In a network printing system, initial print setting information and save-mode print setting information are preparatorily set as print setting information in a server. In response to a request from PC1 or PC2, the server sends the save-mode print setting information as the “print setting information” if the total number of print copies exceeds a predetermined number. If a user does not agree with the save-mode print setting information displayed on the PC1 or PC2, the user operates a button “no” in a confirmation dialogue and then resets the print setting information. A printing apparatus performs save-mode printing or normal printing in accordance with the set or reset print setting information. Therefore, an administrator of the network printing system has only to set the initial print setting information and the save-mode print setting information in the server. Thus, the network printing system allows print setting to be simply achieved.

The present invention relates to a network printing system composed of personal computers (hereinafter, abbreviated to PCs), a server and a printing apparatus such as printers and MFPs (Multiple Function Peripherals), each of which is connected to a network.
In recent years, use of printing apparatuses connected to a network such as LAN (Local Area Network) has been becoming mainstream in business offices. Such printing apparatuses connected a network include, for example, the ones disclosed in a first prior art (JP 2002-318852A) and a second prior art (JP H11-175267A).
In a printing management system disclosed in the first prior art, a shop that is a printing shop having printers, a client PC, and a center server can communicate with each other via the Internet. For printing created documents and the like, the client PC creates print data based on print settings set by a user in accordance with attribute information (device characteristics, paper sizes and the like of each printer of the shop) in a printer information description file. Further, while storing information such as shop specification and print option specification as print setting information, the client PC creates a print order containing the print setting information and a printer-dedicated description language file based on the print data, and uploads the print order to the center server via the Internet.
Then, based on the received print setting information, the center server tentatively stores the print order in a transfer unit in the case where a specified shop is a printing shop that is categorized to dial-up access to the Internet, and the center server transmits the stored print order when accessed by the corresponding shop. The shop outputs the printer-dedicated description language file to a printer according to the print setting information contained in the received print order. Then the printer prints out the printer-dedicated description language file according to the description of the print setting information.
Further, in the print control system disclosed in the second prior art, a printer is connected to a host computer via a two-way interface such as local networks, and the host computer and a plurality of host computer systems are connected to a wide-area network. A hard disk of one host computer system has stored a printer driver, setup utilities, printer setting information and an instruction manual corresponding to the printer.
In a ROM (Read Only Memory) of the printer, there are stored location information for indicating respective locations at which the printer driver, the setup utilities, the printer setting information and the instruction manual are stored on the wide-area network. The location information is sent to the host computer via the two-way interface by an instruction from the host computer and stored in a ROM of the host computer.
After these steps, the host computer establishes a connection to a server specified by the positional information on the wide-area network contained in the location information, and downloads print control information such as the printer driver, the setup utilities, the printer setting information and the instruction manual.
However, the printing management system disclosed in the first prior art and the printer control system disclosed in the second prior art have the following problems.
That is, in recent years, department management in printing operation has been being practiced, for example, by setting the upper limit of the number of print copies on the department basis. In such a case where the upper limit of the number of print copies is set on the department basis, it is extremely inconvenient for users if the printing operation is stopped immediately when the number of print copies reaches the upper limit. Accordingly, there is a case where printing in save mode such as 2-in-1 printing mode and two-side printing mode is automatically conducted once the number of printed copies has reached a specified number that is lower than the upper limit.
In this connection, in the printing management system disclosed in the first prior art, print setting information is created by the client PC and is sent from the center server to a shop, and the shop outputs the printer-dedicated description language file to a printer in accordance with the received print setting information. Therefore, in the case of setting the save-mode printing, it is necessary for the client PC side to create the print setting information including the setting of the save-mode printing.
Further in the printer control system disclosed in the second prior art, location information on the print control information is obtained from the ROM of the printer by the host computer, and based on the obtained location information, the print control information connected to the wide-area network is downloaded. Therefore, in the case of setting the save-mode printing, it is necessary to store the setting of the save-mode printing and its location information in the printer and the hard disk of the one host computer system.
Consequently, in cases where the save-mode printing is set in the conventional network printing system, a network administrator needs to set up individual client PCs as well as a host computer system and a printer for the save-mode printing, which is considerably troublesome as a disadvantage. Alternatively, it is necessary to well acquaint each user with the set-up of each client PC for the save-mode printing, as another problem.

Network printing system, printing terminal and printing method

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A drive circuit of a thin-film transistor type liquid crystal display. A plurality of source drivers is connected in series. Each of the source drives has a charge pump therein to compensate the voltage drop caused by the metal wires for connecting the neighboring source drivers. The charge pump is preferably disposed at an input of the power line. A capacitor is further connected to each of the power lines for rectifying and filtering the power source transmitted by the power lines. The drive circuit also has a plurality of gate drivers. When the voltage drop caused by the power transmission line between the gate drivers is significant enough to affect a normal operation of the gate drivers, the charge pump is installed in each of the gate drivers.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a drive circuit of a thin-film transistor type liquid crystal display (TFTLCD), and more particularly, to a drive circuit that maintains a sufficient voltage to provide a normal operation of such drive circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the conventional widely used cathode ray tube (CRT) display has been gradually replaced by the flat panel display in small volume and light weight. Currently, the most popular flat panel display includes the liquid crystal display. The application of the liquid crystal display includes the low power products such as calculator, cellular phone, palm pilot, and the notebook computer, desktop computer, and even the wall television. To obtain an optimum display area of a liquid crystal display and to form a thinnest module, the technique of applying a drive integrated circuit (drive IC) has been intensively developed and studied.
There are two commonly used technique for applying the drive IC to the liquid crystal display. One is to connect a printed circuit board mounted with a drive IC to a liquid crystal panel, the other is to install a drive IC on a liquid crystal panel directly. The latter method is also called a chip on glass method (COG).
The former method has the disadvantages including the usage of expensive wiring board (normally polyamide), requirement of large amount of devices, and the need of additional equipment to complete the connection between the drive circuit and the liquid crystal panel. Moreover, when the terminal has a minute pitch, it further restricts the tape carrier pattern and the connection to the electrodes of the liquid crystal panel.
The chip on glass method is a technique for forming a compact display. The electrodes of pixels are formed on the thin-film transistor glass of the liquid crystal panel directly. The liquid crystal panel is patterned to install the drive circuit. The drive circuit is then connected to the liquid crystal panel. This method provides an improved yield and stability and the advantages of small volume and low cost.
However, in the conventional chip on glass structure, metal wires are used to the drivers. The resistance of the metal wires causes a significant voltage drop from one driver to the other. The voltage drop seriously affects the normal operation of the drivers. Therefore, a long strip flexible printed circuit board (FPC) is provided to directly connect each source driver. Therefore, the voltage drop caused by the connection via the metal wires can be obviated. This method requires a large area of the flexible printed circuit board. In addition, as the drive circuits include data lines and power lines, a multiple layer structure is required for the flexible printed circuit board. This method does not only increase the fabrication complexity of the flexible printed circuit board, but also increase the cost and the overall volume of the liquid crystal display. Moreover, as the fabrication process is more complex, the reliability is decreased.


According to one embodiment, an additive manufacturing device includes a frame; a first gantry; and a first carriage. The first gantry has a length that extends along a first horizontal dimension of the frame. The first gantry is configured to move back and forth along a second horizontal dimension of the frame. The first carriage is configured to move back and forth along the length of the first gantry. The device further includes a second gantry, and a second carriage. The second gantry has a length that extends along the first horizontal dimension. The second gantry is configured to move back and forth along the second horizontal dimension. The second carriage is configured to move back and forth along the length of the second gantry. The device also includes a flowable material deliverer coupled to the first carriage; and a flowable material depositer coupled to the second carriage.

Additive manufacturing techniques and processes generally involve the buildup of one or more materials, e.g., printing a desired part or component layer by layer, to make a net or a near net shape ("NNS") object. Additive manufacturing encompasses various manufacturing and prototyping techniques known under a myriad of names, including, e.g., freeform fabrication, fused filament fabrication, 3D printing, rapid prototyping, fused deposition modeling, etc. Additive manufacturing techniques may be used to fabricate simple or complex parts or components from numerous materials. In some cases, a part may be fabricated with the assistance of a computer controller (e.g., CAD, 3D files, etc.). Typical apparatuses and methods for additive manufacturing, however, may be deficient.

Apparatuses and methods for fabricating parts on a multi gantry machine during additive manufacturing


A hand held power tool has a working disc and a working sheet held on the working disc by a burdock connection. The working disc has a burdock surface. An intermediate pad is held on the burdock surface of the grinding disc. The intermediate pad has a first side provided with a velour coating and releasably connectable with the burdock surface of the grinding working disc and a second side releasably connectable with the working sheet.

