A liquid-chromatography module includes a microfluidic cartridge housing a microfluidic substrate with a channel for transporting fluid. The microfluidic substrate has fluidic apertures through which fluid is supplied to the channel. One side of the cartridge has nozzle openings, each aligning with a fluidic aperture in the microfluidic substrate and receiving a fluidic nozzle. A clamping assembly has a plunger that is movable into a clamped position and an end housing that defines a chamber. One wall of the end housing has a fluidic block with fluidic nozzles extending into the chamber. A second wall has a slot through which the cartridge enters the chamber. When moved into the clamped position while the cartridge is in the chamber, the plunger urges the cartridge against the fluidic block such that each fluidic nozzle enters one nozzle opening and establishes fluidic communication with one fluidic aperture in the microfluidic substrate.

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) instruments are analytical tools for separating, identifying, and quantifying compounds. Traditional HPLC instruments use analytical columns constructed from stainless-steel tubing. Typically, the tubing has an inner bore diameter of 4.7 mm, and its length ranges from about 5 cm to about 25 cm.
In addition, the analytical column of an HPLC instrument typically has a fritted end fitting attached to a piece of tubing. Particles, typically silica-based, functionalized with a variety of functional moieties, pack the tube.
To achieve optimal separation efficiency, using the completed column, an appropriate flow rate of a mobile phase is important. For a 4.7 mm diameter column packed with 5 μm diameter particles, a desirable flow rate is typically between about 1 mL/min and about 2 mL/min. Minimizing the presence of unswept dead volume in the plumbing of the HPLC instrument is desirable for maintaining separation efficiency.
In an HPLC instrument, an injector is typically used to inject a sample into a flowing mobile phase as a discrete fluidic plug. Dispersion of a plug band as it travels to and/or from the column reduces the ultimate efficiency of the chromatographic system. For example, in a chromatographic system using 4.7 mm column tubing and a mobile phase flowing at 1-2 mL/min, tubing having an outer diameter of 1/16 inch and an inner diameter of about 0.010 inch is typically used to plumb connections between the various HPLC components (e.g. pump, injector, column, and detector). For these flow rates and tubing dimensions, it is relatively easy to machine port details to tolerances that will ensure minimal band broadening at tubing interfaces.
A desire to reduce mobile-phase solvent consumption, in part, has motivated a trend towards reducing column inner diameter. Thus, several scales of chromatography are now commonly practiced; these are typically defined as shown in Table 1 (where ID is inner diameter.)
TABLE 1Typical Flow HPLC ScaleColumn IDrangeAnalytical47mm1 smL/minMicrobore1-2mm100 sμL/minCapillary300-500μm10 sμL/minNano50-150μm100 snL/min
Microbore HPLC has often been practiced with equipment similar to that used for analytical scale HPLC, with minor modifications. Aside from requiring the exercise of a small degree of additional care in making fittings, microbore HPLC typically requires an operating skill level similar to that of analytical scale HPLC.
In contrast, capillary and nano-scale HPLC require relatively significant changes in HPLC components relative to analytical-scale HPLC. Generation of stable mobile-phase flows of less than about 50 μL/min is relatively difficult using standard open-loop reciprocating HPLC pumps, such as those commonly found in analytical and microbore HPLC systems.
For capillary-scale chromatography, stainless-steel tubing is usable for component interconnections; however, the inner diameter must typically be less than 0.005 inch (less than about 125 μm). Care is generally required in the manufacture of fitting terminations to avoid creation of even minute amounts of dead volume.
For nano-scale chromatography, tubing having inner diameters of about 25-50 μm is typically required to interconnect components of an instrument (e.g., to connect a pump to a separation column). Because stainless-steel tubing is typically unavailable in these dimensions, polyimide-coated fused-silica tubing is typically used. Although fused-silica tubing has excellent dimensional tolerances and very clean, non-reactive interior walls, it is fragile and can be difficult to work with. In addition, interconnection ports should be machined to exacting tolerances to prevent even nanoliters of unswept dead volume.
While the primary motivation to replace analytical-scale HPLC with microbore-scale HPLC may be the desire for reduced solvent consumption, moving to capillary-scale and nano-scale chromatography can support improved detection sensitivity for mass spectrometers, in addition to further reducing solvent consumption, when, for example, flows of less than about 10 μL/min are used. Moreover, capillary-scale or nano-scale systems are often the only options for the sensitive detection typically required for applications involving small amounts of available sample (e.g., neonatal blood screening).
Despite the advantages of capillary-scale and nano-scale chromatography, HPLC users tend to employ microbore-scale and analytical-scale chromatography systems. As described above, these systems typically provide good reliability and relative ease-of-use. In contrast, maintenance of good chromatographic efficiency while operating a capillary-scale or nano-scale chromatographic system requires significant care when plumbing the system (e.g., using tubing to connect pump, injector, column, and detector).
In practice, an operator switching from an analytical or microbore-scale system to a capillary or nano-scale system at times finds that better separation efficiency was achieved with the higher-flow rate (i.e., the analytical or microbore-scale) system. This typically occurs due to insufficiency in the operator's knowledge or experience required to achieve low band-spreading tubing interconnections. Moreover, use of smaller inner-diameter tubing at times can lead to frequent plugging of tubing.
Due the relative difficulty typically encountered with capillary-scale HPLC systems and, even more so, with nano-scale HPLC systems, such systems have primarily been used only when necessary, such as for small sample sizes, and when a relatively skilled operator is available. Thus, analytical laboratories tend to possess more analytical-scale and microbore-scale systems than capillary-scale and nano-scale systems, and do not realize the full benefits available from capillary-scale and nano-scale HPLC.

Electrospray interface to a microfluidic substrate


A method of welding a noble metal tip to a spark plug center electrode comprises the steps of placing a plurality of spark plug center electrodes into a plurality of carriers so that each carrier carries one spark plug center electrode, one by one moving each carrier into a weld station, lifting the one spark plug center electrode carried in the carrier located in the weld station out of the carrier into a weld position, clamping the one spark plug center into the weld position with a single clamp located in the weld station, and welding the noble metal tip to the one spark plug center electrode, wherein the single clamp eliminates clamp-to-clamp process variations.

Spark plugs that have electrodes that are provided with tips or pads formed of noble metal, such as platinum, are well known to those skilled in the art. A known method for forming pads of platinum material on a spark plug electrode utilizes a contact welding method in which a platinum wire is engaged with the surface of the spark plug electrode and a weld current is passed through the platinum wire causing the portion of the wire that engages the electrode to be welded to the electrode. The wire is then cut off so that a pad or tip of material remains that is welded to the electrode.
In a known system for implementing the welding of platinum wire to spark plug electrodes, a turn table is provided with several clamp assemblies. Within each clamp is provided a spark plug electrode and the spark plug electrodes are one-by-one rotated on the turntable into a welding position, the clamps are raised, an electrode is brought into contact with the raised clamp, and the welding operation is commenced.
Referring to FIG. 1, an illustration of a prior art clamp contact with the spark plug electrode and part of the weld circuit path is shown. Spark plug electrode 45 is a cylindrical electrode having an outside (reference 46) formed of a nickel based alloy, such as Inconel 600, and an internal copper core 48. According to the illustrated prior art, a large area 47 of the side of the electrode is contacted by the conductive portion 50 of the clamp so that when the wire 40 contacts the top of the electrode and current is provided therethrough along path 41, the portion of the wire 44 contacting the upper tip of the electrode melts and welds to the upper tip of electrode 45.
Lines 43 illustrate the current flowing through the electrode and show that much of the current may flow through the copper core 48. Because process variations allow for variations in the positioning of copper core 48, the weld circuit impedance varies from electrode-to-electrode, as the positioning of copper core 48 varies.
FIG. 2 shows a top view of a prior art clamping device for the electrode.
FIG. 3 illustrates a prior art weld circuit where resistance 54 represents the upper electrical lead from the weld current supply transformer. Resistance 56 represents the resistance of the platinum wire collet and its clamping around the platinum wire. Resistance 58 represents the platinum wire resistance. Resistance 60 represents the interface between the platinum being welded and the center electrode. Resistance 62 represents the resistance within the center electrode. Resistance 64 represents the resistance between the clamp and the center electrode. Resistance 66 represents the resistance within each clamp. Resistance 68 represents the resistance of the connector between the clamp and the lower electrical leads and resistance 70 represents the lower electrical leads coupled between the clamp and the weld current supply.
The resistances 56, 60, 62, 64 and 68, which are shown with surrounding circles, represent resistances that vary from cycle-to-cycle due to the nature of the process. The resistance 56, including the point of contact between the collet and platinum wire, naturally varies from cycle to cycle. This is also true of the resistance 60, representing the interface between the melting wire and the center electrode. Because the position of the copper core of the center electrode varies from electrode, to electrode, the resistance 62 of the center electrode varies from cycle to cycle. The point of clamp contact to the center electrode, represented by resistance 64, naturally varies from cycle to cycle. Because a contact must be made with each clamp in the weld station, the resistance 68 at the point of contact with the clamp and the electrical lead varies from cycle to cycle.
The resistances 64, 66 and 68, each indicated with a surrounding square, vary from clamp to clamp. In total the, Figure illustrates eight varying parameters in the above described welding system.


