Tissue resurfacing is accomplished by propelling biocompatible, non-toxic materials at the tissue with sufficient velocity to cause destruction or loosening of tissues to a desired depth. The biocompatible materials are generated by abrading a solid frozen unit and propelling the abraded material onto the surface of the skin or tissue to be treated. A vacuum line near the delivery tip may used to remove excess materials or reaction by-products that build up on the surface of the skin. The treatment system generally consists of a control unit, a handheld particle generator and a cable that connects the control unit to the particle generator. The control unit can include user controls to select particle temperature, particle flux, particle velocity and vacuum. The handheld particle generator contains a mechanism to push the frozen biocompatible material against a rotating grinding wheel that produces small particles, which are propelled against tissue being treated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for cleaning, resurfacing or treating human tissue (e.g., skin) using biocompatible materials propelled into the surface of the tissue.
2. Description of Related Art
Resurfacing the human skin can be achieved by several mechanisms that are aimed primarily at disrupting the epidermal and upper dermal layers. Human skin is composed of at least three layers of variable thickness, depending upon body location. The uppermost layer, or epidermis, is usually as thin as a sheet of paper. The layer just below the epidermis is the dermis, which is largely composed of collagen and makes up the xe2x80x9cleatherxe2x80x9d layer of the skin. The dermis may vary in thickness from that of paper (50-100 xcexcm) to as thick as half an inch on the neck and back. The layer below the dermis may be composed of either muscle (around the eyes and mouth) or fat, otherwise known as subcutaneous fat
New human surface skin is regenerated following resurfacing by the surrounding islands of normal epidermis and epidermal cells migrating from the deep hair pores and other pore structures that permeate the upper dermis, mid dermis, and epidermis. If excessive scar tissue, rather than a plethora of epidermal cells, closes a surface wound, then an unsightly scar will result. The key to all resurfacing procedures is a controlled destruction of the desired area that still allows the regeneration of new tissues from pores and neighboring islands of untouched, untreated skin.
The procedures currently used in human skin resurfacing include chemical peeling, dermabrasion, laser surgery, and most recently the xe2x80x9cpower peelxe2x80x9d or crystalline peel. In chemical peeling, a caustic, disruptive or destructive liquid agent is applied to the surface skin to damage existing epidermal and dermal cells, which will then be replaced by the body. Peeling agents act depending on their strength and type. Examples of chemical peeling agents include fruit acid peel, glycolic acid peel, and trichloracetic acid (TCA) and phenol peels. TCA peels can be made to act at deeper and varying depths by varying the concentration of TCA used to destroy the surface skin. Concentrations as low as 5-10% TCA will behave similarly to a fruit acid peel, and concentrations of 50% TCA may cause severe peeling burns, which simulates phenol, and may border on scarring. Phenol, when diluted with water, penetrates more deeply and destroys more tissue than most other peeling agents.
Dermabrasion literally means abrasion of the skin and is a procedure in which a rotating sanding piece, or abrasive substance, is applied to a rigidified skin to sand out an undesirable feature, mark, or scar. Some high-speed dermabrasion rotors go up to 200,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) and do not require any rigidity to the tissues; however, they require extremely skilled personnel and special instrumentation and are impractical for most office use. A minor mistake with such a high-powered machine can have disastrous results. Dermabrasion is usually performed with a rotating wheel operating at speeds under 10,000 rpm after the skin has been rigidified using freon or dichlorotetrafluoroethane. In dermabrasion (unlike laser surgery), the person operating the abrading wheel has a direct tactile sense of pressing the wheel into the tissues being treated and can apply differential pressure to areas of elevation. Dermabrasion can be achieved to various depths depending upon the depth of freezing (rigidification), the number of passes of the abrader, the type of abrasive wheel, and the pressure applied. This procedure is waning in use, however, due to the unavailability of Freon.
Laser surgery has recently become popular to remove or reduce wrinkles, remove tumors, and alter scars, although results are mixed. Several types of lasers are used, including carbon dioxide and erbium-YAG lasers. Carbon dioxide lasers deliver light radiation at 10 xcexcm, which can vaporize and destroy surface skin. These lasers may be set on various pulse patterns to deliver precise and controlled amounts of laser radiation to the skin in a relatively uniform and homogenous fashion across the surface. An unfortunate disadvantage of this laser is that heat can be transmitted to the surrounding tissues. Additionally, after the first pass of the carbon dioxide laser, the skin begins to ooze and become wet at the surface as fluids build up in response to the damage. Since water and blood absorb in the infrared region, a second pass of the laser will penetrate to a variable depth, depending on how much surface ooze there is in the area. The ooze prevents the laser energy from reaching the target tissues uniformly. During laser irradiation, the tissues may begin to desiccate, which ultimately results in severe thermal damage. Depositing too much laser energy on the target tissues can result in persistent redness, scarring, and other complications or damage, even with thermal relaxation techniques to mitigate heat transfer.
Although other lasers, such as the erbium-YAG laser or combination CO2/erbium laser, were developed in an attempt to reduce bleeding and thermal damage, serious scarring and persistent redness can still result. If the penetration depth of the damage is complete and the regenerating skin structures are destroyed, scarring will ensue. Scarring is the unwanted presence of large amounts of collagen in the upper surface, with a minimal amount of normal appearing epidermis to lend a normal appearance to the skin. When scars are treated with certain lasers, the light does not actually remove or destroy collagen, but usually affects the hemoglobin and other blood pigments. The reduction of blood vessels to the scar causes an optical effect that makes the scar less noticeable.
Microdermabrasion (MDA) also known as xe2x80x9cThe Power Peelxe2x80x9d is a relatively new treatment patented by Molinari in U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,432. MDA has been used in Europe for the last decade. MDA is a process by which aluminum oxide crystals, which are extremely rigid, strong rasping and irregular-shaped, are projected onto the skin by air that is driven by pressures neighboring 25 pounds per square inch. Safe operation of these devices requires the use of a limited number of passes or a minimal pass speed over the target area. Most power peels are designed to remove the epidermis of the skin. However, epidermal removal will not result in any alteration of scar formation.
Almost all xe2x80x9cforeignxe2x80x9d objects are unwanted by the body. This also includes particles that are apparently inert such as sand. There are a few problems with aluminum oxide crystals and their use on the face as a peeling agent. If proper depth were attained in order to remove, destroy or alter deeper structures such as scars, pores or pits; then granuloma formation would result from the impact and placement of the aluminum oxide into the structures of the skin and the surrounding skin tissue. This is not wanted and leads to unsightly scarring. There are three main systems, of MDA used in America today; some of the systems come with a vacuum apparatus to partially suck away unwanted particles. The MDA vacuum apparatus sucks most but not all of the crystals passed. Since aluminum oxide crystals can cause foreign body reactions, even a small amount of them could be unwanted or lead to cellular difficulties later on in life. Therefore, since a MDA machine vacuum cannot be made 100 percent efficient, the power peel should not be used at a depth below the epidermis.
Two potentially serious problems have now been proposed regarding MDA. Silicosis or coal miners"" lung disease is frequently fatal; sand-like particles are spun into the air (of coal mines) coating the lungs with material that causes delayed foreign body reactions years later and interferes with breathing. In MDA the ultra-fine particles are like miniature sandspurs and are easily inhaled by the patient, thus causing a potential lung disease years from the time of exposure. Additionally, the aluminum oxide particles can deposit on the conjunctiva of the eye latching on and never letting go and causing conjunctivitis (pink eye) that may be permanent
A relatively new twist on MDA is to have a separate canister of crystallized vitamins able to be tapped and in the gas flow loop of the aluminum oxide crystals to provide the mechanical xe2x80x9cpeelingxe2x80x9d and some claimed effect of skin vitamin replenishment. Problems have arisen because any humidity in the system causes the powderized vitamins to crystallize or clump, thus clogging the microdermabrasion delivery device. The vitamin or attendant particles also do not impact on the same exact cellular location that the abrasive impacts in this type of delivery system.
WO-9937229 by Coleman et al. discloses propelling water at high speeds and pressures to cut or alter tissues. The use of water as the carrier vehicle has several major drawbacks and disadvantages. As in the time-honored process of dermabrasion (described above), freezing the skin rigid allows controlled application of energy to reduce defects. In order to immobilize skin for uniform abrasion (so that it does not deform or invaginate at treatment) temperatures well below 0 degrees Centigrade are required. Water, even when mixed with large quantities of ice cannot achieve the desired skin-immobilizing temperatures well below 0 degrees (even when not at standard pressure). Additionally, the patent by Coleman et al. would not be effective in delivering chemicals to the skin that could not be miscible with water or in solution with water unless a constant stirring mechanism was included in all portions of the Coleman system; liposomes and oil-soluble materials would separate and likely segregate into a non-uniform spray in the liquid-water-driven Coleman patent. The Coleman system would likely not uniformly expose the dermal layers so that effective application of vitamins and other medicaments could be delivered to even the upper-mid dermal layers of the skin.
Current treatments for skin at risk for infection due to thermal burns, chemical burns or other trauma or disease include removal by xe2x80x9ccold steelxe2x80x9d otherwise known as scalpel/scissor debridement and more recently by laser. By and large, debridement procedures may be painful if the nerves supplying the living tissues adjacent to the compromised tissue are still functional. This is because for the surgeon to be sure of having removed the devitalized tissues most debridement procedures are performed until bleeding is noticed (a property that is usually indicative that living/good tissue has been reached) thus ensuring that all the dead tissue has been removed. Again, dead tissue is a culture dish, lacking any antibiotics or other medicines that could halt the spread and feeding of infectious organisms.
Tissues that may need to be debrided include the largest organ (skin) following burns from fire, chemicals, blasts, etc. Also included are any exposed and damaged internal components, mostly comprising the muscle and fatty tissues just underlying the skin following blast or kinetic energy trauma. Further included may be open organs from the abdominal cavity following blast injuries, even including the bowel.
The deep but fine firing of biocompatible or bioabsorbable compounds or drugs in an aqueous vehicle, especially antibiotics (antibacterial, antiviral, anti-fungal) onto the human skin, may allow deep treatment of damaged, or devitalized skin and tissue. The device may perform the optimal multiple functions of not only removing unwanted tissues but also leaving behind desirable chemicals/medicines in order to improve the remaining tissues or prevent the growth of unwanted organisms or undesirable tissue reactions.
Thus, it would be advantageous to develop a procedure for removal of scars, wrinkles, and various other imperfections or lesions on the skin, as well as debridement of burns and cleaning of wounds, without introducing foreign bodies or substances that cause adverse physiological reactions or produce thermal damage. The present invention provides such advantages by using materials that are biocompatible.
The present invention is an apparatus for resurfacing or treating tissue using biocompatible, non-toxic materials that are propelled at the tissue with sufficient velocity to cause destruction or loosening of tissues to the desired depth upon impact. U.S. Pat. No. 6,306,119, titled xe2x80x9cSkin Resurfacing and Treatment Using Biocompatible Materialsxe2x80x9d, filed Jan. 20, 1999 is incorporated herein by reference. One objective of the invention is to propel materials into the tissue that are harmonious with the human body and thus do not cause foreign body reactions, which lead to granulomas and scarring. The materials must be hard enough (crystalline) or propelled at high enough velocities to remove tissue. Suitable resurfacing materials include solid carbon dioxide (dry ice), ice (frozen H2O), organic materials such as urea, or other amines (including amino acids) or amides, organic polymers such as sugars, carbohydrates, or proteins, and inorganic salts such as phosphates, sulfates, carbonates and nitrates. To relieve pain, a local anesthetic may be used separately or in combination with the biocompatible materials used to resurface the skin. Antibiotics could be included to prevent infection; bioabsorbable or biodegradable compounds or drugs can be delivered to the skin to treat diseases. Vasoconstrictors, such as adrenaline, can be placed into crystalline form and fired into the skin to constrict blood vessels on the surface of the skin to prevent bleeding. In addition vitamins including fat soluble (A, D, E, K) and water soluble vitamins (B complex, C), as well as co-enzymes, antioxidants, minerals, depigmenting medicines, antibiotics and other medicaments can be incorporated into the biocompatible materials.
In the present invention, the biocompatible materials are generated by abrading a solid frozen segment and propelling it through a delivery tip or nozzle to the surface of the skin or tissue to be treated. An optional vacuum system near the delivery tip can be used to remove excess materials or reaction by-products that build up on the surface of the skin. The biocompatible particles are produced at low enough temperatures to prevent the particle from melting during the delivery path to the tissue.
In one embodiment the treatment system consists of a control unit, a handheld particle generator and a cable that connects the control unit to the particle generator. The control unit can include user controls to select particle temperature, particle flux, particle velocity and vacuum. The handheld particle generator contains a mechanism to push a frozen block of biocompatible material against a rotating grinding wheel that produces small ( less than 500 micron diameter) particles. The frozen block and grinding wheel temperature can be monitored with temperature sensors integrated into the handpiece. The temperature is controlled and kept below the melting temperature of the biocompatible material. The particle density can be adjusted by controlling the speed of the grinding wheel and the speed at which the frozen block is pushed toward the grinding wheel. In normal operation the user moves the handheld device over the surface to be treated. By adjusting the particle density, particle size and particle velocity a variety of effects can be achieved.
Optional infrared temperature sensors attached to the handheld device can be used to monitor surface temperature and guide the user through the treatment. Other possible sensors include particle density and particle velocity. An accurate measurement of the particle velocity and particle size can be used to estimate the penetration depth.
An objective of the present invention is to provide an apparatus to remove scars, wrinkles, and other imperfections of the skin (or other tissue) without introducing foreign bodies or substances that cause adverse physiological reactions or produce thermal damage. Another objective of the present invention is to provide an apparatus to clean wounds and perform burn debridement. Another objective of the invention is to provide a delivery system for delivering or depositing drugs or other medications at the desired depth in the epidermis or dermis for treatment of diseased skin lesions, e.g., pre-cancers. Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings.

