A method of display of visual content is disclosed which utilizes nodes that launch only when necessary. The nodes may be rendered and/or displayed in the coordinate system of another node, perhaps a parent node, when appropriate. Increase precision of display objects is achieved.

The present invention relates to zooming user interfaces (ZUI) for computers.
Most present day graphical computer user interfaces are designed using visual components of a fixed spacial scale. The visual content can be manipulated by zooming in or out or otherwise navigating through it. However, the precision with which coordinates of various objects can be represented is extremely limited by the number of bits, usually between 16 and 64, designated to represent such coordinates. Because of their limited representational size, there is limited precision.
In the context of the zooming user interface, the user is easily able to zoom in, causing the area which previously covered only a single pixel to fill the entire display. Conversely, the user may zoom out, causing the contents of the entire display to shrink to the size of a single pixel. Since each zoom in or out may multiply or divide the xy coordinates by numerous orders of magnitude, just a few such zooms completely exhaust the precision available with a 64 bit floating point number, for example. Thereafter, round-off causes noticeable degradation of image quality.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a ZUI in which a larger range of zooms is possible.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a ZUI in which the precision in which coordinates are represented is related to the required precision needed at a particular zoom level of detail. It is a further object of the present invention to allow a pannable and zoomable two-dimensional space of a finite physical size, but of an arbitrarily high complexity or resolution, to be embedded into a well-defined area of a larger pannable and zoomable two-dimensional space.
A further objective of the present invention is to allow zooming out after a deep zoom-in to behave like the "back" button of a web browser, letting the user retrace his or her steps through a visual navigation.
A further objective of the present invention is to allow zooming in immediately after zooming out to behave analogously to the "forward" button of a web browser, letting the user precisely undo the effects of an arbitrarily long zoom-out.
A further objective of the present invention is to allow a node, a visual object as defined more precisely below, to have a very large number of child nodes (for example, up to 10^28).
A further objective of the present invention is to allow a node to generate its own children programmatically on the fly, enabling content to be defined, created or modified dynamically during navigation.
A further objective of the present invention is to enable near-immediate viewing of arbitrarily complex visual content, even if this content is ultimately represented using a very large amount of data, and even if the data are stored at a remote location and shared over a low-bandwidth network.
A further objective of the present invention is to allow the user to zoom arbitrarily far in on visual content while maintaining interactive frame rates.
A further objective of the present invention is to allow the user to zoom arbitrarily far out to get an overview of complex visual content, in the process both preserving the overall appearance of the content and maintaining interactive frame rates.
These and other broader objectives of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a review of the specification that follows.

System and method for multiple node display


In accordance with the present invention, a compliant pressure differential is applied across a separation column while its inlet is in a sample solution so that sample solution is introduced into the column. The profile of pressure differential over time is selected so that a desired volume of sample solution is introduced. Pressure and time are controlled with sufficient precision to yield repeatability of within 5%, and preferably within 1%, by volume. The pressure differential is sufficiently low and the time sufficiently long that an acceptable velocity profile can be achieved.

The present invention relates to chemical analysis and, more particularly, to an improved method for capillary electrophoresis. A major objective of the present invention is to provide for more convenient and precise determinations of the absolute concentration of a sample component in a sample solution.
Chemical analyses of complex organic structures has made noteworthy advances in biotechnology possible. Biotechnology has provided techniques for manufacturing life-supporting medicines and other products which would otherwise be in short supply if natural sources had to be relied upon. In addition, entirely new medical products are in development which may arrest and cure heretofore untreatable diseases. Biotechnology promises new products for agriculture which will feed the world's expanding populations and which will enhance the ability of famine-prone countries to sustain themselves.
Chemicals analysis of biological samples generally involves the separation of the samples into components for identification and quantification. Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) is one of a class of methods in which the different components are moved within a narrow-bore capillary at respective and different rates so that the components are divided into distinct zones. The different zones can be investigated within the capillary or outside the capillary by allowing the components to emerge from the capillary for sequential detection.
In CZE, a sample is introduced at an input end of a longitudinally extending capillary and moved toward an output end. Electrodes of different potentials at either end of the capillary generate the electrical forces which move the sample components towards the output end of the capillary. This movement includes two district components, one due to electro-osmotic flow and the other due to electrophoretic migration.
One of applications of CZE is to determine the absolute concentration of a sample component in a sample solution. The quantity of sample component eluting from a separation column can be determined by integrating its detection peak to determine the area represented by the component.
However, the quantity of sample solution from which the component quantity was separated is not easily ascertained. The problems of obtaining precise sample volume introduction have been studied in "Theory, Instrumentation, and Applications of Capillary Zone Electrophoresis" by Krynn DeArman Lukacs, a dissertation submitted in 1983 to the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill. This dissertation examined electrostatic introduction, using the same mechanism used by CZE for sample separation, and concluded that precise volume control was not obtainable due to differential electrophoretic mobility of sample components. Various hydrostatic introductions were made, basically using syringes, but convective disturbances and parabolic flow profiles adversely affected the sample distribution in the column.. The sample should be in the form of a compact cylindrical plug at the column head. Other shapes and distributions result in broader eluting bands and, thus, poorer detection sensitivity.
Attempts to determine sample quantities from the detected peaks have had limited success. It is not feasible to determine a total sample quantity by integrating over all eluting peaks. It is possible to introduce a known quantity of a identifiable component into a sample solution and use the area of its peak to determine the volume separated. However, the introduction of the identifiable component into the sample solution must be carefully controlled if useful results are to be obtained. More problematic is the selection of the identifiable component which must have a peak which will not interfere with the sample component peaks. It is often necessary to run a sample to find detection regions without peaks to select the sample. This is undesirably cumbersome.
What is needed is a convenient and reliable method for determine absolute concentrations of sample components.

Vacuum injection capillary electrophoresis


An apparatus and method for the batch photoactivation of mononuclear cells (MNCs) is described. The system includes a programmable controller configured to automatically separate whole blood in a first collection cycle to obtain a first quantity of MNCs; separate whole blood in a second collection cycle to obtain a second quantity of MNCs while simultaneously photoactivating the first quantity of MNCs to obtain a first quantity of treated MNCs; either store the first quantity of treated MNCs or reinfuse the first quantity of treated MNCs; photoactivate the second quantity of MNCs to obtain a second quantity of treated MNCs; either store the second quantity of treated MNCs or reinfuse the second quantity of treated MNCs; and reinfuse any blood components remaining after the second collection cycle.

