A template for assessing damaged areas on an object, such as a fan blade or other item, includes a set of marks indicating the maximum areas of damage allowed on the periphery of the object. A guide enables the template to be aligned in proper position against the object for accurate visual inspection of the damaged areas. For example, one or more blend guides are included to allow the inspector to mark a blend area around the damage to enable maintenance personnel to smooth sharp, jagged edges of the damaged areas, thereby relieving stress points and improving the aerodynamic efficiency of a blade in an engine. The template can include a magnifying portion that allows the user to see more detail on the object. Linear and/or curved measurement scales can also be included on the template.

Foreign object damage (FOD) on aircraft turbine engine blades is a condition defined as any damage from small nicks and scratches to complete disablement or destruction of an engine caused by damaged parts of blades that break loose during operation. The blades rotate at very high speeds, and various levels of damage can be inflicted by foreign objects striking the blades, depending on the speed of the blades, the speed of the aircraft, and the size and hardness of the object.
FOD can be caused in a variety of ways including rocks or other hard objects being ingested by the engine during operation in the air or on the ground. Another source of FOD arises when components such as nuts, bolts, or tools are mistakenly left in or near the engine during maintenance. Additionally, leading and trailing edges of blades are subject to gradual erosion from abrasive sand and grit particles in the air that is ingested by the engine during operation. Another common source of engine FOD is in-flight icing that forms on the airframe or engine itself, breaks off and is ingested by the engine.
A typical engine has hundreds of blades which must be inspected for cracks, foreign object damage (FOD), and corrosion. Damaged and eroded blades degrade engine performance, as well as posing a potential cause of engine failure, and therefore must be replaced once the damage or erosion has exceeded a certain level. The flight crew is often not aware of FOD, however, in case of extensive damage, it can be indicated by vibration and changes in the engine's normal operating parameters. For example, damage to fan or compressor blades results in an increase in exhaust gas temperature (EGT), decrease in engine pressure ratio (EPR), and a change in the speed (RPM) ratio between the core engine and the fan section (N2/N1). Visual inspection for substantial damage to inlet fan blades and guide vanes is required to determine whether a blade can be repaired, or must be replaced.
A certain level of damage to a blade does not pose a serious threat to operational safety or performance. Guidelines regarding the extent of visible blade damage allowed are often provided to enable maintenance personnel to judge whether the blade must be repaired or replaced before further use. The amount of allowable damage can vary depending on the location of the damage along the length of the blade. The guidelines are typically expressed in terms of a percentage or amount of the leading and trailing edges of the chord (width) of the blade that may be missing before repair or replacement is required.
It is often difficult to visually gauge the amount of a blade that is missing without a measuring aid, such as a ruler. One known method of visual inspection includes marking damage limits at the tip and the bottom (root) of the blade. A straight line is drawn along the length of the blade between the marks at the tip and the root. The marks can be drawn on the leading edge and/or the trailing edge, depending whether both edges of the blade are damaged.
Once the allowable limits for damage to the blade are marked on the blade, the inspector can determine whether the blade must be replaced. When a damaged area on a blade is determined to be within a tolerable range, it is often desirable to blend the sharp edges of the damage to improve aerodynamic performance of the blade. The blending process also helps relieve stress points, thereby helping to avoid further cracking/damage to the blade during operation of the engine. Typically, an inspector will mark a small arc around the damaged area to indicate the area to be blended.
Thus, the inspector must measure along the length and the width of the blade to gauge each area of damage on both the leading and the trailing edges. Typically, a blade will have an aerodynamic contour that includes a cambered airfoil along the chord with a slight twist along the length of the blade. The contour can add to the difficulty of measuring the blade with a conventional straightedge ruler. Additionally, fan and compressor blades are typically tapered along their length from root to tip, further adding to the difficulty of determining whether the damage is within allowable limits. The problem is exacerbated on aircraft with inlet ducts, which do not allow easy access to inspect the blades.
A visual inspection of the engine fan blades is typically conducted on a routine basis. Considering the number of jet engines in service, millions of man-hours are required each year to complete the inspections. The blade inspection procedure outlined above is awkward, time-consuming, and prone to human error. It is therefore desirable to provide a device to facilitate more accurate and efficient visual fan and compressor blade inspection. It is also desirable to include a guide for marking the blend areas on the damaged portions of the blade with the inspection device.

Template for inspecting and marking repair areas on an object


An image forming apparatus comprises a copy number setting button for setting the number of copies, magnification setting button for setting the magnification, first storing memory for storing the set number of copies, second storing memory for storing the set magnification, a single display for selectively displaying the set number of copies and the set magnification, a display mode switching key for switching the display mode to the copy number display mode or the magnification display mode, and display mode control for switching the display mode on the basis of input by the above display mode switching key. There is also provided a clear key for clearing the set contents and clear control for clearing the set contents of the display mode currently set out of the copy number display mode and the magnification display mode when key input is provided by the above clear key. When key input is provided by the clear key, only the set contents of the display mode currently set out of the copy number display mode and the magnification display mode are cleared. Consequently, it is possible to clear only one of the number of copies and the magnification which is erroneously set. Therefore, the operation efficiency for setting the number of copies and the magnification is increased.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to image forming apparatuses such as a copying machine, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having a display for displaying the number of copies as well as displaying the magnification.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Copying machines conventionally known include one having a display for displaying the number of copies as well as displaying the magnification (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 246077/1987).
In this type of copying machine, there is provided a clear key for clearing, when the number of copies or the magnification is erroneously set, the set contents. The conventional copying machine is so adapted that both the number of copies and the magnification currently set are cleared when the clear key is depressed.
When copies are made using the above described conventional copying machine, an operator sets the number of copies and the magnification before the star of copying. It is assumed &hat the magnification is erroneously set when the magnification is set after setting the number of copies. In this case, the operator depresses the clear key so as to set the magnification again. Then, not only the magnification but also the number of copies already set is cleared. Consequently, the operator must set the number of copies already set again, so that the operation is laborious. On the other hand, it is assumed that the number of copies is erroneously set when the number of copies is set after setting the magnification. Also in this case, the operator must set the magnification already set again in the above described manner.


A lens barrier opening/closing device of a movable lens barrel includes a barrier blade which is driven to open and close a photographic aperture; a barrier drive ring driven to rotate about an optical axis; a first biasing device which biases the barrier drive ring in a rotational direction; a rotational barrel which rotates about the optical axis; a receiving surface formed on the barrier drive ring to extend parallel to the optical axis; and a transmission surface, formed on the rotational barrel, extending parallel to the optical axis. The receiving surface and the transmission surface are engaged with each other to rotate the barrier drive ring together with the rotational barrel about the optical axis in a direction against a biasing force of the first biasing device when the movable lens barrel moves from either the photographing position to the accommodation position or vise versa.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens barrier opening/closing device for opening and closing a lens barrier which is disposed in a front end of a movable lens barrel for the purpose of preventing the front surface of the lens from being stained or damaged.
2. Description of the Related Art
A zoom lens of a camera which has a movable barrel driven to advance from a housed position (accommodation position) to a photographing position when the power is turned ON is known in the art. Such a zoom lens which is provided in the front end thereof with a lens barrier (which generally has a plurality of movable barrier blades) that is driven to open and close a forefront photographic aperture of the zoom lens by moving the movable barrel of the zoom lens from the housed position to the advance position and from the advance position to the housed position, in that order, is also known in the art.
In one of the lens barriers of this type, a barrier drive ring is provided to be rotatable about the optical axis of the zoom lens to open and close the barrier blades. The barrier drive ring is constantly biased toward one rotational end thereof to open the barrier blades by a spring. A rearward movement of the movable barrel of the zoom lens from the photographing position to the housed position causes another movable member of the zoom lens to be engaged with the barrier drive ring to rotate the same in one direction to close the barrier blades against the spring force. Conversely, a forward movement of the movable barrel of the zoom lens from the housed position to the photographing position causes the above-mentioned movable member to be disengaged from the barrier drive ring, thereby allowing the barrier drive ring to rotate in the other direction to open the barrier blades by the spring force.
In an alternative lens barriers of the aforementioned type, the barrier drive ring is constantly biased toward one rotational end thereof to open barrier blades by a spring (first spring), while the barrier blades themselves are constantly biased in a direction to be closed by another spring or springs (second spring) whose spring force is smaller than the first spring. A rearward movement of the movable barrel of the zoom lens from the photographing position to the housed position causes another movable member of the zoom lens to be engaged with the barrier drive ring to rotate the same in one direction to restrict the spring force of the first spring, thereby allowing the barrier blades to be closed by the spring force of the second spring.
In these types of lens barriers, the barrier blades can be reliably opened and closed by a spring (biasing device) having a large spring force (large biasing force). However, the performance of the advancing/retreating operation of the movable barrel of the zoom lens, which moves between the housed position and the photographing position, deteriorates if the spring force is excessively large. This is because the driving force generated by a movement of the movable barrel between the housed position and the photographing position to drive the barrier blades is originally used to make the movable barrel itself advance to the photographing position or retreat to the housed position.
The difference between the photographing position and the housed position of the movable barrel can be regarded as the difference between two axial positions (two separate positions on the optical axis of the zoom lens) of the movable barrel, so that the barrier drive ring can be rotated by converting a linear movement of a movable member in the optical axis direction into a rotational movement about the optical axis. For instance, in a conventional lens barrier opening/closing device, a linearly movable barrel which moves in the direction of the optical axis without rotating about the optical axis is provided with an inclined surface which is inclined with respect to the direction of the optical axis, while the barrier drive ring is provided with another inclined surface which is inclined with respect to the direction of the optical axis. When the linearly movable barrel moves in the direction of the optical axis toward the barrier drive ring, the inclined surface of the linearly movable barrel is engaged with the inclined surface of the barrier drive ring which is pushed in the same direction, which causes the barrier drive ring to rotate about the optical axis. However, according to this structure, such an operation of converting a driving force in the direction of the optical axis into a rotational driving force about the optical axis results in a large energy loss. Accordingly, although the spring (biasing device) that biases the barrier blades preferably has a large spring force to reliably open and close as mentioned above, the performance of the advancing/retreating operation of the movable barrel of the zoom lens may deteriorate due to the large spring force since energy loss in an operation of transmitting a driving force from the linear movable member to the barrier drive is large. If the driving force for moving the movable barrel in the direction of the optical axis is increased to prevent this from occurring, an excessive load is exerted on a drive motor which drives the movable barrel.
There is further problem in such lens barrier opening/closing devices in which the barrier blades are opened and closed by rotation of the barrier drive ring. Namely, the lens barrier may not function properly if the rotational center of the barrier drive ring is eccentric from a predetermined position (generally the optical axis of the photographic optical system of the zoom lens). For instance, if the lens barrier is provided with a pair of barrier blades which are respectively pivoted at a pair of pivots fixed at different positions in a circumference of the lens barrier so that each barrier blade rotates about the corresponding pivot to be opened and closed, and if the barrier drive ring is provided thereon with a pair of engaging portions which can be respectively engaged with and disengaged from the pair of barrier blades, the pair of engaging portions of the barrier drive ring cannot be respectively engaged with and/or disengaged from the pair of barrier blades properly if the rotational center of the barrier drive ring is eccentric relative to the predetermined position. In this case, one of the pair of barrier blades may not be completely closed when the zoom lens retreats to the housed position, and/or may not be completely opened when the zoom lens advances to the photographing position.

