An agent installer operates to install an agent on a plurality of host computer systems using a bulk automated installation process that identifies at least one agent to be installed on a plurality of host computer systems and performs prerequisite checking of each of the plurality of host computer systems to determine which host computer systems of the plurality of host computer system are capable of supporting operation of the at least one agent. For each host computer system of the plurality of host computer systems that is capable of supporting operation of the at least one agent, the agent installer performs an automated bulk agent installation operation to install the at least one agent on that host computer system.

Modern computer networks allow the exchange of vast amounts of information between many computer systems. A requirement often exists to store this information within high-capacity data storage systems that can be interconnected with each other to form a type of network referred to as a storage area network. A typical storage area network includes one or more host computer systems, typically referred to as servers, which interconnect through a switching fabric (i.e., one or more storage area network switches) to a group of data storage systems to allow access to the stored data by those host computer systems (i.e., by the servers) on behalf of client computer systems (e.g., end user computers) that request such data. Due to the complexity of storage area networks, network managers (i.e., users responsible for managing resources in the storage area network) often utilize a storage area network management application to manage the configuration and operation of resources such as host computer systems, switches, data storage systems and associated software applications and hardware devices within the storage area network.
A typical conventional storage area network management application provides a management server and a console program that provides a graphical user interface that allows users to graphically manage the resources within the storage area network. The conventional management application (e.g., the management server) also interacts with a number of agent software processes (referred to simply as agents) that execute on various host computer systems operating within the storage area network in order to manage individual resources. The agents, which are generally also considered to be part of the network management application, execute on host computer systems to receive commands from management server to configure and control the various managed resources within the storage area network.
As an example, in a typical storage area network management application, developers have created (e.g., programmed) agents specifically to manage respective types of resources within the storage area network such as agents for managing hosts (i.e., host agents), agents to manage switches (i.e., switch agents), agents to manage data storage system (i.e., storage system agents), agents to manage software applications (e.g., database agents) and so forth. Each agent operates to periodically collect configuration data associated with resources managed by those agents for reporting back to the management server. Using the configuration data collected by the agents, the management server can display the current status and configuration of resources within the storage area network to the network manager on the graphical user interface of the console.
Within a typical conventional network management application such as a storage area network management application, a network manager is able to operate the management server to remotely install and configure the agents programs themselves for operation upon various host computer systems in the storage area network. The installation process of an agent in a conventional network management application allows the network manager to identify a specific agent for installation on a specific host computer system within the storage area network. The installation process then guides the network manager through the steps of installing the selected agent on the selected host. If the agent to be installed is replacing an agent already installed on that host (i.e., with a newer version of the agent), the installation process replaces the old agent version with the new agent version. Once properly installed, the network manager can cause the management server to instruct the newly installed agent to begin execution on that host.

Methods and apparatus for installing agents in a managed network


The present invention provides a pipe-handling machine (100) for picking up and laying down pipe, such as at a rig site. The machine first comprises three elongated and nested truss members. First, a trestle (200) is provided; second, a trough carrier (300) is received within the trestle; and third, a trough (400) is slidably received within the trough carrier. The machine next comprises an inclined ramp (500). A lower end of the ramp is pivotally connected to the trestle, while an upper end of the ramp extends upward to the rig floor. The length of the ramp is adjustable to accommodate rig floors of varying heights. A trestle transport mechanism (550) selectively moves a front end of the trestle upwards along the ramp, thereby delivering a joint of pipe to the rig floor. The trough may optionally be moved along the trough carrier and out over the rig floor to aid in delivery. Features (310) may optionally be incorporated to reduce the angle of approach of the joint of pipe relative to the rig floor after the trestle transport mechanism is actuated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pipe handling systems for handling a tubular pipe. More particularly, the present invention relates to pipe pick-up and lay-down systems for use in drilling operations.
2. Background of the Related Art
In the drilling of oil and gas wells, it is known to employ various types of tubular pipe. Such pipes include drill pipe, drill collars, production tubing, well casing, and riser pipe. Such pipe is delivered to the drilling rig, and laid in individual joints horizontally upon a pipe rack. In the case of land wells, the pipe is typically delivered by a flat-bed truck. For offshore drilling, the pipe is delivered by barge or on a large floating vessel.
In order to use the pipe on the drilling rig, it is necessary to transport the pipe from the pipe rack to the rig floor. However, picking up and laying down drill pipe, casing and other tubular goods presents certain hazards to personnel on the rig floor. In addition, the manual handling of pipe, even with the assistance of wirelines, creates a risk that the pipe threads may be damaged. These concerns are magnified by the ever-increasing height of rig floors necessitated by the drilling of deeper wells.
Various patents have issued which provide pipe pick-up and laydown systems. These systems typically involve the use of wirelines or cables to transport pipe from a pipe rack or truck bed to the rig floor. Such patents include:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,450 issued to George on Jan. 1, 1985;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,310 issued to Crocker on Oct. 18, 1977;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,630 issued to Beck on Jul. 11, 1978; and
U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,193 issued to Teague on Apr. 4, 1978.
These patents disclose systems that, while commonly used, require manual manipulation of pipes.
Other patents have attempted to reduce the involvement of rig hands in the handling of pipe by providing a trough for lifting pipe from the pipe rack to the rig floor. Such patents include:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,566 issued to Beaman, et al. on Nov. 25, 1980;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,310 issued to Thompson on Sep. 13, 1983; and
U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,498 issued to Dysarz on Nov. 12, 1985.
However, these systems are not readily adaptable to rigs of varying heights. In this respect, higher rig floors create steeper angles of approach from the catwalk or pipe handling area to the rig floor. If the angle of approach is too steep, the upper end of the joint of pipe will be too high above the rig floor for a worker standing on the floor to safely reach. Therefore, means are required to raise the rear end of the pipe to lower the angle of approach for the upper end of the pipe with respect to the elevated rig floor. It is thus desirable to be able to lift the pipe from the rear portion so as to reduce the angle at which the pipe is fed onto the rig floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,137 issued to Buckner on Dec. 4, 1984 provides a machine that lifts a pipe trough from the rear; however, a cable is apparently still required for lifting the front end of the trough to the rig floor.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a pipe pick-up and laydown system that includes a V-Door ramp of adjustable height so as to adapt the pick-up and laydown system to rigs of various heights. Still further, it is desirable to provide a pick-up and laydown system that has improved mobility for quickly delivering the system to the wellsites. Further still, a need exists for a system that enables pipe to be picked up from a pipe rack, placed in a trough, and the trough and pipe moved to a position on the drilling rig floor without the need for a cable or wireline attachment to the pipe.
There is yet a further need for such a system that delivers pipe over the rig floor a greater distance than known systems. In this regard, it is desirable to deliver pipe as close as possible to the wellbore being formed. In this manner, the rear end of the delivered pipe does not swing as much when the pipe is lifted from the pickup and laydown system.
In addition, there is a need for a pipe-handling machine that can be operated solely through hydraulic power. There is further a need for a pipe manipulation system having a greater capability for adjusting the angle at which pipe is presented to the rig floor. Finally, a need exists for a pipe pick-up and laydown system that is essentially remotely operable.

Height-adjustable pipe pick-up and laydown machine


An apparatus and method for removing cores from a material to be tested includes a first split shell having a first split portion, a tightening device for moving confronting ends of the first shell towards each other so that the shell grips the core to be pulled, and a handle for pulling the core. The core puller is inserted into a space left by a drill bit. The core puller is tightened around the core to be pulled, and the core is then pulled.

The present invention relates in general to an apparatus and method for obtaining test cores, and in particular to an apparatus and method for obtaining test cores from concrete and asphalt pavement.
In the paving industry, highway and street authorities and engineers, as well as private engineers on parking lots, require that paving contractors drill out sample cores of pavement after it has been sufficiently cured. These cores are subjected to standard tests to verify the composition and hardness of the pavement. This method is used for both asphalt and concrete paving. The core samples are generally obtained by using a vertical core drill which drills out a core of the material using a tubular diamond-tipped bit driven by a gas or electric drill. The cores generally vary from 4-12 inches in length and are of varying diameters (depending on the preference of the testers).
To test the cores and obtain results that are representative of the pavement in general, it is important to keep the cores intact. Several methods presently used to extract sample cores are: 1) drilling a second identical core hole next to the sample core hole, chipping out the second core hole and then getting under the sample core with a lever and prying it out; 2) driving a pair of rods through the surrounding material and prying out the core; and 3) digging a wedge-shaped hole next to the core and prying it out. These methods are unsatisfactory, however, because the resulting sample core is often not intact. The methods are time consuming, and when the core sample is damaged, the process must be repeated. The problem of obtaining undamaged core samples has been a problem since the beginning of post-paving core testing.


