Disclosed herein is a thin film type common mode filter including: a base substrate made of an insulating material; a first insulating layer formed on the base substrate; a coil-shaped internal electrode formed on the first insulating layer; a second insulating layer formed on the internal electrode; an external electrode terminal having a vertical section connected to a side surface of the internal electrode and a horizontal section extended from an upper end of the vertical section toward a horizontal direction to thereby form a parallel surface spaced apart from the internal electrode by a predetermined distance; and a ferrite resin layer formed between the horizontal section of the external electrode terminal and the internal electrode.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a thin film type common mode filter, and more particularly, to a thin film type common mode filter in which a ferrite resin layer is formed in a spaced space between the horizontal section of the external electrode terminal and an internal electrode to decrease a parasitic capacitance component.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, electronic devices such as cellular phones, electric home appliances, personal computers (PCs), personal digital assistants (PDAs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs), navigations, or the like, have been digitized and accelerated. Since the electronic devices are susceptible to stimulus from the outside, a circuit is easily damaged or a signal is distorted in the case in which a small level of abnormal voltage and a high frequency noise are introduced from the outside into an internal circuit of the electronic device.
The abnormal voltage and the noise are resulted from a switching voltage generated in the circuit, a power supply noise included in a power supply voltage, unnecessary electromagnetic signal, and an electromagnetic noise, or the like, and a common mode filter (CMF) has been used as a means for preventing the abnormal voltage and the high frequency noise from being introduced to the circuit.
In general, in a differential signal transmission system, a passive component such as a diode, a varistor, or the like, has been separately used in order to suppress an electro static discharge (ESD) generated at input and output terminals together with the CMF for removing a common mode noise.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a common mode filter structure of the related art. Referring to FIG. 1, the general common mode filter includes a base substrate 1, a first insulating layer 2 formed on the base substrate 1, an internal electrode 3 formed on the first insulating layer 2, a second insulating layer 4 formed on the first insulating layer 2 so as to receive the internal electrode 3, an external electrode terminal 5 formed on the second insulating layer 4 so as to ground an exposed end of the internal electrode 3, and a ferrite resin layer 6 formed on the second insulating layer 4.
However, in the above-mentioned common mode filter of the related art, a parasitic capacitance is generated due to structural properties.
In particular, as shown in part "A" of FIG. 1, the parasitic capacitance is intensively generated at different electrified circuits, that is, above and below a vicinity at which the internal electrode 3 and the external electrode terminal 5 are mutually close to each other, in particular, in the vicinity of a boundary therebetween.
The parasitic capacitance is a main reason that a self resonant frequency (SRF) is damaged.


A buck-boost converter circuit, such as a non-inverting buck-boost converter, can include two separate control loop circuits to separately control operation of the buck circuit and the boost circuit. The control loop circuits may include two different voltage reference signals, two different current reference signals, two different current feedback signals, two different voltage feedback signals, or a combination thereof. The buck-boost converter circuit can operate in three modes: a buck mode, a transition mode, and a boost mode.

A buck-boost converter is a type of switched power converting circuit that combines the circuits of a buck converter (used to achieve a lower output voltage than the input voltage) and a boost converter (used to achieve a higher output voltage than the input voltage). A buck-boost converter can provide a regulated direct current (DC) output as the input voltage varies above or below the output voltage.
Further, a non-inverting buck-boost converter can have four active switches to implement both step-down and step-up power conversion using only one inductor and can provide an output voltage with the same polarity as the input voltage. To improve the efficiency, it is suitable to control the converter to operate in buck mode when the input voltage is greater than the output voltage and in boost mode when the input voltage is less than the output voltage.
However, the performance of the converter can be degraded when the input voltage approaches the output voltage due to the occurrence of an operational dead zone, which can degrade an operational performance of the converter when the converter shifts from buck operating mode to boost operating mode. This is because the duty ratio of the switches is hard to generate in the ranges of zero percent to minimum duty (>0%) and maximum duty (<100%) to hundred percent in practical applications. In this case, the converter will swing between the buck mode and boost mode resulting in increased output voltage ripples and potential unstable operation. The embodiments described herein provide solutions to these problems.


An electrolyte for a lithium ion secondary battery and a lithium ion secondary battery comprising the electrolyte. The electrolyte comprises a non-aqueous organic solvent, a lithium salt, and at least one aromatic phosphate compound. Exothermic reactions are inhibited in the battery upon overcharge or during high-temperature storage to prevent an increase in the temperature of the battery, resulting in an improvement in safety. In addition, the battery exhibits good swelling stability during high-temperature storage as well as improved cycle life characteristics. The electrolyte further comprises an ethylene carbonate-based compound. The presence of the ethylene carbonate-based compound leads to further improvements in the overcharge safety, high-temperature safety and cycle life characteristics of the battery.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to an electrolyte for a lithium ion secondary battery and a lithium ion secondary battery comprising the electrolyte. More specifically, aspects of the present invention relates to an electrolyte for a lithium ion secondary battery that uses at least one aromatic phosphate compound to achieve improved characteristics in terms of overcharge safety, high-temperature safety and excellent life cycle characteristics, as well as a lithium ion secondary battery comprising the electrolyte.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the initial charge of a lithium ion battery, a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film, also called a passivation layer, is formed on the surface of a graphite negative electrode. Once the SEI film is formed, lithium ions are prevented from undergoing side reactions with the graphite negative electrode or other materials and the amount of the lithium ions in the electrolyte is reversibly maintained, resulting in the maintenance of stable charge/discharge characteristics. The SEI film slowly collapses during high-temperature exposure in a fully charged state with the passage of time, and as a result, the surface of the negative electrode is exposed. The exposed portions of surface of the negative electrode continuously react with the surrounding electrolyte to release gases. This continuous gas release increases the internal pressure of the battery. Particularly, the thickness of a prismatic battery increases because of the gas release.
Further, when a lithium ion secondary battery is overcharged, excessive precipitation and insertion of lithium occur in both the positive and negative electrodes of the battery, resulting in thermal instability of the electrodes. This thermal instability may induce rapid exothermic thermal decomposition reactions between the electrodes and the electrolyte. In an extreme case, thermal runaway may occur, posing a danger of rupture of the battery as well as fire.
To solve the above problems, methods have been developed for the preparation of electrolytes using aromatic compounds as redox shuttle additives. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,968 discloses a non-aqueous lithium ion battery using a benzene-related compound such as 2,4-difluoroanisole to interrupt the overcharge current and therefore prevent thermal runaway occurring because of the overcharge current. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,834 describes a method for improving the safety of a battery by incorporating small amounts of suitable aromatic additives such as biphenyl, 3-chlorothiophene and furan into an electrolyte. The additives are electrochemically polymerized at abnormally high voltages to increase the internal resistance of the battery. These redox shuttle additives increase the internal temperatures of batteries at the early stages due to heat generated by exothermic oxidation reactions. The early increased temperature serves to rapidly and uniformly block pores of separators inserted in the batteries to suppress overcharge reactions. Another function of the redox shuttle additives is that polymerization of the additives on the surface of positive electrodes consumes the overcharge current during overcharge to protect the batteries. However, the overcharge current cannot be sufficiently removed by the polymerization of the additives and large amounts of gases are still released from the decomposition of the additives due to redox reactions and therefore continue to cause severe swelling of the batteries.

Electrolyte for lithium ion secondary battery and lithium ion secondary battery comprising the same


