Jointed fitting for a swing door, window or the like, designed in metal or plastic material and the movable frame whereof is partially overlapping the fixed frame, consisting of an angular support and of a compass bearing. The latter are embodied in a symmetric manner in relation to a median horizontal plane, allowing for their reversibility in view of being used either right or left of the movable frame, with this angular support and this compass bearing comprising, furthermore, means designed for fillister and applied fastening to the fixed frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a jointed fitting for a swing door, window or the like, designed in metal or in plastic material profile and the movable frame whereof partially overlaps the fixed frame.
This invention will be useful, more particularly, in the field of hardware for the building industry.
2. The Prior Art
We already know of swings door or window joints that consist normally of two separate elements, one of which, referred to as a compass bearing, constitutes the upper link of the movable frame with the fixed frame, and the other element of which, referred to as an angular support, provides the lower link of this movable frame with the fixed frame.
Apart from the position occupied in relation to the door or the window, the functions assigned to this angular support and to the compass bearing will differ. Thus, the angular support allows, at the same time, allows the movable frame to rotate around a vertical axis passing through its rear narrow side, and a rotation around a horizontal axis that may be materialized roughly by the bottom crossbar of the fixed frame. In comparison, the compass bearing provides for the rotation of the compass around a vertical axis, which compass, because of its linkage to the movable frame, passes this rotation on to the latter. This compass also provides for a limited tilt of the movable frame when the latter revolves around the horizontal axis.
However, the angular support and the compass bearing have a common function that supports the weight of the movable frame and provides, for the perfect positioning of the latter in relation to the fixed frame of the door or window.
Thus, the angular support and the compass bearing consist, generally, of a fixed element fitted solidly to the fixed frame and of a jointed part attached directly or via the arm of the compass to the movable frame. To enable these joints to function as a support for the movable frame, it is absolutely necessary that both the fixed element and the jointed part of the aforesaid fittings be attached solidly, respectively to the fixed frame and to the movable frame. Furthermore, the linkage between the fixed element and the jointed part of the angular support and of the compass bearing has to be determined according to the stress that will be applied on them.
The major problem regarding these joints for a swing door or window arises from the difficulties encountered in fitting them to the uprights of the fixed frame or of the movable frame. These difficulties are increased when the door, window or the like is designed from tubular profiles made of a light material such as aluminum or plastic material.
As a matter of fact, the fitting of the angular support and of the compass bearing to an upright of the fixed frame requires, generally, machining that tends to locally weaken the latter. This machining is separate for one and for the other joint and it causes a considerable loss of time, either in making the door, window or the like, or at the time when the latter is being assembled.
Obviously, where a movable frame partially overlapping the fixed frame is concerned, the methods used for fitting these joints become more sophisticated, considering that a simple application to the inner face area of the door or window is not desirable, in particular as regards the attractiveness of the entire unit.
Thus, in this case, two solutions are normally chosen. The first solution consists in fitting the angular support and the compass bearing in the fillister of the movable frame and of the fixed frame, with all the machining and tightness drawbacks involved. This solution is applicable only for movable frames of low weight because of the poor mechanical resistance of these joints so as to decrease their size to a minimum.
The second solution in providing the linkage of these joints in the fillister of the movable frame and of the fixed frame while preserving their applied position. This solution is usually referred to by the users by adding the words "for clamping" to the name of the fitting concerned.
More specifically, such a method consists of connecting to the fixed element and to the movable part of the joint a wing bent in the form of a square that fits between the border of the movable frame that forms the overlapping of the fixed frame, and the inner face of the latter. This wing cooperates, furthermore, with the narrow side of the fixed frame via appropriate fastening means.
As a rule, the profiles used for designing a door or window confer on the movable frame and on the fixed frame a T-shaped groove located on their horizontal and vertical narrow sides. Thus, the aforesaid fastening means normally consist of elements liable to co-operate with this groove for providing the linkage of the joint without requiring any machining. More accurately, they consist of wedges fitted into the groove so that they can not become released and in which openings are made that are able to accept fastening elements such as bolts or rivets.
Just as above, the joints provided with this type of linkage display an inadequate mechanical resistance for supporting the heavier weight of a movable frame and, for this reason, they are limited to a restricted range of products. Furthermore, because of their complicated nature, these joints are currently designed for being used either on the left or on the right. Thus, it is necessary to dinstiguish the angular supports and the compass bearings that can be fitted on the left side of a door, window or the like from those designed for being used on the right side. This drawback makes it necessary to handle four different productions in parallel. Furthermore, stock management becomes more difficult.
In addition, when a swing-type door, window or the like is to be restored, the original fittings can be replaced, generally, by strictly identical fittings only. As a matter of fact, the holes machined previously in the fixed frame will fit in most of the cases, fitting designs supplied by one specific manufacturer only. This can cause numerous difficulties for users who try to obtain these fittings when the manufacturer has ceased to make them. Also, professionals specialized in installing and restoring doors, windows and the like will have to keep an inventory of a large number of different fittings supplied by several manufacturers.

Jointed fitting for a swing frame of a door, window or the like

Ferco International Usine de Ferrures de Batiment


A magnetic resonance imaging system (A) generates an image (16) of a slice or other region of an examined subject. A smoothing filter (B) smooths the generated image to create a smoothed or filtered image representation (30). The filtering of the image, unfortunately, tends to smooth or blur the edges. An edge detecting means (C.sub.1) views the region around each sampled pixel of the filtered image to determine an amount of deviation in the pixel values. A large deviation indicates an edge; whereas, substantial homogeneity indicates the lack of an edge. Analogously, the direction of the maximum deviation is orthogonal to the direction of the edge. A plurality of soft edge directional filters (54) operate on the filtered image data to create a plurality of soft edge directionally filtered image representations (62). A plurality of hard edge directional filters (56) operate on the filtered image data to create a plurality of hard edge directionally filtered image representations (64). Preferably, the directional filtering is done at regular angular increments, e.g. every ten degrees. An edge enhanced final image representation (72) is created in which filtered pixels not adjacent an edge are assembled directly from the filtered image (30). Pixels which are adjacent an edge with a smaller (larger) rate of deviation are replaced by the corresponding pixel of the soft (hard) edge filtered image representation that was directionally filtered along a direction most nearly parallel to the determined edge direction.

The present invention relates to the image processing arts. It finds particular application in conjunction with improving the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance medical diagnostic images and will be described with particular reference thereto. It is to be appreciated that the invention will also find application in conjunction with improving other medical diagnostic images such as CT, digital x-ray, nuclear camera, ultrasound, and the like, as well as non-medical electronic images such as television images, radio telescope, and the like.
Medical diagnostic images are commonly subject to degradation from noise, system imperfections, and the like. One technique for improving diagnostic images is to acquire redundant data, e.g. the data for two or more images and averaging or summing to reduce the effects of random noise or error. However, multiple data acquisitions are time consuming and expensive. Moreover, in regions of patient motion, averaging may blur rather than improve the resultant image.
Others have attempted to improve the imagability of the subject by injecting contrast agents into the patient. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,964 of Rosen. However, injected contrast agents only improve limited image characteristics. As an invasive technique, it is sometimes inappropriate for medical reasons.
The acquired images can be processed with modifications to the histogram or distribution of signal values on a global or local basis. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,607 of FitzHenry. In other techniques, the gray scale range of each subimage region is stretched such that it covers the entire display range. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,092. However, histogram modifications by attempting to expand the dynamic range of the data, increase the noise in the image. Local histogram modifications cause a blocking effect on the resultant image. That is, the processing of the various subregions of the image with different histogram modifications tends to result in a lack of uniformity over the entire image.
Others have also enhanced images using convolution or filtering techniques. Such techniques include the selective amplification of selected frequency bands as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,314 of Chang. Others have used a combination of high and low pass filtering to enhance images as illustrated for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,692 to Kwon or U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,256 to Hirosawa. However, global filtering techniques tend to blur the images and eliminate the lower frequency regions. This makes evaluation of the images difficult.
To eliminate some of the drawbacks of a global filtering or convolution, others have used locally adjusted filtering. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,819 of Denison, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,092 of Kwon, U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,227 of Furusawa, and "Adaptive Smoothing: A General Tool For Early Vision", IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 13, No. 6, Jun. 1991, Saint-Marc, et al. However, the local filtering techniques had difficulty distinguishing between sudden image variations attributable to edges and sudden image variations attributable to noise. These techniques also fail to account for differences in edge direction and regional variance, producing an image which is overly smooth without consideration of the edges. That is, they tend to blur the image.
Still others have attempted restoration approaches in which the acquisition process was modeled and the degradations of the imaging process described mathematically. These techniques then attempted to invert the degradations using restoration techniques such as least squares, Bayesian, or Kahlman filtering. However, the restoration methods required a model for the acquisition process. Complicated acquisition processes, such as MRI imaging, were too difficult to model accurately. Moreover, computing the parameters of a complicated model for a given image can require iterative algorithms which have a great computational expense.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,366 of Fenster, et al. uses filters which are adjusted to enhance long edges and attenuate noise and points. However, this techniques requires an analysis of the imaging system in order to produce the appropriate filters. Such analysis is time consuming and prone to errors.
The present invention provides a new and improved imaging technique which overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.