A system and method for improving the accuracy of the automatic categorization of financial transactions provides a flexible and comprehensive approach to the automatic categorization of financial transactions whereby the payee data associated with the financial transaction and one or more of: data indicating the transaction amount, and how products and/or services of various kinds are typically priced; data indicating the time associated with the transaction; data indicating the time intervals between related transactions; and data indicating the transaction amount as compared to pricing data associated with the payee of the transaction, is analyzed to determine a financial category to automatically apply to the financial transactions.

Currently, several financial management systems are available to obtain a user's financial data, process/analyze the user's financial data, and generate various reports for the user.
Financial management systems typically help users manage their finances by providing a centralized interface with banks, credit card companies, and various other financial institutions, for electronically identifying and categorizing user financial transactions.
Typically a financial management system's ability to identify and categorize specific financial transactions is what allows the financial management system to provide many of the features that are of most interest/use to users. Typically, the ability to categorize specific financial transactions is, in turn, dependent on an ability of the financial management system to obtain, and properly analyze, the data necessary to identify and categorize specific financial transactions.
Using some currently available financial management systems payee data associated with a specific financial transaction is used by the financial management system to propose, and/or apply, a category for a specific financial transaction automatically. As an example, if a given transaction includes data indicating a casino or hotel is the payee, a currently available financial management system will typically automatically apply a category of "entertainment" or "travel" to the financial transaction based solely on the payee being a location many people go to for entertainment, or when travelling.
While this type of currently available automatic categorization of a financial transaction based on payee name can be effective, the accuracy and/or reliability of such a categorization system is limited by the fact that the payee associated with a given financial transaction can be misleading.
For example, continuing with the example above, while the payee associated with a financial transaction may be a casino, since many people staying at a casino often enjoy other activities such as a spa, beauty salon, food, or cocktail bars, it is quite possible the transaction actually involved "food" or a "spa". Consequently, these financial transactions could easily be incorrectly categorized using current methods and systems for automatic categorization of a financial transaction.
As another example, while the payee associated with a transaction may be a hotel, and would therefore likely be categorized as "lodging" or "travel" using current methods and systems for automatic categorization of a financial transaction, other types of transactions are possible at a hotel since many hotels offer cafes, safe deposit lockers, shopping, arcades, babysitting, beauty parlors, movies, and various other products and/or services. Since when these other products and/or services are utilized the financial transaction still shows the hotel as the payee, these transactions are often incorrectly categorized using current methods and systems for automatic categorization of a financial transaction.
As another example, while the payee associated with a transaction may be a movie theater, the transaction may not actually be an "entertainment" transaction, but instead, may be a "food" transaction associated with a candy, soft drink, popcorn, or other food item purchase made at the theater.
As shown above, some payee names are misleading to currently available automatic categorization systems and can easily confuse these currently available automatic categorization systems.
As a result of the current situation, and the limitations of currently available automatic categorization systems, while the automatic methods of categorization of financial transactions currently available may be of some use, they are often inaccurate and fail to reliably categorize many financial transactions. Unfortunately, in most cases, it takes more user data entry and time to correct an incorrect automatic categorization of a given financial transaction than it would have taken to manually enter the correct categorization of the financial transaction in the first place. This is a particularly problematic situation given that research has shown that users are far more likely to adopt, and continue to use, a financial management system if the amount of manual data entry, i.e., data entry made via any user interface device, is minimized. Consequently, it is highly desirable to eliminate as many incorrect automatic categorizations of financial transactions as is possible for at least this reason. In addition, anytime correction of an automatic categorization of financial transaction is required, there is an opportunity for error introduction. Consequently, for this reason as well, it is highly desirable to minimize incorrect automatic categorizations of financial transactions.

Method and system for improving automatic categorization of financial transactions


The present invention provides a quick-release structure for a display, comprising a stand, a first buckle ring and a second buckle ring. The stand includes a top base, and the top base is connected with a side of a top end of a support frame, where the top base has a front cover and a rear cover that cover oppositely each other. A clamping space is provided between the front cover and the rear cover, and the front cover has an outer periphery having a plurality of notches. The first buckle ring, accommodated and limited in the clamping space in a manner that the first buckle ring can be restored after being rotated, where the first buckle ring is provided with a pushing portion passed through the first limiting hole to push the first buckle ring to be rotated.

For an all-in-one computer (AIO, All-in-One) a host is mainly provided on a display, and then the display is combined with the top of a stand through a locking structure provided on the back of the display. In this way, the display is supported by the stand, so that the display can be used on the desktop or flat surface. In this way the connection of the display with the stand through the locking structure makes it very inconvenient and more time-consuming to proceed the assembling and the disassembling.
For example, the Chinese Utility Model Patent entitled with "A screen support structure for easy assembling and disassembling" with No. CN103388729 has disclosed a feasible solution, which includes a stand and a coupling frame. The coupling frame is pivotally connected with the stand, and the coupling frame includes a fixing part and a buckle plate that is connected with the fixing part and can be moved elastically relative to the fixing part. The buckle plate is provided with a buckle part, and the fixed part is provided with a positioning part. When the stand is to be assembled and combined with a screen, the positioning part of the fixing member is first inserted into the positioning part on the back of the screen, and then the buckle part on the buckle plate is pressed into a joint part buckled on the screen to complete the assembling, such that the stand and the screen can be easily and quickly assembled or disassembled. Moreover, referring to the structures disclosed in the Chinese Patent entitled with "Racks with quick loading and unloading function" with No. CN201036450Y and in the Chinese Patent entitled with "Vertical Lifting Device" with No. CN210567151U, they are different from that in the Chinese Utility Model Patent with No. CN103388729, while they all have the function of quickly assembling or disassembling the stand and screen.


Proposed is a polyol-crosslinkable fluorocarbon rubber-based composition which exhibits excellent workability in milling and molding as well as excellent storage stability and is capable of giving a molded and vulcanized rubber article at a high vulcanization velocity with good mold-releasability of the molded and vulcanized rubber article from the metal mold. The rubber composition comprises, as the essential ingredients: (a) a polyol-crosslinkable fluorocarbon rubber and (b) a crosslinking agent which is, in place of a conventional polyol compound such as bisphenol A, a silylated polyol compound such as 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2,2-bis(4-trimethylsiloxy phenyl) propane, i.e. a silylation product of bisphenol AF.

As is well known, fluorocarbon rubbers in general have excellent properties such as heat resistance against chemical and mechanical strengths so that they are industrially used in a variety of fields including the industries of automobiles and machinery. A problem in the industrial application of fluorocarbon rubbers is that the workability thereof in the milling and molding behavior and releasability from metal molds is relatively poor as compared with other rubbers, not to mention the expensiveness of fluorocarbon rubbers in general.
In addition to the expensiveness of a fluorocarbon rubber per se, shaped and vulcanized articles of a fluorocarbon rubber are expensive as a consequence of the very high costs for the preparation of vulcanized articles from the rubber composition. For example, fluorocarbon rubbers generally have poor milling workability so that an unduly long time is taken for the roll milling work. The molding and vulcanizing works of the fluorocarbon rubber composition must be performed at a relatively high temperature taking a long time. Further, a secondary vulcanization treatment at a high temperature taking a long time is indispensable in order that the shaped and vulcanized rubber articles can exhibit fully stabilized properties. This is the reason for the limited industrial application fields of fluorocarbon rubbers as compared with other elastomers.
Various attempts have of course been undertaken heretofore for the improvement of the workability of fluorocarbon rubbers. For example, Japanese Patent Kokai 3-22308 proposes a method in which a fluorocarbon rubber is compounded with a silicone-based additive having a siloxane linkage so as to impart the fluorocarbon rubber composition with improved workability in roll milling and releasability from metal molds in molding. This method, however, has several problems and disadvantages. For example, troubles are sometimes caused by the bleeding of the silicone-based additive on the surface of the rubber articles as molded due to the limited miscibility of the silicone-based additive compound with the fluorocarbon rubber along with a problem in respect of the storage stability of the composition. Furthermore, a decrease is caused in the mechanical properties of the shaped and vulcanized rubber articles as a consequence of the admixture of a silicone-based additive. Japanese Patent Kokai 60-101135, on the other hand, proposes that a fluorocarbon rubber is blended with other synthetic rubbers or resins with an object to decrease the cost of the rubber composition. Only very few cases have been successful in the industrialization of this method because the rubber articles prepared in this way are poor in properties as compared with those obtained from a fluorocarbon rubber, as such, for the same reasons as in the case of the silicone-based additives.
As to the polyol-crosslinkable fluorocarbon rubber, which is a copolymer of, for example, vinylidene fluoride and hexafluoropropylene crosslinkable with a polyol compound such as bisphenol A, among various types of fluorocarbon rubbers, in particular, a proposal has been made in Japanese Patent Kokai 58-111848 that a polyol-crosslinkable fluorocarbon rubber is stored under a hermetically sealed condition and processing thereof is undertaken in the presence of a drying agent or under dry heating with pressure reduction because the crosslinking reaction of the rubber gradually proceeds in contact with moisture-containing air during storage and processing resulting in a decrease in the properties of the vulcanized rubber article. Alternatively, a solution composition of a polyol-crosslinkable fluorocarbon rubber is proposed by dissolving the rubber in an organic solvent. Although the rubber molecules can be shielded from the atmospheric moisture by the solvent, the crosslinking reaction of the rubber molecules proceeds gradually even by reacting with a trace amount of water contained in the organic solvent finally resulting in gelation of the solution unless a special means is undertaken in order to decrease the water content in the solvent as completely as possible so that the pot life of the working solution can be extended. At any rate, no very effective method is known for the improvement of the storage stability of a polyol-crosslinkable fluorocarbon rubber.


