A testing device for testing telecommunication digital lines referred to as high-cap or T-1 lines by introducing a go/no-go loop back signal to both line sides. The testing device uses a test loop generating controller interface that can be used with any high-cap copper installation with or without line repeaters in place.

1. Technical Field
This device relates to the testing of telephone lines and line repeaters used in the telecommunication industry which employ the generation of a test signal loop.
In the telecommunication industry telephone central offices (C.O) are connected by cables forming networks of "twisted wire pairs". The local telephone service provider is usually a local exchange carrier (LECS). There are also inter-exchange carriers (IXCS) that connect to the (LEC'S) to form the national network.
There are a number of different "access transport technologies" that are used to connect to a network such as ISDN, T-1, T-3, ATM, and SONET.
To access a network you need an access point and a transport facility or physical connection referred to generally as pipes. The simplest access pipe is an analog phone line that is then converted to digital by pulse code modulation and transported over the network at 64,000 BPS (Bits Per Second) defining one channel. A high-cap or T-1 line combines 24 digitized voice channels into one pipe using only two twisted wire pairs. The twisted wire pairs carry parallel transmissions. In the T-1 transmission format, the 24 channels each add 64,000 BPS combined to define the T-1 rate of 1.544 MBPS (million bits per second). Typically, signal repeaters are installed on the twisted wire pair between the central offices to regenerate the signals transmitted due to signal transmission distance limitation which inherently limits the overall distance that an effective signal can be sent without substantial degradation. Equipment faults or other line problems can occur in the transmission between the central offices and the end user. To pinpoint the faults along a T-1 line can be a difficult and time consuming task which requires line inspection and electronic testing of the line segments to isolate the problem.
To test a T-1 transmission span, it normally must be powered and accordingly requires "test equipment" that enables the line typically referred to as a "power lid" which works only on standard repeater spans.
The problem of testing is compounded in new insulations where the testing technician needs to wait for the central office (CO) to be wired before testing the line to the customer.
It is accordingly an object of this invention to overcome such problems by replacing the required "power lid" with a portable testing device capable of generating a simple go/no-go test signal loop at any location along the T-1 line without requiring central office to be wired, as noted above.
2. Description of Prior Art
Prior art devices of this type have relied on a variety of different configurations to test and configure T-1 telecommunication lines, see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,965,309, 5,224,149, 5,060,226, 5,317,278, and 5,422,929.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,309 is directed to a test system that converts typical trio type pulse sets to quadruple sets.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,226 is a test system for digital telecommunication networks by a master test unit in combination with at least one remotely addressable field loop back unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,278 is a switched A-clip fault locator filter that combines multiple filters requires in a single unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,149 is a testing system for digital transmission lines with a metallic loop back and direct current by-pass for use with regenerative repeaters.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,929 is directed to a telephone line repeater and method of testing same wherein an inter-alia and input signal is transmitted on a telephone network that indicates an address field with at least one sub-field.

Portable telecommunication network testing device


Certain exemplary embodiments comprise a computer-assisted method for specifying a customized product, the method comprising: responsive to a request for product information from a user, identifying the product; if a standard product corresponds to the identified product: automatically initiating transmission of at least one document related to the standard product to the user in real-time; and if no standard product corresponds to the identified product: electronically forwarding the request for product information to an engineering entity. Certain exemplary embodiments comprise a computer-assisted method for designing a product, the method comprising: receiving a value for at least one design parameter related to a product from a user; if a value for each design parameter received from the user is within a pre-determined set for the design parameter, automatically designing predetermined aspects of the product responsive to the at least one of the design parameter value; and electronically providing a document regarding a designed product to the user.

United States Patent Application No. 20020052862 (Toren), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, allegedly recites a "method and system for supply chain product and process development collaboration. The supply chain is comprised of at least one product, where each project is determined as a part (or family of parts), a supplier to supply the part, and a customer to be supplied the part. In one embodiment, the system includes a data storage and retrieval devise to hold project data, which, for each project, includes a project identifier, a part identified, a supplier identifier, a customer identifier, data representative of a methodology applicable to the project, and data representative of at least one control associated with processing of the project. The system and method of the present invention ensures that current methodologies applicable to a project are applied, and allows for collaboration between the customer and supplier during all phases of product and process design, development, and manufacture." See Abstract.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,200 (Lukis), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, allegedly recites automated, "custom mold manufacture for a part begins by creating and storing a collection of information of standard tool geometries and surface profiles machinable by each of the standard tool geometries. A customer sends a CAD file for the part to be molded to the system. The system assesses the CAD file to determine various pieces of mold manufacturing information. One or more acceptability criteria are applied to the part, such as whether the part can be manufactured in a two-piece, straight-pull mold, and whether the mold can by CNC machined out of aluminum. If not, the system sends a file to the customer graphically indicating which portions of the part need modification to be manufacturable. With any such modifications, the system provides the customer with a quotation of the cost to manufacture the mold or a number of parts. The quotation is based upon mold manufacturing time as automatically assessed from the part drawings. The customer's part is geometrically assessed so the system automatically selects appropriate tools and computes tool paths for mold manufacture. In addition to the part cavity, the system preferably assesses the parting line, the shutoff surfaces, the ejection pins and the runners and gates for the mold. The preferred system then generates CNC machining instructions to manufacture the mold, and the mold is manufactured in accordance with these instructions." See Abstract.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,406 (Nick), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, allegedly recites an "in-depth review of a product line is conducted, including customer interviews, in order to identify customer specifications that are more complex than customer needs. Customer needs are quantified, and a reduced set of standard product configuration classes are selected so that about 80% of customer orders based on actual customer needs can be satisfied by the standard product configuration classes, and the remaining orders can be satisfied by custom design. Major components in the standard products are themselves standardized. Manufacture of the standard product is optimized for a one-day manufacturing cycle and separated from the manufacture of the custom designed product. A sales office and manufacturing plant roll-out schedule is implemented and managed by computer-based spreadsheet tools. A product configuration computer program module is interfaced between a product selector and a materials management (MRP) system in order to automate the process of entering orders, designing the standard product, ordering parts, and scheduling assembly of standard product." See Abstract.

System and method for automatically customizing a product


An apparatus includes a non-volatile memory and a processor. The processor is configured to receive, from a host, commands for storage of data in the non-volatile memory, to further receive from the host, for storage in the non-volatile memory, File System (FS) information that specifies organization of the data in a FS of the host, to receive from the host a directive that grants the processor permission and capability to access and modify the FS information, and to access the FS information, using the directive, so as to manage the storage of the data in the non-volatile memory.

Some storage systems comprise a host that runs a File System (FS), and a storage device in which the host stores data. For example, Mylavarapu et al. describe a FS-aware Flash Translation Layer (FTL), in "FSAF: File System Aware Flash Translation Layer for NAND Flash Memories," Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition, April, 2009, pages 399-404, which is incorporated herein by reference. FSAF monitors write requests to FAT32 table to interpret any deleted data dynamically, subsequently optimizing garbage collection (GC) and wear leveling (WL) algorithms accordingly. Also, depending upon the size of dead content and the Flash utilization, proactive dead data reclamation is carried out.
As another example, Rajimwale et al. describe a division of labor between file systems and storage in "Block Management in Solid-State Devices," Proceedings of the USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX'09), June, 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference. The authors assert that on a hard disk drive (HDD), nearby logical block numbers (LBNs) translate well to physical proximity. However, this technique fails on an SSD. This further motivates the conclusion that the file system accesses should be in terms of objects (or parts of objects) and the SSD should handle the low-level sector-specific scheduling.
As yet another example, in "Beyond Block I/O: Rethinking Traditional Storage Primitives," Proceedings of the IEEE 17th International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA-17), pages 301-311, which is incorporated herein by reference, Ouyang et al. describe a class of higher order storage primitives beyond simple block I/O that high performance solid state storage should support. One such primitive, atomic-write, batches multiple I/O operations into a single logical group that will be persisted as a whole or rolled back upon failure. By moving write-atomicity down the stack into the storage device, it is possible to reduce the amount of work required at the application, file system, or operating system layers to guarantee the consistency and integrity of data.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,873,782, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a file-system-aware storage system which locates and analyzes host file system data structures in order to determine storage usage of the host file system. To this end, the storage system might locate an operating system partition, parse the operating system partition to locate its data structures, and parse the operating system data structures to locate the host file system data structures. The storage system manages data storage based on the storage usage of the host file system. The storage system can use the storage usage information to identify storage areas that are no longer being used by the host file system and reclaim those areas for additional data storage capacity. Also, the storage system can identify the types of data stored by the host file system and manage data storage based on the data types, such as selecting a storage layout and/or an encoding scheme for the data based on the data type.


