A gas sensor including a first layer including copper (I) bromide, and a second layer, which is disposed on the first layer, and is a p-type semiconductor that is different from the copper (I) bromide, wherein one of the first layer and the second layer is more preferentially in contact with detection-target gas than the other.

As gas sensors detecting gas, such as ammonia, nitrogen oxide, and nitrogen monoxide, gas sensors that detect gas based on changes in electrical resistance have been conventionally used (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 07-140100). The gas sensors detect the gas based on changes in electrical resistance of a semiconductor due to adsorption of the gas on a surface of the semiconductor.
In the gas sensors that detect gas based on changes in electrical resistance, electric current needs to be supplied to the semiconductor using a constant-current power supply in order to measure changing electrical resistance. Therefore, the gas sensors that detect gas based on changes in electrical resistance have a problem that power consumption of a detection circuit itself becomes large.
Moreover, the semiconductor in the gas sensor needs to be heated to a temperature at which excellent detection properties can be obtained. Therefore, the gas sensor has a problem that a large quantity of power needs to be used for a heater configured to heat the gas sensor.
Accordingly, proposed are gas sensors, which detect gas based on changes in potential difference due to adsorption of the gas, not changes in electrical resistance. As such gas sensors, proposed are gas sensors, in each of which, for example, a porous silicon substrate and a single crystal silicon substrate are laminated, and gas sensors using solid electrolytes having ion conductivity, such as oxygen ion conductivity, oxide ion conductivity, and proton conductivity (for example, see JP-A Nos. 63-238545, 2002-031619, 2005-221428, 2007-248335, and 2009-198346).
However, the gas sensors using porous silicon substrates have a problem that it is difficult to produce the gas sensors on electronic parts, such as thin film transistors, because the porous silicon substrate is produced by anodizing a surface of a single crystal silicon substrate and the anodizing is a solution process.
In the gas sensors using solid electrolytes, moreover, temperatures, at which the solid electrolytes for use (e.g., zirconia) exhibit excellent ion conductivity, are high temperature of 300° C. or higher. In the proposed techniques, moreover, a chemical reaction, such as an oxidation reaction, of gas to be adsorbed is used for causing a change in a potential difference in the solid electrolyte, and therefore the gas sensor needs to be heated to a temperature at which the chemical reaction is induced. Accordingly, the proposed techniques have a problem that a large quantity of power needs to be used for a heater configured to heat the gas sensor.
Moreover, proposed as a gas sensor detecting gas at room temperature is a gas sensor, which is highly sensitive, is capable of highly selectively detecting NH3 gas at room temperature, and uses a CuBr film (for example, see Pascal Lauque, Marc Bendahan, Jean-Luc Seguin, Kieu An Ngo, Philippe Knauth, Analytica Chimica Acta, 515, (2004), 279-284). In the proposed technique, gas is detected based on a change in electrical resistance. Accordingly, it is necessary to supply electric current to the CuBr film using a constant-current power supply in order to measure changes in electrical resistance, and there is a problem that power consumption of a detection circuit itself becomes large.
Accordingly, there is currently a need for a gas sensor that can be produced on electronic parts, does not require a supply of electric current using a constant-current power supply, does not need to be heated, and can be used with energy-saving efficiency, and a sensor device including such a gas sensor.


Systems and methods for creating a multiple degree of freedom (DOF) actuated device having a single transducer source, wherein each DOF is individually actuated by a particular amplified response frequency and wherein simultaneous multiple DOF actuation is possible through superimposing multiple frequencies. Further included are several embodiments rectifying DOF(s) into a continuous output motion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to devices, systems, and methods for actuating one or more degrees of freedom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the control of physical systems, actuators are often used to transform a control signal into a desired mechanical output. Typically, an actuator comprises a transducer, which transforms the control signal into a mechanical force or displacement, and a means of coupling the mechanical output of the transducer to the appropriate body. In many cases, it is desired to control more than one degree of freedom (DOF) and so one actuator—and, therefore, one transducer—is required for each controlled DOF.
Various transduction mechanisms exist for transforming a (often electrical) control signal into a mechanical output. In many cases, the transduction mechanism incurs the most cost for an actuator. For example, an electromagnetic transducer often relies on relatively heavy and expensive copper, iron, and magnets to accomplish transduction. Piezoelectric transducers, also, can incur high material costs and often require relatively expensive and sophisticated high-voltage driver electronics. It would thus be advantageous to actuate multiple DOFs using a single transducer to reduce cost, weight, and complexity.
Various attempts (e.g. unidrive robots, robots using a single motor and a system of clutches to independently actuate multiple DOFs) have been made to accomplish multiple-DOF actuation using a single transducer, but they have often involved relatively complicated systems for distributing the mechanical output to the appropriate DOFs, the complexity of which has limited the benefits obtained from eliminating additional transducers.
Accordingly, there is a need for new devices, systems, and procedures for simply and reliably actuating multiple DOFs using a single transducer.
The following application seeks to solve the problems stated.

Multiple degree of freedom actuator and method


This invention discloses an electrically driven elevation bed apparatus which moves up and down while keeping its horizontal posture, in order to make effective use of indoor space. The elevation bed of this invention includes improved driving systems and safety devices for the driving systems. The driving systems includes a driving device including a spring to store biasing force on a supporting shaft thereof for the ascending of the bed frame. Also included is the use of steel belts as cord bodies to hand the bed frame to make the driving device compact and to eliminate troubles encountered with wireropes. The third aspect of the present invention also relates to an improvement of the driving systems. This aspect enables the bed frame to be positioned in inclined postures by introducing clutch means in the driving device to raise one side of the bed only. To the elevation bed, various safety devices are provided for movement of the furniture. They are a detecting device to detect the loss of tension or breakage of cord bodies, a disengagement preventing device to secure the engagement of the bed frame and guide rails, a protecting device using a guard net to prevent the user from falling from the bed and cushioning device to improve the starting motion of the bed frame by eliminating shock and by enabling the driving device to be more effective and safer in its operation. The present invention includes systems which can be combined and the various safety devices are available to be adopted correspondingly and combined freely.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a bed for use in a small room where space is at a premium. More particularly, the invention relates to an elevation bed which, when not in use, can be raised so that the floor space can be effectively used for other purposes. The invention also relates to the driving mechanism and safety features of such a bed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A fact of modern life is that there is becoming a scarcity of living space, particularly in large cities. The demand for housing has caused the housing expense of an individual to continually soar. With this increase in population density, the number of single dwellers is increasing, and the demand for one room apartments is likewise increasing. A bed occupies a large portion of the space of such small dwellings However, since a bed is needed only for nighttime sleeping hours, the floor space occupied by the bed can be said to be utilized very inefficiently. Beds are known which have been constructed to solve this problem One example is a bed that is stored by raising one end of the bed with the other end hinged on a wall or another piece of furniture. This saves space by storing the bed in a vertical position. With such a bed design, however, it is very cumbersome to lift the bed into the stored position and pull it down out of the stored position. Moreover, when the bed is attached to other furniture, relocating the furniture necessarily requires relocation of the bed. In addition, the mattress and bed clothes must be bound or stored separately or they fall off of the bed when it is raised to the stored position.
Elevation beds, capable of moving vertically with the mattress maintaining its horizontal position have been suggested. The early types have been operated manually, imposing on the user heavy daily labor. A more recent electrically operated elevation bed has a driving device, thus eliminating the labor needed to store and unstore the bed. However, such beds do not have sufficient safety features.
The present invention eliminates the problems of the prior art described above. An object of the present invention is to improve the driving mechanism of the elevation bed.
A second object of the present invention lies in the improvement of the driving mechanism for moving the bed up and down.
A third object of the invention lies in the improvement of the driving mechanism so as to permit the user to be able to recline on the bed in an incline posture.


Light generated by an illumination source (26) travels through a fiber optic cable (40) to optrode (14) which is immersed in the process fluid (16) to be analyzed. The optrode collimates the light beam before it crosses the sampling gap (68) where the beam transects the process fluid to be analyzed. As it crosses the sampling gap 68, the light beam is absorbed in a specific wavelength band by the chemical species in solution. The collimated beam is then picked up by an opposing collimated lens in the optrode and transmitted to the protected analytical module (20) by a second optical fiber (42).

The apparatus and method described in Pesavento and Strawbridge U.S. Pat. No. 4,851,665 teach the manner in which absorption spectroscopy can be successfully used in the testing of chemical solutions, and particularly electroplating solutions. Work with the optrode taught in that patent has suggested means for optimizing the optrode. Other prior work is represented by a fiber optic luminescence measuring system taught in Brogardh U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,154. The present literature does not describe another system which utilizes a collimated light beam remote sensor to generate a signal for analysis by the absorption principle.


