Embodiments of the present invention relate to preventing partial change set deployments in content management systems. One or more computer processors determine a content item to retrieve from a repository. The one or more computer processors retrieve the determined content item from the repository. The one or more computer processors add the retrieved content item to a project having a project state. The one or more computer processors determine the project state. The one or more computer processors publish the project.

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of content management, and more particularly to preventing partial change set deployments in content management systems.
A content management (hereinafter "CM") system is software that allows publishing, editing, and modifying content, such as web pages, electronic documents, and electronic media, as well as maintenance from a central interface. A CM system can separate content development, authoring, staging, and production environments. With this separation comes the requirement to support transmitting data between these environments. Syndication is a method by which data is replicated from one content library to another, which may reside on another server. Syndicating changes between remote systems introduce many complex data management issues. Syndicating published changes between systems is a complicated task as all system events are being sent to downstream environments where these changes will be re-played.
Typically, changes on the subscriber are applied immediately and errors are tracked and reported back on the syndicator. When errors occur during transport, deployment, or integration phases of the syndication cycle these errors can break portions of the production website, which may remain broken until content items are retried and re-syndicated. Additionally, it may be difficult to rollback the entire syndication cycle as changes are committed upon receipt.

Preventing partial change set deployments in content management systems

International Business Machines Corporation


Systems, methods and computer readable media are provided for the conformance testing of services through the utilization of a conformance control module. In one exemplary embodiment, the method may include comparing meta-data returned by the service to predetermined parameters to determine whether the meta-data conforms to the predetermined parameters. The method may also include determining a conformance violation exists when the comparison indicates the meta-data does not conform to the predetermined parameters. The method may further include determining a conformance violation does not exist when the comparison indicates the meta-data does conform to the predetermined parameters. Moreover, the method may include continuing execution of the service based on the results of the comparisons made.

One of today's most pressing challenges for enterprises is the integration of their existing heterogeneous information technology (IT) landscapes. For example, a typical enterprise may comprise a wide array of individual modules or software applications, supporting different functions and business units, written in different programming languages, and running on different operating systems. The integration of these modules to the point where information may be readily shared has proved to be a daunting task. However, a fairly recent solution to this problem has emerged in the form of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). SOA refers to a software architectural framework that encourages the creation of loosely coupled services that communicate and pass information between the modules. An implementation example of an SOA is the Enterprise Service Architecture (ESA) developed by SAP AG of Walldorf, Germany. In particular, the ESA is implemented through NetWeaver, an integration and application platform, also developed by SAP AG. Other examples of SOA enabling platforms are NET developed by Microsoft and WebSphere developed by IBM.
Specific examples of the loosely coupled services used within an SOA are services. A service, such as a Web service, represents a self-contained, self-describing piece of application functionality that can be found and accessed by other applications. A service is self contained, because the application using the service does not have to depend on anything other than the service itself, and self-describing, because all the information on how to use the service can be obtained from the service itself. The descriptions are centrally stored and accessible through standard mechanisms to all applications that would like to invoke the service.
Because services are generally granular in nature, services may be aggregated into enterprise services, which provide more meaningful building blocks for the task of automating enterprise-scale business scenarios. Enterprise services allow IT organizations to efficiently develop composite applications, defined as applications that compose functionality and information from existing systems to support new business processes or scenarios. Enterprise services may communicate using standard mechanisms, can be described in a central repository, and are created and managed by tools provided by the application platform. The enterprise services repository may be used to store all relevant pre-existing enterprise services and to make them available to selected partners and customers. As used herein, the term "service" shall include both Web services and enterprise services.
The description of the requirements of a service may be accomplished through the use of a service contract. For example, the service contract may be implemented using the Web Services Description Language (WSDL), which enables definitions that describe how to access a service and what operations the service will perform. The service contract may also be implemented using the Enterprise Services Description Language (ESDL), which extends the WSDL by allowing the description of services that interact with business objects. A business object is a contained collection of data, business operations and rules stored within a runtime repository. For example, a business object may be an entire order processing system or a small process within an information system.
The use of service contracts is greatly beneficial in a truly open SOA environment. In such environments, where the user of the service and the service provider are loosely coupled, neither entity (i.e., the service user or the service provider) may know much about the other entity and thus, a service contract may be warranted. For example, neither implementation details of the service nor usage scenarios of the service may be known to the other party. This may occur when an enterprise is using a service developed by a third party service provider or when a business unit within the enterprise is using a service developed by another business unit. A service contract is thus helpful, in that the service contract specifies to any and all users of the service, the functional requirements of the service (e.g., the functionality the service provides and what type of data or business object it will return).
Testing the conformance of services against the functionality described in their service contracts is an important part of a software development process, as it guarantees a certain productivity and quality in software engineering. In almost all business cases, the conformance of the service in relation to its service contract is essential for the service consumers and the service infrastructure. The service provider must guarantee the appropriate support of these service contracts and constraints.
In general, a regular test application, such as the Business Object Browser available in SAP's ESA, may be sufficient for an application developer to test the runtime behavior of a service during implementation. This may be accomplished by navigating through the business object model and executing queries or actions. Unfortunately, the application developer has to do this testing manually. Moreover, such testing only focuses on the construction areas the developer is working on currently, and does not cover the validation of the contract and the constraints the service must fulfill.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a conformance control module (CCM) for testing the conformance of a service at runtime and design time. The CCM may comprise service contract requirements that must be fulfilled by a service in order that it may be deemed conformant. The service contract requirements are predefined and vary based upon the functionality of the service being called. In addition, in order for a service to be deemed conformant there may be necessary constraints including states, phases, and conditions which are needed for each service call. Further, the service contract requirements may be separated by different interface methods that manage specific semantics, such as data access, transaction control, value sets, actions, etc.
The CCM may also log the complete service sequence, which contains all relevant information of the service to implement a conformance test. This logged information may be subsequently used to reproduce the conformance test. In addition, in the case of a runtime conformance test, it may be necessary for the application developer to be notified of the places of the non-conformance within the service.


The invention relates to a rotating piston machine, especially a compressor, a pump or a motor, comprising a rotating piston which defines working chambers with variable volumes and is located in a cylinder (1) provided with two lateral walls and a curved jacket. Said piston can be rotated about two parallel rotational axes (7, 8), vertically in relation to the lateral walls of the cylinder, and can be displaced in two directions both vertically in relation to each other and in relation to the parallel rotational axes. To this end, the piston (2) is provided with two guiding shafts (71, 81) having parallel rotational axes, said guiding shafts (71, 81) being provided with guiding elements (5, 6), preferably slides or journals, in a vertical direction in relation to the rotational axes (7, 8), on which the piston (2) is displaceably positioned by means of sliding elements (3, 4), preferably grooves or liners.

There are known arrangements where the piston holds a simple revolving motion. It is eccentrically placed inside the circular covering equipped by the extension seals, which fill changing distances between the piston and the circular covering and concurrently enclose changing workspaces between the piston and the cylinder covering. This arrangement does not tolerate high pressure or temperature therefore it can only be used as a blower. Furthermore, there are known arrangements where the piston holds one compound revolving motion i.e. rolling motion (by rolling a bigger circle, for example the central circle of the inside tooth-wheel, over an immobile smaller circle for example the central circle of the tooth-wheel with an internal gearing, by means of the tooth-wheels). The diameters ratio of both circles quantifies the number of the piston cusps, which follows the same curve and also the same number of workspaces enclosed by the piston. If the ratio is 2:1, the piston has two cusps and encloses two workspaces. If the ratio is 3:2, the piston has three cusps and encloses three workspaces etc. At the higher number than two of the piston cusps, the covering curve has very inconvenient shape for a combustion space and in addition the biggest-the smallest volume ratio of the workspace is principally restricted, which is the disadvantage of this solution. Two cusps arrangement can else provide more convenient combustion space and more convenient the biggest-the smallest workspace ratio, but also principally gives the adverse ratio of piston surface encumbered by work pressure to the biggest possible critical shaft diameter, which the piston is embedded on. This arrangement is therefore not suitable for engines, but only for blowers or pumps and low work pressure compressors.
There is another known concept of the piston with two cusps motion, where both of the cusps follow a curve called conchoid. In this concept, the piston is embedded in a sliding way on two parallel shafts normal to their revolving axes. Herewith, the piston sliding motion toward the individual shafts are mutually perpendicular. One of these shafts acts as a supporting shaft and the other as a conducting shaft; herewith both of them are always embedded just in one sidewall. One of them is adapted in a tubular jig way, which passes through the other shaft, in order to embed both of them into both sidewalls.
According to other known concepts one of the shafts can be replaced by one or by number of pivots protruding from the piston is embedded on, can also be replaced (in other concepts) by the shaft with the crank pivot, which the piston is embedded on, herewith the conducting shaft, as mentioned above, is replaced by the pivots. These conchoid concepts also have common disadvantages such as, insufficient bearing capacity of the supporting shaft and an inaccurate piston guide sensitive to wear. These construction concepts have not therefore been seen and stayed in the conception state even though they have been well known since the beginning of the 20th century,