The present invention relates to a hand held power tool, such as for example an eccentric disc grinder.
Eccentric disc grinders are known in the art. One of such eccentric disc grinders is disclosed for example in the German reference DE-OS 3,625,655. It has a grinding disc for receiving grinding sheets. The grinding disc is a complex structural element which includes a bending-resistant disc fixedly connected with a flat padding disc. This is subsequently indicated as integrated intermediate pad. Such grinding disc are available in three conventional different embodiments. The differences corresponds to the three conventional grinding sheet types: with self-adhesive back, with velour-coated back, with central opening for a clamping screw.
There is also a grinding disc which has both the grinding sheet with the velour back and also the grinding sheet with central opening for the clamping screw. Other grinding discs can receive both the grinding sheet with adhesive back, and also the grinding sheet with central opening for a clamping screw.
All grinding discs have the same disadvantage in that the use of thee conventional types of the grinding sheets on the same grinding disc is not possible. The known grinding discs with integrated intermediate plates must be thrown away after their wear.


The invention relates to modified oligonucleotides that are useful for studies of gene expression and for the antisense therapeutic approach. The invention provides inverted hybrid oligonucleotides and inverted chimeric oligonucleotides, both of which produce reduced side effects, relative to traditional phosphorothioate, hybrid or chimeric oligonucleotides.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to modified oligonucleotides that are useful for studies of gene expression and for the antisense therapeutic approach.
2. Summary of the Related Art
The potential for using oligonucleotides as inhibitors of specific gene expression in an antisense therapeutic approach was first suggested in three articles published in 1977 and 1978. Paterson et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 74: 4370-4374 (1977) discloses that cell-free translation of mRNA can be inhibited by binding a complementary oligonucleotide to the MRNA. Zamecnik and Stephenson, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 75: 280-284 and 285-288 (1978) disclose that a 13-mer synthetic oligonucleotide that is complementary to a part of the Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) genome can inhibit RSV replication in infected cell cultures and can inhibit RSV-mediated transformation of primary chick fibroblasts into malignant sarcoma cells.
Since these early studies, the ability of antisense oligonucleotides to inhibit virus propagation has become firmly established. U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,463 teaches that human immunodeficiency virus propagation can be inhibited by oligonucleotides that are complementary to any of various regions of the HIV genome. U.S. Pat. No. 5,194,428 discloses inhibition of influenza virus replication by phosphorothioate oligonucleotides complementary to the influenza virus polymerase 1 gene. Agrawal, Trends in Biotechnology 10: 152-158 (1992) reviews the use of antisense oligonucleotides as antiviral agents.
Antisense oligonucleotides have also been developed as antiparasitic agents. PCT publication no. W093/13740 discloses the use of antisense oligonucleotides to inhibit propagation of drug-resistant malarial parasites. Tao et al., Antisense Research and Development 5: 123-129 (1995) teaches inhibition of propagation of a schistosome parasite by antisense oligonucleotides.
More recently, antisense oligonucleotides have shown promise as candidates for therapeutic applications for diseases resulting from expression of cellular genes. PCT publication no. W095/09236 discloses reversal of beta amyloid-induced neuronal cell line morphological abnormalities by oligonucleotides that inhibit beta amyloid expression. PCT publication no. WO94/26887 discloses reversal of aberrant splicing of a globin gene transcript by oligonucleotides complementary to certain portions of that transcript. PCT application no. PCT/US94/13685 discloses inhibition of tumorigenicity by oligonucleotides complementary to the gene encoding DNA methyltransferase.
The development of various antisense oligonucleotides as therapeutic and diagnostic agents has recently been reviewed by Agrawal and Iyer, Current Opinion in Biotechnology 6: 12-19 (1995).
As interest in the antisense therapeutic approach has grown, various efforts have been made to improve the pharmacologic properties of oligonucleotides by modifying the sugar-phosphate backbone. U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,797 describes traditional chimeric oligonucleotides having a phosphorothioate core region interposed between methylphosphonate or phosphoramidate flanking regions. PCT publication no. W094/02498 discloses traditional hybrid oligonucleotides having regions of 2'-O-substituted ribonucleotides flanking a DNA core region.
Much is currently being discovered about the pharmacodynamic properties of oligonucleotides. Agrawal et al., Clinical Pharmacokinetics 28: 7-16 (1995) and Zhang et al., Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 58: 44-53 (1995) disclose pharmacokinetics of anti-HIV oligonucleotides in human patients. Some of these new discoveries have led to new challenges to be overcome for the optimization of oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents. Henry et al., Pharm. Res. 11: PPDM8082 (1994) discloses that oligonucleotides may potentially interfere with blood clotting.
There is, therefor, a need for modified oligonucleotides that retain gene expression inhibition properties while producing fewer side effects than conventional oligonucleotides.


An optical mirror comprised of a stack of film pairs of alternating layers f high and low indices of refraction materials is disclosed. The optical mirror may further comprise a non-polished substrate and provides the desired reflectivity for the use in the operation of a quantum well mirror that provides an optical bias for a ring laser gyroscope.

1.0 Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ring laser gyroscope and, more particularly, to an optical mirror comprised of a stack of film pairs of alternating layers of high and low indices of refraction and used in a quantum well mirror (QWM) for a ring laser gyroscope.
2.0 Description of the Prior Art
Ring laser gyroscopes may suffer from a lock-out condition which is prevented by means of a mechanical dither spring which exists in prior art dual beam ring laser gyroscopes (RLG). The dither spring serves as a means of providing an artificial bias to the ring laser gyroscopes (RLG) at low input rates. At these low input rates and with no dither spring backscattered light from the mirrors of the RLG causes a locking of the two counter rotating beams of the RLG and hence no output. The dither spring oscillates at a set frequency rotating the RLG over a small angle. This oscillation produces an artificial input rate to the RLG keeping the RLG from locking its two beams when the externally applied input rate goes below the deadband lock-in frequency. The mechanical dither spring is made from Invar and is typically circular in design with spokes extending from a central inner ring to an outer ring. A piezo element is attached to each spoke and a voltage is applied to cause the desired oscillatory motion. The dither spring has attendant drawbacks due to its mechanical aspect.
Quantum well mirrors (QWM) may also be used to provide an optical bias so as to advantageously keep a ring laser gyroscope (RLG) out of its lock-in region. A mirror formed on dielectric materials (SiO.sub.2 and TiO.sub.2) commonly forms part of a quantum well mirror. The dielectric materials (SiO.sub.2 and TiO.sub.2) of the mirror are deposited on a polished substrate comprising, for example, quartz. The substrate requires polishing of the substrate so that its thickness is less than 1 .ANG., before the dielectric materials may be deposited. For such conditions, the yields of the fabrication process based on dielectric materials are limited because of this required polishing. It is desired that materials other than dielectric materials be utilized to provide for a mirror particularly suited to form part of a quantum well mirror (QWM) for use in a ring laser gyroscope so as to eliminate the need of a highly polished substrate.

Optical mirror particularly suited for a quantum well mirror

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A data transmission method and protocol includes progressive coding of a data set into time stamped data packets. The packets are ordered in importance, with some packets being more critical to received data quality than other packets from the same source. If packets are delayed in transit from a source to a receiver, packets of lesser importance are discarded after a set time, a transmission and decoding of a second set of time critical data begins.

Distribution of packet ordered multimedia data often requires use of an intermittently unreliable communication channel. For example, radio based wireless communication channels are often subject to radio interference from other radio spectrum emitting devices, while wired network communication channels are prone to network congestion. Both radio interference and network congestion can result in loss of data during transmission.
To compensate for data loss, two major classes of communication protocols are used to communicate data over packet networks. The first class of communication protocols is termed "synchronous", and uses a fixed delay transmission of packets. To mitigate the effect of channel errors a suitable error correcting code scheme such as Forward Error Control (FEC) coding is often employed. A data message is transformed by an FEC operation into a codeword of bigger size that ensures that if a number of altered components (through transmission error) of a codeword are below some designed threshold, the original data can still be correctly extracted. In effect, FEC provides error resilience by increasing the amount of data to be sent over a communication channel. Such synchronous transmission does not require a return channel, but there is no guarantee that the data will arrive to the receiver without errors.
As an alternative, it is possible to use packet based asynchronous communication protocols that are reliable, but have unbounded delay for packet delivery. Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) is a popular example of such protocol. It operates by dividing the data into packets and appending a special error check sequence such as a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) code to each packet for error detection purpose. The data packets and error checks are communicated over a channel and the receiver decides whether a transmission error occurred by calculating the check sequence and comparing it to the one it received. If a discrepancy is found the error is declared and the receiver requests the transmitter to resend the packet using the return channel. For each data packet in the forward channel, the receiver transmits either a positive Acknowledgment (ACK) packet or a negative one (NACK). In contrast to the synchronous transmission techniques, ARQ requires a two-way communication channel to be present. Often, the return channel uses the same physical medium as the forward channel. So effectively ARQ also expands the data size because of retransmissions and communication of control information. The difference from the synchronous FEC-based protocols is, however, that ARQ is inherently channel adaptive since only lost packets are resent, while FEC adds overhead to all packets. On the other hand, for some packet networks such as the Internet, ARQ may introduce significant delays due to roundtrip propagation time and processing time, which limit the application of ARQ to real-time multimedia communications.
Unfortunately, conventional synchronous and asynchronous protocols are not well suited for transmitting streaming multimedia data. In real-time applications, multimedia data cannot tolerate unbounded delays. If data for a video frame arrives after its deadline in real-time applications, it has to be discarded. This suggests that common asynchronous protocols are not suited for real-time multimedia. Use of synchronous protocols presents significant difficulties as well. Because of the bandwidth limitations of conventional wireless and wired communication channels, multimedia data is compressed for transmission. Such compressed data cannot tolerate frequent errors in the transmission. In many cases, certain portions of compressed multimedia (headers, important coding information, etc.) data are intolerable to errors at all. This renders synchronous protocols inapplicable for many multimedia communication scenarios.

