A device for restraining payloads to a surface, particularly heavy objects being transported by various modes of transportation, such as a flat bed trailer, The device includes a tensionable member with loops at opposite ends that is secured to the front to rear frame Tails which run lengthwise on the underside of a flat bed trailer. The device further includes chains or other restraining elements that are secured to the loops at the opposite extremities of the tensionable member, pass over or through the side rails of the flat bed trailer and over or through the payload. The device also has ratchet binders or other tightening device to achieve tightening of the restraining elements The device, which is relatively light in weight, achieves increased restraint of payloads during transportation without significantly adding to the total weight of the payload.

The shipping industry is vital to commerce in the United States and in most nations around the world. In particular, the trucking industry is one of the most important branches of this industry. It is estimated that at least thirty to forty percent of all goods transported in the United States are hauled by trucks pulling flat bed trailers. The types of materials and commodities hauled on flat bed trailers vary dramatically. For instance, flat bed trailers are often used to transport heavy equipment, wood products, oil field materials, and steel. Many such goods can be hauled safely and with relative ease of securement to the flat bed trailer. However, some materials present difficulties for those in the shipping industry to transport securely and efficiently.
In particular, various types of payloads are difficult to transport on a flat bed trailer because of their large weight and unconventional shapes. On many occasions, payloads such as timber, steel coils, pipes and other cylindrical objects become dislodged from the bed of trailers despite the best efforts of those responsible for shipping such objects. When these massive loads become loose, there is great risk for property damage and accidents causing injury to persons.
Problems frequently occur because the payload becomes loose as a result of large lateral forces that act on the payload when the vehicle engages in a sharp turn. In addition, a payload can become unsecured over time as the vehicle undergoes routine turns and sustains vibrations and natural swaying forces while traveling great distances over roadways. Further, payloads may shift during transit due to the sudden application of the vehicle""s brakes. Payloads can also become loose after the vehicle hauling it reaches a roll over or other extremely unstable situation.
At present, the United States Department of Transportation (xe2x80x9cDOTxe2x80x9d) regulates the trucking industry. Among other things, the DOT places restrictions on the total weight of a vehicle and its payload that can be transported on roadways. For example, under 23 C.F.R. Section 658.17, the maximum gross weight of a vehicle is limited to 80,000 total pounds and 20,000 pounds per axle. Thus, when heavy payloads are being transported, it is important that the mechanisms used to restrain those payloads do not add unnecessary weight to the total payload.
There are presently several devices employed in the trucking industry for securing and shipping heavy payloads. Information relevant to attempts to address these problems can be found in Reitnouer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,608; and Borda, U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,376. However, these references suffer from several disadvantages. For instance, the devices rely on the strength of the side rails of the flat bed trailer which are often made of aluminum and have limited capacity to restrain significant weights and forces. The holding chains utilized in these devices can exert forces on the side rails causing the side rails to yield and the chains to become loose. Further, these devices generally do not prevent the payload from becoming unrestrained should the flat bed trailer reach an overturned or other unstable position.
Furthermore, existing devices for restraining payloads also present difficulties in complying with DOT weight limitations. Some devices employ various combinations of holding chains, brackets and tie downs to secure the payload and, as a result, can add significantly to the overall weight of the shipment. The additional weight of these securing devices can result in violations of DOT regulations. This is particularly true where adequate securement of the payload requires multiple securement devices or the device itself requires a large number of heavy holding chains.
This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No, 09/528,779, filed on Mar. 17, 2000, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,860 on Jun. 26, 2001. Application Ser. No. 09/528,779 claimed and described another invention that has been in use since that time. The general object of the present invention is to provide restraint of heavy payioads under all circumstances, including when the vehicle transporting the payload reaches a turned over or other unexpected position. It is further an object of this invention to provide a securing device that is relatively light in weight. The instant device will not add significantly to the weight of the payload and therefore faacilitates compliance with DOT weight requirements. Further, it is an object of this device to provide a securing device that can be placed at a variety of positions on a vehicle, and, thus, permit the improved restraint of many typos of payloads. It is also an object of this invention to provide a device that is simple to use, thus reducing the risk of human error, and a device that is affordable to manufacture and purchase.
The present invention is directed to a device that satisfies these needs. The device comprises a tensionable member, such as ungalvanized steel wire rope, with a loop on each end. In the preferred embodiment, the tensionable member is partially encased in a conduit with openings on each end, with said tensionable member extending through and beyond the openings at the ends of the conduit. Said conduit is attachable by connecting means to the front to rear frame rails which run lengthwise on the underside of a vehicle such as a flat bed trailer. These frame rails are generally steel I-beams and provide the primary support for the trailer bed. It is widely known that the frame rails are much stronger than the side rails relied upon by other devices and methods currently used in the industry.
The device further includes a plurality of restraining elements such as transport chains. Said transport chains restrain the payload by passing over or through the payload, by passing over or through the side rails of the flat bed trailer, and by being secured to the tensionable member by passing through the loops at the opposite extremities of the tensionable member. The loops of the tensionable member may be encased in what is commonly referred to in the industry as wire rope thimbles to provide protection against wear and deformation of the loops. Each of said loops may be formed by wrapping a free end of the tensionable member around one of said thimbles and coupling said free end of the tensionable member with a portion of the tensionable member in between the loop and the opening of the conduit. To further secure the coupling, said free end may be crimped against or wrapped around said tensionable member. To achieve still further securement, said coupling may be encased in a durable sleeve. It will be appreciated that said sleeve will provide protection against wear and deformation of the coupling. According to tests performed by the inventor, the load limit of the present invention substantially exceeds the requirements applicable in the industry. At the same time, the total weight of the device is about 45 pounds which is believed to be significantly less than other devices currently used to restrain payloads.
Tightening of said transport chains over the payload and to the tensionable member is achieved by using ratchet binders or other tightening means, such as lever binders or turn buckles. Said tightening means may be located adjacent to the surface of the trailer bed and are therefore more easily accessed by the driver for periodic examination to ensure proper restraint of the payload, thereby achieving advantages over other methods cuffently used.
The present invention can be adapted for use on various types and sizes of flat bed trailers and potentially other vehicles without significant modifications to such vehicles. In addition, the present invention is adjustable and can be used at most any desired location on the flat bed trailer. More than one of the devices may be used on a flat bed trailer to provide additional restraint to the particular payload being hauled. In addition, because it has relatively few parts, the present invention is easy to use and install and is affordable.


A video processing device includes: an object detector configured to detect an object included in a video so that a type of the object can be identified; an event detector configured to detect a focusing event which occurs to the detected object; a masking target setter configured to simultaneously set all objects of a selected type as masking targets, and to exclude from the masking targets, one or more objects to which occurrence of the selected focusing event has been detected by the event detector; and a masking process controller configured to generate a masking-processed video in which each video area which corresponds to the object set as the masking target by the masking target setter, has been changed to a masking image.

Surveillance systems are widely used, in which cameras are utilized to shoot videos of a surveillance target area and various surveillance operations are performed based on the videos provided from the cameras. Videos collected by such surveillance systems can be used as evidence in court and/or news footages. In this case, privacy protection in videos is required. Thus, when a video shows a person who needs for privacy protection, masking operations are desirably performed on the video so that a video area corresponding to the person is masked.
Known technologies related to such masking operations include a configuration in which masking operations are performed on a video so as to mask persons shown therein, and when occurrence of a specific event to a person in the video is detected, the person in the video is unmasked (see Patent Document 1). In another configuration, permissions to browse original video images of certain types of objects (such as person, vehicle) are set for each surveillance guard, so that specific types of objects which a surveillance guard has permissions to browse, are unmasked (see Patent Document 2).

Video processing device, video processing system, and video processing method

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A rotative lumber piece charger for transferring lumber pieces. The rotative lumber piece charger comprises: a driving shaft rotating about a longitudinal axis and a transfer wheel comprising a main body mounted to the driving shaft and rotating therewith. The rotative lumber piece charger also comprises a lumber piece grasping assembly rotatably connected to the main body and rotatable with respect to the main body about a lumber rotation axis. The lumber piece grasping assembly is operative to grasp a section of a corresponding one of the lumber pieces, temporarily retain the section of the lumber piece and release the lumber piece. The rotative lumber piece charger further comprises an angular orientation control system connected to the lumber piece grasping assembly. The angular orientation control system rotates the lumber piece grasping assembly about the lumber rotation axis.

