An ultrasonic surgical instrument is described which incorporates an articulating shearing end-effector. The instrument comprises an ultrasonic transducer, an ultrasonically activated end-effector, and a substantially solid ultrasonic waveguide that connects the ultrasonic transducer to the end-effector. The waveguide comprises a transmission section extending from the transducer to a fixed node, and an articulation section extending from the fixed node to a pivoting node. The end-effector includes a bifurcated waveguide segment. A handle is adapted to hold the transducer. An outer sheath extends from the handle to the end-effector and surrounds the waveguide. An actuation trigger is rotatably positioned on the handle, and an actuation arm extends from a distal end of the actuation trigger to the pivoting node.

This application is related to the following copending patent applications: application Ser. No. 08/770,550 filed Dec. 23, 1996; application Ser. No. 08/808,652 filed Feb. 28, 1997; application Ser. No. 09/255,519 filed Feb. 22, 1999; and application Serial No. 09/464,567 filed Dec. 16, 1999; which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Ultrasonic instruments, including both hollow core and solid core instruments, are used for the safe and effective treatment of many medical conditions. Ultrasonic instruments, and particularly solid core ultrasonic instruments, are advantageous because they may be used to cut and/or coagulate organic tissue using energy in the form of mechanical vibrations transmitted to a surgical end-effector at ultrasonic frequencies. Ultrasonic vibrations, when transmitted to organic tissue at suitable energy levels and using a suitable end-effector, may be used to cut, dissect, or cauterize tissue. Ultrasonic instruments utilizing solid core technology are particularly advantageous because of the amount of ultrasonic energy that may be transmitted from the ultrasonic transducer, through the waveguide, to the surgical end-effector. Such instruments are particularly suited for use in minimally invasive procedures, such as endoscopic or laparoscopic procedures, wherein the end-effector is passed through a trocar to reach the surgical site.
Solid core ultrasonic instruments adapted for use in surgery and, more particularly, for use in minimally invasive surgery, are well known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,055 illustrates an ultrasonic surgical shears that utilizes solid core ultrasonic technology, while U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,299 illustrates an ultrasonic hook blade end-effector for use in surgical applications. In addition, articulating instruments for use in minimally invasive surgery are also known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,498 describes an articulating endocutter for use in cutting and stapling tissue.
Many ultrasonic surgical instruments used for cutting and coagulation rely upon relatively stiff, solid core ultrasonic waveguides to efficiently deliver energy from the transducer to the end-effector. In such instruments it may be desirable to articulate the end-effector in order to provide the surgeon with flexibility in engaging hard to reach structures. However, the relatively stiff solid core ultrasonic waveguides and the limited structural space available in minimally invasive instruments make it difficult to design appropriate mechanisms for articulating end-effectors in such devices. One option, which is illustrated and described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/770,550 previously incorporated herein by reference, involves separating the waveguide into two or more segments that may be moved independently to provide articulation.
Flexible high power ultrasonic surgical instruments are also available. Flexible ultrasonic surgical instruments such as atherosclerosis treatment devices, thrombolysis devices, or some stone crushing devices are typically thin wires encased in a polymeric sheath, are relatively flexible, and articulate if assisted with known flexible endoscopy articulation means. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,274 describes a flexible ultrasonic catheter, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,211 describes a flexible endoscope mechanism.
It would, therefore, be advantageous to design an articulating solid core ultrasonic surgical instrument wherein the ultrasonic waveguide is substantially continuous. It would further be advantageous to design a solid core ultrasonic surgical instrument wherein the end-effector was both rotatable and articulatable. It would further be advantageous to design an articulating solid core ultrasonic surgical instrument which could be passed through a trocar or other surgical access device and the end-effector could be articulated utilizing a handle positioned outside of the surgical access device. The present invention incorporates improvements to known ultrasonic surgical instruments to provide these advantages.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A master and a slave stage of a flip-flop are each separately clocked with non-overlapping clock signals during scan mode to eliminate a data input scan mode multiplexer. Separate, non-overlapping clocking permits the elimination of hold violations in scan mode for scan mode flip flop chains, permitting the elimination of delay buffers in the scan mode data paths. Resulting application circuits have reduced circuit area, power consumption and noise generation. A clock generator for scan mode clocking is provided to obtain the separate, non-overlapping scan mode clocks. Scan mode clocks may be generated with a toggle flip flop, a pulse generator or a clock gating circuit.

In the implementation of digital design systems or application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), one important criteria is timing closure associated with the various interconnected design components. High performance designs benefit from increased implementation efficiency to obtain higher frequency targets in a resulting circuit. High frequency operation implies the use of fewer gates between flip-flops and an increasing use of pipelining techniques. Pipeline techniques permit higher operating frequencies by breaking up paths into one or more states separated by flip-flops. The use of pipelining techniques typically increases the number of sequential cells used in a design. Accordingly, the realization of high frequency designs focuses on providing more efficient sequential cells that allow rapid timing closure during chip implementation.
A traditional multiplexed scan flip-flop design has a number of characteristic features associated with the system level implementation of the design. The efficiency of sequential cells is traditionally measured through observation of parameters such as data set up time, clock to "Q" delay, data hold time and cell area. The operating frequency of a chip is typically limited by intrinsic delays, setup times and tolerance variations in clock duty cycles. One measure to determine the limitations on the chip operating frequency is to observe the minimum operating clock as a sum of delays, setup times and tolerance variations. The following equation provides one measure of determining a minimum operating clock.TCLK_MIN=ΔTCLK—Q+ΔTg+Δtsetup+CLK_SKEW+CLK_JITTER  (1)
Where:                ΔTCLK—Q=flip-flop clock-to-Q output delay        ΔTg=path gate delays plus RC        ΔTsetup=flip-flop data to clock setup time        CLK_SKEW=the variation in clock tree insertion delay and OCV induced clock insertion delay differences        CLK_JITTER=duty cycle variations (cycle to cycle).
Traditional sequential cell design focuses on optimization of cell area, ΔTCLK—Q and ΔTsetup. However, at a system level, optimization of the clock period focuses on the minimization of each term in the minimum clock period of equation (1).
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional flip-flop 100 is shown. The flip-flop 100 generally comprises a multiplexer 102, transparent latches 104, and inverters 124 and 126. The latches 104 are generally comprised of inverters 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, and 116 and transmission gates 118 and 120. Multiplexer 102 is provided at an input to the latches 104 to permit selection between functional data D and scan data SD. The presence of multiplexer 102 has an impact on the ΔTg term, which can be viewed from different perspectives with respect to path optimization. First, multiplexer 102 may be viewed as increasing the data path delay of the functional mode data. Second, multiplexer 102 may be viewed as consuming one gate delay of paths gate delay budget. Third, multiplexer 102 may be viewed as increasing the setup time for the flip-flop. In either case, optimization of the minimum clock period is influenced by the presence of multiplexer 102. In addition, multiplexer 102 increases power consumed in functional mode when both the functional and scan data input toggle when the flip-flop 100 changes logic states.
Additionally, turning to FIG. 2, a circuit 200 having several scan logic paths. Each path generally comprises a flip-flop 100-1 to 100-3 and scan path delay buffers 204-1 to 204-3 (respectively). As can be seen in the third path, though, a scan signal regeneration buffer 202 and a scan path delay buffers 202 are connected to a scan multiplexer of a downstream flip-flop 100-4. The path is impacted by the scan logic as illustrated by ΔTg delay 206. When upstream flip-flop 100-3 changes state, the scan path logic switches in relation to downstream flip-flop 100-4 thereby consuming additional power.
Another difficulty is observed in the potential race conditions when the same the clock edge is used to both launch and capture data. When the ΔTCLK—Q and ΔTsetup delay values are minimized to increase operating frequency, there is an increased probability that two back-to-back flops can experience data race-through problems. Race-through occurs whenever an upstream flip-flop launches data before the downstream flip-flop stops capturing data. This effect is observed as a data hold time violation on the data input of the downstream input of the flip-flop. In addition, clock skew between launching and capturing flops often creates and/or exacerbates hold time violations. Furthermore, scan chain reordering is often conducted to reduce routing congestion in the chip. However, scan chain reordering has the potential to create a large set of scan mode hold violations, since scan data would then be routed to the closest possible flip-flop. The shorter routes lead to less propagation delay which in turn lead to higher likelihood of scan mode hold violations.
While hold violations can occur in any functional operating mode, the greatest number of violations typically occur during scan shift/capture modes. The number of hold violations induced by scan chain reordering can be potentially enormous. Hold violations are usually fixed with the insertion of delay buffers in the path containing the hold violation. The delay buffers (such as delay buffers 204-1 to 204-3 of FIG. 2) are cells that are specially designed to have a greater than normal intrinsic cell delay. Accordingly, the delay buffers (such as delay buffers 204-1 to 204-3 of FIG. 2) are typically inserted through design software, or automatically, in the hold violation path prior to the flip-flop that has the hold violation. Typically, the insertion of the delay buffers (such as delay buffers 204-1 to 204-3 of FIG. 2) occurs immediately before the hold violation flip-flop. When the delay buffers (such as delay buffers 204-1 to 204-3 of FIG. 2) are inserted before the receiving flip-flop, all the timing arcs that terminate in the data input port of the flip-flop with the hold violation are delayed. Accordingly, the introduction of delay buffers (such as delay buffers 204-1 to 204-3 of FIG. 2) to overcome hold time violations has an impact on the entire system.
The drawbacks that typically occur with the insertion of delay buffers (such as delay buffers 204-1 to 204-3 of FIG. 2) include additional usage of chip area, an increase in routing congestion, diminished signal integrity through increased cross talk and increased power consumption. Any of these drawbacks also can trigger additional implementation or timing closure iterations that add to the implementation costs of the circuit. The addition of a large number of hold buffers results in an increase in chip area.
Scan logic also consumes a certain amount of power during normal functional mode operation, and circuit designs typically take into account routing and connectivity of scan logic paths and their impact on paths and operation of the normal functional mode logic. Conventionally, flip-flops with a multiplexed scan inputs often reuse the primary flip-flop data output such as "Q" and/or "QB" to propagate the scan data input to the next flip-flop in the scan logic chain. The reused outputs often result in metal routing and buffers in the scan data path that create parasitic loads on the paths that can impact path delays in the circuit. One technique to overcome parasitic loading, calls for a dedicated scan output in the flip-flop architecture. Such a technique is implementation sensitive and a ΔTCLK—Q delay may be difficult to avoid in the path of the flip-flop. Scan logic implemented in a conventional flip-flop also typically has metal routing that is associated with the slave stage of the flip-flop to take advantage of some of the architectural features of the flip-flop. Accordingly, conventional scan logic draws power in the flip-flop operation during normal operating mode because the scan logic path toggles when the slave stage of the flip-flop changes state. Power consumption in the scan logic is also observed with a series of flip-flops where the scan logic path switches with every change in an upstream flip-flop state.

