A separating and feeding machine is disclosed for removing a succession of bound booklets or the like from a supply hopper adapted to hold a stack of the booklets for feeding them to a subsequent apparatus for further processing. The separating and feeding machine includes a reciprocating vacuum feed plate disposed in the bottom of the hopper for advancing the bottom booklet through a discharge opening to a take away feed mechanism, and includes first and second stage separating mechanism which initially maintains at least the bottom two booklets in the hopper in shingled relationship to expose a marginal portion thereof adjacent the bound edge so that a pressing member can maintain a normal force on the exposed marginal portion of the bottom booklet to prevent it from wrinkling and becoming jammed in the discharge opening while the vacuum feed plate is moving it toward the discharge opening. The second stage separating separater further ensures that only one booklet at a time can pass through the discharge opening.

The present invention relates generally to document separating and feeding machines, and more particularly to a machine uniquely adapted for separating and feeding bound booklets seriatim from a stacked supply thereof for movement of the booklets to subsequent apparatus for further processing.
Machines for feeding documents seriatim from a stack thereof have long been well known and have been used in a variety of paper handling applications with great commercial success. Generally, machines of this type typically include a suitable hopper for holding a stack of documents, usually in substantially vertical orientation, with each document lying in a substantially horizontal plane. A suitable feeding mechanism separates a document from the top or bottom of the stack, depending on whether the machine is designed to feed from the top or bottom of the stack, and feed it from the stack to a suitable take away feeding device which further feeds the document to another apparatus for further processing.
Machines of this type are ideally suited for use in connection with various types of document processing systems which may typically include printing and separating machines for printing customized documents on a web and separating the documents into individual sheets, collating machines which form collations of a basic document, such as the customized printed document, and one or more items of additional insert material, accumulating machines for properly arranging the customized printed document or documents with all of the insert material, inserting machines for inserting the collations into envelopes, and mailing machine which close and seal the flaps of the envelopes, print a postage indicia thereon, and stack the envelopes for deposit with the Postal Service. There are, of course, other types of document processing operations which can be performed on the documents and/or insert material, such as printing, folding, scoring, etc. Thus, the type of document feeding apparatus of the type to which the present invention relates has widely diverse application in the general field of document handling and processing.
One very important characteristic of the individual components and machines that make up such a document processing system is that they must be capable of operating very reliably at a high rate of speed in order to justify the relatively high cost of purchasing and maintaining these components and machines.
Extensive experience has shown that document separating and feeding machines of the type to which the present invention is related have achieved a high degree of design refinement and have proven to be highly successful in virtually all of the commercial applications for which they were intended. There are a number of different design concepts for these feeders, such as feeding from the top or bottom as mentioned above, and utilizing friction roller or reciprocating friction pusher feed elements, vacuum lift or vacuum pusher feed elements, grippers, clamp type devices, and all are used depending on the type of documents being handled and the manner in which the feeder best fits into the overall processing system.
One exception to the general degree of commercial success and acceptance of these document separating and feeding machines is in the field of handling bound booklets, and particularly bound booklets that are formed of relatively cheap, low grade paper that is thin, flexible, and/or flimsy, and in feeding such booklets through the discharge opening of a bottom feed type separating and feeding machine. Depending on certain preferences of the originators of the booklets and the nature of the booklets themselves, some are printed on relatively expensive, substantially high grade paper which has a substantial degree of rigidity and resistance to wrinkling or rumpling, as well as a relatively smooth surface texture with a low coefficient of friction. They also may be formatted to have relatively small dimensions. Such booklets can be fed almost as if they are single sheets of relatively stiff material, and few problems are encountered in feeding such booklets with most commercially available bottom type feeding machines. However, in many other situations, booklets are printed on the relatively inexpensive, low quality paper, which typically is very thin and flimsy, has relatively little rigidity and therefore wrinkles or rumples easily when handled, and may also have a relatively coarse surface texture with a high coefficient of friction, and therefore cannot be separated and fed by commercially available separating and feeding machines with the required degree of reliability for commercial success. Booklets printed on this type of paper typically crumple in response to the feeding forces imposed on the booklets by virtually all of the known bottom feed document separating and feeding machines, and tend to jam in the discharge openings of such machines.
More particularly, the main problem encountered in separating and feeding any type of bound booklet from the bottom of a stack thereof is that the feeding element exerts a normal force adjacent the location of the feeding element on the bottom cover or outer sheet of the booklet, and also exerts a forward directional force on the bottom cover or outer sheet. Typically, the normal force from the feeding element is localized in the area of the feeding element and is not of sufficient magnitude to be distributed throughout the booklet, especially at the leading or bound edge thereof. If the booklet is made from good quality paper, and possesses the rigidity and size characteristics mentioned above, the lack of normal force at the lead edge of the booklet by the feeding element will not present a problem because the paper has sufficient rigidity, especially in a small format, to retain its shape. Thus, when sufficient directional force is applied by the feeding element to the cover or outer sheet of the booklet to overcome the frictional resistance to movement of the opposite cover or outer sheet with the cover or outer sheet of the adjacent booklet, the entire booklet will move and will feed from the bottom of the stack without jamming in the discharge opening of the separating and feeding machine. The booklet will, in effect, move as if it were simply a single sheet of relatively thick and rigid material.
On the other hand, if the booklet is made of low quality paper having the characteristics mentioned above, and particularly if it is made to a large format such as standard 81/2 by 11 inches, and because the normal force from the feeding element is localized and not directed at the leading bound edge of the booklet, when the forward directional force from the feeding element moves the cover or outer sheet of the booklet, the remaining sheets and the opposite cover or outer sheet tend to remain in place in the stack due to the frictional resistance described above. This will cause the cover and any outer sheets that do commence movement to rumple and curve out of alignment, and the booklet will jam at the discharge opening of the separating and feeding machine. This can even occur in some types of top feeding machines which have discharge openings, but it is more likely to occur in a bottom type separating and feeding machine where the weight of the stack of booklets pressing on the bottom booklet would amplify the amount of normal force on substantially the entire area of the bottom booklet except at the leading edge. This further increases the tendency for the leading or bound edge of the booklet to remain in place while the lower portion of the booklet begins to move, thereby further increasing the likelihood that the lead edge of the booklet will rumple and curve upwardly and jam in the discharge opening.
Thus, it is apparent that there is a need for a document separating and feeding machine that is capable of separating and feeding bound booklets from the bottom of a stack thereof which are formed of relatively low quality, thin, flexible and flimsy paper at a substantial rate of speed and with a high degree of reliability.

Separating and feeding machine for bound booklets


Containment bag for an industrial container embraces a non-self-supporting container having a top, sides, and a bottom, which define an interior space; in at least one of the top and sides, at least one opening for introduction of material into the interior space; and for the at least one opening a flap that can be sealed at or beyond the at least one opening. Sealing is provided through at least one of a hook and loop closure system and an adhesive system. The bag can be employed with the industrial container.

Various containment bags for waste containers are known. See, e.g., Town, U.S. Pat. No. 7,073,676 B1. As useful as such a bag may be it is not without drawbacks. In general, a bag having tie-off points is not well sealable, and a bag with a zipper closure can be subject to "single point" failure, and so forth. The following is further noted:
1. Prior tie-off configurations have a number of flaws, among which may be mentioned the following:                A. Multiple tie-off points leave spaces or gaps between the multiple closures of the bag. An effective seal can be difficult if not impossible to obtain.        B. If such a bag is overfilled, which happens in real world situations, it makes it hard, if not impossible, to close the bag.
2. Prior zipper and flap closure configurations have a number of flaws, among which may be mentioned the following:                A. If the zipper pull breaks or is pulled off the zipper, the bag is useless in the field. Containment bags are large, and a great amount of force is exerted on the zipper pull. Hence, a single point failure of a breaking zipper pull is not uncommon.        B. Most of such containment bags are used on waste clean-up sites where the bag is loaded with a lot of debris, dirt, and other industrial wastes. If even a small amount of dirt or debris, for example, gets into the zipper channel or mechanism, it can render the bag nearly if not entirely useless.        C. Sometimes zipper systems can get off-line. If it does so in the field, a big problem is created since the bag is rendered nearly if not entirely useless.        D. If such a bag is overfilled, again, which happens in real world situations, it makes it hard, if not impossible, to close this type of bag, too.
It would be desirable to ameliorate if not completely solve or overcome one or more of such drawbacks or flaws. It would be desirable to provide the art alternative(s).


A computing system may include persistent storage disposed within a remote network management platform and a proxy software application disposed within a managed network that is associated with the remote network management platform. The proxy software application may be configured to: (i) receive, from the remote network management platform, a discovery request; (ii) determine that the discovery request targets a computing device and is to be performed by way of a software agent deployed on the computing device; (iii) based on the discovery request, generate, by way of query mappings, a query expression; (iv) transmit, to the software agent, the query expression; (v) receive, from the software agent, a query response specifying configuration information related to the computing device; (vi) generate, by way of response mappings, a discovery response representing the configuration information related to the computing device; and (vii) transmit, to the remote network management platform, the discovery response.

