A safety and work platform is attachable to the top of a manhole casing during utility construction and provides for the safety of workers or persons upon the top of the casing. The platform provides for positive anchoring to the top of the casing with at least three securing points, at least one of which provides adjustability, and may include peripheral stanchions and guard rail for further protection. The interior of the casing is accessible through a an opening int he platform floor, which opening may be covered for safety when not in use. For additional safety, a belt and lanyard system may be used to secure a worker or other person to the platform. A method of use is also disclosed, with the platform first being installed upon a manhole casing and then the casing and platform lifted into position and installed together in order to preclude any persons from standing atop the casing before the platform is installed. When the necessary survey or other work has been completed, the platform may be removed for storage or other use.

In the field of utility construction, many electrical, sewage, gas and other utilities are buried underground. Access for such buried utilities is commonly provided by means of generally on grade access openings, usually known as manholes.
During the construction phase, after trenches have been excavated for the placement of such utilities, the generally prefabricated pipes, tunnels and casings for such utilities are installed. At various points an access opening or manhole casing will be installed in the pipe or tunnel. Of course once construction is completed the upper rim of such a manhole will preferably be at or very close to the surrounding grade, but during the construction phase the manhole casing will obviously extend several feet above the bottom of the utility trench.
This has proven to be advantageous for the purpose of ongoing survey and other work during construction, as the top of the manhole casing provides a relatively unobstructed view for alignment, leveling, etc. However, the bare rim of such a casing top provides little in the way of support for a person or persons working thereupon, even with a cover temporarily installed over the opening. Further, such a structure fails to provide the necessary means for the stabilization of any survey instruments which may be used atop the structure. Obviously, such a position atop the rim of an above grade manhole casing cover is precarious, particularly when the rim may be several feet above the surface of the base of the trench, and regulations generally prohibit or strictly control such activities.
The need arises for a safety and work platform which may be temporarily installed upon and secured to the upper rim of a prefabricated utility access opening or manhole casing during the construction of utilities and the like. The platform must be capable of being securely attached to the top of such a manhole casing or the like in order to provide safe support for one or more workers, as well as to provide a steady base for a transit or similar instrument. The platform must further meet and comply with any regulations which may govern such construction activities.

Utility construction safety and work platform


A system or apparatus for reducing motion blur includes an active shutter system, shutter control and processing components, an optional optical sensor, one or more optional movement sensors, and a power source, and can cooperate with a virtual or augmented reality system and display. The shutter system is optimally positioned between a user and the display so that one or more shutters of the system can be activated to block a user's view of the display. The shutter system is activated to block refresh lines or other artifacts present when the display refreshes. The shutter system also can be activated according to movement of the user. The shutter system can be one or more independent shutters and each shutter can have one or more shutter segments. Additionally, the shutter system can include multiple cooperating layers of shutters. The shutter system further can be incorporated in a multi-lens optical system.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) systems are gaining in popularity and providing useful for many applications including gaming, entertainment, advertising, architecture and design, medical, sports, aviation, tactical, engineering, and military applications. Most VR and AR systems use personal computers with powerful graphics cards to run software and display the graphics necessary for enjoying an advanced virtual environment. To display virtual reality environments, many systems use head-mounted displays (HMDs).
Many HMDs include two displays, one for each eye, to create a stereoscopic effect and give the illusion of depth. HMDs also can include on-board processing and operating systems such as Android to allow application to run locally, which eliminates any need for physical tethering to an external device. Sophisticated HMDs incorporate positioning systems that track the user's head position and angle to allow a user to virtually look around a VR or AR environment simply by moving his head. Sophisticated HMDs may also track eye movement and hand movement to bring additional details to attention and allow natural interactions with the VR or AR environment.
While traditional HMDs include dedicated components, interest is growing to develop an HMD that incorporates a user's own mobile device such as smart phones, tablets, and other portable or mobile devices having video displays. In order to create an immersive VR or AR environment, however, the HMD should be sized, configured, and constructed in specific way for use with a particular mobile device. Additionally, in order to create an immersive VR or AR environment, the single traditional display on the mobile device must be converted to a stereoscopic display.
One particular problem with stereoscopic displays of VR or AR systems, traditional HMDs, and HMDs that incorporate mobile devices with video displays is motion blur, which is the apparent streaking of rapidly moving objects in the three-dimensional video. Motion blur is further exacerbated by head movement. Current VR systems, AR systems, and HMDs fail to provide an effective way of reducing motion blur. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus that can be incorporated in or included as a component of VR or AR systems in general and of HMD or VR/AR headsets in particular to reduce motion blur. Moreover, it would be desirable to provide a method of using the apparatus to reduce motion blur while viewing three-dimensional video.

Method and system for reducing motion blur when experiencing virtual or augmented reality environments


The present invention relates to devices and methods for inspecting filters for extracorporeal blood treatment devices, e.g., filters for filtering dialysis fluid. The inspection of the filter according to the present invention is based on the measurement of the flow potential before and after changing the fluid flow of an electrolytic fluid between a transversal flow through the semi-permeable membrane of the filter and a longitudinal flow along the semi-permeable membrane of the filter, or vice versa. Changing the flow direction of the electrolytic fluid results in a change to the conductivity proceeding from a base value P to a higher value P2 or a lower value P1, wherein the conductivity readjusts to the base value P after a certain time interval T1, T2. An improper state of the filter is determined on the basis of the change in conductivity after changing the flow direction of the electrolytic fluid.

Various methods for extracorporeal blood treatment are known. In hemodialysis (HD), the patient's blood is cleaned in an extracorporeal blood circuit which comprises a dialyzer. The dialyzer comprises a blood chamber and a dialyzing fluid chamber, which are separated by a semipermeable membrane.
Whereas dialyzing fluid flows through the dialyzing fluid chamber in the case of hemodialysis (HD), wherein specific substances are transported through the membrane due to diffusion between the dialyzing fluid and the blood, dialyzing fluid does not flow through the dialyzing fluid chamber of the dialyzer in the case of hemofiltration (HF). In the case of hemofiltration (HF), specific substances are effectively removed through the membrane of the filter due to convection. Hemodiafiltration (HDF) is a combination of the two methods.
It is generally known to replace a part of the fluid withdrawn from the patient via the membrane of the dialyzer or filter by a sterile substitution fluid (substituate), which is fed to the extracorporeal blood circuit upstream or downstream of the dialyzer. Apparatuses for extracorporeal blood treatment are known in which the dialyzing fluid is prepared online from fresh water and concentrate and the substituate is prepared online from the dialyzing fluid. The substituate is fed to the extracorporeal blood circuit from a dialyzing fluid system of the blood treatment apparatus via a substituate line upstream or downstream of the blood chamber of the dialyzer.
In order to avoid possible contamination of the dialyzing fluid with poisonous substances (pyrogens), the dialyzing fluid is filtered before it is fed to the blood circuit. For this purpose, the known blood treatment apparatuses comprise special pyrogen filters, which effectively retain decomposition products of bacteria and endotoxins in order to maintain a pyrogen-free dialysate (permeate).
The known blood treatment apparatuses generally comprise one or more pyrogen filters connected in series, which are disposed in the fluid system. The pyrogen filters have a similar structure to the dialyzer. Pyrogen filters are known which comprise a bundle of hollow fibers. Such pyrogen filters are referred to as capillary filters. The hollow-fiber bundle is disposed in a cylindrical housing in such a way that the openings of the individual fibers lie free at the end faces of the bundle. The capillaries in the hollow fibers form the primary side and the intermediate space between the hollow fibers forms the secondary side of the filter. The filtering takes place diffusively due to the pressure difference transversely to the fiber direction.
It is possible to subject pyrogen filters to an initial pressure test with compressed air. Here, the filter is closed downstream by a valve and an air overpressure is applied upstream and the pressure is monitored. If the pressure remains unchanged over a certain period of time, it can be assumed that there is an intact filter. If the pressure drops, it can thus be concluded that there are leaks in the fibers through which the compressed air can escape.
The known pyrogen filters have to be replaced after a certain time in service. The drawback is that, in practice, the replacement intervals for pyrogen filters have to be rigidly preselected irrespective of the actual state of the filter. In practice, therefore, the filters may in principle be changed too soon or too late.
US 2008/0203023 A1 describes a blood treatment apparatus, which comprises a pyrogen filter which comprises an integrated conductivity sensor, in order to monitor the quality of the dialyzing fluid flowing through the filter. This alone does not however allow information to be provided as to the state of the filter.
WO 2008/089913 A2 describes a blood treatment apparatus, which comprises a device for establishing the calcification of a pyrogen filter. This device comprises sensors which are disposed upstream and downstream of the filter. The sensors measure the conductivity of the dialyzing fluid flowing continuously through the semipermeable membrane of the filter.
DE 198 32 451 C1 describes a device for checking the correctly implemented replacement of a used filter in an apparatus for extracorporeal blood treatment. The checking of the correctly implemented filter replacement takes place by means of a pressure-holding test, wherein it is concluded, in the case of permeability of the filter membrane for a gas, that the used filter has been replaced by a new filter.