In the field of lumber production, board turning systems are commonly used to selectively turn elongated pieces of lumber before a transformation stage. For example and without being limitative, board turning systems can be used to set the desired face of a piece of lumber to face either upwardly or downwardly, prior to a planning step.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 1A (prior art), typically, to perform such turning of the elongated pieces 5, each one of the lumber pieces 5 are accumulated onto a first conveyor 1 (i.e. the lumber pieces 5 are arranged laterally adjacent to one another along a conveying axis X, onto the first conveyor 1) and subsequently loaded between cleats 6 (or cleat sets) of a second conveyor 2. Once loaded between the cleats 6 (also referred as lugs or cleat sets) of the conveyor 2, the lumber pieces 5 are subsequently scanned (or analyzed) and the acquired data is processed to determine the desired orientation of each lumber piece 5. Subsequently, each lumber piece 5 is selectively turned by a board turning system 8, if required, according to the desired orientation previously determined.
It will be understood that, as can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 1A (prior art), each operation of the above described sequence of operations necessitates space along the conveying axis X, thereby requiring a conveyors 1, 2 and the corresponding board turning system 8 having a substantial length to perform these operations as the lumber pieces 5 are conveyed along the conveying axis X. Moreover, the requirement of loading the lumber pieces 5 between cleats 6 (or cleat sets) of the second conveyor 2 causes a decrease in productivity, which can be a bottleneck along the production chain 9.
Rotating lumber pieces charger systems for transferring lumbers between a first carrier assembly and a second carrier assembly are also known. Such rotating lumber pieces charger systems (or loading systems) usually comprise a charging assembly with at least two transfer wheels spaced apart from one another and mounted to a main rotatable shaft, each one of the at least two transfer wheels having at least one timber piece grasping assembly operative to grasp a section of a lumber piece at a rotative grasping position, release the section of the lumber piece at a rotative release position, and retain the section of the lumber piece between the rotative grasping position and the rotative release position. Once again, known lumber pieces loading systems, however, tend to suffer from several drawbacks. Firstly, they cannot control the angular orientation of the lumber pieces being transferred, and hence cannot perform selective turning of the lumber pieces (i.e. selective change in the side of the lumber piece facing upwardly). Moreover, in embodiments where no turning of the pieces of lumber being transferred is desired (i.e. when no change in the side of the lumber piece facing upwardly is desired), they usually require that the second carrier assembly (or a corresponding transitional carrier assembly), onto which the lumber pieces are released, be positioned at a high vertical position to prevent a change in the orientation of the lumber piece caused by the rotational movement of the transfer wheels.
In view of the above, there is a need for an improved rotative lumber piece charger for transferring lumber pieces from a first carrier assembly to a second carrier assembly and a method of operation thereof, which would be able to overcome or at least minimize some of the above-discussed prior art concerns.

Rotative lumber piece charger for transferring and angularly orienting lumber pieces and method for performing same


Method and apparatus for setting up a connection between a first terminal and a second terminal over an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) link having one or more bearer channels that allow a user-selected protocol are provided. The terminals support a plurality of possible software protocols for use on the bearer channels. In order to facilitate new types of ISDN protocols on an existing system, the method includes the step of separating the protocol software into a generic module containing generic ISDN encoding/decoding protocols and into protocol specific modules containing specific types of ISDN encoding/decoding protocols.

The present invention relates to a method of setting up a connection between a first terminal and a second terminal over an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) link providing one or more bearer channels that allow a user-selected protocol, the terminals supporting a plurality of possible software protocols for use on said bearer channels. The invention also relates to an application resource system for setting up a connection between a first terminal and a second terminal over an ISDN line.
When a connection is to be set up between two terminals, over an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) link providing one or more bearer channels that allow a user-selected protocol, a Call Setup message is being sent from a first Application Resource System to a second Application Resource System. It is a problem that different types of ISDN protocols can be used in different parts of the system. There is a general protocol according to CCITT q931, which is the base for the ISDN protocol family. Other ISDN protocols that can be used such as DSS1, ISDN S2 and ATandT 5ESS, are modifications of the general ISDN protocol q931.
Making adoption to a new type of ISDN protocol on an existing system is a costly procedure which takes a lot of man-hours to achieve. The software units involved are normally very complex and tricky to work with.
What is needed is therefore a software system structure that supports fast and easy implementation of different ISDN protocols to achieve low development cost.
This object is solved by the method in accordance with the invention, wherein the protocol software is separated into a generic module containing generic ISDN encoding/decoding protocols and into protocol specific modules containing specific types of ISDN encoding/decoding protocols.
Preferably, the connection link is set up via an Application Resource System ARE comprising a physical link handler PLH for handling messages to and from related hardware, a signal channel handler SCH for interfacing with protocol drivers and a call supporting protocol handler PH.
In a particular embodiment of the method in accordance with the invention, the signal channel handler calls the different ISDN modules that are needed, during the encoding/decoding procedure.
Preferably, the signal channel handler SCH is provided with the generic module and the protocol specific modules, and information on the actual ISDN protocol being used during configuration of the system is stored in the SCH.
Preferably, a check is made if all information elements in a time slot has been received and that the received elements are not distorted, and a message is sent to the protocol handler PH regarding set up information together with error information.
The Application Resource System according to the invention is characterized in that it includes a signal channel handler SCH for interfacing with protocol drivers and being provided with a software structure which separates the protocol software into a generic module containing generic ISDN encoding/decoding protocols and into a protocol specific module containing specific types of ISDN encoding/decoding protocols.
Preferably, the Application Resource System also includes a physical link handler PLH for handling messages to and from related hardware and a call supporting protocol handler PH.
In an advantageous embodiment of the Application Resource System, the protocol handler PH houses a state machine, and that it is provided with software which is structured in one module covering basic calls as an user side, PH-user, one module covering basic calls as a net side, PH-net, and an additional module for each type of ISDN protocol.
The Application Resource System preferably comprises a mobility server for setting up cordless connection via radio exchange between the first terminal and the second terminal.


A screen position sensing method in a multi display system, a content configuring method, a watermark image generating method for sensing a screen position, a server, and a display terminal are provided. A screen position sensing method in a multi display system performed by a sensing server may include receiving identification information of display terminals from a display server, receiving an image output by each of the display terminals from a camera, and determining a screen position of each of the display terminals based on a watermark included in the image of the display terminals and the received identification information.

1. Field
One or more example embodiments relate to a screen position sensing method in a multi display system performed by a sensing server, a content configuring method in a multi display system performed by a display server, a watermark generating method for sensing a screen position in a multi display system performed by a display terminal, and the display terminal.
2. Description of Related Art
A multi display system has been utilized for exhibition and artistic representation. A multi display system may be used in, for example, digital signage or other type of electronic board.
A multi display system may be used as an effective alternative when it is difficult to manufacture a large display. Recently, multi display systems have been provided which use a method of two-dimensionally dividing an entire screen of content based on an area of each display, and may use content exclusively for special visual effects.

Screen position sensing method in multi display system, content configuring method, watermark image generating method for sensing screen position server, and display terminal

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


A network storage controller for transferring data between a host computer and a storage device, such as a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID), is disclosed. The network storage controller includes at least one channel interface module which is adapted to be connected to the host computer and storage device. The channel interface module is connected to a passive backplane, and selectively transfers data between the host computer and storage device and the passive backplane. The network storage controller also includes at least one controller management module, attached to the passive backplane. The controller management module communicates with the channel interface module via the passive backplane, and processes and temporarily stores data received from the host computer or storage device. In applications where redundancy is required, at least two controller management modules and at least two channel interface modules may be used. The controller management modules may mirror data between one another using the passive backplane and a shared communication path on the channel interface modules, thereby substantially avoiding the use of host or disk channels to mirror data. The channel interface modules are operable to connect the host computer or storage device to one or more controller memory modules. The controller memory modules may include a DMA engine to facilitate the transfer of mirrored data.

