Methods are provided for the treatment of a retinal disorder or optic neuritis in a subject. In some embodiments, the methods include administering a therapeutically effective amount of an MHC molecule including covalently linked first, second, and third domains; wherein the first domain is an MHC class II β1 domain and the second domain is an MHC class II α1 domain, wherein the amino terminus of the α1 domain is covalently linked to the carboxy terminus of the β1 domain; or wherein the first domain is an MHC class I α1 domain and the second domain is an MHC class I α2 domain, wherein the amino terminus of the α2 domain is covalently linked to the carboxy terminus of the α1 domain; and wherein the third domain is covalently linked to the first domain and comprises a retinal antigen or an antigen of the central or peripheral nervous system.

Retinal degeneration is a major characteristic of retinitis pigmentosa (RP), age-related macular degeneration (AMD), autoimmune retinopathy (AR), and other related retinal diseases. The common end outcome of all forms of degenerative diseases is photoreceptor cell death and loss of visual function. As photoreceptors degenerate, secondary changes, including vascular leakage, exacerbate visual loss leading to blindness (Milam et al., Prog. Retin. Eye Res. 17:175-205, 1998; Grunwald et al., Am. J. Ophthalmol. 122:502-508, 1996). The mechanism leading to development of these diseases remains largely unknown and appears to be complex, likely caused by combinations of genetic and cellular factors that affect not only the disease itself but also its response to various treatments (Nussenblatt and Ferris, Am. J. Ophthalmol. 144:618-626, 2007; Reme et al., Documenta Ophtholmologica 106:25-29, 2003).
Treatment options for these conditions remain limited. Currently, the therapeutic approach is restricted to slowing down the degenerative process by sunlight protection and vitamin therapy, treating complications (such as cataract and macular edema), and helping patients to cope with the social and psychological impact of blindness. Gene therapy has been shown to be effective in a few RP patients with specific gene mutations, but there is no effective therapy that stops the development of the disease or restores the vision, so the visual prognosis is poor. At present, the most effective proven therapy for AMD is repeated intravitreal injection administration of humanized antibodies against vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF); however, such injections have a high risk of complications.
Optic neuritis is an inflammation of the optic nerve. This condition usually presents with sudden onset of vision loss, typically in one eye. Other symptoms include pain on eye movement, altered color vision, and decreased pupillary light reaction. Recovery of visual acuity generally occurs over a period of weeks to months; however, color vision, contrast sensitivity, and light brightness sensitivity abnormalities may persist. Treatments for optic neuritis vary depending on the specific etiology, but corticosteroids are often effective.

Treatment of retinal disorders with recombinant T cell receptor ligand (RTL)

The United States of America as represented by the Department of Veterans Affairs


A device and method for delivering an animal attractant scented liquid to a spot on the ground. The device is intended to be positioned on the ground. It employs a flexible walled container with an external gas filled balloon strapped to the container so positioned that expansion and contraction of the gas within the balloon, in response to temperature changes, causes the wall of the container to flex so as to discharge liquid from the container when the temperature rises, and cease discharging on a temperature drop.

During the mating season, and even at other times, male animals such as deer, attempt to attract females for mating by scraping the ground at desirable locations and urinating upon the scrape to provide a scent which is likely to attract females. The females in turn, when attracted to these spots, also leave a special female scent which is highly attractant to males. Chemists and others have developed both artificial and natural scents which substantially duplicate the female mating scent. Liquids bearing these scents are offered for sale in small quantities and at high cost.
Hunters and others who wish to examine such animals at close range have manually dripped such scents on the ground. In some cases they prepare the ground by scraping an area to simulate a deer "scrape" before dripping the scented liquid on the scrape. However, human trespass can disturb the critical area in ways known only to animals. Sometimes these disturbances provide persistent unseen warnings which tend to keep the desired animal from approaching.
Therefore, devices have been developed to continuously or periodically deliver portions of scented liquid to the desired spot without human attendance. Continuous delivery of the liquid is wasteful, since nighttime delivery is considered ineffective and therefore useless.
The following is a brief description of one prior art automatic delivery system. The present invention is deemed to provide a significant advantage over the prior system described below.

c/o Fiberglass Technologies, 1609-P Harmer St.


A composition comprising (a) a vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene thermoplastic copolymer and (b) a fluoroelastomer, such as vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene elastomeric copolymer, at least one of (a) and (b) being cross-linked, exhibits excellent physical properties. The composition is particularly useful in the form of a heat recoverable article or as wire and cable insulation.

This invention relates to an irradiated fluoropolymer composition, to heat recoverable articles comprising said composition and to an elongate conductor insulated with said composition.
Thermoplastic polymers of vinylidene fluoride have desirable properties, such as fluid resistance, which make them suitable for various uses such as wire and cable insulation and heat shrinkable tubing. In using thermoplastic vinylidene fluoride polymers in such application, the polymer may be cross-linked, for example by irradiation as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,829 to Lanza, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. However, thermoplastic vinylidene fluoride polymers in general, have been found to be too stiff and/or too brittle, particularly at temperatures below -20.degree. C., and to have relatively poor elongation.
It has been suggested that vinylidene fluoride polymers, in particular a copolymer of vinylidene fluoride containing about 5% by weight tetrafluoroethylene, be blended with an elastomeric vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoroprooylene copolymer to improve the physical properties. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,228 to Rossetti. However, as reported in that patent, while the resulting composition may have certain improved properties, such as tensile strength and elongation, the resulting composition has relatively poor heat aging properties. Further, while the elongation is somewhat improved it is still too low for certain uses.
Subsequent work on vinylidene fluoride-tetrafluoroethylene thermoplastic copolymers, as reported in more detail below, supports the conclusion that the addition thereto of an elastomeric vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene copolymer undesirably and uncontrollably lowers the secant modulus. In certain compositions, depending on the secant modulus of the particular vinylidene fluoride polymer used, the modulus may be too high and elongation too low for use of the composition in preparing flexible heat shrinkable tubing and in others, the modulus may be too low to prepare satisfactory heat shrinkable tubing.
Blends of vinylidene fluoride polymers with the fluoro-polymers for other uses are known. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,737 to Yamamoto et al which relates to piezoelectric materials. Yamamoto et al disclose blends of a vinylidene fluoride base resin, for example vinylidene fluoride homopolymer or copolymers with, for example, tetrafluoroethylene, hexafluoropropylene, or hexafluorobutylene, and a modified fluoroelastomer. The fluoroelastomer is block or graft copolymerized with vinylidene fluoride monomer or a vinylidene fluoride containing monomer mixture. The blend can be used to form a sheet or film having a high piezoelectric modulus.
Our invention provides a cross-linked vinylidene fluoride based polymer composition which possesses the desirable properties of polyvinylidene fluoride yet has a secant modulus and elongation making it suitable for use in preparing flexible heat recoverable articles and as insulation for wire and cable.


Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a device for controlling luminance, a method of controlling luminance and a display device. The method of controlling luminance may comprise: obtaining a theoretical white balanced luminance value for each color of sub-pixel included in N pixels; obtaining a luminance controlling value for other colors of sub-pixels except for a ith color of sub-pixel included in each of the N pixels; and adjusting luminance of the other colors of sub-pixels except for the ith color of sub-pixel included in each pixel according to the luminance controlling value. The method of controlling luminance can be used in luminance controlling devices.

A display panel configured with a slim bezel may have a high screen occupancy. However, it may have a problem of "edge leakage". One solution to solve the problem of "edge leakage" is to increase the width of a black bezel toward a display region, thereby blocking part of sub-pixels.
However, such a solution may cause color at edges of a displayed screen to be abnormal when displaying a white image.

