ceramic capacitors by prior known methods the provision of end termination has been a problem since an additional firing step is required and the electroding compositions used are expensive. | {
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In organ transplantation therapy, conventionally, various immunosuppressive agents are used in order to suppress rejection after organ transplantation. These immunosuppressive agents include, for example, tacrolimus (FK506) and ciclosporin A (Jpn J Pharmacol, 71, 89-100, 1996). However, conventional immunosuppressive agents have disadvantages including intense adverse effects such as growth stimulation of cancer cells and myelosuppression; infectious diseases and even the need of lifelong administration (Nonpatent Literature 1: Transplantation, 58, 170-178, 1994).
Further, determining a withdrawal time of an immunosuppressive agent is generally difficult. For example, tissue engraftment may be achieved without continued administration of an immunosuppressive agent. In that case, casually continued administration of an immunosuppressive agent may cause damage to a patient simply due to toxicity.
On the other hand, discontinued administration of an immunosuppressive agent may cause successfully engrafted tissue to start showing rejection. In this case, restarted administration of an immunosuppressive agent is often not effective to suppress rejection.
Meanwhile, various studies of organ transplantation have been conducted. For example, successful engraftment of a transplant without administering an immunosuppressive agent has been reported in a rat orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) system, when donor DA rat liver (MHC haplotype RT1a) having a high transplant engraftment rate is transplanted to a recipient PVG rat (RT1c) (Nonpatent Literature 2: Transplantation, 35, 304-311-1983).
Further, there is a report that transplant rejection is suppressed by a single preoperative administration of blood serum of a recipient PVG rat having DA rat liver transplanted (post-OLT serum) to a transplant model system in a combination where rejection occurs (Nonpatent Literature 3: J. Surg. Res., 80, 58-61, 1998).
Further, disclosed is that rejection is suppressed and a recipient is survived by postoperative administration of anti-histone H1 polyclonal antibody to a cardiac transplant system (inch vivo) of a DA (RT1a) and LWIS rat (RT1L) in which rejection certainly occurs (Nonpatent Literature 4: Transplantation, 77, 1595-1603, 2004).
Furthermore, some of the present inventors have disclosed that mixed lymphocyte culture reaction (MLR) is suppressed by using post-transplant initial blood serum from PVG rat, and the anti histone H1 antibody shows MLR suppressive activity (Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-149507).
Moreover, some of the present inventors have disclosed that anti histone H1 monoclonal antibody is produced, and the anti histone H1 monoclonal antibody produced by hybridoma 16G9 (Deposition Number FERM BP-10413) binds to a peptide consisting of an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1 obtained by the phage display method (Patent Literature 2: WO2006/025580).
Even further, some of the present inventors have reported that a polyclonal antibody is produced, an antigen of which is a peptide consisting of an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1 (Patent Literature 3: US-2009-0081247-A1).
However, creating a monoclonal antibody having excellent immunosuppressive activity which can be used to suppress transplant rejection in organ transplantation is still needed. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an umbrella, and more particularly to an umbrella having a resilient whale bone device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical whale bone devices for umbrellas comprise a telescoping post including a stationary hub disposed and provided on top thereof, a handle secured or attached to the bottom thereof, and comprise a whale bone device attached to the upper portion of the telescoping post. The whale bone device includes a number of strut assemblies connected to the stationary hub and each having a number of struts pivotally secured together and openable to an open and working position, and foldable to a compact folding structure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,099 to Johnson et al. discloses one of the typical umbrellas. However, the struts may be moved relative to each other, such that the whale bone device or the strut assemblies have no spring biasing members or devices disposed between the struts for applying a resilient biasing force against the struts of the strut assemblies, and for opening or for folding the struts to the compact folding structure.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional whale bone devices for umbrellas.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an umbrella including a resilient whale bone device having a resilient member for applying a spring biasing force against the struts of the strut assemblies, and for opening or for folding the struts to the compact folding structure.
The other objective of the present invention is to provide an umbrella including a strut assembly having a beam and a spring rod movably coupled to the beam for preventing the spring rod from being firmly secured to the beam and for preventing the spring rod from being bent or damaged by the beam.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided an umbrella comprising a whale bone device including a plurality of strut assemblies, the strut assemblies each including a strut including a first end and a second end, a beam including a first end pivotally secured to the second end of the strut, and including a second end, a rib including a first end pivotally secured to the second end of the beam, a spring rod including a first end attached to the strut, and including a second end attached to the rib, and including a middle portion, and means for movably coupling the middle portion of the spring rod to the beam.
The strut includes a catch attached thereon, and coupled to the first end of the spring rod, and includes a hole formed therein, the catch includes two legs engaged into the hole of the strut for securing the catch to the strut.
The rib includes an arm extended from the first end thereof and pivotally secured to the second end of the spring rod.
The movably coupling means includes a pole slidably secured to the beam and coupled to the middle portion of the spring rod. The pole includes an aperture formed therein for receiving the middle portion of the spring rod.
The beam includes an orifice formed therein for slidably receiving the pole therein. The beam includes an opening communicating with the orifice thereof and having a diameter greater than that of the orifice of the beam, the movably coupling means includes a block slidably secured in the opening of the beam and having the pole extended therefrom.
The umbrella includes a telescoping post, and a stationary hub secured on top of the post and pivotally secured to the first end of the strut, the strut includes a middle portion, a ring is slidably engaged on the post, a stay includes a first end pivotally secured to the ring and a second end pivotally secured to the middle portion of the strut, the beam includes an extension extended from the first end thereof, and a lever pivotally coupled between the extension of the beam and the stay.
Further objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a careful reading of a detailed description provided hereinbelow, with appropriate reference to accompanying drawings. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved combination 24-hour wheelchair-sleeper apparatus that is designed to convert from a wheelchair configuration into a generally horizontal sleeping configuration.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, convertible beds or wheelchair devices, as well as other invalid transferring arrangements, are known. However, none of the devices of the prior art suggest all of the features of the present invention. In particular, the prior art does not suggest a wheelchair that may convert into a sleeper with additional features that promote total 24-hour independence. The following devices of the prior art are known to Applicant.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,169 to Shaffler discloses a wheeled structure that is convertible between a full-sized bed and a wheelchair. However, the Shaffler device does not include a mechanism to facilitate transferring the patient from the bed arrangement onto another like bed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,104 to Grantham discloses a convertible hospital bed that includes a mechanism to assist a patient sitting upright in the bed in moving on and off the bed. Grantham fails to disclose a wheelchair unit that is convertible into a sleeper apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,352 to DiMatteo et al. discloses an arrangement combining a wheelchair with a bed, wherein the bed has a mechanism that assists an invalid from the bed into a wheelchair, with the wheelchair having a mechanism to receive the invalid from the bed. The wheelchair unit of DiMatteo et al. permits transfer of an invalid between a bed and a convertible wheelchair in close proximity to a bedding unit. However, the invention of DiMatteo et al. does not provide accommodation for 24-hour occupation by a patient. | {
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The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling access to one or more servers in a network, and more particularly relates to a method and apparatus that controls the admission of new users to the one or more servers such that users already accessing server resources will receive priority service over new users attempting to access a server.
