Alkaline proteases that are stable in the presence of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates can be obtained from bacteria isolated from soil and by other means. The soils are collected from an alkaline environment which has been exposed to extremely high pH and/or detergent contamination. The proteases are at least twice as stable as Esperase.TM. when stored in commercial liquid detergents.

The present invention relates to a new group of alkaline proteases that are especially stable in the presence of detergents and bleaches. More particularly, the present invention relates to proteases that can be obtained, for example, from a particular class of soil bacteria and that are generally useful in heavy-duty detergent liquids (HDLs) which contain linear alkylbenzene sulfonate.
Alkaline proteases are commonly added to HDLs because of the ability of these enzymes to decompose proteinaceous stains. These enzymes perform at the high pHs which are beneficial to the detergency of the surfactants in these formulations. Exemplary of such alkaline proteases, which are generally from Bacillus species, are Esperase.TM., Savinase.TM. and Alcalase.TM. from Novo Nordisk Bioindustrials Inc. and Maxatase.TM. and Maxacal.TM. from Gist-Brocades N.V. Although these enzymes have an optimal pH for activity of from 9 to 11, they rapidly lose their activity when stored at pH 10 to 11 in HDLs. This is especially true in HDLs with a high concentration of alkylbenzene sulfonates, such as linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS). While anionic surfactants such as LAS provide excellent detergency at a low cost, they appear to be particularly detrimental to enzyme stability as compared to nonionic surfactants. See, for example, Kravetz et al., Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 62: 943 (1985).
Several patents relate to the stabilization of alkaline proteases in HDLs. Stabilization agents which have been used include formate and alcohols (U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,818), boric acid (U.S. Pat. No. 4,537,706), a combination of boron compounds, glycerin and a carboxylic acid (U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,475) and dicarboxylic acids and boric acid (GB patent application No. 21 26 242). But these stabilization systems do not sufficiently extend the lifetime of proteases, especially in high performance formulations having both a high pH and a high concentration of anionic surfactants.
Other patents relate to bacteria which produce alkaline proteases characterized by one or more properties. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,797,362, 4,771,003, 4,764,470, 3,838,009, 3,827,643 and 3,674,643. All of these patents relate to alkaline proteases obtained from specific bacterial strains, yet none discloses how any disclosed bacterial strain was isolated or how desirable strains other than those deposited might be reproducibly obtained to produce an alkaline protease with advantageous properties.

Alkaline proteases stable in heavy-duty detergent liquids


Example embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and arrangements for cooling milk in a milk storage tank of an automatic milking system comprising (i) measuring an amount of extracted milk by a milk flow meter; (ii) determining a cooling need for milk stored or to be stored in the milk storage tank based on the amount of milk; (iii) measuring a quantity indicative of a temperature of an inner surface area of a bottom portion of the milk storage tank; and cooling the bottom portion of the milk storage tank in consecutive periods, such that each period of cooling (τ1, τ3) is followed by a respective period of non-cooling (τ2, τ4), wherein the duration of each period of cooling and/or non-cooling is based on the measured quantity indicative of the inner surface area temperature, and the cooling need.

In dairy farming animals are milked and their milk is thereafter stored in a milk storage tank for collection on a regular time basis, e.g. every second day. In order to maintain the quality of the milk, it is cooled to approximately 4° C. as quickly as possible. It is necessary to be careful during cooling of the milk since the quality is deteriorated if the milk freezes.
At a dairy farm provided with an automatic milking system, the milk usually enters the milk storage tank in small amounts spread during the day and night, compared to a dairy farm without an automatic milking system, where all animals are milked together two or three times a day. The milk storage tank is usually equipped with a cooling device, which lowers the temperature of the milk to about 4° C. and maintains this temperature in a filled milk storage tank. When the milk storage tank only contains small amounts of milk, there is a considerable risk of cooling the milk too much since the cooling device, when cooling, operates at full capacity.
Usually the cooling of milk in a milk storage tank is controlled in response to the temperature of the milk in the tank. The milk temperature is usually measured on the outside of the tank due to hygienic requirements, and this results in a rather slow response when the temperature of the milk within the tank is changed. Such a sluggish temperature response gives rise to problems, in particular when the volume of stored milk is small. The temperature of a small milk volume is lowered rapidly at the risk of freezing the milk.
Furthermore, the milk storage tank is typically provided with a stirrer, which stirs the milk in the tank to obtain a uniform temperature of the milk. Such a stirrer is usually not able to stir the milk in the tank when the tank contains only small amounts of milk, which thus involves a further risk of freezing milk locally at the beginning of the filling of the tank with milk. If cooling, on the other hand, is omitted while there is only a small volume of milk in the milk storage tank, this milk is not cooled at once, and thus the quality of the milk is deteriorated.

Cooling milk in an automatic milking system


A method is provided of solving the dynamic super-resolution (SR) problem of reconstructing a high-quality set of monochromatic or color superresolved images from low-quality monochromatic, color, or mosaiced frames. The invention includes a joint method for simultaneous SR, deblurring, and demosaicing, this way taking into account practical color measurements encountered in video sequences. For the case of translational motion and common space-invariant blur, the proposed invention is based on a very fast and memory efficient approximation of the Kalman filter (KF). Experimental results on both simulated and real data are supplied, demonstrating the invention algorithms, and their strength.

Theoretical and practical limitations usually constrain the achievable resolution of any imaging device. While higher quality images may result from more expensive imaging systems, often it is desirable to increase the resolution of images previously captured under non-ideal situations. For instance, enhancing the quality of a video sequence captured by surveillance cameras in a crime scene is an example of these situations. The basic idea behind super-resolution is the fusion of a sequence of low-resolution noisy blurred images to produce a higher-resolution image. Early works on super-resolution showed that it is the aliasing effects in the low-resolution images that enable the recovery of the high-resolution fused image, provided that a relative subpixel motion exists between the undersampled input images. In contrast to the clean but practically naive frequency-domain description of super-resolution proposed in the early works on this subject, in general, super-resolution is a computationally complex and numerically ill-posed problem in many instances. In recent years, more sophisticated super-resolution methods have been developed.
Previous approaches have used super-resolution applied on an image sequence, producing a sequence of super-resolution images. At time point t, a super-resolution result is desired that fuses the causal images at times t, t−1, . . . , 1. The approaches were to apply the regular super-resolution on this set of images with the tth frame as a reference, produce the super-resolution output, and repeat this process all over again per each temporal point. This is referred to as the static super-resolution method, since it does not exploit the temporal evolution of the process. The memory and computational requirements for the static process are so taxing as to preclude its direct application to the dynamic case, without highly efficient algorithms.
Previous work on applications to the dynamic case have relied on the information pair to approximate the Kalman filter, but have proved to be computationally expensive.
Previous work considered a causal mode of operation, where the output image at time t0 fuses the information from times t≦t0. This is the appropriate mode of operation when online processing is considered however is not capable of providing optimum image enhancement in non-causal modes of operation.
What is needed is a computationally less complex than the dynamic super-resolution methods, and a means to decompose this problem into two disjoint pieces, without sacrificing quality.
Further, what is needed is a method of simultaneously addressing two common resolution-enhancement problems in digital video/photography that are typically addressed separately, namely, super-resolution and demosaicing. A method is needed for a dynamic super-resolution algorithm for both monochromatic and color input and output sequences.
Improvements are needed in both visual quality (resolution enhancement and color artifact reduction) and computational/memory efficiency. And finally, a non-causal processing mode is needed, where every high-resolution reconstructed image is derived as an optimal estimate incorporating information from all the frames in the sequence.

Dynamic reconstruction of high-resolution video from color-filtered low-resolution video-to-video super-resolution

The Regents of the University of California, Santa Cruz


A brake application device for vehicles, especially for rail vehicles, comprising a wear-adjusting device which is embodied in a brake actuator and comprises a helical gear which is provided with a threaded spindle and a nut as screw connection parts, said nut being screwed onto said threaded spindle. One of the screw connection parts of the helical gear is electrically driven in order to adjust the wear of the brakes and the other screw connection part of the helical gear for the emergency release and/or auxiliary release of the brakes.

