An active organic electroluminescence display panel module comprising a substrate, a plurality of organic light-emitting devices, a light-emitting device driving unit and a temperature sensor unit are provided. The light-emitting device driving unit is electrically connected to the organic light-emitting devices for driving them. The temperature sensor unit is disposed on the substrate for sensing the temperature of the active organic electroluminescence display panel. The temperature sensor unit is also electrically connected to the light-emitting device driving unit for providing a signal to the light-emitting device driving unit in response to the sensed temperature. Accordingly, the light-emitting device driving unit can adjust the driving voltage of the organic light-emitting devices in the active organic electroluminescence display panel to reduce overall power consumption and provide an accurate grayscale to improve the quality of displayed images.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display panel and driving module thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to an active organic electroluminescence display panel module and driving module thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the many innovations in the process of fabricating semiconductor devices and display devices, multimedia systems proliferate into every corners of the world. For display devices, flat panel displays have become one of the mainstream products due to its high quality display images, efficient spatial utilization, energy efficiency and radiation-free illumination. The so-called flat panel displays actually refers to a group of displays including liquid crystal display (LCD), organic electroluminescence display and plasma display panel (PDP). An organic electroluminescence display device comprises an array of self-emissive pixels. The advantages of an organic electroluminescence display are many, including no particular viewing angle limitation, a low fabricating cost, a high response speed (a hundred folds that of the liquid crystal display), a low power consumption and a large operating temperature range. Furthermore, the organic electroluminescence display can be driven by a Direct Current (DC) and miniaturized with other hardware equipment. Hence, organic electroluminescence display products have great development potential in the future. In particular, the organic electroluminescence display is suitable for displaying information in multimedia systems.
In general, an organic electroluminescence display can be classified as an active or a passive organic electroluminescence display according to the method of driving its internal light-emitting devices. Because the light-emitting efficiency and life span of passively driven devices will drop significantly with an increase in the size and resolution of the display device, most low-grade organic electroluminescence displays are passively driven while most high-grade organic electroluminescence displays are actively driven.
The light-emitting devices inside an organic electroluminescence are normally constructed using organic light-emitting diodes. In general, the voltage-current characteristic of an organic light-emitting diode is affected by temperature when the temperature is high. FIG. 1 is a graph showing the voltage-current relationship characteristics for an organic light-emitting diode. In FIG. 1, curve C1 indicates the voltage-current loading line when the organic light-emitting diode is at the room temperature while curve C2 indicates the voltage-current loading line when the organic light-emitting diode is heated to a temperature higher than the room temperature. At a constant current, the voltage needed to drive the organic light-emitting diode drops from VD1 to VD2 when the temperature is increased as shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, if the input voltage for driving the organic electroluminescence display is not adjusted accordingly, those devices within the display will consume extra power unnecessarily.

Active organic electroluminescence display panel module and driving module thereof


A method and system is provided for implementing a multilateral authorization quorum in a computer network. The authorization quorum comprises a total number of stakeholders out of which a threshold number of stakeholders can provide a multilateral authorization. To implement this multilateral authorization quorum, one or more access sets is first determined, each containing the threshold number of stakeholders. Since the stakeholders split a quorum private key, the shares of the quorum private key for each stakeholder in all access sets are determined. The shares of the private key held by the stakeholders in any one access set add up to a number directly related to the private key. One or more secret keys of the stakeholders are further determined for each access set. One or more polynomials for the access sets are then generated by using the shares of the private key and the secret keys thereof, wherein the private key is thus split among the stakeholders of the multilateral authorization quorum. Such a multilateral authorization quorum is ready to be used for making approvals for predetermined transactions.

This disclosure relates generally to techniques for enhancing security in a computer network system, and more specifically, to a system and method for ensuring the security and integrity of transaction authorization using a multilateral authorization mechanism in the computer network.
With sophisticated computer networks utilized in many businesses and organizations, complicated tasks are performed almost every second. These tasks are frequently associated with authorization or permission requirements from a network management entity. The network management entity is responsible for administrative control functions such as the configuration and access control of networked resources used to carry out the tasks. Accordingly, administrative control is usually pre-specified in the form of policies and is used to determine whether a user has authorization to access an allocated resource.
Conventional computer systems generally have a trusted policy administrator responsible for instituting and controlling polices for authorizing operations that involve a resource or service. However, entrusting a single individual with such responsibility provides a possible route for exploitation of a system. For example, if the administrator has the authority to single handedly create or modify service or resource policies, he or she can abuse the authority for malicious purposes.
One solution for overcoming the need to trust an administrator involves the use of signed code modules, but this solution is generally inadequate as it places unilateral trust in a signer of the module. Accordingly, administrators colluding with the signer can subvert system policies. Moreover, code module signing methods generally need a substantial investment of time and finances during initial implementation and further investments for continuous maintenance.
Therefore, what is needed is a method and system for implementing secure policy or authorization control mechanisms operable to prevent a few administrators working together from subverting necessary policies. It is thus desirable to reduce or eliminate the trust placed on code modules. It is also desirable to support multiple administrators without needing drastic changes in functionality of the existing computer network's administrative system. It is further desirable to implement this method by distributing authorization among a quorum of stakeholders and obtaining a collective consent in a timely fashion to facilitate various computer processes in the computer network.

Method and system for enhancing network security using a multilateral authorization mechanism


A high-technology armrest with integrated buttons connected to a command transmission cable for the adjustment of the seat and the seat back movements of an office chair with articulations for the synchronized movement of the seat plane and the seat back. The invention includes a mobile base of the “rocket launcher” type, from which base a column rises, which is adjustable in height, and which supports the seat plane and the reciprocally hinged seat back.

Adjustable office seats and chairs are certainly well-known. To enable a more comfortable seating position than lower-priced models, which are usually fixed, they incorporate, in addition to a device for adjusting the height of the seat, the use of a device for the controlled swinging of the seat back, generally located in the part immediately beneath the seat plane and integral to it. This device is primarily activated via a protruding lever that can easily be gripped and therefore rotated in one direction or another, until the internal mechanism releases the articulation.
In short, it is therefore possible to maintain that the following are known:                1. chairs in which the seat and the seat back are designed with separate body shells, which are connected in such a way that an inclination of the seat back corresponds to a parallel downward movement of the seat plane;        2. chairs in which only the seat back is freely swinging;        3. chairs in which the raising of the seat plane corresponds to the inclination of the seat back;        4. chairs in which both the seat and the seat back are individually adjustable;        5. finally, seats in which both the seat plane and the seat back, which are interconnected, perform a synchronized swinging movement.

Office chair with high-technology armrest equipped with integrated control buttons for adjusting the movements of the seat and the seat back

Abstract: A first armrest of the office chair is equipped near the front end with two side-by-side buttons.

Abstract: A second armrest of the office chair, designed symmetrically to the first, is equipped near the front end with a single-control button, for the function of adjusting the height of the chair.


A server is installed with host bus adapters (HBAs). The HBA causes light-emitting components thereon to emit light in abnormal light emission patterns upon falling into an abnormal condition, and in predetermined light emission patterns upon receiving a predetermined command. A method for managing the HBA includes storing abnormal light emission patterns of the HBA, detecting an abnormality as to whether a predetermined HBA is in an abnormal condition, obtaining current light emission patterns of a light-emitting component of an abnormal HBA which is detected to be in the abnormal condition in the detecting, and controlling light emission by sending the predetermined command to all of the HBAs except the abnormal one to cause the light-emitting components thereof to emit light in the predetermined light emission patterns, when the current light emission patterns, obtained in the obtaining, do not match the abnormal light emission patterns stored in the storing.

Recently, in the aim of sharing and consolidating storage resources, a Storage Area Network (SAN) is established using a Fibre Channel (FC) switch connecting servers and storage devices. Upon establishing a SAN, a host bus adapter (HBA) installed in a server is physically connected to a Fiber Channel adapter (FCA) installed in a storage device.
SAN management software enables an operator to manage a SAN by observing an interface graphically displaying physical connections between devices (servers, FC switches, and storage devices) in the SAN, or access path definitions (logical connections) on a screen of a terminal device. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-063063 and an online document "ETERNUS SF Storage Cruiser" (searched on Mar. 20, 2007 at the URL http://storage-system.fujitsu.com/jp/eternus-sf/cruiser/merit/) disclose a SAN management system using such SAN management software. An access path herein means a logical connection that allocates a storage resource to a server over a SAN. An HBA and a FCA are generally connected logically in a one-to-one relationship. As disclosed in another online document "Common HBA API" (searched on Mar. 20, 2007 at URL ftp://ftp.t11.org/t11/docs/02-149v0.pdf), some of the SAN management software have a function to enable an access path definition to be automatically set in a new HBA when a logical connection between an existing HBA and a FCA is lost, e.g., when an HBA fails and is replaced with a new one.
Such SAN management software has a function to cause LEDs on an HBA to emit light in predetermined light emission patterns so that a user can visually recognize and distinguish the HBA from others. Such a function has been used for enabling a field engineer to visually identify the physical location of a specific HBA. For example, the function has been used by a field engineer upon inspecting or replacing an HBA while the chassis of a server is actually opened. More specifically, when the SAN management software receives a request for identifying the physical location of an HBA from an administrator, the SAN management software issues a predetermined command to an HBA driver that controls the HBA. In response to the received request, the HBA driver controls the LEDs on the HBA to emit light in specific patterns. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-103053 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-242915, for example, disclose a technology that allows a field engineer to visually recognize and distinguish a part from others in an apparatus having a plurality of parts emitting light from light-emitting components thereof.
However, these conventional technologies do not allow the physical location of a failed HBA to be identified. More specifically, when the SAN management software receives a request for identifying a physical location of an HBA from the administrator, the SAN management software outputs a command to cause the LEDs on the HBA to emit light in specific patterns; however, if the HBA is in an abnormal condition and failed in the first place, the HBA may not operate according to the command. In such a situation, the light emission patterns do not allow a field engineer to visually recognize and distinguish the HBA from others, thus preventing the engineer actually being on-site from identifying the physical location of the failed HBA.

