A method of growing optical quality beta barium borate; crystals from a pure NaCl fluxed melt. The method comprises maintaining particular thermal field conditions throughout the melt and slowly cooling the melt to cause beta barium borate to crystallize from the melt. The rate of cooling may be at a rate of not greater than 3.degree. C. per day. The method may utilize a seed crystal, suspended into the melt, so that the beta barium borate may crystallize on the seed crystal.

Beta barium borate (.beta.-BaB.sub.2 O.sub.4 ; BBO) is a non-linear optical material that is a low temperature form of barium borate. In single crystal form, BBO has been shown to be useful in a broad range of applications for modulation and frequency conversion of laser radiation. BBO has been shown to be particularly useful as a second harmonic generator or "doubler" for laser systems to obtain a different frequency radiation from a laser having a fundamental frequency. BBO is valuable in such laser systems because the material is an efficient harmonic generator, has a high optical damage threshold, has a large birefringence, and has good mechanical and thermal properties. In addition, BBO has a wide transmission region and, moreover, is essentially transparent to ultraviolet light having wavelengths as short as 190 nm.
However, it is not possible at present to grow single crystals of BBO of sufficient size and quality for large-scale applications. Consequently, the use of BBO crystals has been limited.
Standard melt growth techniques for the manufacture of suitable BBO crystals are precluded by a destructive solid-state phase transition near 925.degree. C. A metastable melt growth technique has been described in the Journal of Crystal Growth 106, BETA BARIUM BORATE SINGLE CRYSTAL GROWN BY A DIRECT CZOCHRALSKI METHOD by K. Itoh and F. Marumo, pp 728-731, dated 1990 (Itoh, et al.). However, due to the inherently large thermal gradients applied to the growing crystals, such a technique is likely to have shortcomings in producing large BBO crystals of high optical quality.
BBO can also be crystallized from solution below the phase transition temperature. This requires a solution to dissolve barium borate and to supersaturate BBO upon cooling to cause crystals of BBO to nucleate and grow or, alternatively, to cause a "seed" crystal set in contact with the solution to grow in size.
The most widely-reported solution growth technique involves high-temperature solution growth using sodium oxide, Na.sub.2 O, as a solvent and seeded growth at the surface of the solution. The use of this technique has been described in the Journal of Crystal Growth 89, GROWTH AND CHARACTERIZATION OF LOW TEMPERATURE PHASE BARIUM METABORATE CRYSTALS by L. K. Cheng, W. Bosenberg and C. L. Tang, pp. 553-559, dated 1988 (Cheng, et al.) and the Journal of Crystal Growth 97, SOLUTION GROWTH OF BARIUM METABORATE CRYSTALS BY TOP SEEDING by R. S. Feigelson, R. J. Raymakers and R. K. Route, pp. 352-366, dated 1989 (Feigelson, et al.). However, as noted by Itoh, et al., Cheng et al. and Feigelson et al., the resulting BBO crystals tend to suffer from the presence of optical inhomogeneities due to inclusion of growth solution. This is particularly troublesome if large optical elements for commercial applications are desired and inclusion cannot be controlled.
Immersion seeded growth techniques using Na.sub.2 O as a solvent have also been reported. The use of this technique has been described in the Journal of Crystal Growth 79, FLUX GROWTH 0F LARGE SINGLE CRYSTALS OF LOW TEMPERATURE PHASE BARIUM METABORATE by A. Jiang, F. Cheng, Q. Lin, Z. Cheng and Y. Zheng, pp. 963-969, dated 1986 (Jiang, et al.) and U.S. Patent No. 4,793,894 to J. Jacco and G. Loiacono (Jacco, et al.). However, due to the inherent surface energy anisotropies using this technique, the resulting BBO crystals take the form of thin needles or sheets which do not have any practical or useful dimensions, especially for large-scale applications.
Solution growth techniques using pure sodium chloride, NaCl, as a solvent have also been reported. The use of this technique has been described in U.S. Patent No. 4,931,133 to D. Gualtieri and B. Chai (Gualtieri, et al.), the Journal of Crystal Growth 97, GROWTH OF .beta.-BARIUM BORATE FROM NaCl-Na.sub.2 O SOLUTIONS by D. Gualtieri and B. Chai, pp. 613-616, dated 1989 (Gualtieri, et al. II) and the Journal of Crystal Growth 97, STUDIES ON FLUX SYSTEMS FOR THE SINGLE CRYSTAL GROWTH OF .beta.-BaB.sub.2 O.sub.4 by Q. Huang and J. Liang, pp. 720-724, dated 1989 (Huang, et al.). However, both Gualtieri, et al. and Gualtieri, et al. II report that pure NaCl is not suitable as a solvent for crystal growth of BBO for optical applications because of the inherently undesirable shape of the resulting BBO crystals, spurious nucleation, and uncontrollable solvent volatilization. Huang, et al. also describes solvent volatilization problems with the use of a pure NaCl solvent.
Consequently, there is a need to develop a method to grow single crystals of BBO of sufficient size and quality for large-scale applications. Further, there is a need to develop a solution growth technique that avoids spurious nucleation and minimizes solvent volatilization and that results in BBO crystals having minimum inclusions and desirable shapes with practical and useful dimensions.

Method for crystal growth of beta barium boratean


The current invention is directed to compositions comprising a plurality of particles including nanoshells or a medical device with a coating including nanoshells allowing for triggered drug release. Methods of treatment with such compositions are also included.

Modulated drug delivery refers to matching the release profiles of drugs to the physiological requirements of the patient. This type of controlled delivery is useful for treating diseases that affect the homeostatic functions of the body, such as diabetes mellitus. Insulin therapy for diabetes requires a low baseline release of the drug, with peaks after the ingestion of food.
Various methods of accomplishing modulated in vivo drug delivery have been described in the literature. Mechanical pumps are one type of device that is commonly employed. Another method that has been examined is the use of ultrasound to rupture microcapsules or strip a layer of material from a drug-containing polymer matrix to alter drug release. Potential problems with such ultrasound techniques include concurrent rupture of cells at high levels of insonation power and concern about the long term safety of repetitive exposure of body tissues to ultrasonic energy.
Certain temperature sensitive hydrophilic polymer gels (hydrogels) have been described as another means of modulating drug delivery. When the temperature of the polymer is raised above its lower critical solution temperature (LCST), the hydrogel undergoes a reversible phase transition that results in the collapse of the hydrogel structure. The hydrogel collapse forces soluble materials held within the hydrogel matrix to be expelled into the surrounding solution. An impediment to the development of temperature-sensitive materials into clinically useful modulated drug delivery devices has been the lack of satisfactory means for altering the temperature of the implanted device.
Safe and efficient alternative compositions and methods for triggered drug release are provided herein. In addition, on-demand, adaptive drug delivery systems and methods are provided, including triggered drug release.

Drug delivery compositions including nanoshells for triggered drug release


A composition for softening an absorbent tissue having from about 10% to about 60% by weight of a quaternary ammonium softening active ingredient; free amine compounds at a level such that the softening composition has a tertiary to quaternary amine ratio of greater than about 0.06 and less than about 0.2; an aqueous vehicle in which said softening active ingredient is dispersed; and from about 0.01% to about 5% by weight of a high polymer; wherein the high polymer has a weight-average molecular weight of from about 2,000,000 to about 25,000,000.

Making soft tissue and toweling products which promote comfortable cleaning without performance impairing sacrifices has long been the goal of the engineers and scientists who are devoted to research into improving tissue paper. There have been numerous attempts to reduce the abrasive effect, i.e., improve the softness of tissue products. One area which has received a considerable amount of attention is the addition of chemical softening agents (also referred to herein as "chemical softeners") to tissue and toweling products.
The field of work in the prior art pertaining to chemical softeners has taken two paths. The first path is characterized by the addition of softeners to the tissue paper web during its formation either by adding an attractive ingredient to the vats of pulp which will ultimately be formed into a tissue paper web, to the pulp slurry as it approaches a paper making machine, or to the wet web as it resides on a Fourdrinier cloth or dryer cloth on a paper making machine. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,264,082, issued to Phan and Trokhan on Nov. 23, 1993, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,282, issued to Ampulski, et. al. on Oct. 22, 1991.
The second path is categorized by the addition of chemical softeners to tissue paper web after the web is dried or overdried. Applicable processes can be incorporated into the paper making operation as, for example, by spraying onto the dry web before it is wound into a roll of paper. Exemplary art from this field includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,626, issued to Ampulski, et. al. on Jun. 1, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,545, issued to Ampulski, et. al. on Sep. 21, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,525,345, issued to Warner, et. al. on Jun. 11, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,329, issued to Vinson on Dec. 19, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,691, issued to Ficke et al. on Jan. 30, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,261,580, issued to Trokhan et al. on Jul. 17, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,420,013, issued to Vinson et al. on Jul. 16, 2002, PCT Applications WO 00/22231 and 00/22233, filed in the name of Vinson et al., published on Apr. 20, 2000; and PCT Application WO 02/48458, filed in the name of Vinson et al., published on Jun. 20, 2002.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that both technology paths, more particularly the second path, are advanced by inventions of chemical softening mixtures having liposomal microstructures present at high concentration in a vehicle. The most recent of the development work in this area has focused on the improvement of the rheological properties of the chemical softening compositions. U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,329 teaches the use of high concentration compositions of softening agents which maintain a viscosity at a level where they can be easily applied to the web. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,329 teaches the addition of electrolytes to the composition. WO 00/22231 and 22233 further improve the rheology of the high concentration compositions by utilizing a bilayer disrupter to create a micellular structure which allows for more efficient application of the chemical softener to the paper web.
Unfortunately, the existing technology, while improving the rheology of liposomal softening compositions; does not, for example, reduce the viscosity of all quaternary esters to a level where they can effectively be used in the application processes of the paper making operation. For example, high concentration compositions of quaternized soft tallow-di-esterfied with methyldiethanolamine—form low viscosity compositions, however, high concentration compositions of quaternized soft tallow-di-esterified with triethanolamine is still a thick composition, which, for example, renders it incapable of being applied to paper webs at concentrations necessary to deliver high quality softening benefits.
Accordingly, it is desirable to find a way to further improve the rheology of liposomal softening compositions comprising quaternary amine compounds, to be able to use a wider variety of them in paper products. Such improved products, compositions, and processes are provided by the present invention as is shown in the following disclosure.

