A system and method for managing an electronic game system comprising a central computer for accessing a database, one or more remote playing units, and one or more plug-in modules for providing power to a playing unit and for transferring data from the database to the playing unit. The central computer may operate as a point-of-sale cashier station where customized game or instructional data is transferred from the database to the plug-in module. The plug-in module also has a rechargeable battery which receives a charge from a charging rack between playing sessions. The purchased plug-in modules are then inserted in playing units that receive both power and the customized game data from the plug-in modules.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic game systems, and more particularly to electronic game systems that involve an election or random selection of the games starting point and configuration. Such systems include bingo game systems, action and adventure fantasy game systems, as well as other game systems. The common principle of these systems is that they comprise a central computer that accesses a database, one or more remote playing units, and one or more plug-in modules for transferring data from the database to the playing unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computers managing computer databases have crept into every corner of life, and in particular into the areas games and entertainment. Relevant to the present invention are computers and computer databases that are used in the playing of games, such as systems comprising a central computer and a plurality of remote playing units which receive customized game information from the central computer.
With the growing competition to make such computers easier to operate and more enjoyable to interact with, the input/output devices used in the computers make substantial demands on the power supply. Where the playing units are powered by batteries, such as where the units are designed to be portable, these power demands result in the need to replace or recharge the batteries often.
The game of bingo, for instance, continues to be extraordinarily popular in the United States. Bingo is often set up at church halls with a portion of the proceeds going to charity, or is played in bingo parlors, e.g. on Indian reservations. Bingo players typically play several cards at a time, perhaps up to 12 cards, in order to increase their odds of winning. Manually playing this many cards can be tedious, however, leaving one tired or prone to errors. With paper bingo cards there is also the possibility of cheating, i.e. bingo players attempting to alter the numbers on the cards.
With the coming of the computer age and advances in electronics, various electronic games have been developed to aid a player in playing bingo games. Such games may assist a player in overseeing more bingo cards than would be possible or practical otherwise. U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,157 discloses such a device, where between each game the player must manually enter each number from each card into the memory unit. The manual entry, however, is slow and tedious, and creates a practical limitation on the number of bingo cards that can be entered before and between bingo game sessions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,151 discloses a device that provides for the creation of whole playing cards simply by the manual entry of a card identification number. This process improves the speed of entering the selected cards into the game piece memory, but requires the cooperation of bingo card manufacturers to provide identification numbers for their cards such that each identification number is associated with one specific pattern of numbers on a card.
Both of these approaches are in essence ad hoc methods for assisting a player in an otherwise traditional, manual game of bingo. Either of these approaches may create resentment from competing players who are playing the game without electronic assistance. Thus, these approaches suffer from the impression that they create an unfair playing environment or that their operators are too serious or too greedy.
On the other hand, electronic gaming systems have been developed for use in bingo parlors, where each player is equipped with a playing unit and the use of paper playing cards is either eliminated or at least reduced. These systems typically include a central computer which performs administrative tasks including sale of bingo cards, running the bingo game, and sometimes electronic payment to the winners. In connection therewith, players sit at hard-wired electronic bingo stations or may be given stand-alone playing units, through which the players are provided with the desired number of card configurations for each game.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,856,787 and 5,043,887 disclose hard-wired or network electronic bingo systems where a central computer communicates with each remote unit before and during the bingo game. All purchases and all game-related data may be communicated through communication lines between the central computer and the remote units. The drawbacks of these games include the resultant undesirable xe2x80x9cLas Vegasxe2x80x9d feel of the game, the general lack of portability of the system, the lack of portability of the individual playing units, and the complications that can arise from maintaining a computer network system.
The stand-alone playing unit approach marries the best of all of the above approaches. The typical system comprises a central computer, which operates in part as a cashier station where all purchases are made. The player purchases a number of games to be played and a number of cards to be played in each game. The computer generates the playing card information and places the information into a memory module, and the player carries the memory module away in much the same way a player would carry away with him one or more bingo cards in a traditional bingo game. The player carries away the memory module either along with a portable playing unit or to such a unit already placed in a playing area.
The player inserts the memory module into the playing unit before the bingo game begins. Throughout the bingo games, the player inputs the called numbers into the playing unit through a customized keypad, and the playing unit alerts the player if one or more of the stored cards achieves a winning sequence. This approach retains the feel of a traditional bingo game, including the fact that the player carries away the purchased bingo cards and enters the called numbers manually. It also provides more of an appearance of equality since every player is provided with an identical electronic playing unit and memory module.
In recent years, the capability of these portable playing units has increased, typically to include color displays, speakers, and other components which consume significant amounts of power. If the playing units are battery powered, they typically need to be recharged after each use. To recharge the units and to prepare them for issuance for new bingo games, the playing units must all be gathered at a central charging station. This is a time-consuming process and requires a great deal of room, since a bingo hall may need to recharge hundreds of playing units in a short period of time and since the playing units may be considerably bulky depending on their display requirements versus their portability requirements.
Current electronic bingo systems which use stand-alone playing units also require some means of downloading or configuring each unit before each session of play. This configuration typically includes loading the number and description of cards purchased by the player, the type of win pattern and variation of bingo game for each game of the playing session, and other game options. This downloading of information typically uses some form of wired, or wireless, communication link which configures the playing unit at the cashier station when the player enters the bingo hall.
As the capability of electronic technology and the displays used in such standalone playing units increases, it becomes possible for the player units to play games and attractions other than bingo, or more than one type of game at a time. In a gaming casino environment, many of these games will allow the player to accumulate prize winnings and other information. At the end of play this information must be transferred from the portable playing units back to a central computer station to allow for payment of prizes or other accounting of winning information.
All of these requirements of charging the game unit batteries, loading game information to the game unit at the start of play and reading prize information after play require significant amounts of handling and transportation of the game units in the bingo hall. Since a single bingo hall can contain hundreds of such units, the handling of the portable handset units is a significant problem for the bingo operators and also frequently leads to damage of the units due to rough handling or dropping when carrying the units.
What is needed is a system which efficiently meets the requirements of recharging of batteries, loading game information to playing units, and reading of prizes from the portable playing units after play, and which minimizes the charging space and handling requirements for the playing units.
A system and method for managing an electronic game system comprising a central computer for accessing a database, one or more remote playing units, and one or more plug-in modules for providing power to a playing unit and for transferring data from the database to the playing unit. The central computer may operate as a point-of-sale cashier station where customized game or instructional data is transferred from the database to the plug-in module. The plug-in module also has at least one rechargeable battery which receives a recharge from a charging rack between sessions of use. The purchased plug-in modules are then inserted in playing units that receive both power and the customized game configuration data from the plug-in modules.
In particular, one embodiment of the invention is directed to a system and method for managing bingo games in which the plug-in module transfers game card configuration data from the central computer to a playing unit and provides power to the playing unit. The playing unit therefore receives operating power from the plug-in module and translates the game information data into the various game displays. The playing unit is operated through an entry means by a player who enters the called numbers into the playing unit or monitors the playing unit for the progress of the game, or both. The playing unit with the plug-in module inserted compares the game information data and the called numbers for winning or near-winning combinations and alert the player as to the progress of the game. If the player achieves a winning sequence, that win can be either verified or corroborated by the central computer. The system further comprises a charging rack into which the plug-in modules are inserted after operation to be recharged and stored for the next series of games.
An object of the invention is to provide a system and method for providing power and customized game data to remote playing units in a manner that facilitates efficient recharging of the batteries and reconfiguration of the customized data between sessions of use, as well as a convenient method of storing the plug-in modules between sessions of use.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system and method for multiple-user customized game playing amenable to input/output devices that require substantial power resources, such as high-resolution color displays, active-matrix displays, sound systems, radio-frequency input devices, and touch-sensitive input devices.
A further object of this invention is to provide a system and method for multiple-user customized game playing which exhibit the interactivity of a hard-wired network, but which avoid the drawbacks of a hard-wired network, such as the general lack of portability of the system and of the individual playing units and the high maintenance requirements of a local area network.
A further object of the invention is to provide a system and method for multiple-user game playing in which the players are given identical electronic devices in terms of hardware, but each having the capability of randomly selected game configurations or other action adventure scenarios.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from a review of the following specification and accompanying drawings.