In a computer network, such as the Internet which represents a vast number of computers linked to each other worldwide, information exchange such as e-mail may occur between various computers linked through the Internet using a set of protocols such as the transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP). A xe2x80x9cclientxe2x80x9d may typically be a web browser running on a computer. A client typically communicates with a xe2x80x9cserverxe2x80x9d. A server may uniquely distinguish clients using an IP address and possibly other identifiers. Other examples of clients include proxy servers and web robots. Information on the Internet may be made available to the public through xe2x80x9cserversxe2x80x9d. Servers are computers which make available files or documents they hold. The worldwide web (www) is a method of accessing this information from the servers and allows a user to navigate the resources of the Internet by displaying or downloading pages of information that are stored at the servers. Clients communicate with servers using the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). In the Internet the HTTP protocol is generally transmitted over TCP/IP.
Usage of the Internet and the worldwide web is increasing at a very rapid rate and more and more new users are being connected to the Internet and www. As its growth continues, the www will provide a rapidly growing number of commercial services, with applications ranging from information retrieval for text, images or multi media through to purchasing, for example, ticket and item sales. As such, there is a need to improve the reliability of the web so as to make it a suitable medium for high volume, business critical applications.
During periods of high use of a web server, even in situations such as overload of the server wherein the load of requests to the web server exceeds the capabilities of the server, the server still allows requests from new users. These capabilities include the physical capacity of the CPU, the memory and the network. Continuing to allow requests from new users tends to degrade the performance perceived by users that are already accessing the server system and which is evidenced through long delays or inability to service information requests. For example users already accessing web pages on a server may experience poor performance as they navigate through links to pages on that same server. The performance as perceived by already accessing users is assessed in terms of maintaining throughput, response time levels and system stability rather than by increasing the overall throughput of the web server.
The present invention seeks to address this problem by providing a system that allows a server to accept or deny access by new users to that server in preference to those already accessing the server. Such a decision for accepting or rejecting the admission of new users is based on certain performance parameters, such as the setting of the congestion level at the server.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method of controlling access to a server by a client to a server in a network, said method comprising the steps of:
monitoring resource usage of said server; allowing a connection of said client to pass to said server where said connection forms part of an active session wherein said connection forms part of said active session if at least one previous connection from said client has been passed to said server within a predetermined time interval, and
allowing or rejecting a new connection of another client to pass to said server according to an admission control scheme.
The step of allowing or rejecting may be based on resource usage of said server. The method may include searching for an active session of said client and admitting the clients connection to pass to said server if there is an active session for said client.
The method may include determining a congestion level from monitoring the resource use on said server. The congestion level may be represented by a whole number between zero and cmax where zero indicates that the server is operating normally and cmax is the maximum congestion level. The congestion level may be used to calculate an admission interval which represents the time after which a new session for a new connection can begin.
A new connection may be admitted after the admission interval expires. Periodically, a determination is made on whether the resource usage is high, and if it is high the congestion level is increased. The method may include checking whether a client has had a connection attempt rejected within a predetermined period.
The present invention also provides an interface unit for controlling access to a server by a client in a network, said interface unit comprising:
means for monitoring resource usage of said server;
admission means for allowing a connection of said client to pass to said server where said connection forms part of an active session wherein said connection forms part of said active session if at least one previous connection from said client has been passed to said server within a predetermined time interval,
said admission means further rejecting or allowing a new connection of another client to pass to said server according to an admission control scheme.
The admission means further rejecting or allowing said new connection may be based on said resource usage of the server. The monitoring means may be in the form of a storage means, such as a database that maintains information about previous sessions, a list of active sessions and routinely polls said server to obtain resource information on that server. The interface unit may be linked to the computer network through an external port and be linked to the server through an internal port. The interface unit may be a computing processor and the admission means may be a control unit for rejecting or admitting a new connection to said server. | {
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Devices such as automobile radios or personal computers contain subassemblies such as cassette playing mechanisms or disk drives that are attached to the chassis using threaded fasteners. The chassis provides structural support for the subassemblies and also provides electromagnetic shielding to limit electromagnetic interference (EMI) experienced by, and/or created by the device. The fasteners ensure that each subassembly within the chassis is properly located and securely retained within the chassis.
The use of such fasteners can have numerous drawbacks, particularly in a high volume production setting. The process for applying or installing fasteners can vary, but there is usually some degree of automation required, ranging from manually loading a screw into a bit on a pneumatic driver to using self-feeding automated machines. Typically, the torque applied by the device used to drive the fasteners must be monitored regularly and adjusted in order to assure proper seating of the fasteners. When fasteners are used, sheet metal tolerances, as well as tolerances of the fasteners themselves, have to be maintained at tight levels to allow for the minimization of stress in the assembly when aligning multiple fasteners with corresponding holes in the chassis and in the subassembly.
When threaded fasteners are used to assemble an electrical device, the assembly cycle time can be very long especially in high volume production. An operator assembling the device must typically first obtain the threaded fastener, orient and position it in alignment with the driver bit, then manipulate or actuate the machine to drive the threaded fastener. Furthermore, using threaded fasteners presents a risk of any one of the following upstream failures occurring: stripping of fastener threads; insufficient torque resulting in an unseated fastener; excessive torque resulting in distension/deformation of the fastener or adjacent electrical components; installation of the wrong fastener type or size; foreign object damage due to fasteners and/or metal shavings dropping onto the assembly and/or subassembly; and stripping of the head of the threaded fastener. Also, a fastener installation tool such as a driver and bit can slip off the fastener and impact an electrical component resulting in a damaged assembly.
If self-tapping fasteners are used, the process of driving the self-tapping fasteners into sheet metal often causes shavings of sheet metal to disperse into the assembly. Such shavings have been known to cause electrical failures, such as shorts or corruption of magnetic components that can permanently damage the product. If self-tapping fasteners are not used, an extra production step is required to pre-form threads in the sheet metal of the chassis and/or the subassembly to be installed within the chassis.
Fasteners further require an additional inventory burden on the production line in that the production line must be continuously stocked with part numbers (fasteners) other than the integral components that add value to the assembly. Also special tools specifically required for assembly, using fasteners, such as drivers and bits, must be continuously monitored and maintained for proper performance, wear and torque specifications. Typically, the top and/or bottom surface of the chassis must be secured in place after the subassembly is attached to the chassis.
Special fixtures are often required on the production line to secure a subassembly in a proper location and orientation while it is mounted within the chassis with fasteners. Such fixtures can be very complex, and the use of such fixtures usually requires extra handling of both the subassembly and of the resulting assembly thereby adding to the production cycle time and potentially compromising quality of the final product.
FIG. 1 illustrates the construction of a typical prior art automotive radio/compact disc (CD) player 10. Radio/CD player 10 comprises a radio subassembly whose principle circuit components are carried on a circuit board 12 and a CD player subassembly 14. The circuit board 12 and the CD player 14 are encased within a common chassis 16 made up of sheet metal components. Chassis 16 includes a wraparound housing 18 defining a back and sidewalls, a top cover 20, a bottom cover 22 and a front plate 24 which are interconnected by numerous threaded fasteners to collectively enclose the subassemblies. The top and bottom covers 20 and 22, respectively, are provided with large arrays holes or openings for airflow and ventilation of heat generated within the radio/CD player 10. A convector or heat sink 26 is carried on an outer surface of one of the chassis sidewalls and is interconnected through a port/window 28 to a power device assembly 30. A trim plate assembly 32, along with a support pad 34 and CD dust cover 36 are affixed to the front plate 24, providing an operator control interface with the radio/CD player 10. Circuit board 12 is electrically in-circuit with the CD player subassembly 14 through an intermediate flex wire cable 38 and with the power device assembly 30 through a jumper cable 40. Information bearing labels 42 and 44 are provided for future reference by the operator and service technicians. The radio/CD player 10 is electrically interconnected with an antenna, power supply, speakers and other related systems of a host vehicle by rear-facing connectors 46 carried on the circuit board 12 which are registered with openings 48 in the rear wall of wraparound housing 18. The radio/CD player 10 is mounted within a host vehicle by threaded fasteners passing through openings in mounting features 50 extending from front plate 24 and a rearwardly directed mounting bushing 52 which is threadably affixed to a stud 54 carried on the outer surface of the rear wall 56 of wraparound housing 18. As best seen in FIGS. 11 and 12, the shank of the stud 54 extends outwardly through a hole 58 disposed concentrically with a localized recess 60 and the stud 54 is seated within the recess 60. FIG. 90 illustrates another known stud design including a threaded shank secured to the rear wall 53 of a radio set 51 by a set nut 55 and receiving a molded rubber, plastic or vinyl stud 57 thereover. Note the large number of threaded fasteners 59.