System and method for streaming multimedia over packet networks


A water soluble polymer comprising from about 25 weight % to about 90 weight % of an unsaturated carboxylic acid/unsaturated carboxylic acid ester terpolymer; from about 10 weight % to about 75 weight % of a divalent ion inhibitor and from about 0 weight % to about 10 weight % of a plasticizer is soluble in an aqueous environment having a divalent ion concentration less than about 50 ppm and a monovalent ion concentration of less than about 0.5 weight %. Also disclosed is a water dispersible fibrous fabric having a fibrous substrate and an effective amount of the binder distributed on the substrate and a method of making a water dispersible fibrous fabric.

The present invention relates to a water dispersible material whose solubility in water is dependent upon the total ionic concentration in the water and particularly the concentration of divalent ions. More particularly, the invention relates to a polymer binder composition that is dispersible in water when the concentration of divalent ions in the water is less than about 50 parts per million (ppm) and desirably, the concentration of monovalent ions is less than about 0.5 weight %. Advantageously, the polymer composition is insoluble in an aqueous solution having a concentration of a divalent ions greater than about 50 ppm. The invention is further directed to a method of making a water dispersible nonwoven fibrous fabric comprising a fibrous substrate and the ion sensitive binder composition distributed therein and the water dispersible nonwoven fibrous fabric utility in water-dispersible personal care products.
While the composition and products of the present invention are described herein primarily in connection with advantageous applications as a disposable absorbent article and more particularly, a premoistened wipe, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited thereto. In light of the present disclosure, those skilled in the art will recognize a variety of applications in other fields where flushability of a fibrous fabric would be desirable.
Nonwoven fibrous fabrics and webs are widely used as components of disposable products as sanitary napkins, diapers, wound dressings, bandages, nursing pads, and premoistened wipes. The terms "nonwoven fibrous webs", "fibrous webs", "nonwoven fabrics", "fabrics" and "fibrous substrates" are interchangeably used herein and include, without limitation, methods of making such fabrics and webs as meltblowing, melt spinning, air-laying and wet laying.
Such fabrics, if they are to function effectively, must maintain their structural integrity, as well as exhibit satisfactory tensile strength when they are wet or damp. However, it has been recognized that if such nonwoven fabrics were to lose substantially all of their tensile strength when exposed to water and become readily dispersible therein, disposal problems would be substantially eliminated. The products could be easily and conveniently flushed down a conventional toilet (water closet).
Desirably, the fabrics possesses a number of characteristics such as softness and flexibility. The fabric is usually formed by wet or dry laying a random plurality of fibers and joining them together to form a coherent web. Unfortunately, in an attempt to provide nonwoven fabrics having certain in-use characteristics, prior methods have rendered the fabric nondispersible in water. For example, nonwovens have been bonded with fluid-insoluble resins which impart in-use strength. However, such resins impede flushing the fabric by rendering the fabric substantially water insoluble.
With regard to premoistened wipes, special problems arise. The wipes, which are used for skin cleansing, and are known commercially as towelettes, wet wipes or fem-wipes, are formed from paper or nonwoven fibrous webs treated with a polymeric binder. The binder imparts to the web a degree of wet strength so that the web will not lose its tensile strength while being stored in an appropriate liquid medium. However, after the wipe has been used, the binder should be readily weakened when exposed to an aqueous environment, such as a toilet, without clogging the toilet and plumbing.
So far, various binders have been used in the manufacture of a wipe. For example, wipes have included as a binder an acid-insoluble, alkali-soluble polymeric polycarboxylic acid and functional derivatives thereof wherein the acid is placed in water and enough alkali is added to substantially neutralize all acidic groups prior to applying the binder to the web. The binder-saturated web is dried and then immersed in a low pH medium where it retains its structural integrity yet will still break up when the wipe is immersed in a sufficiently high pH liquid medium.
Another binder used for a premoistened wipe has been polyvinyl alcohol combined with a gelling or insolubilizing agent such as borax. The borax crosslinks at least the surface of the polymer binder before drying the web to give a water resistant web. Such cross-links are reversible, that is, when the concentration of borax is reduced below a certain level, the degree of cross-linking is so low that the binder becomes soluble in water. However, boron-containing solutions are unacceptable for personal care products due to safety concerns.
Yet another water dispersible nonwoven fabric has used a water soluble binder comprising an unsaturated carboxylic acid/unsaturated carboxylic acid ester copolymer. A problem with the above binders is that to prevent the nonwoven fibrous fabric from disintegrating prior to disposal, the wipe must be maintained in a solution having a pH which may cause irritation to the skin when the wipe is used.
The above binders containing carboxylic acid groups have worked well for making a water dispersible fibrous web that is, to a limited degree, water soluble, water dispersible or water disintegratable in an aqueous environment, provided the water is predominantly void of divalent ions. However, in those areas where the water is "moderately hard", because the water contains divalent ions such as calcium ions or magnesium ions, the wipes do not readily disperse. The water soluble polymeric binder is substantially rendered insoluble by the presence of divalent ions. Although not wanting to be held to any particular theory, it is believed that the divalent ions crosslink the binder, preventing it from dispersing in the water. Until now, it has not been recognized the adverse effect that divalent ions present in the aqueous environment has on the water solubility of the polymeric binder.
Accordingly, there is a need for a water soluble binder composition that can be used in an article, such as a wipe, that is safe to use and will be substantially unaffected by the presence of divalent ions normally found in moderately hard water.


A DC-DC converter, having an output voltage and including at least one electronic switch; first circuitry controlling the output voltage by adjusting a switching frequency of the electronic switch, and second circuitry adjusting the switching frequency toward a target switching frequency when the switching frequency significantly deviates from the target switching frequency.

A DC-DC converter is an electronic circuit that converts a source of direct current (DC) from one voltage to another. For example DC-DC converters are widely used in portable devices to provide power from a battery. DC-DC converters may also regulate the output voltage, compensating for varying load current and variations in the input voltage.
FIG. 1A illustrates an example embodiment of one common type of DC-DC converter. The DC-DC converter circuit 100 in FIG. 1A (simplified to facilitate illustration and description) is a switching step-down converter (the Input voltage is higher than the output voltage), and the basic design is called a Buck converter. A power source 102 provides direct current at an input voltage VIN. The circuit 100 provides direct current to a load (R) at an output voltage VOUT. There are two electronic switches (SW1, SW2), only one of which is activated (closed) at any one time. SW2 may be a diode instead of a switch, and the diode is "activated" when positively biased. When SW1 is closed, current flows into R and a filter capacitor (C) from the source 102, and VOUT rises linearly. In addition, when SW1 is closed, energy is stored in L and C. When SW2 is closed, current flows from stored energy in C and from stored energy in L, and VOUT decreases linearly.
FIG. 1B illustrates an example embodiment 104 of a DC-DC boost converter circuit (the input voltage is lower than the output voltage). The primary difference between the circuit 100 of FIG. 1A and the circuit 104 of FIG. 1B is the location of the switches (SW1, SW2) relative to the inductor L. When SW1 in circuit 104 is closed, energy is stored in L and load current is provided by C. When SW2 in circuit 104 is closed, load current flows from VIN and from stored energy in L, and energy is stored in C. In Circuit 104 of FIG. 1B, SW2 may be a diode instead of a switch.
FIG. 1C illustrates an example embodiment 106 of the DC-DC converter circuit 100 of FIG. 1A with the addition of feedback to control the output voltage. An amplifier 108 amplifies the difference between VOUT and a reference voltage VREF. A ramp generator 110 receives a clock signal (CLK) and generates a constant-frequency ramp signal. A comparator 112 compares the output of the amplifier 108 to the ramp signal. A driver circuit 114 activates at least SW1 (SW2 may optionally be a diode). The width of the pulse driving SW1 (called "on-time") is determined by the time at which the output of the amplifier 108 is equal to the rising ramp voltage. During the remainder of the clock cycle ("off-time") the driver 114 activates switch SW2 (or a diode conducts while forward biased).
There are many variations in topology and control of DC-DC converters. Some converters have multiple inductors in a resonant circuit. The circuit illustrated in FIG. 1C uses output voltage feedback. Some converters use current feedback, or other feedback signals such as a ripple voltage. Some converters have multiple feedback loops, in general, there are advantages and disadvantages of each variation, and some systems have special requirements, in particular, power supplies for advanced digital circuits have a challenging set of requirements. Microprocessor cores, digital signal processors, and other devices may switch rapidly from sleep-mode to full-power and full-power back to sleep-mode, requiring a fast response by the power supply to sudden changes in load current.
In general, there is a need to extend the high frequency response of a DC-DC converter while maintaining stability. This is especially true when significant loads may be switched in and out of standby mode to reduce power, in the embodiment of FIG. 1C, the amplifier 108 commonly includes a compensation filter (not illustrated), where "compensation" means that the feedback network gain and phase as a function of frequency ensure that the overall system with feedback is stable. However, for a system as depicted in FIG. 1G with constant-frequency switching, the system cannot respond to a sudden load change until the next clock cycle. An alternative way to handle rapidly changing current demands is to maintain a constant on-time (or off-time), and instantaneously change the switching period. Allowing the switching period to instantaneously change enables a faster response.
FIG. 1D illustrates an alternative embodiment having a constant on-time with variable off-time and variable switching frequency. In FIG. 1D, as in FIG. 1C, the difference between the output voltage VOUT and a reference voltage VREF is amplified by amplifier 108 to generate a voltage error feedback signal. In FIG. 1D, the voltage error signal drives a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 116. The output of the VCO 116 is a series of poises at the switching frequency. At the beginning of each cycle of the output of the VCO 118, a pulse generator ("one-shot") 118 generates a constant-width on-time pulse. The driver circuitry 120 drives SW1 during the on-time pulse, and then drives SW2 during the remaining portion of each cycle from the VCO 116.
The example circuit of FIG. 1D allows the switching period to instantaneously change, thereby enabling a faster response to a load change. A further advantage of the circuit of figure ID is that it does not need a compensation filter. However, the average switching frequency of the DC-DC converter in the circuit of FIG. 1D varies widely with load current and other power system parameters, and there are multiple system requirements that need a constant switching frequency, or at least a quasi-constant switching frequency. For example, L, C, and other components needed to filter the output voltage ripple need to be optimized for a particular ripple frequency (or a least a relatively narrow range of frequencies). In addition, suppression of system radio frequency interference (RFI) may require external system components that are optimized for a particular switching frequency (or at least a narrow range of frequencies). In addition, the efficiency of the DC-DC converter may be optimized at a particular switching frequency (or at least a narrow range of frequencies).
There is an ongoing need for a DC-DC converter with a rapid response to transient load conditions, and a narrow range of switching frequencies.


