The present description refers in particular to a computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computer system for trust evaluation of sensor data during at least part of a sensor data life-cycle. The computer-implemented method may include evaluating an acquisition trust value (ATV) of sensor data at a sensor data acquisition module from at least one sensor node in a wireless sensor network (WSN), wherein the WSN comprises at least one sink, evaluating a delivery trust value (DTV) of sensor data at a sensor data delivery module from a sending entity to a receiving entity; and evaluating a processing trust value (PTV) at a sensor data processing module in a processing entity, to obtain a trust evaluation of the sensor data.

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are sensor networks empowered with short wireless communication capabilities. WSNs enable random and dense deployment of smart and low-cost devices in physical areas such as battlefield and body. The ability of WSNs to monitor and control physical environments makes WSN attractive for a lot of different application domains such as military, health care or traffic control. However, the integration of WSN into (complex) computer or software applications (e.g. a software for a medical emergency response center or weather forecasting systems such as a gale or storm warning system) raises technical challenges such as data routing and processing (e.g. data aggregation and data fusion). In addition to those technical challenges, the integration of WSN into software applications raise technical challenges regarding security and trust issues. In particular, such software applications require secured and trusted sensor data processing as well as secured and trusted delivery of sensor data e.g. form a WSN to a software application. In order to prevent false aggregation or fusion of data or information, software applications may, for example, require trust mechanisms for establishing their confidence in the delivered sensor data from the WSN.
Due to vulnerability of a WSN (or single sensor nodes in a WSN), attackers may easily capture a sensor node. An attacker may, for example, tend to make a WSN interoperable. Although cryptographic mechanisms are deployed for ensuring confidentiality and integrity of sensor data, those approach do not cope with compromised sensor nodes wherein cryptographic material of the sensor node is disclosed to an attacker.

Trustworthiness assessment of sensor data processing


An imaging assembly comprises a catheter having a distal end and a proximal end, an ablation tip at the distal end of the catheter, and an imaging device disposed within the ablation tip. The catheter defines a catheter lumen that extends from the proximal end to the distal end. The catheter is configured and arranged for insertion into a body lumen such as a blood vessel or heart chamber. The ablation tip has a wall that defines a lumen in communication with the lumen of the catheter. The imaging device is disposed within the lumen of the ablation tip, and is configured to transmit pulsed acoustic waves for generating images of body tissue at a target ablation site within the body.

The present disclosure relates generally to ultrasound imaging systems and methods of making and using such systems. Ultrasound imaging systems, such as intravascular ultrasound ("IVUS") and intracardiac echo ("ICE") imaging systems, provide visual indicia to a practitioner when diagnosing and treating various diseases and disorders. For example, intravascular ultrasound ("IVUS") imaging systems have been used to diagnose blocked blood vessels and to provide information to a practitioner in selecting and placing stents and other devices to restore or increase blood flow to a vessel. IVUS imaging systems have also been used to diagnose plaque build-up in the blood vessels and other intravascular obstructions. Intracardiac echo (ICE) imaging systems are used to monitor one or more heart chambers. Ultrasound imaging systems can be used to visualize images of vascular tissue that are typically visualized using other imaging techniques such as angiography.
An ultrasound imaging system can include a control module, a catheter, and at least one transducer disposed in the catheter. The catheter is configured and arranged for percutaneous insertion into a patient. The catheter can be positioned in a lumen or cavity at or near a region to be imaged, such as a blood vessel wall. Electrical pulses generated by the control module are delivered to the transducer to generate acoustic pulses that are transmitted through the blood vessel wall or other patient tissue. The reflected pulses generated by these acoustic pulses are absorbed by the transducer and transformed into an electrical signal that is converted to an image visible by the practitioner.
Intravascular ultrasound imaging systems (IVUS) typically use short wavelength, high frequency (e.g., 40 MHz) ultrasound to obtain high resolution images of tissues that lie within about 10 mm of the ultrasound transducer. Intracardiac echo (ICE) imaging systems typically use longer wavelength, lower frequency (e.g., 9 MHz) ultrasound to image the walls and structures within a heart chamber that lie within about 300 mm of the ultrasound transducer.
In some procedures where tissue ablation is required, it may be desirable to use a catheter provided with an ablation tip. Examples of ablation catheters including an ablation tip are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,571,088, 6,352,534, and 7,488,289, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes. In some instances, it may be desirable to have a means for viewing the tissues adjacent to the ablation tip during the ablation procedure. For example, in ablation of tissues of the heart wall to treat arrhythmias, it is important for the ablation to extend through the wall (i.e., transmural ablation), but it is equally important to avoid ablation of sensitive structures, such as the esophagus or the phrenic nerve, that lie just behind the heart wall tissue being ablated. A means of visualizing both the direction and the progression of the ablation is therefore needed.


Transaction management for financial institution-based transactions is facilitated in various example embodiments. According to one such embodiment, a transaction management approach involves the processing of financial aspects of a transaction using transaction rules associated with a buyer for auditing the transaction and any associated invoices. A processor arrangement processes transactions for merchant offerings subject to a related set of inventory data by auditing the transactions relative to inventory data corresponding to an inventory to which the transaction applies and stored contract data for the transaction, by processing payment in response thereto, and by assessing a processing fee against one or more parties to the transaction.

Operational management of contractual and transactional interactions between buyers of utility-type services and others involved in the exchange of products for purposes of commerce have typically been labor and time intensive. Generally, the processes of managing transactions between business entities have been unduly burdensome and inefficient.
For many organizations, managing and tracking accounts payable business functions can be particularly burdensome and costly. When a particular organization contracts and otherwise does business with a large number of suppliers/service providers, the organization typically must interact with each supplier/service provider on an individual basis. As the diversity of these interactions increases, the burden and cost associated with managing and tracking accounts payable business functions is exacerbated.
Individual interactions between buyers and service providers are often characterized by specific contracts, payment rules and other financial processing characteristics. For example, certain service providers may require payment terms such as a net payment due within a particular time period, payment to a particular financial institution or payment in a particular currency. In addition, certain service providers may require different payment terms for different contracts. Entity-specific and transaction-specific variances in payment terms can be particularly difficult to manage and track.
For various transactions, the process of determining whether a seller or supplier's request for payment is valid and accurate is made even more complex when the payment request (e.g., invoice) contains recurrent billings associated with specifically-identifiable items associated with the buyer. For instance, utilities such as communication utilities (e.g., a communication circuit) are often billed on a cyclic basis. When bills are carried over and/or payment is delayed, tracking these bills and their payment becomes difficult.
In addition, when a transaction reaches the payment step, financial institutions for different parties to the transaction must interact with each other. This interaction typically involves complex agreements and associations that facilitate the transfer of funds. At times, there can be delays in payment or disputes regarding terms of payment. In addition, this process is highly susceptible to error. Interaction complexity, delay and error, as well as a multitude of other characteristics of transaction payment can cost one or more parties to a transaction (including financial institutions) a significant amount of funds.
Most industries are quite competitive and any cost savings are therefore important. Administrative costs are targeted for reduction as no revenue is directly generated from administrative functions. However, administrative costs associated with commercial transactions have been difficult to reduce in the current business environment with widely diffused data.
The above and other difficulties in the management and coordination of business transactions have presented administrative and cost challenges to business entities involved in various aspects of transactions, including accounts payable aspects and others.

Inventory-based payment processing system and approach


The disclosure provides a luminaire having an adjustable light reflector affording a selection of flood pattern lighting.

Users of luminaires often are obliged to obtain luminaires specifically designed to provide a 'flood' of light over a broad area. Users would benefit from the availability to adapt a single luminaire for adjustable degrees of flood applications.
Various means have been employed to provide variable light patterns from a single luminaire. Typically, light pattern adjustment has been provided by movement of the lamp with respect to a fixed reflector such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,290,373, 5,249,109, and 4,729,077.


A sensor board includes an insulating substrate having an upper surface and a lower surface, first detection electrodes located on the upper surface of the insulating substrate, second detection electrodes located on the lower surface of the insulating substrate, and a heat generator located between the first detection electrodes and the second detection electrodes inside the insulating substrate and including at least one conductor layer. A portion of the insulating substrate between the heat generator and the first detection electrodes has the same thickness as a portion of the insulating substrate between the heat generator and the second detection electrodes.