Gas meter and center device are included. Gas meter is installed in a residence or the like of each customer, and includes flow rate measurer. Center device collects information obtained by gas meter. In addition, center device manages positional information indicating a position of gas meter, and displays information including a result of analyzing information obtained from gas meter, together with the position of gas meter on a map. By employing this configuration, the information obtained from gas meter is collected by center device, and information based on collected data is displayed on a map on which gas meter is positioned. This enables the information obtained from gas meter to be visually reported.

Conventionally, as this type of system, a system has been provided that includes a gas meter incorporating an abnormality detector, and a server computer that configures an automatic meter reading system. The system collects abnormality information, such as gas leakage or a reduction in pressure, that has been detected by the gas meter, by using the server computer, displays the abnormality information as alarm information on a map, and makes an attempt to quickly perform a recovery operation or the like (see, for example, PTL 1).

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A semiconductor component and a method for producing a semiconductor component are described. The semiconductor component includes a semiconductor body including an inner zone and an edge zone, and a passivation layer, which is arranged at least on a surface of the semiconductor body adjoining the edge zone. The passivation layer includes a semiconductor oxide and that includes a defect region having crystal defects that serve as getter centers for contaminations.

Power semiconductor components, such as, for example, power diodes, power MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors), power IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) or power thyristors, have been developed to withstand high reverse voltages. Such power components comprise a pn junction formed between a p-doped semiconductor zone and an n-doped semiconductor zone. The component is in the off state (is switched off) if the pn junction is reverse-biased. In this case, a depletion zone or space charge zone propagates in the p-doped and n-doped zones. Usually, one of said semiconductor zones is more lightly doped than the other of said semiconductor zones, with the result that the depletion zone propagates principally in the more lightly doped zone, which principally accepts the voltage present across the pn junction.
In the case of vertical power semiconductor components, terminals for applying an electrical voltage to the pn junction are usually arranged on opposite sides of a semiconductor body in which the pn junction is integrated. In this case, the semiconductor body comprises an inner region (an inner zone), in which the pn junction is arranged, and an edge region (an edge zone), which surrounds the inner region in a ring-shaped fashion. With the component in the off state, the equipotential lines of the electric field in the inner region run substantially parallel to a front side and a rear side of the semiconductor body i.e. the electric field lines run perpendicular to the front and rear sides, while the equipotential lines in the edge region emerge from the semiconductor body in the region of one of the front and rear sides. In many cases it is desirable to achieve in the edge region of the component a dielectric strength which corresponds at least to the dielectric strength in the inner region. On account of the equipotential lines emerging from the semiconductor body in the edge region, i.e. on account of the electric field lines running parallel to the surface in the edge region, the dielectric strength of the component can be adversely influenced by parasitic effects in the region of the surface of the semiconductor body, such as e.g. free bonds of the semiconductor atoms of the semiconductor body. In principle, these effects can be reduced by providing a passivation on the surface of the semiconductor body in the edge region. This is described for example in B. Jayant Baliga: "Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor Devices", Springer Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-0-387-47313-0, pages 125-155.
One suitable material for a passivation layer is a semiconductor oxide for example. However, even under optimum production conditions in an extremely clean atmosphere, contaminations of the passivation layer cannot completely be avoided. Such contaminations can lead to positive charges or negative charges in the passivation layer. In this regard, positive charges can be brought about for example by a contamination with alkali metal ions, such as, for example, sodium (Na) ions or potassium (K) ions, and negative charges can be brought about for example by a contamination with hydroxide ions (OH−). Under the influence of high electric fields such as occur with the component in the off state, for example, said charges can be displaced or can accumulate, which can lead to an unfavorable field distribution that reduces the dielectric strength of the component in the edge region.

Semiconductor component having a passivation layer and production method


Techniques are described for increasing the speed of a resistor-based charge pump for an active loop filter-based phase-locked loop (PLL). The techniques may include placing a low-resistance discharge path between respective nodes of a current source and sink in a charge pump, and selectively activating the low-resistance discharge path when the charge pump is turned off. The low-resistance discharge path may have a resistance that is lower than the resistance of other current paths between the respective nodes in the charge pump (e.g., current paths formed by the resistors included in the current source and sink of the charge pump), thereby reducing the amount of time needed to reset the charge on the respective nodes when the charge pump is turned off. In this way, the speed of a resistor-based charge pump may be increased, thereby allowing the overall speed of an active filter-based PLL to be increased.

Phase-locked loops (PLLs) may be used in a variety of different systems including communication and multimedia systems. PLLs may be used for frequency synthesis, deskewing, clock generation, clock distribution, clock recovery, and other signal processing, timing and/or synchronization purposes.
A PLL may operate as a feedback control system that generates an output signal based on an input signal such that a substantially constant phase delay is maintained between the input and output signals for a given frequency. Designing PLL control loops that can operate at high-speeds may present significant design challenges, particularly in low-voltage applications.

High-speed resistor-based charge pump for active loop filter-based phase-locked loops


A system and method for utilizing a first managed process to host at least a second managed process is disclosed. The technology initially provides a first managed process. The first managed process hosting at least a second managed process. An unmanaged process is then provided to facilitate communication between the first managed process and the second managed process, such that a user can automatically communicate with the first managed process while the second managed process is operational and the first managed process is in the background without requiring the user to select the first managed process.

Presently, computer systems are used throughout daily life for both work and entertainment purposes. For example, most office employees are provided with a computer system on which to work. Moreover, many households have a computing system in the home. Many of the home computers are used for various forms of entertainment such as, listening to music, watching television, surfing the Internet, online collaboration while playing a video game, and the like.
Advances in computer processing power, hard drive size, and the like, have continually allowed computers to further integrate with daily activities. For example, a home computer may be used to manage audio and video system in a house. That is, the user will connect a television, speakers, surveillance cameras, and a plurality of other devices into a network with the computing system acting as the controller. Then, with respect to audio activities, for example, a user can play music to different locations throughout the house by simply selecting the desired functionality on the computing system.
However, problems still exist with respect to the utilization of a computer managing a number of activities simultaneously. For example, suppose a user is utilizing a computing system to listen to music. In many cases, in order to perform the music receiving and broadcasting operation, a music application is utilized. When the music application is in operation, it is at the foreground of operation for the computing system. That is, if a mouse is moved or a button is clicked, the input is provided to the application in the foreground and not any applications which may be operating in the background.
While the ability to run several applications concurrently has advantages associated therewith, such functionality is not without drawbacks. For example, if a user is listening to music utilizing a music application and the user begins to surf the web with a web browser application, significant difficulties may be encountered. For example, if a user is surfing the web and wishes to turn down the music in one of the rooms of the house from the music application, then the user will have to select the music application and then interact with the music application to obtain the desired changes. To return to surfing the web, the user would then have to re-select the browser application and continue surfing. This type of application navigation becomes even more confusing as more and more applications are running at the same time in different stages of foreground and background operation.

Utilizing a first managed process to host at least a second managed process


In a objective lens driver, at least one permanent magnet is mounted on a movable member, and plural yokes, each being wound with a coil having its winding axis in the focusing direction, are disposed facing the permanent magnet. The yokes are arranged almost symmetrically about a plane including the center of gravity of the movable member and being perpendicular to the tracking direction. In this structure, even when the movable member moves in the tracking direction, since the permanent magnet (a magnetic field source) also moves with the movable member, the distribution of magnetic flux density that contributes to the drive also shifts according to the movement of the movable member, so that the distribution of magnetic flux density maintains being almost symmetrical about the center of gravity of the movable member. Accordingly, in tilt drive, a constant sensitivity to tilt drive is obtained regardless of the position of the movable member. Further, since the rotation axis of tilt drive is fixed, there arises no crosstalk of displacement in the focusing direction and the tracking direction. Furthermore, since the point of action of driving force on the movable member is fixed, there arises no crosstalk of angular displacement in the tilt direction due to focusing drive and tracking drive. Consequently, stable focusing control, tracking control and tilt correction control are realized in an objective lens driver capable of correcting a tilt.