A shelving system includes an elongated mounting member operationally securable to an associated shelf. The mounting member includes an approximately vertically oriented wall and an approximately horizontally oriented wall. A track is received on the mounting member in a non-sliding manner. The track extends transversely to a longitudinal axis of the associated shelf. An elongated rail extends longitudinally along the track. A spring urged pusher is slidably mounted in relation to the rail. A slot extends transversely along a bottom face of the track. A first smooth contact surface is located on the mounting member approximately a horizontally oriented wall. A second smooth contact surface is located on the track adjacent the slot. The second contact surface engages the first contact surface to retard a sideward sliding motion of the track in relation to the mounting member.

Shelving is used extensively for stocking and storing products or merchandise in a variety of stores. Most stores simply employ shelves on which merchandise is stocked. In such stores if the shelves are not at eye level, it is difficult for the customer to see the items being displayed unless they are located adjacent the front edge of the shelf. Such conventional shelves also make it difficult to rotate the product on the shelves, which involves moving the older stock to the front of the shelf and positioning new stock behind the older stock. This has to be done manually by an employee. Thus, for a number of important merchandising considerations, it is desirable that the merchandise be displayed at the front of a shelf so that the customer can see the merchandise and be induced to purchase such merchandise. For example, if goods are perishable or are subject to becoming stale (e.g. cigarettes, fruit juices, dairy products or any item with an expiration date or a freshness date) it is important that the articles be removed in a first in first out basis to maintain freshness. As mentioned, if the merchandise is not displayed at the front of the shelf, it may not catch the shopper's eye, which may cost the merchant sales.
In order to automatically move an item forward as the one before it is removed, numerous forward feed devices have been proposed. These devices generally fall into three categories. The first category is inclined tracks, which rely on gravity to feed, slide or roll products forward. Gravity feeding is somewhat unpredictable in that various materials slide easier than others because of different weights and frictional interfaces between the products and the track. A second category employs conveyor belts, which still use gravity to effect forward movement. These devices are typically cumbersome, expensive and complicated due to the need to properly tension and track the conveyor belts. A third category uses spring biased paddles in a pusher system to feed the product forward. Such pusher systems have been found useful for certain merchandise.
Forward feed devices are usually associated with divider walls. Normally, a divider wall is located on either side of, for example, a pusher system. Both the pusher system and the divider wall are mounted to at least a front rail or front mounting member in order to allow a spacing of the pusher systems and divider walls on a shelf. In some known systems, the divider walls are separate from the pusher systems. In others, the divider walls and pusher systems are of one piece. In either case, the divider walls and pusher systems can be slidably mounted on the front rail or mounting member. This, however, has some disadvantages. Such disadvantages have to do with the fact that as the merchandise is being urged forward by the pusher, the merchandise may urge the dividers to slide laterally away from each other along the mounting member thus interfering with adjacent rows of merchandise, possibly making such merchandise more difficult to retrieve. This is particularly true with cans and other merchandise having rounded sides, since with such merchandise one item can rotate in relation to another as it is being pushed forward.
Certain merchandising systems employ a design in which the divider wall and the pusher are locked to a front rail or mounting member so as to prevent a sideward sliding thereof. However, with these known designs, the dividers and the pusher systems have to be physically removed from contact with the front rail in order to provide lateral adjustability thereto. The known systems also have other disadvantages.
Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new improved shelf divider system which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.


A memory device includes an array of resistive memory cells. Each resistive memory cell in the array includes a first resistive memory element, a second resistive memory element, and a two-terminal switching element. The first resistive memory element is electrically coupled to the second resistive memory element and to the switching element at a common node.

Non-volatile memory devices that retain stored data in the absence of power are pervasively used in many electronic products including cell phones, tablets, personal computers, personal digital assistants, and the like. Unfortunately, many non-volatile memory devices have limitations that make them unsuitable for use as primary storage for these products including higher cost and lower performance when compared to volatile memory devices such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Examples of non-volatile memory devices include read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), resistive random access memory (RRAM), phase change memory, and the like.
RRAM memory devices are a focal point for current development. In some instances, RRAM memory devices are implemented as a three-dimensional (3D) crosspoint memory array having vertically stacked and interconnected layers. Each layer may comprise an array of RRAM memory elements, formed at intersections of bit lines and word lines placed orthogonal to each other. RRAM memory devices formed on a layer may be interconnected to RRAM memory devices formed on other layers.
RRAM memory devices may further be implemented as horizontal 3D crosspoint memory arrays and vertical 3D crosspoint memory arrays. Horizontal 3D crosspoint memory arrays having 1D-1R (one diode, one resistive element) often use unipolar diodes as select devices. These unipolar diodes, however, cannot service popular bipolar RRAM memory devices. Vertical 3D crosspoint memories use a shared transistor to select between multiple RRAM devices. Sneak paths in the array limit the block size, however, which adversely impacts manufacturing costs. A need exists, therefore, for an improved RRAM memory device.


A method and a system for determining a characteristic of a printing system, the printing system including a printing device and a receiving substrate. Data from a pattern printed on the receiving substrate by the printing device are analyzed. Based on the analysis, an artifact characteristic of the printing system is determined automatically.

A "colorant" means in this document an independent variable with which an output device can be addressed. A "colorant value", denoted as c, is an independent value that can be used to control a colorant of the output device. The colorants of an offset printing press, for example, are the offset printing inks. It is customary to express the range of physically achievable values for the colorants of a device in %, which means that usually the colorant values range from c=0% to c=100%. In graphic arts, colorant values are often called dot percentages. An output device or printing device with n colorants, wherein n≧1, will also be called below a "printer" or an "n-ink process". The output device may be a proofing device with a cyan (C), a magenta (M), a yellow (Y) and a black (K) colorant.
To put a color output device in a standard state, a calibration procedure is applied. In fact, an output device can drift away from its standard state; e.g. changes in room humidity or use of a fresh supply of ink may cause a printer to produce different color. The objective of device calibration, therefore, is to bring a device back to a known, standard state, so that it produces predictable color every time it receives the same input colorant values. To calibrate a printer, typically a calibration target is printed by the printer and measured. If the measurements indicate that the printer has drifted away from its standard state, calibration curves are calculated from the measurement results to correct for this drift. A calibration curve transforms a colorant value to another colorant value. We refer to patent application EP 1 083 739 for more information on calibration, color gamut and other relevant terms.
For some color output devices it is advantageous to apply ink limitation in the calibration step. In this way it is possible to reduce the influence of visually disturbing artifacts, that may occur if too much ink is laid down on the receiving substrate. For ink-jet printers for example, the ink can bleed significantly, especially if the receiving substrate upon which the ink is deposited is some low quality paper such as newsprint, i.e. paper used for newspapers. Bleeding normally gets more important with increasing colorant values, i.e. with increasing ink amounts. Other special effects such as coalescence may also be reduced or avoided by limiting the ink amount. All these visually disturbing effects are referred to in this document as "artifacts". On the other hand, for some printers there is no or no significant gamut increase beyond specific colorant values (the gamut is the delimited region in color space of the colors that are physically realizable by a given printer). Further, reducing the amount of ink decreases the drying time of the receiving substrate. Because of all these factors, applying ink limitation is important.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,609 to Oikawa teaches an inkjet recording apparatus that deals with the problem of ink spread. A solution that is disclosed in this patent is to eject a liquid in a separate row of nozzles that reacts with ink that has been ejected by another row of nozzles in the same print head.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,050,196 to Piatt et al. specifically deals with limiting the maximum amount of a colorant. According to this patent a maximum amount of colorant is determined by means of a test pattern that includes specific patterns for measuring bleed between colors, reverse text fill, paper cockle and ink showing through the back side of a paper.
A problem is that, up to now, artifacts are evaluated manually on printouts. This can be very time-consuming if the evaluation has to be repeated for many different ink limitation settings. Therefore, an improved method is needed.