Lens barrier opening/closing device of a movable lens barrel


A shared object space in a computer system provides synchronized access to data objects accessible to a plurality of concurrently running applications in the computer system. The shared object space is allocated a portion of memory of the computer system and concurrently running applications are able to connect to the shared object space. The shared object space restricts simultaneous access to data objects by the concurrently running applications by associating locks with the data objects.

The present invention relates to a system for synchronizing shared objects among multiple applications each running inside its own virtual machine.
Computer hardware and storage media can only create, store, and process binary information, i.e. information written using only two digits, "0" and "1". A compact disc, for example, has a surface subdivided into tiny sections that are either pitted (1) or not pitted (0) such that a laser can detect the presence or absence of pits. Similarly, microprocessors have inputs and outputs to which a reference voltage either is (1) or is not (0) present. (Microprocessors repeatedly measure the voltage at each input and output at regular intervals, or cycles—hence the speed of a processor is expressed in cycles per second, or "Hertz.") Accordingly, any computer program, as well as any data used in that computer program, must first be expressed in binary code for a computer to run the program or process the data.
Though binary code is conceptually simple, its use to perform computerized tasks introduces two drawbacks. First, binary code is a relatively inefficient way to express information. As a simple example, the number "100" in decimal notation is expressed as "1100100" in binary code, and therefore must at a minimum occupy seven "pits" on a compact disc and/or occupy either a single input of a processor for seven cycles (if entered serially) or seven inputs for one cycle (if entered in parallel). In technical terms, the space that a piece of information occupies, or alternatively the number of time cycles a piece of information occupies, is referred to in "bits." That is to say, the number "100" is a 7-bit number because it takes seven digits to express in binary code. The number "101" is also a 7-bit number, coded as 1100101, as is every number between "64" (1000000) and "127" (1111111).
In computer applications, binary code is even more inefficient because computerized information is, by convention, typically expressed in multiples of 8 bits, e.g. 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, etc. The reason for this convention is that a computer processing or storage device has no physical way of distinguishing when one number ends and another number begins. Accordingly, the convention is to write a program that specifies the bit-rate, i.e. the number of bits that each piece of data processed in the program will occupy. If a program is written in 8-bit code, for example, every piece of data occupies eight bits, e.g. the number 0 is coded as 00000000, the number 1 is coded as 00000001, and the number 255 is coded as 11111111. In 8-bit code, therefore, every piece of data has a value between 0 and 255 and every piece of data occupies 8 bits even if it could theoretically be represented by a single bit. If a program requires that any piece of data take on a value greater than 255, the bit-rate for the program must be increased incrementally to 16-bit, 24-bit, etc. as appropriate.
A computer program operating in binary code may therefore use a tremendous amount of storage space and processor cycles, particularly when graphics are involved. For example, a photographic quality image is often coded at 24-bits for every pixel. If the image resolution is 2 million pixels, as is common with today's digital cameras, each image would occupy 48 million bits, or 4 Megabytes, where a byte is defined as 8 bits per byte (due to the convention of expressing binary code in multiples of 8 bits). Manipulating that image would similarly require 48 million cycles of processor time for each manipulation. The amount of storage space and processing time increases exponentially when manipulating video because the computer system must process and store many such images every second. In addition, there are many other computer applications that are at least as intensive as image processing. Applications of such intensity tend to slow considerably as data is "bottlenecked" in the computer system.
One way of minimizing the impact of the inefficiency of binary code has been to increase the amount of storage space and processing speed of computers. For example, personal computers sold commercially today offer up to 300 gigabytes (300 billion bytes) of hard drive storage, 4 gigabytes (4 billion bytes) of temporary memory storage, and processing speeds of over 4 gigahertz (4 billion cycles per second). Business computers, such those used in the motion picture industry are even faster and include more storage. In other words, as computer applications have demanded more storage space and processing time, the computers have become faster with higher storage capacity. Still, while these numbers are impressive, computer systems are not sufficiently fast as to eliminate all bottlenecks, and in fact, as computers become faster with more available storage, new applications are developed to take advantage of the improved technology so as to provide the need for even faster computers, even more storage space, etc.
Another way of minimizing the impact of the inefficiency of binary code is to write computer programs and applications as efficiently as possible. Thus there is always an emphasis on writing computer code that achieves its outcome in as few steps or calculations as possible. Similarly, a computer program should not be written in 24-bit code when only 8-bit code is required for the application, and the computer program may compress data when appropriate.
A second drawback of using binary code to perform computerized tasks is that it is impractical to write a computer program in binary code, particularly with complex programs. The first rudimentary computers, for example, were operated by mechanically toggling electrical switches between on and off states to enter a sequence of binary instructions. Computer programs simply specified the sequence of binary instructions to enter. This method was feasible so long as the program was no more than about a hundred instructions long. Beyond that point, programming directly in binary code became too complex, and programs too difficult to correct, or debug. Moreover, because the binary instructions were dependent upon the particular electrical circuitry of the computer processor and related hardware, the programmer was required to know in detail the particular architecture of the computer being used by the program.
To accommodate computer programs of increasing complexity, as well as to facilitate the introduction of personal computers into the marketplace, modern operating systems were developed. Early computer operating systems, such as Microsoft DOS, essentially acted as an interface with a computer's hardware so that a user could issue specific commands or instructions to the computer written in more ordinary language. The operating system would recognize the commands, and automatically issue the instructions to the computer in binary code. For example, in Microsoft DOS, entering the command "MEM" into the computer would result in the computer displaying the types and amounts of computer memory available. The person issuing the command did not need to know anything about binary code or the manner in which the command being entered produced the desired result. The user simply needed to either memorize or look up a set of commands in an instruction manual.
Further, early operating systems recognized simple programming languages, such as BASIC and FORTRAN, written in terms more intuitive than binary code. In these languages, commands such as WRITE, READ, LOOP, SET and other intuitive terms provided a means to write computer programs in a manner easily learned and perhaps more importantly, in a manner more easily readable when debugging the program. A simple computer program to calculate the area of a circle, for example, might have been written in BASIC approximately in this form:
1 10 PROGRAM 1 20 WRITE "This is a program to calculate the area of a circle." 30 WRITE "Please enter the radius of the circle" 40 READ R 50 SET A=.PI. *R{circumflex over ( )}2 60 WRITE "The area of the circle is" R 70 END
In this example, after a person typed "RUN PROGRAM 1", the computer would execute the command lines in numerical sequence, whereby a person would be prompted to enter the value for a radius, defined as "R", after which the computer would square that value, multiply the squared value by pi and print out the computed area. Writing this same program in binary code not only would have required much more time and effort on the part of the programmer, but the programmer also would have had to know the technical specifications of the computer processor. Obviously, the introduction of operating systems along with intuitive programming languages was a boon to both consumers and computer programmers.