Paper softening compositions containing quaternary ammonium compound and high levels of free amine and soft tissue paper products comprising said compositions


A semiconductor storage device has a nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprised from multiple storage areas, and a controller, which is coupled to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory. The controller (A) identifies a storage area state, which is the state of a storage area, (B) decides, based on the storage area state identified in the (A), a read parameter, which is a parameter for use when reading data from a storage area with respect to a storage area of this storage area state, and (C) uses the read parameter decided in the (B) with respect to a read-target storage area and reads data from this read-target storage area.

Flash memory is generally well-known as an example of a nonvolatile semiconductor memory. One example of a semiconductor storage device comprising flash memory is the SSD (Solid State Drive). An SSD is advantageous compared to a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) in that it features higher read and write processing performance.
A flash memory comprises multiple cells, and a single cell, for example, maintains two states over time. More specifically, digital data is recorded by associating one of the two states of the cell with the bit value "1", and the other of the two states with the bit value "0". For example, in the case of a SLC (Single Level Cell) type flash memory, which is an example of a semiconductor recording element, digital data is recorded by associating a state in which an electron is injected onto a FG (Floating Gate) of the cell with the bit value "0" and associating a state in which an electron is not injected onto the cell FG with the bit value "1", and maintaining this state over time.
The downscaling of flash memory circuits has made progress in recent years, and as this downscaling has progressed, recorded data storage capabilities of a flash memory have dwindled. The reason for this is that the difference between an injected electron state and a non-injected electron state is narrowed by downscaling, and when a flash memory is being read, this increases the probability of a cell, which would have been originally determined to be injected with an electron, being erroneously judged to be a cell, which has not been injected with an electron, and, alternatively, increases the probability of a cell, which would have been originally determined not to be injected with an electron, being erroneously judged to be a cell, which has been injected with an electron. For this reason, fail bits (a bit associated with a cell for which the state was erroneously determined to be different), which are included in read data from a flash memory, have increased in recent years, increasing the likelihood of the correction capabilities of the correction codes assigned to data being overwhelmed and data being lost. The increase in the number of fail bits is more conspicuously apparent as a result of the progress of cell deterioration in accordance with cell rewriting. For this reason, the number of erases possible in a flash memory is decreasing in accordance with advances in downscaling.
Data is read from a flash memory using one or more prescribed types of parameters. A parameter, which is used in a data read, will be called a "read parameter" hereinbelow.
When a read parameter is inappropriate, a large number of fail bits occur in the read data. For example, a flash memory generally corrects a fail bit in read data by using a correction code such as ECC, but when a read parameter is inappropriate, the probability of the read data having a larger number of fail bits than the number of fail bits allowed increases. This makes it impossible to correct the read data.
Consequently, a technology for changing a read parameter and using the post-change read parameter to read data from a flash memory is known. Hereinafter, using an unchanged prescribed read parameter to read data will be referred to as a "normal read", and changing a read parameter and using the post-change read parameter to read data will be referred to as a "special read".
Technology for performing a special read includes the technology disclosed in Patent Literature 1. Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology for changing a reference voltage at the time of a read (a read voltage) for determining the presence or absence of an injected electron in a cell, and discloses two examples of a method for changing the reference voltage. One example is a method in which a flash memory controller notifies a flash memory of a change in the read reference voltage value and this changed value, and the flash memory internally changes the read reference voltage. The other example is a method in which, in a case where the configuration is such that the flash memory controller creates a read voltage and supplies this read voltage to the flash memory at the time of a read, the flash memory controller supplies this read voltage by changing the read reference voltage. Patent Literature 1 discloses technology for changing the read reference voltage in various ways in an attempt to reduce the fail bits when the number of fail bits occurring in read data at the time of a read exceeds that which could be corrected by the correction code (ECC: Error Correcting Code) assigned to the data, making it impossible to read the data accurately.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Semiconductor storage device having nonvolatile semiconductor memory


A device for making a carbon nanotube film includes a substrate and a catalyst layer on the substrate. The catalyst layer has two substantially parallel sides. The present disclosure also provides a method for making a carbon nanotube film. The catalyst layer is annealed at a high temperature in air. The annealed catalyst layer is heated up to a predetermined reaction temperature in a furnace with a protective gas therein. A carbonaceous gas is supplied into the furnace to grow a carbon nanotube array having two substantially parallel side faces. A carbon nanotube film is drawn from the carbon nanotube array. A drawing direction is substantially parallel to the two substantially parallel side faces of the carbon nanotube array.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to devices and methods for making carbon nanotube structures and, particularly, to a device and a method for making a carbon nanotube film.
2. Description of Related Art
Carbon nanotubes are novel carbonaceous material and received a great deal of interest since the early 1990s. The carbon nanotubes are electrically conductive along their length, chemically stable, and each can have a very small diameter (much less than 100 nanometers) and large aspect ratios (length/diameter). Due to these and other properties, carbon nanotubes have become a significant focus of research and development for use in electron emitting devices, sensors, transistors, and other devices.
Generally, the carbon nanotubes prepared by conventional methods are in particle or powder forms. The particle or powder-shaped carbon nanotubes limit the applications they can be used. Thus, preparation of macro-scale carbon nanotube structures, such as carbon nanotube films, has attracted lots of attention.
A conventional method for making a carbon nanotube film includes providing a growing substrate, forming a catalyst layer on the growing substrate, providing a reacting furnace, placing the growing substrate with the catalyst layer into the reacting furnace, and introducing a carbonaceous gas and heating the reacting furnace to grow the carbon nanotube film. However, the carbon nanotube film made by the above-described method is formed on the growing substrate and does not have a free-standing structure. Further, the carbon nanotubes in the carbon nanotube film are entangled with each other and disorderly distributed in the carbon nanotube film. Thus, the excellent properties of the carbon nanotubes are poorly utilized.
In order to solve the above problems, a method for making a nanofiber film is taught by US 2008/0170982 A to Baughman et al. The method includes arranging nanofibers to provide a substantially parallel nanofiber array having a degree of inter-fiber connectivity within the nanofiber array, and drawing said nanofibers from the nanofiber array as a ribbon or sheet without substantially twisting the ribbon or sheet. The nanofiber array has a columnar shape and can be a carbon nanotube array.
When the nanofibers are drawn from the nanofiber array to form the ribbon or sheet, the width of the nanofiber ribbon or sheet is substantially equal to the width of the drawn nanofibers. However, the width of drawn nanofibers is inevitably affected by the columnar nanofiber array, thus the nanofiber ribbon or sheet cannot have a uniform width, so it is not entirely suitable for industrial applications.
What is needed, therefore, is a device and method for making a carbon nanotube film of uniform width.

Device and method for making carbon nanotube film


The invention provides compositions and methods for the detection of Anaplasma platys polynucleotides and polypeptides.