Rotating piston machine with dual suspension


A power amplification controlling apparatus and method in a mobile communication system are provided. An amplifying part amplifies an input Radio Frequency (RF) signal with a power supply voltage. A bias adaptation part detects a change in at least one an operation and an environment of the amplifying part, attenuates the RF signal according to the detected change, detecting the envelope of the attenuated signal, and generates a supply voltage control signal according to the envelope. A power supply part changes the power supply voltage in response to the supply voltage control signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication system, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for controlling a power amplifier.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a communication system such as a bandwidth-efficient digital system using Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) or a Frequency Demodulation Multiplexing (FDM) communication system using multi-carrier or single sideband (SSB) signals, a signal is subject to modulation and multiplexing and thus the time-varying envelope of its Peak to Average power Ratio (PAR) varies greatly. A base station (BS) uses a power amplifier (PA) with good linearity to amplify a Radio Frequency (RF) signal prior to transmission in the communication system.
A cellular system such as Code Division Multiple Access CDMA or Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) transmits a modulated multiplexed signal having a high PAR to multiple users sharing the same frequency band. Radio Frequency Power Amplifiers (RFPA) used in conventional communication systems use power inefficiently because they consume a large amount of Direct Current (DC) to amplify the RF signal having a high PAR and are expensive to manufacture.
In order to increase the efficiency of a PA, the power drawn from a power supply for the PA is adjusted according to the size of a signal envelope. This principle is called bias adaptation. This bias control scheme controls DC bias according to the envelope of an input signal into a transistor in order to reduce power consumption in the transistor.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a conventional power amplification control apparatus using a general bias control scheme.
Referring to FIG. 1, the power amplification controlling apparatus comprises an envelope detecting circuit (EDC) 101 for detecting the envelope of an input signal and a voltage upconverter (VUC) 102 for upconverting a DC voltage Vc received from a DC supply 103 which is a system voltage supply based on the signal envelope.
When the voltage of the input signal envelope exceeds a predetermined threshold, the VUC 102 increases the power supply voltage. Therefore, the change of mean input power varies the characteristics of an RFPA 104. Also, the characteristics of the RFPA 104 and the EDC 101 vary with temperature changes. As a result, the RFPA 104 cannot perform optimum amplification.
Unlike a PA in a terminal, a PA in a BS consumes hundreds of watts and thus requires a VUC of hundreds of watts. However, the manufacture of such a VUC is not viable because of manufacturing costs and technological constraints. As a solution to this problem, the power amplification control apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2 was proposed.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a conventional power amplification controlling apparatus using an improved bias control scheme. The improved bias control scheme uses two DC voltages instead of one DC voltage.
Referring to FIG. 2, the power amplification controlling apparatus comprises a first DC supply 203 for supplying a power supply voltage Vc, a voltage combiner (VC) 205 for combining Vc with a voltage Vv received from a VUC 202, and a second DC supply 206 for supplying a voltage Max Vv to the VUC 202. The VUC 202 and the VC 205 collectively form a voltage enhancement circuit (VEC) 207.
The first DC supply 203 supplies a predetermined constant DC voltage Vc to an RFPA 204 and the VUC 202 changes the voltage max Vv to the voltage Vv between 0 and Max Vv according to the envelope of a signal input to the RFPA 204. The second DC supply 206 outputs Max Vv which is a maximum value of the output voltage Vv of the VUC 202.
In operation, if the voltage of the input signal envelope is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, Vc is supplied to the RFPA 204. If the signal envelope voltage exceeds the threshold, the VC 202 adds Vc to Vv and supplies the sum as a bias voltage Vp (Vp=Vc+Vv) to the RFPA 204. For supplying Vc, an existing power supply of hundreds of watts is used. However, the VUC 202 for supplying the voltage Vv varying with the input signal envelope can be implemented at tens of watts.
The relationship among the power supply voltage Vc, the break-down voltage Vb of a transistor, the VUC output voltage Vv, and the bias voltage Vp over the signal envelope is illustrated in FIG. 3.
In the power amplification controlling apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2, Max Vv must be (Vb−Vc) to protect the transistor. In other words, Max Vv must be determined according to Vb. However, Vc varies due to the use of an auxiliary power supply in the case of an electrical failure in a BS, or due to power discharge in a terminal. Therefore, with Max Vv fixed to (Vb−Vc), if Vc rises by ΔVc, Vp=Vc+ΔVc+Vv>Vb, it leads to deterioration of the transistor characteristics or the destruction of the transistor. If Vc drops by ΔVc, Vp=Vc−ΔVc+Vv<Vb, the resulting distortion of the input signal to the RFPA 204 leads to deterioration of the spurious characteristics of the input signal.

Method and apparatus for controlling a power amplifier in a mobile communication system


A scanning device having: (i) an electrooptic planar waveguide or bulk material capable of propagating light beams with minimum beam distortion, (ii) an electrooptic prism array defined on said electrooptic planar waveguide or bulk material, comprised of at least one pair of antiparallel-poled ferroelectric domain regions and, (iii) control means to apply a spatially uniform electric field throughout said electrooptic prism array using a pair of electrically-addressable continuous electrodes, so as to induce an electrically-controlled deflection to a light beam propagating through the device.

1. Field of the invention
This invention relates generally to electrooptic scanners and more particularly to a monolithic electrooptic prism scanner using domain reversed regions for deflecting an incident light beam through a desired angle by applying an electric field to a body of electrooptic material.
2. Description of the Related Art
A particularly useful form of electrooptic scanner uses a series of prisms arranged in a line with alternating prisms oriented with their apexes pointing in opposite directions. A prism scanner of this type is described in Lotspeich, J. F. IEEE Spectrum, February, 1968, pp. 45-52. In his paper, Lotspeich describes the use of many identical discrete electrooptic prisms alternately inverted and arranged in a row to deflect laser beams by applying a voltage to a pair of parallel strip electrodes aligned above and beneath the iterated-prism array.
Even though discrete crystal or bulk deflectors such as the ones described by Lotspeich are useful, they are bulky and require high operating voltages. They are also expensive and difficult to integrate into systems that are manufactured in large quantities. To circumvent these disadvantages, deflectors which use planar or waveguide geometries have been developed. The field of integrated optics involves the integration of optical functions such as discrete modulators, interferometers, deflectors, and imaging elements on planar substrates. Many advantages can be realized from planar integration: compactness, multifunctionality, monolithic integration, and lower driving voltages. Planar versions of electrooptic prism deflectors have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,408. Other related planar or waveguide electrooptic methods for deflecting light beams are described by Sarraf, Brophy et al., Stevens, and Makoto et al. Stevens uses arrays of electrooptic prism elements in waveguide structures, while Sarraf, Brophy, and Makoto et al. induce deflection of light beams by spatially modulating the refractive index of a waveguide.
In order to achieve electrooptically controlled prism structures in either bulk or planar format, some means for applying high electric fields must be provided. Heretofore, as shown in FIG. 1, sets of prism shaped electrodes were defined on the electrooptic material such that when properly activated, a change in the electric field is induced in the electrooptic material. It is desirable to use adjacent prism structures as shown by Lotspeich for bulk crystals, in a waveguide format in a monolithic device in order to increase the effective change in refractive index between adjacent prisms .DELTA.n, and thus the deflection angle. One difficulty inherent with this approach arises from the need to address adjacent prism electrodes on the monolithic device with voltages having opposite polarities.
As shown in FIG. 2, strong lateral electric fields are created between adjacent electrodes which can lead to electrical breakdown, the creation of inefficient tinging fields, the need for complex voltage interconnects and, in some cases, the need for bipolar voltage sources. These problems may be somewhat reduced by applying a voltage to every other prism electrode and not applying any electric field to their immediately adjacent prism regions. In order to achieve higher deflection angles, however, it is desirable to increase the effective .DELTA.n across an interface by applying opposite electric fields between adjacent prism electrodes which are antiparallel in direction. In this case, the effective change in refractive index between adjacent prism regions with antiparallel electric fields is 2.DELTA.n, twice that of the single polarity case.
Although the antiparallel field type of planar prism deflector may be used, it is prone to electrical breakdown, requires complex electrode structures and electronic interconnects, and produces inefficient tinging fields between adjacent electrodes. In some instances, the distance between adjacent electrodes may be increased to minimize breakdown and tinging fields. Unfortunately, this approach is inefficient since it does not fully utilize the electrooptic material. On the other hand, if only every other prism is activated (single polarity case), only one half the deflection angle may be achieved. This is not very desirable since the number of resolvable scanned spots is approximately proportional to the scan angle. Higher voltages may be applied to compensate for the factor of two loss in scan angle, but high speed modulation becomes increasingly more difficult and expensive as the voltage increases. Higher voltages can also lead to material breakdown, charge injection, electrode deterioration, and saturation effects.
In summary, existing electrooptic prism deflectors exhibit several shortcomings which can limit their application and utility.

