A bioprocess for producing carboxylic acids, alcohols and aldehydes is provided by culturing Candida sp. in a fermentation medium containing various defined substrates.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the use of yeast strains to modify substrates via biooxidation. More particularly, the present invention relates to processes for converting certain substrates into alcohols or carboxylic acids utilizing yeast.
2. Background of Related Art
Aliphatic dioic acids, alcohols and compounds having combinations of alcohols and acids are versatile chemical intermediates useful as raw materials for the preparation of adhesives, fragrances, polyamides, polyesters, and antimicrobials. While chemical routes for the synthesis of long-chain α,ω-dicarboxylic acids are available, the synthesis is complicated and results in mixtures containing dicarboxylic acids of shorter chain lengths. As a result, extensive purification steps are necessary. While it is known that long-chain dioic acids can also be produced by microbial transformation of alkanes, fatty acids or esters, chemical synthesis has remained the preferred route, presumably due to limitations with the previously available biological approaches.
Several strains of yeast are known to excrete α,ω-dicarboxylic acids as a byproduct when cultured on alkanes or fatty acids. In particular, yeast belonging to the genus Candida, such as C. albicans, C. cloacae, C. guillermondii, C. intermedia, C. lipolytica, C. maltosa, C. parapsilosis, and C. zeylenoides are known to produce such dicarboxylic acids. (Agr. Biol. Chem. 35, 2033-2042 (1971).) In addition, various strains of the yeast C. tropicalis are known to produce dicarboxylic acids ranging in chain lengths from C11 through C18 as a byproduct when cultured on alkanes or fatty acids as the carbon source (Okino et al., B M Lawrence, B D Mookherjee and B J Willis (eds.), in Flavors and Fragrances: A World Perspective. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of Essential Oils, Flavors and Fragrances, Elsevier Science Publishers BV Amsterdam (1988)), and are the basis of several patents as reviewed by Bühler and Schindler, in Aliphatic Hydrocarbons in Biotechnology, H. J. Rehm and G. Reed (eds), Vol. 169, Verlag Chemie, Weinheim (1984).
Studies of the biochemical processes by which yeasts metabolize alkanes and fatty acids have revealed three types of oxidation reactions: α-oxidation of alkanes to alcohols; ω-oxidation of fatty acids to α,ω-dicarboxylic acids; and the degradative β-oxidation of fatty acids to CO2 and water. In C. tropicalis the first step in the ω-oxidation pathway is catalyzed by a membrane-bound enzyme complex (ω-hydroxylase complex) including a cytochrome P450 monooxygenase and a NADPH-cytochrome reductase. This hydroxylase complex is responsible for the primary oxidation of the terminal methyl group in alkanes and fatty acids (Gilewicz et al., Can. J. Microbiol. 25:201 (1979)). The genes which encode the cytochrome P450 and NADPH reductase components of the complex have previously been identified as P450ALK and P450RED respectively, and have also been cloned and sequenced (Sanglard et al., Gene 76:121-136 (1989)). P450ALK has also been designated P450ALK1. More recently, ALK genes have been designated by the symbol CYP and RED genes have been designated by the symbol CPR. See, e.g., Nelson, Pharmacogenetics 6(1):1-42 (1996), which is incorporated herein by reference. See also Ohkuma et al., DNA and Cell Biology 14:163-173 (1995), Seghezzi et al., DNA and Cell Biology, 11:767-780 (1992) and Kargel et al., Yeast 12:333-348 (1996), each incorporated herein by reference. For example, P450ALK is also designated CYP52 according to the nomenclature of Nelson, supra.
Cytochromes P450 (P450s) are terminal monooxidases of the multicomponent enzyme system described above. They comprise a superfamily of proteins which exist widely in nature having been isolated from a variety of organisms, e.g., various mammals, fish, invertebrates, plants, mollusks, crustaceans, lower eukaryotes and bacteria (Nelson, supra). First discovered in rodent liver microsomes as a carbon-monoxide binding pigment as described, e.g., in Garfinkel, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 77:493-509 (1958), which is incorporated herein by reference, P450s were later named based on their absorption at 450 nm in a reduced-CO coupled difference spectrum as described, e.g., in Omura et al., J. Biol. Chem. 239:2370-2378 (1964), which is incorporated herein by reference.
P450s catalyze the metabolism of a variety of endogenous and exogenous compounds (Nelson, supra). Endogenous compounds include steroids, prostanoids, eicosanoids, fat-soluble vitamins, fatty acids, mammalian alkaloids, leukotrines, biogenic amines and phytolexins (Nelson, supra). P450 metabolism involves such reactions as aliphatic hydroxylation, aromatic oxidation, alkene epoxidation, nitrogen dealkylation, oxidative deamination, oxygen dealkylation, nitrogen oxidation, oxidative desulfuration, oxidative dehalogenation, oxidative denitrification, nitro reduction, azo reduction, tertiary amine N-oxide reduction, arene oxide reduction and reductive dehalogenation. (P G Wislocki, G T Miwa and AYH Lu, Reaction Catalyzed by the Cytochrome P-450 System, Enzymatic Basis of Detoxication, Vol. 1, Academic Press (1980).) These reactions generally make the compound more water soluble, which is conducive for excretion, and more electrophilic. (These electrophilic products have detrimental effects if they react with DNA or other cellular constituents.) The electrophilic products can then react through conjugation with low molecular weight hydrophilic substances resulting in glucoronidation, sulfation, acetylation, amino acid conjugation or glutathione conjugation typically leading to inactivation and elimination as described, e.g., in Klaassen et al., Toxicology, 3rd ed, Macmillan, New York, 1986, incorporated herein by reference.
Fatty acids are ultimately formed from alkanes after two additional oxidation steps, catalyzed by alcohol oxidase (Kemp et al. Appl. Microbiol. and Biotechnol, 28, 370-374 (1988)) and aldehyde dehydrogenase. The, ω-hydroxylase enzymes of the ω-oxidation pathway are located in the endoplasmic reticulum, while the enzymes catalyzing the last two steps, the fatty alcohol oxidase and the fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase, are located in the peroxisomes. The fatty acids can be further oxidized through the same or similar pathway to the corresponding dicarboxylic acid. The ω-oxidation of fatty acids proceeds via the ω-hydroxy fatty acid and its aldehyde derivative, to the corresponding dicarboxylic acid without the requirement for CoA activation. However, both fatty acids and dicarboxylic acids can be degraded, after activation to the corresponding acyl-CoA ester through the β-oxidation pathway in the peroxisomes, leading to chain shortening. In mammalian systems, both fatty acid and dicarboxylic acid products of ω-oxidation are activated to their CoA-esters at equal rates and are substrates for both mitochondrial and peroxisomal β-oxidation (J. Biochem., 102, 225-234 (1987)). In yeast, β-oxidation takes place solely in the peroxisomes (Agr. Biol. Chem., 49, 1821-1828 (1985)).
Metabolic pathways can be manipulated in an attempt to increase or decrease the production of various products or by-products. Knowing that fatty acids possessing one or more internal double bonds or secondary alcohol functionality are capable of undergoing ω-oxidation, the ω-oxidation pathway can be manipulated to produce greater amounts of dicarboxylic acids. U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,466, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method for producing β,ω-dicarboxylic acids in high yields by culturing C. tropicalis strains having disrupted chromosomal POX4A, POX4B and both POX5 genes. The POX4 and POX5 gene disruptions effectively block the β-oxidation pathway at its first reaction (which is catalyzed by acyl-CoA oxidase) in a C. tropicalis host strain. The POX4 and POX5 genes encode distinct subunits of long chain acyl-CoA oxidase, which are the peroxisomal polypeptides (PXPs) designated PXP-4 and PXP-5, respectively. The disruption of these genes results in a complete block of the β-oxidation pathway thus allowing enhanced yields of dicarboxylic acid by redirecting the substrate toward the ω-oxidation pathway and also preventing reutilization of the dicarboxylic acid products through the β-oxidation pathway.
Similarly, C. tropicalis may also have one or more cytochrome P450 genes and/or reductase genes amplified which results in an increase in the amount of rate-limiting ω-hydroxylase through P450 gene amplification and an increase in the rate of substrate flow through the ω-oxidation pathway. C. tropicalis strain AR40 is an amplified H 5343 strain wherein all four POX4 genes and both copies of the chromosomal POX5 genes are disrupted by a URA3 selectable marker and which also contains 3 additional copies of the cytochrome P450 gene and 2 additional copies of the reductase gene, the P450RED gene. Strain AR40 has the ATCC accession number ATCC 20987. C. tropicalis strain R24 is an amplified H 5343 strain in which all four POX4 genes and both copies of the chromosomal POX5 genes are disrupted by a URA3 selectable marker and which also contains multiple copies of the reductase gene. Strains AR40 and R24 are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,620,878 and 5,648,247, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Processes for utilizing modified C. tropicalis to produce carboxylic acids are also known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,962,285, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses a process for making carboxylic acids by fermenting a β-oxidation blocked C. tropicalis cell in a culture comprised of a nitrogen source, an organic substrate and a cosubstrate. The substrate is an unsaturated aliphatic compound having at least one internal carbon-carbon double bond and at least one terminal methyl group, a terminal carboxyl group and/or a terminal functional group which is oxidizable to a carboxyl group. The fermentation product is then reacted with an oxidizing agent to produce one or more carboxylic acids.
Similar shake flask experiments have been used in the past to test substrates. The terminal methyl group and the terminal double bond of α-alkenes or branched monoacids are oxidized and form alcohol groups or the desired acid groups. The oxidation of the terminal double bond of α-olefins to form a (ω,ω-1) diol is an interesting reaction. The overall oxidation product is thus a (ω,ω-1) hydroxyfatty acid. The biooxidation of α-olefins was first reported by Uemura. (N. Uemura, Industrialization of the Production of Dibasic Acid from n-Paraffins Using Microorganisms, Hakko to Kogyo, 43:436-44 (1985).).
While the genetically modified strains of Candida sp. are able to produce large quantities of product necessary to develop a commercially feasible process, it is not known what effect variations of chain length, functional groups, etc. will have on the ability of C. tropicalis to produce alcohols and carboxylic acids through the process of biooxidation.


