The present invention relates to systems and methods for estimating switching supply load current.
The capability to dynamically measure the power consumption of an electronic system is highly desirable. Some of the benefits include: system fault detection (should power exceed a normal range), engineering power savings (during system prototype development), ability to provide accurate battery life estimates (in a battery operated system). Today's modern electronic systems often utilize switching regulators in order to improve the system power efficiency and reduce heat. In applications where large amounts of current are required, external power field effect transistors (FETs) (as opposed to power FETs integrated with the switching regulator) are most economical. One aspect of power estimation requires measuring the output current supplied by these external FETs.
Previous solutions to measuring the output current flowing in external FETs, utilize a sense resistor in series with the output, wherein the voltage drop across the resistor was proportional to the output current. In this circumstance, the output current is measured by sensing this resistor voltage drop. This method works at the expense of lower efficiency, as any voltage across the sense resistor results in a power loss and resulting degradation in the regulator efficiency. Consequently, in order to minimize the power loss, the sense resistor value is kept small which results in poor resolution of low current measurements (due to the low resulting voltage drop across the sense resistor). Also, low value resistors are expensive.
An alternate method for measuring the output current requires the use of specialized output inductors. Most switching regulators utilize external inductors as part of the voltage transformation/regulation loop. It is possible to add a separate set of “turns” around the output inductor which sense the magnitude of the magnetic flux in the inductor. The magnitude of the magnetic flux is proportional to the current in the inductor. Thus, the extra turns provide a means to sense the current flow in the output inductor. While this method does not suffer the efficiency loss of the sense resistor method, it does require the use of a more expensive and non-standard output inductor.
FIG. 1 shows a typical BUCK regulator output power stage. In this regulator design, supply voltage 6 provides power to output power FET Q2 16, which is controlled by “Break Before Make” (BBM) unit 12. Output FET Q2 16 is also connected to output FET Q1 20. Body diodes D1 22 and D2 18 are built into the output power FETs Q1 20 and Q2 16. “FET Control” circuit 10 (shown as a voltage source) generates a switching signal to command the power FETs to turn on and off. BBM units 12-14 insure that under no circumstances are both power FETs 16 and 20 on at the same time, which would cause a large “shoot though” current to flow in the FETs 16 and 20. Thus, for example, if Q2 16 is on and Q1 20 are off then the BBMs 12 and 14 insure that Q2 16 is shut off before Q1 20 is turned on. Because of the BBMs 12 and 14, there is a short period of time, perhaps 20 ns or more, (called the “dead time”) when neither Q1 20 nor Q2 16 is turned on.
The physics of inductor 26 do not allow for instantaneous changes in the current flowing through the inductor. Thus if the power output stage is sourcing current to the load Rload 30 and capacitor C1 28, then even during the short dead time, when both Q1 20 and Q2 16 are off, the load current will continue to flow through inductor 26. During this period of time, the body diode D1 22 will source the current from ground through inductor 26 to the load. When body diode D1 22 is conducting current, the voltage at the PowerSwitch_out 24 will go below ground.


Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to transaction processing using highly-scalable, decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, known as blockchains.
Background of the Related Art
Blockchain is a type of business transaction ledger. A blockchain network is a decentralized system for the exchange of assets. It uses a shared ledger (that is either public or private) for recording the history of electronic business transactions that take place in a peer-to-peer (P2P) business network. A blockchain network uses a decentralized consensus mechanism or protocol. In particular, all validating nodes in the network run the same (agreed-upon) consensus algorithm against the same transactions, and thus validate (or invalidate) each transaction. Valid transactions update the ledger. A blockchain peer-to-peer network is resilient given its decentralized topology. As member nodes join or leave the network dynamically, messages are exchanged between the network participants on a best-effort broadcast basis.
A blockchain is a permanent digitized chain of transactions, grouped into blocks, that ensures that participants cannot tamper with or deny past transactions. A permissioned blockchain is one in which the participants who invoke business transactions, as well as those who control and manage copies of the blockchain, are known. To this end, an identity service in a permissioned blockchain typically links information about business entities to the cryptographic keys used to digitally sign transactions. Typically, a ledger comprises a blockchain, and an associated world state. The world state typically is a view, but can be a superset, of the blockchain that comprises a set of referenceable variables that, while necessarily recorded in the blockchain, can be utilized by programs running on the network. In particular, to update the ledger with a proposed transaction, each node must process the transaction against the logic of one or more programs running directly on the replicated network. These programs, called chaincode, are replicated across each node in the network to guarantee uptime and functionality. Chaincode is stored on the blockchain and triggered by transaction requests.
Hyperledger is a cross-industry collaborative effort to support permissioned blockchain-based distributed ledgers. It is focused on ledgers designed to support global business transactions, including major technological, financial, and supply chain companies, with the goal of improving many aspects of performance and reliability. The project aims to bring together a number of independent efforts to develop open protocols and standards by providing a modular framework that supports different components for different uses. A Hyperledger is a peer-to-peer distributed network that uses cryptographic security, decentralized consensus, and a shared public ledger with properly-controlled and permissioned visibility.
To bring new validating peers into a blockchain network, such as a permissioned blockchain like Hyperledger, it is necessary to transmit the blockchain state from one or more of the network peers to the new peer. Long-lived blockchains will contain an extremely large number of blocks and world state. It is both inefficient, and impractical, to transmit tens or hundreds of gigabytes, if not terabytes, to the new peers in the network simply to enable these new peer nodes to participate in the network. To support the efficient and rapid addition of new validating (and non-validating) peer nodes in a blockchain network, there needs to be an efficient mechanism for identifying the current state of the blockchain so it can be efficiently communicated to the new peer nodes, and enable them to start participating in the network.
In addition, many types of businesses, including finance, have auditing requirements that are built on the premise that the audit will be conducted over an interval of time—from a start date to an end date. It is assumed that the state of the ledger (e.g., a financial ledger) is consistent and acceptable prior to the starting date and that the transactions from that date until the ending date are to be audited. Earlier data may be available for reference purposes, but it may not be required. As such, it be desirable to provide a way to record of the state of the system at the starting point of the audit interval and perhaps at the end of the interval as well.
Many kinds of blockchains applications are currently under discussion and their design are intended to be very long-lived (e.g., even up to 50 years or more). For long-lived blockchain ledgers, typically there are requirements for pruning the ledger for practical or regulatory reasons. In the absence of any application-specific audit checkpoint logic, to perform an audit using the current Hyperledger design, the auditor will need to start with the ledger's genesis (first) block and run all (relevant) transactions forward through time to reach the start of the audit period, and then continue running all of the relevant transactions for the current audit period. If the ledger contains substantial history (5 years, 10 years, or longer, with millions or billions of transactions), this process of processing the transactions to reach the start of the audit period can require a substantial amount of computational resources. Thus, it would be highly desirable to find a way to forestall this lengthy and resource-intensive process.
In financial and other business scenarios, old data prior to specific points in time are no longer relevant and can be discarded. Some businesses have record retention policies. Data older than a particular date is to be discarded. For privacy and legal reasons, old data is to be discarded. For Internet of Things (IoT)-based applications, many desired use cases have limited storage capacity, and thus pruning is essential. In such scenarios, bringing a new permissioned blockchain validating peer online requires transfer of the ledger (blockchain, world state) to the new peer, and efficiently enabling this operation may be critical.


Beverage preparation machines have been known for a number of years. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,472 discloses a water circulation system between a water reservoir and a hot water or vapour distribution chamber of an espresso machine. The circulation system includes a valve, metallic heating tube and pump that are connected together and to the reservoir.
A beverage preparation machine typically includes a housing containing a beverage processing module and a water tank in fluid communication with the beverage processing module. Examples of such beverage preparation machines are disclosed in EP 1 208 782, EP 1 267 687, EP 1 686 879, EP 1 731 065, EP 1 829 469, EP 1 864 598, EP 1 865 815, EP 1 867 260, EP 1 878 368, EP 2 222 210, EP 2 222 211, EP 2 222 212, EP 2 227 121, EP 2 227 122, US 2008/0006159, U.S. Pat. No. 7,165,488, WO 2007/111884, WO 2009/074553, WO 2010/015427 and WO 2012/055767.
Usually the water tank is removable to be refilled by a user when empty. Some systems include a continuous water supply by connecting the beverage machine directly to the city water distribution network, as for instance disclosed in CN201076369. This publication discloses a system that has a refillable water tank as well as an inlet for direct connection with the tap. Hence, beverage preparation can be carried out either by using water directly from the tap or from the water tank.