The disclosure is based on a brake application system for vehicles, particularly for rail vehicles, containing a wear adjuster as part of a brake actuator having a helical gear which is provided with a threaded spindle and a nut to be screwed to the threaded spindle, as the screw connection parts.
A brake application system of this type is known from European Patent Document EP 0 699 846 A2. The wear adjuster for rail vehicle brakes in the form of tie rod and plunger rod adjusters which, in the case of a brake pad and brake disc wear, keep the brake pad play constant. This takes place by a change of length of the helical gear, in the case of plunger rod adjusters, an increasing adjuster length causing a reduction of the brake pad play. The drive of the known helical gear operates mechanically by a brake linkage with a plunger rod which, in the event of an excess stroke of a brake actuator constructed as a pneumatic cylinder—piston driving gear, is operated by a rocket lever. An emergency release of the brake acted upon by braking power takes place by the pneumatic brake actuator. For the auxiliary release in the case of a brake pad exchange, the threaded spindle is rotated manually.
The present brake application system includes one screw connection part of the helical gear being electrically driven for the wear adjustment and the other screw connection part of the helical screw being electrically driven for the emergency and/or auxiliary release of the brake.
As a result of the electric drive of the one screw connection part of the helical gear for the wear adjustment, the known brake linkage can be eliminated. Since the electric drive unit has a smaller size than the brake linkage, space and weight are saved. The electric control lines can be integrated in a simple manner in different vehicle models and can be laid in a space-saving manner. Furthermore, as a result of the electric operation in comparison to a mechanical operation, a more precise adjusting of the brake pad play can be achieved.
In addition, both functions—the wear adjusting, on the one hand, and the emergency and/or auxiliary release, on the other hand—are implemented by one and the same helical gear. Thus, by a combination of functions in one assembly, additional space and weight can be saved. The auxiliary release, which so far had to be carried out separately in a manual manner for each and on each brake application system, is replaced by an electrically remotely operated auxiliary release, for example, from an engineer's cab of the rail vehicle. In particular, all brake application systems of the rail vehicle can be released by a common and one-time control, whereby the maintenance time is reduced.
For the electric actuating of the one screw connection part, an electric drive unit is provided which consists of an electric motor with a gearing arranged on the output side. The gearing output is rotationally coupled with an electrically actuated screw connection part. The electric motor may be a d.c. motor. The gearing contains a planetary gear axially adjoining the electric motor as well as one or more gearwheel stages arranged behind this planetary gearing.
A clutch by which the one screw connection part, in the event of the presence of an axial force originating from a braking, can be non-rotatably coupled with a non-rotatable part, for example, a housing and otherwise can be uncoupled therefrom. As a result, the screw connection part loaded by way of the caliper levers of the brake application system by the braking power is supported on the housing and not on the electric drive unit. Thus, the electric drive unit can be dimensioned to be smaller, which also contributes to a reduction of the size.
A slip clutch is arranged between the electric drive unit and the one screw connection part. The slip clutch is constructed to slip when stop positions are reached and is otherwise coupling. One stop position is formed, for example, by the application of the brake pads on the brake disc. Another stop position is formed by a screw connection end position in which the one screw connection part is screwed to the stop into the other screw connection part or vice-versa. In the latter case, the one screw connection part would be rotated along with the other screw connection part, and the rotating movement would be undesirably transmitted to the electric drive unit. The slip clutch therefore protects the electric drive unit from impacts when the stop positions are reached in that it slides through in order to permit the motor to softly and gradually conclude its rotating movement and uncouples it from torques introduced by way of other components. The slip clutch is preferably connected between the coupling and the electric drive unit.
The electric drive unit of the one screw connection part can be actuated independently of an electric drive unit of the other screw connection part. As a result, the functions combined in one assembly—the wear adjustment, on the one hand, and the emergency and/or auxiliary release, on the other hand—can be carried out individually and independently of one another.
These and other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description of the disclosure, when considered in conjunction with accompanying drawings.

Brake application device comprising an electrically actuated wear-adjusting emergency release and auxiliary release device

Knorr-Bremse Systeme für Schienenfahreuge GmbH


In accordance with one aspect of the dynamic volume control, an indication that a user desires to input oral data to a system through one or more microphones of the system is received. In response to receipt of the indication, a volume level for audible signals output by one or more speakers of the system is automatically adjusted. In accordance with another aspect of the dynamic volume control, an indication that a communications source is about to output data through one or more speakers of a system is received. In response to receipt of the indication, a volume level for audible signals output by the one or more speakers is automatically adjusted based at least in part on a current volume setting. The volume level for the audible signals can be determined based on one or more of a variety of different parameters.

Computer technology is continually advancing, resulting in computers which become more powerful, less expensive, and/or smaller than their predecessors. As a result, computers are becomingly increasingly commonplace in many different environments, such as homes, offices, businesses, vehicles, educational facilities, and so forth.
However, problems can be encountered in integrating computers into different environments. For example, it can be difficult to hear feedback from the computer in some situations because the playback volume level is too low or the feedback is being masked (e.g., by music being played back). A similar problem is that some components (e.g., a speech recognizer or cellular phone) can experience difficulty in hearing the user because the sound level from other sources (e.g., music being played back) is too high. These problems can frustrate users and decrease the user-friendliness of such computers.
The dynamic volume control described herein helps at least partially solve these problems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An information processing apparatus which is capable of ensuring mutual security in cases where security information is displayed in a state in which an image displayed on a display is open to the outside. A display displays an operation screen of the apparatus. An input section receives an operation instruction to the apparatus, and a network interface receives an operation instruction to the apparatus from an external device. A control section determines whether an instruction for displaying an operation screen containing security information is received from the input section or via the network interface. When determining that the instruction is received via the network interface, the control unit cause screen data for displaying the operation screen to be transmitted to the external device, and the operation screen containing the security information to be prevented from being displayed on the display.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a method of controlling the information processing apparatus, and more particularly, to an information processing apparatus and a method of controlling the information processing apparatus characterized by techniques of security measures taken when an image displayed on a display is output to an external device, or inversely, an image displayed on the external device is output to the display, as well as a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer-executable program for executing the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, it becomes possible to display a desktop screen of one computer on another computer via a network by making use the following software: VNC (Virtual Network Computing: AT & T Cambridge Research Laboratory), Remote Assistance by Microsoft Corporation, Desktop on Call by IMB, and so forth, for example. Many of the above-mentioned software cause the desktop screen to be displayed on the other computer, while ensuring security by requesting a password for authentication at the time of connection to the one computer (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-66826).
Further, in recent years, a character input technique referred to as a virtual keyboard, a screen keyboard, or a software keyboard has been realized, and there are cases where a password or information having high security is input using such a keyboard.
For example, many of PDAs are not provided with a keyboard as hardware due to mechanical restrictions, and hence a virtual keyboard on which the alphabetic keys are arranged is displayed on a touch panel LCD, and desired characters are entered by operating this virtual keyboard.
On the other hand, in a general personal computer or the like having a keyboard as hardware, if a virtual keyboard is displayed on a display thereof, it is also possible to select desired ones from the alphabetic keys displayed thereon with a mouse. Therefore, it is possible to achieve character entry only by operating the mouse.
For example, on such a virtual keyboard, it is general that highlighting of each selected key or like processing is performed so as to enable pressing of the key to be easily recognized.
Now, when a virtual keyboard is used in such a state in which the desktop screen is open to the outside, highlighting of the selected key can be viewed on the external device. Insofar as ordinary text input is concerned, there is no problem. However, if character entry is performed for the purpose of inputting a password or the like, there is a possibility of occurrence of a problem that security cannot be assured.
To cope with this problem, in a situation where security is required to be ensured, e.g. at the time of inputting a password or the like, it is a conventional practice not to permit the desktop screen to be open to the outside for security assurance (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-284375).
However, when a password is input, by displaying a screen of a computer (local computer) on an external computer (remote computer), the software keyboard is displayed for an input operation. Then, highlighting of a key occurring as a response to pressing of the key performed for inputting the password is displayed on the display of the local computer. As a result, the password which is being input from the remote computer can be viewed on the display of the local computer, which brings about a security problem.

