A method for providing read-only access to network element configuration data is provided. A request is received to access configuration data for a network element. In response to such a request, a communications session is initiated with the network element. Configuration data is then received from the network element. The configuration data is compared to configuration data for the network element previously stored in a database. If the previously-stored configuration is not identical to the received configuration data, the database is updated with the current configuration data for the network element. The configuration data is then transmitted in read-only format as a response to the initial request for network element configuration data.

Recent advances and improvements in communications technology provide the communications industry with an enormous number of opportunities to improve existing services and to branch into new service areas. For instance, thousands of miles of fiber optic cable have been deployed in optical networks. These optical networks make possible the transmission of large amounts of information at great speeds and are used to carry voice signals, data, and video.
The management and monitoring of a large optical network, or other types of large networks, can be difficult and expensive. One factor contributing to the cost of maintaining and operating large optical networks is the lack of reliable data regarding installed network equipment. In many networks, databases storing information regarding the type of installed equipment and the configuration of the devices are maintained manually. In many cases, manually maintaining this type of data causes it to be unreliable. Therefore, in many situations, a service technician must be dispatched to the physical location of a network device to verify the existence of the device and its configuration before any changes may be made to the network. Sending a technician to the physical location of the equipment in this manner is time consuming and expensive.
While methods and systems do exist that allow technicians to remotely determine the existence and configuration of a network device, these systems also allow a user to make changes to the configuration of the network device. For instance, the transaction one ("TL1") protocol allows users to remotely gain access to network elements and to execute commands on the network elements. Through the use of TL1, the existence and configuration of devices on an optical network may be determined. However, providing access to network elements to a user through the use of the TL1 language provides the user with the ability to make changes to the configuration of the network elements. Allowing a user to make changes to the network equipment in this manner opens a network up to the possibility of inadvertent or malicious modification of the configuration of network elements. In many situations, a malicious user with access to the configuration of network elements through the TL1 protocol could render an entire network useless by issuing only a few commands.
Therefore, in light of the above, there is a need for a method and system for providing access to network element configuration data that will provide easy access to accurate information regarding the installation and configuration of network data equipment without requiring a technician to physically visit the location of the equipment. Moreover, there is a need for a method and system for providing access to network element configuration data that can provide data regarding the existence and configuration of network elements without also allowing users to execute commands or modify the configuration of the equipment.

Method, system, and apparatus for providing read-only access to network element configuration data

BellSouth Intellectual Property Corporation


A dental tray of the present invention includes a body made from a generally fluid impervious material (preferably a closed cell foam) having a bottom and side walls to define an arched channel sized and shaped to fit over a patient's teeth. A deformable, arched gasket is fixed to the body along an upper edge of the body wall. The gasket extends inwardly from the tray body wall and defines an arched slot. The gasket inner edge contacts and seals against the patient's gums and teeth when the tray is applied to the patient's teeth to substantially prevent compounds from leaking from the sides or back of the tray during use of the tray. Preferably, two identical trays are connected together by a connector. The connector is adhered to the base of the trays, generally at a front of the trays. The connector is folded over upon itself when the two trays are inserted in a patient's mouth and define a handle. The handle extends through the patient's lips from a position generally between the patient's teeth. The trays may be pre-filled with the compound or medicament to be applied to the patient's teeth. If so, the tray is sealed to prevent loss of the compound or medicament during transportation and storage of the trays. The trays are also individually wrapped.

This invention relates to dental trays for applying a dental compound, such as a fluoride, whitener, etc. to a patient's teeth during a dental procedure, and in particular to a disposable tray which seals against the patient's teeth and/or gums.
Dental trays have long been used to apply compounds, such as fluoride, to patients' teeth. Typically, the trays comprise a pair of arched channels which hold the compound. The trays are sized and shaped to be inserted in a patient's mouth over the patient's teeth. Early trays were rigid, and were commonly made of metal. These trays did not allow for expansion or contraction of the trays to compensate for the different sized arches of patient's mouths. Thus, several trays had to be available so that a proper sized tray could be used on a patient. This could necessitate the use of several trays in a patient's mouth before the appropriate sized tray was found. This would obviously contaminate several trays, only one of which would ultimately be used, and all of which would require cleaning before they could be used again. Thus, not only did the use of rigid trays require extra cleaning, but because they were rigid, they were generally uncomfortable for the patient.
When the trays were made of metal, the trays for the upper and lower teeth were separate from each other. When trays were begun to be made of moldable materials, such as plastics and foams, the trays' upper and lower portions were connected together by a connector or hinge. On some models, the hinge was in the back of the trays. This increased the overall length of the assembly, and for patients with small mouths, made the trays uncomfortable to use. Typically, the hinge element which attaches the upper and lower trays in the back of the trays contacts the back of the patient's jaw at the temporomandibular joint. This is a sensitive spot in a patient's mouth, and the contact of the tray with the jaw at this point often activates the gag reflex, making such trays unsuitable for use, especially on people with smaller mouths.
On other trays, the hinge was formed in the front of the tray assembly, and defined a tab or handle when the tray is inserted in a patient's mouth. Such a handle facilitated insertion of the tray into the patient's mouth and removal of the tray from the patient's mouth. However, the handles for such trays are typically located at the tops of the trays (i.e., the openings of the trays), making them uncomfortable for the patient. Such a tray is shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,219 to Lentine. This position of the handle interferes with the patient's lips. In order for the handle to protrude from between the patient's lips, when the mouth is closed, the handle must be bent at two locations, to form an L-shaped element. However, due to the natural resiliency of the material from which the handles are made, the handles will inevitably urge the patient's lips apart. As can be appreciated, this will not be a very natural position for the patient, and the patient may not be comfortable while the tray is in use.
Another problem with the prior trays is that they do not seal well against the patient's teeth or gums. Typically, there are openings through which the compound can escape the tray. This leakage of the compound has long been a problem because the compound which leaks out of the tray is not applied to the teeth and, therefore is wasted. Further, leakage of the compound from the tray into the patient's mouth can cause the patient to gag. Additionally, the compound often does not have a pleasing taste. Various designs have attempted to create a seal. For example, the above noted U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,219 provides for a flange which extends outwardly from the rim of the tray. A similar tray is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,559 to Hart. However, when the trays shown in these patents are expanded, for example to fit the arch of a larger mouth, the flange on the lingual side of the tray will cause the distance between the lingual and buccal walls of the trays to pull apart. This will make the depth of the tray to become more shallow, and create gaps through which the compound can escape.
Additionally, dental trays are typically packaged in bundles. That is, a plurality (i.e., 20, 50, 100, etc.) are packaged together inside of a single bag or other packaging. This common packaging can lead to cross-contamination. When a dental practitioner (dentist, hygienist, technician, etc.) reaches into the bag to grab one tray, the practitioner will come into contact with other trays as well. Unless the practitioner has a tray ready prior to the dental examination, or unless he removes the gloves he is currently wearing and dons a new pair of gloves to retrieve the dental tray, the other trays in the package will become contaminated.


An active balancing control apparatus and method with an active balancing algorithm to charge and discharge a plurality of batteries connected in series. The active balancing control apparatus may be designed to simultaneously charge and discharge a plurality of batteries, connected in series and having different charge/discharge characteristics, using an active balancing circuit. The apparatus may perform switching to achieve balancing of each of the batteries so that all the batteries may be charged at a maximum voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a secondary battery charge/discharge control apparatus and method with an active balancing circuit and algorithm to charge and discharge a plurality of secondary batteries connected in series.
2. Description of the Related Art
Large-capacity lithium secondary batteries used in electric vehicles each have a relatively low operating voltage, for example, a voltage of about 2 volts (V) to about 4.7 V, and a relatively high operating current, for example, a current of about 25 amperes (A) to about 50 A.
In an electric vehicle, tens to hundreds of large-capacity lithium secondary batteries are connected and used. In the process of manufacturing a battery assembly, a battery of a unit module (for example, a single battery, or a few batteries are connected in parallel or in series) needs to be charged and discharged at maximum capacity. However, there are several technical difficulties, such as low conversion efficiency for converting electric energy to an alternating current (AC), and for recycling the electric energy.
In an apparatus for simultaneously charging and discharging a large-capacity secondary battery in a switch mode, a single lithium secondary battery with an operating voltage of about 2 V to about 4.7 V may be discharged. Electricity obtained by the discharging may need to be regenerated in a nationwide AC grid by consuming the electricity as heat, or by converting the electricity to AC electricity.
A direct current (DC)-to-AC (DC/AC) converter used to regenerate power may have extremely low conversion efficiency, for example typically 40%, since a voltage of a single battery is considerably lower than a voltage of a commercial AC grid (for example, 220 V or 380 V). During conversion, remaining energy may be consumed as heat in the DC/AC converter.
Accordingly, a process of using a conventional secondary battery charge/discharge apparatus is known to use the most power in a factory of manufacturing batteries including conditioning equipment for cooling. When secondary batteries having slightly different capacities and slightly different internal resistances are connected in series and are charged and discharged by a single bidirectional constant current power supply, it may be difficult to charge and discharge each of the plurality of secondary batteries at a constant voltage (CV) due to a difference in characteristics of the secondary batteries, and overcharge or overdischarge may occur.
A technical configuration associated with a battery pack control module and a method of using the same for balancing of a plurality of lithium secondary batteries or groups of lithium secondary batteries is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2011-0008337. Additionally, a technical configuration including discharge route circuits for each secondary battery connected in series and for protecting overcharge is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0122911. However, in that disclosure, because each of the plurality of secondary batteries includes a separate discharge resistor and a switching element to form a discharge route circuit, power consumption, and manufacturing costs may increase.