Concurrent smoothing and edge enhancement of medical diagnostic images


A method for determining a load distribution for a plurality of servers is disclosed. A total user count during a predetermined interval of time is received from each server of a plurality of servers for all channel resources associated with each respective server of the plurality of servers. A present load distribution is determined for the predetermined interval of time for each respective server of the plurality of servers based on the total user count received from each server. A load gradient is determined for the predetermined interval of time from each server of the plurality of servers. A future load distribution is determined for each respective server based on the total user count for each server and each respective load gradient. Lastly, a load distribution for each respective channel resource is distributed among the plurality of servers based on the determined future load distribution for each respective channel resource. The predetermined interval of time is a sliding window of time having a predetermined number of timeslots each having a predetermined timeslot interval. Additionally, a load gradient for a server is based on a difference between the total number of users connected to the server at the end of the predetermined interval of time and the total number of users connected to the server at the beginning of the predetermined interval of time. When a new channel resource is created, an initial estimated weight is assigned to the new channel resource. The new channel resource is then assigned to a selected server of the plurality of servers based on the initial estimated weight associated with the new channel resource and a load distribution associated with each respective server of the plurality of servers.

In a conventional cluster of chat servers, the load presented by users connecting to new and existing channels is unpredictable. Consequently, some of the chat servers of the cluster may become overloaded, while other chat servers may be significantly underutilized.
What is needed is a technique for predicting the load presented by new users connecting to new and existing channels of a server cluster and using the predicted load for balancing and distributing users among the servers of the server cluster.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Load balancing of chat servers based on gradients


A method for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) comprises injecting a purge gas into a reaction chamber where substrates are located; and supplying a source material of vapor phase participating directly in forming a film on the substrates to an inside of the reaction chamber, thus forming a protective curtain in the inside of the reaction chamber by a mutual diffusion-suppressing action between the purge gas and source material.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates in general to a method and apparatus for chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and more particularly to a method and apparatus for CVD that prevents contamination and enhancing film growth rate by directing a reactive gas for forming a film to the midst of a reaction chamber, and concentrating the reactive gas diffused over a susceptor in the chamber to prevent the reactive gas from being touching components of the reaction chamber.
2. Description of the Related Art
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a thin film deposition process for forming solid material over the surface of a substrate using a reactant (usually in the form of gas, i.e., a reactive gas). As depicted in FIG. 1, a conventional apparatus for CVD comprises in general a reaction chamber 3 producing a vacuum, an inlet 7 for supplying the reactive gas to the chamber 3, a heating means 44 for chemically reacting the reactive gas supplied, outlets 6 for discharging exhaust gas, and a susceptor 5, located in the midst of the chamber 3, on which a substrate 55 is placed and the deposition occurs. When a given composition of vapor phase, including a main source material that participates directly in forming films and an auxiliary source material for carrying, vaporizing or diluting the main source material, is injected into the vacuum chamber 3, the composition is diffused instantly in all directions, such that the density of the reactive gas may have finite value at all over the inside of the reaction chamber. Especially, a portion of the composition in the vicinity of the susceptor is excited by hot temperature of the susceptor to form films on the substrate.
The conventional CVD apparatus is mainly used for making thin films less than 3 μm in thickness due to a low growth rate. To form a thick film more than 3 μm in thickness, it is necessary to increase the density of the reactive gas in the chamber considerably. However, the reactive gas injected into the chamber 3 generates undesired films or powders on the reaction chamber components such as walls, reactive gas distributing showerheads, substrate heating devices, inspection windows, etc. Moreover, the undesired films and/or powders formed on the reaction chamber components are broken to be small particles by repeated thermal expansion/contraction and/or lattice parameter mismatch between the reaction chamber components, thus contaminating the thin films while manufacturing. Here, if the number of the contaminant particles in the chamber 3 is increased, the reliability of the manufacturing process is deteriorated seriously. For example, in case of making very large scale integration (VLSI), the contaminant particles result in serious pattern inferiority such as circuit short.
Meanwhile, to enhance film growth rates in the conventional CVD system, it is necessary to increase the density of the reactive gas in the vicinity of the susceptor by adding the reactive gas to all space of the chamber 3 in practice, which requires the amount of the reactive gas excessively, thus deteriorating the economic efficiency.
To prevent contamination and undesired deposits in the reaction chamber 3, it may be considered to regulate the chamber temperature appropriately. However, the range of the temperature regulatable is very narrow, and furthermore, if the reactive gas is composed of several source materials, the range of temperature to regulate doesn't exist actually. Consequently, it is impossible to prevent generation of contaminant particles by regulating the reaction chamber temperature.
Besides, in the conventional CVD system, the temperature difference between the inner wall of the chamber 3 and the susceptor 5 causes a natural convection, which makes it difficult to maintain the diffusion of the reactive gas uniformly onto the substrates, thus deteriorating the reliability of the films formed. Moreover, the natural convection makes the contaminant particles generated continue to re-circulate in the chamber, which aggravates the problem of the contamination.
Accordingly, to manufacture a thick film more than 3 μm in thickness or VLSI circuits rapidly and economically, it is required to provide an improved method and apparatus for CVD that can prevent contamination, even when highly concentrated reactive gas is injected into the reaction chamber, and increase the density of the reactive gas in the vicinity of the susceptor in the reaction chamber considerably without raising the amount of the reactive gas supplied.
Following two conventional methods relate to the methods for increasing the density of the reactive gas in the vicinity of the susceptor in the chamber 3, and preventing generation of contaminant particles, respectively, which are considered as prior arts of the present invention.
First, as depicted in FIG. 2, U.S. Pat. No. 5,851,589 describes a CVD apparatus including a first gas, containing a reactive gas, fed in parallel to the surface of the substrate 55 through a pipe 2, and a second gas, containing a purge gas (non-reactive-gas), blown perpendicularly towards the surface of the substrate 55 through a injecting plate 1 to stabilize and make laminar flowing state of the first gas. Next, referring to FIG. 3, U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,434 discloses a dual gas manifold providing purge gas through a top showerhead 6 to prevent deposits on the window 8 and providing reactive gas through a lower showerhead 7 to deposit films on the substrate 55. The prior arts described above positively employed the control of purge gas to relax the conventional contamination problem. However, it seems that relaxation of the contamination is done only at the limited portion of the whole reaction chamber in both prior arts cited.
In FIG. 2, there exists an unavoidable re-circulation zone near the leading edge of the substrate, and it is difficult to suppress the diffusion of the reactive gas to the chamber wall, which deteriorates the effectiveness of the reference system. Moreover, the external control of purge gas flow rate may need much trial to make the reactive gas flow stabilized, since the laminar flow zone of the reactive gas is very narrow while the purge gas suppresses the narrow zone overall perpendicularly, thereby involving the latent instability of the flow. In FIG. 3, although the purge gas control system may be effective in preventing deposits on the window of the lamp system, it is not sure whether the reference apparatus could prevent particles being formed on the surface of the reaction chamber components such as chamber walls, especially around the areas far away from the purge gas showerhead. This problem would become serious when long process time and/or high growth rate is required.
Accordingly, the present invention is invented to provide a method and apparatus for chemical vapor deposition, which eliminates the drawbacks of the above-mentioned prior art. That is, the method and apparatus for CVD can form efficiently thick films more than 3 μm in thickness of high quality with excellent reproducibility, uniformity, controllability, and high growth rate using a protective curtain formed by a mutual diffusion-suppressing action between the purge gas and reactive gas.

Method for chemical vapor deposition capable of preventing contamination and enhancing film growth rate


rDNA corresponding to an endosymbiotic bacteria associated with Ecteinascidia turbinata has been identified. The bacterium appears to be responsible for the biosynthesis of ecteinascidin compounds. The 16S rDNA sequence corresponding to Candidatus Endoecteinascidia frumentensis SEQ ID NO: 1 has been deposited in GeneBank with the accession number AY054370.