The sputter target includes a tantalum body having tantalum grains formed from consolidating tantalum powder and a sputter face. The sputter face has an atom transport direction for transporting tantalum atoms away from the sputter face for coating a substrate. The tantalum grains have at least a 40 percent (222) direction orientation ratio and less than a 15 percent (110) direction orientation ratio in an atom transport direction away from the sputter face for increasing sputtering uniformity.

This invention relates to the field of tantalum sputter targets. In particular, this invention relates to powder metallurgy tantalum sputter targets.
Conventional tantalum sputter targets manufactured by casting and thermomechanical processing display alternating bands of the (200) and (222) crystallographic orientations across a sputter target""s face and through the target""s cross section. For example, the target""s surface often exhibits alternating lighter shaded grains near the (200) orientation and darker shaded grains near the (222) orientation. Unfortunately, the (200) texture bands have a lower sputter yield than the (222) texture bands that result in substrates having tantalum sputter layers of varied thicknesses within a substrate. For example, sheet resistance uniformity of sputtered films for the 49 point test typically ranges between 2 and 3 percent 1 sigma (or one standard deviation). These non-uniform tantalum layers can cause manufacturers to increase sputtering thickness to eliminate thin regions. Furthermore, the resulting variation in tantalum thickness often precludes the use of sputtered tantalum films for demanding applications.
In the past, manufacturers have used grain growth techniques to control grain orientation. For example, Dunn et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,037, disclose a rolling/grain recrystallization method for producing tantalum foil. This method maximizes the (110) orientation to produce the tantalum foilxe2x80x94this product""s thickness and grain orientation are each unacceptable for sputter target manufacturing.
Zhang, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,821, discloses a thermomechanical process for deforming a pure tantalum billet into a sputter target. This process first relies upon side-forging or side-rolling and then upon upset forging or upset rolling. The process produces sputter targets having a predominantly (222) texture and a grain size of less than 25 xcexcm. This process does not appear to eliminate all banding effects associated with targets formed from cast tantalum targets or align the (222) texture in a direction normal to the sputter target""s face.
In another thermomechanical process, Michaluk et al., in Pat. Pub. No. WO 00/31310 disclose a process for casting and processing tantalum sputter targets. This process appears to produce tantalum blanks having a primary (222) texture in a direction normal to the sputter target""s face with minimal (200)-(222) texture banding throughout the thickness of the blanks. (This specification refers to directions with the convention that for a body-centered cubic (bcc) lattice, h+k+l must equal an even number for the reflection to have a non-zero intensity, the bcc lattice gives rise to a systematic absence when h+k+l is odd. For example, this specification refers to (222) and (200) directions rather than the (111) and (100) directions referenced by other conventions.) Unfortunately, controlling the (222) and (200) directions alone does not provide the necessary grain orientation or control required for the most stringent sputtering applications.
The sputter target includes a tantalum body having tantalum grains formed from consolidating tantalum powder and a sputter face. The sputter face has an atom transport direction for transporting tantalum atoms away from the sputter face for coating a substrate. The tantalum grains have at least a 40 percent (222) direction orientation ratio and less than a 15 percent (110) direction orientation ratio in an atom transport direction away from the sputter face for increasing sputtering uniformity.

Textured-grain-powder metallurgy tantalum sputter target


A system for accessing at least one Virtual Private Network (VPN) includes a terminal, and can include at least one Security Policy Database (SPD). The terminal is capable of communicating with a VPN client and at least one application. The VPN client, in turn, is capable of defining at least one VPN access point, each VPN access point including an associated physical access point and VPN policy. Thereafter, the VPN client can access at least one VPN based upon the VPN access point(s) to thereby establish at least one data connection from at least one application across the at least one VPN. In addition, the VPN client can be capable of downloading at least one VPN policy from the SPD. A system for managing at least one Virtual Private Network (VPN) policy is also provided, where the VPN polic(ies) are for use in accessing at least one VPN.

The benefit of using the Internet to obtain access to the wealth of information available online and that portion of the Internet comprising the World Wide Web (WWW) is widely recognized. Traditional ways of accessing the Internet have in the past been performed through stationary access points such as at work, school, or at home. The concept of stationary access points has been at the root of the Internet model from the beginning. By way of example, Internet Protocol (IP) routes packets to their destinations according to their IP addresses. The IP addresses are associated with a fixed physical location much the same way as conventional phone numbers are associated with the physical locations of fixed line phones. This association with the physical location allows IP packets to be routed to their intended destination in an efficient and effective way.
The traditional concept of connectivity has undergone changes caused by the trend toward mobility as witnessed, for example, by the transition to mobile telephony in recent years. Mobile computing is another area that is gaining popularity where benefits can be clearly achieved by allowing users the freedom of carrying out their work irrespective of their location. Furthermore, reliable access to the Internet, and services available in the Internet, will enable mobile networking to provide improved productivity for all users by freeing them from the ties that bind us to the office. More and more the trend is moving toward wireless connections that provide even more freedom by allowing access from virtually any location such as on airplanes and in automobiles, for example.
One of the primary concerns with IP content, computing and communication is that of security. The open nature of the Internet inherently exposes transmitted packets to security issues which are compounded by the movement of mobile nodes between different sub-networks. To deal with these issues, an IP security protocol (or simply IPsec) has been developed, such as that specified in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) request for comment document RFC 2401, entitled: Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. In this regard, IPsec was developed to provide end-to-end security for the payload of packets when transmitting between IP hosts. This is chiefly accomplished by providing the hosts with datagram-level authentication and encryption of packets, typically by using symmetric cryptography that requires the use of the same keys at both ends. A key management protocol such as Internet Key Exchange (IKE) can be used to generate the symmetric keys for use in an IPsec stack such as that employed in a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, a VPN is a logical network located within one or more physical networks. A VPN can be used to securely access resources, such as email or Intranet resources, of an enterprise. Additionally or alternatively, a VPN can be used to securely communicate across local area networks, one or more of which may be included within an Intranet of an enterprise. In operation, an IPsec VPN-enabled host, or VPN gateway, maintains security policies in a Security Policy Database (SPD) populated with a number of selectors, as specified in RFC 2401, for example. The SPD identifies which kind of security is applied for traffic across the VPN gateway. For example, a security policy may require that all traffic packets are tunneled with an Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) to a VPN gateway, with the exception of certain packets which are passed through without IP processing. The example of the aforementioned security policy, then, can be performed and effected on all packets passing through the VPN gateway.
Conventionally, clients have only been permitted to establish a communication over a single VPN at any given time. More particularly, conventional clients have only been permitted to activate a single VPN policy for a respective VPN at any given time. In this regard, at any point in time, such "single-homed" clients have only permitted a single active data connection and respective network interface. To improve upon such "single-homed" clients, however, "multi-homed" clients have been developed that permit simultaneous connections at any given time, including simultaneous connections over multiple VPNs. For example, mobile handheld terminals functioning in accordance with operating systems such as those developed by Symbian Limited of the United Kingdom are capable of permitting multiple simultaneously active data connections and respective network interfaces. In such instances, each network interface typically has its own IP address, routing information and associated Domain Name System (DNS) server addresses. In addition, each interface and respective data connection of a "multi-homed" client typically belong to a particular logical network defined locally in the client and identified by a network ID.
Communication over a VPN typically requires a client to establish a VPN connection by establishing communication with an access point to the physical network(s) including the respective VPN, and thereafter loading or activating the VPN policy for the respective VPN. Likewise, a client typically must terminate a VPN connection by unloading or deactivating the VPN policy for the respective VPN, and thereafter terminating communication with the access point. Whereas such a procedure for initiating and terminating such VPN connections is adequate for facilitating communication over a VPN, such a procedure can place an undesirable burden on the client, or more particularly the client user. And as will be appreciated, such a burden can typically increase as the number of simultaneous VPN and other connections of clients increase in "multi-homed" clients.

