A personal service unit (PSU) includes a housing, a dial, and a flow control ring. The dial is rotatable about the housing. The housing includes a longitudinal axis therethrough and a first end and a second end opposite the first end. The dial includes a helical first portion along an interior wall of the dial. The flow control ring includes a helical second portion along an exterior wall of the flow control ring. The helical second portion rotatably mates with the helical first portion and rotation of the dial in a first direction moves the flow control ring in a first direction along the longitudinal axis to cause a first adjustment in airflow past the flow control ring and rotation of the flow control ring in an opposite direction moves the flow control ring in an opposite direction to cause a second adjustment in airflow past the flow control ring.

Personal service units (PSUs) are generally employed in passenger vehicles such as aircrafts and trains. These PSUs play an important role in the passenger experience. A PSU generally provides an assortment of functionality to the passenger. For example, a PSU often provides gasper control (i.e., airflow control), reading light control, and a flight attendant call button to the passenger. Further, a PSU often provides information to the passenger via signage. A fasten seatbelt sign, for example, notifies the passenger when it is important to remain seated with the seatbelt fastened, while "no smoking" signage notifies the passenger of the importance of not smoking in an aircraft. An assortment of other functionality may also be provided to the passenger via the PSU.
Often PSU functionality is provided to the passenger via an overhead panel. Further, each functionality is presented as a distinct and discrete component of the PSU spread out over the overhead panel. That is, for example, the panel often includes a no smoking sign, a separate fasten seatbelt sign, a distinct gasper, and separate lighting control. In other words, each functionality of the PSU is often provided to the passenger as a separate discrete component. Installation of these PSUs can be time consuming since it may require the installation of a variety of separate components.
Further, for the sake of symmetry, a PSU for the left side of an aisle in a passenger cabin may be different than a PSU for the right side of the aisle. Still further, aircrafts of different models often have different interiors. As such, a PSU for one model of an aircraft may be different than a PSU for another model of an aircraft. Accordingly, an aircraft manufacturer often manufactures a variety of discrete PSU components and different variations of each component so that they fit properly in different cabin interiors.
As such, PSUs can be costly in light of installation costs and manufacturing costs.
As such, there is a need for improvements in PSUs.


The device includes an unlocking control button sliding in a guide well between (1) a position indicating unlocking, where the head of the button is clearly visible outside of the well, and (2) an unlocking control position where a lower end of the button pushes a lock into an unlocking position enabling the disengagement of a locking component. The device includes a spring returning the button to its position indicating unlocking, and control means to bring the button into an intermediary position where its head is more or less flush with the edge of the well, only when the locking component is in the locking position.

Folding down the backrest onto the seat especially enables objects larger than the boot of the vehicle to be loaded into the boot. We already know of fully or partially folding backrests such as the backrests usually called "1/3-2/3".
Generally speaking, such locking devices must ensure automatic locking when the backrest is raised; unlocking being achieved by control means such as a push button.
Known locking systems include a hook attached to the car body inside the boot and a movable elastic recall locking element, installed on the backrest, which latch onto the hook when the backrest is raised. An unlocking control element, for example a button, also installed on the backrest, enables the locking element to be disengaged from the hook to unlock the backrest.
A locking system such as this is notably described in document FR-A-2 720 985, the hook penetrates, when the backrest is raised, into a window in the rear wall of the backrest, and the locking element consists of a wire ring, elastically deformable, placed behind this window and onto which the hook latches to ensure locking.
For current use of a vehicle equipped with a rear seat with a folding backrest, the backrest must be correctly locked to prevent it from inadvertently folding down and placing the user in danger subsequent to the intrusion of luggage into the vehicle's passenger compartment. It is therefore advisable to be able to easily ensure that the backrest is effectively locked.
For the system described in the above mentioned document, the unlocking button is connected to the ring and stands proud of the backrest when the ring is not deformed, that is in unlocked position, when the hook is not inserted in the window. When the hook starts to engage in the window in the backrest, it pushes back the locking element and retracts the button which is connected to it inside the well guiding this button, until the hook reaches the locking position where the locking element returns elastically into a slot in the hook. The various elements are sized so that in this locking position, the button does not stand proud of the backrest.
However, in the intermediary position, where the hook pushes back the locking element and before it returns to locked position, the button is also no longer visible. Thus, the fact that the button is visible indicates that locking is not effective, but, conversely the fact that the button is not visible does not guarantee that locking has been correctly achieved. The indication given by the fact that this button is visible or not is not therefore sufficiently reliable.
A similar problem exists in all cases where the unlocking control element is not connected to the locking element and returns elastically into position when released, as the position of this control element is the same whether locking is effective or not.
Other locking systems are known which generally include an unlocking button acting on a movable locking element to place the latter in an unlocked position. These buttons are conventionally accessible from the inside of the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The result is that, even if the boot cannot be opened from the outside, it is accessible to a person who has entered the passenger compartment.

Device for locking a movable element of an automobile vehicle seat onto a fixed element with unlocking indication


The present invention relates to a method for flip chip bonding by utilizing an interposer with embedded bumps. The method comprises (a) providing a first element having a first surface; (b) forming an interposer onto the first surface; (c) forming a plurality of openings on the interposer; (d) forming a plurality of bumps in the openings, wherein the height of the bumps is smaller than the depth of the openings; (e) providing a second element having a plurality of pre-solders; and (f) bonding the first surface onto the second element, so that the pre-solders are disposed in the openings and in contact with the bumps. As a result, the self-alignment between the pre-solders and the bumps can avoid the shift between the first element and the second element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for flip chip bonding, and more particularly, to a method for flip chip bonding by utilizing an interposer with embedded bumps.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a conventional method for flip chip bonding by utilizing an underfill tape with embedded bumps. The conventional method is described as follows. First, a chip 10 having a chip surface 11 is provided. Then, an underfill tape 12 is adhered to the chip surface 11. Then, a plurality of openings 13 are formed on the underfill tape 12 by laser drilling. Then, a plurality of bumps 14 are formed in the opening 13 by plating, wherein the composition of the bumps 14 is 63% by weight of tin and 37% by weight of lead, and the height of the bump 14 is equal to the depth of the opening 13 so that the bump 14 can fill the opening 13 precisely.
Then, a substrate 15 having a substrate surface 16 is provided, wherein the substrate surface 16 has a plurality of pre-solders 17 corresponding to the openings 13. The chip 10 is pressed to the substrate 15 by utilizing a bond head 18, wherein the chip surface 11 faces the substrate surface 16 so that the pre-solders 17 are in contact with the bumps 14. Finally, a reflow step with high temperature (for example, above 200° C.) and high pressure (for example, about 30 Kgm) is applied to the chip 10 and the substrate 15 to fuse the pre-solders 17 and the bumps 14 so as to form a flip chip bonding.
The shortcoming of the conventional method is poor alignment precision. Because the bumps 14 fill the openings 13 precisely, the bottom surface 19 of the underfill tape 12, which is in contact with the pre-solders 17, is a flat surface. Therefore, during the pressing procedure, a sliding movement between the chip 10 and the substrate 15 will cause a shift therebetween, which makes the product defective.
Consequently, there is an existing need for a novel and improved method for flip chip bonding to solve the above-mentioned problem.

Method for flip chip bonding by utilizing an interposer with embedded bumps

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.


In a pipelined processor, a pre-decoder in advance of an instruction cache calculates the branch target address (BTA) of PC-relative and absolute address branch instructions. The pre-decoder compares the BTA with the branch instruction address (BIA) to determine whether the target and instruction are in the same memory page. A branch target same page (BTSP) bit indicating this is written to the cache and associated with the instruction. When the branch is executed and evaluated as taken, a TLB access to check permission attributes for the BTA is suppressed if the BTA is in the same page as the BIA, as indicated by the BTSP bit. This reduces power consumption as the TLB access is suppressed and the BTA/BIA comparison is only performed once, when the branch instruction is first fetched. Additionally, the pre-decoder removes the BTA/BIA comparison from the BTA generation and selection critical path.