In order to correct focusing error due to vertical motion of a disk-type recording medium (hereinafter referred to simply as "disk") such as a compact disk, tracking error due to decentration, or a tilt of an objective lens relative to the disk, an objective lens driver drives the objective lens in two axes, i.e., the direction perpendicular to the disk (hereinafter referred to as "focusing direction") and the radial direction of the disk (hereinafter referred to as "tracking direction"). It is to be noted that the focusing direction is the direction perpendicular to the disk and the tracking direction is the radial direction of the disk on the premise that the disk loaded on the driver is in ideal shape having no curvature and no decentration.
In an optical recording/reproduction apparatus including such an objective lens driver, in order to increase the recording capacity, recording and reproduction are carried out with a converging spot of reduced diameter using an objective lens of high numerical aperture. In this case, since the degree of aberration attendant on a tilt of the objective lens relative to the disk increases in proportion to third power of the numerical aperture, positioning of the optical axis of the objective lens relative to the disk must be precisely performed to obtain satisfactory recording/reproduction signals.
For this purpose, the conventional optical recording/reproduction apparatus is equipped with a tilt correction controller for correcting a tilt by inclining the whole optical head using a DC motor or the like.
However, the tilt correction controller has the following drawbacks. Since this means can correct only angle errors of low frequencies, it is difficult to reduce aberration. In addition, since a mechanism for inclining the whole optical head is added, the size of the optical recording/reproduction apparatus is increased. Further, since it is very difficult to match the rotation center at the tilt correction with the principal point of the objective lens because of lack of space, the height of the objective lens significantly varies with the rotation and, therefore, some means for adjusting the height is needed, resulting in a further increase in the size of the apparatus. It is to be noted that the principal point of the objective lens is a point on the optical axis of the objective lens (shown by 100 in FIG. 9(b)), and a distance between this point and the focal point is the focal length.
Meanwhile, Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei. 4-366429 discloses an objective lens driver that detects a relative tilt of the disk and the optical axis of the objective lens and rapidly corrects the tilt.
Hereinafter, the objective lens driver disclosed will be described in detail.
This objective lens driver is equipped with an objective lens for focusing a light beam on an optical information recording medium; a holder for holding the objective lens; a supporter for supporting the holder movably in the focusing direction and tiltably to the focusing direction; a plurality of driving coils for moving the objective lens in the focusing direction and tilting the objective lens to the focusing direction by driving the holder in response to voltages applied thereto, which coils are disposed on the holder individually and symmetrically about the center line of the objective lens; and a magnet for generating a force for driving the holder between itself and the driving coils, which magnet is fixed onto the supporter.
The objective lens driver is so constructed operates as follows. It is assumed that the objective lens driver includes four driving coils, and the four driving coils are arranged, two by two, symmetrically about a plane including the center line of the objective lens and being perpendicular to the tracings direction. In this case, when the respective driving coils are supplied with currents of the same value in the same direction, the objective lens moves in the focusing direction without tilting to the focusing direction, whereby focusing control is carried out.
When an arbitrary current is applied to two of the four driving coils performing focusing control in response to the currents of the same value in the same direction, which two coils are disposed on either side of the plane including the center line of the objective lens and being perpendicular to the tracking direction, a portion of the of the holder having the driving coils supplied with the arbitrary current moves up or down in response to the current, i.e., the holder tilts to the focusing direction. Since the objective lens can be tilted to the focusing direction as described above, it is possible to correct a tilt of the optical axis of the objective lens to the disk.
Accordingly, a mechanism and a motor for tilting the whole optical head are dispensed with, resulting in a small-sized optical recording/reproduction apparatus capable of high-speed tilt correction.
In the objective lens driver described above, however, since the magnetic circuit for generating the operating force of the driving coils, i.e., the magnet and the supporter, is fixed, the current driving sensitivity in the tilt correction varies with the motion of thee holder in the focusing direction or the tracking direction. The reason is as follows. Usually, the magnetic flux density distribution in a void of the magnetic circuit has a shape like a mountain and, therefore, the amount of the magnetic flux interlinked with each driving coil varies when the position of the driving coil relative to the magnetic circuit varies.
Accordingly, the driving sensitivity in the tilt correcting direction varies according to the position of the holder, so that the stability of tilt correction control is degraded.
Furthermore, the rotation center in the tilt correction varies with the holder's moving in the focusing direction or the tracking direction. The reason is as follows. Since the magnetic flux density distribution in a magnetic void part of the magnetic circuit has a shape like a mountain as described above and, therefore, the relative position of the holder and the point of action of the driving force varies when the position of the driving coil relative to the magnetic circuit varies.
Since the rotation center in the tilt correction varies according to the position of the holder, the position of the objective lens in the focusing direction or the tracking direction varies due to the tilt correction, and the amount of the variation varies according to the position of the holder. Thereby, the control precision is degraded in focusing or tracking control.
Furthermore, when the holder moves in the focusing direction or the tracking direction, i.e., when the relative position of the holder and the point of action of the driving force varies, the point of action of the driving force in the focusing direction or the tracking direction deviates from the center of gravity of the holder, so that tilting of the holder may occur outside of the tilt correction.
Consequently, since the tilt angle at tilt correction varies according to the position of the holder, the control precision is degraded in controlling the tilt correction.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A method and system for permitting a government agency or a medical research Institution to retain an independent Audit Agency to periodically audit a clinical trial testing the effect of experimental drugs on patients, being conducted by the Institution, to insure the audit conducted is in compliance with the privacy requirements of HIPAA. Prior to the audit, the Institution assembles individual electronic patient records relative to the clinical trial into an XML file in a discrete database, wherein each patient record has all personal information deleted, and such record is identified by a unique number or code assigned by the Institution. In turn, remote from the Institution, the Audit Agency transforms an appropriate search and indexing engine by adding to it libraries of text names, and synonyms, and constructs application programs containing the associated Protocol requirements and rules. The Audit Agency sends the transformed Search Engine to the Institution via the Internet or on CD's. The Institution runs the Search Engine against their database to produce a Compliance Report detailing all discrepancies found relative the Protocol course of medical treatment for each patient in the clinical trial, and sends the report to the Audit Agency. The Audit Agency processes the report to provide an Audit Report to Institution requesting comments, and if necessary, a corrective action plan.

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), health care organizations such as hospitals, drug testing Institutions, for example, must insure HIPAA compliance by protecting the confidentiality of patients' Medical Records. Audit Agencies involved in auditing patient Medical Records of health care organizations must be qualified in order to perform such audits, and the health organization or Institution must insure that the auditors do not breach the privacy of patients relative to their associated Medical Records. HIPAA requirements severely restrict the capability of health care organizations or Institutions to allow access to individual patient records. Such records are typically stored in large computer memories, and the records may include a large number of patients' Medical Records, or clinical research records, for example, whereby the associated healthcare organization must insure the privacy of such patients' records. Accordingly, any review of such records by an outside service group, such as an Auditing Agency must be from records that are free of the private information of each patient, such as their names, addresses, and so forth.
Healthcare organizations are Institutions ranging from the very small to the very large, and even individual practices, such as a sole practitioner physician, are increasingly implementing electronic Medical Record systems. A variety of database management systems are used to support this capability. Perhaps the most popular, underlying engine is Oracle®, but there are others such as Focus®. Many of the popular database programs have the capability to create database "dumps." There is a considerable range of choices in the way these dumps can be structured. The capability to output in a standardized "Markup" language is common with Extensible Markup Language (XML) being the currently preferred method. The electronic Medical Record itself and also the electronic clinical research record have defined structures in order to capture laboratory, special investigation, drug administration and medical/nursing progress notes in a structured format. Search Engines, typically, cannot search within databases and cannot index within. Creating a dump in a standardized "Markup" language creates a situation where a Search Engine can index and subsequently search the dumped data.
In order to obtain Federal Drug Administration (FDA) Approval for new drugs, drug companies must conduct clinical trials in accordance with a specific Protocol representing a plan for a course of medical treatment having a precise step-by-step description of the treatment plan associated with the experimental drug. Under FDA rules, clinical trials for a new drug particularly must pass through what are known as Phase 1, 2, and 3 Trials. The
Phase 1 Trials are the earliest trials in the testing of a new drug, and usually involve up to about 30 patients. Phase 1 trials involve clinical or laboratory testing to show that a new treatment might help treat patients having a particular disease. The Phase 1 Trials are conducted to determine relative to the experimental drug, the safe dose range, side effects, how the body copes with the drug, and whether the treatment appears to treat the involved disease. Initially, the first patient to take part in the clinical study will be given a very small dose of the drug. If all goes well, the next person will get a slightly higher dose. With each patient taking part, the dose will gradually be increased, and the effect of each dose must be monitored, with any side effects being recorded. Blood tests and other monitoring will be conducted in order to determine how the drug is affecting the patients involved in the trial, how their bodies cope with the experimental drug, and how their bodies rid themselves of the drug after the dosages are stopped. Many times, people entering Phase 1 trials are healthy individuals, whereby the purpose of the trial is to monitor different dosage levels and side effects, in addition to pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of the drug (how the body metabolizes the drug and how the drug affects the body). Testing is the first to be pursued before the drug can be tested as a potential new treatment for a particular disease to determine the efficacy of the new drug.
Phase 2 Trials are the next to be performed in testing a new drug. Only about 70% of potential new drugs proceed from Phase 1 Trials to Phase 2 Trials. The Phase 2 Trials are typically conducted on patients who all have the same type of disease, or with different types of a particular disease. Phase 2 Trials are conducted to determine whether a new treatment works well enough to pass on to Phase 3 Trials; the types of disease the drug appears to be effective against; increased information pertaining to side effects and how to manage them; and a determination of the most effective doses to utilize. The Phase 2 Trials may involve up to about 50 patients. If the Phase 2 Trial results indicate that prescribed new treatment is as good or better than an existing treatment, the drug will then be moved into Phase 3 Trials.
Phase 3 trials are conducted to measure results obtained with treatment utilizing the newer experimental drug when compared to the best currently available drug/treatment (standard treatment). It should be noted that the clinical studies involving Phases 1 through 3 may also involve other than new drugs, for example, radiotherapy treatments, X-ray or radiation treatments, and so forth. Phase 3 trials usually involve a much larger group of patients, perhaps thousands of patients in many different hospitals and even different countries, in view of the fact that differences in success rates may be small. Accordingly, the results obtained from many patients must be compared in order to show the difference between the treatment with the new drug and the standard drug.
The testing of a new drug, in any of the Phases, requires the maintenance of increasingly larger databases for typically accumulating in a computer memory the testing history for each patient in accordance with the Protocol. The FDA requires that the testing Institution, such as a hospital having a medical research center, work with an outside Audit Agency to insure that the established Protocol for any phase of the drug testing is being complied with. As previously indicated, the research center, hospital, or medical Institution must comply with HIPAA requirements that the privacy be protected for each patient involved in the various drug testing phases. As a result, any access given to personnel of an Audit Agency to the Medical Record system or patient database must have each patient's testing record kept intact while eliminating any information that might permit an auditor to identify the patient.