Wireless telecommunication devices are evolving to contain increased functionality and complexity. This increased functionality often brings together functions that have been traditionally been provided by different devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDA). The combination of these functions typically require increased processor capability as well as increased power requirements. The requirement for additional processing capability to add functionality and minimize latency is especially important when the information must be processed in real time, as for example in cell phones. Having more processing capability and in turn higher power consumption, is especially problematic in wireless communication systems where it is inconvenient to connect to power sources.
Wireless communication systems generally must contain their own source of power, which often is in the form of a battery. Users typically need the ability to operate such systems for longer periods of time without the need to recharge or swap batteries or even connect to line power. However, such longer operating times normally require an increase in battery size, which leads to undesirable effects such as heavier batteries, increased expense, and environmental concerns regarding disposal of used batteries.
To meet the needs of increased processing power within wireless communication devices, additional processors requiring more memory and power were added to devices. A general purpose processor handles most system tasks and a modem computing subsystem handles tasks related to handling mobile station requirements. Mobile station modem binary software images (i.e., contents of memory) are programmed at the time of manufacture into read-only memory (ROM) as a single contiguous binary image. The modem computing subsystem directly executes the memory image from ROM, which results in slower execution than images executed from memories with faster access times, such as random access memory (RAM). At system boot time (e.g., when the wireless device is powered-up), read-write and zero-initialized data are copied to RAM prior to execution of code by the modem computing subsystem. No part of the over-the-air standards as implemented in the software binary image can be executed prior to completion of system boot and initiation of the operating system. All system memory must be completely powered-up prior to mobile station modem operation of the over-the-air standard. This approach results in wasting significant amounts of power because the modem computer subsystem had to be powered up even when not in use.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for a system and method to minimize power consumption in a wireless communication system while increasing the speed and functionality of the device for the user. The present invention provides this and other advantages that will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.


1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to ultra-wideband communications, and more particularly to systems and methods for communication using ultra-wideband technology.
2. Background
Wireless communication systems are proliferating at the Wide Area Network (WAN), Local Area Network (LAN), and Personal Area Network (PAN) levels. These wireless communication systems use a variety of techniques to allow simultaneous access to multiple users. The most common of these techniques are Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), which assigns specific frequencies to each user, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), which assigns particular time slots to each user, and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), which assigns specific codes to each user. But these wireless communication systems and various modulation techniques are afflicted by a host of problems that limit the capacity and the quality of service provided to the users. The following paragraphs briefly describe a few of these problems for the purpose of illustration.
One problem that can exist in a wireless communication system is multipath interference. Multipath interference, or multipath, occurs because some of the energy in a transmitted wireless signal bounces off of obstacles, such as buildings or mountains, as it travels from source to destination. The obstacles in effect create reflections of the transmitted signal and the more obstacles there are, the more reflections they generate. The reflections then travel along their own transmission paths to the destination (or receiver). The reflections will contain the same information as the original signal; however, because of the differing transmission path lengths, the reflected signals will be out of phase with the original signal. As a result, they will often combine destructively with the original signal in the receiver. This is referred to as fading. To combat fading, current systems typically try to estimate the multipath effects and then compensate for them in the receiver using an equalizer. In practice, however, it is very difficult to achieve effective multipath compensation.
A second problem that can affect the operation of wireless communication systems is interference from adjacent communication cells within the system. In FDMA/TDMA systems, this type of interference is prevent through a frequency reuse plan. Under a frequency reuse plan, available communication frequencies are allocated to communication cells within the communication system such that the same frequency will not be used in adjacent cells. Essentially, the available frequencies are split into groups. The number of groups is termed the reuse factor. Then the communication cells are grouped into clusters, each cluster containing the same number of cells as there are frequency groups. Each frequency group is then assigned to a cell in each cluster. Thus, if a frequency reuse factor of 7 is used, for example, then a particular communication frequency will be used only once in every seven communication cells. Thus, in any group of seven communication cells, each cell can only use 1/7th of the available frequencies, i.e., each cell is only able to use 1/7th of the available bandwidth.
In a CDMA communication system, each cell uses the same wideband communication channel. In order to avoid interference with adjacent cells, each communication cell uses a particular set of spread spectrum codes to differentiate communications within the cell from those originating outside of the cell. Thus, CDMA systems preserve the bandwidth in the sense that they avoid reuse planning. But as will be discussed, there are other issues that limit the bandwidth in CDMA systems as well.
Thus, in overcoming interference, system bandwidth is often sacrificed. Bandwidth is becoming a very valuable commodity as wireless communication systems continue to expand by adding more and more users. Therefore, trading off bandwidth for system performance is a costly, albeit necessary, proposition that is inherent in all wireless communication systems.
The foregoing are just two examples of the types of problems that can affect conventional wireless communication systems. The examples also illustrate that there are many aspects of wireless communication system performance that can be improved through systems and methods that, for example, reduce interference, increase bandwidth, or both.
Not only are conventional wireless communication systems effected by problems, such as those described in the preceding paragraphs, but also different types of systems are effected in different ways and to different degrees. Wireless communication systems can be split into three types: 1) line-of-sight systems, which can include point-to-point or point-to-multipoint systems; 2) indoor non-line of sight systems; and 3) outdoor systems such as wireless WANs. Line-of-sight systems are least affected by the problems described above, while indoor systems are more affected, due for example to signals bouncing off of building walls. Outdoor systems are by far the most affected of the three systems. Because these types of problems are limiting factors in the design of wireless transmitters and receivers, such designs must be tailored to the specific types of system in which it will operate. In practice, each type of system implements unique communication standards that address the issues unique to the particular type of system. Even if an indoor system used the same communication protocols and modulation techniques as an outdoor system, for example, the receiver designs would still be different because multipath and other problems are unique to a given type of system and must be addressed with unique solutions. This would not necessarily be the case if cost efficient and effective methodologies can be developed to combat such problems as described above that build in programmability so that a device can be reconfigured for different types of systems and still maintain superior performance.


Aptamers, are oligonucleotides, which can be synthetic or natural, that bind to a particular target molecule, such as a protein or metabolite. Typically, the binding is through interactions other than classic Watson-Crick base pairing.
Aptamers represent a promising class of therapeutic agents currently in pre-clinical and clinical development. Like biologics, e.g., peptides or monoclonal antibodies, aptamers are capable of binding specifically to molecular targets and, through binding, inhibiting target function. A typical aptamer is 10-15 kDa in size (i.e., 30-45 nucleotides), binds its target with sub-nanomolar affinity, and discriminates among closely related targets (e.g., will typically not bind other proteins from the same gene family) (Griffin, et al. (1993), Gene 137(1): 25-31; Jenison, et al. (1998), Antisense Nucleic Acid Drug Dev. 8(4): 265-79; Bell, et al. (1999), In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. Anim. 35(9): 533-42; Watson, et al. (2000), Antisense Nucleic Acid Drug Dev. 10(2): 63-75; Daniels, et al. (2002), Anal. Biochem. 305(2): 214-26; Chen, et al. (2003), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 100(16): 9226-31; Khati, et al. (2003), J. Virol. 77(23): 12692-8; Vaish, et al. (2003), Biochemistry 42(29): 8842-51).
Aptamers can be created by an entirely in vitro selection process (Systematic Evaluation of Ligands by Experimental Enrichment, i.e., SELEX™) from libraries of random sequence oligonucleotides as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,475,096 and 5,270,163. Aptamers have been generated against numerous proteins of therapeutic interest, including growth factors, enzymes, immunoglobulins, and receptors (Ellington and Szostak (1990), Nature 346(6287): 818-22; Tuerk and Gold (1990), Science 249(4968): 505-510).
Aptamers have a number of attractive characteristics for use as therapeutics. In addition to high target affinity and specificity, aptamers have shown little or no toxicity or immunogenicity in standard assays (Wlotzka, et al. (2002), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99(13): 8898-902). Indeed, several therapeutic aptamers have been optimized and advanced through varying stages of pre-clinical development, including pharmacokinetic analysis, characterization of biological efficacy in cellular and animal disease models, and preliminary safety pharmacology assessment (Reyderman and Stavchansky (1998), Pharmaceutical Research 15(6): 904-10; Tucker et al., (1999), J. Chromatography B. 732: 203-212; Watson, et al. (2000), Antisense Nucleic Acid Drug Dev. 10(2): 63-75).
It is important that the pharmacokinetic properties for all oligonucleotide-based therapeutics, including aptamers, be tailored to match the desired pharmaceutical application. While aptamers directed against extracellular targets do not suffer from difficulties associated with intracellular delivery (as is the case with antisense and RNAi-based therapeutics), the aptamer must be distributed to target organs and tissues, and remain in the body (unmodified) for a period of time consistent with the desired dosing regimen. Early work on nucleic acid-based therapeutics has shown that, while unmodified oligonucleotides are degraded rapidly by nuclease digestion, protective modifications at the 2′-position of the sugar, and use of inverted terminal cap structures, e.g., [3′-3′dT], dramatically improve nucleic acid stability in vitro and in vivo (Green, et al. (1995), Chem. Biol. 2(10): 683-95; Jellinek, et al. (1995), Biochemistry 34(36): 11363-72; Ruckman, et al. (1998), J. Biol. Chem. 273(32): 20556-67; Uhlmann, et al. (2000), Methods Enzymol. 313: 268-84). In some SELEX selections (i.e., SELEX experiments or SELEX ions), starting pools of nucleic acids from which aptamers are selected are typically pre-stabilized by chemical modification, for example by incorporation of 2′-fluoropyrimidine (2′-F) substituted nucleotides, to enhance resistance of aptamers against nuclease attack. Aptamers incorporating 2′-O-methylpurine (2′-OMe purine) substituted nucleotides have also been developed through post-SELEX modification steps or, more recently, by enabling synthesis of 2′-OMe-containing random sequence libraries as an integral component of the SELEX process itself.
In addition to clearance by nucleases, oligonucleotide therapeutics are subject to elimination via renal filtration. As such, a nuclease-resistant oligonucleotide administered intravenously exhibits an in vivo half-life of <10 min, unless filtration can be blocked. This can be accomplished by either facilitating rapid distribution out of the blood stream into tissues or by increasing the apparent molecular weight of the oligonucleotide above the effective size cut-off for the glomerulus. Conjugation to a PEG polymer (“PEGylation”) can dramatically lengthen residence times of aptamers in circulation, thereby decreasing dosing frequency and enhancing effectiveness against targets. Previous work in animals has examined the plasma pharmacokinetic properties of PEG-conjugated aptamers (Reyderman and Stavchansky (1998), Pharmaceutical Research 15(6): 904-10; Watson, et al. (2000), Antisense Nucleic Acid Drug Dev. 10(2): 63-75)). Determining the extravasation of an aptamer therapeutic, including aptamer therapeutics conjugated to a modifying moiety or containing modified nucleotides and, in particular, determining the potential of aptamers or their modified forms to access diseased tissues (for example, sites of inflammation, or the interior of tumors) define the spectrum of therapeutic opportunities for aptamer intervention.
Typically, therapeutic aptamers are administered by injection, for example, by subcutaneous injection. Accordingly, the aptamer must be dissolved in a liquid vehicle for administration. The relatively high molecular weight of aptamers, and in particular aptamers that have been derivatized, for example by PEGylation, however, often makes it difficult to obtain a pharmaceutical composition wherein the aptamer is dissolved in a pharmaceutically acceptable solvent at a sufficient concentration to provide a pharmaceutical composition that is clinically useful for administration to an animal.
U.S. published application no. 2005/0175708 discloses a composition of matter that permits the sustained delivery of aptamers to a mammal. The aptamers are administered as microspheres that permit sustained release of the aptamers to the site of interest so that the aptamers can exert their biological activity over a prolonged period of time. The aptamers, can be anti-VEGF aptamers.
P. Burmeister et al., (2004), Chemistry and Biology: 15, 25-33 disclose a method for generating a 2′-O-methyl aptamer (ARC245) that binds to vascular endothelial growth factor, which exhibits good stability.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved pharmaceutical compositions, wherein the therapeutic agent is an aptamer. In particular, there is a need for pharmaceutical composition wherein the aptamer can be dissolved in a pharmaceutically acceptable solvent at a sufficient concentration to provide a pharmaceutical composition that is clinically useful for administration to an animal. The present invention addresses this as well as other needs.
Citation of any reference in this application is not to be construed as an admission that such reference is prior art to the present application.