In practice, management of an enterprise's network may involve gathering information regarding the configuration and operational aspects of the network. For instance, the enterprise might have tools with which to facilitate discovery of devices, applications, and/or services on its own network. Such discovery may involve learning that certain devices, applications, and/or services are on the network as a general matter and/or may involve gathering other information about those devices, applications, and/or services. Because enterprises might rely on discovery to assist with management of their respective networks, technical improvements to discovery-related tools could provide various benefits to enterprises.

Agent-assisted discovery of network devices and services


The present invention refers to a field emitter beam source (10) comprising at least one emitter (11); at least one extracting electrode (19) to extract a beam current (IE) from the emitter (11); a current source (12) for providing a predetermined beam current (IE0); a first voltage source (13) for providing a first voltage (UA) between the emitter (11) and the extracting electrode (19) to switch on the beam current (IE); and a first switch (S1) for disconnecting the first voltage source (13). With such a field emitter beam source, the emitter voltage (UE) necessary to emit a predetermined beam current (IE0) can be determined. This in turn enables the field emitter beam source (10) to generate beam current pulses with a fast rise time and a well defined beam current pulse charge Q.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a field emitter beam source to emit a beam current and a method for controlling a beam current. The invention also relates to an array of field emitter beam sources.
2. Description of the Related Art
Field emitter beam sources are devices to generate beams of electrons for applications like electron microscopy, electron beam pattern generators and display technology. A field emitter beam source emits electrons at the tip of a needle (emitter tip) due to a voltage applied between the emitter tip and an extraction electrode. With a small radius of the emitter tip, even a moderate voltage between the emitter tip and the extracting electrode creates an electric field at the emitter tip that is large enough to extract electrons from the emitter tip into vacuum to form an electron beam.
It has been predicted that field emitter beam sources will replace thermal electron beam sources in many applications due to their higher brightness and smaller spot size. However, field emitter beam sources are disadvantageous in that their beam current stability is poor compared to thermal electron beam emitters. The reason for the beam instability of field emitters is that the radius of the emitter tip is usually so small (typically a few tens of nanometers or less) that the electric field at the tip of the emitters varies significantly when the surface of the emitter tip becomes contaminated or changes due to chemical or physical processes during operation. As a consequence, the emitter beam current fluctuates significantly even if the voltage between extracting electrode and emitter is kept constant. However, for most electron beam devices it is essential to have a controlled electron beam exposure of a specimen in order to obtain an even patterning of the specimen, or a good image contrast when the specimen is inspected.
It is one of the advantages of field emitter beam sources over conventional thermal emitters like tungsten hairpin filaments that field emitter beam sources can be fabricated in arrays by using micromechanical processing techniques. Arrays of integrated field emitter beam sources are also known as micro field emitter arrays. Such arrays may have thousands or even millions of emitter tips with a pitch in the range of only a few micrometers or below. Using large arrays of integrated field emitter beam sources is particularly promising in the field of electron beam lithography. While electron beam lithography offers a potential for much higher spatial resolution capabilities than, e.g., masking technology, it presently suffers from low throughput due to the lengthy process of one beam "writing" a structure. With multiple electron beams in parallel however, electron beam lithography can achieve a throughput which one day may enable it to replace present masking technology.
However, the requirement to stabilize the beam currents of not only one but of a large array of field emitter beam sources poses even larger problems since each field emitter beam source has a different current-voltage behavior due to the high sensitivity to fabrication irregularities. Further, for each field emitter beam source, the current-voltage behavior may change over time which makes it even harder to provide an even electron exposure over the specimen. One way to improve the beam current stability is to control the beam current electronically by using a current source circuit for each emitter. A current source is capable of providing a constant beam current independent of a contamination or deformation of the emitter, since with a current source, the voltage between the extracting electrode and the emitter is free to adjust itself to a value where the current tunneling through the emitter surface-vacuum barrier (Schottky-Barrier) matches the current provided by the current source. Current source circuits that control the current through a field emitter are known, e.g. from U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,256. There, the drain of a field effect transistor (FET) is connected to a field emitter, and the current through the emitter is controlled by the voltage between the gate and the source of the FET.
The patterning of a specimen by means of an electron beam is usually performed by a scan where the beam current of electrons is switched on and off when it is directed from one spot on the specimen to the next. This requires the field emitter beam sources to generate fast beam current pulses in order to scan a specimen with high spatial resolution within a reasonable time. Therefore, the beam current pulses should have short rise and fall times in the range of a few nanoseconds or less in order to meet standard throughput requirements. However, with present field emitter beam source arrays that use current sources for beam current control, it is impossible to achieve such fast rise and fall times due to the inherently limited current of the current sources and the unavoidable parasitic capacitances, CP which are in parallel with the current source and which have to be charged and discharged for each beam current pulse.
As an example, the time Δt for charging a parasitic capacitance, Cp, of typically 10 fF with a current source providing a beam current, IE, of typically 10 nA to provide a switching voltage ΔU=5 Volt to switch on the beam current IE can be estimated to be Δt=5 μm, using the relationship Δt=CE ΔU/IE. Obviously, 5 μm is much too long for practical use. However, it is difficult to decrease the charging time, since it is difficult to (a) reduce the voltage ΔU, i.e. the voltage change necessary to switch on the beam current from zero to a beam current of a few nanoamperes; (b) reduce the parasitic capacitance Cp, which represents the stray capacitance of the emitter when it is connected with the current source; or (c) increase the current IE without worsening the focussing quality of the electron beam.

Field emitter beam source and method for controlling a beam current

ICT, Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik mbH


A system for pairing wireless nodes includes a plurality of device nodes, such as lamp nodes, a plurality of sensor nodes, such as light switch nodes, and a context manager node. Each of the device nodes, the sensor nodes and the context manager node includes a first communication channel having radio frequency signals and a diverse second communication channel including wireless non-radio frequency signals. Some of the device nodes and the sensor nodes are adapted to collect context information of a corresponding communication environment and to transfer the collected context information to the context manager node. The context manager node is adapted to employ the collected context information and enable automated distributed pairing of a first node of the device nodes and sensor nodes with another second node of the device nodes and sensor nodes.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to wireless communication and, more particularly, to systems employing wireless communication, such as, for example, a wireless local area network (WLAN) or a low rate-wireless personal area network (LR-WPAN). The invention also relates to methods for configuring pairs of nodes in a wireless communication network.
2. Background Information
Wireless communication networks are an emerging new technology, which allows users to access information and services electronically, regardless of their geographic position.
In contrast to wired networks, mesh-type, low rate-wireless personal area network (LR-WPAN) wireless communication networks are intended to be relatively low power, to be self-configuring, and to not require any communication infrastructure (e.g., wires) other than power sources and wireless access points.
Relatively low power, radio frequency (RF) lighting control systems employ battery powered, RF switch "sensors". Such a sensor sends a signal to a remote power control device, such as relay, in order to turn one or more house lights on and off.
One attractive feature in wireless sensor networks is the potential of having relatively lower deployment costs in comparison to an equivalent wired network due to the savings in cabling, labor, materials, testing and verification. In building automation, for example, the installation cost of a light switch in a building facility can be as high as about 10 to 30 times the cost of the light switch. This estimate does not include the possibility of additional work, such as, for example, conduit installation and infrastructure work.
It is believed that there are two principal unresolved issues in wireless sensor intelligent pairing that challenge those advantages: (1) correctly pairing all of the wireless devices at a large scale facility traditionally takes either relatively long configuration times or, else, requires specialized personnel and equipment; and (2) the effort of adding and configuring additional sensors can be as large as the initial network setup effort.
Hence, such sensor intelligent pairing represents a key barrier for the vision of pervasive wireless sensor networks, due to the need to minimize user intervention during deployment and maintenance. This challenge is further increased when a relatively large population of sensing devices needs to be paired to corresponding controlling devices.
Unlike the cable that connects two devices in a wired network (e.g., a light switch and a lamp), a wireless communication network does not provide a physical indication of which device is to be associated on the other end of the line. This particular piece of information that characterizes the pairing context is the main obstacle for self-configuring pairing in wireless sensor networks. For this reason, most pairing methodologies rely on the use of custom commissioning tools, which require operation by specially trained personnel, in order to provide the missing context. In addition, these methodologies are time-consuming and require their redeployment after any system upgrade. Other methodologies make use of time-based radio frequency (RF) synchronization, which makes the network implementation too expensive, unusable for relatively large-scale deployment (e.g., networks deployed over a large infrastructure), and complicates efforts in realizing automated pairing.
Of all the components that define the context of a wireless sensor application, it is believed that location awareness is the most challenging and is the most important to obtain at the time of performing intelligent pairing.
It is known to employ secondary channels for context sensing in environments where global positioning system (GPS) signals are difficult to obtain (e.g., in indoor environments). One tracking system is based on both ultrasonic and radio signals, aimed at a location granularity of 15 cm. Every 200 ms, a controller sends out a radio message to all transceivers on mobile devices, indicating which transceiver should ping in the next time slot. Meanwhile, the controller also sends a reset message to the receivers' network, requesting them to be ready to pick up the incoming ultrasonic signal. Both location and orientation can be calculated. Unfortunately, this method is based on trilateration, which is an alternative to triangulation that relies upon distance measurements instead of angle measurements, and which requires an existing network infrastructure whose spatial coordinates are known. See Ward, A. et al., "A New Location Technique for the Active Office," IEEE Personal Communications, vol. 4. no. 5, 11 pp. (October 1997); Harter, A. et al., "The Anatomy of a Context-Aware Application," Proceedings of the Fifth Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, pp. 59-68 (August 1999).
Another location-support system also takes advantage of both ultrasonic and radio signals. Rather than the system tracking the user's location, however, each portable device determines its own location. The mobile device listens to two signals (one RF and one ultrasonic) that simultaneously originate from previously installed transmitters at known points by measuring the distance to a base station calculated by the time interval between the arrivals of two signals. The resulting location accuracy is a few centimeters of accuracy and angles to within 3-5 degrees of the true value. This approach, like the formerly described system, above, requires previous knowledge about the transmitter's spatial coordinates and a good scheduling for the transmitter's "beacons" (RF and ultrasound signals), in order to avoid collisions. See Priyantha, N. B. et al., "The Cricket Location-Support System," Proceedings of the Sixth Annual ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, 12 pp. (August 2000).
It is known to combine received signal strength indicator (RSSI) information and acoustic time of flight, in order to estimate distance using simultaneous beaconing. Inexpensive receivers are employed for detecting the beacons and, hence, systematic and calibration errors play a bigger role in affecting the accuracy of the system, which is minimized by a "mean calibration" technique. See Whitehouse, K. et al., "Calibration as Parameter Estimation in Sensor Networks," Proceedings of the First ACM International Workshop on Sensor Networks and Applications, pp. 59-67 (September 2002).
It is known to employ RF and ultrasound in which a personal digital assistant (PDA) with two ultrasound receivers is able to detect a resource (like a printer) in a particular room. The resource emits a synchronized RF and ultrasound beacon upon request from the user via the PDA, and employs trilateration, such that the user is able to determine the location of the resource. It is assumed that the user knows (or has access to) the ID of the resource and manually activates the pairing procedure, which makes it inapplicable for wireless sensor networks. See Kindberg, T. et al., "Validating and Securing Spontaneous Associations between Wireless Devices," Hewlett-Packard Company, pp. i, 1-6 (Sep. 12, 2002).
Another system employs only the RF signal strength of IEEE 802.11 transceivers as an indicator of the distance between a transmitter and a receiver without setting up an additional location tracking system. At the initial (off-line) phase, the system builds an RF signal strength database for a set of fixed receivers associated to known transmitter positions. During the normal operation, the RF signal strength of a transmitter is measured by the set of fixed receivers and is sent to a central computer, which examines the signal strength database and calculates the best fit for the current transmitter position based on a predefined RF propagation model. See Bahl, P. et al., "RADAR: An In-Building RF-based User Location and Tracking System," Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, 10 pp. (March 2000).
There is room for improvement in systems for pairing wireless nodes and in methods for pairing wireless nodes of a communication network.

