A gate pattern is disclosed that includes a semiconductor substrate, a lower conductive pattern, an upper conductive pattern, and a sidewall conductive pattern. The lower conductive pattern is on the substrate. The insulating pattern is on the lower conductive pattern. The upper conductive pattern is on the insulating pattern opposite to the lower conductive pattern. The sidewall conductive pattern is on at least a portion of sidewalls of the upper conductive pattern and the lower conductive pattern. The sidewall conductive pattern electrically connects the upper conductive pattern and the lower conductive pattern. An upper edge portion of the lower conductive pattern may be recessed relative to a lower edge portion of the lower conductive pattern to define a ledge thereon. The sidewall conductive pattern may be directly on the ledge and sidewall of the recessed upper edge portion of the lower conductive pattern.

Electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) devices can store data in a nonvolatile manner as charges on stacked gates. Two types of EEPROM devices are flash memory devices and floating gate tunnel oxide (FLOTOX) memory devices. FLOTOX type EEPROM devices can have a unit memory cell with two transistors, one of which is a selection transistor configured to address a desired cell and the other of which is a memory transistor configured to store data. Flash type EEPROM devices can have a memory cell with one transistor. A cell array in a flash memory device can be classified as a NAND-type or a NOR-type depending upon the logic configuration of the memory cells. In a NAND-type cell array, a plurality of memory cells are serially connected to form cell strings, and a plurality of cell strings are connected in parallel with one another. Similar to FLOTOX type memory devices, two selection transistors are connected to opposite ends of a cell string of the NAND-type cell array. However, selection transistors of a FLOTOX type memory device select memory cells, while selection transistors of a NAND-type cell array select a cell string.
Transistors of a typical EEPROM cell include a lower conductive layer, an insulating layer, and an upper conductive layer that are sequentially stacked. The lower conductive layer and the upper conductive layer of a memory cell are electrically insulated from one another by the insulating layer so as to enable accumulation of charge on one of the conductive layers to store data. For selection transistors and peripheral transistors, the lower conductive layer and the upper conductive layer are electrically connected. Various different structures and related methods for electrically connecting lower and upper conductive layers have been suggested, such as illustrated by the EEPROM memory devices with selection transistors disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,780,431 and 6,221,717.
FIGS. 1 through 3 are cross-sectional views of a conventional method of fabricating a semiconductor memory device.
With reference to FIG. 1, a field oxide layer 2 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 1. A gate insulating layer 3 and a first polysilicon layer 4 are formed on the substrate 1 between the field oxide layers 2. The field oxide layer 2 defines a cell region and a peripheral region of the substrate 1. An oxide layer 5 is formed on the first polysilicon layer 4. A resist mask 6 is formed on the resultant structure and defines windows 7 and 8 that expose portions of the oxide layer 5. The insulating layer 5 is etched using the resist mask 6 to form small windows 9 and 10 exposing portions of the gate insulating layer 3.
With reference to FIG. 2, the resist mask 6 is removed. A second polysilicon layer 11 is formed on a surface of the substrate 1. A cell transistor and resist masks 12, 13, and 14 are formed on the second polysilicon layer 11.
With reference to FIG. 3, the second polysilicon layer 11, the oxide layer 5 and the first polysilicon layer 4 are sequentially patterned using the resist masks 12, 13, and 14 to respectively form a cell transistor 15, a selection transistor 16, and a gate pattern of a peripheral transistor 17.
Accordingly, by forming the small windows 9 and 10 to remove portions of the oxide layer within the selection transistor 15 and the peripheral transistor 17, the polysilicon layers 4 and 11 therein can be electrically connected to each other through the widows 9 and 10. As can be appreciated, avoiding misalignment of such windows during fabrication can limit the integration density of such devices.

Semiconductor devices with sidewall conductive patterns methods of fabricating the same


A pilot valve switch mechanism of a shower system includes a fixed portion and a valve spool. The fixed portion is has an inlet waterway, a first and second outlet waterway and a control hole that can connect to the outlet waterways. The first outlet waterway has a first outlet and the second outlet waterway has a second outlet. The valve spool is slidably assembled inside the fixed portion vertically to the inlet waterway, and has a slim hole connected to the inlet waterway. The valve spool and the fixed portion form a pressure cavity. The control hole and the slim hole are connected to the pressure cavity. The pressure cavity is controlled by the control hole to drive the valve spool to move along the inlet waterway to close the first or second outlet, switching the inlet waterway to connect to the first or second outlet waterway.