This invention relates generally to control systems, and more particularly to a controller for controlling flow, speed, pressure or performance of a pumping system.
A typical centrifugal pump of the prior art comprises an impeller, rotatably mounted in a stationary casing with the rotating impeller imparting pressure and kinetic energy to the fluid being pumped, and the stationary casing guiding the fluid to and from the impeller. In a typical centrifugal pump casing, which generally includes concentric, diffusor and, volute type centrifugal casings, the rotation of the impeller imparts kinetic energy to the fluid and causes fluid flow, in a generally circular direction about the perimeter of the impeller, through the casing surrounding the impeller. At some point in the casing, the fluid flows from the perimeter of the impeller, passes a cut-water or the like through an area of the pump generally known as the discharge inlet area and through the discharge nozzle to the pump discharge.
The fluid flow can be affected by the design of the impeller, the design and size of the casing, the speed at which the impeller rotates, and design and size of the pump inlet and outlet, quality and finish of the components, presence of a casing volute and the like. In order to control fluid flow, variable frequency devices have been used to adjust the motor speed of the pump so as to regulate the flow within the pump system. It is to be noted that, as used herein, variable frequency drives are to include adjustable frequency drives (AFDs), Variable Speed Controllers (VSCs) or something similar, which operate to control electronic motor speed.
Pump speed and pressure represent important pumping system parameters, in addition to flow, which can cause the pump to operate at less than its most efficient level. Even more disadvantageously, less than optimal operating parameters may cause the pump and motor to work harder and thus wear out quicker, thereby shortening the pump""s operational lifetime. According, it is highly desirable to provide a computer-controlled variable frequency device (VFD) controller which utilizes computer algorithms and sensor inputs to control flow, speed, pressure and performance of a pumping system by monitoring motor, pump and system parameters and controlling pump output via speed variations. It is also advantageous to obtain a controller operative to identify and report pump or system anomalies to a technician, to facilitate investigation and correction of any abnormalities before any serious damage to the pumping unit occurs.
A controller for controlling operating parameters associated with fluid flow, speed or pressure for a centrifugal pump for pumping fluid, wherein at least one sensor is coupled to the pump for generating a signal indicative of a sensed operating condition. The controller comprises a storage device for storing data indicative of at least one operating condition and a microprocessor in communication with the sensor and operative to perform an algorithm utilizing the at least one sensor signal and the stored data indicative of the at least one operating condition to generate a control signal, wherein the control signal is indicative of a correction factor to be applied to the pump.
There is also disclosed a method for automatically controlling operating parameters associated with a centrifugal pump according to an algorithm for pumping fluid to a discharge outlet, comprising the steps of storing in memory data values corresponding to predetermined operating conditions, obtaining sensor measurements indicative of current operating conditions, utilizing the sensor measurements and the stored data values to determine calculated data values corresponding to the current pump operating conditions, and comparing the calculated data values with the stored data values and generating a control signal indicative of a correction factor to be applied to the pump when the calculated data values differ from the stored data values by a predetermined amount.


Neurostimulation systems are devices that generate electrical pulses and deliver the pulses to nerve tissue to treat a variety of disorders. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is an example of neurostimulation in which electrical pulses are delivered to nerve tissue in the spine typically for the purpose of chronic pain control. Other examples include deep brain stimulation, cortical stimulation, cochlear nerve stimulation, peripheral nerve stimulation, vagal nerve stimulation, sacral nerve stimulation, etc. While a precise understanding of the interaction between the applied electrical energy and the nervous tissue is not fully appreciated, it is known that application of an electrical field to spinal nervous tissue can effectively mask certain types of pain transmitted from regions of the body associated with the stimulated nerve tissue. Specifically, applying electrical energy to the spinal cord associated with regions of the body afflicted with chronic pain can induce “paresthesia” (a subjective sensation of numbness or tingling) in the afflicted bodily regions. Thereby, paresthesia can effectively mask the transmission of non-acute pain sensations to the brain.
Neurostimulation systems generally include a pulse generator and one or more leads. The pulse generator is typically implemented using a metallic housing that encloses circuitry for generating the electrical pulses, control circuitry, communication circuitry, a rechargeable battery, etc. The pulse generation circuitry is coupled to one or more stimulation leads through electrical connections provided in a “header” of the pulse generator. Specifically, feedthrough wires typically exit the metallic housing and enter into a header structure of a moldable material. Within the header structure, the feedthrough wires are electrically coupled to annular electrical connectors. The header structure holds the annular connectors in a fixed arrangement that corresponds to the arrangement of terminals on a stimulation lead.
The terminals of a stimulation lead are electrically coupled to the connectors within the header by manually pushing the proximal end of the stimulation lead into the header of the pulse generator. If the stimulation lead is improperly inserted into the header, the terminals of the stimulation lead will not be properly aligned with the connectors of the header and electrical pulses will not be properly conducted through the lead to electrodes for stimulation of tissue of the patient.


This application describes example systems and methods for placing onto a mammal's lower body, leg and thigh limbs, a set of paired bands to measure the lower body locomotion (for bipedalism, upright locomotion) and, if desired, additional arm strapped forearm and arm paired bands on the upper body (for complex motion, crawling, and in other applications, or four calf limb quadrupedalism locomotion). Each band contains multiple MEMs force sensors that measure muscle circumferential pressure at multiple positions, along with Earth's magnetic and gravitational fields. On-band data processing and networked, intra-band RF connectivity from multiple limbs, can be used to produce simple, energy-optimized, least-action metrics of mammal locomotion of two, interrelated functions defined as 1) Track, being a walking, running or other dynamic, from forward footpath creation over firm surfaces such as the ground, water-floats, or snow and ice, and 2) Balance, being required to efficiently move the lower body and/or upper body under Track. These technology metrics include assessment of locomotion related neurological functionality of body, limbs, and muscle disorders.
Details of Track differences in maintaining Balance are related to other physiological disorders, including detecting mental precursors, such as for fall-down behavior. An example system can be worn by many simultaneously and uniquely identified users, with metrics and location of each user being displayed on a laptop through additional RF connectivity, such as in recreational and professional sports. The system's on-band data processing units using battery supplied power, integrate the sensing to determine kinetic and potential energy of the body locomotion over time in a method that integrates out the aperiodic motion of the upper body and extended appendages, about center of mass (ACM), and uses the residual motion to measure the periodic center of mass (CM) locomotion from a known point.
The example systems and methods are self-calibrating, using calibration data collected when standing and jumping, at positions facing compass points. A GPS system can be incorporated for continuous motion measurement, to be used for calibration of the locomotion when GPS satellite data is available, and to establish the initiation geolocation point when beginning operation in GPS-denied regions for navigation, or to relatively geolocate multiple players in sport activities.
The body movement data, when combined with the band pressure and gravity data, removes the effects of the aperiodic, nonlinear locomotion, and leaves the residual movement for determining Track and Balance through a Euler-Lagrangian representation of the Equations of Motion.
The example systems and methods can be embodied for many applications (including the use of metric feedback for improved Balance and Track optimization), such as for human and non-human (e.g., horse) sports trainers, elder health care providers, and physical therapists for prevention and recovery from injuries of the back, knee, spine, and brain, such as from stroke, Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, and dementia, as well as for other uses in mammal navigation and location purposes.


