A relay apparatus in a print system in which a print server, the relay apparatus, and a plurality of print apparatuses are connected to a network, and which performs print processing, comprises: a search unit configured to search for a print apparatus with which the relay apparatus can communicate; a sending unit configured to send, to the print server, pieces of information of the relay apparatus and the print apparatus found by the search unit; and a relay unit configured to receive a print instruction that is issued by the print server and includes location information of document data to be printed and information of a print apparatus used to perform print processing, to download the document data based on the location information included in the print instruction, and to send both the print instruction and the downloaded document data to the print apparatus designated by the print instruction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print system, a relay apparatus, a print server, and a print method. The present invention particularly relates to a print system including a print server on the Internet and a print apparatus on a local network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With, for example, the popularization of a high-speed, high-capacity network and a reduction in cost of information infrastructures in businesses, SaaS (Software as a Service) which provides a software function on the Internet as a service is becoming prevalent. Even a print system which is conventionally built on a network in a local area such as an office is obliged to cope with SaaS as a service on the Internet. That is, it has become possible to build a print server on the Internet as SaaS, and manage a printer and a print job on a local network.
However, due, for example, to security concerns, the print server on the Internet cannot directly access the printer on the local network because of the protection provided by a firewall set between the local network and the Internet. Therefore, a print instruction is issued from the print server to the printer using, for example, the following configuration/sequence.
(1) The user displays a website provided by the print server on a web browser running on a terminal such as a PC on the local network.
(2) When the user performs an operation corresponding to a print instruction via the web browser, the instruction is sent from the web browser to the print server.
(3) The print server generates a response including the address of a managed/stored printer, an instruction for redirection to this address, and the location (URL (Uniform Resource Locator)) of document data to be printed, and sends it to the web browser.
(4) The web browser redirects the response to the address of the printer.
(5) The printer receives the redirected response. The printer then acquires the document data to be printed from that URL, and prints (pull-prints) it.
In this manner, because the print server cannot directly access the printer, it sends a print instruction including the location information of document data to be printed to the printer, and requests the printer to access it. The printer then pull-prints the document data. To achieve this feature, a printer which cooperates with the print server on the Internet needs the ability to execute pull-printing.
The following method has been proposed with regard to the conventional print system. The print server determines whether a printer has a pull-print function, and switches, in accordance with the determination result, the print instruction to be issued to the printer, between sending document data to be printed and providing notification of the location of the document data to be printed (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 03899910).
When a print server as in the above-mentioned prior art is built as SaaS on the Internet, it cannot directly access a printer on a local network. Therefore, if the print server holds no information of each printer on the local network in advance, it cannot search the local network for this printer, and therefore can determine neither its location nor function. As a result, it is impossible to discriminate whether a print instruction which specifies the use of a pull-print function can be issued to an unregistered printer. Also, the print server on the Internet cannot issue a print instruction to a printer which does not have a function of executing pull-printing that uses SaaS on the Internet, such as a traditional printer or an inexpensive printer.
Furthermore, as is apparent from the above-mentioned example of the configuration/sequence of a print instruction, in a print system, the user must register information of a printer on a print server in advance in order to issue a print instruction from the print server to the printer. Although the above-mentioned prior art describes no method of registering a printer on the print server, the user must individually register printers present on the local network when their number is large, resulting in inconvenience for him or her.

Print system, relay apparatus, print server, and print method


The instant invention describes methods for producing macrocyclic compounds having antiproliferation activity, and useful in methods of treating disorders such as cancer, tumors and cell proliferation related disorders.

The identification of new pharmacophores is of paramount biomedical importance and natural products have recently been regaining attention for this endeavor.1 This renaissance is closely tied to the successful exploitation of the marine environment which harbors unmatched biodiversity that is presumably concomitant with chemical diversity.2 In particular, marine cyanobacteria are prolific producers of bioactive secondary metabolites,3 many of which are modified peptides or peptide-polyketide hybrids with promising antitumor activities, such as dolastatin 10,4 curacin A,5 and apratoxin A.6 As a result of ongoing investigations to identify new drug leads from cyanobacteria in Florida, we report here the structure determination and preliminary biological characterization of a marine cyanobacterial metabolite with novel chemical scaffold and nanomolar antiproliferative activity. These findings provide new alternatives to address unmet needs in the treatment of proliferation diseases and disorders.

Methods of preparation of macrocyclic compounds

University of Florida Research Foundation, Inc.


A mobile computing device (MCD) can determine, based on model-specific test result information, whether an accessory may be incompatible with specific MCD functions. In some embodiments, the accessory provides test result information separately indicating a test result for each of a number of MCD models. Multiple MCD models can be grouped into a device class, and the MCD can deem the accessory compatible if he received test result information indicates a pass result for at least one of the device models associated with a device class to which the MCD belongs. If the accessory is not deemed to be compatible with the mobile computing device, the MCD can generate a warning.

The present disclosure relates in general to determining compatibility between electronic devices and in particular to compatibility testing and determination based on classes of devices.
In recent years, a number of mobile computing devices (MCDs) have been developed. Examples of MCDs include portable media players, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers, portable e-mail devices, video game players, portable navigation units relying on Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite data, and multi-function devices that can integrate numerous functions such as media storage and playback, mobile phone, Internet access, e-mail, personal information management, game play, GPS/navigation capability, and the like. Examples of MCDs include various iPhone®, iPod®, and iPad™ models manufactured and sold by Apple Inc., assignee of the present application, as well as other portable electronic devices made and sold by other manufactures and distributors under their respective brand names.
MCDs are frequently docked with other electronic devices, referred to herein as "accessories." For example, from time to time, a user may dock an MCD with a personal computer to synchronize media content and/or metadata, personal data, and the like. A user may at other times dock the same MCD with other electronic devices, such as an in-vehicle media system, a speaker dock, or the like. The user may also dock the MCD with a charger that provides power to the MCD but does not include other data or information sharing capability.

Class-based compatibility testing and notification


A battery pack comprising a housing having an first housing portion and a second housing portion and an electrostatic discharge protection device to prevent electrostatic discharge from entering the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments relate in general to a battery pack for cordless devices, and more particularly to a battery pack with mechanical and/or electrical protection features.
2. Description of Related Art
Battery packs may be used to power numerous and varied cordless devices, such as power tools, appliances and/or outdoor equipment, for example. Conventional battery packs may implement a circuit board (e.g., a printed circuit board) supporting electronic circuits. The electronic circuits may include components that are susceptible to mechanical and/or electrical failure.


An electronic device and a semiconductor package structure are provided. The electronic device includes a plurality of semiconductor dies stacked vertically over each other and a power supply system. The plurality of semiconductor dies are stacked over the power supply system, and the power supply system includes: a voltage generating circuit configured to generate at least one voltage; and a die enabling circuit configured to generate a die enable signal according to the at least one voltage. The at least one voltage is provided to the plurality of semiconductor dies through a power interconnecting structure, and the die enable signal is configured to enable synchronous input of the at least one voltage to the plurality of semiconductor dies.

With the technical advancement in mobile consumer electronic devices, such as cellular phones, notebook computers and personal digital assistants, the demand for memory devices with compact structures and high performance has substantially increased. Modern developments in semiconductor memory devices can be viewed as a process of maximizing the storage capacity at the smallest area on a memory device at a specific operating speed. In this context, the term "smallest" generally refers to the smallest area occupied by a memory device in a "horizontal" X/Y plane (e.g., a plane defined by a main surface of a printed circuit board or template board). In general, the allowable horizontal area occupied by the memory device is limited, thus memory devices with vertically integrated structure are developed so that the storage capacity of the devices may be further increased.
It is to be understood that the above information is only used to facilitate understanding the background of the present disclosure, and thus may include information that does not constitute prior art known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Power supply system and semiconductor package assembly


The present invention relates to a LIN receiver having sleep/wake-up functionality, which has an input (LINI) to a LIN bus (LIN), an output (RXDO), terminals for at least one supply voltage (BVDD), and transistors (M1 through M17), the transistors (M1 through M17) being switched to activate the receiver in the recessive state of the LIN bus via a state change on the LIN bus into an active state of the receiver. In particular, the input (LINI) is connected between components of a voltage-to-current converter (SSW), in particular between a first and a second resistors, (R2, R2).

The present invention relates to a Local Interconnect Network (LIN) receiver, and in particular to a LIN receiver having sleep/wake-up functionality.
LIN Receivers are designed to recognize a voltage level on a LIN bus. According to LIN specification 2.1, page 115, voltage dividers having different division ratios are used on the LIN bus and on the power supply, in particular a battery, to evaluate a LIN level on the bus. FIG. 6 illustrates a prior art LIN receiver 600. A voltage divider chain composed of two resistors 602, 604 is connected between a ground voltage GND and a terminal or input LINI to the LIN bus. Another voltage divider chain also composed of two resistors 606, 608 is connected between ground GND and a positive supply voltage of the BVDD bus. The terminal for ground GND may also be connected as negative supply voltage of the bus. Contact points between the two resistors of the two voltage divider chains lead to a positive and negative input, 610, 611 respectively, of an operational amplifier 612 having an output on a line 614, to which received RXD data is provided.
The disadvantage of such an approach is the permanent power consumption of the divider chains and the required semiconductor surface area for implementing high-impedance resistors. This makes a compromise between power consumption and semiconductor surface area necessary. To implement a sleep function, the divider chains may be switched off. This results in that the level on the LIN bus can no longer be correctly evaluated and a wake-up function over the LIN bus is no longer possible. Accordingly, currently available LIN receivers and LIN transceivers having an integrated receiver function have a relatively high power consumption in the sleep mode.
An object of the present invention is to provide a circuit configuration or a LIN receiver having a corresponding circuit configuration that allows the power consumption to be reduced in the sleep mode.