A distributed speech recognition system provides for the convenient and expedited insertion of a new speech recognition engine. The system includes a central speech processor linked to at least one speech recognition engine. The at least one speech recognition engine includes means for addressing the central speech processor upon installation within the system. The means for addressing transmits to the central speech processor a message indicating its operating protocol and location to permit the central speech processor to identify and begin transmitting work thereto.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a distributed speech recognition system. More particularly, the invention relates to a distributed speech recognition system utilizing dynamic remote procedure call to connect speech recognition engine wrappers to a central speech processor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recent developments in speech recognition and telecommunication technology have made distributed, automated speech recognition systems for transcription applications a reality. The ability to provide automated transcription is not only limited to speech recognition products utilized on a single PC. Large, distributed systems for automated transcription are currently available.
These distributed speech recognition systems allow subscribers to record speech files at a variety of locations, transmit the recorded speech files to a central processing facility where the speech files are transcribed through the application of speech recognition technology and receive fully transcribed text files of the originally submitted speech files. As those skilled in the art will certainly appreciate, such systems require substantial automation to ensure that all speech files are handled in an orderly and efficient manner.
Prior systems have relied upon a central processing facility linked to clusters of speech recognition engines governed by a speech recognition interface. In accordance with such systems, speech files enter the central processing facility and are simply distributed amongst the plurality of speech recognition clusters with no regard for the efficiency of the cluster to which the file is assigned or the ability of specific speech recognition engines to handle certain speech files.
With the many speech recognition engines linked to the central processing facility it often becomes necessary to add or remove speech recognition engines to the overall system. However, when such speech recognition engines are added, it is necessary that the central processor registry be updated with the location, protocol and availability of the newly added specific speech recognition engine. As current systems rely upon the central processor registry to ensure that interaction between the central processor and the speech recognition engine is possible, updating of the central processor registry may only be completed upon the initialization, or boot-up, of the central speech processor. Specifically, the central speech processor must be powered down, the new speech recognition engine installed, and the central speech processor powered back up to complete the reconfiguration of the operating system, and, consequently, the central processor registry. As such, it is necessary that the entire system be momentarily shut down when one wishes to add a new speech recognition engine to the distributed speech recognition system.
With the foregoing in mind, a need currently exists for a distributed transcription system wherein speech recognition engines are dynamically added without requiring the disruption associated with shutting down the entire system so that the central processor may reinitialize. The present system provides such a transcription system.

Dynamic insertion of a speech recognition engine within a distributed speech recognition system


An optical flow tracking method includes generating a random structure according to an object to be tracked in an image, where the random structure includes at least two structure blocks with fixed relative positions; tracking all structure blocks in the random structure using an optical flow tracking algorithm to obtain a position offset of the random structure; and estimating a target position of the object according to the position offset of the random structure. According to the optical flow tracking method and apparatus provided in embodiments of the present invention, characteristic points of an object in an image are obtained, and a random structure is generated according to the characteristic points, and each random structure is tracked to obtain a position offset of the random structure, so as to estimate a position of the object, thereby reducing tracking errors and effectively improving tracking precision.

In the field of video surveillance, motion of a human face, a pedestrian, or a vehicle is generally detected and tracked using target detection and tracking technology. It also needs to analyze motion information of a target in the field of video compression and robot navigation. Therefore, application scenarios of motion analysis are enriched and have important value. A purpose of motion analysis is to obtain a position offset of an object, so as to track the object. Currently, an optical flow method is usually used to perform motion analysis, and a motion direction and a motion rate of a point in an image can be determined using optical flow calculation. A requirement of the optical flow calculation is that a time interval between adjacent images is very small and no significant change occurs between two adjacent images.
In the prior art, when the optical flow method is used to track a target, a characteristic point is first determined on an object to be tracked in an image; each characteristic point is then tracked one by one using a pyramid optical flow algorithm; a characteristic point with a tracking error is then excluded using a certain criterion; statistics are collected on position offset information of a remaining characteristic point; and a position offset is calculated to obtain a target position of the object to be tracked.
However, different tracking points are prone to ambiguity, thereby resulting in a tracking error and low tracking precision.

Optical flow tracking method and apparatus


Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implement techniques for repurposing digital information. One or more repurposing constraints are associated with information in an electronic document. A digital signature is associated with the repurposable information and the repurposing constraints. The repurposable information can be repurposed and represented as signed information subject to the repurposing constraints.

The present invention relates to digital rights management and signing electronic documents.
A digital signature, like a conventional handwritten signature, identifies a person or entity signing a document. Digital signatures allow a person to attest to something about a document by signing their name to it. Thus, for example, digital signatures can be used to authenticate and safeguard information by allowing authors and others to "sign" electronic documents with a unique electronic signature that identifies the person who applied it as having read, reviewed, or contributed to the document's creation. A digital signature can also verify that a document has not been altered since it was sent.
Key-based signatures encode an electronic document with an encrypted unique signature that positively identifies the person who applied the signature, when it was signed, and other user-determined information. Key-based systems can also control access to a document, allowing only certain persons holding certain keys to read or modify the document. In some applications, a digital signature in a document is bound to that document in such a way that repurposing the signed document—for example, altering the signed document or moving the signature to a different document—invalidates the signature.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Repurposing digitally signed information


An imaging system includes a color correction circuit configured to perform color shading correction of an image independent of lens shading correction of the image. A method for anti-shading correction of an image includes correcting, by a color correction circuit, for color shading of the image independent of lens shading correction of the image.

Lens shading (also known as vignetting) is an optical effect that occurs when less light penetrates through the periphery of a lens than through the center. Lens shading causes corners of an image to become darker than the center of the image.
Color shading occurs when the shading of different color channels is different. Color shading results in unbalanced colors towards the periphery of the image. This effect may be found in most imaging systems, but becomes more substantial as image sensor size (or pixel size) decreases.
Effects of color shading usually accompany lens shading. Thus, conventional anti-shading correction methods only target lens shading correction directly. As a result, conventional anti-shading correction methods correct color shading and lens shading together, rather than separate and independently.