Implantable medical devices having anti-restenotic coatings are disclosed. Specifically, implantable medical devices having coatings of certain anti-inflammatory agents, are disclosed. The anti-inflammatory agents are selected from the group consisting of Sanglifehrin A, Sanglifehrin B, Sanglifehrin C, Sanglifehrin D, and pharmaceutically acceptable derivatives thereof. The anti-restenotic medical devices include stents, catheters, micro-particles, probes and vascular grafts. Intravascular stents are preferred medical devices. The medical devices can be coated using any method known in the art including compounding the anti-inflammatory agent with a biocompatible polymer prior to applying the coating. Moreover, medical devices composed entirely of biocompatible polymer-anti-inflammatory agent blends are disclosed. Additionally, medical devices having a coating comprising at least one anti-inflammatory agent in combination with at least one additional therapeutic agent are also disclosed. Furthermore, related methods of using and making the anti-restenotic implantable devices are also disclosed.

Cardiovascular disease, specifically atherosclerosis, remains a leading cause of death in developed countries. Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial disease that results in a narrowing, or stenosis, of a vessel lumen. Briefly, pathologic inflammatory responses resulting from vascular endothelium injury includes the expression of chemokines and adhesion molecules leading to the migration of monocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) from the sub endothelium into the arterial wall's intimal layer. There the VSMC proliferate and lay down an extracellular matrix causing vascular wall thickening and reduced vessel patency.
Cardiovascular disease caused by stenotic coronary arteries is commonly treated using either coronary artery by-pass graft (CABG) surgery or angioplasty. Angioplasty is a percutaneous procedure wherein a balloon catheter is inserted into the coronary artery and advanced until the vascular stenosis is reached. The balloon is then inflated restoring arterial patency. One angioplasty variation includes arterial stent deployment. Briefly, after arterial patency has been restored, the balloon is deflated and a vascular stent is inserted into the vessel lumen at the stenosis site. After expansion of the stent, the catheter is then removed from the coronary artery and the deployed stent remains implanted to prevent the newly opened artery from constricting spontaneously. An alternative procedure involves stent deployment without prior balloon angioplasty, the expansion of the stent against the arterial wall being sufficient to open the artery, restoring arterial patency. However, balloon catheterization and/or stent deployment can result in vascular injury ultimately leading to VSMC proliferation and neointimal formation within the previously opened artery. This biological process whereby a previously opened artery becomes re-occluded is referred to as restenosis.
Treating restenosis requires additional, generally more invasive, procedures including CABG in severe cases. Consequently, methods for preventing restenosis, or treating incipient forms, are being aggressively pursued. One possible method for preventing restenosis is the administration of anti-inflammatory compounds that block or inhibit the inflammatory response at the site of the injury, including local invasion/activation of monocytes, damage to the endothelium, platelets and coagulation activation, and production of inflammatory agents and mediators, thus preventing the release of factors that may trigger VSMC proliferation and migration. Other potentially anti-restenotic compounds include anti-proliferative agents or other chemotherapeutics including rapamycin and paclitaxel. Rapamycin is generally considered an immunosuppressant best known as an organ transplant rejection inhibitor. However, rapamycin is also used to treat severe yeast infections and certain forms of cancer. Paclitaxel, known by its trade name Taxol®, is used to treat a variety of cancers, most notably breast cancer.
Anti-inflammatory compounds can be toxic when administered systemically in anti-restenotic-effective amounts. Furthermore, the exact cellular functions that must be inhibited and the duration of inhibition needed to achieve prolonged vascular patency (greater than six months) are not presently known. Moreover, it is believed that each drug may require its own treatment duration and delivery rate. Therefore, in situ, or site-specific drug delivery using anti-restenotic coated stents has become the focus of intense clinical investigation.
Recent human clinical studies on stent-based anti-restenotic delivery have centered on rapamycin and paclitaxel. In both cases excellent short-term anti-restenotic effectiveness has been demonstrated. However, side effects including vascular erosion have also been seen. Vascular erosion can lead to stent instability and further vascular injury. Furthermore, the extent of cellular inhibition may be so extensive that normal re-endothelialization will not occur. The endothelial lining is essential for maintaining vascular elasticity and as an endogenous source of nitric oxide. Therefore, there is a need for compounds that exert localized anti-restenotic effects while minimizing vascular and cellular damage in order to ensure the long-term success of drug delivery stents. Inasmuch as inflammatory processes are intimately involved in causing restenosis, it would be desirable to find anti-inflammatory agents that are suitable for coating implantable medical devices such as intravascular stents and that are highly effective in preventing or inhibiting restenosis when delivered locally, while being safe for the patient.

Medical devices to prevent or inhibit restenosis


A method and apparatus for correcting a focus of a CT device are provided. The method includes: calculating a total focus shift according to scanning data; and correcting, when the CT device is running, a deflection of an electron beam emitted from a ray source of the CT device, based on the total focus shift. The device includes: a shift calculation module, configured to calculate a total focus shift according to scanning data; and a shift correction module, configured to correct, when the CT device is running, a deflection of an electron beam emitted from a ray source of the CT device, based on the total focus shift.

A Computed Tomography (CT) device (a short for computer tomography scanning system) is a common instrument for medical imaging diagnosis. Simply speaking, the CT device is to perform tomography scanning with X rays.
A structure and principle for a CT device is as follows. A tube is used as a ray source, an electron beam, generated from a cathode of the tube under an effect of a high voltage filament, shoots at an anode target to be refracted as rays in a fan geometry, and then scanning and imaging are performed by using the rays to implement imaging diagnosis, as shown in FIG. 1.
Due to a high requirement on accuracy of a medical CT device, control for rays in the CT device is extremely rigorous. Focus position of the rays is critical for controlling the direction and angle of the rays. The so-called focus refers to a point where the electron beam is refracted on the anode target. The focus may be considered as a source of the rays, and the accuracy of the focus position is the basis for achieving accurate control of the rays. Once the focus position has an error, the direction and the angle of the rays may be significantly affected.
Unfortunately, the generation and control of rays in the tube of the conventional CT device generally depend on mechanical components to some extent, and therefore the derived mechanical error is unavoidable. In practical application, when the angle of the rays is changed, a rotation of the anode target, a rotation of a gantry, cold shrinkage and thermal expansion of the anode target may affect the focus position. As shown by the dashed lines in FIG. 1, as the anode target and the gantry rotate, the anode target shifts to the position represented by the dashed line due to an effect of gravity; and the focus and the rays are also shifted due to the shift of the anode target. Referring to the X-Y-Z spatial coordinate system shown in FIG. 1, the rays shift in X-axis and Z-axis respectively.
In conventional technology, correction of shift in focus position is normally confined in a mechanical level. For example, by providing a ray detector to detect the change in radiation position of the rays on the detector and by adjusting related mechanical components accordingly, a constant radiation position on the detector is ensured and a correction for the position is achieved. However, such a conventional mechanical method, naturally subjected to a restriction of mechanical movement, is hard to realize quick correction in real time and has a relative slow adjustment speed; and hardware modification in connection with the mechanical method brings relatively high cost.

Method and apparatus for correcting focus of CT device

SHENYANG NEUSOFT MEDICAL SYSTEMS CO., LTD.


A lamp ballast for energizing a lamp has short circuit protection. The lamp ballast contains a transformer that provides an output voltage to the lamp. The transformer has a primary winding, a secondary winding, and a third sense winding. The third sense winding has an output that provides an indication of transformer output voltage. A reference voltage circuit creates a reference voltage that provides an indication of a non-short circuited lamp ballast condition. A comparator compares the reference voltage and the output of the third sense winding to provide an indication if the third sense winding output is below the reference. This indicates if there is a short in the output of the lamp ballast. The secondary is wound on multiple sections of a bobbin with one section being a low voltage section. The sense winding is wound under the secondary in the bobbin secondary low voltage section. The ballast additionally has a track and hold circuit to prevent an indication of a short in the lamp voltage when the lamp voltage is dimmed with a dimming circuit. The ballast also has a preheat logic signal to prevent a short circuit indication during the preheat mode at startup.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a ballast for driving multiple lamps in a liquid crystal display (LCD). More specifically, the invention relates to a method for sensing a short circuit condition in the ballast transformers outputs to the multiple lamps.
2. Description of the Related Art
In some lamp ballasts, it is desirable to sense a short circuit condition on the output and take an action. This action could be to reduce the power level or shut down entirely in order to avoid circuit breakdown or other possible catastrophic situations. The conventional method to achieve this is to sense the current in the output (hence the lamp current) and compare to a threshold. When the reference level is exceeded, the action can be taken. This current sensing can be implemented in several ways, for instance by inserting a resistor in series with the load and sensing the voltage drop across it.
A difficulty with the state of the art is that it requires a measurement of current. It may be undesirable because the sensing resistor dissipates too much power. It may also be difficult if the circuit inherently limits the current to the load. An example would be an LCD backlight inverter based on the Alpha IC (UBA2010). The secondary winding of the transformers has enough leakage inductance that its impedance limits the current if the load is shorted. The circuit is self protecting, but one may still wish to sense the shorted condition and shut down for safety reasons.
What is needed is a ballast where a short circuit condition is sensed by a method other than measuring lamp (load) current or output voltage directly.
The invention is a lamp ballast for energizing a lamp which has a new method for sensing a short circuit condition. The lamp ballast has a transformer that provides an output voltage to the lamp. The transformer has a primary winding, a secondary winding, and a third sense winding. The third winding has an output which provides an indication of transformer output voltage. A reference voltage circuit creates a reference voltage providing an indication of a non-short circuited lamp ballast condition. A comparator compares the reference voltage and the output of the third sense winding. The comparator provides an indication if the third sense winding output voltage is below the reference voltage thus indicating a short in the output of the lamp ballast.
The method of winding the transformer improves the third sense winding output voltage signal. The transformer is wound on a bobbin with multiple sections. The transformer secondary is wound on multiple sections of the bobbin with one section being a low voltage section. The sense winding is wound under the secondary in the bobbin secondary low voltage section.
Several circuits are necessary to implement the above circuit for indicating a short in the output of the lamp ballast. First, the ballast has a dimming circuit during which time the lamp voltage is reduced substantially. The ballast has a track and hold circuit which cooperates with the voltage of the sense winding at the comparator to hold the voltage above the reference voltage so as to prevent an indication of a short in the lamp voltage.
Secondly, during startup the transformer output is zero and would have an indication of a short circuit. A special circuit is provided to delay any indication of a short circuit until the lamp ballast circuit is powered up. During startup the sense winding voltage at the comparator gradually increases during a preheat mode. A preheat logic signal applies a low voltage to the reference voltage circuit during the preheat mode. This prevents the reference voltage from exceeding the sense winding voltage thus preventing a short circuit indication during the preheat mode.

