An optical disc apparatus for recording information on a rewritable optical disc having a power calibration area (PCA) moves an optical pickup for optimum recording power calibration (OPC) from an innermost end to outward of the PCA, and stores an address where RF signal is first detected. If the stored address coincides with an address at the innermost end of the PCA, or if a usable area between the two addresses is smaller than to enable one-time OPC, the apparatus obtains an optimum recording power by overwriting on a used area at or near the innermost end of the PCA, and performs DC erase using the obtained optimum recording power. This enables DC erase and restoration of the PCA back to a usable area even if the PCA has no usable area at its innermost end, and even if it is difficult to detect a usable area in the PCA.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc apparatus for recording information on, and erasing recorded information from, a rewritable optical disc having a power calibration area for optimum recording power calibration.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rewritable optical disc such as a DVD-RW (Rewritable) as well as a write-once optical disc such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)-R (Recordable) has a test recording or writing area which is referred to as power calibration area (hereafter simply as "PCA"). An optimum recording power can be obtained by test recording, more specifically recording test data in the PCA with different powers of laser beam, and reproducing the recorded test data, which can be referred to as optimum recording power calibration or control (hereafter simply as "OPC"). In the case of a rewritable optical disc such as a DVD-RW, the data recorded in the PCA by the test recording can be erased, in contrast to the case of a write-once optical disc. Thus, if the OPC is repeated to cause the PCA to run out of free space (unused or usable area) for further test recording, it is possible to erase the data recorded by test recordings in the PCA so as to create a free space, thereby enabling further OPC.
When the PCA runs out of free space due to the repetition of the OPC, data recorded in the PCA by the test recording is erased by a laser beam (erase laser) using a constant power (DC voltage) which is not in pulse form, so as to restore a used area of the PCA back to a usable area. Because of the use of DC voltage, the operation to erase the data in the used area in the PCA is called "DC erase". Here, the power of the laser beam for performing the DC erase (DC erase laser power) is also set to be optimum based on the optimum recording laser power obtained using the PCA. So, normally, a portion of the PCA is kept unused to enable or carry out the OPC at least one time in the case where test data are repeatedly recorded in the PCA.
There is a technical standard for the process of repeatedly recording test data in PCA of a rewritable optical disc. An optical disc apparatus of a first type uses this technical standard. The technical standard recommends using the PCA continuously from an outer radial position toward an inner radial position of the optical disc. Based on this recommendation, an innermost end of an area having test data recorded therein (i.e. used area) in PCA can be determined in the following manner. That is, first, an optical pickup in the first type of optical disc apparatus is moved to seek from a radially innermost end of PCA to radially outward of the rewritable optical disc in order to detect a free space (usable area) in the PCA when starting OPC. Note that in the present specification, the term "radially" is used to mean "in a direction along a radius of an optical disc".
During the seek movement, the optical pickup receives a reflected laser beam which may contain a reproduction signal. The first type of optical disc apparatus determines that the position of the optical pickup at an address in the PCA, at the time of first detecting the reproduction signal after detecting a free space in the PCA, is the radially innermost end of the used area in the PCA, thereby identifying the usable area (free space) in the PCA. Note in this connection that normally the PCA has an area called RMA (Recording Management Area) to record an address of an area of the last performed OPC. By reading the address recorded in the RMA, the address of the used area can be obtained. However, the address recorded in the RMA is not always renewed as a new address. Thus, in order to securely detect a usable area in the PCA, the above-described manner of identifying the usable area is generally used.
Once the usable area in the PCA of the rewritable optical disc is identified, the first type of optical disc apparatus performs OPC at an outermost position in the usable area (i.e. position neighboring the used area) in a manner provided by the above-described technical standard. If only about a portion of the PCA is kept unused as the usable area to enable or carry out the OPC just one time (i.e. if the PCA is almost completely used up), the optical disc apparatus performs the OPC in the usable area so as to obtain an optimum recording power (laser power). Using the thus obtained optimum recording power, and based on a known predetermined relationship between optimum recording power and optimum erase (DC erase) power, the optical disc apparatus obtains an optimum erase power (laser power), and performs DC erase based on the thus obtained optimum erase power. By subjecting the entire area, except e.g. recording management area, of the PCA (hereafter such entire area being referred to often as "entire substantial area") to the DC erase (such), the entire substantial area of the PCA is restored to a usable area spanning from a radially innermost end to a radially outer end of the PCA. For starting e.g. recording on the optical disc thereafter, the first type of optical disc apparatus first operates its optical pickup to detect the usable area thus restored in the PCA from the radially innermost end of the PCA in the optical disc, and to seek radially outwardly therefrom, so as to use the usable area (free space) of the PCA for OPC.
On the other hand, there is a known technology in which after an entire area of PCA in a rewritable optical disc is once completely used up, a portion of the PCA to be used for a subsequent OPC is randomly set. A second type of optical disc apparatus uses this technology. In the second type of optical disc apparatus, there is a possibility that a certain area of the PCA is used by far more frequently than the other of the PCA. Thus, an improved process has been developed for the second type of optical disc apparatus in which, after each test recording in a then free space of the PCA, a portion of the PCA from the front end of the each test recording area to a certain inner position of the PCA is subjected to erasure to form or create a new free space of the PCA. By retrieving and setting this new free space for a subsequent test recording, a subsequent test recording can be easily performed in the second type of optical disc apparatus, even after the entire area of the PCA is once completely used up (refer to e.g. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2003-272157).
As apparent from the foregoing, the first and second types of optical disc apparatus are different from each other with respect e.g. to the process of recording test data in PCA, the process of detecting a usable area in the PCA, and the process of performing DC erase when the PCA is completely or almost completely used up. However, a rewritable optical disc can be mounted on either of the two different types of optical disc apparatus. When one optical disc is actually mounted for use on the two different types of optical disc apparatus, which are different from each other particularly in the process of DC erase, the following problem may occur.
Assume that a rewritable optical disc is first mounted on and used by an optical disc apparatus of the second type so as to form a usable area in PCA of the optical disc at a random position in the PCA (e.g. an intermediate position "ap" as shown in later described FIG. 5A). Further assume that the optical disc is thereafter mounted on an optical disc apparatus of the first type so as to subject the optical disc to recording or erasure. Under these assumptions, the first type of optical disc apparatus cannot detect the usable area formed by the second type of optical disc apparatus, resulting in detection failure, because the PCA of the optical disc does not have a usable area (free space) on a radially inner portion of the PCA, more specifically does not have a usable area spanning from a radially innermost end of the PCA up to the front end of the usable area formed by the second type of optical disc apparatus. Thus, the first type of optical disc apparatus cannot perform OPC, either. This problem needs to be solved.
Besides, it is to be noted that in connection with appropriate erasure of data on a rewritable optical disc, there are technologies to control the erase power. For example, a technology is known to prevent data recorded by test recording from being left unerased after DC erase (refer to e.g. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Hei 10-134389), in which the DC erase power is set to have a more appropriate value based on a signal reproduced from PCA after the DC erase. Furthermore, a technology is known to obtain an appropriate value of a laser output for erasure to be used for a rewritable optical disc (refer to e.g. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2001-229563), in which the laser output irradiated onto a portion of the optical disc is varied, and an average reflectivity of the irradiated portion of the optical disc is measured, so as to determine an optimum laser output for erasure. However, these technologies are unable to solve the above-described problem.


Onto a surface of an AlxGayIn1-x-yAszP1-z (0≦x, y, z≦1) layer including GaAs alone or an InP substrate, an electron beam controlled to an arbitrary electron beam diameter and current density is irradiated so as to selectively substitute or generate Ga2O3 for a natural oxide layer formed on the AlxGayIn1-x-yAszP1-z, layer surface, then the AlxGayIn1-x-yAszP1-z layer surface is dry-etched by a bromide in single atomic layer units, whereby the natural oxide layer other than the part substituted by the Ga2O3 and AlxGayIn1-x-yAszP1-z substrate are removed.