A number of such operating systems and programming languages became prevalent. For example, Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems improved (from a consumer's perspective) upon simple text-based operating systems such as DOS by allowing user to issue instructions to the computer using a point-and-click graphical interface displayed on a computer monitor. Computer applications, such as word processing programs, computer games, and a host of others took advantage of this functionality to provide products that could be used more intuitively through the graphical interface. Today, a host of operating systems are used, such as many versions of Microsoft Windows 9x, Macintosh OS, Linux, Windows NT, among others.
A wide variety of programming languages also became prevalent. At first, most new programming languages followed the model of the early FORTRAN language by structuring the programming language as a series of commands by which a programmer would issue instructions to a computer in a logical order. The most popular of these language types is a program called "C." The creation of "C" is considered by many to have marked the beginning of the modern age of computer languages. "C" successfully synthesized what had seemed to be conflicting attributes of several existing programming languages, adding new attributes to form a single, powerful structured language that also happened to be easy to learn. Moreover, it was a programmer's language. Prior to the development of "C", computer languages were generally designed either as academic exercises by engineers or designed by bureaucratic committees. "C", however, was developed by programmers, reflecting the way they approached the task of programming. As a result, "C" found wide and rapid acceptance in the programming community, attracting many followers who had near-religious zeal for it.
Once again, however, the increasing complexity of computer programs exposed an underlying flaw of "C" as well as its predecessors. Each of these programming languages requires that a program be written as a series of linear steps or instructions (with an occasional loop or branch thrown in). In fact, writing such a program is similar to constructing a geometric proof, and like a proof, once a program such as C or FORTRAN exceeds a certain number of steps (somewhere between 25,000 and 100,000 lines of code), the program becomes too complex write effectively.
Therefore a new approach to computer programming began to find acceptance in the programming community, commonly referred to as object-oriented programming. Object-oriented programming approaches a programming task in roughly the same way that a person's mind might approach that task—by abstracting a solution. Rather than defining a series of steps, or instructions by which a task could be accomplished, an object-oriented program focuses first on a program's data, defining classes of data and objects, where an object is a particular instance of a class. An object-oriented program still contains instructions, referred to as methods, which often are embedded within the classes or objects themselves. An example of a simple object oriented program that displays the volume of two boxes might look like this: 2 class Box {double width; double height; double depth; // display volume of a box void volume ( ){System.out.print ("Volume is"); System.out.printIn (width*height*depth);} } class BoxDemo {public static void main (String args[ ] {Box mybox1=new Box ( ) Box mybox2=new Box ( ) // assign values to mybox1's variables mybox1.width=3 mybox1.height=20 mybox1.depth=15 // assign values to mybox2's variables mybox 2.width=3 mybox2.height=6 mybox2.depth=9 // display volume of mybox1 mybox1.volume ( ) // display volume of mybox2 mybox2.volume ( )
In this example program, a box class is first defined having the variables of width, height, and depth (the term "double" identifies the type of number that the variable is allowed to be). The box class also defines a method to display the volume of an object box of this class by multiplying width by height by depth. Once this class has been defined, the program defines a second class BoxDemo which includes two objects of the initial box class. The class BoxDemo then twice calls the method of the first box class for displaying the volume of a box, once to display the volume of mybox 1 and once to display the volume of mybox2.
Object oriented programming has quickly gained widespread popularity. One particularly popular object oriented language is called Java, which is the programming language used in the foregoing example (Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc.). The reason Java has become so popular is its versatility in defining classes and objects, as well as its ability for one class or object to call functions in other classes and objects as well as to reuse data in other objects simply by referencing the function or the data. In Java, therefore, it is very easy to create multiple variations of a defined class, to create new variations of an old class, and to reuse a method previously defined by one class in a new class. Parenthetically, another object oriented programming language that has become popular is C++, which expands C to include the functionality of both object oriented programming and the instruction oriented programming of C.
Java, like any other programming language relies upon an interface to convert the program to the required binary instructions. With Java, this interface is called a "Virtual Machine" (VM) because the interface behaves as if it were a computer unto itself. Every time a Java based computer application is initiated, the application initiates a VM to run the application. The Java VM will be described in much greater detail later in this specification, but several important principles will be introduced now. First, while the input to a Java VM is always the Java programming language, the output of a Java VM is customized to the particular platform, or operating system, that hosts the Java VM. In other words, every Java application must be customized to the host operating system so that the VM that it creates is capable of converting the Java programming language to the commands unique to the host operating system, which in turn issues the appropriate binary instructions to the computer.
Second, Java VMs are designed to be independent of one another. If two Java applications are running on the same computer, each application creates its own VM which is self sufficient, i.e. neither VM needs rely upon the VM of the other application. If one application should close, the other application will not be affected. This often becomes problematical, however. Recall that even with today's processors and storage devices, a computer's resources may still be strained by intensive applications. With multiple Java applications running simultaneously, each creating its own VM, system resources may be strained and slowdowns may result. In other words, there is often a trade off between the desired independence of multiple Java applications and the speed at which the applications may run.
Third, the creators of the Java VM, Sun Microsystems, emphasized uniformity of the Java VM with respect to all of the host operating systems. Thus, while the "guts" of each VM will of necessity be different across each platform, a user of a Java VM was not intended to be able to recognize any difference, seeing the same functionality regardless of the host platform. This, however, became problematical. Many operating systems offer unique features not available to other operating systems. Thus a business operating on Windows NT might desire to have a Java VM, and hence the Java application running the VM, take advantage of that unique functionality. The same would hold true for a user of a Macintosh or a Linux system, or a Windows 9x system, etc. Therefore, although Sun Microsystems's Java VM is uniform across all platforms, an industry has blossomed by which Java applications may be truly customized to a host operating system whereby the features of the host operating system are more fully exploited, and custom tailored to the particular needs of the business or person running the application.
This diversity among Java VMs tends to hinder the improvement of the Java VM and the programming language because many such improvements are tied to the particular species of Java VM upon which the improvement was developed. Many businesses may like the particular improvement, but dislike other aspects of the Java VM. In that instance, a business with its own custom or proprietary VM would have the options of buying the new VM with its perceived advantages and faults, or spend the time and resources to engineer its own VM, which it likes, to include the new improvement. Exacerbating this problem is that the new improvement may be proprietary, thus eliminating the second option.
What is desired then, is an improved system for implementing object-oriented computer applications that both efficiently allocates computer hardware resources among multiple computer applications running simultaneously on the same computer or network of computers, or among multiple threads of a single computer application running on a computer or network of computers, while also preserving the independence of multiple, simultaneous applications. What is further desired is such an improved system that is sufficiently flexible so as to be compatible not only with the diverse range of existing object-oriented computer applications, but also with object-oriented applications that are developed or modified in the future.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Object synchronization in shared object space


