A child resistant drug package. The package includes a blister layer having at least one blister and a plurality of backing layers covering the blister layer. The backing layers include tabs that require sequential removal in order to gain access to the contents of the blister.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of this invention generally relates to packaging for drugs, and more particularly to a child resistant package for drugs.
2. Background of the Invention
The incorporation of child resistant features on drug packaging is well recognized as a significant factor in the reduction of childhood poisoning caused by ingestion of hazardous materials. In fact, the child resistance of packaging was such a significant factor that the U.S. Poison Prevention Packaging Act was enacted requiring packaging of certain materials to meet minimum standards of child resistance. Many packaging designs have been developed in order to meet the standards outlined in the Act.
One child resistant package design is found, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,004. The design includes a blister sheet defining drug carrying blisters, a foil sheet that covers the blister sheet and encloses the blisters, and a reinforcing layer coupled to the foil sheet opposite to the blister sheet. The reinforcing layer includes perforated pull tabs that extend over the blister. An end of each pull tab lies flat against but is not coupled to the foil sheet. When used as designed, the package is bent, which causes the unsealed end of a pull tab to lift so that the user can grasp it and pull it off from over the foil covering the blister. After the tab is removed, a portion of the foil that covers the blister becomes exposed and the user pushes the contents of the blister through the foil. A disadvantage of such a design is that there is only one layer that provides any substantial child resistance. If the package is damaged or if a child is able to surpass that feature, the drug enclosed therein becomes easily accessible. A further disadvantage of the design is that the perforations that define the peel tabs extend to the outer edge of the package making it easier for the pull tabs to be removed by manipulating the outer edge of the package.
Another package design is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,968. That design includes a blister sheet that includes drug carrying depressions and access depressions. A peelable sheet covers the depressions and encloses dosages within the drug carrying depression. A user is required to remove a portion of the peelable sheet that covers an access depression in order to grip a second portion of the peelable sheet that covers the drug carrying depression. The peelable sheet may be peeled from the drug carrying depression to gain access to the packaged drug. A shortcoming of the design is that, after the second portion of the peelable sheet covering one of the drug carrying depressions is removed, access to another drug carrying depression is made easier. In addition, there is only one sheet of material covering the drug carrying depression so if the package is damaged the drug may become exposed.
In another design, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,180, a child resistant package includes a blister sheet defining drug carrying blisters, a rupturable layer that seals the blisters and a nonrupturable layer that covers the rupturable layer. For each blister, a perforated pull tab is included on the nonrupturable layer that is designed to be difficult to remove. A user is required to pull the pull tab in a first direction and subsequently pull the same pull tab in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. If the user is able to pull the tab as designed, the portion of the rupturable layer enclosing the associated blister becomes exposed so that the user can gain access to the contents of the blister by causing the rupture of the rupturable layer. One disadvantage of the package is that if the user does not pull the tab as designed, the tab will tear before being completely removed and a portion of the tab will remain over the blister, hindering access to the contents. A further disadvantage is that there is only one pull tab that forms a significant line of defense prior to gaining access to a potentially harmful substance.
Another package includes a blister layer defining drug carrying blisters, that is covered by a rupturable layer, an intermediate layer and a top layer, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,960. The intermediate layer includes bendable breakaway panels defined by score lines that cover the rupturable layer. The top layer covers the intermediate layer and includes access panels that intersect the edge of the package. After removal of an access panel of the top layer, the user presses the associated blister and the contents is forced through the rupturable layer and past the bendable breakaway panel. Although the design includes dual layers covering the rupturable layer, only one easily removable access panel must be removed prior to gaining easy access to the contents of the associated blister.


Provided is an apparatus and method for providing a voltage reduction for single-phase voltage regulator operation in a three-phase power system. The voltage regulator includes a plurality of tap positions selectable to adjust a voltage at a load to an in-band area. The method includes determining a measured voltage and current at the voltage regulator, determining a line voltage drop between the voltage regulator and the load if the measured voltage in the OOB area above the in-band area, and utilizing the measured voltage to lower the voltage at the load if there are no available taps. The method also includes utilizing the measured voltage less the line voltage drop to determine the tap change if there are available taps.

The present invention generally relates to power system control, and more specifically, to an apparatus and methods for providing a voltage adjustment for single-phase voltage regulator operation in a three-phase power system.
Electric utility systems or power systems are designed to generate, transmit and distribute electrical energy to loads via a variety of power system elements such as electrical generators, electrical motors, power transformers, power transmission lines, distribution lines, buses and transformers, power transmission lines, distribution lines, buses and capacitors, to name a few. As a result, power systems typically include a number of regulators having associated control devices, and many protective devices having associated protective schemes to protect the power system elements from abnormal conditions such as electrical short circuits, overloads, frequency excursions, voltage fluctuations, and the like.
In general, protective devices and their associated protective schemes act to isolate a power system element(s) (e.g., a generator, transformers, buses, motors, etc.) from the remainder of the power system upon detection of the abnormal condition or a fault in, or related to, the power system element(s). Such protective devices may include different types of protective relays, surge protectors, arc gaps and associated circuit breakers and reclosures.
Regulators and their associated control devices are utilized to regulate the voltage level in the power system. For example, a number of single-phase step voltage regulators may be coupled to the various transmission, sub-transmission and distribution lines (collectively, "distribution lines") to enable voltage regulation of the distribution line to, for example 13 kV±10 percent, during a wide range of load conditions (e.g., a plant coming on-line). Such voltage regulators are often located adjacent to a step-down power transformer and generally include an autotransformer having a single winding (e.g., a series winding), which is tapped at some tap position along the winding to provide a desired voltage level.
A typical step voltage regulator may have a 100 percent exciting winding in shunt with the distribution line on the source side, and operate to maintain a voltage on the load side of the distribution line. The voltage is maintained within a desired voltage bandwidth by means of a 10 percent tapped buck/boost winding connected in series with the distribution line. The series winding has taps connected to stationary contacts of a tap changer dial switch, where the tap changer dial switch includes a pair of rotatable selector contacts driven by a reversible motor into sequential engagement with the pairs of contacts. For example, the tap changer dial switch may enable a capability to change the effective turns ratio from input to output ±10 percent in 32 steps of ⅝ percent each or 0.75 V. A voltage control device, operatively coupled to the voltage regulator may also be included to select the proper tap position or tap for voltage regulator operation based on power system conditions.
Voltage regulators operate via a comparison of an actual measured voltage (i.e., a secondary distribution line voltage) to some internal fixed reference voltage, or center-band voltage. A voltage difference is amplified and used to control operation of the voltage regulator via the voltage control device. Thus, if the measured voltage is too high or in a first out of band (OOB) area above an in-band area, the voltage regulator is directed by the voltage control device to execute a tap change to yield a lower voltage. If the measured voltage is too low, or in a second OOB area below the in-band area, the voltage regulator is directed by the voltage control device to execute a tap change (e.g., a one tap position change) to yield a higher voltage.
Because currents resulting from a fault can easily exceed 10,000 amperes (amps) and because the voltage control device is designed to utilize currents and voltages much less than those of the distribution lines, the currents and voltages are stepped-down via current and voltage transformers, respectively. As is known, the three-phase current and voltages are commonly referred to as the primary current and voltages, while the stepped-down current and voltages are referred to as the secondary current and voltages, respectively. The stepped-down secondary current and voltages are digitized and utilized to determine corresponding phasors representative of the primary current and voltages. The phasors may then used while executing the voltage control logic scheme of the voltage control device to determine whether a tap change is required by the voltage regulator (discussed below).
In some cases, the voltage control device may cause a tap limit to be reached; that is, due to lower measured voltages over time, the voltage control device causes the voltage regulator to continue to change taps to increase the voltage delivered to the load until there are no more available taps. As a result, further decreases in the load voltage can not be addressed via a tap change.
The problem of the tap limit may be addressed by adjusting the center-band voltage to a lower voltage via subtracting a percentage of the center-band voltage setting from the center-band voltage setting, thereby effectively lowering the reference voltage used by the voltage control device. For example, using Kirchoff's law, V=I*Z, if the center-band voltage setting is decreased from 120 V to 118 V, a constant impedance load will draw less current, thereby reducing the overall system load. Although lowering the center-band voltage setting is effective when the load is predominantly of the constant impedance type, it does not always result in a smooth "system voltage" profile.

Apparatus and methods for providing a voltage adjustment for single-phase voltage regulator operation in a three-phase power system

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.


The present invention provides nucleic acids encoding transcription factors and methods of using these nucleic acids to modulate nicotine production in plants and to produce plants having modulated nicotine production.