In recent years, with the improvement in the degree of integration of ULSIs that form the core of microelectronics, circuit patterns in these quantum devices have been increasingly miniaturized. Conventionally, in fabrication processes of semiconductor devices, as basic techniques for removing unnecessary parts of insulating layers and thin metal layers with a high degree of accuracy along resist patterns, various etching methods have been widely employed. As one of these etching methods, dry etching using a halogen gas can be mentioned. This dry etching has been anticipated as being capable of fabricating a structure such as a minute quantum device since etching is carried out in a relatively clean atmosphere in a high vacuum.
For example, for Si, which is a representative device material, a dry etching process by a fluorine and chlorine-based halogen gas has been carried out. In addition, there are many reports on a dry etching process with regard to compound semiconductors such as AlxGayIn1-x-yAszP1-z including GaAs as well, however, as a matter of fact, a technical means for enabling fabrication of a quantum element has not been completed.
For example, GaAs is a material that is great in mobility compared to Si and is capable of a higher-frequency and higher-speed operation than that of Si, and in place of Si, which has developed on an industrial scale based on advantages such as abundance in resources and crystal integrity, this has been attracting attention for its excellent properties and diversity as one of the component semiconductors to overcome limitations thereof. Moreover, as epitaxial crystal growth techniques for compound semiconductors such as this GaAs, techniques such as an MBE (molecular beam epitaxial growth) method and an MOCVD (metal-organic chemical vapor deposition) method have advanced to allow a high-quality crystal growth, therefore, importance of compound semiconductors as device materials has been increasing.
Therefore, as a dry etching method for overcoming technical limitations of a conventional dry etching method using a halogen gas for a compound semiconductor or the like, the present inventor has developed a method for dry-etching the surface of a semiconductor crystal by a bromide in single atomic layer units and has disclosed the same in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. H08-321483.
However, in order to form a circuit pattern on the surface of a GaAs layer with accuracy, it has been necessary to form a dry etching mask even when dry etching is carried out in single atomic layer units as described above.
Conventionally, fabrication of this dry etching mask has been carried out by use of an electron beam lithography technique as described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-267213, for example.
However, with miniaturization and a greater complexity of circuit patterns of quantum devices in recent years, it has become difficult to fabricate this dry etching mask itself, therefore, a problem has existed in that reproducibility of shape and size has deteriorated, and furthermore, cost considerably has risen.
Moreover, since a surface oxide layer such as As2O3, As2O, or Ga2O has been naturally formed on the surface of a GaAs layer, when forming a dry etching mask, it has also been necessary to remove this surface oxide layer.
The present invention has been made in view of the problems, and an object thereof is to provide an electron beam micro/nano fabrication method for forming on the spot, on the surface of an AlxGayIn1-x-yAszP1-z including GaAs, a minute circuit pattern having different aspect ratios used for a quantum device without necessity for removing in advance a surface oxide layer such as As2O3, As2O, or Ga2O naturally formed on the surface of a GaAs layer and also without forming a dry etching mask for forming a miniaturized complex circuit pattern.


The invention relates to high-reactivity polyurethane compositions. The invention further relates to low temperature curable polyurethane compositions which contain uretdione groups, particularly useful for polyurethane powder coating compositions and adhesive compositions, and to processes for preparing and using the same.

Externally or internally blocked polyisocyanates which are solid at room temperature, are valuable crosslinkers for thermally crosslinkable polyurethane (PU) powder coating compositions and adhesive compositions. For instance, DE-A 27 35 497 describes PU powder coatings having outstanding weathering stability and thermal stability. The crosslinkers described in DE-A 27 12 931 are composed of ε-caprolactam-blocked, isophorone diisocyanate-containing isocyanurate groups. Also known are polyisocyanates containing urethane, biuret or urea groups, whose isocyanate groups are likewise blocked.
The drawback of these externally blocked systems lies in the elimination of the blocking agent during the thermal crosslinking reaction. Since the blocking agent may be emitted into the environment, it is necessary to take particular measures to clean outgoing air discharges and to recover the blocking agent. This necessity arises out of ecological and workplace safety concerns. The crosslinkers, moreover, are of low reactivity, requiring curing temperatures above 170° C.
References DE-A 30 30 539 and DE-A 30 30 572 describe processes for preparing polyaddition compounds which contain uretdione groups, and whose terminal isocyanate groups are irreversibly blocked with monoalcohols or mono amines. Particular drawbacks are the chain-terminating constituents of the crosslinkers, which lead to low network densities in the PU powder coatings, and hence to moderate solvent resistances.
Hydroxyl-terminated polyaddition compounds containing uretdione groups are disclosed in EP 0 669 353. Because of their functionality of two, they exhibit improved resistance to solvents. Powder coating compositions based on these polyisocyanates containing uretdione groups, share the feature that, during the curing reaction, they do not emit any volatile compounds. However, the curing temperatures are at a high level, not less than 180° C.
The use of amidines as catalysts in PU powder coating compositions is described in EP 0 803 524. Although these catalysts do lead to a reduction in the curing temperature, they exhibit considerable yellowing, which is generally unwanted in the coatings sector. The cause of this yellowing is presumed to be the reactive nitrogen atoms in the amidines, which are able to react with atmospheric oxygen to form N-oxides, which in turn, are responsible for the discoloration. Reference EP 0 803 524 also mentions other catalysts which have been used to date for this purpose, but does not indicate any particular effect of these catalysts on the curing temperature. Such catalysts include the organometallic catalysts known from polyurethane chemistry, such as dibutyltin dilaurate (DBTL), or tertiary amines, such as 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO), for example.
Reference WO 00/34355 discloses catalysts based on metal acetylacetonates, such as zinc acetylacetonate, for example. Such catalysts are actually capable of lowering the curing temperature of polyurethane powder coating compositions containing uretdione groups, but their reaction products are principally allophanates (M. Gedan-Smolka, F. Lehmann, D. Lehmann "New Catalysts for the Low Temperature Curing of Uretdione Powder Coatings" International Waterborne, High solids and Powder Coatings Symposium, New Orleans, Feb. 21-23, 2001). Allophanates are the reaction products of one mole of alcohol and two moles of isocyanate, whereas in the conventional urethane chemistry, one mole of alcohol reacts with one mole of isocyanate. As a result of the unwanted formation of allophanate, therefore, isocyanate groups, valuable both technically and economically, are destroyed.
Therefore an object of the present invention is to find high-reactivity polyurethane compositions containing uretdione groups; these compositions being curable even at very low temperatures, and being particularly suitable for producing plastics and high-gloss or matt, light-stable and weather-stable powder coatings and adhesives. Surprisingly, it has been found that certain catalysts so greatly accelerate the unblocking of uretdione groups, that when uretdione-group-containing curing agents are used, it is possible to achieve a considerable reduction in the curing temperature of powder coating compositions or adhesive compositions.
Conventional uretdione-containing coating compositions and adhesive compositions can be cured only at 180° C., or above, under normal conditions (for example, DBTL catalysis). With the aid of the low-temperature-curing coating compositions and adhesive compositions of the invention, it is possible, to have curing temperatures of about 100 to about 160° C., including all temperatures in between, which not only saves on energy and cure time, but also allow for the coating or bonding of many temperature-sensitive substrates, which otherwise if treated at 180° C., or above, would give rise to unwanted yellowing, decomposition and/or embrittlement phenomena. Besides metal, glass, wood, leather, plastics, and MDF board, certain aluminum substrate work very well with the compositions of the invention. Moreover, it is noted that in the case of the aluminum substrates, an excessively high temperature load may sometimes leads to an unwanted change in the crystal structure. A heat-resistant substrate can withstand the temperature(s) at which a coating is applied and cured, without undergoing unwanted changes in shape, color and/or composition.

Low temperature curable polyurethane compositions containing uretdione groups


An efficient parallel event simulation method is implemented by simulating blocks of M edge events, where M is approximately equal to e logeN, and N being the number of interconnected processing elements. Following a simulation iteration, each processing element shares information with adjacent processing elements that relates to events that the processing elements simulated which may affect the simulation of events at the neighbor processing elements. When the communication reveals that the information that is shared by a neighbor processing elements is different from the information that the processing element assumed, then the arriving information is kept and the simulation process is repeated. In executing the repeated simulations of a block, the same random variable values are employed. When all of the processing elements find that the arriving shared information is the same as the information already known to the receiving processing element, simulation of the block ends. A new simulation floor is ascertained, and another block of event is simulated.