Device and method for inspecting a filter for an extracorporeal blood treatment device


A test framework suited for use with distributed business applications allows developers to specify a test, or suite of tests, to be easily selected and executed. Execution of a test suite instantiates objects such as a test runner and a test result object that set up, activate, and observe a test cycle. Results may be forwarded to a variety of special-purpose listeners which evaluate variable and state changes and ultimately determine pass/fail metrics. Results from profilers may be used to determine code coverage for each of the tests performed by the suite. APIs allow integration of the test framework with other development processes such as a be source code management system. In one embodiment, new or changed source code may not be checked in until successfully passing a test cycle.

The development and execution of tests for business applications is often significantly more difficult than testing of singular software applications. Even the term business application is somewhat of a misnomer, because most business applications are actually a number of different applications, even running on separate computers. Business applications often are composed of separate applications running on separate machines, connected by self-defined data traffic, such as XML.
The separate functions that compose a business application, also known as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application, may include authentication, authorization, memory management, and transaction support. Individual tests of the various component functions may reveal logic errors, memory leaks, or other defects in the code, but the interactions between components may cause unpredictable errors and unwanted side effects.
Manually developing application-level tests is difficult and time consuming, especially when the number of conditions to satisfy for simulation of a production environment may be difficult to reproduce consistently. Further, when hundreds, or even thousands, of class modules are involved, even unchanged modules may exhibit errors or performance changes when changes are made to connected modules. Ensuring that each class module is fully vetted before being released to production can be as time consuming as authoring the original code.

Test automation for business applications


A method for searching text sources including temporally-ordered data objects, such as a blog, is provided including the steps of: (i) providing access to text sources, each text source including temporally-ordered data objects; (ii) obtaining or generating a search query based on terms and time intervals; (iii) obtaining or generating time data associated with the data objects; (iv) identifying data objects based on the search query; and (v) generating popularity curves based on the frequency of data objects corresponding to one or more of the search terms in the one or more time intervals. A system and computer program for text source searching is also provided.

The popularity of blogs has increased at a significant rate over the last few years. It is estimated that the size of the "Blogosphere" in August 2006 was one hundred times larger than three years previous. According to the same estimates, blogging activity is doubling in size every two hundred days or about once every six and a half months. The weblog tracking company TECHNORATI™ reports that as of August 2006 it has been tracking over 50 million blogs. Without a doubt, blogging is a social phenomenon, which is gaining popularity across several age groups, with the bulk of blogging activity generated by people in the age group of 13-29.
At the same time the popularity of social networking sites has also been increasing steadily. It is estimated that currently social networking site MySpace has 130 million registered users and that FACEBOOK™ has approximately 70 million. Reports project that 250 million people will be on social networks by 2009.
The activity in the sphere of blogs has led to the coining of new words. The term Blogger refers to an individual contributing content in digital form to web logs, social networking sites or any online forum. The term Blogosphere references the collection of web logs, social networking sites and any forum and medium of online content contributed to by individuals.
Bloggers produce diverse types of information. General topics include personal diaries, experiences (such as those collected through traveling or concerts), opinions (for example, those invoked by products, events, people, music groups, businesses, etc.), information technology, and politics, to name but a few of the vast topics canvassed by blogs. This information is highly significant as the Blogosphere is an unregulated collective and it evolves by the contributions of individuals. Collecting, monitoring and analyzing information on blogs can provide key insights into public opinion on a variety of topics, for example products, political views, entertainment, etc. Analysis of blogs can also identify events of interest, based on their popularity in the Blogosphere. Moreover, it can be a source of competitive intelligence information. Analysis can also provide insights on the usefulness and effect of marketing campaigns in the case of products, public relations strategies, public figures, etc. As such blog analysis offers opportunities for tracking the dynamics of public opinion. As a result, techniques that aid the collection, analysis, mining and efficient querying of blogs are significant. This is especially true due to the growing popularity of blogs and the fact that this trend is expected to persist.
Traditional web search technology can be readily applied on the Blogosphere. Indeed, numerous search sites exist, specializing in the Blogosphere. The flaw of the application of traditional web search technologies to the Blogosphere is that they fail to take into consideration the differences between crawling the World Wide Web and the Blogosphere. Information in blogs has a well defined temporal dimension that is not present in more traditional web content (i.e. html pages). Blog posts have a time-stamp and may trigger additional posts by the same or other bloggers. The temporal dimension in particular, imposes an ordering facility on the Blogosphere that it can be utilized for effective querying of blogs.
For example, consider a search for information related to the actor "Phillip Seymour Hoffman" on the Blogosphere. The functionality that a traditional search engine offers is a list of all blogs posts containing the search string, ranked in some order, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,150 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,315,861. Although this is informative, in terms of information discovery greater functionality can be achieved in the case of blogs (or any other temporally ordered streaming text sources, for that matter).
The result of the growing popularity of blogs and the proliferation in the number of people maintaining blogs is an increased interest in search and analysis engines for the Blogosphere. These engines use a variety of techniques for information discovery and text analysis. For example, a popularity curve is a graphical visualization of the popularity of a searched query within a temporal window. Popularity curves can be used for analysis, as fluctuations in popularity can provide insight into topics related to a query.
Specifically, TECHNORATI™, BLOGPULSE™ and ICEROCKET™ are online search resources that have the ability to display popularity curves for user queries. Popularity curves can be used to provide a drill down or roll-up style interface thereby allowing the user to easily restrict the search to a specific time interval. The system and method of curves applied by BLOGPULSE™ provides such an interface, while those of TECHNORATI™ and ICEROCKET™ do not.
However, none of the existing blog analysis tools provide any feedback about time-specific events of interest on their popularity curves. Moreover, other inventions that do recognize time-specific events of interest do not do so in a manner that is linked to a popularity curve, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,078. This makes the task of information discovery tedious. A system that can identify time-specific events of interest would therefore be of assistance to a user.
The system and method of GOOGLE TRENDS™ provides information about the popularity of different keywords in GOOGLE™ search volume. However, since these popularity curves are based on search volume, and not on text content, the functionality to expand or collapse a temporal window is not available. GOOGLE TRENDS™ can also label parts of the popularity curve based on spikes in volume of news stories for a particular keyword. However, these labels, while informative, are difficult to use due to the lack of a navigational interface to facilitate selection of time intervals for analysis. Moreover, these labels are not based on data displayed on the popularity curve, but on a separate data source.
As well, known blog analysis systems and methods are limited with respect to the use of correlated keywords. Many search sites, including GOOGLE™ and TECHNORATI™, use their search volume to identify related queries. However, search volume is available solely for popular search sites and is inaccessible for most others. Other inventions establish correlations between keywords through reliance upon past queries, as is the method of U.S. Pat. No. 7,287,025, instead of focusing upon the content of a present query. These methods distort the range of related query suggestions.
The system and methods of TECHNORATI™, ICEROCKET™ and U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,215 utilize a list of related "tags" with the searched query for navigation. However, the drawback to this approach is that because tagging requires manual effort by bloggers, most of the content in the Blogosphere is not tagged. Also, the number of tags for a document is usually less then 10, while actual content itself may contain thousands of words. Therefore, tags generally cannot accurately represent the contents of a document. An additional problem occurs because tags may be subjective or prone to spam.
Known methods and systems base their analysis on tags and search volume and not on actual text content. A more accurate means of examining blogs to determine search relevance is to consider the whole content of the document.
Moreover, known systems and methods additionally fail to account for restrictions on time range (as defined as a temporal window). Moreover, additional search parameters, such as geographical region or demographic information are engaged through an inefficient method reliant upon data associated with a text source which is not consistently available, as is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 7,231,405, wherein the invention is reliant upon geocodes.
The systems and methods of GOOGLE ALERTS™ and YAHOO ALERTS™ provide an alerts service whereby users can register a query with the system. Whenever the system (specifically the crawler) encounters a new document containing the specified query, it raises an alert and sends an email to the user. An alert function is also included in U.S. Pat. No. 7,143,118. This service is useful for monitoring specific items on the web, but it suffers from two main problems: (i) an alert is raised whenever any document (e.g., blog post) containing the query is encountered and not when an even to interest occurs; and (ii) if the number of documents containing the specified query is large then this technique will fail, because the number of alerts will be too many to handle.
The system and method of GOOGLE™ utilizes the number of inlinks to a page as a measure of authority. For example, GOOGLE™'s page rank algorithm makes use of such information. This measure has proven its effectiveness over time for web documents. However, this simple definition of authority ignores contextual and time-specific information and hence is generally inadequate for the Blogosphere, or any other temporally-ordered information source. A more informed authoritative ranking would be achieved by taking into account time, context, authority, and geographic information.
The system and method of TECHNORATI™, as well as other search sites, displays a list of "what is popular now" through an application of tags and search volume. There are two limitations to this approach: (i) this is based on search volume and tags and not on the actual content of posts and is therefore undesirable because tagging requires manual effort, the search volume is not always available, and tags are not always accurate representation of actual content; and (ii) the list of popular keywords cannot be generated for arbitrary time periods (e.g., 1 Apr. 2006 to 18 May 2006).
The system and method of GOOGLE TRENDS™ lists of top few cities and regions where the user specified query was most popular (in search volume). This is useful as keywords may have varying popularity across different regions in the world. It would further be useful if a search tool could display a map with regions marked according to the popularity of a search query. However, such a service is not provided by any tool for the case of the popularity of the query in the actual Blogosphere or on the actual content of temporally ordered information sources.
The systems and methods of GOOGLE ANALYTICS™ and CLUSTRMAP™ provide web analytic tools that use map-based visualization to display the number of visitors to visit a site from different parts of world. However, no tool provides such visualization for search results in the Blogosphere.
Known systems and methods apply inverted indexes for the purpose of providing search functionality within text documents. Such indexes suit the traditional web that consists of a collection of HTML documents, but not the new emerging social media. Special techniques are required to conduct efficient searching for attributes such as age, gender, and time of creation that are commonly found in documents in social media. Thus, efficient querying on attributes of a user in conjunction with keyword queries is a persistent problem. For example, conducting a search for all blog posts containing global warming posted in April 2007 by males aged 30-45 and with location within 50 miles of downtown Toronto, is beyond the capability of known technologies. Traditional indexing schemes wherein posting lists are created for each of the keywords in the corpus at the indexing time, and intersection of posting lists is computed at the query time. These work well when constraints on the metadata are absent.
Moreover, known systems and methods, such as those included in U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,260 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,405, contemplate means of formulating an additional query based upon the text of a specific document and the implementation of part-of-speech segmentation functionality. However, they achieve the additional query through a method that lacks sophistication and therefore fails to produce a meaningful query.
Finally, known systems and methods routinely apply primitive search interfaces. They lack features such as: one-click zoomable popularity and demographic curves; asychronously loading cached copy of search results in tooltips; automatic text summarization; and collaborative dashboards.
In view of the foregoing, what are needed are methods and systems for information discovery and text analysis of the Blogosphere, or other forms of social media and various temporally ordered information sources, that are not necessarily query driven, and that overcome the drawbacks and limitations of the prior art. For example, a user should be able to monitor posts and keywords of interest that merit further exploration should be automatically suggested.
Further, what is needed is a system and method that does more than solely monitor queries posed by users or blog post tags and rank them based on relative popularity. There is a wealth of related information one can extract from blogs in order to aid information discovery. For example, blog analysis can be a useful tool for marketers and public relations executives as well as others. They can be used, for example, to measure product penetration by comparing popularity of a product along with those of a competitor in the Blogosphere. Moreover, popularity can also be used to assess decisions, like marketing strategy changes, by monitoring fluctuations in popularity.
Additional functionalities, such as one-click zoomable interfaces, tooltips and intelligent alerts through the use of bursts can further enhance Blogosphere analysis. The list includes adding a spatial component to queries as well as correlations identifying temporal dynamics in the list of keywords correlated to a specific keyword, and mapping correlated keywords to topics. These functionalities and features have the potential to improve information discovery and text analysis of the Blogosphere or any other online temporally-ordered text sources.