Method and system for automated distributed pairing of wireless nodes of a communication network


An apparatus for closing fasteners in media includes a plurality of fastener clinches, the plurality of fastener clinches being adapted for operable engagement with a plurality of fastener dispensers, and the plurality of fastener clinches including structure adapted to generally simultaneously close a plurality of fasteners discharged by the fastener dispensers. The apparatus also includes an actuation mechanism for moving the fastener clinches to contact and close the fasteners in the media, and a drive for powering the actuation mechanism.

Electronic publishing, desktop publishing and other tasks involving print media or other media demand more than a stack of paper in an output tray of a laser printer or photocopier. Typically, many sheets must be bound into finished documents by a paper-handling accessory. Currently, machines exist to perform operations such as binding, folding, trimming, saddle stapling, and hole drilling. These finishing operations are typically performed on many sheets at a time, requiring high forces and powerful motors. Such machines are often expensive and large, depending on function, and often exceed the cost or footprint of desktop or office printers. As such, they are not well-suited to low-cost desktop finishing or other low-cost applications, for example.
The demands of e.g. electronic and desktop publishing are driving the need for more compact, low-cost, high-quality, and high-speed finishing machines suitable for use alone or with printers, photocopiers, and other machines. Prior-art solutions to making booklets, for example, have involved machines costing thousands of dollars for simple functions such as folding and stapling. They are often bulky, slow, and expensive. Current finishing techniques impose size, cost and power limits upon booklet-making devices and other fastening devices, and hinder the use of these devices in many applications.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A bi-metallic switch element 10 has a contact wire 26 attached thereto by means of a plurality of crimps. A first crimp 28 applied at a first pressure fixes the contact wire to the element and a second crimp 30, formed at a lesser, more controlled pressure aligns the contact wire in a predetermined location.

The basic elements of a bi-metal switch include at least a bi-metal member which usually is elongated and which can have a contact wire attached thereto. Generally, it is important that the contact wire be accurately positioned on the bi-metal. Two major forms of attachment have been employed in the past. A first simply involves welding the contact wire to the bi-metal and a second involves attaching the wire by means of a crimp. The latter method has been accomplished by stamping either a tunnel or a pair of tabs from the bi-metal, laying a wire in the opening thus provided, and crimping the tabs or tunnel to the wire. While these methods provided an adequate holding means for the wire they did not provide for accurate location, since very often the force applied to fix the wire disturbed whatever previous location had been determined.


The present invention is designed so that it is possible to communicate adequately depending on user terminal-specific capabilities, in a system where wide frequency bands are supported. A user terminal has a receiving section that receives band information, which indicates a prospective downlink (DL) band, which is a band where a DL signal might be allocated, and/or a prospective uplink (UL) band, which is a band where a UL signal might be allocated, and a control section that configures the DL band candidate and/or the UL band candidate in a user terminal-specific manner based on the band information.

In the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) network, the specifications of long term evolution (LTE) have been drafted for the purpose of further increasing high speed data rates, providing lower latency and so on (see non-patent literature 1). Also, the specifications of LTE-A (also referred to as "LTE-advanced," "LTE Rel. 10," "LTE Rel. 11," or "LTE Rel. 12") have been drafted to provide wide bands and increased speed beyond LTE (also referred to as "LTE Rel. 8" or "LTE Rel. 9"), and successor systems of LTE (also referred to as, for example, "FRA (Future Radio Access)," "5G (5th generation mobile communication system)," "NR (New Radio)," "NX (New radio access)," "FX (Future generation radio access)," "LTE Rel. 13," "LTE Rel. 14," "LTE Rel. 15" or later versions) are under study.
In LTE Rel. 10/11, carrier aggregation (CA) to integrate multiple carriers (component carriers (CCs), cells, etc.) is introduced in order to provide wide bands. Every component carrier is configured by using the system bandwidth of LTE Rel. 8 as one unit. In addition, in CA, multiple CCs under the same radio base station (eNB (eNodeB)) are configured in a user terminal (UE (User Equipment)).
Also, in LTE Rel. 12, dual connectivity (DC), in which multiple cell groups (CGs) that are formed by different radio base stations are configured in a user terminal, is also introduced. Every cell group is comprised of at least one cell (CC, cell, etc.). In DC, multiple CCs of different radio base stations are integrated, so that DC is also referred to as "inter-base-station CA (inter-eNB CA)."
In existing LTE systems (for example, LTE Rels. 8 to 13), downlink (DL) and/or uplink (UL) communication are carried out using 1-ms transmission time intervals (TTIs). This I-ms TTI is the time unit for transmitting one channel-encoded data packet, and serves as the unit of processing in, for example, scheduling, link adaptation, retransmission control (HARQ-ACK (Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest-ACKnowledgement)) and so on. A TTI of 1 ms is also referred to as a "subframe," a "subframe duration" and so forth.

User terminal and radio communication method


A method and apparatus for segmenting medium access control (MAC) service data units (SDUs) creates enhanced MAC-es PDUs in the enhanced MAC-e/es sub-layer by concatenating MAC SDUs received from the logical channels. An enhanced transport format combination (E-TFC) selection entity controls the concatenation of MAC SDUs into enhanced MAC-es PDUs. When a MAC SDU is received that is too large to fit into a selected enhanced MAC-es PDU payload, a segmentation entity segments the MAC SDU such that the MAC SDU segment fills the remaining payload available in the selected enhanced MAC-es PDU. The enhanced MAC-es PDU is then assigned a transmission sequence number (TSN) and multiplexed with other enhanced MAC-es PDUs to create a single enhanced MAC-e PDU that is transmitted on the E-DCH in the next transmission time interval (TTI). A HARQ entity stores and, if necessary retransmits the enhanced MAC-e PDU when a transmission error occurs.