The invention relates to a fabric which exhibits a puffed design effect and method for the same. More particularly, the invention relates to the provision of a lightweight puffed embroidered design fabric and method by which a multitude of different designs may be created on fabrics by forming puffed design elements in a controlled manner according to prescribed embroidered patterns. The puffed embroidered fabric designs are relatively unlimited in their variety, and according to the fabric and method of the present invention, may be made on a commercial basis in large quantities.
Heretofore, fabric designs have been created which are commonly referred to as three-dimensional, or puckered, fabric designs. The three-dimensional or puckered effect in the fabric design may be accomplished in a number of ways. For example, single ply fabric may be woven or knitted with areas of the fabric provided with yarns that are more shrinkable than the remaining yarns in desired areas. The shrinkable yarns are subjected to shrinkage by either hot washing, chemical, or other treatment, causing a swelled area in the fabric and a patterned effect such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,738,566 and 3,071,165.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,610 discloses a patterned puckered fabric achieved by weaving two plies of fabric together with an elastic yarn. The elastic yarn which joins the two plies of fabric together is shrunk creating puckering at the outer layer.
Puckered or three-dimensional design fabrics have also been formed by simultaneously weaving two plies, and interweaving at spaced intervals, one of the plies, which may be shrunk, with the other ply which is not shrinkable. When the shrinkable ply shrinks, small wrinkles or puckers will form in the unshrinkable layer as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 2,231,388. Puckered two-ply fabrics have also been made in which puckering of the fabric is obtained by selective shrinking of certain of the threads of the woven two-ply fabric rather than shrinking one ply and not shrinking the other as described above. Such a fabric is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,401,829 wherein shrinkable warp or weft threads are interwoven between two fabric plies to form small puckers. However, the design possibilities in such fabrics are very limited due to the fact that the puckering pattern is established by interweaving two plies at selected points. Thus the designs are limited by the nature of the weaving process itself, and also by the fact that only certain types of designs with little or no variations may be created in this method. The creating of designs by weaving and interweaving two plies is a very time consuming and expensive process which is not commercially attractive. Moreover, the weight of the fabric produced by interweaving two plies results in fabric which has only very limited use and may not be used where a lightweight puckered fabric may be needed. The two-ply fabrics are typically dried on a tenter frame under tension which may take out shrinkage, particularly in the crosswise dimension of the fabric owing to the tensioning of the fabric between the tenter fames. Thus the puckered pattern is not easily varied or determined by the weaving or the drying of the two-ply fabric in the prior art methods and fabrics.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,195,489 discloses a three-dimensional patterned fabric in which an outer layer is made from an elastic material and sewn onto a base layer. The two fabrics are then stretched and a design pattern is stitched to the stretched panels. Afterwards, the tension is released causing the stretched panel to contract and exhibit a pucker in the outer fabric layer. The ornamental fabric is mainly suitable for women's articles of clothing, namely swimsuits in which elastic panels are desired.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method in which a wide variety of puffed designs may be created in a lightweight fabric.
Another object of the invention is to provide a puffed embroidered design fabric and method wherein a wide variety of embroidered designs can be created in the face of fabric which exhibit puffed design elements according to a prescribed well-controlled pattern.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a puffed embroidered design fabric and method wherein a pattern of puffed elements is created in the embroidered design and the resultant fabric is lightweight and suitable for wearing apparel and other lightweight fabric applications.
Another object of the invention is to provide a puffed embroidered fabric and method which are well adapted to the production of a multitude of different designs on a commercial basis.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a puffed embroidered design fabric and method wherein an embroidered pattern is stitched into a front fabric and a lightweight cotton gauze back fabric uniting the fabrics by interlocked embroidery stitches which control formation of puffed design elements in the embroidered pattern upon washing and drying of the fabric.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a reversible fabric puckered and/or puffed on both faces in a predetermined pattern, as well as a method of making such a fabric, particularly on an embroidery machine.


Many products and services have only a limited time of usability. For example, if there are vacant seats on an airplane flight, when the flight takes off, the usability of (and the revenue from) these seats is lost. As another example, the usability of (and the revenue from) a hotel room is lost if the room remains unoccupied overnight. A third example would be a table at a popular restaurant. As a lunch hour or evening passes, the revenue and value from an unused table is lost. Many people might be interested in taking advantage of such opportunities at the last minute if the price is low enough, if the service is convenient enough, or if the service is particularly scarce, but they may not have the opportunity, the interest, or the time to search an auction site for such products and services.
What is needed is a system and method that, based on a set of known preferences and historic transactions with customers, could cull from a customer database the customers most likely to close a transaction, and thus allow fleeting inventories to be sold off before they expire and allow customers to get access to extremely convenient, highly sought after, or well priced services.


The conventional method of conveying glass through a refractory wall within a glass melting tank is to incorporate the use of a channel made of refractory block. The channel or throat is generally located at the bottom of a bridgewall of the furnace, and is utilized to flow the molten glass from a melting chamber into an adjacent refining chamber, or for flowing the glass out of the furnace to be cooled in a forehearth. When there is molten glass on both sides of the wall dividing the various chambers, the throat or channel could be as simple as a hole in the wall. However, the action of the flowing molten glass tends to corrode the roof of the refractory channel, and typically the first part of the furnace to wear out is the throat area.
Thus, the effective life of glass melting furnaces is limited by the corrosion of the throats connecting the melting and fining zones or chambers, and those throats connecting the fining and refiner zones or chambers. The fining zone may be operated at temperatures above 1500.degree. C., so the walls and throats associated therewith suffer severe corrosion. The roof of the throats suffers the greatest corrosion, and even fused zirconia block is corroded away over time until the refractory is so thin that a glass leak can occur.
Refractory metal pipes, such as molybdenum pipes, have been used in the past to convey some glasses from the bottom of a tank through a sidewall thereof into a distribution channel, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,887 to Spremulli. The flow of certain molten glasses through the moly pipe results in very small corrosion to the pipe per se. However, where the pipe passes through the sidewall, the corrosion of the surrounding refractory can be significant. The mechanism creating such high corrosion is known in the industry as upward drilling. That is, whenever there is a horizontal refractory surface with glass flowing therebeneath, bubbles in the glass will rise up until they hit the surface. The bubbles then tend to enhance corrosion due to a surface tension gradient on the bubbles, and the bubbles then in effect drill a hole into the refractory.
The dense corrosion products formed between the flowing glass and the corroded refractory then flow away, and fresh glass enters the area between the pipe and the refractory to repeat the corrosion process. When a molybdenum pipe is passed through a hole in the sidewall of a glass tank to flow molten glass from the tank, such as in the Spremulli patent, the refractory above the pipe will continue to corrode away even though the glass flows through the pipe. The corrosion of the refractory continues because there is nothing to prevent the dense corrosion products from flowing away. Eventually, there is very little refractory separating the glass from a water cooled outer rim of a refractory metal flange surrounding the pipe, and the process must be shut down before a glass leak occurs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,987 to Boettner discloses the use of water cooled molybdenum flanges to prevent leaks between adjacent portions of a glass delivery system. However, the Boettner patent is primarily directed to a refractory metal glass delivery system of molybdenum for controlling the flow of glass from a furnace to a forehearth by means of a flow control device incorporated therein. The inlet to the flow control system is at a level above the bottom of the furnace, and no means are provided for inhibiting or virtually eliminating the corrosion of the refractory block about the inlet end of the delivery tube. Accordingly, the corrosion of the refractory wall through which the pipe passes limits the life of the delivery system.
Over the years attempts have been made to install throats within glass furnaces protected by refractory metal conduits such as molybdenum. However, such attempts have not been completely successful since no effort had been made to protect the refractory material surrounding the conduit from the corrosive effects of the glass on the outside of the conduit adjacent the surrounding refractory material. The use of a water-cooled flange about the conduit has helped to prevent complete flow through of the molten glass along the length of the conduit, but has not succeeded in preventing the corrosion of the refractory material adjacent the inlet and outlet ends and along the upper surface of the conduit. The present invention is directed to overcoming these deficiencies.
It thus has been an object of the present invention to provide method and apparatus for virtually eliminating or inhibiting the corrosion of refractory material about a refractory metal delivery system within a glass melting furnace.