This invention relates to simulation, and more particularly, to simulation of a system through parallel processes.
The designs of many systems can benefit from simulations. This includes complex systems which include diverse subsystems that comprise both hardware and software modules; as well as what, on the surface, appears to be a single system, such as the design of drug, or a material.
In an article presented by Stephen Eick, Albert Greenberg, and the inventors herein, titled "Synchronous Relaxation for Parallel Simulations with Applications to circuit switched networks," ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation, Vol. 3, No. 4, October 1993, pp 287-314 (Eick et al), an efficient, general purpose, synchronous relaxation method is disclosed. The method is applied in the article to simulating the AT&T switched network and is shown to be applicable to single-instruction-multiple-data (SIMD) processing arrangements with a plurality of processing elements (PEs), as well as to multiple-instruction-multiple-data (MIMD) processing arrangements. The simulation proceeds in time-stepped fashion. At the ith (h step, the algorithm simulates all events that fall in the time interval [(i−1)Δ,iΔ], where Δ is a design parameter. If Δ is very small, the method degenerates to time-driven simulation. Since the simulation is slow when Δ is very small, it is recommended that Δ be selected large enough so that each time interval typically has several events to process.
The system to be simulated is divided into subsystems, and each subsystem is assigned to a PE. In dividing a system it generally turns out that at least some of the events of the subsystem are not independent, in the sense that they depend on parameters in subsystems that were assigned to different PEs (foreign parameters). At the beginning of a simulated time interval, each PE knows the initial values of all of the foreign parameters that are involved in the simulation of events in the subsystem. However, while a PE simulates the events in its subsystem, the values of those foreign parameters become uncertain. In spite of this uncertainty, each PE proceeds with its simulations based on the initial values of those foreign parameters. Consequently, it is possible that the events simulated by a PE might contain errors. For that reason, the simulation described by Eick et al is performed iteratively. The first iteration ends with an exchange of information among the PEs regarding the values of the foreign parameters. The newly received values of the foreign parameters are compared to the initial values of the foreign parameters. When there are differences between the parameters at the beginning of the first iteration and at the end of the first iteration, additional assessments are undertaken to determine whether a simulation error may have resulted from the use of the initial values of the foreign parameters. If so, a second iteration is executed.
In a second iteration, the values of the foreign parameters that each PE uses are tempered by the information from the first iteration. When the second iteration completes, another communication round takes place, and the PEs determine what errors remain. At the end of each iteration, a next iteration is initiated when it is determined that errors potentially remain. When no errors remain, it is concluded that the simulation of the time interval [(i−1)Δ,iΔ] has been accomplished, and the index i is incremented to trigger the simulation of the next time interval.


Apparatus (10) and a method for finishing a workpiece (12) are performed by a first spindle (24) that rotatably mounts a milling cutter (28) about a central axis A and a second spindle (32) also mounted on the support for rotation about the central axis A to mount a grinding wheel. The first spindle (24) has an annular shape that extends around the second (32), and the apparatus includes a drive (38) capable of rotating the first spindle (24) at a slower rate than the rotation of the second spindle (32) such that milling and grinding operations can be performed at effective speeds. An axial slide (40) mounts the first spindle (24) for rotation and for axial movement along the central axis with the second spindle (32) on which the grinding wheel (36) is mounted located within the annular support.

Finishing of a workpiece by an initial milling operation and a subsequent grinding operation has previously been performed by separate milling and grinding machines such that two operations are involved as well as additional workpiece handling between the two processes.
The prior art discloses cutting and abrasive operations performed at the same speed as each other. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,975 Kucharczyk et al discloses a combination planing and finishing tool wherein outer cutting inserts are mounted about an inner abrasive finishing disc on the same body such that the cutting inserts and the abrasive finishing disc rotate at the same rate as each other. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,304 Honda et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,956 Honda et al disclose apparatus and a method for slicing a semiconductor ingot into thin wafer pieces by a slicing blade that is mounted on a rotary body that also supports a grinding wheel utilized to provide smooth finishing, such that both the slicing blade and the grinding wheel rotate at the same speed.

Apparatus and method for finishing a workpiece


When two or more retrieval words are entered through an entry unit of an information display control device, illustrative sentences containing all the retrieval words are extracted from an illustrative sentence data table and illustrative sentences corresponding to source entry words identical to the retrieval words are displayed in the order in which the retrieval words are entered and when a source entry word is selected, explanatory information of the meaning number identical to the source meaning number is displayed on a display unit, whereby the appropriate meaning of a word contained in an retrieved sentence is displayed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information display control device and a program which are adapted to retrieve an illustrative sentence containing a specified retrieval word.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic dictionary is hitherto known which is a kind of information display control device and has a dictionary data base (DB). When a retrieval word is input, the electronic dictionary retrieves an entry word corresponding to the retrieval word from the dictionary DB and displays related information, such as the meaning of the retrieved entry word, illustrative sentences and idiomatic phrases using the entry word, pronunciation, explanation, etc. Also, an electronic dictionary is known which has a function of, when a word or a phrase contained in related information of a displayed entry word is specified, displaying information related to that word and phrase.
The electronic dictionary has a jump function. By using this function it becomes possible to specify a character string contained in explanatory information in, for example, a Japanese-language dictionary and display explanatory information of an entry word in the same Japanese-language dictionary or another dictionary, such as a Japanese-English dictionary or encyclopedia, using the character string as a retrieval word.
The jump function of the electronic dictionary is one which, when explanatory information corresponding to an entry word is being displayed, allows the user to specify a character string contained in the explanatory information and performs retrieval again using the specified character string as a retrieval word.
With the conventional electronic dictionaries, the following inconvenience is encountered in looking up the meaning of a word contained in an illustrative sentence displayed as the result of retrieval. That is, when the conventional jump function is performed on the word contained in the displayed illustrative sentence, explanatory information about the word is read from the dictionary DB and displayed from the beginning. For this reason, the user has to search the displayed explanatory information for the meaning of the word. This makes the electronic dictionaries difficult to handle.
In recent years, electronic dictionaries of the so-called full-content type have come into wide use which contain electronic versions of all paper-based dictionaries. With this type of dictionary, there is a large amount of explanatory information about one entry word and such explanatory information is displayed at a time. In order to search for desired explanatory information, therefore, it is required for the user to scroll through some pages. This is time-consuming.

Electronic dictionary with illustrative sentences


A magnetic disk control system includes a table for storing assignment information for assigning one of said first and second magnetic disk drives as a master disk for data I/O operations and the other as a spare disk for backing up said master disk, a copying section for executing data copy from the master disk to the spare disk, assignment information updating section for, when the data copying unit complete data copy from the master disk to the spare disk, exchanging the assignment information on the magnetic disk drive as a data copy source and the magnetic disk drive as a copy destination, and a operation check section for executing an operation check for maintenance for the disk drive newly assigned as the spare disk.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk control system and, more particularly, to a disk control system for controlling a plurality of magnetic disk drives.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in a disk system including a plurality of magnetic disk drives, preventative maintenance for each disk drive is performed in order to ensure the reliability of an operation of the disk drive. That is, inspection of each disk drive or its operation check is performed periodically. Upon occurrence of a failure, recovery processing for the failure or parts replacement is executed. Execution of this preventative maintenance can prevent occurrence of an event such as, for example, a disk system in operation going down due to a failure.
In this preventative maintenance, a check work for the operation of a magnetic disk drive is performed by executing the following three failure countermeasure functions; i.e., a failure detection function, a failure recovery function, and a failure prevention function.
The failure detection function performs error detection and correction for data recorded on a magnetic recording medium of a magnetic disk drive by means of parity check, Hamming code check, or cyclic code check.
The failure recovery function performs appropriate processing for a detected malfunction to recover a normal state. For example, reformatting or the like of a magnetic disk drive corresponds to this function.
The failure prevention function detects a failure beforehand during an operation of a magnetic disk system. A patrol function (patrol seek/verify), for example is known as this type of failure prevention function. This patrol function periodically reads out data in sequence from magnetic disk drive independently of access by a user program and finds a failure before it happens, in accordance with the presence or absence of an error in the readout data. Information concerning, e.g. the location where a failure found by the patrol function took place, is sampled as error log information, and this error log information is used to carry out the work of preventative maintenance.
In executing the preventative maintenance work using the above failure detection, recovery, and prevention functions, it is a common practice to set a magnetic disk drive as an object of the maintenance in an inoperative state and to inhibit all I/O requests from user programs to the magnetic disk drive of interest.
This is so because when the recovery function, such as reformatting, for example, is to be performed in the preventative maintenance operation, it is necessary to save and store data in the magnetic disk drive of interest in another memory and to restore the saved data to the magnetic disk drive after reformatting. In this case, since neither data write nor read can be performed for that disk drive during reformatting, all I/O requests from user programs are inhibited.
Also, even while a disk drive is being used, if contention occurs between access by the patrol function and an I/O request from a user program, the I/O request from the user program is waited. This results in degradation in the I/O performance with respect to that disk drive.
As described above, in conventional systems, I/O requests from user programs must be sacrificed for the operation check while performing preventative maintenance for magnetic disk drives. As a result, the operating performance of the magnetic disk system is reduced.
Especially in a large-capacity magnetic disk system including a large number of magnetic disk drives, it is necessary to execute the operation check for preventative maintenance for all of the magnetic disk drives. The result is that a very long time is required for the preventative maintenance of the magnetic disk system. For this reason, the time during which the magnetic disk system is set in an inoperative state is prolonged, causing an increase in the number of I/O requests from user program whose acceptance is inhibited.
A failure caused by head crash also is known as a problem inherent in a magnetic disk drive of a magnetic disk system.
Head crash is a phenomenon in which a magnetic head and a magnetic recording medium mechanically collide against each other due to dust, and consequently the head or the recording medium is damaged.
A failure caused by head crash takes place because a magnetic disk drive adopts a CSS (contact-start-stop) system; that is, a magnetic head is slightly floated from a recording medium rotated at high speed. The floating position of the magnetic head is unbalanced by dust, and this causes mechanical contact between the magnetic head and the recording medium.
Especially when a magnetic head is kept located on a specific recording area (track) and is not moved to another area (this state is called a disk fixed position floating state), dust easily accumulates on the recording medium, allowing easy occurrence of head crash. For this reason, if only a particular address of a disk drive is accessed frequently, this disk fixed position floating state easily increases the possibility of head crash.
In order to prevent failure caused by such head crash, a means for, e.g., increasing dust removal efficiency by performing ventilation using an air filter is used. However, this countermeasure is in practice unsatisfactory when the disk fixed position floating described above is taken into consideration. Therefore, it is difficult to eliminate the danger of head crash.