Anaplasma platys (Apl) is an obligate intracellular bacteria that infects platelets and causes a cyclic thrombocytopenia in the dog. The dog appears, at this time, to be the only species affected by this rickettsial agent, and the disease is most likely transmitted by the Rhipicephalus spp of ticks. Apl was first reported in the United States in 1978 and has since been reported in Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East, Australia, and Africa. Because of the common vector, Apl infection is often found as a co-infection with Ehrlichia canis. The ability of the organism to produce clinical disease in the dog appears to vary with geography, suggesting that strain differences may contribute to virulence. Apl is related to another Anaplasma species known to cause clinical disease in the dog, Anaplasma phagocytophilum (Aph). Aph is capable of infecting a wide range of mammals, including humans, and can produce significant morbidity. Clinical signs are usually non-specific and include anorexia, lethargy, lameness, fever, and thrombocytopenia. Aph is transmitted by the Ixodes spp of ticks and infections have been reported throughout the United States, the UK, and Europe.
Current diagnostic tests that attempt to distinguish Aph and Apl have limited specificity. PCR for Aph and Apl using 16SrRNA has also had problems with specificity. Therefore, PCR assays for specific detection of Apl are needed in the art. Additionally, serological tests for Apl that use Aph polypeptides or antibodies specific for Apl tend not to detect all instances of Apl infection or exposure. Therefore, serological tests that more accurately detect Apl are needed in the art.


A phagemid has been constructed that expresses an antibody fused to coliphage pIII protein. The phagemid is suitable for selecting specific antibodies from large gene libraries with small quantities of antigen. The antibody-pIII gene can be strongly repressed, so that it allows antibody libraries to be amplified without the danger of deletion mutants predominating. After induction, large quantities of the fusion protein may be expressed.

The present invention concerns phagemids for the selection of specific antibodies from large recombinant libraries, the production of these phagemids and their use to select specific antibodies from large recombinant libraries using small amounts of antigen.
Plasmid and phage antibody libraries have been established in E. coli from PCR amplified immunoglobulin families following immunization. Recombinant antibodies to immunogens were selected by an ELISA assay of the bacterial supernatant from isolated bacterial colonies (Ward, E. S., Gxc3xcssow, D., Griffiths, A. D., Jones, P. T. and Winter, G.: Binding activities of a repertoire of single immunoglobulin variable domains secreted from Escherichia coli. Nature 341 (1989) 544-546) or by screening nitrocellulose plaque lift-offs of bacterial colonies for reactivity to the radioactively labeled immunogen (Huse, W. D., Sastry, L., Iverson, S. A., Kang, A. S., Alting-Mees, M., Burton, D. R., Benkovic, S. J. and Lerner, R. A.: Generation of a large combinatorial library of the immunoglobin repertoire in phage lambda. Science 246 (1989) 1275-1281). However, for the selection of specific antibodies from randomly combined light and heavy chain libraries of non-immunized animals that do not contain a preponderance of antibodies to a particular antigen, a procedure is required for screening millions of antibody producing bacteria.
A possible way to screen a broad range of antibodies is to attach recombinant antibodies to the surface of bacteria or bacteriophages so that they can then be rapidly selected by antigens bound to a solid phase. Given the difficulties of targeting proteins to the cell surface of bacteria, an attractive candidate in view of its small size and relatively simple genetic make-up is the M13 family of filamentous bacteriophages (for reviews see Webster, R. E. and Lopez, J. in xe2x80x9cVirus Structure and Assemblyxe2x80x9d ed. S. Casjens, publ. Jones and Bartlett Inc., Boston/Portala Valley, USA, 1985; Day, L. A., Marzec, C. J., Reisberg, S. A. and Casadevall, A.: DNA packaging in filamentous bacteriophages. Ann. Rev. Biophys. Biophys. Chem. 17 (1988) 509-539).
The product of gene III (pIII) is a relatively flexible and accessible molecule composed of two functional domains; an amino-terminal domain that binds to the F pilus of male bacteria during infection and a carboxy-terminal domain buried within the virion that is important for morphogenesis. Peptides can be inserted between the two domains of pIII (Smith, G. P.: Filamentous fusion phage: novel expression vectors that display cloned antigens on the virion surface. Science 228 (1985) 1315-1317) or near the N-terminus (Parmley, S. F. and Smith, G. P.: Antibody-selectable filamentous fd phage vectors: affinity purification of target genes. Gene, 73 (1988) 305-318) without destroying its functions in morphogenesis and infection. After much pioneering work on the use of pIII in fd phages for carrying foreign peptides, Parmely and Smith (1988, a.a.O.) showed that peptide epitopes inserted at the aminoterminal end could bind phages to immobilized antibodies. As a consequence of this work it has been possible to generate peptide libraries that can be screened for binding to ligands and antibodies (Scott, J. K. and Smith, G. P.: Searching for peptide ligands with an epitope library. Science 249 (1990) 386-390; Devlin, J. J., Panganiban, L. C. and Devlin, P. E.: Random peptide libraries; A source of specific protein binding molecules. Science 249 (1990) 404-406; Cwirla, S. E., Peters. E. A., Barrett, R. W. and Dower, W. J. Peptides on phage, a vast library of peptides for identifying ligands.: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 87 (1990) 6378-6382).
McCafferty, J., Griffiths, A. D., Winter, G. and Chiswell, D. J.: Phage antibodies: filamentous phage displaying antibody variable domains. Nature, 348 (1990) 552-554 reported the assembly of an antibody-pIII fusion protein into an fd phage with a TetR gene after inserting antibody DNA into the 5xe2x80x2 end of gene III. The phage remained infectious and was able to be enriched by affinity chromatography. However, fusion phage have been shown to be mainly useful for displaying relatively small inserts, probably, because the large inserts have an adverse effect on the infectivity function of pIII (Parmlee and Smith, 1988, a.a.O). There is a large risk, therefore, that phage libraries will quickly become dominated by deletion mutants after library amplification.
Thus the technical problem underlying the present invention is to provide a more efficient mean for screening antibody libraries in bacteria.
This problem is solved by providing a phagemid according to claim 1 that expresses a functional antibody-pIII fusion protein. Preferably the antibody is a single-chain antibody. DNA coding for an antibody-pIII fusion protein, preferably a single-chain antibody-pIII fusion protein, was incorporated into a phagemid. A major advantage of the phagemid system of this invention over McCafferty et al. (see above) is that it can be propagated as a plasmid and is not under any selection pressure to remove antibody DNA, since the expression of the fusion protein is tightly repressed. This is particularly important during the amplification of antibody libraries when faster proliferating deletion mutants could quickly dominate. The phagemid DNA, being less than half the size of the above phage DNA, also transform bacteria more efficiently. Moreover, in contrast to the above mentioned phage system, large quantities of the smaller phagemid DNA are produced and large amounts of antibody protein are available after induction, thereby greatly facilitating its analysis. Expression of the antibody-pIII fusion protein, preferably the single-chain antibody-pIII fusion protein, using the pSEX phagemid (see below) and its packaging into viral particles greatly facilitate the establishment of bacterial systems for the isolation of high affinity antibodies. Millions of antibody-producing clones from antibody libraries can now be rapidly screened by binding to immobilized antigen. A further advantage over conventional screening methods is that only small amounts of antigen are required, an important factor when the supply of a rare protein is limited. This system also offers the possibility of screening randomly mutated antibodies in order to increase their binding affinities. The procedure could be repeated many times until the desired specificity is achieved. It is now feasible for the first time to carry out large scale differential screening analyses of related cells and organisms. A substractive selection, e.g., using normal and neoplastic cells could be used to identify tumor associated antigens. The phagemid system also proves to be extremely useful for investigating the component of molecular interactions e.g. by selecting antibodies that inhibit ligand receptor binding.
Furthermore, the system of this invention is mostly useful for presenting other proteins or peptides at the surfaces of phagemid viral particles. For this purpose the DNA encoding the antibody has to be replaced with DNA of the desired polypeptide.

Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum Stiftung des offentlichen Rechts


