A work cabinet with a work chamber that contains, on a temporary basis, a material being worked upon has a transfer opening connecting the work chamber with an ambient space of the cabinet. The transfer opening permits access to the worked material and gives access to the work chamber. A connected ventilating device provides a lower-than-ambient pressure in the work chamber. The work cabinet further has a printer transfer opening for connecting the work chamber to the delivery outlet for the printed output of a printer that is set up in the vicinity of the work cabinet. The delivery outlet for the printer output may reach through the printer transfer opening into the work chamber or it may merely adjoin the printer transfer opening.

Clean rooms, safety workbenches, insulation chambers and fume hood compartments are used in many areas of industry and higher education, such as in research and development, in manufacturing and in quality control of products. All of these arrangements include a work cabinet with a work chamber. All have further in common that the person working with them is located outside the work chamber and thus in the vicinity of the work cabinet. The work chamber is further connected to a ventilation device and has transfer openings which connect the work chamber to the outside environment of the work cabinet. These transfer openings allow the materials being worked upon therein to be brought in and to be taken out. In addition, they also make it possible to reach into the work chamber. Transfer openings can be designed as freely accessible openings, as air locks, or as openings that are equipped with protective devices, for example, with rubber gloves.
Depending on the area of application for these devices, the ventilation device generates a below-ambient or above-ambient pressure level in the work chamber.
An above-ambient pressure is generated in the work chamber in all cases where the material being worked upon must not be contaminated under any circumstances. However, this requires that the material being worked upon creates no harmful effect in the surrounding area.
A below-ambient pressure is always generated in cases where the person outside the work cabinet needs to be protected from the substances inside the work chamber. As a result of the permanent under-pressure in the work chamber, air is continuously drawn from the ambient space into the work chamber through the transfer openings. In this way, one can prevent that toxic substances escape from the work chamber into the environment.
A setup of this kind is described for example in DE 3617965 A1. The device, which is referred to as a fume cupboard, includes a work table with a work cabinet. The work cabinet is formed by the work table surface, the right and left side walls, the rear wall, and the ceiling of the fume cupboard, as well as a transparent front wall. The work chamber, being thus completely enclosed, is accessible from the front side through a transfer opening.
In these work chambers, the material being worked upon is normally measured out in doses, transferred from one container to another, mixed, heated or cooled, and in some cases dissolved, for example adding substances in powder form to a solvent. In these processes, one needs to ensure when different substances are being treated that no mix-up or mislabeling can occur. Marking the individual containers correctly also includes that the exact fill quantity of the material being worked upon or substance is noted. The containers are normally marked by hand.
A variety of dosage-dispensing devices have been available for years, providing the capability to automatically dispense measured quantities of, e.g., a pulverous substance. The weight of the measured-out quantity is registered by means of a weighing cell. To mark the container, the weighing result can therefore be printed out on a printer together with an identifier means, for example a barcode or a matrix code. The carrier of the imprint is in most cases a self-adhesive label which can then be affixed to the container in addition to the hand-written information.
The foregoing procedure has the disadvantage that even when using all due diligence it is possible that a wrong label is affixed to one of the manually marked containers. Furthermore, the hand-marking takes a certain amount of time, which unnecessarily lengthens the entire dosage-dispensing process and therefore exposes the person involved in the activity, for example dealing with toxic or carcinogenic substances, to a high level of mental stress for an unnecessarily long time. In addition, the procedure which has just been described and which conforms to the safety regulations is sometimes disregarded by the operators in the sense that after each dispensing process, the workers will fetch the label from the printer outside of the cabinet into the work chamber without following the instructions for cleaning their hands.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to ensure that containers which have been filled with material being worked upon inside a work chamber are labeled quickly and safely with the output products of a printer. Furthermore, the laborious marking by hand is to be eliminated.

Work cabinet with a printer arranged outside the cabinet


Lift structure particularly useful with front mounted implements for providing both lift and weight transfer functions from a single valve. The valve acts as an adjustable bleeder for the lift cylinder and includes a control knob which is movable both axially and rotationally to respectively provide lift and adjustable flotation. The valve is normally biased to an adjustable orifice position for operating the implement in a lowered, flotation position. To momentarily lift the implement, the operator moves the control knob against the bias to direct flow to the lift cylinder thereby raising the implement off the ground. When the operator releases the valve, it automatically returns to the preset orifice position to provide the desired flotation.

The present invention relates generally to hydraulic lift systems, and more specifically to a hydraulic lift system including an adjustable valve operable for both hydraulic lift and hydraulic weight transfer functions.
Machines such as, for example, a front-mounted mower utilize both a lift system to raise and lower an implement relative to a vehicle and a mechanical or hydraulic device to transfer weight from the implement to the vehicle during operation. Some machines utilize chains, cables or springs, or a combination thereof, to provide weight transfer. With some front-mounted mower arrangements, an extension spring is attached to the frame of the vehicle and to the implement to transfer implement weight onto the vehicle drive wheels for better traction and to reduce the implement weight on the ground for better flotation. Other structures include a torsion spring mounted on the pivot axis of push arms which are connected to the implement to transfer implement weight to the vehicle drive wheels.
Another weight transfer arrangement which is utilized on presently available John Deere front-mounted mowers includes a weight transfer valve providing an adjustable flow restriction downstream from the operator control valve connected to the hydraulic lift cylinders. By rotating the weight transfer valve, the flow restriction is adjusted to provide a preselected charge pressure to the lift cylinder which, in turn, provides the desired lift for transferring the weight of the implement to the vehicle drive wheels.
The mechanical weight transfer devices require exterior hardware which detracts from the appearance of the vehicle. Mounting brackets are also needed with the mechanical devices, and the implement lift force can vary substantially as the implement goes up and down over the terrain. The adjustment of the lift force with mechanical devices can also be difficult and non-precise.
Although the hydraulic system for transferring weight is relatively more compact and easier to adjust than the mechanical systems, two valves have been necessary to provide both the adjustable weight transfer function and the lift function. The additional valve significantly increases the cost and complexity of the hydraulic system. In addition, presently available weight transfer valves permit the operator to conveniently lift the implement from the ground and maintain the implement in the lifted position rather than following the recommended procedure of maintaining the implement at least partially supported on the ground for increased machine stability. Although the lift or full float position is required on the weight transfer valve to give the operator the capability to climb a curb or small hill or to load the implement onto a trailer, costly ballast is required on the machine to counterbalance the weight of the implement when it is transported in the float position against recommended procedures.


An adjustable current source circuit of a phase locked loop (PLL) circuitry fabricated on a single substrate provides a first current that is a function of an error voltage proportional to an amount of a phase difference of a comparison of a reference signal and a feedback signal. The circuit includes a first current source coupled to receive a second current from a reference phase locked loop of the PLL circuitry for providing a first portion of the first current under control of the second current. The first portion of the first current is proportional to the second current. A second current source is coupled to receive a third current from a transconductance amplifier of the PLL circuitry for providing a second portion of the first current under control of the third current. The second portion of the first current is proportional to the third current. A third current source provides a third portion of the first current selectively proportional to one of the second and third currents. A switching circuit is coupled to receive the second and third currents for selectively controlling the third current source to couple to one of the second and third currents in order to cause the third portion of the first current proportional to the selected one of the second and third currents such that the first current can be switched to have one of a first current ratio and a second current ratio between the second and third currents and therefore the PLL circuitry can be switched between a first and a second bandwidth and loop gain.

Phase locked loop systems are well known in the prior art. These loops are typically used to maintain stable frequency, phase and other circuit parameters. Phase locked loops must have stable and controlled operating characteristics, immune to voltage, temperature and circuit fabrication variations. This is especially so during the operation of the phase locked loop when environmental conditions can change readily.
One type of prior art integrated phase locked loop typically uses a secondary loop to control the loop parameters which are also immune to temperature, process, and other operating environment variations. This type of prior art dual loop phase locked loop is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,258, issued on May 9, 1989, and entitled STABILIZED PHASE LOCKED LOOP. FIG. 1 illustrates in block diagram form the structure of the prior art dual loop phase locked loop.
As can be seen from FIG. 1, reference loop 11 of the prior art dual loop phase locked loop 10 provides analog trim signals V.sub.FB1 and I.sub.OS1 to charge pump 21, loop filter 22, transconductance amplifier 23, and fixed gain current source 24 of primary loop 12 of phase locked loop 10. The analog trim signals V.sub.FB1 and I.sub.OS1 are used to compensate for various parameter variations in primary loop 12. This allows the prior art dual loop phase locked loop to be immune to process and operating environment variations. Furthermore, the loop can be programmed to different data rates by adjusting the reference clock signal.
Disadvantage are, however, associated with the prior art dual loop phase locked loop. One disadvantage is that the loop gain and bandwidth of the prior art dual loop phase locked loop cannot be adjusted to satisfy different performance requirements after the prior art phase locked loop is fabricated. Typically, a floppy disk drive that employs a phase locked loop to detect and lock onto incoming data stream has a large amount of jitter. However, the floppy disk drive typically has a very little instantaneous speed variation. A tape drive that may also employ a phase locked loop to detect and lock onto incoming data stream has a large instantaneous speed variation, but a very little jitter. As is known, jitter tolerance and instantaneous speed variation tolerance are opposing requirements for a single phase locked loop design. In order for a phase locked loop to have a good jitter tolerance, narrower bandwidth and lower loop gain are needed. On the other hand, broader bandwidth and higher loop gain are required for the phase locked loop be to more nimble to respond to the instantaneous speed variation. Therefore, a phase locked loop that has fine tuned bandwidth and loop gain for a floppy disk drive cannot be fine tuned for a tape drive. Likewise, a phase locked loop that has fine tuned bandwidth and loop gain for tape drive cannot be fine tuned for a floppy disk drive.