Detecting abnormal host adapter operations via light emissions


The lower movement path (25) of the gripping head (6) of a loading device (1) is straightened with a cam control (14), the latter being located on the side of the associated lift bearing (7) remote from the gripping head (6). Thus, with a single lift drive (19) the loading device (1) can be transferred into a charging position (26), in which a roll (21) can be axially supplied in unhindered manner and then the gripping heads (6) are lowered and without a transverse movement of the roll can be engaged therewith, without this being prevented by the center height (23, 24) of the roll (21, 22).

The invention relates to a loading device making it possible to raise large roll bodies weighing up to several hundred or thousand kilograms from a supported position into a working position, so that they can freely rotate or are freely accessible for the removal of the material, e.g. for unwinding a material web. Such rolls can e.g. have a maximum diameter over 1.5 m.
Such loading devices must make it possible to receive rolls having different external diameters, e.g. the minimum roll diameter being approximately 0.50 m. Independently of the diameter differences the receiving shaft of the roll carrier member must be easily alignable with the roll shaft, so that it is possible to engage the roll hub formed by an axle or shaft sleeve with the particular receiving head of the roll support member. For this purpose the roll support member can be controlled in such a way that its receiving shaft, via an aligning path passes over an approximately linear or vertical movement path, which coincides with the axial plane in which are located the roll shafts independently of the roll diameter, if the rolls are made available in a predetermined, supported position.
In order to be able to linearly supply to a loading position in such an arrangement rolls having a maximum external diameter in such a way that without any transverse movement thereof they can be brought into supporting engagement with the roll support member, the latter can be transversely displaceable with a slide, but this leads to a complicated and space-requiring arrangement. In addition, the alignment of the receiving shaft with the particular roll shaft is difficult, because independently of one another the slide must be adjusted transversely to the vertical axial plane of the roll and the roll support member in the vertical direction of the roll to the shaft thereof.

Loading device for material rolls, particularly for paper rolls


A screwing device provided with a transmission of measuring signals has improved securing of screwing tool. Its rotary drive shaft is connected to the screwing tool in a rotationally locking manner via a polygonal coupling. The screwing tool is fastened axially by two connecting bodies which are arranged in bores and engage in a positively locking manner into an annular groove arranged in the rotary drive shaft in the region of the polygonal coupling. The connecting bodies are retained in their connection position by a securing element.

The present invention relates to a screwing device for ultrasound-controlled tightening of screw connections.
Screwing devices of the above mentioned general type are known in the art. One such screwing device is disclosed for example in European Patent document 460 920 A1. In the screwing device disclosed in this document a rotary drive shaft is connected in a positively locking manner to a screwing tool via radial pins both in the circumferential direction and in the axial direction. The magnitude of the transmittable torque is limited by the pins, which are subjected to shearing. Furthermore, a simple tool exchange is not possible in the case of the known screwing device.

Screwing device for ultrasound-controlled tightening of screw connections


We describe an ultra-small structure that produces visible light of varying frequency, from a single metallic layer. In one example, a row of metallic posts are etched or plated on a substrate according to a particular geometry. When a charged particle beam passed close by the row of posts, the posts and cavities between them cooperate to resonate and produce radiation in the visible spectrum (or even higher). A plurality of such rows of different geometries can be etched or plated from a single metal layer such that the charged particle beam will yield different visible light frequencies (i.e., different colors) using different ones of the rows.