When interworking two or more networks, such as a wireless local access network (WLAN) and a mobile communication network, user billing and service charging should be accurately collected and processed. To do so, certain types of service usage and charging information for certain users can be deleted depending upon the type of service provided to the user. Also, service usage and charging information can be periodically collected depending upon the type of service being provided. Furthermore, WLAN wireless access service usage and charging information, as well as mobile communication network service charging information can be collected upon correlation therebetween.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated structure of a mobile communication and wireless local area networks, and more particularly, to handling charging (billing) information when both a WLAN service and a mobile communication network service are used.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various techniques for interworking (i.e., integrating or converging) a mobile communication network with a wireless local area network (WLAN) to allow mobile communication network services and WLAN services to be used together are being developed.
Mobile communication networks and wireless local area networks will be considered here for exemplary purposes. However, this is not meant to limit the applicability of the present invention teachings in any way.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of how the services of a wireless local area network (WLAN) and of a mobile communication network can be provided together to various users.
As shown in FIG. 1, a WLAN uses IEEE 802.11 standard technology and HIPERLAN technology to support low-cost, high-speed wireless communications in "hot spot" regions, such as airports or schools, where there are many users. Also, a mobile communication network employs third generation technology, such as cdma2000 or WCDMA, to support high mobility wireless communications.
In the interworking network structure of FIG. 1, a user employing a single wireless communication device (e.g., user equipment (UE)), can access a low-cost WLAN in a hot spot region that supports WLAN wireless access services, while in other regions, the user can access a mobile communication network to receive wireless communication services. Here, the interworking network structures can be classified into two types according to the services requested by the user as follows.
The first type of interworking network structure is a configuration in which the authentication and charging (billing) for usage of the WLAN and the mobile communication network are combined and managed, and the WLAN and mobile communication network service provision are operated independently. Namely, the authentication and charging for the WLAN communication service are provided through the authentication server and the charging server of the mobile communication network.
The second interworking network structure is a configuration in which authentication and charging are combined and managed as in the first interworking network structure, while additional services exclusively provided from the mobile communication network is provided to the user via a WLAN wireless access service. Namely, in the second interworking network structure, while using WLAN wireless access services, additional services provided by the mobile communication network are also provided together therewith.
The related art and the present invention will be described with reference to the second type of interworking network structure shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, comprising a mobile communication network and a WLAN are connected, wherein a 3GPP home network 220 is used as the mobile communication network for exemplary purposes.
In FIG. 2, there is an AAA (Authentication, Authorization, Accounting) server 222, which is a network element of the 3GPP home network (mobile communication network) 220 responsible for handling communication usage authorization and charging information for wireless communication users. The HSS/HLR (Home Location Register/Home Subscriber System) 224, 226, connected with the AAA server 222, are network elements that manage information regarding the users registered with the mobile communication network. The OCS (Online Charging System) 228, connected to the AAA server 222, is a network element that manages in an on-line manner the communication service usage amount so that pre-paid users are provided with services that are limited to their pre-paid budget. The CGw/CCF (Charging Gateway/Charging Collection Function) 230, connected with the AAA server 222, is a network element that collects and manages charging information for users. The Packet Data Gateway (PDGW) 240 is a node to allow access from the WLAN 210 to the services provided by the mobile communication network 220.
In the interworking network of FIG. 2, user equipment (UE) 200 may request a service from the 3GPP home network 220 via a WLAN. Here, user data traffic is sent not only to the WLAN access network 210, but also to the packet data gateway 240 in the 3GPP home network 220. When WLAN communication services and services of the mobile communication network are both provided during a single session (i.e., in one call connection), charging (billing) for both services must be applied properly.
In the interworking network structure of FIG. 2, charging information for the communication service of a related art WLAN is generated at the WLAN access network 210 and sent to the CGw/CCF 230 via the AAA server 222.
Thereafter, the CGw/CCF 230 uses the charging information provided by the AAA 222 server to calculate the service usage charges of using the communication services of the WLAN and using the additional services of the mobile communication network.
FIG. 3 illustrates the second type of interworking network structure wherein the mobile communication network provides additional services. The structure of FIG. 3 is the same as that of FIG. 2, but with the addition of a mobile (communication) network additional service provision node 350 connected with the PDGW 340 and the CGw/CCF 330. Here, the mobile communication network additional service provision node supports the providing of additional services, such as Internet protocol (IP) multimedia service (IMS), multimedia message service (MMS), multicast and broadcast multimedia service (MBMS) or other multimedia services, by the mobile communication network.
In FIG. 3, similar to FIG. 2, user equipment (UE) 300 may request an additional service from the 3GPP home network 320 via a WLAN. Here, user data traffic is sent from the additional service provision node 350 of the 3GPP home network 320 to the UE 300 via the PDGW 340 and the WLAN access network 310. When additional services of the mobile communication network are provided via the WLAN access network during a single session (i.e., in one call connection), charging (billing) for usage of WLAN access network services and charging (billing) for usage of additional services of the mobile communication network must be applied properly.
In the interworking network structure of FIG. 3, charging information for the communication service of a related art WLAN is generated at the WLAN access network, 310 and sent to the CGw/CCF 330 via the AAA server 322. Meanwhile, the charging information for the additional service of the mobile communication network is generated at the additional service provision node 350 and sent to the CGw./CCF 330.
Thereafter, the CGw/CCF 330 uses the charging information provided by the AAA 322 server and the additional service provision node 350, respectively, to calculate the service usage charges of using the wireless access services of the WLAN and using the additional services of the mobile communication network.
For interworking networks, efforts are being made to allow the charging functions ordinarily provided by the WLAN, to be handled by the mobile communication network. Related art service charging and billing methods consider two types of charging functions; pre-payment charging and post-payment charging.
FIG. 4A illustrates one example of service authorization and charging methods according to the related art. Referring to FIG. 4A, when a user (customer or subscriber) requests setup (establishment) of a call for communication with the interworking network (step 1); the AAA server requests from the HSS/HLR, user information that is necessary for authentication (step 2); the HSS/HLR sends the requested user information to the AAA server (step 3); and the AAA server authenticates the user according to the user information.
Then, for pre-payment users, the AAA server inquires the OCS regarding the remaining balance for the user to ensure that the user does not exceed the pre-paid limit of his service usage (step 5a).
For all users, the AAA server informs the CGw/CCF of the service usage amount and then after a certain period of time, the entire service use amount is confirmed and the charges associated with that use is charged and billed to the user (step 5b).
FIG. 5A illustrates another example of service authorization and charging methods according to the related art. FIG. 5A shows a process of collecting charging information for information related to charging (communication service usage amount) according to service usage after the setup and authentication steps are successfully completed for a user wishing to receive wireless access services from the WLAN and services from the mobile communication network.
When a user requests to use the interworking network (step 1), the AAA server obtains authentication information and charging method information for the user from the HSS.HLR, and performs authorization. Once authorization is successful, the AM server informs the WLAN about the approved authorization and the pre-set transmitting period for sending the charging information (steps 2 and 3). The WLAN access network then allows communication to begin and the communication between the user and the network commences (step 4).
Once communication begins, the WLAN periodically sends the service usage amount to the AAA server (step 5). Then, the AAA server, according to the charging method for the user, cooperates with the OCS to check whether the service usage amount is within the pre-paid amount for pre-payment users (step 6). If the service usage amount exceeds the pre-paid amount, the user is informed via the WLAN that communications shall end. For all users, the AAA server sends the service usage amount information from the WLAN to the CGw/CCF (step 7).
FIG. 6A is a flow diagram showing the steps in providing an additional service from the mobile communication network via the communication service of the WLAN.
In steps 1 and 2, WLAN validation and authentication of the communication service for the user takes place, and in steps 3 and 4, the authentication for the additional service of the mobile communication network occurs. Here, the use authentication of the communication service at the WLAN is performed at the AAA server, while the use authentication of the additional service of the mobile communication network is performed by the additional service provision node in the 3GPP home network.
Thereafter, when actual communication begins and both the WLAN wireless access service and the additional service of the mobile communication network are provided during a single session (one call connection), as shown in steps 5a and 5b, the CGw/CCF of the mobile communication network periodically collects the charging information of the WLAN and the mobile communication network and calculates the use charges for the WLAN wireless access service and the additional service of the mobile communication network.
In the CGw/CCF, the use charges are calculated on the basis of the amount of communication service and amount of additional service during a user's session (one call connection). The charging information are collected and calculated by using the charging information for the communication service of the WLAN and the charging information for the additional service of the mobile communication network (also based on the user's session), that are recorded and used as identifiers (or standard values) for calculation.
The CGw/CCF collects the charging information from the WLAN and the mobile communication network by using a session ID and a charging ID as identifiers for discriminating between the charging information per each user session for the WLAN and the mobile communication network. In the WLAN, the session ID is generated by an access point (AP) existing within the WLAN access network, and the charging ID is generated by the additional service provision node within the mobile communication network.
Here, the session ID provided by the WLAN can differ depending upon the protocol used in the WLAN and can have a length of, for example, less than 4 bytes, while the charging ID provided by the mobile communication network can have a length of, for example, 4 bytes or more.
As described above, regarding the charging information in an interworking network of a wireless communication system, the charging information of the WLAN wireless access service and that of the mobile communication network additional service are independently collected. Here, the charging information for the WLAN wireless access service employing a session ID as an identifier (standard value) and is sent to the CGw/CCF via the AAA server in the WLAN access network, while the charging information for the mobile communication network additional service employing the charging ID is sent from the additional service provision node directly to the CGw/CCF.
However, in the second type of interworking network structure, when the user is provided with additional services from the mobile communication network via the WLAN wireless access service, the charging information for the WLAN wireless access service and for the mobile communication network additional service, respectively, are independently collected. Also, respectively different identifiers are uses to distinguish the charging information of the WLAN and that of the mobile communication network according to each session.
Accordingly, even if the charging information generated for a single session from the WLAN and the mobile communication network are collected by the CGw/CCF, because the CGw/CCF is not aware of any relationship between the session ID and the charging ID, the CGw/CCF cannot determine that the charging information from the AAA server and the additional service provision node, respectively, are for the same session. Namely, the CGw/CCF cannot determine that the two types of charging information were generated for a single connection between the user and the two networks. This type of problem exists not only for IMS services, but also for 3GPP services such as MMS and MBMS.
As such, when supporting an additional service provided by the mobile communication network via the WLAN wireless access service, the network provider has difficulties in accurately collecting and managing charging information for users of the interworking network. In particular, the network provider cannot calculate accurate charges per each session, and thus cannot provide accurate billing per session to interworking network users.

