The present invention provides unique recombinant antigens representing distinct antigenic regions of the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) genome which can be used as reagents for the detection of antibodies and antigen in body fluids from individuals exposed to HCV. The present invention also provides an assay for detecting the presence of an antibody to an HCV antigen in a sample by contacting the sample with the recombinant antigens. Preferred assay formats include a screening assay, a confirmatory assay, a competition or neutralization assay and an immunodot assay.

Acute viral hepatitis is clinically diagnosed by a well-defined set of patient symptoms, including jaundice, hepatic tenderness, and an increase in the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase. Additional serologic immunoassays are generally performed to diagnose the specific type of viral causative agent. Historically, patients presenting clinical hepatitis symptoms and not otherwise infected by hepatitis A, hepatitis B, Epstein-Barr or cytomegalovirus were clinically diagnosed as having non-A non-B hepatitis (NANBH) by default. The disease may result in chronic liver damage.
Each of the well-known, immunologically characterized hepatitis-inducing viruses, hepatitis A virus (HAV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis D virus (HDV) belongs to a separate family of viruses and has a distinctive viral organization, protein structure, and mode of replication.
Attempts to identify the NANBH virus by virtue of genomic similarity to one of the known hepatitis viruses have failed, suggesting that NANBH has a distinct organization and structure. [Fowler, et al., J. Med. Virol., 12:205-213 (1983) and Weiner, et al., J. Med. Virol., 21:239-247 (1987)].
Progress in developing assays to detect antibodies specific for NANBH has been particularly hampered by difficulties in correctly identifying antigens associated with NANBH. See, for example, Wands, J., et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,076, Wands, et al., Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci., 83:6608-6612 (1986), Ohori, et al., J. Med. Virol., 12:161-178 (1983), Bradley, et al., Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci., 84:6277-6281, (1987), Akatsuka, T., et al., J. Med. Virol, 20:43-56 (1986), Seto, B., et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/234,641 (available from U.S. Department of Commerce National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Va., No. 89138168), Takahashi, K., et al., European Patent Application No. 0 293 274, published Nov. 30, 1988, and Seelig, R., et al., in PCT Application PCT/EP88/00123.
Recently, another hepatitis-inducing virus has been unequivocally identified as hepatitis C virus (HCV) by Houghton, M., et al., European Patent Application publication number 0 318 216, May 31, 1989. Related papers describing this virus include Kuo, G., et al., Science, 244:359-361 (1989) and Choo, Q., et. al, Science, 244:362-364 (1989). Houghton, M., et al. reported isolating cDNA sequences from HCV which encode antigens which react immunologically with antibodies present in patients infected with NANBH, thus establishing that HCV is one of the viral agents causing NANBH. The cDNA sequences associated with HCV were isolated from a cDNA library prepared from the RNA obtained from pooled serum from a chimpanzee with chronic HCV infection. The cDNA library contained cDNA sequences of approximate mean size of about 200 base pairs. The cDNA library was screened for encoded epitopes expressed in clones that could bind to antibodies in sera from patients who had previously experienced NANBH.
In the European Patent Application, Houghton, M., et al. also described the preparation of several superoxide dismutase fusion polypeptides (SOD) and the use of these SOD fusion polypeptides to develop an HCV screening assay. The most complex SOD fusion polypeptide described in the European Patent Application, designated c100-3, was described as containing 154 amino acids of human SOD at the aminoterminus, 5 amino acid residues derived from the expression of a synthetic DNA adapter containing a restriction site, EcoRI, 363 amino acids derived from the expression of a cloned HCV cDNA fragment, and 5 carboxyl terminal amino acids derived from an MS2 cloning vector nucleotide sequence. The DNA sequence encoding this polypeptide was transformed into yeast cells using a plasmid. The transformed cells were cultured and expressed a 54,000 molecular weight polypeptide which was purified to about 80% purity by differential extraction.
Other SOD fusion polypeptides designated SOD-NANB.sub.5-1-1 and SOD-NANB.sub.81 were expressed in recombinant bacteria. The E.coli fusion polypeptides were purified by differential extraction and by chromatography using anion and cation exchange columns. The purification procedures were able to produce SOD-NANB.sub.5-1-1 as about 80% pure and SOD-NAN38, as about 50% pure.
The recombinant SOD fusion polypeptides described by Houghton, M., et al. were coated on microtiter wells or polystyrene beads and used to assay serum samples. Briefly, coated microtiter wells were incubated with a sample in a diluent. After incubation, the microtiter wells were washed and then developed using either a radioactively labelled sheep anti-human antibody or a mouse antihuman IgG-HRP (horseradish peroxidase) conjugate. These assays were used to detect both post acute phase and chronic phase HCV infection.
Due to the preparative methods, assay specificity required adding yeast or E. coli extracts to the samples in order to prevent undesired immunological reactions with any yeast or E.coli antibodies present in samples.
Ortho Diagnostic Systems Inc. have developed a immunoenzyme assay to detect antibodies to HCV antigens. The Ortho assay procedure is a three-stage test for serum/plasma carried out in a microwell coated with the recombinant yeast/hepatitis C virus SOD fusion polypeptide c100-3.
In the first stage, a test specimen is diluted directly in the test well and incubated for a specified length of time. If antibodies to HCV antigens are present in the specimen, antigen-antibody complexes will be formed on the microwell surface. If no antibodies are present, complexes will not be formed and the unbound serum or plasma proteins will be removed in a washing step.
In the second stage, anti-human IgG murine monoclonal antibody horseradish peroxidase conjugate is added to the microwell. The conjugate binds specifically to the antibody portion of the antigen-antibody complexes. If antigen-antibody complexes are not present, the unbound conjugate will also be removed by a washing step.
In the third stage, an enzyme detection system composed of o-phenylenediamine 2HCl (OPD) and hydrogen peroxide is added to the test well. If bound conjugate is present, the OPD will be oxidized, resulting in a colored end product. After formation of the colored end product, dilute sulfuric acid is added to the microwell to stop the color-forming detection reaction.
The intensity of the colored end product is measured with a microwell reader. The assay may be used to screen patient serum and plasma It is established that HCV may be transmitted by contaminated blood and blood products. In transfused patients, as many as 10% will suffer from post-transfusion hepatitis. Of these, approximately 90% are the result of infections diagnosed as HCV. The prevention of transmission of HCV by blood and blood products requires reliable, sensitive and specific diagnosis and prognostic tools to identify HCV carriers as well as contaminated blood and blood products. Thus, there exists a need for an HCV assay which uses reliable and efficient reagents and methods to accurately detect the presence of HCV antibodies in samples.

Hepatitis C assay utilizing recombinant antigens


Apparatus for the feeding of packaging blanks to a folding unit. In the production of (film) packs, especially for stacks of paper handkerchiefs, blanks are severed from a continuously supplied web of material and fed to a folding member, especially a folding turret (11) for wrapping the paper handkerchiefs and folding the blank (10). When there is a momentary interruption in the feed of articles to be wrapped to the folding turret (11), the production and conveyance of blanks (10) are also to be interrupted. For this purpose, a fixedly located counter knife (22) of a severing station (16) is temporarily movable out of the operative or cutting position, so that, despite the fact that a knife roller (21) with cutting knives (23, 24) continues to run, a severing cut is not made in the stationary web of material (12). For this purpose, a support for the counter knife (22) is equipped with an adjusting mechanism acting in a pulsatory manner. The arrangement and actuation of the knives, especially the movement of the counter knife in order to interrupt the blank production, make it possible to achieve extremely rapid and accurate operating cycles.

The invention relates to an apparatus for the feeding of blanks of packaging material to a folding unit (folding turret) for the packaging of articles or groups of articles, the blanks being severable from a continuous web of material by interacting knives (rotating severing knives, stationary counter knives) and being feedable to the folding turret, and with a drive for the web of material, especially with draw rollers.
In the packaging of articles into blanks severed from a web of material, in the region of a folding turret or the like, there is the problem of feeding the blanks, whilst at the same time temporarily interrupting the conveyance of articles. U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,895 provides a process and an apparatus for the feeding of packaging blanks to a folding unit, and in these the production and therefore also the feeding of blanks to the folding turret are interrupted when and as long as articles, especially stacks of paper handkerchiefs, are not supplied to the folding turret. The apparatus of this older problem solution is designed in such a way that knives are arranged on two oppositely rotating knife rollers. On one of these knife rollers, the severing knives are adjustable, in such a way that, for the temporary interruption of the blank production, they are moved out of cutting engagement, specifically as a result of the pivoting of the pivotably mounted severing knives.


The present invention provides a method for controlling lighting fixtures over a wireless network that includes connecting a junction box to a power source, connecting a lighting fixture to the junction box, establishing a connection over a wireless network between the junction box and a controller, and controlling a function of the lighting fixture by transmitting a signal from the controller to the junction box over the wireless network.

Household devices, such as lighting fixtures, ceiling fans, audio/visual equipment, garage door openers, and other types of devices, are powered by a connection to standard household wiring provided in a home. The standard household wiring connects an electric power source to the household devices. The household devices are controlled by switches that are connected to the electric power source by the standard household wiring. The standard household wiring is also used to connect the switches to the household devices. Thus, wires are needed to connect each of the household devices and the switches to the electric power source.
If multiple switches are desired to control a single household device (e.g., two or three switches control a single lighting fixture), three-way or four-way switches are required to enable independent operation of the household device by each of the switches. Wiring of three-way and four-way switches is difficult. Proper connections must be made between or among each of the switches to enable proper operation of the switches. This is time-consuming for an electrician. If a mistake is made in the wiring, it is often difficult and further time-consuming to determine a cause of a problem. Additionally, the wiring of three-way and four-way switches is expensive, requires a significant amount of wiring, and makes it difficult to provide a dimming feature to a lighting fixture.