Electromagnetic Radiation & Waves
Electromagnetic radiation is produced by the motion of electrically charged particles. Oscillating electrons produce electromagnetic radiation commensurate in frequency with the frequency of the oscillations. Electromagnetic radiation is essentially energy transmitted through space or through a material medium in the form of electromagnetic waves. The term can also refer to the emission and propagation of such energy. Whenever an electric charge oscillates or is accelerated, a disturbance characterized by the existence of electric and magnetic fields propagates outward from it. This disturbance is called an electromagnetic wave. Electromagnetic radiation falls into categories of wave types depending upon their frequency, and the frequency range of such waves is tremendous, as is shown by the electromagnetic spectrum in the following chart (which categorizes waves into types depending upon their frequency):
TypeApprox. FrequencyRadioLess than 3 GigahertzMicrowave 3 Gigahertz-300 GigahertzInfrared300 Gigahertz-400 TerahertzVisible400 Terahertz-750 TerahertzUV750 Terahertz-30 PetahertzX-ray 30 Petahertz-30 ExahertzGamma-rayGreater than 30 Exahertz
The ability to generate (or detect) electromagnetic radiation of a particular type (e.g., radio, microwave, etc.) depends upon the ability to create a structure suitable for electron oscillation or excitation at the frequency desired. Electromagnetic radiation at radio frequencies, for example, is relatively easy to generate using relatively large or even somewhat small structures.
Electromagnetic Wave Generation
There are many traditional ways to produce high-frequency radiation in ranges at and above the visible spectrum, for example, up to high hundreds of Terahertz. There are also many traditional and anticipated applications that use such high frequency radiation. As frequencies increase, however, the kinds of structures needed to create the electromagnetic radiation at a desired frequency become generally smaller and harder to manufacture. We have discovered ultra-small-scale devices that obtain multiple different frequencies of radiation from the same operative layer.
Resonant structures have been the basis for much of the presently known high frequency electronics. Devices like klystrons and magnetrons had electronics that moved frequencies of emission up to the megahertz range by the 1930s and 1940s. By around 1960, people were trying to reduce the size of resonant structures to get even higher frequencies, but had limited success because the Q of the devices went down due to the resistivity of the walls of the resonant structures. At about the same time, Smith and Purcell saw the first signs that free electrons could cause the emission of electromagnetic radiation in the visible range by running an electron beam past a diffraction grating. Since then, there has been much speculation as to what the physical basis for the Smith-Purcell radiation really is.
We have shown that some of the theory of resonant structures applies to certain nano structures that we have built. It is assumed that at high enough frequencies, plasmons conduct the energy as opposed to the bulk transport of electrons in the material, although our inventions are not dependent upon such an explanation. Under that theory, the electrical resistance decreases to the point where resonance can effectively occur again, and makes the devices efficient enough to be commercially viable.
Some of the more detailed background sections that follow provide background for the earlier technologies (some of which are introduced above), and provide a framework for understanding why the present inventions are so remarkable compared to the present state-of-the-art.
Microwaves
As previously introduced, microwaves were first generated in so-called "klystrons" in the 1930s by the Varian brothers. Klystrons are now well-known structures for oscillating electrons and creating electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency. The structure and operation of klystrons has been well-studied and documented and will be readily understood by the artisan. However, for the purpose of background, the operation of the klystron will be described at a high level, leaving the particularities of such devices to the artisan's present understanding.
Klystrons are a type of linear beam microwave tube. A basic structure of a klystron is shown by way of example in FIG. 1(a). In the late 1930s, a klystron structure was described that involved a direct current stream of electrons within a vacuum cavity passing through an oscillating electric field. In the example of FIG. 1 (a), a klystron 100 is shown as a high-vacuum device with a cathode 102 that emits a well-focused electron beam 104 past a number of cavities 106 that the beam traverses as it travels down a linear tube 108 to anode 103. The cavities are sized and designed to resonate at or near the operating frequency of the tube. The principle, in essence, involves conversion of the kinetic energy in the beam, imparted by a high accelerating voltage, to microwave energy. That conversion takes place as a result of the amplified RF (radio frequency) input signal causing the electrons in the beam to "bunch up" into so-called "bunches" (denoted 110) along the beam path as they pass the various cavities 106. These bunches then give up their energy to the high-level induced RF fields at the output cavity.
The electron bunches are formed when an oscillating electric field causes the electron stream to be velocity modulated so that some number of electrons increase in speed within the stream and some number of electrons decrease in speed within the stream. As the electrons travel through the drift tube of the vacuum cavity the bunches that are formed create a space-charge wave or charge-modulated electron beam. As the electron bunches pass the mouth of the output cavity, the bunches induce a large current, much larger than the input current. The induced current can then generate electromagnetic radiation.
Traveling Wave Tubes
Traveling wave tubes (TWT)—first described in 1942—are another well-known type of linear microwave tube. A TWT includes a source of electrons that travels the length of a microwave electronic tube, an attenuator, a helix delay line, radio frequency (RF) input and output, and an electron collector. In the TWT, an electrical current was sent along the helical delay line to interact with the electron stream.
Backwards Wave Devices
Backwards wave devices are also known and differ from TWTs in that they use a wave in which the power flow is opposite in direction from that of the electron beam. A backwards wave device uses the concept of a backward group velocity with a forward phase velocity. In this case, the RF power comes out at the cathode end of the device. Backward wave devices could be amplifiers or oscillators.
Magnetrons
Magnetrons are another type of well-known resonance cavity structure developed in the 1920s to produce microwave radiation. While their external configurations can differ, each magnetron includes an anode, a cathode, a particular wave tube and a strong magnet. FIG. 1(b) shows an exemplary magnetron 112. In the example magnetron 112 of FIG. 1(b), the anode is shown as the (typically iron) external structure of the circular wave tube 114 and is interrupted by a number of cavities 116 interspersed around the tube 114. The cathode 118 is in the center of the magnetron, as shown. Absent a magnetic field, the cathode would send electrons directly outward toward the anode portions forming the tube 114. With a magnetic field present and in parallel to the cathode, electrons emitted from the cathode take a circular path 118 around the tube as they emerge from the cathode and move toward the anode. The magnetic field from the magnet (not shown) is thus used to cause the electrons of the electron beam to spiral around the cathode, passing the various cavities 116 as they travel around the tube. As with the linear klystron, if the cavities are tuned correctly, they cause the electrons to bunch as they pass by. The bunching and unbunching electrons set up a resonant oscillation within the tube and transfer their oscillating energy to an output cavity at a microwave frequency.
Reflex Klystron
Multiple cavities are not necessarily required to produce microwave radiation. In the reflex klystron, a single cavity, through which the electron beam is passed, can produce the required microwave frequency oscillations. An example reflex klystron 120 is shown in FIG. 1(c). There, the cathode 122 emits electrons toward the reflector plate 124 via an accelerator grid 126 and grids 128. The reflex klystron 120 has a single cavity 130. In this device, the electron beam is modulated (as in other klystrons) by passing by the cavity 130 on its way away from the cathode 122 to the plate 124. Unlike other klystrons, however, the electron beam is not terminated at an output cavity, but instead is reflected by the reflector plate 124. The reflection provides the feedback necessary to maintain electron oscillations within the tube.
In each of the resonant cavity devices described above, the characteristic frequency of electron oscillation depends upon the size, structure, and tuning of the resonant cavities. To date, structures have been discovered that create relatively low frequency radiation (radio and microwave levels), up to, for example, GHz levels, using these resonant structures. Higher levels of radiation are generally thought to be prohibitive because resistance in the cavity walls will dominate with smaller sizes and will not allow oscillation. Also, using current techniques, aluminum and other metals cannot be machined down to sufficiently small sizes to form the cavities desired. Thus, for example, visible light radiation in the range of 400 Terahertz-750 Terahertz is not known to be created by klystron-type structures.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,373,194 to Small illustrates the difficulty in obtaining small, high-frequency radiation sources. Small suggests a method of fabricating a micro-magnetron. In a magnetron, the bunched electron beam passes the opening of the resonance cavity. But to realize an amplified signal, the bunches of electrons must pass the opening of the resonance cavity in less time than the desired output frequency. Thus at a frequency of around 500 THz, the electrons must travel at very high speed and still remain confined. There is no practical magnetic field strong enough to keep the electron spinning in that small of a diameter at those speeds. Small recognizes this issue but does not disclose a solution to it.
Surface plasmons can be excited at a metal dielectric interface by a monochromatic light beam. The energy of the light is bound to the surface and propagates as an electromagnetic wave. Surface plasmons can propagate on the surface of a metal as well as on the interface between a metal and dielectric material. Bulk plasmons can propagate beneath the surface, although they are typically not energetically favored.
Free electron lasers offer intense beams of any wavelength because the electrons are free of any atomic structure. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,973, Madey et al. disclose a free electron laser. The free electron laser includes a charged particle accelerator, a cavity with a straight section and an undulator. The accelerator injects a relativistic electron or positron beam into said straight section past an undulator mounted coaxially along said straight section. The undulator periodically modulates in space the acceleration of the electrons passing through it inducing the electrons to produce a light beam that is practically collinear with the axis of undulator. An optical cavity is defined by two mirrors mounted facing each other on either side of the undulator to permit the circulation of light thus emitted. Laser amplification occurs when the period of said circulation of light coincides with the period of passage of the electron packets and the optical gain per passage exceeds the light losses that occur in the optical cavity.
Smith-Purcell
Smith-Purcell radiation occurs when a charged particle passes close to a periodically varying metallic surface, as depicted in FIG. 1(d).
