The present invention is directed to a multicell joint detection method, it deals against the interference between same frequency neighboring cell's signals in slotted CDMA system, and provides a joint detection method based on the multicell structure information. The method includes the steps of: using channel estimation of multi-set of codes to obtain channel estimation results of each neighboring cell; grouping each neighboring cell's code channel, including grouping based on the code channel's cell, grouping based on the code channnel's power or amplitude intensity, grouping based on the code channel's pertinence, and mixed grouping based on the above methods; making use of the channel estimation result and the result of code channel grouping to process the joint detection and output the detection data. This method makes full use of the structure information of each multicells signal, and efficiently restrains the multiple-access interference of the same frequency neighboring cell. This method can be used in slotted CDMA system or wireless communicataion system with similar signal structure.

Severe multi-address interference and inter-symbol interference exist in CDMA mobile communication systems. In a slot CDMA system, a joint detection method can be used to eliminate the multi-address interference and inter-symbol interference for a received local cell signal. The joint detection method takes a signal detection process as a unified inter-related joint detection process by using transmission signals and channel response information of all users in the local cell. Since the joint detection technology effectively restrains the inter-symbol interference and the multi-address interference in the local cell, performance of the CDMA system is improved greatly.
A time division-synchronous code division multi-address (TD-SCDMA) system is a kind of slot CDMA system adopting the joint detection solution for multi-user signal in the local cell. In a TD-SCDMA system, a structure of a burst signal in a normal slot is shown in FIG. 1, wherein a midamble (also called channel estimation code) in the middle of the burst signal is used for channel estimation and the data block at the two sides of the burst signal are used for service data transmission.
A detailed process of a single cell joint detection in the TD-SCDMA system is as follows:
Firstly a signal model received by a single cell receiver in a slot CDMA system is obtained.e=Ad+n  (1)
In the above formula (1), e represents sampled data of a signal received by the receiver, d represents transmitted data, n represents a received noise and matrix A is a transmission matrix. The transmission matrix A is composed of a combined response vector b(k) of each code channel, wherein assuming there are K code channels all together and k represents a serial number of the code channel (the matrix A can be computed according to b(k) and b(k) is a column in each block distributed on a diagonal of the matrix.).
Each vector b(k) corresponds to a combined channel response of a user code channel whose serial number is k.b(k)=C(k)⊕h(k) k=1 . . . K  (2)
In the above formula (2), C(k) is a spreading code of the user code channel whose serial number is k, ⊕ is a convolution operator and h(k) is a channel response of the user code channel whose serial number is k and h(k) is obtained by performing channel estimation with the midamble.
Then the joint detection can be performed with the above information. There are many kinds of joint detection algorithm. The joint detection algorithm can be an interference cancellation method or a block linear equalizer method or a combination of the two methods. For the block linear equalizer method, a soft output value estimated by demodulated transmitted data d is:{circumflex over (d)}=(T)−1A*TRn−1e  (3)
The matrix T is obtained from the following formula:
                    T        =                  {                                                    I                                            MF                                                                                A                                          *                      T                                                                                R                    n                                          -                      1                                                                          A                                                                              ZF                  -                  BLE                                                                                A                                              *                        T                                                                                R                      n                                              -                        1                                                                                A                                    +                                      R                    d                                          -                      1                                                                                MMSE                  -                  BLE                                                                                (        4        )
In the above formula, *T is a conjugation transposition; Rd=E{d·d*T} is a covariance matrix of a data sequence d; for independent data sequence, Rd=I; and Rn=E{n·n*T} is a covariance matrix of the noise sequence n. For independent and stable noise sequence (such as white noise), Rn=σ2I, wherein I represents a unit matrix.
In the case of Rd=I and Rn=σ2I, formulae (3) and (4) can be simplified as:
                              d          ^                =                                            (              T              )                                      -              1                                                      A                          *              T                                          e                                    (        5        )                                T        =                  {                                                    I                                            MF                                                                                A                                          *                      T                                                                          A                                                                              ZF                  -                  BLE                                                                                A                                              *                        T                                                                                A                                    +                                                            σ                      2                                                            I                                                                                MMSE                  -                  BLE                                                                                (        6        )
The MF in formulae (4) and (6) is matching-filter corresponding to a matching-filter method; ZF-BLE is a Zero-Forcing Block Linear Equalizer method corresponding to a maximum likelihood linear solution; MMSE-BLE is a Minimum Mean Square Error Block Linear Equalizer method corresponding to a minimum mean square linear solution. Any one of the above three methods for obtaining T can be used and generally the ZF-BLE or the MMSE-BLE method is selected.
The single cell joint detection method uses the structure information of signals (including the spreading code and the channel response) transmitted by all the users in the cell, i.e. uses the structure information of signals in the local cell. At this time, the detection method processes the interference signals from other cells as the Gauss white noise of the time, therefore, the single cell joint detection method is more effective in restraining the inter-symbol interference and multi-address interference in the local cell. The single cell joint detection method can greatly improve the system performance for a single cell or for a CDMA system adopting inter-frequency networking.
For a slot CDMA system adopting same frequency network for neighboring cells, the single cell joint detection method can also improve the system performance. However, in the case of the same frequency network, there is strong interference between signals from intra-frequency neighboring cells. The interference between signals from intra-frequency neighboring cells impacts the system performance greatly. Especially at the border place of intra-frequency neighboring cells, the intra-frequency interference is generally the most important interference. At this time, the single cell joint detection method cannot restrain the intra-frequency neighboring cell interference so when the intra-frequency neighboring cell interference exists, the system performance will decrease greatly.
For example, when users, at the border place of cells, of intra-frequency neighboring cells work on several code channels, especially when the system is one with a small spreading gain, the signals of the intra-frequency neighboring cell users will highly interfere the signal of the local cell. In this case, the single cell joint detection method will deteriorate the system performance extremely.
Thus, when the slot CDMA cellular mobile communication system works in intra-frequency neighboring cells, the single cell joint detection method will cause the deterioration of the system performance, so there is a need for providing a better joint detection method that can enable better system performance. If the joint detection method can be extended from a single cell to intra-frequency multiple cells by using the structure information of the intra-frequency neighboring cells, the performance of the slot CDMA system in same frequency network will be improved greatly.
In order to obtain the structure information of the intra-frequency neighboring cells except that of the local cell, much apriori information is needed, wherein a kind of important apriori information is the channel estimation result of the intra-frequency neighboring cells except the local cell, i.e. multi-cell channel estimation result. Since when generating the channel estimation code, each neighboring cell takes a different midamble as a basic code and different users in the cell use cyclic shift versions of this basic code as their channel estimation codes. Thus, the different cyclic shift versions of the basic code of one cell can be called a code set, multiple cells have multiple code sets and the channel estimation of the multiple code sets is that of the multiple cells.
In the Chinese patent application "a multiple code set channel estimation method for a slot CDMA system" with the application No. 03100670.1, a multi-cell estimation method for a slot CDMA system is disclosed.
The above mentioned technical solution performs finite time decision processing for the single code set channel estimation result and only keeps finite taps with stronger signal responses so as to recover interference signals of other code sets, to cancel the interference signals, to obtain net signals of every code set, and to perform the single code set channel estimation for the net signal of each code set. The above processing is repeated for iterative times and then multiple code set (multi-cell) channel estimation result is outputted.

Multicell joint detection method in slotted code division multiple access system

China Academy of Telecommunications Technology


An image processing apparatus includes a display control unit that causes a content view which displays statistic information of characters appearing in video content and a relationship view which displays character-relation information of the characters appearing in the video content, to be displayed on a predetermined display unit.

The present disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program, particularly to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program that enable searching for a scene which is difficult to be searched out with a spatial feature amount of an image.
A number of technologies are proposed, which can search a database, in which a plurality of moving image content is stored, for a similar scene that is similar to a specific scene.
Searching for the similar scene usually includes, extracting a feature amount of a scene that is desired to be searched (scene for searching), and detecting a scene as the similar scene, which has a similar feature amount to the scene for searching among other moving image content stored in the database.
As an extracted feature amount, for example, spatial information of an image (still images) that forms the moving image, such as a histogram and an edge histogram of color spatial information, is used (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-97246). In addition, in order to make it possible to search for the desired content easily, there is also a case in that the content are classified into any one of a plurality of categories in advance using meta data (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-70959).

Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and program


Provided are a terminal positioning method, device and system, the method comprising: receiving three-dimensional positioning measurement information transmitted by a terminal; and acquiring the three-dimensional position information of the terminal according to the three-dimensional positioning measurement information.