Method and system for maintaining HIPAA patient privacy requirements during auditing of electronic patient medical records


In one embodiment, network devices are configured to route traffic and signaling onto co-routed bypass tunnels. Co-routed bypass tunnels protect against node or link failures in a label switched paths. The co-routed bypass tunnels provide bidirectional protection. In one example, a node acting as the point of local repair (PLR) receives a resource reservation state message at a first node and extracts a tunnel sender address from the reservation state message. The PLR is configured to identify a bypass tunnel to a second node in the reverse direction of the label switched path and signal resource reservation messages over the bypass tunnel in the reverse direction. In another example, a PLR receives a resource reservation message with bypass tunnel identification and the PLR is configured to identify a bypass tunnel to a second node in the reverse direction.

A label switched path (LSP) is a tunnel established using label switching techniques through a network of label switched routers. Occasionally, when a network element fails, traffic that originally traversed the failed network element to other network elements is diverted to another path to bypass the failure. Fast Reroute (FRR) has been widely deployed to protect against network element failures. Backup tunnels are created to bypass one or more protected network elements. When the network element fails, traffic is diverted over a backup tunnel to bypass the failed element. Specifically, the point of local repair (PLR) node is configured to reroute the traffic by inserting a new label for the backup tunnel, and the traffic is diverted accordingly. Once the failed element is bypassed, the backup tunnel label is removed, and the traffic is routed along the original path according to the next label. However, these procedures are applicable only to unidirectional tunnels.

Fast reroute for bidirectional co-routed traffic engineering tunnels


The present invention relates to negative electrode for zinc nickel secondary batteries and the fabrication methods. These negative electrodes contain hydrophobic porous conductive granules such as carbon black granules with a hydrophobic material adsorbed. The fabrication methods for these negative electrodes include the following steps: adding a hydrophobic material to conductive porous granules such as granules in an aqueous solution; stirring the aqueous solution with the conductive porous granules and the hydrophobic material; fabricating the active material with the aqueous solution with the conductive porous granules and the hydrophobic material; and forming the negative electrode with the active material. Batteries with negative electrodes that are embodiments of this invention or are fabricated by the method of this invention are efficient in the recombination of oxygen at the electrodes during charging have low internal pressure, and are not subjected to electrolyte leakage.

At the end of the charging process or when a battery is overcharged, oxygen is continuously released at the nickel positive electrode of a zinc nickel secondary battery. Oxygen recombination, the re-absorption of the oxygen released due to battery operation, occurs when the zinc oxidizes. It can also occur during the electrochemical reduction reaction at the surface of the negative electrode. In a conventional zinc-nickel secondary battery, the ability of the zinc negative electrode to recombine oxygen is poor. Therefore, at the end of the charging cycle or when the battery is overcharged, especially when the battery is charged with a high current, the oxygen generated cannot be adequately recombined at the zinc negative electrode. When the oxygen generation rate at the positive electrode exceeds the rate of oxygen recombination at the negative electrode, oxygen accumulation will cause the internal pressure of the battery to increase. This may result in the release of the safety valve and electrolyte leakage.
In some applications, the capacity for oxygen recombination has to be high as batteries are constantly subject to overcharging. For example, batteries in cordless telephones are generally charged whenever they are not in use. Therefore, the battery packs for these applications must be capable of withstanding overcharging without significant increase in internal pressure that may result in electrolyte leakage, erosion of the circuitry, and subsequent damage to the equipment.
There are two approaches to reducing the internal pressure of a battery. One is to decrease the oxygen generation during overcharging by increasing the over-potential for the oxygen evolution. The second is to increase the recombination of the oxygen at the zinc negative electrode.
In prior art, such as that disclosed in the Chinese Patent CN1501530A, to improve electrical conductivity, electrically conductive additives such as carbon black and graphite are added to the active material for the negative electrode. To improve the capacity for oxygen recombination for the zinc negative electrode, hydrophobic binding agent such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) are used to form a hydrophobic network, that, to a limited extent, creates pores within the negative electrode. These pores form pathways for the oxygen to enter into the electrode where additional oxygen recombination can occur at the internal surfaces of the pores.
However, this method is insufficient to adequately control the increase in internal pressure during overcharging as both the hydrophilic zinc oxide and the carbon black granules that have a large pore volume are highly liquid-absorbent. The customary process for fabricating zinc negative electrodes uses aqueous solutions. When zinc oxide, carbon black, metal oxide additives, and hydrophilic binding agents are stirred and mixed to form a paste during fabrication, the pores in the carbon black adsorb the hydrophilic binding agents such that the electrolyte fills the pores of the carbon black when it is injected into the battery. The filled carbon black pores cannot be utilized to facilitate oxygen recombination. Moreover, the electrolyte in the pores blocks and prevents oxygen from entering into the electrode to recombine.
Currently, to improve oxygen recombination at the zinc negative electrode, a split stacked negative electrode assembly design such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,899 is widely used. In that design, an integrated negative electrode is formed with a porous hydrophobic membrane that separates two zinc electrode half-plates. The oxygen generated in the charging process can reach and recombine inside the zinc electrode half-plate through the porous hydrophobic membrane. Therefore, this hydrophobic membrane effectively doubles the area of the interface between the oxygen and the zinc negative electrode.
However, there are many disadvantages to this design as well. The use of two zinc electrode half-plates doubles the quantity of current collector needed and increases the cost of raw materials. Moreover, the process for fabricating an integrated zinc negative electrode is complicated and the labor costs for its fabrication are increased. In addition, this design is only suitable for laminated battery structures, usually for rectangular batteries. They are not suitable for winding type battery structures, usually for cylindrical batteries.
Due to the limitations of the prior art, it is therefore desirable to have novel negative electrodes and novel methods for fabricating negative electrodes that are low in labor and production costs, that is applicable for use in different battery designs, and that allow for increase oxygen recombination.

Negative electrodes for zinc nickel secondary batteries and their fabrication methods


For subscribing a user to a service offered by a first application server (SIP-AS1) of an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem, a request for the service, addressed to a public service identifier of the service, is received from the user in a Call Session Control Function unit (S-CSCF). The request is evaluated based on filter criteria (iCF) associated with the user. In absence of the filter criteria (iCF) associating the service with the first application server (SIP-AS1), the request is forwarded to a second application server (SIP-AS2) based on addressing information obtained from filter criteria (FC) associated with the public service identifier. The second application server (SIP-AS2) transmits to the user a message that includes means for enabling the user to subscribe to the service. Users can be subscribed to a service at the time they desire to use the service, immediately preceding usage of the service. IMS user profiles are used as the basis for deciding whether or not a user is subscribed to a service, consequently, there is no need to provide interfaces to data repositories of multimedia services for determining the subscription status of a user. Subscription mechanisms for multimedia services can be centralized in a dedicated application server.