Method and system for information discovery and text analysis


A light emitting device that light of various colors by blending lights emitted by two or more kinds of fluorescent materials which are substantially directly excited by light emitted by an excitation source having principal emission peak in a range from 250 nm to 500 nm. Each of the fluorescent materials is of a direct-transition type.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting device that uses a light emitting element and fluorescent material, and can be used for such applications as a signal light, illumination, display, indicator and other light sources, and particularly to a light emitting device that can emit light of white and other color tones by using fluorescent material that is excited by light emitted by a light emitting element, which emits in an ultraviolet to visible light region, and emits light in the visible light region.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various light emitting diodes (LED) and laser diodes (LD) have been developed as light emitting elements. These light emitting elements are replacing part of electric bulbs and cold cathode ray tubes that are used as light sources for display, back light and indicator, and the like by taking advantage of such features as a capability to run on low voltage, compact construction, light weight, small thickness, long life, high reliability and low power consumption. What deserves attention in this context are LEDs capable of emitting blue or green light with at least 10 candela luminous intensity that have been recently developed and commercialized by using an activation (light emission) layer of a quantum well structure made of a nitride semiconductor (for example, mixed crystal of InGaN). It has also been made possible to emit light of various colors including white light by combining light emitted by such LED chips and light emitted by fluorescent materials that are excited by light of the LED chips, thereby to produce fluorescence (principle of blending light colors).
An example of such devices is a light emitting device that uses a light emitting element which emits blue light and a YAG fluorescent material which is excited by the light emitted by the light emitting element and emits yellow light, so as to generate white light. This device emits white light by blending a transmitted part of the blue light from the light emitting element and yellow light emitted by the YAG fluorescent material that is excited by a part of the blue light from the light emitting element. This light emitting device has advantages of simple structure and ease of increasing output power.
There is also a device that emits white light by using a light emitting element, which emits an ultraviolet ray, and fluorescent materials capable of emitting light of RGB (red, green and blue) colors. There is also such a device that emits white light or other colors, wherein a fluorescent material which emits blue light when excited by a UV light emitting element and another fluorescent material which is excited by the blue light from the former fluorescent material emits yellow light (for example, refer to Patent Document 1). In this case, light color can be adjusted relatively easily since only the light emitted by the fluorescent materials is substantially used. When a light emitting element that emits an ultraviolet ray is used, in particular, mass productivity can be improved since color deviation due to wavelength of light emitted by this semiconductor light emitting element can be accommodated somewhat and chromaticity can be determined only by color of light emitted by the fluorescent materials, unlike a case of using a light emitting element that emits visible light.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2003-147351
However, there are demands for further improvement in a color rendering property for blended light emitted by a light emitting device that combines a blue light emitting element and YAG fluorescent material. There is a problem, in particular, that light emitted by such a device has an insufficient red component and a low value of a special color rendering index R9 that represents the red component. There is also such a problem that, since the device can emit light of only such colors that lie on a line connecting blue and a color of light emitted by YAG material on a chromaticity diagram, it is difficult to obtain light of a desired color by adjusting amounts of fluorescent materials; namely it is difficult to obtain a multi-color light emitting device.
A light emitting device that employs a light emitting element which emits an ultraviolet ray such as that described in Patent Document 1 has low intensity of emitted light at wavelengths around 500 nm, resulting in a low color rendering property.
It has also been attempted to improve a color rendering property by using at least two kinds of fluorescent material, such as combining a light emitting element which emits an ultraviolet ray and fluorescent materials capable of emitting light of RGB (red, green and blue) colors. But these attempts have been facing such a problem that difference in excitation characteristics among the fluorescent materials results in color deviation and/or variation in a color rendering property. For example, changing drive current density in the light emitting element causes a plurality of fluorescent materials to change light emitting characteristics differently, thus resulting in variations in color of emitted light.


A sound channel detection circuit includes a amplifier circuit and a LED. The amplifier circuit has an input connected to a connector for receiving an AC voltage signal and an output. The LED has an anode connected to the output of the amplifier circuit and a cathode connected to ground, when a sound channel circuit to be tested works normally, the AC voltage is amplified by the amplifier circuit and drives the LED to flash, when the sound channel circuit to be tested is not working, the LED doesn't emit light. The sound channel detection circuit with the amplifier circuit and the LED can improve the accuracy and efficiency of detection in a situation of a batch production in a noisy environment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sound channel detection circuits, and particularly to an earphone sound channel detection circuit.
2. Description of related art
A sound channel circuit of an earphone in a computer includes capacitors connected in series. In production of the computer, the sound channel circuit should be checked for normal operation. A sound signal is sent to the sound channel circuit and then a tester checks whether a corresponding sound produced by an earphone. If the tester can hear the sound, the sound channel circuit works normally.
However, because the computers are produced in large batches in a noisy environment, it can be difficult for the tester to hear the sound.
What is needed, therefore, is an earphone sound channel detection circuit which can solve the above problems.

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


A sheet processing apparatus includes: a binding unit that sandwiches and binds a plurality of sheets by using a convex portion and a concave portion; a moving unit that moves at least one of the convex portion and the concave portion; a drive unit that drives the moving unit; and a control unit that controls the drive unit so that a state in which the binding unit sandwiches the plurality of sheets at a predetermined pressing force by using a driving force from the drive unit is retained for a predetermined time period, and so that the one of the convex portion and the concave portion is moved in a direction away from the another of the convex portion and the concave portion after the predetermined time period has elapsed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus and an image forming apparatus, and particularly to a unit configured to bind sheets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, some image forming apparatuses, such as a copying machine, a laser beam printer, a facsimile machine, and a multifunction device having functions of these machines, have included a sheet processing apparatus that performs a process of, for example, binding sheets on which an image has been formed. Significant emphasis is placed on recyclability in consideration of the environment and the like, and a sheet processing apparatus has been suggested in which sheets are bound without using staples. As such a sheet processing apparatus, for example, a sheet processing apparatus is provided in which a sheet binding unit including inverted V-shaped upper teeth and V-shaped lower teeth performs a binding process on a sheet bundle.
In the sheet processing apparatus, sheets are put together and aligned, and then the sheets are pressed by meshing the lower teeth and the upper teeth so as to form, on part of a sheet bundle, projections and depressions in a thickness direction, thereby entangling fibers of superimposed sheets in the sheet bundle with each other so as to bind the sheet bundle. Hereinafter, such a binding method for binding a bundle of fibrous sheets without using staples is called stapleless binding.
Hitherto, there has been provided a sheet processing apparatus in which a cam is used as a component configured to mesh lower teeth and upper teeth (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-189101). In a sheet binding unit of this sheet processing apparatus, as illustrated in FIG. 10A, a cam 116 having cam surfaces 116a, 116b, and 116c that are different in length in a radial direction with respect to a rotating shaft 117 is used.
When stapleless binding is performed, the cam 116 is rotated, and upper teeth 112 disposed in an upper supporting base 110 are pressed against lower teeth 111 disposed in a lower supporting base 119 via an elastic member 115.
The cam 116 is provided with a plurality of cam surfaces 116a, 116b, and 116c so that a pressing force corresponding to the thickness of a sheet to be bound or the number of sheets to be bound is obtained. When configuration is made so that the upper teeth 112 are pressed via the elastic member 115, even in the case of a sheet bundle S having an intermediate thickness that is not able to be dealt with by the cam surface 116a, 116b, or 116c, a pressing force corresponding to the sheet bundle S may be obtained owing to deformation of the elastic member 115.
In the configuration illustrated in FIGS. 10A and 10B, in order to withstand a large force applied to the elastic member 115 when the upper teeth 112 are pressed against the lower teeth 111, an elastic member having a high spring constant is required, thereby resulting in an increase in cost.