A transmission apparatus for a bicycle is capable of performing a transmission operation even while operating or running by the inertia of the bicycle. The transmission apparatus T for a bicycle includes a driving sprocket member rotationally driven by a crankshaft; a multi-stage driven sprocket member drivingly connected to the output shaft cooperatively engaged and rotated with the rear wheel; a chain applied over the driving sprocket member and the driven sprocket member; and a transmission changing-over mechanism M2 for positioning the chain among a plurality of transmission sprockets. The driven sprocket member is integrally arranged to always be rotated, and the one-way clutch for transmitting a rotation of the crankshaft to the driving sprocket member while in its normal rotating direction is arranged in the power transmitting path extending from the crankshaft to the driving sprocket member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transmission apparatus for a bicycle, and more particularly to a transmission applying an endless transmission belt over a driving, rotating member and a multi-stage driven rotating member arranged at an output shaft that is cooperatively engaged with and rotated with a driving wheel of the bicycle.
2. Description of the Background Art
Applicants have determined that the background art suffers from the following disadvantages. Specifically, some bicycles have an output shaft that is always engaged with the driving wheel and provided with a one-way clutch in such a way that the bicycle can run even in the case that a driver stops pedaling, e.g., while operating the bicycle on a down-slope and the crankshaft is not rotated in a normal rotating direction.
In the case of the bicycle described in Patent Document Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei (1997)-89012, a chain is wound around a large gear of a gear crank and a plurality of small gears installed at a rear hub, and a free wheel is installed at the rear hub. The free wheel is provided with an outer cylinder having said small gears connected in a relative unrotatable manner, an inner cylinder arranged inside the outer cylinder in such a way that is may be relatively rotated and connected to a hub member of the rear hub in such a way that it may not be relatively rotated, and a one-way clutch is arranged between the outer cylinder and the inner cylinder.
The one-way clutch transmits a driving power from the gear crank transmitted to the small gears only in one rotational direction from the outer cylinder to the inner cylinder. Therefore, when the pedals are driven in a forward direction, the driving power is transmitted to the outer cylinder of the free wheel through a chain and the small gears, and is further transmitted to the hub member through the one-way clutch and the inner cylinder to cause the rear wheel to rotate. In addition, when the large gear is not rotated, e.g., while operating on a down-slope or the like, the inner cylinder is always cooperatively engaged with the rear wheel through the one-way clutch but merely rotates in an idling state. The outer cylinder and the small gears are not rotated, and the chain therefore does not run.
The present inventors have determined that there is a need in the background art to improve the running performance of the bicycle due to the fact that the chain does not run when the bicycle is operating in an inertia running state, e.g., where the bicycle is operated in a state in which the bicycle is not driven through rotation of the gear crank (corresponding to the crankshaft) in its normal rotating direction. In this state, positioning the chain among a plurality of small gears cannot perform power transmission.
Although the chain wound around the one large gear is positioned among a plurality of small gears arranged in a direction of the rotating central line for transmission, when the chain is applied between the large gear and the small gears placed at different positions in the rotating central line direction of the large gear (or small gears), it is sometimes found that the chain becomes offset with respect to a plane crossing at a right angle with the rotating central line. Accordingly, the chain can be removed from either the large gear or the small gears. Then, when a distance between the large gear and the small gears is relatively small, the inclination of the chain in respect to the crossing plane becomes excessively large, and the chain can be easily removed or dislodged from the gears.
In addition, when the bicycle is in an inertial operating state, a tension force of the chain is at a relative low value. Therefore, when the chain is inclined with respect to the crossing plane, the chain is in a such state in which it can be dislodged from either the large gear or the small gears more easily than compared with an operating state in which the crankshaft is being rotated in its normal rotational direction.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method for treating cefotiam hydrochloride, comprises the following steps: step 1), dissolving the raw material cefotiam hydrochloride in water, treating it with an acidic salt, then cooling it, and filtering the precipitate to obtain an aqueous filtrate; step 2), adding a water-immiscible solvent to the above aqueous solution for extraction, and then separating the organic phase containing impurities to obtain an aqueous solution containing cefotiam hydrochloride; step 3) adding to the aqueous solution a poor solvent of cefotiam hydrochloride and controlling the temperature for recrystallization, washing the educed crystals by centrifugation, and drying them to obtain purified cefotiam hydrochloride. The cefotiam content of the refined cefotiam hydrochloride obtained by the method of the present invention is not less than 86%, the content of polymeric impurities is less than 0.3%, and the content of insoluble microparticles in the injection prepared therefrom is quite low.

Cefotiam hydrochloride is a semi-synthetic second-generation cephalosporin and its chemical name is (6R,7R)-7-[[(2-amino-4-thiazolyl)acetyl]amino]-3-[[1-[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl]-1H-tetrazol-5-yl]thiomethyl]-8-oxo-5-thia-1-azabicyclo[4,2,0]oct-2-ene-2-carboxylic acid dihydrochloride. There are many synonyms, for example, cefotiam dihydrochloride, hydrochloride cefotiam, Halospor, Pansporin, Pansporine, Spizef, Sporidyn, Cefapicol, Kemisporin, and Sepidnarin, and the like. Its molecular formula is C18H25C12N9O4S3, molecular weight: 598.55, CAS No.: 66309-69-1, a boiling point of 940° C. at 760 mmHg, and flash point: 522.3° C. On an anhydrous basis, the content of cefotiam shall not be less than 79.0%. The structure is as follows:

Regarding pharmacological toxicology of cefotiam hydrochloride, it is generally believed that its effect on Gram-positive bacteria is similar to that of cefazolin, and its effect on Gram-negative bacteria such as Haemophilus, Enterobacter, Escherichia coli, Craywhite coli and Bacillus mirabilis is excellent. It also has an antibacterial effect on Enterobacter, Citrobacter, and indole-positive Proteus. Its mechanism is binding to the penicillin binding proteins (PBPs) on the bacterial cell membrane to acylate transpeptidase, inhibits the synthesis of the septum and cell wall in the bacteria, affects the cross connection of mucopeptide components in the cell wall, and inhibits cell division and growth to make the bacterial morphology long, thereby finally dissolved and dying.
Clinically, cefotiam hydrochloride is mainly used for treating infections caused by sensitive strains, such as pneumonia, bronchitis, biliary tract infections, peritonitis, and urinary tract infections, as well as infections and sepsis after surgery or caused by trauma.
Many domestic and foreign patents and journals have reported the preparation method and purification method of cefotiam hydrochloride.
A method for preparing cefotiam hydrochloride is disclosed by Shanghai Ningrui Biochemical Technology Co., Ltd., which comprising the steps of: (1) introducing dry hydrogen chloride gas after adding the ATA material to a solvent, and then adding a chlorinating agent at a temperature of 0-30° C., and filtering ATC.HCL crystals after the reaction is complete; (2) dissolving 7-ACMT with a base in an aqueous solvent, adding ATC.HCL for acylation reaction at a temperature of −10-35° C., separating the organic solvent after the reaction is over, adding hydrochloric acid to the aqueous phase, adding a hydrophilic solvent whose volume is 3-6 times that of the aqueous layer, and precipitating cefotiam hydrochloride crystals. However, the yield of cefotiam hydrochloride prepared by the method is not high, and solvents such as dichloroethane, acetonitrile, and dimethyl formamide are used during the preparation process, where the residual solvent harms the human body.
The Chinese Patent CN 101633666 B reports a method for synthesizing cefotiam hydrochloride, comprising reacting 2-aminothiazol-4-acetic acid with formic acid to generate 2-formyl-aminothiazol-4-acetic acid, further adding 7-ACMT and triethyl amine, using N,N-diisopropyl-ethylamine and dimethyl formamide as solvents, and p-toluenesulfonyl chloride as a catalyst, stirring the reaction mixture, and then adding hydrochloric acid to obtain the target product. The cefotiam hydrochloride prepared by this method does not have a high purity, and has the problems of poor solvent residues and inconvenient post-treatment and use.
The Chinese patent CN 101544662 discloses a method of preparing a high purity cefotiam hydrochloride by crystallizing cefotiam or its crude salt product. Although this method can improve the purity of cefotiam hydrochloride, it is difficult to separate the inherent purities from the crude drug simply by dissolving, acid adjustment and base adjustment. Moreover, the process of adjusting pH will also bring new negative ion impurities, which increases the difficulty of separation.
Currently, various domestic manufacturers mainly rely on imported crude drugs to obtain cefotiam hydrochloride via dispensing. There are also manufacturers in China preparing such products, but both the yield and purity of the products are low. Accordingly, improving the purity of cefotiam hydrochloride is a problem anxiously to be solved, and has significant social and economic benefits.

Process for purifying cefotiam hydrochloride

HAINAN LINGKANG PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.


A safety stick for joggers and other pedestrians has a shaft with high reflectivity. A grip can be provided as one end of the shaft and a hard plastic cap at the other. A wrist strap is provided adjacent the grip, with a break away connection to the shaft. The high reflectivity of the shaft may be provided by reflective (e.g. silver) paint on the shaft covered with a coat of clear lacquer having reflective glass beads (e.g. microspheres at a ratio of about two parts beads to one part lacquer by weight). Alternatively, the shaft may be spirally wrapped with retroreflective tape and covered with a clear plastic tube (e.g. pvc shrink tubing). A clear lacquer is applied over the clear plastic shrink tube.