The third generation partnership project (3GPP) Release 6, introduced high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) to provide higher data rates for uplink transmissions. As part of HSUPA, a new transport channel, the enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH), was introduced to carry uplink (UL) data at higher rates. Along with the E-DCH, new MAC sub-layers were introduced within the overall wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) to control the E-DCH transport channel. The new MAC sub-layer is the MAC-e/es. More specifically, the MAC-e/es is the MAC entity that handles the data transmitted on the E-DCH. Upper layers configure how the MAC-e/es is to be applied to handle E-DCH functionality.
A block diagram of the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) MAC-e layer architecture is shown in FIG. 1, a block diagram of the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) MAC-es layer architecture is shown in FIG. 2, and a block diagram of the WTRU MAC-e/es layer architecture is shown in FIG. 3.
For each WTRU that uses the E-DCH, one MAC-e entity per NodeB and one MAC-es entity in a serving radio network controller (SRNC) are configured.
FIG. 1 shows a UTRAN MAC-e 100 and a E-DCH scheduling entity 110. The MAC-e 100 is located in a NodeB and controls access to the E-DCH. There is one MAC-e 100 in the NodeB for each WTRU. There is only one E-DCH scheduling entity 110 in the NodeB. The E-DCH scheduling entity 110 manages E-DCH cell resources between WTRUs.
The UTRAN MAC-e 100 shown in FIG. 1 comprises an E-DCH control entity 120, a de-multiplexing entity 130, and a hybrid automatic retransmission request entity (HARQ) entity 140. The MAC-e 100 and the E-DCH scheduling entity 110 handle HSUPA specific functions in the NodeB.
The UTRAN MAC-es 200 shown in FIG. 2 comprises a reordering queue distribution entity 210, a reordering/combining entity 220, and a disassembly entity 230. The UTRAN MAC-es 200 further comprises a macro diversity selection entity in FDD mode when there is soft handover with multiple NodeBs. The MAC-es 200 is located in the SRNC and handles E-DCH specification functionality that is not covered in the MAC-e in the NodeB. The MAC-es 200 is connected to both the MAC-e and the MAC-d.
FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the WTRU MAC-e/es layer architecture. The WTRU MAC-e/es 300 comprises a HARQ entity 310, a multiplexing and transmission sequence number (TSN) setting entity 320, and an enhanced transport format combination (E-TFC) selection entity 330.
The HARQ entity 310 handles the MAC functions relating to the HARQ protocol. Specifically, the HARQ entity 310 is responsible for storing MAC-e payloads and re-transmitting them. The detailed configuration of the HARQ protocol is provided by the radio resource control (RRC) over the MAC-control service access point (SAP).
The multiplexing and TSN setting entity 320 concatenates multiple MAC-d protocol data units (PDUs) into MAC-es PDUs. Further, the multiplexing and TSN setting entity 320 multiplexes one or more MAC-es PDUs into a single MAC-e PDU, to be transmitted in a next transmission time interval (TTI), as instructed by the E-TFC selection entity 330. The multiplexing and TSN setting entity 320 is also responsible for managing and setting the TSN per logical channel for each MAC-es PDU.
The E-TFC selection entity 330 is responsible for E-TFC selection according to scheduling information, relative grants and absolute grants, received from the UTRAN via L1 signaling and a serving grant value signaled through RRC. The E-TFC selection entity 330 is also responsible for arbitration among the different flows mapped on the E-DCH. The detailed configuration of the E-TFC selection entity 330 is provided by RRC over the MAC-control SAP. As stated above, the E-TFC selection entity 330 controls the multiplexing function of the multiplexing and TSN setting entity 320.
Currently, the MAC-e/es selects a number of MAC service data units (SDUs) from each logical channel and multiplexes the MAC SDUs into a single MAC-e PDU for transmission. The existing MAC-e/es protocol relies on the fact that the RLC is configured to deliver PDUs in one or more predefined sizes. Unfortunately, the use of predefined PDU sizes creates overhead at higher data rates.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved MAC-e/es architecture in both the UTRAN and WTRU that allows for flexible PDU sizes at the radio link control (RLC) layer and PDU segmentation at the MAC layer. The use of flexible PDU sizes and PDU segmentation would allow for higher data rates in the UL and may reduce header overhead for UL transmissions.

Method and apparatus for supporting segmentation of packets for uplink transmission


A static sample divider of the present invention is adapted to sample a flow of material such as seed. The sample divider includes a housing which encloses an upwardly facing cone disposed above one or more sample cups. The sample cups are coupled to a sample receiving tube. When a flow of material is directed toward the cone, the cone spreads the flow of material radially and outwardly where a portion is caught by the sample cups and dumped into the sample receiving tube. The remainder of the material is discharged through a discharge tube. The sample cups can be removed and replaced with different numbers or different sizes of sample cups to control the proportion of material sampled.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sample dividers. More particularly, though not exclusively, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for sampling a portion of a flowable material.
2. Problems in the Art
There are various needs for accurately obtaining representative samples of materials. For example, in the hybrid seed industry, samples of harvested seed are tested in laboratories for various reasons.
In one example prior art system, hybrid seed corn is shelled and a sample of fifty bushels of seeds is taken using some sort of flow diverter. The fifty bushel sample can then be shipped to a seed laboratory for sampling and testing. Smaller samples can be taken from the fifty bushel sample using prior art items such as sampling probes. A typical sampling probe is comprised of an open ended tube which is pressed into a bin of seed and removed to obtain a representative sample of the seed in the bin.
Various other prior art devices for collecting a sample of material are known in the art. Some prior art devices include a cone positioned in a flow of material for directing the flow of material across the surface of the cone. The device may also have a number of splitters for removing a sample from the material. Other devices use a series of staged funnels with the lowermost funnel having chutes for removing a portion of the material from the stream. The prior art devices have various disadvantages. First, many of the prior art sampling devices require the use of a motor which increases the cost and complexity of the device. In addition, prior art sampling devices cannot handle high capacity, but rather are intended for use in a laboratory where a small amount of material flow is sampled.
Another problem with prior art sample dividers relates to their flexibility. Prior art sample dividers are typically very limited in the selectability of the ratio to be sampled.
3. Features of the Invention
A general feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for splitting a stream of material into different proportions which overcomes problems found in the prior art.
A further feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for splitting a stream of material into different proportions in which the proportion is adjustable by the user.
A further feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for splitting a stream of material into different proportions which uses modular dividers which can be put together to further split the material.
Further features, objects and advantages of the present invention include:
A method and apparatus for splitting a stream of material which uses a plurality of sample cups of differing sizes so that the split proportion can be selected by the user. PA1 A method and apparatus for splitting a stream of material which includes a plurality of cones having different physical characteristics so that the user can select from the plurality of cones. PA1 A method and apparatus for splitting a stream of material using modular splitters which can be stacked for further splitting the stream of material. PA1 A method and apparatus for splitting a stream of material which includes a sample receiving tube which may be divided into a plurality of sections. PA1 A method and apparatus for statically splitting a stream of material into different proportions. PA1 A method and apparatus for splitting a stream of material which is capable of allowing a user to divide the flow accurately in a desired ratio.
These as well as other features, objects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following specification and claims.


A housing assembly includes a housing having an access opening and a cover movable between a closed position wherein the cover generally covers the access opening and an open position wherein the cover generally does not cover the access opening. The assembly further includes a protrusion located on one of the housing or the cover, and a track located on the other one of the housing or the cover. The protrusion is slidably received in the track, and the track forms a generally closed loop shape such that the protrusion slides in the track when the cover is moved between the open and the closed positions. Additionally ramps may be provided on portions of the track to provide user feed back and to inhibit reverse motion of the protrusion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a cover prop mechanism, and more particularly, to a cover prop mechanism which can retain the cover in its open position.
2. Description of the Related Art
Business machines, such as printers, copiers, facsimile machines, scanners, multifunction machines such as printer/copier/scanner, and the like typically include a body or housing that provides structural integrity to the device. In order to provide access to the internal components of the device, the body typically includes an access opening that is protected by a movable cover. The cover is movable between an open position and a closed position such that the internal components of the device can be accessed through the access opening. The cover itself may contain components. For example in a multifunction machine, the cover may contain a scanner that is lifted in order to access other internal components.
Various mechanisms may be utilized to prop the cover in its open position. However, existing prop mechanisms may be difficult to access and operate, and may require two-hand operation. Accordingly, there is a need for a cover prop mechanism which is easy to access and operate and which may be operated using a single hand.


An energy tablet and method of manufacturing the same that successfully masks the bitter taste of caffeine which has precluded popularity of chewable energy tablets in the past.