Handling charging information in interworking structure of mobile communication and wireless local area networks


An electrical connector (100) includes an insulative housing (1) having a pair of opposite traversal ends and a plurality of slots, a number of contacts (21) received in the slots of the insulative housing (1), at least a latch (4) having a main body, a hook extending forward therefrom and a resilient tab extending rearward therefrom pivotally assembled to the end of the housing (1). The latch (4) is partially located inside of the traversal end of the insulative housing (1).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electrical connector, and more particularly to a high speed connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,668 discloses a micro coaxial connector, which comprises an insulative housing having a pair of retention portions, a pair of latch devices having a pair of receiving cavities and spring tabs, a contact set and a shield. When each latch device assembles to the insulative housing, the receiving cavity receives the retention portion of the housing and the spring tab is exposed to outside. The exposed spring tab may be damaged so as to make the latch unuseful. Additionally, the prior art connector does not have a header in the insulative housing, therefore, mating the micro coaxial connector with a complementary connector by pushing the insulative housing may not be easy.
Hence, a micro coaxial connector is needed to overcome the problems encountered in the related art.

Micro coaxial cable connector having unique insulative housing


The present invention relates a method for chemical testing, comprising culturing cells in a first plant-derived nanofibrillar cellulose (NFC) hydrogel to obtain in vivo like cells; exposing the in vivo like cells to a test chemical; optionally within another plant-derived NFC hydrogel; incubating the exposed in vivo like cells; detecting during or after incubating, the impact of the test chemical on the in vivo like cells by at least one detection; and removing the plant-derived NFC hydrogel at least once at any stage after obtaining the in vivo like cells and before at least one detection used for detecting the impact of the test chemical on the in vivo like cells. The invention further relates to the use of plant-derived NFC hydrogel in a method for chemical testing, the use of in vivo like cells obtained by culturing cells in plant-derived NFC hydrogel for chemical testing and to a kit for chemical testing comprising plant-derived NFC hydrogel, instructions and a cell or test chemical library.

There is an increasing interest in in vitro models for drug and chemical testing in order to reduce, refine and replace the use of animals. Although animal experiments are still an important part of pharmaceutical research, animal experiments may not mirror human due to the interspecies differences in drug biotransformation. Depending on the pharmacokinetic parameter the translation from animal (usually mouse, rat) to human may be impossible or feasible. It is known that the overall volume of drug distribution is governed by nonspecific drug binding and partitioning to the tissues and this is similar in man and animals, but prediction of drug distribution to individual cell types or tissues in humans is more challenging. Thus, animal experiments may fail to predict the safety or effectiveness problems. Poor translation of animal results to the humans (about 90% of the drug candidates fail in the clinical studies) has been addressed by FDA. Furthermore, animal experimentation has been criticized for decades on the basis of ethical and reliability problems.
Examples of current in vitro liver models for drug discovery and chemical testing comprises human liver slices (in vivo microenvironment), human primary hepatocytes, human based hepatic cell lines, stem cell derived hepatic cells, liver microsomes and recombinant drug-metabolizing enzymes. However, the dissatisfaction with current liver cell models has promoted the development of numerous new cell culture techniques for liver cells to retain hepatocyte phenotype and functions. The most widely adopted technologies are culture medium modifications, culture matrix modification, co-culturing with non-parenchymal cells, three-dimensional culture techniques and bioreactor and refusion techniques.
Culture experiments with human cells avoid the pitfalls of the species differences. However, although cell models are nowadays widely used in pharmaceutical research and development, their value is not always evident. Mostly cell culture experiments are carried out in 2D format using conditions that may be quite different from the real physiological situations. Taken the environmental factors in cell growth and differentiation, the differences of cell culture conditions may lead to erroneous conclusions in the experiments. Therefore, there is a continuing need for improved cell culture systems that would result in proper cellular phenotype, and more reliable cell based research in many fields of biomedicine. Artificial extracellular matrix (ECM) mimicking 3D matrices have emerged as a potential strategy towards more realistic in vivo like cell culture systems. The 3D matrices (i.e. cell culture scaffolds), are based on natural and/or synthetic biomaterials. In essence, the scaffold should lead to cellular functions that are identical to the native state of the particular cell type.
Recently, the interest has arisen to apply plant derived NFC in various areas, including biomedical and pharmaceutical applications as well as tissue engineering. In higher plants, cellulose is organized in morphologically complex structure consisting of β(1→4) D-glucopyranose chains. These chains are laterally bound by hydrogen bonds to form microfibrils with a diameter in nanoscale, which are further organized in microfibril bundles. Furthermore, cellulose molecules are associated with other polysaccharides (hemicelluloses) and lignin in plant cell walls, resulting in even more complex morphologies. The cellulose nanoscale fibers can be released from the highly ordered structure by various methods resulting in different grades of nanosized celluloses.
Despite the ongoing research and development in the area there is still a need for more reliable in-vitro models. For example optimized cell culture systems have enormous potential in basic biomedical research, drug development, and cell-based transplantations. Predictive cell models for preclinical drug discovery are needed to improve the current success rate of 10% in clinical drug testing.
Drug discovery and development is a complicated process that takes in average 10-15 years. The entire process is comprised of several stages from target identification through preclinical studies to clinical trials in humans. Only 1/10 of compounds that enter clinical trials qualifies through the process and reaches the market. This means that preclinical studies are not able to properly predict the behavior of novel compounds in the human body. Especially predictive ability and reproducibility of preclinical tests need improvement.
There is also still a need for the development, harmonization and use of generally acceptable, scientifically sound methodologies for the evaluation of risks to human health from exposure to chemicals of different kind in order to provide improved methods for chemical testing.

Plant-derived nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogel for cell culture and chemical testing


In a communication system, a content server reads required data from a content database and transmits the data by packet communications over public communication lines, and a network management server receives and stores the required information from the public communication lines. The network management server sends the temporarily stored data to plural transmitter stations. Each transmitter station has a corresponding dividing device. Each dividing device receives and relays to the linked transmitter station only the amount of data required for transmission to the linked transmitter station. The remaining data is simply passed by the dividing device to the next dividing device without processing the data in any way.

Communication systems having multiple transmitter stations disposed alongside a road for transmitting data to passing vehicles have been proposed in JP-A-2001-268625 (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/804,475 filed on Mar. 13, 2001) now U.S. Pat. No. 6,909,893. Improvements in communication protocols have also made it possible to transmit large amounts of data in a short time. This has made it feasible to transmit video signals and other types of information containing large amounts of data from the roadside transmitter stations to passing vehicles.
Despite improvements in data communication protocols, data transmission needs exceed the transmission capacity of the protocol. In order to transmit large amounts of data to vehicles travelling at high speeds, it is therefore necessary to install multiple transmitter stations alongside the road so that the vehicles receive all of the transmitted data by collecting small blocks of the data from plural transmitter stations.
One proposed system for transmitting data in segments from plural transmitter stations is shown in FIG. 12A. A network management server 200 first saves the data to be distributed to the plural transmitter stations in a memory, and then sends the data via a communication line to a switch 201. This communication line could be a wired or wireless path. Data traffic flow along this communication line is controlled by the network management server 200 segmenting or dividing the transmission data into packets for transmission to each transmitter station, and addresses each packet to a particular transmitter station 202. As shown in FIG. 12B, each packet includes a header (H1 to H4) and data (D1 to D4). The header indicates address to be directed. The switch 201 then reads the address information in each packet to distribute each data packet to the proper transmitter station 202.
This network server 200 executes processing shown in FIG. 13. The first task after server operation starts is to receive and store data required for transmission a memory of the network management server 200 (step 211). It then determines the size of the packets, that is, how much data to send to each of the plural transmitter stations 202 (step 212). The packet address identifying the transmitter station to which the packet will be sent is also determined when determining the packet size at step 212. The required packet size is determined according to the transmission capacity of the transmitter station 202 and the importance of the data.
A data block of the size determined for transmission to one transmitter station 202 is then extracted (step 213). If the packet is to be sent to transmitter station TR1, for example, the address of transmitter station TR1 is added to the packet as the header H1 (step 214). The data D1 is then sent as a transmission packet to the switch 201 (step 215). Step 216 then detects if there is any remaining data to be sent. If there is (YES), steps 213 to 215 repeat to generate and send the next data packet to the next transmitter station, such as transmitter station TR2. When step 216 determines that all of the data has been distributed to the transmitter stations, operation ends.
Packets containing address information are thus input from the network management server 200 to the switch 201, and processed by the switch 201. The switch 201 receives the packet, reads the address from the input packet header, and send the data to the addressed transmitter station 202. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 14, when the switch 201 operation starts, it receives a packet and stores the received packet to a local memory (step 221). The switch 201 then reads and interprets the address of the transmitter station to which the packet must be sent (step 222). The switch 201 thus determines that the received packet is to be sent to transmitter station TR1 in this example (step 223), and then sends the packet to the addressed transmitter station (step 224). If there are four transmitter stations TR1 to TR4, for example, this operation repeats for each of the four transmitter stations 202 to send data to all of the transmitter stations 202, and operation then ends.
The network management server 200, switch 201 and transmitter stations 202 operates as shown in FIG. 15. The network management server 200 and switch 201 distribute the data received from a central higher-order server 204 to the transmitter stations 202, and the transmitter stations 202 simply retransmit the received data. More specifically, the network management server 200 must store data received via a communication network, allocate the data to particular transmitter stations, and generate and address transmission packets. The switch 201 must then read all of the received data and distribute the data to each of the addressed transmitter stations 202.
The burden of allocating data is thus concentrated on the management server 200 and switch 201. Operation of the network management server 200 and switch 201 thus becomes a bottleneck making it difficult to transmit large amounts of information at high speeds using transmitter stations 202 installed along an expressway or other road where the vehicles travel at high speed, particularly when there are many lanes and when large amounts of data such as video images are distributed.