There are numerous accidents between vehicles and pedestrians at dusk or night due to the inability of drivers to properly see pedestrians. This is especially a difficulty for joggers who may be taking unusual pathways with respect to approaching vehicles. While pedestrians, including joggers, who wish to be visible at night time to approaching vehicles can wear reflective clothing, sometimes it is impractical to wear reflective clothing, and under some circumstances reflective clothing does not provide suitable visibility.
According to the present invention, a safety stick is provided for use by pedestrians to make the pedestrians more visible to approaching traffic. The safety stick not only makes the pedestrian highly visible, but can have other purposes as well. For example, the stick can be of sufficient length and strength so that it may be utilized as a walking stick, and/or the stick may be used for self-defense, for example if a jogger is attacked by a dog.
The safety stick according to the invention has a shaft with first and second ends. Preferably the shaft is a wooden dowel having a diameter of between about one-half inch and one inch (e.g. three-quarter inch), and a length that is great enough so that it is visible and can be used for other purposes. Typically, the length will be about 20 inches or more, e.g. about 24 inches when specifically designed to be used by joggers, and about 36 inches when specifically designed to function as a walking stick too.
At the first end of the safety stick a grip is provided. The grip may be a foam suede grip of the type that is conventionally available, typically formed by a dipping process. At the second end of the stick, an end cap can be provided, such as a hard plastic cap. Also it is desirable to provide a wrist strap adjacent the grip and connected to the shaft by connecting means. The connecting means preferably comprises a breakaway connection (e.g. a metal swivel connection) to effect detachment of the strap from the shaft should a tension force greater than a predetermined amount (e.g. about 5-20 pounds, particularly about 8 pounds) be applied, as a safety feature.
To provide the safety aspects of the stick, there are means for providing high reflectivity of the shaft so that it can be readily seen. This high reflectivity can be provided by a reflective color paint (e.g. two coats of silver paint) on the shaft, covered with a coat of clear lacquer having reflective glass beads therein. The glass beads typically would be microspheres with a ratio of about two parts beads to one part lacquer by weight. Alternatively, the high reflectivity can be provided by wrapping the shaft with retroreflective tape (e.g. in a spiral configuration), with plastic tubing over the tape. The plastic tubing may be a pvc shrink tube, and clear lacquer may be applied over the shrink tube.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a safety stick that is simple yet effective. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention, and from the appended claims.

Reflective safety stick for walking and jogging


A radiation imaging apparatus, comprising a sensor array in which a plurality of sensors configured to output signals corresponding to irradiated radiation, a detection unit configured to detect radiation, a driving unit configured to drive the sensor array, so as to initialize the plurality of sensors for each row repeatedly at least until the detection unit detects irradiation of radiation and to read out signals from the plurality of sensors for each row sequentially, and a processing unit configured to process signals from the sensor array, so as to correct a signal from the sensor on a row, of the plurality of sensors, which has been initialized during the irradiation of radiation, based on a timing of the initialization.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiation imaging apparatus, a method for controlling the radiation imaging apparatus, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A radiation imaging apparatus performs an initializing operation that comprises periodically initializing each sensor of a sensor array and a readout operation that comprises reading out signals corresponding to the charges accumulated upon irradiation of radiation after the initializing operation. The apparatus performs the initializing operation to initialize charges due to the dark currents generated in the sensor array. If, however, radiation is irradiated during the initializing operation, signal components are lost by the initializing operation during this period.
According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-181942, it is possible to perform correction by using the signals stored by the initializing operation even if the signal output from each sensor by the initializing operation is temporarily stored in a frame memory and radiation is irradiated in the middle of initializing operation.
According to the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-181942, in the initializing operation repeatedly performed until the start of readout operation, the signals obtained by signal reading operation are stored in a frame memory. It is therefore necessary to maintain a readout circuit for reading out signals and a processing unit for processing the signals in an active state. This leads to the consumption of power by the initializing operation even before the start of the radiation imaging. This makes it difficult to use a portable cassette-type radiation imaging apparatus for a long period of time.

Radiation imaging apparatus, method for controlling the same, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium


[Object] To prevent or reduce the degradation in transmission characteristics caused by fast fading (fluorescent lamp interference) to achieve optimized throughput.

Examples of general standards for wireless networks may include the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 standards.
For example, in IEEE 802.11a/g, an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) modulation method, which is a multi-carrier method, is adopted as a standard for wireless LANs. In the OFDM modulation method, transmission data is distributed and transmitted over a plurality of carriers having frequencies that are orthogonal. Thus, the band of each carrier is narrow, resulting in greatly increased frequency use efficiency and increased resistance to frequency-selective fading interference.
The IEEE 802.11a/g standards support modulation methods that achieve a communication speed up to 54 Mbps. However, a demand for wireless standards capable of providing higher bit rate as communication speed still exists. For example, in IEEE 802.11n, which is an extension of IEEE 802.11a/g, next generation wireless LAN standards are being developed for the development of high-speed wireless LAN technologies over 100 Mbps of effective throughput.
In IEEE 802.11n, the OFDM_MIMO method that utilizes OFDM as its primary modulation technique is used. MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output) communication is a technology for providing high-speed wireless communication using a plurality of spatially multiplexed spatial streams between a transmitter and a receiver each of which is provided with a plurality of antenna elements.
A transmitter distributes and sends transmission data over a plurality of streams using a plurality of antennas. A receiver spatially demultiplexes spatially multiplexed signals received by a plurality of antennas by performing signal processing using channel characteristics, and extracts a signal for each stream without crosstalk (see, for example, PTL 1). The MIMO communication method can increase the transmission capacity in accordance with the number of antennas without increasing the frequency band, and can improve communication speed.
Due to the increased speed of the physical layer, IEEE 802.11n offers communication up to 600 Mbps. However, this means that the instantaneous maximum data transmission value is 600 Mbps per second. In IEEE 802.11n, frame aggregation as a MAC layer function is standardized as a mechanism for improving throughput by increasing the data transmission time as well as increasing the speed of the physical layer.
In frame aggregation, a large number of packets are combined so that a large amount of data can be transmitted in a single frame transmission, and the proportion of the transmission time of data is increased to improve throughput. A-MPDU (Aggregate MAC Protocol Data Unit) illustrated in FIG. 29(a) and A-MSDU (Aggregate MAC Service Data Unit) illustrated in FIG. 29(b) are specified as types of packet aggregation.
The A-MSDU type is a type in which packets are aggregated on a per-MSDU basis, that is, portions subsequent to the MAC header of an MPDU are aggregated. The A-MPDU type is a type in which packets are aggregated on a per-MPDU basis. In an A-MPDU frame, an FCS (error-detecting code) can be added to each of the MPDUs contained therein. In an A-MPDU frame, further, the maximum value of data that can be aggregated is 64 Kbytes. In an A-MSDU frame, the over of the MAC header is lower. However, since the entire frame is a single MPDU, a single FCS (error-detecting code) is used for the entire frame and if a portion of the frame has failed, all the MSDUs are to be retransmitted. In an A-MSDU frame, further, the maximum value of data that can be aggregated is 8 Kbytes.

Wireless communication apparatus and wireless communication method

Abstract: [Solution] A process for detecting fast fading (fluorescent lamp interference) is performed (ST2). Fast fading is detected by, for example, detecting a variable light source whose frequency is twice the frequency of an alternating current power supply. When fast fading is detected, a frame length update process is performed (ST3, ST4). In the case of “subject transmission” in which the subject apparatus is the transmitter of a data frame, the setting of the maximum number of aggregations in frame aggregation (A-MPDU, A-MSDU) is changed to “the recommended maximum number of aggregations”. “The recommended maximum number of aggregations” is set in advance so that the UDP throughput can be maximized under the conditions where fast fading has occurred. In the case of “subject reception” in which the subject apparatus is the receiver of a data frame, the subject apparatus sends a request message for limiting the maximum transmission length to the communication counterpart apparatus.


A method and system for responding to a processing failure of an Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). An example method includes a computing system detecting the processing failure of the IMS and responsively causing one or more user equipment devices (UEs) to forgo using the IMS for voice over IP (VoIP) call placement and to instead use an alternate VoIP calling service for VoIP call placement. For instance, a given UE may be configured by default to use the IMS for VoIP call placement, but the UE may detect an IMS processing failure and may responsively instead make a next VoIP call placement attempt using an alternate VoIP calling service, such as a third party VoIP calling application running on the UE.