A method and system for compression and decompression are described. The compression method is based on the non-increasing encoding order (hereafter: NEO) method. The NEO method uses variable encoding lengths to encode a set of data items. It determines the encoding length of the current data item from the previous encoded data item. There are several variations which can enhance the compression performance of the NEO method. One uses a shorter encoding length with flag bit to achieve more efficient compression. Other modified methods try to reduce the range of encoding data values to get higher compression ratio. And there is a lossless compression system introduced by employing the NEO method. The system separates input data into blocks of data. For each data block, it separates the block into binary strings with equal size. The size of these strings is determined by the frequency of the LPS (less probable symbol) in this block. It then encodes the positions of the LPS of each string with the NEO method.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of lossless data compression and storage. In particular, the method and system of this invention improve the efficiency of communication as well as signal processing. The coding method of this invention is variable length coding method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Arithmetic coding is one of the most successful methods in this field. It offers a simple way to approach a good compression ratio. However, there are some drawbacks to using arithmetic coding. First, it takes several arithmetic operations to encode one single symbol. This leads to massive calculation while processing compression since the today""s data generally contains millions of symbols. It is obvious that the compression will take longer if there are too many arithmetic operationsxe2x80x94especially multiplications or divisions. Recently, much research focused on this problem recently. Some research has tried to reduce the number of operations without too much loss of compression performance. The other drawback to arithmetic coding is the floating point precision problem. After an long sequence floating point multiplications (or divisions), the result can only be expressed by a high precision floating point number. This demand really constrains some software and hardware design. Finally, if there is any error or loss during the process of compressing data by arithmetic coding, we can hardly recover the rest of the data. This is a really intractable but unavoidable situation when we transmit data via media.
There are many researchers focusing their efforts to solve these problems. However, it is not easy to balance these problems with high performance results due to the nature of arithmetic coding. Unlike the arithmetic coding method, this invention uses non-increasing order coding instead of interval coding. It introduces the non-increasing encoding order (hereafter: NEO) method to encode a set of data items in a non-increasing encoding length order to achieve a high compression ratio. Moreover, the major operations for this method are addition, bit-wise and comparison on integers. All of these operations are very efficient in software or hardware implementation. Also the compression system of this invention encodes input data block by block. It is highly appreciated in parallel processing and communication.
The invention introduces the NEO method, which uses a non-increasing encoding length to encode a set of data values. Also it includes many variations to improve the performance of the NEO method. One modified method uses a shorter encoding length with a flag bit to achieve more efficient compression. Others focus on how to reduce the range of values of the sequence to reduce the encoding length. High compression performance is one advantage of the method. Low use of multiplications and divisions (avoiding them is possible) is another advantage of the method. Its major operations are addition, bit-wise and comparison on integers. Therefore, the run time for the compression or decompression is fast. Another contribution of the method is that it doesn""t require floating point precision. That is, the NEO method can easily adapt to different platforms or devices. However, for variable length coding, it needs a method to delimit each encoded string. This is another aspect of this invention. The delimitation method employs both headers and end-of-string symbols to help the decoder avoiding any loss in the decoding stage.
Another object of this invention is to provide a lossless compression system which employs NEO method. The compression system separates input data into several blocks. For each data block, it separates the block into binary strings with equal size. The size of these strings is determined by the frequency of the LPS (less probable symbol) in this block. It then encodes the positions of the LPS of each string with the NEO method.

NEO method and system for lossless compression and decompression


A method of stress-optical force measurement where a linearly polarized light ray is guided into a stress-optical measurement array consisting of several measurement members on which the force to be measured acts in a distributed manner. The light ray successively traverses the measurement members while being influenced in a force-dependent manner and is applied to a subsequent evaluation unit for evaluation. The invention also relates to a measurement device for performing the method, comprising a measurement array and an evaluation unit between two plates which are arranged in parallel at a distance from one another. The measurement array consists of at least three spaced stress-optical measurement members which keep the plates at a distance from one another, influence the light ray in a force-dependent manner, and guide the light ray into the evaluation unit arranged between two measurement members.

The invention relates to a method of stress-optical force measurement in which linearly polarised light is introduced into a stress-optical measurement array which is influenced by the force to be measured, so that the polarisation state of the light is changed in a force-dependent manner and is determined in a subsequent evaluation unit. The invention also relates to a measurement device for performing the method comprising a light source for linearly polarised light, a stress-optical measurement array which is arranged between two plates which are exposed to the force to be measured, and a subsequent evaluation unit.
Various force measurement methods and devices are known.
For example, measurement devices for determining a force exerted by weight generally comprise a force sensor as well as a mechanical system consisting of levers, guide elements, springs and the like in order to transfer the force exerted by the weight of, for example an object to be weighed to the force sensor so that the transfer is independent of the position of the object on a weighing apparatus. Therefore, mechanical stability of the measurement device and measurement accuracy can be ensured only with great expenditure.
From DE-OS 29 05 314 there is known a measurement device which has a substantially simpler mechanical construction. Therein, the force exerted by the weight of the object to be weighed is transferred directly to a plurality of force sensors which at the same time stabilise the weighing apparatus or its measurement platform. In a measurement device of this kind it is problematic that the force sensors must have the same sensitivity or that the spread in their, sensitivity, customarily introduced by manufacturing tolerances, must be compensated for in an evaluation unit before the signals from the individual force sensors can be electronically added, thus ensuring independence from the position of the object to be weighed. Considerable expenditure is required for this purpose.
From DE-OS 31 29 847 there are known a method and a measurement device in which linearly polarised light is applied to the stress-optical material. The linearly polarised light is converted into elliptically polarised light when it irradiates a body exhibiting birefringence under the influence of the force to be measured. An analyser then detects a phase shift and hence indirectly the force to be measured. Application of the force to such a device comprising only one force sensor, for example in weighing apparatus, remains problematic. The use of several of such devices, comprising one force sensor each, however, involves great expenditure.
EP O 153 997 discloses a method and a device for stress-optical force measurement, for example for a weighing apparatus. Therein, linearly polarised light is applied to a stress-optical fibre, after which it is evaluated. The optical fibre is arranged in the form of a circle between two parallel plates which are arranged at a distance from one another. The force to be measured acts on one of the plates. Even though in principle a simpler construction without complex calibration is thus ensured, problems are encountered as regards the mechanical construction and the coupling-in and coupling-out of the light because of the very small thicknesses of the sensitive optical fibre.

Method of stress-optical force measurement and measurement device for performing the method


An execution circuit inputs a plurality of data units, performs unit operations on the data units, and registers results of the unit operations in response to oscillations of a clock signal. A control circuit controls activation of the unit operations, and outputs a start signal to the execution circuit to activate each unit operation and/or a completion signal to indicate completion of each unit operation. A debug circuit stores breakpoint flags associated with the unit operations. Each breakpoint flag has a state that specifies whether to stop oscillations of the clock signal. The debug circuit further receives the start and/or completion signal and evaluates, while the clock signal oscillates to the execution circuit, a state of the start and/or completion signal and a state of the breakpoint flag associated with the unit operation. Oscillations of the clock signal are stopped in response to the evaluation of the signals.