Phase locked loop circuitry with variable gain and bandwidth


A weather resistant shingle system is provided, wherein a starter strip course of shingles is applied to a roof, and with successive courses of field shingles applied thereover, with adjacent underlying and overlying shingles adhesively secured together to provide wind resistance to tabs of next overlying shingles from being upwardly lifted under wind conditions, and to prevent moisture, such as rain, from entering beneath tabs of shingles.

It is known in the shingle art to apply a starter strip course of shingles along the lower edge of a sloped roof, and then to cover that course with a first course of field shingles, with each field shingle having a lower tab portion that will often comprise a plurality of tabs, and with shingles in each course having butt or headlap portions. Successive courses of field shingles are applied, with the shingles in each course having their tab portions overlying butt portions of shingles in a next-underlying course.
It is also known to provide a wind-resistant feature comprised of adhesive between overlapping portions of shingles, to resist the upward lifting of shingles.
Examples of weather-resistant shingle systems are set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,239,802; 5,950,387 and 6,874,289, the complete disclosures of which are herein incorporated by reference.


Methods and apparatus for solving problems caused by backoff procedures like that specified in the BLUETOOTH Link Layer Specification, by introducing selected randomizations of communication channels used for communication by scanning devices.

This invention relates to wireless communication systems, and in particular to Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) and BLUETOOTH communication systems.
BLUETOOTH communication systems provide pervasive connectivity, especially between portable devices like mobile phones, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other nomadic devices. A BLUETOOTH system, or piconet, typically uses frequency hopping (FH), with an air interface between devices that is organized as a succession of time slots that can include data packets. As long as the system devices hop in synchrony and with the same phase, they simultaneously use the same channel and thus stay in contact with each other. BLUETOOTH communication systems are currently specified by Version 4.0 of the Bluetooth Specification (30 Jun. 2010), which is promulgated by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group and can be found at www.bluetooth.com.
Devices operating in a low-energy mode defined by the Specification use frequency division multiple access (FDMA) and time division multiple access (TDMA), with three of forty FDMA physical channels allocated as advertising channels. A TDMA-based polling scheme is used in which one device transmits a data packet at a predetermined time and a corresponding device responds with a packet after a predetermined interval. Devices that transmit advertising packets on the advertising channels can be called Advertisers, and devices that receive advertising on the advertising channels without intending to connect to the Advertiser can be called Scanners. At the start of an advertising event, the Advertiser transmits an advertising packet corresponding to an advertising event type. Depending on the type, a Scanner can transmit a request to the Advertiser on the same advertising channel, and the Advertiser can reply with a response on the same advertising channel. Advertising is described in, for example, Volume 1, Part A, Subsection 18.104.22.168 of the Bluetooth Specification.
An active scanning procedure includes as well a point-to-point interaction between an Advertiser and Scanners in the form of Scan Request packets transmitted by the Scanners to the Advertiser and Scan Response packets transmitted by the Advertiser to the Scanners. Active scanning and other aspects of the advertising state are described in Volume 6, Parts B and D, of the Bluetooth Specification. Part B is a Link Layer Specification for the low energy mode of operation.
Active scanning can be simultaneously executed by two (or more) Scanners with the same scanning settings, and so a backoff procedure that minimizes collisions between Scan Requests is required by Subsections 4.4.3 and 188.8.131.52 of the Link Layer Specification. The backoff procedure is used at the Scanner side when missing Scan Responses from an Advertiser reveal that collisions have occurred between Scan Requests of two or more Scanners. The backoff procedure uses two parameters, backoffCount and upperLimit, to restrict the number of colliding Scan Request packets. After success or failure of receiving a Scan Response to a Scan Request, the backoffCount parameter is set to a new random integer between one and the upperLimit parameter. Scan Requests can be sent only when the backoffCount parameter becomes zero, which can cause problems for some Scanners.
Some approaches to problems in signal collision avoidance are known, but those approaches do not solve the problems in the backoff procedure described above, such as prevention of bidirectional communication by a randomly determined Scanner.
For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2009/0257396 A1 by Eliezer et al. for "System and Method of Adaptive Frequency Hopping with Look Ahead Interference Prediction" discloses dynamic adaptation of frequency hopping sequences in a BLUETOOTH system so that frequencies that regularly experience collisions during a specific time slot are replaced. A mechanism for predicting and avoiding collisions between a BLUETOOTH device and non-BLUETOOTH systems using a fixed frequency range within the BLUETOOTH frequency range are described.
European Publication EP 1233583 B1 by Schmidt et al. for "Method and Arrangement for Providing a Response to an Inquiry in a Wireless Bluetooth System" describes inquiry messaging, and an improvement to the behavior of slave devices in BLUETOOTH inquiry scenarios, so as to minimize the inquiry time that a master device spends in detecting slave devices.

Channel randomization for backoff efficiency improvement


There is provided an autoloader apparatus and skin testing system for rapidly loading a multi-headed applicator used for epicutaneous application of biological testing agents, while at the same time, effectively inhibiting cross contamination of testing agents during loading and removal of the applicator. The autoloader apparatus includes a plurality of reservoirs for storing testing agents therein. Each reservoir includes a collar defining an open top. The autoloader apparatus further includes a receptacle having first and second surfaces defining a plurality of apertures therethrough for at least partially receiving the collars of the reservoirs. The skin testing system includes an applicator and an autoloader. The applicator has a plurality of picks for sealably engaging the open tops of the reservoirs of the autoloader to enable each pick to be loaded with an effective amount of testing agent. The testing agents are epicutaneously deposited by piercing the patient's skin with each pick to a predetermined depth and observing the pierced skin for response to the testing agent.

Diagnosis of allergies has relied upon a number of techniques for introducing various biological substances to the epidermis or dermis. In a widely accepted testing method for allergies and other immunologic conditions--the skin test--various biologicals, such as aeroallergens, food allergens, and other substances are applied by abrading, cutting or puncturing the epidermal skin layer and contacting the liquid allergenic extract or the like with the exposed skin tissue. The test areas are often on the back or arm of the patient and the tests normally cause some discomfort. If the patient is allergic to a particular biological substance which is applied, histamine or a histamine substance will be released by the affected tissue resulting in redness and swelling in that area. The specific test sites are then compared to a control test site to visually determine if the patient is allergic to a particular test substance.
The skin tests may be performed one test at a time with each allergenic extract being loaded onto a scarifier or pick and applied to the skin. An example of a device for applying single tests is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,548. As it is desirable to speed up the testing process, devices for performing multiple tests simultaneously were developed. One such skin testing device that is widely used is the applicator disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,556,080 to Hein which discloses a plastic applicator having an elongate handle from which extend curved connecting legs, each one of which terminates in a pressure puncture head having a cluster of sharp points. The method of using the Hein multi-headed applicator is to place the applicator upside down with the rigid handle being supported in a holder, such as described in Hein's U.S. Design Pat. No. 247,822. Each of the pressure puncture heads or picks is then individually loaded with a testing substance by the doctor or nurse. Once the puncture heads are individually loaded, the applicator is grasped by the elongate handle and then applied to the skin in a manner such that each puncture head can penetrate the surface of the skin. Using this method requires loading each puncture head individually, which is laborious and can take a considerable amount of time.
An early form of a multi-headed skin test applicator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,522,309 to Simon. In the Simon patent, the applicator comprises test covers (handles) having needles attached thereto that are placed over a plurality of allergen containing wells in a manner to allow the needles to enter the fluid. Each well must be filled with the desired testing substance, which is laborious and time consuming. Also, any unused testing substance must be discarded so that the wells may be cleaned and sterilized prior to storage. The covers fit snugly over the wells in a sealing relationship. When the multi-headed applicator is removed from the wells with a spiral motion, the needles touch the sides of the wells to remove excess allogenic extract. The loaded multi-headed applicator is then used in the normal manner.
The desire to simplify and speed-up allergy testing procedures has led to the development of a number of other multi-headed skin test applicators. The patent to Galy, U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,926, provides a multi-headed scarifying device for simultaneously performing a plurality of skin tests. The device has a clustered group of points that are contained in a hermetically sealed envelope with the envelope containing an active liquid substance into which the cluster points are immersed. To operate the Galy device, one must individually remove each envelope tab, which is not only time consuming, but provides an opportunity for the testing substances to drip from the exposed heads while the remaining envelopes are being removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,289,670 to Krug, et al. describes a multi-headed device for simultaneously performing a plurality of skin tests. The device includes a structure having a flat upper surface defining a plurality of wells. The device also includes a reusable abrading unit having multiple skin abrading members. The abrading unit fits on top of the structure so that each abrading member fits into a corresponding well and is immersed in the liquid testing substance. When the tests are performed, the abrading unit is removed from the structure and applied to the patient in the normal manner. Repeated removal and replacement of the abrading unit during a series of tests, however, can result in testing substances dripping from the individual abrading members or otherwise becoming deposited on the surface of the structure and inside the adjacent wells, thus contaminating the testing substances in the wells. In the event the testing substances become contaminated, any subsequent skin tests could be inaccurate and result in an incorrect diagnosis.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing an autoloading apparatus and skin testing system for rapidly loading a multi-headed skin testing applicator with biologicals or other testing agents, while at the same time, effectively inhibiting the cross contamination of testing agents.