The present invention is related to storing data in a multiple controller configuration, and in particular, to the mirroring of data using direct memory access engines.
Network storage controllers are typically used to connect a host computer system with peripheral storage devices, such as disk drives or tape drives. The network storage controller acts as an interface between the host computer and the peripheral storage devices. In many applications, the network storage controller performs processing functions on the data transferred between the host computer and peripheral devices. One common application of such a system is a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID). A RAID system stores data on multiple disk drives to protect the data against disk drive failure. If one disk drive fails, then the RAID system is generally able to reconstruct the data which was stored on the failed drive from the remaining drives in the array. A RAID system uses a network storage controller, which in many cases includes a RAID controller, as an interface between the host computer and the array of disk drives.
Many applications require a storage system to have very high availability. This high availability is a key concern in many applications, such as financial institutions and airline reservations systems, because the users rely heavily on the data stored on the RAID system. In these type of applications, unavailability of data stored on the RAID system can result in significant loss of revenue and/or customer satisfaction. Employing a RAID system in such an application enhances availability of the stored data, since if a single disk drive fails, data may still be stored and retrieved from the system. In addition to the use of a RAID system, it is common to use redundant RAID controllers to further enhance the availability of a storage system. In such a situation, two or more controllers are used in a RAID system, with each controller having failover capability, where if one of the controllers fails the other remaining controller will assume operations for the failed controller. Such a platform enhances the availability of a RAID system, however, it can lead to several disadvantages, as will be discussed below.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram representation of a dual controller configured RAID network storage controller 10, showing a fibre channel to fibre channel connection. That is, in this example, the host computer and the array of disk drives both communicate with the network storage controller using fibre channel connections. While fibre channel is a common channel medium is such systems, it should be understood that other channels may also be used, such as, for example, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) or Ethernet. The RAID system shown in FIG. 1 includes two host ports, host port-114 and host port-218 and two disk ports, disk port-122 and disk port-226. Each host port 14, 18 may be zoned to different host computers, and each disk port 22, 26 may be zoned to different disk arrays, as is common in RAID systems and is well known in the art. The network storage controller 10 includes dual RAID controllers, controller-A 30, and controller-B 34. In a system employing zoning of controllers, controller-A 30 may be zoned to host port-114 and disk port-122, and controller-B 34 may be zoned to host port-218 and disk port-226.
As is understood in the art, systems which employ dual controllers require data mirroring between controllers to maintain cache coherency. Each controller 30, 34, must have a copy of the data and status of the other controller in order to maintain redundancy between the controllers and thus maintain operation of the RAID system if one controller fails. Mirroring data between controllers can decrease the performance of a RAID system because transferring data between controllers uses processing resources of the controllers, as well as channel bandwidth, as will be discussed in more detail below.
The controllers 30, 34 are connected to a fibre channel bus 38, which is connected to two IO modules, IO module-142, and IO module-246. Each controller 30, 34, includes a CPU subsystem 50, a double data rate (DDR) memory 54, control logic 58, a dual port fibre channel connection with two host ports 62a, 62b and a dual port fibre channel connection with two disk ports 66a, 66b. The CPU subsystem 58 performs tasks required for storage of data onto an array of disks, including striping data, and initiating and executing read and write commands. The DDR memory 54 is a nonvolatile storage area for data and other information. The control logic 58 performs several functions, such as interfacing with the CPU subsystem 50, DDR memory 54, and the host ports 62a, 62b and the disk ports 66a, 66b. The control logic 58 may also have other functions, including a parity generation function, such as an exclusive OR (XOR) engine. The host ports 62a, 62b and disk ports 66a, 66b provide communications with the fibre channel backplane 38. The IO modules 42, 46 include link resiliency circuits (LRCs) 70, also known as port bypass circuits, which function to connect each host port 14, 18 and each disk port 22, 26 to each controller 30, 34. This allows both controllers 30, 34 to have access to both host ports 14, 18 and both disk ports 22, 26.
In order to provide full redundancy, each controller must have a connection to each host port 14, 18 and each disk port 22, 26. This way, if there is a failure of one of the controllers, the other controller can continue operations. However, when using zoning techniques to enhance the performance of a RAID system, half of these ports are passive. For example, if controller-A 30 is zoned to host port-114 and disk port-122, then controller-A 30 receives all communications from host port-114 and controls the disk array(s) on disk port-122. Likewise, controller-B 34 would be zoned to host port-218 and disk port-226. These zoning techniques are well known in the art and can increase performance of the RAID system as well as simplify control and communications of the two controllers 30, 34. In the example of FIG. 1, on controller-A 30 the host port connection 62a and disk port connection 66a are connected to host port-114 and disk port-122, respectively, through the LRCs 70 of IO module-142. Because controller-A 30 is zoned to host port-114 and disk port-122, the host port connection 62a and disk port connection 66a actively communicate with host port-114 and disk port-122. The remaining host port connection 62b and disk port connection 66b are connected to host port-118 and disk port-226, respectively, through the LRCs 70 of IO module-246. These connections are typically passive connections, as controller-A 30 is not actively communicating with host port-218 and disk port-226, so long as controller-B 34 does not fail. Likewise, controller-B 34 would be zoned to host port-218 and disk port-226. Thus, on controller-B 34, the host port connection 62b and disk port connection 66b would communicate with host port-218 and disk port-226 through LRCs 70 of IO module-246. The remaining host port connection 62a and disk port connection 66a would be connected to host port-114 and disk port-122 through LRCs 70 of IO module-142.
As mentioned above, in typical redundant controller operations data is mirrored between controllers. When mirroring data between controller-A 30 and controller-B 34, it is common to transfer the mirrored data over the shared disk port connections, namely disk port connection 66b of controller-A 30, and disk port connection 66a of controller-B. For example, controller-B 34 may receive data over host port-218 that is to be written to an array of drives over disk port-2. Controller-B 34 would receive this data and store it in memory 54. In order to maintain cache coherency, controller-B 34 must also communicate this data to controller-A 30, thus both controllers have the data, and if one fails the other is still be able to write the data.
In a traditional system, this mirroring is accomplished over several steps. FIG. 12 is a flow chart representation of the steps required to mirror data between two controllers in an active/active controller pair. Initially, controller-B 34 receives data to be written to the disk array, as indicated by block 80. To mirror the data, controller-B 34 issues a first mirror command causing a first interrupt to controller-A 30, notifying controller-A 30 that a message is being sent, as noted by block 82. An interrupt is a signal generated automatically by hardware on a controller when a message is received, in this example controller-B, to a processor, in this example hardware on controller-A, which causes the processor to stop what it is doing and service the interrupt. When controller-A receives the first interrupt, it discontinues any processing activity, and processes the first mirror command. Controller-B 34 next issues a second mirror command containing metadata which causes a second interrupt, as indicated by block 84. The metadata contains the actual message body, and information showing controller-A 30 the memory location at which to store the user data. Next, controller-A 30 marks its nonvolatile memory (NVRAM) contents as invalid for the data blocks specified in the metadata, as indicated by block 86. Next, controller-B 34 issues a third mirror command containing user data, which causes a third interrupt, according to block 88. Controller-A receives the user data, stores the user data in the specified location in its NVRAM, and marks the NVRAM contents as valid for the specified data blocks, as noted by block 90. Once controller-B 34 has completed the associated write operation, it then issues a fourth mirror command causing a fourth interrupt and a notification the write is complete, as noted by block 92. Controller-A then marks the write complete, as indicated by block 94.
As can be seen, while this mirroring technique is successful in copying data between controllers, it can use significant processing resources. Each write operation requires four interrupts, which cause the receiving processor to suspend any tasks it is currently processing and service the interrupt. Thus, it would be advantageous to have a network storage controller which consumes less processing resources for mirroring data.
Additionally, this mirroring is typically accomplished using the disk channels. In each of the mirror commands described above, controller-B 34 sends the data over the disk port connection 66a which connects to the LRC 70 connected to disk port-122. The data transfers through the LRC 70, where it is then received at the disk port connection 66a on controller-A. Controller-A then receives the data and performs appropriate processing and storage steps. Likewise, if controller-A 30 receives data to be written to the array of disks on disk port-122, it sends the data to controller-B 34 using the same mirroring technique. Note this technique does not require dedicated disk ports and more than one disk port can be used
While this uses the remaining disk port on each controller, the second host port on each controller remains unused, thus passive, during normal operation of the system. The passive ports on each controller adds a significant amount of hardware to the controller, and can add significant cost to the network storage controller 10. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a redundant network storage controller which maintains high availability while reducing cost and hardware associated with passive ports located on the controllers.
Additionally, mirroring data in such a system results in the mirrored data and storage data being sent over the same port for the controller that is receiving the mirrored data or being used to transfer data to the disk. Bandwidth to and from the disk array is consumed by the mirrored data, which can reduce the performance of the network storage controller. Thus, it would be advantageous to have a network storage controller which consumes little or no disk channel bandwidth when mirroring data between controllers.
Furthermore, with the continual increasing of demand for data storage, RAID controllers often require upgrades with additional disk drives or faster bus interfaces. However, a RAID controller may not be configured to add additional bus interface capacity or may not support a new type of bus interface. Such controllers commonly have to be replaced when an upgrade is performed. This replacement of controllers can increase the cost of upgrading a RAID system. The replacement of an operational RAID controller represents a loss in value that may inhibit the decision to upgrade a RAID system. Thus, it would be advantageous to have a system which can support upgrades of capacity, as well as new interface types, with ease and reduced cost.
Accordingly, there is a need to develop an apparatus and method for use in a network storage controller which: (1) provides redundancy with reduced cost for passive components, (2) reduces the amount of mirrored data which is sent over the disk or host ports, (3) reduces the processing overhead involved with mirroring data, and (4) provides easily replaceable and upgradeable components.
In accordance with the present invention, a method and apparatus are provided for mirroring data in a storage system including a storage array. The apparatus includes a first controller management module including a first processor and a first direct memory access engine. The first processor is used in controlling read operations and write operations involving the storage array. The first direct memory access engine is used in storing data received by the first controller memory module. The apparatus also includes a second controller management module including a second processor and a second direct memory access engine. The second processor is used in controlling read operations and write operations involving the storage array. The second direct management access engine can be used in transferring data from the second controller management module to the first controller memory module. Data is mirrored from the first controller management module to the second controller management module using the first direct memory access engine while avoiding interruption of the second processor. The first direct memory access engine is separate from but in communication with the first processor and the first processor controls mirroring of data using the first direct memory access engine. In one embodiment, the first controller management module includes a field programmable gate array. The first direct memory access engine is in communication with at least portions of the field programmable gate array, and the first direct memory access engine can be a part of the field programmable gate array.
In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a first channel interface module having a first shared path. The first channel interface module communicates with the first controller memory module and the first shared path is used in transferring data between the first controller management module and the second controller management module. A passive backplane interconnects the first channel interface module and the first controller management module. The second processor controls operations associated with the second controller management module while the data is being mirrored to the second controller memory module. The data is mirrored to the second controller management module independently of the second direct memory access engine. Within the second controller management module, there is non-volatile memory, and data can be stored in the non-volatile memory independently of the second processor. The first direct memory access engine marks portions of the non-volatile memory where the data is to be stored as invalid, and transfers the data to the non-volatile memory. The portions of the non-volatile memory where the data is stored are then marked as valid.
The method includes mirroring data from the first controller management module to the second controller management module using the first direct memory access engine. The first processor within the first controller management module determines that data mirroring is to be conducted. The second processor within the second controller management module controls read and write operations involving the storage array, and the data mirroring is conducted while avoiding interruption of the second processor. Hence, the second processor can continue performing its own operations during the time that the data is being mirrored. The data mirroring is conducted using the first direct memory access engine without requiring the second direct memory access engine. During the mirroring, data is stored in non-volatile memory in the second controller management module. When conducting the mirroring, the first direct memory access engine is used to mark contents of the non-volatile memory that is to receive data as invalid and transfer the data to the non-volatile memory. The first direct memory access engine then marks the contents of the non-volatile memory that received the data as valid. In one embodiment, the first direct memory access engine is also used in determining parity for information stored on the storage array using the first controller management module.