Short circuit protection for multiple lamp LCD backlight ballasts with PWM dimming


An apparatus and method for powering opposing corona chargers for discharging moving receiver sheets. The discharging capacity of the chargers is expanded by adding a high voltage DC offset to a current regulated, AC voltage limited power supply.

In electrophotographic reproduction apparatus and printers, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoconductive imaging member by first uniformly charging the imaging member and then image-wise exposing the imaging member using various light sources such as a scanned laser, LED array, optical flash, or other suitable, known methods. The electrostatic latent image is then developed into a visible image by bringing the imaging member into close proximity with an electrostatic developer that includes charged marking particles. In a 2-component developer, marking particles are mixed with larger, magnetic particles called carrier particles, where the marking particles become triboelectrically charged by contact with the carrier particles. The developer is contained in a development station that typically includes a roller with a magnetic core. The carrier particles transport the marking particles into contact with the imaging member bearing the electrostatic latent image. The development station is suitably biased and the marking particles suitably charged so that the proper amount of marking particles, are deposited in electrostatic image the regions of the imaging member.
After the electrostatic latent image on the imaging member has been developed, the developed image is generally transferred to a receiver member, such as sheets of paper or transparency stock. This is generally accomplished by applying an electric field in such a manner to urge the marking particles from the imaging member to the receiver member. In some instances, it is preferable to first transfer the developed image from the imaging member to an intermediate member and then from the intermediate member to the receiver member. Again, this is most commonly accomplished by applying an electric field to urge the developed image toward the appropriate receiver member. The receiver member bearing the developed image is then passed through a fusing device to permanently affix the developed image to the receiver member by heat and/or pressure. The marking particles are typically a thermoplastic polymer that is electrically non-conductive. The process of transferring the developed image to the receiver results in a polar electrostatic charge on the surfaces of the marking particle image and the receiver member. The polar charge will dissipate through a conductive receiver member such as moisture-containing paper, but will not migrate through the insulating marking particle image layer or the insulating receiver member. The result is trapped electrostatic charge on the imaged receiver member. On a conducting receiver member, the amount of trapped charge is dependent on the coverage of the marking particle image. The trapped charge can inconvenience the user of the printed receiver members, as the member sheets will tend to stick together by the electrostatic forces of attraction between the charges on adjacent sheets.
It is well known to use an ac corona discharge to dissipate electrostatic charges on the surfaces of moving webs. For example, two AC corona chargers, facing each other on opposite sides of the web are typically used. Current regulated, high voltage AC power supplies are typically used to power the corona chargers in these exemplary configurations. In attempting to use a pair of corona chargers in this way to discharge receiver members, new problems are encountered due to the interframe spaces between successive receiver members. The resistivity between the two opposing chargers changes significantly when a receiver member is between the two chargers, versus during an interframe when no receiver member is between the two chargers. With pure current regulation the corona wire voltage can increase to critical, high values when a receiver member is in between the two chargers. The voltage would also vary with different types of receiver members because of the variation in receiver member resistivity. When a highly resistive member exits the area between the opposed chargers it is possible for an arc to develop between the opposing corona wires. This can happen before the current regulation control of the power supply can reduce the output voltage of the supply to react to the change in resistance between the corona wires.
Arcing results in undesired electrical noise radiated into the control system of the reproduction apparatus and possibly to the environment around the machine. Arcing can also be damaging to the apparatus hardware and materials. If, to address this problem, a pure peak to peak voltage regulating power supply is used, the current would reach critical, high levels when the interframe, between successive receiver member, is in between the two chargers. In this mode, the chargers will be operating at an unnecessarily high power level and generate excessive heat in the power supply. At the corona wire, the corona emission and the resultant chemical emissions will also be unnecessarily high.
In co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/866,182 (in the name of Hasenauer), a novel power supply is disclosed, hereafter referred to as the Hasenauer power supply, for powering a pair of opposed AC corona chargers for dissipating the trapped polar charge on the receiver members, that solves these problems. The Hasenauer power supply uses a combination of both output control methods, current regulation, and peak to peak voltage regulation, to provide a solution that prevents arcing and over-current loading for receiver member sheet fed applications. Driven by the resistance between the two chargers, the power supply changes automatically from current regulation to voltage limit mode. However, due to limited output current capacity, the Hasenauer power supply becomes less effective at very high receiver member speeds.

Current regulated, voltage limited, AC power supply with DC offset for corona chargers


A multifunctional device for supporting a lid of a container in order to protect an item stored within the container is provided. The support device includes a generally planar upper member. The support device also includes at least one leg member detachably connected to the upper member by a connecting member and projecting from a surface of the upper member. The upper member and leg member have a first function as a lid support when the leg member and upper member are attached. Further, either one of the upper member or the leg member have a second function different from the first function when the leg member is detached from the upper member.

Various types of containers are well known in the packaging art for holding an item. In general, the size, shape and material of the container are dependent on the item to be contained within the container. The container may also include other specifications, such as that the container protects the integrity of the item contained therein. For example, the lid portion of the container does not touch a food item contained therein.
A frequently used shape for a container is a box shape. Likewise, a frequently utilized material for a box is cardboard. Various factors influence the cost of the container, including the amount of the material used in the container. The rigidity of the cardboard box is dependent on the density of the cardboard material, and the more dense the material, the higher the cost. If the container is meant to be disposable, such as with a food container, there may be a tradeoff between container cost and functionality. For example, with a container used to hold a food product, such as a pizza, the material cost of the pizza box is balanced by the need that the pizza box lid avoid contact with the pizza contained therein.
Various support devices are known in the art for supporting the lid of a pizza container. One example of such a support device is a support having three legs supporting a generally planar top portion. While this device works well in supporting the lid, it has no other use. Another example of a support device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,609. This patent discloses a combination lid support and food server for serving the contents contained within the box. This device provides for lid support, and another use as a pizza server. Another example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,889, which is a detachable spacer attached to the lid of the container. This device only provides for support of the lid. Still another device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,119. This device is a golf tee for holding the lid of a pizza box. The golf tee is attached to the lid of the box and is detachable for later use as a golf tee. While these devices work, they are generally disposable or have an extremely limited secondary use.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a low cost lid support device for a container made of cardboard material having multiple purposes, including a first use as a lid support and an unrelated secondary useful purpose.

Multifunctional device for supporting a container lid


A new cultivar of Geranium plant named ‘TUITSKI’ that is characterized by its flowers that are deep blue in color, its flowers that are large in size, and its fully double flowers.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Geranium pratense and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, 'TUITSKI'. 'TUITSKI' represents a new Geranium, an herbaceous perennial grown for landscape use.
'TUITSKI' was discovered by the Inventor as a chance seedling outdoors in a perennial border of Geranium in Westacre, Norfolk, The United Kingdom in July of 2016. The exact parentage is unknown, however Geranium pratense 'Fiore Plena' (not patented, syn. Geranium pratense 'Plenum Violaceum') is thought to be a parent based on its charateristics and its proximity in the perennial border.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished under the direction of the Inventor by division in April of 2017 in Westacre, Norfolk, The United Kingdom. Asexual propagation by division and tissue culture using meristematic tissue has shown that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.