A cellular communication system operated by a wireless service provider typically includes a number of access nodes that are configured to provide coverage in which user equipment devices (UEs) such as cell phones, tablet computers, machine-type-communication devices, tracking devices, embedded wireless modules, and/or other wirelessly equipped communication devices (whether or not user operated), can operate. Further, the system could include a core network having a user-plane subsystem that provides connectivity between the access nodes and various application servers and/or transport networks, and a control-plane subsystem for managing UE and core-network service. With this arrangement, a UE within coverage of the system could engage in air-interface communication with an access node and could thereby communicate via the access node and core network with various application servers and other entities.
Such a system could operate in accordance with a particular radio access technology (RAT), with communications from an access node to UEs defining a downlink or forward link and communications from the UEs to the access node defining an uplink or reverse link.
Over the years, the industry has developed various generations of RATs, in a continuous effort to increase available data rate and quality of service for end users. These generations have ranged from "1G," which used simple analog frequency modulation to facilitate basic voice-call service, to "4G"—such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), which now facilitates mobile broadband service using technologies such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and multiple input multiple output (MIMO). And recently, the industry has completed initial specifications for "5G" and particularly "5G NR" (5G New Radio), which may use a scalable OFDM air interface, advanced channel coding, massive MIMO, beamforming, and/or other features, to support higher data rates and countless applications, such as mission-critical services, enhanced mobile broadband, and massive Internet of Things (IoT).
In accordance with the RAT, each access node could be configured to provide coverage and service on one or more radio-frequency (RF) carriers. And on the downlink and uplink, the air interface provided by an access node on a given carrier could be configured to define physical resources for carrying information, including control-plane signaling and user-plane traffic, wirelessly between the access node and UEs.
When a UE first enters into coverage of such a system, the UE could detect coverage of an access node and then engage in random-access signaling and connection signaling with the access node to establish an air-interface connection (e.g., Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection) defining a logical tunnel for carrying communications wirelessly between the UE and the access node. Further, the UE could engage in attachment or registration signaling via the access node with a core-network controller. And the core-network controller could responsively engage in signaling to set up for the UE one or more default bearers each defining a logical packet tunnel extending between the UE and the user-plane subsystem of the core network, to enable the UE to engage in packet-data communications through the core network.

Use of alternate VoIP call-placement service in response to IMS processing failure


A substantially semicylindrical lens having a lensing function, a shading-correcting (reducing) function, and a predetermined-wavelength transmitting function is formed on the upper surface of a device chip including a sensor array, a CCD transfer register, a read-out gate, and the like. The substantially semicylindrical lens is semicircular in cross section along a second direction, and has a lens surface curved in a first direction so that its diameter is larger at both ends in the first direction than in the center in order to serve a function of correcting the shading caused by the optical conditions outside the device. The substantially semicylindrical lens is partially or entirely made of a substance that is transmissive with respect to a signal having a predetermined wavelength.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state image pickup device used as, for example, a barcode reader (also referred to as a "barcode scanner").
2. Description of the Related Art
A known type of linear sensor adopted in a barcode reader has, for example, the configuration shown in FIG. 1.
The barcode reader includes a sensor array 10 in which a plurality of photosensors 11 are arranged in a first direction so as to generate signal charges in accordance with the amount of light received, a CCD transfer register 20 disposed along the sensor array 10 so as to read out the signal charge generated by each of the photosensors 11 in a second direction and to transfer the signal charge in the first direction, and a read-out gate (ROG) 30 disposed between the sensor array 10 and the CCD transfer register 20 so as to read out the signal charges from the photosensors 11 toward the CCD transfer register 20.
The signal charge transferred by the CCD transfer register 20 is sent to an output amplifier having a charge-voltage conversion function, is converted into a voltage signal, and is then output.
In the above known barcode reader, however, in response to demands for increased sensor sensitivity, the photosensors 11 extend in the second direction, as shown in FIG. 1, in order to read special markings, that is, barcode labels. For this reason, the chip size is increased, and the cost of the entire solid-state image pickup device is increased.
Furthermore, since the photosensors 11 of the sensor array 10 extend in the second direction, the reading time from the sensor array 10 to the CCD transfer register 20 is longer than in a case using normal photosensors of a square array shape. Moreover, the amplitude of a pulse necessary for reading (a so-called read-out gate pulse φROG) is increased, and a low supply voltage that is required of the barcode reader is impossible.
In addition, since the known barcode reader adopts a reduction optical system because a fixed depth of field is necessary, the image of an object is reduced in size and is focused to the sensor array with regular convex lenses.
In this case, however, a signal difference (called "shading") is caused between the center portion and the peripheral portion of the object because of the lens characteristics.
While arithmetic processing has hitherto been performed by a subsequent signal processing section in order to correct the shading, when the object is a barcode, the amount of incident light varies depending on the reading conditions, and therefore, the shading cannot be completely corrected, and a reading error arises.
Moreover, since not all of the sensors arranged in the first direction of the sensor array are used, and only the sensors near the center are used, the performance of the pickup device is not fully used, and this is obviously inefficient.
While barcode readers adopt a light source for emitting light with a predetermined wavelength (660 nm in general) depending on the special characteristics of the object, some of them use an optical filter that prevents signal saturation caused when the incident light has another wavelength. This increases the cost of the parts.

Solid-state image pickup device having a lensing function


A solid, cast, highly chelated, alkaline detergent composition which includes (i) a potassium salt of an aminocarboxylic acid sequestrant, such as ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), (ii) optionally a sodium salt of the aminocarboxylic acid sequestrant, (iii) a source of alkalinity, such as sodium and/or potassium hydroxide, and (iv) a solidifying agent. The composition contains at least one of the sodium salt of the aminocarboxylic acid sequestrant and/or the sodium form of the alkaline source.

Solid alkaline detergent compositions are widely used for household and institutional dishwashing, laundering, and general surface cleaning. Such detergent compositions are commonly produced as solid cast blocks which are about 2 to about 20 kg in size. The manufacturing process employed to produce such cast blocks detergent typically involves heating an aqueous emulsion of the individual components to form a molten melt, blending the molten melt to form a homogeneous mixture, and then casting, cooling and solidifying the mixture.
One component frequently used in the manufacture of solid detergent compositions is a source of alkalinity such as an alkali metal hydroxide and/or and alkali metal silicate. Alkaline sources are known to be effective for removing soils from various substrates.
A second component frequently used in the manufacture of solid detergent compositions is a chelating agent (also known as complexing agents and sequestering agents). Chelating agents aid in maintaining solubilization of the ionic hardness components of service water such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and manganese so as to prevent the hardness components from interfering with the cleaning action of the detergent components. When using service water having a high concentration of hardness components, the use of a detergent composition with a high concentration of a chelating agent is important in order to obtain satisfactory cleaning performance.
One recognized class of useful chelating agents is the aminocarboxylic acids. These compounds are a well known class of compounds that have found uses in a variety of cleaning compositions as a chelating agent including many of the solid cast detergent compositions. However, use of aminocarboxylic acids has been limited in detergent compositions which also employ a source of alkalinity as the aminocarboxylic acids tend to react so rapidly with typical sources of alkalinity that the combination solidifies before it can be properly blended and cast.
Accordingly, a substantial need exists for a detergent composition having both an effective chelating amount of an aminocarboxylic acid sequestrant and an effective detersive amount of an alkaline source which may be readily processed in common processing equipment.

Solid highly chelated warewashing detergent composition containing alkaline detersives and Aminocarboxylic acid sequestrants


In accordance with an example embodiment, a mower-conditioner may include first and second conditioning rolls, at least one eccentric, and a linkage having a lever. The first and second conditioning rolls are spaced apart a distance. The at least one eccentric is coupled to the mower-conditioner. The lever is coupled between the eccentric assembly and the first conditioning roll. The rotation of the at least one eccentric about a pivot axis causes the first conditioning roll to move via the lever, which adjusts the distance between the first and second conditioning rolls.

In the hay and forage industry among others, mower-conditioners, rotary platforms or heads, and draper platforms or heads include conditioning rolls which condition crop material after it is cut. The crop material is cut, then pressed or crushed between the conditioning rolls before being returned to the ground for drying. Conditioning, which crimps the stems and leaves, increases the loss of water in the crop material and further reduces the drying period. Once the crop material has sufficiently dried, the crop can be further processed or harvested by baling, combining, or chopping.
There are multiple factors such as the type of crops, type of rolls, weather, and terrain which influence the required conditioning level. One of the methods to change the conditioning level is to adjust a roll gap between the conditioning rolls. The smaller the roll gap, the more pressure is exerted on the crops. Currently, manual adjustment of the roll gap requires operators to stop their cutting or harvesting operations. However, this kind of adjustment is not efficient, especially for high frequency adjustments.


A plant stand includes a first support having a first tier, a second tier and a third tier and a second support having a first tier that corresponds with the first tier of the first support, a second tier that corresponds with the second tier of the first support and a third tier that corresponds with the third tier of the first support. The third tier of the second support has a height that is substantially equal to a height of the third tier of the first support. The plant stand also includes a plurality of shelves. The height of the third tiers substantially corresponds to a length of each shelf. In addition, the first support, the second support and the plurality of shelves are configured into one of a flat pack state having a flat pack height and an assembled state having an assembled height.