The present specification describes systems and methods that enable the automatic detection, analysis and calculation of various processes and parameters associated with electromyography. The methods of the present specification include the automated modulation of analytical or recording states based on the nature of the signal, optimal reference fiber selection, modulating a trigger level, and determining firing parameters.

Electromyography (EMG) is an electrodiagnostic technique for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. An electromyograph detects the electric action potential generated by muscle cells when these cells are electrically or neurologically activated. The signals can be analyzed to detect medical abnormalities, activation level, recruitment order, and/or for analysis of the biomechanics of human or animal movement. An EMG electrode, sensor, or probe, such as a monopolar or concentric EMG needle, is used as a diagnostic tool for assessing, analyzing, diagnosing, and recording electrical activity occurring in the tissues and muscles. The determined quality and/or status of the neuromuscular and tissue dynamics aid in the diagnosis and/or treatment of conditions associated with said tissues and/or muscles.
While performing an EMG examination, an operator needs to actively switch between a first task of interacting, viewing, manually calculating and interpreting EMG signals associated with a plurality of motor units as displayed on a monitor of an EMG machine and a second task of attending to a patient who is undergoing a rather not so soporific EMG examination. EMG display and analysis software is conventionally utilized to record, display and analyze motor unit signals. However, the present EMG software tools still require manual intervention and a dependency on the ability of the operator to interpret the EMG signals thereby adding human interpretation, subjectivity, and a potential for errors to an already arduous manual task.
Thus, there is a need for systems and methods that enable automatic detection, analysis and calculation of a plurality of processes and parameters associated with EMG, MUPs (Motor Unit Potential), MUPT (Motor Unit Potential Train), and muscle fiber signals or data.

Systems and methods for processing and displaying electromyographic signals


Microbial growth on the surface of a valve of a voice prosthesis and optionally the cartridge or ring supporting the valve, is inhibited by providing antimicrobial activity at a level sufficient to retard growth of a microbial film by dispersing an inorganic antimicrobial agent such as silver oxide or an organic antimicrobial agent such as triclosan or butyl paraben dispersed in a medical grade silicone elastomer. The valve, ring or cartridge is in contact with body fluids containing microorganisms and nutrients therefor. The antimicrobial surface can interfere with or inhibit the growth of a biofilm, bacterial layer or a yeast layer. The body of the prosthesis may also contain an antimicrobial surface as long as it is non-toxic to the tissue it contacts.

Medical devices, particularly synthetic resin prosthetic devices which are used in environments where micro-organisms such as fungi or yeast and/or bacteria are actively growing, can become covered with a biofilm colonized layer to the point where the function of the device is impaired. After growth of the biofilm microbial layer, filaments can grow and descend into the body or wall of the polymeric device and detrimentally affect its physical properties until the device no longer functions. The fouled device must be cleaned or discarded.
Whenever a prosthesis is in contact with moisture in a warm, dark environment, the surfaces are subject to microbial growth, usually containing a predominant amount of Candida usually mixed with bacteria. The microbial growth can interfere with the functioning of the prosthesis, requiring removal of the prosthesis for disposal or cleaning. The microbial growth is a persistent problem in the management and care of patients who have had their larynx removed and utilize a voice prosthesis since the prosthesis is exposed to a non-sterile, humid, warm, nutrient rich environment.
There are several options for restoring speech to patients who have had their larynx removed. One procedure is to surgically create a puncture or fistula between the trachea and the esophagus. A tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis containing a one-way valve such as a BLOM-SINGER® voice prosthesis is inserted into the tracheoesophageal fistula. The one-way valve protects the airway during swallowing but opens under positive pressure from the trachea. The voice prosthesis, thus, permits a patient to divert air from the lungs into the esophagus and out through the mouth. Speech is created during passage of air through the upper part of the esophagus.
The prosthesis maintains the fistula open, transfers air from the trachea to the esophagus for voice production and prevents esophageal leakage into the trachea during swallowing. The oral cavity which extends into the throat has a high microbial population. However, the prosthesis being in contact with moisture in a warm, dark, nutrient rich environment is subject to growth of commonly found micro-organisms, typically Candida on the valve and the retaining flange. The microbial attack is currently being studied. The microbial attack organisms and sequence of events are quite complex and are still undetermined. The microbial growth on and into the soft silicone resin can interfere with function of the valve and can cause the flange to wrinkle and the valve to leak. The fouled device must be cleaned or discarded and replaced with a new device.
One type of current low pressure voice prosthesis can be removed by the patient every few days and can be replaced with a clean prosthesis. The removed prosthesis is soaked in hydrogen peroxide to sterilize and clean the valve and flange. Some patients however, have difficulty managing frequent removal and reinsertion of the prosthesis. Others, who are physically handicapped are not able to remove, sterilize, or reinsert the prosthesis.
A longer dwelling, low pressure voice prosthesis has been developed that can remain in place in the tracheoesophageal fistula for many weeks or months, depending on the patient and conditions of use. The patient can confidently use the prosthesis for longer periods. The longer dwelling voice prosthesis is not removable by the patient. Trips to a health care specialist to remove and replace the prosthesis are greatly extended providing increased comfort and lower cost to the patient.
Another type of soft voice prosthesis includes a rigid stiffening ring 14 inserted into a groove in the soft body of the prosthesis. Though the ring stiffens the body adjacent the valve it does not prevent distortion of the body by muscular movement or distortion of the valve by growth of yeast.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,083 issued Nov. 26, 1996, discloses the use of a stiff cartridge to support the soft silicone prosthesis and to provide a seat for the valve which is connected to the cartridge by a tab in slot design. Another cartridge-valve design includes a one piece sleeve-valve which is stretched over and seats in a cylindrical groove in the cartridge as disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 10/487,614, filed Feb. 19, 2004, the disclosure (051) of which is incorporated herein by reference. However, microbial growth can still proceed to a point at which the valves can not be reliably sealed.
Microbial growth on the valve can also cause distortion of the shape of the valve or form wrinkles in the body of the valve which prevents the valve from closing. Leaking also appears to be due to distortion of the valve body adjacent to the seat of the valve and to microbial growth on the seat. Forming the valve with an arcuate dome shape increased resistance to folding or bending of the valve. However, some valves still leaked after extended placement in a fistula.
The use of silicone elastomer is limiting because of the open matrix nature of the material. The open nature of silicone allows microorganisms to attach to and sometimes burrow through the material. The attachment of microorganisms at the valve seat interface can interfere with creating a seal. Attachment of microorganisms to the flexible hinge area can reduce the flexibility of the hinge, and can also be a precursor for other microorganisms to burrow into the silicone, effectively changing the shape of the silicone and thereby interfering with the ability for the valve to seal correctly. In extreme cases, microorganisms can attach and burrow into the esophageal side of the valve to the point where the sealing seat of the valve is altered in shape.
Historically, microbial ingrowth resistance has come from selection of hard plastics and metals that reduce attachment of microorganisms to certain components. These materials were restricted from use in the hinge area and other areas that required flexibility and resilience. The components requiring this flexibility and resilience have traditionally been molded from silicone elastomer.
In other medical devices, antimicrobial coatings have been available for some years. Coatings typically do not last the lifetime of the product on the highly flexible hinge, as the coating tends to flake off. Once this happens, the hinge is left unprotected and is exposed to the effects of microorganisms.
Application of antimicrobial substances to silicone articles can also come by way of solvent introduction. In this method, the silicone part is soaked with a solvent containing a dissolved antimicrobial agent. The silicone part is removed from the solvent and the solvent is allowed to evaporate. The dissolved antimicrobial agent is then deposited in the matrix of the silicone elastomer. There are several variations of this method. This method is limited to antimicrobial agents that are soluble in an effective solvent and to the uncertainty of exact load level. This method also requires the additional steps and regulations associated with working with solvents.
The use of polymers having antimicrobial properties is disclosed in PCT Publication No. WO98/04463 published March 1998. Through the voice prosthesis device formed of flurosilicone polymer showed same initial success, examination of returned devices from a clinical study showed significant microbial growth on both the posterior aspect and periphery of the valve flap and on the inner surface of the valve hood which interfered with movement of the valve flap. Any further use of the flurosilicone device was abandoned.
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Medical devices having antimicrobial properties


The present invention relates to providing control information within a search space for blind decoding in a multi-carrier communication system. In particular, the control information is carried within a sub-frame of the communication system, the sub-frame including a plurality of control channel elements. The control channel elements may be aggregated into candidates for blind decoding. The number of control channel elements in a candidate is called aggregation level. In accordance with the present invention, the candidates of lower aggregation levels are localized, meaning that the control channel elements of one candidate are located adjacently to each other in the frequency domain. Some candidates of the higher aggregation level(s) are distributed in the frequency.