According to at least one aspect, a system for remotely controlling an application installed on a device is provided. The system includes at least one processor and at least one computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which program the at least one processor to identify a task for the application installed on the device to perform, transmit a binary short message service (SMS) message to the device including a task code associated with the identified task, receive an information request from the device responsive to the binary SMS message, and transmit task information to the device responsive to receiving the information request.

Enterprises typically provide customers an application to install on a computing device that makes various products and/or services offered by the enterprise available to the customer. For example, a car insurance company may make an application available to customers to install on their mobile phones. The application may permit customers to make changes to an existing car insurance policy and/or purchase a new car insurance policy.
The applications provided by these enterprises typically communicate with external computing devices hosting information associated with the enterprise. For example, a music streaming company may provide an application to customers that allows these customers to stream music from a server operated by the company. The application may stream music for the customer by sending a request to the server to stream a particular song and receiving the music stream from the server.

Techniques for remotely controlling an application


A method and an apparatus for preventing a basic input/output system (BIOS) from failing to enter a boot program are adapted to solve the problem that when a central processing unit (CPU) executes a first instruction after a computer is powered on, a start address to be executed is erroneously set as another corresponding start address, resulting in that a BIOS cannot enter a boot program. In the method of the present invention, a jump instruction is written to the corresponding start address, so as to enable an execution instruction to jump to a boot block of the BIOS when the start address is erroneously set in the computer, thus performing a normal boot operation. Moreover, in the present invention, a step for checking a register that may cause the start address to be inverted to the corresponding start address is further added to the BIOS program, such that in each boot process, the value of the register can be pre-checked and overwritten when an error occurs, so as to avoid the problem of false pointing next time the computer is booted.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a computer basic input/output system (BIOS), in particular, to a method and an apparatus for preventing a BIOS from failing to enter a boot program.
2. Related Art
A basic input/output system (BIOS) is the most basic software program code loaded into a computer hardware system. The main function of the BIOS includes: performing a power on self test (POST), i.e., checking whether a central processing unit (CPU) and controllers are in a normal status; initializing the memory, mainboard chipset, display adapter, and peripheral devices; recording setting values of the system, i.e., providing basic settings for the display, keyboard, processor, memory, and other system components; providing a routine library, i.e., providing interrupt routines called by the operating system or the application program; loading the operating system, i.e., loading the operating system from the memory to a random access memory (RAM); and the like.
With the above basic functions, the BIOS can be regarded as a mini operating system in communication with the hardware, and it is generally written in an assembly language compatible with the CPU. As the BIOS is a mini operating system program executed first after the computer is powered on, the normal operation thereof is the way to the normal operation of the computer. The BIOS includes two main components, namely, a boot block and a main BIOS. FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a BIOS boot program, including the following steps.
In Step 102, the computer is powered on.
In Step 104, the CPU sends a first instruction pointing to an address of the boot block.
In Step 106, the chipset is initialized.
In Step 108, fundamental components are initialized.
In Step 110, the memory is initialized.
In Step 112, the BIOS checksum is checked, and the main BIOS is decompressed.
In Step 114, a POST (Power on self test) is performed.
In Step 116, it is determined whether a "Delete" key is input, and if yes, Step 118 is performed; otherwise, Step 122 is performed.
In Step 118, a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) setting module is decompressed.
In Step 120, CMOS setting is performed.
In Step 122, the control right is transferred to the operating system.
The boot block is a specific region in the BIOS, which is non-compressed and stored in a fixed address space, and is the first part to be executed when the computer is booted. The boot block is mainly responsible for performing the most basic and simplest initialization on the computer hardware, and then decompressing and sequentially executing other modules of the main BIOS. The boot block contains a minimum instruction set for booting, and the first address of the CPU pointing to the read-only memory (ROM) space that stores the BIOS program when the computer is booted is located at the boot block. Once data in the boot block is destroyed or lost, the BIOS cannot boot the computer, and the BIOS must be reset.
In actual production and applications, a problem that the computer still cannot be booted when the boot block is not destroyed may occur. At this time, it has no effect to reset the BIOS, and the computer cannot be normally booted unless the CMOS is cleared or the computer is powered off and then powered on again. However, after being used for a period of time, the same problem may randomly occur. Thereby, the users may consider that the problem is caused by the instability of the system, and become dissatisfied with the computer manufacturers.
The above-mentioned problem usually occurs to mainboards using Intel south bridge chips (for example, models ICH6, ICH7, ICH8, ICH9, and ICH10), and is reflected in the BIOS by a change in the first BIOS ROM space address read by the CPU. The address originally points to the boot block, but actually points to another block (generally a neighboring block at a lower level). As the other block does not contain programs necessary for booting, the computer cannot be booted.
Such an error in the BIOS execution address of the first instruction after the CPU is powered on is generally caused by an abnormality in a certain register of the south bridge (which is a top swap bit (TSB) in the register by taking an Intel chip as an example). Generally, three methods are provided for resolving the error. 1. If the register is powered by a voltage (for example, VCC3) generated when the computer is powered on, the value of the register is usually automatically restored after the computer is powered off, and may not affect the next boot operation. 2. If the register is powered by a standby voltage (for example, 3VSB), and an error occurs in the value of the register, the computer cannot be booted unless the power supply is unplugged. 3. If the register is powered by a battery on the mainboard, and an error occurs in the value of the TSB register, the computer cannot be booted unless the battery is removed or the CMOS data is cleared by a jumper.
The reason 1 basically has no effect on the boot process, while the reasons 2 and 3 may seriously affect the use of the computer. It is found in actual production that as an abnormality randomly occurs to a register of the south bridge on the mainboard, an error may occur in the execution address of the first instruction after the CPU is powered on, resulting in that the BIOS cannot boot the computer. In this case, default settings of the register of the south bridge must be restored by removing the CMOS battery or powering off and then powering on the computer, which is rather inconvenient for the users.
Therefore, the problem that the BIOS cannot boot the computer due to an error in the execution address of the first instruction after the CPU is powered on needs to be solved, so as to avoid customer complaints and user dissatisfaction.

Method and apparatus for preventing BIOS from failing to enter boot program


There is claimed a method for depositing fluid material from a linear nozzle in a substantially uniform manner across and along a surface. The method includes directing gaseous medium through said nozzle to provide a gaseous stream at the nozzle exit that entrains fluid material supplied to the nozzle, said gaseous stream being provided with a velocity profile across the nozzle width that compensates for the gaseous medium's tendency to assume an axisymmetric configuration after leaving the nozzle and before reaching the surface. There is also claimed a nozzle divided into respective side-by-side zones, or preferably chambers, through which a gaseous stream can be delivered in various velocity profiles across the width of said nozzle to compensate for the tendency of this gaseous medium to assume an axisymmetric configuration.

The present invention generally relates to linear nozzles, i.e., nozzles having a straight, elongated opening, and a tailored gas plume exiting the nozzle for the entrainment and deposition of an atomized liquid material carried in the gas plume.
Linear nozzles can be used for producing spray formed sheet and plate, particularly aluminum sheet and plate, the nozzles depositing molten metal material on a planar surface and substrate. The substrate supports the molten metal until solidification, and acts as a heat sink in the cooling and solidifying process. Linear nozzles have the advantage of making the sheet at desired widths and at production rates that compete with the traditional breakdown and hot rolling of cast ingots. The molten metal is deposited by entrainment in a flow of a gaseous medium directed through the atomizing nozzle and to the substrate.
Linear nozzles can also be used to spray and deposit other atomizable liquid materials, such as coolants, paints, protective coatings or irrigants on the appropriate surfaces.
The velocity profile of the gas flow or plume exiting the nozzle determines the deposit profile independently of the configuration of the supply of liquid medium to the nozzle. In addition, it has been determined that a flat, gas plume will become axisymmetric (circular) downstream of the nozzle due to gas entrainment. Entrainment is more pronounced at the ends or edges of the nozzle so that the gas decelerates at a relatively faster rate at the ends or edges of the plume in comparison to rate of deceleration near and at the plume center. This phenomena is shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. The result is a gaussian distribution of the liquid material on the substrate, as shown in FIG. 1.
Prior art efforts to overcome the problem has included the use of a plurality of axisymmetric nozzles scanning over the substrate. Other systems have included multiple nozzles to "fill in" low mass areas of the deposited material, while linear nozzles, using single chamber/single pressure schemes have involved changing the physical geometry of the gas exit of the nozzle for the purpose of controlling the distribution of deposited material. None of these efforts have produced the profile and yield properties needed at required production rates. "Yield" refers to the percent recovery of the liquid as a deposit.