A plant stand is a piece of furniture that lifts potted plants and flowers off the floor or off the ground. Plant stands provide a structure for arranging potted plants or flowers to receive more sunlight, be more accessible for watering and pruning and be visually displayed in an aesthetically appealing way.
Flat pack furniture is a type of furniture that is shipped or transported in disassembled components and is capable of being assembled after shipping.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.


A communications system including a receiver and a first transmitter, wherein the first transmitter transmits noise signals across a range of communication channels used by the receiver, the receiver being adapted to receive a transmission transmitted by a second transmitter over one or more of said range of communication channels, and to distinguish the transmission made by the second transmitter from the noise signals using information from the first transmitter about the noise signals.

The present invention relates to a method and system for communication, and particularly, but not exclusively, to a method and system for providing secure communication without use of encryption.
In the communication field, it has long been accepted that there are two principal ways in which a message can be securely communicated between two parties: encryption and steganography.
Encryption generally involves replacing the "plain text" of the original message with a code which can (hopefully) only be decoded by the intended recipient. Current encryption technologies such as DES and RSA generally use either exchanged keys or a public/private key system.
Steganography involves "hiding" the plain text of the original message in another item that is communicated between the parties. This approach includes methods such as placing the plain text at agreed locations within a "cover" message, or communicating the plain text as part of the pixels of a picture. In all cases, the plain text of the original message is still present in its original, unencoded form, but only the intended recipient knows how to retrieve it from the "cover".
Recently, a third method of secure communication has been suggested, principally in Chaffing and Winnowing: Confidentiality without Encryption by Ronald L. Rivest, CryptoBytes (RSA Laboratories), volume 4, number 1 (summer 1998), 12-17. This technique is called "chaffing", as the principle is to provide sufficient "chaff" that only the intended recipient can sort out the "wheat" of the original message. Chaffing is similar in many respects to steganography, in that the original message is communicated between the parties without encryption, but only the intended recipient is able to retrieve the original message.
There is increasingly a demand for secure communication in all fields. This demand creates problems in fields where the devices used to transmit messages are relatively simple and need to be low cost, such as radio-frequency identifiers (RFIDs). Such devices are generally incapable of performing the complex routines required to encrypt their messages or of constructing and transmitting the cover message required for steganography.
The chaffing method described in Rivest above still requires the two communicating parties to have exchanged information in advance in order for the receiver to be able to distinguish the authentic Message Authentication Codes (MACs).
Accordingly, at its broadest, the present invention provides a communications system in which noise is transmitted over a range of communication channels, and the receiver is able to distinguish an original message by using information about that noise. A receiver which does not have information about that noise is not able to distinguish the original message.
A first aspect of the present invention provides a communications system including a receiver and a first transmitter, wherein:
the first transmitter transmits noise signals across a range of communication channels used by the receiver;
the receiver is adapted to receive a transmission transmitted by a second transmitter over one or more of said range of communication channels, and to distinguish the transmission made by the second transmitter from the noise signals using information from the first transmitter about the noise signals.
By using the above system, the second transmitter does not need to have any capability to encrypt or disguise its transmissions in order to securely transmit them to the receiver, as the security for those transmissions is provided by the noise transmissions from the first transmitter. Accordingly, the second transmitter can be made relatively simple and cheap to construct.
The information about the noise signals is preferably communicated from the first transmitter to the receiver. The information may be the complete content of the noise signals, which may contain a time stamp so that the signals can be compared to the received signals.
Alternatively or additionally, the information may be which channels the noise was transmitted over at particular times.
In a particular embodiment of the first aspect, the receiver and first transmitter are part of the same device. In this embodiment, the communication of the information about the noise signals may be achieved by the first transmitter having an internal output by which the noise is passed to the receiver, or by the receiver and the transmitter sharing a common memory or processor. In one specific embodiment, the first transmitter may receive driver signals from a processor, and the same driver signals may be provided to the receiver by the same processor.
The term "noise signals" is used to describe any signals which are not part of the transmissions from the second transmitter. Such signals need not be "noise" in the meaning of an entirely random signal, and preferably the noise signals are such that they are readily separable by the receiver from the transmissions from the second transmitter, e.g. by virtue of the channels over which they are transmitted.
Indeed, the content of the noise signals is preferably substantially identical to the transmissions made by the second transmitter. If this is the case, may be even more difficult for a third party or interloper to distinguish the transmissions from the second transmitter simply by analysing the content of the transmissions.
The range of communication channels may include one or more of: different time slots; different frequency bands; different orthogonal codes. The communications channels may also be Ethernet-type channels in which there are no defined slot and the transmitters wait for the medium to be idle before transmitting asynchronously.
A further aspect of the present invention provides a communications system according to the above first aspect, further including said second transmitter, the second transmitter transmitting over one or more of said communication channels.
In this aspect there may be a plurality of said second transmitters.
The or each second transmitter may be a simple device. Simple devices, sometimes known as "dumb" devices or tags, are limited in one or more of their computational power, their battery power or life, or their memory capabilities, and so are not capable of performing techniques such as encryption, which are expensive to perform in terms of those factors. For example the simple device may be one which simply transmits its own ID over a pre-selected communication channel, or one which can read only one frequency and one protocol. Thus it is unable to filter reads, store tag data and so on.
Although the present invention also covers second transmitters which are more complex, and indeed transmitters that may have considerable processing power, in this aspect of the present invention, that processing power is not required to disguise or encrypt the transmissions for security due to the noise transmission of the first transmitter.
In one typical example, the or each second transmitter is an RFID tag, and the receiver is an RFID reader or overseer tag.
Preferably, the receiver, the second transmitter or both are adapted to detect when a collision occurs on a particular channel, and cause the data lost in that collision to be retransmitted. If the system has this ability, then the first transmitter can transmit over all the possible communications channels without having to know what channels are being used by the second transmitter(s), as any collisions will be detected and the data lost retransmitted.
In the present description, references to "collision" are to situations where more than one demand is made simultaneously on the medium that is being used to communicate between the devices. The definition of this term at www.wikipedia.org reads: "In a data transmission system, the situation that occurs when two or more demands are made simultaneously on equipment that can handle only one at any given instant."
"Collision" is a standard term of art in the description of Media Access Control (MAC) protocols. The MAC for Ethernet and for wireless systems is fundamentally based on avoiding and/or detecting and correcting collisions, and collision in this sense often appears in the name of such protocols, for example, CSMA/CA refers to Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance.
A further aspect of the present invention provides a method of securing communications between a first transmitter and a receiver, the method including the steps of:
transmitting a message from the first transmitter over one or more of a range of communication channels;
transmitting noise from a second transmitter over said range of communications channels; passing to the receiver information about the noise from the second transmitter; retrieving, from the transmissions over said range of communications channels, the transmitted message using the information from the second transmitter.
The step of retrieving may include receiving a combination of the transmitted message and the transmitted noise in the receiver, and separating the transmitted message from that combination using said information.
Alternatively, or additionally, the step of retrieving may include selectively receiving on only a portion of said range of communications channels, so as to only receive the message, said portion being determined using said information.
In one embodiment of the method of this aspect, the second transmitter and the receiver are part of the same device.
Preferably, the content of the noise signals is substantially identical to the transmissions made by the, or each first transmitter. The advantages of this feature have been explained in relation to the first aspect above.
The range of communication channels may include one or more of: different time slots; different frequency bands; different orthogonal codes.
Preferably, the method further includes the step of detecting when a collision occurs between a part of the message transmitted by the first receiver and the noise transmitted by the second receiver, and retransmitting the part of the message affected.
The method of the present aspect may be implemented in a system of either of the first two aspects, including any combination of the optional or preferred features of those aspects.

Method and system for secure communication

BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS public limited company


Biologically active compounds related to the bryostatin family of compounds, having simplified spacer domains and/or improved recognition domains are disclosed, including methods of preparing and utilizing the same.