Positioning technology is a technology for determining geographic location of a terminal, and location information of the terminal can be obtained directly or indirectly via wireless communication network resource. For example, common positioning methods in Long Term Evolution (LTE) include a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning, an Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) positioning and an e-Cell Identification (e-CID) positioning. With the above positioning methods, only two-dimensional location information of the terminal is obtained. With the development of economy and society, three-dimensional location information of the terminal is required in more and more situations, so as to position the terminal more accurately to achieve different applications. However, the conventional positioning methods can not realize the three-dimensional positioning.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method, device and system for positioning terminal


The present invention is directed in part towards methods of modulating the function of calcium channels with pyridine- or 1,4-dihydropyridine-based compounds. In addition, the invention describes methods of preventing and treating protein kinase-related abnormal conditions in organisms with a compound identified by the invention. Furthermore, the invention pertains to pyridine- or 1,4-dihydropyridine-based compounds and pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to certain 1,4-dihydropyridine and pyridine compounds that can modulate the activity of calcium channels. These compounds can also be used for the treatment of diseases, such as cardiovascular disease or neurological disorders, that are associated with calcium channels.
2. Description of the Related Art
The pharmacological function and importance of calcium antagonists or calcium channel blockers, has been well documented. See, for example, R. A. Janis and D. J. Triggle "New developments in Ca2+ channel antagonists" Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 26, 775-785 (1983). Among the calcium antagonists, 4-aryl-1,4-dihydropyridine-3,5-dicarboxylic diesters (DHPs) of the nifedipine type have become almost indispensable for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. For a review on Structure Activity Relations (SAR) see, S. Goldmann and J. Stoltefuss "1,4-Dihydropyridine: Effects of chirality and conformation on the calcium antagonist and calcium agonist activities" Angewandte Chemie International Edition (English) 30, 1559-1578 (1991). It was well documented that substitution on 4-phenyl ring is very crucial for pharmacological activity. Substituents at ortho or meta position improve the activity, whereas para substitution invariably decrease the activity. It was also published that bulkiness of ortho substituent, improves the calcium antagonist activity. B. Loev, M. M Goodman, K M. Snader, R. Tedeschi, E. Macko, "Hantzsch-Type Dihydropyridine hypotensive Agents", Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 17, 956-965 (1974).
Voltage-gated calcium channels are large transmembrane proteins that regulate the intracellular concentration of calcium ions. They are classified into high (HVA) and low (LVA) voltage-activated channels according to the membrane potential at which they are activated. E. Carbone and H. D. Lux. "A low voltage activated, fully inactivating Ca channel in vertebrate sensory neuron" Nature, 310, 501-502, (1984): B. Nilius , P. Hess, J. B. Lansman and R. W. Tsien A novel type of cardiac calcium channel in ventricular cells. Nature, 316, 443-446. (1985).; M. C. Nowycky, A. P. Fox , R. W. Tsien. "Three types of neuronal calcium channels with different calcium agonist sensitivity" Nature 316, 440-443 (1985). LVA channels open and inactivate very fast, but deactivate about 10-100 times slower than HVA calcium channels. HVA channels require stronger membrane depolarizations to activate and can be divided further into N, P/Q,R and L-types based on their pharmacological properties. LVA channels can be detected in various tissues such as heart, brain, dorsal root ganglia and adrenal gland. The use of different search algorithms on mammalian expressed sequence tagged cDNAs or on similar sequences of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans led to the identification of several genes, three of which encoded LVA calcium channels (T-type channels) and they have been named as α1G, α1H, α1I; see Review,. L. Lacinova, N. Klugbauer, F.Hofmann "Low voltage activated calcium channels: from genes to function" Gen. Physiol. Biophys., 19, 121-136, (2000). Of the above stated types of calcium channels, L-type channels received wide attention. Among the L-type channel blockers, Dihydropyridines (DHP) is the most widely studied. But, most of the DHPs are not selective against T-type channels and DHPs inhibiting the T-type channels is still sparse.
Voltage-gated calcium channels are important regulators of calcium influx in a number of cell types. Calcium entry through these channels activates a plethora of intracellular events, from the broad stimulation of gene expression, calcium-dependent second messenger cascades, and cell proliferation, to the specific release of neurotransmitter within the nervous system, and contraction in smooth and cardiac muscle (Tsien et al., 1988)(Wheeler et al., 1994); (Dunlap et al., 1995); (Tsien et al., 1991). A number of different types of calcium channels have been identified in native tissues and divided based on their biophysical profiles into low voltage activated (LVA) and high voltage activated (HVA) channels (Nowycky et al., 1985); (Tsien et al., 1991). LVA channels first activate at relatively hyperpolarized potentials and rapidly inactivate (Akaike et al., 1989); (Takahashi et al., 1991). By contrast, HVA channels require stronger membrane depolarizations to activate and can be divided further into N, P/Q-, R and L-types based on their pharmacological properties (for review, see (Stea et al., 1995); (Zamponi, 1997)). Molecular cloning has revealed that HVA channels are heteromultimers comprised of a pore forming α1 subunit plus ancillary α2-δ, β and possibly γ subunits (Pragnell et al., 1994); (Klugbauer et al., 1999); (Klugbauer et al., 2000); for review, see (Catterall, 2000), whereas LVA channels appear to contain only the a, subunit (Lacinova et al., 2000)). To date, ten different types of calcium channel al subunits have been identified and shown to encode the previously identified native calcium channel isoforms. Expression studies show that alternative splicing of α1A generates both P- and Q-type Ca2+ channels (Bourinet et al., 1999), α1B encodes N-type channels (Dubel et al., 1992)) α1C, α1D and α1F are L-type channels (Williams et al., 1992b); (Bech-Hansen et al., 1998), α1G, α1H and α1I form T-type channels (i.e., McRory et al., 2001) and α1E may encode R-type channels (Soong et al., 1993); (Tottene et al., 1996), and α1S encodes the skeletal muscle L-type channel isoform (Tanabe et al., 1987).
Dihydropyridine (DHP) antagonists of L-type calcium channels are widely used therapeutics in the treatment of hypertension, angina, arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, atheriosclerosis, and cerebral and peripheral vascular disorders (Janis and Triggle, 1990) CRC Press, Cleveland. DHPs having a tendency to selectively block and enhance native L-type calcium channel activity. B. P.(Bean, 1984).; B. .Z. (Peterson and Catterall, 1995). In addition to L-type channel activity, some of the DHPs are sensitive to T-type channel activity. (N. Akaike, H. Kanaide, T, Kuga, M, Nakamura, J. Sadoshima and Tomoike "Low Voltage Activated Calcium Current in rat Aorta Smooth Muscle Cells In Primary Culture" J Physiol. 416, 141-160, (1989).

1,4-dihydropyridine and pyridine compounds as calcium channel blockers


A fixed center constant velocity joint includes an outer race having races formed with a spherical surface, a shaft, a driver connected to the shaft and including radially directed pivot shafts, first and second bipods each located on an opposite axial side of the driver and including radially directed trunnions, equalizers fitted on a pivot shaft and driveably connected to the first and second bipods for pivoting the bipods relative to one another, and bearings rotatably supported on a trunnion and including a spherical surface conjugate to and engaged with a surface of a race.

Equalizer constant velocity joints, which articulate or have angular displacement, can be either sliding joints, in which translational displacement occurs with a low sliding force, or fixed joints having no translational displacement. These joints use many of the same components and are specially suited for vehicle longitudinal drives. Their low friction characteristics, resulting from operating angles and longitudinal sliding, make equalizer constant velocity joints better suited to work well at high speeds than the constant velocity ball type joints used in wheel drive applications. Ball type joints operate at a lower speed and articulate through large angles in outboard joints in front wheel drive vehicle applications.
The fixed joint of this invention can be used in combination with a sliding joint, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,381. The fixed joint of this invention functions similarly to the sliding joint, and can be used in both slip and fixed joint constructions, provided the outer race is suitably modified.
Equalizer constant velocity joints can be used in wheel drive applications in place of conventional ball type constant velocity joints. The fixed joint does not have the high angle capability for outboard steering angles required for front wheel drive applications.
Equalizer universal joints provide all of the desired characteristics that longitudinal drives provide for smooth, vibration-free operation. For example, constant velocity is produced with only the low inertia components turning non-uniformly when operating at an angle, and inertia forces are cancelled by out-of-phase motion. The joint's inherently low friction characteristics produce lower operating temperatures and longer life in high-speed drive applications. There is virtually no sliding friction due to length changes.
An assembly comprising a combination of a fixed joint and a sliding joint eliminates centering problems that could result if a slip joint were located at each end of the assembly. The fixed joint of this invention eliminates oscillating secondary couple loads at supports, as in fixed non-constant velocity joints, when transmitting torque through a joint angle. Many components of the sliding constant velocity joint described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,381 are identical to those of the fixed constant velocity joint of this invention, which would reduce the production cost of an assembly that includes in combination a fixed joint of this invention and a slip joint.

