A binding apparatus includes a receiving device configured to receive a sheet from outside and convey the sheet, and a sheet folding device configured to fold the sheet, conveyed by the receiving device, in two at a center portion thereof in a direction the sheet is conveyed, so as to be a folded sheet, and convey the folded sheet with the folded portion thereof being a leading edge of the folded sheet. A jogging device includes a jogging table and is configured to receive and jog the folded sheet, conveyed by the sheet folding device, one after another, so as to be stacked into a stack of folded sheets on the jogging table. A binding device is configured to bind the stack of folded sheets stacked on the jogging table at an edge portion of the stack of folded sheets at the side where the folded portion of each folded sheet of the stack of folded sheets is located. A discharging device is configured to discharge the bound stack of folded sheets.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a binding apparatus, and in particular relates to a binding apparatus that is connected with a sheet discharging part of an image forming apparatus, such as a printer and a copier, and that folds a sheet received from the image forming apparatus and binds stacked folded sheets at the folded side parts of the folded sheets.
2. Discussion of the Background
A binding technology used in producing weekly magazines is well known. After printed sheets are stacked and jogged, the stacked printed sheets are stapled at their center portions by a stapling device. The stapled sheets are then folded at their stapled portions. Because the stapled sheets are folded at their stapled portions, the side edges of the folded sheets, opposite the stapled and folded side of the folded sheets, are not uniform. Therefore, the side edges of the folded sheets, opposite the stapled and folded side, are cut off by a cutting apparatus so as to be uniform.
A binding apparatus is known to be connected with a copying machine, downstream of a sheet discharging part of the copying machine in the sheet discharging direction. The binding apparatus sorts or collates sheets carrying an image on one or both sides of the sheets, which have been discharged from the copying machine, and then jogs and binds the sheets into a stack of sheets.
In the binding technology used in producing a weekly magazine, as described above, the side edges of the folded sheets, opposite the stapled and folded side of the folded sheets, must be cut off by a cutting apparatus so as to be uniform. Noise is produced when the side edges of the folded sheets are cut off by the cutting apparatus. The cutting apparatus is relatively large, heavy and expensive. The life of a knife used in the cutting apparatus is relatively short. Further, the consumption of electric power is relatively large. When the number of printed sheets, which must be folded, is large, the folding apparatus may not sufficiently fold the sheets.
A binding apparatus used in conjunction with a copying machine generally stacks sheets, which have been received from the copying machine, without folding each of the sheets, into a stack of sheets, and then staples the stacked sheets. The stacked sheets are stapled at edge portions of the sheets at one side. Therefore, when a sheet of the stack of stapled sheets is pulled, the stapled part of the pulled sheet is easily torn, so that the pulled sheet is taken apart from the stack of stapled sheets. For avoiding this problem, the stapling position for a stack of sheets must be located well inside of the stack of sheets toward the center portion thereof. This may result in stapling the sheets at a part of the image area of each sheet, so that the inconvenience may be caused such that a part of the image at the stapled part of each sheet cannot be seen. For avoiding the inconvenience, the image must be formed on each sheet with a relatively large margin for stapling, which then reduces the area in each sheet where an image can be formed.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-discussed and other problems and addresses the above-discussed and other problems.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a novel binding apparatus of a relatively small size, that folds a sheet, and binds stacked folded sheets so that side edges of the bound folded sheets are uniform. The preferred embodiments of the present invention further provide a novel binding apparatus and method that folds a sheet, carrying images of two pages on one side of the sheet and another images of another two pages on the other side of the sheet, at a center portion of the sheet, and that binds folded sheets, which are stacked, at the folded side parts of the folded sheets. The preferred embodiments of the present invention further provide a novel binding apparatus that reliably binds stacked folded sheets without loosening the stack. The preferred embodiments of the present invention further provide a novel binding apparatus that binds folded sheets into a stack of folded sheets so that each of the bound folded sheets is hard to be torn so as not to be easily pulled out of the stack of folded sheets. The preferred embodiments of the present invention further provide a novel binding apparatus and method that binds sheets with a relatively small binding margin so that a relatively large area of each sheet can be used for forming an image thereupon. The preferred embodiments of the present invention further provide a novel sheet folding apparatus that reliably folds a sheet. The preferred embodiments of the present invention further provide a novel jogging apparatus that reliably jog sheets which have been folded at their center portions. The preferred embodiments of the present invention further provide a novel image forming and binding system that allows to form images of image or document data of two pages on one side of a sheet and another images of another two pages on the other side of the sheet, fold the sheet at a center portion thereof, and bind the folded sheets, which are stacked, at the folded side parts of the folded sheets.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a binding apparatus includes a receiving device configured to receive a sheet from outside and convey the sheet, and a sheet folding device configured to fold the sheet, conveyed by the receiving device, in two at a center portion thereof in a direction the sheet is conveyed, so as to be a folded sheet, and convey the folded sheet with the folded portion thereof being a leading edge of the folded sheet. A jogging device includes a jogging table and is configured to receive and jog the folded sheet, conveyed by the sheet folding device, one after another, so as to be stacked into a stack of folded sheets on the jogging table. A binding device is configured to bind the stack of folded sheets stacked on the jogging table at an edge portion of the stack of folded sheets at the side where the folded portion of each folded sheet of the stack of folded sheets is located. A discharging device is configured to discharge the bound stack of folded sheets.
The binding apparatus may further include a controller to control an operation of the apparatus. The controller receives information on a size of the sheet conveyed from outside. Further, the sheet folding device includes a guiding device configured to guide the sheet conveyed by the receiving device, and a sheet folding/pressing device configured to fold the sheet conveyed by the receiving device and press the folded sheet. The guiding device includes a stopping device configured to stop the sheet being conveyed by the receiving device to be conveyed, and a position the stopping device stops the sheet to be conveyed is set by the controller according to the information on the size of the sheet so that the sheet is folded at the center portion of the sheet by the sheet folding/pressing device. The sheet being conveyed by the receiving device is stopped to be conveyed by the stopping device, so that the center portion of the sheet is downwardly slackened, the slackened centered portion of the sheet is pinched into the sheet folding/pressing device, and thereby the sheet is folded in two at the center portion thereof by the sheet folding/pressing device.
The sheet folding device may further include a detect device configured to detect a leading edge of the sheet guided by the guiding device, a pushing device configured to push the slackened center portion of the sheet toward the sheet folding/pressing device, and a pushing device moving device configured to move the pushing device downwardly toward the sheet folding/pressing device so as to push the slackened center portion of the sheet toward the folding/pressing device and upwardly so as to separate from the sheet folding/pressing device. The pushing device moving device moves the pushing device downwardly to push the slackened center portion of the sheet toward the sheet folding/pressing device at a predetermined timing after detection of the leading edge of the sheet with he detect device, so that the slackened center portion of the sheet is pushed by the pushing device so as to be pinched into and thereby the sheet is folded in two at the center portion thereof by the sheet folding/pressing device.
The pushing device may include a saw-toothed knife to push the center portion of the sheet, so that the sheet is perforated at the pushed center portion of the sheet when the saw-toothed knife pushes the center portion of the sheet.
The sheet folding device may include a sheet folding/pressing device having a pair of sheet folding rollers and a pair of supplementary pressing rollers. The pair of supplementary pressing rollers is arranged downstream of the pair of sheet folding rollers in the direction the folded sheet is conveyed and is angled relative to the pair of sheet folding rollers, and a distance between a nip portion of the pair of supplementary rollers and a nip portion of the pair of the sheet folding rollers at a position corresponding to a widthwise edge of the folded sheet, at a side of a widthwise direction where the pair of the supplementary rollers and the pair of sheet folding rollers are farther separated from each other, is shorter than a length of the folded sheet in the direction the folded sheet is conveyed.
The jogging device may include a leading edge stopping device configured to stop the folded sheet to be conveyed at the leading edge thereof, and a left side jogging device configured to jog the folded sheet with respect to a left side of the folded sheet in a direction the folded sheet is conveyed, a right side jogging device configured to jog the folded sheet with respect to a right side of the folded sheet, and a rear side jogging device configured to jog the folded sheet with respect to a rear side of the folded sheet, each including an upper guide member to guide the folded sheet being conveyed by the sheet folding device toward the jogging table and a jogging member to jog the folded sheets on the jogging table, The upper guide member of each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is configured to swing between a horizontal position where the upper guide member is substantially horizontal so as to hold down a previously conveyed folded sheet on the jogging table and so that the folded sheet being conveyed by the sheet folding device slides over an upper surface of the upper guide member to be stopped by the leading edge stopping device and a slanted position where the upper guide member is upwardly slanted. Each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is configured to move to a first position where the upper guide member thereof in the horizontal position separates from the folded sheet carried on the upper surfaces of the upper guide members of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices and to a second position where the jogging member thereof is in a position corresponding to a size of the folded sheet being conveyed by the folding device, which is determined by the controller according to the information on the size of the sheet. When the folded sheet is conveyed to the jogging device by the sheet folding device, each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is in the second position and the upper guide member of each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is in the horizontal position.
After the folded sheet has been conveyed by the folding device to the jogging device so as to slide over the upper surfaces of the upper guide members of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices, each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices moves, with the upper guide member thereof kept in the horizontal position, to the first position, where the upper guide member of each of the left, right and rear side jogging devices is swung to the slanted position, and each of the left, right and rear sides jogging devices is then moved to the second position, where the upper guide member of each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is returned to the horizontal position.
The leading edge stopping device may include a leading edge binding position adjusting device configured to change a position the leading edge stopping device stops the folded sheet to be conveyed so that a position in the folded sheet relative to the leading edge thereof where the binding device binds the folded sheet is changed.