For providing IP multimedia services over mobile communication networks, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defined the Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) in 3GPP TS 23.228 V6.8.0, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Stage 2, 3rd Generation Partnership Project. Multimedia services include a variety of services over both traditional circuit switched media (e.g. voice) and packet switched media (e.g. pictures, video, audio, instant messaging, presence, push-to-talk, chat rooms, etc,). IMS makes it possible for users to use multimedia real-time and non-real-time communication services as well as data oriented multimedia services. IMS supports multimedia services over IP-based networks between end-users as well as between end-users and servers. In addition to mobile radio networks, access over wireless local area networks (WLAN) has been included in the IMS specifications and even fixed IP-based networks can be integrated in IMS making IMS a generic framework for multimedia services over IP. For setting up and controlling calls and sessions between user equipment and/or application servers, IMS includes so-called Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) units using the transaction-based Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Session Delivery Protocol (SDP) defined in 3GPP TS 24.229 V6.5.1, IP Multimedia Call Control Protocol based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Session Description Protocol (SDP), Stage 3, 3rd Generation Partnership Project. A SIP transaction or dialogue is between two end-points called user agents. Typically, a SIP transaction or dialogue is a multimedia session performed between devices. There are different SIP methods for initiating a SIP transaction or dialogue (e.g. INVITE, SUBSCRIBE or MESSAGE).
In order to control access to a multimedia service, users typically must subscribe to the service prior to using the service. However, a service appears to be less attractive to users, if the subscription process is required to take place a significant amount of time, e.g. hours, days or even weeks, before the service can be used. On the other hand, if a subscription to a service is to be possible at the time the user desires to use the service, immediately preceding usage of the service, generally, the user must know how to access the subscription process for the multimedia service and the user's device must be setup for accessing the subscription process. Moreover, if the multimedia services enable dynamic and spontaneous ("on the fly") subscriptions, performed immediately preceding the usage of the service, the multimedia services include appropriate mechanisms. Considering the vast number and variety of multimedia services, an enormous overhead is required for the implementation and maintenance of such mechanisms. Particularly, each multimedia service requires an associated data repository for storing user subscriptions as well as an interface for accessing and updating the data repository.
US 2005/0155036 describes a system for providing to a user services of a serving entity, such as an application server, in a communication network, such as IMS. According to US 2005/0155036 a user's service registration message is sent via a control entity, such as an S-CSCF, to a serving entity group having a plurality of serving entities, each of which is configured to provide the service. Upon receiving a message acknowledging the registration message and including an address of a selected one of the serving entities, the control entity stores the address of the selected serving entity in an address table. Accordingly, future respective service requests from the user will be routed by the control unit to the address of the selected serving entity stored in the address table.

Method and system for subscribing a user to a service


The separable shaft of the present invention employs plugs adhesively secured within adjoining shaft ends, with one plug exhibiting a male thread and the other exhibiting a female thread. The adjoining shaft ends are sized to fit one tightly within the other and the plugs are positioned to cause one shaft end to overlap and to frictionally engage the other shaft end.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to golf shafts, particularly of the type having stepped cylindrical sections. More specifically, this invention relates to a separable shaft for a golf club which facilitates portability without sacrificing performance or feel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Portable versions of golf clubs have been presented in the prior art. In one version the shaft collapses in many sections telescopically, and in another version solid wooden shaft sections screw together in abutting relation. While these prior art shafts have successfully achieved portability, they have failed to maintain the same feel and performance of the one piece shafts. Recently, the popularity of shafts having stepped cylindrical sections (U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,863) have further compounded the portability problem due to its complicated design.


An expandable downhole tool features a mandrel that is expanded from within by a swage or other technique. The expansion of the mandrel advances an exterior ring or comparable slidably mounted object against an exterior sleeve that can be impervious or porous. The ring engages a ratchet mechanism to hold its position with respect to the mandrel as the swage advances through the mandrel and expands the ring and the exterior sleeve. The locking of the ring to the mandrel keeps the exterior sleeve from springing back longitudinally as the expansion is concluded.

In the past in the context of downhole tools that employ expansion to seal an annular gap around its mandrel the degree of sealing contact of a resilient sleeve mounted to the mandrel with the surrounding wellbore could be controlled in two ways. One way was the degree of expansion from within the mandrel afforded by the swage being employed. Another way was to simply alter the thickness of the sleeve mounted to the mandrel. For a given borehole size, a thicker resilient sleeve resulted in a tighter seal of the sleeve against the surrounding borehole for a given amount of mandrel expansion with a swage. A given size pipe had limits on how much it could be expanded. On the other hand keeping many versions of a tool on a job site that have different thicknesses of resilient sleeves is impractical logistically and is very expensive. What is needed in an expandable tool is a way to activate the exterior member be it a seal in the form of a resilient sleeve or a porous member to be subsequently used for passing or filtering fluid. The present invention provides this opportunity. It employs the progressive expansion of the mandrel to move a ring into the exterior member to compress it and increase its outer dimension. The ring is capable of being locked to the mandrel after being moved by the swage that moves within the mandrel. The ring can expand so as to not put the swage in a bind while still having a capability to latch to the mandrel to prevent the exterior member from snapping back in length at the conclusion of the expansion.
The invention can be compared to known techniques one of which is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,574 where the mandrel is pushed in to accommodate a sealing material on the exterior of the mandrel. The swage is passed through the mandrel pushing out the interior projection that initially allowed the sealing material to sit flush with the mandrel exterior wall for run in. By returning the inner dimension of the mandrel back to a cylindrical shape the sealing material is pushed radially outwardly into contact with a surrounding tubular. Other known art keeps packer sealing elements from extrusion when they are squeezed longitudinally by a setting sleeve device. This tool, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,020 does not involve mandrel expansion. Yet other designs simply use mandrel expansion to engage a seal on the exterior of a casing patch with a surrounding wellbore tubular. Some examples of this design are U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,789 and U.S. Applications 2003/0102127 and 2004/0016544.
Those skilled in the art will better understand the invention from the description of the preferred embodiment, the drawings and the claim, all of which appear below.

Expandable tool with enhanced expansion capability


A liquid crystal panel motherboard need slicing is proposed. The liquid crystal panel motherboard includes a main substrate disposed at one side of a CF (2) and a main substrate disposed at one side of a TFT (1). The liquid crystal panel motherboard can be sliced to be at least two liquid crystal panels including a CF substrate (20) and a TFT substrate (10). Metallic terminal parts are formed on each TFT substrate (10). A soft protective film (24) is disposed on a touching area (22) connected to each metallic terminal part of the TFT substrate (10) connected to the CF substrate (20). The soft protective film (24) has a certain thickness and leans against its corresponding metallic terminal part on a main substrate at the side of the TFT (1). A manufacturing method of the liquid crystal panel motherboard needing slicing is also proposed. The present invention has an advantage of preventing the metallic terminal part of the TFT substrate from being scraped when the liquid crystal panel motherboard is sliced, thereby improving the production yield rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of manufacturing technology of a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD), and more particularly, to a liquid crystal panel motherboard needing slicing and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One of the manufacturing processes of a liquid crystal panel is that a liquid crystal panel motherboard needing slicing is sliced to liquid crystal panels with various desired sizes by using a cutting machine.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing that a conventional liquid crystal panel motherboard is sliced. FIG. 2 is a side view showing the conventional liquid crystal panel motherboard. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the conventional liquid crystal panel motherboard which finishes being sliced. Please refer to FIGS. 1 to 3. The conventional liquid crystal panel motherboard comprises a main substrate at one side of a TFT (thin film transistor) 1 and a main substrate at one side of a CF (color filter) 2. The main substrate at the side of the TFT 1 is disposed correspondingly on top of the main substrate at the side of the CF 2. The liquid crystal panel motherboard can be sliced to be at least a plurality of liquid crystal panels comprising a CF substrate 20 and a TFT substrate 10. A plurality of metallic terminal parts (not shown) are formed on each of the TFT substrates 10. A contact area 22 (i.e., a dotted box shown in FIG. 2) which touches each of the metallic terminal parts is disposed on the CF substrate 20. The liquid crystal panel motherboard is disposed on an upper support platform 30 and a lower support platform 31. As shown in FIG. 1, the liquid crystal panel motherboard is sliced with a cutting knife 4 (schematically shown in FIG. 1) of a cutting machine along a cutting line (i.e., a dotted line in FIG. 1) in one embodiment. The main substrate at the side of the TFT 1 is sliced on the top. The main substrate at the side of the CF 2 is sliced at the bottom.
After the slicing process is done, the lower support platform 31 carries the liquid crystal panel comprising the CF substrate 20 and the TFT substrate 10 away along the cutting line. At this time, the liquid crystal panel is pushed to the lower support platform 31 from the upper support platform 30, which implies that the lower support platform 31 is lower than the upper support platform 30. However, the TFT substrate 10 of the liquid crystal panel on the lower support platform 31 easily rubs the CF substrate 20 of the liquid crystal panel on the upper support platform 30 because of this structure. As a result, the metallic terminal of the metallic terminal part of the TFT substrate 10 will be scraped, thereby causing malfunction of the liquid crystal panel.