Device for controlling luminance, method thereof, and display device

BEIJING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


An apparatus for eliminating excess ions in a developer used for a liquid electrophotographic printer, including a photoreceptor medium, a laser scan unit for forming an electrostatic latent image by emitting a laser beam to the photoreceptor medium, and a developing unit for developing an electrostatic latent image area of the photoreceptor medium using a developer which is a mixture of a toner and a liquid carrier. The apparatus includes: a settling unit provided at one side of the developing unit for settling the toner of the developer supplied from the developing unit in a short time using an electrical force; a developer input/output controller installed between the developing unit and the settling unit for selectively controlling the input/output of the developer; and an excess ion eliminating unit for eliminating excess ions included in the developer in an upper portion of the settling unit. Thus, in the apparatus for eliminating excess ions in a developer, the developer flows sporadically in the settling tank from the developing unit during operation of a printer. The toner in the developer flowed in is settled in a short time by applying a bias voltage to upper and lower electrode plates of the settling unit. Then, the excess ions included in the developer disposed in the upper portion of the settling tank where the settlement of toner is sufficiently made are eliminated. Thus, in a liquid electrophotographic printer adopting the above apparatus according to the present invention, a decrease in the concentration of toner on an image can be prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid electrophotographic printer, and more particularly, to an apparatus for eliminating excess ions in a developer used for a liquid electrophotographic printer so that a decrease in the concentration of toner on an image can be prevented.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a general liquid electrophotographic printer, an image recording surface of a photoreceptor medium such as a photoreceptor belt or photoreceptor drum is electrically charged. Light is selectively scanned on the image recording surface so that the level of electrical potential varies and an electrostatic latent image is formed. Then, charged developer adheres to the electrostatic latent image to form an image.
FIG. 1 shows a general liquid electrophotographic printer. Referring to the drawing, the liquid electrophotographic printer includes a photoreceptor belt 14 which is operated by being supported by a driving roller 11, a transfer backup roller 12, and a steering roller 13, a laser scan unit 30 for emitting a laser beam onto the photoreceptor belt 14 according to an image signal to form an electrostatic latent image, and a developing unit 40 for developing the electrostatic latent image by adhering a developer to the electrostatic latent image.
In the case of a color printer, a plurality of laser scan units 30 for forming electrostatic latent images corresponding to colors, i.e., yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (B) images, and a plurality of developing units 40 for developing the electrostatic latent image for each color are installed.
The electrostatic latent image of the previous step is removed as the photoreceptor belt 14 passes through an eraser 15. The photoreceptor belt 14 is charged to a predetermined uniform electrical potential at a corona unit 20. The laser scan unit 30 emits a laser beam and selectively lowers the electrical potential of the surface of the photoreceptor belt 14, i.e, the image recording surface, so that an electrostatic latent image is formed. Thus, a predetermined difference in electrical potential is generated between the electrostatic latent image and its surroundings on the photoreceptor belt 14.
The developing unit 40 develops the electrostatic latent image by attaching a developer including toner of a predetermined color to the image record surface of the photoreceptor belt 14 where the electrostatic latent image is formed. That is, when the developer including toner of a predetermined color and liquid carrier is supplied to the image recording surface of the photoreceptor belt 14, the developer selectively adheres to an area where the electrostatic latent image is formed due to the difference in electric potential.
As the photoreceptor belt 14 is operated, the liquid carrier of the developer attached to the position of the electrostatic latent image is absorbed and removed by a drying roller 71 and only toner particles are left at the position of the electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor belt 14. The toner particles, i.e., a color image, is transferred to a transfer roller 73 installed to face the transfer backup roller 12. The transferred image is printed on a print medium 80, such as a sheet of paper, passing between the transfer roller 73 and the press roller 77. The image printed on the print medium 80 is fixed by an additional fixing unit (not shown).
As shown in FIG. 2, the developing unit 40 adopted in the above liquid electrophotographic printer is installed under the photoreceptor belt 14. The developing unit 40 includes a developing receptacle 42, in which a developing roller 41 and a squeeze roller 43 are installed close to the photoreceptor belt 14, and a mixing tank 45 in which a developer 47, which is a mixture of toner of a predetermined color and liquid carrier, is maintained at an appropriate concentration.
The developer 47 of appropriate concentration is contained in the mixing tank 45. The concentration of the developer 47 can be controlled by mixing a developer appropriately supplied from an ink vessel (not shown) where a developer of high concentration is contained and a carrier appropriately supplied from a carrier vessel (not shown) where a liquid carrier is contained. The developer 47 is pumped by a pump 48 toward the developing roller 41 through a developer supply pipe 49. Here, the toner of the developer 47 is charged to a predetermined electric potential.
The developing roller 41, as shown in FIG. 3, is rotated in the same direction as the photoreceptor belt 14, being separated by a developing gap (G) from the photoreceptor belt 14. According to rotation of the developing roller 41, the developer 47 supplied between the developing roller 41 and the photoreceptor belt 14 through the developer supply pipe 49 is attached to an electrostatic latent image area (A) of the photoreceptor belt 14. Here, since the electric potential of the electrostatic latent image area (A) is lower than the surroundings, as described above, the developer 47, particularly, toner having a predetermined electric potential, selectively adheres to the electrostatic latent image area (A). The squeeze roller 43 presses the developer 47 attached to the electrostatic latent position (A) and presses the toner close to the photoreceptor belt 14, while squeezing the liquid carrier.
The rest of the developer 47 which is not adhered to the electrostatic latent image position (A) of the photoreceptor belt 14 is collected in the developing receptacle 42. The collected developer is fed back to the mixing tank 45 and reused.
However, ions in the developer 47 increase in number as the developer repeats the reuse process. That is, the ratio (% FPC) of bulk conductivity of a developer including a liquid carrier and toner to free phase conductivity of a developer excluding the toner, i.e, the liquid carrier, increases. The excess ions, particularly cations, adhere to the electrostatic latent image area during development of the electrostatic latent image. Accordingly, the amount of toner adhering to the electrostatic latent image area decreases so that the intensity of the image decreases.

Apparatus for eliminating excess ions of a developer for liquid electrophotographic printer


Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for maintaining distributed state consistency in a distributed computing application. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for maintaining distributed state consistency in a distributed computing application can include registering a set of components of a distributed computing application, starting a transaction resulting in changes of state in different ones of the components in the registered set and determining in response to a conclusion of the transaction whether or not an inconsistency of state has arisen amongst the different components in the registered set in consequence of the changes of state in the different ones of the components in the registered set. If an inconsistency has arisen, each of the components in the registered set can be directed to rollback to a previously stored state. Otherwise a committal of state can be directed in each of the components in the registered set.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of distributed computing and more particularly to maintaining distributed state consistency in a distributed computing application.
Description of the Related Art
Distributed computing refers to the use of multiple different computing hosts, each with processor and memory, coupled to one another over a computer communications network, arranged to achieve a common goal. Distributed computing programs are the program logic hosted by the different computing hosts and configured to provide the program code that when executed cooperatively with one another, produces a common result. Classic examples of distributed computing programs include banking systems managing banking transactions between banking institutions, real estate transactional systems managing the purchase and sales of real estate between buyer and seller as facilitated by respective brokers, and the like. Component based applications represent one type of distributed computing program utilizing resilient, communicative object oriented technologies in order to effectively implement a distributed computing application.
Conventionally, ensuring the accurate of completion of a transaction in a distributed computing application necessitated computing protocols such as the venerable two-phase commit. In transaction processing, as well as in database management, and computer networking, the two-phase commit protocol, also known as "2PC", is a type of atomic commitment protocol. Specifically, 2PC is a distributed algorithm that coordinates the determination by the processes participating in a distributed atomic transaction as to committing or aborting (rolling back) the transaction. The 2PC protocol focuses on recovery from failure and achieves its goal through the use of a centrally maintained transactions log.
The two phases of 2PC include the commit-request phase and the commit phase. In the former phase, a coordinator process attempts to prepare participating processes in a transaction to take the necessary steps for either committing or aborting the transaction. In the latter phase, the coordinator solicits votes from the processes as to whether or not to commit or abort a subject transaction. The decision by the coordinator to commit or to abort the transaction then is communicated by the coordinator to the participating processes, who in turn can commit or abort individually as the case may be.
In the course of processing a transaction, a distributed computing application must maintain a distributed state reflected by the individual states of different distributed components forming the distributed computing application. In this regard, maintaining an accurate picture of the state of each distributed component in a distributed computing application can be integral to the successful completion of a transaction performed amongst the distributed components. The failure to maintain knowledge of the state of each component can result in a failed transaction utilizing out-dated state information thus requiring the rollback of the entire transaction.
Though 2PC has proven effective in the context of error recovery, so much cannot be said of state consistency management. In this regard, while 2PC has proven to be an important approach to error recovery in a distributed system, the success of 2PC is not without consequence. Specifically, the maintenance of a central error recovery log in 2PC, though effective during error recovery, adds substantial processing overhead outside of error recovery. Accordingly, while 2PC provides an algorithm that otherwise would be useful in ensuring consistency of state amongst different distributed processes, the overhead requisite to maintaining a centralized error recovery log, but not requisite to ensuring state consistency is not acceptable.

Managing data consistency between loosely coupled components in a distributed computing system

International Business Machines Corporation


Device, system and method for encoding employing redundancy and switching are provided. For example, an encoder to convert analog data received from one or more video cameras into digital data for recording and possibly for live-monitoring is provided. The encoder may include an analog-to-digital converter and a redundancy unit capable of switching the analog data to a second encoder upon detecting a failure. The encoder may further include an internal matrix switcher to output the analog video data to a plurality of monitors for live monitoring.

Early closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance systems provide analog architecture for both live-monitoring using a video matrix switcher and for recording capabilities using video cassette recordings (VCR's). Many analog surveillance systems are being replaced with either a complete digital architecture or modified to a hybrid architecture that enables using the existing analog cameras while gaining recording digital capabilities.
According to a first hybrid approach, analog video streams are received from the analog video cameras by an encoder that converts them to a digital format for delivery over the network. The network, which serves as a virtual switcher, delivers the video stream both for recording in digital format and for live monitoring. A major drawback of such a system is the lack of redundancy capabilities such that in an event of a failure in one of the encoders, video data is neither recorded nor live monitored until the failed encoder is replaced.
According to a second hybrid approach, which is used mainly when analog cabling infrastructure from the cameras to the monitors is already available, the digital system (using encoders) receives video signals for recording while the analog matrix switcher receives video signals directly from the cameras for live monitoring to reduce video latency caused by the network and to improve video quality and reliability. Still, the addition of analog matrices increases the complexity of the system and may cause other reliability problems. It would have been beneficial to decrease the number of elements in the system such that it may reduce the space taken by system and may increase the overall reliability of the system.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

Device, system and method for encoding employing redundancy and switching capabilities


The field of the invention relates to systems and methods for operation of lead generation service, and more particularly to systems and methods that generate leads for website owners based on the behavioral engagement of the users of the websites. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a lead generation server system coupled to a public network and accessible to one or more users. The lead generation server system includes a database that stores behavioral data associated with the one or more website users. The system is configured to respond to the one or more users based on the behavioral data, and to identify lead information for the website owner.