Nicotine is found predominantly in the genus Nicotiana and in low quantities in some other species of the family Solanaceae (Sheen S J (1988) J Food Science 53: 1572-1573). Nicotine is the most abundant alkaloid in commercial tobacco (N. tabacum L.) cultivars (Siminszky et al. (2005) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102: 14919-14924), and naturally plays an important role in tobacco resistance to insect herbivores (Steppuhn et al (2004) PLoS Biology 2: 1074-1080). Nicotine is synthesized in tobacco root tip and transported to leaf and stored in leaf cell vacuole by a multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) transporter (Morita et al. (2009) Proc Natl Acad Sci 106: 2447-2452). The pathway for nicotine biosynthesis involves convergence of two biosynthetically distinct branches. The enzymes and the genes encoding these enzymes involved in the pathway have been identified except for the enzyme/gene that catalyzes the final condensation step of nicotinic acid and methyl-pyrrolinium cation to form nicotine, generally referred to as nicotine synthase. It has been proposed that a reduction reaction occurs followed by oxidation of nicotinic acid prior to formation of specific pyridine moiety that condenses with the methylpyrrolinium cation to form nicotine (Friesen and Leete (1990) Tetrahedron Letters 31:6295-6298). A622 and NBB1 have been proposed as catalysts of the final steps of nicotine biosynthesis (Hibi et al. (1994) Plant Cell 6:723-35: Shoji et al. (2002) Plant Mol Biol 50:427-440; Hashimoto and Kato 2007; Kajikawa et al. (2009) Plant Mol Biol 69: 287-298; Kajikawa et al. (2011) Plant Physiol 155(4):2010-22). Putrescine N-methyltransferase (PMT) and quinolinic acid phosphoribosyltransferase (QPT), the first committing enzymes in each branch of the nicotine biosynthetic pathway, are believed to be the key enzymes in nicotine production (Feth et al. (1986) Planta 168: 402-407; Wagner et al. (1986) Physiol Plantarum 68: 667-672). A few minor alkaloids, including nornicotine, anabasine, and anatabine, are also synthesized in this pathway, with nornicotine being directly converted from nicotine by nicotine demethylase whose corresponding genes have been cloned (Siminszky et al. (2005) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102: 14919-14924).
This invention addresses the need for compositions and methods that modulate the nicotine biosynthesis pathway in plants.

Transcription factors that regulate nicotine biosynthesis in tobacco


A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for suppressing managed endpoint (MEP) child events in a network. A MEP multicast message is broadcast by an originating MEP. Responses received from peer MEPs within a selected time interval are processed to determine their respective IP address, MAC address, and VLAN. If this information is not currently stored in a table of peer MEP device information associated with the originating MEP, then it is added. The responding MEP is then marked in the peer MEP device table as having responded. Peer MEP devices that have responded to previous multicast messages, but have now failed to respond within the selected time interval, are determined. A MEP network event is generated, comprising the IP address of the device containing the MEP, the MAC address for inward-facing MEPs, the MAC address of the associated bridge, the port addresses for outward-facing MEPs, and associated VLAN information. If another MEP network event occurs, the MAC address of the MEP and its VLAN information is determined. If the VLAN associated with the current MEP network event contains a MAC address associated with a prior MEP network event, then the MEP network event is designated as a child MEP network event and suppressed. Otherwise, the MEP network event is designated as a parent MEP network.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the disclosure relate in general to the field of computers and similar technologies, and in particular to software utilized in this field. Still more particularly, it relates to a method, system and computer-usable medium for the suppression of managed endpoint (MEP) child events in a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The demand for greater network bandwidth and availability by consumers, businesses, and government continues to grow. As a result, there has been a corresponding increase in the speed, size, and connectivity of today's networks, many of which are based on variants of the Ethernet protocol. At the same time, there has been a growing awareness by network managers of the need for additional security mechanisms and more flexibility and control when configuring their networks. One approach to these issues is the implementation of a virtual local area networks (VLAN), which has the same attributes as a physical LAN, but allows the reconfiguration of a network through software instead of physically relocating devices. Another advantage of a VLAN is that it also enables groupings of end points even if they are not located on the same network switch.
However, the benefits of a VLAN are often offset by various challenges in their effective management. One such challenge is the management of connectivity faults, referred to within the Ethernet protocol as connectivity fault management. In the Ethernet P802.1ag standard, each maintenance endpoint (MEP) sends out a multicast packet to each other maintenance endpoint defined within its VLAN. If the originating MEP does not receive a response packet from a peer MEP within a predetermined time interval, it may generate an asynchronous event report, commonly referred to as a trap. For VLANs that are large (e.g., 100 MEPs), the failure of a single MEP will result in a correspondingly large number of traps being sent by the other MEPs in the VLAN. For example, a failure occurring at a single MEP within a 100 MEP VLAN results in the receipt of 99 traps due to each of the other MEPs generating a trap when they did not receive a response packet from the failed endpoint within the predetermined time interval.
This large number of sympathetic traps, or child events, could create an event storm, especially in the case of an event occurring on a switch that terminates a large number of separate VLANs. Determining which of these network events is associated with a root cause of a network issue can prove problematic. In view of the foregoing there is a need to suppress child events generated as a result of the occurrence of an originating event on a MEP. However, there is no current solution for suppressing such child events in order to identify the parent MEP event.

System and method for correlating carrier ethernet connectivity fault management events

International Business Machines Corporation


Provided is an image display system which allows a user to browse an object of interest in a background as if she/he picks up and moves the object of interest by hand, and allows the user to visually enter inside a specified object placed on the background. The image display system of the present invention is characterized in that it has a mother database (MDB) reconfigured from a database for configuring an object, wherein an image (a two-dimensional image, a three-dimensional space or a four-dimensional space) based on the MDB, in an entire image, is substituted for an object subjected to the object recognition based on the MDB, and synthetically displayed.

Along with enhancement in processing ability of a server device and a terminal device such as a personal computer, a PDA or a mobile phone, and progress in computer networks and the Internet environments, a way for providing visual information such as moving image or still image becomes more diversified. For example, in the Internet, a concept of linking evolves, wherein, through an operation of clicking a text or image arranged on a Web page in a linkable manner, it is possible to transfer to another related Web page and download a related file. When a link destination is an audio file or a moving image file, it can be reproduced in real time (e.g., streaming playback) according to need.
Recent years, map information providing services for providing information about a geographical position is becoming more advanced. For example, there is a map information providing service disclosed in the following Patent Document 1. This service is based on an apparatus for use in displaying a digital map. The apparatus comprises: means for creating a set of map tiles relating to a map prepared from digital map data; means for interpreting candidate location data received from a client, wherein the candidate location data includes location information; means for determining the location information from the candidate location data; and means for providing, to the client, a requested map tile relating to the location information.
In 2005, the applicant of the Patent Document 1 started to provide a virtual glove Web service, so-called "Google Earth" (in Japan, http://earth.google.co.jp/). This service is intended to synthesize, on a server, a photographic image from a satellite around the earth, and provide the synthesized image to a user, wherein a user accessed from a terminal device can view satellite images around the world as if she/he looks a globe while rotating it. In an area where high-resolution images are available, it is possible to descend (zoom in) to an altitude of several meters, which allows a user to have an experience something that she/he browses aerial photographs. In 2007, Google Inc. also started a Web service, so-called "Google Street View" (in Japan, http://www.google.co.jp/help/maps/streetview/). This service is intended to synthesize, on a server, a 360-degree panoramic image collected by running, around a town, a large number of automobiles each having a camera mounted on a roof thereof, and provide the synthesize image to a user. A user accessed from a terminal device can move along a street back and forth and around, with the panoramic image, and have a simulated experience as if she/he drives an automobile around a town. The user can change the field of view from right to left or up and down, and can zoom in and zoom out. The "Google Street View" is configured to cooperate with the "Google Map" and "Google Earth" early provided by Google Inc.
Meanwhile, a research theme actively conducted along with progress in computer technologies includes an image recognition technology. Research on image recognition using a computer was started in 1960s. Since then, along with progress of high-speed processing technologies for computers and machine learning technologies, researches on line-drawing interpretation (1970s), a cognitive model based on a knowledge database constructed using a manually formulated rule and/or geometric model, and a three-dimensional model representation (1980s) were promoted. In the 1990s, researches, particularly, on facial image recognition and learning-based recognition, became active.
Researches on image recognition evolved from facial image recognition into generic object recognition. In the 2000s, further enhanced computer abilities made it possible to handle an enormous amount of calculation required for statistical processing and learning processing, and thereby researches on generic object recognition were promoted. The term "generic object recognition" means a technology of causing a computer to recognize, as a generic name, an object included in an image acquired from a real-world scene. In the '80s, the formulation of rules and models was manually performed, whereas, in the 2000s where it became possible to process a great deal of data at high speed, great interest was shown in an approach based on statistical machine learning, which triggered the recent boom of generic object recognition. The generic object recognition technology makes it possible to automatically assign a keyword to an image, and classify and retrieve the image in accordance with its semantic. An ultimate goal is to realize a human's cognitive function by a computer (Non-Patent Publication 1).
The generic object recognition technology progressed by approach from an image database and introduction of a statistical probability method. A pioneering research during the progress includes a method of leaning a correlation from data created by manually assigning keywords to an image to perform object recognition (Non-Patent Publication 2), and a method based on local feature values (Non-Patent Publication 3). Further, a research on generic object recognition based on local feature values includes the SIFT (Scale-Invariant Feature Transform) method (Non-Patent Publication 4), and the Video Google (Non-Patent Publication 5).
In 2004, so-called "Bag-of-Keypoints" or "Bag-of-Features" method was proposed. This method is intended to express an image by a histogram representing the frequency of appearance of a typical local pattern image piece, so-called "visual word". More specifically, a histogram is created for each image by extracting feature points based on the SIFT method, and vector-quantizing an SIFT feature vector based on a plurality of pre-obtained visual words. The histogram created in this manner is formed as sparse vectors, such as several hundred to several thousand-dimensional vectors. Then, image recognition process is performed by handling these vectors as a classification problem of multidimensional vectors (Non-Patent Publication 6).