Information processing apparatus, method of controlling same, and storage medium


In a method for manufacturing a piezoelectric actuator, a ceramic sintered body is prepared and a size of the ceramic sintered body is adjusted in a thickness direction defined below by grinding piezoelectric ceramic layers, included in the ceramic sintered body, located outermost in the thickness direction. In the ceramic sintered body, internal electrodes are each disposed between piezoelectric ceramic layers. The thickness direction is defined as the direction along the thickness of the piezoelectric ceramic layer. Each of the inert sections are disposed on at least one side of the active section, for driving the piezoelectric actuator, in the thickness direction. Dummy internal electrodes are arranged in the inert sections such that each of the dummy internal electrodes are each located between ceramic layers. The thickness of the piezoelectric ceramic layers disposed between the dummy internal electrodes increases with distance from the active section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to monolithic piezoelectric actuators including piezoelectric ceramics and methods for manufacturing such piezoelectric actuators. The present invention particularly relates to a piezoelectric actuator including an active section and inert sections including dummy internal electrodes, and also relates to a method for manufacturing such a piezoelectric actuator, the active section being disposed between the inert sections and distorted by the application of an electric field.
2. Description of the Related Art
Piezoelectric actuators have been used to move magnetic heads or print heads for inkjet printers. The following actuator has been proposed: a monolithic piezoelectric actuator that is prepared by an internal electrode-ceramic co-firing process so as to have a small size.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-352110 (Patent Document 1)below discloses an exemplary monolithic piezoelectric actuator. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the piezoelectric actuator disclosed in Patent Document 1.
The piezoelectric actuator 101 includes a ceramic sintered body 102 made of a piezoelectric ceramic. The ceramic sintered body 102 is prepared by an internal electrode-ceramic co-firing process. In the descriptions below, the direction along the thickness of each piezoelectric ceramic layer sandwiched between internal electrodes is defined as a thickness direction. In the ceramic sintered body 102, an active section 103 is located at the approximate center of the ceramic sintered body 102 and inert sections 104 and 105 are located at both sides thereof in the thickness direction.
In the active section 103, a plurality of first internal electrodes 106 and second internal electrodes 107 are alternately arranged in the thickness direction with each piezoelectric ceramic layer disposed therebetween. The first and second internal electrodes 106 and 107 extend perpendicularly to the thickness direction of the ceramic sintered body 102.
The ceramic sintered body 102 has a first side surface 102a and includes insulating layers 108 extending on the first side surface 102a in a lateral direction perpendicular to the thickness direction. The insulating layers 108 cover portions of the first internal electrodes 106 that are exposed at the first side surface 102a. Furthermore, the ceramic sintered body 102 has a second side surface 102b opposed to the side surface 102a and includes insulating layers 109 extending on the second side surface 102b. The insulating layers 109 cover portions of the second internal electrodes 107 that are exposed at the second side surface 102b.
In the inert section 104, three dummy internal electrodes 111 to 113 are arranged in a striped pattern in the same level. Dummy internal electrode groups each including the three dummy internal electrodes 111 to 113 are disposed between ceramic layers. In the inert section 105 and the inert section 104, a plurality of other dummy internal electrode groups each including dummy internal electrodes 114 to 116 are disposed between ceramic layers.
The dummy internal electrodes 111 to 113 have a stripe shape and are electrically isolated from each other. The dummy internal electrodes 114 to 116 also have a stripe shape and are electrically isolated from each other.
An external electrode 117 extends vertically on the second side surface 102b of the ceramic sintered body 102. In the active section 103, the external electrode 117 is connected to the internal electrodes 106 exposed at the second side surface 102b.
A similar external electrode, which is not shown in FIG. 4, extends on the first side surface 102a. The external electrode extending on the first side surface 102a is electrically connected to the second internal electrodes 107. Therefore, the active section is driven by applying a voltage between the external electrode 117 and the external electrode on the first side surface 102a such that the monolithic actuator is operated.
In the inert sections 104 and 105, the dummy internal electrodes disposed between the ceramic layers are not supplied with a voltage. Thus, the inert sections 104 and 105 do not function as actuators.
A conventional monolithic piezoelectric actuator having a configuration in which inert sections are located on both sides of an active section has a problem in that a sintered body is cracked and/or the inert sections are separated from the active section because of the difference in sintering behavior between the active section and the inert sections. On the other hand, in the piezoelectric actuator 101 disclosed in Patent Document 1, the dummy internal electrodes 111 to 113 and 114 to 116 included in the inert sections 104 and 105 are arranged at the same levels and are separated from each other. Thus, the sintered body is prevented from being cracked and/or the active section 103 is prevented from being separated from the inert sections 104 and 105 due to the difference in sintering behavior therebetween.
In the piezoelectric actuator 101, it is necessary to reduce the influence of a support structure on distortion. In this case, the inert sections 104 and 105 usually have a large size in the thickness direction such that the active section 103, which is distortable, is spaced from a support section for mechanically supporting the piezoelectric actuator 101 at a large distance. This causes the ceramic sintered body 102 to have a large thickness. If the number of the internal electrodes included in the active section 103 for driving the piezoelectric actuator is increased such that a large distortion is created, the ceramic sintered body 102 has a large thickness.
When the ceramic sintered body 102 has a large thickness, the ceramic sintered body 102 prepared by an electrode-ceramic co-firing process the thickness of the ceramic sintered body 102 is not uniform.
In applications in which monolithic piezoelectric actuators are used, in electronic device applications in particular, the size of the piezoelectric actuators must be strictly controlled.
Therefore, when the thickness of the ceramic sintered body 102 is not uniform, the upper surface 102c and lower surface 102d of the ceramic sintered body 102 must be ground such that the ceramic sintered body 102 has a uniform thickness. If the size of portions that are ground as described above is large, the dummy internal electrodes 111 to 113 and 114 to 116 may be exposed at the ground surfaces. This possibility increases with a reduction in the distance between the dummy internal electrodes, that is, a reduction in the thickness of the stacked piezoelectric ceramic layers. The exposure of the dummy internal electrodes 111 to 113 or 114 to 116 at the upper surface and lower surface of the ceramic sintered body 102 may cause mounting defects if the piezoelectric actuator 101 is mounted on a printed circuit board. The piezoelectric actuator 101 having the exposed dummy internal electrodes 111 to 113 or 114 to 116 is a defective product, and therefore, must be eliminated. This reduces the yield.

Method for manufacturing piezoelectric actuator


Briefly, embodiments of methods and/or systems for performing content recommendation are disclosed. For one embodiment, as an example, estimating relevance may include computing an inner product of latent factors corresponding to a plurality of users and features of one or more content items.

1. Field
This disclosure relates to recommending content items, such as, for example, news items, reports, creative works, movies, and so forth, to users of a computing and/or communication network, such as the Internet.
2. Information
In a contemporary Internet environment, Internet users may find themselves inundated with an ever-expanding set of content choices, such as news articles, reports, movies, short stories, and so forth. Thus, in many instances, although an ample supply of relevant content may be accessible via the Internet, some Internet users may spend an inordinate amount of time sifting through content items in an attempt to separate relevant content from content having little or no relevance to a particular user, as an example. Accordingly, content recommendation systems have been developed in an effort to suggest content items that may be of interest and/or relevance to a user, such as an Internet user, and to direct irrelevant content away.
However, at times, efficacy of a content recommendation system may be at least partially dependent upon factors such as, for example, a user's history in selecting content items, which may form a basis upon which additional content items may be recommended. For example, a user, such as an Internet user, who occasionally views news items pertaining to a particular sport, may benefit from recommendation of additional content items pertaining to the particular sport. However, recommending content to a user who interacts little with news items, for example, may pose a challenge to a content recommendation system. In these instances, and others, content recommendations that may be at least partially based on a small set of interactions may give rise to content recommendations that are irrelevant and/or otherwise of little use.
Reference is made in the following detailed description of the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, wherein like numerals may designate like parts throughout to indicate corresponding and/or analogous components. It will be appreciated that components illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale, such as for simplicity and/or clarity of illustration. For example, dimensions of some components may be exaggerated relative to other components. Further, it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized. Furthermore, structural and/or other changes may be made without departing from claimed subject matter. It should also be noted that directions and/or references, for example, up, down, top, bottom, and so on, may be used to facilitate discussion of drawings and/or are not intended to restrict application of claimed subject matter. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken to limit claimed subject matter and/or equivalents.


In order to detect a position where a human body may exist with the aid of a single infrared detector, a human body detecting system comprises a condenser for the provision of a plurality of effective detection regions each having different areas and provided within partial detection regions. When the human body moves across one of the effective detection regions, the infrared detector detects the infrared rays radiated from the human body to produce signals. Accordingly, the thus output signals present different frequencies depending on the effective detection regions, whereby the differences in the fluctuation times of the output signals and in the frequencies are discriminated by a decision apparatus to consequently detect which partial detection region includes the human body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system condensing infrared rays for the detection of a human body.
2. Description of the Related Arts
A conventional system for detecting a human body shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, by way of example, is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. Hei-1-227987. FIG. 12 is a block diagram, while FIG. 13 is a view explaining a manner detecting a position of the human body within a room.
In the figures, reference numerals 1A to 1C denote partial detection regions each having an elongated zone, reference numerals 3A to 3C designate condensers for gathering light rays emitted from the partial detection regions, reference numerals 4A to 4C indicate infrared detectors for selectively detecting infrared rays radiated from the human body, reference numeral 5 signifies a plurality of amplifiers for amplifying outputs from the infrared detectors 4A to 4C, and reference numeral 6 represents a plurality of binarizing apparatus for comparing the amplified signals with a reference value for binarization.
In the known human body detection system thus configured, the light rays condensed by the condensers 3A are directed through the partial detection region 1A defined as an elongated zone to the infrared detector 4A. The infrared detector 4A detects a variation in the infrared rays radiated from the human body with the aid of an optical filter, and transmits detection signals to tile associated amplifier 5. At that time, the infrared detector 4A selectively detects an infrared rays having a wavelength in the order of 10 micron which is a center wavelength of the infrared rays radiated from the human body.
The amplifier 5 receives the detection signals to amplify them to a predetermined level. This amplification factor depends on a distance between the system and the human body to be detected since light attenuates in proportion to the square of the distance. Thus amplified signals are binarized by a binarization apparatus 6 having a reference value equal to a signal level at the farthest distance within the partial detection region 1A, thereby judging "0" or "1" based on voltage levels of the signals.
When the human body exists within the partial detection region 1A of the condenser 3A in this way, a corresponding output of the binarization apparatus 6 is generated as a human body position signal. In the same manner, when the human body exists within the partial detection region 1B or 1C of the condenser 3B or 3C, the respective human body position signals are separately detected irrespective of the different amplification factor of the amplifier 5 and the different reference value of the binarization apparatus 6. As a result, with any movement of the human body across any one of the partial detection regions 1A to 1C as shown in FIG. 13, it can be detected which region includes the human body.
in the conventional human body detection system as described above, a plurality of infrared detectors 4A to 4C, amplifiers 5 and binarization apparatus 6 must be provided corresponding to the partial detection regions 1A to 1C, respectively, and hence the number of the constituent elements is increased, which disadvantageously results in a higher production cost and miniaturization difficulty.


