Disclosed is a system for use by an individual customer to obtain a personalized greeting card of high quality, the system comprising: card type selection means for permitting an individual customer to obtain a completed personalized card from one of a plurality of blank cards having a preprinted design on at least a portion thereof and arranged proximate to the customer, design selection means for selection by an individual customer and from a plurality of available designs of a design to be provided on the completed personalized card, the plurality of available designs corresponding, at least in part, to the plurality of preprinted designs on the blank cards, message selection means for use by the individual customer to select particular printing material to be provided on the completed card, and card completion means, and control means for controlling the card completion means from the card type, design and message selection means for supply by the card completion means of a completed greeting card having the weight and quality and having the selected design the selected printed material thereof. Also disclosed is a method for producing personalized greeting cards using the aforementioned system.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a personalized greeting card system and more particularly to a personalized greeting card system which is such that the user may quickly select from a wide variety of possible options to obtain a high quality card with a design and with printed text such as to be personalized with respect to the sender, recipient and occasion. The system uses relatively inexpensive equipment in a manner such as to obtain highly reliable and efficient operation with minimal waste of materials.
2. Background of the Prior Art
As discussed in the introductory portion of the specification of the aforesaid related application of Buckley et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,892,427 and 3,982,744 disclose methods for the production of personalized "ME" books in which, for example, the name of a child who is to receive a story book is printed in the text of a story book. In the production of such books, a computer was used to control a printer to print variable data on preprinted sheet material to form sheets which were bound together in a separate operation to provide the final hard cover book product. As disclosed, many types of variable data could be stored in the computer and such variable data may include quality control indicia which may include check bars or other graphics.
The Rosewarne et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,327 discloses methods similar to those disclosed in the "ME" book patents and the printing of specific types of graphics including pictorial figures having physical characteristics similar to personalized data introduced into the system. A standard microprocessor is programmed to provide storage and combining functions after personalized data is introduced into the system by temporary storage by the purchaser or user on a storage medium such as a punched card. One or more plotters are used for producing the final product, an eight pen plotter being disclosed.
Many vending machines have heretofore been provided for vending of cans, bottles, hot and cold liquids in cups, sandwiches, candy, combs, and various other products, each machine being typically designed to handle only products which have a physical size and shape within a certain limited range. Typically, a customer inserts a coin in a slot and makes a selection by pushing a button or by effecting movement of an article carrier to position a selected article at an exit position.
The aforesaid Buckley et al. application discloses a machine for vending greeting cards and similar personalized products and which is readily operable by a customer without assistance to obtain personalized or customized products of his or her choice. The machine includes means for displaying identifications of available products and desirable attributes and features thereof and of modes of selection such as to facilitate selection of products and the desired attributes and features by the customer, and provides a flexible manufacturing platform which allows for quick changes of product storage means to allow different products to be manufactured to customer's preferences.
More particularly, the machine of the Buckley et al. application includes an enclosure with selection and payment means on the outside thereof and with product storage and handling means on the inside thereof, all coupled to a computer which is on the inside of the enclosure and which is programmed to deliver a selected product to a receptacle from which it may be removed by the customer. Preferably, available products and their desirable attributes and features are identified both audibly and visually and the computer is programmed to control presentation of a sequence of images and associated sound. In accordance with an important feature, the computer controls a general presentation of a series of descriptions of available products and their features with instructions as to initiating use of the machine. When a customer initiates use of the machine, the computer then controls presentations of specific instructions to the customer to make it possible to make selections easily, quickly and accurately. After a customer's selections are effected, the computer again controls the general presentation and repeats it until another customer's use is initiated. Thus the audible and visual capabilities of the machine are used to maximum advantage.
In an illustrated embodiment of the Buckley et al. application, the images are presented on a CRT screen which is also usable as a touch screen for selection of the desired product and the desired features and attributes thereof. The touch screen or a keyboard or other input device may be used, for example, to select from among a number of different birthday cards and to enter the name and birth date of the intended receiver, the name of the sender and other personalized data.
After a customer selects and pays for a greeting card or other product, a data entering mode may be initiated in which he or she is asked to enter data or otherwise select the form of the final product, as by entering the names of the receiver and sender of a birthday card, for example. The data entering mode may further include operations for viewing and correction of entered data.


The present invention comprises a field programmable gate array that has a plurality of dedicated first-in/first-out memory logic components. The field programmable gate array includes a plurality of synchronous random access memory blocks that are coupled to a plurality of dedicated first-in/first-out memory logic components and a plurality of random access memory clusters that are programmably coupled to the plurality of dedicated first-in/first-out memory logic components and to the plurality of synchronous random access memory blocks.