Known Smith-Purcell devices produce visible light by passing an electron beam close to the surface of a diffraction grating. Using the Smith-Purcell diffraction grating, electrons are deflected by image charges in the grating at a frequency in the visible spectrum. In some cases, the effect may be a single electron event, but some devices can exhibit a change in slope of the output intensity versus current. In Smith-Purcell devices, only the energy of the electron beam and the period of the grating affect the frequency of the visible light emission. The beam current is generally, but not always, small. Vermont Photonics notice an increase in output with their devices above a certain current density limit. Because of the nature of diffraction physics, the period of the grating must exceed the wavelength of light.
Koops, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,909,104, published Nov. 30, 2000, (§102(e) date May 24, 2002) describe a miniaturized coherent terahertz free electron laser using a periodic grating for the undulator (sometimes referred to as the wiggler). Koops et al. describe a free electron laser using a periodic structure grating for the undulator (also referred to as the wiggler). Koops proposes using standard electronics to bunch the electrons before they enter the undulator. The apparent object of this is to create coherent terahertz radiation. In one instance, Koops, et al. describe a given standard electron beam source that produces up to approximately 20,000 volts accelerating voltage and an electron beam of 20 microns diameter over a grating of 100 to 300 microns period to achieve infrared radiation between 100 and 1000 microns in wavelength. For terahertz radiation, the diffraction grating has a length of approximately 1 mm to 1 cm, with grating periods of 0.5 to 10 microns, "depending on the wavelength of the terahertz radiation to be emitted." Koops proposes using standard electronics to bunch the electrons before they enter the undulator.
Potylitsin, "Resonant Diffraction Radiation and Smith-Purcell Effect," 13 Apr. 1998, described an emission of electrons moving close to a periodic structure treated as the resonant diffraction radiation. Potylitsin's grating had "perfectly conducting strips spaced by a vacuum gap."
Smith-Purcell devices are inefficient. Their production of light is weak compared to their input power, and they cannot be optimized. Current Smith-Purcell devices are not suitable for true visible light applications due at least in part to their inefficiency and inability to effectively produce sufficient photon density to be detectible without specialized equipment.
We realized that the Smith-Purcell devices yielded poor light production efficiency. Rather than deflect the passing electron beam as Smith-Purcell devices do, we created devices that resonated at the frequency of light as the electron beam passes by. In this way, the device resonance matches the system resonance with resulting higher output. Our discovery has proven to produce visible light (or even higher or lower frequency radiation) at higher yields from optimized ultra-small physical structures.
Coupling Energy From Electromagnetic Waves
Coupling energy from electromagnetic waves in the terahertz range from 0.1 THz (about 3000 microns) to 700 THz (about 0.4 microns) is finding use in numerous new applications. These applications include improved detection of concealed weapons and explosives, improved medical imaging, finding biological terror materials, better characterization of semiconductors; and broadening the available bandwidth for wireless communications.
In solid materials the interaction between an electromagnetic wave and a charged particle, namely an electron, can occur via three basic processes: absorption, spontaneous emission and stimulated emission. The interaction can provide a transfer of energy between the electromagnetic wave and the electron. For example, photoconductor semiconductor devices use the absorption process to receive the electromagnetic wave and transfer energy to electron-hole pairs by band-to-band transitions. Electromagnetic waves having an energy level greater than a material's characteristic binding energy can create electrons that move when connected across a voltage source to provide a current. In addition, extrinsic photoconductor devices operate having transitions across forbidden-gap energy levels use the absorption process (S. M., Sze, "Semiconductor Devices Physics and Technology," 2002).
A measure of the energy coupled from an electromagnetic wave for the material is referred to as an absorption coefficient. A point where the absorption coefficient decreases rapidly is called a cutoff wavelength. The absorption coefficient is dependant on the particular material used to make a device. For example, gallium arsenide (GaAs) absorbs electromagnetic wave energy from about 0.6 microns and has a cutoff wavelength of about 0.87 microns. In another example, silicon (Si) can absorb energy from about 0.4 microns and has a cutoff wavelength of about 1.1 microns. Thus, the ability to transfer energy to the electrons within the material for making the device is a function of the wavelength or frequency of the electromagnetic wave. This means the device can work to couple the electromagnetic wave's energy only over a particular segment of the terahertz range. At the very high end of the terahertz spectrum a Charge Coupled Device (CCD)—an intrinsic photoconductor device—can successfully be employed. If there is a need to couple energy at the lower end of the terahertz spectrum certain extrinsic semiconductors devices can provide for coupling energy at increasing wavelengths by increasing the doping levels.
Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)
Raman spectroscopy is a well-known means to measure the characteristics of molecule vibrations using laser radiation as the excitation source. A molecule to be analyzed is illuminated with laser radiation and the resulting scattered frequencies are collected in a detector and analyzed.
Analysis of the scattered frequencies permits the chemical nature of the molecules to be explored. Fleischmann et al. (M. Fleischmann, P. J. Hendra and A. J. McQuillan, Chem. Phys. Lett., 1974, 26, 163) first reported the increased scattering intensities that result from Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), though without realizing the cause of the increased intensity.
In SERS, laser radiation is used to excite molecules adsorbed or deposited onto a roughened or porous metallic surface, or a surface having metallic nano-sized features or structures. The largest increase in scattering intensity is realized with surfaces with features that are 10-100 nm in size. Research into the mechanisms of SERS over the past 25 years suggests that both chemical and electromagnetic factors contribute to the enhancing the Raman effect. (See, e.g., A. Campion and P. Kambhampati, Chem. Soc. Rev., 1998, 27 241.)
The electromagnetic contribution occurs when the laser radiation excites plasmon resonances in the metallic surface structures. These plasmons induce local fields of electromagnetic radiation which extend and decay at the rate defined by the dipole decay rate. These local fields contribute to enhancement of the Raman scattering at an overall rate of E4.
Recent research has shown that changes in the shape and composition of nano-sized features of the substrate cause variation in the intensity and shape of the local fields created by the plasmons. Jackson and Halas (J.B. Jackson and N.J. H alas, PNAS, 2004, 101 17930) used nano-shells of gold to tune the plasmon resonance to different frequencies.
Variation in the local electric field strength provided by the induced plasmon is known in SERS-based devices. In U.S. Patent application 2004/0174521 A1, Drachev et al. describe a Raman imaging and sensing device employing nanoantennas. The antennas are metal structures deposited onto a surface. The structures are illuminated with laser radiation. The radiation excites a plasmon in the antennas that enhances the Raman scatter of the sample molecule.
The electric field intensity surrounding the antennas varies as a function of distance from the antennas, as well as the size of the antennas. The intensity of the local electric field increases as the distance between the antennas decreases.
Advantages & Benefits
Myriad benefits and advantages can be obtained by a ultra-small resonant structure that emits varying electromagnetic radiation at higher radiation frequencies such as infrared, visible, UV and X-ray. For example, if the varying electromagnetic radiation is in a visible light frequency, the micro resonant structure can be used for visible light applications that currently employ prior art semiconductor light emitters (such as LCDs, LEDs, and the like that employ electroluminescence or other light-emitting principals). If small enough, such micro-resonance structures can rival semiconductor devices in size, and provide more intense, variable, and efficient light sources. Such micro resonant structures can also be used in place of (or in some cases, in addition to) any application employing non-semiconductor illuminators (such as incandescent, fluorescent, or other light sources). Those applications can include displays for personal or commercial use, home or business illumination, illumination for private display such as on computers, televisions or other screens, and for public display such as on signs, street lights, or other indoor or outdoor illumination. Visible frequency radiation from ultra-small resonant structures also has application in fiber optic communication, chip-to-chip signal coupling, other electronic signal coupling, and any other light-using applications.
Applications can also be envisioned for ultra-small resonant structures that emit in frequencies other than in the visible spectrum, such as for high frequency data carriers. Ultra-small resonant structures that emit at frequencies such as a few tens of terahertz can penetrate walls, making them invisible to a transceiver, which is exceedingly valuable for security applications. The ability to penetrate walls can also be used for imaging objects beyond the walls, which is also useful in, for example, security applications. X-ray frequencies can also be produced for use in medicine, diagnostics, security, construction or any other application where X-ray sources are currently used. Terahertz radiation from ultra-small resonant structures can be used in many of the known applications which now utilize x-rays, with the added advantage that the resulting radiation can be coherent and is non-ionizing.
The use of radiation per se in each of the above applications is not new. But, obtaining that radiation from particular kinds of increasingly small ultra-small resonant structures revolutionizes the way electromagnetic radiation is used in electronic and other devices. For example, the smaller the radiation emitting structure is, the less "real estate" is required to employ it in a commercial device. Since such real estate on a semiconductor, for example, is expensive, an ultra-small resonant structure that provides the myriad application benefits of radiation emission without consuning excessive real estate is valuable. Second, with the kinds of ultra-small resonant structures that we describe, the frequency of the radiation can be high enough to produce visible light of any color and low enough to extend into the terahertz levels (and conceivably even petahertz or exahertz levels with additional advances). Thus, the devices may be tunable to obtain any kind of white light transmission or any frequency or combination of frequencies desired without changing or stacking "bulbs," or other radiation emitters (visible or invisible).
Currently, LEDs and Solid State Lasers (SSLs) cannot be integrated onto silicon (although much effort has been spent trying). Further, even when LEDs and SSLs are mounted on a wafer, they produce only electromagnetic radiation at a single color. The present devices are easily integrated onto even an existing silicon microchip and can produce many frequencies of electromagnetic radiation at the same time.
There is thus a need for a device having a single layer basic construction that can couple energy from an electromagnetic wave over the full terahertz portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.


