A drive controller for a stepping motor having a plurality of excitation phases which designate stepping positions thereof, includes a motor driver for sequentially exciting the excitation phases to rotate the stepping motor in increments of one step angle, and a control section for controlling the motor driver to set an excitation interval. When the control section sets the excitation interval to be shorter than an interval of a stepping range in which the stepping motor temporarily stops for each increment, the stepping motor is driven in a slewing mode in which the rotation of the stepping motor is continued without stopping for each increment. The control section includes a position correcting section for controlling the driving section prior to driving of the stepping motor in the slewing mode to sequentially excite the excitation phases for all the stepping positions of the stepping motor at the interval of the stepping range, with the final excitation phase being set as an excitation phase corresponding to a stepping position from which the rotation of the stepping motor may be started in the slewing mode, without a possibility of step out occuring.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a drive controller and a drive control method for a stepping motor incorporated into a paper feeding mechanism of a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a paper feeding mechanism of a printer. The paper feeding mechanism includes a stepping motor 10 which can be rotated in both directions and a gear 11 rotated together with the stepping motor 10. Rotation of the gear 11 is transmitted to a gear 16 by means of an idler gear 12. Paper P is set between a feed roller 15 and a pressing roller 17 which presses the paper P against the feed roller 15, and the feed roller 15 is rotated together with the gear 16 to feed the paper P. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the stepping motor 10 includes a plurality of excitation coils arranged to surround a rotor 10R. For brief explanation, four excitation coils A, B, C and D are shown in FIG. 2. The excitation coils A, B, C and D are excited on the basis of a two-phase excitation system, for example. In the two-phase excitation system, adjacent two of the excitation coils A, B, C and D are set into the excitation phase and excitation currents are simultaneously supplied to two excitation coils of each excitation phase. The rotor 10R rotates in a direction corresponding to the excitation order indicated as shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 3 shows a case wherein the rotor 10R is rotated from the starting position which is defined by the stepping position P0 which corresponds to the excitation phases A and B and at which the N pole thereof is initially set as shown in FIG. 2. That is, the rotor 10R is rotated in a clockwise direction when, the excitation phases are excited in an order of BC, CD, DA, AB, and so on, and is rotated in a counterclockwise direction when the excitation phases are excited in an order of DA, CD, BC, AB, and so on. The N pole of the rotor 10R is attracted towards the step position P0, P1, P2 or P3 when the excitation phase AB, BC, CD or DA is excited, respectively.
FIG. 4 shows the construction of a drive controller of the stepping motor 10 described above. The drive controller includes a control section 20 for setting the rotation amount, rotation direction, operation mode and the like of the stepping motor 10 and a motor driver 40 controlled by the motor control section 20 according to the setting data to selectively excite the excitation phases AB, BC, CD and DA of the stepping motor. The motor driver 40 includes an encoder 40A for generating 4-digit excitation phase signals allotted to the excitation coils A, B, C and D and an excitation switch 40B for selectively supplying an excitation current to the excitation coils A, B, C and D according to the excitation phase signal. The excitation phase signal is set to one of "1100", "0110", "0011" and "1001" and is used to selectively specify one of the excitation phases AB, BC, CD and DA. The encoder 40A generates the excitation phase signals in an order determined by the previously set rotation direction, by a number of times determined by the previously set rotation amount and at an interval determined by the previously set operation mode. The excitation switch 40B includes transistors T1 to T4 for selectively switching the excitation currents supplied from a power source VM to the excitation coils A, B, C and D. The transistors T1, T2, T3 and T4 are respectively turned on when the first, second, third and fourth digits of the excitation phase signal are "1" and respectively turned off when the first to fourth digits thereof are "0".
The stepping motor 10 has operation modes including a stepping mode in which it stops rotation for each increment of one step angle so as to be intermittently rotated and a slewing mode in which it is continuously rotated without being stopped for each increment of one step angle. The slewing mode is set when it is necessary to feed paper by a long distance in a short period of time, for example. In this case, the excitation interval is so controlled that the rotation speed of the stepping motor 10 will vary according to a pattern shown in FIG. 5. That is, the stepping motor 10 is accelerated from a stepping speed at which it can be stopped for each increment of one step angle to a desired speed, rotated at the desired speed, then decelerated to the stepping speed, and stopped.
The excitation interval must be set within a range in which the driver 40 can be electrically operated, but it can be set extremely short since the driver 40 does not effect the mechanical operation. However, in the stepping motor 10, the mechanical properties such as inertia and stepping angle are the main factors for determining the motor speed. The motor speed limits the range of the excitation interval when the rotation speed of the stepping motor 10 is changed. When the excitation interval exceeds the preset range, the rotor 10R cannot follow the switching of the excitation phases. Therefore, when the excitation interval is changed in the slewing mode, the amount of variation in the excitation interval is set so as to permit the rotor 10R to follow the switching of the excitation phases and attain the maximum acceleration.
The above-described conventional drive controller has a problem that an erroneous operation occurs when paper which has been printed is removed by manually rotating the feed roller 15. Assume now that the rotor 10R of the stepping motor 10 is set in the angular position P0 at the end of the printing operation. In this condition, if the feed roller 15 is manually rotated, the rotation of the roller may be transmitted to the rotor 10R of the stepping motor 10 to set the rotor 10R to a position such as a position PX which is deviated from the angular position P0. If the position of the rotor 10R is thus deviated, the stepping motor 10 cannot be operated in the slewing mode. That is, the drive controller is designed to drive the stepping motor 10 while determining a position corresponding to the excitation phase lastly excited in the preceding printing operation as the starting position before the paper is fed to make ready for the next printing operation. Therefore, the excitation phases BC, CD, DA, AB, and so on are sequentially excited at an interval according to the above-described speed changing pattern. The rotor 10R cannot follow the switching of the excitation phases, causing the stepping motor to be stepped out.

Drive controller and drive control method for a stepping motor without a step out error


The present disclosure concerns a fuel filter assembly that can be easily installed on a portable fuel container, such as a race fuel jug or utility jug. The assembly includes a fuel filter positioned in the fuel container to filter fuel that is being poured or otherwise discharged from the container. The fuel filter desirably is selected to filter dirt and other particulate matter that can clog the carburetor or cause damage to other engine parts.

Portable fuel containers, known as race fuel jugs or utility jugs, are used to supply gasoline to vehicles, such as snowmobiles, racecars, motorcycles, snowmobiles, ATVs, etc., or other gasoline-engine driven devices, such as lawnmowers. In some cases, the vehicle or engine-driven device may not have a fuel filter for filtering gasoline entering the engine. After repeated emptying and re-filling of a fuel jug, dirt and other particulate matter can collect in the jug. When fuel contaminated with particulate matter is supplied to a vehicle that does not have a fuel filter, various performance and maintenance issues can result. For example, the carburetor can become clogged, resulting in a "lean" condition where the engine runs hotter than usual. Unfortunately, this can cause serious damage to the pistons and other engine parts.

Interiorly disposed filter for portable fuel container


The present invention provides a method of treating a condition affecting a tooth or periodontium in a subject, comprising administering to the subject's tooth or periodontium a composition comprising biocompatible magnetic, magnetizable, or magnetically responsive agents; and applying an external magnetic field, wherein the magnetic, magnetizable, or magnetically responsive agents migrate to a desired location in response to the externally applied magnetic field, thereby treating a condition affecting the tooth or periodontium in the subject.