Disk control system in which spare disk and master disks are dynamically exchanged


Aircraft and airframes include a skin operatively coupled to a structural reinforcement member. The structural reinforcement member and the skin collectively define a run-out region that encompasses a terminal edge of the structural reinforcement member. Within the run-out region, the skin is more flexible than in adjacent portions of the skin. Methods include defining a region of increased flexibility of a skin relative to adjacent portions of the skin, and operatively coupling the skin to a structural reinforcement member.

Aircraft airframes typically utilize a semi-monocoque (or stiffened shell) construction. In this type of construction, a skin is coupled to a series of stiffening members that define the overall shape of the airframe. In various positions on an airframe, a stiffening member may terminate, at which point the joint between the skin and the stiffening member is susceptible to failure due to the increased bending stresses within the region of the stiffening member's termination, such as due to flexing of the shell structure within that region.

Aircraft, airframes and associated methods


A system and method for discovering and connecting to a preferred remote Bluetooth device by a local Bluetooth device. An inquiry scan cache and a page scan cache are maintained. The inquiry scan cache is updated by way of a periodic inquiry scan. The page scan cache is refreshed by way of an attempt to connect to the preferred remote Bluetooth device. Periodically, and more frequently than the periodic inquiry scan, a list of available remote Bluetooth devices is formed from entries in the inquiry scan cache concatenated with each entry in the page scan cache for which a page scan is successful. In one embodiment, the page scan cache holds a finite number of entries, and an expiration policy is applied to each added entry. In another embodiment, the inquiry scan cache is also updated when a remote Bluetooth device attempts to connect to the local Bluetooth device.

Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology that uses the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band. Bluetooth is particularly intended for small mobile devices such as notebook computers, mobile phones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Pseudo-random frequency-hopping techniques are employed by communicating Bluetooth devices to minimize the effects of signal interference in the ISM band. The Bluetooth technology is set forth in detail in Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), Specification of the Bluetooth System (hereinafter "the Bluetooth Specification"), Version 1.0, Dec. 1, 1999, and Version 1.2, Nov. 5, 2003, incorporated herein by reference.
The Bluetooth Personal Area Networking Profile (hereinafter "the PAN Profile") provides a conceptual basis on which two or more Bluetooth-enabled devices can form and participate in personal area networks (PANs), allowing them to interoperate and exchange data. (See Bluetooth SIG, Personal Area Networking Profile, Version 1.0, Feb. 14, 2003, incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.) The PAN Profile describes three roles that a Bluetooth device may perform: Network Access Point (NAP), Group Ad-hoc Network (GN), and Personal Area Network User (PANU). NAP and GN correspond to services that may be used by a Bluetooth device operating as a client PANU. "NAP", "GN," and "PANU" will be used hereinafter to refer to the Bluetooth-equipped node providing the respective NAP, GN or PANU service.
In the Bluetooth context, a NAP is a device that contains one or more Bluetooth radio devices and acts as a bridge, proxy or router to a second network (such as a 10BaseT Ethernet LAN) with respect to one or more PANUs with a Bluetooth wireless connection to the NAP. Each such PANU thereby may gain access to the second network's shared resources. A GN is a collection of Bluetooth devices that interact with one another to form a self-contained temporary wireless network (or "piconet") without the use of additional networking hardware or infrastructure. In both the NAP and the GN scenarios, data exchange is by way of the Bluetooth Network Encapsulation Protocol (BNEP), which provides for encapsulation of Ethernet packets. (See Bluetooth SIG, Bluetooth Network Encapsulation Protocol (BNEP) Specification, Version 1.0, Feb. 14, 2003, incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.)
There are a number of different ways in which one Bluetooth device may select another Bluetooth device in order to establish a connection to the second device. One desirable feature is for the first device to maintain a list of preferred devices or networks from which a selection can be made. While an application running on a Bluetooth device may make an explicit request to discover, select and form a connection to a particular Bluetooth device, applications merely requiring connectivity to enable their networked features benefit from the device having an automatic configuration service to establish connectivity. Moreover, a common, unified automatic configuration service for the various wireless technologies available to a device is desirable. Certain features and embodiments of such a unified service have been disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/693,655, "Network and Interface Selection on a Computing Device Capable of Establishing Connections Via Multiple Network Communications Media," filed Oct. 24, 2003, having certain inventors and an assignee in common with the present invention, and incorporated herein by reference.
One drawback to Bluetooth technology is its relatively time-intensive device discovery phase of establishing a connection to an in-range Bluetooth device. In general, to discover new Bluetooth-capable devices (for which address and low-level state information is not already known), an inquiry scan is performed at the Baseband level, the lowest layer of the Bluetooth networking protocol stack. Once a list of discovered devices has been obtained by way of an inquiry scan, a page scan can be performed with respect to a selected device. Following a page scan, a local device and remote device can enter a connection state.
Under the specifications for the Baseband in the Bluetooth Specification, the inquiry process time is significantly longer than the page process time. Depending on the underlying hardware and the number of discoverable devices within radio range, the inquiry process may take up to 30.72 seconds under version 1.0 of the Bluetooth Specification, while the maximum time for the paging process is 2.56 seconds. The inquiry phase thus substantially dominates the time spent in scanning for in-range Bluetooth devices, and can lead to unacceptable delays for a device user waiting for a connection to occur over a local Bluetooth PAN device. It is desirable, then, to minimize the time spent in the inquiry scan phase when discovering, selecting and connecting to preferred Bluetooth devices.


A converter comprising an exterior shell of a strong, heat resistant weldable metal having an interior core tube formed of such metal and vertically disposed, partway within the shell from an upper part thereof. A foundation is provided from which the shell vertically extends. A plurality of catalyst beds are arranged one above the other within the shell and comprise at least one full catalyst bed having a first full bed extending essentially across a lower part of the shell, and at least one annular catalyst bed having a first annular bed between the shell at an upper part thereof and the core tube. Partitions define with the core tube a plurality of distinct, non-concentric, non-coaxial gas passages within the core tube. Each of the annular beds is in singular, gaseous communication within the shell with at least one of the passages. The converter has minimal axial gaseous flow transfer passages for maximum catalyst bed volume while preserving axial access to the beds.