Method to determine a characteristic of a printing system


An apparatus, system and method for adjusting and setting a fixed position of an axially displaceable shaft and rotary chipper disc combination, without requiring an attachment to or obstruction of an end face of either end of the axially displaceable shaft. A rotary chipper disc recoil mechanism is also provided for the purpose of detection of unwanted axial forces placed upon the rotating shaft caused by unintentional chipping of metal, and for limiting consequential damage caused by the unintentional chipping of metal and other non-wood materials.

A wood chipping disc is a circular shaped object that includes wood chipping knives that are designed for slicing larger pieces of wood, such as wood logs, into smaller sized wood chips. The wood chipping disc is attached to a rotating shaft along an axis of rotation. Rotation of the shaft and the wood chipping disc are driven by a transmission and engine combination.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Axial adjustment apparatus for chipper disc


A gel for cleaning hard surfaces that is formed by mixing water and a detergent composition comprising (i) a first surfactant, wherein the first surfactant is an amine oxide or a betaine or a tetraalkylammoniumchloride, and (ii) a second surfactant, wherein the second surfactant is an alkali metal salt of a fatty acid together with Na.sup.+ from NaCl, wherein the ratio of the first surfactant and the second surfactant is 1:10-10:1, (b) water, wherein said detergent composition is mixed with a sufficient amount of water to induce a phase change from a liquid phase to a gel phase, wherein a gel is formed having a surfactant concentration in the range of 0.1-25%, and (c) one or more enzymes.

In food industry hard surface cleaning has traditionally been carried out by high pressure foam cleaning. There are some severe safety problems by using high pressure foam cleaning: High pH, aggressive cleaning agents, aerosol formation and mechanical noise and damage are the most important ones, but there are also environmental problems connected to high pressure foam cleaning due to a large water consumption and thereby effluent treatment.
It has also been excluded to add enzymes to the detergents in the normal hard surface cleaning. The risk of inhaling enzymes (allergy potential) due to aerosol formation is so obvious that it rules out the use of enzymes in the traditional high pressure foam cleaning.
To overcome these difficulties in recent years much effort has been put into developing different hard surface cleaners in the form of gels. The gel cleaners have the advantages of giving a safe application, they do not or only insignificantly create aerosols, they have a low water consumption, so if the cleaning capacity of the gel is satisfactory, the gel application method is a safe and gentle way of cleaning hard surfaces.

Cleaning gel for hard surfaces containing one or more surfactants, an electrolyte, and an enzyme


A semiconductor light emitting device includes an n-type nitride semiconductor layer 3 formed on one surface side of a single-crystal substrate 1 for epitaxial growth through a first buffer layer 2, an emission layer 5 formed on a surface side of the n-type nitride semiconductor layer 3, and a p-type nitride semiconductor layer 6 formed on a surface side of the emission layer 5. The emission layer 5 has an AlGaInN quantum well structure, and a second buffer layer 4 having the same composition as a barrier layer 5a of the emission layer 5 is provided between the n-type nitride semiconductor layer 3 and the emission layer 5. In the semiconductor light emitting device, it is possible to increase emission intensity of the ultraviolet radiation as compared with a conventional configuration while using AlGaInN as a material of the emission layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor light emitting device and an illuminating device using it.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a nitride semiconductor including nitrogen in V group element has received attention in a field of a semiconductor light emitting device such as a light-emitting diode and a laser diode using p-n junction, and it is researched and developed in many places. The reason why the nitride semiconductor receives attention is that the nitride semiconductor, including AlN, GaN, and InN, is a direct transition semiconductor and, in a ternary mixed crystal and quaternary mixed crystal, it is possible to emit light from infrared up to deep-ultraviolet by changing a bandgap by setting the composition appropriately.
However, in manufacturing a semiconductor light emitting device using a nitride semiconductor, because it is difficult to manufacture a substrate for epitaxial growth which is made of nitride semiconductor and has high quality and large area, it is necessary to use, e.g., a sapphire substrate and a silicon carbide substrate as a substrate for epitaxial growth. However, in such a case, heteroepitaxial growth is imposed, and it is difficult to grow a nitride semiconductor thin-film having a flat surface. So, a density of threading dislocation in the nitride semiconductor thin-film is as much as 109 to 1011 cm−2. Because the threading dislocation causes descent of internal quantum efficiency of a semiconductor light emitting device, a technique for reducing dislocation and a selection of a material of an emission layer which is insusuceptible to dislocation are researched so as to increase internal quantum efficiency of the semiconductor light emitting device.
As to the technique of reduction of the dislocation, a GaN layer is centrally researched, and various techniques, such as the introduction of a low-temperature buffer layer, epitaxial lateral overgrowth using a selective growth mask, and an anti-surfactant method which controls a surface structure by adding anti-surfactant (e.g. Si), which comprised of an impurity atom for inducing three-dimensional growth, to a surface of a foundation layer (e.g. a GaN buffer layer) are examined, and a substrate for epitaxial growth having low lattice mismatch is examined. It is reported that it is possible to reduce the threading dislocation density in the GaN layer to about 105 cm−2. However, in a AlGaN ternary mixed crystal, it is known that an effect which can be obtained by using the above-mentioned technique of the reduction of the dislocation is small, so it is necessary to examine the technique of reduction of the dislocation more in AlGaN which is used as a material of the semiconductor light emitting device for emitting light in an ultraviolet region.
On the other hand, as an emission layer material which is insusuceptible to the threading dislocation, InGaN ternary mixed crystal has been in the limelight. InGaN is strong in immiscibility, and a composition of In in a crystal becomes unevenness with increase of the composition of In, and a carrier injected in an InGaN layer recombines in a region having high composition of In before it is captured by the threading dislocation. So, it becomes possible to increase internal quantum efficiency dramatically in spite of high degree of threading dislocation by using InGaN in the emission layer.
However, if In is included in the emission layer material, an emission wavelength shifts to a long wavelength side. So, many semiconductor light emitting devices which emit light of ultraviolet region adopt AlGaN which does not include In as a material of the emission layer, so the internal quantum efficiency is low.
Here, in order to increase the quality of an AlGaN layer, it is known that, when a single-crystal substrate for epitaxial growth is a sapphire substrate, it is desired that the AlGaN layer grows on an AlN layer as a foundation layer. This is because, by growing the AlGaN layer on the AlN layer a lattice mismatch between the AlGaN layer and the foundation layer becomes small as compared with a case where the AlGaN layer grows directly on the sapphire substrate, and the threading dislocation is less likely to occur in the AlGaN layer. Furthermore, this is because distortion is added to the AlGaN layer in a direction that the AlGaN layer is compressed, and adjacent threading dislocations in the AlGaN layer are united to each other, which enables reduction of the dislocation and prevents generation of crack. It is also known that, when the AlN layer is a foundation layer, it is preferable that the AlN layer grows directly on the sapphire substrate without a low-temperature buffer layer.
Also, in recent years, a semiconductor light emitting device which uses AlGaInN quaternary mixed crystal as a material of an emission layer to emit light of ultraviolet region has been in the limelight (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.9-64477). Although the AlGaInN layer includes In, it is reported that it is possible to set an emission peak wavelength to a wavelength region below 360 nm and it is possible to improve the internal quantum efficiency to the same level as the InGaN layer. Furthermore, the AlGaInN layer enables a crystal to grow in a temperature range more than 800 degrees C. at which the InGaN layer cannot allow a crystal to grow, so it has an advantage that it becomes easy to obtain a crystal with higher quality.
So, it is expected to realize an ultraviolet-emitting device which emits light at higher efficiency by combining the technology for increasing quality of the AlGaN layer and the technology which uses AlGaInN quaternary mixed crystal as a material of the emission layer.
However, an n-type GaN layer or an n-type AlGaN layer used for an n-type nitride semiconductor layer that is to be a foundation of an emission layer grows in a temperature range more than 1000 degrees while a growth temperature for forming an emission layer including In is usually 600 to 750 degrees C. So, in order to form the emission layer after forming the n-type nitride semiconductor layer, it is necessary to interrupt the growth to change substrate temperature. Therefore, a surface of the n-type nitride semiconductor layer may be polluted before the emission layer is formed. Furthermore, because the lattice mismatch between the n-type AlGaN layer which is an n-type nitride semiconductor and the AlGaInN layer which is an emission layer is large, the internal quantum efficiency may be reduced even if an n-type nitride semiconductor layer which is comprised of an n-type AlGaN layer having high quality is formed and a material having high efficiency as a material of the emission layer is used.