Whole blood is made up of various cellular and non-cellular components such as red cells, white cells and platelets suspended in its liquid component, plasma. The administration of blood and/or blood components is common in the treatment of patients suffering from disease. Rather than infuse whole blood, it is more typical that individual components be administered to the patient as his or her needs require. For example, administration (infusion) of platelets is often prescribed for cancer patients whose ability to make platelets has been compromised by chemotherapy. Infusion of white blood cells (e.g. mononuclear cells), after the cells have undergone some additional processing or treatment, for example, to activate the mononuclear cells, may also be prescribed for therapeutic reasons including treatment of diseases that may involve the white blood cells. Thus, it is often desirable to separate and collect the desired blood component from whole blood and then treat the patient with the specific blood component. The remaining components may be returned to the donor or retained for other uses.
There are several diseases or disorders which are believed to primarily involve mononuclear cells, such as cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, organ allograft rejection after transplantation, graft versus host disease and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, among others, as described below.
Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) is a term that is used to describe a wide variety of disorders. Generally, CTCL is a type of cancer of the immune system where T-cells (a type of mononuclear cell) mutate or grow in an uncontrolled way, migrate to the skin and form itchy, scaly plaques or patches. More advanced stages of the disease also affect the lymph nodes. Therapeutic treatment options for CTCL have previously been limited. While chemotherapy has been utilized, this particular form of treatment also has many associated undesirable side effects such as lowered resistance to infection, bleeding, bruising, nausea, infertility and hair loss, just to name a few.
Organ allograft rejection may be characterized as the rejection of tissues that are foreign to a host, including transplanted cardiac tissue as well as lung, liver and renal transplants. Immunosuppression drug therapy following transplantation is common. However, there are potential drawbacks including recurring infection due to the compromised competence of the immune system caused by this type of therapy.
Similarly, graft versus host disease (GVHD) is a complication that can occur after a stem cell or bone marrow transplant in which the newly transplanted material attacks the transplant recipient's body. The differences between the donor's cells and recipient's tissues often cause T-cells from the donor to recognize the recipient's body tissues as foreign, thereby causing the newly transplanted cells to attack the recipient. GVHD may complicate stem cell or bone marrow transplantation, thereby potentially limiting these life-saving therapies. Therefore, after a transplant, the recipient is usually administered a drug that suppresses the immune system, which helps reduce the chances or severity of GVHD. See Dugdale, David C., et al. "Graft-Versus-Host Disease," MedlinePlus A.D.A.M Medical Encyclopedia, Updated Jun. 2, 2010.
Autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS), can be characterized by an overactive immune system which mistakes the body's own tissues as being a foreign substance. As a result, the body makes autoantibodies that attack normal cells and tissues. At the same time, regulatory T-cells, which normally function to regulate the immune system and suppress excessive reactions or autoimmunity, fail in this capacity. This may lead to, among other things, joint destruction in RA and inflammation of the connective tissue in PSS.
Where existing therapies for treating one or more diseases may result in certain unintended side effects, additional treatment may be desired or required. One known procedure which has been shown to be effective in the treatment of diseases and/or the side effects of existing therapies is extracorporeal photopheresis or "ECP". Extracorporeal photopheresis (also sometimes referred to as extracorporeal photochemotherapy) is a process that includes: (1) collection of mononuclear cells "MNC" from a patient, (2) photoactivation treatment of the collected mononuclear cells, and (3) reinfusion of the treated mononuclear cells back to the patient. More specifically, ECP involves the extracorporeal exposure of peripheral blood mononuclear cells combined with a photoactive compound, such as 8-methoxypsoralen or "8-MOP" which is then photoactivated by ultraviolet light, followed by the reinfusion of the treated mononuclear cells. It is believed that the combination of 8-MOP and UV radiation encourages and/or causes apoptosis or programmed cell death (also referred to herein as the "apoptosis trend") of ECP-treated cells.
Although the precise mechanism of action in ECP treatment (in the different disease states) is not fully known, according to early theories, it was believed that photoactivation causes 8-MOP to irreversibly covalently bind to the DNA strands contained in the T-cell nucleus. When the photochemically damaged T-cells are reinfused, cytotoxic effects are induced. For example, a cytotoxic T-cell or "CD8+ cell" releases cytotoxins when exposed to infected or damaged cells or otherwise attacks cells carrying certain foreign or abnormal molecules on their surfaces. The cytotoxins target the damaged cell's membrane and enter the target cell, which eventually leads to apoptosis or programmed cell death of the targeted cell. In other words, after the treated mononuclear cells are returned to the body, the immune system recognizes the dying abnormal cells and begins to produce healthy lymphocytes (T-cells) to fight against those cells.
In addition to the above, it has also been theorized that extracorporeal photopheresis also induces monocytes (a type of mononuclear cell) to differentiate into dendritic cells capable of phagocytosing and processing the apoptotic T-cell antigens. When these activated dendritic cells are re-infused into systemic circulation, they may cause a systemic cytotoxic CD8+ T-lymphocyte-mediated immune response to the processed apoptotic T-cell antigens like that described above. It will be appreciated that other possible mechanisms of action may be involved in achieving the benefits that have been observed from the ECP treatment of mononuclear cells and the subsequent benefits to patients undergoing ECP based therapies.
More recently, it has been postulated that ECP may result in an immune tolerant response in the patient. For example, in the case of graft versus-host disease, the infusion of apoptotic cells may stimulate regulatory T-cell generation, inhibit inflammatory cytokine production, cause the deletion of effective T-cells and result in other responses. See Peritt, "Potential Mechanisms of Photopheresis in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation," Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation 12:7-12(2006). While presently the theory of an immune tolerant response appears to be among the leading explanations, there exist other theories as to the mechanism of action of ECP relative to graft-versus-host disease, as well as other disease states.
In any event, it will be appreciated that ECP treatment directly promotes and encourages apoptosis of lymphocytes following exposure to UV light. Regardless of the precise mechanism of action, it is presently understood that apoptosis plays a role in the therapeutic properties achieved, and beneficial clinical effects of, ECP treatment.
Currently, known ECP treatment procedures (i.e. the apheresis collection of a mononuclear cell product from a patient, the addition of 8-MOP to the collected cell product, subsequent UV irradiation and the reinfusion of the treated mononuclear cell product) may be performed on two or more consecutive days on a weekly basis, the frequency depending on the state of the particular disease being treated and/or the patient's response to the treatment. Systems for performing ECP include, for example, the Cellex Photopheresis System developed by Therakos, Inc., of Exton, Pa. Further details of the Therakos system can be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,887.
While the clinical benefits of ECP have been recognized, the use of ECP may be limited by logistical difficulties, including the need to repeatedly perform apheresis collections of mononuclear cells. Methods to avoid repeated MNC collection procedures have included collecting in a single apheresis procedure multiple therapeutic doses of MNCs performing ECP, with a single dose of MNCs being contemporaneously treated by ECP and returned to the patient, and cryopreserving the remaining untreated MNCs for later ECP treatment. See, for example, Merlin, E., et al. "Cryopreservation of mononuclear cells before extracorporeal photochemotherapy does not impair their anti-proliferative capabilities." Cytotherapy 2011; 13:248-255).
The cryopreservation of substantially all, or a portion of, mononuclear cell products derived from an extracorporeal photopheresis treatment, without significantly affecting the apoptosis trend of lymphocytes and/or other therapeutic properties or clinical benefits of ECP-based therapy after cryopreservation and the subsequent thawing, is described in U.S. Ser. No. 13/760,774, which is been incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. In this application, which was published as US 2013/0252227, the disclosed apparatus and methods multiple portions of ECP treated mononuclear cell products are collected from a single apheresis and photopheresis session, and are divided into smaller portions for subsequent administration, thus saving a patient from the burden of undergoing multiple or additional apheresis collections and relieving the clinician from having to repeat the ECP treatment procedure each time cryopreserved untreated mononuclear cell products are thawed.
By way of the present disclosure, an apparatus and method for the batch photoactivation of MNCs is described that also results in two or more therapeutic quantities of ECP-treated MNCs to result from a single collection procedure. The therapeutic quantities of MNCs produced by the apparatus and method may be reinfused to the patient directly after photoactivation, or preserved for future reinfusion by means including cryopreservation.

Apparatus and method for batch photoactivation of mononuclear cells


In some embodiments, an optical coupler comprises a substrate, and first and second optical waveguides positioned on the substrate. The second optical waveguide extends adjacent to and parallel with the first optical waveguide for at least one effective coupling length, the at least one length having a first end and a second end. The coupler further comprises a first phase shift section forming a portion of the first optical waveguide and located at a first predetermined distance from the first end of the length, and a second phase shift section forming a portion of the second optical waveguide and located at a second predetermined distance from the second end of the length, wherein the first predetermined distance is approximately equal to the second predetermined distance, and wherein the second optical waveguide does not have a phase shift section located at the first predetermined distance from the first end of the length.

Optical devices are finding increasingly widespread use in various fields such as communications, data processing, storage, and other technologies. In some cases, optical components are completely supplanting the equivalent electrical components. In other situations, components are manufactured which have both electrical and optical characteristics for use in hybrid technologies.
Optical couplers can be used to allow optical signals to interact with each other or in some way provide an interrelationship between the signals. One type of optical coupler uses two waveguides which run parallel to each other. Each waveguide is configured for coupling to separate optical fibers. As optical signals are passed from the optical fibers to the waveguides, the signals propagate along the waveguides. Due to the close proximity and optical characteristics of the waveguides, interaction between the two signals occurs. For example, one signal can be used to modulate an optical signal in the other fiber, one signal can be used to induce an optical signal in another fiber, etc. However, in many instances, optical couplers have undesirable optical characteristics which cannot be easily controlled.
There remains a need for optical couplers capable of achieving high linearity in the output across a wide frequency range. There remains a need for optical couplers capable of operating at lower voltages.
US 2007/0211984, US 2005/0259923 and US 2004/0240790 are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
All US patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention, a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.
A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided as well only for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. 1.72. The abstract is not intended to be used for interpreting the scope of the claims.


A system includes one or more code development servers operable to monitor development of code files and one or more code execution servers operable to execute the code files. One or more code analysis tools of the system include instructions that when executed by at least one processing device result in collecting code development data associated with development of the code files on a per user basis and determining a predicted code execution performance score of one or more selected files of the code files based on the code development data. One or more resources of the one or more code execution servers associated with execution of the one or more selected files are predictively allocated based on a predicted code execution performance score. One or more code execution metrics are captured associated with executing the one or more selected files on the one or more code execution servers.