Linear nozzle with tailored gas plumes and method


A scalable multi-power integrated circuit package for integrated circuits having spaced apart first, second and third pluralities of respective spaced apart chip power bonding pads connected to-corresponding first, second, and third chip power supply nets, the chip power bonding pads disposed adjacent to a chip periphery defining the chip area, the scalable multi-power integrated circuit package comprising: a central chip mounting area for mounting one of said integrated circuits, said chip mounting area defining a chip mounting area periphery surrounding said chip mounting area; spaced apart first, second and third package power supply continuous conductive traces, each trace disposed adjacent to the chip area mounting periphery; corresponding first, second and third pluralities of spaced apart package bonding areas defined along each respective one of said first, second and third package power supply continuous conductive traces, each respective one of said package bonding areas disposed in bondable alignment with a corresponding one of said chip power bonding pads along said chip periphery such that a permanent conductive bond can be made between said package bonding area and said chip bonding pad. Alternatives include a chip scale package outline, in which one of the chip power supply nets is a common ground return for the other two power supply nets.

An example of conventional integrated circuits and packages used in a conventional system with multiple power supplies (multi-power product) is an ordinary PC. Recent developments in highly compact, portable electronics may incorporate ICs in packages that have multiple functions requiring two or more different power supply leads or contacts for connection to electrically isolated or independent system power supplies. Industry today uses a mixed set of nomenclature designating IC packages with multiple and/or independent power supplies. Some of these are "multi-power level", "multi-voltage level". For the purposes of this discussion the term "multi-power chip' is used to designate a single IC chip/package having multiple functions that require multiple independent and/or electrically isolated power supply voltages (two or more, not counting ground return). These multiple voltages are provided by package electrical connections, i.e. power supply leads (conductive pads, pins or wires for mounting on a printed circuit board or substrate) for supplying different power supply voltages to internal functions separated or electrically isolated from each other.
Conventional IC packages preferred for such compact, portable electronic systems include those known as mini-BGA, micro-BGA, Flex-BGA, flip-chip-BGA, Film BGA, BCC, TFBGA and the like. Known examples are described by Schueller et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,545, "Chip Scale Ball Grid Array for Integrated Circuit Package" the '545 patent), by Eng et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,611 "Flexible Pin Location Integrated Circuit Package" (the '611 patent), and by Igarashi et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,546 "Chip Scale Package Type of Semiconductor Device" (the '546 patent), all incorporated herein by reference. The packages detailed in these patents described some of the known structural features for connecting external system power supply lines to the package external leads, and different organization, structure and formation of internal package insulating layers and conductive routing elements to provide a desirable arrangement of numerous isolated conductor paths to internal package bonding lands for subsequent convenient connection to selected chip bonding pads.
For example the '546 patent shows chip electrode 11 (i.e. a chip bonding pad) coupled to an outer electrode 22 of the package through contact with a metallic bump 211 forming the inner end of inner electrode 21. The inner electrode 21 is one end of a metal routing conductor 23 extending between insulating layers 24 and 25 and electrically connects outer electrode 22 to inner package electrode 21.
Many techniques for forming arrangements of insulated routing conductors between inner package electrodes and outer package electrodes are known and are not part of the present invention. However, previously, conventional integrated circuit packages for systems attempting to integrate several or many disparate functions into a few packages or a single package present a number of chronic difficulties for the electronics industry. These difficulties are exaggerated especially in the area of attempting to integrate what previously have been separate functions into unitary or single modules. E.g. mobile phones containing one or more other functions: fax, messaging, microcomputer, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like.
To produce a single-chip system with multiple, disparate functions, such as a mobile phone combined for example with some computational capability, it may be necessary to combine RF power, analog processing, semiconductor RAM/ROM and CPU functions and perhaps flash memory. Each of these functions may work optimally at different power supply voltage levels, e.g., perhaps 10 volts for flash memory, 5 volts for the phone's RF transmitter and 3 volts for the RAM/ROM and 1.9 volts or less for the CPU.
Real world examples of these in particular include: single package memory subsystems with 3.3 v and 5 v power supply leads. Another single package solution is an entire PC having power supply voltages of 1.8 v (CPU), 3 v (memory), 5 v (logic) and 10 v (embedded flash memory).
The problems known in packaging multi-functional, multi-power level systems include power, ground, and I/O package pin count proliferation, the many-to-one relationship between chip power pads and multiple system power bus circuits (power bus nets), difficulty in reconciling chip bonding pad and package bonding area layouts with functional architecture, bonding ease, manufacturing throughput and cost, system board layout constraints, operating performance levels, signal transition speeds, lead inductance, I/O driver noise (ground bounce), signal cross-coupling, signal isolation, and others.
Power efficiency is a phrase sometimes used to indicate the degree to which the power requirements for the chip or die inside the package, are met by the available package pins (either the number of package pins or package lead count) or the topological placement of the internal package electrodes used as package electrode bonding areas (lands) relative to the chip bonding locations (pads). A typical example of some of these difficulties in the case of a multi-power IC chip with three different functions each requiring an independent power supply that is to be connected to a PC board system having 3 electrically isolated power supplies V1, V2 and V3 are shown with regard to FIG. 7.
In FIG. 7, there is shown an example of preliminary bonding diagram 700 for multi-power IC chip 702 mounted in a prior art BGA package indicated by the arrow 700. The BGA package 700 has 256 bonding lands arranged as 2 opposed rows and 2 opposed columns along the periphery of the package 700 and indicated by arrows 706. 64 package bonding lands are arranged on each side of the package 700 and disposed to receive one end of a respective wire bond 744 connected at its other end to a respective chip bonding pad disposed on an adjacent chip edge.
The multi-power chip 702 has three separated or isolated power supply networks (nets) 710, 720 and 730. Four linear arrays of spaced apart chip bonding pads are arranged, one along each respective side of the nearly square chip 702 and indicated by arrows 740 pointing to two opposed rows and two opposed columns of chip bonding pad.
The chip 702 layout also includes chip signal traces (with associated bonding pads, not shown) connecting to a majority of the chip bonding pads 740. The chip bonding pads comprise two major groups: chip signal bonding pads, e.g. pads 746, and chip power bonding pads (CPpads). CPpads for the chip 702 are pads 711–715, 721–724, and 731–734.
Each of the power nets 710, 720 and 730 are connected to several particular chip power bonding pads selected from chip pads among the rows and columns 740 along each side of the chip 702. Specifically, power net 710 is connected to particular chip power bonding pads 711, 712, 713 and 715. Power net 720 is connected to particular chip power bonding pads 721, 722, 723 and 724. Power net 730 is connected to particular chip power bonding pads 731, 732, 733 and 734.
In this example, which is not atypical, the BGA package 700 was selected for a trial bonding diagram for mounting chip 702 because of size constraints imposed by the system for which the multi-power functions provided by chip 702 are intended. The board foot print for the 256 pin BGA package 700 is defined by package length 750 and package width 752.
Although the package 700 meets the footprint requirement for the system, and can accept the chip 702 having chip length 756 and width 758 being mounted within, it can be seen that some of the chip power bonding pads are not connected to any one of the package bonding lands i.e. chip power pads 712, 722, 734 between package bonding lands 193–256, chip power pads 713, 714, 732 along package bond lands 129–192 and chip power pads 715, 721, 733 between package bonding lands 64 and 65.
Generally, it is preferred that the multiple chip power bonding pads for each chip power net be distributed roughly equally around the chip periphery 742 to provide similar low resistance paths to the associated system power supplies and system ground or grounds (e.g., V1, V2 and V3) for circuit functions distributed around the chip 702 as shown. The majority of connections (in this case wire bonds 744) between chip 702 and the package 700 are system signals (e.g. I/O) between respective chip signal bonding pads, and package signal bonding lands e.g., chip pad 746 and package signal bonding land 748. In order for the chip 702 to be fully functional, each and every chip signal must be connected to a package signal bonding land.
Therefore, after all the chip signal bonding pads 740 are connected to a respective one of the package bonding lands 706, there are no available package bonding lands to connect to the remaining chip bonding pads 715, 721, 733, 714, 732, 713, 712, 722 and 734. This is precisely the dilemma often presented to designers of compact, high-density systems utilizing multi-power IC chips. In order to provide complete functionality, some chip pads must be left unconnected, or a package having more package bonding lands, a consequently a much larger footprint must be used. Frequently system size constraints would prohibit using larger packages. This can force one to make one of several extremely undesirable decisions: abandon the product, redesign the system architecture and use different and perhaps new functions, or redesign the chips to fit in the available package outlines.
One or more of the manufacturing, functional and operational performance requirements placed on chip-package combination in the multi-power system 700 typically result in a requirement for more than a single chip power bonding pad (Cppad) for each of the separate power nets 710, 712, 714 for connection to V1, V2 and V3 respectively.
The number and location of CPpad connections demanded or required by desired chip functionality or performance vary. The width, length and location of chip power traces are limited by the necessary on-chip circuitry and the available die area. Multiple chip power traces may be necessary to feed on or more ones of particular on-chip circuit function or functions widely separated on the chip layout to obviate potential voltage drop along a power bus trace connecting such widely separated functions. Alternatively, multiple chip power traces may be necessary to decouple power bus to signal line cross talk. Or additional chip power traces may be required for electrical shielding or isolation between adjacent analog and digital circuit functions. The number and location of on-chip signal traces (cstrace) and their associated chip signal bonding pads (CSpads) frequently compete with the number, availability and location of the Ppads relative to the desired number and locations of chip power pads.
The chip designer typically wants to optimize chip circuit function and performance while simultaneously minimizing chip area and package area (footprint). The chip designer will prefer to physically locate chip functions in the package in a way that maximizes the performance of the most desired system features, whether it be switching speed, operating frequency, noise immunity and the like. Therefore the designer will tend to fashion a chip plan focusing on those aspects. Once the chip functions and performance requirements are defined and located, chip circuitry power connections must be made between the chip functions and the required system power bus(es). Connection of the Chip power pads to PPads frequently are constrained by the number and locations of CSpads and the number and locations of available PPads. So an undesirable tradeoff must frequently be made between chip (and consequently, system) performance and the size and cost of the package in which the chip is mounted.
There are many instances of systems produced that are larger or more costly than otherwise desired because the package in which chips are mounted is selected only because there are enough package pins (and PPads) to accommodate all the chip signals and just enough to accommodate the number of chip power nets. If an smaller alternate package had been available, that could accommodate the number and location of all chip signal pads and all desired chip power pads, the system could have been smaller and/or less costly and perhaps provided higher performance.
This illustrates the need for a package having a package bonding pad(s) (or bonding location) PPad to be located and available, corresponding to where each and every desired chip power pad CPad is located for a given chip function layout. Additionally, the chip layout may be such that there are conflicts between the optimum location of one or more chip power pads relative to other power pads or signal pads, and the available PC board or substrate connection pattern. One well-known problem is the double-sided PC board pin 1 power/ground contention issue.
All chip signal pads (CSpads) must have corresponding package signal pads (pspads) in order to provide connection to respective external system signals. Because of the limited number of package bonding pads (ppads) available caused by limitations on pad size, spacing and package dimensions, caused by cost or system size limitations, some chip power pads may not have corresponding package power pads. This could result in limited or lowered operational performance, lower yield and higher cost.
Frequently a system redesign or feature addition will result in an additional signal being added to the chip. This means there must be a package bonding land available for bonding to the new signal pad being added to the chip layout. If the package is already pin limited, the package size may have to be increased just to add one additional pin. If the PC board layout were also size constrained, this would mean a complete system redesign; qualification and new manufacturing set up would be necessary just to release the new product feature. This is not an acceptable situation in most cases.
In the particular case shown in FIG. 7 if chip power pads for chip power bus 710 don t have corresponding package power pads to accept bond wires, they must be left unconnected in order to make the chip 702 functional at all. Therefore, power distribution from the system power bus on the PC board or substrate (not shown) intended to provide power for the chip power bus 710 and thence to the appropriate chip circuit functions (not shown) may not be sufficiently uniform to permit the chip 702 to meet operational or performance requirements. This can occur if the power drawn by circuit functions adjacent to the un-bonded cpads is large relative to the total current capacity of the chip power bus 710.
To maximize system performance the current carrying capability or capacity of the total power distribution path of each power bus must be optimized. The total power distribution path for the whole package-chip combination consists of the package pins, bonding wires, package bonding pads (ppads), chip bonding pads (cpads) and the on-chip power traces to all the on-chip circuit-to-power bus connections. In other words the total conductive path(s) between one end of the power bus at the package pin power bus connections to the PC board outside, and the innermost chip circuitry connections to the other end(s) that power bus distribution must be carefully considered.
Another aspect of a power efficiency limitation for the prior art is the current carrying capacity of bonding wires relative to the circuit traces. Circuit traces are very narrow and thus have limited current capacity. A single bonding wire of 1 mil can supply about 20 to 40 ma of current. A single circuit trace to carry that much current may have to be many mils wide. If the circuitry on the chip that needs that much current is not conveniently located relative to an available package power pad, much chip area is wasted just in metal width, unless additional package pins are dedicated to distribute that current to widely separated points on the chip. This wasted chip area-leads to higher cost and lower yields.
These issues are aggravated by the small packaging formats, e.g. chip scale packages such as mini-BGA, micro-BGA, Flex BGA, flip-chip BGA, film BGA, BCC, TFBGA and the like, desired in high integration systems and are further aggravated by the expanded set of functional and performance requirements imposed by the combination of functions seen in more complex systems.
Other issues exacerbating the dilemma are characteristics like: package size, package lead self-resistance, self-inductance, mutual-inductance, cross talk to other signal or power bus lines or traces, isolation between adjacent circuit functions having contiguous peripheral edges on the chip.
It is not only the amount of current being provided to a particular circuit function(s), it is the parasitic elements associated with that delivery because the size and number of chip circuit traces that are connected to chip power pads don't match the desired level: e.g. resistance, impedance, inductance, shielding, isolation, etc. as listed above.
These issues are particularly relevant to systems-on-a-chip like a mobile phone, desktop or notebook computer, because the more different types of functions there are being integrated into one package, the more likely there are different power level requirements. E.g., a memory function in one part of the chip, RF transmission in another part, etc.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Multi-power ring chip scale package for system level integration