The present invention relates generally to the field of processors and in particular to a method of reducing power consumption in a processor by suppressing TLB accesses for intra-page branches where the branch target address can be determined from the branch instruction address or the branch instruction itself.
Portable electronic devices have become ubiquitous accoutrements to modern life. Two relentless trends in portable electronic devices are increased functionality and decreased size. Increased functionality demands increased computing power—in particular, ever faster and more powerful processors.
As well as providing advanced features and functionality that require faster processors, portable electronic devices themselves continue to shrink in size and weight. A major impact of this trend is the decreasing size of batteries used to power the processor and other electronics in the device. While advances in battery technology partially offset the problem, the decreasing size of batteries imposes a requirement to decrease the power budget in portable electronic device electronics, and in particular to decrease the power used by the processor.
Accordingly, processor improvements that increase performance and/or decrease power consumption are desirable for many applications such as portable electronic devices. Modern processors commonly employ a memory hierarchy that places small amounts of fast, expensive memory close to the processor, backed up by large amounts of slower, inexpensive memory somewhat more distant from the processor. A large main memory is commonly divided into logical units called pages. All data or instructions within a page commonly have the same attributes, which define common characteristics, limit access via permissions, and the like. The page attributes are typically stored in a Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB). In general, for every instruction fetch, the processor should pass the instruction address through the TLB to verify that the program has permission to access and execute the instruction.
Checking attributes such as permissions in the TLB consumes power. Since each instruction on a page has the same attributes and hence the same permissions, once any instruction on the page is verified through the TLB, all other instructions on the same page may be fetched without checking TLB attributes. For example, it is known in the art to bypass a TLB attribute check for instructions executed sequentially to a previously checked instruction, until the sequential instructions cross a page boundary.
It would similarly be advantageous to bypass the TLB attribute check for branch targets that do not leave a page. The branch target address calculation and the selection of the branch target address from which to fetch the next instruction is typically the critical path of a branch instruction, and a limiting factor in determining the machine cycle time. A TLB attribute check of the branch target address may be avoided if the target address is in the same page as the instruction address. However, comparing the branch target address to the address that was last checked by the TLB to determine if the branch target address is with the same page as the last address check by the TLB may lengthen the cycle time by adding delay to a critical path. Additionally, since the calculation must be performed each time the branch instruction executes, the extra power consumed for the calculation would offset the power consumption gained from bypassing the TLB attribute checks for target and instruction addresses determined to be on the same page.

Translation lookaside buffer (TLB) suppression for intra-page program counter relative or absolute address branch instructions


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates updating a secondary form element in a web browser based on a selection of data in a primary form element. The system starts by receiving the selection of data in the primary form element in the web browser. Once the selection has been made, the system spawns a secondary instance of the web browser and sends the selection of data to a server from the secondary instance of the web browser. Next, the system receives a response from the server at the secondary instance of the web browser, which includes data for the secondary form element, wherein the data corresponds to the selection of data in the primary form element. The secondary instance of the web browser uses this data for the secondary form element to update the secondary form element in the web browser.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to web applications. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for dynamically updating a secondary form element in a web browser based on a selection in a primary form element.
2. Related Art
The explosive growth of the Internet, including the increasing availability of broadband connections, has made the Internet an effective tool for commerce and information exchange. Many companies and organizations now routinely sell products and disseminate information online. In most cases, these tasks involve a user entering information into web-based form, and subsequently submitting the information to a server. Quite often, information placed in certain fields in these forms depends on information placed in other fields. For example, the selection of state in the state field might limit the choices available in a city field, or the selection of the date in a date field might limit the time slots available in a requested appointment time field.
The task of dynamically modifying content based on user inputs has commonly been dealt with in two ways. In one method, the web page is pre-loaded with all of the choices for the secondary form field for each possible corresponding choice in the primary form field. For example, in the application where a user is required to pick a state and a city, the web page is pre-loaded with all of the states and their corresponding cities. When the user subsequently makes a selection in the state form field, the city form field is dynamically configured from the data already preloaded into the web page at the client to include only the cities that are in the selected state. This method, however, results in longer page loading times and, consequently, increases bandwidth utilization. Moreover, it consumes more memory at the client.
The second major method for dynamic modification of content based on user inputs is by updating the entire page after the first selection is made. For example, when a user chooses a state in the state field, the contents of the state field is submitted to the server, and the server returns a new page that includes the list of cities in the city field that correspond to the selected state. This new page is subsequently presented to the user. This method also increases bandwidth utilization because the entire page has to be reloaded. In addition, the user is presented with a blank screen while the page refreshes, and this method does not allow a user to complete the form out of order, because until the state is selected, the city selection list remains empty.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus for dynamically modifying content of a web page based on user interaction that does not exhibit the limitations listed above.

Method and apparatus for dynamically updating a secondary form element based on a selection in a primary form element


Example implementations relate to concurrent alternating-current and direct-current. In one example, a device comprises a power module connected to a first power outlet, the power module connected to a second power outlet, and a controller to the power module to concurrently provide alternating-current (AC) power to the first power outlet and direct-current (DC) power to the second power outlet by switching a transistor including switching circuitry in response to an absence of AC input power to the device.

Power disruption may cause damage to electrical equipment. A device such as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) may provide protection to electrical equipment in the event of a power disruption. For example, a UPS may provide time to shut down the electrical equipment or to allow for an alternate power source for the electrical equipment to be enabled.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Concurrent alternating-current and direct-current

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


To provide a system for selecting a processing device that can run an initial service and manages at least one resource, wherein the system allows to increase the extensibility of an initial service, to increase the stability of a running service, and to improve the utilization of the resources provided by several processing devices, it is suggested that,                for each initial service two extension services are determined, wherein each extension service defines a set of resources for further extension;        a reservation mode that indicates an extension service is assigned to each processing device that guarantees this extension service to be reserved for the initial service; and        a processing device is only selected, if a reservation mode is assigned to it.