Semiconductor light emitting device and illuminating device using it


In a voice communication system 1, a gateway server 4 receives IP packets from the Internet, converts PCM voice data in the IP packets into AMR encoded voice data frames, and transmits to a mobile terminal 7. During the propagation to the gateway server 4, there is a possibility of loss of IP packets and crucial bit error in IP packets. In that case, the gateway server 4 puts “No data” data on frames as voice encoded data for the IP packets in question and sends it to the mobile terminal 7. The “No data” data is a target of concealment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to voice processing method and voice processing device suitable for real time voice communication system.
2. Prior Art
Real time voice communication such as telephone is usually carried out by connecting users' terminals with line and transmitting voice signal on the line. However, today with well-developed network such as the Internet, study of real time voice packet communication such as Internet telephone, in which voice signals are encoded and voice packets with the encoded signal on their payload parts are transmitted, is widely being done.
As a method for real time voice packet communication, following method is known. Namely, by a device at a transmitting side, voice signal is compressed using a certain method such as A-law or μ-law, then sampled, and PCM (pulse code modulation) voice sampling data is generated. The PCM voice sampling data is then placed on the payload part of the voice packet, and transmitted to a device at a receiving side via network. However, when this method is used, if voice packet is lost by network congestion, or if bit error occurs in voice packet during propagation, the device at the receiving side cannot reproduce voice for that faulty voice packet. This can result in degradation of voice quality.
Also, so far, a decoder and an error detection device do not send to the following encoder information that there is loss of packet or bit error in packet. Therefore, the encoder encodes these defective packets without taking any measures against defection. This results in degradation in voice quality.

Voice processing method and voice processing device


A method for enhancing operation of a bipolar light-emitting transistor includes the following steps: providing a bipolar light-emitting transistor having emitter, base, and collector regions; providing electrodes for coupling electrical signals with the emitter, base, and collector regions; and adapting the base region to promote carrier transport from the emitter region toward the collector region by providing, in the base region, several spaced apart quantum size regions of different thicknesses, with the thicknesses of the quantum size regions being graded from thickest near the collector to thinnest near the emitter.

A part of the background hereof lies in the development of light emitters based on direct bandgap semiconductors such as III–V semiconductors. Such devices, including light emitting diodes and laser diodes, are in widespread commercial use.
Another part of the background hereof lies in the development of wide bandgap semiconductors to achieve high minority carrier injection efficiency in a device known as a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), which was first proposed in 1948 (see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 2,569,376; see also H. Kroemer, "Theory Of A Wide-Gap Emitter For Transistors" Proceedings Of The IRE, 45, 1535–1544 (1957)). These transistor devices are capable of operation at extremely high speeds. An InP HBT has recently been demonstrated to exhibit operation at a speed above 500 GHz.
It is among the objects of the present invention to provide bipolar transistor devices and methods which can operate at extremely high speeds, even potentially exceeding those already achieved. It is also among the objects of the present invention to provide devices and methods for producing controlled light emission, and to also provide devices capable of simultaneous control of optical and electrical outputs.

The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois


A electrolytic cell for efficiently producing caustic from sodium salts via use of a thin membrane of ceramic or ceramic composite electrolyte is disclosed. Ceramic electrolytes having a very mobile sodium ion such as NASICON are very effective in cells producing concentrated caustic from sodium salts of strong acids.

1. Field
The instant invention relates to the production concurrently, strong acids via electrolysis of a sodium salt in an electrolytic cell.
2. State of the Art
Electrolytic cells employing composite polymeric membranes are presently utilized to produce caustic solutions. Exemplary of such electrolytic cells are those disclosed in an article entitled "Use Electrodialytic Membranes for Waste Recovery," Nicholas Basta, Chemical Engineering, Mar. 3, 1986 and an article entitled "The Behavior of Ion Exchange Membranes in Electrolysis and Electrodialysis of Sodium Sulphate," J. Jorissen and K. H. Simmrock, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry 1991. Such cells have polymeric membranes which are not efficient at higher concentrations of caustic and acid as well as at higher conversion ratios of salt to acid although being resistant to strongly acidic and basic solutions. The operational life of such polymeric membranes is very sensitive to impurity contaminations. For example, such cells are limited generally to caustic production of a maximum concentration of about 20% and to salt to acid conversion of about 50%. Higher caustic concentrations or salt to acid conversion severely limit the efficiency of the process. For instance, at a fifty percent conversion of salt to acid, the current or energy efficiency is only about sixty percent.

NaOH production from ceramic electrolytic cell


Disclosed is a first drum half together with a second drum half forming a tire building drum of a tire building machine, and a method for operating the machine. The machine includes a first drive member and a second drive member movable in the axial direction inside the drum shaft. The first drum half includes a base movable over the drum shaft in an axial direction, a crown-up section having a plurality of crown segments and a displacement member for displacing the crown segments in a crown-up direction, wherein the first drum half further includes a first coupling member for coupling the first drive member to the base to drive the movement of the base and a second coupling member for coupling the second drive member to the displacement member to drive the displacement of the crown segments.

The invention relates to a drum half, a tire building machine and a method for operating said tire building machine.
EP 2 698 243 A1 discloses a sleeveless tire building drum, which comprises a center section with a plurality of center segments, instead of a rubber sleeve. The known tire building drum is used for single stage tire building. This requires that the tire building drum is capable of axial expansion and contraction as well as radial expansion and contraction. Due to the fact the center section is supported by both sides of the tire building drum, it is important that both sides of the tire building drum move in synchronization. If one side of the drum is out of synchronization with the other side of the drum, problems in tire uniformity can occur. The known high crown tire building drum utilizes a spindle inside the drum shaft for synchronously moving both sides of the drum in the axial direction towards each other. The tire building drum further comprises pneumatic pistons that cause linkages to slide and to push the center segments radially outwards into a high crown position.
The known tire building drum has the disadvantage that is very hard, if not impossible, to accurately synchronize the pneumatic actuation of the linkages in both sides of the tire building drum. Consequently, the radially outward movement of the center segments may not be a true radial movement, thereby causing deformations and/or tension in the tire components supported thereon.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a drum half, a tire building machine and a method for operating said tire building machine, wherein the synchronization of the tire building machine can be improved.

Drum half, tire building machine and method for operating said tire building machine


Animal feed or animal feed additives comprising one or more polypeptides having lysozyme activity are disclosed. Polypeptides having lysozyme activity, polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides, nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods of producing and using the polypeptides are also provided.

Lysozyme is an O-glycosyl hydrolase produced as a defensive mechanism against bacteria by many organisms. The enzyme causes the hydrolysis of bacterial cell walls by cleaving the glycosidic bonds of peptidoglycan; an important structural molecule in bacteria. After having their cell walls weakened by lysozyme action, bacterial cells lyse as a result of unbalanced osmotic pressure.
Lysozyme naturally occurs in many organisms such as viruses, plants, insects, birds, reptiles and mammals. In mammals, Lysozyme has been isolated from nasal secretions, saliva, tears, intestinal content, urine and milk. The enzyme cleaves the glycosidic bond between carbon number 1 of N-acetylmuramic acid and carbon number 4 of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. In vivo, these two carbohydrates are polymerized to form the cell wall polysaccharide of many microorganisms.
Lysozyme has been classified into five different glycoside hydrolase (GH) families (CAZy, cazy.orq): hen egg-white lysozyme (GH22), goose egg-white lysozyme (GH23), bacteriophage T4 lysozyme (GH24), Sphingomonas flagellar protein (GH73) and Chalaropsis lysozymes (GH25). Lysozymes from the families GH23 and GH24 are primarily known from bacteriophages and have recently been identified in fungi. The lysozyme family GH25 has been found to be structurally unrelated to the other lysozyme families.
Lysozyme extracted from hen egg white is the primary product available on the commercial market, but does not cleave N,6-O-diacetylmuramic acid in e.g. Staphylococcus aureus cell walls and is thus unable to lyse this important human pathogen among others (Masschalck B, Deckers D, Michiels C W (2002), "Lytic and nonlytic mechanism of inactivation of gram-positive bacteria by lysozyme under atmospheric and high hydrostatic pressure", J Food Prot. 65(12): 1916-23).
Antimicrobial growth promoters (AGP's) have traditionally been used for growth promotion in animals, and probably work by preventing low level infections by pathogens such as Clostridium perfringens. However, AGP's are increasingly being banned worldwide and therefore new solutions to promote animal growth but which are not AGP's are of interest.
WO2013/076253 and WO2005/080559 disclose GH25 lysozymes for use in animal feed. However, said lysozymes are not highly active in degrading the cell wall from Micrococcus lysodeikticus (a typical lysozyme activity assay) and more active lysozymes would be desired. The object of the present invention is to provide new and more active lysozymes which could be suitable for animal health.