Dental caries (tooth decay) is a costly global health problem that affects billions of individuals worldwide. Marcenes et al., J Dent Res. 2013; 92 (7):592-597. It is the most prevalent chronic disease on the planet. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 60-90% of school children and nearly 100% of adults have tooth decay. WHO. Oral Health. Media Centre, Fact Sheets. 2012; No 318.
In its early stages, dental decay is characterized by localized demineralization of the outer layer of the tooth (enamel, FIG. 1A). This demineralization, caused by the by-products of bacterial metabolism (e.g.: lactic acid, ammonia, urea, indole), spreads over time and affects deeper structural layers of the tooth (dentin) and results in cavity formation. In addition to bacterial by-product induced demineralization of tooth structure, bacterial antigens (e.g.: lipopolysaccharides, lipoteichoic acid) diffuse through dentin and elicit immune responses that result in pulpal inflammation (pulpitis) and pain. These immune responses involve the activation of the innate immune system and the release of inflammatory mediators (e.g.: prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), bradykinin, CGRP) and proinflammatory cytokines (e.g.: tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1α), and IL-1β).
These agents will cause inflammation of the dental pulp, or pulpitis, which is a common, painful, and costly global public health problem that affects the quality of life of patients. Pulpitis is characterized by sharp, shooting pain, evoked by thermal stimuli (reversible pulpitis) or debilitating, dull, throbbing pain that occurs spontaneously or can be evoked by mechanical or thermal stimuli and lingers after cessation of the stimulus, necessitating emergency care (irreversible pulpitis). The quality and severity of the pain correlates with the extent of irritation from bacteria and other etiologies. Diagnosis can be complicated because the pain can be referred to other orofacial structures, or to adjacent teeth.
Reversible pulpitis is treated by removing affected tooth structures, primarily enamel and dentin (FIG. 1A). The pulp chamber is typically left intact, and the resulting defect repaired using a filling material. This longstanding form of treatment is aimed at reducing repeated insults to the pulp by providing insulation from thermal changes and metabolic by-products of bacterial fermentation, and by providing protection from chewing forces. However, filling materials do not provide full protection. Tooth decay and the resulting pulpal inflammation are not self-limiting, and in many cases the disease progresses to irreversible pulpitis. Irreversible pulpitis is more difficult to treat. Unless the pulp is exposed due to large carious lesions, topical drug administration is challenging because the pulp is encased in hard tissues (dentin and enamel). To date, the only acceptable therapy is to perform a root canal treatment, which involves a radical amputation of the tooth pulp. Root canal treatment can be painful, morbid, and costly. It necessitates the removal of a significant amount of tooth structure, weakening the tooth, especially in molars.
Unfortunately, available strategies for the treatment of pulpitis are limited, aggressive and outdated. They are focused on excising the affected hard tissues (cavity preparation) and the placement of a filling if the patient is suffering from reversible pulpitis or the radical amputation of the tooth pulp if the patient is suffering from irreversible pulpitis. Available systemic pharmacologic treatments are focused on controlling symptoms of pulpitis but do not reverse the pathology. Topical drug administration is typically not feasible until the disease has reached an advanced stage, when large carious lesions are present and the pulp is exposed.
Tooth sensitivity is also an important dental problem. Approximately 40-80% of the population suffers from tooth sensitivity. The sensitivity can be characterized by momentary, sharp-shooting pain arising from exposed dentin in response to various stimuli, such as thermal, mechanical, osmotic or chemical elements. It is commonly referred to as dentinal sensitivity or dentinal hypersensitivity. Dentinal sensitivity occurs primarily due to exposed dentinal tubules and the presence of thin and porous enamel. Several methods to treat this condition exist, ranging from the use of topical fluoride, the application of specialized dentifrices and the application of desensitizing agents.
Dentinal tubules are microscopic channels that extend outwards, through dentin, from the pulp to the enamel border. In humans, they are 0.3-2 μm in diameter and usually taper and may exhibit branching as they approach the pulp. Dentinal tubules are abundant in dentin and their density ranges from 10-30 tubules per 100 μm2 of dentin and their density and branching increases as they approach the pulp. Mjor et al., Arch Oral Biol. 1996; 41 (5):401-412. Dentinal tubules serve as an important route for the delivery of nutrients to the dentin from the pulp and contain: dentinal fluids, un-mineralized collagen, cellular processes of odontoblasts—cells that line the roof of the pulp chamber and deposit dentin, sensory nerve terminals and immunoglobulins and complement proteins that assist with the defense against microorganisms. It is thought that mechanical and thermal stimuli activate sensory processes in dentinal tubules by changing the pressure and the movement of the fluid in these tubules. It is also through these tubules that the by-products of bacterial fermentation and bacterial antigens attack the pulp and cause pulpitis. Dentists recognized the importance of these tubules decades ago and they routinely use them to provide microretention to bond fillings to tooth structure. Dentists have tried iontophoresis to propel charged minerals including potassium and fluoride to block these tubules to reduce tooth sensitivity with limited success. Gillam et al., J West Soc Periodontol Periodontal Abstr. 1990; 38 (4):129-133; Ikeda et al., Arch Oral Biol. 2013; 58 (4):341-347.
Periodontal diseases, such as gingivitis and periodontitis, can lead to tooth loss if left untreated. Treatments often require visits to a dental office. Periodontal disease is mainly the result of infections and inflammation of the gums and bone that surround and support the teeth. Periodontal disease can be challenging to treat, particularly where infections reside in hard to reach areas of the periodontium.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to provide improved compositions and methods for treating conditions affecting the teeth or periodontium, such as pulpitis, dentinal sensitivity, decay, gingivitis and periodontitis.

Compositions and delivery methods for treating dental infections, inflammation, sensitivity, and for use in dental restorations


A new and distinct cultivar of Poinsettia plant named ‘PER3809A’, characterized by its compact, uniform, upright and mounded plant habit; vigorous growth habit; freely branching habit; medium green-colored leaves; mid-season flowering response; large inflorescences with pink-colored flower bracts; and good post-production longevity.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Poinsettia plant, botanically known as Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd., and hereinafter referred to by the name 'PER3809A'.
The new Poinsettia is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. 'Eckalbert', disclosed in U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 10/291,043, abandoned. The new Poinsettia plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within a population of plants of 'Eckalbert' in a controlled greenhouse environment in Encinitas, Calif. in July, 2008.
Asexual reproduction of the new Poinsettia plant by terminal vegetative cuttings in a controlled greenhouse environment in Encinitas, Calif. since January, 2009 has shown that the unique features of this new Poinsettia plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.


A multi-port inductor structure for use in semiconductor applications such as high-performance RF filters and amplifiers is provided. Embodiments of the present invention may provide 3 metallization layers and two via layers. The metallization layers and via layers may be substantially stacked on top of each other to conserve space. Each metallization layer comprises a ring pattern. In embodiments, the top two ring patterns include a plurality of concentric bands, forming a spiral pattern. The third (bottom) ring may include a broken ring pattern. In embodiments, the second (middle) ring may include one or more spans to facilitate connection to the inner bands of the second ring. The spans connect inner bands to an outer perimeter region of the second ring. Multiple tap points along the bands and spans allow multiple inductance values to be obtained from the structure.

An inductor is one of the most important components for an electric circuit with a resistor, a capacitor, a transistor and a power source. The inductor has a coil structure where a conductor is wound many times as a screw or spiral form. The inductor suppresses a rapid change of a current by inducing the current in proportion to an amount of a current change. Herein, a ratio of counter electromotive force generated due to electromagnetic induction according to the change of the current flowing in a circuit is called an inductance (L).
Generally, the inductor is used for an Integrated Circuit (IC) for communication. High performance RF filters, and distributed amplifiers, such as those utilizing CDMA and/or GSM frequency bands, utilize inductors. In particular, inductors are used in a packaging technology for integrating many elements to a single chip, known as a System on Chip (SoC). Accordingly, an inductor having a micro-structure and good characteristics is needed. Particularly, in the case of implementing the inductor on a single wafer, the inductor formed on a substrate has considerable space requirements. It is therefore desirable to have an improved inductor for use in such applications.