The invention also relates to a base station that can be connected to a radio network, wherein the base station comprises at least two processing devices and each processing device provides at least one resource that can be requested by an initial service.
Further on, the invention relates to a computer program adapted to be run on a data processing device, in particular on a resource manager or a base station.
A processing device provides different services for data processing. To realize a service, several resources are needed. Typically, different services require a different amount of resources during processing. A resource manager manages these resources. Since the resources of a processing device are limited, a requested service can be rejected, if the appropriate resources are not available.
A processing device can be part of a communications system. A service offered by the processing device typically includes receiving data, for example a data stream, processing the received data, for example by converting the received data to a different data format or finding and removing distorted data within the data stream, and transmitting the data, for example to another processing device, to a user terminal, or to another communications system.
When a service is started, it often is started requiring only few resources. This so-called initial service is for example used to establish a communications link between two terminals, e.g. two mobile telecommunications devices. Frequently, the initial service needs to be extended during processing this service, requiring in general more resources. The amount of resources required by a future extension is not known at the time of starting the initial service. If these resources are not available, this service is stopped, which on the one hand is unpleasant for an user and on the other hand induces a system instability that contradicts to the basic purpose of a service, namely to be reliable.
If a service is requested, often several processing devices are capable of serving the requested service, in principle, which means that one of these processing devices has to be selected. Within the field of communications systems it is known to classify the processing devices according to the amount of one specific resource that is still available or that is already used. The selection of one of the processing devices is then performed according to the amount of available resources, i.e. the processing device that has most of these resource still available is selected.
In an UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) the so-called Node B comprises several processing devices and each processing device comprises certain resources. One of these resources is the so-called DL-bit-rate which represents a currently available bit rate for a downlink data stream (DL) of a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) that is part of the processing device. If a new service is requested from the Node B, a processing device is selected according to the available DL-bit-rate of each processing device.
If an initial service is started on a processing device and needs to be extended, the processing device often does not provide the resources needed for service extension due to the fact that too many services are already running on the processing device. Re-allocating the service to another processing device usually is not possible, because this would mean an interruption in processing the data stream.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method for selecting a processing device that increases the extensibility of an initial service and to increase the stability of a running service. It is a further object of the present invention to improve the utilization the resources provided by several processing devices.
The object is solved by a method as mentioned above, wherein                for each initial service two extension services are determined, wherein each extension service defines a set of resources for further extension;        a reservation mode that indicates an extension service is assigned to each processing device that guarantees this extension service to be reserved for the initial service; and        a processing device is only selected, if a reservation mode is assigned to it.
The inventive method allows to define for each processing device the amount of at least one resource to which an initial service is guaranteed to extend. These extension services are indicated by a reservation mode that is assigned to each processing device that guarantees this extension service, i.e. this set of resources, to be reserved for the initial service.
Defining an extension service can consider several parameters. In particular, an extension service can comprise resources that are required to perform a certain service. If the service, for example, allows the transmission of streaming video, a high downlink (DL) bit rate has to be included into the set of resources. If a processing device is in a reservation mode that indicates this extension service, it is guaranteed that each initial service running on this processing device can be extended such that streaming video can be transmitted.
The inventive method increases the stability of an initial service running on a processing device, since an initial service is only started, if an extension to at least one extension service is guaranteed. The unit that requests this service thus knows which extension service is available.
Advantageously, the two extension services are realized as a maximum extension service and a minimum extension service. The maximum extension service defines the maximum set of resources that are reserved for use by the initial service. The minimum extension service defines the minimum set of resources that are reserved for use by the initial service.
This in particular increases the stability of running services, since an initial service is only started, if the processing device allows at least an extension of the initial service to the minimum extension service. The minimum set of resources that are defined by the minimum extension service can be determined e.g. such that within a communication system at least speech-related data can be transmitted.
The maximum extension service can be defined to define the amount of one or more resources an initial service can at least extend to as long as the processing device is in the maximum reservation mode. The maximum extension service can be determined to realize a trade-off between the number of services that can be served by a processing device or a set of processing devices and the type of service that should be served by the processing device. Within the field of communication systems, the maximum extension service can for example define the resources that are required to process and transmit video streams according to a certain data format and e.g. to a certain sampling rate.
If a processing device guarantees that each initial service served by the processing device can currently extend to the maximum extension service, this processing device is in the maximum reservation mode.
If a processing device guarantees that all initial services served by this processing device can extend to the minimum extension service, this processing device is in the minimum reservation mode.
If a processing device switches from maximum reservation mode to minimum reservation mode each initial service already running will only be guaranteed to extend to the minimum extension service, at least as long as the processing device switches back to the maximum reservation mode.
Since a processing device is only selected when a reservation mode is assigned to it, each processing device that is selected at least is in the minimum reservation mode. This guarantees each initial service to be extended at least to the minimum extension service.
If the initial service does not extend within a predefined time-interval since service start, the reservation for an initial service is cancelled. This prevents resources to get blocked due to being reserved for an initial service but not being used for service extension, at least within the predefined time interval.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a load is assigned to each processing device. To select a processing device the load of at least one processing device is evaluated. This for example allows to uniformly distribute the initial services to the available processing devices, such that each processing device is similarly loaded.
Preferably, the load of a processing device is determined according to                the resources that are still available,        the resources that are already in use,        the number of services that are already running on the processing device,        the number of services that can still be started according to the current reservation mode, or        a metric taking into account for each resource the part still available or the part already used.
These values are in particular suitable to determine the load of a processing device. If the load is defined by the resources that are still available, it can easily be determined, whether a new initial service can be started on a processing device.
Typically, each initial service running on a processing device has to be managed which induces an overhead. This is one reason why the number of initial services served by a processing device is limited. Knowing the number of services that are already running or the number of services that can still be started thus can advantageously be considered for the selection of a processing device. However, it has to be mentioned that the number of services that can be served by the processing device can itself be viewed as a resource within this context.
Preferably a metric is used to determine the load of a processing device. Any metric appropriately expressing the load and thus the resource consumption and providing the comparability of the processing devices in terms of the load is conceivable in the current context. The metric takes into account for each resource provided by the processing device the part of the resource that is still available or the part of the resource that is already used. Such a metric can additionally assign a weight to each resource such that the part of each resource that is still available or that is already used is considered with a rate according to the weight.
Preferably, if at least one processing device is in the maximum reservation mode, the processing device is selected that has the highest load and is in the maximum reservation mode. This means that among all processors in maximum reservation mode the most loaded processor is selected to start the new service.
Using this selection criteria, the highest loaded processor in maximum reservation mode tends to fill up until entering minimum reservation mode. While new services will be started on the highest loaded processor in maximum reservation mode, other processors in maximum reservation mode tend to get freed by stopped services. Also, processing devices in minimum reservation mode tend to get freed by stopped services. This allows the processing devices in minimum reservation mode to enter the maximum reservation mode, when an extension to the maximum extension service is possible for an initial service. This selection criteria thus allows to run most processing devices in maximum reservation mode.