Sheet processing apparatus and image forming apparatus


Aspects of the invention provide for automatically selecting optimal fetch settings for business processes as a function of database query load and relational context by monitoring usage of a data retrieval point with respect to a defined unit of work. A multilayer feed-forward neural network is used to predict, as a function of training sets composed of historical data generated by the monitored usage of the data retrieval point, a future value of a data size of results from an eager fetch setting for the data retrieval point. The eager fetch is automatically revised to a lazy fetch setting in response to determining that the future data size value of the eager fetch setting results is larger than a permissible memory resource threshold.

The present invention relates to the persistence object-relational mapping (ORM, O/RM, and O/R mapping) in computer software, a programming technique for converting data between incompatible type systems in relational databases and object-oriented programming languages.
Persistence refers to the tendency of application data to outlive an application process. Java is an object-oriented programming model expressly designed for use in the distributed environment of the Internet. (JAVA is a trademark of the Oracle Corporation in the United States or other countries.) Java enforces and can be used to create complete applications that may run on a single computer or be distributed among servers and clients in a network. It can also be used to build a small application module or applet for use as part of a web page. Applets make it possible for a web page user to interact with the page. It is generally desired that the state of some Java objects live (persist) beyond the scope of a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) which interprets byte code into code that will run on extant computer hardware, so that the same state is available later.
Object-Relational Impedance Mismatch (sometimes called a paradigm mismatch) refers to problems in working with both object models and relational database models (RDBMS). RDBMSs represent data in a tabular format (for example, a spreadsheet), whereas object-oriented languages, such as Java, represent it as an interconnected graph of objects. Loading and storing graphs of objects using a tabular relational database may result in mismatch problems; for example, an object model may have more classes than a number of corresponding tables in the database (the object model is more granular than the relational model). Further, a RDBMS defines exactly one notion of 'sameness': the primary key. Java, however, defines both object identity (a==b) and object equality (a.equals(b)).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Optimal persistence of a business process

International Business Machines Corporation


A combination of a VEGFR inhibitor and a PARP inhibitor is described. In particular, this combination can be used in the preparation of a medicament for treating gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of the digestive tract that poses a serious threat to human health. According to statistics, among all malignant tumors, the incidence of gastric cancer ranks fourth, while the mortality rate ranks third, and more than 700,000 people die of gastric cancer every year. Since the incipient symptoms are not typical, most patients with gastric cancer have reached the advanced stage at the time of treatment. The 5-year survival rate is mostly no more than 20% due to the lack of effective treatment, and the prognosis is very poor.
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is the most important positive regulatory protein ever identified. VEGF induces phosphorylation of its receptor subtype VEGFR-2 by binding to it, and further activates a series of cascades that cause vascular endothelial cell proliferation and induce angiogenesis. Studies have shown that VEGF and its receptors are highly expressed in gastric cancer tissues, and their expression levels are positively correlated with the prognosis of gastric cancer. Therefore, the treatment of targeting VEGF or its receptors to destroy neovascularization will undoubtedly provide a novel therapeutic direction and molecular target for patients with gastric cancer. Bevacizumab is a recombinant human anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody, and is the first drug approved for anti-angiogenesis of tumor. A phase III clinical trial demonstrated that bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy as a first-line regimen has a significant efficacy in treating advanced gastric cancer, laying the foundation for anti-gastric cancer therapy targeting neovascularization. WO2005000232A2 (publication date of Jan. 6, 2005) discloses a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor Apatinib mesylate, which highly selectively competes for the ATP-binding site of VEGFR-2 in cells, blocks the downstream signal transduction, inhibits the neovascularization of tumor, and finally achieves the purpose of treating tumors. Apatinib can significantly prolong the overall survival and progression-free survival of patients with advanced gastric cancer after second-line treatment failure, and improve the control rate of the disease. Apatinib is the only oral formulation among the currently approved drugs targeting gastric cancer, and fills the gap in the third-line treatment field of advanced gastric cancer. The structure of Apatinib is shown in formula (I)

Poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase or poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) plays an important role in repairing DNA single-strand break (SSB) induced by various causes. Since the FDA approved the PARP inhibitor Olaparib developed by AstraZeneca in late 2014 for treating ovarian cancer with BRCA1/2 mutation, the development of PARP inhibitors for anti-tumor treatment has developed rapidly. A number of PARP inhibitors including Niraparib, Veliparib and Rucaparib are currently in phase III clinical trials. Preclinical studies have demonstrated that in addition to being applied as a single drug, PARP inhibitors can also be used as a radiosensitizer or chemosensitizer in combination with radiotherapy or chemotherapy, so as to enhance anti-tumor efficacy and reduce the drug dose in chemotherapy or radiation dose in the radiotherapy, and reduce toxic and side effects. A recent phase II clinical trial showed that Olaparib showed an 88% response to advanced prostate cancer patients with DNA repair gene mutations, which allowed tumor growth to be inhibited or even reduced, and the overall survival was longer than the expected survival of the same type patients. Therefore, the continuous expansion of the usage mode and indication of PARP inhibitors has a good promotion for the development and application of PARP inhibitors. The occurrence and development of gastric cancer have been confirmed to be closely related to abnormal DNA damage repair function. WO2012019427A1 (publication date of Feb. 16, 2012) discloses a PARP inhibitor capable of inhibiting the growth of various tumors, and its structure is shown in formula (B)

The combination of more than one anti-tumor drugs that have different targets and are interrelated is a generally accepted anti-tumor therapy, which fully utilizes the advantages of each component, and can not only improve the anti-tumor activity of each single drug but also reduce the toxicity of the drugs. A phase I clinical trial of the combination of a PARP inhibitor Olaparib and Cediranib (a drug that inhibits neovascularization by inhibiting VEGFR activity) initially demonstrated that the combination regimen is more effective than the two drugs used alone in patients with ovarian cancer, indicating that the combination regimen of the above two drugs with different targets has a good feasibility for tumor treatment.
Patent applications WO2010096627A1 (publication date of Aug. 26, 2010), WO2014004376A2 (publication date of Jan. 3, 2014), WO2016116602A1 (publication date of Jul. 28, 2016) and WO2016179123A1 (publication date of Nov. 10, 2016) disclose the use of a combination of a VEGFR inhibitor and a PARP inhibitor in treating malignant tumors (such as breast or ovarian cancer, etc). However, whether the combination has a synergy effect on the inhibition of gastric cancer or not is unknown.

Use of combination of VEGFR inhibitor and PARP inhibitor in preparation of medicament for treating gastric cancer


A fluorescent printer head capable of being subject to dynamic driving to reduce the number of ICs required. A shield electrode is provided between anode arrays having anode dots arranged in an offset manner and control electrodes are respectively arranged for the anode arrays. The anode arrays are subject to dynamic driving and selected by the control electrodes. Such construction of the fluorescent printer head ensures smooth selection of the anode arrays during the dynamic driving. Also, it eliminates non-uniformity in luminance of the anode dots of the anode arrays and accomplishes downsizing of the printer head and a reduction in manufacturing cost thereof due to a reduction in the number of ICs required.

This invention relates to a fluorescent printer head for optical writing to which a luminous principle of a fluorescent display device is applied, and more particularly to a fluorescent printer head adapted to be applied to various optical printers used for writing on a photosensitive drum, writing on a photosensitive film and the like.
A conventional fluorescent printer head of the static drive type is typically constructed in such a manner as shown in FIG. 6. The conventional fluorescent printer head which is generally designated by reference numeral 100 in FIG. 6 includes a light-permeable anode substrate 101, side plates 102 and a rear substrate 103, which are jointed to each other by means of sealing glass to provide an envelope 104. The envelope 104 thus formed is then evacuated to a high vacuum. The anode substrate 101 is provided on an inner surface thereof with two rows of anodes or two anode arrays 105, each of which is constructed of a plurality of anode dots arranged at predetermined intervals. The two anode arrays 105 are arranged so as to be parallel to each other and spaced from each other at a predetermined interval in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the anode arrays 105. Also, the anode arrays 105 are so arranged that the anode dots of one of the anode arrays 105 and those of the other anode array 105 are kept from being aligned with each other with a space being interposed between the anode arrays 105. In other words, the anodes dots of the anode arrays 105 opposite to each other are arranged in an offset manner.
The fluorescent printer head 100 thus constructed is of the static drive type, wherein a ratio of the number of anode dots of each of the anode arrays 105 to the number of output bits of each of ICs 106 corresponding thereto is set to be 1:1. More particularly, the anode dots are electrically separated from each other and led out of the arrays by means of wiring conductors arranged on the anode substrate 101. The ICs 106 each acting as a driver for anode driving are arranged on the anode substrate 101 in a manner to be positioned outside the anode arrays 105 corresponding thereto. The wiring conductors led out of the anode dots are connected to terminals of the ICs 106 corresponding thereto, respectively.
The envelope 104 has two filamentary cathodes 107 stretchedly arranged therein in a manner to extend along the anode arrays 105 above the anode arrays, respectively. Also, the envelope 104 is provided therein with shield electrodes 108, which are respectively positioned outside the anode arrays 105, to thereby prevent electrons discharged from the cathodes 107 toward the anode arrays from being impinged on the ICs 106.
Driving of the fluorescent printer head 100 thus constructed is carried out by driving the ICs 106 to feed each of the anode dots of the anode arrays 105 with a display signal. Luminescence of the anode dots is forwardly guided through the light-permeable anode substrate 101.
In the conventional fluorescent printer head shown in FIG. 6, the ICs 106 are arranged in the envelope 104. Alternatively, the fluorescent display device may be often constructed so that the anode substrate 101 constituting a part of the envelope 104 is formed into a size somewhat larger than an outer configuration of the envelope 104 and the ICs 106 are arranged on a portion of the anode substrate 101 outwardly extending from the envelope 104. Also, the driver ICs 106 and connection terminals may be arranged on a resin tape and then connected through anisotropic conductive members to anode wirings led out to both sides of the envelope of the fluorescent printer head, resulting in the fluorescent printer head being constructed into a module structure.
As will be noted from the above, in the fluorescent printer head 100 of the static drive type, not only the number of ICs required is increased but each of the ICs 106 acting as the driver for anode driving is increased in the number of output bits. The driver IC 106 accounts for a large part of a manufacturing cost of the fluorescent printer head 100. Thus, the conventional fluorescent printer head fails to be reduced in manufacturing cost or price.
Also, employment of either the structure wherein the driver ICs 106 are arranged in the envelope 104 or the structure wherein the ICs are arranged on the portion of the anode substrate 101 outside the envelope renders downsizing of the fluorescent printer head highly difficult. Further, the structure wherein the tape having the ICs arranged thereon is connected to the anode wirings led out to both sides of the envelope substantially hinders downsizing of the fluorescent printer head which is constructed into a module.
In order to avoid such disadvantages of the prior art described above, the inventors considered dynamic driving of the fluorescent printer head and, as a result, it was found that there exists a problem to be solved. More particularly, when the fluorescent printer head including two anode arrays wherein the anode dots are arranged in an offset manner is so constructed that each adjacent two anode dots between the anode arrays opposite to each other are connected to each other to reduce the number of bits of the anode driver to half, resulting in the anodes being driven while reducing a duty ratio to half, the number of bits required for the IC may be reduced to half. Unfortunately, this requires to arrange an electrode structure which permits any one of the two anode arrays to be selected in synchronism with driving of the anodes.
For the purpose of selection of any one of the anode arrays, it would be considered to arrange a control electrode between each of the cathodes and each of the anode arrays. For example, a control electrode which has been conventionally commonly used for a fluorescent display device is constructed into a mesh-like structure, a wire-like structure or the like.
The mesh-like control electrode has a disadvantage of causing a shade to be formed on a luminous section, leading to a variation in light quantity of the fluorescent printer head. Also, the conventional fluorescent printer head causes an interval between the anode arrays to be reduced, so that it is highly difficult to arrange two mesh-like control electrodes in a manner to keep the electrodes from being contacted with each other. Further, application of a cut-off voltage to one of the anode arrays while selecting the other anode array tends to hinder flowing of electrons into the anodes to be selected. The wire-like control electrode encounters, in addition to the above-described disadvantages of the mesh-like control electrode, a further disadvantage that it is required to increase positional accuracy in alignment between the anode dots and the wire-like control electrode.


A photovoltaic generator device for producing an output sufficient to turn on a MOS-gated device consists of a plurality of planar photogenerator cells connected in series. Each of the photovoltaic generator cells is contained on its own respective insulated tub. The insulated tubs are formed by wafer bonding a device wafer to a handle wafer with a dielectric isolation layer between them. Prior to joining the two wafers, a reflective layer is deposited on the surface of the device wafer to maximize absorption of incident light by the photogenerator cell. The individual tubs are isolated by trenches which enclose each tub and which extend through the reflective and to the dielectric layers between the device and handle wafers. Each tub is formed of an N.sup.- body having a shallow P.sup.+ diffusion. N.sup.+ contact regions are formed in the N.sup.- body and contact strips connect the devices of each of the tubs in series by connecting the P.sup.+ diffusions of one tub to the N.sup.+ contact of an adjacent tub. Alternatively, the isolation trenches are formed in the device wafer prior to bonding the two wafers, and the reflective layer is deposited on both the walls of the trenches and the surface of the device wafer to further increase light absorption.

This invention relates to photovoltaic generators for producing a control signal for the control of a semiconductor switching device and, more specifically, relates to novel photovoltaic generator structures and methods for making such structures in which an array of planar cells formed in a silicon substrate are dielectrically isolated from one another by trench isolation.
Photovoltaic generators (PVG) are well known and are commonly used for producing a control signal for a solid state relay. Such devices employ an LED which is energized by input terminals to irradiate the photosensitive surface of a spaced and insulated photovoltaic device. The output of the photovoltaic device may serve as the input to a switching device, such as a MOS-gated device, typically a power MOSFET, which has load terminals which are switched "on" in response to the energization of the LED. The input and output terminals of the relay are isolated by the gap between the LED and the photovoltaic device. Commonly, the photovoltaic device consists of a large number of series-connected photovoltaic cells in order to produce a voltage sufficiently high to turn on the power switching device. Such devices are well known and are sold under the name "PVI" (photovoltaic isolator) by the International Rectifier Corporation of El Segundo, Calif., the assignee of the present invention.
Plural cell photovoltaic generators can be made in many different ways. U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,762, issued to William F. Cantarini, one of the present inventors, on Aug. 27, 1996, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a PVG device and method for making the same in which an array of planar cells 2 formed in a silicon substrate 4 are dielectrically isolated from one another by trench isolation. FIG. 1 shows a top view of such a trench isolated PVG device including contacts 6 to connect the cells 2 in series. FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional side view of the device of FIG. 1 which includes polysilicon-filled trenches 8 which isolate the cells of the device.
To provide enough output current from a photovoltaic generator (PVG), sufficient surface area and depth of silicon need to be exposed to radiation. Experimentation and calculations have shown that greater than 80% of the incident light (typically 880 nm) can be absorbed in 20 nm of silicon. Reduction of this depth dramatically affects the absorption and hence output current. To maximize output current, it would be desirable to form a trench-isolated PVG device with increased absorption of incident light.

Reflector layer for the well surface of a photovoltaic generator


An example turbomachine geared architecture support assembly includes a compliant member configured to hold a geared architecture within a turbomachine. The compliant member has a compliant section that permits rotation of the geared architecture relative to a fixed portion of the turbomachine. A stop limits rotation of the geared architecture relative to the fixed portion of the turbomachine.

This disclosure relates to limiting relative rotational movement of a turbomachine geared architecture support assembly during an extreme event.
Turbomachines, such as gas turbine engines, typically include a fan section, a turbine section, a compressor section, and a combustor section. Turbomachines may employ a geared architecture connecting the fan section and the turbine section.
Support structures are used to hold the geared architecture within the turbomachine. The support structures may be relatively compliant to accommodate some movement of the geared architecture relative to other portions of the turbomachine. Extreme engine events such as fan blade loss or failure of fan shaft bearing supports may significantly torque the geared architecture. It is desirable for compliant support structures to not buckle under such loads.

Turbomachine geared architecture support assembly


A bus of a SoC (system on chip) includes a system arbiter for controlling not only a command arbiter but also a read information arbiter, a write data control circuit, a write complete notice arbiter and the like. A sequential table containing a series of system operations including activation processing and application processing and an operation clock information circuit or the like that becomes effective when a SoC bus region is divided by an operation clock frequency are utilized in assignment of priority of buses of the system arbiter. Thus, the information transfer efficiency of the whole system bus and the information transfer efficiency of every transfer originator can be improved.