Caffeine has been used as a stimulant and anti-sleep aid for centuries. While the most common source of caffeine is coffee, it is also found in other natural plant sources, such as tea, cola nuts also spelled as kola nuts, yerba mate, guaranga berries, guayusa and the yaupon holly. Chemically, caffeine is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine with systematic IUPAC name 1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6(3H,7H)-dione. Drinking coffee has long been recognized as a stimulant and therefore a way to increase playfulness and alertness. Many people drink coffee for its caffeine content to become fully awake and alert in the morning. In many workplaces, coffee is provided throughout the day so that people can operate at peak alertness and efficiency. Students also appreciate the benefits of coffee to help them study long into the night.
Currently caffeine is available as an "over the counter" drug in the form of capsules and tablets. However caffeine has a bitter taste and/or an unpalatable taste, making caffeine a difficult additive to capsules and tablets. Capsules and tablets have been precluded from the popularity of caffeine ingestion by the extremely bitter and unpalatable taste of caffeine.


A system for performing inventory control for wafers, unpackaged integrated circuits and packaged integrated circuits is provided. The system includes barcode readers, sorters and transporters operable to locate and relocate wafers, unpackaged circuits and packaged circuits. The system further includes a feedback system for feeding back information generated by the barcode readers, sorters, transporters and/or manufacturing devices associated with the wafers, unpackaged circuits and packaged circuits. The system further provides for generating Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) data that can be transmitted to wafer suppliers and employed in controlling wafer ordering, purchasing, processing and returning.

In the semiconductor industry, there is a continuing trend toward higher volume processing. Such higher volume processing requires larger inventories of raw materials for manufacturing and produces large quantities of intermediate and finished goods. The raw materials include wafers suitable for being processed into integrated circuits. The finished goods include unpackaged and packaged integrated circuits. Conventionally, inventory control of such items has been performed manually, or not performed at all. For example, wafers produced by the consumer of the wafer and/or wafers received from a supplier of wafers can be stored using manual systems and/or methods (e.g. containers on shelves in warehouses). Locating wafers stored using such manual systems and/or methods can be inefficient and difficult, and thus time-consuming and costly.
There are multiple steps involved in manufacturing integrated circuits. Such steps include, but are not limited to, cleaning a wafer, depositing one or more layers on a wafer, etching one or more features in a wafer, cutting a wafer into pieces and packaging a circuit after it has been cut from a wafer. Such steps can employ manufacturing devices including, but not limited to, steppers and spin tracks. Imperfections may be generated at one or more such steps. Thus, during the multiple manufacturing steps, a wafer may need to be located several times, presented to several manufacturing devices, tested several times and stored several times. Similarly, a circuit cut from a wafer may need to be located repeatedly and processed repeatedly. After packaging, an integrated circuit may, for example, be embedded in a machine or distributed to an integrated circuit consumer. Once the circuit leaves the fabricating facility, it has, conventionally, been difficult to track the circuit, which has hampered external quality control. Locating, tracking and relocating wafers using conventional systems and/or methods can introduce processing delays and can lead to the loss of wafers and/or inappropriate processing (e.g. performing a processing step on a wafer an inappropriate number of times, performing a processing step on the wrong wafer). Similarly, locating, tracking and relocating circuits after they have been cut from wafers using conventional systems and/or methods can introduce processing delays and can lead to the loss of circuits and/or inappropriate processing (e.g. performing an unnecessary step on a circuit, performing a processing step on the wrong circuit).
Wafers may vary in quality, number, properties and availability. Providing a consistent supply of high quality wafers is important to efficient integrated circuit manufacturing. Conventionally, placing orders for wafers may be performed manually, or in accordance with a schedule. Such conventional ordering methods can lead to oversupply, and/or undersupply, which can negatively impact efficient integrated circuit manufacturing.
Thus, there remains a need for a system and method to mitigate problems associated with conventional wafer and circuit inventory and quality control.

Barcode marking of wafer products for inventory control


Methods, apparatuses, and articles of manufacture for detecting, by an agent trusted by a merchant and a search engine, a click on an advertisement displayed by the search engine, are described herein. The trusted agent may further determine that a transaction of the merchant associated with the displayed advertisement was completed and determine whether the completed transaction was resulted from the click. In some embodiments, the trusted agent may notify the merchant and the search engine of a billing event associated with the click, if the completed transaction was determined to be resulted from the click.

Payment models for the display of online advertising with a search service, (hereinafter, a search engine) include pay-per-click, which obliges advertisers to pay search engines a fee each time a user clicks on an ad displayed on a search page or search result page or any widget or web content displaying advertisements. This type of payment model is susceptible to click fraud, which is constituted by clicks made with the intention of costing the search engine or the advertiser money without providing anything of value in return (i.e. clicks made with the intention of distorting the market). The distributed nature of the Internet and the relative anonymity of browsers make detecting click fraud difficult.
An alternative payment method which avoids the problem of click fraud provides that the search engine receive a fee for each user conversion. A conversion occurs each time a user engages in a transaction with a merchant after reaching the merchant's website by clicking on an online advertisement. A merchant may have many conversion types such as, but not limited to, purchases of goods, services, registrations, or subscriptions. A credit card or other type of transaction may serve as proof that an authentic conversion has occurred and thereby reduce the risk of fraud. However, one difficulty with the pay-for-conversion method may be that the interests of the advertiser/merchant and the search engine do not align.


Disclosed herein is a system and method for the efficient manufacture and update of electronic devices that is capable of pre-programming firmware/software into flash units (or other similar memory units) during their manufacturing so as to make the assembly line for the electronic devices more efficient and faster, and thus more productive. Various embodiments of the present invention may provide for an eventual update of the assembled electronic devices, after sales, employing embedded update agents in the electronic devices.

Electronic devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDA's), often contain firmware and application software that are either provided by the manufacturers of the electronic devices, by telecommunication carriers, or by third parties. These firmware and application software often contain software bugs. New versions of the firmware and software are periodically released to fix the bugs or to introduce new features, or both. Quite often by the time an electronic device is manufactured to the time that it is purchased by a customer, new bug fixes are released. Often, new versions of firmware or software are also released. The customer often does not get the latest versions of firmware or software for the device being purchased. Thus, newly acquired electronic devices often contain bugs and lack newer features released subsequent to its manufacturing.
Typically, electronic devices, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), etc. comprise of firmware of other software that is "flashed" into the device at some stage of its manufacturing, such as during the last stage of assembly of the device in an assembly line or during a phase of an outbound logistics operation (for example, during packaging or shipping). Flashing electronic devices takes several seconds, if not several minutes, based upon the size of the non-volatile memory in these devices. Thus, the flashing activity slows down the assembly line.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

System and method for efficient manufacture and update of electronic devices


An acoustic sensor system for an aircraft includes a transmitter configured to emit acoustic signals external to the aircraft, and at least one microphone positioned on an exterior of the aircraft and configured to sense the acoustic signals as sensed data. The acoustic sensor system is configured to direct the acoustic signals to the at least one microphone such that a sound pressure level is attenuated perpendicular to the aircraft.

The present disclosure relates generally to acoustic sensors, and more particularly to ground safety for aircraft ultrasonic acoustic sensors.
It is desirable to ensure hearing safety of ground crew, maintenance personnel, or other persons near an aircraft that includes high decibel (dB) ultrasonic sound transmitters. Hearing safety can be a concern at high sound pressure levels, including those over 155 dB, for example, even with the use of hearing protection. In addition to hearing safety, other undesirable physiological effects can occur due to high decibel ultrasonic sound at lower levels, such as 130 dB, for example. These levels may be desirable in an aircraft sensing system to support high velocity measurements.
For systems that are critical to the operation of the aircraft, it may be impractical to simply turn the ultrasonic transmitters off while the aircraft is on the ground. Critical systems may need to provide, for example, power-up built-in-test results demonstrating that the system is functional prior to flight and may also need to begin providing preliminary measurement data to support maintenance, taxi, and takeoff operations. Thus, it is desirable to allow ultrasonic acoustic systems to begin operation and performance of fault checking while the aircraft is on the ground.