Tissue resurfacing using biocompatible materials


The invention relates to an electroplating solution for providing a deposit of an alloy of gold and tin. This solution includes an aqueous solvent in which gold is present in the form of a solution soluble cyanide complex and tin is present in the form of a solution soluble organotin complex. 2,2′-dipyridyl is present as an additive that allows the codeposition of useful gold-tin alloy compositions at current densities lower than would be possible in its absence, given the concentrations of the individual metallic components in the solution. This additive is generally used at a concentration of 0.1 to 1 grams per liter for imparting significant enhancements in providing gold-tin alloy deposits.

The present invention relates to an electroplating solution that can more efficiently and effectively deposit gold tin alloys, and to methods for providing such deposits.
Alloys of gold and tin, particularly in the compositional range of about 75 to 80 percent gold by weight, are useful as solders for the interconnection of electronic components. While gold-tin alloy solder materials are available as thermally processed performs, it is generally acknowledged that the ability to electroplate such materials allows the flexibility to deposit overall or in selected areas at will, and to adjust deposit thicknesses as required. For these reasons, much effort has been made to develop workable electroplating systems for these alloys, and numerous references are provided in the literature about such systems.
For many years, the trend in electronic device fabrication has been toward increasingly larger arrays and increasing complexity of such arrays. In practical electroplating terms, this means that at a given overall average current density, the local current density at the individual features of a component part in the array may deviate significantly from the average. Since in alloy plating systems the composition of the deposit is usually a function of current density, such deviations tend to limit the ability of the electroplating solution to deposit homogeneous films over large and complex arrays. For this reason, actual current densities employed in the fabrication of complex arrays tend to be rather low, and generally on the order of about 2-5 amperes per square foot.
It would be desirable to obtain electroplating solutions that are capable of depositing gold-tin alloy deposits as homogeneous films over current complex arrays. Accordingly, improved electroplating solutions are now provided by the present invention.

Electroplating solution for alloys of gold with tin


A system and method for providing content for display from data sources on a client device are provided. The method includes receiving, by a distribution server, a report identifier associated with a report and a request for information, wherein the information is requested based on the report; determining by the distribution server at least a data source, the at least a data source storing at least a portion of the information; requesting access from the integration server to the at least a data source to retrieve the at least a portion of the information; and sending from the distribution server to the client device, the at least a portion of the information, wherein the at least a portion of information is utilized in the report. In an embodiment, the data sources are accessible by an integration server.

In many organizations, data respective of the organizations operation is held on central data sources which allow a plurality of users varying levels of access. The users typically need to access certain reports as part of their day to day activities. Different groups and sub-groups of users may need to access different data from one or more data sources throughout each day. A further complication to providing the data to the users is the variety of client devices in which the user may view reports generated respective of the data, as not all client devices are uniform in their display capabilities. This lack of uniformity can cause the presentation of such reports to appear disorganized.
It is desirable to send to the client device the most up-to-date data for generating a report while refraining from compromising the security level of the data sources from which the data is remotely accessed. It is further desirable to ensure that such data is delivered in an optimally efficient manner with respect to the type of user device accessing the data and information required by a user.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a solution that would overcome the deficiencies of the prior art by providing optimized secure access to information stored in a data source respective of a request for a report identifier from a client device.