Converters presently used to convert sulphur dioxide gas to sulphur trioxide gas are typically large cylindrical vessels comprising a shell containing a number of catalyst beds disposed one above the other. The processed gases pass through the catalyst beds in several, optionally desired sequences and are cooled between beds both to recover the heat generated in each bed and to assist in the kinetics and equilibrium of the reaction. Each bed is separated from other beds by division plates or membranes.
Classically, in sulfuric acid manufacturing plants, converters were fabricated from carbon steel, cast iron, and brick, when these materials were the only ones available. Carbon steel was used for the shell and cast iron posts, beams, and plates or sections were assembled inside the converter to support the many beds of catalyst.
In an alternative design, brick structures were erected for the same purpose, with steel being used for the external shell. At the time such converters were designed, manufacturing plants were small in capacity and gas strengths were low, which resulted in modest gas temperatures. In addition, platinum catalyst was used which tended to required operations at temperatures below those at which present-day catalysts operate. Vanadium catalyst, much larger plant capacities with higher internal pressures and much higher gas strengths have drastically increased the mechanical loads on such converter shells, while at the same time the conventional carbon steel becomes hotter and, hence, much weaker. Distortion of the vessel and, thus, leakage are, therefore, more common. However, such converters are well-known in the industry and a discussion of their features can be found in many references to sulfuric acid manufacture.
It has been known for many years that stainless steel is much stronger than carbon steel at temperatures now found in sulfuric acid plant converters as well as possessing resistance to scaling caused by hot sulphur dioxide containing gases. In the last ten to fifteen years a number of stainless steel converters have been built and are in operation.
One such converter type is described in McFarland U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,076, wherein is used a vertical, cylindrical, stainless steel shell having horizontal catalyst beds, one above the other, with the catalyst beds being supported in part from the shell. In a preferred embodiment, the beds and divider plates are supported from a hollow cylindrical core tube, as well as the shell, with the catalyst being contained in the annulus between the core tube and the shell. The vertical cylindrical core is co-axially located and extends the full height of the shell from the bottom of the converter to the top.
In some commercial applications of U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,076, the core tube contains a heat exchanger which cools gases between the catalyst beds and, in at least one case, two pieces of heat transfer apparatus are contained within the core tube. Gas is fed to catalyst beds either from an annulus around the bed in the case of the first bed, with radially, inward flow to the space above the catalyst or, in the other beds, horizontally, radially outward from the core of the vessel, with the gas entering the core from the top of the vessel.
This approach has proven reasonably successful but lacks versatility in many ways. Use of the large diameter core requires a larger-sized converter if the same bed cross-sectional area as is typically used in a sulphuric acid plant, is desired, which results in a larger and more expensive vessel. In addition, axial entry of gases as is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,076, is often not convenient for the designer of sulphuric acid plant systems because it requires more ducting. Inclusion of heat transfer equipment in the converter as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,076, is superficially more attractive, but restricts process design freedom. With internal equipment, it is also no longer practically possible to parallel some of the heat exchange steps and provision of effective by-passes around the internal equipment is more difficult. It also complicates preheating of the plant and cooling for catalyst screening. Further, the converters of U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,076 do not offer an effective method for introducing gases to catalyst beds through the vertical wall of the vessel.


The system management server 10 makes a request to the virus detection and removal server 30 for virus detection processing on a specified primary volume of the storage system 20. The virus detection and removal server 30 executes virus detection processing on the requested primary volume and the secondary volume that forms the volume pair at the storage system 20. Even during virus detection processing on the storage system 20, it is possible for the centric PCs 40 and 42 to continue write and read processing on the requested primary volume.

The invention relates to an operation management system for a diskless computer, and more specifically relates to a back end disk service for a computer system having storage.
In the past, an operating system (OS) and various application programs were stored in individual computer storage devices, mainly hard disk drives (HDD), and were executed on individual computers. In relation to this, in recent years, proposed has been a system that uses a so-called diskless computer and storage system with which the OS and various application programs are gathered into a storage system, with the HDD removed from the individual computers.
However, for a computer system with a storage system as its core (hereinafter called the "storage centric system"), to execute virus removal using a diskless computer, the diskless computer must be connected to a network, and during a virus infection, there is the problem that the diskless computer cannot be separated from the network.
In relation to this, with a computer system with a storage centric system, the disk management processes of the virus detection process and the data backup process that had to be executed on each computer in the past can be realized collectively in the storage system.
Meanwhile, at the front end, when the diskless computer is booted up and the diskless computer is using a storage system, there is a problem that the virus detection processing cannot be executed at the back end. Specifically, there was the problem that processing at the front end and processing at the back end had to be executed exclusively.

Operation management system for a diskless computer


An inflatable mattress comprises superposed lower, middle, and upper sheet layers. The lower and middle sheet layers are joined to each other in a manner to define an inflatable air chamber. The middle and upper sheet layers are secured to each other in a manner to define at least two independently inflatable mattress portions. Fluid passageways provide fluid communication between the air chamber and the inflatable mattress portions. A plurality of ventilation apertures are through the upper sheet layer for ventilating air from the inflatable mattress portions. The sheet layers are arranged such that air introduced into the inflatable air chamber flows through the fluid passageways into the inflatable mattress portions and then out through the ventilation apertures.

This invention relates generally to ventilating air mattresses and to methods of making air mattresses.
People confined to bed for extended periods often experience ulcerations of the skin (e.g., bed sores). These skin ulcerations form when a patient's weight is not evenly distributed on the bed. In particular, the uneven weight distribution on the bed causes localized pressures (i.e., pressure points) which result in a compression of capillaries in the skin and thereby a restriction in blood flow. This restriction in blood flow may cause discomfort to the patient and may induce bed sores.
Therapeutic low air loss or ventilating mattresses have been developed to accommodate patients who are likely to be bedridden for extended periods. A conventional ventilating mattress has many perforations through its support surface through which pressurized air is forced at a controlled rate. These mattresses evenly distribute the weight of the patient to reduce localized pressures. This feature decreases the likelihood that any particular portion of the patient's body will be subjected to sufficient pressure to impede blood flow to skin tissue. Ventilating mattresses therefore decrease the possibility that patients will develop skin ulcerations.
Conventional ventilating mattresses are often formed with a plurality of inflatable mattress sections (e.g., a head section, a torso section, and a leg section) which may be inflated to different pressures. Such mattresses generally have tubes or conduits extending from a source of pressurized air to the mattress sections.
A disadvantage of conventional ventilating mattresses is that they are generally relatively expensive to make. Because of their expense, hospitals usually reuse them, necessitating that they be sanitized between patients to avoid cross-contamination.

Disposable ventilating mattress and method of making same


A chamber component configured to be coupled to a process chamber and a method of fabricating the chamber component is described. The chamber component comprises a chamber element comprising a first surface on a supply side of the chamber element and a second surface on a process side of the chamber element, wherein the chamber element comprises a reentrant cavity formed in the first surface and a conduit having an inlet coupled to the reentrant cavity and an outlet coupled to the second surface. Furthermore, the chamber component comprises an insertable member configured to couple with the reentrant cavity, the insertable member having one or more passages formed there through and each of the one or more passages are aligned off-axis from the conduit, wherein the one or more passages are configured to receive a process fluid on the supply side and the conduit is configured to distribute the process fluid from the one or more passages on the process side.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a chamber component configured to be coupled to a process chamber and a method of fabricating the chamber component.
2. Description of Related Art
The fabrication of integrated circuits (IC) in the semiconductor industry typically employs plasma to create and assist surface chemistry within a process chamber necessary to remove material from and deposit material on a substrate. In general, plasma is formed within the process chamber under vacuum conditions by heating electrons in the presence of an electric field to energies sufficient to sustain ionizing collisions with a supplied process gas. Moreover, the heated electrons can have energy sufficient to sustain dissociative collisions and, therefore, a specific set of gases under predetermined conditions (e.g., chamber pressure, gas flow rate, etc.) are chosen to produce a population of charged species and chemically reactive species suitable to the particular process being performed within the chamber (e.g., etching processes where materials are removed from the substrate or deposition processes where materials are added to the substrate).
In semiconductor manufacturing, numerous techniques exist for creating plasma including, but not limited to, capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) systems, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) systems, electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma systems, helicon wave plasma systems, surface wave plasma systems, slotted plane antenna (SPA) plasma systems, etc. Plasma is formed from the interaction of the supplied process gas with electromagnetic (EM) field propagation at frequencies in the radio frequency (RF) or microwave spectrum.
Common to many of these systems, the process gas is introduced to the process chamber through a shower head gas distribution system having a plurality of gas passages formed there through. However, in the presence of electric fields, utilized for example during plasma formation, hollow cathode discharges may be triggered within these gas passages. In plasma processing, such hollow cathode discharges may lead to plasma power loss and particle generation.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Suppressor of hollow cathode discharge in a shower head fluid distribution system


A container having a closure comprising a closure wall having a puncturable region in communication with the interior of the vessel, and having on an inwardly facing region of the closure wall a desiccant material separated from the interior of the vessel by a semi-permeable membrane which permits transmission of water vapor therethrough but is substantially impermeable to liquid water.