Color shading correction using color channel consistency


A signal transmission circuit having four lanes includes a constant voltage circuit to generate a constant voltage, a current supply circuit, and differential driver circuits respectively placed for the lanes. The current supply circuit receives a constant voltage from the constant voltage circuit and generates four currents having a value corresponding to a prescribed voltage-current conversion ratio and outputs them in parallel. The differential driver circuits respectively receive the currents output from the current supply circuit and output a voltage having an amplitude corresponding to the prescribed voltage-current conversion ratio. The current supply circuit includes a voltage divider circuit and an analog selector, which form a current supply control circuit capable of changing the voltage-current conversion ratio.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signal transmission circuit and, particularly, to a signal transmission circuit of which output amplitude is variable.
2. Description of Related Art
With the advancement of LSI (Large-Scale Integrated circuit) manufacturing technology, a high-performance MPU (Micro Processor Unit) with the operating frequency of 1 GHz or higher has been developed. When such a MPU is used in information processing equipment, particularly in a server/workstation, high-speed and high-volume data transmission is required. In order to satisfy such requirement, a technique of connecting a MPU and memory modules via PTP (point-to-point) links using FB-DIMM (Fully Buffered Dual Inline Memory Module) is used, for example. The FB-DIMM architecture uses an AMB (Advanced Memory Buffer) chip for connection between memory modules in addition to a memory chip, and it employs high-speed serial interface specification "FB-DIMM High Speed Differential PTP" as a connection interface.
In the high-speed transmission, it is generally necessary to enlarge the output amplitude at the transmitting end in consideration of decay in the amplitude due to a transmission line length. However, if the output amplitude at the transmitting end is uniformly large, power consumption of a chip becomes high. To avoid this, the above interface specification allows the output amplitude to be variable according to a transmission distance. Specifically, if a transmission distance between a MPU and a memory module is relatively long, the amplitude is set to be large; on the other hand, if a transmission distance between a memory module and a memory module is relatively short, the amplitude is set to be small.
In order to make the output amplitude variable, a technique of controlling a current source of a driver is used. A specific example of such a technique is described herein with reference to FIG. 7.
The circuit shown in FIG. 7 includes a constant voltage circuit 4, a constant current circuit 2B, and a differential driver circuit 3. The constant voltage circuit 4 is a bandgap reference circuit that generates a constant voltage from a bandgap voltage of a semiconductor, and it generates a stable constant voltage having a reference amplitude.
The constant current circuit 2B includes P-channel MOS transistors 9 and 10, a P-channel MOS transistor 15, a terminating resistor 16, and a feedback amplifier 17. The P-channel MOS transistors 9 and 10 are connected with a power supply line 8 and form a constant current source. The P-channel MOS transistor 15 has a gate electrode fixed to a GND (ground voltage) level, so that it is in the ON state. The feedback amplifier 17 has an inverting terminal connected with the constant voltage circuit 4, a non-inverting terminal connected with a node between the P-channel MOS transistor 15 and the terminating resistor 16, and an output connected with a node between the gate of the P-channel MOS transistor 9 and the gate of the P-channel MOS transistor 10. The feedback amplifier 17 controls the gate voltage of the P-channel MOS transistor 9 so that the voltage at the terminating resistor 16 is equal to the voltage having a reference amplitude which is generated in the constant voltage circuit 4. A current corresponding to the reference amplitude is thereby output from the drain of the P-channel MOS transistor 10, which has the same gate voltage as the P-channel MOS transistor 9.
The differential driver circuit 3 includes N-channel MOS transistors 19, 20a, 20b, 20c and 20d that are connected with a ground line 18 to receive a constant current from the constant current circuit 2B and form a mirror circuit; P-channel MOS transistors 22a, 22b, 22c, 22d, 23a, 23b, 23c and 23d that are connected with a power supply line 21 and form a constant current source; a switch circuit 11 that connects the gates of the P-channel MOS transistors 23b, 23c and 23d with the power supply line 21 to turn OFF a corresponding constant current source; a switch circuit 12 that connects the gates of the P-channel MOS transistors 23b, 23c and 23d with the drains of the P-channel MOS transistors 22b, 22c and 22d to turn ON a corresponding constant current source; P-channel MOS transistors 24a and 24b that serve as a switch to output a logic; and terminating resistors 25a and 25b that are connected with the ground line 18. Input terminals 26a and 26b input differential logic signals inside the LSI, and in response to those inputs, a voltage value that is determined by the all current values flowing through the P-channel MOS transistors 23a, 23b, 23c, 23d and the resistances of the terminating resistors 25a and 25b is output as a logic amplitude from output terminals 27a and 27b. A constant current source that is composed of the P-channel MOS transistors 22a and 23a is constantly ON. In the following description, the logic amplitude that is output from the output terminals 27a and 27b is referred to as an output amplitude.
In the circuit having such a configuration, the switch circuit 11 that connects the gates of the P-channel MOS transistors 23b, 23c and 23d with the power supply line 21 and the switch circuit 12 that connects the gates of the P-channel MOS transistors 23b, 23c and 23d with the drains of the P-channel MOS transistors 22b, 22c and 22d are selected in a complementary fashion using a control terminal 13, so that the output amplitude corresponding to the reference amplitude is variable.
A specific example is as follows. For example, the P-channel MOS transistors 15, 24a and 24b are configured to be the same, and the terminating resistors 16, 25a and 25b are also configured to be the same. Further, the channel width size ratio of the transistor groups each constituting a constant current source (i.e. the P-channel MOS transistors 9 and 10, the P-channel MOS transistors 22a to 22d, and the P-channel MOS transistors 23a to 23d) is "5:1", "1:1:1:1", "5:1:1:1", respectively. In such a case, if the reference amplitude that is generated in the constant voltage circuit 4 is 500 mV, the output amplitude from the output terminals 27a and 27b can be 500 mV, 600 mV, 700 mV or 800 mV by controlling the switch circuit 11 and the switch circuit 12 through the control terminal 13. Thus, the circuit in FIG. 7 allows the reference amplitude of 500 mV to be variable in increments of 20%. FIG. 7 shows the case where the P-channel MOS transistors 23b to 23d are all OFF, and the output amplitude from the output terminals 27a and 27b in this case is 500 mV, which corresponds to a current value that is output only from the constant current source that is composed of the P-channel MOS transistors 22a and 23a.
In this manner, the circuit varies the output amplitude by controlling the P-channel MOS transistors 22b to 22d, and the P-channel MOS transistors 23b to 23d, each constituting a constant current source, by the switch circuit 11 and the switch circuit 12.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-060320 discloses a circuit that varies the output amplitude by controlling a current source of a driver, just like the circuit of FIG. 7.
FIG. 8 shows an example of the circuit that varies the output amplitude by controlling a current that is input to a driver. The circuit of FIG. 8 includes a constant voltage circuit block 1, a constant current circuit 2C, and a differential driver circuit 3A.
The constant voltage circuit block 1 includes a constant voltage circuit 4 and a voltage divider circuit 35. The constant voltage circuit 4 is a bandgap reference circuit just like the constant voltage circuit 4 in FIG. 7. The voltage divider circuit 35 includes ladder resistors, and it divides the output of the constant voltage circuit 4 by the ladder resistors and outputs a plurality of candidate reference amplitudes to the constant current circuit 2C.
The constant current circuit 2C includes P-channel MOS transistors 39 and 40, a P-channel MOS transistor 45, a terminating resistor 46, a feedback amplifier 47, and an analog selector 36. The P-channel MOS transistors 39 and 40 are connected with a power supply line 38 and form a constant current source. The P-channel MOS transistor 45 has a gate electrode fixed to a GND (ground voltage) level, so that it is in the ON state. The feedback amplifier 47 has an inverting terminal connected with the output of the analog selector 36, a non-inverting terminal connected with a node between the P-channel MOS transistor 45 and the terminating resistor 46, and an output connected with the gates of the P-channel MOS transistors 39 and 40. The feedback amplifier 47 controls the gate voltage of the P-channel MOS transistor 39 so that the voltage at the terminating resistor 46 is equal to the output voltage from the analog selector 36, so that a constant current corresponding to the output voltage from the analog selector 36 is output from the drain of the P-channel MOS transistor 40 having the same gate voltage as the P-channel MOS transistor 39. The analog selector 36 is controlled through a selection terminal 37, and the analog selector 36 selects one from the constant voltage from the constant voltage circuit 4 and a plurality of candidate reference amplitudes from the voltage divider circuit 35 and outputs the selected one to the feedback amplifier 47.
The differential driver circuit 3A includes N-channel MOS transistors 49 and 50 that are connected with a ground line 48 to receive a constant current from the constant current circuit 2C and form a mirror circuit, P-channel MOS transistors 52 and 53 that are connected with a power supply line 51 and form a constant current source, P-channel MOS transistors 54a and 54b that serve as a switch to output a logic, and terminating resistors 55a and 55b that are connected with the ground line 48. Further, an output terminal 57a and an output terminal 57b are respectively connected between the P-channel MOS transistor 54a and the terminating resistor 55a and between the P-channel MOS transistor 54b and the terminating resistor 55b. Input terminals 56a and 56b input differential logic signals inside the LSI, and in response to those inputs, a voltage value that is determined by the current flowing through the P-channel MOS transistor 53 and the resistances of the terminating resistors 55a and 55b is output as a logic amplitude from output terminals 57a and 57b.
In this configuration, the circuit employs the selection terminal 37 as a switch to select a desired reference amplitude from the voltage divider circuit 35, thereby varying the output amplitude of the differential driver circuit 3A.
For example, the P-channel MOS transistor 45 and the P-channel MOS transistors 54a and 54b are configured to be the same, and the terminating resistor 46 and the terminating resistors 55a and 55b are also configured to be the same. Further, the N-channel MOS transistor 49 and the N-channel MOS transistor 50 are configured to be the same. The channel width size ratio of the transistors constituting a constant current source (i.e. the P-channel MOS transistors 39 and 40 and the P-channel MOS transistors 52 and 53) is set to "5:1:1:5". In such a case, if the reference amplitude generated in the constant voltage circuit 4 is 500 mV, and the voltage dividing ratio of the ladder resistors of the voltage divider circuit 35 is incremented in steps of 5%, the output amplitude from the output terminals 57a and 57b is variable in decrements of 5%, such as 500 mV, 475 mV, 450 mV, 425 mV and so on.
A margin test is sometimes conducted during the shipping test of products in order to ensure that there is no problem about manufacturing fluctuations or characteristics change due to degradation over time. Because the operating frequency of testing equipment such as a LSI tester is relatively low, like several hundreds of MHz, it is general to perform a loopback test or an end-to-end test with the use of an actual device in the high-speed actual operation test. The test may include checking whether a signal can be received correctly by reducing the output amplitude on purpose, and it is thus preferred to apply the structure that makes the output amplitude variable to such a test as well.
Further, as recent memory modules offer high performance, it is necessary to set the output amplitude corresponding to a trace difference in signal lines on DIMM in consideration of the amplitude decay due to a trace difference in signals line on DIMM. Thus, the output amplitude should be large in the lane with a long signal line trace, and the output amplitude should be small in the lane with a short signal line trace. Therefore, an AMB chip to be mounted in such DIMM needs to have the structure that enables the setting of a different output amplitude for each lane.
In order to implement the above structure in the signal transmission circuit having a plurality of lanes with the use of the circuit shown in FIG. 7, it is necessary to place the same number of pairs of the constant current circuit 2B and the differential driver circuit 3 as the number of lanes, which causes an increase in packaging area and power consumption. Further, in order to adjust the output width of each lane during the margin test, it is necessary to configure setting for each lane, thus taking a long time for the setting of the margin test.
Likewise, in order to implement the above structure in the signal transmission circuit having a plurality of lanes with the use of the circuit shown in FIG. 8, it is necessary to place the same number of units from the voltage divider circuit 35 to the differential driver circuit 3A as the number of lanes, which also causes an increase in packaging area and power consumption. It also takes a long time for the setting of the margin test.