The switch valve of a hand shower and a head shower of existing technology is usually applied with a method that the switch is realized by rotating a sealing element to plug the outlet hole, the water pressure is directly working to the sealing element, so that user has to operate hard, thus making it with bad switch handle.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Pilot valve switch mechanism and a shower system applied with the pilot valve switch mechanism

XIAMEN SOLEX HIGH-TECH INDUSTRIES CO., LTD.


The present invention involves a composition comprising a fluorochemical compound, an agent to impart gloss, and water, and a wipe containing this composition. The composition and wipe are preferably used for cleaning, protecting and imparting gloss to a substrate, such as natural or artificial leather.

Finished leather products generally require maintenance polishes to preserve, clean and water-proof them. For this reason, many products referred to as leather protectants can be found on the market. These protective products include, e.g. shoe polishes used to impart a high-gloss, maintain the feel of the leather and increase the leather's resistance to weathering, scuffing and scratching. The majority of shoe polishes are of the solvent paste type based on solvents and waxes. Silicone-based products constitute another type of protectant applied to leather, vinyl and rubber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,919, for example, discloses an emulsion-type polish composition suitable for treating natural and synthetic leather articles that provides a durable high-gloss finish that is substantially self-polishing. The composition is a water-in-oil emulsion comprising a wax mixture, a film-forming agent, a film-modifying agent, a non-ionic emulsifying agent, an anionic dispersing agent, a thickening agent, a solvent, a preservative and water. U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,558 describes a wipe-on clear protectant based on a polyurethane, which provides a finish that is durable and long-lasting, is not injurious to the leather or artificial leather on which it is applied and is not slippery or tacky to the touch. In the protectant, polyurethane is dissolved in isopropyl alcohol and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether is added.
The resulting liquid is wiped as a clear liquid onto the surface of the cleaned and dry leather or artificial leather product which is to be protected. The finish is said to dry clear, even, water-proof, smooth and without tackiness in less than 30 minutes. US-A-2002/0039985 discloses a liquid cleaning composition for cleaning plastic, leather, and vinyl surfaces comprising:    a) a volume of cleaning solution; and    b) a fragrance, wherein a user would spray the cleaning composition onto the surface to be cleaned, and further wherein a user would then wipe up the cleaning composition.
The known leather treatment compositions, however, cannot be considered satisfactory in all aspects. The solvent paste type based shoe polishes, for example, dry after application to a dull finish and must be buffed to produce a high natural shine. The protective effect they produce tends to deluster quite quickly on exposure to moisture. Silicone-based leather treating compositions, on the other hand, leave a somewhat greasy or slippery feel on the leather after they are used. These compositions also tend to encourage plasticizer migration rendering the leather or vinyl harder and more brittle. In addition, the known leather treating agents are not completely satisfactory as regards combined water and oil resistance as well as gloss of the treated leather surface. They also often suffer from the disadvantage that dust sticks to the surface of the treated leather and is not easy to remove.
WO-A-00/68189 discloses fluorochemical compounds comprising:    a) a fluorochemical oligomeric portion comprising an aliphatic backbone with a plurality of pendant fluoroaliphatic groups, each fluoroaliphatic group having a fully fluorinated terminal group and each independently linked to a carbon atom of the aliphatic backbone through an organic linking group;    b) an aliphatic moiety; and    c) a linking group which links the fluorochemical oligomeric portion to the aliphatic moiety.
These fluorochemical compounds are said to be useful as topical treatments for fibrous substrates such as textiles and fabrics, and as polymer melt additives to provide desirable oil, water and stain repellency to shaped articles such as fibers. WO-A-02/38850 discloses a method of treating fibrous substrates, such as leather, by contacting the substrate with a fluorochemical compound as disclosed in WO-A-00/68189 to provide desirable oil, water and stain repellency to the leather.