The folding device may include a detect device configured to detect that the folded sheet is discharged toward the jogging device, and the jogging device may include a sheet center thrusting device configured to swing between a horizontal position to downwardly thrust the folded sheet carried on the upper surfaces of the upper guide members of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices and a slanted position where the sheet center thrusting device is upwardly slanted, and a sheet center thrusting device driving device configured to drive the sheet center thrusting device so as to swing between the horizontal position and the slanted position.
The sheet center thrusting device driving device drives the sheet center thrusting device downwardly to move to the horizontal position so as to downwardly thrust the folded sheet carried on the upper surfaces of the upper guide members of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices, after the detect device detects that the folded sheet has been discharged toward the jogging device, and to swing back to the slanted position, after each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices in the second position moves toward outside to the first position, moves again toward inside to the second position after the upper guide member of each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is swung to the slanted position, stops at the second position, and the upper guide member of each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is swung to the horizontal position.
When the binding device binds the stack of folded sheets stacked on the jogging table, the jogging member of each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is in the second position, the upper guide member of each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is in horizontal position, and the sheet center thrusting device is in the horizontal position.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a sheet folding apparatus includes a pair of sheet folding rollers and a pair of supplementary pressing rollers. The pair of supplementary pressing rollers is arranged downstream of the pair of sheet folding rollers in a sheet conveyance direction and is angled relative to the pair of sheet folding rollers, and a distance between a nip portion of the pair of supplementary rollers and a nip portion of the pair of the sheet folding rollers at a position corresponding to a widthwise edge of the sheet, at a side of a widthwise direction where the pair of the supplementary rollers and the pair of sheet folding rollers are farther separated from each other, is shorter than a length of the folded sheet in the sheet feeding direction. A portion of a sheet is pinched into the pair of sheet folding rollers so that the sheet is folded in two by the pair of sheet folding rollers, and then the folded sheet is pressed by the pair of supplementary pressing rollers, so that the folded portion of the folded sheet is firmly folded.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a jogging apparatus includes a jogging table on which a sheet may be stacked one after another, and a leading edge stopping device configured to stop a sheet conveyed from outside at a leading edge thereof, a left side jogging device configured to jog the sheet with respect to a left side of the sheet in a direction the sheet is conveyed, a right side jogging device configured to jog the sheet with respect to a right side of the sheet, and a rear side jogging device configured to jog the sheet with respect to a rear side of the sheet. Each of the left side, right side, and rear side jogging devices includes an upper guide member to guide the sheet conveyed from outside onto the jogging table one after another so as to be stacked into a stack of sheets on the jogging table and a jogging member to jog the stack of sheets on the jogging table. The upper guide member of each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is configured to swing between a horizontal position where the upper guide member is substantially horizontal so as to hold down a previously conveyed sheet on the jogging table and so that the sheet being conveyed from outside slides over an upper surface of the upper guide member to be stopped by the leading edge stopping device and a slanted position where the upper guide member is upwardly slanted. Each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is configured to move to a first position where the upper guide member thereof in the horizontal position separates from the sheet carried on the upper surfaces of the upper guide members of the left side, right side and rear side jogging device and to a second position where the jogging member thereof is in a position corresponding to a size of the sheet being conveyed from outside. When the sheet is conveyed, each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is in the second position and the upper guide member of each of the left side, right side and rear side jogging devices is in the horizontal.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, an image forming and binding system includes an image formation controller configured to generate and transmit image or document data with page and sheet size information and printing and binding instructions thereof, and an image forming apparatus configured to form images of the image or document data received from the image formation controller on both sides of a sheet according to the page and sheet size information and the printing and binding instructions and discharge the sheet, and a binding apparatus configured to bind sheets received from the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus forms a second page image and a third page image of images of four pages of the image or document data on a first side of the sheet, which upwardly faces when the sheet is exited from the image forming apparatus, with the second page image at a leading edge side of the sheet in a direction the sheet is conveyed, and a first page image and a fourth page image of the images of four pages on a second side of the sheet, which downwardly faces when the sheet is exited from the image forming apparatus, with the first page image at the leading edge side of the sheet in the direction the sheet is conveyed, and the image formation controller controls the image forming apparatus to form the images of the image or document data starting from last four pages of the image or document data. The binding apparatus includes a controller to control an operation of the binding apparatus. The controller receives the sheet size information and the binding instruction from the image formation controller. A receiving device of the binding apparatus is configured to receive the sheet discharged by the image forming apparatus and convey the sheet. A sheet folding device is configured to fold the sheet, conveyed by the receiving device, in two at a center portion thereof in the direction the sheet is conveyed according to the sheet size information, and convey the folded sheet. A jogging device includes a jogging table and is configured to receive and jog the folded sheet, conveyed by the sheet folding device, one after another, so as to be stacked into a stack of folded sheets on the jogging table according to the sheet size information. A binding device is configured to bind the stack of folded sheets stacked on the jogging table at an edge portion of the stack of folded sheets at the side where the folded portion of each folded sheet of the stack of folded sheets is located according to the binding instruction, and a discharging device configured to discharge the bound stack of folded sheets.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method of binding sheets includes receiving a sheet from outside and conveying the sheet; folding the conveyed sheet in two at a center portion thereof in a direction the sheet is conveyed so as to be a folded sheet and conveying the folded sheet with the folded portion of the fold sheet being a leading edge of the folded sheet with a sheet folding device; receiving and jogging the conveyed folded sheet one after another so as to be stacked into a stack of folded sheets with a receiving/jogging device; binding the stack of stacked folded sheets at an edge portion of the stack of folded sheets at the side where the folded portion of each folded sheet of the stack of folded sheets is located with a binding device; and discharging the bound stack of folded sheets.
The binding method may further include receiving information on a size of the sheet, and the folding/conveying may include receiving and guiding the conveyed sheet, setting a position where the conveyed sheet is stopped to be conveyed according to the size of the sheet so that the sheet is folded by the sheet folding device at the center portion of the sheet, and stopping the sheet to be conveyed at the position, so that the center portion of the sheet is downwardly slackened, the slackened center portion of the sheet is pinched into the sheet folding device, and thereby the sheet is folded in two at the center portioned of the sheet by the sheet folding device.
The folding/conveying may further include detecting a leading edge of the sheet, and pushing the slackened center portion of the sheet toward the sheet folding device with a pushing device at a predetermined timing after the detection of the leading edge of the sheet, so that the slackened center portion of the sheet is pinched into the sheet folding device.
In the above-described method, the pushing device may include a saw-toothed knife to push the slackened center portion of the sheet. In this case, the pushing includes perforating the sheet at the pushed center portion of the sheet with the saw-toothed knife.
In the above-described method, the sheet folding device may include a pair of sheet folding rollers and a pair of supplementary pressing rollers. The pair of supplementary pressing rollers is arranged downstream of the pair of sheet folding rollers in the direction the folded sheet is conveyed and is angled relative to the pair of sheet folding rollers, and a distance between a nip portion of the pair of supplementary rollers and a nip portion of the pair of the sheet folding rollers at a position corresponding to a widthwise edge of the folded sheet, at a side of a widthwise direction where the pair of the supplementary rollers and the pair of sheet folding rollers are farther separated from each other, is shorter than a length of the folded sheet in the direction the folded sheet is conveyed. In this case, the folding/pressing includes folding the sheet with the pair of sheet folding rollers and pressing the folded sheet with the pair of supplementary pressing rollers.
The binding method may further include receiving information on a size of the sheet and determining a size of the folded sheet folded at the center of the sheet, and the jogging device may include a leading edge stopping device to stop the folded sheet, an upper guide member to guide the folded sheet conveyed by the sheet folding device and a jogging member to jog the folded sheet. In this case, the receiving/jogging includes, sliding the conveyed folded sheet over an upper surface of the upper guide member of the jogging device, which is in a substantially horizontal position, to be stopped by the leading edge stopping device and to be carried on the upper surface of the upper guide member, moving the jogging device to a first position where the folded sheet carried on the upper surface of the upper guide member separates from the upper guide member to fall onto the jogging table, swinging the upper guide member from the horizontal position to a slanted position where the upper guide member is upwardly slanted, and moving the jogging device to a second position where the jogging member of the jogging device is in a position corresponding to the size of the folded sheet being received.
In the above-described method, the folding device may include a detect device to detect that the folded sheet is discharged toward the jogging device and a sheet center thrusting device to downwardly thrust the folded sheet carried on the upper surface of the upper guide member of the jogging device. In this case, the receiving/jogging further includes detecting that the folded sheet is discharged toward the jogging device with the detect device, and swinging the sheet center thrusting device between a substantially horizontal position where the sheet center thrusting device downwardly thrusts the folded sheet carried on the upper surface of the upper guide member of the jogging device and a slanted position where the sheet center thrusting device is upwardly slanted.
In the above-described method, in the binding, the jogging member of the jogging device is in the second position, the upper guide member is in the horizontal position, and the sheet center thrusting device is in the horizontal position.
The receiving/jogging may further include stopping the folded sheet to be conveyed at a leading edge of the folded sheet so that the folded sheet is jogged relative to the binding device, and adjusting a position to stop the folded sheet so that that a position in the folded sheet relative to the leading edge thereof where the binding device binds the stack of folded sheet is changed.