Apparatus and method with active balancing circuit and active balancing algorithm for charging and discharging secondary batteries connected in series


A display driving integrated circuit (IC) and a display driving method for supporting various driving mode include an input unit, a digital-analog converter and a row data output unit. The row data output unit outputs at least one of the row data to a row line corresponding thereto for each row scan clock pulse. The row data output unit activates output paths for outputting the row data to the row lines in an activation order of a driving mode selected from a plurality of driving modes having different orders of activating the output paths in response to a mode select signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display driver integrated circuit (IC), and more particularly, to a display driver IC and a display driving method for supporting various driving modes.
2. Description of Related Art
A display driver IC in a mobile device is constructed in one chip. The display driver IC converts digital video data to be displayed on a display panel into analog row data and analog column data having predetermined voltages. The display driver IC scans the row data and column data on the display panel. The column data is scanned to column lines of the display panel and the row data is scanned to row lines of the display panel.
The display driver IC receives the video data through input pads and outputs the row data and column data through output pads. Output pads outputting the column data can be located at the center of one side of the display driver IC and output pads outputting the row data can be located to both sides of the output pads outputting the column data. Interconnection lines connecting the output pads and the row lines of the display panel are arranged on a single layer. To substantially prevent the interconnection lines from being twisted the output pads outputting the row data are located at both ends of one side of the display driver IC.
The column data are simultaneously scanned to column lines corresponding thereto when all the output pads outputting the column data are activated. The row data are sequentially scanned to row lines corresponding thereto through output pads activated in a predetermined order. When first through nth (n is a natural number) row data respectively correspond to the row lines of a display panel, which are arranged in a predetermined order, for example, the first through nth row data are sequentially scanned to the row lines.
The display driver IC activates the output pads corresponding to the row data to scan the row data to the row lines. Here, the display driver IC can sequentially activate the output pads placed at one end of one side of the display driver IC and sequentially activate the output pads located at the other end.
Otherwise, the display driver IC can alternately activate the output pads located at both ends of one side of the display driver IC.
The order of activating output paths of the row data to scan the row data to corresponding row lines is fixed to the display driver IC. Therefore, a need exists for a chip and method for selecting the order of activating the output paths.

Display driver IC and display driving method for supporting various driving modes


Wi-Fi setup application and path switching applications are provided to allow commands received from native applications of the UE to be redirected to a Wi-Fi engine. The Wi-Fi engine supports circuit switched and packet switched services over a Wi-Fi connection, thus allowing commands received from native applications on a UE to connect the user to either a wireless unlicensed communication system or a wireless licensed communication system.

Licensed wireless systems provide mobile wireless communications to individuals using wireless transceivers. Licensed wireless systems refer to public cellular telephone systems and/or Personal Communication Services (PCS) telephone systems. Wireless transceivers include cellular telephones, PCS telephones, wireless-enabled personal digital assistants, wireless modems, and the like.
Licensed wireless systems utilize wireless signal frequencies that are licensed from governments. Large fees are paid for access to these frequencies. Expensive base station equipment is used to support communications on licensed frequencies. Base stations are typically installed approximately a mile apart from one another (e.g., cellular towers in a cellular network). The wireless transport mechanisms and frequencies employed by typical licensed wireless systems limit both data transfer rates and range. As a result, the quality of service (voice quality and speed of data transfer) in licensed wireless systems is considerably inferior to the quality of service afforded by landline (wired) connections. Thus, the user of a licensed wireless system pays relatively high fees for relatively low quality service.
Landline (wired) connections are extensively deployed and generally perform at a lower cost with higher quality voice and higher speed data services. The problem with landline connections is that they constrain the mobility of a user. Traditionally, a physical connection to the landline was required.
In recent years, the use of unlicensed wireless communication systems to facilitate mobile access to landline-based networks has seen rapid growth. For example, such unlicensed wireless systems may support wireless communication based on the IEEE 802.11a, b or g standards (Wi-Fi), or the Bluetooth® standard. The mobility range associated with such systems is typically on the order of 100 meters or less. A typical unlicensed wireless communication system includes a base station comprising a wireless access point with a physical connection (e.g., coaxial, twisted pair, or optical cable) to a landline-based network. The access point has a radio frequency (RF) transceiver to facilitate communication with a wireless user equipment (UE) that is operative within a modest distance of the access point. The data transport rates supported by the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® standards are much higher than those supported by the aforementioned licensed wireless systems. Thus, this option provides higher quality services at a lower cost, but the services only extend a modest distance from the base station.
Currently, technology is being developed to integrate the use of licensed and unlicensed wireless systems in a seamless fashion. Thus enabling a user to access, via a single UE, an unlicensed wireless system when within the range of such a system, while accessing a licensed wireless system when out of range of the unlicensed wireless system. However, existing technology requires separate applications on the wireless UE for accessing the licensed and unlicensed wireless systems.
For example, a user accesses native applications (e.g., phone dialer, contacts list, and short messaging service) provided by the manufacturer of the wireless UE in order to establish a connection with the licensed wireless communication system. On the other hand, when the user wishes to connect to an unlicensed wireless communication system, the user must launch a third party application to connect to the unlicensed wireless communication system. These third party applications are standalone applications which include separate phone dialers, contact lists, etc., for connecting a user to an unlicensed wireless communication system. Thus, the user must retain duplicate contact lists and use a separate phone dialer each time the user wishes to establish a communications connection with the unlicensed wireless communication system. Furthermore, these applications employ a separate user identity (e.g., a separate phone number) to authorize the user to use the unlicensed wireless communication system.

System and method for dual mode communication


An image pickup apparatus capable of performing zooming and release operation easily whether the photographer operates with right-handed or left-handed without being lack of design. The image pickup apparatus includes a lens unit, a first ring operation unit that is ring shaped and arranged around the lens unit, a base unit configured to hold the first ring operation unit so that the first ring operation unit is capable of sliding in a first direction and a second direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the lens unit, and a first detector configured to detect a slide of the first ring operation unit in the first direction or the second direction. The first direction and the second direction are opposite to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus, for example, such as a digital camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, digital cameras are familiarized and various designs thereof are proposed. In most cameras, a button layout assumed a right-handed photographer is carried out. When a camera is grasped with a right hand, a release button (a shutter button) is arranged in a position where operating by a right index finger is easy.
However, these cameras are hard to use for a left-handed photographer. Therefore, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-53700 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-318421, two release buttons are arranged on an upper surface of the camera and a release button is arranged on each of an upper surface and a bottom surface of the camera. As a result, the photographer is capable of grasping and of operating with a dominant hand whether the photographer is right-handed or left-handed.
However, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-53700 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-318421, there are problems that it is hard to operate since a plurality of release buttons are arranged, and additionally, a release button is unintentionally push with a hand which is not a dominant hand when the camera is grasped with both hands.
Although the electric exclusive control of a button which gives a plurality of the same instructions is devised, an operation may become unclear and there is the threat of missing a photo opportunity.
In terms of design, when a plurality of release buttons are arranged in a digital camera, concavo-convex portions increase on an exterior of the digital camera. As a result, there is a problem of lacking design since unity of an exterior of the digital camera becomes worse.


An artificial vision system for regenerating or restoring vision of an eye of a patient includes: a power acquiring unit which is disposed inside the eye, includes a magnetic core having an opening and a coil wound around the magnetic core, and is adapted to acquire power from outside a body using electromagnetic induction; and a plurality of electrodes which is provided at a retina and is adapted to electrically stimulate cells constituting the retina.