An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus generates volume data by performing three-dimensional scan of a three-dimensional region with an ultrasonic wave. An input unit sets or changes at least one of a plurality of correlated scan conditions for the three-dimensional scan. A determination unit determines the other scan conditions of the plurality of scan conditions on the basis of at least one scan condition that is set or changed. A display unit displays at least one of the set or changed scan condition and the determined scan conditions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that makes a diagnosis by imaging the inside of a body using an ultrasonic wave and a control method thereof and in particular, to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that displays an ultrasonic image in a three-dimensional manner and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus may collect and display an image using three-dimensional scan. In addition, a diagnosis using a three-dimensional real-time imaging method of scanning a three-dimensional region (for example, a region including the heart) inside a tested body while displaying a two-dimensional or three-dimensional image of the region in real time is also widespread.
A technique of generating volume data on a desired range by connecting volume (sub volume) data on a small region collected in response to a predetermined matched trigger (for example, in synchronization with ECG) on the basis of the matched trigger and of maintaining a real-time property by sequentially updating sub volume data according to time information is also developed in order to secure a wider volume scan region (scan region of a three-dimensional region) in the three-dimensional real-time imaging method (hereinafter, this technique is referred to as a 'three-dimensional trigger scan mode').
In addition, a known document related to this application includes U.S. Pat. No. 6,544,175, for example.
In the case of performing image collection by a three-dimensional trigger scan mode, there is a problem that a work load of a user is large. In the case of observing the heart in the three-dimensional trigger scan mode, it is general to display an ultrasonic image corresponding to three sections of Basal/Mid/Apical corresponding to ASE division. In the known ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, however, alignment of the three sections of Basal/Mid/Apical, adjustment of a scan range (that is, an angle of view) for optimizing a volume rate, and the like should be performed while observing an image actually obtained by the three-dimensional trigger scan mode. As a result, since a work load at the time of photographing is increased, a user's burden is increased. In addition, if image collection is not performed well and a photographing time is increased, a burden is given to a patient as well as a user.

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and control method thereof


An apparatus includes a tuyere, a plasma torch positioned to inject hot gas into the tuyere, and a plurality of nozzles configured to inject a combustible material into the tuyere for combustion of the combustible material within the tuyere. The apparatus can be used to practice a method including: injecting a combustible material into a plurality of tuyeres in a wall of a reactor vessel, using a plasma torch to inject hot gas into the tuyeres to ignite the combustible material, and directing heat from combustion of the combustible material into the reactor vessel to preheat the reactor vessel.

Plasma gasification reactors (sometimes referred to as PGRs) are a type of pyrolytic reactor known and used for treatment of any of a wide range of materials including, for example, scrap metal, hazardous waste, other municipal or industrial waste and landfill material, and vegetative waste or biomass to derive useful material, e.g., metals, or a synthesis gas (syngas), or to vitrify undesirable waste for easier disposition. In the present description "plasma gasification reactor" and "PGR" are intended to refer to reactors of the same general type whether applied for gasification or vitrification, or both. Unless the context indicates otherwise, terms such as "gasifier" or "gasification" used herein can be understood to apply alternatively or additionally to "vitrifier" or "vitrification", and vice versa.
PGRs and their various uses are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,632,394 by Dighe et al., issued Dec. 15, 2009, entitled "System and Process for Upgrading Heavy Hydrocarbons"; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0307974 by Dighe et al., entitled "System and Process for Reduction of Greenhouse Gas and Conversion of Biomass"; and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0199557 by Dighe et al., entitled "Plasma Gasification Reactor", all of which are incorporated by reference herein for their descriptions of PGRs and methods practiced with them.
Heat from an electric arc can be fed into a cupola, furnace, or other reactor vessel to enhance the operation thereof by providing a very hot gas stream which may be either oxidizing or reducing and can also be mixed with particulate material. The electric arc can be produced in a plasma torch in which the electric arc ionizes the gas which is blown out of the end of the torch producing a hot gas stream which generally operates in the range of, for example, 10,000° F. or 5,538° C.
Typically such reactor vessels must be preheated during a start-up process. Burners for natural gas or other combustible fluids may be included to perform the pre-heating. Such burners may be removed after pre-heating is completed. Such burners may also require dedicated ports on the reactor for installation and removal and can pose a challenge operationally to do so safely. It would be desirable to have an alternative way to preheat the reactor.


In a method of converting alkanes to their corresponding alcohols, ethers, olefins, and other hydrocarbons, a vessel comprises a hollow, unsegregated interior defined first, second, and third zones. In a first embodiment of the invention oxygen reacts with metal halide in the first zone to provide gaseous halide; halide reacts with the alkane in the second zone to form alkyl halide; and the alkyl halide reacts with metal oxide in the third zone to form a hydrocarbon corresponding to the original alkane. Metal halide from the third zone is transported through the vessel to the first zone and metal oxide from the first zone is recycled to the third zone. A second embodiment of the invention differs from the first embodiment in that metal oxide is transported through the vessel from the first zone to the third zone and metal halide is recycled from the third zone to the first zone. In a third embodiment of the invention the flow of gases through the vessel is reversed to convert the metal oxide back to metal halide and to convert the metal halide back to the metal oxide.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,462,243 discloses a method of converting alkanes to their corresponding alcohols and ethers using bromine. The patent comprises four embodiments of the invention therein disclosed each including a reactor wherein bromine reacts with an alkane to form alkyl bromide and hydrogen bromide, a converter wherein the alkyl bromide formed in the reactor reacts with metal oxide to form the corresponding alcohol or ether, and numerous other individual components.
The present invention comprises zone reactors wherein the several reactions disclosed in the co-pending parent application are carried out in a single vessel. In this manner the overall complexity of the system for converting alkanes to their corresponding alcohols, ethers, olefins, and other hydrocarbons is substantially reduced. In addition, heat generated by reactions occurring in particular zones within the vessel can be utilized to facilitate reactions occurring in other zones.
Various embodiments of the invention are disclosed. In accordance with a first embodiment the zone reactor comprises a countercurrent system wherein gases flow in a first direction and metal compounds flow in the opposite direction. A second embodiment of the invention comprises a cocurrent arrangement wherein the gases and the metal compounds travel in the same direction. The first and second embodiments of the invention are continuous systems as opposed to the third embodiment of the invention which is a fixed-bed system that is continual in operation. In accordance with the third embodiment the metal compounds remain fixed within the vessel while the gases are directed through the vessel first in one direction and later in the opposite direction.
In the following Detailed Description the invention is described in conjunction with the conversion of methane to methanol. However, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the invention is equally applicable to the conversion of ethane and the higher alkanes to their corresponding alcohols, ethers, olefins, and other hydrocarbons.
The following Detailed Description also describes the invention in conjunction with the use of a particular halide, i.e., bromine. However, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the invention is equally applicable to the conversion of alkanes to their corresponding alcohols, ethers, and other hydrocarbons utilizing other halides, including in particular chlorine and iodine.


Crosslinkable compositions based on organosilicon compounds with a very high storage stability contain fine-particle metacarbonate. Storage stability of the composition is increased as compared to conventional forms of carbonates.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to crosslinkable compositions with very high storage stability, based on organosilicon compounds to a process for their preparation, and also to their use.
2. Background Art
Single-component sealing compositions (RTV-1) which are storable if water is excluded but which vulcanize to give elastomers at room temperature when exposed to water have been known for a long time. Large amounts of these products are used for example in the construction industry. These mixtures are based on polymers terminated by silyl groups bearing reactive substituents such as OH groups, or hydrolyzable groups, e.g. alkoxy groups. These sealing compositions may also comprise fillers, plasticizers, crosslinking agents, catalysts, and other additives. Among the known fillers are fine-particle metal oxides and metal salts. When these are used in sealing compositions they can not only optimize selected performance characteristics of the cured product but also improve the specific properties of the sealing composition during application.
EP 10104787 B describes, for example, the use of materials known as heavy calcium carbonates, obtained via milling of limestone. Furthermore, DE 195 07 416 C discloses the use of precipitated chalks in RTV-1 silicone rubber compositions. The use of ground natural chalks is also mentioned. However, a particularly problematic factor described here was the poor storage stability of RTV-1 silicone rubber compositions which eliminate alcohol, this being discernible as markedly delayed hardening following application. Additions of orthophosphoric esters for improving storage stability are disclosed.
DE 101 21 514 A also describes an improvement in the storage stability of RTV-1 silicone rubber compositions which eliminate alcohol, using tin catalysts which have phosphorus compounds as ligands. Emphasis is placed on the possibility of preparing colorless, transparent RTV-1 silicone rubber compositions.