Present day consumers typically own several electronic devices specifically designed for portability and on-the-go use, including, for example, a mobile phone or smart phone, a portable music player like an iPod® or an MP3 player, a tablet, a portable gaming unit, a camera, and the like. Each of these devices requires frequent recharging. Such electronic devices typically utilize a cable for connecting the device to a power source, such as a wall outlet, a car charger, an airplane charger, or a computer. However, a separate cable is usually required for each power source. Moreover, different electronic devices often utilize different connection ports and interfaces such that a single charging cable is not compatible with multiple devices. Accordingly, a tech-savvy consumer, with several electronic devices, will usually have multiple charging cables to keep track of. Even then, the consumer may be without sufficient power to recharge a phone due to bad weather or a power outage, or may not always be in a place where a power source is readily available, or even if so, may not have the appropriate cable or adapter available to use with a particular power source.
With traditional power sources, such as those noted above, it is often difficult to charge multiple devices at the same time, especially where each device requires a separate charging cable. For example, a car charger port may only handle a single cable at a time. Adaptor devices are available on the market for connecting multiple devices to a power source at the same time—for example, a two-to-one or three-to-one car charger splitter. However, such adapters are often only compatible with certain interfaces. Moreover, such adapters are separate from portable power sources and tend to be bulky.
Similarly, connection interface attachments are also available for adapting a charging cable for use with a variety of devices for recharging from a power source, each requiring a different interface connection. However, such attachments are usually separate small pieces, and therefore difficult to keep track of when not in use. Further, use of such attachments does not solve the problem presented by the need to charge multiple devices at the same time, from the same power source, as oftentimes, only one attachment can be used with a charging cable at a time.
Portable power chargers exist that permit recharging of electronic devices when a standard power source is not readily available. For example, portable power chargers are illustrated and described in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 13/571,992, filed Aug. 10, 2012, and Ser. No. 13/682,985, filed Nov. 21, 2012, which share common inventors with the present application and which are incorporated herein by reference. Some existing power charger devices usually cannot charge multiple devices at the same time, either due to limited capacity or connectivity options. Even if multiple devices may be attached to the power charger at the same time, the charger may prioritize how the devices are recharged—i.e., it will charge one device first and then the second, and so on. However, this approach takes a long time to recharge all devices and risks not having sufficient charge remaining in the charger for fully charging the second device.
Further, some portable charger devices will not permit recharging from the charger when the charger is itself being recharged or connected to an external power source. Such devices require the charger unit to be disconnected from a power source before a charge will be passed on to a device connected to the charger, or require the charger unit to be fully charged first before any device connected to the charger unit can then be recharged.
Additionally, such portable charger devices typically require a dedicated input port for recharging the internal battery and a separate output port dedicated for recharging electrical devices from the internal battery. More particularly, such charging devices often require multiple output ports for recharging multiple electronic devices at the same time. The addition of extra charging ports compromises the size and design of the charger unit, for example, a unit with a dedicated input port and two or more output ports would need to be larger than a charger unit with just a single port due to the need to properly arrange the electronics for operation of the charger as desired.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a charger that can be used to charge a variety of electronic devices, including but not limited to smart phones, mobile phones, data tablets, music players, cameras, camcorders, gaming units, e-books, Bluetooth® headsets and earpieces, GPS devices, and the like, either individually or collectively in various combinations. Additionally, there is a need for such a charger that is portable, has a compact size, and is easy to use in various conditions and locations to charge one or more electronic devices simultaneously, or recharge the internal battery of the charger unit for future on-the-go use, including but not limited to in a house or office, a car or an airplane. Still further, there is a need for a portable charger having a port that can act both as an input port for recharging an internal battery unit in the charger and as an output port for recharging an electronic device connected to the charger. Still further, there is a need for a portable charger that can recharge the internal battery from an external power source (either from an AC power source or a DC power source) at the same time as an electronic device connected to the charger, even while both the external power source and the electronic device are connected to the charger through the same port. Still further, there is a need for a portable charger unit in a compact size that has increased functionality for a user requiring a portable source of power. Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a portable charger that improves upon conventional power chargers currently on the market and that overcomes the problems and drawbacks associated with such prior art chargers.


The present invention relates to a control lever locking mechanism and more particularly relates to a locking mechanism which is activated by opening the door and deactivated by closing the door of the vehicle.
Control levers which are convenient to the operator when seated are often times an obstacle to his entry and exit, and when bumped, may be moved to an actuated position initiating operation of a power control device connected to the vehicle thus creating a safety hazard.


The present invention relates to memory sells for integrated circuits, and, more particularly to memory cells whose retention elements integrate vertically stacked bipolar transistor transistors (“BJT”) with CMOS transistors.
The scale down tendency of the integrated circuit industry is causing an increasing technological barrier. One of the solutions is three-dimensional integrated circuits. These integrated circuits increase the manufacturing complexity significantly.
FIG. 1A shows an ordinary prior art six-transistor memory cell. As can be seen, it has two complementary bit lines, a bit line and a negative bit line. These two complementary bit lines are also tied to differential sense amplifier that has the ability to speed up the loaded bit lines.
Memory blocks hold 50-60% of dies area. Consequently, compacting the area of memory is equivalent to scaling down the size of the chip. The most serious effort to reduce the SRAM area (Static Random Access Memory) has been focused on the effort to reduce the number of transistors per memory cell. Such proposed solutions include the one-transistor SRAM (U.S. Pat. No. 6,765,830) and the Thyristor based SRAM (U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,051). All such proposed solutions, however, are not really SRAM, but rather are DRAM (Dynamic RAM) with SRAM interface. These memory cells require ongoing refresh cycles and significant amount of area for control and emulation of the SRAM interface. Consequently, these memory cells do not have the same applicability as an SRAM. Although these memory cells may achieve approximately 80% of area saving per cell, only less then 40% area saving will hold for full block of such memory with all the peripheral overhead.
It is noted that some of the SRAM cells designed in the past have demonstrated bipolar transistor cells or integration of such BJT (Bipolar Junction Transistors) with MOS transistors or other passive devices (U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,378 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,674).
There is a compelling need to have an apparatus that will significantly improve the compactness of integrated circuits, especially for SRAM. There is a further compelling need to have an apparatus that will also reduce the power requirements for such integrated circuits.


Infrared (IR) thermal cameras can be used in a number of different situations, for example, when inspecting or surveying complex electrical systems such as transformers, switchgears etc., or water carrying systems such as heat exchangers, radiators etc. IR cameras are used for capturing and storing thermal radiation data. This thermal radiation data may then be displayed and viewed as thermal images and analyzed in order to, for example, find faulty electrical wirings or couplings, leaking water pipes, etc.
However, various procedures and methods are being used in order to properly analyse the thermal radiation data and/or the thermal images of the IR camera, and these are not necessarily particularly intuitive and easily understandable by a user of the IR camera. The analysis of the thermal radiation data and/or the thermal images of an IR camera may also be a time-consuming task and may thus preclude a user of an IR camera from making decisions, predictions, and/or recommendations to clients while being on site and performing the IR imaging.


Experimental and clinical observations have supported the concept that the hypothalamus plays a key role in the regulation of adenohypophysial corticotropic cells' secretory functions. Over 25 years ago it was demonstrated that factors present in the hypothalamus would increase the rate of ACTH secretion by the pituitary gland when incubated in vitro or maintained in an organ culture. However, a physiologic corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) was not characterized until ovine CRF (oCRF) was characterized in 1981. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,558, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, oCRF was found to be a 41-residue amidated peptide. oCRF lowers blood pressure in mammals when injected peripherally and stimulates the secretion of ACTH and .beta.-endorphin.
Rat CRF (rCRF) was later isolated, purified and characterized; it was found to be a homologous, amidated hentetracontapeptide as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,163, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The formula of human CRF has now been determined to be the same as that of rCRF, and the terms rCRF and hCRF are used interchangeably.
A CRF analog was subsequently developed having a high alpha-helical forming potential which is also a 41-residue amidated peptide. It is commonly referred to as AHC (alpha-helical CRF) and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,329, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Other analogs containing D-isomers were developed, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,146.
Synthetic rCRF, oCRF and AHC stimulate ACTH and .beta.-endorphin-like activities (.beta.-END-Li) in vitro and in vivo and substantially lower blood pressure when injected peripherally. Antagonists of these compounds are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,642, issued Aug. 12, 1986, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Cyclic CRF analogs exhibiting biopotency have been developed as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,009 (Sep. 14, 1993) and in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 78,558, filed Jun. 16, 1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,006.
Since the foregoing discoveries, the search for improved CRF analogs has continued.


The present invention relates to rotary machines, and in particular, to an air deflector for an air cycle machine.
Air cycle machines are used in environmental control systems in aircraft to condition air for delivery to an aircraft cabin. Conditioned air is air at a temperature, pressure, and humidity desirable for aircraft passenger comfort and safety. At or near ground level, the ambient air temperature and/or humidity is often sufficiently high that the air must be cooled as part of the conditioning process before being delivered to the aircraft cabin. At flight altitude, ambient air is often far cooler than desired, but at such a low pressure that it must be compressed to an acceptable pressure as part of the conditioning process. Compressing ambient air at flight altitude heats the resulting pressurized air sufficiently that it must be cooled, even if the ambient air temperature is very low. Thus, under most conditions, heat must be removed from air by the air cycle machine before the air is delivered to the aircraft cabin.
To condition the air as needed, air cycle machines include a fan section, a compressor section, and a turbine section that are all mounted on a common shaft. The compressor receives partially compressed air from the aircraft and further compresses the air. The compressed air then moves through a heat exchanger and is cooled by the fan section. The air then moves through the turbine section where it is expanded for use in the aircraft, for example, for use as cabin air. The turbine section also extracts energy from the air and uses the energy to drive the fan section and the compressor section via the common shaft.
Air cycle machines also include bearings that are positioned around the common shaft. The bearings are cooled by passing a cooling air flow through a cavity that is adjacent the bearing. The cooling air flow then exits the cavity and is discharged from the air cycle machine into an ambient. The cooling air flow is limited in that it can only cool the bearing using convective heat transfer. The cooling air flow is further limited in that the cooling air flow in the cavity flows through a center of the cavity, meaning a majority of the cooling air flow does not flow across a surface of the bearing.