One technique for improving performance of a software system is to implement selected sections as hardware accelerators. Those sections of the system that exhibit high computational complexity and consume large portions of total runtime may be suitable candidates for implementing as hardware accelerators. The hardware accelerators could be application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), graphics processing units (GPUs), or circuitry running on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), for example. A common approach employed by software designers in creating a hardware accelerator is to use a high-level synthesis (HLS) tool to convert the original high-level language (HLL) specification of the identified section into an equivalent register transfer level (RTL) or other hardware description language (HDL) specification of the circuit. The hardware description of the circuit can then be processed using synthesis, map, place-and-route, and bitstream generation tools to create configuration data for manufacturing a circuit or configuring programmable logic.
A typical scenario in debugging a hardware accelerator entails setting breakpoints in the HLL code and creating hardware that implements the breakpoints in the hardware accelerator. The hardware accelerator can then be run and will automatically stop when a state is reached that satisfies a specified breakpoint. Once the hardware accelerator stops, the user can read out the contents of selected registers, analyze the data, and resume running the hardware accelerator. As used herein, "stopping the clock" refers to stopping oscillations of the clock signal that drives the hardware accelerator, and "starting" or "restarting" the clock refers to enabling oscillations of the clock signal that drives the hardware accelerator.
Debugging a hardware accelerator can be extremely time-consuming. One type of breakpoint allows a user to specify a Boolean expression. In order to determine whether or not a Boolean expression has been satisfied, the clock signal that drives the hardware accelerator is stopped after each cycle to permit evaluation of the expression. If the breakpoint is satisfied, the clock remains stopped, which allows the user to examine the state of the hardware accelerator. Otherwise, the clock is automatically restarted. The repeated stopping of the clock, evaluating the expression, and restarting the clock significantly slows execution of the hardware accelerator.
Another type of breakpoint is an operation-specific breakpoint (OSBP). An OSBP involves a breakpoint set on a particular operation performed by the hardware accelerator. An OSBP can be established by setting a breakpoint on a line of HLL program code, and generating debugging circuitry that accompanies the hardware accelerator. The debugging circuitry can stop execution of the hardware accelerator when the designated operation is performed. If the operation having the breakpoint is performed repeatedly, manually restarting the clock can become tedious for the user.

Breakpointing circuitry that evaluates breakpoint conditions while running clock to target circuit


A reflector device to be utilized with light emitting diodes (LEDs), and particularly with high-flux LEDs. In the reflector structure individual reflector portions surround at least one LED. Light output from each individual LED is reflected by sloping walls of each individual reflector portion and is redirected. As a result, light that may otherwise be lost is redirected to a more useful direction. Each individual reflector portion can have a cross-section of a conic shape, a complicated curve, and can also be oval in shape. A light device is realized by utilizing such a master reflector with an LED light source.

High-flux LEDs are becoming more and more prevalent. A high-flux LED is generally an LED with greater luminous output in comparison with earlier developed traditional 5 mm LEDs, and an LED that has a larger size chip than in the traditional 5 mm LED. A high-flux LED for the purposes of this disclosure is defined as an individual LED package that is capable of dissipating more than 0.75 watts of electric power. With improvement in high-flux LED technology, more and more companies are developing different types of high-flux LEDs. High-flux LEDs also typically have larger viewing angles in comparison with a traditional 5 mm LED. To use such high-flux LEDs efficiently, mechanisms have been provided to redirected light output from the larger viewing angle of the high-flux LEDs. One known way to use the light output from high-flux LEDs more efficiently is to use a reflective/refractive lens to redirect output light. That approach has been utilized by companies such as Lumileds, Osram, and Fraen, etc.

Light reflector device for light emitting diode (LED) array


An apparatus, method and computer-readable medium are provided for estimating a resistivity property of an earth formation. A logging tool includes a first antenna arrangement and a second antenna arrangement of the logging tool; and at least one device for maintaining the first antenna arrangement and the second antenna arrangement in proximity to a wall of the borehole. The first antenna arrangement and the second antenna arrangement may be at substantially the same axial location on the logging tool. Alternately, the first antenna arrangement and the second antenna arrangement may be at different axial positions on the logging tool. Extendible arms of the logging tool are configured to extend one or more of the first antenna arrangement and the second antenna arrangement against a face of the borehole.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure is related generally to measuring induction in a borehole and provides an apparatus and methods for reducing the effects of borehole currents in induction measurements.
2. Background of the Art
Electromagnetic induction resistivity well logging instruments are well known in the art and are used to determine the electrical conductivity, and its converse, resistivity, of earth formations penetrated by a borehole. In electromagnetic induction resistivity well logging, eddy currents are induced in a region of the formation adjoining the borehole. These eddy currents give rise to magnetic fields having properties that are related to the region of the formation. Formation conductivity may be determined by measuring these magnetic fields. The formation conductivity is used for, among other things, inferring a fluid content of the earth formations. For example, low conductivity (high resistivity) is typically associated with hydrocarbon-bearing earth formations. The physical principles of electromagnetic induction well logging are well described, for example, in J. H. Moran and K. S. Kunz, Basic Theory of Induction Logging and Application to Study of Two-Coil Sondes, Geophysics, vol. 27, No. 6, part 1, pp. 829-858, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, December 1962. Many improvements and modifications to the electromagnetic induction resistivity instruments described in the Moran and Kunz reference have been made. In an exemplary modification, a multi-component logging tool includes transmitters and receivers substantially oriented along axes of an orthogonal coordinate system associated with the logging tool.
When logging an earth formation, various non-formation effects may arise which may degrade the accuracy of the log. Typical non-formation effects include signals induced in a borehole mud, signals due to eccentricity of the logging tool within the borehole, signals resulting from misalignment of transmitters and or receivers with respect to the tool axis, among others. Tool eccentricity within the borehole generally causes more non-formation effects in transverse (X-oriented or Y-oriented) transmitters and receivers than in longitudinal (Z-oriented) transmitters and receivers. These borehole eccentricity effects are generally at a minimum when the magnetic fields produced by the currents circulating in the mud near the receivers cancel each other. This cancellation often takes place when the logging tool is positioned at the center of the borehole. However, maintaining this central position in horizontal boreholes or in highly-deviated boreholes is either difficult or unattainable using present logging tool designs. A deviated borehole is one in which the axis of the borehole is inclined to the vertical, Thus, there is a need for a logging tool that reduces borehole effects in multi-component resistivity measurements.

Method and apparatus for reducing effect of tool eccentricity in a borehole on multi-axial induction measurements


An electrophotographic apparatus is disclosed which has an electrophotographic photosensitive member and a transfer member. The photosensitive member has a conductive support and a photosensitive layer, and further has a surface layer formed of a binder resin, fluorine atom- or silicon atom-containing compound particles incompatible with the binder resin, and a fluorine atom- or silicon atom-containing compound compatible with the binder resin. In the surface layer, the proportion of fluorine atoms and silicon atoms to carbon atoms, (F+Si)/C, as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is 0.01 to 1.0. Additionally, the transfer member is a multiple-transfer member.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrophotographic apparatus, and more particularly to an electrophotographic apparatus;having a specific electrophotographic photosensitive member and a specific transfer means.
2. Related Background Art
Inorganic materials such as zinc oxide, selenium, and cadmium sulfide are hitherto known as photoconductive materials used in electrophotographic photosensitive members. Organic materials including polyvinyl carbazole, phthalocyanine and azo pigments have attracted notice on the advantages that they promise high productivity and are free from environmental pollution, and have been put into wide use although they tend to be inferior to the inorganic materials in respect of photoconductive performance or running performance. In recent years, new materials having overcome such disadvantages are studied, and are surpassing the inorganic materials particularly with regard to photoconductive performance.
Meanwhile, electrophotographic photosensitive members are required to have various chemical and physical durabilities since they are repeatedly affected by charging, exposure, development, transfer, cleaning and charge elimination in electrophotographic processes in copying machines or laser beam printers. In particular, surface properties of photosensitive members, such as surface energy, are concerned in developer transfer performance on photosensitive members, contamination of photosensitive members and so forth, and are one of important factors for obtaining high-quality images; Most of the above organic photoconductive materials have no film forming properties by themselves, and hence they are commonly formed into films in combination with binder resins or the like when photosensitive layers are formed. Accordingly, properties of such binder resins can be referred to as a factor that greatly influences the surface properties such as surface energy.
Binder resins conventionally used include polyester, polyurethane, polyarylate, polyethylene, polystyrene, polybutadiene, polycarbonate, polyamide, polypropylene, polyimide, polyamidoimide, polysulfone, polyallyl ether, polyacetal, nylon, phenol resins, acrylic resins, silicone resins, epoxy resins, urea resins, allyl resins, alkyd resins and butyral resins. However, those having better surface properties are studied.
Incidentally, in recent years, there is a demand for electrophotographic processes that can faithfully reproduce color images, and several systems have been proposed. Among them, apparatus employing a multiple-transfer system are commonly available, in which a photosensitive drum and a transfer drum that carries a transfer material such as transfer paper are synchronized drum-to-drum and images corresponding to the three primary colors or four colors comprised of these three colors and a black color added thereto are successively superimposed on the transfer material to reproduce a color image.
As one of problems involved in such a process, the transfer efficiency of the second and subsequent colors at the time of multiple transfer has been questioned. More specifically, the transfer of the second and subsequent colors is carried out via a developer having been already transferred to a transfer material, and hence such transfer can only more indirectly operate than usual transfer. As a result, the developer having not been transferred and standing on the photosensitive member can not be well transferred to the side of the transfer material, so that only low-quality images can be sometimes obtained because of faulty transfer. Especially when the aforesaid conventional organic photosensitive members are used, faulty copying such as uneven transfer at solid image areas or letter blank areas caused by poor transfer tends to occur.
As another problem, the driving load of photosensitive members has been questioned. In particular, the step of cleaning to remove the developer remaining on the photosensitive member after transfer has a great influence on the driving load. As a cleaning method, blade cleaning should be employed so that the construction of apparatus can be made simpler and more effective as the space for apparatus is more saved. The blade cleaning usually takes a simple construction in which a platelike elastic member made of polyurethane or the like is merely brought into push contact with the surface of the photosensitive member in the direction of its generatrix. In the case when, however, the aforesaid conventional organic photosensitive members are used, a great contact energy is produced between the photosensitive member and the blade, so that a heavy load is applied to the driving of the photosensitive member. As a result, a disturbance such as uneven drive may occur in the driving of the photosensitive member to cause color misregistration wherein images corresponding to the second and subsequent colors are misregistered at the time of multiple transfer, or faulty copying such as drive pitch uneveness wherein the uneven drive comes out as an uneven image density. In particular, in apparatus in which as a light source for forming a latent image a laser, an LED or a liquid crystal shutter is used to form a dotlike minute latent image, the color misregistration on the micron order may easily occur unless the dots are superimposed at a high precision at the time of multiple transfer, to cause aberration of color tones, a decrease in image sharpness, etc.