A tape drive head cleaner has a brush that is driven to sweep over a write/read head in the direction of longitudinal grooves on the write/read head. Debris that are within the grooves are swept out of the grooves by the movement of the brush in the direction of the grooves. The brush is carried by a tape drive head cleaner mechanism that includes a lead screw driven by a stepper motor that engages the half nut attached to a brush carriage that carries the brush. The brush carriage is guided by fixed guide shafts so that the brush is precisely swept over the write/read head.

Tape drive devices for storing magnetic data are well known in the art. In the forward mode, tape is moved from a supply reel, which supplies the tape, to a take-up reel, which draws tape from the supply reel along the tape path and over the magnetic write/read head. In the reverse mode, tape is moved from the take-up reel to the supply reel.
In certain tape cartridge configurations, only a single reel, generally the supply reel, is provided in the tape cartridge or magazine. This type of cartridge is used with a tape drive having a take-up reel permanently housed in the tape drive unit. In such tape drives, a tape cartridge is inserted into the tape drive unit. The cartridge is then registered and the front end, or leader end, of the tape is transferred from the supply reel along the tape path of the tape drive to the take-up reel. The magnetic write/read head, which reads or writes to the tape, is located along the tape path and the take-up reel serves to draw the tape across the magnetic write/read head. Examples of such cartridges include DLT (Digital Linear Tape) cartridges made by Quantum, 3480/3490 cartridges made by IBM, and LTO (Linear Tape Open) cartridges made by Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
As the tape is being written or read, the tape traverses the surface of the write/read head. In conventional write/read heads, grooves are provided on the surface to improve the tape-to-head contact while the tape is traversing over the write/read head. Unfortunately, the motion of the tape against the write/read head generates debris which settle into the grooves of the write/read head. This causes abnormal contact between the tape and write/read head. Accumulation of the debris left on the write/read head raise concerns regarding proper tape-to-head contact on the write/read head, as well as inaccurate write and read functionality.
Cleaning devices for the heads of tape drives are known and described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,930,089; 6,166,881; 6,215,618; and 6,359,751. However, such mechanisms generally provide for a movement of a cleaning brush across the magnetic write/read head in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal access of the write/read head. Debris that settle in the grooves may not be adequately dislodged from these grooves by such apparatus. Failure to dislodge these debris from the grooves allows an accumulation of debris that deteriorate the performance of the tape drive over time and increased use.


It is an object of the present invention to provide a variable gain amplifier of which impedance does not change when gains are switched. A transistor is turned on in a high-gain state and transistors are turned on in a low-gain state to switch between the gains, the area of the transistor is made equal to the area of the transistor to keep the same output load conditions and the same output impedance both in the high-gain state and the low-gain state. While the input impedance of a transistor becomes high because the transistor in a high-gain path is turned off in the low-gain mode, current passes through a transistor to lower the impedance of the collector of a transistor and, as a result, the input impedance is kept the same both in the high-gain state and the low-gain state.

The present invention relates to a variable gain amplifier for radio-frequency signals.
FIGS. 6 and 7 show prior-art variable gain amplifiers.
In the variable gain amplifier shown in FIG. 6, an input signal, RFin, to be amplified is applied to the base of an common emitter transistor 101 through an input terminal 200 and, in a high-gain state, a bias voltage is applied to a common base transistor 102 from a bias power supply 204 through a contact 202 of a selector switch 201. As a result, a power supply voltage is applied to the collector of the transistor 101 from a power supply 205 through load Z and the collector-emitter of the transistor 102. Reference number 206 indicates a bias power supply, which generates a bias voltage determining the operating point of the transistor 101.
The signal, which is amplified by amplification factor found by transconductance gm of the transistor 101 that determines current flowing in load Z and magnitude of the load Z, is provided from an output terminal 208 connected to the connecting point 207 between load Z and the transistor 102.
In a low-gain state, a bias voltage is applied to the transistor 102 from the power supply 204 through a contact 203 of the selector switch 201. As a result, current between the collector and emitter of the transistor 102 is turned off and current between the collector and emitter of the common base transistor 103 is turned on and thereby a power supply voltage is applied to the collector of the transistor 101 from the power supply 205 through load Z, a resistor 104, and the collector-emitter of the transistor 103. The signal, which is amplified by amplification factor found by transconductance gm of the transistor 101 that determines current flowing in load Z and magnitude of the load Z, is provided from the output terminal 208, as in the high-gain state. A gain lower than that in the high-gain state is set by the resistor 104.
In the variable gain amplifier shown in FIG. 7, the gain is changed as follows.
Operation of this variable gain amplifier in a high-gain state is the same as that of the variable gain amplifier shown in FIG. 6. In a low-gain state, a bias voltage is applied to the base of a common base transistor 105 from a bias power supply 204 through a contact of a selector switch 201, current between the collector and emitter of the transistor 102 is turned off, and current between the collector and emitter of the transistor 105 is turned on and thereby a power supply voltage is applied to the collector of a transistor 101 from the power supply 205 through the collector-emitter of the transistor 105. A signal, which is amplified by amplification factor found by transconductance gm of the transistor 101 that determines current flowing in load Z and magnitude of the load Z, is coupled to the connecting point 207 at radio frequency through junction capacitance Cj, which is determined by the isolation property when current is turned off between the collector and emitter of the transistor 102, and provided through an output terminal 208 in a low-gain state.
An example of circuits in which a variable gain amplifier is used can be a first amplifier provided at the front end of a radio-frequency receiver. As shown in FIG. 8, bandpass filters 209 and 210 are connected to the input and output stages, respectively, of first amplifier A in order to improve selectivity. Reference number 211 indicates a mixer circuit.
Because the band-pass filters 209, 210 are designed to satisfy an required pass frequency property at certain input and output impedances, the gain of first amplifier A is switched between high-gain and low-gain states in accordance with electric field strength in a area in which the radio-frequency receiver is used.
Therefore, it is required that the certain input and output impedances of first amplifier A be maintained independently of the switching between high and low gain states.
However, in the prior-art variable gain amplifier shown in FIG. 6, the input and output impedances vary depending on the high-gain or low-gain states.
In particular, the output impedance at 1 GHz is not significantly changed on switching between the high-gain and low-gain state as indicated by symbols ZH and ZL on a Smith chart in FIG. 9. On the other hand, the output impedance at 5 GHz is significantly changed on switching between the high-gain and low-gain state as indicated by symbols ZHH and ZLL.
In the prior-art variable gain amplifier shown in FIG. 7, the input and output impedances are changed on switching between the high-gain state and low-gain state, and in addition, the low gain is determined by the isolation property of the transistor 102 in the off-state and therefore cannot be controlled.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a variable gain circuit whose impedance does not significantly vary depending on a high- or low-gain state and whose gain can be freely set in the low-gain state.
According to aspect 1 of the present invention, there is provided a variable gain amplifier in which the output circuit of a second transistor 2 is provided between the output circuit of a first transistor and a load, and an input signal provided to the input of the first transistor is amplified, the amplified signal is taken from a connecting point between the load and the second transistor, and the second transistor is turned on and off to switch between gains, wherein: a series circuit of an attenuator means and an output circuit of a third transistor is connected in parallel with an output circuit of the second transistor; the output circuit of a fourth transistor is connected in parallel with a series circuit of the output circuit of the second transistor and the load; selector means is provided for switching between a high gain state and a low gain state; and the selector means turns off the third and fourth transistors and turns on the second transistor to take the signal, which is amplified by amplification factor found by transconductance gm of the first transistor that determines current flowing in load Z and magnitude of the load Z, from the connecting point in the high-gain state, and turns off the second transistor and turns on the third and fourth transistors to take the signal, which is amplified by amplification factor found by transconductance gm of the first transistor that determines current flowing in load Z and magnitude of the load Z, from the connecting point in the low-gain state.
According to aspect 2 of the present invention, the attenuator means in the variable gain amplifier according to aspect 1 is formed with a resistor or a parallel circuit of a resistor and a capacitor.
According to aspect 3 of the present invention, the attenuator means in the variable gain amplifier according to aspect 1 is formed with a field effect transistor.
According to aspect 4 of the present invention, there is provided a variable gain amplifier in which the output circuit of a second transistor 2 is provided between the output circuit of a first transistor and a load, and an input signal provided to the input of the first transistor is amplified, the amplified signal is taken from a connecting point between the load and the second transistor, and the second transistor is turned on and off to switch between gains, wherein: a series circuit of an attenuator means and an output circuit of a third transistor is connected in parallel with an output circuit of the second transistor; the output circuit of a fourth transistor is connected in parallel with a series circuit of the output circuit of the second transistor and the load; selector means is provided for switching a high gain state, a medium gain state, and a low gain state; the third, fourth, and fifth transistors are turned off and the second transistor is turned on to take the signal, which is amplified by amplification factor found by transconductance gm of the first transistor that determines current flowing in load Z and magnitude of the load Z, from the connecting point in the high-gain state; the second and fifth transistors are turned off and the third and fourth transistors are turned on to take the signal, which is amplified by amplification factor found by transconductance gm of the first transistor that determines current flowing in load Z and magnitude of the load Z, from the connecting point in the medium gain state; and the second and third transistors are turned off and the fourth and fifth transistors are turned on to take the signal, which is amplified by amplification factor found by transconductance gm of the first transistor that determines current flowing in load Z and magnitude of the load Z, from the connecting point in the low-gain state.
According to aspect 5 of the present invention, in the variable gain amplifier according to aspect 4, the fourth transistor of which the output circuit is connected in parallel with the series circuit of the output circuit of the second transistor and the load is formed with a first and second bypass transistors of which output circuits are connected in parallel with each other; a bias voltage of an input circuit of the third transistor is applied to an input circuit of the first bypass transistor through a resistor; and an input circuit of the second bypass circuit is connected to an input circuit of the fifth transistor.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A force feedback control system for a backhoe includes a single grip articulated control arm having members and joints therebetween analogous to the members and joints of an articulated backhoe arm connecting an excavation bucket to a backhoe frame. A bilateral closed loop control circuit compares slave position signals from output joint position sensors associated with the backhoe arm joints with corresponding master position signals from input joint sensors associated with the control arm joints and provides command signals to actuators associated with the backhoe joints to move them so that differences in corresponding master and slave position signals are minimized. Backhoe joint load sensors provide load signals indicating resistance to movement of the associated backhoe joints, and the control circuit generates force feedback signals to drive feedback motors associated with the control arm joints to apply toruqes thereto to reflect the resistance to movement of the associated backhoe joints.