Third generation (3G) mobile systems, such as, for instance, universal mobile telecommunication systems (UMTS) standardized within the third generation partnership project (3GPP) have been based on wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) radio access technology. Today, 3G systems are being deployed on a broad scale all around the world. After enhancing this technology by introducing high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) and an enhanced uplink, also referred to as high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA), the next major step in evolution of the UMTS standard has brought the combination of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) for the downlink and single carrier frequency division multiplexing access (SC-FDMA) for the uplink. This system has been named long term evolution (LTE) since it has been intended to cope with future technology evolutions.
The LTE system represents efficient packet based radio access and radio access networks that provide full IP-based functionalities with low latency and low cost. The detailed system requirements are given in 3GPP TR 25.913, "Requirements for evolved UTRA (E-UTRA) and evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN)," v8.0.0, January 2009, (available at http://www.3gpp.org/ and incorporated herein by reference). The Downlink will support data modulation schemes QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM and the Uplink will support BPSK, QPSK, 8PSK and 16QAM.
LTE's network access is to be extremely flexible, using a number of defined channel bandwidths between 1.25 and 20 MHz, contrasted with UMTS terrestrial radio access (UTRA) fixed 5 MHz channels. Spectral efficiency is increased by up to four-fold compared with UTRA, and improvements in architecture and signalling reduce round-trip latency. Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna technology should enable 10 times as many users per cell as 3GPP's original WCDMA radio access technology. To suit as many frequency band allocation arrangements as possible, both paired (frequency division duplex FDD) and unpaired (time division duplex TDD) band operation is supported. LTE can co-exist with earlier 3GPP radio technologies, even in adjacent channels, and calls can be handed over to and from all 3GPP's previous radio access technologies.
FIG. 1 illustrates structure of a component carrier in LTE Release 8. The downlink component carrier of the 3GPP LTE Release 8 is sub-divided in the time-frequency domain in so-called sub-frames 100 each of which is divided into two downlink slots 110 and 120 corresponding to a time period Tslot. The first downlink slot comprises a control channel region within the first OFDM symbol(s). Each sub-frame consists of a given number of OFDM symbols in the time domain, each OFDM symbol spanning over the entire bandwidth of the component carrier.
FIG. 2 is an example illustrating further details of LTE resources. In particular, the smallest unit of resources that can be assigned by a scheduler is a resource block also called physical resource block (PRB). A PRB 210 is defined as NsymbDL consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain and NscRB sub-carriers in the frequency domain. In practice, the downlink resources are assigned in resource block pairs. A resource block pair consists of two resource blocks. It spans NscRB sub-carriers in the frequency domain and the entire 2·NsymbDL modulation symbols of the sub-frame in the time domain. NsymbDL may be either 6 or 7 resulting in either 12 or 14 OFDM symbols in total. Consequently, a physical resource block 210 consists of NsymbDL×NscRB resource elements 220 corresponding to one slot in the time domain and 180 kHz in the frequency domain (further details on the downlink resource grid can be found, for example, in 3GPP TS 36.211, "Evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA); physical channels and modulations (Release 8)", version 8.9.0, December 2009, Section 6.2, available at http://www.3gpp.org. which is incorporated herein by reference).
The number of physical resource blocks NRBDL in downlink depends on the downlink transmission bandwidth configured in the cell and is at present defined in LTE as being from the interval of 6 to 110 PRBs.
The data are mapped onto physical resource blocks by means of pairs of virtual resource blocks. A pair of virtual resource blocks is mapped onto a pair of physical resource blocks. The following two types of virtual resource blocks are defined according to their mapping on the physical resource blocks in LTE downlink:
Localised Virtual Resource Block (LVRB)
Distributed Virtual Resource Block (DVRB)
In the localised transmission mode using the localised VRBs, the eNB has full control which and how many resource blocks are used, and should use this control usually to pick resource blocks that result in a large spectral efficiency. In most mobile communication systems, this results in adjacent physical resource blocks or multiple clusters of adjacent physical resource blocks for the transmission to a single user equipment, because the radio channel is coherent in the frequency domain, implying that if one physical resource block offers a large spectral efficiency, then it is very likely that an adjacent physical resource block offers a similarly large spectral efficiency. In the distributed transmission mode using the distributed VRBs, the physical resource blocks carrying data for the same UE are distributed across the frequency band in order to hit at least some physical resource blocks that offer a sufficiently large spectral efficiency, thereby obtaining frequency diversity.
In 3GPP LTE Release 8 there is only one component carrier in uplink and downlink. Downlink control signalling is basically carried by the following three physical channels:
Physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH) for indicating the number of OFDM symbols used for control signalling in a sub-frame (i.e. the size of the control channel region);
Physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel (PHICH) for carrying the downlink ACK/NACK associated with uplink data transmission; and
Physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for carrying downlink scheduling assignments and uplink scheduling assignments.
The PCFICH is sent from a known position within the control signalling region of a downlink sub-frame using a known pre-defined modulation and coding scheme. The user equipment decodes the PCFICH in order to obtain information about a size of the control signalling region in a sub-frame, for instance, the number of OFDM symbols. If the user equipment (UE) is unable to decode the PCFICH or if it obtains an erroneous PCFICH value, it will not be able to correctly decode the L1/L2 control signalling (PDCCH) comprised in the control signalling region, which may result in losing all resource assignments contained therein.
The PDCCH carries control information, such as, for instance, scheduling grants for allocating resources for downlink or uplink data transmission. A physical control channel is transmitted on an aggregation of one or several consecutive control channel elements (CCEs). Each CCE corresponds to a set of resource elements grouped to so-called resource element groups (REG). A control channel element typically corresponds to 9 resource element groups. A scheduling grant on PDCCH is defined based on control channel elements (CCE). Resource element groups are used for defining the mapping of control channels to resource elements. Each REG consists of four consecutive resource elements excluding reference signals within the same OFDM symbol. REGs exist in the first one to four OFDM symbols within one sub-frame. The PDCCH for the user equipment is transmitted on the first of either one, two or three OFDM symbols according to PCFICH within a sub-frame.
Another logical unit used in mapping of data onto physical resources in 3GPP LTE Release 8 (and later releases) is a resource block group (RBG). A resource block group is a set of consecutive (in frequency) physical resource blocks. The concept of RBG provides a possibility of addressing particular RBGs for the purpose of indicating a position of resources allocated for a receiving node (e.g. UE), in order to minimise the overhead for such an indication, thereby decreasing the control overhead to data ratio for a transmission. The size of RBG is currently specified to be 1, 2, 3, or 4, depending on the system bandwidth, in particular, on NRBDL. Further details of RBG mapping for PDCCH in LTE Release 8 may be found in 3GPP TS 36.213 "Evolved Universal terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical layer procedures", v8.8.0, September 2009, Section 18.104.22.168, freely available at http://www.3gpp.org/ and incorporated herein by reference.
Physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) is used to transport user data. PDSCH is mapped to the remaining OFDM symbols within one sub-frame after PDCCH. The PDSCH resources allocated for one UE are in the units of resource block for each sub-frame.
FIG. 3 shows an exemplary mapping of PDCCH and PDSCH within a sub-frame. The first two OFDM symbols form a control channel region (PDCCH region) and are used for L1/L2 control signalling. The remaining twelve OFDM symbols form data channel region (PDSCH region) and are used for data. Within a resource block pairs of all sub-frames, cell-specific reference signals, so-called common reference signals (CRS), are transmitted on one or several antenna ports 0 to 3. In the example of FIG. 3, the CRS are transmitted from two antenna ports: R0 and R1.
Moreover, the sub-frame also includes UE-specific reference signals, so-called demodulation reference signals (DM-RS) used by the user equipment for demodulating the PDSCH. The DM-RS are only transmitted within the resource blocks in which the PDSCH is allocated for a certain user equipment. In order to support multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) with DM-RS, four DM-RS layers are defined meaning that at most, MIMO of four layers is supported. In this example, in FIG. 3, DM-RS layer 1, 2, 3 and 4 are corresponding to MIMO layer 1, 2, 3 and 4.
One of the key features of LTE is the possibility to transmit multicast or broadcast data from multiple cells over a synchronized single frequency network which is known as multimedia broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) operation. In MBSFN operation, UE receives and combines synchronized signals from multiple cells. To facilitate this, UE needs to perform a separate channel estimation based on an MBSFN reference signal. In order to avoid mixing the MBSFN reference signal and normal reference signal in the same sub-frame, certain sub-frames known as MBSFN sub-frames are reserved from MBSFN transmission. The structure of an MBSFN sub-frame is shown in FIG. 4 up to two of the first OFDM symbols are reserved for non-MBSFN transmission and the remaining OFDM symbols are used for MBSFN transmission. In the first up to two OFDM symbols, PDCCH for uplink resource assignments and PHICH can be transmitted and the cell-specific reference signal is the same as non-MBSFN transmission sub-frames. The particular pattern of MBSFN sub-frames in one cell is broadcasted in the system information of the cell. UEs not capable of receiving MBSFN will decode the first up to two OFDM symbols and ignore the remaining OFDM symbols. MBSFN sub-frame configuration supports both 10 ms and 40 ms periodicity. However, sub-frames with number 0, 4, 5 and 9 cannot be configured as MBSFN sub-frames. FIG. 4 illustrates the format of an MBSFN subframe.