1. Field of the System
The present system relates to field programmable gate array (FPGA) devices. More specifically, the system relates to a synchronous first in/first out memory module for an FPGA.
2. Background
FPGAs are known in the art. An FPGA comprises any number of logic modules, an interconnect routing architecture and programmable elements that may be programmed to selectively interconnect the logic modules to one another and to define the functions of the logic modules. To implement a particular circuit function, the circuit is mapped into the array and the appropriate programmable elements are programmed to implement the necessary wiring connections that form the user circuit.
An FPGA core tile may be employed as a stand-alone FPGA, repeated in a rectangular array of core tiles, or included with other functions in a system-on-a-chip (SOC). The core FPGA tile may include an array of logic modules, and input/output modules. An FPGA circuit may also include other components such as static random access memory (SRAM) blocks. Horizontal and vertical routing channels provide interconnections between the various components within an FPGA core tile. Programmable connections are provided by programmable elements between the routing resources.
An FPGA circuit can be programmed to implement virtually any set of digital functions. Input signals are processed by the programmed circuit to produce the desired set of outputs. Such inputs flow from the user's system, through input buffers and through the circuit, and finally back out to the user's system via output buffers. The bonding pad, input buffer and output buffer combination is referred to as an input/output port (I/O). Such buffers provide any or all of the following input/output (I/O) functions: voltage gain, current gain, level translation, delay, signal isolation or hysteresis.
As stated above, many FPGA designers incorporate blocks of SRAM into their architecture. In some applications, the SRAM blocks are configured to function as a first-in/first-out (FIFO) memory. A FIFO is basically a SRAM memory with automatic read and write address generation and some additional control logic. The logic needed to implement a FIFO, in addition to the SRAM blocks, consists of address generating logic and flag generating logic.
Counters are used for address generation. Two separate counters are used in this application for independent read and write operations. By definition, a counter circuit produces a deterministic sequence of unique states. The sequence of states generated by a counter is circular such that after the last state has been reached the sequence repeats starting at the first state. The circular characteristic of a counter is utilized to generate the SRAM's write and read addresses so that data is sequenced as the first data written to the SRAM is the first data read. The size of the sequence produced by the counters is matched to the SRAM address space size. Assuming no read operation, when the write counter sequence has reached the last count, the SRAM has data written to all its addresses. Without additional control logic, further write operations would overwrite existing data starting at the first address.
Additional logic is needed to control the circular sequence of the read and write address counters in order to implement a FIFO. The control logic enables and disables the counters when appropriate and generates status flags. The read and write counters are initialized to produce a common start location. The control logic inhibits reading at any location until a write operation has been performed. When the write counter pulls ahead of the read counter by the entire length of the address space, the SRAM has data written to all its addresses. The control logic inhibits overwriting an address until its data has been read. Once the data has been read, the control permits overwriting at that address. When the read counter catches up to the write counter, the SRAM no longer contains valid data and the control logic inhibits reading until a write operation is performed.
Output signals, known to those of ordinary skill in the art as flags, provide the system with status on the SRAM capacity available. The full and empty conditions are indicated through full and empty flags. Two additional flags are generated to warn of approaching empty or full conditions.
FPGAs have programmable logic to implement this control logic. With the availability of a SRAM block, an FPGA application may be configured to operate as a FIFO memory. Many prior art FPGAs use this approach. However, considerable FPGA gates are consumed when implementing the control logic for a FIFO in this manner and this increases the cost of the application. Also, the performance of the FIFO is likely to be limited by the speed of the control logic and not the SRAM.
Hence, there is a need for an FPGA that has dedicated logic specifically included to implement a FIFO. The FIFO logic may included among the SRAM components in an FPGA core tile. The result is improved performance and a decrease in silicon area needed to implement the functions with respect to implementing the FIFO-function with FPGA gates.

Synchronous first-in/first-out block memory for a field programmable gate array


An apparatus and method for providing a pause function of a broadcasting streaming in a terminal are disclosed. A player of the terminal includes a temporary storage buffer. When a key for a pause of broadcasting streaming is inputted, reproducing of streaming is suspended and broadcasting streaming packet data is continuously received from a network and temporarily stored in the temporary storage buffer. When a pause release key is inputted, the broadcasting streaming packet data starts to be reproduced starting from a time point of the pause. Thus, a pause function is provided for a streaming service of broadcasting content whose reproducing rate cannot be controlled by a user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing a pause function for a broadcast streaming service of a terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a streaming service is a multimedia service that multimedia data is not stored in a storage unit of a terminal but reproduced (played) and then erased. The streamlining service is widely used in a fixed line communication network, and it can be favorably employed for a mobile communication terminal such as a mobile phone which does not have a sufficient storage space.
Techniques for implementing video streaming are divided into an image compression algorithm, a voice compression algorithm and a wireless/wired network protocol.
A video format used in the current wired/wireless system using a video compression technique includes an MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) group format, such as MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, or the like, designated by the international ISO/IEC standards committee, and an H.26x group format such as H.261, H.263, H.264, of the like, designated by the international ITU-T standards committee.
In particular, in a wireless environment with a mobile communication terminal, the MPEG4 or the H.263 is gaining ground as applicable international standards, and the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and 3GPP2 standards committees, the international wireless mobile communication standards organization, have adopted the MPEG4 format as the standard used for VOD (Video On Demand; user definition video viewing service) technology and the H.263 format as the standard user for video telephony (VT). According to the development of the compression techniques and the picture quality enhancement techniques, the demand for the H.264 format is increasing to the level of the MPEG-4 and the H.263 formats.
As examples of voice compression algorithms, a wired/wireless voice compression algorithm such as an MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), an MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer-3) or an AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), a QCELP (Qualcomm™ Code Excited Linear Prediction), an EVRC (Enhanced Variable Rate Coder), and the like, which are suitable for the wireless environment are typically used, and demands for an AAC+ are increasing in line with the development of compression techniques and voice quality enhancement techniques.
The wired/wireless network protocols include a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), which has a low transmission rate but high transmission reliability, and a UDP (User Datagram Protocol) which has a high transmission rate but low transmission reliability. Especially, in the wireless environment in which the network rate is low and a packet loss occurs frequently, an RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) and an RTCP (RTP Control Protocol) suitable as a real time protocol having advantages of the TCP and the UDP are being gradually adopted as standards, and in order to adaptively cope with real time services, an RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) and an SDP (Service Discovery Protocol) are also widely used.
To sum up, it can be said that in order to implement the video streaming service in the mobile communication terminal, MPEG4, H.263 and H.265 are commonly used as the image data formats, the AAC and the AAC+ are commonly used as the voice data formats, and the RTP, the RTCP, the RTSP and the SDP are commonly used as the transmission protocol formats.
FIG. 1 is a view showing the construction of a general system for providing a multimedia broadcasting streaming service to a mobile communication terminal. The general multimedia broadcasting streaming service system includes a video camera 60 for generating analog multimedia broadcasting data; a VOD encoder 50 for converting the generated analog multimedia broadcasting data into digital media data; a streaming server 40 for generating RTP/RTCP packets according to a wireless streaming transmission protocol by using the converted digital media data; a transmitter 30 for transmitting the RTP/RTCP packets; a base station 20 for transmitting the RTP/RTCP packets which have been transmitted through the transmitted 30 to a mobile communication terminal 10 through wireless communication; and the mobile communication terminal 10 for reproducing the received RTP/RTCP packets received through the base station 20 into a broadcasting streaming.
The general multimedia broadcasting streaming service system constructed as described above operates in the following manner.
When the mobile communication terminal 10 requests a certain broadcasting content, such as a sports broadcast, real time news (i.e., live news broadcasts), a talk show, or the like, the streaming server 40 transmits the requested broadcasting content to the mobile communication terminal 10.
When the mobile communication terminal 10 requests real time news, the analog multimedia broadcasting data of the news program is provided to the VOD encoder 50 by a video broadcast camera 60, and the VOD encoder 50 converts the analog multimedia broadcasting data into digital media data by using an MPEG encoding program or an H.265 encoding program. The converted digital media data is provided to the streaming server 40 and the streaming server 40 converts the digital media data into the RTP/RTCP packets and transmits them to the base station 20 through the transmitter 30. The base station 20 transmits the RTP/RTCP packet type digital media data to the mobile communication terminal 10, which then receives the digital media data and provides a real time news broadcast to the user through the streaming service.
While the mobile communication terminal is being provided with a streaming service based upon contents downloaded to the terminal or the VOD contents whose rate can be arbitrarily adjusted by the user, if a situation occurs where the streamlining service needs to be suspended for certain reasons of the user, such as when the user receives an incoming voice call and performs voice call communication through the mobile communication terminal, generally, the mobile communication terminal can briefly stop reproduction of the content for a certain amount of time by using a pause function.
However, while the mobile communication terminal is providing broadcasting content whose reproduction rate cannot be adjusted by the user, such as live broadcast contents or pre-recorded broadcast contents being provided as the streaming service to the user, if the broadcasting streaming service needs to be temporarily stopped by the user, the user cannot receive some portion of the broadcasting content during the time that the streaming service was paused.