In conventional earthworking implements, such as backhoes, excavators, loaders, and the like, an earthworking tool is mounted on one or more arms connected to a vehicle, and the tool and arm are moved by the extension and retraction of hydraulic cylinders. An operator controls the functions of the tool by the operation of levers associated with hydraulic valves. High pressure hydraulic systems are employed, in which pressures may range to 2000 pounds per square inch and more. Thus, depending on the diameter of the hydraulic cylinders employed and the leverage involved, great amounts of force can be brought to bear by the implement tool.
Hydraulic valves for such equipment are generally of the reversible on/off type wherein, for example, pressing a control lever in one direction opens a valve to cause a cylinder to extend; releasing the lever allows it to center thereby closing the valve; and pressing the lever in the opposite direction reverses the valve to cause retraction of the cylinder. The only input force required of the operator is that which is required to overcome a lever centering spring. Because the input force of the system is very low and the output force resulting therefrom is relatively high, the force or power gain of the system is very high.
The type of control systems used on conventional earthworking implements, absent the operator, is of the open loop type. That is, the output parameter of the system, displacement of the tool or arm, is not fed back to the system for comparison with the input parameter to derive an error signal, which then causes correction of the displacement until the error signal is zeroed. The only feedback available is visual feedback to the operator who makes a judgement about the displacement "error" and manually controls a corrective displacement. The lack of displacement or force feedback in conventional implement control systems results in a lack of "feel" in the control levers.
In general, each available function of the tool is controlled by a corresponding single axis control lever, although the combination of two functions on a dual axis lever, or joystick, is sometimes provided. In a conventional backhoe, four tool functions are controlled including boom swing, boom elevation, crowd or elbow angle, and bucket curl or pitch. Thus, a minimum of two dual axis levers or, more conventionally, four single axis levers are required to control the bucket of a backhoe. The two or four control levers do not resemble the configuration of the bucket arm such that learning to control a given backhoe by its levers is not intuitive. An operator must associate the labeled name of a lever or its position in relation to the other levers with the backhoe function it controls. An additional problem, particularly with four levers, is that efficiency of operation of the backhoe suffers form the need for the operator to switch hands from lever to lever to coordinate the movements of the bucket. As a result of these and other factors, considerable expense and practice time is often required to train a profficient and safe backhoe operator.
Because of the lack of feel in the hydraulic control levers, problems can arise even for an experienced operator. For example, if it is necessary to excavate near a pipeline or other existing structure using a backhoe, great car must be exercised to avoid damage to the existing structure, since resistance to movement of the bucket caused by contact of the bucket with the structure is not fed back to the control levers. In order to avoid such damage when working at close quarters, it is sometimes necessary to station an additional worker to observe the operation and signal movements to the backhoe operator.
It is foreseen that the use of a unilateral closed loop control system to control a backhoe might result in the creation of problems and hazards not present in conventional backhoe control systems. In a unilateral master-slave position control system, a position input at a control lever is compared with a sensed position of the corresponding function, and the function actuator, such as a hydraulic cylinder, is activated to reduce the position error sensed. Because it takes a finite amount of time to fill a hydraulic cylinder, it would be possible for the master lever to get considerably ahead of the cylinder controlled resulting in a desynchronization of the master and slave. The same result could occur, for example, if the bucket encounters an obstacle. The situation is further complicated by multiple control axes such that an operator can become, in effect, "disoriented" with respect to the positions of the control levers relative to the position of the bucket. Attempts by the operator and the control system to recover from such a situation could result in unpredictable movements of the backhoe arm. With a large heavy implement capable of applying tens of thousands of pounds of force in the vicinity of other workers, equipment, and structures, such a situation is of necessity to be avoided.
In conventional backhoes the bucket is movable through four degrees of freedom: extension and retraction, raising and lowering, swinging from side to side, and curl of the bucket about a horizontal axis. To some extent, this limits the utility of such a backhoe. In some situations, it would be desirable for the bucket to be able to yaw with respect to the dipper arm to which it is connected and to rotate about a wrist type of axis. This would provide the bucket with six degrees of freedom and would facilitate the use of a backhoe in trenching types of excavation in planes other than vertical. Such a capability might be desirable in excavating beneath an elongated horizontal structure, such as an existing pipe. One obstacle to developing such a six degree backhoe is that two additional single axis control levers or an additional dual axis control lever would be required which would exacerbate the problem of coordinating the control levers.


A compound sheet with a welded seam is arranged on a table (2) of the device (1). By lowering a cutting and bending punch (4), a cutout is cut from the compound sheet and bent downwards. A pulling device is arranged inside the device (1) underneath the table (2) to seize the downwardly bent cutout and tear it off the compound sheet. The quality of the weld can be evaluated by visual inspection of the appearance of the rupture point, in a known manner. In this way, tear test specimens of consistent quality and informativeness can be prepared very quickly and easily.

The invention relates to a process for producing a peel or tear test specimen on a welded compound sheet or part thereof. The invention also relates to a device for carrying out the process.
The joining together of sheets by welding, in particular by mash seam or laser welding, is known. The assembly constituted by the joined sheets is known as a compound sheet. To complete the quality inspection, compound sheets or parts thereof with the welded seam are regularly removed from the production process and the strength of the weld is tested by destruction of the compound sheet. This is done by making cuts in one of the two joined sheets with sheet-metal shears to expose a tongue of the sheet material. This cutout tongue is bent over and gripped by means of a slotted key. The key is turned and the tongue is wound on to the key, towards the welded seam. The key is turned until the material is destroyed. From the position and surface features of the rupture point in the tongue or in the weld, the quality of the welded seam can be judged by visual inspection by a suitably trained person.
The process which has been outlined here has been found to have a number of shortcomings. First, the process is relatively time-consuming, as the cutting and bending operations are performed separately, by hand. Second, it appears that the results obtained from the manual tearing or peeling by means of the said key can vary very considerably depending on how it is performed by the operator. This can make the ensuing visual appraisal of the weld difficult.

Process and device for producing a peel or tear test specimen on a welded compound sheet


A CE device employs user interfaces to allow a user to define energy management rules within the user's premises, visualize energy use in the home and in neighbor's homes for comparison and competition in saving energy, and receive tailored advertisements for appliances that are more energy efficient than what the user currently owns.

Home energy management refers to technologies and processes that allows for measuring, monitoring and controlling of energy consumption of individual devices in residential homes. As recognized by present principles, both wide area and local communication networks such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and Power, Line Communication (PLC) can be used to connect the devices within the home and to send data to a display device. As further understood herein, it is desirable to provide effective control, displays, and support as to suggestions for energy savings on a consumer electronics (CE) device the user may conveniently operate, within the home to effect energy conservation.


Apparatus are provided for collecting pet waste. In embodiments a grapple coupled to a housing is selectively operable between a closed position in which the grapple and housing substantially enclose a body compartment and an open position in which the grapple and housing define a mouth in communication with the body compartment. A handle is coupled to the housing, and a grapple control on the handle is configured to selectively operate the grapple between the open and closed positions. The grapple control may comprise a grip lever. A bag roll may be supported inside the body compartment by an axle mount. Bags may be unspooled from the bag roll and, without being torn from the bag roll, placed over a portion of the housing and the grapple to provide a sanitary barrier between the apparatus and pet waste.