Automobiles may incorporate a diesel particulate filter (DPF) to collect particulate matter (PM) mainly containing soot in exhaust gas. To detect, for example, an abnormality of the DPF, a known PM detector that serves as a PM detection sensor may include an insulating substrate formed from sintered ceramics, such as sintered aluminum oxide, and detection electrodes located on a surface of the insulating substrate. The detector detects particulate matter based on a change in the electrical characteristics caused by a detection target, such as PM contained in exhaust gas, adhering between a pair of detection electrodes.


An apparatus and method are disclosed for partitioning and downloading executable memory images in low-powered computing devices comprised of multiple processors and a mobile station modem. The general computing subsystem 102 handles tasks generally related to a personal digital assistant (PDA) as well as activating the modem computer subsystem 104 and one or more shared memory modules 108-110. The modem computing subsystem 104 handles tasks associated with a mobile station modem. Power is conserved by not clocking the modem computer system 104 and the shared memory 108-110 during times when modem functions are not needed. The shared memory modules 108-110 are loaded with a binary memory image for use by the modem computer subsystem 104 from a memory 222 under control of the general computing subsystem 102. When needed, the modem computing subsystem 104 is activated to monitor a paging channel, and disabled when it is no longer desired to monitor the paging channel. Additionally, a second shared memory 110 may be activated and used only when the modem computing system 104 needs to manage a traffic channel.

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

Method and apparatus for partitioning memory in a telecommunication device


A metallic film and a grounding pattern are surely connected to each other so as to achieve electrical shield of an electronic circuit unit. In an electronic circuit unit, the metallic film is provided on a top surface of a sealing resin portion for burying an electronic component, the side surfaces of the sealing resin portion that are opposite to each other, and the side surfaces of the multi-layered substrate that are opposite to each other. The metallic film is connected to the grounding patterns that are provided on the top surface of the multi-layered substrate or between the laminated layers of the multi-layered substrate. Therefore, it is possible to achieve a superior electrical shielding effect through the metallic film, as compared with the related art. Since the metallic film is formed on the side surfaces of the sealing resin and the side surfaces of the multi-layered substrate, when the metallic film is formed by a plating method, the blind hole may not be provided in the related art. Therefore, it is possible to achieve the superior circulation of the plating liquid, which results in sure connection between the sure connection between the grounding pattern and the metallic film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shielded electronic circuit unit that is suitable for a voltage controller or the like and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 36 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a main portion of an electronic circuit unit according to the related art, and FIG. 37 is a cross-sectional view of a main portion illustrating a method of manufacturing the electronic circuit unit according to the related art. Next, a structure of the electronic circuit unit according to the related art will be described with reference to FIG. 36. In a multi-layered substrate 51, a wiring pattern P1, which has signal patterns 52 and grounding patterns 53, is provided. The signal patterns 52 of the wiring pattern P1 are provided on a top surface and laminated layers (inner laminated layers) of the multi-layered substrate 51, and have terminal portions 52a that are provided on lower portions of the side surfaces of the multi-layered substrate 51. In addition, the grounding patterns 53 are provided on the top surface and the bottom surface of the multi-layered substrate 51.
Each of electronic components 54, which are made of chip components, has first and second electrodes 54a and 54b provided on both ends. The electronic component 54 is disposed on a top surface of the multi-layered substrate 51. In the electronic component 54, the first electrode 54a is soldered to the signal pattern 52, and the second electrode 54b is soldered to the grounding pattern 53. Therefore, the electronic component 54 is mounted on the top surface of the multi-layered substrate 51.
A sealing resin portion 55 is made of an insulating material. In a state in which the sealing resin portion 55 buries the electronic components 54, it is provided on the top surface of the multi-layered substrate 51. In the sealing resin portion 55, a blind hole 55a is provided so as to extend from the top surface of the sealing resin portion 55 to the second electrode 54b for grounding.
In addition, a metallic film 56, which performs an electrical shield function, is provided on the top surface of the sealing resin portion 55, the wall surface of the blind hole 55a, and the second electrode 54b located at the bottom portion of the blind hole 55a. In this way, the electronic circuit unit according to the related art is formed.
In the electronic circuit unit according to the related art having the above-mentioned structure, although not shown, the bottom surface of the multi-layered substrate 51 is disposed on a mother substrate. In addition, the terminal portions 52a, which are provided on the side surface of the multi-layered substrate 51, are soldered to a conductive pattern provided on the mother substrate. As a result, the electronic circuit unit according to the related art is surface-mounted on the mother substrate.
However, the electronic circuit unit according to the related art has a structure in which the metallic film 56 performing an electrical shield function is provided on the only the top surface of the sealing resin portion 55. As a result, an electrical shield effect through the metallic film 56 is insufficient. In addition, since the metallic film 56 is provided in the blind hole 55a, in particular, when the metallic film 56 is formed by means of a plating method, the circulation of a plating liquid is insufficient in the blind hole 55a. As a result, the metallic film 56 is unstably attached to the second electrode 54b.
Then, a method of manufacturing the electronic circuit unit according to the related art will be described with reference to FIG. 37. First, an assembly substrate 57 is prepared so as to form the plurality of multi-layered substrates 51, and electronic components 54 are mounted so as to correspond to a plurality of multi-layered substrates 51 in the assembly substrate 57.
Then, the electronic components 54 are buried in the top surface of the assembly substrate 57, and the sealing resin portion 55 having the blind hole 55a provided at a location of the second electrode 54b are provided. Then, a metallic film 56 is provided which is formed on the top surface of the sealing resin portion 55 and in the blind hole 55a, and connected to the second electrode 54b. Then, at the location between the adjacent multi-layered substrates 51, the assembly substrate 57 and the sealing resin portion 55 are cut at a location of a cutting line S3 such that electronic circuit units are individually separated from each other. In this way, the electronic circuit unit according to the related art is completely manufactured.
However, in the method of manufacturing the electronic circuit unit according to the related art, the metallic film 56 for performing the electrical shield function is provided on only the top surface of the sealing resin portion 55. As a result, the electrical shield effect through the metallic film 56 is insufficient. In addition, since the metallic film 56 is provided in the blind hole 55a, in particular, when the metallic film 56 is formed by means of a plating method, the circulation of a plating liquid is insufficient in the blind hole 55a. As a result, the metallic film 56 is unstably attached to the second electrode 54b.
According to the electronic circuit unit and the method of manufacturing the same according to the related art, the electronic circuit unit according to the related art has a structure in which the metallic film 56 for performing an electrical shield function is provided on the only the top surface of the sealing resin portion 55. As a result, the electrical shield effect through the metallic film 56 is insufficient. In addition, since the metallic film 56 is provided in the blind hole 55a, in particular, when the metallic film 56 is formed by means of a plating method, the circulation of a plating liquid is insufficient in the blind hole 55a. As a result, the metallic film 56 is unstably attached to the second electrode 54b.

Method of manufacturing shielded electronic circuit units


Compositions and methods for treatment of toxin poisoning are disclosed.

Several publications and patent documents are cited throughout the specification in order to describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains. Each of these citations is incorporated herein by reference as though set forth in full.
The plant toxins, ricin and abrin and the bacterial toxins, Shiga and Shiga-like toxins are type II ribosome inactivating proteins that inhibit protein synthesis by removing a highly conserved adenine from the a-sarcin/ricin loop (SRL) of the large rRNA. They consist of a catalytic A chain covalently joined by a disulfide bond to a cell binding B chain and are highly toxic to eukaryotic cells. Ricin naturally exists in the seeds of Ricinus communis (castor bean), a plant native to Asia, the Middle East and southern Europe.
In the castor bean, ricin A and B chains are encoded by a single gene, which is translated into a pre-proprotein of 576 amino acids. The ricin precursor consists of a 35 residue N-terminal extension, which contains the signal sequence. The mature RTA, which consists of 267 residues, is joined to the 262 residue mature RTB by a 12 residue linker peptide. The signal peptide directs the protein into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) where pro-ricin is core glycosylated and disulfide bonds are formed within the protein. Four disulfide bonds form within the RTB sequence and the fifth one joins RTA with RTB in the ricin holotoxin.
The B-chain of ricin (RTB) is a lectin that binds galactose or N-acetylgalactosamine receptors on the surface of target cells and promotes subsequent endocytosis of the A-chain (RTA). After RTB binds to its receptor on the surface of animal cells, a portion of the endocytosed RTA reaches the Golgi complex. RTA is an N-glycosidase that depurinates ribosomes in the cytosol by removing a specific adenine (A4324 in rat 28S rRNA) from the highly conserved SRL in the large rRNA (7, 8). RTA undergoes retrograde transport from the Golgi to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and is thought to enter the cytosol from the ER.
The depurination of the SRL has been reported to interfere with the elongation factor 1 (eEF-1) dependent binding of amino acyl-tRNA to the ribosome, as well as the GTP-dependent binding of elongation factor 2 (eEF-2) and inhibit protein synthesis at the translocation step. There is evidence that ricin induces apoptosis in a wide variety of animal cells by mechanisms other than protein synthesis inhibition. Ricin-induced apoptosis in HeLa cells was associated with oxidative stress, glutathione depletion and activation of the caspase 3 cascade, followed by downstream events leading to apoptotic cell death.
Since ricin and many other AB-toxins are quite stable, one or a few molecules are sufficient to kill cells. RTA has been used in cancer therapy as the active moiety of immunotoxins selectively targeted to cancer cells. Due to its potent cytotoxicity and wide availability, ricin has been exploited as a biological weapon and an agent of bioterrorism and has been classified as a level B biothreat by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Inhalation of small amounts of ricin aerosol can rapidly and irreversibly damage cells of the respiratory tract, leading to severe pulmonary incapacitation or death.