In the process of developing executable code, multiple systems can be involved. For example, systems used for code development can differ from systems of a target platform upon which the code is intended to execute. Development tools can establish a simulation and test environment to test some aspects of code under development. However, issues related to execution on the target platform may not be fully apparent in the simulation and test environment used during development. For instance, issues related to resource management of the target platform, interactions with other applications and systems, and changes in operating environment can be difficult to accurately simulate in the simulation and test environment used during development. If code that is inefficient or has errors is allowed to execute on the target platform, problems can propagate beyond the newly developed and deployed code, for example, by reducing resources available to existing applications previously deployed on the target platform.


Techniques for reducing and discouraging sending large scale emails are described herein. According to one embodiment, in response to a first email received from a sender to be sent to a list of recipients, a distribution cost of the first email is determined based on content of the first email and the recipients. An email client application is to present a first graphical user interface (GUI) page to the sender prompting a confirmation from the sender, where the first GUI page includes information indicating a size of the first email and a number of recipients, if the distribution cost of the first email is above a first predetermined threshold. In response to a positive confirmation from the sender, the first email is sent to the intended recipient.

Email has become an important method for communicating. Email systems typically include a server component (e.g., Microsoft Exchange™ Server) and a client component (e.g., Microsoft Outlook™ or Microsoft Outlook Express™). These components are typically software applications that are configured to execute on computing devices (e.g., servers, desktops, laptops, and mobile devices). Such email client applications allow users to draft email messages through a user interface and send the messages to recipients. Some email messages may contain files as attachments that are delivered to a recipient along with the message. An email attachment may be any file type including a spreadsheet, a word processing document, or a photograph. One or more files can be attached to a given email message. Attachments can vary in size, typically ranging from a few bytes to twenty-five megabytes.
Typically, an email client allows a user as a sender to send an email with or without an attachment to a list of recipients. Each recipient can respond by replying to the sender individually or alternatively, a recipient can also respond by replying to all of the recipients in the email thread, also referred to as an email conversation, using a reply-all option provided by the email client. Email distribution lists and "reply to all" options are powerful email tools. As has been demonstrated many times, this power sometimes results in people becoming the recipient of unwanted messages. The cost of these unwanted messages includes wasted bandwidth, undesired interruptions, and lost productivity.
For example, someone recently sent a message to a few thousand employees of a large corporation, asking for a particular presentation. Within a few minutes, several people responded with a "reply-all," usually attaching a presentation file or two in the 5-10 MB range. Later someone asked that people not forward large attachments to the entire group; someone followed this up by suggesting some other ways to avoid sending large attachments. After a pause, another person sent the entire list a note pointing out he would not reply-to-all with a presentation, but he still replied to all with the news that he would not send one.
While it was not the worst "reply-all storm" in terms of the number of messages, the product of the per-person data and the number of recipients is huge. It is estimated about 100 GB of traffic was sent in the space of an hour. In addition, each of the thousands of employees was alerted in some fashion about each incoming mail. While reading and deleting the messages is not onerous, some fraction of recipients undoubtedly got an email delivery alert specific to each of these messages. There is a lot of people to interrupt 5-10 times in the space of an hour or two over something which had little to no effect on their work. Further some of the recipients in the email thread may not be interested in receiving further emails on a topic which does not concern them. Such a large scale of email traffic and a large amount of data exchanged over a network can cause an unpleasant experience and unproductive working environment.
Some mail interfaces offer a "mute" or "ignore" option. For example in Gmail™ this means that a message with the same subject goes into "all mail" but bypasses the inbox for a period of time. However such messages cause certain interruption to a user until the user explicitly mutes, and the ignored or muted messages would be sent over the network. A conventional email system includes a feature of displaying a small message indicating a number of recipients of a particular outgoing email. However, such a message is typically displayed briefly and less likely catches a sender's attention. The sender can either ignore it or completely misses the displayed message. The message is displayed only based on the number of recipients and it does not take into the account of the size of the outgoing email.

Method and system for processing large scale emails and limiting resource consumption and interruption therefrom


A method, such as a method for doing business, is provided. The method includes providing telecommunications dialing features such as, for example, call return, call waiting and speed dialing, for commercial classes of telephone service. The method may include providing the telecommunications dialing features for commercial classes of telephone service on dedicated phone lines, such as a T-1 circuit. The method may also include charging a customer for providing the telecommunications dialing features for commercial classes of dedicated telephone service. According to one embodiment, the method includes charging the customer a fee on a periodic basis for the dialing features.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed generally to telephone network service and, more particularly, to a method for providing certain telecommunications dialing features for commercial classes of dedicated telephone service.
2. Description of the Background
Telephone service companies typically provide enhanced telecommunications dialing features to residential and certain limited classes of business customers. These dialing features include call waiting, speed dialing, call return (*69), etc. These features are sometimes referred to as Touchstar® features, a registered service mark of BellSouth Corporation, Atlanta Ga. Residential and certain limited business customers may access the various dialing features by dialing a feature code specific to the desired feature. For example, a residential customer wishing to use the call return feature may dial, for example, *69, on a telephone using touch tone signaling, whereupon the customer may hear an announcement of the telephone number of the last incoming caller. Additionally, the customer may be presented with the option of calling back the directory number associated with the last incoming caller by dialing another feature code. Thus, residential and certain limited business customers may use the automatic recall service to screen calls or when the customer is unable to answer a call before the calling party hangs up. The feature may also be used when the customer does not know the directory number of the caller, but wishes to call back the calling party.
Such enhanced telecommunications dialing features, however, are not available for some commercial classes of service. Specifically, those features are not available for commercial classes of dedicated telephone service. Accordingly, there exists a need for a method for providing such enhanced telecommunications dialing services for commercial classes of dedicated telephone service.

Method for providing telephone services for commercial classes of service

BellSouth Intellectual Property Corporation


A frame buffer for a microdisplay may be implemented with a repair algorithm that achieves desired uniformity in the frame buffer. Because the frame buffer and the display are tightly coupled, it is desirable to avoid providing unnecessary redundant elements which break up the uniformity of the overall integrated circuit. To this end, when a cell in the frame buffer is defective, a system to automatically address in its place an adjacent cell may be implemented. In one embodiment, control logic may address a column multiplexer to select an adjacent cell in an adjacent column in the same row to provide information in place of the defective cell in the frame buffer.

This invention relates generally to microdisplays for displaying information in association with processor-based systems.
A microdisplay is a relatively small display which can be viewed directly, as in a head mounted display, or enlarged by using projection systems, for example. Commonly, microdisplays are less than four centimeters measured diagonally.
Digital microdisplays may contain integrated frame buffers that hold the pixel data for the image being displayed. In order to get a high quality image, a large number of pixels may be utilized. Displaying a large number of pixels requires a relatively large frame buffer to store the data being displayed. The yield of an integrated circuit, which includes both the pixel array and the frame buffer, may be limited by the yield of memory that implements the frame buffer.
Thus, the memory may contain a redundancy repair mechanism to allow the microdisplay to tolerate a certain number of failures during fabrication of the frame buffer. Generally, if bad locations are formed in the frame buffer, the entire frame buffer need not be disposed of because redundant memory blocks may be utilized to replace blocks that have damaged memory location.
Traditional redundancy repair schemes add additional redundant memory to the array that can be swapped in place of the failing elements. Since the overall physical organization of the memory is not relevant to its operation in traditional memories, there are no problems inserting redundant blocks or structures.
However, in a microdisplay, the memory may be tightly coupled to the pixel array that forms the display. In such microdisplays, the physical layout of the bits is constrained by the size and location of the pixels. That is, the memory for a pixel at some location may be adjacent to the memory for a pixel at another location.
Thus, there is a need to enable repair of defective frame buffers in microdisplays.


A process for the production of high purity monoglycerides by lipase-catalyzed transesterification, and the products of the reaction, are described. In the method of the present invention, oils or pure triglycerides are combined with alcohol, a small amount of water and a lipase. The reaction proceeds under mild conditions, and produces high yields of .beta.-monoglyceride product.