Protein kinase C (PKC) related disorders are important causes of illness, disability and death worldwide, and represent important therapeutic targets. The broad range of disorders which are mediated by PKC include, for example, hyperproliferative diseases, immune related disorders, and cognitive disorders among others. There is need for new therapeutic agents which can target PKC to treat patients with these conditions.
Cancer is a major cause of death in the developed countries, with more than 500,000 human fatalities occurring annually in the United States. Cancers are generally the result of the transformation of normal cells into modified cells that proliferate excessively, leading to the formation of abnormal tissues or cell populations. In many cancers, cell proliferation is accompanied by dissemination (metastasis) of malignant cells to other parts of the body, which spawn new cancerous growths. Cancers can significantly impair normal physiological processes, ultimately leading to patient mortality. Cancers have been observed for many different tissue and cell types, with cancers of the lung, breast, and colorectal system accounting for about half of all cases.
Currently, about one-third of cancer patients can be cured by surgical or radiation techniques. However, these approaches are most effective with cancerous lesions that have not yet metastasized to other regions of the body. Chemotherapeutic techniques currently cure another 17% of cancer patients. Combined chemotherapeutic and non-chemotherapeutic protocols can further enhance prospects for full recovery. Even for incurable cancer conditions, therapeutic treatments can be useful to achieve remission or at least extend patient longevity.
Numerous anticancer compounds have been developed over the past several decades. While these compounds comprise many different classes that act by a variety of mechanisms, one general approach has been to block the proliferation of cancerous cells by interfering with cell division. For example, anthracyclines, such as doxorubicin and daunorubicin, have been found to intercalate DNA, blocking DNA and RNA synthesis and causing strand scission by interacting with topoisomerase II. The taxanes, such as Taxol™ and Taxotere™, disrupt mitosis by promoting tubulin polymerization in microtubule assembly. Cis-platin forms interstrand crosslinks in DNA and is effective to kill cells in all stages of the cell cycle. As another example, cyclophosphamide and related alkylating agents contain di-(2-chloroethyl)-amino groups that bind covalently to cellular components such as DNA.
The bryostatins (Formula A) are a family of naturally occurring macrocyclic compounds originally isolated from marine bryozoa. Currently, there are about 20 known natural bryostatins which share three six-membered rings designated A, B and C, and which differ mainly in the nature of their substituents at C7 (ORA) and C20 (RB).

The bryostatins exhibit potent activity against a broad range of human cancer cell lines and provide significant in vivo life extensions in murine xenograft tumor models. Doses that are effective in vivo are extremely low, with activities demonstrated for concentrations as low as 1 μg/kg. Among additional therapeutic responses, the bryostatins have been found to promote the normal growth of bone marrow progenitor cells, provide cellular protection against normally lethal doses of ionizing radiation, and stimulate immune system responses that result in the production of T cells, tumor necrosis factors, interleukins and interferons. Bryostatins are also effective in inducing transformation of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells to a hairy cell type, increasing the expression of p53 while decreasing the expression of bcl-2 in inducing apoptosis in cancer cells or at least pre-disposing a cell towards apoptosis, and reversing multidrug resistance (MDR).
At the molecular level, bryostatins have been shown to competitively inhibit the binding of plant-derived phorbol esters and endogenous diacyl glycerols to protein kinase C (PKC) at nanomolar to picomolar drug concentrations, and to stimulate comparable kinase activity. Unlike the phorbol esters, however, the bryostatins do not act as tumor promoters. Thus, the bryostatins appear to operate through a mode of action different from, and complementary to, the modes of action of established anticancer agents; such as cisplatin or taxol. Further, their ability to bind PKC and displace phorbol esters, thus providing complex modulatory activity against a number of PKC isoforms, indicate bryostatins' potential for use in therapeutic applications outside of oncology.
Although the bryostatins have been known for some time, their low natural abundance, difficulties in isolation and severely limited availability through total synthesis have impeded efforts to elucidate their mode of action and to advance their clinical development. It is desired to provide new, simplified, and more readily accessible analogs of the natural bryostatins for anticancer applications.

Bryostatin analogues, synthetic methods and uses

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A method of testing the interrupt sources of a microprocessor having a number of interrupts which are each operable to execute an interrupt service routine when enabled, each interrupt having a default priority level and an associated memory, the interrupts having a service order in which they are to be serviced, the method comprising the steps of: a) sorting the interrupts in descending service order; b) determining an array of priority levels to be assigned in a pre-arranged sequence to selections of interrupts in descending service order, the array of priority levels consisting of: the lowest priority level; and the priority levels in descending order from the highest priority level to the lowest priority level; c) incrementing a global counter; d) assigning the array of priority levels to a selected group of interrupts, the remainder of the interrupts assuming their pre-assigned priority level; e) enabling all interrupts simultaneously so that the interrupt having the highest priority level executes its interrupt service routine; f) transferring the value of the global counter into the memory of the interrupt having executed its interrupt service routine; g) repeating steps c) to f) until the pre-arranged sequence is completed; and h) comparing the interrupt memory values after completion of the pre-arranged sequence with expected values and determining from the comparison whether there is an error in the microprocessor interrupts.

An interrupt is a break in the normal flow of instruction processing in a central processing unit triggered by a hardware signal from an external or internal source. Typically, a microprocessor will have a plurality of interrupt sources each of which can be enabled or triggered to execute an interrupt service routine. Each of the interrupts of the microprocessor has an assignable priority level which is typically set by default.
When two interrupts are enabled, the interrupt with the highest priority level initiates its interrupt service routine. The interrupts also have a service order so that if two interrupts having the same highest priority level are enabled, the interrupt being first in the service order initiates its interrupt service routine.
For a microprocessor having fourteen interrupts, each interrupt having four priority levels (3, 2, 1, 0) there are 414, i.e. 268,435,456 interrupt/priority level permutations and it would normally be necessary to test each of these permutations to determine whether or not all the interrupts on the microprocessor correctly function at their respective possible priority levels. The testing time required to test all permutations is unacceptable and this burden of testing would delay time to market.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to seek to provide a method of testing interrupt sources in a microprocessor having interrupts with a plurality of priority levels which reduces the test burden.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention provides a method of testing the interrupt sources of a microprocessor having a number of interrupts which are each operable to execute an interrupt service routine when enabled, each interrupt having a default priority level and an associated memory, the interrupts having a service order in which they are to be serviced, the method comprising the steps of: a) sorting the interrupts in descending service order; b) determining an array of priority levels to be assigned in a pre-arranged sequence to selections of interrupts in descending service order, the array of priority levels consisting of: the lowest priority level; and the priority levels in descending order from the highest priority level to the lowest priority level; c) incrementing a global counter; d) assigning the array of priority levels to a selected group of interrupts, the remainder of the interrupts assuming their pre-assigned priority level; e) enabling all interrupts simultaneously so that the interrupt having the highest priority level executes its interrupt service routine; f) transferring the value of the global counter into the memory of the interrupt having executed its interrupt service routine; g) repeating steps c) to f) until the pre-arranged sequence is completed; and h) comparing the interrupt memory values after completion of the pre-arranged sequence with expected values and determining from the comparison whether there is an error in the microprocessor interrupts.
Preferably, the array of priority levels is assigned to a first group of interrupts and then subsequently to other groups of interrupts in descending service order.
Conveniently, the first assignment of the array of priority levels to a selected group of interrupts comprises assigning the highest priority level in the array to the interrupt being last in the service order, the first priority level in the array being the lowest priority level not being assigned to an interrupt and the remainder of the priority levels in the array being assigned to the remainder of the interrupts in the selected group of interrupts in descending service order.
Advantageously, the first repetition of step (d) assigns the first priority level of the array, the lowest priority level, to the interrupt being last in the service order, the remainder of the priority levels in the array being assigned to the remainder of the interrupts in the selected group of interrupts.
Preferably, subsequent repetitions of step (d) assign the first of the priority levels of the array to the next interrupt in descending service order until the first priority level of the array has been assigned to every interrupt, and the final repetition assigns the default priority levels to the interrupts, thereby marking the end of the pre-arranged sequence.
Conveniently, there are four priority levels: 3; 2; 1; and 0, 3 being the highest priority level and 0 being the lowest priority level, the array of priority levels therefore comprising: 0;3:2;1;0.
Advantageously, the global counter has an initial value of 0 and step c) of incrementing the global counter comprises the step of incrementing the global counter by one.
Preferably, the number of repetitions of steps c) to f) is greater than the number of interrupts.
Conveniently, the microprocessor has 14 interrupts with 4 priority levels, 16 repetitions of steps c) to f) being required to complete the sequence.
Advantageously, the pre-arranged sequence requires at least the highest priority level in the array to be assigned to each of the interrupts in descending service order.
In order that the present invention may be more readily understood, embodiments thereof will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Testing the interrupt sources of a microprocessor