Fixed-center articulating constant velocity joint


This disclosure generally provides embodiments to reduce the likelihood that an input device fails to detect an interfering signal when performing interference detection using interference bursts that are phase offset from sensor bursts used to perform capacitive sensing. In one embodiment, the input device adjusts the frequency of the interference bursts instead of using interference bursts with the same frequency. Doing so adjusts the phases of the interference bursts relative to each other such that even if one of the interference bursts is aligned with the interfering signal in a manner that the signal is not detected, an interference burst with a different frequency has a different alignment relative to the interfering signal. The measurements acquired by the differently aligned interference burst can be used to detect the presence of the interfering signal.

Display devices for updating images on a display screen are widely used in a variety of electronic systems. A typical display device includes a display source that provides display data that is used to update the screen. The display data may be organized into display frames which are transmitted from the source to the display screen at a predefined rate. In one example, each display frame corresponds to an image to be displayed on the screen. The display screen may include a display driver that updates the individual pixels on the display screen using the received display frames.

Interference detection using frequency modulation


An apparatus and method for controlling head loading in a disk drive including a displacement measuring unit measuring a vertical displacement of a disk, a rotational angle detecting unit detecting a rotational angle of a spindle motor, and a controller controlling the movement of an actuator to load a head on the disk while a vertical displacement of a portion of the disk on which the head is loaded is decreasing so that the disk separates farther from a position on which the head is parked. Therefore, the possibility of collision between the head and the disk during head loading is reduced, thereby preventing damage to the head and disk and improving the reliability of the disk drive.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Korean Patent Application No. 2003-66499, filed on Sep. 25, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a disk drive, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for controlling head loading in a disk drive, which can reduce the possibility of collision between a head and a rotating disk when the head is loaded onto the rotating disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive (HDD) is a computer data storage device, which reproduces data stored on disks or records data on the disks using a read/write head. In the HDD, a head is moved to a desired position by an actuator while flying above a data recording surface of a disk at a predetermined height.
FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a related art HDD, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a ramp and a suspension of an actuator in the HDD of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the HDD includes a base member 10, a spindle motor 12 installed on the base member 10, a disk 20 fixedly mounted on the spindle motor 12, and an actuator 30. Actuator 30 moves a slider 34, on which a read/write head 35 for data reproduction and recording is mounted, to a predetermined position on the disk 20. The actuator 30 includes a pivot bearing 31 installed on the base member 10, a swing arm 32 rotatably coupled to the pivot bearing 31, a suspension 33, which is installed at one end of the swing arm 32 and elastically supports the slider 34 toward a surface of the disk 20, and a voice coil motor (VCM), which rotates the swing arm 32. The VCM includes a VCM coil 37 coupled to the other end of the swing arm 32, and a magnet 38 disposed above and below the VCM coil 37 to face the VCM coil 37.
The VCM rotates the swing arm 32 in a direction according to Fleming's left-hand rule due to interaction between current input to the VCM coil 37 and a magnetic field formed by the magnet 38. That is, when the HDD is turned on and the disk 20 begins to rotate in an arrow direction D, the VCM rotates the swing arm 32 counterclockwise (in an arrow direction A) to move the slider 34, on which the read/write head 35 is mounted, to a position on a data recording surface of the disk 20. The slider 34 flies above the surface of the disk 20 at a predetermined height due to a lift force generated by the rotating disk 20. At this time, the head 35 mounted on the slider 34 reproduces or records data from or on the data recording surface of the disk 20.
Meanwhile, when the HDD does not operate and the disk 20 does not rotate, the head 35 should be parked in a position other than the data recording surface of the disk 20 so as not to touch the data recording surface of the disk 20. For this, a ramp 40 is installed outside the disk 20, and the suspension 33 has an end-tab 36 protruding therefrom such that the end-tab 36 is seated on a support surface 41 of the ramp 40.
When the HDD is turned off and the disk 20 stops rotating, the VCM rotates the swing arm 32 clockwise (in an arrow direction B). Accordingly, the end-tab 36 is moved to be parked on the support surface 41 of the ramp 40. Through this, the head 35 is unloaded from the disk 20. On the contrary, when the HDD is turned on and the disk 20 begins to rotate, the end-tab 36 is moved from the support surface 41 of the ramp 40 and the head 35 is loaded on the disk 20 due to the counterclockwise rotation of the swing arm 32 as described above.
In the meantime, an actuator latch 50 locks the actuator 30 in any desired place so that while the read/write head 35 is parked on the ramp 40, the actuator 30 cannot rotate unexpectedly due to external impact or vibration applied to the HDD.
FIG. 3A is a cross-sectional view of the HDD of FIG. 1 in a circumferential direction of the disk, for explaining a pitch static angle (PSA) of the slider, and FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view of the HDD of FIG. 1 in a radial direction of the disk, for explaining a roll static angle (RSA) of the slider.
Referring to FIGS. 3A and 3B, in the HDD, when the head 35 is moved from the ramp 40 and then is loaded onto the disk 20, the slider 34 on which the head 35 is mounted may collide with the surface of the disk 20. In order to avoid the collision, it is necessary to form a stable air bearing between the disk 20 and the slider 34 with the head 35 thereon. However, during the short head loading, very complex hydrodynamic and vibrational phenomena occur between the slider 34 and the disk 20. In particular, static angles, such as the pitch static angle (PSA) θP and the roll static angle (RSA) θR, of the slider 34 formed while the head 35 is moved from the ramp 40 to the disk 20 have a great influence on the collision between the slider 34 and the disk 20. Here, as shown in FIG. 3A, the PSA θP is an inclination of the slider 34 in a rotational direction of the disk 20 with respect to the surface of the disk 20. As shown in FIG. 3B, the RSA θR is an inclination of the slider 34 in a radial direction of the disk 20 with respect to the surface of the disk 20. It is known through many studies that when the PSA θP and RSA θR have positive values, the possibility of collision between the slider 34 and the disk 20 decreases. In further detail, as shown in FIG. 3A, if the PSA θP has a positive value, more air is introduced into a space between the slider 34 and the disk 20, and accordingly, a stronger air bearing is formed in a smoother manner. Thus, the possibility of collision between the slider 34 and the disk 20 is reduced. Similarly, as shown in FIG. 3B, if RSA θR has a positive value when the slider 34 is moved from the ramp 40 to the space above the disk 20, the possibility of collision between the slider 34 and the disk 20 is reduced.
However, even though the PSA θP and RSA θR have positive values, the collision possibility between the slider 34 and the disk 20 may increase depending on the state of the disk 20. That is, the collision possibility varies according to a vertical displacement of a portion of the disk 20 on which the slider 34 is loaded.
FIG. 4 is a graph illustrating a vertical displacement of the disk, for explaining collision between the head and the disk when the head is loaded.
Referring to FIG. 4, when the disk rotates, the disk vibrates. The amplitude of vibration is highest at an edge portion of the disk. The vibration of the disk is caused by deflection of the disk, poor flatness of the disk, and air flow in the HDD. The vibration is periodically repeated whenever the disk rotates. The repeated vibration is called Repeatable Runout (RRO). Because of the RRO, the edge portion of the disk has a vertical displacement repeated over time.
In the related art, the vertical displacement of the disk during head loading has not been considered. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 4, if the head is loaded on the disk while the vertical displacement of the portion of the disk on which the disk is loaded becomes increasingly greater, a distance between the head and the disk is drastically reduced and thus time is too short to generate sufficient air bearing between the slider on which the head is mounted and the disk. As a result, the collision possibility between the head and the disk increases greatly and also, the impact force applied to the head increases.
As described above, if the head and the disk repeatedly collide with each other, the head and the surface of the disk may be damaged, thereby deteriorating the reliability of the HDD.