Internal combustion engines for heavy-duty and industrial applications are typically fuelled by diesel. However, the use of natural gas as an alternative to diesel is of increasing interest. Natural gas is relatively abundant and relatively cheap, and can, in principle, provide similar levels of power to diesel whilst producing lower particulate and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.
Natural gas can be used in place of diesel to fuel a compression-ignition engine, in which combustion of the fuel occurs as a result of compression of the air-fuel mixture in the cylinder. However, because natural gas has a higher auto-ignition temperature than diesel, it can be necessary to initiate combustion with a pilot injection of diesel fuel before introducing the natural gas to the combustion chamber.
In one type of natural gas-powered engine, known as a high-pressure direct injection (HPDI) engine, both natural gas and diesel are injected directly into the combustion chamber. Due to the space constraints in an engine cylinder head, it is desirable to inject both fuels using one fuel injector per cylinder. This requires a fuel injector that is specially adapted to keep the two fuels separate within the injector, and to deliver independently the respective fuel at the appropriate time.
One such ‘dual fuel’ injector is described in International Patent Application Publication No. WO 00/15956. In this example, a fuel injector with a concentric twin nozzle arrangement is provided. Inner and outer valve needles are engageable at their lower ends with respective valve seats to control the flow of fuel through respective inner and outer sets of outlets. The outer valve needle controls the injection of natural gas through the outer set of outlets, and the inner valve needle controls the injection of diesel through the inner set of outlets. The outer valve needle is tubular to accommodate the inner valve needle, and the inner set of outlets is formed at a tip of the outer valve needle.
The inner and outer valve needles are controlled independently by two electromagnetic control valves, which are configured to control the pressure of a control fluid (normally diesel fuel) within respective control chambers for the inner and outer valve needles. The control chambers receive the upper ends of the respective needles, so that changing the pressure of the control fluid in each control chamber changes the downward (closing) force on the corresponding needle. Gas or diesel fuel pressure acts on downwardly-facing thrust surfaces of the respective needles to generate an upward (opening) force on the needle. When the pressure of the control fluid in a control chamber is relatively high, the downward force is greater than the upward force and the respective needle remains seated, and when the pressure of the control fluid is relatively low, the upward force overcomes the downward force and the respective needle opens to permit fuel injection through the respective set of outlets.
Each control chamber is connected to a source of control fluid at relatively high pressure. Each control valve is operable to connect the respective control chamber to a low-pressure drain for the control fluid. In this way, opening of each control valve causes a reduction in the pressure of the control fluid in the corresponding control chamber, resulting in opening of the corresponding valve needle.
The injector is mounted in a bore in the cylinder head of the engine. A main body of the injector extends through the bore, so that the tip of the injector protrudes into the respective combustion chamber. The maximum diameter of the cylinder head bore, and hence the diameter of the main body of the injector, is constrained by the limited space available in the cylinder head. The electromagnetic actuators used to actuate the control valves are generally too large to be accommodated in the main body of the injector. Instead, the actuators and control valves are typically mounted in a side-by-side configuration at the top of the fuel injector, so that they protrude above the cylinder head.
Injectors of this type therefore have a relatively bulky top end, which takes up space in the region above the cylinder head. Furthermore, the injectors must be supplied with two fuels from two independent fuel supply systems. Most conveniently, both fuel supply systems are mounted on top of the cylinder head. However, because some of the space above the cylinder head is reserved for the valve train of the engine and other engine components, the space available for the fuel rails, supply pipes and other components of the fuel supply systems is limited. It would therefore be desirable to provide fuel injectors and fuel injection systems in which more compact and/or more convenient fuel supply arrangements are possible.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved support for a lithographic plate, and more particularly to a support for a lithographic plate comprising a plate of aluminum or an alloy thereof (hereafter referred to as aluminum) which is characterized by the depth of a grain defined by the center line averge roughness (Ra) as well as the average diameter of pits in the grain and the distribution thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, an aluminum plate has been widely used as the support of a photosensitive lithographic plate. The surface of the aluminum plate is made coarse to give better adhesion to a photosensitive layer to be disposed on the plate or to provide higher wettability (water retention) with wettening water during printing. This process of surface roughening is called graining and the rough surface obtained is a grain. Two conventional methods of graining are mechanical graining and electrochemical graining. Ball graining which is one example of the former method is a very old method which has found wide utility in small-scale graining operation. However, this method is not efficient since it does not permit continuous operation. An industrially applicable mechanical graining that is substituted for ball graining is brush graining which rotates a brush or roller having steel wires or synthetic resin hairs, optionally in the presence of a sand or abrasive, on an aluminum plate. Whether ball graining or brush graining is used, a grain having various degrees of surface roughness and shape can be produced by properly controlling the kind and shape of the sand, mesh, graining period and brush movement. However, as reported in TAGA (Technical Association of Graphic Arts) Proceedings, pp. 262-276, 1972 mechanical graining leaves residual sand on the surface of the grain as part of the grain. In addition, as shown in the picture taken by a scanning electron microscope in tha technical paper, mechanical graining of an aluminum plate provides a worked surface having a very complicated three-dimensional configuration. Therefore, if a lithographic plate is produced from a presensitized plate having a photosensitive layer disposed on a mechanically grained aluminum plate, the sensitive material penetrates too deeply into the pits in the grain to be removed easily, thus often providing a stained non-image area.
Many studies have been made on electrochemical graining. British Pat. No. 831,998 as well as U.S. Pat. No. 3,072,546 and 3,073,765 disclose an aluminum support for a lithographic plate which is grained by A. C. electrolysis using hydrochloric acid as electrolyte. British Pat. No. 1,224,226 discloses a method of A. C. electrolysis of an aluminum plate in hydrochloric acid, followed by chemical etching and anodization. Japanese Patent Publication No. 27481/71 discloses a method of A. C. electrolysis of an aluminum plate in hydrochloric acid, followed by anodization.
It is generally known that A. C. electrolysis of an aluminum plate in an electrolyte mainly consisting of hydrochloric acid or nitric acid can provide the aluminum plate with a grained surface. The grain provided by electrochemical graining which is formed of grown pits has a crater-like or honeycomb stucture and is characterized by having straight and open pits as compared with the grain produced by mechanical graining described above. Another feature of electrochemical graining is that it provides a plate having deeper pits and a coarser grain then mechanical graining. The configuration and coarseness of the grain can be controlled by selecting the electrolyte and electrolytic conditions used. West German Patent (OLS) No. 2,650,762 describes the grain provided by electrochemical graining using hydrochloric acid or nitric acid as an electrolyte. A coarse-grained surface obtained by using nitric acid or an electrolyte mainly consisting of nitric acid produces pitting having a dual structure which comprises a pit provided by electrochemical etching plus an extremely small pit formed in its surface, but the opening is generally shallow. On the other hand, the use of hydrochloric acid or an electrolyte mainly consisting of hydrochloric acid provides pitting which is generally deep but the surface of individual pits is relatively smooth without a complex configuration as achieved by use of a nitric acid based electrolyte.
Although an aluminum plate grained electrochemically has a by far a coarser surface than a mechanically grained aluminum plate, it has not yet been considered a preferred support having advantages over and replacing the conventional supports for lithographic plates. Among the problems yet to be solved with an electrochemically grained aluminum plate are its low affinity for ink, short running life (number of sheets of paper which can be printed from one plate), its low printing sensitivity and low developing speed.