Method for wiring devices in a structure using a wireless network


A laparoscopic fascial closure device for fashioning a secure closure about a laparoscopic puncture site. The device comprises an elongate cannula having proximal and distal ends. A needle suture complex is selectively deployed from the distal end of the device that is operative to deploy a suture across the puncture site from within the body and draw the free ends of the suture outwardly from the body via the laparoscopic port site. The device is configured to be utilized through a ten millimeter or larger laparoscopic port, and is operative to position the suture at the puncture site such that the suture extends in a diametrically-opposed configuration at least 1.0 cm or greater across opposed sides of the puncture site.

Laparoscopic surgery is a well-known, widely utilized surgical technique that advantageously reduces patient recovery time due to its minimal tissue damage, which consequently permits the patient to return to normal activity in a shorter period of time. Generally, laparoscopic surgery relies upon the formation of one or more trocar puncture wounds through which are deployed surgical instruments and a rod-like telescope with a light source to enable the surgeon to view the organs and conduct the surgery.
Notwithstanding the tremendous advantages afforded by laparoscopic surgery, such technique still presents substantial clinical problems. More specifically, the puncture wounds created within the body by the surgeon to gain access to the surgical site are often difficult and time-consuming to close, and can place great demands on the surgeon. Such task is made even more difficult when laparoscopic surgery is performed upon obese patients where there is a relatively deep puncture wound formed through a relatively small puncture site or incision. Indeed, the puncture site frequently needs to be enlarged following the laparoscopic procedure to ensure that the site is closed at the interior abdominal wall. Ironically, the need to enlarge the puncture site in order to adequately close the same partially negates the primary advantages of laparoscopic surgery; however, such practice is essential insofar as failure to properly close the puncture wound can lead to serious medical complications.
To address such shortcomings, numerous attempts have been made to develop instruments capable of quickly and effectively forming a closure of a laparoscopic fascial defect or puncture site. Exemplary of such attempts include those devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,279, issued to Gordon et al., on Apr. 21, 1998, entitled ENDOSCOPIC SUTURE SYSTEM; U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,275, issued to Bradley et al., on Dec. 20, 1994, entitled SURGICAL SUTURING DEVICE AND METHOD OF USE; U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,773, issued to Greenstein on Oct. 12, 1999, entitled LAPAROSCOPIC SUTURING DEVICE AND SUTURE NEEDLES; U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,329, issued to Hinchcliffe on Apr. 4, 1995; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,757, issued to Sauer et al. on Apr. 16, 1996, entitled METHOD OF CLOSING PUNCTURE WOUNDS, the teachings of all of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.
Such attempts, however, have proven less than satisfactory and fail to provide a practical solution to the foregoing problems. In this regard, substantially all such devices allegedly designed to facilitate the closure of a laparoscopic puncture site are incapable of deploying a suture a sufficient distance about the puncture site to fashion an appropriate closure. In this respect, prior art devices, such as those referenced above, are operative to stitch a suture into position at points diametrically across the puncture site; however, such suture typically only extends thereacross by a limited distance, which is less than 1.0 cm. Such limited distance fails to sufficiently approximate the peritoneum and fascia surrounding the puncture site sufficiently to form an adequate closure. While it is recognized that a suture extending a greater distance across the puncture site would be more advantageous, the capability of prior art devices position such a suture have not heretofore been available insofar as any laparoscopic fascial closure device must necessarily be insertable through a 10 mm laparoscopic port, which places considerable spacial constraints on the design of such devices.
Additionally disadvantageous with such prior art closure devices include the failure of such devices to selectively deploy needles for positioning and stitching a suture across the puncture site that can ultimately be withdrawn from the puncture wound without the need to enlarge the incision or puncture site. Among those devices possessing such defect include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,964,733 and 5,403,329, referenced above, which deploy needles that, after having been deployed to fix a suture in position across an intra-abdominal puncture site, are inoperative to become repositioned within the device deployed thereby to thus atraumatically withdraw such needles from the patient.
Accordingly, there is a substantial need in the art for a laparoscopic fascial closure device that overcomes the aforementioned shortcomings in the art. Specifically, there is a need for such a device that is capable of being deployed through a 10 mm or larger laparoscopic port or puncture site that is further capable of deploying a suture at least 1.0 cm across from the periphery thereof. There is additionally a need for such a device that is capable of deploying a suture across a laparoscopic puncture site that provides for the retraction and capture of needles utilized to secure such suture in position back within the device deployed thereby to thus enable the needles to be easily and atraumatically withdrawn from the laparoscopic puncture wound.
The present invention specifically addresses and alleviates the above-identified deficiencies in the art. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a laparoscopic fascial closure device that is operative to fashion a secure closure of laparoscopic puncture wounds, and in particular, in abdominal tissues. According to a preferred embodiment, the device comprises an elongate cannula or other hollow tubular member having proximal and distal ends, the latter being configured to be inserted within the body via the laparoscopic trocar-created punctures used to perform the laparoscopic procedure. To that end, the cannula is sized to be inserted through a puncture site of at least 10 mm or greater.
Disposed within the cannula, and more particularly the distal end thereof, is a needle/suture complex consisting of two diametrically-opposed needle members having an elongate suture extending therebetween that are operatively transitional from a first insertion configuration, whereby the needles are confined within the distal-most end of the cannula for insertion through the abdomen to the puncture site; a second operative configuration whereby the needle members extend outwardly from the distal-most end of the cannula such that each respective needle is oriented toward the fascia surrounding the puncture site in a generally perpendicular orientation. Such needle members, according to said second configuration, are further oriented to extend outwardly from the distal-most end of the cannula by a distance of at least 1.0 cm or greater and pierce through the peritoneum and fascia at diametrically opposed points across the puncture site. To facilitate the ability of the needle/suture complex to gather tissue about a puncture site to form the desired closure, the needle/suture complex will preferably be positioned upon a tapered mount having a generally hourglass shape to thus enable tissue to gather thereabout.
The needle members are further operative to assume a third retraction configuration whereby each respective tip of the two diametrically-opposed needles are brought into and contained within the distal end of the cannula. To facilitate the ability of the device to assume the third configuration, a grasping mechanism is disposed within the cannula that is operative to grasp each respective needle tip and draw the same back into the cannula. The needle/suture complex is mounted upon a connecting rod disposed within the cannula, which is operative to be advanced downwardly into the cannula such that the needles of the needle/suture complex are deployed through and ultimately retracted back within the lumen of the cannula. When in such third configuration, the device is then withdrawn from the body.
In use, the suture connected across the respective needles is caused to extend across the puncture site with the free ends thereof being drawn upwardly from the puncture wound as the device is withdrawn from the body, which thus leaves the two ends of the sutures free to be cut away from the needles and then tied down to close the fascial defect. Advantageously, because the suture is positioned such that the same extends at least 1.0 cm or greater across opposed sides of the puncture site, a sufficient amount of tissue is utilized to give strength to the closure. Additionally, such design advantageously eliminates the need to deploy additional sutures across the suture site, as is necessary with prior art needle passing devices which must be passed multiple times across the puncture wound site. The device further forms a closure in such a manner that the pneumoperitoneum is maintained, thus enabling the device to be utilized without direct visualization with a laparoscope.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a laparoscopic port site fascial closure device that is substantially more effective and efficient at forming a closure about a laparoscopic puncture site than prior art devices and techniques.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a laparoscopic port site fascial closure device that is capable of forming a closure about a laparoscopic puncture site utilizing a single deployment thereof.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a laparoscopic port site fascial closure device that can form a closure about a laparoscopic puncture site in a manner that is far less traumatic than prior art devices and techniques.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a laparoscopic port site fascial closure device that is able to form a closure about a laparoscopic puncture site such that the pneumoperitoneum is maintained such that the abdominal wall is kept away from the abdominal viscera.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a laparoscopic port site fascial closure device that is capable of being utilized without direct visualization.
Still further objects of the present invention include a laparoscopic port site fascial closure device that can be utilized to form a closure about virtually any type of laparoscopic puncture site that is at least 10 mm or greater, is of simple construction, reliable, and exceedingly simple and time efficient to utilize.