Digital design component with scan clock generation


A power-up circuit in a computer system drives a memory device such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) to an initial condition after the computer system is turned on or reset. The power-up circuit also advantageously drives the memory device into the initial condition upon detecting a transient such as a negative glitch in a supply voltage being provided to the memory device. The power-up circuit includes a voltage level detector which causes a power-up signal to be provided to the memory device upon detecting that the supply voltage is less than a threshold voltage of the memory device which is necessary for the memory device to operate in an operational state. The power-up circuit also includes a delay circuit which causes the power-up signal to be provided to the memory device upon detecting that the supply voltage is beginning to rise from a quiescent voltage and at least until an amount of time determined by an RC time constant of the memory device for the memory device to enter the initial condition has passed. In response to receiving the power-up signal, the memory device enters the initial condition.

After a computer system is turned on or reset, many electronic devices in the computer system need to be driven to an initial condition prior to being used. An example of such an electronic device is a memory device. A typical memory device has memory cells which use a variety of logic circuits such as latches, gates and flip-flops to support their operation. These logic circuits need to be driven to an initial condition before the memory device is used to store data. A typical memory device also has a variety of capacitively loaded nodes which need to be driven to an initial condition such as a particular voltage.
Many electronic devices need a certain amount of time to enter an initial condition before they are ready to be used. One such electronic device is a memory device referred to as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM). A typical DRAM has a variety of capacitively loaded nodes which need to be driven to an initial condition at a particular voltage. For example, a typical DRAM has a plurality of DRAM memory cells, each of which includes a capacitor and an NMOS transistor. Each capacitor in each DRAM memory cell has one plate of its own coupled to a source terminal of its respective NMOS transistor and another plate shared in common among the capacitors in all of the DRAM memory cells. This common capacitor plate is referred to as the cell plate, and it often needs to be driven to an initial condition at a particular voltage. Since the cell plate is capacitively loaded, it is a node which needs a certain amount of time to enter the initial condition at the particular voltage. Since the typical DRAM has a variety of capacitively loaded nodes, including the cell plate, it has an overall RC time constant which controls the amount of time it needs to enter the initial condition. In a typical DRAM, this amount of time is in the range of 50 .mu.S.
Since many electronic devices need to be driven to an initial condition prior to their use, circuit designers have conventionally designed these electronic devices to respond to a signal referred to as a power-up signal by entering the initial condition. Also, since these electronic devices often need a certain amount of time to enter the initial condition, circuit designers have conventionally used a resistor-capacitor (RC) time delay circuit to provide the power-up signal. In a typical RC time delay circuit, a voltage on a capacitor in an RC network in the circuit begins rising as a function of an RC time constant of the RC network when the circuit detects a supply voltage rising from a quiescent voltage such as 0.0 volts. This rising supply voltage is indicative of a computer system which has just been turned on or reset. At the same time that the voltage on the capacitor is rising, the RC time delay circuit provides the power-up signal to an electronic device to drive the electronic device to an initial condition. When the voltage on the capacitor rises to a certain level, the RC time delay circuit trips and stops providing the power-up signal to the electronic device. Circuit designers set the RC time constant of the RC network such that the RC time delay circuit provides the power-up signal to the electronic device for at least the amount of time the electronic device needs to enter the initial condition.
Although the conventional RC time delay circuit is generally adequate for driving an electronic device into an initial condition prior to its use, the present invention recognizes that the circuit is problematic for other reasons.
The conventional RC time delay circuit cannot adequately detect a transient, such as a negative glitch, in a supply voltage being provided to an electronic device because the RC time constant of the RC network of the circuit makes the circuit too slow to react to the transient. This is a problem because, in many of the electronic devices the RC time delay circuit is used with, a transient in the supply voltage can cause the electronic device to enter an unknown state. In the case of one typical DRAM, for example, a transient in the supply voltage which drops the supply voltage below a threshold voltage of about 1.5 volts can cause a variety of latches, gates and flip-flops used to support the operation of memory cells in the DRAM to unlatch and lose latch data they are storing. This problem is exacerbated by a modern trend toward reducing power consumption in electronic devices by using lower supply voltages such as 3.3 volts instead of higher supply voltages such as 5.0 volts. With a lower supply voltage, a transient in the supply voltage is more likely to cause an electronic device to enter an unknown state.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a circuit which drives an electronic device to an initial condition prior to its use and which drives an electronic device to an initial condition upon detecting a transient in a supply voltage being provided to the electronic device.

Power-up circuit responsive to supply voltage transients


A method and apparatus for operating multiple transceivers concurrently in a 5 GHz wireless frequency band. A wireless device includes at least a first transceiver and a second transceiver, and operates the first transceiver in a first sub-band of the 5 GHz wireless frequency band. The wireless device selects a second sub-band of the 5 GHz wireless frequency band based at least in part on the first sub-band, and operates the second transceiver in the second sub-band while concurrently operating the first transceiver in the first sub-band. For example, the second sub-band may be frequency separated from the first sub-band by at least a threshold frequency gap.

Dual-band wireless (e.g., WI-FI) devices are capable of operating (e.g., transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals) on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands, simultaneously. For example, a dual-band wireless device may transmit and/or receive wireless signals on a 2.4 GHz wireless channel while concurrently transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals on a 5 GHz wireless channel. Further, due to the wide bandwidth of the 5 GHz frequency band, modern wireless devices may include multiple 5 GHz (5G) radios that may be operated concurrently to increase the throughput of the device. For example, a WI-FI access point (AP) with two 5G radios may allocate the first 5G radio for wireless communications with a first client device, and may allocate the second 5G radio for wireless communications with a second client device. Alternatively, the AP may use both 5G radios to increase the bandwidth of communications for a single client device (e.g., using multiple spatial streams).
The entire 5 GHz frequency spectrum (e.g., 5.15-5.835 GHz) is typically available to each 5G radio of a wireless device. For example, during initialization, each 5G radio may select any channel in the 5 GHz frequency band on which to transmit and/or receive wireless signals. Moreover, in conventional wireless devices, each 5G radio operates independently of other 5G radios residing on the same device. However, allowing multiple 5G radios on the same device to operate simultaneously and independently of one another may result in one 5G radio operating in the same 5 GHz channel as another 5G radio, thus causing signal interference and isolation problems.


An electron gun for a color cathode ray tube includes cathode, control and screen electrodes, forming a triode. The electron gun includes first, second and third focus electrodes, forming main and auxiliary lenses. A final accelerating electrode faces the third focus electrode. A static voltage is applied to the screen electrode and the second focus electrode. A dynamic focus voltage is applied to the first and third focus electrodes. First and second quadrupole lenses are formed.