A unit for applying opening devices on packages of pourable food products, comprises a first conveying device to feed the opening devices along a first path, a second conveying device to feed the packages along a second path, a third conveying device movable about a first axis to displace the opening devices along a third path from a withdrawal station to an application station of the opening devices, a gripping member for gripping an opening device, and a supporting plate to support the gripping member; wherein the supporting plate is coupled to the third conveying device; the gripping member is displaceable, at the application station in a defined plane by a first direction transversal to the first axis and to the second path, and by the first axis.

As is known, many pourable food products, such as fruit juice, UHT (ultra-high-temperature treated) milk, wine, tomato sauce, etc., are commercially available in sealed packages made of a packaging material that has previously been sterilised.
A typical example of this type of package is the parallelepiped-shaped package for liquid or pourable food products known as Tetra Brik Aseptic (registered trademark), which is made by folding and sealing laminated strip packaging material.
The packaging material has a multi-layer structure substantially comprising a base layer for stiffness and strength, which may comprise a layer of fibrous material, e.g. paper, or of mineral-filled polypropylene material, and a number of layers of heat-seal plastic material, e.g. polyethylene film, covering both sides of the base layer.
In the case of aseptic packages for long-storage products, such as UHT milk, the packaging material also comprises a layer of gas- and light-barrier material, e.g. aluminium foil or ethyl vinyl alcohol (EVOH), which is superimposed on a layer of heat-seal plastic material, and is in turn covered with another layer of heat-seal plastic material forming the inner face of the package eventually contacting the food product.
As is known, packages of this sort are produced on fully automatic packaging machines, on which a continuous tube is formed from the web-fed packaging material; the web of packaging material is sterilized on the packaging machine, e.g. by applying a chemical sterilizing agent, such as a hydrogen peroxide solution. Once sterilization is completed, the sterilization agent is removed from the surfaces of the packaging material, e.g. evaporated by heating. The web of packaging material sterilized in this manner is maintained in a closed, sterile environment, and is folded and sealed longitudinally to form a vertical tube.
The tube is filled with the sterilized or sterile-processed food product, and is sealed at equally spaced cross sections, along which it is eventually cut to form the packs. These pillow-shaped packs are then folded mechanically to form finished, e.g. substantially parallelepiped-shaped, packages.
Alternatively, the packaging material may be cut into blanks, which are formed into packages on forming spindles. These packages are filled with the food product and sealed. One example of this type of package is the so-called "gable-top" package known by the trade name Tetra Rex (registered trademark).
Once formed, the aforementioned packages may undergo further processing, such as applying a reclosable opening device to protect the food product inside the package from contact with external agents, and to enable the product to be poured out.
At present, the most commonly marketed opening devices comprise a frame defining a pour opening and fitted about a pierceable or tear-off portion of a top wall of the package, and a cap hinged or screwed to the frame, which is removable to open the package; as an alternative, the use of different types of opening devices, such as slidingly operated opening devices, are also known.
The pierceable portion of the package may be defined e.g. by a so-called "prelaminated" hole, i.e. a hole formed in the base layer of the packaging material before coupling this layer with the layer of barrier material, which is therefore intact and closes the hole itself, thus ensuring hermetic sealing and asepsis although resulting easy to perforate.
In the case of aseptic packaging machines, the opening devices are normally fitted directly to the packages, after they are formed, in units placed on the production line downstream from the packaging machine.
The aforementioned units substantially comprise a gluing assembly within which a fastening portion of the opening devices is coated with a layer of adhesive, an application assembly within which the opening devices are applied on respective packages and a pressure assembly within which the opening devices are pressed on the respective packages for a time required to allow the cooling of the adhesive and the complete adhesion of each opening device on the corresponding package.
Application assemblies are known, e.g. from patent EP1813533, comprising a first linear step conveyor adapted to feed a sequence of packages along a first rectilinear path, a second linear step conveyor adapted to feed a sequence of opening devices along a second rectilinear path, and a rotating carousel conveyor which is also step operated, which is adapted to carry the opening devices from a withdrawal station coinciding with a stop station of the second conveyor to an application station of the opening devices on the respective packages coinciding with a stop station of the first conveyor.
Each gripping member is movably constrained to the carousel conveyor radially to a rotation axis of the carousel conveyor between a retracted position and an advanced position.
More specifically, each gripping member is placed at a maximum and at a minimum radial distance from the axis of the carousel conveyor respectively in the corresponding advanced and retracted position.
Each gripping member is arranged in the advanced position when it withdraws the opening device from the first conveyor, it is advanced in the retracted position from the carousel conveyor, and it is arranged in the advanced position when it applies the opening device onto the corresponding package.
Specifically, each gripping member applies the opening device on the corresponding package in a direction perpendicular to a top wall of the package and radial with respect to the axis of the carousel conveyor, so as to arrange the flat fastening area of the opening device parallel to and in contact with the top wall of the package itself.
Although more reliable and effective, the disclosed application assemblies may further be improved.
Specifically, a need is felt for maximum flexibility as regards the approaching trajectory of the gripping means to the packages advancing along the first path during the step of applying opening devices onto the respective packages.
This flexibility is especially advantageous when the fastening area of the opening devices on the corresponding packages does not lie on a single plane. Indeed, in this case advancing the gripping member exclusively in a radial direction towards the advancing package would not arrange the aforementioned fastening area totally resting against the wall of the package.
The adhesive could therefore escape from the fastening area and the gluing efficiency of the opening devices on the corresponding packages could therefore be compromised.
This need is especially felt in relation to opening devices fitted with a frame straddling an edge between a first and a second wall of the package, e.g. the top wall and the top end portion of a side wall of the package, and comprising a first and second portion forming an angle therebetween and intended to be glued respectively to the aforementioned first and second wall at respective fastening areas lying on respective reciprocally inclined planes.

Unit for the application of opening devices on packages of food products pourable into a tube of packaging material


Laser is applied onto part on an SOS substrate using a sapphire layer to form an identifying mark. The sapphire layer on the surface of the SOS substrate, which has been exposed upon laser application, is covered with an insulating film formed by heat treatment at 700° C. or less, and thereafter a device is formed using heat treatment at a temperature higher than 700° C.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for forming a wafer identifying mark in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor integrated circuit, and particularly to a method for forming an identifying mark on an SOS substrate using sapphire in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor integrated circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since it is possible to reduce a parasitic capacitance between an elemental device such as a transistor and a substrate and decrease a current that leaks from the elemental device such as the transistor to the substrate, it is generally advantageous to fabricate a device satisfactory in high-frequency characteristic, a low power consumption device and the like on a wafer high in insulating property. As the substrate, for example, a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate has been used which has a structure wherein a silicon oxide film (SiO2) is interposed between a silicon (Si) substrate and a silicon layer in a device production area.
Further, as a substrate that uses the above features to the full, there is considered a substrate wherein a silicon layer in a device production area is formed on an insulating layer. As the substrate having such a structure, may be mentioned, a silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) substrate in which a silicon layer in a device production area is formed on a sapphire substrate. The technology of manufacturing a device on the SOS substrate has also started with commercialization.
Comparing a process technology for fabricating a device on an SOI substrate and that for fabricating a device on a bulk silicon substrate currently in vogue, a large difference does not occur therebetween. Thus, an apparatus or the like used in a bulk silicon process can be diverted as it is. It can be said from this point of view that the bulk silicon process and the SOS process can also be carried out simultaneously with the same production lines shared therebetween.
However, a sapphire crystal constituting the SOS substrate is aluminum oxide (Al2O3). When a device is fabricated in a state in which sapphire is being bare, a small amount of aluminum (Al) is adhered to a portion where the sapphire and the apparatus are brought into contact with each other. There is a fear that a phenomenon such as adhesion of aluminum to the apparatus, that aluminum is dissociated from the sapphire during heat treatment at a high temperature and floats in the apparatus, will occur.
It has been known that when such aluminum is captured or taken in a transistor in the course of its manufacture, it leads to degradation of device characteristics. There is a need to make such a contrivance that aluminum is not taken in a device fabricated on the same SOS substrate and devices on other bulk silicon substrate and the SOI substrate both of which share production lines therebetween. Even in the sense of avoidance of such a problem, the SOS substrate is constructed in a state in which a portion other than a silicon layer in a device production area is perfectly covered with a silicon nitride film (Si3N4) or the like, and no sapphire is bared. This method has been used as an out diffusion measure (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 5(1993)-235006).
When the devices are fabricated on the production lines by use of the SOS substrate, bulk silicon substrate and SOI substrate each having such a construction as described above, some contrivance to identify the background of each substrate, such as a history of process operations, generally, marking of a substrate placed immediately before its introduction into production lines with a wafer identifying mark or the like such as alphameric characters by laser has been carried out (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 8(1996)-37137, No. 2000-294467 and No. 2001-257139).
However, when the SOS substrate is laser-marked with the wafer identifying mark, the wafer identifying mark is formed in a form that the silicon nitride film or the like for covering up the silicon layer and sapphire in the device production area is burned out. At this time, laser reaches a sapphire layer after the silicon nitride film or the like for covering up the silicon layer and the sapphire in the device production area has been molten and removed.
Therefore, the sapphire is bared at the portion where the wafer identifying mark is formed, thus causing a fear that aluminum will be dissociated during heat treatment at a high temperature in process. In particular, a problem arises in that since a sapphire crystal is damaged by laser, aluminum in the sapphire crystal becomes easy to cause out diffusion.