Laparoscopic port site fascial closure device


Classification and verification of static file transfer protocols is provided. A network node sitting in the path of packets classifies traffic according to its content, and then statistically verifies that the content actually matches the initial classification. Classification and verification are standard building blocks in networks systems that provide quality-of-service. However, unlike traditional quality-of-service building blocks, a system of the present invention takes a trust-but-verify approach, and thus can rely on longer-timescale statistical online or offline verification to reduce computational requirements. This improves scalability and reduces the cost and complexity that in part has prevented prior service differentiation systems from succeeding in the Internet. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can combine the classification and verification building blocks with a networked directory service to allow further classification as to whether particular content is for pay.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a network file transfer protocol. In particular, the present invention is directed toward classifying and verifying static file transfer protocols.
2. Description of the Related Art
Early electronic communication systems provided quality of service (QoS) guarantees. The analog public switched telephone network (PSTN) used electrically separate wires, and then switched to digital using time-division multiplexing. Both methods provide low delay with strict bandwidth guarantees. However, neither provides for variable bandwidth demands or cost-effectively scales to the large demand placed on today's networks.
As the Internet has taken over most data communications and an increasing percentage of voice communications, stalwarts have attempted to provide the same guarantees that were possible in the older TDMA and analog networks. Attempts include ATM, IETF IntServ, and IETF DiffServ (DS). ATM is still used today for routing aggregate traffic, but it has not been used as originally envisioned: as an end-to-end solution for providing guarantees to individual telephone calls, video streams, file transfers, and other multimedia sessions.
These QoS architectures have failed for various reasons, among them lack of an appropriate business model, management complexity, computational cost, and state maintenance overhead. When coupled with falling bandwidth costs, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have chosen the alternative of over-provisioning bandwidth.
Peer-to-peer file sharing applications such as Gnutella, E-Mule, and BitTorrent when unchecked tend to behave incompatibly with over-provisioning, since they consume all available bandwidth. Peer-to-peer file sharing comprises about 60% of today's Internet traffic with the bulk generated by a handful of customers. As such, some ISPs strictly rate limit file sharing traffic in order to reduce the impact to loss-sensitive IP telephony and web traffic.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), IntServ, and the Public-Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) provide service guarantees by first establishing a circuit or virtual circuit and reserving resources at every switch along the circuit's path. In PSTN, the circuits extend all the way to individual telephones and thus state maintained in each switch grows proportional to the number of telephone calls traversing the switch. ATM provides a richer set of service semantics appropriate for data, video, and voice, but likewise requires state proportional to the number of virtual circuits traversing a switch. ATM survives today by providing virtual circuits only for highly-aggregated traffic and without the service semantics appropriate to individual video or voice calls.
The Internet conversely maintains no per-call (per-flow) state. Instead of associating each call with a circuit, the Internet breaks content into individually-routed packets, each bearing a source and destination address. Thus, Internet routers have far less state maintenance and signaling overhead. IntServ was designed as the Internet's answer to ATM and the PSTN, but it too required maintaining per-flow state.
To reduce IntServ's state maintenance, the IETF proposed Differentiated Services (DiffServ), motivated principally by Van Jacobson et al., and David Clark et al. DiffServ defines classes analogous to the classes used by the United States Postal Service. In the postal system, every package bears a stamp or tag. Packages marked for overnight delivery are given priority sorting, and then flown to the destination city. Packages bearing first class stamps typically travel by cheaper and slower ground-based transportation. With differentiated service, every packet entering the network is marked to identify its class. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, every packet enters through an edge router, which meters, marks, rate limits, and polices traffic. Meters, markers, rate limiters, and policers are all traffic conditioning building blocks. If the network is adequately provisioned and traffic properly conditioned at the entry points then statistical service guarantees are possible. An example of an edge router includes Cisco's 7507 router.
As illustrated in FIG. 1a, ingress and egress edge routers sit in the path of packets entering each service provider's network. The edge router marks by inserting a number called a "codepoint" in the DS field in each packet's IP header. In the illustrated example, the edge stamps the packet with the number corresponding to Expedited Forwarding (EF). EF prescribes low-delay with strict rate limits, and is thus often proposed for use for Voice-over-IP. Interior routers then direct EF marked packets into a high priority queue separate from Best Effort (BE) packets. BE prescribes only that the network will give its "best effort" to deliver the packets, but packets may be lost, duplicated, or reordered and there is no guarantee on delay or bandwidth. Best Effort is most appropriate for applications that tolderate loss and delay such as mail and long file transfers. In the Internet and in this illustration, BE applies to all traffic that is not intentionally given special treatment. The intermediate routers do not distinguish between connections, and do not maintain per-flow state or queues. Intermediate edge routers may remark, delay, or drop packets to enforce policy.
FIG. 1b illustrates the building blocks found in a typical edge router sitting near end-users. As packets enter the edge router, they are first classified based on the source and destination IP address found in the packet's IP header and the source and destination port found in the packet's TCP header. The lookup returns the appropriate service class for the packet. The service class is then mapped onto the appropriate codepoint which is stamped into the DiffServ field in the packet's IP header and the source and destination port found in the packet's TCP header. The lookup returns the appropriate service class for the packet. The service class is then mapped onto the appropriate codepoint which is stamped into the DiffServ field in the packet's IP header. In this example, the edge router then steers ERF marked packets into per-connection queues that are appropriately rate-limited by the scheduler to ensure each connection adheres to a particular service descriptor, in this case specifying the connection's maximum rate. In this example, all best effort packets are dumped in a single lower-priority queue.
Using DiffServ, only edge routers are allowed to maintain per-flow state. Interior routers implement scheduling or buffer management components that maintain only per-class state. Since the number of classes is small and fixed, DiffServ reduces the amount of state routers must maintain compared to switches in ATM or public-switched telephone networks.
DiffServ suffers from the problem that neighboring service provider networks must either extend trust to create a single interior network spanning service-provider network boundaries, or they must place an edge router(s) at the peering point between the two networks. However, the peering point is one of the most heavily-trafficked points on the network and among the least capable of maintaining per-flow state.


A metadata display control method and system for a digital broadcast receiver for displaying metadata associated with a broadcast program on a secondary display terminal while displaying the broadcast program on a primary display terminal is provided. The metadata display control method includes receiving a broadcast program and metadata of the broadcast program at a primary display terminal from a first broadcast channel, transmitting the metadata to a secondary display terminal while displaying the broadcast program, and displaying the metadata received from the primary display terminal at the secondary display terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital broadcast system and, in particular, to a metadata display control method and system for a digital broadcast receiver that may display metadata associated with a broadcast program on a secondary display terminal while displaying the broadcast program on a primary display terminal.
2. Discussion of the Background
With the advance of technologies and the demand variations of subscribers, broadcast service environments are changing and becoming more complicated. Analog broadcast services are evolving into digital broadcast services, and broadcasting media are diversified with terrestrial, cable, and satellite broadcast systems. Recently, interactive broadcast services have begun to operate with communication networks, and broadcast receivers are becoming more advanced.
Interactive broadcast services include Smart TV, Enhanced TV, Intelligent TV, and Internet TV. The concept of interactive television (TV) covers a wide range of services and systems. An interactive TV may allow a viewer to control the time and program to watch and provides various additional functions such as Internet access, data broadcast, and Personal Video Recorder (PVR) functions. Particularly, an interactive TV may allow the viewer to provide some personal input or feedback to a broadcast station. The broadcast station transmits metadata associated with broadcast programs through an additional forward channel and receives viewer feedback through a return channel. For example, the metadata of a sports program may include profiles of players, scores of the teams, and a tournament profile. Also, the metadata of a drama may include information about backgrounds of scenes, characters, synopsis, and producers and staffs. Also, the metadata may include an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) of a corresponding service channel.
Typically, the metadata is displayed on a part of a display screen so as to partially conceal the broadcast program image displayed on the display screen, which may inconvenience the viewer. The conventional interactive TV may provide an option to disable the metadata presentation. In this case, however, the viewer may have to manipulate a menu in order to check the metadata, which may cause additional inconvenience. Furthermore, when there are several viewers and one wants to view the metadata, he/she may be required to obtain consent from all of the other viewers.

Metadata display control method and system for broadcast receiver


A device and related methodologies to deliver molecules to the cells that comprise any tissues. The invention includes a catheter-based electrode and methods for its use for the delivery of molecules to cardiac tissue, blood vessels, other tissues/organs that can be accessed through a luminal tissue, and luminal tissues. The invention is also a non-catheter based electrode for performing the same functions. In certain embodiments the electrode utilizes a segmented electrode array wherein each electrode is separately addressable by a source of electricity.

Electroporation ("EP") originated for in vitro transfection (Neumann et al., 1982) and over the past 25 years has become a standard laboratory method. The administration of electric fields at specific pulse conditions increases cell membrane permeability, which allows uptake of molecules through the cell membrane. The initial demonstration of in vivo electroporation was the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to solid tumors (Okino et al. 1991). In the mid to late 1990's, the effectiveness of this approach for drug delivery was demonstrated in a variety of different tumors in animals and humans (Gotheif et al, 2003). This technique was then tested for enhanced plasmid DNA delivery (Holler et al., 1996; Nishi et al, 1996). In vivo electroporation is theoretically applicable to all tissues tested. A principal issue limiting the use of in vivo electroporation has been the accessibility of the particular tissue for the application of the electric field. The use of in vivo electroporation for plasmid DNA deliver has seen tremendous growth, including the initiation of the first clinical trials.
Treatment of the tissue site by localized delivery of the therapeutic agent coupled with focused delivery of the electroporation signal facilitates selective application of the treatment to the target tissue sought to be treated. In this manner surrounding tissue is spared the adverse effects of treatment while the targeted tissue receives enhanced more optimal levels of the agent.
Plasmid DNA-based gene transfer is attractive because it eliminates the need for a biological vector. Application of plasmid DNA-based gene transfer has been handicapped by the lack of efficient and/or effective delivery methods. When compared to viral delivery, the advantages of plasmid DNA-based gene transfer include reduced potential for immunogenicity, integration into the genome, and environmental spread. One method that has emerged as a means to facilitate delivery of plasmid DNA is in vivo electroporation or electropermeabilization.