The present invention relates to an artificial vision system for regenerating or restoring vision.
Recently, a study has been conducted on an artificial vision system that promotes regeneration or restoration of vision by electrically stimulating cells forming the retina with electrodes or the like placed inside the eye. As such an artificial vision system, there are a type that stimulates cells based on an image picked up outside the body (hereinafter, referred to as the external imaging type), a type that stimulates cells based on an image formed on photodiode arrays or the like placed inside the eye (hereinafter, referred to as the internal imaging type), etc.
Regarding the artificial vision system described as above, in order to supply an apparatus to be placed inside the eye with power wirelessly from outside the body, there has been discussed a method of supplying power through electromagnetic induction using a primary coil placed outside the body and a secondary coil placed inside the eye.
However, when a frequency band and magnitude of electromagnetic waves suitable for use in a human body are concerned, it is difficult to supply required power with the secondary coil having an air core, that is, having no magnetic core, and therefore a coil having a magnetic core has to be used. Nevertheless, a coil having a magnetic core is so heavy that it is not suitably placed inside the eye. Moreover, when a coil having a magnetic core is placed in the vicinity of the anterior ocular segment, incoming light from outside the eye may possibly be blocked by the magnetic core in the case of the artificial vision system of the internal imaging type.


A method for correcting influence of frequency offset between a receiver and a transmitter by evaluating training symbols received during a preamble period. The method includes producing, based on at least one long training symbol, a first vector whose first vector angle is indicative of a fine offset between the receiver and the transmitter, producing a fine offset estimate based on the first vector angle, and multiplying, with a signal having a frequency based upon the fine offset estimate, data symbols that are received after the at least one long training symbol is received.

The market for home networking is developing at a phenomenal rate. Service providers from cable television, telephony and digital subscriber line markets are vying to deliver bundled services such as basic telephone service, Internet access and entertainment directly to the consumer. Collectively these services require a high-bandwidth network that can deliver 30 Mbits/s or even higher rates. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a standard describes a cost-effective, robust, high-performance local-area network (LAN) technology for distributing this multimedia information within the home. Networks that will operate in accordance with standard 802.11a will use the 5-GHz UNII (unlicensed National Information Infrastructure) band and may achieve data rates as high as 54 Mbits/s, a significant improvement over other standards-based wireless technology. The 802.11a standard has some unique and distinct advantages over other wireless standards in that it uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) as opposed to spread spectrum, and it operates in the clean band of frequencies at 5 GHz.
OFDM is a technology that resolves many of the problems associated with the indoor wireless environment. Indoor environments such as homes and offices are difficult because the radio system has to deal with a phenomenon called "multipath." Multipath is the effect of multiple received radio signals coming from reflections off walls, ceilings, floors, furniture, people and other objects. In addition, the radio has to deal with another frequency phenomenon called "fading," where blockage of the signal occurs due to objects or the position of a communications device (e.g., telephone, TV) relative to the transceiver that gives the device access to the cables or wires of the cable TV, telephone or internet provider.
OFDM has been designed to deal with these phenomena and at the same time utilize spectrum more efficiently than spread spectrum to significantly increase performance. Ratified in 1999, the IEEE 802.11a standard significantly increases the performance (54 Mbits/s vs. 11 Mbits/s) of indoor wireless networks.
The ability of OFDM to deal with multipath and fading is due to the nature of OFDM modulation. OFDM modulation is essentially the simultaneous transmission of a large number of narrow band carriers, sometimes called subcarriers, each modulated with a low data rate, but the sum total yielding a very high data rate. FIG. 1A illustrates the frequency spectrum of multiple modulated subcarriers in an OFDM system. To obtain high spectral efficiency the frequency response of the subcarriers are overlapping and orthogonal, hence the name OFDM. Each narrowband subcarrier can be modulated using various modulation formats such as binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quaternary phase shift keying (QPSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) (or the differential equivalent).
Since the bandwidth rate on each subcarrier is low, each subcarrier experiences flat fading in multipath environment and is easy to equalize, where coherent modulation is used. The spectrums of the modulated subcarriers are not separated but overlap. The reason why the information transmitted over the carriers can still be separated is the so called orthogonality relation giving the method its name. The orthogonality relation of the subcarriers requires the subcarriers to be spaced in such a way that at the frequency where the received signal is evaluated all other signals are zero. In order for this orthogonality to be preserved it helps for the following to be true:                1. Synchronization of the receiver and transmitter. This means they should assume the same modulation frequency and the same time-base for transmission (which usually is not the case).        2. The analog components, part of transmitter and receiver, are of high quality.        3. The multipath channel needs to accounted for by placing guard intervals which do not carry information between data symbols. This means that some parts of the signal cannot be used to transmit information.
If the receiver and transmitter are not synchronized in frequency the orthogonality of the subcarriers is compromised and data imposed on a subcarrier may be not be recovered accurately due to inter-carrier interference. FIG. 1B illustrates the effect of the lack of synchronization on the frequency spectrum of multiple subcarriers, The dashed lines show where the spectrum for the subcarrier should be, and the solid lines shows where the spectrum falls due to the lack of synchronization. Since the receiver and transmitter need to be synchronized for reliable OFDM communication to occur, but in fact in practice they are not, it is necessary to compensate for the frequency offset between the receiver and the transmitter. The offset can occur due to the inherent inaccuracy of the synthesizers and crystals in the transmitter and receiver and to drift due to temperature or other reasons. The offset can be compensated for at the receiver, but present methods only produce a coarse estimate of the actual offset. According to one method for compensating for the offset, the analog signal received by a receiver is divided into three sections: short timing symbol section, long timing symbol section and data symbol section. Some of the short timing symbols in the short symbol section are used for automatic gain control and for detecting symbol timing. Other short timing symbols are sampled and digitized and auto-correlated to produce a coarse estimate of the offset. The coarse estimate of the offset is then used to produce a digital periodic signal whose frequency is based on the coarse estimate of the offset. The digital periodic signal is multiplied with digital samples of the long symbols and the product is fast fourier transformed to produce a channel estimate. The digital carrier is also used to multiply digital samples of the data symbols (digital data samples) when they arrive, thereby correcting for the offset. The product of the digital carrier and the digital data samples can now be decoded.
Since the short symbols, from which the frequency offset was derived, are relatively short, the estimate of the offset may be off appreciably from the actual offset. Consequently, there will be a residual offset which may cause the spectrum of one subcarrier to overlap with the spectrum of another subcarrier. Due to the overlap, when the digital data samples are recovered the data for one subcarrier may include interference from an adjacent subcarrier, degrading the throughput of the communication system. Furthermore, since there is a residual offset, the channel estimate is not an accurate representation of the actual transfer function due to the channel.
As described above, existing solutions are not capable of providing a relatively good estimate of the frequency offset between a receiver and transmitter or channel estimate. Consequently, it is desirable to provide a solution that overcomes the shortcomings of existing solutions.

Fine frequency offset estimation and calculation and use to improve communication system performance


An optical signal receiving equipment including an optical-electrical converter configured to convert optical signals into electronic signals; first deciders configured to transform the electronic signals into first binary signals; a second decider configured to transform the electronic signals into a second binary signal; a decision encoder configured to compute identification signals based on the plurality of first binary signals, and to compute reliability information of the computed identification signals; a converter configured to combine the identification signals and the second binary signal to combined identification signals; and a controller configured to execute an initial identification of the electronic signals in any one of the plurality of first deciders by using an initial threshold level in the plurality of first deciders, to measure an average amplitude of the electronic signals, and to correct the threshold level of the plurality of first deciders based on a variation of the average amplitude of the electronic signals.

In order to cope with communication traffic that tends to drastically increase in accordance with recent increasing demand for the Internet, a technological development aiming at high speed and large-volume transmission has been advancing. In a submarine cable system supporting international communications, etc., the transmission quality is deteriorated and bit errors are prone to be generated by such as wavelength dispersion due to transmitting a large-volume of data at a high speed for a long distance. Therefore, data is usually transmitted with high efficient error correction code "FEC" (forward error correction). Although, a hard decision error correction method, in which the identification of received data is executed by one decider, has been used as an error correction method for FEC, in recent years, a soft decision error correction method, in which the identification of received data is executed by a plurality of deciders by using a plurality of identification thresholds, has been under investigation in order to improve the error correction capability. (For example, refer to Japanese Laid-Open Open Patent Publications 2002-330104, Page 5 through 7, FIG. 1).
However, there have been problems in that the soft decision error correction capability of the optical signal receiving equipment differs in accordance with difference attributable to manufacturing (hereinafter referred to as manufacturing difference) in individual deciders or deterioration over time thereof, because the identification is executed by the plurality of deciders in conventional optical signal receiving equipment.
Moreover, there have been problems in that electric power consumption is increased in accordance with increasing the volume of circuits, because the identification is executed by the plurality of deciders.
Furthermore, there have been problems in that the error correction capability fluctuates in accordance with amplitude variations of input electronic signals during operations.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems in the conventional optical signal receiving equipment.