The PDCCH information sent on the L1/L2 control signalling may be separated into the shared control information and dedicated control information. The frequency spectrum for IMT-advanced was decided at the World Radio Communication Conference (WRC-07) in November 2008. However, the actual available frequency bandwidth may differ for each region or country. The enhancement of LTE standardized by 3GPP is called LTE-advanced (LTE-A) and has been approved as the subject matter of Release 10. LTE-A Release 10 employs carrier aggregation according to which two or more component carriers as defined for LTE Release 8 are aggregated in order to support wider transmission bandwidth, for instance, transmission bandwidth up to 100 MHz. It is commonly assumed that the single component carrier does not exceed a bandwidth of 20 MHz. A terminal may simultaneously receive and/or transmit on one or multiple component carriers depending on its capabilities.
Another key feature of the LTE-A is providing relaying functionality by means of introducing relay nodes to the UTRAN architecture of 3GPP LTE-A. Relaying is considered for LTE-A as a tool for improving the coverage of high data rates, group mobility, temporary network deployment, the cell edge throughput and/or to provide coverage in new areas.
A relay node is wirelessly connected to radio access network via a donor cell. Depending on the relaying strategy, a relay node may be part of the donor cell or, alternatively, may control the cells on its own. In case the relay node is a part of the donor cell, the relay node does not have a cell identity on its own, however, may still have a relay ID. In the case the relay node controls cells on its own, it controls one or several cells and a unique physical layer cell identity is provided in each of the cells controlled by the relay. At least, "type 1" relay nodes will be a part of 3GPP LTE-A. A "type 1" relay node is a relaying node characterized by the following:
The relay node controls cells each of which appears to a user equipment as a separate cell distinct from the donor cell.
The cells should have its own physical cell ID as defined in LTE Release 8 and the relay node shall transmit its own synchronization channels, reference symbols etc.
Regarding the single cell operation, the UE should receive scheduling information and HARQ feedback directly from the relay node and send its controlled information (acknowledgments, channel quality indications, scheduling requests) to the relay node.
The relay node should appear as a 3GPP LTE compliant eNodeB to 3GPP LTE compliant user equipment in order to support the backward compatibility.
The relay node should appear differently to the 3GPP LTE eNodeB in order to allow for further performance enhancements to the 3GPP LTE-A compliant user equipments.
FIG. 5 illustrates an example 3GPP LTE-A network structure using relay nodes. A donor eNodeB (d-eNB) 510 directly serves a user equipment UE1 515 and a relay node (RN) 520 which further serves UE2 525. The link between donor eNodeB 510 and the relay node 520 is typically referred to as relay backhaul uplink/downlink. The link between the relay node 520 and user equipment 525 attached to the relay node (also denoted r-UEs) is called (relay) access link.
The donor eNodeB transmits L1/L2 control and data to the micro-user equipment UE1 515 and also to a relay node 520 which further transmits the L1/L2 control and data to the relay-user equipment UE2 525. The relay node may operate in a so-called time multiplexing mode, in which transmission and reception operation cannot be performed at the same time. In particular, if the link from eNodeB 510 to relay node 520 operates in the same frequency spectrum as the link from relay node 520 to UE2 525, due to the relay transmitter causing interference to its own receiver, simultaneous eNodeB-to-relay node and relay node-to-UE transmissions on the same frequency resources may not be possible unless sufficient isolation of the outgoing and incoming signals is provided. Thus, when relay node 520 transmits to donor eNodeB 510, it cannot, at the same time, receive from UEs 525 attached to the relay node. Similarly, when a relay node 520 receives data from donor eNodeB, it cannot transmit data to UEs 525 attached to the relay node. Thus, there is a sub-frame partitioning between relay backhaul link and relay access link.
Regarding the support of relay nodes, in 3GPP it has currently been agreed that:
Relay backhaul downlink sub-frames during which eNodeB to relay downlink backhaul transmission is configured, are semi-statically assigned.
Relay backhaul uplink sub-frames during which relay-to-eNodeB uplink backhaul transmission is configured are semi-statically assigned or implicitly derived by HARQ timing from relay backhaul downlink sub-frames.
In relay backhaul downlink sub-frames, a relay node will transmit to donor eNodeB and consequently r-UEs are not supposed to expect receiving any data from the relay node. In order to support backward compatibility for UEs that are not aware of their attachment to a relay node (such as Release 8 UEs for which a relay node appears to be a standard eNodeB), the relay node configures backhaul downlink sub-frames as MBSFN sub-frames.
In the following, a network configuration as shown in FIG. 5 is assumed for exemplary purposes. The donor eNodeB transmits L1/L2 control and data to the macro-user equipment (UE1) and 510 also to the relay (relay node) 520, and the relay node 520 transmits L1/L2 control and data to the relay-user equipment (UE2) 525. Further assuming that the relay node operates in a time-duplexing mode, i.e. transmission and reception operation are not performed at the same time, we arrive at a non-exhaustive entity behavior over time as shown in FIG. 6. Whenever the relay node is in "transmit" mode, UE2 needs to receive the L1/L2 control channel and physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), while when the relay node is in "receive" mode, i.e. it is receiving L1/L2 control channel and PDSCH from the Node B, it cannot transmit to UE2 and therefore UE2 cannot receive any information from the relay node in such a sub-frame. In the case that the UE2 is not aware that it is attached to a relay node (for instance, a Release-8 UE), the relay node 520 has to behave as a normal (e-)NodeB. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, in a communication system without relay node any user equipment can always assume that at least the L1/L2 control signal is present in every sub-frame. In order to support such a user equipment in operation beneath a relay node, the relay node should therefore pretend such an expected behavior in all sub-frames.
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, each downlink sub-frame consists of two parts, control channel region and data region. FIG. 7 illustrates an example of configuring MBSFN frames on relay access link in situation, in which relay backhaul transmission takes place. Each subframe comprises a control data portion 710, 720 and a data portion 730, 740. The first OFDM symbols 720 in an MBSFN subframe are used by the relay node 520 to transmit control symbols to the r-UEs 525. In the remaining part of the sub-frame, the relay node may receive data 740 from the donor eNodeB 510. Thus, there cannot be any transmission from the relay node 520 to the r-UE 525 in the same sub-frame. The r-UE receives the first up to two OFDM control symbols and ignores the remaining part of the sub-frame. Non-MBSFN sub-frames are transmitted from the relay node 520 to the r-UE 525 and the control symbols 710 as well as the data symbols 730 are processed by the r-UE 525. An MBSFN sub-frame can be configured for every 10 ms on every 40 ms. Thus, the relay backhaul downlink sub-frames also support both 10 ms and 40 ms configurations. Similarly to the MBSFN sub-frame configuration, the relay backhaul downlink sub-frames cannot be configured at sub-frames with #0, #4, #5 and #9.
Since MBSFN sub-frames are configured at relay nodes as downlink backhaul downlink sub-frames, the relay node cannot receive PDCCH from the donor eNodeB. Therefore, a new physical control channel (R-PDCCH) is used to dynamically or "semi-persistently" assign resources within the semi-statically assigned sub-frames for the downlink and uplink backhaul data. The downlink backhaul data is transmitted on a new physical data channel (R-PDSCH) and the uplink backhaul data is transmitted on a new physical data channel (R-PUSCH). The R-PDCCH(s) for the relay node is/are mapped to an R-PDCCH region within the PDSCH region of the sub-frame. The relay node expects to receive R-PDCCH within the region of the sub-frame. In time domain, the R-PDCCH region spans the configured downlink backhaul sub-frames. In frequency domain, the R-PDCCH region exists on certain resource blocks preconfigured for the relay node by higher layer signalling. Regarding the design and use of an R-PDCCH region within a sub-frame, the following characteristics have been agreed so far in standardization:
R-PDCCH is assigned PRBs for transmission semi-statically. Moreover, the set of resources to be currently used for R-PDCCH transmission within the above semi-statically assigned PRBs may vary dynamically, between sub-frames.
The dynamically configurable resources may cover the full set of OFDM symbols available for the backhaul link or may be constrained to their sub-set.
The resources that are not used for R-PDCCH within the semi-statically assigned PRBs may be used to carry R-PDSCH or PDSCH.
In case of MBSFN sub-frames, the relay node transmits control signals to the r-UEs. Then, it can become necessary to switch transmitting to receiving mode so that the relay node may receive data transmitted by the donor eNodeB within the same sub-frame. In addition to this gap, the propagation delay for the signal between the donor eNodeB and the relay node has to be taken into account. Thus, the R-PDCCH is first transmitted starting from an OFDM symbol which, within the sub-frame, is late enough in order for a relay node to receive it.
The mapping of R-PDCCH on the physical resources may be performed either in a frequency distributed manner or in a frequency localised manner.
The interleaving of R-PDCCH within the limited number of PRBs can achieve diversity gain and, at the same time, limit the number of PRBs wasted.
In non-MBSFN sub-frames, Release 10 DM-RS is used when DM-RS are configured by ENodeB. Otherwise, Release 8 CRS are used. In MBSFN sub-frames, Release 10 DM-RS are used.
R-PDCCH can be used for assigning downlink grant or uplink grant for the backhaul link. The boundary of downlink grant search space and uplink grant search space is a slot boundary of the sub-frame. In particular, the downlink grant is only transmitted in the first slot and the uplink grant is only transmitted in the second slot of the sub-frame.
No interleaving is applied when demodulating with DM-RS. When demodulating with CRS, both REG level interleaving and no interleaving are supported.
Based on the above agreement, there are basically three different options for configuration of the R-PDCCH search space:
Frequency localised non-interleaved R-PDCCH,
Frequency distributed non-interleaved R-PDCCH, and
REG-level interleaved R-PDCCH.
For the REG-level interleaved R-PDCCH, the Release 8 PDCCH search space scheme will be reused within the semi-statically configured PRBs for R-PDCCH (the so-called R-PDCCH virtual bandwidth). For the non-interleaved R-PDCCH, the Release 8 PDCCH search space concept of randomizing the positions of PDCCH candidates for different aggregation levels across the whole bandwidth could theoretically be applied, but would not facilitate the benefit that the candidates can be in positions which can be freely assigned by the eNodeB. This would, in turn, make it impossible to exploit the full frequency-selective scheduling benefit for the control channel.