Devices and methods for delivering molecules to the heart with electric fields


Fluidized powder in a powder preparation container is treated to impart to it a desired moisture content through the feeding into the fluidized powder of a stream of compressed air whose moisture content and temperature have been carefully regulated. Powder in the preparation container which has attained the desired moisture content is then transferred to a powder holding container and from there to a spraying device by which spraying device the powder is electrostatically charged and sprayed on articles. Further, the powder preparation container is heated along several distinct heating zones which are arranged one above the other along the axis, i.e. height, of the container. The powder in the powder preparation container is stratified with the powder at the bottom of the container being affected only negligibly by the continuous introduction of fresh powder through the top of the container.

The present invention relates to a system for preparing coating powder, particularly enamel powder, for spraying on various articles.
A powder preparation system which is part of a system for spraying enamel powder on articles is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,560. In this known system, air is fed continuously through a perforated bottom of a powder preparation container to maintain the powder in a fluidized state. To moisten the enamel powder and to maintain the moisture at a given value, a vapor is fed into the container at a rate depending on the moisture content of the mixture of enamel powder and air in the container. The fluidized/moistened powder is then delivered to a spraying device by means of a Venturi based, gas operated, injector which is coupled to the interior of the container and designed to draw powder from the container. The suction effect of the injector is variable and controlled by the amount of air applied to the injector.
Another powder preparation system, for enamel or other coating powders, includes a preparation container for preparing fluidized powder and is described in Federal Republic of Germany Patent No. 36 02 388 (U.S. Pat. Application Ser. No. 006,952). In the container there is an elongated bell which is immersed into the fluidized powder with the open end of the bell facing down. As occurs with an upside down cup that is immersed in water, an air pocket is developed in the bell which prevents the fluidized powder from entering into the bell. Consequently, the height or level of fluidized powder within the bell is lower than outside the bell. Within the bell, several fluid inlets are disposed for the purpose of spraying water vapor or water into the fluidized powder to moisten the powder from within the bell.
Other powder coating systems using enamel powder are known from French Patent No. 1347012 which describes, for example, a mechanism for producing water vapor for moistening enamel powder. The vapor producing mechanism is disposed below the article to be coated while the article is sprayed with enamel powder from a spraying device. In another embodiment, water is mixed by means of spray nozzles into the spray jet of enamel powder which is directed at the article to be coated from a spraying device.
Enamel powder, like plastic and other powders that are suitable for forming a coating on an object, is electrostatically charged to cause the powder to be drawn to and remain adhered to an article on which it is sprayed. The article to be coated is normally connected to a ground potential so as to attract the powder which is charged to a high electrical potential.
Certain types of powders, particularly enamel powders, have the drawback that they can not be charged electrostatically to a degree that would cause the powder particles to arrive at and remain adhered to the article being sprayed. To overcome the problem, additional agents are typically admixed with the enamel. One such agent is silicone which allows enamel powder to be charged electrostatically more vigorously. To improve the quality of the coating on an article, enamel powder is additionally moistened with water or water vapor prior to being sprayed onto an article.
However, powder that is insufficiently moistened can not be charged effectively. As a result, the quality of the coating is poor and the coating process is inefficient because a large number of powder particles never reach or bounce off the article. On the other hand, a powder can not be overmoistened because overmoistened powder does not adhere well to an article to be coated. The key factor is the electrical conductivity of the powder which varies based on the moisture content of the powder. Accordingly, it is important to provide an ability to control the moisture content of the powder accurately and over a wide range of moisture values.

Powder preparation system for coating powder


Disclosed is a semiconductor memory having a self-amplifying cell structure, using (1) a writing transistor and (2) a reading transistor with a floating gate as a charge storage node for each memory cell, and a method of fabricating the memory cell. The writing transistor and reading transistor are of opposite conductivity type to each other; for example, the writing transistor uses a P-channel MOS transistor and the reading transistor (having the floating gate) uses an N-channel MOS transistor. The floating gate of the reading transistor is connected to a single bit line through a source-drain path of the writing transistor, the source-drain path of the reading transistor is connected between the single bit line and a predetermined potential, and the gate electrodes of the writing and reading transistors are connected to a single word line. At least the reading transistor can be formed in a trench, and the word line can be formed overlying the writing transistor and the reading transistor in the trench. Also disclosed is a method of operating the memory cell, wherein the voltage applied to the word line, in a standby condition, is intermediate to the voltage applied to the word line during the writing operation and during the reading operation.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory and its fabrication method, particularly to a self-amplifying memory cell which is a large-scale dynamic random access memory (hereafter referred to as a DRAM), allowing ultra-high integration density, and which has two field effect transistors and requires no charge storage capacitor.
DRAMs have been improved in integration degree up to four times in three years, and mass production of 4-megabit DRAMs is being started. This high integration has been achieved by greatly decreasing the element dimensions.
An existing DRAM, as shown by an equivalent circuit diagram in FIG. 6, comprises at least a storage capacitor 101 for storing charges, a bit line (DL) for feeding charges to the capacitor, a switching transistor (SM) for controlling the flow of charges, and a word line (WL) connected to the gate of the switching transistor.
In the structure of the existing DRAM memory cell (because the cell is a one-transistor-one-capacitor cell, it is hereafter referred to as a 1T-1C cell), it is a large problem to maintain reliability because troubles such as decrease of signal-to-noise ratio (hereafter referred to as SN ratio) and data inversion due to incoming alpha rays occur since the number of stored charges is decreased due to a great reduction of the cell area and decrease of the supply voltage.
Therefore, a so-called stacked type cell, made by forming part of a storage capacitor on a switching transistor or on an element-isolation oxide film, and a trenched cell made by forming a deep trench in a substrate and a charge storage capacitor on the side wall of the trench, are main cell structures used, after 4-megabit DRAMs, as a memory cell capable of increasing the number of stored charges even if the cell area is greatly decreased.
Trial fabrication of 16- and 64-megabit DRAM cells has been attempted by making full use of the above three-dimensional cell and a self-alignment process. However, if the memory cell area is decreased according to the existing trend, the cell area comes to approximately 0.5 .mu.m.sup.2 in 256-megabit DRAMs. To realize a large-enough storage capacitor in the very small cell area, it is necessary to use a very thin capacitor insulating film for the stacked type cell, or to form a deep trench with a depth of 5 .mu.m, an opening width of approximately 0.3 .mu.m, and an aspect ratio of 15 or more for the trenched cell. However, it is very difficult to solve these problems with existing semiconductor processing techniques.
Instead, various so-called self-amplifying memory cell structures have been proposed which do not require a relatively-large charge storage capacitor, by substituting for the charge storage capacitor an active transistor.
FIG. 7 is an equivalent circuit diagram of a self-amplifying memory cell comprising two n-channel field effect transistors (WM and RM), two bit lines (WD and RD), and two word lines (WW and RW), proposed in Extended Abstract of 16th Conference on Solid State Device and Materials, Kobe, 1984, pp. 265-268. The self-amplifying memory cell in FIG. 7 has a reading transistor (RM) having a floating gate which acts as a charge storage node, instead of the existing charge storage capacitor. To write data in the cell, a certain potential is applied to the writing word line (WW) and reading word line (RW) before applying "ground potential" or "positive potential" to the writing bit line (WD), in accordance with "0" or "1" of stored data, to control the number of positive charges of the charge storage node. The threshold voltage (Vth) of the reading transistor (RM) is decreased in accordance with the number of positive charges of the charge storage node and turned on. After data is written, the wiring word line (WW) is fixed to the ground potential.
To read stored data, a certain potential is applied to the reading word line (RW) to detect the potential fluctuation of the reading bit line (RD) caused by the "on" or "off" state of the reading transistor (RM). In this case, the drain electrode potential Vss of the reading transistor (RM) is fixed to the supply voltage. This cell can be operated even if the node capacitance ratio between the storage node and the reading-transistor channel is relatively small. However, the cell area cannot greatly be decreased because the cell requires lines twice as many as those of the existing memory cell (that is, 2 word lines and 2 data lines).
Unlike the above cell, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5269/1985 discloses a cell comprising one bit line (DL) and two word lines (WW and RW), as shown by an equivalent circuit in FIG. 8(a).
To write data in this cell, the reading word line (RW) is grounded and a certain voltage is applied to the writing word line (WW). Under the above state, the potential of the bit line (DL) is transmitted to the floating gate of the reading transistor (RM), serving as the charge storage node, through the writing transistor (WM), to store positive or negative charges in or to draw them from the floating gate and write the data of "0" or "1" by grounding or raising the potential of the bit line (DL).
To read data from this cell, the writing word line (WW) is grounded and a certain potential is applied to the reading word line (RW). In this case, the reading transistor (RM) is turned off unless charges are stored in the charge storage node, and turned on if charges are stored in it. Therefore, the potential of the bit line (DL) changes according to "0" or "1" of stored data, and data can be read. In this case, the potential Vss of the drain electrode of the reading transistor (RM) is fixed to the ground potential or supply voltage. Also in this cell, it is difficult to greatly decrease the cell area because two word lines are arranged.
This Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 25269/1985 discloses a cell comprising one bit line (DL) and one word line (WL), in a memory cell having a writing transistor (WM), and a reading transistor (RM) having a floating gate. See FIG. 8(b). In this embodiment shown herein in FIG. 8(b), both the writing transistor and the reading transistor are of the same conductivity type. Moreover, during operation of the memory cell the standby potential (Vw(S)) applied to the word line is less than the potential applied to the word line both during writing (Vw(W)) and during reading (Vw(R)). See FIG. 8(c).
The structure, and operation thereof, shown in FIG. 8(b) and 8(c) herein, have the following deficiencies. The potential applied to the word line during reading is dependent not only on the threshold voltage of the reading transistor (Vth(RM)), but is also dependent on the change in threshold voltage (Vth) shown in FIG. 8(c). Moreover, the threshold voltage of the writing transistor should be within the range of this change in threshold voltage shown in FIG. 8(c). In addition, this change in threshold voltage is relatively large--greater than 0.8-1.0 V.
Because all of the existing self-amplifying memory cells detect potential with the source-drain current of the reading transistor, they essentially perform nondestructive reading unlike the existing 1T-1C cells. Therefore, it is possible to basically decrease the number of stored charges. However, since stored charges are extinguished by the leak current of the writing transistor, refreshing is necessary similarly to the existing cell.
In the existing 1T-1C cell, word and data lines are arranged at minimum dimensions. Therefore, the cell area of the normal folded bit-line cell arrangement equals the value (word line pitch.times.2).times.(data line pitch). However, the above-mentioned existing self-amplifying memory cell requires a number of metal layers 1.5 to 2 times as much as the 1T-1C cell constitution. Therefore, the memory cell has a critical problem for high integration of DRAMs that the cell area increases three to four times.
Another problem is that it is difficult to secure a stable operation of the self-amplifying memory cell, in particular, sufficient data holding time. For example, to stably operate a 256-megabit DRAM, it is necessary to decrease the leak current per cell to 10.sup.-15 A or less. For the cells in FIGS. 7 and 8(a), however, it is inevitable to form either of the writing transistor (WM) and reading transistor (RM) in a polycrystalline silicon thin film. Therefore, because leak current passing through the grain boundary of the polycrystalline silicon thin film increases, it is very difficult to decrease the leak current per cell to 10.sup.-12 A or less. This is a critical defect for a DRAM.
Moreover, because the source-drain region of either of the writing transistor (WM) and reading transistor (WM) are formed in a polycrystalline silicon thin film having a large impurity diffusion coefficient compared with a single crystal, it is difficult to increase and control the channel length.
As described above, it is difficult to stably operate the existing self-amplifying memory cell and decrease the cell area because of various factors and it is not effective to decrease the cell area by substituting a capacitor with a transistor.