The radio/CD player 10 of FIG. 1 is of ordinary complexity and may require fifty or more threaded fasteners to complete the manufacturing process. Installation of that many fasteners may require that the in-process chassis be re-positioned/re-fixtured ten to fifteen times as it passes along an assembly line of eight to ten skilled workers/work stations.
Vehicle entertainment systems usually include an audio component such as a radio to enable receiving signals from antennas, contain various forms of playback mechanisms, and have the capacity to accept data from user devices like MP3 players. Typically, the radio has a decorative assembly that provides man-machine interface as well as displaying pertinent data relative to the selected media and audio settings. Also, the back-end or chassis is constructed of metal to provide various functions to ensure the performance of the radio in the vehicular environment. The structure to contain the mass from playbacks, the heat conductive properties, and the electrical shielding and grounding are just a few of the advantages to using the metal construction. Unfortunately, with the density of the metal, the disadvantage of added weight is a side effect of the typical construction. In a vehicle, added weight impacts fuel economy, as well as other hidden costs during assembly that can effect the cost of the product, like sharp edges of metal can be a potential hazard for assemblers in the manufacturing plant as well as added weight can limit the packaging of multiple parts in containers for inter and outer plant distribution.
Static electricity (electrostatics) is created when two objects having unbalanced charges touch one another, causing the unbalanced charge to transfer between the two objects. This phenomenon commonly occurs in homes, vehicles and other environments when the air is dry (i.e. has a characteristic relatively low level of humidity). For instance, when a person slides onto a car seat, electrons may transfer between the two, causing the surface of the person's body to store a charge. When the person, then, touches a vehicle component, the charge may travel (discharge) from the body to the component, thus creating static electricity. If the object touched is an electronic device, such as a home stereo, home theatre system, computer, vehicle entertainment system or other electronic media system, this electrostatic discharge can be harmful to the sensitive electronic components of the device. For instance, when a person slides onto a vehicle seat and inserts a disc into the car stereo, a charge may travel from the body through the disc to the sensitive electronic components in the vehicle stereo. Similar problems may occur when using DVD and other magnetic media and disc players.
Accordingly, problems with the drainage of a static electric charge impacting sensitive electronic components continue to persist. | {
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Bras are often provided with support components, such as one or more underwires that are attached along the lower edge of each bra cup to provide support to a wearer's breasts. Such support components can be inserted within a tunnel casing along a lower edge of the bra cup, can be sewn directly to the lower edge of the bra cup and provided with a cover fabric, can be adhered to the lower edge of the bra cup, or can be attached in any number of different ways to the bra cup. Often, if the support component is made of a hard material, the support component is uncomfortable for the wearer of the bra. For instance, the ends of the support component may poke out from the bra cup and into the wearer's skin.
Further, rigid support components do not bend easily as the wearer of the bra moves. If the support component does bend as the wearer moves, it may be subject to breakage. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-luminescent plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as PDP) that utilizes gas discharge. Precisely, it relates to PDP having a specifically designed phosphor screen, and to a method for forming the phosphor screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, PDP comprises two opposing glass substrates each having an electrode formed thereon, and a phosphor layer. This is so constructed that the two opposing glass substrates are held to have a predetermined cell space therebetween, and a vapor consisting essentially of Ne, Xe and the like is sealed in the cell space. Voltage is applied between the electrodes for attaining electric discharge in fine cell spaces around them, whereby the phosphor layer provided in each cell space is excited to emit light for displaying various informations. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,674,553 and 5,661,500 disclose the related art for PDP.
PDP is composed of display regions that participate in displaying various informations and non-display regions that interspace the display regions while not participating in information displaying. In PDP of the related art, phosphor layers that participate in displaying are provided between linear ribs adjacent to each other, and they are in both the display regions and the non-display regions while extending along the linear ribs in their lengthwise direction.
The first problem with PDP of the related art is that the UV rays as generated through discharge in the display regions leak to the non-display regions not having ribs therearound, thereby exciting the phosphor layers in the non-display regions to emit light.
Concretely, the problem is that the phosphor in the non-image regions emits light to brighten the non-image regions. In addition, the light as emitted by the phosphor in the non-image regions leaks to the adjacent image regions to thereby brighten the image regions to a higher degree over their original brightness.
The second problem with the related art PDP is that the UV rays as generated through discharge in the display regions excite the phosphor layers therein to emit light, and the thus-emitted light leaks to the non-image regions.
In this connection, the color of the phosphor layers not emitting light is white or pale gray similar to white. Therefore, the third problem with the structure of the related art PDP is that the color of the phosphor layers is seen through the front plate of PDP owing to the ambient light entering them.
Concretely, when PDP is used in light, the ambient light entering it is scattered on the phosphor layers in the non-image regions. Therefore, the problem is that the non-image regions are seen nearly whitish.
In addition, when PDP is used in light, the ambient light entering it partly passes through the phosphor layers and is scattered on the dielectric layers underlying the phosphor layers. The scattered light again enters the phosphor layers and is further scattered on the phosphor layers in the non-image regions. This brings about the fourth problem that the non-image regions are seen nearly whitish.
All these problems cause the decrease in the contrast and the sharpness of the image informations and others displayed in PDP. | {
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This invention relates generally to molding, and more particularly to a modular mold for use in the manufacture and sale of molded objects.
The present invention has particular, but not exclusive, application in the field of molding, which is responsible for the production of many objects and components in numerous consumer and manufacturing markets. One particular application is for plastic injection molding, although other types of molding and casting fall within the scope of the present invention. Plastic injection molding machines have a fixture which receives a mold composed of two or more mold members or plates which are moved by the machine between open and closed positions. The mold members each contain mold cavities of unique geometric shapes, which partially define the shape of the molded objects produced by the mold. In the closed position, the mold plates come together, registering opposing mold cavities and defining one or more enclosed volumes having the shape of the object or component to be produced. The mold plates are secured in the closed position by the molding machine with sufficient force to remain sealed while resisting the expansive force of the mold material during charging of the mold. Liquefied molding material (e.g., plastic) is injected under pressure through a series of runner channels and a port into the enclosed volume, typically filling the available space in the volume. Thermal energy is removed so that the molding material solidifies within the enclosed volume. The mold plates are moved to the open position by the injection molding machine, and the molded object remains with one of the mold plates. An ejector device including ejection pins pushes the object and attached runners (formed by molding material in the runner channels) out of the one mold plate and the machine is ready to cycle again for the production of the next object. Molded objects are separated from runners either during ejection, or during a secondary, post molding operation, with degating being a commonly accepted term for this separation process. In instances of concurrent molding of multiple different objects, a sorting operation is also employed.