A method for manufacturing a highly-crystallized double oxide powder composed of a single crystal phase which can be used as a phosphor material, a dielectric material, a magnetic material, etc. The method involves forming fine droplets of a raw material solution containing a raw material compound that includes at least one metal element and/or at least one semi-metal element that constitutes a double oxide, and heating these droplets at a high temperature, wherein the raw material solution is a solution which exhibits only one main peak attributable to the decomposition reaction of the raw material compound or a reaction intermediate thereof in a DTA profile when the solution is dried and solidified and subjected to TG-DTA measurement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a highly-crystallized double oxide powder comprising two or more metal elements and/or semi-metal elements, and more particularly relates to a method for manufacturing a highly-crystallized double oxide powder having a uniform particle size and a high purity and composed of a single crystal phase, which is useful as industrial materials in a variety of fields, including various functional materials used in electronics, such as phosphor materials, dielectric materials, magnetic materials, conductor materials, semiconductor materials, superconductor materials, piezo-electric materials, magnetic recording materials, secondary cell-use positive electrode materials, electromagnetic wave absorption materials, catalyst materials, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Mechanical pulverization has been used in the past to manufacture a double oxide powder. This process involves mixing raw material powders, putting this mixture in a crucible or other such firing vessel and heating at a high temperature for an extended time to bring about a solid phase reaction, and then pulverizing this product in a ball mill or the like. The double oxide powder manufactured by this method, however, is an agglomerate of particles with an irregular particle shape and a broad particle size distribution, and a considerable amount of impurities come from the crucible. Furthermore, the treatment is inefficient because it has to be carried out at a high temperature for a long time in order to raise the homogeneity of the composition. In addition, the particles are often modified on their surface by the mechanical impact and chemical reactions to which they are subjected during the pulverization process, which means that many defects develop at the surface and in the interior of the powder, thereby leading to the lowering of crystallinity and the deterioration of the physical properties inherent in the double oxide.
A sol-gel process, hydrothermal process, co-precipitation, spray pyrolysis, and so forth are known methods for preventing the generation of a surface modification layer and obtaining a double oxide powder with high crystallinity. Still, a sol-gel process entails high raw material cost because it requires a high-purity raw material, while a hydrothermal process and co-precipitation both take a long time and have low yield per unit of time, so the manufacturing cost is high.
Spray pyrolysis is a known method for manufacturing a fine oxide powder, in which one or more metal compounds or semi-metal compounds are uniformly dissolved or dispersed in water or an organic solvent, this mixed solution is atomized in the form of fine droplets, these droplets are heated at a temperature higher than the decomposition temperature of the metal compounds and under conditions that will cause precipitation of metal oxides, and the metal compounds are pyrolyzed to produce metal oxide powder. This method makes it easy to obtain a fine spherical powder of uniform particle size, with high crystallinity and no agglomeration, by properly selecting the pyrolysis conditions. Also, since a solution of metal or semi-metal compounds is used as a raw material, advantages are that various metal components can be mixed in the desired ratio and uniformly at the ion level, inclusion of impurities is suppressed, and the particle size of the produced powder can be easily controlled by process control of the spray conditions and so forth. This method is therefore considered a good way to manufacture a double oxide powder, and has been used in the manufacture of a fine double oxide powder for oxide phosphors, oxide dielectrics, oxide magnetic bodies, oxides used for secondary cell positive electrodes, electromagnetic wave absorption materials, catalyst materials, etc.
Nevertheless, when a double oxide powder is manufactured by spray pyrolysis, the retention time of the atomized droplets in a reaction vessel is extremely short, generally lasting only 0.1 to 10 seconds, so in the manufacture of a double oxide with a high melting point, a double oxide with a high sintering reaction temperature, or a double oxide composed of metal elements with low sintering reactivity, the produced particles are not a single phase, and multiple crystal phases tend to be produced, or unreacted material tends to remain. Particularly when many metal compounds are used for the raw material, it is believed that the compounding reaction is impeded because the various components have different pyrolysis temperatures or sintering temperatures. This causes the powder that is produced to have a low crystallinity, or the particle surface may be porous or the particle may be cracked, and it is difficult to fully realize the physical properties inherent to the double oxide, among other problems. One of the problems encountered if the heating is carried out at a higher temperature in an effort to promote pyrolysis and compounding is that the desired crystal phase will not be obtained
Meanwhile, complex polymerization is a known method for manufacturing a double oxide powder composed of a single crystal phase. With this method, a raw material compound including two or more metal elements that constitute the double oxide, a polyamino chelating agent or a hydroxycarboxylic acid such as citric acid, and a polyol such as ethylene glycol are mixed to produce an aqueous solution, which is heated at a specific temperature of at least 110° C. to bring about an esterification reaction and form a composite polymer of a metal complex in the solution, thereby forming a homogeneous precursor having a uniform element arrangement on the metal ion level. After this, as discussed in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 6-115934A, 10-330118A, and 10-99694A, for example, powder of the composite polymer of the metal complex is separated, calcined and then fired at a high temperature to obtain a double oxide powder, or as discussed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 10-182161A, this composite polymer is dissolved in water and atomized into a high-temperature atmosphere and pyrolyzed to obtain a double oxide powder. This method, however, is complicated in that it requires a composite polymer of a metal complex to be synthesized prior to the pyrolysis step, and for this polymer to be separated or redissolved. It also requires a large amount of ethylene glycol or other co-precipitant or complexing agent, and the polycondensation reaction takes an extremely long time with a low yield, thereby resulting in a higher manufacturing cost. Furthermore, the homogeneity of the complex ions of the solution may not always be maintained in the removal of the solvent from the produced complex. Particularly when the polycondensation reaction is conducted by gradually removing the solvent over an extended period of time, any gel that is produced may redissolve and form salts with anions present in the solution, and these salts may precipitate and affect the composition, which means that homogeneity is lost.
In yet another known method, a double alkoxide, double salt, or the like of the metals that constitute the double oxide is synthesized ahead of time, and this is pyrolyzed, but this method also entails a complex procedure, the metals that can be used must be selected from a narrow range, and it is difficult to achieve homogeneity because of differences in the hydrolysis rates of the respective metal compounds, for example, and therefore a single phase of sufficient crystallinity is not obtained.

Method for manufacturing highly-crystallized double oxide powder


A dry powder composition comprises insoluble nucleic acid constructs dispersed within with a hydrophilic excipient material, where the powder particles have an average size in the range from 0.5 .mu.m to 50 .mu.m. Nucleic acid constructs may comprise bare nucleic acid molecules, viral vectors, or vesicle structures. The hydrophilic excipient material will be selected to stabilize the nucleic acid molecules in the constructs, enhance dispersion of the nucleic acid in dry powder aerosols, and enhance wetting of the nucleic acid constructs as they are delivered to moist target locations within the body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to compositions and methods for delivering nucleic acids to the lungs of humans and other animal hosts. More particularly, the present invention relates to compositions which are formed by incorporating insoluble nucleic acid constructs within a hydrophilic excipient matrix which is stored and utilized in dry powder form.
A form of human gene therapy which is receiving increasing interest relies on the in vivo delivery of functional nucleic acids, usually structural genes, to certain target cells within a human or other host. The nucleic acids may be incorporated into carriers such as viruses, liposomes, or the like, and will be delivered under conditions which result in uptake of the genes into the target cells, with subsequent expression of the genes for an extended period of time.
Of particular interest to the present invention, it has been demonstrated that nucleic acid constructs can be delivered to the lungs of mice and rats by different routes, including intratracheal administration of a liquid suspension of the nucleic acids and inhalation of an aqueous aerosol mist produced by a liquid nebulizer. Although holding great promise, both methods for the delivery of nucleic acids to the lungs suffer from certain drawbacks. Intratracheal administration is not suitable for routine therapeutic use in humans and has a very low patient acceptability. Moreover, intratracheal instillation often results in very uneven distribution of a dispersion in the lungs, with some regions receiving very little or no material. The use of a liquid nebulizer enjoys higher patient acceptability and achieves better distribution, but requires time-consuming equipment set-up, can require prolonged periods of treatment to achieve an adequate dosage, can inactivate a viral carrier, and can result in undesirable aggregation or degradation of the nucleic acids within the aerosol mist. Aggregated nucleic acids will generally be less suitable for uptake into host target cells.
For these reasons, it would be desirable to provide improved compositions and methods for the aerosol delivery of nucleic acids. The compositions will preferably be in a dry powder form which can be readily dispersed in a flowing air stream to provide a dry aerosol for delivery to a patient. The dry powder formulations will permit delivery of required dosages of nucleic acids in a very rapid manner (typically in several or fewer breaths) and will be suitable for storage over extended periods. The dry powders are delivered to particular target regions within the host and are readily dispersed over the internal surfaces of lung, where the powder dissolves in the moist layer over the surfaces to thereby release nucleic acids to interact with the target cells.
2. Description of the Background Art
Stribling et al. (1992) J. BIOPHARM. SCI. 3:255-263, describes the aerosol delivery of plasmids carrying a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene to mice. The plasmids were incorporated in DOTMA or cholesterol liposomes, and aqueous suspensions of the liposomes were nebulized into a small animal aerosol delivery chamber. Mice breathing the aerosol were found to at least transiently express CAT activity in their lung cells. Rosenfeld et al. (1991) SCIENCE 252:431-434, describes the in vivo delivery of an .alpha.1-antitrypsin gene to rats, with secretion of the gene product being observable for at least one week. The gene was diluted in saline and instilled directly into the rat trachea. Underwood et al. (1991) J. PHARMACOL. METH. 26:203-210, describes the administration of dry powder bronchodilators in a lactose carrier to pig lungs. U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,388 describes the delivery of liquid aerosols containing liposomes to the lungs. Friedman (1989) SCIENCE 244:1275-1281 is a review article describing human gene therapy strategies. The presence of certain polyvalent ions can reduce transfection efficiency in vitro using liposomes. Feigner and Ringold (1989) NATURE 387-388. Multivalent anions such as citrate or phosphate can induce fusion of positive-charged liposomes used for transfection. Gershon et al. (1993) BIOCHEMISTRY 32:7143-7151.