Sheet folding and binding apparatus and method


Disclosed is a system for connecting a beacon device and a gateway device. The system includes beacon devices and the gateway device. The beacon device belonging to the beacon devices is adapted to provide a bi-directional connection to the GW device and the GW device is adapted to provide a bi-directional connection to an application system. The beacon devices form a multi-hop wireless mesh network, the GW device provides a bi-directional mesh connection to the wireless mesh network, and the wireless mesh network is used for communicating data between the beacon device and the GW device.

Beacons are small, low cost, usually battery-operated, wireless devices emitting advertisement broadcast frames e.g. using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol. The advertisement messages of the beacon devices can be received by a mobile device, such as a smartphone or a tablet, or other device that supports the specified protocol. Today, there are few different beacon protocols defined, such as iBeacon, UriBeacon, and Eddystone for example. All of them use the BLE advertisements to broadcast data and the beacon protocols specify the payload in the BLE advertisements.
FIG. 1 presents an example of beacon device operation. A beacon device 103 broadcasts BLE advertisements 106 periodically in one or multiple frequency channels. Mobile devices can attempt to receive the advertisements by scanning 105. In order to be able to receive the advertisements, a mobile device 102 needs to be inside the beacon device's radio range 104. A mobile device 101 outside of the radio range of the beacon device, cannot receive the advertisements.
Beacon devices have many different applications. Usually, in the envisioned applications, beacon devices are widely deployed in large quantities. Beacon devices have applications e.g. in retail, events, and transportation. In retail, beacon devices can be used e.g. for advertising, providing product information, and for contactless payment. In events, beacon devices can be used e.g. for communicating information and complementary content, and to promote sales. In transportation, beacon devices can be used e.g. for alerting travelers of delays and schedule changes, and reporting weather conditions.
Whilst there are multitude of envisioned applications for the beacon devices, there is no efficient way of connecting multiple beacon devices to an application system e.g. for management, status monitoring, and configuration purposes. To manage the beacon devices, there are currently three options: 1) configuration with a mobile device, 2) using end users' mobile devices as a gateway to an application system, or 3) adding extra gateway devices to enable connection between the beacon devices and an application system.
FIG. 2 presents an example of configuring a beacon device with a mobile device. When configuring with a mobile device 201, e.g. a smartphone, the user has to form a bi-directional connected BLE link 203 between the beacon device 202 and the mobile device 201. This means that the user has to be inside the radio range 204 of the beacon device. After the link 203 has been established, configuration can be done using an application in the mobile device 201. Usually the radio ranges of the beacon devices are in the scale of tens of meters. Thus, configuring large beacon installations requires lot of manual labor and increases maintenance cost of the system. In this scenario, remote management is not a possibility.
Another way of exploiting mobile devices is to use them as a gateway to an application system. The rationale in this method is that when the system is used, there are always end users' mobile devices nearby and they have connection both to the beacon devices and to an application system. However, this connectivity is intermittent and not guaranteed. There may be users in vicinity of some beacon devices at a specific time instant or then there may be not. The operator of the fleet of beacon devices cannot rely on this, as the infrastructure is it out of the operator's control. Also, in this scenario, the end user's data connection needs to be used for communication to the application system, which may be unacceptable for many end users.
FIG. 3 presents an example of connecting a beacon device to an application system using a mobile device. A mobile device 301 has to be inside the radio range 304 of the beacon device 302 to form a connection. In order to provide communication to and from the beacon device 302, a bidirectional BLE link 303 has to be established between the mobile device 301 and the beacon device 302. The mobile device includes a backhaul connection 305 e.g. via cellular or Wi-Fi. A connection between an application system 306 and the beacon device 302 can be established by running software in the mobile device 301 that relays data between the two entities. This connection can be used for e.g. remotely configuring the beacon device 302.
By adding extra hardware acting as gateway between the beacon devices and an application system brings application system connectivity control to the operator and gives possibility for remotely managing the beacon devices. However, as BLE is a star topology, the amount of extra hardware needed (the gateways) scales up with the amount of beacon devices installed and with the geographical coverage of the beacon device installation. This increases the system cost significantly, especially in large installations.
FIG. 4 presents an example of connecting a beacon device to an application system using an additional gateway device. A gateway device 401 has to be inside the radio range 404 of the beacon device 402 to form a connection. In order to provide communication to and from the beacon device 402, a bidirectional BLE link 403 has to be established between the gateway device 401 and the beacon device 402. The gateway device includes a backhaul connection 405 e.g. via cellular, Wi-Fi, or Ethernet. A connection between the application system 406 and the beacon device 402 can be established by running software in the gateway device 401 that relays data between the two entities. This connection can be used for e.g. remotely configuring the beacon device 402. The gateway device 401 has to include interfaces for both the backhaul connection 405 and BLE connection 403.
FIG. 5a illustrates an example of a beacon device hardware architecture. A beacon device 500 includes a memory 501, microcontroller unit (MCU) 502, a radio transceiver 503, antenna 504, and a power supply 505. The MCU 502 is used to run program code for a possible application and the BLE advertisement protocol. The radio transceiver 503 is used to transmit the BLE advertisements via the antenna 504. The power supply 505 includes components for powering the device, such a battery and a regulator.
FIG. 5b presents an example of a gateway device hardware architecture. A gateway device 550 includes a memory 551, microcontroller unit (MCU) 552, a radio transceiver 553, antenna 554, backhaul connectivity 555, and a power supply 556. The MCU 552 is used to run program code for a gateway application and BLE connectivity protocol. The radio transceiver 553 and antenna 554 are used form bidirectional BLE links to beacon devices inside gateway device's radio range. The backhaul connectivity 555 is used to form bi-directional connection to the application system. The gateway application relays data between the application system and a beacon device using the backhaul connectivity and BLE connectivity. The power supply 555 includes components for powering the device. The gateway device may also implement the beacon advertisement functionality.
Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is a general term for types of networks where devices can communicate with each other not only directly, but also indirectly over multiple hops using other nodes in the network for routing data between communicating endpoints. Other general terms also used on this types of networks include ad hoc networks, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSAN), Low power and Lossy Networks (LLN). A WMN usually constitutes of multiple nodes devices, and one or multiple gateway devices. The gateway devices provide connection between the WMN and other networks, such as Internet. WMNs are characterized to be autonomous and low power. Usually, WMNs employ either a time-slotted or a contention-based channel access method at the link layer.
FIG. 6 presents an example of time-slotted WMN link layer operation. The communicating nodes 601, 602, 603 use time slots 604 for exchanging data 606. The time slots are synchronized using a WMN protocol-specific signaling method. Time outside the synchronized time slots is inactive time 605 and e.g. the radio transceiver is not used. This time can be used e.g. to conserve energy by going to deep sleep mode resulting in low power operation.
FIG. 7 illustrates an example of contention-based WMN link layer operation. For the devices that can route data 701, 702, the radio is active all the time 704 resulting in increased power consumption. If there is nothing to send the radio is kept in reception mode. This way, when another device has data to send, it can do it immediately 705. The specific method for accessing the channel is WMN protocol-specific and e.g. CSMA-CA or Aloha can be used. There may also be sleepy end nodes 703 that cannot route data, and can be inactive if nothing to send.

System for connecting a beacon device and a gateway device


A method and a system for analyzing infrastructure are provided. In one embodiment, a system for analyzing infrastructure is provided. The system includes a grid intelligence quotient as a service (GIQAAS) system. The GIQAAS system includes an infrastructure data gathering system having a first input form configured to collect an economic data related to an infrastructure. The GIQAAS system further includes an economic modeling system configured to import the economic data and to derive an economic analysis based on the economic data. The GIQAAS system is configured to provide the infrastructure data gathering system to a first user for collection of the economic data, and to provide the economic modeling system to a second user for derivation of the economic analysis.