The latest one chip MCU frequently has a RAM monitor function for debugging and tuning an internal program of the MCU in a state implemented on a chip (hereinafter referred to as MCU 100 with a built-in RAM monitor or simply referred to as MCU 100). FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a conventional MCU 100.
The RAM monitor function can be realized when the MCU 100 receives an external clock and external data and outputs data by way of an external interface terminal group 102.
The conventional MCU 100 comprises an external interface terminal group 102, a data transmit/receive section 104, a direct memory access control circuit (hereinafter referred to as DMA controller) 110, and also comprises a CPU 120, a ROM 130, a RAM 140, a peripheral module 1 (150) and a peripheral module 2 (160) respectively connected with one another by way of an internal bus formed of a data bus (DBUS) 106 and an address bus (ABUS) 108.
The DMA controller 110 comprises a GO flag set F/F 111, an AND gate 115, an address register (AReg) 112, a data write register (WReg) 113, a data read register (RReg) 114, and a timing controller 116.
The GO flag set F/F 111 is set upon completion of reception of an address/data from the transmit/receive section 104 and reset upon completion of a DMA transfer operation. An output signal from the GO flag set F/F 111 is inputted to the AND gate 115 together with a bus state recognition signal 101 and generates a DMA start signal 124. The bus state recognition signal 101 is a signal which takes an insignificant value (e.g. “0”) when the CPU 120 occupies the bus and the DMA is placed in a bus use prohibition state, and which takes a significant value (e.g. “1”) when the CPU 120 releases the bus and the DMA is placed in a bus use permission state.
Further, the timing controller 116 executes write/read relative to the registers, the RAM and the like by the DMA operation at a given timing at the time when a GO flag is set by the GO flag set F/F 111 and the bus state recognition signal 101 takes the significant value and the operation of the timing controller 116 is reserved until a starting condition is prepared.
The RAM monitor function is a function to read or rewrite contents of the RAM 140 and registers of the peripheral modules 1 and 2 inside the MCU 100 during the normal operation of the MCU 100, namely, during the operation of the MCU 100 by an application program (hereinafter referred to as AP) which is written in the ROM 130.
In the case of reading data, in FIG. 1, when an address of a RAM or addresses of registers, namely, the RAM 140, the peripheral module 1 (150) and the peripheral module 2 (160) which are provided in the MCU 100 and subjected to debugging are inputted from an external data input/output terminal (hereinafter referred to simply as external data i/o terminal) in synchronization with an external clock from the external interface terminal group 102, necessary data is set in the DMA controller 110 by way of the data transmit/receive section 104. The DMA controller 110 reads data in the RAM or registers serving as objects of set addresses by way of the internal bus, and outputs the read data to the outside by way of the data transmit/receive section 104 and the external interface terminal group 102.
In the case of writing data, when an address of a RAM or addresses of registers, namely, the RAM 140, the peripheral module 1 (150) and the peripheral module 2 (160) which are provided in the MCU 100 and subjected to debugging and data to be written are inputted from the external data i/o terminal in synchronization with the external clock from the external interface terminal group 102, necessary data is set in the DMA controller 110 by way of the data transmit/receive section 104. The DMA controller 110 rewrites data stored in the RAM or registers serving as objects of set addresses by way of the internal bus, and outputs a signal indicating the completion of execution of writing to the outside by way of the data transmit/receive section 104 and the external interface terminal group 102.
However, in the conventional method, since a point (a state of program counter (PC 121) inside the CPU 120) where the data in the RAM and registers inside the MCU 100 are read or data is written on the RAM and registers is a time upon completion of setting the DMA controller 110 after setting data from the external interface terminal group 102, such a point can not be set from the outside, causing a problem of lack of flexibility of debugging and another problem of low accuracy of debugging.
Under the circumstances, an on-chip debugging method of a MCU which is improved in flexibility and accuracy of debugging has been desired.


It has been over 40 years since the discovery of the “Australia antigen” in hepatitis B virus (HBV) from hemophiliac patients in 1965 by Blumberg. However, a thorough understanding of the life cycle of HBV has remained elusive so far, and there is no powerful drug for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. The life cycle of HBV is pretty complex. The basic steps involves coupling of virus outer coat membrane with specific receptor(s) on the cell surface, entry of the virus into the cell through fusion of the viral membrane with cell membrane or phagocytosis, disassembly of the viral outer capsid in inclusion bodies, nuclear entry of core protein together with HBV DNA, which is repaired into cccDNA, and then transcription of various viral mRNAs and translation of the viral mRNAs into viral proteins for the assembly and secretion of viral particles (see Seeger C, Mason W S. Hepatitis B virus biology. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 2000; 64:51-68). The detailed studies of HBV life cycle depends on a good HBV infection model system. Several cell lines, e.g., HepG2 and Huh-7, have been established that can support HBV replication after transfection with HBV DNA plasmids. However, transfection using HBV plasmids introduces the HBV DNA directly into these cells and does not involve the early steps of the HBV life cycle, such as virus interactions with specific cell membrane receptors, virus uncoating, and transport of the HBV DNA into the nucleus. Thus, these cell lines have limited use in the studies of the HBV life cycle. So far, only a few cells are known that can support HBV infection and replication. These cells include primary human liver cells (including embryonic liver cells), primary liver cells from tree shrew, and the recently established HepRG cells. Due to scarcity of the available sources, stringent requirements for isolation and culture conditions, and short survival time once isolated (generally less than 1 month), human primary liver cells and tree shrew primary liver cells are not suitable for scientific studies that require long-term investigation or large-scale cell culture (Guha C, Mohan S, Roy-Chowdhury N, et al. Cell culture and animal models of viral hepatitis, Part I: Hepatitis B. Lab. Anim. (NY) 2004; 33:37-46). HepRG cell line was established in 2002. This cell line is a liver progenitor cell line, which can be infected by HBV after pre-differentiation induction using DMSO. This cell line is not commercially available, but is only used in the lab where it was initially established. HepRG cells require pre-differentiation induction before they can be used in HBV infection studies. Stability and reproducibility of this model, however, are yet to be verified (see Gripon P, Rumin S, Urban S, et al. Infection of a human hepatoma cell line by the hepatitis B virus. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA. 2002; 99:1565-15660). Therefore, there is no reproducible cell line that can be used for the study of the complete HBV infection cycle. This lack of a suitable model has greatly impeded in-depth studies of various steps in the life cycle of HBV, especially the studies of the viral specific cellular receptor and the HBV DNA nuclear entry mechanism in the early stages of the HBV life cycle. The lack of a suitable cell line for HBV infection has also hindered the efforts to screen for and develop novel anti-HBV drugs. Therefore, identification of cell lines that are naturally susceptible to HBV infection remains important for the advancement of HBV research and for the development of therapeutics for chronic hepatitis.