An electronic device having an exhaust opening configured to exhaust air outside, the electronic device includes a door part configured to close the exhaust opening when the electronic device has a predetermined temperature, wherein the door part is rotated based on the own weight of the door part and a wind pressure of the air taken in the electronic device and exhausted outside the electronic device, so that the exhaust opening is closed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic devices and fire protecting mechanisms of the electronic devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electronic device where plural electronic circuits are provided in a shelf, the electronic device having a self-extinguishing function, and a fire protecting mechanism of the electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in electronic apparatuses such as communication apparatuses, plural PIUs (plug in unit) where electronic components are mounted on a printed wiring board are received in a shelf. By a Plug-In method using connectors of the PIUs, the PIUs are connected to a back board provided in the shelf so that a single electronic device is formed. Plural electronic devices are stacked in a cabinet on plural steps.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a related art electronic device. As shown in FIG. 1, a shelf 1 is provided at a front surface (a surface at an X1 side of FIG. 1) in a related art electronic device 10. In the shelf 1, plural PIUs (Plug In Unit, not shown in FIG. 1) where electronic components such as ICs (Integrated Circuit) or LSIs (Large Scale Integrated circuit) are mounted on a printed wiring board are inserted in an X2 direction in FIG. 1.
At a rear surface (a surface at an X2 side of FIG. 1) of the electronic device 10, a sub-back board 2 is provided outside of a back board 3. Connectors for outside interface are provided on the sub-back board 2.
In addition, the temperature inside of the electronic device 10 is increased due to heat radiated by the electronic components. Accordingly, in order to keep the inside the electronic device 10 at a desirable temperature, fans (not shown in FIG. 1) are provided at a lower part of the electronic device 10 as a forced air cooling part.
By using such fans, air is forcibly taken in from the outside of the electronic device 10 in a Z1 direction of FIG. 1 and made to flow inside the electronic device 10, so that the heated electronic components are cooled. Warmed air is exhausted outside the electronic device 10 via an exhaust opening 4 provided at an upper part of a rear surface (a surface at an X2 side of FIG. 1) of the electronic device 10.
In the meantime, such an electronic apparatus is required to have a self-extinguishing function sufficient to prevent spreading of fire to other electronic devices should a fire break out inside the electronic device. Because of this, in the electronic device 10, in order to prevent the spreading of fire outside the electronic device 10, a punched metal screen 5 is provided at the above-mentioned exhaust opening 4. The punched metal screen 5 is made of a metal plate where a large number of openings are formed. By such a punched metal screen 5, even if a fire breaks out inside the electronic device 10, spreading of the fire outside the electronic device 10 is prevented.
In addition, a foaming coating material, if necessary, is applied to the punched metal screen 5 so that when flames or high temperature gas comes in contact with the punched metal screen 5, the foaming coating material foams. If fire breaks out inside the electronic device 10 so that the temperature becomes a certain number of degrees, the coating material foams and thereby the openings formed in the punched metal screen 5 are closed by the coating material. As a result of this, the spreading of fire outside the electronic device 10 is prevented.
An exhaust opening where a configuration of a temperature fuse can be changed has been suggested in order to prevent use of a low temperature fuse in error when a high temperature fuse should be used. See Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2001-33089.
Furthermore, a mechanism where a butterfly type tamper is closed by a temperature fuse and a closing spring at the time when fire breaks out has been suggested. See Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2001-104503.
However, in the related art electronic device 10, the punched metal screen 5 is provided at the exhaust opening 4 for exhausting the air flowing inside the electronic device 10 to the outside. Accordingly, the punched metal screen 5 may obstruct the flow of the air exhausting to outside the electronic device 10. Hence, the punched metal screen 5 may degrade the ability to cool the electronic components generating heats.
In addition, the flow of the air exhausting to outside the electronic device 10 is obstructed by the punched metal screen 5. Therefore, if fire breaks out inside the electronic device 10, high temperature air or unburned flammable gas fills the inside of the electronic device 10 so that it is difficult to extinguish the fire. This may cause to obstruction of the self-extinguishing function.
Furthermore, it is difficult to obtain the above-mentioned foaming coating material which is applied to the punched metal screen 5 and the cost of the foaming coating material is high.

Electronic device and fire protecting mechanism of the electronic device


Embodiments of the invention include a system for displaying an audit diagram. The system includes a monitor capable of electronically displaying the audit diagram. The monitor includes a text equivalent constructed from an input text, and a conversion representation including an operator indicator, a result arrow, and a rule arrow.

Systems are available for analyzing text in which input text is converted to a text equivalent wherein the text equivalent is subsequently converted using one or more specified rules. In past embodiments, the user was presented with the text equivalents before and after a conversion. The present invention facilitates the comprehension of conversions by providing a system for visualizing the conversions.

Systems for displaying conversions of text equivalents


Complexes between an alkaline earth metal salt of (6RS)— or (6S)—N5-methyl-(5,6,7,8)-tetrahydrofolic acid and a polyol were prepared by lyophilization or spray-drying. These products were found to be stable compared with the active ingredient alone or the mixture of the same components prepared by means of other methodologies.

Folic acid and the corresponding (5,6,7,8)-tetrahydrofolates are very important in several therapeutic areas. Folic acid facilitates protection against the risk of several congenital malformations, including neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, anencephaly and encephalocele.
One of the therapeutically widely used tetrahydrofolate is (6S)—N5-methyl-(5,6,7,8)-tetrahydrofolic acid calcium salt (1) (C20H25N7O6*Ca; CAS Registry Number: 151533-22-1).

N5-Methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid and salts thereof are therapeutically relevant for the treatment of megaloblastic anaemia, as antidote for increasing the compatibility of folic acid antagonists, particularly of aminopterin and methotrexate in cancer therapy ("antifolate rescue"), for increasing the therapeutic effect of fluorinated pyrimidines and for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, for increasing the compatibility of certain antiparasitic formulations, for instance trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and for reducing the toxicity of dideazatetrahydrofolates in chemotherapy.
N5-Methyl-tetrahydrofolate alkaline earth metal salts are used in particular as food additive or as a vitamin preparation, for the prevention of neural tube defects, for the treatment of depressive illnesses, and for decreasing the homocysteine level.
N5-Methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid and salts thereof are extremely unstable, and in particular are highly susceptible to oxidation [see for instance A. L. Fitzhugh, Pteridines 4 (4), 187-191 (1993)].
It is therefore difficult to produce them at a level of purity which is acceptable for a pharmaceutical active ingredient or a food additive.
Typical degradation pathways of N5-methyltetrahydrofolate, leading to the characteristic impurities 4α-hydroxy-5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid (D1) and pyrazino-s-triazine derivative (D2a and D2b), are outlined in Schemes 1 and 2.

Various methods, such as excluding oxygen as completely as possible or the addition of antioxidants such as ascorbic acid or reduced L-glutathione, have been employed in order to overcome the instability of 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid.
However, it is scarcely possible to completely exclude oxygen during use, and even then this is only possible at very considerable cost, and the addition of antioxidants is likewise not always possible.
Therefore there is the need to find a method for the stabilization of (6S)—N5-methyl-tetrahydrofolate salts.
The use of stabilizing agents was described in the prior art.
For example WO 2011/018482 (Bayer Schering Pharma AG) discloses stabilised particles comprising a crystalline form of an alkaline earth metal salt of (6S)—N5-methyl-tetrahydrofolic acid and at least one protective agent.
The preparation of formulations of N5-methyl-tetrahydrofolate salts is considered problematic as it can result in the partial decomposition of the active ingredient as reported for example in WO 2008/003432 (Bayer Schering Pharma AG).
EP 1 044 975 (Eprova AG) discloses a preparation of stable crystalline forms of (6S)—N5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid calcium salt by treatment of the product at high temperature, which is technically problematic for large scale production.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,947,662 (Gnosis SpA) discloses pharmaceutical compositions of folates derivatives stabilized as glucosamine salts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,236 (Eprova AG) discloses the use of cyclodextrin to include and stabilize tetrahydrofolate derivatives.
The use of these additives in pharmaceutical formulations is not always desirable.

Stable complexes of an alkaline earth metal salt of N


A metallic toner fluid composition that contains (A) electrostatically charged, colloidal elemental metal particles dispersed in an electrically nonconductive organic carrier liquid having a dielectric constant less than about 3.5 and a volume resistivity greater than about 10.sup.12 ohm-cm, (B) a soluble surfactant in an amount sufficient to charge and stabilize the colloidal metal dispersion, and (C) an effective amount of organosol particles and/or a soluble polymer that is not a soluble surfactant (B). Also disclosed at a substrate coated with elemental metallic toner fluid particles. The coated substrate can act as a donor substrate for thermal mass transfer of images to a secondary receiving substrate by performing either or both of the following steps, in any order:. a) transferring the elemental metal coating from the primary substrate to the secondary receiving substrate; PA0 b) contacting the elemental metal coated primary or secondary substrate with an electroless metal plating solution.