Apparatus and method for providing pause function of broadcasting streaming in terminal


The present invention relates to novel Forms A, B, C, D, E, F and G of crystalline 9-[2-[phosphonomethoxy]ethyl]adenine bis-pivaloyloxymethyl ester, i.e., adefovir dipivoxil, and processes for preparing them. According to the present invention, said novel crystal forms having a high purity can be obtained by a simple method and in a high yield.

Adefovir dipivoxil is an antiviral nucleotide analog, showing excellent effect as a therapeutic agent for HIV infection and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The antiviral activity of said compound is shown in the references (for example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,724,233 and 4,808,716; EP Patent No. 0 481 214; Benzaria et al., "Nucleosides and Nucleotide" 14(3-5):563-565, 1995; and Starrett et al., J. Med. Chem. 37:1857-1864, 1994).
The chemical structure of adefovir dipivoxil is seen in the following formula 1:

Adefovir dipivoxil was first disclosed in EP Patent No. 0 481 214 and may exist in amorphous or crystalline forms. The amorphous form of adefovir dipivoxil can be obtained by eluting from a silica gel column using a mixture of methanol (about 4%) and methylene chloride (about 96%), and precipitating by rotary evaporation under reduced pressure at about 35° C. (see J. Med. Chem., 19:1857-1864, 1994). However, the purification and preparation of an amorphous form have the disadvantages that the procedures are not suitable for application to mass production and the amorphous form must be protected from heat, light, oxygen and moisture. Thus, as an alternative method, the crystal forms of adefovir dipivoxil were prepared and used. As an example thereof, WO04/043972 discloses a spray-drying process wherein directly prepared or commercially available adefovir dipivoxil is dissolved in an organic solvent and sprayed as micro droplets of drug solution under a high-temperature stream, and thus obtained droplets are immediately dried to give crystals. However, this method has the disadvantage of using a spray-dryer device that is not suitable for mass production. On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 6,451,340 discloses a method of preparing Form 2 (2 hydrate) by diluting adefovir dipivoxil solution containing 0.2% or less of water and 50% or more of 1-methylpyrrolidinone with acetone, adding n-butyl ether to produce a crystal, cooling to give Form 1, contacting said Form 1 with air having 75% or more of relative humidity or crystallizing it from a solvent containing 2-5% of water. However, this method uses a dangerous and explosive organic solvent such as n-butyl ether as the crystallizing solvent.
Polymorphism is generally considered to mean separate solids having the same molecular formula but different physical properties in melting point, solubility, density, etc. The differences in physical properties of polymorphs come from the alignments of adjacent molecules (complexes) and interactions between molecules in a bulk solid. Thus, polymorphs having the same molecular formula are unique solids in that it is not clear whether one polymorph has more advantageous physical properties than another. One of the most important physical properties of a pharmacological polymorph is water solubility, particularly solubility in the gastric juice of a patient. For example, when absorption through the intestinal tract is slow, it is desirable that the drug which is unstable under the circumstance of the stomach or intestine of a patient is slowly dissolved and not to be accumulated under this harmful circumstance. Such crystal compounds may have different fluidity, elastic deformability, dissolution rate in a pharmaceutical preparation, stability, efficacy, etc. Thus, a crystal form that is more stable, easier to handle and has a high dissolution rate is required in the art. That is, discovery of a novel crystal form of a drug would enable a skilled artisan in the field of formulation to design a pharmaceutical formulation of a drug having the desired release profile or other characteristics.
Therefore, the present inventors tried to provide a variety of novel crystal forms of adefovir dipivoxil to broaden the range of choice in preparing a pharmaceutical composition as well as to resolve the problems of the prior art in preparing the novel crystal forms.
Thus, it is one object of the present invention to provide novel crystal forms of adefovir dipivoxil.
Another object of the present invention is to provide processes for the preparation of the novel crystal forms of adefovir dipivoxil.

Crystal forms of adefovir dipivoxil and processes for preparing the same


An image forming apparatus having a fixing device for fixing toner image on a recording material, the fixing device includes: a heating member which heats a recording material; a pressing member which comes into contact with the heating member with pressure; and an air separator which separates the recording material from the heating member by compressed air blown between a leading edge of the recording material and the heating member, the air separator includes a plurality of nozzles disposed in a width direction perpendicular to a conveyance direction of the recording material and an air emitting amount distribution setting section which unifies an emitting amount distribution in the width direction of the compressed air which is emitted from the nozzles.

