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The field of the invention is systems and methods for magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”). More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for parallel MRI data acquisition and image reconstruction.
MRI uses the nuclear magnetic resonance (“NMR”) phenomenon to produce images. When a substance such as human tissue is subjected to a uniform magnetic field (polarizing field B0), the individual magnetic moments of the nuclei in the tissue attempt to align with this polarizing field, but precess about it at their characteristic Larmor frequency. If the substance, or tissue, is subjected to a radio frequency (“RF”) magnetic field (excitation field B1) that is in the x-y plane and that is near the Larmor frequency, the net aligned moment, Mz, may be rotated, or “tipped,” into the x-y plane to produce a net transverse magnetic moment Mxy. A signal is emitted by the excited nuclei or “spins,” after the excitation signal B1 is terminated, and this signal may be received and processed to form an image.
When utilizing these “MR” signals to produce images, magnetic field gradients (Gx, Gy, and Gz) are employed. Typically, the region to be imaged is scanned by a sequence of measurement cycles in which these gradients vary according to the particular localization method being used. The resulting set of received MR signals are digitized and processed to reconstruct the image using one of many well known reconstruction techniques.
The measurement cycle used to acquire each MR signal is performed under the direction of a pulse sequence produced by a pulse sequencer. Clinically available MRI systems store a library of such pulse sequences that can be prescribed to meet the needs of many different clinical applications. Research MRI systems include a library of clinically-proven pulse sequences and they also enable the development of new pulse sequences.
The MR signals acquired with an MRI system are signal samples of the subject of the examination in Fourier space, or what is often referred to in the art as “k-space.” Each MR measurement cycle, or pulse sequence, typically samples a portion of k-space along a sampling trajectory characteristic of that pulse sequence. Most pulse sequences sample k-space in a raster scan-like pattern sometimes referred to as a “spin-warp,” a “Fourier,” a “rectilinear,” or a “Cartesian” scan. The spin-warp scan technique employs a variable amplitude phase encoding magnetic field gradient pulse prior to the acquisition of MR spin-echo signals to phase encode spatial information in the direction of this gradient. In a two-dimensional implementation (“2DFT”), for example, spatial information is encoded in one direction by applying a phase encoding gradient, Gy, along that direction, and then a spin-echo signal is acquired in the presence of a readout magnetic field gradient, Gx, in a direction orthogonal to the phase encoding direction. The readout gradient present during the spin-echo acquisition encodes spatial information in the orthogonal direction. In a typical 2DFT pulse sequence, the magnitude of the phase encoding gradient pulse, Gy, is incremented, ΔGy, in the sequence of measurement cycles, or “views” that are acquired during the scan to produce a set of k-space MR data from which an entire image can be reconstructed.
There are many other k-space sampling patterns used by MRI systems. These include “radial”, or “projection reconstruction” scans in which k-space is sampled as a set of radial sampling trajectories extending from the center of k-space. The pulse sequences for a radial scan are characterized by the lack of a phase encoding gradient and the presence of a readout gradient that changes direction from one pulse sequence view to the next. There are also many k-space sampling methods that are closely related to the radial scan and that sample along a curved k-space sampling trajectory rather than the straight line radial trajectory.
Depending on the technique used, many MR scans currently require many minutes to acquire the necessary data used to produce medical images. The reduction of this scan time is an important consideration, since reduced scan time increases patient throughout, improves patient comfort, and improves image quality by reducing motion artifacts. Many different strategies have been developed to shorten the scan time.
One such strategy is referred to generally as “parallel MRI” (“pMRI”). Parallel MRI techniques use spatial information from arrays of radio frequency (“RF”) receiver coils to substitute for the spatial encoding that would otherwise have to be obtained in a sequential fashion using RF pulses and magnetic field gradients, such as phase and frequency encoding gradients. Each of the spatially independent receiver coils of the array carries certain spatial information and has a different spatial sensitivity profile. This information is utilized in order to achieve a complete spatial encoding of the received MR signals, for example, by combining the simultaneously acquired data received from each of the separate coils. Parallel MRI techniques allow an undersampling of k-space, in general, by reducing the number of acquired phase-encoded k-space sampling lines, while keeping the maximal extent covered in k-space fixed. The combination of the separate MR signals produced by the separate receiver coils enables a reduction of the acquisition time required for an image, in comparison to a conventional k-space data acquisition, by a factor related to the number of the receiver coils. Thus the use of multiple receiver coils acts to multiply imaging speed, without increasing gradient switching rates or RF power.
Two categories of such parallel imaging techniques that have been developed are the so-called “image space methods” and “k-space methods.” An exemplary image space method is known in the art as sensitivity encoding (“SENSE”), while an exemplary k-space method is known in the art as simultaneous acquisition of spatial harmonics (“SMASH”). With SENSE, the undersampled k-space data is first Fourier transformed to produce an aliased image from each coil, and then the aliased image signals are unfolded by a linear transformation of the superimposed pixel values. With SMASH, the omitted k-space lines are synthesized or reconstructed prior to Fourier transformation, by constructing a weighted combination of neighboring k-space lines acquired by the different receiver coils. SMASH requires that the spatial sensitivity of the coils be determined, and one way to do so is by “autocalibration” that entails the use of variable density k-space sampling.
A more recent advance to the SMASH technique that uses autocalibration is a technique known as generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions (“GRAPPA”). With GRAPPA, k-space lines near the center of k-space are sampled at the Nyquist frequency, while k-space lines in the peripheral regions of k-space are acquired with a degree of undersampling. The center k-space lines are referred to as so-called autocalibration signal (“ACS”) lines, which are used to determine weighting factors that are utilized to synthesize, or reconstruct, the missing k-space lines. In particular, a linear combination of individual coil data is used to create the missing lines of k-space. The coefficients for the combination are determined by fitting the acquired data to the more highly sampled data near the center of k-space.
Image reconstruction from data acquired with pMRI techniques may require an implicit or explicit estimation of the sensitivity profile, or “map,” of the RF coil elements used to acquire the data. However, accurate coil sensitivity map estimation is practically difficult. Indeed, errors in the estimated coil sensitivity maps can propagate to the reconstructed images. To mitigate this challenge, ACS lines can be utilized, such as those used in GRAPPA and other methods such as AUTO-SMASH and PILS. These methods empirically measure a small portion of the fully gradient-encoded data in order to estimate the necessary coefficients to reconstruct, or synthesize,” missing data in the accelerated scans. The coil sensitivity information embedded in the ACS lines is implicitly used in the image reconstruction. Therefore, the reconstructed images are more robust to errors related to performing an explicit estimation of the coil sensitivity maps. Furthermore, GRAPPA and PILS can achieve coil-by-coil image reconstructions. Individual coil images can then be later combined in different ways to achieve the optimal performance.
In general, increasing the number of channels in an RF coil array can further improve the spatiotemporal resolution achievable with pMRI techniques. Previously, magnetic resonance inverse imaging (“InI”) was developed to achieve ultra-fast functional MRI (“fMRI”) of the human brain during the performance of functional tasks as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,394,251, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Mathematically, InI generalizes pMRI reconstructions from an over-determined linear system to an under-determined linear system in order to reduce the time required for k-space traversal and, therefore, to achieve a significant improvement in temporal resolution. Previous InI reconstructions employed minimum-norm estimates (“MNE”) or linear-constraint minimum variance (“LCMV”) beamformer spatial filtering in image space. These two methods can be viewed as the generalization of the SENSE pMRI technique with minimally gradient-encoded data. To reveal relative changes in task-related fMRI using the so-called “in vivo sensitivity” approach described by (Sodickson, 2000), coil sensitivity maps can be empirically measured by collecting fully gradient-encoded data. However, individual coil images cannot be reconstructed at each time instant in the InI acquisition since an explicit coil sensitivity map is not measured. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an optical illumination system for a projection system, and more particularly to an optical device with a function of homogenizing and color separation and an optical illumination system for a projector whose size can be reduced by use of the optical device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, as a kind of a flat display, which is thin in its thickness and can realize a large screen, substituted for a cathode ray tube display, which is limited in its screen size and large in its system size, projectors for projecting pictures of a small-sized screen on a large-sized screen with a magnification are coming into rapid and wide use.
The projectors, which are display devices for realizing pictures on small-sized screen, can employ a cathode ray tube, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or a DMD (Digital Micromirror Device), but use mainly the LCD or the DMD according to a trend of down-sizing in thickness.
The LCD realizes pictures by changing an alignment state of liquid crystal molecules depending upon electrical variations from the external, and controlling an amount of light transmission based on the changed alignment state of liquid crystal molecules. The DMD realizes pictures by changing inclination angles of micromirrors between +10xc2x0 and xe2x88x9210xc2x0 depending upon electrical variations from the external, such that a reflection angle of light has two modes.
Such projectors are currently developing with the most important point put on high brightness, miniaturization and lightweight.
More particularly, the projectors are being improved to have a vivid screen even under bright surroundings by employing a lamp used as a source of light with a small magnitude of light emission, fly eye lenses for homogenizing an amount of light, polarization conversion devices for converting light emitted from the source of light into linear polarized light, etc., such that an efficiency of light is increased.
In addition, for the miniaturization and lightweight, the projectors are developing from a three-plate system for realizing colors using three display elements to a single-plate system for realizing colors using one display element.
The projectors employing the single-plate system using one display element use a method of color filters for realizing colors, a method of sequentially providing three primary colors for the display element, a method of separating and scrolling three primary colors, etc.
Among these methods, an optical illumination system using three rotating prisms for changing a traveling direction of colored light and scrolling the colored light separated from dichroic mirrors for color separation can be representative of the method of separating and scrolling three-primary colors.
FIG. 1 is a view showing a structure of a conventional optical illumination system of a projector employing a single-plate system using three rotating prisms.
Referring to FIG. 1, the optical illumination system includes first and second fly eye lenses 4 and 6, a polarizing beam split (referred to as PBS hereinafter) array 8, first to fourth dichroic mirrors 12, 24, 32 and 44 for color separation, first and second total reflection mirrors 16 and 40 for totally reflecting incidence light, first to third rotating prisms 18, 26 and 28 for changing an optical path depending on their rotation angles, first to seventh condensing lenses 10, 14, 30, 36, 38 and 46 for condensing light, first and second relay lenses 34 and 42 for relaying an image formation point, and a PBS prism 50, all of which are arranged on an optical path between a source of light 2 and a display device 52.
Now, an operation of the optical illumination system of the projector as shown in FIG. 1 will be described.
The first and second fly eye lenses 4 and 6 make light distribution uniform by dividing white light from the source of light 2 by the unit of lens cell and outputting the divided light to the PBS array 8.
The PBS array 8 separates the incidence light into linear polarized light having one of optical axes, i.e., P polarized light and S polarized light. Here, the S polarized light is outputted as it is, and the P polarized light is converted and outputted into S polarized light by a xc2xd wavelength plate (not shown) partially attached on a back side of the PBS array 8, such that a state of polarization becomes uniform. The first condensing lens 10 condenses the light outputted from the PBS array 8 into the first dichroic mirror 12.
The dichroic mirror 12 is made of a blue reflection coating for reflecting blue light, and green and red transmission coatings for transmitting green and red light, respectively. The first total reflection mirror 16 totally reflects blue light, which is reflected by the first dichroic mirror 12 and inputted through the second condensing lens 14, into the first rotating prism 18.
The second dichroic mirror 24 made of a green reflection coating and a red transmission coating reflects green light into the second rotating prism 26 and transmits red light into the third rotating prism 28, both of green and red light being incidence light transmitted by the first dichroic mirror 24 and inputted through the third condensing lens 20.
The first to third rotating prisms 18, 26 and 28 change traveling directions of blue, green and red light depending on their rotation angles, respectively. More particularly, The first to third rotating prisms 18, 26 and 28 change image formation positions of blue, green and red light at which images are formed on the display device 52 depending on their rotation angles, respectively, and scroll the image formation positions of the three color light sequentially, while they are rotating independently.
The blue light transmitted through the first rotation prism 18 is inputted to the fourth dichroic mirror 44 via the fourth condensing lens 30, the third dichroic mirror 32, and the first relay lens 34. The green light transmitted through the second rotation prism 26 is inputted to the fourth dichroic mirror 44 via the fifth condensing lens 36, the third dichroic mirror 32, and the first relay lens 34. The red light transmitted through the third rotation prism 28 is inputted to the fourth dichroic mirror 44 via the sixth condensing lens 38, the second total reflection mirror 40, and the second relay lens 42.
The third dichroic mirror 32 is made of a red reflection coating for totally reflect the red light from the second rotating prism 26 and a blue transmission coating for transmitting the blue light from the first rotating prism 18. The fourth dichroic mirror 44 reflects the incidence blue light and green light and transmits the incidence red light.
Each of the red, green and blue light transmitted or reflected by the first to fourth dichroic mirrors 12, 24, 32 and 44 has a S polarization component and is inputted to the PBS prism 50 via the seventh condensing lens 46 and a polarization plate 48.
The S polarized light inputted from the polarization plate 48 to the PBS prism 50 is reflected at a polarized light split surface 50A into the display device 52. In this case, based on different initially set rotation angles of the first to third rotating prism 18, 26 and 28, the red, green and blue light form images on different portions of the display device 52. The different image formation positions are scrolled in a specific direction when the first to third rotating prism 18, 26 and 28 are driven. The display device 52 scrolls red, green and blue signals in accordance with the red, green and blue light inputted while the different image formation positions are speedily scrolled.
Accordingly, each of the three color signals is implemented in an according pixel of the display device 52 and the implemented three color signals are integrated with time for displaying a color picture. In case that the display device 52 is a reflection-typed liquid crystal display device, the S polarized light inputted from the PBS prism 50 is converted into P polarized light depending on video signals for implementing a color picture. The color picture with the P polarized light component implemented in the display device 52 is projected on a screen with a magnification via the PBS prism 50 and a projection lens (not shown).
However, the projectors employing the single-plate system using the three rotating prisms as described above have a problem that it is difficult to accomplish a synchronization in time among the three rotating prisms.
More particularly, although the synchronization in time among the three rotating prisms is initially accomplished, a difference in the synchronization in time among the three rotating prisms is increasingly generated by a variation among drivers of the rotating prisms as a period of time elapses after the optical illumination system is organized. Thus, when the synchronization in time among the three rotating prisms becomes different, it is impossible to implement a desired color on the screen.
Also, in addition to the three rotating prisms and a plurality of dichroic mirrors for color separation, since the conventional optical illumination system for the projector employing the single-plate system further requires motors for driving the three rotating prisms, it has problems that the optical illumination system becomes complicated in its structure and large in its volume due to a relatively more space occupied by them, resulting in a difficulty of miniaturization and down-sizing in thickness of the system.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical device with a function of homogenizing and color separation and an optical illumination system for a projector whose size can be reduced by use of only the optical device and one prism.
The optical illumination system for the projector employing a single-plate system according to the present invention has an advantage in that homogenization of optical distribution and improvement of optical efficiency can be accomplished and the volume of the optical illumination system can be reduced at its maximum, compared to the conventional optical illumination system using the fly eye lenses and the three rotating prisms, by use of only the optical device with the function of homogenizing and color separation and one prism.
In addition, since three colors light is scrolled by use of only one prism, deterioration of picture quality due to a difference in the synchronization in time among the three rotating prisms can be prevented, unlike the conventional optical illumination system using the three rotating prisms.
In the end, the optical illumination system for the projector employing a single-plate system according to the present invention has remarkable advantages in that the miniaturization and lightweight of the projector can be accomplished and picture quality can be improved. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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It is known that a variety of chemical substances absorb light in proportion to the concentration of the substance present in the sample. Furthermore, the light transmitted through such a substance has an absorption spectrum characterized by the light absorbing properties of the substance and the properties of any other medium through which the light travels. Such absorption spectrum can be prismatically revealed for analysis. By discounting the portion of the absorption spectrum attributable to intensity losses and other absorbers, the spectrum of the chemical substance can be isolated and its identity and concentration determined. The discounting, or “referencing,” is done by determining the absorption spectrum of the light source and any spectrophotometric components in the absence of the chemical substance. Referencing is usually done close in time and space to the measurement of the absorbance of the chemical substance to minimize error.
It is well known that portable, battery-powered devices for determining the concentrations of chemical substances are commercially available. Examples include portable photometers provided by Hach Company and portable reflectometers by Merck. A detailed review of photometric and reflectometric systems is given in Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Test Methods of Analysis, (Y. A. Zolotov et al., Elsevier, New York (2002)), and in a review paper given in Review of Scientific Instruments, (Kostov, Y. and Rao, G., Vol. 71, 4361, (2000)). The adoption of these systems makes chemical analysis outside of a laboratory possible. However, improvements in the following areas are still needed: 1. Some tests with portable instruments use toxic or corrosive reagents.
Some use a large quantity of solid reagents for a single test. For example, many Hach test methods use 200 mg or more solid reagent for a single analyte. 2. An operator has to transfer reagents and sample into a measuring unit.
Sample manipulation and reagent handling are inconvenient parts of chemical analysis and multiply operator-to-operator errors. 3. Liquid waste product resulting from the wet chemistry analysis has to be safely disposed according to applicable laws. 4. Currently available test methods cannot easily determine more than one unrelated analyte in a single test. 5. Although most portable devices have data interpretation and storage capabilities, most test results still need to be transferred manually into a database.
Other methods utilizing test strips have been widely attempted for semi-quantitative analysis for a large number of analytes. Here, quantitative results can be obtained with disposable optical sensor elements, read by a photometer. In most instances, only a single analyte is determined by an optical sensor element. Since transmission absorbance is measured, it is difficult to produce disposable optical sensor elements for calibration free tests.
Disposable chemical sensors are well known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,134 describes a sensor system for detecting physico-chemical parameters designed to compensate for numerous perturbing factors, such as those resulting from the use of partially disposable monitoring units, thus eliminating the need for calibration steps.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,972 discloses a chemical sensor based on light absorption, light emission, light scattering, light polarization, and electrochemically and piezoelectrically measured parameters.
Scatter controlled emission for optical taggants and chemical sensors have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,528,318.
Sensor arrays that use reference and indicator sensors are known and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,410. Here, a sensor can be individually calibrated, such that each analysis can be read directly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,992 discloses a method that utilizes a reference material to correct fluorescence waveguide sensor measurements. U.S. Pat. No. 5,631,170 teaches a referencing method for fluorescence waveguide sensors by labeling the waveguide with a reference reagent. It should be pointed out that the internal absorbance standard method used in this invention is fundamentally different from the prior arts in several aspects.
First, the multiangle scatter-induced absorbance detection scheme used in the present invention is different from traditional Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) sensors that use a thin element with the film thickness approximately the same size as the incident beam wavelength. These thin elements can also include a fluorophore that acts as internal references. In contrast, the present system pertains to thicker film elements that do not require thickness near the incident beam wavelength, and that use alternate internal references based on absorbance.
Two-wavelength, or dual-beam, methods are known in spectrophotmetric analysis. In “Referencing Systems for Evanescent Wave Sensors,” (Stewart, G. et al., Proc. Of SPIE, 1314, 262 (1990)), a two-wavelength method is proposed to compensate for the effect of contamination on the sensor surface. U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,250 to Loeppert describes an optoelectronics system for measuring environmental properties in which feedback-controlled light sources are used to minimize problems associated with the light source stability and component aging. A similar feedback-controlled two-wavelength method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,672 to Vurek. A dual-beam reflectance spectrophotometer is described in “Optical Fiber Sensor for Detection of Hydrogen Cyanide in Air,” (Jawad, S. M. and Alder, J. F., Anal. Chim. Acta 259, 246 (1991)). In Jawad and Alder's method, two LED's are alternately energized. The ratio of outputs at the two wavelengths is used to reduce errors caused by the background absorption of the sensor element for hydrogen cyanide detection. These two-wavelength methods are effective to minimize errors caused by optical and mechanical component aging and long-term stability problems of light sources. However, errors associated with variations in the effective optical pass length of disposable test elements have not been solved.
A disposable sensor system comprising a discardable or disposable measuring device and further comprising one or more sensors is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,859.
Furthermore, analysis of multiple analytes is done with microfabricated sensors as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,775.
In “Application of a Plastic Evanescent-Wave Sensor to Immunological Measurements of CKMB,” (Slovacek, R. E.; Love, W. F.; Furlong, S. C., Sensors and Actuators B, 29, pp. 67-71, (1995)), it was demonstrated that a sensor handled by non-critical surfaces could be made with improved robustness. These sensing elements were fabricated as blunt-ended plastic cones onto which the sensing chemistries were deposited. The sensing elements were injection-molded from the plastic, making them commercially attractive.
Overall, the known existing sensors have several prominent shortcomings that limit their applicability for field analysis applications. These shortcomings include: 1. Need for critical alignment of testing strip in the sensor to perform accurate reading. 2. Need to reduce errors caused by variations in testing strip quality (imbedded reagent concentrations, effective optical path length, and component aging). 3. Need to reduce errors caused by physical changes in testing elements when they are exposed to a sample, such as swelling, shrinking, or/and crazing. 4. Need for determination of steady-state response in chemical sensor response for accurate analysis. 5. Inability to collect dynamic sensor information from nonreversible chemistries. 6. Inability to collect real-time information from nonreversible chemistries upon exposure to a sample. 7. Inability to analyze the dynamic sensor information from multiple nonreversible chemistries to provide an improved quantification ability of the sensor system.
Because of the above shortcomings in the prior art, a low cost, handheld, and calibration-free sensor system has not been demonstrated. The sensor system disclosed in the present invention is directed toward solution of the above outlined shortcomings. In particular, the sensor in the present invention can collect dynamic information by tracking the rate of change of the kinetic or dynamic response of the non-reversible sensor chemistries as the sample reacts with the sensor in order to quantify the concentration level.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a portable, disposable handheld sensor system for the quantitative determination of analyte concentrations. It is also desirable to provide a system that does not require calibration before each new set of analysis. In this regard, the present system employs dual light analysis on the same sensor element, where sample response is compared with an internal reference, eliminating the need for calibration before each new set of analysis. Moreover, the use of an internal reference significantly reduces the optical and mechanical coupling requirements for the device, thereby providing cost advantage in the manufacturing and assembly process with minimal impact on the accuracy of testing results
It is a further object of this invention to provide a sensor that is capable of communicating with an information processing unit, for example a pocket personal computer or wireless mobile phone or a satellite, so that analytical data can be manipulated, transmitted, or stored electronically.
It is important to note that the present invention provides a general photometric and/or spectroscopic test method where no liquid reagent is needed. This not only simplifies the test, but also reduces costly and labor-intensive requirements related to the handling and disposal of toxic reagent material. | {
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Since the creation of the World Wide Web in the mid 1990's, the size of the Internet has exploded a thousand-fold. People are now inter-connected, not by means of direct face-to-face interaction, but through virtual communication channels. This new revolution of technology has fundamentally changed the way people live.
A parallel development with the World Wide Web is the “Information Technology Age” that presents a stunning variety of online information resources ranging from product information to academic papers. These elements have enabled the exponential growth of Electronic Commerce that capitalizes on the convenience and low cost which the Internet delivers.
There are several million or more online vendors on the World Wide Web. Although current comparison shopping or price comparison search engines can retrieve from different online competitors, according to an online buyer's or user's query, somewhat relevant search results pertinent to any desired products requested and their desired prices, the buyer or user can be confronted with an endless sea of information. Sometimes, the buyer or user receives a “failure page” of search results because the search engines have missed other Websites of online multilingual vendors existing in the rest of the Internet-connected countries (currently numbering 245) selling exactly what was requested. Furthermore, although information about products and vendors is easily accessible on the Web, buyers or users are still in the loop in all stages of the buying process.
The potential of the Internet for transforming the present mode of e-commerce into a truly global ensemble marketplace is largely unrealized today, and electronic purchases are still non-automated. Buying on the Internet is far from being simple, efficient, or enjoyable. Search engines and centralized directory services are insufficient for locating products the online buyer wants and the merchants willing to sell such products or services. Furthermore, the typical online purchase procedure is mostly manually driven and requires the buyer to enter all terms and keywords for which he or she wants to search. Therefore, a prospective buyer is faced with a daunting task, with responsibility for collecting and interpreting information about merchants and products, making decisions about them, and ultimately entering purchase and payment information. The scenario is that the user or buyer is easily overloaded with information without sufficient time and expertise.
In order of complexity, there are two imperfect strategies presently adopted and implemented to partially automate an online catalog price comparison process as follows:
(1) Non real-time approach
(2) Real-time hard-coded wrappers approach
The non real-time approach is the simplest way to implement a price comparison agent. Its implementation involves manually collecting all necessary information from the Web, and then writing a separate HTML file for each item of the search results in order to visually display the search results.
The benefits of the above are obvious—easy implementation and short searching time. Notwithstanding those benefits, there are three main undesirable drawbacks. Firstly, as the price comparison is done manually, maintaining a large wrapper repository becomes very costly, particularly in view of the continuing growth of the Internet. Secondly, great effort must be invested to keep the price and other information up-to-date. Lastly, the size of the database required to store and coordinate all of the above information is extremely large.
The real-time hard-coded wrappers approach is an alternative to the non real-time approach. Instead of fetching the items directly as in the non real-time approach, the real-time approach tries to generalize the HTML page into a specific format. To perform this extraction task, a customized wrapper procedure named pcwrapHLRT—programming acronym—is invoked. FIG. 1 provides an example of the pertinent portion of the program that has one “while” loop. In this example, the algorithm behind the creation of a wrapper is to confine the target data on the HTML page by a pair of delimiters. The pcwrapHLRT procedure works because the site exhibits a uniform formatting convention. Product items are rendered in bold whereas prices are in italics. PcwrapHLRT operates by scanning the HTML document for particular strings {“<B>, “</B>, “<I>,” ”</I>”} that identify the text fragments to be extracted. These strings are identified by pcwrapHLRT as li, ri, lp and rp, respectively. The notation lk (k∈{i, p}) indicates that the string delimits the left-hand edge of an attribute to be extracted whereas rk indicates a right delimiter. Other possible attributes to be extracted by a wrapper are product names, graphics, terms and conditions, etc.
When a HTML page is given, pcwrapHLRT sequentially scans the entire page starting from the head line number. The outer loop checks whether there are additional model numbers and/or price pairs to extract by searching for delimiter “<B>” on the non-scanned portion of the page. As long as the beginning of a model number is found, the inner loop is invoked to extract the appropriate page sub-strings.
Few Websites publish their formatting conventions. Thus, the designer of an information-gathering system using pcwrapHLRT would manually construct such a wrapper for each resource. Unfortunately, this hard-coding process is tedious and error-prone, as a common HTML page may consist of several thousand lines of code. Moreover, most sites periodically change their formatting conventions that usually will break a wrapper.
Another disadvantage of pcwrapHLRT is that the speed of search time is moderate, as the agents have to contact the vendor Website upon receiving a request from the user. Because this kind of wrapper is partially automated, extra administrative work must be performed to manually analyze the format of the HTML page in order to determine the wrapper. | {
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Several leading technology organizations are investing in building technologies that sell “software-as-a-service”. Such services provide access to shared storage (e.g., database systems) and/or computing resources to clients, or subscribers. Within multi-tier e-commerce systems, different resources may be allocated to subscribers and/or their applications from whole machines, to CPU, to memory, to network bandwidth, and to I/O capacity.
Every system that provides services to clients needs to protect itself from a crushing load of service requests that could potentially overload the system. In general, for a Web service or remote procedure call (RPC) service, a system is considered to be in an “overloaded” state if it is not able to provide the expected quality of service for some portion of client requests it receives. Common solutions applied by overloaded systems include denying service to clients or throttling a certain number of incoming requests until the systems get out of an overloaded state.
Many current systems avoid an overload scenario by comparing the request rate with a fixed or varying global threshold and selectively refusing service to clients once this threshold has been crossed. However this approach does not take into account differences in the amount of work that could be performed in response to accepting different types and/or instances of services requests for servicing. In addition, it is difficult, if not impossible, to define a single global threshold that is meaningful (much less that provides acceptable performance) in a system that receives different types of requests at varying, unpredictable rates, and for which the amount of work required to satisfy the requests is also varying and unpredictable.
While the technology described herein is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. | {
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U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,905 granted to J. B. Bryan on Mar. 12, 1984 described a telescoping magnetic ball bar test gage that serves to measure the accuracy of machine tools, robots and non-disengageable servo drives of the type that cannot be clutched out which primarily include numerically controlled machines. Essentially, this patent teaches a gage with a telescoping bar having a pair of gage balls mounted on each end and a parallel reed flexure unit and linear variable differential transformer assembly for executing a prescribed circular trajectory. Magnetic socket knuckle assemblies cooperate with the gage balls to locate the telescoping unit between a point on a remote work table and the machine being measured. While this instrument is particularly efficacious for making precise measurements of changes in the radial direction which can be used for gaging the accuracy of the machine being measured, the instrument is limited not only by the radial direction but also by the fact that it can only make measurements within the radius extending over its range of travel. However, it cannot determine the coordinates of the measured point. Of significance is that it is limited to measuring in a radial direction and lacks the capability of making two (2) and three (3) dimensional measurements.
Moreover, since the ball bar of the instrument described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,905, supra, has finite displacement bounded substantially adjacent the circumference of its circular trajectory it falls within a class of apparatus that will only indicate when the machine being tested will not meet a predetermined specification. Also the metes and bounds of the specification is confined to the circular trajectory. This is in contrast with this invention that not only can determine when a machine meets the standards as prescribed above, but it will indicate whether or not the machine being tested will pass the tolerances defined in a given specification and which specification goes beyond the circular trajectory described in the prior art.
This invention constitutes an improvement over the apparatus described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,905, supra, by not only extending the range of measurement to a three dimensional spatial location but also to extend the range to permit measurements that are not restricted to a circular or limited trajectory. This invention contemplates utilizing one or more telescoping fixtures each of which are integrated with an interferometer mounted between two spherical gage fittings carried at each end of the telescoping fixture. The output of the laser ball bar (LBB) gage of this invention can be used with the technique of trilateration to determine the coordinates of a point in space. It also contemplates a method of converting differential measurements produced by the interferometer into absolute lengths. | {
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When filling the fuel tank of a motor vehicle, it is common to recover the vapor escaping the tank when filling it with liquid fuel from a fuel pump unit, this since gasoline and diesel vapors contain hydrocarbons that are harmful to inhale and have negative effects on the environment. The vapor recovery is performed by a system integrated in the fuel pump unit. The system usually comprises a pump for drawing vapor from the tank and vapor measuring means which measures the volume of vapor recovered and compares it with the volume of dispensed fuel. Adjusting means are provided which adjust the flow rate of the vapor to match the flow rate of the fuel. An example of such a system is described in European patent application EP1460033. Such a system normally comprises a number of valves and other components, which should function properly in order for the vapor recovery system to work as it is supposed to. Though not described in EP1460033, a prior art vapor recovery system comprises a monitoring system which is set to shut off the fuel pump in case a failure is detected. The monitoring system comprises a central unit connected to the vapor measuring means, and to sensing means for sensing whether the previously mentioned valves and other components are functioning properly. The monitoring means further comprises some kind of electronic means for shutting off the fuel pump. The means for shutting off the fuel pump shuts off the pump when the central unit determines that the measuring means is detecting an alarmingly small volume of recovered vapor, or when the sensing means detect failure in any of the monitored components. Any of these events is in other words interpreted as a signal that the vapor recovery is not working. However, such monitoring systems are also sensitive to low temperatures. This since the valves and other components which are equipped with sensing means, as well as the sensing means and the ingoing parts of the measuring means, are sensitive to cold. Thus, on a number of occasions, fuel pumps have been known to shut off without due cause, which causes great inconvenience for a customer using the pump, especially in an area where the petrol stations are scarce and the climate is harsh with low temperatures. | {
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The present invention relates to a lawn and garden spreader, and in particular to a lawn and garden spreader adapted to efficiently spread pelletized mulches, fertilizers, and other oversized applications.
Lawn and garden spreaders are used to spread and disperse a wide variety of lawn and garden applications. The spreaders typically include a hopper, an aperture located in the bottom of the hopper, a gate for opening and closing the aperture, a disbursement blade for spreading the application, and a mechanism for opening and closing the gate.
Heretofore, lawn and garden spreaders have normally incorporated a single gate to open and close the aperture. Typically, these spreaders allow the operator to adjust the gate between the fully open and fully closed positions only. As a result, the size of the apertures are calibrated so as to allow the operator to spread only a single type of application with any given spreader. Other systems, allow the operator to adjust the gate between a plurality of positions thereby allowing the operator to adjust the size of the aperture for the given application. However, current spreaders are typically not designed to provide adequate flow and metering of new pellet fertilizers, mulches and other similar large applications. Many new pelletized mulches and fertilizers are much larger than those typically utilized in the industry for many years and measure from 1/4 of an inch up to and including 1 inch in any direction. With most spreaders, opening the gate to a position such that these oversized applications can sufficiently flow through the aperture results in an un-metered flow. At the other extreme, restricting the aperture to meter the flow results in clogging and intermittent flow of the application through the aperture.
Another problem associated with most lawn and garden spreaders adapted to spread various sized applications is that they are complicated to operate and require the operator to consult charts and graphs in order to determine what setting is appropriate for a given application. Still others provide no help at all requiring the operator to rely on trial and error in an attempt to configure the spreader appropriately for each application. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to antioxidants and to lubricant compositions containing them. The antioxidants more particularly are hemi-hindered phenols containing a thiaalkene group in the ring.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It is well known that many organic liquids and solids used in industrial applications, such as oils and greases, power transmission fluids, resin and polymer coatings, insulations, structural products and the like, may deteriorate and lose their ability to function when subjected to oxidation. Since these substances are very often utilized at high temperatures, the rate of oxidation breakdown can be very rapid. This problem is particularly important in the operation of modern day automotive and aircraft engines. The breakdown of the lubricating oil, either natural or synthetic, is frequently accompanied by the formation of corrosive acids, sludge and other products of such breakdown. These resulting products can harm the metal surfaces of the engine and interfere with the efficient operation of the lubricants.
Phenols and alkylated phenols, particularly the hindered phenols, are well known agents for imparting oxidation protection to a wide variety of materials. For application to lubricants, fats and oils, and oil-containing food stuffs certain types of alkylated phenols known in the art as "hindered phenols" have been found to be particularly effective. For example 2,6-di-tert-butylphenol and 2,6-di-tert-4-methylphenol (known as BHT in foods and DBPC in lubricants) are widely utilized in such applications. | {
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This invention is directed to a racing game which utilizes an energizing station. The energizing station is capable of engaging with a spring powered vehicle to wind the spring and thus energize the vehicle.
Windup spring motor powered vehicles have been known for many years. However, they still find utility in many contemporary toy vehicles. They have many advantages over many contemporary toy vehicles. Paramount among these advantages is the fact that they do not require batteries or transformers for their use. Many parents feel that small children especially should not play with electric powered vehicles. Further, most of these vehicles are rendered completely useless and therefore of little play value when the child is either using them away from a convenient plug, such as out of doors, or if the batteries have lost their charge and thus are useless.
Electric powered vehicles such as electric trains and slot car race sets do, however, allow the child a degree of remote control. With these vehicles a permanent or semipermanent track layout can be set up and the vehicles, especially slot cars, can be used in a competitive manner with a parent or a friend. A more realistic play situation can be envisioned by the child when he does not have to continuously pick his vehicle up to wind it.
Attempts have been made in the past to mimic the above positive aspects of the electric powered vehicle. Included in these would be vehicle and track layouts such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,548,534. In this patent certain toy vehicles are caused to move around track layouts by propelling the vehicles via an endless belt which has a plurality of engagement members on its surface. When the vehicle is positioned over the endless belt it is engaged by the engaging fingers and moved forward by the endless belt. At the end of the endless belt the vehicle leaves with a certain momentum which is capable of propelling the vehicle on the track. However, as soon as the vehicle leaves the belt rolling friction starts to decelerate the vehicle and hopefully sufficient momentum has been imparted to the vehicle to bring it back to a position over the endless belt to again cause it to accelerate.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,696,555 a toy hill climbing vehicle is described. This vehicle receives it momentum from a catapult-like device which thrusts the vehicle forward with sufficient velocity to climb up an upwardly inclined section of track representing a hill. As with the toy noted in the preceding paragraph friction soon overcomes the momentum imparted to the vehicle by the catapult action causing the vehicle to decelerate. Of course, friction is augmented also by the pull of gravity, because the vehicle is going up a hill.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,735,526 and 3,750,328 there are described two winding mechanisms which engage with or couple with a windup vehicle allowing the vehicle to be energized. In the "526" patent winding is accomplished via a reentrant-type clutch mechanism which is attached to a winding handle. The winding handle is located below the clutch mechanism. This placement necessitates lifting of both the vehicle and the winding mechanism off of the surface on which the vehicle is to travel in order to manipulate the winding mechanism. This type of winding mechanism is obviously therefore not suited for use with a continuous track in that if the housing is mounted to the continuous track both the housing and the track would have to be lifted in order to wind the vehicle. The "328" patent describes a winding mechanism or lever on the side of the housing. As noted in the "328" patent, to utilize this mechanism the vehicle must be placed on the platform. By so having to place the vehicle on the platform the realistic effect of a race wherein the players of the game never have to touch the vehicle is lost. | {
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Halftoning involves rendering continuous tone (“contone”) digital grayscale and color images as patterns of pixels that can be displayed by printers and other display devices having a limited number of display colors. The rendered images are commonly referred to as halftone images. The pixels of a halftone image are arranged in patterns such that the halftone image is perceived as having continuous tones when viewed through the human visual system.
As applied to printing, Frequency Modulation (“FM”) halftoning involves varying the number or density of ink dots in an area to achieve a tone. The ink dots are isolated and have uniform size. The human visual system perceives areas of the FM halftone image having a greater density of dots to be darker than areas having a lower dot density.
Laser printers and some other image forming devices do not stably or reliably produce isolated dots beyond a certain horizontal dot resolution. For example, some laser printers operate in an enhanced resolution imaging mode, sometimes referred to as a High Definition Imaging (HDI) mode. In HDI mode, the laser horizontal scan line of the normal resolution mode is subdivided into finer increments, whereby the laser printer produces dots during correspondingly shorter laser on/off cycles. For example, if the normal horizontal resolution mode of a laser printer is 600 dots per inch (dpi), and the enhanced horizontal resolution mode of that laser printer is 2,400 dpi, then each pixel of the halftone image produced by that laser printer in HDI mode is subdivided into four sub-pixels, so that the laser on/off cycle in the HDI mode is ¼th the laser on/off cycle in the normal horizontal resolution mode. Such dot instability can result in perceptible visual anomalies or quantization noise in the resulting halftone image produced by the laser printer. Dot dropouts can occur in highlights, plugging can occur in shadows, and grainy appearances due to dot clumping in mid-tones can occur.
Dot instability can be reduced by clustering the dots. Conventional dot clustering involves using periodic arrangements of pixel clusters on a grid that provides stable dot transfer. Tones can be made darker by making the clusters larger. The pattern power spectra of the clustered dots exhibits a strong mid-frequency component, as opposed to the strong high frequency component exhibited by the isolated dots. However, since the grid frequency can interact with texture in an image or with other color planes or with a scanning grid, Moire and other undesirable beat patterns can result.