Many pet owners are compelled by law and/or a sense of personal responsibility to collect and dispose of waste deposited in public spaces by their pets. Picking up pet waste is an noxious and onerous task. A common manual method for collected pet waste involves placing a hand inside a bag, using the bag-covered hand to manually grasp the waste, and rolling the bag off the hand to enclose the waste. This method optionally involves tying or otherwise closing the bag. Once used to enclose the waste, the bag must then be taken to an appropriate disposal site, which typically involves either conspicuously carrying the waste-containing bag, or placing it in a pocket or other vessel.
The disadvantages of manual waste collection are well understood. They include risk of accidental skin contact with waste, unpleasantness in having to touch waste (even though through a bag), social discomfort arising from carrying a waste containing bag in public, close personal proximity to the waste-containing bag between collection and disposal, and risk of waste leaking from the bag into a pocket or vessel in which the bag is stored.
Many pet owners are compelled by law and/or a sense of personal responsibility to maintain control of their pet in public spaces using leash. Picking up pet waste while controlling a pet on a leash may be difficult. For example, a pet owner may experience difficulty while maintaining leash control of her pet placing the bag over her free hand. Particularly difficulty may be experienced where one hand must be used to both hold the leash and perform the actions of rolling the bag off the hand and over the waste. Pets have been known to unexpectedly pull on leashes, and during the delicate task of collecting waste and unexpected pull could lead to undesired contact with pet waste.
The inventor has determined a need for pet waste collection apparatus that avoid one or more of the above disadvantages. Also, the inventor has determined a need for apparatus that facilitate simultaneous collection of pet waste and control of a pet on a leash.
There exist a number of patents and published patent applications relating to waste collection or leashes, including:                U.S. Pat. No. 7,523,972 to Wawrzynowski;        US Patent Application Publication no. 2009/021604 to Rodriguez et al.,        US Patent Application Publication no. 2008/0265592 to Askinasi;        US Patent Application Publication no. 2007/0132252 to Cioloboc;        U.S. Pat. No. 7,506,615 to Sansone et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 7,410,197 to Edwards;        U.S. Pat. No. 7,374,215 to Anderson;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,620 to Huegelmeyer et al.;        US Patent Application Publication no. 2009/0261603 to Boghozian;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,332 to Beasoechea Inchaurraga;        Canadian Patent no. 2,4215,298 to Eaves;        PCT Patent Application Publication no. WO00/05458 to Grant;        US Patent Application Publication no. 2004/0256869 to Avishay;        U.S. Pat. No. 7,628,431 to Evans et al.;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,983,966 to Azrikam;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,469 to Albert;        US Patent Application Publication no. 2006/0231043 to Galdo.
The foregoing examples of related art and limitations related thereto are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.


An apparatus includes a base and a coupling member. The base is configured to position a game piece with respect to a gaming area, and the coupling member is configured to couple the game piece to the base. A status selector is provided to select a status of the game piece with respect to the gaming area, using an indicator extending from a first side to a second side of the base. A set of indicia are configured to be selectively displayed by positioning the indicator with respect to the first and second sides of the base, so that the selected status of the game piece is indicated.

This disclosure relates generally to simulations and gaming, and specifically to a gaming or simulation apparatus with a movable base and status indicator. For example, the base may be configured to position a game piece, miniature, or other object with respect to an area, and to display a related status based on the gaming or simulation architecture.
Generally, gaming and simulations activities include, but are not limited to, miniature gaming, board and table games, war games, and roleplaying games. The miniatures category includes detailed figures for use in gaming and simulation scenarios, typically with broad, tactical-level architectures. Board games and table games can be defined as tabletop activities that utilize game pieces, pawns, tokens, and similar components on a variety of different playing surfaces. War games include both board game and miniatures-based examples. Roleplaying games (RPGs) can be considered a form of shared gaming or storytelling experience, in which both miniatures and other game pieces can be used.
Miniature figures and game pieces may be made of metal, plastic, paper, and composite materials, and can be painted or unpainted, or include printed designs. The designs themselves have a wide variety of forms, ranging from abstract tokens and other symbolic expressions of gaming entities, to detailed representational images of vehicles, characters and weapons, some with meticulous two and three-dimensional artwork. In particular, game pieces and miniatures encompass both symbolic and actual representations of historical, mythological, and fantasy or science fiction entities, for use in tabletop games, simulations, war games, role-playing games, and other activities. A base or pedestal structure can also be provided, in order to position the game piece or figure within a particular simulation or gaming area.
While tabletop gaming and miniatures may be considered recreational activities, they have a dedicated and demanding audience. Both the base apparatus and the game piece or miniature components are subject to significant design and manufacturing considerations, including not only overall quality, durability and cost, but also reproduction and scale accuracy, as well as player and user preferences within a particular game or simulation architecture. This architecture can also impose additional design requirements, particularly for features configured to indicate the corresponding status of the game piece or miniature.


According to one embodiment, a method can generate an interpolation image signal including the integer-pixel and interpolation pixel values, based on, if the interpolation pixel is not located at the integer-pixel position and in a row of an integer-pixel, and the interpolation pixel is located at a first pixel position displaced from the integer-pixel in horizontal and vertical directions by a half pixel, applying a first filter, and if the interpolation pixel is located at a second pixel position displaced from the integer-pixel in the directions by a quarter pixel, applying a second filter, and if the interpolation pixel is not located at the first and second pixel positions, applying the second and first filters.

There is an interpolation filter used in H.264/MPEG-4AVC (hereinafter referred to as H.264), i.e., one of international standard specifications of video encoding as an interpolation filter used for motion compensation of sub-pixel precision. In the H.264 interpolation filter, first, a pixel value of a half pixel is calculated, and a pixel value of a quarter pixel is calculated from an average of the calculated half pixels.
In addition, there is another interpolation filter, in which, first, a value calculated by applying a filter in a first direction is subjected to round off processing, whereby a reference value serving as a basis of a sub-pixel is calculated, and then, using the calculated reference value, a filter is applied in a second direction different from the first direction, and further, round off processing is performed to generate sub-pixels (See, e.g., Jpn. PCT National Publication No. 2008-507190).
Still further, there is an adaptive loop filter (ALF), i.e., another method for improving prediction efficiency by motion compensation. In the ALF, filter information including filter coefficients designed by an encoding side is sent to a decoding side, and the image quality is improved by using a common loop filter both in the encoding and decoding sides (See, e.g., T. Chujoh, N. Wada, G. Yasuda, "Quadtree-based Adaptive Loop Filter," ITU-T Q.6/SG16 Doc., C181, Geneva, January 2009).

Video encoding method, decoding method, and apparatus


The present invention provides an electronic net for security during transportation, whereas the net body of electronic net is knitted with a braided wire which has a conductive wire inside, or even it is formed by multiple subnets and the conductive wires between subnets are connected in series. Both metal ends of conductive wire of the net body are connected to electronic lock. If the conductive wire in the braided wire is disconnected due to the damage of net body, the electronic lock rapidly detect the error. Even though the disconnected conductive wire is reconnected again, the error record in the electronic lock cannot be eliminated. Therefore, once the goods finish the X-ray security check, it is covered with the electronic net and locked to the bottom plate with fixing belt, and then identify it with the strap before transportation. And the staff needs to check the electronic lock if there is any error signal and observe the identifiers of the straps if they are consistent with the record and damaged or not As above to complete the inspection of the security problems in transportation. The process is simple and reduces the security loopholes caused by negligence.

It is necessary to proceed X-ray inspection for cargo transportation at the airport, especially for air exported cargo to meet the security requirement. Generally most of the national airports set a freight center with the X-ray inspection equipment for security inspection to all the goods to be transported by air. After security inspection, the cargo will be directly transported to cargo plane for transportation. The airports with large freight volume setups a corresponding scale freight center in order to temporarily store the goods. However, in some countries or regions, such as Hong Kong, the limited area of the airport cannot meet the needs of large volume of air cargo. Therefore, it is necessary to inspect the cargo security outside the airport, and then transport the goods to airport for air freight by truck after security inspection. In order to avoid the security loopholes in the process of transportation after security inspection, it is necessary to take specific security measures, including using rope net to fix the goods, and using lock with special disposable label to fix the rope net in order to prevent any goods from being replaced or inserted without security check during transportation. After transportation, the staff should inspect the packing to find out whether the rope net and the lock have any damage. However, the above security inspections are very cumbersome and inefficient in the actual operation process. And due to the omissions of manual inspection, It is unable to effectively eliminate security loopholes in the transportation.

Electronic net for security during transportation and weaving method therefor


A tissue sample localizer device comprises a tissue holder having a target region constructed and arranged for selective receipt of a tissue sample to be analyzed thereon. A reference grid defines a grid pattern suitable for formation of a grid pattern image on an image taken of the reference grid. Structure is provided so that the reference grid is operably positioned over the tissue holder target region so that the grid pattern image appears on an image taken of the target region.