Plastic injection molding has enjoyed enormous commercial success because of its ability to produce large numbers of objects and components quickly and at low prices. Indeed, plastic injection molding may be the most prevalent method for the production of plastic objects. However, plastic injection molding has some drawbacks which limit its usefulness and can operate to prevent the introduction of certain types of products into the marketplace because of certain barriers to entry presented by plastic injection molding. More particularly, the mold which is used in the plastic injection molding machine is very costly to manufacture and maintain, requiring skilled artisans to produce and maintain. The cost savings previously mentioned are recognized only when a very great number of objects are manufactured. For products that will be sold in smaller numbers, or products which will be sold in numbers which are uncertain because of the uncertainty of commercial acceptance of the product, the cost of the mold is a large impediment to their production. The purchaser of molded parts is also faced with the dilemma of whether to spend the additional money to produce molds which are more efficient, i.e., as by having numerous cavities in a single mold for simultaneous production of many objects (parallel processing), or run the risk that if the product is needed in higher quantities than originally anticipated, an entirely new mold (or molds) will have to be purchased. This problem arises because the mold selected by the purchaser is strictly dedicated to production of one object (or group of objects) at one level of efficiency. Once constructed, the mold has essentially no flexibility in operation.
It is known that to reduce the financial risk associated with acquisition of an efficient production mold, it is possible to first produce, in a comparatively short time of fabrication, an inefficient, but low cost bridge mold, also known as a prototype mold. The bridge mold is capable of producing a small quantity of molded objects, and thus permit testing of the physical design, as well as market appeal of a molded object prior to committing to the typically larger financial investment and longer fabrication time associated with more efficient production molds. If molded objects produced by a bridge mold are found to be acceptable, the bridge mold may also be utilized to produce limited production quantities of molded objects, bridging the span of time required to fabricate an efficient production mold, and thus permit faster market availability of the molded objects than would be possible if only the final production mold were used for production.
In some instances, bridge molds may be produced by the same highly skilled artisan mold makers who are also employed to make production molds. The artisan mold makers use techniques for making the bridge molds that are similar to those used to fabricate production molds. In these instances of bridge mold fabrication, advantages of speed and economy are realized by compromising attributes of production molds. Such compromises typically include substitution of softer, more easily workable materials such as aluminum, as opposed to harder tool steel. Moreover, additive protective surface coatings for mold and cavity construction are not employed. Furthermore, the total number of mold cavities is typically limited to one for each object to be molded. And typically more primitive, less efficient methods of ejection, thermal regulation, degating and sorting are employed than utilized on production molds. However, even with these previously mentioned fabrication compromises, artisan mold makers are often able to produce complex molded objects which are nearly identical in shape, appearance and mechanical properties to those which will be produced by the final production mold.
Bridge molds produced by artisan mold makers have a number of disadvantages. For one, the cost and time required to fabricate a bridge mold is additive to the cost and time to fabricate the final efficient production mold. Therefore, molding projects utilizing bridge molding processes have higher total mold fabrication costs than molding projects that utilize only production molds. Furthermore, utilization of bridge molds extends the overall time of a molding project, as bridge molds are constructed as a first step, then following analysis and approval of the bridge mold produced prototype-molded objects, fabrication of a production mold may be commenced. While the costs of a bridge mold may be substantially less than a production mold, bridge molds fabricated by artisan mold makers are still quite expensive, owing to the typically high wages earned by artisan mold makers, and to the overall difficulty of hand crafting custom molds, even when employing the various shortcuts previously mentioned.
As an alternative to utilization of artisan mold makers to fabricate bridge molds in the traditional manner, several known systematic methods of mold design and fabrication may be used for the fabrication of bridge molds. In many instances these systematic mold fabrication methods may enable the fabrication of bridge molds faster and more economically than bridge molds fabricated by artisan mold makers. While being faster and less costly to fabricate, molds of these systematic processes contain all of the disadvantages of artisan-fabricated bridge molds. In addition to the disadvantages of the artisan fabricated molds, system constraints found in these systematic methods further limit molded object properties such as surface finish, part geometry and dimensional tolerances, and therefore often lack the capability to meet object design specifications.
Bridge molds, whether fabricated by artisan mold makers or by systematic processes, are subject to additional disadvantages which limit their usefulness. More particularly, these additional disadvantages are found when a bridge mold is utilized to meet interim production requirements, fulfilling market demands while a more efficient production mold is fabricated to replace the bridge mold. One of these disadvantages is that objects produced by an inefficient bridge mold have significantly greater per object production costs, which may offset and erode any profits realized by the earlier market entry facilitated by the bridge mold. Furthermore, the efficiency limitations of a bridge mold are also overall production capacity limitations. If the market success, and subsequent production demands of a molded object exceed the production capacity of the bridge mold, customer orders will go unfulfilled, which may result in customer dissatisfaction, and ultimately difficulty in retaining customers until greater production capacity is provided with the completed fabrication of a production mold. Being of temporary construction, bridge molds are also particularly susceptible to the effects of wear and damage, and as a result typically have short and unpredictable life spans, making them unreliable for production molding, even on an interim basis, as the bridge mold may fail before a production mold is fabricated. The cost risks associated with insufficient production capacity and unreliability of a bridge mold are magnified when the molded objects produced by the mold are a unique component part of product containing many parts. The delivery failure of the one unique part will interrupt the delivery of the entire dependant product, and may result in lost sales of much greater scale than the costs of the individual molded object.
Production molds may be designed to provide different levels of capacity and production efficiency, but these differing levels of capacity and efficiency have associated costs, which typically increase as the level of capacity and efficiency of the mold design is increased. Therefore, design and investment decisions of production molds require an assessment of the total molded object production requirements in order to select the most appropriate level of capacity and efficiency. As previously mentioned, fabrication of bridge molds prior to the design and fabrication of production molds enables a limited assessment of potential market acceptance and demand for molded objects. While production predictions based on market assessments from these bridge molded objects are useful, their accuracy and reliability are limited, as any prediction of future events is speculative. Furthermore, market demand for a particular molded object tends to change throughout the life cycle of the object, typically first growing as the market adopts the object, then declining as its life matures. Therefore, even if an accurate prediction of the overall demand for molded objects were possible, such predictions would still be inaccurate during various segments of the object's life cycle, and as such it is essentially impossible to make a single mold design and investment decision that is optimal for all phases of the molded objects life cycle.
What is needed is a modular mold and modular method of molding capable of providing rapid and economical fabrication of bridge molds that can then be rapidly and economically upgraded and transformed into an efficient production mold, and also capable of meeting variable capacity and efficiency levels.
It is known to provide some additional flexibility in mold making by constructing a mold which is modular. Instead of mold plates that are each monolithic, the plates are formed as frames which are capable of receiving several mold inserts. The mold inserts contain the mold cavities which mate with the mold cavities of corresponding mold inserts to define the mold volumes in the shape of the object or objects to be produced. The mold so configured may produce many of the same object or produce several different objects in a single mold cycle. Using a modular approach, much less material is required to form a mold insert than would ordinarily be required to form the entire mold plate with a cavity. The frame is generic and can receive different arrangements of mold inserts, and so the overall cost of producing a mold can be reduced. However, it is believed that the full potential of modular molds has not been exploited because of marketing methods which are still focused on single use molds.