These undesirable patterns can be reduced or eliminated by AM-FM halftoning. AM-FM halftoning involves using stochastic spatial point processes with clusters of dots of variable size and density. Clustered-dot stochastic halftone arrangements produce halftone images exhibiting halftone noise that is very similar to the grain noise in a photograph. These halftone images better resemble real photographs.
An AM-FM halftone screen can be used to render an AM-FM halftone image from a contone image. In general, a halftone screen (also referred to as a dither matrix) consists of a two-dimensional array of thresholds, each threshold having a value v ranging from 0 to (z−1), where z represents the total number of gray levels within the gray scale range being used. For example, 0≦v≦255 on an 8-bit gray scale, where 0 represents white and 255 represents black.
During halftoning of a monochrome image, a halftone screen is typically tiled across a monochrome image. Each pixel of the monochrome image is compared to a spatially corresponding threshold in a halftone screen. If the value of the pixel in the monochrome image is larger than the threshold value, a dot is formed in the corresponding position of the halftone image, assuming an ascending gray scale is employed (i.e., where higher gray levels correspond to darker gray tones).
An AM-FM screen can be designed by selecting cluster centers, and growing the clusters about their centers. The cluster centers can have a stochastic distribution.
A challenge to AM-FM screen design is deciding how to grow the clusters. The clusters should be grown in a manner that provides visually pleasing halftones.
Another challenge is generating a halftone screen that achieves a desired stochastic dot distribution, while minimizing the need for experimentation. One approach towards screen design involves using different filters for each gray level, and then selecting the filter that produces the best results. However, this approach can be time consuming and expensive since there is no explicit connection between the desired distribution and empirical parameters. | {
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Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a method of starting a fuel cell system for a vehicle and a fuel cell system.
Discussion of the Background
For example, in a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell, a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is sandwiched between a pair of separators, the membrane electrode assembly including a polymer electrolyte membrane formed of a polymer ion exchange membrane, and the anode and cathode electrodes that are disposed on the respective sides of the polymer electrolyte membrane. In general, a plurality of fuel cells of this type are stacked together to form a fuel cell stack which is incorporated into an in-vehicle fuel cell system, for example.
Normally, in the fuel cell, a fuel gas passage for supplying a fuel gas to the anode electrode is formed between one separator and the membrane electrode assembly, while an oxidant gas passage for supplying an oxidant gas to the cathode electrode is formed between the other separator and the membrane electrode assembly. In addition a cooling medium passage for cooling the membrane electrode assembly is formed between adjacent separators.
A cooling medium supply unit which supplies a cooling medium to a cooling medium passage includes a pump which circulates the cooling medium, a radiator which reduces the temperature of the cooling medium by using the open air, and an ion removal device (impurity removal device). The ion removal device has a function of removing conductive ions such as metal ions which are eluted to the cooling medium from the radiator, the fuel cell stack, walls for forming passages, and the pump.
In above-mentioned fuel cell system, the pump is stopped when the operation of the fuel cell system is stopped, then the cooling medium is not sent to the ion removal device. Therefore, while the operation of the fuel cell system is stopped, conductive ions are eluted into the cooling medium, and the concentration of the conductive ions in the cooling medium increases.
Thus, for example, in the cooling system for a fuel cell disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4066361 includes a fuel cell which is cooled by a coolant; a heat exchanger which reduces the temperature of the coolant; a coolant passage which is connected between the fuel cell and the heat exchanger so as to circulate the coolant therebetween; a removal device which removes impurities in the coolant in the coolant passage; a pump which circulates the coolant in the coolant passage through the fuel cell and the removal device; and a circulating unit which circulates the coolant in the coolant passage through the removal device while the operation of the fuel cell is stopped. | {
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Traditional automotive vehicles include a powertrain that is comprised of an engine, a multi-speed transmission, and a differential or final drive system. The multi-speed transmission increases the overall operating range of the vehicle by permitting the engine to operate through its torque range a number of times. The number of forward speed ratios that are available in the transmission is indicative of the number of times the engine torque range is repeated.
Automatic transmissions (e.g., planetary gear type) and manual shifting transmissions (e.g., countershaft type) constitute the two main varieties of automotive transmissions. Early automatic transmissions had two speed ranges. This severely limited the overall speed range of the vehicle and therefore required a relatively large engine that could produce a wide speed and torque range. This resulted in the engine operating at a specific fuel consumption level during cruising, other than the most efficient level. Therefore, historically, manually-shifted transmissions were the most popular.
With the advent of three- and four-speed automatic transmissions, the automatic shifting transmission increased in popularity with the motoring public. These transmissions improved the operating performance and fuel economy of the vehicle. Increasing the number of speed ratios in an automatic transmission reduces the step size between each ratio, improving the shift quality of the transmission by making the ratio interchanges substantially imperceptible to the operator under normal vehicle acceleration. Furthermore, by varying the gear ratios within the transmission, the internal combustion engine may operate below the maximum rotational speed and preferably near the engine speed range that provides the best performance and/or fuel economy.
Automatic transmissions generally effect a ratio change by altering the power delivery path after selective actuation of one or more friction elements, commonly referred to as either a clutch or brake mechanism. The aforesaid friction elements may include, for example, a one-way clutch configured to selectively transfer torque in a first direction, and to interrupt the transfer of torque in the opposite direction. As an example, a one-way clutch may be implemented to transfer torque from an engine to the transmission, and to interrupt the transfer of reverse torque from the transmission to the engine. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to screen printing and in particular to apparatus for screen printing on round objects and in which the surface of the object to be printed rotates in synchronism with the linear movement of the screen.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In most apparatus for screen printing on cylindrical surfaces, the object to be imprinted is supported so that it is free to rotate. A screen stencil is positioned tangentially to the cylindrical surface and is then moved laterally while the friction between the stencil and the surface of the object causes the object to rotate as the printing ink is forced through the design openings in the screen.
In another arrangement, such as that shown by Smith in U.S. Pat. No. 1,930,153, the object to be imprinted is supported on a pair of rollers which are driven by frictional contact with a belt held under spring tension. The belt is secured at its ends to the frame that supports the stencil so that lateral movement of the stencil frame causes the stencil screen to move laterally in synchronism with the rotation of the object. The driving force of the printing assembly is produced by movement of the stencil. | {
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The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of New Guinea Impatiens plant, botanically known as Impatiens hawkeri, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Dueriimbu’.
The new Impatiens is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Rheinberg, Germany. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new freely branching New Guinea Impatiens cultivars that flower early and have large flowers.
The new Impatiens originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in May, 1998 of a proprietary selection of Impatiens hawkeri identified as code number S-018-01, not patented, as the female, or seed parent, with a proprietary selection of Impatiens hawkeri identified as code number 94-152-2, not patented, as the male, or pollen parent. The cultivar Dueriimbu was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Rheinberg, Germany in May, 2003.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings in Rheinberg, Germany since May, 2003, has shown that the unique features of this new Impatiens are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations. | {
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The present invention relates to systems for transporting high solids materials such as concrete and sludge. In particular, the present invention relates to a material pump system in which a positive displacement pump, with a pivoting transfer tube valve which connects pump cylinders to the pump outlet, conveys material through a pipeline with a valve located downstream of the pump, and in which the pumping rate and accumulated volume of material pumped are automatically determined.
Positive displacement pumps are frequently used for conveying concrete, sludge and other materials through pipelines in municipal, industrial and construction applications. Positive displacement pumps offer a number of significant advantages over screw or belt conveyors in the pumping of materials. For example, positive displacement pumps are capable of pumping thick, heavy materials which may not be practical for belt or screw conveyors. Pump and pipeline systems also take up less space than screw or belt conveyors and, with the use of simple elbow pipes, are capable of transporting material around corners. Additionally, positive displacement pumps offer a reduction in noise over mechanical conveyors as well as greater cleanliness and reduced spillage.
Various state and federal regulations covering the processing and disposal of sludge require that the processor accurately measure and record the amount of material handled. Similarly, in concrete pumping applications, it is becoming increasingly necessary to accurately measure the quantity of concrete pumped. The pumping of concrete causes considerable wear on the components of the concrete pump and pipeline. Accurate measurement of the quantities of concrete pumped allows the proper maintenance and replacement of components to be scheduled prior to a component failure during use. This prevents unnecessary and costly losses of time due to system failures as well as the inefficient waste of concrete which may become unusable as a result of the delays associated with the failure of a pump or pipeline component.
Positive displacement material pumps such as those described in Oakley et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,272, entitled "SLUDGE FLOW MEASURING SYSTEM", can accurately measure the volume of material transported. Oakley et al. discloses a system for transporting high solids sludge which includes a positive displacement pump for pumping sludge through a pipeline. The volume of sludge transported is accurately measured by determining the fill percentage of the pumping cylinder during each pumping cycle. The fill percentage is determined by using any of a number of sensed parameters including material flow signals, measured time intervals, hydraulic fluid pressure, and hydraulic fluid flow rate during each pumping cycle.
One embodiment of the system and pump disclosed in Oakley et al. includes a valve, commonly referred to as a poppet valve, between the pumping cylinder and the outlet which opens and connects the pumping cylinder to the outlet only when the pressure within the pumping cylinder essentially equals the pressure at the outlet. The timing of the opening of the outlet poppet valve during the outlet stroke provides a means for determining the fill percentage or the total volume delivered during each pumping stroke.
Oakley et al. also discloses another embodiment of the system in which the pump includes an outlet valve, commonly referred to as a pivoting transfer tube valve, which connects the outlet to the pumping cylinder during the entire pumping stroke. In this embodiment, both the hydraulic pressure driving the piston and the outlet pressure are sensed during the pumping stroke. Determining either the time or the piston position in the pumping stroke when the hydraulic pressure equals the outlet pressure can be used to derive a fill percentage or volume delivered during each pumping stroke.
When pumping concrete or other material with large particles, material pumps frequently employ pivoting transfer tube valves, like those disclosed in Oakley et al., to control the intake and outlet of material to and from the pump cylinders. Pivoting transfer tubes switch hydraulically to connect the pump cylinders to either a material intake or a material outlet of the pump. In a two-cylinder material pump, the transfer tube switches hydraulically to serve both pumping cylinders. The transfer tube is mounted in an open-topped housing or hopper which accepts the material to be pumped. The transfer tube pivots to connect the pumping cylinder to the pump outlet and pipeline, while allowing the cylinder which is intaking material to pump material from the hopper into the cylinder.
Pivoting transfer tubes have several advantages over other valve types. First, as the transfer tube switches, large particles which could interfere with the pump performance are moved or sheared. Second, the transfer tube's large diameter allows it to accept larger particles than other types of valves. Finally, transfer tubes have automatic adjustment capability and low maintenance requirements as well as a wear-life unaffected by pumping pressures.
In a typical application, a concrete pump with a pivoting transfer tube valve may be used to pump concrete for construction of a high-rise building. In such applications, the pump is frequently connected to a long pipeline which carries the concrete to its destination. After completion of a pumping stroke in one cylinder, as the transfer tube switches to connect another cylinder to the pump outlet, the material in the pipeline exerts extreme pressure back towards the hopper. In addition to working against the concrete pump's purpose of pumping concrete through the pipeline, this can create an extremely dangerous condition as the concrete is forced back through the pipeline toward the pump. | {
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Drip irrigation involves slowly metering various agriculture fluids such as water adjacent each plant which is to be grown. Normally, the metering of these fluids is carried out over a relatively long time period. Drip irrigation conserves water, minimizes weed growth, and enables various agricultural liquids such as fertilizers to be fed through the irrigation system.
With drip irrigation, it is important that the water be accurately metered. Unfortunately, water sources often provides water at fluctuating pressures, which if ignored, would significantly effect flow rate onto the plants. In addition, when fields and irrigation lines are on a slope, more pressure is available at the lower elevations than at the higher elevations.
To provide pressure control, master pressure regulators can be used, but these increase the cost of the irrigation system. Pressure compensating emitter valves, such as the valves shown in Rondas U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,888 can be used. However, the patented valve has minute passages which are subject to clogging. In addition, the patented construction has no means for manually adjusting the flow rate.
It is very important that flow rate be adjustable. For example, where drip irrigation is used in an orchard, more water must be applied as the trees grow. A conventional technique is to increase the number of emitter valves at the base of each of the trees as the trees grow. However, this unnecessarily duplicates the emitter valves and requires significant labor cost to install the additional valves.
A valve which can be used to adjust the flow rate is not novel per se as evidenced, for example, by Prosser U.S. Pat. No. 3,322,145 and Toeppen U.S. Pat. No. 3,341,168. However, neither of these patented valves is a drip irrigation valve and both are relatively complex. | {
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This specification relates to generating cryptographic function parameters for a cryptography system. Cryptography systems enable secure communication over public channels. Cryptography systems can perform cryptographic operations, such as, for example, encrypting or decrypting data according to an encryption scheme to provide confidentiality, or generating or verifying signatures to provide authenticity. In some cryptography systems, the cryptographic function parameters are selected to improve performance or to circumvent certain types of attacks.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements. | {
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Telephony communications systems connect various types of telephone communications equipment, including, e.g., digital and analog telephones, facsimile (sending and/or receiving) machines, and data and/or facsimile modems.
Such telephony communications systems may comprise a network of varying systems interconnected with various types of transmission links. Such interconnected systems may include, e.g., centrex systems, private branch exchange (PBX) systems, and key telephone systems.
Transmission links provide links across various physical distances, serving as, e.g., long-distance lines, local exchange carrier lines, foreign exchange lines, 800 WATS lines, and/or tie-lines. The physical connection may be made with the use of a cable, e.g., a twisted copper pair, fiber-optic cabling, two-wire open lines, coaxial cable, or it may be wireless, e.g., using cellular technologies, satellite transmission systems, terrestrial microwave links, radio links. One or more combinations of existing or future transmission technologies may be used, such as T1, CEPT PCM-30, SONET, ISDN, frame relay, and asynchronous transfer mode.
Telephony communications systems utilize switching networks to connect one telephony device (telephone, fax, modem, etc.) to another, in accordance with a telephone number (the telephony destination address) specified by one of the telephony devices to be connected. A telephone number over a public switch telephone network (PSTN) will typically comprise a three-digit area code (number plan area (NPA)), followed by a three-digit exchange code (sometimes referred to as NNX or NXX), and then a four digit code used to identify the specific telephone line of the destination telephony device.
An example of a telephony communications system is a public switched telephone network (PSTN). Access to the PSTN is provided using the telephony communications equipment, as well as other equipment such as hardwiring which is extended between the telephony communications equipment and a system with which it is interfaced. For instance, hardwiring may extend from the telephony communications equipment to a wall outlet, from the wall outlet to the building exterior, and from the building exterior to the telephony communications system. Alternatively, telephony communications equipment may access the telephony communications systems using a transmitter (e.g., cellular) or through other known means. In either case, a considerable amount of hardware is presently in place to provide communication between the telephony communications system (e.g., PSTN) and telephony communications equipment (e.g., telephone).
Conventionally, communications over telephony communications systems are performed based on a connection-oriented network model. In the connection-oriented network model, a pathway is formed between a source node and a destination node of the telephony communications system before communication begins, creating what is commonly referred to as a virtual circuit therebetween. The pathway is commonly established using a handshaking procedure in which the source node requests communication by informing the network of the destination node, the network then notifies the destination node of the request, whereupon the destination node accepts or refuses a request for communication. If the destination node accepts the request for communication, the source node, the destination node and all resources of the telephony communications system that are used to define the pathway therebetween are reserved for the communication.
Conventional PSTN-type telephony communications systems connect telephones as follows. The caller (source) requests a communication by dialing (informing) the PSTN of a telephone number (destination). After the telephone number has been dialed, the PSTN establishes a path, reserves whatever resources are necessary to maintain that path, contacts the destination by ringing its phone, and conducts the communication after the request is accepted. As such, the resources of the PSTN remain reserved from the time of inception of a communication to its completion.
Under the present regulatory scheme, communications over telephony communications systems are classified among three categories: intraLATA (“Local Access Transport Area”), interLATA and international. IntraLATA communication is performed when the source and destination nodes are both located in a single calling area; interLATA communication is performed when the source and destination nodes are located in different calling areas within a single country, and international communication is performed when the source and destination nodes are located in calling areas of different countries. Typically, the three categories rank as listed above in order of expense with intraLATA communications generally being provided at the lowest cost.
In view of the above, there is a need for a system that is capable of maximizing the communications of presently available resources, including resources not presently used by conventional telephony systems. There is also a need for a system that is capable of reducing costs associated with conventional telephony communications systems.
It is costly to reconfigure a given traditional telephony communications system, such as a centrex system, a PBX system, or a key telephone system. As just one example, the creation and testing of a new telephone circuit will be quite labor-intensive, requiring such actions as locating the switch, finding a suitable and available wiring connection to establish the telephone circuit, making many cross-connections between and/or splicing of cables to route the wiring to the desired end destination, and performing different testing and verification procedures to ensure that a proper connection is made. If at any critical point in the path of a circuit, the available lines reach their full capacity, new lines will need to be installed to accommodate new telephony circuits, or the circuit must be diverted in a less than optimal manner to utilize existing cable facilities.
Much effort has been spent recently to integrate computer technologies having much more flexibility with hard-wired/switched telephony systems, to thus combine the strengths of each of these areas. Computer telephony integration (CTI) standards have been developed for communications between computer and telephony platforms, including, e.g., computer supported telephony applications (CSTA) and switch-computer applications interface (SCAI), Versit, and the INTEL-proposed high-speed serial interface.
There is a need to further reduce limitations and configuration costs associated with hard-wired/switched telephony systems. There is also a need for systems facilitating the efficient utilization of computer systems and networks for telephony applications, for local intra-office, local extra-office, long distance and/or international voice, fax, and data communications. | {
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} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a broadcast encryption method, and more particularly, to a broadcast encryption method being secure against collusion attacks.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the encryption systems are classified into a symmetric key (also referred to as a secret key) encryption system and an asymmetric key (also referred to as a public key) encryption system.
The symmetric key encryption system uses the same key for encryption and decryption. For example, if a sender converts an original message into an encrypted message through an encryption key and an encryption algorithm and sends the encrypted message to a receiver, the receiver converts the encrypted message into the original message by applying the same key to a decryption algorithm.
The receiver has to exchange keys safely prior to the encrypted communications, and a third party who attempts to view the encrypted communications can not view the original message without the keys that the sender and receiver have used. However, problems on key management and exchanges can occur since the number of keys to be managed accordingly increases if encrypted messages are to be sent to more parties.
Compared to the symmetric key encryption system, the asymmetric key encryption system is based on mathematical functions, in which there exists a pair of keys, wherein one of the keys is open to anyone else for its use, and the other key is kept secret. In here, the open key is referred to as a public key, and the secretly-kept key is referred to as a private key.
In order for a sender and a receiver to perform encryption communications by using the public key, the sender first encrypts an original message by using a public key of the receiver to send the encrypted message to the receiver, and the receiver decrypts the encrypted message by using a private key of his own to obtain the original message. Even though someone gets an encrypted message on a network, data can be safely sent since the encrypted message can not be decrypted without the private key which is kept by its owner all the time and has no need to be open or sent to others.
On the other hand, the symmetric key (or cipher) is mainly used to encrypt or decrypt broadcast streams, because the encryption and decryption can be carried out very rapidly when the symmetric key is used and the symmetric key can be safely sent through a limited access system to which only authenticated are accessible.
Contents creators create various useful data such as audio and video data in a data transmission system based on general broadcast encryptions, and provide the created data with service providers. The service providers broadcast the data of the contents creators through various wire and wireless communication networks to authorized users such as smart home Digital Rights management (DRM) networks and mobile DRM networks.
FIG. 1 is a view for showing a general broadcast transmission system. In FIG. 1, a service provider 100 produces a broadcast message 110 and sends the broadcast message 110 to users through various transmission channels 120. In here, the broadcast message 110 is sent to privileged users 130 as well as to revoked users. Thus, the service provider 100 allocates a separate key to encrypt the broadcast message 110 in order for the privileged users 130 to read the sent broadcast message 110. Therefore, an important issue in the broadcast system is the method of producing a certain group key in order for only the privileged users 130 to decrypt the encrypted broadcast message.
For example, the service provider 100 can send data through satellites to users devices such as set-top boxes coming with various satellite receivers, as well as send the data to mobile communication terminals through mobile communication networks. Further, the service provider 100 can send the data to various terminals on a smart home network through the Internet.
On the other hand, the service provider 100 encrypts the data by using broadcast encryption (BE) to prevent unauthorized users from using the data.
The security in such an encryption/decryption system mainly depends on a system for managing encryption keys. Further, methods for deriving keys is most important in such an encryption key management system. In addition, it is important to manage and update the derived encryption keys.
On the other hand, the data transmission method by using the public key is a method for sending data including key values of authorized users when data is sent. That is, data sent by the service provider 100 through broadcast/home networks contains a header portion having authentication information and an encrypted data portion having substantial data information.
Thus, the header portion contains a group identifier (ID) and key value information of authenticated users included in each authorized group so that, of plural users, data can be sent to only the users of the authorized groups.
Therefore, if data is encrypted and sent through a certificate revocation list/online certificate status protocol (CRL/OCSP) including a CRL and OCSP information, users receiving the data check their own key value information included in the header portion of the data, get authenticated in due course, and use their desired data.
On the other hand, the header portion in the broadcast encryption (BE) scheme contains only information of a group ID and a key value for a certain group. Thus, the privileged users of authenticated groups can use their own group key values in order to decrypt the received data into original data.
There exist methods disclosed in the “Broadcast Encryption” (Fiat et al., Crypto '93 LINCS vol. 839, pp 480-491, which is, hereinafter, referred to as the “Fiat algorithm”) as the other methods for broadcasting encryption keys. The ‘Fiat algorithm’ proposes two basic broadcast encryption algorithms and an algorithm having higher security against collusion attacks.
Hereinafter, a brief description will provided for the Fiat algorithm. Coefficients are first defined as below for the description of the Fiat algorithm. U: Set of users with |U|=n P: Set of privileged users with |U−P|=r N: RSA composite y1, . . . , yn: Distinct primes usri: An user in U where 1≦i≦n O: A positive integer satisfying 1<0<N
The Fiat algorithm enables a server to produce system coefficients N, y1, . . . , yn, and O, of the defined coefficients, in the system initialization step, and discloses the coefficients N, y1, . . . , yn, of the system coefficients, in order for anyone to look them up. Further, if a user usri subscribes to services, the server carries out tasks as below:
1. assign a value yi to a user usri
2. calculate secret information, ui=Oyi(mod N), of the user usri
3. send the calculated secret information safely to the user usri
The initialization and user subscription steps are completed through the above tasks. Now, if given a group of privileged users, P⊂U , a group key Kp for each user is expressed in Equation 1 as follows:
K p = O ∏ usr s ∈ P y s ( mod N ) [ Equation 1 ]
Users included in P can use the value ui assigned from the server to calculate the group key Kp of Equation 1 by using Equation 2 as follows:
K p = u i ∏ usr s ∈ P - ( usr i ) y s ( mod N ) [ Equation 2 ]
Unauthorized subscribers or revocaters who are not normal subscribers have, in the exponent part ui, the distinct prime yi not included in the exponent part of Kp, so the group key Kp can be calculated when the distinct prime yi is eliminated from the exponent part.
However, the calculation is practically impossible due to a problem of ‘difficult prime factorization of N’. Thus, the broadcast encryption becomes possible for privileged users through the above method.
However, the above Fiat algorithm causes a serious security problem when two users, for example, usr1 and usr2, share the secret information each other. That is, since yi and yj are primes to each other, integers a and b satisfying ayi+byj=1 can be easily obtained. Therefore, the two users can obtain a value of O being the secret system information by using Equation 3 as below:uiaujb≡Oayi+byj=O(mod N) [Equation 3]
Thus, the unauthorized users can obtain the group key Kp in all circumstances by using the value of O. That is, if two malicious users collude with each other, the two basic algorithms cause the system to be insecure any further since the secret information of a server broadcasting contents is oozed out.
As above, systems referred to as “1-resilient systems” are ones secure against one aggressive operator but not secure against two aggressive operators. On the other hand, the Fiat algorithm proposes a k-resilient system based on the 1-resilient system, but has a problem of high inefficiency.
The k-resilient system is that receivers (t receivers at maximum) eliminate an arbitrary number of receivers colluding with one another. However, the method needs a relatively long message, a relatively many keys stored in a receiver, and more-than-once decryption operations by each receiver.
Further, the method does not take a stateless receiver scenario into consideration. There needs to avoid an assumption on how many receivers collude with one another. Further, the message size and the number of stored keys need to be minimized, and the decryption operations to be carried out by a receiver have to be minimized for optimal performance.
On the other hand, the other systems like the Fiat system do not provide the stateless receiver scenario, so that the other systems can not be effectively applied to the protection of contents on recording media. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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It is well known in the prior art to provide roofs with either hinged or removable panels. In order to insure adequate sealing and reliability of the latching mechanisms relatively complex latching means have been employed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Conventionally, a dual-damascene method has been known as a technique in which after a wiring groove is formed on an insulation film and a via is formed on the bottom of the wiring groove, a conductive material is filled into the wiring groove and the via so as to form a wiring and a contact portion at the same time. In the dual-damascene method, a so-called first-trench system is known (see, Patent Document 1, for example). In the first-trench system, a via pattern is formed on a hard mask by a lithography technique, then a via and a wiring groove are formed by etching. At this time, a wiring pattern has been previously formed on the hard mask.
Configurations of a wiring and a via in the dual-damascene method with the conventional first-trench system are described with reference to FIG. 25. FIG. 25(a) is a plan view illustrating arrangement positions and shapes of a wiring and a via under the wiring. FIG. 25(b) is a plan view illustrating a shape of the wiring only. FIG. 25(c) is a plan view illustrating a shape of a via pattern used when a via mask is formed at manufacturing a semiconductor device. FIG. 25(d) is a plan view illustrating a shape of the via only. FIG. 25(e) is a cross sectional view illustrating a cross section cut along a line A1-A1′ of the plan view in FIG. 25(a). FIG. 25(f) is a cross sectional view illustrating a cross section cut along a line A2-A2′ of the plan view in FIG. 25(a).
As shown in FIGS. 25(a) to 25(d), if a semiconductor substrate is viewed planarly in the direction vertical to the substrate from the top, a substantial overlapped portion of a via pattern 4 and a wiring 1 corresponds to a planar shape of a via 31 to be formed. In FIG. 25(a), since the via 31 is located under the wiring 1, the via 31 is shown by a dotted line.
A shape of a cross section of the via 31 is simply described with reference to FIGS. 25(e) and 25(f). In the dual-damascene method, a wiring formation hard mask 203 is formed on an insulation film 201 located above a lower layer wiring 200, then, a via formation resist mask 204 is formed on the wiring formation hard mask 203. At this time, a wiring pattern 202 has been formed on the wiring formation hard mask 203 and a via pattern 4 has been formed on the via formation resist mask 204. Thereafter, the insulation film 201 is etched by using the via formation resist mask 204 to form a via portion 206 so as to be extended in the depth direction. Further, after the via formation resist mask 204 is removed, the insulation film 201 is etched by using the wiring formation hard mask 203 so as to form a wiring portion 205 so as to be extended in the depth direction. The wiring 1 and the via 31 are simultaneously formed by filling the wiring portion 205 and the via portion 206 with a metal at once.
In a semiconductor manufacturing process, a minimum dimension of the width of a wiring pattern and that of a via pattern are defined conventionally. In a micro fabrication process in recent years, a resolution of the wiring pattern is higher than that of the via pattern so that the minimum dimension of the wiring pattern 202 is smaller than that of the via pattern 4 due to a technical constraint of a manufacturing apparatus. Therefore, a finished planar shape of the via 31 formed under the wiring having the width of minimum dimension corresponds to a substantial overlapped portion of the via pattern 4 having a circular shape and the wiring 1 having the width narrower than a diameter of the via pattern 4 by forming the via with self alignment in the dual-damascene method.
In the layout design of LSI using a placement and routing tool with on-grid design scheme, a plurality of terminals which are capable of transmitting an input signal and an output signal of a basic cell are located at the intersections of wiring grids lined in the X direction and those lined in the Y direction (see Patent Document 2, for example). In order to ensure a wiring resource in an arrangement wiring, via has had a tendency to be arranged near the intersections of wiring grids lined in the X direction and those lined in the Y direction. It is to be noted that the X direction denotes a direction along a power-source wiring of a basic cell while the Y direction denotes a direction vertical to the power-source wiring. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Positive displacement air pumps include Roots-type blowers, screw-type air pumps, and many other similar devices with parallel lobed rotors. Positive displacement air pumps may include lobed rotors having either straight lobes or lobes with a helical twist. The rotors may be meshingly disposed in parallel, transversely overlapping cylindrical chambers defined by a housing. Each rotor may have four lobes in conventional embodiments, although each rotor may have fewer or more lobes in other embodiments. Spaces between adjacent unmeshed lobes of each rotor may transfer volumes of compressible fluid (e.g., air) from an inlet port to an outlet port opening, with or without mechanical compression of the fluid in each space prior to exposure of the transfer volumes to the outlet port opening. The ends of the unmeshed lobes of each rotor may be closely spaced from the inner surfaces of the cylindrical chambers to effect a sealing cooperation therebetween. As the rotor lobes move out of mesh, air may flow into volumes or spaces defined by adjacent lobes on each rotor. The air in these volumes may be trapped therein at substantially inlet pressure when the meshing lobes of each transfer volume move into a sealing relationship with the inner surfaces of the cylindrical chambers. Timing gears may be used to maintain the meshing lobes in closely spaced, non-contacting relation to form a seal between the inlet port and outlet port opening. The volumes of air may transferred or directly exposed to the outlet port when the lobes move out of sealing relationship with the inner surfaces of the cylindrical chambers.
Conventionally, positive displacement air pumps may be used as superchargers for vehicle engines, wherein the engine provides the mechanical torque input to drive the lobed rotors. The volumes of air transferred to the outlet port may be utilized to provide a pressure “boost” within the intake manifold of the vehicle engine, in a manner that is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. The power or energy required to transfer a particular volume of air under certain operating conditions may be used in evaluating the efficiency of a positive displacement air pump. To pump the fluid (e.g., air) using a supercharger requires that mechanical energy be placed into the supercharger. The required mechanical energy input is directly related to the various efficiencies (e.g., mechanical, isentropic, etc.) and operating conditions of the supercharger (e.g., mass flow rate, pressure ratio, etc.). For the same operating conditions, if the efficiency is improved, the required mechanical energy input is decreased, thus benefiting efficiency of the overall system that the supercharger is applied to (e.g., an internal combustion engine). An ideal process would be 100% efficient. However, actual compression will operate at an efficiency below this level. The actual compression relative to the ideal process is called isentropic efficiency. The temperature of the air being transferred may increase as the air flows through the supercharger. By improving isentropic efficiency, less excessive heat energy may be put into the fluid (e.g., air) to achieve the desired pressure for the fluid (e.g., air).
Previous attempts have been made to improve the isentropic efficiency of positive displacement air pumps, such as Roots-type blowers, by improving the configuration of the outlet port. For example, the outlet port of a Roots-type blower may be configured as disclosed and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,168, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. As technological improvements have been made to supercharger rotor geometry (including, for example, the degree of helical twist), the fluid velocity has been shifted more towards the axial direction, as opposed to the radial direction. However, current parallel shaft supercharger outlet port geometry may continue to account mainly for radial outlet airflow, rather than significantly addressing the axial flow component of the fluid velocity.
It may be desirable to optimize flow geometry at the outlet end of the supercharger to better account for both the axial and radial fluid velocity, while still maintaining the conventional and/or standard features of a supercharger, such as an axial inlet direction and a radial outlet port direction. As supercharger speed increases, the axial velocity component may also increase and may require a more drastic velocity change as it exits the outlet port of a conventional supercharger design. In particular, all axial velocity vectors may be required to be converted into radial velocity vectors, thereby increasing the work that must be performed on the fluid. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Business and other entities are increasingly interested in capturing data associated with their computer networks for information technology (IT) security, IT operations, compliance, and other reasons. Unfortunately, analyzing that data can be difficult, expensive, and ineffective. One reason is that the data is voluminous and generated at a rapid rate. Existing products for analyzing such data require significant storage and computing power and thus are expensive to purchase. Another reason is that deploying such products typically requires a significant amount of expert contractor time. If new types of data are to be captured and analyzed by the product, significant work is typically required. In some cases, due to the complexity in maintaining such products and the resources required, customers may be unable to rely on in-house support staff to perform product upgrades or to reconfigure the product after changes are made to their networks, but instead will require the re-involvement of contractors. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This disclosure relates generally to pointing devices, and more specifically to an adjustable mouse that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface and enables fine control of a graphical user interface (“GUI”).
A typical mouse includes two or more buttons and a scroll wheel, which can also act as an additional button to move a pointer in two dimensions on a GUI. A mouse can also include a thumb rest support, which is contoured to comfortably receive a user's thumb. It is desirable that the mouse fits comfortably within the user's hand while manipulating the mouse. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The invention relates to hydraulic control systems useful for example, in controlling fixed displacement pumps wherein a plurality of pumps are provided for performing different functions, and especially to systems wherein some of the pumps in a circuit may be provided in pairs. The invention is especially useful in hydraulic systems used in heavy equipment such as earth-moving vehicles. An example is an excavator having an excavating bucket pivotally mounted on a stick which is in turn pivotally mounted on a boom. In such an excavator, a pair of pumps may be provided in a hydraulic circuit for operating hydraulic cylinders which move the stick and bucket and another pair of pumps may be provided in a second circuit having another pair of cylinders for operating the boom. In addition, in such equipment, the pumps may be used for other functions. For example, pumps in one of the circuits may also operate one track of the vehicle and the pumps in the other circuit may operate the other track. All pumps are typically driven by the vehicle engine through a common gear box.
In prior art systems, the pumps are generally driven by the operator at a constant speed. As is recognized, the input horsepower required of the prime mover which drives all of the pumps rises linearly with the pressure in the circuits and when the pressure rises substantially, as may occur when an obstruction is encountered during a digging operation, the torque requirements imposed on the prime mover may exceed the available torque. When this occurs, the diesel or gasoline engine used as a prime mover will stall. In the prior art, various arrangements are provided for unloading a pump in a circuit when an overload condition is encountered in that circuit which might cause the engine to stall or to cause damage to the equipment.
In the above-identified copending application an improvement in prior systems is disclosed in which positive displacement pumps driven by a common prime mover are arranged in operating circuits in a "crossover" unloading arrangement so that a pump in one circuit will be unloaded in response to pressure in either or both circuits. With the system disclosed in the prior copending application, one or more pumps in a plurality of circuits may be unloaded in response to pressure in one or more of the circuits so as to prevent the sum of the horsepower requirements from exceeding rated horsepower.
In certain applications, as for example in backhoes and various other kinds of excavators or earth-movers, it is desirable to allow the operator to exceed rated horsepower of the prime mover for short periods of time. In use of equipment not provided with pressure responsive unloading means, skilled operators recognize that they can exceed rated horsepower for short periods of time when encountering heavy or unusual loading conditions owing to the available flywheel or inertial energy of the prime mover. Thus, a skilled operator of manual equipment may rapidly break through an obstruction without stalling the prime mover whereas with the usual apparatus equipped with load sensing means, the operator will be unable to do so or may not be able to complete the job as rapidly since the pressure responsive mechanism will operate to prevent him from operating in a manner which results in rated horsepower being exceeded. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pipe joints, and in particular is concerned with so-called saddle fittings for making branch connections to a main pipe of thermoplastic material such as polyethylene.
2. The Prior Art
The known saddle fittings currently in use comprise a generally semi-cylindrical thermoplastic saddle portion with a concave surface of a curvature complementary to the external dimension of the main pipe to which it is to be fastened by welding. At a substantially central position the saddle portion includes a hole, and an integral tube which is connected to the saddle portion around the hole and projects essentially radially from the convex surface of the saddle portion. Connected to the tube intermediate its ends is a lateral spigot providing a connection for attachment of the branch pipe. For welding the saddle fitting to the main pipe it can be provided with a resistance heating coil located at the concave surface of the saddle portion and extending around the hole therein, and contacts for connecting the heating wire to a suitable source of electric current. The heat generated by the welding current flowing through the heating coil causes the thermoplastic material of the main pipe and saddle portion, as their abutting surfaces, to melt so that upon subsequent cooling the main pipe and saddle portion are fused securely together. In order to open up communication with the interior of the main pipe a cutter is advanced along the tube of the saddle fitting so that its leading cutting edge passes through the hole in the saddle portion and servers a circular hole through the wall of the main pipe. Conveniently, the tube and the cutter are provided with complementary screw threads to facilitate the advancement and cutting action of the cutter by rotation of the cutter by means of an appropriate tool engaged therewith. When the hole has been cut through the main pipe, the cutter is withdrawn and the outer end of the tube is closed off by a closure, such as a plug or cap adapted for sealing engagement with the free end of the tube. When the branch pipe has been correctly secured to the connection spigot, the resultant pipe joint is ready for testing prior to use.
The closures normally used for sealing the end of the saddle fitting tube are detachably mounted on the tube end, such as by a screw-threaded connection. This is advantageous since, for example, if a joint is found unsatisfactory during testing because the main pipe has not been cut through correctly, the closure can be removed and replaced again after repeating the cutting operation. On the other hand, it means the closure can also be removed subsequent to satisfactory testing and should it not be re-applied correctly the pipe joint could leak, whereas no fault was indicated during testing.
In GA-A-1408844 there is disclosed a closure in the form of a plug with a spring ring which engages an annular groove within the tube to lock the plug fixedly in place. This construction prevents removal of the plug after it has been inserted, but means the plug cannot be removed for checking purposes if tests on the joint give unsatisfactory results. Furthermore, it means the plug must be supplied detached from the fitting, which carries the inherent risk that it will be lost or mislaid in the field before the saddle jointing procedure is completed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Ischemia is a condition in which portions of a body are deprived of adequate oxygen and metabolite removal due to an interruption in blood supply caused by an occlusion of a blood vessel. The inadequate oxygen supply and metabolite removal cause tissue injury that may result in impaired physiological functions of an organ to which the adequate blood flow is interrupted. One example of ischemia is cardiac ischemia, a condition in which the myocardium is deprived of adequate supply of blood due to occlusion of a blood vessel such as a coronary artery.
The heart is the center of a person's circulatory system. It includes an electro-mechanical system performing two major pumping functions. The left portions of the heart draw oxygenated blood from the lungs and pump it to the organs of the body to provide the organs with their metabolic needs for oxygen. The right portions of the heart draw deoxygenated blood from the body organs and pump it to the lungs where the blood gets oxygenated. These pumping functions are resulted from contractions of the myocardium. In a normal heart, the sinoatrial node, the heart's natural pacemaker, generates electrical impulses that propagate through an electrical conduction system to various regions of the heart to excite the myocardial tissues of these regions. Coordinated delays in the propagations of the electrical impulses in a normal electrical conduction system cause the various portions of the heart to contract in synchrony to result in efficient pumping functions. A blocked or otherwise abnormal electrical conduction and/or deteriorated myocardial tissue cause dysynchronous contraction of the heart, resulting in poor hemodynamic performance, including a diminished blood supply to the heart and the rest of the body. The condition where the heart fails to pump enough blood to meet the body's metabolic needs is known as heart failure.