Apparatus and method for controlling head loading in disk drive


The potholder is a hand protection device with a generally rectangular body having two outer surfaces, at least one layer of flexible insulating material disposed within the body, and two pockets disposed on one of the outer surfaces. The layers of the potholder provide sufficient thickness to reduce the amount of heat radiating through the potholder from the heated object to the hand. Each pocket covers about half the entire area of the potholder and is positioned so that the openings of the pockets face each other. The fingers of a hand are placed in one pocket and the thumb is inserted in the opposite pocket. The pockets retain the potholder on the hand and prevent accidental burns incurred by grazing a hot object. A number of horizontal rows of stitches are sewn between the pockets to form a crease that facilitates the folding of the potholder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to potholders, and more particularly to a potholder having pockets to insert the fingers and the thumb of a hand.
2. Description of the Related Art
No kitchen is without something to protect one's hand when cooking, whether it is an oven mitt, a potholder pad or a towel. A common problem with current potholders is that they are too thin and must be folded so heat does not radiate through to the hand. Hand protectors such as oven mitts are too loose and move around on the hand, while traditional potholder pads do not cover the back of one's hand and do not provide a place to gripping the pad. Because protecting one's hands from heat is important, a number of hand protectors have been developed to meet this need.
U.S. Pat. No. 580,148, issued to Staples on Apr. 6, 1897, describes a permanently curved potholder having an oblong shape. The potholder comprises a number of layers of non-heat-conducting material, such as paper. The curvature of the potholder is maintained by a number of longitudinal rows of stitches. The layers of non-heat-conducting material are sandwiched between outer layers of cotton or felt. U.S. Pat. No. 2,047,635, issued to Johst on Jul. 14, 1936, describes a "U" shaped hand protector pad. The protector is preferably made of a single sheet of vulcanized rubber. The rubber is resilient, permitting the protector to easily bend over and enfold an object yet still maintain its "U" shape.
Some hand protectors have been developed with a pocket or a band to keep the fingers, but not the thumb, of a hand on the hand protector. U.S. Pat. No. 2,306,062, issued to Katz on Dec. 22, 1942, describes a hot pad. The hot pad is made from oilcloth in either a round or a square shape, and possesses a very thin amount of internal filler. The hot pad utilizes either an open-ended sleeve or a band disposed on the back of the pad that permits the fingertips of a user's hand to hang over the pad's edge, and the thumb to grasp the back portion of the hot pad.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,261,064, issued to Katz on Oct. 28, 1941, describes a hot pad having a hand-receiving pocket. The pocket covers a considerable portion of the hot pad, but still provides space for the thumb to sit outside the pocket and grip the pad. U.S. Des. Pat. No. 476,778, issued to Beyda on Jul. 1, 2003, shows an ornamental design for a potholder. The potholder is made of terry cloth and has a pocket for inserting a hand.
Other hand protectors have been developed as potholders either without a pocket or with a pocket to insert only the handle of cookware. U.S. Pat. No. 2,641,793, issued to Wilm on Jun. 16, 1953, describes a magnetic potholder. The potholder has two panels and filler material quilted between the two panels. The panels are made of plastic material or oilcloth and the filler is cotton batting or any other type of insulating material. The potholder attaches to a magnetic surface by a magnet that is disposed at one corner of the potholder.
U.S. Des. Pat. No. 336,549, issued to Stabile on Jun. 15, 1993, shows an ornamental design for a hot pad. The hot pad is relatively thin and lacks pockets. U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,372, issued to Zhou et al. on Sep. 5, 2000, describes a heat-resistant potholder comprising more than one panel. The panels of the potholder form a pocket or pouch to insert the handle of kitchenware. Cotton batting is disposed between the panels of the potholder to provide extra protection from hot handles inserted in the pocket.
Still other hand protectors have been developed in the form of a glove or mitt. U.S. Pat. No. 2003/0140395, published on Jul. 31, 2003, describes an oven glove having heat retardant elements on the thumb, the fingers and the palm of the hand. A gripping element is attached to and extends from the thumb, allowing the user to grasp and manipulate an item by placing the thumb over the edge of a pan.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,905,946, issued to Goldsmith on Sep. 29, 1959, describes hand protectors having an inner layer sandwiched between two outer layers. The outer layer is made of cloth that is coated with silicone and plastic material containing aluminum powder, making the hand protector waterproof and heat reflective, respectively. The inner layer is made of natural or synthetic foam polymer, as well as natural or synthetic rubber.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,488, issued to Duncan et al. on Oct. 9, 2001, describes a kitchen grip taking on several forms, such as a hand mitt or a lid holder. In most embodiments, the grip comprises two sheets, one surface being made of nylon/polyester fabric and being water and stain resistant, the second surface being a temperature-controlling, non-slip chloride rubber that is affixed to the nylon/polyester fabric.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a potholder solving the aforementioned problems is desired.


An image information control method and apparatus, the apparatus includes a receiving unit configured to receive bit map image data sent from an information process unit, and an accumulating unit configured to accumulate the image data received from the information process unit line by line. A blocked unit is configured to group a plurality of lines of the image data into a predetermined size block of image data. A converting unit is configured to convert the block of image data into a language command corresponding to the image forming apparatus and including the block of image data, and a sending unit is configured to send the language command to the image forming apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to controlling image information and more particularly relates to an image information control apparatus, an image information control system, a printer driver, an image information method, a computer program using the method, and a recording medium for converting data from an application program to a printer command corresponding to an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
A printer system generally includes a host computer and a printer device connected to the host computer. A printer driver is typically included in the host computer for converting print data generated by an application program of the host computer to a print command of a printer language. The converted data can be compressed and then sent from the host computer to the printer.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open patent Publication No. 2001-2882482 (the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference) describes a technology whereby an application program sends bit map data to a printer driver, which stores the bit map data in a buffer memory. Information that is necessary for deciding on a compression technique is also collected, and a user of the system selects a compression technique to be applied to the stored bit map data. The selected compression technique is then applied to compress the bit map data line by line, and the compressed data is sent to the printer for printing. However, the technology described in patent document JP2001-282482 has a problem in that line by line compression is slow, and a single compression technique may not provide optimum print quality for all lines of the bit map data.
Japanese Laid-Open patent Publication No. 2001-306275 (the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference) describes another technology that divides a page of image data into bands including a plurality of lines each. The bands are then compressed using a compression technology selected by the user, and the compressed bands are sent to the printer for printing. While this band technology provides improved efficiency in compression, a boundary between bands is difficult to reproduce at the printer with accuracy. To reduce this problem, each band can include bit map data that overlaps with bit map data of an adjacent band in order to provide redundancy for accurate reproduction of data at the boundaries. This leads to complexity and slow print reproduction, as the overlapping data must be removed by the printer as the printer reproduces the data. Moreover, as with the technology described above, the use of the same compression technique for all bands of print data may lead to poor quality printing for portions of the page.
Finally, Japanese Laid-Open patent Publication No. 2001-114778 (the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference) describes a printer apparatus that automatically selects a compression technique that has the lowest feasible compression rate from a group of compression techniques, that can compress image data. While this technique provides improvements in print quality, low compression rates cause slow printing. Moreover, as with the techniques described above, use of a single compression technique for the entire page of print data may lead to poor quality printing for portions of the page.

System, method and computer program product for controlling image information


A process for preparing As4O6 comprises successively heating and cooling a mixture of natural Sinsuk and 40% alcohol in a ratio of about 1: about 1 for about 1 to about 2 hour(s) resulting in a product, successively washing the product with distilled water thereby forming washed precipitates, maintaining the washed precipitates at about −40° C. for 24 hours, defrosting, filtering, and drying the precipitates, and successively heating and cooling the precipitates to obtain the final As4O6 product.

In general, various drugs are presently available for anti-cancer chemotherapy. Alkylating agents, such as cisplatin and cyclophosphamide, manifest their anti-cancer effect by forming covalent bonds with nitrogen atoms of DNA nucleotides because of its highly electrophilic property of the active site. Antimetabolites, such as 5-fluorouracil, act by inhibiting enzymes involved in biosynthesis of nucleic acids or by being inserted into DNA or RNA structures by itself. Some antibiotics, such as adriamycin, act potently on DNA to inhibit the normal function, which results in suppression of tumor growth. But all of these anti-cancer agents affect not only pathological tumor cells, but also normal healthy cells, especially bone marrow cells or intestinal epithelia with high turnover rate, which cause serious complications and toxicity, such as myelosuppression, alopecia, renal failure, nausea and vomiting, neurotoxicity, etc.
On the other hand, arsenic has been known as a potent, environmental carcinogen, affecting skin and lung often. Arsenic is reported to bind to sulfohydryl structure of enzymes to inactivate target enzymes, to inhibit phosphorylation and dephosphorylation reactions, which are vital for regulation of enzyme activities, and to cause abnormalities in chromosomes. Therefore arsenic has been studied mostly from toxicological aspect, related to these reports up to now.
But in the past, arsenic had been used as a therapeutic agent in both Oriental and Occidental medicines. Especially, in traditional Chinese medicine including Korean medicine, arsenic compound had been prescribed for a long time to treat some fatal diseases, e.g. to eradicate evil energy. In old medical literatures of Korea and China, it is described that arsenic was prescribed as a medicine by the name of Eungwhang in page 1234 or by the name of Bisang in page 1237 of TonEuiBoGam (NamSaDang), or Encyclopedia of Oriental Medicine, where it is described that arsenic was prescribed only after reducing its toxicity, because of its extreme toxicity. Also arsenic was known to have detoxifying activity against several toxic substances. For example, arsenic was used in managing choongak, or vomiting and in eradicating spirits and evil energy. In an old literature of Chinese medicine (BonChoKangMok (Encyclopedia of Herbs of Chinese Medicine), pages 12-16 of vol. 9), indications and pharmacological actions of arsenic (by the name of whangwoong) are described, where arsenic is reported to have the action of purifying the blood. Thus arsenic had been recognized as an active medicine and used for a long time, but in Korea, arsenic is recognized as a possibly harmful chemical with characteristics of heavy metals and accordingly its use is quite limited. Arsenic possesses some characteristics of heavy metals although it does not belong to heavy metal group and therefore, has been avoided in the production of medicine. Exposure to arsenic leads to anemia, leukopenia, and dysfunction of kidney and liver and chronic exposure may have carcinogenic effect.
In Western medicine, arsenic compound was prescribed for treating several diseases, including rheumatism, syphilis, psoriasis, etc. and low dose of arsenic compound had been known to have beneficial effect on physiological functions of human body, including stimulation of hematopoiesis, which coincides with descriptions in old literatures -of Oriental medicine. But in modern medicine, indications for arsenic compound became very limited. From the end of 19th century to the beginning of 20th century, arsenic compound was tried to treat chronic leukemia and after 1950s, melarsoprol, an organic compound of arsenic which was prescribed for African trypanosomiasis, is the only arsenic compound in use at present time.
Based on these pharmacological properties of arsenic, attempts have been made recently to develop a novel anticancer drug and presently some studies are making rapid progress in this field. After the Cultural Revolution, China has been putting considerable efforts to study traditional medicine using the scientific tools of Western medicine. They published a report in 1996, in collaboration with a French research team, that arsenic trioxide, (As2O3) had an excellent effect in treating acute promyelocytic leukemia. Researchers of Western medicine were marveled at this result, because arsenic trioxide was especially effective in treating leukemia patients who had been resistant to conventional chemotherapy since this paper was published, more medical scientists of Western Hemisphere became interested in the possible anticancer effect of arsenic compounds. Stimulated by these results, considerable efforts have been made to integrate traditional Oriental Medicine and modern molecular medicine by interpreting the results of Oriental Medicine in terms of mainstream modern anticancer chemotherapy. It is extremely important to develop novel chemicals to have effective anticancer efficacy without any serious side effects. The invention described here succeeded in the separation and purification of the active ingredient by treating a natural, raw material of arsenic, which had been used in Oriental medicine, through multiple processes. Additionally clinical study indicated that pharmaceutical composition of arsenic hexoxide shows potent anticancer efficacy without any obvious side effects.