Liquid crystal panel motherboard needing slicing and manufacturing method thereof

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


A rotor of an alternator having a plurality of claw poles, a plurality of auxiliary permanent magnets and a magnet holder for the permanent magnets. The magnet holder is composed of soft resinous holding members, connecting bands and heat-resistant members. Each of the heat resistant members is disposed between the claw poles and holding members to prevent heat transfer from the claw poles to the holding members.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotor having auxiliary permanent magnets of a rotary electric machine, particularly, an alternator for a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rotor of an alternator for vehicle is, generally, composed of a field coil and a plurality of claw poles. Recently, in order to increase the output power, auxiliary permanent magnets are installed between the claw poles to increase the field magnetic flux.
For example, JP-A-8-223882 discloses a rotor structure of such an alternator. However, because the permanent magnets are fixed directly to the claw poles, it is difficult to hold the permanent magnets under a high rotation speed. In order to solve this problem, JP-A-7-123664 proposes another rotor structure which is provided with a resinous magnet holder. The resinous magnet holder is molded with the permanent magnets and held between the claw poles.
As the output power increases, temperature rise of the alternator becomes higher. Particularly, temperature of the claw pole surfaces becomes significantly high because of increased eddy current as field magnetic flux is increased. This requires a resinous magnetic holder made of heat resistant material, which is generally expensive. A metal magnetic holder is also expensive, because it must be made from non magnetic metal such as stainless steel.

Rotary electric machine having auxiliary permanent magnets


Disclosed herein are novel antifungal compounds of Formula 1, containing 1-substituted, 4-(substituted phenoxy-methyl)-1,2,3-triazole moieties coupled to a core having triazole ring, (un)substituted phenyl ring and tertiary alcoholic functionality, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof; methods for preparing these compounds; and pharmaceutical preparations containing these novel compounds for prevention and treatment of fungal infections.

Fluconazole is an important member of the azole class of antifungal agents, as it is orally active and has low toxicity, but its extensive use has resulted in emergence of fluconazole-resistant fungal strains. It is therefore necessary to develop analogues of fluconazole effective against resistant strains, and research in this direction has resulted in many new compounds containing fluconazole pharmacophores. However, to address the issues like toxicity, solubility, cost, broad spectrum of activity etc, it is necessary to develop superior antifungal agents. The structure-activity relationship studies have shown that presence of one triazole ring, halogenated phenyl ring and tertiary alcoholic oxygen functionality is necessary for antifungal activity of fluconazole or its analogues.
Some of the recent references describing synthesis and antifungal activity of fluconazole analogues are described in the following articles: Borate et al. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 21 (16), 4873-8 (2011); Borate et al. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 20, 722 (2010); Pore et al. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 19, 759 (2009); Konosu et al. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 19, 2013 (2009); Bioorg. Med. Chem. 16, 7055 (2008); Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 18, 3261 (2008); Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 18, 6538 (2008); Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 17 (13), 3686 (2007).
WO 2012047762 discloses antifungal agents for treating infections by microorganism, wherein said antifungal agent comprises an antifungal compound containing triazole, imidazole or echinocandin moieties, linked to another antifungal or immunosuppressive compound, via a covalently-bonded linker. Thus, said PCT application teaches connecting of two active moieties via a linking moiety to obtain enhanced antifungal activity, whereas the present invention discloses coupling of one active moiety to another inactive moiety for obtaining compounds with enhanced antifungal activity.
771/DEL/2008 discloses new class of antifungal drugs for obtaining better antifungal spectrum, containing 1,2,3-triazol-1-yl or 4-yl moieties optionally substituted with bile acid or (long) alkyl chains, to obtain better antifungal spectrum, however said application does not cover antifungal compounds of present invention.
WO 2012123952 discloses enantiomers of fluconazole analogues containing thieno-[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one moiety as antifungal agents which are depicted as follows in formula A and formula B.

Thus, from the aforementioned prior art, it is clear that there is still a need in the art to provide novel compounds containing fluconazole pharmacophores with superior antifungal activity, and methods for preparations thereof.

1-substituted, 4-(substituted phenoxymethyl)-1,2,3-triazole compounds with antifungal properties and methods for preparation thereof

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research


An image forming apparatus including a plurality of processing units capable of performing different support processing for a user asking for support, and a remote support apparatus operated by an operator are connected via a communication path. The remote support apparatus transmits to the image forming apparatus a request to perform the support using the selected processing unit, or a request to switch the processing unit to a selected specific processing unit and a request to perform the support. The image forming apparatus allows the processing unit which follows the request to perform the support, to perform the support, and switches the processing unit according to the request to switch the processing unit to allow the switched processing unit to perform the support. Further, the image forming apparatus returns a result which should be returned, among results of the performed support, to the remote support apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote support technique for remotely providing support regarding how to use an electronic apparatus such as an image forming apparatus and a troubleshooting procedure therefor, from a remote location.
2. Description of the Related Art
As it becomes increasingly complicated to use electronic apparatuses such as image forming apparatuses and to perform trouble shooting procedures therefor, it becomes frequent that users of these electronic apparatuses directly inquire to call centers of manufacturers to get answers. Regarding such call centers, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2013-45198 and 2013-45200 each discuss a terminal apparatus that transmits a predetermined command to an electronic apparatus at a remote location to thereby collect and analyze state information of the electronic apparatus. This terminal apparatus is set up at a call center. The terminal apparatus transmits the predetermined command to the electronic apparatus upon detecting occurrence of an error at the electronic apparatus. The electronic apparatus collects an image of a user operation screen, user operation information, and the state information of the electronic apparatus to transmit them to the terminal apparatus based on the command. The terminal apparatus analyzes the collected information and transmits support data according to a result of the analysis to the electronic apparatus. The electronic apparatus displays a procedure for solving the error based on the support data on the user operation screen.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2013-45198 and 2013-45200 suggest that the terminal apparatus discussed therein enables the call center to provide appropriate support to a user according to the status of the electronic apparatus even without telephone communication made between the user asking for support and an operator on the call center side.
However, the above-described terminal apparatus operates under the premise that the support data and an error analysis procedure which is identified based on the support data are predetermined by the support side. Therefore, there is left such a problem that this service cannot necessarily help the user, depending on a content of sought support. More specifically, the information grasped by the call center alone, may not be sufficient for the solution, which makes it difficult to determine an appropriate support measure.
In such a case, a serviceman in charge of technical support physically must visit a user's location to solve the trouble, but this leads to a delay in providing support. If the electronic apparatus runs into a state unexpected by the support side, user's business, especially a user making a commercial product may end up incurring some loss due to that delay.

Remote support apparatus, electronic apparatus, remote support method, and storage medium


The present invention relates to a cordless braking system for a mobility-aiding device, such as a wheeled walker (a rollator) or a transport chair. The cordless braking system includes a brake actuating linkage, disposed inside the leg and handlebar members of the mobility-aiding device, which extends during height adjustment of the handlebars. The brake-actuating linkage and the leg/handlebar of the mobility-aiding device are designed to enable a locking pin or bolt to extend all the way therethrough to ensure that all of the height-adjustable members are secured together during use.