Electrooptic device for scanning using domain reversed regions


A system and method for the monitoring and collection of all inbound/outbound information activity and communications activity at a particular user location, for example, a household equipped with a variety of devices having communication capabilities. The real-time interaction between a user and an external information service is monitored and specific data are collected regarding that real-time interaction. Connectivity data (e.g., date/time of interactive session, number of packets sent/received, application file name) are collected. In addition, other substantive data (e.g., type of service, type and number of inquiries made) regarding the real-time interaction are collected. A connectivity and desktop activity monitor comprises a set of client software modules, including executable files and virtual device drivers that capture and log targeted operating system modem connectivity and desktop activity data. The connectivity monitor includes a connectivity infiltration module (CIM) and a connectivity monitor interface program. The CIM functions as a stub module that monitors the bi-directional data stream at the virtual device driver level between software modules of the operating system. It utilizes the hooking functions provided by the operating system to set hooks for selected function calls from the application to the communications drivers. The desktop activity monitor includes a desktop infiltration module and a desktop monitor interface program which monitor activity from the keyboard and pointing devices used to interface with the client computer. The invention provides the capability to monitor a number of attributes at the data stream level in a bi-directional, real-time fashion. With regard to the connectivity data monitor, such attributes include the phone number dialed, data packets sent, bytes sent, data packets received, bytes received, the URL visited and the recognition of an outgoing fax call. With regard to the desktop activity monitor, such attributes include the length of time an application is active, resident in memory, inactive or suspended.

Recent trends in personal computing, data communications, on-line services, computer hardware and application program software have transformed the ordinary household into a hotbed of information and communication activity. Increasingly, individuals have computers, facsimile machines, modems, entertainment centers, cable ready televisions and multiple telephones all located in their households for facilitating a variety of communications. Due to the increased usage of such devices in the household, many product retailers and service providers are interested in, and assign great value to, the collection of data representing the usage habits of individuals at the household level. For example, market researchers target the collection of data to aid in the evaluation of the effectiveness of alternative forms of television commercials.
The prior art is replete with various systems and arrangements for monitoring the viewing habits of television viewers. Early systems collected data at a given viewer site for later manual collection. Such manually collected data included, for example, identification of television channels viewed and the times of viewing for various panels of viewers in order to determine market share and ratings of various television programs. Later systems were designed for use with cable television systems which have two-way communications over the cable system between the head end of the system and various cable subscribers. In this type of system, the television sets themselves are periodically contacted from the central location over the cable connection, with the channel selection and time information being sent back to the central location. Other prior art systems incorporate storage devices (e.g., memory) at the remote location for accumulating the relevant viewing data over time. The accumulated data is then periodically transmitted over conventional telephone lines from the remote locations to the central location by telephone calls initiated by either the remote stations or the central location itself.
In the past, systems for remotely accumulating data regarding the habits of television viewers and their qualitative reaction to viewed material were important from a market research standpoint. For example, the effectiveness of television commercials can be monitored by correlating the viewing of those commercials with the subsequent purchase activities of panelists whose viewing habits are being monitored. One prior art system for data gathering with particular utility in market research type applications is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,382, issued on Oct. 8, 1985, to McKenna et al. (hereinafter "McKenna"). This patent describes a system that includes a plurality of remote units which are controlled from a central location. Each of the remote units is attached to a television receiver which is generally but not necessarily attached to a cable system. Each of the remote units can function to determine which of several television (hereinafter "TV") modes is in use, as well as to store TV channel selector data, data from an optical input device, and/or data input by viewers representative of the composition of the viewing audience. The data is stored either for later collection by a portable data collector, or for direct transmission to the central location by each of the remote units. A video message for a TV viewer (e.g., a survey question) may be transmitted from the central location and stored at the remote units for later display on the TV receiver associated with the remote units. In sum, a variety of well-known television-related metering devices and data collection systems can be placed in the household and, transparent to the occupants of the household, monitor TV channel changes, and viewing habits, accumulate time on a given channel and other information, and communicate the data gathered to a central location (e.g., server) using dedicated telephone lines.
Data collection systems, such as that described in McKenna have provided transparent mechanisms to collect TV-related usage data from households. However, increasingly in today's home environments, the occupants have, and interact with, a variety of other devices, such as computers, facsimile machines, modems, multi-line telephones and entertainment centers. Just as remotely accumulating data regarding the habits of television viewers is important from a market research standpoint, so is similar data which can be collected from these other devices. For example, computers equipped with high-speed modems allow individuals within the household to make a variety of purchases from electronic on-line services or to access various types of product or market data from electronic sources. From a market research standpoint, capturing data regarding such transactions is invaluable in order to market the product and/or services to the home.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a computer monitoring system which is capable of providing enhanced connectivity and desktop activity monitoring.

System and method for monitoring information flow and performing data collection


Methods and apparatus for processing a captured image of a medium, content on the medium, and a background surrounding the medium are provided. A captured image is processed by 1) improving the visibility of the content by recovering the original appearance of the medium and enhancing the appearance of the content image, 2) removing the background by determining the boundary of the medium, and/or 3) correcting geometric distortion in the content to improve readability. Any of the three processing steps may be used alone or any combination of the three processing steps may be used to process the image. The image processing may operate on the image after it is captured and stored to a memory and may be implemented on an image-capturing device that captures the image. In other embodiments, the image processing is implemented on another device that receives the image from the image-capturing device.

1. Field
The present embodiments relate generally to processing images of whiteboards, blackboards, or documents.
2. Background
Whiteboards, blackboards, or documents are widely used in discussions and meetings to illustrate ideas and information. An image of whiteboard, blackboard, or document content (comprising, for example, text or lines) may be captured by an image-capturing device (e.g., camera or phone camera). Often the captured image is of poor quality and may include distortions, shading, non-uniformity of illumination, low contrast, and/or noise that make it difficult to discern the content of the whiteboard, blackboard, or document. As such, there is a need for a method for processing images of whiteboard, blackboard, or document content to improve the visibility of the content while also being robust and efficient for implementation on a mobile platform (such as a camera or phone camera).

Whiteboard, blackboard, and document image processing


Circuits for distributing a global clock signal to all clock sinks on a chip for synchronous operation comprises 1) a plurality of synchronous clock areas (SCA), each SCA having a Time-Average-Frequency Direct Period Synthesis (TAF-DPS) clock source for generating a function clock, said TAF-DPS clock source has frequency synthesis and phase adjustment capabilities on its output of function clock; 2) a network for distributing a low frequency global clock signal to said plurality of synchronous clock areas, said global clock signal is used as reference for said TAF-DPS clock sources in all SCAs; 3) a plurality of clock sinks in each SCA, said clock sinks are driven by said function clock generated from said TAF-DPS clock source. Methods of distributing a low frequency global clock signal to all clock sinks in a chip for synchronous operation are also disclosed.