Myocardial infarction (MI) is the necrosis of portions of the myocardial tissue resulted from cardiac ischemia, a condition in which the myocardium is deprived of adequate oxygen and metabolite removal due to an interruption in blood supply caused by an occlusion of a blood vessel such as a coronary artery. The necrotic tissue, known as infarcted tissue, loses the contractile properties of the normal, healthy myocardial tissue. Consequently, the overall contractility of the myocardium is weakened, resulting in an impaired hemodynamic performance. Following an MI, cardiac remodeling starts with expansion of the region of infarcted tissue and progresses to a chronic, global expansion in the size and change in the shape of the entire left ventricle. The consequences include a further impaired hemodynamic performance and a significantly increased risk of developing heart failure, as well as a risk of suffering recurrent MI.
Therefore, there is a need to protect tissue from ischemic damage, including the need to protect the heart from injuries associated with cardiac ischemic events. | {
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Imaging devices are frequently used in many aspects of business, industry and academic endeavors. An imaging device is a device that has at least one imaging capability, such as printing, faxing, copying, scanning, publishing to the World Wide Web, filing, format conversion, etc. The term “imaging,” as used herein, should be interpreted broadly to include any process for producing a copy of a document onto paper, a computer screen, a digital whiteboard, an electronic image, other media surfaces, or the like.
Printers are one kind of imaging device. Printers are used with computers to print various kinds of items including letters, documents, pictures, etc. Many different kinds of printers are commercially available. Ink jet printers and laser printers are fairly common among computer users. Ink jet printers propel droplets of ink directly onto the paper. Laser printers use a laser beam to print.
Some imaging devices can generate scanned image data. For example, some imaging devices include scanners which can scan a document to provide scanned image data. It is also possible that an imaging device may be able to read scanned image data from a storage device, extract scanned image data from a facsimile transmission, or compose scanned image data from a variety of imaging operations. There may also be other ways in which an imaging device may be provided with or otherwise obtain scanned image data. Other commonly used imaging devices include copiers, fax machines, multi-function peripheral (MFP) devices, etc.
Benefits may be realized by improved systems and methods related to imaging devices and imaging-related technology. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having various image forming functions such as a copying function and a facsimile function, and a screen transition control method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a screen transition control method thereof in which a screen transition considering usability of a user is realized.
2. Related Art
It is know that in a copying machine having a copying function and a facsimile function, a copying mode or a facsimile mode is selected for an initial mode of the copying machine upon initialization, and in a case where the copying machine is not operated for a predetermined amount of time or more, a screen of the copying machine is returned to the preliminarily selected initial mode. Thus, selection of the function suited to a type of usage of the copying machine can be performed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Courts of ten penalize violators of driving laws by placing restrictions on their licenses to drive. The judgment may withdraw the license for a particular period of time or restrict the hours in which the violator may drive to allow driving for business purposes but prevent driving during non-business hours. Similarly, the owner of the vehicle may choose to authorize its use by others only under limited conditions. For example, a parent may choose to authorize a son or daughter to only use the vehicle during school hours or an employer may choose to authorize an employee to use a vehicle only during business hours.
Violation of the judicially imposed restrictions generally only come to light when the driver with a restricted or suspended license is stopped by police for some driving offense. Violations of restrictions imposed by a vehicle owner on a limited authorization driver are even more difficult to detect since they do not appear on the driver's license.
The present invention is accordingly directed to a system which will enhance the efficacy of such driving restrictions by warning observers of the vehicle when the restrictions are being violated, yet will allow the continued use of the vehicle in violation of the restrictions for emergency purposes and the like. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Hybrid electric vehicles are known, which are equipped with a power-train, comprising a thermal engine with small engine displacement, and a dual-dry-clutch transmission (DDCT) integrating an electrical machine operating as electric motor/generator, which can be activated, among other operations, for starting the thermal engine in lieu of the starting motor.
The hybrid power-train is, for example, able to perform the following functions: engine stop and start through the electric driving motor; launch and creep in electrical mode; economy gear shifting; regenerative braking; and electric torque boost.
These electric vehicles are equipped for their operation with a high-voltage electric battery (which supplies, for example, a rated voltage of 240 V), the so-called <<traction battery>>, which can also be recharged directly from the power mains, and with a low-voltage electric battery (which supplies, for example, a rated voltage of 12 V), the so-called <<service battery>>, which is recharged starting from the traction battery. In particular, the service battery is designed to supply a wide range of electrical loads of the vehicle, such as, for example, the lights, the air-conditioning assembly, or other low-power actuator assemblies. The aforesaid electric vehicles are moreover equipped with an electrical power drive, including inter alia: a high-voltage battery-charger for charging the traction battery starting from the power mains, made up of a power-factor-corrector (PFC) stage, cascaded to which is a voltage-reduction (<<buck>> or <<step-down>>) stage; and a low-voltage battery-charger for charging the service battery starting from the traction battery, constituted basically by a DC/DC converter device.
In particular, the DC/DC converter device, generally known in the technical field as a “power transfer device”, replaces the function traditionally performed by the alternator in charging the service battery and can control the recharging profile, supplying appropriate output voltages and currents (and hence powers).
The possibility is known, in this regard, of implementing appropriate algorithms for controlling a power converter (for example, the aforesaid DC/DC converter device) in a digital way, with the aid of a microprocessor or microcontroller (or similar computing and processing tool), which has been appropriately programmed.
In the example of application illustrated previously, the vehicle can, for example, be equipped with a microprocessor or microcontroller, designed to implement the strategies for control both of the high-voltage battery-charger and of the low-voltage battery-charger.
The use of a digital control system, albeit advantageous from many points of view, amongst which that of enabling a wide configurability and programmability of the control action, has the drawback of involving production costs that may even be high, linked mainly to the use of a microprocessor or microcontroller; these costs are, in particular, the higher, the higher the computing and processing power required from the same microprocessor or microcontroller.
In this regard, in the case of switching power-converter devices, the need to adopt high switching frequencies so as to reduce (in a known way) the dimensions of the analog circuit components used, comes up against the consequent need to use so-called <<high-range>> microprocessors or microcontrollers, i.e., ones capable of operating at high working frequencies (even of the order of hundreds of kilohertz), and with the consequent increase in the costs associated to the use of these components.
This disadvantage is particularly felt in the automotive sector, where, as is known, the production costs play a frequently determining role in the design choices. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Modern aircraft are designed to carry, release, and deliver on target a wide variety of weapons including bombs, missiles, rockets and other stores which are hung on the underside of the aircraft and must be quickly released in flight. Various types of suspension and release equipment are used to carry the stores and safely separate the stores from the aircraft.
Currently available suspension and release equipment interfaces with lugs (generally referred to as bail lugs) which have screw threaded shanks received in tapped cavities formed in the stores, and integrally formed suspension rings for receiving hooks extending from the aircraft or bomb rack for carrying the store. Since these rings are aligned longitudinally relative to the store and aircraft, the lugs restrain the store longitudinally but provide little lateral support, thus the store tends to oscillate laterally under the influence of lateral accelerations or other aerodynamic effects. The store therefore requires supports such as sway braces to prevent lateral movement of the lug and store. Typically, the sway braces add aerodynamic drag to the aircraft and increase the radar cross-section of the aircraft. After release of the store from the aircraft, the bail lugs impose a significant drag penalty on the store during its flight. Other types of lugs eliminate the need for sway braces but still project outward from the store surface and have a large frontal area which adds aerodynamic drag to the store and increases the radar cross-section of the store.
These lugs were designed when aerodynamic drag of the lug on the store and the impact of the lug on the radar cross-section of the store were not important factors. Today the drag effect of the lug on the store and the impact to radar cross-section are more important with the higher launching speeds of present day high-performance aircraft and sophisticated bomb and radar systems. Various retractable lug devices are available, however these devices are complex, expensive to manufacture and add significant weight to the stores.
Moreover, the screw threaded shank design of the bail lug adds weight to the store by requiring a cavity for receiving the shank, with sufficient material formed around the cavity to retain the threaded shank. The threaded shank also adds weight to the lug along with machining costs. Furthermore, the cavity may compromise the functionality of certain stores and reduce their effectiveness. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an optical communication device.
2. Description of Related Art
An optical communication device includes a substrate, at least one photoelectric element positioned on the substrate for emitting/receiving electrical signals, and a light waveguide transmitting optical signals. The photoelectric element emits/receives optical signals with a transmitting direction substantially perpendicular to the substrate, and a transmitting direction of optical signals in the light waveguide is substantially parallel to the substrate. Therefore, a transmitting direction of optical signals should be deflected for substantially 90 degrees to optically couple the photoelectric element with the light waveguide. In the current optical communication device, a complex coupler is adapted to deflect a transmitting direction of optical signal for 90 degrees for optically coupling the photoelectric element with the light waveguide. However, the coupler increases an assembling difficulty and cost of the optical communication device.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an optical communication device that can overcome the above-mentioned limitations. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to levelling of heavy steel plates and especially to apparatus and methods for roller levelling of steel plates having a yield strength up to about 250,000 psi and thicknesses from about 3/16 inch to about 1/2 inch.
2. Prior Art
The roller levelling of heavy gauge, high strength metal plate is a very difficult operation, and typically has required the use of extremely heavy and expensive levelling equipment. Heretofore, in conventional roller levelling, in order to effectively level thick, high strength metal plate, it has been necessary either to pass the plate back and forth between the levelling rollers or to provide a plurality of roller stands through which the plate is successively passed and in each of which successive stands, the deflection between opposed upper and lower work rolls is decreased so that there is little or no bending of the plate material exiting the last such stand. In the first case, multiple reversing passes of the plate through the leveller requires upstream space at least equal to the length of the plate being levelled. In the latter case, multiple stands also require substantial space and are very expensive so as to be impractical.
Numerous prior art devices are known comprising two or more clusters of opposed upper and lower work rolls for performing two or more physical treatments of sheet or strip, such as correction of edge waves (where the edges of the sheet or strip are longer than the center portion); "oil canning" (where a center portion of the sheet or strip is longer than the edges); correction of strip "crown"; and flattening of the sheet or strip of widely varying types of products, such as relatively thin sheet and strip and heavier gauge plate wherein different roll diameters are used to level materials of different thicknesses. Examples of such prior art devices include: Blough U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,697; Thompson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,348; Thompson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,326; Roesch U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,274; Schlueter U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,784: Klempay U.S. Pat. No. 3,466,913; Maust U.S. Pat. No. 2,963,070; Maust U.S. Pat. No. 2,945,530, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-171526 (A). | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit, and more particularly to a semiconductor integrated circuit comprising an interface circuit for receiving and sending data from and to an external device connected to an outside of the semiconductor integrated circuit and a bus for transmitting the data from the interface circuit into the semiconductor integrated circuit, a semiconductor integrated circuit comprising a phase-locked loop (hereinafter referred to as a PLL circuit) for synchronizing an internal clock with an external clock at a high speed, and a semiconductor integrated circuit comprising a DRAM which is small-sized and can easily be tested.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a semiconductor integrated circuit, generally, one chip has a plurality of functions. In other words, a plurality of internal devices having different functions are integrated into the same chip so that the semiconductor integrated circuit is formed. FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a structure of a semiconductor integrated circuit which is a so-called one-chip microcomputer. The one-chip microcomputer is also formed with a plurality of internal devices provided on one chip 1. On the chip 1 is provided a CPU 2 which includes a control circuit for interpreting and executing instructions and serves to perform arithmetic operation. Data such as instructions sent to the CPU 2 are given from internal and external devices provided on the inside and outside of the semiconductor integrated circuit, respectively. The external device is connected to an input-output pin 3. An interface circuit 4 acting as one of the internal devices is connected to the input-output pin 3. The interface circuit 4 serves to electrically and functionally match data transfer between the external device connected to the input-output pin 3 and the internal device of the semiconductor integrated circuit. More specifically, the interface circuit 4 controls data transfer on a boundary between the inside and outside of the semiconductor integrated circuit.
In order for the CPU 2 to execute instructions, the semiconductor integrated circuit should fetch data necessary for the CPU 2. A processing speed of the CPU 2 is limited. Therefore, data generated in the semiconductor integrated circuit and data given from the outside should be held by any internal device until the CPU 2 starts a processing. In order to efficiently transmit data from the internal device such as the CPU 2 to the external device, it is also necessary to hold the data temporarily. In general, a storage is provided in the semiconductor integrated circuit in order to hold data to be processed by the CPU 2 or data waiting to be processed by the CPU 2 and output to the outside. Examples of the storage provided in the semiconductor integrated circuit include a SRAM 5 for sending and receiving data at a maximum speed together with the CPU 2, a DRAM 6 acting as a main memory for storing large scale data required by the CPU 2 and for holding and storing image data and the like when performing an image processing, and a NVRAM 7 for storing a basic program and data and for storing individual programs necessary for application.
The above-mentioned internal devices include the storage such as the SRAM 5 and the CPU 2 in addition to the interface circuit 4. In the case where plural kinds of internal devices other than the interface circuit 4 are provided, the semiconductor integrated circuit can employ an indirect control method in which two or more channels such as a channel for transferring data between the external device and the CPU 2 and a channel for transferring data between the external device and the storage are provided and the interface circuit 4 is caused to switch channels. Furthermore, the semiconductor integrated circuit can also employ a direct control method for directly inputting data from the external device to the CPU 2 and transferring the same data from the CPU 2 to the storage. In the indirect control method, a selector channel and a multiplex channel are used. The selector channel serves to transfer data at a time without breaking a physical connecting relationship between the channel and the interface circuit 4 until data transfer is completed. The multiplex channel serves to transfer data while switching the physical connecting relationship between the channel and the interface circuit 4 on a unit.
Referring to a multi-channel, the interface circuit 4 switches the channels. Therefore, the interface circuit 4 requires information for switching the channels.
In a multi-channel switching method according to the prior art, channels are switched every byte of data or are switched for each block of data by causing the data to have information about channel selection.
Some kinds of data are transmitted. Data which can immediately be executed by the CPU 2 are directly sent to the CPU 2. Data which should be rewritten to a main memory or stored once are transmitted to a storage side such as the DRAM 6. As a matter of course, some data should be transmitted to the CPU 2 and the storage at the same time. Some of the data transmitted to the DRAM 6 are used for a cache. Such data are stored in the SRAM 5 simultaneously.
The data to be processed by the CPU 2 and output from the CPU 2 include data to be exactly output to an external device in addition to data to be transferred to the SRAM 5 and the DRAM 6. In such a case , the prior art can also employ a method for causing the DRAM 6 to store all the data once, connecting the interface circuit 4 to the DRAM 6 by a multiplexer (not shown) and sending only data to be output from the DRAM 6 to the external device. A PLL circuit 8 which is also used in the semiconductor integrated circuit shown in FIG. 15 will be described below. The PLL circuit 8 is provided to synchronize an internal clock used in the semiconductor integrated circuit with an external clock sent from the outside of the semiconductor integrated circuit. Also in a system chip, the PLL circuit is used. Referring to the system chip, a clock is always set to a power down mode, a refresh mode or the like. Also in such a case, it is important to realize high-speed synchronization in order to increase a speed of operation of the semiconductor integrated circuit performed in response to the internal clock. The internal clock should be synchronized with the external clock to perform communication between the external device and the semiconductor integrated circuit.
As shown in FIG. 17, the PLL circuit according to the prior art includes a frequency phase comparator 30 for detecting differences in frequencies and phases, a charge pump 31 for causing a current to flow into or out for a period of time corresponding to a result of the detection performed by the frequency phase comparator 30, a loop filter 32 for eliminating high-frequency components and noises from an output of the charge pump 31 to obtain a DC voltage, and a ring oscillator 33 for generating an internal clock having a frequency corresponding to an output of the loop filter 32. In the PLL circuit according to the prior art, one frequency phase comparator performs two processes, that is, a frequency leading-in process for causing frequencies to approximate to each other in order to synchronize the internal clock with the external clock, and a phase synchronizing process for completing phase synchronization.
The semiconductor integrated circuit according to the prior art has the above-mentioned structure. Therefore, input data always arrives at a predetermined destination, and data transfer is terminated while the data cannot be accepted at the destination until the data can be accepted at the same destination. For this reason, it takes a lot of time to transfer the data. As shown in FIG. 15, for example, data having destination information is sent from the external device to the interface circuit 4 through the input-output pin 3. If the CPU 2 indicates the destination information of the data, the interface circuit 4 connects the CPU 2 and the channel to transmit the data through the connected channel. If the CPU 2 is in a busy state of instruction processings or the like and cannot receive the data, the channel cannot be disconnected before data transmission is completed. Consequently, the data cannot be transferred efficiently.
FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a structure of an expand version of a semiconductor integrated circuit which is more suitable for processing mass data than in FIG. 15. In the semiconductor integrated circuit having the expand version shown in FIG. 16, a chip size is naturally increased and capacities of a SRAM 5 and a DRAM 6 are enlarged. Furthermore, a ROM 9 to store basic programs and the like is provided in addition to a NVRAM 7. In the semiconductor integrated circuit having the expand version which transmits mass data, a transfer efficiency should be prevented from being deteriorated. Such a problem is more serious than in an ordinary semiconductor integrated circuit.
In the case where data is transmitted from an internal device to an external device, all the data necessary for the external device should be transferred to the internal device in advance if a channel connected to the same external device is fixed. Consequently, a local link for connecting the internal devices becomes complicated.
In a semiconductor integrated circuit comprising the PLL circuit according to the prior art, one frequency phase comparator performs the two processes, that is, the frequency leading-in process for causing frequencies to approximate to each other in order to synchronize an internal clock with an external clock and the phase synchronizing process for completing phase synchronization. For this reason, if a frequency leading-in range is set wide, a setting time is increased.
In a semiconductor integrated circuit comprising the DRAM according to the prior art, the DRAM occupies great parts of the area and consumed power. If the DRAM is enlarged, the area and the consumed power of the semiconductor integrated circuit are increased.
A test for the DRAM often requires a technique for simultaneously writing the same data to a plurality of memory cells. In such a case, generally, it has been proposed that a word line is selected and then the data are sequentially written to the memory cells or that a register is provided on a side of a memory cell array and the data are written to the register and then are written to the memory cells in the memory cell array in a batch. In these cases, the DRAM has an overhead of a write cycle during batch write of data for performing the test in a test mode. Therefore, the semiconductor integrated circuit cannot operate at a high speed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Portable grease guns are used throughout industry to provide a supply of pressurized grease to lubricate vehicles and myriad types of machinery. In the typical portable hand held grease gun, a grease gun body includes a screw mounting to which a grease “barrel”(a tube having one closed end and an open end) containing a quantity of grease or a grease cartridge may be attached to provide a source of grease for the grease gun. When the grease within the cartridge is exhausted, the barrel may be unmounted and a new cartridge inserted and the barrel remounted to the screw mounting of the grease gun body. Grease guns of this type are limited to use with a self contained grease barrel mounted to the grease gun body and carried with it. Such grease guns are useful when the user will need to move around a wide area to lubricate equipment zerks.
Other grease guns are provided with a coupling to a flexible hose connected to a grease supply which may rest on the ground or another surface and need not be carried by the user. Typical of such a grease supply is a container of bulk grease such as a pail or bucket or keg equipped with a hand operated or foot operated pump. As grease is needed in the grease gun body, the user pumps a charge of grease from the grease pail by operating the manual pump, thereby driving a supply of grease into the compression chamber of the grease gun. Existing grease guns of this nature allow for coupling to a grease hose only. This type of grease gun body is useful when the user may remain in a limited area while applying lubricating grease.
Existing hand held portable grease guns provided with removable grease gun barrel are provided with output check valves which resist pressure in the pressure chamber below about 25 psi so that grease under approximately 15 psi in the grease barrel will not discharge through the output nozzle. Resupply of the barrel through the standard resupply port on the grease gun body is limited to low pressure sources so that grease entering grease gun body through the resupply port will not be forced past the output check valve associated with the output nozzle.
A need exists for a versatile grease gun body which may be supplied by a grease barrel mounted on the gun body or by a larger supply of grease carried in a grease pail, barrel or keg and supplied to the grease gun barrel by a hose which may be coupled to the grease gun body.
A further need exists for a versatile grease gun which can be supplied through the standard resupply port at pressures exceeding 25 psi such as through a hose coupled to a grease reservoir pressurized by a foot pump.
The foregoing problems are addressed by the present grease gun invention. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
There are ink compositions which are colorless and invisible under ordinary visible light but emit light and become visible in response to illumination of light at a specific wavelength such as ultraviolet light. In general, such an ink composition is called invisible ink. As a specific example of invisible ink, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-279474 (Patent Document 1) discloses an ink composition (see a chemical formula in FIG. 18) containing a fluorescent compound of arylsulfonic acid and tertiary amine.
An application of invisible ink is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-296659 (Patent Document 2) as a method of downloading information from a server on a network using a QR code as a kind of two-dimensional bar code written in invisible ink. According to an embodiment described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-296659, a publisher prints a QR code in an invisible ink (transparent material) absorbing infrared rays to overlap an article printed in visible black ink on a magazine. Then, a reader of the magazine uses a camera-equipped cellular phone to which infrared rays are emitted to recognize the QR code so as to extract a URL from the recognized QR code. Based on the extracted URL, the reader downloads information from a publisher's server.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-279474
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-296659 | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Semiconductor chips are commonly provided in packages which facilitate handling of the chip during manufacture and during mounting of the chip on an external substrate such as a circuit board or other circuit panel. For example, many semiconductor chips are provided in packages suitable for surface mounting. These packages typically have an external structure with exposed terminals on a bottom face of the structure. The terminals are exposed at the bottom surface of the chip carrier. In the surface mounting operation, the package is placed onto a circuit board so that each terminal on the package is aligned with the corresponding contact pad on the circuit board. Solder or other bonding material is provided between the terminals and the contact pads. The package can be permanently bonded in place by heating the assembly so as to melt or “reflow” the solder or otherwise activate the bonding material. Numerous packages of this general type have been proposed for various applications. Most commonly, such packages include a dielectric element, commonly referred to as a “chip carrier” with terminals formed as plated or etched metallic structures on the dielectric. These terminals typically are connected to the contacts of the chip itself by features such as thin traces extending along the chip carrier itself and by fine leads or wires extending between the contacts of the chip and the terminals or traces. These packages also may include an overmolding or encapsulant covering the chip and also covering the upper of the chip carrier.
Chips used for generating or processing radio frequency (“RF”) signals, commonly referred to as “RF chips” are used in wireless devices such as cellular telephones and wireless data communication devices. There have been increasing needs for packages especially suited for use with RF chips with increasing adoption of wireless devices. RF chips typically generate substantial amounts of heat during operation. Moreover, RF chips require low impedance connections to external circuitry and in some cases require connections capable of handling appreciable electrical current. Moreover, packages for RF chips desirably incorporate electrical shielding which prevents unwanted propagation of electrical magnetic fields between the RF chip and the surroundings. For example, a radio frequency power amplifier chip used in a transmitter can generate significant spurious RF emissions. Other elements of the circuit must be protected from these emissions. Conversely, a radio frequency amplifier used in a receiver should be isolated from RF emissions generated by other components.
It is desirable to package RF chips in a unit containing other components such as, for example, inductors, couplers, chokes, capacitors and resistors separate from the RF chip itself. The entire package should be as small as possible to facilitate miniaturization of the overall wireless device. Also, such packages should be manufacturable at low cost and with high reliability. All of these factors, taken together, have presented a considerable challenge heretofore. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Due to the ever-increasing popularity and accessibility of the Internet as a medium of communication, the number of business transactions conducted using the Internet is also increasing, as are the numbers of buyers and sellers participating in electronic marketplaces providing a forum for these transactions. The majority of electronic commerce (“e-commerce”) transactions occur when a buyer determines a need for a product, identifies a seller that provides that product, and accesses the seller's web site to arrange a purchase of the product. If the buyer does not have a preferred seller or if the buyer is purchasing the product for the first time, the buyer will often perform a search for a number of sellers that offer the product and then access numerous seller web sites to determine which seller offers certain desired product features at the best price and under the best terms for the buyer. The matching phase of e-commerce transactions (matching the buyer with a particular seller) is often inefficient because of the large amount of searching involved in finding a product and because once a particular product is found, the various offerings of that product by different sellers may not be easily compared. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a system and, more particularly, to an information exchange apparatus that allows a user to share and exchange information with other users, an information exchange method applied to the information exchange apparatus and a managing system applied to the information exchange apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Today, people are living in a world that is full of new knowledge and information. People also spread new knowledge and information instead of retrieving it because of the popularity of the Internet. For example, online dating, e-commerce, web logs (blogs) or the like are popular information exchange services via the Internet. The information exchange services create virtual environments for people to exchange information or communicate with each other. However, people cannot really know each other in the virtual environments, because the virtual environments are not the real world. Shortcomings of information exchange services via the Internet such as online dating and e-commerce are described as follows.
Online dating is implemented on a website that has members and allows the members to contact and share personal information with each other over the Internet for developing friendships or romantic relationships by using computers or cell phones. However, because members do not meet each other face to face during online dating, some members may misrepresent themselves or provide fake information. This is why Internet fraud happens frequently. There is an inherent lack of trust between members.
E-commerce is also implemented on a website that provides products or services and allows users to buy or sell over the Internet. However, because the consumers cannot check interested products before purchase, it is not easy for consumers to pick out what they want. The consumers are also at a high risk of fraud, because E-commerce often requires the consumers to pay first. On the other hand, because E-commerce is a one-way service, the proprietor who provides products to consumers does not understand what the consumers are interested in. The proprietor of E-commerce cannot provide new products according to what the consumers are interested in.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides an information exchange apparatus, method and managing system applied thereto to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Power saving and silicon area constraints have made component digitization a key goal in integrated circuits. In the area of radio frequency (RF) transmitters, conventional architectures, while becoming more digitized, continue to suffer from power efficiency degradation and reduced bandwidth.
The present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Generally, the drawing in which an element first appears is typically indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to energetic materials, particularly to the manufacture of energetic materials, and more particularly to the manufacture of energetic materials using sol-gel chemistry.
Energetic materials are herein defined as any material which stores chemical energy in a fixed volume. Explosives, propellants, and pyrotechnics are examples of energetic materials. Reaction results from either shock or heat. Explosives and propellants may be thought of as a means of storing gas as a xe2x80x9csolidxe2x80x9d. Pyrotechnics typically release much of their energy as heat.
Energetic materials consist of fuels and oxidizers which are intimately mixed. This is done by incorporating fuels and oxidizers within one molecule or through chemical and physical mixtures of separate fuel and oxidizer ingredients. The material may also contain other constituents such as binders, plasticizers, stabilizers, pigments, etc.
Traditional manufacturing of energetic materials involves processing granular solids into parts. These materials may be pressed or cast to shape. Performance properties are strongly dependent on particle size distribution, surface area of the constituents, and void volume. In many cases achieving fast energy release rates, as well as insensitivity to unintended initiation, necessitates the use of small particles ( less than 100 xcexcm) which are intimately mixed. Reproducibility in performance is adversely affected by the difficulties of synthesizing and processing materials with the same particle morphology. Manufacturing these granular substances into complex shapes is often difficult due to limitations in processing highly solid filled materials.
An example of an existing limitation of processing granular solids is in manufacturing energetic materials for detonators. The state-of-the-art now requires the precise synthesis and recrystallization of explosive powders. These powders typically have high surface areas (e.g., greater than 1 m2/g). The powders are weighed and compacted at high pressures to make pellets. Handling fine grain powders is very difficult. Dimensional and mechanical tolerances may be very poor as the pellets may contain no binder. Changes in the density and dimensions of the pellets affect both initiation and detonation properties. Manufacturing rates are also low as the process is usually done one at a time. Certification of material is typically done by expensive, end-use detonation performance testing and not solely by chemical and physical characterization of the explosive powder. As these detonators or initiating explosives are sensitive, machining to shape pressed pellets is typically not done.
Another current limitation is producing precise intimate mixtures of fuels and oxidizers. The energy release rates of energetic materials are determined by the overall chemical reaction rate. Monomolecular energetic materials have the highest power as the energy release rates are primarily determined by intramolecular reactions. However, energy densities can be significantly higher in composite energetic materials. Reaction rates (power) in these systems are typically controlled by mass transport diffusion rates.
The present invention solves many of these prior problems by manufacturing energetic materials through the use of sol-gel chemistry. Sol-gel chemistry is known in the art and broadly described here, but described hereinafter in greater detail to provide an understanding of this technology. In one approach, using sol-gel chemistry, a solution including explosive materials is made. That solution is then gelled to form a cross-linked skeleton, which may be either inert, or reactive, or energetic, and a continuous liquid phase. The liquid phase is then extracted to produce either a xerogel or an aerogel. A solid so produced has high surface area and homogeneity. During the solution stage of the operation, the solution may be easily cast into molds to produce final parts. By applying a stress during removal of the liquid phase, dense parts may be obtained. Alternately, explosive molding powders may be made which can be used as feedstock for pressing operations. The molding beads will have a high degree of uniformity in the microstructure. As these beads are orders of magnitude larger than explosive powders used in traditional processing they may be easily handled. Also, through using sol-gel chemistry the intimacy of mixing can be dramatically improved over mixing granular solids. Numerous synthetic routes may be carried out utilizing sol-gel chemistry in the processing of energetic materials; these include solution addition, powder/particle addition, nano-composites, and functionalized solid networks.
It is an object of the present invention to produce energetic materials using sol-gel chemistry.
A further object of the invention is to minimize prior problems associated with the manufacturing of energetic materials by the use of sol-gel processing.
A further object of the invention is to produce explosives using sol-gel chemistry which enables microstructural control of the explosive material to the nanometer scale.
Another object of the invention is to manufacture energetic materials using sol-gel chemistry, whereby the intimacy of mixing can be controlled and dramatically improved over the prior procedures of mixing granular solids or epitaxial deposition.
Another object of the invention is produced by sol-gel processing a solid skeleton composed of fuel with the oxidizer trapped within the pores, or vice versa.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process using sol-gel chemistry to create a material that has high energy, such as a strategic rocket propellant with high power, such as an ideal explosive.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process utilizing sol-gel chemistry wherein the sensitivity of the energetic materials can be readily controlled.
Another object of the invention is to utilize sol-gel chemistry in the processing of energetic materials by at least solution addition, powder/particle addition, nano-composites, and functionalized solid networks.
Another object of the invention is to utilize sol-gel chemistry for the preparation of energetic materials with improved homogeneity, and/or can be cast to near-net shapes, and/or can be made into precision molding powders.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings. Basically, the invention involves sol-gel manufactured energetic material and a process utilizing sol-gel chemistry for producing energetic materials. Energetic materials manufactured using sol-gel chemistry possess superior properties in terms of microstructural homogeneity, and/or can be more easily processed and/or processed with greater precision and accuracy, than can be obtained by the prior known technology. The sol-gel manufactured energetic materials can be utilized as precision detonator explosives, precision explosives, propellants, pyrotechnics, and high power composites.
The sol-gel process is a synthetic chemical process where reactive monomers are mixed into a solution; polymerization occurs leading to a highly cross-inked three-dimensional solid network resulting in a gel. The composition, pore and primary particles sizes, gel time, surface areas, and density may be tailored and controlled by the solution chemistry. The gels are then subjected to either supercritical extraction or controlled slow evaporation of the liquid phase from the gel. Supercritical extraction of these gels allows the surface tension of the leaving liquid phase to be reduced to near zero and results in a highly porous skeletal structure which is low density aerogel, while controlled slow evaporation of the liquid phase from the gels leads to a xerogel, which may be high density. Applying stress during the extraction phase can result in high density materials. By use of the sol-gel processing, energetic materials can be made, for example, by solution addition solution exchange, powder/particle addition, functionalized solid network, functionalized explosive network, and micron to submicron scale composite energetic materials.
The methodologies of the above six sol-gel manufacturing techniques are briefly described as follows:
Solution Addition: The energetic material constituent is dissolved in a solvent which is compatible with the reactive monomer and mixed into the pre-gel solution prior to gelation. Upon gelation, the energetic material constituent is uniformly distributed within the pores of the solid network formed by the polymerization of the reactive monomer.
Solution Exchange: After gelation, the liquid phase is exchanged with another liquid which contains an energetic material constituent, thus allowing deposition of the energetic material constituent within the gel.
Powder/Particle Addition: The energetic material constituent, in particulate form, is either mixed with the pre-gel solution or added to a pre-made gel, resulting in a composite of gel and suspended particles.
Functionalized Solid Network: Use of reactive monomers which have functionalized sites dangling throughout the solid network after gelation. Dissolution of the energetic material constituent in mutually compatible solvents and diffusing into the gel allows the energetic material constituent to react and bind to the functionalized site. Thus, the amount of energetic material constituent may be controlled by the number of functionalized sites while ensuring homogeneity at the molecular level.
Functionalized Energetic Network: Functionalizing the energetic material constituent molecules so that they can be reacted in solution to directly form a three dimensional solid (gel) which incorporates the energetic molecules at the finest scale. In this embodiment, the solid network is the energetic material and, if desired, the concentration can be controlled by co-reacting with other inert reactive monomers.
Micron To Sub-Micron (Nano) Scale Composite Energetic Materials: Higher performance energetic materials can be made in which the skeletal structure and the surrounding phase serve as fuels and oxidizers to form a composite energetic material. Conductive gels (e.g., carbon aerogels) may be used as substrates for the electrochemical precipitation of metal fuels, or metals may be deposited within non-conductive aerogels via decomposition from the gas or liquid phase. Void space may then be used for the addition of an oxidizer and other energetic material constituents.
The sol-gel manufacturing of energetic materials solves many of the prior above-described problems associated with the manufacture of energetic materials. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks, and more particularly to a method and system for providing an Available Bit Rate (ABR) interface to a non ATM bandwidth adjustable Virtual Path Connection (CBR VPC).
High Speed Communication Networks
In modern telecommunication networks, different types of applications must share the same transmission media, and networks equipment must be able to support these different services while guaranteeing to each of them a specified quality of service. While some years ago, voice and data used separate networks, they now share bandwidth of the same links. For the last three years, standards organizations have worked to define transmission modes, such as ATM (Asynchronous Transmission Mode), Frame Relay, and so forth, and inside a particular transmission mode, to specify in detail the services provided to network applications. For ATM, for instance, four different service categories exist, and a user will choose one of them based on the type of service required:
Continuous Bit Rate (CBR)
This service is intended for uncompressed voice, and highest priority applications (video). The cost of this service is the highest because the bandwidth which is reserved corresponds to the maximum rate (Peak Cell Rate PCR) at which this type of application can emit. This is the bandwidth to allocate when the quality of service, in terms of maximum Cell Transfer Delay (maxCTD) and Peak to peak Cell Delay Variation (peak to peak CDV), must be guaranteed whatever the network load conditions.
Variable Bit Rate (VBR)
This service is a compromise between the Continuous Bit Rate (CBR), which requires a lot of resources, and a service where no reservation of bandwidth would be done. Effectively here, a bandwidth comprised between the Sustainable Cell Rate (SCR) of the connection and the Peak Cell Rate (PCR) of the connection is allocated, depending on the burstiness of the traffic. When the bursts created by the application in the network are limited, a bandwidth close to the Sustainable Cell Rate (SCR) is reserved. When the bursts induced by the application are large (or may be large), a bandwidth closer to the Peak Cell Rate is reserved to avoid overloading links and buffers, and loss of data.
While the service offered here also guarantees a very low loss of packets or cells (Cell Loss Ratio CLR), the transfer delays and cell delay variations are more important than for CBR. In general, VBR can be divided into VBR Real Time (good candidate for video and data RT applications) and VBR Non Real Time (good candidate for data sensitive traffic).
Unspecified Bit Rate (UBR)
This service is totally uncontrolled. Traffic is sent in the network, and is transmitted provided that the network is not congested. When the network is congested, cells are discarded. Unlike CBR and VBR, no quality of service can be guaranteed.
Available Bit Rate (ABR)
This service provides again less quality than Variable Bit Rate (VBR), and can be used for different applications. While a minimum reservation can be done in the network to guarantee to an application a xe2x80x9cworst casexe2x80x9d behavior, the steady state behavior of the service offered corresponds to a xe2x80x9cnon reservedxe2x80x9d type of service, where nearly no resource is allocated in the network. When congestion occurs, feedback is conveyed through the network back to the traffic sources to prevent them from sending more data. This reactive system behavior is directly linked to the network size. The delay to convey back congestion information to the sources increases as a function of the network size, and may nevertheless induce losses. In this case, end users make decisions to send the data again. Here neither the delays nor the losses can be guaranteed; the service is only assumed to minimize the losses.
All these different services are proposed and used simultaneously in most networks.
Bandwidth Optimization
Most wide-area ATM networks (large country, world-wide networks) are configured so that an ATM backbone network can support communications between different ATM access networks. Such network topology allows good performance and the optimization of the network administration. Generally, the backbone network is a public ATM network, and access networks are private ATM networks. However, the backbone can be used within a single private network using, for example, lines leased from a carrier. To optimize the resources where they are most demanded, in particular the bandwidth within the backbone network, several solutions can be implemented, all taking into account the dynamic availability of the bandwidth:
1. End to End Available Bit Rate Virtual Channel Connections (ABR VCCs) for Data Traffic
This solution, as illustrated in FIG. 5, supposes the support of ABR VCCs by all end-systems (source node 1 and destination node 8). The advantage is that intermediate nodes within access networks and within the backbone network (nodes 2 to 7) have only to set an Explicit Forward Congestion Indication (EFCI) bit in the ATM cells to be compliant with the ATM Forum recommendation (ATM Forumxe2x80x94Technical Committeexe2x80x94xe2x80x9cTraffic Management Specification,xe2x80x9d version 4.0, April 96, paragraph 5.10.6, rule 1.a)). End-systems (nodes 1 and 8) connected to users (user 1 and user 2) do the most complex process, in particular:
the ABR source behavior (node 1) including:
generation of Resource Management cells (RM-cells),
insertion of RM-cells in the traffic,
computation of a transmission rate per VCC based on congestion information received from RM-cells,
dynamic traffic shaping, and
the ABR destination (node 8) behavior including:
transmission of RM-cells back to the source in response to forward RM-cells,
setting of the congestion fields within RM-cells, and
insertion of RM-cells in the traffic.
A more sophisticated implementation of the Available Bit Rate (ABR) category of service in intermediate nodes is described in the ATM Forum paragraph 5.10.6, rule 1.c). The so called xe2x80x9cswitch behaviorxe2x80x9d allows the control of congestion at queuing points, and in particular the modification of the Explicit Rate (ER) field within RM-cells for a better response to congestion and thus a lower cell loss.
2. Available Bit Rate Virtual Path Connections (ABR VPCs) in the Backbone
FIG. 6 is a view of a network comprising a first access network (access network 1) comprising an end node (node 1) connected to a user (user 1) and a source node (source node 2), a backbone network comprising a plurality of nodes (node 3, node 4, and node 9) and a second access network (access network 2) comprising a destination node (destination node 5), transit nodes (nodes 6 and 7), and an end node (node 8) connected to a user 2. An ABR VCC is established between nodes 2-5, to transmit, to node 5, traffic of end user 1 (VCC1) together with traffic of other end users (VCC3). In node 5, traffic is discriminated according to its destination, and transmitted to end user 2 (VCC2) and to other end users (VCC4).