The invention relates to a method of preparing a birefringent marking by printing a polymerisable liquid crystal material onto at least one side of a substrate and polymerising the liquid crystal material, to a birefringent marking obtained by this method, and to the use of the birefringent marking for decorative, security, authentification and identification applications.

Birefringent films comprising polymer liquid crystal material are known in prior art. GB 2 324 382 discloses a liquid crystal polymer film with homeotropic alignment prepared from a polymerisable liquid crystal material that is coated onto a plastic substrate and polymerised, whereby roll to roll coating is applicable. The use of an aligning layer comprising a surfactant being fixed in a matrix of a polymeric liquid crystalline material is also described. According to an alternative embodiment the substrate is coated with aluminium or sufficiently smooth Al2O3 to achieve a homeotropic alignment of the liquid crystal material. The resulting uniformly homeotropic aligned films can be used in electrooptical displays, optical compensation layers or as active switching layer.
The use of birefringent films as security devices has also been reported in prior art.
GB 2 330 360 describes a polymer film with a helically twisted molecular structure exhibiting at least two maxima of a reflection wavelength. The film is obtained by polymerizing a thermochromic mesogenic composition at varied temperatures. Since the temperature is changed during polymerization, the thermochromic polymerizable composition undergoes a change of the helical pitch and therewith of the reflection maximum. The various pitch lengths are fixed by the polymerization reaction and a polymer film is obtained that exhibits, depending on the type, degree and speed of temperature variation, a range of reflection colours.
However, a disadvantage of the method described in GB 2 330 360 is the requirement of a precise control of the temperature and its change during the polymerization process, and the need of specific materials with thermochromic properties.
GB 2 357 061 discloses a hot stamping foil for security applications comprising a layer of polymerised liquid crystal material. The liquid crystal polymer layer is prepared on a plastic substrate and then laminated with a reflective layer of e.g. aluminium which exhibits on its opposite surface a hot melt adhesive. The liquid crystal layer is protected by a lacquer. The whole arrangement of layers is carried by a support layer. A wax layer between the support layer and the lacquer layer enables a release of the birefringent layer arrangement by applying heat. The liquid crystal material is for example a polymerised or crosslinked nematic or smectic material with a planar, tilted, splayed or homeotropic structure and macroscopically uniform orientation. The hot stamping foil can be used for decorative purposes or to authenticate and prevent counterfeiting of documents of value, e.g. of banknotes, credit cards or ID cards. The transmission or reflection effect of the polarized light by the birefringent material can be seen using linear polarizers. Incorporation of dichroic dyes leads to additional color effects.
However, the process described in GB 2 357 061 requires the additional process step of transferring or laminating the polymeric liquid crystalline material, which is typically prepared on a plastic substrate, to the reflective aluminium layer, or alternatively applying the aluminium layer onto the liquid crystal layer. This is required since the natural alignment of nematic liquid crystals on aluminium surfaces is homeotropic. However, this alignment would not be useful for displaying hidden designs. Also, the preparation of a liquid crystal polymer layer by coating a polymerisable material onto a substrate usually yields uniform coated areas of the material. The formation of images or patterns would require specific materials or additional techniquies such as photomasking or photoorientation.


A network configuration development environment including an insights enabled editor is disclosed. In particular, this disclosure is related to an editor that provides just-in-time information in an insights area to assist a network developer to configure parameter settings for one or more network devices. In one example, attributes of a switch are the area of focus of a current edit session, and, based on this area of focus, the insights editor may query the switch to obtain current information. Information returned from the switch may be provided in an “insights area” visible to the user about to edit settings for that same switch. The disclosed insights editor represents part of an overall network configuration development environment that includes automated techniques to assist with network configuration, design and maintenance.

Today's infrastructure networks are becoming more and more complicated and are including ever increasing numbers of devices with network capabilities. The Internet of Things ("IoT") growth represents one growth area that cause enterprise networks, for example, to include substantially more network connected devices as compared to their historical requirements. One side-effect of adding such a large volume of connected devices is that infrastructure networks (e.g., enterprise private networks) have become more complicated and may require additional network support devices such as routers, bridges, domain name servers, network time protocol ("NTP") servers, gateways, etc. Each of these network support devices (or simply "network devices") requires a configuration of network parameters in order to function as desired within the possibly complex network architecture. In some cases, initially setting or changing, the configuration of a network device may require additional insight so that a device setting is set to a proper value within the context of an overall network design. Incorrect or non-optimum settings may have unforeseen and unintended consequences to the stability, reliability, and performance of an enterprise infrastructure network or portion thereof (e.g., a subnet). This is, in part, because configuration of one network device may inadvertently affect the performance or connectivity of other devices in the network.
Prior art methods for determining how to configure a network largely rely upon expertise and knowledge of a network administrator. In some cases, network administrators simply use configuration settings they believe will work and hope for the best. In other cases, limited help information may be available in the form of reference manuals or user guides. Also, even if a network device is not properly configured, sometimes the network "appears" to be functioning properly. However, if a subtle error is introduced to a network without large scale impact, it may be days or weeks before someone discovers that a printer or other device is not functioning correctly. Loss of network connection by devices is just one of the possible consequences to an improperly configured network. In other cases, a slight performance degradation may occur and not be noticed until a much later point in time. The degradation resulting in poor or less than optimal productivity of the devices (and possibly workforce) reliant on the network infrastructure. In short, incorrect configuration settings for network devices may cause undesired network performance, or even network failure. Accordingly, care should be taken when setting or adjusting configuration parameters of network devices.

System and method to provide network insights for correct and efficient network configuration

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


A power generating element is provided. The power generating element includes a piezoelectric body and a pair of electrodes. The piezoelectric body is expandable and contractible in response to a movement of a moving body. The piezoelectric body undergoes a deformation when expanding or contracting and generates power when undergoing the deformation. The pair of electrodes extracts the power generated as the piezoelectric body undergoes the deformation.

Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a power generating element.
Description of the Related Art
There have been attempts to convert vibration energy into electric energy. Vibration energy is generally generated from vibrations caused by structural bodies (e.g., roads, bridges, buildings, and industrial machineries), moving bodies (e.g., automobiles, railroad cars, and aircraft), and human body movements, and from environmental vibrations (e.g., wave power, wind power).
A vibration power generating device has been proposed including an elastic sheet deformable by a vibration load, a piezoelectric film disposed on a surface of the elastic sheet, and electrodes disposed on both surfaces of the piezoelectric film. This power generating device generates power as the elastic sheet undergoes a deformation and the piezoelectric film then undergoes a distortion by a stretching or compressing force.
The piezoelectric film is made of PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) that is one type of polymer piezoelectric bodies.
Owing to their flexibility, such polymer piezoelectric bodies (including PVDF) have wider application compared to ceramic piezoelectric bodies having a higher hardness.


A semiconductor package includes a substrate having opposite first and second surfaces and a ground layer therein. Further, the second surface has at least a recessed portion for exposing portions of the ground layer. The semiconductor package further includes a semiconductor chip disposed on the first surface of the substrate; an encapsulant formed on the first surface of the substrate for encapsulating the semiconductor chip; and a metal layer covering the encapsulant and the substrate and extending to the recessed portion for electrically connecting the ground layer. As such, the space for circuit layout is increased and the circuit layout flexibility is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor packages and fabrication methods thereof, and more particularly, to a semiconductor package having an electromagnetic shielding function and a fabrication method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with the progress of semiconductor technologies, various package types have been developed for electronic products so as to improve the overall electrical performance. In particular, a lot of electronic products have an electromagnetic shielding function so as to shield the electronic products from electromagnetic interference (EMI).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,772 discloses a semiconductor package having an electromagnetic shielding function. Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, a semiconductor chip 11 is disposed on and electrically connected to a substrate 10. Then, a perforated metal shield 12 is disposed on the substrate 10 to cover the semiconductor chip 11. Thereafter, an encapsulant 13 is formed to encapsulate the metal shield 12 and the semiconductor chip 11. Therein, the metal shield 12 is grounded through at least a plated through hole (PTH) 14.
However, the plate through hole 14 occupies a lot of spaces of the substrate 10 and limits the layout of circuits on the substrate 10, thereby reducing the circuit layout flexibility.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a semiconductor package and a fabrication method thereof so as to save substrate spaces and increase the overall circuit layout flexibility.