This invention relates to containers, particularly to containers for moisture sensitive materials particularly pharmaceutical substances.
It is frequently necessary to store moisture sensitive materials for relatively long periods in containers. In a particular example, certain pharmaceutical substances are supplied and/or stored in small vials containing one or more unit doses of the dry substance, and having a puncturable seal through which a hypodermic needle may be inserted. By means of such a needle water may be injected into the vial, the substance dissolved in situ, and the solution then withdrawn via the needle into a syringe for short-term use before hydrolysis of the moisture sensitive material. Such puncturable seals enable this operation to be sterile. During storage the presence of atmospheric moisture within the container, or the ingress of atmospheric moisture, can cause decomposition of such materials.
Often moisture sensitive pharmaceutical substances are provided in containers together with an internal desiccant in the container, for example a small sachet of molecular sieve or silica gel. Clearly this is not practical when the substance has to be made up in situ within the container as described above, as contamination by desiccant on dissolution of the substance is likely.
An example of a moisture sensitive pharmaceutical substance is clavulanic acid and its salts, such as potassium clavulanate. Potassium clavulanate is both hygroscopic and readily hydrolysed by water, so for handling and long term storage of potassium clavulanate it is necessary for the immediate environment to be kept extremely dry, e.g. 30% Relative Humidity ("RH") or less.
Potassium clavulanate is a .beta.-lactamase inhibitor, and is often provided in a formulation in combination with a partner .beta.-lactam antibiotic. A partner which is often used in such formulations is amoxycillin. For injectable formulations, which may be dry reconstitutable powders or oily suspensions for i.m. injection amoxycillin is used in the form of sodium amoxycillin. In some forms sodium amoxycillin is a powerful desiccant, and when contained together with potassium clavulanate in a sealed vial such forms of sodium amoxycillin can exert a dehydrating effect which helps to preserve the potassium clavulanate. Other forms of sodium amoxycillin, such as the anhydrous crystalline form disclosed in EP 0131147 B are less desiccating, and although it would be desirable to use such forms in formulations together with potassium clavulanate, the problem arises that these forms can be insufficiently desiccating to protect the potassium clavulanate.


An inflatable tubeless tire includes a carcass, a bead at the lower edge of both sides of the carcass; a cladding layer, continuously covering the bead from the exterior to the interior of the carcass, and both ends of the cladding layer having an overlapped portion between each carcass and a tread and continuously extending to form an external covered portion for covering an area from the outer surface to the bead, and the portion of both sides of the cladding layer covering the interior of the carcass being an internal covered portion, and the uncovered position in the carcass being an elastic portion, and each inner surface in the carcass and the cladding layer jointly forming a gas chamber; at least a separator, partially disposed on a wall surface of the gas chamber for isolating each elastic portion and the inner surface without sticking to one another of the carcass; an air valve module, passing between each opening and the through hole, and having a film fixed to the elastic portion; and an extending part, passing through each film, the cladding layer and the separator; a screw, with an end screwed into the extending part; and the screw having an air valve part therein.

Most tires are generally made of a rubber material and mounted onto a wheel rim. Since the tires are in direct contact with the ground, the rolling of the tires absorbs impact forces from the ground during driving, and the elasticity of the rubber material of the tires can buffer the forces between the ground and the wheel rim to improve the driver's and passengers' comfortability during driving effectively.
The structure of a tire is roughly comprised of a tread and a multiple of plies disposed therein, a flanged bead extended from a sidewall of the tire, and a bead core embedded into the interior of the bead. Wherein the tire includes clincher type and tubular type, the tubular tire means a section of a tire that is closed and has a closed tube shape that extends into a tire in a ring shape; the clincher tire refers to the tire with a cross-section substantially U-shaped and extended into a ring-shape and having a bead structure extended outwardly from two sidewalls of the tire, wherein the clincher tire includes tube type tire and tubeless tire, and the difference resides on whether or not there is a tube installed between the rim and the tire.
In the structure of the tubeless tire, the cross-sectional view shows that a space is formed between the tire and the rim, and no inner tube is found inside the space, but air is pumped into the space directly. The structure of the tubeless tire emphasizes on the effect of air retention. The main factor affecting the air retention is the outflow of air from a gap between the tire and rim, or when the tire is pierced. To minimize the loss of air from the gap between the rim and the tire, a high precision for the tight connection is required, so that the structural design of the bead and hook of rim sidewall is very important. If a tire is pierced and a leakage is resulted, immediate actions with a corresponding protection technology will be required.
When a conventional tubeless tire is flat or the carcass is pierced, an immediate protection is required, and a sealant or anti-puncture liquid is provided to fill the damaged part automatically. In general, the sealant is filled into a gas chamber formed and enclosed by the tire and the rim, but the sealant may flow in the gas chamber arbitrarily and leak through the connecting position of the air valve to contaminate the rim. Particularly, the sealant may stick onto the rim easily and cannot be cleaned easily, and thus making the installation difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to install an additional airtight lining to the rim, or install a special air valve to prevent air and sealant from flowing out from the gap of the rim.
To overcome the issue of airtightness between the rim and the tubeless tire, related manufacturers have developed various different air retention techniques such as an "airtight-plate technique" and an "isolation-layer technique", wherein the airtight-plate technique is a technique developed mainly for overcoming the issue of losing air from the gap between the rim and the tire, so that an airtight plate is installed inside the tire and fixed to a predetermined area by both two sidewalls of the carcass, and the airtight plate may move in the carcass. Such technique has been disclosed in TW Pat. No. M526964 entitled "Tire with a screw air valve". This tire comprises: a carcass, having a open-groove and two side edge portions disposed adjacent to the open-groove; an airtight plate, fixed to the two side edge portions of the carcass and forming and enclosing a gas chamber with the carcass, and the airtight plate having an inner surface facing the gas chamber, an outer surface facing the opposite direction of the inner surface, and an opening penetrating through the inner surface and the outer surface and communicating to the gas chamber; and an air valve, including an extending part and an external locking part, and the extending part having an inner stop portion disposed on the inner surface of the airtight plate, a screw extending from the inner stop portion and passing through the opening of the airtight plate, and an inflating channel penetrating through the inner stop portion and the screw and communicating to the gas chamber, and the external locking part being screwed and sheathed on the screw and directly or indirectly abutting at the outer surface of the airtight plate.
The isolation-layer technique is a protection technique designed for protecting the tire when the tire is pierced and a leakage is resulted. In this technique, an isolation layer is added to the interior of the carcass at the position of the tread, or an isolation layer has a space therein, and a puncture sealant or an anti-puncture liquid is filled into the space of the isolation layer. Such technology has been disclosed in TW Public. No. 335769 entitled "Tube type tire with a sealant". This tire comprises a tire body and an inner tube filled with a sealant and installed into an internal space of the tire body, and an air valve of the inner tube has a seal component for sealing the gap between the air valve and the rim. In addition, the left and right bead portions of the tire body facing the opening portion of the tire abut against the left and right edge of the wheel and sealed altogether. Further, the inner tube filled with the sealant has an air chamber formed therein and filled with air and a sealant chamber formed at the internal periphery and filled with a sealant.
The aforementioned structures adopt the tubeless tire technique with the air retention effect, wherein the first patented technique adds an airtight plate at the side edge portion of the carcass, so that the internal periphery of the carcass and the airtight plate jointly form a chamber for filling air, and an air valve module is installed to the airtight plate to prevent the air valve from being loosened or unscrewed, and the external locking part is screwed and sheathed on the screw to directly or indirectly press the outer surface of the airtight plate. In the second patented technique, a chamber filled with a sealant is added at the internal periphery of the carcass and disposed opposite to the tread to overcome the issue of contaminating the rim.
However, the first patented carcass is just single-layered, so that the whole tire has poor rigidity and support, and the air valve structure has an inner stop portion (which is an end of the extending part), so that after the extending part is passed out of the airtight plate, a spacer or a spring washer is used to abut the other side with the inner stop portion. However, such pressing design may produce an elastic fatigue easily at the pressing position of the airtight plate, and air may leak from the gap of the extending part. Meanwhile, the first patented airtight plate is just fixed to the inner walls of the beads on both sides, so that the covering area is small, and a leakage may occur at the connecting position after a long time of use. In addition, the first patented air valve is a specially designed air valve incompatible with the general standard air valves, and thus incurring high manufacturing and maintenance costs.


A method for identifying, classifying, extracting and resolving hidden entities from a data file includes searching for an executing copy of an application associated with the data file, initiating the application in a background if the application is not running, opening the data file for reading only, examining the data file for hidden entities, generating an examination log of incidents of hidden entities, and optionally, resolving the incidents of hidden entities.