Composition, wipe and method for cleaning, protecting and imparting gloss to a substrate


A method of operating a driver and an associated number of work tools includes the step of securing a first work tool to the driver. The first work tool has a first identification device attached thereto. The method also includes the step of determining a first identification value associated with the first identification device and generating a first identification signal in response thereto. The method further includes the step of operating the driver so as to produce a first mechanical output based on the first identification signal. Moreover, the method includes the step of removing the first work tool from the driver and securing a second work tool to the driver. The second work tool has a second identification device attached thereto. The method also includes the step of determining a second identification value associated with the second identification device and generating a second identification signal in response thereto. The method yet further includes the step of operating the driver so as to produce a second mechanical output of the driver based on the second identification signal. The first mechanical output is different from the second mechanical output. A driver assembly is also disclosed.

The assembly of a construction machine, such as a wheel loader, typically requires that the various components thereof be attached utilizing threaded fasteners, such as bolts, screwed into internally threaded bores defined in the components being attached. In order for the construction machine to be assembled properly, different types (i.e. sizes and shapes) of bolts are used in the appropriate places. Moreover, bolts of a first type may be required to be tightened to a first torque value, while bolts of a second type may be required to be tightened to a second torque value which is different from the first torque value. For example, the torque value required to tighten a 3/8-16 (inch) bolt is different than the torque value required to tighten a 1/2-13 (inch) bolt.
Often, the bolts of a construction machine are tightened utilizing a driver and a work tool coupled thereto (e.g. a pneumatic driver and a socket, respectively) which are dedicated to tightening a certain type of bolt to a single, predetermined torque value. However, since the types of the bolts utilized to assemble the construction machine vary, and each type of bolt is required to be tightened to a different, predetermined torque value, several dedicated drivers and sockets must be provided to tighten all the bolts used to assemble the construction machine. Having several dedicated drivers and sockets is expensive, and thus adds to the manufacturing cost of the construction machine. In addition, if a socket corresponding to a first type of bolt which must be driven to a first predetermined torque value is secured to a driver which is associated with a second type of bolt, the bolt may potentially be tightened to an incorrect torque value.
What is needed therefore is a method and apparatus for operating a driver and an associated number of work tools which overcomes one or more of the above-mentioned drawbacks.

Method and apparatus for operating a driver and an associated number of work tools


A method and device for local area network (LAN) emulation over an Infiniband (IB) fabric. An IB LAN driver at a first node on an IB fabric receives the port and associated local identifier (LID) of one or more remote peer nodes on the IB fabric. An IEEE 802.3 Ethernet MAC address with one LID imbedded is generated. The imbedded LID is for one or more remote peer nodes. The IB LAN driver sends the Ethernet MAC address to an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). A logical address of a remote peer node is generated by a network protocol. The logical address is mapped to an Ethernet MAC address. The IB LAN driver sends the Ethernet MAC address onto the IB fabric to the one or more remote peer nodes. The remote peer nodes appear to reside on an Ethernet network to the network protocol.