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus having a contention control function for a SoC (System on Chip) system bus.
FIG. 22 is a block diagram for schematically showing the architecture of a conventional information processing apparatus and FIG. 23 is a timing chart for explaining its operation.
As shown in FIG. 22, the conventional information processing apparatus has a system bus for connecting a plurality of transfer originator bus control units 1 through 3 (transfer originators A, B and C) for respectively sending transfer information and a plurality of transfer destination bus control units 4 and 5 (transfer destinations 1 and 2) for respectively receiving the transfer information to one another, and includes circuits (command buffers) 9 through 11 for storing precedent transfer information of the transfer originator bus control units 1 through 3; buses 6 through 8 for respectively connecting the transfer originator bus control units 1 through 3 to the command buffers 9 through 11; circuits (command arbiters) 13 and 14 for controlling contention of the transfer information between the transfer destination bus control units 4 and 5; a hierarchical bus 12 for connecting the command buffers 9 through 11 to the command arbiters 13 and 14; buses 21 and 22 for respectively connecting the command arbiters 13 and 14 to the transfer destination bus control units 4 and 5; circuits (read information arbiters) 50 through 52 for controlling the contention of read information; buses 37 through 39 for respectively connecting the read information arbiters 50 through 52 to the transfer originator bus control units 1 through 3; a hierarchical bus 40 for connecting the transfer destination bus control units 4 and 5 to the read information arbiters 50 through 52; circuits (decoders) 44 and 45 for identifying read information; and buses 48 and 49 for respectively connecting the decoders 44 and 45 to the transfer destination bus control units 4 and 5.
The operation of the information processing apparatus having the aforementioned architecture will now be described with reference to FIG. 23.
In FIG. 23, the ordinate indicates the states of the transfer originators and the transfer destinations, a transfer originator slot corresponds to a three-stage buffer for storing precedent transfer information, and a transfer destination slot corresponds to a three-stage buffer for storing read data notice information. The abscissa indicates time, and each time duration among times T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6 and T7 corresponds to an information processing unit time. Also, the priority for the command arbiters 13 and 14 and the read information arbiters 50 through 52 is in the order of the transfer originator A, the transfer originator B and the transfer originator C.
At the time T1, the transfer originator A issues two transfer information items to the transfer destination 1, the transfer originator B issues two transfer information items to the transfer destination 1 and the transfer originator C issues two transfer information items to the transfer destination 1 and one transfer information item to the transfer destination 2.
In a period between the times T1 and T2, since the transfer originator A has the highest priority according to the priority for the command arbiters 13 and 14, the transfer information items are transferred in the order of the transfer originator A, the transfer originator B and the transfer originator C. Also, the transfer destination 1 issues read information notices to the respective transfer originators.
At the time T2, the transfer originator A issues one transfer information item to the transfer destination 1, the transfer originator B issues one transfer information item to the transfer destination 1, and the transfer originator C issues one transfer information item to the transfer destination 1 and one transfer information item to the transfer destination 2.
In a period between the times T2 and T3, since the transfer originator A has the highest priority in accordance with the priority for the command arbiters 13 and 14, the transfer information items are transferred in the order of the transfer originator A, the transfer originator B and the transfer originator C. Also, the transfer destination 1 issues a read information notice to the transfer originator C.
At the time T3, the transfer originator C alone issues one transfer information item to the transfer destination 2. Also, the transfer destination 1 simultaneously issues a read information notice.
In a period between the times T4 and T6, read information notices issued by the respective transfer destinations are sent to the respective transfer originators in accordance with the priority for the read information arbiters 50 through 52.
In a conventional technique, a bus for supporting split transfer is employed in a bus system in which a plurality of modules are hierarchically connected through buses, but the contention control is performed independently in every bus of the transfer destinations as described above (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-278923).


A high-frequency switching transistor comprises a collector area, which has a first conductivity type, a first barrier area bordering on the collector area, which has a second conductivity type which differs from the first conductivity type, and a semiconductor area bordering on the first barrier area, which has a dopant concentration which is lower than a dopant concentration of the first barrier area. Further, the high-frequency switching transistor has a second barrier area bordering on the semiconductor area, which has a first conductivity type, as well as a base area bordering on the second barrier area, which has a second conductivity type. Additionally, the high-frequency switching transistor comprises a third barrier area bordering on the semiconductor area, which has the second conductivity type and a higher dopant concentration than the semiconductor area. Further, the high-frequency switching transistor has an emitter area bordering on the third barrier area, which has the first conductivity type. Thereby it is possible to provide a high-frequency switching transistor, which has a lower bias voltage, a higher switchable power as well as a shorter switching time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a high-frequency switching transistor and particularly to a high-frequency transistor, which is known for a lower gating voltage than high-frequency transistors according to the prior art.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is the object of high-frequency switches to forward or block high-frequency signals. In the forward case, they should be characterized by an ohmic resistance, which is as small as possible, and in the blocking case, by a constant capacitance, which is as small as possible. They can be realized by different types of circuit elements. In the integrated circuit technology, high-frequency switches are often realized by using a silicon substrate. Thereby, generally, the two types of bipolar or MOS transistor can be formed. In the case of a silicon bipolar transistor, the forward case can be easily realized, if it is operated with a sufficiently large emitter base current in the triode area of the characteristic curve, far below the collector current saturation. At a correct transistor dimensioning, this control current can remain smaller than 1 mA. The blocking case causes more difficulties, since a base and substrate bias voltage, respectively, is required in the off-state, which is as high as the high-frequency amplitude to be blocked. In other words, it can be noted that a base emitter bias voltage has to be applied in the blocking direction with an amount of at least the amplitude of the high-frequency signal, so that the collector base diode is not controlled in the flow direction. Thereby, the switchable power is limited by the available bias voltage.
In battery-operated mobile radio systems, for example, this leads to the problem that a required bias voltage of about 20 volt is much higher than an operating voltage of the mobile radio system of, for example, 2.8 volt.
High-frequency switches for higher powers are realized outside the RF-ICs (RF-IC=radio frequency integrated circuits) in the form of PIN diodes or GaAs transistor switches, which can be operated with lower and no bias voltage, respectively. A disadvantage, however, is the higher cost which can occur due to the additional components.
Another disadvantage of PIN diodes as high-frequency switches is that PIN diodes require a partly higher switching time, which makes their usage in the high and highest frequency technique, respectively, problematic.


An analog electronic circuit is placed between the central office of a telecommunications provider and the customer premises equipment of a digital subscriber line system which uses unshielded twisted pair wires (“UTP”). The electronic circuit separates the downlink signals from the uplink signals with a first mixer. The voice signals, if present, are routed around the electronic circuit unmodified. The downlink signals are amplified, filtered, amplified again with a one or more peaking equalization amplifier, then amplified with drivers which provide the power to drive the downlink signal through a second mixer onto the UTP lines to the customer premises equipment. The electronic circuit separates the uplink signals from the downlink signals with the second mixer. The uplink signals are amplified, filtered, and amplified again, then driven onto the UTP connected with the central office through the first mixer.