Optical reception device and optical reception method


An article of manufacture fabricated from discarded, recycled and new bottle caps of the type conventionally used to seal soft drink and beer bottles. A bottle cap is placed on a supporting surface and pressed substantially flat to form a wafer having an irregular surface and an irregular perimeter. The surfaces of the wafer are decoratively coated with powdered metal, pigmented enamel or ceramic. A suspension device is attached to the decorated wafer to enable suspension of the article of manufacture.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to jewelry, and more particularly to earrings and pendant-type jewelry fabricated from bottle caps, both new and used.
2. Field of the Prior Art
It appears that since the beginning of time, mankind has adorned itself with all manner of jewelry. Thus, items of transparent glass, colored glass, bones, metal of various types and shapes, and of course diamonds, have been utilized for adornment of the human body. So far as I know however, nobody has attempted to utilize a common metallic bottle cap to fashion an attractive piece of jewelry or pendant for adornment of the human body.
A preliminary patentability and novelty search has revealed the existence of the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:
______________________________________ 2,076,387 3,959,527 4,201,456 4,761,971 ______________________________________
U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,527 discloses the fabrication of flat costume jewelry from initially flat metal sheets through use of photofabrication mass production techniques. The end product and method of fabrication taught by this patent is therefore significantly different from the product and method of fabrication disclosed herein.
Silber U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,456 teaches merely that bottle caps in substantially their original form may be joined together and used as building blocks for the fabrication of toys.
Stupell U.S. Pat. No. 2,076,387 teaches the formation of numerous selected designs on a strip of metal, and the application of adhesive to one side to enable adherence to a supporting structure.
Freier U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,971 teaches the coating of metal earrings with plastic to prevent irritation of the wearer's skin by the metal.
Accordingly, it is one of the important objects of the present invention to utilize discarded bottle caps of the type that are commonly used on carbonated drinks and beer bottles from which to fashion an attractive piece of jewelry.
Another object of the invention is to provide a piece of jewelry fabricated from a discarded or new bottle cap that may indicate by its appearance the object from which it was fabricated.
A still further object of the invention is to develop a method of treatment of the discarded and new bottle caps of the type indicated to form an attractive and colorful piece of jewelry, whether it be an earring-type of jewelry or a pendant.
The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will be apparent from the following description and the drawings. It is to be understood however, that the invention is not limited to the embodiment illustrated and described since it may be embodied in various forms within the scope of the appended claims.


A vehicle having a sun gear, a carrier, and a ring gear of a planetary gear mechanism respectively connected to a first motor, an engine, and a drive shaft and second motor. When the combination of measured accelerator opening and measured vehicle speed is in an ordinary acceleration area, the vehicle sets a torque demand to decrease with an increase in measured vehicle speed at a specific reduction rate that ensures substantially constant output power to the drive shaft corresponding to the accelerator opening. When the combination of the measured accelerator opening and the measured vehicle speed is in an acceleration feel improvement area, on the other hand, the vehicle sets the torque demand to an extent of or below a maximum allowable value of the torque demand to decrease with an increase in measured vehicle speed at a lower reduction rate than the specific reduction rate.

In one proposed vehicle, a sun gear, a carrier, and a ring gear of a planetary gear mechanism are respectively connected to a first motor, to an engine, and to a second motor and a drive shaft linked with drive wheels (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. H09-308012). The proposed vehicle sets a torque command required to output to the drive shaft according to a torque command setting map, which decreases the torque command with an increase in rotation speed of the drive shaft (vehicle speed), in order to ensure a substantially constant power level output to the drive shaft against the driver's depression amount of an accelerator pedal. The output power of the engine goes through torque conversion by the planetary gear mechanism and the first and the second motors. Such torque conversion enables a power equivalent to the torque command to be output to the drive shaft. The engine may be driven at any drive point that ensures output of the power equivalent to the torque command to the drive shaft. Driving the engine at a possible most efficient drive point enables the enhanced energy efficiency.


A home appliance, such as a laundry washing machine or refrigerator including a buzzer designed to sound an alarm or provide an audible indication of a certain condition is disclosed. The appliance may transmit information (such as diagnostic or fault codes and appliance usage information) to a remote service center without the need for a physical connection to a telephone line. The buzzer may be controlled to produce audible tones in a predetermined format which can be transmitted from the appliance, through the air and down a telephone line through a telephone handset to the service center. The signal is recorded at the service center and the data extracted. The data is then analyzed to obtain the fault and/or usage information.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to appliances and more particularly, though not solely to home appliances with inbuilt sound generating devices capable of producing audible noise in a controlled manner which may then be transmitted (for example, by telephone) as data to a remote receiving location.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some home appliances (such as laundry washing machines and refrigerators) are today fitted with a serial communications port (or other similar output device) allowing the appliance to be connected to a personal computer which, utilising purpose built software, may interrogate information stored within the appliance. The information stored by the appliance may include the appliance's present status, temperatures, status of valves/shutters, user settings, fault information and number of cycles completed. As it is sometimes difficult or inconvenient for a service person to visit the site at which the appliance is located (which may be many kilometers from the service person's base) some existing home appliances have been fitted with modems to allow a service person to remotely interrogate data stored in the appliance. However, the additional cost involved in fitting all production appliances with a modem is unacceptably high. In addition, the user of the machine would be required to connect a telephone line to the appliance (either sharing an existing telephone line or installing a new one) and this is clearly unacceptable.
Most modem home appliances are at least fitted with a buzzer or beeper (for example a simple piezo-electric device) to, for example, alert the user that the washing cycle of a laundry washing machine or dishwasher is completed or the door of a refrigerator is open. Accordingly, it would be an advantageous improvement to utilise the existing noise producing capability of the appliance in the production of a data signal rather than adding additional expensive hardware.
In any event, if the audible data signal is produced at the home appliance and the point of entry of the data signal into the communications network (for example the telephone network) is some distance from the appliance, then the audible data signal must first travel some distance through (and be influenced by) the home appliance's surroundings (for example, air, walls, carpets, curtains and furniture). These surroundings introduce changes to the data signal through the introduction of noise (such as the introduction of echos) which must somehow be accounted for or removed from the transmitted data signal.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an appliance comprising:
sound generating means adapted to, upon appropriate energisation, produce audible tones ordinarily provided as a warning and/or verification signal to a user, PA1 user input means to allow a user to enter instructions to said appliance, PA1 data storage means which stores information on the operation of said appliance, PA1 control means which stores a program which causes the controller to: PA1 i) receive said instructions from said user input means, PA1 ii) enter a special operating mode in response to said user input, and PA1 iii) energise said sound generating means to issue audible tones in a predetermined sequence corresponding to information stored in said data storage means. PA1 sound generating means adapted to, upon appropriate energisation, produce audible tones ordinarily provided as a warning and/or verification signal to a user, PA1 user input means to allow a user to enter instructions to said appliance, PA1 data storage means which stores information on the operation of said appliance, PA1 control means which controls the operation of said appliance, said method comprising the steps of: PA1 i) receiving said instructions from said user input means, PA1 ii) entering a special operating mode in response to said user input, and PA1 iii) energising said sound generating means to issue audible tones in a predetermined sequence corresponding to information stored in said data storage means.
In a second aspect, the invention consists in a method of controlling an appliance, said appliance having
To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the descriptions herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting.
The invention consists in the foregoing and also envisages constructions of which the following gives examples.


A tracing method and apparatus for a digital emulation system. The invention allows trace information to be obtained during the emulation of a digital circuit that includes a clock signal. Input signal states are sensed and stored each clock cycle. The internal state of the emulated digital circuit is also stored. By using the stored input signal states and internal states, the states of other signals in the emulated digital circuit are derived.

Emulation systems typically use a computer, or other digital system, to simulate, or "emulate", a digital circuit being designed or developed. The emulation system is designed to mimic the logical operation of the digital circuit. This means that the signal inputs given to the emulator will result in the emulator outputing signals identical to that which would be output when the emulated circuit is given the same input signals.
During emulation, a trace buffer is used as an aid in analyzing and debugging the circuit under development. The trace buffer stores a record of changing states of signal inputs, signal outputs and internal signals of the circuit being emulated. In a digital synchronous system the states are stored once per clock cycle. The use of a trace buffer allows the circuit designer to emulate the circuit under development and operate the circuit up to a point where an error condition occurs. The trace buffer may continue to collect signal states but at some point tracing is stopped to allow the human designer to examine the record of signal states to determine what events caused the error. Alternatively, the operation of the circuit may be permitted to continue past the error condition so that the designer has a record of events that occur after the error condition. In this way, the record of signal states provided by the trace buffer aids the designer in developing a digital circuit. Emulation methods in use today provide other analytical tools to aid the designer in debugging the circuit.
A problem arises in traditional emulation methods where the size and speed of the digital circuit being designed introduces problems of efficiency and accuracy in emulating the circuit.
In order for a circuit under design to be accurately emulated the emulation of the circuit must run at, or close to, the circuit's target operating speed. This is because the circuit being emulated must often interface with external circuitry operating at real time speeds. Also, certain problems in the design of the circuit may only be apparent when the emulation is run at target operating speeds.
An emulation method in use today uses field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to emulate a circuit. With this method, a logic description of the circuit is prepared by the designer. The logic description is input to a compiler that determines how to implement the logic description in the FPGAs. Assuming two or more FPGAs are used the design is broken down into subsystems where each subsystem can be implemented on one of the FPGAs. This step is critical since the number of pins on an FPGA package often restricts the types of signals that can later be traced. For example, typical numbers of input/output (I/O) pins available on an FPGA package range from 64 to 144. Invariably these pins are in short supply because of interfacing requirements for the FPGA. This causes problems when the designer must decide which signals internal to the FPGA to make available on I/O pins so that the signals can be traced during emulation.
Once a trace has been performed, the signals in the trace buffer, corresponding to signals in the compiled FPGA circuits, are correlated to signals in the original circuit under development.
A circuit may also be emulated in a computer system. The computer system may be a general purpose computer or a dedicated computer system whose architecture is designed especially for emulating complex digital circuits. In general, for a general purpose computer, the circuit emulation is carried out mostly by software. For a dedicated computer system, the more specialized the architecture, the more the circuit design is emulated by the hardware rather than software. In either computer emulation system, the problems of specifying which signals to trace and correlating the traced signals to signals in the original design still exist.
An additional problem where substantial portions of the emulation are accomplished via software is that the emulation is very slow compared to the target operating speed of the circuit. Tracing, or capturing signal states, will often be performed by software. However, this has the drawback that the emulation is slowed down even more. Where tracing is done substantially by hardware the size of the trace buffer limits the number of signals that may be traced and the number of clock cycles during which a signal may be traced in any given emulation run.
The emulation, tracing and correlation steps may be repeated many times while the designer attempts to isolate and solve a problem with the circuit design. Often, the designer must make a choice as to which signals to trace at any given emulation run. If it turns out that not all of the necessary signals have been traced the designer must go back and perform another trace that may involve manually connecting and disconnecting signal paths to, e.g., an external logic analyzer, in order to capture the missing signal. Even more burdensome where FPGAs are used, a signal that the designer is interested in may not be provided on an FPGA pin. In this case, the designer must go back to the compile step in order to specify that the desired signal must be connected to an FPGA pin. Each repetition of the compiling, emulating, tracing and correlating steps adds to the development time of the circuit and increases the cost. Therefore, a system is needed which eliminates the problems of the emulation systems described above.

Method and apparatus for a trace buffer in an emulation system


This invention relates to a new and distinct variety of raspberry plant named ‘PS-1852’. The new variety is primarily adapted to the growing conditions of the central coast of California and is characterized by the following: large upright primocanes, late fall primocane production, early spring floricane production, large conical berries, with nearly ⅔ of the total production coming from the floricane. Foliage is strongly concave, medium green; possessing very strong rugosity, and always 3-foliage. Primocanes have a weak waxy coat, dense thorns, and weak to medium anthocyanin coloration.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct raspberry variety designated as 'PS-1852'. This new variety is a result of a controlled cross made by the inventor, Stephen M. Ackerman, in 1995 between raspberry variety 'PS-1094' (an unpatented Plant Sciences, Inc. selection) and raspberry variety 'PS-1316' (an unpatented selection). The variety is botanically known as Rubus idaeus.
The seedling resulting from the aforementioned cross was asexually propagated by dormant canes in Santa Cruz County, Calif. and was subsequently selected by the inventor from a controlled breeding plot in Watsonville, Calif. in 1997. After its selection, the new variety was further asexually propagated by dormant canes, roots and non-dormant root shoot cuttings in both Santa Cruz County, Calif. and San Joaquin County, Calif. The new variety was then extensively tested over the next several years in fruiting fields in Santa Cruz County, Calif. This propagation has demonstrated that the combination of traits disclosed herein as characterizing the new variety are fixed and remain true to type through successive generations of asexual reproduction.


A distinctive cultivar of Hybrid Tea Rose plant named xe2x80x98Yopidarxe2x80x99, characterized by its glossy dark green leaves; long and dark red stems; large dark pink-colored flowers; and good postproduction longevity.

Rosa hybrida cultivar Yopidar.
The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hybrid Tea Rose plant, botanically known as Rosa hybrida, commercially produced as a cut flower, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Yopidarxe2x80x99.
The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Salinas, Calif. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new cut Rose cultivars with attractive flower petal colors, long and strong stems, dark green leaves and good postproduction longevity.
The new cultivar originated from a cross made by the Inventor in 1996 of the Rose cultivar Sonia, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,095, as the female, or seed, parent with the Rose cultivar Classy, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Yopidar was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in a controlled environment in February, 1999, in Madrid, Cundinamarca, Colombia.
Since March, 2000, asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by grafting on Rosa Manetti rootstocks in Madrid, Cundinamarca, Colombia, has shown that the unique features of the new cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Yopidarxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish the new Hybrid Tea Rose as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. Glossy dark green leaves.
2. Long and dark red stems.
3. Large dark pink-colored flowers.
4. Good postproduction longevity.
Plants of the Hybrid Tea Rose can be compared to plants of the female parent, the cultivar Sonia. In side-by-side comparisons conducted by the Inventor in Salinas, Calif., plants of the new cultivar differed from plants of the cultivar Sonia in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Hybrid Tea Rose have larger flowers than plants of the cultivar Sonia.
2. Plants of the new Hybrid Tea Rose have dark pink-colored flower petals whereas plants of the cultivar Sonia have salmon pink-colored flower petals.
Plants of the Hybrid Tea Rose can be compared to plants of the male parent, the cultivar Classy. In side-by-side comparisons conducted by the Inventor in Salinas, Calif., plants of the new cultivar differed from plants of the cultivar Classy in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Hybrid Tea Rose have larger flowers than plants of the cultivar Classy.
2. Plants of the new Hybrid Tea Rose have dark pink-colored flower petals whereas plants of the cultivar Classy have red-colored flower petals.
Plants of the new Hybrid Tea Rose have not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary significantly with variations in environment such as temperature, light, water status and/or fertilizer type and rate, without, however, any variance in genotype.


The invention provides a method for power management for a computer system. In one embodiment, the computer system comprises a system controller, a chipset, and a battery coupled to the chipset via a system management bus. First, a timer of the chipset is used to calculate an accumulated time value. When the accumulated time value exceeds a threshold value, the chipset is directed to send a system control interrupt to the system controller. After the system controller receives the system control interrupt, the system controller is triggered to detect a power level supplied by the battery via the system management bus.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to computer systems, and more particularly to power management for computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer system, such as a handheld device or a notebook, operates according to power supplied by batteries. Because a battery has a limited amount of power, a computer system cannot operate when the power of the battery is exhausted. The computer system therefore must know a power level of the battery. When the power level of the battery is lower than a threshold value, the computer system must remind a user of the reduced power level, thus directing the user to replace the battery with a new one.
Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a conventional computer system 100 is shown. The computer system 100 comprises a system controller 102, such as CPU, a south bridge chipset 104, an embedded controller 106, a system management bus 110, a battery 108, and other device 112. The system controller 102 is a core of the computer system 100 and controls other component devices of the computer system 100. The embedded controller 106 is connected to the battery 108 and the other device 112 via the system management bus 110. The embedded controller 106 controls all devices connected to the system management bus 110 and reports a status of all devices connected to the system management bus 110 to the south bridge chipset 104. In one embodiment, the other device 112 is a fan or a keyboard.
When a power level of the battery 108 is reduced, the embedded controller 106 must reports reduction of the power level of the battery 108 to the system controller 102 via the south bridge chipset 104. Referring to FIG. 2, a flowchart of a method 200 for power management for the conventional computer system 100 is shown. The embedded controller 106 first detects whether a power level supplied by the battery 108 has decreased (step 202). If so, the embedded controller 106 triggers the south bridge chipset 104 to send a system control interrupt to the system controller 102 (step 204). In one embodiment, the embedded controller 106 enables a status bit of a general purpose register of the south bridge chipset 104, thus triggering the south bridge chipset 104 to send the system control interrupt to the system controller 102.
When the system controller 102 receives the system control interrupt corresponding to the embedded controller 106, the system controller 102 queries the embedded controller 106 about a status of the devices connected to the system management bus 110 to generate further instructions to the devices. In one embodiment, the system controller 102 executes an operating system code to check data stored in a register 120 of the embedded controller 106 (step 206). The system controller 102 then determines occurrence of an event about a power level of the battery 108 according to the data stored in the register 120 of the embedded controller 106 (step 208). The system controller 102 then executes a basic input/output system (BIOS) code to detect the power level supplied by the battery 108 (step 210). Finally, the system controller 102 executes an operating system code to update data about the power level of the battery 108 (step 212).
Although the computer system 100 timely updates data about a power level of the battery 108, the computer system 100 still has deficiencies. First, the computer system 100 has an embedded controller 106 for controlling the system management bus 110. Because the computer system 100 may be a handheld device with a small size, the embedded controller 106, which occupies a large area of a printed circuit board of the computer system 100, hinders size reduction of the computer system 100. In addition, a computer system 100 requiring the embedded controller 106 has a higher cost than one that does not require the embedded controller 106. A computer system without the aforementioned deficiencies is therefore required.

Method for power management for computer system


Substance P aerosols are effective in replenishing immune systems compromised by environmental toxicants. They are also useful for prophylaxis against and treatment of infections and neoplasms. They are useful for accelerating maturation of immune systems or maintaining immune function, as well. Chronic exposure to hydrocarbons is particularly damaging to the immune system, and thus this occupational hazard can be counteracted by treatment with substance P aerosols.

Substance P belongs to a family of bioactive neuropeptides known as the tachykinins. Payan (1989) Ann. Rev. Med. 40:341. It is believed to be involved in the neurotransmission of pain sensation as well as a host of other biological functions.
Chronic exposure to jet fuel, common among refueling crews and aircraft mechanics, causes a wide variety of symptoms. Workers in a jet motor factory, for example, reported headaches, dizziness, and "thoracic oppression" (Struwe et al., Acta Psychiat. Scand. 303(S):55-67 (1983); Dossing et al., Scand. J. Work Environ. Health 11:433-437(1985)). Inhaled and absorbed hydrocarbons or their metabolites may act on the central nervous system to produce neurasthenic syndrome in subjects exposed to jet fuel (Struwe et al, 1983, supra). Jet fuel may also have toxic effect on the liver, kidneys, and pulmonary system (Struwe et al., 1983 supra; Gaworski, et aL, (1984) in: Advances in Modern Environmental Toxicology, Vol. VI, Applied Toxicology of Petroleum Hydrocarbons (H. N. MacFarland, C. E. Holdsworth, J. A. MacGregor, R. W. Call, and M. L. Kane, eds.), Princeton Scientific Publishers, Princeton, N.J. pp. 33-47; Dossing et al., 1985, supra; Witten et al., (1990), Substance P and Related Peptides: Cellular and Molecular Physiology International Symposium, University of Massachusetts Press and the New York Academy of Science, p. 29.; Matie et al., Toxicol Pathol. 19(2):77-87 (1991)). Occupational exposure to jet fuel causes mucous membrane irritation, enhancing the clearance of antipyrine. The antipyrine test assesses microsomal enzyme activity, which can be altered by organic solvents (Dossing et al., 1985, supra).
JP-8 jet fuel is a kerosene type fuel which has become the United States military's main fuel source for aircraft as well as other types of military equipment. However, as discussed above, there are indications that jet fuel inflicts damage on those who must work with it.
Exposure to environmental toxicants may have significant effects on host systems beyond those readily visible (e.g., physiology, cardiology, respiratory, etc.) Such exposure may have profound and detrimental effects on the immune system that result in significant host impairment in terms of immune competence, susceptibility to infections, and future development of neoplasms.
Depending on the type of environmental toxicant and the route of exposure, the damage to the immune system may be minor and inconsequential, or it may be deleterious with long-lasting effects. Significant changes in immune competence, even if short-lived, may have serious consequences for the exposed host in terms of lymphopenia that may impinge upon susceptibility to infectious agents. Major alterations in immune function that are long-lasting may result in increased likelihood of development of cancer and autoimmune disease.
Viral infections, such as HIV, can also impinge upon the welfare of a person's immune system. In addition, the status of the immune system can affect a person's susceptibility to infections. Thus, there is a continuing need in the art for methods of counteracting the effects of toxic insults such as hydrocarbons to the body, especially those which affect the immune system.

Substance P treatment for immunostimulation


A reinforced paperboard box for storage and shipping of elongated items is described. The box is formed from a single piece of paperboard and may be rapidly assembled without the use of tools. The box comprises an elongated rectangular bottom panel, first and second joined side panels, a top panel, a front reinforcing panel and dividing partition all foldably joined at elongated edges and constructed to form a multi-level elongated box. The first side panel has a pair of abutting end panels foldably joined to either end, with a tab receiving panel and a locking panel foldably joined to either side of the end panel. The second side panel has a pair of end panels foldably joined to either end, that are locked in place by the locking panels and tab receiving panels of the first side panel. The dividing partition is includes at least one pair of cuts and a series of perforations enabling the dividing partition to be folded inwardly so as to divide the interior space of the box into at least two compartments. Variations of the invention include additional perforations along the dividing partition and locking panels to aid in assembly of the box. Other variations include angled cuts to the dividing partition for special shaped compartments and use of multiple cuts and related perforations in the dividing partition to form a plurality of compartments within the box.

Various types of paperboard boxes, tubes and containers have been devised to protect elongated articles during shipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,604,255, issued to Welshenbach, describes a container having a knock-down body made from a one-piece blank of material such as paperboard. The container has end walls stiffened by flaps projecting into the container and serving as partitions to separate the contents of the container. U.S. Pat. No. 1,623,547, issued to Neumann, discloses an elongated, trapezoidal box for shipping and display of golf clubs, formed from a single blank of paperboard material. U.S. Pat. No. 2,253,008, issued to Anderson, describes a display box for golf clubs that may also be used for shipping. The box includes slotted divider panels to prevent the clubs from contacting one another during shipping. Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,740, issued to Anderson, illustrates another golf club box having a slotted cross bar construction disposed between the spaced apart sides of the box designed to receive the shanks of golf clubs and keep them from damaging each other in shipping. A separate cover is provided for the box.
An effective design for a shipping container for such items must necessarily be a compromise of various factors. It is an objective of the present invention that the container provide the required degree of protection from the forces encountered in transferring the container from one destination to another by means of automated package handling systems, trucks, automobiles and aircraft. In particular, the container should provide protection from bending moments applied to the length of the container. It is another objective of the invention that dividers be provided to segregate the contents of the container to prevent damage to individual items stored within the container. It is a further objective that the container be light in weight to prevent excessive shipping costs. It is yet a further objective of the invention that the container is economical to produce and simple to assemble. It is a still further objective that the container provide a simple and effective means of being sealed and later opened.
While features disclosed in the prior art satisfy some of the objectives of the present invention, none of the inventions found include all of the requirements identified.

Reinforced paperboard box for storage and shipping of elongated items


A scanning range sensor includes an outer cover having a transparent window that is horizontally annular, a vertical type cylindrical rotary member inside the outer cover, a light receiving window with an optical lens of the cylindrical rotary member, a light projector between the outer cover and the cylindrical rotary member, an optical system for leading light from the light projector along the direction of the rotational axis of the cylindrical rotary member by the mirrors on the inner surface of the cylindrical rotary member, a photodetector that within the interior of the cylindrical rotary member is fixed and arranged separately from the cylindrical rotary member so as to coincide with the rotational axis of the cylindrical rotary member and is connected to a distance computation circuit, and a reflecting mirror and scanning mirror along the rotational axis of the cylindrical rotary member.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to so-called scanning range sensors, which use a rotating or vibrating mirror or an equivalent to scan an object with a light beam within a predetermined angle range, and which receive light reflected by the object
2. Description of the Related Art
There are two different configurations, as shown respectively in FIGS. 5 and 6, known as a scanning range sensor that uses a rotating mirror for deflecting the axis of an optical beam over a full, 360-degree range of angles. Both configurations have a mirror whose optical axis coincides with the axis of a motor for rotating the mirror.
The configuration shown in FIG. 5 uses a motor 52 having rotary shafts 51a and 51b that constitute a common shaft and extend upward and downward, respectively. A scanning mirror 53 and a reflecting mirror 54 are attached to respective shafts 51a and 51b so as to have identical phase. At numeral 55 in FIG. 5 is a light transmitter, at numeral 56 is a photodetector, at numerals 57 and 58 are lenses, and at numeral 63 is a light exit/entrance window 63. There are two advantages to this configuration. One is that there is little diffraction of light from the scanning optics to the receiving optics, because the scanning optics and the receiving optics are completely separate from each other. Another advantage is that the photosensitivity of the sensor can be raised because there is no possibility of stray light being reflected by the inner surface of, or by dust particles on, the exit/entrance window 63 and then entering the photodetector 56.
The sensor section of the scanning range sensor configuration shown in FIG. 6 has a motor 52 with a rotary shaft 51c protruding upward and a light scanning/reflecting mirror 59 that is attached to the rotary shaft 51c. Light from the light transmitter 55 passes through a lens 60, is reflected downward by a half-silvered mirror 61, and enters the scanning/reflecting mirror 59. This reflected light is reflected by the scanning/reflecting mirror 59, passes through the half-silvered mirror 61, passes through a lens 62, and enters the photodetector 56. There are two advantages to this configuration. One is that there is no blind spot for an object even at a close distance from the sensor because one mirror 59 is used in common for both the scanning and the reflecting mirror. Another advantage is that when the sensor is installed in a device such as a robot, a high flexibility in installation can be obtained, for the reason just given.
However, there are some drawbacks to the configuration shown in FIG. 5.
First, since the motor 52 is positioned between the scanning mirror 53 and the reflecting mirror 54, the distance between the optical axes of the scanning optics and the receiving optics is large. Therefore, if a target object is positioned within close range, light reflected from the object does not enter the photodetector 56, resulting in the occurrence of a blind spot.
Secondly, the fact that the scanning and receiving optics are situated respectively above and below the motor renders the sensor as a unit elongate vertically. Meanwhile, the center of the two optical systems is coincident with the center of the sensor. Therefore, when installing the vertically elongate sensor in a device, its center must be the optical axis. This limits the degrees of freedom for installation in a device. In particular, if the sensor is to be installed in a low-profile device, a drawback is that the outward-extending portions are large.
In addition, there are a few drawbacks to the configuration shown in FIG. 6.
First, the half-silvered mirror 61 is employed to make the optical axes of the scanning optics and the receiving optics identical to each other. However, the amount of light is reduced by half after being separated by the half-silvered mirror 61. Therefore, the power of the laser in the light transmitter 55, and the amplifying capability of the photodetector 56 must be enhanced by four times in total compared with an implementation in which the scanning optics and the receiving optics are separated as shown in FIG. 5.
Secondly, the fact that the single scanning/reflecting mirror 59 is used means that the scanning beam may be reflected by the inner surface of, or by dust particles on, the light exit/entrance window 63, in which case the stray reflected light can enter the photodetector 56 after being transmitted by the scanning/reflecting mirror 59 and passing through the half-silvered mirror 61. If the photodetector 56 is of enhanced photosensitivity, the stray reflected light may generate noise that becomes added to image information. Consequently, the photosensitivity cannot be heightened without compensating for it.


Systems and methods are provided for co-processing of biomass oil with mineral coker feeds in a coking environment. The coking can correspond to any convenient type of coking, such as delayed coking or fluidized coking. The biomass oil can correspond to biomass oil with a molar ratio of oxygen to carbon of 0.24 or less on a dry basis. Such types of biomass oil can be formed from pyrolysis methods such as hydrothermal pyrolysis, and are in contrast to biomass oils formed from pyrolysis methods such as fast pyrolysis. By using a biomass oil with a molar ratio of oxygen to carbon of 0.24 or less, improved yields of light coker gas oil can be achieved in conjunction with a reduction in the yield of heavy coker gas oil.

Lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable, abundantly available, and low-cost resource that is potentially a sustainable feedstock for production of biofuels. One option for production of biofuels is to first pyrolyze the lignocellulosic biomass to form pyrolysis oil, and then use additional processing to form fuel products and/or fuel blending products. Unfortunately, pyrolysis oils can include both substantial amounts of water and a variety of contaminants, such as metals. The presence of water and contaminants can adversely impact any refinery processes that are used for conversion of the pyrolysis oil into fuels. While additional upgrading steps can be used to improve the pyrolysis oil (such as stages for water removal and metals removal) prior to introducing the pyrolysis oil into existing refinery processes, such additional upgrading steps can add substantial additional cost. Thus, it would be desirable to have systems and methods for effectively processing pyrolysis oils while reducing or minimizing both additional dedicated processing stages and reducing or minimizing the impact on existing refinery processes.
Coking processes are commonly used in refineries as a method for converting feedstocks, without requiring additional hydrogen, to produce lower boiling fractions suitable for use as fuels. Various types of coking configurations can be used, including delayed coking and fluidized coking. Typical feedstocks can correspond to vacuum resid fractions and/or other fractions that would require substantial quantities of hydrogen to upgrade using conventional hydroprocessing methods. Coking can generate naphtha and distillate boiling range products from such vacuum resid fractions without requiring the addition of hydrogen to the reaction environment. However, coking processes can also convert substantial portions of a feed into coke. This is a constraint on the potential yield of products from coking.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,603,325 describes methods for co-processing of pyrolysis oil in a coking environment. The methods include co-processing the pyrolysis oil with a vacuum resid feed in a delayed coking or fluidized coking environment. Pyrolysis oil derived from a fast pyrolysis process is described as a preferred type of pyrolysis oil based on the higher pyrolysis oil yields from a fast pyrolysis process.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2010/0024283 describes co-processing of various types of raw biomass and vegetable oils in a delayed coking environment.

ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company


A filter device for filtering a fluid, in particular for filtering the air flowing into the passenger compartment of a vehicle. The filter element (10; 60) including filter material (12; 62) with a border (14; 64) and a filter element frame (20; 70) connected with the filter material (12; 62) and extending at least partly along the border (14; 64), the filter element frame (20; 70) being provided with a projecting resilient sealing lip (24; 74) for abutting a device (42, 44, 48) receiving the filter element (10; 60), the sealing lip (24; 74) having at least one bending section (26) of a first thickness (30) facing the filter element frame (20; 70) and at least one enlarged section (28) adjoining the at least one bending section (26) and facing away from the filter material (12; 62), at least a part (40) of the enlarged section being of a second thickness (32) greater than the first thickness (30) in the at least one bending section (26).

Filter devices for filtering a fluid, in particular the air flowing into the passenger compartment of a vehicle, are known in a great number of designs. Generally, the filter device includes a filter element provided with a filter material limited by a border with which a filter element frame is connected. The filter element frame extends at least partly along the border of the filter material. Feasibly, the filter material (in particular a filter paper or a nonwoven filter material) is pleated in zigzag shape so as to increase the filter surface exposed to the fluid flow. In most cases, the filter element frame is disposed extending around the periphery of the filter material; however, with a filter material pleated in zigzag shape it sometimes suffices to make the filter frame extend only along the pleated lateral edges of the filter material. For example, such filter elements are inserted into the fluid inlet opening of a device through which filtered fluid will flow subsequently. In order to prevent fluid flow between the filter element and the edge delimiting the inlet opening of the device, a sealing profile is applied in this area, the profile being a strip generally made of an elastic material, e.g., rubber or foamed material. With a view to the manufacture of the filter element, it is feasible to provide this sealing profile integrally with the filter element.
From German Patent 34 39 255, a filter element is known that has a pleated filter material surrounded by a peripherally extending filter element frame of cardboard material. This filter element frame comprises protruding tongues bent towards the outer side of the filter element frame facing away from the filter material. These cardboard tongues projecting under an acute angle serve as sealing lips resiliently abutting, from inside, the edge of an inlet opening receiving the filter element.
From German Patent 24 29 474, a filter element is known wherein the filter element frame surrounding the filter material is made of a plastics material and has a sealing lip integrally formed thereto which comprises a bending section adjoining the filter element frame and an end portion adjoining the bending section. With a filter element inserted into a filter housing or the like device, the sealing lip is bent in the region of its bending section, whereas it abuts the filter housing in the region of its end portion.
European Patent 0 620 133, European Patent 0 639 474 and Japanese Patent 59-85472 disclose filter elements, wherein the filter element frame enclosing the filter element is provided with an added separate elastic sealing strip.
Finally, European Patent 0 380 026 describes a filter element, wherein a flat filter in the shape of a filter material web is inserted laterally into slots provided in a housing receiving the filter element. The sealing between the filter element and the receiving housing is achieved in particular by the labyrinth-like design of the area between the edges of the filter element and the slots in the receiving housing, which causes a multiple deflection of the fluid flow, thereby resulting in a sealing effect.
For reasons of cost, manufacturers are intent on providing the filter element as a plastic part. Most of the plastic materials used today that can be produced and processed at low cost, however, have a comparatively great thermal expansion factor and manufacture-related deviations in measurements, which is why in particular large sized filter elements must be insertable into the receiving housings with a corresponding play. In order to achieve a sufficient sealing between the filter frame and the receiving housing under the temperature conditions to be expected, the sealing strips has to be formed accordingly. For reasons of manufacturing techniques, the filter elements should be provided with integral sealing lips projecting from their filter element frame, whereby the sealing lips should have thickness so as to always abut the receiving housing. To maintain the elasticity of the sealing lips when the filter element is inserted into the receiving housing, they must not be bent beyond their yielding point in the bending section. With sealing lips of plastic material this means that the sealing lips have to be relatively thin. Yet, this is disadvantageous in the manufacturing process, since the injection mold cavities used in making the plastic filter element frame create a comparatively strong (flow) resistance in the area of the thin sealing lip. This requires increased material pressures and causes greater loads on the injection mold and the molded part, in particular when viscose materials such as polypropylene are used, which has proved advantageous as a material for filter devices of the type referred to above.
It is the object of the invention to provide a filter device that can be produced at low cost and which provides for a reliable sealing of the filter element frame in the housing receiving the same.


A non-application specific file attribute manager (101) receives (201) a plurality of files (103) in a plurality of formats. The file attribute manager (101) scans (203) the plurality of received files (103), and gleans (205) attributes concerning each of the plurality of scanned files (103). The file attribute manager (101) stores (207) gleaned attributes concerning each of the scanned files (103) as records (105) in a database (107). The file attribute manager (101) indexes (209) the records (105) according to the contents of their associated files (103).

It is useful for computers connected to networks to scan incoming files and store associated file attributes. An attribute concerning a file can comprise any piece of information relevant to that file, such as its source, name, size or type. Stored file attributes can be useful both to the computer user and to various application programs. The user may want a record detailing files that were transmitted to a computer or that entered the computer's file system from external sources. Such information can also be utilized by various automated processes, such as a malicious computer code blocking system.
Computers connected to networks are vulnerable to network based malicious computer code attacks, such as worms, viruses and Trojan horses. As used herein, "malicious computer code" is any code that enters a computer without an authorized user's knowledge and/or without an authorized user's consent. Various blocking systems exist which attempt to block incoming malicious computer code. Information concerning past and present incoming files can be used by such systems to determine which files to block.
Some existing systems scan incoming files, and determine and store the name of the originating application (e.g., outlook.exe, iexplore.exe). However, such systems have no knowledge of the various file formats generated by different applications, and are unable to obtain further information about the files (e.g., the URL visited, an attachments sender's address).
What is needed are methods, computer readable media and systems that can glean and store file attributes concerning incoming files in a variety of formats, regardless of which applications generated the files.

Source independent file attribute tracking


A torque detecting apparatus detects torque applied upon a torsion bar of an electric power steering apparatus, as two sensors, which have ratiometric characteristics and have the same characteristics, simultaneously detect the amount of torsion of the torsion bar. With a gain of one of the two sensors set to the positive polarity and a gain of the other sensor set to the negative polarity, a control circuit calculates the torque applied upon the torsion bar by multiplying a difference between detection outputs from the two sensors by a predetermined coefficient. A torque detecting apparatus which is capable of detecting the torsional angle of a rotation shaft, namely, torque applied upon the rotation shaft easily and accurately using two sensors is thus realized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a torque detecting apparatus which detects an amount of torsion of a shaft using a sensor and detects the torque applied upon the shaft.
2. Description of Related Art
An ordinary automobile comprises a power steering apparatus to make it possible for a driver to reduce the operation power applied upon a steering wheel and make it easy for the driver to drive his automobile while he operates the steering wheel, that is, during steering, and in recent years, an ordinary automobile often comprises an electricity-powered steering apparatus (electric power steering apparatus). An electric power steering apparatus is structured such that as the torque generating in response to rotations of a steering wheel is detected, a driver's steering intention such as the steering direction and the steering amount is determined, and based on this result, a steering assisting electric motor is turned ON/OFF and the rotation force while this motor is ON is adjusted.
By the way, the torque which generates as a driver rotates a steering wheel is detected usually as the amount of torsion of a torsion bar which connects two halves of a steering shaft along the longitudinal direction of the steering shaft which rotates as the steering wheel rotates. Various types of sensors are usable to detect the amount of torsion of such a torsion bar and a Hall-effect sensor is one of them.
A magnet is fixed to an object whose amount of torsion is to be detected, namely, a movable object and a Hall-effect sensor is usually disposed at a fixed position. From a voltage outputted from the Hall-effect sensor in accordance with the positions of the Hall-effect sensor and the magnet relative to each other when a reference voltage is applied upon the Hall-effect sensor, the relationship between the positions of the Hall-effect sensor and the magnet is detected.
Since a characteristic of a Hall-effect sensor is that its gain, midpoint or the like varies depending upon a change of a power source voltage, even when the result of detection is the same, a change of the power source voltage changes an output voltage. Due to this, it has been difficult to use a Hall-effect sensor as a torque sensor for an electric power steering apparatus.
A conventional electric power steering apparatus is equipped with the so-called failsafe function of detecting with two sensors whose characteristics are identical substantially at the same time for detection of the amount of torsion of a torsion bar, determining that some abnormality has occurred when the two sensors have detected differently and prohibiting steering assisting by the power steering apparatus.
As such a failsafe function of an electric power steering apparatus which uses torque sensors to handle abnormality, there are known techniques such as those described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-53748 (1992), Japanese Patent No. 3094483 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 8-18564 (1996). These will now be described specifically.
Assuming that the actual value of the power source voltage Vcc which is supplied in common to the two sensors, the output voltage from the first sensor is VT1 and that from the second is VT2. In this case, the output voltages VT1 and VT2 from the two sensors are expressed by equations (1) and (2) below:VT1=(a×θ+(Vcc/2))×(Vcc/Vref)  (1)VT2=(−a×θ+(Vcc/2))×(Vcc/Vref)  (2)
Where, θ: amount of torsion of the torsion bar                a: constant (gain)        Vref: reference voltage (e.g., 5 V) for the sensors        Vcc/Vref: ratiometric constant of the sensors VT1=−VT2 should hold from the equations (1) and (2) in principle and particularly when the torsional angle θ of the torsion bar is zero, VT1=VT2 and it then follows that the output characteristics of the two sensors are cross-characteristics.
In light of this, sensor clump voltages common to the two sensors are determined as follows.
VclumpH: sensor output upper limit voltage
VclumpL: sensor output lower limit voltage
Hence, it is judged there is something wrong with the first sensor when VT1<<VclumpL or VT1>>VclumpH, whereas when VT2<<VclumpL or VT2>>VclumpH, it is judged there is something wrong with the second sensor.
It is also possible to judge in the manner below whether the voltages fed to the sensors from the power source are abnormal. That is, an equation (3) holds true from the above equations (1) and (2).VT1+VT2=(Vcc2/Vref)  (3)
Assuming that Vcc, namely the power source voltage is a constant value, since Vref is a constant, "VT1+VT2" should also be a constant value. However, "VT1+VT2" may not yield a constant value, as the detection accuracies of individual sensors are slightly different from each other. Hence, an upper limit value (Vmax) and a lower limit value (Vmin) which are obtained by slightly widening "Vcc2/Vref" are set as threshold values, and it is decided that (the absolute values of) the output voltages from the two sensors are about the same as long as "VT1+VT2" stays within a range which satisfies an equation below. In short, when the equation below is not met, it is judged that there is a major error in the output from any one of the sensors (and in some cases, in the outputs from the both sensors):Vmin<VT1+VT2<Vmax
Where it is assumed that Vcc=Vref, i.e., when the actual power source voltage is equal to the reference voltage for the sensors, VT1+VT2=Vcc. In other words, the total of the outputs from the both sensors becomes equal to the power source voltage. Hence, monitoring of the value (voltage value) VT1+VT2 realizes whether the power source voltage is abnormal.
Each of the structures according to the conventional techniques mentioned earlier is that as for the sensor outputs, one of the two sensors is used as a main sensor, the above mentioned abnormality detection is executed, and when it is judged that there is nothing abnormal about the output voltages from the both sensors or the power source voltage, the output voltage from the main sensor is used as the sensor output. Hence, the power source voltage could vary to such an extent which can not be regarded abnormal, which may be inevitable in the case of abnormality occurring in the sensors themselves. However, according to the conventional techniques mentioned earlier, even a change of the power source voltage to such an extent which can not be regarded abnormal will be judged as an abnormal power source voltage and will operate the failsafe function.


There is provided in the present disclosure a shift register unit, including: an input sub-circuit, whose first terminal is coupled to an input signal terminal, and second terminal is coupled to a pull-up node; an output sub-circuit, whose first terminal is coupled to the pull-up node, second terminal is coupled to a clock signal terminal, and third terminal is coupled to an output terminal, and configured to output a clock signal of the clock signal terminal to the output terminal under the control of a level signal of the pull-up node; a first electro-static discharge sub-circuit, whose first terminal is coupled to the pull-up node, second terminal is coupled to an electro-static discharge control terminal, and third terminal is coupled to a ground, and configured to discharge static electricity accumulated at the pull-up node under the control of a level signal of the electro-static discharge control terminal.

As for a liquid crystal display (LCD) product, in its manufacturing and using process, prevention of static electricity is a very important work. Current gate driving circuit product performs static electricity prevention for signal lines in the product through an electro-static discharge (ESD) unit. However, in the manufacturing and using process of the product, there may also be a certain amount of charge accumulation inside the shift register unit (for example, at nodes PU and PD as described below). Charge accumulation over a long period of time would make thin film transistors in the shift register unit under a stress state, thereby resulting in that offset occurs to electrical characteristics of the thin film transistors, such that undesirable phenomena are caused.

Shift register unit, gate driving circuit, display apparatus and control method

Hefei Xinsheng Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.