A number of networks are moving towards a connection-oriented arrangement. An example of a connection-oriented technology is Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). Another example of a proposed technology that includes a connection-oriented (or channel based) capability is known as the Infiniband Architecture (IBA), described in the Infiniband Architecture Specification vol. 1, release 0.9, Mar. 31, 2000, authored by the Infiniband Trade Association. While connection-oriented technologies offer many advantages, in many instances it is desirable to maintain an interoperability between an existing connectionless technology and the connection-oriented technology. It is also desirable to maintain such interoperability, for example, when transitioning from a connectionless technology to a connection-oriented technology (or network) to allow existing software and components (e.g., legacy software) to be used. The Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 Ethernet local area network (LAN) standard is an example of a common connectionless technology for a network.
Current approaches to provide LAN emulation over a connection-oriented network (such as ATM) have a number of disadvantages. One example is ATM LAN emulation, which is in a specification provided by the ATM forum for the coexistence of legacy LANs and ATM LANs, ATM forum, "LAN emulation over ATM specification" version 1.0, 1995. The ATM LAN emulation specification is discussed in William Stallings, "Data and Computer Communications," pages 487-495, fifth edition, 1997.
As described in Stallings, the ATM LAN emulation specification proposes the use of a centralized LAN emulation service (LES) to perform basic LAN emulation services for nodes in a network, including: to set up connections and to map Media Access Control (MAC) addresses to ATM addresses. The LES also includes a broadcast and unknown server (BUS) service to provide broadcast/multicast of a packet to a plurality of nodes upon request from a client, and to provide a specialized protocol to allow nodes to learn ATM addresses of other nodes (i.e., by sending a LE_ARP_request message).
Currently, there are no existing 802.3 LAN emulation mechanisms in place for Infiniband fabrics. Moreover, there are a number of disadvantages of systems such as the ATM LAN emulation mentioned previously. First, by using a centralized LES service, the network is prone to a single point of failure. Furthermore, the ATM LAN emulation described above, requires a separate and specialized address resolution protocol (ARP) (which is not compatible with the legacy or existing LAN networks) in order to attain the ATM address of a node corresponding to the node's MAC or LAN address. Moreover, calls through the operating system kernel requiring multiple buffer copies of data is typically required in many such existing computer systems, which can burden a processor with substantial overhead.
The specialized name service and address resolution protocol maps Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to the mediums connection semantics. This method requires client software on each node and a centralized LAN emulation (LANE) server node that processes the ARPs, broadcast frames and multicast frames. Current LAN emulation architectures that map connection-oriented networks to 802.3 Ethernet generally map the connections to IP network addresses. This restricts the protocol to Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) only. Further, in current systems, broadcasting in software over connection-oriented networks typically requires a buffer copy for each channel to send to all remote connected nodes. In addition, multicast traffic is not typically supported over existing connection-oriented networks.
Therefore, there is a need for an 802.3 LAN emulation mechanism for Infiniband fabrics that solves the above noted problems of current systems.

LAN emulation over infiniband fabric apparatus, systems, and methods


The present invention provides a cyclic peptide comprising the structure:

Several publications and patent documents are referenced in this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains. The disclosure of each of these publications and documents is incorporated by reference herein. The Sequence Listing is provided at the end of the Specification and before the claims.
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is an important pathogen in humans which is now under increasing risk of developing antibiotic resistance to currently available therapeutics. Consequently, there is a pressing need to identify new types of antibiotic agents effective against these drug resistant bacterial strains. The phenomenon of 'bacterial interference' may provide as yet unexplored avenues for the design of these new therapeutics. Bacterial interference refers to the ability of one organism to disrupt the biological functions of another. Until recently this survival process was thought to occur solely through a growth inhibition mechanism (Ji et al. (1997) Science 276, 2027-30), however a novel type of bacterial interference in S. aureus has been described which involves the inhibition of the so-called agr response (Novick et al. (1995) Mol. Gen. Genet. 248, 446-58; Morfeldt et al. (1995) EMBO J. 14:4569-4577). This process is mediated by short secreted peptides containing a putative thiololactone ring structure. Chemical synthesis confirms that the native Agr peptides contain a thiololactone moiety, and that this structure is absolutely necessary for full biological activity. In addition, structure-activity studies are described by the present invention which offer insights into the nature of the agr activation and inhibition mechanisms.
Accessory genes allow bacteria to survive and multiply in plant or animal hosts. In S. aureus these virulence factors (cytotoxins and tissue-degrading enzymes) are under the control of the agr locus which contains two divergent promoters, P2 and P3. The RNA transcript from the P3 promoter is responsible for the upregulation of secreted virulence factors as well as the downregulation of surface proteins, the agr response (Novick et al. (1993) EMBO J. 12, 3967-75; Morfeldt et al. (1995) EMBO J. 14:4569-4577). There are four genes, agrA-D, in the P2 operon which code for the cytosolic, transmembrane and extracellular components of a density-sensing/autoinduction circuit (Novick et al. (1995) supra). The product of the agrD gene is a pro-peptide which is processed and secreted through AgrB, an integral membrane protein. The active AgrD peptide is then thought to bind to the transmembrane receptor by the agrC gene. Binding of the AgrD peptide triggers a standard two-component signal transduction pathway in which the AgrC receptor becomes autophosphorylated on a histidine residue leading to subsequent trans-phosphorylation of the AgrA gene product. Phosphorylated AgrA then activates transcription from the P2 and P3 agr promoters (Novick et al. (1995) supra).
S. aureus strains can be divided into a least three groups (Ji et al. (1997) supra), each of whose secreted AgrD peptide can activate the agr response within the same group and inhibit the agr response in strains belonging to the other groups. It is the latter effect that constitutes a novel form of bacterial interference (Ji et al. (1997) supra). The AgrD autoinducing peptides, generated following processing and secretion through AgrB, consist of seven to nine residues. Interestingly, the sequences are highly variable among the groups, although all contain a conserved cysteine residue 5 amino acids from the C-terminus. Mass spectrometric analysis of AgrD peptides isolated from culture supernatants indicated a mass discrepancy of −18 Da compared to the predicted masses based on the peptide sequences (Ji et al. (1995) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 12055-9). This observation combined with the presence of the conserved cysteine residue in AgrD peptides, has led to the suggestion that these secreted peptides contain an intramolecular thiol ester linkage between the cysteine sulfhydryl group and the carboxy-terminus (Ji et al. (1997) supra). Consistent with this thiololactone structure, the addition of hydroxylamine to a purified AgrD peptide was observed to abolish its biological activity (Ji et al. (1997) supra).
The inability to isolate significant quantities of secreted AgrD peptides means that very little is known about the biochemistry of the AgrD/AgrC interaction. For example, the potency of the AgrD peptide in either activating (within S. aureus strains of the same group) or inhibiting (in S. aureus strains from other groups) the agr response is unknown. Equally, it is essential to determine whether the putative thiololactone structure within the AgrD peptides is required for activation of the agr response, inhibition of the agr response or both. The present disclosure provides such elucidation. The study detailed herein confirms the presence of the thiololactone moiety within the AgrD peptides through total chemical synthesis. Having demonstrated synthetic access to the system, more rigorous biochemical and structure-activity studies on the AgrD/AgrC interaction are addressed. The present disclosure further delineates that elimination of the thiol ester component of the cyclic ring structure can destroy activity activating the agr response while preserving (and enhancing) inhibitory activity.

