A path data transmission unit in which, if one of a normal path for handling normal data and a test path for handling test data is selected, the other path is disabled to reduce power consumption; includes an edge detector, a first path data transmission block, and a second path data transmission block. The edge detector detects an edge of a test enable signal that indicates a normal operation mode or a test mode and transmits an edge detection signal. The first path data transmission block transmits a first path data in response to the test enable signal, the edge detection signal, a clock signal, normal data and a second path data. The second path data transmission block transmits the second path data in response to the test enable signal, the clock signal, and test data.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a path data transmission unit, and more particularly, to a path data transmission unit that transmits normal data and test data in a normal mode and a test mode, respectively, through two separate output terminals wherein one of the two data types concurrently transmitted from the two output terminals has a predetermined voltage level.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Circuits that are designed to externally monitor data processed internally in function blocks or data transferred between function blocks have an advantage in that checking the operational status of the function blocks and detecting the function blocks having an error can be easily performed later on, without disassembling a wafer or a package.
In most digital systems, a plurality of shift registers connected in series is used to transfer and store data, and output data from a plurality of the shift registers connected in series is transmitted to predetermined function blocks. When the system does not operate normally, the place at which the problem occurs should be detected. For such detection, test data is transmitted to a first shift register of the shift registers connected in series and then shifted. Then the test data is transmitted to the function blocks. The operational status of the function blocks can be checked by testing data subsequently transmitted from the function blocks in response to the transmitted input test data. This detection method is called a scan method.
FIG. 1 illustrates a part of a conventional system to which the scan method is applied.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional system 100 includes function blocks 140 that perform predetermined functions, and a plurality of shift registers 110,120 and 130.
The first shift register 110 receives normal data ND through a first input terminal D, receives test data TD through a second input terminal TI, stores the test data TD, and transmits the test data TD through an output terminal Q in response to a clock signal CLK. It is determined, based on a test enable signal TE, whether it is a normal mode or a test mode. The first shift register 110 stores and transmits the normal data ND in the normal mode, and stores and transmits the test data TD in the test mode. A second shift register 120 operates in response to an output Q from the first shift register 110. The second shift register 120 operates normally only when the test enable signal TE indicates the test mode, and the other operational characteristics thereof are the same as those of the first shift register 110. A third shift register 130 operates in response to an output signal of a function block 140. The third shift register 130 operates only when the test enable signal TE indicates the normal operation mode, and the other operational characteristics thereof are the same as those of the first shift register 110.
When the test enable signal TE indicates the test mode, the test data TD which is transmitted through the output terminal Q of the first shift register 110 is transmitted to the second input terminal TI of the second shift register 120. When the test enable signal TE indicates the normal mode, the normal data ND which is transmitted through the output terminal Q of the first shift register 110 is transmitted to the function block 140. After being processed by predetermined arithmetic operations, the normal data is transmitted to the third shift register 130.
Hereinafter, the data path formed when the data is transmitted from the output terminal Q of the first shift register 110 to the second input terminal TI of the second shift resister 120 is referred to as a first path Path1, and the data path formed when the data is transmitted from the output terminal Q of the first shift register 110 to the first input terminal D of the third shift resister 130 is referred to as a second path Path2. In addition, the function block to be tested in a test mode is assumed to operate in response to the test data TD transmitted from the output terminal Q of the second shift resister 120, although the connection is not shown in the figure.
It is preferable that, in the test mode, only the first path Path1 is enabled, so that the test data TD is stored in the second shift register 120 and that, in the normal mode, only the second path Path2 is enabled, so that the normal data ND is processed by the function block 140 and stored in the third shift register 130. Referring to FIG. 1, although the third shift resister 130 does not operate in response to the test enable signal TE in the test mode, however, the second path Path2 is activated, so that the function block 140 operates. Therefore, power consumption increases.
FIG. 2 is an internal circuit diagram of the shift resisters 110,120, and 130 illustrated in FIG. 1
Referring to FIG. 2, the normal data ND or the test data TD is selected according to the test enable signal, and the selection operation is performed inside the dotted rectangle. The shift resisters shown in FIG. 2 are constructed with commonly used master-slave type flip-flops, and a description of the method of operation of the shift registers is omitted.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, even though two separate data paths Path1 and Path2 are not used simultaneously, it is not possible to enable only one path due to the structure using the output of the first shift register 110 as a common input of the second and third shift registers.


In combination with a tubular light source having a housing body and a closed end for containing a power source and a light emitting end, a device for dispersing light rays comprising a translucent member having an opening therein tailored for receiving and gripping the tubular housing body. The translucent member is positioned around the light emitting end to enhance the scattering and visibility of the light rays emitted therefrom and serves also as a stand to elevate and stabilize the housing body and the light source incorporated therein.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of light and, more particularly, to an improved device for expanding the effect and increasing the visibility of a high intensity light source.
2. Description of the Invention
Emergency lighting devices, such as those used to alert people to the presence of persons riding bicycles at night, automobile accidents, road debris or obstacles, or other potentially dangerous conditions, are old in the prior art. Such devices, include, without limitation, road flares or triangular light markers, flashing lights, reflective clothing or reflective or luminescent tape adhered to clothing.
A search of the prior art did not disclose any patents that read directly on the claims of the instant invention, or make the claimed invention obvious. However, the following references are considered related:
U.S. Pat. No.InventorIssue Date5,070,437Joseph M. Roberts, Sr.Dec. 3, 19914,420,796Kei MoriDec. 13, 19834,740,874Bruce E. Wylie, et al.Apr. 26, 19884,782,433John G. RomboughNov. 1, 19885,383,103Ricky C. PaschJan. 17, 19952,823,300H. G. GraubnerFeb. 11, 19583,949,216Arnold P. HoweApr. 6, 19764,822,123Kei MoriApr. 18, 19895,519,593Richard S. HasnessMay 21, 19966,641,280Gary B. Hanson, et al.Nov. 4, 2003
Though most, if not all, of the devices disclosed in the aforesaid prior art references demonstrate some kind of light emitting function, such as the electrical light in FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,437; the light dispersing device 10 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,796 and the electrical flashlight 30 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,874, none of these devices possesses the unique qualities, capabilities and improvements illustrated by the device of the present invention.
Thus, there is a need for the present invention to address and resolve the differences among the prior art devices.


A roof mount assembly implements a stabilized fastener matrix which functions to stabilize the fastener connection with a roof. In one embodiment, a base has a one-piece construction with angularly spaced stepped bores. Roofing fasteners each having a flat head are receivable in the bores and securable therein. Plugs each having a flat lower surface are threadably engageable in the threaded bore wherein the flat lower surface of the plug engages the flat head of the fastener. In a second embodiment, the base has a two-part construction comprising a bottom plate and a top plate. The bottom plate has a plurality of arcuate slots which are angularly spaced from one another. Elongated fasteners are received in the slots. A top plate has a crown and a connector projects from the crown. The top plate mounts onto the bottom plate to provide a stabilized connection with the roof. The mount assemblies are also efficiently sealable with the adjoining roof. In one embodiment, the top plate and lower plate mount highly compressible sealant members.

This disclosure relates generally to anchor/mount assemblies which are employed to secure equipment to a roof. More particularly, this disclosure relates to anchor/mount assemblies which are specially adapted to secure equipment, such as a rack system to attach a solar panel, to a flat roof.
Equipment, such as rack systems supporting solar panels, heat exchangers, air conditioners, communication equipment, etc., is commonly mounted to a flat roof of buildings and other industrial structures. A rack or frame is typically connected to the roof at multiple points by various mount assemblies. The mount assemblies function as connectors and supports. Numerous conventional roof mount assemblies dictated by their structural configuration are installed to flat roofs by techniques that jeopardize the integrity of the roof. It is common, for example, to cut through the upper roofing membrane and an insulation layer to obtain access for connecting to the underlying roof structure.
One type of mounting assembly addresses the roofing integrity issue by employing multiple elongated fasteners to bridge the connection with the roof support structure and the mounting assembly. However, the mechanical integrity of the latter roof mount system can be jeopardized by the use of fasteners which extend from the roof mount assembly through the roofing layers to the roof support structure. The spacing between the anchoring region of the fasteners to the roof support structure and the connection with the roof mount assemblies is prone to introduce instability, loosening and otherwise interfere with the effective retention of roof mounted equipment over time.
It is highly desirable to provide a roof mount system which is adapted for a flat roof and can be efficiently installed without jeopardizing the integrity of the roof to provide an effective and mechanically sound connection for supporting equipment above the top of the roof and which effectively and efficiently seals with the roof.