The invention relates to isolated peptides derived from Oryza sativa Japonica Group, pharmaceutical compositions comprising same, and uses thereof for treating, preventing, ameliorating, and/or delaying the onset of inflammatory and/or neuroinflammatory and/or autoimmune diseases or conditions and in particular multiple sclerosis. The invention further relates to extracts from Oryza sativa Japonica Group and use thereof as a dietary supplement or in a pharmaceutical composition for treating, preventing, ameliorating, and/or delaying the onset of inflammatory, and/or inflammatory, neuroinflammatory and/or autoimmune diseases or conditions. The peptides and the extract of the invention may be used for treating, ameliorating, and/or delaying the onset or preventing multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized pathologically by scattered areas of inflammation, demyelination, and axonal pathology affecting the brain, optic nerves, and spinal cord. Individual episodes of inflammatory demyelination may be accompanied by clinical symptoms, termed relapses, followed in most cases by clinical recovery; the resulting pattern of relapse-remission is seen early in disease in most patients.
It is widely believed that the clinical manifestations of MS are mediated by immune-initiated inflammatory demyelination and axonal injury. The brain shows hallmarks of an immunopathologic process including perivascular infiltration by lymphocytes and monocytes, class II MHC antigen expression by cells in the lesions, and cytokine and chemokines secretion by activated cells.
Epidemiologic studies suggest both environmental and genetic factors in the pathogenesis of MS. The geographic distribution of the disease suggests environmental factors or perhaps dietary factors. Worldwide prevalence differs according to geography. The prevalence of MS in the northern United States, Canada and northern Europe is at least 100 per 100,000 persons; in certain regions the prevalence of MS exceeds 300 per 100,000 persons, compared with less than 10 per 100,000 persons in Japan and China.
MS produces numerous neurologic symptoms and signs including damage of the optic nerves, pyramidal tracts, posterior columns, cerebellum, and of the central vestibular system of medial longitudinal fasciculus. Older patients develop progressive spastic leg weakness, axial instability, and bladder impairment. Visual symptoms, sensory symptoms and gait or balance disturbances are frequent symptoms in MS.
Pharmacotherapy of MS includes corticosteroids such as methylprednisolone, interferon β-1a and interferon β-1b, glatiramer acetate, natalizumab and immunosuppressants such as methotrexate and mitoxantrone. These agents have some beneficial effect on the intensity and frequency of the relapses in some of MS patients. However, their side effects reduce patient's compliance.
International Patent Publication Nos. WO 03/017920 and WO 2005/090387 of the applicant of the present invention have demonstrated the beneficial effect of a 9-mer peptide, designated 3 ml or IIIM1, derived from histone H2A on an experimental model of MS. Both intravenous and oral administrations of the peptide significantly ameliorated the neurological symptoms in the diseased mice. IIIM1 was also shown to be active in other experimental MS systems such as mouse adoptive transfer and rat EAE models.
There is still an unmet need for improved medicaments to treat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as, for example, multiple sclerosis.

Yissum Research Development Company of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd.


AC power supply device 1 includes input capacitors 11 and 12 connected at a neutral point X of a three-phase output, transistor bridges 20* (where * denotes U, V, and/or W) each consisting of PWM control badges 20*1 and 20*2 each including two switch elements, transformers T* connected to output terminals of the transistor bridges 20*, reactors Ls* connected to the transformers T*, smoothing capacitors 40* connected to the reactors Ls*. The transformers T* are autotransformers including a core 33* and windings 31* and 32* coupled with each other via the core 33*. One ends of the windings are connected to output terminals of the PWM control bridges 20*1 and 20*2, respectively, while the other terminals are connected to the reactors Ls*. The windings 31* and 32* are wound in such directions that magnetic fluxes generated in the core 33* are cancelled with each other.

Switching power supply devices including switch elements and filters such as a DC/DC converter and a DC/AC converter, are currently used in very wide fields such as consumer products, industrial equipment, and in-vehicle products. For these switching power supply devices, small size, light weight and high efficiency are regarded as important, and are demanded more for larger power devices.
Among them, as a high voltage inverter having a high input voltage, a multilevel inverter is used in many cases, in which switching output levels of a bridge unit are not two values of high and low (+E and −E) but can be more values (e.g. a three-level inverter (+E, 0, −E), a five-level inverter (+E, +E/2, −E), and the like).
This reduces voltage applied to an output filter reactor so that the output filter reactor can be downsized or reduced in loss or noise, a reduces voltage applied to each of switch elements so as to adopt a low withstand voltage element that is abundant in the market or reduce switching loss.
As such a multilevel inverter, for example, a neutral point clamped (NPC) type is used, such as a diode clamp inverter (Patent Documents 1 and 2 and Non-Patent Document 1), or a living capacitor inverter (Patent Documents 3 and 4 and Non-Patent Document 2).


An image processing apparatus comprises: an accepting portion that accepts a request for a temporary use permission to use a function of the image processing apparatus from a second portable terminal apparatus in place of a first portable terminal apparatus having a proper use permission to use the function, an obtaining portion that obtains application information of an application installed on the second portable terminal apparatus; a determining portion that determines a scope of the temporary use permission with reference to reference data stored on a management apparatus and on the basis of the application information; a judgment portion that judges whether or not the requested process falls within the determined scope when a request for a process requiring the function is received from or transferred to the second portable terminal apparatus; and an executor portion that executes the requested process if it falls within the determined scope.

Field of the Invention
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-065342 filed on Mar. 26, 2015, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus such as a multifunctional digital image forming apparatus (i.e., a multi-function peripheral abbreviated as MFP) having multiple functions, e.g., copier function, printer function, facsimile function, and scanner function, an image processing system being provided with this image processing apparatus and a portable terminal apparatus, a method for giving a temporary use permission to this portable terminal apparatus, and a recording medium.
Description of the Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
At offices or other work locations, users can use functions of such an image processing apparatus as described above from their portable terminal apparatuses, e.g., smartphones and tablet computers. In the circumstances, their portable terminal apparatuses are normally registered for security purposes. So, nobody can use functions of this image processing apparatus from an unregistered portable terminal apparatus.
However, it often happens that they accidentally have a trouble on their registered portable terminal apparatuses or find themselves without their registered portable terminal apparatuses. When it happens at offices, they will be unable to use functions of the image processing apparatus from their portable terminal apparatuses and thus suffer from slow down at work. In other cases users sometimes need to work with a portable terminal apparatus having a larger display than those of their registered portable terminal apparatuses.
They can borrow an extra in-house portable terminal apparatus or register an individually-owned portable terminal apparatus, but they will have to finish some paper work for it or wait some time until it is prepared.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-199521 discloses an information output system that is flexible for its capability of quickly permitting use even by an unregistered user, the information output system being configured to output target information as requested from a terminal apparatus. This information output system is provided with the following parts: an information obtaining portion that obtains reference information from a terminal apparatus, such as individual information and a terminal identification number, the reference information to select an output permission level that defines functions allowed for the user; an information output permitting portion that selects an output permission level with reference to the reference information; and an output processor that outputs target information within a scope of the output permission level.
The technique described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-199521, however, is not a technique for allowing users to use functions of the image processing apparatus from a portable terminal apparatus temporarily in place of a registered portable terminal apparatus having a proper use permission. Furthermore, according to the publication, the information output system obtains reference information such as individual information and a terminal identification number from the terminal apparatus and determines an output permission level with reference to the reference information. There may be a significant risk of compromising the security for the entire image processing system including the image processing apparatus depending on the application installed on the terminal apparatus.