Morever, modular molds suffer to a greater degree from a problem which is generally present in plastic injection molding. Although generally considered being an efficient manufacturing process, one of the primary impediments to molding efficiency is the time in which the mold is at rest after the plastic is injected into the mold, waiting for the plastic to solidify. The solidification time is a function of the heat transfer rate out of the mold volume after hot molding material is injected into the mold. The use of mold inserts may exacerbate this problem because there is insufficient contact with adjacent components of the mold to produce the most ideal conductive heat transfer. As a result, the cycle time of the injection molding machine may be increased with a modular mold. Some attempts to resolve this problem have been made, such as by having the mold insert contain its own liquid coolant circulation loop connected to the coolant system of the injection molding machine. However, this requires that the mold insert be larger, increasing its costs and reducing its flexibility of positioning within the mold plate. The fluid connections to the mold insert required every time the mold is reconfigured are complex and a source of manufacturing delay, and mold configurations and designs are limited by the need to provide for such fluid connections. Still further, steel, the common material used in mold manufacture, does not have the most ideal heat transfer characteristics. In addition to transferring heat out of the mold at a lower rate, the heat transfer is not uniform, so that there may be hot and cold spots in the mold. It is known to use aluminum, which has better heat transfer characteristics, but aluminum is less resistant to wear and subject to greater thermal expansion and contraction within the mold.
Another issue associated with existing injection molding molds and process relates to the reconditioning of molds. Over time, the molds (regardless of the type of material from which they are made) will wear to the point that reconditioning is required. Conventionally, skilled craftsmen are employed to perform this task. Reconditioning involves cutting down the mold to remove damage or wear, following by reforming of the cavity and runner channels leading to the cavity. The reconditioning causes the height of the mold to change, which can be particularly problematic if attempted for modular molds where the height and location of the upper surface of the mold inserts must remain the same for all mold cavities to seal.
Still further, the modularity of the mold inserts is limited by the modularity of the runner channels delivering liquefied molding material to the inserts. Conventionally, the runner channels have been as dedicated to a single use as the molds themselves. Providing a modular mold using mold inserts still requires that the liquefied molding material be delivered in some manner to the mold inserts. Presently, these runner channels are dedicated to a particular mold insert, making it difficult to reconfigure the mold. Mold inserts conventionally must be made of the same material so that they have the same thermal expansion in use. Even if made of the same material, mold inserts are more difficult than one piece molds to register with mating mold inserts to form a sealed mold enclosure volume because of problems with accurately positioning removable mold inserts in the mold frame. | {
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The conventional support frame for a container trailer includes both a base frame which supports the container and a suspension frame which includes the wheel/axle assembly and the suspension system. Typically, the base frame and the suspension frame are separately fabricated and welded or bolted together prior to mounting of the container thereon. In at least a part of one or both of the fabrication phases, various sheet metal components are cut from sheets of metal, and they may be bent or otherwise fabricated into particular shapes or configurations. In the assembly phase, these components are located and fixed with respect to each other using assembly fixtures, and they are welded or otherwise joined to form the frame component. Then the base frame and the suspension frame are joined together and a container is mounted thereon. The techniques conventionally employed in the assembly phase rely heavily on a vast array of fixtures that are used to locate the individual frame components prior to being welded. These fixtures range in complexity from small tabletop welding jigs with simple locators to very complex electronically controlled motor driven units capable of holding large assemblies or subassemblies in place for welding. These fixtures cost many thousands of dollars to design and manufacture and also require ongoing maintenance to insure that they remain accurate and consistent with product improvement and other design changes. In addition, the locating of components with respect to each other by fixturing often results in errors in fit and weld integrity between the components. When fixturing is used to locate components with respect to each other, most of the welds required for the assembly of a frame structure must be made by human rather than robot welders. Furthermore, in an attempt to correct errors in fit between the components, large welds are often made to fill in the gaps between components. Such large welds may contribute increased weight and may cause heat distortion in the finished product. In addition, the fixtures for a new product require time to design and build. When a new prototype for a product is to be made, it is often necessary to build the fixtures for the design by hand. This process is slow, labor-intensive and expensive.
In recent years, there have been a number of developments aimed at improving the conventional manufacturing process. For example, flexible manufacturing systems and modular fixturing systems have been developed to handle an increase in product variations, especially as relates to custom fabricated products or the production of several products on a single production line. However, these systems have not attempted to reduce the extent to which fixturing is required in the manufacture of frames for container trailers.
It would be desirable if a manufacturing method and frame design for a trailer having a container mounted thereon could be devised that would reduce or minimize the number and complexity of the fixtures required for assembly. It would also be desirable if such a method and frame design could be devised that would reduce or minimize the risk of human error in the assembly process. It would also be desirable if such a method and frame design could be provided that would provide for more accurate fit of the various components, thus reducing the size of the welds required and reducing the effects of heat distortion due to such welds. It would also be desirable if such a method and frame design could be developed that would require fewer and less complex components than conventional designs. | {
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The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for constructing a temporary parking lot on a land area.
The transportation industry often requires additional parking areas for temporary vehicle storage prior to vehicle transfer and/or distribution. Such parking areas are typically needed adjacent rail yards and automotive production facilities. These additional parking areas are frequently only needed for a relatively short period of time, such as two or three months. Hence, it is desirable to minimize the time and expenses associated with constructing the additional parking areas.
Traditionally parking lots are constructed by covering a land area with concrete or asphalt. These traditional construction methods provide a desirable hard surface for vehicles to be driven on, but are time-consuming and expensive. Further, covering the land area with concrete or asphalt can create complications in the project, such as having to construct a retention pond to deal with excess rain water.
Other less permanent methods for constructing parking lots are also known. These other methods include covering a land area with gravel, wood chips, or shredded rubber from recycled tires. These non-traditional methods reduce the time and expenses associated with constructing the parking areas. However, these methods do not provide the desired parking surface, and can lead to the vehicles being damaged. Such vehicle damage can range from scratches in a vehicle""s paint to extensive body damage caused by vehicles sliding into one another when excessive rain washes away the gravel, wood chips, or shredded rubber, and turns at least a portion of the parking area into a mud pit.
The present invention is a method of constructing a temporary vehicle parking lot on a land area. The method comprises the steps of: providing a composite drainage material through which water drains; and covering the land area with the composite drainage material so that the land area is underneath the composite drainage material. The composite drainage material comprises a polymeric open mesh core between first and second layers of a non-woven geo-textile fabric. One of the first and second layers contacts the land area. The other of the first and second layers faces away from the land area and provides a surface on which vehicles may be parked. The composite drainage material directs water which contacts the other layer through the first and second layers, through the polymeric core between the layers, and into the land area covered by the composite drainage material.
The step of covering the land area includes the step of staking the composite drainage material to the land area. The step of covering the land area further includes the steps of: placing rolls of the composite drainage material adjacent one another; unrolling the rolls of the composite drainage material so that longitudinal edges of adjacent rolls adjoin one another; and joining the longitudinal edges of adjacent rolls to create a continuous surface of the composite drainage material.
The present invention further provides an apparatus for constructing a temporary vehicle parking lot on a land area. The apparatus comprises a composite drainage material through which water drains. The composite drainage material comprises a polymeric open mesh core between first and second layers of a non-woven geo-textile fabric. The composite drainage material is adapted to cover the land area so that the land area is underneath the composite drainage material. One of the first and second layers contacts the land area. The other of the first and second layers faces away from the land area and comprises a surface on which vehicles may be parked. The composite drainage material directs water which contacts the other layer through the first and second layers, through the polymeric core between the layers, and into the land area covered by the composite drainage material. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a nitride semiconductor light emitting device comprising a nitride semiconductor represented by general formula of InxAlyGa1-x-yN (0≦x<1, 0≦y<1), and particularly to a nitride semiconductor light emitting device having an n-side pad electrode and a p-side pad electrode formed on the same side of a substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A nitride semiconductor light emitting device commonly used is constituted by forming at least an n-type nitride semiconductor layer and a p-type nitride semiconductor layer one on another on a substrate made of sapphire, SiC, GaN or the like. The p-type nitride semiconductor layer has a p-side pad electrode formed thereon for connecting to a positive terminal of an external power source, and the n-type nitride semiconductor layer has an n-side pad electrode formed thereon for connecting to a negative terminal of the external power source. Electric current flows from the p-side pad electrode to the n-side pad electrode, so as to cause light emission.