Method for manufacturing semiconductor device


A method for managing portable data carriers in a system having at least one portable data carrier, an authentication server, and several service providers systems each including reading devices and a service provider unit. The reading devices may request an authentication information item of the data carrier and relay the authentication information item to the authentication server. The authentication server may authenticate the data carrier on the basis of the authentication information item and establish an application identity associated with the data carrier in the service provider system with the help of the security identity The established application identity associated with the data carrier may be transmitted from the authentication server to the reading device of the service provider system.

The present invention relates to a method for managing a data carrier in a transaction system, an authentication server of such a system as well as the transaction system.
It is known to equip portable data carriers, such as chip cards or labels, with markings which can be read out contactlessly, preferably in the form of transponders, to thus make the carrying out of a transaction between the data carrier and an accordingly devised reading device possible. A possible form of such a transaction is the arrangement of an access authorization, e.g. to a building, a traffic route, or other resources. Alternative transactions are, for example, pure payment transactions for acquiring goods or services. For this purpose, the data carrier can be coupled with a background system via which the payment transaction is then actually processed.
Also disadvantageous in the described method is that the requirements for the data carrier, like storage, processor power and data management, rise with each application of a service provider. For example, an application which makes an access to a parking garage of a first operator possible requires a specific authentication software in the portable data carrier which, where applicable, is employable solely in connection with the specific application of this service provider.
Complex data carriers for several independent applications or with several independent identities are known.
Likewise known are accordingly simpler data carriers for only one application or with only one identity.


The present invention provides a gate driver on array (GOA) circuit, a display panel, and a threshold voltage compensating method for a thin film transistor (TFT). The GOA circuit only includes five TFTs and achieves a super narrow bezel of a display panel, and uses a dual-gate electrode structure as the first thin film transistor (T1). Therefore, a threshold voltage (Vth) in the GOA circuit is controlled by a top gate (the top gate connected to a node in the GOA circuit) and a bottom gate (adjustable voltage source (VLS)). Specifically, when the Vth of the TFT negatively shifts overall, the bottom gate voltage can be adjusted negatively. When the Vth of the TFT positively shifts, the bottom gate voltage can be adjusted negatively to stabilize the GOA circuit, increase a lifespan thereof, reduce leakage of a first node (Q) such that the GOA circuit can output ultra-wide pulse signals.

Driving of horizontal scan lines of a conventional active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display panel is achieved by an external integrated circuit. The external integrated circuit can control and switch on row scan lines of stages on stage by stage. By employing a gate driver on array (GOA) method, a row scan driver circuit can be integrated on a substrate of the display panel to be able to reduce a number of external integrated circuits (ICs) such that a manufacturing cost of the display panel is reduced and a narrow bezel of the display device can be achieved. Oxide thin film transistors have a high mobility and an excellent device stability, and is used extensively in GOA circuits.

Gate driver on array (GOA) circuit, display panel and threshold voltage compensating method for a thin film transistor

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Semiconductor Display Technology Co., Ltd.


Described are pivotable armrests having a first pivot assembly with a housing and a pivot plate pivotally coupled to the housing, a second pivot assembly with a coupling projection extending from a circumferential surface of the pivot plate, an armpad pivotally coupled to the coupling projection, and the housing includes a receptacle having a receptacle surface. The armpad has a longitudinal axis arranged in an elongated direction of the armpad and a lateral axis arranged perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and extending in a plane parallel to at least one of an upper surface and a lower surface of the armpad. When the pivotable armrest is in a stowed position, the coupling projection and the longitudinal axis of the armpad are substantially vertically oriented and the lateral axis of the armpad is substantially parallel with a receptacle surface of the housing.

Many passenger seat assemblies, such as those on passenger aircrafts, buses, trains, and the like, are arranged so that each passenger seat contains one or more armrests. On many business class seats, the armrest comprises a telescopic assembly. In these arrangements, the armrest deploys and moves vertically from a stowed position adjacent the seat. This telescopic armrest is composed of many moving parts and can be difficult to assemble. Furthermore, the armrest and any needed mechanisms for deployment take up significant space that can be otherwise used as additional stowage.
Thus, there may exist a need for an improved armrest assembly having a design that may be stowed in a manner that is out of the view and useable area of passengers and may be deployed through a series of minimal moving parts that are easy to assemble and require minimal space.


A resistively programmable interface for controlling an analog device such as a solenoid or lamp comprises input circuitry having a plurality of nodes, measuring circuitry for determining voltages and currents at the nodes, and controlling circuitry for operating the device in accordance with the measured voltages and currents.

Certain integrated circuits (ICs) that are designed to handle large amounts of current are often limited to low pin-count packages. Typically, such devices have only 5, 7, or 9 leads along a single side of the IC. A heat sink typically occupies an entire face of the package and is often capable of being attached to a much larger system heat sink for cooling purposes. It is the size and mounting requirements of the heat sink that precludes an electronics designer from using all sides of the IC package for external signal routing.
The same power handling criteria require that at least some of the IC leads be larger than normal. The voltage supply, ground and output leads in particular must be oversize to avoid unnecessary voltage drops. The combined effect of the heat sink and the oversize leads severely limits the number of pins mountable on such an IC.
ICs that process microwave signals have problems with similar results. There, problems of lead inductance and capacitance mandate few pins.
The electronics market is driving, and will continue to drive, the complexity of high current ICs to greater and greater levels. The engineering problems described above, however, limit the number of pins and, hence, the potential complexity of the external interface of a high IC current. The result of this juxtaposition is that the IC design engineer must attempt to control a certain number of parameters through a small number of input pins. A high current 7-pin IC, for instance, only has two available pins once the input, output, power supply, ground, and fault signals are taken into account. These two pins and the input pin must control all of the operating parameters of an IC. The input pin customarily receives a logic on-off signal leaving the two remaining pins to handle all analog programming. The two pins, for instance, must control the pull-in current, pull-in time, and hold-in current when a 7-pin IC acts as a solenoid controller.
One solution would be to input control parameters into a system through two pins using a serial interface with digital encoding. Such a solution, however, would not be economically feasible in most instances.
Therefore, a need has arisen for an integrated circuit interface which is able to economically control a plurality of operating parameters with a limited number of package pins.

Resistively programmable interface for an analog device


The invention generally relates to mass tag analysis for rare cells and cell free molecules. In certain embodiments, the invention provides an apparatus including an essentially non-absorbent membrane having at least one pore, a microwell operably associated with the essentially non-absorbent membrane, and an electric field generator. The apparatus may be configured such that an electric field produced by the electric field generator operably interacts with a sample in the microwell and expels a droplet of the sample through the at least one pore in the essentially non-absorbent membrane. In certain embodiments, apparatuses of the invention are used for detection, and optionally quantification, of a target analyte from a heterogeneous sample, such as a rare target analyte (e.g., rare cell) from a biological sample.