Communication system and method having communication data dividing and transmitting functions


A method of processing light fraction tar includes pre-heating the light fraction tar before directing it through a reactor. The reactor has a top and a bottom and a surface spanning between said top and said bottom. A film of the light fraction tar flows down the surface under the force of gravity and with heated gas blowing thereon. The portion of the film that reaches the bottom of the reactor has improved properties making it more widely useful for carbon products.

High softening point pitches are difficult to produce, but have many benefits, including relatively high coking values and reduced emissions during carbonation and graphitization processes. These pitches are useful for many applications, including, for example, binder pitch and the production of carbon fibers. In the past, many methods of producing high softening point pitches have been employed, such as, for example vacuum distillation, steam stripping, and addition of additive.

Falling film reactor for light tar oxidation

JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., as collateral agent


A paper shredding roller includes a rotatable knife shaft, a plurality of circular knives and a plurality of circular spacers. The knife shaft has a polygonal cross-section. Each of the circular knives is provided on the knife shaft and has a polygonal central through hole that corresponds with the cross-section of the knife shaft so as to permit the knife shaft to extend fittingly therethrough. Each of the circular knives is provided with a plurality of equiangularly spaced unidirectional cutting elements, the number of which is unequal to a number of sides of the knife shaft. The cutting knives are provided on the knife shaft in such a manner that the cutting elements of each circular knife are displaced angularly by a predetermined angle from corresponding ones of the cutting elements of an adjacent one of the circular knives so that the cutting elements of the circular knives are arranged on a number of helical rows that extend along the rotatable knife shaft. Each of the circular spacers is provided on the knife shaft between every two adjacent ones of the circular knives.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a paper shredding roller for a paper shredder and to the method for manufacturing the same, more particularly to an improved paper shredding roller which is capable of cutting paper documents into smaller pieces than the prior art.
2. Description of the Related Art
Paper shredders are used to replace tearing or burning of confidential documents when destroying the latter. Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional paper shredder for cutting paper documents into strips is shown to comprise a pair of shredding rollers (A) which respectively include a plurality of flat circular knives that are separated by circular spacers. The cutting edge of the circular knives may be plain or saw-toothed. A main drawback of the conventional paper shredder shown in FIG. 1 is that the size of the strips produced thereby is relatively large, thus making it possible to piece together the shredded documents. Furthermore, since the strips are not compact, the enclosure (not shown) for receiving the strips is easily filled.
FIG. 2 is an illustration of another conventional paper shredder. The paper shredder comprises a pair of shredding rollers (B) which rotate synchronously in opposite directions and which respectively include a plurality of spaced circular knives (B1). The periphery of each of the circular knives (B1) is formed with a predetermined number of equiangularly spaced ratchet teeth-type cutting elements (B11). The cutting elements (B11) of the circular knives (B1) are aligned, thereby forming a number of axially extending rows of cutting elements (B11) along the length of a rotatable knife shaft (B2). The paper shredder shown in FIG. 2 can cut paper documents into smaller bits and pieces, thereby overcoming the drawbacks of the paper shredder shown in FIG. 1. However, since contact between the cutting elements (B11) of the circular knives (B1) of the shredding rollers (B) occurs when the paper shredder is in operation, resistance to movement of the shredding rollers (B) is produced. Thus, a motor with a greater output power is required in order to overcome the resistance that is generated, thereby resulting in higher costs.
Still another example of a conventional paper shredder has a pair of shredding rollers that are formed as cylindrical shafts with a plurality of staggered cutting teeth provided thereon. Contact between the cutting teeth of the shredding rollers does not occur when the paper shredder is in use, thereby overcoming the drawbacks associated with the paper shredder shown in FIG. 2. However, a computer numeric controlled (CNC) process is employed so as to form the cutting teeth on the shredding rollers. The shredding rollers are thus expensive and inconvenient to manufacture.

Paper shredding roller for a paper shredder


Provided herein are methods for the treatment of abnormal inflammation and inflammatory conditions comprising mucosal administration of an effective amount of an interleukin (e.g. IL-2) or a fragment or derivative thereof. Also provided herein are pharmaceutical compositions for mucosal administration for the treatment of abnormal inflammation and inflammatory conditions, the composition comprising said interleukin or fragment or derivative.

Inflammation is a normal and vital response mechanism assisting in protecting the body from infection and injury. However abnormal or uncontrolled inflammatory responses can result in the development of acute or chronic inflammatory disorders or conditions. Chronic inflammatory conditions can be debilitating and cause enormous discomfort and pain to sufferers. Moreover inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis are increasing in prevalence as populations around the world age.
One fundamental failing of traditional chemically based treatments for inflammatory conditions is that these agents target only the relief of pain associated with the condition rather than addressing the underlying pathophysiology of the condition. Also associated with continued steroid use are significant side effects including stomach ulcers and bleeding. For example, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been used for many years in anti-inflammatory therapy, however it is well known that NSAIDs produce lesions in the gastrointestinal tract depending on the length of the treatment and on the type of drug. This problem has of particular importance in cases where the therapy must be protracted for a long time, such as in the treatment of chronic inflammatory disorders including rheumatoid arthritis, where long term treatment is needed to keep the inflammatory state and associated pain under control.
Accordingly, there is a growing interest in the development of biological agent-based therapies in an effort to reduce such side effects and slow or reverse the progression of the disease.
Moreover, as most inflammatory and autoimmune diseases are chronic diseases requiring prolonged treatment, injection-based therapies and treatments requiring administration by physicians or other healthcare professionals are not ideal. Thus, the development of alternative therapies and alternative administration approaches is a focus of much research.
One biological agent that has been considered promising for the treatment of some cancers is the cytokine interleukin-2 (IL-2). A recombinant form of interleukin-2, aldesleukin (Proleukin®) has received FDA approval for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and renal cell carcinoma via injection. However to date the widespread and effective employment of IL-2 for therapeutic purposes has been considerably hampered by the significant side effects associated with its administration, due largely to the intravenous or subcutaneous delivery method required and the associated high doses necessary to achieve any therapeutic benefit via injection. Patients receiving systemic IL-2 therapy often experience flu-like symptoms. Hypotension, anaemia, and a decreased platelet count are also associated with the high cumulative doses required for intravenous administration. The most severe toxicities associated with the presently available intravenous or subcutaneous IL-2 administration result from the molecule's ability to increase capillary permeability, which may result in hypotension, ascites, generalized oedema, and pulmonary oedema. Capillary leak syndrome may ultimately lead to severely low blood pressure and reduced blood flow, heart and lung abnormalities, fluid retention, mental changes, kidney abnormalities and/or gastrointestinal abnormalities. These effects may be severe and can result in death.
The need for intravenous or subcutaneous injections of IL-2 also hampers the ability of individuals to self-medicate and manage their own treatment regime. Accordingly there is a need for the development of simple, low cost treatment options that enable sufferers of inflammatory conditions to administer their own medication with convenience and without pain or side effect.
The continued therapeutic application of IL-2 is presently being carefully assessed in light of its significant toxicity and relatively modest clinical response rate. However the present inventor has now surprisingly found, contrary to expectation, that mucosal delivery of IL-2 offers substantial therapeutic benefits over the currently available injectable delivery including the ability to achieve efficacious treatment with much reduced doses compared to those required for presently available systemic delivery. The present invention thereby provides viable new options for the cost-effective, efficacious therapeutic treatment of inflammatory conditions with reduced side effects and allowing patients to administer their own medication.