A file management method for reducing a seek operation to a minimum even when a UDF file system is used is provided. The file management method has file management information for managing contiguous blocks on a disc as an extent and for grouping the extent as a file and managing the file, and includes the steps of: when creating a new directory on the disc, reserving as a reserved area for recording file management information on the file a file or a data area in the directory; and reserving a directory block having a predetermined size in the reserved area for recording a file entry of the directory and a file identifier descriptor of the directory.

Recently, with development of high-density optical discs, the optical discs have been used increasingly as recording media for digital images including moving images. The application fields of the optical discs are so wide that they are utilized not only as peripheral equipment of a computer but also in a video player for home use. In the future, it is anticipated that the optical discs will be used as recording media for video recording to replace tape media.
In order to deal with data in common in such a wide application area, data is managed usually in the logical unit of a file. As one of such file management methods, a file system in a format according to the Universal Disk Format (UDF) specification is available.
The UDF specification acts to ensure the medium compatibility among various operating systems (OS) for computers, and also is employed in a DVD video player for consumer appliances. This specification is one of the file formats that is expected to be applied in a wider variety of platforms in the future.
The following describes a file management method using a format according to the UDF specification, with reference to a drawing. FIG. 23 shows an example of the construction of a data recording/reproducing apparatus to which a conventional file management method is applied.
In FIG. 23, numeral 101 denotes a disc such as an optical magnetic disc. Numeral 102 denotes a recording medium driving unit, and in the case of the disc 101 being an optical magnetic disc, this unit is composed of a spindle motor or the like. Numeral 103 denotes a recording/reproducing unit, and in the case of the disc 101 being an optical magnetic disc, this unit is composed of an optical pickup, a magnetic head, a servo circuit, a modulation demodulation circuit and the like.
In addition, numeral 104 denotes a memory unit, which stores data temporarily at the time of recording/reproducing data. Numeral 105 denotes a disc driving unit, and is composed of the disc 101, the recording medium driving unit 102, the recording/reproducing unit 103 and the memory unit 104.
Further, numeral 106 denotes an AV signal processing unit, which carries out processing such as MPEG compression with respect to an AV input signal input from a CCD camera or the like, and MPEG decompression with respect to AV data read from the disc 101 to output to a monitor or the like. Numeral 107 denotes a system control unit, which controls the AV signal processing unit 106 and the disc driving unit 105.
In the data recording/reproducing apparatus constructed in this way, at the time of recording data, an AV signal input into the AV signal processing unit 106 is subjected to image compression processing according to the MPEG method or the like, and then is transferred to the memory unit 104 in the control of the system control unit 107.
Next, the recording medium driving unit 102 and the recording/reproducing unit 103 operate in the control of the system control unit 107 so that data in the memory unit 104 is recorded on the disc 101.
At the time of reproducing data, the recording medium driving unit 102 and the recording/reproducing unit 103 operate in the control of the system control unit 107 so that data recorded in the disc 101 is transferred to the memory unit 104.
Next, in the control of the system control unit 107, data is read from the memory unit 104 and the AV signal processing unit 106 outputs the data as an AV signal.
The following describes an example of a structure of the UDF file system that is a conventional file management method, with reference to a drawing. FIG. 24 shows a structure of a volume space of the UDF constructed in the disc 101. In FIG. 24, in order to manage the disc 101 as a logical volume, the disc 101 is divided into a unit called a sector, and logical sector numbers (LSN) from 0 to the Last LSN are assigned to the sectors. Also, at the beginning and the termination of the volume space, volume structures are recorded. Further, between these volume structures, a partition space for recording structure information on a file and a file as user data is allocated.
In the partition space, logical block numbers (LBN) from 0 to the Last LBN are assigned to each sector beginning from the leading sector. FIG. 25 shows the structure of the partition space when the directory structure shown in FIG. 26 is recorded on the disc 101 (it should be noted that the following description refers to parameters specified in the DVD-RAM standard).
In FIG. 26, a directory DIR1 is present under the ROOT directory, and FILE1_1 and FILE 1_2 are present under the DIR1. In this state, in FIG. 25, a space bitmap descriptor is recorded at LBN=0 to 79.
The space bit map descriptor has a space bitmap indicating whether each logical block can be allocated or not. Each bit in the space bitmap corresponds to each logical block, where this bit value of "1" means an unallocated state of the logical block, and "0" means an allocated state.
At LBN=80, a file set descriptor is recorded. In the file set descriptor, location information on a file entry in the ROOT directory is recorded. The file entry will be described later in detail.
At LBN=81, a terminating descriptor is recorded. The terminating descriptor represents a termination of the file set descriptor.
At LBN=82, the file entry of the ROOT directory is recorded. The file entry is used for storing various attribute information specific to each file, information concerning a time stamp, a recorded location of the file, the size of the file and the like and for managing the file as a group of extents. The extent will be described later in detail.
FIG. 27 is an example of a structure of the file entry. In FIG. 27, at a descriptor tag field, information for discriminating among various descriptors such as a space bitmap descriptor, a file set descriptor and a file entry in the partition space is recorded. In the case of the file entry, it is specified to describe a value "261". At an information control block (ICB) tag field, attribute information concerning the file entry itself is recorded. An extended attribute field is used for describing the attribute information other than that specified in the attribute information field in the file entry. At an allocation descriptor field, allocation descriptors are recorded in a required number for managing a contiguous area of logical blocks as one extent.
FIG. 28 shows a structure of the allocation descriptor. In the allocation descriptor, an extent is represented by the extent length and the extent location.
FIG. 29 shows an interpretation on the upper 2 bits in the extent length included in the allocation descriptor. The upper 2 bits represent an allocation state and a recording state of the extent.
The value of "0" represents an allocated and recorded extent, and data of the file is recorded. The value of "1" represents an allocated and not recorded extent, and the area is allocated to a specific file/directory but the data is not recorded therein. The value of "2" represents an unallocated and not recorded extent, where no data is recorded. The value of "3" represents an extent continuing from the allocation descriptor. At the allocation descriptor field in a file entry, a plurality of allocation descriptors can be recorded, so that one file is constructed by a group of extents managed with these allocation descriptors.
In the directory, a filename of a file included in the directory and location information on the file entry are recorded. According to the UDF, a directory is one type of files, and is recorded at LBN=83 and LBN=85 in FIG. 25.
FIG. 30 shows an example of a structure of the directory file recorded at LBN=85. The directory file is constructed with a plurality of file identifier descriptors, each of which has information concerning each file included in the directory. Major information possessed by each file identifier descriptor is a filename of the corresponding file and location information on the file entry.
The following describes an operation where the data recording/reproducing apparatus reads a desired file from a disc having the above-described UDF file system structure. FIG. 31 shows a logical structure of a directory/file in the file management information conforming to the UDF specification.
In FIG. 31, a file set descriptor is recorded at a predetermined location in the partition space as a part of the file management information. In the file set descriptor, a recording location of a file entry for a ROOT directory file is stored. In the file identifier descriptor in the ROOT directory file, a recording location of a file entry of a directory DIR1 is stored. In a file in the directory DIR1, a plurality of file identifier descriptors are present, each of which stores filenames of FILE1_1 and FILE1_2 and recording locations of their file entries.
The following describes an operation for attempting to acquire a recording location of a target file from the hierarchical structure shown in FIG. 31. Here, it is assumed that the file FILE1_1 is the target file.
Firstly, reference is made to a file set descriptor, from which a location of the file entry of the ROOT directory is acquired.
Next, an allocation descriptor is read from the file entry, so that the location and the length of the extent of the ROOT directory file are obtained, thus reading data of the ROOT directory file. By scanning the thus obtained information on the ROOT directory file, a file identifier descriptor matching "DIR1", which is the directory name of the target, can be detected.
When the file identifier descriptor matching the target directory is detected, then location information on the file entry is obtained from the contents of the file identifier descriptor, while reading the file entry.
Further, an allocation descriptor is read from such a file entry, so that the location and the length of the extent recorded in there are obtained, thus reading data on the directory file.
Then, by scanning the read data of the directory DIR1, a file identifier descriptor matching "FILE1_1", which is a filename of the target, is detected. When the file identifier descriptor matching the target directory is detected, then location information on the file entry is obtained from such a file identifier descriptor, while reading the file entry.
Finally, an allocation descriptor is read from the file entry, so that the location and the length of the extent recorded in there are obtained, thus reading data of the FILE1_1 as the target file.
Next, the following describes an operation where the data recording/reproducing apparatus records data on a disc having a structure according to the UDF file system. The following description deals with a case where FILE1_3 is recorded further under the directory DIR1 with respect to a disc having the partition space shown in FIG. 32.
Firstly, a space bitmap is scanned so that a logical block having a bit value of "1" indicating an unallocated state is obtained. With respect to the unallocated state logical block, data of the FILE1_3 is recorded as an extent. When the recording of the extent is completed, then a file entry indicating the FILE1_3 is recorded with respect to the unallocated logical block.
In this step, location information and a length of the extent indicating the FILE1_3 are recorded in the file entry as allocation descriptors in a required number. In a file of the directory DIR1 as a parent directory of the FILE1_3 a file identifier descriptor indicating the FILE1_3 is recorded.
In this file identifier descriptor, a filename of the FILE1_3 and location information of the file entry are recorded. Then, a bit in the space bitmap corresponding to the sector that was allocated as a result of the above process is set at 0, which indicates an allocated state.
As a result of the above-described process, the logical volume space becomes as shown in FIG. 32. It should be noted that the order of the processing for dealing with the file management information is not limited especially to the above-described example, but a process in the other orders may be carried out.
However, the above-described file management method using the UDF specification has the following problems.
First, according to the UDF specification, a directory is recorded in a partition space as a file, and a file entry also is recorded in the partition space. Therefore, the directory file and file entry might be arranged in a dispersed manner on the disc.
Thus, in the case of attempting to read all files existing under a directory, if a directory file and a file entry are arranged in a dispersed manner, a seek operation with respect to the disc would be generated frequently.
For example, in FIG. 32 also, each of the file entries of FILE1_1, FILE1_2 and FILE1_3 are arranged in a dispersed manner, so that a seek operation is essential for reading these file entries. In such a situation, if a file to be reproduced is a file that requires real time reproduction, such as an AV file, the frequent seek operation would make smooth reproduction difficult.
Similarly, if real time recording is required as in the case of an AV file or the like, when recording the file entry after AV data itself is recorded, a seek operation would be generated with respect to the disc, which interrupts the AV data recording during the seek operation.
In addition, at the time of activating the apparatus, it can be considered that the number of seek operations with respect to the disc can be reduced by performing an on-memory processing by reading all file management information into a memory. However, a lot of seek operations are generated in such a process also, and therefore it would take a long time to activate the apparatus itself. Furthermore, since it is difficult to estimate the required memory capacity in advance, an architecture of a system for arranging computing resources efficiently also becomes difficult.

File managing method and data recorder using the same, data reproducing apparatus, data recording/reproducing apparatus, and disk recorded by the file managing method