The ascidian, Ecteinascidia turbinata, is a colonial tunicate from the family Perophoridae, found in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas. As an important component of the benthic ecology of the Caribbean mangroves, it has been the subject of various studies examining settlement, species succession and larval behaviour.
In the 1960's interest in this species was heightened when an extract of the animal was found to have cytotoxic properties. It was not until the 1980's that the compounds conferring these properties, the ecteinascidins, were identified and characterised. One of these compounds, ET-743, with remarkable cytotoxic acitvity, is presently in clinical trials for the treament of cancer.
Nearly 20 years on, little is known about the production of these important secondary metabolites or what function, if any, they play in the animal.
Bioactive secondary metabolites are found in many marine invertebrates; especially sponges, molluscs, bryozoans and ascidians, and new compounds are constantly being described.
Marine invertebrate secondary metabolites encompass a wide range of chemical types including macrolides, terpenes, steroids, peptides and alkaloids, frequently with complex structures. As yet, there is little direct evidence for the function these compounds may have in their hosts, although relevant laboratory and field-based studies are beginning to address this area. Some investigations support a role in chemical defense, as anti-fouling, anti-infective or anti-predation agents. Many sponges are known to produce noxious chemicals and feeding studies have indicated that these compounds appear to confer protection against predators. Marine larvae of chemically defended adults also possess anti-predatory compounds.
As soft bodied, sessile marine invertebrates, adult ascidians are especially susceptible to predation, and to fouling of their external surfaces. The production of potentially defensive secondary metabolites appears widespread among certain groups of ascidians. Feeding studies using crab and fish predators have indicated that in some ascidians these metabolites confer antipredatory protection. Many ascidians also produce large, conspicuous larvae, which develop in a brood pouch. These larvae are released in daylight hours, so they can search for optimal settlement sites, and have a short swimming phase. This strategy leaves the larvae exposed to predators and it has been suggested that selection by these predators may favour the evolution of distasteful larvae. Indeed many such larvae may be chemically defended, being unpalatable to predators when presented in feeding experiments.
There is little known of the mechanisms of production of secondary metabolites in many species. There is evidence to support the theory that symbionts (especially bacterial ones) within the invertebrate host produce at least some of these secondary metabolites, either on their own, or in conjunction with their host. This idea is based on the fact that some secondary metabolites show close similarities to compounds produced by bacteria. Although the evidence to support this theory is still limited, and in some cases the picture is likely to be very complex with no clear unique source for a metabolite, certain studies have added experimental support to the argument.
Although there are many secondary metabolite-producing ascidians, there are very few studies on the presence of microorganisms specifically associated with ascidians, as epi- or endobionts. However, there are now many descriptions of symbiotic associations between bacteria and other marine invertebrate hosts, for example in sponges, molluscs, bryozoans and echinoderms.
Despite the increasing number of studies, the association between chemical defense, secondary metabolites and bacterial symbiosis, is not understood.
Ecteinascidia turbinata is the source of natural product ET-743 which is being developed as antitumoral agent. The cytotoxic compound is extracted from the ascidian which is obtained by aquaculture. Due to the life cycle of the Ecteinascidia turbinata this is a time consuming and laborious process.
Chemical routes to ET-743 are the total synthesis, and the hemisynthesis from cyanosafracin B obtained by fermentation. Although these processes provide alternatives to the natural sources of ecteinascidins, they still involve numerous chemical steps and are expensive.
There is a need to provide new sources of the ecteinascidin compounds which are not subject to the difficulties described above.

Sequences from an endosymbiont and their uses


In one aspect, the disclosure provides a conjugate comprising an insulin molecule having an A-chain and a B-chain; an affinity ligand covalently bound to the A-chain; and a monovalent glucose binding agent covalently bound to the B-chain, wherein the affinity ligand competes with glucose for non-covalent binding with the monovalent glucose binding agent. In the absence of glucose, the monovalent glucose binding agent binds the affinity ligand to produce a “closed” inactive form of the insulin molecule. When free glucose is added, it competes with the affinity ligand for binding with the monovalent glucose binding agent to produce an “open” active form of the insulin molecule. The monovalent glucose binding agent and affinity ligand are covalently bound to the insulin molecule. The disclosure also provides methods of using these conjugates and methods of making these conjugates. In another aspect, the disclosure provides exemplary conjugates. The disclosure also provides alternative conjugates that are not necessarily activated by glucose.

The majority of "controlled-release" drug delivery systems operate by slowing or delaying the release of a drug post-administration. While these systems are useful for certain types of drugs (e.g., because they lead to fewer peaks and troughs in the serum profile, reduced side-effects, etc.) they are unsuitable for drugs that require more complex release profiles. For example, the treatment of diabetes mellitus with injectable insulin is a well-known and studied case where gradual slow release of insulin is ineffective. In fact, it is apparent that the simple replacement of the hormone is not sufficient to prevent the pathological sequelae associated with this disease. The development of these sequelae is believed to reflect an inability to provide exogenous insulin proportional to varying blood glucose concentrations experienced by the patient (i.e., a truly "controlled-release" system). As a result, there remains a need in the art for alternative controlled-release insulin delivery systems. The present disclosure provides such systems.

Soluble non-depot insulin conjugates and uses thereof


A low substrate loss inductor has a substrate, a plurality of p type doping areas and a plurality of n type doping areas formed alternatively inside the substrate, an insulating layer formed on the substrate, and a metal coil formed on the insulation layer. The insulation layer isolates the metal coil from the p type doping areas and n type doping areas. The doping areas are arranged orthogonal to the metal coil.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inductor, and more particularly, to a low substrate loss inductor manufactured by semiconductor IC technologies.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Passive elements, such as inductors or transformers, are widely used in microwave or high frequency wireless communication circuits. With the progress of semiconductor IC technologies and the requirement of small-sized, low-cost, and highly integrated systems, passive elements are integrated gradually in a single chip. Inductive elements are generally designed on a substrate with high impedance or on a substrate without energy loss, such as, a gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrate, for obtaining high quality factor and high self-resonance frequency inductors. However, because of the high cost, a low impedance silicon substrate (resistivity from 0.01 to 10 ohm-cm) is generally used to reduce the chip cost.
Please refer to FIG. 1 to FIG. 3. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a silicon substrate inductor 13 of the prior art. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional diagram of the silicon substrate inductor 13 shown in FIG. 1 along line 2xe2x80x942. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an equivalent circuit of the silicon substrate inductor 13 shown in FIG. 1. Ls and Rs represent the inductance and the resistance of the inductor 14 respectively, Cox is the parasitic capacitance between the inductor 14 and the substrate 10, and Csub and Rsub represent the parasitic capacitance and the resistance generated by the substrate 10. As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the inductor 14 is formed by a spiral metal coil, and an insulation layer 12 is installed between the inductor 14 and the substrate 10 to isolate the inductor 14 and the substrate 10. Generally the material of the isolation layer is silica (SiO2). The inductor 14 comprises two ends, wherein the current flows in from one end and flows out from the other. If the current of the inductor 14 flows clockwise, a magnetic field that passes through the substrate 10 will be generated, therefore a counterclockwise image current (also called eddy current) 18 will be generated on the substrate 10. The image current 18 will result in energy loss.
Please refer to FIG. 4 to FIG. 6. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a patterned ground shield (PGS) inductor 21. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional diagram of the inductor 21 shown in FIG. 5 along line 5xe2x80x945. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an equivalent circuit of the inductor 21 shown in FIG. 4. For simplifying description, same index numbers are used to indicate same elements in the figures. Because the image current 18 causes energy loss, a PGS 16 is formed by a polysilicon or a metal layer between the inductor 14 and the substrate 10 to avoid the energy loss as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. The banded conductive wires of the PGS 16 are separated by trenches and arranged orthogonal to the direction of current flow of the inductor 14 so that the image current 18 generated by the magnetic field of the inductor 14 can be avoided. Further the energy loss of the substrate 10 can be reduced and the quality factor of the inductor 14 can be increased. The PGS 16 can avoid the image current 18 generated by the magnetic field of the inductor 14. However, the distance between the inductor 14 and the PSG 16 is shortened, that enlarges the parasitic capacitance of the inductor 14, decreases the self-resonance frequency of the inductor 14, and reduces the frequency application range of the inductor 14. Because Cox enlarges, the parasitic capacitance of a PSG inductor is larger than the parasitic capacitance of a silicon substrate inductor of the prior art. Moreover, the self-resonance frequency is inversely proportional to the square root of the product of parasitic capacitance and inductance of the inductor 14, therefore the higher the parasitic capacitance and the inductance are, the less the self-resonance frequency of the inductor 14 is.
Thus it can be seen that in the silicon substrate inductor 13 of the prior art, the image current 18 generated by the magnetic field of the inductor 14 would cause energy loss that will reduce the quality factor of the inductor 14. Though the PGS 16 formed by a polysilicon or metal layer can avoid the image current 18 generated by the magnetic field of the inductor 14, it also reduces the distance between the inductor 14 and the PGS 16, that enlarges the parasitic capacitance of the inductor 14. The enlargement of the parasitic capacitance would decrease the self-resonance frequency of the inductor 14, and reduce the frequency application range of the inductor 14.
It is therefore a primary object of the claimed invention to provide a low substrate loss inductor manufactured by IC technologies to solve the above-mentioned problem.
According to the claimed invention, an inductor comprising a substrate, a plurality of P-type and N-type doping strips alternatively formed inside the substrate, an isolation layer formed on the substrate, and a metal coil formed on the isolation layer is provided. The isolation layer isolates the metal coil and the plurality of P-type and N-type doping strips, and the plurality of P-type and N-type doping strips is arranged orthogonal to the metal coil.
These and other objects of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.