Image processing apparatus, image processing system, method for giving temporary use permission to portable terminal apparatus, and recording medium


The present invention provides control systems and methods for a power inverter. For example, a control system comprises a plurality of sensors and a controller. The plurality of sensors are configured to measure electrical signals that are indicative of output voltages and output currents of the power inverter. The controller, coupled to the power inverter, is configured to: determine a target power based on real power frequency droop information and a first frequency if the power inverter is in a voltage source mode; determine a target power based on a power limit and a predetermined power command if the power inverter is in a current source mode; and generate a second frequency based on the target power, a measured power, and a latency estimate of a simulated generator. The second frequency is used to control the output power of the power inverter.

A microgrid is a local energy grid with control capability. It can disconnect from the traditional grid and operate autonomously. Due to increased power outages, microgrids are becoming more and more important. However, it is not very easy to set up a microgrid as it requires complicated microgrid management and communication systems with a centralized control. These communication systems require to coordinate between all sources and loads for the stable operation of the microgrid. If the central controller fails, the whole microgrid will fail. Thus, there is a need for systems and methods that efficiently coordinate between all sources and loads for the stable operation of the microgrid.

Control systems for microgrid power inverter and methods thereof


An exhaust gas aftertreatment system having an air supply system is disclosed and includes an air feeding pump for selectively creating a flow of air through a flow passage which directs the flow of air to a regeneration system. A check valve is provided including a valve element having a circular base portion surrounding and supported by the flow passage, a flexing portion extending from the circular base portion and converging to form a diametrically extending tip, and a diametrical slit formed in the tip. Also, a support structure is positioned to extend into the valve element to a position adjacent the tip for supporting the flexing portion such that the valve element permits the flow of air from the air feeding pump in one direction and prevents the flow of exhaust gas in an opposite direction with the support structure preventing the valve element from collapsing when the air feeding pump is inoperable.

By the year 1991, the particulate emission standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will require all urban buses to emit less than 0.1 gm/hp-hr of particulate matter. Further, by the year 1994, these standards will apply to all heavy duty trucks as well. Particulates are defined by EPA as any matter in the exhaust of an internal combustion engine, other than condensed water, which is capable of being collected by a standard filter after dilution with ambient air at a temperature of 125.degree. F. Included in this definition are, agglomerated carbon particles, absorbed hydrocarbons, including known carcinogens, and sulfates.
These particulates are very small in size, with a mass median diameter of 0.1-1.0 micrometers, and are extremely light weight. During the life of the typical vehicle, approximately 20 cubic feet of particulate matter which must be trapped will be emitted per 100,000 miles of engine operation. This amounts to slightly less than 100 lbs. of particulate matter. Obviously this particulate matter cannot be stored within the vehicle because one pound of particulate occupies a volume of approximately 350 cubic inches. Therefore, in order to meet these rigorous standards, there is a need for a filtration system which will efficiently, economically, and reliably remove these particulates from the exhaust emission of these vehicles.
A number of filtration systems have been developed over the years which employ a honeycomb or similar ceramic monolithic structure which is capable of trapping the small, light weight particulates as the exhaust gas is restricted to flow through such structure. However, after a predetermined amount of particulate matter is trapped by the filtration system or a predetermined period of time has lapsed, the ceramic structure must be regenerated, that is the particulate matter trapped within the structure must be oxidized. This is carried out in a variety of ways all of which are designed to significantly raise the temperature of the air or exhaust gas flowing through the ceramic structure as well as the ceramic structure itself.
One such regeneration system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,404,795 issued to Oishi et al. The system includes a ceramic filter element for trapping particulate matter contained in the exhaust gas as such gas is passed therethrough. Once a predetermined amount of particulate matter has been trapped or a predetermined time period has lapsed, the filter is regenerated by way of electrically heated coils and ambient air, which is provided by way of an electric air feeding pump. The air stream is mixed with the exhaust gas and passed over the coils where such air/exhaust mixture is heated and passed through the filter to oxidize the particulate matter trapped therein. In order to prevent the backflow of exhaust gas into the air feeding pump a check valve is provided for allowing the flow of air in only a single direction.
With temperatures reaching a level of approximately 600.degree. C. within the aftertreatment system during a regeneration phase, and exhaust gas back pressures reaching a value of 3.0 psi during normal operation, it is imperative that the check valve employed to prevent the backflow of exhaust gas be resistant to these extraneous effects while also being resilient enough to allow air from an air feeding pump to flow therethrough when desired.
A similar exhaust gas aftertreatment system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,891 issued to Usui et al. In this aftertreatment system a diesel fueled burner is employed which is periodically ignited by way of an igniter in response to a sensed condition within the exhaust gas stream. Once ignited the burning aspirated fuel will raise the exhaust gas temperature to approximately 600.degree. C. order to regenerate the particulate filter. In order for the aspirated fuel to properly ignite, a proper air/fuel mixture must be attained within the combustion chamber of the burner. Air for forming the proper air/fuel mixture is supplied to the combustion chamber by way of an air pump. However, with the above mentioned aftertreatment system, the air pump is not protected from the extreme temperatures which may be generated within the aftertreatment system nor is there any effort made to prevent the emission of particulate matter through the air pump during normal operating conditions.
One example of a flexible check valve is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 615,751 issued to Sands. The check valve is formed of rubber which must be of a significant thickness in order to resist deformation due to pack pressure while being resilient enough to allow fluid flow in a desired direction. Consequently, in instances where the back pressure is significant, the check valve would necessarily include thick walls which may not be readily opened by the forward flowing fluid pressure. Likewise, if the wall thickness is not sufficient to withstand the back pressure exerted thereon, it will collapse and turn inside out rendering the valve inoperable.
In an attempt to overcome the shortcoming discussed above, a highly flexible check valve is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,422,844 issued to Grise. This check valve is employed to control the direction of fluid flow therethrough in hydraulic systems. The check valve is formed of a relatively soft and resilient material with a pair of stiffening ribs for aiding in the check valves resistance to back pressure. Further, when the check valve is subjected to a significant back pressure, the valve is collapsed against a metallic plate which diametrically spans the base portion of the check valve to maintain the valve in a closed position, and to prevent the valve from turning inside out. This allows the body of the check valve to be made relatively thin when compared to the check valve discussed above. When the resilient valve member is subjected to increased back pressure, the deformation of the tapered walls is accompanied by substantial compression and deformation of the stiffening ribs. Further, there is a significant angular displacement of the extending portion of the valve about the base portion forming a circular hinge. Over time, this continued pivotal movement between an open positive flow condition and a closed and compressed condition may result in the permanent deformation of the check valve wherein the valve member may not retain its original configuration and consequently may not properly close thereby allowing unwanted fluid to pass therethrough. Further, continued pivotal movement of the valve member about the circular hinge may eventually exceed the valve's elastic limit and fracture the valve member at the hinge point resulting in leakage about the valve member. Each of these instances would require the shutdown of the system in which the valve is employed in order to replace the valve member. Also, because the valve member is permitted to flex through such a great distance, it is necessary to provide a stop plate of a size which significantly impedes the flow of fluid through the valve.
Therefore, there is clearly a need for a check valve which may be formed of a relatively thin flexible material which is prevented from deforming beyond its elastic limit and which will reliably open and close when necessary. Further, such a need particularly exists in the environment of an exhaust gas aftertreatment system wherein it is critical to provide the proper amount of air in order to oxidize particulate matter and protect the air feed pump from high temperature exhaust gas. Also, the check valve must be capable of preventing the leakage of untreated exhaust gas through the air feed pump and into the atmosphere.