The invention relates generally to infrastructure, and more particularly to a method and system for analyzing infrastructure.
Infrastructure, such as a smart grid, includes a variety of systems and components. In the smart grid example, systems may include power generation systems, power transmission systems, advanced metering systems, digital communications systems, control systems, and their related components. Other items associated with the infrastructure may include contracts, service level agreements, and like, detailing capitalization, cost, and revenues for the infrastructure. Designing and analyzing such infrastructure can be complex and costly.

Economic analysis of grid infrastructure


A precision partially cylindrical web guide member for use as a backer bar in electrophotographic printers or as a similar web guide in an apparatus with moving webs. In a novel process of the invention, multiple web guide members may be manufactured from arc segments of a tube wherein the finished radial dimensions of the web guide members are formed in a turning process. The bottom surface of the web guide member need not be machined or finished.

The present invention relates generally to improved precision manufactured web, web guide members made by an improved precision manufacturing process. One embodiment of the improved manufacturing process and improved web guide members is described in relation to precision backer bars for use in electrostatographic printing systems for controlling tension and tolerances of a moving web.
Rounded web guide members are used frequently during many processes for handling or manufacturing moving webs. Examples include photographic film and paper manufacturing, paper manufacturing, rolled steel and aluminum manufacturing and any number of similar operations. Rounded web guide members are often used in such applications to provide support, tension, and directional control of the moving web. The more precise the requirements for uniform treatment of the web, the more precise the requirements for uniform straightness and curvature of the rounded web guide members.
One embodiment of an apparatus requiring extreme straightness and length-wise uniformity of web guide members occurs when such web guide members are used as backer bars within imaging-web based electrostatographic printing systems. Backer bars are commonly used in such electrostatographic printing systems to hold flexible electrostatographic imaging members in proper position with proper tension. In order to understand the function and importance of backer bars, a description of printing systems utilizing flexible imaging members follows:
Flexible electrostatographic imaging members are well known in the art. Typical electrostatographic imaging members include, for example, photoreceptors for electrophotographic imaging systems and electroreceptor such as, ionographic imaging members for electrographic imaging systems. These imaging members generally comprise at least a supporting substrate layer and at least one imaging layer comprising thermoplastic polymer matrix material. The xe2x80x9cimaging layerxe2x80x9d as employed herein is defined as the dielectric imaging layer of an electroreceptor or the photoconductive imaging layer of a photoreceptor. In a photoreceptor, the photoconductive imaging layer may comprise only a single photoconductive layer or a plurality of layers such as, a combination of a charge-generating layer and a charge transport layer.
Generally, in the art of electrophotography, the process of electrophotographic printing or copying is initiated by exposing an analog or digitally created image of an original document onto a substantially uniformly charged photoreceptive member. Exposing the charged photoreceptive member to a light image discharges a photoconductive surface thereon in areas corresponding to non-image areas in the original document while maintaining the charge in image areas, thereby creating an electrostatic latent image of the original document on the photoreceptive member. This latent image is subsequently developed into a visible image by depositing charged developing material onto the photoreceptive member surface such that the developing material is attracted to the charged image areas on the photoconductive surface. Thereafter, the developing material is transferred from the photoreceptive member to a receiving copy sheet or to some other image support substrate, to create an image, which may be permanently affixed to the image support substrate, thereby providing an electrophotographic reproduction of the original document. In a final step in the process, the photoconductive surface of the photoreceptive member is cleaned with a cleaning device, such as, elastomeric cleaning blade, to remove any residual developing material, which may be remaining on the surface thereof in preparation for successive imaging cycles. Electrostatographic copying and printing processes similar to those described above are well known. Analogous processes exist in other electrostatographic printing applications such as, for example, ionographic printing and reproduction where charge is deposited on a charge retentive surface in response to electronically generated or stored images.
An exemplary use of backer bars in such systems is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,924, issued to Shogren et al. and hereby incorporated herein by reference. The backer bars in Shogren are mounted within a customer replaceable unit that includes a corner and support structure for supporting a photoreceptor belt while it is packaged, shipped and inserted over drive and idler rolls in a machine. The customer replaceable unit prevents a machine operator from having to handle the belt itself and provides protection from extrinsic damage. The system as described includes web guide members for tensioning the photoreceptor belt during use.
Throughout the electrostatographic imaging process described above, the photoreceptor web must be held in positions within tight tolerances. As shown and described in Shogren, many of these tolerances are maintained by web guide members such as, backer bars. Because of the requirements for tight tolerances, precision manufacturing of prior art backer bars has been an expensive and work intensive process comprising the following prior art processes:
1) Extruding an aluminum bar conforming to the general profile of the finished backing bar. An extrusion process, however, cannot yield the precision required for the part, particularly in respect to the straightness of the bar along its long dimension.
2) Machining each bar to enable the bar to be mounted to a grinding fixture and to machine holes at each end required for mounting and positioning of the finished backer bars adjacent to belt 10 within the printing system. The shape of prior art backer bars after machining is shown as bar 100 in FIG. 1. Significantly, although the rounded radius side 111 is the only side in contact with the moving imaging web in the final application, prior art processes require that both the radius surface 111 and at least one other surface be machined to great accuracy. As shown in FIG. 2, the reason is that at least one surface 112 (usually the bottom) other than the radius must be machined precisely in order that the unground raw backer bar be mounted with sufficient precision within a grinding fixture that will shape the final radius surface. If the bottom is not precisely straight, then the top radius surface will not be straight either. Since each backer bar is machined in its xe2x80x9cfree statexe2x80x9d, the costs and difficulty of this precision machining process are very significant.
3) Mounting each machined bar into a grinding fixture 113, as shown in FIG. 2. The prior art mounting fixture typically mounts 10 or more backer bars, depending upon the desired top radius.
4) Cylindrical grinding. Once the machined backer bars are mounted into grinding fixture 113, fixture 113 is placed in a cylindrical grinding apparatus comprising cylindrical grinding wheel 115 for grinding the top radius 111 of all bars mounted within the fixture to the precise radius curvature required. As noted above, straightness of the bar is largely determined by the straightness of the bottom surface since this bottom surface 112 determines the straightness of the backer bar within mounting fixture 113. The cylindrical grinding operation yields a precision-straight top surface of uniform radius dimension from the center of the mounting fixture.
5) Finishing the surface of the backer bars while placed within in the cylindrical grinder apparatus. Such finishing operation may require the additional use of various grades of grinding wheels 115 to achieve the required surface finish.
6) Anodizing the ground and finished backer bars.
The above prior art process is time consuming, labor intensive, and requires precision machining on at least two surfaces plus precision grinding. The end result is an expensive process with many opportunities yielding a significant failure rate. It would be advantageous to create precision backer bars having in a process requiring less machining and with higher yields.
One aspect of the present invention includes a process for manufacturing precision web guide members, comprising: (a) extruding a tube having a tubular body, a length dimension, an outside diameter, and an inside surface, said inside surface having radial cavities extending along the length dimension from the inside surface partially through the tubular body; (b) turning the tube to decrease the outside diameter; and (c) sizing the tube to a desired length.
Another aspect of the present invention includes a precision partially cylindrical web guide member for guiding a moving web member in an apparatus within which the web is moved, said web guide member comprising: a top surface for contacting the web comprising the outside surface of an arc segment of a cylindrical tube; and a bottom surface comprising the inside surface of the arc segment of the cylindrical tube.
Yet another aspect of the present invention includes an electrophotographic imaging system, comprising: (a) a partially cylindrical web guide member for guiding a moving web, said web guide member comprising: a top surface for contacting the web comprising the outside surface of an arc segment of a cylindrical tube; and a bottom surface comprising the inside surface of the arc segment of the cylindrical tube; and (b) a fixture for mounting the web guide member within the electrophotographic imaging system.

Precision partially cylindrical web guide member and improved manufacturing process for making the same


A carton and carton blank for forming a carton of the top gripping type for accommodating a plurality of containers, for example bottles, which carton is tubular in structure and comprises a first panel having a plurality of apertures, each of which has at least one foldable retention tab which operatively engages the underside of the radially protruding part of a container present in the aperture wherein a brace tab is connected to one of said retention tabs and is disposed between a pair of adjacent containers to minimize relative movement between those containers and wherein a free edge of said brace tab operatively engages the underside of the radially protruding part of one of said adjacent containers.