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and particularly relates to separation technology of recording material in a fixing device of an image forming apparatus.
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus, in general, includes a fixing device for fixing a toner image onto a recording material by giving heat and pressure to the toner image on the recording material by using a heat member and a pressing member.
In the fixing device of the image forming apparatus, due to the viscosity of the toner, which has been heated and melted, the recording material tends to adhere to the heating member. Thus, in order to separate the recording material from the heating member, a separator for separating the recording material after fixing operation from the heating member is used. With regard to the separator, a separation claw for mechanically exfoliating the leading edge of the recording material from the heating member is widely used. However there are problems that the separation claw hurts the surface of the heating member and deforms the recording material. Further the separation claw itself is deformed and results in deterioration of separation performance. Accordingly, the developments to solve these problems have been conducted.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 60-247672 and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-157179 have disclosed an air separator for blowing compressed air against the leading edge of the recording material.
The air separator disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 60-247672 and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-157179 are effective as a separation device for solving the problems associated with the separation claw. However, a conventional air separator is not enough as a separator in the following points.
With regard to the width direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the recording material, when air emitting amount distribution is not appropriate, there is a problem that separation failure and flapping of the recording material occur.
When, conducting image formation by using a different type of structure of the fixing device, by using different operation modes of the image forming apparatus, and particularly conducting image formation onto different sizes of recording material, the air emitting amount distribution in the width direction of the recording material becomes different air emitting amount distributions. In a conventional art, the air emitting amount distribution has not been considered.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 60-247672 disclosed an air separator having a plurality of nozzles disposed in width direction of the recording material, into one of the nozzle, air being supplied from an edge of a pipe. However, since the air emitting amount distribution becomes high in an end portion according to the structure, there is a problem that separation failure tends to occur.

Image forming apparatus having fixing device with air separator that separates recording material from a heating member

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


An apparatus for determining the density of insulation in a cavity of a structure that senses a force of the insulation against the sensor. The force is used to determine the density of the insulation, which, in turn, is used to determine the thermal resistance or R-value of the insulation. The apparatus may include a fixture for supporting the sensor and holding the sensor in the substantially fixed position. A method for determining the density of loose-fill, blown-in-place insulation in a wall cavity by the use of a sensor is that measures a force exerted on the sensor by the insulation. The measured force is used to determine the density of the insulation. The thermal resistance of the insulation is determined from the known cavity depth and insulation density.

In recent years, a greater emphasis has been placed on the use of insulation materials in dwellings or other structures to promote energy conservation and noise reduction At the same time, innovative architectural designs have created a variety of shapes and sizes that do not always lend themselves to the use of a conventional fibrous batting, which is often available in rolls of uniform width. This has created a need for a technique for applying fibrous insulation that does not use uniform width batting.
This need has been fulfilled to a limited extent by developing various blown-in-place insulation techniques, wherein loose-fill fibrous insulation is blown into a cavity between the flaming member's of the wall, ceiling, or floor of a dwelling. The loose-fill insulation is provides a low cost installation techniques and is perceived as capable of completely filling the cavity, regardless of its shape and size, achieving a uniform volume of insulation for optimum energy conservation, as well as sound insulation purposes.
While blown-in-place insulation techniques provide a low cost method of installing insulation, one of the advantages of batting lost to blown-in-place insulation is the batting's ability to provide a predetermined insulation value, also known as the "R-value". The R-value can be determined by the thickness (T) of the fibrous insulation and the insulation constant (k) using equation 1.
                    R        =                  k          T                                    (        1        )
In the manufacture of fiberglass batts it is a relatively simple matter to determine the nominal thickness and insulation constant to determine the R-value of the batt. This R-value is then printed on the batt during manufacture. When insulation batting is purchased, for example, to place in a new dwelling, it is often purchased by specifying a desired R-value. If installed in accordance with minimal prescribed installing techniques, the purchaser, due to uniform dimensions of insulation batting, can be count on at the insulation value having a certain thermal resistance.
The R-value of blown-in-place insulation is determined by Eq. 1 (above), however k is dependent on the density of the insulation. Therefore, one advantage of the easily determined R-value associated with batting is typically not applicable. As a consequence, it is necessary to also employ a secondary technique fox determining the density of the blown-in-place insulation for assuring that the insulation has the desired R-value.
Various secondary techniques have been employed for the determining density in blown-in-place fibrous insulations. In one technique, a known mass of loose-fill is blown into a cavity of a known volume. The mass is divided by the cavity volume to determine density and R-value. A problem with this technique is that it slows down the installation process of the insulation and therefore, may not be easily used in the field. It is also difficult to calculate the actual volume of the cavity because there are typically features such as windows, doors, devices in the area that take up volume. Further, inexperienced insulation installers may not provide an even volume filling density that causes the density and R-value to vary between cavities.
In another known technique, a space is first filled with blown-in-place insulation. Then, a sample of insulation of a known volume is removed from a wall cavity and weighed. Using the volume of the sample, it is possible to determine the density of the insulation in the cavity by weighing the sample and dividing the weight by the known volume. The R-value of the insulation may then be determined in a known manner simply by knowing the thickness of the insulation in the cavity. In some instances, the quantity of insulation may be loose or compressed. As a consequence, error in determining the density of the insulation can be magnified if care is not taken to correctly remove the sample or average a number of samples. This is also a very time consuming technique and consequently is not preferred by insulation installers.
In yet another known technique, netting is secured to wall studs to enclose an underlying cavity Insulation is blown into the cavity through a hole in the netting. The netting retains the insulation in the cavity. U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,347 to Henry V. Sperber discloses observing the bulging out of the netting as a signal that a sufficient amount of insulation has been fed into the cavity behind the netting. This technique is unreliable because it is based on the subjective observation of the insulation installer s and the tension of the netting applied to the cavities. Moreover, the mechanical properties such as the modulus of elasticity of the netting material affect the resiliency of the netting and the appearance of the bulge. In addition, the modulus of elasticity of the insulation, which is affected by the fiber diameter and the presence or absence of a binder, controls the resiliency of the insulation Environmental conditions, such as humidity, may also affect the accuracy of the technique Another disadvantage of this technique is that installers, in an effort to insure that a cavity is adequately filled, often overfill the cavity. Overfilling the cavity is undesirable because it causes the netting to bulge too much and wastes insulation. If the netting bulges too much, wallboard is difficult to install on the framing members This has been recognized as a problem and thus has led to the use of a shield during installation, whereby the shield is held against the netting while the cavity is being filled to prevent the netting from bulging undesirably.
In view of the above techniques, it is apparent that there exists a need in the art for an improved apparatus and method for installing insulation that is blown into open wall cavities to a prescribed density wherein the improved apparatus and method provide increased accuracy.