Users of data communications continue to demand ever faster service. Acoustical modems are typically able to deliver a maximum of fifty six thousand bits per second (kbps). Higher speed broadband connections have encouraged content providers to provide services that are not practical at lesser speeds, typically requiring a minimum of 150 kbps. Digital Subscriber Lines ("DSL") offer speeds up to several megabits per second (Mbps), depending upon distance from the telephone service provider's Central Office ("CO") to the Customer Premises Equipment ("CPE") and the user's willingness to pay a premium. At certain distances high speed DSL is not available at any reasonable price simply because the technology is not able to do so. Typically consumer speed DSL is not offered by the telecommunications companies at greater than about 2.5 miles from the CO. Thus the service area of providers is limited by the number of COs and their proximity to each other. This limit is the result of DSL vendors' utilization of the existing unshielded twisted pair ("UTP") copper wire network that has been the mainstay of the telephone infrastructure from the inception of commercial telephony. An advantage of UTP is that it is into virtually every home and business by virtue of its use for carrying ordinary telephone connections. A disadvantage of UTP is that it is not well suited for high frequency signals in that the high frequencies necessary for the data rates desired are strongly attenuated by the wire media itself. This is the result of the build up of impedance with wire length.
A competing broadband service is offered by television cable companies, wherein optical fiber service is installed into a neighborhood. A limited number of subscribers may then share the total bandwidth available up to approximately 1.25 miles from the termination end of the fiber connection via coaxial wire. Cable broadband speeds are often over 1 Mbps. To compete with the cable providers for broadband coverage as well as speed, the DSL providers are forced to also install more fiber connections, farther away from the CO, from which the DSL UTP lines may spawn. The installation of fiber is very costly in terms of labor, materials, and in some cases access rights. Though in the United States broadband cable currently has more market share than DSL, total market penetration of broadband service is very small. Thus the competition for share is very open.
There would be economic and time to market advantage to the DSL providers if they could economically extend their market coverage with the existing UTP infrastructure and do so at a data rate that is competitive with broadband cable. The prior art has been largely based upon repeaters which receive the DSL signal, decode it using the pertinent protocol for error detection and correction, then reformulate the data and retransmit it with a rejuvenated signal. Such approaches are very costly. Other products of the relevant art utilize the UTP infrastructure but require the telecommunications companies to install different equipment at the CO and CPE, which is expensive.
The present invention provides for the extension of the DSL service range via existing UTP lines with no change of equipment or software at the CO or at the CPE, often with a higher data rate than currently available. It is an objective of the present invention to enable DSL service providers to economically extend their market coverage, compete with broadband cable providers in terms of speed, and to enable them to roll out coverage and service improvements more rapidly than broadband cable suppliers due to lower capital needs for infrastructure extension.
DSL technology is based upon a bidirectional connection between a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer ("DSLAM") board at the CO and a DSL modem at the customer's premises. There is a one for one relationship. That is, a single, dedicated set of twisted pair wires extends from a single port on the DSLAM to the customer's DSL modem. No other subscriber is served by that same set of wires. A splitter at or near the premises entry point divides the frequency spectrum assigned to the analog voice signal (if present) from the spectrum dedicated to DSL use. The lower 30 khz is reserved for the voice signals. The DSL signals are assigned one or more separate, non-overlapping frequency bands for the "uplink" (towards the CO) direction and one or more non-overlapping frequency bands for the "downlink" (towards the CPE) direction. The data flowing in these two directions are independent of each other and flowing simultaneously, just in different directions through the same media at the same time, separated by frequency, not by time. Thus any device that is inserted between the premises splitter and the CO DSLAM must accommodate signals ranging from near dc to 1100 khz or more, without regard to direction, where "direction" distinguishes at which end of the connection is the transmitter (at the CPE for the uplink, at the CO for the downlink) and at which end is the receiver (at the CPE for the downlink, at the CO for the uplink).
The Asymmetrical DSL ("ADSL", ADSL meaning the downlink data rate is not the same as the uplink data rate) and Symmetrical DSL ("SDSL") standards for transmission are for the voice, uplink, and downlink signals to be present on the UTP simultaneously. This is in contrast to High Bit Rate DSL ("HDSL") wherein the downlink data is applied to one UTP set, the uplink to another UTP set, and the voice data is not carried at all by the system. The industry standard (described in ANSI T1.417 and others) segregates various categories of data by frequency range.
In the 1100 khz bandwidth of the G.992.1 (ADSL) standard there are two hundred and fifty six 4.3125 khz "buckets". The signal present on an ADSL physical wire line is called a Digital Multi-Tone (DMT) because it is comprised of the energy of different frequency tones. The higher frequency buckets of the DMT signal suffer greater attenuation as UTP wire line length increases. Consequently, the higher frequency buckets are hampered in their ability to effectively carry data relative to those buckets of lower frequency.
For ADSL, the portion of the bandwidth from approximately 0 Hz (bucket 0) to 30 khz (bucket 7) is reserved for the voice channel and other signaling. The portion of the bandwidth from approximately 34 khz (bucket 8) to 125 khz (bucket 29) is assigned to the ADSL upstream channel, thus comprising the next 22 buckets. As UTP wire line increases in length, fewer upstream buckets are able to carry data, resulting in a reduction in upstream data rate.
The portion of the bandwidth from approximately 164 khz (bucket 38) to 1100 khz (bucket 255) is assigned to the downstream channel, thus comprising the upper 218 buckets. As UTP wire line increases in length, fewer downstream buckets are able to carry data, resulting in a reduction in downstream data rate. The data rate is negotiated between the CO and the CPE.
Beyond approximately 18,000 feet of commonly used UTP phone wire, most of the corresponding bandwidth is so attenuated, with most downstream buckets rendered useless, that communication per the ADSL standard ceases altogether.
In the general case, any number of non-overlapping frequency bands may be assigned for uplink and downlink data, presumably the two being interleaved. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a generalized assignment scheme for interleaved DSL. FIG. 2 illustrates the frequency band assignment standard for ADSL, wherein only one band (34 khz to 125 khz) is assign to uplink data and only one band (164 khz to 1100 khz) is assigned to downlink data. The spectrum above 1100 khz is not utilized. Other standards are evolving that may assign somewhat different frequency blocks and/or utilize a higher maximum frequency. One skilled in the art will understand that the present invention is applicable to such different frequency assignments by selecting different component values for the various circuit blocks described herein such that they are tuned to filter out or pass or amplify in the appropriate frequency ranges.
The present invention operates on ISO OSI model Layer 1. That is, it is a purely analog device with no software or comprehension of protocols or frames. It takes a weak, noisy signal, cleans it up and amplifies it. Thus it is useful regardless of what protocol the signals may represent. Those skilled in the pertinent art will understand its applicability in improving signal quality within any UTP transmission system.

Amplifier for unshielded twisted pair wire signals


A micro switch having a dielectric layer having a movement region formed on a substrate, a conductive layer formed on a predetermined portion of the movement region, a dielectric film formed on the conductive layer, first and second electric conductors formed a predetermined distance above the dielectric film, one or two lower electrodes formed on the movement region, and one or two upper electrodes formed a predetermined distance above the two lower electrodes, the one or two upper electrodes moving the conductive layer and the dielectric film upwards when an electrostatic force occurs between the upper and lower electrodes, and capacitively coupled with the first and second electric conductors to allow a current to flow between the first and second electric conductors. Such a micro switch has a high on/off ratio and isolation degree and a simple structure, and can be fabricated in a very easy process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to micro switches. More particularly, the present invention relates to Radio Frequency Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (RF MEMS) micro switches, which use an electrostatic force for driving thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, frequency separators (F/S's), field effect transistors (FETs), PIN diode switches, and so on, for high-frequency signal switches are used to control electric signals, e.g., for closing, restoring, and switching electric circuits in electronic systems.
However, drawbacks associated with the devices above include a low frequency separation degree in the F/S and a high insertion loss, low isolation, high power consumption, etc., in the semiconductor switches. Currently, micro switches for high frequency signals are used to make up for such drawbacks.
Micro switches for high-frequency signals are classified into resistively coupled (RC) switches and capacitively coupled (CC) switches based on a switching coupling method.
The micro switches are further classified into a cantilever type and a bridge type based on structural features of hinge parts thereof. The micro switches are also classified into a shunt-type and a series-type based on a high frequency signal switching method.
The operation principle of micro switches is to actuate hinge parts of a micro switch structure using electrostatic force, magnetostatic force, oscillation of piezoelectric element, and the like, as energy sources to turn signal terminal contact portions on and off. The micro switches are also classified into an electrostatic actuation type and a piezoelectric actuation type based on a driving method.
The conventional shunt-type micro switch described above has a structure in which signal terminals simultaneously play an electrode role of generating electrostatic forces, and input signal terminals and output signal terminals are connected to each other when the switch is in an off-state. Further, when the switch is in an on-state, a signal terminal and a ground terminal are short-circuited so that the output of an input signal is cut off. The shunt-type micro switch has a simple structure, but the switch suffers from a low isolation degree and on/off ratio.
The conventional series-type micro switch described above is a relay switch that completely separates input and output signal terminals from upper and lower electrodes generating an electrostatic force, in which, when the switch is in an off-state, the input and output signal terminals are completely disconnected so that an output for an input signal is cut off. Further, when the switch is in an on-state, the input and output signal terminals are connected so that an input signal is outputted. The series-type micro switch has a high isolation degree and on/off ratio, but drawbacks of the switch include a complex structure, a very difficult process, and a structure that is easily deformed.


An O-ring insertion tool is disclosed herein which holds and inserts an O-ring into a cap for releasably securing a dental appliance to, for example, a dental attachment assembly secured in the mouth of a patient. The tool contains a driver having a central portion and at least one end portion with resilient prongs designed to push an O-ring through a bore in a bushing sleeve sized at one end to match the entrance of the cap. The bore has a tapered, frustoconical portion. The prongs fit into the larger end of the bore in which the O-ring is positioned and engage and advance the O-ring through the bore. The O-ring is uniformly compressed as it advances through the frustoconical portion of the bore, and is then pushed out of the second end of the bore and into position in the cap.

Various systems and methods are known for attaching a dental prosthesis, such as a full or partial denture or the like, in the mouth of a patient. Such systems generally comprise mating male and female parts, one of which is attached to the dental prosthesis and the other to an abutment which is mounted at a selected position in the patient's jaw. The abutment may be attached to a root, an endosseous implant, or an adjacent tooth, or in some cases, may be integrated directly into the jaw bone of the patient.
One known attachment uses an O-ring or plastic ring member which is inserted and retained in a cap which is secured in a recess in a dental prosthesis. The O-ring engages over a ball at the end of an implant abutment or post to releasably secure the denture in place in a patient's mouth. One example of this type of attachment is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,716,030 of Bulard et al. One problem with this type of attachment is the difficulty associated with the initial placement of the O-ring into the cap and the subsequent replacement of the O-ring when it becomes damaged or worn from repeated removal and re-attachment of the denture. The O-ring has to compress evenly as it is inserted into the cap, but it has the tendency to spring back out if this is not done correctly. The dimensions of the O-ring and cap are such that it is very difficult to insert the O-ring by hand or with tweezers, which is the current method.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a faster and more efficient tool and/or method of inserting an O-ring into a cap.


The present invention provides novel human glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)-receptor modulators that have biological activity similar or superior to native GLP-1 peptide and thus are useful for the treatment or prevention of diseases or disorders associated with GLP activity. Further, the present invention provides novel, chemically modified peptides that not only stimulate insulin secretion in type II diabetics, but also produce other beneficial insulinotropic responses. These synthetic peptide GLP-1 receptor modulators exhibit increased stability to proteolytic cleavage making them ideal therapeutic candidates for oral or parenteral administration. The peptides of this invention show desirable pharmacokinetic properties and desirable potency in efficacy models of diabetes.