Monoglycerides represent an important class of surfactants which are widely used as additives in the food industry. Being excellent emulsifiers, monoglycerides help to distribute and stabilize droplets of two immiscible liquids in one another, which improves the texture, homogeneity, consistency and overall quality of these products. Useful properties of monoglycerides, such as a high tendency to form complexes with starch, an ability to modify the crystal structure of foods, and significant aerating and stabilizing effects make them indispensable in the production of baked goods, cake mixtures, salad dressings, frozen deserts and other processed foods. Due to their high surface activity, monoglycerides also have various applications in the pharmaceutical and plastics industries.
Currently, monoglycerides are produced commercially by glycerolysis of fats. In this process, the fatty acid groups are transferred from triglycerides to the available hydroxyl groups of the glycerol to give a mixture of mono-, di- and triglycerides. The monoglycerides must then be isolated by molecular distillation, at high vacuum. The major drawback of the chemical process described above are the low product yield and the high cost of molecular distillation. A large fraction of the yield losses is caused by thermal degradation at the high temperatures used during the reaction and purification.
Another method of producing monoglycerides is by enzymatic transformations. Several reaction pathways for obtaining fatty acid glycerides can be used: the esterification of glycerol with fatty acid; the glycerolysis of triglycerides; and partial hydrolysis of triglycerides. I. L. Gatfield in Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 434:569-72 (1984). Japanese Patent No. 118,094 describes the production of monoglycerides by a lipase-catalyzed transesterification reaction between the alkyl ester of a fatty acid, in this case methyl oleate, and glycerol. The preparation of various types of glyceride esters using lipase is described by G. Lazar in Fette Seifen, Anstrichm., 87(10):394-400 (1985). The lipase-catalyzed synthesis of glycerides from free fatty acids and glycerol is described by M. K. Tahoun et al., Microbios. Letts., 28(111-112):133-139 (1985); M. M. Hoq et al., Agric. Biol. Chem., 49(2):335-42 (1985); T. Yamane et al., Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 434:558-568 (1984); M. Pina and J. Graille, Bull. Tech./Gattefosse Rep., 76:34-36 (1984 ); M. M. Hoq et al., J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc., 61(4):776-781 (1984); N. Muthukumaran and S. C. Dhar, Leather Sci., 30(3):97-100 (1983); Y. Tsujisaka et al., Biochem. Biophys. Acta. 489(3):415-522 (1977); and R. Bacaloglu et al., Rev. Roum. Biochem., 22(3):177-181 (1985).
There are several limitations to the previous processes, including, the need for an excess of glycerol, a low degree of conversion, and complex purification procedures.

Production of monoglycerides by enzymatic transesterification


Cooking apparatus includes apparatus to support food to be cooked. A housing surrounds a portion of the support apparatus and defines a portal through which food may be passed into the housing. A fireplace is disposed in the housing to support a fire that produces heated gas for cooking food. The fireplace may include a solid fuel burning grate to support solid fuel used as a flavor enhancing substance to the food being cooked with the grate having a body with apertures through which hot coal is discharged. A hot coal supporting device is disposed beneath the grate to receive the hot coals discharged from the solid fuel burning grate and has a body with apertures through which ash is discharged. An ash bin is disposed beneath the hot coal supporting device to receive the discharged ash. A heated gas passageway is provided in the housing to place the heated gas in fluid communication with an environment outside of a building in which the housing is disposed. A browning plate reflects heat toward the supporting device and is disposed in the housing in heat transfer relation with the heated gas passageway. The gas flow through the heated gas passageway is regulated in response to the heat being emitted through the portal defined in the housing and in response to the heat being transferred to the browning plate. An infrared heating source may be disposed in the housing to provide infrared heat to food on the support.

It is well known that prior art cooking devices have cooked food, such as chickens, hams, beef and fish, in certain commercial establishments by using a fire in a hearth supporting a rotisserie.
Some of these prior art cooking devices use one or more spits that are rotated around an axis so that the food is cooked uniformly. In these prior art devices, gears are used to rotate each of the spits. Since gears are costly to manufacture and maintain, these prior art cooking devices are extremely expensive to make and service. Accordingly, only those commercial establishments with a large demand can justify the expense of this prior art device.
Further, these prior art cooking devices are commonly constructed without a door to allow rapid access into the cooking area of the cooking device. Because there is no door, it is common for the heat to pass through the opening into the dining area of the cafe or restaurant, which adversely effects the comfort level of the customers. Also, workers are adversely effected by the hot working conditions when this heat is not removed from the work area. Also, the removal of this heat from the dining and working areas is expensive and unnecessary.
Further, some of the prior art cooking apparatus embody a plate or heat reflecting device to brown or assist in cooking the food. This plate or heat reflecting device is commonly called a browning plate and is in the prior art cooking apparatus by passing the heated gas produced in the fireplace the surface of the plate facing the food being cooked. Since only one surface is being heated an extended period of time passes before the plate is heated to become effective. Accordingly, the heating of the browning plate in these prior art cooking apparatus is not as efficient as one would desire and efficient operation of these prior art cooking apparatus takes longer than one desires.
Further, to heat the browning plate to its effective temperature in the prior art cooking apparatus takes a substantial period of time. Until the browning plate is heated to its effective temperature, the prior art cooking apparatus is not as efficient as one would desire and energy is wasted or the finished food product does not appear as appetizing as one would desire.
Further, some of the prior art cooking apparatus have a fireplace to burn solid fuel for cooking the food and enhancing the flavor of the food and to burn fluid fuels, such as natural gas, propane gas, butane gas, oil or kerosene, for providing a constant heat source for cooking the food. It has been discovered, however, that in some emergencies, one of these fuels is not available even though electrical energy is. Accordingly, these prior art cooking apparatus are not functional in certain when one of these fuels is unavailable, such as occurs in emergencies.
Further, in some prior art cooking apparatus the remains, such as ashes, from the burned solids cannot be removed until such devices are cooled down. If a large demand for food from these prior art apparatus continues for a sufficiently extended period, the remains will require the prior art cooking device to be turned off before the demand is satisfied. When this occurs, heat energy is wasted and the cooking apparatus is not used economically.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide cooking apparatus that prevents adding heat to a room in which the cooking apparatus is located.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide cooking apparatus that make uses of the fire produced in the fireplace more efficiently than prior art cooking apparatus.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide cooking apparatus that regulates heat removal from a housing into the environment surrounding the housing.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide cooking apparatus that directs heated gas across and transfers heat to a browning plate to maximize heating of such browning plate while minimizing the heat-up time before the browning plate may be used.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide cooking apparatus that provides an electrical infrared heat source to heat the food being cooked until a browning plate is heated to its effective temperature.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide cooking apparatus that provides an electrical infrared heat source to heat the food being cooked until a browning plate is heated to its effective temperature and then turned off to conserve electrical energy.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide cooking apparatus that provides a redundant system of heating from different energy sources so that the cooking apparatus may be used even though one energy source is unavailable.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide cooking apparatus that allows the removal of solids remaining after a solid fuel has been burned without a discontinuation of the cooking of food.