Semiconductor memory having writing and reading transistors, method of fabrication thereof, and method of use thereof


An image forming apparatus is provided with sensors for detecting existence of sheets of paper at a plurality of positions in transport paths within the image forming apparatus. A circuit part counts a number of sheets of paper remaining within the image forming apparatus when a transport abnormality occurs based on outputs of the sensors. This number of sheets of paper remaining within the image forming apparatus when the transport abnormality occurs is displayed on a display.

The present invention generally relates to image forming apparatuses, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus which is provided with a means for detecting a transport abnormality (paper jam) in a paper transport path and for stopping a sequential operation of image formation.
Generally, in image forming apparatuses such as printers including laser printers, copying machines and facsimile machines, a sequence control part which uses a microcomputer controls the sequential operation of the image formation. In addition, a plurality of paper transport paths are provided in the image forming apparatus to supply the paper and to eject the paper after the image formation.
A sensor is arranged in each paper transport path and functions as a paper detecting means for detecting the paper which passes through the paper transport path. Hence, while the sequential operation is controlled by the sequence control part, it is possible to detect a transport abnormality, that is, a paper jam, based on output signals of the sensors. When the paper jam is detected, the sequential operation is stopped by the sequence control part so as to stop the paper transport. In addition, a message indicating the generation of the paper jam is displayed on a display part which is provided on an outer side of a main apparatus body of the image forming apparatus. Among such image forming apparatuses, there are image forming apparatuses capable of also displaying the position where the paper jam is generated.
In order to restart the image forming apparatus the sequential operation of which is stopped by the generation of the paper jam, a front or side cover of the image forming apparatus is opened to remove all the papers causing the paper jam. Then, a reset button is pushed to make a reset operation which cancels both the stopped state of the sequential operation and the display on the display part. Alternatively, the reset operation may be made automatically when the front or side cover is closed.
However, according to the conventional image forming apparatus, it is impossible to know how many sheets of paper remain within the image forming apparatus when the paper transport is stopped by the generation of the paper jam. As a result, not all the sheets of paper within the image forming apparatus may be removed when eliminating the paper jam. For this reason, there is a problem in that it is often necessary to repeat the operation of removing the sheets of paper within the image forming apparatus when the paper jam occurs because not all the sheets of paper may be removed in one removing operation.
On the other hand, after the paper jam is eliminated, it is sometimes difficult to determine the page from which the printing, copying or facsimile transmission is to be resumed.
When the transport abnormality is generated at an ejecting part of the image forming apparatus, the paper transport is often stopped in a state where a tip end of the paper projects from a paper ejecting opening of the ejecting part. In this case, the paper causing the transport abnormality, that is, the paper jam, may be removed by simply pulling the tip end of the projecting paper in a paper ejecting direction. But in the conventional image forming apparatus, the front or side cover must be opened and closed or the reset button must be pushed in order to make the reset operation and restart the sequential operation of the image forming apparatus even though the paper jam is eliminated by the operation of simply pulling out the paper from the paper ejecting part. As a result, there are problems in that a troublesome operation must be carried out to restart the sequential operation and it takes time for the image forming apparatus to resume the sequential operation.
Furthermore, the stopped state of the sequential operation cannot be cancelled unless all the sheets of paper within the paper transport path are removed and the reset operation is made. This means that even when a certain transport path is usable when the paper jam occurs in another transport path, the certain transport path cannot be used for the image formation until the paper jam is eliminated and the reset operation is made. Therefore, in this case, there is a problem in that the efficiency of the image forming apparatus is poor.


A tiller handle is provided for use with one or more push-pull cables innerconnected to the shift and the throttle mechanisms of an outboard marine engine to control the shift and the throttle operations of the engine. The tiller handle includes a rotatable cam member with one or more cam tracks located on its outer surface. Each push-pull cable is maintained within a distinct cam track such that rotating the rotatable cam member actuates the push-pull cables thereby controlling the operation of the shift and the throttle mechanisms of the engine.

This invention relates to a tiller handle for an outboard marine propulsion system and, more particularly, to the control of the shift and the throttle operations of an outboard motor.
Tiller handles have long been used to control the shift and the throttle operations of outboard marine engines. The prior art shows tiller handles wherein the throttle and shift linkage is comprised of numerous component parts. The numerous component parts lead to difficulties in assembly which increase the manufacturing costs of the engine. It is therefore desirable to develop a less complicated alternative to the throttle and shift linkage presently known.
Previous attempts to simplify tiller handle construction and operation have lead to the development of a tiller handle which utilizes a push-pull cable to control the throttle operation of an outboard marine engine. The push-pull cable slidably engages the inner surface of a rotatable, tubular member within the handle. This design has an inherent problem in that the tiller handle can only control a single function of the outboard marine engine.
It is therefore a primary objective of this invention to provide a less complex tiller handle for controlling the shift and the throttle operations of an outboard marine engine.
It is a further objective to provide a tiller handle which uses a plurality of push-pull cables to control the shift and the throttle operations of an outboard marine engine.
In accordance with the invention, a tiller handle is provided for use with push-pull cables which control the shift and the throttle operations of an outboard marine propulsion system. The tiller handle includes a housing pivotally mounted to the outboard marine propulsion system. A rotatable cam is maintained within the housing by means of a stationary cam cover. On the outer surface of the cam is a plurality of distinct cam tracks. Each track controls the position of one of the push-pull cables, which in turn controls a single operation of the outboard marine engine. Each push-pull cable is maintained within the distinct cam track by means of a bearing which slidably engages the track.
By rotating the cam in response to manual rotation of the tiller handle, each push-pull cable is actuated by movement of the bearings within the cam tracks, thereby controlling the corresponding operation of the outboard marine engine.
A drive tube extends through the housing, and is interconnected with the rotatable cam such that the rotation of the drive tube in turn rotates the cam and actuates the push-pull cables. A limiter prevents the unlimited rotation of the drive tube so as to maintain operation of the outboard marine engine within predetermined limits.