A clarifier with an improved rake comprising a plurality of arms, wherein each arm of the rake including a series of arcuate blades, which each blade increasing in height and angle relative to the rake arm as radial distance of the blade relative to the center of the rake decreases.

The combustion of coal in power generation facilities produces solid waste, such as bottom and fly ash, and flue gas that is emitted to the atmosphere. Many plants are required to remove emissions from the flue gas using flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems.
Wet FGD technologies typically entail a slurry reactor section and a solids dewatering section. Various types of absorbers have been used, including packed and tray towers, venturi scrubbers, and spray scrubbers in the reactor section. The absorbers neutralize the acidic gasses with an alkaline slurry of lime, sodium hydroxide, or limestone. For a number of reasons, many newer scrubbers use a limestone slurry.
When limestone reacts with SOx in the reducing conditions of the absorber, SO2 (the major component of SOx ) is converted into sulfite, and a slurry rich in calcium sulfite is produced. Newer FGD systems employ an oxidation reactor in which the calcium sulfite slurry is converted to calcium sulfate (gypsum); these are sometimes referred to as limestone forced oxidation (LSFO) FGD systems. These systems typically operate with suspended solids comprising fine and coarse gypsum solids, fly ash, and inert material introduced with the limestone.
When the solids or corrosive fractions such as chlorides reach an upper limit, slurry is purged. Most LSFO FGD systems use mechanical solids separation and dewatering systems to separate gypsum and other solids from the purge water. First stage separation is often accomplished using cyclones which can remove 98% of solids. The remaining 2% solid slurry must be further treated to less than 30 ppm monthly average before it can be discharged outside of the plant boundaries. One such typical second stage polishing dewatering system is the use of a clarifier settling tank built with mechanical means for continuous removal of solids being deposited by sedimentation. Such a clarifier can be used to remove solid particulates from the liquid slurry for further processing and/or removal. The clarifier can further include the use of a clarifier rake comprising a plurality of arms rotating around a center point, each arm including one or more of blades for pushing the particulates towards a centrally located opening for removal. One difficulty, however, with such solids dewatering devices in the field of FGD is the tendency of such particles to agglomerate due to a sharp jagged crystalline shape. Such agglomerations result from an inefficient axial propulsion of the solids toward the center discharge. Inefficiencies result from a tangentially moving paddle trying to change the movement of solids 90 degrees along the rake axis. Those skilled in the art will understand the difficulty of this endeavor. Inefficient movement of the solids can create piles of solids that easily exceed the height of the rake paddles. At this point, severe uncontrolled avalanching of the piles will occur in all directions away from the paddles due to the underwater angle of repose of such solids. That is, FGD purge water creates a risk that the particulate can easily accumulate and suddenly block the removal openings for a clarifier unless removed in a consistent manner.

Clarifier rake configuration and system and method including the same for bottom ash handling related to flue gas desulfurization


A digital alerting security system and a method to signal audio and/or visual alarms and to communicate alerts through telecommunication link and/or electronic messaging that a person has forgotten or separated a predetermined distance from a valuable item/object/animal is disclosed. The system and the method also act as a smart tag to secure that travelers are accompanying their checked luggage/objects on board and to quickly identify luggage that does not belong to identified travelers on board or to facilitate their luggage retrieving afterwards by signaling and communicating alerts. The system comprises a single or multi-dimensional ultrasonic transmitter and alerting means, which is attached or integrated to the item/luggage/object/animal, with modulating and digital coding means; and a portable receiver/alerting means with demodulation and digital decoding means. Each of these means can be energized with the of aid a single pole one way switch and a power supply mean. The receiver/alerting means can automatically reset itself when the item/object/luggage/animal is secured.