The present invention relates to an electron gun for a color cathode ray tube, and more particularly, to an electron gun for a color cathode ray tube, in which a method for applying voltages to electrodes for forming an electron beam is enhanced.
The resolution of the color cathode ray tube depends on the size of an electron beam landing on a fluorescent film. Accordingly, in order to obtain an image having a high resolution, the electron beams landing on the fluorescent film are required to be small in size and have no defect and without a "halo" effect.
However, a typical electron gun emits electron beams inline to excite red(R), green(G) and blue(B) phosphors. The electron beams emitted from the electron gun are deflected by a deflection yoke for forming a pincushion horizontal deflection magnetic field and a barrel vertical deflection magnetic field. Here, due to an uneven magnetic field of the deflection yoke, astigmatism in the electron beams is generated.
That is, while the electron beams emitted from the electron gun land at the center of the fluorescent film, the deflection magnetic field is not applied. Accordingly, astigmatism of the electron beams is not generated, so that a circular electron beam spot without a halo is obtained. However, due to deflection by the magnetic field, the electron beams deflected to a peripheral portion of the fluorescent film diverge in a horizontal direction and are excessively focused in a vertical direction. Accordingly, an image including a core portion of high luminance and a halo portion of low luminance, is formed on the screen, to thereby deteriorate the resolution of the screen.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional electron gun for a color cathode ray tube for solving the above problems.
The electron gun 1 includes a cathode 2, control and screen electrodes 3 and 4 forming a triode, first, second, third and fourth focus electrodes 5, 6, 7 and 8 forming a main electron lens system, and a final accelerating electrode 9 facing the fourth focus electrode 8. Three cathodes 2 are arranged, and three electron beam passing holes are formed in-line with the electrodes facing the cathodes 2.
A predetermined static voltage VS is applied to the screen electrode 4 and the second focus electrode 6. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a focus voltage VF higher than the static voltage VS is applied to the first and third focus electrodes 5 and 7, a dynamic focus voltage VD in which the focus voltage is used as a base voltage is applied to the fourth focus electrode 8, and an anode voltage VA higher than the above voltages is applied to the final accelerating electrode 9.
In the above-described conventional electron gun for a color cathode ray tube, in the case that electron beams are not deflected, i.e., when the electron beams emitted from the electron gun 1 are scanned to the center of the fluorescent film, a minimum dynamic focus voltage VD is applied to the fourth focus electrode 8. Accordingly, a quadrupole lens is not formed between the third and fourth focus electrodes 7 and 8. The electron beams emitted from the cathode 2 are focused and accelerated by a electron lenses formed between the electrodes, to land as circles on the center of the fluorescent film.
When the electron beams emitted from the electron gun are scanned to the peripheral portion of the fluorescent film, the dynamic focus voltage VD is applied to the fourth focus electrode 8, to form a quadrupole lens between the third and fourth focus electrodes 5 and 8. Accordingly, a section of the electron beams emitted from the cathode 2 and then passing through the quadrupole lens is vertically-elongated. The distortion of the electron beams of the peripheral portion of the fluorescent film due to an uneven magnetic field of the deflection yoke is corrected by the vertically-elongated electron beams.
However, the quadrupole lens of the conventional electron gun for a color cathode ray tube is formed by the focus voltage VF and the dynamic focus voltage VD, so that a circuit for applying multiple voltages becomes complicated. Also, the electrode where the focus voltage is applied and the electrode where the dynamic focus voltage is applied are additionally required, so that the number of electrodes increases, and thus the structure becomes complicated and the length of the electron gun increases.


A method and apparatus and for detecting faults in components of a continuous process such as a steam generator. A model of the process is developed using a modeling technique such as advanced pattern recognition and the model is used to generate predicted values for a predetermined number of the operating parameters of the process. Statistical process control methods are used to determine if the difference between the predicted and actual measured values for one or more of the parameters exceeds a configured statistical limit. A rule set is used to indicate an actual or probable fault in a component of the continuous process.

A continuous process system such as a steam generator process has many components. The steam generator system includes a boiler that has tubes through which water flows. Because of heat, pressure, and wear over time, the boiler tubes eventually begin to leak, i.e., the beginning of a "leak event." When a boiler tube(s) starts to leak, steam which flashes over from the water escaping through the leak therein is lost to the boiler environment. In general, the amount of leaked water/steam may be small at the inception of a tube leak event. However, unless the tube is repaired, the leak will continue to grow, i.e., the tube leak rate increases with time until the tube eventually ruptures. Further a rupture in one tube may damage adjacent tubes resulting in a huge overall leak. Thus, once a rupture occurs the utility operating the boiler is forced to shut the boiler down immediately.
Boiler tube failures are a major cause of forced shut downs in fossil power plants. For example, approximately 41,000 tube failures occur every year in the United States alone. The cost of these failures proves to be quite expensive for utilities, exceeding $5 billion a year. [Lind, M. H., "Boiler Tube Leak Detection System," Proceedings of the Third EPRI Incipient-Failure Detection Conference, EPRI CS-5395, March 1987].
In order to reduce the occurrences of such forced outages, early boiler tube leak detection is highly desirable. Early boiler tube leak detection would allow utilities to schedule a repair at a convenient time rather than to suffer a later forced outage. In addition, the earlier the detection, the better the chances are of limiting damage to adjacent tubes. Additional savings that result from early detection of boiler tube leaks accrue from items such as:    1) Shorter period of heat rate degradation;    2) Less ancillary damage caused by the leakage; and    3) Potential that the leak itself will be smaller if caught sooner.
Various methods are described in the prior art to detect boiler tube leaks. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,567,795 and 6,192,352 describe a method that uses neural networks and fuzzy math. U.S. Patent Nos. 5,847,266 and 5,363,693 describe a method that uses input/output comparison. U.S. Patent Nos. 4,960,079 and 4,640,121 describe acoustical methods. None of the prior art methods work well due to poor model fidelity and inadequate fault tolerance. For example the acoustical method which detects the noise made by the leaking water must compete with the noisy environment present in the power house. Therefore, the result of the prior art methods are either numerous false alarms or real tube leaks that are not detected.

Method and apparatus for detecting faults in steam generator system components and other continuous processes


A method of making a synthetic glycopeptide, by addition of a synthetic oligosaccharide oxazoline to a GlcNAc-containing peptide precursor in the presence of an enzyme selected from among Endo-A and Endo-M. In a specific implementation, the method is utilized to synthesize a trivalent V3-domain glycopeptide including three V3-domain glycopeptides on a scaffold, wherein the three V3-domain glycopeptides are arranged to mimic the V3 domain presentation in trimeric gp120. Such trivalent V3-domain glycopeptides can be utilized in a vaccine for the treatment or prevention of HIV-1 infection.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the synthesis of glycopeptides and uses thereof, and more particularly, to the novel synthesis of V3 glycopeptides and the use of same for in vivo immunogens that induce broadly neutralizing antibodies.
2. Background of the Related Art
The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is the retrovirus that caused the global epidemic of AIDS. Today, more than 40 million people are estimated to live with HIV/AIDS and the epidemic is still expanding [12]. There is no doubt that the best hope to stop the worldwide epidemic is an effective HIV-1 vaccine. To achieve a maximal protection, an effective HIV-1 vaccine may need to induce both humoral and cellular immunity [1, 2, 13-16]. While cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) response is important to control and reduce HIV-1 infection by killing the infected cells [15], passive immunization experiments in various animal models have repeatedly demonstrated that neutralizing antibodies with appropriate specificity, when present in sufficient concentrations, can provide sterilizing immunity [17-21]. Therefore, the design of an immunogen that is able to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies remains a major goal in HIV-1 vaccine development.
The past two decades have witnessed tremendous advances in the understanding of the structure and function of the envelope glycoproteins in connection with their immunological properties [1, 3, 22, 23]. So far, a panel of neutralizing antibodies has been identified that are broadly reactive against HIV-1 primary isolates. These include monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) b12 and 2G12 that target discontinuous epitopes on gp120 [24, 25], and mAbs 2F5 and 4E10 that may target the membrane-proximal region of gp41 ectodomain [26-28]. The third variable region (V3) of gp120 is a "principal neutralizing determinant (PND)." Although major V3-specific antibodies are isolate-specific and neutralize only T-cell line adapted viruses or limit primary isolates, recently studies have also shown that some V3-specific monoclonal antibodies are able to neutralize primary isolates across clades [2, 29]. It becomes clear that these broadly neutralizing antibodies are unusual in that they are recognize either discontinuous epitopes or special conformational epitopes.
The hypervariable region (the V3 domain) of the envelope glycoprotein gp120 is highly immunogenic and was once considered "the principal neutralizing determinant (PND)." However, the V3 domain has been a controversial target for HIV-1 vaccine design mainly because of the highly variable nature of the sequence [1, 2, 85]. As a result, most V3-specific antibodies from the sera of early-infected patients or immunized animals are isolate-specific and neutralize only T-cell line adapted viruses or a very narrow range of primary isolates. However, recent data demonstrated that broadly reactive anti-V3 antibodies did exist, and some V3-specific poly- and monoclonal antibodies were able to neutralize a range of HIV-1 primary isolates across clades [86-90]. In addition, the V3 domain is accessible on native virus envelope [91].
The oligosaccharide components of glycoproteins have been implicated to play important roles in modulating protein's folding, stability, immunogenicity, and various cellular activities [30-33]. HIV-1 has two envelope glycoproteins, gp120 and gp41. They form trimeric complexes of heterodimers on the viral surface. Both are significantly glycosylated. The outer envelope glycoprotein gp120 carries about 24 N-glycans and the carbohydrates constitute about half of the molecular weight of gp120 [34-36]. The transmembrane glycoprotein gp41 carries 4 conserved N-glycans and the carbohydrates make 20-30% of its molecular mass [37, 38]. There are three major types of N-glycans in N-linked glycoproteins, namely, the high-mannose type, the complex type, and the hybrid type [39]. In the case of HIV-1 gp120, the nature (type) of N-glycans on individual glycosylation sites for some HIV-1 strains have been elucidated [34-36]. An important observation is that, by alignment, corresponding N-glycosylation sites among different HIV-1 strains seem to carry the same type of N-glycans [34-36].
Many studies have implicated that glycosylation affects the local or global conformations of peptides and proteins [8, 53-55]. For example, glycosylation usually stabilizes local conformations and induce turn-like structures of a polypeptide chain [53, 55, 56]. Experiments have demonstrated that not only the size, but also the nature and linkage type of the attached sugar chain, would have an impact on the underneath polypeptide conformations [57-61]. According to the carbohydrate analysis, the V3 domain of gp120 carries three conserved N-glycans within or adjacent to the loop, one complex type at N301, and two high-mannose type N-glycans at the N295 and N332 positions (HXB2 numbering), respectively [34-36]. Therefore, it is conceivable to think that individual N-glycans within or adjacent to the V3 domain will certainly influence the domain's conformations. This will, in turn, affect the antigenicity and immunogenicity of the V3 domain, particularly when a conformational epitope is involved. However, gp120 itself is too heterogeneous to be used for elucidating the detailed effects of glycosylation on local conformations of the V3 domain, even if site-specific mutation can selectively remove individual N-glycans within or adjacent to the V3 loop. For example, a typical gp120 has about 24 N-glycans but each N-glycan may exist in several different isoforms. As a result, over 100 glycoforms for a recombinant gp120 would exist [31]. Such heterogeneity in structure makes it extremely difficult to decipher the structure-function relationship of a given glycoprotein, and may sometimes yield confusing information as in the case of the immunogenicity of gp120 glycosylation mutants [40, 49]. To have a clear understanding of the roles that carbohydrates play in a glycoprotein and, particularly, to explore HIV-1 glycopeptides as novel immunogens, homogeneous materials are required. Synthesis seems to be the only practical means to provide various homogeneous glycopeptides for subsequent structural and biological studies.
While glycopeptides containing monosaccharides or a small oligosaccharide moiety can be prepared by conventional solid-phase peptide synthesis using glyco-amino acid derivatives as building blocks [110-112], the construction of large, biologically relevant glycopeptides carrying native N-glycans is still a challenging task [110, 113, 114], mainly because oligosaccharide chains, if pre-attached during solid-phase peptide synthesis, are susceptible to the acidic conditions used for peptide deprotection and cleavage from the solid support. On the other hand, no general chemical method is available to attach a sugar chain to a pre-assembled free polypeptide in a site-specific manner to form a full-size natural glycopeptide. To solve the problem, the current inventors and others have been exploring a novel chemoenzymatic approach using an endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (ENGase) for adding an oligosaccharide to a pre-assembled polypeptide [115, 116]. Endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidases (ENGases) are inherently a class of hydrolytic enzymes, but some possess significant transglycosylation activity and are able to transfer a N-glycan to a N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) moiety in a GlcNAc-peptide acceptor to form a new glycopeptide. Endo-A from Arthrobacter can transfer a high-mannose type N-glycan to a GlcNAc-containing peptide [117], while Endo-M isolated from Mucor hiemalis prefers complex type N-glycan in transglycosylation [60, 118, 119]. Therefore, the distinct substrate specificity of the two endoglycosidases in transglycosylation will allow the construction of different glycoforms of glycopeptides.
The chemoenzymatic approach consists of two key steps: solid-phase peptide synthesis to prepare a GlcNAc-containing peptide precursor and the Endo-A or Endo-M catalyzed transfer of the N-glycan to the acceptor to accomplish the synthesis of the target glycopeptides.
Although the chemoenzymatic method allows a quick assembling of large glycopeptides, it still suffers with some weakness, such as the relatively low transglycosylation yield (generally 10-20%), the product hydrolysis, and the limitations of using only natural N-glycans as the donor substrates. Thus, it would be advantageous to develop a synthesis method to create synthetic homogeneous glycopeptides with increased transglycosylation without the limitation of using only natural N-glycans, wherein the synthetic homogenous glycopeptides may be used for conformational studies and for use as immunogens that induce broadly neutralizing antibodies.