A method of reducing an amount of channel information fed back by a mobile device in a wireless communication system to a plurality of transmission points of the wireless communication system is disclosed. the method comprises measuring signal quality between the mobile device and the plurality of transmission points; determining a set of the plurality of transmission points, if the signal quality is in one of a plurality of quality regions; and feeding back the channel information to the set of the plurality of transmission points, wherein the channel information is related to a plurality of channels between the mobile device and the set of the plurality of transmission points.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method used in a wireless communication system and related communication device, and more particularly, to a method of reducing feedback load and feedback overhead in a multi-cell cooperative network and related communication device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A long-term evolution (LTE) system supporting the 3GPP Rel-8 standard and/or the 3GPP Rel-9 standard are developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as a successor of a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), for further enhancing performance of the UMTS to satisfy requirement of IMT-Advanced on capacity and cell-edge throughput. The LTE system includes anew radio interface and a new radio network architecture that provides a high data rate, low latency, packet optimization, and improved system capacity and coverage. In the LTE system, a radio access network known as an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) includes multiple evolved NodeBs (eNBs) which is a transmission point for communicating with multiple UEs, and communicates with a core network including a mobility management entity (MME), a serving gateway, etc., for Non Access Stratum (NAS) control.
A LTE-advanced (LTE-A) system, as its name implies, is an evolution of the LTE system. The LTE-A system targets faster switching between power states, improves performance at the coverage edge of an eNB, and includes advanced techniques, such as carrier aggregation (CA), coordinated multi-point transmission/reception (CoMP), UL multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), etc. For a UE and an eNB to communicate with each other in the LTE-A system, the UE and the eNB must be compatible with the standards developed for the LTE-A system, such as the 3GPP Rel-10 standard or later versions.
When a UE and multiple transmission points (e.g. an eNB, a relay node or a remote antenna of a transmission point) are configured in the CoMP scheme, the UE may communicate with the transmission points simultaneously, i.e., access a service via all or part of the transmission points. These transmission points form a CoMP cooperating set. More specifically, an eNB is one of transmission points, and it may manage multiple transmission points (e.g. via remote radio head (RRH)). That is, Cell IDs of different transmission points may be different (e.g. when being managed by different eNBs), or may be the same (e.g. when being managed by the same eNB). Thus, signals transmitted between the UE and the transmission points can be easily recovered due to better quality of the received signals. In detail, when the transmission points are involved in the CoMP scheme, one of the transmission points is a serving point (e.g. serving cell). In general, link quality between the serving point and the UE is better than those between other transmission points and the UE. Control information required for the CoMP scheme is usually transmitted by the UE to the serving point first. Then, the serving point exchanges the control information with other transmission points such that the CoMP scheme can operate regularly. Further, the CoMP scheme can be classified into two main categories: Joint Processing (JP) and Coordinated Scheduling/Beamforming (CS/CB). When the JP is configured (i.e. enabled), data for the UE is available at and transmitted from part or all of the transmission points. When the CS/CB is configured, the data for the UE is only available at and transmitted from one of the transmission points of the CoMP cooperating set. The JP can be further divided into two categories: joint transmission and dynamic point selection. When the joint transmission is configured, the data for the UE can be transmitted from multiple transmission points (e.g. coherently or noncoherently) to the UE to improve received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). When the dynamic point selection is configured, the data for the UE is transmitted from only one of the transmission points (e.g. according to the decisions made in coordination among the transmission points) to the UE to improve signal quality and/or reduce the interferences. On other hand, when the CS/CB is configured, the data for the UE is only transmitted from one of transmission points of the CoMP cooperating set to the UE, while other transmission points may stop transmissions or adjust beamforming to mitigate the interferences.
However, channel information between the transmission points and the UE should be available at the transmission points, before the CoMP scheme can be operated efficiently and properly. Accordingly, the UE should feed back the channel information to the transmission points periodically or aperiodically. Preferably, the channel information is related to channel condition between the UE and the transmission points. However, an amount of the channel information increases with a size of the CoMP cooperating set (i.e., an amount of the transmission points). That is, when the size of the CoMP cooperating set increases, an amount of radio resources required by the UE to feed back the channel information also increases. Not only feedback load of the mobile device is increased, but a large amount of feedback overhead is caused on an uplink between the mobile device and the transmission points and in backhauls between the transmission points. Thus, the CoMP scheme cannot be operated regularly when uplink feedback resource is limited. Therefore, how to solve the problem of reduction of the feedback load and the feedback overhead is a topic to be discussed and addressed.

Method of reducing feedback load and feedback overhead in a multi-cell cooperative network and related communication device


A composite film useful for image supporting media, including: a first layer containing a thermoplastic polymer and optionally containing a whitening agent; a second layer containing a thermoplastic polymer and a whitening agent; a third layer containing a thermoplastic polymer and a cavitating agent, wherein the third layer is a cavitated layer; optionally a fourth layer containing a thermoplastic polymer and optionally a whitening agent; and optionally a fifth layer containing a thermoplastic polymer and optionally a whitening agent; wherein the second layer is between the first layer and the third layer, the third layer is between the second layer and the optional fourth layer, and the optional fourth layer is between the third layer and the optional fifth layer. Embodiments may have the advantage(s) of improved outer surface characteristics, compressibility, thermal insulation, whiteness, and/or stiffness.

Due to their low cost and appealing appearance, composite films are commonly used and referred to in the trade as "packaging films" and/or "labeling films." For example, in the packaging of certain types of foods, a composite film may be used having three or more layers, wherein one or both of the outer layers serves primarily as a heat seal layer, while the other layers may provide other desirable properties, such as structural integrity, barrier, appearance, slip, sealability, printability, and/or other functions.
Composite films are also used in a wide variety of graphical, print media, and industrial applications. Composite films are commonly prepared using polymeric components, such as polypropylene, polyethylene, and other polymer compositions. Coatings, additives, and/or surface treatments may be included to enhance the performance of the polymer films or to overcome some of the limitations of such films. For example, polymeric films may be difficult to print with water-base inks, so a film surface may be coated with a printable coating, treated to increase the surface energy, or provided with an additive in the skin layer to render the surface more printable.
As polymeric films are commonly formed from thermoplastic polymers, such films have limitations with respect to their tolerance of heat and heat related treatments and applications. Too much heat may cause shrinkage, distortion, and sticking to processing equipment. Similarly, such films tend to be rather poor insulators against heat migration.
Polymeric films also are commonly relatively transparent or clear unless rendered opaque or translucent, such as by fillers, cavitation, metallization, and/or coloring agents, such as whitening agents. One drawback to such components is that they may adversely alter the aesthetic properties of a film, such as to cause the films to exhibit a matte surface, reduced gloss, or reduced light transmissibility. A glossy, white background behind printing or images may desirably contribute to a higher quality print result as compared to a film having reduced whiteness. Increases in the loading of fillers or coloring agents may also contribute to mechanical performance problems, such as increased dusting, abrasion, or filler build-up on the processing equipment or on the film surface. A skin layer may be applied over the filler-containing layer, but one drawback to such skin layers is possible loss of whiteness and light transmission due to such skin layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,861, entitled "Receiving Element for use in Thermal Dye Transfer," provides an example of the prior art. The '861 patent discloses a thermal dye transfer receiving element comprising a base having thereon a dye image-receiving layer, the base comprising a composite film laminated to a support, the dye image-receiving layer being on the composite film side of the base. The composite film comprises a cavitated, thermoplastic core layer, and at least one substantially void-free thermoplastic surface layer.
It is desired to produce a polymeric film that is useful for thermal dye transfer printing, having improved compressibility, insulating properties, gloss, and whiteness, without the adverse effects of merely increasing the loading of whitener in a film layer. The film should also facilitate improved printing and processing speed and insulating properties. Improved image quality and processing speed may facilitate lower cost and allow dye diffusion thermal transfer printing to compete with other printing technologies, such as ink jet.