Modeling methods are known generally in the state of the art, for example from the following articles:
HOSKING J. M. R. et al. “A statistical perspective on data mining” FUTURE GENERATION COMPUTER SYSTEMS, November 1997, ELSEVIER, Vol. 13, No. 2-3, pages 117-134, which describes the use of statistical methods for processing large volumes of data;
ROSSIUS R. et al. “A short note about the application of polynomial kernels with fractional degree in support vector learning” MACHINE LEARNING ECML-98. 10th European Conference on Machine Learning. Proceedings CHEMNITZ Apr. 21-23, 1998, pages 143-148, pertaining to the application of classification and forecasting methods.
The learning problem can be considered as a problem of finding dependencies using a limited number of observations. Thus, it is a question of choosing from a given set of functions f(x,α), α∈A, where A is a set of parameters, the one which best approximates the output.
If L(y,f(x,α) is a measure of the deviation between the real output y and the output predicted by the model f(x,α), it is thus necessary to minimize the effective risk:R(α)=∫L(y,f(x,α))dF(x,y)  (Eq. 1)while knowing that the joint probability distribution function F(x,y) is unknown and that the only available information is contained in the k observations (x1, y1) . . . ,(xk, yk) from the learning set.
Classically, one determines the function that minimizes the empirical risk calculated on the basis of the learning set:                     Remp        =                              ∑                          i              =              1                        k                                          L                                      (                                                y                  i                                ,                                  f                                                        (                                                                  x                        i                                            ,                      α                                        )                                                              )                                                          (                  Eq          .                                                     2                )
One then postulates that this function would be the best approximation of the function that minimizes the effective risk given by (Eq. 1).
The problem posed is to know the extent to which a system constructed on the empirical risk minimization inductive principle (Eq. 2) is generalizable, i.e., enables minimizing the effective risk (Eq. 1) including data that have not been learned.
Mathematically, a problem is said to be well-posed when it allows a unique solution and this solution is stable, i.e., that a small deviation in the initial conditions can only modify in an infinitesimal manner the form of the solutions. Problems that do not satisfy these conditions are referred to as ill-posed problems.
It occurs frequently that the problem of finding f satisfying the equality A,f=u is ill-posed: even if there exists a unique solution to this equation, a small deviation of the right-hand side of this equation can cause large deviations in the solution.
And thus if the right-hand member is not exact (uε instead of u with ∥u−uε∥≦ε), the functions that minimize the empirical risk R(ƒ)=∥Aƒ−u∈∥2 are not necessarily good approximations of the desired solution, even if ∈ tends to 0.
An improvement in solving such problems consists in minimizing another so-called regularized functional of the form:R(ƒ)=R(ƒ)+λ(∈)Ω(ƒ)  (Eq. 3)where:                Ω(ƒ) is some functional belonging to a special type of operators referred to as regularizing;        λ(∈) is an appropriately chosen constant depending on the level of noise existing on the data.
One then obtains a sequence of solutions that converge to the desired one as ∈ tends to 0. Minimizing the regularized risk rather than the empirical risk allows obtaining from a limited number of observations a solution that is generalizable to any case.
Introduction of the regularizing term makes it feasible to provide with certainty a unique solution to an ill-posed problem. This solution can be slightly less accurate than the classic one, but it possesses the fundamental property of being stable, thus endowing the results with greater robustness.
The methods for solving ill-posed problems demonstrate that there exist other inductive principles that enable obtaining a better regularization capacity than the principle consisting in minimizing the error made on the learning set.
Therefore, the main objective of theoretical analysis is to find the principles making it feasible to control the generalization capacity of learning systems and to construct algorithms that implement these principles.
Vapnik's theory is the tool that establishes the necessary and sufficient conditions for a learning process based on the empirical risk minimization principle to be generalizable, leading to a new inductive principle referred to as the structural risk minimization principle. It can be demonstrated that the effective risk satisfies an inequality of the form:R(α)<Remp(α)+F(h,k)  (Eq. 4)where:                h is the Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension of the set of functions f(x,α) among which the solution is sought;        k is the number of observations available for constructing the model;        F is an increasing function of h and a decreasing function of k.
It can be seen immediately that, since the number k of available observations is finite, the fact of minimizing the empirical error is not sufficient for minimizing the effective error. The general idea of the structural risk minimization principle is to take into account the two terms of the right-hand member of the equation (Eq. 4), rather than only the empirical risk. This implies constraining the structure of the set of the functions f(x, α) among which the solution is sought so as to limit or even control the parameter h.
According to this principle, the development of new algorithms enabling control of the robustness of learning processes would be advantageous.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light extraction substrate and an organic light-emitting device having the same, and more particularly, to a light extraction substrate which can realize a superior light extraction efficiency when applied to an organic light-emitting device, and an organic light-emitting device having the same.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) includes an anode, a light-emitting layer and a cathode. When a voltage is applied between the anode and the cathode, holes are injected from the anode into a hole injection layer and then migrate from the hole injection layer through a hole transport layer to the organic light-emitting layer, and electrons are injected from the cathode into an electron injection layer and then migrate from the electron injection layer through an electron transport layer to the light-emitting layer. Holes and electrons that are injected into the light-emitting layer recombine with each other in the light-emitting layer, thereby generating excitons. When the excitons transit from an excited state to a ground state, light is emitted.
Organic light-emitting displays including an OLED are divided into a passive matrix type and an active matrix type depending on the mechanism that drives the N*M number of pixels which are arranged in the shape of a matrix.
In an active matrix type, a pixel electrode which defines a light-emitting area and a unit pixel driving circuit which applies a current or voltage to the pixel electrode are positioned in a unit pixel area. The unit pixel driving circuit has at least two thin-film transistors (TFTs) and one capacitor. Due to this configuration, the unit pixel driving circuit can supply a constant current irrespective of the number of pixels, thereby realizing uniform luminance. The active matrix type organic light-emitting display consumes little power, and thus can be advantageously applied to high definition displays and large displays.
However, as shown in FIG. 5, only about 20% of light generated from an OLED is emitted to the outside and about 80% of the light is lost by a waveguide effect originating from the difference in the refractive index between a glass substrate 10 and an organic light-emitting layer 30 which includes an anode 20, a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, a light-emitting layer, an electron transport layer and an electron injection layer and by a total internal reflection originating from the difference in the refractive index between the glass substrate 10 and the air. Specifically, the refractive index of the internal organic light-emitting layer 30 ranges from 1.7 to 1.8, whereas the refractive index of indium tin oxide (ITO) which is generally used for the anode 20 ranges from 1.8 to 1.9. Since the two layers have a very small thickness ranging from 200 to 400 nm and the refractive index of glass used for the glass substrate 10 is about 1.5, a planar waveguide is thereby formed inside the organic light-emitting device. It is calculated that the ratio of the light lost in the internal waveguide mode due to the above-described reason is about 45%. In addition, since the refractive index of the glass substrate 10 is about 1.5 and the refractive index of the ambient air is 1.0, when the light is directed outward from the inside of the glass substrate 10, a ray of the light having an angle of incidence greater than a critical angle is totally reflected and is trapped inside the glass substrate 10. Since the ratio of the trapped light is up to about 35%, only about 20% of the generated light is emitted to the outside.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 6, in order to overcome the foregoing problem, in the related art, a low index grid (LIP) 50 is formed on the ITO anode 20. The grid 50 converts the direction of the light that travels in the waveguide mode to the front surface, thereby improving light extraction efficiency.
FIG. 7 shows simulation results on the organic light-emitting device shown in FIG. 6. The effect of improving the light extraction efficiency is increased when the refractive index of the grid 50 is lower. However, there are problems in that almost no materials have a refractive index of 1.2 or less and that the price of a material is more expensive when the refractive index is lower. In addition, when the grid 50 is formed on the ITO anode 20, as shown in FIG. 6, a stepped portion is formed. Consequently, a leakage current may occur. In addition, the organic light-emitting device shown in FIG. 6 has the problem of difficult processing. For example, in some cases, the surface of the anode 20 which adjoins the organic light-emitting layer 30 is metamorphosed in the process of forming the grid 50 on the ITO anode 20, thereby changing the work function. Furthermore, holes are not injected into the organic light-emitting layer 30 through the portion of the anode 20 on which the grid 50 is formed, and the size of the electric field applied thereto is different from the surroundings, thereby decreasing the uniformity of the light generated.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 8, in the related art, a convex-concave structure 60 is disposed under the anode 20 (with respect to the paper surface), i.e. in the interface between the anode 20 and the glass substrate 10, in order to improve light extraction efficiency.
As described above, the anode 20 and the organic light-emitting layer 30 generally serve as one light waveguide between the cathode 40 and the glass substrate 10. Accordingly, in the state in which the anode 20 and the organic light-emitting layer 30 act in a waveguide mode, when the nanoscale convex-concave structure 60 which causes light scattering is formed on the surface that adjoins the anode 20, the waveguide mode is disturbed, so that the quantity of light that is extracted to the outside is increased. However, when the convex-concave structure 60 is formed below the anode 20, the shape of the anode 20 resembles the shape of the convex-concave structure 60 below the anode 20, thereby increasing the possibility that a sharp portion may be localized. Since the OLED has a stacked structure of very thin films, when the anode 20 has a sharp protruding portion, the current is concentrated in that portion, which is a cause of a large leakage current or decreases power efficiency. Accordingly, in order to prevent such deterioration of the electrical characteristics, a flat film 70 is necessarily added when the convex-concave structure 60 is formed below the anode 20. The flat film 70 is required to be made of a material that anode 20. When the refractive index of the flat film 70 is low, most of the light is reflected at the interface between the anode 20 and the flat film 70 and then is trapped between the anode 20 and the organic light-emitting layer 30, which is referred to as the waveguide mode. In addition, the flat film 70 is required to be as thin as possible. If the flat film 70 is too thick, more light may be unnecessarily absorbed, and the distance between the convex-concave structure 60 and the organic light-emitting layer 30 may become too large, thereby reducing the scattering effect.
The information disclosed in the Background of the Invention section is provided only for enhancement of (or better) understanding of the background of the invention, and should not be taken as an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that this information forms a prior art that would already be known to a person skilled in the art.


It is known that many processes performed during the manufacture of a semiconductor device require heating of the workpiece. It is most desirable that this heating be uniform across the surface of the workpiece since this will tend to result in a uniform process being performed.
In the prior art, different heating configurations have been proposed to attain relative temperature uniformity. During a typical process, there is a temperature ramping phase where the temperature of the wafer is brought up rapidly to a predetermined level, and a steady state phase where the temperature is maintained at about this level. The temperature non-uniformity has tended to be greater during the ramping phase.
One approach to attaining a uniform temperature is called "zone control". In zone control, a plurality of radiant heating units such as infrared lamps are divided into zones and the lamps in a given zone receive the same power, while lamps in different zones may receive different power, to result in uniform temperature across the wafer. While zone control is advantageous in some applications, it requires complex electronic controls of the power applied to the lamps.
A high temperature, rapid thermal process using flood heating is known. With flood heating, a temperature inversion may be observed wherein the edge of the workpiece is hotter during the ramping phase, while the center of the wafer is hotter during the steady state phase. It has been recognized that this is undesirable in the high temperature environment (e.g. 1150.degree. C.) of rapid thermal processing because the edge to center temperature differences at such process temperature create stresses which can damage the workpiece.


It is known in the art to manufacture urethanes by reacting hydroxyl group-containing organic compounds, such as alcohols or phenols, with carbon monoxide and certain nitrogenous compounds, using metal carbonyls, certain metal complexes, and certain metallic compounds, as catalysts. Thus, British Pat. No. 1,080,094, to Ibbotson, teaches the above-described process using as a catalyst a mixture of two or more metal halides, at least one of the said metal halides being a halide of a transition metal; British Pat. No. 1,092,157, to Gamlen et al., teaches using as a catalyst a metal complex compound containing at least one transition metal and at least one unsaturated hydrocarbon ligand in which the unsaturated system forms a bond with the metal; British Pat. No. 1,087,896, to Ibbotson, teaches using as a catalyst a mixture of one or more metals capable of existence in two or more valency states and one or more halides of metals other than the metal or metals first mentioned and also capable of existence in two or more valency states; U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,956. to Mountfield, teaches using as catalyst, metal carbonyls. Applicant has discovered that the above reaction can produce very high yields of diurethane with relatively little undesirable side products if it is carried out in two stages, the first stage utilizing one temperature and pressure, and the second stage being carried out at a higher temperature and pressure.