HIV-1 glycopeptides and derivatives; preparation and applications thereof

University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute


A lock is provided for use with a container having an annular end portion defining a top opening and a radially outwardly opening annular recess. A top wall defines a removable cover overlying the opening. The lock includes an elongate band of synthetic resin operatively associated with and circumferentially surrounding the top wall with opposite ends spaced apart and having radially inwardly projecting securing structure receivable in the recess for securing the top wall to the container. A locking structure is provided for constricting the spaced ends of the band to urge the securing structure radially inwardly comprising a pair of radially out-turned tabs of a high-strength synthetic resin secured to opposite end portions of the band as by vibration welding. A locking lever is movable to an over center position for adjustably drawing the tabs toward each other and releasably locking the securing structure in the annular recess in the over center position.

In one form of conventional shipping and storage container, a tubular sidewall is formed of fibrous material or other material. It is conventional to provide metal retaining rings at opposite ends of the sidewall for securing closure walls thereacross. Such metal retaining rings are relatively costly and heavy and are not fully satisfactory in the formation of a low cost shipping and storage container.
The container closure may be provided with locking structure secured thereto for retaining the closure on the container. An example of such a closure is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,798. With such a container, the closure includes tabs integrally molded therewith which are drawn together to constrict a sidewall of the closure for retaining it to the container. The closure is molded of synthetic resin. While such a closure is generally satisfactory, the conventional synthetic resin may not be strong enough to survive continued locking and unlocking of the locking structure. While the cover could be molded of a high-strength engineering resin, doing so would significantly increase costs of the closure. In marketing of such a closure, a customer must then balance the advantages of the increased strength capabilities with the significantly higher costs required.
In another form of closure, a removable cover is configured to rest on an annular connecting ring at the top of the container and a locking belt is used to secure the cover to the connecting ring. The locking belt most commonly has been formed of metal and including metal locking structure riveted thereto. Such a metal locking belt can be expensive and produces problems of its own if the container is ultimately incinerated, as it is necessary to remove the metal from the incinerator.
Known locking belts have also been formed of synthetic resin and provided with locking structures similar to that described above. Such locking belts suffer the same problems. Particularly, either the locking belt is molded of synthetic resin, resulting in a lack of strength, or it can be formed of a high strength resin, increasing the cost.
The present invention is directed to solving one or more of the problems discussed above in a novel and simple manner.


A movable plate is movably accommodated in a pressure control chamber. A fixed plate is arranged above the movable plate, so that the movable plate is brought into contact with the fixed plate. The fixed plate has a high pressure passage for supplying fuel into the pressure control chamber and a low pressure passage for discharging the fuel from the pressure control chamber. A high pressure port and a low pressure port are formed at a lower end surface of the fixed plate. A first contacting surface is formed at the lower end surface and a first groove is formed in the first contacting surface for holding a part of fuel in a plate-contacted condition.

A fuel injection valve is known in the art, for example, as disclosed in the following Japanese Patent publications:    Japanese Patent Publication No. 2011-169241    Japanese Patent Publication No. 2011-169242    Japanese Patent Publication No. 2011-012670
According to the fuel injection valve disclosed in any of the above prior arts, fuel pressure in a pressure control chamber (that is, back pressure of a valve body) is controlled so that the valve body is operated to open or close an injection port. In other words, the back pressure biases the valve body in a valve closing direction. When the fuel is discharged from the pressure control chamber to decrease the back pressure, the valve body is moved in a valve opening direction. On the other hand, when the fuel is supplied into the pressure control chamber to increase the back pressure, the valve body is moved in the valve closing direction. A structure for the above operation is formed by a fixed plate 20 and a movable plate 80 shown in FIG. 12 attached to the present application.
In FIG. 12, a high pressure passage 22 for supplying high pressure fuel into a pressure control chamber 71 and a low pressure passage 23 for discharging the fuel from the pressure control chamber 71 are formed in the fixed plate 20. In addition, the fixed plate 20 has contacting surfaces 25s and 26s at its lower end surface, in which a high pressure port 22b (corresponding to an outlet port of the high pressure passage 22) and a low pressure port 23c (corresponding to an inlet port of the low pressure passage 23) are respectively formed. The movable plate 80 is brought into contact with the contacting surfaces 25s and 26s in order to close the high pressure port 22b when discharging the fuel from the pressure control chamber 71. The movable plate 80 is separated from the contacting surfaces 25s and 26s in order to open the high pressure port 22b when supplying the high pressure fuel into the pressure control chamber 71.
The inventor of the present disclosure has found out that a linking force is generated between the fixed plate 20 and the movable plate 80 in the above structure of the prior art shown in FIG. 12, when the movable plate 80 is going to be separated from the fixed plate 20. The linking force is generated due to a fact that the fuel does not easily flow from the high pressure passage 22 and/or the low pressure passage 23 into spaces between the contacting surfaces 25s and 26s of the fixed plate 20 and the movable plate 80.
When the linking force is generated, the movable plate 80 cannot be smoothly and rapidly separated from the fixed plate 20. Then, timing for opening the high pressure port 22b may be delayed and thereby a response for increasing the back pressure and moving the valve body in the valve closing direction may go down. In such a case, a valve opening time period may become longer than intended. It may cause a problem that a fuel injection amount becomes larger than a supposed value.
In addition, since the linking force is unstable, it may cause variation for the timing of opening the high pressure port 22b. As a result, it may cause variation for the fuel injection amount.
The movable plate 80 is strongly pushed to the contacting surfaces 25s and 26s, when the movable plate 80 is in contact with the fixed plate 20. Therefore, when areas of the contacting surfaces 25s and 26s are simply made smaller in order to reduce the linking force, the contacting surfaces 25s and 26s may be worn away in an unusual manner.


The invention relates to a method of selecting a respective coding model for encoding consecutive sections of an audio signal, wherein at least one coding model optimized for a first type of audio content and at least one coding model optimized for a second type of audio content are available for selection. In general, the coding model is selected for each section based on signal characteristics indicating the type of audio content in the respective section. For some remaining sections, such a selection is not viable, though. For these sections, the selection carried out for respectively neighboring sections is evaluated statistically. The coding model for the remaining sections is then selected based on these statistical evaluations.

It is known to encode audio signals for enabling an efficient transmission and/or storage of audio signals.
An audio signal can be a speech signal or another type of audio signal, like music, and for different types of audio signals different coding models might be appropriate.
A widely used technique for coding speech signals is the Algebraic Code Excited Linear Prediction (ACELP) coding. ACELP models the human speech production system, and it is very well suited for coding the periodicity of a speech signal. As a result, a high speech quality can be achieved with very low bit rates. Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB), for example, is a speech codec which is based on the ACELP technology. AMR-WB has been described for instance in the technical specification 3GPP TS 26.190: "Speech Codec speech processing functions; AMR Wideband speech codec; Transcoding functions", V5.1.0 (2001-12). Speech codecs which are based on the human speech production system, however, perform usually rather badly for other types of audio signals, like music.
A widely used technique for coding other audio signals than speech is transform coding (TCX). The superiority of transform coding for an audio signal is based on perceptual masking and frequency domain coding. The quality of the resulting audio signal can be further improved by selecting a suitable coding frame length for the transform coding. But while transform coding techniques result in a high quality for audio signals other than speech, their performance is not good for periodic speech signals. Therefore, the quality of transform coded speech is usually rather low, especially with long TCX frame lengths.
The extended AMR-WB (AMR-WB+) codec encodes a stereo audio signal as a high bitrate mono signal and provides some side information for a stereo extension. The AMR-WB+ codec utilizes both, ACELP coding and TCX models to encode the core mono signal in a frequency band of 0 Hz to 6400 Hz. For the TCX model, a coding frame length of 20 ms, 40 ms or 80 ms is utilized.
Since an ACELP model can degrade the audio quality and transform coding performs usually poorly for speech, especially when long coding frames are employed, the respective best coding model has to be selected depending on the properties of the signal which is to be coded. The selection of the coding model which is actually to be employed can be carried out in various ways.
In systems requiring low complexity techniques, like mobile multimedia services (MMS), usually music/speech classification algorithms are exploited for selecting the optimal coding model. These algorithms classify the entire source signal either as music or as speech based on an analysis of the energy and the frequency properties of the audio signal.
If an audio signal consists only of speech or only of music, it will be satisfactory to use the same coding model for the entire signal based on such a music/speech classification. In many other cases, however, the audio signal which is to be encoded is a mixed type of audio signal. For example, speech may be present at the same time as music and/or be temporally alternating with music in the audio signal.
In these cases, a classification of entire source signals into a music or a speech category is a too limited approach. The overall audio quality can then only be maximized by temporally switching between the coding models when coding the audio signal. That is, the ACELP model is partly used as well for coding a source signal classified as an audio signal other than speech, while the TCX model is partly used as well for a source signal classified as a speech signal. From the viewpoint of the coding model, one could refer to the signals as speech-like or music-like signals. Depending on the properties of the signal, either the ACELP coding model or the TCX model has better performance.
The extended AMR-WB (AMR-WB+) codec is designed as well for coding such mixed types of audio signals with mixed coding models on a frame-by-frame basis.
The selection of coding models in AMR-WB+can be carried out in several ways.
In the most complex approach, the signal is first encoded with all possible combinations of ACELP and TCX models. Next, the signal is synthesized again for each combination. The best excitation is then selected based on the quality of the synthesized speech signals. The quality of the synthesized speech resulting with a specific combination can be measured for example by determining its signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This analysis-by-synthesis type of approach will provide good results. In some applications, however, it is not practicable, because of its very high complexity. Such applications include, for example, mobile applications. The complexity results largely from the ACELP coding, which is the most complex part of an encoder.
In systems like MMS, for example, the full closed-loop analysis-by-synthesis approach is far too complex to perform. In an MMS encoder, therefore, a low complex open-loop method is employed for determining whether an ACELP coding model or a TCX model is selected for encoding a particular frame.
AMR-WB+ offers two different low-complexity open-loop approaches for selecting the respective coding model for each frame. Both open-loop approaches evaluate source signal characteristics and encoding parameters for selecting a respective coding model.
In the first open-loop approach, an audio signal is first split up within each frame into several frequency bands, and the relation between the energy in the lower frequency bands and the energy in the higher frequency bands is analyzed, as well as the energy level variations in those bands. The audio content in each frame of the audio signal is then classified as a music-like content or a speech-like content based on both of the performed measurements or on different combinations of these measurements using different analysis windows and decision threshold values.
In the second open-loop approach, which is also referred to as model classification refinement, the coding model selection is based on an evaluation of the periodicity and the stationary properties of the audio content in a respective frame of the audio signal. Periodicity and stationary properties are evaluated more specifically by determining correlation, Long Term Prediction (LTP) parameters and spectral distance measurements.
Even though two different open loop approaches can be exploited for selecting the optimal coding model for each audio signal frame, still in some cases the optimal encoding model cannot be found with the existing code model selection algorithms. For example, the value of a signal characteristic evaluated for a certain frame may be neither clearly indicative of speech nor of music.

Selection of coding models for encoding an audio signal


An apparatus includes a robot arm, an electrical power cord, a motor-driven cable reel, an end effector, and at least one sensor. The robot arm has a proximal end and a distal end, and is configured to move in response to one or more electrical signals. The electrical power cord extends through the robot arm from the proximal end to the distal end and has an electrical plug at an end thereof. The motor-driven cable reel dispenses and retracts the electrical power cord so as to control a length thereof. The end effector is disposed at the distal end of the robot arm, and is configured to selectively grasp and release the electrical plug. The sensor is disposed at the distal end of the robot arm, and is configured to produce sensor data for controlling the robot arm to dock the electrical plug into an electrical receptacle.

This invention pertains to the field of robotic devices, and in particular to mobile robotic devices which are configured to receive electrical power, e.g. alternating current (AC) electrical power, from an electrical receptacle or outlet via an electrical cord.
The use of mobile robotic devices ("mobile robots") to perform a variety of domestic and industrial tasks continues to grow. Mobile robots have wheels, rollers, continuous tracks, mechanical legs (e.g., a biped, quadruped, hexapod, etc.) or other locomotion means which allow them to navigate within a workspace such as an apartment, a factory, a warehouse, etc. In general, a mobile robot may navigate autonomously ("autonomous mobile robot"), or under remote control, for example under human control via a joystick, mouse, trackball, keyboard, etc. Autonomous mobile robots have operational advantages due to the lack of need for human intervention, for example lower operating costs (e.g., labor costs), the ability to operate at places and times where remote control is not available, etc.
In many cases, mobile robots are battery powered, which limits the amount of work they are able to perform to the power storage and output capacities of the batteries. However, battery power may not provide sufficient electrical power for mobile robots to perform certain tasks, or to utilize machine and device components that would be powerful enough to perform such tasks. In addition, as larger and more sophisticated batteries are used to increase the power which can be stored and exerted by mobile robots, the size, weight, and expense of the mobile robots become too large for them to be practically deployed in many environments, such as residential homes or narrow commercial hallways.
So in many situations, it would be desirable to deploy a mobile robot which could operate on power which is provided from an electrical outlet or receptacle (e.g., AC Mains power), for example via an electrical power cord, without first being stored in a battery. This would allow a mobile robot to utilize the wide variety of available alternating current powered electrical motors and tools, which would otherwise be impossible, impractical or more expensive to operate with direct current (DC) powered electrical components, and/or AC/DC conversion via a power inverter. Such a mobile robot may also include a battery, which may be charged from the electrical power (e.g., AC Mains power) received via the electrical outlet or receptacle. In some cases, the mobile robot may have some reduced or limited operation on batter power, for example, the robot may be able to navigate over some distance on battery power alone.
As noted above, one class of mobile robots are autonomous mobile robots which self-navigate without remote or human control. However, if an autonomous mobile robot requires human intervention to connect it to an electrical outlet or receptacle, disconnect it from electrical outlet or receptacle, manage the length of the electrical power cord, etc., then the operational advantages of autonomous operation may be reduced or defeated.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an autonomous mobile robot which can autonomously locate, connect to, and disconnect from common 110V, 220V (and their international equivalent) household, commercial, and industrial electrical outlets and receptacles (i.e., connected to AC Mains). It would also be advantageous to provide an autonomous mobile robot which can autonomously manage a tethered connection to an electrical outlet or receptacle, including managing the length of an electrical power cord extending between the autonomous mobile robot and the electrical outlet or receptacle. Other and further objects and advantages will appear hereinafter.
The present invention comprises an apparatus and method for providing tethered electrical power to an autonomous power robot.
In one aspect of the invention, an apparatus comprises: a robot arm having a proximal end and a distal end, the robot arm being configured to move in response to one or more electrical signals; an electrical power cord extending through the robot arm from the proximal end to the distal end, the electrical power cord having an electrical plug at an end thereof; a motor-driven cable reel configured to dispense and retract the electrical power cord so as to control a length thereof; an end effector disposed at the distal end of the robot arm, wherein the end effector is configured to selectively grasp and release the electrical plug; and at least one sensor disposed at the distal end of the robot arm, wherein the at least one sensor is configured to produce sensor data for controlling the robot arm to dock the electrical plug into an electrical receptacle.
In another aspect of the invention, an apparatus comprises: an electrical receptacle configured to be mated to an electrical plug and to supply electrical power to the electrical plug; and a beacon array disposed adjacent to the electrical receptacle configured to transmit one or more signals indicating a location of the electrical receptacle.
In still another aspect of the invention, a method is provided for operating an apparatus comprising a robot having a cable reel for dispensing an electrical power cord having an electrical plug at an end thereof. The method comprises: while the electrical plug is connected to an electrical receptacle, controlling the apparatus to move about; and while the electrical plug is connected to an electrical receptacle and the apparatus moves about, controlling a length of the electrical power cord and a rate of dispensing the electrical power cord using a navigation plan stored as navigation data in a memory device of the apparatus, the navigation plan describing a navigation path and speed to be traveled by the robot during a specified time and/or event interval.
In a still further aspect of the invention, a method is provided for operating a mobile robot configured to dispense an electrical power cord having an electrical plug at an end thereof. The method comprises: while the electrical plug is connected to an electrical receptacle, controlling the mobile robot to move about; and while the electrical plug is connected to an electrical receptacle and the mobile robot moves about, controlling a length of the electrical power cord and a rate of dispensing the electrical power cord using a navigation plan stored as navigation instructions in one or more memory devices of the mobile robot, the navigation instructions being configured to cause one or more processors of the mobile robot to actuate one or more motors of the mobile robot which move the mobile robot with respect to some fixed point in relation to the electrical receptacle during a discrete computing event interval.

Apparatus and method for providing tethered electrical power to autonomous mobile robots


A gateway can be configured to receive measurement data that can characterizes measurements taken at a mobile device. The measurement data can include location information for the mobile device. The gateway can also be configured to calculate a location trust score for the mobile device. The location trust score can characterize the likelihood that the location information is at least one of accurate and trustworthy. The gateway can be further configured to generate trusted location information that characterizes a location of the mobile device based on the location trust score.

Location tracking can refer to the attaining of the current position of a device (e.g., mobile phone) stationary or moving. Localization may occur either via multilateration of radio signals between (several) radio towers of the network and the device, or simply via a global positioning system (GPS). To locate a wireless device (e.g., a mobile phone) using multilateration of radio signals, the wireless device emits a roaming signal to contact the next nearby antenna tower, but the process does not require an active call. In some examples, the location of the wireless device can be based on the signal strength to nearby antenna masts.
The Mobile Location Protocol (MLP) is an application-level protocol for receiving the position of Mobile Stations (e.g., mobile phones, wireless devices, etc.) independent of underlying network technology. The MLP serves as the interface between a Location Server and a location-based application. MLP Services are based on location services defined by the third generation partner project (3GPP).


Provided is an apparatus for filling containers with a positioning surface on which a container to be filled can be arranged, with a filling device which is suitable and intended for filling the container via its container opening. According to embodiments of the invention, the apparatus has a contour detection device which is suitable and intended for determining a contour of the container to be filled, as well as a determination device which, taking into account the contour of the container, detects an internal volume of the container.

In state-of-the-art beverage dispensers, the user is responsible for selecting the appropriate filling volume. This is done either by selecting the desired volume by pressing a button or in some other way, or by pressing a button for as long as the dispenser is to be filled. Both procedures have a great potential for error. For example, the container can be overfilled or the outside of the container can become dirty.
In addition, some of the filling medium is wasted with these procedures. Furthermore, this procedure is problematic, in particular with beverage dispensers where the user is not given a specific container, but any container is placed in the beverage dispenser by the user. Such procedures have become more common in recent times, also in consideration of environmental protection, since the user can also set a wide variety of reusable containers.


Disclosed is a fingerstall oximeter including a soft gum coat and a case, a display screen for displaying measurement results is provided on the upper part of the case and an open corresponding to the display screen is provided on the soft gum coat. The soft gum coat is slipped over the outside of the case, the case is used to accommodate and protect a circuit board, and a chamber for accommodating finger is formed and rounded by the upper part of the case and the bottom of the soft gum coat, for accommodating a finger to be measured. A first measurement module is provided on the bottom of the soft gum coat and a second measurement module is provided within the case at a position corresponding to the first measurement module.

With the development of the socioeconomy and the improvement of the living standard, people pay more attention to their health care, and more and more families begin measuring pulse rate and degree of blood oxygen saturation using some home testing apparatus, in particular some patients with respiratory diseases and cardiovascular disease. For example, more and more families have a favor in an oximeter. Current oximeters are generally classified into two kinds, i.e. finger-clipped oximeters and fingerstall oximeters, and the fingerstall oximeter is favored since it can provide better finger comfort and higher accuracy.
An existing fingerstall oximeter includes a soft gum coat and a case. A measurement element is provided on the soft gum coat, other circuit elements for processing data and displaying are provided within the case, and a chamber for accommodating finger is formed by the case and the soft gum coat. The measurer only needs to place his finger in the chamber for accommodating finger so as to obtain the pulse rate and the degree of blood oxygen saturation, so the fingerstall oximeter has advantages of simple measurement operations, small volume, easy to carry, and monitoring the pulse rate and the degree of the blood oxygen saturation at any moment etc.
For example, a Chinese Patent Application No. 200920246562.9 discloses such a fingerstall oximeter. The fingerstall oximeter includes a soft gum coat and a case, the soft gum coat and the case are formed integrally of same material to be a big cavity, and a finger stop plate is provided in the big cavity to divide it into two chambers, one is used for accommodating measurement elements and data processing elements, and the other is used for accommodating the finger to be measured, wherein a metal fender is embedded in the upper part of the soft gum coat for mounting and protecting the elements. Such an oximeter is not robust since there is only one metal fender used as a mounting bracket, and the assemblage is more complex since parts of the oximeter need to be mounted in the integrally formed big cavity respectively. In addition, the fingerstall oximeter has a small battery compartment which may only accommodate batteries of small electrical quantity and small size, thereby shortening the usage time, and it is not convenient for the user (especially old people) to replace the batteries since the large force combining the battery cover and the oximeter.

Beijing Choice Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.


A thick pellicle is allowed to have a non-flat shape and its shape is characterized to calculate corrections to be applied in exposures to compensate for the optical effects of the pellicle. The pellicle may be mounted so as to adopt a one-dimensional shape under the influence of gravity to make the compensation easier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing methods using lithographic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a target portion of a substrate. Lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In that circumstance, a patterning device, such as a mask, may be used to generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g., comprising part of, one or several dies) on a substrate (e.g., a silicon wafer) that has a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively exposed. Known lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at once, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through the projection beam in a given direction (the "scanning"-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction.
A pellicle is a thin, transparent film that is attached by a frame to the chrome side of a mask or reticle used in lithography. The pellicle and its frame keep the space near the chrome of the mask free of dust particles. In this way, any dust particles near the mask are kept away from the best object plane and will thus be imaged out of focus and will not cause defects. However, the standard pellicle material, a polymer film, can not be used when 157 nm radiation is used as the exposure radiation. The polymer film is not transparent to this wavelength and the exposure radiation would deteriorate the optical properties of the pellicle.
Therefore, a new pellicle material that is suitable for 157 nm radiation has been sought. The best solution found so far is to use fluorine-doped quartz. This is an inorganic material. In order to use it as a pellicle, the pellicle thickness has to be substantially increased, e.g., to 800 μm. Because the pellicle material has a different refractive index than the surrounding gas, such a thick pellicle causes imaging effect which cannot be neglected.
The main effect is an observed object plane shift. From behind the pellicle the object appears to be closer than it actually is. With an 800 μm thick pellicle that has a refractive index of 1.5, the observed object plane shift is about 280 μm. Because the object appears to have moved towards the projection system, this can be corrected by moving the mask stage away from the projection lens by about 280 μm. However, any deviations from planarity or in thickness of the pellicle will introduce other aberrations which will have undesirable effects on imaging.

Lithographic apparatus, device manufacturing methods, mask and method of characterizing a mask and/or pellicle


The decoy suspension system is attached to a tree branch or other suitable support and suspends a decoy above the ground. The system includes a reel containing a retractable and extendible line. The reel is attached to the branch or support with a strap having mating hook and loop fasteners. The ease of the reel is preferably camouflaged. The line is preferably a low visibility transparent monofilament fishing line or similar material. The distal end of the line has a small toggle pin attached thereto that can be inserted into the back of the decoy to attach the decoy to the line. The decoy is preferably formed of thin sheets of foam plastic. The decoy may be partially filled with any readily available material to add mass. The swinging and swaying of the decoy at the end of the line produces realistic movement that attracts game animals to the site.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to hunting, fishing, and trapping, and particularly to a decoy suspension system for adjustably suspending a lightweight decoy from a tree or other overhead structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Decoys have been known and used in hunting since the earliest of times. In their early history, decoys tended to be relatively crude and simple representations of the game animal being sought, due to the limited resources available for forming a realistic representation. As technology has advanced, more realistic decoys have been developed that can be difficult to distinguish from the real animal at a glance.
However, most decoys are merely visual representations of a given animal, and they do not imitate or replicate typical movement of the game animal being sought. The lack of animation in most decoys may tend to raise suspicions in many animals, and at the very least the lack of movement results in the decoy tending to blend into the stationary background, thus failing to catch the attention of the hunted animal through any movement of the decoy. While waterborne decoys, e.g., ducks and geese, may obviate this problem to some extent due to water movement affecting the decoys floating on the surface, this problem of lack of movement remains with land-based decoys.
As a result, some effort has been expended in providing animation for decoys. The means for animating the decoys may comprise relatively simple supports that allow the decoy to shift in the wind, to complex electrically powered devices that move the decoy and/or various appendages of the decoy in accordance with the electronic commands of the system, or as remotely commanded by the hunter. Such electrically powered animation results in relatively costly decoys, while simple supports do not generally provide the realistic movement desired,
An example may be found in turkey decoys. Many such decoys are formed of very lightweight materials, such as thin sheets of foam plastic, and are conventionally supported on metal rods or stakes that are driven into the ground. The upper portion of the rod passes through a loose hole in the bottom of the body of the decoy, and the upper tip of the rod supports the inside of the back of the decoy to allow the decoy to pivot upon the tip of the rod or stake. The object is for any wind to cause some movement of the decoy. However, it generally requires a fairly good breeze to produce any significant movement, and the resulting movement is generally only a pivoting motion about the tip of the rod or stake. Also, wild turkeys will sometimes attempt to mate with the decoy (if the decoy is a hen) or fight with the decoy (if a torn decoy). Either action often knocks the decoy from its pivot point atop the stake or rod, negating any attraction that might have been provided by the decoy.
Thus, a decoy suspension system solving the aforementioned problems is desired.


A multiple level voltage generator for a semiconductor memory device, comprising a back bias voltage charge pumping circuit for pumping charge to a back bias voltage node, a back bias voltage level detector for detecting the level of a back bias voltage at the back bias voltage node and generating first and second back bias voltage detection signals in accordance with the detected result, a high voltage charge pumping circuit for pumping charge to a high voltage node, a high voltage level detector for detecting the level of a high voltage at the high voltage node and generating first and second high voltage detection signals in accordance with the detected result, a control logic circuit for generating a control signal in response to the second back bias voltage detection signal from the back bias voltage level detector and the second high voltage detection signal from the high voltage level detector, and an oscillator for generating first and second output signals in response to the control signal from the control logic circuit, the first back bias voltage detection signal from the back bias voltage level detector and the first high voltage detection signal from the high voltage level detector and applying the generated first and second output signals to the back bias voltage charge pumping circuit and the high voltage charge pumping circuit, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a multiple level voltage generator for a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly to a multiple level voltage generator in which a single ring oscillator is used instead of a plurality of ring oscillators to drive a plurality of charge pumping circuits, so that power consumption can be reduced.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a back bias voltage generator and a high voltage generator are adapted to generate a low back bias voltage and a bootstrapped high voltage, respectively, which are used in a semiconductor memory device. The back bias voltage is applied to a well or a substrate to maintain a junction between the well or substrate and a general circuit at a reverse bias state, so as to separate them from each other. The bootstrapped high voltage is used to increase the current drive capability of an NMOS transistor and prevent an output voltage loss.
In a conventional multiple level voltage generator for a semiconductor memory device, a plurality of oscillators are provided to generate pulses to drive a plurality of charge pumping circuits. As the oscillators are increased in number, current consumption is increased, too. In particular, oscillators for the generation of back bias and high voltages are very large in current consumption.

Multiple level voltage generator for semiconductor memory device

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.


An eyeglass frame holder for holding and displaying eyeglasses of different size and thickness. The eyeglass frame holder has one or more vertical posts to which one or more supporting members are for supporting an eyeglass frame having two glass retaining portions joined by a bridge portion. A pair of retaining pins are symmetrically mounted onto each of the supporting members at a short distance from the vertical post to which the supporting member is attached. Each supporting member is connected to the vertical post in such a way so as to project horizontally from it. Each supporting member is also shaped and sized to fit into and support the bridge portion of the eyeglass frame. The pair of retaining pins extend coaxially in an horizontal direction perpendicular to the vertical post so as to come into contact and hold the glass retaining portions on both sides of the bridge portion below the same where the eyeglass frame is positioned onto the supporting member. Such allows the eyeglass frame to be held onto the eyeglass holder with its glass retaining portions extending in a substantially vertical plane. The above eyeglass frame holder may also be provided with a locker to keep the eyeglasses secure from any attempt of theft.

There are many eyeglass frame holders presently used in optical stores to display eyeglasses or sunglasses in a simulated in-use position.
Amongst these existing holders, there are eyeglass frame holders wherein, as aforesaid, the eyeglass frames are held with their bridges sitting onto supporting members attached to one or more vertical posts. In support of this contention, reference can be made to the contents of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,558,788; 4,724,966 and 4,890,745.
Other examples of existing eyeglass frame holders conceived by the Applicant are illustrated in the appended FIGS. 9 to 14 identified as "prior art".
The above mentioned eyeglass frame holders presently available on the market have fulfilled the needs of the industry from the 1950's to the 1970's. However, due to the proliferation of new eyeglass frame designs during the last two decades, there has been an ever-increasing number of eyeglass frames with different sizes, shapes, and thicknesses which do not at all fit properly into the existing eyeglass frame holders.
The introduction into the market of other types of eyeglass frames like those displayed with clip-ons (thicker product) or rimless and very thin wire eyeglass frames, have also made some of these eyeglass frame holders obsolete. In fact, eyeglass frames have become so different, so unique and so personal that most of the traditional display units have also become non-functional. Indeed, if use is made of some of the existing eyeglass display units, the lenses and/or frame of these eyeglasses may often be damaged. In fact, the resulting damage to eyeglasses is commonplace due to the contact of the lenses and/or frame with the hard surface of the hooks, especially when the product is too thick. This problem is particularly acute with clip-ons.
Additionally, since the space allocated to holding the frame's bridge is fixed, thicker frames must be squeezed in order to fit the space, whereas thinner frames will dangle loosely, which can lead to further damage.
Moreover, groups consisting of frames of different thicknesses will have an inconsistent inclination which creates an anaesthetic asymmetry.
Another problem associated with some of the existing eyeglass frame holders is that the eyeglass frames may be subject to theft since the bridges of the eyeglasses are not securely held in place by a suitable locking means.
Thus, there is a need for an improved eyeglass frame holder for attractively supporting eyeglass frames in a plurality of positions, which holder (1) provides stable and secure support for the eyeglass frames, (2) is inexpensive and (3) easy to assemble, and (4) permits versatility in the arrangement and configuration of the display.


Catheter tube 2 has a multiple of small bead-like projections 21 formed on the inner surface. The inner surface of the tube 2 comprises projections 21 and flat areas 22. A guide wire inserted into the lumen 5 of the tube 2 contacts its inner surface only at the projections 21. The catheter tube 2 has the inner surface embossed in such a way that the guide wire can be manipulated with high efficiency even if the diameter of the tube is very small.