Roof mount assembly with stabilized fastener matrix


A safety valve system includes a control valve connected to a gas meter and intersecting a gas flow path downstream of the gas meter and upstream of an entry point of a building. The control valve is adaptable between open and closed positions based upon received stimuli. A main gas supply line is mated to the control valve and includes auxiliary lines branching to appliances. A plurality of sensors are coupled in series to the appliances and are in communication with the control valve. A mechanism is included for transmitting a control signal to the control valve and for eliminating a fully charged gas line when the stimuli are detected by one of the sensors such that the control valve can allow and restrict gas flow to the appliances during operating and non-operating modes. Each of the sensors generates a unique control signal when the stimuli are detected.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a valve system and, more particularly, to a gas line safety valve system for selectively toggling a gas line between operating and non-operating modes.
2. Prior Art
In general, gas appliances have not kept pace with their electrical counterparts in terms of the extended functionality afforded by the use of microprocessor-based control. One reason for this is the lack of an inexpensive and reliable electrically-controllable gas valve that can be incorporated into such devices as clothes dryers, commercial cooking equipment, warm air furnaces and domestic cooking appliances.
In clothes dryers, the ability to modulate the gas flame would add the benefit of shorter drying cycles. With regard to commercial cooking equipment, modulation of the gas flame has the advantage of tighter control of temperature in such appliances as ovens and deep-fat fryers. With regard to warm air furnaces, a controllable gas valve would form the heart of an advanced control system.
Finally, in the area of domestic cooking appliances, such as gas ranges, there is a need for gas flame modulation as well as enhanced functionality of the range. At the present time, residential gas ranges do not take advantage of the convenience, flexibility and safety possible through advanced microprocessor-based technologies.
Accordingly, a need remains for a gas line safety valve system in order to overcome the above noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing a gas line safety valve system that is versatile and adaptable, while also providing increased safety and protection. Advantageously, such a system can be adapted for use in most structures that are equipped with gas-fired heating systems. The gas line safety valve system is conveniently able to depressurize a gas line system such that no leak is occurring, thereby averting explosions and/or fires.


The present invention, in one aspect, provides aqueous dispersions of carbon nanotubes. In some embodiments such aqueous dispersions can be applied to fiber glass strands to impart one or more electrically conductive properties to the fiber glass strands.

Glass fiber reinforced polymeric composite materials find application in a wide variety of fields due to the excellent mechanical and cost efficient properties offered by such composites. One field, however, where the application of glass fiber reinforced polymeric composites is challenging is that of electrically conductive materials. Many glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic and thermoset composites are not electrically conductive thereby limiting their use in applications requiring materials having electrical conductivity.
Polymeric composites can be fabricated to demonstrate some electrical conductivity by the use of conjugated polymer systems or by incorporating significant amounts of electrically conductive particles into the polymeric resin. Both of these solutions, however, have associated disadvantages. For example, conjugated polymeric systems can be susceptible to oxidation and other mechanisms of deterioration which substantially limit the conductive lifetimes of such systems. Moreover, incorporating large quantities of conductive particles into a polymeric resin can significantly compromise the mechanical properties of the resin leading to processing problems and premature failure of parts constructed therefrom. Additionally, conjugated polymeric materials and polymeric composites comprising high amounts of conductive particles can be expensive.

Aqueous dispersions and methods of making same


A radiotherapy apparatus comprising a radiation source configured to radiate a radiation ray, a multi leaf collimator, including a plurality of leaves, configured to limit a radiation range of the radiation ray and a drive unit configured to move at least one of the leaves with an ultrasonic wave.

A multi-leaf collimator of a radiotherapy apparatus includes groups of leaves, a main material of which is heavy metal, such as tungsten, and the leaves in each group are closely adjacent. Pairs of the groups of leaves are positioned in a radiation direction of a radiation ray. The groups of each pair move in close and opposite directions, mutually. A drive unit which moves each leaf in a conventional radiotherapy apparatus includes drive gears which contacts cogs formed in edges of leaves and are connected to a motor via shafts. The drive unit is described in Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) No. 2002-253686, page 3 and FIG. 12, for example. Since it is required to move each leaf in the close and opposite directions according to a range of the radiation ray, namely a diseased part to be treated, a driving mechanism is provided with respect to each leaf
A conventional multi-leaf collimator includes the groups, each of which has about 40 adjacent leaves with a thickness of about 3 mm. Although it is theoretically possible to approximate the radiation range to the medical treatment range by reducing thickness of the leaves and increasing number of leaves, it is actually difficult to reduce the thickness of the leaves due to the drive gears which move the leaves and the shafts which connects the drive gears and the motor. Moreover, it is also a problem that the drive unit increases in size and in weight.
Furthermore, backlash could occur in such a gear mechanism, and accuracy of move control of the leaf is reduced. Therefore, when the radiation range is set, positions of the leaves are shifted, it is difficult to accurately set the radiation range, and it could be a problem that the radiation ray is radiated to a normal part of a patient. The above mentioned Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) No. 2002-253686 discloses a gear mechanism which avoids the backlash, however the gear mechanism increases in size.


An industrial process oxygen analyzer, and method of using same, incorporates an automotive oxygen sensor to minimize the criticalness of controlling heater temperature during operation. Higher sensor heater temperature, required to accommodate the automotive oxygen sensor, is achieved by application of higher supply voltage to the sensor heater. Current limiting of the heater supply circuit reduces stress on the sensor heater, even at the higher operating temperature.

Oxygen analyzers are used extensively in industrial process control. When used in such control applications, these analyzers typically incorporate three major components- a zirconium dioxide sensor which produces a voltage output signal representative of oxygen concentration within the gas sample being analyzed, a heater to elevate the temperature of the sensor to a required operating temperature, and a heater control circuit to maintain the sensor temperature independent of environment. It has been found that the use of a typical zirconium oxide sensor for industrial process control has a number of inherent disadvantages. For example, typically the use of such a sensor requires the utilization of many associated parts, clamps, seals and fasteners making assembly and/or replacement a difficult task. In addition, it has been found that tight gas seals are difficult to maintain. Also, alignment of the components comprising the assembly is difficult to achieve and maintain. The zirconium dioxide sensor must be located in the gas stream and the heater and thermocouple must be aligned with the sensing tip. It has been further found that exposure of the heater element to the corrosive gas stream reduces heater life. And lastly, complex heater control circuitry is required because of the low mass of heater. Temperature control is critical to prevent deviations of the sensor output.
Because of the foregoing, it has become desirable to develop a simplified system for analyzing the oxygen content of a gas utilized in an industrial process. Such a simplified system should minimize the criticalness of controlling heater temperature within the sensor.

Automotive oxygen sensor for use in an industrial process analyzer


A method and apparatus to accommodate differing output loads without sacrificing impedance matching in an optical modulator driver.

A high speed optical communication system may use various methods to modulate an optical signal with data information for propagation along an optical transmission medium such as optical fiber. Optical modulators may use a driver circuit to provide an electrical signal corresponding to the data to be modulated. Impedance matching, where the maximum transfer of power from the driver circuit to the modulator, however, takes place when the source and load impedances (in this case driver and modulator impedances) are complex conjugates. Typically, drivers on separate chips have been employed to drive different output loads. These driver circuits, however, must support various output load values without sacrificing associated impedance matching. Consequently, there may be a need for improvements in impedance matching for optical modulator driver circuits while obviating the need for separate modulator chips and chipsets to drive various output loads.

Modulator driver circuit with selectable on-chip termination


An automatic packaging machine inserts small items, such as candy coated chewing gum, into a box with the small items arranged in a desired orientation. First, the small items are swept into a grid of individual pockets in plates on a conveyor. Then, the grid is inverted over an insertion tray having grooves which receive the small items without disturbing the desired orientation. The entire tray is inserted into a box and then withdrawn from the box. A ridge is formed adjacent said grooves for lifting a side of the box confronting the small items while the tray is inserted into the box so that there is almost no friction between the small item and the box, which might otherwise disturb the desired orientation. The small items are blocked during a withdrawal of the tray so that they are laid down in the desired orientation on the bottom of the box.

Candy coated chewing gum (such as that sold under the trademark "CHICLETS") is an example of small items which are packaged by the inventive machine. For convenience of expression, these and similar items are hereinafter called "small items."
One characteristic of these small items is that they should be laid out in an orderly, side-by-side orientation within a box or other container. They should be counted so that each and every box contains exactly the correct number of items. They should be treated gently because they may break, if handled roughly; for example, the candy coating on "CHICLETS" is likely to break. Finally, as the small items are handled by the packaging machines on the way to the carton, little bits and debris of the broken candy coating, in the example of "CHICLETS" tend to accompany the small items. These debris should be sifted out of the product stream so that only whole and unbroken small items are packaged.
Another problem is that traditional packaging machines push the product into the box or other container. If the small items of the described type are so pushed, they tend to lose their orientation so that those in the front may become disoriented causing those behind to pile up and jam or break.
Still other problems will occur to those skilled in the art.