Ricin ribosome binding protein compositions and methods of use thereof

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey


A system and method for intelligent adherence analysis/conformance analysis coaching where a graphical user interface, which allows a supervisor to select a date range and an objective, such as a goal amount of adherence/conformance to occur at a goal frequency, is displayed; adherence/conformance data, for one or more agents, is received, agents are determined to require coaching based on a comparison of the adherence/conformance data at the goal frequency to the goal amount of occurrences of the goal amount of adherence/conformance at the goal frequency; coaching sessions are scheduled with each of the agents determined to require coaching; and an alert, which includes information indicating why the agent requires coaching, is transmitted to each of those agents.

Company call centers or Internet-based support forums put customers in contact with company employees or agents (e.g., people working for the company providing customer service or other information to customers) for assistance. Agents' performance may be improved by identifying agents which consistently have issues with or failures in meeting their objectives and providing coaching or additional training to those agents. Some issues may be that an agent does not adhere to the scheduled start and stop times of scheduled actives (e.g., the actual start and stop times that the agent performs the scheduled activity does not match the scheduled start and stop times for the scheduled activity) or the agent does not conform to the scheduled total amount of times of scheduled activities (e.g., the actual total amount of time the agent performed the scheduled activity does not match the scheduled total amount of time for the scheduled activity).
Typically, a report may be generated to review the adherence and/or conformance of the agents to determine if any of the agents are not reaching a prescribed goal and, thus, need coaching. However, there is no easy way to identify agents whose adherence and/or conformance is below a prescribed goal, such as a goal amount of adherence and/or conformance. Typically, such a process is manual and time consuming.
For example, managers and/or supervisors (e.g. people at an organization) may need to review, for each day, each agents' performance (e.g., review the agent's adherence data, such as the scheduled start and stop times for each scheduled activity and the actual start and stop times the agent performed each scheduled activity and/or review the agent's conformance data, such as the scheduled total amount of time for performing each scheduled activity and the actual total amount of time the agent actually performed each scheduled activity) to identify agents that may consistently have issues with meeting the prescribed goal, and to identify agents that improved. Due to the amount of data that needs to be reviewed, such a manual process is prohibitively time consuming and tedious.
Additionally, typically, agents who are identified or flagged as not meeting their prescribed goal do not know that there is any issue with their adherence to the scheduled start and stop times or conformance to the total scheduled time for certain scheduled actives until coaching is set up. Further, typically, agents do not know which scheduled activity or activities for which the agent is consistently not meeting his or her goal until they actually receive the coaching. Thus, typically, agents are not empowered with the knowledge necessary to start rectifying their adherence and/or conformance to meet their goal before receiving coaching.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system that can automatically or semi-automatically review agents' adherence data and/or conformance data to identify agents in need of coaching, and to provide information, in advance of the coaching, to the identified agents that the agent can utilize to rectify or start rectifying the issue requiring coaching before receiving the coaching.

Systems and methods for intelligent adherence or conformance analysis coaching


A recording medium contains, within an ink absorbent substrate per se or in an ink receiving coat layer formed on a substrate, basic magnesium carbonate together with a cationic surfactant and/or a nonionic surfactant. The recording medium is suitably used for color ink jet recording of the both-ways serial printing type and eliminates substantially the tone difference between forward and backward printings and the discoloration during indoor storage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium useful for color recording, and particularly for ink-jet color recording. The present invention also relates to a recording method employing the recording medium.
2. Related Background Art
Coated paper which has an ink-receiving layer which contains a porous inorganic pigment formed on an ink-absorbent paper base has been used for recording mediums for ink-jet recording as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-148585. The porous inorganic pigment contained in the coating layer is exemplified by silica having superior color-developing properties as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 56-185690, and by many other materials including calcium carbonate, alumina, and so forth.
The aforementioned coated paper is required to have the performance of providing images in high density and high sharpness with high resolution, and is further required to be responsive to high-speed print output.
In serial type color ink-jet printers, in order to achieve high-speed print output, increasing the driving-frequency of the head is essential, and also important is the capability of the head to conduct printing both in the forward movement direction and in the backward movement direction. A color ink-jet system is considered as an example in which four ink heads respectively for the colors of black (Bk), yellow (Y), magenta (M) and cyan (C) are arranged in the order of Bk, Y, M, and C from the back side to the front side along the forward direction of the head movement. Here, the direction of the movement of the ink heads starting from the home position is defined to be "forward" direction, and the reversed direction to be "backward" direction. The order of the colors of dots plotted with the color inks to provide colors of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) in the forward movement of the head is reversed in the backward movement. With the coated paper derived in the above cited prior art techniques, reversal of the dotting order of color inks results in change of color tone at mixed color portions, which hinders printing in back-and-forth directions.
The above prior art techniques have further disadvantages as mentioned below. For example, when the silica having a large specific surface area as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-185690 is used for obtaining a sharp image with high density, the dye applied on a recording medium changes its color over time to deteriorate the recorded image even when it is stored in ordinary environmental conditions, like posting on an indoor wall. On the contrary, with a pigment such as calcium carbonate, kaolin, and talc having a small specific surface area, the above-mentioned indoor discoloration is retarded, however the derived image density is low without sharp image quality. Therefore, the suppression of the indoor discoloration is not consistent with high image density, and this inconsistency could not be removed by prior techniques.
The inventors of the present invention became aware of the fact that the indoor discoloration of the recorded image results only when coated paper is used, and does not result when non-coated paper such as ordinary PPC paper is used, and also that this indoor discoloration differs intrinsically from the dye discoloration caused by projection of UV light or visible light, and arises even in the absence of the light.
The inventors considered that the indoor discoloration results from oxidative decomposition of the dye which is caused by interaction of the dye, the pigment and an oxidative gas with each other. Accordingly, it may be assumed that a larger specific surface area of the used pigment causes more rapid oxidative decomposition reactions. From this assumption, the fact is understood that the higher degree of indoor discoloration is caused on coated paper having larger specific surface area of the pigment used.
On the other hand, the image density will be higher if the active surface for dye absorption is larger in the vicinity near the surface layer of the coat layer.
The inventors of the present invention already proposed a recording medium free from the aforementioned problems of indoor discoloration and insufficient image density, as shown in EP 405 417 A1, etc. This recording medium, however, does not satisfactorily solve the problem of color tone change in printing in the back and forth directions.

Recording medium and ink-jet recording method employing the same


An apparatus includes a plurality of components and a plurality of component controllers. Each of the plurality of component controllers is associated with at least one component of the plurality of components. Each component controller is configured to compute a local power budget for the at least one component based, at least in part, on the power differential and the proportion of the total power consumption corresponding to the at least one component. A service processor is configured to determine failure associated with at least one component controller of the plurality of component controllers or the at least one component associated with the at least one component controller. The service processor is configured to in response to a reset threshold not being exceeded, reset the at least one component controller without interrupting operations of any components of the at least one component that have not failed.

Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of computer systems, and, more particularly, to failure recovery of distributed control of power and thermal management.
In the field of computing (e.g., servers), power and thermal management can be an important issue because of the continually increasing demands on processing rate and cooling capacity. A key element to power management is a centralized entity that implements power and thermal management across the different devices (e.g., processors, memories, etc.) in the system. Centralized management can be challenging when devices exceed power limits with sudden changes in power consumption. For example, a statistically rare event can arise from alignment of all devices suddenly increasing their usage simultaneously. As the number of devices in a computer system (e.g., a server) contributing to power swings increases, the processing load on the power management entity increases.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Handling a failure in a system with distributed control of power and thermal management

International Business Machines Corporation


In a method for manufacturing a flat display element, a pair of motherboards are prepared, and a display forming portion is formed on each motherboard. A sealant is located on one of the motherboards so as to surround the peripheral edge portion of the display forming portion, and end spacers for maintaining a gap between the two motherboards and a tacker covering the end spacers are located on the end portions of the motherboard. The motherboards are stuck on each other with the sealant, end spacers, and tacker between them, and the stuck motherboards are aligned with each other. After the alignment, the two motherboards are tacked to each other by curing the tacker. Thereafter, the motherboards are finally bonded to each other by curing the sealant. Then, the substrates, stuck on each other with the sealant, are cut out by cutting the motherboards outside the sealant.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Applications No. 2000-383882, filed Dec. 18, 2000; and No. 2001-318368, filed Oct. 16, 2001, the entire contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a flat display element, and more particularly, to a method for manufacturing a flat display element in which two substrates are stuck on each other to form a display cell with a given gap between them.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, flat display elements have widely been used as image display units of portable equipments for office automation, computer terminals, TV sets, etc. Usually, one such flat display element comprises a pair of electrode substrates opposed to each other across a given gap and an optical modulation layer, such as a liquid crystal, sealed between the electrode substrates. The respective peripheral edge portions of the electrode substrates are hermetically sealed with a sealant. A plurality of spacers for maintaining the fixed gap between the paired electrode substrates are arranged between the substrates.
These spacers are generally formed of a resin sphere each and are distributed at random in the display region of the electrode substrates. In a liquid crystal display device having a liquid crystal sealed in a display cell, therefore, the spacers disturb the orientation of liquid crystal molecules and the like, and their unbalanced distribution may possibly cause uneven display.
In order to obtain display images of higher quality levels, novel flat display elements have recently been developed and started to be used practically. In these flat display elements, spacer posts that are formed by patterning a photoresist or the like are arranged in non-display regions of the electrode substrates so that they serve to keep the gap between the substrates fixed.
The display cell used in one such flat display element is manufactured in the following steps. First, two mother glass plates each having a display cell forming region are prepared. A sealant and a dummy sealant are spread on the one mother glass plate so as to surround the forming region, and a tacker for preventing misalignment with the object mother glass plate is applied to end portions of the one mother glass plate.
Subsequently, the two mother glass plates are opposed to each other, and are roughly aligned by means of a plane mounter so that the shift of the pixel patterns that are opposed to one another in the display region of the flat display element is within about 5 xcexcm. Thereafter, the two mother glass plates are pressed and stuck on each other. Then, the mother glass plates are aligned with each other to lessen the shift of the pixel patterns. Thereafter, the tacker is cured to tack the two mother glass plates to each other, and moreover, the sealant and the dummy sealant are cured.
If the two mother glass plates are stuck on each other after they are aligned by means of the plane mounter, according to the manufacturing method described above, however, the tacker inevitably collapses, thereby causing the respective end portions of the mother glass plates to adhere to each other. In aligning the mother glass plates to lessen the pixel pattern shift by means of an aligner, therefore, the mother glass plates cannot be smoothly moved with respect to each other. Thus, the alignment takes a lot of time, so that the productivity lowers.
The present invention has been contrived in consideration of these circumstances, and its object is to provide a manufacturing method for a flat display element, in which alignment time is shortened so that productivity is improved.
In order to achieve the above object, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing a flat display element provided with a pair of substrates opposed to each other across a given gap and having the respective peripheral edge portions thereof stuck on each other with a sealant. This method comprises: preparing a pair of motherboards greater than the substrates; forming a display forming portion on each motherboard; locating the sealant on at least one of the motherboards so as to surround the peripheral edge portion of the display forming portion and locating, on the end portions of the motherboard, end spacers for maintaining the gap between the two motherboards and a tacker covering the end spacers; sticking the two motherboards on each other with the sealant, end spacers, and tacker between the two; aligning the two stuck motherboards with each other; tacking the two motherboards to each other by curing the tacker after the aligning; finally bonding the two motherboards to each other by curing the sealant after the tacking; and cutting the two motherboards outside the sealant after the final bonding so as to obtain the substrates.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing a flat display element comprising a pair of substrates opposed to each other across a given gap and including respective peripheral edge portions thereof stuck on each other with a sealant, a plurality of spacer posts provided between the substrates and maintaining the gap between the substrates, and an optical modulation layer sealed in a region surrounded by the sealant. This method comprises: preparing a pair of motherboards greater than the substrates; forming a display forming portion on each motherboard; locating the sealant on at least one of the motherboards so as to surround the peripheral edge portion of the display forming portion and locating, on end portions of the motherboard, end spacers for maintaining the gap between the two motherboards and a tacker covering the end spacers; sticking the two motherboards on each other with the sealant, end spacers, and tacker between the two; aligning the two stuck motherboards with each other; tacking the two motherboards to each other by curing the tacker after the aligning; finally bonding the two motherboards to each other by curing the sealant after the tacking; and cutting the two motherboards outside the sealant after the final bonding so as to obtain the substrates.
According to the methods for manufacturing a flat display element arranged in this manner, the respective end portions of the motherboards can be prevented from adhering to each other by means of the end spacers, so that the two motherboards can be smoothly moved with respect to each other during the alignment. Thus, the alignment time can be shortened, so that the flat display element can enjoy improved productivity.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.

Method for manufacturing flat display element


An image forming apparatus can prevent deletion of necessary data, when partially deleting a bundle development area, wherein the image forming apparatus holds information for identifying a file to be treated as a deletion target exception when an application is deleted, specifying an application to be a deletion target from among a plurality of kinds of applications, and deleting a file related to the specified application, such that in deletion, the file, serving as the deletion target exception, identified based on the held information, is not deleted.

Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to, for example, an image forming apparatus on which an application can be installed, and a method for deleting a development area of an application program (hereinafter may be abbreviated as "app".
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, image forming apparatuses have been provided with app operation environments represented by a Java® environment. Technologies for providing expandable apps by utilizing portability of programs of Java® have been discussed. To improve a function and usability of an image forming apparatus, an app that operates in an environment such as the above-mentioned. Java® environment may be created and then installed on the image forming apparatus, so that a desired function can be implemented by this app.
As an app platform, an Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi) service platform (hereinafter may be simply referred to as OSGi), which is a Java® app platform for a built-in device, may be used. The OSGi defines a bundle as a unit of software-module management, and defines specifications for managing a life cycle including installation, start, stop, update, and uninstallation. Here, the bundle refers to a Java® module. In the present specification, a bundle is synonymous with an app. Therefore, an app may be hereinafter referred to as a "bundle".
In such an app platform, the bundle can provide built-in functions such as copying, scanning, and printing. When or if issues arise in the bundle in this image forming apparatus, it is conceivable to make, as a remedy, an attempt to achieve a recovery, by allowing a serviceman to delete a bundle development area of a memory, and data held by the bundle. In this process, selection of a file to be deleted may be made easy to delete the file, and such a method is discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-034755.
However, in the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-034755, it may be sometimes necessary for the serviceman to determine which file is to be deleted. Therefore, it is conceivable to adopt a method for specifying and then deleting the whole or part of a bundle development area and data held by a bundle. However, when the bundle development area and the data are partially specified and then deleted, necessary data may also be deleted depending on how the data is held in the bundle development area, which is an issue.

Image forming apparatus and control method thereof


A polymeric membrane includes an active layer on a support. The active layer includes a polymer with a backbone, and the backbone has attached thereto at least one fluoroalcohol moiety.