Preferably, if no processing device is in the maximum reservation mode, but at least one processing device is in the minimum reservation mode, the processing device is selected that has the least load and is in the minimum reservation mode. This means that if no processing device is in the maximum reservation mode, among all processing devices that are in the minimum reservation mode, the least loaded processor is selected to start the new service.
This ensures that all processing devices get evenly filled. When services are stopped, the processing devices enter the maximum reservation mode as soon as an extension to the maximum extension service becomes possible. Given evenly loaded processing devices with similar resource usage and at a similar reservation level, the processing devices enter the maximum reservation mode when the free resources of the processing devices reach the level of the maximum extension service.
According to another advantageous embodiment the processing device in the minimum reservation mode is selected that has the highest load, if no processing device is in a maximum reservation mode, but at least one processing device is in the minimum reservation mode. This selection of the maximum instead of the least loaded processing device in minimum reservation mode leads to an earlier transition from minimum to maximum reservation mode, since the probability that a single processing device reaches the maximum reservation mode is higher. Using this selection criteria the initial services allocated have a higher risk to not be extendable to the maximum extension service.
If none of the processing devices is in the maximum reservation mode and none of the processing devices is in the minimum reservation mode, no processor is selected at all and the requested service is rejected. So the likelihood is reduced that an initial service can not be extended due to the fact that the required resources are not available. Instead, an initial service is only started, if at least an extension to the minimum extension service is guaranteed.
According to the inventive method it is advantageously possible to define the maximum reservation mode or the minimum reservation mode such that only few, but large services can be served or such that a large number of small services can be served. Therefore, the set of resources that are defined by the minimum extension service and the maximum extension service can be chosen, accordingly.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the processing device is part of a base station, wherein the base station can be connected to a radio network. According to the UMTS-standard, the radio network can be realized as the UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) and the base station can be realized as a Node B.
The object is also solved by a base station that can be connected to a radio network, wherein the base station comprises at least two processing devices and each processing device provides at least one resource that can be requested by an initial service, wherein the base station is adapted to execute the inventive method.
The object is also solved by a computer program adapted to run on a data processing unit, in particular on a base station or a resource manager, wherein the computer program is programmed to execute the inventive method, if the computer program is run on the data processing unit, wherein the data processing unit comprises at least two processing devices.
The realization of this invention in the form of the computer program is particularly important. Parts of the computer program may be run on different processing units or on different computers in order to carry out the inventive method. The invention is, thereby, realized by the computer program, wherein this computer program represents the invention in the same sense as the method for the execution of which the computer program is suitable. The computer program is preferably stored in a storage element. A storage element may in particular be a random-access-memory (RAM), a read-only-memory (ROM), a hard disc, or an optical storage medium like a compact disc (CD) or a digital versatile disc (DVD).
Further features, applications and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments of the invention that are shown in the drawings. There, all described and shown features separately or in any combination represent the subject-matter of the invention, independently of the wording in the description or the representation in the drawings and independently of a combination in the claims or the dependencies of the claims.

Method for selecting a processing device


An object-oriented development system of the present invention includes a development system, which may include, among other features, a compiler, a linker, standard libraries, class libraries, and a debugger. Methods of the present invention include constructing C++ classes having response functions--C++ class methods which process specific system messages of interest. More particularly, a C++ class includes a registry object--an object which associates the message of interest with a particular response function. The registry object includes C++ template definition, whereby the object includes a "generic" function, that is, one which is not tied to any specific parameter type. In this manner, the message-response functions of the development system do not require compiler-specific extensions or unsafe casting operations.

The present invention relates generally to the field of computer systems and, more particularly, to systems and methods for compiling source programs, particularly object-oriented ones, into system and application programs.
Before a digital computer may accomplish a desired task, it must receive an appropriate set of instructions. Executed by the computer's microprocessor, these instructions, collectively referred to as a "computer program," direct the operation of the computer. Expectedly, the computer must understand the instructions which it receives before it may undertake the specified activity.
Owing to their digital nature, computers essentially only understand "machine code," i.e., the low-level, minute instructions for performing specific tasks--the sequence of ones and zeros that are interpreted as specific instructions by the computer's microprocessor. Since machine language or machine code is the only language computers actually understand, all other programming languages represent ways of structuring human language so that humans can get computers to perform specific tasks.
While it is possible for humans to compose meaningful programs in machine code, practically all software development today employs one or more of the available programming languages. The most widely used programming languages are the "high-level" languages, such as C or Pascal. These languages allow data structures and algorithms to be expressed in a style of writing which is easily read and understood by fellow programmers.
A program called a "compiler" translates these instructions into the requisite machine language. In the context of this translation, the program which is written in the high-level language is called the "source code" or source program. The low-level or machine language, on the other hand, comprises "object code." Once created, object code (e.g., .obj file) is a separate program in its own right--it includes instructions which may be executed by the target microprocessor. In practice, however, the object code is usually first linked (i.e., combined) with other object code or libraries, which include standard routines.
Compilers are fundamental to modern computing. Translating human-oriented programming languages into computer-oriented machine languages, compilers allow computer programmers to ignore the machine-dependent details of machine language. Instead of focusing on the register set or memory architecture of a particular computer, for instance, one may simply concentrate on solving the problem at hand. Thus, high-level languages are "portable," that is, they afford a level of abstract which permits a single program to be implemented on several different machines, including ones of vastly different architecture.
Of particular interest to the present invention are compiler and development tools designed for graphic user interfaces (GUIs), such as Microsoft.RTM. Windows and Apple.RTM. Macintosh System 7. Employing an intuitive "desktop metaphor", including such familiar objects as file cabinets, folders, and trash cans, these system have largely displaced awkward command-line systems, such as MS-DOS.
While GUIs are easy for the users to use, they are by no means simple to program. Instead, the intuitive user interface belies an extremely complex system, one having hundreds of API (Application Programming Interface) calls. A simple "Hello World" Microsoft Windows program written in C, for example, requires a hundred or so lines of source code. Besides the sheer bulk of the API, however, the programmer faces an even greater challenge--that of understanding the intricacies of a message-driven environment.
At the heart of a GUI such as MS-Windows is a message or event-driven system, one which requires a shift in the way programmers normally think about computer programs. Traditionally, programmers have developed programs consisting of sequential procedures or modes. As such these programs have a well-defined beginning, middle, and end, with little or no flexibility for the user to vary this pre-determined sequence.
A GUI, in contrast, promotes a "modeless" model, that is, one not tied to any particular predefined sequence of modes. To accomplish this, these systems introduce the notion of "events" and "messages." An event is any activity of interest, such as the press of key on a keyboard or movement of a pointing (mouse) device. The system responds to an event by sending a message to the currently executing application(s). In MS-Windows, for instance, when the user clicks a left mouse button, a WM.sub.13 LBUTTONDOWN message is sent. Similarly, pressing a keyboard key causes a WM.sub.13 KEYDOWN message to be sent. If the user selects an item from a menu, a WM.sub.13 COMMAND message is sent. Other messages correspond to manipulating scroll bars (WM.sub.13 HSCROLL, WM.sub. VSCROLL), resizing windows (WM.sub.13 SIZE), redrawing windows (WM.sub.13 PAINT), closing windows (WM.sub.13 CLOSE), and so on.
There are so many messages which may be generated in fact that managing them has become quite a chore in itself. Using C, for example, the programmer writes an event loop that checks to see whether there any messages which must be responded to. In practice, however, this entails writing a gargantuan case statement that dispatches messages to various functions. And in a Windows program of any complexity, this case statement often spans several pages, making development and maintenance of the program an exceedingly difficult task.
While there is much interest in devising tools which reduce or eliminate the complexity of GUI development, efforts to date have been largely unsuccessful. Instead, programmers have had to rely on existing tools and methodology, ones developed for procedurally-driven architectures (e.g., the aforementioned C case statement). Present day tools are, however, largely inadequate for developing application programs for an event-driven architecture. What is needed are methods and systems for simplifying the message processing of an event-driven architecture. Just as high-level languages permit the programmer to focus on the problem at hand and not on the implementation of its solution, systems and methods are needed for relieving the programmer of the burden of message processing. The present invention fulfills this and other needs.