A hydro-energy converter comprises a rotary member (9, 57) for converting energy of running water into rotary motion, means (3, 65, 67) for securing the rotary member in a position such that water can run past the rotary member, and baffle means (21, 63) for creating a head of water upstream of the rotary member.

The present invention relates to a hydro-energy converter and, more particularly but not exclusively, relates to a hydro-energy converter which is portable, able to float and capable of operating with a relatively low head which may be created by the converter itself.
The energy of running water has been exploited for very many years. However, traditional approaches have suffered disadvantages due to environmental factors, for example:
(a) damming a river floods land that would otherwise be available for use, alters the landscape, creates risk (such as of the dam failing), affects the local community that would have lived and worked on the flooded land, alters the character of the river, and prevents the free movement of fish;
(b) diverting a river affects the nature of the countryside and does not lend itself to use on a large scale; and
(c) permanent complete or partial blockage of a river for energy conversion is adversely affected by variations in flow.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a hydro-energy converter which uses the potential energy of flowing water and which is environmentally acceptable.
According to the present invention there is provided a hydro-energy converter comprising a rotary member for converting energy of running water into rotary motion, means for securing the rotary member in a position such that water can run past the rotary member, and baffle means for creating a head of water upstream of the rotary member. The securing means may be configured for releasably securing the converter to a bed over which water is running.
A further rotary member may be provided with the further rotary member being located downstream of the first-mentioned rotary member.
A flow deflector may be provided at least in the region around the lower upstream quadrant of the rotary member. The flow deflector may be generally arcuate.
A plurality of cover plates may be provided over at least part of, and downstream of, the rotary member for deflecting water over the cover plates for concealing at least a part of the converter. At least the downstream cover plates may be pivotably mounted for minimising resistance to flow under flood conditions.
The baffle means may be provided immediately upstream of the rotary member. The baffle means may be pivotably mounted for minimising resistance to flow under flood conditions.
The rotary member may be connected to a buoyant member, for example by way of an arm which is pivotably connected to both the rotary member and the buoyant member. The buoyant member may be tethered to a base on which the rotary member is mounted. The tether length may be adjustable. Power generating means may be provided on the buoyant member and operatively connected to the rotary member.
The rotary member may be rotatable about an upright axis or an axis extending in the direction of the flow of water, such as a turbine. Alternatively, the rotatable member may be rotatable about an axis extending transverse to the direction of flow of water, such as a paddle wheel or the like.
The paddles of the wheel may be constructed to minimise resistance to the flow of oncoming water above the transverse axis of the wheel. For example, the paddles may be pivotably mounted in the region of the periphery of the wheel and rotatable at the free end thereof between a position bearing against a centre portion of the wheel in which the paddle presents maximal resistance to the oncoming flow of water and a trailing position in which the paddle presents minimal resistance to the oncoming flow of water.
The converter may include a passage permitting fish to swim past the rotary member.
Because the converter is anchored or tethered and not positioned in a permanent manner, it is a relatively straightforward matter to remove the converter from one location and to replace it at another location. That is, the converter is portable.
Thus the converter can rest, for example, on the bed of a river and at least a part of the converter can float as the level of the river rises. One or more converters can be tethered or anchored at various locations in a river for the purpose of generating electricity, pumping water or operating mechanisms or the like. To this end, the rotary member may be connected to an electrical generator, pump or the like and which may form part of the converter tethered or anchored relative to the running water or may be located remotely and connected to the rotary member by a suitable linkage, for example hydraulic or mechanical.
The nature of the converter is such that it need never totally block the natural flow of the river. There is no need for the converter to dominate the landscape, endanger fish or interfere adversely with recreational pursuits such as fishing or boating. The converter does not change the character of the river or create any harmful by-products.
Thus the converter of the present invention provides a means of generating clean power in an environmentally friendly manner.


A dynamic hysteresis comparator has a threshold voltage level with dynamic hysteresis for sensing small changes in differential input signals at the input, while controlling a duration that an output voltage state will remain fixed for preventing the output of the comparator from changing state in an unstable fashion or “chattering”. The comparator has a dynamic hysteresis circuit connected to an output of a trigger circuit of the comparator that detects when a decision is made that a first input of the comparator is greater than or lesser than a second input of the comparator causing an output of the comparator to change state. Once the decision causing the change of state of the output is detected, any decisions determining that second input is now lesser than or greater than the first input are prevented from causing the output of the comparator from changing state for a fixed time period.

As is known in the art, a comparator circuit is a device that compares two input signals (either voltage or current) and provides an output digital signal that indicates which of the input signals is larger. FIGS. 1a-1c illustrate a comparator without hysteresis. FIGS. 1d-1h illustrate the structure and operation of a comparator with hysteresis. Generally, a comparator COMP 1 as shown in FIG. 1a has two input terminals Vin and Vth that are applied to a differential amplifier within the comparator COMP1. The voltage at the terminal Vth is the threshold voltage for determining whether the voltage at the input terminal Vin is lesser or greater than the threshold voltage level. When the voltage at the input terminal Vin transitions through the voltage level of the voltage at the terminal Vth, an output terminal Vo has a voltage representing the sign of the difference between the voltages applied to the two input terminals Vin and Vth. The input voltages must be each greater than the offset voltage of the differential amplifier plus an overdrive voltage such that the gain of the differential amplifier causes the voltage at the output terminal Vo to assume a voltage level defining a digital logic state VOH and VOL. FIG. 1b is a plot of the voltage at the input terminal Vin versus the voltage at the output terminal Vout. FIG. 1c is a plot of the voltage at the input terminal Vin and the voltage at the output terminal Vout versus time. If the voltage level at the input terminal Vin is relatively slow in its transition, any noise present at the input terminals Vin and Vth may cause multiple transitions of the voltage level at the output terminal between the digital states. In many applications, these multiple transitions may cause damage to devices being controlled such as motors, switches, etc.
A solution to prevent multiple transitions of the comparator COMP1 is circuit is the addition of hysteresis to the comparator COMP1. Hysteresis introduces two separate threshold voltage levels to the comparator COMP1. FIGS. 1e and 1g are a schematic for a comparator with hysteresis. In FIGS. 1e and 1g, a voltage divider is added from the positive terminal +. The voltage divider is formed of the resistors R1 and R2. FIGS. 1e and 1h are plots of the input voltage Vin versus the output Vo of the comparator COMP1 for the comparators of the FIGS. 1d and 1g. In FIG. 1g, a first terminal of the resistor R1 is connected to receive the threshold voltage level Vth. A second terminal of the resistor R1 is connected to the first terminal of the resistor R2 and to the positive terminal of the comparator COMP1. The second terminal of the resistor R2 is connected to the output terminal of the comparator COMP1. In FIG. 1e, the output voltage terminal Vo is at the high output voltage level, when the input terminal Vin is at a voltage level less than the high threshold voltage level VthH when the input voltage level is transitioning from a lower voltage level to a higher voltage level. When the input voltage level passes the higher threshold voltage level VthH, the output voltage level is forced to the lower voltage VoL. When the input voltage level is greater than the lower threshold voltage level VthL, the output voltage is at the lower output voltage level VoL. When the input voltage is transitioning from a voltage greater than the lower threshold voltage level VthL to a voltage level less than the lower threshold voltage level VthL, the output voltage level is forced to the higher output voltage level VoH at the input voltage level reaching the lower threshold voltage level VthL. If there is noise on the negative(−) input voltage terminal Vin or the positive (+) input voltage terminal, the comparator will not have returned to the lower threshold level VthL, if the noise is not greater than the higher threshold voltage level VthH.
FIGS. 1g and 1h have the input voltage Vin and the threshold voltage Vth exchanged. In that case, as shown in FIG. 1h, the directions for the transitions of the input voltage level Vin to the positive (+) terminal of the comparator COMP1 versus the threshold voltage levels VthL and VthH are reversed from those of FIG. 1e. Similarly, the output voltages VoL and VoH versus the input voltage Vin are reversed.
The comparators COMP1 illustrate two types of hysteresis, where classically hysteresis is by changing the threshold voltage levels VthL and VthH dependent on the state of the output voltage levels VoL and VoH. Most means of doing this in the prior art comparators add at least 5 mV to the switching threshold voltage levels VthL and VthH.
In the prior art, other ways to achieve dynamic hysteresis often act on the inputs themselves by pulling the input threshold voltage levels VthL and VthH apart once the output changed state.
An application for a comparator is in a buck DC-to-DC converter. The comparator compares the output voltage of the buck DC-to-DC converter with a reference voltage and determines if additional current needs to be applied to an inductor in the circuit as is known in the art. The switching frequency of the current to the inductor or from the inductor are generally fixed with the duty cycle of the switching frequency being adjusted or pulse width modulated to determine the amount of current flowing into the inductor and thus to the load circuit connected the output terminal of the DC-to-DC converter.
Generally, buck DC-to-DC converters operate in one of two different modes, a continuous mode and a discontinuous mode. When the buck DC-to-DC converter is operating at light load (a small load current), the current supplied from the supply voltage source is not supplied on each cycle and the current then supplied from the collapsing field of the inductor. Instead of being a pulse width modulated (PWM) conversion process in the continuous mode, the conversion in now based on a pulse frequency modulation (PFM) in the discontinuous mode. Often the discontinuous mode is used in portable electronics such as smart cellular telephone, tablet computers, digital reader, etc. as a "sleep mode". The only current required by the system in these applications is monitoring current for system maintenance (i.e. system clocking and timers, cellular network monitoring, wireless network monitoring).
The decision to move between continuous or synchronous mode and the discontinuous or sleep is taken based on the output current of the buck DC-to-DC converter to the system load. This decision to switch between modes is made using a comparator. To prevent the comparator from toggling between the synchronous and the sleep modes, hysteresis is required. Typically hysteresis is implemented using a small voltage offset in the comparator, as described above. Many variations of these methods exist to perform the voltage offset hysteresis.
The buck DC-to-DC converter estimates the output current by measuring the voltage drop across a PMOS pass-device that is connected between the supply power source and the inductor to supply current to the inductor. The PMOS pass device is activated to connect the supply power source during the positive phase of the switching waveform, and the load current is supplied through it.
The voltage drop across PMOS pass transistor is referenced to the supply power source and is proportional to the output current. This is then averaged in one of several ways to give a voltage that is proportional to the average output current.
The typical threshold current at which the decision must be made is not large, typically around 100 mA in various applications. The impedance of the PMOS pass transistor is designed to be very small, typically less than 100 mOhms, to give high efficiency. The voltage drop across PMOS pass transistor is therefore relatively small at approximately ˜10 mV as can seen from the above. This issue is further complicated in that the voltage across the PMOS pass transistor is typically scaled by the duty-cycle, and may be less than half this value ˜5 mV. Further, the decision to switch to the synchronous mode is made in sleep mode, where the quiescent current available to make this decision is very low. Therefore, no amplification is possible and the system used must be kept simple. So it can be seen that the voltage offset hysteresis is not adequate for the application as shown.