ABR Virtual Path Connections (VPCs), as illustrated in FIG. 6, are set up in the backbone network for interconnecting access networks (access networks 1 and 2). The nodes within the access networks directly connected to the backbone network (nodes 2 and 5) use these ABR VPCs to transport VCCs (VCC1, VCC3). In order to comply with the ATM Forum recommendations (paragraph 5.10.9), these nodes implement the ABR source and destination behavior as described in paragraphs 5.10.4 to 5.10.9. Access nodes (nodes 2 and 5) must also be able to provide a fair share of the bandwidth of these Virtual Path Connections (VPCs) among the different Virtual Channel Connections (VCC1, VCC3) they support.
3. Continuous Bit Rate Virtual Path Connections (CBR VPCs) with Adjustable Bandwidth in the Backbone
FIG. 7 is a view of a network comprising a first access network (access network 1) comprising an end node (node 1) connected to a user 1 and a source node (source node 2), a backbone network comprising a plurality of nodes (nodes 3, 4, and 9) and a second access network (access network 2) comprising a destination node (destination node 5), transit nodes (nodes 6 and 7), and an end node (node 8) connected to a user 2. A CBR VCC is established between nodes 2-5, to transmit, to node 5, traffic of end user 1 (VCC1) together with traffic of other end users (VCC3). In node 5, traffic is discriminated according to its destination, and transmitted to end user 2 (VCC2) and to other end users (VCC4).
A bandwidth adjustable CBR Virtual Path Connection (VPC), as illustrated in FIG. 7, is set up in the backbone network for interconnecting the access networks (access networks 1 and 2). The nodes within the access networks directly connected to the backbone network (nodes 2 and 5) use this CBR VPC to transport VCCs. Access nodes must provide a fair share of the bandwidth of this CBR Virtual Path Connection (VPC) among the different Virtual Channel Connections (VCC1, VCC3) it supports.
This last solution implies a dynamic adjustment of the CBR VPC bandwidth according to the network availability. Each time the bandwidth of a CBR connection is modified, the Connection Admission Control (CAC) process is triggered. However, because this process requires a large amount of resources, it cannot be processed continuously. A certain degree of integration is necessary to manage the fluctuations of the network load. The response time required to adjust the bandwidth of a CBR VPC is not in the order of a millisecond, as for an ABR VPC, but in the order of a minute or more depending upon the number of voice connections established and disconnected within a given time period.
Bandwidth Adjustable Virtual Path Connections
The establishment of dynamic bandwidth adjustable Virtual Paths Connections (ABR or CBR VPCs) as shown in solutions 2 and 3 allows the aggregation of multiple VCCs and thus better management of the bandwidth within the backbone network.
VCC Aggregation
While most Virtual Channel Connections (VCCs) within access networks do not require a large amount of bandwidth, the traffic between the different access networks through the backbone network requires the definition of large bandwidth connections. The use of Virtual Path Connections (VPCs) considerably limits the number of VCCs which must be established on the backbone network, while optimizing the bandwidth utilization. The response time is generally reduced, avoiding delays in the different policing processes. While in access networks CBR, VBR or ABR/UBR Virtual Channel Connections (VCCs) are established, the backbone network requires usually ABR or CBR VPCs. These Virtual Path Connections must be able to transport any category of service, without distinction of quality, through the backbone network.
Bandwidth Management
The quality of the process used at the backbone/access networks edges to allocate the bandwidth of a VPC among different individual VCC connections determines the overall performance of the end to end service: short delays for high priority traffic (voice or CBR traffic), and smoothing of low priority traffic (data or ABR traffic) even if, within the backbone network, in the same Virtual Path Connection (VPC), all types of traffic are mixed. The different functions of the process for controlling the traffic are smoothing, queuing, and bandwidth allocation.
Smoothing: a shaping function is used to send the traffic of the Virtual Channel Connections (VCCs) on the Virtual Path Connection (VPC), controlling the maximum transmission rate. Delays between consecutive cells are introduced to space the flow.
Queuing: the shaping function lets the traffic leave the node at a lower rate than available. This induces additional queuing in the node. A good implementation allows the storing of data without loss.
Bandwidth Allocation: within a given Virtual Path Connection (VPC), the bandwidth is allocated among the different VCC connections. Rules must be chosen to fairly allocate the bandwidth of a Virtual Path Connection (VPC) taking into account the category of service of the different VCCs (CBR, VBR, ABR, UBR).
ABR and Bandwidth Adjustable CBR Virtual Path Connections (VPC)
ABR Virtual Path Connections (FIG. 6)
While the Available Bit Rate (ABR) service category is defined in the ATM Forum specifications and provides an efficient bandwidth utilization, its implementation requires important resources in term of:
processing capacity for managing RM-cells along the ABR VPC and continuously (in a time period on the order of a micro or milli second) adjusting the bandwidth, and
additional bandwidth. Per default, one RM-cell is generated every 32 cells, which represents about 3% additional bandwidth only used for the RM-cell traffic.
Solutions based on equivalent principles (dynamic bandwidth adjustment function of the network availability), but characterized by a slower reaction time (minutes or seconds instead of microseconds) are then preferred to ABR service category to save resources.
Bandwidth Adjustable CBR Virtual Path Connection (FIG. 7)
The ATM specifications defined in the ATM Forum do not define a bandwidth adjustable CBR or VPC. This service category is not standard and its implementation depends on the backbone network provider. As illustrated in FIG. 7, when both access network and backbone network are managed by the same network provider, it is possible to define a specific (proprietary) solution for transporting the adjustment information including the VPC transmission rate from the backbone network to the access network. In this case, proprietary RM-cells can be used at the interface between access network and backbone network (between node 2 and node 3). If access and backbone networks are not managed by the same provider, only a standard interface can be used.
FIG. 8 is a view of a network comprising a first access network (access network 1) comprising an end node (node 1) connected to a user 1 and a source node (node 2), a backbone network comprising a plurality of nodes (nodes 3, 4, and 9), and a second access network (access network 2) comprising a destination node (node 5), transit nodes (nodes 6 and 7), and an end node (node 8) connected to a user 2. A CBR VCC is established in the backbone network between nodes 3 and 4, to transmit, to node 4, traffic of end user 1 (VCC1).
The solution according to the present invention is, as shown in FIG. 8, to configure an Available Bit Rate (ABR) Virtual Path Connection (VPC) between nodes 2 and 3 in order to provide this standard interface to the proprietary CBR VPC established in the backbone network. Node 2 will see an ABR VPC, and will react as if an end to end ABR VPC were set-up. In the backbone network, node 3 at the destination of the ABR VPC and at the source of the adjustable CBR VPC, will be in charge of translating the CBR VPC bandwidth adjustments into RM-cells updates on the ABR VPC.
Similarly, an Available Bit Rate (ABR) Virtual Path Connection (VPC) is also configured between nodes 4 and 5 to provide a standard interface to the proprietary CBR VCC established in the backbone network between nodes 3 and 4. In node 5, the traffic is transmitted to end user 2 (VCC2).
The object of the present invention is to provide to an ATM access network a standard and transparent ATM interface for accessing a non standard ATM bandwidth adjustable virtual path connection established on a backbone network between a backbone source node and a backbone destination node, this backbone network and this ATM access network comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected with transmission links. An ATM available bit rate (ABR) virtual path connection is established between the ATM access network and the backbone source node of the bandwidth adjustable virtual path connection. The available bit rate is adjusted according to the adjusted bandwidth of the virtual path connection established on the backbone node.
In a particular embodiment, the bandwidth adjustable virtual path connection is a continuous bit rate (CBR) virtual path connection with dynamic bandwidth adjustment. The backbone network comprises a bandwidth management server connected to each backbone node first, for dynamically computing the bandwidth which is available on backbone transmission links, second, for sharing this bandwidth among the bandwidth adjustable virtual path connections established on the backbone network, third, for balancing among the backbone transmission links, the bandwidth reserved for bandwidth adjustable virtual path connections, and finally for adjusting the bandwidth of these bandwidth adjustable virtual path connections through the respective source nodes. | {
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With rapid development of science and technology, various terminal devices come into being, such as bands and headsets. Particularly, with the advent of wireless headsets, headsets and receivers become wireless, which relieves people from headset cables. A band is a wearable device and has a decorative function.
Conventional terminal devices, such as a headset and a band, are all self-existent components. When a user does not need to use a headset, the user needs to put the headset away. When needing to use the headset urgently, the user needs to rummage for the headset, which affects the user in using the headset and user experience. Besides, with popularization of terminal devices, users carry more terminal devices. Various self-existent terminal devices occupy relatively large space, making it inconvenient to carry terminal devices. | {
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Numerous processes are known for the preparation of toners, such as, for example, emulsion aggregation processes. Such toner preparation processes are illustrated in a number of patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,290,654, 5,278,020, 5,308,734, 5,370,963, 5,344,738, 5,403,693, 5,418,108, 5,364,729, 5,346,797, 5,348,832, 5,405,728, 5,366,841, 5,496,676, 5,527,658, 5,585,215, 5,593,807, 5,650,255, 5,650,256, 5,501,935, 5,945,245 and 6,582,873, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. In these methods, the toners are formed chemically in situ and do not require known pulverization and/or classification methods.
Waxes are added to toner formulations in order to aid toner release from the fuser roll during fusing, particularly in low oil or oil-less fuser designs, and to help release of the fused image document from the fuser roll. That is, waxes are added to prevent the fused image document from curling around the fuser roll. In addition, waxes are added to the toner formulations in order to reduce the occurrence of stripper finger marks, such as scratch marks, changes in image gloss and the like, on the fused images, where stripper fingers aid the removal of fused image documents from fuser roll. Furthermore, waxes in toner formulations aid in the prevention of document offset where fused images on documents in contact over a prolonged period of time or at elevated temperatures may be undesirably transferred from one document to another. In addition, examples of wax containing toners include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,482,812, 5,688,325, 5,994,020, 6,210,853 and 6,294,606, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. For emulsion aggregation toners, for example styrene-acrylate emulsion aggregation toners, linear polyethylene waxes such as POLYWAX® 725 (available from Baker Petrolite), are useful. Conventional toners may contain and/or require a high amount of wax loading in order to achieve desirable levels of toner release. When wax is added to such toners in the bulk, and wax is substantially equally distributed throughout the toner volume, the resulting toners may contain and/or require a high amount of wax loading in order to achieve desirable levels of toner release. The high wax content of these toners can greatly increase the unit manufacturing cost of the said toners.
A number of approaches have been considered to reducing this cost including reduction of the overall bulk amount of wax added to the toner formulation. When the overall bulk wax content is lowered, the amount of wax at the toner surface is decreased, and the toner release properties, the stripper finger performance, and document offset properties of the toner composition are adversely affected. Microscopic examination of fused toners on paper has shown that there is no significant wax movement or migration from the bulk of the toner toward the surface. Therefore, it is conceivable that for fusing performance where wax is needed at the surface of the fused image, the only “useful” wax will be wax that is located near the toner surface, that is, contained in the toner shell.
Therefore, what is still needed is an improved process for forming toner particles with lower wax content, thereby improving the economic feasibility of the process, but having acceptable toner release properties, stripper finger performance and document offset properties. | {
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Semiconductor memory arrays are used extensively in today's digital and computer systems. These memory arrays are mainly used in such systems for storing data and computer programs or instructions which manipulate data to perform specific functions. Some semiconductor memory arrays are volatile; that is, they lose their memory content in response to its source power being cut-off. These volatile semiconductor memory arrays include, for example, static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Other semiconductor memory arrays are non-volatile; that is, they do not lose their memory content in response to its source power being cut-off. These non-volatile memory include, for example, electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), flash EEPROM, and others.
Referring initially to FIG. 1, a schematic diagram of typical prior art example of a semiconductor memory array 10 is shown, along with associated circuitry for addressing and performing memory operations. The semiconductor memory array 10 typically comprises a plurality of field effect transistors structurally arranged in an array consisting of rows and columns of transistors. Generally, each transistor in a memory array stores a particular bit of data, and accordingly, the transistors are generally referred to as memory cells. In the typical configuration, the transistors or memory cells forming a column of the semiconductor memory array 10 have their drains electrically connected to each other by a conductive line; typically referred to as the "bitline" or "BL", for short. Also in the typical configuration, the transistors or memory cells forming a row of the semiconductor memory array 10 have their gates connected to each other by another conductive line; typically referred to as the "wordline" or "WL", for short. In some semiconductor memory arrays, all of the transistors or memory cells in the memory array 10 have their sources connected to each other, forming a common source. It is conventional that the drains and sources of the memory cell transistors are interchangeable.
As shown in FIG. 1, the semiconductor memory array 10 contains "m" rows of transistors or memory cells, wherein the variable "i" represents the i'th row. The "i" and "m" variables will also be used in conjunction with "WL" to designate the wordlines connecting in common the gates of the i'th and m'th rows of transistors or cells, respectively. The semiconductor memory array 10 also contains "n" columns of transistors or memory cells wherein the variable "j" represents the j'th column. The "j" and "n" variables will also be used in conjunction with "BL" to designate the bit-lines connecting in common the drains of the j'th and m'th column of transistors or memory cells, respectively. Using these designations, a particular transistor or memory cell in the memory cell can be designated as C(row, column), wherein C(i, j) is the transistor or memory cell in the i'th row and the j'th column.
Typically, a particular transistor or memory cell in the semiconductor memory array 10 is addressed using a row address decoder 12 and a column address decoder 14. The outputs of the row address decoder 12 are coupled to corresponding wordlines (WLI-WLM) of the memory array 10. The row address decoder 12 receives a row address for selecting a particular row of transistors or memory cells for which the desired transistor or cell to be addressed is in. If the semiconductor memory array 10 is comprised of N-type transistors, then the row address decoder 12 produces a logical "high" on the selected wordline. Similarly, outputs of the column address decoder/Y-multiplexer (Y-mux) 14 are coupled to corresponding bit-lines (BLI-BLN) of the memory array 10. The column address decoder 14 receives a column address for selecting a particular column of transistors or memory cells for which the desired transistor or memory cell to be addressed is in. The column address decoder/Y-mux select a bitline to be interfaced or connected to the sense amplifier 16 or the input buffer 20.
By placing logical "highs" on the selected wordline and appropriate bias voltage on the selected bit-line of the selected transistor or memory cell, and more specifically, on the gate and drain of the selected transistor, a determination of whether the cell contains a logical "1" or a logical "0" can be determined by measuring the drain current, designated herein as I.sub.D. A sense amplifier 16 is included for sensing the drain current I.sub.D. The sense amplifier 16 measures the drain current ID by sensing the voltage at its input, and in particular, the difference in its input voltage between the sensing of a logical "0" and a logical "1". This difference in its input voltage is usually termed the "sense window" and can be designated as .DELTA.V. Therefore, by having the sense amplifier 16 sense its input voltage, the data content of the selected transistor or memory cell can be determined. Output and input buffers 18 and 20 are provided for buffering the data as it is transferred and received.
Because of the recent trend of densifying memory circuits, that is, increasing the content memory size for a given integrated circuit size, semiconductor memory arrays, such as the one shown in FIG. 1, have grown to include a substantial amount of transistors or memory cells. Due to this increase in the semiconductor memory array, the performance and reliability of the memory array has been adversely affected. Specifically, with respect to the performance aspect of the memory array, the memory operation or read access time has increased with the increase in the number of transistors or memory cells of the semiconductor memory array of the type shown in FIG. 1. With respect to performance, the write disturbance or transistor voltage stress is now unnecessarily affecting more transistors or memory cells of the semiconductor memory array of the type shown in FIG. 1, which adversely affects the operational lifetime of the semiconductor memory array.
Specifically, the increase in the read access time of the semiconductor memory array 10 has occurred because more transistors or memory cells in a column of the memory array are coupled to the sense amplifier 16. The read access time, which can be represented as .DELTA.T, is proportional to the sense window voltage .DELTA.V, the capacitance C.sub.SA as seen at the input of the sense amplifier 16, and inversely proportional to the read drain/source current ID During a read operation, the column address decoder 14 couples the selected bit-line to the sensing input of the sense amplifier 16, and in particular, couples the drain of each column transistor or memory cell to the sensing input of the sensing amplifier. Because each transistor of the semiconductor memory array has a Parasitic junction capacitance C.sub.J associated with its drain, the increase in the memory array size has resulted in an increase in the capacitance C.sub.SA at the sensing amplifier input. Because the read access time is proportional to the capacitance C.sub.SA, the increase in the number of column transistors has resulted in an increase in the read access time.
For example, the prior art semiconductor memory array 10 of FIG. 1 includes "m" transistors or memory cells within each column. Assuming that each transistor has a Parasitic junction capacitance C.sub.J associated with its drain, then the capacitance contribution from a column of transistors to the input capacitance C.sub.SA of the sensing amplifier 16 is given by mC.sub.J. If the number of transistors or memory cells in semiconductor memory arrays continues to grow, as it is the trend today, and consequently, the number of column transistors grow (that is, "m" gets larger), then the capacitance contribution from a column of transistors or memory cells mC.sub.j also gets larger, which results in a large capacitance C.sub.SA seen at the input of the sense amplifier 16. The read access time, being proportional to the capacitance C.sub.SA, will also be larger. Thereby, slowing the speed in which the semiconductor memory array can be operated.
From a reliability standpoint, the more denser a semiconductor memory array gets, the more transistors or memory cells of the memory array are unnecessarily exposed to memory operation voltages. Specifically, during a write operation on the semiconductor memory array, which includes programming and erasing operations, a voltage typically around 5 to more than 12 Volts (depending on the type of semiconductor memory array) is applied to the drain of the transistors or memory cells of the memory array by way of the bit-lines. This means that each transistor or memory cell in a column of the memory array will be exposed to such voltage. This applied voltage causes stress of each selected column transistor or memory cell which degrades the operational lifetime of the transistor or memory cell. It also makes each of the column transistors susceptible to program disturbance; that is, their data content may be altered by the applied voltage.
Again, taking the example of the prior art semiconductor memory array of FIG. 1, it includes "m" transistors or memory cells per column of the array. During the write operation, a voltage typically around 5 to 12 Volts is applied to a bit-line of the memory array. This results in "m" column transistors or memory cells being exposed to such applied voltage. Since during the write operation only one transistor is accessed at a time for writing data thereto, a total of m-l transistors are unnecessarily exposed to the applied voltage. Again, as semiconductor memory arrays get denser, the number of column transistors "m" get larger; which results in more transistors (i.e. m-1) being unnecessarily exposed to the applied voltage. This has the adverse effects of degrading the operational lifetime of the transistors and making them susceptible to program disturbance.
The adverse effects of program disturbance and operational lifetime degradation is more prevalent in semiconductor memory array that uses the common source for performing writing operations. During the writing operation of this type of memory array, a voltage typically ranging from 5 to 12 volts (depending on the type of the semiconductor memory array) is applied to the common source. This results in all transistors or memory cells of the memory array being exposed to such applied source voltage, which degrades the operational lifetime of memory array and makes all transistors or memory cells therein susceptible to write disturbance.
For the source-voltage writing type of semiconductor memory arrays, the adverse effects are worse since more transistors or memory cells are unnecessarily exposed to the applied voltage. Taking the example of the prior art semiconductor memory array 10 of FIG. 1, it comprises an n.times.m array of transistors or memory cells all having a common source. Since during writing operation only one transistor will be accessed for writing data thereto, this means that a total of (n.times.m)-1 transistors or memory cells are unnecessarily exposed to such applied source voltage. Because of the trend to increase both n and m in today's design of semiconductor memory arrays, more transistors or memory cells will be unnecessarily exposed to such applied source voltage, which results in the proliferation of the operational lifetime degradation and program disturbance effects.
Thus, there is a need for a semiconductor memory array and associated memory operation circuit that meets today's expectation of providing more transistors or memory cells within a given die size, and provides improved read access time (i.e. improved performance) and reduces the negative effects of operational lifetime degradation and program disturbance (i.e. improved reliability). | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a machine and a method for the silk-screen printing of flat objects, such as compact discs, telephone cards or solar cells.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such printing machines are mounted in a production line which extends linearly. The objects are moved from one work station to another by conveyors. The work stations carry out different operations of manufacturing, printing and packaging the objects.
For those assembly lines, it is desirable to produce printing machines which operate at high speed and which have a small space requirement.
In particular, it is desirable to multiply by two the rate at which the objects are printed.
To that end, a printing machine is known which comprises a printing station capable of printing two objects at the same time.
That printing machine comprises a circular plate driven in rotation relative to a support frame. The circular plate carries object supports on which two objects to be printed are arranged. The printing station is mounted around the circular plate.
The silk-screen printing screen of the printing station is suitable for covering the two objects to be printed. It carries two patterns to be printed. During its displacement, the same doctor blade of the printing station is capable of applying the first pattern to the first object and the second pattern to the second object.
However, in that type of printing machine, the objects to be printed have to be positioned on the object support with a high degree of precision, it being necessary for the position of one object relative to the other to be identical when each pair of objects is deposited since the position of one pattern relative to the other cannot be modified. | {
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Bottles for storing and dispensing fluid and foodstuffs are well known. Most commonly, such bottles are blow-molded plastic containers. Such bottles are often used to contain fluids such as edible oils. Because such bottles are typically used repeatedly before their contents are consumed, they often have grip portions so that consumers can move the bottles to and from the kitchen cabinet or refrigerator with a sure grip.
Prior art grip portions provide improved grips over conventional bottle designs. These grip portions, however, often do not provide a comfortable grip that is easy to use. It is, therefore, also desirable to provide a grip portion for a bottle that is ergonomically designed and easier to use than conventional grip portions.
A typical prior art bottle having a grip portion is disclosed and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,614, assigned to The Procter & Gamble Co. The bottle shown in this patent has a grip portion comprising a recessed portion of a typical bottle shape. In this way, the grip portion provides a thinner area that is easier for a user to grip. The grip portion, however, is weaker than the remainder of the bottle in terms of its ability to withstand vertical loading. Vertical strength is important because such bottles typically are stacked on top of each other, e.g., during shipping or storage. It is, therefore, desirable to provide a grip portion for a bottle that has as much vertical strength as the rest of the bottle. | {
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The present disclosure relates generally to modal identification techniques for detecting dynamic properties of structures and more particularly to systems and methods for determining dynamic properties of structures with increased spatial resolution using one or more mobile sensors that collect vibration response data as they move through the structure.
Civil structures, such as bridges, buildings, and other structures, are extraordinarily important for society. Strategies to maintain or improve existing structural designs typically require numerical models of the structure to analyze behavior. The numerical models can be used to evaluate structure performance under specific conditions such as heavy loading, earthquake motion, wind loading, human activity, or other conditions. Developing accurate numerical models of existing structures is key to evaluate vulnerability, detecting damage, studying retrofit alternatives, predicting the useful life of structures, and performing other useful purposes. An accurate numerical model has the capability to reproduce the response of the real structure having parameters with a realistic physical meaning.
One way to validate an existing model is to compare the dynamic response of the numerical model with the actual response of the structure. Furthermore, the experimental response of the structure can be used to update or improve those numerical models. System identification and modal analysis techniques are used to determine modal parameters of a structure, including natural frequencies, mode shapes, and modal damping ratios. Different types of dynamic tests or excitations can be applied to the structure to characterize its behavior, such as free vibration, sinusoidal excitation, impulse excitation, and resonance tests. The use of ambient vibration, generally caused by traffic, wind, and microtremors, under normal operating conditions for the structure, can be a preferred approach for civil structures such as bridges.
In a traditional modal identification system, a finite number of sensors are placed at strategic points. For instance, FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary modal identification system 50 that includes a plurality of sensors 52, 54, 56, and 58 placed at key locations on structure 60. The coordinates of the modes shapes of structure 60 are calculated only at the location of sensors 52, 54, 56, and 58. As shown in FIG. 2, this creates a low spatial resolution mode shape. As illustrated, curve 70 illustrates the expected mode shape of the structure 60, while curve 72 represents the identified mode shape obtained with the data from the stationary sensors.
One approach to addressing low spatial resolution is to install additional sensors. However, the cost of instrumentation and installation of dense sensor networks can be prohibitive. Smart wireless sensors have been proposed for large instrumentation systems. The relative lower cost of the sensors and easier installation of the wireless sensors makes them more suitable for dense sensor networks. However, there are still fundamental challenges faced by this technology such as battery life and overload of the communication network.
Another approach to addressing low spatial resolution is mode shape expansion. Mode shape expansion is used to calculate the complete mode shape based on the information of discrete points. Exemplary mode shape expansion techniques include i) spatial interpolation techniques, which use a finite element model geometry to expand the mode shape; ii) properties interpolation techniques, which use the finite element model properties for the expansion; and iii) error minimization techniques, which intend to reduce the error between the expanded and the analytical mode shapes using projection methods. Mode shape expansion can introduce errors due to, for instance, discrepancies in the location of the sensors in the actual structure and numerical models, measurement errors, modeling errors, and other factors.
Another existing modal identification technique involves the use of Laser Doppler Vibrometers (LDVs) in a continuously scanning mode. A laser beam from the LDV is focused to a surface of interest and the velocity of the addressed point is measured using the Doppler shift between the incident and the reflected beam. Vibration measurements along a line can be made by continuously passing the laser beam over the surface of a vibrating structure. The single signal collected from the LDV at uniform or sinusoidal speed can be used for the identification of a polynomial that describes the operational mode shape of a structure. A continuous scan LDV (CSLDV) can be used to derive curvature equations of a structure and to calculate the stress and strain distributions for the structure. For instance, CSLDV can be used in conjunction with random excitation of a structure to identify operational deflection shapes for maintaining a polynomial shape assumption.
The use of LDV or CSLDV technology in the identification of mode shapes for structures, and in particular for civil infrastructure such as bridges and buildings, poses several challenges. For instance, the usable distance of the lasers is typically too small for most civil applications and line of sight is often needed. In addition, LDV and CSLDV systems are relatively expensive. Moreover, LDV and CSLDV measurements can be distorted due to the exposure of a structure to environmental factors, leading to reduced reliability.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method for modal identification that can be implemented using a reduced number of sensors and that can provide for increased spatial resolution of the mode shape that overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages. | {
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This invention relates generally to multiplexing systems, and, more particularly, to an improved optical multiplexer or demultiplexer.
In practice the need frequently arises for communications or reconnaissance systems which simultaneously convey multiple messages from a large number of information sources in one location to a large number of users at another location. Multiplexing systems economically meet this need by combining the messages from several information sources, which are then transmitted as a composite group over a single transmission facility, with provision at the receiver for separation (demultiplexing) back to the individual messages. Since only one transmitter and receiver is needed instead of many, one advantage of multichannel operation is a lessening of the total quantity of necessary equipment. Each of the individual streams of information that form a multiplexed group are often denoted as a channel.
There are generally two generic forms of multiplexing systems. These are frequency division multiplexing and time division multiplexing. Frequency division multiplexing is directly applicable to continuous wave form (analog) sources, in essence involving (stacking) side-by-side in frequency several information channels so as to form a composite signal. The composite frequency-multiplexed signal is then used to modulate a carrier in some conventional manner. Recovery of the individual messages after reception and initial demodulation is accomplished by bandpass filtering and frequency selection of the channels.
Time division multiplexing is a logical extension of pulse modulation, and involves interleaving in time the narrow pulses of several ordinary pulse modulation signals and thus form one composite pulse transmission system. Separation of the time multiplexed pulse streams at the receiver is accomplished by gating appropriate pulses into individual channel filters.
A third technique, phase multiplexing, is possible but appears less practical than either frequency division multiplexing or time division multiplexing. Unfortunately, the multiplexing systems of the past have been deficient in the area of low loss optical multiplexing or demultiplexing of more than two closely spaced optical frequencies. | {
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Traditionally, application virtualization refers to the virtualization of system support. In other words, a virtual application means the application can be executed on a virtual machine (VM) of various operation systems (e.g., Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc.). It is desirable to develop a new application virtualization technique that allows an application to be executed in an inter-cloud environment (e.g., across multiple clouds). | {
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The present invention relates to a working vehicle, such as a tractor, and relates more particularly to improvement of a steering-wheel or handle periphery section of a driver""s or operator""s section of such vehicle.
An operator""s section of a working vehicle is known from e.g. Japanese published utility model gazette No. Hei. 5-47698, in which a panel cover made of synthetic resin is disposed forwardly of a steering wheel, and an instrument panel is attached to a rearward opening formed in the panel cover.
The instrument panel mounts collection of a number of instruments such as an engine tachometer, an oil temperature gauge, as well as various electric devices such as pilot lamps and so on. Hence, the entire instrument panel is a rather heavy component. For this reason, in the case of the prior art such as the one identified above, in order to allow the resin cover to support such heavy panel, various arrangements would be needed, such as attaching a reinforcing metal element to the rear face of the panel, increasing the thickness of the resin forming the panel, or forming a reinforcing rib on the panel.
For the reason above, the freedom in designing the attachment construction to the machine body would be restricted disadvantageously. Moreover, synthetic resin having superior strength is usually inferior in moldability. Hence, use of such resin would present difficulty in obtaining required precision in finish dimensions. Conversely, synthetic resin having superior moldability is usually inferior in strength. Hence, use of such resin would present the difficulity of assuring sufficient strength for supporting the instrument panel. In either way, there was room for improvement.
In view of the above-described state of the art, a primary object of the present invention is to overcome the above-described drawbacks of the prior art by providing an improved construction having sufficient strength for supporting the panel cover and the instrument panel.
For accomplishing the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a working vehicle comprising: a main frame; a frame member secured to the main frame; an instrument panel secured to the frame member and having a display face; a panel cover defining an opening for exposing the display face to an operator and covering the periphery of the instrument panel, the panel cover being detachably attached to the working vehicle.
According to the construction described above, the instrument panel is secured to the frame member which in turn is secured to the main frame, so that there is no necessity of providing significant reinforcement to the panel cover. Therefore, the panel cover may be manufactured more easily and the instrument panel may be supported with sufficient strength at the same time.
Further and other objects, functions and effects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of one preferred embodiment of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This technology relates to linearized power amplifiers (LPAs).
2. Description of Related Art
Prior LPAs have a variety of issues as follows.
1. Prior LPA Efficiency and Linearity Issues:
Prior linearized power amplifiers have several deficiencies including less than optimal efficiency, linearity, and performance over a voltage range and over a temperature range. One of the primary goals of any LPA is to provide a linear signal at as high a power level as possible. In a prior art LPA, the LPA current increases steadily with RF power out. At some high RF power level, clipping begins to occur to the RF signal thereby degrading linearity and efficiency at high RF power. One approach is to delay the onset of clipping, by reducing the bias current at high RF power levels to delay the onset of clipping.
2. Prior LPA Performance Over Voltage Range Issue:
Prior LPAs also tend to have significant variation in performance as power supply voltage level varies.
3. Prior LPA Performance Over Temperature Range Issue:
Another shortcoming of prior LPAs is LPA performance over a temperature range. A prior art LPA with a fixed bias exhibits large changes in current/efficiency and linearity performance as the temperature changes from cold to room to hot.
4. Other prior LPA Issues:
Some prior art LPAs attempt to improve these deficiencies by utilizing complex digitally modulated PA and digital pre-distortion schemes. However these types of designs are complex to design and implement, and tend to be large and consume much power. They are also usually silicon based technologies with inherently inferior RF characteristics, they cannot take advantage of the inherently superior RF characteristics of GaAs materials. Our novel LPA would be relatively simple and compact and able to be implemented on GaAs as a single die. | {
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The present invention relates to the field of item and peer recommendation algorithms directed towards industry professionals. More specifically, the present invention is aimed at providing a more accurate and iterative recommendation algorithm that is adaptable based on a continuum of user actions or inputs rather than based on binary yes/no signals.
Prior art recommendation algorithms typically rely on a user profile and a set of filters for matching the user profile to an item or object (such as a document, a web page, a presentation, an article, a chart or graphic, a product, or the like) or a peer (such as an expert, a colleague in the same or similar industry, a service provider, or the like).
In item-to-item, item-to-user and user-to-user recommendation algorithms, one of the biggest challenges is to profile users accurately so that the right set of recommendations can be made. Traditionally recommendation engines have been able to use a user's declared or explicit profile and also the user's web site behavioral profile. The user's explicit profile includes the information he provides; for example, during a registration process, whereas the user's implicit profile may include the user's web site behavior such as the key words he or she searched on, articles he or she buys, articles he or she looks at, peer discussions he or she participates in, and the like. Such prior art recommendation engines are based on a user's set profile and simple binary scoring of the users actions indicating whether an item was viewed/not viewed or used/not used (e.g., in the form of a 1/0 or Y/N score), which records are then smoothed via weightings and/or time decay functions for use in the recommendation engine.
It would be advantageous to be able to adapt a user's profile iteratively based on the continuous spectrum of the user's interactions with different items, so that the recommendations can be more specifically tailored to a particular user. It would be particularly advantageous if such adaptation of the user's profile could be based on feedback obtained from a user, including feedback based on a user's interaction with a recommended item or direct input from a user as reflected in their modification of an item.
The methods, apparatus, and systems of the present invention provide the foregoing and other advantages. | {
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Large vehicles commonly have a frame rear portion supported on a rear axle assembly at least partially through an air bag. Smaller vehicles are also starting to use this type of suspension. In many cases, swing arms are used to control the horizontal position of the frame relative to the rear axle assembly. The swing arm has an upper end pivotally connected to the frame and a lower end pivotally connected to the rear axle. An air bag extends primarily vertically between the axle assembly and the vehicle frame to serve as a spring that supports much of the weight of the frame on the axle. A vehicle manufacturer commonly sets a predetermined height for each air bag. A leveling valve is used to flow air into and out of each air bag to create an air bag pressure that results in the air bags remaining at the predetermined height. In one example, an air bag may have an optimum height of fifteen inches, and the pressure in each air bag may vary between 40 psi when the vehicle is empty, to 70 psi when the vehicle is fully loaded (e.g. to 75% of the maximum).
The height of an air bag previously has been sensed by a mechanical linkage between an axle assembly and an adjacent location on the vehicle frame. In the United States, it has been common to rely upon movement of a rod or other mechanical component connected to the axle assembly, and extending to a valve assembly mounted on the frame. Such movement directly opens and closes selected valves that respectively admit air from a high pressure source (e.g. 140 psi) to the air bags, or that dump air from the air bags into the atmosphere. In European vehicles, it is common to provide an electrical signal indicating the height of an air bag. This is accomplished by a mechanical linkage comprising a rod mounted on a vehicle axle assembly that operates a potentiometer mounted on the vehicle frame. The electrical signal is used to control valves that flow high pressure air into the air bags or that drain air from the air bags to the atmosphere, or environment.
Some disadvantages of a mechanical linkage are that it is usually thin and easily damaged, and has bushings that wear out. Also, a repairman may improperly adjust it, casing rapid wear of the vehicle transmission and poor vehicle suspension. Further, the air control valve may react instantly to road bumps and undulations, or short term vehicle acceleration and deceleration. Such reactions can cause excessive consumption of pressured air, and possibly compromise other systems such as the braking system that rely on pressured air. Apparatus for maintaining proper air bag pressure, without using a mechanical linkage between the lower end of the swing arm and the vehicle frame, would be of value. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a charger for charging a cluster of secondary batteries or battery packs, and more particularly to a battery cluster charger having a plurality of charging circuits which is capable of replacing any failing charging circuit with another charging circuit to charge a battery pack.
2. Description of the Related Art
One conventional battery cluster charger is shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional battery cluster charger includes charging circuits 102, 103 corresponding respectively to secondary batteries or battery packs 104, 105. When an AC power supply 101 is switched on, the charging circuits 102, 103 start charging the battery packs 104, 105, respectively. When the battery packs 104, 105 are fully charged, the charging circuits 102, 103 complete their charging cycles.
Therefore, the conventional battery cluster charger comprises a plurality of independently operable charging circuits that correspond respectively to battery packs to be charged thereby.
If any one of the charging circuits suffers a failure, the failing charging circuit stops its charging operation, and the corresponding battery pack is not charged thereby. Some battery packs for business use are charged at night and used on the next day. If the charging circuit for charging one of such battery packs has failed and the battery pack has not been charged at night, then the uncharged condition of the battery is not recognized until the user actually attempts to use it. Consequently, the failure of any one of the charging circuits poses problems in the actual use of the battery packs. | {
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There is such demand for filters capable of being used in subterranean wells in order to remove particulates from liquids or gases produced by the wells. Typical particulates which need to be filtered out are sand and clay, and for this reason, such filters are often referred to as sand screens. Unconsolidated particulate matter, hereinafter referred to as "formation sand," is often associated with subterranean hydrocarbon formations. A major problem in producing hydrocarbon fluids from unconsolidated formations is the intrusion of formation sand, which is typically very fine, into the production fluid and equipment. The presence of sand in the production fluid often leads to the rapid erosion of expensive well machinery and hardware. Furthermore, the shifting of sand in an unconsolidated formation may result in the collapse of perforations purposefully blasted in the formation, thereby reducing or even halting production. In order to prevent the shifting of formation sand, such formations are typically "gravel packed." The gravel packing also acts as a filter, preventing the fine sand from entering the production fluid. Gravel packing involves the introduction of a particular grade of sand into the well bore, often by pumping it down as a dense slurry, into the annulus defined by the inner circumference of the casing wall and the outer circumference of the work string. The gravel pack is often forced through the perforations in the casing wall and incorporated into the formation perforations, thereby stabilizing the formation.
Since the gravel pack itself comprises sand, sand screen assemblies are utilized to prevent the intrusion of gravel pack sand into the well production fluid. If too much formation sand passes through the gravel pack a collapse of the formation can occur. In such instances the well may need to be re-perforated and repacked, usually at substantial expense.
The production of hydrocarbon fluids from horizontal wells is highly desirable in that the producing zone may be much longer than for a vertical well, thereby increasing the production efficiency from a particular formation. However, horizontal well completion involves several technical impediments, and as a result, has, heretofore, not been extensively practiced. Placing a production pipe deep into the earth and then attempting to snake the pipe at an angle approaching ninety degrees along a hole with a radius of curvature as tight as thirty feet requires pipe made from a material which combines mechanical strength with flexibility and ductility. The problem of placing production pipe in the well is often exacerbated by the fact that many horizontal wells are of an unconsolidated nature. Gravel packing and sand screen use are very difficult under such circumstances.
Various types of sand screens have been designed for preventing sand intrusion from unconsolidated formations. Examples include a wire-wrapped screen assembly (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,634), a wire-wrapped screen and prepacked gravel assembly (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,678) and a sintered metal unitary body assembly (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,554). Wire-wrapped screen assemblies exhibit several undesirable tendencies: erosion induced by fine sand that initially flows past the wire/gravel pack interface; plugging with carbonaceous, siliceous or organic solids; and collapse or gaping of the wire screen due to the effects of formation and geo-pressure.
Prepacked wire-wrapped screen assemblies also suffer, to varying degrees, from plugging and the effects of well bore stresses. Furthermore, many prepacked screens have a substantially larger outer diameter than the production pipes around which they are disposed, making initial placement and retrieval difficult.
Prepacked, and to some degree wire-wrapped, sand screens are not particularly damage resistant; they require very careful handling on the drill rig floor and during placement in the well bore. Even a slight bump from the casing wall may create a gap in the wire spacing which could lead to erosion and failure of the screen. Furthermore, conventional wire-wrapped screens and prepacked screens can develop gaps in the wire spacings during placement in a horizontal wall which can lead to a failure in the screen.