System and method for providing database content on a client device


A circuit for the remote control of solenoid operated valves in an irrigation system reduces by one half the amount of wire required for the system. At least one pair of first and second solenoids are connected to a source of supply of alternating curent, typically through a low voltage circuit. A switching circuit selectively connects the source to the solenoids through a conductor having a diode network at either end of the conductor. One of the diode networks comprises a pair of diodes connected in anti-parallel relation across the switching circuit, and the other of said diode networks comprises a pair of oppositely poled diodes respectively connected between the conductor and a corresponding one of the solenoids. In operation, no current is supplied to the solenoids, current is supplied to the first solenoid on positive half cycles, current is supplied to the second solenoid on negative half cycles, or current is supplied simultaneously to both of said solenoids, depending on the operation of the switching circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to remote control systems and, more particularly, to controls and circuits for solenoid operated remote control sprinkler valves used in irrigation systems.
2. Background of the Invention
Large areas of land which are grass covered and landscaped require attention and maintenance on a scheduled basis. Areas that are used regularly, for example for recreation, such as golf courses, require special care including watering on a time controlled schedule. Irrigation and watering is usually done by the use of a sprinkler system which necessarily includes a large number of sprinklers having the associated piping substantially permanently installed and being controlled from a remote location. A golf course or similar large area, may require an irrigation system having several hundred sprinklers, miles of piping and, in the case of sprinklers having remotely controlled electro-mechanically operated valves, such as solenoid operated valves, miles of electrical wiring as well.
An irrigation system of their general type is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,022 to Kendall. A sprinkler system specifically for use on parkways and other green strips which require periodic watering but infrequent maintenance of other sorts is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,955 to Link. Each sprinkler valve includes an on and an off solenoid for opening and closing the valve. This system is battery operated to eliminate the cost of laying power lines. It is timer controlled, includes a timing switch for each sprinkler and requires three wires to connect each sprinkler valve to its timer switch. U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,339 to DuFresne shows an irrigation system comprising a central sequencing control station for controlling remote valve stations. Two wires are connected to each remote station for electrically actuating the valves.
A grounding arrangement for a sprinkler system that is programmed by a microprocessor and clock is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,215,382 to Davis. This is also a system with solenoid type sprinkler valves, each of which may be operated by either a common control wire, or as shown in the patent, an individual wire; however, in this patent the grounding arrangement requires a common ground wire to be connected to each solenoid. Another patent directed to controlling watering systems is U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,490 to Enter, Sr. Ambient conditions such as humidity, light and the like can be factored into the timing cycle for control of watering.
U S. Pat. No. 4,423,484 to Hamilton relates to a battery operated programmable control system using bi-stable solenoids, each of which requires three connecting wires including the ground wire. The auxiliary switching circuit described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,719 to Burchfiel et al. is intended for use in irrigation systems having solenoid controlled valves and is especially adapted to provide an add-on or repair device for such systems. This patent is also notable for the discussion contained in the introductory paragraphs relating to sprinkler systems maintenance and repair costs. Other patents of interest that show circuits for controlling solenoid operation include U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,031 to Leichle and U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,320 to Herran. The former shows a device using a current program to control solenoids independently, while the latter selectively controls operations of solenoids by a switching circuit.
As noted above, quantities of electrical wire are needed for installations in which solenoid operated devices, such as valves, which are remotely controlled, are employed. The cost of laying power lines is referred to in U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,955 to Link as the basis for using battery power for control and operation in some areas. Further, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,719 to Burchfiel et al., reference is made to the high cost of pulling and replacing wire from which it follows that initial installations of wiring in accordance with current practice are very substantial. The systems disclosed in the patents discussed above as well as those in actual use are multi-wire systems or at best use one conductor and a common ground for each solenoid operating a sprinkler valve.

Valve control circuit for irrigation system


A protocol chip stores requests from a computer in a port queue, on the basis of an index indicating a slot of the port queue which allows subsequent storing. MPs each hold a CI of the slot having undergone a preceding search of the port queue by the MP, search this port queue from the slot that the pointer indicates, search for a request addressed to a logical device to which the MP corresponds, and store this request in a virtual queue corresponding to the logical device, to process the request.

The present invention relates to a storage system and a queue control method of the storage system.
High-performance storage systems have a great number of processors or processor cores, in order to perform high-speed processing of requests received from host computation apparatuses via higher-order interfaces.
In the storage system, the processors frequently perform polling of higher-order interfaces, in order to reap requests received from the host computation apparatus at high speed. Such a request reaping mechanism by polling is configured of queues that exist corresponding to the higher-order interfaces, a device that stores request received from the higher-order interfaces in the queues, and processing performed by processors that reap requests from the queues.
In this configuration, all processors perform polling of each of the higher-order interfaces, thereby avoiding loads being concentrated on particular processor cores, and enabling the processing capabilities of the storage system to be maximized. Now, if a plurality of processors simultaneously perform polling of a particular higher-order interface, this can cause trouble such as a single request that has been received being processed redundantly by a plurality of processors, inconsistency occurring in queue management information, and so forth. Accordingly, a method is generally applied where each higher-order interface is provided with a lock, and the processors perform polling of the higher-order interfaces while excluding other processors by acquiring locks.
Some requests that host computation apparatuses send to the storage system expect that the storage system will sequentially process the requests in accordance with the order of sending. The storage system needs a framework to ensure that the order in which the series of requests is processed will match the order of receipt. Ensuring that the order that the host computation apparatus expects is realized here in certain logical increments such as, for example, a request group where a particular logical device within the storage system is the destination, a request group passing through a particular connection in a network configured between the host computation apparatus and the storage system, and so forth.
An example of technology where a plurality of processors perform polling of particular higher-order interface devices while excluding other processors by a locking mechanism, and also perform processing of requests received from the host while maintaining the order of receipt in particular logical increments is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2018-180985.
In the information processing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2018-180985, a request acquisition unit has a plurality of CPU cores that exclusively perform processing of acquiring processing request stored in a request queue in the order of storage, and allocating serial numbers thereto. A sorting unit reorders the processing requests acquired by the CPU cores in order of the serial numbers. A soft request queue management unit stores the processing requests in a soft request queue in the order reordered by the sorting unit. A processing execution unit acquires processing requests from the soft request queue in the order stored by the soft request queue management unit, and performs processing in accordance with the acquired processing requests.
In a case where the processing capabilities of each processor is uniform, the time required for processing of processors reaping requests from queues (i.e., the length of time of exclusion among processors by locking) is also uniform, as a matter of course. Accordingly, even if a great number of processors or processor cores are installed to improve the processing capabilities of the storage system, the efficiency of the storage system reaping requests from a certain higher-order interface will never exceed the inverse of the time. That is to say, the mechanism such as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2018-180985 has problems in application to a storage system having a configuration where there is a logical performance ceiling value, and the number of processors that can access individual higher-order interfaces is markedly great.
The present invention has been made in light of the above-described problem, and it is an object thereof to provide a method where, in a configuration in which a plurality of processors share a particular higher-order interface and perform polling, requests are reaped in parallel without performing exclusion among the processors, and processing is performed while maintaining the order of receipt of the requests within a range of an optional logical increment to which received requests belong.

Storage system and queue control method of storage system


A lever device for a holder adapted to receive a hand-held unit, such as a mobile telephone is presented herein. The lever device includes a first lever arm connected to a first hinge member, and a first locking arm connected to the first hinge member. The first hinge member has an axis about which the lever device is adapted to rotate. The first spring arm is adapted to cause a spring action of the lever device in relation to the holder while rotating the lever device about the first hinge member. According to the invention, a second lever arm is provided being connected to a second hinge member. The first and second hinge members are spaced apart and aligned with the axis. The first and second lever arms are interconnected by an interconnection member, and a second spring arm is adapted to cause a spring action of the lever device in relation to the holder while rotating the lever device about the second hinge member. The first and second spring arms are adapted to move towards or away from one another during the spring action. At least one guide arm is adapted to keep the first and second hinge members substantially aligned with the axis.