A process for the treatment of biomass to render structural carbohydrates more accessible and/or digestible using concentrated ammonium hydroxide with or without anhydrous ammonia addition, is described. The process preferably uses steam to strip ammonia from the biomass for recycling. The process yields of monosaccharides from the structural carbohydrates are good, particularly as measured by the enzymatic hydrolysis of the structural carbohydrates. The monosaccharides are used as animal feeds and energy sources for ethanol production.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the treatment of a lignocellulosic biomass with concentrated ammonium hydroxide and preferably with ammonia gas to increase the availability of structural carbohydrates (polysaccharides). Preferably, steam under pressure is used to strip ammonia from the biomass for recycling. In particular, the present invention relates to a process which enables the efficient conversion of the polysaccharides to monosaccharides preferably by enzymatic hydrolysis.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A wide variety of methods (e.g. concentrated or dilute acids or bases, high temperatures, radiation of various forms) have been used to pretreat lignocellulosic biomass to extract structural carbohydrates to be used to obtain monosaccharides for many different uses. The goal of these pretreatments is to increase the rate and/or yield at which the monosaccharides are subsequently obtained from the structural carbohydrates by chemical or biochemical means such as acid catalysis, enzymatic catalysis, fermentation or animal digestion. In general, these pretreatments have fallen short of desired economic and technical performance for several reasons: 1) many pretreatments degrade some of the sugars, e.g. to acids or aldehydes, thus reducing yields and inhibiting subsequent biological conversion of the remaining sugars; 2) when chemicals are used in the pretreatment, it is frequently difficult to recover these chemicals at reasonable cost; 3) residual chemicals can negatively affect downstream conversion operations; and 4) the effectiveness of many pretreatments is limited so that the ultimate conversions of structural carbohydrates obtained, independent of lost yield by sugar degradation reactions, is inadequate for competitive process economics. Thus there are many prior art methods, and they have numerous drawbacks including those outlined above.
Sufficiently inexpensive monosaccharides from renewable plant biomass can become the basis of chemical and fuels industries, replacing or substituting for petroleum and other fossil feedstocks. Effective, economical pretreatments are required to make these monosaccharides available at high yield and acceptable cost.
The prior art in the pretreatment of plant biomass with anhydrous liquid ammonia or ammonium hydroxide solutions is extensive. Illustrative are the following patents and literature references:    U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,590 to Dale    U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,060 to Chou    U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,663 to Dale    U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,592 to Holtzapple et al.    U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,898 to Holtzapple et al.    U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,544 to Karsents et al.    U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,061 to Bredereck et al.    U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,621 to Karstens    U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,888 to Dale et al.    U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,176 to Dale et al.    Felix, A., et al., Anim. Prod. 51 47-61 (1990)    Waiss, A. C., Jr., et al., Journal of Animal Science 35 No. 1, 109-112 (1972). All of these patents and publications are incorporated herein in their entireties.
In particular, ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX) represents a unique and effective pretreatment for biologically converting lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol (Dale, B. E., 1986. U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,663; Dale, B. E., 1991. U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,590; Alizadeh, H., F. Teymouri, T. I. Gilbert, B. E. Dale, 2005. Pretreatment of Switchgrass by Ammonia Fiber Explosion. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 121-124:1133-1141; Dale, B. E., 1991. U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,590; Dale, B. E., 1986. U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,663). In AFEX pretreatment, lignocellulosic biomass is exposed to concentrated ammonia at elevated pressures sufficient to maintain ammonia in liquid phase and moderate temperatures (e.g. around 100° C.). Residence times in the AFEX reactor are generally less than 30 minutes. To terminate the AFEX reaction, the pretreated biomass is depressurized (flashed). The AFEX process is not limited to anhydrous ammonia with AFEX. Some water is added to the biomass, so that any anhydrous ammonia is immediately converted into a concentrated ammonia water mixture on beginning the AFEX treatment.
Recovery of ammonia used in AFEX pretreatment is a key objective when integrating AFEX into a broader biomass conversion process design. The existing ammonia recovery design (Eggeman, T. 2001. Ammonia Fiber Explosion Pretreatment for Bioethanol Production, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Subcontract No. LCO-1-31055-01), which is depicted in FIG. 1, calls for compressing ammonia, which is vaporized as a result of the flash operation, and separating liquid ammonia that remains in contact with the pretreated solids via evaporation in a dryer. The resulting vapor, which also contains water, is then delivered to a distillation column to purify the ammonia. The ammonia from the column is pumped up to pressure and, together with the compressed flash ammonia, is recycled to the AFEX reactor. FIG. 1 shows the existing ammonia recovery approach.
FIG. 1 shows the prior art system 10 including a closed AFEX reactor vessel 12 into which biomass, water and ammonia are introduced under pressure. Valve V1 is used to release pressure from the vessel 12. The treated biomass is transferred to a heated dryer 14. The dried biomass is transferred out of the dryer 14 for subsequent treatment. Ammonia from the dryer 14 is condensed by condenser 22 and sent to slurry column 16. Water is removed and condensed by condenser 18. Ammonia is condensed in condenser 20 and recycled to the vessel 12. Ammonia gas is pressurized in a compressor 24, condensed and recycled into vessel 12.
The problem is that the processes either produce low yields of the monosaccharides and/or require large amounts of liquid ammonia or ammonium hydroxide solutions.

Process for the treatment of lignocellulosic biomass

Board of Trustees of Michigan State University


A positioning device and method can position a subject of positioning at a higher speed than conventional ones. A positioning device and method for moving a subject of positioning to a desired position, moves the subject of positioning at a desired speed and acceleration, and adjusts the acceleration/deceleration duration of the subject of positioning and the timing of starting the deceleration so as to cancel the residual vibration, in accordance with the vibration period of the residual vibration that occurs immediately after positioning the subject of positioning.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a positioning device and method, and, more suitably, is applicable to a mounter for carrying semiconductor devices onto a substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the mounter of this sort, a motion pattern of a head is determined using a targeted locus calculated on the basis of a so-called trapezoidal speed command, in controlling the positioning by moving the head for adsorbing a semiconductor device in the X-axis and Y-axis directions.
This trapezoidal speed command is a targeted locus for the head to be moved from a current position to a targeted position through the process of acceleration, constant velocity and deceleration. A typical method for generating a trapezoidal speed command involves determining the acceleration and the deceleration to be used, and changing the acceleration duration, the constant velocity duration and the deceleration duration in accordance with a targeted travel distance.
For example, when a travel distance xm, a maximum speed Vmaxm/s, and a maximum acceleration amaxm/s2 are given as a travel command as shown in FIG. 1, a targeted locus is generated for the travel distance by using the same acceleration until the speed reaches the maximum speed. The speed locus of this situation is triangular or trapezoidal, as shown in FIG. 2, and the acceleration duration and the deceleration duration vary in a triangular speed locus, that is, if a travel distance is between 0 and (Vmax2/amax)m.
In such a mounter, if the acceleration for moving the head is made faster for fast positioning, a greater reaction force is produced in moving the head, and vibration is more likely to occur from a base board of the mounter via a head supporting portion to the head.
To suppress the residual vibration in arriving at the targeted position within a targeted positioning precision, acceleration slower than the acceleration that a drive system of the head can intrinsically produce is used as the maximum acceleration.
When a targeted-value generating method having a fixed maximum speed and maximum acceleration as described above is used, however, the frequency properties of the acceleration and the deceleration components for the targeted locus varying with the acceleration and deceleration duration and the timing of starting the deceleration are not considered, although the conditions for the maximum speed and the maximum acceleration are satisfied.
Due to variations in the frequency properties of acceleration in this targeted locus, the condition of the residual vibration at the completion of positioning is changed at a control point for a subject of positioning, which is a problem.
To solve this problem, there is offered a method for reducing the residual vibration in the positioning control by controlling the acceleration duration and the deceleration duration.
To begin with, a first method (Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-29121, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-270786, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-170769, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 07-328965) is a method for reducing residual vibration by setting the acceleration duration and the deceleration duration to be an integer multiple of a natural frequency of vibration. This method is employed in robot manipulators and cranes and is used for positioning in which the acceleration duration is an integer multiple of the residual vibration period.
However, in many cases, the mounter makes movements in which the acceleration duration is shorter than the vibration period of residual vibration. Therefore, when the acceleration/deceleration duration is lengthened to damp the residual vibration with a targeted locus by using this method as it is, it surely took a time equal to two periods of residual vibration in such a short distance that the targeted position is reached within the acceleration and deceleration duration, in the typical targeted locus (acceleration and deceleration duration, each 0.1 sec, equivalent to one period of residual vibration 10 Hz), as shown in FIG. 3, which has a problem in that the high speed is very difficult to achieve.
A second method (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-298521) involves making the damping by the use of a database including the travel time and the degree of damping, while satisfying the conditions of the maximum speed and the maximum acceleration with the positioning time as a parameter.
However, with this method, it is required to create the data for the travel time and the degree of damping to effect the damping for each device, which has a problem in that the operation is very complex.
Moreover, a third method (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-108165) involves dividing by two a targeted locus obtained by adding a targeted locus and the same targeted locus shifted by a half period of a frequency set for damping (hereinafter referred to as a damping frequency) that is given at the time of making a travel command.
However, with this method, the damping can be performed on the vibration frequency that is an odd multiple of the damping frequency, but it cannot be made for an even multiple of the vibration frequency. Furthermore, the damping is possible for any two or more frequencies by repeating the same method in series twice or more, but there is a problem that the completion time of generation of the targeted locus is delayed by the time of adding a half period of the damping frequency.
Accordingly, as a condition for solving the problems of the first to third methods, it is desirable to change the acceleration duration and the deceleration duration in accordance with the vibration period of the residual vibration having the greatest amplitude that occurs at the positioning completion time to prevent this vibration from occurring as much as possible.
In view of the foregoing, an object of this invention is to provide a positioning device and method that can position a subject of positioning at a higher speed than conventional ones.
The foregoing object and other objects of the invention have been achieved by the provision of a positioning device for moving a subject of positioning to a desired position. The positioning device comprises a drive means for driving to move the subject of positioning and a control means for controlling the drive means to move the subject of positioning at a desired speed and acceleration based on a trapezoidal speed command. The control means controls the drive means to adjust the acceleration/deceleration duration of the subject of positioning and the timing of starting the deceleration to cancel the residual vibration in accordance with the vibration period of residual vibration that occurs immediately after positioning the subject of positioning.
As a result, this positioning device can efficiently cancel the residual vibration which occurs in the subject of positioning at the time of positioning.
Also, in this invention, a positioning method for moving a subject of positioning to a desired position moves the subject of positioning at a desired speed and acceleration based on a trapezoidal speed command and adjusts the acceleration/deceleration duration of the subject of positioning and the timing of starting the deceleration to cancel the residual vibration in accordance with the vibration period of residual vibration that occurs immediately after positioning the subject of positioning.
As a result, this positioning method makes it possible to efficiently cancel the residual vibration which occurs in the subject of positioning at the time of positioning.
As described above, in this invention, a positioning device for moving a subject of positioning to a desired position is provided with a drive means for driving to move the subject of positioning and a control means for controlling the drive means to move the subject of positioning at a desired speed and acceleration. The control means controls the drive means to adjust the acceleration/deceleration duration of the subject of positioning and the timing of starting the deceleration to cancel the residual vibration in accordance with the vibration period of the residual vibration that occurs immediately after positioning the subject of positioning. As a result, this positioning device can efficiently cancel the residual vibration which occurs in the subject of positioning at the time of positioning. Thus, it is possible to implement the positioning device that can position the subject of positioning at a higher speed than conventional ones.
Also, in this invention, a positioning method for moving a subject of positioning to a desired position moves the subject of positioning at a desired speed and acceleration and adjusts the acceleration/deceleration duration of the subject of positioning and the timing of starting the deceleration to cancel the residual vibration in accordance with the vibration period of the residual vibration that occurs immediately after positioning the subject of positioning. As a result, this positioning method makes it possible to efficiently cancel the residual vibration which occurs in the subject of positioning at the time of positioning. Thus, it is possible to implement the positioning method that can position the subject of positioning at a higher speed than conventional ones.
The nature, principle and utility of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts are designated by like reference numerals or characters.