Within the field of health care, there exists a need for accurate, efficient, and timely diagnosis of patient illnesses. Therefore, physical examinations which may allow detection of illnesses or developing health problems are quite important. However, even when health care providers are capable of detecting certain illnesses associated with a patient, the scope or severity of the illness may remain unknown.
In many instances, the detection of unhealthy tissue is delayed until such tissue presents complications. For example, in many forms of carcinomas, or cancers, the growth of undesired tissue remains undetected until secondary indications are noted by the patient. Generally, the earlier a diagnosis of carcinoma is made, then the better the chance of a positive outcome when dealing with that illness. An often preferred diagnostic method includes use of a tissue imaging device. Imaging techniques, such as X-ray photography, often provide indications of regions containing tumors, malignancies, masses, or other tissue anomalies.
Generally, when a tissue anomaly region has been detected, a health care provider accesses the region with surgical or other means. However, when surgical incisions are used to access potentially unhealthy tissue, extensive damage may result to otherwise healthy tissue. Furthermore, certain illnesses may require numerous incisions and tissue penetrations to arrive at the various suspect tissue masses. Even if one such unhealthy mass is detected, accessed, and removed, it remains a current practice to also remove a substantial amount of surrounding tissue in order to achieve a greater chance of a surgical cure. A similar problem exists when removal methods other than resection are used, such as hemostasis.
The procedures and methods of exploratory surgery and preventive surgery are often quite expensive. Medical providers who conduct certain surgical procedures are generally engaged in higher risk activities than many other medical providers, and therefore may incur significant other costs relating to surgical means of detecting and/or curing certain patient illnesses. These other risks and costs may include: occurrence of infection in points of incision; exuberant scarring, such as keyloids, in the incision regions; undesired damage to associated or adjacent tissue and organs; increased costs associated with recovery care; costs associated with related metabolic traumas; and insurance expenses.
The field of imaging analysis, including radiology, provides generally widely accepted initial alternatives to the surgical procedures noted above. A common method of imaging allows a patient to dispose that portion of his or her body in need of analysis between an emitter and a receptor portion of an imaging device. The device is activated to generate an emission of an energy form, such as sound, light, or radiographic waves, into and/or through the body portion being tested, thereby producing an image of the body portion in the receptor section of the device. Analysis of the image generated then provides diagnostic aids in the detection and pursuit of any unhealthy tissue. Unfortunately, such a technique often includes inaccuracies and inefficiencies. The size, width, density, or orientation of the exposed body portion may result in adverse imaging. Depending on the organ region being imaged, it is not uncommon to have images which include excessive shadowing, inarticulate detail, and even complete masking of various tissue.
The medical field has responded to these known problems affecting imaging methods of tissue analysis in several ways. One response includes taking multiple X-ray prints of a tissue region at various angles; so as to overcome shadowing and/or the physical blockage provided by organs, etc. This approach may result in unnecessary cycling and utilization of imaging equipment, waste of material, and inefficient use of trained personnel. Another method of tissue localization is exploratory surgery of the nature and disadvantages described hereinabove.
Yet another tissue localization method involves a relatively non-invasive removal of a sample portion of a suspect tissue region. This is accomplished through such means as a needle device having a hollow core into which a tissue specimen may be drawn and thereby removed from the patient. The tissue specimen may then be analyzed under a microscope or with other laboratory techniques such as radiographic analysis, X-ray photography, and the like. Although such means of extracting a tissue sample from a patient may reduce the size of the initial surgical incision and therefore may generally reduce the risk of this surgical procedure, certain inefficiencies remain. For instance, it is not uncommon for analysis of a tissue sample, using prior techniques, to require a long period of time. Such a long time period may often result in the patient departing the medical provider's office or surgical room prior to a completed analysis of the tissue specimen being made available. This results in significant inefficiencies if further tissue sampling is needed and/or the tissue analysis indicates that followon surgical procedures are necessary or recommended.
Frequently, the medical provider who removes a tissue specimen from a patient'3 s body provides that specimen to another medical provider for testing and analysis. For example, a surgeon may remove a breast tissue sample which is suspected of containing a carcinoma. The tissue sample may then be sent to a laboratory for analysis, probably by a radiologist and/or pathologist. After the analysis of the specimen is performed, the radiologist provides a report to the originating surgeon. Frequently, such reports highlight regions of the tissue sample which appear to be in need of further pathologic testing. In such cases, the tissue sample would then be provided to a pathology laboratory for further testing and analysis.
Many health care providers are not equipped with the requisite imaging devices, pathology laboratories, and trained personnel to accomplish the aforementioned tissue sample analysis. Therefore, tissue samples must leave the immediate control of the original medical provider and be transported to the appropriate location(s) for analysis. This process may result in considerable inefficiencies as well as risk of miscommunication as to the precise region of concern within a tissue sample. Also, miscommunication as to precise points in the tissue sample may occur in reporting or discussing the results of the analysis. A miscommunication or misunderstanding pertaining to this analysis results in a lengthening of the time from when the tissue sample was removed from the patient until the time when the appropriate medical provider receives the proper recommendations and information from other medical specialists.
What has been needed, therefore, has been a method to localize and reference tissue cells in an efficient and accurate manner.
What has been further needed has been a device which is readily operable for the localization and reference of tissue cells.
Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following descriptions, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein are set forth by way of illustration and example certain embodiments of the present invention.

Tissue sample localizer device and method


Provided are a wind farm noise prediction method, apparatus and system. The method comprises: collecting, in real time, a wind speed at a site of at least one wind turbine generator system, which impacts noise at a noise detection point, in a wind farm; according to a noise acoustic power level database and a system database, respectively calculating a noise acoustic power level, at the collected wind speed, of each wind turbine generator system from among the at least one wind turbine generator system; according to a wind farm noise propagation database, respectively calculating a noise propagation loss value, at the collected wind speed, of each wind turbine generator system; and using the noise acoustic power level and the noise propagation loss value of each wind turbine generator system to calculate a total noise acoustic pressure level at the noise detection point.

When a wind turbine runs at high speed to generate electricity, operation of components such as a fan blade and a generator of the wind turbine brings inevitable noise. At present, with rapid development of wind power generation, the number of wind farms is increasing, and locations of built wind farms are getting closer and closer to people's daily life and work areas. Wind farm noise causes noise pollution that cannot be ignored, and brings serious negative impacts on a surrounding environment, especially causing people's annoyance or affecting people's health.
An optimization plan at a wind farm level is required in existing methods for controlling wind farms noises, to calculate a noise reduction command value to be executed by each wind turbine in order to make the whole farm in an optimal operating status. However, there are few technologies that can achieve the noise control at the wind farm level currently, and no consideration is given to power generation loss of the whole farm caused by a noise control requirement of the wind farm.

Wind farm noise prediction method, apparatus and system

BEIJING GOLD WIND SCIENCE & CREATION WINDPOWER EQUIPMENT CO., LTD.


Described is a method and system for verifying the end-to-end distribution of messages within an on-demand services platform. To provide the ability to monitor and trace such messages, the system may include a specialized and queryable datastore (or database) that allows the system to track the distribution and acknowledgement of messages throughout the services platform. Accordingly, a specialized verification process may be initiated to query the database to verify the receipt of a message has been acknowledged by various components within the system. In addition, the verification process may automatically retry the distribution the messages to ensure particular downstream components have received the message. Accordingly, the system alleviates the need to manual re-crawl various message source to ensure the end-to-end distribution of such messages.

Various on-demand (or cloud-based) customer relationship management (CRM) software tools exist to aid organizations with managing interactions with customers and potential customers. These tools, however, rely on vast amounts of data that often results in unique data processing challenges. For example, managing such large amounts of data (e.g. millions of records from thousands of customers) requires efficient mechanisms for managing and tracking the distribution of such data. Moreover, the management of data becomes increasingly complex and resource intensive when disseminated the data across a distributed set of computing resources. Although various management tools exist to aid with the management of data across a distributed system, these tools are often ill-suited for tracing and verifying data distribution from a data source to various independent downstream software components that may be part of an on-demand services platform. As a result, there is a continued need for tools to efficiently manage end-to-end data distribution within an on-demand services platform.

Monitoring and verification system for end-to-end distribution of messages


There are provided compounds having an anticoagulant action on the basis of inhibition of activated blood coagulation factor X and being useful as anticoagulants or preventive/therapeutic agents for diseases induced by thrombosis or embolism. Effective ingredients are the compounds such as 4′-bromo-2′-[(5-chloro-2-pyridyl)carbamoyl]-6′-β-D-galactopyranosyloxy-1-isopropylpiperidine-4-carboxanilide, 2′-(2-acetamido-2-deoxy-β-D-glucopyranosyloxy)-4′-bromo-6′-[(5-chloro-2-pyridyl)carbamoyl]-1-isopropylpiperidine-4-carboxanilide, etc. or salts thereof.