With the popularity of the Internet and the proliferation of websurfing, one of the best methods to find marketing leads is to follow the behavior of web users. Currently when a user visits a retail or commercial website, to capture the user's business, the website typically offers to the user submission forms to fill out in order to generate a lead without regard to the user's previous behavior inside and/or outside the website. When chat functionality is provided, it is in an on-demand mode where the user is offered a chat button to click on, or art automated chat popup would appear, again without regard to the user's previous behavior inside and/or outside the website. These methods provide only passive engagement not tailored to the user's browsing pattern and have significant disconnect with the website system as a whole.
Leads may also be generated when a website helps its users, or visitors, find what they want or need when they visit the website. However, most websites cannot provide adequate information search and retrieval tools due to the complexity of the users' browsing patterns, different computer experience, time they have on hand, their location and goals that they are trying to accomplish. As a result, the inadequate information generates ineffective leads and/or low rates of conversion from traffic to leads.
Moreover, the tools the website owners often use to engage the website users are usually not integrated, and may be provided by different vendors. These tools create a potentially unstable system environment, which in turn reduces the quality of the user's browsing experience and are incapable of providing a coherent full circle visitor (visitor and user are used interchangeably herein) activity and engagement reporting and performance metrics. In these cases, the leads that the website owners receive from the non-integrated tools can be of low quality due to lack of the behavioral analysis of the users. Accordingly, improved systems and methods to provide website users with the most efficient access to the information they are looking for, to provide website owners with high rates of conversion from traffic to high quality leads, and to provide comprehensive reporting and performance metrics may be desirable.

Systems and methods for online website lead generation service


A clutch disk with two structural component groups which are arranged so as to be swivelably movable and radially movable relative to another within a defined scope by the intermediary of a guide element which is constructed as a helical spring and which is arranged concentric to the hub and whose turns--considered in the axial direction--are inclined at least in the installed state.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a clutch disk having a first structural component group having a friction element and a second structural component group having a hub that have a limited rotational play between them against the force of an energy accumulator acting in a circumferential direction and which may be centered relative to one another with a limited radial movement relative to an axis of rotation.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many different constructions of clutch disks with pivot supports between input parts and output parts. For example, German Patent 32 48 119 includes a conical or spherical contour between one cover plate and the hub, wherein this contour is loaded by an axially acting spring in such a way that a self-centering effect is achieved which can be moved out of its centering position when the axes of rotation between the flywheel and transmission input shaft do not coincide. An axial relative movement between the two groups cannot be avoided in this case. Further, it is known from German Offenlegungsschrift 44 09 254 to arrange an elastomer ring between one cover plate and the hub. This elastomer ring may, for example, be constructed as a thin-walled tube filled with liquid or as a solid material.


Continuous flow systems and methods produce succinic anhydride by a double carbonylation of ethylene oxide with carbon monoxide and at least one catalyst. In some embodiments, the double carbonylation occurs using a single catalyst. In other embodiments, a first catalyst is used to promote the first carbonylation, and a second catalyst different from the first catalyst is used to promote the second carbonylation. The succinic anhydride is isolated from the product stream by crystallization and the catalyst is recycled to the reaction stream.

Acid anhydrides, in particular succinic anhydride, are valuable reactive intermediates commonly used in a variety of applications. For example, acid anhydrides are used in copolymers to produce biodegradable polyesters. Additionally, acid anhydrides are useful intermediates in organic synthesis because they are easily ring opened to form diacids or other derivatives. Succinic anhydride is particularly useful as a precursor to 4 carbon commodity chemicals such as tetrahydrofuran, gamma butyrolactone and 1,4-butanediol.
Previous production methods for acid anhydrides, including succinic anhydride, included dehydration of corresponding acids or hydrogenation of maleic anhydride. Additional production methods include catalyzed carbonylation of alkynes, alkenoic acids and lactones. Many of the methods suffered from low yield, production of many byproducts or lacked generality. Novel methods using more cost effective starting materials are sought.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,852,865 discloses a class of well-defined bimetallic catalysts of the general type [Lewis acid]+[M(CO)x]− for the ring-expanding carbonylation of strained heterocycles. Related catalysts can carbonylate the resulting β-lactones to succinic anhydrides in high yields while preserving stereochemical purity. Given the many syntheses of enantiomerically pure epoxides and the recent advances in epoxide carbonylation to β-lactones, subsequent carbonylation of these β-lactones constitutes a versatile two-step method for the stereoselective synthesis of succinic anhydrides. (Scheme 1).


The proposed soft-switching DC/DC converter includes: a basic non-isolated DC/DC converter having an inductor, and an auxiliary switch module including: an auxiliary switch having a first terminal electrically connected to a first terminal of the inductor, a second terminal, and a control terminal, a resonant inductor having a first terminal electrically connected to the second terminal of the auxiliary switch, a resonant diode having a cathode electrically connected to a second terminal of the resonant inductor and an anode electrically connected to a second terminal of the inductor, and a main switch. A driving signal is input to the control terminals of the main and the auxiliary switches from a driving circuit to switch the main and the auxiliary switches at a zero-voltage and a zero-current so as to have zero switching loss respectively.

Please refer to FIG. 1, it shows the schematic circuit diagram of a conventional non-isolated boost DC/DC converter in the prior art. In which, the non-isolated boost DC/DC converter includes an input capacitor Ci, a main choke L, a switch Sm, a main diode Db, and an output capacitor Cb. The configuration of the boost DC/DC converter as shown in FIG. 1 is employed in the hard-switching module. If the switching frequency increases dramatically, the switching losses would also be increased dramatically, and the size of the heat-dissipating plate needs to be increased too. Besides, the EMI problem would become more serious due to the increased switching frequency, and the size of the EMI filter would be increased as well.
Please refer to FIG. 2, it shows the schematic circuit diagram of another boost DC/DC converter in the prior art, which is proposed to resolve the drawbacks of the above-mentioned conventional non-isolated boost DC/DC converter as shown in FIG. 1. In which, the boost DC/DC converter includes three diodes Dc, Da1, and Da2, a resonant inductor Lr, a transformer Tr, a resonant capacitor Cr, and a auxiliary switch Sa except for the original configuration of FIG. 1. Through the operations of these elements, the advantage of employing the soft-switching technique so as to have no switching losses can be achieved. This advantage of having no switching losses would make the increasing of the switching frequency become possible, and also has the effects of decreasing the EMI and the RFI. But, the configuration of the boost DC/DC converter as shown in FIG. 2 still has certain drawbacks such as the number of increased elements is relatively large, thus the size of the boost DC/DC converter can not be decreased in certain occasions. If the number of elements of the proposed boost DC/DC converter could be decreased further, it could be applied to an even broader range and would have an even better effect.
Keeping the drawbacks of the prior arts in mind, and employing experiments and research full-heartily and persistently, the applicant finally conceived the soft-switching DC/DC converter having relatively fewer elements. The proposed soft-switching DC/DC converter has the following advantages: decreasing the switching losses of the proposed converter, having relatively smaller sizes of the proposed converter (not only the main magnetic elements, but also the heat-dissipating plates, and all added elements for achieving the soft-switching are all downsized), decreasing the EMI of the proposed converter, increasing the efficiency of the proposed converter, and decreasing the total cost of the proposed converter relatively (for example, the sum of the manufacturing cost and the transportation cost is lower than that of the boost DC/DC converter of FIG. 2).

Soft-switching DC/DC converter having relatively fewer elements


An online review system determines scores for document authors and document reviewers. An author score is based on a number of comments added to a document by reviewers. One way to compute the author score is to use a ratio of a number of comments provided by reviewers of a document to a number of lines of document contents provided by the author. A reviewer score for a reviewer is based on an amount of comments subsequently made by other reviewers, and on the document content itself, such as a ratio of a number of comments provided in subsequent reviews of a document to a number of lines of original document contents. In some embodiments, the online review system monitors trends in scores of individuals or teams.

Written content, such as code for software programs and other written documents, often benefits from peer review. Software development, one example of content creation, may be overseen by managers such as project leads who spend many working hours reviewing code produced by their developers and appraising peer reviews provided by other developers, such as team members. Complex software projects can involve many developers in many locations, and reviewing code and code reviews in such a situation can be time-consuming and complicated for intermediate reviewers and project leads. A complicated reviewing process may result in a loss of productivity and poor content quality due to a possible lack of valuable peer and manager feedback and due to having no way of monitoring changes in quality of content and content reviews over time.


The following application provides methods and nucleic acids for the detection of and/or differentiation between prostate cell proliferative disorders. This is achieved by the analysis of the expression status of a panel of genes, or subsets thereof.