Thin film composite (TFC) membranes including ultra-thin active layers and porous supports have been widely used in reverse osmosis (RO) or nanofiltration (NF) processes for desalination. In TFC membranes, the active layer controls separation properties, while the support layer enhances mechanical strength. The cross-linked aromatic polyamide produced by interfacial polymerization of m-phenylenediamine (MPD) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) has been a successful commercial product. However, the aromatic polyamides making up the active layer are sensitive to chemical disinfectants such as chlorine, and the chemical attack by disinfectants ultimately results in membrane failure as measured by enhanced passage of both salt and water.
Chlorine is commonly used upstream from desalination process (RO/NF) to kill bacteria and other organisms. Since current desalination membranes with aromatic polyamide active layers degrade when exposed to chlorine, current installations require an extra process step to remove chlorine prior to RO. For municipal systems, the purified water then has to be re-chlorinated. These extra steps could be eliminated if the active layers were more tolerant to chlorine.
Additional coating layers have been applied on the aromatic polyamides, and/or the aromatic polyamides have been chemically modified to enhance chlorine resistance. In addition, new polymers without chlorine sensitive reactive sites (for example, sulfonated poly((arylene ether sulfone) polymers) have been proposed, and these systems have improved stability in the presence of chlorine agents. However, the membranes made from these polymeric materials have limited performance compared to conventional aromatic polyamides. In addition, some of the systems required difficult synthetic work or were difficult to fabricate, which increases membrane manufacturing costs.

Polyamide membranes with fluoroalcohol functionality


The system is configured for performing scanning electrochemical microscopy via non-local continuous line probes. The continuous line probes include an insulating probe substrate, an insulating layer, and a conductive band electrode. The system includes a sample stage for positioning a sample substrate to be imaged so as to enable contact with the insulting probe substrate at an angle ΘCLP. The continuous line probe is translated across the sample substrate and changes in the signal generated at the continuous line probe are identified to indicate the presence of features on the sample substrate. A plurality of scans are performed at different angles via rotating the sample stage or the continuous line probe, the results of which are combined and analyzed to produce an image of the sample substrate via compressed sensing reconstruction. The resulting image has comparable resolution to those produced via conventional scanning electrochemical microscopy processes, but in less scan time and with less complex scanning hardware.

Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) is a powerful scanning probe microscopy (SPM) imaging method used for evaluating the chemical and physical properties of materials at microscopic and nanoscopic length scales. The vast majority of SECM measurements performed to date have used conventional ultramicroelectrode (UME) probes, which typically consist of a metallic wire sealed in an insulating glass sheath. During operation, the electrochemical interaction between this UME "point probe" and the sample are recorded in a point-by-point sensing scheme as the UME is scanned across an area of interest. A major shortcoming of conventional point probes is that they require very long scan times to image large sample areas with high resolution. In general, long scan times result in low throughput and can lead to unwanted changes in the sample or probe.
Previous research efforts have attempted to overcome the trade-off between resolution and areal imaging rates through a variety of approaches that have involved modifications to SECM hardware, the use of advanced probe geometries, and/or post measurement image processing to correct for blurriness and artifacts associated with fast scan speeds. For example, the development of scanning droplet cells for scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM), combined with the use of more efficient spiral scan patterns, has resulted in substantial increases in areal imaging rates thanks to their ability to utilize high scan rates without being limited by convection. Alongside instrument development, the use of innovative probe configurations and geometries has emerged as a promising approach to increase SECM imaging rates. For example, multiple studies have demonstrated the use of individually addressable sub micrometer electrodes for large area imaging. Other previous research combined the idea of using a linear array of microelectrodes with polymeric thin films to create soft, flexible probes capable of imaging large sample areas, even for tilted and curved surfaces. Yet, the resolution of these probes remains limited by the lateral spacing between the point probes embedded within the array. Additionally, fabrication of these probes is nontrivial, and more complex electronics (e.g. multiplexer or multichannel potentiostat) are required to analyze the signals from the individually addressable electroactive elements.
In chemical microscopy, various image post-processing strategies have been introduced for producing high-quality images from undersampled datasets. Understanding the number of measurements to reconstruct a continuous signal is also a concern in signal processing. For example, the classical Shannon-Nyquist theorem dictates the resolution of point sampling required to accurately construct a bandlimited image. While this result plays a role in areas ranging from RF communications to audio processing, for imaging it may be suboptimal: real images are not just bandlimited—they may possess additional structure, which, if used appropriately, can reduce the number of measurements required for accurate imaging. For example, in chemical microscopy, a sample of interest may include relatively sparse electrocatalytic features. The number of such features is one measure of the "information content" of the image, and is typically much smaller than the number of image pixels.

Non-local scanning probes for scanning probe microscopy

The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York


Reflectance systems and methods are described that use information of an intermediate reference signal to continuously monitor, detect and/or compensate for drift in a metrology system. The intermediate reference signal is present regardless of whether a sample is being measured. The reflectance system comprises components including a transmission element coupled to a sample area and a receiver. The transmission element is configured to route signals between components of the system. The signals include an illumination signal, and a sample signal resulting from interaction of the illumination signal with a sample when the sample is present in the sample area. The signals also include the reference signal that results from interaction of the illumination signal with one or more components of the system.

Many products use film layers to modify surface characteristics. Polycarbonate ophthalmic lenses, for example, use a film hardcoat layer to protect against scratching and chemical attack. The thicknesses of films used in different applications can range from 0.0001 micron (less than an atom thick) to several hundreds of microns. It is usually important to control the thickness of films used, whether to optimize the performance of the film, or simply to minimize the amount of film precursor that is used.
The most common method of measuring the thickness of non-opaque films less than 100 microns thick is spectral reflectance. Spectral reflectance methods first acquire a range of wavelengths of light reflected off the film structure, and then analyze this reflectance spectrum to determine the film thickness (and often other properties). See for example "Taking the Mystery Out of Thin-Film Measurement," or, "Spectroscopic Ellipsometry and Reflectometry: A User's Guide" by Tompkins and McGahan, John Wiley & Sons, 1999.Companies such as Filmetrics, Inc. of San Diego, Calif. manufacture such spectral reflectance systems.
Accurate determination of film thickness requires acquiring reflectance spectra that are an accurate representation of the film structure, i.e., the reflectance spectra must be significantly free from contributions from the measuring apparatus. The light reflected off of the film is generally measured using a spectrometer. The amount of light measured at each wavelength is a product of the light source, the film structure, the spectrometer, and the various intermediate optical components used to direct and collect the light. To determine the reflectance spectrum of the film structure, the contributions of the other system components are determined by substituting a known reflectance standard for the film structure, and using the resulting reflectance signal to normalize the subsequent film structure measurements.
Because the reference reflectance standard can not be taken simultaneously with the film structure reflectance, substantial drift in the normalization can occur over time, and this leads to degradation of the quality of the film structure reflectance spectra and, subsequently, the thickness measurement accuracy. Configurations as described above, where the reference is taken before and/or after the film reflectance measurement, are known as "single-beam" reflectance systems. In practice, references taken with single-beam configurations take operator intervention, which means that the time interval between references is generally large and that errors are possible. The result is that operator time is consumed and measurement accuracy degrades.
The primary alternative to the single-beam configuration is the dual-beam configuration, which splits off a portion of the light source and routes it to a second spectrometer. This allows for real-time monitoring of and correction for light source drift. However, dual-beam configurations are almost twice as expensive as single-beam configurations (since the spectrometer is usually the most expensive system component) and they do not take into account spectrometer drift or that of most of the optical path. An excellent review of single-versus dual-beam configurations, as well as patent literature relevant to this application, is included in U.S. Pat. No. 6,831,740 for example. Consequently, there is a need for systems and methods that provide an intermediate in-line nearly real-time reference for single-beam reflectance configurations.

Thin-film metrology using spectral reflectance with an intermediate in-line reference


One or more techniques and/or devices are provided for storage virtual machine relocation (e.g., ownership change) between storage clusters. For example, operational statistics of a first storage cluster and a second storage cluster may be evaluated to identify a set of load balancing metrics. Ownership of one or more storage aggregates and/or one or more storage virtual machines may be changed (e.g., permanently changed for load balancing purposes or temporarily changed for disaster recovery purposes) between the first storage cluster and the second storage cluster utilizing zero-copy ownership change operations based upon the set of load balancing metrics. For example, if the first storage cluster is experiencing a relatively heavier load of client I/O operations and the second storage cluster has available resources, ownership of a storage aggregate and a storage virtual machine may be switched from the first storage cluster to the second storage cluster for load balancing.