With the changes into European and American life styles and the increase in aged population in recent years, the number of patients with thromboembolic diseases including myocardial infarction, cerebral thrombosis and peripheral arterial thrombosis have been increasing year by year and social importance of their treatment has been increasing more and more. As well as the fibrinolysis therapy and antiplatelet therapy, the anticoagulation therapy takes a part of the medical therapy in treating and preventing thrombosis (Sogo Rinsho, 41: 2141-2145, 1989). In particular, the safety which withstands long-term administration and accurate and proper expression of the anticoagulation activity are essential in the prevention of thrombosis. Warfarin potassium is frequently used in the world as the sole oral anticoagulant but this drug is extremely difficult to use clinically because it is difficult to control the anticoagulation capacity due to the characteristics based on its action mechanism (J. Clinical Pharmacology, 32, 196-209, 1992 and N. Eng. J. Med., 324(26), 1865-1875, 1991) whereby a great concern has been directed toward the development of more useful and easily usable anticoagulants.
Thrombin controls conversion of fibrinogen into fibrin which is the final step of coagulation and is also concerned deeply in the activation and aggregation of platelets ("T-PA and Pro-UK" edited by S. Matsuo, published by Gakusai Kikaku, pp. 5-40 "Blood Coagulation", 1986) and its inhibitor has been the center of anticoagulant studies as a target of development of pharmaceuticals. However, thrombin inhibitors which can be administered orally have not been put into the market until now because of their low bioavailability by oral administration and problems from the viewpoint of safety (Biomed. Biochim. Acta, 44, 1201-1210, 1985).
Activated blood coagulation factor X is a key enzyme which is located at the joining point of the extrinsic and intrinsic coagulation cascade reactions and located upstream to thrombin whereby there is a possibility that inhibition of this factor is more efficient than the thrombin inhibition and such an inhibitor can inhibit this coagulation system in a specific manner (THROMBOSIS RESEARCH (19), 339-349, 1980).
As the compounds having an activated blood coagulation factor X inhibiting action, amidinonaphthyl alkylbenzene derivatives or salts thereof have been known (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 208946/1993; Thrombosis Haemostasis, 71(3), 314-319, 1994; and Thrombosis Haemostasis, 72(3), 393-396, 1994).
In WO 96/16940, it is mentioned that an amidinonaphthyl derivative or a salt thereof represented by the following formula is the compound having an activated blood coagulation factor X inhibiting action.
(for the symbols in the formula, refer to the gazette)
In WO 99/00121, WO 99/00126, WO 99/00127, WO 99/00128, WO 00/39111, WO 00/39117 and WO 00/39118, phenylenediamide compounds represented by the following formula, etc. are mentioned as an Xa factor inhibitor.
(for the symbols in the formula, refer to each of the gazettes)
Further, in WO 99/32477, a broad range of compounds represented by the following formula is mentioned as an anticoagulant.
(for the symbols in the formula, refer to the gazette)
In an anticoagulation therapy, activated blood coagulation factor X inhibitor is expected to inhibit coagulation system effectively and specifically as compared with a thrombin inhibitor. Accordingly, there has been a brisk demand for creating a selective activated blood coagulation factor X inhibitor which has different chemical structure from the above-mentioned known compounds, is able to be administered per os and has further excellent effect.

Substituted benzene derivatives or salts thereof


Systems, methods and storage mediums are disclosed for processing images and two-dimensional barcodes for two-way verification of document data. In one exemplary embodiment, image data of a document is obtained, processed and rendered into a barcode for incorporation into a reproduction of an original image of the document. The resolution of the barcode may be higher than the resolution of the original image which allows the size of the barcode to be reduced. Moreover, the amount of data associated with the original image may be decreased which allows for smaller data storage requirements and faster data transfer of the document.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to processing a document and associated barcode, and, more particularly, to verification and other image processing features associated with the document and barcode.
2. Description of Related Information
Barcoding is a widely used mechanism for facilitating the accurate and secure storage and communication of information. For example, barcodes are often used in retail environments for representing product identification numbers and prices. Alternatively, barcodes have been used on such objects as personal ID cards, driver's licenses and passports as a way to store alpha-numeric data such as names and dates.
Existing barcode systems are used to associate barcodes with documents such as hardcopy paper documents and electronic documents to facilitate their storage and distribution. Systems for transmitting documents and communicating related information sometimes include components capable of providing documents, such as textual, schematic, diagrammatic, graphical and photographic documents, in a secure manner. However, existing systems do not provide sufficient security mechanisms for allowing comparison between barcode data and original image data. Furthermore, such systems generally do not provide the barcode capacity sufficient to store the amount of information necessary to create a complete reproduction of an original document image Moreover, excessive barcode footprints may obscure or altogether eliminate portions of a document that would otherwise be useable.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved transmission of sensitive documents wherein document image data can be safely stored in an encrypted barcode prior to transmission. Furthermore, there is a need for a system and method of associating barcodes with documents such that the barcodes may encode enough information for subsequent comparison to the original document and associated verification functionality. There is also a need for barcodes with sufficient capacity for a relatively small barcode to create a reproduction of the document.
In sum, there is a need for systems and methods for processing document image data to create a barcode including features that enable improved verification and/or reproduction of the original document, and increase the resolution of the barcode such that it features increased data capacity per unit of barcode area.

High resolution barcode and document including verification features


A paint swatch test device includes a transparent or translucent substrate, such as a sheet of polymeric material, and a plurality of different primer coating patches on the substrate. The patches preferably form a grayscale series of neutral white and gray primer patches having stepwise increments in light reflectance values. The patches can also be provided on an opaque substrate. The color suitability and/or hiding power of a topcoat paint desired to be applied to a surface to be painted can be determined by coating the topcoat paint on at least a portion of a surface of the transparent or translucent substrate, providing a grayscale series of patches between the paint coating and the surface to be painted, and observing the appearance of the paint coating where patches are beneath the coating and where patches are not beneath the coating.

Mass-produced paint color swatches, also known as color chips or color cards, which are commonly supplied by paint manufacturers, are widely used to visually judge the suitability of paint colors being considered for painting projects involving walls, ceilings, floors, fences, cabinets, etc. The number of different colors represented by mass-produced paint color swatches is limited to a group of colors chosen by the paint manufacturer to balance the manufacturer's need to have an economical and manageable inventory of paint color swatches against the user's desire to have the widest variety of color swatches from which to choose a color that meets each user's unique decorating needs. Mass-produced paint color swatches are generally made using fast-drying lacquers or inks which are designed to be applied to opaque color swatch substrates, usually heavy white paper or cardstock, using high speed coating or printing machinery. Except for color, such lacquers and inks are compositionally and functionally very different from the commercially available paints which are used to decorate and protect the surfaces found in the everyday environment (walls, ceilings, floors, shelves, cabinets, doors, etc.). Mass-produced paint color swatches enable the user to review and choose colors which are available from a specific group of paint products which are formulated to deliver the mass-produced swatch colors when colored with color pigment concentrates known commercially as tinters or colorants. In other words, mass-produced swatches are ordinarily not designed or intended to be used to judge the ability of any paint characteristic, other than color, to meet user needs. Notably, ordinary mass-produced paint color swatches are not designed or intended to be used to judge the very important characteristic of hiding power of the actual paints used for coating painting project surfaces (walls, ceilings, floors, shelves, cabinets, doors, etc.). "Hiding power" is commonly defined as a measure of the ability of a paint, stain or other surface coating to visually obscure a substrate surface exhibiting one or more contrasting colors. A paint having high hiding power can be used to reliably obscure substrate colors ranging from pure white to pure black and all colors and shades commonly included in the gamut of colors commercially available in the form of a paint, stain or other surface coating. Paints having high hiding power require thinner and/or fewer coats to obscure a substrate having one or more contrasting colors. Using thinner and/or fewer coats of topcoat paint yields material and time savings which advantageously reduces the cost and the time required to complete a painting project.
Paints containing sufficient amounts of inorganic or mineral pigments like titanium dioxide, iron oxide and carbon black are known to have high hiding power because of their ability to scatter and/or absorb light of many visible wavelengths. Conversely, it is well known by those skilled in the art that paints colored primarily with organic pigments having a high level of color purity, saturation or chroma do not scatter light efficiently and consequently tend to be semitransparent, have poor hiding power and generally require the application of multiple coats to obscure a substrate surface color or colors. Because the poor hiding power associated with high chroma paints is commonly not recognized by the general public including the ordinary paint user, the color achieved on the user's painting project surface (walls, ceilings, floors, shelves, cabinets, doors, etc.) often does not match the color exhibited by the mass-produced swatch because the original color of the project's surface partially shows through one or more coats of a characteristically low hiding power high chroma paint. The show-through of the original surface color visually alters or adulterates the topcoat paint's color to the point where the topcoat paint's color appears to be noticeably different from that color expected on the basis of viewing the corresponding mass-produced paint color swatch which is necessarily designed to represent the topcoat paint's color when no show-through of various unknown substrate colors occurs.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,546,007 and 5,700,515 teach the use of high hiding power neutral white and gray primer coatings over a colored surface prior to topcoating with a low hiding power high chroma paint to eliminate or significantly reduce visual show-through of the original surface color. These patents further teach that the most effective shade of gray chosen for the primer to be used with a specific topcoat color is determined by mathematically comparing spectral reflectance curves for a specific topcoat color with the curves for a series of high hiding power white and gray primers having a range of light reflectance or CIELab lightness/darkness levels. Spectral reflectance curves are measured using sophisticated laboratory spectrophotometer instruments like those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,700,515. Access to such spectrophotometers and the mathematical knowledge required to use spectral reflectance curves to identify the most effective shade of white or gray primer to prevent substrate color show-through are well beyond the capabilities of the ordinary paint user. Additionally, it is counterintuitive to most paint users that the use of a neutral white or gray primer could effectively improve the hiding power of a high chroma topcoat. The ordinary paint user generally assumes that it would be impossible for a "colorless" neutral white or neutral gray primer to improve the hiding power of a vividly colored, high chroma topcoat; vivid colors and neutral colors intuitively seem to be totally incompatible. As a consequence, most ordinary paint users are reluctant to use a white or gray primer under a high chroma topcoat because they are often unaware of the poor hiding power associated with high chroma topcoats and have an intuitive bias against the concept of employing a neutral white or neutral gray color to improve the perceived hiding power of a high chroma topcoat paint.
Thus several advantages of one or more aspects are to provide an easy-to-use device which allows the user to prepare paint color test swatches which provide the user with direct visually perceived color and hiding power information which is beyond the scope of the commonly available mass-produced paint color swatches known as paint "color chips" or "color cards".