Compositions and methods for nucleic acid delivery to the lung


Provided is a disconnection and short detecting circuit capable of detecting disconnection and short of a signal line transmitting a differential clock signal. A differential buffer part DB1 has a first comparator to compare a non-inverting clock signal inputted from a PADI and an inverting clock signal inputted from a PADR; a second comparator to compare a non-inverting clock signal and a reference potential Vref; and a third comparator to compare an inverting clock signal and the reference potential Vref. Their respective outputs are defined as Y, YI and YR, respectively. If the signal line of either a non-inverting clock signal or an inverting clock signal is disconnected, or short-circuited to a grounding potential VSS of a logical value Low, the logical values outputted from the second and the third comparators are equal for a long period of time in one cycle of the non-inverting clock signal or the inverting clock signal. Thereby, if a second D-flip-flop circuit F2a negates an output signal [CD], it is able to judge that disconnection or short occurs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disconnection and short detecting circuit included in a semiconductor integrated circuit device.
2. Description of the Background Art
For example, in FIG. 1 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-143239, a non-inverting clock signal and an inverting clock signal, which are in opposite phases, are inputted via a terminating resistor 21 to a non-inverting input terminal 24 and an inverting input terminal 25, respectively. The non-inverting and the inverting clock signals are then inputted to a positive (+) terminal and a negative (−) terminal of a comparator 23. Here, the comparator 23 functions as a receiver of a differential clock signal composed of a non-inverting clock signal and an inverting clock signal. The output of the comparator 23 is used for operating clocks within a semiconductor device, for example.
Besides the aforesaid Publication No. 2003-143239, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 6-85717 discloses information related to the receiving of a differential clock signal.
The recent semiconductor integrated circuit devices often employ surface mount type packages such as quad flat package (QFP) and small outline package (SOP). Therefore, the pin pitch is narrowed to make it difficult to perform inspection with use of a conventional probe.
Hence, there has been employed boundary scan function based on the standard of joint test action group (JTAG), and the like. The term "boundary scan function" denotes the following test function. That is, a register, being called "cell," which performs operation equivalent to a test probe, is disposed between each pin and a core circuit in a semiconductor integrated circuit device, and respective cells are coupled to configure a shift register. This shift register is then controlled to detect the input of a test code to the core circuit and the corresponding response from the core circuit, thereby implementing the test function.
The boundary scan function, however, failed to detect disconnection and short of a signal line transmitting a differential clock signal.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Disconnection and short detecting circuit that can detect disconnection and short of a signal line transmitting a differential clock signal


The present invention discloses a switching amplifier and its modulations process, which belongs to the field of non-filters-type switching amplifier. The switching amplifier comprises: pulse-width modulation with dual comparator, multiple-loop feedback structure, only one integrating amplifier with dual-ends output needed for each loop, no less than two feedback loops set between the integrating amplifier and H-bridge, in addition, no any low-pass filters needed adding to the feedback path. Multiple feedback loops are adopted in the present invention, which can low the distortion of the switching amplifier to the extent. Furthermore, no any extra low-pass filters are needed adding to the feedback path, which making the products a higher cost effectiveness.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a switching amplifier and its modulation process, more particularly, it relates to a non-filter switching amplifier and its modulation process.
2. Description of Prior Art
A conventional pulse-width-modulation (PWM) D-type switching amplifiers with two level output needs output filters, which consisting of the extra inductor and capacitor generally, to reduce the electromagnetic interference (EMI). However, these output filters will increase the cost and size of the system. This has detrimental effects on the portable application.
The dual comparator modulation with three level output is generated in the prior art to overcome this defect. Although the dual comparator modulation does not need any output filters, it can make utmost of all the four work states of the H-bridge. It can send the current to the load only in demand, and the transported current will be completely consumed by the load self without any waste for the back discharge. The opposite power voltage applied on two ends of the load induces the elimination of the current modulation states, which makes it possible to connect the output of the H-bridge with the two ends of the load directly.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,585,517 suggests a dual comparator modulation with three-level output. FIG. 1 shows one of its simplified schematic drawings. As is seen in FIG. 1, the input signal is sent to input 10, and then into the pulse-width modulator 12 by sum-edge 11. The other two inputs of said pulse-width modulator 12 are two triangular wave signals with a phase difference of 180° from the output 14 and 15 of the triangular wave generator, respectively. The PWM signal from the output 18 and 19 of said pulse-width modulator 12 (namely the input of the H-bridge) is sent to H-bridge 16. Output 20 and 21 on H-bridge 16 are connected with the two ends of load 17. The output pulse signal from output 20 and 21 on H-bridge 16 has the same pulse width to the PWM signal from input 18 and 19 on H-bridge. However, it has higher current driving ability. The output pulse signal from output 20 and 21 on the H-bridge is sent back to sum-edge 11 by the feedback loop.
FIG. 2A gives a typical circuit, which can realize said modulation, to generate the needed three-level output pulse in FIG. 1. Audio input signal 10 is connected with the forward input of two amplifiers of 28 and 29. The output of amplifier 28 is connected with its inverting input by capacitor 31. The inverting input of amplifier 28 is connected with one of the outputs of the H-bridge by resistor 30. Similarly, the output of amplifier 29 is connected with its inverting input by capacitor 33. The inverting input of amplifier 29 is connected with the other output of the H-bridge by resistor 32. One of the inputs of comparator 26 is connected with the output of amplifier 28, and another input is connected with trianglular wave output 15 of triangular wave generator 13. Similarly, one of the inputs of comparator 27 is connected with the output of amplifier 29, and another input is connected with another triangular wave output 14 of triangular wave generator 13. The triangular wave signals from 14 and 15 have the same amplitude, butbut with a phase difference of 180°. The outputs of comparator 26 and 27 are connected with two inputs of the H-bridge, respectively. The two outputs of the H-bridge are connected with two inputs of trumpet 17. The audio input signal and feedback output signal are integrated after being summarized by integral amplifier 28 and 29, and then the difference value between the input and output signals becomes to zero via negative feedback, so as to make the difference output of the H-bridge very close to the audio input. It should take notice that amplifier 28, capacitor 31 and resistor 30 form a low-pass filter essentially, which can provide the loop gain and attenuate the high-frequency component in the feedback output signal simultaneously. Similarly, amplifier 28, capacitor 31 and resistor 30 form another low-pass filter to realize the same function. Pulse-width modulator 34 consists of two comparators of 26 and 27.
FIG. 2B shows the waveforms related to the above dual comparator non-filter modulation. In FIG. 2B, if waveform 23 represents the triangular wave signal from input 14 of PWM 12, waveform 24 indicates the triangular wave signal from input 15 of PWM 12. These two triangular wave signal of 23 and 24 have a phase difference of 180°, but they have the same amplitude. The audio input signal, the number 25 in FIG. 2B, is denoted by the sine wave. The work process of PWM comprises: the area of shadow part, which coincided with audio signal 25 and triangular wave signal 23 and 24, corresponds to one of the forward or reverse pulses from two ends of load 17 (namely the trumpet); the area of the shadow will become larger with the amplitude increase of audio sine-wave signal 25, so the pulse width of the three-level forward or reverse square pulse 26 will also become larger; however, the pulse width of the square pulse will become smaller in FIG. 2B when the amplitude of audio signal 25 achieves the peak value and begins becoming smaller. Feedback loop ensures the waveform of the three-level output pulse, after being low-pass filtered, identical with the input audio sine-wave signal 25. The inner low-pass filtering characteristic of trumpet 17 and the response of mans' ear to audio frequency make this three-level pulse equivalently re-convert to analog audio signal.
FIG. 3A shows another circuit to generate the needed three-level output pulse in FIG. 1, which can realize the said modulation. FIG. 3B gives the waveforms related to this circuit. Similarly, PWM 35 in FIG. 3A consists of two comparators of 26 and 27. A full-differential audio input signal is sent to input 38 and 39, and then into the PWM 35 by integral amplifier 28 and 29 separately. At the same time, single triangular wave signal 40 is another signals sent into PWM 35, which is from output 37 of triangular wave generator 36. In FIG. 3B, waveform 41 and 42 indicate two complement signals of the full-differential audio input. Two output PWM signals from pulse width modulator 35 are sent to H-bridge 16, and finally appear on two ends of load 17. FIG. 3B shows the three-level pulse array on the load, which is consistent with the waveforms obtained in FIG. 2B. If the descriptions for the numbers are the same to that in FIG. 2A, please refer to the descriptions of the numbers in FIG. 2A.
Although the switching amplifier with dual comparator modulation, in the prior art, has more advantages over the traditional switching amplifier with single comparator modulation, the degree of distortion is still unsatisfying due to the non-linear characteristic of the power switching, which limits its advanced applications. Accordingly, the purpose of this invention is to provide a modulation technique with dual comparators, which has the better performance of total harmonic distortion (namely less distortion).

Switching amplifier and its modulation process


A task scheduler scheduling running units to execute a plurality of tasks is provided. The task scheduler includes a time control portion having a common time to control a state of the plurality of tasks, and a task calculator calculating a slack disappearance time for each of the plurality of tasks. An arrival time of one of the plurality of tasks is defined as T. A deadline time representing when the one of the plurality of tasks is required to be completed is defined as D. A worst case execution time predicted to be required for a completion of the one of the plurality of tasks is defined as W. A current elapsed time is defined as C. The slack disappearance time is expressed by S=T+D−W+C. A task having an earliest slack disappearance time from among the plurality of tasks is scheduled to be preferentially executed.