Structure and method for high performance multi-port inductor


An acceleration sensor comprises an acceleration sensor element having a mass portion in the center, a thick frame surrounding the mass portion and a plurality of elastic support arms bridging the mass portion and the thick frame, and an upper regulation plate covering the acceleration sensor element and fixed on the thick frame with adhesive. The mass portion has, on the mass portion upper surface, connection portions connecting the mass portion with each of the arms, wired areas having lead wires on it and non-wired areas. The non-wired areas have a major area of the upper surface of the mass portion and are lower than the wired areas. The upper regulation plate has a first gap with the wired areas and a second gap with the non-wired areas, of which length is more than the sum of the first gap length, a lead wire thickness and 0.1 μm (preferably 1.0 μm). Even if contaminants adhere the mass portion upper surface, there is a large possibility of removing the contaminants from the upper surface when etching the non-wired areas, so that the vibration amplitude of the mass portion is scarcely lessened due to them.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an acceleration sensor for detecting acceleration, which is used for toys, automobiles, aircrafts, portable terminals and the like, and particularly to an acceleration sensor that can be produced using a semiconductor technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
Acceleration sensors utilizing a change in physical quantity such as a piezo resistance effect and a change in electrostatic capacity have been developed and commercialized. These acceleration sensors can be widely used in various fields, but recently, such small-sized acceleration sensors as can detect the acceleration in multi-axial directions at one time with high sensitivity are demanded.
Since silicon single crystal becomes an ideal elastic body due to the extreme paucity of lattice defect and since a semiconductor process technology can be applied for it without large modification, much attention is paid to a piezo resistance effect type semiconductor acceleration sensor in which a thin elastic support portion is provided at a silicon single crystal substrate, and the stress applied to the thin elastic support portion is converted into an electric signal by a strain gauge, for example, a piezo resistance effect element, to be an output.
As a three-dimensional acceleration sensor, an acceleration sensor has been used, which comprises elastic support arms each of a beam structure formed by a thin portion of a silicon single crystal substrate connecting a mass portion constituted by a thick portion of a silicon single crystal substrate in a center and a frame in its periphery. A plurality of strain gauges are formed in each axial direction on the elastic support arms. In order to sense a small acceleration with an enhanced sensitivity, the elastic support arms are made long and/or thin, or the mass portion that works as a pendulum is made heavy. The acceleration sensor that can detect a small acceleration has led to an excessive amplitude of the mass portion, when subjected to a large impact, and resulted to break the elastic support arms. To avoid the break of the elastic support arms even if a massive impact is applied, regulation plates have been installed above and below the acceleration sensor element to restrict amplitude of the mass portion within a certain range.
An acceleration sensor having regulation plates is described in Japanese Laid-Open Patents HEI 4-274005, HEI 5-41148 and HEI 8-233851.
Japanese Laid-Open Patents HEI 4-274005 and HEI 8-233851 also disclose a method in which, to control a gap at a predetermined value between the regulation plates and the mass portion of the acceleration sensor element, small balls having a diameter of substantially the same distance as a gap are mixed with adhesive, and the adhesive with small balls mixed is used to bond regulation plates to the acceleration sensor element. The gap can be maintained at a predetermined value because the gap between regulation plates and the acceleration sensor element can be dictated by a diameter of small balls. The use of adhesive containing small balls thus enables the control of a gap between regulation plates and the acceleration sensor element.
Acceleration sensors are manufactured by a process comprising: forming a number of acceleration sensor elements on a silicon wafer of about 6 inches in diameter by a photo lithography technology, cutting the wafer into acceleration sensor elements one by one, fixing each of the acceleration sensor elements in a protection case and connecting electrical terminals with conductors, mounting a regulation plate on the acceleration sensor element and fixing a lid of the protection case onto the protection case with adhesive.
The process for manufacturing the acceleration sensor elements from the silicon wafer uses a sputtering apparatus for forming terminals and lead wires on the elements, an ion implantation apparatus for forming piezoresistors, a dry etching apparatus for dry etching the silicon wafer and the like, besides coating and developing photo resistive films and rinsing them. Particularly in the dry etching step, the silicon wafer is fixed onto a dummy substrate with resin adhesive to cool the silicon wafer. Elastic support arms are liable to fracture during removing the resin adhesive after the dry etching step, since they are as thin as 5 to 10 μm, while they are of 500 to 700 μm long and 80 to 120 μm thick. The adhesive cannot be removed by applying a mechanical force but by using a solvent. By the reason, even a small amount of residual adhesive tends to remain on the elements. Also, there may be asperities or protrusions caused on the elements because dust is scattered in the sputtering step of lead wires. Most of the asperities or protrusions (hereafter referred to as "contaminants") caused in the sputtering are less than some μm in height and of soft material so that they do not affect the bending of the elastic support arms nor reduce output voltages and sensitivity of the acceleration sensor, although a side of them is longer than 10 μm. Contaminants caused by sputtering are harder in material than the resin adhesive and as high as 0.1 to 5 μm in height, although they are as large as some μm to 10 μm in a side length of their area. But, the sputtered contaminants do not affect the bending of the elastic support arms. It is thought that the contaminants do not affect the measurement results of acceleration, since they are small in volume and in weight. It was proved that there are no contaminants larger than 5 μm high, when a lot of contaminants were measured in height.
The contaminants cannot be neglected with respect to a gap g between a regulation plate mounted to face an acceleration sensor element and a mass portion on the acceleration sensor element, since the gap is as small as about 15 μm. In view of the height of the contaminants, most of the acceleration sensor elements in which the contaminants adhere a mass portion of the element cannot be used. Because of that, those having contaminants on a surface facing a regulation plate had to be disposed of as a defective product. The contaminants lowered production yields, resulting in raising prices of the acceleration sensors.
In a usual acceleration sensor, a gap between non-wired areas of an upper surface of a mass portion and an upper regulation plate has a length of more by a thickness of lead wires on the acceleration sensor element than that between wired areas of the upper surface of the mass portion and the upper regulation plate. However, since the wire thickness on the sensor element is about 1 μm at most and the contaminants adhering the mass portion are as large as about 5 μm in height, there is an extremely high possibility of the contaminants contacting the upper regulation plate first, when the contaminants adhere any area on the mass portion and when the mass portion is displaced by excessive acceleration, and the output is apt to be saturated even if the applied acceleration is within a measurable range.


A brewing apparatus including a fluid reservoir having a first end and a second end. The brewing apparatus can include a lid portion configured to removably engage the first end of the fluid reservoir and a cartridge holder configured to removably engage the second end of the fluid reservoir. A spring-loaded plunger can slidably connect to the lid portion.

1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to apparatuses and methods for brewing a beverage, such as coffee.
2. Description of the Related Art
Of the many techniques for brewing coffee, connoisseurs consider the French press technique to be one of the best for taste and efficient use of ground coffee (efficiency is proportional to the ratio of the amount of coffee brewed to the amount of ground coffee used). It is theorized that the good taste and efficiency is a result of the relatively thorough wetting of the coffee grounds that the French press technique allows. Wetting is a function of the surface area of the coffee grounds in contact with water during the brewing time, and of the portion of the brewing time during which this contact occurs. The greater the contact area and contact time, the more thorough the wetting of the coffee grounds.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate the French press technique. Referring to FIG. 1A, one places ground coffee 10 and hot water 12 in a coffee pot 14, and allows coffee to brew. Because the ground coffee 10 often floats to the surface of the water 12, one may stir or otherwise agitate the mixture of the ground coffee and the water to more thoroughly wet the individual coffee grounds that constitute the ground coffee. Referring to FIG. 1B, after the coffee 15 has brewed, one grasps a handle 16 of a filter 18, inserts the filter into the coffee pot 14, and presses the filter down toward the bottom of the pot.
Because the filter 18 passes liquid but does not pass coffee-ground-sized particles, as one presses the filter toward the bottom of the coffee pot 14, the substantially ground-free brewed coffee 15 fills the portion of the pot above the filter while the filter retains the ground coffee 10 in the portion of the pot below the filter. Of course, the edge 20 of the filter 18 and the inner side 22 of the pot 14 form a seal sufficient to prevent coffee grounds from passing between the edge of the filter and the inner side of the pot.
After one presses the filter 18 below a spout 24 of the coffee pot 14, he can pour the substantially ground-free brewed coffee 15 into a cup (not shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B) via the spout. Although ideally one may stop pressing the filter 18 after the filter is below the spout 24, one typically presses the filter all the way to the bottom of the coffee pot 14 to reduce the chances of undersized coffee grounds passing through the filter and into the cup.
Still referring to FIG. 1B, after one pours the desired amount of brewed coffee 15, he retracts the filter 18 from the pot 14 by pulling on the handle 16, removes the ground coffee 10 from the pot, and then cleans the filter and the pot.


This invention relates to a new and distinct short-day variety of strawberry plant named ‘BG-959’. This new variety is primarily adapted to the growing conditions of the southern coast of California. A small plant with large uniformly shaped berries primarily characterizes the new variety. Foliage is small in size with short petioles producing very few bract leaflets. Production is early beginning as early as late December, producing upwards of 20% of 25% of it production by the end of February. The fruit is large in size, very firm, flat conical in shape with a smooth surface lacking creases and ridges.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct short-day strawberry variety designated as 'BG959'. This new variety is a result of a controlled cross made by the Inventors, Steven D. Nelson, Michael D. Nelson and Lee W. Stoeckle, in 1996 between 'Camarosa' (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 8,708) and 'PS-1269' (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,686). The variety is botanically known as Fragaria ananassa.
The seedling resulting from the aforementioned cross was asexually propagated by stolons in a nursery located in Siskiyou County, Calif., and was subsequently selected by the Inventors from a controlled breeding plot near Oxnard, Calif. in 1998. After its selection, the new variety was further asexually propagated by stolons in both Siskiyou County, Calif. and San Joaquin County, Calif. The new variety was extensively tested over the next several years in fruiting fields near Oxnard, Calif. This propagation has demonstrated that the combination of traits disclosed herein as characterizing the new variety are fixed and remain true to type through successive generations of asexual reproduction.