Anti-cancer therapy agent of arsenic hexoxide (As


A robust header compression scheme (“ROHC”) compresses IP security (“IPSec”) protected IP packets. More specifically, ROHC is applied to portions of an IP packet header prior to IPSec encryption. ROHC may then optionally be applied again to the unencrypted portions of the IP packet.

Various compression schemes today enable compression and decompression of network packet headers. Many such schemes are optimized for packet transfers over wired, bandwidth-restricted networks, such as telephone networks (via modem connections). These schemes generally do not take into account specific peculiarities of wireless networks, such as higher error rate tolerance to ensure successful packet transfers. High error rates may, however, significantly degrade the performance of traditional header compression schemes.
To specifically address the characteristics of wireless networks, the Internet Engineering Task Force ("IETF") recently developed a header compression standard compatible with wireless networks. Known as Robust Header Compression ("ROHC," IETF RFC 3095, July 2001), the standard focuses on compressing packet headers for a variety of network packets on wireless networks. Thus far, "profiles" have been defined for applying ROHC to Internet Protocol ("IP") packets, Real-Time Protocol ("RTP") packets, User Datagram Protocol ("UDP") packets and Transport Control Protocol ("TCP") packets. Profiles are schemes or protocols that define how compression is performed on various network packets.
Similar to other compression schemes, ROHC is generally applied "hop-by-hop," namely at every node on the network. In other words, when a node receives a compressed packet header, it decompresses the packet header, examines the header fields, and recompresses the packet header for transfer to the next node on the network. These steps may be performed at every node on the network in between the source node (where the packets originate) and the destination node (the ultimate destination for the packets).
In addition to compression, security protocols are also commonly applied to network packets. Internet Protocol Security ("IPSec," IETF RFC 2401, November 1998) is a set of security protocols developed by the IETF to provide security services at the IP layer of a network. IPSec provides two protocols for security, namely the IP Authentication Header ("AH") protocol and the Encapsulating Security Payload ("ESP") protocol. AH may provide connectionless integrity, data origin authentication and optional anti-replay services while ESP may provide encryption, limited traffic flow confidentiality, connectionless integrity, data origin authentication and anti-replay services.
IPSec-protected IP packets may be transmitted in either "transport mode" and/or "tunnel mode." Transport mode transmission may be used for secure transmission of an IP packet from a source node directly to its ultimate destination node, without any intermediate security devices, e.g. between two peer nodes. Tunnel mode, on the other hand, is typically used when the packet from a source node has to traverse through additional security devices such as security gateways (including one or more routers, firewalls and/or other network devices) prior to arriving at the destination node. Tunnel mode may also be used to hide the flow details of the packet because only the tunnel entry and exit points are visible to anyone who may intercept the packet.
In contrast to ROHC, IPSec is not applied hop-by-hop, but rather "end-to-end." In other words, an IPSec protected packet is generally encoded on the source node and decoded on the destination node (or on the security gateway, in tunnel mode). The IETF mandates the use of IPSec for all networks conforming to IPv6 (IETF RFC 1883, December 1995) and MobileIPv6 (IETF MobileIPv6, Internet Draft draft-ietf-mobileip-ipv6-19.txt. (Work In Progress), September 2002) standards, and recommends the use of IPSec for all networks conforming to the IPv4 (IETF RFC 2401, November 1998) and MobilIPv4 (IETF RFC 3220, January 2002) standards. As a result, IP packets transmitted over any network today are most likely protected by IPSec protocols.
Unfortunately, there are no IETF profiles for applying ROHC to IPSec protected packets today. In other words, IPSec-protected IP packets may not currently be compressed. This inability to compress IPSec-protected IP packets is becoming increasingly problematic. IP packet headers have increased in size as new IP protocols have been introduced. For example, the IPv6 standard increased IP packet header sizes by almost fifty percent. Additionally, the introduction of the "v4-v6 tunneling" concept to ensure compatibility between IPv4 and IPv6 compliant networks has added significant overhead to IP packet headers. Mobile IP protocols have also introduced additional IP packet headers, thus contributing to the inflation of IP packet size.
As a result, there is a need to be able to compress IP packets, and more specifically IPSec-protected IP packets. The IETF has recently discussed the possibility of using a compression scheme called "IPComp" to enable header compression of IPSec-protected IP packets. IPComp, however, suffers from a number of shortcomings. Most importantly, IPComp is a general-purpose compression scheme, designed for data compression. As a result, IPComp provides only limited compression gains for packet header compression, as compared to ROHC, which is optimized for packet header compression and may achieve between eighty and/or ninety percent compression efficiency. This difference in compression efficiency also results partially from the inherent characteristics of these two compression schemes. IPComp is a "stateless" scheme, i.e., it compresses and decompresses each IP packet by itself, without any relation to other packets. In contrast, ROHC is a "stateful" compression scheme, which is more complex because it retains additional information regarding each IP packet, but may also achieve a higher degree of compression.

Method, apparatus and system for compressing IPSec-protected IP packets


A flame retardant additive comprises (A) a gassing agent which is a compound containing both phosphorus and nitrogen, typically ammonium polyphosphate, which is surface coated with (B) a silicone-base water repellent treating agent comprising a co-hydrolytic condensate obtained through co-hydrolytic condensation of (i) an organosilicon compound and (ii) an amino group-containing alkoxysilane or a partial hydrolyzate thereof in the presence of an organic or inorganic acid. The additive is improved in moisture absorption resistance and dispersion and suited for use in resins or elastomers.