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A laser beam controller having a laser beam emitter for emitting a laser beam and a beam receiver which receives the laser beam emitted from the laser beam emitter and outputs a light receipt signal corresponding to a signal level of the laser beam. The laser controller includes a reference signal outputting device for outputting a reference signal in accordance with an environmental humidity of the laser controller. A comparator compares the light receipt signal of the light receiver with the references signal. A control device controls the output of the laser beam emitter in accordance with the comparison result of the comparator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an apparatus for controlling the power of a laser beam in a laser scanner that is used in an electrophotographic apparatus, such as a laser printer.
2. Description of Related Art
In a known electrophotographic apparatus, such as a laser printer, an image is usually printed on recording paper in accordance with image data fed from the outside, as follows:
A laser beam emitted from a laser diode (LD) in accordance with the image data is made incident upon a peripheral surface of a polygonal mirror that rotates at a predetermined constant speed. The laser beam reflected by the polygonal mirror is then made incident upon a surface of a photosensitive drum, which also rotates at a predetermined constant speed, so that the potential of the surface portion of the photosensitive drum illuminated with the laser beam drops, and the quantity of charged toner corresponding to the potential of the photosensitive drum surface is attracted to the surface portion of the photosensitive drum on which the potential drop takes place.
Thereafter, a recording paper that has been subjected to a corona charging comes into contact with the drum surface of the photosensitive drum that has a toner attracted thereon, so that the toner is transferred to the recording paper to print an image on the recording paper in accordance with the image data.
The laser head (laser diode) and the polygonal mirror are usually united to form a laser scanner. Referring to FIG. 3, the laser beam emitted from laser diode 1 is partly received by a photodiode 2 that is located in the vicinity of the LD 1 and which is connected to an inverting input terminal of a differential amplifier 3 and one end of a variable resistor Rm. The other end of the variable resistor Rm is connected to a non-inverting input terminal of the differential amplifier 3.
The output of the differential amplifier 3 is input to a non-inverting input terminal of a comparator 4. A constant voltage source 5 is connected to an inverting input terminal of the comparator 4 to define a reference voltage Vref of the laser beam. A HIGH level signal "H" or a LOW level signal "L" of the comparator 4 which represents the comparison result of the voltages between the inputted terminals thereof is input to a central processing unit (CPU) 6.
The CPU 6 outputs power data to a digital-analogue converter (D/A converter) 7. The power data increases or decreases the power of the laser diode 1 until the signal outputted by the comparator 4 is inverted, when the output signal of the comparator 4 is "L" or "H", respectively. The power data converted by the D/A converter 7 is sent to the laser diode 1 through a current source 8, in which the voltage is converted to an electric current, and a switch 9.
When the external image data VIDEO is input to the switch 9, the laser diode 1 is supplied with the electric current from the current source 8.
A light emission permitting signal ENABLE is input from the outside to the current source 8 to permit the laser diode 1 to be supplied with electric current.
In the conventional laser scanner, as constructed above, the laser beam emitted from the laser diode 1 is received by the photodiode 2, so that an electric current produced by the photodiode 2 is supplied to the variable resistor Rm. Consequently, a potential difference Vm in proportion to the power of the laser beam is produced between the opposite ends of the variable resistor Rm, so that the signal representing the laser beam power is input to the comparator 4 from the differential amplifier 3.
Upon assembling the laser beam scanner, the power of the laser diode 1 is adjusted to a predetermined value. In the adjusting operation, the resistance of the variable resistor Rm is adjusted to make the potential difference Vm coincidental with the reference voltage Vref defined by the constant voltage source 5, while monitoring the output of the differential amplifier 3. After the adjustment of the resistance of the variable resistor Rm is completed, the resistance is fixed, and the variable resistor Rm is accommodated in a housing of the laser beam scanner.
When the laser beam scanner is incorporated in, for example, a laser printer or the like (not shown), the current supplied from the current source 8 (i.e., the analogue power data converted by the D/A converter 7) is gradually increased from zero by the control of the CPU 6, thereby varying the power of the laser diode 1. The power is then input as a potential difference Vm to the non-inverting input terminal (+) of the comparator 4 through the differential amplifier 3.
When the output of the comparator 4 in which the potential difference Vm is compared with the reference voltage Vref defined by the constant voltage source 5 is inverted from "L" to "H", the CPU 6 stops increasing the power data. Thus, the laser beam power can be automatically controlled.
The automatic power control is effected in accordance with the input timing of a timing signal SAMPLE from outside into the CPU 6. The timing signal SAMPLE is usually a pulse signal which is outputted at a cycle corresponding to one line of an image or one or a few pages of image represented by the image data VIDEO. Accordingly, the automatic power control is carried out so that when the timing signal SAMPLE is "L", namely, when no image is scanned, the laser beam power is at a predetermined value.
Note that the automatic power control is effected when the timing signal SAMPLE is input to the CPU 6 during the emission of the laser beam, namely, in accordance with need.
In an electrophotographic apparatus, such as a laser printer, the print density varies depending on the environmental condition, including humidity or temperature, etc. For instance, when the humidity increases, the quantity of charged toner decreases, and accordingly, the amount of toner transferred onto the recording paper is increased, thereby increasing the print density.
To prevent this, it is desirable that the operator can easily adjust the power of the laser beam in equipment that has already been installed. However, in the prior art, the power of the laser beam is adjusted only by adjusting the resistance of the variable resistor Rm, which is usually a trimmer, and accordingly, to adjust the power of the laser beam after the laser scanner is installed in, for example, a laser printer, it is necessary to first disassemble the laser beam scanner from the laser printer and then open the housing thereof so that the resistance of the variable resistor Rm may be adjusted. These operations are rather troublesome.
Furthermore, since the conventional automatic power control is realized by the comparison of the potential difference Vm, proportional to the power of the laser beam, and the fixed reference voltage Vref defined by the voltage source 5, it is impossible to adjust the print density depending on the environmental condition.


Systems and methods are disclosed for providing wireless network communications. The disclosed systems and methods may include receiving first data from a wire line network at a transceiver placed at a location on the wire line network. The location may comprise a place where the wire line network is present, where electrical power for the transceiver is present, and where a service provider of the wireless network communications has a legal right to locate the transceiver. Furthermore, the disclosed systems and methods may include transmitting the first data wirelessly from the transceiver to a wireless device and receiving second data at the transceiver wirelessly from the wireless device.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to methods and systems for providing wireless network communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to providing wireless network communications using, for example, wireless to Ethernet communications.
II. Background Information
Wireless is a term used to describe radio transmissions via the airwaves. Wireless is a very generic term that may refer to numerous forms of non-wired transmission, including amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) radio, television (TV), cellular telephones, portable telephones, and wireless local area networks (LANs). Various techniques are used to provide wireless transmission, including infrared line of sight, cellular, microwave, satellite, packet radio, and spread spectrum. In some situations, device networking can be performed wirelessly. For example, some enterprises, such as coffee shops and hotels, have installed wireless networking to offer this service to their customers. These wireless networks are often referred to as "hot spots." Thus, the conventional strategy is for an enterprise to provide wireless networking on or near an enterprises' premises. This often causes problems because the conventional strategy does not provide a ubiquitous wireless network within a particular community. For example, the conventional strategy only provides wireless networking on or near an enterprise's premises.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for methods and systems for providing wireless network communications more optimally. Furthermore, there is a need for providing wireless network communications using, for example, wireless to Ethernet communications.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and systems for providing wireless network communications


A simple, convenient and inexpensive apparatus for the concentration or evaporation of aqueous solutions typically used in biomedical research and development. The apparatus involves the use of a combined vacuum and blow-down effect, optionally including the application of heat. Using the apparatus a vacuum, as can be provided by a common water aspirator, serves the multiple purposes of facilitating the evaporation, creating the blow-down effect, and flushing the evaporated solvent from the system.

There are several options presently available for use in concentrating solutions used in biomedical research and development. The solutions are aqueous in many instances, but may also frequently contain organic solvents that are miscible with water. Evaporation of organic solvents having low boiling points can often be performed using a standard "rotavapor" type device. Solvents having higher boiling points are typically removed by the use of distillation apparatuses. (e.g., a rotavapor of the RE-111 and RE-121 series, as are available from Buchi/Brinkmann through VWR Scientific).
Methods commonly used to remove water from solutions containing biopolymers typically involve lyophilization or freeze drying. For instance, such methods commonly employ a multipurpose freeze-drying apparatus such as that available from VWR Scientific as the Yamato Parkinson Freeze Dryer Model DC41-A, and the CD8 model multipurpose freeze dryer available from Heto Lab Equipment, Denmark. In such a method the sample is frozen in a tube or a flask, and a vacuum is applied. The removal of water is then performed from a solid state (e.g., ice) into a receiving flask, which is also cooled to collect the water vapor.
When an aqueous solution also contains an organic solvent that is miscible with water, it may not be possible to perform a lyophilization procedure, particularly if the mixture does not solidify upon cooling. In this case a number of other evaporation techniques can be used. Such a solution can be subjected to a vacuum, as described above, under conditions that prevent the sample from "bumping" (i.e., boiling in a manner that causes the solution to splash rapidly).
The solution can then be agitated or rotated to generate a centrifugal force. Agitation can be performed using, for instance, a Buchler vortex evaporator (e.g., model 09-548 available from Fisher Scientific, or Labconco RapidVap Models 16-317-1 and 16-317-3). Rotation can be performed using an instrument such as a New DNA SpeedVac instrument (e.g., Savant model DNA110, Jouan models RC 10.10 and RC 10.22, HETO models HS-1-60 and HS-1-110). Instruments of the former type provide a combination of gyrating motion, heat, and either vacuum or blowdown. Instruments of the latter type are generally referred to as centrifugal concentrators and are among the most common evaporators in laboratories.
With both types of evaporators, the evaporation process is generally facilitated by the use of a heating source, in fact, the vacuum chamber generally includes a thermostat-controlled heating device.
The vacuum needed to use such evaporators is typically provided by the use of a high-vacuum pump (e.g., HETO RZ 2 type) that is capable of generating pressure down to at least 1 mm Hg. Such pumps are often oil-type pumps that must be protected from solvents and water by the use of cooling traps (e.g., HETO CT60e type), in order to condense the evaporated solvent before it reaches the oil. Alternatively, such a pump can be a diaphragm-type that does not require the use of oil, but which typically does not generate as much vacuum (for instance, down to 10-20 mm Hg), thereby requiring longer evaporation times.
A simple evaporation process can be achieved by the use of a heating block such as the "Reacti-Therm" dry block available from Pierce as product #18800/18801. In such a process a tube containing a sample is inserted into a block that can be heated to a desired temperature.
A more efficient evaporation is achieved in the heated block if a gas is streaming through to carry the gaseous solvent with it. These types of evaporators are commonly called blow-down evaporators (Pierce, Reacti-Vap evaporator #18780). Examples of such evaporators include hot-blocks from Pierce and hot-block/blow-down combinations as described above. A type of blow-down unit has recently become available from Zymark ("TurboVap LV"). This unit involves the use of air or gas fed into a tube that is kept in a water-bath, in order to generate what is described as a gas vortex shearing technique.
The evaporation units presently available, however, generally continue to encounter significant drawbacks. Generally, the evaporation units that are the least expensive and easiest to use are the same units that require the longest evaporation times, or have other associated drawbacks. In contrast, the more expensive and technically complicated units are often unnecessary for simple procedures and cost-prohibitive for many labs.
What is clearly needed is an evaporation unit that provides an optimal combination of cost, ease of use, and efficiency for evaporating aqueous solvents commonly encountered in biomedical research.