The invention relates to a carton produced for packaging a plurality of articles, for example bottles. More particularly the invention relates to a carton of the top gripping type which attaches to the tops of the articles thereby securing the articles in an array.
It is known to provide top gripping cartons which comprise so called sunburst apertures having a series of circumferencially arranged tabs which enable the bottle top to pass through the apertures which tabs engage on the underside of a bottle top or on the flange of a bottle neck to prevent the removal of the bottle from the aperture. A problem arises when such sunburst type apertures are used for bottles, in particular the location in which the tab engages the underside of the bottle top is high up on the bottle neck. This creates a carton that is unstable. Further, the tabs are weakened by the unstable nature of the bottles within the carton so reducing its effectiveness.
A further problem is that a top gripping carton needs to be of sufficient strength to support the bottle. A rigid structure would address this problem but produces its own difficulties. In particular, a top panel and/or base panel does not provide requisite rigidity and sufficient strength to support the bottle.
Known cartons of this type are disclosed in EP0541334 A1. This patent specification discloses keel construction suitable for retaining and/or separating articles. However, the keels are somewhat complex to set up from a collapsed form in the carton blank. Several different embodiments of keels are shown and described however, each keel acts to separate two articles in adjacent rows is formed from at least two separate tabs which are struck from the base of the carton which panels are required to be interlocked for example at a co- operating tab and aperture in order to form an erected keel. In some embodiments the base of the carton is formed from two overlapping base panels which are also required to be interlocked and accordingly the formation of the carton and keel structure is fairly complex.
The invention seeks to avoid or at least mitigate these and other problems of the prior art. Positional support is provided to maintain top and base panels in a spaced arrangement while additional strength is provided by multi layering the panels. Therefore the board can be reduced in thickness without reducing the strength needed to hold the bottle.


Techniques for determining the composition of a specimen under inspection by measuring backscatter electron emissions and then estimating the atomic number of the specimen are described. Typically, this technique is useful for inspecting features, such as defects, upon very small specimens such as semiconductor wafers. Charged particle beams are typically required to cause backscatter electrons to emanate from a specimen. One embodiment of the present invention involves measuring the backscatter electron count or current of a reference sample for which the atomic number is known. Another embodiment involves the use of an atomic number lookup table that is organized by feature size parameters and normalized backscatter electron counts or currents.

The present invention relates generally to materials analysis techniques, and more specifically to material composition analysis.
Analysis of manufactured devices and materials is often required to ensure the quality of products ranging from sheet metal to semiconductor integrated circuit devices. Defects introduced during manufacturing processes can adversely affect the performance of these products. Conventionally, inspection of semiconductor integrated circuit devices by measuring the secondary electron emission levels provides adequate information concerning the structure of specific features and defects. However, semiconductor integrated circuit devices are continually getting smaller and therefore becoming more difficult to inspect. Image-based secondary electron measurement techniques become less effective for smaller samples because secondary electrons tend to scatter from the areas surrounding each feature of interest. This causes the measurements to be inaccurately representative of the feature.
To maintain high levels of inspection confidence, information in addition to structural information is required. One type of additional information is the composition of the inspected material. By using this information, defects and other imperfections can continue to be classified with confidence. Composition is conventionally determined by directing a high-energy, charged particle beam at a specimen and then measuring the characteristic x-rays that emanate from the specimen. Unfortunately however, this is very difficult since the large size, energy, costs and imprecise nature of x-ray detectors limits the accuracy of the composition measurements. Composition measurement accuracy is limited because x-rays also tend to emanate from areas that surround the areas of interest. The high energy of the charged particle beam causes the x-rays to emanate from the areas surrounding the features of interest. In view of the foregoing, a technique that can easily and accurately determine the composition of features on a sample specimen would be desirable. This desired technique would facilitate the acquisition of material inspection results at higher confidence levels.
The present invention is directed to techniques for determining the composition of a specimen under inspection by measuring backscatter electron emissions and then estimating the atomic number of the specimen. Typically, this technique is useful for inspecting features, such as defects, upon very small specimens such as semiconductor wafers. Charged particle beams are typically required to cause backscatter electrons to emanate from a specimen.
One aspect of the present invention pertains to a method that involves acquiring an image of the area of interest, scanning the area of interest with a charged particle beam such that backscatter electrons emanate from the area of interest, measuring the backscatter electrons in order to determine a total backscatter electron count, calculating a normalized backscatter electron count, and estimating the atomic number of the material within the area of interest based upon the normalized backscatter electron count, whereby the atomic number allows an operator to determine the material composition within the area of interest. One embodiment of the method further involves scanning a reference specimen having a known atomic number such that backscatter electrons emanate from the reference sample, measuring the backscatter electrons emanating from the reference specimen in order to determine a total reference backscatter electron count, calculating a normalized reference backscatter electron current, and determining the atomic number of the specimen by evaluating a relationship between the known atomic number of the reference sample, the normalized backscatter electron count, and the normalized reference backscatter electron current.
Another aspect of the present invention pertains to a computer readable medium capable of executing the operations of the described inventive method. Yet another aspect of the present invention pertains to an inspection system for performing the method of the present invention.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be presented in more detail in the following specification of the invention and the accompanying figures, which illustrate by way of example the principles of the invention.

Materials analysis using backscatter electron emissions


An active two-terminal inductor device with a controllable inducitance based on an inductance value input L_I. A processor system PRS executes an algorithm which controls a power converter PCV with controllable electric switches connected to the two external terminals A, B along with a fixed value inductor component L1. Based on sampling of at least a voltage or a current in connection with the inductor component L1, the algorithm controls the power converter PCV to provide a resulting inductance across the external terminals A, B which serves to match the inductance value input L_I.

Inductors are among the key components in power electric systems in terms of cost, volume and weight. Inductors are used in switching circuits such as DC-DC, AC-DC, DC-AC converters, DC-link applications, online damping for stability, adaptive energy buffering etc. The inductors are normally wire, e.g. copper wire, wound to form a coil, and thus inductors suited for high currents and high inductance introduce significant weight.
Especially, high inductance inductors often used in power (e.g. 10 W to several MW) electric systems are expensive, bulky, and often the inductors constitute a significant part of the total weight of power electric circuits.
Furthermore, in the manufacturing process, each fixed inductance value needs its own manufacturing process line. Adjustable inductors are known, but such components are rare in case of high inductance values.