Apparatus and method for determining density of insulation


Disclosed are compounds and compositions that modulate T-cells. Such compounds can be used to treat T-cell mediated disease like T-ALL, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and graft-vs-host disease (GvHD), to name but a few. The compounds have a general structure as shown in Formula I.Ar1-L-Ar2  Iwherein Ar1 and Ar2, are independent of one another, a substituted aryl, unsubstituted aryl, substituted heteroaryl, or unsubstituted heteroaryl; and L is a bond or a linker spanning two, three, four, or five atoms.

Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer of childhood. This disease is caused by developmental arrest and clonal expansion of a transformed, immature lymphocyte. Until recently all leukemias carried a poor prognosis. What sets ALL apart from other leukemias such as acute and chronic myeloid leukemias (AML and CML) is the fact that, with rare exceptions, a leukemic stem cell in ALL has so far not been convincingly demonstrated. The stem cell characteristics of the malignantly transformed cell underlying CML make this disease a treatment challenge because complete eradication of the leukemic stem cell would entail destruction of all hematopoietic stem cells. This may explain why great strides have been made in the treatment of ALL with multi-agent chemotherapy alone, while (with rare exceptions, e.g., M3 AML) that is not the case for AML and CML, where bone marrow transplantation is superior to chemotherapy alone (Nesbit et al., J Clin Oncol 12:127-135, 1994; Clift and Storb. Bone Marrow Transplant 17 Suppl 3:S1-3, 1996). However, ALL treatment comes at a high price in the form of severe side effects, especially so in the case of T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (T-ALL), which is the most difficult form of childhood ALL to treat (Goldberg et al., J Clin Oncol 21:3616-3622, 2003).
The reason why side effects from conventional chemotherapy are so common is based on the mechanism of action of most chemotherapeutic agents: they interfere with various phases of the cell cycle (Oeffinger et al., N Engl J Med 355:1572-1582, 2006). Therapeutic benefit comes from the fact that leukemic cells cycle much faster than cells from other body tissues, so that the former are predominantly affected. However, any cell in the body that divides during chemotherapy will also be affected, which leads to short term (hair loss, vomiting) and long term (weakening of bones, short stature, infertility, learning deficits, heart disease and secondary cancers) side effects. Therefore, the future of successful leukemia treatment lies in more targeted therapy that affects only leukemic cells (or the lineage they are derived from) to reduce toxic side effects. Several strategies have been employed to this effect.
For Philadelphia chromosome (t9;22) positive CML, a specific inhibitor, Gleevec, of the BCR/ABL tyrosine kinase was developed (Druker et al., Nat Med 2:561-566, 1996). While not curative, Gleevec has been successfully applied in clinical practice (Druker et al., N Engl J Med 355:2408-2417, 2006) to induce prolonged remissions, and is well tolerated. In AML, the success of the differentiation-inducing effect of all trans retinoic acid (ATRA) in the treatment of M3 AML has led to the search for FDA approved drugs that induce differentiation of AML cell lines (Randolph, Clin Lab Sci 13:106-116, 2000; Randolph, Clin Lab Sci 13:98-105, 2000). This resulted in the identification of compounds such as iressa (Stegmaier et al., Blood 106:2841-2848, 2005)—not previously known or suspected to have anti-AML activity—that can now be tested for efficacy in the treatment of AML.
Recent research in T-ALL revealed a surprisingly high number of cases where Notch-1 is deregulated (reviewed in Grabher et al., Nat Rev Cancer 6:347-359, 2006; Weng et al., Science 306:269-271, 2004), a pathway that also includes c-myc activation (Weng et al., Genes Dev 20:2096-2109, 2006). This has led to first attempts to treat patients with Notch-1 deregulated T-ALL with gamma secretase inhibitors (reviewed in (Aster, Int J Hematol 82:295-301, 2005). While roughly half of T-ALL patients appear have Notch-1 pathway deregulation, others have defective wnt-signaling (Guo et al., Blood in-press, 2007) or other, unknown genetic aberrations that lead to leukemogenesis.
When the molecular target, such as a deregulated proto-oncogene, is unknown, an alternative approach comprises the ablation of the entire hematopoietic lineage that the transformed leukemic cell is derived from. This approach is best exemplified by the use of the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody Rituximab. In non-Hodgkin lymphoma, expression of the surface marker CD20 has been exploited successfully for elimination of lymphoma cells along with almost all B cells using Rituximab (Cvetkovic Perry. Drugs 66:791-820, 2006). Rituximab is also effective in treating non-malignant, autoimmune hematologic diseases (Bennett et al., Blood 107:2639-2642, 2006; Heidel et al., Thromb Haemost 97:228-233, 2007). Downsides of antibody treatments are side effects and high cost.
An additional treatment alternative is the use of small chemical molecules that are capable of eliminating a subset of hematopoietic cells. Small molecule activity can be detected in assays for functional inhibition of a particular molecular target (e.g., Gleevec against kinase activity of BCR/ABL), or in screens that interrogate a particular pathway or developmental process. The latter approach is particularly powerful if molecular targets affected in a disease or developmental process is unknown (Peterson et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97:12965-12969, 2000).
What are needed in the art are new T-cell specific drugs that can improve efficacy of treatment and reduce side effects from treatment in patients with T-cell mediated diseases like T-ALL. As the molecular target in a large number of patients with T-ALL has not been identified, an unbiased, novel approach to the therapy of this disease is needed. As such, a small molecule library of compounds has been screened in live, transgenic zebrafish and in vitro against human T-ALL cell lines. These compounds, including derivatives and pharmaceutical salts thereof, are disclosed herein, as are methods of making and using such compositions.