When the occurrence of an effect event in which an effect object is generated is determined, it is determined whether or not a virtual camera exists within an effect range set based on an occurrence position of the effect event. When the existence of the virtual camera within the effect range is determined, at least the effect object positioned outside a field of view of the virtual camera is moved and positioned within the field of view of the virtual camera.

The present invention relates to a program product, an image generation system, and an image generation method.
An image generation system (game system) which generates an image viewed from a virtual camera (given viewpoint) in an object space (virtual three-dimensional space) in which an object such as a character is positioned has been known. Such an image generation system is very popular as a system which enables experience of so-called virtual reality. In an image generation system which generates a game image for an action game in which a player causes a character to move in the object space or to show action by operating the character, a three-dimensional image is generated in which game production such as explosion, flame, or smoke is represented using an effect object when an event has occurred. A method of using an object which two-dimensionally represents an effect, such as a sprite polygon (billboard polygon), has been proposed for a system which generates such a three-dimensional image in order to simplify the processing (Japanese Patent Application No. 10-179932).
According to this method, if the effect object is positioned behind the virtual camera when an event (effect event) which causes the effect object to be generated has occurred near the player's character, a situation may occur in which the player cannot recognize the image effect to be seen. Even if the effect object is positioned in front of the virtual camera, a similar situation may also occur when the effect object is positioned between the virtual camera and the screen. In particular, when the effect object is provided with the effect of applying hit damage to the character operated by the player, an inconsistent situation may occur in which the player's character is damaged even though the player cannot recognize the image effect.

Program product, image generation method and image generation system


An information processing apparatus is provided in which a device driver configured to control a plurality of devices is installed. The information processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire function information relating to a function of the device, a storage unit configured to store the acquired function information in a storage medium, a determining unit configured to determine whether the device driver controls the devices, and a control unit configured to control an operation of the device through the device driver based on the stored function information. When the determining unit determines that the device driver controls the plurality of devices, function information acquired by the acquisition unit after the determination is made is abandoned without being stored in the storage medium and/or the acquisition unit is prohibited from acquiring function information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an information processing apparatus, a device management method, and a computer-readable storage medium containing a computer program with computer-executable instructions therefor. The use of aspects of the present invention may be suitable to control operations of at least one device through a single device driver.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a device driver (e.g., printer driver) may be used to make an image forming system execute print processing, the image forming system including an information processing apparatus and a plurality of image forming apparatuses that are connected to one another via a network. The device driver is typically software provided to control the image forming apparatus, so as to make the image forming apparatus execute processing such as printing, and may be installed in the information processing apparatus.
A single device driver can control a plurality of image forming apparatuses connected to a network. However, the capabilities of the image forming apparatuses are not necessarily identical with one another. Therefore, when the device driver controls the image forming apparatuses, it may be difficult for some of the image forming apparatuses to use the function of the device driver. Therefore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-174121 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-162388 have proposed technologies for preventing a user from setting a function of the device driver, in the case where the function is difficult to use for some of the image forming apparatuses.
Furthermore, to make the image forming apparatus execute the print processing by using the device driver, the image processing apparatus typically should acquire resource information from the image forming apparatus, and set the resource information to the device driver. Therefore, the following technology has been proposed. Namely, a user manually operates the user interface of a device driver, and an information processing apparatus acquires resource information from an image forming apparatus based on details of the operation, and sets the acquired resource information to the device driver. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-25755 has proposed a technology for allowing an information processing apparatus to automatically acquire resource information from an image forming apparatus connected to the information processing apparatus via a network, and set the acquired resource information to a device driver. According to the above-described technology, the resource information set to the device driver can be updated and set not only at the installation time, but also after the installation and/or when the resource of the image forming apparatus is updated.

Information processing apparatus, device management method, and computer-readable storage medium


A magnetic thin film memory wherein the memory is composed of magnetic thin films with a layer of a higher coercive force and a layer of a lower coercive force via a nonmagnetic layer laminated repetitively, or magnetic thin films having the easy magnetization axis which lies between the perpendicular and the horizontal directions of the magnetic thin film, and information is recorded on the layer of a lower coercive force, or information is recorded by changing the direction of the magnetization by means of a magnetic field applied by two recording lines which cross the magnetic thin film, thereby to obtain a sufficient amplitude of reproduction signal even when the size of the memory is reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a memory which employs a magnetic thin film.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a diagram of a conventional magnetic thin film memory device disclosed in "Magnetic Thin Film Engineering" (p. 254, Magnetic Engineering Lecture 5; Maruzen Co., Ltd., 1977).
An example of how to manufacture the memory element will be discussed in the first place. A mask with rectangular holes is brought in tight contact with a smooth glass substrate G, onto which a vacuum deposited film of Fe, Ni about 2000.ANG. thick is formed within a vacuum apparatus. As a consequence, many magnetic thin film memory elements MF are manufactured in matrix at one time. A driving line to drive the magnetic thin film memory elements is obtained by photoetching copper strips on both surfaces of a thin epoxy resin plate or a thin polyester sheet in a manner that the strips on the one surface are orthogonal to those on the other surface. The lines on the both surfaces are rendered word lines and digit lines, respectively, and the memory device is assembled in a manner that each crossing point of the lines is arranged to overlap onto each memory element.
The principle of operation of the memory element will be depicted. The lines parallel to the easy magnetization axis in the drawing are word lines, while those orthogonal to the easy magnetization axis are digit lines. The digit line serves also as a sense line to read the storing state of information in the memory element.
In the figure, arrows A and B show the magnetization direction in the film in accordance with the storing state. Specifically, the upward arrow A in the drawing shows that information "0" is stored and the downward arrow shows that information "1" is stored in the memory element. Supposing that magnetic fields acting on the magnetic thin film by a digit current Id and a word current Iw are respectively Hd and Hw, when the current Iw of a unipolar pulse is allowed to run by selecting the word line W1, the magnetic field Hw acts to the whole of the memory elements MF below the word line W1, and the magnetization is directed on the axis of hard magnetization. At this time, pulse voltages of the opposite polarities are induced to each digit line which become reading voltages depending on whether magnetization is turned from the "1" state or "0" state. In recording, the digit current Id is fed so as to overlap the trailing edge of the Iw pulse, and in the condition of the magnetization being directed in the axis of hard magnetization, the magnetic field Hd of the polarity corresponding to an information signal is superimposed, thereby determining the magnetization direction in order to record information in the "1" state or "0" state. The value of Iw is set to generate the magnetic field Hw sufficient to turn the magnetization of the magnetic thin film from the easy magnetization axis to the axis of hard magnetization. The value of Id is set to generate the magnetic field Hd having about half the coercive force Hc of the magnetic thin film.
In conventional reading method, a minute electromagnetic induced voltage resulting from the rotation of the magnetization was used. Therefore, the S/N ratio at reading is so small that read-out was difficult. Moreover, since the electromagnetic induced voltage is proportional to the size of the magnetic moment, it is required to make the magnet thin film larger. In consequence, the magnetic field necessary for recording/reproducing is undesirably enlarged, thereby causing a hindrance to saving power. The amount of information stored per unit area is impossible to be increased.


An optical network unit (ONU), a communication system and a communication method are disclosed. The ONU includes a passive optical network media access control (PON MAC) module and a processing module, the processing module includes a physical bridge submodule and at least two ONU submodules connected with the physical bridge submodule, different ONU submodules correspond to different identification information; the PON MAC module is configured to: be connected with the processing module, determine corresponding ONU submodules according to identification information in network side data, and send the network side data to the physical bridge submodule; the physical bridge submodule is configured to: distribute the network side data to corresponding ONU submodules according to the ONU submodules determined by the PON MAC module; and the ONU submodule is configured to: process the received data, and send the data to the user interface module corresponding to the ONU submodule.