A cape structure in combination with a life jacket is arranged for enhanced visibility of an individual wearing the life jacket, with the cape including buoyancy components and formed of opaque readily visible material. The cape is normally arranged in a furled configuration relative to the life jacket structure at the collar portion of the life jacket.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to life jacket structure, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved opaque life jacket cape wherein the same is arranged in a mounted configuration relative to a life jacket and configured for buoyancy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Life jacket structure of various types are indicated in the prior art and are exemplified by the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,863,409 and 4,194,257.
The instant invention attempts to overcome deficiencies of the prior art by providing a cape structure for enhanced visibility in the viewing of an individual directed into the water and in this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


Technologies are generally described for microfluidic channel devices. Some example devices may include a substrate having a substrate surface, with an array of drive electrode assemblies disposed upon the substrate surface. The drive electrode assemblies may be arranged along a path. Each drive electrode assembly may include one or more of a drive electrode layer, a dielectric layer and/or a stationary phase layer. The device may further include a plate including a plate surface. The device may further include a reference electrode configured on the plate surface to face the stationary phase layer of the drive electrode assemblies and separated from the substrate surface by a distance. The device may further include a voltage source effective to output a voltage potential, the voltage source configured in communication with the drive electrode assembly and the reference electrode. The device may further include an electrode selector effective to control the voltage source.

Unless otherwise expressly indicated herein, none of the material presented in this section is prior art to the claims of this application and is not admitted to be prior art by having been included herein.
Microchemical reactors may be used as platforms for chemical discovery and synthesis. Many reactors rely on microfluidic channel and "lab-on-a-chip" concepts. Fluids are commonly transported through such devices by capillary action, micro-pumps or electro-kinetic actuation. In synthetic chemistry, separation, isolation and identification of reaction product(s) are often accomplished by various methods of chromatography ranging from simple paper chromatography and thin layer chromatography (referred to as "TLC") to advanced high pressure liquid chromatography (referred to as "HPLC").
all arranged according to at least some embodiments described herein.

Microfluidic channel device with array of drive electrodes


A bipolar ionization tube includes a cylindrical glass tube having an open end and closed end. A cathode is positioned within and is circumscribed by an interior surface wall of the glass tube. An anode circumscribes an exterior surface of the glass tube, where the anode is adapted for electrical connectivity with a first conducting terminal of a power supply. An electrically insulated end cap has a groove for receiving the open end of the glass tube, and the end cap is secured to the glass tube with at least one sealant. An elongated conducting terminal having a first portion extends through the end cap and is adapted for electrical connectivity with a second conducting terminal of the power supply. A second portion of the conducting terminal extends into the glass tube and is configured for electrical connectivity with the cathode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to air purifiers, and more specifically to bipolar ionization tubes for use in heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) systems to reduce the number of air particulates.
2. Description of the Related Art
Indoor air environments frequently include suspended particulates, such as dust, dander, soot and smoke particles, pollen, mold, bacteria, and viruses. Indoor gases are also present, being released from building materials, home furnishings and nondurable goods. In office environments, the greater user of machines, such as photocopying equipment and the like, is especially problematic, as this equipment may emit volatile organic compounds.
These particulates can degrade the quality of the air, making it less pleasant and even dangerous to occupants of the space. Modern construction techniques that promote energy efficiency, such as insulating walls, ceilings, doors and windows, and wrapping buildings with air intrusion barriers, have created spaces that are so airtight that the buildings are unable to off-gas toxic elements.
In ordinary heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) systems, air is drawn through a filter, which is intended to trap particulates in the filter. However, traditional filters are only effective for large particles of at least 10 microns in size. While high efficiency particle air (HEPA) filters are more effective, they also have disadvantages, as they may quickly become clogged, requiring frequent changing to avoid overburdening the HVAC equipment. Because of the presence of contaminants in the air and the general inability of physical filters to remove the same, a condition known as "sick building syndrome" has developed. Various building codes designed to mitigate this syndrome have been introduced; for example, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommends a minimum of 8.4 air exchanges in a 24-hour period (a 35% turnover rate). While commercial and industrial facilities generally meet that minimum level, their air quality may remain inferior. Furthermore, there are many houses that do not even meet such minimum levels. While greater turnover rates would increase the interior air quality, they would also reduce the buildings' energy efficiencies.
An alternative method to filtering involves the use of ion exchange technology to remove contaminants from air. Ionization occurs where an atom or group of atoms loses or gains one or more electrons. An electrically neutral atom or molecule will have an equal number of electrons and protons. If an electron bound to an atom or molecule absorbs enough energy from an external source, it may exceed the ionization potential and allow the electron to escape its atomic orbital. When this occurs, the electron is lost, and an ion with a positive electrical charge, a cation, is produced. Electrons that are lost become free electrons. When a free electron later collides with an atom, it may be captured within an orbital. The gain of an electron by an atom or molecule creates an ion with a negative electrical charge, an anion.
The ionization of air, e.g., air in the Earth's atmosphere, results in the ionization of the air's constituent molecules, primarily oxygen and nitrogen. While the nitrogen in air is more plentiful than oxygen, oxygen is more reactive. Thus, oxygen has a lower ionization potential than nitrogen, allowing for oxygen cations to be formed with greater ease than nitrogen cations, and oxygen has a higher electro-negativity than nitrogen, allowing for oxygen anions to be formed with greater ease than nitrogen anions.
Ionization is known to break down organic chemicals into the basic molecular constituents of water, carbon dioxide, and related metal oxides. Thus, ionization has potential for cleaning indoor air, by eliminating organic molecules and their associated odors from the enclosed environment. Ionization also contributes to the reduction of inorganic pollutants, by imparting a charge to those molecules, which clump together and then drop out of the air.
Studies indicate that positive ions (cations) may impair human health in a number of ways, such as by stimulating increased production of the neurohormone serotonin, which may lead to exhaustion, anxiety and depression. Positive ions are frequently found in offices where VDUs (visual display units) are used. Negative ions (anions) have a calming effect. Thus, a machine that cleans indoor air should seek to introduce negative ions into the airstream.
Various commercial products have been made including machines that incorporate bipolar ionization tubes. The ionization of air may also produce ozone, O3, which is not desirable. Therefore, there is demand for a system which provides a sufficient level of ionization to effectively address the contaminants in an airstream, while minimizing the production of ozone.
Under the circumstances, it would be highly desirable to use ion exchange technology for air treatment, and indeed there are many suppliers of bipolar ionization tubes that are stand alone devices used in specified locations, or centralized installations which are integrated into a building HVAC system. These devices are used in a way so that air circulated into and recirculated within the building can pass over the bipolar emitting devices, which generally take the form of an ionization tube or tubes. This would accomplish the goal of improving air quality, without mandating greater air exchange rates. Thus, an additional benefit of ionization treatment of indoor air is that it contributes to the efficiency of HVAC operations.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,793,799, issued to Hartman, a bipolar ionization tube is disclosed having a cathode formed by a metallic lining located along an interior surface of a glass tube. While the '799 patent discloses a wire mesh forming the anode, it does not suggest the use of a comparable wire mesh as the cathode. Rather, the '799 patent disclosed that the interior of a vacuum pumped glass tube be treated with the application, by brush, of a finely divided metal mixed with an adhesive. Neither the brushing and vacuum requirements are desirable manufacturing steps and the degree and interstitial spacing of the metal is random.
There is also a commercially available product sold under the Bentax™ trademark, which employs a tube assembled without vacuum pumping, and which uses a wire mesh for the cathode. It includes an open ended tube which is separately closed with an end cap. Although addressing some of the deficiencies of Hartman's bipolar ionization tube, the Bentax™ tubes are relatively fragile, have encountered numerous mechanical failures during shipping and due to mishandling, and stress-related failures at temperatures above 140° F.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved, more efficient bipolar ionization tube with lower manufacturing costs, a reduced mechanical failure rate, and which can as a result be reduced in size and therefore be better adapted for installation in a wider range of HVAC systems or stand-alone devices.