Clock distribution is a critical task in modern chip design. In recent years, the advance in CMOS technology has led to an exponential increase in chip complexity. The number of transistors on a large chip can reach billions. Modern System-on-a-Chip (SoC) can be regarded as many on-chip micro-networks communicating to each other all the time. Clock is the key signal that makes this happen. From clocking perspective, chip architecture can be classified as Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS) and Globally Synchronous Locally Synchronous (GSLS). In GSLS approach, the clock signals driving all the on-chip modules run at the same frequency. Among them, they also have fixed phase relationship. This fact requires the distribution of a global clock signal. There are several design considerations when distributing a clock signal globally: minimizing the skew caused by different distribution paths, minimizing the jitter accumulated along the distribution path, minimizing the silicon and metal resource required for routing the clock signal and minimizing the power used by the distribution network.
Refer to FIG. 1A, in conventional practice, tree structures are used to distribute a global clock signal generated from source 111. The circuit elements receiving the clock signal are called clock sinks. A group of clock sinks is marked as 112. The global clock signal is distributed using a distribution network. The distribution network can be constructed using branch tree 116, H-tree 115 or X-tree 114. In the distribution network, buffer cells of various driving strengths are used to compensate the energy loss and keep the global clock signal at an appropriate voltage level. An exemplary buffer cell is labeled 113.
In FIG. 1B, a H-tree with active skew compensation is depicted. The global clock signal generated from source 151 is required to be delivered to all the clock sinks. An exemplary group of clock sinks is marked as 156. The distribution network contains multiple buffer cells. One of them is labeled as 152. To alleviate skew problem, the delays at the ends of different branches are compared by using phase detectors. An exemplary case is shown as the delays of branches 157 and 158 being compared by a phase detector 155. The result is used to drive delay lines 153 and 154 so that the delays of the paths can be adjusted. Consequently, skew can be minimized.
Refer now to FIG. 2A, clock mesh (clock grid) is also used in some designs, especially in high end microprocessor, for distributing global clock signal. In this method, a solid grid 213 made of metals is constructed on-chip as shown in the figure. Its purpose is to deliver the global clock signal generated from source 211 to all the clock sinks in the chip. An exemplary group of clock sinks is labeled as 214. The grid also requires multiple buffer cells attached at various locations of the grid to compensate the energy loss and keep the signal strength at appropriate level. An exemplary buffer cell is labeled as 212. In practice, the tree and grid methods can be used together to achieve the goal of distributing a clock signal from a source to all the sinks across a large chip
Refer now to FIG. 2B, to minimize skew actively, a method of using distributed PLL array can also be used. The global clock signal generated from source 221 is required to be delivered to all the clock sinks. An exemplary group of clock sinks is marked as 222. The entire chip area 227 is split into multiple small areas called tiles. One of such tile is labeled 228. Inside each tile, there is a local frequency generator 226 (represented by the VCO [Voltage Controlled Oscillator] symbol). Along the four boundaries of each tile, there are phase detectors 223, 224, 225 and 226 used for comparing the delay differences between the local clock and its neighboring clocks. The result is used to drive the frequency generator and then to minimize the skew. In this approach, the array of distributed PLLs actively compensates the skew.
As semiconductor process technology advances, the tree and grid structures face difficult challenges. The circuit operating frequency becomes higher due to the reduction in transistor gate delay. The chip size becomes larger since more transistors can be packed. As a result, the global clock signal has to travel further. Moreover, both the gate and interconnect delay variations induced by PVT (process, voltage, temperature) change become larger. Furthermore, the interconnect delay does not scale well with process advance. All these factors have made skew take larger percentage of the clock period. They also make the variation of skew hard to be controlled. To make it even worse, the distribution of clock signal crossing a big chip in high frequency requires large amount of metal resource (for shielding) and high consumption of energy (could be as high as 50% of the total power used by the chip). For the distributed PLL array approach, besides the high resource and high power consumption problems, it also has additional stability problem due to the fact that many PLLs are required to lock to the same common reference.
This "Discussion of the Background" section is provided for background information only. The statements in this "Discussion of the Background" are not an admission that the subject matter disclosed in this "Discussion of the Background" section constitutes prior art to the present disclosure, and no part of this "Discussion of the Background" section may be used as an admission that any part of this application, including this "Discussion of the Background" section, constitutes prior art to the present disclosure.

Circuits and methods of TAF-DPS based chip level global clock signal distribution


A semiconductor device may include a Silicon on Insulator (SOI) substrate, and a diode formed on the SOI substrate, the diode including a cathode region and an anode region. The semiconductor device may include at least one breakdown voltage trench disposed at an edge of the cathode region, and between the cathode region and the anode region.

Breakdown voltage (BV) of a diode, in which a large reverse current flow occurs while the diode is reverse-biased, is a fundamental diode property that governs potential uses of the diode. For example, it may be desirable to use a diode as a blocking diode, or for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protections. In these and similar capacities, it may be desirable to ensure that a maximum reverse voltage that occurs at the diode is less than the breakdown voltage of the diode.
In Silicon on Insulator (SOI) technologies, bulk Silicon is covered with an insulator, which is itself covered with another layer of Silicon, on which devices and other structures are formed. SOI technologies have a number of known advantages that relate to miniaturization of circuits and devices. For example, isolation of circuits from the bulk Silicon by the intervening insulator results in lower parasitic capacitances, lower leakage currents, and higher power efficiencies.
It is also desirable to form different types of circuits on a single SOI substrate, in order to pursue miniaturization further, increase a speed and reliability of the circuits, facilitate interconnections between the circuits, and make associated manufacturing processes more efficient and cost-effective. For example, it is possible to include logic circuits, analog circuits, and power circuits on a single SOI substrate.
Although techniques exist for isolating such circuits from one another on a SOI substrate, the presence of power circuits in particular indicates a need for inclusion of high (breakdown) voltage diodes. However, conventional techniques do not provide a practical manner of forming diodes with sufficiently high BV for isolated circuits on SOI substrates.

High voltage diode on SOI substrate with trench-modified current path

SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC


The present invention related to a recyclable image-recording medium comprising a base layer, an intermediate layer and a water-swelling surface layer; a manufacturing method of the recyclable image-recording medium; and a printed material-removing method that uses such an image-recording medium.

This application is based on application(s) No. Hei 09-322954 and Hei 10-182109 filed in Japan, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image-recording medium capable of being reused repeatedly wherein a printed material made to adhere to the image-recording medium by image formation in a copying machine, a printer, or the like is removable from the image-recording medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image-recording medium suitable for being applied to a removing means by physical frictional forces, such as a brushing method that uses an aqueous solvent, and also relates to a method of manufacturing such an image-recording medium and a method for removing the printed material from the image-recording medium by physical frictional forces such as brushing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrophotographic copying techniques using toners (so called copy simply) are popular now. Image-recording media such as paper and OHP sheets are used in large quantities.
Printed materials printed or copied on such image-recording media are not easily removed. Techniques for removing such printed materials are not yet ready for practical use. It is true that printed materials generated in large quantities in offices are discarded when they become unnecessary.
This is clearly not desirable from the point of view of environmental protection and natural resource preservation. Therefore, researches on techniques for reproducing or recycling image-recording media which would otherwise be discarded have been vigorously conducted. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 7-311,523 and EP060152, for example, disclose methods wherein a swelling layer which swells by absorbing water is formed on the surface of an image-recording medium and images printed on the image-recording medium are removed by swelling the swelling layer with water.
In reality, however, the conventional methods have not been put into practical use, because of their inability to sufficiently and satisfactorily remove printed materials and because of problems involving the durability of the image-recording medium.
In particular, the surface layer changes its volume by absorbing water while the volume of the base layer remains unchanged, and also the surface layer is subjected to a stress by physical force applied to remove the printed material on the swollen surface layer. Because of these reasons etc., the surface layer tends to be peeled off. It is an important technical subject to fix the water-swelling surface layer on the base layer.
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel and useful recyclable image-recording medium that allows printed materials such as toners adhering thereto to be removed.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a recyclable image-recording medium having excellent durability.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing such an image-recording medium and a printed material-removing method that uses such an image-recording medium.
The present invention provides a recyclable image-recording medium comprising a base layer, an intermediate layer and a water-swelling surface layer; a manufacturing method of the recyclable image-recording medium; and a printed material-removing method that uses such an image-recording medium.

Recyclable image-recording medium, method for manufacturing the same, and method for removing printed material from the image-recording medium


A testing system for wireless power transfer systems, including a stationary plate, a rotating plate, and a driver to rotate the rotating plate with respect to the stationary plate.

Wireless power transfer (WPT), also known as inductive power transfer (IPT), is the transmission of electrical energy from a power source to an electrical load without interconnecting wires. The principle of WPT is well known, yet the practical application has yet to be applied in broad-based electric transportation applications.
One application of WPT is the use of WPT to charge vehicles. WPT and its use in vehicular applications have both been described in numerous publications. See, e.g., H. H. Wu, G. A. Covic, J. T. Boys and A. P. Hu, "A 1 kW inductive charging system using AC processing pickups," in Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA), 2011 6th IEEE Conference on, 2011, pp. 1999-2004; M. Budhia, G. Covic and J. Boys, "Design and Optimisation of Circular Magnetic Structures for Lumped Inductive Power Transfer Systems," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1-1, 2011; and G. A. Covic, J. T. Boys, M. L. G. Kissin and H. G. Lu, "A Three-Phase Inductive Power Transfer System for Roadway-Powered Vehicles," IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 3370 -3378, December 2007, 2007.
Although WPT has been described to some degree in transferring electrical power to stationary receivers, in-motion WPT for high-speed and high efficiency applications has yet to be developed to a point of practical application, particularly in vehicles. A system for in-motion WPT conventionally includes power transmission hardware (typically fixed in location) and power receiving hardware on board a vehicle moving relative to the transmission hardware. However, systems and associated methods for testing such components are needed to advance the technology further.


A differential input buffer (14) and method of construction are provided. The differential input buffer (14) includes a differential amplifier (54, 56, 50, 52, 62, 64) connected to receive an input signal (IN). A local reference voltage generator (68, 70, 72) is connected to the differential amplifier (54, 56, 50, 52, 62, 64) and is connected to receive an external voltage reference (BLR) and to provide a local reference voltage (VREF) to the differential amplifier (54, 56, 50, 52, 62, 64). The local reference generator (68, 70, 72) is adjustable during construction to produce a desired level for the local reference voltage (VREF). The differential input buffer (14) also includes a hysteresis element (66, 74) that is connected to provide feedback to the differential amplifier (54, 56, 50, 52, 62, 64) and includes a buffer stage (76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86) that is connected to receive an output of the differential amplifier (54, 56, 50, 52, 62, 64) and to drive an output signal (OUT). The buffer stage is also connected to the hysteresis element (66, 74) to provide a basis for the feedback to the differential amplifier (54, 56, 50, 52, 62, 64).