A storage network environment may comprise one or more storage clusters of storage controllers (e.g., nodes) configured to provide clients with access to user data stored within storage devices. For example, a first storage cluster may comprise a first storage controller hosting a first storage virtual machine (e.g., a virtual server) configured to provide clients with access to user data stored, through a storage aggregate, across one or more storage devices owned by the first storage cluster. A second storage cluster may be configured according to a disaster recovery relationship with respect to the first storage cluster, such that user data (e.g., client I/O operations may be split into two I/O operations that write user data to a local storage device at the first storage cluster and mirror the user data to a remote storage device at the second storage cluster so that two copies of user data are maintained across storage clusters), configuration data (e.g., volume information, a replication policy, a network interface configuration, etc.), and write caching data (e.g., data cached within a non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) of the first storage controller before being written/flushed to a storage device during a consistency point) are replicated from the first storage cluster to the second storage cluster and vice versa. In this way, when a disaster occurs at the first storage cluster and clients are unable to access user data within the first storage device because the first storage controller may be unavailable or may have failed from the disaster, a second storage controller of the second storage cluster may provide clients with failover client access (e.g., a temporary switchover of ownership of storage devices and storage virtual machines) to replicated user data that was replicated from the first storage device to a mirrored storage device accessible to the second storage controller. When the first storage cluster recovers from the disaster, the second storage cluster may switch back (e.g., a switch back of ownership of the storage devices and storage virtual machines) to the first storage cluster, such that the first storage controller provides clients with access to user data from the first storage device (e.g., the first storage device may be synchronized with any changes made to user data and/or configuration data within the mirrored storage device during switchover operation by the second storage controller). In this way, user data, cached data, and configuration data may be backed up between storage clusters for disaster recovery.
A storage cluster may locally host multiple local storage virtual machines that are actively providing clients with access to user data of the storage cluster. The storage virtual machines are replicated to a remote storage cluster, such that replicated storage virtual machines at the remote storage cluster are dormant until a switchover occurs from the storage cluster to the remote storage cluster due to a failure of the storage cluster. The remote storage cluster may locally host virtual storage machines that are actively providing clients with access to user data of the remote storage cluster. Such storage virtual machines are replicated to the storage cluster, such that replicated storage virtual machines at the storage cluster are dormant until a switchover occurs from the remote storage cluster to the storage cluster due to a failure of the remote storage cluster. Unfortunately, load balancing technology may not exist for balancing workload between storage clusters of a storage network environment. Thus, if the storage cluster experiences a relatively higher load than the remote storage cluster, clients of the storage cluster may experience increased latency and/or other performance issues.


A bicomponent monofilament tape wherein the tape is made from the fusion of the sheaths of at least about 60 bicomponent core-sheath fibers and the bonding of the fused sheaths to the core fibers is disclosed. A process for preparing a bicomponent monofilament tape by providing at least about 60 bicomponent core-sheath fibers; fusing the sheaths; and bonding the fused sheaths to the core fibers is also disclosed.