A constraining apparatus includes a constraining structure that captures a first and a second anatomical structure. A motion limiting member coupled with the constraining structure is adapted to provide a force resistant to relative movement of the first anatomical structure away from the second anatomical structure. A regulating member is detachably coupled with the motion limiting member or the constraining structure and is adapted to change the resistant force provided by the motion limiting member when the regulating member is in direct engagement with the motion limiting member or constraining structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to medical methods and devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and regulated or modulated constraining devices used for holding structures together. These constraint devices may be used to hold anatomical structures such as bones together with higher holding forces at the beginning of the healing process when more support is needed and lower holding forces later on as healing progresses and less support is desired. Other embodiments work in an opposite manner and provide increased holding forces over time. By varying the holding forces over time, a single device may be used to accommodate different phases of the healing process and automatically adjust the length or tension in the constraining device without requiring additional surgery. Exemplary internal fixation procedures include repair of fractured bones and cerclage of a spinal segment in patients with segmental back pain or segmental instability such as in degenerative spondylolisthesis.
Current repair of fractured bones may involve the use of an internal fixation device. For example, an exemplary use of an internal fixation device is to facilitate repair of a fractured greater trochanter. In current procedures, a stiff cable may be wrapped around the fractured portions of bone in order to hold them together during healing. The cable typically provides relatively constant holding forces over the course of the healing process. This is not always desirable. In some cases, it is desirable to firmly hold the fractured bones together at the beginning of the healing process. However, over time as the bone heals, a constant fixation force can stress shield the tissue which can hamper healing later on as the tissue remodels to accommodate a lower load. Higher compressive forces may also cause bone necrosis. Additionally, it may be desirable to allow a small amount of micromotion or a small amount of loading in order to promote tissue repair. Thus it would be advantageous to provide a device that can vary the holding forces as the healing process advances. In other cases, it might be advantageous to provide a device that increases the holding force over time. This allows slack or loosening that may develop over time to be taken up as healing progresses.
Internal fixation is also used to treat patients with low back pain resulting from internal disc disruption or discogenic disease. This includes the use of bone cerclage devices. There are a number of different types of cerclage devices. One type uses an inelastic cable to encircle the spinous processes or other vertebral elements thereby restraining motion. Another type of cerclage involves the use of an elastic tether structure coupled to the spinal segment. Some cerclage devices include the use of a spacer implanted between adjacent spinous processes. While these approaches are promising, they all have potential shortcomings. For example, some of these devices are invasive and require removal of surrounding ligaments, and others are designed for static applications and thus limit motion of the affected spinal segment. This may be advantageous at the beginning of healing when immobilization helps improve the likelihood of concomitant fusion but is undesirable later on in the healing process when some motion is desirable. Still other devices allow substantially unrestricted spinal extension but the constraining force provided by the device is either pre-set or related to the extent of spinal segment motion and therefore the devices do not vary the fixation forces during the course of the healing process.
Discogenic disease is also associated with degenerative spondylolisthesis, a spinal condition in which abnormal segmental translation is exacerbated by segmental flexion. Treatment for degenerative spondylolisthesis often involves removal of bone or other tissue causing the nerve impingement (decompression surgery), combined with bone fusion to prevent further instability. Since bone fusion takes time, often the entire segment is also immobilized or stabilized (sometimes referred to as fused) using instrumentation, for example, pedicle screws and stabilization rods. This relatively rigid instrumentation often offloads the implanted fusion material, which needs some loading for strong bone formation. Moreover, the instrumentation remains rigid over time. Therefore, again it would be useful to provide a fixation device that can vary the holding or fixation forces over the course of the healing process.
While the constraint devices discussed above are promising, they often provide consistent fixation until they are removed, if at all. Thus the constraint devices shield the healing tissue from stress. This is often desirable at the early phase of healing, but can hamper tissue repair as the tissue remodels. Additionally, in some cases, it is also desirable to permit a small amount of motion or a small amount of loading, as this facilitates tissue repair. Furthermore, it may be desirable initially to protect the healing tissue from high impact loading through the use of a damping mechanism. Therefore, for the aforementioned reasons there is a need to provide a constraint device which can vary the properties of the device, such as holding force, during the healing or tissue regeneration process. In particular, such a device should be minimally invasive and easily adjustable by a physician during the healing process. It would also be desirable for such a device to automatically vary the device's constraining properties over time. Additionally, the device's constraining properties could vary based on sensing the evolving mechanical or biochemical environment or based on an induced change to the device environment.
2. Description of the Background Art
Patents and published applications of interest include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,648,691; 4,643,178; 4,743,260; 4,966,600; 5,011,494; 5,092,866; 5,116,340; 5,180,393; 5,282,863; 5,395,374; 5,415,658; 5,415,661; 5,449,361; 5,456,722; 5,462,542; 5,496,318; 5,540,698; 5,562,737; 5,609,634; 5,628,756; 5,645,599; 5,725,582; 5,902,305; Re. 36,221; 5,928,232; 5,935,133; 5,964,769; 5,989,256; 6,053,921; 6,248,106; 6,312,431; 6,364,883; 6,378,289; 6,391,030; 6,468,309; 6,436,099; 6,451,019; 6,582,433; 6,605,091; 6,626,944; 6,629,975; 6,652,527; 6,652,585; 6,656,185; 6,669,729; 6,682,533; 6,689,140; 6,712,819; 6,689,168; 6,695,852; 6,716,245; 6,761,720; 6,835,205; 7,029,475; 7,163,558; Published U.S. Patent Application Nos. US 2002/0151978; US 2004/0024458; US 2004/0106995; US 2004/0116927; US 2004/0117017; US 2004/0127989; US 2004/0172132; US 2004/0243239; US 2005/0033435; US 2005/0049708; 2005/0192581; 2005/0216017; US 2006/0069447; US 2006/0136060; US 2006/0240533; US 2007/0213829; US 2007/0233096; 2008/0009866; 2008/0108993; Published PCT Application Nos. WO 01/28442 A1; WO 02/03882 A2; WO 02/051326 A1; WO 02/071960 A1; WO 03/045262 A1; WO2004/052246 A1; WO 2004/073532 A1; WO2008/051806; WO2008/051423; WO2008/051801; WO2008/051802; and Published Foreign Application Nos. EP0322334 A1; and FR 2 681 525 A1. The mechanical properties of flexible constraints applied to spinal segments are described in Papp et al. (1997) Spine 22:151-155; Dickman et al. (1997) Spine 22:596-604; and Garner et al. (2002) Eur. Spine J. S186-S191; Al Baz et al. (1995) Spine 20, No. 11, 1241-1244; Heller, (1997) Arch. Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery, 117, No. 1-2:96-99; Leahy et al. (2000) Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part H: J. Eng. Med. 214, No. 5: 489-495; Minns et al., (1997) Spine 22 No. 16:1819-1825; Miyasaka et al. (2000) Spine 25, No. 6: 732-737; Shepherd et al. (2000) Spine 25, No. 3: 319-323; Shepherd (2001) Medical Eng. Phys. 23, No. 2: 135-141; and Voydeville et al (1992) Orthop Traumatol 2:259-264.

Modulated constraining apparatus and methods of use


The present invention relates to a process of preparing a highly pure tacrolimus, which comprising a pre-purification process carried out by means of crystallization, and particularly to a process of preparing a highly pure tacrolimus, which comprises a pre-purification process comprising the steps of (a) extracting mycelia cake collected by filtering a tacrolimus-containing oily compound with an organic solvent, (b) concentrating the extract under reduced pressure and (c) crystallizing the concentrate. In addition, a highly pure tacrolimus can be obtained by dissolving the pre-purified crystals in an organic solvent, passing through the solution in an adsorption resin and concentrating the eluate under reduced pressure, followed by crystallization. According to a process of the present invention, Tacrolimus as pure as appropriate for a pharmaceutical purpose can be prepared by a simple process and at a relatively low cost.

Tacrolimus is an immunosuppressant and a macrolide antibiotic, 100 times more potent than cyclosporine, which selectively inhibits T-lymphocyte activation. It is widely used for the treatment or prevention of rejection in tissue transplantation, autoimmune disorder and infectious diseases caused by pathogenic microorganism. It has an empirical formula of C44H69NO12H2O and the following structure.

Tacrolimus is prepared by the fermentation of Streptomyces tsukubaensis 9993, i.e. monotypic species of Streptomyces, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,496,727, 5,624,842 and 5,830,717. The fermentation of Streptomyces sp. produces tacrolimus and also provides 17-ethyl derivative (II) known as ascomycin (FK520) and 17-propyl derivative (III) 17-propyl-1,14-dihydroxy-12-[2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxycyclohexyl)-1-methylvinyl]-23,25-dimethoxy-13,19,21,27-tetramethyl-11,28-dioxy-4-azatricyclo-[22.3.1.04.9]octacos-18-ene-2,3,10,16-tetraone). Therefore, there have been various methods reported for separating tacrolimus from a cultured broth.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,929,611 and 5,254,562, a cultured broth filtrate and a mycelia cake extract are combined and eluted on a synthetic adsorption resin (Diaion HP-20), followed by a column chromatography, there providing a highly pure tacrolimus (yield 14%). In more detail, an adsorbed material is washed with distilled water and an organic solvent and elution is carried out. An active fraction is concentrated under reduced pressure and extracted with an organic solvent. The extract is concentrated and column-chromatographied with a normal-phase silica gel (70-230 mesh) by using a mixture of ethylacetate and n-hexane mixture (1:9 v/v, 1:4 v/v, 1:1 v/v and 2:1 v/v) and ethylacetate as mobile phase. Active fractions are collected and concentrated, followed by a column chromatography with a normal-phase silica gel (230-400 mesh) by using a mixture of ethylacetate and n-hexane mixture (1:1 v/v and 2:1 v/v) and ethylacetate as mobile phase. The collected active fraction is subjected to a high-pressure liquid chromatography of a crude product by using the same silica gel (70-230 mesh) and solvent. Elution is conducted by using a column (8?×500 mm) equipped with Lichrosory S160 (Merck Co., Ltd.) as a carrier, and such steps are repeated to provide a highly pure tacrolimus.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,916,138, 4,956,352 and 5,830,717 and European patent publication No. 0,240,773 A1, active fractions concentrated as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,611 are dissolved in acetonitrile, and crystallized at 5° C. to provide a highly pure tacrolimus.
However, this purification process requires the repetition of a high-priced HPLC purification or crystallization after complicated steps using a synthetic adsorbent and a normal-phase resin, while showing a relatively low yield (15%) of tacrolimus.
Although tacrolimus is prepared by using an adsorption and reversed phase resin in U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,756, this method is merely for the identification of a target compound, and cannot be applied for an industry-scaled manufacture.
In the meantime, U.S. Pat. No. 6,492,513 discloses a purification method by using a cation-type ion-exchange resin pretreated with silver salt. According to this purification method, a filtrate of oily compound and a mycelia cake extract were combined and adsorbed onto a synthetic adsorption resin (Diaion HP-20), followed by a column chromatography to provide a crude product. Elution was conducted by developing the crude product with acetone on a synthetic adsorption resin pretreated with silver ion (Capcell Pak SCX UG80™, Shiseido Ltd., Japan). This purification is based on a principle that a cation exchange resin adsorbs tacrolimus more strongly than other impurities due to the formation of silver complex. However, although ascomycin (II) and 17-propyl derivative (III) can be separated, other impurities cannot be separated from tacrolimus by using this process. Therefore, tacrolimus product thus prepared is not suitable for a pharmaceutical purpose due to a low purity.
The information disclosed in the above Background section is only for the enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
All publications, patents and patent applications cited herein, whether supra or infra, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent or patent application is specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.

Method for refining of high purity of tacrolimus


A method and an apparatus for device dynamic addition processing, and a method and an apparatus for device dynamic removal processing. A dynamic addition dependency relationship list may be obtained from a BIOS, and dynamic addition processing is performed on a certain device to be dynamically added, according to the dynamic addition dependency relationship list; a user is prompted to dynamically add the target device, and when there is a certain device to be dynamically removed, a dynamic removal dependency relationship list and a dynamic addition dependency relationship list of a corresponding device may be obtained from the BIOS as needed, and dynamic removal analysis and processing are performed according to the combination of the dynamic removal dependency relationship list and dynamic addition dependency relationship list of the corresponding device, so as to prompt the user to dynamically remove the target device.