A movable body according to the present invention detects an operation state including attitude information of the movable body by using an operation state detector, generates a drive velocity command based on the detected attitude information and an attitude information command to be input, generates a torque command of the drive device based on the generated drive velocity command and a drive velocity detected by a drive velocity detector, and drives the drive device in accordance with the torque command generated by a velocity controller, to thereby move. In the movable body, the velocity controller performs velocity control so that the drive velocity detected by the drive velocity detector follows the drive velocity command generated by an attitude controller, and the attitude controller performs attitude control so that the attitude information detected by the operation state detector follows the attitude information command to be input.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a movable body, a travel device, and a movable body control method, and more particularly, to a movable body, a travel device, and a movable body control method for performing drive control based on own attitude information detected.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, there has been developed a movable body that detects own attitude information by using a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor, or the like and performs drive control based on the detected attitude information. The movable body operates in accordance with an attitude control principle based on an inverted pendulum or in accordance with a ZMP (zero moment point) control principle for control on a two-legged robot, and detects its own attitude information from signals of an acceleration sensor and a gyro sensor mounted thereon. Then, the movable body operates a rotation command for a motor to maintain its own attitudes and transmits the rotation command data to a motor control device. Thus, the movable body can travel depending on a change in the center of gravity of a passenger while maintaining its own attitude based on the feedback control mentioned above.
For example, there has been proposed a travel device that travels while transporting a person and has various vehicle body compositions or vehicle structures for performing drive control based on own attitude information detected. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 2006-211899 and 2006-315666 each disclose a coaxial two-wheel vehicle in which two wheels are coaxially provided. The coaxial two-wheel vehicle is in a structurally unstable state in a backward and forward direction and has a feature of stabilizing its attitude while controlling the wheels based on a feedback from an attitude sensor. In addition, the coaxial two-wheel vehicle is operated to move forwards or backwards or turn right or left in accordance with a command by shifting the center of gravity of a passenger, a command by tilting a step, a command from a control rod, or the like. Further, remote control by inputting a command from outside or autonomous locomotion on the basis of own trajectory planning is carried out in some cases.
It has now been discovered that a control system of a coaxial two-wheel vehicle that relates to the above invention requires a processing time period for computation to detect the attitude. Therefore, in order to realize a high-speed control cycle while maintaining a control performance, an attitude sensor that gives a rapid response and a controller (CPU (Central Processing Unit)) having a high computing power are required. Accordingly, an expensive system (CPU and attitude sensor) has to be used, leading to an increase in cost. In contrast, if a low-cost system is used, a control cycle slows, resulting in reduction in performance because of a loss of a control gain. For these reasons, there is a strong demand for a method of realizing a high-speed control cycle while maintaining a control performance with a low-cost system.
Hereinafter, a detailed description will be given on problems of a related coaxial two-wheel vehicle. In the related coaxial two-wheel vehicle, in a case where control on only at least one of a pitch angle and a pitch angular velocity of a vehicle is performed, or control on at least one of the pitch angle and the pitch angular velocity of the vehicle and control on at least one of a position, a velocity, a direction angle (yaw direction), and a direction velocity (yaw velocity) of the vehicle are performed at the same time, a torque command is generated based on a control system shown in FIG. 11 and is output to a motor amplifier in general. In an attitude controller 64 shown in FIG. 11, a vehicle pitch angle command, a vehicle pitch angular velocity command, and a vehicle position command, a vehicle velocity command, and the like are input, and control is performed based on deviations with a vehicle pitch angle, a vehicle pitch angular velocity, a vehicle position, a vehicle velocity, and the like that are detected by a detector 63. Examples of control by the attitude controller 64 include PID control, H infinity control, fuzzy control, and the like. In a turning controller 66, a yaw angle command, a yaw angular velocity command, and the like are input, and control is performed based on deviations with a vehicle yaw angle, a vehicle yaw angular velocity, and the like that are detected based on encoder information of a motor (not shown). Examples of control by the turning controller 66 include PD control, PID control, and the like.
FIG. 12 is a control block diagram showing a control system shown in FIG. 33 of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-211899. The control system shown in FIG. 12 corresponds to a diagram that more specifically shows the control block diagram shown in FIG. 11. The attitude controller 64 shown in FIG. 11 is expressed by Expression (1) in paragraph 0013 of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-211899 and a state feedback by gains K1 to K4 shown in FIG. 12. Further, the turning controller 65 shown in FIG. 11 is expressed by using gains K5 to K7 shown in FIG. 12, for example.
In the control system of the related coaxial two-wheel vehicle shown in FIG. 11, a torque command is obtained by performing an operation of addition or subtraction on a first torque command generated in the attitude controller 64 and a second torque command generated in the turning controller 66, and the torque command is output to a torque controller constituted of a motor amplifier, thereby performing drive control on wheels 62. Here, a control loop 71 for outputting the torque command includes a computation for attitude detection by the detector 63. Generally, a high-speed control cycle is required in the control loop 71 of the torque command, but the computation for the attitude detection takes time. Therefore, in order to complete the computation in the high-speed control cycle, a high-speed CPU (or attitude sensor capable of performing computation at high speed) is required, and thus the system becomes expensive. In contrast, in a case where the system is structured by a low-cost CPU (or low-cost attitude sensor) with the control cycle being slowed, harmful effects are caused in that the control performance relating to the pitch angle, the pitch angular velocity, the vehicle position, and the vehicle velocity is degraded (that is, the stability is lowered or command following capability is degraded) and a performance in the turning control is degraded (that is, a direction stability is lowered).
Further, when one of the wheels of the related coaxial two-wheel vehicle is away from the road surface during traveling, a load on the wheel that is away from the road surface decreases rapidly. Because robustness of the turning control is low, oscillations are generated between the wheel that is in contact with the ground and receives a larger load and the wheel that is away from the road surface and receives the smaller load, with the result that the vehicle may be vibrated in a turn direction and a dangerous state may be caused.
As described above, in the control system of the related coaxial two-wheel vehicle, the attitude detection processing that requires the computation time is included in the control loop of the torque command which requires the high-speed control cycle. For this reason, there is a problem in that the high-speed control cycle cannot be realized with the low-cost system while maintaining the control performance.
Accordingly, the present invention has an object to provide a movable body, a travel device, and a movable body control method that are capable of implementing higher-performance control by realizing the high-speed control cycle with a low-cost system while maintaining a control performance.

Movable body, travel device, and movable body control method


A system and method are provided for testing an integrated circuit (IC) using thermally induced noise analysis. The method provides an IC die and supplies electrical power to the IC die. The IC die surface is scanned with a laser, and the laser beam irradiated locations on the IC die surface are tracked. The laser scanning heats active electrical elements underlying the scanned IC die surface. A frequency response of an IC die electrical interface is measured and correlated to irradiated locations. IC die defect regions are determined in response to identifying location-correlated frequency measurements exceeding a noise threshold. For example, a frequency measurement may be correlated to a die surface location, and if frequency measurement exceeds the noise threshold, then circuitry underlying that surface area may be identified as defective. Typically, die defect regions are associated with measurements in the frequency range between about 1 Hertz and 10 kilohertz.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to integrated circuit (IC) fabrication and, more particularly, to a method for accurately detecting defects in an IC using thermally induced frequency measurements of electrical signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
IC devices are formed from a die of active semiconductor devices. The die can be mounted in a hybrid circuit, printed circuit board (PCB), or a package. For environmental protection, the die may be covered by a passivation layer. However, a package is more typically used since it also dissipates heat and provides a lead system for electrical connections. There are many different types of packages including through-hole, surface mount device (SMD) dual/quad, and SMD area array packages.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a dual in-line package (DIP) (prior art). It is common for a package body or lead frame 100 to have a die attach area 102. The die 106 has electrical contact pads on its top surface. Inner leads 108 connect pads on die top surface to outer leads or lead frames 110. Once the inner leads are bonded to the lead frames, the package is sealed with ceramic, in a metal can, or in a polyimide. Epoxy resins are also a common choice. Glass beads are commonly mixed in with the epoxy to reduce strain in the epoxy film during changes in temperature.
Optical beam induced current (OBIC) is a semiconductor analysis technique performed using laser signal injection. The technique induces current flow in the semiconductor sample through the use of a laser light source. This technique is used in semiconductor failure analysis to locate buried diffusion regions, damaged junctions, and gate oxide shorts.
The OBIC technique may be used to detect the point at which a focused ion beam (FIB) milling operation in bulk silicon of an IC must be terminated. This is accomplished by using a laser to induce a photocurrent in the silicon, while simultaneously monitoring the magnitude of the photocurrent by connecting an ammeter to the device's power and ground. As the bulk silicon is thinned, the photocurrent increases as the depletion region of the well to substrate junction is reached. FIB milling operations are terminated in a region below the well depth, so the device remains operational.
Thermally Induced Voltage Alteration (TIVA) laser imaging techniques can also be used to electrically detect optical transmission through thin packages. The enclosed integrated circuit acts as a detector while the laser is scanned on the outside of the package. In one aspect, the TIVA laser causes some heating of the IC and the resultant resistance change is detected electronically through the leads of the device. The OBIC laser causes the generation of electron-hole pairs in the crystal silicon die that results in a current that is then detected as a voltage at the pins of the device. In some aspects, both lasers are used simultaneously.
FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary system for detecting optical paths through an IC package (prior art). Selected power pins from the IC are connected to a sense amp 300, as are the IC grounds. A laser 302 scans an area of an IC package 304 overlying the die (not shown). The scanning area is defined by an x-y coordinate system. The IC package 304 is mounted on a movable table 306. Alternately, the IC package position is fixed and the laser moves. The scan pattern need not necessarily follow the x-y grid. In some aspects, only selected areas of the package surface over the die are scanned.
FIG. 3 is a detailed schematic of a sense amplifier (prior art). The sense amplifier 400 connects lines V+ and S+ to IC power supply lines, while inputs V− and S− are typically connected to ground. In other aspects, the sense amplifier lines may be connected to signal inputs or signal outputs. Imaging is performed through the top of the package. Electrical connections are made to the power supply pins of the device and those connections go to a current amplifier for video imaging the package surface as the OBIC laser is scanned. The OBIC laser has a 1065 nanometers wavelength and does not ablate the epoxy mold compound. The optical path (OBIC or TIVA) testing lasers typically use a power of less than 100 milliwatts.
However, using OBIC and TIVA techniques, it is difficult to distinguish between defect and normally operating circuitry. That is, there are many sites that are thermally sensitive and produce a response and shows up in images. Not all of these sites are defects. It is not adequate to compare the image of a good reference unit to the unit under test, because a defect can induce connected non-defective circuit elements to behave differently than the corresponding circuitry in the reference unit.
Typically, destructive physical analysis follows the TIVA analysis and the results of the TIVA analysis are used to determine the direction in which the destructive physical analysis should proceed. For example, time consuming and destructive techniques such as mechanical micro-probing or cross-sectioning may be employed. If multiple sites are indicated, and the diagnosis is ambiguous, then the physical analysis may inadvertently destroy the true failure site.
An analysis of noise (frequency) provides more information than simple voltage and current analysis. To that end, the light emissions from an integrated circuit can be collected using a low light sensitive camera or discrete light defector (Zheng et al., "A Novel Fault Isolation Technique Using Noise Detection and Characterization of Light Emitted from Integrated Circuits", Proceedings from the 24th International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis, Nov. 15-19, 1998, pp. 467-471). However, it is not possible to access every potential defect region so that optical data can be collected. Further, while the TIVA method suffers from the above-mentioned limits, it has the advantage of using a laser to heat the sample as a means of inducing defect measurement. The optical method provides no means of using temperature to enhance noise measurements.
It would be advantageous if a method existed to more positively differentiate defect sites from non-defect sites in an IC, without resulting to physical analysis or probing.
It would be advantageous if a means existed for using electrical signal noise (frequency) analysis to identify IC defect regions. It would be advantageous if a laser could be used, inducing noise measurements with high temperatures.