The present invention relates to a lever device for a holder adapted to receive a hand-held unit, such as a mobile telephone, comprising a first lever arm connected to a first hinge member, and a first locking arm connected to said first hinge member, said first hinge member having an axis about which the lever device is adapted to rotate, and a first spring arm adapted to cause a spring action of the lever device in relation to the holder while rotating the lever device about said first hinge member.
It also relates to a supporting device of a holder for a hand-held device, having a first and a second portion, wherein said first portion comprises a system connector adapted to be connected to a connecting device of said hand-held unit.
It furthermore relates to a holder for a hand-held device, comprising a system connector adapted to be connected to a corresponding system connector of said handheld unit.
Such holder comprising such a supporting device and such a lever device has been put on the market by Ericsson Mobile Communications AB as an accessory for the mobile telephone under the trademark xe2x80x9cT28xe2x80x9d. The lever device of that holder is made in one piece. It is disadvantageous as if it were used for hand-held devices provided with a central antenna, it would be necessary to move the lever device to a position on one of the sides of the antenna. This would however cause twisting forces on the phone, which could then cause damage on the connection for an external antenna.
Another holder for a mobile telephone is known from JP-A-08293904. The therein described holder is however disadvantageous, as its lever consists of several parts and is therefore complicated to manufacture and to assemble.
The object of the invention is to provide a holder for a hand-held unit having a central antenna, without the above mentioned disadvantages.
This has been solved by the lever of the kind initially defined, furthermore being provided with a second lever arm, said second lever arm being connected to a second hinge member, said first and second hinge members being spaced apart and being aligned with said axis, said first and second lever arms being interconnected by an interconnection member, a second spring arm adapted to cause a spring action of the lever device in relation to the holder while rotating the lever device about said second hinge member, said first and second spring arms being adapted to move towards or away from one another during said spring action, and at least one guide arm adapted to keep said first and second hinge members substantially aligned with said axis.
It has also been solved by a supporting device of the initially defined kind, wherein a second portion of said supporting device comprises a third and a fourth hinge member is adapted to receive the first and second hinge members, respectively, of the lever device according to the invention, in such a way that the lever device is hingedly movable relative to the supporting device.
It has furthermore been solved by a holder of the initially defined kind, wherein a third and a fourth hinge member hingedly receives the first and second hinge members, respectively, of the lever device according to the invention, the lever device being movable relative to the supporting device about said axis.
Hereby is achieved a holder, supporting device and lever device with improved stability of the hand-held device when positioned in the holder. Furthermore, unwanted torque is avoided at sensitive points, e.g. at the antenna socket. Furthermore, they are easy to manufacture and to assemble.
Preferably, said guide arm is connected to said first lever arm. Hereby is achieved that side forces created by said spring action are absorbed by the lever itself.
Suitably, a further guide arm is provided, said further guide arm being connected to said second lever arm. Hereby is achieved an improved stability as the side forces are absorbed by the lever.
Advantageously, each of said first and second spring arms is provided with a protrusion directed substantially parallel to the extension of said axis, said protrusions being adapted to co-operate with a guide portion of said holder, for biasing said first and second spring-arms towards or away from one another. Hereby is achieved a controlled biasing of the spring-arms.
Preferably, said protrusions are arranged on the spring arms, such that the protrusions are directed in opposite directions. Hereby is achieved that they are allowed to pass a locking member of the supporting device.
Suitably, each of said locking arms is provided with a guide rib, adapted to be pressed by the rear of said hand-held unit at least during an initial phase, while moving the lever device to a locked state. Hereby is achieved a controlled movement of the lever device.
Advantageously, each of said locking arms is provided with a locking rib, adapted to protrude into a corresponding cavity of said hand-held unit, for keeping said handheld unit in said holder.
Preferably, it is made in one piece of a plastics material by injection moulding. Hereby is achieved a simple and non-expensive manufacture thereof, providing a substantially uniform thickness of material.

Lever device for a holder adapted to receive a hand-held unit, and such a holder


To apply special contrivances to the structure and layout of a reserve oil tank disposed on the front side of a dry sump type internal combustion engine mounted on a snowmobile, thereby to achieve effective utilization of space in the snowmobile, and to achieve a further reduction in the size of the snowmobile. A reserve oil tank is laid out on the front side of a dry sump type internal combustion engine mounted on a snowmobile, and the layout of the tank is so made that a tank wall in the longitudinal direction crosses the engine front side. The tank is provided in a tank front wall in the longitudinal direction thereof with an arcuate recessed groove extending vertically in the tank, and a steering shaft vertically passes through the inside of the recessed groove.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a snowmobile, wherein a structure of a reserve oil tank is provided for a dry sump type internal combustion engine that is mounted on the snowmobile and includes a particular layout structure of the tank.
2. Description of Background Art
A reserve oil tank of an internal combustion engine for a vehicle is generally disposed around the main body of the internal combustion engine. As one example of the reserve oil tank, in the case of an internal combustion engine mounted on a snowmobile, there is known a reserve oil tank for an internal combustion engine which is disposed at a side portion of the mounted internal combustion engine, i.e., at a side position, relative to the traveling direction of the vehicle. See, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-266653, Page 5, FIG. 8.
The invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-266653 contains the description of the conditions of a structural portion on the vehicle body front side of a snowmobile. According to the description, a lubricating oil tank, or reserve oil tank, for an internal combustion engine mounted on the snowmobile is laid out at a side portion, relative to the traveling direction of the vehicle, around the internal combustion engine mounted on the snowmobile.
As above-mentioned, the lubricating oil tank for the internal combustion engine is generally laid out around the internal combustion engine, while being not limited to that on a snowmobile. However, more particularly in a vehicle with a limited vehicle body space as in the case of a small-type snowmobile, the layout of the lubricating oil tank, which occupies a comparatively large space, around the engine needs special contrivances in the selection of the layout position, tank shape, etc. due to the spatial factors thereof.
In the case where the layout of the lubricating oil tank for the internal combustion engine around the engine is achieved by disposing the tank at a position on the front or rear side of the crosswise-crankshaft engine, when the steering system is disposed on the front side of the engine as in the snowmobile according to the invention described in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-266653, the layout of the lubricating oil tank on the front side of the engine is further limited on a spatial basis. In addition, the layout of the oil tank on the rear side of the engine hinders the rider from approaching the engine, so that there again is a limitation from the viewpoint of achieving a compact design.


A graphical user interface is provided which allows the user to perform numerous operations suitable for analysis of in-vivo images within a single display screen or a single window. Using the the-vivo GUI, the user may create and manipulate analysis tools such as rectangle and ellipse tools to define regions of interest and perform various measurements on an in-vivo image. In addition, the GUI allows the user to store measurement results in a dated electronic notebook, display testing information, manipulate image presentation and print while maintaining view of the image.

In a computer application, there are numerous ways to present user information. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on computer systems allow easy use of windows, control icons, etc. to display information to the user. The data displayed in a window may be of different types. Some may be graphical, such as icons or pictures, or textual, such as a word processing document, or a combination of both.
When a computer interface is used for data management in a scientific application, the interface may include various data-specific tools and functions. To handle images, for example, an application might desirably present one or more windows for viewing the image, a tool for changing the image's appearance (e.g., sharpness), and a tool to measure features of one or more images.
Unfortunately, the unique combination of functionality required for many imaging applications is not provided in a simple and easy to use computer interface. Specifically, available user interfaces, even those developed to handle imaging applications, do not provide a suite of particular image presentation and analysis tools that allow users to manipulate and measure image features with minimal navigation through the user interface.
Interfaces for available applications typically require that the user first select or open various windows, menus, buttons, and/or tiles and then and then manipulate the resulting tool to implement a single operation pertinent to image analysis. Because the user may be required to perform numerous operations for a single image, or handle numerous images simultaneously, the available user interfaces are generally very awkward or unwieldy. Obviously this compromises user efficiency and effectiveness in evaluating images.
Specialized in-vivo imaging applications can present particular challenges to the design of an appropriate user interface. In one example, the image may include one or more representations of emissions from internal portions of a specimen superimposed on a photographic representation of the specimen. The photographic representation provides the user with a pictorial reference of the specimen. The luminescence representation indicates portions of the specimen where an activity of interest may be taking place. For example, the in-vivo data may include light emissions from specific regions of the specimen used in tracking the progression of tumor or a pathogen within the specimen.
In view of the foregoing, an improved user interface for imaging applications would be highly beneficial.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A self-righting chair of the present invention includes: (i) a seat; (ii) a base member; and (iii) a connector connecting the base member to the seat, wherein the base member has a curved configuration, and wherein the base member has sufficient weight, such that when a force is exerted to move the chair from a substantially vertical position to a tilted position, the chair is moved from the substantially vertical position to the tilted position, then returns to the substantially vertical position when the tilting force is removed.

1. The Field of the Invention
The disclosed invention is in the field of furniture and is specifically in the field of chairs designed to promote healthy lifestyle sitting.
2. Background
The U.S. Department of Labor reported 1.4 million work-related injuries and illnesses in 2002. Sprains and strains accounted for 43% of these injuries. It is assumed that many of these injuries could be attributable to immobile or improper body posture, especially for individuals seated in front of computer screens or at desks for extended periods of time. Stiff spines, sore necks, shoulders, carpal tunnel syndrome, and leg cramping are common injuries resulting from poor seating options and choices, leading to overall lowered worker productivity.
Moreover, these conditions can lead to more adverse health effects requiring costly medical attention and treatment such as medication, physical therapy, and/or chiropractic therapy. Unfortunately, it is the company and the overall economy that both assumes and realizes the expense risks related to not using appropriate seating equipment. A simple seating solution designed to alleviate such stress and strain while the seated individual is performing normal daily tasks, such as in the workplace or home office, would be a beneficial and worthy preventative investment.


A system and method for distributing an alert to a set-top box. Media content is received for communication to one or more set-top boxes. Data is extracted from the media content. A determination is made whether the extracted data is associated with one or more alert profiles. The alert is generated in response to the extracted data being associated with the one or more alert profiles. The alert is distributed to one or more set-top boxes in response to generating the one or more alert profiles.

The use of and development of communications has grown nearly exponentially in recent years. The growth is fueled by larger networks with more reliable protocols and better communications hardware available to both service providers and consumers. In particular, many users receive satellite, cable, Internet Protocol television (IPTV), and other media services for display on one or more televisions within a home, business, or organization.
Many users have one or more set-top boxes, digital video recorders (DVR), personal video recorders (PVR), media devices, streaming devices, or home network devices in their home, business, or organization. In many cases, the functionality of these network devices may be limited to very narrow applications. Users have come to expect services that are more intuitive and integrated with their day-to-day lives. As a result, additional features and services have not kept pace with user expectations.

System and method for communicating alerts through a set-top box


A novel automobile charger which comprise a battery, wherein a positive pole of the battery is connected with a first end of a DC to DC module, a first end of a battery voltage detection module and a first end of a load module simultaneously, while a negative pole of the battery is connected with a second end of the DC to DC module, a first end of a microcontroller, a first end of an automobile start control module and a second end of the battery voltage detection module simultaneously. A third end of the DC to DC module is connected with a second end of the microcontroller, the three second ends of which are connected with a third end of the battery voltage detection module, a second end of the automobile start control module and a first end of the load detection module respectively. A second end of the load detection module is connected with a third end of the automobile start control module and a second end of the load module simultaneously.

The present disclosure relates to an automobile charging device, in particular relates to a novel automobile charger with a safe power supply charging quickly.
Automobile charging is a big issue of traveling by automobile for those automobile fans and businessmen, the maturity of the technology thereof is one of the critical factors restricting the application of the automobile charger. However, current automobile chargers have common problems of not able to automatically detect whether a load is connected, whether an electrode is connected with an automobile storage battery reversely, whether an automobile engine or the storage battery has a reverse current, whether the battery state is suitable for heavy current power generation and so on. Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a novel automobile charger with the safe power supply charging quickly to solve the problems mentioned above, thus making the automobile charging safe, quick, mature and propagable.


A rotationally compliant bearing roller assembly having a roller, at least one bearing member operably coupled to a base configured to support rotational movement about a rotational axis; and a rotary compliant joint interconnecting the at least one bearing member to the roller. The rotary compliant joint having a first compliance in a rotational direction about the rotational axis to permit movement of the roller in the rotational direction relative to the at least one bearing member, such that the first compliance being greater than a friction induced compliance of the at least one bearing member in the rotational direction. The compliant joint having a second compliance in a direction orthogonal to the rotational direction, such that the second compliance being less than the first compliance.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art. This section provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features.
Precision motion stages are designed for precise positioning in various manufacturing processes. Among the bearing options for precision stages, rolling bearings are the most cost effective, especially for applications requiring large motion range and vacuum compatibility. However, the presence of nonlinear friction adversely affects the precision and speed of rolling bearing guided stages. The state of art in addressing this problem is to perform model-based friction compensation, which suffer from robustness problems, thus limiting their usefulness in practice. This invention addresses the problem of nonlinear effect of friction in rolling bearing guided stages by using compliant joint(s) to provide a simple, model-free and potentially low-cost approach.
In some embodiments according to the principles of the present teachings, a precision motion stage equipped with an axially compliant roller bearing is provided having a stage, at least one bearing slidably disposed along a rail, and a compliant joint interconnecting the at least one bearing to the stage. The compliant joint is sufficiently compliant to permit movement of the stage in the desired motion direction (i.e., axial direction) while remaining stiff in other orthogonal directions to maintain the high rigidity of the bearings.
Similarly, high precision roll-to-roll processes are one of the most promising technologies for manufacturing flexible and large-area thin film electronics. However, broadband frictional disturbances caused by the guiding ball bearings affect the precision of the processing roller 116 in the roll-to-roll system, severely hampering the quality of the manufactured products. Conventional feedback control techniques encounter difficulties in mitigating the broadband frictional disturbances.
In some embodiments according to the principles of the present teachings, a rotary system for high-precision roll-to-roll manufacturing process is provided. A rotary compliant joint, being a robust and cost-effective mechatronics system, is implemented in the roll-to-roll manufacturing system to mitigate the undesirable effects of friction during continuous printing processes. Frequency domain analysis shows that the rotary system with one or more rotary compliant joints achieves significantly improved attenuation of frictional disturbance, compared to the case without it. In some embodiments, a rotary compliant joint is designed and optimized to minimize the adverse effects of bearing friction without overly sacrificing the high rigidity of the machine. It has been demonstrated that the present teachings provide up to 61% reduction in root mean square (RMS) tracking error during constant velocity motion, compared to a conventional roll-to-roll system without one or more rotary compliant joints.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. The description and specific examples in this summary are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

Axially compliant bearing for precision positioning

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials


A system and method for selectively granting access to GSM wireless service based upon signal strength is provided. A base station may measure uplink signal strengths of bursts transmitted by a mobile station on a RACH, a SDCCH, or a TCH, and determine downlink signal strengths as conveyed by the mobile station on a SACCH allocated with the SDCCH or TCH. The base station is configured to compare the uplink signal strengths of the RACH, SDCCH, or TCH bursts with uplink signal thresholds to determine service access. In addition, the base station is further configured to compare the downlink signal strength of a BCCH, as reported by the mobile station on the SACCH, with downlink signal thresholds associated with the service request types conveyed by the SDCCH/TCH bursts. The base station then determines service access for a service request type based upon those comparisons.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wireless networks and more particularly to a system and method for granting service on GSM wireless networks.
2. Description of the Background Art
Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) networks have become widely used in commercial wireless telecommunications systems, such as cellular and Personal Communications System (PCS) systems. FIG. 1 is a prior art block diagram of an exemplary GSM network 100. The GSM network 100 includes a gateway mobile switching center (GMSC) 110, a database 120, and one or more mobile switching centers (MSCs) 130. MSCs 130 have access to visitor's locator registers (VLRs) 140 and control base station systems (BSSs) 150. For example, a MSC 130a has access to a VLR 140a, and the MSC 130a controls BSSs 150a1 and 150a2. In operation, for example, the GSM network 100 may retrieve and update information stored in the database 120 and the VLR 140a to enable a mobile station 160 to communicate with a user of an external network (not shown) via the BSS 150a1, the MSC 130a, and the GMSC 110. The external network may comprise a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), or other external voice and data networks, for example. Alternatively, the GSM network 100 may retrieve and update information stored in the database 120, the VLR 140a, and a VLR 140c to enable the mobile station (MS) 160 to communicate with an MS 170 via the BSS 150a1, the MSC 130a, a MSC 130c, and a BSS 150c1.
BSS 150a1 includes a base station controller (BSC) 180 and one or more base transceiver stations (BTSs) 190, also referred to as base stations (BSs). The BSs 190 are equipped with transceivers, signal processing hardware and software, and antennae 195 for communicating with mobile stations (such as MS 160). A BTS 190a, for example, communicates with the mobile stations located within a cell (or sector or other portion thereof) defined by the effective range of the BTS 190a. BSC 180 controls and manages operation of the BTSs 190 via control signals. In addition, BSC 180 routes and/or processes voice and data signals received from the MSC 130a to a BTS 190c that services coverage area in which the MS 160 is located. Similarly, BSC 180 routes voice and data signals received from a BTS 190b, for example, to the MSC 130a for further processing and transmission.
GSM systems use predefined signal level thresholds (camping parameters) to determine whether a mobile station (such as mobile station 160) is allowed to camp on a broadcast control channel associated with a BTS. Setting these thresholds involves consideration of competing factors. Setting the thresholds at relatively high values ensures that all of the MSs allowed to camp on the broadcast control channel will experience good voice call quality. However, doing so will exclude a greater number of MSs from access to the BTS, causing them to roam on competitors' or other non-preferred networks, or to receive a "No Service" notification. If the broadcast control channel signal thresholds are set at lower values, then a larger number of mobile stations may be able to camp on the broadcast control channel, but certain of the mobile stations may experience poor call quality for GSM services requiring relatively high signal strengths, such as voice calls. Typically, commercial GSM systems set the thresholds at appropriate levels to assure good voice call quality, causing the aforementioned problem of excluding access. It is noted that certain GSM services, such as Short Messaging Service (SMS), require significantly lower signal strengths than do voice calls. It would thus be desirable to provide a method and system that allows the GSM system operator to set camping parameters at values that are small enough to allow MSs that only require access to low-signal requirement GSM services to camp on a broadcast control channel, while guarding against poor voice call quality.