A first Mobility Management Entity (MME) receives a tracking area update from the User Equipment (UE) indicating a first tracking area for the wireless relay that serves the UE and indicating a second tracking area for the evolved NodeB (eNodeB) that serves the wireless relay. The first MME determines if the first tracking area and the second tracking area are different responsive to the tracking area update, and if the first tracking area and the second tracking area are different, then determines if the wireless relay is controlled by a second MME that also controls the eNodeB. If the wireless relay is not controlled by the second MME that also controls the eNodeB, then the first MME transfers UE context data to the second MME that serves the eNodeB. The second MME selects the Serving Gateway (S-GW) for the UE based on the second tracking area for the eNodeB.

Wireless communication systems transfer data packets between User Equipment (UE) to provide data communication services, like internet access, media streaming, and user messaging. Wireless communication systems allow users to move about and communicate over the air with access communication. Communication services include voice calls, data exchange, web pages, streaming media, or text messages, among other communication services.
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a popular wireless technology. Using LTE, a UE detects an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) base station and responsively exchanges Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling with the eNodeB. The eNodeB then transfers an S1-Application Protocol (S1-AP) message to a Mobility Management Entity (MME), and the MME responsively transfers a Diameter request message to a Home Subscriber System (HSS) and receives a Diameter response message indicating an Access Point Name (APN).
The MME process the Diameter response message to generate and transfer an S11 General Packet Radio Service Transfer Protocol (GTP) message to a Serving Gateway (S-GW). The S-GW then generates an S5 GTP message and transfers the message to a Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) based on the APN to create a session for the UE. The UE, eNodeB, MME, S-GW, P-GW, and other network elements then exchange additional messaging to set context before the MME transfers S11 modify bearer signaling the S-GW, and the S-GW transfers S5 modify bearer signaling to the P-GW. The UE may then exchange user data over the LTE network.
Wireless networks determine the location of a UE within the network by receiving tracking area updates from the UE. A tracking area may be made up of cells, eNodeBs, market boundaries, physical location coordinates, or some other area division technique. A tracking area update may be initiated by the UE when the UE detects that it has entered a new tracking area, when a periodic tracking area update timer has expired, when a change in the core network capability occurs, or when some other event triggers the UE to request a tracking area update with the network.
The tracking area update is sent to the serving eNodeB over RRC signaling and indicates data associated with the UE, such as an electronic serial number (ESN), mobile station identifier (MSID), a network access identifier (NIA), or some other UE identifiers. The tracking area update also typically includes a current tracking area ID used to identify a tracking area, such as a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a tracking area code (TAC), or some other tracking area identifier. The tracking area identifier may be broadcasted to the UE over a Service Information Block (SIB) message. The eNodeB then determines the serving MME and forwards the tracking area update information to the serving MME in a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) file. The MME then determines the S-GW and P-GW to serve the UE.
To expand or enhance the wireless signal coverage of a wireless communication network, wireless communication relays may be added to locations not adequately covered by current network infrastructure. A relay repeats wireless signals exchanged between wireless devices and a wireless network access point. Without the signal repetition provided by the wireless relay, the coverage area of the wireless network access point may otherwise have not extended far enough to serve the wireless devices using the relay. Thus, a wireless relay provides a less resource intensive means for increasing wireless network coverage.
A wireless relay exchanging wireless communications between a UE and a serving eNodeB may be located in a tracking area that is different from the UE, the eNodeB, or both. If the tracking area for the wireless relay is different from the tracking areas of the eNodeB, it may be served by different LTE network control system elements or a different wireless data center. Unfortunately, wireless communications being routed between additional LTE network control system elements and throughout multiple wireless data centers may cause delayed routing or connection failures. Unfortunately, integrating tracking area updates for UEs exchanging wireless communications over a wireless relay located in a different tracking area than its serving eNodeB is neither effective nor efficient.

Long term evolution (LTE) network selection of a serving gateway (S-GW)


An integrated landing receiver for landing of an aircraft and a controlling method thereof are provided, in which the integrated landing receiver includes a receiver including a plurality of signal information processors that generate landing guidance information respectively corresponding to a plurality of landing support facilities, a collector collecting the landing guidance information respectively generated at the plurality of signal information processors, and an integrator generating integrated landing guidance information by using the landing guidance information collected at the collector and outputting the result. Accordingly, when a plurality of landing support facilities are installed together at an airport, the landing guidance information provided from these landing support facilities are mixed and provided so that shortcomings that each landing supporting facility may have can be advantageously compensated, thus enabling safe and effective provision of the landing guidance information.