Polypeptides having lysozyme activity, polynucleotides encoding same and uses and compositions thereof


A host with a removable device includes a main body, a removable device, and a fixing and withdrawing mechanism. Each element of the fixing and withdrawing mechanism is connected with each other by using a plurality of springs. When the removable device is placed into the host, a slide rod is pushed and a link rod is linked, such that the removable device is fastened in the host by using the link rod. When a user pulls an actuating rod, the link rod is guided to release the fastening state, and the removable device is ejected by using the slide rod under the forces of the springs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a host with a removable device, and more particularly to a host with a removable device having a fixing and withdrawing mechanism.
2. Related Art
As the information industry has been developed rapidly, the applications of electronic and information products are increasingly popularized, and the consumers have an increasingly high demand on the electronic products. In order to meet the demand of the consumers, recently, the electronic product has been developed towards a miniaturization design trend, so as to be carried conveniently and save the accommodation space. Since the small-scale electronic product (for example, a laptop and a personal digital assistant) has a small volume, it is generally restricted due to a limited available space when the relevant peripherals (for example, a floppy drive (FD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM), a compact disc-rewritable (CD-RW), and a digital versatile disc (DVD)) need to be expanded to enhance the functions of the computer.
In order to eliminate the restriction on the available space, recently, one solution of configuring the peripherals as a removable device has been proposed. Here, taking a notebook computer and a removable CD-ROM as an example, an accommodation space is opened in a case of the notebook computer, the removable CD-ROM is disposed in the accommodation space through a frame, and an opening communicated with an accommodation slot in the frame is disposed on one end of the frame, such that the CD-ROM is installed in the accommodation slot via the opening. On a side edge of the accommodation slot, a clipping element assembly region parallel with the side edge is disposed. A sliding element capable of moving away from or approaching the opening and a first fastening element capable of approaching or moving away from the CD-ROM are disposed on the clipping element assembly region. After the CD-ROM is installed in the accommodation slot, the sliding element is moved to drive the fastening element to slide accordingly, so as to further lean against the CD-ROM, thereby clipping the CD-ROM on a fixing position. Alternatively, the fastening element is made to be separated from the CD-ROM, such that the CD-ROM is detached from the frame. In addition, a first snapping element is disposed on a bottom of the frame, and a second snapping element matching with the first snapping element is disposed on the case of the computer. The frame is detached from the case of the computer through the first snapping element and the second snapping element.
Therefore, if the user intends to take out the removable CD-ROM from the case of the computer, the user must thrusts the first snapping element on a bottom of the frame. As a result, the frame with the removable CD-ROM assembled thereon is separated from the case of the computer. Next, the removable CD-ROM is disassembled through clipping elements (for example, screws) disposed on the frame. The above manner is quite labor-consuming, and when the thrust is applied, the user must be take care to avoid the shaking of the host of the computer and to prevent the damaging of the parts fixed inside the case. Meanwhile, the disassembling process is quite time-consuming, which cannot meet the requirements from the consumers for quickly and conveniently replacing or disassembling the computer peripherals.


A method for mounting a chip component includes the steps of: flattening a solder deposit adhering onto a land terminal of a circuit board; forming grooves on the solder deposit simultaneously with or after flattening the solder deposit; coating the solder deposit with a flux; and placing a chip component on the solder deposit with the flux interposed therebetween.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for mounting a chip component and a circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following pre-soldering process has been well known as a method for soldering a chip component such as a ceramic capacitor chip and a semiconductor chip on a circuit board.
At first, a solder paste is printed on a land terminal of a circuit board. Then, the solder component contained in the solder paste is melted by passing the circuit board through a reflow furnace without chip components on the solder paste, thereby obtaining a solder deposit adhering to the land terminal.
The solder deposit is then flattened into a suitable form for mounting chip components by using a flattening tool (as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H11-87431). After the flattened solder deposit is coated with a flux, chip components are mounted thereon. The circuit board mounted with the chip components is passed through a reflow furnace to melt the solder deposit, soldering the chip components.
The flux plays an important role in preventing oxidation of the solder associated with melting. In the conventional pre-soldering process, the flux has to be applied thick enough to spread over the entire surface of the solder deposit. When the chip components are mounted thereon, accordingly, the thickness of the flux sandwiched between the solder deposit and the chip component remains thick. Hence, there is a possibility that the chip components after passing through the reflow furnace may be lifted up by the effect of the flux, causing displacement of the chip components.

Method for mounting chip component and circuit board


A 2-dimensional code reading apparatus includes a code position detector receiving an input image that is formed by optically reading 2-dimensional codes, and extracting a 2-dimensional codes from the input image. A data acquisition unit acquires identification information of a document page and positional information of the 2-dimensional codes on the document page, from the 2-dimensional codes. A data decoder performs decoding of the identification information and the positional information. The code position detector is provided with a code frame detector detecting a code frame which defines a fixed region of the 2-dimensional codes, and determining a dot of a target pixel as being a corner dot of the code frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reading technique that generates a 2-dimensional code pattern including coded coordinates information, and reads recorded (or drawing) information with the 2-dimensional code pattern from a supporting medium on which the 2-dimensional code pattern is printed, and detects the locus of the recorded information.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a 2-dimensional code pattern that is printed with a document on a supporting medium without requiring special ink, and its generation technique that can reduce the reading error. The present invention relates to a 2-dimensional code reading technique that efficiently reads the printed 2-dimensional code pattern and processes the same on real time.
2. Description of the Related Art
The technique of specifying the position and the contents of the image information formed on a print medium, such as paper, by arranging the 2-dimensional code including the coded coordinates information on the print medium is known.
The conventional 1-dimensional bar code has information only horizontally. However, the 2-dimensional code has information to the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, and it can express more complicated information.
There is also known the technique that reads another image information with the 2-dimensional code pattern, inputs the read information into a data processing device, such as a computer, and processes the same in order to utilize the 2-dimensional code more effectively.
The 2-dimensional code symbol which can be read is optically arranged in the shape of a matrix on paper, and the technique which reads the 2-dimensional code symbol with the camera, and acquires coordinates information is known at the same time it corrects the paper with the pen equipped with the small camera. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-293303 discloses the above technique.
By this method, the information of the 2-dimensional code that is added by the handwriting on the paper can be read on real time, and the added information can be associated with the on-paper information before the handwriting, and the processed information can be stored.
There is also known the technique which uses the print medium of paper on which the pattern indicating the X coordinate and the Y coordinate, the pattern indicating the direction of the code, and the forming pattern, which is larger than the other patterns, are printed, and reproduces the recorded characters from the print medium. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,506 discloses the above technique.
The forming pattern and the other patterns are printed in the infrared ink on the print medium, and they are not visible with the human eyes. By reading these patterns optically, the coordinates positions of the characters written to the print medium with the usual marker are determined by the read information.
Furthermore, there is known the 2-dimensional code pattern which is constituted by the dots arranged and shifted by the predetermined amount in a different direction from the predetermined position, the 2-dimensional code pattern being able to represent two or more bits of information per dot. For example, the International Publication No. WO 00/73981 discloses the above 2-dimensional code pattern.
The 2-dimensional code pattern has the horizontal and vertical coordinates information, and when the 2-dimensional code is read, it is possible to acquire the positional information which is indicated by the 2-dimensional code on the paper.
In the above technique disclosed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-293303, the general-purpose 2-dimensional codes that are standardized by the AIM standard are arranged dispersedly, and the magnitude of each code is large. For this reason, in order to acquire the coordinates information indicated by the 2-dimensional codes, it is necessary to pickup the comparatively large region of the paper with the optical pen. As the image pickup region is wide, the quality of the read image will deteriorate due to the depth of field, and it will become difficult to correctly read the 2-dimensional codes continuously.
Moreover, the general-purpose 2-dimensional codes are not originally intended to acquire the coordinates information while it is visualized the paper during the writing with the camera, and it takes much time to complete the decoding of the read information, and it is difficult to process it on real time.
One of the major purposes of the above document is to acquire continuous drawing information;, and if it cannot determine the coordinates positions continuously from the 2-dimensional codes, the discontinuity of the drawing information arises and it has the problem that the correct drawing information is not easily acquired.
In the above technique disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,506, the infrared ink is used to print the 2-dimensional code pattern on the print medium with special printing equipment. The 2-dimensional code pattern cannot be embedded on the print medium by using a usual printer simultaneously with the time of printing the document on the print medium.
When the user prints the desired document and performs drawing correction on the paper where the infrared pattern is formed beforehand, correlation of the drawing information with the original electronic document cannot be produced, and only the drawing information will be reproduced.
In the technique disclosed by the International Publication No. WO 00/73981, by shifting the dots delicately from the 2-dimensional positions at regular intervals and arranging them, two or more bits of information are given to one dot, and the positional information of the code can be carried by the matrix of 6×6 dots.
However, in the above technique, the shifting amount is very small (30 micrometers). When the resolution (1200 dpi) of the widely-used laser printer is taken into account, it is difficult to reproduce the right amount of shifting because it requires the accuracy of paper feed, the rotating speed of the photoconductor etc.
Therefore, it is also necessary for the above technique to prepare the print medium on which the 2-dimensional code pattern is printed beforehand using a special printing technique, such as offset printing, and the problem that is essentially the same as that of U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,506 arises.