Search space for non-interleaved R-PDCCH


A recognition device includes an acquisition unit and a processor. The acquisition unit acquires first and second informations. The first information relates to a first signal corresponding to a state of a first portion of a body performing an action. The first signal is generated by a first element mounted to the first portion. The second information relates to a second signal corresponding to a state of a second portion. The second signal is generated by a second element mounted to the second portion. A relative positional relationship between the first portion and the second portion changes according to the action. The processor calculates a first feature based on the first information and a second feature based on the second information. The processor recognizes a type of the action based on a change of the first feature and a change of the second feature.

There is a recognition device that is mounted to a designated portion (a finger, a wrist, an upper arm, etc.) of the body of a user and recognizes an action (gesture) of the user. A device such as a PC (personal computer), a television, or the like is operated using the recognition device. It is desirable to reduce the operation burden of the user.

Recognition device, recognition method, and non-transitory recording medium


A sensor assembly is provided having a first sensor (pedal travel sensor) and a second sensor (motor position sensor). The first sensor having a first coil and a first coupler. The second sensor having a second coil and a second coupler. A shield element is positioned at least partially between the first coupler and the second coupler so as to prevent unwanted interaction between the first coil and the second coil. In one embodiment, the shield element is made of ferrite. In other embodiments, the shield element includes at least one layer of ferrite and at least one layer of aluminum, wherein the shield element include a layer of aluminum sandwiched between two layers of ferrite. More specifically, the shield element is a flux field directional material (FFDM).

Position sensors are often used in various mechanical control systems. Common position sensors include capacitive sensors, potentiometer sensors, and magnetic position sensors. However, inductive and magnetic sensors are commonly used as position sensors in vehicles. Inductive sensors detect the position of a target by measuring the mutual inductance between a target and a sensing coil. Magnetic sensors detect the position of a target by measuring the change in a magnetic field generated by a magnet in response to the movement of the target.
Sensors are commonly used in the art of pedal control to measure properties such as rotation. These sensors are typically mounted to the rotation point within a pedal assembly to measure rotation of the pedal. These sensors utilize Hall Effect, inductive technology or other known principles to measure travel and displacement. The sensor assembly includes separate sensor types such as Hall Effect or inductive. It is not known to combine a rotary sensor with a linear sensor together within an electronic braking system. Further, it would be advantageous to include multiple utilizing the benefits of each to achieve best system performance and packaging constraints imposed by the customers. However, these sensors often undesirably interact. According, there exists a need for a multiple sensor assembly which reduces said unwanted interaction.


A self-contained tool bolt has a head section comprising a top member and a handle section which is expandable from a stored position to a laterally outward, cantilevered position relative to the top member, to provide enhanced tightening and loosening capability of the tool bolt. The tool bolt also comprises a rigid shaft extending from the top member and a bolt section, with external threads, slideably mounted and moveable along the shaft. When the bolt section is at its lowest point on the shaft, the handle section is elevated to provide clearance from obstructions during tightening and loosening of the tool bolt.

Screws, bolts and other threaded fasteners are routinely tightened or loosened with a screwdriver, pliers, wrench or similar hand tool. There are, however, threaded fasteners, such as wing nuts, having integral components which allow the user to grasp the fastener with his fingers to tighten or loosen it without tools. These fasteners have their place in many applications, but they also have distinct disadvantages. For instance, the extent of tightening and the ability to loosen a snugly secured wing nut or like connecting devices is limited, since such fasteners do not have a means to provide the extra leverage and torque which may be needed to secure or loosen the fastener. In addition, the finger grasping components of these type fasteners extend up from their threaded sections, thus providing cumbersome and often dangerous projections from the fastener itself. Certain hand operated fasteners do include clips or rings secured to the fasteners' heads, which rotate about the heads and, when not in use, rest on top of the head. However, these also have limited tightening/loosening capabilities. Also, such fasteners cannot be used in certain of applications, e.g. for clamp connections.
The threaded sections of screws, bolts and like fasteners are all integral and or securely attached to their respective head sections. This most commonly used fastener configuration also reduces the tightening/loosening capabilities of threaded fasteners, again, since the leverage forces are limited by such rigid construction.


Provided is an aquaculture system, including a water tank holding seawater and housing shellfish or fish to be cultivated, a water intake unit for introducing the seawater into the water tank, a draining unit for draining the seawater in the water tank, a first bubble generator that generates and supplies microbubbles with a diameter of not less than 10 μm and not more than 100 μm in the water tank, and a second bubble generator that generates and supplies nanobubbles with a diameter of not more than 10 μm in the water tank, wherein the seawater in the water tank is exchanged by simultaneously carrying out introduction of the seawater using the water intake unit and drainage of the seawater in the water tank using the draining unit.

Conventionally, systems for cultivating shellfish or fish in water tank (pool) with introduced seawater are known. In case of, e.g., oyster farming, there is generally a pool immersion process in which oysters are immersed in water tank for a predetermined period of time. The pool immersion process serves to remove odor by causing oysters to expel bodily waste called pseudofeces and also serves to enhance safety by causing the oysters to excrete virus such as norovirus.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2014/18099 is the prior art related to the invention of the present application.


The present disclosure describes systems and methods for detection and mitigation of malicious activity regarding user data by a network backup system. In a first aspect, a backup system receiving and deduplicating backup data from a plurality of computing devices may detect, based on changes in uniqueness or shared rates for files, atypical modifications to common files, and may take steps to mitigate any potential attack by maintaining versions of the common files prior to the modifications or locking backup snapshots. In a second aspect, the backup system may monitor file modification behaviors on a single device, relative to practices of an aggregated plurality of devices. Upon detection of potentially malicious modification activity, a previously backed up or synchronized store of data may be locked and/or duplicated, preventing any of the malicious modifications from being transferred to the backup system.

Malicious actors may try to gain access to and corrupt user data on computing devices for various purposes. For example, malicious code may be distributed via a computer trojan, virus, or self-replicating worm, and in one implementation, when executed on a computing device may encrypt user data with a strong encryption algorithm. The code may generate a message to the user, offering to unlock or decrypt their files in exchange for monetary payments. As brute-force decryption of the files may take years, many users will reluctantly pay the ransom. Other malicious code may be distributed to sabotage data or applications for indirect economic gain, to cause damage, or out of malevolence or mischievousness.
Defending against such attacks is difficult, particularly with computing devices that are connected to the Internet. Typical countermeasures include anti-virus applications that execute on the computing device and scan received data for code segments or signatures matching a library. The library needs to be updated frequently to catch newly developed attacks, and accordingly, if the computing device receives the malicious code before the library is updated, the anti-virus application may not be able to detect or prevent the damage. Such attacks may be referred to as zero-day attacks, as they strike without any pre-warning or opportunity to apply library-based countermeasures.

Systems and methods for automatic detection of malicious activity via common files


An adaptive inference system for testing electrical or electronic devices or assemblies. A method is provided for coordinating testing operations in a graphical test sequence presented upon a time dependent display. The method includes the steps of displaying the test data and information along the time dependent axis of a display screen using colored highlighting to identify regions of interest, using next fault searches to automatically locate highlighted areas and using windows positioned alongside data and channel labels along the time dependent axis for initiating an operation or test routine in the graphical test sequence.