Correlation of aberrant DNA methylation with cancer. Aberrant DNA methylation within CpG 'islands' is characterized by hyper- or hypomethylation of CpG dinucleotide sequences leading to abrogation or over expression of a broad spectrum of genes, and is among the earliest and most common alterations found in, and correlated with human malignancies. Additionally, abnormal methylation has been shown to occur in CpG-rich regulatory elements in both intronic and coding parts of genes for certain tumors. In colon cancer, aberrant DNA methylation constitutes one of the most prominent alterations and inactivates many tumor suppressor genes including, inter alia, p14ARF, p16INK4a, THBS1, MIT2, and MINT31 and DNA mismatch repair genes such as hMLH1.
Aside from the specific hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes, an overall hypomethylation of DNA can be observed in tumor cells. This decrease in global methylation can be detected early, far before the development of frank tumor formation. A correlation between hypomethylation and increased gene expression has been determined for many oncogenes.
Prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy among men in the United States (˜200,000 new cases per year), and the sixth leading cause of male cancer-related deaths worldwide (˜204,000 per year). Prostate cancer is primarily a disease of the elderly, with approximately 16% of men between the ages of 60 and 79 having the disease. According to some estimates at autopsy, 80% of all men over 80 years of age have some form of prostate disease (eg cancer, BPH, prostatitis, etc). Benign prostate hypertrophy is present in about 50% of men aged 50 or above, and in 95% of men aged 75 or above. It is obvious from these reports that prostate cancer is often not a disease that men die from, but with. Recent evidence suggests that the incidence of prostate cancer may in fact be declining, likely as result of better treatment, better surgery, and earlier detection.
Diagnosis of prostate cancer; molecular approaches. Current guidelines for prostate cancer screening have been suggested by the American Cancer Society and are as follows: At 50 years of age, health care professionals should offer a blood test for prostate specific antigen (PSA) and perform a digital rectal exam (DRE). It is recommended that high risk populations, such as African Americans and those with a family history of prostate disease, should begin screening at 45 years of age. Men without abnormal prostate pathology generally have a PSA level in blood below 4 ng/ml. PSA levels between 4 ng/ml and 10 ng/ml (called the 'grey zone') have a 25% chance of having prostate cancer. The result is that 75% of the time, men with an abnormal DRE and a PSA in this grey zone have a negative, or a seemingly unnecessary biopsy. Above the grey zone, the likelihood of having prostate cancer is significant (>67%) and increases even further as PSA levels go up. Numerous methods exist for measuring PSA (percent-free PSA, PSA velocity, PSA density, etc.), and each has an associated accuracy for detecting the presence of cancer. Yet, even with the minor improvements in detection, and the reported drops in mortality associated with screening, the frequency of false positives remains high. Reduced specificity results in part from increased blood PSA associated with BPH, and prostatis. It has also been estimated that up to 45% of prostate biopsies under currrent guidelines are falsely negative, resulting in decreased sensitivity even with biopsy.
TRUS guided biopsy is considered the 'gold standard' for diagnosing prostate cancer. Recommendations for biopsy are based upon abnormal PSA levels and/or an abnormal DRE. For PSA, there is a grey zone where a high percentage of biopsies are perhaps not necessary. Yet the ability to detect cancer in this grey zone (PSA levels of 4.0 to 10 ng/ml) is difficult without biopsy. Due to this lack of specificity, 75% of men undergoing a biopsy do not have cancer. Yet without biopsy, those with cancer would be missed, resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. Unfortunately, the risks associated with an unecessary biopsy are also high.
Molecular markers would offer the advantage that they can be used to efficiently analyze even very small tissue samples, and samples whose tissue architecture has not been maintained. Within the last decade, numerous genes have been studied with respect to differential expression among benign hyperplasia of the prostate and different grades of prostate cancer. However, no single marker has as yet been shown to be sufficient for the detection of prostate tumors in a clinical setting.
Alternatively, high-dimensional mRNA-based approaches may, in particular instances, provide a means to distinguish between different tumor types and benign and malignant lesions. However, application of such approaches as a routine diagnostic tool in a clinical environment is impeded and substantially limited by the extreme instability of MRNA, the rapidly occurring expression changes following certain triggers (e.g., sample collection), and, most importantly, by the large amount of mRNA needed for analysis which often cannot be obtained from a routine biopsy (see, e.g., Lipshutz, R. J. et al., Nature Genetics 21:20-24, 1999; Bowtell, D. D. L. Nature Genetics Suppl. 21:25-32, 1999).
Aberrant genetic methylation in prostate cancer has been observed in several genes including Gstp1, AR, p16 (CDKN2a/INK4a), CD44, CDH1. Genome-wide hypomethylation for example of the LINE-1 repetitive element has also been associated with tumor progression (Santourlidis, S., et al., Prostate 39:166-74, 1999).
Prostate cancer methylation markers. The core promoter region of the Gluthione S-Transferase P gene (GSTP1; accession no. NM—000852) has been shown to be hypermethylated in prostate tumor tissue. The glutathione S-transferase pi enzyme is involved in the detoxification of electrophilic carcinogens, and impaired or decreased levels of enzymatic activity (GSTP1 impairment) have been associated with the development of neoplasms, particularly in the prostate. Mechanisms of GSTP1 impairment include mutation (the GSTP*B allele has been associated with a higher risk of cancer) and methylation. However, with respect to the use of Gstp1 markers, the prior art is limited with respect to the number of Gstp1 promoter CpG sequences that have been characterized for differential methylation status. Moreover, there are no disclosures, suggestions or teachings in the prior art of how such markers could be used to distinguish among benign hyperplasia of the prostate and different grades of prostate cancer.
Aberrant genetic methylation has also been observed in several other genes including AR, p16 (CDKN2a/INK4a), CD44, CDH1. Genome-wide hypomethylation, for example, of the LINE-1 repetitive element has also been associated with tumor progression (Santourlidis, S., et al., Prostate 39:166-74, 1999).
However, use of these genes as alternative or supplemental diagnostically or otherwise clinically useful markers in a commercial setting has not been enabled. The application of differentially methylated genes to clinically utilizable platforms requires much further investigation into the sensitivity and specificity of the genes. For example, in the case of the gene CD44, a known metastasis suppressor, downregulation was associated with hypermethylation. However the use of this gene as a commercially avalable marker was not enabled, because it was also methylated in normal tissues (see Vis, et al., Mol Urol. 5:199-203, 2001).
Development of medical tests. Two key evaluative measures of any medical screening or diagnostic test are its sensitivity and specificity, which measure how well the test performs to accurately detect all affected individuals without exception, and without falsely including individuals who do not have the target disease (predictive value). Historically, many diagnostic tests have been criticized due to poor sensitivity and specificity. A true positive (TP) result is where the test is positive and the condition is present. A false positive (FP) result is where the test is positive but the condition is not present. A true negative (TN) result is where the test is negative and the condition is not present. A false negative (FN) result is where the test is negative but the condition is not present.In this context: Sensitivity=TP/(TP+FN); Specificity=TN/(FP+TN); and Predictive value=TP/(TP+FP).
Sensitivity is a measure of a test's ability to correctly detect the target disease in an individual being tested. A test having poor sensitivity produces a high rate of false negatives, i.e., individuals who have the disease but are falsely identified as being free of that particular disease. The potential danger of a false negative is that the diseased individual will remain undiagnosed and untreated for some period of time, during which the disease may progress to a later stage wherein treatments, if any, may be less effective. An example of a test that has low sensitivity is a protein-based blood test for HIV. This type of test exhibits poor sensitivity because it fails to detect the presence of the virus until the disease is well established and the virus has invaded the bloodstream in substantial numbers. In contrast, an example of a test that has high sensitivity is viral-load detection using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). High sensitivity is achieved because this type of test can detect very small quantities of the virus. High sensitivity is particularly important when the consequences of missing a diagnosis are high.
Specificity, on the other hand, is a measure of a test's ability to identify accurately patients who are free of the disease state. A test having poor specificity produces a high rate of false positives, i.e., individuals who are falsely identified as having the disease. A drawback of false positives is that they force patients to undergo unnecessary medical procedures treatments with their attendant risks, emotional and financial stresses, and which could have adverse effects on the patient's health. A feature of diseases which makes it difficult to develop diagnostic tests with high specificity is that disease mechanisms, particularly in cancer, often involve a plurality of genes and proteins. Additionally, certain proteins may be elevated for reasons unrelated to a disease state. An example of a test that has high specificity is a gene-based test that can detect a p53 mutation. Specificity is important when the cost or risk associated with further diagnostic procedures or further medical intervention are very high.
The PSA blood test has a sensitivity of 73%, specificity of 60% and predictive value of 31.5%. PSA sensitivity and specificity can be improved but involve tradeoffs. PSA sensitivity can be improved by adjusting the "normal" PSA level to a lower value for younger men or by following serum PSA values in an individual patient over time (PSA velocity). Both methods will increase the number of cancers detected, but they also increase the number of men undergoing biopsy. Conversely, specificity can be improved by using higher "normal" PSA levels for older men, by using the free-to-total PSA ratio, or by adjusting the normal value according to the size of the prostate. These three methods decrease the number of unnecessary biopsies, but they increase the risk that some cancers will be missed.
It can therefore be seen that there exists a need for a means of prostate cancer diagnosis with improved sensitivity, specificity and/or predictive value.
Sensitivity and specificity of quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (QMSP) assay alone (without histological analysis) in prostate cancer analysis of needle biopsies has ranged from 30% sensitivity and 100% specificity to 89% sensitivity and 64% specificity (Harden et. al. J Natl Cancer Inst 2003; 95: 1634-1637). However the predictive value of said technique as a clinical screening tool was not analysed. Furthermore, genetic testing of serum and bodily fluids such as urine and saliva would reduce the need for biopsies to detect cancer and would thus be the most effective screening or monitering tool. However the development of such tests requires an extremely high degree of sensitivity and specificity. Analysis of Gstp1 gene hypermethylation (Cairns P, et al. Clin Cancer Res 7:2727-30 2001.) in urine sediment of prostate cancer patients showed that only 6 out of 22 individuals with elevated methylation levels in biopsied tumors showed corresponding hypermethylation in urine samples.
Multifactorial approach. Cancer diagnostics has traditionally relied upon the detection of single molecular markers (e.g. gene mutations, elevated PSA levels). Unfortunately, cancer is a disease state in which single markers have typically failed to detect or differentiate many forms of the disease. Thus, assays that recognize only a single marker have been shown to be of limited predictive value. A fundamental aspect of this invention is that methylation based cancer diagnostics and the screening, diagnosis, and therapeutic monitoring of such diseases will provide significant improvements over the state-of-the-art that uses single marker analyses by the use of a selection of multiple markers. The multiplexed analytical approach is particularly well suited for cancer diagnostics since cancer is not a simple disease, this multi-factorial "panel" approach is consistent with the heterogeneous nature of cancer, both cytologically and clinically.
Pronounced need in the art. Therefore, in view of the incidence of prostate hyperplasia (50% of men aged 50 or above, and 95% of men aged 75 or above) and prostate cancer (180 per 100,000), there is a substantial need in the art for the development of molecular markers that could be used to provide sensitive, accurate and non-invasive methods (as opposed to, e.g., biopsy and transrectal ultrasound) for the screening of populations to provide an early diagnosis of prostate cell proliferative disorders.