Integrated circuits often include input buffers for receiving input signals and for driving signals to other parts of the integrated circuit. For example, input buffers operate to distinguish between logic low and logic high on the input signal based upon comparison to a reference voltage, and the input buffers then drive internal signals appropriately. Conventional input buffers can require the use of external reference generators that use power and consume space. In addition, some conventional input buffers can have difficulty with accurately distinguishing between logic low and logic high when the input signal is near the level of the reference voltage.

Differential input buffer using local reference voltage and method of construction


Certain embodiments of the invention may include systems, methods, and apparatus for identifying an occupant of a vehicle. According to an example embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for identifying an occupant of a vehicle. The method includes receiving a primary identification (ID) input and one or more secondary ID inputs, wherein the primary ID input comprises identification token information; retrieving cluster information based at least on the primary ID input; comparing the one or more secondary ID inputs with the cluster information; determining a confidence value associated with the identification of the occupant based at least in part on the comparison of the one or more secondary ID inputs with the cluster information; and outputting information based at least in part on the determined confidence value.

When a person gets into a car and prepares to drive, he/she will usually adjust a number of settings within the vehicle, including the seat position, the rear view mirror angle, climate control settings, etc. In some vehicles, the seats can have a number of adjustable settings, including backrest angle, fore-and-aft position, lumbar position, seat depth, seat height, etc. The array of seat positions can present a challenge, for example, when the vehicle is shared and different occupants have their own unique seat adjustment preferences.
Vehicle designers and manufacturers have attempted to address this issue by installing memory controls and motorized actuators so that seats, mirrors, pedals, etc., can be adjusted to a previously memorized position with a push of a single button. Some vehicles can associate memorized settings with a specifically numbered key fob, for example, to set seats to specific memory positions when the car is unlocked with a specific key fob. But if key sets are traded or borrowed, the wrong preference settings may be presented to the occupant and may create an annoyance or safety hazard.

Systems, methods, and apparatus for identifying an occupant of a vehicle


An attachment integrated claims (AIC) system includes an e-mail form (with specific fields that must be filled out) that adjusts itself, in both information required and formatting, to meet the demands of the receiving party. It is particularly advantageous for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) situations where a user must send similar (but not necessarily identical) messages to several organizations. This is particularly important where, once an e-mail is received by those organizations, the information in the message must be digitally integrated into differing legacy information systems. In other words, the AIC system permits transmission of a dynamic claim form and integrated attachment to an insurance carrier via a non-clearinghouse communications channel. An AIC system including several computers connected via a communications channel, an electronic file, and an operating method therefor are also described.