Methods and systems for peak detection as part of automatic gain control in high-speed communications are provided. A peak detection system uses a portion of an input signal to generate a reference signal for comparison with the input signal. The comparison produces a differential error signal that is in turn used to produce one or more full swing pulses based on the comparison. A pulse counter counts the pulses, and if the count in a single clock cycle is above a determined threshold, a binary error signal is set to indicate a need for correction.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the field of signal conditioning in high-speed wireline communications. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for peak detection in automatic gain control circuits such as may be used in adaptive equalization control in high-speed wireline communications.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Whenever electrical signals are transmitted over wires, the integrity of the signals can be degraded. Thus, the signal that was originally placed on the wire will have some differences from the signal that is received at the other end of the wire. This is due to inherent physical properties of the wire.
In a digital signal, the frequency components of a bit can get spread apart as the higher and lower frequency components travel at slightly different rates through the wireline, causing intersymbol interference (ISI). In recent years, as data has been required to travel at faster speeds and over longer wirelines, the problems of maintaining signal integrity and minimizing ISI have increased.
Several techniques have been developed to deal with ISI, including adaptive equalization, which have been found to have some advantages. Adaptive equalizers self-adjust to tailor the response to best counteract the effects of the wireline on a signal. Some adaptive equalizers incorporate peak detection circuits, which monitor and provide the peak signal levels of the incoming signal. However, many peak detection circuits have significant drawbacks. Closed-loop peak detection circuits can consume excessive amounts of power, and open-loop peak detection circuits can also suffer limitations due to finite transconductance in sub-micron CMOS processes. What is needed are improved peak detection methods and circuits.

Systems and methods for peak detection in automatic gain control circuits in high-speed wireline communications


Examples include group leader role queries. Examples include detection of a loss of communication, via a first communication protocol, between first and second computing devices, transmission, via a second communication protocol, of a query for information about the second computing device currently having the group leader role. Examples further include a determine not to assume the group leader role with the first computing device based on receiving a response to the query via the second communication protocol from the second computing device.

Computing devices, such as servers, storage arrays, and the like, include may communicate with one another over one or more computer network(s). In some examples, a computing device may perform various service(s) on behalf of other computing device(s), manage or coordinate functionalities involving multiple connected computing devices, or the like. In such examples, loss of communication over the computer network(s) may have a detrimental effect.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


A base station antenna includes a radome having a bottom opening, an antenna assembly within the radome, a bottom end cap covering the bottom opening of the radome, the bottom end cap including a plurality of connector receptacles, and a plurality of connectors mounted in respective ones of the connector receptacles, each connector including a connector port that extends downwardly from the bottom end cap. Longitudinal axes of a first subset of the connectors extend at respective oblique angles with respect to a plane that is normal to a longitudinal axis of the antenna.

The present invention generally relates to radio communications and, more particularly, to base station antennas for cellular communications systems.
Cellular communications systems are well known in the art. In a cellular communications system, a geographic area is divided into a series of regions that are referred to as "cells" which are served by respective base stations. Each base station may include one or more base station antennas that are configured to provide two-way radio frequency ("RF") communications with fixed and mobile subscribers that are within the cell served by the base station. In many cases, each base station is divided into "sectors." For example, a hexagonally shaped cell may be divided into three 120° sectors, and each sector is served by one or more base station antennas that have an azimuth half-power beamwidth of approximately 65°. Typically, the base station antennas are mounted on a tower or other raised structure, with the radiation patterns ("antenna beams") that are generated by the base station antennas directed outwardly. Base station antennas are often implemented as linear phased arrays of radiating elements.
In order to accommodate increasing volume of cellular communications traffic, cellular operators have added cellular service in a variety of new frequency bands. Different linear arrays of radiating elements are often used to support service in the different frequency bands. As the number of frequency bands has proliferated, and increased sectorization has become more common (e.g., dividing a cell into six, nine or even twelve sectors), the number of base station antennas deployed at a typical base station has increased significantly. However, due to, for example, local zoning ordinances and/or weight and wind loading constraints for the antenna towers, there is often a limit as to the number of base station antennas that can be deployed at a given base station. In order to increase capacity without further increasing the number of base station antennas, multi-band base station antennas are commonly used that have multiple linear arrays of radiating elements in a single antenna. One common multi-band base station antenna design is the RVV antenna, which includes one linear array of "low-band" radiating elements that are used to provide service in the 694-960 MHz frequency band (which is often referred to as the "R-band") and two linear arrays of "high-band" radiating elements that are used to provide service in the 1695-2690 MHz frequency band (which is often referred to as the "V-band"). These linear arrays are mounted in side-by-side fashion. Other multi-band base station antennas include, for example, the RRVV antenna, which has two linear arrays of low-band radiating elements and two linear arrays of high-band radiating elements, and the RR4V antenna, which has two linear arrays of low-band radiating elements and four linear arrays of high-band radiating elements.
Most base station antennas use dual-polarized radiating elements in their linear arrays, so that the same RF signal may be transmitted from each linear array at two orthogonal polarizations. Typically, a linear array of dual polarized radiating elements is connected to an associated radio through two connector ports on a base station antenna, namely a first connector port for the first polarization (e.g., a slant +45° polarization) and a second connector port for the second polarization (e.g., a slant −45° polarization). Additionally, many base station antennas include wideband radiating elements that may be used to transmit and receive signals in multiple frequency sub-bands. For example, a base station antenna may include a linear array of low-band radiating elements that can be used to transmit and receive signals in both the 700 MHz frequency sub-band and the 800 MHz frequency sub-band. Such an antenna may include one or more diplexers that connect the linear array of low-band radiating elements to both a radio operating in the 700 MHz sub-band and a radio operating in the 800 MHz sub-band. Thus, such a linear array may be connected to as many four radio ports through four connector ports on the base station antenna, namely a +45° polarization 700 MHz port, a −45° polarization 700 MHz port, a +45° polarization 800 MHz port, and a −45° polarization 800 MHz port. Thus, an RRVV antenna (four linear arrays) that has dual-polarized wideband radiating elements may have as many as sixteen connector ports. An RR4V antenna (six linear arrays) could potentially require as many as twenty-four connector ports. Additional connector ports may be needed for control signal connections such as connector ports for Antenna Interface Standards Group ("AISG") control channels.

Base station antennas having bottom end caps with angled connector ports


The present invention is directed to the use of silicic acid to transform biological materials, including cellular architecture into inorganic materials to provide biocomposites (nanomaterials) with stabilized structure and function. In the present invention, there has been discovered a means to stabilize the structure and function of biological materials, including cells, biomolecules, peptides, proteins (especially including enzymes), lipids, lipid vesicles, polysaccharides, cytoskeletal filaments, tissue and organs with silicic acid such that these materials may be used as biocomposites. In many instances, these materials retain their original biological activity and may be used in harsh conditions which would otherwise destroy the integrity of the biological material. In certain instances, these biomaterials may be storage stable for long periods of time and reconstituted after storage to return the biological material back to its original form. In addition, by exposing an entire cell to form CSCs, the CSCs may function to provide a unique system to study enzymes or a cascade of enzymes which are otherwise unavailable.