System, method and computer program product for accessing at least one virtual private network


An integrated circuit processes communication packets and comprises a core processor and scheduling circuitry. The core processor executes a software application that directs the core processor to process the communication packets. The scheduling circuitry comprises multiple scheduling boards where at least some of the scheduling boards have multiple priority levels. The scheduling circuitry processes the scheduling boards to schedule and subsequently initiate transmission of the communication packets.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of communications, and in particular, to integrated circuits that process communication packets.
2. Statement of the Problem
Communications systems transfer information in packet streams. The packets in the streams each contain a header and a payload. The header contains control information, such as addressing or channel information, that indicate how the packet should be handled. The payload contains the information that is being transferred. Some packets are broken into segments for processing. The term xe2x80x9cpacketxe2x80x9d is intended to include packet segments. Some examples of packets include, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) cells, Internet Protocol (IP) packets, frame relay packets, Ethernet packets, or some other packet-like information block.
An integrated circuit known as a stream processor has been developed recently to address the special needs of packet communication networking. Traffic stream processors are designed to apply robust functionality to extremely high-speed packet streams. This dual design requirement is often in conflict because the high-speeds limit the level of functionality that can be applied to the packet stream.
Robust functionality is critical with today""s diverse but converging communication systems. Stream processors must handle multiple protocols and interwork between streams of different protocols. Stream processors must also ensure that quality-of-service constraints are met with respect to bandwidth and priority. Each stream should receive the bandwidth allocation and priority that is defined in corresponding service level agreements. This functionality must be applied differently to different streamsxe2x80x94possibly thousands of different streams.
To provide such functionality, a RISC-based core processor was developed with its own network-oriented instruction set. The instruction set is designed to accomplish common networking tasks in the fewest cycles. The core processor executes software applications built from the instruction set to apply the robust functionality to high-speed packet streams.
A primary task of the core processor is managing a packet transmission schedule. The schedule must attempt to maintain various bandwidth guarantees across multiple streams of traffic. Often, this is implemented through a complex prioritization scheme. For example, real time traffic is a higher priority than non-real time traffic, and e-mail traffic is a higher priority than system back-up traffic. Unfortunately, scheduling of this complex nature requires significant core processing capacity. This use of processing capacity for prioritized scheduling diminishes the level of functionality provided by the stream processor.
The invention helps solve the above problems with an integrated circuit that functions as a traffic stream processor. The integrated circuit has a core processor and scheduling circuitry. The scheduling circuitry handles prioritized scheduling for the core processor. The scheduling circuitry reserves packet transmission over various channels using channel specific context. Within a given reservation time period, multiple channels can be reserved at different priority levels. The prioritized scheduling allows the integrated circuit to allocate bandwidth among multiple channels in accord with service level agreements.
The integrated circuit processes communication packets and comprises a core processor and scheduling circuitry. The core processor executes a software application that directs the core processor to process the communication packets. The scheduling circuitry comprises multiple scheduling boards wherein at least some of the scheduling boards have multiple priority levels. The scheduling circuitry processes the scheduling boards to schedule and subsequently initiate transmission of the communication packets. In some examples of the invention, the scheduling circuitry processes each of the scheduling boards independently of the other scheduling boards.
In some examples of the invention, the scheduling circuitry moves a fence across the time periods on one of the boards at time intervals. The scheduling circuitry initiates packet transmission for one of the reservations at the fence that is at a higher one of the priority levels than the other reservations at the fence. The scheduling circuitry advances the fence at the higher one of the priority levels by one of the time periods at a next one of the time intervals after initiating packet transmission for the one reservation. The scheduling circuitry does not advance the fence for the other reservations at the fence at next one of the time intervals after initiating packet transmission for the one reservation.
In some examples of the invention, the scheduling circuitry comprises a context memory and is configured to associate each scheduling board with a different portion of the context memory. Each scheduling board is separated into time periods at each of the priority levels. The context memory comprises a plurality of entries that each store one of a plurality of channel descriptor indicators. Each of the time periods at each of the priority levels on each of the scheduling boards is associated with a different one of the context memory entries.
In some examples of the invention, the scheduling circuitry sets a first bit in a first one of the time periods at a first one of the priority levels on one of the scheduling boards to schedule packet transmission over a first channel corresponding to a first one of the channel descriptors stored in a first one of the entries associated with the first time period at the first priority level. The scheduling circuitry may set a second bit in the first time period at a second one of the priority levels on the one scheduling board to schedule packet transmission over a second channel corresponding to a second one of the channel descriptors stored in a second one of the entries associated with the first time period at the second priority level. The scheduling circuitry initiates packet transmission for the first time period over the first channel but not the second channel because the first priority level is higher than the second priority level. The scheduling circuitry may set a second bit in a second one of the time periods at a second one of the priority levels on the one scheduling board to schedule packet transmission over a second channel corresponding to a second one of the channel descriptors stored in a second one of the entries associated with the second time period at the second priority level. The scheduling circuitry initiates packet transmission for the first time period over the first channel but not the second channel because the first priority level is higher than the second priority level.

Integrated circuit that processes communication packets with scheduler circuitry having multiple priority levels


A pneumatic spring system is provided for a motor vehicle with a compressor unit, a storage unit, as well as on-off valves, via which the individual pneumatic springs of the individual wheels are supplied with compressed air. In the area between the compressor unit and the on-off valves, there is provided a vent line that empties out into the atmosphere and that can be locked or cleared by a locking valve. Provision is also made for measures with whose help the air mass flow, emerging via the cleared vent line during a certain time interval, can be limited with respect to an unlimited state in order to prevent any undesirable noise generation during the venting of the system. One measure connects in parallel to a separately lockable main vent line, a separately lockable high-pressure vent line whose clear through flow cross section is smaller than that of the main vent line. Alternatively, a choke element can be provided in the vent line. The through flow cross section of the vent line can be limited with the help of that choke element.

This invention relates to a pneumatic suspension system for a motor vehicle including a compressor unit, a storage unit, as well as on-off valves via which individual pneumatic springs of the individual vehicle wheels are supplied with compressed air. In the area between the compressor unit and the on-off valves, a vent line is provided that can be locked or that can be released. The vent line opens up into the atmosphere. As for the technical field, reference is merely made by way of example to German patent document DE 29 42 081 C2.
Pneumatic suspension systems are distinguished from all mechanically buffered wheel suspensions by greater flexibility or greater variability. In the case of two-axle pneumatic systems, for example, the height of the vehicle superstructure with respect to the ground and, thus, the ground clearance of the motor vehicle, can be altered. Usually, one employs so-called open pneumatic systems here where (in two-axle pneumatic systems), when the vehicle superstructure is lowered from a raised position, the air mass that is to be evacuated for this purpose from the pneumatic springs is evacuated by a so-called vent line and out into the atmosphere, that is to say, into the environment. If this lowering action is to take place within a relatively short time span, then the cross-sectionxe2x80x94more specifically, the clear through flow profile of the vent line that is usually provided in the vicinity of the compressor unit of the pneumatic system and that can be closed-off or cleared by means of a locking valvexe2x80x94must have a certain minimum size.
In this connection, reference is made expressly to the fact that the invention at hand is not confined to two-axle pneumatic systems, but can also be used equally for single-axle pneumatic systems. It might furthermore be mentioned that the static air pressurexe2x80x94that is located upstream from the still closed on-off valves and that thus is applied in the pneumatic springsxe2x80x94can be within the order of magnitude of 4 to 10 bar; the dynamic pressure values can be definitely higher. The total system pressure also is usually higher, that is to say, up to the level of the pressure in a storage unit.
Along with a compressor unit (with whose help the system pressure, required for charging the mentioned pneumatic springs, or the pertinent required air mass that will be supplied in the final analysis), there is also usually provided an already briefly mentioned storage unit. Placed in the storage unit for intermediate storage are air masses that are compressed by the compressor unit, since a reasonably dimensioned compressor would not be able to supply the required air mass for the desired lifting of the vehicle superstructure, within a practical amount of time. If the vehicle superstructure is then to be raised, one can draw the necessary air mass, which is subjected to adequate system pressure, from the preferably completely filled storage unit.
This explanation clearly shows that the pressure, prevailing in the filled storage unit, must be greater than the pressure usually applied in the pneumatic springs. This is because, otherwise, it would not be possible to fill those springs any further. By way of example, the pressure, prevailing in the filled storage unit, can be on the order of 15 bar. It is furthermore obvious that the compressor unit can be shut down after the complete filling of the storage unit, so long as no air mass is drawn from the storage unit. In this stage, it is desirable that one reduce the pressure applied in the pertinent line system, that is to say, in the line system between the compressor unit as well as the mentioned on-off valves, which, for instance, can be combined into a so-called valve block and on whose sidexe2x80x94facing away from the compressor unitxe2x80x94the individual pneumatic springs are connected. In other words, one can aerate or vent this line system. A venting of this line system, that is to say, of the compressor unit, as well as the line segment between the compressor unit and the valve block or the on-off valves (naturally, without the storage unit that branches off from that line section and that can be closed off), is basically possible here via the previously mentioned venting line that is provided in the area between the compressor unit and the valve block.
But it was found that this aeration, venting or pressure release of the system (which initially is under the (higher) pressure of 15 bar, mentioned earlier by way of example) via this venting line is accompanied by an undesirable, practically no longer acceptable noise generation. In case of a desired lowering of the vehicle superstructure, starting with a pressure level of 4-10 bar, for instance, only part of the air mass contained in the system is evacuated in an abrupt manner via this venting line, whose pressure level is reduced compared to the higher pressure level of, for instance, 15 bar. Of course, a sound absorber or the like could be provided in the vent line. However, such an absorber represents a choke that works in an undesirable manner and that is always present, and, therefore, also in case the vehicle superstructure is lowered.
The object of the present invention is to point out a comparatively more favorable expedient in helping to solve the complex problem just described. The solution of this problem is characterized by measures with whose help one can limit the air mass flow that emerges via the cleared vent line during a certain time interval, as compared to an unlimited state. Advantageous embodiments and developments are covered in the subclaims and described herein.
According to the invention, the mass of the airflow that is conducted through the vent line can be limited. Specifically, when the pressure in the system is to be reduced between the compressor unit and the valve block or the on-off valves, that is to say, after the storage unit has been completely filled, the mass of air flow is limited. So that this, previously described, relatively high pressure will not be reduced abruptly (thus generating noises) via the vent line, it is possible for these cases to limit the magnitude of the air mass that is moved through the vent line within a certain time interval, that is to say, to limit the air mass flow. On the other hand, if the vehicle superstructure is lowered and if, accordingly, a part of the air mass, located in the pneumatic springs, is also evacuated via this vent line into the atmosphere, there should not be any such restriction or limitation, that is to say, in that case, the full flow cross section of the vent line should be available to facilitate the relatively fast lowering of the vehicle superstructure.
Basically, there are various possibilities of an optional restriction or a release, that is to say, lifting of this restriction or limitation of the air mass flow that can be conducted through the vent line within a certain time span. By way of example, using a switchable branch, one can optionally connect a sound absorber into the vent line, although this solution requires a relatively large amount of structural space.
Comparatively more favorable measures are listed in the subclaims and will be described in greater detail in the following.