Nitrogen oxides emitted by an internal-combustion engine operated with excess air are normally converted by the method of selective catalytic reduction by bringing the nitrogen oxides, together with ammonia, into contact with a selective catalyst. Due to the dangers associated with the use of ammonia, in a motor vehicle ammonia should only be carried in the form of a substance which liberates ammonia, generally an aqueous urea solution. A method and a device for introducing liquid into an exhaust-gas purification system according to the invention avoids frost damage to sections of the system during shutdown times and permits operation of the system at temperatures below the freezing point of the reducing agent solution being used. The method and device include a (thermally insulated) reservoir for the reducing agent liquid and a liquid supply line which is connected thereto and terminates in an outlet opening for the liquid. The reservoir and the liquid supply line can be heated. Furthermore, a heater is provided for liquefying a starting volume which is small as compared with the volume of the reservoir. The liquid supply line may also have a back-flush valve to which a gas that is under pressure can be applied. The supply line can consequently be blown free.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for operating an exhaust-gas purification device in the exhaust of a combustion system, in particular in the exhaust of an internal-combustion engine of a motor vehicle, into the exhaust gas of which a liquid that is drawn from a reservoir through a supply line is introduced during the combustion, for chemical purification of the exhaust gas. Such a method is disclosed in Published European Patent Application 0 577 853 A1.
The invention also relates to a device for introducing a liquid into an exhaust-gas purification device, including a reservoir for the liquid and a supply line, connected thereto, for the exhaust-gas purification device.
The invention is also suitable for heating systems and other stationary combustion systems, provided they make provision for the purification of the exhaust gas in such a way that a liquid (such as, for example, urea solution) is introduced into the exhaust gas in sprayed or nebulized form or in another manner, as is provided, for example, in the catalytic purification of some industrial exhaust gases. In that connection, the introduction of the liquid may be a problem if, after a prolonged operating stoppage, the temperature has dropped so far that the liquid has an unduly high viscosity or is completely frozen. However, the invention is primarily intended for internal-combustion engines in motor vehicles.
In order to reduce the pollutants contained in the exhaust gas of an internal-combustion engine, in particular the nitrogen oxides, the principle of the regulated or controlled Diesel catalytic converter (CDC) has proved advantageous. That procedure is used primarily in internal-combustion engines which are operated with an excess of air, such as, for example, Diesel engines and lean-running engines. The procedure, which is based essentially on the method of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is disclosed in numerous publications and patent applications, for example in German Published, Non-Prosecuted Patent Application DE 43 09 891 A1, corresponding to U.S. application Ser. No. 08/490,115, filed Jun. 12, 1995; German Published, Non-Prosecuted Patent Application DE 43 10 926 A1; and German Published, Non-Prosecuted Patent Application DE 43 15 278 A1, corresponding to U.S. application Ser. No. 08/551,791, filed Nov. 7, 1995. In the case of the SCR method, the nitrogen oxides, together with ammonia, are brought into contact with a selective catalyst and catalytically converted into environmentally safe nitrogen and water.
Due to the danger associated with the use of ammonia, namely the toxicity, and because of the nasal nuisance caused by ammonia, ammonia should not be carried in the motor vehicle in the case of an internal-combustion engine equipped with a CDC system. Instead of ammonia, an aqueous urea solution is carried in the motor vehicle as a reducing agent for the catalytic conversion of the nitrogen oxides. Ammonia is always produced from the aqueous urea solution by hydrolysis in the exact quantity instantaneously required to convert the nitrogen oxides.
It is an advantage of the substances, such as urea, for example, which are present in aqueous solutions and liberate ammonia, that the storing, manipulation, conveyability and meterability are particularly easy to solve technically. A serious disadvantage of those aqueous solutions is that there is a danger of freezing at certain temperatures as a function of the concentration of the dissolved substance.
The simple addition of an antifreeze founders because no antifreeze is known for such aqueous solutions, which effects an appreciable lowering of the freezing point in economical doses. Moreover, if an additional substance, such as an antifreeze, is used in that case, there is generally the danger that, in conjunction with the use of a reducing agent in the exhaust-gas purification system, undesirable byproducts are produced which are emitted along with the exhaust gas. For that reason, antifreezes cannot be used in such a method for exhaust-gas purification.
A further possibility for avoiding the freezing of the aqueous solution and for avoiding frost damage is in principle to heat those parts of the exhaust-gas purification system which carry reducing agent. However, in the case of mobile applications, especially utility motor vehicles (trucks), locomotives and ships (insofar as they are not provided with an internal energy supply), the electrical energy necessary for that purpose is not available, in particular during prolonged shutdown times. Thus, for example, a volume of about 100 l of aqueous urea solution would have to be protected against freezing in the case of a truck.

Method and device for introducing liquid into an exhaust-gas purification system


Methods and apparatus for three-dimensional imaging of a sample. A source is provided of a beam of light characterized by partial spatial coherence. The beam is focused onto a sample and scattered light from the sample is superposed with a reference beam derived from the source onto a focal plane detector array to provide an interference signal. A forward scattering model is derived relating measurement data to structure of an object to allow solutions of an inverse scattering problem, based upon the interference signal so that a three-dimensional structure of the same may be inferred. The partial spatial coherence of the source, which may be fixed or variable, may advantageously provide for rejection of multiple scattering artifacts and thus improve image quality.

Interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy (ISAM) is a method of tomographic optical microscopy that brings the power of computed imaging and inverse scattering together with interferometric broadband optical imaging. ISAM provides spatially invariant resolution of objects in an extended 3-D volume including regions away from the focus of the objective and quantitative estimation of the inhomogeneities in refractive index or susceptibility of an object. The solution of the inverse problem for ISAM has been found for many scanning geometries and types of illumination, including low-numerical aperture scanned-beam (see Ralston et al. "Inverse scattering for optical coherence tomography," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 23, pp. 1027-37 (2006), hereinafter Ralston (2006)), high numerical aperture scanned-beam (see Ralston et al., "Inverse scattering for high-resolution interferometric microscopy," Opt. Lett., 31, pp. 3585-87 (2006), hereinafter Ralston (2006a)), rotationally-scanned beam catheter (see Marks et al., "Inverse scattering for rotationally scanned optical coherence tomography," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 23, pp. 2433-39 (2006)), and full-field illumination (see Marks et al., "Inverse scattering for frequency-scanned full-field optical coherence tomography," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 24, pp. 1034-41 (2007)). The latter reference will be referred to hereinafter as Marks (2007), and all of the foregoing articles are incorporated herein by reference.
In prior treatments, while the illumination source may be temporally incoherent, or broadband, a spatially coherent (single mode) illumination source was assumed. In general, however, illumination sources in microscopy are, in fact, spatially partially coherent, as discussed, for example, in Mandel & Wolf, Optical Coherence and Quantum Optics, (Cambridge University Press, 1995), which is incorporated herein by reference. Solutions derived in prior treatments that assumed a single spatial mode are thus inapplicable to the case of illumination by partially coherent sources.

Partially coherent illumination for inverse scattering full-field interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy

The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois


The electrical connector 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a male connector 13 having a male housing 14 with a first latch part 1, a female connector 2 having a female housing with an inserting hole, and a connector position assurance (CPA) 9. The first latch part 1 has first and second latch protrusions P1, P2, and the female connector 2 has an elastic latch arm 8 with a latch pawl at a leading edge part of the female connector. The CPA 9 includes a first finger piece 92 having a first bent protrusion D1, second finger pieces 91, 93 each having a second bent protrusion D2, and a spring-force-accumulated part. The first and second finger pieces of the CPA 9 are attached between the elastic latch arm and one inner wall surface. While the two connectors 2, 13 are fitted, the male connector slides the CPA backward. When the two connectors have entered into a regular fitted state, the spring-force-accumulated part makes the second latch protrusion P2 latch onto the latch pawl to connect the two connectors. Accordingly, an electrical connector including a fitted state detecting member to lock a pair of its connectors automatically during the fitting process of the connectors and ensure the fitting of the connectors can be provided.

An electrical connector including a male connector and a female connector is generally provided with a locking means for preventing the both connectors connected to each other from being suddenly separated from each other. However, on the way to fitting the both connectors into each other, for example, in a half-fitted state, the contact terminals of the both connectors may become electrically connected to each other. In this case, since the connectors are connected without being locked by a latch means, the connection between the two connectors while being used may become suddenly disengaged. Therefore, there is known an electrical connector with a detecting means which detects the fitted state for preventing the connection in the half-fitted state.
For example, the electrical connector 20 disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,819 includes, as shown in FIG. 13, a pair of first and second connectors 21, 24 fitted into each other. A latch pocket 21A is provided on one housing-wall surface of the first connector 21. A latch member 22 and a connector position assurance 23 (hereinafter, referred to as "CPA") are attached in the pocket 21A.
The latch member 22 has a pair of latch arms facing each other with a space therebetween, and a spring arm provided between the latch arms. The latch arms are connected to each other with a folded crossbeam at one end and with a finger lever at the other end. Protruding from this connection part, the spring arm is formed by blanking and bending the plate spring. The CPA 23 has shorter and longer wings protruding forward with a predetermined space therebetween from the both sides of the main body and a distal securing member protruding longer than the wings from a central part of the main body. The latch member is provided at the tip of the distal securing member.
The detection of the fitted state using the CPA 23 is performed as follows. The latch member 22 is attached to the latch pocket 21A of the first connector 21 beforehand and the first connector is inserted into the second connector. Then, the CPA 23 is inserted into a space of the latch member attached to the latch pocket 21A. It will be detected that the first connector and the second connector are completely fitted into each other when the CPA is inserted into the deepest position. The two connectors are in a half-fitted state when the insertion of the CPA is stopped halfway.
Further, PCT WO 2004/109866 and PCT WO 2004/095642 disclose an electrical connector with the following feature. On the upper face of a connector housing, an elastic lock arm is provided integrally with the connector housing. On the outer surface of the lock arm, a lock protrusion is provided. On the lower surface of the lock arm, a latch protrusion is provided. A CPA is inserted into a space of the lock arm.
With respect to any one of the electrical connectors disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,819, PCT WO 2004/109866 and PCT WO 2004/095642, after the first and second connectors are fitted into each other, the CPA is attached to one connector to detect the fitted state of the two connectors. Accordingly, the actuation of the CPA is not linked with the fitting operation of the first and second connectors; the operation of detecting the fitted state is divided into the fitting operation of the connectors and the attaching operation of the CPA. Therefore, during the fitting step of the first and second connectors, the fitted state of the two connectors cannot be detected. When it has been found by attaching the CPA that the two connectors are in a half-fitted state, both the fitting operation of the two connectors and the attaching operation of the CPA are once again required, resulting in a cumbersome detecting operation.
The parts attached to a latch pocket of the electrical connector described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,819 include a latch member and a CPA. Since there are a large number of parts and the structure is complicated, the preparation of the parts is cumbersome and the attaching of the parts to the latch pocket is also cumbersome.
PCT WO 2004/109866 and PCT WO 2004/095642 describe an electrical connector with the following features. On the upper face of a connector housing, a flexible lock arm is provided integrally with the connector housing. On the outer surface of the lock arm, a lock protrusion is provided. On the lower surface of the lock arm, a latch protrusion is provided. A CPA is inserted into a space of the lock arm. Accordingly, the flexible lock arm for inserting the CPA needs to be provided on the upper face of the housing. Therefore, not only the form of the housing, but also the form of the mold for producing the connector becomes complicated, whereby the molding of the connector is cumbersome. Further, since the lock arm is provided integrally with the housing, the housing becomes larger, and consequently, the connector itself becomes larger. Moreover, since the CPA is inserted into the space of the lock arm, there is a problem in that the operation of the CPA becomes cumbersome not only while the first and second connectors are fitted into each other, but also when the two connectors are not fitted into each other, namely, are separated.