The synthesis of inorganic materials with controlled and complex forms has been facilitated through discoveries such as vesicle, micelle and liquid crystalline templating of silicates which provided inspiration to explore a range of templating strategies based on self-assembled molecular precursors, colloids, and biological templates and vessels. See C. T. Kresge et al., Nature 359, 710 (1992); J. S. Beck et al., J Am Chem Soc 114, 10834 (1992); S. Mann and G. A. Ozin, Nature 382, 313 (1996); C. J. Brinker et al., Adv Mater 11, 579 (1999); E. Pouget et al., Nat Mater 6, 434 (2007); C. L. Chen and N. L. Rosi, Angew Chem Int Ed 49, 1924 (2010); K. E. Shopsowitz et al., Nature 468, 422 (2010); C. Boissiere et al., Adv Mater 23, 599 (2011); B. T. Holland et al., Science 281, 538 (1988); B. Hatton et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107, 10354 (2010); A. Stein et al., Chem Mater 20, 649 (2008); O. Paris et al., MRS Bull 35, 219 (2010); D. Van Opdenbosch et al., J Mater Chem 26, 1193 (2011); and K. J. C. van Bommel et al., Angew Chem Int Ed 42(9), 980 (2003). A driving force for these efforts is the many complex inorganic structures found in nature. An oft-cited example is the hierarchical composites built by silica condensing microorganisms such as diatoms, which have generated substantial scientific interest for over a century. See P. Fratzl and S. Weiner et al., Adv Mater 22, 4547 (2010). Diatoms display complex 3D architectures with great structural control over nano- to millimeter length scales. However, despite some success toward elucidating mechanisms of diatom biomineralization, the in vitro synthesis of 3D diatom-like forms has remained elusive. Diatom silica has found numerous applications including as a chemical stabilizer, absorbent, filter medium, and fine abrasive, and the lack of synthetic analogues has facilitated recent investigations to employ diatom frustules as starting materials for shape-preserving chemical transformations into functional nanomaterials. See K. H. Sandhage et al., Handbook of Biomineralization: Biomimetic and bioinspired chemistry, 235 (2007); D. Losic et al., Adv Mater 21, 2947 (2009); and Z. Bao et al., Nature 446, 172 (2007). Given the potential of this biosilica, it would be desirable to be able to wield control over the silica structure in order to achieve broader applicability; however, strategies to direct diatom morphology using chemical and genetic approaches has proven challenging. See M. Hildebrand, J Nanosci Nanotechno 5, 146 (2005); H. E. Townley et al., Nanotechnology 18, 295101 (2007); and N. Kroger, Curr Opin Chem Biol 11, 662 (2007). Therefore, an ability to generate cell frustules from more malleable templates such as mammalian cells would provide greater access to natural and engineered cell heterogeneity—both structure and function—to be exploited in the design of complex materials.
To these ends, biomineralization by silica condensing microorganisms offers key lessons. The discovery of biogenic peptides that catalyze silica condensation subsequently has motivated the extensive investigation of the interaction of natural and synthetically-derived peptides and proteins with silica and its precursors. See N. Kroger et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97, 14133 (2000); N. Kroger et al., Science 286, 1129 (1999); J. N. Cha et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96, 361 (1999); E. Pouget et al., Nat Mater 6, 434 (2007); N. Kröger et al., Science 298, 584 (2002); T. Coradin et al., Colloids Surf B 29, 189 (2003); A. Bassindale et al., J Mater Chem 19, 7606 (2009); C. Gautier et al., Colloids Surf B 65, 140 (2008); M. Dickerson et al., Chem Rev 108, 4935 (2008); and S. V. Patwardhan et al., Chem Commun 9, 1113 (2005). Identification of silica associated biomolecules such as long-chain polyamines and the silaffin peptides has led to a general understanding of the tenets by which macromolecules control polymerization of silica precursors into silica assemblies. See N. Kroger et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97, 14133 (2000); N. Kroger et al., Science 286, 1129 (1999); and M. Hildebrand, Chem Rev 108, 4855 (2008). However, silica morphogenesis at the meso- and micro-scales must involve both transport of soluble silica precursors and their directed deposition by biomolecular templating or structural elements. See B. Tesson and M. Hildebrand, PloS one 5, e14300 (2010); E. Brunner et al., Angew Chem Int Ed 48, 9724 (2009); and A. Scheffel et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108, 3175 (2011). Likely, these larger scale molecular assemblies direct the assembly of silica building blocks, formed in the silica deposition vesicle (SDV), into complex structures.
Therefore, Khripin et al. recently examined whether synthetic 3D protein scaffolds could direct/template silica deposition provided the appropriate silica precursors and chemical conditions. See C. Y. Khripin et al., ACS Nano 5, 1401 (2011). They showed that microfabricated protein hydrogels could template silica volumetrically into mechanically stable, nano- to micro-scale biocomposites with user-defined 3D features identical in size and shape to those of the template. These features were preserved following removal of the organic component to form a porous silica replica. Importantly, proteins of diverse properties (e.g., isoelectric point; pI) directed silica condensation under identical solution conditions (100 mM silicic acid, pH 3), which is somewhat contrary to the generally held understanding that cationic species (e.g., proteins with pI>7) are required for biogenic silica deposition. See A. Bassindale et al., J Mater Chem 19, 7606 (2009). These protein hydrogels are highly concentrated (>40% protein by wt vol−1), producing a locally crowded 3D molecular environment, which acts to capture and concentrate silica precursors (mono-, oligo-silicic acid, and nanoparticles) via hydrogen bonding and other non-covalent interactions, promoting their further condensation and conversion to covalently bonded siloxane replicas.
However, a need remains for a method of directed silica condensation in naturally crowded molecular environments, such as cells, under similar conditions.

Cell-based composite materials with programmed structures and functions


A silver halide light-sensitive material containing at least silver halide grains, a dispersion medium, an antifoggant, and a hardening agent, wherein said antifoggant is an antifoggant having a reactive substituent capable of reacting with a functional group of the dispersion medium to form a covalent bond after adsorption on the silver halide grains and/or an antifoggant previously covalently bonded to the dispersion medium. The antifoggant is immobilized in a light-sensitive material while exerting its antifogging activity and is not therefore dissolved into a developing solution.

Most of silver halide light-sensitive materials essentially contain an antifoggant as an additive called an emulsion stabilizer for prevention of fogging during preservation or called development restrainer for prevention of fogging during development. However, an antifoggant has the following disadvantage.
When a light-sensitive material is development processed, the antifoggant is dissolved from the material and accumulated in a developing solution. As the amount of the accumulated antifoggant increases, developing properties of the light-sensitive material are adversely affected, resulting in deterioration of reproducibility of developing properties and reduction in developing capacity of the developing solution. As the developing capacity is reduced, the amount of the developing solution waste liquor increases, leading to an increased cost. It has therefore been demanded to develop a silver halide light-sensitive material free from such a problem.
A polymerized compound obtained by polymerizing an antifoggant linked with a repeating unit of a synthetic high polymer has been proposed as an antifoggant having improved non-diffusibility as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,576,638, 3,598,599, 3,598,600, and 3,936,401, JP-A-57-211142, and JP-A-62-949 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"). In any of these polymerized antifoggants, however, the antifoggant moiety is not bound to a gelatin dispersion medium so that there still remains a problem that the antifoggant is not completely immobilized. If an antifoggant is completely immobilized, it follows that the antifoggant could not reach the surface of silver halide grains, failing to be adsorbed thereon and, accordingly, the action as an antifoggant would be lessened.


A disk cache may include a volatile memory such as a dynamic random access memory and a nonvolatile memory such as a polymer memory. When a cache line needs to be allocated on a write, the polymer memory may be allocated and when a cache line needs to be allocated on a read, the volatile memory may be allocated.

This invention relates generally to disk caching for processor-based systems.
Input/output devices, such as disk drives used with processor-based systems, may be slower than other circuitry in those processor-based systems including the central processing units and/or memory devices. Therefore, there have been many attempts to increase the performance of input/output devices. However, because such devices are electromechanical in nature, there is a finite limit beyond which performance cannot be increased.
One way to reduce the information bottleneck at input/output devices, such as disk drives, is to use a cache. A cache is a memory device that logically resides between a device and the remainder of the processor-based system such as one or more central processing units and/or computer busses. A cache is an area memory that serves as a temporary storage area for the device, such as the disk drive. Frequently accessed data resides in the cache after initial access and subsequent accesses to the same data may be made to the cache instead of the device. The cache for a disk drive generally resides in the computer main memory, but may also reside in a separate device coupled to the system bus, as another example.
Typically, disk caches that use volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cannot save written data due to reliability concerns. If power is lost, there may be data corruption if that data is only stored in volatile memory. Disk caches that use nonvolatile memory, such as Flash memory or battery-backed up dynamic random access memory, may be more expensive.
Thus, there is a need for a disk cache that overcomes the problems inherent in existing volatile and nonvolatile memories.

Using non-volatile memories for disk caching of partition table entries


Methods and nodes for balancing load on channels available for secondary usage by a secondary network (404). A channel handling node (400) determines channel quality metric values for the available channels, which indicate expected utility when the channels are used for radio communication. The channel handling node then adjusts the channel quality metric value of a superior channel with higher expected utility than the other available channels, to indicate equal or lower expected utility than a channel with the next highest expected utility, when the amount of channel queries (Q) from the secondary network exceeds a limit. The channel handling node then returns the adjusted channel quality metric value of the at least one superior channel, in response to a subsequent channel query (Q). A secondary network node (406) of the secondary network that receives channel quality metric values for the available channels, including the adjusted channel quality metric value of the superior channel, can then select a channel for secondary usage based on the received channel quality metric values, and is thus influenced to select a channel other than the at least one superior channel.