FIG. 1 is a view provided to explain an approach route of an aircraft.
An aircraft has to navigate along a predetermined approach route, while maintaining a predetermined glide angle along a centerline of a runway as illustrated in FIG. 1 to land on the runway safely, and an aircraft landing support facility aids the aircraft to do so. The example of the aircraft landing support facility includes the Instrument Landing System (ILS), the Ground-based Augmentation System (GBAS), the Microwave Landing System (MLS), and so on.
The ground equipment of each of these systems is installed at airport and radiates predetermined signals so that a receiver mounted on an aircraft approaching the airport receives the signals and generates landing guidance information to guide runway approach and landing by referring to the received signals. The generated landing guidance information is provided to a pilot through the aircraft instrument such as the course deviation indicator (CDI) or the primary flight display (PFD), and so on, and the pilot refers to such information as he or she conducts safe runway landing flight.
The ILS has been in use from the 1050. As a landing support facility that has been used for the longest time, the ILS provides guaranteed reliability, and most of the world's airports are using the ILS as the landing support facility. Meanwhile, the ILS has decreased accuracy in the landing guidance information (i.e., lateral and vertical deviation information) than those provided by GBAS or MLS, and also has a disadvantage of increased cost as it requires that equipment be installed per runway to provide the landing guidance information.
The MLS has been installed and used at some airports in the 1990, but has not been installed and operated actively on a global scale. Among the three landing support facility (i.e., ILS, GBAS, MLS), MLS provides the second-greatest accuracy of the landing guidance information, and has the advantage of being operated independently without being influenced by jamming. However, a few airports installed MLS, and like the case of ILS, MLS also has the shortcoming of low economic feasibility as it requires equipment be installed per runway.
The GBAS has been installed and operated since 2009 in countries including Germany, United States, Australia, Spain, and so on, and its supply is currently increased worldwide. Among the three landing support facilities, the GBAS provides the greatest accuracy of the landing guidance information, and is also economic as it can provide landing guidance information about the entire runways in the airport with only one GBAS ground equipment installed at the airport. Possibly the only shortcoming of the GBAS would be associated with the use of GPS signals, since when GPS signals have jamming, then it may not be possible to use the GBAS. Except for the jamming, the GBAS provides far greater accuracy of the landing guidance information, and thus, more and more airports around the world that installed ILS are currently installing the GBAS additionally, and there is an increasing number of airports in the world that install both ILS and GBAS.
The methods and principles of respective systems for generating landing guidance information vary. However, there are mainly three common things in receiving signals from respective systems at a receiver mounted on an aircraft and finally generating the landing guidance information.
FIG. 2 is a view provided to explain landing support information of an aircraft.
Referring to FIG. 2, the 'lateral deviation' refers to a degree of deviation of an aircraft from a centerline of a runway to the left/right. The ILS can provide the difference in depth of modulation (DDM), which is a unit expressing the lateral deviation as a difference in the depth of modulation of a radio wave, calculate the lateral deviation basically in a distance unit (i.e., meter), and can also transform into DDM unit and angular unit and provide the same. The MLS can basically calculate the lateral deviation in an angular unit (i.e., degree), and can also transform the lateral deviation expressed in the angular unit into DDM unit and provide the same.
The 'vertical deviation' refers to a degree of deviation of an aircraft above/below the Glide Path Angle (GPA). The unit of the vertical deviation provided by respective landing support facilities is same as the vertical deviation unit described above.
Both the GBAS and MLS can continuously provide 'distance to threshold', meaning distance between aircraft and runway threshold, in a length unit of a lateral distance between the aircraft and the runway threshold. The ILS can determine a distance between aircraft and runway threshold only when the aircraft passes the points where the marker beacons are installed, and this distance determination is only possible within approximately 8 km distance from runway threshold and for three times.
The conventional multi-mode receiver (MMR) is an aviation electronic equipment that generates landing guidance information and aircraft navigation information necessary for the aircraft to land on the runway, and MMR is mounted on the aircraft.
FIG. 3 is a view provided to explain a conventional MMR.
Referring to FIG. 3, the current large-scale civil aircrafts have the MMR of the structure illustrated in FIG. 3 mounted thereon to receive signals transmitted from the ground equipment of respective landing support facilities and generate landing guidance information, so that the generated information is provided to a pilot through the aircraft instrument (e.g., CDI, PFD, and so on).
Due to expensive cost of the aircraft landing supporting facilities, not every airport installs ILS, MLS and GBAS in view of economic aspect. Most airports basically install ILS, and certain (about 10) airports outside Korea install MLS on a trial basis, but use thereof was not extended and is almost died out. The GBAS, having far greater performance than ILS, has been installed from the 2009 in airports of many countries of the world (e.g., United States, Germany, Spain, Australia, Swiss, Korea, and so on), and approximately 40 airports of the world have completed installation or currently installing it. Among these, USA's Huston Airport, Newark Airport, Australia's Sydney Airport, Germany's Bremen Airport, Frankfurt Airport, and Spain's Malaga Airport are currently providing commercial services, and Korea has also installed GBAS at the Gimpo Airport and is operating it on a trial basis. Since the GBAS is installed on a trial basis at the airports having ILS already installed therein, these airports allow runway landing using ILS and also allow landing using GBAS. The airports installed with MLS can also allow aircrafts to conduct runway landing by using ILS and MLS, respectively.
Because most airports do not install all of the landing support facilities, a purchaser of the currently-available MMR can purchase desired processors as the options, by selecting from among the MLS processor 106, the ILS processor 107, and the GBAS processor 108 as exemplified in a receiver 105 of FIG. 3. Generally, the GNSS processor 109 in the receiver 109 is basically mounted.
The landing mode selector 110 receives from a flight management system (FMS) 111 the information on landing support facility to be used during landing of an aircraft, transmits an instruction to generate landing guidance information to one of the MLS processor 106, the ILS processor 107, and the GBAS processor 108, and receives the landing guidance information generated at a corresponding processor and transmits this back to the FMS 111.
When a pilot selects only the ILS processor 107 and the GBAS processor 108 through the FMS 111, the aircraft mounted with the corresponding MMR is able to land by using the corresponding landing support facility of the airport installed with the ILS or GBAS. Meanwhile, when only the ILS processor 107 and the MLS processor 106 are selected, the corresponding MMR is able to land only on the airport installed with the ILS or MLS.
Meanwhile, the conventional MMR includes all of the ILS processor 107, the GBAS processor 108, and the MLS processor 106 therein, and even when the airport is installed with all of the ILS, GBAS, and MLS, landing guidance information provided by only one landing support facility corresponding to the landing mode selected by the FMS 111 during aircraft landing is generated, and the generated information is provided to the aircraft instrument. That is, it is so designed that the pilots land by using only one landing support facility during runway landing.
Accordingly, when the GBAS ground equipment is out of order or when GPS jamming occurs while the aircraft attempting a runway landing with GBAS is about 10 NM (nautical mile) from runway threshold, the conventional MMR is not able to provide successive landing guidance information. Therefore, the aircraft is not able to land, but has to go around and then fly back to the initial approach fix which is about 20 NM away from the runway to make additional landing attempt. In this case, aircraft fuel consumption increases, and aircraft landing time is also delayed. Even if the pilot determines that the GBAS landing guidance information signals are lost and thus changes into ILS mode, about several seconds are necessary until ILS landing guidance information is outputted. Considering high velocity of an aircraft which can move a considerable distance even in a brief time, if the above-described circumstance occurs at a near distance to the runway, the aircraft will not be able to change mode, but has to go around and fly back.

Integrated landing receiver for an aircraft landing and controlling method thereof


A method (300 or 400) of key press prediction on a touch-based device or an apparatus (501) can entail registering (302, 402) a position of a touch press attempt on an icon among a plurality of icons presented on the touch-base device, calculating (304, 404) a distance from a center of the icon, calculating (306, 406) a psychomotor probability for each icon in the plurality of icons, calculating (312, 408) a linguistic probability for each icon in the plurality of icons, calculating (314, 410) a predictive index for each icon in the plurality of icons based on the psychomotor probability and the linguistic probability, and registering (310,416) as a user selected icon, an icon with one among a highest predictive index (316, 412) or a probability higher than a predetermined absolute value (308).

Unlike physical keys, touch screen targets do not have tactile indicators for accurate finger presses. Therefore touch screen targets have a large variability for accuracy among users and includes handedness biases. For good touch targets, existing literature has recommended target sizes 7- to 10-mm in approximate diameter. Given current real-estate constraints in touch screen displays, it is difficult to fit a full QWERTY layout without adding plurality in the keys (multiple key assignments to the same touch area).
There are three existing general solutions that fail to provide an optimum user experience. In one existing solution, the key sizes are maintained at recommended valued and plurality in keys are introduced (i.e., multiple characters assigned to the same key). In a second solution, key singularity is maintained and the key size is reduced. In a third solution, post-hoc correction is provided. With each of these techniques there are further enhancements that attempt to provide a better user experience. For example, with a maintained key singularity and reduced key size, one alternative can provide visual confirmation (in a main screen region) of a user intended key press and further provide disambiguation of simultaneous key presses (which are likely to occur with the smaller key sizes). In general, the existing enhancements still fail to provide a satisfactory user experience.

Method and apparatus for psychomotor and psycholinguistic prediction on touch based device


Systems and methods that may be implemented to determine the location of an emitter of electromagnetic radiation, such as an RF signal emitter having an unknown location, using at least two electromagnetic radiation sensor antennas that are co-located on a single sensing platform in combination with at least one other electromagnetic radiation sensor antenna located on another sensing platform.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to location of emitters of electromagnetic radiation, and in one example, to Time Difference of Arrival ("TDOA")/Frequency Difference of Arrival ("FDOA") location of emitters of electromagnetic radiation.
2. Description of the Related Art
TDOA/FDOA techniques have been employed in the past to determine the location of emitters of electromagnetic radiation, such as radio frequency ("RF") emissions. Using such techniques, the time difference (TDOA) in reception of a radio signal received at the sensing platforms of two spaced apart aircraft may be used to define a hyperboloid upon which the RF emitter of interest is located. Frequency difference (FDOA) in reception of the same radio signal at the sensing platforms of the two spaced apart aircraft may be generated by flying the spaced apart aircraft at different velocities and headings relative to the RF emitter, and may be used to further resolve the geo-location of the radio emitter. In this regard, assuming that the RF emitter of interest is located on the surface of the earth, the intersection of the TDOA hyperboloid, the FDOA surface, and the surface of the earth may be employed to determine a set of possible geo-locations for the RF emitter. However, only one of these possible geo-locations is real, the other possible geo-locations in the set are purely mathematical solutions that are not the real location of the radio emitter. To determine the correct geo-location requires additional information. In the past, this additional information has been obtained from a system that can produce a line of bearing, from a third aircraft that can measure an independent TDOA/FDOA set of data, or by repositioning the two aircraft and then measuring a second TDOA/FDOA set of data.
Where rapid emitter location determination is desired, past techniques have often employed three aircraft as multiple moving sensing platforms that receive RF signals from an RF emitter of unknown location. Using three aircraft allows the location of an RF emitter to be quickly determined based on a single measurement of time of arrival and frequency (Doppler) shift differences in RF signals received from the RF emitter at each of the three moving aircraft, without the need for repositioning of the three aircraft for subsequent measurement of RF signals received from the RF emitter. However, the necessity for utilizing a third aircraft increases operation costs and complexity.
Two aircraft have been employed as moving sensing platforms where sufficient time exists for measuring more than one set of TDOA/FDOA data from the RF emitter. This has been done by measuring a first set of TDOA/FDOA data at a first set of locations of the two aircraft followed by flying the two aircraft to a second set of locations and measuring a second set of TDOA/FDOA data at the second and new aircraft locations. The recomputed set of TDOA/FDOA data from the second set of aircraft locations may then be compared to the set of TDOA/FDOA data computed at the first set of aircraft locations to obtain a single overlapping answer for the geo-location of the emitter. However, where the RF signal emitter is only transmitting intermittently or only active for a short period of time, there may not be sufficient time to reposition the two aircraft for making subsequent TDOA/FDOA measurements.
Two aircraft may also be employed as moving sensing platforms in combination with additional equipment that is capable of generating a line of bearing, i.e., Inertial Navigation System (INS)/Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment, precision time reference equipment, and data link equipment. While such a technique allows the location of a RF signal emitter to be determined by measuring a set of TDOA/FDOA data at a single position of the two aircraft, it requires additional costs and complexity associated with the line of bearing equipment.