Method for treating inflammatory conditions with mucosally administered interleukin-2


A thermal developing apparatus for visualizing a latent image recorded on a photosensitive thermal developing recording material by heating the photosensitive thermal developing recording material with heating unit while conveying the photosensitive thermal developing recording material with conveying unit along a conveying path having the heating unit equipped therewith, the thermal developing apparatus containing a manual feeding tray for manually feeding the exposed photosensitive thermal developing recording material into the thermal developing apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal developing apparatus for heating a photosensitive thermal developing recording material to visualize a latent image recorded on an image forming layer of the photosensitive thermal developing recording material.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus, referred to as a medical imager, for example, forms a print of a visible image from an image measured with a medical measuring instrument, such as CT and MRI. The image forming apparatus uses a photosensitive thermal developing recording material having a support, such as a PET film, having formed thereon an image forming layer having photosensitive and thermal developing property (hereinafter, sometimes simply referred to as a recording material), and the photosensitive thermal developing recording material is imagewise exposed with a light beam modulated according to image data supplied from an image data source, such as MRT, to form a latent image thereon. Thereafter, the photosensitive thermal developing recording material thus exposed is heated to form colors with a thermal developing part incorporated in the apparatus to output a hardcopy.
The image forming apparatus of this kind is basically constituted by a recording material feeding part, an image exposing part and a thermal developing part in the order of conveying the recording material. The recording material feeding part takes out the recording material from a magazine and feeds it downstream. The image exposing part imagewise exposes the recording material by light beam scanning exposure. The thermal developing part has heating unit, for example, a heating drum, and heats the recording material to effect thermal development to convert a latent image to a visible image. Specifically, the recording material brought into the thermal developing part is conveyed with holding between the heating drum and an endless belt and is thermally developed by heat of the heating drum, whereby a latent image recorded by exposure is converted to a visible image. Accordingly, the recording material is heated with the heating drum only from one side.
In another type of the thermal developing image forming apparatus, a photosensitive material having a latent image formed through imagewise exposure is conveyed with being overlapped with an image receiving material, and the materials are thermally adhered, whereby the latent image is developed and transferred to the image receiving material, followed by detaching the photosensitive material and the image receiving material from each other. In the thermal developing image forming apparatus, a photosensitive element coated on the photosensitive material is imagewise exposed to form a latent image. The photosensitive material is then overlapped with an image receiving material, and the materials are pressed under heat between a rotating drum and an endless belt pressed on the rotating drum, whereby diffusible dyes are released from the photosensitive material in an image part and transferred to the image receiving material. Thereafter, the materials are detached from each other to form a color image on the image receiving material.
In general, a recording material having an image forming layer on only one surface thereof (single sided photosensitive film) is used in the method of recording a latent image by imagewise exposing a recording material with a light beam modulated according to image data supplied from an image data source, such as MRI. Therefore, only one surface of the material having the image forming layer provided is heated as having been described for the aforementioned conventional technique. There are some cases where the recording material is heated from the side having no image forming layer even in a thermal developing part (thermal developing apparatus), in which a single sided photosensitive film is used (i.e., an auxiliary heat source is provided on a side where no image forming layer is provided). However, temperature control of the auxiliary heat source is only for supplementarily control the heating operation of the image forming layer provided on only one surface, and there is no necessity of heating from both surfaces of the material.
In the method, in which a subject is placed between an X-ray tube and a recording material, and a latent image is recorded on the recording material with an X-ray transmitted through the subject, a recording material having image forming layers on both sides of a support (double sided photosensitive film) is used. The double sided photosensitive film is housed, upon imaging, in a cassette with fluorescent intensifying screens disposed on both front and back surfaces thereof. The fluorescent intensifying screen emits fluorescent light upon irradiating with an X-ray. The double sided photosensitive film is exposed with the fluorescent light.
In the case where a recording material having image forming layers on both surfaces is applied to the conventional thermal developing apparatus for heating only one surface of a material, heat transmission to the image forming layer on the side not heated is delayed. Due to the delay in development, deviation occurs in color tone, for example, the color of the image forming layer is discolored in brown. Furthermore, in the case where heat is not sufficiently transmitted to the image forming layer on the side not heated, development thereof becomes insufficient to cause density fluctuation, in which the density thereof is reduced.
On the other hand, in a thermal developing transferring part in a thermal developing image forming apparatus, in which a recording material is also heated from the side having no image forming layer, i.e., a image forming layer formed only on one surface is auxiliary heated, the heating operation does not intend to heat image forming layers provided on both sides, and therefore, difference in development occurs between the image forming layers on front and back surfaces to cause deviation in color tone and fluctuation in density.
The inventors have developed such a thermal developing apparatus that solve the problems associated with the aforementioned conventional technique.
FIG. 1 is a constitutional diagram showing a first embodiment of a thermal developing apparatus of the invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of a photosensitive thermal developing recording material used therein.
In FIG. 1, a thermal developing apparatus 100 heats a photosensitive thermal developing recording material (recording material) A to visualize a latent image recorded on an image forming layer. As shown in FIG. 2, the recording material A used in the thermal developing apparatus 100 has image forming layers A2 and A2 each containing a photosensitive material provided on both the first surface as one surface (for example, a front surface) of a support A1 and the second surface as the other surface (for example, a back surface) thereof.
In the thermal developing apparatus 100, such a recording material A can be used that is a double sided photosensitive film having fluorescent intensifying screens, which are not shown in the figure, disposed on both the first and second surfaces of the recording material A. The fluorescent intensifying screen emits fluorescent light through excitation upon irradiating with an X-ray. The image forming layers A2 and A2 provided on both first and second surfaces are exposed with fluorescent light from the fluorescent intensifying screens by a small amount of an X-ray. The recording material A will be described in detail later.
The recording material A having a latent image on the image forming layer A2 is generally housed in a cassette K one by one, and it is fed to the thermal developing apparatus 100 along with the cassette K. An openable lid K1 of the cassette K thus fed to the thermal developing apparatus 100 is opened and the recording material A housed therein is taken out with taking unit using a sucking disk 41 or the like.
The thermal developing apparatus 100 may have such a structure that is installed with a magazine housing plural sheets of the recording materials A. In this case, the recording materials A each having a latent image are taken out from cassettes K and housed by stacking in the magazine in a dark room or the like. The recording materials A stacked and housed in the magazine are taken out with the sucking disk 41 one by one. A pickup roller may be used instead of the sucking disk 41.
The recording material A thus taken out is then transported to a thermal developing part 47 positioned at a downstream side of the conveying direction through a conveying roller pair 43 and a conveying guide 45. A guiding part may be provided between the conveying roller pair 43 and the thermal developing part 47 for positioning the recording material A thus taken out in the direction perpendicular to the conveying direction, whereby the recording material A is positioned with respect to the thermal developing part 47 at the downstream side.
The thermal developing part 47 has first heating unit 49a for heating the first surface of the recording material A and second heating unit 49b for heating the second surface of the recording material A, which are disposed to face each other with a conveying path C of the recording material A intervening therebetween. In this embodiment, the first heating unit 49a is constituted by a cylindrical drum 51. The second heating unit 49b is constituted by plural press rollers 53, which rotate and press the recording material A to the peripheral surface of the drum 51. The drum 51 and the press rollers 53 contain heaters H as heating sources contained therein, respectively.
In this embodiment, the drum 51 having the heater H contained therein and the press rollers 53 having the heaters H contained therein are disposed to face each other with the conveying path C intervening therebetween, whereby both the first and second surfaces of the recording material A are simultaneously heated. That is, the recording material A is transported to the conveying path C formed by the gap between the drum 51 and the press rollers 53, and conveyed by being holded with the drum 51 and the press rollers 53, so as to be thermally developed by heat from the drum 51 and the press rollers 53.
The heater H used as a heating source of the drum 51 is not particularly limited, and may be one using known heating unit, such as a heating element, e.g., nichrome wire, a light source, e.g., a halogen lamp, and means for heating with hot air.
The press roller 53 may be a metallic roller, a resin roller, a rubber roller or the like, and is disposed over the entire length of the drum 51 in the axial direction thereof. The heater H used as a heating source of the press roller 53 is also not particularly limited, and may be one using known heating unit, such as a heating element, e.g., nichrome wire.
In the thermal developing part 47, upon transporting the recording material A to the conveying path C, the first surface is pressed with the press rollers 53 to press the second surface to the drum 51, whereby both the first and second surfaces of the recording material A are simultaneously heated. According to the operation, both the surfaces of the recording material A can be heated uniformly in a short period of time. In this constitution, the drum 51 and the press rollers 53 are rotated as being synchronized with the conveying speed of the recording material A, whereby there is no deviation in relative position of the heating unit and the recording material A, and the recording material A is not scraped.
The recording material A having been developed in the thermal developing part 47 is fed to an cooling part 61 disposed at a downstream side of the conveying direction. The cooling part 61 is constituted by plural cooling rollers 63 and has such a function that the recording material A having been thermally developed is gradually cooled, and therefore, the cooling part 61 is set at such a temperature that is higher than non-heated members but is lower than the thermal developing temperature. The recording material A thus slowly cooled in the cooling part 61 is transported in the downstream side of the conveying direction with a pair of delivering rollers 65 and 67 and delivered to a tray 69.
The thermal developing apparatus 100 has a controlling part 71 for controlling the first heating unit 49a, the second heating unit 49b, and the conveying speed of the recording material A. The controlling part 71 controls the first heating unit 49a through a first temperature setting part 73, and controls the second heating unit 49b through a second temperature setting part 75. It controls a conveyance driving part 79, such as a conveying motor, through a conveying speed setting part 77. The controlling part 71 controls the temperature and the conveying speed as parameters in such a manner that the total amount of heat applied to the first and second surfaces falls within the aforementioned prescribed range.
Therefore, according to the thermal developing apparatus 100, the first and second surfaces of the recording material A are simultaneously heated, and the total amount of heat applied to the second surface is controlled with respect to the total amount of heat applied to the first surface, whereby the total amounts of heat applied to both the surfaces of the photosensitive thermal developing recording material are substantially agree with each other, and thus uniform thermal development for both the surfaces can be carried out in a short period of time.
However, the thermal developing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is of such a type that a cassette housing a double sided photosensitive film is inserted, and has a problem in increasing the size of the apparatus.
The thermal developing part 47 also has such a defect that the apparatus is increased in size due to the use of the cylindrical drum 51.


An apparatus and method for detecting electromagnetic radiation employs a deflectable micromechanical apparatus incorporating multiple quantum wells structures. When photons strike the quantum-well structure, physical stresses are created within the sensor, similar to a “bimetallic effect.” The stresses cause the sensor to bend. The extent of deflection of the sensor can be measured through any of a variety of conventional means to provide a measurement of the photons striking the sensor. A large number of such sensors can be arranged in a two-dimensional array to provide imaging capability.

Quantum well heterostructures are key components of many optoelectronic devices. Generally speaking, a quantum well heterostructure consists of thin layers of a narrower-gap semiconductor material disposed between thicker layers of a wider-gap material. Quantum interference effects begin to appear prominently in the motion of the electrons at the interfaces, and the band profile shows a series of "wells."
Quantum-well infrared photodetectors have been used successfully in infrared detectors. Infrared photons excite ground state electrons out of a stack of quantum wells in a quantum-well infrared photodetector, producing a photocurrent in an applied electric field. When a photon strikes the well it excites an electron in the ground state to a first excited state, then an externally applied voltage sweeps the photoexcited electron out, producing a photocurrent. This photocurrent in the applied electric field can be sensed, thereby detecting the presence of infrared photons. By placing a large number of such quantum-well infrared photodetectors in a two-dimensional array and optically coupling the array to the field of view, infrared imaging is possible.
Quantum-well photodetectors which sense a photocurrent in an applied electric field suffer significant drawbacks in the form of dark current effects, i.e., the current that flows through a biased semiconductor when no photons are impinging upon it. Because dark current effects are temperature sensitive, the photodetector must be cooled in order to function accurately, or other elaborate measures must be taken to counteract dark current effects.
Thus there is a need for a quantum-well photodetector which avoids the drawbacks of dark current effects. There is a further need for a quantum-well photodetector which does not require cooling or other elaborate precautions to compensate for dark current effects.

Detection of electromagnetic radiation using micromechanical multiple quantum wells structures


More realistic experiences can be provided to a user through the use of a wearable suit. The xR wearable suit may include materials with adjustable characteristics, such as friction, and electronics for controlling the materials to provide feedback to the user wearing the xR suit. In an xR game, the materials may be used to translate virtual damage to physical constraints on the user. For example, when an avatar gets shot in the leg and is debilitated, the user's leg motion can be constricted to understand that shortcoming and stay in sync with the avatar. Examples of such feedback materials include inflating ribs, sheet jamming, and mechanical devices.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
IHSs may be used to produce virtual, augmented, or mixed reality (xR) applications. The goal of virtual reality (VR) is to immerse users in virtual environments. A conventional VR system includes an HMD (Head Mounted Display) that may be worn by a user in similar manner to a pair of goggles and obscure the wearer's real-world surroundings, such that only digitally-generated images are visible via displays elements incorporated into the HMD. Other examples of xR include augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), which operate by overlaying digitally-generated content or entities (e.g., characters, text, hyperlinks, images, graphics, etc.) upon the user's real-world, physical surroundings. A typical AR/MR device includes a projection-based optical system that displays content on a translucent or transparent surface of an HMD, heads-up display (HUD), eyeglasses, or the like (collectively "HMDs"). An HMD may be coupled to a host IHS that supports the xR applications provided via the HMD. However, HMDs are limited in their capability of providing realistic experiences to the user.
Shortcomings mentioned here are only representative and are included to highlight problems that the inventors have identified with respect to existing information handling systems and sought to improve upon. Aspects of the information handling systems described below may address some or all of the shortcomings as well as others known in the art. Aspects of the improved information handling systems described below may present other benefits than, and be used in other applications than, those described above.

Range of motion control in XR applications on information handling systems


A sealed rectifier used in a vehicle alternator is composed of a semiconductor diode chip, a base electrode having a disk plate which has a central mount for supporting the chip and an annular wall extending higher than the central mount, a pole electrode having a flange connected to the other side of the chip and an insulating member covering the chip, base electrode and pole electrode. The thickness of the annular wall is smaller than the thickness of the central mount, the outer periphery of the disk plate has a serrated surface for mechanical connection with an cooling fin of the alternator, and the insulating member is composed of resinous material and inorganic filler material to provide residual internal pressure higher than the atmospheric pressure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sealed rectifier for a vehicle which is used in a severe temperature condition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sealed rectifiers employed in a vehicular alternator, which is mounted in the engine compartment, are subject to temperature changes caused by change in operating conditions of the alternator and the engine. The rectifiers used in such an alternator are required to rectify current amounting to 50-150 amperes (A). Therefore, it is necessary for each of the rectifiers to have wide contact areas connecting a plus-side electrode and the plus-side surface of a semiconductor diode chip and connecting a minus-side electrode and the minus-side surface of the diode chip.
In order to provide sufficient contact areas, a pole-shaped or cup-shaped solid conductive member made of copper, copper alloy or iron alloy is used for the electrode instead of a bonding wire. If such a pole-shaped or cup-shaped electrode made of copper alloy is soldered to the semiconductor diode chip made of silicon however, a big difference in the coefficient of linear expansion would come to an existence between the electrode and the chip. For example, coefficients of the linear expansion of copper and silicon are, respectively, 17 ppm/.degree.C. and 3 ppm/.degree.C.
If the rectifier having the above-stated electrode is used in a severe temperature condition, such as the ambient temperature changes cyclically and widely, the junction of the two members may crack sooner or later.
In order to prevent cracks due to the difference in the linear expansion between the two members, JP-B2-7-120736 proposes to insert an intermediate member made of a material having a medium coefficient of the linear expansion between the chip and the electrode.
However, the addition of the intermediate member increases resistance of the junction and temperature of the junction and, in turn, increases the production cost.
JP-A4-229639 proposes sealing of the chip and the electrode with an insulating member made of epoxy resin. The insulating member contracts after it cools down and applies a pressure to the junction in the direction perpendicular to the junction surface. This structure is intended to assure an electrical connection between the chip and electrode even if the junction cracks.
Although this structure can elongate the life of the rectifier to some extent, such pressure is not sufficient to assure the long time reliability of the rectifier for a vehicular alternator.


A nonwoven is provided having a pattern displaying at least two groups of areas having different optical properties distinguishable to reading and decoding equipment. The pattern may be arise from differences in the microstructure of the web. The nonwoven material may have an embossed pattern having a basic, static component and a dynamic component which varies within a given length of the nonwoven web. Further, a method is provided for obtaining information from a nonwoven web, comprising observing the web surface using an optical reading device, collecting data based on differences in optical properties in the web surface, storing in a digital memory a pattern based on the collected data and comparing the stored pattern to a collection of previously stored patterns.