Service grant for GSM wireless networks based on signal strength


An apparatus capable of improving the estimation accuracy of information on a subject including a distance up to the subject is provided. According to an environment recognition apparatus 1 of the present invention, a first cost function is defined as a decreasing function of an object point distance Z. Thus, the longer the object point distance Z is, the lower the first cost of a pixel concerned is evaluated. This reduces the contribution of the first cost of a pixel highly probable to have a large measurement or estimation error of the object point distance Z to the total cost C. Thereby, the estimation accuracy of a plane parameter ^q representing the surface position and posture of the subject is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus which estimates a distance or the like up to a subject by using a range image sensor and two image sensors.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is suggested a method of estimating a plane parameter and a distance according to a gradient method on the basis of luminance information which is acquired from a stereo camera (Refer to Non-patent Document 1: "Lukas-Kanade 20 Years On: A Unifying Framework Part 1: The Quantity Approximated, the Warp Update Rule, and the Gradient Descent Approximation," S. Baker and I Matthews, International Journal of Computer Vision [2004] Volume: 56, Issue: 3, Pages: 221-255).
There is also suggested a method of estimating a range image by merging a range image acquired by a range image sensor and images acquired by individual stereo cameras (Refer to Non-patent Document 2: "Fusion of Time-of-Flight Depth and Stereo for High Accuracy Depth Maps," JieJie Zhu, et al. IEEE [2008]).
Specifically, the total likelihood is computed on the basis of the distance likelihood and the luminance likelihood and the distance candidate value having the highest total likelihood among a plurality of distance candidate values is estimated as a distance true value at each pixel of the range image.
The weights of the distance likelihood and the luminance likelihood are determined according to an empirical rule, independently of whether the distance up to a subject is long or short. Accordingly, an influence of the information on a long distance which causes a large measurement error is reflected on the total likelihood to an unignorable degree, by which distance estimation accuracy is likely to decrease.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus capable of improving the estimation accuracy of the subject information including a distance up to a subject.


TASK: to provide an internal voltage trimming circuit having a simple configuration and operated by a consumption current smaller than that using a comparator. MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEM: An internal voltage trimming circuit comprises a trimming controller using a change in a counting value of a clock according to a current flowing through a transistor of a power supply current source for a clock generator to trim an internal voltage generated by an internal voltage generator. The trimming controller counts a first counting value of the clock when a predetermined reference voltage is applied to a control terminal of the transistor and a second counting value of the clock when the internal voltage is applied to the control terminal of the transistor and controls the internal voltage generated by the internal voltage generator to substantially coincide the second counting value with the first counting value.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a trimming circuit and a method for internal voltage of a semiconductor memory device, such as a NAND-type flash memory, etc, and a semiconductor device comprising the trimming circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A flash memory includes an internal circuit that generates read-out voltages, write-in voltages and erases voltages. In the conventional method, for obtaining precise voltages, a voltage trimming circuit using a resistor ladder circuit and a comparator are generally used to control and adjust those internal voltages. However, when the voltage trimming circuit is used, in the strict sense, the internal voltages are lower or higher than target values because of the process variations of the comparator and resistors of the voltage trimming circuit. In this case, adjusting the trimming code to obtain precise voltages is needed.
As disclosed in Patent Document 1, FIG. 9 is a circuit diagram showing the configuration of a charge pump circuit 100 used in a flash memory according to the first prior art. The internal configuration and operation of the flash memory having the charge pump circuit 100 will be described later.
The flash memory shown in FIG. 9 comprises the charge pump circuit 100 for generating a boost voltage VP by boosting an external supply voltage VPP and a memory unit 101 driven by the boost voltage VP output from the charge pump circuit 100. Here, the charge pump circuit 100 comprises a pump circuit 110, a potential detecting circuit 111 and an oscillator circuit 112. The potential detecting circuit 111 detects whether the potential of the boost voltage VP reaches a predetermined potential so as to control the boosting operation of the pump circuit 110 to generate the predetermined boost voltage VP.
The pump circuit 110, a so-called Dickson charge pump, comprises a charge transferring means constituted by an NMOS transistor 142 having a drain where the external supply voltage VPP is applied, an NMOS transistor 143 having a drain connected to the source of the NMOS transistor 142, and an NMOS transistor 144 having a drain connected to the source of the NMOS transistor 143. In addition, the source of the NMOS transistor 144 is an output node of the pump circuit 110. Drains of the NMOS transistors 142˜144 are connected to their respective gates. A connecting node P1 connected between the NMOS transistor 142 and the NMOS transistor 143 is connected to one electrode of a capacitor C101. A connecting node P2 connected between the NMOS transistor 143 and the NMOS transistor 144 is connected to one electrode of a capacitor C102.
A clock signal CLK output from the oscillator circuit 112 and a detecting signal DET1 output from the potential detecting circuit 111 are input into the pump circuit 110. AND circuits 140 and 141 are controlled by the clock signal CLK and the detecting signal DET1. Furthermore, the clock signal CLK is input into the AND circuit 140 through an inverter G21 and is input into the AND circuit 141. Then, an output node N1 of the AND circuit 140 is connected to the other electrode of the capacitor C101, and an output node N2 of the AND circuit 141 is connected to the other electrode of the capacitor C102.
The potential detecting circuit 111 comprises resistors R1 and R0 connected in serial between the output node O1 of the pump circuit 110 and a common potential (such as ground potential) and a comparator CP1 having an inverse input terminal connected to a connecting node between resistors R1 and R0 and a non-inverse input terminal where a reference voltage VREF1 is input. The output of the comparator CP1 is taken as the detecting signal DET1 and is connected to the oscillator circuit 112 and the pump circuit 110.
The oscillator circuit 112 comprises an inverter G10 where the detecting signal DET1 is input, a clocked inverter G11 where the detecting signal DET1 is clock-input and the output of the inverter G10 is inversely clock-input, an inverter G12 where the output of the inverter G11 is input, and an inverter G13 where the output of the inverter G12 is input. The output of the inverter G13 is taken as the clock signal CLK and is connected to the pump circuit 110. In addition, the clock signal CLK is connected to the input of the inverter G11. Moreover, an NMOS transistor T1 is connected between a connecting node between the inverter G11 and the inverter G12 and the common potential. A gate of the NMOS transistor T1 is connected to the output of the inverter G10.
The charge pump circuit 110 used in the flash memory according to the first prior art as described above comprises a potential detecting circuit 111, including a resistor divider circuit DV1 constituted by the resistors R1 and R0 connected in serial, and a comparator CP1.
As disclosed in Patent Document 2, FIG. 10 is a circuit diagram showing the configuration of an internal voltage supplying circuit 200 according to the second prior art. As shown in FIG. 10, an external supply potential VCE is taken as an internal supply potential VCI through a PMOS transistor Q201 and is connected to a load 211. An inverse input terminal of a comparator 201 receives a reference potential Vref, and a non-inverse input terminal of the comparator 201 receives a divided internal supply potential DVCI which is taken as a feedback signal. A drain of the PMOS transistor Q201 is grounded through a resistor R211 and a resistor R212. Then, a voltage divided from the internal supply potential DVCI through the resistor R211 and the resistor R212 is taken as the divided internal supply potential DVCI and input into the non-inverse terminal of the comparator 201.
In the internal supply potential supplying circuit 200, according to the second prior art described above, an operating point of the comparator 201 may be freely selected regardless of set conditions of the internal supply potential VCI and the external supply potential VCE, and thus characteristics of the comparator 201 may be well maintained. Accordingly, the configuration may result in a special effect that the internal supply potential VCI is provided stably with a specific reference potential Vref.
As disclosed in Patent Document 3, FIG. 11 is circuit diagram showing the configuration of an internal voltage generating circuit 300 according to the third prior art. An example where the internal voltage generating circuit 300 comprises a DC-DC converter 313 is shown.
In FIG. 11, an internal supply voltage V0 from the DC-DC converter 313 is output to a logic circuit 306 and a voltage controlled oscillating unit 302 as well. The voltage controlled oscillating unit 302 outputs an oscillating signal having a frequency fv that corresponds to the input internal supply voltage V0 to a frequency comparing unit 311. For example, the frequency comparing unit 311 consists of a counter for counting the frequency of the output signal fv of the oscillating unit 302, a counter for counting a frequency of a reference clock fref, and a comparator for comparing the values of the two counters. The frequency comparing unit 311 may consist of a frequency/phase comparator for comparing frequencies and phases. Moreover, the frequency comparing unit 311 may also consist of a phase comparator. A controlling clock generating unit 312 controls the duty ratios of two clocks G1 and G2 according to the results of frequency comparison.
The internal voltage generating circuit 300 described above controls the internal supply voltage V0 according to the frequency fref of the reference clock.
FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a NAND-type flash memory 2E according to the fourth prior art.
In FIG. 12, the NAND-type flash memory 2E according to the fourth prior art comprises: a NAND-type flash memory block 10 including a data register 10R; a controller 20 controlling the operations of the whole NAND-type flash memory 2E; a reference voltage generator 30 that generates a predetermined reference voltage Vref; pump circuits 31-1˜31-N that boost the supply voltage to a predetermined voltage, which is a predetermined multiple of the reference voltage Vref; internal voltage generators 32-1˜32-N that generate predetermined internal voltages V1˜VN based on the reference voltage Vref and voltages from the pump circuits 31-1˜31-N; and a BIST (Built-in Self Test) circuit 3E connected to a test device 1 through a multi-purpose probing pad MP, wherein the test device 1 is an external device performing the testing of the memory chip. Here, the BIST circuit 3E comprises: a switch circuit 33 for outputting a selected one of the reference voltage Vref and the internal voltages V1˜VN as an internal voltage Vin according to a control signal from a trimming controller 35A; a resistor dividing circuit 36 for outputting a resistor-divided voltage divided from the internal voltage Vin by resistors; a comparator 37 for comparing the voltage from the resistor dividing circuit 36 and an external reference voltage EVref from a test device 1 and outputting a signal of the comparison results; and the trimming controller 35A for being operated based on the control signal from the controller 20, including a determining circuit for determining a signal from the comparator 37 so as to generate a control signal to the switch circuit 33, and performing voltage control on a reference voltage generator 30 and the internal voltage generators 32-1˜32-N.
FIG. 13 is a flow chart of an internal voltage trimming process performed by the trimming controller 35A shown in FIG. 12.
In FIG. 13, in step S1, the internal voltage Vin is set to a voltage that corresponds to the first trimming code (initial value). That is, the trimming code TC is set to be 1. Here, as the trimming code TC is changed, the voltage may change within a range of 6.0 V to 7.5 V by, for example, 0.5 V or 0.1 V at a time. Next, in step S2, switching to a programming mode of the memory is performed. In step S3, a waiting for the sake of circuit programming stability, such as a waiting with 20 μs, is performed. Then, in step S4, the internal voltage Vin is applied to the resistor dividing circuit 36. In step S5, a waiting with 10 ms considering a circuit time constant is performed. Moreover, in step S6, the comparator 37 and the trimming controller 35A are used to calculate an average value of ten internal voltages Vin which are measured at ten times. Then, in step S7, it is determined whether the average value of the internal voltage Vin is larger than a target value. If the result of step S7 is NO, the process proceeds to step S8. In step S8, by incrementing the trimming code TC by 1, the internal voltage Vin is incremented by a predetermined increment, and then the process proceeds to step S2 to repeat steps described above. If the average of the internal voltage Vin is larger than the target value in step S7, it is determined that the internal voltage Vin is close to and slightly exceeds the predetermined target value, and then the process ends.
Patent Documents
[Patent Document 1] JP 2009-232486
[Patent Document 2] JP H10-027026
[Patent Document 3] JP H09-285109
[Patent Document 4] JP 2001-229697