In case an insulating substrate such as sapphire is used, the n-side pad electrode cannot be formed on the back surface of the substrate. Therefore the p-type nitride semiconductor layer and a part of the n-type nitride semiconductor layer are removed so as to expose the n-type nitride semiconductor layer on the top side, and the n-side pad electrode is formed thereon.
Also, because the p-type nitride semiconductor layer has a sheet resistance higher than that of the n-type nitride semiconductor layer, a translucent electrode is often formed between the p-side pad electrode and the p-type nitride semiconductor layer in order to assist the diffusion of current in the p-type nitride semiconductor layer (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 6-338632). The translucent electrode is formed over substantially the entire surface of the p-type nitride semiconductor layer, from a translucent material such as thin metal film so as to spread the current throughout the p-type nitride semiconductor layer and not to block light emission.
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-164930 proposes to improve the current distribution by forming linear extensions from the n-side pad electrode and from the p-side pad electrode, on a nitride semiconductor device having the n-side pad electrode and the p-side pad electrode formed on the same side of a substrate. FIG. 9 is a plan view showing an example of the nitride semiconductor device disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-164930. In this example, an extension 12a is formed to extend from the n-side pad electrode 12 and surround the device in a C shape, so as to improve the distribution of current which flows from the p-side pad electrode 16 to the n-side pad electrode 12.
In the nitride semiconductor light emitting device having the constitution described above, uniformity of current distribution within the device plane deteriorates when the p-side and n-side electrodes are not well-balanced in the resistance to the current flowing along the surface (substantially determined by the balance of sheet resistance between the translucent electrode formed on the p-type nitride semiconductor layer and the n-type nitride semiconductor layer). Particularly in case the translucent electrode is formed from an electrically conductive oxide such as indium tin oxide (hereinafter referred to as “ITO”), the translucent electrode tends to have higher sheet resistance than that of the n-type nitride semiconductor layer. As a result, such a problem can easily occur that current flows more around the p-side pad electrode and less around the n-side pad electrode. Uneven current distribution within the element plane may lead to a problem related to the electrical characteristic such as higher value of Vf (forward voltage).
Also, the problem described above becomes more significant as the shape of the device becomes more proximate to rectangle. This is because a device having rectangular shape has longer path from the p-side pad electrode to the n-side pad electrode than a square device having the same surface area.
This problem may be addressed by forming linear extensions which extend from the n-side pad electrode and the p-side pad electrode as described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-164930. However, the n-side pad electrode and the p-side pad electrode, including the extensions thereof, have the property of blocking light, and absorb light. Thus simply forming the linear extensions from the n-side pad electrode and from the p-side pad electrode leads to smaller area of light emission as the extensions become longer, thus resulting in a decrease in the efficiency of light emission due to the absorption of light. | {
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The advent of wireless and mobile technologies increases the demand for low power integrated circuit designs, particularly for use in battery-powered applications. Because the architectural choices for an integrated circuit (or chip) design often determines its power characteristics, it is becoming imperative to assess the power dissipation level of a chip design at an early stage in the design cycle where significant design changes can still be made to optimize the power characteristics.
In a typical design process of an integrated circuit, the chip design, defined by a functional specification and an interface description, is created using a computer aided design tool and expressed at the register-transfer level (RTL) using a hardware description language (HDL), such as Verilog. HDL describes the chip design in behavior terms and does not include a detailed structural description of the design. When the designer is satisfied with the design at the register-transfer level, the RTL chip design is then synthesized to transform the behavior description into a circuit level or a gate level description. The circuit level or gate level description may be further optimized and verified before the design is transformed into a mask set for manufacturing the integrated circuit.
Generally, a power model of a cell (or a gate) contains one or more descriptions of power dissipating conditions associated with the cell. Two types of cell power models have found widespread use: pin-based and arc-based. Pin-based models describe power dissipation of a cell based on single transitions (switches) on one of the cell's pins, possibly under specific Boolean conditions describing the states of the other pins. The evaluation of the power model involves using the activity values (that is, the switching activity or the duty cycle) of each pin. Arc-based power models describe power dissipation of a cell based on a sequence of events (or logical transitions) on the cell's pins. The sequence of events is usually a transition on an input pin followed by a transition on an output pin, called an arc. Hence, the power model is “arc” based. More complicated arc-based power models may reference a sequence of more than two transitions, or include a Boolean condition describing logical states on the cell's pins during this sequence. The conventional power model uses arc-based power modeling with two kinds of power arcs: the transaction power arc and the intrinsic power arc. With these two kinds of power arcs, the silicon power consumption may be modeled very accurately based on the simulation transaction.
The Liberty library format developed by Synopsys, Inc. is a pin-based modeling technique. However, for the Liberty library format, work has not been done for accurately defining how to characterize (model) memory power for estimation tools. Furthermore, memory power is difficult to model using pin-based characterization. The memory power model is more complex than the macro cells power model due to the structure of multiple input pins and multiple output pins, and because at any time many (any) types of input pins (CLK, Address, Data IN, write enable, etc.) can be active and they all may have some contribution to the overall power dissipation. The conventional memory power model is too simple to correlate with silicon power consumption.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a method and system that characterize and specify the power for each pin in a memory in such a way that they do not overlap with one another so that they can be combined to estimate the power accurately, which method may avoid redundancy caused by simultaneous switching of multiple pins. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Imaging elements, particularly photographic silver halide imaging elements, commonly use a hydrophilic colloid as a film forming binder for layers thereof. The binder of choice in most cases is gelatin, prepared from various sources of collagen, most commonly osseine (see, e.g., P. I. Rose, The Theory of Photographic Process, 4th Edition, edited by T. H. James (Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1977) p. 51-65). The binder is expected to provide several functions, primarily to provide an element with some level of mechanical integrity and contain all the materials within the imaging element, which are required to provide an image. In particular, in photographic elements, the binder is expected to facilitate the diffusion of materials into and out of the element during a wet processing step. Gelatin is particularly suitable to perform this function, since it can absorb water and swell during the processing steps. In addition, gelatin also forms a cross linked network below a critical setting temperature through hydrogen bonding, which prevents dissolution of the gelatin when wet. However, most photoprocessing operations are carried out above the critical temperature, which would thereby melt the gelatin in a non-crosslinked form. In order to prevent the dissolution of the gelatin during the photoprocessing operation, the gelatin is crosslinked chemically, with a hardener, during the manufacture of the imaging element.
Imaging elements using gelatin as the binder are typically prepared by first dissolving gelatin in water. Other photographically useful materials may be added to the aqueous gelatin solution to complete the aqueous coating solution. These aqueous coating solutions are then coated on a support, as single or multiple layers, coated simultaneously or in sequence. The aqueous gelatin layers are dried in a drying section of the coating machine. Rose notes in the aforementioned reference that gelatin layers swell in water upon processing, and that stresses associated with the swelling process must be relieved. Because the layers are bound to the support, vertical swelling is the most important mechanism for relieving these stresses, since the layers are not free to swell laterally. Depending upon the conditions used to dry the gelatin layers of the imaging element, large lateral stresses can be induced, which upon processing, can result in buckling of the layers. This buckling occurs in an irregular pattern known as reticulation (P. I. Rose, The Theory of Photographic Process, 4th Edition, edited by T. H. James (Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1977) p. 62-63). In the final image, reticulation is manifested as lower gloss and higher haze in the final processed image, decreasing the commercial value.