Methods and nucleic acids for the analysis of gene expression associated with the development of prostate cell proliferative disorders


A seat belt retractor is provided in which two winding performances are achieved while reduced power consumption of a motor and simplified control of the motor are also achieved. A clutch gear is meshed with a carrier gear by rotation of a motor in the normal direction. Accordingly, a low reduction ratio power transmission mode is set so that a seat belt is wound up at a high speed and with low torque. As slack of the seat belt is removed and the belt load increases, the clutch pawl becomes possible to be engaged with the internal gear. As the motor current increases and exceeds a preset value, the motor rotates reversely so that the clutch gear separates from the carrier gear. Therefore, a high reduction ratio power transmission mode is set so that the belt is wound up at a low speed and with high torque.

The present invention pertains to a technical field of a seat belt retractor which is installed in a vehicle for transportation such as an automobile, an airplane, or a ship (hereinafter, collectively referred to as "vehicle") and which winds up a seat belt for restraining and protecting an occupant by means of a motor and a seat belt device using the same, more particularly, to a technical field of a seat belt retractor in which the winding of a seat belt is performed efficiently by a motor using limited power consumption and a seat belt device using the same.
Conventionally, a seat belt device installed in a vehicle such as an automobile comprises at least a seat belt retractor for winding up a seat belt, a tongue slidably supported to the seat belt, and a buckle to which the tongue can be latched. In the event of emergency such as a vehicle collision at which large deceleration is exerted on the vehicle while an occupant wears the seat belt in a state that the tongue is latched to the buckle, the seat belt device prevents the occupant from jumping out of a vehicle seat by restraining the occupant with the seat belt, thereby protecting the occupant.
The seat belt device is provided with a seat belt retractor for winding up the seat belt. The seat belt retractor comprises a biasing means such as a spiral spring which always biases a spool, on which the seat belt is wound, in the belt-winding direction. When not used, the seat belt is fully wound on the spool by the biasing force of the biasing means. When used, the seat belt is withdrawn against the biasing force of the biasing means and is worn by the occupant. In the seat belt retractor, a locking mechanism is activated in the event of emergency as mentioned above to stop the rotation of the spool in an unwinding direction, thereby preventing the seat belt from being withdrawn. Therefore, the seat belt can securely restrain and thus protect the occupant.
By the way, as one of conventional seat belt devices as mentioned above, a motorized seat belt retractor has been proposed in which, when it is determined that the collision is unavoidable before a vehicle collision, the tension on a seat belt is increased by increasing the driving force of a motor to wind up the seat belt, thereby increasing the restraint force of the occupant and, when the vehicle collision is actually detected, a gas generator for a pretensioner is actuated to generate gas whereby the seat belt is rapidly wound up by the generated gas, thereby further increasing the restraint force for the occupant, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication 2000-95064 (which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety).
On the other hand, a seat belt retractor has been also proposed in which, as the power transmission passages for transmitting the rotational torque of the motor, a first power transmission passage for transmitting the rotational torque of a motor to the biasing means as mentioned above to increase the force of the biasing means and a second power transmission passage for transmitting the rotational torque of the motor to the spool at a fixed speed reduction ratio are provided wherein the first power transmission passage is selected by the actuation of a first solenoid and the second power transmission passage is selected by the actuation of a second solenoid, thereby controlling the belt tension, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication 2000-177535 (which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety).
By the way, there are various modes of winding up the seat belt such as a mode for rapidly winding up the seat belt for removing slack of the seat belt or for the storage and a mode for winding up the seat belt with large rotational torque for restraining the occupant. The rotational speed of the spool and the belt winding torque on the spool differ according to the mode of winding up the seat belt.
However, in the seat belt retractor disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication 2000-95064, the power transmission mechanism transmitting the driving force of the motor to the spool has only one power transmission passage of a fixed speed reduction ratio. Accordingly, the fixed speed reduction ratio is uniquely determined so that it is difficult to flexibly and effectively correspond to the various rotational speed of the spool and the various belt winding torque on the spool.
It is considered, as a way to comply with this, to sensitively control the rotational speed of the motor and the winding-up force of the spool. However, such sensitive control not only makes the control of the motor difficult but also increases the power consumption. It is required to increase the rotational torque of the motor in order to obtain large restraining force in the event of emergency such as a vehicle collision. To increase the rotational torque of the motor, the power consumption must be so large or the size of the motor must be so large.
On the other hand, in the seat belt retractor disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication 2000-177535, one power transmission passage is provided for transmitting the rotational torque of the motor to the aforementioned biasing means to control the biasing force of the biasing means, while the other power transmission passage is provided for directly transmitting the rotational torque of the motor to the spool to directly control the winding-up force of the spool by the rotational torque of the motor. Though the seat belt retractor disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication 2000-177535 has, as the power transmission passages, two different power transmission passages of different speed reduction ratios, there is only one power transmission passage of a fixed speed reduction ratio for the purpose of directly transmitting the rotational torque of the motor to the spool. Accordingly, similarly to the case of the aforementioned Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication 2000-95064, the fixed speed reduction ratio is uniquely determined for directly transmitting the rotational torque of the motor to the spool so that it is difficult to flexibly and effectively correspond to the various rotational speed of the spool and the various belt winding torque on the spool.
Though the belt winding force can be controlled at some level by controlling the biasing force of the biasing means with the rotational torque of the motor so as to control the belt winding force of the spool according to the controlled biasing force, it is preferable to sensitively control the winding force of the spool by effectively utilizing the rotational torque of the motor.

Seat belt retractor and seat belt device


A rim of a spoked wheel, particularly for a bicycle rear wheel, comprises a hollow profile which the wheel arranged on a plane which is offset with respect to the median plane of the rim. the profile includes a reinforcing radial wall arranged in the cavity of the profile and connecting the radially inner wall to the radially outer wall of the profile. This reinforcing radial wall is also offset with respect to median plane of the rim.