The present invention generally relates to software applications and, more particularly, to a software application for identifying, classifying, and extracting hidden or embedded entities in a data file.
As is well known in the art, it is possible to hide or embed data in documents of various types. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,436 discloses a machine-readable marking provided on emulsion films, photographic papers, and the like. The marking encodes digital information, yet is essentially imperceptible to the human eye. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,108 discloses providing a photograph with supplemental data. This supplemental data is below a threshold of human perception (e.g., is essentially invisible) yet can extend throughout the image.
Furthermore, during the preparation of data files, data may be hidden in such files, whether deliberately or inadvertently. Hidden data includes data within an application or an application data file that may not be visible by normal viewing of the data within the application. For example, during the preparation of a PowerPoint® presentation, text may be included in a slide where the color of the font matches the fill color of the text box.
Such hidden data raises security concerns should the data file reach an audience other than an intended audience. This is particularly so in the case of proprietary or classified information hidden in data files.
As can be seen, there is a need for a system and method for identifying, classifying, and extracting hidden information from data files. Such a system and method preferably includes a means for resolving hidden information issues identified.

System and method for identifying, classifying, extracting and resolving hidden entities


The invention concerns a piston compressor with a piston, which is connected with a crank pin of a drive shaft via a connecting rod having a longitudinal channel. It is endeavored to make the manufacturing of a piston compressor cost effective. For this purpose, it is ensured that the shaft of the connecting rod is made as a sheet metal pipe.

Such a piston compressor, which is used for compressing refrigerant gas, is known from DE 100 53 575 C1. Oil flows periodically through the longitudinal channel from the drive shaft via the crank pin to a first bearing, with which the connecting rod is supported on the crank pin, and to a second bearing, with which the connecting rod is supported in the piston.
A further piston compressor is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,655. Here, the connecting rod is fixedly connected with a first connecting rod eye, which again engages with a piston pin. At the other end, the shaft of the connecting rod is connected via an articulated joint with a second connecting rod eye, which can be mounted on the crank pin. This permits a certain movability between the second connecting rod eye and the shaft of the connecting rod. Accordingly, an angle between the movement direction of the piston and the longitudinal axis of the drive shaft is no longer required to be exactly 90°.
It is an object of the present invention to improve upon or overcome the problems associated with the prior art.


An image processing apparatus including: an acquisition unit that acquires a first image, a second image, and an identifier indicating whether or not a portion corresponding to the first image and included in a third image is to be subjected to a second process; a first processing unit that (i) performs a first process on the first and second images acquired by the acquisition unit to generate the third image and (ii) performs conversion on a α blend value of each pixel forming the generated third image for allocating the identifier to a portion of a possible range of the α blend value; and a second processing unit that controls whether to perform the second process on each pixel forming the third image generated by the first processing unit, on the basis of the converted α blend value.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2010-238110 discloses an image processing apparatus that can arbitrarily draw a color outline in a portion requiring an outline while using post-effect processing with a small amount of processing load as basic processing.

Image processing apparatus and image processing method

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A display apparatus for displaying color images on a screen by projecting each-color image beams modulated with a display device includes a memory storing correction data exhibiting a registration deviation amount on the screen; a displacement calculating unit calculating the registration deviation amount every one pixel of at least one-color signal based on the correction data stored in the memory; a correcting unit correcting the signal level of the one-color signal so that the signal level becomes in proportion to a brightness level on the screen; and a registration deviation correcting unit correcting the registration deviation of the one-color signal every one pixel by interpolation arithmetic processing of the color signal corrected with the correcting unit based on the registration deviation amount calculated with the displacement calculating unit, wherein the display device of the corresponding color is driven by the color signal corrected with the registration deviation correcting unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a projector and an adjustment method of the projector that may incorporate a three-panel projector. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the registration deviation is corrected by interpolation arithmetic processing after the signal level of a color signal is corrected so that the signal level is in proportion to the brightness level displayed on a screen, so that the registration deviation can be simply corrected with high accuracies so as to reduce the deterioration in image quality in comparison with the past.
2. Description of the Related Art
In production lines of the three-panel projector, the alignment of an optical system and a liquid crystal display panel has been mechanically adjusted for registration. Namely, as shown FIG. 4, a three-panel projector 1 drives transmission liquid crystal display panels 2R, 2G, and 2B for red, green, and blue with three-color signals, respectively, as well as it divides an illumination beam emitted from a predetermined light source into three-color illumination beams with an optical system such as a dichroic prism. The three-panel projector 1 admits the three-color illumination beams onto the transmission liquid crystal display panels 2R, 2G, and 2B and modulates them so as to produce three-color image beams LR, LG, and LB, respectively. The three-panel projector 1 projects the image beams LR, LG, and LB onto a screen 3 via a predetermined optical system so as to display color images on the screen 3.
Thus, on the screen 3 of the three-panel projector 1, if the three-color images 4R, 4G, and 4B due to the respective image beams LR, LG, and LB are not precisely overlapped with each other and displayed, the registration deviation would be generated. Then, in the production lines, the transmission liquid crystal display panels 2R, 2G, and 2B are fixed with an adhesive for preventing the registration deviation after their alignment is mechanically adjusted to correct the registration deviation.
Referring to FIG. 4, if the blue-image 4B is deviated in registration relative to the green-image 4G in the horizontal or vertical direction, for example, the mounting position of the transmission liquid crystal display panel 2B is displaced by the angle corresponding to its registration deviation in the horizontal or vertical direction so as to correct the registration deviation. Alternatively, if the blue-image 4B is obliquely inclined to deviate relative to the green-image 4G, the mounting position of the transmission liquid crystal display panel 2B is rotated by its registration deviation so as to correct the registration deviation.
As for such registration, a method for preventing the registration deviation due to mechanical impact is proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H07-287204. An electrical registration adjusting method is also proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-229195, in which a display device is driven via a memory and the address written on the memory is controlled. Also, a measuring method of the convergence that is the registration in a cathode ray tube device is proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. R05-236516.
When the registration is adjusted by mechanically aligning the mounting positions of the optical system and the liquid crystal display panel, the work may require a time and the deviation cannot be perfectly corrected.
A method for solving the problems may include the technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-229195; however, in this method, the registration deviation can be corrected only in one-pixel units and also only in the horizontal or vertical direction.

Projector and adjustment method of the same


A method for controlling technical processes, particularly in motor vehicles, in which a microcomputer of a control device processes a complex control program. The complex control program is divided into a number of tasks (A, B, C) which can interrupt each other depending on their priority. To guarantee data consistency within a task (B), it is proposed to provide a local copy (msgx(B)) for global variables (x) which several tasks (A, B, C) can access, in addition to a global copy (msgx). The corresponding task (B) accesses the entry in the global copy (msgx) once during its processing, and updates its local copy (msgx(B)) of the variables (x). Subsequently, this task (B) works with the local copy (msgx(B)).

Modern control devices use microprocessors which are often powerful enough to process several tasks in parallel. This capacity is particularly used in systems for process control, in which a single computer fulfills several regulation and control functions at the same time. Particularly in the motor vehicle sector, control devices which must perform very complex control tasks are often used. Examples of these are engine control devices, transmission control devices, etc. In order to achieve quasi-simultaneous processing on the computer, methods are used to switch back and forth between the individual tasks. Typically, an operating system is used in the control devices for this purpose.
A method of this type is already known from the article by Bernd Ackermann, Requirements for a real-time operating system for "embedded systems", Electronics, No. 18, 1992, pages 120 to 128. This article explains important characteristics of real-time operating systems for control devices containing microcomputers. A program called a process manager is responsible for sequence control, i.e. coordination of the individual task programs. This program controls the assignment of the CPU and coordinates all the task programs that are running (tasks). The process manager allows quasi-parallel processing of several tasks, also referred to as multitasking. The process manager described in the report is designed in such a way that it can interrupt a program that is being processed, at any time, in order to start a task which is currently more important (has a higher priority) for the work of the system as a whole. The interrupted program is continued at the interruption point, as soon as processing of the program with higher priority has been completed. The method of procedure, that is where a task which is currently being processed can be interrupted at any time, is also referred to as preemptive scheduling or preemptive multitasking.
In addition, cooperative scheduling or cooperative multitasking is also known in the literature. In this type of sequence control, it is possible to switch between different tasks only at certain switching points previously established in the program. In other words, a task cannot be interrupted at a random point.
In general, it is necessary to have a data exchange between the programs which run simultaneously. For example, measured input variables or deviations from a rule are reported to other tasks usually, the data exchange between the individual tasks takes place via common memory locations, also called global variables. If a preemptive switching strategy is selected for switching between the tasks, the following problem occurs during data exchange via common memory locations:
If the task accesses the global variable at several points, the global variable can have different values at the different access points, specifically if a task with a higher priority interrupts the first program and changes the value of the global variable while it is being processed. The result is that the input variables of a program can change during processing. This can result in errors during processing. This problem is called data inconsistency. If, on the other hand, the input variables for a task do not change during the entire processing period, this represents data consistency.