The present invention relates to a system for displaying information and, more particularly, to a system for displaying information relating to an adaptive inference testing device.
In the field of electronics in general and in printed circuit board assembly in particular, electronic components are generally mounted, affixed, plugged into or otherwise associated with printed circuit boards. Such electronic components may be analog devices, digital devices, integrated circuits and the like.
The boards, in turn, usually have electrical contacts along one or more sides thereof for plugging into connectors. On a typical personal computer, for example, some five to ten boards are provided and are associated, by means of connectors, with a so-called mother board. Of course, more sophisticated machines would tend to have a greater number of boards and less sophisticated instruments would have tend to have fewer boards.
As the technology of electronic devices advances and as the consumer market for advanced products matures, not only does the functional complexity and the number of manufactured machines increase, but so too may the number of components per board increase. This makes it difficult to directly access all of the test points required to test a loaded board completely.
Finally, components mounted on the boards become ever more powerful and more difficult to test as new functions are required.
It therefore has become increasingly important to enhance procedures for testing proper operation of components, boards and machines. To the extent that such testing procedures can be improved, more efficient methods and more accurate methods are ensured.
For purposes of this description, the term "adaptive inference" means the ability to predict the cause of a previously unobserved fault from the relationships with other known fault information.
Also for purposes of this description, the term "unit under test (UUT)" is used to identify any component or assembly to be tested. Heretofore, UUTs were tested by technicians with the aid of certain instruments as simple as a voltmeter or as complex as a mainframe computer. Such testing methods were necessarily time consuming and labor intensive.
More recently, programmable systems have been used to test specific UUTs. These systems tend to be more efficient than manual methods, by allowing a greater number of UUTs to be tested in a given amount of time. But in order to use these programmable systems to test every possible condition of a component or board, every possible stimulant must be applied to the UUT and every possible response must be analyzed or at least compared with its associated proper reference response.
Even on a simple UUT, unanticipated problems can arise in many ways. Previous methods required a test engineer to program each of these possible faults into a machine. This required enormous amounts of programming. Over 25,000 lines of code and six months of effort were not unusual.
The present invention eliminates this programming effort for fault isolation by mathematically comparing a new fault to previously stored faults. A figure of merit is derived and displayed to indicate likely causes and closeness to known faults.
For instance, a certain circuit node may be shorted to ground and the faults recorded and stored in memory. When the same node is shorted to +5 v, the acquired data is not going to be identical, but may be very close. In a traditional programming environment, two separate programs would be needed to cover both those cases. But the present invention indicates a high probability (figure of merit) that the indicated node is the source of the fault.
Powerful display tools in accordance with the present invention, such as waveform displays with color highlighting to show discrepancies, aid in localizing the troublesome area. A figure of merit less than 100% for faults never before experienced can signal the operator to investigate.
In the above example, when the operator discovers that a node is stuck high (not grounded), with a single keystroke the new fault can be added to memory. If the fault occurs again, the message displayed indicates this new fault with a high figure of merit: that same node is likely to be stuck to +5 v. The next time the test is run with the same node stuck high, the system displays the message and indicates the second most likely diagnosis is the same node stuck low with a figure of merit less than 100%.
In this way, the system accumulates a representation of knowledge that it has gained in the past. It can infer things it has never seen. It operates similarly to the way that a human operator would debug a circuit. Moreover, the system improves with time and, of course, it never forgets.
A particularly vexing problem relates to the fact that proper fault detection, identification and isolation requires sophisticated displaying mechanisms, which are often lacking from prior art testing systems. As the complexity of components and assemblies increases, so too should the sophistication of displays needed to identify the nature of faults and, of course, locations thereof.
Heretofore, displays often showed no more than LED indicators or similar rudimentary lamps or meter scales to indicate whether a test node operates properly upon application of an appropriate stimulus thereto. What is generally lacking in prior art testing devices is a time-dependent display with analog and digital signals and markers for locating features of interest.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,795 issued to Baker et al. discloses a system for diagnosing electronic assembly defects. The system has a knowledge base for storing information on UUT and receiving current test failure. The system has a pattern search which compares current test data to stored information. A voting section recommends a repair process. The knowledge base is updated with information as to whether or not the repair eliminated the defect.
It would be advantageous to provide a display for an adaptive inference testing device.
It would also be advantageous to provide a display for an adaptive inference testing device being time-dependent.
It would also be advantageous to provide such a display with both analog and digital signals.
It would also be advantageous to provide such a display with highlighted portions.
It would also be advantageous to provide such a display with colored highlighted portions.
It would also be advantageous to provide such a display with the ability to highlight data errors, tolerance and reference with colored highlighted portions.
It would also be advantageous to provide such a display with repositioning capacity so that the user can view one highlighted area of interest after another without having to search for such areas manually.
It would also be advantageous to provide such a display with pop-up windows and pull-down menus adjacent to test results and channel labels so that options and data within the windows align with the channel labels and display data.

System for displaying adaptive inference testing device information


A copying machine with multiple transport functions which contains a main transport route running from a paper feed block through a copy process block to a paper discharge block, an auxiliary transport route running from the paper discharge block through reversed transport section selectively reversing copy paper being transported and an intermediate tray for storing copy paper sheets temporarily, to the paper feed block, and a multiple copy mode selector switch for making the reversed transport section effective or ineffective when copy paper is passed through the auxiliary transport route.. The copying machine further includes two paper feed rollers, each driven independently and mounted on the upper and lower sides of the paper supply section of the intermediate tray, and a paper feed roller selecting switch which makes the upper feed roller drivable when the reversed transport section is made effective by the multiple copy mode selecting switch and which makes the lower paper feed roller drivable when the reversed transport section is made ineffective.

The present invention relates to a copying machine with multiple transport functions, comprising a main transport route for leading copy paper from a paper feed block through a copy process block to a paper discharge block, an auxiliary transport route communicating the paper discharge block with the paper feed block, and reversed transport means provided in the auxiliary transport route and made effective or ineffective by multiple copy mode selecting means so that the copying machine is operated in the duplex copy mode or the composite copy mode.
Typically, a copying machine equipped with multiple copy mode selecting means contain a main transport route running from a paper feed block through a copy process block to a discharge block and an auxiliary transport route running from the discharge block back to the copy process block. However, paper feed means suitable to this type of copying machine has not yet been provided.

Copying machine with multiple transport functions inclusive of duplex and composite copying from an intermediate feed tray by selectives top or bottom feed


A diamond cutter for use in a drill bit having a geometric size and shape normally characterized by unleached diamond product, such as STRATAPAX diamond cutters, can be fabricated by assembling a plurality of prefabricated leached polycrystalline diamond (PCD) elements in an array in a cutting slug. A cutting slug is formed of matrix material which in one embodiment is impregnated with diamond grit. The cutting face of the cutting slug is characterized by exposing at least one surface of each of the PCD elements disposed therein. The diamonds may be set within the cutting slug either in a compact touching array or in a spaced-apart relationship. More than one type of array may also be employed within a single cutting slug. The PCD elements can assume a variety of polyhedral shapes such as triangular prismatic elements, rectangular elements, hexagonal elements and the like. The plurality of diamond elements and the cutting slug are fabricated using hot pressing or infiltration techniques.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of earth boring tools and in particular relates to diamond cutters used on rotating bits.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Rotating diamond drill bits were initially manufactured with natural diamonds of industrial quality. The diamonds were square, round or of irregular shape and fully embedded in a metallic bit body, which was generally fabricated by powder metallurgical techniques. Typically, the natural diamonds were of a small size ranging from various grades of grit to larger sizes where natural diamonds of 5 or 6 stones per carat were fully embedded in the metal matrix. Because of the small size of the natural diamonds, it was necessary to fully embed the diamonds within the matrix in order to retain them on the bit face under the tremendous pressures and forces to which a drill bit is subjected during rock drilling.
Later, the commercial production of synthetically produced diamond grit and polycrystalline stones became a reality. For example, synthetic diamond was sintered into larger disk shapes and were formed as metal compacts, typically forming an amalgam of polycrystalline sintered diamond and cobalt carbide. Such diamond tables are commercially manufactured by General Electric Company under the trademark STRATAPAX. The diamond tables are bonded, usually within a diamond press to a cobalt carbide slug and sold as an integral slug cutter. The slug cutters are then attached by the drill bit manufacturers to a tungsten carbide slug which is fixed within a drill bit body according to the design of the bit manufacturer.
However, such prior art polycrystalline diamond (PCD) compact cutting slugs are characterised by a low temperature stability. Therefore, their direct incorporation into an infiltrated matrix bit body is not practical or possible at this time.
In an attempt to manufacture diamond cutting elements of improved hardness, abrasion resistance and temperature stability, prior art diamond synthesizers have developed a polycrystalline sintered diamond element from which the metallic interstitial components, typically cobalt, carbide and the like, have been leached or otherwise removed. Such leached polycrystalline synthetic diamond is manufactured by the General Electric Company under the trademark GEOSET, for example 2102 GEOSETS, which are formed in the shape of an equilateral prismatic triangle 4 mm on a side and 2.6 mm deep (3 per carat), and as a 2103 GEOSET shaped in the form of an equilateral triangular prismatic element 6 mm on a side and 3.7 mm deep (1 per carat). However, due to present fabrication techniques, in order to leach the synthetic sintered PCD and achieve the improved temperature stability, it is necessary that these diamond elements be limited in size. Therefore, whereas the diamond compact slug cutters, STRATAPAX, may be formed in the shape of circular disks of 3/8" (9.5 mm) to 1/2" (12.7 mm) in diameter, the leached triangular prismatic diamonds, GEOSETS, have maximum dimensions of 4 mm to 6 mm. It is well established that the cutting rate of a diamond rotating bit is substantially improved by the size of the exposed diamond element available for useful cutting. Therefore, according to the prior art, the increased temperature stability of leached diamond products has been achieved only at the sacrifice of the size of the diamond elements and therefore the amount of diamond available in a bit design for useful cutting action.
What is needed then is a PCD cutter which is characterised by the temperature stability and characteristics of leached diamond products, and yet has the size available for useful cutting action which is characterised by the larger unleached diamond products.

Multi-component cutting element using triangular, rectangular and higher order polyhedral-shaped polycrystalline diamond disks


An universal and programmable logic gate based on G4-FET technology is disclosed, leading to the design of more efficient logic circuits. A new full adder design based on the G4-FET is also presented. The G4-FET can also function as a unique router device offering coplanar crossing of signal paths that are isolated and perpendicular to one another. This has the potential of overcoming major limitations in VLSI design where complex interconnection schemes have become increasingly problematic.