In a system processing multiple tasks, in order to meet a deadline time (corresponding to a time limit), the multiple tasks may be effectively scheduled, so that a processor core (hereinafter, referred to as a running unit) executes the multiple tasks. The deadline time is determined to each of the multiple tasks. For example, Non-patent document 1 discloses an algorithm by which a spare time (hereinafter, referred to as a slack time) calculated from a worst case execution time of each task and a residual running time is determined, and a scheduling is performed based on the slack time, so that utilization efficiency is improved.
In JP-A-2005-157955 (corresponding to US 2005/0132038 A1), a determination method to determine a task allocation to a processor is disclosed. A slack time for switching a task (or a thread) is used in the determination method. By using the slack time, the task allocation to the processor is determined on a simultaneous multithreading (SMT). In addition, in a method of JP-A-2001-236236, an arrival time of a task is determined by the slack time, so that the number of times of a task switching is reduced and efficiency is improved.
However, the inventors of the present application have found the following difficulties.
A technology disclosed in JP-A-2005-157955 obtains the slack time from the processor by an interruption, and therefore, a real-time process performance may be deteriorated due to a deterioration of the utilization efficiency of the processor. In JP-A-2001-236236, a counter value of each of the tasks in a task information table is subtracted and updated. Therefore, the number of counters and a calculation of a slack time are increased proportionally to the number of the tasks. When an actual circuit area is considered, implementation may be difficult. Priority indicators of the tasks are compared with referring to the task information table, and a task having the largest priority indicator value is selected. Thus, a time required for the comparison increases proportionally to the number of the tasks, and therefore, it may be difficult to schedule the tasks in an actual processing time. Similar difficulties may occur in the technology disclosed in Non-patent document 1.
(Non-patent document 1) M. Hwang, et. al., "Least Slack Time Rate First: New Scheduling Algorithm for Multi-Processor Environment", International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS) 2010, pp. 806-811, 15-18 Feb. 2010

Task scheduler, microprocessor, and task scheduling method


A substantially flat, oval-shaped swim paddle for use on a swimmer's hand is provided having two halves connected by a flexible hinge. The anterior half has ridges defining finger indexes for placement of the swimmer's fingers. The posterior half has a centrally located raised palm portion which, when in use, fits comfortably within the hollow area of the swimmer's palm. Velcro.RTM. type fasteners secure the paddle to the swimmer's hand. Texturing on the hand side of the paddle, the finger indexes and the raised palm portion allow the swimmer to more easily control the paddle.

1. Field Of The Invention
This patent relates to swim paddles attached to a swimmer's hands and used to assist the swimmer by providing resistance which helps build upper body strength and, to a limited extent, by improving the stroke mechanics of the swimmer. More particularly, this patent relates to a swim paddle having, for better comfort and control, a flexible center hinge, finger indexes, and a raised palm portion.
2. Description Of The Related Art
Traditionally, swim paddles have been used by swimming coaches and other swimming technicians as a means of improving upper body strength and, to a limited extent, to improve the stroke mechanics of the swimmer. The present invention addresses the heretofore unmet need to have the swim paddle more closely conform to acceptable parameters of the swim stroke sequence, thus optimizing the training benefits afforded b paddles of this general type. That is to say, the invention enables a swimmer to better control the paddle, allowing the swimmer to use essentially the same swim stroke he or she uses without the paddle. Other less suitable paddles require the swimmer to slightly modify his or her swim stroke in order to maintain control of the paddle.
Conventional swim paddles are typically substantially square or rectangular in shape (see, eg., U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,313), thus acting as an unnatural extension of the surface area of the human hand. The unnatural surface area requires the swimmer to compensate for the uneven increase in surface area by adjusting his or her stroke.
A further disadvantage of many conventional swim paddles is their tendency to train the swimmer to spread his or her fingers in order to support the square or square-like paddle. The swimmer maintains spread fingers throughout the entire stroke sequence which stresses the hand and upper body in ways not intended by the swimmer, resulting in improper stroke mechanics. These adjustments run contrary to the training and stroke paradigms used by most swim coaches today.
With conventional paddles, the swimmer's hand and related muscle groups are often worked contrary to the swimmer's natural pull. As a result, swimmers may not obtain the type of conditioning consistent with his or her training goals. Worse, the added stress to the hand and associated muscle groups during the "pull-through" portion of the stroke sequence can be physically damaging.
The present invention provides a swim paddle which more closely conforms to the shape of a swimmer's hand and is more easily controlled by the swimmer than conventional swim paddles, allowing for a more natural swim stroke and better training results.


An electronic device cooling arrangement includes a heat sink bonded to a substrate above a chip on the substrate, the heat sink having a mounting section bonded to the substrate, a face panel section suspended above the chip and defining a tapered center through hole, and a supporting frame section connected between the face panel section and the mounting section, and a tapered heat conductive block mounted in the tapered center through hole and bonded to the chip for quick dissipation of heat from the chip.

The present invention relates to an electronic device cooling arrangement, and more specifically to the cooling arrangement of a BGA (ball grid array) package which can quickly carry heat from the CPU of the BGA package during the operation of the CPU.
In order to improve the function and data processing speed, the circuit structure of a CPU is complicated. When a CPU is operated, it produces much heat. During the operation of a CPU, heat must be quickly carried away. An accumulation of heat at a CPU cause the circuit of the CPU to be burned out soon. When a CPU is operated in a high temperature environment, its working efficiency and reliability will be greatly reduced. Therefore, it is quite important to reducing CPU working temperature.


The invention provides antimicrobial compositions comprising one or more acid and one or more organic diol. In one embodiment, the invention's compositions have an acidic pH. The compositions may optionally further contain one or more oxidizing agent (including stabilized oxidizing agent and/or unstabilized oxidizing agent), and/or one or more surfactant. In particular embodiments, the acid lacks one or both of —NH group and —NH2 group. The invention's compositions are useful in all stages of handling agricultural products, in hospitals, and in commercial and household applications.

Microbial contamination of food, in hospitals, in animals, as well as in commercial and residential buildings continues to be a problem. In particular, pathogenic microbial contamination of fruits and vegetables has been on the rise, including contamination of fruits and vegetables in the field, during harvesting, transport and/or processing, by pathogenic microbes from animals, humans, organic fertilizer and/or water supply. Bacteria are estimated to cause some 24 million cases of diarrheal disease annually in the U.S. Over 40,000 cases of contamination by Salmonella were reported from 1983 to 1987 in laboratory surveillance data.
Several compositions and methods are available for reducing microbial contamination (e.g., Bailey et al., U.S. Pat. No. T964,007 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,058; Faergemann et al., WO/89/12469; Andrews et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,992; Estrada, U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,571; Andrews, U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,461; Bautista et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,846; Conners et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,833; Bender et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,617; Koefod et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,090,882 Howarth et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,182,966; Shane et al., U.S. Patent Application US 2002/0134317; and Hilgren et al., U.S. Patent Application US 2007/0098751), including those that contain oxidizers. However, prior art compositions that contain oxidizers continue to show low antimicrobial activity in the presence of organic contaminants, and especially at the lower temperatures used for processing, storing and transporting agricultural products. Also, the prior art's compositions have the additional problems of increased foaming and of the oxidizer gassing out of the solution due to bio-load and/or too low or too high pH, thus adversely impacting active ingredients and worker safety. Furthermore, higher levels of oxidizers are required to reduce bio-load and turbidity of the solutions used for antimicrobial treatment, which raises safety concerns when ingesting products that are treated with those compositions. In addition, the presence of plant material in the prior art solutions reduces the longevity of the oxidizer, thus reducing its antimicrobial activity and increasing the cost of production because of the need to replenish the oxidizer often.
Thus, there remains a need for improved compositions and methods for reducing microbial contamination.