High purity gelatins are generally required for imaging applications. Gelatins are made from sources of collagen. The collagen may be obtained from many sources known in the art, such as bones and hides. Bovine bones and pig skins are most commonly used.
The most commonly employed manufacturing process for obtaining high purity gelatins involves demineralization of a collagen containing material, typically cattle bone. The demineralized bone is known as osseine. This step is then followed by extended alkaline treatment (liming) and finally gelatin is extracted with water of increasing temperature as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,514,518 and 4,824,939. The gelatin produced by this process, commonly referred to as lime processed osseine gelatin, has existed with various modifications throughout the gelatin industry for a number of years. The liming step of this process requires up to 60 days or more, the longest step in the approximately 3 month process of producing gelatin. The hydrolyzed collagen is extracted in a series of steps to obtain several gelatin fractions with varying molecular weights. In order to obtain gelatin of desired molecular weight to provide suitable coating solution viscosities, these fractions can be further hydrolyzed by high temperature hydrolysis. The fractions are then blended to obtain the appropriate molecular weight for photographic use.
Due to the length of time required to lime-process, acid-treatment of osseine may alternatively be employed. In the manufacture of acid processed osseine (APO), extractions begin immediately after demineralization and removal of excess acid, omitting the liming step. The gelatin is extracted in water at an acidic pH, in a series of fractions obtained at increasing temperatures. The acid processing of gelatin coincides with the lime processing of gelatin, except with respect to the liming step. The time required to prepare the osseine for gelatin extraction is reduced to about three days. Gelatins produced from acid-treatment exhibit different properties from lime-processed gelatins, especially the isoelectric point and gel strength.
The physical properties of gelatin, such as the isoelectric point (pI), which is the pH at which the gelatin exhibits a neutral charge, and gel strength or bloom, which is the weight in grams required to depress a plunger of 0.5 inch diameter (1.27 cm), with a {fraction (1/64)}th inch (0.38 cm) radius of curvature at the bottom by 4 mm measured for a 6.16% dry weight gelatin after 24 hours hold at 10.0° C., depend upon the nature of the processing, such as lime or acid, as discussed above. The liming process results in extensive alkaline deamidation of the amides, glutamine and asparagine, to the corresponding acids, glutamic and aspartic acid, increasing the net negative charge on the protein. It has generally been noted that the pI of lime processed osseine (LPO) gelatin is typically in the range of approximately pH 4.7-5.3. Acid processed osseine (APO) gelatins typically exhibit higher pI values than lime processed gelatins. Acid processed cattle bones are typically in the range 6.0-8.5, while acid-processed pigskin (APP) gelatin is typically much higher, at around pH 9. While the use of acid processed gelatins in photographic elements offer a cost advantage, they may lead to undesirable photographic element layer coating properties.
The use of acid-processed gelatins in the uppermost layers of a photographic element can reduce the tendency to reticulation, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,398. While an acid-processed gelatin is useful in a color photographic material, the use of acid-processed pigskin is undesirable due to the tendency to form coascervates, or slugs, with lime-processed gelatins. Instead, it is typical to use acid-processed bovine bone gelatins with isoelectric points of about 6.7-7.0. It has been observed that bovine acid-processed gelatins with even higher isoelectric points, in the range of 7.5-8.5, can provide even better resistance to reticulation, but results in the deterioration of other properties of interest.
One property, which suffers from the use of bovine acid-processed gelatins, is the tendency to viscosity increases with time in coating solutions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,998,120 discloses that solutions of pure APO gelatins in concentrated dispersions of photographically useful compounds leads to viscosity increases with time at standard operating temperatures. It has been found that this tendency is a property of acid-processed gelatins in general, and this tendency toward viscosity increases with time can be observed in coating solutions as well, which are typically more dilute and lower in viscosity than dispersions of photographically useful materials as described in 5,998,120. This tendency can complicate manufacturing conditions, such as requiring dilution of the gelatin containing coating solution or increased operating temperatures of the coating solutions. Such practices may result in undesired increased wet load, lower throughput, coating nonuniformity and chemical instability. The use of acid-processed gelatins with high isoelectric points, in the range of 7.5-8.5, can exacerbate this problem.
More recently, concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or “Mad Cow Disease”) have resulted in a reduced supply of cattle bone for producing both lime and acid-processed gelatins. Subsequent regulations on the production of gelatins for human consumption have created a need for new sources of gelatin for the production of imaging materials. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
On demand drinking water systems are known. In one type of system a reverse osmosis unit is used to treat and subsequently dispense relatively small quantities of treated water. In many currently available systems, the time it takes to fill a glass with the treated water can be unacceptably long. Consumers desire water treatment systems that dispense treated water quickly and which do not rely on external power for their operation.
Reverse osmosis-based water treatment systems that do not require external power are known. An example of such a system is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,650,586 and 6,764,595 which are both owned by the assignee of the present application and which are hereby incorporated by reference. The systems disclosed in these two patents have proven successful. However, consumers desire systems capable of producing and/or dispensing treated water at larger flow rates. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Macular degeneration, which is generally age-related, affects a central region of the retina known as the macula. Macular degeneration can lead to a gradual or rapid loss of vision to the level of 20/200 or less. It may affect, for example, only about 1/4 to 4 square millimeters of the macula, thereby leaving 95 to 99 percent of the retina unaffected. Accordingly, central vision, such as for reading and watching television, can be lost while peripheral vision remains relatively intact.
Vision problems for the patient are compounded if macular degeneration is also accompanied by cataracts on the natural lens of the affected individual. One way of dealing with this compounded vision problem is disclosed in Donn et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,197. The disclosed approach is to replace the cataractic natural lens of the eye with a negative intraocular lens and to employ a single, positive lens element on a spectacle frame in combination with the intraocular lens (IOL). A positive or negative contact lens may also be used in this system to further correct the patient's vision.
Another approach is disclosed in grandparent Portney application Ser. No. 141,482 filed on Jan. 5, 1988, and entitled Teledioptric Lens System. This application is incorporated by reference herein. This latter approach is disclosed as employing an IOL with a negative IOL portion and bi-element spectacles serving as a positive lens to direct light toward the negative lens portion of the IOL. The bi-element spectacles are not telephoto, but when used with the negative IOL portion, a single telephoto lens system is provided.
Both of these approaches improve the compound vision problem referred to above. However, the contact lens-single spectacle lens combination disclosed in the Donn et al patent suffers from problems of maintaining alignment between the contact lens and the spectacle lens and other problems commonly associated with wearing of contact lenses. Also, for larger system magnification, e.g., greater than 3.times. for far vision and greater than 4.5.times. for near vision, the system of Ser. No. 141,482 requires a relatively large vertex distance, i.e., the spacing between the outer surface of the eye and the spectacle lens. This reduces the field of fixation, i.e., the maximum angle within which the eye can move and still see an object clearly and tends to make the spectacles less comfortable to wear and not aesthetically pleasing. The large vertex distance also tends to draw attention to the visual handicap of the wearer. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The information described in this background section is not admitted to be prior art.