Aircraft ground safety for ultrasonic sensors


A controller includes a register storing a group of parameters including a driving-control parameter for controlling a data line driving circuit and a scanning line driving circuit, a parameter controller for updating values of the group of parameters stored in the register and for initializing the values of the group of parameters stored in the register when a reset signal RES is input, and a driving controller for controlling a data line driving circuit and a scanning line driving circuit in accordance with the driving-control parameter stored in the register. The driving controller controls the data line driving circuit and the scanning line driving circuit such that turn-off voltage is applied to a plurality of pixels after the parameter controller updates the values of the group of parameters by the reset signal.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique to display images using electro-optical material such as liquid crystal.
2. Related Art
In electro-optical devices such as liquid crystal devices, a plurality of pixels aligned so as to correspond to the intersections of a plurality of scanning lines and a plurality of data lines is driven by driving circuits, such as scanning line driving circuits and data line driving circuits. A technique applicable to the electro-optical devices is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-263134 (see Paragraph 0043 and FIG. 2). In this technique, a driving circuit is controlled in accordance with various parameters written in a register. The parameters stored in the register are changed as necessary in accordance with a command input from an external device, such as a CPU in an electronic device in which the liquid crystal device is incorporated. With this type of electro-optical device, display may be interrupted due to a sporadic incident, e.g., when a battery is removed from the electronic device. In this case, a command to halt display is input from the external device and thus display is halted after the parameters have been initialized in accordance with the command.
In a liquid crystal device using liquid crystal as the electro-optical material, electric charge may remain in pixels, namely, liquid crystal capacitors, after halting display. If remaining electric charge keeps applying direct voltage to the liquid crystal, the orientation of the liquid crystals is changed to be different from the predetermined orientation, resulting in degradation in display quality. To address this problem, in a technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 9-269476 (see Paragraph 0018 and FIG. 3), turn-off voltage is applied to all pixels after halting display (referred to as power-off-sequence process hereinbelow). With this technique, since electric charge stored in the pixels is discharged before halting display, degradation in liquid crystal characteristics due to application of direct voltage is suppressed.
Preferably, in the liquid crystal display disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-263134, when a command to halt display is issued, a power-off-sequence process is performed and then the parameters are initialized, thereby halting display. With this liquid crystal display having the aforementioned construction, however, after completion of the power-off-sequence process, the parameters are initialized. Therefore, if a command to change the parameters is input from the external device during the power-off-sequence process to change the parameters, the parameters are initialized after the power-off-sequence process and thus the command is not reflected on the liquid crystal display. Specifically, a command to halt display is often input when an emergency occurs and other commands tend to be input one after another to solve the emergency. This may lead to a serious problem in the liquid crystal device having the aforementioned construction since the commands cannot be accepted during the entire power-off-sequence process. The present invention is designed to solve the aforementioned problems and it is an object of the present invention to provide a mechanism to accept a command input from an external device in an electro-optical device in which a power-off sequence process is performed in advance of halting display.

Electro-optical device, controller for controlling the electro-optical device, method for controlling the electro-optical device, and electronic device


Antimicrobial protection may be provided to protective gloves by mixing an antimicrobial agent in a glove material plastisol so that the antimicrobial agent migrates to the exposed surfaces of the gloves when the agent on the glove surface has been depleted. Antimicrobial gloves suitable for use in the food industry may be manufactured using a cold dip process with a plastisol that includes the following weight percentages of (a) a polymer resin, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene polyethylene (PE), or polyurethane, 43 to 53%, (b) a plasticizer, such as DINP, 43 to 53%, (c) a stabilizer, such as CaZn, 2.7 to 4.7%, and (d) triclosan (2,4,4'-trichloro-2'-hydroxydiphenyl ether), 0.3 to 1.0%.

The present invention relates to antimicrobial gloves and a method of manufacturing such gloves, and more particularly to antimicrobial gloves for food handlers that are made of triclosan and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), where the gloves are formed by cold dipping glove molds in a plastisol of PVC, triclosan, a plasticizer and a stabilizer.
The food industry is concerned about bacterial contamination and workers in the industry are frequently required to wear protective gloves to reduce the likelihood that the bacteria from their hands will be transmitted to food. However, the protective gloves may pick up contaminating bacteria from food or work surfaces they touch, thereby significantly reducing the effectiveness of the gloves the longer they are worn. A solution, albeit a costly one, is to have the workers change or disinfect their gloves frequently. The food industry would prefer a more workable and cost effective solution.
The gloves used by the food industry are typically made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), are seamless to reduce the risk of seam failure, and meet federal standards for thickness, strength, elasticity, deformation, etc. Gloves of other materials have been tried, but they either do not meet the federal standards or are not acceptable to the food industry (e.g., high cost, not seamless, difficult to don and remove, uncomfortable to wear, etc.).
Seamless PVC gloves are typically made by dipping glove molds in a low viscosity PVC plastisol (a liquid mixture of the glove material that gels to form the gloves), and machines for dipping the glove molds are well known in the art.
Antimicrobial agents are well known and it would be desirable to provide protective gloves used in the food industry with an antimicrobial agent that provides long lasting protection. However, the industry had been unable to find an antimicrobial agent that meets federal standards for food handling, that can be used with PVC gloves, and that will effectively reduce the risk of bacterial contamination during prolonged wear of the gloves carrying the agent. For example, conventional PVC gloves may be dusted with an antimicrobial agent, but the agent would not be effective for prolonged periods because it would rub off during use and disappear completely when the gloves are immersed in water.
A potential solution is to mix an antimicrobial agent into a plastisol. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,442 issued Feb. 25, 1992 to Milner suggests that an antimicrobial agent, such as triclosan, may be mixed with a natural rubber latex plastisol to provide antimicrobial protection for a tubular article such as a condom or catheter. However, the effectiveness of the antimicrobial agent in the article will still diminish during use because the agent will gradually disappear from the surface of the article and will not be replenished. That is, the triclosan will be removed from the surface of the natural rubber latex long before the latex wears down to expose the triclosan in the interior thereof. The nature of the natural rubber latex prevents the antimicrobial agent from migrating to the exposed surface of the latex from its interior. This limitation may be acceptable where the article makes a single contaminating contact, but is not acceptable for gloves that will have numerous contacts with diverse potential contaminants.
The Milner patent mentions that PVC may be used instead of the natural rubber latex, but does not suggest how this is to be done. The method disclosed relates only to natural rubber latex, and the differences between latex and PVC preclude the application of the disclosed method to PVC.
It has also been suggested that an antimicrobial agent may be added to a plastic or polymeric film material, such as PVC, that is used to make a surgical drape sheet. The structure of the PVC allows some antimicrobial agents to migrate to the exposed surface of the drape from the interior thereof when the agent has been removed from the surface (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,907 issued Dec. 3, 1991 to Mixon, et al.). However, the process and the plastisol used therewith for making a sheet of plastic or polymeric material are not suitable for dipping gloves. In the sheet making process a high viscosity paste is extruded through a sheet feeder at high temperature. As discussed above, the glove dipping process uses a low viscosity plastisol.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide novel protective gloves and a method of making protective gloves that obviate the problems of the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide novel protective gloves and a method of providing antimicrobial protection to such gloves in which an antimicrobial agent in the glove material migrates to the exposed surfaces of the gloves when the agent at the glove surface has been depleted.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel method of making seamless protective gloves for the food industry from a plastisol that includes triclosan and PVC.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel method of making protective gloves in which triclosan antimicrobial agent is mixed with a PVC plastisol before the gloves are formed by a cold dip process whereby the triclosan migrates to the exposed surfaces of the gloves when the triclosan at the surface has been depleted.
These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of preferred embodiments.

Antimicrobial gloves and a method of manufacture thereof


A heparin-binding protein having covalently bonded heparan sulfate sugar chains within its molecule is produced by ligating a cDNA encoding a peptide which can be modified with heparan sulfate sugar chains selectively to a cDNA encoding a heparin-binding protein and producing in an animal cell the gene product of the resultant ligated cDNA. This heparan sulfate sugar chain-modified heparin-binding protein is functionalized by covalently bonding thereto glycosaminoglycan sugar chains containing little chondroitin sulfate. For example, this heparin-binding protein is excellent in stabilities, such as thermostability, acid resistance, alkali resistance and in vivo stability. Further, the heparan sulfate sugar chain-modified heparin-binding protein is effective in cell proliferation and tissue regeneration, and has effect of regulating the physiological functions of FGFs. Thus, this heparin-binding protein is extremely useful as a medicine for preventing or treating various FGF-related diseases.

It has been known that heparin-binding proteins, among all, those proteins classified into the fibroblast growth factor (hereinafter, referred to as "FGF") family strongly bind to heparin and heparan sulfate (sulfated polysaccharides) by a non-covalent bonding mode. It has been also known that when a heparin-binding protein such as fibroblast growth factor is mixed with a sulfated polysaccharide such as heparin, the biological activity and physical properties of the heparin-binding protein are altered to change its function; sometimes, such a heparin-binding protein may acquire higher function. However, even if a sulfated polysaccharide was mixed with, the expected augmentation of the protein function has been limited. Besides, when such a mixture is used as a pharmaceutical composition, undesirable physiological activity attributable to free sulfated polysaccharides has caused some problems.
For the purpose of augmentation of function of heparin-binding proteins, preparation of a heparin-binding protein to which heparan sulfate(s) is(are) selectively conjugated by covalent bond was intended, and a method of producing such a heparin-binding protein was invented. However, according to that invention, the sulfated glycosaminoglycan sugar chains covalently bonded to the heparin-binding protein were a mixture of heparan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate. Since the results of analysis have revealed that augmentation of function of heparin-binding proteins is attributable to heparan sulfate alone, a method of preparing a functionalized heparin-binding protein has been desired by which heparan sulfate is preferentially added and little chondroitin sulfate is added.    Patent document 1: "HEPARIN-BINDING PROTEINS MODIFIED WITH SUGAR CHAINS, METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME AND PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITIONS CONTAINING SAME", Japanese Patent No. 3318602 (2002), Imamura T, Asada M, Oka S, Suzuki M, Yoneda A, Ota K, Oda Y, Miyakawa K, Orikasa N, Matsuda C, and Kojima T.    Non-patent document 1: Yoneda A, Asada M, Oda Y, Suzuki M, and Imamura T. "Engineering of an FGF-Proteoglycan Fusion Protein with Heparin-Independent, Degradation-Augmented, Mitogenic Activity." Nature Biotechnology 18 (6), 641-644 (2000)    Non-patent document 2: Yoneda A, Asada M, and Imamura T, "Modification of the Activity of Heparin-Binding Growth Factor FGF-1 by Fusion with Syndecan [in Japanese]", Saiboukougaku 19 (9), 1338-1340 (2000)    Non-patent document 3: Asada M, Yoneda A, Imamura T. "Engineering of a Heparin-Binding Growth Factor with Heparan Sulfate Sugar Chains", Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology 13 (72) 385-394 (2001)