The present invention relates to a rim for a bicycle spoked wheel, particularly a bicycle rear wheel, of the type comprising a hollow profile having a radially inner wall, a radially outer wall, and two side portions connecting said walls with each other, said radially inner wall having a plurality of spoke anchoring spots, said anchoring spots being arranged on a plane offset with respect to a median plane orthogonal to the rim axis and equally spaced apart from the side portions thereof.
A rim of the above indicated type is described and illustrated for example in European patent EP-B-0 494 277, in corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,756 and in German utility model G 89 12 606.8.
FIG. 1 of the annexed drawings shows a partial cross-section of a bicycle rear wheel made according to the prior art. Reference numeral 1 generally designates the rim, constituted by a hollow metal profile, having a radially inner wall 2, a radially outer wall 3 and a pair of side portions 4, 5. Reference numeral 6 generally designates the hub of the wheel (shown only partially) having an axis 7. Since the hub 6 is a hub of a rear wheel, it is adapted to carry a number of sprockets able to selectively engage the bicycle chain. According to the conventional art, the sprocket cluster (not shown) is mounted on a freewheel unit 8 arranged on one end of the wheel hub 6. The hub 6 also has a pair of circumferential flanges 9, 10, one arranged adjacent to the freewheel unit 8, the other flange being adjacent to the opposite end of the hub 6. the two flanges 9, 10 are used for connection of the ends of two series of spokes 11, 12 (shown only diagrammatically in the annexed drawings) which are arranged substantially on two conical surfaces having a common base in a plane 13 orthogonal to the axis 7 of the hub 6 and rim 3, and apices located on opposite sides with respect to this plane 13. This arrangement is due to that the outer ends of both series of spokes 11, 12 are connected at the inner wall 2 of rim 1 at a plurality of anchoring spots 14 defining a common median plane which is coincident with the above mentioned plane 13 orthogonal to the axis 7. Since the plane 13 of the anchoring spots 14 for the spokes is substantially equally spaced from the ends of hub 6, the presence of the freewheel unit 8 causes a positioning of the anchoring flanges 9, 10 which is not symmetrical with respect to the above mentioned plane 13. As a consequence of this, the angles .alpha. and .beta. of the two spoke series 11, 12 on the left and right sides of the bicycle wheel are differ greatly from each other. This condition implies a great difference in the strains induced in the spokes on the right and left sides of the bicycle wheel during the assembling operations of the wheel, with detrimental consequences on the strength of the structure and the ability of the wheel to keep its operative characteristics with the time.
In order to decrease the above mentioned drawback, it is necessary to render the two angles .alpha. and .beta. less different as possible. This result is achieved in the known rims indicated at the beginning of the present description by offsetting the median plane of the anchoring spots 14 of the spokes with respect to the median plane 13 of the rim. A known solution of this type is shown in FIG. 2 of the annexed drawings. As shown, in this figure the two angles are .alpha.' and .beta.', less different from each other with respect to the case of FIG. 1, due to the offset .epsilon. between the median plane 13 of rim 1 and plane 15 containing the anchoring spots 14 of spokes 11, 12.
However, the offset .epsilon. between the median plane 13 of the rim and the plane 15 where the spokes are applied gives origin to a drawback. As a matter of fact, when the wheel is mounted and the spokes are tensioned, the cross-section of the rim is subjected to a torsioning torque tending to bring the resulting force of the spoke tensions on the median plane of the rim, with a resulting rotation of the cross-section, along with a deformation. This condition is shown in FIGS. 3-5 of the annexed drawings. FIG. 3 shows the cross-section of the rim before the deformation which is caused by the torsioning torque T generated by the resulting force F applied by the spokes. FIG. 4 shows the rotated condition of the rim and FIG. 5 shows the rim cross-section at an enlarged scale and shows the deformed condition by dotted lines which is generated in the situation of FIG. 4.

Rim for a spoked wheel particularly a bicycle rear wheel


An optical pickup unit is disclosed which comprises: an objective lens that focuses laser light on an optical disc; a lens holder that holds the objective lens; a coil that is fitted on the lens holder and capable of driving the lens holder; and a heat transfer improving member that is fitted on the holder to cause heat to be radiated, wherein the heat is generated in the coil when the coil is energized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical pickup unit and an optical disc apparatus, capable of reproducing data recorded on an optical disc and of recording data onto the optical disc.
2. Description of the Related Art
Of late years, proposed in an optical pickup unit not shown, a so-called optical head whose lens holder is mounted with two objective lenses (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 9-120573 (p. 2, FIGS. 1-3).
However, with respect to a conventional optical pickup unit having a lens holder with an objective lens, if the distances are unequal between the coils around the lens holder and the objective lens, it has been feared that heat transfers to the objective lens may become non-uniform when heat is generated in the coils. It is a problem that non-uniform heat transfers to the objective lens may induce uneven temperature gradients in the objective lens. It is feared, in the case of non-uniform heat transfers to the objective lens, that thermal expansions of the objective lens may not become uniform, resulting in occurrence of aberrations on a spot of laser light focused by the objective lens to be applied to the optical disc.
Since the conventional optical pickup unit is of a structure where the objective lens is warmed up gradually from its portions closer to the coils, the objective lens is expected to have large temperature gradients when checking the temperature characteristics of the objective lens. It is difficult for the objective lens with large temperature gradients to have substantially uniform thermal expansions or thermal contractions, as a result of which aberrations may occur on a spot of laser light focused by the objective lens to be applied to the optical disc.
Furthermore, with respect to the conventional optical pickup unit having a lens holder with two objective lenses, occurrence of higher-order resonance has been feared. The higher-order resonance of the optical pickup unit means that the lens holder with lenses is subjected to significant vibrations in frequency regions of about 10 KHz or more for example. In the case of the occurrence of a higher-order resonance in the lens holder with lenses, when the optical disc apparatus having the optical pickup unit makes random access to an optical disc, it is feared that the optical pickup unit may not be able to perform a normal seeking operation to the optical disc due to its runaway. The seek means moving the optical pickup unit to a designated position on the disc. Required is an optical pickup unit capable of preventing the occurrence of runaway.
It is also feared, in the case of the occurrence of a significant higher-order resonance in the lens holder with lenses of the optical pickup unit, that moving members such as the lens holder may be deformed. To suppress the higher-order resonance occurring in the lens holder with lenses of the optical pickup unit, an increase in rigidity of the lens holder, etc., is required.
The optical pickup unit is also facing the needs for a reduction in weight, an improvement in responsivity and a lowering of the price.

Optical pickup unit and optical disc apparatus


The system includes a circuit board, a semiconductor module, a heat dissipator, and at least one thermal via. The circuit board has substantially flat opposing first and second sides. The semiconductor module includes multiple semiconductor devices. The semiconductor module is oriented substantially parallel to the circuit board near the first side, while the heat dissipator is disposed near the second side. The thermal via extends through the circuit board to thermally couple the semiconductor module to the heat dissipator, which may be a heat spreader, heat sink, cooling fan, or heat pipe.

As computer systems evolve, so does the demand for increased semiconductor processing power and memory. However, increases in semiconductor processing power and memory typically come at a cost, namely an increase in power consumption of semiconductor devices. Besides the obvious drawbacks of increased energy costs and shorter battery life, increased power consumption also leads to significantly higher operating temperatures of the semiconductor devices. However, in order for the semiconductor devices to operate, heat generated by the semiconductor devices must be dissipated.
Moreover, computer systems often utilize multiple semiconductor devices. Accordingly, manufacturers often bundle multiple semiconductor devices into a single package, otherwise known as a semiconductor module. These semiconductor modules are particularly prevalent in the memory industry, where multiple memory devices are packaged in discrete memory modules. However, packaging multiple semiconductor devices in a single semiconductor module leads to even greater heat generation within the module. This increased heat generation makes subsequent heat dissipation difficult.
Not only has the demand for increased processing power and memory been rapidly increasing, but there has also been a steady increase in demand smaller modules having greater processing power and/or memory. However, any increase in the density of the semiconductor devices within a module exacerbates the heat generation and subsequent dissipation problems.
Even more of a problem arises when high powered memory modules are used in portable computing systems, such as handheld computers, laptops, and cellular phones, where space is at a premium. Unlike desktop computers that have a relatively large volume of unused space within the computer chassis or case, the chassis of portable computing systems typically have little or no space for air to circulate in and around the memory module. For example, Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Modules (SO-DIMMs or SODIMMs), are typically used in notebook computers and rack-mounted servers for their small size as compared to regular Dual In-line Memory Modules (DIMMs), which are typically used in desktop computers. However, due to the form factor of notebook computers, such SODIMMs are typically placed parallel to the laptop's motherboard and not perpendicular, as is typically the case with memory modules in desktop computers. Memory devices on the side of the memory module facing away from the circuit board can dissipate some heat. However, memory devices facing the motherboard typically only have a very small space between the memory module and the motherboard and therefore have poor heat dissipation, as little or no air circulates around the small space between the memory module and the mother-board.
Accordingly, a system and method to more effectively dissipate heat from a semiconductor module would be highly desirable.
Like reference numerals refer to the same or similar components throughout the several views of the drawings.

System and method for dissipating heat from a semiconductor module


A condensed retractable traffic cone is a device designed to provide motorists with advance warning of disabled vehicles and/or work zone areas. The device has been designed to withstand reasonable winds through the use of two base supports, a lower portion, a retractable arm and a series of retractable vertical risers. The retractable vertical risers in combination with a retractable arm allow for the device to easily expand to height consistent with traffic engineering design standards when in operation and then compact when it is in storage. The two base supports are designed not only to provide the necessary structural stability but to also open and close about the retractable vertical risers thus providing for additional compactness. The vertical risers are designed with flexible hinges so that they may store flat and expand to a rectangular shape when the base supports are rotated to an open position. This is accomplished a by linkage connecting the lower vertical riser and the base supports.