The use of an amorphous polymer blended with a semicrystalline polymer to render the latter susceptible to adhesion promotion for good peel strength after electroless copper plating, while maintaining the advantages of the semicrystalline polymer including high temperature characteristics, ease of molding, and low cost is disclosed. The invention provides an injection-moldable material with the advantages of a semicrystalline thermoplastic but that can be made to accept electroless metal deposits for fabrication of electronic devices. The material is a blend including a high-temperature semicrystalline thermoplasstic polymer with an amorphous polymer that is easily etched and that is preferably compatible with the semicrystalline polymer. A preferred exemplary blend comprises poly(cyclohexylenedimethylene terephthalate) with polyethersulfone and/or polyarylate.

Circuit boards are widely used in the electrical industry for radio, television, computers, appliances, industrial and electronic equipment. Printed circuit boards have been traditionally manufactured from copper clad epoxy-glass laminates.
When starting with this material the shape of the printed circuit board must first be routed out and the holes for mounting the components (e.g., transistors, resistors, integrated circuits, etc.) individually drilled. The board is then masked with photoresist, the circuitry imaged and the copper etched away from areas where it is not wanted.
An alternative to this procedure is to injection mold the circuit board substrate with the holes in place or even with parts such as clips and bosses as part of the molded board. The molded substrate is then put through several adhesion promotion steps and plated with electroless copper according to standard technology, to produce the printed circuit board.
In this case the substrate material is limited to thermoplastic resins with sufficient thermal stability and chemical properties to survive wave soldering. Savings may result with these injection molded circuit board substrates due to the elimination of considerable mechanical processing such as routing and drilling.
The critical parameters of a printed circuit board, from a soldering standpoint, are its heat deflection temperature, environmental stress crack resistance and thermal expansion coefficient. The higher a substrate's heat deflection temperature and environmental stress crack resistance to solder fluxes, the less likely it will blister or delaminate during soldering. Similar advantages of molded substrates in manufacture of other parts with selected portions metalized can be seen, even when their environmental and thermal requirements are different.
Methods for the electrochemical and electroless deposition of copper and other metals onto activated substrates are well known and defined in the art and will not be detailed herein. Methods for manufacturing planar printed circuit boards from metal/resin laminates by subtractive etching of the copper are also well documented in the art.
Recent developments in the art include the use of features in molded circuit boards. One example is a molded-in pattern of recesses which, when the raised portions are coated with a resist or are selectively metal plated, define the circuit traces.
This technology is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,532,152, 4,651,417 and 4,6687,603. Use of these techniques requires a material onto which copper may be plated at some stage after the molding of the part.
A large number of documents in the literature discuss imaging circuit traces by selective deposition of metal particles followed by electroless plating of a metal. These include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,629,922, 3,772,056, 3,772,078, 3,907,621, 3,930,963, 3,959,547, 3,993,802, 3,994,727, 4,511,597, 4,594,311 and 4,666,739. In these techniques, it is important to adhesion promote the surface of the item to be plated in order to get good mechanical adhesion of the electoless metal deposit.
Other methods for initiating metallization of previously inert plastic substrates can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,327,124, 4,447,471, 4,478,883, 4,493,861 and 4,554,182. These include activation by special inks, bromine compounds, and ionic polymers. In some cases these require adhesion promotion of the substrate, and/or a chemical attack to modify wettability is needed.
Other examples exist in which the catalyst for electroless plating is incorporated into the material formulation itself, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,629,185 and 4,281,038. These catalysts include metal particles and metal-coated particles.
The image of the circuit trace can be obtained by various methods known in the art, including use of resists before or after initial cooper plating, or by overmolding with a noncatalytic resin as disclosed in European Patent Application Nos. 0 256 428 and 0 192 233. In these cases, it is necessary to etch the material both to promote good adhesion and to expose the catalytic particles, which are generally remote from the original molded surface of the device.
The demand for nonconductive moldable materials that will accept electroless deposits of copper and other metals is thus clear. In common in all the above techniques of electroless metal deposits is the need to etch, adhesion promote, or otherwise modify the surface of such a molded part.
Many techniques for chemical etching of thermoplastics are disclosed in the literature including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,457,951, 4,592,852, 4,592,929, 4,595,451, 4,601,783, 4,610,895 and 4,629,636. In general, these techniques require the material to be wet or penetrated by reagents or solvents.
Alternative methods utilizing plasmas, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,337,279 and 4,402,998 are more expensive and difficulties are encountered with uniform etching and penetration into holes. For these reasons chemical etching methods involving solvent penetration into the material are preferred.
Available materials are, however, limited in scope due to this need for chemical attack, which is usually dependent on penetration of a solvent into the material. This is best accomplished with an amorphous polymer, which typically has low solvent resistance, as compared to a semicrystalline polymer. Thus, the most common polymers used in the art for molded circuit boards, polyethersulfone (PES) and polyetherimide (PEI) are amorphous polymers.
There are many advantages to use of semicrystalline polymers. A property of prime importance in the field of molded circuit boards is a high heat deflection temperature (HDT) since in many cases it is desirable to solder electrical components onto these devices, generally at temperatures in the range of 230.degree. to 290.degree. C. HDT is measured via ASTM D648, however, tests for dimensional stability of the molded parts in these temperature ranges are the standard by which sufficiently "high HDT" is judged.
For an amorphous polymer this requires a very high glass transition temperatures (Tg) which restricts the available polymers to an elite group. These polymers are typically expensive, require high processing temperature, and have very poor flow characteristics.
Semicrystalline polymers, on the other hand, can be compounded with glass fibers or other fillers to give an HDT determined more by their melting temperature (Tm) rather than their Tg. Generally, at least about 10% glass fiber is needed. This allows much higher HDT's than would otherwise be indicated by their low melt viscosities and processing temperatures.
This would allow for use of much less expensive polymers with lower processing temperatures and good flow characteristics. For example, poly(cyclohexylenedimethylene terephthalate) (PCT) and crystallizable copolymer thereof, a polyester having repeat units from terephthalic acid and 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol, can withstand total immersion in a 260.degree. C. solder bath for a full minute with little ill effect while PES, which has similar processing temperature with higher melt viscosity, and is more expensive, has a Tg about 40 degrees below such a 260.degree. C. bath.
Examples of materials in use in the industry are given in Table 1 along with some potentially competitive semicrystalline polymers, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and crystallizable copolymer thereof, a polyester having repeat units from terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol and PCT. Semicrystalline polymers clearly would be competitive on cost and HDT if they could be made to accept electroless metal plating with good adhesion.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Platable High Temperature Thermoplastics Polymer HDT* (.degree.C.) ______________________________________ Polyarylate (PA) 155-179 Polysulfone (PS) 168-181 Polyetherimide (PEI) 197-223 Polyethersulfone (PES) 203-216 GFR** PET 216-243 GFR** PCT >260 ______________________________________ *Range of HDT depends on amount of filler. (Information from various issues of the publication Plastics World.) **Glass Fiber Reinforced (GFR), and in a crystalline state.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,067 discloses the use of a polymer blend of two amorphous polymers, PES and PS. While both polymers are useful alone, the blend has better etchability than the PES and higher HDT than the PS. This blending thus achieves properties that are intermediate between the two components but is qualitatively the same as both components of the blend, which are themselves both amorphous polymers that are substantially etchable.
There is, however, still a need for a composition which would utilize semicrystalline polymers in molded articles which would accept electroless plating to thereby derive benefits in terms of physical properties from the semicrystalline polymer while still achieving good copper adhesion as is seen with amorphous polymer.