In the field of middle and high-end servers, a server is generally formed of multiple computing nodes and IO (Input/Output, output/input) frames, and a computing node is formed of devices such as a CPU, a memory and an IO. In order to implement dynamic capacity expansion, error processing, energy conservation and power saving, a system administrator or an operation system may need to perform hot-plugging on a device in a server. That is, under the premise that a server does not stop running, computing nodes, IO frames, and a CPU and a memory in a node are dynamically added (devices are put online) and dynamically removed (devices are put offline), so as to achieve objectives such as capacity expansion and error correction, and improve server reliability or service processing capability.
In order to implement device hot-plugging, a hardware platform, a BIOS (Basic Input Output System) and an OS (Operation System) need to tightly cooperate. The hardware platform is responsible for device power-on/power-off control; the BIOS is responsible for processing and screening all details related to the hardware platform, so as to provide a universal and platform-unrelated operation environment for the OS; the OS configures and uses a corresponding device in a platform-unrelated manner by using an interface provided by the BIOS. By providing a platform-unrelated interface between the BIOS and the OS, flexibility and universality of the OS may be improved, thereby reducing development and maintenance work when a new platform is supported.
For hot-plugging of each device of a server, a very important aspect is to solve a dependency relationship between devices in the server. Because of constraint of a system architecture and hardware components of the server, an interdependency relationship may exist between the devices. For example, a currently common 4-way server of Xeon and IA64 generally adopts a topology structure as shown in FIG. 1. In this topology structure, a dependency relationship exists between devices of the server as follows:
A memory device is in dependence on a physical processor connected to the memory device. Current mainstream processors are all integrated with a memory controller, and a memory device is directly connected to a physical processor. Therefore, before the memory device is dynamically added, it needs to first dynamically add the physical processor connected to the memory device; before the physical processor is dynamically removed, it needs to first dynamically remove the memory device connected to the physical processor.
An IOH (Input Output Hub) is connected to two physical processors respectively through two QPI buses, and the IOH also has a dependency relationship with the physical processors. If an IOH is dynamically added and joins in a working server bus network, at least one of the two physical processors connected to the IOH has to be already dynamically added.
For a multi-node server, such as a 32P system server, another important dependency relationship further exists additionally. In a schematic diagram of a topology structure shown in FIG. 2, a Node A is connected to a system bus network of the server through a Node B, a Node C, a Node D, and a Node E. Therefore, the Node A is in dependence on the Node B, the Node C, the Node D, and the Node E, and when hot-plugging is performed on the Node A, this dependency relationship has to be taken into account.
A hot-plugging driver of the OS may obtain this platform-related information, that is, dependency relationship, through the BIOS, so the BIOS needs to provide a necessary interface for the hot-plugging driver to manage dependency between devices.
The prior art only discloses a device dynamic removal method for solving device dynamic removal, and a current method for performing device dynamic removal processing is described as follows: when it is needed to dynamically remove a certain target device, an _EDL (Eject Device List) method is adopted, in which the method specifies that a BIOS parses and returns a dynamic removal dependence device list of a target device, and if a device corresponding to a node of an _EDL is dynamically removed, all devices in the dynamic removal dependence device list obtained by the _EDL should be first dynamically removed.
The existing _EDL cannot desirably process a dynamic dependency relationship between devices. Dependency between some devices is unique and static. For example, a memory device is only in dependence on a physical processor connected to the memory device. The _EDL method processes this dependency relationship very easily. Further, some dependency relationships are one-to-many and dynamic, such as a dependency relationship between an IOH and a physical processor and a dependency relationship between nodes. The substance of this type of dependency is that: during dynamic addition, a device is in dependence on any one of a group of devices; during dynamic removal, a device is in dependence on a device in a group of devices which is the last one dynamically removed. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, an IOH is connected to two processors, that is, CPU0 and CPU1, through a bus, and dynamic removal dependency relationship lists returned by _EDL methods of the two processors both include the IOH, that is, when any one processor is dynamically removed, it is needed to dynamically remove the IOH. However, normal work of the IOH may be in dependence on CPU0 or CPU1, and when CPU0 is dynamically removed, because CPU1 on which the normal work of the IOH is in dependence is still online, actually CPU0 may be directly dynamically removed without dynamically removing the IOH.
How to better implement dynamic addition and dynamic removal in device hot-plugging through a device dynamic addition dependency relationship list returned by a BIOS becomes a research hotspot.

Method and apparatus for device dynamic addition processing, and method and apparatus for device dynamic removal processing


The invention is directed to a system and method for regulating a load (such as a CPU). A pulse-width-modulation (PWM) regulator calculates the duty cycle of the control pulse from a PWM controller, and then compares the duty cycle to a predetermined threshold. Thereafter, the PWM regulator regulates working conditions, such as clock frequency, supplied voltage, or fan spin speed, based on the above comparison.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to load regulation, and more particularly to load regulation by using pulse width modulation (PWM).
2. Description of the Prior Art
The detection of current plays an important role in electronic circuits, especially in power supply circuits. The power supply circuit provides the electronic circuit with needed current in a manner similar to that the human heart continuously provides the body with blood. As high blood pressure is harmful to health and thus precisely measuring the blood pressure is necessary, likewise precisely and instantaneously detecting the current is vital to the controllability of the electronic circuits. The current is conventionally detected by measuring the voltage drop across a resistor of known low resistance according to Ohm's law. However, this scheme has some disadvantages. Firstly, the accuracy of the current detection would be probably affected by the inaccuracy of the resistor itself, and by the environmental factors, such as temperature variation. Secondly, the resistor wastefully consumes power and generates heat, especially when the current becomes large.
The detection of the load current in a computer motherboard is conventionally accomplished by using a temperature sensor such as a thermistor, whose resistance varies according to the surface temperature of the load under detect, such as a central processing unit (CPU). The thermistor is then utilized to control a fan for dissipating the heat generated from the load. Unfortunately, the thermistor usually responds slowly, and therefore a real-time monitoring and controlling the system becomes difficult. FIG. 1 shows the relationship between the rotational (or spin) speed of the fan and the detected CPU temperature. The fan rotates faster when high temperature is detected, and conversely, the fan rotates slower when low temperature is detected. Another conventional way of detecting the load current is performed by an indirect and software manner. Specifically, a Windows application program interface (API) is used to read the utility rate of the CPU. A high utility rate indicates high load current, and conversely, a low utility rate indicates low load current. The detection by using such API possesses drawbacks existing in general software programs in that the operations sometimes cause delay, hang, or even crash, not to say such API is not supported by every system.
For overcoming the disadvantages mentioned above, a need has arisen to propose a system and method for effectively and spontaneously monitoring and adjusting the load of an electronic circuit.

System and method for regulating a load by utilizing pulse width modulation


The present disclosure relates to a macro-micro composite grating ruler measuring system based on conversion and amplification in vertical and horizontal directions. The macro-micro composite grating ruler includes a grating ruler, a macro-micro reading system moving with respect to the grating ruler, and a counting and image processing module. The macro-micro reading system faces grating strip datum and is parallel to the grating ruler. The system further includes a measuring reference line. The measuring reference line obtained by the image sensor together with grating strips forms an image overlap in the counting and image processing module. The measuring reference line and the grating strip jointly include an angle θ. With the foregoing configuration, the present invention is compatible with the existing incremental grating rulers and absolute grating rulers, so is highly applicable.

A grating ruler is a feedback-based measuring device relying on the optical principle of optical gratings, and is usually used in closed loop position control systems as a testing apparatus, particularly in the fields of precision processing and manufacturing. The basic principle on which a grating ruler works is that the relative movement between the ruler and its scanning mask forms a Moire pattern under light. The Moire pattern is converted into similar sine and cosine electric signals by a photoelectric sensor. These signals are the original scanning signals of the optical grating. Then, by using different electronic subdivision methods, counting pulse signals with different measuring pitches can be obtained. These pulse signals are generally two mutually orthogonal signals. The two signals are fed into a downstream reversible counter circuit. Then the reading of the counter is multiplied by the measuring pitch to get the displacement value of the grating ruler.
A common way to enhance precision of displacement measurement is to increase the density of the graduation of the optical grating so as to significantly increase the amount of data collected. However, in occasions where both high speed and high precision are desired, while the huge amount of data collected, as mentioned previously supports great precision of the grating ruler, it poses significant limitation to the speed of measurement. Thus, it is a dilemma between high speed and high precision.
The presently common grating ruler mainly uses "Moire patterns", together with tests such as electronic subdivision and a data processing module to obtain displacement values. The existing grating ruler measuring system primarily has the following problems. For improving the precision for displacement measurement, the grating is desired to be made dense. With the increase of data obtained from the dense grating for each unit of displacement, the risk of "losing steps" during data acquisition increases, which jeopardize the authenticity of data. Particularly, for high-speed motion, the effect of "losing steps" is more significant. Thus, using devices with increasingly higher acquisition speed without deliberation can seriously increase the costs for making and using measuring systems.
China Patent No. CN200510010288.1 provides a method of measuring high-speed high-precision displacement based on two grating rulers. The core concept of the related art is that: a normal high-speed, high-precision positioning system does not have high-speed motion at the moment of positioning, and thus it is possible to use two grating rulers of different capacities to measure displacement, which include one coarse grating ruler for high-speed, low-definition measurement and one precise grating ruler for low-speed, high-definition measurement. When the positioning system has its motion shift to low speed form high speed, the method switch the counting pulses of the two grating rulers and synthesizes their counts, so as to obtain high-definition displacement value at the moment of positioning. In one of its specific counting schemes, a threshold of speed for switching is set. For high-speed motion, the coarse grating ruler measures displacement and speed. When the motion speed becomes below the set threshold, the precise grating ruler takes over for motion displacement. While the related art achieves high-speed, high-precision displacement measurement using grating rulers, it has some shortcomings: 1 it is unable to provide high-speed, high-precision displacement measurement throughout the whole course of motion, so is less applicable; and 2. it uses two grating rulers and thus requires more costs.