From the past, a variety of flame retardant additives have been used in resins and elastomers for imparting flame retardance thereto. Halogen-containing compounds have been the mainstream of the flame retardant technology. Flame retardant resin compositions are generally prepared by compounding thermoplastic resins with halogen-containing compounds alone or in combination with antimony compounds such as antimony oxide. It is recently regarded problematic that these flame retardant resin compositions give off halide gases during combustion or molding. Metal hydroxides are also used as the flame retardant. In order to provide certain flame retardance, metal hydroxides must be heavily loaded at the expense of processability and mechanical strength.
Phosphorus compounds are expected as a promising candidate and have been widely used in practice. Among numerous phosphorus compounds, ammonium polyphosphate is expected to impart a high level of flame retardance when added to various resin compositions because it has a high phosphorus content and contains within its molecule a nitrogen atom which is believed to act in synergy with phosphorus.
However, ammonium polyphosphate is less water resistant in itself, and in the case of resin compositions, also gives rise to the problems of bleeding and substantially degraded electrical properties when held under hot humid conditions. For fiber treatment, ammonium polyphosphate is generally coated in emulsion liquid form. Since ammonium polyphosphate tends to agglomerate due to moisture absorption, the treatment becomes uneven so that flame retardance may develop with difficulty. A number of studies have been made to overcome these problems.
One solution is to treat surfaces of ammonium polyphosphate particles with melamine compounds such as by coating (see JP-B 53-15478, JP-B 52-39930, JP-A 61-103962 and JP-A 8-183876). These methods, however, have problems including difficult preparation, agglomeration of particles, still insufficient water resistance, and generation of formaldehyde. Additionally, since melamine compounds are less dispersible in various resins, it is difficult to disperse melamine compound-coated ammonium polyphosphate in resins.
Means for improving the water resistance and dispersibility of ammonium polyphosphate, proposed so far, include treatments with silane-derived coupling agents. See JP-B 6-6655, JP-B 6-4735 and JP-B 6-18944. These treatments impart only some water repellent effects and are insufficient to solve the problems including a lessening of electrical properties.
JP-A 8-134455 discloses to modify ammonium polyphosphate with silica fine powder surface coated with silicone oil. This treatment imparts only some water repellent effects and is insufficient to solve the problems including a lessening of electrical properties.
It was also proposed to add silicone oil and/or silicone resin and ammonium polyphosphate separately to thermoplastic resins, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,795 (Pawar) and JP-A 5-39394. These methods still leave the problem that ammonium polyphosphate picks up moisture and bleeds to the surface, detracting from physical properties of resin.

Flame retardant additives, emulsion type coating compositions, and flame retardant compositions


Improved robotic surgery end-effectors include at least one insulation material for inhibiting surface conduction of electrical current in a proximal direction, from a distal active electrode toward the proximal end of the end-effector and toward the rest of the surgical instrument itself. Some embodiments include two layers of insulation to further prevent proximally-directed current. By inhibiting proximal current flow, the end-effectors prevent unwanted patient burns as well as electricity-related wear and tear in and around the area where the end-effector is coupled with the rest of the surgical instrument. In various embodiments, such end-effectors are preferably removably coupleable with a robotic surgical instrument.

The present invention generally relates to surgical apparatus and methods. More specifically, the invention relates to an electro-surgical instrument with inhibited surface conduction and methods for use with a robotic surgical system.
Minimally invasive surgical techniques generally reduce the amount of extraneous tissue damage during surgical procedures, thereby reducing patient recovery time, discomfort, and deleterious side effects. One effect of minimally invasive surgery, for example, is reduced post-operative hospital recovery times. Because the average hospital stay for a standard surgery is typically significantly longer than the average stay for an analogous minimally invasive surgery, increased use of minimally invasive techniques could save millions of dollars in hospital costs each year. Patient recovery times, patient discomfort, surgical side effects, and time away from work can also be reduced by increasing the use of minimally invasive surgery.
In theory, a significant number of surgical procedures could potentially be performed by minimally invasive techniques to achieve the advantages just described. Only a small percentage of procedures currently use minimally invasive techniques, however, because certain instruments, systems and methods are not currently available in a form for providing minimally invasive surgery.
Traditional forms of minimally invasive surgery typically include endoscopy, which is visual examination of a hollow space with a viewing instrument called an endoscope. One of the more common forms of endoscopy is laparoscopy, which is visual examination and/or treatment of the abdominal cavity. In traditional laparoscopic surgery a patient's abdominal cavity is insufflated with gas, and cannula sleeves are passed through small incisions in the musculature of the patient's abdomen to provide entry ports through which laparoscopic surgical instruments can be passed in a sealed fashion. Such incisions are typically about ½ inch (about 12 mm) in length.
Laparoscopic surgical instruments generally include a laparoscope for viewing the surgical field and working tools defining end-effectors. Typical surgical end-effectors include, for example, clamps, graspers, scissors, staplers, hooks, electrocautery devices, needle holders and the like. The working tools are similar to those used in conventional (open) surgery, except that the working end or end-effector of each tool is separated from its handle by a long extension tube, typically of about 12 inches (about 300 mm) in length, for example, so as to permit the surgeon to introduce the end-effector to the surgical site and to control movement of the end-effector relative to the surgical site from outside a patient's body.
To perform a surgical procedure, a surgeon typically passes the working tools or instruments through the cannula sleeves to the internal surgical site and manipulates the instruments from outside the abdomen by sliding them in and out through the cannula sleeves, rotating them in the cannula sleeves, levering (i.e., pivoting) the instruments against the abdominal wall and actuating the end-effectors on distal ends of the instruments from outside the abdominal cavity. The instruments normally pivot around centers defined by the incisions which extend through the muscles of the abdominal wall. The surgeon typically monitors the procedure by means of a television monitor which displays an image of the surgical site captured by the laparoscopic camera. Typically, the laparoscopic camera is also introduced through the abdominal wall so as to capture the image of the surgical site. Similar endoscopic techniques are employed in, for example, arthroscopy, retroperitoneoscopy, pelviscopy, nephroscopy, cystoscopy, cistemoscopy, sinoscopy, hysteroscopy, urethroscopy, and the like.
Although traditional minimally invasive surgical instruments and techniques like those just described have proven highly effective, newer systems may provide even further advantages. For example, traditional minimally invasive surgical instruments often deny the surgeon the flexibility of tool placement found in open surgery. Difficulty is experienced in approaching the surgical site with the instruments through the small incisions. Additionally, the added length of typical endoscopic instruments often reduces the surgeon's ability to feel forces exerted by tissues and organs on the end-effector. Furthermore, coordination of the movement of the end-effector of the instrument as viewed in the image on the television monitor with actual end-effector movement is particularly difficult, since the movement as perceived in the image normally does not correspond intuitively with the actual end-effector movement. Accordingly, lack of intuitive response to surgical instrument movement input is often experienced. Such a lack of intuitiveness, dexterity and sensitivity of endoscopic tools has been found to be an impediment in the increased use of minimally invasive surgery.
Minimally invasive robotic (or "telesurgical") surgical systems have been developed to increase surgical dexterity and allow a surgeon to operate on a patient in an intuitive manner. Telesurgery is a general term for surgical operations using systems where the surgeon uses some form of remote control, e.g., a servomechanism, or the like, to manipulate surgical instrument movements, rather than directly holding and moving the tools by hand. In such a telesurgery system, the surgeon is typically provided with an image of the surgical site on a visual display at a location remote from the patient. The surgeon can typically perform the surgical procedure at the location remote from the patient while viewing the end-effector movement on the visual display during the surgical procedure. Typically while viewing a three-dimensional image of the surgical site on the visual display, the surgeon performs the surgical procedures on the patient by manipulating master control devices at the remote location, which master control devices control motion of the remotely controlled instruments.
Such a telesurgery system is often provided with at least two master control devices (one for each of the surgeon's hands), which are normally operatively associated with two robotic arms on each of which a surgical instrument is mounted. Operative communication between master control devices and associated robotic arm and instrument assemblies is typically achieved through a control system. The control system typically includes at least one processor which relays input commands from the master control devices to the associated robotic arm and instrument assemblies and from the arm and instrument assemblies to the associated master control devices in the case of, e.g., force feedback, or the like. One example of a robotic surgical system is the DA VINCI® system available from Intuitive Surgical, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.
One type of end-effector which is often advantageous for use with a robotic surgical system is an electro-surgical end-effector, such as an electrocautery device. Electro-surgical devices, such as monopolar and bipolar devices, electrocautery scissors, hooks or jaws and the like, are commonly used in laparoscopic surgery and conventional surgery to cut tissue and/or coagulate small blood vessels. Thus, electro-surgical end-effectors have been developed for use with robotic surgical systems. Although many such electro-surgical end-effectors are quite effective, there are ways in which such devices may be improved.
One shortcoming of currently available end-effectors is that they are not optimally designed to inhibit conduction of current from the active electrode at the distal end of the effector back toward proximal parts of the electro-surgical instrument. Current conducted proximally from the active electrode may melt or otherwise damage one or more proximal parts of the electro-surgical instrument. Such a proximally-transmitted current may also increase the temperature of a proximal portion of the instrument and thus cause an unwanted patient burn at a location apart from the active electrode.
Another possible shortcoming of currently available devices is that the end-effector is typically permanently connected to the rest of the electro-surgical instrument. Although such permanently connected end-effectors work well, the permanent connection makes cleaning of the electrode difficult, often requiring the entire electro-surgical instrument to be autoclaved or otherwise cleaned. Such permanently attached electrodes may also sustain larger amounts of wear and tear before being replaced, which may compromise performance of the end-effector.
Therefore, a need exists for improved electro-surgical instruments and end-effectors for use with a robotic surgical system. Improved end-effectors would include means for inhibiting surface conduction of current from a distal active electrode to more proximal portions of the end-effector and to the electro-surgical instrument. Ideally such end-effectors would be available either permanently attached to an electro-surgical instrument or removably attachable to an instrument. At least some of these objectives will be met by the present invention.