Method for controlling technical processes


A reflection electrode has an undulated shape and whose normal direction is distributed unevenly to a specific azimuth angle and whose reflection light intensity depends on said azimuth angle. Openings are formed in that area of the reflection electrode which has a tilt angle of 0 degree to 2 degrees and/or a tilt angle of 10 degrees or higher. The retardation of a liquid crystal layer is changed by making the liquid crystal molecular alignment mode different between the openings and the reflection electrode, so that the intensity of output light is increased in reflection mode as well as in transmission mode. The balance of colors displayed in transmission mode is determined by determining the area of the openings in pixels of each color, and the color temperature is set higher in transmission mode than in reflection mode. This provides a semi-transmission type liquid crystal display which has an excellent visibility in reflection mode as well as in transmission mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display, and, more particularly, to a semi-transmission type liquid crystal display which reflects incident light coming from outside to provide a display light source and transmits light from a light source at the back.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a reflection type liquid crystal display (LCD) known which has a reflector inside and reflects incident external light by the reflector to provide a display light source, thereby eliminating the need for a backlight as a light source and a transmission type liquid crystal display equipped with a backlight as a light source.
As the reflection type liquid crystal display can be designed with lower power consumption, thinner and lighter than the transmission type liquid crystal display, it is mainly used for a portable terminal. This is because as light input from outside is reflected at the reflector in the display, the light can be used as a display light source, thus eliminating the need for a backlight. The transmission type liquid crystal display has such a characteristic as having a better visibility than the reflection type liquid crystal display in case where ambient light is dark.
As a reflector which improves the luminance of a reflection type liquid crystal display, there is one which, for example, has isolated projections formed on the surface of the reflector leaving an organic insulating film in a photolithography process, and an interlayer film is provided on the projections, thereby yielding a smooth undulated shape with mountain portions comprised of the projections and the other or valley portions, so that an undulation pattern is formed on the surface of the reflector (see Japanese Patent No. 2825713).
FIG. 29 is a plan view showing an example of the undulation pattern formed on the conventional reflector. shown in FIG. 29, the undulation pattern is formed by arranging a plurality of projections 2 with a circular planar shape as a projection pattern or a base pattern on the surface of a reflector 1 in an isolated state. The undulation pattern causes irregular reflection of incident light, thus improving the luminance of the liquid crystal display.
The basic structure of the existing liquid crystal displays comprises a liquid crystal of an TN (Twisted Nematic) type, a single sheet polarizer type, an STN (Super Twisted Nematic) type, a GH (Guest-Host) type, a PDLC (Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal) type, a cholesteric type or the like, a switching element which drives the liquid crystal and a reflector or backlight provided inside or outside a liquid crystal cell. Those ordinary liquid crystal displays employ an active matrix drive system which can achieve high definition and high image quality using thin film transistors (TFTs) or metal/insulating film/metal structure diodes (MIMs) as switching elements, and are equipped with a reflector or backlight.
As a liquid crystal display which has advantages of both the conventional reflection type liquid crystal display and transmission type liquid crystal display, a semi-transmission type liquid crystal display is disclosed (see Japanese Patent No. 2955277) which, as shown in FIG. 30, has gate interconnections 4 and source interconnections 5 so provided as to run around pixel electrodes 3 of an active matrix substrate and intersect each other perpendicularly, has thin film transistors 6 provided on the pixel electrodes 3, has the gate interconnections 4 and source interconnections 5 connected to the gate electrodes and source electrodes of the thin film transistors 6 and has reflection areas 7 of a metal film and transmission areas 8 of ITO formed in the pixel electrodes 3.
As the reflection areas and transmission areas are provided in the pixel electrodes, the backlight can be turned off when the ambient light is bright so that the liquid crystal display can be used as a reflection type liquid crystal display, and thus demonstrates lower power consumption that is the characteristic of the reflection type liquid crystal display. When the ambient light is dark, the backlight is turned on so that the liquid crystal display is used as a transmission type liquid crystal display, and thus demonstrates an improved visibility in case where ambient light is dark, which is the characteristic of the transmission type liquid crystal display. Hereunder, a liquid crystal display which can be used as a reflection type liquid crystal display and as a transmission type liquid crystal display will be called as a semi-transmission type liquid crystal display.
In the liquid crystal display described in Japanese Patent No. 2955277, however, as shown in FIG. 31, undulations formed on an active matrix substrate are partly removed for planarization and transmission areas on the pixel electrodes are formed on the flat portion of the active matrix substrate. The undulations formed on the active matrix substrate are provided to efficiently reflect ambient light toward a user. In case where the areas of the undulations are reduced to form the transmission areas so that the liquid crystal display is used as a reflection type liquid crystal display with the backlight turned off, there arises a problem that the luminance drops.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-75091 describes a reflector which has isolated projections formed on the surface of the reflector by combining the above-described two prior arts, thereby forming an undulation pattern on the surface of the reflector, has openings formed in the top portions and bottom portions of the undulation pattern and uses openings as transmission areas. Because the projections have isolated circular shapes, however, the reflector simultaneously reflects incident lights from all the directions and has no directivity, the display luminance is undesirably reduced.
Because separation of the transmission areas from the reflection areas in the liquid crystal display described in Japanese Patent No. 2955277 is simple, it is easy to form color filters with different thicknesses on the opposite substrate for different areas. As the reflector described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-75091 has transmission areas and reflection areas mixed in pixels, however, it is difficult to form color filters with different thicknesses on the opposite substrate for different areas. This makes it impossible to adjust the thicknesses of the color filters area by area. Accordingly, light passes the color filter formed on the opposite substrate twice in reflection mode but passes it once in transmission mode. This changes the hue in transmission mode and reflection mode, so that the reduction in luminance and the change in hue lower the visibility.


A power supply including: a power supply circuit for receiving an external power and a battery power, and for outputting a power including at least one of the external power or the battery power to a load; and a battery pack coupled to the power supply circuit, the battery pack including a plurality of batteries, which are arranged into a plurality of battery groups including a first battery group and a second battery group, and configured to provide the battery power. Where, the battery pack is configured to selectively supply a power of the first battery group or a power of the second battery group as the battery power to the power supply circuit according to at least one of a status of the external power, a status of the load, a status of the first battery group, or a status of the second battery group.

1. Field
Aspects of embodiments of the present invention relate to a power supply apparatus and a controlling method of the same.
2. Background of the Related Art
A power supply apparatus is an apparatus for temporarily supplying power to prevent damage to a load or to save data the load processes when an abnormal situation occurs in a power source that supplies power to the load (e.g., a blackout).
The power supply apparatus includes an internal battery to store electric energy. When an abnormal situation occurs in a power source for supplying power to a load, as described above, the power supply apparatus supplies the electric energy stored in the battery to the load. Also, the power supply apparatus includes a battery controller for controlling the battery to detect a state of the battery or to control charge/discharge operations of the battery.

Power supply apparatus and controlling method of the same


Provided herein are methods relating to inhibition of PUMA function for preventing or reducing myocardial cell death. A method for preventing or reducing ischemia/reperfusion induced myocardial cell death in a human is provided as are methods for identifying pharmaceuticals which interfere with PUMA function. Also herein provided is a method for reducing stem cell death in stem cell explants wherein the explants are intended to restore cardiac efficiency following cell death in response to coronary infarct.

The BH3-only Bcl-2 family protein PUMA (p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis; also referred to as Bbc-3: Bcl-2 binding component-3) can bind the antiapoptotic Bcl-2 protein and facilitate the expression, conformational change, and mitochondrial translocation of Bax leading to apoptosis. PUMA has been reported to transmit p53-dependent apoptotic signals induced by DNA damage, hypoxia, or oncogenes. In addition, cytokine withdrawal, glucocorticoids, kinase inhibitors, and phorbol esters have also been shown to cause apoptosis through PUMA expression without involving p53. Recently, p73 emerged as another transcription factor eliciting apoptosis by PUMA-mediated Bax mitochondrial translocation.
Cell death in the form of necrosis as well as apoptosis mainly accounts for cardiac contractile dysfunction upon ischemia/reperfusion. Although p53 overexpression can induce cell death in most cell types, the role of endogenous p53 in postischemic cardiac myocyte death remains controversial. On the other hand, Bax-ablation as well as cardiac Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL overexpression has been demonstrated to moderately improve tolerance to ischemia/reperfusion injury. Since PUMA is expressed in response to various stimuli through p53, p73, and other, yet unknown transcription factors and seems to act upstream of Bax, endogenous PUMA activation may significantly contribute to ischemia/reperfusion-induced cardiomyocyte death (FIG. 1).

Methods for preventing or reducing ischemia/reperfusion induced myocardial cell death