The present invention relates to a monofilament tape, which may be used as a dental floss. The floss is easy to slide between the teeth, effective at cleaning, gentle to the gums, and capable of carrying more flavor than comparable flosses.
The use of dental floss is recommended by virtually all dental health practitioners. Dental flossing has been shown to be effective in removing interdental plaque according to the Council on Dental Therapeutics. Despite these facts, only about 12% of the United States population use floss regularly. Of those who do use floss, consumers prefer flosses which are shred and fray resistant, pass easily between tight teeth, are gentle to the gums, refreshen the mouth, clean effectively, and are easy to use. Mouth freshening is controlled through the use of coatings, which typically comprise flavors, mouth fresheners, cleaning agents, polishing agents and the like. The more coating the floss substrate can carry, the better the floss may be at mouth freshening and cleaning.
Monofilament flosses made from poly(tetrafluoroethylene)/(xe2x80x9cPTFExe2x80x9d) provide most of the attributes discussed above, except for the ability to carry more flavor and other additives, and ease of handling. Many consumers feel that PTFE monofilament floss does not clean as well as conventional multi-filament flosses. In addition, the cost of PTFE floss is relatively high, mainly due to the high resin cost. Therefore, there is a need to replace PTFE with lower cost materials that will provide the above-mentioned consumer preferred attributes.
One technology that may be useful for dental floss applications is bicomponent fiber technology. Bicomponent fibers are fibers which are made from two different polymers. Bicomponent fibers are also known as xe2x80x9cconjugatexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9ccompositexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cheteroxe2x80x9d fibers. The main advantage of using this technology is to combine polymers with different properties in a single filament. Bicomponent fibers are commonly classified by their cross-sectional structures such as core-sheath; side-by-side; islands-in-the-sea; and pie-shaped.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,652 discloses the preparation of core-sheath bicomponent fibers using different materials and yarn constructions. The sheath polymers are thermoplastic elastomers, such as Pebax(copyright) and Hytrel(copyright) Brand polymers, and the core polymer is nylon. The specific examples set forth in the patent are based on 70/30 core-sheath fibers made from nylon/Pebax(copyright) 2533; nylon/Hytrel(copyright) 3078 and nylon/nylon having e.g., 144 filaments; a denier ranging from 580-730; no twist and tensile strengths of 3.4-5 g/d. These fibers were flattened on heated godets to bond the sheaths of the filaments during the fiber spinning process. The patent discloses the aspects of forming bulkable floss by utilizing different materials, mainly by using side-by-side bicomponent fibers. It also teaches methods of obtaining self-bulking and tension-induced bulkable floss.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,152 discloses a multifilament floss which has multiple cores made from nylon with either a Hytrel(copyright) or Pebax(copyright) Brand thermoplastic elastomeric polymer as the sheath.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,797 discloses a multicomponent, co-extruded, monofilament dental floss comprising a core comprising a first material such as nylon. The core is embedded in a sheath comprising a second material such as a thermoplastic elastomeric polymer. The floss has a continuous outer surface. The monofilament floss is prepared by using core-sheath technology and a die assembly during the co-extrusion process. Typical flosses disclosed in this patent have a denier of 600-700 and comprise 34 filaments with a 70/30 ratio of core polymer/sheath polymer. The disclosed flosses have a tenacity of 3-4.5 g/d and an elongation of at least 300%.
Despite the disclosure of the references, there is a continuing need for a floss which is shred and fray resistant, gentle to the gums, mouth freshening, effective at cleaning, easy to use, and passes readily between tight teeth.
The present invention provides an article comprising a bicomponent monofilament tape, said bicomponent monofilament tape comprising at least about 60 individual core fibers comprising a first polymer, said individual core fibers being embedded in and substantially completely surrounded by a fused sheath comprising a second polymer.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a process which includes the steps of providing at least about 60 bicomponent core-sheath fibers and fusing the sheaths to form a monofilament tape.
The bicomponent monofilament tape of the invention is made from the fusion of the sheaths of bicomponent core-sheath fibers. The bicomponent core-sheath fibers may be made by any process known in the art, including, but not limited to, using a co-extrusion melt spinning or solution spinning process. Co-extrusion of bicomponent fibers can be defined as extruding two polymers through the same spinneret with both polymers contained within the same filament with a distinct boundary between them.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a suitable process for making bicomponent fibers. The polymers utilized to form the core and the sheath are placed in single screw extruders (1A) and (1B). The polymers are heated and melted in the extruders, then passed through a spinneret (2) to form a plurality of co-extruded bicomponent fibers (3). The co-extruded bicomponent fibers are drawn by at least one roller (4). The co-extruded bicomponent fibers (3) are cooled in the region between the spinneret and the roller (4). The cooling may be provided by means known in the art, such as, but not limited, to chilled air (5). During the co-extrusion of the bicomponent fibers, the viscosities of the two polymers at the spinneret are preferably matched in order to prevent extrudate dogleg, which is the undesirable bending of the co-extruded bicomponent fiber (3) as it exits the spinneret (2). Matching of the viscosities may be achieved through the selection of polymeric components and the control of the temperature of the polymers in the single screw extruders (1A) and (1B) and the spinneret (2).
A spin finish may be applied by a roller (6) disposed in the cooling region (5) between the spinneret (2) and the first roller (4). Suitable spin finishes include, but are not limited to, Fasavin(copyright)2830 and Fasavin(copyright) 2758, which are commercially available through Zschimmer and Schwarz.
Roller (4) draws the plurality of bicomponent fibers exiting spinneret (2), i.e. the fibers are drawn, or stretched, as they pass through cooling zone (5) toward first roller (4). The effect of this drawing or stretching step is two-fold: first the fibers are reduced in diameter (i.e., their denier is reduced) and secondly, their tensile strength is increased. As is well known, the term xe2x80x9cdenierxe2x80x9d refers to the weight in grams per 9000 meters of fiber.
For example, at a constant rate of extrusion of polymer melt from spinneret (2), the fiber denier is reduced by increasing the rate of rotation of roller (4). Roller (4) typically rotates at a rate of from about 100 meters per minute to about 2000 meters per minute, preferably from about 400 meters per minute to about 1000 meters per minute. Preferably, a second roller (7) is used in conjunction with the first roller (4). The second roller (7) rotates at substantially the same speed as first roller (4). As can be seen by reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 1A, the plurality of bicomponent fibers (3) are collated as they leave the lower region of the cooling zone and then come into contact with the lower surface of roller (4). The collated bicomponent fibers (3A) leave roller (4) and then come into contact with the lowermost surface (as seen in FIG. 1) of roller (7). The fibers continue to pass around roller (7) in a counterclockwise direction until they reach the uppermost surface (as seen in FIG. 1) of roller (7). The fibers are then conducted across the gap between rollers (4) and (7) and are brought into contact with the uppermost surface (as seen in FIG. 1) of roller (4). One wrap of the collated fibers is completed as the collated bundle of co-extruded fibers again reaches the point at which it first contacted roller (4) as it initially left cooling zone (5). After the completion of four such wraps around rollers (4) and (7), the collated fiber bundle (3A) leaves the lower surface (as seen in FIG. 1) of roller (7) and proceeds toward roller (8).
Roller (8) is set to rotate at a faster speed than that of roller (4) and (7), as a result of which the co-extruded bicomponent fibers (3) in the collated bundle (3A) are further drawn, i.e., as is well know in the art, their denier is further reduced and their tensile strength is further increased. As can be seen in FIG. 1B, collated fiber bundle (3A) wraps several times around roller (8) after which it passes to roller (9). Fiber bundle (3A) wraps several times around roller (9) before proceeding to roller (10).
Rollers (8) and (9) typically rotate at a speed of 100 meters to 3000 meters per minute, preferably at a speed of 1500 meters to 2500 meters per minute. Roller (9) should be operated at at least the same speed as roller (8). If desired, roller (9) can be operated at a faster speed than roller 8, in which case the denier of the fibers will be further reduced and their tensile strength further increased.
As mentioned, collated fiber bundle (3A) passes to roller (10) after leaving roller (9). Roller (10) is rotated at a speed which is lower than that of roller (9), as a result of which the fibers are allowed to relax. The fiber bundle (3A) passes several times around roller (10) and then passes under idle roller (11). The fiber bundle (3A) is then taken up on roller (12) to await further processing.
As is known in the art, any of the rollers (4), (7), (8), (9), and (10) may be heated. The temperatures of the heated rollers (4), (7), (8), (9), and (10) may range from about 30xc2x0 C. to about 80xc2x0 C., preferably from about 50xc2x0 C. to about 75xc2x0 C.
The bicomponent fibers utilized in the present invention are core-sheath fibers. The bicomponent fibers utilized in this invention may have cross-sectional shapes such as round; trilobal; cross; and others known in the art.
In order to be suitable for use in the present invention, the melting point of the polymer constituting the sheath component of the core-sheath bicomponent fibers must be lower than the melting point of the polymer constituting the core component. Suitable polymers for the core include polyamides such as, but not limited to, nylon 6, nylon 11, nylon 12, and nylon 66; polyesters such as, but not limited to, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (xe2x80x9cPETxe2x80x9d) and poly(butylene terephthalate) (xe2x80x9cPBTxe2x80x9d); polyolefins such as, but not limited to, polypropylene and polyethylene; and fluorinated polymers, such as, but not limited to, poly(vinylidene fluoride) and mixtures thereof. Nylon 6 and polypropylene are preferred.
Suitable polymers for the sheath include polyolefins such as, but not limited to, polyethylene (xe2x80x9cPExe2x80x9d) and polypropylene; polyesters such as, but not limited to, polycaprolactone (xe2x80x9cPCLxe2x80x9d); poly(ether-amides) such as, but not limited to, Pebax(copyright) 4033 SA and Pebax(copyright) 7233 SA (Trademark of Elf Atochem); poly(ether-esters) such as, but not limited to, Hytrel(copyright) 4056 (Trademark of DuPont) and Riteflex(copyright) poly(ether-ester) polymers available through Hoechst-Celanese; elastomers made from polyolefins, for example Engage(copyright) elastomers available through DuPont Dow; poly(ether-urethane) such as, but not limited to, Estane(copyright) poly(ether-urethane) polymers available from BF Goodrich; poly(ester urethane) such as, but not limited to, Estane(copyright) available through BF Goodrich; Kraton(copyright) polymers such as, but not limited to poly(styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene) available through Shell; and poly(vinylidene fluoride) copolymers, such as, but not limited to, KynarFlex(copyright) 2800, available through Elf Atochem. Pebax(copyright) 4033, polyethylene, and PCL are preferred.
The ratio of the two components of the core-sheath fibers may be varied. All ratios used herein are based on volume percents. The ratio may range from about 10 percent core and about 90 percent sheath to about 90 percent core and about 10 percent sheath, preferably from about 20 percent core and about 80 percent sheath to about 80 percent core and about 20 percent sheath, more preferably from about 30 percent core and about 70 percent sheath to about 70 percent core and about 30 percent sheath.
During the process for making the monofilament bicomponent tape of the present invention, the sheaths of the bicomponent fibers are fused. As used herein, the term xe2x80x9cfusedxe2x80x9d means that the bicomponent fibers comprising collated bundle (3A) are exposed to a sufficient temperature for a sufficient period of time so that the sheaths of the individual core-sheath filaments (3) are completely melted and flow together to form a substantially continuous matrix of sheath material. The time and temperature conditions under which the fusion process takes place are, as would be understood by one skilled in the art, a function of the melting point of the particular polymer comprising the sheath material of the individual core-sheath fibers. The temperature at which the fusion of the sheaths of the core-sheath fibers is conducted is lower than the melting point of the cores of the core-sheath bicomponent fibers. As a result, the bicomponent monofilament tape of the present invention comprises a plurality of individual core fibers of polymeric material embedded in and substantially completely surrounded by fused sheath material. Fusion can be achieved, for example, by preheating fiber bundle 3A and then calendaring the preheated bundle. Calendaring is the passage of the fibers between the nip of two heated rollers separated by a specific gap which is set to control the thickness and width of the tape. The flexibility of the finished monofilament bicomponent tape can be controlled by the selection of suitable materials for core and sheath, by the ratio of sheath material to core material, and by the number and denier of the core-sheath filament in fiber bundle 3A.
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a process for converting co-extruded bicomponent fibers into the monofilament tape of the present invention. The co-extruded bicomponent fibers (3) prepared as described above are pulled by a take-up roller (20). The number of fibers (3) is at least about 60, typically from about 150 to about 500, preferably from about 200 to about 450, more preferably from about 300 to about 400. In the conversion process, the co-extruded bicomponent fibers (3) are pulled through the nip of heated rollers (21A) and (21B) by the roller (20), to thereby fuse the sheaths of the individual bicomponent fibers, thus forming a monofilament tape in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. The temperature of the rollers (21A) and (21B) may range from about 40xc2x0 C. to about 90xc2x0 C., preferably from about 40xc2x0 C. to about 85xc2x0 C.
Optionally, the fibers (3) may be pulled from the supply roll (12) (FIG. 2) over at least one heated roller (22A) prior to calendaring. In a preferred embodiment, the fibers (3) are pulled over a second heated roller (22B) prior to calendaring at rolls (21A/21B). The temperature of the heated rollers (22A) and (22B) may range from about 40xc2x0 C. to about 170xc2x0 C. The fibers (3) may then enter at least one oven (23A) prior to calendaring. In a preferred embodiment, the fibers enter a second oven (23B) prior to calendaring. The temperature of the ovens may range from about 110xc2x0 C. to about 180xc2x0 C., preferably from about 115xc2x0 C. to about 170xc2x0 C. The monofilament tape may be pulled over at least one roller (24) at ambient temperature to aid in cooling the tape.
The thickness of the monofilament tape may range from about 0.013 mm to about 0.15 mm, preferably from about 0.025 mm to about 0.07 mm.
The combination of the soft sheath polymer and the strength provided by the core fibers allows balancing the floss properties to provide the desired suppleness and gentleness to the gums. The sheath material can be selected such that it has high coefficient of friction and critical surface free energy so that the tape can be coated at higher amounts of wax and other additives to provide ease of handling and other desirable properties.
For dental floss applications, the monofilament tape is coated with a coating composition containing wax, flavor, and other additives to form a dental floss. The amount of wax, flavor, and other additives typically coated on fibers to make floss is known in the art. Typically, the coating composition is added at from 15 weight percent to 60 weight percent, based on the weight of the monofilament tape. Suitable flavors include, but are not limited to, natural and synthetic flavor oils, such as mint and cinnamon. The flavor oils may be used as is, or may be encapsulated or supported on a carrier such as starch or modified starch.
Other additives include, but are not limited to, sweeteners such as bulk sweeteners, including sorbital and mannitol, and intense sweeteners including aspartame and sodium saccharin, as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,481, hereby incorporated by reference for the disclosure relating to waxes and sweeteners; abrasives, such as silica; dentrifices, such as a fluoride or fluoride containing compound; chemotherapeutic agents; cleaners, such as peroxides; and whiteners. Examples of suitable additives are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,039, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The following Examples are intended to demonstrate the monofilament tape and the process of the invention. The Examples should in no way be interpreted as limiting the scope of the invention.