Electro-surgical instrument with replaceable end-effectors and inhibited surface conduction


A right management server manages usage of a content on a parent terminal and a child terminal. The right management server includes content usage right database that stores right information indicating a usage rule of a content for each terminal ID or user ID, and a parental control information management unit that acquires, from the parent terminal or the parent user, parental control information that is an instruction to put a restriction on usage of a content on the child terminal or by a child user, and stores the parental control information in a parental control information database. The right management server also includes a license ticket generation unit that acquires a license ticket issuance request from the child terminal or the child user, generates a license ticket that is information for permitting usage of the content on the child terminal or by the child user, under a usage rule with a restriction indicated by the parental control information which is held in the parental control information management unit, and sends the license ticket to the child terminal or the child user.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a license management system in which a license management server centrally manages usage of a content on a terminal device. Particularly, it relates to a parental control system in which a parent sets a usage restriction on a child's usage of a content in the home and a temporary usage restriction system in which a restriction is set on usage of a content by a temporary user who uses the content using another's terminal device temporarily.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, since people of all ages have been able to view and enjoy contents such as TV and radio programs, videos, CDs (compact discs) and comic books easily on their personal computers or the like in their homes, children have had increasing opportunities to view adult or violent scenes in these pictures. So, in these homes, consideration is required to preventing the children from viewing these inappropriate scenes included in the pictures so that they do not have a bad influence on the children's mental development. It is a parental control system that gains the spotlight from this viewpoint.
In the conventional content distribution system, schemes to prevent the selling of an adult content to an underage user by checking the user's age in purchasing the content or regarding the user who offers to purchase the content by a credit card as an adult. Also, as for a DVD (digital versatile disc) video, parental control codes represented as numbers of 1˜8 are preset on a DVD disc for sale, and a parent presets the code indicating a rating level of the video that can be reproduced on a reproduction device in his home.
And, when the code value set on the reproduction device is smaller than that of the DVD disc, the DVD video cannot be reproduced on the reproduction device. For example, when the parental control code of the DVD disc is 3 and the code of the reproduction device is 2, the DVD video cannot be reproduced on the reproduction device. Since a 4-digit password is necessary to change the code of the reproduction device, a child cannot change the code by himself.
However, most of these conventional systems control the reproduction device only to reproduce or not to reproduce a content, and cannot put detailed restrictions such as the restriction on a usage duration or a usage number of the content. There is also a problem that although only a violent scene can be cut out of a DVD video, a parent cannot set restriction rules and details individually such as which scene should be cut out or how a rating level of a parental control code should be set. All he can do is put restrictions under the predetermined rules.

License management server, license management system and usage restriction method

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present invention provides new miRNAs in rice. The nucleic acids of the invention can be used to control gene expression in plants.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, endogenous noncoding RNAs found in animals (Lee, R. C. et al., Cell 75:843-854 (1993); Wightman, B. et al., Cell 75:855-862 (1993); Lagos-Quintana, M. et al., Science 294:853-858 (2001); Lagos-Quintana, M. et al., Curr. Biol. 12:735-739 (2002); Lagos-Quintana, M. et al., RNA 9:175-179 (2003); Lau, N. C. et al., Science 294:858-862 (2001); Lee, R. C. et al., Science 294:862-864 (2001); Lim, L. P. et al., Science 299:1540 (2003a); Lim, L. P. et al., Genes Dev. 17:991-1008 (2003b); Mourelatos, Z., et al., Genes Dev. 16:720-728 (2002); Aravin, A. et al., Dev. Cell 5:337-350 (2003); Ambros, V. et al., Curr. Biol. 13:807-818 (2003a); Dostie, J. et al., RNA 9:180-186 (2003); Grad, Y. et al., Mol. Cell 11:1253-1263 (2003)), plants (Reinhart, B. J. et al., Genes Dev. 16:1616-1626 (2002); Llave, C. et al., Plant Cell 14:1605-1619 (2002a); Park, W. et al., Curr. Biol. 12:1484-1495 (2002); Mette, M. F. et al., Plant Physiol. 130:6-9 (2002); Palatnik, J. F. et al., Nature 425:257-263 (2003); Floyd, S. K. et al., Nature 428:485-486 (2004); Jones-Rhoades, M. J. et al., Mol. Cell 14:787-799 (2004); Sunkar, R. et al., Plant Cell 16:2001-2019 (2004); Wang, J-F. et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 32:1688-1695 (2004a); Wang, X. J. et al., Genome Biol. 5:R65 (2004b); Adai, A. et al., Genome Res. 15:78-91 (2005)), and the Epstein-Barr virus (Pfeffer, S. et al., Science 304:734-736 (2004)). In both animals and plants, the majority of the miRNA genes exists as independent transcriptional units and they are transcribed by RNA polymerase II into long primary transcripts (termed pri-miRNAs) (Bartel, D. P. Cell 116:281-297 (2004); Parizotto, E. A. et al., Genes Dev. 18:2237-2242 (2004); Kurihara, Y. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101:12753-12758 (2004)). In animals, pri-miRNAs are trimmed in the nucleus to generate ˜70 nt miRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs) with fold-back structures by a multi-protein complex called microprocessor in which Drosha (an RNase III-like enzyme) and Pasha (a double-stranded RNA binding protein) are critical components (Lee, Y. et al., Nature 425:415-419 (2003); Denli, A. H. et al., Nature 432:231-234 (2004)). The pre-miRNAs are exported to the cytoplasm and subsequently cleaved by another RNase III-like enzyme called Dicer to generate mature miRNAs (Bernstein, E. et al., Nature 409:363-366 (2001)). However, the Arabidopsis genome does not appear to encode a Drosha ortholog, and it seems that the plant nuclear-localized Dicer homolog is likely to have Drosha function (Kurihara, Y. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101:12753-12758 (2004)). Many miRNAs are conserved between species—often over wide evolutionary distances. For example, AthmiR166 is conserved in all lineages of land plants, including bryophytes, lycopods, ferns and seed plants (Floyd, S. K. et al., Nature 428:485-486 (2004)), and the Caenorhabditis elegans miRNA, let-7, is conserved in human, Drosophila, and eleven other bilateral animals (Pasquinelli, A. E. et al., Nature. 408:86-89 (2000)); but others are only conserved between more closely related species such as C. elegans and C. briggsae (Ambros, V. et al., Curr. Biol. 13:807-818 (2003a); Bartel, D. P. Cell 116:281-297 (2004)). miRNAs down-regulate the expression of specific mRNA targets, either by directing the cleavage of mRNAs or interfering with translation (Carrington, J. C. et al. Science 301:336-338 (2003); Bartel, D. P. Cell 116:281-297 (2004); Ambros, V. Nature 431:350-355 (2004)).
miRNAs have been identified by cloning and by computational approaches tailored to the key features of lin-4 and let-7, the 2 founding members of miRNAs from C. elegans, which include a fold-back hairpin RNA precursor coupled with evolutionary conservation (Ambros, V. et al., RNA 9:277-279 (2003b)). It was estimated that miRNA genes represent 1% of the expressed genome in complex organisms such as worms, flies and humans (Lai, E. C. Curr. Biol. 13:R925-R936 (2003); Lim, L. P. et al., Genes Dev. 17:991-1008 (2003b); Bartel, D. P. Cell 116:281-297 (2004)). However, recent computational predictions have raised the number of miRNAs significantly in primates by comparative analysis of the human, mouse and rat genomes (Berezikov, E. et al., Cell, 120:21-24 (2005)). The identification of the entire set of miRNAs and their target genes from model organisms is of fundamental importance to understand regulatory networks and gene silencing mechanisms.
Rice is the world's most important crop, as measured by the portion of calories it provides to the human diet. It is an established model system for monocots that include all cereals. Rice is the only monocot species with a fully sequenced genome. The availability of the complete genome sequence of rice allowed the in silico identification of 20 families of rice miRNAs based on conservation of sequences with Arabidopsis miRNAs (Reinhart, B. J. et al., Genes Dev. 16:1616-1626 (2002); Park, W. et al., Curr. Biol. 12:1484-1495 (2002); Jones-Rhoades, M. J. et al., Mol. Cell 14:787-799 (2004); Sunkar, R. et al., Plant Cell 16:2001-2019 (2004); Bonnet, E. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 101:11511-11516 (2004); Wang, J-F. et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 32:1688-1695 (2004a); Adai, A. et al., Genome Res. 15:78-91 (2005)). In addition to finding conserved miRNAs, cloning approaches revealed Arabidopsis miRNAs that are not conserved in rice. At least four well-characterized Arabidopsis miRNAs, miR158, miR161, miR163 and miR173 do not have homologs in rice (Jones-Rhoades, M. J. et al., Mol. Cell 14:787-799 (2004)). Another miRNA (miR403) has been found to be conserved between Arabidopsis and Populus while its counterpart could not be identified in rice (Sunkar, R. et al., Plant Cell 16:2001-2019 (2004)). Recently, evidence was shown that the non-conserved miR161 and miR163 from Arabidopsis may have evolved by inverted duplication of their target genes (Allen, E. et al., Nature Genet. 36:1282-1290 (2004)). Additionally, Berezikov, E. et al., Cell, 120:21-24 (2005)) have predicted lineage specific miRNAs in mammalian and non-mammalian animal species. Taken together, these observations support the notion that rice may express monocot- and/or rice-specific miRNAs.
The present study was undertaken to identify new miRNAs that are difficult to predict in silico and verify previously predicted miRNAs from rice. Sequencing of small RNA libraries and subsequent analysis led to the identification of 14 new miRNAs. These new miRNAs from rice form 14 families, 13 of which are new and not present in Arabidopsis. Furthermore, we confirmed the existence of 15 of the 20 conserved families of miRNAs that were predicted previously. Based on sequence complementarity to miRNAs, we were able to predict 46 rice genes as putative targets of the new miRNAs. These predicted targets include not only transcription factors but also other genes involved in diverse physiological processes.