A system for and method of determining a formulation for an animal feed having a customized nucleic acid material content. The system can include an animal profile, an animal nutrient requirement profile, an evaluation criteria, and/or ingredient nutrient content profiles. The information contained in the profiles and criteria can be used to calculate a formulation having a desirable nucleic acid material content. The optimized nucleic acid material content can be used to maximize satisfaction of an evaluation criteria.

In general, animal feed products are compositions of a large variety of raw materials or ingredients. The ingredients can be selected to optimize the amount of any given nutrient or combination of nutrients in an animal feed product based upon the nutrient composition of the ingredients used.
The nutritional composition of any one feed ingredient can be used in combination with the nutritional composition of every other ingredient in the feed to produce an animal feed that maximizes an evaluation criteria. One example of an evaluation criteria is the growth and production rate of the animal in the shortest amount of time. Animal feed producers have recognized that certain nutritional compositions help animals to meet or exceed evaluation criteria than if they used other nutritional compositions. For example, a particular cow feed composition can be made that will deliver an improved balance of essential amino acids post ruminally. This has been shown to have the effect of increasing the cow's milk production. Maximizing the speed and frequency with which animals meet the evaluation criteria generally is desirable. Maximizing criteria satisfaction also may include maximizing some positive criteria, such as total muscle gain, or minimizing a negative criteria, such as weight loss during illness.
A composition can be used in several forms: complete feed form, concentrate form, blender form and base mix form. An example of the complete feed form can include wheat middlings, corn, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, distillers grains or distillers grains with solubles, blood meal, salt, macro-minerals, trace minerals, and vitamins.
Further, animal feed producers have recognized that desirable nutritional composition changes depending on the developmental stage of the animal in question (e.g. newborn, weaning, gestating). The ideal nutrient composition can also change based on additional factors, including the health of the animal and whether the animal is nursing. Therefore, animal feed producers have recognized that by mixing ingredients to produce an ideal nutritional composition for particular animals at particular growth stages, they can meet evaluation criteria.
Thus, there is a need for a method and system for maximizing nutritional criteria satisfaction. Further, there is a need for a system and method to create a customized animal feed formulated to satisfy some requirement.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System for and method of customizing an animal feed based on nucleic acid material content


The present invention discloses a fan protection apparatus and related method thereof. The fan protection apparatus has a control circuit and a counter. According to the fan protection method, the user can set the acceptable restart number and the special time for auto restart. The fan protection apparatus and method can force to stop the fan when the fan encounters an abnormal situation. When the stop time has passed, the fan is automatically restarted. The present invention counts the number of restarts. If the number of restarts equals the set number and the abnormal situation also cannot be eliminated, the present invention cuts off power to the fan.

Many electrical products use a fan as the main heat sink. The fan increases the rotational speed thereof to reduce the system temperature when the system temperature is high. The fan maintains a fixed rotational speed when the system temperature is lower than a specific temperature.
Typically, a DC fan is used to avoid electrical system damage due to high temperature. The typical DC fan has a fan protection apparatus. This fan protection apparatus can force the DC fan to stop work when the fan meets an abnormal situation. For example, a foreign material locks the DC fan. After a specific time interval, the protection apparatus restarts the DC fan and checks whether or not the DC fan is still locked by the foreign material. The protection apparatus forces the DC fan to stop again if the abnormal situation still exists. Then, the protection apparatus restarts the DC fan again after a specific time again passes. In other words, the typical fan protection apparatus performs a repeating loop of stopping the fan and restarting the fan to avoid the abnormal situation.
However, the typical fan protection apparatus and method have many problems. First, the conventional fan protection apparatus and method lacks a standard for determining whether the abnormal situation can be eliminated. Therefore, the stop/restart loop will be continually performed if the abnormal situation still exists in the fan, which may break the fan. In other words, the DC fan will not be shut down even though the abnormal situation cannot be eliminated. Second, a larger restart current is required to start the DC fan. The larger restart current causes an unstable electrical system in the stop/restart process.


Techniques are provided for the configuration of a home-networking system. Home-networking configuration information may be stored on a host system in a manner accessible to the home-networking system and migrated to a home-networking gateway or router that has not yet been configured. Wireless configuration information may be stored on a home-networking gateway or router and used to configure one or more wireless access points through the use of a physical connection, such as a wired communications pathway. One or more wireless home-networking devices may be configured based on wireless configuration information stored in a central repository on a host system or a home-networking system. The wireless configuration information may be accessible only through the use of a security code.

In a home network of computing devices, a device on the network typically is set up or configured with particular information that enables communications with the other devices on the network. For instance, in a household that includes more than one personal computing device or digital entertainment device, a network may include a router that is configured to operate with each device and to direct communications between the devices. When a router is replaced or upgraded, the replaced or upgraded router may need to be configured to enable similar communications.

Migrating configuration information based on user identity information


A mobile terminal and message transmitting/receiving method are disclosed for adaptive converged IP messaging. The mobile terminal supporting converged IP messaging (CPM) converts a CPM message into an adaptive converged message and transmits the adaptive converged message. Upon reception, a received message is converted into a CPM message according to a message identifier.

With recent advances in communication technologies, old communication systems and newly developed communication systems coexist in the same region or country. For example, in European countries, second generation GSM (global system for mobile communications) systems and third generation WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) systems are used together. Mobile terminals used in a region where various communication systems coexist include a component usable in at least one communication system.
These mobile terminals are designed to receive various messaging services such as a short message service, multimedia message service and electronic mail service. To support various messaging services, existing communication network systems are equipped with separate servers corresponding to distinct messaging services. In other words, an existing communication network system has separate servers corresponding to distinct messaging services.
For more effective management of messaging servers, advanced communication network systems are starting to provide a converged IP messaging (CPM) service unifying various existing messaging services. A CPM service is a convergent service combining a short message service, multimedia message service and electronic mail service together. However, it is necessary to build a new communication network to provide this CPM service. That is, providing a new CPM service requires a new communication network.
Building new communication networks may require protocol changes and replacement of network facilities. However, it is very difficult to suddenly upgrade existing communication networks. Hence, it is inevitable that existing communication networks coexist with new communication networks. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop a technique enabling a CPM service in an environment where existing and new communication networks coexist.

Mobile terminal and message transmitting/receiving method for adaptive converged IP messaging


In an embodiment, a UE obtains one or more quorum conditions for communication with a given group from a set of groups to which the UE is registered. The UE searches, over a P2P interface, to identify one or more group members that are registered to the given group and which are proximate to the UE. The UE determines whether the identified one or more group members are sufficient to satisfy at least one of the one or more quorum conditions. The UE selectively triggers a communicative action associated with the given group based on whether the determining determines the at least one quorum condition to be satisfied.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to selectively triggering a communicative action based on whether a quorum condition for a peer-to-peer (P2P) group is satisfied.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless communication systems have developed through various generations, including a first-generation analog wireless phone service (1G), a second-generation (2G) digital wireless phone service (including interim 2.5G and 2.75G networks) and third-generation (3G) and fourth-generation (4G) high speed data/Internet-capable wireless services. There are presently many different types of wireless communication systems in use, including Cellular and Personal Communications Service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular Analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), the Global System for Mobile access (GSM) variation of TDMA, and newer hybrid digital communication systems using both TDMA and CDMA technologies.
More recently, Long Term Evolution (LTE) has been developed as a wireless communications protocol for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and other data terminals. LTE is based on GSM, and includes contributions from various GSM-related protocols such as Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocols such as High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA).
LTE Direct (LTE-D) is a proposed 3GPP (Release 12) device-to-device (D2D) solution for proximate discovery. LTE-D dispenses with location tracking and network calls by directly monitoring for services on other LTE-D devices within a large range (˜500 m, line of sight). It does so continuously in a synchronous system that is battery efficient, and can concurrently detect thousands of services in proximity.
LTE-D operates on licensed spectrum as a service to mobile applications. LTE-D a device-to-device (D2D) solution that enables service layer discovery. Mobile applications on LTE-D devices can instruct LTE-D to monitor for mobile application services on other devices and announce their own services (for detection by services on other LTE-D devices) at the physical layer. This allows the applications to be closed while LTE-D does the work—continuously—and notify the client application when it detects a match to the monitor it set.
LTE-D is thus an attractive alternative to mobile developers seeking to deploy proximate discovery solutions as extensions of their existing cloud services. LTE-D is a distributed discovery solution (versus the centralized discovery that exists today), whereby mobile applications forego centralized database processing in identifying relevancy matches, instead autonomously determining relevance at the device level by transmitting and monitoring for relevant attributes. LTE-D offers certain benefits in terms of privacy as well as power consumption, in that LTE-D does not utilize perpetual location tracking to determine proximity By keeping discovery on the device rather than in the cloud, the user has more control of what information is shared with external devices.