Information conveyed using barcode-type encoding is commonly used in labels, envelopes and packages of various kinds. Today, optically readable information is increasingly being embedded in the surface of objects or on packaging materials. If required, this can be carried out in a manner making the markings more or less invisible to the naked eye. The technology is often referred to as digital watermarking. It can be used for securing the authenticity of a document or an object. Examples of such use are ID documents, bank notes, passports, etc.
Using such technology, viewing an object with a device capable of decoding the embedded information can also display various kinds of technical or other information related to the object. Further, code thus included in a viewed object can trigger software to display e.g. augmented reality effects related to the object.
A nonwoven may be defined as a manufactured sheet, web or batt of directionally or randomly oriented fibres, bonded by friction and/or cohesion and/or adhesion, excluding paper. Wetlaid nonwoven may be distinguished from paper based on the length to diameter ratio of the fiber used:nonwoven is made up from fiber having a greater such ratio than paper. The fibers used in nonwoven may be natural, man-made or synthetic; often, mixtures of these are employed.

Nonwoven material having encoded information, a method for encoding information on a nonwoven material and a system for using same


An electronically controlled postage meter with easier user setting of the date. Postage values are input via a keyboard connected to a control device. The control device automatically counts upwardly for incrementing a date. The upward incrementation can be prevented with a function key. The control device compares the entered date with the date stored in the calendar module and changes the date to be printed, depending on the comparison. The control device then outputs a print command for printing a postage imprint with a new, changed or current date. The method includes automatic counting upward for incrementing the date. Actuating the function key to selectively prevent at least the automatic incrementation of the date. It is also possible to reset the setting of the current date by either actuating the function key again or by actuating an additional function key.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for setting the date in an electronically controlled postage meter with a mechanical print mechanism or a nonmechanical printer.
Dates as set by hand in prior art postage meters, by using a simple tool. For instance, the individual type wheels of the date mechanism are rotated using a pencil or the like; alternatively, special knurled setting devices or key-controlled levers are provided. Using an additional tool requires precautions to prevent its being lost, and a knurled setting device or a lever requires additional mechanical means to secure against unintentional setting. Due to the fact that the type wheels are disposed inside the postage meter, further additional security precautions are necessary that prevent the machine from being operated during the date setting procedure.
The numbers on the type wheels are also relatively small and relatively difficult to make out as printed type, so that misadjustments occur frequently.
Mechanical date setting is therefore unreliable, and it is mechanically complicated and economically expensive.
It has become known, heretofore, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,458 (German DE-OS 31 11 949), to actuate additional type wheels by means of stepping motors and specifically embodied racks. The stepping motors are controlled from a keyboard, and the setting of the racks is monitored by an electronic logic, such as a microprocessor in conjunction with registers, memories and sensors, as can be learned for instance from German patent No. 31 11 953 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,441 (German DE-OS 29 16 811).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,489 to Denzin teaches a method for date setting for electronically controlled postage meters which does not require the above-mentioned additional mechanical securing means and which thus does not have the disadvantages discussed above. The method for setting the type wheels of the date print mechanism in electronically controlled postage meters that have stepping motors and means moved thereby to adjust the type wheels to print the postage values and optional imprint cylinders is tailored only to a mechanical print mechanism, however.

Apparatus and method for date setting for electronically controlled postage meters


A method to manufacture an optoelectronic assembly comprises a step of structuring a first wafer to provide a plurality of optical components to change a beam of light in the optoelectronic assembly with a respective alignment structure being formed to couple the respective optical component to an optical connector. A second wafer is provided with a plurality of optoelectronic components. The first and second wafer are stacked on top of each other, aligned and bonded together. The bonded first and second wafers are separated into a plurality of optoelectronic modules. The optical connector is manufactured by structuring a third wafer so that the third wafer is provided with a plurality of optical connectors. The third wafer is separated into a plurality of the optical connectors. The optical fiber is coupled to one of the optical connectors and then is coupled to one of the separated optoelectronic modules.

Field
The disclosure relates to a method to manufacture an optoelectronic assembly comprising an optical connector to couple at least one optical fiber to the optoelectronic assembly, an optical component to change a beam of light in the optoelectronic assembly and an optoelectronic component to convert the light into an electric signal or to convert the electric signal into the light. The disclosure is further directed to the optical connector and the optoelectronic assembly.
Technical Background
An optoelectronic assembly usually comprises an optoelectronic device, such as a photodiode or a Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL), to change an optical signal/light into an electric signal and vice versa. The light may be transferred in an optical fiber or an array of optical fibers, such as an optical fiber ribbon. In order to couple the light between the at least one optical fiber and the optoelectronic device with low loss, the at least one optical fiber and the optoelectronic device have to be properly aligned to each other.
According to another embodiment of an optoelectronic assembly, an optical component may be arranged between the optoelectronic device and the optical fiber/optical fiber array. The optical component may be configured to direct a beam of light coupled out of the optical fiber to an active area of the optoelectronic device. In order to change the beam of the light so that the light is coupled between the optical fiber/optical fiber array and the optoelectronic device with low loss, it is necessary to properly align the optical fiber, the optical component and the optoelectronic device to each other.
Several methods and configurations exist to couple an optical fiber to an optoelectronic device. Commonly known methods of coupling an optical fiber to an optoelectronic module involve active alignment of the optical fiber and the optoelectronic device. In order to accomplish an active alignment, alignment marks may be provided on a substrate of the module. Firstly the optoelectronic device is placed on the substrate in relation to the alignment marks. In a second step, the optical fiber is aligned in relation to the alignment marks so that light can be coupled between the end of the optical fiber and the optoelectronic device with low loss. The alignment procedure may be controlled by a camera system.
In case of coupling a plurality of single optical fibers or a plurality of optical fiber arrays to a plurality of optoelectronic devices it is required that the active alignment is done separately for every single pair of an optoelectronic device, the corresponding optical fiber/fiber array and an optical component or for linear arrays of such components. The alignment of the optical fibers/optical fiber arrays, the optical components and the optoelectronic devices is usually a complex and a time-consuming procedure which causes an unintentional high insertion loss in case of imprecise alignment.
It is a desire to provide a method to manufacture an optoelectronic assembly comprising an optical connector to couple at least one optical fiber to the optoelectronic assembly, an optical component to change a beam of light in the optoelectronic assembly and an optoelectronic component to convert the light into an electric signal or to convert the electric signal into the light which enables a precise and time-saving coupling of the at least one optical fiber and the optoelectronic device. It is a further desire to provide an optical connector which enables to precisely couple at least one optical fiber and an optoelectronic device in a time-saving manner. It is a further desire to provide an optoelectronic assembly which enables a precise and time-saving coupling of at least one optical fiber and an optoelectronic device.

Method to manufacture an optoelectronic assembly


Methods and apparatus related to identifying aspects of media files that are provided to users and ranking query suggestions based on the aspects. Some implementations are directed to ranking the query suggestions of the user who was provided the media file. Some implementations are directed to ranking the query suggestions of a second user that is in the same grouping as the first user. Some implementations are directed to ranking the query suggestions of the first user based on aspects that are related to the provided media file, but not directly associated with the provided media file.

This specification is directed generally to ranking query suggestions for a partial query, and more particularly, to ranking query suggestions based on aspects of media files that have been provided to a user. A user may begin to enter a search query and desire to have suggestions that are based on the entered partial query to be provided. Search query suggestions may be selected based on the similarity between the entered partial query and a query suggestion. Query suggestions may be ranked based on the likelihood that a query suggestion is the query suggestion that the user is entering. A query suggestion engine may increase the accuracy of ranking query suggestions based on information that is specific to the user that entered the partial query. For example, a query suggestion engine may suggest and/or rank query suggestions based on previous search queries of the user.

Using recent media consumption to select query suggestions


To maintain constant an output voltage of a boosted voltage circuit even when a program current of a nonvolatile memory increases; in a boosted voltage circuit provided in a semiconductor device, an output voltage of a charge pump is detected by a voltage dividing circuit, and on-off control is performed on an oscillation circuit for driving the charge pump so that the detected output voltage becomes constant. Further, an output current of the charge pump is detected, and a control current according to a magnitude of the detected output current is generated. The control current is fed into or drawn from a coupling node between a plurality of series-coupled resistance elements configuring the voltage dividing circuit.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and particularly to a semiconductor device including an electrically rewritable nonvolatile memory.
In a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory, a write current flows through a memory cell subjected to writing during programming. In this case, an increase in the number of simultaneously programmed memory cells makes-it difficult to maintain constant the voltage level of a program voltage.
To address this problem, a flash memory device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-193936 (Patent Document 1) includes, besides a flash memory cell array, a plurality of dummy program current generating elements each capable of passing a dummy program current having the same magnitude as a program current. Further, control is performed so that the sum of a plurality of program currents and a plurality of dummy program currents becomes constant regardless of the number of simultaneously programmed memory cells.