A multimode wireless communication device and method for having the device detect a communication access technology is described. The multimode wireless device comprises a multimode transceiver module, a CAT detection module, and at least one CAT threshold level corresponding to each CAT. The multimode transceiver module is operatively coupled to a first antenna. The multimode transceiver module comprises at least two communication access technology (CAT) receiver modules operatively coupled to at least one antenna, wherein each CAT receiver module complies with a receiver requirement. The CAT detection module is operatively coupled to one of the CAT transceiver antenna and the CAT detection module is configured to detect a plurality of CAT RF energy levels associated with each CAT receiver module without activating the corresponding CAT transceiver module.

A multimode wireless communication device is a device that combines at least two different communication access technologies (CATs). The CATs may operate at different frequencies and may operate using different wireless standards, even though the CATs operate within the same frequency band. For example, a multimode handset may support cdma2000 and GSM at 800 MHz, and in a particular market having an A side operator and a B side operator there may be a combination of cdma2000 and GSM. Wireless handsets that support multiple CATs, e.g. CDMA2000, WCDMA, GSM, and WiFi, must determine the appropriate CAT to acquire the available CAT.
If a particular CAT is not available, then the multimode wireless communication device attempts to acquire a different CAT based on a pre-defined search list. The pre-defined search list may be a matrix or a look-up table. Even when a system is found in use, the CAT used in the system may not be the most desirable system due to the type of application launched by the user or the cost of the service due to roaming agreements. Thus, it is common for the multimode wireless communication device to continue with searches for alternate CATs.
Although the procedure for searching is straightforward, depending on the user's location and system availability, the amount of power used for searching for alternative CATs may be excessive. Furthermore, searching for an alternative CAT often requires the multimode wireless communication device to tune away from the current CAT disrupting ongoing services if the multimode wireless communication device is not capable of simultaneous CAT operation. Even if the multimode wireless device supports simultaneous operation on two CATs, the process of searching for an alternative CAT requires that the corresponding receiver module be turned on to process the CAT or determine the availability of the CAT.
Current multimode wireless communication devices have dedicated CAT receiver circuitry that meets the requirements set forth by standard performance requirements. In some cases, the wireless operator may add even more stringent requirements than those specified in the standard. Thus each CAT receiver module, in the multimode wireless communication device actively attempting to receive signals from the corresponding CAT network, is a drain on system resources such as the battery.
Acquisition time is also important. For wireless devices capable of simultaneous operation, it is possible that each CAT receiver be actively attempting to acquire networks for faster acquisition time. For wireless multimode devices not capable of simultaneous operation, the order for searching CAT may have a dramatic impact on acquisition time.
With respect to Software Defined Radio (SDR), although the receiver chain may be shared among multiple CATs, the SDR is bound by the standard performance requirements where a lower limit is set on the power consumption to perform a search. Thus, again each CAT must be actively attempting to receive signals from corresponding CAT network resulting in a drain of system resources.

Detecting the presence of multiple communication access technologies


When an algorithm bay is connected to a signal processing apparatus according to a first connection mode, a selector of the algorithm bay selects and sets a first function provided by a first function provider as the signal processing function of the signal processing apparatus. According to a second connection mode, the selector selects and sets a second function provided by a second function provider as the signal processing function Also, a first information provider of an algorithm bay may supply a signal indicating first information to a signal processor of a signal processing apparatus via a wired interface of the algorithm bay, a wired connection, and a wired interface of the signal processing apparatus. Similarly, a second information provider of the algorithm bay supplies a signal indicating second information for changing the signal processing function of the signal processor to the signal processor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to signal processing systems and methods, signal processing apparatuses and methods, recording media, and programs. More particularly, the invention relates to a signal processing system and method and a signal processing apparatus and method in which a plurality of signal processing functions provided for the signal processing apparatus can be easily selected and utilized. The invention also pertains to a program implementing the above-described method and to a recording medium storing such a program.
The invention further relates to a signal processing system and method and a signal processing apparatus and method in which updated information for changing signal processing functions can be provided while maintaining security. The invention also pertains to a program implementing the above-described method and to a recording medium storing such a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that a board is attached to a signal processing apparatus that performs predetermined signal processing on an input signal and outputs a resulting signal, and information for updating the signal processing functions is supplied to the signal processing apparatus from the board by wired connection. In this case, the board is connected to a bus of the signal processing apparatus, and then, information can be supplied to the signal processing apparatus from the board via the bus.
Hitherto, information concerning only one signal processing function is assigned to each board. Accordingly, when a plurality of functions are assigned to a signal processing apparatus, a plurality of boards must be prepared, and it is troublesome for the user to manage such boards. Also, when changing the function, the user has to search for the corresponding board and installs it into the signal processing apparatus, thereby decreasing the operability.
Information to be supplied to a signal processing apparatus from a board via a bus is sometimes updated, in which case, such updated information sometimes cannot be supplied to the signal processing apparatus because of the restrictions of the bus.
Additionally, when providing information from a board to a signal processing apparatus, leakage of the information may occur.

Signal processing system and method, signal processing apparatus and method, recording medium, and program


The present invention comprises a method for producing microfibers and nanofibers and further fabricating derived solid monolithic materials having aligned uniform micro- or nanofibrils. A method for producing fibers ranging in diameter from micrometer-sized to nanometer-sized comprises the steps of producing an electric field and preparing a solid precipitative reaction media wherein the media comprises at least one chemical reactive precursor and a solvent having low electrical conductivity and wherein a solid precipitation reaction process for nucleation and growth of a solid phase occurs within the media. Then, subjecting the media to the electric field to induce in-situ growth of microfibers or nanofibers during the reaction process within the media causing precipitative growth of solid phase particles wherein the reaction conditions and reaction kinetics control the size, morphology and composition of the fibers. The fibers can then be wet pressed while under electric field into a solid monolith slab, dried and consolidated.

The recent emergent use of monoliths as stationary phase in chromatography and other sorption technologies, i.e. replacement of packed-bed column in capillaries with monolithic materials, has resulted in significant advancement in chromatography separation and analytical sciences (Svec et. al., 2000; Colon et. al., 2000, Zou et. al., 2002). In addition to lower pressure drop, improved separation efficiency, decreased dispersion due to thermal gradients, and faster separations, monoliths are much more reproducible in performance than packed columns in capillaries. Current monolith development in the field has been limited to organic polymeric media (e.g., styrene divinylbenzene-based materials) (Svec et. al., 2000). Inorganic materials such as functionalized silica particles have been examined as packing materials inside glass capillaries (Luedtke et. al., 2000; Tanaka et. al., 2002). A few papers reported the use of sol-gel bonded silica particles as "continuous beds" in columns or as "monoliths" inside glass capillaries or tubes (Tang et. al., 1999; Tang and Lee, 2000; Ratnayake et. al., 2000).
Major techniques used or being developed for biomolecule separations (DNA sizing and sequencing) include gel electrophoresis (GE), capillary electrophoresis (CE) and capillary electrochromatography (CEC) (Pursch and Sander, 2000). The GE/CE technique separates only charged species while the CEC separates both charged and neutral species. For GE, uniform preparation and loading of gels are labor intensive. Only limited number of samples can be loaded per gel. The gel typically used in laboratory applications is polyacrylamide; however, its monomer is very toxic and the gel is fragile. To increase the maximum number of samples, the latest development in CE utilizes bundled glass capillaries, but they are still fragile and tedious to operate. Both gels and glass capillary are not suitable for large-scale separations. Fibril monoliths are needed to enable the scale-up of capillary electrophoresis and capillary electrochromatography.

Production of aligned microfibers and nanofibers and derived functional monoliths


A food container is disclosed that is adapted for facilitating venting of gasses to and/or from the interior of a body of the food container. The food container includes a container body, a lid and a sealing membrane. At least one skip seal or gap is formed between the sealing membrane and the container body to facilitate venting. During formation of the at least one skip seal a recess in either the lid or rim of the container reduces pressure at the skip seal to reduce or eliminate inadvertent closing of the skip seal. Methods of manufacture of the food container are also disclosed.

One type of food container has a container body with an interior defined by a bottom wall, an upstanding sidewall and an open upper end. The open upper end may have a neck, such as with external threading, and an upward facing rim. A tamper evident member or sealing member can be sealed to the rim to cover the open upper end of the container body and, in some circumstances, to provide a visual indication of tamper evidence. A lid can be placed over the sealing membrane, and can have a closure wall with a depending skirt. The skirt may have an internal thread for mating with the external threads of the neck of the container body.
If the sealing membrane is completely sealed to the rim, then any gasses present or generated within the interior of the container body can cause the sidewall of the container to deform. This can be particularly the case when a food container is shipped across high altitudes, such as by crossing over high mountains. In addition to deformation due to expansion, the container body can also deform inwardly if there is a reduction in pressure in the interior of the container body as compared to exterior of the container. Deformation of the container body is undesirable, and can result in containers having visually unappealing appearances. Deformation, if sufficient, can also rupture the sealing membrane from the rim, resulting in a product that can appear to have been tampered with.
To address the problems associated with deformation of the container body, in the past skip seals have been made between the sealing membrane and the rim of the container body. A skip seal is a small gap in the sealing between the sealing membrane and the rim of the container body that is configured to permit gasses to enter and leave the interior of the container body.
One way of attaching the sealing membrane to the rim of the container body is by using induction heating. In induction heating, pressure is applied on a surface of the sealing membrane urging the sealing membrane against the rim of the container body. The pressure can be applied using raised or otherwise configured portions of the lid. With pressure applied, the food container is sent through an induction heater, which causes the sealing membrane to seal to the rim of the container in areas where pressure is applied by the lid.
The pressure-applying portion of the lid is supposed to be configured to apply pressure only in certain areas, so that the sealing membrane is not sealed to the entirety of the rim of the container so that skip seals are formed. However, sealing between the sealing membrane and the rim of the container body can inadvertently occur, which can close the skip seals and result in a container body that is completely sealed by the sealing membrane. For example, if the sealing membrane has a size larger than the periphery of the rim of the container body, as is often the case, then edges of the sealing membrane can inadvertently seal to the container rim and close the intended skip seals. In this example, the lid can exert pressure on a portion of the sealing membrane extending past the rim and cause the sealing membrane to seal to the rim or adjacent to the rim, resulting in closed skip seals. Closed skip seals can lead to the undesirable deformations of the container body discussed above.

Food containers adapted for accommodating pressure changes using skip seals and methods of manufacture


An apparatus and method for non-invasive determination of attributes of human tissue by quantitative infrared spectroscopy. The system includes subsystems optimized to contend with the complexities of the tissue spectrum, high signal-to-noise ratio and photometric accuracy requirements, tissue sampling errors, calibration maintenance problems, and calibration transfer problems. The subsystems include an illumination subsystem, a tissue sampling subsystem, a spectrometer subsystem, a data acquisition subsystem, and a processing subsystem. The invention is applicable, as examples, to determining the concentration or change of concentration of alcohol in human tissue.