The present invention relates to a wheeled walker, which can be used as a transport chair, and in particular to a novel braking system for wheeled apparatus.
Many persons, by reason of age or disability have difficulty in walking without a walking aid. Wheeled walkers or rollators are widely used by many such persons to assist in mobility. A wheeled walker typically has a frame mounted on four wheels and a pair of rearwardly extending handlebars, which the user can grip for support while walking. The user positions himself between the handlebars behind the walker, and pushes the walker forward. The wheels permit the user to roll the walker smoothly over the ground, thereby avoiding the laborious action of picking up and moving a non-wheeled walker in step-by-step fashion. The handle bars can be fitted with brake levers that when squeezed by the user, actuate some form of wheel braking mechanism.
Wheeled walkers are routinely equipped with a seating surface that permits the user to rest in the sitting position. The seating surface is usually positioned transversely between the handlebars within the wheelbase of the walker to offer a stable platform for sitting. In order to use the seating surface, the user must turn around and sit down in the rearward facing direction, opposite to the normal direction of travel, with his feet resting on the ground. The braking mechanism can be fitted with a locking mechanism to maintain braking engagement with the wheels to prevent the walker from rolling while the user is sitting.
While the provision of a seat to permit the user to rest is a useful feature, it often occurs that the user is too tired to continue walking and requires the assistance of a caregiver to continue travel. Conventional wheeled walkers are not adapted to support a seated user and be pushed by a caregiver. In particular, because the user is seated in a rearward facing position between the handlebars, there is very little space between the user and the caregiver, making it difficult for the caregiver to take walking steps without interfering with the feet of the user. Moreover, there is no dedicated means on conventional walkers to support the feet of the user while in the sitting position with the result that the feet are usually dragged across the ground or propped up on a frame member in an unnatural position.
There have been a number of attempts to provide a wheeled apparatus that is useful as a self-propelled walker and also as a caregiver propelled transport chair.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,193 discloses a combined wheelchair and walker. In the normal walking position, the seating surface is pivoted up rearwardly toward the seat back to provide space between the handlebars for the user to walk. The user walks in a forward direction pulling the walker behind him. When the user wishes to sit, the seating surface can be flipped down. There is no provision to permit the walker to be pushed by a caregiver. Indeed, the patent discloses that a third party must pull the seated user backwards by pulling on the seat back.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,193 discloses a combination wheelchair and walker. While the user or the caregiver can push the apparatus from behind as a conventional walker or transport chair, in order to assume the seated position, the user must walk around to the front of the apparatus, which manoeuvre can be difficult for a physically challenged person.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,345 discloses a wheeled apparatus for use both as a walker and a wheelchair. The design has rearward facing handlebars to permit the apparatus to be used as a wheeled walker. The design also has a bi-directional seating arrangement. When the seat is placed in the rearward facing position, it permits the person using the device as a walker to rest in a seated position by turning around and sitting down in the rearward facing direction with his feet resting on the ground. When the seat is placed in the forward facing position, the apparatus can be used as a conventional wheelchair. The wheelchair design is conventional in that it has large rear wheels with hand-rings that permit the wheelchair to be propelled by the occupant or rearward facing handles to permit the wheelchair to be pushed by a caregiver.
While the design disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,345 offers significant advantage, it is not well adapted for use as a walker. Because it is based on a conventional wheelchair design, it is heavy and bulky, making it difficult to manoeuvre in confined locations. Furthermore, the bi-directional seating arrangement uses a frame mounted link arrangement, which cannot be practicably adapted to a light walker design. Because the seat back is pivoted to the seat base, the vertical rise of the seat back is limited and accordingly offers only lower back support. Furthermore, when positioned in the walker mode, the seat back obscures the user's view of the ground directly in front of the walker.
Conventional walkers have been equipped with handle bar mounted braking system actuators that permit the user to manually apply braking force when walking or to lock the brakes to permit the user to safely assume a seated position. For example, one such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,180, and relates to a cable braking system. The actuating mechanism uses a connecting lever to pull the cable when the brake lever is raised to a braking position or depressed to a locked position.
Thus, there remains a need for a walking aid that offers all of the functionality of a conventional wheeled walker and can be readily converted for use as a transport chair.
Cable type braking systems are commonly used on walkers, which have height adjustable handlebars. In such a case, the flexible cable accommodates the variable length between the brake handle actuator and the wheel mounted braking element. However, cable type braking mechanisms have a number of deficiencies. In particular, the cables require rather precise and periodic adjustment to maintain effective braking action. Moreover, because the cables are routed from the brake handle actuator to the wheels outside of the frame and require some slack to accommodate height adjustability, the resulting loop or bight in the cable is prone to catching or snagging on other objects, a deficiency which is particularly problematic in the case of a folding style walker that is transported in the trunk of a car.
A simple solution for eliminating the brake cable is to provide a solid rod linkage between the brake-handle actuator and the braking element that extends down through the two telescoping parts of the height-adjustable handle bar. Unfortunately, the solid rod linkage prevents a pin, bolt or screw from passing through both the telescoping parts of the height-adjustable handlebars, which would normally provide a secure, but adjustable means for locking the telescoping parts together. Since safety is the ultimate priority for these types of devices, it is important that the height adjustable handlebars are securely reconnected after adjustment. One solution to this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,283,484 issued Sep. 4, 2001 in the name of Malmström, which provides an adjustable brake rod inside the telescoping handlebars. Unfortunately, the Malmström device relies on a single friction screw, which extends through the outer telescoping parts of the handle bars into frictional engagement with the inner telescoping brake rods, to hold the two telescoping parts of the handlebar and the two telescoping parts of the brake rod together. This system relies heavily on the strength of the user, and on the durability of the frictionally engaged materials. Frequent tightening and loosening by elderly or otherwise disabled users make this type of system susceptible to accidental slippage, and therefore unacceptably dangerous.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art cable and cordless based systems by providing a cordless brake actuating system for a height adjustable handlebar that enables a locking screw, pin or bolt to extend through both parts thereof.


A digital signal recording disc has a first area storing an audio title set. The audio title set has data representing audio information and data representing a still picture. The audio title set is void of a pack of data for playback control. The first area also stores information for managing the audio title set. The digital signal recording disc is void of a second area storing a video title set and information for managing the video title set.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording medium such as a digital signal recording disc, a digital video disc, a digital versatile disc, or an IC memory. Also, this invention relates to a signal encoding apparatus. Furthermore, this invention relates to a player for a recording medium such as a digital signal recording disc. In addition, this invention relates to a signal decoding apparatus and a signal decoding method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical discs for storing information include digital video discs and digital versatile discs (DVD's). A standard DVD stores a combination of an audio signal and a video signal. The audio-signal recording capacity of the standard DVD is significantly smaller than the video-signal recording capacity thereof. It is difficult to manage time-related information of the audio signal recorded on the standard DVD. It is difficult to read out information of the titles of tunes represented by the audio signal recorded on the standard DVD.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Signal encoding apparatus, signal decoding apparatus, player, and digital signal recording medium having area storing audio title set and information for managing audio title set


A thermal fluid flow sensor and method of forming same. The flow sensor has an integrated circuit substrate, such as a silicon substrate, and a region of low thermal conductivity material carried on the top surface of the integrated circuit substrate. One or more pairs of temperature sensing elements are disposed on the low thermal conductivity region together with a heating element so that a robust flow sensor can be provided at low cost. Signal conditioning circuitry is disposed on the same surface as the temperature sensing elements and connected to the sensing elements thereby further reducing costs and improving the flow sensor sensitivity.

Fluid flow sensors in the form of MEMS devices are configured to measure properties of fluid in contact with the sensors and provide output signals representative of the fluid flow rates. Thermal fluid flow sensors are configured to heat the fluid and measure the resulting thermal properties of the fluids to determine flow rates. Such thermal flow sensors generally include a microsensor die consisting of a substrate and one or more elements disposed on the substrate for heating the fluid and sensing the fluid thermal properties.
A microbridge liquid flow sensor, for example as detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,564 to Johnson et al., is an example of such a thermal flow sensor. The microbridge sensor includes a flow sensor chip which has a thin film bridge structure thermally insulated from the chip substrate. A pair of temperature sensing resistive elements are arranged on the upper surface of the bridge either side of a heater element such that, when the bridge is immersed in the liquid stream, the flow of the liquid cools the temperature sensing element on the upstream side and promotes heat conduction from the heater element to thereby heat the temperature sensing element on the downstream side. The temperature differential between the upstream and downstream sensing elements, which increases with increasing flow speed, is converted into an output voltage by incorporating the sensing elements in a Wheatstone bridge circuit such that the flow speed of the gas or liquid can be detected by correlating the output voltage with the flow speed. When there is no liquid flow, there is no temperature differential because the upstream and downstream sensing elements are at similar temperatures.
However, a major drawback of microbridge liquid sensors is that the performance of the sensors is limited when operating in harsh environments or in high mass or high flow rate conditions. In such conditions, particulates of the flowing gas or liquid being measured are easily deposited in the underlying structure of the microbridge causing uncontrolled thermal changes and even damage to the sensor so that the reliability and operating life time of the sensors can be adversely affected.
Another example of a thermal sensor is a microstructure thermal flow sensor having a microsensor die with a Microbrick® or microfill structure which sensor is more suited to measuring fluid flow and properties under harsh environmental conditions. Note Microbrick® is a registered trade mark of Honeywell Inc. of Morristown, N.J. The microstructure flow sensor uses a Microbrick® which consists of a solid quartz substrate beneath the heating/sensing elements and has a passivation layer isolating the heating/sensing elements from the fluid so that the sensor is less susceptible to the effects of the fluid. Although this type of microstructure sensor is capable of reliable and rapid-response operation under harsh environments making it a versatile fluid flow sensor for a variety of applications, this type of sensor is expensive to make and integrate into existing sensor applications.
The aforementioned problems demonstrate that there is a need to provide a robust low cost fluid flow sensor which can be easily integrated into existing sensor applications.