Selectively triggering a communicative action based on whether a quorum condition for a peer-to-peer group is satisfied


A method for manufacturing an ultra high strength member includes heating a steel sheet at a first heating temperature within a temperature range of 700 to 1000° C.; forming the steel sheet into a shape of a member at the first heating temperature and simultaneously cooling the steel sheet; after completion of the cooling, shear punching the steel sheet into a desired shape to obtain an ultra high strength member; and after the shear punching, subjecting the ultra high strength member to a first heat treatment including heating the ultra high strength member at second heating temperature within a temperature range of 100° C. or higher, but lower than 300° C. and retaining the member at the second heating temperature for 1 second to 60 minutes, wherein the resulting ultra high strength member has a tensile strength of 1180 MPa or more.

Recently, from the viewpoint of global environment protection, there is an increasing demand for improved fuel efficiency in automobiles. Further, from the viewpoint of protecting occupants in vehicle collisions, there is another increasing demand for improved safety of automobile bodies. As such, to satisfy the needs for both improved fuel efficiency and enhanced safety, many considerations have been given toward the possibilities of achieving both reducing weight and reinforcing automobile bodies.
Stronger and thinner component materials are effective to satisfy both reducing weight and reinforcing automobile bodies. Lately, ultra high strength members using high tensile steel sheets having a tensile strength TS of 1180 MPa or more are beginning to be used as automobile framework members, reinforcing members, and so on.
However, as described in "Delayed Fracture," Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Ltd., Aug. 31, 1989, high strength steel sheets having TS of 1180 MPa or more are more likely susceptible to delayed fracture during use due to penetration of hydrogen associated with corrosion, as compared to other steel sheets having, lower strength. This limits application of such high strength steel sheets having TS of 1180 MPa or more.
Further, members such as automobile framework members are generally put into use after being subjected to forming such as press forming and roll forming. However, it is known that delayed fracture resistance of these members tends to deteriorate due to such forming process, as described in International Journal of Automotive Engineering, Vol. 39, No. 5, p. 133. Thus, there are demands for an ultra high strength member that is excellent in delayed fracture resistance after forming process.
On the other hand, when TS is equal to or higher than 1180 MPa, formability itself degrades.
Moreover, members such as automobile framework members are usually put into use after being subjected to first forming and then chemical conversion treatment and electrodeposition coating. Delayed fracture may occur due to penetration of hydrogen during chemical conversion treatment and electrodeposition coating in such cases. Although delayed fracture is less likely to occur during chemical conversion treatment and electrodeposition than in a corrosion environment in actual use, there is a possibility that delayed fracture may occur during chemical conversion treatment and electrodeposition coating, which are supposed to be milder than a corrosion environment in actual use, when strength of the member is increased to 1320 MPa or more in particular. Thus, it is necessary to prevent delayed fracture from occurring during the conversion treatment or electrodeposition coating after forming.
For example, known as one of the methods to solve this problem is a technique where a steel sheet is formed, while the steel sheet is hot and strength thereof is lowered, and simultaneously cooled in a die, so that a high component strength is obtained (this technique will be referred to as a "hot pressing process" hereinafter), as disclosed in Press Technology, Vol. 42, No. 8. p. 38 and UK 1490535. This hot pressing process is known to offer better delayed fracture resistance to workpieces than working at room temperature does because in the former: (1) no strain due to working remains, (2) residual stress due to working is small, and so on (see Press Technology, Vol. 42, No. 8, p. 38).
However, when automobile components are manufactured by the hot pressing process, some working steps are required, such as circumference trimming of components by punching and shearing for the purposes of shaping components after working, or perforation by punching which is necessitated by assembling purposes (these steps will be collectively referred to as "punching"). Such punching after the hot pressing process introduces a large strain and residual stress to the steel sheet, thereby significantly increasing the risk of delayed fracture during use. To solve this problem, the following two methods have been primarily considered:
(a) reducing the amount of hydrogen penetrating into a steel sheet during heating at the time of hot pressing; and
(b) reducing residual stress by punching after hot pressing.
Regarding (a) above, for example, JP-A 2006-104527, JP-A 2006-110713, JP-A 2006-111966 and JP-A 2008-284610 disclose techniques for reducing the amount of hydrogen penetrating into steel during heating by controlling the atmosphere in a heating furnace. Further, JP-B 4288201 discloses a technique for improving the resistance to delayed fracture susceptibility by heat treatment at 150 to 700° C. following hot pressing to release the hydrogen which has penetrated into a steel sheet during hot pressing.
Regarding (b) above, JR-A 2006-104527 discloses a technique for reducing the residual stress due to punching by reducing the cooling rate after hot pressing of a portion to be punched and thereby reducing the strength due to the resulting insufficient quenching.
Further, JP-A 2006-110713 discloses a technique for improving delayed fracture resistance by using a laser or plasma to melt, cut and remove any portion where the residual stress generated by punching remains.
JP-A 2006-111966 discloses a technique for improving delayed fracture resistance by removing any portion where the residual stress generated by punching remains by machining or the like.
JP-A 2008-284610 discloses a technique for improving delayed fracture resistance by precisely controlling the clearance of punching after hot pressing to reduce the ratio of shear droop length to sheet thickness.
Further, JP-A 2009-197253 discloses a technique for improving the resistance to delayed fracture susceptibility by performing heat treatment at 300° C. or higher but not higher than 400° C. for 10 minutes or less after punching and thereby reducing the tensile residual stress residing in a processed edge.

Method for manufacturing ultra high strength member


A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The second substrate includes a buffer layer, and the buffer layer includes a recessed portion. A spacer is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, such that a portion of the spacer is extended into the recessed portion. A bottom surface of the recessed portion contacts an upper surface of the spacer. A shortest line crossing a center of the bottom surface of the recessed portion is longer than a longest line crossing a center of the upper surface of the spacer, by about 14 micrometers to about 20 micrometers.

1. Field
The disclosure relates to a liquid crystal display device. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a liquid crystal display device capable of improving an image display quality.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display device is a thin display device that includes two substrates, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the two substrates. The liquid crystal display device includes two polarizing plates and a backlight unit that generates light. The liquid crystal layer includes liquid crystal molecules.
The liquid crystal display device includes a spacer disposed between the two substrates. The spacer maintains a distance between the two substrates and absorbs external impacts applied to the two substrates.
In general, external contacts occur on an upper substrate of the two substrates. When the external contacts occur on the upper substrate, an original position of the spacer is changed. After the external contacts are removed, the spacer should return to the original position before the external contacts occur.
Due to the change of the position of the spacer, an alignment layer disposed on the upper substrate is damaged. Accordingly, the liquid crystal molecules are not properly controlled due to the damaged alignment layer. Consequently, a light leakage occurs in an area corresponding to the damaged portion of the alignment layer.
In addition, when the spacer does not return to the original position, the liquid crystal molecules disposed adjacent to the spacer are not properly controlled. As a result, the light leakage occurs around the spacer.