Systems and methods for TDOA/FDOA location

L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, LP


A machine for dispensing blended iced beverages is characterized by a cabinet for storing a plurality of supplies of beverage ingredients and a refrigeration system for chilling an interior of the cabinet to chill the beverage ingredient supplies. A duct extends between the cabinet interior and a remote point of delivery of the beverage ingredients and a tubing bundle extends from the supplies and through the duct to the delivery point to deliver beverage ingredients from the supplies to the delivery point. The interior of the duct is chilled to chill the tubing bundle and beverage ingredients in the tubing bundle, so that chilled beverage ingredients are always provided to the point of delivery, even when the machine is idle for an extended period of time. Various techniques are provided for chilling the interior of the duct.

The present invention relates to dispensing blended iced beverages, and in particular to an apparatus for and method of mixing and dispensing blended iced beverages in which supplies of beverage product components are chilled and maintained chilled while being delivered to a point of dispense at a dispensing station.
Machines for mixing and dispensing iced beverages have long been known. In recent years, beverages comprising fruit juice or fruit drink that is blended along with ice have become popular. If the drink includes ice cream or yogurt, it is called a smoothie, which is a non-carbonated drink that usually contains fruit or a mixture of different fruits that along with crushed or shaved ice are pulverized by a blender to almost liquid form and served at a freezing temperature to include ice crystals. A customary method of preparing a smoothie with a smoothie machine is to place the beverage product ingredients in a blender at a blending station and then blend the ingredients to a point where the ice is pulverized and evenly dispersed throughout the resulting beverage product.
Smoothie machines normally include a lower housing portion for storage of supplies of beverage ingredients and an upper housing portion for holding a supply of ice for use in the preparation of smoothie beverages, which ice may be manufactured by an integrated icemaker and refrigeration system. A dispense station is at a front of the upper housing portion, along with a beverage component blending station and, desirably, a rinsing station for cleaning the mixing containers used in the blending of smoothie beverages for service to customers. Beverage ingredients, which can include syrup concentrate, fruit juice and water, are delivered through tubing from the supplies in the lower cabinet to the dispensing station at the lower front of the upper cabinet, and ice also is delivered to the dispensing station from a supply of ice that usually is contained in the upper cabinet. Means are provided for crushing or shaving the ice and for metering the amounts of ice, water and beverage ingredients delivered from the mixing station into a mixing container, in accordance with the particular smoothie to be prepared.
For proper consistency and quality, the blended iced beverage or smoothie served to a customer must be at the freezing temperature. This requires that the water and beverage ingredients, as delivered to the dispensing station, be sufficiently cold, since otherwise the ice portion of the beverage will melt excessively when mixed with water and other beverage ingredients and the quality of the smoothie beverage will be degraded. More importantly, since an ingredient of a smoothie is a perishable dairy product such as milk or yogurt, which can spoil if not kept sufficiently cold, National Sanitation Foundation Standards require that the dairy product be kept sufficiently chilled, both in storage and as delivered to the dispensing station. Consequently, some means must be provided to chill not only the supplies of beverage ingredients in the lower cabinet, but also to maintain the beverage ingredients cold as they are delivered through the tubing to the dispense station.

Point of dispense chilling for blended iced beverage machines


A method for network communication includes providing a pool of descriptors to be shared among a plurality of transport service instances used in communicating over a network, each of the descriptors in the pool including a scatter list indicating a buffer that is available in a local memory. When a message containing data to be pushed to the local memory is received over the network on one of transport service instances, one of the descriptors is read from the pool. The data contained in the message are written to the buffer indicated by the scatter list included in the one of the descriptors.

The computer industry is moving toward fast, packetized, serial input/output (I/O) bus architectures, in which computing hosts and peripherals are linked by a switching network, commonly referred to as a switching fabric. A number of architectures of this type have been proposed, culminating in the "InfiniBand™" (IB) architecture, which has been advanced by a consortium led by a group of industry leaders (including Intel, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Compaq, Dell and Microsoft). The IB architecture is described in detail in the InfiniBand Architecture Specification, Release 1.0 (October, 2000), which is incorporated herein by reference. This document is available from the InfiniBand Trade Association at www.infinibandta.org.
Computing devices (hosts or peripherals) connect to the IB fabric via a network interface adapter, which is referred to in IB parlance as a channel adapter. The IB specification defines both a host channel adapter (HCA) for connecting a host processor to the fabric, and a target channel adapter (TCA), intended mainly for connecting peripheral devices to the fabric. Typically, the channel adapter is implemented as a single chip, with connections to the computing device and to the network. Client processes (referred to hereinafter as clients) running on a host processor communicate with the transport layer of the IB fabric by manipulating a transport service instance, known as a "queue pair" (QP) made up of a send work queue and a receive work queue. The IB specification permits the HCA to allocate as many as 16 million (224) QPs, each with a distinct queue pair number (QPN). A given client may open and use multiple QPs simultaneously.
To send and receive messages over the network using a HCA, the client initiates work requests (WRs), which cause work items, called work queue elements (WQEs), to be placed onto the appropriate work queues. Normally, each WR has a data buffer associated with it, to be used for holding the data that is sent or received in executing the WQE. Each QP has its own WQE chain and associated data buffers. Each WQE in the chain and the buffer associated with it are passed to the control of the HCA when the WQE is posted. The HCA then executes the WQEs, so as to communicate with the corresponding QP of the channel adapter at the other end of the link. After it has finished servicing a WQE, the HCA typically writes a completion queue element (CQE) to a completion queue, to be read by the client. The buffer associated with the WQE is freed for use by the client only after the CQE is generated.
The QP that initiates a particular operation, i.e. injects a message into the fabric, is referred to as the requester, while the QP that receives the message is referred to as the responder. an IB operation is defined to include a request message generated by the requester and, as appropriate, its corresponding response generated by the responder. (Not all request messages have responses.) Each message consists of one or more IB packets. Typically, a given HCA will serve simultaneously both as a requester, transmitting requests and receiving responses on behalf of local clients, and as a responder, receiving requests from other channel adapters and returning responses accordingly. Each QP is configured for a certain transport service type, which determines how the requesting and responding QPs interact. Both the source and destination QPs must be configured for the same service type. The IB specification defines four service types: reliable connection, unreliable connection, reliable datagram and unreliable datagram.
IB request messages include, inter alia, remote direct memory access (RDMA) write and send requests, RDMA read requests, and atomic read-modify-write requests. Both RDMA write and send requests carry data sent by the requester and cause the responder to write the data to a memory address at its own end of the link. Whereas RDMA write requests specify the address in the remote responder's memory to which the data are to be written, send requests rely on the responder to determine the memory location at the request destination. The send operation is sometimes referred to as a "push" operation, since the initiator of the data transfer pushes data to the remote QP. The receiving node's channel adapter places the data into the next available receive buffer for that QP. The send operation is also referred to as having channel semantics, because it moves data much like a mainframe I/O channel: each packet of data is tagged with a discriminator, and the destination processor chooses where to place the data based on the discriminator. In the case of IB send packets, the discriminator is the destination address (i.e., the local identifier, or LID) of the receiving channel adapter and the destination QP number.
To specify the receive buffers to use for incoming send requests received by a channel adapter, a client on the host computing device must generate receive WQEs and place them in the receive queues of the appropriate QPs. Each time a valid send request is received, the destination channel adapter takes the next WQE from the receive queue and places the received data in the memory location specified in that WQE. Thus, every valid incoming send request engenders a receive queue operation by the responder.
It follows from this paradigm of send message handling that the destination channel adapter can receive and process incoming send packets on a given QP only when there is an appropriate WQE waiting to be read from the receive queue of the QP. To meet this requirement, the host computing device must prepare and hold in memory at least one receive WQE for every QP that is configured to receive send messages. When an incoming send packet arrives at the destination channel adapter on a given QP, and there is no receive WQE available, the channel adapter cannot process the packet and must therefore discard it. In the case of reliable services, when there is no receive WQE on hand, the channel adapter returns a "Receiver Not Ready" (RNR) NACK packet to the requester. The requester may then retry the send request after a suitable waiting period has passed.
To avoid this situation, the IB specification provides a flow control mechanism for send messages using reliable connection services, based on end-to-end credits. As a rule, a requester cannot sent a request message unless it has the appropriate credits to do so. These credits are passed to the requester by the responder, wherein each credit represents the resources needed by the responder to receive one inbound request message. Specifically, each credit represents one WQE posted to the receive queue of the responding QP.
Given the large number of QPs (up to 16 million) that can be in use at any one time, the need to keep a WQE available in every receive queue can consume a great deal of memory. Practically speaking, it is much more efficient for both the host computing device and the channel adapter to create and maintain several WQEs in the receive queue at any given time, thus increasing even further the memory and computing resources needed for each QP. It can be seen that a prohibitive amount of memory is thus required if a large complement of QPs is to be supported, as provided by the IB specification.