Automatic packaging machine for multiple small items with desired orientation


A retransmission method and apparatus performed in a transmitter of a mobile communication system supporting a Hybrid Automatic Retransmission reQuest (HARQ) operation and an Automatic Retransmission request (ARQ) operation for retransmission of a packet are provided. At least one ARQ entity generates at least one ARQ packet, and an HARQ entity transmits an HARQ packet including the at least one ARQ packet to a receiver, and transmits a local NACK signal indicating transmission fail of the ARQ packet to a corresponding ARQ entity, if the HARQ packet fails in transmission.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a Hybrid Automatic Retransmission reQuest (HARQ) method and apparatus in a mobile communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for efficiently performing an Automatic Retransmission reQuest (ARQ) operation in an upper layer using a transmission status of an HARQ apparatus in a mobile communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a standard group in charge of standardization of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service (UMTS) system. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is currently under discussion as the standard for the next generation mobile communication system. The LTE which is aimed at deployment in 2010 is a technology capable of implementing high speed packet-based communication at about 100 Mbps. Several schemes are also currently under discussion. For example, the schemes include one scheme for reducing the number of nodes located in a communication path by simplifying a configuration of the network, and another scheme for approximating radio protocols as close to a radio channel as possible. A configuration of the LTE is expected to change from the existing 4-node configuration to a 2-node or 3-node configuration. For example, a configuration of the LTE, as illustrated in FIG. 1, will be simplified to the 2-node configuration of an Evolved Node B (ENB) and an Evolved Gateway GPRS Serving Node (EGGSN).
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of a general LTE mobile communication system as an evolved mobile communication system. As illustrated, Evolved Radio Access Networks (E-RANs) 110 and 112 are simplified to a 2-node configuration of Evolved Node Bs (ENBs) 120, 122, 124, 126 and 128, and Evolved Gateway GPRS Serving Node (EGGSNs) 130 and 132. A User Equipment (UE) 101 accesses an Internet Protocol (IP) network 114 via the E-RANs 110 and 112.
In FIG. 1, the ENBs 120, 122, 124, 126 and 128, which are network entities corresponding to the legacy Node Bs, are connected to the UE 101 via radio channels. Compared with the legacy Node Bs, the ENBs 120, 122, 124, 126 and 128 perform complex functions. In LTE, all user traffic including real-time traffic such as Voice over IP (VoIP) service traffics will be serviced through a shared channel. Therefore, there is no need for an apparatus for collecting status information of UEs 101 and performing scheduling thereon. For example, the ENBs take charge of the scheduling.
Similar to High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) or Enhanced Dedicated Channel (EDCH) for providing high-speed packet service, LTE also performs a Hybrid Automatic Retransmission Request (HARQ) for packet retransmission between the ENBs 120, 122, 124, 126 and 128 and the UE 101. HARQ refers to a technique for soft-combining previously received data with retransmitted data without discarding the previously received data if a reception error occurs at a receiver. This technique increases a reception success rate. The high-speed packet communication system such as HSDPA and EDCH uses the HARQ in order to increase transmission efficiency. LTE also uses the HARQ between the UE and the ENB.
In the evolved high-speed packet communication system, such as LTE, it is not possible to satisfy various Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements only with the HARQ. Therefore, outer Automatic Retransmission Request (ARQ) can be performed in an upper layer, and the outer ARQ is also performed between the UE and the ENB. LTE will use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) as a radio access technology in the 20-MHz bandwidth in order to implement a data rate of a maximum of 100 Mbps. In addition, an Adaptive Modulation & Coding (AMC) scheme for determining a modulation scheme and a channel coding rate according to a channel status of the UE will be applied to LTE.
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary radio protocol structure and packet structure in a general LTE system. The radio protocol structure of FIG. 2 is applied to the ENB and the UE.
Referring to FIG. 2, a radio protocol of the LTE includes ARQ entities 210 for performing retransmission in upper layers, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer 215 where an HARQ operation is performed, and a physical (PHY) layer 217. One ARQ entity 210 can be provided for each individual service, and satisfies required QoS through an outer ARQ operation. The upper layers 205 translate to protocol stacks formed for each individual service. For example, AMR codec/RTP/UDP/IP or FTP/TCP/IP can be the upper layer.
The MAC layer 215, connected to a plurality of ARQ entities 210, multiplexes at least one ARQ packet 220 and 230 to one HARQ packet 225, and performs HARQ operation on the HARQ packet 225. The physical layer 217 performs an operation of transmitting/receiving the HARQ packet 225 over a radio channel. The ARQ packets 220 and 230 and the HARQ packet 225 will be described separately. The ARQ packets 220 and 230 are the packets reconfigured so that outer ARQ can be performed on the data delivered from the upper layers 205. The HARQ packet 225 is the packet that is actually transmitted/received on a radio channel through an HARQ operation.
Structures of the ARQ packets 220 and 230 and the HARQ packet 225 will be described. The ARQ packets 220 and 230 each include a sequence number (SN) 231, Size information 233, Framing header (HDR) information 235, and a payload 237. If an IP packet is delivered from the upper layer 205 to the ARQ entity 210, the whole or a portion of the IP packet can be transmitted according to radio channel status or scheduling status. Reconfiguring the original packet delivered in an appropriate size from the upper layer 205 is called 'framing', and the framing HDR information 235 is the information with which a receiver can restore the framed packet to its original packet. In addition, the Size information 233 indicates a size of the ARQ packets 220 and 230, and the SN 231 is sequentially assigned to the ARQ packets 220 and 230. The ARQ entity 210 performs an outer ARQ using the SN. The HARQ packet 225 includes a Multiplexing header (HDR) 240, and a payload. The Multiplexing HDR 240 includes multiplexing information for at least one ARQ packet 220 or ARQ packet 230. For example, an identifier (ID) of the ARQ entity 210 can be the Multiplexing HDR 240.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an ARQ operation and an HARQ in a general LTE system. In the following description, it will be construed that the ARQ operation is equal to an outer ARQ operation.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, an HARQ entity is divided into a transmitter's HARQ entity 372 and a receiver's HARQ entity 312 according to transmission/reception operation. The transmitter's HARQ entity 372 takes charge of transmission/retransmission of an HARQ packet, and the receiver's HARQ entity 312 takes charge of soft-combining on an HARQ packet and acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) signal transmission. Because a UE and an ENB each have a transmitter and a receiver, the transmitter and the receiver are not limited herein to any one of the UE and the ENB. The UE and the ENB may also correspond to a mobile station (MS) and a base station (BS), respectively.
Because services of various types should be provided through the HARQ, the transmitter and the receiver include their own upper layer entities (not shown), ARQ entities 380 and 305, and multiplexing/demultiplexing blocks 375 and 310, respectively. The multiplexing block 375 in the transmitter inserts the Multiplexing HDR 240 in the data generated by several upper layers, and delivers the resulting data to the transmitter's HARQ entity 372, and the demultiplexing block 310 in the receiver delivers the multiplexing information of data provided from the receiver's HARQ entity 312 to a proper upper layer.
A plurality of HARQ processors 355 to 370 and 315 to 330 included in the transmitter's HARQ entity 372 and the receiver's HARQ entity 312 are basic units for taking charge of transmission/reception of the HARQ packet 225. The transmitter's HARQ processors 355, 360, 365 and 370 take charge of transmission/retransmission of the HARQ packet 225, and the receiver's HARQ processors 315, 320, 325 and 330 take charge of reception and soft-combining of an HARQ packet, and ACK/NACK information transmission. The HARQ processors are provided in the transmitter and the receiver in pairs, and continuous transmission/reception is possible by providing a plurality of HARQ processors in one HARQ entity.
In the transmitter, each of the HARQ processors includes operations of transmitting a user packet, receiving ACK/NACK information in response thereto, and performing retransmission. Therefore, if there is only one HARQ processor, the HARQ processor cannot transmit other packets until it transmits user data and receives ACK/NACK information in response thereto. However, in the case where several HARQ processors are provided in the transmitter and the receiver, while one processor waits for the ACK/NACK information, the other processors can transmit data. Therefore, continuous transmission/reception is possible by providing a plurality of HARQ processors in each HARQ entity as shown in FIG. 3.
A description will now be made of basic operations of the HARQ processors 355 to 370 and 315 to 330.
The transmitter's HARQ processors 355, 360, 365 and 370 perform channel coding on the data received from the multiplexing block 375 and transmit the channel-coded data to the receiver. Also, the transmitter's HARQ processors 355, 360, 365 and 370 simultaneously store the channel-coded data in a buffer (not shown) to retransmit it later. Further, the transmitter's HARQ processors 355, 360, 365 and 370 flush the data stored in the buffer upon receipt of HARQ ACK information for the transmitted data from the receiver, and retransmit the data stored in the buffer upon receipt of NACK information for the transmitted data from the receiver.
The receiver's HARQ processors 315, 320, 325 and 330 perform channel decoding on the data received from the transmitter over a physical channel, and determine whether there is an error through a CRC operation. If there is an error, the receiver's HARQ processors 315, 320, 325 and 330 store the received data in a buffer, and transmit an HARQ NACK signal to the transmitter. If retransmitted data for the received data is received due to the error, the receiver's HARQ processors 315, 320, 325 and 330 soft-combine the data stored in the buffer with the retransmitted data, and then determine whether there is an error. If an error is determined to still exist, the receiver's HARQ processors 315, 320, 325 and 330 transmit an HARQ NACK signal to the transmitter, and repeat the above process. If it is determined that the error is solved, the receiver's HARQ processors 315, 320, 325 and 330 transmit an HARQ ACK signal to the transmitter, and deliver user data to the demultiplexing block 310.
The reception success rate can increase through the HARQ operation of retransmitting and soft-combining the defective HARQ packet. However, it is inefficient to achieve a very low Block Error Rate (BLER) only with the HARQ operation, for the following two reasons.
First, if there is an error in an HARQ ACK/NACK signal, the HARQ operation cannot detect the error.
Second, because HARQ transmission/retransmission is performed within a relatively short time, the HARQ operation cannot obtain a time diversity gain. As a simple example, if an MS falls in deep fading, it is hard to successfully transmit the HARQ packet through HARQ retransmission.
In order to overcome the limitation of the HARQ operation, there is a need to perform the outer ARQ operation.
The outer ARQ operation is performed in units of ARQ packets. The transmitter's ARQ entity 380 attaches SNs 231 to the ARQ packets 220 and 230 shown in FIG. 2 before transmission. The receiver's ARQ entity 305 verifies the SNs 231 of the received ARQ packets 220 and 230, and determines whether there is any missing ARQ packet. For example, if the receiver's ARQ entity 305 has received an ARQ packet with SN=X and an ARQ packet with SN=X+2, but has failed to receive an ARQ packet with SN=X+1, the receiver's ARQ entity 305 sends a retransmission request for the ARQ packet with SN=X+1 to the transmitter's ARQ entity 380.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed structure of the ARQ entities 305 and 380 for performing an outer ARQ operation in a general LTE system. Herein, the outer ARQ operation is performed by the transmitter's ARQ entity 380 and the receiver's ARQ entity 305.
The transmitter's ARQ entity 380 includes a transmission buffer 405, a header inserter 410, an ARQ control block 415, and a retransmission buffer 420. The transmission buffer 405 stores the packets delivered from an upper layer. The transmission buffer 405 also delivers as much of the upper layer packet as the amount of data to be transmitted in the next transmission period, to the header inserter 410. If the amount of data to be transmitted in the next transmission period is not equal to a size of the upper layer packet, the transmission buffer 405 may only deliver a part of the upper layer packet by segmenting the upper layer packet, or may deliver a plurality of upper layer packets.
The header inserter 410 inserts SN information 231, Size information 233 and Framing HDR information 235 illustrated in FIG. 2 in the upper layer packet provided from the transmission buffer 405, thereby generating ARQ packets 220 and 230. The ARQ packets 220 and 230 are delivered to the retransmission buffer 420 and a lower layer (MAC/HARQ/PHY layer) 425. The retransmission buffer 420 stores ARQ packets for which the transmitter has failed to receive an ACK signal from the receiver. The ARQ control block 415 discards a corresponding ARQ packet upon receipt of an ARQ ACK signal from the receiver, and schedules retransmission of the corresponding ARQ packet upon receipt of an ARQ NACK signal. The lower layer 425 includes a MAC layer, an HARQ entity, and a PHY layer. The lower layer 425 also multiplexes ARQ packets to an HARQ packet and then transmits the HARQ packet to the receiver over a physical channel.
The receiver's ARQ entity 305 includes a reassembly block 445, a reception buffer 435, and a retransmission management block 440. A lower layer (MAC/HARQ/PHY layer) 430 receives an HARQ packet transmitted from the transmitter over a physical channel, and delivers demultiplexed ARQ packets to the receiver's ARQ entity 305.
The reception buffer 435 stores the ARQ packet received from the lower layer 430 according to its SN, and delivers ARQ packets capable of being reassembled to the reassembly block 445. The retransmission management block 440 verifies SNs of the ARQ packets stored in the reception buffer 435. The retransmission management block 440 also delivers ARQ ACK signals for the received ARQ packets and ARQ NACK signals for the missing ARQ packets to the transmitter's ARQ entity 380. The reassembly block 445 reassembles the original upper layer packet using the ARQ packets depending on the framing headers of the ARQ packets delivered from the reception buffer 435, and then delivers the upper layer packet to an upper layer.
As described above, the HARQ and outer ARQ operations retransmit the missing packets, and they are fundamentally equal to each other. However, in the mobile communication system supporting the outer ARQ, there is no solution to errors that may occur when the transmitter wrongly receives an ARQ ACK/NACK signal, or a feedback signal, from the receiver's ARQ entity 305. Therefore, the mobile communication system, similar to the LTE system using both the HARQ and ARQ, requires a technology to determine whether there is an error in an ARQ ACK/NACK signal.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method for determining whether there is an error in an ARQ ACK/NACK signal.