Internal voltage trimming circuit, method thereof and semiconductor circuit device comprising the same


A method for node communication for use in a rack system is provided. The method includes providing a detecting unit for connecting to the nodes via a circuit switching device; predefining a linked list in which a limit of times for the detecting unit to communicate with each of the nodes is set; sequentially selecting one node of the nodes so that the detecting unit is connected to the one node via the circuit switching device; adding an assigned communication parameter between the detecting unit and the one node selected to the linked list, wherein a number of times of communication corresponding to the assigned communication parameter is not greater than the limit of times; and performing communication between the detecting unit and the one node selected in accordance with the assigned communication parameter in the linked list.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method for node communication. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for node communication suitable for use in a detecting unit.
2. Description of Related Art
Cloud computing is an operating manner based on Internet for sharing software and hardware resources and information, wherein a computing end will fulfill a request whenever a user issue an instruction via Internet. Since the computing end includes several central processing units (CPUs) used for computing and sharing hardware resources, the cloud computing has the advantages of fast computation and cost saving. Currently, the cloud computing has been widely applied on web search engines, e-mail servers, etc.
In the cloud computing, a rack system, a plurality of nodes and a detecting unit are adopted, wherein the detecting unit is used for implementing communication with the nodes. A rack management controller (RMC) is further disposed in the rack system, and is linked to the detecting unit of the rack system for administrating and controlling the entire rack system. The number of times of communication is different for the detecting unit to perform communication with one node each time. The detecting unit sometimes needs to obtain many messages regarding one node, such as a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) message, a CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device) message, a BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) message, etc.
The method adopted by a conventional skill is to first obtain all messages of a node when performing communication with the node, and then perform communication with the next node. It is not sure how long the maximum communication time with each nod will last, thus resulting in a real-time problem. Hence, there is a need to develop a scheme for overcoming the aforementioned difficulty.


An apparatus for controlling the injection pressure of an aqueous polymeric solution in an oil well is formed by: at least one pressure modulation valve, allowing, per valve, a maximum pressure loss of 5 bars practically without any mechanical deterioration, the one or more valves being connected in line with; a tube containing vortex modules, each creating a maximum pressure loss of 5 bars, practically without any mechanical deterioration, a vortex module being a section of tube, which is closed at one of its ends by a cap perforated with a hole, and which can be inserted into the detachable tube. The purpose of the apparatus is the ability to reduce the pressure to 100 bars with total mechanical deterioration of less than 10%. A method for using the apparatus is also contemplated.

During the establishment of an oilfield operation, several phases of production can be distinguished:                First, the production of oil due to the internal pressure of the field, which is usually quickly reduced;        Then, pressure is maintained by injecting water (water flooding) until the producing wells reach an oil/water concentration of 2 to 5%. At that time, the cost of water injection makes the cost of the oil noncompetitive;        Next, enhanced oil recovery by various methods.
One of the methods consists in injecting a viscous solution of polymers, particularly polyacrylamide, in order to mobilize a larger volume of the field.
This method was industrialized during the first oil crisis in 1973.
However, the injected polyacrylamides are sensitive to the mechanical and chemical deterioration of the molecular weights, which requires precise handling in order to maintain their effectiveness.
In general, polymers are in the form of powder that is dissolved in water at a rather high concentration, in order to reduce the size of the maturation vessels, i.e. dissolution vessels. Indeed, the dissolution time of these powders is on the order of one hour. The concentration of these solutions is from 10 to 20 grams/liter with high viscosities (1000 to 10,000 cps).
To be used, this stock solution must be diluted to 1 to 3 grams/liter in order to be injected. Various methods are used to prevent mechanical deterioration by a sharp pressure drop, in order to adapt the injection pressure to the pressure of the specific well.
The first consists in installing one metering pump per well, and sending the stock solution to the head of each well in order to dilute it with the injection water.
The second method consists in diluting the stock solution on the dissolution platform, and of sending this diluted solution into each well by separate pipelines.
The third method consists in totally diluting the stock solution with all the injection water, and of using water injection lines. This method requires the lowest investments.
In this case, the water pump will be set higher than the pressure of the well that has the highest pressure, and the pressure on the other wells will have to be reduced; this normally results in a deterioration that increases as the pressure differential increases.
To prevent this deterioration, specific pressure reducers are used that should not deteriorate the polymer.
Several methods are possible:                Pressure reduction by a long, calibrated tube that allows pressure reductions of up to 60 to 100 bars, with less than 5 or 10% deterioration depending on speed and the length of the tube (document US 2012/0292029).
The optimal speed is on the order of 10 meters/second. Normally, a pressure drop of 1 bar per 10 meters of tube can be created, or 500 meters for 50 bars. According to this patent, the pressure drop can be modulated by cutting the tube into various lengths that can be fed or bypassed.                Pressure reduction by vortex effect with a tube equipped with caps creating a vortex effect.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,847 utilizes fixed caps producing a pressure loss without deterioration up to pressure differences of 5 bars, and a modulation needle valve that also works by vortex effect and which allows a variation from 0 to 5 bars depending on the opening, with a minimum of deterioration.                Pressure reduction by vortex effect with a plurality of needle (or other) valves that can each create a pressure drop of about 5 bars with minor deterioration (document US 2016/0168954).
With about 10 valves, a pressure drop of 50 bars can be created. The valve heads can be equipped with hydraulic motors in series, enabling the same opening on all valves with a single adjustment.
These systems are cumbersome for the first one, not very scalable for the second one, and rather expensive for the third one.
The demand of oil companies is for maximum pressure drops of about 50 bars, with little deterioration, with a modulation per well of about 10 bars, and a possibility of feeding wells whose pressure varies over time, with a simple, inexpensive apparatus.
The equipment must therefore be very flexible and easy to handle.