System for generating and using programs in an object-oriented environment with a message dispatch architecture


A power source for EL driving is built in an active matrix type EL display device, and the number of power sources externally attached is reduced. Therefore, the power source for EL driving is constructed by a transistor formed on a substrate, and its output circuit is constructed by a p-channel transistor of a source ground when the anode of an OLED is operated. Thus, the electric potential difference between a power voltage and an output voltage is reduced, and a power source circuit of small electric power consumption is constructed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device, particularly, to an OLED display device using a thin film transistor formed on the transparent substrate such as glass or plastic. Further, it relates to an electronic device using the display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In resent years, a cellular phone has been becoming popular by developing communication technology. In future, electrical transmission of moving pictures and transmission of a large quantity of information will be expected. With being lightened, a mobile personal computer is into production. An information device called a personal digital assistant (PDA) developed from electrical books is produced and becoming popular. With developing a display device and the like, most of such portable information devices are equipped with flat displays.
The latest technology aims at using an active matrix type display device as a display device used in the portable information devices.
In the active matrix type display device, TFTs (thin film transistors) are provided in correspondence with respective pixels to control pictures. The active matrix type display device has an advantages that the high definition of images is possible, the improvement of image quality is possible, the correspondence to moving image is possible, and the like, compared to a passive matrix type display device. Therefore, the display device of the portable information devices will be changed from a passive matrix type to an active matrix type.
Above all, a display device using low-temperature polysilicon has been production in recent years. In the low-temperature polysilicon technology, the driver circuit using TFTs can be formed simultaneously in the periphery of a pixel portion in addition to a pixel TFT that constitutes a pixel. Thereby, the low-temperature polysilicon technology can contribute to miniaturization of devices and low power consumption. Accordingly, the low-temperature polysilicon device become indispensable to the display device of the mobile device which has been widely applied to various fields in recent years.
In recent years, the development of a display device using an organic electroluminescence elements (OLED elements) has been becoming more and more active. Hereinafter, the OLED element includes both the OLED element using luminescence from singlet exciton (fluorescence) and the OLED element using luminescence from triplet exciton (phosphorescence) here. In this specification, the OLED element is described as an example of alight emitting element, however, another light emitting elements can be used.
The OLED element has a structure in which an OLED layer is interposed between a pair of electrodes (an anode and a cathode), and usually has a laminated structure. Representatively, there is a laminated structure which is expressed in "hole transporting layer/light emitting layer/electron transporting layer", proposed by Tang et al. of Eastman Kodak Company.
Other structures may also be adopted, such as a structure in which "a hole injecting layer/a hole transporting layer/a light emitting layer/an electron transporting layer" are stacked in order, or a structure in which "a hole injecting layer/a hole transporting layer/a light emitting layer/an electron transporting layer/an electron injecting layer" are laminated in order. In the present invention, each structure may be employed. The light emitting layer may also be doped with a fluorescent pigment or the like.
In this specification, all layers provided between a cathode and an anode are herein generically called "OLED layer". Accordingly, all the aforementioned hole injecting layer, hole transporting layer, light emitting layer, electron transporting layer and electron injecting layer are encompassed in the OLED layer. A light emitting element constituted of an anode, an OLED layer, and a cathode is called "OLED element".
FIG. 3 shows an example of the construction of a pixel portion of an active matrix type OLED display device. Gate signal lines (G1 to Gy) to which selection signals are to be inputted from a gate signal line driver circuit is connected to a gate electrode of a switching TFT 301 which is provided in each pixel of the pixel portion. Either one of source and drain regions of the switching TFT 301 provided in each pixel is connected to source signal lines (S1 to Sx) to which signals are to be inputted from a source signal line driver circuit, while the other is connected to a gate electrode of an OLED driving TFT 302 and to either one of electrodes of a capacitor 303 which is provided in each pixel. The other electrode of the capacitor 303 is connected to power supply lines (V1 to Vx). Either one of source and drain regions of the OLED driving TFT 302 provided in each pixel is connected to the power supply lines (V1 to Vx), while the other is connected to one of electrodes of the OLED element 304 provided in each pixel.
The OLED element 304 has an anode, a cathode and an OLED layer provided between the anode and the cathode. If the anode of the OLED element 304 is connected to the source region or the drain region of the OLED driving TFT 302, the anode and the cathode of the OLED element 304 become a pixel electrode and a counter electrode, respectively. Contrarily, if the cathode of the OLED element 304 is connected to the source region or the drain region of the OLED driving TFT 302, the cathode and the anode of the OLED element 304 become a pixel electrode and a counter electrode, respectively.
Incidentally, the potential of the counter electrode is herein called "counter potential", and a power source for applying the counter potential to the counter electrode is herein called "counter power source". The difference between the potential of the pixel electrode and the potential of the counter electrode is an OLED driving voltage, and the OLED driving voltage is applied to the OLED layer.
As a gray scale display method for the above-described OLED display device, there are an analog gray scale method and a time gray scale method.
First, the analog gray scale method for the OLED display device will be described below. FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing the case driving the display device shown in FIG. 3 by the analog gray scale method. The period that starts when one gate signal is selected and finishes when the next gate signal line is selected is herein called "one line period (L)". The period that starts when one image is selected and finishes when the next image is selected corresponds to one frame period. In the case of the OLED display device shown in FIG. 3, the number of gate signal lines is "y", and y-number of line periods (L1 to Ly) are provided in one frame period.
As resolution of the OLED display device becomes higher, the number of line periods for one frame period becomes larger, and the driver circuit of the OLED display device must be driven at a higher frequency.
The power supply lines (V1 to Vx) are kept at a constant voltage (power source potential). In addition, the counter potential is kept constant. The counter potential has a potential difference from the power source potential so that the OLED elements emit light.
In the first line period (L1), a selection signal from the gate signal line driver circuit is inputted to the gate signal line G1. Then, analog video signals are inputted to the source signal lines (S1 to Sx) in order.
Since all the switching TFTs 301 connected to the gate signal line G1 are turned on, the analog video signals inputted to the source signal lines (S1 to Sx) are respectively inputted to the gate electrodes of the OLED driving TFTs 302 via the switching TFTs 301.
According to the potential of the analog video signal inputted into the pixel when the switching TFT 301 is turned on, the gate voltage of the OLED driving TFT 302 varies. At this time, the drain current of the OLED driving TFT 302 is determined at a 1-to-1 correspondence in accordance with the gate voltage and the Id-Vg characteristic of the OLED driving TFT 302. Specifically, according to the potential of the analog video signal inputted to the gate electrode of the OLED driving TFT 302, the potential of the drain region of the OLED driving TFT 302 (an OLED driving voltage in on state) is determined, a predetermined drain current flows into the OLED element, and the OLED element emits light at the amount of emission which is corresponding to the amount of the drain current.
When the above-described operation is repeated until the termination of inputting the analog video signals to the respective source signal lines (S1 to Sx), the first line period (L1) terminates. Incidentally, one line period may also be defined as the sum of the period required until the termination of inputting the analog video signals to the respective source signal lines (S1 to Sx) and a horizontal retrace period. Then, the second line period (L2) starts, and a selection signal is inputted to the gate signal line G2. Similarly to the first line period (L1), analog video signals are inputted to the source signal lines (S1 to Sx) in order.
When selection signals are inputted to all the gate signal lines (G1 to Gy), all the line periods (L1 to Ly) terminate. When all the line periods (L1 to Ly) terminate, one frame period terminates. During one frame period, all the pixels perform displaying and one image is formed. Incidentally, one frame period may also be defined as the sum of all the line periods (L1 to Ly) and a vertical retrace period.
As described above, the amount of emission of the OLED element is controlled by the analog video signal, and gray scale display is provided by controlling the amount of emission. In the analog gray scale method, gray scale display is carried out by the variation in the potentials of the respective analog video signals inputted to the source signal lines.
The time gray scale method will be described below.
In the time gray scale method, digital signals are inputted to pixels to select a emitting state or a non-emitting state of the respective OLED elements, whereby gray scales are represented by accumulating periods per frame period during which each of the OLED elements emits.
In the following description, 2n gray scales (n is a natural number) are represented. FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the case of driving the display device shown in FIG. 3 by the time gray scale method. One frame period is divided into n-number of sub-frame periods (SF1 to SFn). Incidentally, the period for which all the pixels in the pixel portion display one image is called "one frame period (F)". Plural periods into which one frame period is divided are called "sub-frame periods", respectively. As the number of gray scales increases, the number into which one frame period is divided also increases, and the driver circuit of the OLED display device must be driven at a higher frequency.
One sub-frame period is divided into a write period (Ta) and a display period (Ts). The write period is a period for which digital signals are inputted to all the pixels during one sub-frame period, and the display period (also called "lighting period") is a period for which the respective OLED display devices are in an emitting state or a non-emitting state in accordance with the input digital signals, thereby perform displaying.
The OLED driving voltage shown in FIG. 5 represents the OLED driving voltage of an OLED element for which the emitting state is selected. Specifically, the OLED driving voltage (see FIG. 3) of the OLED element for which the emitting state is selected is 0 V during the write period, and has a magnitude which enables the OLED element to emit light, during the display period.
The counter potential is controlled by an external switch (not shown) so that the counter potential is kept at approximately the same level as the power source potential during the write period, and has, during the display period, a potential difference from the power source potential to so that the OLED element emits light.
The write period and the display period of each sub-frame period will first be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 and 5, and subsequently, the time gray scale display will be described.
First, a gate signal is inputted to the gate signal line G1, and all the switching TFTs 301 connected to the gate signal line G1 are turned on. Then, digital signals are inputted to the source signal lines (S1 to Sx) in order. The counter potential is kept at the same level as the potential of the power supply lines (V1 to Vx) (power source potential). Each of the digital signals has information of "0" or "1", that is, each of the digital signals of "0" or "1" has a voltage of high level (Hi) or low level (Lo).
Then, the digital signals inputted to the source signal lines (S1 to Sx) are respectively inputted to the gate electrodes of the OLED driving TFTs 302 via the switching TFTs 301 which are in the on state. The respective digital signals are also inputted to the capacitors 303 and stored.
Then, the above-described operation is repeated by inputting gate signals to the respective gate signal lines (G2 to Gy) in order, whereby digital signals are inputted to all the pixels and the input digital signal is held in each of the pixels. The period required until the digital signals are inputted to all the pixels is called "write period".
When the digital signals are inputted to all the pixels, all the switching TFTs 301 are turned off. Thus, the external switch (not shown) connected to the counter electrode causes the counter potential to vary so that a potential difference that enables the OLED element 304 to emit light is produced between the counter potential and the power source potential.
In the case where the digital signals have information of "0", the OLED driving TFTs 302 are turned off and the OLED elements 304 do not emit light. Contrarily, in the case where the digital signals have information of "1", the OLED driving TFTs 302 are turned on. Consequently, the pixel electrodes of the respective OLED elements 304 are kept at approximately the same potential as the power source potential, and the OLED elements 304 emit light. In this manner, the emitting state or the non-emitting state of the OLED elements 304 is selected in accordance with the information of the digital signals, and all the pixels perform displaying at the same time. When all the pixels perform display, an image is formed. The period for which the pixels perform displaying is called "display period".
The lengths of the write periods (Ta1 to Tan) of all the n-number of sub-frame periods (SF1 to SFn) are the same. The display periods (Ts) of the respective sub-frame periods (SF1 to SFn) are denoted by Ts1 to Tsn.
The lengths of the respective display periods are set to become Ts1:Ts2:Ts3: . . . :Ts(n−1):Tsn=20:2−1:22: . . . :2−(n−2):2−(n−2), respectively. By combining desired ones of these display periods, it is possible to provide a desired gray scale of 2n gray scales.
The display period is any one of Ts1 to Tsn. Here, it is assumed that predetermined pixels are turned on for Ts1.
Then, when the next write period starts and data signals are inputted to all the pixels, the next display period starts. At this time, the display period is any one of Ts2 to Tsn. Here, it is assumed that predetermined pixels are turned on for Ts2.
The same operation is repeated as to the remaining (n−2)-number of sub-frames, whereby the display periods are set as Ts3, Ts4, . . . , Tsn in order and predetermined pixels are turned on during each of the sub-frames.
When the n-number of sub-frame periods appear, one frame period terminates. At this time, the gray scale of a pixel is determined by cumulatively calculating the length of the display periods for which the pixel is turned on. For example, assuming that n=8 and the obtainable luminance in the case where the pixel emits light for all the display periods is 100%, a luminance of 75% can be represented if the pixel emits light during Ts1 and Ts2 and a luminance of 16% can be realized if Ts3, Ts5 and Ts8 are selected.
Incidentally, in the driving method of the time gray scale method which represents gray scales by inputting n-bit digital signals, the number of plural sub-frame periods into which one frame period is divided, and the lengths of the respective sub-frame periods and the like are not limited to the above-described examples.
There were the following problems in the conventional OLED display device mentioned above.
It is necessary to supply an electric current by a necessary amount to emit light from an OLED element arranged in a pixel section. Here, when an OLED panel of 2 inches is considered and an OLED material in the present situation is used, an electric current of 3.5 mA/cm2 in red, an electric current of 1 mA/cm2 in green and an electric current of 3 mA/cm2 in blue are required to obtain e.g., 200 cd/m2 in luminance. Therefore, when these electric currents are converted into two inches, electric currents of 14 mA, 4 mA and 12 mA are respectively required. Further, voltages of 8 V, 5 V and 7 V are generated in the respective colors in the OLED element. As shown in FIG. 2, three power source circuits each using a source follower were conventionally prepared outside the panel to supply these electric currents. Defects such as the enlargement of a mounting area, an increase in the number of parts, etc. were caused in these power source circuits.
Further, when the power source circuits constructed by these source followers are used, a MOS transistor is used in a saturation area in the source followers. Therefore, Vds (the voltage between a drain and a source) is increased, and electric power consumption is increased. For example, when 5 V is required as Vds, Vcc is set in conformity with red having a highest OLED voltage with respect to the Vds of the source follower of the power source circuit of each color. Therefore, voltages of 5 V in red, 8 V in green and 6 V in blue are required. When the electric power consumption of the source follower is calculated by respectively multiplying these voltages by the above electric currents, electric powers of 70 mW, 40 mW and 72 mW in the respective colors are generated so that an electric power of 184 mW in total is required. Such electric powers caused the consumption of a battery in a portable device and a reduction in using time of the portable device. Accordingly, it was desirable to build the power source circuit of small electric power into the panel.

Display device and electric equipment using the same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A cup tool includes a cup tool tube having a threaded upper end for connection to a high-pressure mandrel. The cup tool has an outer surface over which an elastomeric cup is slidably mounted for movement from an unset position for entry into a wellbore to a set position in which an annular gap is obstructed to contain fluid pressure below the elastomeric cup. The cup tool tube includes an annular jump step designed to inhibit movement of the cup to the set position during insertion of the cup tool into the wellbore, and a gauge ring located above the jump step.