An Optical Line Terminal (OLT) is a terminal device used for connecting fiber trunk lines and implementing functions such as control and management on the user end equipment Optical Network Unit (ONU).
The Optical Network Unit (ONU) is an optical access network device and commonly used in corridors or households.
Integrated Terminal Management System (ITMS).
The TR-069 (DSL Forum CPE WAN Management Protocol) is one of technical specifications developed by the DSL Forum (www.dslforum.org), and its full name is "CPE wide area network management protocol". It provides a general framework and protocol for performing management and configuration on home network devices in the next generation network, which is used for performing remote and centralized management from a network side on devices such as a gateway, router and set top box, etc. in the home network.
In Wide Area Network Connection (WAN Connection), WAN is an abbreviation of wide area network, and WAN connection is a way of connecting one device to the WAN. For example, outbound connection modes of the home gateway device include an ADSL mode, an LAN Ethernet mode and an Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON)/Gigabit-Capable Passive optical network (GPON) mode. In this case, we say that a WAN connection of the home gateway is an ADSL, Ethernet or EPON/GPON.
E8 refers to a China telecom home gateway, E8C refers to a China telecom C-type home gateway. The China telecom home gateway is managed through the TR069 protocol.
In Fiber-to-the-x (FTTx) fiber access, x refers to an access point. Wherein Fiber-to-the-Building (FTTB) refers to Fiber to the Building, and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) refers to Fiber to the home.
The main problems which the FTTH is facing are: 1. Home entry is difficult, and fiber deployment is not easy; 2. FTTH home-entry cost is higher, and a problem of insufficient construction funds is prominent; 3. Secondary optical splitting also increases the construction cost. The FTTB is confronted with a problem that constructions mainly popularized by the non-operators are passive, which cannot better solve a problem of real installing assessment rate and a problem that the power supply problem is difficult to solve.
In the related art, in order to solve the problems which the FTTH and FTTB are facing at present, a fiber access scheme called enhanced FTTH is disclosed, the scheme uses a plug-in card mode, the ONU is made into a daughter card to be inserted into a machine frame, each daughter card is an independent ONU, the machine frame can be flexibly placed in the corridors or doorways, home entry is implemented with the original wirecables (network lines or telephone lines), each card can provide an access way flexibly to support broadband access and voice services, a drop-install flow of the FTTH is not changed, and the power supply problem also can be better solved, and the construction cost is also reduced as much as possible.
The common scheme for implementing the enhanced FTTH device is that each daughter card has an independent CPU and PONMAC, and all daughter cards share the same optical module as show in FIG. 1, thus each daughter card does not perceive the existence of the other daughter cards, an advantage of such implementation is relatively simple software implementation, and the original ONU software can be used without any change, but a shortage is that:
hardware cost is also higher, since each ONU has the CPU and PONMAC, and especially an FPGA is introduced in order to implement sharing of the optical module, the cost rises perpendicularly with the increasing number of daughter cards.
With the increase of the uplink interface speed, the FPGA cannot be fast switched between the ONUs, which causes that an uplink interface rate has a bottleneck, and fails to introduce an uplink interface with a higher rate.

Optical network unit, and communications system and method


Disclosed herein is a power device. The power device has a power source; timing circuitry powered by the power source for producing a current pulse output having a pulse width; a switch for triggering the current pulse output produced by the timing circuitry; an armature motor powered by the power source and in electrical communication with the timing circuitry for receiving the current pulse therefrom, the armature motor comprising: an electro-magnetic core; a first winding for carrying electric current to energize a magnetic field associated with the electro-magnetic core; a second winding for carrying current to reset the magnetic field associated with the electro-magnetic core, the first and second windings wound about the electro-magnetic core; and a swinging armature for providing movement in response to the energizing of the magnetic field about electromagnetic core. The first winding and the second winding are bifilar wound together about the electro-magnetic core. When the switch triggers the current pulse from the timing circuitry, the armature operates at the current pulse output pulse width. The invention permits higher frequency operation and more output pressure/output to be generated with devices with variable speed motors.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electromagnetic motors and their control circuitry for power tools and devices, and more particularly, to a continuously variable frequency swinging armature motor and drive for improving the performance of such power tools and devices.
2. Description of Related Art
In the design of power tools and other work devices and machines, it is a continuing design goal to improve performance parameters to enhance user operation and productivity. In such devices as airless paint sprayers, high pressure washers, electric caulk guns, speed staplers, low volume water or air pumps, portable high pressure air compressors, power chisels and scrapers, among others, such parameters may include increasing output volumes, increasing user adjustability of output, increasing operating frequency ranges, and reducing acoustic noise, heat, and weight.
The ability to improve these parameters, particularly the output volume (e.g., of a paint sprayer), without increasing the size and power of the motors and pumps within such devices would be highly advantageous.
In devices using electromagnetic-based swinging armature motors, it has been found that the electromagnets that use single windings can be designed to improve performance of the devices. Such devices that use a single winding are usually powered directly from an alternating current ("AC") line. This allows the armature to close at twice the line frequency, i.e., one time for the positive one-half of the AC waveform and one time for the negative one-half of the AC waveform. For a 60 Hz line, for example, the armature will move, open, and close 120 times per second with such an arrangement. Control over output volume (or other work done) is commonly accomplished by limiting how far the armature can move. This is sometime done by an adjustable mechanical stop. In other words, in order to control the output volume, you have to limit how far the armature can move, which is commonly accomplished by providing an adjustable mechanical stop. It would be preferable to electronically adjust the output, not mechanically.
Using a sine wave voltage to power the electromagnet is generally inefficient because the waveform has to fall to near zero volts before the armature can start to move to its open position. Therefore, there is less time for the pump's piston to fully open, and thus, there is less time for paint to enter into the pump section or reservoir of a typical paint sprayer. In addition, the armature also experiences a so-called bounce when it hits its open position stop. The bounce increases the settling time of the armature, thereby decreasing the overall output volume of the paint delivered from the typical paint sprayer. Therefore, it has been found that using other waveforms can improve electromagnetic motor performance. Also, where a DC signal is used to power an electromagnetic-based swinging armature motor, there is a need to have a current signal with a pulse width and associated circuitry that will allow the magnetic field generated by the electromagnet to collapse quickly and store the resulting energy within the circuit.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for a variable frequency driven swinging armature motor that can be continuously driven over a wide range of frequencies. Previous frequency adjustment solutions provided a circuit to selectively skip cycles or half cycles of the AC waveform. See e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,517,620 and 4,705,995 to Hans-Joachim Boll, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. Typically, this was accomplished by using a triac-type device (e.g., two thyristors wired in series, but pointing in opposite directions) that turns on and off at the zero crossings. Because the minimum period that can be skipped is one-half of a 60 Hz cycle, the frequency can only be reduced in 30 Hz increments while maintaining steady symmetrical output pressure and flow in the associated pump, which translates into drive frequencies of 120 Hz, 90 Hz, 60 Hz, and 30 Hz. Such frequency control limitations are commonly recognized as shortcomings in the industry. Therefore, a continuously variable frequency driven swinging armature motor would provide numerous benefits to the industry. Such a motor would provide more versatility and increase control in many applications. And for any applications where the lowest desired frequency is higher than the normal AC line frequency (i.e., 50–60 Hz), the electromagnet can be made physically smaller and still generate the same force, or alternatively, generate more force with the same size of electromagnet.
In accordance with the foregoing, an electromagnet based motor and associated circuitry incorporating improvements not heretofore employed for use in power tools and devices would be highly desirable.

Continuously variable frequency swinging armature motor and drive


A User Equipment (UE) and a mobile communications network node perform or handle inter frequency measurements. The technology prevents overloading the UE with frequency measurement processing by allowing different requirements for measurements, i.e., measurement performance requirements on different frequencies, i.e., cells. When ordering the UE to perform inter frequency measurements, two or more separate neighbor cell lists may be used. This allows a UE having a certain processor capacity to perform measurement control for more cells and frequencies, i.e., measurements on more than two non-used frequencies, without increasing the processing load of the UE.