Integrated circuit thermally induced noise analysis


An interaction system that provides an interaction interface comprising: a computer and a device that obtains information, wherein the computer stores information for managing data in which a type of a second feature value is associated with a listening pattern that defines a tendency of a response action performed by the interaction interface on a user; calculates a first feature value that is an index for evaluating a change in state during speech by the user on the basis of information obtained by the device; calculates second feature values on the basis of the first feature value; selects a target second feature value from among the second feature values; selects the listening pattern corresponding to the target second feature value; and generates output information for controlling the interaction interface on the basis of the selected listening pattern.

The present invention relates to an interaction system that realizes interaction with a user through an interaction interface.
If an interaction interface such as a robot or CG that interacts with a person can evoke empathy in the person by giving responses that indicate attentive listening to utterances by the person, then this increases the person's willingness to talk, resulting in a continuous interaction.
The interaction interface obtains, as an interaction signal, information relating to the behavior of the person during the interaction such as facial expressions, tone of voice, and the like of the person, calculates feature values from the interaction signal (interaction feature values), and determines the facial expression and tone of voice to be outputted via the interaction interface on the basis of the interaction feature values to realize interaction that evokes empathy in the person.
One known technique relating to an interaction interface is the technique disclosed in JP 2012-181697 A. JP 2012-181697 A discloses an interaction system in which "an interaction state quantity calculation unit detects interaction state quantities including speaker switching pauses, and the pitch, power, or morae of an interaction interval during an utterance by the user. A communication synchronization control unit calculates a communication synchronization offset quantity between the user and the robot system and minimizes the communication synchronization offset quantity by continuous entrainment control by a state formula representing a synchronization model, while at the same time performing discrete entrainment control by interaction rules, thereby causing the interaction state quantity of the user to approach that of the robot system, or causing the interaction state quantity of the robot system to approach the interaction state quantity of the user while causing the interaction state quantity of the user to approach that of the robot system."
The interaction system disclosed in JP 2012-181697 A realizes continuous communication by minimizing the offset in interaction state quantities.

Interaction system, apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium


A system and method for using schema attributes as meta-data is disclosed. A directory service is provided for use with a computer system or network to aid in storing and managing data or other information related to the system. A group of attributes having special names or meaning are provided and may be included in a class schema. If the meaning or use of a class changes after its creation, additional attributes may be added into the class schema. The directory service may also be configured to define or determine relationships between various object classes in a directory system via specially named relationship classes, wherein the relationships are defined or determined before any instances of the classes exist in the directory.

The invention relates generally to computer-based directory services, and more particularly to a system and method for using schema attributes as meta-data in a directory service.
Computer systems generally comprise two or more computers networked together to enable the sharing of applications, services, and information. Most computer systems store and maintain data (in various formats) relating to the many network resources that comprise the system. Examples of such resources may include, but are not limited to computers and various peripheral devices (e.g.xe2x80x94printers, RAID devices, etc.), as well as users, files, and e-mail addresses. Directory services are a valuable tool utilized by computer systems to aid in storing and maintaining this data.
A directory service typically identifies all of the resources on a network and makes them accessible to users and applications. Currently, many computer systems utilize distributed directories. A distributed directory is a single directory that spans (and is shared by) multiple networking servers. Most distributed directories are based on the X.500 ITU (International Telecommunication Union) standard which structures directories in a hierarchical fashion, having different levels for different categories of information. Many directory service providers utilize hierarchical databases, which may be referred to as either xe2x80x9cdirectory service databasesxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cdirectory service repositories.xe2x80x9d Distributed directories based on the X.500 standard allow for information to be created, read, and modified by clients having the appropriate access rights. This information may be shared across a plurality of servers and clients.
One example of a well-known directory service or system that uses a distributed directory with a hierarchical database structure is NetWare Directory Services(trademark) (xe2x80x9cNDSxe2x80x9d) by Novell Corporation. The structure of at least one NDS directory system may be understood by defining terms such as meta-data, schema, and instance.
Traditionally, meta-data in a directory system may describe the syntax or format of data so that the system may understand how data is being represented in the system. Meta-data may also specify that a directory system may have attributes, and that these attributes may be grouped into entities known as classes. Generally, meta-data defines the model for schemas in a directory system.
A schema typically defines a set of attributes that are defined together to define or describe a class. NDS allows network administrators to create classes in the schema using attributes defined by the administrators. Each attribute in a class has certain information associated with it, such as an attribute name and an attribute syntax type. The attribute name identifies the attribute, while the attribute syntax limits the values that are assumed by the attribute. In addition to defining attributes or properties, classes may also contain other meta-data describing the behavior of the class.
Once a network administrator has created a class, users having appropriate access rights may then create objects based on that class. These objects, also referred to as instances of the class, are then entered into the distributed directory. Multiple instances of the same class may exist in a directory as long as each possesses a unique name. Although objects in a distributed directory tend to represent computer-related entities (e.g.xe2x80x94computers, printers, users), those skilled in the art understand that objects may also represent a variety of non-computer-related entities such as companies, departments, buildings, or the like.
One feature of directory service hierarchical databases allows for classes to be derived from (or based upon the declaration of) other classes. This concept, known as inheritance, is explained with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a distributed directory 100 wherein each block illustrated represents a class. For ease of explanation, assume that a help desk policy class 110 exists in distributed directory 100, and is derived from (or based on the declaration of) a general policy class 120, a WINDOWS 98(trademark) type policy class 130, a user type policy class 140, and a scheduled feature policy class 150. Because help desk policy class 110 is derived from policy classes (120, 130, 140, 150), any instances (or objects) of the help desk policy class 110 created in directory 100 must contain all of the mandatory attributes defined by its own class definition (which may be none), as well as all of the mandatory attributes defined in the class definitions of policy classes (120, 130, 140, 150). This is because valid instances or objects of a derived class must include the mandatory attributes of the base class or classes from which it is derived. Help desk policy class 110 may be referred to as a derived class or subclass because it inherits the characteristics of policy classes (120, 130, 140, 150). In turn, policy classes (120, 130, 140, 150) are referred to as base classes or super classes because their characteristics are inherited by another class, namely help desk policy class 110. It should be recognized that FIG. 1 is an illustration of multiple inheritance, as the derived help desk policy class 110 is inheriting the characteristics of more than one base class.
Through the derivation described above, the directory system may now make a determination that help desk policy class 110 is a policy class that is acceptable for WINDOWS 98(trademark) systems, and for users, and that it is a policy class that may be scheduled. Such a determination may be made by examining the names of the base policy classes (120, 130, 140, 150) that help desk policy class 110 is derived from. Since the names of the base policy classes (120, 130, 140, 150) are well known and constant, and because help desk policy class 110 is derived from these base policy classes, the system is able to make this determination about the help desk policy class 110 and any eventual instances of the help desk policy class 110 that may be created.
Those skilled in the art will realize that policy classes (110, 120, 130, 140, 150) are but a few representative examples of policy classes that may be created to manage resources of a computer system such as users, workstations, or servers. These policy classes may also apply to various operating systems and may be capable of supporting various features.
One drawback associated with using hierarchical database structures is that derivation is generally a one-time process. In other words, when an administrator or other individual creates a new subclass that is to be derived from a base class, he or she may be limited in the future to only those attributes that were included in the class definition of the new subclass at the time of creation.
In FIG. 1, for example, help desk policy class 110 was derived from policy classes (110, 120, 130, 140, 150) and was defined to include any new attributes along with the attributes that were inherited from policy classes (110, 120, 130, 140, 150). If a network administrator, in the course of organizing or managing objects or instances of classes, later discovers that help desk policy class 110 shares the structure and behavior of some other existing base class (not shown), it may be disadvantageous for the help desk policy class 110 to derive from this newly discovered base class. If the help desk policy class 110 is allowed to derive from the newly discovered base class, any subsequent objects or instances of the help desk policy class 110 created would conflict with objects or instances of the help desk policy class 110 already in existence. The network administrator would most likely be forced to create a new help desk policy class and re-create all of the old objects already in existence.
The inability to modify a class schema by adding attributes later may result in an inflexible and inefficient system. These and other drawbacks exist. For this reason, it may be valuable for network administrators managing classes in a directory to be able to determine the user interface and behavior of a class before any objects or instances of the class are created in the directory. In addition, it may valuable for network administrators to understand how different classes relate to one another before any objects or instances of the classes are created in the directory.
The invention solving these and other problems in the art relates to a system and method for using schema attributes as meta-data in a directory service.
According to an embodiment of the invention, a directory service may be used with a computer system or network to aid in storing and managing data or other information relating to the system. Prior to creating an object class in a directory service, various data or other information pertaining to one or more network resources in a computer system may be identified. A group of attributes that will be used to describe this data may be given special names or menacingly the individual creating the class. These attributes may then be included in the class schema. After a class has been created, users having appropriate access rights may then create objects or instances of the class in the directory.
One advantage of this embodiment is that the user interface and behavior of a class may be determined before any objects or instances of the class ever exist in the directory. This may be accomplished by reading the class schema and identifying the attributes which exist in the schema that have been given special meaning.
Another advantage of this embodiment is that additional attributes may be added to the class schema if the meaning or use of the class has changed, or if any additional attributes are needed to describe how the class should behave.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a directory system may define or determine relationships between various classes in the directory via a specially named relationship class. First, at least two classes in a directory that share some type of relationship may be identified. A name that appropriately identifies the relationship between the at least two classes may be selected, and then a relationship class having the selected name may be created in the distributed directory. The relationship class may have an attribute that is specially named to indicate that its multiple values may include the names of the classes participating in the relationship. When the relationship class is created, however, no values may be assigned to the attribute. Rather, values for the attribute may be assigned in an object or instance of the relationship class, after the object or instance of the relationship class is created in the directory. Once an object or instance of the relationship class is created in the directory, the directory system may search the directory tree to locate the instance of the relationship class. Upon finding this object in the tree, the directory system may read the value of the attribute to discover the names of the classes that participate in the relationship.
One advantage of this embodiment is that more than one object or instance of the relationship class may be created in the directory, allowing for customization in different segments of the directory tree. Customization may be advantageous because, for example, relationships between classes may be different for different subtrees of the directory.
Another advantage of this embodiment is that the values of the attribute in the instance of the relationship class may be modified if the relationship between classes (identified by the relationship class and its object) has changed.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a directory system may define or determine several relationships between various classes in the directory via a general relationship class. First, various relationships between classes in a directory may be identified. Names that appropriately identify these relationships between classes may be selected. Next, a general relationship class may be created in the directory, having a first attribute and a second attribute. When the general relationship class is created, however, neither of the attributes may be assigned any values. Rather, values for these attributes may be assigned in an object or instance of the general relationship class once the object or instance is created in the directory. Various value fields for the first attribute may include the names that were created to define the various types of relationships that may exist between classes in a directory. The names of classes that participate in the relationships named in the value fields of the first attribute may then be assigned to corresponding value fields in the second attribute. Once an object or instance of the general relationship class is created in the directory, the directory system may search the directory tree to locate an instance of the general relationship class. Upon finding this object in the tree, the directory system may read the value fields of the first attribute to discover the various relationships that are represented. Next, the directory system may read the corresponding value fields for the second attribute to find the names of the classes that are participating in the respective relationships.
One advantage of this embodiment is that more than one object or instance of the general relationship class may be created in the directory, allowing for customization in different segments of the directory tree. Customization may be advantageous because, for example, relationships between classes may be different for different subtrees of the directory.
Another advantage of this embodiment is that the values of the attribute in the instance of the general relationship class may be modified if the various types of relationships between the classes have changed, as well as whether the names of any classes participating in the relationships have changed.