Most oil and gas wells require stimulation to enhance hydrocarbon flow to make or keep them economically viable. The servicing of oil and gas wells to stimulate production requires the pumping of fluids into the well under high pressure. The fluids are generally corrosive and/or abrasive because they are laden with corrosive acids and/or abrasive proppants, such as sharp sand or sintered bauxite.
In order to protect components that make up the wellhead, such as the valves, tubing hanger, casing hanger, casing head and blowout preventer equipment, wellhead isolation equipment, such as a wellhead isolation tool, a casing saver or a blowout preventer protector is used during well fracturing and well stimulation procedures. The wellhead isolation equipment generally includes a high-pressure mandrel that is inserted through wellhead components to isolate the wellhead components from elevated fluid pressures and from the corrosive/abrasive fluids used in the well treatment to stimulate production. A sealing mechanism, generally referred to as a sealing nipple or a cup tool, connected to a bottom of the high pressure mandrel is used to isolate the wellhead components from high fluid pressures used for well stimulation treatments.
Various sealing mechanisms provided for wellhead isolation equipment are described in prior art patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,814, entitled A TREE SAVER PACKER CUP, which issued to Pitts on May 17, 1977; U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,261, entitled A WELLHEAD ISOLATION TOOL, which issued to Oliver on Sep. 5, 1978; U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,494, entitled A NIPPLE INSERT, which issued to McLeod et al. on Jul. 22, 1986; Canadian Patent 1,272,684, entitled A WELLHEAD ISOLATION TOOL NIPPLE, which issued to Sutherland-Wenger on Aug. 14, 1990; U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,487 entitled PACKOFF NIPPLE, which issued to McLeod et al. on Nov. 16, 1993; and Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 6,918,441 entitled CUP TOOL FOR HIGH PRESSURE MANDREL, which issued Jul. 19, 2005. These sealing mechanisms include an elastomeric cup that radially expands under high fluid pressures to seal against an inside wall of a production tubing or casing.
Elastomeric cups are commonly bonded to a steel ring, sleeve or mandrel. In the most common construction, the elastomeric cup is bonded to a steel ring that slides over a cup tool tube, also referred to as a cup tool mandrel. An O-ring seal carried by the steel ring provides a fluid seal between the elastomeric cup and the cup tool tube.
A cup tool having a unitary elastomeric cup was disclosed in Applicants'co-pending U.S. patent application published on May 4, 2006 under Publication No. 2006-0090904 A1 (McGuire et al.) entitled CUP TOOL, CUP TOOL CUP AND METHOD OF USING THE CUP TOOL which was filed Nov. 2, 2004, the specification of which is incorporated herein by reference.
As shown in FIG. 1, an exemplary embodiment of Applicants' above-referenced prior-art cup tool, designated generally by reference numeral 10, includes a cup tool tube 12, also known as a cup tool mandrel. The cup tool tube 12 includes upper threads 14 for connecting to a high-pressure mandrel (not shown) and bottom threads 16 for connecting to a bullnose 18. The cup tool tube 12 includes an upper annular shoulder 20 disposed beneath the upper threads 14. A gauge ring 22 is retained between a bottom surface of the upper annular shoulder 20 and a top surface of a unitary elastomeric cup 24. The cup can be actuated to provide a high-pressure fluid seal between the cup tool and a surrounding casing or tubing 25. The cup 24 includes a downwardly depending skirt 26 defining an annular cavity 28 between the skirt 26 and the cup tool tube 12. The cup 24 also includes a lip seal 30 that protrudes downwardly and radially inwardly. The lip seal 30 rides against an inner surface of the cup tool tube. The lip seal seals against a tapered region 32 of the cup tool tube 12 when the cup 24 is forced upwardly by fluid pressure to a set position. Pressurization of the annular cavity 28 within the skirt 26 causes the skirt 26 to expand outwardly against the inner surface of the casing or tubing 25 and actuates the cup 24 into the set or sealing position by extruding the upper end of the cup 24 over the gauge ring 22 and into an annular gap 34 between the gauge ring 22 and the casing or tubing 25.

Cup tool for a high-pressure mandrel and method of using same


An implantable artificial sphincter system provides long-term adjustment via transcutaneous energy transfer (TET), minimizing invasive adjustment through adding or removing fluid via a syringe. An infuser device provides bi-directional fluid transfer via a flexible conduit to a sphincter band, such as a gastric band, by a combination of thermodynamic actuation and a piezo-electrically disengaged drum brake assembly that thereby achieves a desirable small volume device. A propellant within a propellant cavity surrounds a metal bellows accumulator biased at body temperature to either expand or collapse the bellows accumulator with the opposite direction of movement effected by a thermal element that heats in combination with a negatively-biased propellant or cools in combination with a positively-biased propellant. A drum brake assembly locks the metal bellows accumulator in place between adjustments by thermodynamic actuation by activating piezo-electric stack actuators that disengage calipers from a brake drum attached to the bellows accumulator.

Since the early 1980s, adjustable gastric bands have provided an effective alternative to gastric bypass and other irreversible surgical weight loss treatments for the morbidly obese. The gastric band is wrapped around an upper portion of the patient's stomach, forming a stoma that restricts food passing from an upper portion to a lower portion of the stomach. When the stoma is of the appropriate size, food held in the upper portion of the stomach provides a feeling of fullness that discourages overeating. However, initial maladjustment or a change in the stomach over time may lead to a stoma of an inappropriate size, warranting an adjustment of the gastric band. Otherwise, the patient may suffer vomiting attacks and discomfort when the stoma is too small to reasonably pass food. At the other extreme, the stoma may be too large and thus fail to slow food moving from the upper portion of the stomach, defeating the purpose altogether for the gastric band.
An artificial sphincter may be utilized in any number of applications within a patient's body where it is desirable to vary the size of an orifice or organ. Depending upon the application, artificial sphincters may take the form of a flexible, substantially non-extensible band containing an expandable section that is capable of retaining fluids. The expandable section would be capable of expanding or contracting depending upon the volume of fluid contained therein. One particular example of an artificial sphincter is an adjustable gastric banding device, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,592,339; 5,226,429; 6,102,922 and 5,449,368, the disclosure of each being hereby incorporated by reference. Adjustable gastric band implants have a hollow elastomeric balloon with fixed end points encircling a patient's stomach just inferior to the esophago-gastric junction. When saline solution is delivered into the hollow balloon, the gastric band swells and constricts the stomach, for example, for obesity reduction. Different degrees of constriction are desired, and adjustment is required over time as the patient's body adapts to the constriction.
Adding or removing saline solution from the adjustable gastric band is typically accomplished by injecting through a fluid injection port to achieve a desired diameter. Since adjustable gastric bands may remain in the patient for long periods of time, the fluid injection port is typically installed subcutaneously to reduce the likelihood of infection. Adjusting the amount of fluid in the adjustable gastric band is achieved by inserting a Huber tip needle through the skin into a silicon septum of the injection port. Once the needle is removed, the septum seals against the hole by virtue of the compressive load generated by the septum. A flexible conduit communicates between the injection port and the adjustable gastric band.
While subcutaneously implanted injection ports are a successful approach to readily adjusting a gastric band, and are a desirable feature to retain for initial installation or as a backup, it would be desirable to remotely adjust the gastric band. While minimally invasive, insertion of the Huber needle to adjust the saline solution volume does introduce increased risk of infection. In addition, this procedure typically entails the inconvenience and expense of scheduling time with a surgeon.
Some pumping methods suffer from a small amount of leakage across the pump. For example, in an implanted peristaltic pump, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,678, a piezoelectric drive system is used to provide a rotary device that is lightweight and compact with a very small axial volume. While leakage may be of no consequence in an infuser intended to dispense fluid when the amount dispensed is measurable, the leakage may be extremely inconvenient for maintaining a constant fluid volume over an extended period of time to maintain an artificial sphincter.
Implantable infusers that contain a metal bellows accumulator are known for such uses as dispensing therapeutic drugs, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,018. One common drawback is that implantable infusers are designed for one way controlled dispensing. Refilling the reservoir typically requires insertion of a syringe into a septum.
In an afore-mentioned co-pending application entitled "PIEZO ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN BELLOWS INFUSER FOR HYDRAULICALLY CONTROLLING AN ADJUSTABLE GASTRIC BAND" to William L. Hassler, Jr., Ser. No. 10/857,315, an advantageous infuser containing no ferromagnetic materials provides an accurately controllable volume of fluid to a closed gastric band capable of bi-directional adjustment of the fluid volume. The infuser has a titanium bellows accumulator, which may be collapsed or extended to positively displace fluid accumulated therein, thereby serving as both a reversible pump and reservoir. Thereby, a bi-directional pump that is practically immune to external magnetic fields is achieved. Such an implanted device may be used during Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) without damage to the device or patient.
While this piezo-electrically driven infuser has many advantages for certain applications, it would be desirable in some applications to further reduce the size of the infuser to increase patient comfort and acceptance of the implant. In particular, it would be desirable to eliminate or greatly reduce components that surround the metal bellows accumulator while enhancing the long-term reliable performance.
Consequently, a significant need exists for a remotely controllable, bi-directional infuser that reliably locks at a selected fluid volume between adjustments.

Bi-directional infuser pump with volume braking for hydraulically controlling an adjustable gastric band


A safe and versatile recombinant DNA cloning vector having at least two functionally different replication origins selected independently from the group consisting of a replication origin functional in Bacillus subtilis, a replication origin functional in Escherichia coli and a replication origin functional in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and at least one DNA segment which provides resistance against at least one antibiotic after introduction into susceptible host cells. The origin for replication origin functional in Bacillus subtilis can be a restriction fragment of a plasmid of Gram positive bacteria, and that Escherichia coli or Pseudomonas aeruginosa can be a restriction fragment of a plasmid of Gram negative bacteria, e.g. a restriction fragment of plasmids pMS 140-1 or pMS 71.

Many kinds of cloning vectors exist. However, no versatile cloning vector which can be functional in different microorganisms such as in Bacillus, E. coli and Pseudomonas has generally been known. Such a versatile cloning vector functional only in Streptomyces, Bacillus and E. coli (Jap. Pat. Unexam. Publ. No. 58-134100) or in Corynebacterium and Brevibacterium (ibid. No. 58-105999) is known.
An object of the present invention is to provide novel versatile cloning vectors which can be functional in Bacillus, Pseudomonas and E. coli and which can include one or more drug resistance genes in each of these microorganisms.
The importance of vectors to genetic engineering is described in Recombinant Molecules; Impact on Science and Society, Miles International Symposium Ser. No. 10, Ed. by R. F. Beers, Raven Press, New York (1977).
In E. coli, plasmid vectors such as pBR 322 have often been used. The numerous advantages of plasmid vectors like pBR 322 are as follows:
(1) a high copy number in bacterial cells;
(2) a low molecular weight and limited number of sites for restriction endonuclease cleavage provide an essential simplicity for cloning foreign DNA fragments while retaining replication activity;
(3) bacterial cell populations which contain selectable markers such as ampicillin- and tetracycline-resistance genes and the ability to easily isolate large quantities of plasmid have made plasmid vectors the most useful to date;
(4) the insertion of foreign DNA into restriction enzyme cleavage sites of a plasmid, i.e. the PstI site in ampicillin-resistant genes and BamHI, HindIII and SalI sites in tetracycline-resistant genes, transforming drug-resistance to drug-sensitivity due to breakage of the resistant genes, provides easy selection of recombinant DNA holding bacteria by selecting plasmid holding cells with one drug resistant nature, while selecting susceptibility to another drug. [F. Boliva et al., Gene, 2, 95 (1977)].
Many different types of plasmid vectors have been prepared for E. coli and other industrially useful bacteria, for example, the amylase-producing bacteria Bacillus, and the waste decomposing strain Pseudomonas. Unfortunately, however, no easily manipulable plasmid vector as compared with those in E. coli has been found in Bacillus or Pseudomonas. Plasmid replication and gene expression are restricted to and affected by background factors in transformed cells. For example, transduction of a drug resistance gene of E. coli ligated to a plasmid of Bacillus and transformed into Bacillus will replicate its recombinant plasmid, but cannot express the drug resistance element derived from E. coli. [J. Kreft et al., Mol. Gen. Genet., 162, 59 (1978); J. L. Schottel et al., J. Bacteriol., 146, 360 (1981).] Additionally, because of the lack of a Pseudomonas specific origin of replication, the E. coli plasmids pBR 322 and pACYC 184 cannot transform Pseudomonas. [Plasmid Medical, Environmental and Commercial Importance, K. N. Timmis and A. Puhler, Eds., pp 411-422].
Plasmid vectors pBR 322 or pCRI, which possess the replication origins of pMBI or ColEI, were originally non-transferable plasmids. However, they can be transferred together with a coexisting transferable and another third non-transferable plasmid. [Current Chemoth. and Immunotherapy, Proc. 12th Inter. Cong. Chemoth., Vol. 1, p. 6.] These vectors are not preferable from a safety point of view, because it may be dangerous to transfer a drug resistance gene in a vector and an unknown gene in a recombinant.
Plasmid vectors developed in E. coli are, in their replication origins, limited to ColEI, pMBI, p 15A and R 6-5. When an insertion of plural plasmid vectors in a cell is required in order to increase productivity and to investigate gene relation, there may occur incompatibility, namely such like vectors cannot coexist stably in a host cell and are eliminated.
A vector, RP-4, often used in Pseudomonas, is a large, transferable plasmid of molecular weight 38Md. It is not a preferred vector, because the genetic information required for RP-4 replication is located on a separate plasmid molecule and hence the preparation of a smaller vector plasmid is difficult. Only the plasmids RSF 1010 and Rlb 679 (5.5Md) have been reported; however, they are not preferred because insertional inactivation cannot be carried out using easily handled restriction enzymes.
Bacillus has the following advantages:
(1) it is a production strain of antibiotics butyrocin and polymyxin;
(2) it is a production strain of amylase and protease;
(3) it is an important industrial strain for exoenzymes; and
(4) it is non-parasitic in humans and therefore safe for receipt of foreign DNA.
Regrettably, vector development has not progressed as far or as quickly in Bacillus as it has in E. coli. One reason for this is that the multiple drug resistance genes of E. coli cannot be expressed hence in Bacillus, and hence resistance markers of E. coli cannot apply to Bacillus. Furthermore, the effectiveness of transformation using competent cells is much lower at 10.sup.2 -10.sup.3 transformants per 1 .mu.g of DNA as compared with that of the E. coli series at 10.sup.8 to 10.sup.12 transformants. Alternatively, Bacillus transformation by protoplast fusion improved the yield of transformants but requires time and practice, so that development of a drug marker having a preferred restriction site applicable to insertional inactivation might be delayed. Shuttle-vectors of Bacillus and E. coli have been reported [Abstract, Jap. Agr. Biol. Chem. Soc. Meeting 1980, p. 408], but unlike E. coli vectors the recombinant DNA technique for Bacillus expression of resistance against more than one kind of drug cannot be observed and so no insertion-inactivation method is used.


In a radiation image storage panel having an energy storable phosphor layer formed by a gas phase-accumulation method, the energy storable phosphor layer gives off an emission having a luminescence width in terms of d in the range of 150 to 395 μm when it is exposed to radiation and then excited with a stimulating light of 50 μm half-width.

When the energy storable phosphor (e.g., stimulable phosphor, which gives off stimulated emission) is exposed to radiation such as X-rays, it absorbs and stores a portion of the radiation energy. The phosphor then emits stimulated emission according to the level of the stored energy when exposed to electromagnetic wave such as visible or infrared light (i.e., stimulating light). A radiation image recording and reproducing method utilizing the energy storable phosphor has been widely employed in practice. In that method, a radiation image storage panel, which is a sheet comprising the energy storable phosphor, is used. The method comprises the steps of: exposing the storage panel to radiation having passed through an object or having radiated from an object, so that radiation image of the object is temporarily recorded in the storage panel; sequentially scanning the storage panel with a stimulating light such as a laser beam to emit a stimulated light; and photoelectrically detecting the emitted light to obtain electric image signals. The storage panel thus processed is then subjected to a step for erasing radiation energy remaining therein, and then stored for the use in the next recording and reproducing procedure. Thus, the radiation image storage panel can be repeatedly used.
The radiation image storage panel (often referred to as energy storable phosphor sheet) used in the radiation image recording and reproducing method has a basic structure comprising a support and a phosphor layer provided thereon. However, if the phosphor layer is self-supporting, the support may be omitted. Further, a protective layer is generally provided on the free surface (surface not facing the support) of the phosphor layer to keep the phosphor layer from chemical deterioration or physical shock.
Various kinds of phosphor layer are known and used. For example, a phosphor layer comprising a binder and an energy storable phosphor dispersed therein is generally used, and a phosphor layer comprising agglomerate of an energy storable phosphor without binder is also known. The latter layer can be formed by a gas phase-accumulation method or by a firing method. Further, still also known is a phosphor layer comprising energy storable phosphor agglomerate impregnated with a polymer material.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication 2001-255610 discloses a variation of the radiation image recording and reproducing method. While an energy storable phosphor of the storage panel used in the conventional type plays both roles of radiation-absorbing function and energy storable function, those two functions are separated in the disclosed method. In the method, a radiation image storage panel comprising at least an energy storable phosphor (which stores radiation energy) is used in combination with a phosphor screen comprising another phosphor (radiation-absorbing phosphor) which absorbs radiation and emits ultraviolet or visible light. The disclosed method comprises the steps of: causing the radiation-absorbing phosphor of the screen or the panel to absorb and convert radiation having passed through an object or having radiated from an object into ultraviolet or visible light; causing the energy storable phosphor of the panel to store the energy of the converted light as radiation image information; sequentially scanning the panel with a stimulating light to emit stimulated light; and photoelectrically detecting the emitted light to obtain electric image signals.
The radiation image recording and reproducing method (or radiation image forming method) has various advantages as described above. However, it is still desired that the radiation image storage panel used in the method have as high sensitivity as possible and, at the same time, give a reproduced radiation image of high quality (in regard to sharpness and graininess).
In order to improve the sensitivity and the image quality, it is proposed that the phosphor layer of the storage panel be prepared by a gas phase-accumulation method such as vacuum vapor deposition, sputtering or chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The process of vacuum vapor deposition, for example, comprises the steps of: heating to vaporize an evaporation source comprising a phosphor or materials thereof by means of a resistance heater or an electron beam, and depositing and accumulating the vapor on a substrate such as a metal sheet to form a layer of the phosphor in the form of columnar crystals.
The phosphor layer formed by the gas phase-accumulation method contains no binder and consists of the phosphor only, and there are cracks among the columnar crystals of the phosphor. Because of the cracks, the stimulating light can stimulate the phosphor efficiently and the emitted light can be collected efficiently, too. Accordingly, a radiation image storage panel having that phosphor layer has high sensitivity. At the same time, since the cracks prevent the stimulating light from diffusing parallel to the phosphor layer, the storage panel can give a reproduced image of high sharpness.
As a process for reading out radiation image information from the storage panel, a line-scanning reading method is proposed so as to shorten the time of read-out, to downsize the apparatus and to reduce the cost. Japanese Patent Provisional Publication 2001-350230 discloses a radiation image information-reading apparatus for the line-scanning reading method. The disclosed apparatus comprises a line light source which irradiates the storage panel linearly with stimulating lights to cause stimulated emission, a stimulated emission-detecting means which receives and photoelectrically converts the stimulated emission given off by the panel from the area linearly exposed to the stimulating lights, a scanning means by which the storage panel and a combination of the light source and the detecting means are relatively moved in a direction (secondary direction of scanning) different from the longitudinal direction of the linearly exposed area (primary direction of scanning), and a reading means by which signals output from the detecting means are read in accordance with the movement. The detecting means comprises a linear light-receiving face whose width in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction (that is, generally, a dimension of the face in the secondary direction of scanning) is designed so that 30 to 90% of the stimulated emission can be detected even though the emission is spread or diffused. Japanese Patent Provisional Publication 2001-350230 also discloses a graph showing a relationship between the diffusion of stimulated emission and the distribution of diffused emission intensity. The graph indicates that the storage panel processed in the above apparatus gives a stimulated emission of about 400 μm luminescence width (full width at half maximum, i.e., half-width).