2-dimensional code pattern, 2-dimensional code pattern supporting medium, 2-dimensional code pattern generating method, and 2-dimensional code reading apparatus and method


For improving adhesion between a protective layer having a portion coming into contact with ink in a substrate for an ink jet head, and a resin layer thereby ensuring reliability in quality over a prolonged period, the invention provides a substrate for an ink jet head including a heat-generating resistor constituting a heat generating portion, an electrode wiring electrically connected with the heat-generating resistor and an upper protective layer provided on the heat-generating resistor and the electrode wiring across an insulating protective layer, wherein after forming an upper protective layer in which a Ta layer is laminated on a layer formed by a TaCr alloy, said Ta layer is selectively patterned and selectively removed so that the liquid flow path member is formed in a portion where the layer formed by said TaCr alloy is exposed by said removing.

A general configuration of a head employed in ink jet recording includes plural discharge ports, ink flow paths communicated with such discharge ports, and plural electrothermal converting elements for generating thermal energy to be utilized for ink discharge. The electrothermal converting elements are constituted by heat-generating resistors and electrodes for supplying electric power to the heat-generating resistors, and such electrothermal converting elements are covered by an insulation film to secure insulation among the electrothermal converting elements. Each ink flow path communicates, at an end opposite to the discharge port, with a common liquid chamber which stores an ink supplied from an ink tank as an ink reservoir. The ink supplied to the common liquid chamber is guided to each ink flow path, and is retained by forming a meniscus in the vicinity of the discharge port. In this state, the electrothermal converting element is selectively driven to generate thermal energy, which is utilized for causing a rapid bubbling of the ink on a heat acting surface, whereby the ink is discharged by a pressure resulting from such state change.
The heat acting portion of the ink jet head in such ink discharge is exposed to a high temperature generated by heating of the heat-generating resistor, and is also subjected mainly to a composite action of an impact of a cavitation resulting from bubble formation and contraction of the ink, and a chemical action by the ink.
Therefore, the heat acting portion is usually provided with an upper protective layer for protecting the electrothermal converting element from such impact by cavitation and such chemical action of the ink.
Conventionally, a Ta film, relatively strong against the impact by cavitation and the chemical action of the ink, is formed with a thickness of 0.2 to 0.5 μm for realizing a service life and a reliability of the head at the same time.
Also in such heat acting portion, there results a phenomenon that a coloring material or an additive substance contained in the ink is decomposed in a molecular level by heating to a high temperature to form a difficultly soluble substance which is physically adsorbed on the upper protective layer. This phenomenon is called kogation. Such adsorption of the difficultly soluble organic or inorganic substance on the upper protective layer causes an uneven heat conduction from the heat-generating resistor to the ink, thereby resulting in an unstable bubble generation. Therefore an excellent Ta film, relatively free from kogation, is employed ordinarily.
In the following, a mode of generation and extinction of a bubble in the ink in the heat action part will be explained with reference to FIG. 8.
In FIG. 8, a curve (a) indicates a change in time of a surface temperature of the upper protective layer, from a moment of application of a voltage to the heat-generating resistor, with a driving voltage Vop=1.3×Vth (Vth being a threshold voltage for bubble generation of the ink), a driving frequency of 6 kHz and a pulse width of 5 μs. Also a curve (b) indicates a growth state of a bubble generated from a moment of a voltage application to the heat-generating resistor. As indicated by the curve (a), a temperature rise starts from the voltage application, then a temperature peak is reached with a certain delay from a predetermined pulse time (because the heat from the heat-generating resistor arrives at the upper protective layer with a delay), and the temperature is lowered thereafter mainly by a heat diffusion. On the other hand, as shown by the curve (b), a bubble starts to grow at a temperature of the upper protective layer of about 300° C., then reaches a maximum bubble state and vanishes. In an actual head, this process is executed in a repeated manner. With a bubble generation in the ink, the surface of the upper protective layer rises for example to about 600° C., and this indicates how a thermal action of a high temperature is involved in the ink jet recording.
Consequently, the upper protective layer maintained in contact with the ink is required to have excellent film properties in heat resistance, mechanical properties, chemical stability, oxidation resistance, alkali resistance etc. For the material usable for such upper protective layer, in addition to the aforementioned Ta film, there are already known a precious metal, a high-melting transition metal, an alloy thereof, and a nitride, a boride, a silicide or a carbide of such metal, or amorphous silicon. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-105596 proposes a recording head of a long service life and a high reliability by forming an upper protective layer on a heat-generating resistor through an insulation layer, and forming the upper protective layer with an amorphous alloy represented by TaαFeβNiγCrδ (wherein 10 atomic % (at. %)≦α≦30 at. %, and α+β>80 at. %, and α<β, δ>γ and α+β+γ+δ=100 at. %) in which a surface thereof in contact with the ink includes an oxide of a constituent thereof.
However, a higher functionality such as a higher image quality and a higher recording speed for an image recorded by an ink jet recording apparatus is being required more strongly in recent years, and, in order to meet such requirement, there are desired an improvement in ink performance such as an improvement in color developing property and weather resistance for achieving a higher image quality and a prevention of a bleeding phenomenon (blotting between inks of different colors) in order to achieve a higher recording speed. For this reason, it has been tried to add various components to the ink. Also types of the ink have become diversified, such as light-colored inks of lower density in addition to black, yellow, magenta and cyan colors. Such inks cause a corroding phenomenon even on the Ta film, that has been considered stable as the upper protective film, by a thermal chemical reaction with such inks. Such phenomenon appears conspicuously in an ink containing a salt of a divalent metal such as Ca or Mg, or a component forming a chelate complex.
On the other hand, an upper protective layer with an improved corrosion resistance to the ink as explained above tends to generate a kogation more easily since the surface is scarcely damaged because of the higher corrosion resistance, whereby a discharge speed of the ink is lowered or becomes unstable. The kogation is generated little in the conventional Ta film presumably because the Ta film generates corrosion and kogation in a certain balanced level whereby the surface of the Ta film is abraded by such corrosion to suppress deposition of a product of kogation.
Also for achieving a further higher recording speed in the ink jet recording, it is necessary to further increase the drive frequency thereby executing a drive with shorter pulses. In such drive with shorter pulses, processes of heating, bubble generation, bubble extinction and cooling are repeated within a shorter period in the heat acting portion of the head, whereby a larger thermal stress is generated in a shorter time than in the conventional drive. Also in a drive with a shorter pulse, the cavitation impact resulting from the bubble generation and bubble contraction in the ink is concentrated in the upper protective film within a shorter time than in the conventional drive, whereby there is required an upper protective layer particularly excellent in the mechanical impact resistance.
For forming an ink jet head with an ink jet head substrate provided with such upper protective layer, there is employed, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H6-286149, a method of forming an ink flow path with a soluble resin by a photolithographic patterning, then covering and hardening such pattern with an epoxy resin or the like, and eliminating such soluble resin after the substrate is cut into a piece.
It is also possible, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-113870, to achieve a higher durability and a higher reliability by constituting the upper protective layer with two layers, employing an amorphous Ta film of a high ink corrosion resistance as a lower layer and a Ta film of relatively low generation of kogation as an upper layer.
However, in case of elongating an ink discharge element (to 0.5 inches or larger) for achieving a higher recording speed or in case of employing diversified inks containing additives for improving a light fastness or a gas resistance of the inks on a recording medium, there are generated strains by a difference in the linear expansion coefficient of such components, and by a stress in the resin layer constituting walls of the liquid flow path or the discharge port, and an influence on the interface by inks of new types, thus leading to a peeling phenomenon between the covering resin layer constituting the walls of the liquid flow path or the discharge port and the upper protective layer on the heater substrate. Also, even in case an organic adhesion promoting layer is provided on the upper protective layer, there may result a peeling at the interface between the organic adhesion promoting layer and the upper protective layer to cause a penetration of the ink onto the substrate and to induce a corrosion of the wirings, thereby hindering satisfactory recording or reliability in quality over a prolonged period.

Substrate for ink jet head with TaCr alloy protective layer, ink jet head utilizing the same and producing method therefor