Semiconductor package and fabrication method thereof

Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Ltd.


Chip carriers are provided. The chip carrier includes a carrier body having a cavity therein and at least one conductive through silicon via (TSV) penetrating the carrier body under the cavity. The cavity includes an uneven sidewall surface profile. The at least one conductive through silicon via (TSV) is exposed at a bottom surface of the carrier body opposite to the cavity. Related methods are also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to semiconductor packages and methods of fabricating the same and, more particularly, to chip carriers, semiconductor devices including the same, semiconductor packages including the same, and methods of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, multi-chip stacked packages have become desirable in the electronics industry because high performance electric or electronic products with lighter, smaller and faster sophisticated electronic components are needed for sophisticated electronic systems. Accordingly, various technologies for stacking a plurality of semiconductor chips have been developed. The multi-chip stacked packages may allow the electric or electronic products to have a relatively larger memory capacity. Further, the multi-chip stacked packages may improve a packaging density or a packaging efficiency in a limited area.
Through silicon vias (TSVs) have been widely used as electrical connectors between the stacked chips. TSVs may penetrate the chips and may act as electrodes. Thus, when the TSVs are formed to act as the electrodes or the electrical connectors in the package processes, conventional bonding wires may not be required. Hence, when the TSVs are employed in the packages, various advantages can be obtained.
In addition to the multi-chip stack technologies and the TSV technologies, system-in-package technologies have been widely used in the package processes. According to the system-in-packages, two or more different kinds of chips may be mounted on a single substrate. According to an example of the system-in-packages, a logic chip may be mounted on a substrate and a memory chip may be stacked on a side of the logic chip that is opposite to the substrate. If different kinds of chips are vertically stacked on a substrate as described above, interposers may be disposed between the stacked chips as well as between a lowermost chip and the substrate to adjust contact pitches of the stacked chips. For example, a logic chip, an interposer and a memory chip may be sequentially stacked on the substrate.
When a planar area of the logic chip is greater than that of the memory chip, a thermal conductive media should be disposed around the memory chip to transfer heat from the logic chip toward an outside region, or the size of the stacked memory chip should be increased to have a similar size to that of the logic chip in order to provide a thermal conductive path. In addition, it may be necessary to cover the logic chip and the memory chip with a metallic heat spreader to increase the heat emission efficiency. However, if the metallic heat spreader is employed, the metallic heat spreader may cause a physical stress applied to the semiconductor chips (e.g., the logic chip and the memory chip). Further, an empty space may be provided between the stacked memory chip and the metallic heat spreader. The empty space may have a relatively poor thermal conductivity, thereby degrading the reliability of the system-in-packages.

Chip carriers, semiconductor devices including the same, semiconductor packages including the same, and methods of fabricating the same


A silver halide photographic material contains at least one hydrazine compound of formula (I): ##STR1## where R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 each represents an alkyl group, an aryl group or a heterocyclic group; and R.sub.1 and R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4, R.sub.1 and R.sub.3, and R.sub.2 and R.sub.4 each may be bonded to each other to form a non-aromatic ring; provided that the carbon atom of R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 which is directly bonded to a nitrogen atom of the hydrazine core of the compound is not substituted by an oxo group. The material has a high sensitivity and does not tend to fog. After storage, depression of the sensitivity of the material is small.

Heretofore, provision of high-sensitivity silver halide photographic materials has been desired. In particular, provision of color-sensitized high-sensitivity silver halide photographic materials has especially been desired.
Color sensitization technology is extremely important and is indispensable for producing high-sensitivity photographic materials with excellent color reproducibility. A color sensitizer inherently has a function of absorbing light with a long wavelength range which is not substantially absorbed by silver halide photographic emulsions and of transmitting the energy of the absorbed light to the silver halide. Therefore, increasing the amount of light to be captured by a color sensitizer is advantageous for elevating the photographic sensitivity of a photographic material. Accordingly, attempts have heretofore been made to elevate the amount of light to be captured by a color sensitizer by increasing the amount of the color sensitizer to be added to the silver halide emulsion. However, if the amount of the color sensitizer to be added to the silver halide is significantly greater than an optimum amount (i.e., an amount which gives the highest color sensitivity), the result is severe desensitization. This is generally called dye desensitization, which is a phenomenon resulting in desensitization in the light-sensitive range intrinsic to a silver halide substantially free from color absorption by a sensitizing dye. If dye desensitization of a photographic material is great, then the total sensitivity of the photographic material will be low even though the material may be heavily color-sensitized. In other words, decreasing dye desensitization causes a proportional elevation of the sensitivity of the light-absorbing range by a color sensitizer (namely, the color sensitivity of a color sensitizer itself). Therefore, the solution of the problem of dye desensitization is an important theme in color sensitization technology. In general, a sensitizing dye having a light-sensitivity in a longer wavelength range involves greater dye desensitization. These matters are described in C. E. K. Mees, The Theory of the Photographic Process, pages 1067 to 1069 (published by Macmillan Co., 1942).
Methods of elevating the sensitivity of a photographic material by decreasing the dye desensitization thereof are known, as described in JP-A- 47-28916, JP-A-49-46738, JP-A-54-118236 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,083. (The term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application".) However, these proposed methods are limited to specific sensitizing dyes and the effects thereof are still unsatisfactory. The most effective means of eliminating dye desensitization presently known is a method of using bisaminostilbene compounds substituted by pyrimidine derivatives or triazine derivatives, for example, as described in JP-B-45-22189, JP-A-54-18726, JP-A-52-4822, JP-A-52-151026 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,945,762. (The term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication".) However, the proposed compounds are only effective with a limited class of sensitizing dyes: the so-called M-band sensitizing dyes which show a gently-sloping sensitization peak in a relatively long wavelength range, such as dicarbocyanines, tricarbocyanines, rhodacyanines and merocyanines.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,888 mentions combination of a tricarbocyanine and an ascorbic acid to yield infrared sensitization of a photographic material; British Patent 1,255,084 mentions combination of a particular dye and an ascorbic acid to yield elevation of the minus-blue sensitivity of a photographic material; British Patent 1,064,193 mentions combination of a particular dye and an ascorbic acid to yield elevation of the sensitivity of a photographic material; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,561 mentions combination of a desensitizing nucleus-containing cyanine dye and a supercolor sensitizer such as an ascorbic acid or the like.
However, the preceding technology often displays an unsatisfactory sensitizing effect of the dyes used, and even if a high sensitizing effect is attained, it often causes an increase of fog of the photographic material.
Attempts at adding hydrazines to a silver halide photographic material or to a developer have been made for various purposes.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,419,975, JP-A-63-261362 and JP-B-51-15745 mention addition of hydrazines to a developer.
JP-B-58-9410 and JP-B-58-9411 mention provision of a hard gradation silver halide photographic material by adding acylhydrazines thereto.
However, addition of hydrazines causes increase of fog of photographic materials, though displaying a low sensitizing effect.
JP-A-63-95444 and JP-A-63-43145 mention combination of magenta couplers and particular hydrazines to elevate the heat and light stability of color images formed in photographic materials.
JP-A-63-220142, JP-A-63-256951 and JP-A-63-229455 mention combination of organic color substances and particular hydrazines to prevent photographic materials from fading under light.


A method for implementing a spin lock in a system including a plurality of processing nodes, each node including at least one processor and a cache memory, the method including steps of: acquiring exclusivity to the cache memory; checking the availability of the spin lock; setting the spin lock to logical one if the spin lock is available; setting the spin lock to logical zero once processing is complete; and explicitly yielding the cache memory exclusivity. Yielding the cache memory exclusivity includes instructing the cache coherent hardware to mark the cache memory as non-exclusive. The cache memory is typically called level two cache.