Cellular analysis is important in medical applications such as, for example, diagnosis of many diseases. The detection of rare molecules that are cell bound or included in the cell is also desirable. The medical applications of cellular analysis require isolation of certain cells of interest, which typically represent only a small fraction of a sample under analysis. For example, circulating tumor cells ("CTCs") are of particular interest in the diagnosis of metastatic cancers. In conventional methods, CTCs are isolated from whole blood by first removing red blood cells (RBCs) by lyses. In a 10 mL blood sample, a few hundred CTCs are to be separated from about 800,000,000 white blood cells ("WBCs"). Therefore, methods with high separation efficiency and cell recovery rates are necessary.
However, existing technologies are ineffective for detecting rare molecules from a sample. For example, the detection of rare molecules cannot be achieved by conventional affinity assays, which require a number of molecular copies far above the numbers found for rare molecules. The detection of rare molecules can be achieved by conventional nucleic acid assays. However, the target nucleic acids must be subjected to one or more lengthy purification steps and amplifications that can take several days for analysis time.
Cell filtration for the separation of rare cells using a porous matrix is a useful method used to sort cells by size and, in most instances, such filtration methods allow for the extraction of cells following separation. However, the existing filtration methods are limited by certain factors, which include, for example, the range of diameters that in vitro cells have rather than a single diameter. Additionally, cell filtration techniques yield only a few rare cells. The number of copies of a rare molecule can be significant at only tens of thousands of copies per cell for proteins or a few copies per cell for a gene mutation.
Rare cells can be analyzed down to the single cell level by a conventional scanning microscopy. However, even with automation of the scanning and analysis, the microscopy method can take 24 hours or more for each sample to be scanned. Additionally, all the rare cells with multiple images must be examined visually by the pathologist to determine the significance of protein amounts measured.
Mass spectroscopy (MS) has several issues that keep MS from being competitive with routine affinity reaction systems. The noted problems are inability to separate markers of interest from sample interference (matrix over lapping peaks), loss of sensitivity due to background in clinical sample (picomolar (pM) reduced to nanomolar (nM)), the inability to work with small nL sample volumes as samples less than 1 microliters (μl) are inefficiently captured for ionization and inefficiently isolated from interfering peaks in complex samples such as blood. In addition, MS often is not able to detect certain masses due to competition with other molecules of the same mass being ionized. These issues typically cause problems and provide false results.

Mass tag analysis for rare cells and cell free molecules


The present invention provides is a file delivery system for transmitting files to recipients using email, which may be used with existing email infrastructures. High volumes of large file attachments may be handled by routing attachments independent of an associated email. An attachment distribution system extracts the attachments of emails at mail servers and routes them through a hosting server thereby alleviating server loading on the mail server. The system may be configured for delivery optimization, recipient authentication and delivery confirmation. The system examines emails flowing through a distributed network of mail servers, and may invoke attachment extraction based on configurable rules like attachment size and sender validity, and move the attachments over the Internet or Intranet to a remote server that is capable of delivering the attachments to the email recipients.

As computer networks develop into a means of structuring, sharing and transferring information, information systems, such as electronic mail (email), have facilitated communication and information management for information sharing and transfer. Users on a computer network have traditionally used emails to communicate private messages with each other. However, email has rapidly evolved into a new standard communication medium moving beyond the memo framework to becoming a universal tool for conducting business. The capability to send any type of data attached as a file to an email is being increasingly used, not only for dissemination of information, but also as a means of real world collaboration and email attachments have become a vital component of an organization's work-flow.
Typically, organizations use a network of computers with some operating as email servers functioning as applications responsible for receiving, transmitting, routing and archiving email. Users of such a corporate network typically have client versions of the email software for creating, sending, receiving and organizing emails installed on personal workstations. The size of email attachments used for collaboration varies considerably depending on the application but the trend is moving towards larger files, especially for rich media applications involving audio and video.
Consequently, the volume of data passing through the email systems has increased beyond the capabilities of the existing infrastructure of many corporations, resulting in strained bandwidth networks, unmanageable growth in distributed storage requirements and adverse impact on unrelated mission critical communications.
Other issues that arise include excessive data loss or latency, excessive time for downloading large files, reliance on low technology alternatives to recover from failures and lack of effective and accurate reporting capabilities. These problems are further compounded by the strained IT resources, need to extend life of existing infrastructure, desire to increase the quality of other network services, demand for an inherent fail-over mechanism for critical systems, requirement of accurate data for forecasting and planning infrastructure growth and tracking of resource utilization by business unit (i.e. department, partner, client and geographic region or specific location)
Conventional email file attachment delivery methods and systems are not efficient and difficult to manage, causing staff to lose precious productivity time transferring large files to compact disc (CD), printing hardcopy of the large files for sending by traditional courier, or using other ad-hoc manual tools such as the public File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers and file-sharing servers which are potentially vulnerable and do not address the issue of lifecycle management of these often sensitive files.
The negative impact on operational productivity and the related infrastructure has generated a compelling need for a solution that meets both business and technical requirements. One of the most important decision-making criteria from the perspective of an enterprise is to provide a solution that supports the tools employees are most familiar with, so as to maintain the existing business process and workflow.

Methods and systems for email attachment distribution and management


A data processing apparatus comprises input, file update, display and print processing units which are independently operated and linked to each other. Arbitrary word labels can independently be set in each processing unit. Each processing unit performs only an operation defined by the word labels. The data processed by one processing unit can be used as a source data based on which the succeeding linked processing unit performs another processing operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus for performing different types of data processings, in accordance with input data or data read out from arbitrary files.
2. Description of the Related Art
Companies often have a variety of lines of business. Moreover, different companies have different lines of businesses even if the industrial sectors of the companies are the same. Further a given company may have a different line of business depending on its office. Accordingly, different types of data must be handled in each office. In order to process and manage such varieties of data at high speed, each company makes use of office automation equipment and a computer for its business applications.
Usually, a specific system design is required for a computer to operate as a company desires. The system design is performed by coding a program by a programming language such as a machine language to operate the computer desirably. Thus, in order to operate the computer desirably, a system engineer must analyze the line of business and business requirements, and a programmer must code a program in accordance with the result of such analysis.
Each computer uses a large number of types of business slips, including, for example, order-acceptance slips, sales slips, purchase slips, and transfer slips of traveling-expense statement of accounts, credit slips, and the like. Throughout the following description, such slips, forms, records, etc are referred to as "slips" for ease of description.
Since various tasks must be carried out in a company, the above system design must be performed for every task, i.e., for every processing type. Accordingly, such system design is troublesome and costly.

Apparatus and method for processing data corresponding to word labels


A liquid-atomizing spray gun having an improved nozzle construction for spraying liquids under predetermined hydraulic pressures, and with the assistance of carbon dioxide gases, wherein the nozzle includes a forwardly-projecting shield having ports directed toward the atomized spray pattern emanating from a spray tip. The nozzle also includes ports for ejecting CO.sub.2 gas for assisting in the atomization process, the overall design providing CO.sub.2 -assisted hydraulic spraying and preventing air entrainment into the atomized particles in the region proximate the spray nozzle.

The present invention relates to pneumatically-assisted hydraulic spray guns, particularly for the coating industry. More narrowly, the invention relates to a pneumatically-assisted hydraulic spray gun having improvements for improving the coating finish on particular surfaces, and with respect to particular types of coating materials.
Pneumatically-assisted hydraulic spray guns were first disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,843,052, issued on Oct. 22, 1974, to Cowan. The principles of operation of this new spray gun enabled a significant reduction in the hydraulic liquid pressures previously required for hydraulic spray guns. For example, hydraulic spraying pressures up to the range of about 4,000 pounds per square inch (psi) were required in earlier hydraulic spray guns in order to achieve an adequate quality of atomization wherein the spray gun could be used for spraying fine finishes on smooth surfaces. The invention of the '052 patent enabled the hydraulic pressures for such spraying to be reduced by a factor of two or three, while requiring only a nominal additional air pressure source, in the range of 10-20 psi. When the air pressure source was properly directed, through the use of air jet openings on the spray gun, to impinge slightly ahead of the region of atomization, the vast improvement in atomization quality at lower hydraulic pressures was achieved.
The principles of the '052 patent have been followed in a number of subsequent patents, including patents which have disclosed devices operating at still lower hydraulic pressures, but at increased air pressures, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,119, issued Nov. 12, 1991. This latter patent utilizes the air-assist features to achieve satisfactory atomization for relatively low hydraulic liquid atomization pressures.
Recent advances in the development of coatings for improved finish quality have yielded coating materials which have significantly higher solid content than previously was available. These newer coatings are more difficult to atomize as a result of the increased solid content, and therefore spray guns of the foregoing types have been required to necessarily operate at higher pressures. For such coatings, it is not unusual to require hydraulic pressures in the range of 3,000-4,000 psi, together with the use of air-assistance in the range of 10-30 psi. Furthermore, recent advances have led to the use of new types of solvents in combination with coating materials; particularly, the use of water as a solvent has become popular because of its improved environmental effects. However, water-based coating materials tend to increase the problems noted in the following paragraph, leading to a reduction in quality of the coating finish.
It has been noted that air-assisted hydraulic spray guns do suffer from the problem of providing quality finishes in certain spraying environments. For example, the air-assisted hydraulic spray gun device has not proven to be an adequate solution for producing high quality smooth finishes on woodwork, as for example in the case of the need to produce high quality furniture finishes. The problem appears to be caused by air entrainment into the spray particles, which results in air bubbles being created on the surface of the workpiece, and when the coating on the workpiece dries the air bubbles leave an irregular film surface which is unsatisfactory for quality films on furniture. These dried air bubbles appear as voids in the finish of about 0.4 mil in size, which degrades the finish. This problem is particularly noticeable when water base coatings are applied to wood finishes.
It has been discovered that the replacement of pressurized air to the spray gun with pressurized carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) does tend to eliminate the voids above noted. This is apparently a result of the fact that CO.sub.2 is much more soluble in water and other solvents than is air; and therefore the CO.sub.2 bubbles which might otherwise occur are absorbed into the film before the film coating dries on the article. However, a problem in using CO.sub.2 in such spraying applications is that CO.sub.2 is considerably more expensive than pressurized air, and the volumetric quantities required significantly increase the cost of spraying with this gas. Therefore, this solution becomes practical only if the volumetric quantities of CO.sub.2 can be significantly reduced in air-assisted hydraulic spraying equipment. A further problem exists in that there may still be some air entrainment into the atomized spray pattern even when CO.sub.2 is used as the atomizing agent, because the spray pattern itself creates a certain degree of air turbulence in the zone of atomization immediately in front of the spray nozzle of the spray gun. This zone of turbulence will cause some air entrainment in the atomized particles, wherein the air-entrained particles are still conveyed to the workpiece to produce the voids described hereinbefore. Thus, the use of CO.sub.2 as the atomizing agent reduces the surface voids but does not entirely eliminate them, yet suffers from the problem of the heavy cost of consumption of the CO.sub.2 gas.