Antimicrobial compositions and methods of use thereof


A method of operating a fault tolerant connection in a network is described. The network includes a number of network elements and a number of links. Each of the network elements is coupled to at least one other of the network elements by at least one of the links. The method identifies a first path and a second path. The first path is between a first one of the network elements and a second one of the network elements, as is the second path. Moreover, the first path and the second path are disjoint. This disjointedness can be any difference between the two paths (e.g., any combination of different network elements or links). A packet is sent from the first one of the network elements via the first path, while a duplicate packet is sent from the first one of the network elements via the second path. The duplicate packet is a duplicate of the packet. Once these packets have been sent, at least one of the packet and the duplicate packet are received at the second one of the network elements. If both the packet and the duplicate packet are received at the second one of the network elements, one of the two is discarded (e.g., by simply ignoring the last one received).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer networks, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for maintaining a datastream between network elements (e.g., routers) in a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
A wide variety of communications alternatives are currently available to telecommunications users. For example, e-mail and other forms of data communication can be used to relay messages and other information over existing data networks. Also, facsimile transmission of printed matter is available through what is commonly referred to as a stand-alone fax machine. Alternatively, fax-modem communication systems are currently available for personal computer users which combine the operation of a facsimile machine with the word processor of a computer to transmit documents held on computer disk. Modem communication over telephone lines in combination with a personal computer is also available to permit the transfer of files between computers. Simultaneous voice and modem data can also be transmitted over the lines using any one of several methods. Personal communications systems that combine a wide variety of communication functions into an integrated hardware-software product allow the user to conveniently choose from a number of communication modes. For example, personal communications systems exist which allow multiple users to efficiently communicate with one another using high quality voice over data communications links.
In fact, such teleconferencing capabilities have been extended to wide-area networks (WANs) such as the Internet. Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP), for example, is becoming a popular method of communication, supplanting traditional telephone services. Many other such methods of transferring media have come into use as the Internet has matured, including streaming audio, instant messaging and the like. However, for many such techniques, a failure within the network which such information passes can present unacceptable performance penalties. This is especially true for real-time or near-real-time applications (e.g., human conversations), in which dropouts and other outages can be most aggravating to users.
For example, consider a VoIP connection that uses real-time protocol (RTP) over a UDP/IP network infrastructure (e.g., the Internet), and the effects of a failure in one of the intermediate network links or network elements (e.g., a router or switch) between the connection's end-points. Clearly, VoIP packets will be dropped until such time as an alternate route through the network has been identified, and packets are re-routed along this new route.
Traditionally, users have relied on a routing protocol (e.g., open shortest path first or OSPF), to detect link/device failures and to re-compute a new path between the given pair of source and destination devices. Unfortunately, the time required for a breakdown to be discovered, and for the routing protocol (e.g., OSPF) to advertise the link-state and recompute the shortest path, is unacceptably high for most real-time applications, including VoIP. For example, in some VoIP systems, an interruption in transfer of packets for a duration 150 ms or more is considered unacceptably large. The delay in restoration is even larger if packets are label-switched. This is so because, in such a case, a new label-switched path must be set up before transfer of packets can resume.
What is therefore needed is a method and apparatus capable of handling failures in network infrastructure that affect a datastream traversing the network, while maintaining acceptable throughput in such situations. Such an approach is preferably capable of maintaining throughput, despite such failures, such that the interruptions are not noticeable to a user of the system.

Method and apparatus for uninterrupted packet transfer using replication over disjoint paths


A communication device comprises a connector to which a communication line is to be connected for sending and receiving a control signal concerning charge control between a transportation apparatus and a charging apparatus, a modem outputting a modulated signal obtained by modulating information to be sent and demodulating the modulated signal input, and a first internal communication line and a second internal communication line each being connected to the connector and the modem, the first internal communication line and the second internal communication line respectively being for sending the modulated signal and being for receiving the modulated signal, and sends and receives the modulated signal by superposing the modulated signal on the control signal. The modem outputs a beacon signal for communication, and comprises a branch line branched at an intermediate location of the second internal communication line, a wave detector circuit that detects the beacon signal transmitted to the branch line by way of the first internal communication line, the connector and the second internal communication line, and a diagnosis unit that performs a fault diagnosis of its own device based on a signal obtained through detection by the wave detector circuit.

A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) using an electric motor and an engine in combination as well as an electric vehicle (EV) driven by an electric motor without being provided with an engine have been in widespread use. A vehicle such as a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, an electric vehicle and so on has a battery to supply power for driving the electric motor while performing the charging of the battery by using an external charging station.
When performing the charging of the battery, the vehicle and the charging station send and receive to and from each other various types of information such as the control information concerning charging, the identifying information of the vehicle, the accounting information and so on. For example, the vehicle and the charging station are provided with CPLT communication devices that send and receive to and from each other control pilot (CPLT) signals indicative of the connection of a charging cable, the completion of the preparation for charging, the charging state and so on through communication lines for the charging cable. The vehicle and the charging station may send and receive simple information by using control pilot signals, but have a limited information amount that may be sent and received. Hence, it has been considered that the vehicle and the charging station are provided with PLC communication devices so that a higher degree of information communication is achieved. The PLC communication device may send and receive more information by sending and receiving control pilot signals on each of which other signals are superposed.
Meanwhile, as the information sent and received to and from the vehicle and the charging station increases, techniques of detecting the fault of the communication line between the vehicle and the charging station and the fault of the communication device have increased in importance.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-71989 discloses a charging control apparatus that is capable of detecting a disconnection of the communication line extending between a vehicle and a charging station. Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-90544 discloses an electronic control device that is capable of detecting a failure of a switching element to change the voltage level of a pilot signal and a disconnection and a ground failure of the communication lines.

Communication device, charge communication system, transportation apparatus and fault diagnosis method


A three-level-driven array substrate row driving circuit includes cascaded multi-level array substrate row driving units. The n-th level array substrate row driving unit includes a clock signal input, a (n−1)-th level signal input, a (n+1)-th level signal input, a (n+3)-th level signal input, a first low level input, a second low level input, and a signal output. The n-th level array substrate row driving unit further includes a pull-up driving unit, a pull-up unit, a first pull-down unit, and a second pull-down unit. The three-level-driven array substrate row driving circuit contributes to reduce the manufacturing cost of the liquid crystal panel and the narrow border design. By adopting the three-level-driven method, the impact caused by the feed-through voltage, which is generated by the data line and the gate line, toward the TFT LCD is effectively eliminated such that the display performance is enhanced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to liquid crystal display technology, and more particularly to a three-level-driven array substrate row driving circuit.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) typically are characterized by attributes including thin, power-saving, and low radiation. These are reasons that LCDs are greatly adopted. With the evolution of the LCDs, corresponding solutions in regards to a variety of demands, such as high resolution rate, high brightness, wide viewing angle, low power consumption, and so on, are developed. Currently, most of the LCDs are backlight-type LCD, which includes a liquid crystal panel and a backlight module. The operating principle relates to arranging liquid crystal molecules between two parallel glass substrates, and applying a driving voltage to the two glass substrates by a driving circuit so as to control the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules. In this way, the light beams from the backlight module are reflected out to generate images.
With respect to the two-level-driven principle for driving circuits, despite of a variety of feed-through voltages, the most important one is the feed-through voltage generated by the parasitic capacitor (Cgd), which is generated by the gate line and the data line. Thus, the voltage of the common electrode has to be adjusted so as to improve the gray level performance when adopting the two-level driven method. However, as liquid crystal capacitor (Clc) is not a fixed parameter, it is not easy to enhance the image performance by adjusting the voltage of the common electrode, which results in a three-level driving method. The feed-through voltage can be compensated without changing the voltage of the common electrode. The operating principle of the three-level driving method utilizes the feed-through voltage generated by the storage capacitor (Cst) to compensate the feed-through voltage generated by the parasitic capacitor (Cgd). This is the reason that the three-level driving method can only be adopted by the panel with the structure "Cs on gate". That is, one electrode of the storage capacitor (Cs) shares the potential with the gate line.
FIG. 1 is a waveform diagram of the gate driver voltage adopting a conventional three-level driving method. It can be understood that the driving waveforms of the gate driver include three different voltages. When the lines of the gate driver is closed, the voltage is pulled to be the lowest voltage until the lines of the next gate driver is also closed. Afterward, the voltage is pulled back as indicated by "A" in FIG. 1. The pulled-back voltage is for compensating the feed-through voltage of the lines of the next gate driver. That is, when the lines of each of the gate driver is closed, the feed-through voltage generated by the parasitic capacitor (Cgd) is compensated by the feed-through voltage generated by the storage capacitor (Cs) when the voltage of the lines of the previous gate driver is pulled back.
The feed-through voltage (Vgd) generated by the parasitic capacitor (Cgd) satisfies the following equation:Vgd=(Vg—high−Vg—low)*Cgd/(Cgd+Clc+Cs);wherein Vg—high and Vg—low respectively indicates the turn-on voltage and the turn-off voltage of the lines of the gate driver.
The feed-through voltage (Vcs) generated by the storage capacitor (Cs) satisfies the following equation:Vcs=(Vp2−Vp1)*Cs/(Cgd+Clc+Cs);Wherein Vp1 and Vp2 respectively indicates the voltages before and after the lines of the previous gate driver is pulled back.
If the feed-through voltage (Vgd) and the feed-through voltage (Vcs) have to be offset, the feed-through voltage generated by the parasitic capacitor (Cgd) has to be the same with the feed-through voltage generated by the storage capacitor (Cs). Thus, the voltage needed to be pulled back (Ve) satisfies the equation: Ve=Vp2−Vp1=(Vg—high−Vg—low)*Cgd/Cs. It can be understood that Vg—high−Vg—low=Vg+Ve in view of FIG. 1. Thus, the voltage needed to be pulled back (Ve)=(Vg+Ve)*Cgd/Cs. That is, Ve=Vg*Cgd/(Cs−Cgd).
In view of the above, it can be understood that though the feed-through voltage may be affected by the liquid crystal capacitor (Clc). However, the impact of the liquid crystal capacitor (Clc) would disappear while adopting three-level driving method. Thus, when the panel manufacturing and the turn-on voltage of the gate driver are determined, the voltage needed to be pulled back (Ve) can be precisely calculated.
Recently, as the demand toward high-density and low-cost LCDs, one important technical solution is Gate Driver On Array (GOA). The GOA integrates the gate switch circuit on the array substrate of the liquid crystal panel by utilizing the array substrate row driving technology so as to omit the gate driving integrated circuit, which reduce both the material cost and the manufacturing process. Such technical solution is also called as array substrate row driving circuit. The array substrate row driving circuit includes a plurality of array substrate row driving units, and each of the array substrate row driving unit corresponds to one gate line. Specifically, each array substrate row driving unit of the array substrate row driving circuit connects to one gate line. In addition, the output of the array substrate row driving unit connects to the input of the next array substrate row driving unit. FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of a conventional two-level 4T1C array substrate row driving circuit, which specifically includes four thin film transistors (TFTs) (Q100, Q200, Q300, Q400), and one capacitor (Cb). The gate of the TFT (Q100) electrically connects to one end of the capacitor (Cb), the drain of the TFT (Q400), and the source of the TFT (Q300) respectively. The drain electrically connects to the other end of the capacitor (Cb) and the source of the TFT (Q200). The source of the TFT (Q200) electrically connects to the other end of the capacitor (Cb) and the drain of the TFT (Q100) respectively, and the gate of the TFT (Q200) electrically connects to the gate of the TFT (Q300). The source of the TFT (Q300) electrically connects to the gate of the TFT (Q100), one end of the capacitor (Cb), and the drain of the TFT (Q400) respectively. The TFT (Q100) is a driving transistor for controlling the high level output of the gate line. The TFT (Q200) and the TFT (Q300) are resetting TFTs for pulling down the potential of the gate line, and the charges of the capacitor (Cb) are released at the same time such that the TFT (Q100) is turned off. The TFT (Q400) is the output controlling transistor for charging the capacitor (Cb) so as to turn on the TFT (Q100). The main function of the capacitor (Cb) is to store the charges to keep the potential of the TFT (Q100). FIG. 3 is a driving timing diagram of the two-level 4T1C array substrate row driving circuit of FIG. 2. STV relates to an activating pulse signal. The input signal is the output signals of the gate line arranged in the last row (gate[n−1]). The output signal of the TFT (Q100) is represented by "gate [n]," and the resetting signal is represented by "gate[n+1]", which relates to the output signals of the gate line arranged in the next row. The input of the TFT (Q100) is the clock signals.
In order to reduce the manufacturing cost of the liquid crystal panel and to achieve the narrow border design, the array substrate row driving technology has been adopted on high-end products. However, the array substrate row driving technology are mainly applied to two-level driving solution.