This application relates to means of altering motorists to the presence of disabled vehicles or work zone areas. Each year hundreds of motorists are either killed or injured along side the roadway. Many of these accidents may be prevented if the oncoming motorist had advance warning of the presence of these disabled vehicles. The present invention is an improvement or alternative to my prior U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,195.
In recent years, a variety of traffic warning devices have become known and reference may be had to the following U.S. patents for a description of these prior art of traffic warning devices; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,508,195, 6,681,715, 2,954,005, 3,496,904, 4,006,702, 4,197,807, 4,256,50, 2,762,327, 3,132,624, 3,520,235, 4,462,145, 4,466,376, 6,971,329 B1, 6,746,337 B1, 4,806,046, 4,090,468, 3,732,842, 3,695,213, 3,520,273, 3,234,903, 3,021,755 and 5,287,822.
Over the years there have been many attempts to provide a retractable or collapsible traffic cone. Designs have spanned from sleeves of varying diameter and taper which when extended fit into one another and form a cone shaped marker (U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,954,005 and 3,496,904). Another variation of the concept is found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,762,327 where the device is inflatable and is attached to a solid base and filled with air when ready for use. Other designs have employed the varied use of coils or springs as a means of displaying the traffic control device. These devices are outlined in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,006,702, 4,256,050, 4,197,807, 4,256,050 and 5,305,705.
Other designs have employed the use of springs and a flexible membrane (U.S. Pat. No. 3,132,624) and a two-piece center support member. U.S. Pat. No. 3,520,235 describes a device that requires assembly prior to use and employs a two-piece center support pole.
In other designs three and four sided panel fan shaped members (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,466,376 and 4,462,145) are employed to form upright three and four sided triangles respectively.
While this has long been recognized as a traffic safety problem many needless deaths and injuries continue to happen every year. Current methods of enhancing motorist awareness includes; flares, solid plastic cones and collapsible or spring cones. While all devices may accomplish the same goal as the presented invention, the presented invention is designed to help eliminate current difficulties encountered with their use. With roadside flares there is the inherent short fall that they only last a given period of time and are not reusable. In addition, they are usually only several inches above the roadway service and may present difficulty in operating. Solid plastic cones are easy to place along the roadway however unless they are properly weighted and sized they may be displaced due to strong gusts of winds. In addition, the larger the cone the more storage space that is required. This is a disadvantage (especially in small passenger vehicles) and therefore reduces their attractiveness of the use. In recent years several collapsible or spring traffic cones have been introduced into the market place. The current invention is a significant improvement to these designs since the use of the flexible hinges on the vertical risers and the use of a rotating base support allows requires approximately ½ the necessary storage space. In addition, when compared to the designs that require springs (U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,705), the present invention is totally self-contained and does not require any additional locking mechanism when storing. The reduced storage space significantly increases the attractiveness of the present invention, especially in emergency response vehicles where space is at a premium.
The present invention is a variation of my prior U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,195 in that the porous casing is replaced by a series of vertical risers. The vertical risers may be described as a rectangular or trapezoidal shaped flexible "box" where the top and bottom sides are open. The vertical risers are designed to fit within each other and are designed with flexible hinges extending its entire length on each corner so that they may store relatively flat. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,195 two retractable arms are used as a means of expanding the porous casing from a compact to expanded position. In the present invention, the two retractable arms are replaced by a single retractable arm placed in the center of the lower portion as is used as a means of expanding the series of vertical risers from a compact to expanded position. As in U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,195 the base supports are connected to the lower portion by a series of protruding tabs and holes. In the present invention, the lower vertical riser is connected to the base supports by a lower linkage that allows the series of vertical risers to transform from a relatively flat position is storage to a rectangular shape when the base support goes from a closed to an open position when rotated about the lower portion. In addition, the upper vertical riser is also linked to the upper portion of the retractable arm. This upper linkage allows for the vertical risers to be lifted from a compact to expanded position when the retractable arm is fully expanded. In order to help accomplish this movement the upper portion of the retractable arm contains a handle.
The Condensed Retractable Traffic Cone has been designed to be employ easily, store compactly, withstand prevailing winds and be economical.
The Condensed Retractable Traffic Cone is a combination of several pieces. The first two pieces are referenced to as the base supports. The base supports are similar in design and function to the base supports disclosed in may prior U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,195. The base supports are connected to the lower portion in a similar manner as taught in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,195. Connected to the lower portion is single retractable arm with a handle on its upper portion. When the device is fully deployed the retractable arm is perpendicular to the base supports. When the device is in storage the retractable arm is parallel to the base supports. In the present invention the porous casing taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,195 is replaced by a series of vertical risers. Each vertical riser is designed with hinges along each corner that extend its entire length. This design allows for the vertical rises to be able to change shape when pressure is applied. The vertical risers are designed to fit within each other and may either be rectangular or slightly tapered. In order to reduce wind load on the sign support structure, the each vertical riser may be designed with "air-flow" holes. Also the bottom portion of the retractable arm may be designed in the shape of a spring that would allow for the slight deflection of the present invention when subject to high wind loads. Allowing for this slight deflection may reduce the overall weight of the device thereby potentially reducing its cost.
In addition, reflective decals may be affixed to the vertical risers to correspond with traffic control device design standards. The actual number of vertical risers employed depends on application.
The two base supports are intended to provide the necessary weight to ensure that the device is not displaced under reasonable wind loads. Similar to U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,195, each base support also has several strategically placed tabs. The base support is primarily a rectangular type box with the top end and one of the sides open. The long sides of the base support contain a tab at the "open" end of the box. These tabs are designed to allow the base support to be affixed to holes in the lower portion. Similar to U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,195, the lower portion has been designed with "protruding" tabs.
The Condensed Retractable Traffic Cone has been designed for easy placement during emergency situations. The first step in the application process is to rotate the two base supports from the closed to the open position and locked (parallel with the lower portion). After the base support is fixed in the open position, the series of vertical risers is then expanded by simply pulling in a vertical manner the handle on the upper portion of the retractable arm. This is continued until all the vertical risers are in fully extended position. At this point the invention is ready for application.
The present invention offers an improvement over the previous designs in that the base support has been designed to fold in half thereby significantly reducing the necessary storage space when compared to similar sized designs. Through the use of "hinged" vertical risers that store effectively "flat" when not in operation and then "open" when in operation, significantly also reduces the necessary storage space when compared to devices that use a rigid sleeve design. This improved storage efficiency in both the base support and the vertical risers increases the attractiveness of the present invention to the user since it requires significantly less storage space when compare to the current state of the art. This is especially essential when the users are the highway motorcycle patrol or motorcyclists in general. The present invention has been designed to fit into the side compartment of their motorcycle. This is envisioned as a primary application for the present invention.
In addition when compared to spring or coil type devices the present invention does not require any additional "locking" mechanism. Also when compared to some previous designs the present invention is totally "self-contained" and requires no assembly prior to implementation.
Further, the device has been designed so that "reflective decals" can be directly affixed to the device to alert motorists. Several other designs, especially those that require the use of a spring or a coil require the use of a "flexible reflective material". "Reflective decals" (similar to those used on existing traffic control devices) are usually brittle and would crack when stored in a compressed position, therefore they would not be recommended for many of the previously discussed prior designes. "Reflective tape" may also be used in many of the previously disclosed designed. While less brittle than "decals" they have a problem with wrinkling when compressed. A primary benefit of the use of reflective "decals" or "tape" is the reduced cost when compared to "collars" currently used on rigid traffic cones and on several existing "collapsible" devices.


A plenum with features to disperse acoustic energy in an airflow while maintaining a relatively small pressure drop in the airflow is disclosed. A general structure of the plenum may include a perforated airflow passage surrounded by a substantially large space enclosed between the airflow passage and a plenum. The perforated airflow passage has a perforated wall that may allow the acoustic energy to be dispersed into the substantially large space when flowing through the airflow passage. Acoustic energy dispersing materials may also be disposed in the substantially large space and/or on the perforated wall to help disperse acoustic energy by, for example, absorbing the acoustic energy. The plenum can help disperse the acoustic energy while helping minimize the pressure drop in the airflow.