An electronic device which receives an external control signal from an external control device to perform a corresponding operation includes at least one control device to perform the corresponding operation according to the external control signal, a switching part to apply the external control signal to the control device selectively, and a control part to determine which of the at least one control device corresponds to a control target of the external control signal based on the external control signal, and to control an operation of the switching part to apply the external control signal to the determined control device that corresponds to the control target.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an electronic device, a control method thereof, and an electronic control system including the same, and more particularly, to an electronic device which performs an operation according to an external control signal, a control method thereof, and an electronic control system including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a control block diagram of a conventional display device.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, in the conventional display device which performs an operation according to an external control signal, a micro controller unit (MCU) 9 receives the external control signal through a signal receiving part 1 to control a corresponding control device, which may include a color correcting part 3 and/or a memory 5.
For example, when a color correction is performed according to the external control signal, the external control signal is applied to the MCU 9, so that the MCU 9 controls the color correcting part 3 and the memory 5 to perform corresponding operations.
However, there are drawbacks that in that in order to access the control device (i.e., the color correcting part 3 and/or the memory 5) indirectly through the MCU 9, the MCU 9 should be separately provided with a program for controlling each of the control devices (i.e., the color correcting part 3 and/or the memory 5) using the external control signal, and since a time delay is required for the indirect access, it takes too much time to transfer data and a control command signal.

Electronic device, control method thereof and electronic control system including the same


A semiconductor device may include first, second, and third semiconductor layers. The first and third layers may have a first dopant type, and the second layer may have a second dopant type. A first region within the third semiconductor layer may have the second dopant type. A second region between the first region and the second semiconductor layer may have the first dopant type. A third region above the second region may have the first dopant type. A fourth semiconductor region adjacent to the third region may have a first concentration of the second dopant type. A source contact region may have a second concentration of the second dopant type adjacent to the third semiconductor region and adjacent to the fourth semiconductor region. The second concentration may be higher than the first concentration.

Integrated circuits are formed on semiconductor substrates, or wafers. The wafers are then sawed into microelectronic dies, or semiconductor chips, with each die carrying a respective integrated circuit. Each semiconductor chip is mounted to a package, or carrier substrate, which is often mounted to a motherboard.
"Power devices" are integrated circuits (IC) that are specifically designed to tolerate the high currents and voltages that are present in power applications, such as motion control, air bag deployment, and automotive fuel injector drivers. In particular applications, the power devices are required to block voltages in both a "positive" direction, where a voltage is applied to the drain side of a particular transistor with the source and the body shorted together and held at ground, and a "negative" direction, in which a negative voltage is applied to the drain side of the transistor with source and body held at ground. The ability to block both positive and negative voltages is known as "bi-directional" voltage blocking.
Traditionally, two separate transistors, placed "back-to-back," are required to achieve bi-directional voltage blocking in power integrated circuit technologies. The need for two transistors drastically increases the size of the die and the final device. Bi-directional blocking can be achieved with one transistor if the source and body terminals are separated. However, traditional high-voltage and high-power devices, such as reduced surface field (RESURF) structures, for power ICs are designed with high-voltage blocking only on the drain side. As a result, the source side is only capable of lower voltage blocking.
Poor voltage blocking performance on the drain side is further compounded by the high concentration of dopants used in the various regions, and when a high voltage, such as between 5 and 7 volts, is applied to the source side, leakage current between the source and body terminal is dramatically increased due to the enhancement in electric field near the heavily doped junctions falling under the gate. Such current is often referred to as "hot carrier injection" (HCI) current, or "avalanche" current, and can significantly degrade the power device performance.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a RESURF structure with an increased breakdown voltage on the source side. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Semiconductor device and method for forming the same


A front-side image and a back-side image of a document are read using a plurality of image sensors mounted on a transfer path and are displayed on a display unit implemented by a touch screen, and a subsequent process of an image to be processed according to a selection of a user is performed. Accordingly, a user convenience in view of an operation to process a read image is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus including a function to read double-side images of a document using a sensor mounted on a document transfer path, and a method of controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer or a facsimile machine includes a reading function to read data recorded on a document.
A reading device using a flat-bed reading method includes a flat bed on which a document is laid and a charge coupled device (CCD) disposed below the flat bed to read one side of the document.
A method of reading both sides of a document includes a method of reading an image on one side of a document and reading an image on an other side of the document using a single image sensor while changing a transfer direction of the document and a method of reading images on front and back sides of a document transferred along a document transfer path using a plurality of image sensors provided on the document transfer path so as to face each other.
In an image forming apparatus including a double-side read function, a user confirms a document loaded on a document loading table, selects which of a front side, a back side or both sides of the document is read, and performs a reading operation. Accordingly, if an amount of documents is large and the documents are not sorted, a user determines which of a front-side read mode, a back-side read mode or a double-side read mode is set with respect to the respective documents, thereby leading to inconvenience to a user. In consideration of this problem, a method of sorting the documents according to the read mode and reading the documents may be employed. However, since an operation to sort the document according to the read mode is required, this method is also inconvenient.

Image forming apparatus and method of controlling the same


There is provided a terminal which has wireless communication unit to perform wireless communication and which operates using power supplied from an external power supply or power of a battery. The terminal includes a detection unit configured to detect whether power is supplied from the external power supply, and a control unit configured to cause the terminal to start standby operation of waiting for a signal though the wireless communication unit when the detection unit detects that power is supplied from the external power supply.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal which has a wireless communication function, can operate using power supplied from an external power supply, and can operate using power of a battery when no power is supplied from the external power supply, and a standby operation control method which is applied to the terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Terminals (a PDA, portable computer, and the like) each having a wireless communication function such as Bluetooth® or wireless LAN (Local Area Network) have recently come into widespread use.
A terminal having a wireless communication function can be used all the time in a standby state wherein it waits for signals through the wireless communication function. In the standby state, however, the battery power is rapidly consumed. For this reason, in a terminal of this type, the user manually starts/stops standby operation.
In many cases, a charger is equipped with such a terminal whose battery power is rapidly consumed. For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-291034 discloses that a portable communication terminal is charged by a charging circuit on the charger side when the portable communication terminal is connected to the charger. This reference also discloses that each of the portable communication terminal and charger is provided with a wireless communication interface unit. When the portable communication terminal is out of reach of weak radio waves from the charger, or it is determined that the portable communication terminal is out of reach, voltage supply to the wireless communication interface units is cut off to deactivate the wireless communication interface units, thereby reducing the current consumption.
However, a conventional terminal is arranged to start/stop the standby operation by manual operation of the user and is inconvenient. The technique of the above-mentioned reference needs a wireless communication interface unit also on the charger side and thus results in high cost. Also, the technique cannot satisfactorily meet user demands.
For example, when the terminal is connected to the charger, power is supplied all the time from the charger to the terminal. The user often wants to start the standby operation without concern for consumption of the battery. In this case, the user must make settings to start the standby operation every time he/she connects the terminal to the charger. The user may forget to make these settings.
Similarly, when the terminal is not connected to the charger, the user may want to stop the standby operation in order to suppress consumption of the battery. In this case, the user must make settings to stop the standby operation every time he/she removes the terminal from the charger. The user may forget to make these settings.
Under the circumstances, it is desired to provide a terminal and a standby operation control method, in which the convenience in standby operation of a terminal can be increased.

Terminal and standby operation control method