The present invention relates generally to an attachment integrated claims (AIC) system for preparing and processing forms with integrated attachments. More specifically, the present invention relates to a Customizable Claim Form, i.e., a Dynamic Claim Form (DCF) suitable for use with an AIC system. A method of operating a totally digital AIC system while employing a DCF is also disclosed.
High administrative costs for filing and processing health insurance claims have been the bane of the health insurance industry from its inception. Over the years, many attempts have been made to develop a faster and more cost effective claims processing system. Three stages in this development effort are described in the following correspondingly numbered paragraphs.
(1) The original system involved hard copy paper claims only, with transmission and all processing done manually. Originally, an insurance claim was filed by the patient or the health care provider filling out a paper form. The completed paper form was then mailed to the insurance company. At the insurance company, the paper claim form went through a series of administrative steps, all the time remaining as a hard copy paper object. When a decision was made, the decision was written up and archived with the claim form; a hard copy was also sent to the patient and/or provider along with the payment.
(2) The first significant advancement resulted from the introduction of the mainframe computer. This allowed for electronic processing within a given insurance company, i.e., once the claim was on the computer inside the company, the paper form could be dispensed with. Computerization is a highly effective way of reducing administrative overhead in claims processing.
Thus, mainframe computers were purchased and installed internally at the insurance companies. Since these computers were intended for internal use only, each company thought only of its own needs and either developed proprietary claims processing software or had claims management software purchased from an outside source customized to meet the insurance company's claims processing methodology. While the claims management software for a number of insurance companies would be written in the same high-level programming language, e.g., COBOL, the similarity between software programs often ended there.
There were many virtues to these early systems, primarily with respect to decreased administrative costs, but a major drawback was that the data for each "paper" claim had to be entered into the computer to form an electronic claim. This necessitated the manual transcription of exactly the same information that had been entered into the original paper claim before it was sent to the insurance company.
(3) The next advancement was the electronic filing of claim forms. This was made possible by the introduction of the personal computer and modem into the provider's office. The main purpose of this stage was to eliminate the manual re-entry of information into the insurance company mainframe.
The basic idea was to have the providers fill out an electronic claim form, instead of a paper claim form. This electronic form, which would be stored in the memory of their PCs, would then be transmitted, as a computer file, to the insurance company. It could then be integrated directly into the electronic claims processing system without the manual re-entry of data. Thus, the technology existed to produce a system that computerized the overall filing and processing of the insurance claim from the point of entry, the provider's office, to the final report of the claims adjuster.
Although the idea was straightforward, implementation was not. Two basic problems had to be overcome in order to create a viable system. First, the information contained in the electronic claim form had to be integrated into the claims processing software at the insurance company. Second, a majority of providers have to be able to interface with a majority of insurance companies, i.e., insurance company mainframe computers. However, because of the way computers were introduced into the insurance industry originally (stage #2), there was no industry-wide standard, i.e., the legacy mainframe computers of the different insurance companies were incompatible. This was true both with respect to the type of software used and with respect to the information that each company required on its claim form.
One attempt to deal with these problems was the creation, by a consortium of insurance companies, of the National Electronic Information Corporation (NEIC). NEIC's basic function is that of a clearinghouse. It acts as a common interface between the insurance companies and the service providers. It also establishes rigid standards that must be met in order to transmit an electronic claim form to an insurance company. In practice, the service provider sends an electronic claim to a vendor, who performs a service such as screening of the form. The vendor then transmits the form to NEIC, which then re-transmits it to the patient's insurance company. Since it is a computer file, the information in the electronic claim form can then be entered directly into the company's mainframe claims processing system, without the manual re-entry of data, and then processed.
Thus, a coherent system was created that allows for the electronic filing, transmission, and processing of insurance claims. This system is employed by thousands of providers and hundreds of insurance companies.
NEIC was designed to act as a clearinghouse for claims that are 100% text and that conform to very restrictive formats. For claims that meet these conditions it functions well, resulting in substantial savings on administrative costs for the insurance companies. It has been estimated that going to this third stage system results in savings of as much as 60% in claims processing costs.
However, there are many claims that do not meet these conditions. These would include claims that require additional text information that does not fit into the prescribed format and/or claims that require non-text information. In general, these are called "claims with attachments." "Attachments" are any additional information that must be sent with the "standard text claim form." This could include: pictures, graphs, additional text not allowed on the standard claim form, sound recordings, etc.
An example of such a claim would be the PAC (Prior Approval Claim), which may be alternately denoted as a "Pretreatment Claim." These are claims that are sent to the insurance carrier before a procedure is performed. For example, pretreatment claims are often required by dental insurance companies on any procedure over a specified amount, e.g., $200. The aspect of this type of claim which renders it incompatible with the present electronic claim processing system is that the insurance companies require that additional medical evidence be included, i.e., attached to, the text part of the claim form. In an exemplary case, the additional medical evidence is an x-ray.
The goal of the insurance company is to review the claim, i.e., both the text form and attachment, and to do so in a cost-effective manner. The natural next stage in the development of claims processing systems is to attempt to computerized this process.
Scanners are now available that can digitize a dental x-ray, i.e., convert it into a computer file that can be viewed on a monitor. Nevertheless, transforming the medical evidence into digital form is not enough to facilitate electronic processing of claims with attachments. One must also take into consideration the existing claims processing infrastructure, i.e., the legacy infrastructure.
The difficulty with trying to include a digitized x-ray for processing with an electronic claim form, within the current infrastructure, is multifaceted. First, NEIC does not at the present time allow this type of information to be transmitted through NEIC to the insurance companies. Second, with the current system, the claims adjusters access claims information through terminals connected to mainframes. However, there is the inherent problem of displaying images on mainframe computers. This is especially true of mainframe computers running software written in business programming languages such as COBOL. It might be thought that a solution to this problem would be to replace the terminal with a PC. Although many personal computers provide the graphics support needed to display the digitized x-ray, there are significant problems in interfacing a PC with a mainframe computer. For example, in order to interface with the mainframe computer, PCs often run terminal emulation software that permits the PC to act like a dedicated, dumb terminal attached to the mainframe computer. Terminal emulation software is notoriously lacking in graphics capability. Finally, getting a digitized x-ray from one provider to one insurance company is not all that is needed. Rather, what is really needed is an industry-wide system by which a provider can interact with any insurance company. This results in a massive interfacing problem since there are multitudes of insurance companies using different legacy hardware systems and company unique software.
Each time a way has been found to more fully utilize computers in claims processing systems, the administrative costs associated with claims processing have gone down. However, in the area of "claims with attachments," no coherent industry-wide system exists that allows for the integrated filing, transmitting and processing of these claims electronically, i.e., via computers. Thus, when attachments are required, providers are forced to submit hard copy claim applications, while insurance companies labor under an administrative system that is a hybrid between a manual and an electronic system, i.e., a hybrid between stage #1 and stage #2. This hybrid system, which is described in greater detail below, is labor intensive, prone to problems, and slow. For providers, insurance companies, and patients, this is a time-consuming, costly and irritating process.
In short, there is at least one type of insurance claim that has not, until now, been able to avail itself of the third stage of computerization, as described above. In fact, there are even difficulties with the second stage. This group includes any claim whose "standard text form" must be accompanied by additional information that does not fit into this standard format, e.g., x-rays, EKGs, additional text information such as Operating Room Reports, etc. In general, these are referred to as "attachments." One primary example of this would be Prior Approvals for dental procedures. Prior Approval Claim (PAC) applications are those claims that are submitted for the purpose of receiving a predetermination of benefits from the insurance company for a procedure that has not as yet been performed.
In the area of Prior Approval Claims, the goals of the insurance companies are to validate the necessity of the procedure and to determine whether the patient's insurance policy obligates the insurance company to pay for such a procedure. This requires that the insurance company itself review the medical evidence. For an insurance company's in-house dentist, for example, to make this appraisal, the dentist is required to review both the "text form" and the accompanying x-ray of the patient. However, the presence of a film x-ray means that electronic claims methods cannot be implemented. The savings associated with electronic claim processing is not available with respect to Prior Approval Claim forms.
Nationwide, there are approximately 200,000 dental PACs filed per week. Roughly, for every PAC application there will be eventually a Final Payment claim (FPC) submitted when the medical procedure is completed. It is estimated that the overall administrative cost is $25 per PAC form and $10 for the Final Payment Claim. It is also estimated that if a coherent electronic system could be implemented, it would reduce these administrative costs to $15 per PAC and $5 per Final Payment Claim. The savings could amount to as much as $3,000,000 per week collectively for the health care industry for dental PACs and FPCs alone.
An example of a hybrid system of claim processing currently in use will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2A and 2B.
Referring first to FIG. 1, the U.S. Postal Service, denoted as 100, connects the service provider's office 200 with the insurance company 300. It will be appreciated that, since PAC form handling is entirely manual at location 200, the service provider's office is depicted as lacking computer equipment. In contrast, the insurance company typically has at least one mainframe computer 350 to which terminals 351, 352 on the respective reviewing dentist's desk 360 and claims adjuster's desk 370 are connected. It should also be noted that the mail room 320 is charged with a variety of tasks associated with the incoming and outgoing correspondence, as discussed in greater detail below.
As will be appreciated from FIG. 1, a paper PAC form is filled out by the patient and/or the provider and, along with the substantiating x-ray, is mailed to the patient's insurance company. Upon entering the mail room of the insurance company, the PAC form is assigned a document identification number (DIN) and the data from the PAC form is then entered into the company's mainframe computer. This same DIN is affixed to the x-ray. The x-ray is then manually delivered to the reviewing dentist.
By using the DIN on the x-ray, the reviewing dentist downloads, from the mainframe computer, the textual part of the patient's PAC application. The dentist makes a decision, records it in the memory of the mainframe computer, and has a hard copy of the Predetermination form posted back to the provider. Once the procedure has been completed, the provider's office completes the Predetermination form, or fills out a separate Final Payment Claim (FPC) form. This is then posted to the insurance company. A chronological, detailed, step-by-step description of the hybrid system will now be provided with reference to FIGS. 1, 2A and 2B.
During step S1, the dentist decides that a costly procedure is necessary for a patient whose insurance carrier requires prior approval for such treatment. During step S2, the dentist provides the patient with his diagnosis and gives the patient an estimate for performing the recommended procedure. The dentist then asks the patient to contact his insurance carrier, or plan administrator at work, to obtain the necessary PAC form. During step S3, the patient completes that portion of the PAC form that pertains to him, signs the form, and sends it to his provider.
After the PAC form arrives at the provider's office at step S4, one of the office personnel retrieves the patient's file and the PAC form at step S5, extracts the patient's x-ray, either the original, a copy of the original, or a second, previously taken x-ray, during step S6, and the PAC form is filled out entirely by hand, i.e., the information about the provider has to be entered every time a new PAC form is received, during step S7. Copies of the completed form are made and are placed in the patient's file during step S8. The envelope containing the PAC form is addressed to the appropriate insurance company at step S9. The form and the x-rays are placed in the envelope during step S10. An entry is made in both the patient's computer file (if the provider's office is equipped with one) and his hard copy file indicating that the PAC form has been sent during step S11 and, finally, during step S12, the envelope is mailed. See task T1 in FIG. 1.
The envelope meanders through the U.S. Postal Service 100 for several days at step S113 until the envelope finally arrives at the mail room 320 of the insurance company 300 at step S14. In the mail room, the envelope is opened (step S15), the data from the PAC form is entered into the insurance company's mainframe computer 350 and is given a Document Identification Number (DIN) that identifies the patient and the current claim application (step S16). See task T2 in FIG. 1. During step S17, the x-ray is labeled with the same DIN. It will be appreciated that the DIN on the x-ray and in the document now on the mainframe computer must be identical. It will also be appreciated that for some insurance companies, this manual processing is contracted to an outside agency, which would require several more steps, which steps will not be described further.
During step S18, the x-ray is manually forwarded to the reviewing dentist's area. See task T3 in FIG. 1. During step S19, the PAC form is transferred to a directory and waits to be read by a reviewing dentist.
During step S20, a group of x-rays arrives from the mail room at the reviewing dentist's area. A film x-ray is pulled out of the waiting pile by the dentist during step S21 and the reviewing dentist then accesses the "PAC form" directory during step S22 by, for example, reading the DIN from the x-ray and typing the DIN into the computer. The electronic PAC form corresponding to this x-ray is located in memory and downloaded to the reviewing dentist's monitor during step S23.
The procedure requested is read off the terminal monitor and the film x-ray is reviewed during step S24 and a determination is made during step S25. It will be appreciated that a determination refers to either an approval or a denial of the request. Assuming that the procedure is approved, a statement (or explanation) of benefits (EOB) is also generated. For the purposes of this discussion, it will be assumed that the procedure is approved; a denial would necessitate a parallel but alternative set of processing steps, which steps will not be further described. During step S26, the insurance company's Predetermination form is filled out either electronically or by hand. For an electronic Predetermination form, the form is saved to the memory of the insurance company's mainframe computer during step S27. The x-ray is returned to the mail room during step S28. See task T4 in FIG. 1.
Following approval, a paper copy of the Predetermination form is made during step S29. See task T5 in FIG. 1. An envelope is then addressed to the referring dentist and the Predetermination form is placed in the envelope during step S30. During step S31, the corresponding x-ray is matched with the Predetermination form and, during step S32, the corresponding x-rays are placed in the envelope. The envelope then goes back into the U.S. Postal System 100 during step S33. See task T6 in FIG. 1.
Some days later, the envelope finally arrives at the dentist's office 200 and is opened during step S34. The results are noted in both the patient's paper file and computer file during step S35, the x-rays are returned to the patient's paper file at step S36, and the patient is notified of the approval and a date is set for performing the approved treatment during step S37.
The treatment is completed during step S38 and the Final Payment Claim (FPC) form is filled out during step S39. It will be appreciated that the Final Payment Claim form, for many but not all insurance companies, is merely a subsection of the Predetermination form generated in step S29 (See the paper denoted P* in FIG. 1.); alternatively, the Final Payment Claim form could be yet another form supplied by the insurance company.
The Final Payment Claim form is then sent back to the insurance company with a copy of the signed Predetermination form during step S40. See task T7 in FIG. 1. The Final Payment Claim form enters the mail room as a paper form and the final processing begins during step S41. It will be appreciated that the processing of the Final Claim Form typically requires making several entries in the information stored on the mainframe computer 350 and may require the preparation of one or more forms needed to authorize payment of the final claim. However, since an attachment is not normally associated with the Final Claim Form, additional discussion regarding disposition of the Final Claim Form within the insurance company will not be provided.
Thus, the hybrid system under discussion is one that starts in the provider's office when a patient is told that a PAC form is needed and continues until the procedure has been completed and a Final Payment Claim form has been submitted to the insurance company for payment. It will be appreciated that a myriad of problems and inefficiencies arise due to claim processing in accordance with the hybrid system. The principal problems are as follows:
1. All information needed to complete the PAC form has to be entered by hand. Moreover, all of the information on the PAC form is also manually transcribed in order to transfer the information from paper to the insurance company's mainframe computer. Both of these manual data entry process steps are time consuming, very costly, and prone to human error;
2. The x-ray film and the text form are put together and then separated several times during the overall claim processing;
3. The hybrid system requires that a hard copy of the x-ray be sent to the insurance company. Generally, this x-ray is returned to the provider. Moreover, the requirement that the dentist provide the x-ray typically means that a duplicate x-ray has to be made by the dentist, which increases the dentist's cost for the service. Oftentimes, the duplicate x-ray is of poor quality and cannot be read;
4. Because prior approval claim forms cannot be processed electronically, and because PAC forms make up half of all the claims that approximately 20,000 oral surgeons, periodontists, and orthodontists make each year, these 20,000 providers have no compelling reason to initiate electronic claims or Final Payment Claims;
5. The document identification number is affixed to the x-ray and the electronic text in two different processes, one physical and the other electronic. This leads to errors;
6. After the procedure has been completed, almost identical information may again have to be entered by hand in order to prepare the Final Payment Claim form;
7. While direct digital x-ray equipment is available, it is difficult to integrate a digital x-ray into the current hybrid claims processing system, i.e., these computerized images would first have to be transferred to film, which would, of course, negate the major advantage for using direct digital x-rays;
8. Some insurance companies would like to require that x-rays accompany all dental claims; they are prevented from doing so because of the high administrative overhead associated with handling hardcopy claims;
9. The patient has to obtain the PAC form from the insurance company or his employer. In either case, this causes the patient time, is an irritant, and imposes unnecessary delays on the delivery of medical care to the insured;
10. With the hybrid system, no pre-screening of the PAC form for errors is performed before the PAC form goes to the insurance company; and
11. Provider information, i.e., the dentist's information, often has to be entered separately on each new PAC form that is submitted.
In short, the current method for handling PAC applications is a hybrid system somewhere between a Stage 1, a totally paper-based manual processing system, and a Stage 2 internally computerized insurance company processing system. It is part electronic and part hard copy. Also, each form must be handled twice, once as a hard copy and once as an electronic copy. This is the source of a great many of the above described problems. Moreover, the current hybrid method is costly. The process starting at the provider's office, continuing through the insurance company and finally to the return of the Predetermination form to the provider has been estimated to cost $25. Furthermore, the whole process is filled with potential for error, frustration, wasted time and money.
The workflow for the filing and processing of a PAC form was described above with respect to the dental health insurance which was used, by way of example, to illustrate the circuitous process involved when a hard copy attachment is present. Other types of claims, or attachments, or different insurance companies might require slightly different steps. For example, instead of returning an attachment, as describe above, the attachment might need to be microfilmed and archived, or some of the information contained in the attachment itself might need to be entered into the mainframe. Regardless of these differences, there are similarities in the problems that arise in processing such claims.
In summary, in the insurance industry, payers and providers exchange a great amount of information, which, in general, falls into two categories:
1. Information flowing from the Payer to the Provider. It will be appreciated that this information can be further subdivided into additional types of information including, but not limited to information directly related to the Claim Application, e.g., content of the claim form or list of specified attachments needed to support a particular CPT code, general information, e.g., Preferred Provider List for specialists, etc., and responses to submitted claims, e.g., RFI on a claim sent.
2. Information flowing from the Provided to the Payer. It will be appreciated that this information will generally be limited to Completed Claim Applications, e.g., AIC forms.
It will be appreciated that the information specified by the payer as item (1) determines the information provided by the provider in item (2). It will also be appreciated that this information flow is further complicated by the fact that each of the various payers may have:
1. Differing Claims Information Requirements, i.e., the information each payer requires is unique to that specific payer;
2. Differing General Information, i.e., each payer has a respective unique set of preferred providers;
3. Dynamic Information Demands, i.e., the information identified immediately above changes over time; and
4. Different legacy system requirements, i.e., the provider generates a plurality of AIC forms, each going to a different payer in a payer specified format.
As discussed above, the information flowing from the provider to the payer can be in one of several forms, including:
1. Paper Claim Forms—These forms tend to have different content and to have the blanks for content arranged differently on the page. This leads to confusion and wasted time at the provider's office in completing the forms.
2. Electronic Claim Forms—Because of the differing legacy computer systems and because of the confusion created by different forms, the current electronic solution takes the form of a rigid standardized electronic form based on truncated information. Stated another way, in order to optimize the cost savings of electronic forms, the payers are bound together in a rigid group where all must accept the limited information of a standardized electronic form and none can act independently to request more information be sent electronically.
3. General Information—Information regarding preferred providers, etc., is currently available in hardcopy form. It will be appreciated that one hardcopy Preferred Provider List is very time consuming to use; the problem is exacerbated when many Preferred Provider Lists must be maintained. Even when this information is in digital form, there are still problems for providers because each payer has its own database and ways of searching for information within that database.
What is needed is an electronic claim form instantiated by a Standard User Interface (SUI) which allows each provider to complete and then electronically transmit claim forms, which differ from one payer to another, to all payers. What is also needed is a dynamic claim form which permits each payer the freedom to independently determine the information content of its electronic claim form and to change that information, at will, over time. It will be appreciated that this latter requirement could be provide while, at the same time, maintaining the single multi-payer solution including the SUI. Thus, each payer can specify and later modify the information that it wants from all providers, while each of the providers always see and fill in the same form. What is also needed is a dynamic claim form which allows an individual payer to be readily selected by the provider. It would also be desirable if the dynamic claim form could assist the provider in determining the information required by the selected payer. It will be appreciated that the enumerated desirable characteristics permits overall system coherence (interoperability) yet independence for each payer.