Many people leave behind items/objects/animals/persons when travelling in a public transport, visiting a friend, eating out in a restaurant . . . etc. This invention describes a device which acts as an alerting means to remind a person that an object/item/animal/person has been left behind or separated a pre-set, specified distance from the object/item/animal/person, thus stopping people wasting a great deal of time, effort and money trying to locate and retrieve missing objects/items/animals/persons and in many times they may lose them forever. The unit also can be used to secure that traveller is accompanying his checked luggage/objects and to quickly identify luggage that does not belong to travellers on board by sounding audio and/or visual alerting means.
(1) Field of the Invention
This invention alerts or reminds a person for forgotten or left behind or separated a pre-set, specified distance from an objects/items/animals/persons. The unit can be used to secure that traveller is accompanying his checked luggage/objects and to quickly identify luggage that does not belong to travellers on board by sounding audio and/or visual alerting means.
It offers simplicity in structure and use. It gives an alerting means (audio and/or visual) as a reminder for the person to go back and retrieve these objects/items/animals/persons.
The invention offers the following advantages: It is based on a simple two way communication system, it contains simple and inexpensive parts, it is small in size, both of the transmitter and receiver units can be respectively attached or clipped to the object/item/animal and the person. The alerting device is user friendly and offers a very straightforward but effective alerting means.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,144 by Russo et al., 1997, describes an alarm system for preventing of loss or theft of one or more articles. This invention suffers from the following limitations: In addition to the ultrasonic communication channel, it requires RF communication channels for coding purposes thus leading to the necessity of an RF antenna both in the monitoring unit carried or attached to a person and the protection unit attached to an article which can have implications as far the size compactness of the apparatus is concerned, it requires two RF communication channels for space diversity for better reception but even with this facility there is no guarantee that the apparatus can monitor articles in all spatial directions and the apparatus requires a sophisticated control logic unit for triggering the alarm unit when the distance between the monitoring and the protection unit attached to an article exceeds a predetermined value.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,040,772 by Jackson et al, 2000, describes an alarm system for forgotten golf clubs. It comprises a radio transmitter for transmitting a coded signal, which is attached to a divot tool and a radio receiver for receiving the transmitted coded signal which is carried by the golfer, an alarm signal is generated whenever power associated with the coded transmission drops below a prescribed threshold level. This invention has the following shortcomings: It requires an RF antenna both in the receiver and in the transmitter which can have implications as far as size compactness of the system is concerned, the type and specification of the antenna in order to receive signals in all directions is not included, it requires a sophisticated microcontroller both in the transmitter and the receiver electronics, it is only suitable for long range alarm (as it is stated it is typically 50 yards) because the alarm included in the receiver unit is triggered when there is a noticeable drop in the power associated with the coded transmission hence this implies that the system is not suitable for short range applications (in the order of one or two yards) as there would not be enough drop in the power associated with the coded transmitted signal in order to trigger the alarm.
The present invention offers an uncomplicated design and construction, small size, no antenna is required in both of the transmitter unit and the receiver/reminder unit as it does not need an RF communication channel. In addition the apparatus is based on a simple omnidirectonal ultrasonic acoustic or air pressure waves communication channel which is capable of monitoring objects/items/animals/persons in all directions and alerting a person if they are forgotten or left behind whilst scanning them in all directions (360° spatial angular displacement). Moreover, the apparatus uses frequency shift keying (FSK) communication system for using plurality of such apparatuses in the field, the reminder unit offers audio alerting means (buzzers, audio messages or music) and/or visual means such as flashing display unit.
The scope of this invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalent than solely by the examples given.


A high resolution x-ray imaging device based on a storage phosphor layer. The storage phosphor layer is sandwiched between two arrays of electrodes. In one embodiment of the device, the arrays are orthogonal arrays of linear electrodes, one of the arrays being transparent to the phosphorescence emitted by the storage phosphor. To read a pixel of a latent image stored in the storage phosphor layer, a voltage difference is established between two crossed electrodes that exceeds the threshold voltage of the storage phosphor material. The emitted light is detected by a device such as a CCD array that has coarser resolution than the crossed electrode array: the resolution of the imaging device of the present invention is the electrode width. Preferably, the electrodes are addressed for activation by optical scanning of photoconductive strips adjacent and perpendicular to the electrodes. Also preferably, the electrodes are addressed in interleaved subsets, each with as many electrode intersections as there are pixels in the CCD array, to create subimages which are interleaved to provide a final image having a resolution finer than the resolution of the CCD array. In another embodiment of the device, one array is a single electrode and the other array includes several electrodes. A subimage of the latent image is read by establishing a voltage difference between the single electrode and one of the several electrodes that exceeds the threshold voltage. The emitted light is detected by a CCD array with the resolution of the CCD array. The several subimages are assembled to provide a final image having a resolution finer than the resolution of the CCD array.

The present invention relates to x-ray imaging devices and, more particularly, to a device for producing digital x-ray images at high resolution.
A storage phosphor is a material, such as ZnSi:Cu or CaSO.sub.4 :Mn, which, when locally excited by high energy photons, enters a locally excited state which is stable indefinitely. The storage phosphor can be stimulated to return to its ground state, with the accompanying emission of phosphorescent light, by stimulation, for example by intense light of a wavelength different from that of the phosphorescence, or by imposing a voltage across the storage phosphor in excess of a certain threshold that depends on the thickness and composition of the storage phosphor. The intensity of the phosphorescence is proportional to the number of photons which originally were absorbed locally by the storage phosphor to put the storage phosphor into its excited state.
Storage phosphor layers have long been used to record latent x-ray images. The intensity of the phosphorescence of the storage phosphor layer is proportional to the intensity of the x-rays to which the layer was exposed to create the latent image. Typically, a storage phosphor layer is stimulated to phosphoresce by optical scanning. Representative patents in the field include U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,296 to Ishida et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,679 to Sunigawa et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,498 to Saito et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,038 to Schiebel et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,806 to Hejazi, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,556 to Yasuda.
To create a digital record of the x-ray image, the light emitted by the storage phosphor layer must be converted to an electronic signal. This conversion can be performed using a charge coupled device array (CCD). In the context of such arrays, the terms "detector" and "detector element" are used interchangeably herein to denote one element of such an array. These elements also are commonly called "pixels", but to avoid confusion, the term "pixel" is used herein only for elements of images. Although CCD arrays as large as about 9000.times.7000 elements are available, arrays larger than about 1000.times.1000 are very costly and require complicated electronics and sophisticated programming techniques for real-time imaging. The smaller, less costly arrays have too few detector elements to acquire images with enough pixels for medical imaging applications such as mammography.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a storage-phosphor-and CCD-based x-ray imaging device that records the x-ray image at a resolution higher than the resolution of the CCD array. Such a device would enable the recording of high resolution x-ray images using relatively small and inexpensive CCD arrays.

High resolution storage phosphor x-ray imaging device


A network gateway apparatus which adds encryption to easily implement secure communication without affecting network environment settings includes two network interface cards to communicate on two networks. The processor of the network gateway apparatus initializes communications through the network interface cards and uses a TCP/IP protocol stack to communicate through the network interface cards. When a packet is received by one of the network interface cards, the processor replaces the origin MAC and IP addresses and the destination MAC and IP addresses with temporary values. Then the processor encrypts the payload. The packet is sent to the TCP/IP protocol stack, which sends the packet to one of the two network interface cards according to the temporary values. The MAC an IP addresses of the final destination of the packet are rewritten to the packet and the packet is transmitted.

The advancements described herein relate to a network gateway apparatus that adds an encrypted communication function to increase communication security without requiring any network setting changes to the existing network environment.
Technical limitations in TCP/IP networks and the pervasiveness of the Internet have led to many network security issues. For example, internet mail (email) is fundamentally equivalent to a postcard, and if a communication path through which an email is sent is tapped by an unauthorized party, the unauthorized party may easily acquire both the header and content of the email.
Certain conventional methods of securing communications, such as email or web browsing, through encryption require that the application program used for the communication perform the encryption or at least be aware of the encryption. In this case, a problem arises in that different applications that perform encryption may not be compatible with each other. Therefore, encrypted communication may not be possible among these incompatible applications.
Other conventional methods for providing secure network communications, such as IPSec, implement encryption in the network layer rather than in the application layer. Therefore, when IPSec is used, applications do not have to perform the data encryption and need not even be aware that encryption is being performed at the network layer. This reduces the processing overhead of the communication application, and addresses the issue of incompatibility among communication applications. However, because IPSec requires user authentication that is separate from the user authentication required by the communication application, IPSec can be cumbersome to use, and because IPSec encrypts at the network layer, IPSec-encrypted packets may be more difficult to route and network settings may have to be modified in response. Thus, a need exists for a method of providing secure, encrypted network communications without burdening high-level communication applications with the encryption and without requiring changes to the network environment.