Current practice for alcohol measurements is based upon either blood measurements or breath testing. Blood measurements are generally considered the most accurate for determining alcohol intoxication levels. However, blood measurements require a venous or capillary sample and involve significant handling precautions in order to minimize health risks. Once extracted, the blood sample must be properly labeled and transported to a clinical laboratory or other suitable location. A clinical gas chromatograph is typically used to measure the alcohol level in the sample. Due to the invasiveness of the procedure and the amount of sample handling involved, blood alcohol measurements are usually limited to critical situations such as for traffic accidents, violations where the suspect requests this type of test, and accidents where injuries are involved.
Because it is less invasive, breath testing is more commonly encountered in the field. In breath testing, the subject must expire air into the instrument for a sufficient time and volume to achieve a stable breath flow that originates from the alveoli deep within the lungs. The device then measures the alcohol content in the air, which is related to blood alcohol through a breath-blood partition coefficient. The blood-breath partition coefficient used in the United States is 2100 (implied units of mg EtOH/dL blood per mg EtOH/dL air) and varies between 1900 and 2400 in other nations. The partition coefficient is highly subject dependent. In other words, each subject will have a partition coefficient in the 1900 to 2400 range, depending on his or her physiology. Since knowledge of each subject's partition coefficient is unavailable in field applications, each nation assumes a single partition coefficient value that is globally applied to all measurements. In the U.S., defendants in DUI cases often use the globally applied partition coefficient as an argument to impede prosecution.
Breath measurements have additional limitations. First, the presence of "mouth alcohol" can falsely elevate the breath alcohol measurement. This necessitates a 15-minute waiting period prior to making a measurement in order to ensure that no mouth alcohol is present. For a similar reason, a 15 minute delay is required for individuals who are observed to burp or vomit. A delay of 10 minutes or more can be required between breath measurements to allow the instrument to return to equilibrium with the ambient air and zero alcohol levels. In addition, the accuracy of breath alcohol measurements is sensitive to numerous physiological and environmental factors.
Multiple government agencies, and society in general, seek non-invasive alternatives to blood and breath alcohol measurements. Quantitative spectroscopy offers the potential for a completely non-invasive alcohol measurement that is not sensitive to the limitations of the current measurement methodologies. While non-invasive determination of biological attributes by quantitative spectroscopy has been found to be highly desirable, it has been very difficult to accomplish. Attributes of interest include, as examples, analyte presence, analyte concentration (e.g., alcohol concentration), direction of change of an analyte concentration, rate of change of an analyte concentration, disease presence (e.g., alcoholism), disease state, and combinations and subsets thereof. Non-invasive measurements via quantitative spectroscopy are desirable because they are painless, do not require a fluid draw from the body, carry little risk of contamination or infection, do not generate any hazardous waste, and can have short measurement times.
Several systems have been proposed for the non-invasive determination of attributes of biological tissue. These systems have included technologies incorporating polarimetry, mid-infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Kromoscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, radio-frequency spectroscopy, ultrasound, transdermal measurements, photo-acoustic spectroscopy, and near-infrared spectroscopy. However, these systems have not replaced direct and invasive alcohol measurements.
As an example, Robinson et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,581 disclose a method and apparatus for measuring a characteristic of unknown value in a biological sample using infrared spectroscopy in conjunction with a multivariate model that is empirically derived from a set of spectra of biological samples of known characteristic values. The above-mentioned characteristic is generally the concentration of an analyte, such as alcohol, but also can be any chemical or physical property of the sample. The method of Robinson et al. involves a two-step process that includes both calibration and prediction steps.
In the calibration step, the infrared light is coupled to calibration samples of known characteristic values so that there is attenuation of at least several wavelengths of the infrared radiation as a function of the various components and analytes comprising the sample with known characteristic value. The infrared light is coupled to the sample by passing the light through the sample or by reflecting the light off the sample. Absorption of the infrared light by the sample causes intensity variations of the light that are a function of the wavelength of the light. The resulting intensity variations at a minimum of several wavelengths are measured for the set of calibration samples of known characteristic values. Original or transformed intensity variations are then empirically related to the known characteristics of the calibration samples using multivariate algorithms to obtain a multivariate calibration model. The model preferably accounts for subject variability, instrument variability and environment variability.
In the prediction step, the infrared light is coupled to a sample of unknown characteristic value, and a multivariate calibration model is applied to the original or transformed intensity variations of the appropriate wavelengths of light measured from this unknown sample. The result of the prediction step is the estimated value of the characteristic of the unknown sample. The disclosure of Robinson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,581, is incorporated herein by reference.
A further method of building a calibration model and using such model for prediction of analytes and/or attributes of tissue is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,041 to Thomas et al., entitled "Method and Apparatus for Tailoring Spectrographic Calibration Models," the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,132, Robinson describes a general method of robust sampling of tissue for non-invasive analyte measurement. The sampling method utilizes a tissue-sampling accessory that is pathlength optimized by spectral region for measuring an analyte such as alcohol. The patent discloses several types of spectrometers for measuring the spectrum of the tissue from 400 to 2500 nm, including acousto-optical tunable filters, discrete wavelength spectrometers, filters, grating spectrometers and FTIR spectrometers. The disclosure of Robinson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,132, is incorporated herein by reference.
In "New Approach to High-Precision Fourier Transform Spectrometer Design", Applied Optics, 35:16, 2891-2895, 1996, Brault introduces a constant time sampling analog-to-digital conversion technique for FTIR spectrometers that allows use of high dynamic range delta-sigma ADCs. Brault asserts their approach provides a superior technique for implementing the data acquisition system of an FTIR spectrometer because it avoids the artifacts of gain ranging and the need to precisely match the time delays between the laser reference and infrared measurement channels. In "Uniform Time-Sampling Fourier Transform Spectroscopy", Applied Optics, 36:1-, 2206-2210, 1997, Brasunas et al. discuss a variation of Brault's constant time sampling analog-to-digital conversion technique for FTIR spectrometers.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,780, Turner et al. describe a method of digitizing the interferogram of an FTIR spectrometer using a constant time sampling analog-to-digital converter. The constant time sampling technique allows the use of high dynamic range, delta-sigma analog-to-digital converters that obviate the need for gain ranging circuitry and precisely matched delays between the reference laser and infrared signals. This type of data acquisition system is asserted to provide the FTIR spectrometer with higher SNR and superior photometric accuracy when compared to the previously employed sampling technique which is triggered by the zero crossings of the reference laser.
Although there has been substantial work conducted in attempting to produce commercially viable non-invasive near-infrared spectroscopy-based systems for determination of biological attributes, no such device is presently available. It is believed that prior art systems discussed above have failed for one or more reasons to fully meet the challenges imposed by the spectral characteristics of tissue which make the design of a non-invasive measurement system a formidable task. Thus, there is a substantial need for a commercially viable device that can provide sufficient accuracy and precision.

Noninvasive determination of alcohol in tissue