Insulated wall panels provide thermal insulation for residential homes and buildings and commercial buildings. A wall panel's R-value is its ability to impede heat flow and, therefore, is a measure of the wall panel's thermal insulating capability. The greater the ability to impede heat flow, the higher the R-value, and the more thermally insulating the structure. Thermal insulation standards have become increasingly stricter, requiring higher R-values and continuous insulation on the exterior sides of insulated wall panels. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
In the preparation of batter and dough compositions, leavening agents are typically used to increase the volume of the batter and dough compositions during cooking and/or baking. Different leavening agents are used for the preparation of different types batter and dough compositions. One type of leavening agent is a natural leavening agent such as yeast. Yeast acts with dough to increase the volume of the dough prior to baking the dough. Dough is often used to prepare products such as breads, doughnuts, bagels, rolls, etc.
Another type of leavening agent is a chemical leavening composition. Such chemical leavening composition comprises a leavening acid and a corresponding leavening base. The leavening acid reacts with the leavening base to evolve gas, typically CO.sub.2. The evolved gas acts to increase the volume of the batter composition prior to and during cooking and/or baking. Such chemical leavening composition is used commercially in the preparation of batter compositions used to prepare food products such as doughnuts, pancakes, biscuits, cakes, cookies, muffins, cupcakes, hush puppies, etc.
There are numerous chemical leavening compositions known to those skilled in the art. Furthermore, there are numerous leavening acids used in such chemical leavening compositions. Known leavening acids include mono- and dicalcium phosphates, sodium aluminum sulfate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, potassium acid tartrate, fumaric acid, ammonium orthophosphate, glucono delta lactone, and various organic acids. While there are numerous leavening acids known to those skilled in the art, it would be desirable to identify a leavening acid which has a lower cost than known leavening acids, provides for better quality product, i.e., a product having better flavor, texture and appearance, and allows for easier application and more uniform distribution, i.e., mixes well with other ingredients and is easy to handle.
It would therefore by desirable to identify such a chemical leavening acid. The present invention provides for such a chemical leavening acid, which chemical leavening acid possess such properties. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates generally to a motorgrader having a two-part articulated frame defined by a rear drive unit and a front steering unit which can be rotated or pivoted relative to the drive unit and, more particularly, to an improved method and apparatus for controlling the cross slope angle cut by such a motorgrader while the motorgrader is making a turn and/or is traveling in a steep slope condition.
It is important to be able to grade surfaces during the construction of roadbeds, runways, parking lots and the like so that the grade and cross slope, i.e., the slope normal to the direction of travel of the motorgrader's blade, closely approximate the finished surface. In this way, the pavement is of a uniform thickness and strength. Highly skilled motorgrader operators can perform grading operations manually to produce acceptable grades and cross slopes. However, due to time pressures and the inherent risk of error in manually producing grades and cross slopes, automatic control systems have been developed to assist operators and reduce the time and skill required to obtain acceptable grading.
One system, which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,948 and is owned by the assignee of the present invention, permits a motorgrader operator to preset the slope of the blade and maintain that slope even when the motorgrader is being operated in a "crabbed" steering position. While this system is a substantial improvement over previously available slope preset systems, it is not capable of maintaining the accuracy of the cut when the motorgrader is making a turn. The reason for this relates back to the fact that cross slope is defined as the slope normal to the direction of travel of the blade. When the motorgrader is making a turn, the blade normally has a direction of travel that differs from the direction of travel of the remaining portions of the motorgrader. This control system, however, does not take into consideration the blade's specific direction of travel when the motorgrader is turning. Thus, this system is not able to accurately control the cut of the blade when the motorgrader is making a turn.
While motorgraders normally travel in a relatively horizontal plane during operation, there are situations when a motorgrader is operated in a steep slope condition. For example, a motorgrader might be operated on a side slope or could be driven up or down a steep hill. The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,948 does not totally correct for errors occurring when the motorgrader is not traveling in a horizontal plane. This is because cross slope is referenced to gravity, yet the rotational angle sensors disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,948 are referenced to the mainframe of the motorgrader, which does not always operate in a horizontal plane. While such errors are normally insignificant, they can become problematic if the motorgrader is operated on a steep hill or side slope.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for operating a motorgrader having a two-part articulated frame to maintain a desired cross slope when the motorgrader is making a turn and when the motorgrader is operated in a steep slope condition. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic circuits and, more specifically, to at least partially digital electronic circuits responsive to flip-flop states.
The present invention more specifically applies to the detection of a modification in the state of a flip-flop between two updating times.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Logic states processed by a digital circuit may undergo incidental or forced disturbances. A forced disturbance comprises, for example, locally disturbing the circuit operation (for example, by means of a laser) to force one or several logic elements (typically flip-flops) to switch state. Such disturbances are generally called “fault injections”. The results of fault injection attacks are exploited by analysis mechanisms, for example of the type known as DFA (Differential Fault Analysis).
Disturbing the state provided by a logic element of a flip-flop type may generate a more general circuit malfunction. For example, this may disturb the operation of a cryptography algorithm to discover manipulated secret quantities. According to another example, this may enable the circuit to set to a state which is in principle unauthorized (for example, to the test mode).
Flip-flop malfunctions may be of dynamic or static nature. Dynamic malfunctions result from shifts in the clock signal (glitches) or from modifications in the clock tree. Static malfunctions, to which the present invention applies, are, for example, generated by laser-type attacks to cause an output state switching of one or several flip-flops without requiring a trigger signal edge to take this state switching into account.
It would be desirable to be able to detect a possible abnormal state switching of one or several flip-flops in an integrated circuit, be this state switching incidental or forced. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
With the expanding use of computer networks, such as the Internet, an increasing amount of commerce is conducted electronically. Online merchants, manufacturers, and others have made virtually every type of product and service available to consumers via computer networks. Conducting commerce via computer networks is particularly useful because consumers can more easily obtain information regarding items to assist them in their purchasing decisions.
Nevertheless, at the present time, consumers still face many challenges when they wish to identify, review, and compare competing items as they make their purchasing decisions. In many circumstances, consumers are required to identify and visit multiple information sources, such as Web sites, to obtain information on different items, and further print out information for each of the items, to be able to compare the items. An effective comparison of items is sometimes extremely difficult, particularly when consumers do not know beforehand the identity of competing items to compare. Even if competing items are all available at a single merchant Web site, for example, the competing items may not be displayed on the same page, or if they are, an effective side-by-side comparison of the items is not provided.
Online merchants, manufacturers, and others using prior art technologies have attempted to provide consumers with side-by-side comparisons of items by asking consumers to specify (i.e., by checking a checkbox, etc.) items to compare, and then providing a Web page to the consumer displaying the items together on the same page. To facilitate the comparison, the consumer is typically presented with a table in which each column of the table is dedicated to an item and each row of the table identifies an attribute shared by the items. Under each item column in the table, information is provided to the consumer regarding the attributes of the items.
When providing an item comparison of this type, online merchants, manufacturers, and others will have previously identified and arranged the attributes as they wish them to be displayed to the consumer. Depending on the party doing the arranging, certain attributes may be emphasized in that party's self-interest without particular consideration to the attributes that truly distinguish the items or attributes that are more important to the consumer. Some comparison tables provide pages and pages of attributes that are difficult for consumers to wade through to identify pertinent distinctions between the compared items. Furthermore, as previously noted, for a consumer to obtain an item comparison, the consumer is required to already know which items are comparable and susceptible to comparison, and then designate those items for the comparison. In yet other circumstances, a consumer may be given a prearranged comparison table that has been generated and stored by a selling party, but such tables are static and possibly biased in that the tables include only those items previously selected by the selling party for the comparison.
What is needed is a system and method that can automatically generate item comparisons that are relevant to the consumer receiving the item comparison, and further present the compared items with distinguishing attributes prioritized for the benefit of the consumer. The present invention is directed to systems and methods that address the problems noted above and other shortcomings in the prior art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
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