Disclosed is a printed circuit board (PCB) comprising at least one light emitting diode (LED) element and a PCB body. The LED comprises a heat sink, a light emitting body and two base feet, each base foot comprising a support portion for supporting the light emitting body, an engaging portion and a connecting portion for connecting the support portion to the engaging portion, and the heat sink is disposed under the support portion. The PCB body comprises a first recess portion for disposing the heat sink to increase heat dissipation of the heat sink and two second recess portions for receiving the engaging portions of the base feet to increase heat dissipation of the base feet.

The invention relates to a light emitting diode (LED) element and a printed circuit board (PCB) with the light emitting diode (LED) element.
A LED element typically comprises a light emitting body and two base feet for conducting current. FIG. 1a is a schematic view showing a conventional LED element. As shown in FIG. 1a, the LED element comprises a light emitting body 2 and two base feet 1 disposed below the light emitting body 2 on both sides for conducting current, respectively. Each base foot 1 comprises a support portion 101 supporting the light emitting body 2 and a connecting portion 102 for coupling to a power source. A heat sink 3 is disposed under the light emitting body 2. A bottom surface of the heat sink 3 is coplanar with a bottom surface of the connecting portion 102 so that the heat sink 3 can contact with a surface of a printed circuit board (PCB) body when the LED element is mounted onto the PCB body. FIG. 1b is a schematic view showing a PCB body with LED elements disposed thereon. The PCB body used here is typically made of aluminum based material and only electrodes are disposed on the surface of the PCB body for connecting to the base feet.

LED element and printed circuit board with the same

Beijing Boe Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


Methods and systems are provided for implementing a lane control feature for vehicles having a passenger side, a driver side, one or more wheels on the passenger side, and one or more wheels on the driver side. A sensor is configured to obtain information pertaining to operation of a vehicle with respect to a lane of a roadway. The processor is coupled to the sensor, and is configured to at least facilitate determining, using the information, whether the lane control feature is activated, and providing differential torque between one or more driver side wheels and one or more passenger side wheels when the lane control feature is activated.

Certain vehicles today have one or more automatic lane control systems, such as a lane keeping assist (LKA) system or a lane centering assist (LCA) system. Such systems may provide lateral assistance keeping the vehicle within the vehicle's lane and/or centered within the lane. For example, an LKA system for a vehicle may cause the vehicle to automatically steer back into the vehicle's lane if it is determined that the vehicle is inadvertently drifting out of the vehicle's lane. By way of further example, an LCA system may cause the vehicle to automatically steer back to the center of the vehicle's lane if the vehicle veers off-center within the lane. However, existing systems may not always provide for optimal feel for the driver, which may in certain circumstances cause the driver to disable such systems.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide improved techniques for lane control methods and systems, such as LKA and/or LCA systems. It is also desirable to provide methods, systems, and vehicle utilizing such techniques. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will be apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Vehicle lane control using differential torque


The present invention provides a method of modeling multi zone ventilation systems. The method integrates flow rate standards with the concept of age of air. The method serves as the basis for several different ventilation effectiveness calculation methods, and for translating outdoor air requirements to age of air requirements, and vice versa. The method also serves as the basis for the development of new ventilation strategies for multi zone systems that minimizes the amount of outdoor air required to maintain the age of the zone air at or below a maximum acceptable level. Preferably, the ventilation control strategy of the present invention allows age of air in each of a plurality of zones in a multi-zone system to conform to ASHRAE Standard 62 requirements.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to ventilation control systems, and more particularly to a multi zone ventilation modeling system that integrates the ventilation control concepts of flow rate and age of air, thereby enabling the methodology to be used for ventilation control and ventilation performance evaluation, and that results in a ventilation control strategy that minimizes the amount of outdoor air required to maintain the age of air in each of the zones in a multi zone system at or below a specified age level.
2. Discussion
It is common practice to utilize ventilation strategies to control concentration of contaminants within buildings. Ventilation, which is a dilution process that involves mixing uncontaminated outdoor air with contaminated, or recycled, indoor air, allows contaminant concentrations to be maintained at or below predetermined acceptable levels. Two important variables in the ventilation process include: 1) the required quantity of uncontaminated air necessary to keep contaminant levels in the building at or below predetermined acceptable levels; and 2) the air mixing effectiveness of the building ventilation system.
ASHRAE Standard 62 provides specific guidelines for minimum acceptable ventilation system parameters. The standard describes the minimum parameters in terms of outdoor air flow rates, and, as a result, the parameters constitute constraints on the ventilation control system. When a parameter within a zone in a multi zone ventilation system reaches its maximum or minimum allowable value, the zone is referred to as a critical zone. Generally, and particularly in variable air volume (VAV) ventilation control systems, a critical zone changes dynamically.
Considerable attention has been focused on methods of meeting the minimum requirements of ASHRAE Standard 62, while using the minimum required amount of unconditioned outdoor air, as use of unconditioned outdoor air results in increased ventilation costs. Methods of meeting the requirements of Standard 62 become more complicated when multi zone systems are modeled. One conventional method of addressing the above problem is generally referred to as the Multiple Spaces Methods (MSMs). However, while Standard 62 requires compensation for poor ventilation effectiveness, which is a measure of the amount of stagnant air in a space, conventional approaches, such as MSMs, often fail to address this parameter.
While conventional MSMs exhibit adequate performance characteristics on many applications, such conventional ventilation strategies do have associated drawbacks. For instance, MSMs do not account for spaces that receive neither primary air from air and air handling units, nor secondary air from a plenum, but that do have an associated ventilation constraint. Such spaces often include bathrooms and hallways. In addition, MSM either do not calculate, or have typically have associated difficulty calculating, flow rates between zones in a multi zone system. Such flow rates, if known, could be used to decrease the ventilation requirements in the multi zone systems resulting from overventilated zones. In addition, MSMs do not account for local exhaust, such as bathroom exhaust. As almost all buildings have such local exhaust systems, it would be desirable to provide a ventilation control strategy that would account for such local exhaust. Finally, and in general, as all MSMs require the use of a certain amount of outdoor air, it is always desirable to provide a ventilation control strategy that minimizes the amount of outdoor air required, while still meeting ASHRAE Standard 62 requirements.


A test system may include test stations for testing a device under test. The test stations may each include test equipment that may be connected to a device under test using a test cable. The test cable may include a status indicator to indicate when tests have been passed or have failed. A first connector at one end of the test cable may be coupled to the test equipment. A second connector at an opposing end of the test cable may be coupled to the device under test. Communications through the first connector may use a first communications protocol. Communications through a first set of contacts in the second connector may use the first communications protocol. Communications through a second set of contacts in the second connector may use a second communications protocol.

This relates to testing, and, more particularly, to testing electronic devices during manufacturing.
Electronic devices such as portable computers, media players, cellular telephones, set-top boxes, and other electronic equipment must generally be tested during manufacturing. During testing, an electronic device that is being tested is often referred to as a device under test. In a typical scenario, a device under test may be passed through multiple test stations. At each test station, the device under test may be coupled to a different set of test equipment. Different types of test stations may communicate with the device under test using different types of communications links. For example, some test stations may communicate with the device under test using a Universal Serial Bus (USB) path, whereas other test stations may communicate with the device under test using a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) path. The use of different communications links such as these may make it difficult or impossible to perform more than one type of activity at the same test station and may lead to other inefficiencies.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved test systems for testing devices under test using multiple types of communications links.