Apparatus for rapid evaporation of aqueous solutions


An access device has an axis extending between a proximal end and an opposing distal end, and properties for facilitating introduction into the body of an instrument having a pointed distal tip. The device includes a housing having walls defining a channel extending through the device and a valve disposed in the housing across the channel and adapted to form a seal around the instrument. The valve includes inner portions defining an aperture to receive the instrument and outer portions extending radially outwardly of the inner portions. Means carried by the housing is positioned to be disposed between the instrument and at least the outer portion of the seal for isolating the seal from the pointed distal tip during insertion of the instrument.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to trocars and more specifically to devices for protecting an septum seal within a trocar.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Laparoscopic surgery is conducted through trocars which extend across the abdominal wall and provide channels through which instruments such as scopes, retractors and staplers can be inserted to perform surgery in the abdominal cavity. As a part of this procedure, the abdomen is inflated with an insufflation gas to maintain the abdomen in a distended state. Valves are typically provided in the trocars to form seals around the instruments in order to prevent leakage of this insufflation gas. A variable diameter septum valve is of particular advantage for this purpose as it is able to conform to any size of instrument, regardless of its diameter, without increasing the friction or drag on the instrument. A variable diameter septum valve of this nature is disclosed and claimed by applicant in the parent application Ser. No. 07/732,141, filed on Jul. 18, 1992 and entitled Lever Actuated Septum Seal, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,737.
Variable diameter seals have a high degree of compliance which is of particular advantage in accommodating different sized of instruments. However, this compliance can present a problem if a particular instrument is bifurcated or is inserted off center. Under these circumstances, the sharp point of the instrument can localize forces along the side of the valve providing undesirable cupping and perhaps tearing of the seal. This can occur with any septum seal, although the highly compliant variable diameter seals appear to be most susceptible to damage.


The present disclosure provides a novel integrated entropy-based method that combines genome-wide profiling and network analyses for diagnostic and prognostic applications. The present disclosure further provides the integration of multiomics datasets, network analyses and machine learning that enable predictions on diagnosing infectious diseases and predicting the probability that they will escape treatment/the host immune system and/or become antibiotic resistant. The present disclosure provides a primary gateway towards the development of highly accurate infectious disease prognostics.

It is generally assumed that in order to overcome a stress, bacteria activate a response such as the stringent response under nutrient deprivation1-3 or the SOS response in the presence of DNA damage4,5. Measuring the activation of a specific response, or genes associated with this response, can thereby function as an indicator of what type of stress is occurring in a bacterium. For instance, lexA, encoding a master regulator of the SOS response in Escherichia coli and Salmonella6,7, is upregulated in response to fluoroquinolones, indicative of the DNA damage resulting from this class of antibiotics'. Moreover, genes implicated in a stress response can help construct statistical models for predicting growth/fitness outcomes under that stress. For instance, gene-panels have been assembled from transcriptomic data to predict whether a bacterium can successfully grow in the presence of specific antibiotics8-12. This type of prediction of growth under antibiotic conditions can lead to point-of-care diagnostics that guide decisions on antibiotic prescription13.
While methods that are based on a known stress-response or a gene-panel can be valuable in determining a bacterium's sensitivity to a stress, these methods have limited applicability: they only work for small sets of strains, species or environments. For instance, responses such as the stringent or SOS response are only well characterized in a small number of species, genes in a gene-panel may not be present in other strains or species, and responses are not necessarily regulated in the same manner in different strains or species14,15. This means that every time such an approach is applied to a new strain, species or condition, a new gene-panel needs to be assembled and validated, which requires the collection of large amounts of data for model training. In contrast, a universal stress response signature would allow for the development of a predictive model that would work for multiple species and conditions, without relying on collecting new data for different settings. While certain organisms may elicit a "general stress response", i.e. regulatory changes coordinated by the same mechanism in response to different types of stress, this general response has not been defined for many species, and it is still not clear to what extent the downstream transcriptional changes triggered under different stress factors overlap16. Until this point, there is no generally agreed upon stress response signature that performs as a fitness predictor, with equal or better performance than the gene-panel approaches.
One possible key ingredient in building a universal predictor is to base a prediction not on specific genes, but rather on a bacterium's global response to stress. A global, genome-wide stress response can be captured on at least two organizational levels; RNA-Seq captures transcriptional changes, while transposon-insertion sequencing (Tn-Seq) characterizes the phenotypic importance of genes, i.e. a gene's contribution to fitness in a specific environment17-22. It was previously shown that when an organism is challenged with an evolutionarily familiar stress (i.e. one that has been experienced for many generations), it triggers a subtle response, whereas the response becomes more chaotic when the bacterium responds to a relatively unfamiliar stress, for instance antibiotics17. This suggests that the degree to which a bacterium is adapted to a specific stress may be predicted from the global response it elicits. It is possible to observe genome-wide differences between stress-susceptible and stress-resistant bacteria in data from previously published transcriptomic studies that mostly focus on gene-panel approaches. Specifically, in these data it can be observed that the number of differentially expressed genes, and the magnitude of changes in expression seem to be more dramatic in stress-susceptible strains than stress-resistant ones8-12,23. Therefore, if these are indeed characteristic differences between responses coming from stress-sensitive and stress-resistant bacteria, and these differences can be appropriately quantified, an opportunity would arise to define a universal method that can predict fitness for multiple species and conditions.

Forecasting bacterial survival-success and adaptive evolution through multiomics stress-response mapping and machine learning


The present invention relates to a method for detecting fetal Down syndrome (Trisomy 21), trisomy 13, trisomy 18 and other chromosomal anomalies during prenatal screening by analyzing blood samples from a pregnant woman. More particularly the present invention relates to a method for improving detection efficiency in screening for the anomalies by measuring the amount of the free beta human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and nicked or fragmented or aberrant forms of free beta (HCG), all of which are referenced throughout this application as free beta (HCG) in blood samples from pregnant women.