Macro-micro composite grating ruler measuring system and measuring method using same comprising a macro-scale reading module, a micro-scale reading module and a measuring reference line


This learning data generation device (10) is provided with: an identification unit (11) which identifies a subject included in a first captured image, and generates an identification result in which information indicating the type and existence of the identified subject or the motion of the identified subject is associated with the first captured image; and a generation unit (12) which generates learning data on the basis of the identification result and a second captured image, which is associated with the first captured image but is different in type from the first captured image.

In identification processing using machine learning, there is a method called supervised learning in which a set of input data and a correct answer label corresponding to the input data is prepared as learning data to thereby update a parameter. For the learning data, it is effective to exhaustively use data which can be actually input when the identification processing is executed. In order to cover the data which can be input when the identification processing is executed, it is effective to prepare a large amount of the learning data, or to use, for the identification processing, data acquired in an environment similar to an environment where recognition processing is performed. However, correct answer data for use in the identification processing are manually assigned in general, and accordingly, there is a problem that human cost is increased when an amount of the data is increased.
PTL 1 describes a learning data generation system that generates learning data by extracting an object region, which is a region on which an object is captured, from respective object-captured images captured while continuously changing imaging conditions such as information regarding a position of a camera with respect to such a subject.
Moreover, PTL 2 describes an active learning system that, with regard to data in which a value of a label is unknown, calculates a similarity thereof to data in which a value of a label is a predetermined value, and selects data to be learned next on the basis of the calculated similarity.
Furthermore, PTL 3 describes one example of a technique for detecting and tracking a position of a person by using measurement data of a laser range sensor.

Learning data generation device, learning data generation method, and recording medium


A wireless terminal circuit includes a variable high frequency clock oscillator that provides a high frequency clock signal and a fixed low frequency clock oscillator that provides a low frequency clock signal. A phase-locked loop adjusts a ratio of the frequency of the high frequency clock signal to the low frequency clock signal by adjusting the frequency of the high frequency clock signal. The phase locked loop includes a divider for dividing the high frequency clock signal, the divide ratio of which divider is controlled by a sigma-delta modulator. A wireless terminal local oscillator calibration circuit includes a frequency control circuit including both the high frequency clock oscillator and the low frequency clock oscillator. The calibration circuit also includes a loop circuit that receives a base station clock signal and provides a control signal to the frequency control circuit to adjust the ratio of the frequency of the high frequency clock signal to the frequency of the low frequency clock signals until the high frequency clock signal is calibrated to the base station clock signal.

Digital wireless telephone systems are becoming increasingly popular due to ever-improved performance, clarity etc. Most systems operate with multiple users, each having a wireless terminal (i.e., phone handset, laptop, etc.) and a common base station for controlling signal transmission and receipt by each of the wireless terminals.
One common protocol used in such systems is time-division multiple-access (TDMA), in which the time spectrum is divided into multiple slots of time. The time slots are shared by the multiple users (each having a unique wireless terminal) such that each user is assigned certain time slots within which to transmit and receive signals (i.e., make or receive phone calls from a handset). If there are N users, for example, then each user may be assigned every Nth time slot within which to transmit or receive data.
At fixed intervals, the base station transmits a "paging block", which may include information pertinent to more than one terminal, such as whether a terminal is in receipt of a phone call, for example. Each paging block may have a duration of 20 milliseconds and the fixed intervals between paging blocks may range from ½ to 2 seconds, for example. All users (terminals) attempt to read (receive and decode) each paging block to determine whether in receipt of a phone call. Thus, each terminal may have certain circuit components that power up just before each paging block, in order to read that paging block, and then power down (to save power) between paging blocks (during the ½ to 2 second delay between paging blocks).
With TDMA, it is very important that each wireless terminal maintain an accurate time reference in order to turn "on" at appropriate times, i.e., before each paging block, in order to read that paging block. Wireless terminals typically have a local oscillator for producing a clock signal that is up-converted to a frequency at which to transmit and receive data. It is very important for each wireless terminal to calibrate its local oscillator such that the frequency of the output clock signal matches that of a base station reference clock signal, in order that information is transmitted and received accurately, at a precise time and at a precise radio frequency. The accurate time and frequency references must be maintained by the terminal for a time period (i.e., 20 minutes) that is much greater than the delay (i.e., ½ to 2 seconds) between consecutive paging blocks, in case, for example, a terminal is unable to read a number of consecutive paging blocks due to interference, lack of range, etc.
Calibration of the local clock signal within a wireless terminal to the base station clock signal typically occurs upon power up of the terminal and intermittently thereafter. This serves to provide an accurate frequency at which to receive and transmit signals and serves as a reference to maintain accurate time reference. It is desirable in such systems to reduce the power consumed by the circuitry in the wireless terminal both for cost reasons and so that the terminal can remain operational for as long a period of time as possible without requiring power recharging.
One prior art approach aimed at reducing the amount of power consumed by wireless terminals is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a part block, part schematic diagram of a prior art frequency control circuit employed in wireless terminals. As will be described, the prior art frequency control circuit of FIG. 1 employs a precision, low-power digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 22, the digital input to which is updated during frequency calibration sequences. The digital input then is held between calibration sequences to maintain an accurate time reference and clock frequency, enabling other circuit elements to be powered down between paging blocks.
As shown in FIG. 1, the frequency control circuit includes a frequency control input 20, frequency control DAC 22, integrated circuit (IC) pads 24 and 28, a resistor/capacitor filter network (consisting of resistor R and capacitor C1), and a low-jitter voltage-controlled temperature-compensated crystal oscillator (VCTCXO).
During operation, frequency control input 20 receives a digital control signal along bus 9. The digital control signal may be supplied by a digital signal processor (DSP) (not shown). Frequency control input 20, in turn, provides a digital control signal along bus 21 to frequency control DAC 22. Frequency control DAC 22 conventionally converts the digital control signal to an analog signal, which analog signal is filtered by the RC filter (R, C1) before provision to low-jitter VCTCXO 26. Low-jitter VCTCXO 26, in turn, provides an adjusted frequency output signal, based on receipt of the filtered, analog control signal. The signal output will have a frequency adjusted from its center frequency of oscillation (i.e., 13 MHz).
The output signal is fed back along line 27, through pad 28, and along line 29 to clock frequency control DAC 22. While this circuit appears to have a feedback path from the output clock along lines 27 and 29, it should be appreciated that this frequency control circuit actually operates like an open-loop circuit, as the feedback clock signal merely serves to clock frequency control DAC 22, and does not act as an input to the circuit.
One element that consumes a significant amount of power is the VCTCXO. The power consumption is significant due to the requirement of maintaining the VCTCXO powered at all times when the terminal is powered on, particularly for TDMA systems, so that the terminal maintains an accurate time. A VCTCXO is required because the oscillator must be time and temperature stable to maintain an accurate time between calibration sequences. It also must have low-jitter to minimize the amount of phase noise introduced into the signal transmitted from the handset. The use of the high power consuming VCTCXO is a significant drawback of the circuit of FIG. 1.
Another prior art approach at reducing the power consumption of a wireless terminal is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,425 to Nokia. The circuit described in the Nokia patent includes a high frequency local clock oscillator and a low frequency local clock oscillator. During a first step, the high frequency oscillator is calibrated to a received base station clock using an automatic frequency control (AFC) function. During a second step, an error between the high and low frequency clocks is measured. Based on the error, a selector selects one of the high and low frequency clocks for provision to a counter for time measurement. The amount of time the high frequency clock is provided to the counter depends on the error determined. Power is saved when the low frequency clock is provided to the counter for timing, by powering down the high frequency oscillator.
The Nokia approach suffers the drawbacks of: (1) requiring significant calibration time (it's a two-step approach); (2) complexity in implementation; and (3) limited accuracy.

Timing and frequency control method and circuit for digital wireless telephone system terminals