The invention an optical system and a method for automatically controlling the gain of a receiver in an optical system. The optical system includes an optical receiver, a pulse capture unit, and an automatic gain control. The pulse capture unit includes a capture unit capable of capturing an optical signal received by the optical receiver; and, a process unit capable of processing the captured optical signal. The automatic gain control is capable of controlling the gain of the optical receiver responsive to the content of the processed optical signal. The method includes comparing the intensity of at least one returned pulse, and typically a plurality of returned pulses, to a predetermined value; and controlling the gain of an optical detector responsive to the comparison. In addition, the maximum gain is controlled by a noise limit in some implementations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to laser detection and ranging ("LADAR") systems, and, more particularly, to the pulse capture electronics of LADAR systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
A need of great importance in some military and civilian operations is the ability to quickly detect, locate, and/or identify objects, frequently referred to as "targets," in a "field of view." A common problem in military operations, for example, is to detect and identify targets, such as tanks, vehicles, guns, and similar items, which have been camouflaged or which are operating at night or in foggy weather. It is important in many instances to reliably distinguish between enemy and friendly forces. As the pace of battlefield operations increases, so does the need for quick and accurate identification of potential targets as friend or foe, and as a target or not.
Useful techniques for identifying targets have existed for many years. For instance, in World War II, the British developed and utilized radio detection and ranging ("RADAR") systems for identifying the incoming planes of the German Luftwaffe. RADAR uses radio waves to locate objects at great distances even in bad weather or in total darkness. Sound navigation and ranging ("SONAR") has found similar utility and application in environments where signals propagate through water, as opposed to the atmosphere. While RADAR and SONAR have proven quite effective in many applications, they are inherently limited by a number of factors. For instance, RADAR is limited because it uses radio frequency signals and large antennas used to transmit and receive such signals. Thus, alternative technologies have been developed and deployed.
One such alternative technology is laser detection and ranging ("LADAR"). Similar to RADAR systems, which transmit radio waves and receive radio waves reflected from objects, LADAR systems transmit laser beams and receive reflections from targets. In LADAR systems, brief laser pulses are generated and transmitted via an optical scanning mechanism. Some of the transmitted pulses strike a target and are reflected back to a receiver associated with the transmitter. The time between the transmission of a laser pulse and the receipt of the reflected laser pulse (a "return pulse") is used to calculate the "range" from the target to the object that receives the return pulse.
Because LADAR provides range information, the data is "three-dimensional," i.e., it provides information about the target in three dimensions. Typically, these dimensions are range, azimuth, and elevation. The shorter wavelengths of light signals (relative to radio signals) also provide much higher resolution and tighter beam control. These attributes of LADAR data greatly assist not only with target location, but also target identification. Thus, in many respects, LADAR systems can provide much greater performance than can, e.g., RADAR and SONAR systems.
The evolution of one particular LADAR system can be traced by reviewing the following issued U.S. Letters Patent:                U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,553, entitled "Gate Array Pulse Capture Device," issued Sep. 7, 1993, to Loral Vought Systems Corporation as the assignee of the inventor Stuart W. Flockencier;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,331, entitled "System for Processing Reflected Energy Signals," issued Oct. 18, 1994, to Loral Vought Systems Corporation as the assignee of the inventor Stuart W. Flockencier;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,015, entitled "Double-Accumulator Implementation of the Convolution Function," issued Apr. 23, 1996, to Loral Vought Systems Corporation as the assignee of the inventor Stuart W. Flockencier; and        U.S. Pat. No. 6,115,113, entitled "Method for Increasing Single-Pulse Range Resolution," issued Sep. 5, 2000, to Lockheed Martin Corporation as the assignee of the inventor Stuart W. Flockencier.These patents all describe the data acquisition electronics, or "pulse capture electronics" ("PCE"), of the LADAR system. They also disclose a LADAR transceiver whose operation is more fully disclosed in the following patents, among others:        U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,606, entitled "Laser Radar Scanning System," issued Apr. 6, 1993, to LTV Missiles and Electronics Group as the assignee of the inventors Nicholas J. Krasutsky, et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,109, entitled "Laser Radar Transceiver," issued Jun. 29, 1993, to LTV Missiles and Electronics Group as the assignee of the inventors Nicholas J. Krasutsky, et al.; and        U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,461, entitled "Improved Laser Radar Transceiver," issued to Feb. 8, 1994, to Loral Vought Systems Corporation as assignee of the inventors Nicholas J. Krasutsky, et al.This LADAR system also processes the acquired data for a number of end uses, such as those more fully disclosed in a number of patents, including:        U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,386, entitled "Visual Recognition System for LADAR Sensors," issued Jul. 1, 1997, to Loral Vought Systems Corp. as assignee of the inventors Gary Kim Jenkins, et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,492, entitled "Fused Lasar Range/Intensity Image Display for a Human Interpretation of Lasar Data," issued Dec. 22, 1998, to Lockheed Martin Vought Systems Corp. as the assignee of the inventors Donald W. Nimblett, et al.; and        U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,085, entitled "Dynamic Fuzzy Logic Process for Identifying Objects in Three-Dimensional Data," issued Apr. 6, 1999, to Lockheed Martin Corp. as the assignee of the inventors Ronald W. Philips, et al.Each of these patents is commonly assigned herewith to the assignee of this invention, Lockheed Martin Corporation.
One concern with virtually all LADAR receivers is the "gain" of their detectors. The gain controls the amount of amplification applied by the detector to a return pulse when it is received. The gain should be commensurate with the intensity of the return pulse. If the intensity of the return pulse is high, then the gain of the detector should be low to avoid over-saturating the detector's components. On the other hand, if the intensity is low, the gain should be high to facilitate subsequent processing, although not so high that "noise" is reported as a return pulse.
Setting the detector's gain, however, is fraught with many difficulties. The intensity of return pulses can vary wildly from one moment to the next and creates difficulty in setting the gain for any particular intensity level. Setting the gain arbitrarily high unnecessarily risks over-saturating the detector's components for high intensity returns and erroneously reporting noise as returned pulses. On the other hand, setting the gain unnecessarily low risks missing low intensity returns.
The present invention is directed to resolving, or at least reducing, one or all of the problems mentioned above.

Programmable pulse capture device with automatic gain control


A gas gauge circuit has a power supply pin, a power return pin, power-on reset capability, and a communications signal pin. A reset control circuit is coupled between the power supply pin and the communications signal pin, or between the power return pin and the communications signal pin. The reset control circuit removes power to the gas gauge circuit in accordance with a control signal asserted on the communications signal pin. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

Battery-operated computer systems such as notebook personal computers, portable navigation devices, portable digital media players, and smart phones, have a need for technology that can automatically predict the remaining run time of the device, based on the current state of charge of its battery. To meet such a need, integrated circuit (IC) developers and manufacturers offer a battery fuel gauge circuit, also referred to as a gas gauge circuit. The basic gas gauge circuit may come in the form of a chip or IC package that is to be integrated in a host device, to be connected to the terminals of a battery pack of the device. The IC chip or package may be one that is integrated into the battery pack or is on a battery connector board, or it may be located directly on a main logic board of the device.
The gas gauge circuit contains various analog and digital circuitry needed to accurately measure battery voltage and/or battery current on an on-going basis (e.g., repeating such measurements every given time interval, as the device goes through its typical active and sleep usage cycles). This function is also referred to as a coulomb counter. The digital circuitry may include a microcontroller, i.e. a processor coupled to memory that stores instructions or software code to be executed by the processor. The microcontroller executes its programming, to measure or compute various parameters associated with usage of the battery as part of the device, such as cell voltage, average pack voltage, pack current, capacity change, battery impedance, open-circuit voltage, and others. It reports such information to a host controller, such as an application processor or power management unit of the host device, through a low overhead bus or interface such as a single wire HDQ serial data interface, a Smart Battery Specification, SBS, interface, or an I2C bus.
Some gas gauge circuits have a watchdog timer integrated in their designs. A watchdog timer monitors a specific periodic signal internal to the gas gauge and looks for its absence. Software running in the microcontroller of the gas gauge circuit is responsible for repeatedly acting (e.g., setting a particular bit of a register) to maintain this periodical signal. When the periodic signal stops, it is assumed that the gas gauge has "hung up" or entered a failure mode software loop. Thus, if the internal timer does not see a signal transition in a set amount of time, it will trigger a reset of the gas gauge (including its microcontroller).
In addition to the watch dog timer, the gas gauge circuit may also have power-on reset circuitry, which automatically resets the gas gauge when the supply voltage provided on its power supply pin cycles, by dropping to a sufficiently low level and then rising to a normal level. The supply voltage may drop to zero, for example when the battery pack has failed or has been removed from the device.


A fuser controller includes a memory configured to store a program, a processor configured to read the program from the memory and to execute the program, a communication unit configured to transmit/receive data to/from the main controller, and an analog-to-digital converter configured to receive an analog signal representing the temperature of the fuser from a thermistor and to convert the analog signal into a digital signal, wherein the processor controls power supplied to a fuser until the main controller completes initialization.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to methods of controlling a fuser and image forming apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus prints, copies, scans, etc. The image forming apparatus may include a fuser, and the fuser is heated to high temperature and the heated fuser applies heat to an image.
Since the fuser is controlled by a main controller, when a user turns on power of an image forming apparatus, the main controller of the image forming apparatus starts to operate. The main controller ends preparatory operations for printing and raises the temperature of the fuser up to a target temperature by controlling the fuser.
The main controller controls a fuser, an engine, etc, and obtains a program required for driving the image forming apparatus by reading the program from a memory.