System and method for using schema attributes as meta-data in a directory service


A data processing method is performed at a computer system managing application programming interfaces (APIs) and mobile application entrances. An API invocation request initiated by an application system is received by the computer system, permission information corresponding to the application system is obtained according to an identifier of the mobile application entrance and an application system identifier that are carried in the API invocation request, then authentication is performed on the API invocation request according to the permission information and first authentication information carried in the API invocation request, and the application system is allowed to invoke an API for data processing when the authentication succeeds, so that internal data corruption caused due to that each application system at a mobile application entrance randomly invoke the API is avoided, thereby implementing uniform management on the internal data, greatly strengthening data security, and facilitating API interface expansion.

With the development of communications technologies, various instant messaging tools rapidly spring up, and WeChat is one of them. In some instant messaging tools, to meet different requirements of enterprise users, various application management channels and address-book operation channels that can be self-developed are generally provided. Using WeChat as an example, an enterprise number is a mobile application entrance provided by WeChat for providing mobile services for the enterprise users. By using the mobile application entrance, the enterprise users can develop and manage multiple applications by themselves, for example, configuring multiple service numbers to connect different enterprise application systems, and enrich communication and exchange among enterprise internal employees by using the applications.
In the existing technologies, because demand sides of each application within the enterprise number belong to different organizations, different development and maintenance are performed. In addition, because each application may randomly invoke an application interface for data processing such as delivering a message to an enterprise internal employee, internal data corruption of the enterprise number is easily caused, and use of the enterprise number is affected, for example, application error, resulting in not facilitating data security.

Data processing method and apparatus based on mobile application entrance and system

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


An image processing device includes an image scanning part that scans an image on a document and generates image data based on the image, an input part that accepts an input designation of a division number into which the image data generated by the image scanning part is divided, and an output resolution of output image data created based on the image data, a division processing part that creates divided image data by dividing the image data by the division number accepted by the input part, controller that calculates a scan resolution based on the division number and the output resolution of the output image data, and a data output part that outputs the divided image data as the output image data. The controller controls the image scanning part to scan the image at the calculated scan resolution.

Recently, in order to conserve resources, image forming devices include a so-called multi-page printing function that prints document images of plural pages on a single recording medium with a reduced layout. For the purpose of obtaining image data that corresponds to each of the original images from a printed material that is outputted using the multi-page printing function, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-012621 (patent document) discloses an image forming device that outputs image data that corresponds to each of the document images printed in a reduced size by separating the image data into a plurality of recording mediums.
However, the image forming device disclosed in the above patent document divides the reduced document images on the printed material outputted using the multi-page printing function as separate sheets/pages of image data with reduced size, and outputs each image data to a recording device such as a memory and the like. Therefore, the size of the reduced document images is unchanged.
Therefore, there is a problem with the image forming device disclosed in the above patent document that, when the image data generated by scanning a document image of the document for scanning (hereinafter, referred to as "scan document") by an image scanning part, such as a scanner and the like, is faxed to a specified recipient (hereinafter, this function is referred to as a scan-to-fax function), reduced characters on a recording medium received by the recipient are tuned crushed, thereby becoming illegible.
The present application is made in consideration of the above-described problems. One of objects of the present application is to provide an image processing device that provides easily readable image data even when outputting image data is obtained by dividing reduced size document images on printed material that is outputted using a multi-page printing function.

Image processing device and image processing system


An ink-jet ink comprises an aqueous liquid vehicle, at least 1% by weight colorant; and a black-to-color bleed control enhancing amount of magnesium sulfate or hydrate thereof.