Inter frequency measurement may be used by the UTRAN (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network) e.g. for handover decisions. The measurements are defined in 3GPP TS 25.215, the measurement model is defined in 3GPP TS 25.302 and the measurement accuracies are specified in section 3GPP TS 25.133, section 9. Control of measurement reporting is specified in 3 GPP TS 25.331 and parallel measurements are specified in 3GPP TS 25.133 section 8.2. Compressed mode is specified in 3GPP TS 25.215.
Present disclosure relates to carrier frequency measurement in communications systems. In 3GPP TS 25.331 section 8.4.0 is a number of definitions regarding such measurement procedures listed.
Thus, an UTRAN may control a measurement in the User Equipment either by broadcast of system information and/or by transmitting a measurement control message. The following information is used to control the User Equipment measurements and the measurement results reporting:
1. Measurement identity: A reference number that should be used by the UTRAN when setting up, modifying or releasing the measurement and by the UE in the measurement report.
2. Measurement command: One out of three different measurement commands.                Setup: Setup a new measurement.        Modify: Modify a previously defined measurement, e.g. to change the reporting criteria.        Release: Stop a measurement and clear all information in the UE that are related to that measurement.
3. Measurement type: One of the types listed below describing what the UE shall measure.
The different types of measurements are:                Intra-frequency measurements: measurements on downlink physical channels at the same frequency as the active set. A measurement object corresponds to one cell;        Inter-frequency measurements: measurements on downlink physical channels at frequencies that differ from the frequency of the active set and on downlink physical channels in the active set. A measurement object corresponds to one cell;        Inter-RAT measurements: measurements on downlink physical channels belonging to another Radio Access Technology (RAT) than UTRAN, e.g. GSM or E-UTRA. A measurement object corresponds to one cell (e.g. GSM) or one frequency (e.g. E-UTRA);        Traffic volume measurements: measurements on uplink traffic volume. A measurement object corresponds to one cell;        Quality measurements: Measurements of downlink quality parameters, e.g. downlink transport block error rate.        UE-internal measurements: Measurements of UE transmission power and UE received signal level;        UE positioning measurements: Measurements of UE position.
3GPP requires UEs to be capable of performing measurements on up to two non used frequencies, see 3GPP TS 25.133 section 18.104.22.168:                32 inter frequency cells, including                    FDD cells distributed on up to 2 additional FDD carriers.Today there are requirements for the UE to be able to measure up to two non-used frequencies for each cell.
There are also measurement performance requirements, see 3GPP TS 25.133, for how fast these measurements shall be completed.
This is sufficient when performing measurements for pure coverage purposes. Typical scenarios involve rescuing users moving out of a capacity cluster on to a macro layer. Being able to select between two target macro layers is more than enough.
The operators deploy networks with more and more frequencies and there is an increasing need for measuring and find new frequencies. According to the present standard, an UE must have the capability to measure two non-used frequencies that sets the limit when having microcells with different frequencies for load sharing and at the same time needs the escape possibility and protection to find a new cell with better coverage. An UE having a certain processor capacity may therefore not have enough capacity to perform measurement control for more cells and frequencies, i.e. measurements on more than two non used frequencies, without increasing the processing load of the user equipment. To inter frequency measurement, the standard of 3GPP TS 25.133 provides algorithms for determining the time in a certain radio environment for identifying the best cell for a certain frequency. There are also requirements, e.g. RAN4, set for maximum time for delivering a measurement report.
However, the processor demands and performance requirements are great for an UE to find a new cell and at the same time measure the quality of the frequencies. Said demands and requirements are set in 3GPP TS 25.133, and they are linked to the compressed mode gaps in which the measurements are performed.

Methods and devices for inter frequency measurements


A method for making a surface covering is disclosed which includes providing a surface covering having a backing layer, a foamable layer, and a design layer, wherein the design layer includes a portion of a pattern printed with at least one retarder composition. A wear layer is then provided on the design layer and the wear layer is cured. The foamable layer is thereby expanded to form a foam layer, and the pattern printed with at least one retarder composition is chemically embossed. The cured product is subsequently cooled to ambient temperature and then the top surface of the wear layer is subjected to a sufficient temperature to soften the wear layer. After being softened the wear layer is mechanically embossed with a surface texture, the embossed surface texture is set in the wear layer, and a top coat may then be provided on the embossed set wear layer. A surface covering having the various features described above is also disclosed. Preferably, the surface covering and the method for making the surface covering have a natural wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick appearance wherein the design layer includes one or more joint or grout lines created with at least one retarder composition and the wear layer is mechanically embossed with the surface texture of a wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to surface coverings, particularly surface coverings having a natural appearance. The present invention further relates to methods of making these types of surface coverings.
2. Description of the Related Art
A growing consumer preference for natural materials or xe2x80x9clooksxe2x80x9d simulated to natural wood, stone, marble, brick, and granite now exists for all types of surface coverings such as flooring. The perception of natural flooring, for instance, at an inexpensive price provides a high value, acceptable style, and luxury appearance.
The natural look of resilient vinyl floorings, for instance, made by gravure printing in conjunction with chemical embossing technology, does not quite impart the realistic appearance of true wood, stone, and the like. The subtle texture of wood grains and stone cannot be achieved by chemical embossing technology which develops the texture by reacting the inhibitor in the ink with a blow agent added in a pre-gel layer under heat and during a fusion process. In general, the texture created by the chemical embossing technique does not have a well-defined sharpness of real, natural products. In other words, chemical embossing has the disadvantage of being capable of making only rounded edges and there is great difficulty in controlling the depth of the embossing. In addition, this process leads to a texture which is too deep to be realistic. Mechanical embossing, on the other hand, is capable of reproducing the subtile, sharp, and shallow textures of natural wood, stone, marble, brick, etc. However, embossing in register with the printed design is very difficult with mechanical embossing.
Accordingly, there is a need for surface coverings having a realistic, natural xe2x80x9clookxe2x80x9d or appearance of wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick and methods of making the same.
A feature of the present invention is to provide a surface covering having a design, such as, for example natural wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick, appearance which is realistic in appearance. A further feature of the present invention is to provide a method of making such a surface covering.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the present invention. The objectives and other advantages of the present invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the written description including the appended claims.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention relates to a surface covering having a backing layer and a foam layer located on top of the backing layer. Further, a design layer having a design is located on top of the foam layer. At least one element of the design on the design layer is chemically embossed. A wear layer, located on top of the design layer, is mechanically embossed with a surface texture when the wear layer is in a softened state. The foam layer may or may not be mechanically embossed. Finally, a top coat may be located on top of the embossed wear layer.
The present invention further relates to a surface covering having a natural wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick appearance. This surface covering has a backing layer, a foam layer located on top of the backing layer, and a design layer. The design layer has a design of wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick. This design layer is located on top of the foam layer and the design has chemically embossed joint or grout lines, which simulate such features found in natural surfaces where wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick are formed as surfaces for floors, for example. In addition, a wear layer, located on top of the design layer, is mechanically embossed with a surface texture of natural wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick after the wear layer has been softened. The foam layer may or may not be mechanically embossed. Finally, a top coat may be located on top of the embossed wear layer.
The present invention also relates to a method for making a surface covering, preferably having a natural wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick appearance. The method includes the steps of providing a surface covering having a backing layer, a foamable layer located on top of the backing layer, and a design layer located on top of the foamable layer. The design layer preferably has a design of a wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick. A portion of the design in the design layer is printed with a retarder composition. In the preferred embodiment, the design that is printed with the retarder composition is joint or grout lines. A wear layer is then provided on top of the design layer and subjected to curing to cure the wear layer and expand the foamable layer, thus chemically embossing areas which have been printed with the retarder composition. For purposes of the present invention, xe2x80x9ccuringxe2x80x9d is also known in the art as xe2x80x9cfusing.xe2x80x9d After curing the wear layer, it is permitted to obtain ambient temperature. This cooled product is then subjected to a sufficient temperature to soften the cured wear layer, preferably by heating the top surface of the cured and cooled wear layer. After it has been softened, the wear layer is mechanically embossed while it is in the softened state. In particular, the wear layer is mechanically embossed with a surface texture, for example, of wood, stone, marble, granite or brick and the foam layer may or may not be mechanically embossed depending on the embossed design and the pressure applied to the wear layer.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the chemical embossing of the joint or grout lines is deeper than that of the portions of the surface covering which have only been mechanically embossed. In this way, the surface texture created by the mechanical embossing is limited to the raised areas. These raised areas are the design elements of wood, stone, marble, granite, or brick, which are joined together by the joint or grout lines. Thus, the surface covering of the invention, which does not include mechanically embossed surface texture in the joint or grout lines, has the appearance of mechanical embossing in register, but is created without the technical difficulties associated with registering mechanical embossing. Finally, in the preferred embodiment, a top coat is provided on top of the embossed wear layer.
It is to be understood that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are intended to provide further explanation of the present invention, as claimed.