Method and apparatus for retransmitting packet in a mobile communication system, and system thereof


A Curie point heater primarily for use in a soldering iron and initially designed to operate with currents in the megahertz range is restructured to operate in the kilohertz range. Further in one embodiment of the heater, the coil exciting the heater is mounted in the handle of the iron.

There is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,264, assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, a Curie point self-regulating soldering iron employing a constant current supply to a coil that is flux coupled to a high mu material forming a layer on a copper rod extending rearwardly from the tip of the iron. The commercial embodiment of the constant current supply operates at 13.56 megahertz and is quite expensive.
As disclosed in the aforesaid patent and U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,501, of one of the present inventors, the soldering iron under discussion is comprised of a handle and a cartridge insertable into the handle. The cartridge essentially comprises the heater structure including the coil, the high mu material and the tip of the iron. Electrical connection between the cartridge and a cable coming into the handle from the power supply is made upon insertion of the cartridge into the handle.
The cartridges are also expensive but the use of insertable cartridges is justified to permit interchange of cartridges that operate at different temperatures as well as providing different tip faces. Specifically the temperature at which a cartridge self-regulates is a function of the high permeability material employed.

Temperature self regulating heaters and soldering irons


A semiconductor manufacturing process provides a shallow trench in a silicon layer using a silicon containing etch gas to provide controlled top and/or bottom rounding of the trench or to enhance profile control and/or critical dimension control by controlled deposition across a semiconductor substrate. A gate structure can be etched on a semiconductor substrate using a silicon containing gas to enhance profile control and/or critical dimension control.

During the manufacture of semiconductor-based products such as integrated circuits, etching and/or deposition steps may be used to build up or remove layers of material on a semiconductor substrate. A conventional etching procedure involves the use of one or more etch gases energized into a plasma state to effect plasma etching of a layer of material. Such plasma etching has been used to provide shallow trench isolation of individual transistors in an integrated circuit. After etching the trench, the trench is filled in with a dielectric material. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,218,309 and 6,287,974 disclose a shallow trench plasma etching process.
In manufacture of transistors, it is conventional to etch the pattern of a photoresist layer into an underlying hard mask layer, strip the photoresist layer, and etch the pattern of the hard mask into a polysilicon layer down to a gate oxide layer. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,283,131.

Use of silicon containing gas for CD and profile feature enhancements of gate and shallow trench structures


A semiconductor sensor for an accelerometer including a beam portion, consisting of a thin beam portion and a thick beam portion and supported by a solid member through the end of the thin beam portion, and a stopper portion provided at a position on an imaginary line along which a center of gravity of the thick beam portion moves. These components are integrally formed in a silicon substrate. Excessive displacement of the beam portion when excessive acceleration is applied is effectively suppressed by the stopper portion, and breakage of the thin beam portion due to excessive acceleration can be avoided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor sensor for an accelerometer and to a method for making the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A semiconductor sensor for an accelerometer is known having a thin beam portion on which is mounted a strain sensing device. This detects acceleration with a high sensitivity.
When a high sensitivity is attained in this way and excessive acceleration is applied, however, this beam portion may sometimes be broken due to the force applied to it.
To avoid this problem, as shown in FIG. 1, there has been provided another semiconductor sensor in which a stopper 1 is provided to restrict the amount of displacement of the beam portion 1 when it receives an accelerating force.
In FIG. 1, B denotes a beam portion consisting of a thin beam portion 3 and a thick beam portion 2.
In this construction, when the thick beam portion 2 is displaced, for example, in an upper direction due to acceleration, the thin beam portion 3, which supports the thick beam portion 2 is deformed by the stress applied thereto in response to the displacement.
A piezo resistance device 6 is provided on the thin beam portion 3 as a stress sensing device and thus the amount of the acceleration applied to the sensor can be detected by the change of the resistance value generated in response to the deformation of the thin beam portion 3.
Also, when the above sensor receives excessive acceleration causing the thick beam portion 2 to be deformed by a great amount, the displacement thereof is stopped by a stopper 1.
In the construction of the known semiconductor sensor for an accelerometer mentioned above, however, when the thin beam portion 3 is formed extremely thin in order to detect acceleration with a high sensitivity and when the sensor receives excessive acceleration, the thick beam portion 3 is displaced upwardly to contact the stopper 1, whereby the movement of the thick beam portion 2 is stopped by the stopper contacting the edge of the thick beam portion 2.
In this situation, since the contacting portion between the stopper 1, provided near one of the edges of the thick beam portion 2, and the edge of the thick beam portion 2 serves as a fulcrum, an inertial moment defined by the distance between the fulcrum and a center of gravity of the thick beam portion 2 and a weight thereof, acts on the thick beam portion 2 and thus it tends to continue moving utilizing the center of gravity as a dynamic point and also tends to displace around the fulcrum point.
Accordingly, the opposite end of the thick beam portion 2 of the beam portion B, i.e., the thin beam portion 3, becomes the working point and thereby the thick beam portion 2 is displaced upward causing a strong stress on the thin beam portion. Eventually, the thin portion of the thin beam portion 2 may be broken.