Cloning and characterization of microRNAs from rice

The Regents of the University of California


Power consumption is reduced in a diversity receiver. A diversity receiver (10) comprises a condition determination circuit (26) determining whether a predefined condition is satisfied; and a control circuit (28) suspending diversity reception if the condition determination circuit determines that the predefined condition is satisfied.

In radio transmission where transmitted signals from a transmitter are received at a receiver, amplitude and phase of the received signals vary over time due to Rayleigh fading involved in variations in relative positions between the transmitter and the receiver under a mobile communications environment where either or both of the transmitter and the receiver may move. In demodulation (recovering of transmitted signals) of the varying received signals in the receiver, sometimes the demodulation cannot be successfully carried out for amplitude decreasing intervals.
Among techniques for suppressing the effect of such fading variations, there is an antenna space diversity technique employing multiple antennas in a receiver, although a single antenna is commonly employed. According to the antenna space diversity technique, respective frame phases (timings) of received signals supplied from the multiple antennas are synchronized, and then the received signals are combined. By demodulating the combined received signals, the fading effect can be reduced compared to the single antenna case. In a case of two antennas, for example, if a signal received via one antenna has an insufficient level and on the other hand, a signal received via the other antenna has a sufficiently high level, level reduction can be alleviated by combining the signals received via the two antennas. Note that correlation between multiple antennas must be suppressed as much as possible for enhancing the combination effect. In addition, the combination may be carried out after weighting signals received via the respective antennas with their amplitudes. Instead of the combination of signals received via the respective antennas, a single output from an antenna having a high average level may be selected and provided.

Diversity receiver and method for controlling diversity receiving operation


An antenna switching circuit and an electronic device and an antenna switching method thereof are provided. The antenna switching circuit is disposed in the electronic device including an internal antenna and a RF module, and includes an external antenna connector and a controller. The external antenna connector has an independent ground terminal for receiving an independent ground signal, and the external antenna connector is electrically connected to an external antenna. The controller has a first RF terminal, a second RF terminal and a control terminal, the first RF terminal is electrically connected to the RF module, the second RF terminal is electrically connected to the internal antenna, and the control terminal detects the independent ground signal. When the controller detects no change in the independent ground signal, the controller electrically connects the RF module to the internal antenna; otherwise, the controller electrically connects the RF module to the external antenna.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an antenna switching circuit. Particularly, the invention relates to an antenna switching circuit connected to an external docking device and an electronic device and an antenna switching method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Vehicular telematics systems or industrial computers generally use a docking device to enhance convenience and performance of a computing device. Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device connected to a docking device. The electronic device 10 includes a radio frequency (RF) module 11, an internal antenna 12 and a docking connector 13. The docking connector 13 is a mechanical docking connector which includes a first RF terminal 13A, a second RF terminal 13B and a third RF terminal 13C.
When the electronic device 10 is not connected to a docking device (not shown in FIG. 1), the first RF terminal 13A is electrically connected to the radio frequency module 11, and the second RF terminal 13B is electrically connected to the internal antenna 12. Therefore, the RF module 11 can transmit or receive RF signals through the internal antenna 12 of the electronic device 10.
When the electronic device 10 is connected to the docking device, the third RF terminal 13C is electrically connected to an external antenna 22 of the docking device. Thus, the electrical connection between the RF module 11 and the internal antenna 12 is disconnected, and the RF module 11 is electrically connected to the external antenna 22.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a situation that a docking connector is not connected to a docking device. Referring to FIG. 2, the docking connector 13 is a mechanical docking connector. When the electronic device 10 is not connected to the docking device, a pogo connector 221 of the docking device is not in contact with the third RF terminal 13C. The first RF terminal 13A and the second RF terminal 13B are substantially in contact with each other, and the RF module 11 is electrically connected to the internal antenna 12.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a situation that a docking connector is connected to a docking device. When the electronic device 10 is connected to the docking device, not only the pogo connector 221 of the docking device is substantially in contact with the third RF terminal 13C, but also the first RF terminal 13A and the second RF terminal 13B are separated from each other. In this way, the electrical connection between the RF module 11 and the internal antenna 12 is disconnected. The RF module 11 is electrically connected to the external antenna 22 through the docking connector 13 and the pogo connector 221.
The mechanical docking connector (the docking connector 13) has advantages of being simple in structure and easy in usage. However, reliability of the mechanical docking connector is gradually decreased after multiple plug/unplug operations. Moreover, the mechanical docking connector results in high loss of transmission power of the RF signal. Therefore, it is an important issue in the field to design a docking connector with low loss in transmission power and stable reliability.

Antenna switching circuit and electronic device and antenna switching method thereof


A vector for the direct cloning of the products of PCR protocol incorporates single nucleotide overhangs at one or both ends of a linearized DNA segment. The single nucleotide overhangs are uracil or inosine residues, as desired, to facilitate cloning of the desired PCR products.

There has been much technical development in recent years on methods for manipulating and copying DNA molecules for use in modern techniques of molecular biology and genetic engineering. A reaction known as the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,683,195 and 4,683,202, has become a standard laboratory method for reproducing, or amplifying, copies of a DNA molecule either from an in vitro product or from a native DNA sequence isolated from a living organism. A variety of methods have been developed for cloning the products of PCR amplification into a plasmid vector for the purposes of making large quantities of DNA analysis, or to express DNA as RNA or protein products by other in vitro and in vivo methods.
One common method for the cloning of the products of PCR reactions involves the use of circular plasmids which can be cut to produce DNA fragments with ends having single 3' dTMP overhangs. A single dAMP overhang present on the DNA insert can be conveniently ligated into a vector having complementary single dTMP overhangs. These so-called "T-vectors" are formed from two closely spaced sequences that are recognized by a specific restriction enzyme that cleaves the plasmid DNA to leave a single 3' dTMP overhang on each end of the linearized vector following cleavage. The use and construction of such a vector is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,993. The T-vector is intended to take advantage of a phenomenon associated with some of the DNA polymerases that are used in the PCR process. For example, a popularly used DNA polymerase, Taq DNA polymerase, often leaves a single unpaired dAMP residue at each end of the DNA molecules which are the product of the PCR reaction. However, the propensity of Taq DNA polymerase to add single 3' dAMP extensions varies with the composition of the 3' ends of the PCR products, the PCR conditions, and the conditions under which the completed reactions are stored (Hu, DNA Cell Biol. 12, 763 (1993); Magnuson et al., BioTechniques 21, 700, (1996)). For example, the presence of a dAMP residue at the 3' end of a duplex is inhibitory to dAMP addition (presumably leaving a blunt end), and other bases such as dCMP, dGMP or dTMP can be preferentially added to ends having specific sequences. Therefore, under many conditions the fraction of PCR products that possess single 3' dAMP extensions on both ends can be relatively low. Therefore, vectors which have only a single 3' dTMP overhang cannot efficiently ligate with these other fragments. Also, while the theoretical cloning efficiency of a single T overhang and a single A overhang is high, practical cloning efficiencies are sometimes lower, and there can be high numbers of false positives arising from vector religation, due to damage of the DNA ends caused by exonuclease contamination of the restriction enzyme, or religation of the small vector fragment produced by restriction enzyme cleavage instead of the PCR product.
There are other methods for preparing T vectors including the addition of single dideoxy TMP residues at each end of a blunt and linearized plasmid using terminal transferase Holton & Graham, Nucleic Acids Res. 19:1156 (1991), or the addition of linkers containing a single unpaired dTMP residue to a linearized plasmid. However, no method has been described for the preparation of vectors having bases other than dTMP as the single 3' overhang.
Technology generally desires cloning vectors which optimize or improve efficiency over other vectors then currently available.