Thermal fluid flow sensor and method of forming same technical field


A water feature having a housing with an electronics section and a water channel. A printed circuit board with an at least one light emitting diode (LED) where at least a portion of the at least one LED is in direct contact with the water while the electrical section remains waterproof.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to an apparatus and method for lighting water in a water feature, particularly for lighting water with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) at least partially in direct contact with the water.
2. Background of the Invention
Increasingly, the popularity of using water as an integral part of domestic landscaping has moved landscapers to include greater numbers of decorative water features. These features are incorporated in swimming pools, spas, ponds, lakes, and other water features and sources in the typical yard. In addition to domestic landscaping, commercial landowners have also been following the trend toward more decorative water elements through fountains, pools, ponds, lakes and such. In response, companies have developed a myriad of features that span the range of naturally occurring water features, such as faux waterfalls complete with jutting rock outcroppings, to more artistic endeavors, like dancing water spouts and jets.
In addition to the natural beauty associated with these features, by applying the proper lighting the beauty of these water features can be extended to include evening viewing. From underwater lighting in pools to back lighting fountains, landscapers have been striving to continue improving how these features are lit.
In relation to lighting water features, some of the earliest attempts to illuminate such water features were made by reflecting high intensity light from light sources which were generally hidden from view or directed onto the feature. While such illumination effects can be quite cost effective, the available light is not used efficiently and the visual effect that results from the light that is reflected to the eye is minimal. Too much of the light is either transmitted past the jets or through the jets. In addition since the light sources must be located in or around or closely adjacent to the water features, it is often the case that, from particular positions around the feature, an observer would be overcome by the intensity of the lights around the feature. This of course would impair the view of the feature and the overall aesthetic.
Several other attempts have been made in the past whereby high intensity light is caused to pass into a chamber from which it passes directly into the stream of the water feature. Using conventional high intensity bulbs in a water tight chamber the light is projected from the chamber towards an outlet or series of lenses leading to an outlet. These attempts include conventional, high intensity pool lighting which uses a watertight compartment to contain a high intensity bulb and passes the light through a lens, such as that seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,173 to Duff et al. In these instances however the light source is located outside the fluid stream and light must be shone into a housing and then passed out into the water. These transmission box arrangements are clumsy and bulky and there is considerable light loss due to transmission losses. These losses occur as the light enters the water tight chamber and on through the lens to the outlet due to dispersion, reflection, and refraction.
Similarly, attempts have been made to include the light enclosures directly in the water channel or pool, effectively moving from a transmission box to a watertight enclosure to contain the high intensity lamp in the water. Such devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,126 to Kessener, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,447,137 to Long. However, these devices simply extended the watertight chamber concept further into the path of the water. While this increases luminosity due to the increased surface area of the enclosure, significant transmission losses still occur due to the space in the watertight enclosure placed around the high intensity lamp. In addition, the location of the lighting system inside the water feature makes the necessary and frequent replacement of bulbs in such systems difficult and costly to manage.
Several innovations using fiber optic lighting systems have been utilized to achieve eye-catching coloration of water features. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,595,675 to Dongo, U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,342 to Koren et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,393,192 and 6,484,952 to Koren, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,056 to Ruthenberg show various features with fiber optic lighting systems. However, these fiber optically lit features suffer significantly from the lower luminescence of the transmitted light from the light pump to the tips of the fiber optics, as there are transmission losses and the tips act only as point light sources. In addition to the luminosity problems, the fiber optic lighting systems are costly and significantly more difficult to install and maintain than conventional lights. The fiber optic fibers are very delicate, susceptible to damage even from a slight impact, which makes proper installation difficult. To compound this problem, repair of the individual fibers is extremely difficult and costly. Similar problems exist with maintenance of such features.
To date no feature has been able to achieve the desired superior luminescence and coloring while maintaining durability, increasing dependability, increasing ease of maintenance, and remaining cost effective. There exists a need to provide safe and cost effective water feature lighting with a greater luminescence within the water feature. There should also be a greater ability to control and color the water features, including the ability to color wash and transition between colors within a feature.


A speed loader has an elongated planar body with opposed major faces, the elongated planar body defining a plurality of cartridge receptacles on one of the opposed major faces, each of the plurality of cartridge receptacles configured to removably retain the head of a cartridge, the plurality of cartridge receptacles arranged along the length of the elongated planar body in an articulated sequence, at least some of the plurality of cartridge receptacles being arranged in at least two obtuse triangular subgroups, each of the obtuse triangular subgroups having three different cartridge receptacles, and each obtuse triangular subgroup having two end cartridge receptacles proximate one major edge of the elongated planar body and an intermediate cartridge receptacle proximate an opposed major edge of the elongated planar body. The obtuse triangular subgroups may face the same major edge or opposite major edges. The obtuse triangular subgroups may each define an arc.

One handicap of any revolver is the time required to reload each chamber of the revolver cylinder with ammunition. Revolver speed loaders, in some form, have been around since the 19th century. The speed loader holds and aligns ammunition cartridges so the cartridges can be loaded into the cylinder chambers easier and more quickly.
Conventional speed loaders fall into one of two groups. A flexible, inline strip-style speed loader (commonly called a speed strip) arranges the cartridges in a single linear row where either one or two cartridges can be loaded into the revolver at a time. The inline strip speed loader is made of a flexible material and can lay flat in a pocket or case, making it more comfortable and concealable for the user to carry. For the most common revolvers, the reloading process requires three engagements of the inline strip speed loader with the cylinder to fully reload the revolver. Existing inline strip speed loaders maintain the same spacing between sockets. This distance is established by the shortest center-to-center distance between any two adjacent chambers on a given revolver cylinder. The gap between cartridges loaded in the inline strip speed loader is equal to the shortest centerline distance between two adjacent chambers, minus the ammunition shell diameter. While the inline strip speed loader functions as intended, the user must carefully align the speed loader with the cylinder when reloading. Otherwise, insufficient clearance for the cylinder perimeter exists, which prevents reloading. An error in alignment requires the user to make an adjustment, which increases reloading time.
The other type of speed loader is a rigid, round-style speed loader. The round speed loader holds as many cartridges as the revolver cylinder has chambers, so all chambers of the revolver can be loaded at one time. The round speed loader is rigid and bulky, making it more difficult and uncomfortable to carry without a pouch or holster. However, the reloading process is 3-5 times faster than with an inline strip speed loader because all cartridges are loaded with a single engagement with the revolver. Although round speed loaders function as intended, round speed loaders have extended bodies that extend far to the rear of the case heads. In smaller revolvers such as Smith & Wesson J-frame and K-frame models, round speed loaders are not usable because the cylinder does not open far enough to let the round speed loader clear a protruding portion of the grip. Some people modify grips or select slim grips with other disadvantages to use existing round speed loaders.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved speed loader that holds and aligns ammunition cartridges so the cartridges can be loaded into the cylinder chambers easier and more quickly. In this regard, the various embodiments of the present invention substantially fulfill at least some of these needs. In this respect, the speed loader according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of holding and aligning ammunition cartridges so the cartridges can be loaded into the cylinder chambers easier and more quickly.
The present invention provides an improved speed loader, and overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art. As such, the general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide an improved speed loader that has all the advantages of the prior art mentioned above.
To attain this, the preferred embodiment of the present invention essentially comprises an elongated planar body with opposed major faces, the elongated planar body defining a plurality of cartridge receptacles on one of the opposed major faces, each of the plurality of cartridge receptacles configured to removably retain the head of a cartridge, the plurality of cartridge receptacles arranged along the length of the elongated planar body in an articulated sequence, at least some of the plurality of cartridge receptacles being arranged in at least two obtuse triangular subgroups, each of the obtuse triangular subgroups having three different cartridge receptacles, and each obtuse triangular subgroup having two end cartridge receptacles proximate one major edge of the elongated planar body and an intermediate cartridge receptacle proximate an opposed major edge of the elongated planar body. The obtuse triangular subgroups may face the same major edge. The obtuse triangular subgroups may face opposite major edges. The obtuse triangular subgroups may each define an arc, the arcs having a common radius. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims attached.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated.
The same reference numerals refer to the same parts throughout the various figures.