Classifying, disabling and transmitting form fields in response to data entry


An electro mechanical connector for use in an electrical vehicle having a battery pack is disclosed. The connector includes a locking collar having a slot therein and a plug body arranged within the locking collar. The connector also has a switch mount sleeve arranged on the plug body and a micro switch connected to the switch mount sleeve at a predetermined position. The electrical connector also includes a switch actuator that is slidingly arranged within the slot and is aligned with the micro switch when the electrical mechanical connector is in its fully locked position.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention generally relates to electro mechanical connectors for electrical circuits, and more particularly relates to an electro mechanical connector having a lock to control time delay on a first break pin and provide an electrical means to determine the locking state of the connector.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical connectors have been known for numerous years. Many of these electrical connectors use a first mate last break (FMLB) configuration. The FMLB configuration will allow for a timing difference between electrical continuity of any two contact pairs in a connector body. Generally, in these prior art FMLB configurations two contacts of different lengths are installed within a connector body such that the shortest contact does not make a connection until after the longer contact is partially engaged. This will allow for a timing difference between the electrical continuity of the connector pairs wherein one is generally a hot pin and the other is generally either a negative or a ground. With many of these prior art connector mechanisms when separation of the connector body is to occur the reverse situation is applied and achieved. First, the shorter contact pair will fully disconnect before the longer contact pair or pairs will have separated from one another. This time difference between the signaling of the last mate first break pair and the next longest contact is dependent on the length difference of the contacts in the prior art and the speed at which the connector body may be separated by the operator of the electrical connector. Many of these prior art devices would rely on the connector body being more difficult to separate to achieve longer times between the disconnecting of the shortest contact pair with relation to the other contact pair or pairs or they would have longer contacts or connector bodies to accommodate the greater contact length difference between the contacts that are necessary to provide a safe method of disengaging high voltage connections.
Another prior art methodology for disconnecting and connecting electrical connectors uses a FMLB configuration along with a micro switch to determine if the two connector halves of the connector have been engaged. These prior art connectors use a micro switch to detect if the plug is fully seated into the receptacle. However, many of these prior art systems have problems in guaranteeing that the connector is locked into its appropriate position, nor do they allow for an independent motion to change the timing between the separation of the first break contact and the second break and thereafter contacts or pins.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved electro mechanical connector for use in an electrical system. There also is a need in the art for an improved electrical connector for use in an electrical vehicle. Furthermore, there is a need in the art for an electrical connector that is allowed to be disconnected while under electrical load when the motion is initiated without having to use the contacts. There also is a need in the art for a methodology to remotely determine if an electrical connector is mated and locked before any unsafe voltages are applied to the connector. Still another need in the art is for a connector that creates a longer effective length difference between a last mate first break contact pair and the other contacts in the connector without having to add additional length to the connector body. Also there is a need in the art to provide a connector that has additional levels of safety for people engaged with high voltage connections that need to be energized in situations where complete electrical lockout is not feasible. There also is a need in the art for a low cost and easy to manufacture electrical connector for use in electrical vehicles and other industrial applications.