Liquid crystal display device having a recessed portion and a spacer in the recessed portion


A method of and apparatus for controlling one or more parameters of an electrical stimulation generator in response to measured results of the stimulation. In the preferred mode, this technique is employed in a system for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. Sensors are used to determine the effectiveness of the stimulation. Amplitude and pulse width are modified in response to the measurements from the sensors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electrical stimulation of muscles, and more particularly, relates to electrical stimulation of muscles for the treatment of a medical condition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been known to electrically stimulate muscular contractions since the beginnings of experimentation with electricity. In more recent times, electrical stimulation of muscle tissue has been used therapeutically. The effects of chronic stimulation have been studied by Ciske and Faulkner in "Chronic Electrical Stimulation of Nongrafted and Grafted Skeletal Muscles in Rats", in Journal of Applied Physiology, Volume 59(5), pp. 1434-1439 (1985). Bernotas et al., have even suggested the rudiments of adaptive control in "Adaptive Control of Electrically Stimulated Muscle", in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Volume BME-34, No. 2, pp. 140-147, (February 1987).
A review of early attempts at electrical stimulation associated with the respiratory system is found in "Diaphragm Pacing: Present Status", by William W. L. Glenn, in Pace, Volume pp. 357-370, (July-September 1978). Much work has been done in electrical stimulation within the cardiovascular system by way of cardiac pacing.
Treatment of obstructive sleep apnea using electrical stimulation has also been discussed. "Laryngeal Pacemaker, II Electronic Pacing of Reinnervated Posterior Cricoarytenoid Muscles in the Canine", by Broniatowski et al, in Laryngoscope, Volume 95, pp. 1194-1198 (October 1985); "Assessment of Muscle Action on Upper Airway Stability in Anesthetized Dogs", by Strohl et al., in Journal of Laboratory Clinical Medicine, Volume 110, pp. 221-301, (1987); U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,008 issued to Meer; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,631 issued to Durkan all discuss electrical stimulation of the upper airway to treat obstructive sleep apnea.


An apparatus comprises a photodetector (PD) that irradiates a disk with laser light and outputs a signal based on a reflected light from the disk, a front monitor that outputs a reference signal based on an emitted light of a laser diode, and a data detection processing unit to which an output signal of the PD is input to generate a reproduction signal. The data detection processing unit includes a reproduction signal adaptive equalizer that outputs an equalization signal by adaptive equalization processing based on the PD output signal, and a laser noise adaptive equalizer that outputs the equalization signal by the adaptive equalization processing based on a laser noise signal, and generates the reproduction signal in which the laser noise is reduced on the basis of an arithmetic operation result of the output of the reproduction signal adaptive equalizer and the output of the laser noise adaptive equalizer.

Optical disks such as a digital versatile disc (DVD) and a Blu-ray (registered trademark) disc (BD) are widely used as media for recording various data such as an image and a program.
Those optical disks such as a BD are required to perform high-density information recording.
Examples of a method for increasing density of the optical disk include a method in which a channel bit length, that is, a mark length is shortened and the density in a linear density direction is increased, and a method in which a track pitch is narrowed.
Processing in which laser light is emitted to analyze light reflected from the disk is performed to reproduce the optical disk. However, noise included in the emitted laser light itself, which is what is called laser noise, contributes to degradation of quality of a reproduction signal.
For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-322367), Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-183970), Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-79772), and the like disclose conventional techniques for removing laser noise included in a reproduction signal.
Patent Document 1 discloses a processing configuration for reducing noise to which a method of analog division is applied.
Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a processing configuration for reducing noise to which a method of analog multiplication is applied.
Furthermore, Patent Document 3 discloses a processing configuration for reducing noise to which a method of a transversal filter adaptive feedback is applied.
However, those conventional techniques may have problems in terms of feasibility of a wide band analog dividing circuit and multiplying circuit, and of a delay adjusting circuit, which are for exhibiting a sufficient noise reducing effect.

Information processing apparatus, optical storage apparatus, and method for processing information


A mobile device for providing multi-channel sound collection and output using a common connector, and a driving method thereof are provided. A mobile device having a sound compressor and a sound decompressor includes a connector slidably receiving a sound collector plug or a sound output plug, a plug identification unit for, if one of the sound collector plug and the sound output plug is coupled to the connector, identifying if the plug coupled to the connector is the sound collector plug or is the sound output plug, a switching unit for electrically coupling the plug coupled to the connector, to the sound compressor, or electrically coupling the plug coupled to the connector, to the sound decompressor, and a controller for controlling switching of the switching unit according to the identification outcome.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile device for providing a multi-channel sound collection and output scheme using a common connector, and a driving method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the rapid development of a digital data compression technology, a communication technology, a semiconductor integrated circuit technology, ever-increasing memory storage capacity, a mobile device such as a cellular phone, a Portable Digital Assistant (PDA), etc. is gradually evolving from a simple function of exchanging voice signals between users to a multi-function, such as an image photographing and transmission function, a sound collection and reproduction function, a game play function, a wireless Internet access function, etc. Particularly, with the popularization of the image photographing and transmission functions using the mobile device, a user's desire for lively recording direct sound together with image photographing is growing.
However, in general, a microphone installed in a mobile device provides poor sensitivity performance, and a sound transmission path of an external connector is of a monophonic type. Thus, there is a problem that the microphone cannot lively record direct sound by a multi channel according to user's demand.
To lively record direct sound, there is a need to connect a separate external multi-channel microphone to a mobile device. This requires installing a separate connector to connect to the external multi-channel microphone plug in the mobile device. However, as the mobile device is an electronic device prioritizing user's portability, it is not desirable to implement an additional connector due to limited in its size. Accordingly, there is a problem that the mobile device may have a spatial restriction in installing a connector for coupling to a plug for the external multi-channel microphone.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved scheme to use the existing plug without the need of an additional connector in a mobile terminal to provide means to lively record direct sound using a multi channel as a user desires.

Mobile device for multi-channel sound collection and output using common connector, and driving method thereof


A vehicle-mounted communication antenna to be mounted on a vehicle for performing communication by an electromagnetic wave, includes an antenna body having an antenna case and an antenna element contained in the antenna case, and an antenna cover for protecting the antenna body that can transmit the electromagnetic wave.

In order to improve driving safety of a vehicle, there have been recently proposed various devices that can collect information such as air pressure, temperature, etc. in a tire during running to monitor a condition of the tire. In general, these devices include a tire-mounted unit and a vehicle-mounted unit, the tire-mounted unit having a pressure sensor for detecting pressure within the tire and/or a temperature sensor for detecting temperature in the tire, and a transmitter for transmitting a signal detected by the sensor to the vehicle side via an antenna, the vehicle-mounted unit having a receiver for receiving the detected signal transmitted from the transmitter via an antenna, a processor for processing the detected signal received by the receiver and the like; communication is performed by electromagnetic waves between the tire-mounted unit placed in the tire and the vehicle-mounted unit (see patent document 1, for example).
In order to use the devices with no license and no notification, very weak radio waves that do not conflict with the restrictions of the radiowave regulation are employed for the electromagnetic waves used for communication between the tire-mounted unit and the vehicle-mounted unit. The antenna of the vehicle-mounted unit is placed in a tire house near the tire in order to effectively receive a radio wave.
The antenna of the vehicle-mounted unit has an antenna element, and the antenna element is normally contained in an antenna case for protection. However, when a stone, foreign object or the like flipped up by the tire in the tire house strikes on the antenna, it may bring the antenna case to destruction and further break the antenna element to thereby impair the communication function. If the antenna element is broken to thereby lose communication ability, the replacement of the antenna is required; the replacement operation is time consuming, incurring a decrease in vehicle operation efficiency.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Kokai Publication No. 2003-63220


An electricity connector to connect two electronic devices abutted to each other includes an insulation body and multiple conductor terminals, and multiple channels disposed on the insulation body to accommodate the conductor terminals; each conductor terminal including an upper contacting portion, a lower contacting portion, and a retaining portion each on both sides to enable the conductor terminal maintaining better flexibility, warrant improved electricity connection between two abutted electronic devices, and allow easier assembly.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an electricity connector, and more particularly, to one connects to an LGA chip module of circuit board.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
An electricity connector is usually used to connect a LGA chip module to a circuit board. The electricity connector generally includes multiple terminals. U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,513 of the prior art teaches an electricity connector that relates to one having multiples terminals arranged in high density and both ends contacting by compression two electronic devices abutted to it. The prior art includes an insulation body and multiple terminals. Wherein, those terminals are approximately arranged in a C shape and each is comprised of an upper elastic arm, a lower elastic arm, and a main portion. Both of the upper and the lower elastic arms respectively extend from the upper and the lower ends of the main portion with the lower elastic arm approximately indicating a flat "—" shape having its terminal contacting by compression a metal pad provided on an electronic device (circuit board).
However, the prior art is found with the following flaws: terminals of the electricity connector being vulnerable to fatigue after long-term compression thus to affect the electricity connection between terminals and the abutted electronic device; and comparatively complicated assembly between the terminals and the insulation body of the electricity connector.
Therefore, a new design of the electricity connector is warranted to overcome those flaws found with the prior art.