Sintered metal unitary sand screens are cost prohibitive for use in all but the most critical situations. Further, the filtration medium of such a sand screen lacks an integral support and is not damage resistant. Homogenous, or monolithic constructions allow a crack to propagate, via stress concentration effects and low ductility, through the entire unitary body thickness. Sintered metal unitary assemblies also have a tendency to plug from fines entrained in the formation fluid. To enhance their performance, sintered metal unitary sand screens may need to be electropolished which adds to their cost.
While sintered metal unitary sand screen assemblies exhibit an effective open area (voids volume), they lack a mechanism to facilitate uniform flow distribution between the unitary body and the perforated pipe. Poor downstream flow distribution (drainage capability) will, in effect, create flow channels, resulting in higher flow velocity areas, higher pressure drops, and early plugging. Some wire wrapped and prepacked wire screens have an efficient use of flow area and flow distribution, but exhibit very low effective open area (voids volume), which may cause a reduced production rate. Furthermore, so-called "armored" screen prepacks have extremely poor flow distribution.
Damage resistance is an important attribute of a filter for use in wells. Even if a filter can be prevented from damage during installation in a well, due to the enormous pressures to which the filter may be subjected during use subsequent to installation, it is frequently impossible to completely prevent damage to the filter. In fact, when an underground formation collapses or shifts, it is not uncommon for a filter surrounded by the formation to undergo substantial deformation, such as elongation or crushing. Ideally, a well filter should be able to experience larger deformations without losing its ability to prevent the passage of particulate matter, but as described above, conventional well filters typically suffer a severe drop in filtering ability even when subjected to even modest deformation.
The problem of reliably removing sand and other particulates from a production fluid is experienced in many types of wells other than oil and gas wells, such as water wells, geothermal wells, and wells for ground remediation. | {
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The communication performance of a radio system in conformity with the IEEE802.11 standard significantly deteriorates due to a radio interference fault. Therefore, it is necessary to, when a fault occurs, detect the fault and take measures as soon as possible to stably maintain high reliability of the radio system.
In recent radio systems, a method of detecting a radio interference on the basis of a demodulation error rate of transmission frames (“Intermittent Connectivity Issues in Wireless Bridges”, Cisco Troubleshooting Technical notes, Document ID: 66090, January 2008). This is a method which utilizes a phenomenon that, as for a transmission frame influenced by a radio interference, demodulation processing of the frame fails at a radio station, and demodulation errors, such as a PLCP error and a CRC error, increase. There is also a method of identifying a fault of a radio link between radio terminals (JP-A 2009-117954 (Kokai)).
There are various kinds of causes of a radio interference fault, such as interference between frames due to failure in synchronization between radio stations, interference with a jamming wave of a microwave oven, Bluetooth™ or the like using the same frequency band, and multi-path phasing due to a reflected wave from a wall or the like. In order to prevent a radio interference fault, it is necessary to take suitable measures according to the causes described above. For that purpose, a technique for accurately identifying even the classification of the cause of interference is required in addition to the conventional interference detection techniques.
Demodulation errors used by the conventional technique are not a phenomenon that occurs only due to a radio interference. For example, a demodulation error also occurs when a radio wave is received at a low reception level due to a long distance or an obstacle. Therefore, the conventional technique has a possibility of presenting a radio interference fault as an erroneous detection result because, though an interference has not actually occurred, demodulation errors increase due to a different fault. | {
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This application relates to copending application Ser. No. 070,973, filed July 7, 1987. The invention relates to temperature changing devices and, in particular, to portable or disposable devices for heating and cooling separate hot and cold portions of food.
In serving food it is preferable to maintain hot foods and cold foods in their respective states until consumption. It would be advantageous for restaurants to be able to provide complete meals, including a hot entree and vegetable and a cold salad, dessert and beverage, and provide means for heating the hot portion and cooling the cold portion.
Similarly, a single food item may comprise hot and cold portions, the temperature of which are preferably maintained until consumption. For example, fast food hamburgers often include, in addition to the bun, meat patty and condiments, various vegetables such as lettuce and tomato. It is deemed advantageous to keep the meat patty hot until consumption. However, prolonged exposure to heat tends to wilt lettuce and tomato, rendering them relatively unpalatable. Thus, it is also deemed advantageous to keep the lettuce and tomatoes cool until consumption. Therefore, to preserve the palatability of such a sandwich, it is logical to keep the components separated as long as possible, preferably until just before eating. On the other hand, because fast food restaurants are high-volume operations, the logic of palatability has traditionally taken a back seat to the expediency of volume. Since the dawn of fast food restaurants, hamburgers have been prepared ahead of time, leaving the meat patty to cool and the lettuce and tomato to heat. As a result, the consumer received a sandwich in which the components had reached a steady-state temperature throughout. The deleterious effects of allowing the meat patty to cool were somewhat overcome in the prior art by placing the entire sandwich in some type of heating device, usually under heat lamps or on a steam table. This method, however, exacerbated the problem of heating the lettuce and tomato.
Recently, one restaurant chain has attempted to overcome this problem with a hamburger sandwich served in a dual package. The package is a foam container, one side of which contains the hot meat on the lower half of the bun, and the other side of which contains the lettuce and tomato on the upper half of the bun. The stated objective of this arrangement is to keep the hot side hot, and the cool side cool.
To a certain extent, this arrangement is successful. Keeping the hot and cool components separate prevents direct heat transfer between the hot meat patty and the cool lettuce and tomato. Nevertheless, both sides of the sandwich come to room temperature within a short period of time. This is due to the relatively poor insulation afforded by the foam containers. Thus, unless such a sandwich is eaten soon after being placed in the container, it will be close to room temperature. This presents a problem for consumers unable to eat their sandwiches at the restaurant. For example, those who wish to eat in their cars, at beaches or at picnic areas must do so with a sandwich which is tepid at best.
One alternative method for maintaining the temperature of separate hot and cold portions of food would be to use containers made of better insulation. For example, the typical fast food package is made of foam, 0.070 inch thick. The insulation quality could be improved at the expense of both cost and space. Apparently, the industry has not found it feasible to improve the insulative quality of its packaging.
Moreover, foam packages are not biodegradable, and their perpetual existence has led legislatures in several states to consider banning their use. These environmental concerns are not the least of the drawbacks of foam containers.
Accordingly, in food serving in general, and fast food serving in particular, there has existed a long-standing need for a relatively small, inexpensive device to maintain the temperature of separate hot and cold portions of food.
The use of two chambers to produce a cooling effect around one chamber is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,720 to Siegel and Great Britain Patent No. 2,095,386 to Cleghorn, et al. These patents disclose a two-chamber apparatus connected by a tube. One chamber contains a refrigerant liquid and the other contains a sorbent. Fluid communication between the two chambers is selectively allowed by a valve in the tube. The Siegel patent uses water as the refrigerant liquid, while the Cleghorn, et al. patent is not limited to water. The Siegel patent envisions the use of such a cooling device to cool food or beverages.
The prior art temperature changers, as exemplified by the Siegel and Cleghorn, et al. patents, contemplate a device for either heating or cooling. In a cooling device, the heat generated by the sorbent is waste heat. Likewise, in a heating device, the refrigeration accomplished by the liquid is wasted.
Furthermore, none of the prior art patents disclose a structure suited for simultaneously heating and cooling separate hot and cold portions of food. Rather, the structures are primarily devoted to the heating or cooling of a single portion See Siegel FIGS. 2-4. Moreover, none of the prior art structures particularly address the problems encountered in using a device which is inexpensive and disposable to heat and cool separate hot and cold portions of food. For example, the prior art envisions use of rigid containers for both the liquid and sorbent. Such rigid containers may be relatively expensive and potentially prohibitive for disposable use in high-volume, low-margin operations such as fast food or other food operations. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention is related to the transmission of data between a source device and a target device. More particularly, the present invention relates to the determination of a capacity limitation associated with the communication connection between a source device which is the source of a data transmission and a target device which is the target of a data transmission. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to determining the actual data transmission capacity of the communication connection between the source device and the target device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data transmission from a source device to a target device has become very common place for many people today. For example, sending and receiving e-mail is accomplished by transferring data from the first source device, the computer of the sender of the e-mail, to a network computer, the first target device. The first target device is also the second source device, because it then transmits the data to a second target device. The network computers continue to transmit the data between themselves until, finally, the last network computer transmits the data to the last target device, the computer of the receiver of the e-mail.
People who work in offices with a computer on an internal network have basically the same setup. However, there are usually fewer computers related to the transmission of data. A person using a computer connected to a small network, for example, whom saves a word processor document on a network drive rather than his computer's internal hard drive, transmits data directly from his source computer to a network hard drive, the target device. In each transmission of data, a coordination must take place between the source device and the target device such that the data that is received by the target device is exactly the same as the data transmitted from the source device.
To address this problem, various methods exist in the prior art, none of which are completely satisfactory. For example, one method comprises attaching coded data to each transmission such that when a transmission received by the target device does not exactly match the transmission initiated by the source device, the target device recognizes the errors and requests a retransmission of the data.
Although the retransmission of data is desirable in the sense that it improves the accuracy of data transmissions from a source device to a target device, retransmission of data is not desirable in the sense that it increases the amount of time required to complete a data transmission. Further, a reoccurring retransmission is a significant problem.
In another example of the prior art, there was an attempt to resolve this problem by setting the data transmission capacity at the capacity of the source computer or the target computer, whichever was lowest. The connection between the computers was not normally considered a limiting factor, because the cable used to connect the computers is usually rated for a data transmission capacity at least in excess of the data transmission capacity of the lowest capacity computer. In actual applications, however, retransmissions still occur and still cost network users time and money.
It is desirable, therefore, to anticipate the problems that reoccur during transmission of data that trigger a retransmission and reduce the number of retransmissions by correcting or working around the problems.
A further problem with the existing art is the inability to adequately test and troubleshoot a computer network connection. For an existing connection, if the cable used is short, accessible, and the apparent source of a problem, the cable is simply replaced in the hope that the problem is resolved. In big networks integrated into large buildings or in small networks residing in a residential home, the cable is not as accessible. Therefore, the cable is tested. A prevalent practice for testing cables involves checking the continuity of each wire within the cable. Although tests have the ability to find major defects in a network connection, they are not accurate enough to determine minor defects, such as defects in the insulation of the communication connection. In addition, the practice does not find alternative solutions to replacing the network cable when such replacement would involve a significant cost and effort. Therefore, it is desirable to find a way to maximize the transmission capacity of a damaged or defective network connection cable.
Another prevalent practice is to carry a laptop around to each existing network connection and test the connection by trying to access data on a network drive. This practice is also inadequate, because it tests only for significant deficiencies in the data transmission capacity and does not offer methods to increase the data transmission capacity without pulling a new cable. | {
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In distributed computing systems having a service oriented architecture, services may be provided by multiple servers at various locations. For a client to utilize available services, the client must know a service address and a service policy (including protocol and message format requirements) of the services. In conventional service oriented architectures, service addresses and service policies are maintained in a message registry along with service descriptions.
When a service address changes, the service registry must be updated to alert clients of the new service address. A client will not know to look for a new service address in the service registry until it fails to receive a response (or receives a fault) to one or more messages sent to the service at the original service address. Therefore, delays may occur in using services that have relocated to new service addresses. Moreover, there is a lag between when a service is updated, and when the updated service information is reflected in the service registry. Thus, the new service address may not be available immediately. Additionally, for some clients it may be burdensome to query the service registry for new service information when service addresses are changed. | {
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Data transfer devices, or storage devices, are known that comprise a transducer head to transfer data between the device and tracks on a data carrier, for storing data on the data carrier, which may be removably received in the device. However, such data carriers can be susceptible to dimensional instability under varying operating conditions, for example varying temperature and humidity. Such dimensional instability can affect head/track alignment. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, in which upper end portions of internal connection terminals, which are provided to electrode pads of a plurality of semiconductor chips formed on a semiconductor substrate, are electrically connected to wiring patterns.
2. Related Art
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a semiconductor device in the related art.
By reference to FIG. 1, a semiconductor device 100 (e.g., a chip-size package) in the related art includes a semiconductor chip 101, internal connection terminals 102, a resin layer 103, wiring patterns 104, a solder resist 106, and external connection terminals 107.
The semiconductor chip 101 has a sheet-like semiconductor substrate 110, a semiconductor integrated circuit 111, a plurality of electrode pads 112, and a protection film 113. The semiconductor integrated circuit 111 is provided on the surface side of the semiconductor substrate 110. The semiconductor integrated circuit 111 is composed of a diffusion layer, an insulating layer, vias, wirings, and the like. The plurality of electrode pads 112 are provided on the semiconductor integrated circuit 111. The plurality of electrode pads 112 are connected electrically to the wirings provided on the semiconductor integrated circuit 111. The protection film 113 is provided on the semiconductor integrated circuit 111. The protection film 113 is a film for protecting the semiconductor integrated circuit 111.
The internal connection terminals 102 are provided on the electrode pads 112 respectively. Upper surfaces of upper end portions of the internal connection terminals 102 are exposed from the resin layer 103. The upper end portions of the internal connection terminals 102 are connected to the wiring patterns 104. The resin layer 103 is provided to cover the semiconductor substrate 110 on the side on which the internal connection terminals 102 are provided.
The wiring patterns 104 are provided on the resin layer 103. The wiring patterns 104 are connected to the internal connection terminals 102 respectively. The wiring patterns 104 are connected electrically to the electrode pads 112 via the internal connection terminals 102. The wiring patterns 104 have an external connection terminal providing area 104A, on which the external connection terminal 107 is provided, respectively. The solder resist 106 is provided on the resin layer 103 to cover the wiring patterns 104 except the external connection terminal providing areas 104A.
FIG. 2 to FIG. 10 are views showing steps of manufacturing the semiconductor device in the related art. In FIG. 2 to FIG. 10, the same reference symbols are affixed to the same constituent portions as those of the semiconductor device 100 shown in FIG. 1 in the related art.
At first, in steps shown in FIG. 2, the semiconductor chip 101 having the semiconductor integrated circuit 111, the plurality of electrode pads 112, and the protection film 113 is formed on the surface side of the semiconductor substrate 110. A thinning process is not applied to the semiconductor substrate 110 yet. Then, in steps shown in FIG. 3, the internal connection terminals 102 are formed on the plurality of electrode pads 112 respectively. In this stage, there is variation in height of the plurality of internal connection terminals 102.
Then, in steps shown in FIG. 4, a flat plate 115 is pushed against the upper end portions of the plurality of internal connection terminals 102, and thus respective heights of a plurality of internal connection terminals 102 are set uniformly. Then, in steps shown in FIG. 5, the resin layer 103 is formed to cover the semiconductor chip 101 and the internal connection terminals 102 on the side on which the internal connection terminals 102 are formed.
Then, in steps shown in FIG. 6, the resin layer 103 is polished until upper surfaces 102A of the upper end portions of the internal connection terminals 102 are exposed from the resin layer 103. At this time, the polishing is carried out until an upper surface 103A of the resin layer 103 is almost same level as the upper surfaces 102A of the upper end portions of the internal connection terminals 102.
Then, in steps shown in FIG. 7, the wiring patterns 104 are formed on the upper surface 103A of the resin layer 103. Then, in steps shown in FIG. 8, the solder resist 106 is formed on the resin layer 103 such that this resist covers the wiring patterns 104 except the external connection terminal providing areas 104A.
Then, in steps shown in FIG. 9, the semiconductor substrate 110 is polished from the back surface side to reduce a thickness of the semiconductor substrate 110. Then, in steps shown in FIG. 10, the external connection terminal 107 is formed on the external connection terminal providing areas 104A respectively. As a result, the semiconductor device 100 is manufactured (see e.g., Japanese Patent No. 3614828).
However, in the method of manufacturing the semiconductor device 100 in the related art, the step of making the height of the plurality of internal connection terminals 102 uniform and the step of exposing the upper surfaces 102A of the plurality of internal connection terminals 102 from the resin layer 103 by polishing the resin layer 103 are required. Therefore, such a problem existed that the number of steps is increased and thus a production cost of the semiconductor device 100 is increased.
Also, upon polishing the resin layer 103, it is difficult to remove the resin layer 103 existing on the upper surfaces 102A of the upper end portions of the internal connection terminals 102 with good precision. Therefore, the resin layer 103 still remains on the upper surfaces 102A of the upper end portions of the internal connection terminals 102. As a result, such a problem existed that adhesion between the internal connection terminals 102 and the wiring patterns 104 is degraded (in the worst case, peeling occurs between the internal connection terminals 102 and the wiring patterns 104), a resistance value between the internal connection terminals 102 and the wiring patterns 104 is increased. Thus, the yield of the semiconductor device 100 is lowered. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is for mounting systems incorporating a positionable support arm, and more particularly pertains to mounting systems used for supporting a flat panel display in position for viewing or a keyboard in position for operating.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art mounting systems with positionable support arms have incorporated ball gimbals, simple knob operated pivot mounts, angular slots, and control arms or spring devices which were adjusted to maintain position of a flat panel display supported thereby while offering pivotable capabilities about a small number of pivot centers. Often the lack of a sufficient amount of pivots limited the positionable capabilities of the support arm and the flat panel display about a sufficient number of pivotal axes. Lack of friction control and dynamic lift capability made adjustment of the flat panel display difficult and required the use of two hands to accomplish an adjustment. Additionally, movement of the support arm and flat panel display payload in a downward accomplished easily, as the weight of the flat panel display acted in conjunction with gravitational forces and readily overcame the frictional qualities of the friction pivot style joint. However, movement in an upward direction was not so easily and readily accomplished, as the upward force required to raise the flat panel display had to overcome the friction of the friction style joint as well as the force of gravity. In addition, two-handed adjustments added to the complexity of adjusting the flat panel display. Clearly what is needed is a positional flat panel display mounting system which is positionable over a multitude of axes, which can be repositioned without secondary controls, which incorporates an adjustable counterbalance or lifting system to provide xe2x80x9cco-equalxe2x80x9d movement force in either the upward or downward direction, which incorporates frictional systems which can be used to establish pre-determined moving forces within OSHA guidelines, and which provides stability for touch screen applications.
The general purpose of the present invention is a multi-jointed and pivoted mounting system for support and positioning of a flat panel display or a keyboard.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multi-jointed and pivoted mounting system for positioning of a flat panel display including: a pivotal support bracket, a support arm, an arm azimuthal pivot, an arm elevational pivot, an adjustable load counterbalance system, a display roll pivot, a display tilt pivot, a display rotation pivot, and an interface coupling, all acting in concert to support and provide positioning for a flat panel display or any other desired object, such as a keyboard.
A frictional pivot mount forms the basis of each pivot and is an unique tilt resistive or tilt restraining device that relies on the unique properties of a family of polymer materials having static and dynamic coefficients of friction which are substantially identical, such as Delrin or other ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) materials. The result provided by the static and dynamic coefficients of friction of UHMWPE materials, such as utilized in disks or washers of the unique frictional pivot tilt restraining device, is that a flat panel display remains in any tilt position selected by the user. If the user wishes to tiltingly reposition the flat panel display upwardly or downwardly, or any other position, the flat panel display must be manually repositioned to overcome the frictional pivot tilt restraining device. Once the flat panel display is tilted to a different selected position, the unique frictional pivot tilt restraining device resistably restrains the flat panel display in the new position as selected. Sufficient friction to maintain position of the flat panel display during use is provided, and yet easy xe2x80x9cbreakawayxe2x80x9d release to reposition the flat panel display to a new operating position or to the storage position is afforded. The unique characteristics of the polymer material allow smooth tilt adjustment of the frictional pivot tilt mechanism, and yet provide a constant frictional memory for the preset position of the flat panel display. A predetermined poise is required of the operator to reposition the flat panel display, at which time it remains in the new position.
One significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a multi-jointed and pivoted mounting system for a flat panel display.
Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a multi-jointed and pivoted mounting system for a flat panel display which is positionable at any point within the given range of travel of a support arm.
Yet another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a plurality of pivots incorporating ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) disks or washers (the subject of a pending patent application).
Still another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a plurality of pivots including an arm azimuthal pivot, an arm elevational pivot, a display roll pivot, a display tilt pivot and a display rotation pivot.
A further significant aspect and feature of the present invention is an interface connecting the display rotation pivot to the display tilt pivot.
A still further significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a load counterbalance mechanism adjuster whose location and angle of adjustment in respect to the arm elevational pivot is derived through the use of a computerized mathematical algorithm for each mounting option offered in the system, to provide a user adjustable counterbalance pivot point for a broad range of display or payload weights.
A still further significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a load counterbalance mechanism which provides a dynamically increasing counterbalance moment which corresponds to the increasing moment load on the support arm as the support arm traverses from 0xc2x0 vertical to 90xc2x0 horizontal and which provides a dynamically decreasing counterbalance moment which corresponds to the decreasing moment load on the support arm as the support arm moves downward from 90xc2x0 horizontal to 180xc2x0 vertical to provide a linear counterbalance force throughout the total adjustable range of the support arm.
A still further significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a nitrogen gas spring counterbalance mechanism which operates physically within the pivot point of the support arm, allowing 180xc2x0 (xc2x190xc2x0) rotation of the flat panel display or other load.
A still further significant aspect and feature of the present invention is an arm elevation frictional pivot, independent of the arm counterbalance system, which provides for establishment of a predetermined, bi-directional frictional moving force which allows single-handed movement of the flat panel display within OSHA guidelines and yet provides a stable viewing or operating platform for touch screen or keyboard applications.
Another significant aspect and feature of the present invention is a pivot/ratchet assembly which attaches a keyboard tray to the outer end of a support arm. The pivot/ratchet assembly offers incremental pivotal positioning in an upward direction about arrays of ratchet teeth and includes a release lever assembly which is utilized to bypass the ratcheting feature to allow manual repositioning for downward positioning of the keyboard tray. The pivot/ratchet assembly can also be incorporated to support a flat panel display.
Having thus described significant aspects and features of the present invention, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a multi-jointed and pivotable mounting system for a flat panel video display or a keyboard. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image output device, an image output method, and a computer program product.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image output device, even if the same image data is output, the density of output images may vary due to time degradation of a developing material; therefore, for the purpose of suppressing a temporal variation in density, the image output device outputs a predetermined patch and causes a scanner or the like to read the patch, thereby perceiving tone characteristics at the time, and generates a tone correction parameter.
In such an image output device, however, the density may still vary according to locations within output images that are based on the same image data. This occurs due to the quality of a member or the assembly accuracy, for example, in an electrophotographic image output device, due to the eccentricities of a photosensitive element and a transfer roller or a variation in distance between the photosensitive element and a developing sleeve along a rotating direction of the photosensitive element.
Namely, a photosensitive drum and a developing sleeve have eccentricities which cannot be suppressed in view of the design accuracy, and an interval between them varies according to respective rotation angles, so an amount of color material varies, and the density varies; that is why a density variation in a rotating direction of the photosensitive drum occurs. In general, a rotation angle of a rotating body including the photosensitive drum is not synchronized with the position of a sheet, so the locations showing the high density and the low density and further the location showing the medium density vary from page to page. Therefore, when the density of a patch is measured only at a specific point on a page, in addition to a temporal density variation, a density variation due to a difference in location caused by the eccentricity of the rotating body, such as the photosensitive drum, is also contained. Consequently, an appropriate tone correction parameter for suppressing the temporal density variation is not obtained.
Conventionally, a parameter is generated using one patch. To cope with the above-mentioned problem, there has been proposed a device that generates a plurality of patches having the same density tone level on a sheet at appropriate intervals in a rotating direction of a photosensitive drum. The device generates a tone correction parameter by averaging values obtained by measuring the densities of the patches, thereby perceiving tone characteristics at the time when the patches are output while suppressing the effect of a phenomenon that the density varies according to locations within images. The device generates a density correction processing parameter for suppressing a temporal density variation (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-103147, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-209436, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-38734).
In such conventional technologies, the temporal density variation can be suppressed and images at the constant density can be output; however, they have not assumed the function to change the accuracy of outputting an image at the constant density. Namely, a user cannot arbitrarily set the image output accuracy, and an image with an image output accuracy which the user desires cannot be output. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pneumatic tire comprising a belt and a belt reinforcement embedded with reinforcing elements extending in a circumferential direction.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, there has been known a pneumatic tire comprising a belt reinforcement for reinforcing a belt as disclosed, for example, in JP-A-2-208101. Such a tire comprises a carcass toroidally extending between a pair of bead portions, a belt arranged on an outside of the carcass in a radial direction and comprised of at least two belt layers embedding many reinforcing cords inclined with respect to an equatorial plane of the tire, the cords of which layers being crossed with each other, a belt reinforcement arranged on an inside of the belt in the radial direction and having a width narrower than that of the belt and comprised of at least one belt reinforcing layer embedded with reinforcing elements extending in a circumferential direction, and a tread rubber arranged on outsides of the belt and the belt reinforcement in the radial direction.
However, if it is intended to be low aspect ratio trend of such a pneumatic tire in accordance with the higher speed requirement and lowering of floor in recent vehicles, since the restraint by the belt reinforcement is insufficient, a tread portion, particularly a shoulder portion largely grows in the radial direction in the inflation under an internal pressure, and hence it is apt to generate separation failure between the belt layers at their widthwise outer ends by such a size growth of the tread portion.
For this end, it is recently examined to enhance the restraint to the tread portion by making the width of the belt reinforcement wider than the width of the belt to thereby uniformize the size growth of the tread portion and control the separation failure between the belt layers. However, when the width of the belt reinforcement is made wider than the width of the belt, it has been confirmed that separation failure is generated at the belt reinforcement, particularly in a widthwise outer end of a widest-width belt reinforcing layer.
The inventor has made various studies on such a separation failure at the end of the belt reinforcement and obtained the following knowledge. Firstly, the tread portion is subjected to compression deformation in the radial direction in a ground contact region of the tread portion, particularly a portion just under a load or in neighborhood thereof, and such a compression deformation becomes fairly large in an end part of the tread portion located in a position corresponding to a widthwise outer end of the belt reinforcement, particularly the widest-width belt reinforcing layer in case of a low-section profile pneumatic tire. Secondly, when the belt and the belt reinforcement are deformed so as to narrow their widths by the above compression deformation, a coating rubber surrounding the reinforcing element located at the widthwise outermost end of the widest-width belt reinforcing layer is subjected to deformation in the widthwise direction, and if a JIS hardness of a lateral rubber located adjacent to such a coating rubber is smaller than a JIS hardness of the coating rubber, the lateral rubber hardly controls the deformation of the coating rubber in the widthwise direction and hence a large strain is caused in the coating rubber to facilitate the occurrence of separation failure.
The invention is based on the above knowledge and lies in a pneumatic tire comprising a carcass toroidally extending between a pair of bead portions, a belt arranged on an outside of the carcass in a radial direction and comprised of at least two belt layers containing many reinforcing cords inclined with respect to an equatorial plane of the tire, the cords of which layers being crossed with each other, a belt reinforcement arranged on an inside of the belt in the radial direction and having a width narrower than that of the belt and comprised of at least one belt reinforcing layer embedded with reinforcing elements extending in a circumferential direction, and a tread rubber arranged on outsides of the belt and the belt reinforcement in the radial direction, in which a widthwise outer end of a widest-width belt reinforcing layer is arranged outward from a widthwise outer end of a widest-width belt layer among the belt layers, and a restraining rubber having a width of not less than 4 mm and a JIS hardness not less than a JIS hardness of a coating rubber for the widest-width belt reinforcing layer is arranged outward from the widthwise outer end of the widest-width belt reinforcing layer.
When the restraining rubber having a JIS hardness not less than that of the coating rubber for the widest-width belt reinforcing layer is arranged outward from the widthwise outer end of the widest-width belt reinforcing layer as mentioned above, the hardly deformable restraining rubber restrains the coating rubber surrounding the reinforcing element located at the widthwise outermost end of the widest-width belt reinforcing layer to control the deformation of the coating rubber in the widthwise direction. Thus, strain in the coating rubber is decreased to control the separation failure. Moreover, when the width of the restraining rubber is less than 4 mm, the above restraining force becomes too weak and hence the effect of controlling the separation failure can not be developed.
In a preferable embodiment of the invention, the JIS hardness of the restraining rubber is 65-85 degrees. Thus, the separation failure at the widthwise outer end of the widest-width belt reinforcing layer can effectively be controlled while preventing the occurrence of separation failure in the carcass.
In another preferable embodiment of the invention, a gauge of the restraining rubber at a boundary between the widthwise outer end of the widest-width belt reinforcing layer and the restraining rubber is made not less than a thickness at the widthwise outer end of the belt reinforcement. Thus, the occurrence of separation failure can effectively be controlled in any position at the widthwise outer end of the widest-width belt reinforcing layer.
In the other preferable embodiment of the invention, the restraining rubber is integrally united with the coating rubber for the belt reinforcing layer. Thus, the restraining rubber is arranged together with the arrangement of the belt reinforcing layer, so that the working operation becomes easy.
In a further preferable embodiment of the invention, the restraining rubber is extended inward in the widthwise direction so as to cover the widthwise outer end part of the belt reinforcement from the outside thereof in the radial direction. Thus, strain is largely decreased at the widthwise outer end of the widest-width belt reinforcing layer, whereby the separation failure can be controlled more effectively.
In a still further preferable embodiment of the invention, when the JIS hardness of the restraining rubber is not less than 65 degrees but not more than 80 degrees, the restraining rubber is passed over an outside of the widthwise outer end part of the belt reinforcement in the radial direction and extended inward in the widthwise direction up to a zone between the belt reinforcement and a widthwise outer end part of a widest-width belt layer. Thus, separation failure at the widthwise outer end of the widest-width belt reinforcing layer and separation failure between the belt reinforcement and the belt can simultaneously controlled.
In a yet further preferable embodiment of the invention, the restraining rubber is extended inward in the widthwise direction so as to envelop the widthwise outer end part of the belt reinforcement from its outside and inside in the radial direction. Thus, strain at the widthwise outer end of the widest-width belt reinforcing layer is surely decreased, whereby the separation failure can strongly be controlled.
In another preferable embodiment of the invention, the restrained rubber is comprised of two or more radially laminated rubber layers having different JIS hardnesses, and a JIS hardness of a rubber layer located near to the carcass among the rubber layers becomes smaller than that of the remaining rubber layer. Thus, strain in a coating rubber for the carcass adjacent to the restraining rubber can be decreased.
In the other preferable embodiment of the invention, when the JIS hardness of the restraining rubber exceeds 85 degrees, a rubber layer having a JIS hardness smaller than that of a coating rubber for the carcass is interposed between the carcass and the restraining rubber. Thus, the occurrence of separation failure in the coating rubber for the carcass can be prevented. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to mobile communication devices, and in particular, to intention based communications for mobile communication devices.
2. Introduction
Mobile communication devices such as cellular telephones have been becoming increasingly pervasive in our daily life. Significant progress has been made in providing a voice dialogue system for the mobile devices in an attempt to make them easier to use. To achieve this goal, the instruction or dialogue must be made easy to learn, easy to remember, and easy to retrieve.
To enable a user's voice to control a mobile communication device, conventional practice is to establish communication parameters between user and the cell phone. User has to know in advance the commands the cell phone can understand in terms of the dialogue system.
In addition, users desire the ability to send a short message to another user. However, this is a very difficult problem because that dictation process would consume a large amount of processing resources and out-of-vocabulary words cannot be handled. In this manner, it would be preferable to use a language model in the dictation mode, but to train such a language model is challenge, where data is scarce and dynamical.
On an object-oriented level of abstraction, interaction between objects can be seen as a form of communication. The goal of this communication is to change the state of two objects after messaging. The ways of sending messages are overloaded functions or methods. That means the above mentioned communications can be realized by transferring meanings or intentions rather than passing through exact words.
However, to implement a voice dialogue system on the mobile communication devices, we have to overcome the challenge of limited CPU power and memory resources. The trade off is often achieved by restricting the recognition grammars so that users have to follow a limited set of prescribed commands. Otherwise, the system cannot work. On the other hand, a voice dialogue system implemented on the server side can have more flexibility to allow a user to choose words. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to systems, assemblies, and methods for treating a bronchial tree, and more particularly, the invention relates to systems, assemblies, and methods for eliciting a desired response.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pulmonary diseases may cause a wide range of problems that adversely affect performance of the lungs. Pulmonary diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (“COPD”), may lead to increased airflow resistance in the lungs. Mortality, health-related costs, and the size of the population having adverse effects due to pulmonary diseases are all substantial. These diseases often adversely affect quality of life. Symptoms are varied but often include cough; breathlessness; and wheeze. In COPD, for example, breathlessness may be noticed when performing somewhat strenuous activities, such as running, jogging, brisk walking, etc. As the disease progresses, breathlessness may be noticed when performing non-strenuous activities, such as walking. Over time, symptoms of COPD may occur with less and less effort until they are present all of the time, thereby severely limiting a person's ability to accomplish normal tasks.
Pulmonary diseases are often characterized by airway obstruction associated with blockage of an airway lumen, thickening of an airway wall, alteration of structures within or around the airway wall, or combinations thereof. Airway obstruction can significantly decrease the amount of gas exchanged in the lungs resulting in breathlessness. Blockage of an airway lumen can be caused by excessive intraluminal mucus or edema fluid, or both. Thickening of the airway wall may be attributable to excessive contraction of the airway smooth muscle, airway smooth muscle hypertrophy, mucous glands hypertrophy, inflammation, edema, or combinations thereof. Alteration of structures around the airway, such as destruction of the lung tissue itself, can lead to a loss of radial traction on the airway wall and subsequent narrowing of the airway.
Asthma can be characterized by contraction of airway smooth muscle, smooth muscle hypertrophy, excessive mucus production, mucous gland hypertrophy, and/or inflammation and swelling of airways. These abnormalities are the result of a complex interplay of local inflammatory cytokines (chemicals released locally by immune cells located in or near the airway wall), inhaled irritants (e.g., cold air, smoke, allergens, or other chemicals), systemic hormones (chemicals in the blood such as the anti-inflammatory cortisol and the stimulant epinephrine), local nervous system input (nerve cells contained completely within the airway wall that can produce local reflex stimulation of smooth muscle cells and mucous glands), and the central nervous system input (nervous system signals from the brain to smooth muscle cells and mucous glands carried through the vagus nerve). These conditions often cause widespread temporary tissue alterations and initially reversible airflow obstruction that may ultimately lead to permanent tissue alteration and permanent airflow obstruction that make it difficult for the asthma sufferer to breathe. Asthma can further include acute episodes or attacks of additional airway narrowing via contraction of hyper-responsive airway smooth muscle that significantly increases airflow resistance. Asthma symptoms include recurrent episodes of breathlessness (e.g., shortness of breath or dyspnea), wheezing, chest tightness, and cough.
Emphysema is a type of COPD often characterized by the alteration of lung tissue surrounding or adjacent to the airways in the lungs. Emphysema can involve destruction of lung tissue (e.g., alveoli tissue such as the alveolar sacs) that leads to reduced gas exchange and reduced radial traction applied to the airway wall by the surrounding lung tissue. The destruction of alveoli tissue leaves areas of emphysematous lung with overly large airspaces that are devoid of alveolar walls and alveolar capillaries and are thereby ineffective at gas exchange. Air becomes “trapped” in these larger airspaces. This “trapped” air may cause over-inflation of the lung, and in the confines of the chest restricts the in-flow of oxygen rich air and the proper function of healthier tissue. This results in significant breathlessness and may lead to low oxygen levels and high carbon dioxide levels in the blood. This type of lung tissue destruction occurs as part of the normal aging process, even in healthy individuals. Unfortunately, exposure to chemicals or other substances (e.g., tobacco smoke) may significantly accelerate the rate of tissue damage or destruction. Breathlessness may be further increased by airway obstruction. The reduction of radial traction may cause the airway walls to become “floppy” such that the airway walls partially or fully collapse during exhalation. An individual with emphysema may be unable deliver air out of their lungs due to this airway collapse and airway obstructions during exhalation.
Chronic bronchitis is a type of COPD that can be characterized by contraction of the airway smooth muscle, smooth muscle hypertrophy, excessive mucus production, mucous gland hypertrophy, and inflammation of airway walls. Like asthma, these abnormalities are the result of a complex interplay of local inflammatory cytokines, inhaled irritants, systemic hormones, local nervous system, and the central nervous system. Unlike asthma where respiratory obstruction may be largely reversible, the airway obstruction in chronic bronchitis is primarily chronic and permanent. It is often difficult for a chronic bronchitis sufferer to breathe because of chronic symptoms of shortness of breath, wheezing, and chest tightness, as well as a mucus producing cough.
Different techniques can be used to assess the severity and progression of pulmonary diseases. For example, pulmonary function tests, exercise capacity, and quality of life questionnaires are often used to evaluate subjects. Pulmonary function tests involve objective and reproducible measures of basic physiologic lung parameters, such as total airflow, lung volume, and gas exchange. Indices of pulmonary function tests used for the assessment of obstructive pulmonary diseases include the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), the forced vital capacity (FVC), the ratio of the FEV1 to FVC, the total lung capacity (TLC), airway resistance and the testing of arterial blood gases. The FEV1 is the volume of air a patient can exhale during the first second of a forceful exhalation which starts with the lungs completely filled with air. The FEV1 is also the average flow that occurs during the first second of a forceful exhalation. This parameter may be used to evaluate and determine the presence and impact of any airway obstruction. The FVC is the total volume of air a patient can exhale during a forceful exhalation that starts with the lungs completely filled with air. The FEV1/FVC is the fraction of all the air that can be exhaled during a forceful exhalation during the first second. An FEV1/FVC ratio less than 0.7 after the administration of at least one bronchodilator defines the presence of COPD. The TLC is the total amount of air within the lungs when the lungs are completely filled and may increase when air becomes trapped within the lungs of patients with obstructive lung disease. Airway resistance is defined as the pressure gradient between the alveoli and the mouth to the rate of air flow between the alveoli and the mouth. similarly, resistance of a given airway would be defined as the ratio of the pressure gradient across the given airway to the flow through the airway. Arterial blood gases tests measure the amount of oxygen and the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood and are the most direct method for assessing the ability of the lungs and respiratory system to bring oxygen from the air into the blood and to get carbon dioxide from the blood out of the body.
Exercise capacity tests are objective and reproducible measures of a patient's ability to perform activities. A six minute walk test (6MWT) is an exercise capacity test in which a patient walks as far as possible over a flat surface in 6 minutes. Another exercise capacity test involves measuring the maximum exercise capacity of a patient. For example, a physician can measure the amount of power the patient can produce while on a cycle ergometer. The patient can breathe 30 percent oxygen and the work load can increase by 5-10 watts every 3 minutes.
Quality of life questionnaires assess a patient's overall health and well being. The St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire is a quality of life questionnaire that includes 75 questions designed to measure the impact of obstructive lung disease on overall health, daily life, and perceived well-being. The efficacy of a treatment for pulmonary diseases can be evaluated using pulmonary function tests, exercise capacity tests, and/or questionnaires. A treatment program can be modified based on the results from these tests and/or questionnaires.