Semiconductor device including boosted voltage supply circuit for supplying boosted voltage to memory array


A shield slide mechanism for moving the cutting tool of a clamshell lathe is provided. By shielding the mechanism, metal chips created during the cutting process are precluded from jamming the mechanism and preventing the controlled movement of the cutting tool. The tool block slide assembly incorporates a cam lever actuated feed screw operating through a unidirectional roller clutch rather than a conventional star wheel to provide a more controlled movement of the tool block slide.

I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a machining lathe. More specifically, this invention relates to an improved tool block slide assembly for clamshell pipe and shaft machining lathes that is particularly designed to shield the moving parts thereof from metal chips being removed from the workpieces that might otherwise jam the slide mechanism.
II. Description of the Prior Art
The general concept of automated clamshell-type lathes is well known in the art. One such lathe is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,024 that was granted to the present applicant. Various advantages of that machining lathe over earlier lathes are outlined in that patent's specification.
Lathes of the type described in the above-referenced patent are often used in environments, such as in a nuclear power plant, where it is of utmost importance to minimize the amount of time that an operator is at the jobsite. By minimizing the amount of time, the amount of radiation that the operator receives is reduced. If the goal is to reduce the amount of exposure to radiation, it is then imperative that the machining lathe for cutting and/or refurbishing pipes and pipe flanges be designed and built so that the chance of any breakdown of the lathe equipment is minimized. Any breakdown of the equipment requiring operator repair or replacement increases the amount of radiation to which the operator is exposed.
While clamshell-type machining lathes such as described in the above-cited Ricci '024 patent are highly effective in reducing the amount of time that the operator is on the jobsite, the possibility exists that chips of metal being machined can find their way into the tool block slide assembly and thus interfere with movement of the tool block slide that clamps and holds the carbide-tipped cutting tool. Moreover, the mechanism for imparting rotation to the feed screw in the device described in the Ricci '024 patent comprises a starwheel drive. As the tool bit slide assembly that is mounted on the rotatable ring of the clamshell lathe orbits the workpiece, a tooth on the starwheel engages a stationary pin and imparts rotation to the feed screw on which the starwheel is mounted. It has been found from experience that such starwheel drives are somewhat prone to frequent failure and also that the depth of cut varies somewhat, leaving the surface being machined slightly irregular.
The present invention addresses these problems associated with prior art clamshell machining lathes and provides a new and improved tool block slide assembly. The new slide assembly offers a unique arrangement which greatly reduces the possibility of particles milled from a workpiece finding their way into the tool block slide assembly where they could interfere with movement of the slide. Moreover, it is designed for longer service life, easier set-up and reduced variation in cutting depths, leaving a smoother machined surfaces on the workpieces involved by eliminating the star wheel tool block slide and replacing it with a cam lever actuated mechanism.

Tool block slide assembly for automated cutting tool


Disclosed is a one step fiber optic connector polishing method. The method is a sequence of processes that may include severing a fiber (100) length projecting out of the end face (106) of a ferrule (102) having a pre-shaped surface, such that the residual fiber length does not exceed 80 microns. Cleaning ferrule (102) end face (106) such that no residual debris are left on it. Polishing fiber end-face (140) only, on a finishing polishing film (180) until fiber end-face (140) and ferrule end-face (106) are in a relation that ensures the desired fiber undercut or protrusion.

As optical communication networks continue to grow to support the never-ending need for bandwidth (internet, cable TV, telephony services, etc.), optical connections, which allow safe, reliable and easily configurable terminations of these systems, sub-systems, and devices, will grow as well. Optical connectors, which come in a variety of single-fiber and multi-fiber configurations typically consist of a doped silica optical fiber, a ceramic or plastic ferrule, cable interfacing crimps, a spring-loaded inner body, and an intermateable outer housing. The manufacturing process of optical connectors typically consists of 8-15 steps generalized as: Fiber and Cable Preparation, Epoxy and Cure, Cleave and Denub, Epoxy Removal, Polish, and others.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,421,928, 5,480,344 and 6,632,026 disclose some of the listed above steps related to the manufacture of optical connectors.
Arguably, the most performance-critical step in the manufacture of optical connectors lies in the geometry formation process (Cleaving through Polish). These steps greatly influence the fiber's physical contact between adjoining optical connectors and ultimately determine a connector's ability to transmit (optical signal power coupling loss) and reflect the transmission signal.
Polishing is a multi step process where the end-face of the ferrule and the fiber are gradually worked and reshaped using different grade polishing materials until the desired radius, angle, flatness and surface quality (roughness) is achieved. The number of polishing steps is connector dependent, ranging from 3 or 4 steps for simplex connectors, to 5 or 6 steps in multi-fiber connectors. Unfortunately, in today's optical connector manufacturing environment, there are no industry standards and conventional processing protocols (6-sigma, SPC, etc.) are rarely deployed. Many of the manufacturing processes are inherently unstable due to variabilities in operators and training and manufacturing tools. Furthermore, the consumable costs associated with polishing can contribute as much as 15% to the overall manufacturing costs.
In an effort to reduce manufacturing cycle time, reduce manufacturing complexity, and, ultimately remove manufacturing costs while improving the performance of optical connectors, it is highly desirable to consolidate process steps, where possible, and reduce the number of steps required for polishing a connector.

One step fiber end-face polishing process


The invention provides a system for treating an occlusion within a body lumen. The system may comprise an insulated outer sheath; an elongated conductive tube, wherein the insulated outer sheath is circumferentially mounted around the elongated conductive tube; and an insulated wire having a helically coiled portion at a distal end of the insulated wire. The coiled portion includes an exposed distal tip, and a distal portion of the elongated conductive tube is circumferentially mounted around the distal coiled portion of the insulated wire. When a voltage is applied across the insulated wire and the elongated conductive tube, a current is configured to flow from the exposed distal tip of the insulated wire to the elongated conductive tube to generate a plurality of cavitation bubbles. In an alternate embodiment, an elongated central electrode is used in place of the conductive tube.

The present disclosure relates generally to a system for treating occlusions in a body lumen. The system is useful for a chronic total coronary occlusion ("CTO"), a partial coronary occlusion, or a kidney stone in ureter, in order to restore normal flow in a lumen (e.g., the artery or the ureter).
In angioplasty or peripheral angioplasty procedures, an angioplasty balloon is used to dilate a lesion (e.g., calcified lesion) and restore normal blood flow in the artery. In some examples, an angioplasty balloon is advanced into the vasculature (e.g., along a guide wire) until the balloon is aligned with calcified plaques. The balloon is then pressurized with a fluid to expand the vessel to permit blood flow.
More recently, a system has been developed wherein electrodes are disposed in the angioplasty balloon. Once the balloon is initially positioned adjacent a blockage, a series of high voltage pulses are applied to the electrodes in a manner to generate a series of shock waves. The shock waves act to crack calcified lesions. Once the lesions are cracked, the balloon can be inflated, in a more gentle fashion, to expand the vessel and improve circulation.
Further information about the latter type of device can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,856,371; 8,747,416 and 9,642,673. Shock wave technology has also been developed for treating heart valves (U.S. 2018/0098779) and for guide wire designs (U.S. Pat. No. 9,730,715). U.S. Patent Publication 2018/03640482 describes a forward directed shock wave device. Each of these patent documents is incorporated herein by reference.
Arteries are sometimes totally or partially occluded, for example, with thrombus, plaque, fibrous plaque, and/or calcium deposits. When this condition is present, the physician must first cross the occlusion, and then feed the angioplasty balloon and/or other tools down the artery to the desired location of blockage to perform the desired procedure. However, in some instances (e.g., CTO), the occlusion is so tight and solid, making it difficult to cross the treatment device into the true lumen of the distal vessel.
CTOs remain a challenge in percutaneous coronary interventions, as well as a challenge for the periphery, causing critical limb ischemia and amputations. First, many of the currently available equipment are incapable of physically crossing the tough proximal cap or distal cap (retrograde approach) of the CTO. In some instances, attempting to penetrate the CTO cap using soft guide wire causes buckling (e.g., deflecting the guidewire to a subintimal passage or collateral branch). On the other hand, stiffer guide wires may damage the artery wall when forced against the CTO. Moreover, some currently available equipment operate by generating strong mechanical vibrations to break the CTO, but the intensity of the vibration may damage the artery wall and make the system less durable and more difficult to control.
Similar issues are present for occlusions formed in other parts of the body, for example, kidney stones in a ureter.

System for treating occlusions in body lumens