Universal tiller handle with shift and throttle


A rapid thermal process reactor includes a vessel having a dome assembly. The vessel bounds a reactor chamber for rapid thermal processing of one or more substrates. The dome assembly includes a low profile dome and a flange surrounding and abutting the low profile dome. The flange includes a top surface; a bottom surface, removed from and opposite the top surface; an outer circumferential edge surface connecting the top surface and the bottom surface; and an inner edge surface, opposite and removed from said outer circumferential edge, including a portion abutting said low profile dome. The rapid thermal process reactor also includes a radiant heat source; a gas ring mounted about a sidewall of the vessel; a gas ring shield mounted as part of the sidewall of the vessel; a clamp ring to clamp the dome assembly in place; and a clamp ring shield mounted on the clamp ring.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to substrate processing reactors, and more particularly to rapid thermal process reactors with a low profile dome.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a simplified cross-sectional view of RTP reactor 100 for processing one or more semiconductor substrates, e.g., substrates 111, 112. Reactor 100 included vessel 101, susceptor 102, susceptor support 104, radiant heat source 110 (including a plurality of lamps 105 and reflectors 106), passive heat distribution element 107, side inject gas jets 114a, 114b and gas exhaust pipes 109a, 109b.
Vessel 101 was formed by bottom wall 101a, sidewall 101b and domed top wall 101c. Walls 101a, 101b and 101c bounded reaction chamber 103. Bottom wall 101a and sidewall 101b were made of stainless steel and lined with quartz. In one embodiment, bottom wall 101a was circular and sidewall 101b was cylindrical. Dome-shaped top wall 101c was made of quartz so that relatively little of the radiant energy from radiant heat source 110 was absorbed by top wall 101c. Thus, the radiant energy passed through top wall 101c unimpeded to directly heat substrates 111, 112.
The shape of top wall 101c was chosen as a compromise between several factors. As top wall 101c was made increasingly flat, the possibility increased that top wall 101c would collapse when reaction chamber 103 was held at a vacuum pressure, i.e., less than 100 torrs, for instance, during a reduced pressure BICMOS process.
On the other hand, as the curvature of top wall 101c was increased, radiant heat source 110 was moved increasingly further away from substrates 111, 112. Thus, a greater energy output from radiant heat source 110 was required to maintain a given temperature of substrates 111, 112.
Additionally, as the curvature of top wall 101c increased, the distance of top wall 101c from substrates 111, 112 also increased so that at least some portion of the process gases had a longer distance to descend. This portion of the process gases had a longer time to heat up before the gases were deposited on substrates 111, 112. Thus, the vertical temperature distribution of the process gases was not uniform across the reaction chamber. The curvature of top wall 101c also affected the flow of the process gases as they descended upon substrates 111, 112.
The exact shape of top wall 101c was empirically determined by testing a number of different shapes and one was chosen that yielded a desired combination of the above-identified characteristics. Upper wall 101c had a cross-sectional shape that formed an approximately circular arc. Top wall 101c had a characteristic height h between 3″ and 6″ inclusive.
Gas-deflecting shelf 173 sat on a quartz liner that was adjacent to side wall 101b in reaction chamber 103. Gas-deflecting shelf 173 was made of, for instance, quartz so that gas-deflecting shelf 173 disturbed the temperature distribution within susceptor 102 and the substrate or substrates as little as possible.
Gas-deflecting shelf 173 forced gases that might otherwise have passed between susceptor 102 and side wall 101b of the reactor to flow over surface 102a of susceptor 102 (and, thus, the substrate or substrates), when susceptor 102 was in the processing position as shown by the dashed lines in FIG. 1. Gas-deflecting shelf 173 also caused an increase in velocity of gases near the edge of susceptor 102 because a smaller opening existed between susceptor 102 and gas-deflecting shelf 173 than would exist between susceptor 102 and reactor sidewall 101b if gas-deflecting shelf 173 were not present. The length of gas-deflecting shelf 173 was varied to create an opening between gas-deflecting shelf 173 and susceptor 102 so as to obtain a gas flow that yielded the desired process uniformities.
Substrates 111, 112 (FIG. 1A) were mounted on circular susceptor 102 within reaction chamber 103. Susceptor 102, susceptor support 104 and passive heat distribution element 107 are shown in the loading position in FIG. 1. Substrates 111, 112 were placed into and removed from reaction chamber 103 by one of a robot or a substrate handling system (not shown) through a door formed in sidewall 101b. The loading position was chosen to allow the robot or substrate handling system to easily extend into reaction chamber 103 and place substrates 111, 112 on susceptor 102.
When susceptor 102 was in the loading position, pins (not shown) extend through corresponding holes formed in susceptor 102 to raise substrates 111, 112 above surface 102a. Alternatively, the pins extended through holes in susceptor 102 to raise a substrate surround ring upon which substrates 111, 112 rested. Any number of pins could be used to raise each substrate 111, 112 or substrate surround ring, though at least three were desirable to stably support a substrate, e.g., substrate 111, or substrate surround ring. For example one to eight pins are used. Since it was also generally desirable to minimize the number of pins used to minimize mechanical complexity, three pins, located 120° apart in the radial direction around susceptor 102, were used to support 125 mm (5 inches), 150 mm (6 inches) and 200 mm (8 inches) substrates, and four pins, located 90° apart, were used to support 250 mm (10 inches) and 100 mm (12 inches) substrates.
In one example, substrates 111, 112 were heated by a single heat source: radiant heat source 110. Radiant heat source 110 included plurality of lamps 105 that emitted radiant energy having a wavelength in the range of less than 1 μm to about 500 μm, preferably in the range of less than 1 μm to about 10 μm, and most preferably less than 1 μm. A plurality of reflectors 106, one reflector adjacent each lamp, reflected radiant energy toward substrates 111, 112.
Radiant heat source 110 was both water-cooled and forced-air cooled. The combination of water-cooling and forced-air cooling kept lamps 105 and reflectors 106 within the required operating temperature range.
In reactor 100 (FIG. 1), passive heat distribution element 107 was mounted beneath susceptor 102 in proximity to susceptor 102. As used herein, "proximity" means as close as possible considering the limitations imposed by the physical space requirement for connecting susceptor 102 to susceptor support 104. Passive heat distribution element 107 minimized heat losses from susceptor 102, which, in turn, minimized heat losses from substrates 111, 112. Passive heat distribution element 107 was preferably made of a material that either absorbs and re-radiates heat toward susceptor 102, or that reflected heat toward susceptor 102.

Rapid thermal process reactor utilizing a low profile dome


A network 50 is hierarchically divided into network devices 501 to 506, areas, and the like to be monitoring targets, and a monitoring device 100 monitors a divided monitoring target. A monitoring device of an N-th layer (here, N≥2) that is an upper layer with respect to a first layer monitors information of reachability between user connection points received from a monitoring device of an (N−1)-th layer that is a lower layer and network devices connecting monitoring targets of the (N−1)-th layer making up monitoring targets of the N-th layer and connection statuses between the network devices and areas that are monitoring targets. The monitoring device determines the presence/absence of reachability between user connection points belonging to different monitoring targets of the (N−1)-th layer on the basis of this reachability and the connection statuses.

As one of network connection services provided by communication companies, there is a virtual network (VPN) service that builds a virtual network tunnel on a physical network and provides the virtual network tunnel for a user. When a fault occurs in a network device configuring a physical network or a link (physical link) between network devices, a fault occurs also in a virtual network that passes through the network device or the link. When a fault occurs, reachability between user sites (VPN sites) connected to the VPN (able to communicate between VPN sites) is lost.
As technologies for detecting a fault in a virtual network, there is a method using a monitoring signal, a method of monitoring traffic, and the like. In a technology described in PTL 1, a monitoring signal is transmitted between VPN sites, and a fault is detected in accordance with a lack of a monitoring signal. In a technology described in PTL 2, by mirroring and analyzing traffic at VPN sites, a fault in an underlay network is detected. By using the flow monitoring technology described in NPL 1, traffic in a VPN is identified using attributes of communication packets such addresses and the like of network devices, and a fault can be detected by analyzing the identified traffic.

Monitoring device, network fault monitoring system, and monitoring method

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


In a golf ball having, in order, a core, an envelope layer, an intermediate layer and a cover, the following conditions are satisfied:    (I) ball surface hardness>intermediate layer surface hardness>envelope layer surface hardness<core surface hardness,    (II) (Shore D hardness at core surface−Shore D hardness at envelope layer surface)≥10,    (III) (cover thickness−intermediate layer thickness)>0.05 mm,    (IV) (intermediate layer thickness−envelope layer thickness)>0.05 mm, and    (V) (Cs−C10)/(C10−Cc)>1.0 (where Cs denotes the JIS-C hardness at the core surface, C10 the JIS-C hardness at a position 10 mm from a center of the core, and Cc the JIS-C hardness at the core center).

Numerous design innovations have hitherto been introduced into the multilayer construction of golf balls, and many balls have been developed to satisfy the needs of not only professional golfers and skilled amateurs, but also amateur golfers having mid or low head speeds.
Such golf balls are described in, for example, JP-A 2011-092708, JP-A 2000-61001, JP-A 2000-61000, JP-A 2002-764, JP-A 2000-61002, JP-A 2000-60997 and JP-A 2014-132955.
However, further improvement in terms of increased distance is expected even of these golf balls. Also, among golfers whose head speed is not very fast, even when it has been possible to maintain a good distance on shots with a driver (W#1), the feel and durability of the ball often leave something to be desired. The "feel" of a golf ball refers to the kinesthetic sensation experienced by a player at the moment of impact when striking the ball with a golf club. In this invention, the feel is considered to be good when it is both soft and solid at the same time, the word "solid" indicating a sense that the ball will travel far. Accordingly, there exists a desire for a golf ball which enables even amateur golfers to fully achieve both a good feel and a good distance.

Abstract: The ball provides an excellent flight performance when struck by the average golfer, a feel that is both soft and solid, and an excellent durability to repeated impact.


A rear seat assembly is provided. The rear seat assembly includes a seat frame, a seat back, a seat cushion frame, and a power tilt assembly. The seat cushion frame is pivotally coupled to the seat frame at a tip up pivot axis to move between a seated position and a tip up position such that in the tip up position, the seat cushion frame is pivoted towards the seat back in a generally vehicle vertical position. The power tilt assembly is coupled to the seat cushion frame and is configured to adjust an angle of a seat cushion with respect to a vehicle floor.