Computer systems can suffer severe performance degradation as a result of high lock contention. Lock operations are associated with software locks which are used to ensure that only one process at a time can access a shared resource, such as a region of memory. The act of accessing the shared resource is also referred to as entering the critical region. Most shared-memory architectures, such as SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processor) and NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) architectures also provide hardware support for making mutually exclusive accesses to shared cache data. This hardware support is known as a cache coherent mechanism. Locks are fundamental software synchronization primitives for controlling concurrent access to shared data. The performance degradation occurs under high lock contention because only one CPU can acquire the lock and do useful work while all other CPUs must wait for the lock to be released.
Spin locks are a very simple and, in the right context, efficient method of synchronizing access to shared resources. A "spin lock" is so named because if a spin lock is not available, the caller busy-waits (or "spins") until the lock becomes available. This is called "software spin-waiting." The algorithm for spin-waiting is very simple. Each process must check a shared lock variable. When a shared resource is required, a process calls lock( ) to test and set the variable and when the resource is ready to be released, a process calls unlock( ) to clear the variable. The lock( ) function will cause a waiting process to loop until the resource is available. The availability of the resource is defined by the value of the shared lock variable. Conventionally, if the value of this variable is zero, then the resource is available, otherwise it is in use by another process. When the resource is locked, the shared variable holds a non-zero value.
Systems employing locks typically require that a given process perform an atomic operation to obtain access to a shared data structure. In other words, another process cannot access the lock between the test and set portion of the atomic operation. The test-and-set operation is performed to determine whether a lock variable associated with the shared data structure is cleared and to atomically set the lock variable. That is, the test allows the process to determine whether the shared data structure is free of a lock by another process, and the set operation allows the process to acquire the lock if the lock variable is cleared.
The key to lock design is to achieve both fairness at high contention and performance at low contention. Fairness in the context of lock design is defined as equalizing the ability of all contenders vying for a lock to acquire that lock, regardless of the contenders' position and/or relationship to the existing lock holder. Existing locking mechanisms have achieved fairness or high performance, but not both. Specifically, three of the most widely used lock designs are: spin locks, queue locks, adaptive locks, and fairlocks.
Spin locks are widely used due to their high performance at low contention. [See T. E. Anderson., The Performance Implications of Spin Lock Alternatives for Shared-Memory Multiprocessors. IEEE Transaction on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 1(1):6-16, January 1990] In a spin lock implementation, if the test of the lock variable indicates that another process has acquired the lock to the shared memory region, the requesters for the lock initiate a loop wherein the lock variable is continuously read until the lock variable is cleared, at which time the waiting processes reinitiate the atomic test-and-set operation. In NUMA architectures, spin locks can create locking starvation due to the locking unfairness created by the large memory access latency difference across nodes. Because a CPU can access a spin lock in its local cache much faster than a CPU can access the same spin lock from another node. Therefore, the CPU that is on the same node where the spin lock is located has a much higher chance of acquiring the lock than a CPU that resides on another node.
Queue locks [see J. M. Mellor-Crummey and M. L. Scott, Algorithms for Scalable Synchronization on Shared-Memory Multiprocessors. ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 9(1):21-65, February 1991] and adaptive locks [see B.-H. Lim and A. Agarwal, Reactive Synchronization Algorithms for Multiprocessors. ASPLOS 1994] avoid unfairness under high contention by introducing complex lock data structures and algorithms to keep track of the usage and ownership of the lock. However, these data structures and algorithms also introduce additional locking latency overhead, therefore sacrificing locking performance at low contention.
Fairlocks provide fairness at high contention by using a bit mask to keep track of contending CPUs and enforce fairness by asking the lock-releasing CPU to explicitly yield the lock to other contending CPUs. [see S. Swaminathan, J. Stultz, J. F. Vogel, P. McKenney, Fairlocks—A High Performance Fair Locking Scheme. 14th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems, November 2002] Due to the simpler data structure and algorithm used, fairlocks have better locking performance than queue locks and adaptive locks at low contention. But their locking performance at low contention is still worse than that of spin locks.
There is a need for an improved lock mechanism that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.

Achieving both locking fairness and locking performance with spin locks

International Business Machines Corporation


The improved collapsible utility cart of the present invention includes a frame and a container carried by the frame. The frame includes a pair of elongated handle frame members which are oppositely disposed and interconnected, a pair of oppositely disposed wheel carrying frame members, pivotally dependent from the handle carrying frame members, and a pair of interconnected and forwardly facing container support frame members which are oppositely disposed from each other. Front and rear connectors are disposed respectively between the container support frame members and the handle carrying frame members to provide respective support for a container to be carried by the frame. A horizontally disposed parallelogramic linkage is connected to and disposed between the handle carrying frame members and the wheel carrying frame members to permit collapsible lateral movement of the frame and to support the bottom portion of the container.

The present invention is directed generally to utility carts, and more specifically to collapsible and/or foldable utility carts, and yet additionally to utility carts which are foldable in the lateral dimension (i.e., the width of the cart), which may be useful among many other applications for transporting items typically for use at the beach, for shopping, etc.
A wide variety of prior art may be found with regard to different forms of utility carts, hand carts and other apparatus for transporting items, inter alia, to the beach and/or for shopping, for example. However, these prior art structures may be lacking in optimal utility and/or functionality. In particular, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,598,898 and 1,769,418 disclose folding carts capable of carrying a variety of items, and in different environments. However, the taught structural arrangement of the frame members for these carts does not allow the cart to be folded in such a manner that the width of the cart is reduced when in a folded or storage arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,422,751 discloses a collapsible shopping cart in which the frame members are adapted to allow the side frame members to collapse inwardly towards each other to reduce the overall width of the cart when in the folded configuration. However, the arrangement of the frame members is not optimal, in that there is no structure (e.g., a pair of lower frame members arranged in an X-shaped manner) which interconnects the front and rear legs to provide stability and rigidity to the support frame. Nor is there any structure to provide a substantial platform for supporting carried items directly on the frame members as disposed within the carrying basket.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,988,671 and 5,915,722 disclose various other forms of collapsible carts. However, although these carts may provide a certain carrying capacity, an adequate collapsibility or foldability feature is lacking. Specifically, the respective teachings regarding the disposition of the frame members do not permit for the side frame members to be collapsed inwardly towards each other to reduce the width of the cart when in a folded configuration.
In summary, none of the above cited patents shows or discloses a folding utility cart which includes various frame members adapted to collapse in a manner which (a) reduces the width (e.g., the lateral dimension) between the side frame members when in a folded configuration, and which (b) provides support for a mesh basket, as well as (c) to provide the ability to support relatively large items directly upon or substantially carried by a pair of preferably X-shaped lower frame members, such as for example a parallelogramic linkage.
Accordingly, and in view of the developed prior art, it is a material object of the improved collapsible utility cart of the present invention to substantially alleviate the defects, deficiencies and/or disadvantages of these and other prior art structures and methods.


The disclosure provides methods of determining patient populations amenable or suitable for immunomodulatory treatment of disease such as cancer by measuring the relative or absolute levels of T-cell sub-populations correlated with disease such as cancer.

T-cells or T lymphocytes play a central role in cell-mediated immunity. They can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell receptor (TCR) on the cell surface. T-cells mature in the thymus (although some also mature in the tonsils). There are several types of T cells, and each type has a distinct function. The various types of T-cells include T Helper cells (TH cells), cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs), multiple sub-types of Memory T-cells, effector T cells (Teff), regulatory T-cells (Treg), and Natural Killer T-cells (NKT cells).
T helper cells (TH cells) assist in the maturation of B cells into plasma cells and memory B cells, as well as in the activation of cytotoxic T cells and macrophages. These TH cells, also known as CD4+ T-cells, express the CD4 glycoprotein on their surfaces. Helper T-cells become activated when they are presented with peptide antigens by MHC class II molecules, which are expressed on the surface of antigen-presenting cells or APCs. Once activated, Helper T-cells divide and secrete cytokines that regulate the active immune response.
CD4 T effector cells (CD4 Teff) are CD4+ FoxP3− T cells that are not regulatory T cells and potentially have effector functions.
Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is an immune checkpoint receptor expressed on T cells that mediate inhibitory immune responses in the early activation of naïve and memory T cells to maintain a balanced immune homeostasis (1) (2). CTLA-4 is found on the surface of T cells, which are involved in the cellular immune response to foreign antigen. T-cells can be activated by stimulating the CD28 receptor on the T-cell. T-cells can be inhibited by stimulating the CTLA-4 receptor, which acts as an "off" switch. CTLA-4 is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily, which is expressed on the surface of Helper T cells and transmits an inhibitory signal to T cells. CTLA-4 is similar to the T-cell co-stimulatory protein, CD28, and both molecules bind to CD80 and CD86, also called B7-1 and B7-2 respectively, on antigen-presenting cells. In contrast to the stimulatory signal transmitted by CD28, CTLA-4 transmits an inhibitory signal to T-cells. T-cell activation through the T-cell receptor and CD28 leads to increased expression of CTLA-4, an inhibitory receptor for B7 molecules.
Programmed death 1 (PD-1) is a type I membrane protein of 268 amino acids. PD-1 appears to negatively regulate immune responses, based on PD-1 knockout mice developing lupus-like glomerulonephritis and dilated cardiomyopathy in C57BL/6 and BALB/c genetic backgrounds, respectively. T-cells stimulated by exposure to an anti-CD3 antibody that are exposed to a ligand of PD-1 (i.e., PD-L1) exhibit reduced T cell proliferation and IFN-γ secretion. These data indicate that PD-1 negatively regulates T-cell responses.
Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1, CD274, B7-H1) is a type I membrane protein of 176 amino acids. PD-L1 is expressed on antigen-presenting cells (APCs), activated T cells, and a variety of tissues. PD-L1 knockout mice demonstrated increased CD4 and CD8 T cell responses including increased levels of cytokines. This data suggests that PD-L1 negatively regulates T cells and play a role in T cell tolerance.
The foregoing aspects of the immune system and the many other aspects of the immune system have been extensively studied for years as biologists and medical professionals have recognized the role played by the immune system in resisting disease and in combatting infection. Efforts to harness the considerable potential of the immune system to treat or prevent disease have led to the development of a number of biologics showing promise in the clinic. Those efforts, however, have required significant capital input and time expenditures due to care that must be taken in developing a treatment for humans, the number of failures, and the uneven response profiles of patients receiving treatment.
For all of the foregoing reasons, a need continues to exist in the art for materials and methods that yield effective immunomodulatory therapeutics, such as biologics, in an efficient manner and that more precisely target amenable or suitable patient populations for treatment or prevention.