A method for facilitating communication with a user. The method comprises the steps of: receiving contact information for the user, from a presence service; checking to determine if a particular communication service is supported by the user; checking to determine if the contact address of the user is accessible; launching at least one of an appropriate helper application and objects; and initiating communication with the user through the particular communication service.

Presence services are primarily used for providing "availability" information of one user to another user of a system. This "availability" information includes an indication of desire and availability or willingness of the user to engage in immediate communication. In order to achieve immediate communication a Presence Service is used to convey contact information to a user's presence client and the presence client is required to use that information to determine how to connect the users. This is particularly difficult when the communication services are developed by a third party vendor. Communication services include any application that creates a communication path between two or more parties. Examples of such services include telephone voice connections, Instant Messaging, chat, video conferencing, and sharing of presentations.
Existing Presence, or Instant Messaging (IM), services rely on a fixed and a built-in set of communication connection aids. For example, in order to enable communication via instant messaging services such as MSN and AOL, the communication service is normally tightly coupled with the presence service. These communication services are developed by the same vendor and usually pass through the IM server.
The prior art suffers inherent disadvantages because they are "closed" systems. There is no flexible way to add other telephony or communication services to these systems. For example, the existing Instant Messaging systems cannot add a non-IP phone call set via third party voice products. The communication connections of these systems are hardwired and limited. While this may be suitable for IM chat style of communication services, it is not suitable for other communication services, for example, existing telephony services.
Several standard bodies are attempting to define how contact information is conveyed with a user's availability in a presence framework. Of particular interest is the IETF Instant Message and Presence Protocol (IMPP) set forth in "A Model for Presence and Instant Messaging", M. Day, J. Rosenberg, and H. Sugano, IETF RFC 2778, February 2000. Two further IETF documents discuss the Common Profile for Instant Messaging (CPIM). These two documents are the Common Presence and Instant Messaging: Message Format document (Common Presence and Instant Messaging: Message Format <draft-ietf-impp-cpim-msgfmt-03.txt>) and the CPIM Presence Information Data Format (CPIM Presence Information Data Format <draft-ietf-impp-cpim-pidf-00.txt>).
The Common Presence and Instant Messaging: Message Format document defines a mime content-type 'message/cpim' object which is a multipart entity. This document defines the structure of an IM message specifying mandatory fields such as "From:", "To:", "Date:", "Subject:", etc. The second document, CPIM Presence Information Data, defines the actual contact information that a presence client receives in order to enable a communication session between two users of a presence service. This document does not discuss how a presence client uses contact information for launching third party communication applications.
There is no flexible way to enhance any existing Presence (or Availability) Service to handle communication connection via third party communication products.

System and method for facilitating communication using presence and communication services


An apparatus for providing weight over the driven wheels of a motor vehicle. The apparatus includes a plurality of elongated containers for holding material. The material provides adjustable weight to the vehicle. The containers are installed on the floor of a normal cargo area of the vehicle. Also included are removable end covers located at one or both ends of the elongated containers for filling and emptying the containers with weighted material. A bracket is provided for holding the elongated containers with their installed end covers onto the floor of the vehicle to prevent movement of the containers with respect to the floor.

The present invention generally relates to storage containers and, more particularly, is concerned with material holding containers for use in floor areas of normal storage compartments of motor vehicles to add weight for improved traction and handling and provide a contained storage space.
Vehicles designed for carrying cargo are engineered for optimum handling when loaded to capacity. Unfortunately, however, traction and handling problems can occur as the result of insufficient weight over the vehicle's power driven wheels. In response to this problem, weight bearing substitutes for carrying cargo have been used to improve vehicle performance when not loaded.
Many owners of these vehicles have responded to these problems by using sandbags, bricks or other bulky materials to weigh down cargo areas. These methods, however, while providing the weight needed for these vehicles, take up much needed space in the cargo areas and tend to shift weight when they move around the area. Moreover, the loose material can fall out or even become dangerous projectiles in the event of a sudden stop or accident. These methods are clearly poor alternatives. Other devices similar to the present invention have been introduced to the public, but none fully address the vehicle owners' needs.
One type of device has been introduced which uses a ballast chamber similar to the present invention. The device uses ballasts for liquid containment only, which run the length of the pick-up truck bed and are incorporated with a truck bed liner as a single unit. The device also provides for filling and draining of the lining device. Generally, the device is intended as a permanent year-round accessory for the truck bed. Although the device provides a product for vehicle bed protection and added weight, it has serious drawbacks.
One major drawback of the device and other variations of it is that it is limited to containing liquid. Using liquid in the device can lead to a hydraulic thrust caused by abrupt movement of the water within the chamber during sudden acceleration or deceleration or sharp turning of the vehicle resulting in unpredictable movement of the vehicle while being driven. This effect could be lessened by completely filling the ballast chambers, however, doing so renders the product's weight unadjustable. Furthermore, using liquid in a ballast in cold weather requires agents to lower the fluid's freezing point. These agents being typically expensive and toxic, the truck owner would be required to store or properly dispose of the agent when emptying the ballast to adjust the ballast weight and buy more agent when refilling.
Another drawback is that the device cannot be easily removed and stored. It is intended as a permanent accessory and is too bulky and heavy to remove and store whether full of fluid or empty. This problem has been addressed in other devices by designing the device in sections, but the single filling and single draining valves of this unified ballast system requires a unified and water-tight ballast. Finally, the device is not versatile. It must be redesigned for different cargo areas different vehicles and is thus more expensive to produce than would a device that is adjustable to different cargo areas.
Other devices have been introduced disclosing removable weights that connect on the floor of a pick-up truck bed like a puzzle. These are removable because they are small, and can be adjusted simply by omitting some of the weights. These designs appear to have solved the aforementioned ballast devices' shortcomings, but they have their own defects.
First of all, the puzzle devices have too many individual pieces to handle when removing the individual pieces in order to haul a payload. Removal and storage of a weight system should be convenient for the vehicle owner. A smaller number of pieces at a manageable weight would make the puzzle pieces more convenient to remove and store. Second, there appears no clear method for holding the pieces in place in the truck bed. In the puzzle devices, although in each the several pieces are locked together to prevent them from sliding laterally in the cargo bed, the danger still exists of vertical movement of the pieces, thus, lifting them from their interlocked positions to freely slide across the truck bed and possibly projecting them out of the bed in the case of an accident or sudden stop. Third, adjusting the weight is difficult since the distribution of the weight with respect to the wheels changes when the puzzle pieces are removed. Finally, similar to the ballast devices and other variations of them, the puzzle devices are too expensive to produce. The market for this type of product is primarily aimed at the private truck owner and middle to low income consumer and, as a result, demands a low cost for its success.
Consequently, a need exists for a versatile and convenient device that provides extra weight in cargo areas in motor vehicles at a low cost.

Storable truck bed weights for improved traction and handling


A subsurface safety valve is modified to permit the passage of a downhole treatment chemical through the valve while bypassing a valve closure member which is maintained within the safety valve in operative condition.