Abstract: wherein X is selected from the group consisting of an amino acid, an amino acid analog, a peptidomimetic and a non-amide isostere, Z is selected from the group consisting of a synthetic amino acid and a biosynthetic amino acid, R is selected from the group consisting of oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and carbon, n is 0 to 10 and y is 1 to 10. The present invention also provides a cyclic peptide comprising the amino acid sequence of NH2—X(n)-Z-X(y)—COOH and a cyclic bond between the Z residue and COOH other than a thioester bond, wherein X is selected from the group consisting of to an amino acid, an amino acid analog, a peptidomimetic and a non-amide isostere, Z is selected from the group consisting of a synthetic amino acid and a biosynthetic amino acid, n is 0 to 10 and y is 1 to 10. Methods of preparation including a cyclization protocol, and methods of use of the cyclic peptides of the invention are also disclosed.


The present invention provides a halogenated aniline represented by formula (I) (wherein each of X1 and X2 independently represents a chlorine atom, a bromine atom or an iodine atom), a method for producing the halogenated aniline, and other aspects.

The compound 2,3-difluoroaniline is the starting raw material for producing 2-[2-fluoro-6-(7,8-difluoro-2-methylquinolin-3-yloxy)phenyl]propan-2-ol and 2-[2-fluoro-6-(7,8-difluoroquinolin-3-yloxy)phenyl]propan-2-ol, which are known as active ingredients for agricultural and horticultural germicides (Patent Document 1).
Further, 2,3-difluoroaniline is also used in the production of medicines such as antibiotics (Patent Document 2), c-Met protein kinase inhibitors (Patent Document 3), drugs for Alzheimer's disease (Patent Document 4), Aurora 13 kinase inhibitors (Patent Document 5), and drugs for neuropathic pain (Patent Document 6).
Moreover, 2,3-difluoroaniline is also used in the production of electronic materials such as the azo compounds contained in compositions for anisotropic films that exhibit high dichroism, which are useful in the polarizing plates and the like fitted to display elements such as liquid crystal display elements (LCD) and organic electroluminescent display elements (OLED) (Patent Document 7).
In this manner, 2,3-difluoroaniline is useful as a production raw material for electronic materials, medicines and agricultural chemicals, and a simple method for producing 2,3-difluoroaniline cheaply and in large quantities has been keenly sought.
One example of a known method for producing 2,3-difluoroaniline involves fluorinating 2,3-dichloronitrobenzene to obtain 3-chloro-2-fluoronitrobenzene, hydrogenating the 3-chloro-2-fluoronitrobenzene to obtain 3-chloro-2-fluoroaniline, using the Schiemann reaction to convert the 3-chloro-2-fluoroaniline to 2,3-difluorochlorobenzene, and then performing an amination reaction with a copper catalyst to produce 2,3-difluoroaniline (Patent Document 8).