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A system for detection of a photon emission generate by a device of an integrated circuit, and methods for detecting the same are provided. The system includes a device space configured to include the device. The system further includes an electrical probe proximate the device space and configured to couple to the device. The electrical probe is configured to induce the device to generate the photon emission. The system further includes an optical fiber having a first end proximate the device space and a second end spaced from the first end. The first end is configured to receive the photon emission generated by the device. The optical fiber is configured to transmit the photon emission from the first end to the second end. The system further includes a detector in communication with the second end of the optical fiber and configured to detect the photon emission transmitted by the optical fiber.

The semiconductor industry is continuously moving toward the fabrication of smaller and more complex microelectronic devices with higher performance. The production of smaller integrated circuits requires the development of smaller electronic devices, and closer spacing of those electronic devices within the integrated circuits. After fabrication, many of these integrated circuits undergo a quality analysis to detect failed devices within the integrated circuit. A common indicator for a failed device is a photon emission by the device. Emission microscopy techniques, such as optical microscopy, have been used to detect the photon emission by these failed devices down to a resolution of 2 μm. More recently, other techniques have been developed to detect the photon emission, such as imaging systems utilizing a solid immersion lens with a resolution of 730 nm, or imaging systems utilizing a Fresnel lens with a resolution of 360 nm.
However, devices are now fabricated at sizes well beyond the resolution of the emission microscopy techniques described above. Further, photon emissions by these devices are decreased due to lower working voltages of the devices. Even if a photon emission is detected, determining the specific device attributed to the emission becomes challenging due to resolution limitations. As a result, the ability to detect failed devices is hindered, which in turn may negatively impact quality and operation of the device.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system for detection of a photon emission generated by a device, and methods for detecting the same. Moreover, other desirable features and characteristics of the present embodiment will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.

System for detection of a photon emission generated by a device and methods for detecting the same


Thin glass sheets may be processed in an effective fashion by electrostatically charging the sheets and applying them to an oppositely electrostatically charged carrier sheet. After processing is completed the carrier sheet may be removed and the processed sheet may be applied to its intended application such as to act as the front panel of an electronic display.

This invention relates generally to handling relatively thin glass sheets.
Thin glass sheets may be utilized for example in connection with displays for electronic devices. For example, in connection with organic light emitting device (OLED) displays, thin glass sheets may act as the front panel of a display. In some cases, OLED materials may be deposited, together with row and column electrodes, on the thin glass sheet.
In making large displays, a number of display tiles may be formed with such front panels. Those tiles are abutted one against the other. By abutting a large number of such tiles, a relatively large display may be formed.
The display formed in this fashion may be advantageous for a number of reasons including the fact that large displays need not be made from a single substrate. Generally because of the possibility of defects, the larger the substrate that is needed to form the display, the lower the yield per device and the higher the expense per device. By using smaller substrates, which may in turn have a lower chance of defects per wafer, the loss due to defects may be dramatically reduced. By simple probability, a larger wafer would be more likely to have a defect than a similarly designed smaller substrate.
When the individual tiles are butted one against another, seams result. These seams may be visible to the user of the display. In many cases the seams are a distraction and are considered a negative in connection with large displays.
Therefore, it would be desirable to reduce the prominence of seams in such displays. The ability to perceive the seam is a function of how thick is the glass utilized in the front panel. Generally, the thicker the glass, the more easily visible, from some angles, is the seam.
Therefore, it would be desirable to use relatively thin glass in connection with displays as well as other applications. Processing equipment is used to process the glass to fabricate features on the glass, such as the OLED material, the row electrodes, and the column electrodes. Conventional processing equipment is designed for a certain glass thickness. Manufacturing with thinner glass may require special equipment development. This generally may mean that the use of thinner glass may result in a manufacturing cost penalty. If thinner glass could be handled by existing equipment, then there would be a benefit to the display industry and to other industries that use relatively thin glass.
Thus, there is a need for a way to enable easier handling of relatively thin glass sheets.


Disclosed herein is a computer system provided with a mechanism for connecting a single port disk to an active server and the disk to a standby server when in a fail-over processing. An “add_pci” command issued from a clustering program is used to let a control program change the allocation of a PCI slot while an interruption signal issued to a standby server permits an ACPI processing routine to hot-add a PCI card that includes the disk unit on the subject guest OS.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer system in which an operating system (OS) that enables hot-plugging of a PCI device runs, more particularly to a computer system that uses a control program for enabling hot-plugging of a PCI device to be inserted/ejected in/from an object logically.
2. Description of Related Art
How to cope with errors efficiently in computer systems is now an important issue for realizing such nonstop long time operations as 24-hour 365-day services. As described in "TRANSACTION PROCESSING: CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES" written by JIM GRAY, the rate of software errors is increasing year by year recently. This is why appearance of countermeasures that can cope with those software errors is expected strongly now.
Memory leaks and application software bugs have been considered as causes of the above-described software errors. Those memory leaks and application software bugs are often resulted from a memory area that is kept occupied after it is used for processings of an operating system (OS) and/or application software programs. So far, there has been proposed some methods to eliminate such software errors. One of the methods restarts services and the subject OS operation periodically with use of a computer system management software program. However, the method must stop those services during such a restarting operation. This has been a problem.
To solve such a problem, there has also been proposed another method that form a cluster with a plurality of servers physically with use of a clustering program and perform fail-over processings for such services as those of Web servers and DBMs (Database Management Systems).
The method forms a cluster with an active server that provides services and a standby server that provides no service. And, the method enables message communications referred to as heart beats to be made between those servers and time stamps to be written periodically in a shared disk so as to check each of the active and standby servers for error occurrence. If the heart beat stops or the time stamp in the shared disk is not updated properly, it is decided as error occurrence, so that the service executed in the error-detected active server is succeeded by and restarted in the normal standby server (fail-over processing).
The method for forming a cluster with such physical servers requires (1) preparing a plurality of computers physically, (2) providing the system additionally with a router device and a network interface card used for the heart beats so as to form a network dedicated to the heart beats, and (3) preparing a common data disk used to execute the same services in the plurality of servers.
If only software errors are to be targeted, it is possible to solve the above problems with use of virtual machines. In the case of the above problem (1), the official gazette of JP-A No.288590/9 discloses a well-known method that forms a cluster only with virtual machines. In that connection, a plurality of virtual machines are operated in one physical computer to multiplex an operating system/application software program, thereby coping with the above-described software errors.
The official gazette of JP-A No.85547/11 also discloses another well-known method employed for the above problem (2). The method realizes communications between processes with communications between virtual machines, which uses a main memory. The method enables a cluster of virtual machines to be formed without using any of such hardware as a router and a network card for communications among the virtual machines.
To cope with the above problem (3), still another well-known method is used. The method enables a data disk to be shared among clustered computers with use of a disk unit (multi-port disk, multi-port RAID, or the like) provided with a plurality of such interfaces as SCSI ones for the connection between each server and the disk.
[Patent Document 1]
Official gazette of JP-A No.288590/9
[Patent Document 2]
Official gazette of JP-A No.85547/11
[Non-patent Document 1]
"TRANSACTION PROCESSING: CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES" written by Jim Gray and Andreas Loiter, published by MORGAN KAUFMANN PUBLISHERS, PP.10-103
If a multi-port disk unit is shared among a plurality of virtual machines as described in the above conventional examples, however, the system manufacturing cost increases, since the multi-port disk drive (or I/O device) is expensive. This has been another problem.
Furthermore, in the above conventional examples, both active and standby virtual machines can access the shared multi-port disk unit freely, so that the standby virtual machine can access the disk unit even when a software error occurs therein. Consequently, the access to the disk unit from the active virtual machine comes to be affected adversely due to the unnecessary access from the error-occurred standby virtual machine. This has been still another problem.
Under such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a computer system that enables fail-over processings so as to improve the reliability and reduce the manufacturing cost of the system at the same time while the system employs a low-price single port I/O device.

Fabric and method for sharing an I/O device among virtual machines formed in a computer system