This invention relates to a method of forming a multiple of small projections on the inner surface of comparatively small-diameter catheter tubes such as those in balloon dilatation catheters and cerebrovascular treating catheters. The invention also relates to comparatively small-diameter catheter tubes having a multiple of small projections formed on the inner surface.
One of the methods commonly adopted today in the treatment of myocardial infarction and angina pectoris is percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasy (PTCA), in which a dilatation catheter fitted with a balloon at an end is used to dilate the lesion (the area of stenosis) in a coronary artery, thereby improving the distal blood circulation. The balloon catheter used in PTCA comprises basically a shaft as the main body, a dilatation balloon fitted near the distal end of the shaft and a hub fitted at the proximal end of the shaft. The shaft as the main body has a first lumen that connects the hub to the balloon for inflating it with a pressurized fluid and a second lumen that extends beyond the hub and the balloon to the distal end of the catheter and through which a guide wire is to be passed.
Since the shaft needs at least two lumens having those capabilities, it is common practice to employ either a plastic tube having a multi-hole cross section such as a double-lumen tube or a coaxial shaft consisting of an inner and an outer tube. The inner tube of the coaxial shaft has a smooth inner surface as produced by either a common tubing method or an wire coating method.
With the recent expansion of the application of PTCA, an effort is being made to reduce the diameter of PTCA dilatation catheters. The ultimate purpose of this effort is to enable application to further distal lesion of the coronary artery or to reduce the invasion and, to this end, it is necessary to employ even finer guiding catheters. At the early stage of the development of PTCA, dilatation catheters had shaft sizes of at least 4 Fr (1.33 mm) but today most of them are 3 Fr (1 mm) and less. This is also true with guiding catheters, which are typically 9 Fr (3 mm), sometimes 6 Fr (2 mm), in size. Accordingly, the lumen of the dilatation catheter for the passage of the guide wire has become thinner and the resulting decrease in the clearance between the guide wire and the lumen has caused the problem of lower steerability.
Another class of small-diameter catheters are catheters for use in cerebrovascular embolization which is typically applied to aneurysms and arterio-venous malformation. With their distal end inserted to either the lesion in the brain or a nearby area, a liquid embolic substance such as a cyanoacrylate or a dimethyl sulfoxide solution of ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer, or a particulate embolic substance such as a polyvinyl alcohol granule or an embolic coil is injected into a vessel through the inserted distal end. Such catheters are also required to have a sufficient fineness to insure smooth insertion into vessels in the brain that are very thin and which have many bends and bifurcations.
As is generally known, the problem of reduced steerability of the guide wire through small-diameter catheters can be solved by reducing the contact area and, hence, the frictional resistance. It is thus anticipated that if the inner surface of the lumen of a dilation catheter for the passage of a guide wire is made sufficiently irregular to reduce the area of contact with the guide wire, the frictional resistance of the inner surface is reduced and, hence, the steerability of the guide wire is improved.
Two conventional methods for embossing the surface of a tube during extrusion molding are by cooling the lip of an extrusion die which is near the exit of resin and by performing extrusion with a profiled die.
Methods are also known that form small asperties on the inner surface of a tube. See, for example, JPB 89/16653 which teaches a method of extrusion molding a thermoplastic resin as the inner mold in the channel of a molten resin is vibrated to form asperities on the surface of the resin that is in contact with the inner mold. JPB 94/4301 teaches a method that comprises applying a coating of a silicone resin and an inorganic powder to the surface of a metal wire, baking the applied coating to form a primary film, then applying a tube forming resin, baking it, subsequently stretching the metal wire to an extent that does not exceed the yield point, thereby separating the tube from the primary film that has small asperities formed on the inner surface.
The method of embossing the tube surface by cooling the lip is applied extensively to the outer surface of tubes but not to the inner surface; from the structural viewpoint of the die, this method is very difficult to perform efficiently on small-diameter tubes and its use is limited to certain cases of inflation molding with a large die.
The other embossing technique which relies upon molding with a profiled die is only capable of forming ridges as strips and does not allow for molding by the wire coating method (i.e., a thin metal core is moved lengthwise as a resin is extruded through a small-bore die to cover the metal core successively); therefore, this method does not guarantee sufficient dimensional stability to enable the formation of a small-diameter tube.
The method disclosed in JPB 89/16653 requires large equipment to vibrate the inner mold and, in addition, controlling the stroke of vibrating the inner mold and the speed of extrusion in such a way as to form small asperities is very difficult to achieve. Furthermore, if a small-diameter tube is to be formed, the vibrating inner mold tends to cause unevenness in the wall thickness and other defects that will impair the dimensional stability of the part being molded.
The method described in JPB 94/4301 also has a problem in that the particles of inorganic powder shed off the metal wire during production to cause uneven asperties or remain within the lumen of the tube to potentially affect the patient when the catheter tube as the final product is inserted into his body. What should additionally be noted is that the tube formed by the method under consideration overlies the high points created by the particles of the inorganic powder on the surface of the metal wire; therefore, the tube produced is of such a structure that small recesses are formed in the generally flat inner surface. Since the guide wire will contact the generally flat areas of the inner surface of the tube, the frictional resistance developing on the guide wire will not be reduced by a satisfactory amount.
Under the circumstances, there are not available any catheter tubes that have small inside diameters not more than about 1 mm and that are embossed on the inner surface to such an extent that the frictional resistance on a guide wire can be reduced significantly.

Catheter tube and a method of processing the inner surface of a tube


A sensor switch 111a connected to a constant voltage Vc via a breeder resistor 114a and dropper diodes 112a and 113a is connected to a microprocessor 120 that configures a wire abnormality detecting device 100, and the electric potential of the connection point between the dropper diodes 112a and 113a is inputted to the microprocessor 120 as a switch logic signal D1 via a signal wire 105 and a series resistor 131a. The signal voltage level of the switch logic signal D1 is inputted to the microprocessor 120 via an AD converter 123, and the microprocessor 120 cooperates with a program memory 121 to perform a determination of whether or not the signal voltage is in an abnormal intermediate voltage state. However, during a transitional period when the switch logic signal is changing between high and low, mistaken determination is prevented by avoiding abnormality determination.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the improvement of a wire abnormality detecting device that is installed as a partial function in an in-vehicle electronic control device such as an engine control device or a transmission control device, for example, and in particular to a wire abnormality detecting device that detects an abnormality in a signal wire of a sensor switch that is inputted as a switch logic signal with respect to a microprocessor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sensor switches serving as various switch logic signals are connected to an in-vehicle electronic control device and, from the standpoint of safety control of the vehicle, detecting an abnormality such as a wire breakage abnormality of a signal wire, a ground fault abnormality that is a short circuit abnormality with a negative power source wire, and a short-to-supply fault abnormality that is a short circuit abnormality with a positive power source wire is performed.
It will be noted that wire abnormalities such as a wire breakage abnormality, a ground fault abnormality and a short-to-supply fault abnormality mentioned here are a concept that includes a short circuit abnormality between printed patterns resulting from conductive foreign matter or a soldering defect in an in-vehicle electronic control device or inside a jointly used sensor, or an abnormality resulting from a connection defect in a connecting connector, and abnormality detection including an abnormal state where these internal abnormalities cause an apparent wire abnormality is performed.
When the connected sensor switch is a 2 phase type encoder for detecting the rotation angle of a motor driven by a motor control device including a wire abnormality detecting function, for example, detection of an input wire abnormality can be performed by monitoring the corresponding relationship between the content of the drive command and the operating state of the encoder.
For example, the "encoder abnormality detecting device" of JP-A-11-64040 performs abnormality determination by whether or not the counting direction of an up/down counter with respect to 2 phase signals that an encoder generates matches a rotational direction that has been commanded.
Further, according to the "pulse encoder connection defect detecting circuit" of JP-A-2000-205893, technology is disclosed which compares and determines, by an encoder, an actual output voltage with a voltage level that is to be outputted by the encoder and transmits the abnormality determination result to an electronic control device.
As prior art when the connected sensor switch is a common contact or noncontact switch signal that detects the operation limit position of an actuator or the operating state of an operation switch, for example, there is the "switch, information detecting device having the same, and connection state detecting device for connector" of JP-A-11-283456.
According to JP-A-11-283456, a series resistor and a parallel capacitor are disposed with respect to a switch element, a pulse signal is supplied with respect to the switch element, and the voltage thereof is monitored by an AD converter to determine whether or not there is a wire abnormality.
Whereas the abnormality detecting device according to JP-A-11-64040 has the problem that abnormality determination cannot be performed in a state where the encoder is stopped, the connection defect detecting circuit according to JP-A-2000-205893 has the drawback that, although abnormality determination can be performed even in a state where the encoder is stopped, an abnormality determining circuit is disposed in the encoder and a signal wire for transmitting the determination result to the control device becomes additionally necessary.
Further, the detecting device according to JP-A-11-283456 has the problem that accurate abnormality determination cannot be performed because the output voltage of the AD converter changes due to the affects of a noise filter disposed in an input circuit of the sensor switch or the output voltage of the AD converter changes due to variations in the opening/closing timing of the sensor switch and the application timing of the pulse signal for measurement.


A system for a digital subscriber line (DSL) network with a DSL interface can operate with processing circuitry that can generate symbols in multicarrier communications with codewords for modulation of a parity check. The codewords can be aligned with symbol boundaries of the symbols in a continuous transmission of the multi-carrier communications. The processing circuitry reduces a number of parity bits by puncturing and a number of data bits for shortening of the codewords so that a codeword boundary is aligned with a symbol boundary for one or more symbols, or a transmission frame of symbols.

Wireless communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between a node (e.g., a transmission station, or modem) and a wireless device (e.g., a mobile device), or a user equipment (UE). Some wireless devices communicate using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, discrete multi-tone (DMT) symbols, or other standard type. The symbols can be used to separate a digital subscriber line (DSL) signals, for example, so that a usable frequency range is separated into different frequency bands or channels. DMT/OFDM systems can operate on multicarrier communication systems with a large number of carriers, e.g., 4096, 8192, or other such carriers. The transmitter as well as the receiver further utilizes storage for this amount of carrier data.
When using a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code as an inner code for LDPC coded modulation (LCM), the inner code operates on large code blocks, e.g., 12,000 bits. LCM uses a certain maximum number of LDPC bits per tone (or sub-carrier), typically 2-4 bits. In the case of 4 bits, the LDPC codeword can span over at least 3,000 DMT carriers. If a DMT symbol includes less than 3000 carriers, LDPC codewords can span over multiple DMT symbols, which will increase latency.
Furthermore, there can be data bits loaded on DMT carriers which are not necessarily processed by the LDPC code. Those bits have to be associated with the LDPC coded bits (LCM bits) for corresponding carriers. If the LDPC codeword spans multiple symbols, multiple DMT symbols have to be concurrently processed, which requires additional memory for storage of carrier data.
Another issue with the use of LCM is framing synchronization. If not all symbols in the frame are transmitted and LDPC codewords are spread over multiple symbols, the receiver has to know how many LDPC coded bits were in the last transmitted symbol. This information has to be communicated to the receiver, which can add further complexity efforts and robustness issues.

Low-density parity-check (LPDC) coded modulation (LCM) with alignment of LDPC codewords and discrete multi-tone (DMT) symbol boundaries