This method requires high temperature and high pressure in the fluorination reaction and the amination reaction, and uses chemical reagents that are difficult to handle such as Raney nickel, and can therefore not really be claimed to be an industrially useful method.
Patent Document 9 discloses that 2,3-difluoroaniline can be obtained by fluorinating 1,2,3-trichlorobenzene to obtain 2,3-difluorochlorobenzene, and then aminating the 2,3-difluorochlorobenzene using a copper catalyst.

However, in this method, a regioisomer (2,6-difluorochlorobenzene) is produced as a by-product during the fluorination, and therefore the yield of 2,3-difluorochlorobenzene is low. Further, the separation of the 2,3-difluorochlorobenzene from the by-product regioisomer is extremely difficult. Moreover, high temperature and high pressure conditions are required in the fluorination and amination reactions, meaning this method can also not be claimed to be industrially useful.
Patent Document 10 discloses a method for producing 2,3-difluoroaniline by hydrogenating 2,3-difluoronitrobenzene at high pressure.

This method is simple, having only one step, and is industrially feasible, but the raw material 2,3-difluoronitrobenzene is extremely difficult to obtain, and the only known method in the literature involves oxidation of the target material 2,3-difluoroaniline.
Patent Document 11 discloses a method for producing 2,3-difluoroaniline by hydrogenating 2,3-difluoro-4-chloro-nitrobenzene. However, in this method also, the raw material 2,3-difluoro-4-chloro-nitrobenzene is extremely difficult to obtain.
As described above, currently known methods for producing 2,3-difluoroaniline require high temperature and high pressure reactions, and not only are the equipment costs high due to the requirement for special production equipment, but safety and stability operations are also a significant burden.