This invention is related generally to the delivery of chemicals to a wellbore during petroleum production operations. In one embodiment, the invention relates to a method for delivering chemicals through a subsurface safety valve while maintaining suitable protection of the well in the event that the control of fluid flow from the well is lost.
During typical hydrocarbon production operations in a producing well, it may be desirable to add chemicals from a surface facility into the producing well to facilitate the production of liquids from the well or to protect the well from erosion, corrosion or scale build-up. Foaming agents may be added to the well to mitigate the effect of an accumulation of liquids in the production tubing. Under certain conditions, the accumulated liquids (e.g. liquid water or condensate) may restrict the upward flow of fluids through the tubing to the surface facility. Using the foaming agent to converting at least a portion the liquid in the production tubing to a foam helps reduce the back pressure created by the condensate and permits higher hydrocarbon recovery rates from the well. Chemicals, such as foam-forming chemicals, may be added into the production tubing through small diameter tubing which passes down into the well within the production tubing. Scale inhibitors and corrosion inhibitors may be added in the same way to help protect the integrity of the production tubing against chemical attack or degradation.
One feature of many modern wells is a subsurface safety valve (SSV) which is fitted into production tubing in the wellbore, generally several hundred feet below mudline. Subsurface Safety Valves operate to block the flow of formation fluids upwardly through the production tubing should a failure or hazardous condition occur at the surface facility or within the production tubing itself. The SSV typically employs a valve closure member, or "flapper," that is moveable between an open position and a closed position, with the flapper pivotally mounted to a hard seat. In its open position, the flapper pivots away from the hard seat, thereby opening the bore of the production tubing. However, the flapper is strongly biased to its closed position. When the flapper is closed, it mates with the hard seat and prevents hydrocarbons from traveling up the wellbore to the surface. The flapper plate of the safety valve is held open during normal production operations by the application of hydraulic fluid pressure transmitted to an actuating mechanism. A common actuating mechanism is a cylindrical flow tube, which is maintained in a position adjacent the flapper by hydraulic pressure supplied through a supply conduit extending to the surface facility. The supply conduit is normally installed within the annulus between the production tubing and the well casing. Hydraulic fluid within the supply conduit feeds against a piston. The piston, in turn, acts against the cylindrical flow tube, which in turn moves across the flapper within the valve to hold the flapper open. When a catastrophic event occurs at the surface, somewhere along the production tubing or within the hydraulic system, hydraulic pressure from the supply conduit is interrupted, causing the cylindrical flow tube to retract, and allowing the flapper of the safety valve to quickly close. When the safety valve closes, it blocks the flow of production fluids up the tubing. Thus, the SSV provides automatic shutoff of production flow in response to well safety conditions that can be sensed and/or indicated at the surface. Examples of such conditions include a fire on an offshore platform, sabotage to the well at the earth surface, a high/low flow line pressure condition, a high/low flow line temperature condition, and simple operator override. This feature is particularly important for underwater wells, where an uncontrolled fluid flow from the well would be very difficult to manage.
Producing wells with an installed chemical delivery system providing an uninterrupted length of tubing extending from the surface facility to the producing fluids within the well are incompatible with a fitted SSV, since the chemical delivery line extending through the SSV would interrupt the safe operation of the SSV. As a consequence, it is desirable to modify the chemical delivery system to achieve the desired compatibility with an SSV fitted into the production tubing. WO2007/073401 provides a first injection conduit in fluid communication with a first hydraulic port above a subsurface safety valve, a second injection conduit in fluid communication with a second hydraulic port below the subsurface safety valve, and a fluid pathway to bypass the valve and allow hydraulic communication between the first hydraulic port and the second hydraulic port.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,198,099 suggests supplying a chemical treatment fluid in a system which permits the use of the treatment fluid for controlling the subsurface safety valve within a wellbore. Treatment fluid is supplied at a pressure greater than a threshold pressure to maintain the valve in an open position, to permit hydrocarbon flow up through the production tubing. If the pressure within the treatment fluid supply line is increased beyond a second threshold pressure, a one-way check valve within the supply system opens, allowing treatment fluid to flow into a treatment fluid injection conduit and then into the well.

Subsurface safety valve and method for chemical injection into a wellbore


The present invention provides systems and methods for boundary detection of protocol data units in a communication system. A protocol entity such as a header check sequence (HCS) validation circuit is used to compute header check sequences of protocol data units in a packet burst. If a given HCS is valid, then the payload of the respective protocol data unit may be used. However, if the given HCS is invalid, then a parallel sliding window is used to compute other possible HCSs to identify a protocol data unit boundary. Once the boundary is located, then the payload may be used. Even if a protocol data unit is invalid or a header is not found, other protocol data units in a packet burst may be used in accordance with aspects of the invention. Such operation reduces the number of retransmissions required due to invalid HCSs.

The Open Systems Interconnection ("OSI") Basic Reference Model is a layered, abstract description for communication systems and computer networks as shown in FIG. 1. Many communication systems are normally designed according to the OSI layered model. A layer is a collection of related functions that provides services to the layer above it and receives services from the layer below it. In a layered model of a communication system, there are different processing entities in each layer at both ends of a communication system.
A processing entity in each layer at one end of a communication system normally communicates with a processing entity at the same layer at the other end of the communication system. The processing entities at the same hierarchical layer at any two ends of a communication system, referred as peers, is illustrated in FIG. 1. For example the Physical layer at one end of the communication system is peer to the Physical layer at the other end of the communication system as illustrated in FIG. 1.
There may be different communication protocols defined for each layer. The peers at each layer communicate with each other using these protocols. Also each peer entity normally communicates with the processing entities in the layer above it and the layer below it. The unit of data exchanged at a given layer is referred as a Protocol Data Unit ("PDU"). The names of the PDUs at different layers may be different in different communication systems. For example, a PDU at Network layer is referred as an N-PDU and a PDU at Transport later is referred as a T-PDU.
A protocol entity in one layer may often format the PDUs received from its adjacent layers into a structure that is more suitable for further processing in its own layer. A typical PDU may have two kinds of information, namely control information and user data. Often, user data is also referred to as payload data.
The control information contains necessary details that describe the rest of the PDU. For example, the control information may include source and destination addresses, error detection codes such as Cyclic Redundancy Check ("CRC"), length of the PDU, sequencing information, etc. The control information is generally located at the beginning of a PDU. There may also be some control information such as CRC, message authentication codes, etc. located at the end of a PDU. The control information that is located at the beginning of a PDU is often referred as "Header." The control information that is located at the end of the PDU is often referred as "Trailer."
Normally the control information and the payload data are collectively called as a PDU for a particular layer. Some PDUs may contain both a Header and a Trailer for control information while some PDUs may contain only a Header for control information. The presence of a Trailer may be negotiated by two peer protocol entities or may be indicated by the PDU Header. The generic structure of a PDU with Header, Trailer and the payload data is illustrated in FIG. 2. Normally the control information added to the payload data by one protocol layer is treated as payload data by a protocol layer below it, as illustrated in FIG. 3.
Often the formatting of data by a protocol entity includes fragmentation, reassembly, and concatenation operations as shown in FIG. 4. These types of operations are required for variety of reasons including the maximum PDU size limitation of some networks, different payload data being multiplexed over a physical communication medium, different preferred PDU sizes for different applications, etc. For example, real-time applications such as Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") may prefer smaller PDU sizes whereas non real-time applications such as file transfer may prefer larger PDU sizes. Furthermore, the physical layer protocol entity which communicates over the physical medium may use the PDU sizes that are optimal for communication over the particular physical medium of the communication system. For example if the communication medium is wireless, normally the PDU sizes may be small.
The concatenation operation at the transmitter groups a number of PDUs in a single unit of data for further processing. This single unit of data that includes one or more PDUs is referred herein as a "burst" as shown in FIG. 5. Note that some PDUs in a burst may have both a Header and a Trailer while others may have only the Header depending on the actual protocol being used by peer entities and different types of payload data. At the receiver, the corresponding peer protocol entities accept a burst of data that contains one or more PDUs, checks the control information in the PDU Header and unpacks the individual PDUs from the received burst.
Often there are errors introduced along the communication path as the data travels from one end to the other end. Some of these errors may be corrected by error correcting codes that may be typically used by the Physical layer entity of the communication system. However, the error correcting codes used at the Physical layer entity may not be able to detect and/or correct some of the errors. The protocol entities above the Physical layer entity may need to detect errors that are not corrected by the Physical layer entity. A commonly used technique for detecting uncorrected errors is the CRC. Often a CRC is included along with other control information in a PDU. The corresponding peer entity at the receiver checks this control information in the PDU and determines whether the PDU is error free and then takes appropriate action.
Since the PDU Header contains critical control information that describes the rest of the PDU, it is important to ensure the correctness of the PDU Header. For this purpose, some communication systems compute and insert a separate CRC specifically for the PDU Header and append it as part of the PDU Header as shown in FIG. 6. The CRC for the PDU Header is referred to herein as a Header Check Sequence ("HCS"). Often the length of the PDU Header for protocols at some layers is fixed and it may be known a priori. Normally, the receiver of the communication system uses the HCS that is included in the PDU Header to determine its correctness. If the HCS computed by the receiver matches with the received HCS, then the PDU Header may be considered valid otherwise it may be considered invalid. If the PDU Header is valid, the rest of the PDU may be processed further based on the control information in the PDU Header.
It is to be noted that a PDU may have a separate CRC for the PDU Header and a separate CRC for the actual payload data. The CRC for the PDU Header, i.e., the HCS, only checks the validity of the PDU Header. The CRC for the validity of the payload data in the PDU may be checked separately once the length of the PDU is determined from the PDU Header. The presence of the CRC for the payload data may be negotiated between protocol entities or may be indicated in the PDU Header.
In many scenarios the length of the PDU varies and therefore the length information is generally included in the PDU Header. If the receiver determines that the PDU Header is invalid based on the HCS for a given PDU, the length information in the PDU Header is not usable. Therefore, the receiver may not able to determine the length of the PDU.
When multiple PDUs are concatenated in a single burst as shown in FIG. 5, it is necessary to know the length of each PDU in the burst at the receiver to unpack the individual PDUs in the case where the PDUs are of variable length. Normally, the length of the burst is known to the protocol entity that is processing the burst at the receiver. It is known a priori that the burst starts with a Header of the first PDU in the burst.
The receiver checks the validity of the first PDU Header by verifying its HCS. If the first PDU Header is valid, the receiver can use the length information from the first PDU Header to determine the length of the first PDU and thus determines the beginning of the second PDU in that received burst. Next, the receiver checks the validity of the Header of the second PDU using its HCS. If the second PDU Header is valid, the receiver uses the length field from the second PDU Header to determine the length of the second PDU and thus determines the beginning of the next PDU in that received burst. This continues until all of the PDUs in the received burst are unpacked, as shown in FIG. 7, where the arrows indicate that the process continues to the next PDU after the current PDU is validated, such as by analyzing its HCS.
If the protocol entity at the receiver determines that the. Header of a PDU is invalid, then the length information in the PDU Header is not usable to determine the length of that PDU. If the length of a current PDU is not known, it may not be possible to determine the end of the current PDU. Thus, it may not be possible to determine the beginning of the next PDU that may be present in the received burst of data as shown in FIG. 8. Therefore, the rest of the PDU boundaries in the received burst of data may not be detected by the protocol entity at the receiver.
In this scenario, regardless of the validity of the rest of the PDUs in the received burst of data, the receiver may discard the current and the rest of the PDUs in the received burst of data being processed. This leads to significant loss of data that may have been received successfully at the receiver. This in turn may require some unnecessary retransmissions from upper layer entities which may lead to reduced throughput and waste of bandwidth which is a precious resource in a communication system. In some real-time applications, for example VoIP, the retransmissions may not be useful due to latency issues. This leads to loss of data which may in turn degrade the quality of service.