Treatments, such as bronchial thermoplasty, involve destroying smooth muscle tone by ablating the airway wall in a multitude of bronchial branches within the lung thereby eliminating both smooth muscles and nerves in the airway walls of the lung. The treated airways are unable to respond favorably to inhaled irritants, systemic hormones, and both local and central nervous system input. Unfortunately, this destruction of smooth muscle tone and nerves in the airway wall may therefore adversely affect lung performance. For example, inhaled irritants, such as smoke or other noxious substances, normally stimulate lung irritant receptors to produce coughing and contracting of airway smooth muscle. Elimination of nerves in the airway walls removes both local nerve function and central nervous input, thereby eliminating the lung's ability to expel noxious substances with a forceful cough. Elimination of airway smooth muscle tone may eliminate the airways' ability to constrict, thereby allowing deeper penetration of unwanted substances, such as noxious substances, into the lung.
Additionally, methods of destroying smooth muscle tone by ablating portions of the airway wall, such as bronchial thermoplasty, often have the following limitations: 1) inability to affect airways that are not directly ablated, typically airways smaller than approximately 3.0 mm which may also be narrowed in obstructive lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis; 2) short-term swelling that causes acute respiratory problems due to perioperative swelling in airways already narrowed by obstructive lung disease effects; 3) hundreds of applications to airways within the lungs may be required to alter overall lung functionality; 4) since multiple generations of airways within the lung are treated (typically generations 2-8), targeting lung airways without missing or over treating specific lung airway sections can be problematic; and, 5) separating the treating step into stages may be required to reduce the healing load on the lung which adds additional risk and cost with each additional bronchoscopy treatment session.
Both asthma and COPD are serious diseases with growing numbers of sufferers. Current management techniques, which include prescription drugs, are neither completely successful nor free from side effects. Additionally, many patients do not comply with their drug prescription dosage regiment. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a treatment which improves resistance to airflow without the need for patient compliance. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention generally relate to semiconductor structures, and, more particularly, to an improved silicon germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor and a method of forming the improved transistor.
2. Description of the Related Art
New communications and test applications require chips operating at ever-higher frequencies. While high frequency transistors are available in group III-V semiconductor materials (e.g., gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium nitride (GaN), etc.), a silicon-based solution (e.g., a silicon germanium (SiGe) hetero-junction bipolar transistors (HBTs)) would be less expensive and permit higher levels of integration than is currently available in with such group III-V semiconductor materials.
However, device scaling is also a concern and limitations in current process technology has limited scaling, both vertical and lateral, of such silicon germanium (SiGe) hetero-junction bipolar transistors (HBTs). Specifically, narrowing of the transistor base and collector space-charge region increases the current-gain cut-off frequency (Ft), but does so at the expense of the maximum oscillation frequency (Fmax) because of overlap between the collector and extrinsic base. Therefore, in conjunction with device size scaling, it is desirable to bring the collector region closer to the base region in order to enhance Ft by using a selective ion-implanted collector (SIC) pedestal (e.g., as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,846,710 issued to Yi et al., on Jan. 25, 2005 and incorporated herein by reference). However, current process technology cannot make such an SIC pedestal narrow enough to cause minimal overlap with the extrinsic base. Furthermore, interstitials (i.e., damage, defects, etc.), which are created at the SiGe HBT base-collector interface as a result of the prior art formation processes (i.e., ion-implantation), allow unwanted diffusion of the implanted dopants. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sensor for wearing of brake as well as temperature thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 shows configuration of the conventional wear sensor for a brake in sectional view and FIG. 2 shows detail of the sensor in an enlarged sectional view. As shown in FIG. 1, brake lining 1a and 1b are mounted on lining holder 2a and 2b, respectively in a frame 3'. The frame 3' has a piston 4, and a cylinder 3 containing the piston 4 is fixed to the lining holder 2a and pushes the lining 1a (the lining 1a and the holder 2a form a shoe) towards a rotor disc 6 when amount of brake fluid 5 increases in the cylinder 3 by means of known brake operation. Therefore, both surfaces of the rotor disc 6 are pinched between the brake lining 1a and 1b, respectively, thereby the rotation of the rotor disc 6 is braked by means of frictions between the faces of the rotor disc and the brake linings 1a and 1b. In the conventional brake wear sensor, a sensor 7 is provided buried in the brake lining 1 a in a manner that when the brake lining 1a wears to a predetermined position, tip of the sensor 7 becomes exposed and further wears out together with the brake lining 1a thereby making some change on the sensor.
Detail of one conventional example is shown in FIG. 2 wherein the sensor 7 comprises metal wire 8 of lateral V-letter shape buried in an insulator case 9, and both ends of wires are led out by means of lead wires 10. The end tip of the V-shaped metal wire 8 is disposed at a predetermined wear limit position B, at which the sensor should make a signal. Therefore, when the brake lining 1a goes on wearing, from an initial position A to the wear limit position B, the end tip of the metal wire 8 is cut out as the brake lining wears. According, the resistance between the lead wires 10, 10 become indinite from almost 0.OMEGA., thereby making a known subsequent circuit issue a worn out sensing signal.
The above-mentioned conventional wear sensor for a brake can sense only wearing of the brake lining, and as another problem, the sensor is unrestorably destroyed namely cut off with respect to the metal wire 8. Accordingly, the sensor 7 must be thrown away together with removal and thrown away of the worn brake lining 1a.
On the other hand, in recent years as automatic transmission becomes popular, when a novice driver continously uses foot brake, dangerous vapor locking of the brake system is liable to occur. This is because of undue temperature rise of brake fluid the brake fluid vaporises and generates foams in the brake fluid. In order to prevent such very dangerous vapor locking of a brake system, a sensor for detecting undue temperature rise of the brake fluid is recently waited for. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
A water filter comprises a filter cylinder installed with a filter material and a filer casing screwed on the filter cylinder. Or a water filter is formed by a filter material installed in a sealed container. Water flows into the water filter from the filter casing or a water inlet of the sealed container, and flows through the filter material of the filter cylinder or the sealed container. Then water is drained out from a water outlet of the filter casing or the sealed container to be used. Both the water inlet and water outlet of the filter casing or the sealed container are installed separately in a joint for connecting with a water tube conveniently. Therefore, no matter a removable filer material of the filter cylinder or a non-removable filter material of the sealed container, the water inlet or water outlet is necessary to be installed. Besides, the joint is also necessary for the water inlet or water outlet in order to install a water tube conveniently.
Three ways are used in the prior art joint connecting with a water inlet or water outlet of a water filter, which are described as the followings.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the first prior art is a screw connection method in that a joint is connected with a water filter. The inner threads 100, 110 are separately formed on the inner diameters of a water inlet 10 or a water outlet 11 of filter casing 1 or a sealed container; and outer threads 20, 21 are formed on the outer sides of two axial ends of the front side and the back side of a joint 2, and then the back end of the joint 2 is screwed with a screw nut 22 by using the same thread pitch. Furthermore, the screw nut 22 is screwed with the outer thread 21. After the T shape sleeve 30 is assembled to a water tube 3 by a T shape sleeve 30 being inserted into one end of the water tube 3, a screwing effect of a screw nut 22 which is screwed into a joint 2 facilitates a water tube 3 to be assembled to the inner hole of the joint 2 so as to offer a function of connecting another water filter or water inlet and outlet. However, the traditional screw connection method has not only complicated components, but also has a disadvantage of increasing the manufacturing procedure. For more detail, because several layers of waterproof tapes 200, 210 must be covered on each outer thread of each screw connecting position, in order to increase the tightness between the inner thread and the outer thread, the manufacturing procedure becomes more complicated and requires much time and work. In addition, the T shape sleeve 30 installed into the water tube 3 may loose so as to induce a problem of leaking water. Thus, the manufacture cost cannot be reduced greatly, and in operation, the manufacture process is inconvenient and slow in assembly. In a further prior art, inner threads 100, 110 are separately formed on a water inlet 10 or a water outlet 11 of a filter casing 1 or a sealed container. The front and the external side of a joint 2 is formed with an outer thread 23, and the back side of the joint 2 is formed with a polygonal shape 24. By the same thread pitch and the same external diameter of an inner thread and an outer thread, a water inlet 10 and a water outlet 11 can be screwed into one end of the joint 2. Then a T shape sleeve 31 is assembled to the outer side of a water tube 3, and at the same time, a waterproof washer 4 is inserted into the inner hole of the joint 2. The front and the external side of the T shape sleeve 31 are formed with a plurality of tapered claws 310 and a plurality of slits 311 which are axially arranged, so that the front end of the T shape sleeve 31 is elastic to be inserted easily into the outer side of the water tube 3. Then the waterproof washer 4, the T shape sleeve 31 and the water tube 3 are inserted into the inner hole of the joint 2. Finally the raised claws 310 which are on the front and outer side of T shape sleeve 31 are wedged in the joint 2, so that the assembly of the water inlet 10 and water outlet 11 of the sealed container or the filter casing 1 with the water tube 3 is complete, as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. Although the second prior art used in assembling a water tube may have an advantage of rapid assembly, the prior art still has several disadvantages. For more detail, because several layers of waterproof tapes 200, 210 must be covered on each outer thread of each screw connecting position, in order to increase the tightness between the inner thread and the outer thread, the manufacturing procedure becomes more complicated and requires much time and work. In addition, the polygonal shape 24 protrudes out of the the sealed container and the filter casing. As a result, it is easily damaged by collision.
In another prior art, a waterproof washer 4 is installed directly in a water inlet or water outlet of a filter cylinder or filter casing, then a sleeve 5 is pushed into the water inlet or water outlet of filter cylinder or filter casing in force. A C sharp clip is clipped on the round ring tube 5. A periphery of the C shape clip is formed with a plurality of metal elastomers 50. Because each metal elastmore 500 leans toward the same direction, the sleeve 5 can be pushed easily into the water inlet 10 or water outlet 11 of the filter cylinder or filter casing 1. A T shape sleeve 31 is sleeved on the outer side of the water tube 3. The T shape sleeve 31 has the same features of the structure as mentioned above. The front 1 outer wall of the T shape sleeve 31 has a plurality of axially arranged claws 311 and a plurality of slits 310. so that the front end of the T shape sleeve 31 is elastic and thus it can be inserted easily into the exterior of the water tube 3. Then the waterproof washer 4, the T shape sleeve 31 and the water tube 3 are inserted into the round ring tube 5. Finally, the claws are in the front end and exterior of T shape sleeve 31 are locked to the sleeve 5, so that the assembly of the water inlet 10 and water outlet 11 of the sealed container or the filter casing 1 with the water tube 3 is completed as illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6. The method has a simple structure, but a plurality of metal elastomers 500 must be arranged on the sleeve 5. Besides, each metal elastomer leans toward the same direction in order to reach desirable goals. Otherwise, the water tube 3 is not possible to be installed into the water inlet 10 or water outlet 11 of the filter cylinder or filter casing 1. In addition, since the sleeve 5 must be pushed to enter into the water inlet 10 or water outlet 11 of the filter cylinder or filter casing 1 in force, the inner walls of the water inlet 10 or water outlet 11 of the filter cylinder or filter casing 1 are easily damaged for the sake of great pushing force. Meanwhile the damaged inner walls of the water inlet 10 or water outlet 11 of the filter cylinder or filter casing 1 will reduce the assembly of the water tube 3. Thus, it is happened that the sleeve 5 explodes s for the sake of high water pressure.
The present invention is modified for improving the disadvantages of the prior art water inlet or water outlet of the filter cylinder, which is based on the manufacture experiences of several decades to follow the principles of economy and efficiency. In assembly, the waterproof washer encloses a front end of the T shape sleeve, and then the T shape sleeve with the waterproof washer is placed into the polygonal hole from the round opening; and then the water tube is placed in T shape sleeve with a part of the water tube protruding out, and then the joint is installed into a water inlet or water outlet of a sealed container or filter casing. The joint used in one of a water inlet or water outlet of a filter cylinder has several advantages, such as convenient operation, quick combination and high pressure-tolerance. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer circuit board well suited for high density mounting of electronic devices such as semiconductor devices and more particularly to a structure of a multilayer circuit board formed by laminating together a plurality of printed wiring boards.
2. Related Background Art
As the result of a recent trend towards realizing a greater degree of integration of semiconductor devices, the density of wiring patterns on printed wiring boards (PWB) for carrying such semiconductor devices has become increasingly higher and higher. For instance, lead less chip-types have become the main current in the actual mounting forms of various electronic devices including semiconductor devices as well as resisters and capacitors, and high density surface mounting techniques for directly soldering chip-type devices on the printed wiring of a PWB to realize a high density mounting on the PWB have already been developed.
With the advent of higher levels of mounting forms, there has been an increase in the thermal stress at the soldered bonded joints between electronic devices, particularly semiconductor chips and a PWB thus giving rise to a danger of increasing the rate of occurrence of cracking at the bonded joints. To overcome this danger, measures have been proposed to reduce the coefficient of linear expansion of a substrate constituting a PWB so as to be close to that of the semiconductor chips. For instance, a glass epoxy multilayer substrate FR-5, formed by laminating a plurality of epoxy resin impregnated glass fabrics made from T-glass fibers having a low coefficient of linear expansion and used as reinforcement material, has been commercially available and PWBs formed from these substrates have already been put in practical applications.
However, the PWB formed from such a substrate reinforced with T-glass fibers has a coefficient of linear expansion in the range from 7 to 10 ppm and this rate is still large as compared with the coefficient of linear expansion, i.e., 3 ppm, of silicon semiconductor chips, for example. In other words, even if such a PWB is used, a thermal stress caused within the PWB due to temperature variations suffering during the mounting of electronic devices by soldering or during the use cannot be reduced so much, and the danger of causing cracking in the soldered layer at the bonded joints between the silicon chips and the wiring on the PWB still remains unsolved. In this case, in order to prevent the occurrence of cracking in the soldered layer, it is rather necessary to effect an additional procedure of filling the gaps between the silicon chips mounted on the PWB and its surface with a resin to reduce the thermal stress.
Also, the effect of the glass fibers or the reinforcement material of the substrate does not practically act on the through-holes formed in the PWB and thus the local coefficients of linear expansion in the axial direction of the through-holes show large values ranging from 50 to 150 ppm. Thus, due to the thermal stress caused by variations in the ambient temperature, there is the danger of causing a damage leading to any electrical break in the copper plating applied into the through-holes or the conductive paste (e.g., copper paste) filling the through-holes.
On the other hand, the formation of through-holes for providing electric connections between the respective layers is essential in the case of a multilayer printed wiring board (MPWB). Conventionally, a drill is used to form holes through the substrates for the formation of the required through-hole portions, and this method not only increases the number of drilling operations with an increase in the number of holes thus requiring much labour and time, but also has the danger of causing a gap due to separation at the substrate resin/glass fiber interface inside any through-hole due to the shock of drilling operation and causing the migration of copper ions from the copper plating layer formed on the through-hole inner surface into the gap, i.e., a so-called migration phenomenon. Such migration must be avoided by all means since it results in the deterioration of the electrical insulation performance between the respective through-holes or between the through-holes and other printed wiring.
According to the series of processing steps hitherto used for the fabrication of an MPWB, a plurality of double-sided printed wiring boards are first prepared and, after the double-sided printed wiring boards have been laminated together and subjected to the application of pressure at once, one or more through-holes are formed in this multilayer structure and a plating layer is formed on the inner surface of the through-holes. In this case, while the laminating process can be effected efficiently by pressing the plurality of double-sided printed wiring boards as a whole, the following through-hole forming procedure is inevitably required to collectively form the desired through-holes through the whole layers and the positions of the through-holes at the respective layers cannot be arbitrarily selected independently. Thus, there is the disadvantage of deteriorating the degree of freedom in wiring designing.
Also, in order to ensure improved electromagnetic noise shielding function and intercicuit crosstalk withstanding performance, it is desirable as one countermeasure to provide shielding layers between the respective layers of an MPWB. However, simply adding shielding layers between the respective layers only results in a considerable increase in the number of constituting layers as a whole and the resulting increase in cost cannot be avoided.
In consideration of applications in the high frequency range, the wiring formed on a PWB must be designed as transmission lines. In the case of the conventional PWB or MPWB, however, the provision of ground layers between the respective layers tends to considerably increase the number of wiring layers and this is disadvantageous from the standpoint of economy. Despite this fact, the absence of such ground layers tends to make it difficult to provide the desired impedance matching of the transmission lines and this eventually makes it extremely difficult to supply PWBs or MPWBs which are well suited for use in high frequency applications and are low in cost.
Attempts have already been made for solving such problems. As for example, there has been proposed a multilayer structure including a plurality of PWBs in which the substrates constituting the adjacent layers are bonded together through local mounds such as raised bumps formed from insulating resin, e.g., polyimide, solder balls or raising of conductive patterns so as to form an air gap between the two substrates (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,786,986). By means of the air gaps formed between the substrates, not only the dielectric loss of the high frequency circuits can be decreased, but also the occurrence of thermal stress due to a difference in linear expansion can be greatly decreased as compared with the case where shielding material having a high coefficient of linear expansion e.g., organic material is present around the bonded joints between the electrodes of the wirings, thereby ensuring improved reliability of the bonded joints as well as the improved heat dissipating properties and reduced weight of the whole assembly.
In this case, the size of the air gaps between the adjacent substrates is determined depending on the thickness of the local mounds such as the bumps, balls or raised portions. Where solder balls are used for the formation of local mounds, essentially it is difficult to make nonuniform the amount of application of solder on the same substrate and also, in the case of soldering for bonding by passing through a reflow furnace, there is the danger of the solder balls between the substrates being collapsed excessively due to the load applied to the substrates, thus making it extremely difficult from the production technical point of view to uniformly control the size of air gaps between the adjacent substrates at the desired value.
Where raised bumps of insulating resin are disposed between the adjacent substrates, the coefficient of linear expansion in the substrate thickness direction is determined by the resin forming the bumps. The coefficient of linear expansion of the raised resin is generally as high as between 50 and 150 ppm and its ill effect on the bonded joints between the substrate and electronic devices is still unavoidable. In addition, separation between the printed wiring conductor, e.g., copper and the raised resin tends to occur easily and the mechanical strength of bonded joints between the substrates is low in reliability.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a multilayer circuit board capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of cracking at the bonded joints between the printed wirings formed on substrates and electronic devices bonded thereon by soldering.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a multilayer circuit board formed by laminating a plurality of printed wiring boards and capable of preventing the occurrence of cracking at the bonded joints as mentioned previously, more particularly such multilayer circuit board capable of realizing bonded joints having a sufficient mechanical strength and air gaps having a stable spacing dimension between the adjacent substrates and excellent in freedom of wiring designing than conventional MPWBs as well.
In accordance with a basic concept of the present invention, a multilayer circuit board has a multilayer structure of a plurality of printed wiring boards including at least a first printed wiring board and a second printed wiring board, and each of said first and second printed wiring boards includes a metal core substrate having a first major surface and a second major surface which are opposite and parallel to each other and each of which major surfaces is covered with an electrically insulating layer, a conductive printed wiring layer formed on the surface of said electrically insulating layer, a solder resist layer covering the surface of said conductive printed wiring layer, and local bonding means for mechanically bonding together a pair of the printed wiring boards which are adjacent to each other so as to provide an air gap of a predetermined spacing value between these adjacent printed wiring boards in the multilayer structure. The metal core substrate is provided with at least one preliminarily prepared aperture extending through the first and second major surfaces to form a through-hole. The local bonding means includes a plurality of metal projections of a predetermined height which are formed on the first major surface and/or the second major surface so as to be integral with the metal core substrate and to provide an air gap between the adjacent printed wiring boards in the multilayer structure. Preferably, the metal projections are formed into a spot shape, linear shape or planar shape of a limited area. The conductive printed wiring layer formed on the electrically insulating layer includes a plurality of wiring lines on the first or second major surface and a through-hole conducting portion on the inner surface of the aperture. The solder resist layer includes a local opening made so that the metal surface is exposed at the region of the local bonding means.
In accordance with an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, each of the metal projections includes an exposed metal top of its own.
In accordance with another advantageous embodiment of the present invention, each metal projection includes an exposed metal surface layer formed by plating the metal core substrate with a metal.
In accordance with still another advantageous embodiment of the present invention, each metal projection has a top covered with an electrically insulating layer on which an exposed metal surface layer is formed by plating a metal. This exposed metal surface layer can constitute a part of the conductive printed wiring layer.
In accordance with still another advantageous embodiment of the present invention, each metal projection includes a protrusion formed from the metal core substrate by press forming.
In accordance with still another advantageous embodiment of the present invention, each metal projection includes a protrusion left after etching treatment of the metal core substrate.
In accordance with still another advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the second major surface of the first printed wiring board and the first major surface of the second printed wiring board face each other through an air gap, and the local bonding means includes a combination of a metal projection formed on one of the second major surface of the first printed wiring board and the first major surface of the second printed wiring board and a local exposed metal portion provided on the other of the second major surface of the first printing wiring board and the first major surface of the second printed wiring board a at position which is in alignment with the metal projection. This exposed metal portion can be formed from a part of the surface of the metal core substrate or a part of the conductive printed wiring layer and it can be utilized, along with the metal projection, as the required electrode for electrical connection between the adjacent printed wiring boards.
In a multilayer circuit board according to the present invention, the both surfaces of each of metal core substrates are each covered with an electrically insulating layer and individual printed wiring boards are formed by utilizing the metal core substrates each covered with the insulating layers. Thus, the structural strength of the printed wiring board is governed by the rigidity of the metal core substrate and the coefficient of linear expansion of the printed wiring board per se is substantially the same with that of the metal core substrate. Thus, if a metal material having as low a coefficient of linear expansion as that of a material used for forming semiconductor devices, e.g., silicon is selected for a metal core substrate, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of an excessive thermal stress at the soldered joint between a printed wiring board and a semiconductor device mounted thereon due to a difference in coefficient of linear expansion between the two as well as the resulting occurrence of cracking.
Preferably, if the same metal material is used as the material for the metal core substrates of a plurality of printed wiring boards forming a multilayer structure, the printed wiring boards of the respective layers become substantially equal in coefficient of linear expansion to each other so that the difference in surface-direction thermal stress among the printed wiring boards in the multilayer structure is reduced extremely with respect to the effect of heat, e.g., the heating during such production and assembling processes as a reflow process and the generation of heat in the actual use, thereby greatly reducing the occurrence of internal stress at the soldered joints between the printed wiring boards.
Particularly, in a multilayer circuit board according to the present invention, integrally formed on the first major surface and/or second major surface of each of metal core substrates are metal projections which provide bonded local joints between the respective printed wiring boards in the multilayer structure and the thickness-direction coefficient of linear expansion of the individual printed wiring boards is also determined by the metal projections, that is, by the metal material used for the metal core substrates, thereby ensuring enhanced mechanical stability against heat at the bonded joints between the printed wiring boards in the multilayer structure. In addition, the gap width of air gaps formed between the respective adjacent printed wiring boards laminated in the multilayer structure is also determined by the height of the metal projections. The metal projections can be formed preliminarily with a highly accurate projection height by etching, e.g., subtractive process or electroplating, e.g., additive process effected on one or both surfaces of each metal core substrate. Thus, in accordance with the present invention, the air gaps between the respective printed wiring boards in the multilayer structure can be formed with the desired spacing value by preliminarily controlling the height of the metal projections in contrast to those formed by solder bumps, and at the same time these air gaps can be realized as highly accurate parallel gaps by preliminarily controlling the height of the plurality of metal projections at a given value.
Also, in accordance with the multilayer circuit board of the present invention, it is possible to design so that the metal core substrates forming the printed wiring boards of the respective layers not only exhibit electric shielding performance but also serve the function of balanced strip lines as high frequency transmission lines or the function of the grounds of microstrip lines, for example. Thus, in such a case, a multilayer circuit board can be realized which makes easy the matching of circuit impedance and which is suited for use in high frequency applications.
Further, in accordance with the multilayer circuit board of the present invention, the through-hole forming apertures have been preliminarily made in the metal core substrates so that there is provided the multilayer circuit board which has no need to drill through-holes in the printed wiring boards after the formation of printed wiring patterns of electric circuitry as in the case of the prior art, which involves no danger of the delamination at the internal lamination interface of the printed wiring boards due to the shock during drilling as well as the resulting migration and the like and which is capable of highly maintaining the inter-through-hole electric insulating performance over a long period of time. In addition, due to the fact that the formation of through-holes at the desired positions is possible for each of the individual printed wiring boards forming the multilayer structure, the degree of freedom from the standpoint of wiring designing is very greatly improved over the prior art multilayer circuit boards in which through-holes are formed at once through the whole layers after the plurality of printed wiring boards have been laminated.
In accordance with the multilayer circuit board of the present invention, a part of the surface of the metal core substrates in each of the printed wiring boards can be selectively exposed so that the exposed metal portions can be utilized as bonding electrodes between the respective printed wiring boards in the multilayer structure. In this case, the adjacent printed wiring boards can be directly bonded together electrically and mechanically. As a result, the bonded joints between the printed wiring boards are high in reliability and the structural strength of the multilayer circuit board as a whole is also high. As regard the combination of the bonding electrodes, it is only necessary to combine the bonding electrodes formed on the metal projections of one of the adjacent printed wiring boards with the exposed metal portions formed selectively, the exposed metal portions formed on the metal projections or the plated electrodes formed on the insulating layer in the metal core substrate of the other printed wiring board.
It is to be noted that the metal projections integrally formed on the metal core substrate can be made to extend linearly or in a frame manner along the substrate periphery. In the later case, by forming a multilayer structure with a plurality of such printed wiring boards, the surroundings of the air gaps are enclosed with electromagnetic shielding by the metal projections forming a frame or an enclosure so that any electromagnetic interference between the electronic circuitry mounted on the printed wiring boards and the outside, that is, any undesired electromagnetic radiation from the electronic circuitry to the outside or the introduction of noise into the electronic circuitry from the outside can be effectively prevented.
The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments shown only for illustrative purposes without no intention of limitation of the scope of the present invention, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The invention relates to a longitudinal dynamics control device for motor vehicles.
Such a longitudinal dynamics management device is known from German patent document DE 199 60 782 A1, for example. This patent describes a form of acceleration monitoring by comparing an actual acceleration with an ideal acceleration.
In addition, a longitudinal dynamics management device in the form of a cruise control unit having an interference immunity circuit is also known from German patent document DE 39 05 479 C2.
Both known devices use a form of error recognition which recognizes a malfunction of the longitudinal dynamics management device and optionally executes a safety function on occurrence of a malfunction. With these known longitudinal dynamics management devices, error recognition is combined with the cruise control functions.
A longitudinal dynamics management device here is understood to refer to any longitudinal dynamics regulating system or longitudinal dynamics management system (hereinafter abbreviated simply as LDM system) that can be used as a comfort system for driver assistance.
The object of the present invention is to provide longitudinal dynamics management devices with safety functions that are as simple as possible but operate as reliably as possible.
This object is achieved according to this invention by the subjects of the independent patent claims. Advantageous refinements are the subjects of the dependent patent claims. In addition, it is pointed out that the subjects of the independent patent claims may also be combined with one another.
The invention is based on the following findings:
For example, cruise control systems as longitudinal dynamics management systems with a safety concept are known, combining safety functions with cruise control functions, hereinafter referred to as generally valid driving functions for longitudinal dynamics management devices. With these concepts, local error recognition measures and safety functions should thus be independent of the algorithm of the driving functions. The subject of German patent document DE 39 05 479 C2, which was already cited above, is an example of this.
This combination of driving functions with safety functions requires a novel adaptation of safety functions to the driving functions when there is a change in driving functions.
Therefore, the first basic idea is to separate the safety functions from the driving functions that are classified as non-safety-relevant. The driving functions are executed in a first function unit (driving function unit) using a main computer. The driving functions may already be partially protected by limiting functions on the main computer. However, it is important for the safety functions to be performed fundamentally in an independent second function unit (safety function unit) which also comprises either the main computer or its own monitoring computer. The two function units which operate separately may, but need not, be integrated into a common controller. The term function unit is understood in particular to refer to a software module in a controller by which certain functions can be triggered in the vehicle by using the controller hardware and other vehicle components.
A safety-relevant subsystem comprising software (function unit), hardware (hardware of the controller into which the function unit is integrated) and other vehicle components, e.g., other electronic controllers, is created by the second function unit. This subsystem coincides with the risk scenarios identified in a risk analysis.
Another basic idea is that monitoring is of primary concern with regard to safety functions and should be as independent as possible of the driving functions in contrast with maintaining target variables and actual variables according to German patent document DE 199 60 782 A1. The second basic idea of the safety concept may be independent of or dependent on the first basic idea. The goal of the second basic idea is to ascertain the controllability of the respective state of the vehicle by the driver and prevent uncontrollable states. This determination is performed by using safety functions based on the change in dynamic quantities of the vehicle which are independent of the operands of the longitudinal dynamics management device as they pertain to the driving functions. The safety functions include plausibility checks on input signals which are independent of the driving functions. The safety functions are preferably as different from one another as possible and are as different as possible from the driving functions (functional diversity).
The safety functions as a function of the change in dynamic variables of the vehicle, and the regulated variables of the longitudinal dynamics management device pertaining to the driving functions, preferably include in particular an acceleration monitoring and/or monitoring of jolts. As part of acceleration monitoring, in a first alternative, there is monitoring to ascertain whether safety technical limits in changes in vehicle speed are maintained or, in a second alternative, which is especially advantageous because it is preventive, there is monitoring with regard to vehicle dynamics that are controllable by the driver to ascertain whether the safety technical limits to changes in vehicle speed to be expected on the basis of the change in the longitudinal dynamics management setpoint are maintained. As part of the monitoring of jolts, in a first alternative, there is monitoring to ascertain whether the safety technical limits in the instantaneous vehicle acceleration or, in a second alternative, which is especially advantageous because it is preventive, there is monitoring to ascertain whether the safety technical limits to changes in acceleration that are to be expected on the basis of the change in the longitudinal dynamics management setpoint value have been maintained with regard to vehicle dynamics controllable by the driver. The acceleration monitoring and monitoring of jolts may also be performed independently of the separation into two function units. The alternatives of acceleration monitoring and monitoring of jolts may be combined together in any desired form.
The functions performed with longitudinal dynamics management devices, i.e., so-called LDM systems, include in particular driver assistance functions, which are presented to the driver in the form of longitudinal controls as speed-based vehicle responses (e.g., cruise control or adaptive cruise control functions).
The goal of the safety functions is to control risks that can occur due to errors in the LDM driving functions for the driver. The errors to be assumed can be ascertained with the help of risk analysis and FMEA (error possibility and error influence analysis).
Safety goals include in particular: Without driver activation, LDM must not result in any defective critical triggering of the actuators. In the state activated by the driver, the vehicle acceleration must remain within a range that is controllable by the driver. Decisive intervention by the driver into the vehicle performance must be ensured. The vehicle must not be destabilized by an LDM intervention.
The safety goals defined above are implemented by safety functions. The safety functions are not usually assigned to just one safety goal. In the present invention, as mentioned above, acceleration monitoring and monitoring of jolts are of primary concern as safety functions, as explained in greater detail below:
1. (Vehicle) Acceleration monitoring
This monitoring is based on the vehicle acceleration generated by the driving functions and it monitors this driving function for whether or not controllable limits are being observed. The controllability of the vehicle response is determined by the change in the prevailing speed of the vehicle, among other things. This monitoring may be implemented by monitoring the measured acceleration applied to the vehicle and monitoring same with respect to an acceleration range regarded as being controllable by the driver (such ranges may be predetermined, e.g., by specifications and standards).
If there is no input signal from an acceleration sensor, then an actual vehicle acceleration can be generated, e.g., from a vehicle speed signal and/or the wheel rotational speeds measured for a brake control system in the function unit that is performing the acceleration monitoring. Furthermore, the term “vehicle acceleration” is also understood to include any quantity proportional to the vehicle acceleration. The monitoring is preferably active only when the instantaneous vehicle acceleration results from the LDM driving function to be monitored. In other words, the driver should always be given an opportunity to override the function on his own responsibility, just as acceleration/deceleration requests by other systems should lie within their responsibility.
Alternatively or additionally, the acceleration monitoring may be implemented in a preventive manner through the monitoring of the vehicle acceleration (which still cannot be measured) that would be expected if the predetermined longitudinal dynamics management setpoint value were in fact to be implemented.
2. Monitoring of jolts
In addition to a change in speed, the change in acceleration (jolt) has a significant influence on the controllability of the vehicle.
2a (First alternative): Acceleration gradient monitoring
The actual change in vehicle acceleration is analyzed here with regard to controllability by the driver.
2b (Second alternative): Setpoint value gradient monitoring and/or torque gradient monitoring
This monitoring is based on the gradient of the longitudinal dynamics management setpoint value, in particular the gradient of the drive request or brake torque request output by an LDM driving function and limits the effects thereof on the acceleration to a limit value that is still controllable by the driver and/or is still to be appraised as comfortable by the driver. The coordination of this setpoint value gradient limit value is ascertained empirically, e.g., by evaluating the vehicle response caused by the setpoint value gradient, in particular a change in acceleration, and this is then stored in the function unit.
The acceleration monitoring and the monitoring of jolts together form the frame within which the driving function may vary in the state activated by the driver. In particular, sudden drive interventions or braking interventions are to be prevented. The “violent jolt” that is to be prevented, is relative and is designed in particular with regard to controllability.
By monitoring the actual vehicle response (actual acceleration) longer-lasting changes in vehicle speed are monitored. Shorter changes in the setpoint value that would lead to jerky changes in vehicle speed are monitored by monitoring the setpoint value (setpoint value gradient monitoring). These changes are prevented by the present invention before such jumps in setpoint value as a vehicle response can have any effect at all (preventive).
3. Monitoring of output
In addition to monitoring of acceleration and monitoring of jolts, the reliability of a setpoint output can also be monitored as an additional safety function because the output of setpoint values may no longer be controllable by the driver because they are linked to certain operating states. Then the reliability of the longitudinal dynamics management setpoint value, in particular of a driving torque or braking torque request, is preferably monitored for conformity to the activation requested by the driver. In other words, if an operating unit that is to be operated manually and is assigned to the longitudinal dynamics management device does not supply an activation signal (activation request by the driver) for the longitudinal dynamics management device to the function unit, then output of a longitudinal dynamics management setpoint value, in particular of a driving or braking torque request, is recognized as inadmissible.
Other monitoring may also be performed in addition, e.g., monitoring of the driver's decisive intervention. The goal of monitoring the driver's decisive intervention is to ensure that the driver can fulfill his responsibility for the vehicle performance and can intervene correctly at any time. In particular, the setpoint value requests of the driving function are checked for contradictions with the driver's intent via the pedal system and prevent any contradictions.
The basic ideas of this invention are summarized briefly:
1. Separation of driving function unit and safety function unit, whereby the safety functions are executed independently of the internal operands of the driving function unit and/or
2. Safety functions independent of the vehicle response (current) and the setpoint value (preventive) and/or
3. Acceleration monitoring based on the vehicle response (current) and/or setpoint value (preventive) and/or
4. Monitoring of jolts based on the vehicle response (current) and/or the setpoint value (preventive).
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the drawings when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid housing container, and in particular, to a liquid housing container comprising a liquid supply connection portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid containers used in ink jet printing apparatuses may be integrated with or separated from print elements. A liquid container integrated with a print element can be easily replaced with a new one. Further, every time the container with ink used up is replaced with a new one, the print element is also replaced with a new one. Every time a print element has been used for a specified time, printing can be performed with a new print element.
On the other hand, for a liquid container separated from a print element, only the container needs to be replaced. This advantageously reduces the costs of replacement parts. However, the liquid container separated from the print element requires a liquid connection portion through which the print element is supplied with ink.
As a method for liquid connection, various systems have been adopted for ink jet printing apparatuses.
An example of a liquid container containing an ink absorbent with a capillary force in order to impregnate the ink absorbent with ink is a liquid container including an ink guiding member made of a bundle of fibers as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2727292. Liquid connection based on the pressure contact of the ink guiding member with a filter in a printing apparatus is commonly adopted. This system advantageously uses a simple structure and allows the ink in the ink absorbent to be reliably consumed. However, ink jet printing apparatuses have been desired to exhibit improved filtering performance in order to deal with finer droplets ejected therefrom. Further, there has been a demand for an increase in the amount of ink flowing in per unit time during ink supply in order to reduce printing time. An increase in the amount of inflow ink is likely to increase the impact of possible pressure loss in a filter portion during ink supply. Measures such as an increase in the area of the filter have thus been required to prevent the possible pressure loss. However, this in turn requires a large opening, possibly causing the surroundings to be stained with ink during operation.
In contrast, to avoid the surface contact between the liquid container and the printing apparatus, a connection system based on a needle and a rubber plug has been proposed. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2519871 discloses a liquid container using a rubber plug. Liquid connection is established by sticking, into a rubber plug in a liquid container, a needle which is hollow and which has a sharp tip and a hole normally formed in its side surface and serving as a liquid channel. FIG. 29 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-128992 and FIG. 7 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-235892 disclose a configuration in which a rubber plug with a hole already formed therein is assembled in a liquid container. This configuration enables the printing apparatus and the liquid container to be connected together even if the needle does not have a sharp tip. These systems allow the connection function to be achieved by the simple structure.
However, these systems use only the restoring force of the rubber plug to prevent leakage of ink when the liquid connection is canceled. After the connection between the rubber plug and the needle is maintained for a long period, the hole in the rubber plug may not be completely closed during non-connection, depending on the material characteristics of the rubber plug or the diameter of the needle stuck into the rubber plug.
As a structure closing the hole during non-connection, a known system closes a hole formed in a rubber plug using a valve biased by a spring as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2866068.
FIGS. 14A to 14C are cross-sectional views showing the configuration of a liquid container based on a system of closing a hole by means of a spring. Reference character R denotes an internal chamber in the liquid container. Reference numerals 902, 903, and 904 denote a valve, a spring, and a spring receiver, respectively. Reference numerals 906 and 907 denote an elastic body and a supply needle, respectively.
FIG. 14A is a diagram showing the internal structure of a supply connection portion of the liquid container. In the liquid container shown in FIG. 14A, the supply needle 907 is hollow and has a flat tip and a hole 907A in its side surface which serves as a liquid channel. The supply needle 907 shown by an alternate long and two short dashes line is moved to a position shown by a solid line to push the valve 902 shown by an alternate long and two short dashes line into the position of the valve 902 shown by a solid line, that is, into the internal chamber R in the liquid container. This results in the formation of a liquid channel.
FIG. 14B shows a connection portion valve structure of an ink housing bag (liquid container) disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-199516. In a liquid container shown in FIG. 14B, the supply needle 907 has a sharp tip and a plurality of small-diameter holes 907B around the tip. The supply needle 907 shown by an alternate long and two short dashes line is moved to a position shown by a solid line to push the valve 902 shown by an alternate long and two short dashes line into the position of the valve 902 shown by a solid line, that is, into the internal chamber R in the liquid container. This results in the formation of a liquid channel.
FIG. 14C shows an example in which liquid connection is established using the gap between the supply needle and the valve; this configuration is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-193636 and U.S. Patent Publication No. 20040183870. In a liquid container shown in FIG. 14C, the supply needle 907 has an open tip and a recessed and projecting portion 907C in a circumferential portion of the tip. The supply needle shown by an alternate long and two short dashes line is moved to a position shown by a solid line to push the valve 902 shown by an alternate long and two short dashes line into the position of the valve 902 shown by a solid line, that is, into the internal chamber R in the liquid container. This results in the formation of a liquid channel through the gap between the valve 902 and the supply needle 907.