A tractor of the present invention can reduce a manufacturing cost of a lift arm support body. The tractor is configured such that a lift arm is mounted on an upper portion of a transmission casing by way of a lift arm support body, the lift arm is hydraulically controllable by a hydraulic control valve by way of a hydraulic circuit body, and the hydraulic circuit body and the hydraulic control valve are fixed to the transmission casing as bodies separate from a lift arm support body.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a tractor which detachably mounts a hydraulic circuit body and a hydraulic control valve on a transmission casing.
2 . Background Art
Conventionally, as a type of tractor, there has been known a tractor in which a hydraulic casing is communicably connected with an upper portion of a transmission casing, a lift arm support shaft which has an axis thereof extended in the lateral direction penetrates the hydraulic casing, proximal end portions of a pair of left and right lift arms are mounted on left and right-side end portions of the lift arm support shaft, a proximal end portion of an operating arm is mounted on a midst portion of the lift arm support shaft, a distal end portion of a lift cylinder which is arranged in the inside of the hydraulic casing in a lying manner is connected to a distal end portion of the operating arm, and a lift arm is vertically and rotatably operated in an interlocking manner with the extending and contracting operation of the lift cylinder (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-open 2002-283861).
Further, a hydraulic circuit is formed in the hydraulic casing, and a lubricant in the inside of the transmission casing is allowed to pass through the hydraulic circuit as a working oil so as to perform the extension-contraction operation of the lift cylinder.
However, with respect to the above-mentioned tractor, since the hydraulic casing is often formed by casting and hence, there may be a case that small cavities, that is, so-called blowholes are formed in the hydraulic casing. When the hydraulic circuit is formed in such a hydraulic casing, there may arise a drawback that the pressurized oil leaks at blowhole portions.
This brings about a drawback that the whole hydraulic casing is scrapped or disposed and hence, an economical loss is large.
Further, in the above-mentioned tractor, the lubricant in the inside of the transmission casing is supplied to the lift cylinder under pressure as a working oil so as to operate the lift cylinder. Accordingly, when a hydraulic filter is clogged with dusts such as worn-out pieces which are constantly generated due to the meshing of gears in the inside of the transmission casing, the dusts flow into a hydraulic control valve formed in the midst of the hydraulic circuit through a bypass circuit and hence, there exists the possibility that the operation of the hydraulic control valve becomes defective.
Accordingly, there has been adopted the structure in which a partition plate is interposed between the hydraulic casing and the transmission casing so as to separate the working oil in the inside of the hydraulic casing and the lubricant in the inside of the transmission casing.
However, such separation structure suffers from following drawbacks.
(1) In performing the performance/function inspection of the hydraulic control valve, to prevent the leaking of the working oil, it is necessary to perform the inspection in a state that the hydraulic casing is mounted on the transmission casing. Accordingly, the inspection device becomes large-sized and there exists the cumbersomeness that a human power is insufficient for handling the inspection device and a transport assist device is necessary.
(2) It is necessary to prevent the leaking of oil on both surfaces of the partition plate and hence, the highly accurate flatness is required with respect to both surfaces of the partition plate.
(3) Since the partition plate is interposed between the hydraulic casing and the transmission casing, a height on the ground of the hydraulic casing is increased by an amount corresponding to a wall thickness of the partition plate whereby the degree of freedom in designing a mounting height of a driver's seat which is arranged right above the hydraulic casing is small.


A device, method, or computer program product for conducting a cryptographic operation in a vehicle is disclosed herein. The device is arranged to receive key data and input data, and to conduct a cryptographic computation of the input data to output data using the key data. The cryptographic computation is conducted with or without side channel attack counter measures, which are toggled based on the key data or based on a control input.

In computer security, a side channel attack is an attack based on information gained from the implementation of a computer system. Timing information, power consumption, electromagnetic leaks or even sound can provide an extra source of information, which can be exploited. Various counter measures are known to impede side channel attacks. As side-channel attacks rely on the relationship between information emitted (leaked) through a side channel and the secret data, countermeasures may in particular fall into two main categories: (1) eliminate or reduce the release of such information and (2) eliminate the relationship between the leaked information and the secret data, that is, make the leaked information unrelated, or rather uncorrelated, to the secret data, typically through some form of randomization of the ciphertext that transforms the data in a way that can be undone after the cryptographic operation (e.g., decryption) is completed.

Executing cryptographic operations in a control unit of a vehicle


A thin metal film battery cell is formed by one or more plates wound in a spiral thereby forming a roll with two ends at which spiralled edges of the plates are exposed. Each end of the roll is covered by an end strap which includes a body of electrically conductive material from which a tab extends. The body contacts each convolution of the roll while leaving a portion of each convolution exposed so that an electrolyte is able to flow into the roll. The tab attached to and projecting outward from the body for making electical connection to the thin metal film battery cell.

This invention relates to electric storage batteries and more particularly to a termination strap for thin metal film battery cells.
A thin metal film battery cell includes plates made from very thin lead foil pasted with an active material on both surfaces. Plates with positive active material and plates with negative active material are separated by a separator strip and are spirally wound to form a roll. Unpasted edges of the positive plates extend in one direction while unpasted edges of the negative plates extend in an opposite direction from the roll. Terminations of lead or lead alloy are cast on or soldered to the ends of the spiral roll. U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,313 issued Mar. 30, 1993, for "Battery End Connector" describes one arrangement of cast-on end connectors for the two ends of a spiral roll.
The present invention provides a termination for a thin metal film roll in the form of a cap-like strap which uses less lead than the terminations of the prior art and which facilitates improved exposure of each of the spiral layers, or convolutions, to electrolyte. The strap also facilitates high voltage extrusion welding of the straps of adjacent cells.


Systems, methods, and computer-executable instructions for extracting key value data. Optical character recognition (OCR) text of a document is received. The y-coordinate of characters are adjusted to a common y-coordinate. The rows of OCR text are tokenized into tokens based on a distance between characters. The tokens are ordered based on the x,y coordinates of the characters. The document is clustered into a cluster based on the ordered tokens and ordered tokens from other documents. Keys for the cluster are determined from the first set of documents. Each key is a token from a first set of documents. A value is assigned to each key based on the tokens for the document, and values are assigned to each key for the other documents. The values for the document and the values for the other documents are stored in an output document.

Forms are a common way to collect structured information. Examples of forms include invoices, receipts, purchase requests, tax forms, etc. A form can be any document that has key-value pairs. As an example, a key-value pair is an address label, the key, along with the data that represents an address, the value. Input into forms can include typed text or hand writing. As forms can include many different keys and different types of input, extracting the key-value pairs from forms cannot be done that same way for different types of forms. In addition, different types of input provide different challenges in extracting key-value pairs.


An augmented reality system and an assembling method are provided for assembling a first set-up component to a second set-up component under the assistance of an augmented reality system. The augmented realty system may capture a first part of a marker and a second part of the marker associated with the respective component. The augmented realty system may capture a variable marker associated with one of the components. The augmented realty system may capture a first marker and a second marker associated with the respective component. The augmented reality system can recognize the location and/or status of the markers and thus decide whether the connection between the first and second set-up component is established correctly or not.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements for the assembling and monitoring of a measurement or production set-up.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known in the art to assemble measurement or production set-ups manually from a plurality of components. For this purpose, the assembly and correct connection of different parts to be assembled are inspected visually and/or manually. Before putting the assembly of the components into operation, an operator has to check all connections and may consult technical data sheets and select feasible components in order to assemble the set-up according to predetermined specifications.
As the complexity and configurations of measurement or production set-ups increases, operators are looking for directed instruction for how to properly setup, connect, use, troubleshoot, service, and maintain the components. This issue is particularly important within the biopharmaceutical industry where strict industry regulations, documentation requirements, the high value of product, and the customization of components and equipment, particularly in single-use disposable systems, leads to an ever increasing complexity for operators. The process components itself and associated devices should be intelligent and intuitive to use. Further, the operator should be guided through process operations without having to navigate several manuals containing sections that may not apply to the customer's individualized measurement or production set-up.
Thus, an object of the present invention is to propose a method, a computer program product and an augmented reality system that permit an efficient assembly and monitoring of a measurement or production setup.

Assembling method, monitoring method, and augmented reality system used for indicating correct connection of parts


This invention relates to an exercise device of skill and amusement. The device includes a generator within a hollow body which defines a predetermined path. Manual manipulation of the hollow body forces the generator to move along the predetermined path which in turn results in the production of electric power which is used to sequentially energize a number of light or audio means. Activation of sequential light or audio means provides amusement and an indication of the amount of manual skill being exercised by the user.

Many previously available devices are utilized to alleviate what is considered by some as the drudgery of exercise. A variety of other devices test an individual's skill and coordination. Still other devices are intended to simply entertain and amuse. Rarely does a single device encompass all of these attributes. A number of devices of entertainment and amusement known in the prior art include a light or lights powered by a battery. However, applicant is not aware of a single device of this type which utilizes a generator to power its light means. Such a combination has not been taught heretofore, primarily because of the difficulty involved in generating sufficient motion to drive the generator in order to power the light means.