Down syndrome, also referred to as Trisomy 21, is the most common congenital cause of severe mental retardation. Generally, fetal Down syndrome can be determined by diagnostic procedures including amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling and karyotyping. However, these diagnostic procedures are invasive and involve risk to the woman and the fetus. For this and other reasons, amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling and karyotyping are not routinely performed during all pregnancies. Instead, one or more screening methods may be utilized to determine when the risk to the pregnancy warrants the risk of undergoing an invasive diagnostic procedure.
The incidence of Down syndrome increases significantly with increasing maternal age. Historically, the prenatal detection of Down syndrome has focused on pregnant women at and over the age of 35, at which ages the risks of Down syndrome approach or exceed the risks of diagnostic procedures utilized to detect fetal Down syndrome. Therefore the standard method of prenatal screening has involved selecting women for diagnostic amniocentesis on the basis of maternal age. Age, however, is an inadequate screening criterion in that only about 20% of all Down syndrome pregnancies can be detected by carrying out amniocentesis and karyotyping on the 5% of pregnant women most at risk, that is, those aged 35 years or greater. And, because in actual clinical practice only about half of the women aged 35 years or greater undergo amniocentesis and karyotyping, fewer than 10% of Down syndrome pregnancies are prenatally detected.
In 1984 an association between lowered maternal blood alphafetoprotein (AFP) levels and fetal Down syndrome was discovered. For example, see "An association between low maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein and fetal chromosomal abnormalities"; Merkatz, Macri, et al.; Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 148:996, 1984; the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. In this publication it was noted that other chromosomal trisomies, in particular Trisomy 13 and Trisomy 18, were also associated with lowered maternal blood AFP levels. The incidence of these additional chromosomal trisomies (1 in 5000 pregnancies and 1 in 6600 pregnancies, respectively) is significantly lower than the general a priori risk associated with Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome, 1 in 800 pregnancies). However, because of the association of these other chromosomal trisomies with lowered MSAFP levels, and elevated or depressed free beta (HCG) levels, such abnormalities will also be detected within a screening protocol utilizing maternal blood AFP and free beta (HCG) and possibly additional markers described herein. It is obvious to those skilled in the art that in using the protocol described herein for Trisomy 21, the detection of Trisomy 13, Trisomy 18, Turners syndrome and other chromosomal anomalies may also be accomplished.
The association between lowered maternal blood AFP levels and fetal Down syndrome presented the opportunity to use a non-invasive blood screening test in the detection of Down syndrome cases in young, apparently unaffected families where approximately 80% of Down syndrome cases occur. It is estimated that the use of a screening test based on low maternal blood AFP (as a screening marker) would lead to the prenatal detection of approximately 20% of all cases of fetal Down syndrome.
Another method for screening-involves measuring the level of unconjugated estriol (UE) in maternal blood. For example, see "Maternal blood screening for Dwon syndrome in early pregnancy"; Wald, et al. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynocology (BMJ) Volume 95, April 1988, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
More recently an association between elevated maternal blood levels of the Intact HCG molecule and the alpha subunit of HCG (HCG is composed of two subunits) and fetal Down syndrome was discovered. For example, see "Abnormal Maternal Serum Chorionic Gonadotropin Levels in Pregnancies with Fetal Chromosome Abnormalities"; Bogart, Pandian and Jones; Prenatal Diagnosis, Vol. 7, 623-630 (1987) the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. In the Bogart article it is estimated that the use of elevated maternal blood Intact HCG levels and elevated maternal blood levels of the alpha subunit of HCG, would detect approximately 68% of the chromosomally abnormal fetuses. However, these results were obtained from a study on pregnancies at 18-25 weeks of gestation and the affected cases appear to be of women previously identified as being at risk for Down syndrome.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,693 to Bogart discloses an association between elevated maternal blood HCG levels and elevated maternal blood levels of the alpha subunit of HCG, in weeks 18-25 of pregnancy and fetal Down syndrome. In the Bogart patent it is estimated that the use of elevated maternal blood HCG levels and elevated maternal blood levels of the alpha subunit of HCG in a screening protocol, would detect a greater percentage of chromosomally abnormal fetuses than the use of AFP or UE alone. In a paper entitled "Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Levels in Pregnancies with Aneuploid Fetuses" (Bogart et al., Prenatal Diagnosis, Vol. 9, 379-384 (1989)), Bogart discloses that a screening method utilizing HCG and the alpha subunit of HCG is not useful at 9-11 weeks gestation (the first trimester of pregnancy) for selecting pregnancies at risk for fetal aneuploidy (including Down syndrome).
Generally, as suggested above, screening by evaluation of maternal blood HCG has involved only the measurement of the Intact HCG molecule and additionally the measurement of the alpha subunit of HCG. Although these screening methods do detect fetal Down syndrome, there is a need and a desire for a method which detects a greater percentage of fetal Down syndrome cases.
I have discovered a previously unknown association between elevated levels of maternal blood free beta (HCG) and fetal Down syndrome. I have also discovered a previously unknown association between the maternal blood level of free beta (HCG) and the maternal blood level of AFP and fetal Down syndrome. I have further discovered a previously unknown association between the ratio of the maternal blood level of free beta (HCG) to the maternal blood level of the intact HCG molecule and fetal Down syndrome. I have still further discovered that using a multivariate discriminant analysis technique improves the detection efficiency of a screening method using the maternal blood level of free beta (HCG), or the maternal blood level of free beta (HCG) and the maternal blood level of AFP, or the log of either, or the log of both, especially when gestational age is also incorporated as a variable in the discriminant analysis technique, for a chosen risk cut-off level. Gestational age refers to the age of the pregnant woman's fetus. Detection efficiency refers to the percentage of cases of fetal Down syndrome which are correctly detected for a chosen risk cut off level. The risk cut off level will be more fully explained in a following section. Discriminant analysis is a generally known approach to multivariate analysis involving the separation of a population into two or more groups on the basis of probability. Discriminant analysis is also sometimes described as a way of constructing a linear combination of independent variables, thus reducing the problem of measuring group differences to a univariate problem. A general discussion of discriminant analysis can be found in Marketing Research; Churchill, G.A.; Dryden, 1976; Chapter 15, pages 530-543, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. I have discovered that subjecting the maternal blood levels of free beta (HCG), the maternal blood levels of intact HCG, the ratio of the maternal blood level of free beta (HCG) to the maternal blood level of the intact HCG molecule, the maternal blood level of AFP, the maternal blood level of UE, and gestational age to multi-variate discriminant analysis detects a greater percentage, with a lower false positive rate, of fetal Down syndrome cases than any other known screening method for the prenatal detection of Down syndrome. I have further discovered that a still greater number the cases of fetal Down syndrome may be detected by using only the measurements of the maternal blood levels of free beta (HCG) and the maternal blood levels of AFP and subjecting the log of each measurement and gestational age to a multivariate discriminant analysis. These and other discoveries will be more fully explained in the Summary of the Invention section and the Detailed Description of the Invention section.
One object of the present invention is to provide a method and process for screening for fetal Down syndrome which detects a greater percentage of fetal Down syndrome cases with a given false positive rate than other known prenatal screening methods.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and process for screening for fetal Down syndrome which has a lesser false positive rate for a given detection percentage than other known methods.
A still further object of the present invention is to apply multi-variate discriminant analysis to methods for screening for Down syndrome to detect a greater percentage of fetal Down syndrome cases with a lesser false positive rate.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and process for screening for fetal Down syndrome by measuring the level of maternal blood free beta (HCG).
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method and process for screening for fetal Down syndrome by measuring the maternal blood level of AFP and the maternal blood level of free beta (HCG).
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following description of the invention.

Method for detecting down sydrown by non-invasive maternal blood screening


In a computer-implemented method of facilitating detection of document-related fraud, fraudulent document detection rules may be generated or updated by training a machine learning program using image data corresponding to physical documents, and fraud determinations corresponding to the documents. The documents and fraudulent document detection rules may correspond to a first type of document. Image data corresponding to an image of one of the physical documents may be received, where the physical document corresponds to the first type of document. By applying the fraudulent document detection rules to the image data, it may be determined that the physical document is, or may be, fraudulent. An indication of whether the physical document is, or may be, fraudulent may be displayed to one or more people via one or more respective computing device user interfaces.

Financial fraud, in its many forms, is a problem of enormous magnitude and scope, causing billions of dollars in economic losses and impacting many millions of people. Types of financial fraud include use of a lost or stolen card, account takeover, skimming, chargeback ("friendly") fraud, counterfeiting, forgeries and application (e.g., loan application) fraud, to name just a few. The problem only continues to grow as various technological advances, intended to improve convenience and efficiency in the marketplace, provide new opportunities for bad actors. For example, an ever-increasing amount of fraud may be linked to online transactions made via the Internet.
Various software applications have been developed to detect potentially fraudulent transactions. For example, dollar amounts and geographic locations have generally been used to flag particular credit or debit card transactions, with cardholders then being contacted by employees of the card issuer to determine whether the transactions were indeed fraudulent. To ensure that most instances of fraud are captured, however, such techniques generally have a low threshold for triggering a fraud alert. As a result, numerous fraud alerts are false positives. The prevalence of false positives leads to a large cost in terms of the drain on human resources (e.g., calling customers to discuss each suspect transaction, and/or other manual investigation techniques), and considerable distraction or annoyance for cardholders. To provide a solution to these shortcomings in the field of automated fraud detection, innovative processing techniques capable of reducing false positives are needed.
Other conventional processes relating to financial fraud are likewise resource-intensive. For example, efforts to combat counterfeiting of financial or other documents (e.g., personal checks, identification cards used to obtain loans, etc.) may be typically limited to time-consuming and error-prone human review (i.e., the "eye test").

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company


A bookbinding apparatus which forms a booklet by coating adhesive onto a spine of a sheet bundle, the bookbinding apparatus comprising: an adhesive tank which stores adhesive; a supplying section which supplies solid adhesive to the adhesive tank; a melting section which melts the solid adhesive supplied to the adhesive tank; a coating section which coats the adhesive onto the spine of the sheet bundle; and a controller which controls the supplying section to supply the solid adhesive from the supplying section to the adhesive tank when an amount of adhesive that has been coated by the coating section reaches equal to or more than a predetermined value.

This invention relates to a bookbinding apparatus for forming a booklet by coating adhesive onto a spine of a sheet bundle and a bookbinding system.
A bookbinding apparatus for simply forming a booklet by combining a cover sheet, onto a bundle of a plurality of sheets onto which images have been formed by a copier and a printer, has been known. A general outline of bookbinding technology will be described. Firstly, a plurality of sheets, onto which images have been formed, are stacked and aligned to form a sheet bundle. Next, adhesive, such as glue is coated onto the spine of the stacked and aligned sheet bundle. Then a cover sheet is conveyed and stopped at a predetermined position to bind the cover sheet with the spine of the sheet bundle, onto which adhesive has been coated. The sheet bundle and the cover sheet are bound to form a booklet according to the sequence described above.
Since adhesive is consumed to be pasted onto the spine of a sheet bundle when a booklet is formed, a constant amount of adhesive has to be kept in the bookbinding apparatus in order to continuously form booklets. Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-209746 discloses a technology for keeping a constant amount of adhesive in a bookbinding apparatus.
In the bookbinding apparatus disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-209746, an adhesive reservoir for storing melted high temperature adhesive is provided. A thermocouple is provided to detect the temperature inside the adhesive reservoir in this adhesive reservoir. In case when a remaining amount of adhesive in the adhesive reservoir is large, since melted adhesive contacts with the thermocouple, temperature detected by the thermocouple is high. However in case when the remaining amount of adhesive is small, melted adhesive does not contact with the thermocouple and the temperature detected by the thermocouple becomes lower. Thus, in case when the temperature detected by the thermocouple becomes lower than a predetermined temperature, it is considered that the remaining amount of adhesive agent is small, and solid adhesive is supplied to the adhesive reservoir. A constant amount of adhesive can be kept in the adhesive reservoir by the operations described above.
According to Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-209746, whether the remaining amount of the adhesive is small is determined by detecting the temperature inside the adhesive reservoir. However, due to the effect of a heater inside the adhesive reservoir, there is a case that the temperature detected by the thermocouple does not become equal to or lower than the predetermined temperature even though the remaining amount of adhesive is in a low level situation. As a result, there is a case that solid state adhesive is not supplied even though the remaining amount of adhesive is small and a bookbinding process is not properly conducted due to insufficient remaining amount of adhesive.

Bookbinding apparatus and bookbinding system

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.