Surface coverings having a natural appearance and methods to make a surface covering having a natural appearance


An ultrasonic surgical instrument includes a housing, a waveguide extending distally from the housing, an end effector coupled to the distal end of the waveguide, an ultrasonic transducer retained within the housing, and a controller. The ultrasonic transducer is coupled to the proximal end of the waveguide and configured to produce mechanical motion for transmission along the waveguide to the end effector. The controller is configured to control an amplitude of the mechanical motion of the ultrasonic transducer in accordance with at least one amplitude value. The at least one amplitude value is adjusted according to an age of the ultrasonic transducer to compensate for aging of the ultrasonic transducer. Methods for controlling the amplitude of the mechanical motion of an ultrasonic transducer to compensate for aging of the ultrasonic transducer are also provided.

Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to ultrasonic surgical instruments and, more particularly, to ultrasonic surgical instruments and methods of compensating for transducer aging.
Background of Related Art
Ultrasonic surgical instruments utilize ultrasonic energy, i.e., ultrasonic vibrations, to treat tissue. More specifically, ultrasonic surgical instruments utilize mechanical vibration energy transmitted at ultrasonic frequencies to coagulate, cauterize, fuse, seal, cut, desiccate, fulgurate, or otherwise treat tissue.
Typically, an ultrasonic surgical instrument is configured to transmit ultrasonic energy produced by a generator and transducer assembly along a waveguide to an end effector that is spaced-apart from the generator and transducer assembly. With respect to cordless ultrasonic instruments, for example, a portable power source, e.g., a battery, and the generator and transducer assembly are mounted on the handheld instrument itself, while the waveguide interconnects the generator and transducer assembly and the end effector. Wired ultrasonic instruments operate in similar fashion except that, rather than having the generator and power source mounted on the handheld instrument itself, the handheld instrument is configured to connect to a standalone power supply and/or generator via a wired connection.
Regardless of the particular type and/or configuration of ultrasonic surgical instrument utilized, the various components thereof are typically calibrated during manufacturing and/or assembly to ensure a desired ultrasonic energy is produced at the end effector. Calibration may also be intermittently performed, manually or automatically, before, during, after, and/or between uses.

Ultrasonic surgical instruments and methods of compensating for transducer aging


An optoelectronic apparatus is disclosed. In an embodiment, the apparatus includes at least one wavelength conversion region which includes at least one dual emitter as wavelength conversion material, wherein the wavelength conversion region converts primary radiation at least in part into secondary radiation, and wherein the dual emitter includes a first electronic base state and a second electronic base state, together with a first electronically excited state and a second electronically excited state which may be reached from the first electronically excited state. The dual emitter further includes emission proceeding from the second electronically excited state into the second base state.

Optoelectronic apparatuses such as, for example, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), for example, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic lasers such as, for example, surface emitters ("VCSELs", vertical cavity surface emitting lasers) as well as solar cells or photodetectors may comprise wavelength conversion regions which convert primary radiation into secondary radiation.
The efficiency of optoelectronic apparatuses depends inter alia on how effectively the primary radiation is converted into secondary radiation and the extent to which loss channels, such as for instance scattering and reabsorption, which result in a reduction in luminous efficacy are present.
In particular, reabsorption of radiation, for example, of secondary radiation which has already been formed by conversion, can distinctly reduce the efficiency of wavelength conversion.

Optoelectronic device, use of a dual emitter as wavelength conversion material


A pintle-type valve including a valve body enclosing a chamber having a first port surrounded by an annular valve seat in a first wall of the chamber and a second port in a second and opposite wall of the chamber for receiving a pintle bushing. A valve pintle shaft having an attached valve head is disposed in the bushing. The second port is larger in diameter than the diameter of the valve head, so that the valve head may be admitted to the chamber through the port. The bushing is radially floating in the port and has a flange extending along an outer surface of the valve body for forming a seal therewith. The pintle extends into a conventional solenoid-type actuator bolted to the valve body. A radially-floating gas seal surrounds the pintle between the retainer and the actuator. A compressed coil spring holds the bushing in place against operating pressure within the valve chamber. The bushing and gas seal are centered by the valve stem, reducing frictional drag and reducing valve leakage.

The present invention relates to exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) pintle valves for internal combustion engines; more particularly, to such valves which are inwardly-opening; and most particularly, to such a valve wherein drag on the valve pintle shaft is minimized during actuation thereof.
Pintle valves are well known for use in controlling flow of fluids, and especially gases. An important use is for recirculating a portion of the exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into the intake manifold thereof.
Current gas flow valves wherein a valve head is inwardly withdrawn into a chamber from a valve seat typically include a valve pintle bushing pressed into a bore in a valve wall opposite the valve seat. Because of high operating pressures in the valve chamber, the wall containing the bushing is typically a removable plate which is bolted onto the valve body after the bushing and valve pintle/head are installed. Such a large plate typically is gasketed to minimize gas leakage. Due to necessary tight clearances for the pintle in the bushing and the plurality of other components common to current EGR control valves, misalignment of the pintle and head with respect to the valve seat is virtually inevitable. The valve head must center itself in the seat, thereby exerting torque on a misaligned bushing which causes frictional drag on the pintle shaft as it moves through the bushing. Further, a gas shield for preventing leakage of exhaust gas into the solenoid actuator, if not very highly aligned with the pintle shaft, causes addition drag on the shaft during actuation. Typically, such parasitic losses require that a solenoid actuator for a prior art valve be undesirably large and power-consuming.
Further, such misalignments can result in significant leakage of gases to the exterior of the valve, whereas government regulations on emission are becoming ever stricter.
What is needed in the art is a means for allowing a pintle shaft bushing and a shaft gas seal to be radially floating and therefore self-aligning to reduce the power required to actuate the valve and to reduce emissions from the valve.
It is a principal object of the present invention to reduce the power required to operate an EGR valve by reducing frictional losses of actuation within the valve mechanism.
It is a further object of the present invention to reduce exhaust leakage from an EGR valve.
It is a still further object of the present invention to reduce the number of components of an EGR valve and to simplify assembly thereof.
Briefly described, a pintle-type valve in accordance with the invention includes a valve body enclosing a chamber. A first port surrounded by an annular valve seat is provided in a first wall of the body. A second port is formed in a second and opposite wall of the body coaxially with the first port for receiving a pintle bushing from outside the valve body. A valve pintle shaft, having an attached valve head for mating with the valve seat, is disposed in a close-fitting central bore in the bushing. The second port has a diameter larger than the diameter of the valve head, so that the valve head may be admitted to the chamber through the port. The bushing is radially floating in the port, has a flange extending along an outer surface of the valve body for forming a seal therewith, and is approximately centered and retained by a bushing retainer. The pintle extends into a conventional solenoid-type actuator which is attached to the valve body. A radially-floating gas seal surrounds the pintle between the retainer and the actuator. A compressed coil spring surrounding the pintle between the gas seal and the bushing holds the bushing in place against operating pressure within the valve chamber.

Exhaust gas recirculation valve having low drag


A simple high speed Real-Time method and apparatus for processing a queue in a network queue server is presented. Long packets at the beginning of the queue are processed while a pointer chains down the queue to find shorter packets. When a shorter packet is found the pointer stops and waits for a timing threshold to be met. When the timing threshold is met the short packet is processed until completion and then work is resumed on the long packet. The method is implemented using a pointer to identify the position in the queue that is currently being processed, a pointer to search for the shorter packets, two registers to hold values of the respective pointers and memory to hold the location of the discontinued packet. An additional register is utilized to hold the incremented cycle processing time, and a final register is used to hold a threshold value for processing a packet. Lastly, a previous pseudo head register is also utilized when the queue is not doubly linked.

Modern day data communications is accomplished by transferring bits (0's and 1's) between two communicating devices. These bits are usually segmented into units called packets and routed through a communications network. The packets are routed through the network by switching devices (queue servers), which process the packets and send them along different communications pathways to their final destination.
Packets often line up at a queue server waiting to be serviced by the queue server in the same way that a line at a bank might develop in front of a teller. The line is referred to as a queue. The packets would be the people in the queue and the teller would be the switch or queue server. However not all packets are the same size. Often a shorter packet that could be quickly processed by the queue server waits in the queue while a longer packet is serviced. As a result, the communicating parties at the end are delayed until a large packet that has nothing to do with their particular communication, is processed. Ultimately many different parties that are communicating through the switch (or queue server) would be slowed down, while the queue server processes a large packet that has nothing to do with their respective communications sessions.
It would be advantageous to service smaller length packets, located behind larger packets in the queue, without waiting for the large packets to be fully processed. Attempts have been made to design simple architectures that solve this queuing problem. Software scheduling techniques have been devised which increase the equity in processing the packets by examining the entire queue of packets. However, it is difficult to devise a high-speed and memory-efficient hardware implementation of this method, as needed by Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switches, or high speed queue servers. At least one fast implementation was attempted in an ATM switch. However, the method required complex manipulations of the pointers that identified the different packets. As a result, these methods required multiple read and write commands to the memory of the switch, which in turn help to make method slow to implement. Therefore, it would be advantageous to develop a simple hardware technique for reducing queuing delays that could be performed in Real-Time.

Real-time hardware method and apparatus for reducing queue processing


Systems and methods are provided for presenting a supplemental content asset on a secondary device that is relevant to a primary content asset that is being presented on a primary user device, to enhance the user experience of the primary content asset. A relevant supplemental content asset may be selected based on characteristics of the primary content asset and/or user profile information. Presentation of the supplemental content asset and primary content asset may be coordinated and synchronized by exchange of messages between the primary user device and secondary device.

This application relates to supplementing primary content assets accessed by a primary user device, by presentation of supplemental content assets on a secondary device.
Traditional systems allow users to access content assets for viewing and play back from a single device or a single system. For example, a traditional home entertainment system may include television equipment, stereo equipment, set-top boxes and digital media disc players. The user equipment of the traditional home entertainment system are operated independently to access content assets, and do not interact.
Traditional systems do not enable user devices to supplement content assets accessed by other devices. For example, in response to play back of a song on a portable media device, a traditional home entertainment system is unable to play back a music video from its own content library related to the song.

Methods and systems for providing relevant supplemental content to a user device


A battery pack including a battery, a sensor, a controller, and a self-discharge circuit. The battery includes at least one battery cell connected between a pair of external terminals. The at least one battery cell is used for an engine-start attempt. The sensor detects a temperature of the battery. The controller compares the temperature of the battery with a reference temperature value and outputs a self-discharge signal when the temperature of the battery is lower than the reference temperature value. The self-discharge circuit is connected between the pair of external terminals in parallel with the battery and performs self-discharge the battery based on the self-discharge signal.

1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to a battery pack.
2. Description of the Related Art
A secondary battery is a rechargeable battery that converts chemical energy to electrical energy and also converts electrical energy to chemical energy. A secondary battery has been used for a variety of applications. One application is to power vehicles such as cars and motorcycles. These vehicles produce mechanical energy using engines. In order to properly operate, the engines may be started using electrical energy from lead storage batteries. However, these types of batteries are heavy and bulky.

Battery pack with temperature sensing unit


An image forming device including: an image forming unit; a heating body; a power supply unit; a temperature sensing member; and a controller. The image forming unit is configured to form an image on a recording sheet. The heating body is configured to heat the recording sheet on which the image is formed. The power supply unit is configured to supply power to the heating body. The temperature sensing member is configured to detect a temperature of the heating body. The controller is configured to: control the power supply unit based on the detected temperature; determine whether or not a high-power output state of the power supply unit has continued for a first duration under a print control process; and judge that the temperature sensing member is in an abnormal state when determination is made so that the high-power output state has continued for the first duration.

One image forming device known in the art includes a temperature sensing member for sensing the temperature of a heating body, and a control unit for controlling a power supply unit to supply power to the heating body based on the detection results by the temperature sensing member (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-271905, for example).
However, this conventional image forming device does not monitor the state of power output from the power supply unit. Therefore, if the state of power output from the power supply unit changes from a normal state to an abnormal state during a print control process due to a malfunction in the temperature sensing member, the control unit would not detect this abnormal state and the malfunction in the temperature sensing member.

Image forming device capable of detecting abnormality in temperature sensing member


A magnetic field sensor includes a sensor and a processing circuit. The sensor is designed to generate on the basis of a varying magnetic field an oscillation signal that fluctuates around a mean value. The processing circuit is designed to generate an output signal on the basis of the oscillation signal. The processing circuit is designed, in a high-resolution mode different than a low-resolution mode, in each case to generate a mean value crossing pulse in the output signal when the oscillation signal attains the mean value, and to generate in each case a limit value crossing pulse in the output signal when the oscillation signal attains at least one limit value different than the mean value. A pulse width of at least either the mean value crossing pulse or the limit value crossing pulse is set to indicate that the magnetic field sensor is operating in the high-resolution mode.

Magnetic field sensors are used to measure magnetic fields. Examples of magnetic field sensors include Hall sensor devices, for example, which supply an output signal that is proportional to a magnetic field present. Magnetic field sensors find application in many fields in order to detect relative movements between the magnetic field sensor and a magnetic element. The magnetic element can comprise one or more pole pairs, for example, such that, in the event of a relative movement between the magnetic field sensor and the magnetic element, the magnetic field sensor generates an oscillation signal that fluctuates around a mean value.
One example of such magnetic field sensors is wheel speed sensors that detect a wheel speed. In the case of such wheel speed sensors, a pole wheel having one or a plurality of pole pairs can be arranged on an axle around which the wheel rotates, such that when the wheel rotates, the pole wheel generates a varying magnetic field that is detected by the magnetic field sensor in order to generate an oscillation signal that fluctuates around a mean value. The speed at which the wheel rotates can be determined using the oscillation signal. Corresponding wheel speed sensors can be used for example in motor vehicles for autonomous parking applications and autonomous driving applications.
Generally, magnetic field sensors, on the basis of the detected signal, can output an output signal in accordance with a signal protocol. In the case of one protocol, a so-called AK protocol, a pulse sequence is generated upon each zero crossing of the oscillation signal, wherein a first pulse having a first pulse height indicates the zero crossing and succeeding pulses having a second, smaller height represent information bits that can indicate further information. In the case of another protocol, a so-called PWM protocol (PWM=pulse width modulation), an individual pulse is generated upon each zero crossing of the oscillation signal. The width of the pulse can be modulated in order to contain information; by way of example, the pulses can have a first width when the wheel rotates in a first direction, and the pulses can have a second width when the wheel rotates in a second direction.

High-resolution mode for a magnetic field sensor


A film deposition apparatus includes a vacuum chamber into which first and second gases are sequentially supplied for a plural times, a rotation table including a first surface having a receiving area and rotating the receiving area inside the vacuum chamber, a first part supplying the first gas to a first region, a second part supplying the second gas to a second region separated from the first region in a peripheral direction of the rotation table via a separation region, a plasma gas part supplying a plasma generation gas into a plasma region inside the vacuum chamber, an antenna facing the first surface of the rotation table and generating plasma from the plasma generation gas inside a plasma space by inductive coupling, and a faraday shield being grounded and provided between the antenna and the plasma space and including slits aligned in a direction perpendicularly intersecting the antenna.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a film deposition apparatus, a film deposition method, and a computer-readable recording medium for forming plural layers of a reaction product on a surface of a substrate and performing plasma modification by sequentially supplying process gases that react to each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
As one method for depositing a thin film (e.g., silicon oxide film (SiO2)) on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer, there is an Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) method. The ALD method forms plural layers of a reaction product by sequentially supplying plural types of process gases (reaction gases) to a surface of a wafer. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-239102 discloses a known film deposition apparatus that performs a film deposition process using the ALD method. The known apparatus has plural wafers arranged on a rotation table inside a vacuum chamber in a circumferential direction of the rotation table and has the rotation table rotated relative to plural gas supplying parts arranged in a manner facing, for example, the rotation table. Thereby, the process gases can be sequentially supplied to the plural wafers.
The wafer heating temperature (film deposition temperature) of the ALD method is, for example, 300° C. The wafer heating temperature of the ALD method is low compared to that of an ordinary Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) method. This may cause organic materials contained in the process gases to enter the thin films as impurities. As described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2011-40574, by performing modification using plasma together with thin film deposition, such impurities can be reduced or removed from the thin films.
However, in a case of performing modification with a plasma process apparatus that is separate from the above-described film deposition apparatus, there is a loss of time due to conveying of wafers between the plasma process apparatus and the film deposition apparatus. This may lead to decrease of throughput. Meanwhile, in a case of a film deposition apparatus combined with a plasma source for generating plasma, a modification process may be performed concurrently with or after performing a film deposition process. In this case, the plasma may electrically damage a wiring structure formed inside the wafer. In order to reduce the damage caused by the plasma, the plasma source may be separated away from the wafer. However, by separating the plasma source away from the wafer, the active species (e.g., ions, radicals) inside the plasma may be deactivated due to pressure conditions for performing a film deposition process. Thus, it is difficult to perform a satisfactory modification process due to the active species being unable to reach the wafer.
Although U.S. Pat. No. 7,153,542, Japanese Registered Patent No. 3144664, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,641 describe film deposition apparatuses using the ALD method, resolving such difficulties is not taught in U.S. Pat. No. 7,153,542, Japanese Registered Patent No. 3144664, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,641.

Film deposition apparatus, film deposition method, and computer-readable recording medium