Heparin-binding protein modified with heparan sulfate sugar chains, process for producing the same and pharmaceutical compositions containing the same

National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology


A computerized system restricts full revelation of certain information to a user, while also performing limited processing of the information for the user for evaluation. The information is encrypted and therefore may be widely distributed without fear of revelation. An authorization code from the user specifies the type(s) of processing that are permitted, wherein different types of processing produce different type(s) of output that reveal to different degrees the information. The type(s) of output include output which represent more than mere reproduction of the information. A particularly appropriate implementation of the present invention is in the area of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) for logic design.

The present invention relates to methods and systems that allow distribution of information to potential customers for limited use, while restricting full revelation of the information to customers. Furthermore, the present invention relates to such protection of information even when the information may be distributed separately from a computer application program which uses the information. A particularly appropriate implementation of the present invention is in the area of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) for logic devices.
The industry trend is toward electronic logic devices of increasingly large size and complexity. Simultaneously, market forces have reduced the amount of time practically available for developing such logic devices. In this environment, designers of logic devices, including designers who program Programmable Logical Devices (PLDs), increasingly find it cost-effective to purchase pre-designed building blocks for licensed use in their own designs. These building blocks are logic designs that implement defined logical "functions." Examples of functions offered by design vendors include a Direct Memory Access (DMA) Controller and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) Computation Unit.
As the size and complexity of function designs offered by vendors have grown, it has become increasingly difficult for a designer to predict merely from a vendor's datasheets and sales materials whether a given function design will fit as expected into the designer's own overall logic design. This difficulty arises, for example, because design parameters such as circuit placement and routability are affected by interplay between the vendor's function design and the rest of the designer's logic design and therefore cannot be well characterized in advance by the vendor for all potential customers (designers).
In general, a designer will be convinced that a vendor's function design will fit properly into the designer's overall design only after testing the function design using an EDA computer application program such as the MAX+PLUS II program available from Altera Corporation of San Jose, Calif. (the assignees of the present invention). In particular, the designer would want to "compile" the function design into the designer's overall design to verify circuit fitting, timing, and/or other gross statistics. Furthermore, the designer may want to perform detailed functional and/or timing simulation of the compiled overall design to verify correct logical and/or timing performance. Such compilation or simulation are examples of processing that is more than mere reproduction of portions of the function design.
In general, then, a designer is reluctant to purchase a license for a function design unless he or she has first successfully processed the function design using an EDA computer application program. However, vendors generally refuse to provide their function designs to designers for EDA processing unless the designer has already purchased a license. The reason is that once a designer (potential customer) has received a function design for EDA processing, vendors have little practical assurance that the designer will act in good faith. More particularly, vendors fear that a designer might refuse to purchase a license but secretly retain a copy of the function design for unauthorized (i.e., unlicensed) use.
The vendors' fears are especially well-founded if the function design in question is intended for use in programming PLDs, such as those manufactured by Altera Corporation. The reason is that PLDs (unlike, for example, gate arrays, or GAs) are typically programmed in relatively small batches by a relatively large number of customers. It would be difficult and expensive, in general, for a vendor to police and enforce its rights against such customers once the customers already have obtained a copy of the function design.
The vendors' understandable refusal to make their function designs available for trial processing is a serious impediment to efficient adoption of functions provided by vendors into logic devices developed by designers.
What is needed are methods and systems for allowing distribution of information to potential customers for limited use for evaluation, while restricting full revelation of the information to customers. What is particularly needed are methods and systems for allowing distribution of function designs to designers for limited processing using an EDA computer application program for evaluating the function designs while restricting full revelation of the function design to the designers.


The present invention provides a method of increasing the duration of detectable photon emission of a luciferase-luciferin reaction. The method provides a luciferase-luciferin reaction in which photon emission can be detected for up to and including eight hours. A method of the present invention can also be used to detect the presence of luciferase in biological samples. The present, invention also provides a composition used in detecting the presence of luciferase in biological samples.

Luciferases are found in a wide variety of organisms including fireflies, photobacteria, jellyfish and many others. Luciferases are enzymes which catalyze the production of light by oxidizing luciferin to oxyluciferin in a process known generally as bioluminescence.
The production of photons by luciferase occurs through a two step reaction which consumes luciferin, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and O.sub.2. In the first step, luciferase catalyzes the formation of luciferyl adenylate from luciferin and ATP. In this first step pyrophosphate is released and a Mg.sup.+2 cofactor or another divalent cation is required for proper luciferase function. Upon formation, luciferyl adenylate remains within the active site of luciferase. In the next step, luciferase oxidizes luciferyl adenylate to an electronically excited oxyluciferin with the consumption of oxygen. Light production occurs when the electronically excited oxyluciferin decays to the ground state oxyluciferin. The decay from the excited state to the ground state occurs with the concomitant emission of a photon. The color of the light produced differs with the source of the luciferase and appears to be determined by differences in the structure of the various luciferases.
Luciferases have recently become useful in reporter-gene technology. In this technique, a reporter gene, such as a luciferase encoding polynucleotide is used as an indicator for the transcription and translation of a gene in a cellular expression system. The reporter gene is operatively linked to a promoter that is recognized by the cellular expression system. Other commonly used reporter genes include .beta.-galactosidase, and chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT). In a typical reporter gene assay, a DNA vector containing the reporter gene is transfected into a cell capable of expressing the reporter gene. After a sufficient amount of time to allow for the expression of the reporter gene has passed, the cellular membrane is disrupted to release the expressed gene product. The reagents necessary for the catalytic reaction of the reporter gene are then added to the reaction solution and the enzymatic activity of the reporter gene is determined. Alternatively, the cell can be disrupted in the presence of all reagents necessary for the determination of the enzymatic activity of the reporter gene. If a .beta.-galactosidase encoding polynucleotide is used as the reporter gene, the hydrolysis of a galactoside is determined. If a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase encoding polynucleotide is used as the reporter gene, the production of an acetylated chloramphenicol is determined. When luciferase is used as the reporter gene the photons produced from the luciferase-luciferin reaction is measured.
A major problem in determining expression of a luciferase gene as a reporter gene is the short duration of photon production. Typically, luciferase catalyzed photon production ceases within a few seconds. Means for extending the period of photon production have been eagerly sought. Currently a commercially available kit from the Promega Corporation (Madison, Wis.) can extend the half-life of luciferase catalyzed photon production to roughly five minutes. Nevertheless, for the measurement of large numbers of samples, luciferase catalyzed photon production with a half-life of only five minutes is not a viable alternative. As used herein, half-life is the time it takes for photon production to decrease by one half.
The present invention provides methods and compositions for increasing the duration of detectable photon emission of a luciferase-luciferin reaction.


An illuminated sign (88) includes a flexible electrical power cord (100) including first and second parallel conductors (112, 114) surroundingly contained within an insulating sheath defining a constant separation distance between the parallel conductors (112, 114). A plurality of light emitting diode (LED) devices (102) are affixed to the cord (100). Each LED device (102) includes an LED (104) having a positive lead (130P) electrically communicating with the first parallel conductor (112) and a negative lead (130P) electrically communicating with the second parallel conductor (114). A stencil (92) defines a selected shape, and the electrical cord (100) is arranged on the stencil (92). Power conditioning electronics (210, 220) disposed away from the stencil (92) electrically communicate with the first and second parallel conductors (112, 114) of the electrical power cord (100). The power conditioning electronics (210, 220) power the LED devices (102) via the parallel conductors (112, 114).