Liquid developers or toners are widely known in the art and are commonly used in electrophoretic development. Electrophoretic development is a process where dispersed-charged-pigment-particles, of a toner fluid, migrate to and deposit upon an oppositely charged surface that is in contact with the toner fluid. Conventional toner fluids typically contain charge control agents and/or surfactants and finely ground pigment particles dispersed in an insulating, organic carrier liquid. The charge control agents and/or surfactants impart electrostatic charge to the pigment particles, and stabilize pigment particles to avoid flocculation.
Although conventional toner fluid compositions have been known and used for years, only recently have metallic toner fluid compositions been known in the art. A metallic toner fluid composition is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,798. This toner fluid composition comprises electrostatically-charged, colloidal, elemental-metal-particles dispersed in a nonconductive organic carrier liquid having a dielectric constant less than 3.5. A surfactant is present in this dispersion in an amount sufficient to charge and stabilize the colloidal metal dispersion. This patent also discloses a method of electrophoretically depositing the metallic toner fluid particles and a method of electroless metal plating. This patent does not, however, disclose a toner fluid composition that contains small amounts of an organosol and/or polymer other than a surfactant, and it does not disclose a method of transferring deposited metallic toner fluid materials or metal platings from a primary receiving substrate to a secondary receiving substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,321 discloses metallic toner fluid compositions and method of transferring deposited metallic toner fluid particles and metal platings from a primary receiving substrate to a secondary receiving substrate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,321 does not, however, disclose that the metallic toner fluid compositions may contain small amounts of an organosol and/or a polymer other than a surfactant.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


A method for making a current collector plate includes providing a first sheet of material having a first bonding face and a first outer face. A second sheet of material is provided having a second bonding face and a second outer face. A work area is defined on at least one of the first bonding face and the second bonding face. The first and second sheets are bonded together at a bonding area which is different from the work area. The bonded first and second sheet is placed into a die having a pattern defining at least one flow channel. Fluid is injected between the first and second sheets thereby causing at least one of the first and second sheets to project outward at the work area causing at least one flow channel to be formed in the work area as defined by the die pattern.

Current collector plates or bipolar plates are an integral part of the fuel cell stack. Current collector plates function in a fuel cell stack as fluid distribution elements and function as bipolar plates to separate MEAs from one another. Each plate assembly is typically constructed of thin gauge metal sheets such as stainless steel coated with a conductive coating. Generally, two adjacent metal sheets are joined together forming a conductive heat exchanger. The joined plate assembly has internal flow channels along its length for coolant flow. Channels on either side of the bipolar plate serve as distribution pathways for fuel and oxidant gas to adjacent current collectors. A hermetic seal is required around the perimeter of the joined plates to prevent mixing of the coolant, fuel, oxidant gas and reactant products. High conductivity must be maintained between the two metal sheets that form the bipolar plate to achieve efficient fuel cell operation.
A conventional method of constructing a bipolar plate has been to first stamp the flow channels into the sheet material and subsequently join the sheets together. Stamping however is unfavorable because it subjects the sheets to high strains and distortion. In addition, joining stamped structures may be complicated. First, after stamping, there is minimal sheet to sheet contact between flow channels, thus, alignment and weld containment are difficult. Secondly, access for joining between the flow channels is obstructed by the flow channel structure.
A variety of joining techniques have been considered to overcome the drawbacks associated with conventional stamping followed by joining. These include brazing, adhesive bonding and fusion welding. These too, however, present unfavorable drawbacks when performed subsequent to a stamping operation. Brazing of austenitic stainless steel has been successful, but is costly. The cost is partially attributed to the acid cleaning and batch coating necessary after the brazing operation. Both adhesive bonding and fusion welding allow the stainless sheet to be acid cleaned and coated with a continuous coil operation prior to joining which is less costly. However, adhesive bonding suffers from durability issues regarding strength and conductivity. Fusion welding is difficult due to alignment concerns. It is necessary to position opposing lands on respective sheets in a proper orientation prior to welding for a successful joining operation which requires accuracy and is time consuming.


A torque converter has a turbine and a pump with elastomeric linings on its core and shell surfaces proximate to the blades. The elastomeric linings are deformed where the blades engage the core and shell surfaces. This localized deformation effects a seal between the blades and the core and shell surfaces. This seal eliminates leakage between the blades and the cores and the shells, thereby increasing torque converter efficiency.

Conventional torque converter turbines and impellers, or pumps, are typically assembled from stamped pieces. These pieces are a shell, a core and a plurality of blades for disposition between the core and the shell, for both the impeller and the turbine. The blades have tabs on opposing first and second edges. The tabs on the first edge of the turbine blades are inserted into corresponding perforations in the turbine shell. The turbine core is then placed over the tabs on the second edges of the blades. The tabs passing through both the turbine core and the turbine shell are bent over, locking the core, the shell and the blades together as an assembled turbine. The tabs on the first edge of the impeller blades are inserted into corresponding pockets in the impeller shell. Stakes are wedged into the pockets to retain the tabs. The impeller core is then placed over the tabs on the second edge of the impeller blades. The tabs passing through the impeller core are then bent over, locking the core, the shell and the blades together as an assembled impeller.
Gaps are generally present between the first edges of the blades and the shell, and between the second edges of the blades and the core. These gaps are a result of variations inherent to forming the parts by stamping. These gaps represent potential leak points or paths between the blade edges and the core and the shell. There are additional potential leak points where tabs pass through the cores or the shells, allowing fluid to escape the pump or impeller. Any such leakage reduces the efficiency of the torque converter.
The desirability of closing these gaps is well known. Sealing these gaps has the benefit of increasing the efficiency of the torque converter.
Attempts to seal these gaps have been made in the past. Brazing is one method used. The gaps are filled with molten metal. Brazing has the disadvantage of being expensive because of its time consuming nature. Another disadvantage of brazing is that the metal added to fill the gaps significantly increases the inertia of components. Brazing can also result in thermal distortion and annealing of the sheet metal parts.

Reduced leakage torque converter turbine and impeller


A harmonic gear drive includes: a rigid spline; a flexspline including an attachment portion, teeth, and a thin-walled flexible portion provided between the attachment portion and the teeth; and a member attached to the thin-walled flexible portion. The member is made of a material whose elastic modulus is lower than that of the flexspline.

The present invention relates to a harmonic gear drive, which is compact in size and light-weighted, and which can realize high positional accuracy and high gear reduction ratios. More particularly, the present invention relates to a harmonic gear drive, which is suitable for applications in the field of automated machinery such as an articulation driving portion for a robot where silence and smoothness of driving are required, a semiconductor manufacturing device, and reduction gears for a precision actuator, and in the field of aerospace technology such as a control mechanism and a driving mechanism.
Harmonic gear drive is a mechanical reduction gear device for the transmission of power, which is light and compact and can realize high positional accuracy and high gear reduction ratios without employing any complicated mechanism and structure and with free of backlash. The harmonic gear drive is known as a mechanical reduction gear device including a flexspline (flexible gear).
Typically, the conventional harmonic gear drive consists of a rigid circular outer spline with internal teeth, a flexspline with external teeth partly meshed with the internal teeth of the circular spline in a flexible meshing manner, and a wave generator for displacing the meshing points of those internal teeth and external teeth in the circumferential direction for the different number of teeth by means of elastic flexibility. This type of conventional harmonic gear drive is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 10-110790 (paragraphs [0002] to [0003]; FIGS. 1 and 2), which is also referred to as Patent reference 1.
As seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, the harmonic gear drive 100 disclosed in the above Patent reference 1 comprises a rigid circular outer spline 200 with internal teeth, a flexspline 300 positioned inside the circular spline 200 and including external teeth, and an oval-shaped wave generator 400 fitted into the flexspline 300 through a bearing. The flexspline 300 includes a cylindrical portion 310, an annular diaphragm portion 320 continuously extending from the proximal side of the cylindrical portion 310, a boss (attachment portion) 330 formed in the center of and integrally with the diaphragm portion 320, and external teeth 340 formed on the outer peripheral surface of an open end portion which is positioned at the distal end of the cylindrical portion 310.
When the wave generator 400 is rotated by the rotation of the motor rotation shaft of the drive source, the flexspline 300 undergoes elastic deformation together with the outer race of the bearing which allows elastic deformation, so that the meshing points between the external teeth 340 of the flexspline 300 and the internal teeth of the rigid circular outer spline 200 displace in the circumferential direction. In general, since the rigid circular outer spline 200 is fixed to a stationary member, a rotation force is output from the boss (attachment portion) 330 of the flexspline 300 while the speed is greatly reduced in accordance with the difference of the number of teeth between the external teeth and the internal teeth.
In the flexspline 300, the cylindrical portion 310 which allows elastic deformation and the annular diaphragm portion 320 are joined together via a bent portion extending from the proximal end of the cylindrical portion 310 in the direction radially and inward toward the center of the boss 330. The flexspline 300 includes the annular boss (attachment portion) 330 integral with and positioned at the inner periphery of the diaphragm portion 320, and the external teeth 340 formed on the outer peripheral surface of the open end portion which is positioned at the distal end of the cylindrical portion 310.
This conventional harmonic gear drive 100 is light-weighted and has no backlash when compared with other reduction gear drives such as an involute planetary gear drive, and a cycloid planetary gear drive, and therefore it is suitable for applications where high positional accuracy is required. However, this harmonic gear drive has a drawback that it is difficult to reduce vibration generated from the meshing mechanism inside the gear drive.
In order to improve the aforementioned drawback concerning vibration characteristic of the harmonic gear drive 100 disclosed in Patent reference 1, a flat type harmonic gear drive is proposed in which an axial length of the cylindrical portion 310 except for the part where the external teeth 340 are provided is set smaller than the length of the diaphragm portion 320 in the radial direction. This flat type harmonic gear drive is disclosed in Domestic re-publication of WO98/53224 (pages 6-7; FIG. 1), which is also referred to as Patent reference 2.
The flay type harmonic gear drive disclosed in Patent reference 2 is a flat-shaped harmonic gear drive with large outside dimension and small axial length. According to this flat type harmonic gear drive, it is possible to decrease an occurrence of vibration while maintaining advantages of the harmonic gear drive such as improvements in rigidity, damping capacity and gear accuracy, and lightness and compactness in size.
However, the harmonic gear drive 100 as disclosed in Patent reference 1 has a drawback that since the meshing between the rigid circular outer spline 200 and the flexspline 300 is performed by the rotation of the wave generator 400, it is difficult to restrict an occurrence of high-pitched noise caused by the meshing mechanism.
In the harmonic gear as disclosed in Patent reference 2, the drawback concerning the vibration characteristic of the harmonic gear drive 100 according to Patent reference 1 may be improved. However, since rigidity and damping capacity of the harmonic gear drive 100 are maintained at high level, a problem for noise reduction at a drive part still remains, for instance, on application of robots where silence and flexibility are required.
In order to provide a flexible meshing gear of the harmonic gear drive, a thin-walled flexible portion of the flexspline which allows elastic deformation has to be thin-walled with high-strength. For this reason, high responsive control to the components of the harmonic gear drive results in a vibration inducing source so that the thin-walled flexible portion vibrates and a resonance phenomenon is caused in the cylindrical portion. Therefore, as described above in the prior art, it is difficult to solve the drawbacks both in vibration and noise.
When the harmonic gear drive is applied for a robot, resonance occurs at the cylindrical portion of the thin-walled portion of the driven unit due to frequency responsive to the rotation speed of the motor that is connected to the wave generator, which leads to a noise problem. As a result, the harmonic gear drive fails to achieve silent driving and affects fatigue of the components, which makes it worse to realize the merchantability. For instance, if the characteristic value of the vibration frequency for the flexspline is more or less 200 Hz, the motor rotation speed of the drive source is 6000 rpm (100 Hz), and the control responsive frequency is 1 KHz, resonance is liable to occur.
In view of the above, the present invention seeks to provide a harmonic gear drive which can reduce vibration and noise caused by meshing between the components which consist of the meshing mechanism of the harmonic gear drive.