It has been known to provide vehicles with seat assemblies with a stadium style seat cushion moveable between a use position and a tip up position. Further, it has been known to provide seat assemblies with a power tilt adjustment assembly that adjusts an angle of a seat cushion. For example, front seat assemblies of vehicles are known to include a power tilt adjustment assembly that adjusts an angle of the seat cushion by a motor. However, such front seat assemblies are provided with fixed (i.e. non-tip up) seat cushions. It has also been known to provide a seat assembly with an ottoman assembly that includes a powered ottoman that raises and lowers from a front edge of the seat cushion. It has been further known to provide a seat assembly that is attached to a vehicle by a pair of rails that extend in the vehicle lateral direction to allow the seat assembly to slide in a vehicle width direction. However, as ingress, egress and storage space becomes more important, rear seat assemblies need to more versatile in movement.
Accordingly, there is a need for a rear seat assembly that adjusts between a use position and a tip up position, that include a power tilt adjustment assembly that adjusts an angle of the seat cushion by a motor, and that includes a pair of rails that extend in the vehicle lateral direction to allow the seat assembly to slide in a vehicle width direction.

Seat assemblies having tip up and tilt seat cushion frames

TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, INC.


A power adapter (100) for use with power connectors includes a printed circuit board (3), first and second connectors (1, 2) attached on opposite surfaces of the printed circuit board. The first electrical connector is configured with a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) interface and has a number of first terminals (11) conductively received in first through-holes (31) of the printed circuit board. The second electrical connector is configured as a conventional power connector and has a number of second terminals (21) conductively received in second through-holes (30) of the printed circuit board. The power trace is transmitted from the first connector to the second connector via the printed circuit board, in which circuits are defined between predetermined first through-holes and the second through-holes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical adapter, and particularly to an electrical adapter for joining two power connectors having different designs and configurations.
2. Description of Prior Arts
The design of a mother printed circuit board is repeatedly upgraded for complying with an issuance of each new electrical member to be mounted thereon. Some peripheral electrical devices such as a power supply and the related power connector must also be adapted to accommodate the new type of printed circuit board. Therefore, various interface standard power connectors are continually proposed to be applied in a computer interior structure. However, such power connectors according different interface standards are generally featured in different configurations and each has different numbers electrical contacts therein. Understandably, such different interface standard power connectors cannot mate directly. Many electrical adapters, thereby, are designed to interconnect those different interface standard connectors.
There exists in the art an electrical connector known as a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial ATA) connector which is generally used for disk drives and storage peripherals connecting with the mother printed circuit board. It should be noted that the Serial ATA power connectors according the Serial ATA standard are in added power contacts than other conventional power connectors used in Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) and are relatively different in configurations. Correspondingly, the present problem people in the art confronts, is that a storage peripheral using a Serial ATA power connector may be required to connect with an existing mother printed circuit board which originally uses a conventional IDE power connector to connect with the storage peripheral. Obviously, it is not convenient to wholly replace the system, which adds cost. Accordingly, a power adapter interconnecting the Serial ATA power connector and the conventional IDE power connector is desired.
Hence, a power adapter for interconnecting the Serial ATA power connector and the conventional IDE power connector is highly desired.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a power adapter for electrically interconnecting a Serial ATA power connector and a conventional IDE power connector.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a power adapter in accordance with the present invention includes a printed circuit board, first and second connectors attached on opposite surfaces of the printed circuit board. The first electrical connector is configured with a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) interface and has a number of first terminals conductively received in first through-holes of the printed circuit board. The second electrical connector is configured as a conventional power connector and has a number of second terminals conductively received in second through-holes of the printed circuit board. The power trace is transmitted from the first connector to the second connector via the printed circuit board, in which circuits are defined between predetermined first through-holes and the second through-holes.


A method and tester for determining the error rate of a mobile radio device with variable block allocation is provided. Transmission blocks are sent to a mobile radio device to be tested. The mobile radio device to be tested receives and evaluates the transmission blocks and transmits a first and a second qualifier (ack, nack), respectively, for every transmission block correctly or not correctly evaluated. The number of transmission blocks sent to the mobile radio device to be tested and that are not correctly evaluated by the device is determined, and an error rate is determined, the number of transmission blocks being variably set by multiblocks that address the mobile radio device to be tested between one transmission block per multiblock and all transmission blocks of the multiblock and one multiblock comprising a fixed number of transmission blocks.

The basic structure of a GSM mobile-telephone system, for example, as described in "Digital Mobile Telephone Systems", Dr.-Ing. Klaus David and Dr.-Ing. Thorsten Benkner, B. G. Teubner Stuttgart 1996, pages 326 to 341, is shown in simplified form in FIG. 5. In a mobile-telephone system of this kind structured according to the GSM standard, a mobile-telephone device, which is disposed, for example, in the motor vehicle 1 illustrated in FIG. 5, communicates with a base station 2.
In order to transmit information between the base station 2 and the mobile-telephone device, a downlink signal 3 is transmitted from the base station 2 to the mobile-telephone device, and an uplink signal 4 is transmitted back from the mobile-telephone device to the base station 2. To keep the downlink signal 3 and the uplink signal 4 separate from one another, both signals are transmitted with different carrier frequencies (e.g., FDD, Frequency Division Duplex).
The transmission of information in the downlink signal 3 and in the uplink signal 4 does not take place in a continuous manner, but in so-called bursts, wherein, eight such bursts of a respective downlink signal 3 or uplink signal 4 together form a frame. In FIG. 5, a downlink frame of this kind is indicated by the reference number 5, and the corresponding uplink frame is indicated by the reference number 6, wherein each burst is transmitted in a timeslot of a frame. The timeslots are numbered continuously from 0 to 7. The downlink frame 5 is transmitted with a first carrier frequency f1DL, and the uplink frame 6 is transmitted with a corresponding carrier frequency f1UL.
The information is transmitted only in individual bursts of the respective downlink signal 3 or uplink signal 4. For this purpose, one or more given timeslots 0 to 7 of the frame are assigned by the base station 2 to the mobile-telephone device of the motor vehicle 1. Each timeslot 0 to 7 of successive downlink frames 5 and uplink frames 6 forms a transmission channel for the exchange of information between the base station 2 and the mobile-telephone device of the motor vehicle 1. For the first carrier frequency f1DL and the corresponding carrier frequency f1UL of the uplink signal 4, there are therefore eight transmission channels, so that eight mobile-telephone devices can exchange information with the base station 2 independently from one another on this pair of carrier frequencies.
In addition to the first carrier frequency f1DL and the corresponding carrier frequency f1UL for the uplink signal 4, further carrier frequencies are provided for the downlink signal 3, and carrier frequencies corresponding to these are provided for the uplink signal 4. As a result of the TDMA structure with its eight timeslots 0 to 7 in one frame, there are therefore eight transmission channels for each of the 124 carrier-frequency pairs in the context of GSM 900 as illustrated in FIG. 5, wherein all transmission channels are independent of one another. The eight transmission channels for each carrier frequency pair, together with the 124 independent carrier frequency pairs, therefore provide a total of 992 transmission channels.
The use of one transmission channel simultaneously for several mobile-telephone devices to achieve an improved exploitation of the transmission capacity of a mobile telephone system of this kind is already known. Within a transmission channel, the mobile telephones are addressed by a base station, thereby specifying which of the several mobile-telephone devices receives data from the base station in which timeslots.
Corresponding timeslots of four successive frames of the downlink signal 3, or respectively the uplink signal 4, together form a transmission block of the respective transmission channel. For one respective transmission block, which is transmitted from the base station, it can be specified using an address signal ADR, to which of the mobile-telephone devices communicating with the base station in the same transmission channel the transmission block is transmitted from the base station.
Once again, in a simplified form, FIG. 6 illustrates a system of this kind. A total of eight mobile-telephone devices 7, which jointly use one transmission channel in order to communicate with the base station 2, are shown. This means that a given timeslot of the downlink frame 5 and the uplink frame 6 is used for the transmission of information between the mobile-telephone devices 7 and the base station 2. In order to transmit data in a transmission block from the base station 2 to a given mobile-telephone device 8, an address signal ADR, which respectively addresses a given mobile-telephone device 8, is transmitted in each transmission block of the downlink signal 9. By evaluating the address signals ADR, the mobile-telephone device 8 recognizes that the information contained in the transmission block is transmitted to this mobile-telephone device. The other mobile-telephone devices 7 do not recognize the address signal ADR as their own and reject the information of the transmission block. The base station 2 communicates to each mobile-telephone device 7, for example, at the time of establishing the connection, in which of the transmission blocks the mobile-telephone devices 7 actually evaluate an address signal ADR.
In this context, mobile telephones are all subscriber devices, which communicate with the base station 2. The correctness of the data of a transmission block received by the mobile-telephone device 8 is checked, for example, using a checksum. For each of the received transmission blocks, which were addressed to the mobile-telephone device 8, the base station 2 is notified on request, which transmission blocks were received and evaluated correctly. At the request of the base station 2, the mobile-telephone device 8 therefore transmits confirmation signals, for example, for each correctly-evaluated transmission block, a first marking "ack" (acknowledged), and for each incorrectly-evaluated transmission block, a second marking "nack" (not acknowledged). To achieve a correct communication of the complete information to the mobile-telephone device 8, each transmission block, for which the base station 2 has received, for example, a second confirmation signal "nack", is re-transmitted.
In developing mobile-telephone devices and in testing devices in production, it is necessary to determine the number of transmission blocks received and evaluated incorrectly and to compare these with the number of transmission blocks transmitted and/or addressed as a whole to this mobile-telephone device. With a given level and given propagation conditions, a permitted maximum threshold of ten per cent (10%) is provided in the specification, for example, for an EGPRS, for an error rate (BLER, Block Error Rate) determined in this manner.