Error resilient protocol data unit boundary detection


The inventors successfully produced anti-Epiregulin antibodies showing cross-species reactivity between cynomolgus monkey (non-human animals) and human, anti-Epiregulin antibodies with suppressed chemical degradation, anti-Epiregulin antibodies with lowered isoelectric point, anti-Epiregulin antibodies with increased thermal denaturation midpoint temperature, and anti-Epiregulin antibodies with reduced amount of aggregate by performing appropriate amino acid residue substitutions in the variable-region sequences of the humanized EP27 antibody which inhibits growth of cancer cells by exhibiting cytotoxic activity and neutralizing activity against human Epiregulin-expressing cancer cells.

Cancer is a leading cause of mortality in industrialized countries. Many chemotherapeutic agents have been developed over the past 50 years for the purpose of cancer treatment. Majority of the chemotherapeutic agents can be classified into alkylating agents, antimetabolites, anthracyclines, plant alkaloids, topoisomerase inhibitors, and antitumor agents. All of these pharmaceutical agents affect cell division or DNA synthesis and bring about therapeutic effects through a mechanism that functions in some way.
Effectiveness of a particular chemotherapeutic agent is different among cancers or patients, or is different depending on the time course in individual patients. Cancer cells exposed to chemotherapeutic agents develop resistance to these chemotherapeutic agents, and similarly often develop cross-resistance to a plurality of other anticancer agents. Furthermore, to control the side effects resulting from cell damage by these chemotherapeutic agents on normal cells through the above-mentioned mechanism of these agents, the dosage or usage of the agents is often restricted.
Instead of conventional chemotherapeutic agents, molecularly-targeted drugs which target molecules expressed specifically on cancer cells are being developed recently. With the appearance of these molecularly-targeted drugs, side effects intrinsic to conventional chemotherapeutic agents can be avoided, and cancer treatments that contribute to the QOL of cancer patients are becoming feasible. Such molecularly-targeted drugs include small-molecule pharmaceutical agents as well as high-molecular-weight pharmaceutical agents such as antibodies. Therapeutic antibodies are molecules that are inherently present in the body, and have the advantage of low toxicity on living organisms, as well as the advantage of exhibiting therapeutic effects by specifically damaging target cells by an action mechanism other than the mechanism of small-molecule pharmaceutical agents, such as cytotoxic activity mediated by effector functions. Accordingly, many therapeutic antibodies have been recently placed on the market
Therapeutic antibodies targeting Epiregulin, which is highly expressed in colon cancer, lung adenocarcinoma, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, and kidney cancer, have been disclosed as antibodies that specifically damage target cells by an action mechanism other than the mechanism of small-molecule pharmaceutical agents, such as cytotoxic activity mediated by such effector functions (Patent Document 1). Specifically, measurement of complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) activity and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity of anti-Epiregulin antibodies revealed that anti-Epiregulin antibodies have CDC activity and ADCC activity on Epiregulin-expressing cells. Furthermore, anti-Epiregulin antibodies were found to have proliferation inhibitory effects on cancer cell lines through neutralizing action. Furthermore, from the above-mentioned findings, anti-Epiregulin antibodies were revealed to be effective for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of various primary and metastatic cancers.
Any novel candidate pharmaceutical agent including anticancer agents such as those described above must pass strict trials to become commercially available. For example, these trials are classified into preclinical trials and clinical trials. Generally, the latter is further categorized into phase I trial, phase II trial, and phase III trial, and is performed on human patients, whereas the former studies are performed using animals. Generally, an objective of preclinical studies is to demonstrate that the drug candidate is potent as well as effective and safe. Specifically, the objectives of these animal studies are to demonstrate that the pharmaceutical agent is not carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic, as well as to understand the pharmacokinetics of the pharmaceutical agent. Clinical studies on administration of a test pharmaceutical agent to humans are permitted only when the safety and efficacy of the test pharmaceutical agent towards animals are established in preclinical studies.
In many cases, the action of a small-molecule test pharmaceutical agent (for example, a novel anticancer agent derived from anthracycline) in animals may become an indicator for anticipated actions of the pharmaceutical agent when administered to humans. Therefore, generally data obtained from such preclinical studies may be highly predictable of actions that will take place when it is administered to humans. However, such predictability is not obtained in every type of test pharmaceutical agent; and predictability from results of preclinical studies, and the possibility that candidate pharmaceutical agents are approved in clinical studies drop considerably.
Generally, antibodies can function through highly specific recognition of target molecules which are typically proteinaceous. In most cases, test antibody pharmaceutical agents are monoclonal antibodies, and recognize only a single site or a single epitope on a target molecule. Since monoclonal antibodies conventionally have a high target-identifying function, antibodies have become candidates of great interest for development of pharmaceutical agents, but on the other hand, this identifying function makes preclinical studies difficult in some cases. This is because there are species-specific variations in the target molecule sequences bound by these antibodies. For example, a monoclonal antibody that specifically recognizes molecule Y via epitope X in humans and binds to this molecule will be tested for the corresponding epitope X′ in a corresponding target molecule (ortholog) Y′ in animal species used for preclinical studies, but X′ may be different from X present in the corresponding target molecule in humans. Therefore, oftentimes, the monoclonal antibody cannot specifically recognize the ortholog and bind to the molecule. Even among groups of monoclonal antibodies that have reactivity to human and primate antigens, there are many examples of antibodies that only react with human and chimpanzee antigen homologs. For example, such cases have been observed for anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies. One of the most widely used CD3 complexes-specific monoclonal antibodies that has the most properties determined is OKT-3. OKT-3 reacts with chimpanzee CD3 but does not react with CD3 homologs of other primates such as rhesus monkeys or canine CD3 (Non-Patent Document 2). On the other hand, there are examples of monoclonal antibodies that recognize rhesus antigens but not their human orthologs. An example in this group is FN-18, which is a monoclonal antibody against rhesus monkey-derived CD3 (Non-patent Document 2).
Several strategies have been adopted to counter problems with preclinical animal studies caused by the high specificity of such monoclonal antibodies.
The first known approach is to perform preclinical studies on test antibody pharmaceuticals using a chimpanzee model. Chimpanzees are the closest genetic relative of humans, and since their genome has 99% identity to the human genome, variations of the target molecule specifically bound by the test antibody pharmaceutical in chimpanzees are highly likely to be identical to the variations of this molecule in humans. In fact, Schlereth et al. have discovered that the variations in CD3 are common between humans and chimpanzees (Non-patent Document 3). Therefore, the risk that this molecule will not be recognized by the test antibody pharmaceutical in chimpanzees is considered to be low. However, studies using chimpanzees are very costly, and have ethical problems as well. Furthermore, since chimpanzees are animals in danger of extinction and the number of animals that can be used in experiments is severely limited, such preclinical studies on chimpanzees are excluded from the development of most test antibody pharmaceuticals.
The second approach is the approach of adapting the molecule used in preclinical studies to the animal used in the studies. In this approach, essential safety information is obtained in preclinical studies by constructing a so-called "surrogate" antibody for administration to test animals. Generally, such a surrogate antibody is an antibody that specifically recognizes a test-animal ortholog of the target molecule bound by the non-surrogate antibody (the actual test antibody pharmaceutical for humans), and is an antibody that has been modified to bind to the ortholog. Therefore, in the approach using such a "surrogate" antibody, one must individually develop two different molecules: the clinical test pharmaceutical agent, and a preclinical test pharmaceutical agent to be used in the preclinical studies on animal species, which has target specificity corresponding to the clinical pharmaceutical agent, and of which safety and such must be examined. The great disadvantage of such a surrogate approach is that the surrogate antibody for the preclinical studies is a modified product of the clinical test antibody pharmaceutical. Therefore, data obtained preclinical studies using a surrogate antibody may not often be directly applicable to humans. Therefore, the predictability of clinical stud results based on preclinical study results using these approaches may decrease.
The above-mentioned approach adapts the test pharmaceutical agent so that it is suitable for the animal used in preclinical studies. On the other hand, other known approaches adapt animals used in the preclinical studies to the candidate pharmaceutical agent to be administered to humans.
An example of adapting a test animal to a test antibody pharmaceutical intended for administration to humans is producing a transgenic animal that expresses the human molecule to which the test antibody pharmaceutical specifically binds instead of the non-human molecule intrinsic to the test animal species. In this method, the test antibody pharmaceutical administered in preclinical studies is expected to bind to a human antigen in the transgenic test animal. For example, in a study conducted by Bugelski et al., preclinical safety evaluation was performed on the monoclonal antibody keliximab using human CD4 transgenic mice to predict long-term treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in human patients. Keliximab is a monoclonal antibody that has specificity to CD4 of humans and chimpanzees. Bugelski et al. conclude that the use of a human protein-expressing transgenic mouse provides a useful alternative method to studies conducted in chimpanzees using biological pharmaceuticals that have limited cross-species specificity. However, production of transgenic animals for test purposes is time consuming and costly since it demands a to of work.

Humanized anti-epiregulin antibody, and cancer therapeutic agent comprising said antibody as active ingredient


A communication aid for helping people with severe communication problems to express their needs or thoughts to others. The communication aid includes a case on which a touch pad contains series of mode selection switches and a plurality of activation switches. An overlay sheet is mounted on the touch pad and includes at least one mode symbol illustrating a general category of need, and a plurality of message symbols, each illustrating a specific need falling within the category. The mode symbols corresponding in location to the mode selection switches and the message symbols corresponding in location to the activation switches. The communication aid also incorporates a memory device for storing a plurality of audio messages, each corresponding to one of the message symbols. When a mode selection switch and on of the activation switches are depressed, a sound message associated with the depressed activation switch is generated.

Disabled or handicapped persons, such as those being unable to speak, oftentimes have great difficulty communicating their basic needs to others. In order to aid a disabled person in communicating his or her basic thoughts, needs, or wants, various types of communication aids have been developed in the past. Devices of this type have been helpful for people with communication difficulties, such as aphasia, multiple sclerosis, neurological disorders, mental retardation, and other brain disorders, voice, hearing and visual difficulties, or post operative problems.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,890 describes a communication aid utilizing a series of pictures or illustrations representing basic needs joined together on a ring. By selecting the proper illustration, the disabled person can communicate his or her needs or wants to others.
Another type of communication aid is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,633, which has particular use for disabled persons who have movement of their arms or legs but are unable to verbally communicate. In this device, a pointer is mounted for rotation on a generally flat surface of a housing and a series of pictures or illustrations, representing basic needs, are positioned on the housing surface. By depressing a push-button on the housing, the pointer is rotated and brought into registry with one of the illustrations on the housing to represent the need of the person.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,083 shows another form of communication aid, utilized by a motionless person also unable to verbally communicate. The disclosed communication aid is a device in which a series of pictures or illustrations representing possible needs of the person are mounted on a transparent board around a center hole or opening. An attendant, who is holding the board and looking through the opening, can follow the eye movement of the person to one of the illustrations on the board to thereby determine the specific need of the person.
While the above-identified communication aids are effective in relaying the basic needs of a person in a visual manner, these communication aids provide no audio output related to the need of the handicapped person. For this reason, an attendant or nurse aiding the handicapped person must be in a position such that they can visually see the communication aid and determine the need of the person. Additionally, it has been found that a device which produces an audio message provides the handicapped person with a method of communication that increases self-sufficiency since the audio signal can be easily interpreted by anyone. Thus, a communication aid which provides a sound message corresponding to the need of a disabled or handicapped person would be particularly desirable.

Communication aid using multiple membrane switches


The present invention relates to benefit agent containing delivery particles, compositions comprising said particles, and processes for making and using the aforementioned particles and compositions. When employed in compositions, for example, compositions for cleaning, fabric care, or coating onto various substrates, textiles or surfaces, such particles increase the efficiency of benefit agent delivery, thereby allowing reduced amounts of benefit agents to be employed. In addition to allowing the amount of benefit agent to be reduced, such particles allow a broad range of benefit agents to be employed.

Benefit agents, such as perfumes, silicones, waxes, flavors, vitamins and fabric softening agents, are expensive and generally less effective when employed at high levels in personal care compositions, cleaning compositions, and fabric care compositions. As a result, there is a desire to maximize the effectiveness of such benefit agents. One method of achieving such objective is to improve the delivery efficiencies of such benefit agents. Unfortunately, it is difficult to improve the delivery efficiencies of benefit agents as such agents may be lost do to the agents' physical or chemical characteristics, or such agents may be incompatible with other compositional components or the situs that is treated.
Accordingly, there is a need for a benefit agent containing delivery particle that provides improved benefit agent delivery efficiency.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Benefit agent containing delivery particles


A method and apparatus for producing a reinforced composite prepreg material comprising the steps of aligning discontinuous fibers by use of a strong electric field while simultaneously inserting the fibers through a mesh screen and into a ply or plies of fiber reinforced polymer matrix composite in an uncured state in a direction normal to the surface of the composite material. After the fibers are attached in the ply of fiber reinforced polymer matrix composite, the aligned fibers are forced through the composite material by applying a gentle pressure to the top of the conductive fibers while simultaneously being guided by the mesh screen. After the insertion process has been completed, the mesh screen is lifted vertically away from the composite material and any unaligned fibers are simultaneously removed. The newly formed reinforced prepreg composite films are then stacked on top of each other and pressurized and cured in an autoclave or press to produce an improved composite laminate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved method and apparatus for producing a reinforced composite prepreg material. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus of manufacturing a reinforced polymer matrix composite material by utilizing discontinuous fibers which are embedded in the composite material in the Z-direction.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
There are currently a number of commercial and defense manufacturing companies that are laminating composite prepreg plies (sheets of uncured resin impregnated onto either continuous or discontinuous reinforcement fibers) to form composite prepreg materials for the manufacturing of composite structures in the aerospace and automotive industry. These types of continuous or alternatively discontinuous composite prepreg materials are typically composed of approximately forty percent cured resin matrix to sixty percent fiber material with the fibers being oriented in the x-y plane or in-plane of the resin matrix.
It is known that these types of composite prepreg materials formed by current manufacturing techniques have a defect in common, namely, weakness in transverse tensile strength and interlaminar shear and peel strength due to the lack of reinforcement fibers in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the fibers. In order to overcome this disadvantage, prior art manufacturing processes have been developed for implanting transversely oriented fibers in the composites. However, the prior art implantation process results in breakage to the in-plane fibers and subsequently reduces in-plane strength. This reduction in in-plane strength limits the transverse fiber volume using the prior art process to two percent.
Other prior art improves transverse strength in polymer composite materials by utilizing three dimensional fiber weaves which are subsequently impregnated with resin using manufacturing processes such as resin transfer molding. These 3D weaves are costly and do not offer the manufacturing flexibility of composite prepreg.
Therefore, a need exists to provide a low cost method to reinforce composite prepreg materials by implanting transversely oriented single fiber filaments without breaking the in-plane fibers and simultaneously achieving high transverse fiber volumes thereby improving the interlaminar strength and damage tolerance of composite prepreg materials.
The subject invention herein solves all of these problems in a new and unique manner which has not been part of the art previously. Some related patents are described below:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,784 issued to M. Haun et al., on Sep. 23, 1986.
This patent describes a piezoelectric PZT-polymer composite of 1-3 and 1-3-0 connectivity which is transversely reinforced with glass fibers to increase the hydrostatic piezoelectric charge and voltage coefficients for possible use in hydrophone applications.
U.S. Pat No. 4,328,272 issued to M. Maistre on May 4, 1982
This patent is directed to a structure comprising a stack of superimposed layers of bi-dimensional reinforcing material and rectilinear elements located transversely through the stack with each reinforcing element being at an angle with the plane that is tangential to the layers it transverses.
While the basic concepts presented in the aforesaid patents are desirable, the methods employed by each for Z-direction reinforcement are limited by the materials used to achieve the desired result and furthermore do not provide for simultaneously enhancing the structural, thermal and electrical conductivity of the material.

Method for single filament transverse reinforcement in composite prepreg material