A method and apparatus for processing security operations are described. In one embodiment, a processor includes a number of execution units to process a number of requests for security operations. The number of execution units are to output the results of the number of requests to a number of output data structures associated with the number of requests within a remote memory based on pointers stored in the number of requests. The number of execution units can output the results in an order that is different from the order of the requests in a request queue. The processor also includes a request unit coupled to the number of execution units. The request unit is to retrieve a portion of the number of requests from the request queue within the remote memory and associated input data structures for the portion of the number of requests from the remote memory. Additionally, the request unit is to distribute the retrieved requests to the number of execution units based on availability for processing by the number of execution units.

Communication networks and the number of users of such networks continue to increase. Moreover, on-line sales involving both business-to-business and business to consumer over the Internet continues to proliferate. Additionally, the number of people that are telecommuting continues to grow. Both on-line sales and telecommuting are examples of usage of communication networks that typically involve private and sensitive data that needs to be protected during its transmission across the different communication networks.
Accordingly, security protocols (e.g., Transport Layer Security (TLS), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 3.0, Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), etc.) have been developed to establish secure sessions between remote systems. These security protocols provide a method for remote systems to establish a secure session through message exchange and calculations, thereby allowing sensitive data being transmitted across the different communication networks to remain secure and untampered.
FIG. 1 illustrates a two phase client/server exchange to establish a secure session. In a first phase 105, the security negotiation phase, a network element 101 (the client) and a network element 103 (the server) exchange messages to negotiate security between the two network elements 101 and 103. The negotiation of security includes determining the algorithms (e.g., hashing algorithms, encryption algorithms, compression algorithms, etc.) to be employed by the two network elements 101 and 103. In a second phase 107, a key exchange phase, the network elements 101 and 103 exchange key information. The second phase 107 comprises the network elements 101 and 103 exchanging messages based on a selected public key algorithm and authenticating received messages. While the specific primitive tasks of these two phases vary for different security protocols, the primitive tasks for establishing a secure session can include the receiving of messages, transmitting of messages, generating of keys, generating of secrets, hashing of data, encrypting of data, decrypting of data, and calculating of random numbers.
Performing the tasks to establish a secure session is processor intensive. If a general purpose processor, acting as the host processor for a network element, performs these tasks, then the network element's system performance will suffer because resources will be consumed for the tasks. The results of poor system performance can impact a network and users in various ways depending on the function of the network element (e.g., routing, switching, serving, managing networked storage, etc.).
Coprocessors have been developed to offload some of the tasks from the host processor. Some coprocessors have been developed to perform a specific primitive task for the host processor (e.g., hash data). The addition of a task specific coprocessor does not offload from the host processor a significant amount of the secure session establishment tasks. One alternative is to add multiple coprocessors to a network element, each performing a different task. Such an alternative is limited by physical constraints (e.g., number of slots to connect cards) and introduces the problem of multiple communications between the host processor and the multiple coprocessors.
Other coprocessors have been developed to perform more than one of the tasks required to establish a secure session. Assume a coprocessor can perform a cryptographic operation (i.e., an encrypt or decrypt), a key material generation operation, and a hash operation. For example, assume a server has received a request to establish an SSL 3.0 session. The server must call the coprocessor to decrypt a pre-master secret received from a client. To generate a master secret and key material, the host processor must make 20 calls to the coprocessor (one for each hash operation). In just the beginning of establishing a single secure session, the host processor has made 21 calls to the multiple task coprocessor. As illustrated by this example, a coprocessor that can perform multiple tasks does not solve the issue of resource consumption from multiple communications between the host processor and the coprocessor.
Despite the addition of these coprocessors, a large amount of resources are still consumed with establishing secure sessions. Establishment of a secure session may suffer from latency caused by multiple communications between the host processor and a multiple task coprocessor or multiple single task coprocessors. Multiple communications between the CPU and coprocessors consumes system resources (e.g., bus resources, memory resources, clock cycles, etc.). The impact to the system can include limitation of 1) the number of secure sessions which can be served and 2) the number of concurrent secure sessions that can be maintained by the system.

Method and apparatus for establishing secure sessions


There are provided an antenna apparatus and a method of handover using the antenna apparatus. The antenna apparatus may comprise a plurality of antenna elements forming a plurality of beams in a predetermined service area. The plurality of antenna elements are arranged in a plurality of rows, and a number of antenna elements included in an uppermost row of the plurality of rows is smaller than a number of antenna elements included in a downmost row of the plurality of rows, and differences between center angles of beams formed by the antenna elements included in the downmost row are larger than differences between center angles of beams formed by the antenna elements included in the uppermost row.

1. Technical Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to wireless communication technology, and more specifically, to an antenna apparatus capable of minimizing interference between beams and maintaining a wide service coverage, and a method for handover using the same.
2. Related Art
A long term evolution (LTE)-Advanced and a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) currently under way for 4G mobile communication system development are a system that uses a frequency band below 6 GHz, uses a maximum 100 MHz bandwidth in the frequency band, introduces various wireless technology such as 8×8 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), carrier aggregation (CA), coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP), and relay, and tries to secure a maximum transmission capacity of 1 Gbps.
Meanwhile, according to mobile data usage forecasting of wired/wireless service providers including mobile communication carriers and traffic forecasting research organizations, it is expected that the mobile data usage is up to 1000 times as today's data usage in 2020. This is a quiet reasonable prediction when taking into consideration that a mobile data usage rate is gradually changed from conventional voice or text services to video services requiring a higher transmission rate, and a use of smart terminal such as a smartphone and tablet rather than conventional general cellular phones is exponentially increasing.
As described above, as traffic usage exponentially increases and frequency efficiency improvement in a current cellular frequency band meets its limits, a new method of building a cellular network that uses a millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency band from 10 GHz to 300 GHz in which a wider bandwidth expansion is available is considered.
When the millimeter-wave frequency band is used in mobile communication, it is possible to obtain a wide bandwidth of 1 GHz or more. Moreover, beamforming technology necessary for communication using the millimeter-wave frequency band is applied in addition to directionality that is a physical propagation characteristic of signals having the millimeter-wave frequency band. Therefore, since space resources and wireless resources such as a time, frequency, and code may be used, it is possible to dramatically increase a wireless capacity.
Currently, as examples in which the millimeter-wave frequency band is used in wireless communication, there is a wireless personal area network (WPAN) system having a short range of about 10 m focusing on a 60 GHz frequency band, or a case of point-to-point communication for wireless backhaul in a 70 to 80 GHz band. However, up to now, a use of the millimeter-wave frequency band is limited to a specific field.
When the cellular network (or cellular mobile communication system) using the millimeter-wave frequency band is implemented, it is possible to satisfy explosively growing mobile traffic demands using wide bandwidth frequency resources and space resource recycling. Therefore, it is expected that next-generation application services such as an ultra-definition (UD) image service may be easily provided with high service quality.
However, up to now, since a specific method of building the cellular network using the millimeter-wave frequency band has not been proposed, millimeter-wave frequency band has not been widely used.
For example, since a problem of interference between beams and a problem of service discontinuity due to handover failure during fast movement of terminal may exist when a plurality of beam are formed by using millimeter-wave frequency band, methods for overcoming the above described problems are required.