Method and tester for determining the error rate of a mobile radio device with variable block allocation


An instrument for the application of an adhesion prophylaxis, particularly a film for endoscopic surgery, includes a circular cylindrical application sleeve for insertion in a trocar cannula or for direct insertion in a pneumoperitoneum. The application sleeve can receive a rod-like film carrier onto which is wound the film-like adhesion prophylaxis. For this purpose an elongated, particularly axial reception area, such as a slot is provided in the front area of the sleeve in which the adhesion prophylaxis is received in interlocking or frictional manner.

In conventional surgery, particularly in the abdominal region, it is known to insert a film in the abdomen in order to prevent the formation of adhesions between the internal organs and the abdominal wall.
The use of such adhesion prophylaxes, particularly in the form of films, would also be desirable for endoscopic surgery. However, it has not been possible hitherto, because it is necessary for the films to be folded to a very small size for entry into the incision and also to be unfoldable in a simple way to full size, after insertion.

Instrument for applying an adhesion prophylaxis for endoscopic surgery

WISAP Gesellschaft fur Wissenschaftlichen Apparatebau mbH


The waste container holding system comprises: a magnetic grid including at least two, spaced, elongate magnetizable metal bar units fixed to or in a ground surface, each elongate magnetizable metal bar unit comprising at least one elongate metal bar having a length of at least two feet and at least two magnets positioned adjacent to each elongate metal bar in each elongate magnetizable metal bar unit and spaced along the length of each elongate metal bar. The elongate metal bar units are spaced from each other when mounted in one of the ground, asphalt or concrete with a desired spacing between the at least two elongate metal bar units. The system also includes a generally flat magnetizable plate fixed at or to a bottom surface of at least one waste container or in the bottom of the container closely adjacent to the bottom surface whereby the at least one waste container is held to the magnetic grid against ambient wind by the magnetic force between the plate and the magnetic grid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waste container holding system and, more specifically, to a system for holding an empty trash can, garbage can or waste receptacle, which is placed outdoors, from being blown away by strong winds. The system includes a grid or array of magnets, which are fixed to or in the ground or to or in an asphalt or concrete driveway together with a magnetizable, e.g., steel or iron, plate fixed at, to or in the bottom of each waste can or receptacle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, a variety of trash can or garbage can securing devices have been proposed. Examples of these analogous and non-analogous holding systems are disclosed in the following analogous and non-analogous U.S. patents:
PATENTPATENTEE2,838,264Hill3,201,075Sievers4,072,286Foncannon4,084,701White4,741,494Voornas4,995,529Sher5,213,294DeBord6,786,349Najd
The Najd patent teaches a magnet fixed in the bottom of a waste receptacle or garbage can and a flat plate portion anchored in the ground by at least one spike.
As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the prior art trash can holding systems referred to above lead away from the teachings of the present invention and the use of a magnet or magnetic grid or array fixed to or in the ground or to or in a driveway for holding a trash can or similar receptacle having a ferromagnetic, iron or magnetizable plate mounted at, to or in the bottom of the trash can or other receptacle and placed on the magnetic grid or array.
There has been proposed, non-analogous containers, such as for holding food, a beverage, or a variety of other things, that have a magnet or magnets mounted therein to permit attachment of the container to a steel, iron or other magnetizable surface. Such magnet attaching containers are disclosed in the following U.S. patents:
PATENTPATENTEE4,484,682Crow5,186,350McBride5,367,278Yoshikawa
Also, a non-analogous method for temporarily holding a parts receiving, non-ferrous bin or box having a ferrous plate secured to the bottom thereof to a magnetic holding panel in the bottom of a parts tray is disclosed in abandoned U.S. published patent application number US 2002/0130231.
Further, non-analogous magnetic holders comprising magnets and ferromagnetic bars secured to a vertical surface for releasably holding magnetizable articles such as knives and chisels to the vertical surface are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,966,992 and in abandoned U.S. published application number US 2002/0175131.
However, heretofore, a waste container holding system including a magnetic grid fixed to or in a supporting surface such as, earth, asphalt or concrete, for holding a waste container having a ferromagnetic plate at or in the bottom thereof for preventing the waste container from being blown away by high winds, as described and claimed herein, has not been previously suggested or proposed.


An asymmetrical transformer output demultiplexing (ATODEM) circuit is disclosed. The ATODEM circuit of the present disclosure includes N input windings, wherein N is a natural number. Each of the N input windings have input terminals that couple to output terminals of N PAs. The ATODEM further includes M output ports wherein M is a natural number, each of the M output ports having N series coupled windings coupled between a load terminal and a return terminal. The physical attributes of the N input windings, and the N series coupled windings of the M output ports are asymmetrical such that in an Nth operation mode an Nth PA first-load line impedance matches an output impedance of an Nth PA coupled to the input terminals.

Multi-mode and multi-band power amplifiers (PAs) typically have a mode switch or a band switch that is used to select between modes or between bands. Mode switches and band switches add costs and insertion losses that are detrimental to the economics and the performance of the multi-mode and multi-band PAs. Another efficiency loss is due to a constraint of a single load-line for typical multi-mode and multi-band PAs. The single load-line can only be optimized for one mode or one band of operation. Usually, the single load-line is adjusted to provide a best comprise in performance between various modes and bands of operation. However, even the best comprise for the single load-line results in less than desirable inefficiencies that limit operation time of battery operated user equipment (UE) such as mobile terminals. As such, there is a need to replace the mode switch and/or band switch for multi-mode and multi-band PAs with a switching structure that has reduced insertion losses as well as multiple load-lines that are optimized for individual modes and/or bands of operation.

Asymmetrical transformer output demultiplexing (atodem) circuit


In one example, method includes displaying an estimate of the number of pages that can be printed from a total amount of printing fluid including a printing fluid supply and a printing fluid reserve. The estimate is decremented in amounts of a first interval, in response to a first sensor signal indicating that the printing fluid supply is not empty. The estimate is decremented in amounts of a second interval that is smaller than the first interval, in response to a second sensor signal indicating that the printing fluid supply is empty.

Modern printing systems, such as laser printers, print images on substrates using printing fluid (e.g., ink, toner, or the like). The printing fluid may be dispensed from a disposable or refillable cartridge which contains an amount of printing fluid sufficient to print a finite number of pages. When the printing fluid is used up, the printing system may not be able to print further pages until the cartridge is replaced or refilled. Thus, users of the printing system may find it helpful to know how many more pages the system is capable of printing, so that they can plan their print jobs and/or obtain replacement cartridges accordingly.

Decrementing a printing fluid-based estimate of a number of pages that can be printed according to different intervals

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A card connector capable of detecting insertion of a card includes a housing; a plurality of terminals mounted to the housing; a contact portion formed in the housing; a tongue located in the housing and having an end mounted to the housing and the other end thereof provided with an action portion close to and spaced from the contact portion for a predetermined interval; and an injecting/ejecting mechanism slidably mounted in the housing and having a bevel facing the contact portion. In light of this, while the injecting/ejecting mechanism is slidably moved into the card connector, the bevel works on the action portion of the tongue to push the tongue for contact with the contact portion, thus effecting detection of insertion of a card.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to card connectors, and more particularly, to a card connector capable of detecting insertion of a card.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional card connector includes two tongues mounted at one side thereof and spaced from each other for a predetermined interval for detecting whether a card is inserted into the card connector or not. While inserted into the card connector, the card works on and pushes one of the tongues to deform the tongue sideward and to further enable the tongue to contact the other, thus effecting short circuit for detecting the insertion of the card. For example, Taiwan Patent No. M267600 disclosed an all-in-one card connector having numerous groups of the tongues for detecting the insertion of multiple kinds of cards.
The above-mentioned card connector has a drawback in need of improvement. Because each of the tongues is mounted inside the card connector, an additional terminal or wire has to be mounted in the card connector to extend out of the card connector for external connection.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 6,699,053 disclosed a conventional injecting/ejecting mechanism composed of a lock pin 5, a return spring 4, and a slide member 6 having a heart-shaped cam groove 6d, for injecting and ejecting a card.

Card connector capable of detecting insertion of card


Embodiments of methods for restoration an anti-theft platform are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Electronic devices are becoming more and more ubiquitous and mobile, and with user-data becoming more distributed among laptops, desktops, servers, and handhelds, the theft of electronic devices, from desktops to mobile devices, has also increased. Anti-theft protection is a tool that may be used to prevent access of the user-data and may be employed in the electronic device through some combination of software, hardware, and firmware. Application of the anti-theft system, when triggered, can initiate one or more processes such as disabling of the electronic device and deletion of data from the electronic device. An authentication process may be used to allow repair of the electronic device or platform and access to the user-data.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

Methods and apparatus for restoration of an anti-theft platform