Methods of determining patient populations amenable to immunomodulatory treatment of cancer

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH), (DHHS), U.S. GOVERNMENT


The invention relates to an endoscopy system and a corresponding method for examining gas turbines, comprising an endoscope and a data processing unit, wherein the endoscope comprises an image recording unit, wherein the endoscope is configured to transmit recorded images of the image recording unit from the inside of the gas turbine to the data processing unit, wherein the endoscopy system is configured to position and align the endoscope comprising the image recording unit introduced into a gas turbine in the gas turbine in a defined manner.

Endoscopy systems, often referred to as borescope systems, are used for examining gas turbines during maintenance and servicing, and when testing the airworthiness of gas turbines. Known endoscopy systems are controlled by a human operator and are greatly dependent on subjective factors relating to the operator. Known endoscopy systems need long test periods when examining a gas turbine and documenting the results. In the following, the term "endoscope" is used synonymously with the term "borescope".
The problem addressed by the invention is that of providing an endoscopy system and a corresponding method which allow for highly reproducible examination results and short test periods with improved test quality when examining gas turbines.

Endoscopy system and corresponding method for examining gas turbines


A structured-core laminate panel can be made in an efficient, structurally sound manner without the use of adhesives (film or liquid forms) using materials with different melt or glass transition temperatures. In one implementation, a manufacturer positions one or more resin substrates about a structured core, which comprises a relatively high melt or glass transition temperature compared with that of the one or more resin substrates. The manufacturer heats the assembly to at least the glass transition temperature of the resin substrates, but not to the melt or glass transition temperature of the structured core. This allows the one or more resin substrates to melt and bond (mechanically, chemically, or both) to the structured core on one side (or inner surface), while maintaining a substantially planar or original conformation on an opposing side (or outer surface).

1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus, systems, and methods for panels that can be used as a ceiling, wall, or floor structure, or as a treatment thereto.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Recent trends in building design involve using one or more sets of decorative panels to add to the functional and/or aesthetic characteristics of a given structure or design space. These recent trends are due, at least in part, because there is sometimes more flexibility with how the given panel (or set of panels) is designed, compared with the original structure. For example, recent panel materials include synthetic, polymeric resin materials, which can be formed as panels to be used as partitions, walls, barriers, treatments, décor, etc. Examples of such resin materials include polyvinyl chloride or "PVC"; polyacrylate materials such as poly (methyl methacrylate) or "PMMA"; polyester materials such as poly (ethylene-co-cyclohexane 1,4-dimethanol terephthalate), or "PET"; poly (ethylene-co-cyclohexane 1,4-dimethanol terephthalate glycol) or "PETG"; glycol modified polycyclohexylenedimethlene terephthalate; or "PCTG"; as well as polycarbonate (or "PC") materials.
In general, resin materials such as these are now popular compared with decorative cast or laminated glass materials, since resin materials may be manufactured to be more resilient and to have a similar transparent, translucent, or decorative appearance as cast or laminated glass, but with less cost. Decorative resins can also provide more flexibility compared with glass at least in terms of color, degree of texture, gauge, impact resistance, and ease of fabrication.
One particular type of resin panel that is now popular is honeycomb core panels. Honeycomb core panels include a honeycomb core bonded between two outer sheets or skins. Such panels are popular because the core reduces the overall weight of the panel, while also increasing the strength of the panel. Furthermore, the honeycomb core can provide a unique aesthetic.
One conventional mechanism for creating honeycomb core laminate panels can involve adhering a honeycomb core between two substrates with an adhesive. The adhesive may be liquid at the time of application, which allows the honeycomb core and substrates to bond together with relative immediacy. To apply the adhesive, the manufacturer may spread (e.g., with one or more rollers) or spray a liquid adhesive on both sides of a honeycomb core or to a single side of one or more substrate panels, or skins, and then press such panels directly against the honeycomb core. Such liquid laminations, however, may be relatively weak in the context of building materials. In particular, such liquid laminations can have a greater risk of delamination since the bond strength can be primarily determined by uniformity of the liquid adhesive application, which is susceptible to bubbles, voids, debris, and relies on chemical bonding.
In other cases, a manufacturer can utilize a solid resin film adhesive. For example, the manufacturer first adheres, laminates, or attaches a solid adhesive resin film on one side of one or more substrate panels. The manufacturer then performs a second step of adhering the substrate panels to both sides of the honeycomb core. The adhesion is achieved via the application of heat (and, also pressure in some cases), which causes the adhesive resin film to become tacky, and bond the honeycomb core and substrates together albeit with a primarily chemical bond.
As with the liquid adhesive, applying a solid adhesive may not necessarily form a sufficiently strong bond between the substrates and the honeycomb core for use as a building material. Also, similar to a liquid adhesive, the strength of solid adhesives can be dependent upon a uniform bond and a lack of bubbles, voids, and debris. Furthermore, with a film adhesive that needs heat and pressure to melt and form the ensuing bond, there is a risk of the processing temperatures (and pressures in some cases) will melt the substrates and/or honeycomb core. This risk is enhanced when the resin adhesive layer, the substrates, and honeycomb core comprise similar resin materials with similar melting/glass transition temperatures. Lastly, solid adhesives tend to be expensive and the additional processing steps associated therewith increase the chances for reduced product yield due to entrapped contaminants (dirt, debris, air, etc) to the exposed adhesive portion of the skin material.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Structured-core laminate panels and methods of forming the same


Conjugates of an active agent attached to a targeting moiety, such as an HSP90 binding moiety, via a linker, and particles comprising such conjugates have been designed. Such conjugates and particles can provide improved temporospatial delivery of the active agent, improved biodistribution and penetration in tumor, and/or decreased toxicity. Methods of making the conjugates, the particles, and the formulations thereof are provided. Methods of administering the formulations to a subject in need thereof are provided, for example, to treat or prevent cancer.

Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is an intracellular chaperone protein that assists protein folding, stabilizes proteins against heat stress, and aids in protein degradation. It is upregulated in many types of cancer. Many Hsp90 client proteins are over-expressed in cancer, often in mutated forms, and are responsible for unrestricted cancer cell proliferation and survival. HSP90 is activated in cancer tissues and latent in normal tissues. HSP90 derived from tumour cells has higher binding affinity to HSP90 inhibitors than the latent form in normal cells, allowing specific targeting of HSP90 inhibitors to tumour cells with little inhibition of HSP90 function in normal cells. Further, HSP90 has also been recently identified as an important extracellular mediator for tumour invasion. Therefore, HSP90 is considered a major therapeutic target for anticancer drug development.
Nanoparticulate drug delivery systems are attractive for systemic drug delivery because they may be able to prolong the half-life of a drug in circulation, reduce non-specific uptake of a drug, and improve accumulation of a drug at tumors, e.g., through an enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect. There are limited examples of therapeutics formulated for delivery as nanoparticles, which include DOXIL® (liposomal encapsulated doxyrubicin) and ABRAXANE® (albumin bound paclitaxel nanoparticles).
The development of nanotechnologies for effective delivery of drugs or drug candidates to specific diseased cells and tissues, e.g., to cancer cells, in specific organs or tissues, in a temporospatially regulated manner potentially can overcome or ameliorate therapeutic challenges, such as systemic toxicity. However, while targeting of the delivery system may preferentially deliver drug to a site where therapy is needed, the drug released from the nanoparticle may not for example, remain in the region of the targeted cells in efficacious amounts or may not remain in the circulation in a relatively non-toxic state for a sufficient amount of time to decrease the frequency of treatment or permit a lower amount of drug to be administered while still achieving a therapeutic effect. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved drug targeting and delivery, including identification of targeting molecules that can be incorporated into particles and whose presence does not substantially interfere with efficacy of the drug.

HSP90-targeting conjugates and formulations thereof