An apparatus for inserting, in the molding of picture-frames, metal staples adapted to retain laminar backing elements for pictures, photographs and the like, comprising a beam which is arranged horizontally above the surface that supports the molding, two fixing tools which are guided on the beam transversely to two opposite sides of the molding, an actuation for adjusting the distance between the fixing tools along the beam as a function of the distance between the sides, and a further actuation for vertically actuating the fixing tools into the position for applying metallic staples in the sides.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for inserting, in the molding of frames, metal staples adapted to retain laminar supporting elements for pictures, photographs and the like.
It is known that in order to frame pictures there are commercially available frames which comprise a rectangular molding formed by assembled strips which are internally provided with a flange which acts as abutment for the glass plate designed to protect the picture to be framed and for a panel of cardboard or the like adapted to support the picture at the rear. In order to retain the panel and the glass plate within the frame, flexible metal staples are inserted behind the panel by means of a mechanical or pneumatic fixing tool which is usually of the manual type.
The staples are inserted only partially, so as to have an end which protrudes toward the inside of the frame so that it can be folded back when the panel is to be removed or folded forward again in order to reposition the panel.

Apparatus for inserting metal backing element retaining staples in the molding of picture-frames


Peptides comprising fibrin-specific epitopic sequences are used to prepare hybridoma cell lines producing antifibrin-specific monoclonal antibodies substantially devoid of fibrinogen-cross-reactivity obtained by somatic cell fusion. The antibodies are useful for the in vivo and in vitro detection of thrombi and fibrin deposits.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to synthetic peptides capable of eliciting fibrin-specific antibodies free of fibrinogen cross-reactivity. This invention also relates to hybridoma cell lines secreting antifibrin-specific monoclonal antibodies free of cross-reactivity with fibrinogen, the circulating fibrin precursor. These antibodies have been found to be useful as agents for the in vivo localization of fibrin deposits and the detection of thrombi in humans and other animals.
2. Description of the Background Art
In vivo immunodetection of thrombi and fibrin deposits remains an important clinical problem. In humans, the detection and localization of deep vein thrombi and coronary artery thrombi are two clinically important problems.
Blood clots when thrombin cleaves two pairs of small peptides from fibrinogen to yield fibrin monomers (Blomback, B. and Vestermark, A., Ark. Kemi 12: 173 (1958) and Doolittle, R. F., Adv. Protein Chem. 27: 1 (1973)). Fibrin monomers spontaneously aggregate to form an insoluble gel, which is then covalently stabilized by Factor XIIIa. Despite the dramatic differences between the two, fibrin retains 98% of the original covalent structure of fibrinogen. Thus, it is understandable that antifibrin serum cross-reacts strongly with fibrinogen, and that only one instance is known where a fibrin-specific serum was produced (Bosnjakovic, V. B. et al., Lancet 2: 452 (1977)).
Polyclonal antibodies raised against fibrin or fibrinogen have been utilized for localizing a variety of tumors, in particular the fast-growing kind (Day, E. D., et al., J. Natl. Cancer Insti. 22: 413 (1958), Bale, W. F., et al., Cancer Res. 20: 1488 (1960), Pressman, D., Cancer Res. 40: 2965 (1980)). However, these antibodies all showed to some extent cross-reactivity with fibrinogen.
Polyclonal antibodies to fibrin-fibrinogen, to fibrinogen alone or to degradation products of both polypeptides have been developed for use in the detection of venous thrombosis in humans (Reich, T., et al., Surgery 60(6): 1211, Spar, I. L., et al., Circulation Research, XVII: 322 (1965), and Stephan, W., et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,765). In Reich, T., et al. and Spar, I. L., et al., supra, the radiolabelled antibodies had a substantial degree of fibrin-fibrinogen cross-reactivity. In the Stephan, W., et al. reference, the antiserum was elicited by immunological challenge with the early fibrin and fibrinogen degradation products formed by the action of plasmin on fibrin and fibrinogen, and referred to in the literature as fibrinogen S (fg-X), and fibrinogen Y (fg-Y).
A different approach for the detection of deep-vein thrombosis was undertaken by Knight, L. C., et al., J. Nuclear Med. 19(8): 891 (1978) by radio-iodinating fibrinogen. This method, however, was found to be inferior to the labelling of platelets with .sup.111 In, for the localization of thrombi in deep-vein thrombosis.
When plasminogen is converted by an activator to plasmin, the active fibrinolytic enzyme of plasma, it develops a marked affinity for its substrate, fibrin. Ouchi, H. and Warren, R., Surgery 51(1): 42 ( 1962 ), discovered that this affinity might be put to use by tagging plasminogen with a radioactive isotope and using it as a tracer to seek out intravascular clots. However, the .sup.131 I-labelled plasminogen showed a somewhat depressed fibrinolytic activity (28.6% ).
Pilgeram, L., U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,040 improved on an earlier method for detecting circulating fibrin (Lorand, L., in Fibrinogen and Fibrin Turnover of Clotting Factors, Ed. Koller F., F. K. Schattauer Verlag-Stuttgart, 1963; and Kisker, C. D. and Rush, R., in "Detection of Intravascular Clotting," J. Clin. Investing. 50:2235 (1971)). Pilgeram's improvement consisted in attaching an isotopic label to the soluble circulating fibrin, by means of a Factor XIII-containing glycine-C.sup.14 ethyl ester. However, it is recognized that the use of antifibrin antibodies which crossreact with fibrinogen is limited.
Although not previously done in the case of the fibrin molecule, synthetic peptides corresponding to portions characteristic of certain antigens have been prepared. For example peptides corresponding to carcinoembrionic antigen (CCEA) are known in the prior art, and have been used for raising antibodies (Sela, M., et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,075,194). The thus raised antibodies were intended for use in the detection of adenocarcinomas of the digestive tract, pancreas and breast.
A need continues to exist for highly specific antifibrin monoclonal antibodies and for synthetic epitopic peptides capable of raising such nonfibrinogen-cross-reacting antibodies. The antibodies would be useful for the in vivo detection of thrombi and fibrin deposits.

Synthetic peptides capable of eliciting fibrin-specific monoclonal antibodies lacking fibrinogen-cross-reactivity


A backlight unit including an LED module including a plurality of LEDs emitting light, and an LED substrate supporting and driving the plurality of LEDs, a diffusion sheet placed over the LED module and diffusing light emitted from the LED module, an optical sheet placed over the diffusion sheet, a module supporter placed on a back of the LED module and supporting the LED module, a chassis assembly supporting the module supporter and the diffusion sheet, and a plurality of support pins supporting the diffusion sheet and the optical sheet against the chassis assembly. Thus, a backlight unit having an improved structure in assembling efficiency is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a backlight unit, and more particularly, to a backlight unit employing a light emitting diode (LED) module as a light source.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a backlight unit is placed in a back of a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel and emits light toward the LCD panel. There has recently been developed a backlight unit employing an LED as a light source.
As the backlight unit employing the LED as the light source, there is an LCD backlight unit disclosed in Korean Utility Model No. 1995-33088. Such a conventional backlight unit comprises a diffusion sheet to scatter and diffuse light, a frame placed in a back and an edge of the diffusion sheet, an LCD driving printed circuit board (PCB) placed behind the frame, and an LED chip coupled to the LCD driving PCB and inserted into a plurality of holes formed on the frame to emit light toward the diffusion sheet.
However, it is inconvenient to process and assemble the frame of the conventional backlight as described above because the LED chip is coupled to the LCD driving PCB and inserted into the plurality of holes formed on the frame.

Backlight unit and LCD display apparatus having the same


A solar collector assembly includes a base frame having a half-round channel body and two side wings, a collector unit supported on two supports within the half-round channel body, two vertically spaced transparent top covers covered over the collector unit, and two end covers sealed at two opposite ends of the half-round channel body and the transparent top covers, wherein the supports can be adjusted to change the elevation and the angle of inclination in the X-axis or Y-axis direction; the base frame has inside space stuffed with a heat insulative material.

The present invention relates to a solar collector assembly for a solar heating system which can be directly mounted on the roof frame of a building and served as the roof covering.
Various solar collector assemblies have been disclosed for use in solar heating systems, and have appeared on the market. As illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 6, a solar heating system generally comprises a solar collector A, a water tank B. A rack C may be provided to support the solar collector A on the roof tiles (see FIG. 1). Either type of conventional solar collector units cannot be adjusted to change the elevation or the angle of inclination of the collector panel, and therefore their performance is limited. FIG. 3 shows collector tubes D directly arranged in the top furrows of the corrugated roof covering E to absorb the radiant energy of the sun for heating water passing through. However, the limited heat absorbing area cannot effectively absorb the radiant energy of the sun. FIG. 5 shows a conventional corrugated roof covering E which does not absorb the radiant energy of the sun but can only protect against the weather. FIG. 6 shows a roof type solar heating system according to the prior art, which includes a plurality of collector tubes arranged in the bottom furrows of a corrugated metal roof covering thereof and covered by a heat insulative bottom board. The collector tubes are respectively connected between a water supply pipe and a water return pipe of a solar heating system. Because the collector tubes are less effective in the absorption of the radiant energy of the sun, this installation is not satisfactory in use. Furthermore, because the corrugated metal roof cover is heat conductive, the collected heat energy may escape easily.
In general, conventional solar collector devices are commonly less effective and difficult to install, and cannot be adjusted according to the angle of radiation of the sun.

Solar collector assembly for a solar heating system