Apparatus for controlling injection pressure for the assisted recovery of oil using polymer


An apparatus is disclosed for storing and dispensing pen needles for an injection device, including a case having dispensing and storage ends for dispensing and storing a plurality of pen needles and a plurality of needle cover units, each pen needle having a patient end and a hub for connection to the injection device, and each needle cover unit having a needle-covering portion for covering a patient end and a hub-covering portion for covering a hub. A needle-covering portion covering the needle of one pen needle is coupled with a hub-covering portion covering a hub of another pen needle. Prior to use, a hub-covering portion covering the hub of a pen needle is exposed to an outside at the dispensing end of the case, and subsequent to use, the pen needle is stored in the storage end of the case.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to needles for a pen injection device, and more particularly, to an apparatus for dispensing and storing needles for a pen injection device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medication delivery pens are used for self-injection of precisely measured doses of medication. Pens are widely used, for example, by diabetics to self-inject insulin. A typical medication delivery pen includes a cartridge that contains a volume of liquid medication sufficient for several doses. Using a pen needle attached to the pen device, the dose is injected into a tissue area, such as the intramuscular tissue layer, the subcutaneous tissue layer, or the intradermal tissue layer.
The assembly and operation of a typical pen injection device is described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,645,264, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Pen injection devices, such as an exemplary pen injector 50, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, typically comprise a dose knob/button 24, an outer sleeve 13, and a cap 21. The dose knob/button 24 allows a user to set the dosage of medication to be injected. The outer sleeve 13 is gripped by the user when injecting medication. The cap 21 is employed by the user to securely hold the pen injector 50 in a shirt pocket, purse, or other suitable location.
FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the exemplary drug delivery pen 50 shown in FIG. 1. The dose knob/button 24 has a dual purpose and is used to both set the dosage of the medication to be injected and to inject the dosed medicament via a lead screw 7 and stopper 15 from a medicament cartridge 12, which is attached to the drug delivery pen through a lower housing 17. The medicament cartridge 12 is typically a glass tube sealed at one end with a septum 16 and at the other end with the stopper 15. In standard drug delivery pens, the dosing and delivery mechanisms are all found within the outer sleeve 13. Those mechanisms are not described in greater detail herein as they are understood by those knowledgeable of the art.
A pen needle 10 includes a hub 20, a patient needle 11 extending from a patient end of the pen needle, and a septum-penetrating needle cannula 18 disposed within the hub 20 on a non-patient side thereof. The septum-penetrating needle cannula 18 is in fluid communication with the patient needle 11. The hub 20 is preferably screwed onto the lower housing 17, although other attachment means can be used such as attaching directly to the medicament cartridge 12. In attaching the hub 20 to the lower housing 17 or medicament cartridge 12, the septum-penetrating cannula 18 pierces the septum 16, but the septum 16 does not move relative to the medicament cartridge 12. The stopper 15, however, is axially displaceable within the medicament cartridge 12 while maintaining a fluid-tight seal. The distal movement of the plunger or stopper 15 within the medicament cartridge 12 (due to advancement of the lead screw 7) causes medication to be forced into the patient needle 11 of the hub 20. The illustrated pen needle 10 is one example of a pen needle.
To protect a user, or anyone who handles the pen injector 50, an outer shield 29, which attaches to the hub 20, covers the hub 20. The outer shield 29 can also be used as a handle or grip to screw hub 20 onto or off of pen injector 50. An inner shield 28 covers the patient needle 11 within the outer shield 29. The inner shield 28 can be secured to the hub 20 to cover the patient needle 11 by any suitable means, such as an interference fit or a snap fit. The outer shield 29 and inner shield 28 are removed prior to use. The cap 21 fits snugly against outer sleeve 13 to allow a user to securely carry the pen injection device 50.
Pen needles are usually sold individually packaged inside a plastic cover (such as outer shield 29) with a label covering the opening in the cover to provide a sterility barrier. Recent market research indicates that consumers would prefer a multiple-needle package configuration that includes some provision for containing used pen needles after use. Accordingly, a need exists for a needle dispensing and storing apparatus that stores a plurality of pen needles before and after their use.

Pen injection device needle dispensing and storing apparatus


An object of the invention is to provide a defect inspection method which can prevent the failure in detecting a defect, caused by saturation of a pattern signal obtained by inspecting an inspected object, so that the investigation of the cause for defect occurrence can be done earlier. To achieve this object, according to an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a defect inspection that irradiates laser light on an inspected object having a pattern formed thereon, detects a signal from the inspected object and thereby detects a defect, the inspection including: inputting pattern information contained in layout data on the inspected object; determining based on the inputted pattern information, at least one of arrangement, repetitiveness and density for each of a plurality of inspected areas of the inspected object; estimating a saturation level of the detected signal based on the determination result; and determining a transmittance condition so that the signal does not saturate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a defect inspection method and defect inspection system for detecting a foreign matter or pattern defect in a semiconductor wafer, a photomask, a magnetic disk, a liquid crystal substrate or the like.
2. Background Art
In the process of fabricating semiconductor devices, a foreign matter or occurrence of a defect or the like in a circuit pattern results in a defective product. This is also the case with a magnetic disk and a liquid crystal substrate. Further, in the case of a photomask used to form patterns in a semiconductor wafer or a liquid crystal substrate, also, the presence of a defect causes wrong patterns to be formed in the semiconductor wafer or liquid crystal substrate, thus resulting in a defective product.
Descriptions will be given below by taking semiconductor wafer as an example. In inspecting a semiconductor wafer for defective appearance caused by a foreign matter or defective circuit pattern, the defective appearance must be quantified to check at all times the occurrence of a problem in the fabricating equipment or fabricating environment. Further, the shape of defective appearance is observed to check whether the defective appearance exerts critical effects in the product, whereby the degree of effect by the defective appearance can be determined. Instead of determining from the image of defective appearance by visual inspection whether or not the defective appearance is critical, there has recently been introduced a technique of ADC (Automatic Defect Classification) that automatically classifies the defective appearance (for example, refer to JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2006-269489A).
As the defective appearance inspection apparatus, there is known an optical pattern inspection apparatus using a dark-field optical microscope (for example, refer to JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 05-45862A). The defect inspection mechanism which inspects a semiconductor wafer will be briefly described below. Chips constituting multiple semiconductor devices are formed on a single semiconductor wafer. These inspected chips are each typically constituted of a group of multiple patterns based on the functions of the memory area, peripheral circuit area, logic area and the like. When laser light is irradiated on the inspected object, the incident light is diffracted by the patterns, but the incident light irradiated on a defect is scattered by the defect. The diffracted light and scattered light pass through a field lens of the inspection apparatus and are adjusted to an appropriate light intensity by a variable-transmittance filter. Thereafter, the diffracted light from a pattern having a high repetitiveness such as a memory area pattern is eliminated by a spatial filter. However, the diffracted light from a pattern having a low repetitiveness such as a peripheral circuit area pattern or logic circuit area pattern, and the scattered light from a defect, which are not eliminated by the spatial filter, enters a signal detector and the signals are stored in the memory of the inspection apparatus. Then, a difference between the diffracted light signal and scattered light signal and a reference chip signal preinstalled in the memory is calculated by a difference circuit, and the difference signal is compared with a predetermined threshold level by a comparator, so that the signal greater than the threshold level is detected as a defect signal.

Defect inspection method and defect inspection system


An Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for detecting and communicating safety-related events to a safety server is provided. A network status of a communication network over which devices associated with the vehicle are communicating with the safety server is identified. The UAV receives metadata including at least location data from the devices when the network status of the communication network indicates low or unavailable connectivity that is hindering communication of the metadata to the safety server by the devices. The UAV processes the metadata and detects safety events associated with the vehicle. The UAV communicates the safety events to the safety server based on at least a safety criterion including detachment of the UAV from the vehicle when the UAV is unable to communicate with the safety server in its attached configuration with the vehicle due to network issues.

With the improvement in lifestyles of individuals and limited alternatives of public and private transportation, popularity of on-demand cab services is continuously increasing for travel between source and destination locations. The individuals avail the cab services for commuting to and from their work places, or when the individuals are engaged in personal activities, such as outstation travel. In modern cities, vehicle transit systems play an important role by providing the on-demand cab services to the individuals to travel to their desired destinations. Generally, a vehicle or cab service provider (such as OLA) is engaged in offering the on-demand cab services to passengers. The cab service provider deploys a set of cabs (e.g., cars) in a geographical region to transport the passengers to their desired destinations. Thus, the cab service provider offers a convenient way to the passengers to travel around in the geographical region. However, such cab services have also posed some serious safety concerns on to the passengers as well as drivers.
Generally, as per allocation of vehicles to the passengers by the cab service provider, the drivers of the vehicles transport the passengers from their pick-up locations to respective drop-off locations. However, during such allocation of the vehicles, the passengers and the drivers are oblivious to criminal records of each other. As a result, a growing number of mishaps have been observed during such rides, which are caused by some of the drivers or passengers. Furthermore, during such rides, the passengers and the drivers may encounter accidents, fires, protests, robberies, or the like, which may go unnoticed for a longer time duration or may have delayed response time, and hence result in loss of lives and properties. In recent times, such incidences have grown proportionally that have left some passengers and drivers wondering if they are safe when they are using the cab services. Such safety incidences hamper customers' and drivers' experiences during the rides and damage company's brand image.
In light of the foregoing, there exists a need for a technical and more reliable solution that overcomes the above-mentioned problems and manages detection and communication of safety incidents to a safety center quickly, thereby ensuring quick response time to each real-time safety incident.

Detection and communication of safety events