Electro mechanical connector for use in electrical applications


An embodiment make-up air system includes a switch assembly including a housing configured to be mounted to an exhaust air duct, a rod pivotally mounted to the housing, the rod having a paddle mounted on a first rod end disposed outside the housing, the paddle including an angled portion, and a switch disposed in the housing, the switch actuated by the rod when the paddle experiences a predetermined flow of air through the exhaust duct, and a fresh air intake assembly operably coupled to the switch assembly, the fresh air intake assembly configured to open a damper disposed in a fresh air intake duct to initiate a flow of fresh air when the switch in the switch assembly has been actuated.

Construction technology has succeeded in developing a more sealed and energy efficient structure (e.g., residential dwelling, office building, etc.). Internal air, which once escaped from the structure through cracks around windows and doors and elsewhere, is now trapped within the structure. As a result, negative air pressure can be generated inside the structure in some circumstances. The negative air pressure may, in some circumstances, result in air being drawn into the structure in a manner that is unintended or unsafe. Therefore, even though the tightly sealed structure may save energy and be less costly to own, the resultant negative air pressure caused thereby may lead to undesirable side effects.


Provided are a method, system, and program for managing a configuration file including device parameters that define attributes of the device accessed by a device driver executing in a computer. The device driver uses the device parameters to control one or more devices in communication with the computer. A determination is made of device parameters provided with the device driver for a device, wherein the device parameters are maintained external to the configuration file. User selection of at least one of the determined device parameters is received and a parameter code for each selected device parameter is written to the configuration file.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and program for determining system information from a computer system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In certain instances, a software distributor or technical support agent may want to determine the configuration of a customer computer system. In the prior art, tailor made utilities are provided to determine system configuration information for particular uses. For instance, in the Unix** operating system, the "prtconf" command is used to print system configuration information, whose output includes the total amount of memory and the configuration of system peripherals formatted as a device tree.
Further, software vendors will sometimes query a customer's computer over a network to determine the system configuration for purposes of whether any upgrades or fixes for that system are available. For instance, Microsoft Corporation provides a Windows® update utility that is downloaded to the user's computer to scan the computer to determine whether any new version of installed components are available. The utility displays a list of recent versions of the determined components on the user's computer that the user can select to install.
Such prior art utility programs for determining system configuration information are designed for specific uses and not intended for general purpose queries of system information. For this reason, there is a need in the art for improved techniques for providing utilities to determine system information and to allow software vendors and others to configure such utilities for different purposes.

Method, system and program for determining version of storage devices and programs indicated in the resource information installed in the computer system


A system and method for providing power redundancy to certain devices of a vehicle that are typically controlled by means of a power distribution and control node. Power is delivered to the node by both a primary power feed as well as a secondary power feed. Provided in each node is a first set of power relays for selectively providing power to at least one device of a first class, as well as a second set of power relays for selectively providing power to at least one device of a second class. Under a normal operating state of the node, the one or more first class devices, as well as the one or more second class devices, selectively receive power from the primary power feed. Upon the occurrence of a disruption in the primary power feed, the one or more second class devices will continue to operate by being selectively powered through the second set of power relays by the second power feed.

Vehicle electrical systems have evolved over the years from the simplest level, involving a battery and lights, to a more complex level in which the typical passenger vehicle includes a battery, a power distribution center, and an extensive array and assortment of load devices ranging from engine controls, exterior and interior lights, entertainment systems, heating and air-conditioning systems, and many other electronic devices. Often the architecture of the vehicle power distribution and control system is configured to arrange the various load devices, such as those listed above, in groups and control such devices by modules or nodes that are strategically placed in each of several vehicle regions. For example, a modular-based automotive power distribution scheme is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/055,563 entitled SCALABLE, MODULAR ARCHITECTURE FOR AUTOMOTIVE POWER DISTRIBUTION AND BODY CONTROL FUNCTIONS, filed on Jan. 23, 2002 and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. Illustrated in FIG. 1 is one such example of a vehicle power distribution system where a vehicle 10 includes one or more power sources 22, such as a battery and alternator, delivering power to a power distribution center 20. Power is then distributed from the power distribution center 20 to various distribution and control nodes, such as, for example, a front passenger node 30, front driver side node 32, left and right body nodes 34 and 36, and a rear node 38. As depicted in FIG. 1, each node connects not only to a power distribution network 60, but also to a control area network 50 that allows one or more vehicle systems to communicate control signals to each node. In this manner, each node can be instructed on how to control the associated group of load devices controlled by that specific node, such as, for example, the group of load devices 42 associated with the front passenger node 30.
Due to various reasons, such as, for example, physical damage, faulty wiring or a faulty connection, it is possible that an unforeseeable power loss can occur to one or more of the power distribution and control nodes of a vehicle, thereby disabling all the load devices associated with the effected nodes. Disablement of certain devices, such as interior lights, radio, locks, and the like (collectively referred to as "class A and B devices"), do not needlessly jeopardize the safe operation of the vehicle. However, devices such as head lights, brake lights, windshield wipers and the like (collectively referred to as "class C devices") carry out critical functions that contribute to the safe operation of the vehicle. Accordingly, it is desirable that these class C devices remain in operation even after the occurrence of a power fault. Therefore, the inventors of the present invention have recognized the need for a new system and method for distributing power to vehicle devices, via one or more control nodes, that assures power redundancy to certain devices considered critical to the safe operation of the vehicle.

Vehicle power distribution node with redundant power supply


A vacuum guage of the ionisation type having a guage head comprising a substantially cylindrical cathode sleeve with an inlet at one end for communication with the vacuum with an anode positioned co-axially within the cathode sleeve; the head also has a guard ring interposed between the cathode sleeve and the anode and a vacuum feed through arrangement in which the anode and the guard ring are held substantially concentrically within the cathode sleeve.

This invention relates to vacuum gauges and, more particularly, to improvements to cold cathode ionisation vacuum gauges, especially those of the inverted magnetron type.
Cold cathode ionisation gauges for measuring vacuum, sometimes referred to as "Penning" gauges, are well known. They generally comprise an anode and one (or more) cathodes with a large potential difference between the anode and the cathode(s) and a substantial magnetic field applied by a permanent magnet in the area between the electrodes. In these gauges, the anode and cathode are held in a predetermined configuration relative to each other by means of a vacuum feedthrough which isolates the electrodes within the gauge from the atmosphere outside.
With the gauge subjected to the vacuum to be measured, electrons emitted by the cathode are accelerated towards the anode by the electric field; however, the action of the magnetic field causes the electrons to adopt a very long, non-linear trajectory, for example helical, before striking the anode; as such, the probability of ionisation of gas molecules present in the vacuum by collision with the electrons is much higher even at low pressures. Positive ions formed by the collisions are attracted by the cathode to produce an ion current in an external circuit, the size of which is related to the vacuum at a given temperature.
In gauges of the inverted magnetron type, the cathode commonly has associated with it means to define a region within it in which the ion collection, and hence ion discharge current to the external circuit takes place and is measured. This is generally achieved by arranging for the magnetic and electric fields to be concentrated in that region.
In such inverted magnetron gauges, it is possible for a small current to flow directly from the anode to the cathode via the internal surfaces of the gauge and it is known that the presence of a so-called "guard ring" can collect this current and thereby prevent it being detected by the gauge itself. To perform this function, the guard ring is electrically isolated from the cathode and normally held at a small positive potential relative to the cathode.

Cold cathode ionization vacuum gauge with guard ring


The present invention relates to slitrk proteins as markers of stem and progenitor cells, including embryonic stem cells and hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, and also as a marker of leukemia and lymphoma cells, and of endothelial cells. The invention provides, inter alia, methods for purifying slitrk-positive cells, methods for detecting slitrk-positive cells, purified preparations of slitrk-positive cells, therapeutic compositions containing purified slitrk-positive cells, methods for targeting therapeutic agents to slitrk-positive cells, and methods of treatment, including but not limited to, methods of administering slitrk-positive cells to subjects in need thereof.

Stem cell research has the potential to change the face of medical and veterinary science by providing cells that can be used therapeutically to repair specific tissues and organs in the body. The ability to detect, purify, and grow such therapeutically useful stem cells, from both embryonic and adult tissues, has been hampered by a lack of specific markers. The present invention addresses these and other needs in the art by providing markers for stem and progenitor cells, and methods of use thereof.
In addition, there is a need for markers of cancer cells. Methods of detecting cancer cells, and also methods of targeting therapeutic agents to such cancer cells and methods of treatment of cancers, are needed. The present invention addresses these and other needs in the art by providing markers for cancer cells, such as leukemia and lymphoma cells, and methods of use thereof.

Slitrks as markers for stem and progenitor cells and methods of use thereof