1. Field
The present application relates to electronic devices and methods. In particular, it relates to applications of a G4-FET, such as the G4-FET as a universal and programmable logic gate and an efficient routing method by G4-FET devices.
2. Related Art
The G4-FET [References 1-3 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,984 to Golke] is a remarkable transistor in that it features the maximum number of gate terminals that can be conceived for unprecedented (by previous transistor structures) control of the conduction channel. Based on a MOSFET structure in partially depleted SOI CMOS, the G4-FET exhibits multiple behavioral personalities afforded this structure to achieve a single-transistor logic device. The attractiveness of the G4-FET as a logic device comes from the unique opportunity to independently command four separate transistor input terminals.

Universal programmable logic gate and routing method


An implantable medical device includes electrodes coupled to a patient's heart and sensing circuitry having inputs connected to the electrodes for sensing analog cardiac electrical signals from one of the atrial or ventricular channels. The sensing circuitry includes waveform digitization network means for converting the analog atrial or ventricular electrical signals into a parallel output format sign/magnitude digitized output signal.

This invention relates generally to implantable medical devices and more particularly, it relates to an implantable cardiac defibrillator employing an improved waveform digitization network for converting analog ECG heart signals from the atrium and/or ventricle into a sign/magnitude digitized signal plus a channel identifier bit, which is achieved with very low power consumption and without crosstalk between the channels.
In recent years, there has been substantial progress made in the research and development of defibrillating devices for providing an effective medical response to various disorders, such as ventricular fibrillation. Research effort has also been made toward developing improved sensing techniques for reliably monitoring heart activities so as to determine when a defibrillating high energy shock is required.
One of the techniques of the prior art for determining when ventricular fibrillation is present employs a probability density function, which is implemented with an analog approach. Such a technique, utilizing the probability density function, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,340 to Langer et al. However, it has been experienced that the prior art probability density function detector can be "triggered" indicating a fibrillation of the heart even when there is a nonlife threatening condition. It has therefore been determined that there is a need for an implantable cardiac defibrillator employing an improved waveform digitization network for distinguishing between malignant tachyarrhythmias, such as ventricular defibrillation, and sinus rhythm.

Implantable medical device employing an improved waveform digitization network


A tool for a sensor includes a first portion having an elongated channel that extends therealong for accommodating the sensor, and a second portion with an end slot that accommodates an end portion of the sensor, the sensor having one or more wire electrodes embedded between two substrates. One or both of the substrates has transaxial scoring for facilitating the snapping off of segments to expose a clean portions of the wire electrodes. One or both of the tool portions has a rounded end portion. The end slot of the second portion is dimensioned to correspond to an axial dimension of a segment that is to be snapped off from the sensor. The first tool portion has a shoulder and handle portions, the shoulder portion having a greater thickness than the handle portion, and the handle portion having a thickness that is less than the width of the sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to sensors, such as the type used to perform volammetric analysis, and more particularly, to a tool for use with a sensor arrangement having snap-off segments whereby one or more electrodes of the sensor are renewed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electroanalytical methods are used in experimental analytical chemistry, and in multiple types of industrial processes. One such electroanalytical method is known as "voltammetry," wherein the characteristics of an analyte are learned by measuring current as voltage is varied. Systems employed in voltammetric experimentation typically require at least two electrodes. On such electrode is termed the "working electrode," which communicates with the analyte and applies the desired potential. The voltage is applied in accordance with a predetermined pattern wherein the transfer of electrons through the analyte is facilitated. Such voltage patterns include ramps (linear sweep), timed steps, square waves, and alternating sinusoidal and other cyclic voltage functions.
There is additionally provided in known electroanalytical systems a second electrode that functions as the other half of the cell. The second electrode is characterized with a known potential that is used to gauge the potential of the working electrode. In addition, the second electrode, in some systems, balances the electrons that have been added to, or removed from, the analyte by the working electrode. One significant issue with this known arrangement is that it is difficult to maintain a constant potential at the second electrode while passing current therethrough in an effort to counter the redox events taking place at the working electrode.
On known effort to overcome the forgoing difficulty involves the dividing of the functions of supplying electrons and of simultaneously providing a reference potential between two separate electrodes. In such an arrangement, the reference electrode constitutes a half cell having a known potential, and its role is limited to function as a reference in measuring and controlling the voltage of the working electrode. More specifically, it does not conduct any current. A separate auxiliary electrode passes all of the current that would be required to balance the current observed at the working electrode. In use, the auxiliary electrode (also known as a "counter electrode") will experience extensive variations in it voltage, often to the extreme potentials associated with the analyte under consideration. At such extreme voltages, the analyte, which may be a solvent or and electrolyte, is oxidized, or "reduced."
It is necessary that the working electrode have known dimensions and surface characteristics, and that it be cleaned and polished regularly. Such is not the case with the auxiliary electrode, which can be formed of a material that is conductive and that will not react with the analyte solution, or at least not the bulk analyte that has been added to reduce the overall resistance of the solution and thereby serves to improve accuracy.
As noted, there is a need to maintain the electrode clean. This creates a collateral need for a sensor arrangement that is inexpensive and does not need to be replaced simply because the electrode has become contaminated.
There is additionally a need in the art for a sensor system that facilitates renewal of the working electrode without requiring the entire sensor to be discarded.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a sensor arrangement that is inexpensive.
It is another object of this invention to provide an inexpensive sensor arrangement in which the working electrode can easily and inexpensively be renewed.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a simple sensor arrangement wherein the working electrode can easily be renewed without complex associated systems, as is the case, for example, in dropping mercury sensor systems.

Tool for sensor arrangement with snap-off segments


A method for per-tone transmit (TX) antenna selection beamforming includes obtaining an estimate of a per-tone channel amplitude information corresponding to each antenna of multiple antennas of a transmitter. A spatial mapping matrix of the transmitter is determined using the obtained estimate of the per-tone channel amplitude information corresponding to the antennas. Each tone includes an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) sub-carrier, and the per-tone channel amplitude information corresponding to each antenna is associated with a propagation channel between that antenna and a receive (RX) antenna of a receiver. The spatial mapping matrix is determined to allow transmission of data corresponding to each tone through one of the antennas, and to allow each of the antennas to be active during a transmission time of the transmitter.

In radio-frequency (RF) communications, multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) refers to using multiple antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver ends to enhance communication performance. The terms input and output in MIMO denote the radio channels that carry the input and output signals received by or transmitted from a communication device (e.g., a transceiver). MIMO, which is an important portion of modern wireless communication standards such as IEEE 802.11n (e.g., Wi-Fi), 4G, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), IEEE 802.16e (e.g., WiMAX), and others, can use transmit beamforming to significantly increase data throughput and link range without the need for additional bandwidth or increased transmission power. Practically, the majority of wireless communication standards including 802.11ac have adopted a multicarrier modulation scheme known as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which is based on frequency division multiplexing (FDD) concept.
In OFDM, each data stream, instead of being modulated on a single wide-band carrier, is modulated on a large number (e.g., hundreds or even thousands) of parallel narrow-band adjacent sub-carriers (e.g., tones). For example, a serial data stream can be split into multiple slower data stream, and each stream can be modulated using a modulation scheme, such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), or any other modulation scheme. The modulated subcarriers are then passed through an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) module such as inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) module that converts them into a single stream of analog data. In technologies based on 802.11ac standard, transmit (TX) beamforming is implemented via a spatial mapping matrix (e.g., Q). Currently, for single-stream TX beamforming, the maximum-ratio transmission (MRT) scheme is used, which requires that the transmitter have an accurate estimate of the per-subcarrier, per-TX antenna channel, amplitude and phase. Therefore, an inaccuracy in the channel estimate can potentially result in a partial or full loss of gains from the MRT.

Per-tone TX antenna selection beamforming


Certain embodiments provide an image forming apparatus including: a main body configured to include a front surface and a rear surface; a printing section provided in the main body and configured to form an image on a sheet according to image data and print-output the sheet; an operation panel configured to include a panel surface for giving an operation input to the printing section; a moving mechanism configured to allow the operation panel to move with respect to the main body; and a rotating mechanism configured to rotate the operation panel about a vertical axis over an angle range including a first angle at which the panel surface faces the front direction and a second angle at which the panel surface faces the rear direction.

An image forming apparatus includes a base on a main body, a joint at a distal end of the base, an arm fixed to the joint, and a panel surface at a distal end of the arm. The image forming apparatus holds the panel surface on the arm using a tilt mechanism. An operation panel is allowed to move in a certain degree of a range by the joint and the tilt mechanism.
Further, an image forming apparatus with a finisher includes paper discharge destinations on both the left and right sides. The image forming apparatus discharges a sheet onto a tray on the right side and discharges a sheet onto a tray on the upper side of the finisher on the left side.
The paper discharge destination for a print by the image forming apparatus is selected by a user input to the operation panel. An attribute of a sheet, designation of a side of a sheet to be discharged, and the like are switched and input to the operation panel.
However, a moving range of the operation panel is limited. A position of panel operation and a position where a sheet is discharged are far apart from each other. Operability of the operation panel by the user is not high. This is inconvenient for the user.

Image forming apparatus and method of discharging sheet in the same