An apparatus and method of traversing across elements of a challenge course by use of a tracking system that can continuously retain the harness cable that descends to the participant, as the moveable member moves in a substantially horizontal direction along the safety cables, or along the tracks of the moveable member exchange frame.

Challenge courses are structures that allow a person, or a team to challenge themselves by participating in various events such as walking at elevated heights or climbing. These courses are also used to train military personnel. These courses are also used at recreational parks or other such centers that have go-carts and miniature gulf. It is common for people to wait in line to participate in the challenge course. Therefore increasing the speed of the flow of participants is an important feature of the challenge courses as well as increasing safety. The participants are usually performing some act at an elevated level between support structures. A harness cable secures the participant to a safety hook also called a moveable member. The safety hook or moveable member usually slides along cables substantially oriented horizontally as the participant walks on an "element" below, whereby the participant is secured to the moveable member or safety hook by a substantially vertically oriented harness cable. Therefore it is also an important feature to retain the harness cable to the moveable member without interruption.
Many problems with challenge courses center around the traffic flow and the detachment of the harness cable from the moveable member when the participant who is secured to the harness cable, is not secured to the moveable member, the participant can fall to the ground. When the participant walks along the element between the support structures, the participant is secured to the harness cable, which is in turn secured to the safety hook, which moves along the horizontally oriented safety cables. The cause of many of the flow problems are caused by factors such as releasing and re-attaching of the harness cable from the moveable member that takes place when the participant changes elements, usually at the support structure. For example, when the participant is completing one element, they stand on some fixed platform at the support structure. Here, the participant, if wishing to travel on another element, will remove the safety hook that is specific for that first element, and will attach a second hook, which is specific for the new element.
There exists a need to reduce the time to detach and re-attach the moveable members or safety hooks as the participants walk through the different elements.
Multiple embodiments of the system are disclosed herein. It will be understood that other objects and purposes of the invention, and variations thereof, will be apparent upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.


The present invention provides a polymeric composite binder which comprises binder polymer and a dispersant chemically bound to the surface of the binder polymer, as well as an electrode slurry, electrode and secondary battery using the same. By virtue of the dispersant chemically bound to the binder polymer surface, the present invention achieves an improvement in the stability of binder latex, an improvement in the dispersion and coating properties of electrode slurry, and also an improvement in the capacity and cycle characteristic of a battery.

Recently, studies to reduce the size and weight of portable electronic devices, such as portable computers, portable telephones and camcorders, are being steadily conducted. In addition, secondary batteries, which are used as electricity sources for such electronic devices, require higher capacity, smaller size, lighter weight and thinner thickness. Among secondary batteries, following research and development of lithium-ion secondary batteries, such batteries are being produced and sold, because of their advantages, such as high voltage, long lifespan and high energy density.
The lithium-ion secondary battery is composed of a positive electrode, a negative electrode, a separator and an electrolyte solution. This battery has a structure of positive electrode-electrolyte solution-separator-electrolyte solution-negative electrode and exhibits battery characteristics not only by an electric charging process in which lithium ions migrate from the positive electrode to the negative electrode and are intercalated into the negative electrode, but also by an electric discharge process in which the lithium ions migrate from the negative electrode to the positive electrode.
Each of the electrodes (positive and negative electrodes) comprises a collector and an electrode film, in which the electrode film includes an electrode active material, a conducting agent and an electrode binder. Although an element which ultimately determines the properties of the electrodes is the electrode active material, the electrode binder which renders the electrode active material adhesive and serves to fix the electrode film to the collector also plays an important role.
For example, an electrode is prepared by a method comprised of uniformly dispersing an electrode active material, a conducting agent and an electrode binder in a solvent, to prepare electrode slurry, and then coating the electrode slurry on a collector. In this case, the dispersion and coating properties of the electrode slurry will be important.
A typical material for use as an electrode binder is polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer which is used as a solution in an organic solvent, such as N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP). However, the PVDF binder causes an environmental problem resulting from the use of the NMP organic solvent and has a shortcoming in that it needs to be used at increased amounts for application to high-capacity secondary batteries. For this reason, studies on water-based binders, which can exhibit sufficient adhesion even at small amounts, are being conducted.
However, there is still no report on a water-based binder which can adjust the dispersion and coating properties of the electrode slurry.

Composite binder for an electrode with dispersants chemically bound


A removal apparatus includes a main body, a carrying device, a heating device and a brush device. The carrying device is disposed on the main body, and includes a holding module for holding a circuit board. The heating device is disposed on the main body for heating up the circuit board to melt bonding material that bonds electronic components and a board body of the circuit board. The brush device is disposed on the main body, and includes at least one brush body that is made of heat-resistant material, and that is operable to move relative to a surface of the circuit board to remove the electronic components from the board body after the bonding material are melted.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates to a recycle apparatus for electronic wastes, more particularly to an electronic component removal apparatus for a circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with the booming electronic industry came the significant environmental issue of the disposal of electronic wastes. Luckily, most electronic wastes are currently capable of being recycled.
In recycling a discarded circuit board, the circuit board is first cut into pieces with an adequate size. Then the board pieces are crushed into smaller fragments, and are ground into powder. Finally, the powder is divided into metal powder and plastic powder for different uses.
However, in the cutting, crushing and grinding operations of the abovementioned recycling process, the cutters are easily worn by stiff electronic components of the circuit board, and need to be replaced frequently.

Electronic component removal apparatus for a circuit board


A turbo-engine stator blading is disclosed. The turbo-engine stator blading includes a crown of fixed blades mounted on a ring. Each blade includes a platform and each blade is fastened to the ring. The ring includes a plurality of individual receptacles for the each of the platforms, the receptacles being machined in the thickness of the ring, the form of each receptacle being complementary to that of the corresponding platform. By means of the receptacles, the mounting of the blades within the blading is both simple and accurate.

The invention relates to the field of turbo-engines comprising stator blading.
A turbo-engine, whether it be a compressor, a turbine or any other engine, such as a turbojet, comprising at least one stator blading. By stator blading is meant a set of fixed blades mounted in the form of a crown on an outer ring and/or an inner ring. As an example, mention may be made of flow-straightening bladings in compressors or turbines, generally arranged between two moving-blade stages, or else flow-straightening bladings placed just downstream of the blower in double-flow turbojets.
The blades of some axial stator bladings are oriented differently, depending on their angular position, in order to adapt the flow which they guide to the aerodynamic constraints of the engine.
Various forms of fastening of the blades on the outer ring of the blading are known. In document EP 0,953,729, each blade, inserted in a bore of the inner ring, comprising an outer platform which is slipped into a circumferential groove of the outer ring and is fastened to the latter by means of rivets. The outer platforms may comprise chamfers or notches allowing them to be interlocked with one another. In document U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,725, the blades comprise an outer platform having outer bosses for receiving a screw; the platforms are laid against one another, thus delimiting the corresponding portion of the flow section, and are fastened to the stator by means of screws inserted in the bosses.
Such bladings have the disadvantage of being difficult to mount, since the blade platforms delimiting the flow section must be perfectly contiguous. Moreover, in the event that the orientation of the blades differs according to their angular position, this mounting is all the more difficult because it is then necessary to provide blades which are of different forms and/or the platforms of which are different, which have to be mounted in succession in the correct order.
The present invention aims to propose a stator blading for which the mounting of the blades is both simple and accurate.

Turbo-engine stator blading, turbo-engine comprising the blading and turbo-engine blade