Test systems with cables that support multiple communications buses


An injection screw comprise a rear end to a front end of an effective length of the screw compartmented in the order of a feed zone, a compression zone and a metering zone, wherein the metering zone is constituted by the first metering zone, the second metering zone and the relaxation zone. A root diameter of the second metering zone is formed in a smaller diameter than a root diameter of the first metering zone and a screw channel depth is set deeper than a screw channel depth of the first metering zone. Variations in a resin temperature at injecting is solved and melting and kneading through a entire screw further are improved by only partial changing of the configuration of the metering zone.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an injection screw in a heating cylinder of an injection apparatus used in molding of synthetic resin.
2. Background Art
In an injection screw, a rear end to a front end of an effective length of the screw is divided in order into a feed zone, a compression zone and a metering zone, and a screw (a flight) with a same outside diameter is formed successively across each zone thereof. Moreover, although as a screw pitch, normally, a pitch (P)/an outside diameter (D)=1 is used, with the objective of improving the plastificating efficiency or the like a root diameter of the screw of the metering zone is formed in a larger diameter than a diameter of the feed zone, and a root diameter of the screw of the compression zone therebetween is enlarged in order from the feed zone toward the metering zone, thereby to be tapered.
Each zone thereof has the functions as follows: melting of a pelletized molding material, that is, a resin in a heating cylinder is caused by both a band heater mounted on an outer peripheral of the heating cylinder and heat generated by shearing of the resin caused by rotation of the screw, and in the feed zone, the pelletized molding material fell in a rotating screw channel from a hopper is fed forwardly and is preheated simultaneously, and the resin is transferred to the compression zone while being melting by both the exterior heating and the heat generated by shearing of the resin: in the compression zone, the semi-molten resin is melted and kneaded by the exterior heating and shearing action while being compressed by the tapered channel to be sent to the metering zone: and in the metering zone, the molten resin is kneaded further completely and is made uniform to flow out from the screw head into a head section of the heating cylinder with uniform flowing speed.
Although it has been said that the resin plastificated by such an injection screw is made uniform by the exterior heating on the occasion of passing through the metering zone of which the screw channel depth is set most shallowly, resin can not be necessarily made uniform depending upon the set length of the metering zone, whereby variations in the resin temperature at injecting is occurred even in the standard screw as shown in FIG. 3.
Although it is thought to set the metering zone long, as a means for solving this problem, a time period that the plastificated resin is heated by the exterior heating becomes long due to the elongated metering zone, so that resin is heated more than required, and moreover, flowing resistance also is increased, resulting in the cause inducing generation of the excessive heat by shearing in the compression zone, thereby not only there being the risk that resin Is heated excessively, so that burning or the like are caused and resin is deteriorated, but also the new problems that the adverse effect is exerted on supplying of the pelletized molding material at the hopper, or the like being caused


A communication management system and method of operation includes a structure registration interface, a user registration, a submission interface, a communication server and an access interface. The structure registration interface receives structure data and establishes a communication thread structure having a plurality of interconnected threads based upon the structure data. The user registration interface receives user data and establishes user information based upon the user data, the user information linking a user with at least one thread of the plurality of interconnected threads. The submission interface receives communications and at least one desired thread of the plurality of interconnected threads and links the communications with at least some of the plurality of interconnected threads. The communication server establishes links between communications and user information based upon threads of the plurality of interconnected threads. Finally, the access interface receives a communication access request from a user, receives communications from the communication server based upon the communication access request, the user information and thread linkages between the communications and the user information and provides the received communications to the user. The communication management system may also include a notification interface that notifies a user when a communication is received that is linked to the user by at least one thread. The notification interface may notify a user when a communication has been received that is linked to the user by at least one thread and has a notification priority greater than or equal to a notification priority respective to the user.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the management of communications and more particularly to a system and associated method of operation for receiving multimedia communications, for organizing such communications within structures established solely for organizing the communications, notifying users upon receipt of particular types of communications and the distribution of such communications.
2. Related Art
As the communication age has established itself and expanded, the need to expeditiously and economically receive, store and disseminate communications has increased. Electronic mail (email) has facilitated electronic communication between individuals and organizations. Facsimile data transmission has allowed written communications to be transmitted in electronic format and reconstructed into a hard copy format upon a delivery. Further, files containing information may be transmitted and received electronically. Finally, voice communications may be packaged, stored and transmitted over a wired or wireless link to destination where they may be stored for review at a later time. Together, communications containing multiple media types are referred to as multimedia communications.
However, difficulties exist with respect to the ordered dissemination of multimedia communications. With some media of communication, such as email for example, the electronic email communications may be automatically directed to multiple users. Further, in various other systems, voice mail communications and facsimile documents may be multicast to a large number of recipients. Thus, in operation, communication using any of these mediums may be automatically sent to a plurality of destinations.
This ease in directing a single communication to multiple destinations, however, has created significant overhead. For example, in organizations where email has become prevalent, users typically send copies of email to numerous users even though one or more of the recipients has little or no reason to receive the email. Further, facsimiles (faxes) are often transmitted to multiple locations with little or no knowledge as to the value that such fax will provide to the recipient. Thus, even though communications may now be easily disseminated, the overhead created and time lost in review of the communications often outweigh any realized gains.
Additional difficulties arise due to the multiple formats in which communications may be transmitted. For example, faxes, email messages, digitized voice transmissions and electronic files typically require separate interfaces for their creation, transmission and receipt. Separate interfaces are expensive to acquire and difficult for individuals to learn and use. Tools used to direct the transmission of communications are typically non-interactive and difficult operate.
Moreover, for multiple communication types, no universally accepted definition for the successful receipt of a communications exists. Therefore, available systems, even though providing support for multiple types of communications, provide no indication to a sender that a transmitted communication has been received by an intended recipient or recipients. For example, upon sending a file to a recipient's directory, a sender typically must confirm the delivery of the file via verbal communication with the recipient. Faxes may sit for hours or days at a receiving fax machine until they are forwarded via human intervention to the recipient. In any group communication environment, the importance of notification to a recipient often dictates the fashion in which communications are transmitted. Information that would more efficiently be transmitted via a first medium may be transmitted via a second, less desirable medium solely due to notification requirements.
Many types of communications have no indicia of source, topic, purpose time frame and other information that allows a recipient to categorize the communication. Typically, the recipient cannot determine the relative importance of the communication without fully evaluating the communication and therefore typically wastes time in reviewing messages unimportant to him or her. Further, recipients often times review messages only to determine that events referenced within the communication have passed and the communication is no longer relevant to the recipient. The lack of topic and purpose generally precludes the recipient from efficiently retaining and storing the communication for further use.
Still further limitations exist with current communication management tools. Available tools typically do not provide the capability to archive communications in an organized fashion for future use. The tools typically do not provide for the selective dissemination of communications within organizations. Further, dissemination of communications is typically performed without reference to the security of the transmission of such documents.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for a system and associated method of operation for receiving, organizing and disseminating multimedia communications in a logical, expeditious, and economical fashion.

Communication management system having communication thread structure including a plurality of interconnected threads


This invention is a motorcycle stand for securing a motorcycle to a vehicle. The apparatus has a hook which pulls down the foot peg of a motorcycle onto a receiving portion on the base member of the frame. The hook is attached to a sliding member which slides within an elongated cavity defined by the frame. This sliding motion is tilted so that the hook applies a forward force on the peg to more securely stabilize the front tire of the motorcycle. In addition, the motorcycle stand has a linkage with a groove which fits around a shaft so that the motorcycle peg is secured in a clamping position between the hook and the receiving portion. The device has locking apertures which aligns when the hook is placed in the clamping position for protecting the motorcycle against theft.

The present invention relates generally to devices for transporting a motorcycle in a vehicle.
More particularly, this invention relates to a motorcycle stand which secures a motorcycle for transportation.
Motorcycle owners require a device which can securely attach a motorcycle to a vehicle so that the motorcycle can be transported from one location to another. In addition, the motorcycle owner requires a method of locking the motorcycle to the vehicle in order to prevent theft. Often, motorcycle owners must use complicated securement systems in order to secure the motorcycle to the vehicle. These securement systems are often unstable, and take an inordinate amount of time to secure the motorcycle. Other motorcycle stands do not have the adjustability to accommodate different types of motorcycle models and designs. As a result, the motorcycle stand will only work for a particular model or motorcycle design.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,494 discloses a motorcycle stand with a hook system. The hook system has a hook which catches a peg on a bracket attached to the bike. The peg is pulled down onto the base of the stand by a foot pedal. The hook thereby lowers the peg on the motorcycle into a secured position. However, this design has several disadvantages. First, the motorcycle is not held within the stand in a stable manner. The peg is simply pulled vertically down onto the base of the motorcycle stand and thus does not provide a force sufficient to stabilize the front tire. Furthermore, the design does not use the motorcycle pegs on the motorcycle but instead requires the owner to attach a separate bracket with pegs to the motorcycle for locking the motorcycle on the stand. Finally, the motorcycle is not locked to the stand and thus maybe easily stolen by a thief.

Motorcycle stand for motorcycle transport