Pneumatic suspension system for a motor vehicle

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


A data processing apparatus comprising: a data processor for processing data in a secure and a non-secure mode, said data processor processing data in said secure mode having access to secure data that is not accessible to said data processor in said non-secure mode, and processing data in said secure mode being performed under control of a secure operating system and processing data in said non-secure mode being performed under control of a non-secure operating system; and a further processing device for performing a task in response to a request from said data processor, said task comprising processing data at least some of which is secure data; wherein said further processing device is responsive to receipt of a signal to suspend said task to initiate: processing of said secure data using a secure key; and storage of said processed secure data to a non-secure data store; and is responsive to receipt of a signal to resume said task to initiate: retrieval of said processed secure data from said non-secure data store; and restoring of said processed secure data using said secure key; wherein said secure key is securely stored such that it is not accessible to other processes operating in said non-secure mode.

It is known to use accelerators or co-processors in conjunction with a main processor to increase performance, the accelerators or co-processors performing tasks requested by the main processor. Although it is clear that the provision of additional processing power can increase performance a possible drawback of such a system is the overhead associated with the communication between the processor and the accelerator. In situations, for example, where both secure and non-secure data is processed under the control of secure operating systems and non-secure operating systems, the communication overheads associated with managing the security status of the data being transferred between the processor and accelerator can be very high. In such cases it may only be advantageous to send large tasks to the accelerator to be performed, but to not send tasks that take only a few tens or even hundreds of cycles having as much or more communication overhead associated with them as they would have processing performance gained.

Protecting the security of secure data sent from a central processor for processing by a further processing device


A method for developing a printing plate precursor comprising the step of immersing the precursor in an aqueous alkaline developing solution comprising a (co)polymer comprising a monomeric unit which is represented by the following formula (I): wherein L is a linking group; R1, R2 and R3 independently represent hydrogen or an alkyl group; R4 represents an optionally substituted hydroxyaryl group; x=0 or 1; y=0 or 1 and when y=0 then x=1 and L is further bound to C* to form a cyclic structure.

Lithographic printing presses use a so-called printing master such as a printing plate which is mounted on a cylinder of the printing press. The master carries a lithographic image on its surface and a print is obtained by applying ink to said image and then transferring the ink from the master onto a receiver material, which is typically paper. In conventional, so-called "wet" lithographic printing, ink as well as an aqueous fountain solution (also called dampening liquid) are supplied to the lithographic image which consists of oleophilic (or hydrophobic, i.e. ink-accepting, water-repelling) areas as well as hydrophilic (or oleophobic, i.e. water-accepting, ink-repelling) areas. In so-called driographic printing, the lithographic image consists of ink-accepting and ink-abhesive (ink-repelling) areas and during driographic printing, only ink is supplied to the master.
Printing masters are generally obtained by the image-wise exposure and processing of an imaging material called plate precursor. In addition to the well-known photosensitive, so-called pre-sensitized plates, which are suitable for UV contact exposure through a film mask, also heat-sensitive printing plate precursors have become very popular in the late 1990s. Such thermal materials offer the advantage of daylight stability and are especially used in the so-called computer-to-plate method wherein the plate precursor is directly exposed, i.e. without the use of a film mask. The material is exposed to heat or to infrared light and the generated heat triggers a (physico-)chemical process, such as ablation, polymerization, insolubilization by crosslinking of a polymer, heat-induced solubilization or particle coagulation of a thermoplastic polymer latex.
The most popular thermal plates form an image by a heat-induced solubility difference in an alkaline developer between exposed and non-exposed areas of the coating. The coating typically comprises an oleophilic binder, e.g. a phenolic resin, of which the rate of dissolution in the developer is either reduced (negative working) or increased (positive working) by the image-wise exposure. During processing, the solubility differential leads to the removal of the non-image (non-printing) areas of the coating, thereby revealing the hydrophilic support, while the image (printing) areas of the coating remain on the support. Typical examples of such plates are described in e.g. EP-A 625728, 823327, 825927, 864420, 894622 and 901902. Negative working embodiments of such thermal materials often require a pre-heat step between exposure and development as described in e.g. EP-625,728.
Negative working plate precursors which do not require a pre-heat step may contain an image-recording layer that works by heat-induced particle coalescence of a thermoplastic polymer particle (latex), as described in e.g. EP-As 770 494, 770 495, 770 496 and 770 497. These patents disclose a method for making a lithographic printing plate comprising the steps of (1) image-wise exposing an imaging element comprising hydrophobic thermoplastic polymer particles dispersed in a hydrophilic binder and a compound capable of converting light into heat, (2) and developing the image-wise exposed element by applying fountain and/or ink.
Some of these thermal processes enable platemaking without wet processing and are for example based on ablation of one or more layers of the coating. At the exposed areas the surface of an underlying layer is revealed which has a different affinity towards ink or fountain than the surface of the unexposed coating.
Other thermal processes which enable platemaking without wet processing are for example processes based on a heat-induced hydrophilic/oleophilic conversion of one or more layers of the coating so that at exposed areas a different affinity towards ink or fountain is created than at the surface of the unexposed coating.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,550 discloses a developer for positive photoresists which contains a basic compound and a specific non-ionic surfactant comprising an oxyethylene and an oxypropylene group. For accelerating the dissolution of the photoresist compositions in a developer, polyhydroxy compounds such as novolac may be added to the developer.
JP 3062034 discloses a developer for positive photoresists which contains an organomettalic surfactant and an alkali soluble resin such as novolac.
US 2005/0175942 discloses a developer for printing plates comprising a polyoxyalkylene adduct of alkylene diamine, a polyoxyalkylene compound having an acid radical and an anionic surfactant.
A major problem associated with positive-working printing plate precursors based on a solubility difference is the low differentiation between the development kinetics of exposed and non-exposed areas—i.e. the dissolution of the exposed areas in the developer is not completely finished before the unexposed areas also start dissolving in the developer. This often results in insufficient clean-out which may become apparent as a reduction of the sensitivity of the plate. Reduced clean-out usually results in toning (ink-acceptance in the non-image areas) of the printing plate and/or in ink build-up on the blanket. The low differentiation between the development kinetics of exposed and non-exposed areas may further lead to a loss of coating in the image areas, especially a loss of small image details or so-called high lights; a reduced press life and/or a reduced chemical resistance. Basically, a too small difference in dissolving rate in the developer between the exposed and the unexposed areas results in virtually no processing latitude. In order to increase this difference in dissolving rate, a so-called image dissolution inhibiting agent, which is capable of preventing etching of the image-areas during developing, is often added to the developer solution. However, such compounds may interact with the image forming material which dissolves from the non-image areas into the developer during processing possibly resulting in insoluble matter in the processing bath, also referred to as sludge. This development sludge can be deposited on the printing plate which impairs the images formed thereon and/or can precipitate in the processing bath making the maintenance of the processing bath more burdensome. Furthermore, as such interactions consume the image dissolution inhibiting agent, the activity of the development solution changes within time. Indeed, it is often observed that during consecutive development steps, the development solution becomes more aggressive resulting in a higher solid/imaging material loss and/or a higher loss of fine image details. This phenomenon is known in the art as aggressiveness increase of the developer.