Antenna apparatus and method for handover using the same

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


Disclosed is a liquid crystal composition comprising one or more compounds represented by formula I and/or formula II and one or more compounds represented by formula III:

At present, the expansion of application range of liquid crystal compounds becomes larger and larger, and the liquid crystal compounds can be used in various types of displays, electro-optical devices, sensors and the like. The liquid crystal compounds for use in the above-mentioned display field are in a wide range of varieties, wherein the application in nematic phase liquid crystals is most extensive. Nematic phase liquid crystals have been used in passive TN and STN matrix displays and systems having a TFT active matrix.
Display is a process of converting an electrical signal (data information) into visible light (visual information), and a device for realizing display is namely a Man-Machine Interface (MMI). Flat panel displays (FPD) are currently the most popular class of display devices. Liquid crystal display (LCD) is the first to be developed among FPDs, and is a commercialized product. At present, thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) have become a mainstream product in LCD applications. Liquid crystal materials, as one of the important optoelectronic materials for liquid crystal displays, play an important role in improving the performance of a liquid crystal display.
As liquid crystal materials, they need to have good chemical and thermal stability and stability to electric fields and electromagnetic radiations. Furthermore, as liquid crystal materials for thin film transistor techniques (TFT-LCD), they not only need to have the stabilities as above, but also should have a broader nematic phase temperature range, a suitable birefringence anisotropy, a very high electrical resistivity, a good anti-ultraviolet property, a high charge retention ratio, a low vapor pressure and other properties.
As for the application of dynamic picture displays, elimination of ghosting and trailing of display pictures, the liquid crystal is required to have a very fast response speed, and therefore the liquid crystal is required to have a lower rotary viscosity γ1; in addition, for portable devices, the driving voltage of liquid crystal is desired to be as low as possible, in order to reduce the equipment energy consumption, and for displays for use in televisions, the requirements of drive voltage of the liquid crystals are not as low as that.
The viscosity, in particular rotary viscosity γ1, of a liquid crystal compound directly affects the response time after the liquid crystal is energized, and both the rise time (ton) and fall time (toff) are proportional to the rotary viscosity γ1 of the liquid crystal; moreover, since the rise time (ton) is related to a liquid crystal cell and the drive voltage, it can be adjusted by means of increasing the drive voltage and reducing the thickness of the liquid crystal cell; while the fall time (toff) is irrelevant to the drive voltage, but is mainly related to the elastic constant of the liquid crystal and the thickness of the liquid crystal cell, and a decrease in cell thickness can result in a decrease in fall time (toff); moreover, in different display modes, the movement manners of liquid crystal molecules are different, and the three modes TN, IPS and VA are inversely proportional to the mean elastic constant K, twist elastic constant and bend elastic constant, respectively.
According to the theory of liquid crystal continuum, after being deformed under the action of an external force (an electric field or a magnetic field), various different liquid crystals can "rebound" back to the original shapes by means of intermolecular interactions; likewise, liquid crystals also form a "viscosity" due to the intermolecular forces. Small changes of liquid crystal molecules may result in obvious changes in the conventional parameter performance of the liquid crystal, wherein for some of these changes, there is a certain rule, while for some changes, it is difficult to find a rule, which may also have obvious effects on the intermolecular interaction of the liquid crystal, these effects are very subtle, and to date, no perfect theoretical explanation has been formed yet.
The viscosity of a liquid crystal is related to the molecular structure of the liquid crystal, and studying the relationship between the viscosity of a liquid crystal system formed from different liquid crystal molecules and the molecular structures of the liquid crystals is one of important tasks of liquid crystal formulation engineers.

Abstract: wherein the definition of each substituent is given. The composition involved in the present invention has a low viscosity γ1, a high clearing point Tni and a large optical anisotropy Δn, and can realize a rapid response of liquid crystal display.

SHIJIAZHUANG CHENGZHI YONGHUA DISPLAY MATERIAL CO., LTD.


A golf practice device is disclosed. In an embodiment, the golf practice device includes a first upper part and a second lower part. A hinge assembly rotatably connects the first upper part and the second lower part. The first upper part includes an interior sized to removably receive a golf ball for marking a center line on the ball. The second lower part has a base and includes an interior. Compressed powder to mark the golf ball is contained within the interior of the second lower part.

"Sweet-spot" is a colloquialism used to describe a central area on a golf-club's face. A golf ball impacted by a properly aligned sweet-spot receives a maximum velocity and optimum trajectory. The same ball, if impacted by a misaligned club head, receives a lower velocity and is more likely to be misdirected. For these reasons, golf club manufacturers tend to design clubs in ways that maximize the sweet-spot's size. Although these efforts have proven effective, the goal of each golfer remains the same—to impact the golf ball at the sweet-spot. Failure to do so frequently produces misdirected shots of questionable duration.
By way of example, a golf ball impacted by the heel of a golf club swung by a right-handed golfer tends to "pull" to the left of the intended flight path. When impacted by the toe of the golfer's club, the same ball frequently tends to "pull" to the right of the intended trajectory. Even where neither of these mishaps occur, the ball often pursues a lower and shorter trajectory than if it had been hit by the sweet-spot.
Over the years, many efforts have been made to provide a means for a golfer to ascertain what area of the golf club face impacted the golf ball. After determining the point of impact and observing how much the point of impact deviates from the sweet-spot, the golfer makes whatever adjustments necessary to correct his or her swing, and tries again. U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,862 ('862 patent), U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,358 ('358 patent), U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,361 ('361 patent), U.S. Pat. No. 6,344,004 ('004 patent), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,604 ('604 patent) illustrate several approaches.
The '862 patent issued to Chen provides a golf ball that is permanently marked with a plurality of vertical and horizontal lines that may include special notations for yardage, a marking device comprising wooden block in which is formed recess or depression of hemispherical shape, and a chalked pad adhesively fixed to a golf club face. The golfer hits the golf ball and notes its flight. After retrieving the golf ball, the golfer determines the mark on the ball and calculates the impact point, e.g. the deviation from the sweet-spot. A disadvantage of this invention is that the ball must be retrieved before the point of impact can be determined.
The '358 patent issued to Pippett provides a flowable chalk compound, dispensed from a typical plastic squeeze tube. A dot of the flowable chalk compound is applied to one side of a conventional golf ball and the ball is positioned such that the face of a golf club will impact the ball at the dot of flowable chalk compound, which contains a hardening agent such as a gum that tends to dry or otherwise solidify when exposed to air. When the golf ball is struck by the face of a golf club at the dot of flowable chalk material, a mark forms on the club face at the point of impact. After the ball is hit, the golfer surveys the club face to determine whether the mark covers the sweet-spot. If not, the golfer adjusts his or her swing and tries again. A disadvantage of this invention is that a thick pasty residue is left on the club face from the flowable chalk compound. This residue must be wiped away with a cloth and can clog the grooves on the club face resulting in compromised ball action. Another disadvantage is that in order to apply the flowable chalk compound to a golf ball, both the ball and the dispenser must be handled simultaneously.
The '361 patent issued to Hope provides an adhesive backed appliqué which is affixed to the face of a golf club. When the club face is struck against a golf ball, the appliqué gives some indication of the strike point. A significant disadvantage, however, is that the appliqué covers the face of the club and thus obstructs the view of the club's actual sweet spot, which may be bigger or smaller than indicated by the appliqué. Another disadvantage of using an appliquéis that the club face itself never actually touches the ball. This can detrimentally affect the spin, and therefore the flight of the ball. Another disadvantage is that after five or six balls have been struck, the appliqué must be replaced because the marks on the appliqué left by previous ball strikes overlap and obscure locations of subsequent strikes.
The '004 patent issued to Adams provides a golf tee coated with colored coatings that when struck with a golf club leave a marking that easily identifies the point of impact. Specifically, the tee leaves a multicolored marking on the club face that is used to show the swing path of a golfer's swing and the point of impact of the tee on the face of the golf club. A disadvantage of this invention is that the face of a golf club may not impact the golf tee, and thus no indication of the point of impact would be given.
The '604 patent issued to Morrone provides an single piece of semi-stationary apparatus for golfers who want to exercise, self-teach, or teach the golf swing without actually sending a golf ball flying. Upon impact with the club face, the ball section of the apparatus ejects a material that marks the face of the golf club and shows the golfer where he or she hit the ball. A disadvantage is that this invention does not permit the hitting of conventional golf balls.