Method of controlling fuser with fuser controller and main controller and image forming apparatus including the fuser controller and the main controller


A plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines intersecting each other are formed on a first insulating substrate having a plurality of first cutouts are formed on the respective pixel areas defined by the data lines and the gate lines. A thin film transistor is connected to each pixel electrode. A reference electrode having a plurality of second cutouts is formed on a second substrate opposite the first substrate. The first cutouts and the second cutouts in the adjacent two pixel areas opposite each other with respect to one data line have an inversion symmetry with respect to the data line.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display, and, in particular, to a vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display including an electrode with cutouts for securing wide viewing angle.
(b) Description of Related Art
A typical liquid crystal display ("LCD") includes an upper panel with a reference electrode and color filters, a lower panel with thin film transistors ("TFTs") and pixel electrodes and a liquid crystal layer with dielectric anisotropy interposed therebetween, and displays desired images by applying different voltages to the reference electrode and the pixel electrodes to generate electric field in the liquid crystal layer, which changes the orientations of liquid crystal molecules to control the light transmittance.
Among these LCDs, a vertically aligned mode LCD (referred to as a "VALCD" hereinafter), which aligns the major axes of the liquid crystal molecules vertical to upper and lower panels in absence of electric field, is promising because of its high contrast ratio and wide viewing angle.
To implement wide viewing angle in the VALCD, a cutout pattern or protuberances are provided on the electrode. Both generate fringe field to regularly distribute tilt directions of the liquid crystal molecules into four directions, thereby giving wide viewing angle.
Meanwhile, a plurality of signal wires such as gate lines transmitting scanning signals and data lines transmitting image signals are provided on a panel with the TFTs (referred to as a "TFT array panel" hereinafter) for an LCD. These signal wires have their own resistances and are coupled with peripheral signal wires or the reference electrode of the upper panel to generate coupling capacitances. The loads due to such a resistances and capacitances of respective wires generate the distortion of the signals transmitted via the signal wires such as RC delay. In particular, the capacitive coupling between the data lines and the reference electrode drives the liquid crystal molecules disposed therebetween to cause light leakage near the data line, thereby deteriorating the image quality, and the light leakage, in turn, forces to enlarge the black matrix to reduce the aperture ratio.

Vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display


An over-the-wire balloon catheter for use in angioplasty includes a dual lumen shaft formed by a multisection outer tube and a multisection inner tube. The outer tube includes a first thin wall outer tube section which is connected to a manifold at its proximal end. The outer tube also includes a second outer tube section which is attached to the distal end of the first outer tube section and which has a greater flexibility. The inner tube has a first thin wall inner tube section which extends generally coaxially through the first outer tube section and into the interior of the second outer tube section. The inner tube also includes a second thin wall inner tube section which is attached to the distal end of the first inner tube section and extends distally beyond the distal end of the outer tube. A balloon is attached to the distal ends of the outer and inner tubes. The inner tube sections have a coating of a low friction material, such as polyimide-polytetrafluoroethylene composite, on their inner walls to facilitate movement of a guide wire through the guide wire lumen of the inner tube.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of angioplasty. In particular, the present invention relates to a dilatation balloon catheter of the "over-the-wire" type.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Angioplasty has gained wide acceptance in recent years as an efficient and effective method for treating types of vascular disease. In particular, angioplasty is widely used for opening stenoses in the coronary arteries, although it is also used for treatment of stenoses in other parts of the vascular system.
The most widely used form of angioplasty makes use of a dilatation catheter which has an inflatable balloon at its distal end. Typically, a hollow guide catheter is used in guiding the dilatation catheter through the vascular system to a position near the stenosis (e.g. to the aortic arch). Using fluoroscopy, the physician guides the dilatation catheter the remaining distance through the vascular system until the balloon is positioned across the stenosis. The balloon is then inflated by supplying a fluid under pressure through an inflation lumen to the balloon. The inflation of the balloon causes stretching of the artery and pressing of the lesion into the artery wall to reestablish acceptable blood flow through the artery.
There has been a continuing effort to reduce the profile and shaft size of the dilatation catheter so that the catheter not only can reach but also can cross a very tight stenosis. A successful dilatation catheter must also be sufficiently flexible to pass through tight curvatures, especially in the coronary arteries. A further requirement of a successful dilatation catheter is its "pushability". This involves the transmission of longitudinal force along the catheter from its proximal end to its distal end so that a physician can push the catheter through the vascular system and the stenosis.
Two commonly used types of dilatation catheters are referred to as "over-the-wire" catheters and "non-over-the-wire" catheters. An over-the-wire catheter is one in which a separate guide wire lumen (sometimes called a "thru lumen") is provided so that a guide wire can be used to establish the path through the stenosis. The dilatation catheter can then be advanced over the guide wire until the balloon is positioned within the stenosis. One problem with the over-the-wire catheter is the requirement of a larger profile and a generally larger outer diameter along its entire length in order to allow for a separate guide wire lumen.
A non-over-the-wire catheter acts as its own guide wire, and thus there is no need for a separate guide wire lumen. One advantage of a non-over-the-wire catheter is its potential for a reduced outer diameter along its main shaft since a guide wire lumen is not required. However, one disadvantage is the inability to maintain the position of a guide wire within the vascular system when removing the catheter and exchanging it for one of a smaller (or larger) balloon diameter. Thus, to accomplish an exchange with the non-over-the-wire catheter, the path to the stenosis must be reestablished when replacing the catheter with one having a different balloon diameter.
It is desirable in some cases to feed two dilatation catheters through the same guide catheter simultaneously. This procedure is used, for example, to inflate both sides of a Y branch in the coronary arteries. In the past, only non-over-the-wire catheters have been small enough to be used for this type of procedure. In general, the need for providing two lumens in an over-the-wire catheter has resulted in a larger outer diameter along its entire length so that it is not possible to feed two over-the-wire catheters through a typical 8 French (8F) guide catheter at the same time.


A packing and storing receptacle includes a bottom panel and a top panel superposed on the bottom panel and defining a pouch therewith for receiving at least a longitudinal part of the contents. The bottom and top panels are formed by a single, flexible sheet and are separated from one another by a transverse folding edge defining an end of the receptacle. The top panel has a terminal edge remote from the transverse folding edge and defining, together with the bottom panel, a removal opening of the pouch. The bottom and top panels have longitudinal lateral edges extending generally perpendicularly to the transverse folding edge along the length of the receptacle. There are also provided lateral and/or transverse tabs cut out, bent out from and integrally attached to the flexible sheet for laterally guiding and positioning the contents. The longitudinal lateral edges of the bottom panel are directly and/or indirectly connected to the longitudinal lateral edges of the top panel at transversely opposite zones.

This invention relates to a packing and storing receptacle, particularly for knitting machine needles. The receptacle is of the type which has an essentially planar bottom wall and a top wall which is oriented essentially parallel to the bottom wall and which is connected to the bottom wall and defines therewith a receiving space for at least one needle packet. The receiving space has a removal opening at one end. The receptacle also has lateral guiding and positioning components for the needle packet situated in the receiving space.
Knitting machine needles of identical type are, as a rule, packaged in a side-by-side relationship to form small needle packets, each consisting of, for example, fifty needles. Conventionally, the needle packets are placed in small paper bags or envelopes which, in turn, are deposited in boxes delivered to the consumer. The introduction of the needle packets into the paper bags or envelopes is, on the one hand, uneconomical because it requires manual labor and, on the other hand, the removal of the needles by the consumer from the paper bags or envelopes is circumstantial and disadvantageous because after removing some needles, the remaining needles assume a random orientation in the pouch or envelope and thus the risks are high that they become entangled with one another.
German Patent 1,536,055 discloses a packing and dispensing receptacle for knitting machine needles that can be regarded as an improvement concerning the difficulties discussed above. The plastic receptacle disclosed in this patent--which may be considered as the starting point of the invention--has a bottom wall on which longitudinal sides, separating walls and an end wall are formed. The longitudinal sides, the bottom wall and the separating walls define needle compartments for receiving needle packets. The receptacle (housing) constructed in such a manner is open at that end which is opposite from the end wall. The needle compartments are closed by a top wall which is a cross-sectionally approximately U-shaped lid part formed of a flexible plastic component slidably received in grooves provided in the longitudinal side walls. The longitudinal sides and separating walls formed on the bottom wall as well as an upwardly bent, strip-like end piece formed on the top wall constitute lateral guiding and positioning components for the needle packets which are thus non-shiftably secured in the needle compartments.
For removing needles from such a prior art receptacle, the lid portion may be elastically bent away at its end so that the needles are exposed at their end and may be pulled out from the needle compartment through the removal opening provided at its end.
Such a multi-part plastic receptacle, however, is expensive to manufacture and is not readily adaptable for an automatic packaging of the knitting machine needles. It is a further disadvantage of this prior art construction that since the use of plastic material is a necessity, properly disposing of the empty plastic packaging receptacles poses an increasing problem and therefore the advisability to use such material is being questioned with increasing frequency.

Packing and storing receptacle, particularly for knitting machine needles

Theodor Groz & Sohne & Ernst Beckert Nadelfabrik Commandit-Gesellschaft