Method for developing a printing plate precursor


A system and method is disclosed for identifying and evaluating the business relevant impact of observed operating anomalies of monitored components of computing environments like data centers or cloud computing environments. The disclosed technology uses end-to-end transaction trace, availability and resource utilization data in combination with topology data received from agents deployed to the monitored computing environment. An abnormal operating condition is localized within a topological model of the monitored environment and has a defined temporal extent. On detection of an anomaly, affected transaction traces are selected that used the topology entity on which the anomaly was observed while the anomaly existed. Those transactions are then traced backwards, until a topology entity is reached that represents an entry point of monitored system. The affected transactions are compared with unaffected transactions that entered via the entry point to determine the extent to which the entry service is affected by the abnormal behavior.

Monitoring and visibility of current operating conditions has gained more and more importance for the operation of modern, large-scaled web-based applications, as even short outages, performance or functionality degradations may cause considerable economic impact. To improve flexibility and scalability, such large-scale applications are typically designed according to the service-oriented architecture (SOA) paradigm. In such applications, the overall business functionality is typically split up into smaller parts which are implemented relatively independent building blocks called services. Individual services may execute on separate execution environments, like processes, and provide remote accessible interfaces. A network of loosely connected instances of those services that communicate via network connections provides the overall functionality of the application. Benefits of this architecture include higher flexibility, as individual services may be patched/updated independently and better scalability, as individual services may independently scaled out to run on additional execution environments, depending on changed load situations. The downside of gained the flexibility and scalability is an increased communication complexity, which brings new challenges for performance and availability monitoring systems operating in such environments. The effects of performance or functionality degradations that occurring on specific services may quickly be propagated to other services and cause similar effects there. Therefore, it becomes vital for monitoring systems to identify and report such interdependencies.
Existing solutions already provide functionalities to identify, for a given observed degradation, the chain of, maybe remotely situated, other observer degradations that are causally related, back to the root cause of all observed degradations. This additional causality related information greatly improves the efficiency of applied countermeasures, as they may be performed with focus on the root cause of the identified problem chain. An exemplary causality identifying monitoring systems is e.g. described in U.S. Pat. No. 10,083,073 "Method and System for Real-Time Causality and Root Cause Determination of Transaction and Infrastructure related Events provided by Multiple, Heterogeneous Agents" by E. Ertl et al. or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/519,428 (U.S. Pub. No. 2020/0042426, dated Feb. 6, 2020) "Method And System For Automatic Real-Time Causality Analysis Of End User Impacting System Anomalies Using Causality Rules And Topological Understanding Of The System To Effectively Filter Relevant Monitoring Data" by H. Moser et al.
However, those existing approaches only consider the need of fast root cause identification of observed problems to support fast, efficient and focused countermeasures. They fail to provide information about the impact those degradations may have, e.g. on user interfaces provided by the monitored application or about the number and distribution of users of the monitored application that are affected by those degradations.
Consequently, a system and method is desired in the art that overcomes above limitations.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.


A system and method for providing a secured information vault so that individual owners of personal data may control and manage the access and dissemination of the personal data. The system and method provides for the owner of the personal data to receive compensation for the use of the personal data, thus, in effect, the personal data becomes a valuable commodity analogous to money. Centralized protected storage of personal data is provided, which minimizes the number of copies that may be in existence. The personal data may be converted from one format to another by subscribing to format conversion services provide by the vault. The vault regularly updates stored personal data per the subscribed services so that the personal data is available in the latest data formats used by various industries. A fee may be charged for format conversions.

As the world becomes more wired and electronic storage becomes cheaper than the cost of paper, the protection of information becomes paramount. But, the ease with which information can be copied and propagated causes serious information privacy issues. Keeping information safe and secure is thus one of the biggest issues facing the information technology (IT) industry today.
There are several areas of concern regarding the protection of information including the danger of unrecoverable loss of the information itself and defense against unauthorized copying of the digital information. Also, the control of access to the information may pose certain risk factors to the owner of the information and to the thousands of other organizations who hold copies of this information for business reasons. Ultimately, there may be a potential loss of financial opportunity based on the use of the information.
Unrecoverable loss of data is familiar to nearly everyone. Important documents, images, and financial information are frequently lost not only for individuals but small organizations as well as large. Unrecoverable loss may undermine a business' future to continue or operate.
Further, unauthorized replication of information is a serious problem and may be illustrated with the notion of information theft of credit card numbers. While it is unlikely that the illicit copying of digital objects may be completely eradicated, original access to personal information needs to be controlled tighter. For example, access to medical records, credit card and other financial information needs to be managed so that privacy is maintained more rigorously. Additionally, the transit of this personal information needs to be protected as well as facilitated, such as, the passing of credit card and transaction information, medical records, and the like.
Ultimately, information is valuable. The illicit use of information could cause a financial loss to the owner or confer an unfair advantage to another party. For example, organizations collect personal information and preferences and sell them on the open market as phone lists, market research, or the like. The individual who owns this information (i.e., the person themselves) is never directly or indirectly compensated. Instead, the information compilers or middlemen essentially take an individual's information and sell the information. Not only does the individual not get compensated for the middlemen's and advertisers' use of the information but are also indiscriminately solicited or spammed as a result.
When information is stored over time, the formats may become obsolete. As newer formats (i.e., the newest format) become available, stored data inevitably becomes dated and potentially useless. Owners of the data are often required to acquire proper data conversion tools and then perform the conversion themselves if they do not want their data to eventually become stale and potentially useless, or at least more difficult to use or access. If users of the stored data, such as commercial marketers, have access to the data, then the data owner is typically obligated to keep the data in the latest formats if they expect the data to be of value to the users. However, keeping that stored data in the latest formats typically require purchases of newer applications, which may be very costly.

Information vault, data format conversion services system and method


A power semiconductor die has a semiconductor body coupled to first and second load terminals, and at least one power cell. In a horizontal cross-section of the at least one power cell, a contact has a contact region which horizontally overlaps with a field plate electrode and horizontally protrudes from the field plate trench, and a recess region does not horizontally overlap with the contact region and extends into a horizontal circumference of the field plate trench.

Many functions of modern devices in automotive, consumer and industrial applications, such as converting electrical energy and driving an electric motor or an electric machine, rely on power semiconductor devices.
For example, Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs), Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) and diodes, to name a few, have been used for various applications including, but not limited to switches in power supplies and power converters.
A power semiconductor device usually comprises a power semiconductor die configured to conduct a load current along a load current path between two load terminals of the device. A first load terminal, e.g., a source terminal, may be arranged at a front side of the die, and a second load terminal, e.g., a drain terminal, may be arranged at a back side of the die. The die may be included within a package of the power semiconductor device, wherein such package may provide for electrical connections to the load terminals.
Further, the load current path may be controlled by means of a control electrode, often referred to as gate electrode. For example, upon receiving a corresponding control signal from, e.g., a driver unit, the control electrode may set the power semiconductor die in one of a conducting state and a blocking state.
For conducting the load current, the power semiconductor die may have one or more power cells which may be arranged in a so-called active region of the power semiconductor device. For example, within the active region, the one or more power cells are electrically connected to the front side load terminal.
The active region may be configured with a stripe pattern, according to which the power cells extend in a stripe like manner through the entire active region or substantial parts thereof, or the active region may be configured with a cellular/grid pattern, according to which the power cells exhibit a columnar design (also referred to as "needle design") and are distributed within the active region.
The present specification is directed to the latter case, i.e., to a die with an active region where the cells are arranged in accordance with a grid pattern. For example, in accordance with such grid pattern, gate trenches may form grid openings (e.g., grid meshes), and each grid opening may spatially confine one power cell. For example, the gate trenches extend longitudinally, in the active region, along linear lines that perpendicularly cross each other. Further, in each grid opening, there may be arranged a columnar (e.g. needle) trench housing a columnar (e.g. needle) trench electrode connected to a different electrical potential as compared to gate electrodes in the gate trenches.
The power semiconductor die is laterally confined by a die edge, and between the die edge and the active region, there is usually arranged a so-called edge termination region. In terms of power semiconductor dies, such edge termination region is also referred to as a "high voltage termination structure", and it may serve the purpose of supporting the voltage handling capability of the power semiconductor die, e.g., by influencing the course of the electric field within the semiconductor die, e.g., so as to ensure reliable blocking capability of the power semiconductor die.
A reliable blocking capability is desirable. To this end, a respective field plate electrode may be arranged in one or more of the power cells.
On the other hand, a high density of power cells within the active region may be desirable in terms of handling high load currents at low conduction losses.
Further, it may be desirable to contact each field plate electrode so as to connect them to one of the load terminals, e.g., to the source terminal of a MOSFET.