An animal toilet is provided that can be cleaned easily, particularly an animal toilet that allows liquid such as urine evacuated therein to move to a liquid-absorbing sheet efficiently. The animal toilet includes a dripping container having an opening for an animal entering and exiting, and a liquid penetrating bottom part on which liquid is dispersed; and a liquid-absorbing sheet holder placed under the bottom part of the dripping container on which a liquid-absorbing sheet is placed, in which the bottom part of the dripping container has a liquid leading part formed by connected arches on a side facing the liquid-absorbing sheet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an animal toilet for animals kept in rooms such as cats and dogs, which can be cleaned easily.
2. Description of Related Art
A plastic container in which granular materials called animal litter are contained has been used as an animal toilet for animals kept in rooms such as cats and dogs. Mineral materials such as zeolite, river sand and bentonite which becomes hard when it absorbs liquid like urine, and cellulose grains made of crushed pulp hardened to shape granular. An animal such as a cat enters the animal toilet, and evacuates urine or feces on the animal litter. An owner removes the animal litter soiled with urine or feces with a scoop along with feces out of a container, and replenishes new animal litter in accordance with an amount of the animal litter removed.
However, since pet animals like cats have the habit of mixing animal litter with their paws after evacuation, an amount of animal litter soiled with urine or feces is increased and the soiled animal litter is scattered. Thus, it is difficult to remove only the soiled animal litter. Furthermore, the zeolite and river sand do not absorb urine, and bentonite and cellulose grains absorb urine to some extent but cannot absorb it completely. On this account, urine passes through the litter and tends to be held in the container. Therefore, the owner needs not only discard a part of the animal litter at every time of animal evacuation but also needs to change all of the animal litter contained in the container once a week or two weeks, to clean and dry the container, and to place new litter in the container for keeping the animal toilet cleaned. It increases an amount of animal litter to be discarded. Moreover, when mineral sand such as zeolite is used as the animal litter, it is difficult to be discarded as waste, because it is non-combustible.
As a product to solve the problems mentioned above, an animal toilet disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 10-229768-A(Patent Document 1) is developed, for example. In the animal toilet disclosed in patent Document 1, a plurality of water repellent granular materials are placed in a container having a bottom part comprising a sheet with liquid passing structure. A liquid-absorbing sheet supported by a support body is disposed under the bottom part of the container in close contact with the sheet, in which urine passes through the water repellent granular materials and through the bottom part of the container, and then is absorbed into the liquid-absorbing sheet. Accordingly, since urine does not remain in the container, the animal toilet is cleaned only by changing the liquid-absorbing sheet once a day. It is fine that the entire granular materials are changed once a month or two months. The animal toilet can save the trouble to change the animal litter and can reduce an amount of waste.
However, the liquid-absorbing sheet supported by the support body is disposed under the bottom of the container in contact with the bottom in this traditional example. Thus, when an amount of urine absorbed into the liquid-absorbing sheet is increased by long time use, urine returns back to the granular materials to soil the entire granular materials. Moreover, the liquid-absorbing sheet should be changed once a day, waste is generated everyday even though it occurs once a day, being troublesome.


A combined cleaning system to be used in a wet scrubber process for reducing SOX and NOX in exhaust gases from a combustion engine comprises an Exhaust Gas Cleaning (EGC) scrubber and an Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) scrubber. The combined cleaning system further comprises a scrubber water circulation tank arranged to circulate scrubber water in an EGC scrubber process loop between the scrubber water circulation tank and the EGC scrubber and in an EGR scrubber process loop between the scrubber water circulation tank and the EGR scrubber. The EGR scrubber process loop comprises an arrangement for supply of a first alkaline agent to the flow of scrubber water and a first separator unit to separate particulate matter from the circulated scrubber water.

During the combustion of fossil fuels, sulphur in the fuel is released in form of sulphur oxides (SOX). Other pollutants are primary particulate matter and nitrogen oxides (NOX). It is well known that air pollution seriously impact peoples health and the environment. It is also well known that sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are the major precursors of acid rain.
So far, legislation and setting environmental standards of emission control for international shipping has lagged behind the land-based emission regulations. Present regulations include caps on the sulphur content of fuel oil as a measure to control SOX emissions. Special fuel-quality provisions exist for SOX in emission control areas and there are substantial reductions in the allowed fuel sulphur limits to be expected in the near future. The MARPOL Annex VI legislation, which went into effect in May 2005 following specifications from several European Union directives, has curbed the impact of marine diesel on the environment. By 2015, the legislations will be even stricter regarding by way of example fuel sulphur limits and NOx cap.
There are different emission reduction possibilities, either taken alone or in combination. One possibility is to use new fuels such as distillate fuels or low sulphur fuels. Another possibility is to further develop methods to control the emission of SOX such as wet scrubber technologies using alkaline agents such as NaOH-solutions, or dry scrubber technologies using granulated limestone (Ca(OH)2).
It is well known in the marine industry today for the purpose of reducing SOX and NOX gases in the exhaust from a ship to apply Exhaust Gas Cleaning (EGC) for SOX reduction and Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) for SOX and NOX reduction. Both the EGC and EGR processes may apply a wet scrubber technology using an alkaline agent such as a NaOH-solution for removal of SOX. However, since the EGC process is applied on the low pressure side of the exhaust source and the EGR process is applied on the high pressure side it is not possible for them to share the same wet scrubber.
Further, there are different requirements regarding the need for removal of particulate matter, such as soot, oil or heavy metals. The EGR process requires full flow cleaning of all liquid before introduced into the wet scrubber to thereby minimize the amount of particulate matter otherwise entering the engine, causing deposits therein. The EGC process on the other hand is not particularly sensitive to particulate matter in the scrubbing process, but soot precipitations on deck may occur if the amount of particulate matter in the water used in the scrubbing process becomes too high. Thus, it is recommended that each process is provided with a separator, such as a centrifugal separator.
When capturing SOX in both processes, the content of dissolved sulphite and sulphate increase, causing the density of the scrubber water to increase. There is a maximum amount of allowed dissolved salt in the water since precipitation of solid salt might occur. Also, the density of the water might become too high for the centrifugal separators to work optimal.
Accordingly, even though both EGC and EGR processes use a wet scrubber technology, they have partially different requirements, whereby they cannot easily be combined.

Combined cleaning system and method for reduction of SOX and NOX in exhaust gases from a combustion engine


A turbo device provides a flow-path arrangement in a generator device. Part of a working fluid are used to lubricate at least one of a first bearing part, a second bearing part and a bearing assembly, or the working fluid of an auxiliary flow channel is led to a generator housing for cooling the generator device. In addition, a circulatory system is also provided to include bearing loops and auxiliary loops for leading the working fluid to lubricate at least one of the first bearing part, the second bearing part and the bearing assemble part, and to cool the generator device.

Currently, the use of energy in the form of thermal energy accounts for more than 90% of the total energy consumption. In the use of thermal energy, only 40-50% of the thermal energy are converted into heat, mechanical work, electricity or chemical energy for practical processing, and the rest thereof is discharged into the atmosphere in the form of waste thermal energy. In these decades, the high oil price sparks the development of renewable energy, such as geothermal energy, biomass energy, and solar energy more urgent to reduce the dependence on fossil energy sources. In general, the waste thermal energy with a temperature range between 60-230° C. can be classified as a low-temperature thermal energy.
The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) technology is introduced to convert the thermal energy into corresponding fluid energy through a heater (i.e., heat exchanger), and then the fluid energy is stored in an organic fluid (for example, R134a, R245fa, NH3, or C5H12, etc.). In addition, a turbo machine is utilized to transform the fluid energy into corresponding mechanical power for driving a generator to generate electricity. Generally, such type of power generation system does not produce hazardous substances (for example, CO, CO2, or NOx, etc.), and is applicable for high to low temperature thermal energy sources. For example, the ORC technology can be applied for power generation using the industrial waste thermal energy, the renewable energy, or the thermal gradient energy between cooler and warmer fluid sources.
Generally, the ORC circulatory system has a turbo device equipped with rolling bearings, and the rolling bearings are lubricated respective with oil mists supplied by an external lubrication system. If any of the oil mists are mixed into the working fluid, the entire circulatory system will be affected by the oil pollution. Then, damages to the surface of impeller, or even breakage thereto that may affect the durability of turbo generator would be inevitable. In addition, if the working fluid is contaminated by the oil mists, then it is quite possible that the thermodynamic characteristics of the working fluid would be affected. In particular, performance in heat exchange of the working fluid would be degraded.
Generally, an oil separator is installed in the circulatory system to deal with the oil pollution problem. However, the oil separator cannot ensure a 100% oil separation.
On the other hand, the high-speed turbine uses the oil-free bearing technology to avoid the lubricating oil to contaminate the circulatory system. The hydrodynamic foil bearing technology, originated from the hydrodynamic effect of gas, utilizes a top and arched foil mechanism to provide an air wedge for adjustment and to produce substantially a proportional relationship between the load capacity and the rotational speed. Further, in an active magnetic bearing technology, originated from the principle of magnetic field induction, the input current is adjusted to change the induced magnetic field so as to change the magnetic-levitation force.

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE