Embodiments of the invention provide a device, system and method for the transdermal iontophoretic delivery of therapeutic agents. One embodiment provides a method comprising applying first and second patches to the skin. The first patch comprises a delivery electrode, a therapeutic agent and two lateral electrodes. The second patch comprises at least a delivery electrode. A first current is delivered to the skin and create a first driving force to transport the agent into the skin. A second current is delivered to the skin and creates a second driving force to oscillate the agent in a direction substantially parallel to the skin. The agent is transported across the skin using the first driving force to propel the agent into the skin, and the second driving force to oscillate the agent substantially parallel to the skin surface so that it is sieved through pathways of least diffusional resistance in the skin.

Iron and other micro nutrient deficiencies are a world-wide health problem, particularly in the undeveloped countries where it is a key underlying factor in impaired mental development in children. Iron deficiency alone affects over 3 billion people in the Third World and is blamed for 100,000 maternal deaths during childbirth each year as well as 134,000 deaths amongst children. Iron and other related micronutrient deficiencies are co-morbid with a variety of parasitic infections rampant in the Third World including hookworm, roundworm, malaria, amebiasis, giardiasis, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, etc.
The typical form of treatment for iron deficiency includes oral or intravenous drug delivery with various ferrous compounds. However, both oral and intravenous forms of drug delivery for treatment of anemia have a number of limitations. Oral delivery has poor absorption particularly in the presence of other medications as well as a number of side effects including cramping and diarrhea which resulting in up to 30% of patients discontinuing medication. Intravenous limitations include the requirement to mix and store the medication in liquid form as well as the use of sterile technique in administration. These can be particularly problematic in third world countries where adequate refrigeration and sterile needles are not readily available, limiting shelf life and exposing the patient to infection. Also, IV administration can include several risk factors including anaphylaxis and cardiovascular complications. Thus, there is a need for improved methods of drug delivery for the treatment of anemia and other medical conditions which can extend shelf life and are more easily used in settings lacking refrigeration or sterile medical supplies.

Method and apparatus for oscillatory iontophoretic transdermal delivery of a therapeutic agent


Controlling application of adhesive on a substrate includes using a gas sensor, obtaining a first sensor signal. The first sensor signal indicates a partial pressure of a gas that arises from a constituent of the adhesive. Based at least in part on this partial pressure, the controller either controls an applicator's delivery of the adhesive to a substrate or causes an error signal indicative of the adhesive's unsuitability for adhesion.

In the packaging industry, it is often necessary to apply adhesive. For example, it may be necessary to apply adhesive to a package, to a container, or to a label. It is therefore useful to control the manner in which adhesive is applied. In particular, it is useful to control the amount of adhesive to be applied.

Method for controlling the amount of an adhesive to be applied to a substrate


The present invention relates to compositions and methods for preparing pharmaceutical compositions. In some embodiments, the invention includes compounds and methods of resolving chiral compounds. In some embodiments, the invention includes chiral and crystalline compositions and hydrates. In some embodiments, the invention contemplates compositions comprising camptothecin derivatives and synthetic intermediates thereof. In some embodiments, the invention includes methods of protecting, inserting, modifying, separating isomers, and removing chemical groups.

One enantiomeric or diastereomeric isomer of a compound can possessed differing pharmacological activity than another. Pharmaceuticals compositions that contain compounds with multiple isomers increase the chances of undesired and adverse drug reactions. Regulatory agencies (e.g. FDA) throughout the world are currently reviewing the importance of diastereomeric and enantiomeric purity with regard to pharmaceutical and agrochemical products. New guidelines from such agencies have been key drivers for the focus on single isomeric products in these industries. Thus, there is a need to identify time and cost efficient methods of producing synthetically valuable compositions that result in single chiral compound compositions and methods for facilitating the separation and resolution chiral compounds.
Numerous chemical agents have been devised for the treatment of cancer with varying degrees of efficacy. However, no single drug has one hundred percent effectiveness against different cancers, and negative side-effects ranging from minor to serious are always present. On such compound that has received much attention due to its anticancer activity is camptothecin, a quinoline-based alkaloid found in the barks of the Chinese Camptotheca tree and the Asian nothapodytes tree. Camptothecin is also known by its chemical name 4(S)-ethyl-4-hydroxy-1H-pyrano-[3′,4′:6,7]indolizino[1,2-b]quinoline-3,14(4H,12H)-dione.
It is well-known that camptothecin including and derivatives are useful in treating breast cancers, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, malignant melanoma, small cell lung cancer, thyroid cancers, lymphomas, leukemias, and more recently AIDS; however, drug delivery is complicated by the fact that camptothecin is water-insoluble in its unmodified state. Several derivatives of camptothecin have been developed in order to address these problems including glycosylated derivatives. Shull et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,677,286, Shull et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,932,709, and Bouscarel et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,407,117 and references cited therein are all hereby incorporated by reference. Several of these glycosylated derivatives are undergoing clinical evaluation. The methods disclosed to prepare these glycosylated derivatives result in compositions that are comprised of a mixture of enantiomers and/or diastereomers. To this end, there is a need to identify methods of preparing these compositions that provide improved isomeric purities of these camptothecin derivatives.

Camptothecin derivatives and improved synthetic methods


A microcomputer having a sleep mode includes first and second chips received in a single package. The first and second chips are manufactured with different manufacturing processes such that a leak current in the first chip is less than that in the second chip. When a sleep signal for putting the microcomputer in the sleep mode becomes active, data stored in the second chip is transmitted to the first chip. After the data transmission is completed, a power supply voltage supplied to the second chip is stopped and the second chip stops its operation until the sleep mode is released. The data transmission is achieved by digital logic circuits that can be easily redesigned by using a conventional automatic layout generator.

Typically, an integrated circuit (IC) such as a microcomputer has a sleep mode (i.e., low power consumption mode) that reduces power consumption. The sleep mode stops supply of clock signals to most of logic circuits in the IC so that the logic circuits stop operation.
A manufacturing process technology of the IC is advanced and the IC is manufactured with a finer (e.g., 90 nm) manufacturing process. In other words, the number of transistors per chip is increased so that the transistors have a reduced minimum line-width. Such an IC operates at a lower voltage and the transistors have a reduced threshold voltage. Therefore, a leak current occurs regardless of whether the logic circuits operate and the power consumption in the sleep mode is increased.
A semiconductor device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,657,911 corresponding to JP-2003-132683A includes a logic circuit, a SRAM circuit for storing data processed by the logic circuit, and a control circuit for controlling a substrate bias applied to the SRAM circuit. In a sleep mode of the semiconductor device, a power supply voltage supplied to the logic circuit is stopped and the control circuit controls the substrate bias to reduce a leak current.
The control circuit for controlling the substrate bias is constructed with an analog circuit such as a charge pump circuit. However, an automatic layout generator for an analog circuit has not been advanced yet. Therefore, when a manufacturing process of the semiconductor device is changed (e.g., from 90 nm to 65 nm), the semiconductor device needs to be manually redesigned.


A system management mode (SMM), an external dedicated system management memory (SMRAM), a system management interrupt (SMI), a SMI service handler with an integrated debugger, a Resume instruction (RSM), and at least one way for triggering a SMI as a result of a debugging request is provided to a computer system. Debugging is performed under SMM with the integrated debugger which is stored with the SMI handler in the SMRAM and given control after the SMI handler has gotten control and determined in its initial processings that the SMI handler has gotten control as a result of a SMI triggered by a debugging request. The SMI handler gets control after the computer system is put into SMM in response to the SMI. Upon exiting the integrated debugger, the SMI handler executes the RSM instruction to continue execution with the interrupted program. As a result, debugging may be performed with the actual hardware in its normal operating speed, and yet debugging functions and usability matching or exceeding that of a software emulator may be provided. Additionally, debugging may be performed in a manner that is transparent to the operating system and the application programs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer systems, in particular, microprocessor based computer systems. More specifically, the present invention is related to the methods employed by these computer systems for debugging the computer system.
2. Background
Various approaches with varying degrees of sophistication and effectiveness in debugging computer systems, including microprocessor based computer systems, have been developed. In fact, often times, multiple approaches are employed to maximize the effectiveness of debugging.
One traditional approach employed by many computer systems is to provide diagnostic ports and corresponding read/write registers. For example, I/O Port 80H and its corresponding read/write register provided on a standard ISA system. Typically, external decode logics are coupled to the diagnostic ports for decoding the content of the registers and displaying diagnostic messages on a display device, for example, an array of LEDs. The approach is simple to implement. The obvious disadvantage is its limited functions and poor usability.
Another traditional approach employed by many computer systems is to provide emulation support logics and a special emulation pin to the CPU. The emulation support logics, when activated, floats all output to the CPU. For example, the on-board circuit emulation pin of the "Intel386.TM. SL" CPU, manufactured by Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif., the assignee of the present invention. Typically, an external emulation module with emulation logics is coupled to the special emulation pin to drive the output signals, thereby permitting testing of the computer system with the CPU installed. The approach is more difficult to implement, but it provides more debugging functions then the previous approach. However, usability is still generally poor. In addition, the approach also has the inherent disadvantage that execution is not performed in the system's normal execution speed. Thus, certain problems, particularly timing problems, might not be detectable.
Yet another traditional approach employed by many computer systems is to provide a software emulator for the computer system. For example, ICE-386 SL Emulator provided for the "Intel386.TM. SL Superset" microprocessor system. The approach is more difficult to implement, but it provides more functions and better usability than the two previous approaches. The obvious disadvantage is the fact that execution is only emulated. Thus, many hardware problems may be undetectable.
Thus, it is desirable to have an improved approach to debugging a computer system where the execution is not emulated and yet the debugging functions and their usability match or exceed those offered by the emulation approach. As will be described, these objects and desired results are among the objects and desired results achieved by the present invention.

Computer system having integrated source level debugging functions that provide hardware information using transparent system interrupt


The invention relates to L-lysine-producing strains of corynebacteria with enhanced lysE gene (lysine export carrier gene), in which strains additional genes chosen from the group comprising the dapA gene (dihydrodipicolinate synthase gene), the lysC gene (aspartate kinase gene), the dapB gene (dihydrodipicolinate reductase gene) and the pyc gene, but especially the dapA gene and the lysC gene (aspartate kinase gene), are enhanced and, in particular, over-expressed, and to a process for the preparation of L-lysine.

The invention relates to L-lysine-producing strains of corynebacteria with enhanced lysE gene (lysine export carrier gene), in which strains additional genes, chosen from the group comprising the dapA gene (dihydrodipicolinate synthase gene), the lysC gene (aspartate kinase gene), the dapB gene (dihydrodipicolinate reductase gene) and the pyc gene, but especially the dapA gene and the lysC gene (aspartate kinase gene), are amplified and, in particular, over-expressed, and to a process for the preparation of L-lysine.
L-Lysine is a commercially important L-amino acid which is used especially as a feed additive in animal nutrition. The need has been steadily increasing in recent years.
L-Lysine is prepared by a fermentation process with L-lysine-producing strains of corynebacteria, especially Corynebacterium glutamicum. Because of the great importance of this product, attempts are constantly being made to improve the preparative process. Improvements to the process may relate to measures involving the fermentation technology, e.g. stirring and oxygen supply, or the composition of the nutrient media, e.g. the sugar concentration during fermentation, or the work-up to the product form, e.g. by ion exchange chromatography, or the intrinsic productivity characteristics of the microorganism itself.
The productivity characteristics of these microorganisms are improved by using methods of mutagenesis, selection and mutant choice to give strains which are resistant to antimetabolites, e.g. S-(2-aminoethyl)cysteine, or auxotrophic for amino acids, e.g. L-leucine, and produce L-lysine.
Methods of recombinant DNA technology have also been used for some years in order to improve L-lysine-producing strains of Corynebacterium glutamicum by amplifying individual biosynthesis genes and studying the effect on L-lysine production.
Thus, EP-A-0 088 166 reports the increase in productivity, after amplification, of a DNA fragment conferring resistance to aminoethylcysteine. EP-B-0 387 527 reports the increase in productivity, after amplification, of an lysC allele coding for a feedback-resistant aspartate kinase. EP-B-0 197 335 reports the increase in productivity, after amplification, of the dapA gene coding for dihydrodipicolinate synthase. EP-A-0 219 027 reports the increase in productivity, after amplification, of the asd gene coding for aspartate semialdehyde dehydrogenase. Pisabarro et al. (Journal of Bacteriology 175(9), 2743-2749 (1993)) describe the dapB gene coding for dihydrodipicolinate reductase.
The effect of the amplification of primary metabolism genes on L-lysine production has also been studied. Thus EP-A-0 219 027 reports the increase in productivity, after amplification, of the aspC gene coding for aspartate aminotransferase. EP-B-0 143 195 and EP-B-0 358 940 report the increase in productivity, after amplification, of the ppc gene coding for phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase. DE-A-198 31 609 reports the increase in productivity, after amplification, of the pyc gene coding for pyruvate carboxylase.
Finally, DE-A-195 48 222 describes that an increased activity of the L-lysine export carrier coded for by the lysE gene promotes lysine production.
In addition to these attempts to amplify an individual gene, attempts have also been made to amplify two or more genes simultaneously and thereby to improve L-lysine production in corynebacteria. Thus, DE-A-38 23 451 reports the increase in productivity, after simultaneous amplification, of the asd gene and the dapA gene from Escherichia coli. DE-A-39 43 117 discloses the increase in productivity, after simultaneous amplification, of an lysC allele coding for a feedback-resistant aspartate kinase and of the dapA gene by means of plasmid pJC50. EP-A-0 841 395 particularly reports the increase in productivity, after simultaneous amplification, of an lysC allele coding for a feedback-resistant aspartate kinase and of the dapB gene; further improvements could be achieved by additional amplification of the dapB, lysA and ddh genes. EP-A-0 854 189 describes the increase in productivity, after simultaneous amplification, of an lysC allele coding for a feedback-resistant aspartate kinase and of the dapA, dapB, lysA and aspC genes. EP-A-0 857 784 particularly reports the increase in productivity, after simultaneous amplification, of an lysC allele coding for a feedback-resistant aspartate kinase enzym and of the lysA gene; a further improvement could be achieved by additional amplification of the ppc gene.
It is clear from the many processes described in the state of the art that there is a need for the development of novel approaches and for the improvement of existing processes for lysine production with corynebacteria.
The object of the invention consists in using novel measures to provide improved L-lysine-producing strains of corynebacteria.
L-Lysine is a commercially important L-amino acid which is used especially as a feed additive in animal nutrition.
When L-lysine or lysine is mentioned in the following text, it is understood as meaning not only the base but also the appropriate salts, e.g. lysine hydrochloride or lysine sulfate.
The invention provides L-lysine-producing strains of corynebacteria enhanced lysE gene (lysine export carrier gene), wherein they additionally contain genes chosen from the group comprising the dapA gene (dihydrodipicolinate synthase gene), the lysC gene (aspartate kinase gene), the dapB gene (dihydrodipicolinate reductase gene) and the pyc gene (pyruvate carboxylase gene), but especially the dapA gene and the lysC gene, which, individually or together, are enhanced and, preferably, over-expressed.
The novel DNA sequence located upstream (5xe2x80x2 end) from the dapB gene has also been found which carries the xe2x88x9235 region of the dapB promoter and is advantageous for the expression of the dapB gene. It is shown as SEQ ID No. 1.
A corresponding DNA capable of replication, with the nucleotide sequence shown in SEQ ID No. 1, is therefore claimed as well.
The invention also provides the MC20 or MA16 mutations of the dapA promoter shown in SEQ ID No. 5 and SEQ ID No. 6, deposited under DSM12868 and DSM12867 respectively.
The invention also provides L-lysine-producing strains of corynebacteria with enhanced lysE gene, wherein additionally the dapA and dapB genes are simultaneously enhanced and, in particular, over-expressed.
Finally, the invention also provides L-lysine-producing strains of corynebacteria with enhanced lysE gene, wherein additionally the dapA and lysC genes are simultaneously enhanced and, in particular, over-expressed.
In this context the term xe2x80x9cenhancementxe2x80x9d describes the increase in the intracellular activity, in a microorganism, of one or more enzymes which are coded for by the appropriate DNA, by increasing the copy number of the gene(s), using a strong promoter or using a gene coding for an appropriate enzyme with a high activity, and optionally combining these measures.
In this context, xe2x80x9camplificationxe2x80x9d describes a specific procedure for achieving an enhancement whereby the number of DNA molecules carrying a gene or genes, an allele or alleles, a regulatory signal or signals or any other genetic feature(s) is increased.
A process for the preparation of L-lysine by the fermentation of these corynebacteria is also claimed.
The microorganisms which the present invention provides can prepare L-lysine from glucose, sucrose, lactose, fructose, maltose, molasses, starch or cellulose or from glycerol and ethanol, especially from glucose or sucrose. Said microorganisms are corynebacteria, especially of the genus Corynebacterium. The species Corynebacterium glutamicum may be mentioned in particular in the genus Corynebacterium, being known to those skilled in the art for its ability to produce amino acids. This species includes wild-type strains such as Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC13032, Brevibacterium flavum ATCC14067, Corynebacterium melassecola ATCC17965 and strains or mutants derived therefrom. Examples of L-lysine-producing mutants of corynebacteria are:
Corynebacterium glutamicum FERM-P 1709
Brevibacterium flavum FERM-P 1708
Brevibacterium lactofermentum FERM-P 1712
Brevibacterium flavum FERM-P 6463
Brevibacterium flavum FERM-P 6464
Corynebacterium glutamicum DSM5714
Corynebacterium glutamicum DSM12866
DE-A-195 48 222 discloses the advantageous effect of over-expression of the lysE gene on L-lysine production.
The additional enhanced expression of the dapB gene or the pyc gene, or in particular an additionally enhanced expression of an lysC allele coding for a feedback-resistant aspartate kinase, or in particular an additionally enhanced expression of the dapA gene, improves L-lysine production.
The inventors have also found that, for a given over-expression of the lysE gene, the simultaneous, additionally enhanced expression of the dapA and dapB genes brings further advantages for L-lysine production.
A corresponding DNA capable of replication, with the nucleotide sequence shown in SEQ ID No. 1, is therefore claimed as well.
For a given over-expression of the lysE gene, the simultaneous, additionally enhanced expression of the dapA gene and the lysC allele is also advantageous.
An enhancement (over-expression) is achieved e.g. by increasing the copy number of the appropriate genes or mutating the promoter and regulatory region or the ribosome binding site located upstream from the structural gene. Expression cassettes incorporated upstream from the structural gene work in the same way. Inducible promoters additionally make it possible to increase the expression in the course of the formation of L-lysine by fermentation. Measures for prolonging the life of the mRNA also improve the expression. Furthermore, the enzyme activity is also enhanced by preventing the degradation of the enzyme protein, the genes or gene constructs either being located in plasmids (shuttle vectors) of variable copy number or being integrated and amplified in the chromosome. Alternatively, it is also possible to achieve an over-expression of the genes in question by changing the composition of the media and the culture technique.
Those skilled in the art will find relevant instructions inter alia in Martin et al. (Bio/Technology 5, 137-146 (1987)), Guerrero et al. (Gene 138, 35-41 (1994)), Tsuchiya and Morinaga (Bio/Technology 6, 428-430 (1988)), Eikmanns et al. (Gene 102, 93-98 (1991)), EP-0 472 869, U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,893, Schwarzer and Pxc3xchler (Bio/Technology 9, 84-87 (1991)), Reinscheid et al. (Applied and Environmental Microbiology 60, 126-132 (1994)), LaBarre et al. (Journal of Bacteriology 175, 1001-1007 (1993)), WO 96/15246, Malumbres et al. (Gene 134, 15-24 (1993)), JP-A-10-229891, Jensen and Hammer (Biotechnology and Bioengineering 58, 191-195 (1998)) or the handbook xe2x80x9cManual of Methods for General Bacteriologyxe2x80x9d of the American Society for Bacteriology (Washington D.C., USA, 1981) and well-known textbooks on genetics and molecular biology.
The genes from Corynebacterium glutamicum used according to the invention are described and can be isolated, prepared or synthesized by known methods.
Methods of localized mutagenesis are described inter alia by Higuchi et al. (Nucleic Acids Research 16: 7351-7367 (1988)) or by Silver et al. in the handbook by Innis, Glefand and Sninsky (eds.) entitled PCR Strategies (Academic Press, London, UK, 1995).
The first step in isolating a gene of interest from C. glutamicum is to construct a gene library of this microorganism in e.g. E. coli or optionally also in C. glutamicum. The construction of gene libraries is documented in generally well-known textbooks and handbooks. Examples which may be mentioned are the textbook by Winnacker entitled From Genes to Clones, Introduction to Gene Technology (Verlag Chemie, Weinheim, Germany, 1990) or the handbook by Sambrook et al. entitled Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1989). Bathe et al. (Molecular and General Genetics 252: 255-265 (1996)) describe a gene library of C. glutamicum ATCC13032 which was constructed using cosmid vector SuperCos I (Wahl et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 84: 2160-2164 (1987)) in E. coli K-12 NM554 (Raleigh et al., Nucleic Acids Research 16: 1563-1575 (1988)). Bxc3x6rmann et al. (Molecular Microbiology 6(3), 317-326) in turn describe a gene library of C. glutamicum ATCC13032 using cosmid pHC79 (Hohn and Collins, Gene 11, 291-298 (1980)).
A gene library of C. glutamicum in E. coli can also be constructed using plasmids like pBR322 (Bolivar, Life Sciences 25, 807-818 (1979)) or pUC19 (Norrander et al., Gene, 26: 101-106 (1983)). In the same way it is also possible to use shuttle vectors such as pJC1 (Cremer et al., Molecular and General Genetics 220, 478-480 (1990)) or pEC5 (Eikmanns et al., Gene 102, 93-98 (1991)), which replicate in E. coli and C. glutamicum. Restriction- and/or recombination-defective strains are particularly suitable hosts, an example being the E. coli strain DH5xcex1mcr, which has been described by Grant et al. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 87, 4645-4649 (1990)). Other examples are the restriction-defective C. glutamicum strains RM3 and RM4, which are described by Schxc3xa4fer et al. (Applied and Environmental Microbiology 60(2), 756-759 (1994)).
The gene library is then transferred to an indicator strain by transformation (Hanahan, Journal of Molecular Biology 166, 557-580 (1983)) or electroporation (Tauch et al., FEMS Microbiological Letters, 123: 343-347 (1994)). The characteristic feature of the indicator strain is that it possesses a mutation in the gene of interest which causes a detectable phenotype, e.g. an auxotrophy. The indicator strains or mutants are obtainable from publicized sources or strain collections, e.g. the Genetic Stock Center of Yale University (New Haven, Conn., USA), or if necessary are specially prepared. An example of such an indicator strain which may be mentioned is the E. coli strain RDA8 requiring mesodiaminopimelic acid (Richaud et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Ser. III 293: 507-512 (1981)), which carries a mutation (dapA::Mu) in the dapA gene.
After transformation of the indicator strain with a recombinant plasmid carrying the gene of interest, and expression of the gene in question, the indicator strain becomes prototrophic in respect of the appropriate characteristic. If the cloned DNA fragment confers resistance, e.g. to an antimetabolite like S-(2-aminoethyl)cysteine, the indicator strain carrying the recombinant plasmid can be identified by selection on appropriately supplemented nutrient media.
If the nucleotide sequence of the gene region of interest is known or obtainable from a data bank, the chromosomal DNA can be isolated by known methods, e.g. as described by Eikmanns et al. (Microbiology 140, 1817-1828 (1994)), and the gene in question can be synthesized by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using suitable primers and cloned into a suitable plasmid vector, e.g. pCRIITOPO from Invitrogen (Groningen, The Netherlands). A summary of PCR methodology can be found in the book by Newton and Graham entitled PCR (Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany, 1994).
Examples of publicly accessible data banks for nucleotide sequences are that of the European Molecular Biologies Laboratories (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany) or that of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI, Bethesda, Md., USA).
The isolation and cloning of the lysE gene from C. glutamicum ATCC13032, together with the nucleotide sequence, are described in DE-A-195 48 222.
The isolation, cloning and sequencing of the dapA gene from various strains of C. glutamicum are described by Cremer et al. (Molecular and General Genetics 220: 478-480 (1990)), by Pisabarro et al. (Journal of Bacteriology 175: 2743-2749 (1993)) and by Bonnassie et al. (Nucleic Acids Research 18, 6421 (1990)). The nucleotide sequence of the dapA gene is obtainable under accession number X53993.
The isolation, cloning and sequencing of the dapB gene from Brevibacterium lactofermentum are described by Pisabarro et al. (Journal of Bacteriology 175: 2743-2749 (1993)). The nucleotide sequence of the dapB gene is obtainable under accession number X67737.
The isolation, cloning and sequencing of the lysC gene and of lysC alleles coding for a feedback-resistant aspartate kinase are reported by several authors. Thus, Kalinowski et al. (Molecular and General Genetics 224: 317-324 (1990)) report the lysC allele from the C. glutamicum strain DM58-1. DE-A-39 43 117 reports the cloning of the lysC allele from the C. glutamicum strain MH20. Follettie et al. (Journal of Bacteriology 175: 4096-4103 (1993)) report the lysC allele from the C. flavum strain N13, which is called ask in said publication. Kalinowski et al. (Molecular Microbiology 5, 1197-1204 (1991)) report the lysC gene from C. glutamicum ATCC13032. The nucleotide sequences of the lysC gene and of various lysC alleles are obtainable inter alia under accession numbers X57226 and E06826.
The genes obtained in this way can then be incorporated inter alia into plasmid vectors, e.g. pJC1 (Cremer et al., Molecular and General Genetics 220, 478-480 (1990)) or pEC5 (Eikmanns et al., Gene 102, 93-98 (1991)), individually or in suitable combinations, transferred to desired strains of corynebacteria, e.g. the strain MH20-22B (Schrumpf et al., Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 37: 566-571 (1992)), by transformation, e.g. as in Thierbach et al. (Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 29, 356-362 (1988)), or by electroporation, e.g. as in Dunican and Shivnan (Bio/Technology 7, 1067-1070 (1989)), and expressed. The strain to be chosen can equally well be transformed with two plasmid vectors, each containing the gene or genes in question, thereby achieving the advantageous, simultaneously enhanced expression of two or more genes in addition to the known enhancement of the lysE gene.
Examples of such strains are:
the strain MH20-22B/pJC33/pEC7lysE, in which the lysE and lysC genes are expressed with simultaneous enhancement, or
the strain MH20-22B/pJC50/pEC7lysE, in which the lysE, lysC and dapA genes are expressed with simultaneous enhancement, or
the strain MH20-22B/pJC23/pEC7lysE, in which the lysE and dapA genes are expressed with simultaneous enhancement, or
the strain MH20-22B/pJC23/pEC7dapBlysE, in which the lysE, dapA and dapB genes are expressed with simultaneous enhancement.
The microorganisms prepared according to the invention can be cultivated for L-lysine production continuously or discontinuously by the batch process, the fed batch process or the repeated fed batch process. A summary of known cultivation methods is provided in the textbook by Chmiel (Bioprozesstechnik 1. Einfxc3xchrung in die Bioverfahrenstechnik (Bioprocess Technology 1. Introduction to Bioengineering) (Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, 1991)) or in the textbook by Storhas (Bioreaktoren und periphere Einrichtungen (Bioreactors and Peripheral Equipment) (Vieweg Verlag, Brunswick/Wiesbaden, 1994)).
The culture medium to be used must appropriately meet the demands of the particular microorganisms. Descriptions of culture media for various microorganisms can be found in the handbook xe2x80x9cManual of Methods for General Bacteriologyxe2x80x9d of the American Society for Bacteriology (Washington D.C., USA, 1981).
Carbon sources which can be used are sugars and carbohydrates, e.g. glucose, sucrose, lactose, fructose, maltose, molasses, starch and cellulose, oils and fats, e.g. soya oil, sunflower oil, groundnut oil and coconut fat, fatty acids, e.g. palmitic acid, stearic acid and linoleic acid, alcohols, e.g. glycerol and ethanol, and organic acids, e.g. acetic acid. These substances can be used individually or as a mixture.
Nitrogen sources which can be used are organic nitrogen-containing compounds such as peptones, yeast extract, meat extract, malt extract, corn steep liquor, soybean flour and urea, or inorganic compounds such as ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, ammonium phosphate, ammonium carbonate and ammonium nitrate. The nitrogen sources can be used individually or as a mixture.
Phosphorus sources which can be used are potassium dihydrogenphosphate or dipotassium hydrogenphosphate or the corresponding sodium salts. The culture medium must also contain metal salts, e.g. magnesium sulfate or iron sulfate, which are necessary for growth. Finally, essential growth-promoting substances such as amino acids and vitamins can be used in addition to the substances mentioned above. Said feed materials can be added to the culture all at once or fed in appropriately during cultivation.
The pH of the culture is controlled by the appropriate use of basic compounds such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide or ammonia, or acid compounds such as phosphoric acid or sulfuric acid. Foaming can be controlled using antifoams such as fatty acid polyglycol esters. The stability of plasmids can be maintained by optionally adding suitable selectively acting substances, e.g. antibiotics, to the medium. Aerobic conditions are maintained by introducing oxygen or oxygen-containing gaseous mixtures, e.g. air, into the culture. The temperature of the culture is normally 20xc2x0 C. to 45xc2x0 C. and preferably 25xc2x0 C. to 40xc2x0 C. The culture is continued until L-lysine formation has reached a maximum. This objective is normally achieved within 10 hours to 160 hours.
The concentration of L-lysine formed can be determined with the aid of amino acid analyzers by means of ion exchange chromatography and postcolumn reaction with ninhydrin detection, as described by Spackmann et al. (Analytical Chemistry 30, 1190 (1958)).
The following microorganisms have been deposited in the Deutsche Sammlung fxc3xcr Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen (German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ), Brunswick, Germany) under the terms of the Budapest Treaty:
Escherichia coli K-12 strain DH5xcex1/pEC7lysE as DSM12871
Escherichia coli K-12 strain DH5xcex1/pEC7dapBlysE as DSM12875
Corynebacterium glutamicum strain DSM5715/pJC23 as DSM12869
Corynebacterium glutamicum strain DSM5715aecD::dapA(MA16) as DSM12867
Corynebacterium glutamicum strain DSM5715aecD::dapA(MC20) as DSM12868

L-lysine-producing corynebacteria and process for the preparation of L-lysine


A method for locating a synchronization sequence S having a length s in a serial bit stream, and an arrangement for the implementation of such a method make use of the fact that the synchronization sequence S is composed of a plurality of individual words A, B, C having respective lengths a, b, c. The search in the serial bit stream relates only to a word length a, b, c and not to the entire length s of the synchronization sequence S. When a word A, B, C has been recognized, the expected value for the search for the next word A, B, C is set by a controller. The expected values for the words A, B, C to be searched are programmable and thus can be freely defined for each application, so they can be selected in an application-specific manner. The words A, B, C to be searched can be characterized by two auxiliary bits Z whose formation is exactly inverted relative to that of normal data words A, B, C. This guarantees an unambiguous and dependable recognition of these words A, B, C.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method for locating a synchronization sequence S having a length s in a serial bit stream, and an arrangement for the implementation of such a method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In many instances, the transmission of digital data requires a frame structure of the data. In order to save connecting lines, no frame start signal is transmitted given the transmission of the data from ASIC to ASIC. The receiver ASIC must then determine the frame start from the data stream.
For locating an n-bit long synchronization sequence in a serial bit stream, it is known to search bit-by-bit in the serial data and to undertake a comparison to the entire synchronization sequence. This requires a high realization outlay with a high logic depth and a long latent time until the recognition of the word boundary in the data stream.
An object of the invention is to provide a method and a computer-readable data carrier available with which a synchronization sequence can be located faster in a serial bit stream and with lower realization outlay, particularly less silicon area and lower dissipated power.
The above object is achieved in accordance with the principles of the present invention in a first version of a method for locating a synchronization sequence in a serial bit stream, wherein the synchronization sequence is defined as being composed of a first word with a prescribable first length and at least one second word with a prescribable second length, wherein a first comparison of the first word is undertaken to an arbitrary bit sequence of the serial bit stream having the first length, and jumping to a second repetition if the first word agrees with this bit sequence, executing a first repetition of the comparison of the first word to a bit sequence shifted by one bit compared to the previously compared bit sequence, if the first word does not agree with the previously compared bit sequence, executing a second repetition of the comparison of the first word to a bit sequence shifted by one bit relative to the previously checked bit sequence until a bit sequence shifted by the second length is checked, executing a first return jump to the second repetition as soon as coincidence is found in one of the executions of the second repetition, undertaking a second comparison as to whether the second word coincides with the bit sequence shifted by the second length, and executing a second return jump to the first repetition if no coincidence is found in the second comparison, and otherwise ending the method.
In a second version of the method, the synchronization sequence is defined as containing three or more words, and an additional execution is inserted for each further word between the step of the second return jump and the end, with each additional execution corresponding to the steps beginning with the second repetition up to and including the second return jump, but with a further word, having a further length, being used instead of the second word and the second length.
The inventive method makes it possible for the search in the serial bit stream to relate only to a word length a, b rather than to the entire length s of the synchronization sequence. When a word A, B has been recognized, the expected value for the search for the next word A, B is set by a controller. This method of word-by-word recognition offers several advantages. For example, only very short latent times are required until the recognition of the word boundaries in the data stream. Additionally, the realization outlay is lower compared to bit-by-bit recognition, since a shorter comparison sequence (only respectively one word) is used, which leads to less of a logic depth. Also, the expected values for the words A, B to be searched are programmable, and thus can be freely defined for each application, and thus can be selected in an application-specific manner. When an inventive method is implemented with an arrangement that comprises an integrated circuit, then silicon area and dissipated power are saved.

Method and arrangement for locating a synchronization sequence in a serial bit stream


The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a transparent conductive film and a method for manufacturing a CF substrate having the transparent conductive film. The method for manufacturing a conductive film includes: step 1: dissolving a mixed powder of graphene oxide and pure graphene in water and carrying out an ultrasonic treatment to obtain a stable aqueous solution of mixed graphene oxide and pure graphene; step 2: coating the stable aqueous solution of mixed graphene oxide and pure graphene on a substrate; step 3: subjecting the aqueous solution of mixed graphene oxide and pure graphene that is coated on the substrate to a drying treatment at 30-90° C. so as to obtain a film of mixed graphene oxide and pure graphene; step 4: applying a reducing agent to cause chemical reduction of the graphene oxide contained in the film of mixed graphene oxide and pure graphene so as to obtain a film of pure graphene, wherein the reducing agent is an ascorbic acid solution; and step 5: washing and drying the film of pure graphene obtained after chemical reduction so as to form a transparent conductive film on the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of manufacture of liquid crystal display, and in particular to a method for manufacturing a transparent conductive film and a method for manufacturing a CF (Color Filter) substrate having the conductive film.
2. The Related Arts
Heretofore, a commonly used transparent conductive material is a metal oxide mixed transparent conductive material, such as indium tin oxide (ITO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO), among which the most commonly used one is the ITO transparent conductive material that has a light transmittance as high as 90%. However, element indium is a rare and expensive metal and the manufacture of ITO film requires high degree of vacuum and a relatively high temperature. The ITO film so obtained is brittle, making it difficult to make a flexible electrode. These limit further development of the ITO transparent conductive material.
Recently, researches revealed that graphene is a novel carbon based material having a two-dimensional honeycomb structure formed by a single layer of densely packed carbon atoms. Graphene is the thinnest but hardest nanometer material that is currently known and is almost perfectly clear, absorbing 2.3% of light and having an electric resistivity of around 10−6Ω·cm, which is lower than that of copper or silver, making it a material of lowest electric resistivity that is currently known, and can be manufactured by various processes, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), micro-machine exfoliation, and epitaxial growth. Since graphene has an electrical conductivity that matches ITO and has a light transmittance as high as 97% and also since graphene has mechanical strength and flexibility both superior to the ITO transparent conductive material, graphene can be used completely in place of ITO in making a transparent conductive electrode or conductive layer. Further, graphene made with a CVD process is of low manufacture cost, requiring no high temperature and high pressure, and grapheme has unmatchable superiority to ITO transparent conductive materials in flexible displaying. Thus, grapheme has a more prosperous future of application.
It is thus desired to provide a graphene transparent conductive film having various parameters that are all suitable to replace the ITO transparent conductive film for application in an CF substrate of a liquid crystal display in order to acquire an electrode of a graphene transparent conductive film having high transmittance and excellent flexibility to accordingly improve the transmittance of a CF substrate of a liquid crystal display panel that uses graphene transparent conductive material and reduce the use of backlighting.

Method for manufacturing transparent conductive film and method for manufacturing CF substrate having conductive film

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


A fluorine-containing thermoplastic elastomer composition comprising a continuous phase of at least one melt-formable thermoplastic fluorocarbon resin and a disperse phase of vulcanizate of a fluorine-containing elastomer having vulcanizable sites selected from the group consisting of epoxy groups, carboxylic acid groups, carboxylic acid derivative groups, sulfonic acid groups and sulfonic acid derivative groups, wherein the disperse phase is from 50 to 90% by weight based on the total amount of the continuous phase and the disperse phase.

A two-phase composition comprising a continuous phase thermoplastic material and a disperse phase elastomer, produced by dynamically vulcanizing the elastomer while the disperse phase elastomer is dispersed in the continuous phase thermoplastic material, is disclosed and known, for example, in Coran et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,348,502, 4,130,535, 4,173,556, 4,207,404 and 4,409,365.
A fluorocarbon resin or a fluorine-containing elastomer is excellent in the heat resistance, and a two-phase blend obtainable by a combination of these materials, is expected to be excellent in the heat resistance. Such a fluorine-containing two-phase blend is disclosed in EP168020A. The elastomer used here is substantially a vinylidene fluoride/hexafluoropropylene elastomer, and as its vulcanization method, polyol vulcanization by a combination of bisphenol AF, an acid-receiving agent and an onium salt, or peroxide vulcanization by a combination of an organic peroxide and a polyfunctional unsaturated compound, is employed.
However, by such a vulcanization system, it takes a long time to completely vulcanize the fluorine-containing elastomer, and it is necessary to conduct oven vulcanization after the dynamic vulcanization, and there has been a problem that by the dynamic vulcanization only, the mechanical properties tend to be inadequate, particularly the permanent strain tends to be substantial, due to inadequate vulcanization of the elastomer in the composition.

Fluorine-containing thermoplastic elastomer composition and process for its production


Examples include techniques to manage cache resource allocations associated with one or more cache class of service (CLOS) assignments for a processor cache. Examples include flushing portions of an allocated cache resource responsive to reassignments of CLOS.

A processor of a computing platform coupled to a network (e.g., in a datacenter) may be associated with various types of resources that may be allocated to an application, virtual machine (VM) or process hosted by the computing platform. The various types of resources may include, but are not limited to, central processing unit (CPU) cores, system memory such as random access memory, network bandwidth or processor cache (e.g., last level cache (LLC)). Performance requirements for the application that may be based on service level agreements (SLAs) or general quality of service (QoS) requirements may make it necessary to reserve or allocate one of more of these various types of resources to ensure SLAs and/or QoS requirements are met.

Techniques to manage cache resource allocations for a processor cache


A method for automatically controlling an exposure time in a CMOS image sensor includes the steps of a) estimating green pixel values and counting green pixels according to respective predetermined ranges, b) calculating a first total count value and a first maximum count value of green pixels having pixel values greater than a predetermined reference range and a second total count value and a second maximum count value of the green pixels having pixel values smaller than the reference ranges, c) comparing the first total count value with the second total count value, d) comparing a third total count value of the green pixels having a pixel value within the predetermined reference range with the first maximum count value if the first total count value is greater than the second total count value, and comparing the third total count value with the second maximum count value if the second total count value is greater than the first total count value, e) capturing a next image according to a current exposure time control signal if the third total count value is greater, and calculating an exposure control rate and an exposure time control signal and capturing the next image according to the next exposure time control signal if the third total count value is smaller, and f) repeating the steps a) to e) until the final completion of capturing image.

The present invention relates to a CMOS image sensor; and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for automatically controlling an exposure time using a counter that counts green pixels according to predetermined ranges, reducing a burden of hardware and software and improving a performance of the CMOS image sensor.
A conventional image sensor has controlled an illuminance of image using software. Software calculates a current illuminance using a captured image value. Then, if the calculated illuminance is judged to be very bright or very dark, an external controller adjusts the illuminance of the image. Thereafter, illuminance of the adjusted image is again read to judge the illuminance of the image.
In such a conventional method for controlling illuminance through software, however, the actual judgement of the illuminance is completed after processing at least two images from the image sensor. Therefore, a problem may occur and the software is burdened with an increased amount of calculation. In addition, the calculated results should be again programmed through a programming interface and the programmed results is applied to the image capturing, so that a considerable delay time is required. Furthermore, in case the image sensor is used in such as CCTV (Closed Circuit TeleVision), where it is difficult for software to control the illuminance, it may not cope with the change of situation initially set up.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for automatically controlling an exposure time using a counter that counts green pixels according to predetermined ranges, reducing a burden of hardware and software and improving a performance of the CMOS image sensor.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for automatically controlling an exposure time in a CMOS image sensor, comprising: a data-estimation means for estimating the green pixel values according to respective predetermined ranges to generate count control signals; a counting means for performing a counting operation in response to the corresponding count control signals, wherein the counting means includes a first counter for counting green pixels having pixel values within a predetermined reference range, a second plurality of counters for counting green pixels having pixel values greater than the predetermined reference ranges according to the respective predetermined ranges, and a third plurality of counters for counting green pixels having pixel values smaller than the predetermined ranges according to the respective predetermined ranges; a first means for adding and comparing count values from the second plurality of counters to generate a first total count value and a first maximum count value; a second means for adding and comparing count values from the third plurality of counters to generate a second total count value and a second maximum count value; a control means for comparing count values of the first counter, the second plurality of counters and the third plurality of counters to generate a update control signal and an exposure control rate; and an exposure time control signal generating means, in response to an exposure control mode signal and the update control signal, for generating a next exposure time control signal.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for automatically controlling an exposure time in a CMOS image sensor, comprising the steps of: a) estimating green pixel values and counting green pixels according to respective predetermined ranges; b) calculating a first total count value and a first maximum count value of green pixels having pixel values greater than a predetermined reference range and a second total count value and a second maximum count value of the green pixels having pixel values smaller than the reference ranges; c) comparing the first total count value with the second total count value; d) comparing a third total count value of the green pixels having a pixel value within the predetermined reference range with the first maximum count value if the first total count value is greater than the second total count value, and comparing the third total count value with the second maximum count value if the second total count value is greater than the first total count value; e) capturing a next image according to a current exposure time control signal if the third total count value is greater, and calculating a next exposure time control signal and capturing the next image according to the next exposure time control signal if the third total count value is smaller; and f) repeating the steps a) to e) until the final completion of capturing image.

Apparatus and method for automatically controlling exposure time in CMOS image sensor

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.


In the embodiments of the present invention, proposed is a method in which a CoMP enabled UE chooses the BSs to be in its cooperating set and a BS partitions its bandwidth to serve its own UEs and UEs from other cells that have requested it to be in its cooperating set.

In traditional cellular systems, each cell transmits to its own user equipment (UE) and in the process creates interference to UEs in adjacent cells. This is illustrated in FIG. 1A. However, in coordinated multipoint transmission/reception (CoMP) based systems, multiple base stations (BSs) can coordinate to transmit to a UE as shown in FIG. 1B. There is rate gain from both coordination and also elimination of interference. "3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Further Advancements for E-UTRA Physical Layer Aspects (Release 9), 3GPP TR 36.8.14 V0.4.1 (2009-03)" teaches that CoMP strategies fall into the following two strategies.
a) Coordinated Scheduling and/or Beamforming (CS/CB)    i) Data to a single UE is transmitted from one of the transmission points where a transmission point means a BS in the set of cooperating BSs.    ii) Scheduling decisions at different transmission points are coordinated to control the interference generated.
b) Joint Processing/Transmission (JP)    i) Data to a single UE is simultaneously transmitted (coherently or non-coherently) from multiple transmission points to improve the received signal quality and/or cancel actively interference for other UEs.
The first step in any CoMP scheme, such as CS/CB or JP, is to decide which BS will cooperate for a given UE. In "R1-092232, Summary of email discussions CoMP v2", 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 meeting #57″, the following terms are introduced in this context.    i) CoMP measurement set: Set of cells for a given UE whose link gains matrices are measured by the UE.    ii) CoMP Cooperating set: Set of cells that cooperate to transmit to a given UE.In CS/CB user data need not be shared amongst cells in the cooperating set but in JP data needs to be shared.
The layout of cells is shown in FIG. 2. This is a model which is widely used for analysis and simulation of cellular systems as it is a close approximation of the real physical layout. It is considered that a 57 cell network organized in groups of 19 such that the base stations of the 3 cells within each group are co-located. Each of the 3 co-located base stations use a directional antenna that confines the majority of its transmitted signal energy into a sector of 120 degrees and the three sectors from three cells are non-overlapping. When there is no coordination, each UE is served by its serving cell. In case of CoMP, groups of cells can serve a given UE. Such groups can be formed either in a static way depending on cell geometry or dynamically, based on the link gains of the UEs to the cells.
In a static cooperating set formation, the clusters of cells are formed apriori to the UE signaling and reporting of link gain values to different cells. The formation of clusters is based on geometry. FIG. 3 shows two such configurations. In FIG. 3A, adjacent sectors belonging to different cell sites coordinate while in FIG. 3B, the three sectors belonging to the same cell site coordinate. For graphical clarity only one coordinating set is illustrated in the figure, the others can be obtained by repeating the pattern over the entire cellular area. In each case the cooperating set consists of three sectors and they serve all the UEs that are associated with any one of the three sectors. Static cooperating sets have been considered by many references, such as R1-0933177, "DL performance evaluation for ITU-R submission", 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 meeting #5″, R1-093585, "A Simple Coordinated Scheduling Algorithm for Downlink CoMP", 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 meeting #58″, and "H. Huang and M. Trivellato, "Performance of multiuser MIMO and network coordination in downlink cellular networks"".
The problem with static cooperating set formation is that, for a given UE, the cells that have the strongest link gain to it after its serving cell (i.e. the cell that serves it in case of no CoMP), may not lie in its cooperating set. These cells would then cause strong interference. This is possible due to the random nature of link gain of which the random shadowing component is the biggest factor. Thus, in another way of forming the cooperating set of a given UE, the UE first determines the cells with the strongest link gains (by measuring the Reference Signal Received Power or RSRP of all cells and finding out which ones lie within a threshold of the serving cell) and then reports this to its serving cell. The serving cell then decides to form a cooperating set with these cells. Such approaches have been considered in "R1-093410, "Coordinated Beamforming Algorithms Based on Spatial Covariance Feedback and its Gain over Single-point SU/MU Beamforming", 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 meeting #58".
Frequency partitioning is another important method that increases the overall system performance. One simple illustrative example could be that the total available spectrum is partitioned into disjoint bands to transmit to different classes of UEs. This mitigates the problem of interference and allows each cell to perform SU MIMO algorithms in these disjoint bands. The other alternative would have to transmit to the different UEs in the total band but use MU-MIMO beamforming to mitigate interference. The former approach of frequency partitioning can be easier to implement. Often different frequency bands are used for transmitting to uses in the cell edge as they are the most prone to interference. Such approaches have been considered in "R1-093279, "Downlink CoMP based on cooperative precoding", 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 meeting #58".
Coordinated Multipoint Transmission/Reception (CoMP) is considered to be an important feature for Release-10 (Rel-10) LTE-Advanced technology as this enhances the system data rate and reliability. CoMP involves multiple cells cooperating together to transmit to a single UE. In the future it is envisaged that there will be networks which will have a mixture of Release 8 (Rel-8) LTE UEs that do not support CoMP and Rel-10 UEs that have the option of using the CoMP mode, especially during the period of transition when the market moves from the current LTE stage to the future LTE-A stage.
If a UE is using the CoMP mode, the transmission set or the cells that cooperate to transmit to it, needs to be decided. Instead of forming fixed transmission sets based on cell geometry, it is better to form these dynamically based on the UE link gains to the various cells (R1-093410, "Coordinated Beamforming Algorithms Based on Spatial Covariance Feedback and its Gain over Single-point SU/MU Beamforming", 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 meeting #58).
At each Transmission Time Interval (TTI), the BS of a cell has to decide to which UE to transmit to amongst all UEs for which it is the serving cell. One approach would be to transmit to that UE to which it can support the highest data rate, which is the UE which has the best link gain to the BS. However as link gains are strongly dependant on distance, this means that most of the times the nearby UEs are scheduled. Thus this scheduling method is said to be unfair to the faraway UEs. To remedy this situation, the proportional fair (PF) metric has been introduced and is widely used in many wireless systems such as CDMA/HDR. In this method the BS calculates the instantaneous rate to a UE if that UE is scheduled and divides it by the average rate received by the UE till that TTI. The UE with the highest value of this metric is chosen for transmission. Thus in PF scheduling both instantaneous rate (strength of link gain) and average rate (long term fairness) is considered.
Thus, there is a need for efficient portioning of BS resources, such as time, bandwidth and also assigning BSs to cooperating sets of different UEs so that there is seamless operation of both Rel-8 and Rel-10 UEs.

UE initiated frequency partitioning based CoMP scheme for downlink cellular communications


The disclosure relates to technology for compensating for I/Q imbalance. An apparatus includes I-path circuitry having a first analog filter configured to filter an I-path signal and Q-path circuitry having a second analog filter configured to filter a Q-path signal. An I/Q imbalance compensation circuit of the apparatus is configured to process digital versions of the I-path signal and the Q-path signal to compensate for mismatch between the I-path circuitry and the Q-path circuitry. A first circuit of the apparatus is configured to apply a coarse adjustment to at least one of the first analog filter or the second analog filter to reduce an initial mismatch between the I-path circuitry and the Q-path circuitry. The first circuit is configured to operate the I/Q imbalance compensation circuit to compensate for a residual mismatch between the I-path circuitry and the Q-path circuitry with the coarse adjustment applied.

A radio transmitter may have I-path circuitry and Q-path circuitry. The I-path circuitry and the Q-path circuitry may have counterpart components. For example, the I-path circuitry may have an I-path frequency mixer, whereas the Q-path circuitry may have a Q-path frequency mixer. The frequency mixers in a radio transmitter are sometimes referred to as up-mixers. The up-mixers are used to up-convert the frequency of a signal. In a radio transmitter, the I-path frequency mixer and the Q-path frequency mixer may be fed from a common local oscillator whose phase is offset 90° to one of the frequency mixers. The I-path frequency mixer output and Q-path frequency mixer output are then summed in a summing amplifier to produce the desired radio frequency (RF) signal.
If the local oscillator signal has a frequency of "LO", and an input signal to each mixer is a tone having a frequency of "x", then each frequency mixer outputs a signal with a first tone at "LO−f" and a second tone with a frequency of "LO+f." However, due to the quadrature phase relationship, the tones at LO+f are in phase.
Whereas the tones at LO−f are out of phase. Therefore, the tones below LO can cancel each other out. However, any mismatch in amplitude or phase between the tones degrades the effectiveness of this cancellation. Also, the tones above LO can sum together. However, any mismatch in amplitude or phase between tones degrades the effectiveness of this summing. This mismatch in amplitude or phase is sometimes referred to as an I/Q imbalance, and may result in distortion in the transmitted radio frequency signal. More generally, the input signal to each of the frequency mixers is not a tone, but a signal having a range of frequencies. Thus, I/Q imbalance occurs when the input signals to the frequency mixers have a range of frequencies. The I/Q imbalance may result when there is a mismatch between counterpart components in the I-path circuitry and the Q-path circuitry. The mismatch may be between the frequency mixers and/or counterpart components anywhere else in the I-path circuitry and the Q-path circuitry, such as counterpart analog filters.
Some radio receivers have an I-path frequency mixer and a Q-path frequency mixer which are fed from a common local oscillator whose phase is offset 90° to one of the mixers. These frequency mixers are sometimes referred to as down-mixers. The down-mixers are used to down-convert the frequency of an RF signal. After down-conversion, the signal from each down-mixer may be fed to an analog filter. A mismatch between counterpart components (e.g., counterpart analog filters) in the I-path circuitry and the Q-path circuitry may result in I/Q imbalance, I/Q imbalance in a radio receiver may limit the effectiveness of the design, thereby resulting in distortion.


The present application discloses systems and methods for adapting the rate at which the packets are transmitted. In one embodiment, the method includes: (a) receiving a packet; (b) determining whether the packet is high priority packet or a low priority packet; and (c) determining whether a transmission rate value, which defines the maximum rate or maximum average rate at which the node should transmit the low priority packets, should be adjusted, wherein the determination is based, at least in part, on whether at least some number of high priority packets and/or bits was received since a point in time; and (d) adjusting the transmission rate value if it is determined in step (c) that the transmission rate value should be adjusted.

A gateway (e.g., a residential gateway (RGW) or other communication device) is computer that connects a first network (e.g., a local area network (LAN)) to a second network (e.g., a wide area network (WAN)). That is, the gateway functions to receive traffic from a device connected to the first network and retransmit the traffic to a device connected to the second network and vice-versa.
Traffic received at a gateway may consist of two types: (1) high-priority (HP) traffic (e.g. Internet Protocol (IP) television traffic (IPTV), IP telephony, etc.) and (2) low-priority (LP) traffic (e.g. transmission control protocol (TCP) packets). Since HP traffic is sensitive to delay and packet loss, it is generally desirable to guarantee a specific bandwidth for HP traffic (e.g., to guarantee that the gateway will retransmit HP traffic at a certain rate at least). LP traffic, on the other hand, generally does not require a guaranteed bandwidth. One way to guarantee a specific bandwidth for HP traffic is to dedicate certain gateway resources (e.g., a certain amount of gateway bandwidth) to HP traffic such that these dedicated resources can not be used by LP traffic. A problem with this solution is that it is inefficient when the rate at which HP traffic arrives at the gateway is less than bandwidth dedicated to the HP traffic. This is inefficient because a portion of the dedicated bandwidth would go unused.
What is desired are improved systems and methods for controlling data transmission rates.

Systems and methods for controlling data transmission rates


Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for fabricating solar-grade high purity polycrystalline silicon compacts. Silicon compacts are fabricating by loading polycrystalline silicon powders into a mold without addition of binders in a vacuum atmosphere, and pressurizing and heating the polycrystalline silicon powders. Heating method includes a high-frequency induction heating type, an Ohmic heating type, and a high current supply type.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for fabricating solar-grade high purity powder compacts using fine polycrystalline silicon powders without addition of binders, as well as a binder-free silicon compact fabricated by the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
The global solar cell market has been growing strongly by annual average growth of over 35% since the mid-1990s wherein crystalline silicon-based solar cells account for more than 97% of solar cells in the market in respect of material and take the initiative in market growth. In the meantime, high purity silicon material which is a core material for solar cells has been supplied by scraps of single crystalline silicon for semiconductor wafers or off-specification polycrystalline silicon. However, the global solar cell market has been rapidly growing since the mid-1990s and the supply did not fall short of the fast growing demand with the entrance toward the industrialized phase and consequently the solar cell market has reached the situation of serious supply shortage since 2004. Shortage phenomenon of silicon material will be continued worldwide for some time due to the demand for investment in facilities on a large scale in order to manufacture the polycrystalline silicon raw material. In particular for example, Korea depends on imports for almost all of demand and Korea is now trying to prepare for its own solution such as the construction of a silicon factory with 3,000 ton annual production capacity by DC Chemical Co., Ltd from 2006, to promote national solar cell industry and obtain the international competitiveness.
In the present day, worldwide high purity polycrystalline silicon is manufactured by purifying a raw material silane gas including silicon (trichlorosilane or mono-silane) and then precipitating a purified silane gas into a high purity dense polycrystalline silicon in a high temperature. At this time, a large amount of fine polycrystalline powders are produced as byproducts in the process of silane decomposition. Accordingly, the necessity for utilizing the fine polycrystalline silicon powders as the material for solar cells is being raised.
Upon examining closely attempts to use such polycrystalline silicon powders as the material for solar cells, you will find out that the Siemens and the Freiburg in Germany made researches to fabricate wafers directly from polycrystalline silicon powders using a sintering method in the past 1980s in order to reduce a manufacturing process and material loss. However, since this method was considered as not having merits, compared to the commercial processes, it did not reach commercialization. Until now the polycrystalline silicon powder, mixed with high purity raw materials, has been used mainly as a charge material of HEM process. Recently, methods of manufacturing a pellet-type compact from polycrystalline silicon powder to overcome problems involved in low capacity and handling have been proposed. To classify them largely, there are methods of manufacturing compacts with addition of chemical additives such as binders, or manufacturing compacts under a room temperature or through a melting process without using chemical additives such as binders. However, in view of research experience and viewpoint of inventors of this invention, there is a problem of containment due to remaining of chemical additives in the case of using chemical additives, there is a problem of the limitation of density and strength of compacts in the case of manufacturing under a room temperature without binders and there is a problem of being the possibility of pollution due to the passage of the melting process in the case of manufacturing through the melting process without binders.
Furthermore, there occurs only in Korea more than 100 ton per year of saw dust sludge during the manufacturing processes of semiconductors and solar cells but the sludge is now used as low level products (1˜5$/kg).
Therefore, technology development of recycling scraps and saw dust sludge into low priced silicon raw material for solar cells is urgently needed in reality.
In "Technology of Compacting and Melting and Casting polycrystalline silicon fine powders for economical Si ingot production", B. M. Moon et al., published on Proceedings of The Korean Society for New and Renewable Energy on Jun. 21, 2007, a lot of fine powders produced in the process of manufacturing high purity polycrystalline silicon are washed and dried, 1.6 g to 1.8 g of the fine powders were loaded in a die without the addition of binders, the system including the die filled with fine powders was first evacuated to 3 torr and the fine powders are then compacted with a uniaxial pressure of 700 kgf/cm2 in the room temperature. As a result, it is presented that polycrystalline silicon powder compacts can be obtained even without using binders.
In the case of a compact specimen using the washed powders without addition of binders, the electrical resistivity of the compact specimen does not reach electrical resistivity 0.5 Ωcm which is generally required for wafers of solar cells. This is why byproducts produced in a wet washing process and contaminants contained in wash liquid itself are not removed completely.
At the time of silicon crystal growth, in order to prevent containments such as water and oxides from mixing due to a large surface area of polycrystalline silicon powders, the polycrystalline silicon powders were dried in a vacuum atmosphere or were subjected to a dry heat-treatment in a reducing atmosphere of 10% H2—Ar in the temperature of 1,200˜1,300° C., for one hour. The powders were then melted and fabricated to be silicon crystals. For two silicon crystalline powder compacts made in the above method, the electrical resistivity thereof was 3 Ωcm and 4.6 Ωcm, respectively.
However, the process for compacting stably and effectively fine powders generated a lot as by-products in the current process to precipitate high purity dense polycrystalline and powder scraps generated in the semiconductor process, was not proposed in this research.
In addition, since powders or scraps were low in a bulk density at the time of loading, melting efficiency was low and it was hardly possible to manufacture a large mass of ingot, it is difficult to handle and deliver powders or scraps and there was a problem that the contaminants are produced at the time of delivery.

Method and apparatus for fabricating high purity silicon compacts using silicon powders, and binder-free silicon compact fabricated by the same

Korea Institute of Industrial Technology


The present invention discloses a frequency synthesizer. The frequency synthesizer includes a delay unit, for receiving a reference signal and delaying the reference signal according to a delay parameter, so as to generate a delay reference signal; a phase-locked loop, for generating an output signal according to the delay reference signal and a feedback frequency dividing signal; a control unit, for generating the delay parameter and a frequency dividing parameter according to a target magnification factor; and a frequency divider, for dividing the frequency of the output signal according to the frequency dividing parameter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a frequency synthesizer, and more particularly, to a synthesizer capable of reducing jitter noise and suitable for high accuracy frequency synthesizing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Frequency synthesizer is a device for performing frequency synthesizing, so as to output specific frequency. Common frequency synthesizer adopts the structure of sigma-delta modulating and is realized in analog method.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram of a conventional frequency synthesizer 10 with a sigma-delta modulating structure. The frequency synthesizer 10 includes a phase-locked loop 102, a frequency divider 104, and a sigma-delta modulator 106. The phase-locked loop 102 generates an output signal SO according to a reference signal SREF and a feedback signal SF. The sigma-delta modulator 106 is utilized for controlling the frequency dividing ratio of the frequency divider 104. However, the frequency synthesizer 10 of the sigma-delta modulating structure utilizes the concept of averaging frequency for acquiring the required signal frequency and the accuracy of the frequency divider 104 is determined based on the length of the output signal SO. The speed of phase locking may be slow if the accuracy of the frequency divider 104 is insufficient. In such a condition, the cost would be significantly higher for achieving an acceptable performance.
On the other hand, the variations of signals are tremendous when the sigma-delta modulator 106 modulates the frequency dividing ratio of the frequency divider 104. Thus, significant variations of the frequency dividing ratio generate considerable jitter noise. For example, assume the reference frequency FR is the frequency of the reference signal SREF and the frequency FO is the frequency of the output signal SO. If the required output frequency FO is 5.3 times the reference frequency FR (FO=5.3FR), the sigma-delta modulator 106 controls the frequency divider 104 to selectively perform the frequency dividing procedure of 5 times and 6 times for acquiring the output signal SO with an average frequency equaling 5.3 times the reference frequency FR. In such a condition, the signal variation margin reaches 20%, which results in significant jitter noise. The phase-locked loop 102 therefore needs to configure greater capacitor for filtering jitter noise. However, the configuration of the greater capacitor can lead to slower reaction speed and greater area of the integrated chip. The manufacture cost is therefore increased.


A tool for the installation, removal and tightening of endless tracks of a tracked vehicle includes a first tubular member that telescopically receives a second tubular member with a rotatable handle mounted to the first tubular member opposite the second tubular member and a threaded rod interconnected to the handle and axially extending within and through both tubular members for engagement to a threaded nut fixedly mounted within the bore of the second tubular member and the underside of each tubular member including a track bar hook that can be hooked on to the cross bars of successive track sections of the endless track with clockwise rotation of the handle causing the telescoping retraction of the second tubular member for decreasing the distance between successive track sections and for increasing tension on the endless tracks and counterclockwise rotation of the handle for relieving tension on the tracks in order to facilitate the desired maintenance on the endless tracks.

The present invention comprehends a lightweight, portable tool for performing various types of maintenance on the endless steel tracks of machinery and equipment, with an especial emphasis on maintenance for the endless steel tracks of equipment commonly referred to as skid loaders. Such maintenance includes the installation, removal and tightening of the steel tracks with the tool of the present invention adapted to perform such functions in a fast, easy, timesaving manner.
The tool of the present invention comprehends a first tubular member having a bore and a handle end and an opposite distal second end. Mounted at the handle end is an external handle that is capable of both pivotal and rotatable (clockwise and counterclockwise) motion. Disposed within the first tubular member at the handle end is a thrust bearing and extending from the thrust bearing within the bore is a threaded rod. The threaded rod includes right-handed threads. The threaded rod extends substantially the length of the bore and is interconnected to the handle so that rotation of the handle (in either aforementioned direction) results in the concomitant rotation of the threaded rod.
Disposed partially within the first tubular member is a second tubular member. The second tubular member is capable of telescopic retraction and advancement relative to the first tubular member. The second tubular member also includes a second bore coextensive therewith and an inner end that is always encompassed within the bore of the first tubular member irrespective of the amount of advancement of the second tubular member during the use of the tool. Fixedly mounted at the inner end of the second tubular member is a nut, and the threaded rod engages and extends through the nut so that at all times a portion of the length of the threaded rod is located within the second bore of the second tubular member.
Each tubular member includes a track bar hook and the track bar hooks are generally l-shaped and project inwardly toward each other and are located on the bottom of the tool. The track bar hooks are secured to the cross bars of two adjacent and successive track sections. Thus, clockwise rotation of the handle rotates the threaded rod against the nut and causes the second tubular member to withdraw or retract within the first tubular member while counter clockwise rotation of the handle causes the counter clockwise rotation of the threaded rod against the nut and results in the linear advancement of the second tubular member relative to the first tubular member. Generally, after the hooks are hooked about opposite cross bars of adjacent track sections, clockwise rotation of the handle tightens the tension on the connecting bolts for the links that hold the adjacent track sections together while counter clockwise rotation of the handle slackens the tension on the connecting bolts for the links that hold the adjacent track sections together.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a tool for performing maintenance on endless steel tracks and which facilitates the fast and easy installation, removal and tightening of the tracks on the equipment.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a tool for performing maintenance on endless steel tracks that greatly reduces the time and effort required for the installation, removal and tightening of the endless tracks.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a tool for performing maintenance on endless steel tracks that contractors, construction companies, and landscapers would find useful and desirable.
It is still yet another objective of the present invention to provide a tool for performing maintenance on endless steel tracks that easily and quickly attaches to successive track sections of the track for decreasing the tension on adjacent track sections to facilitate the installation and removal of the endless tracks.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a tool for performing maintenance on endless steel tracks wherein less time and effort is required for maintenance because of the capability of the tool to take up or release tension in increments that can be as small as 0.001 (increments measured in thousandths of an inch).
Yet still another objective of the present invention is to provide a tool for performing maintenance on the endless steel tracks wherein the retraction and extension of the tool with respect to adjacent track sections of the track is in minute (thousandths of an inch) increments thereby making alignment of the bolt holes in the adjacent track sections easy and effortless.
These and other objects, features and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a perusal of the following detailed description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures and appended claims.

Tool for performing maintenance on the endless tracks of a tracked vehicle


Compounds of the formula ##STR1## wherein Z represents a single covalent bond or --CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 --, R.sup.1 denotes 1E-alkenyl with 2-10 carbon atoms or 3E-alkenyl with 4-10 carbon atoms and R.sup.2 is alkyl with 1-10 carbon atoms, 2E-alkenyl with 3-10 carbon atoms or 3-alkenyl with 4-10 carbon atoms,. as well as their use in liquid crystalline mixtures and for electro-optical purposes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is concerned with novel alkenylbicyclohexanes, liquid crystalline mixtures which contain these compounds as well as their use for electro-optical purposes.
2. Description
Liquid crystals are used primarily as dielectrics in indicating devices, since the optical properties of such substances can be influenced by an applied voltage. Electro-optical devices based on liquid crystals are well-known to the person skilled in the art and can be based on various effects. Such devices are, for example, cells having dynamic scattering, DAP cells (deformation of aligned phases), guest/host cells, TN cells having a twisted nematic structure, STN cells ("super-twisted nematic"), SBE cells ("super-birefringence effect") and OMI cells ("optical mode interference"). The most common indicating devices are based on the Schadt-Helfrich effect and have a twisted nematic structure.
The liquid crystal materials must have a good chemical and thermal stability and a good stability towards electric fields and electromagnetic radiation. Further, the liquid crystal materials should have a low viscosity and short response times, low threshold potentials and a high contrast in the cells. Furthermore, at the usual operating temperatures, that is, in a range below and above room temperature which is as wide as possible, they should have a suitable mesophase, for example a nematic or cholesteric mesophase for the aforementioned cells. Since liquid crystals are generally used as mixtures of several components, it is important that the components have a good miscibility with one another. Further properties such as the electrical conductivity, the dielectric anisotropy and the optical anisotropy must fulfil different requirements depending on the type of cell and field of application. For example, materials for cells having a twisted nematic structure should have a positive dielectric anisotropy and an electrical conductivity which is as low as possible.
There has recently been an increased interest in materials having a low optical anisotropy, especially for actively addressed liquid crystal indicators such as MIM applications (metal-isolator-metal) or TFT applications ("thin film transistor") in television sets. The known liquid crystalline compounds having a low optical anisotropy possess, however, for the most part highly ordered smetic phases or lead to an undesired increase in the threshold potential, the viscosity and/or the response times.


A system for removing and disposing of smoke and residues produced by cigarettes or the like includes an ashtray unit adapted to be received by a valved receptacle in a tabletop or the like. The ashtray unit has a cigarette-holding portion and a passage connected to a residue-receiving canister adapted to be coupled to a vacuum source. A valve is disposed in the ashtray unit passage. In one embodiment, the valve is biased to a normally open position. In another embodiment, the valve is biased to a normally closed position. In the latter case, the ashtray unit includes a plurality of small passageways connecting the cigarette-holding portion with the passage, the passageways bypassing the normally closed valve.

Secondary cigarette and cigar smoke as a health hazard to smokers and non-smokers alike is increasingly being recognized. Secondary smoke is particularly noxious in enclosed spaces such as restaurants and other dining areas, casinos and vehicles. The annoyance and harmfulness of secondary smoke is only partly alleviated by air circulation systems designed to clear the air in such spaces.
A significant portion of secondary smoke is from burning cigarettes and cigars placed in ashtrays between inhalations by the smoker. Moreover, the ashes, stubs and other debris from smoking articles that accumulate in ashtrays are a source of noxious odors which can be eliminated only be constantly emptying and cleaning the ashtrays.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a system for exhausting and removing smoke from burning cigarettes and cigars placed in ashtray units and which is particularly effective in reducing the concentration of secondary smoke in enclosed spaces of the kind mentioned above.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system for efficiently removing cigarette and cigar residues such as ashes and stubs and conveying them to a sealed receptacle or canister from which such residues can be readily removed.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an ashtray unit for holding a smoking article such as a cigarette or cigar and which is adapted to be removably received by a vacuum system valve mechanism installed in structures such as restaurant dining tables, countertops, casino gaming tables and the like.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an integral ashtray unit and residue-receiving canister which is connected to a residue-exhausting vacuum system yet is portable to some extent.

System for removing and disposing of cigarette and cigar smoke and residues


A control device may obtain data related to at least one position of an implement of a work machine that has moved to a set position. The control device may identify one or more first noise amplitudes associated with the data and may determine, based on the one or more first noise amplitudes, a noise band related to the implement vibrating at the set position. The control device may identify one or more second noise amplitudes associated with the data and may determine, based on the noise band and the one or more second noise amplitudes, that the implement has settled at the set position. The control device may allow, based on determining that the implement has settled at the set position, the implement to move to another position.

Various types of machines used, for example, in the construction industry, include implements, such as a blade, a bucket, and/or the like to perform one or more operations. An operator of the machine may interact with operator controls of the machine to cause the implement to move in a particular direction (e.g., move up, down, to the right, to the left, and/or the like; rotate clockwise and/or counterclockwise; and/or the like). However, the implement may not perform properly (e.g., the implement may move faster or slower than desired) if the implement is not calibrated correctly.
In many cases, as part of a calibration process, the implement may move from a first set position (e.g., a first stationary position) to a second set position (e.g., a second stationary position). After the implement moves to the second set position, the implement may vibrate for a particular amount of time before settling (e.g., ceasing to vibrate) at the second set position. To ensure proper calibration, the implement should not be moved to a third set position until the implement settles at the second set position. However, due to additional vibrations generated by operation of the machine and/or components of the machine, accurately determining when the implement has settled at the second position can be difficult.
One attempt to facilitate implement control based on noise values is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 10,011,974 to Zhang et al., issued on Jul. 3, 2018 ("the '974 patent"). In particular, the '974 patent discloses a machine controller that generates a noise value that is based on an error between an adaptive signal (e.g., that is indicative of a measured position of an earthmoving implement relative to a given operational terrain) and a target position signal (e.g., that is indicative of a target position of the earthmoving implement). The machine controller of the '974 patent locks an implement control gain value (e.g., that is associated with a speed of movement of the earthmoving implement) when the noise value is at an acceptable noise level. The machine controller of the '974 patent adjusts the control gain value to control the implement speed when the noise value is at an unacceptable noise level until the noise value is at the acceptable noise level, and the implement control gain value is locked. Per the '974 patent, the machine controller operates the earthmoving machine based on the locked implement control gain value.
While the machine controller of the '974 patent may be effective at controlling a speed of an implement based on a noise value that indicates an error between a measured position of an earthmoving implement and a target position of the earthmoving implement, the '974 patent does not disclose determining when an implement has settled at a set position. The system of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art.

Noise based settling detection for an implement of a work machine


There is provided a wireless communication device including a determination unit that determines a location region of the wireless communication device, a communication unit that wirelessly communicates with another wireless communication device, and a setting unit that sets a frequency in accordance with the location region of the wireless communication device determined by the determination unit to the communication unit. The determination unit determines a location region of the wireless communication device based on a plurality of pieces of location region information of the wireless communication device acquired by a plurality of different methods.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a wireless communication device, a program, and a wireless communication method.
2. Description of the Related Art
The wireless LAN standard IEEE802.11 is widespread all over the world today. A frequency band used by IEEE802.11 is broadly divided into the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band. The 2.4 GHz band can be used universally, whereas the availability of the 5 GHz band differs depending on country and region.
Thus, various suggestions have been made for the use of a frequency in compliance with the laws and regulations. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2009-141671 discloses a technique that, on the assumption that an access point is using a frequency allowed in an installation location, a wireless communication device (CE device) such as a television (TV) or a mobile phone performs a passive scan and uses only a frequency band in which the access point is emitting a radio wave.
On the other hand, the communication standard called WiFi Direct has been proposed which allows several wireless communication devices to communicate directly with each other, which is different from a traditional communication scheme in which an access point and a wireless communication device communicate. In WiFi Direct, communication is initiated when one of two wireless communication devices to establish a connection emits a radio wave to the other device, and therefore it is necessary for wireless communication devices to have another means of acquiring country information which is not dependent on a passive scan by an access point.
Regarding this point, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-274723 and Japanese Patent No. 3890290, for example, describe that a wireless communication device identifies a country based on GPS or the like and sets a frequency allowed in the identified country.

Wireless communication device, program, and wireless communication method