Polymer blend for molded circuit boards and other selectively conductive molded devices


In this invention, in an optical disk on which information is recorded by a mark length recording method, an average value of detection signals of sync codes recorded on the optical disk beforehand is calculated, and a difference between the average value and a level "0" is determined to be a bias voltage. The bias voltage is superposed on a detection signal of the recorded information, and the signal is binarized by the level "0".

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic filing apparatus such as an apparatus for reproducing information from an optical disk on which information is recorded by mark length recording.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to record information on an optical disk, a laser beam is focused into a fine light spot having a diameter of about 1 .mu.m and modulated in accordance with information to be recorded, thereby thermally changing the state of a recording film on the surface of the optical disk to perform recording. Reproduction of information is performed by optically reading changes in light reflected by recorded pits (state change portions).
In this case, an optical head is used to perform recording or reproduction of information with respect to an optical disk. This optical head is constituted by, e.g., a semiconductor laser oscillator for generating a laser beam, an objective lens for guiding a laser beam from the semiconductor laser oscillator to an optical disk, and a converter for converting changes in light guided by the objective lens and reflected by pits formed on the optical disk into electrical signals (analog signals).
Focusing or tracking control is performed by adjusting a position of the objective lens relative to the optical disk.
A reproduction circuit is constituted by an amplifying circuit for amplifying the analog signals from the converter of the optical head, and a binarizing circuit for binarizing the amplified analog signals from the amplifying circuit at a predetermined slice level.
Two types of recording methods, i.e., mark position recording and mark length recording are used in such an optical disk.
In the mark position recording, recording is performed by expressing recording information by a length between pits formed on an optical disk to perform recording. In this case, recorded information is reproduced by using a signal which is switched in accordance with a predetermined position of each pit. This predetermined position is a leading edge portion, a trailing edge portion, or a central position of a pit.
In the mark length recording, recording is performed by expressing recording information by a width (length) of a pit and a distance (space length) between pits. In this case, recorded information is reproduced by detecting the pit width and the distance between pits. More specifically, recorded information is reproduced by using a signal which is switched in accordance with both of leading and trailing edge portions of each pit.
In order to record a certain amount of recording information, a larger number of small-diameter pits must be formed in an optical disk using the mark position recording than in an optical disk using the mark length recording. Therefore, a laser optical system of an optical disk using the mark position recording is complicated. In addition, since a frequency band of analog signals is high in an optical disk using the mark position recording, its analog circuit such as an amplifying circuit is complicated.
Therefore, in order to perform high-density recording using an optical disk, the mark length recording is adopted.
when the mark length recording is used, a reflected light amount is changed (decreased) due to changes in focus offset, film sensitivity, and laser intensity. Therefore, a ratio of a pit width to a length between pits is largely shifted from a proper value. That is, the level of an analog signal in the binarizing circuit becomes lower than a proper level. Therefore, if binarization is performed at a predetermined threshold level, a signal indicating the leading and trailing edge portions of a pit is switched at a position shifted from an actual position.
As a result, since correct detection of a pit width (correct detection of both the leading and trailing edge portions of a pit) and correct detection of a length between pits become difficult to perform, erroneous reproduction is caused.

Apparatus for reproducing information from optical disk on which information in recorded by mark length recording


The present invention is to provide a light emitting device which can generate high-intensity light emission, using a fluorescent material containing a rare earth element ion complex and being excellent in durability and also provide the fluorescent material to be used therein. The present invention relates to a light emitting device comprising a semiconductor light emitting element which emits light within the region from near-ultraviolet light to visible light, and a fluorescent material which contains a rare earth element ion complex having an aromatic ring-containing Bronsted acid ion with a pKa value of 7 or less as a ligand and emits light by the action of light of the semiconductor light emitting element.

Light emitting devices in which light of a discharge lamp or a semiconductor light emitting element is color converted with a fluorescent material have hitherto been used for illumination and the like. In order to generate lights of various colors such as white, in a wide color reproduction range, uniformly with a good color rendering property by mixing blue, red and green color lights, many studies have been made for these light emitting devices. Above all, light emitting devices using a semiconductor light emitting element such as a light emitting diode (LED) or a semiconductor laser (LD) have high luminous efficiency and also have an advantage in terms of environmental protection such as no use of mercury. Accordingly, the development of light emitting devices in which an LED or an LD is combined with a fluorescent material has been actively carried out.
In particular, light emitting devices in which an LED or an LD is combined with an organic red fluorescent material comprising a europium (Eu) complex having an anion of a β-diketone as a ligand have been reported as devices which efficiently absorb light from near-ultraviolet light to visible light and provide high-luminance light emission, compared to a fluorescent lamp using an inorganic red fluorescent material such as Y2O3:Eu (see patent document 1 and patent document 2).
Patent Document 1: JP 10-12925 A
Patent Document 2: JP 2000-509912 A

Light emitting device and fluorescent material


A slideable and pivotable door assembly configured to selectively permit passage through an opening between a first side and a second side of the opening. The slideable and pivotable door assembly has a normally fixed door panel arranged to cover a first portion of the opening when in a normally closed fixed position. The door assembly also includes a slideable door panel slidable relative to the fixed door panel. The slideable door panel is slidable between a 1) closed position wherein the door panel covers a second portion of the opening and 2) an open position wherein the second portion of the opening is uncovered. A first pivot structure enables pivotal movement of the normally fixed door panel upon a pivoting actuation and a second pivot structure enables pivotal movement of the slideable door panel at any position relative to the normally fixed door panel while the normally fixed door panel remains in its normally fixed position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sliding door assembly that includes a normally fixed door panel, a sliding door panel, and breakaway features that enables the sliding door panel and/or the normally fixed door panel to move to a breakaway configuration.
2. Background of the Invention
Sliding door assemblies generally include a frame assembly with at least one fixed or non-sliding door panel mounted thereto and at least one sliding door panel that moves in a generally rectilinear manner between opened and closed positions. In the open position, the sliding door panel and the non-sliding door panel are generally in at least a partially overlapping configuration wherein passage through the door assembly is permitted. In the closed position, the sliding door panel and the non-sliding door panel are arranged on the frame assembly such that passage through the door assembly is prevented.
The sliding door panel may be moved between the open and closed positions manually. Manual doors are often used in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and other locations. Oftentimes, the sliding door panel and the non-sliding door panel are provided with the capability to open outwardly in a swinging manner under an application of a force (e.g., manual force) to allow persons to pass through the door assembly during certain conditions (e.g., if the slideable door panel cannot be slid to the open position). This capability, referred to in the art as "breakout" or "breakaway," is often required by state or local building codes as a measure for facilitating exit from buildings in certain situations. This breakaway feature permits the door panels to be pivotally swung open about a pivot axis.
Each of the individual door panels (sliding door panels and fixed/non-sliding door panel) are typically configured to pivot to the breakaway position separately about their own pivot axis (i.e., there are individual pivot axes for each door panel). The sliding door panel and the non-sliding door panel are typically arranged such that the pivoting action of the door assembly is permitted only when the sliding door panel is fully in the open position.
The present invention provides several improvements over the prior art.