In these structures, the needle and the valve are in contact with each other to prevent a filter from being exposed to a liquid connection portion. Thus, the structure of the connection portion does not depend on the filter area. This makes the connection portion unlikely to be stained in spite of possible malfunction, while ensuring the appropriate filter area.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-043922 discloses a configuration in which the connection between the liquid housing container and the printing apparatus is such that the connection portion except for an ink supply portion is not closed. Specifically, in the ink supply portion, the liquid housing container and the printing apparatus (tank holder) are connected together via a closing seal portion. In the connection portion except for the ink supply portion, the liquid housing container and the printing apparatus are connected together using an alternate mechanism provided on a side surface of the liquid housing container.
FIG. 15 shows an example of an ink jet printing apparatus using a connection method disclosed in FIGS. 14A to 14C. Reference numeral 900 denotes an ink jet printing apparatus main body, and reference numeral 901 denotes a liquid container. In this ink jet printing apparatus, a print element (not shown) scans a print medium to print the surface of the print medium P. In connection with the print element, the liquid container 901 is installed at a specified position of the printing apparatus main body 900. In FIG. 15, four liquid containers 901 are installed on a front surface of the printing apparatus main body 900.
FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of the liquid container 901. Reference numeral 908 denotes a liquid supply portion. In this example, the liquid container 901 is shaped like a box. The liquid supply portion 908 is provided on an end surface of the liquid container 901 located in an installation direction (the direction of an arrow). The liquid container normally comprises a rubber plug or a valve as described above which is joined to a supply needle provided in the printing apparatus main body,
In recent years, the printing speed of ink jet printing apparatuses has been further increased. For the system based on the connection of the supply needle, reducing pressure loss has become important because of an increase in the amount of ink supplied per unit time. Moreover, the number of ink types has been increasing. For example, pigment ink tends to be more viscous than conventional dye ink, contributing to further increasing pressure loss.
Further, some ink jet printing apparatuses do not supply ink from ink tanks during printing but during non-printing. Since no ink is supplied during printing, the pressure on the ink supplied to the print element is unlikely to vary. This prevents ink ejection from being affected by a possible variation in ink pressure, allowing accurate ejection.
However, when the ink from the ink tank is not supplied during printing but during non-printing, the supply of a sufficient amount of ink for printing needs to be completed in a short time because ink supply is performed only during non-printing. This is because the time for non-printing needs to be reduced in keeping with increasing printing speed of ink jet printing apparatuses. When the ink is supplied only during non-printing, a sufficient amount of ink needs to be supplied in a short time, so that the ink fed from the ink tank often flows faster than when the ink is always supplied. In this case, the pressure variation per unit time associated with ink supply increases, resulting in increased pressure loss.
To reduce the pressure loss, it is important to maximize the cross section of a channel through which ink passes. However, if a side hole is present in a side of the tip of a hollow needle as in the case of the liquid container disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-235892, it is difficult in connection with a manufacturing process to increase the diameter of the side hole; the size of the side hole is limited.
Further, in the liquid container shown in FIG. 14C, since the tip of the supply needle 907 abuts against the valve member 902, a recessed gap in the tip 907C of the supply needle 907 constitutes an ink channel. In this liquid container, the ink channel can be widened by increasing the width or depth of the recessed shape in the tip 907C of the supply needle 907. However, to fulfill the function of abutting the valve 902 against the needle, it is necessary to ensure the area in which the valve 902 abuts against the needle. This prevents the ink channel from being easily widened. Further, to reduce the ink pressure loss associated with the supply needle 907 itself, the inner diameter of the needle needs to be increased. However, an increase in the outer diameter of the needle in the connection portion may affect the closability during connection as well as installing operability. Moreover, an increase in the inner diameter and a reduction in the thickness of the supply needle 907 with its outer diameter unchanged make it difficult to increase the depth of the recess in the tip 907C of the supply needle 907 owing to the need to maintain the rigidity of the needle.
For the liquid container shown in FIG. 14B, in the conventional example, the supply needle 907 is made by molding resin. In this case, ink passes through the thin hole 908B, and the pressure loss in this portion needs to be reduced. However, the intervals of the holes 907B, through which the ink passes, depend on the fluidity of the resin and the strength of a mold during molding. This makes it difficult to reduce the intervals of the holes 907B to increase the number of holes 907B formed or to increase the inner diameter of the holes 907B. | {
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Conventional automotive vehicles typically include a heating system for supplying warm air to a passenger compartment of the vehicle. The heating system includes a control system that allows a vehicle operator to regulate the quantity and/or temperature of air delivered to the passenger compartment so as to achieve a desirable air temperature within the passenger compartment. Cooling fluid from the vehicle's engine cooling system is commonly used as a source of heat for heating the air delivered to the passenger compartment.
The heating system typically includes a heat exchanger fluidly connected to the vehicle's engine cooling system. Warm cooling fluid from the engine cooling system passes through the heat exchanger and gives up heat to a cool air supply flowing through the heating system. The heat energy transferred from the warm cooling fluid to the cool air supply causes the temperature of the air to rise. The heated air is discharged into the passenger compartment to warm the interior of the vehicle to a desired air temperature.
The vehicle's engine cooling system provides a convenient source of heat for heating the vehicle's passenger compartment. One disadvantage of using the engine cooling fluid as a heat source, however, is that there is typically a significant delay between when the vehicle's engine is first started and when the heating system begins supplying air at a preferred temperature. This is particularly true when the vehicle is operated in very cold ambient conditions or has sat idle for a period of time. The delay is due to the cooling fluid being at substantially the same temperature as the air flowing through the heating system and into the passenger compartment when the engine is first started. As the engine continues to operate, a portion of the heat generated as a byproduct of combusting a mixture of fuel and air in the engine cylinders is transferred to the cooling fluid, causing the temperature of the cooling fluid to rise. Since, the temperature of the air being discharged from the heating system is a function of the temperature of the cooling fluid passing through the heat exchanger, the heating system will produce proportionally less heat while the engine cooling fluid is warming up than when the cooling fluid is at a preferred operating temperature. Thus, there may be an extended period of time between when the vehicle's engine is first started and when the heating system begins producing air at an acceptable temperature level. The time it takes for this to occur will vary depending on various factors, including the initial temperature of the cooling fluid and the initial temperature of the air being heated. It is preferable that the temperature of the cooling fluid reach its preferred operating temperature as quickly as possible.
Another potential limitation of using the engine cooling fluid as a heat source for the vehicle's heating system is that under certain operating conditions the engine may not be rejecting enough heat to the cooling fluid to enable the air stream from the vehicle's heating system to achieve a desired temperature. This may occur, for example, when operating a vehicle with a very efficient engine under a low load condition or in conditions where the outside ambient temperature is unusually cold. Both of these conditions reduce the amount of heat that needs to be transferred from the engine to the cooling fluid to maintain a desired engine operating temperature. This results in less heat energy available for heating the air flowing through the vehicle's heating system.
Accordingly it is desirable to develop a supplemental heating system capable of intermittently providing additional heating of an engine's cooling fluid so as to improve the heating efficiency of the vehicles's passenger compartment heating system. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to a high frequency electrical connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A high frequency electrical connector such as a radio frequency (RF) electrical connector disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,610 B1, includes a hollow columned shell, a columned center contact and an insulative housing disposed between the shell and the center contact. The shell defines a columned receiving space. The center contact is retained in the insulative housing with a contact portion cantilevered extending into the receiving space. However, the center contact is difficult to manufacture because the columned configuration of the center contact is relative complex to be stamped from a metal sheet. Besides, the center contact is solely retained by the way of its rear portion engaging with the insulative housing. Such an arrangement of the center contact does not provide strong resistance to external forces that occur when a mating connector is inserted into or removed from the RF electrical connector. More over, it is probable difficult to assure the shell coaxially positioned with the center contact, because the contact portion extends cantilevered into the receiving space. Further more, the conventional RF electrical connector can only transmit a single signal because it has only one center contact. With the development of electronics, multiple signal transmission is highly desired currently.
Hence, it is desired to have an electrical connector solving the problem above. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic recording medium known as a discrete track type.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of recording mediums used for storage devices such as hard disk drives is a magnetic disk (a magnetic recording medium). A magnetic disk has a multilayer structure consisting of a disk substrate and a recording layer having a predetermined magnetic structure. The ongoing increase in amount of information that needs to be processed by a computer system is driving development of the magnetic disk for much higher recording density.
When recording information on the magnetic disk, a magnetic head for recording is disposed close to a recording surface (substantially a recording layer) of the magnetic disk, and the magnetic head applies to the recording layer a recording magnetic field stronger than the coercive force thereof. Sequentially reversing the direction of the recording magnetic field applied by the magnetic head while relatively moving the magnetic head with respect to the magnetic disk leads to formation of a plurality of recording marks (magnetic domains), alternately magnetized in opposite directions, aligned circumferentially of an information track or tracks in the recording layer of the disk. Controlling the timing to reverse the direction of the recording magnetic field during this process enables forming recording marks of predetermined lengths. Thus on the recording layer, signals or information is recorded based on the variation of the magnetizing direction.
In the field of the magnetic disk, a so-called discrete track (DT) type magnetic disk has been developed, for achieving higher recording density. DT type magnetic disks are described in Patent documents 1 to 3 below. Patent document 1: JP-A-2005-71467 Patent document 2: JP-A-2005-166115 Patent document 3: JP-A-2005-293730
FIGS. 31 and 32 depict a conventional DT type magnetic disk 90. FIG. 31 is a fragmentary plan view of the magnetic disk 90, and FIG. 32 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XXXII-XXXII in FIG. 31.
As shown in FIG. 32, the magnetic disk 90 has a multilayer structure including a disk substrate 91, a recording layer 92, and a cover layer 93. The recording layer 92 includes, as shown in FIG. 31, a plurality of information tracks 92A extending circumferentially of the disk D or winding around the center of the disk, and non-magnetic regions 92B located between the information tracks. The information track 92A includes a track servo signal region TS and a user data region YD. The track servo signal region TS includes a plurality of magnetic regions 92a and a plurality of non-magnetic regions 92b, such that the mutually adjacent magnetic regions 92a are isolated by the non-magnetic region 92b. The magnetic regions 92a respectively have what is known as perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, and are magnetized in the same direction. The magnetic regions 92a and the non-magnetic regions 92b thus configured constitute track servo information. The user data region YD includes a magnetic region 92c, where user data is to be written. The magnetic region 92c, which is made of the same material as that of the magnetic region 92a, has perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, and is in so-called an “as-depo” state in which the region is randomly and generally uniformly magnetized in a vertical direction, before the user data is first written thereon.
When recording information on the DT type magnetic disk 90, the magnetic head applies the recording magnetic field, thus to create a plurality of recording marks (magnetic domains), alternately magnetized in opposite directions, serially aligned circumferentially of the disk recording layer 92 on the magnetic region 92c in the user data region YD in one of the information tracks 92A. During this process, since the information track 92A to which the magnetic field is sequentially applied for recording information and the adjacent information track 92A are isolated by the non-magnetic region 92B, a cross-write effect, which erases or degrades the recording mark in the adjacent information track 92A, can be prevented. The capability of preventing the cross-write effect is an advantageous feature of the magnetic disk in achieving a finer pitch of the tracks and higher recording density.
FIGS. 33(a) to 34(c) depict a manufacturing method of the magnetic disk 90. To manufacture the magnetic disk 90, firstly a magnetic film 94 is formed on the disk substrate 91 as shown in FIG. 33(a). Then as shown in FIG. 33(b), a resist pattern 95 is formed on the magnetic film 94. The resist pattern 95 is provided with openings 95a located according to the pattern of the non-magnetic region 92b of the recording layer 92. The resist pattern 95 also includes openings (not shown) located according to the pattern of the non-magnetic region 92B of the recording layer 92. Proceeding to FIG. 33(c), an etching process is performed utilizing the resist pattern 95 as the mask, to thereby delineate the pattern on the magnetic film 94. At this stage, the magnetic regions 92a, 92c in the recording layer 92 are formed. After removal of the resist pattern 95, a non-magnetic material 96 is loaded among the magnetic regions 92a, 92c, as shown in FIG. 33(d). This process forms the non-magnetic regions 92B, 92b in the recording layer 92.
Proceeding to FIG. 34(a), the cover layer 93 is formed on the recording layer 92. Then as shown in FIG. 34(b), a magnetic field is collectively applied to the entire recording layer 92, so as to magnetize the magnetic regions 92a, 92c in the same direction. In this process, the magnetic field Hr applied to the magnetic regions 92a, 92c is stronger than the coercive force thereof. Magnetizing thus the magnetic regions 92a in the same direction permits formation of the track servo information in the track servo signal region TS. Referring now to FIG. 34(c), an AC erasion process is performed to bring the magnetic region 92c in the user data region YD into the as-depo state. In the AC erasion process, a predetermined magnetic head is employed so as to form a high-frequency repeating pattern mark in the magnetic region 92c of the user data region YD, in each information track 92A. Through such steps, the magnetic disk 90 including the track servo information in the recording layer 92 can be obtained.
The manufacturing of the conventional magnetic disk 90, however, involves inefficient steps. The manufacturing process of the conventional magnetic disk 90 requires once magnetizing the magnetic region 92a of the recording layer 92 in the same direction, and then performing the AC erasion process to turn only the magnetic regions 92c into the as-depo state. The AC erasion process has to be performed for each single information track 92A. Accordingly, the AC erasion process takes a long time (often 10 minutes or more per disk) in turning the magnetic region 92c in the information track 92A, hence all the magnetic regions 92c of the recording layer 92, into the as-depo state. Such AC erasion process is undesirable for achieving higher manufacturing efficiency and lower manufacturing cost of the magnetic disk. | {
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In manually carrying out the shutter release of a camera, the operating member is usually designed to be operated with a relatively great power in order to prevent an erroneous operation. On the other hand, in a camera with a motor drive device, the shutter release is effected by an electrical signal, and a separate release operation section is often built into the motor drive device and the release resistance for preventing erroneous operation may be smaller. Accordingly, in order to reduce the energy consumption, the mirror raising mechanism is directly released without the manually operable release member in a camera using the motor drive device.
However, the charging of the operating power is, in general, accomplished prior to the setting of the shutter mechanism or completion of the film winding mechanism. Thus, if the release is effected at that instant, then only the mirror mechanism may be operated without the shutter mechanism, or exposure may be effected during the winding operation. | {
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The present invention provides an improvement over subject matter disclosed in our copending application Ser. No. 390,479 filed June 21, 1982, entitled "Lateral Bidirectional Shielded Notch FET". Our copending application discloses lateral power FET structure which is bidirectional, i.e. current can flow in either direction when the device is in the ON state, whereby to afford AC application. Voltage blocking capability is increased by a notch gate structure and a shielding electrode. A notch extends downwardly from a top major surface to separate left and right source regions and left and right channel regions, and direct the drift region current path between the channels around the bottom of the notch. First and second gate electrodes are provided along opposite sides of the notch proximate the channels for controlling bidirectional conduction.
A shielding electrode is insulated between the first and second gate electrodes. In the OFF state, the shielding electrode shields the right notch edge drift region portion from electric field gradients from the left gate electrode. This prevents the left gate electrode from causing attraction of given polarity carriers in the drift region towards the right edge of the notch, which in turn prevents unwanted notch edge drift region depletion and inducement of conduction channels. The shielding electrode likewise shields the left notch edge drift region portion from electric field gradients from the right gate electrode in the OFF state, to prevent unwanted depletion and inducement of conduction channels in the drift region.
The present invention affords optimal utilization of the integrated structure. PN junctions already present in the integrated structure are additionally used to provide the steering diode function for referencing the shielding electrode to the appropriate potential. This eliminates the need for dedicated discrete diodes. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The new cultivar was discovered as a chance, whole plant mutation in a commercial nursery in Chonburi, Thailand. The inventor, Kanchana Khemakongkanond, a citizen of Thailand, discovered the new variety as a naturally occurring whole plant mutation among several hundred plants of the unpatented commercial variety, Dracaena reflexa ‘Song of Jamaica’. The new variety was discovered in August 2004 by the inventor.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘SUPHA06’ by vegetative cuttings was performed at a commercial nursery in Chonburi, Thailand in April 2005. Since that time, many generations have been reproduced, and have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type through successive generations. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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With the development of memory technology, there is an increasing need for small-sized memories with higher density and performance. Nevertheless, flash memories require complex mask patterns and exorbitant manufacturing costs and are subjected to relatively large word line leakage and crosstalk between cells. In addition, as the number of electrons in floating gates becomes smaller and smaller, the size reduction capacity of the flash memories is greatly limited and it is estimated that the development of the size reduction capacity will be difficult to continue when it gets to 1z nm. Thus, emerging non-volatile memories such as CBRAM, MRAM, PRAM and RRAM gain increasing attention, wherein resistive random access memory RRAM, by virtue of high speed, large capacity, low power consumption, low cost and high reliability, is regarded as the most powerful candidate for flash memories.
Nevertheless, as a RRAM unit changes resistance states (“1” for a low resistance state, “0” for a high resistance state) according to voltage or current applied on two ends thereof, the resistance in a low resistance state and a high resistance state is very sensitive to the applied voltage or current. In the prior art, when a group of RRAM units are programmed, over-set will be generated to cause the failure of a high resistance state if the units that have been in a low resistance state are subjected to a positive voltage and are set again; or over-reset will be generated to cause the failure of a low resistance state if the units that have been in a high resistance state are subjected to a negative voltage and are reset again. The programming method described above will cause the failure of a high resistance state or a low resistance state of storage units, thereby reducing the data storage capacity and the service life of the storage units.
Thus, a programming method and device that can solve at least one of the above-mentioned problems are urgently demanded. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus used in testing the electrical characteristic of semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 3 shows appearance of three typical semiconductor devices (hereinafter also referred to simply as "device") 1 each equipped with external output terminals 1a, 1b and 1c, respectively.
FIG. 28 schematically shows a conventional testing apparatus for testing a semiconductor device (referred to as a semiconductor testing apparatus). As seen from FIG. 28, the testing apparatus includes a tester body 110, four test heads 111 and four test handlers 116 are shown. Each test handler 116 integrally includes a handler body 113, a loader 114 and an unloader 115. The test head 111 is attached to the handler body 116. The test head 111 incorporates a contact (not shown) in contact with the above device 1 and electrically connected through a cable 112 to a tester body 112 for testing the electric characteristic of the device. The handler body 113 serves to transport the device 1. The loader 114, which is adjacent to the handler body 113, supplies a pallet containing the device 1 before test to the handler body 115. The unloader 114, which is also adjacent to the handler body 113 and arranged on the side opposite to the loader 114, receives the pallet containing the device 1 after test unloaded from the handler body 113.
An explanation will be given of the operation of the semiconductor testing apparatus. When the pallet containing the device before test is cast into the loader 114, it is supplied into the handler body 113 therefrom. The device 1 supplied into the handler body 113 and housed in the pallet is pushed up so that the external output terminal and the contact housed in the test head 111 are brought into contact with each other. In this state, the tester body 110 tests the device with respect to its various electric items. Upon completion of the test, the device 1 is housed in the pallet, discharged from the handler body 113 and housed in the unloader 15.
Because of the structure described above, the above conventional semiconductor testing apparatus has the following defects. An large installing area is needed because of the test handler 116 provided for the test head 111 connected to the tester body 110. In addition, since the test handler 116 necessarily requires the loader 114 for supplying the pallet containing the device before test into the handler body 113, the unloader 115 for housing the device 1 after test discharged from the handler body 113 and a controller therefor, the semiconductor testing apparatus is very expensive.
Further, since the tester body 110 is expensive, its availability factor must be enhanced. This required the time and effort of equally arranging the pallets each containing the device and also casting the pallet into the test handler 116 so that the operation of each of the test handlers 116 terminates at substantially the same timing. Further, the test handlers 116, which are individual from each other, require the individual supply/discharge of the pallet and their running. This results in poor test efficiency. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a mechanism for converting alternating rotary motion to reciprocating motion, and more specifically to a mechanism comprising a yieldable transmission member engaged with the periphery of a pulley.
2. Background Art
Mechanisms for transforming rotary motion to linear motion are known in the art. One such mechanism comprises a flexible band engaged by a pulley wherein the pulley is rotated by a motor. The flexible band has an elongated slot throughout the length of one end of the band. The other end of the band is designed such that it can be inserted through the elongated slot as the mid portion of the band is wrapped around the pulley. A flexible band of this type is commonly referred to as a split band. The two ends of the band extend out from the pulley in opposite directions and are attached to opposite ends of an elongated member. As the pulley rotates, one end of the band is wrapped up by the pulley while the other end unwraps effectuating a corresponding translational motion to the elongated member.
This type of mechanism is useful in a disk drive system for imparting linear movement to a magnetic head carriage that is mounted on a member that is driven by the motion of the flexible band. A magnetic head carriage typically comprises a stationary lower recording arm and a pivotally mounted upper recording head. Thus, the position of a recording head may be changed linearly along the radius of a disk to access a desired track.
Flexible, or floppy disk drives are well known in the data processing industry, and are presently widely utilized as a primary peripheral input/output device for personal or home computers. These disk drives typically use a flexible five and one-fourth inch disk contained within a flexible cartridge or envelope. Such drives are typically of the well-known "full height" or "half-height" variety. With the advent of the high use of these computers in home and business, these disk drives have a correspondingly high usage rate.
These disk drives that have utilized head carriage and head access mechanisms for transforming rotary motion to linear motion, as described above, have had problems associated with them. One such problem is that the mechanisms were assembled either inside, or outside the disk drive assembly using a variety of small, hard to manipulate parts. As a result, it was difficult, time consuming, and costly to assemble the disk drives. In addition, those mechanisms that were assembled outside of the drive assembly were attached to rigid massive yokes that made damage to the band likely if this structure were handled improperly during assembly.
Poor reliability and inaccurate operation is another problem with the previously stated mechanism where the ends of the flexible band were connected to a rigid massive yoke. Since the pulley and motor are typically mounted to the disk drive frame, and the yoke is attached to the head carriage assembly, inherent manufacturing tolerances may cause the yoke to be too close or too far away from the pulley. If the yoke is not accurately positioned relative to the pulley, i.e. the yoke is too close or too far from the pulley, the ends of the band will assume a V-shape as they leave engagement with the pulley, and the output motion will be arcuate, not linear. As a result, after the head carriage assembly is attached to the yoke, and during actual operation, this arcuate motion could produce improper head movement relative to the disk, causing inaccurate operation and poor reliability.
Another problem which has heretofore been recognized, and which affects the reliability and accuracy of head access mechanisms, involves vibrations of this mechanism which can cause head transducing errors. It has been necessary to damp these unwanted vibrations for reliable and accurate operation of the mechanism. However, damping mechanisms that have previously been used have made the assembly of disk drives even more difficult, time consuming and costly by the associated added hardware.
In this document, the term carriage, head carriage, or head carriage assembly will be used to mean a structure which comprises a stationary lower recording arm and a pivotally mounted upper recording head. The term head access mechanism shall be used to mean an assembly of parts comprising a motor, pulley, band, and tensioner which work together to transform the motor's rotary motion to linear motion of the tensioner. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to golf ball covers comprising terpolymers consisting of at least three different monomeric units, one of which is olefinic, one of which is an ester and one of which is carbon monoxide, an anhydride monomer or a monomer containing an epoxy, i.e., glycidyl group.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Throughout its history, the golf ball has undergone an extensive evolution in an effort to improve its play-related characteristics, e.g., durability, distance, and control. The first golf balls appeared around the 14th century and consisted of a leather sack which had been soaked in water and subsequently filled with wet feathers. As the sack dried, the leather would contract and the feathers would expand, resulting in a very hard mass which was then hammered into a round ball. These "feathery" golf balls were in use until about the mid-19th century, when a single piece golf ball made from "gutta percha" was introduced. Gutta percha is a rubber-like material which is made from tree sap. Gutta percha balls were found to be more durable than the feathery balls, but did not offer the same distance as these older balls.
Following the introduction of gutta percha balls, it was discovered that a ball's flight was notably longer and more accurate when its surface had been nicked and/or scratched during use. Accordingly, golf ball manufacturers thereafter developed various methods for providing balls with a gutta percha cover that had a variety of patterns of nicks or markings on the surface. This eventually lead to the complex dimple patterns which are in use on golf balls today.
In the early 1900's, the wound rubber ball, which was considered a major breakthrough in the design of golf balls, was introduced. It consisted of a ball in which a rubber thread was tightly wound around a solid rubber core, which was then encased in a gutta percha cover. The early wound rubber balls lacked uniformity in size and weight, but the ball had a livelier core and the golfer was better able to control the spin of the ball.
Modern day golf balls can be classified as one-piece, two-piece, and three-piece (also known as "wound"). One-piece balls are molded from a homogeneous mass of material with a dimple pattern molded therein. One-piece balls are inexpensive and very durable, but do not provide great distance because of relatively high spin and low velocity. Two-piece balls are made by molding a cover around a solid core. These are the most popular types of balls in use today. Two-piece balls typically have a hard "cutproof" cover which gives a longer distance ball, but which has lower spin rates, resulting in a decreased ability to control the ball.
Three-piece or wound balls are made by molding a cover about a wound core. The core is typically made of rubber and can be solid, semi-solid or have a liquid center. A wound core is prepared by winding a thin thread of elastic material about the center core. The wound core is then covered with a durable cover material. Wound balls are generally softer and provide more spin, resulting in increased control over the ball, but such balls typically travel shorter distances than a two piece ball. As a result of their more complex construction, wound balls generally require a longer time to manufacture and are more expensive to produce than two-piece balls.
The covers of today's golf balls are made from a variety of materials, such as balata, Surlyn.TM. and Iotek.TM.. Balata is a type of rubber and is the softest of all other cover materials. For many years, balata was the standard cover stock material for most golf balls. Balata covered balls are favored among professionals and more advanced amateur players because the softness of the cover allows the player to achieve spin rates sufficient to more precisely control ball direction and distance, particularly on shorter approach shots.
However, balata covered balls are expensive and less durable as compared to the other covering materials. In particular, balata covered balls are subject to nicks or cuts as a result of a mis-swung golf club, which is not uncommon with the average recreational golfer. Such nicks or cuts detract from the flight characteristics of such balls, rendering them of little use. Accordingly, cover compositions have been developed in an attempt to provide spin rates and a feel approaching those of balata covered balls, while also providing a golf ball with a higher durability and overall distance.
In the mid-1960's, E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co. discovered a new species of resins known as ionomer resins. These resins are sold under the trademark SURLYN.TM. and, to a large extent, have replaced balata as a cover stock material. Chemically, these ionomer resins are a copolymer of an olefin and an alpha, beta ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid with 10-90% of the carboxylic acid groups neutralized by a metal ion. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,264,272. Today, the only commercially available ionomer resins are copolymers of ethylene and methacrylic or acrylic acid. These ionomer resins are distinguished by the type of metal ion, the amount of acid, and the degree of neutralization.
Dunlop Rubber Company obtained the first patent on the use of SURLYN.TM. for the cover of a golf ball, i.e., U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,280 issued Jul. 8, 1969. Since then, there have been a number of disclosures on the use of these ionomer resins in the cover composition of a golf ball. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,819,768 issued Jun. 25, 1974; 4,323,247 issued Apr. 6, 1982; 4,526,375 issued Jul 2, 1985; 4,884,814 issued Dec. 3, 1989; and 4,911,451 issued Mar. 27, 1990. However, while Surlyn.TM. covered golf balls as described in the preceding patents possess virtually cutproof covers, they have inferior spin and feel properties as compared to balata covered balls.
In November, 1986, DuPont introduced a sodium and zinc ionomer resin having a low flexural modulus and suggested using and blending the same with other ionomer resins for making a golf ball cover. Golf ball covers made from these low flexural modulus ionomer resins have improved spin and feel characteristics but relatively low velocity.
In December, 1986, DuPont introduced a lithium ionomer resin which was a copolymer of ethylene and methacrylic acid. These lithium ionomer resins have a very high flexural modulus, typically about 60,000 psi (415 MPa). DuPont suggested that lithium ionomer resins could be used to produce a golf ball cover which would be more cut resistant and harder than a cover made with either sodium or zinc ionomer resins. DuPont also suggested that a golf ball having a cover made from a lithium ionomer resin would go farther, have a higher coefficient of restitution and be less prone to cutting (i.e., more durable) than a golf ball made from other known ionomer resins such as sodium and zinc ionomer resins and blends thereof. DuPont further suggested that lithium ionomer resins could be used in blends with other ionomer resins where they can impart better cut resistance to those other resins.
The United States Golf Association (USGA) has promulgated a rule that no golf ball shall have an initial velocity that exceeds 255 feet (78 m) per second, i.e., 250 feet (76 m) per second with a 2% tolerance. Golf balls with covers made from ionomer resins with a low flexural modulus are woefully below this maximum and, as should be appreciated, all golf ball manufacturers strive to come as close as possible to this limit.
In order to approximate the characteristics of balata covered balls at lower cost, the art has developed balls having a variety of cover compositions. As noted above, these prior art compositions have a considerably higher cut resistance and durability as compared to balata covered balls. However, despite numerous attempts to replicate the performance of balata covered balls, the golf ball cover compositions of the prior art generally suffer from low spin rates which makes them difficult to control near the greens. Further, such balls tend to have relatively poor "click" and feel as compared to the balata covered balls. Additionally, many of the prior art golf ball cover compositions are made with low flexural modulus ionomer resins which have improved spin and feel characteristics, but relatively low velocity, which results in shorter overall distance.
Consequently, a need exists for a golf ball cover composition which provides spin rates and a feel more closely approximating those of balata covered balls, while also providing as high or a higher degree of durability than that provided by the balls presently available or disclosed in the prior art. | {
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The .beta.-lactam halide compound of the invention represented by the general formula (2) is prepared by reacting halogen molecules with an allenyl .beta.-lactam compound represented by the general formula (3) as is already known (Can. J. Chem., 1978, 56, 1335). However, this process affords a mixture of .alpha., .beta.- and .beta., .tau.-position isomers depending on the kind of halogen molecule and is not usable in actuality. This process further gives the product via an unstable allene compound as an intermediate and therefore involves many problems on an industrial scale. ##STR2## wherein R.sup.1 and R.sup.3 are as defined below, and R.sup.5 is lower alkyl.
It is also reported that as shown in the diagram, a keto-form .beta.-lactam compound is enolized into an enol ether or vinyl halide, followed by halogenation with N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) or N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS) in the presence of a radical generating agent (JP-A- 135859/1983). Since this process requires use of a hazardous reagent for reaction, processes which are industrially more feasible are desired. ##STR3## wherein R.sup.6 is phthalimido, aryloxyalkaneamido or alkanoyl, R.sup.7 is thiocyanato, alkanoyl, arylthio, benzothiazolethio, or alkoxycarbonyl which may be substituted with alkoxyl, cycloalkyl or the like, R.sup.8 is alkyl which may be substituted with a halogen, aryl or the like, X is chlorine or the like, and Y is a halogen atom.
Further a process is already known for preparing the exo-methylenepenam compound of the invention which is represented by the general formula (5), by the decarboxylation Pummerer-type transition reaction of penam-2-carboxylic acid derived from penicillin as illustrated in Diagram (A) (Bawldwin et al., J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 1987, 81), whereas this process comprises as many as eight reaction steps, and is as low as up to 6% in overall yield and by no means feasible. ##STR4##
Also known are a synthesis process wherein an allenyl .beta.-lactam compound obtained from penicillin is subjected to acid hydrolysis, followed by intramolecular cyclization (S. Torii et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 1991, 32, 7445) as shown in Diagram (B), and a synthesis process wherein an allenyl .beta.-lactam compound is subjected to a reductive cyclization reaction (S. Torii et al., Synlett., 1992, 878, S. Torii et al., Chemistry Express, 1992, 7, 885, J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 1992, 1793). These processes nevertheless have various problems such as cumbersomeness of the reaction procedure for industrial operation since the reaction is conducted via an unstable allene compound as an intermediate. ##STR5##
An object of the present invention is to provide a process adapted to produce a .beta.-lactam halide compound represented by the general formula (2) from a .beta.-lactam halide compound represented by the general formula (1) and readily available industrially, in a high yield with a high purity through a safe and simplified procedure, the process being developed by realizing milder conditions for effecting halogenation and a reaction for introducing the leaving group.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process adapted to produce an exo-methylenepenam compound of the general formula (5) from the .beta.-lactam halide compound of the general formula (2) in a high yield with a high purity through a safe and simplified procedure by developing a novel metal reduction system and a novel electrolytic reduction system and thereby effecting allenization and conversion to an exo- methylenepenam at the same time efficiently. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to clamp circuits. More particularly, the invention relates clamp circuits especially suitable for use in backplane applications in which a clamping function is enabled only during time periods in which overshoot is likely to be encountered, and in which other requirements (such as overvoltage tolerance and Ioff current requirements) are not sacrificed.
2. Related Art
FIG. 1 depicts a conventional circuit in which an output driver 110 drives a signal line 100 under control of a Driver Disable signal 102. A receiver 120 is connected to signal line 100. The arrangement shown in FIG. 1 may be found on each card 130 of plural cards that are inserted into a backplane, in which respective output drivers 110 may contend for control of the common signal line 100. Driver Disable signal 102 ensures that driver 110 does not attempt to drive signal line 100 when another element (not shown) has permission to drive the signal line. In this manner, contentions for control of the signal line 100 are resolved.
Especially in a backplane environment, undesirable transmission line effects such as overshoot and ringing may occur. Such undesirable effects cause received signals to take on values that may cause data errors or even circuit damage. For example, FIG. 7A shows a waveform of a conventional circuit in which a primary overshoot to 5.6 volts and a intermediate descent to 2.1 volts are experienced before a secondary overshoot to 4.2 volts. In the circuit using the technology giving rise to the illustrated diagram, the ideal steady state voltage level is 3.6 volts. It is readily appreciated that the overshoot in FIG. 7A is unacceptable for many applications, as is the intermediate descent to barely half the ideal steady state voltage level.
Thus, it is desirable that the primary overshoot, intermediate descent, and secondary overshoot be reduced in order to approach to the ideal steady state voltage more quickly and stably remain within an acceptable range around the desired steady stage voltage.
However, it is also desirable not to interfere with a signal any more than necessary to minimize transmission line effects. Accordingly, there is a need in the art to remove overshoot and related problems while minimally affecting the shape of the received waveform.
Furthermore, it is desirable that any arrangement that combats transmission line effects not sacrifice other circuit specifications. Such specifications include, for example, overvoltage tolerance and off current specifications. As understood herein, an “overvoltage tolerance specification” requires that when the received waveform takes on a voltage greater than the receiver supply voltage VCC, no circuit damage occurs and no unwanted current interferes with the received signal line 100 by passing between it and the supply voltage VCC. An “Ioff current specification” requires that if VCC=0 (that is, if the receiver is not powered) and if a non-zero voltage is applied to the receiver's input/output (I/O) port, then no circuit damage occurs and no unwanted leakage current is drawn from the signal line 100 that would affect the waveform's shape.
Clamping circuits, in general, are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,396,315 (Morris) discloses clamping an output terminal of a buffer only when a buffered device is powered on, but presenting a high impedance when the buffered device is not powered on. In this manner, when an electronic device having the buffer enters an inoperable state due to device failure or power loss, yet remains physically connected to other devices, the inoperable device will not affect operation of other devices. However, Morris' arrangement does not appear to address the problem of input voltage clamping to reduce overshoot and related problems that are discussed above.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an arrangement that reduces overshoot and related transmission line effects while minimally affecting the waveform at times when such effects are less likely, and not sacrificing other circuit specifications such as overvoltage tolerance and Ioff current specifications. | {
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The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Network performance monitoring applications usually collect, process and display network information in various formats, such as graphs, charts, panels and other displays. However, the collected and displayed information is usually application-specific, and provides only those network characteristics that were specifically requested by the individual applications. Usually, each application separately collects data and displays the collected data, but none of the applications generates a cross-application view of the network.
Furthermore, data collected by individual network monitoring applications is usually separately searchable and modifiable by the respective individual applications. However, the data sets collected by a multiplicity of applications are typically not linked with each other and do not provide an integrated view of the network. | {
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Mobile communications has changed the way people communicate and mobile phones have been transformed from a luxury item to an essential part of every day life. The use of mobile phones is today dictated by social situations, rather than hampered by location or technology. While voice connections fulfill the basic need to communicate, and mobile voice connections continue to filter even further into the fabric of every day life, the data connections, such as the mobile Internet, for example, is the next step in the mobile communication revolution. The mobile Internet is poised to become a common source of everyday information, and easy, versatile mobile access to this data will be taken for granted.
Third generation (3G) cellular networks have been specifically designed to fulfill these future demands of the mobile Internet. As these services grow in popularity and usage, factors such as cost efficient optimization of network capacity and quality of service (QoS) will become even more essential to cellular operators than it is today. These factors may be achieved with careful network planning and operation, improvements in transmission methods, and advances in receiver techniques. To this end, carriers need technologies that will allow them to increase downlink throughput and, in turn, offer advanced QoS capabilities and speeds that rival those delivered by cable modem and/or DSL service providers. In this regard, networks based on wideband CDMA (WCDMA) technology may make the delivery of data to end users a more feasible option for today's wireless carriers.
The evolution of WCDMA technology has resulted in the development of various wireless communication technologies, including General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data rates for GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) Evolution (EDGE), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUDPA), for example. In this regard, the GPRS and EDGE technologies may be utilized for enhancing the data throughput of present second generation (2G) systems such as GSM. The UMTS wireless communication technology is an adaptation of the WCDMA 3G system by GSM. The HSDPA wireless communication technology is an Internet protocol (IP) based service, oriented for data communications, which adapts WCDMA to support data transfer rates on the order of 10 megabits per second (Mbits/s).
In some instances, a single wireless device, such a mobile phone or a personal digital assistant (PDA), for example, may enable support for a plurality of these wireless communication technologies. Enabling support to more than one wireless communication technology within a single wireless device may be expensive and/or may utilize more power, particularly in regards to the implementation and operation of the radio frequency (RF) front-end portion of the wireless device. Simplification of RF front-end designs to support multiple wireless communication technologies may not only provide a cost reduction solution but may in some instances improve the overall power consumption performance of the wireless device.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings. | {
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This invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus and, more particularly, an MRI apparatus which employs a gradient coil unit disposed in a vacuum vessel for noise reduction.
An MRI apparatus detects magnetic resonance signals from nuclei (e.g. proton) in an object and reconstructs a tomographic image of a desired slice position of the object. An MRI apparatus holds a great advantage in medical use because of non-invasiveness or non X-ray dosing.
In general, an MRI apparatus comprises a cylindrical gradient coil unit inside a magnet unit including a cylindrical superconductive magnet. The superconductive magnet contained in a cryostat filled with cooling medium is disposed inside a hollow cylindrical vacuum vessel. Inside the gradient coil unit a radio-frequency (RF) coil is disposed.
According to a predetermined pulse sequence, the RF coil applies a radio-frequency field and the gradient coil unit applies a gradient field to an object. Subsequently a magnetic resonance phenomenon occurs in the object and a magnetic resonance signal is detected by the RF coil. A magnetic resonance (MR) image is obtained by reconstructing the detected MR signal.
The gradient coil unit includes three channels of gradient coils producing gradient fields along x, y and z axis, respectively. These three gradient coils are switched frequently and rapidly. When switching, the gradient coils and the magnet vessel supporting the gradient coil unit vibrate. This vibration causes a shock sound. This shock sound echoes in an imaging bore which a patient is placed and the patient feels uncomfortable, anxious or fear.