GLP-1 is an important gut hormone with regulatory function in glucose metabolism and gastrointestinal secretion and metabolism. Human GLP-1 is a 30 amino acid peptide originating from preproglucagon, which is synthesized for example, in the L-cells in the distal ileum, in the pancreas and in the brain. Processing of preproglucagon to yield GLP-1 (7-36)amide and GLP-2 occurs mainly in the L-cells and the brainstem. GLP-1 is normally secreted in response to food intake, in particular carbohydrates and lipids stimulate GLP-1 secretion. GLP-1 has been identified as a very potent and efficacious stimulator of glucose-dependent insulin release with a reduced risk to induce hypoglycemia. GLP-1 lowers plasma glucagon concentrations, slows gastric emptying, stimulates insulin biosynthesis and enhances insulin sensitivity (Nauck, 1997, Horm. Metab. Res. 47:1253-1258). GLP-1 also enhances the ability of the pancreatic beta-cells to sense and respond to glucose in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (Byrne, Eur. J. Clin. Invest., 28:72-78, 1998). The insulinotropic effect of GLP-1 in humans increases the rate of glucose metabolism partly due to increased insulin levels and partly due to enhanced insulin sensitivity (D'Alessio, Eur. J. Clin. Invest., 28:72-78, 1994). Inhibition of glucagon release is thought to be an additional mechanism which contributes to the improvements in glucose homeostasis observed following treatment of type II diabetic patients with GLP-1 (Nauck, M. A., et al., Diabetologia 36:741-744, 1993). The above stated pharmacological properties of GLP-1 make it a highly desirable therapeutic agent for the treatment of type-II diabetes.
Additionally, recent studies have shown that infusions of slightly supraphysiological amounts of GLP-1 significantly enhance satiety and reduce food intake in normal subjects (Flint, A., Raben, A., Astrup, A. and Holst, J. J., J. Clin. Invest, 101:515-520, 1998; Gutswiller, J. P., Goke, B., Drewe, J., Hildebrand, P., Ketterer, S., Handschin, D., Winterhaider, R., Conen, D and Beglinger, C. Gut 44:81-86, 1999). The effect on food intake and satiety has also been reported to be preserved in obese subjects (Naslund, E., Barkeling, B., King, N., Gutniak, M., Blundell, J. E., Holst, J. J., Rossner, S., and Hellstrom, P. M., Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord., 23:304-311, 1999).
In the above-cited studies a pronounced effect of GLP-1 on gastric emptying was also suspected to occur. Gastric emptying results in post-prandial glucose excursions. It has also been shown that in addition to stimulation of insulin secretion, GLP-1 stimulates the expression of the transcription factor, islet-duodenal homeobox-1 (IDX-1), while stimulating B-cell neogenesis and may thereby be an effective treatment and/or preventive agent for diabetes (Stoffers, D. A., Kieffer, T. J. Hussain, M. A., Drucker, D. J., Bonner-Weir, S., Habener, J. F. and Egan, J. M. Diabetes, 40:741-748, 2000). GLP-1 has also been shown to inhibit gastric acid secretion (Wettergren, A., Schjoldager, B., Mortensen, P. E., Myhre, J., Christiansen, J., Holst, J. J., Dig. Dis. Sci., 38:665-673, 1993), which may provide protection against gastric ulcers.
It has recently been reported that GLP-1 has a number of additional extra-pancreatic effects that could, for example, result in cardioprotection, neuroprotection, and induction of learning and memory (reviewed in Ahren, B., Horm. Metab. Res. 36:842-845, 2004). Therefore, it has also been proposed that GLP-1 could be used in the treatment of heart failure (Nikolaidis, L. A., et al., Circulation 110:955-961, 2004), ischemia/reperfusion injury (Nikolaidis, L. A., et al., Circulation 109:962-965, 2004), and Alzheimer's Disease (Perry, T. and Greig, N. H., J. Alzheimers Dis. 4:487-496, 2002).
GLP-1 is an incretin hormone, for example, an intestinal hormone that enhances meal-induced insulin secretion (Holst, J. J., Curr. Med. Chem., 6:1005-1017, 1999). It is a product of the glucagon gene encoding proglucagon. This gene is expressed not only in the A-cells of the pancreas but also in the endocrine L-cells of the intestinal mucosa. Proglucagon is a peptide (protein) containing 160 amino acids. Further processing of proglucagon results in the generation of a) glucagon, b) an N-terminal, presumably inactive fragment, and c) a large C-terminal fragment commonly referred as "the major proglucagon fragment". This fragment is considered to be biologically inactive. Even though this fragment is present in both pancreas and in the L-cells of the gut, it is only in the intestines the breakdown products of the "the major proglucagon fragment" resulting in two highly homologous peptides commonly referred as GLP-1 and GLP-2 are observed. These two peptides have important biological activities. As such, the amino acid sequence of GLP-1, which is present in the L-cells, is identical to the 78-107 portion of proglucagon.
Presently, therapy involving the use of GLP-1-type molecules has presented a significant problem because the serum half-life of such peptides is quite short. For example, GLP-1 (7-37) has a serum half-life of less than 5 minutes. Thus there exists a critical need for biologically active GLP-1 receptor modulators, agonists or antagonists, that possess extended pharmacodynamic profiles. It is to this and other needs that the present invention is directed.
The present invention therefore provides novel peptides that act as GLP-1 receptor modulators, agonists or partial agonists, which exhibit similar or superior biological properties of the native peptide, GLP-1, and thus are useful for the amelioration of the diabetic and related conditions.

Human glucagon-like-peptide-1 modulators and their use in treatment of diabetes and related conditions


The system and method for a low profile high gain dual polarization UHF/VHF antenna. In some cases a spiral antenna over a small cavity, with arms attached on either side is provided. The antenna structure is a short distance above a ground plane (e.g., less than 1/10 wavelength at the high frequency of operation). The arms are terminated to ground and the values of the terminations can vary depending on installation and the value chosen for the spiral termination. In some cases, the spiral antenna is not limited to a two arm spiral only as any type of spiral antenna may be used.

Traditional antennas that operate in the UHF/VHF frequency range, are large and are a large distance above a ground plane when the antenna has a directional antenna pattern. Additionally, conventional UHF/VHF antennas typically do not provide dual polarized positive gain in a direction boresite to the antenna, when the antenna is in close proximity to ground plane while at the same time providing a better than 4:1 VSWR over a 4+:1 bandwidth.
Wherefore it is an object of the present disclosure to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings and drawbacks associated with conventional radio frequency antennas by addressing the shortcomings in the state of the art related to a low physical profile antenna, a small distance above the ground plane, and providing a positive gain boresite to the antenna.

Low profile high gain dual polarization UHF/VHF antenna

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.


An apparatus for supporting one or more fixtures on a membrane roof has at least one bracket for interfacing with and securing the one or more fixtures, the at least one bracket coated on one side with a material compatible for heat welding to roofing membrane, a cut piece of roofing membrane having a length and width substantially greater than dimensions of the at least one bracket, wherein the at least one bracket is joined to the cut piece of membrane by heat welding and the piece of roofing membrane is then heat welded to the membrane roof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of construction and pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for supporting fixtures on a membrane roof.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
In the field of construction, particularly roofing, membrane roofing as it is known in the art is becoming a staple for certain roof systems that formerly would be covered in asphalt and or roof tar. Membrane roofing panels are typically available in sheets or rolls that may be cut to length and that may be secured to an unfinished roof surface, and heat welded together to form a unitary membrane.
Although there are a variety of membrane roofing materials available, more common compositions include Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Ketone Ethylene Ester (KEE), Chloro-Sulfonated Polyethlene (CSPE), Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) and Thermoplastic PolyOlefin (TPO). Membrane roofing sheets may be mechanically fastened through the membrane with a screw, pin type fastener or other mechanical means un-finished roof with an overlapping edge of an adjacent sheet heat welded over the fastened line to cover and seal the fastener. Membrane roofs can also be adhered using a variety of adhesives by applying adhesive to the existing roof substrate, insulation, fire proof roof board or unfinished roof substrate. The exposed seams of the membrane are then heat welded to create a solid membrane out of the panels or rolls. Heat welding the panels together involves a surface-to-surface heating and fusion of the interfacing surfaces of adjacent panels or sheets, requiring a certain minimum temperature.
Membrane panels or sheets may be custom fabricated and may be offered in standard sizes. The material resiliency including flexibility may be designed into the product through varying the percentage of certain materials in the composite such as different percentages of rubber added to the composite.
Installing fixtures such as pipe brackets, solar panels, roof vents, air-conditioners, and other like accessories can be problematic after a membrane roof is installed, in that support structures designed to hold the fixtures in place are conventionally nailed or otherwise fastened to the roof over the membrane material, penetrating the membrane material at each anchor point. Although the penetrations may be small, nonetheless, roofing mastic, caulking, sealants, or a similar semi-viscous sealer is applied over the penetrations to seal them ensuring a leak proof or watertight roof system.
It has occurred to the inventor that such penetrations, although minor, have a collective negative effect on the long-term viability of the roofing system in protection against leakage. For example roofing mastic, caulking, sealants, roof putty or other after-market sealers do not last as long as the membrane materials of the roof systems and therefore periodic reapplication of such sealing products is often required to preserve the integrity of the system, or leaks are sure to occur. Many roof manufacturers provide leak free warrantees that cover labor and materials up to 30 years. Penetrations directly into the roof membrane can in certain instances void these warrantees.
Therefore, what is clearly needed is an apparatus for supporting fixtures on a membrane roof that altogether eliminates the need for penetrating the membrane roofing material.