In the field of radio communication involving wireless terminals and devices, procedures have been developed for a communication network of a so-called "secondary" service to use channels of a frequency spectrum originally allocated and reserved, e.g. by license or similar, for a "primary" service but not fully used by the primary service. In this context, the term "primary service" indicates a service or system, e.g. a TV broadcast service, which is exclusively authorized to use a reserved frequency spectrum for radio transmissions. However, the primary service may not always use all parts of the reserved frequency spectrum, e.g. in certain areas and/or during certain time periods. For example, a TV broadcast service may only broadcast between 6 and 11 p.m. every day. Thereby, the spectrum will be unused the remaining hours of the day and night. A primary service may further make radio transmissions on certain frequencies in a certain geographical area but not in other areas.
It is possible for a provider of the primary service to make an unused part of the licensed frequency spectrum available for use in a specific geographical area by a communication network that provides a secondary service. The term "secondary service" thus indicates a service or system, e.g. a cellular network for mobile communication, which is at least temporarily allowed to use the unused part of the licensed frequency spectrum for its own radio transmissions, e.g. between base stations and wireless terminals or devices, as long as they do not cause harmful interference to the primary service. The geographical areas where a reserved frequency spectrum is not in use have been commonly termed the "white space" for that frequency spectrum. In this description, the term "secondary usage" is used to indicate usage of channels of a frequency spectrum which are reserved for but not used by the primary service.
Motivated by the underutilization of e.g. the TV broadcast bands, the research community has during the last decade performed research into secondary usage of a frequency spectrum not used by a primary service. The goal is to utilize reserved but unused parts of the spectrum, e.g. the TV broadcast bands, for other radio transmissions in such a way that the primary service is not negatively affected by the secondary usage of available channels in the frequency spectrum.
The central idea behind secondary spectrum access is thus to use already reserved spectrum for secondary purposes, i.e., for radio communication in a mobile communication network. As an example, TV broadcast spectrum may be used for secondary purpose in the TV white spaces. Communication entities in the secondary network are sometimes referred to as White Space Devices WSDs, which thus transmit or receive radio signals on spectrum reserved for a primary service at times and/or locations where the primary service is not using the spectrum. As mentioned above, a WSD is not allowed to cause harmful interference to the primary service. Furthermore, the WSD is not protected from interference from any transmissions of the primary service.
A way of finding out which channels are available for secondary usage, is to access a centrally managed database referred to as a white space database, which is illustrated in FIG. 1. This figure illustrates a secondary network 100 in a specific geographical area comprising base stations 102 and wireless devices 104. A channel handling node 106 is associated with a white space database 108 which holds information on channels that are available for secondary usage by the secondary network 100. The channel handling node 106 is configured to return information about available channels taken from the white space database 108, in response to channel queries from the secondary network. In this process, the channel handling node 106 may retrieve the channel information by querying the white space database 108, either at each and every channel query or at regular intervals when the retrieved channel information is cached. It should be noted that more than one white space database may be associated with a channel handling node, possibly competing with each other.
Upon a query from a querying node of the secondary network, shown by an action 1:1, which querying node in this case is a base station 102, the channel handling node 106 returns a list of channels available for secondary usage, shown by another action 1:2. The base station 102 typically provides information in the query regarding its location.
Furthermore, the channel handling node 106 also returns maximum allowed transmit power levels associated with the channels available for secondary usage in the response 1:2 to base station 102. These transmit power levels have been determined based on an estimation of how much interference that would be generated by the secondary usage in a worst case, possibly including a margin to take into account the added interference from multiple communications. As a result, all querying nodes can identify the most attractive channel based on its maximum allowed transmit power level. The base station then selects one or more of the returned channels, in an action 1:3, and uses the selected channel for radio communication with a wireless terminal 104, in a final shown action 1:4.
However, it is a problem that the load on channels available for secondary usage by a secondary network for radio communication, can sometimes be uneven such that one or more of the most attractive channels are selected very often for secondary usage and therefore get overloaded while other channels are left more or less unused. The resulting load distribution on the available channels will thus be uneven and the utilization of available channels is not efficient.


There is provided a multi-layered structure forming method comprising: (A) forming a first insulating material layer containing a first photo-curing material on a substrate; (B) semi-hardening the first insulating material layer by radiating light having a first wavelength to the first insulating material layer; (C) forming a conductive material layer on the semi-hardened first insulating material layer by ejecting droplets of a conductive material to the semi-hardened first insulating material layer from a nozzle of a liquid droplet ejecting apparatus; (D) forming a second insulating material layer containing a second photo-curing material so as to cover the semi-hardened first insulating material layer and the conductive material layer; and (E) forming a first insulating layer, a conductive layer positioned on the first insulating material, and a second insulating layer covering the first insulating layer and the conductive layer by simultaneously heating the first insulating material layer, the conductive material layer, and the second insulating material layer.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a multi-layered structure forming method using a liquid droplet ejecting apparatus and more particularly to a multi-layered structure forming method suitable for manufacturing a wiring substrate and an electronic apparatus.
2. Related Art
A method of manufacturing a wiring substrate or a circuit board by use of an additive process with a printing method has attracted attention. This is because cost for the additive process is lower than that for a method of manufacturing a wiring substrate or a circuit board by repeating a thin film coating process and a photolithography process.
A technique of forming a conductive pattern by use of an inkjet method is known as one technique used for the additive process (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-6578).
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-6578 is an example of the related art.
However, when a plurality of resin layers are stacked using an inkjet method, stress may remain in the interface between a base layer and a layer covering the base layer. As a result, when external impact or heat is applied, cracks may be generated in the interface.
When an insulating layer having a via hole is provided using an inkjet method, a first insulating pattern triming the via hole and a second insulating pattern surrounding the first insulating pattern are often formed individually. Specifically, the first insulating pattern is formed to trim the shape of the via hole and then the second insulating pattern is formed to surround the first insulating pattern. This is because the outline of the via hole is clearer and the insulating layer can be formed widely. However, in such a method, stress may remain in the interface between the insulating patterns individually formed, due to the hardening contraction at the time of hardening the insulating patterns. As a result, when external impact or heat is applied, cracks may be generated in the interface.

Multi-layered structure forming method, method of manufacturing wiring substrate, and method of manufacturing electronic apparatus


The instant invention provides for apparatus and methods for the efficient administration of pharmaceuticals to target cells, tissues and/or organs, for a variety of functional uses.