To reduce this noise, a number of arrangements have been offered. For example, gradient coils are covered by soundproof materials. However, this is not successful to reduce the noise sufficiently.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,365 discloses an MRI apparatus in which gradient coils are disposed inside a vacuum vessel for maintaining the superconductive condition of a superconductive magnet to prevent the noise to transmit outside the vessel. This arrangement requires the breakage of the vacuum when adjusting the positions of the gradient coils after the MRI system is assembled. Moreover, when cooling medium for the gradient coils leaks in the vacuum vessel, the vacuum condition gets worse which causes evaporation of the cooling medium of the superconductive magnet.
Japanese patent application No. 62-79889 describes an MRI apparatus which includes a first vacuum vessel for a superconductive magnet and a second vacuum vessel, in which gradient coils are disposed, coaxially provided in a bore of the first vacuum vessel. This arrangement requires a complex manufacturing process and causes a low cost-performance because two separate vacuum vessels are provided. Moreover, the imaging bore can not be sufficiently large and the patient feels oppression in the imaging bore. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to chess. More particularly, this invention relates to chess games for two to six players and played on a playing surface with equilateral triangles in patterns arranged to allow practical and consistent use of the standard compliment of chess pieces, optionally with the addition of new pieces, with emphasis on the formation of a multiformal system that will allow as many people as possible to enjoy playing the game of chess for fun.
2. Description of the Prior Art
If the object for a chessboard is multiformal play, board space is a major concern. By the rules of geometry it can be shown that a playing surface made up of equilateral triangles allows more than twice the number of spaces as a board made up of squares having the same side length as the triangle. The end result is the area of the square is more than two times the area of the triangle. Applied to a game board surface, this fact means that a lot more can happen in less space. If the object is to teach chess for fun, a multiformal system is essential as the diversity of interest and expectation is limitless.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,242 to Treugut et al. discloses a chess game for more than two people that uses a game board with triangular spaces. Treugut et al. teach that the chess pieces are set up on extensions off of the edges of the playing area, such that the starting positions (bases) for the chess pieces for different players are separated by a nonplayable area. There is no provision for the play of two persons positioned at opposite sides of the board. While two players could play at two sides with one side vacant, the result would be completely unlike conventional square board chess. The size of the actual playing surface of Treugut et al. between the piece bases is a grid of 6 by 6 by 6, which provides 52 available spaces for play.
The present invention provides a chess board and game that use the standard pieces of king, queen, bishop, knight, rook and pawn as the first formation played on a board made up of triangular spaces. Optional added pieces and formations are offered with the emphasis on multiformal flexibility to increase the probability that players will learn to play chess for fun, including all other forms of chess such as Chinese chess and variations of International 8xc3x978 square board chess.
Three board variations are disclosed, each having a six-sided playing field divided to define a pattern of contiguous triangular spaces, such that each space is defined by three flats interconnected at three points. Each side of the playing field is defined entirely by one or more of the flats, and the entire playing field within the six sides is occupied by the spaces. In other words, the spaces fill the entire playing field, which includes regions between those spaces used for piece set up. A first of the board variations is preferably made up of equilateral triangles of thirteen ranks and twenty-five files, approximating a hexagonal board with edges of 11-13-11-13-11-13 spaces and a total playing area composed of 253 spaces. As used herein, xe2x80x9cranksxe2x80x9d are rows aligned left to right from the position of a player at xe2x80x9crank zero,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cfilesxe2x80x9d are columns aligned front to back relative to the player at rank zero. With ranks labeled numerically from zero to twelve and files labeled alphabetically from xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d to xe2x80x9cY,xe2x80x9d the board is labeled in the same rank and file designation system as used with International square board chess to allow games to be recorded using the same general notation. An important mechanical feature of the present invention is the provision for the play of two persons positioned at opposite sides of the board by covering rank zero with a suitable cover, in addition to the play of three persons at every other edge of the board. Rank zero may be covered or uncovered to provide a board that is effectively two boards in one.
A second board variation is made up of equilateral triangles of eighteen ranks and thirty-five files, and approximates a triangular board with three alternating sides of thirty-five spaces each, three alternating sides of one space each, and a total of 368 spaces. Another board variation employs equilateral triangles of twenty-two ranks and forty-three files, forming a hexagon with six edges of twenty-one spaces each and a total of 746 spaces.
In a mechanical sense, the triangular grid used by the present invention is a direct function of the piece setup. Boards in the first variation are specifically designed around how the initial configuration of standard pieces is set up in square board chess. The second and third board variations are generated from an extension of the basic board, but the general pattern of piece set up remains the same. Setup of the standard compliment of king, queen, bishops, knights, rooks and pawns reside on diamond patterns, each formed by the junction of two triangular spaces at shared flats. This allows hourglass patterns, formed between diamonds by two triangles joined at their points, to be used for optional pieces without altering the mechanical structure of the board.
Movements of the king, queen, bishop, knight, rook and pawn are adapted from square board chess, and are clearly defined on the triangular grid. Added to these standard pieces are optional pieces named the xe2x80x9cexecutioner,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cfalcon,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cjester,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cmaiden,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cdogxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ccat,xe2x80x9d with their movements clearly defined on the triangular grid. These optional pieces may be added to the standard chess piece formation, or may replace pieces in the standard formation as part of the multiformal system of this invention. Accordingly, with the present invention, players are able to choose what board to play on and what pieces to use. To further enhance the multiformal system, xe2x80x9ccheckmatexe2x80x9d of the standard chess play is defined in several different ways in the present invention. At the start of game play, players may decide what form of checkmate will be used for that game. Players are able to choose the form of checkmate used based on levels of difficulty and interest.
The games made possible by the present invention differ from the prior art both mechanically and philosophically. The games of the present invention are designed to allow serious chess players to enjoy playing on a triangular field, as well as to allow as many people as possible to enjoy the playing of chess as a whole. This means getting people to play and enjoy all forms of chess both existing and yet to come.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will be better appreciated from the following detailed description. | {
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Electronic parts such as ceramic packages of ICs, quartz vibrators, image displays, etc have bed airtightly sealed with glass compositions having a softening point of 400° C. or lower. The glass compositions contain filler powder with a low thermal expansion so as to control a thermal expansion, in general. Glass compositions containing lead oxide as a main component have been used.
Due to environmental and safety regulations, materials containing harmful lead have been avoided. In plasma display panels (PDP), one of image display devices, lead free glass compositions whose main component is bismuth oxide have been employed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Pre-publication H10-139478 (Patent document No. 1). In electronic devices such as PDPs where a sealing temperature is relatively high such as 450 to 600° C. the lead free glass compositions containing bismuth oxide as the main component can be applied. However, in electronic devices such as IC ceramic packages or quartz vibrators where a sealing temperature is relatively low such as 420° C. or lower, the lead containing glass compositions are still employed. In order to lower the softening point of the lead containing glass compositions, fluorine is contained.
As lead free glass compositions having a softening point lower than that of the lead-free glass compositions, glass compositions there have been proposed in Japanese Patent Prepublication H07-69672 (Patent document No. 2), Japanese Patent Prepublication 2004-250276 (Patent document No. 3), Japanese Patent Prepublication 2006-342044 (Patent document No. 4), Japanese Patent Prepublication 2007-320822 (Patent document No. 5). The Patent document No. 2 discloses a glass composition whose main component is tin oxide. Patent documents No. 3 to 5 discloses glass compositions whose main component is vanadium oxide.
In recent years bismuth and antimony have been controlled as administrated substances, in addition to harmful lead. The glass compositions disclosed in patent document Nos. 1 and 4 contain bismuth, a glass composition disclosed in patent document No. 5 contains antimony, and glass compositions disclosed in patent document No. 2 and 3 do not contain lead, bismuth and antimony.
Patent documents:
Patent document No. 1; JPH10-139478 Patent document No. 2; JPH7-69672 Patent document No. 3; JP2004-250276 Patent document No. 4; JP2006-342044 Patent document No. 5; JP2007-320822
Recently, bismuth and antimony, in addition to lead, have taken up as administrated substances; these substances would be regulated similarly to lead in the feature. The glass compositions disclosed in patent document Nos. 1 and 4 contain bismuth and the glass composition disclosed in patent document No. 5 contains antimony. But, the glass composition disclosed in patent document Nos. 2 and 3 do not contain any of lead, bismuth and antimony.
When glass compositions disclosed in patent document No. 2 whose main component is tin oxide are heated in air, valence of tin changes from two to four, which deteriorates chemical stability such as moisture resistance and water resistance of the glass compositions. That is, it is hard to obtain airtight sealing with high reliability. Further, airtight sealing at 420° C. or lower is difficult to perform.
Although the glass compositions whose main component is vanadium oxide disclosed in patent document No. 3 can be used at a temperature of 400° C. or lower, a thermal expansion coefficient is quite large, and a large amount of low thermal expansion fillers such as expensive zirconium tungstate phosphate must be added. In addition, it is difficult to control thermal expansion. Further, a number of air bubbles may remain in the sealed portions so that airtightness of the sealed portions is insufficient. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the creation of a holographic media display system that combines physical media or digitally stored files with a digital holographic player hardware system. The result is the creation of a compact and portable multimedia holographic viewing experience.
2. Background Art
A hologram is a microscopic pattern of interference fringes, representing an interaction of two beams of coherent light. Therefore, the hologram is a photographic registration of the interference pattern formed by the two beams, with one of the beams consisting of scattered light from a physical object. Once properly illuminated, the hologram may produce a three dimensional image of the physical object. In recent years, a great deal of effort has been put forth towards developing displays using holography techniques.
FIGS. 1A and 1B depict a side and top view, respectively, of an example of a holographic film printing process. A coherent light source 101, or laser, provides a pulsed beam 103. The pulsed beam 103 is then split into two identical beams, an object beam 109 and a reference beam 107, via a beam splitting cube 105. The object beam 109 is then deflected, via a mirror 111, onto a beam expander consisting of a lens 113 and an aperture 115. The resultant diverging beam 117 is then sent through an optical system 119, which is used to maintain a uniform intensity across the planes of coherent light 121, at which the object will be placed. In the present example, the object is a frame from a movie film 123. The film 123 may be held in place by transparent plates 127 and 125. An anti-reflection exit surface 134 may be used to reduce reflections.
Once the object beam 121 has passed through the film 123, a modified object beam 129 will be emitted through the anti-reflection exit surface 134. The modified object beam 129 carries imaging information of the object. The modified object beam 129 is then directed towards a photosensitive hologram detector strip 141. The photosensitive hologram detector 141 is placed behind a mask 143 and is enclosed by transparent members 137 and 139.
The modified object beam 129 is combined, or interfered, with a diverging reference beam 135 at an aperture 145 of the mask 143. The diverging reference beam 135 is obtained by directing the reference beam 107 through a lens 131. The lens 131 brings the beam to a point focus in an aperture 133 resulting in the divergence. The interference of the diverging reference beam 135 and the modified object beam 129, at a finite angle θ, forms a holographic pattern each time the coherent light source 101 is pulsed. Therefore, for every pulse of the laser 101, a single movie frame may be recorded as a single holographic image.
An electronic control 147 may be used to advance the movie film 123 with the use of a motor 149 and rollers 153. The electronic control 147 may also be used to advance the photosensitive hologram detector strip 141 with the use of a motor 151 and rollers 155. Synchronization of the laser pulsing, the advancement of the movie film 123, and the photosensitive hologram detector strip 141 may also be achieved via the electronic control 147.
FIG. 2 provides an illustrative example of a portion of the photosensitive hologram detector 200. The detector comprises a strip 241 (or 141 in FIGS. 1A, 1B) consisting of a number of rows. Each row, for example row 201, comprises a single hologram representing a movie frame. The hologram comprises luminance information as well as color information used in the image reconstruction process.
FIG. 3A depicts a hologram display apparatus 300. A converging coherent beam 301 is passed through an aperture 303 onto the holographic detector strip 341 at a reconstruction angle θ. In holographic reconstructions, the same laser and angle employed for the recording process, is typically used. The illumination of the holographic detector strip 341 results in the reconstruction of two images, a luminance signal image 307 and a color signal image 305. Two raster scan type image detecting tubes 309 and 311 are positioned to receive the signals 305 and 307, respectively. The detecting tubes produce time varying electrical signal outputs based on the signals 305 and 307. Bandpass filters 315, 319, and 323 allow for the transmission of blue, red, and green carrier frequency signals, respectively, to pass. The luminance (Ey), blue (EB), red (ER), and green (EG) electrical signal outputs 313, 317, 321, and 325 are then passed on to signal processing devices and eventually sent to a receiver antenna for a two-dimensional display, similar to that of a standard television.
Other forms of holographic media storage have also been explored, for example, Holographic Versatile Discs (HVD). HVDs are typically used for document storage and allow for the reconstruction of a two-dimensional holographic image. HVD systems are based on an optical disc technology that employs a technique known as collinear holography. In collinear holography two lasers, typically one red and one blue-green, are collimated in a single beam. The blue-green laser reads data encoded as laser interference fringes from a holographic layer near the top of the disc. The red laser has the dual function of being used as a reference beam, as well as to read servo information from a regular CD-style aluminum layer near the bottom. Servo information may be used to monitor the position of the read head over the disc, similar to the head, track, and sector information on a conventional hard disk drive. On a CD or DVD, this servo information is interspersed amongst the data.
FIG. 3B provides an example of how a HVD holographic media file may be recorded. The top layer of the HVD, or the volumetric recording layer 350, is the portion of the HVD where the holographic media files 351 are stored. Each media file 351 represents a page of data 352. As is shown in FIG. 3B, an HVD may store holograms in overlapping patterns, while using the servo information to access a desired page.
In contrast, a DVD will typically store bits of information side-by-side. An HVD makes use of a thicker recording layer than that of a DVD. The HVD also utilizes almost the entire volume of the disk, instead of just a single thin layer. Therefore, HVD systems may store approximately 200 times the amount of information a DVD is capable of storing. | {
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Described below is a system for the precise time synchronization of network subscribers of a network based on satellites.
Such a system is intended for applications in which satellite systems such as, for example, the US's GPS system, Russia's GLONASS, China's COMPASS, Europe's GALILEO and other similar systems, are used to synchronize their use in relation to time, or reference time, using the time data available from these systems, it being possible for this synchronization of the system normally to take place via an Ethernet infrastructure. For many applications, the requirements are such that they require a precise reference time, and errors in synchronization lead to serious malfunctioning of the system as a whole. Also, such applications may be located in an environment where there is a high level of interference.
Until now, such systems for time synchronization based on satellites are achieved in two phases: a first phase consists of a satellite antenna and, if necessary, an integrated high frequency amplifier for the satellite signal. This phase is typically mounted externally. This signal is then fed inwards into the application via separate wiring (typically coaxial). A second phase is mounted internally (typically, in a switch cabinet). The satellite signal (in certain circumstances, amplified) is fed to it via the wiring. This phase contains the electronic system for capturing the required time from this signal, and either contains a network connection directly or makes available the time of another phase with a network connection. Synchronization of use was achieved via the network connection using network protocols. This being the case, the delay between phase 1 and phase 2 must be compensated for in order that the reference time be precise. In addition, EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) protection for the coaxial infrastructure is problematic. The usability of existing solutions as regards precision, reliability and interference resistance is currently the subject of research. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor laser module provided with an optical isolator used in optical communications systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As optical communication is coming into wider use recently, semiconductor laser modules are required to be lower in price and smaller in size. In an attempt to meet these requirements, for example, Yamauchi et al. described a semiconductor laser module which can be made smaller in size in a presentation titled "Surface-Mounted Optical Circuit Module Suited For Automatic Assembly" in 1995 general conference of The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers. The semiconductor laser module described in this presentation does not require the adjustment of optical axis, and therefore allows for cost reduction and mass production.
In an optical communications system, there occurs such a problem that light emitted by a semiconductor laser diode chip is reflected from an input end or an output end face of an optical fiber, which transmits the light, and returns to the semiconductor laser diode chip, thus spreading the spectrum of the laser light and/or increasing noise. In order to reduce the reflected light in the prior art systems, simple measures have been taken such as AR coating and oblique cutting of the optical fiber at the end. As more essential means, it is effective to provide optical isolator between the semiconductor laser diode and the optical fiber.
However, when an optical isolator is used, there has been a problem such that, in addition to the high cost of the optical isolator, lenses are required an front and at the back of the optical isolator resulting an increased number of components which inhibits cost reduction of the system as a whole. There has also been such a problem that the use of the optical isolator requires complicated adjustment of the optical axis which increases the cost in terms of an adjustment operation. Further, there has been a problem such that integrating the optical isolator and the lenses into the optical system inhibits size reduction of the system. | {
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Two common ways of measuring the moisture content of a material such as tobacco are known as the Kappa system which employs a Kappa moisture meter and the oven method.
The Kappa moisture meter measures the permittivity, or dielectric coefficient of the tobacco. This can, in turn, be correlated with moisture content. The Kappa meter uses a heterodyne circuit to process the signal. In general, the meter measures permittivity at radio frequencies. Radio frequency capacitor type moisture meters have been used by the paper, grain and tobacco industries for years. Although these meters have become more sophisticated through the years, most are still difficult to read and difficult to automatically correct for temperature variation.
The oven moisture tests are of a different nature and do not relate to the radio frequency type of process for relying on permittivity to determine moisture content. They are more difficult and time consuming to employ.
Most moisture meters presently used by the tobacco industry, for example, operate on one of three principles of measurement; dielectric constant, infrared absorption, and microwave absorption. The meter of the present invention measures the dielectric constant. The difference between this meter and others using the same principle of measurement lies in the method of detection. Ordinarily, the change in dielectric constant due to a change in sample moisture content is measured by mixing two radio frequencies (R.F.) signals in an R.F. bridge. The resulting output is the difference between the two. The detection system employed by the circuit of this invention is based on a phase-locked loop. Two oscillators are used in a manner which makes the system considerably more sensitive to changes in sample dielectric constant than previous capacitance type moisture meters.
Phase-locked loops have been used for many years. Originally they made use of vacuum tubes and were very large and complex. Therefore, aside from use as frequency controllers for high power, high frequency transmitters, they were not very practical. In recent years, with the advent of transistors, the size of the phase-locked loop has been drastically reduced. However, initially they were still complex and expensive. As the state of the art progressed from transistors to monolithic integrated circuits (IC), the phase-locked loop became smaller and less complex. Just a few years ago a phase-locked loop was developed containing essentially all of its components on one IC chip. Naturally, price and complexity, as well as physical size, decreased tremendously. Phase-locked loops are now very popular as FM and T.V. detector circuits, local oscillator control in VHF receivers and transmitters, and as frequency synthesizers.
Accordingly, improvements in radio frequency type meters are still in demand and particularly to develop and provide for increased versatility in the meter, reduction in cost and reliability. | {
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A fishing or similar other kind of boat conventionally is transported by means of a vehicle-drawn trailer on which the boat is removably supported. Conventionally the trailer is provided with a winch around which is trained a cable terminating at its free end in a hook that is adapted to be coupled to and removed from a ring fixed to the bow of the boat. Usually, the trailer on which a boat is supported during transport is backed along a ramp into a lake or stream to a depth sufficient to enable the boat to be floated off the trailer. Difficulty rarely, if ever, is encountered in floating a boat off its trailer. However, when the boat is to be returned to the trailer, it is necessary to attach the winch cable to the boat before the boat is drawn onto the trailer.
The winch cable conventionally has a hook at its free end that is adapted to be fitted to a ring or cleat fixed to the bow of the boat so as to enable the boat to be secured to the cable, following which the winch may be activated to wind the cable around the winch drum and thereby move the boat toward and onto the trailer.
Difficulty often is experienced in attaching the cable hook to the bow ring or cleat. Quite often the person seeking to return the boat to the trailer is unassisted and must either wade into the water or stand upon the trailer in a position to attach the cable hook to the ring or cleat. Often it is inconvenient or uncomfortable to wade into the water and it is not uncommon for a person standing on a trailer and reaching for the bow ring to slip and fall into the water.
Apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention is particularly useful in attaching a winch cable hook to the bow ring of a boat preparatory to moving such boat onto a trailer and without requiring the operator to wade or risk falling off the trailer. | {
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Aspects of the present invention relate to mobile robots, and more particularly to the mapping of environments in which mobile robots operate, to facilitate movement of mobile robots within those environments.
As a system that enables a mobile robot to map its environment and maintain working data of its position within that map, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is both accurate and versatile. Its reliability and suitability for a variety of applications make it a useful element for imparting a robot with some level of autonomy.
Typically, however, SLAM techniques tend to be computationally intensive and thus their efficient execution often requires a level of processing power and memory capacity that may not be cost effective for some consumer product applications.
For those facing the low-cost production targets necessary for competition in the consumer market, it is unlikely that an economic hardware environment would include processing and memory capacities capable of supporting adequately a robust SLAM system. It therefore is imperative that developers seek ways to facilitate efficient execution of the core SLAM algorithms within the limits of the computational capacities they have. Generally, such optimization schemes would seek to use processing power and system bandwidth judiciously, which might mean simplifying some of the SLAM algorithms in ways that do not critically compromise their performance, or reducing input data size or bandwidth. | {
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This invention relates to diagnostic methods based upon a polymorphism in the Tumor Necrosis Factor beta gene (TNFPxcex2; also known as Lymphotoxin alpha), more specifically, an adenine (xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d) at the +250 site rather than the usual guanosine (xe2x80x9cGxe2x80x9d). More specifically, this invention relates to a method for diagnosis of Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) and diagnosing pre-disposition or susceptibility to CAP, by screening for the presence of this polymorphism, either alone or in combination with a polymorphism at the 308 locus. The invention also relates to compositions for screening for the polymorphism and improved treatment choices for patients diagnosed with CAP or as being susceptible to CAP by the method of the present invention. Further, this invention relates to identifying and diagnosing pre-disposition for septic shock in patients with CAP.
Pneumonia is a common clinical entity, particularly among the elderly. CAP is a major health problem world-wide. In the United States, CAP is the leading cause of death due to infection and the sixth most common cause of death overall. Clinically, CAP exhibits an enormous variety in the severity of presentation, from fulminant septic shock at one end of the spectrum to almost asymptomatic disease at the other. A thorough understanding of the epidemiology and microbiology of Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) is essential for appropriate diagnosis and management. Although the microbiology of CAP has remained relatively stable over the last decade, there is new information on the incidence of atypical pathogens, particularly in patients not admitted to hospital, and new information on the incidence of pathogens in cases of CAP and in CAP in the elderly. Recent studies have provided new data on risk-factors for mortality in CAP, which can assist the clinician in making decisions about the need for hospital admission. The emergence of antimicrobial resistance in Streptococcus pneumonia, the organism responsible for most cases of CAP, has greatly affected the approach to therapy, especially in those patients who are treated empirically. Guidelines for the therapy of CAP have been published by the American Thoracic Society, the British Thoracic Society, and, most recently, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and others. These guidelines differ in their emphasis on empirical versus pathogenic-specific management.
CAP remains a significant health problem and patients continue to die despite receiving appropriate antibiotic therapy. Modification of the host immune response, both anti- and pro-inflammatory approaches, has yet to live up to the promise of improved outcome. Despite this, there is significant reason for optimism. Some immunomodulatory therapies clearly have efficacy in some patients. As the understanding of the immune response to pneumonia improves, the ability to tailor specific therapies for individual patients will also improve, hopefully avoiding the deleterious effects that have so far prevented the development of an effective immune-based therapy. The possibility of delivering cytokines directly to the lung, is a particularly promising way of achieving the desired pulmonary effect without systemic side effects. Corticosteroids are currently unique in that they have a proven role in the therapy of pneumonia due to P. carinii. The development of pathogen specific therapies, such as INF for L. pneumophila, based on an improved understanding of host-pathogen interactions, are awaited.
Once respiratory failure has ensued, supportive measures such as patient positioning and differential lung ventilation can improve oxygenation at no additional risk in some patients, particularly those with severe unilateral pneumonia. In facilities where ECMO is available it may be beneficial in selected patients when all other means of providing respiratory support have failed. The role of inhaled NO and partial liquid ventilation is also currently unclear and awaiting further study.
The past 20 years has seen an explosion in knowledge of human immunology and exploration of the therapeutic possibilities is just beginning. The next 10 years promises to finally provide a significant advance in the therapy of pneumonia, the first substantial gain since penicillin.
In light of the prevalence of CAP and the evolution of resistance in the most common bacterial CAP pathogen, physicians advise obtaining specimens for culture of CAP pathogens and analysis of patterns of susceptibility, especially of S. pneumonia, in their communities; using antibiotics appropriately and prudently, according to prevailing susceptibilities when empirical treatment is called for; and immunizing susceptible patients with pneumococcal and influenza vaccines. This is because the mortality of patients with CAP approaches or may exceed 20%, compared to less than 1% for patients with non-severe CAP (Fine et al. New Engl. J. Med. 1997;336:243-250, British Thoracic Society, Q. J. Med 1987;239:192-220, Niederman et al. Am. Rev. Resp. Dis. 1993;148:1418-1426). In such cases an ability to improve accuracy of diagnosis of, or predisposition or susceptibility to CAP, would be of distinct advantage and may lead to improved outcomes and lower medical costs for such patients.
TNF acts on many healthy cells in addition to cancer cells. It is important in regulating immune and inflammatory response and plays a large role in septic shock. It is released by a variety of cells including red and white blood cells, cells that line blood vessels, nervous system cells, muscle cells, bone cells, and some tumor cells. Although it was first observed to kill certain tumor cells (sarcoma cells), TNF has been found to help some tumors grow. In addition, TNF can be very toxic to normal cells. Early experiments found that administering TNF caused fever and loss of appetite. TNF also has been shown to affect the metabolism of many cell types, causing them to need more oxygen. It has been found to play a role in many autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and myasthenia gravis. Certain viral and bacterial infections can cause healthy cells to produce elevated levels of TNF.
It is a surprising feature of the present invention to be able to diagnose the presence of CAP and the predisposition or susceptibility to CAP by the method of the present invention.
It is an object of the present invention to improve diagnosis of CAP. It is a particular object of the invention to provide a method of diagnosis of predisposition or susceptibility to CAP. A further object is to provide, following such diagnosis, a method of identifying patients for alternative management of CAP before the disease becomes significantly established. Thus, the invention also relates to compositions for screening for the TNFxcex2 polymorphism at the +250 site and improved treatment choices for patients diagnosed with CAP or as being susceptible to CAP by the method of the present invention. A further object of the present invention is to identify and diagnose CAP patients at an increased risk for CAP associated septic shock.
Other preferred embodiments of the present invention will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in light of the following description of the invention and of the claims.
In a first aspect, the invention provides a method of diagnosing a disease associated with a genetic polymorphism (adenine (xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d) at the +250 site rather than the usual guanosine (xe2x80x9cGxe2x80x9d)) in a TNFxcex2 gene in an animal predisposed or susceptible to said disease, said method comprising determining the genotype of TNFxcex2 in said animal. The first aspect of the invention further provides a method of identifying an animal predisposed or susceptible to a disease associated with a genetic polymorphism in a TNFxcex2 gene, said method comprising determining the genotype of said TNFxcex2 gene in said animal. In an embodiment of the invention, the method of diagnosis is to screen for an individual at risk of a condition or disease such as CAP correlated with a TNFxcex2 gene polymorphism (xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d) at the +250 site.
The invention is based upon a correlation between polymorphisms in the TNFxcex2 gene, specifically at position +250, and predisposition or susceptibility to CAP. The invention is of advantage in that by screening for the presence of the polymorphism it is possible to identify individuals likely to have a genetic predisposition or susceptibility to the disease. It may also result in substantially different management, both prevention and treatment, if pneumonia occurs, with subsequent substantial improvement in mortality and morbidity from CAP.
In an embodiment of the invention, diagnosis is carried out by determining whether a TNFxcex2 gene contains a polymorphism xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d at position +250. Possessing a fragment that contains the xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d at that +250 site correlates with increased risk of predisposition or susceptibility to CAP. As a human genome contains two TNFxcex2 genes, one on each of a pair of chromosomes, an individual can accordingly be found to be homozygous or heterozygous for the risk polymorphism, or to lack the risk polymorphism.
Genotypic and allelic frequencies of this invention are readily determined by a number of methods known to those skilled in the art. Methods used in the present invention are shown in Example 1 below and include using PCR amplification and restriction enzyme digestion. The method conveniently comprises amplifying a fragment of a TNFxcex2 gene to produce copies and determining whether copies of the fragment contain the polymorphism.
Another suitable technique is to amplify the fragment using PCR techniques, producing copies of a fragment that is at least 500 base pairs in length, preferably at least 600 base pairs in length. It is preferred that the PCR primers are selected so as to amplify a region of the gene that is about 740 base pairs in length. PCR techniques are well known in the art and it would be within the ambit of a person of ordinary skill in this art to identify primers for amplifying a suitable section of the applicable exon of the TNFxcex2 gene. PCR techniques are described for example in EP-A-0200362 and EP-A-0201 184. In a further embodiment of the invention, the diagnostic method comprises analysis of the TNFxcex2 gene using single strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) mapping to determine whether the TNFxcex2 gene is the risk or the non-risk form.
In preferred embodiments, the method comprises screening a TNFxcex2 gene, and this screening is conveniently carried out by any one of a number of suitable techniques that are known in the art, and may be conveniently selected from amplification of a nucleic acid sequence located within the TNFxcex2 gene, Southern blotting of regions of the gene and single strand conformational polymorphism mapping of regions within the gene or as described in Example 1 below. The genotype in that region is also optionally determined using hybridization probes adapted selectively to hybridize with the particular polymorphism of the TNFxcex2 gene at the +250 location which is associated with predisposition or susceptibility to disease. A probe used for hybridization detection methods must be in some way labeled so as to enable detection of successfully hybridization events. This is optionally achieved by in vitro methods such as nick-translation, replacing nucleotides in the probe by radioactively labeled nucleotides, or by random primer extension, in which non-labeled molecules act as a template for the synthesis of labeled copies. Other standard method of labeling probes so as to detect hybridization are known to those skilled in this art.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of diagnosis and therapy comprising diagnosing CAP and diagnosing predisposition or susceptibility to CAP according to the method of the invention and treating an individual having such CAP or a predisposition or susceptibility to CAP thereby treating to prevent or lessen CAP.
Known therapies for CAP can be effective in halting advancement of the disease, or at least slowing the advancement. TNFxcex2+250 gene analysis may also lead to more appropriate placement of patients into intensive care/critical care units, an important factor in optimizing survival from CAP. It is thus an advantage of the invention that early diagnosis of CAP is improved, so that preventative therapy can be started as soon as possible, optimizing any interventions potential (such as immunomodulatory therapy) for affecting outcome. As alternative diagnostic methods improve and are developed, so the invention can add to the total knowledge of the risk of developing CAP of an individual. The decision of a physician on how and whether to initiate therapy in anticipation of the disease can be taken with increased confidence.
A variety of suitable treatments of CAP are described in the art. See e.g., Hirani and MacFarlane Thorax 1997;52:17-21, Pachon J et al. Am. Rev. Resp. Dis. 1990;142:369-373, Ruiz M et al. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care. Med. 1999;160:923-929, Leeper and Torres Clin. Chest. Med. 1995;16:155-171. Other treatments are known to persons of skill in the art.
Another aspect of the invention provides a composition for use in diagnosing a disease associated with a genetic polymorphism in a TNFxcex2 gene in an animal predisposed or susceptible to said disease, said composition comprising one or more primer nucleic acid molecules adapted to amplify a portion of a TNFxcex2 gene selected from a portion of the gene around the +250 location.
Another aspect of the invention also provides a composition for use in identifying an animal predisposed or susceptible to a disease associated with a genetic polymorphism in a TNFxcex2 gene, said compositions comprising one or more primer nucleic acid molecules adapted to amplify a portion of the TNFxcex2 gene selected from a portion of the gene around the +250 location.
The composition of this aspect of the invention may comprise a nucleic acid molecule capable of identifying the +250 polymorphism in said TNFxcex2 gene, said polymorphism being indicative of a risk genotype in said animal.
A further embodiment of the invention provides a composition for diagnosis of CAP or predisposition or susceptibility to CAP, comprising means for determining genotype of a TNFxcex2 gene of an individual, for example whether an individual is homozygous or heterozygous for polymorphic variants of a TNFxcex2 gene at the +250 location such as the method provided in the Example 1 herein.
In an embodiment of the invention, a diagnostic composition comprises PCR primers adapted to amplify a DNA sequence within and around the TNF +250 polymorph location, wherein alternative versions of the gene are distinguished one from another.
In a further aspect of the invention there is provided a diagnostic kit comprising a diagnostic composition as described above and an indicator composition for indicating how possessing a polymorphic version of a TNFxcex2 gene correlates with the presence of CAP or redisposition or susceptibility to CAP.
Diagnostic kits are typically accompanied by or comprise a chart or other visual aid for assistance in interpreting the results obtained using the kit. Suitable indicator compositions for use in the diagnostic kit of the invention include a leaflet or other visual reminder that possessing the risk polymorphism version of a TNFxcex2 gene correlates with CAP or the increased risk of predisposition or susceptibility to CAP.
In a still further aspect of the invention there is provided use, in the manufacture of means for diagnosing whether an individual has a predisposition or susceptibility to CAP, of PCR primers adapted to amplify a region around +250 in the TNFxcex2 gene. Alternative versions of the gene are typically distinguished one from another by means known to those skilled in the art.
Multiple techniques exist and are known to one skilled in the art in the manufacture of means for diagnosing whether an individual has CAP or a predisposition or susceptibility to CAP, of PCR primers adapted to amplify a region around 250 in the TNFxcex2 gene. Restriction analysis can be employed, where the enzyme cuts if a xe2x80x9cGxe2x80x9d is present, but not if an xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d is present, and when run on a, e.g., 1% agarose gel, the different fragments migrate differently based upon size.
According to the invention, an individual who is homozygous for a risk polymorphism, that is to say homozygous for a version of 250 (xe2x80x9cAAxe2x80x9d), is classified as being at highest risk of CAP or predisposition or susceptibility to CAP. An individual being heterozygous (xe2x80x9cGAxe2x80x9d) is classified as having moderate risk of CAP or predisposition or susceptibility to CAP.
Optionally, the assessment of an individual""s risk factor according to any aspect of the invention is calculated by determining the genotype of a TNFxcex2 gene polymorphism and combining the result with analysis of other known genetic, physiological, dietary, clinical, or other indications known to those of skill in the art. The invention in this way provides further information on which measurement of an individual""s risk can be based.
It is possible that CAP polymorphisms are not the disease causing genes. Nevertheless, the observed correlation is of use in diagnosis of CAP and of risk of predisposition or susceptibility to CAP.
In another embodiment of the invention, the results of the genotyping done herein are used, along with other diagnostics measures and disease parameters, by treatment providers to determine the best course of treatment for the patient having CAP or having been determined as susceptible to CAP by the methods of this invention.
In another aspect of the invention, a method of identification and diagnosis of patients with CAP at an increased risk of septic shock is provided. A significant association between the LTxcex1+250 genotype and the risk of septic shock in patients with CAP has been identified. In addition, analysis of LTxcex1+250: TNFxcex1xe2x88x92308 haplotypes strongly suggests that the LTxcex1+250 locus is not the causative polymorphism. This finding sheds some light on the relative importance of the LTxcex1+250 and TNFxcex1xe2x88x92308 loci with respect to CAP.
Haplotype analysis has shown that the lowest risk of septic shock is in patients with two 250G:308G haplotypes. It is believed that the TNFxcex1xe2x88x92308 locus does exert an influence, but is largely masked by the much greater prevalence of the A allele at the LTxcex1+250 locus in the population. This shows the important role that differences in local allelic frequencies play in evaluating the significance of gene.
These findings have important implications for understanding the inflammatory response to severe infections. In an effort to identify patients at high risk for subsequent septic shock, the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria were developed. SIRS is defined as having at least two of the following four conditions: (1) oral temperature of greater than 38xc2x0 C. or less than 36xc2x0 C.; (2) respiratory rate of greater than 20 breaths/minute or Paco2 or less than 32 count torr; (3) heart rate of greater than 90 beats/minute; (4) leukocyte count of greater than 12,000/xcexcl or less than 4,000/xcexcl or greater than 10% bands. Hypoxemia was included as an organ dysfunction and is one of the two most common organ dysfunctions in most studies of SIRS. Hypoxemia (and other organ dysfunctions in SIRS) is assumed to occur by the same mechanism and reflect the same pro-inflammatory state as septic shock. This unexpected finding that respiratory failure is not associated with a TNF hypersecretor genotype, with a trend to greater respiratory failure with a TNF hyposecretor genotype (LTxcex1+250 GG) is not consistent with this understanding of SIRS.
It is believed that LTxcex1+250 is not directly causative, but is a marker for the xe2x80x98realxe2x80x99 polymorphism which is located within the 250A:308G haplotype. The A:G haplotype is considered a risk version of the gene. This has important implications not only for understanding the molecular basis for susceptibility to septic shock, but also for other studies showing association between disease states and LTxcex1+250 genotype. It is further believed that both polymorphisms may be causative, but an A allele at one locus interferes with the mechanism leading to increased TNFxcex1 production, (such as a conformation change that affects the binding of transcription activating factors) with the A allele at the other locus.
Clearly non-genetic factors such as the length of time to initial therapy and adequacy of therapy also play important roles in the ultimate development of the clinical presentation, including the development of septic shock. These studies did not control for the length of time from onset of symptoms to presentation. However, this data supports the hypothesis that genetic polymorphisms play a critical role in the variable presentation of CAP.
Differences in the virulence of pathogens also has an impact on outcome of CAP. These experiments did not analyze the influence of genotype on CAP for individual pathogens due to the low number of cases with a definite microbiological diagnosis. The problem of the low sensitivity of traditional culture techniques in CAP is well known, and the diagnostic rate observed is not inconsistent with studies of the yield of cultures in patients with CAP. However, the pattern in patients with proven or suspected pneumococcal CAP parallels that of the entire cohort, a finding which is not surprising given that the pneumococcus is the most common cause of CAP.
Septic shock is associated with the TNFxcex1 high secretor genotype (AA) at the LTxcex1+250 locus while type I respiratory failure in the absence of septic shock is associated with the low secretor (GG) genotype. The TNFxcex1xe2x88x92308 polymorphism appears to have the similar associations, but a lesser influence in this cohort due to the comparative rarity of the TNFxcex1xe2x88x92308A allele and linkage disequilibrium with the LTxcex1+250 polymorphism. The finding that these two presentations of CAP have opposite associations with respect to TNFxcex1 secretion raises significant concern regarding the validity of the SIRS definition as an inclusion criteria for anti-inflammatory sepsis trials. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor laser diode, and more particularly, to a semiconductor laser diode capable of improving reliability and mass productivity of the product.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, in accordance with the spread of optical recording and reproducing devices such as a DVD, demand for a semiconductor laser diode (LD), that is, the essential part of the optical recording and reproducing device is being radically increased. Especially, since the technology achieving a high density DVD or a Blue-ray disc having capacity of tens of gigabytes is commercialized, researches have been actively performed into the nitride semiconductor LD of about 405 nm wavelength.
However, further advancement is required because there are still technical limits to guarantee reliability and yield of the nitride semiconductor LD. | {
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