In ink-jet technology, image quality of high-resolution images can be a function of both the ink-jet ink used to produce an image and the print medium upon which the image is printed. In ink-jet printing, droplets of ink are ejected from a printhead in response to electrical signals generated by a microprocessor and are deposited on a print medium, such as paper or polymeric substrates, to form the desired image.
When a high-resolution image is printed, major issues arise, namely, color quality and image permanence, i.e., how long the quality of the image will last. With respect to much of the print media currently on the market, printed images commonly exhibit undesirable characteristics relating to image permanence. One such undesirable characteristic is the gradual dye-fade that is sometimes observed when dye-based ink-jet inks are printed on porous media. Such fade is caused by air and, more particularly, by small amounts of ozone in the air. It appears that, over time, ozone reacts with many dyes commonly used in ink-jet inks, causing them to break down and to lose or diminish their intended color properties. It has been observed that when ozone reacts with ink-jet ink dyes, the intended color properties of a given dye may shift to another wavelength value along the visible spectrum. This effect causes a gradual change in the perceived colors of the printed image from what was originally intended, i.e., colorshift. For instance, "red shift" is caused by oxidation of cyan dyes. Existing techniques for mitigating red shift include protecting prints from exposure to the atmosphere, such as by displaying them under glass. Dye-fade and colorshift is more of a problem with certain dyes than with others. Cyan dyes tend to be affected to a greater extent by the presence of ozone in the air than do other dyes.
Some of the drawbacks associated with the use of existing ink-jet inks on conventional print media include bronzing on swellable photo media, bleeding of colors, and stacked haze on porous photo media, among other difficulties. "Bronzing" refers to a lustrous sheen that appears on a printed sample in reflected light, typically appearing as reddish-brown color. It tends to be associated with cyan dyes. Other chemical reactions which detract from the desired color quality can take place in the ink composition during storage. An ink-jet ink composition should be stable and capable of producing the desired color after several months in storage, and for some period of time after first use of the ink and exposure to air.
"Humid hue shift" refers to the tendency of the ink and/or the colorant(s) present in the ink to migrate or spread undesirably into unprinted or printed adjacent areas of the media substrate. Humid hue shift typically occurs prior to the printed inks fully drying on a substrate or after the inks are printed when exposed to humid conditions.
"Image quality" generally refers to the level of defects including, but not limited to, bronzing, humid hue shift and/or bleed of ink-jet printed marks, particularly with colored inks.
Black-to-color bleed is a well recognized problem in the industry. One of the issues confronting formulators of inkjet ink sets comprising black and color (e.g., cyan, yellow, magenta) is that of black-to-color bleed. This has been an issue earlier for dye-based colorants and, more recently, for pigment-based colorants, and most recently for self-dispersed pigment-based colorants.
The term "bleed" as used herein, is defined as follows: When inks of two different colors are printed next to each other, it is desired that the border between the two colors be free from the invasion of one color into the other. When one color does invade into the other, the border between the two colors becomes ragged, and this is bleed. This is in contradistinction to uses of the term in the prior art, which often defines "bleed" in the context of ink of a single color following the fibers of the paper.
The term "halo" applies to the printing defect that occurs in black areas surrounded by color ink. In some cases, a distinct light-gray zone is seen where the black is adjacent to color. The defect is normally seen within 2 to 3 mm from the line dividing the black and color areas and occurs on the black side.
Finally, "mottle" is defined as a color or black non-uniformity on top of the paper, with some areas darker than others.
Dye-based systems, in which the dye colorant is soluble in water, have different considerations than pigment-based systems, in which the pigment colorant is insoluble in water and must be rendered dispersible, such as by the use of polymeric dispersants or by self-dispersing the pigment.
Adding polymers to pigmented systems is well known in the art. Polymers tend to stabilize the dispersion, as well as improve such attributes as the black-to-color bleed, optical density of the black, halo, and mottle. For example, pigmented inks have been disclosed that contain AB and BAB block-copolymers, where the blocks are made out of various monomers of acrylic family. As another example, a relatively high molecular weight (>10,000) polysaccharide such as alginic acid or carrageenan has been used. As another example, the use of polymeric resins, in particular, styrene-acrylic copolymers in pigmented inks is known. Still further, inks containing a carboxylic salt polymer are known. Also, inks containing a copolymer of a hydrophobic α,β-unsaturated ethylene monomer, and a hydrophilic monomer having a plurality of COOM groups (where M is hydrogen, alkali metal, or an ammonium ion) are known. Specifically, the hydrophobic monomer can be styrene and hydrophilic monomer can be maleic anhydride. In addition, an ink-jet ink containing two dispersants: one containing a sulfonic acid salt/ester, and the other containing a carboxylic acid salt, within a specific range of molecular weights has been described. Finally, a number of polymers for the bleed and halo control are described, most of them being of the acrylic type.
It has been known in the art that introducing chemical reactivity between the color and black inks brings many positive features to ink-jet performance, such as color-to-black bleed control and decreasing the halo. Also, it has been discovered that if reactive color inks are used for underprinting under the black areas, the optical density of the black is improved. The interaction between the polymeric dispersant and polyvalent metal ions in the color inks has been described for controlling bleed/halo/mottle. Alternatively, the reaction with the polymer can be triggered by organic acids in the color inks.
Aside from polymeric dispersants, there is another approach for preparing colloidal pigment dispersions, called self-dispersion. It typically involves attaching solubilizing groups to the pigment. There are several methods known in the art that enable the attachment of a solubilizing ionic group to the surface of a pigment particle. For example, a method of attaching an ionic group to the carbon surface is based on the reactions of diazonium salts. On the other hand, a reaction by oxidation of the surface of the pigment particles may be performed using ozone.
Self-dispersed pigments are much more difficult to control. Developing black-to-color bleed control mechanisms for self-dispersed black pigment inks, such as those available from Cabot Corp., is typically harder than for conventionally dispersed black inks (e.g., using polymeric pigment dispersants) because the self-dispersed pigments are highly electrostatically stabilized. In addition, there is no polymeric dispersant which, when reacted, rapidly builds viscosity and limits ink migration. As an example, a series of polymers of the acrylic type have been used to improve the color-to-bleed and halo of the black pigmented inks. Further improvements are needed for black-to-color-bleed control, especially for self-dispersed black pigment inks.
Bleed Control Agents
The state of the art approach to this black-to-color bleed problem is to add multivalent salts to the dye based color inks that will be printed with the black pigmented inks. The styrene/maleic anhydride polymers in the black ink interact with incompatible multivalent (inorganic or organic) salts in the color, ink. These multivalent salts must be soluble in the ink in the concentration employed. Salts customarily employed in such color inks include nitrate, chloride, acetate, perclorate, formate and thiocyanate salts of calcium and magnesium. The use of salts to control black-to-color bleed in color inks is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,306.
One of the issues with respect to the current state-of-the-art approach of modifying dye-based color ink formulations by addition of salts for black-to-color bleed control, is the potential irritancy of the ink. Therefore, a need remains for further improvement of the black to color bleed control using salts that are more environmentally friendly. Ink-jet inks that are more environmentally friendly or "green" would be welcomed by the industry.

Ink-jet ink formulations containing magnesium sulfate

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A label sheet includes an overlay attached to a liner by an adhesive. The liner includes adjoining relatively low and high adhesion surfaces. And, the adhesive bonds together the overlay and liner at the high adhesion surface and allows separation of the overlay at the low adhesion surface.

The present invention relates generally to laminated label sheets, and, more specifically, to the manufacture thereof.
Label sheets are commonly available in various configurations with and without printing thereon. A typical label sheet is a laminate of a paper overlay and an underlying release liner. An adhesive bonds the overlay to the liner in the finished article.
In typical use, information is printed atop the overlay, and the overlay is then removed from the liner by being peeled therefrom. The peeled away label has exposed adhesive so that it may be pressed against paper or other object for attachment thereto. A typical release liner is coated over one side with liquid silicone which is thermally cured for providing a low adhesion surface thereatop to which the overlay is temporarily bonded. The adhesive provides a weak bond between the overlay and the silicone liner which sufficiently maintains together the laminate until it is desired to remove the overlay from the liner.
More complex label sheets include several labels or decals in the overlay defined by respective perimeter die-cuts therebetween which allow removal of individual labels from the liner. The individual labels may be directly adjacent to each other or there may be an intervening label rim or border which remains attached to the liner after the individual labels are peeled away.
A further increase in complexity of the label sheet includes an integral paper form attached to the label portion of the overlay which does not overlie the liner. This type of label sheet may be manufactured using a lap joining method wherein the label and liner laminate is premanufactured and lap joined along an edge thereof to the paper form. In another, integrated, method of manufacture, the entire overlay, including the label and form portions thereof, is separately manufactured in a common sheet and the liner is then bonded below the label portion thereof.
These various label sheets nevertheless use a commonly fabricated release liner which is typically manufactured in large rolls with the silicone in liquid form being applied over the entire surface of the liner paper which is then thermally cured. The large roll of release liner is then cut into individual smaller rolls for use in various label sheet applications as required.
Since the low adhesion silicone covers the entire front surface of the release liner, only weak adhesive bonds with the paper overlay may be formed therewith. This presents a problem when several individual labels are formed in the overlay. For example, when the label sheet is passed through a laser printer, individual labels may separate from the liner as the adhesive is softened under heat and the sheet is bent tightly around narrow rollers. Not only may the label sheet be damaged during laser printing, but the released portions thereof have exposed adhesive which may adhere the overlay to internal components of the printer causing jamming thereof. Additional adhesive may also be squeezed out from between the labels and liner due to the heat and squeezing in the printer, and may also lead to printer jamming.
Furthermore, when an individual label is removed from an adjoining label border, the border portion itself may also separate from the liner, and the exposed adhesive on the border may inadvertently attach the border to other papers which is undesirable.
Another problem attributable to this liner construction occurs when the overlay includes a perforation line. Such lines are provided to tear apart portions of the label for various reasons. Since the label necessarily has a weak bond with the liner, tearing the label along the perforations typically breaks this bond and allows the label to slide on the liner and typically experience side tears emanating from the perforation line.
Since the liner is typically manufactured in large rolls, cut to size, and used for various applications, it is not practical or even possible to provide printing atop the liner and below the silicone surface. This leaves only the front and back sides of the overlay and the back side of the liner as available surfaces for printing, and therefore decreases the potential efficiency of the label sheet.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved label sheet which resolves one or more of these various limitations in conventionally manufactured label sheets.