Three-level-driven array substrate row driving circuit

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


An antenna for plasma generation radiates a microwave transmitted through a coaxial waveguide into a processing chamber and propagates the microwave on a metal surface of the processing chamber to convert gas into surface wave plasma. The antenna includes a gas flow path for passing the gas through the antenna, a plurality of gas holes that communicate with the gas flow path and introduce the gas into the processing chamber, and a plurality of slots that are separated from the gas flow path and penetrate through the gas flow path. The slots pass the microwave transmitted through the coaxial waveguide and a slow-wave plate to the processing chamber. A first space between portions of adjacent slots penetrating through the gas flow path is arranged to be wider than a second space between portions of the adjacent slots opening out to a plasma generation space of the processing chamber.

Plasma processing is an indispensable technique for manufacturing semiconductor devices. In view of the growing demand for higher and faster integration of large-scale integrated circuit (LSI) devices in recent years, there is a demand for techniques that enable finer micro-fabrication of semiconductor elements making up the LSI. However, the electron temperature of plasma generated in an inductively coupled plasma processing apparatus or a capacitively coupled plasma processing apparatus is rather high. Also, a region with an adequately high plasma density is rather limited. Thus, it has been difficult to provide a plasma processing technique that can adequately meet the demands of finer micro-fabrication of semiconductor elements.
To meet such demands for finer micro-fabrication of semiconductor elements, generation of plasma with a low electron temperature and a high plasma density is required. In this respect, Patent Document 1 discloses a micro-fabrication technique that involves generating plasma with a low electron temperature and a high plasma density by converting gas into plasma using a microwave output from a microwave output unit, and processing a workpiece using the generated plasma.

Antenna for plasma generation, plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method


A coupling between a direct drive valve and a rotary valve for providing a rotary-to-rotary coupling therebetween. A shaft carried by the rotor of the motor defines a re-entrant bore having a plurality of flat surfaces. A rod having a plurality of flat faces on the exterior surface thereof and which is connected to the rotary valve is received in mating engagement with the bore. The shaft is slotted to provide a plurality of flexible fingers for receiving the rod.

Torque motor driven valves are well known in the art including such valves which operate through the utilization of a rotary torque motor having a drive member extending from the rotor thereof into contact with the spool valve to directly drive the valve within a bore provided in the valve housing. When the valve rotates it controls the flow of fluid from a source thereof to a load in response to the electrical signals applied to the drive motor.
In all such direct drive valves known to Applicant, the connection of the motor drive shaft to the valve requires precision machining to maintain alignment. Also in many instances, backlash occurs because of the over travel of the connection.

Motor-to-spool coupling for rotary-to-rotary direct drive valve


Selectivity embossed surface coverings are prepared by mechanically embossing a wear layer which overlays at least one printing ink containing a photoinitiator which has been printed in a pattern or design. The embossed wear layer is subjected to ultraviolet radiation which causes curing of the wear layer in the surface areas disposed over the printing ink. The product then is fused whereby the mechanical embossing in surface areas which are not disposed over the printing ink relaxes and becomes smooth. In a variant of the invention, a thermoplastic wear layer is employed which can be mechanically embossed in the surface areas which are not disposed over the printing ink with a texture different from the first applied mechanical embossing. In another variant, two different spectral regions of UV curing radiation are used so that a urethane coating can be employed as a top coat with a selectively embossed surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention has to do with a process for manufacturing mechanically embossed synthetic surface coverings and the products obtained thereby. More particularly, the invention relates to floor coverings which are mechanically embossed and processed to create selectively embossed surface areas, thereby creating products having a more realistic appearance. These appearances include, for example, ceramic tile, stone, brick, sandstone, cork, wood, and in some embodiments textured lines or grout lines there between, as well as combinations thereof such as sandstone and ceramic tile, textured wood and smooth ceramic, cork and wood, and stone or slate in combination with ceramic tile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Synthetic surface coverings including sheet flooring, wall coverings and tile are employed in residential, commercial and institutional applications where decorative effects, durability and ease of installation and maintenance are important considerations. These surface coverings can be designed to imitate a variety of masonry materials such as ceramic tile, stone and brick or they can be designed with unique combinations of color, particles and other decorative features that are not available in other types of surface coverings. In the current marketplace, consumers are increasingly demanding synthetic surface coverings with improved textural features such as features which realistically imitate not only the textures of materials such as ceramic tile, stone, brick, sandstone, cork, wood and combinations thereof, but also the texture of the grout or mortar which typically is used by a mason or other craftsman to fill the joints between such materials to secure them in their desired position relative to one another.
The surface covering industry has employed mechanical embossing, chemical embossing, combinations of mechanical and chemical embossing, screen printing and other techniques for years in order to obtain design effects and textures which meet consumer demands. In U.S. Pat. No. RE. 33,599 a process is described for obtaining selective matting on synthetic coverings by depositing on an expandable or nonexpandable support substrate (1) a polymer coating which contains at least one first polymerization initiator onto at least a first selected zone and (2) at least one second coating comprised of a crosslinkable monomer which contains at least one second polymerization initiator onto at least a second selected zone. The second zone may encompass at least a portion of the first zone. The first and second initiators are triggered by distinct "spectral zones". Following pre-gelling, an overall graining operation is carried out over at least a portion of the surface followed by curing the first selected zone and thereby fixing the graining thereon. Then gelling is carried out to cause the graining in the second zone to smooth out. The product has a selectively matted appearance. Another method of making differential gloss products is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,646.
The surface texture effects of the present invention are obtained by creating relatively deep emboss depths as compared with the shallow graining or dusting techniques employed to obtain the matted or differential gloss effects of the patents noted above. More specifically, the present invention is directed to the realistic imitation in surface coverings not only of the surface texture of a variety of masonry materials such as ceramic tile, stone, brick, sandstone, cork, wood and combinations thereof, but also in some embodiments to the realistic imitation of the surface texture of the grout or mortar in the joints between such materials.

Selectively embossed surface coverings and processes of manufacture


The present invention relates to a fibrous matrix of synthetic detergents. The fibrous matrix includes fibers formed of a synthetic wax and a primary surfactant embedded in the fibers. The fibrous matrix further includes a secondary surfactant embedded in the fibers.

Synthetic detergents are used to clean many common items (e.g., dishes or laundry). The synthetic detergents are typically in granulated, powdered, solid or liquid form.
One drawback with using liquid detergents is that they are heavy and bulky making them difficult to manipulate and transport. Liquid detergents are also easily spilled as the detergents are stored for shipment, or placed into a device (e.g., clothes washer) to perform cleaning.
The powdered or granulated detergents are composed of finely divided particles that are difficult to measure and/or dispense. In addition, the powdered or granulated detergents are usually messy, and when inhaled may pose a potential health hazard.