Advances in recombinant-DNA technology have made introduction of therapeutic genes into somatic cells possible (Anderson W.F., Human gene Therapy. Science 256:808-813,1992; Miller A. D., Human gene therapy comes of age. Nature 357:455-457, 1992). In recent years several clinical trials involving human gene therapy have been accepted by regulatory agencies. The first of the approved clinical trials which have initiated human gene therapy aim at treating both inherited diseases (such as severe combined immunodeficiency caused by lack of adenosine deaminase in peripherial T-lymphoctes, cystic fibrosis, and familial hypercholesterolemia) as well as noninherited disease such as cancer (Wolfe J. H., Recent progress in gene therapy for inherited disease. Curr. Opinion in Pediatr. 6: 213-219, 1994; Sanda M. G. et al., Gene therapy for urologic cancer. J. Urology 44:617-624, 1994; O'Malley B. W. et al., Somatic gene therapy in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. Arch. Otolaryngol. Head Neck Surgery 119:1191-1197, 1993; Engelhardt J. F. et al., Direct gene transfer of human CFTR into human bronchial epithelia of xenografts with Ei-deleted adenoviruses. Nature Genetics 4: 27-34, 1993; Lemarchand P. et al., Adenovirus-mediated transfer of recombinant human alpha1-antitrypsin cDNA to human endothelial cells. PNAS (USA) 89: 6482-6486, 1992; Jaffe H. A. et al., Adenovirus-mediated in vivo gene transfer and expression in normal rat liver. Nature Genetics 1:372-378, 1992).
The development of suitable, safe and effective gene transfer systems is a major goal of research in gene therapy. Thus far, viruses have been extensively used as vectors for gene therapy. For example, retroviruses have been widely used, but a major disadvantage is that they can only be used as vectors which target actively dividing cells. In addition, retroviruses do not accomodate large DNA inserts readily. Adeno-associated viruses are also limited in the ability to accomodate large inserts, yet replication defective adenovirus has been successfully used for transfer of a variety of genes into cells in culture and in vivo. Adenoviruses can accomodate larger inserts than retroviruses, but extrachromasomal expression usually only lasts for a few weeks. Herpes viruses have been exploited for specific gene transfer trials into the central nervous system. Herpes viruses can carry large foreign DNA inserts, and may remain latent for long periods of time. In spite of the availability of replication defective viruses, concerns about the safety and efficiency of such viral vectors has generated interest in the development of nonviral gene transfer systems such as liposome-DNA complexes and receptor mediated endocytosis (Felgner P. L. et al., PNAS (USA) 84: 7413-7417, 1987; Hyde Nature 362: 250-255, 1993; Nu G.Y. J. Biol. Chem. 266: 14338, 1991).
A major hurdle for effective gene therapy is the development of methods for targeting the gene transfer to appropriate target cells and tissues. Ex vivo gene transfer into explanted cultured cells and implantation of the treated cells has been used for the treatment of hematopoietic tissues (U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,346, issued Mar. 21, 1995, Anderson et al., hereby incorporated by reference). Direct injection into tissues, intravenous or intra-arterial administration, inhalation, or topical application have also been used. Major drawbacks to all of these methods are that the transduction is not highly selective, significant amounts of the therapeutic gene containing vector may be needed, and efficency of the gene transfer is severely limited by the constraints of vector concentration, time of exposure to the target, and effectiveness of the gene transfer vector.
One area of active research has been gene therapy into mammalian kidneys, but the results have been disappointing because of problems with efficiency of gene transfer (Woolf A. S. et al., Gene transfer into the mammalian kidney: First steps towards renal gene therapy. Kidney Int. 43: Suppl. 39: S116-S119, 1993). Moullier et al. (Adenoviral-mediated gene transfer to renal tubular cells in vivo. Kidney Int. 45: 1220-1225, 1994), showed some adenovirus-mediated transfer of lacZ gene into rat tubular but not glomerular cells following a combination of infusion of the virus into the renal artery and retrograde infusion into the vector. Simple infusion of soluble virus does not appear to be an efficient transfer system. Better results were obtained by Tomita et al., (Direct in vivo gene introduction into rat kidney. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 186: 129-134, 1992), who infused a complex of Sendai virus and liposomes into the rat renal artery in vivo. This resulted in expression of the marker gene in about 15% of the glomerular cells.
It would be useful to the medical arts, to be able to have apparatus and methods for the efficient administration of gene therapy to target cells and tissues which overcomes the limitations inherent to each gene transfer vector.

Perfusion apparatus and methods for pharmaceutical delivery


A method and system for importing data comprising the downloading of product data from different sources and in different formats; processing the downloaded data by at least comparing it with data downloaded and stored in a product database; and reviewing the results of the comparison to detect differences in the data, the differences potentially being errors. The system and methods further comprise connecting the downloaded data from its supplier specific format into a standard format; comparing the downloaded data in the standard format with a previously downloaded data set saved in the standard format; categorizing the product data based on the results of the second comparison; and processing each category of data independently to automatically update the product database.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the automation of product and vendor data entry where the product and vendor data is provided by one or more product suppliers and can potentially be provided in many different formats. In particular, this invention relates to methods and systems to automatically import, analyze, and categorize data from different sources and in many possible different formats, and to output the processed data to on-line business-to-business service providers or to any other recipient with an interest in the cleansed data.
2. Description of Related Art
Computer networks such as the Internet have facilitated the transfer of information among computer users. Business-to-business ("B2B") service providers, for example on-line shopping service providers, have taken advantage of the networking technologies to more efficiently and economically conduct their business transactions. The use of computers to transfer data, however, does not put an end to human intervention in the data transfer process.
Current on-line shopping web sites that offer a variety of products for sale, for example, face the formidable task of having to input and keep an inventory of the data related to the products they sell. Products are supplied by different sources which may also provide the information for the product being supplied.
Although the product data may be provided in electronic form, the on-line shopping service provider may have to enter the product information into their own databases manually. The reason for this is that there is no current data entry system that would convert product data formatted in any given manner to a standard format in which the data may be kept as part of the inventory database.
The data format problem is twofold. The first problem concerns the syntax of the data, which may differ according to the data supplier providing the data. A data supplier may, for example, use data transformation or conversion software such as Data Junction or InfoPump, both commercially available, to produce data with a given syntax or format.
The second problem, which is harder to solve than the first one, concerns the use of different terminology (semantics) by different product data suppliers in order to describe the same product. For example, one product supplier may use the term "IBM" while another may use "International Business Machines" as part of the description of the same product. That is, the descriptions for the same product may vary widely. Like the data syntax problem, this problem is associated with data formatting.
Consequently, there is a need in the art for a system that automates the data entry operation for products supplied by different sources where the data may be found in as many different formats. Further, there is a need in the art for a system that maps the different representations of a product into a common set of product information while preserving the original data sent by the different suppliers for use as a reference.


A device and method for dispensing a bag from a stack of bags, the device including a plate having a frame, a rotatable shaft coupled to the frame, at least one roller non-rotatably affixed to the shaft and arranged to engage a bag of the stack of bags, means for rotating the shaft, and means for automatically stopping rotation of the shaft after a single bag has been dispensed, wherein the stack of bags is held against one side of the plate, and the single bag is dispensed to an opposite side of the plate.

Bags have been utilized for packaging store-bought goods for many years. In places where trees are plentiful, paper bags are utilized, which are easily separated from one another for use as needed. In other areas, plastic bags are preferred. These bags are packaged in stacks of flattened bags, or are sold as perforated sheets rolled about a core.
Regardless of the type or design of the bags used, the bags themselves are costly, so it is preferable to the storeowner that each customer take only as many bags as needed for his or her purchases. In particular, at present many customers take home a number of empty plastic bags for a variety of personal uses, in addition to those needed to wrap the customer's purchases. Furthermore, since plastic bags do not degrade, the billions and billions of plastic bags thrown away today are clogging up the land, the drains, the rivers, and the seas, and creating a severe, world-wide environmental problem. In order to solve this problem, some countries, like Ireland, have begun collecting taxes for each plastic bag taken from stores. In other areas, stores have begun charging customers for the bags they use or take away. Yet another solution is biodegradable plastic bags, although these are expensive to produce and have so far proved unsatisfactory in use.
Furthermore, since the bags are generally of plastic film, it is often difficult to open them. They usually must be crumpled or one side rubbed against the other, in order to open them. In order to solve this problem, an automatic bag dispenser was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,495. This device is located adjacent the cash register, under a conveyor or shelf, and includes two parallel rollers arranged to rotate in opposite directions and to engage a single bag between them, thereby folding the bag and removing it from the stack. The bottom of the bag, which is engaged first, is passed through a slot into a container, where one side of the bag remains held by the device. This permits the other side of the bag to be grabbed and the bag opened for filling with groceries.
Another approach was suggested in Japanese Patent No. 05-151439, which discloses a bag dispensing machine which dispenses one bag at a time. This Japanese patent describes a device including housing for holding a stack of bags having two side handles and a central frangible portion having a through-going hole for hanging the bags. The bags are hung by this hole on an elongate hook in the housing, and pressed by one or two spring-biased plates against a roller coupled by a belt to a motor in the housing. When a bag is to be dispensed, the motor causes the roller to rotate, thereby pulling the front-most bag from the stack, which falls against a pivoting door, for removal by a shopper. The motor is arranged to drive the driveshaft for a predetermined number of rotations.
This machine suffers from a number of disadvantages. First, the motor is operated for a predetermined number of rotations, but there is no automatic way to ascertain whether a bag (or more than one bag) has actually been pulled down by the roller. In other words, no control mechanism is provided to ensure that one bag, and only one bag, has been dispensed. Second, in the embodiment of FIG. 1, at least, the customer has access to the entire stack of the bags, since the door for bag removal is located adjacent the bag stack, and can remove as many bags as desired. In addition, the user can pull the bag before it has been completely dispensed, thereby interfering with operation of the device, which could cause malfunction. Third, there is nothing to prevent the removed bag from inadvertently winding about the roller and becoming entangled. Fourth, the device has no indication whether a user has actually removed a dispensed bag. Thus, an instruction can be received for dispensing a further bag, and the machine will dispense another bag, even though a bag is already available.
Accordingly, there is a long felt need for a bag dispensing device which dispenses only one bag at a time and includes a control unit for controlling the number and rate of bags dispensed, and it would be very desirable to have such a device wherein the customer has no access to the stack of bags, but only to the dispensed bag or bags.

Apparatus and method for dispensing bags


A filler wire (consumable) for depositing self-lubricating materials in a system for any of brazing, cladding, building up, filling, hard-facing overlaying, welding, and joining applications. The filler wire is composed of a base filler material consistent with commonly known compositions. For example, the base filler material can comprise standard materials used in many standard mild steel wires. In addition to the base filler materials, the consumable includes self-lubricating materials. The self-lubricating materials include at least one of graphite particles and graphite powder, and can include other self-lubricating materials.

In traditional arc welding or surfacing (cladding, etc.) operations a filler wire may be used to deposit material into the joint using a high temperature arc. Heat from the arc melts the filler wire and the melted filler wire droplets are added to the weld puddle. However, because of the presence of the arc the composition of the filler wire can be limited as certain materials and compositions do not transfer easily, or at all, with the use of an arc. This can be due to a number of reasons, including the high temperature of the arc or due to the arc/plasma dynamics present in the arc. However, it is very desirable to have some of these components deposited into a surfacing operation or weld joint and as such there is a need to be able to use filler wires with various compositions and components therein.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional, traditional, and proposed approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such approaches with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

Hot-wire consumable to provide self-lubricating weld or clad


Various embodiments of the present technology may comprise methods and apparatus for a password-protected integrated circuit. According to various aspects of the present invention, the password-protected integrated circuit may comprise a cryptosystem that is encoded with a password seed and used to authenticate control data prior to being transmitted to a sensor and/or a sensor control circuit, wherein the sensor and/or sensor control circuit responds to authenticated control data.

Image sensors are becoming key components of industrial, commercial, security, and automotive systems. Image sensors are increasingly being used in applications where secure operation is very important to safe operation, such as in advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) and/or autonomous driving systems. As the role of the image sensors increases, it is important to protect them from malicious activities (i.e., "hacking") intended to alter the functionality of the system. For example, altered image data could be used to misdirect driver assist or autonomous driving systems, which could result in serious injury and damage.

Methods and apparatus for a password-protected integrated circuit

SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC


A method performs synchronization in an at least partly self-organizing radio communication system with a number of mobile stations which lie across an air interface within two-way radio range. At least some mobile stations from the number of mobile stations transmit synchronization sequences, by which a part or all the mobile stations of the number of mobile stations synchronize.

The invention relates to a method for synchronization in a radio communication system having a plurality of mobile stations, the radio communication system being at least partly self-organizing.
The invention also relates to a mobile station in a radio communication system, the radio communication system being at least partly self-organizing, and to a radio communication system.
Communication systems are extremely important in the field of business as well as in private use. Significant efforts are being made to link cable-based communication systems to radio communication systems. The resulting hybrid systems lead to an increase in the number of available services as well as allowing greater flexibility in terms of communication. Devices that can use different systems (multi-homing) are therefore being developed.
In this context, great importance is attached to radio communication systems due to the mobility they offer to the subscribers.
In radio communication systems, information (e.g. voice, image information, video information, SMS [Short Message Service] or other data) is transmitted between a sending station and a receiving station (base station or subscriber station) via a radio interface using electromagnetic waves. In this case, the emission of the electromagnetic waves takes place using carrier frequencies that lie in the frequency band which is designated for the system concerned.
In the case of the established GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) mobile radio system, frequencies at 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz are used. These systems principally transfer voice, facsimile and SMS short messages (Short Message Service) as well as digital data.
For future mobile radio systems that use CDMA or TD/CDMA transmission methods, e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) or other third-generation systems, frequencies in the frequency band of approx. 2000 MHz are planned. These third-generation systems are being developed to meet the aims of worldwide radio coverage, a broad offering of data transmission services and, most importantly, flexible management of the capacity of the radio interface, which is the interface with the fewest resources in the case of radio communication systems. In the context of these radio communication systems, the flexible management of the radio interface should primarily allow a subscriber station to send and/or receive a large volume of data at high data speeds as required.
The access of stations to the shared radio resources of the transmission medium, e.g. time, frequency, throughput or space, is governed by multiple access (MA) methods in these radio communication systems.
In the case of time division multiple access methods (TDMA), each send and receive frequency band is divided into time slots, wherein one or more cyclically repeated time slots are allocated to the stations. Using TDMA, the radio resource of time is separated in a station-specific manner.
In the case of frequency division multiple access methods (FDMA), the complete frequency domain is divided into narrow-band domains, wherein one or more narrow-band frequency domains are allocated to the stations. Using FDMA, the radio resource of frequency is separated in a station-specific manner.
In the case of code division multiple access (CDMA) methods, the throughput/information which has to be transmitted is encoded in a station-specific manner by a spreading code which is formed of a multiplicity of individual so-called chips, whereby the throughput which must be transmitted is spread randomly over a wide frequency domain in accordance with a code. The spreading codes which are used by different stations within a cell/base station are mutually orthogonal or essentially orthogonal in each case, whereby a receiver recognizes the signal throughput which is intended for the receiver and suppresses other signals. Using CDMA, the radio resource of throughput is separated in a station-specific manner by spreading codes.
In the case of orthogonal frequency multiple access methods (OFDM), the data is transferred in a broadband manner, wherein the frequency band is divided into equidistant orthogonal subcarriers, such that the simultaneous phase shifting of the subcarriers covers a two-dimensional data flow in the time-frequency domain. Using OFDM, the radio resource of frequency is separated in a station-specific manner by orthogonal subcarriers. The combined data symbols which are transferred on the orthogonal subcarriers during a time unit are called OFDM symbols.
The multiple access methods can be combined. Many radio communication systems therefore use a combination of the TDMA and FDMA methods, wherein each narrow-band frequency band is divided into time slots.
For the purpose of the aforementioned UMTS mobile radio system, a distinction is made between a so-called FDD (frequency division duplex) mode and a TDD (time division duplex) mode. In particular, the TDD mode is characterized in that a shared frequency band is used for the signal transmission in both uplink (UL) direction and in downlink (DL) direction, while the FDD mode uses a different frequency band for the two transmission directions in each case.
In radio communication connections of the second and/or third generation, information can be transmitted in a circuit-switched (CS) or packet-switched (PS) manner.
The connection between the individual stations takes place via a radio communication interface (air interface). Base station and radio network controller are usually components of a base station subsystem (RNS radio network subsystem). A cellular radio communication system normally includes a plurality of base station subsystems which are connected to a core network (CN). In this case, the radio network controller of the base station subsystem is usually connected to an access facility of the core network.
In addition to these hierarchically organized cellular radio communication systems, self-organizing wireless radio communication systems—e.g. so-called ad-hoc systems—are becoming increasingly important, this applying also in the context of cellular radio communication systems.
Self-organizing radio communication systems generally also allow the direct communication between mobile terminals, and need not have a central entity which controls the access to the transmission medium.
Self-organizing radio communication systems make it possible for data packets to be exchanged directly between moving radio stations without the involvement of base stations. Consequently, an infrastructure in the form of base stations within a cellular structure is not required in such a radio network. Instead, data packets can be exchanged between moving radio stations which are within radio range of each other. In order to allow the exchange of data packets in principle, a synchronization is required between the radio stations which are usually moving. In the case of a wireless transmission via electronic waves, this means e.g. the balancing of carrier frequency (frequency synchronization) and time slot pattern (time synchronization).
Various solutions are conceivable for the synchronization in mobile radio data networks. For example, the mobile stations can have a shared reference which is transmitted e.g. via GPS. The system therefore includes globally known time information which all mobile stations can follow (e.g. VDL Mode 4, or WO 93/01576, "A Position Indicating System"). This method is disadvantageous firstly because all mobile stations must have a cost-intensive GPS receiver. Secondly, the reception of GPS signals e.g. in buildings is not always guaranteed. Other systems such as TETRA, for example, support the selection of a master which assumes the function of a 'clock signal generator' for the frequency domain that is assigned to it. However, such methods preclude a high granularity in relation to the time (TDMA) and/or the code (CDMA). An FDMA component is preferably used for separating the subscribers in this case. A third group of systems, such as e.g. IEEE802.11, operate without a shared time slot pattern. The mobile stations synchronize themselves by a one-shot synchronization on the basis of the data burst which is received in each case. Reservation of resources in the form of time slots for ensuring the QoS is no longer possible in this case, however.

Method for decentralized synchronization in a self-organizing radio communication system