Channel letters are known to those skilled in the art of making commercial signs as the most attractive and expensive form of sign lettering. Briefly, channel letters usually include a plastic or metal backing having the shape of the letter to be formed. Metal channel siding, frequently formed of aluminum with a painted or otherwise finished interior and exterior surface, is attached to and sealed to the letter backing, giving depth to the letter to be formed. Electrical lighting fixtures, such as neon tubing and mounting brackets, are attached to the letter backing. Typically, a colored, translucent plastic letter face is attached to the front edge portion of the channel side material.
As discussed above, neon lighting is typically incorporated into channel lettering systems. Neon systems are very fragile and, therefore, tend to fail and/or break during manufacture, shipping or installation. Also, such lighting systems use high voltage (e.g., between about 4,000 and about 15,000 volts) electricity to excite the neon gas within the tubing. High voltage applications have been associated with deaths by electrocution and building damage due to fire. Semiconductor lighting (e.g., light emitting diodes), that overcomes most of these drawbacks, has been used for channel lettering.
One such conventional channel lettering device attaches a light emitting diode ("LED") system to a back of a channel letter such that the LED system emits light toward a translucent face at a front of the device. The LEDs are spaced at regular intervals (e.g., 2 inches) and are pressed into a socket. The socket is designed for a press-fit of a modified Super Flux (Piranha) package. The lead frames of the Piranha are bent 90 degrees to fit into the socket. The connection for the LED is similar to insulation displacement ("IDC"). The socket also has two IDC places for a red and black wire. This system puts all of the LEDs in parallel. Furthermore, the two part power supply (Initial (120VAC to 24VDC) and the Secondary (24VDC to ˜2.3VDC)) have two basic wiring connections. The secondary has a sense circuit, which has one LED attached for determining the voltage applied to the rest of the LEDs that are attached to the second connection.
Another conventional channel lettering device attaches to a side of the channel letter and is pointed toward the backing. The diffuse surface of the channel letter walls provides a uniform appearance. Each module has a predetermined number of LEDs electrically connected in series. Furthermore, all of the modules are daisy chained together in a parallel circuit. The LEDs are mounted on an aluminum base for heat sinking purposes.
Another conventional channel lettering device uses a plurality of surface mounted LEDs with an integral connector system.
Although these conventional LED channel lettering systems overcome some of the drawbacks associated with neon systems, other shortcomings are evident. For example, the conventional LED channel lettering systems offer only limited flexibility. More specifically, the LEDs cannot be easily set into a desired shape involving significant curves or bends (e.g., wrapped around a pole or in a very small radius (<3 inches). Furthermore, the LEDs cannot be easily moved from one lighting application to another.
The present invention contemplates an improved apparatus and method that overcomes the above-mentioned limitations and others.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Illuminated signage employing light emitting diodes


A drive for a printing group of a rotary printing machine having a form cylinder and a transfer cylinder, the transfer cylinder being swivelably adjustable through an angle, the form cylinder and the transfer cylinder each having journals. The drive includes cylinder gears attached to the journals so as to be in toothed engagement, an electric motor with a drive spur gear that drives the transfer cylinder, and a spur gear mounted on the transfer cylinder journal. The drive spur gear of the motor drivingly engaging the spur gear on the journal of the transfer cylinder in a circumferential area of the spur gear lying from a diametral midpoint of the transfer cylinder in a direction of a vertex of the angle of the swivel adjustment of the transfer cylinder.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a drive for a printing group of a rotary printing machine.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
European reference EP 0 644 048 A2 discloses the drive of a printing group that contains a form cylinder and a transfer cylinder. The printing group has its own motor, which drives the transfer cylinder via a toothed belt drive. The transfer cylinder and the form cylinder are in drive connection via cylinder gears on their journals. This reference also mentions the direct coupling or a gearwheel coupling of the motor to the transfer cylinder.
A direct coupling of a transfer cylinder to an electric motor is disclosed by European reference EP 0 621 133 A1. For readjustment during movements into and out of the ready-to-print position, the stator is eccentrically mounted in the same fashion as the transfer cylinder. During adjustment, these eccentric bushings are also activated. A device of this type is expensive.
In a gearwheel coupling of the drive motor, drive-in by a drive spur gear into the cylinder gear of the transfer cylinder is conceivable. During movements of the transfer cylinder into the shut-off position, which movements take the form of swiveling motions around the form cylinder, the center-to-center distance to the drive spur gear is disadvantageously influenced. The gearwheels have too little overlap or can slip completely out of engagement.

Drive for a printing group of a rotary printing machine


The invention provides alkene fluoroalkanol and fluorinated polyol precursors to fluoroalkanol-substituted α,β-unsaturated esters. The fluoroalkanol-substituted α,β-unsaturated esters are olefins that can be readily polymerized to provide fluoroalkanol-substituted polymers useful in lithographic photoresist compositions. Also provided are methods for synthesizing the alkene fluoroalkanol and fluorinated polyol precursors.

The patterning of radiation-sensitive polymeric films with high energy radiation such as photons, electrons or ion beams is the principal means of defining high resolution circuitry found in semiconductor devices. The radiation-sensitive films, often referred to as "photoresists" regardless of the radiation source, generally consist of multicomponent formulations that are usually spin-cast onto a desired substrate such as a silicon wafer. The radiation is most commonly ultraviolet light of the wavelengths of 436, 365, 257, 248, 193 or 157 nanometers (nm), or a beam of electrons or ions, or "soft" x-ray radiation, also referred to as "extreme ultraviolet" (EUV) or x-rays. The radiation is exposed patternwise and induces a chemical transformation to occur that renders the solubility of the exposed regions of the films different from that of the unexposed areas when the films are treated with an appropriate developer, usually a dilute, basic aqueous solution, such as aqueous tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH).
Photoresists are generally comprised of a polymeric matrix, a radiation-sensitive component, a casting solvent, and other performance enhancing additives. The highest performing photoresists in terms of sensitivity to radiation and resolution capability are the group of photoresists termed "chemically amplified." Chemically amplified photoresists allow for high resolution, high contrast, and high sensitivity that are not afforded in other photoresists. These photoresists are based on a catalytic mechanism that allows a relatively large number of chemical events such as, for example, deprotection reactions in the case of positive photoresists or crosslinking reactions in the case of negative tone photoresists, to be brought about by the application of a relatively low dose of radiation that induces formation of the catalyst, often a strong acid. The nature of the functional groups that comprise the polymeric matrix of these photoresists dictates the tone of the photoresist (positive or negative) as well as the ultimate performance attributes.
The nature of the polymeric matrix also dictates the suitability of a given photoresist for exposure with particular radiation sources. That is, the absorbance characteristics of a polymer must be carefully considered when designing a material for lithographic applications. This is important with optical lithography where polymers are chosen to provide a relatively transparent matrix for radiation-sensitive compounds such as photoacid generators (PAGs). Absorbance characteristics are also important because the wavelength of radiation used in optical lithography is directly proportional to the ultimate resolution attainable with a photoresist. The desire for higher resolution causes a continuing drive to shorter and shorter radiation wavelengths. For example, the phenolic polymers used for 248 nm imaging, namely derivatives of poly(4-hydroxystyrene)(PHS), are unsuitable for use with 193 nm radiation as the opacity of these PHS materials at 193 nm does not allow for sufficient radiation to create an appropriate image profile throughout the photoresist film thickness. That is, in order for photoresists to function properly, their films must be transparent enough at the exposing wavelength to enable sufficient light to penetrate to the bottom of the film to create usable developed relief images.
In addition to exhibiting the requisite transparency at a particular wavelength, it is important that a photoresist polymer be sufficiently polar so as to ensure solubility in industry standard developers. Polymers having lower solubility in these developers reduce the efficiency of resist development, a significant drawback in the manufacturing process.
There is, accordingly, a need in the art for a cost-effective and controllable method for incorporating functionality into polymers to impart desirable properties, including both polarity (and thus solubility in aqueous acid or base) and transparency at a particular wavelength. U.S. Pat. No. 3,444,148 to Adelman describes polymers prepared by direct polymerization of an alkene hexafluoroalcohol (i.e., an alkene containing a —C(CF3)2—OH group) with a variety of comonomers. The resulting copolymer compositions were found to have desirable characteristics relative to homopolymers that did not have an incorporated hexafluoroalcohol (HFA) group. This approach suffers from low incorporation of the desired HFA functionality (less than 2 mole percent) and is wasteful of valuable fluorinated monomer.
Incorporation of fluorinated alcohols into polymers for use in photoresist compositions has recently been described, but the availability of the requisite materials is limited. An attempt to incorporate an HFA moiety into polymerizable ethylene-containing monomers (vinyl ethers and some olefins) has been described in International Patent Publication Nos. WO 02/079287 A1, WO 01/86352 A2 and WO 03/040827 (DuPont). The methodology described in the aforementioned references involves the reaction of a heteroatom nucleophile with hexafluoroisobutene oxide. This restrictive chemistry limits the structural diversity of target molecules and is not suitable for the preparation of acrylate or methacrylate monomers.
Accordingly, there is an ongoing need for new compounds and methods that can be used to "tailor" the properties of a photoresist composition. Optimally, such compounds and methods would enable preparation of a broad range of polymer structures having desirable properties without need for costly starting materials or complex syntheses. The present invention is directed to the aforementioned need in the art, and, in part, provides compounds and methods that allow for the incorporation of fluoroalkylalcohol (i.e., fluorinated hydroxyalkyl or "fluoroalkanol") groups in a cost-effective, controlled, reproducible manner.

Precursors to fluoroalkanol-containing olefin monomers, and associated methods of synthesis and use

International Business Machines Corporation