A HVAC system typically includes one or more fans to drive an airflow to flow through a generally closed plenum. The operation of the fan, and/or other components of the HVAC system may produce noise in the plenum of the HVAC system. For example, noise can be produced when the airflow moves through or past fan blades.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


In a multiprocessor computing system, virtual memory addresses are mapped to local physical memory addresses of an attraction memory, containing a replication of the data contained at remote physical addresses, in a node of the system. A mapping table is created and maintained in each node of the system to supplement a conventional page table. The mapping table is used to map a global physical address to a local physical address of the replicated page of memory. System performance is enhanced by subsequent access to the data stored at the local physical address, as opposed to the remote physical address.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to memory management of shared memory in a multiprocessor computing system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a software mechanism for memory address translations from virtual addresses to local physical addresses or remote physical addresses in the multiprocessor computing system.
2. Description of Related Art
In conventional multiprocessor computing systems, application and system software access memory through the use of virtual addresses. The computing system maintains a page table which maps a given virtual address to a corresponding physical address (i.e., the location of where the data actually resides in memory). Data can generally be accessed from either a local memory or a remote memory, depending on the physical location of the data in the memory of the computing system.
Nodes in the multiprocessor system consist of multiple central processing units (CPUs) and memory, and are connected to the other nodes in the system through a system bus or network. The system bus is used to transfer address and data information from one node in the multiprocessor computing system to another node. In this manner, the memories associated with any single node can be accessed, shared, and utilized by other nodes in the system.
However, there are performance drawbacks in accessing memory "remotely", wherein a node reads or writes data stored in the memory of another node in the multiprocessor computing machine. In particular, an access to memory maintained remotely within another node is substantially slower than an access to the memory contained locally in the node. Computing systems and machines with such non-uniform memory access characteristics are referred to as NUMA systems.
In order to improve the performance associated with remote memory accesses, an attraction memory, such as a memory cache, can be maintained as local memory in each node. The attraction memory can store "replicas" of pages of memory which are remotely accessed by the node containing the attraction memory. A hardware device which allows the use of local memory pages as an attraction memory is described in the above referenced related applications, "A Hybrid NUMA Coma Caching System And Methods For Selecting Between The Caching Modes" by Hagersten et al., filed Dec. 22, 1995, Ser. No. 08/577,283; and "A Hybrid NUMA Coma Caching System And Methods For Selecting Between The Caching Modes" by Wood et al., filed Dec. 22, 1995, Ser. No. 08/575,787. This device automatically ensures the coherency between the contents of the remote memory and the local attraction memory.
However, conventional page tables in multiprocessor computing systems do not generally map virtual addresses to the local memory pages of an attraction memory for data which has been replicated locally at a given node. Without such mapping, the performance benefits offered by such a hardware "replicating" device cannot be fully realized by the multiprocessor computing system
However, modification of the system's page table to remap the virtual to physical addresses is undesirable, as this would entail substantial changes to the system's operating system
What is needed is a mechanism to establish and permit efficient remote memory accesses which will operate within a multiprocessor computing machine without modification of the application software and without modification of the operating system's conventional page table structure

Multiprocessor system having mapping table in each node to map global physical addresses to local physical addresses of page copies


Disclosed is a technique which can share single public Internet protocol without a network address translation when a plurality of computers use the Internet through an Internet access gateway. The Internet access gateway according to the invention includes a local network access point which is connected to a local network for either inputting or outputting a packet either to local network or therefrom; an Internet access point which is connected to the Internet for either inputting or outputting the packet either to the Internet or therefrom; a port translation table for storing nodes having one Internet protocol address, public port numbers corresponding to each of the nodes, a local port number corresponding to each of the nodes, and a media access control (MAC) address corresponding to each of the nodes; and an address translation processor for changing a public port number using a local port number and the MAC address included in an Internet protocol packet as delimiters in a predetermined assigning manner when the Internet protocol packet is received at the local network, storing a changed public number in the port translation table, for a public port number corresponding to an Internet protocol packet with reference to the port translation table when the Internet protocol packet is received at the Internet, and searching for a local port number corresponding to the public port number.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an Internet access gateway (hereinafter, referred to as IAG) connected to the Internet, and more particularly to an IAG for sharing a single public Internet protocol (hereinafter, referred to as IP) address without a network address translation (hereinafter, referred to as NAT).
2. Description of the Related Art
A local network consists of computers (or personal computers; hereinafter, referred to as PCs) connected with one another by a wireless LAN (Local Area Network). The local network is connected through the IAG with the Internet. For example, the IAG includes customer premise equipment (hereinafter, referred to as CPE), carrier leased equipment (hereinafter, referred to as CLE), etc.
IP addresses must be assigned to information terminals such as the PCs which are connected to a local network of an office, a SOHO (Small Office/Home Office), a home, etc., so that the information terminals may access the Internet. In order to allow the plurality of PCs to access the Internet, the plurality of IP addresses should be assigned to the plurality of PCs. However, it is difficult to assign all the PCs individual IP addresses because the number of IP addresses are insufficient. For solving this problem, NAT and/or PAT (Port Address Translation) have/has been used for allowing the plurality of PCs to share one IP address.
That is, the PC connected to a local network uses a private IP address, and the private IP address is changed to any public IP address assigned to it in CPE or CLE in which the local network is connected to the Internet. Also, port number fields of IP packet fields are differently assigned according to PCs, thereby distinguishing paths of IP packets.
Though a head field of an IP packet, that is, an IP address or a port number, is translated, the IP address in a data field remains as a private address. Therefore, if a system is programmed to confirm that an applied program of a receiving server is not a port number but a data field and thus to respond to it, the system may cause a malfunction or the packet may be transmitted to the Internet in a wrong way. That is, because the receiving server, which receives a packet, reads out not a public IP address from the SRC IP (source Internet protocol) field of the packet but a private IP address from the data field, the receiving server does not correctly determine what is the transmission part and responds as per the wrong part.
Using private IP addresses and changing the private IP addresses to public IP addresses using NAT/PAT, causes a problem since the position at which the IP address is placed is not unified as in a case that an IP information is copied into the data field of a packet.

Method and apparatus for sharing a single internet protocol address without a network address translation in an internet access gateway for a local network


A headwear piece having a crown defining a first opening for reception of the head of a wearer, an inflatable bladder mounted to the crown so that the bladder resides between the crown and a wearer's head in the crown opening, structure for selectively introducing a fluid into the bladder, and structure mounted to the crown for covering the fluid introducing structure and allowing operation thereof from a location externally of the crown.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to headwear of the type having size adjustment structure and, more particularly, to a cover for an actuator for the size adjustment structure that permits the actuator to be operated from externally of the crown.
2. Background Art
The inventor herein has made a number of significant improvements to conventional headwear. One such improvement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,246 (the '246 patent).
The invention in the '246 patent is directed to a headwear piece with a bladder on the crown that provides a deformable cushion layer between the crown and the wearer's head. The bladder and at least a portion of the crown are deformable to conform to the wearer's head. In one aspect of the invention in the '246 patent, the bladder can be selectively inflated and deflated to alter the effective diameter of the head-receiving opening on the headwear piece.
A fluid, and preferably air, is directed into the bladder and exhausted therefrom with the headwear piece in place on a wearer's head. A bulb-type actuator can be repeatedly depressed to introduce consecutive charges of air into the bladder until the bladder is filled with the desired amount of fluid. A relief valve allows the fluid to exhaust from the bladder to effect collapse thereof.
One difficulty that has arisen is the problem of incorporating the actuator and relief valve into a flexible crown portion, as on a baseball-style cap, to allow operation of the actuator and relief valve from externally of the crown. There are three principal, and in certain respects competing, objectives that designers contend with in integrating the actuator and relief valve into the crown. First of all, the actuator and relief valve must be readily accessible to the wearer of the headwear piece. Secondly, the actuator and relief valve must be durably mounted to withstand wear due to repeated operation thereof. Thirdly, the actuator and relief valve should not significantly detract from the overall aesthetics of the headwear piece. Designers attempt to achieve these objectives while maintaining manufacturing costs at a minimum.

Headwear piece with cover for size adjustment actuator


An article of footwear with customizable stiffness is provided. The article of footwear in the form of a snowboard boot is provided with stiffness elements that are inserted within retaining enclosures disposed on either side of an inner liner of the snowboard boot. Depending on the level of stiffness of the stiffener element, or lack thereof, different flex profiles having varying degrees of stiffness are available to the wearer to customize the stiffness of the snowboard boot when secured within a binding. A kit of parts is also disclosed that includes a pair of boots and two sets of interchangeable stiffener inserts to allow a wearer to customize the stiffness of the boots as desired.

The present invention relates generally to an article of footwear, and more specifically, to an article of footwear in the form of a snowboard boot with customizable stiffness.
Articles of footwear with rigid inserts or stays are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 737,959 to Posner discloses an ankle supporting shoe that includes flexible supports that are inserted into pockets vertically disposed along the upper. U.S. Pat. No. 1,548,172 to Redden discloses shoe upper that includes ankle supporting stays that are inserted into pockets. U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,808 to Gilliard et al. discloses an adjustably stiffenable snowboard boot that includes vertical elongate pockets on the surface of the upper to receive elongate, semi-rigid stiffening stays.
There exists a need in the art for an article of footwear that is configured with customizable stiffness to suit the degree or amount of stiffness desired by a wearer.

Article of footwear with customizable stiffness


Dual or multi-modulation display systems are disclosed that comprise projector systems with at least one modulator that may employ non-mechanical beam steering modulation. Many embodiments disclosed herein employ a non-mechanical beam steering and/or polarizer to provide for a highlights modulator.

In a conventional multi-stage modulation projector system, there is typically a single light source that illuminates a screen with an image that is modulated by some optical system within the projector. In such conventional multi-stage modulation projector systems, it is typical that the highlights modulator is a MEMS array—or some other means of mechanical beam steering. Highlight modulators have the ability to steer the light reaching their individual steering elements to any arbitrary location in the following light path. Merely for one example, a highlights modulator may be able to steer more light onto a portion of a projected image that has a higher luminance that surrounding parts of the image—thus, that portion would be "highlighted".
In the context of these dual/multi-modulator projector systems, it may be possible to construct such a projector system with at least one highlights modulator that may possibly employ non-mechanical beam steering that does not necessary rely on moveable mirror(s).

Projector display systems having non-mechanical mirror beam steering

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation