A method for partitioning a memory mass storage device is disclosed. The partition task is performed by the controller within the memory mass storage device. Firstly, the controller partitions the logical space of the memory storage device into multiple areas, each area belonging to a particular drive. Secondly, the controller partitions the logical space of the memory storage device into a public area and a security area, both areas belonging to the same drive. Finally, the controller partitions the logical space of the memory storage device into multiple areas, which include public areas and security areas and belong to multiple drives.

Although hard disk drives are widely used in current computer system, there are still a variety of deficiencies for the rotating-type magnetic mass storage devices, such as deficiencies of an inherent latency during accessing the hard disk drives, high power consumption, being unable to withstand the physical shock, and having a large weight for portable computer devices.
A non-volatile memory mass storage device, like a flash memory disk drive, is a nice choice for replacing a hard disk. Each memory mass storage device always comprises two portions; one is a controller part, and the other is a memory module. The semiconductor technology allows such a memory storage device to withstand many of the kinds of physical shock and reduce power consumption or weight. These flash memory storage devices are also widely used and accepted for all the current computer devices, like desktop personal computer (PC), laptop, personal digital assistant (PDA), digital camera, and soon.
Each of current mass storage devices, no matter hard disk drives or memory storage devices, is always configured as a mass storage drive by the host. This drive could be partitioned into a plurality of "logical" drives by the host. For example, the host just executes a "partition program" and then the partition information is written into the drive. When next time power-on, such a drive partitioned by the host will be recognized as multiple "logical" drives.
From the host point of view, a drive is composed of a plurality of logical blocks, and the partition information is generally located on the first block, logical block address 0(LBA 0). If the first block is defective or infected by the computer virus, all of the logical drives indicated by the partition information may not be detected by the host. It is a risk for a drive partitioned into multiple logical drives by the host.
Furthermore, because the host can freely access all the data, some important files, like system files, may be deleted by careless end users. For another aspect of this case, the right of data access is too open to meet the private or security requirements. It is another risk or inconvenience.

Method for partitioning memory mass storage device


A stereoscopic image display device includes a display including a plurality of pixels and displaying an image according to image data generated by processing an input video signal, and a controller for controlling the processing of an input video signal. The controller includes an image change gap setter for setting a first image change gap by using a user's reference input value, a calculation and correction unit for calculating an actual distance of the user who views a display image based on the user's observation position coordinate data, correcting the first image change gap corresponding to the actual distance, and calculating a second image change gap, and an image mode selector for selecting an image mode realized by the display, determining the user's position point with reference to the second image change gap, and generating image data for respective image modes.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments relate to a stereoscopic image display device and a method for displaying a stereoscopic image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, multimedia services for digital terminals that allow users to view and hear by using a high-speed system of information configured by using a super-highway information network have been developed to hyperspace 3-dimensional (3D) info-communication services through which the users watch, feel, and enjoy realistically and stereoscopically beyond time and space.
In general, a stereoscopic image for expressing three dimensions is formed according to a stereo vision principle through two eyes in which the left eye and the right eye of a user respectively receive slightly different images because of a difference of positions of the eyes that occur due to the gap between the eyes of about 65 mm. The difference of images caused by the difference of the positions of the eyes is called a binocular disparity. A 3D stereoscopic image display device allows the left eye to watch the image provided for the left eye and the right eye to watch the image provided for the right eye by using the binocular disparity. That is, left and right eyes watch different 2D images, and when the two images are transferred to the brain through the retina, the brain reproduces depth perception and reality of an original 3D image by accurately fusing the two images.
Methods for driving stereoscopic images are divided into an autostereoscopic method and a stereoscopic method depending on hardware. To display images of two channels on one screen, the stereoscopic image display device outputs images for each channel by alternately changing the lines in the horizontal or vertical direction.
The autostereoscopic method controls the right-eye images to be transmitted to the right eye and the left-eye images to be transmitted to the left eye to thus display the stereoscopic images. The stereoscopic method controls the right-eye images so that the left eye may not watch them and controls the left-eye images so that the right eye may not watch them through special glasses, thereby expressing the stereoscopic images.
However, it is not easy for the stereoscopic image display device to realize stereoscopic images that are uniform and stable irrespective of the user's position. When the stereoscopic image display device is driven by the autostereoscopic method, a method for tracking the user position, shifting a liquid crystal electric field lens, and viewing the stereoscopic image regardless of the position has been developed. The method has a merit of increasing an area for the user to view the stereoscopic image in the autostereoscopic method, but it has a limit of expressing two-viewpoint images at any place.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Stereoscopic image display device and displaying method thereof


The present invention relates to methods and arrangements for improving the capabilities of an evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network, in particular for cases when more than one radio access network applying a time-division duplex transmission mode need to co-exist on a same carrier. The invention addresses further problems concerning an efficient allocation of uplink resources and resource allocation in a handover situation. The present invention assigns an attribute in form of a distinguishing value to the time slots used for the uplink and downlink transmission on said carrier such as to avoid scheduling of transmissions via a first radio access network in downlink or uplink time slots assigned to the second radio access network and to avoid scheduling of transmissions via the second radio access network in uplink time slots assigned for transmissions in the first radio access network.

The development of E-UTRAN shall ensure competitiveness of future mobile communication systems in a long-term perspective, i.e. 10 years and beyond. The overall target is to further reduce operator and end-user costs and to improve service provisioning. Possible ways of reaching this target are to study ways to achieve reduced latency, to achieve higher user data rates, and improve the system capacity and coverage. One of the main novelties introduced for E-UTRAN in order to achieve these targets is the introduction of a new physical layer. This new physical layer applies Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) for the downlink and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) for the uplink. These choices were made, e.g., to achieve greater spectrum flexibility and enabling deployment in various spectrum allocations; to achieve the possibility of frequency domain adaptation and enabling higher spectrum efficiency; to achieve enhanced efficiency for broadcast services in the downlink due to the inherent macro-diversity combining properties of OFDM; and to achieve reduced receiver complexity, especially at high bandwidths and in conjunction with MIMO.
An evolved UTRAN can apply either a frequency-division duplex (FDD) transmission mode or a time-division duplex (TDD) transmission mode. When applying the time-division transmission mode, the evolved UTRAN uses the same frequency band for both uplink and downlink communication. Thus, some time slots are reserved for the uplink while others are reserved for the downlink. This is typically configured by the network. One time slot is assigned mandatory for the downlink, e.g. the first time slot in a radio frame. By reading control information in this time slot, the UE then knows the configuration of the other time slots, uplink or downlink.

Resource allocation for co-existing networks


A database network system is capable of recognizing in a short time (within several minutes) the state of damage or the like of city lifelines (waterworks, electricity, and gas supplies) over a whole city. A database network system according to the present invention includes a center station, relay database stations (RDSs), and terminal stations. A terminal station group includes a plurality of terminal stations for acquiring changing information to accumulate the information as data and for transmitting the data as requested. Each of the plurality of relay database stations (RDSs) is arranged for the terminal station group, and accumulates pieces of information sequentially received from the terminals as specific data and other data and transmits the data as requested. The center station sequentially receives parts of the specific data and other data of an arbitrary one of the relay database stations (RDSs) from the corresponding relay database station, performs a receiving operation of all the data and the specific information data a plurality of times by performing the receiving operation a plurality of times, and accumulates the data as needed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a city lifeline information collection system capable of collecting information related to lifeline services such as gas supplies, waterworks, and electricity, in particular, for rapidly collecting data (specific data) related to a state of emergency.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,233, U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,706, U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,842, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,422 are related to a lifeline information collecting system, an emergency information collection, or emergency information offering system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,233 discloses an emergency information offering system. An object of the invention is to attain proper information collecting and offering functions by combining information infrastructures and public infrastructures upon emergencies involving lifeline facilities.
Problems caused when conventional communication equipment is used will be described below in the case where a telephone network is used.
A collection system using a telephone network is used in practice to collect general pieces of lifeline information relating to houses; for example the state of gas supplies, waterworks, and electricity, or the state in which undesirable conditions occur, however, the information collection system using the telephone line is not effective when communications are congested during a disaster. In addition, when pieces of information of 100 bytes per terminal, including information on gas supplies, waterworks, and electricity, are to be collected for 200,000 terminals or more, the number of hours required when the telephone network is used is determined by 30 secondsxc3x97200,000 terminals=1,667 hours. Therefore, a continuous monitoring system cannot be easily realized by using a telephone network.
The problems to be solved by the present invention are as follows.
1. An information collection/monitoring system for recognizing in a short time (within several minutes) the state of damage of city lifelines (waterworks, electricity, and gas supplies) caused by a large earthquake over the whole city has not been developed in Japan or other countries. The development of such a system is considered as a problem which must be quickly solved for a countermeasure against disasters.
2. The present invention develops a system which recognizes information on water meters, electricity meters, and gas meters installed in houses and collects/monitors this information over the whole city in real time, so as to solve the above problem.
3. Since this system is an information collection system used during emergencies, delay and interruption of information collection caused by congestion of communications cannot be permitted. The problem of congestion cannot be solved by using a conventional communication system, and should be solved by developing a dedicated information collection system.
4. Since a dedicated system requires its functions and performances to be regulated, it is a technical problem to develop a system appropriate to the object.
5. It has been a difficult technical problem to develop an information collection system which continuously monitors lifelines of the whole city and has a function of collecting emergency information in a short time, while at the same time collecting detailed lifeline information.
6. This technical problem is solved by a new network configuration technique, i.e., a database network, obtained by combining high-speed databases distributed in a multi-layer radio polling system. When a disaster occurs, in order to recognize the state of the disaster, it is required to recognize the states of the lifelines of all houses within several minutes. In addition, in a disaster, communications are congested by events occurring at the same time. Therefore, assurance of communications is required evenduring disasters.
7. When a disaster occurs, in order to recognize the state of the disaster, the condition of the system up to the occurrence of the disaster must be recognized, and it must be recognized that the system is operating normally.
It is a main object of the present invention to provide a new database network system which is different from a conventional communication system.
It is another object of the present invention to constitute an information collection/monitoring system for recognizing in a short time (within several minutes) the state of damage of city lifelines (waterworks, electricity, and gas supplies) caused by a large earthquake over a whole city by using the database network system.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a database network system, according to the above objects, which can recognize a state of the lifelines immediately before the damage caused by the large earthquake.
To this end, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a database network system for collecting information comprising a terminal station group constituted by a plurality of terminal stations for acquiring changing information, to accumulate the information as data, and to transmit the data in accordance with a request, a plurality of relay database stations, each arranged for the terminal station group, for accumulating pieces of information sequentially received from the terminals as specific data and other data, and for transmitting the data in accordance with a request, and a center station for sequentially receiving parts of the specific data and the other data of an arbitrary one of the relay database stations from the corresponding relay database station, for performing a receiving operation of all the data and the specific information data a plurality of times by performing the receiving operation a plurality of times, and for accumulating all the data and the specific information data as needed.
The plurality of relay database stations includes at least one upper-layer relay database station group and a plurality of lower-layer relay database station groups arranged for one of the upper-layer relay database stations, the stations of the lower-layer relay database station group collect information of the terminal station group constituted by the plurality of terminal stations, and the center station collects information from the upper-layer relay database station.
The changing information is city lifeline information of gas supplies, electricity, waterworks, and the like, and the terminal stations are living unit terminals of houses and the like.
Specific information is extracted from changing house terminal information depending on a degree of emergency, at least two types of information including the original house terminal information:are generated, and the at least two types of information are collected in the center station for a collection time which changes depending on the degree of emergency.
The database network system is continuously operated, and a main database of the center station is designed to always hold the history of the operation by accumulating specific information data and the other data for a predetermined period of time.
As a combination of the pieces of changing information, one combination of data for reading meter values included in one of lifeline data of meters, data for collecting/monitoring information related to various maintenance jobs, and information data related to security, care of elderly people, water pressures of fire hydrants, and monitors of air-conditioners can be employed.


The invention relates to a grouping of cylinders in a drying section of a paper machine, in which drying section a paper web and a wire are carried meandering from a first heated drying cylinder onto a leading cylinder and from the leading cylinder further onto the next heated drying cylinder. A drying group consists of a number of subsequent groupings of cylinders, whereby, in each grouping of cylinders, the drying cylinders and the leading cylinders are placed, in relation to one another, substantially at three different height levels, so that the drying cylinders with larger diameter are placed at a height level Y.sub.1 and the drying cylinders that have a diameter smaller than said larger diameter are placed at a height level Y.sub.2. In the groupings of cylinder the leading cylinders are placed at a third height level Y.sub.3.

The invention concerns a grouping of the cylinders in the drying section of a paper machine.
In prior art constructions of drying sections in paper machines, the drying section consists of drying groups. Each drying group comprises heated drying cylinders and cold leading cylinders placed in different levels. The paper web, supported by the wire, is passed in a meandering fashion from a drying cylinder onto a leading cylinder and further from the leading cylinder onto the next drying cylinder. The drying cylinders are placed in the same level in relation to one another and in a level different from the level of the leading cylinders.
In prior art constructions of drying sections, the overall length of the drying section is remarkably long. However, the overall length of the drying section affects the requirement of the building area of the paper mill. If it is possible to reduce the length of the drying section, it is also possible to lower the building cost required by the paper machine in the same proportion.

Grouping of cylinders in the drying section of a paper machine


A toroidal-type continuously variable transmission, has a first continuously variable transmission mechanism and a second continuously variable transmission mechanism: wherein the first and second continuously variable transmission mechanisms are disposed coaxially with each other; the first and second input disks are connected together so as to be rotated in synchronization with each other; the first and second output disks are formed as a unified type output disk including traction surfaces on the two side surfaces thereof; on the side portion at the outer-most outside diameter of the unified type output disk, there is formed a datum plane serving as a machining datum when the traction surfaces are processed; and, an operation for finishing the datum plane is carried out after the unified type output disk is heat treated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toroidal-type continuously variable transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a toroidal-type continuously variable transmission, there is known an apparatus structured such that first and second continuously variable transmission mechanisms are disposed coaxially with each other: specifically, the first continuously variable transmission mechanism comprises a first input disk, a first output disk disposed so as to be opposed to the first input disk and a pair of power rollers respectively held between the first input and output disks; the second continuously variable transmission mechanism comprises a second input disk, a second output disk disposed so as to be opposed to the second input disk and a pair of power rollers respectively held between the second input and output disks; the first and second continuously variable transmission mechanisms are disposed such that the first and second input disks are disposed so as to be opposed to each other in the axial direction thereof; the first and second input disks are connected together so as to be rotated in synchronization with each other; and, the first and second output disks can be rotated integrally with each other.
By the way, for example, in JP-A-2000-104804 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,372, there is disclosed an apparatus in which the above-mentioned first and second output disks are structured as a unified type output disk including on the two sides thereof traction surfaces to be contacted with the above-mentioned pair of first power rollers and the above-mentioned pair of second power rollers.
However, the unified type output disk cannot be processed with high precision and, especially, the traction surfaces of the unified type output disk are difficult to work.
That is, when working the traction surfaces, there are necessary surfaces which can be used as machining datum. One of them is a datum surface which can be used to restrict the whirling of the unified type output disk in the rotation direction thereof; and as this datum surface, there is used a portion of the outside diameter portion of the unified type output disk. As the other datum surface, there is necessary a datum plane which is used to fix the unified output disk in the axial direction thereof. However, in the case of the unified type output disk disclosed in either of the above-cited JP-A-2000-104804 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,372, the plane of the near-to-inside diameter portion of the unified type output disk must be used as the machining datum surface; and, therefore, when working the traction surfaces, the whirling of the outside diameter portion of the unified type output disk increases, with the result that, when grinding or superfinishing the disk, the traction surfaces cannot be ground with high precision. Such poor surface precision of the traction surfaces not only can lower the power transmission efficiency of the unified type output disk but also can make the gear change operation thereof unstable.

Toroidal-type continuously variable transmission


A process for producing a radiation-sensitive resin composition includes the steps of providing a filter apparatus equipped with a filter composed of a polyamide resin filter and a polyethylene resin filter connected in series, circulating a precursor composition for the radiation-sensitive resin composition in the filter apparatus so that the precursor composition is passed through the filter two or more times to thereby effect filtration with the result that foreign matter is removed from the precursor composition.

In the field of microfabrication represented by fabrication of integrated circuit devices, the design rules have become more and more minute in order to achieve higher integration. Development of a lithographic process enabling microfabrication in a stable manner has been actively pursued.
In order to satisfy such a demand, various radiation-sensitive resin compositions for chemically amplified resists have been developed. In such a lithographic process, foreign matter in the radiation-sensitive resin composition which could have been disregarded in the past is now found to cause development defects and reduce the yield of semiconductor devices as an increased demand for miniaturization has been raised.
In order to overcome this problem, filtering methods to remove foreign matter in radiation-sensitive resin compositions have been proposed (for example, Patent Documents 1 to 4).    [Patent Document 1] JP-A-2002-311600    [Patent Document 2] JP-A-2002-311601    [Patent Document 3] JP-A-2004-53887    [Patent Document 4] JP-A-2004-195427

Process for producing radiation-sensitive resin composition


An output buffer circuit is provided that outputs an input signal output from a circuit operating at a first power supply voltage to another circuit operating at a second power supply voltage higher than the first power supply voltage. The output buffer circuit includes an output driver circuit including a pull-up transistor and a pull-down transistor connected between the second power supply voltage and a reference voltage. A first driving circuit outputs a first control signal to control the pull-down transistor. A second driving circuit includes a latch circuit to latch signals and outputs a second control signal to control the pull-up transistor based on retained data in that latch circuit. A level shifter changes the retained data in the latch circuit when logic of the input signal changes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an output buffer circuit, and in particular, to a high voltage output buffer circuit that is connected between a low-breakdown-voltage circuit and a high voltage circuit in order to input an output signal from a low-breakdown-voltage circuit to a high-voltage circuit operating at a high voltage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Output buffer circuits are used to transfer low-voltage control signals to high-voltage circuits operating at a high voltage, where a pull-up transistor and a pull-down transistor are connected in series (totem-pole connection) (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-227753). In this case, while the pull-down transistor may be directly driven by a low-voltage control signal, controlling the pull-up transistor requires increasing the voltage of a low-voltage control signal with a level shifter before inputting.
The output buffer circuit of this type involves a large amount of gate-to-drain parasitic capacitance in the pull-up transistor, which would lead to difficulties in increasing switching rate while reducing the associated power consumption.


A semiconductor device includes a substrate with an active pattern, the active pattern having a first extension portion extending in a first direction substantially parallel to a top surface of the substrate, a second extension portion extending from a first end of the first extension portion in a third direction oriented obliquely to the first direction, a third extension portion extending from a second end of the first extension portion in a direction opposed to the third direction, a first projection portion protruding from the second extension portion in a direction opposed to the first direction, the first projection portion being spaced apart from the first extension portion, and a second projection portion protruding from the third extension portion in the first direction, the second projection portion being spaced apart from the first extension portion.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing the semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as the integration degree of a semiconductor device increases, a size of an active pattern has been decreased. Portions of the active pattern may be electrically connected to a bit line and/or a capacitor through contacts. However, as the size of the active pattern decreases, there are fewer process margins between the active pattern and the contacts.

Semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing the same


This invention provides novel compositions comprising substituted polyamines as acid gas scrubbing solutions and methods of using the compositions in an industrial system. The invention relates to the use of such polyamine compounds in industrial processes to remove acidic contaminants from natural and industrial fluid streams, such as natural gas, combustion gas, natural gas, synthesis gas, biogas, and other industrial fluid streams. The compositions and methods of the invention are useful for removal, absorption, or sequestration of acidic contaminants and sulfide contaminants including CO2, H2S, RSH, CS2, COS, and SO2.

Natural gas is a mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbon impurities and contaminants. Removal of carbon dioxide and acidic sulfide contaminants (e.g., CO2, H2S, RSH, CS2, COS, SO2, etc.) to meet quality and regulatory requirements in natural gas that is fed into distribution pipelines is a major industrial issue. In addition, increasing concerns of global warming from CO2 and other emissions has prompted significant investments into methods of capturing such contaminants. Moreover, such contaminants are often corrosive and impair the caloric value of the gas.
Aqueous solutions of commonly available commodity alkanolamines are generally used as scrubbing solutions (chemical absorbents) in gas processing. The purpose of these scrubbing systems is to remove acidic contaminants from the raw gas stream. As energy sources are being depleted and environmental restrictions are tightening, the economic use of the "bottom of the barrel" in gasification processes is increasing. There are many new projects being sanctioned, most of which would need acid gas clean-up to remove contaminants before processing. Removing CO2 from flue gases is important for a variety of reasons, such as reducing greenhouse gases and providing a concentrated CO2 feed to the secondary CO2 and enhanced oil recovery markets.
Weak organic bases, such as monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), and methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) comprise many of the typical alkanolamine solvents known in the art. MDEA is known to have advantages for CO2 removal and other acid gas contaminants in high-pressure gas streams. The amount of energy required to regenerate the MDEA is low because it is a relatively weak base and therefore the chemical bond formed during the reaction with CO2 is weaker than with other commonly used alkanolamines. A secondary benefit lies in the nature of the chemical bond formed during absorption. As a tertiary alkanolamine, MDEA reacts with CO2 to form a bicarbonate ion rather than a carbamate, which results in a reaction ratio MDEA to CO2 of 1:1. In contrast, other commonly used primary and secondary alkanolamines preferentially form a carbamate and require a reaction ratio of 2:1. The reaction between CO2 and tertiary alkanolamines (e.g., MDEA) is typically of a greater efficiency than between CO2 and other commonly used primary and secondary alkanolamines. These combined benefits result in a process of greater efficiency and capacity than is possible with commercial primary and secondary alkanolamines such as MEA and DEA.
A disadvantage of using tertiary alkanolamines is that CO2 is indirectly absorbed, resulting in a weak driving force and slow rate of reaction compared to other commercial alkanolamines. In high-pressure gas contacting systems the effect of the weak driving force is minimized clue to the higher fraction of CO2 in the liquid resulting from the high CO2 partial pressure in the gas above it. When gasses are contacted at low pressure, the driving force is weak as the partial pressure of CO2 is also weak. Thus, there is no beneficial effect of pressure, and the CO2 equilibrium established between the gas and liquid is low. Tertiary alkanolamines are not normally used in low-pressure applications because of their low equilibrium loading. Other more commonly used primary and secondary amines such as MEA and DEA, which are stronger bases, are used in these applications due to their higher driving force and increased rate of reaction with CO2. In these low-pressure situations, the disadvantage of the inefficient carbamate reaction is outweighed by the greater equilibrium liquid distribution achieved.
In an effort to increase the capacity of MDEA for CO2 at low partial pressure, a number of improvements to the basic MDEA process have been developed. These improvements typically involve the addition of small amounts of primary or secondary amines to the MDEA solution (as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,209,914 and 5,366,709 and PCT Application No. WO 03/013699). The resulting mixtures are commonly described as formulated or blended MDEA with additives referred to as "catalysts," "absorption accelerators," or "activators" (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,740,230). These additives generally function by increasing the rate of CO2 absorption into the MDEA blend solution at low CO2 partial pressure thereby increasing the fraction of CO2 in the liquid as compared to the MDEA solution alone.
Although effective in the removal of CO2 as described, the commercial application of known formulated solvents has less than ideal operating characteristics. Some of the additives used for formulating have limited solubility in MDEA, which reduces their effectiveness, and their lower boiling points in turn create difficulties in maintaining their concentration. Moreover, the reaction products of the additives with CO2 are also problematic. As they are stronger organic bases than MDEA these blends have a tendency to require more energy for regeneration and have limited solubility. Such characteristics limit their effectiveness and efficiency of the overall process if their concentration exceeds approximately 20%.
There thus exists an industrial need for improved compositions and methods for recovering acidic contaminants from both high and low pressure systems. A particular need exists for products having the benefits of both low-pressure equilibrium capacity of primary or secondary amines and the efficiency of tertiary amines within a single compound of reduced volatility.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method of forming a thermoelectric device may include providing a substrate having a surface, and thermally coupling a thermoelectric p-n couple to a first portion of the surface of a substrate. Moreover, the thermoelectric p-n couple may include a p-type thermoelectric element and an n-type thermoelectric element. In addition, a thermally conductive field layer may be formed on a second portion of the surface of the substrate adjacent the first portion of the surface of the substrate. Related structures are also discussed.

Thermoelectric materials may be used to provide cooling and/or power generation according to the Peltier effect. Thermoelectric materials are discussed, for example, in the reference by Venkatasubramanian et al. entitled "Phonon-Blocking Electron-Transmitting Structures" (18th International Conference On Thermoelectrics, 1999), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Cooling assemblies including thermoelectric cooling elements are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,424,533 to Chu et al. entitled "Thermoelectric-Enhanced Heat Spreader For Heat Generating Component Of An Electronic Device," the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. As discussed in the abstract of the Chu et al. patent, a thermal dissipation subassembly for an electronic device includes a thermal spreader configured to thermally couple to a surface of a heat generating component of the electronic device. The heat generating component, e.g., an integrated circuit chip, has a non-uniform thermal distribution across the surface thereof between at least one first region of the surface and at least one second region of the surface, with the at least one first region having a higher heat flux than the at least one second region. The subassembly further includes at least one thermoelectric device aligned to at least a portion of each first region having the higher heat flux, wherein the at least one thermoelectric device facilitates dissipation of the higher heat flux. In one embodiment, one or more thermoelectric devices are embedded within the thermal spreader and thermally isolated therefrom.

Methods of forming embedded thermoelectric coolers with adjacent thermally conductive fields


A shock suppression system for a fishing rod is mounted to a fishing rod and connected to the secure end of the fishing line for dampening the movement of the secure end of the toward the tip of the rod when a force is applied to the free end of the line by a fish hooked on the line. The invention may include a piston attached to a cartridge that is mounted to the handle portion of the fishing rod. The piston is attached in sliding engagement to the cartridge, which has a mechanism for dampening the movement of the piston toward the rod tip. Such a mechanism may be found in pneumatic cylinders, hydraulic cylinders or compression spring systems as found on a screen door for a home.

Some methods of fishing include affixing a fishing line to a portion of the fishing rod. For example, "snook" poles have fishing line secured to a handle portion of the fishing rod. Such fishing rods are typically used when fishing for large game fish, such as snook, tarpon or grouper under or around piers or fishing underwater structures from a boat. A limited amount of line is necessary to prevent the fish from running under the piers or underwater water structures and breaking the line. When a fish takes bait attached to a hook on an end of the fishing line a fisherman, feeling the pull from the fish will set the hook in the fishes mouth by forcefully pulling the rod upward.
Typically a fish will attempt to run when the hook is set, or when a fisherman attempts to set a hook; however, such fishing rods have only a limited amount of line, so very little slack is available for the fish to run. Consequently, the fisherman expends a great deal of effort in fighting and landing the fish. In addition, the force applied by the fish on the line, in combination with the force applied on the rod by the fisherman pulling on the rod often causes the line to break. As the line has very little slack, the sudden shock to the line causes it to break. Forty pound to one hundred pound test line has been used on standard "snook" poles and broken easily. Accordingly, a need exists for a system to suppress the shock applied to the line when the fish takes the line and/or fishermen attempt to set the hook.

Shock suppression system for a fishing rod


Disclosed is a semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor substrate, a conductive pad on a first surface of the semiconductor substrate, a passivation layer on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate, the passivation layer having a first opening that exposes the conductive pad, an organic dielectric layer on the passivation layer, the organic dielectric layer having a second opening, and a bump structure on the conductive pad and in the first and second openings. The organic dielectric layer includes a material different from a material of the passivation layer. The second opening is spatially connected to the first opening and exposes a portion of the passivation layer. The bump structure includes a pillar pattern in contact with the passivation layer and the organic dielectric layer.

The present inventive concepts relate to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device including a bump structure.
Semiconductor devices have been rapidly developed to increase the number of electrode terminals and to decrease a pitch between the electrode terminals. Along with this, research has been increasingly conducted into reducing sizes of semiconductor devices. Semiconductor devices generally have electrical connection terminals, such as solder balls or bumps, for electrical connections with other electronic devices or printed circuit boards. Semiconductor devices benefit from having highly reliable connection terminals.


The invention provides a reinforced film or reinforced metallized film, in which the reinforcing yarns in the fill and/or warp direction are coated with hot melt adhesive and placed in contact with the reinforced film, under heat and pressure, to melt the hot melt adhesive and bond the coated yarns to the film.

Thin, flexible plastic films, such as Polypropylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, Tedlar.RTM. (a registered trademark of E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co. for polyvinyl fluoride films), Mylar.RTM. (a registered trademark of E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co. for polyester films), and similar impermeable, nonporous plastic films, have been found to be particularly useful as moisture, vapor and thermal barriers for a variety of products such as aircraft insulation blankets. These properties, especially thermal reflectance and decreased moisture transmission through the film, can be improved by providing a thin, reflective metallized layer, typically on one side of the plastic film.
Such films, however, require reinforcement to enable them to withstand manufacturing and subsequent use. Reinforcement is generally provided by bonding reinforcing fibers to the film.
One way of providing a reinforced film is to cast the molten film plastic onto a scrim or reinforcing fibers so that the reinforcing fibers are carried within the film itself. This method is disadvantageous, however, since it requires the manufacturer to acquire the equipment needed for casting and forming the various flexible plastic films and for metallizing if practical.
Another way of providing reinforced film is to select the desired pre-formed film or metallized film, and reinforce the film by adhesively bonding the reinforcing fibers or yarns to at least one side of the film.
Petroleum and organic based solvent adhesives have been widely used in the past to bond such reinforcing fibers to the film because of the speed of cure which is possible with such adhesives. However, the use of petroleum and organic based solvent adhesives is declining due to stricter air quality control laws. Further, solvent based adhesives may corrode aluminum, thus limiting the use of such reinforced films in aviation or in other environments in which aluminum is used. Thus, the need exists for a reinforced film in which the reinforcing yarns can be attached to the film using an adhesive which is non-corrosive and which produces low or no solvent emissions during cure.

Film reinforced with yarn coated with hot melt adhesive


Encoded data read by the various and upgraded encoding methods can be decode easily and inexpensively. A tape reading unit 1 is provided to read encoded A/V data and program data from a magnetic tape. A program data extractor 5 is provided to extract the program data from the data read from the magnetic tape. A controller 4 is provided to install the program data to a DSP 3. The DSP decodes the encoded A/V data based on the program data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus in which encoded data is written to a recording medium, a reproducing apparatus in which encoded data read from a recording medium is decoded by the use of a digital signal processor (DSP), and a recording/reproducing apparatus having both of these functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a reproducing apparatus or recording/reproducing apparatus in which encoded data read from a recording medium such as a magnetic tape is decoded by a DSP.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of a conventional reproducing apparatus in which encoded data read from a recording medium is decoded by a DSP.
As shown, the conventional reproducing apparatus includes a tape reading unit 101. The tape reading unit 101 has loaded therein a magnetic tape cassette 102 as a recording medium, which contains a magnetic tape having encoded data written thereon. The tape reading unit 101 reads the encoded data written on the magnetic tape in the magnetic tape cassette 102 and supplies the encoded data to a DSP 103.
The reproducing apparatus also includes a ROM (a read only memory) 105 having stored therein program data (decoding software) which is used by the DSP 103 to decode the encoded data. A controller 104 is provided to read the program data stored in the ROM 105 and supply the program data to the DSP 103 before the DSP 103 decodes the encoded data.
The DSP 103 decodes the encoded data based on the program data read from the ROM 105 and supplied from the controller 104. The data decoded by the DSP 103 is supplied to units provided downstream of a terminal 106.
Recently, a variety of encoding methods has been proposed, and conventional encoding methods have been upgraded repeatedly to have, for example, improved performance. Thus, decoding methods should be compatible with those various and upgraded encoding methods accordingly.
However, as in the above, the conventional reproducing apparatus in which encoded data read from the recording medium is decoded can support only a decoding method based on program data previously stored in the ROM. To support the above described various and upgraded encoding methods, the ROM has to be exchanged or its contents has to be renewed, which will require much time and expense since the user has to bring the reproducing apparatus to a service station or the like.

Recording and/or reproducing apparatus using signal processing program information


This invention provides a digital watermark embedding apparatus for a document, which can eliminate unnaturalness that may be experienced upon laying out characters in a document when watermark information is embedded, while maintaining the robustness of a document itself and the information size to be embedded of a digital watermark. A document image is input from an image input unit (11), and watermark information is input from a watermark information input unit (15). A region division unit (12) divides the document image into regions, and a circumscribing rectangle extraction unit (13) sets circumscribing rectangles for characters and extracts them as character images. A punctuation mark determination unit (14) determines a punctuation mark from the character image. A watermark information embedding unit (16) embeds watermark information by digital watermarking that shifts character images other than the character image determined to be a punctuation mark.

As a method of protecting copyrights upon distributing digital data such as image data, audio data, and the like on the Internet, digital watermarking is receiving a lot of attention. Digital watermarking is a technique for embedding watermark information in digital data such as image data, audio data, and the like so as not to be perceived by a person. For example, as digital watermarking techniques for multi-valued images, various methods that exploit the redundancy of the density of a multi-valued image are known.
On the other hand, a binary image such as a document image has less redundancy, and it is difficult for such image to implement digital watermarking. However, some digital watermarking methods that utilize unique features of document images are known. For example, a method of shifting the baseline of a row (Japanese Patent No. 3,136,061), a method of manipulating an inter-word space length (U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,706, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-186603 (to be referred to as "reference 1" hereinafter)), a method of manipulating an inter-character space length (King Mongkut University, "Electronic document data hiding technique using inter-character space", The 1998 IEEE Asia-Pacific Conf. On Circuits and Systems, 1998, pp. 419–422 (to be referred to as "reference 2" hereinafter), a method of handling a document image as a bitmap image expressed by black and white, two values (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-234502), and the like are known.
In the digital watermarking methods for a document described in references 1 and 2, the space length between neighboring words or characters is changed to express digital watermark information, and 1-bit information (1 or 0) is assigned in accordance with the size relationship of two space lengths.
Reference 1 specifies the use of an inter-word space length, and English and European documents as objects which are to undergo watermarking. However, by replacing the relationship between the space length and embedding information used in reference 1 by the relationship between the inter-character space length of a Japanese document and embedding information, the method of reference 1 can be applied to Japanese documents.
Reference 2 uses Thai in experiments, but does not particularly limit objects to which watermarking is to be applied. Hence, the method itself proposed by reference 2 can be applied to Japanese as in reference 1.
However, with the aforementioned conventional digital watermarking method of embedding watermark information in a document by manipulating the inter-character space length, the balance among characters in a document becomes unnatural depending on positions in the document where watermark information is embedded. FIG. 9 shows the first application result example in which the conventional digital watermarking technique is applied to text of a Japanese document. As shown in FIG. 9, a character "" after a punctuation mark is separated from the next character "" due to the presence of a space on the right side of the character "", resulting in an unnatural balance of the document.
FIG. 10 shows the second application result example in which the conventional digital watermarking technique is applied to text of a Japanese document. In this case, the position of a punctuation mark "" is incorrect, resulting in an unnatural balance of the document. That is, since the space lengths before and after a character where watermark information has been embedded have a large difference, that portion readily looks unnatural.

Digital watermark embedding apparatus for document, digital watermark extraction apparatus for document, and their control method


Implementations of the present disclosure include methods, systems, and computer-readable storage mediums for evaluating access control constraints and include actions of receiving an access control request, obtaining a set of attributes based on an abstract evaluation of a policy, the set of attributes including one or more attributes that could be required to evaluate the access control request, requesting respective values of the one or more attributes in a batch request, receiving the respective values, and providing an access control decision based on the respective values and the policy.

Modern enterprise systems, e.g., enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, enforce a variety of different and complex security policies. Moreover, more and more enterprises operate in regulated markets and, thus, need to prove that their information technology (IT) systems comply with applicable compliance regulations.
Modern enterprise systems typically include a variety of dynamic access control constraints that require a complex set of context information for resolution. Access control policies can be provided, which include dynamic access control constraints. A dynamic access control constraint can define which users are allowed to access which resources, e.g., application, data, for a given context. Because a dynamic access control constraint is based on context, it can only be resolved at runtime, e.g., when the system is operating and a user is able to request access to data. Consequently, efficient evaluation and resolution of dynamic constraints impacts the overall performance of the access control enforcement infrastructure, and, thus, the overall performance of the enterprise system.
Enterprise systems can include highly distributed systems, such as enterprise systems based on the service oriented architecture (SOA) paradigm. In such enterprise systems, a central policy decision point (PDP) is provided and requires information, e.g., properties of resources, to evaluate dynamic constraints. This information is only available through the service, which is managing the specific resource that access is being requested to. Consequently, the time needed to evaluate and resolve access control constraints can depend on the number of interactions between the central PDP and the distributed services to resolve all required attributes.

Abstract evaluation of access control policies for efficient evaluation of constraints


An RFID print system includes an RFID printer and reader, a host computer that transmits a data stream containing instructions or commands to the RFID printer for encoding an RFID tag, and a data manager that receives EPC data or other data from the encoded tag. The data manager transmits the data to the host computer, which can then compare what was encoded to what was intended to be encoded. The host computer can then transmit signals to other devices in the system for appropriate action, such as when the encoded tag is defective.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printing and encoding systems, and in particular, to such systems that manage RFID or other labeling data.
2. Related Art
Typically, products stored in cartons or boxes are identified by a label on the outside of the carton or box. Identifying information may also be printed directly onto the carton with inkjet or any other suitable printing technology. The label may have optically readable information, such as a UPC barcode. These labels allow optical readers using a laser beam to scan the information contained thereon, such as description, price, date packaged, or any other usable data. One disadvantage of optically readable labels is that the optical reader and the label must be within a specific spatial relationship to each other, such as within a line of sight or along a perpendicular scan direction, or is limited in range by the optical reader.
A more recent type of label uses RFID or Radio Frequency Identification tags to store information. RFID uses radio frequency signals to acquire the data from the data within range of an RFID reader. RFID transponders or tags, either active or passive, are typically used with the RFID reader to read information from the RFID tag embedded in a label. RFID tags and labels can be obtained through companies such as Alien Technology Corporation of Morgan Hill, Calif.
One advantage of RFID labels and tags is that line of sight is no longer required to read the information encoded on the tag or label. This is a significant advantage since with barcodes, anything blocking the laser beam from the barcode would prevent the barcode from being read. Using radio frequencies allows RFID labels to be read through solid objects located between the RFID label and the RFID reader.
Even though RFID labels and tags are not optically read, there are advantages to placing optical information on a label so that the package has both optical information and RFID on the package, such as having the ability to read the label using more than one technology. This may be beneficial because RFID label technology is not as widespread as barcode technology, and many businesses or users may not have suitable RFID readers to read the RFID tag. However, because RFID label technology is not as widespread, many users may only have barcode applicators for placing the barcode label on the package, thereby preventing placement of RFID labels or tags. Therefore, in order for such users to have both barcode and RFID information on a package, they could purchase application systems that apply labels having both optically readable information and RFID information contained in a single label. These RFID labels can be produced in a printer, such as a thermal printer, by first printing optically readable information on the label and then programming or encoding the RFID tag embedded within the label. The label can then be placed on the package, which is readable by both a barcode scanner and an RFID reader. However, such printers and applicators can be costly.
Accordingly, there is a need for label application systems that can apply RFID labels and tags onto packages that overcomes the deficiencies in the prior art as discussed above.


The invention is a device and method for eliminating core excitation losses in a distribution transformer when the transformer is not supplying power to loads. The invention consists of sensors, a control circuit, a user interface and a power contactor. The power contactor is connected on the line side of a transformer and is opened or closed automatically based on preprogrammed time or load criteria determined by the control circuit. In one operational mode and when the transformer is disconnected from the line, the control board generates low power pulses at the transformer load connection points in order to “search” for loads. If a load is detected, the transformer is reconnected by way of contactor closure. If the transformer load drops to zero, for a predetermined amount of time, the transformer is again disconnected and the pulsed load search is reestablished.

The field of this invention is electric power distribution and control. Excitation losses are a function of the voltage applied to the primary windings of a transformer and are not load dependant. These no-load losses typically account for 50% of the total transformer losses at rated conditions. The magnitude of the excitation loss is proportional to the size of the transformer and is typically 1% to 2% of the power rating in larger transformers. The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that 61 billion kWH of electricity is wasted each year in transformer losses. The invention is intended to disconnect a distribution transformer from the AC power source during no-load conditions. The invention is targeted for use in industrial and renewable energy applications.

Device and method for eliminating transformer excitation losses


A watch having a face and a case of circular profile surrounding the face. The case includes a circular raceway and a plurality of separate decorative inserts, each in the shape of a linguistic element, e.g., a letter of the alphabet or a symbol, e.g., a heart, denoting a word or a concept. The raceway is disposed under a transparent bezel immediately adjacent the periphery of the case. The inserts are arranged to be slidably mounted in the raceway in any predetermined order to establish a predetermined message, e.g., a person's name, so that the message carried by the insert can be slid about the entire circumference of the case to be displayed at any orientation. The inserts are held in a predetermined orientation, i.e., their tops are directed radially away from the center of the watch so that the message is readily readable irrespective of its location along the periphery of the watch.

This invention relates generally to watches, and more particularly to watches having decorative features, and more particularly to watches for displaying a message utilizing movable decorative linguistic elements.
Various watches, e.g., wrist watches, pendant watches, an the like, are commercially available for displaying a message thereon. Such watches typically bear the message on the dial or face of the watch. While such watches are generally suitable for their intended purposes they leave much to be desired from the standpoints of aesthetics and ability to customize the message without changing the face of the watch.
Some watches have included real or simulative gemstones slidably mounted within a raceway or track extending about the periphery of the watch case for the gemstones. The gemstones are mounted within the raceway so that they can move orbitally, i.e., rotate about their own center point while they slide along the circular raceway. While these watches are aesthetically pleasing they still leave something to be desired from the standpoint of aesthetics.


In a semiconductor laser, an active layer includes a semiconductor layer having the ordered structure along the [-1,1,1] direction or along the [1,-1,1] direction. By the action of the ordered structure, the electric vector of the recombination light generated in the active layer is concentrated in the (-1,1,1) plane or the (1,-1,1) plane. Alternatively, the semiconductor layer has not only the ordered structure along the [-1,1,1] direction or along the [1,-1,1] direction, but also the compressive strain in the (0,0,1) plane. By the action of the ordered structure and the compressive strain, the recombination light generated in the active layer is emitted in the (1,1,0) plane. As a result, the recombination light effectively gives a gain to the oscillation mode. Thus, the oscillation threshold current of the semiconductor laser is reduced, and the laser characteristics is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor laser, and more specifically to a semiconductor laser which can be used as a light source in data processing instruments and light communication instruments.
2. Description of Related Art
Semiconductor lasers are extremely small in size and suitable to mass production. At present, therefore, the semiconductor lasers have been used as a light source for various light-electric instruments including data processing instruments and optical communication instruments. Among the semiconductor lasers, an AlGaInP semiconductor laser having an oscillation wavelength corresponding to a high visual sensitivity has been effectively used for miniaturizing a laser beam pointer. A main characteristics required in practical semiconductor lasers installed in general purpose devices such as the laser beam pointer, is that an oscillation threshold current is low and a stable operation is possible at temperatures ranging from 40.degree. C. to 60.degree. C. Recently, Kobayashi et al reported the AlGaInP semiconductor laser shows the oscillation threshold current as low as 40mA (SPIE International conference Letters, Vol. 898, Page 84, 1988).
In the case that the semiconductor laser is installed in the laser beam pointer, the volume of a battery cell used for driving the semiconductor laser occupies almost the volume of the laser beam pointer. Therefore, in order to further miniaturize the laser beam pointer, it is necessary to reduce the oscillation threshold current of the semiconductor laser, thereby to decrease the power consumption.
Furthermore, Katsuyama et al reported in Electronics Letters that a semiconductor laser using a strained quantum well active layer formed of Ga.sub.0.43 In.sub.0.57 P wells shows a low oscillation threshold current (Vol. 26, Page 1376, 1990). In addition, Ijichi et al reported that a semiconductor laser using the strained quantum well active layer formed of In.sub.0.22 Ga.sub.0.78. As shows a low oscillation threshold current (12th Semiconductor Laser International Conference Digest, Page 44, 1990). It has been considered that, in these semiconductor lasers, since an effective mass of valence band holes in the quantum well active layer subjected to an in-plane compressive strain becomes small, an oscillation threshold current is decreased.
The conventional semiconductor laser using the strained quantum well active layer has a low oscillation threshold current, but the high-temperature operation characteristics is not necessarily good. The reason for this is that the density of carriers injected into the active layer is high, and confinement of the carriers is not sufficient. In order to improve the high-temperature operation characteristics, it is necessary to further decrease the oscillation threshold current.


An apparatus for concentrating light from a light source includes a plurality of fibers that are substantially parallel with one another. Each fiber includes a light-receiving end and a light-transmitting end. The light-receiving end is configured to receive the light from the light source. The light-transmitting end is configured to transmit the light from the fiber. The light-receiving ends the fibers extend different distances from a plane that is perpendicular with respect the fibers.

Conventional LEDs are about 50% efficient. The other 50% is lost as trapped light due to total internal reflection (TIR). Total internal reflection is the optical phenomenon in which waves arriving at the interface (boundary) from one medium to another (e.g., from water to air) are not refracted into the second ("external") medium, but completely reflected back into the first ("internal") medium. It occurs when the second medium has a higher wave speed (lower refractive index) than the first, and the waves are incident at a sufficiently oblique angle on the interface.
One existing solution to increase the light extraction from the LED, and thus increase the efficiency of the LED, is to form micro-structures in the shape of asymmetric cones, somewhat akin to the scales found on the abdomen of a firefly. However, the light that can escape through the micro-structures can still be diverted in an undesired direction after exiting the LED because the refraction may cause the light to project at an obtuse angle relative to the desired orthogonal direction.

System and method for extracting light using fibers


Described herein are methods and compositions for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of ovarian cancer. Also described are methods of identifying anti-cancer agents.

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most common gynecological malignancy and the sixth most common cancer in women worldwide, with highly aggressive natural history causing almost 125,000 deaths yearly. Despite advances in detection and cytotoxic therapies, only 30% of patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer survive 5 years after initial diagnosis. The high mortality of this disease is mainly due to late stage diagnosis for more than 70% of ovarian cancers. In fact, when ovarian cancer is diagnosed in its early stage, that is still organ-confined, the five-year survival rate exceeds 90%. Unfortunately, only 19% of all ovarian cancers are diagnosed at this early stage. Indeed, this rather poor prognosis is due to (i) the insidious asymptomatic nature of this disease in its early onset, (ii) the lack of robust and minimally invasive methods for early detection, and (iii) tumor resistance to chemotherapy. The vast majority of human ovarian carcinomas are represented by ovarian epithelial cancers (OECs), deriving from the ovarian surface epithelium (OSE).
Ovarian adenocarcinomas occur as four major histological subtypes, serous, mucinous, endometrioid and clear cell, with serous being the most common. Current data indicate that each of these histological types is associated with distinct morphologic and molecular genetic alterations, but further investigations of the molecular mechanisms promoting ovarian cancer are necessary to determine how each of the subtypes emerges.
Over the last five years expression profiling technologies greatly improved, thus expanding the knowledge on cancer etiology and biomarkers with clinical applications. However, although these technologies have provided most of the new biomarkers with potential use for diagnosis, drug development, and tailored therapy, they have so far shed little insight into the detailed mechanisms at the origin of this neoplasia, thus suggesting that ovarian tumorigenesis may occur through novel or poorly characterized pathways.
A new class of small non-coding RNAs, named microRNAs, was recently discovered and shown to regulate gene expression at post-transcriptional level, for the most part by binding through partial sequence homology to the 3′ untranslated region (3′ UTR) of target mRNAs, and causing block of translation and/or mRNA degradation. MicroRNAs are 19-25 nt long molecules cleaved from 70-100 nt hairpin pre-miRNA precursors. The precursor is cleaved by cytoplasmic RNase III Dicer into ˜22-nt miRNA duplex: one strand (miRNA*) of the short-lived duplex is degraded, while the other strand, that serves as mature miRNA, is incorporated into the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) and drives the selection of target mRNAs containing antisense sequences.
Several studies have demonstrated that miRNAs play important roles in essential processes, such as differentiation, cell growth and cell death.
Moreover, it has been shown that miRNAs are aberrantly expressed or mutated in cancers, suggesting that they may play a role as a novel class of oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes, depending on the targets they regulate: let-7, downregulated in lung cancer, suppresses RAS and HMGA2 mir-15 and mir-16, deleted or down-regulated in leukemia, suppress BCL2; mir-17-5p and mir-20a control the balance of cell death and proliferation driven by the proto-oncogene c-Myc.
Clear evidences indicate that miRNA polycistron mir-17-92 acts as an oncogene in lymphoma and lung cancer; mir-372 and mir-373 are novel oncogenes in testicular germ cell tumors by numbing p53 pathway, miR-155, overexpressed in B cell lymphomas and solid tumors, leads to the development of B cell malignancies in an in vivo model of transgenic mice.
The use of microRNA microarray technologies has been used as a powerful tool to recognize microRNAs differentially expressed between normal and tumor samples, and also to identify miRNA expression signatures associated with well-defined clinico-pathological features and disease outcome. Several studies have also investigated the molecular mechanisms leading to an aberrant microRNAs expression, identifying the presence of genomic abnormalities in microRNA genes. More recently, few evidences have shown that microRNAs genes may be regulated also by epigenetic mechanisms, as changes in genomic DNA methylation pattern: miR-127 and miR-124a are transcriptionally inactivated by CpG island hypermethylation, while in lung cancer the overexpression of let-7a-3 seems to be due to DNA hypomethylation.
In spite of considerable research into therapies for ovarian cancer, ovarian cancer remains difficult to diagnose and treat effectively, and the mortality observed in patients indicates that improvements are needed in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the disease.

MicroRNA signatures in human ovarian cancer

The Ohio State University Research Foundation


An efficient package sorting system in which a stationary matrix of multi-directional conveyor cells sorts packages to a plurality of destination locations. In a preferred embodiment, the matrix delivers sorted packages to a plurality of lift assemblies that further transfer the packages to receiving conveyors or chutes on different levels. According to another preferred aspect of the system, a selectively elevating stop bar is provided to control side transfer between conveyor cells. A controller is operative to plan a path for each of the objects from the input cell to a destination location, to monitor availability of successive conveyor cells along the path, and to cause an object to be moved to the next conveyor cell along its path only when the next conveyor cell is available. The system may include a plurality of sensors positioned to sense the passage of objects from one conveyor cell to another, the sensors being connected to the controller. The sensor input is used to guide the packages through the matrix, and to optimize the speed at which a plurality of packages can be sorted.

In a large package delivery system, millions of packages picked up from thousands of locations over a large geographical area must be transported, primarily by truck and airplane, to a correspondingly large number of destinations that are also scattered over a large area. Such delivery services are offered within guaranteed times as short as one day. To meet a rigorous schedule and provide accurate deliveries, a package delivery company must use automated transfer systems to match incoming packages with proper transport that is heading to their destinations.
Belt and roller conveyor systems have often been used in package sorting systems to move packages from incoming loading docks to outgoing transport. Typically, conveyors carry packages unloaded from a truck to a worker who manually sorts them by reading address information on shipping labels attached to the packages. The worker then places the packages onto receiving conveyors or chutes which carry the packages either to a loading dock for loading onto outgoing trucks, or to another sorting station for a narrower breakdown of destinations. A distribution hub in a package delivery system may have as many as 20 to 60 sorting stations operating simultaneously. By providing vertically stacked rows of receiving conveyors, the sorting operation could be accommodated in a relatively small amount of floor space.
To automate handling of articles in conveyor systems, conveyor diverter assemblies have been developed. Examples of conveyor diverters are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,798,275 to Leemkuil et. al., and 4,174,774 to Bourgeois, both of which are incorporated herein by reference. However, such diverters are used primarily to divert articles from a main linear conveyor. Thus, such systems occupy a relatively large amount of space. This problem is overcome by the rotary sorter system shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,252 to Bonnet, assigned to the assignee of the present application. In this system, destination codes on shipping label of packages are machine read, and the packages are transferred onto powered conveyor modules mounted on a rotating distribution assembly. The individual module is then rotated and elevated or lowered into alignment with one of a plurality of destination conveyors that are spaced apart both horizontally and vertically. After such alignment, the modules rollers are operated to discharge the package onto the destination conveyor. In the Bonnet system, packages can be rapidly sorted without human intervention by an apparatus that occupies a small amount of floor space.
For some circumstances, it would be advantageous to have a compact package sorting system that did not require moving a conveyor module holding a package from a loading point to a discharge point.

Method and apparatus for sorting articles using a matrix of conveyor cells


In a bored headrest, a garnish includes a front garnish and a rear garnish that are attached to a through-hole of a skin member in front and rear directions of the through-hole to seal an opening. The front garnish has a first holding portion that can hold a first skin edge portion, and a first connecting portion formed at a near side to the rear garnish. The rear garnish has a second holding portion which can hold a second skin edge portion, and a second connecting portion formed at a near side to the front garnish. The rear garnish has a second connecting portion. Therefore, a bored headrest is provided having a high quality of appearance and whose quality of appearance can be kept constant.

The present invention relates to a headrest, a seat for a vehicle, and a method for manufacturing a headrest, and in particular to a bored head rest having a through-hole extending through the headrest in front and rear directions of a seat (in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle), where a garnish is attached to the through-hole, a seat for a vehicle using the bored headrest, and a method for manufacturing a bored headrest.
Conventionally, as a headrest of a seat for a vehicle, a headrest of a bored type having a through-hole extending through the headrest in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle where a garnish is attached to the through-hole has been known (see Japanese patent document no. JP-A-10-71047, pages 2 to 3 of the text and FIGS. 1 to 4).
In a headrest described in JP-A-10-71047, for example, a through-hole extending through the headrest in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle is formed at a central portion of a skin member and an annular opening is formed at skin edge portions of the skin member forming the through-hole along a circumferential direction of the through-hole. A garnish is provided with an insertion piece portion inserted into the opening of the skin member and an abutting piece portion formed integrally with the insertion piece portion to abut on the skin edge portions defining the opening.
For assembling the bored headrest constituted above, the insertion piece portion of the garnish is first inserted into the opening of the skin member so that the garnish is attached to the through-hole of the skin member, and stock solution of foaming resin is poured inside the skin member from a resin pouring port provided in the skin member in this state. The stock solution of foaming resin poured inside the skin member is foamed so that a cushion member is formed inside the skin member.
When the cushion member is formed inside the skin member, the skin edge portions defining the opening of the skin member is pressed on the abutting piece portion of the garnish by the foamed cushion member. Thereby, the skin member, the cushion member, and the garnish are united so that a headrest is completed.
Therefore, appearance of the through-hole of the headrest can be made excellent by attaching the garnish to the through-hole of the headrest.
Incidentally, bored headrests of this type with such a garnish include a bored headrest having a structure where a garnish has been divided into two pieces in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle (for example, see Japanese patent document no. JP-A-2002-336077).
For example, a bored headrest described in JP-A-2002-336077 is constructed such that a garnish has a pair of garnish pieces divided in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle and the pair of garnish pieces are respectively fitted to a through-hole formed at a central portion of the headrest from a front direction and a rear direction of the vehicle.
By using the garnish having the structure divided in the longitudinal direction of a vehicle in this manner, assembling of the garnish to the through-hole of the headrest can be completed by simply fitting the pair of garnish pieces to the through-hole of the headrest from the front and rear directions of the vehicle, so that assembly of the garnish to the headrest can be improved.
However, the construction as described in JP-A-10-71047, in which the insertion piece portion of the garnish is inserted into the opening of the skin member, since the opening of the skin member is formed at a depth portion of the through-hole, a troublesome amount of work is required for inserting the insertion piece portion of the garnish into the opening of the skin member. Accordingly, in a working site for assembling the headrest, there is a demand for a construction that allows an easy attachment of the garnish to the through-hole of the skin member.
In the headrest described in JP-A-10-71047, since it is difficult to position the skin edge portions of the skin member defining the opening of the skin member to the abutting piece portion of the garish, there is a possibility that, when the garnish is attached to the through-hole of the skin member by an unskilled worker, wrinkles and/or slacking portions occur at the skin edge portion defining the opening.
There is a possibility that, when foaming resin is foamed inside the skin member in such a state that there are wrinkles or slacking portions at the skin edge portions defining the opening described above, the headrest is finished including wrinkles or slacking portions thereof.
Therefore, in the headrest described in JP-A-10-71047, since variations easily occur in finishing of the skin edge portion defining the opening due to differences in skill among individual workers, it is difficult to keep the appearance quality of the respective headrests constant.
As described in JP-A-2002-336077, though the headrest constructed such that the garnish pieces divided in the longitudinal direction of a vehicle are fitted to the through-hole of the headrest from the front and rear directions of a vehicle has been proposed, the above problem can not be solved yet by this proposal.

Headrest, seat for vehicle, and method for manufacturing headrest


A phase detector circuit compares the phases of first and second periodic input signals to generate an output signal. The phase detector includes a circuit that makes two different combinations of the first and the second periodic input signals to generate third and fourth periodic signals. This circuit causes the third periodic signal to be based on a first combination of the first periodic signal and the second periodic signal that imparts a first relative phase shift. The circuit causes the fourth periodic signal to be based on a second combination of the first periodic signal and the second periodic signal to provide a different relative phase shift. The phase detector also includes a comparison circuit that compares a measure of the power of the third periodic signal to a measure of the power of the fourth periodic signal to generate the phase comparison output signal.

FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art phase-locked loop (PLL) 100. PLL 100 includes a phase detector circuit 101, a loop filter circuit 102, an oscillator circuit 103, and a frequency divider circuit 104. Phase detector circuit 101 compares the phase of a feedback clock signal FBCLK to the phase of a reference clock signal REFCLK to generate a control signal VC. Loop filter circuit 102 filters control signal VC to generate a filtered control signal VCF. Oscillator circuit 103 generates a periodic output clock signal OUTCLK. Oscillator circuit 103 varies the frequency of OUTCLK based on changes in the filtered control signal VCF.
Frequency divider circuit 104 generates FBCLK in response to OUTCLK. Frequency divider circuit 104 divides the frequency of OUTCLK to generate the frequency of FBCLK. PLL 100 drives the phase difference and the frequency difference between FBCLK and REFCLK to zero.
Frequency divider circuit 104 typically consumes a substantial amount of power in order to generate the feedback clock signal FBCLK in response to a high frequency output clock signal OUTCLK. Frequency divider circuit 104 also generates jitter in OUTCLK. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a phase-locked loop that generates a high frequency periodic output signal without requiring a frequency divider circuit that consumes a substantial amount of power and that generates jitter.


An apparatus for mixing a liquid with a large gas stream flowing in a gas duct, especially for introducing reducing agent into flue gas containing nitrogen oxides. At least one metering lance having at least two atomizer nozzles supplies liquid to the gas stream, with the nozzles being inclined relative to the direction of flow of the gas stream and being inclined in opposite directions relative to one another. At least one disk-shaped mixer element is associated with and spaced from the nozzles, and is inclined relative to the direction of flow of the gas stream. Flow eddies form at the mixer element, and at least a portion of the liquid enters the flow eddies. Atomization is effected in such a way by the mixer element that volatilized gaseous portions in the nozzle streams exiting the nozzles enter the flow eddies, while non-volatized droplet portions, due to their inertia and an atomizer angle, do not enter the flow eddies in the vicinity of the mixer element.

The instant application should be granted the priority dates of Dec. 15, 2005, the filing date of the corresponding German patent application 10 2005 059 971.0, as well as Dec. 14, 2006, the filing date of the International patent application PCT/EP2006/012087.
The present invention relates to an apparatus for mixing a fluid with a large volume gas stream (principal stream) flowing in a gas duct, especially for introducing a reducing agent into a flue gas that contains nitrogen oxides, the apparatus having at least one nozzle or metering lance having at least one nozzle for the supply of the fluid, the axis of which forms an angle with the direction of flow of the gas stream, and having at least one flat mixer element that is associated at a distance with the nozzle and that forms an angle with the direction of flow of the gas stream, whereby flow eddies form at the mixer elements and at least a portion of the fluid passes or enters into these flow eddies.
Such an apparatus is known from DE 37 23 618 C1, whereby the reducing agent is introduced in a gaseous state into the large gas stream (flue gas). The static mixer element is used to shorten the fundamentally very long mixing paths.
With SCR units, to reduce the NOx level (Selective Catalytic Reduction) of flue gases, for example of power plant furnaces, by means of reducing agent and catalyzer, it is customary, where the reducing agent is NH3, that it is stored in the form of pressure-condensed NH3 or of ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH), and pre-vaporized NH3 is sprayed into the flue gas stream via a carrier gas stream and is mixed with the flue gas stream. Where the reducing agent is urea, first an aqueous urea solution is produced that, after suitable processing, is then sprayed into the flue gas stream in gaseous form.
With the known apparatus, the mixer element is a square or rectangular plate that extends over the width of the flue gas duct. The metering lance with the nozzle is disposed essentially laterally of and parallel to that edge of the mixer plate that is disposed upstream relative to the direction of flow of the flue gas stream, and the nozzle stream of the gaseous reduction agent, in the form of NH3-carrier gas mixture, is sprayed laterally upon the back side of the mixer element. The distribution into the flow eddies is effected directly at and behind the mixer plate and, due to the increased turbulence in the flue gas flow, downstream of the mixer plate. With a large duct cross-section, metering lances are disposed next to one another to fill the cross-section, as well as a plurality of flow plates associated with the metering lances, are provided.
Also proposed has been an introduction of ammonium hydroxide (liquid NH4OH) or urea solution without pre-vaporization directly into the flue gas stream on the back side of a mixer element, whereby the nozzle is arranged on the back side (lee side) of the mixer element in such a way that the direction of introduction extends parallel to the gas stream of the flue gas. The nozzle stream is composed of a mixture of gas and liquid droplets that after a certain period of time are volatilized in the warm environment, which is at approximately 300° C. In this connection there is the danger that reducing agent droplets, together with dust particles contained in the flue gases, lead to concrete-like deposit formation on the mixer element or elements that are used, on support elements for the mixer elements, and possibly on the walls of the flue gas duct. The nozzles must therefore be disposed far enough from the mixer elements that non volatized droplets cannot strike the mixer elements, even under the influence of backflows (eddy trains). This leads to a lengthening of the flue gas duct length that is free of installed components, and which is necessary for the thorough mixing. Additional static mixer elements cannot be installed in the flue gas stream downstream of the metering-in due to the danger of the formation of deposits.
It is an object of the present invention to improve the apparatus of the aforementioned general type in such a way that with a direct metering-in of a liquid as the fluid, in particular liquid reducing agent, with a short mixing path a formation of deposits is prevented to a substantial extent.

Apparatus for mixing a fluid with a large gas stream, especially for introducing a reducing agent into a flue gas containing nitrogen oxides


This invention relates to individual wheel drives for individually suspended, spring-mounted wheels of a vehicle comprising one universal joint shaft (2) connecting the output shaft socket (10) of a drive device with the input shaft socket of a wheel, having one main section (4) and at least one end section (8) situated on one end thereof, via a universal joint (6), rotatingly coupled with the associated shaft socket (10), the universal joint shaft (2) having a permanent inclination which compensates an offset between drive device and wheel, and means being provided for reducing a permanent deviation defined by the inclination. The end section (8) associated with the universal joint (6) and the shaft socket (10) coupled therewith are coupled with each other via a bevel wheel pair (16, 18), the deflection angle α of which corresponding at least partly with the corresponding permanent deflection angle between universal joint shaft (2) and shaft socket (10).

Universal joint shafts permit the movement of a springly suspended wheel relative to a drive device, which is fixedly inserted in the vehicle and can be a prime mover or a transmission situated downstream of the prime mover. During the movement of the axis of rotation of the springly suspended wheel, the universal joint, located at the ends of the universal joint shaft and transmitting the input torque, are subjected, regarding size and direction, to different deflection angles, thus representing specially loaded construction elements. Therefore, the deflection angles are generally structurally limited for protection of the joints against damage or wear.
In numerous applications, a permanent offset exists, between the drive device and the wheel, which has to be compensated by an adequate permanent inclination of the universal joint shaft. Such an offset generally exists in large wheels and low lying central transmissions or in small wheels and elevated central transmission, especially in cross-country vehicles where a large bottom clearance is required for the drive device, such as a differential. The permanent inclination of the universal joint shaft cannot be compensated for, via an adequately large deflection angle of the universal joint, as such the admissible deflection angle is generally exceeded by the superimposition of the largest total deflection angle determined by the elastic movement of the wheels and by the permanent inclination of the universal joint shaft. Therefore, constructions have already become known with which the permanent deflection angle of a universal joint determined by the inclination can be reduced at least partly.
DE 36 29 297 C2 discloses an individual drive in which the universal joint arrangements, provided at both ends of the universal joint shaft, are designed as double joint, i.e., each two individual joints are consecutively disposed in a row. In this manner, the total deflection angle divides between two joints so that the deflection angle of each individual joint can be halved. But such a constructional and structural arrangement involves great expense and is therefore costly. Besides, it also is not to be ruled out in such an arrangement that the deflection angle of each individual joint be so large as to make the service life uneconomical.
Considering this background, the problem is based on creating an individual wheel drive where the permanent deflection angle of a universal joint determined by a permanent inclination of the universal joint shaft can be extensively or completely reduced with simple practical means.

Individual wheel drive for individually suspended wheels of a motor vehicle