A network device includes a first transceiver unit, a second transceiver unit and a control unit. The first transceiver unit is utilized for processing a data corresponding to a first physical (PHY) layer via a first interface. The second transceiver unit is utilized for processing a data corresponding to a second PHY layer via a second interface. The control unit is utilized for processing a data corresponding to a media access control (MAC) layer, wherein the control unit connects with at least one of the first transceiver unit and the second transceiver unit with reference to a connection scheme.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a network device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, High-Definition Multimedia Interface version 1.4 (HDMI 1.4) supports an Ethernet transmission, such that traditional Ethernet's wiring can be replaced by HDMI's cable.
However, system vendors such as DVD providers cannot ensure whether the clients support HDMI 1.4 and Ethernet transmission or not at the initial stage. For this reason, the system vendors certainly will reserve both the traditional Ethernet connector and the HDMI connector with Ethernet functions in hardware, and thus two groups of media access control layer circuits (MAC circuits) and physical layer circuits (PHY circuits) are required.
For example, one group of MAC circuit and PHY circuit is connected to an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) via the RJ-35 network connection, while another group of MAC circuit and PHY circuit is connected to the TV via HDMI and then connected to the ADSL via the TV. In doing so, a loop may be formed in the network so as to cause frame circulation and frame propagation in the loop, or even cause broadcast storm occupying lots of network bandwidth. A way of solving the problem resulted from the network loop is to adopt a spanning tree protocol (STP). However, by adopting the spanning tree protocol, it usually results in disadvantages of occupying a lot of resources of the processor and memories.
Hence, how to avoid the problem caused by the network loop itself has become an important issue to be solved by designers in this field.

Network device and network connecting method


A rolamite sensor includes a formed sheet metal base attached to a metal chassis. One surface of the sheet metal base acts as a guide surface for a roller. A thin metal foil band is wrapped around the roller and has its ends welded to the base underneath the base. The roller is biased into a first position and is rollable on the guide surface from its first position under an applied force to cause the band to engage a firing contact. A single pin connected to the firing contact extends through the chassis and is electrically insulated from the chassis. The pin and chassis are connected to opposite electric potentials in the vehicle. When the band engages the firing contact, an electrical circuit is completed through the pin, the firing contact, the band, the base, and the chassis to activate a vehicle safety apparatus. The sheet metal base includes a calibration tab which sets the first position of the roller along the guide surface. The tab may be physically bent to select the distance through which the roller needs to travel to complete the electrical circuit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a rolamite sensor. More particularly, the present invention relates to a rolamite sensor for use in sensing deceleration of a vehicle to actuate an occupant restraint such as an air bag.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Rolamite sensors for use in sensing vehicle deceleration are known. U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,049 to LuConic et al. discloses a rolamite sensor having a roller with a band wrapped around the roller. The band includes a first longitudinal portion attached to a base and a second longitudinal portion having spaced apart legs that extend away from the first portion and are also attached to the base. The cross sectional area of the legs is greater than the cross sectional area of the first band portion so that the band biases the roller toward the first band portion to an initial position away from an electrical contact. Excessive vehicle deceleration causes the roller to roll along the base, against the biasing force of the band, into engagement with the electrical contact, completing an electrical circuit.
Another prior art rolamite sensor includes a molded base mounted on a chassis. Two electrical connector pins are attached to the chassis. One end of a band is attached to the upper surface of the base and the other end of the band is attached to a tensioner. The band is wrapped around a roller. The tensioner applies a force to the band to hold the roller on the base. When subjected to excessive vehicle deceleration, the roller rolls along the base causing the band to engage a firing contact. Electrical current flows between one pin of the chassis and the other pin through the firing contact and the band when the band engages the firing contact, thereby completing an electrical circuit to activate a vehicle safety apparatus.


In an embodiment, a mobile device includes a sensor processor system, an application processor system and a power management controller that controls power being applied to the application processor system. The sensor processor system monitors sensors connected to the mobile device. The sensor processor system detects a pre-defined gestures and an environmental condition or event based on the monitoring. The pre-defined gesture corresponds to one or more actions initiated by a user of the mobile device (e.g., the user jogs with the mobile device, places the mobile device in his/her pocket or backpack, etc.). The sensor processor system selects a power profile to be applied to the application processor system based on the detection, and instructs the power management controller to apply the selected power profile to the application processor system.

1. Background Field
Embodiments are directed to power management of mobile devices, and more particularly to controlling power consumption of a mobile device based on gesture recognition.
2. Relevant Background
Battery life is an important criterion in mobile access terminals (e.g., cell phones, MP3 players, wireless mobile access terminals, non-wireless mobile access terminals, etc.). There are a number of different mechanisms in conventional access terminals for managing power consumption. Some access terminals enter a low-power mode, or sleep mode, when no applications are being executed. Other access terminals have more sophisticated power management mechanisms whereby the amount of power consumed scales with the processing load of the respective access terminal.

Controlling power consumption of a mobile device based on gesture recognition


An improved promoted curing system for halogenated elastomers has been discovered wherein the curing system contains one or a mixture of bismuth carboxylates having the structure of Formula 1: ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 is selected from the group consisting of straight or branched chain alkyl groups having from 4 to about 30 carbon atoms, aromatic groups containing 6 to about 30 carbon atoms and alkaryl groups containing from 7 to about 30 carbon atoms.. It has been found that the use of these bismuth salts, alone or in combination with zinc compounds in the cure of compositions containing halogenated elastomers leads to full, low reversion cures and curable compositions exhibiting very low precure scorch properties.

Halogenated copolymers of isobutylene and up to about 4 mole % of isoprene (butyl rubber) are well known polymer materials whose vulcanizates offer some outstanding properties not possessed by many other diolefin based elastomers. Articles prepared from many cured halogenated elastomers offer improved resistance to oils and greases as well as resistance to oxygen and ozone degradation. Butyl rubber vulcanizates exhibit good abrasion resistance, excellent impermeability to air, water vapor and many organic solvents, as well as resistance to aging and sunlight. These properties render these materials ideal candidates for one or more applications such as water hoses, organic fluid hoses, components in tire construction, gaskets, adhesive compositions and various molded articles.
More recently, a new class of halogenated elastomeric interpolymers have been discovered which offer many of the same properties as halogenated butyl rubber, but are even more ozone and solvent resistant and are more readily curable. These materials are the halogenation product of random copolymers of a C.sub.4 to C.sub.7 isoolefin, such as isobutylene, and a para-alkyl styrene comonomer wherein at least some of the alkyl substituent groups present in the styrene monomer units contain halogen. Preferred materials may be characterized as isobutylene interpolymers containing the following monomer units randomly spaced along the polymer chain: ##STR2## wherein R and R' are independently hydrogen, lower alkyl, preferably C.sub.1 to C.sub.4 alkyl and X is bromine or chlorine, and wherein the interpolymer is otherwise substantially free of ring halogen or halogen in the polymer backbone chain. Preferably R and R' are each hydrogen. Up to about 60 mole % of the para-alkyl styrene present in the interpolymer structure may be the halogenated structure (2) above.
Most preferred materials are elastomeric copolymers of isobutylene and para-methylstyrene containing from about 0.5 to about 20 mole % para-methyl styrene wherein up to about 60 mole % of the methyl substituent groups present on the benzyl ring contain a bromine or chlorine atom, preferably a bromine atom. These copolymers have a substantially homogeneous compositional distribution such that at least 95% by weight of the polymer has a para-alkylstyrene content within 10% of the average para-alkylstyrene content of the polymer. They are also characterized by a very narrow molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn) of less than about 5, more preferably less than about 2.5, viscosity average molecular weights in the range of from about 300,000 up to about 2,000,000, and a glass transition temperature (Tg) of below about 50.degree. C.
These copolymers may be prepared by solution polymerization of the monomer mixture using a Lewis Acid catalyst, followed by halogenation, preferably bromination, in solution in the presence of halogen and a radical initiator such as heat and/or light and/or a chemical initiator.
Preferred brominated copolymers generally contain from about 0.1 to about 2 mole % of bromomethyl groups, most of which is monobromomethyl, with less than 0.05 mole % dibromomethyl substituents present in the copolymer. These copolymers and their method of preparation are more particularly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,162,445, the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The aromatic halomethyl groups present in such copolymers permit facile cross linking to be accomplished in a variety of ways, including by means of zinc oxide or promoted zinc oxide curing systems normally used to cure halogenated butyl rubber.
Illustrative of known curing agents or accelerators which can be used alone or in conjunction with zinc oxide for curing halogenated elastomers are brominated alkyl phenol resin; N,N'-diethylthiourea; di-otho-(tolyl)guanidine salt of dicatechol borate; dipentamethylene thiuram tetrasulfide; ethylene trithiocarbamate; 2-mercaptobenzothiazole; alkyl or aryl benzothiazole disulfides, tetramethylthiuram disulfide, zinc diethyldi-thiocarbamate, zinc dibutyldithiocarbamate, and zinc dimethyldi-thiocarbamate. A preferred known cure system comprises zinc oxide and dipentamethylene thiuram tetrasulfide.
It has been found that halogenated copolymers of isobutylene and para-methylstyrene described above exhibit a very rapid onset of cure which is known as precure scorch, even more rapid than that associated with halobutyl rubber. Normally these rubbers are processed by first forming a mixture of the elastomer, filler, processing aids and other non-curative additives in a suitable mixing device such as a Banbury Mixer or two roll mill and at temperatures in the order of 75.degree. to 180.degree. C. After forming a homogeneous mixture, the composition is then prepared for vulcanization by the further mixing in of crosslinking agents such as ZnO or promoted ZnO systems, after which the curable composition is milled and sheeted out as is known in the art. It is imperative that the onset of curing in such systems (known as precure scorch) be delayed for as long as necessary to permit the processor to sheet out and shape the curable composition prior to the application of sufficient heat to properly cure the composition. It has been found that the more conventional vulcanization accelerators used with ZnO to cure halogenated isobutylene/para-methylstyrene elastomers lead to high precure scorch. These accelerators include the zinc and ammonium salts of dialkyl and diaryl dithiocarbamates.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide vulcanization systems for halogenated elastomers, particularly brominated interpolymers of isobutylene and para-methylstyrene, which exhibit low precure scorch properties.
It is a further object of this invention to provide vulcanization systems for curable halogenated elastomers which provide for the development of a full cure with minimum cure reversion and maximum cure stability.

Curing systems for halogenated elastomers


An organic light emitting display includes a pixel unit having pixels coupled to scan lines, first control lines, second control lines, data lines, and first and second power sources, a control line driver for providing a first control signal and a second control signal to the pixels through the first control lines and the second control lines, a scan driver for providing scan signals to the pixels through the scan lines, and a data driver for providing data signals to the pixels through data lines. The scan driver simultaneously supplies a first scan signal to the pixels through the scan signals. In the organic light emitting display, deviation in the threshold voltages of the driving transistors included in the pixels is compensated without a power swing so as to display an image with uniform brightness.

1. Field
An aspect of the present invention relates to an organic light emitting display and a method of driving the same. More particularly, an aspect of the present invention relates to an organic light emitting display capable of compensating for deviation in a threshold voltage without a voltage swing and a method of driving the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various flat panel displays (FPD) having reduced weight and volume as compared to cathode ray tubes (CRT) have been developed. The FPDs include liquid crystal displays (LCD), field emission displays (FED), plasma display panels (PDP), and organic light emitting displays.
Among the FPDs, the organic light emitting displays display images using organic light emitting diodes (OLED) which generate light by the re-combination of electrons and holes. The organic light emitting display has high response speed and is driven with low power consumption.
In general, the OLED is divided into a passive matrix type OLED (PMOLED) and an active matrix type OLED (AMOLED) according to a method of driving the OLED. The AMOLED includes a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines, a plurality of power source lines, and a plurality of pixels coupled to the above lines to be arranged in the form of a matrix. In addition, each of the pixels commonly includes an OLED, two transistors, that is, a switching transistor for transmitting a data signal and a driving transistor for driving the organic light emitting diode (OLED) in accordance with the data signal, and a capacitor for maintaining the data voltage.
However, the conventional organic light emitting display may not display an image with uniform brightness due to a deviation in a threshold voltage. In detail, the threshold voltages of the driving transistors included in the pixels are different from each other due to a deviation in manufacturing. Therefore, although the data signal corresponding to the same gray scale is supplied to the plurality of pixels, due to a difference in the threshold voltage of each of the driving transistors of the pixels, brightness becomes non-uniform.

Organic light emitting display and method of driving the same


There is disclosed a ring binder mechanism (10) including an upper structure (12) supporting two pivotable plates (14) to which three pairs of half-ring members (16) are mounted, in which the plates (14) are pivotable between a first configuration in which the three pairs of half-ring members (16) are closed, and a second configuration in which the three pairs of half-ring members (16) are open, in which the ring binder mechanism (10) may be secured to a cardboard cover (60) via two rivets (20), in which each rivet (20) includes an anchor plate (40) from an upper major surface of which a post member (38) extends, in which the post member (38) includes an open end deformed to engage with the upper casing (12) via a bushing (22), and in which a sleeve (24) is positioned between the upper casing (12) and the anchor plate (40) of the rivet (20).

In conventional ring binders, the ring binder mechanism, i.e. the loose-leaf retaining device, is secured to a base member. The ring binder mechanism includes an elongate body portion comprising a curved upper casing supporting a pair of plates, and two rivets engaged with the upper casing, so as to prevent relative movement between the rivets and the upper casing. In particular, the rivet includes a post whose free end is deformable to engage with the upper casing. The plates are pivotable to selectively open or close several pairs of half-rings. The rivets may also be secured to the base member. The ring binder mechanism may thus be secured to the base member via the rivets, whereby relative movement between the ring binder mechanism and the base member is prevented.
Various ways have been proposed to enhance the engagement between the rivets and the upper casing, and thus the body portion, of the ring binder mechanism, so as to enhance the durability of the ring binder. It has, for example, been proposed to deform the free end of the post of the rivet such that it engages with both the upper surface and the lower surface of the upper casing. However, the force for effecting such an engagement between the post of the rivet and the upper casing will be relatively large, and may cause undesirable deformations at certain other locations of the rivet, e.g. the post.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a ring binder mechanism, and a ring binder, in which the above shortcoming is mitigated, or at least to provide a useful alternative to the public.

World Wide Stationery Manufacturing Company Limited


A supporting assembly for an unmanned aerial vehicle is disclosed. The supporting assembly includes a base, rotor arms, and rotor shrouds. The rotor arms extend from the base. Each of the rotor arms includes a proximal end secured to the base and a distal end opposite to the proximal end. Each of the rotor shrouds includes a converged end removably engaged with and secured to the distal end, an arc shaped end, and one or more connecting members extending from the arc shaped end to the converged end. An unmanned aerial vehicle and a rotor shroud apparatus are also disclosed.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. Small sized UAVs are increasingly used in various fields such as aerial photography, surveillance, scientific research, geological survey, and remote sensing. The UAVs include rotors or propellers generating thrust to control orientation and speed of the vehicle. Unprotected spinning blades of the rotors pose a safety risk to operator, and are likely to be damaged upon contact with an object. Shrouds may be provided in the UAVs to protect the rotors.
The UAVs are commonly disassembled in storage. To implement flight, and store the UAVs after the flight, users assemble and disassemble the UAVs with complicated and numerous separate parts, which are time consuming especially for untrained users.

Rotor shrouding apparatus, supporting assembly, and unmanned aerial vehicle using the same

ZEROTECH (SHENZHEN) INTELLIGENCE ROBOT CO., LTD.


A method of producing methionine, derivatives or precursors thereof comprising culturing a microorganism modified to enhance production of cysteine in a culture medium comprising a source of carbon and a source of sulfur and recovering methionine from the culture medium. A microorganism for fermentative production of methionine or its derivatives in which production of methionine or derivatives thereof, wherein the microorganism enhances production of cysteine.

Sulfur-containing compounds such as cysteine, homocysteine, methionine or S-adenosylmethionine are critical to cellular metabolism, and are produced industrially to be, used as food or feed additives and pharmaceuticals. In particular methionine, an essential amino acid, which cannot be synthesized by animals, plays an important role in many body functions. Aside from its role in protein biosynthesis methionine is involved in transmethylation and in the bioavailability of selenium and zinc. Methionine is also directly used as a treatment for disorders like allergy and rheumatic fever. Nevertheless most of the methionine which is produced is added to animal feed.
With the decreased use of animal-derived proteins as a result of BSE and chicken flu, the demand for pure methionine has increased. Chemically D,L-methionine is commonly produced from acrolein, methyl mercaptan and hydrogen cyanide. Nevertheless the racemic mixture does not perform as well as pure L-methionine, as for example in chicken feed additives (Saunderson, C. L., (1985) British Journal of Nutrition 54, 621633). Pure L-methionine can be produced from racemic methionine e.g. through the acylase treatment of N-acetyl-D,L-methionine which increases production costs dramatically. The increasing demand for pure L-methionine coupled to environmental concerns render microbial production of methionine attractive.
Microorganisms have developed highly complex regulatory mechanisms that fine-tune the biosynthesis of cell components thus permitting maximum growth rates. Consequently only the required amounts of metabolites, such as amino acids, are synthesized and can usually not be detected in the culture supernatant of wild-type strains. Bacteria control amino acid biosynthesis mainly by feedback inhibition of enzymes, and repression or activation of gene transcription. Effectors for these regulatory pathways are in most cases the end products of the relevant pathways. Consequently, strategies for overproducing amino acids in microorganisms require the deregulation of these control mechanisms.
The pathway for L-methionine synthesis is well known in many microorganisms. Methionine is derived from the amino acid aspartate, but its synthesis requires the convergence of two additional pathways, cysteine biosynthesis and C1 metabolism (N-methyltetrahydrofolate). Aspartate is converted into homoserine by a sequence of three reactions. Homoserine can subsequently enter the threonine/isoleucine or methionine biosynthetic pathway. In E. coli entry into the methionine pathway requires the acylation of homoserine to succinyl-homoserine. This activation step allows subsequent condensation with cysteine, leading to the thioether-containing cystathionine, which is hydrolyzed to give homocysteine. The final methyl transfer leading to methionine is carried out by either a B12-dependent or a B12-independent methyltransferase. Methionine biosynthesis in E. coli is regulated by repression and activation of methionine biosynthetic genes via the MetJ and MetR proteins, respectively (reviewed in Neidhardt, F. C. (Ed. in Chief), R. Curtiss III, J. L. Ingraham, E. C. C. Lin, K. B. Low, B. Magasanik, W. S. Reznikoff, M. Riley, M. Schaechter, and H. E. Umbarger (eds), 1996, Escherichia coil and Salmonella: Cellular and Molecular Biology. American Society for Microbiology, Weissbach et al., 1991 Mol. Microbiol., 5, 1593-1597). MetJ together with its corepressor S-adenosylmethionine is known to regulate the genes metA, metB, et metE and metF. Other genes encoding enzymes implicated in methionine production, such as glyA, metE, metH and metF are activated by MetR whereas metA is repressed by MetR. The corresponding enzymes are all involved in the production and the transfer of C1 units from serine to methionine. GlyA encoding serine hydroxymethyltransferase catalyzes the conversion of serine to glycine and the concomitant transfer of a C1 unit on the coenzyme tetrahydrofolate (THF). The C1 unit in form of methylene-THF needs to be reduced to methyl-TH before it can be transferred on homocysteine to yield methionine. This reaction is catalyzed by the MetF protein. Transfer of the methylgroup is either catalyzed by MetH via vitamin B12 or directly by MetE. The MetH enzyme is known to have a catalytic rate that is hundred times higher than the MetE enzyme. In the absence of vitamin B12 and thus active MetH Me E can compose up to 5% of the total cellular protein. The presence of active MetH reduces MetE activity probably by reducing the amount of homocysteine that normally activates the transcription of metE via MetR. Therefore the production of methionine via MetH save important resources for the cell by not expressing large quantities of MetE. An accumulation of homocysteine is toxic for E. coli (Tuite; et al., 2005 J. Bacteriol, 187, 13, 4362-4371.) and at the same time has a negative, regulatory effect on metA expression via MetR. Thus strong expression of the enzymes MetH and/or MetE is clearly required for efficient methionine production.
In E. coli reduced sulfur is integrated into cysteine and then transferred onto the methionine precursor O-succinyl-homoserine, a process called transulfuration (reviewed in Neidhardt, F. C. (Ed. in Chief), W Curtiss III, J. L. Ingraham, E. C. C. Lin, K. B. Low, B. Magasanik, W. S. Reznikbff, M. Riley, M. Schaechter and H. E. Umbarger (eds). 1996. Escherichia coli and Salmonella: Cellular and Molecular Biology. American Society for Microbiology). Cysteine is produced from O-acetylserine and H2S by sulfhydrylation. The process is negatively feed-back regulated by the product, cysteine, acting on serine transacetylase, encoded by CysE. N-acetyl-serine, which is spontaneously produced from O-acetyl-serine, together with the transcription factor CysB activates genes encoding enzymes involved in the transport of sulfur compounds, their reduction to H2S and their integration in the organo-sulfur compound cysteine, which as methionine is an essential amino acid.
In the absence of cysteine, MetB catalyzes the conversion of the methionine-precursor O-succinyl homoserine into ammonia, α-ketobutyrate and succinate, a reaction called γ-elimination (Aitken & Kirsch, 2005, Arch Biochem Biophys. 433, 166-75). α-ketobutyrate can subsequently be converted into isoleucine. This side reaction is not desirable for the industrial production of methionine, since the two amino acids are difficult to separate. Thus low γ-elimination activity is an important aspect for the industrial production of methionine. The provisional patent application U.S. 60/650,124 filed on Feb. 7, 2005 describes how γ-elimination can be reduced by optimizing the enzyme MetB. Optimizing the flow of cysteine biosynthesis can also reduce γ-elimination and thus the production of the byproduct isoleucine and constitutes an embodiment of this invention.

Methods for producing methionine by culturing a microorganism modified to enhance production of cysteine


In the case to print an image of a set page that sets a plurality of combine pages, it is possible to adjust an arrangement position of the combine pages without changing the direction of the combine pages and raising a reduction rate. In the print section, a reduction rate selection scene display section 110 is configured to display a selection scene for selecting a vertical sheet number and a horizontal sheet number of the combine pages arranged in the set page on a displaying section 40; an image forming and processing section 120 generates combine pages in a reduction rate that is selected by the reduction rate selection scene display section 110; and a set page generation section 130 generates a set page by arranging the combine pages.

Until now, in a compound machine that installs a printer section and a scanner section such as a printer, a duplicator, a facsimile apparatus, a scanner apparatus, a MET and the like, or in other image forming apparatus, N-up print is performed that allots a plurality of logical pages to one physical page. In the case to perform the N-up print, usually, N-page logical pages are reduced through dividing the physical page to N equally, and are allotted to a one Nth-page physical region through performing rotation process depending on the situation.    Patent document 1: Japan patent publication of No. 2000-335039 (Paragraph 0004˜0009)
Here, usually, if direction of paper of a physical page is vertical set (portrait), a physical page region divided to N is also vertical set; and if direction of paper of a physical page is horizontal set (landscape), a physical page region divided to N is also horizontal set. If direction of paper of a logical page is unified as portrait or landscape, it is possible to perform N-up print without problems through the former image forming apparatus.
However, when the portrait and the landscape are intermingled in the direction of paper of the logical page, it is necessary to allot page of any one direction of the logical pages by performing rotation process of 90° and adjusting the direction of the physical region divided to N, or to allot logical page of landscape in the physical page region of the portrait divided to N, or to allot logical page of portrait in the physical page region of the landscape divided to N, by further raising a reduction rate without rotating. When the logical page is rotated 90°, there is image of portrait and landscape on the physical page (set page); On the other hand, when the reduction rate of the logical page (combine page) is further raised, the logical page is allotted by dividing the physical page to N, and image is further reduced, therefore there is a problem that readability of any one becomes low.

Print program, print control apparatus and image forming apparatus


An organic light emitting diode display and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. The organic light emitting diode display includes a first substrate, an organic light emitting diode that is positioned on the first substrate and includes a first electrode, an organic layer having at least a light emitting layer, and a second electrode, an organic buffer layer that is positioned on an entire surface of the organic light emitting diode and has a hydroxy group or an amide group, a sealant positioned on an entire surface of the organic buffer layer, and a second substrate positioned on the sealant.

1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the disclosure relate to an organic light emitting diode display and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to an organic light emitting diode display and a method of manufacturing the same capable of preventing the penetration of moisture and oxygen from the outside.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The importance of flat panel displays has recently increased with the growth of multimedia. Various flat panel displays such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), field emission displays (FEDs), and organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays have been put to practical use.
In particular, the OLED display has a high response speed (of 1 ms or less), low power consumption, and a self-emitting structure. The OLED display has a wide viewing angle and thus can used as a motion picture display regardless of the size of the OLED display. Further, because the OLED display can be manufactured at a low temperature using a simple manufacturing process based on an existing semiconductor process technology, the OLED display has been considered as a next generation display.
In the related art, the OLED display was manufactured by forming an organic light emitting diode including a first electrode on a first substrate, an organic layer, and a second electrode, applying a sealant to an edge of a second substrate formed of glass or metal, and attaching the second substrate to the first substrate.
However, because a space exists between the organic light emitting diode and the second substrate, a middle portion of the second substrate is damaged by an external impact. Further, it is difficult to prevent the penetration of moisture and oxygen from the outside using only the sealant.

Method of manufacturing an organic light emitting diode display