Halogenated aniline and method for producing same


When energizing a shunt capacitor in a circuit that includes an ac power supply and a switch, the shunt capacitor is initially precharged to a predetermined voltage with a direct current voltage. Thereafter, the switch is closed at an instant of voltage peak of the ac power supply with the same polarity as the predetermined voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for energizing a shunt capacitor, more particularly to a voltage peak switch closing method for shunt capacitor energization.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an alternating voltage system, the magnitude of an instantaneous voltage varies with time. Since the phase of capacitor current leads the capacitor voltage by 90 degrees in steady state, the current peak appears at voltage zero while the current zero appears at voltage peak. Therefore, shunt capacitor energization often encounters the problem of inrush current and transient overvoltage. The voltage surge even occurs at remote locations with a capacitive load.
FIG. 1 shows a capacitor switching circuit, while FIG. 2 shows capacitor voltage and current waveforms of the circuit of FIG. 1 in steady state. In order to analyze the capacitor switching circuit of FIG. 1, the Kirchhoff's Voltage Law (KVL) and Laplace Transformation were used to deal with the problem of time domain switching circuit with initial value. With a sinusoidal ac supply voltage EQU V(t)=V.sub.m sin (.omega.t+.alpha.)
where V.sub.m is the peak value of the ac voltage. The source voltage indicates a phasor varying at the supply frequency .omega.. The inclusion of the arbitrary phase angle .alpha. permits closing of the switch (SW) at any instant in the voltage cycle. When the switch (SW) is closed, the equation expressed in terms of the current is EQU L[di(t)/dt]+(1/c).intg.i(t)dt=V(t)
The current equation and voltage equation in terms of the Laplace transform are EQU L[sI(s)-I(0)]+I(s)/sC+Vc(0)/s=V(s) EQU V(s)=V.sub.m {[.omega. cos .alpha./(s.sup.2 +.omega..sup.2)]+[s sin .alpha./(s.sup.2 +.omega..sup.2)]}
where I(0) and Vc(0) are the initial values of the inductor current and the capacitor voltage respectively. In this circuit, the operational solution for current is ##EQU1## where .omega..sub.n is the natural frequency of the switching circuit. ##EQU2## The first term on the right-hand side of equation (1) can be rewritten as follows: ##EQU3## where n is the per unit natural frequency. EQU n=.omega..sub.n /.omega.
Taking the inverse Laplace transform ##EQU4## where I.sub.m and V.sub.m are the peak values of the capacitor current and voltage in steady state respectively. EQU I.sub.m =[(n.sup.2 /(n.sup.2 -1))(V.sub.m /X.sub.c)=V.sub.m /X.sub.c
Equation (1) can be evaluated with the aid of equation (2). EQU i(t)=I.sub.m cos (.omega.t+.alpha.)+[I(0)-I.sub.m cos .alpha.] cos .omega..sub.n t+n[I.sub.m sin .alpha.-(V.sub.c (0)/X.sub.c)]sin .omega..sub.n t (3)
Similarly, the capacitor voltage is derived as follows: EQU (d.sup.2 v.sub.c (t)/dt.sup.2)+(1/LC)v.sub.c (t)=(1/LC)v(t)
By straight forward transform manipulation and inverse transformation, we get the instantaneous voltage: EQU v.sub.c (t)=V.sub.m sin (.omega.t+.alpha.)+[V.sub.c (0)-V.sub.m sin .alpha.]cos .omega.t+(1/n)[X.sub.c I(0)-V.sub.m cos .alpha.]sin .omega..sub.n t (4)
Equations (3) and (4) represent the time domain response of the capacitor current and voltage in the switching circuit shown in FIG. 1. The first term is the fundamental frequency component. The second and third terms represent the oscillatory components with circuit natural frequency .omega..sub.n.
The magnitude of the oscillatory components is a function of the system voltage, capacitor trapped voltage, inductor current and the switch closing time.
In general, capacitors are initially discharged [V.sub.c (0)=0]. The worst case occurs at the time when a discharged capacitor is energized at the instant of voltage peak which results in a transient overvoltage near twice the normal peak voltage. If a capacitor is trapped with peak voltage [V.sub.c (0)=+V.sub.m ], the worst case occurs when the capacitor is energized at the instant of voltage peak with opposite polarity. It brings a transient overvoltage near three times the normal peak voltage.
For ideal switching, the oscillatory components of current in equation (3) [voltage in equation (4)] must be zero. This can happen only when the following two conditions are simultaneously satisfied. EQU I(0)=I.sub.m cos .alpha. (A) EQU V.sub.c (0)=V.sub.m sin .alpha. (B)
A voltage zero switch closing method has been proposed for shunt capacitor energization. For a discharged capacitor, from the condition (B), the closing time is selected at voltage zero (i.e., .alpha.=0.degree. or .alpha.=180.degree.), so that the condition (A) will be EQU I(0)=.+-.I.sub.m (5)
Equation (5) means that the initial value of inductor current must be equal to the peak value of the fundamental frequency capacitor current. However, it is difficult and expensive to accomplish this technique up to now. Therefore, the discharged capacitor energized by the voltage zero closing method will produce a high frequency oscillatory component due to equation (5) not being satisfied, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B.
The equations of capacitor current and voltage are shown in FIG. 4. The magnitude of the high frequency oscillatory current component is the same as the fundamental frequency component. The magnitude of the high frequency oscillatory voltage component is related to the fraction of the natural frequency of the switching circuit. Lower natural frequency results in a larger high frequency oscillatory component.
It should be noted that the transient overvoltage as described above damages not only the capacitor, but also the other components that are connected to the capacitor.

Voltage peak switch closing method for shunt capacitor energization

No. 91, Lin 9, Hsi-Tsun, Pao-Shan Hsiang


The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a drum of an axial piston machine by machining a cylindrical round metal, with the machining comprising a forging and with at least one structural element of the drum being produced or prefabricated by the forging.

The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a drum of an axial piston machine.
Axial piston machines are known from the prior art. They can be used as pumps for converting mechanical energy into hydraulic energy or as motors for converting hydraulic energy into mechanical energy. Axial piston machines share a design, wherein a drum that can rotate about an axis of rotation and that has cylinder bores is encompassed between a control plate arranged at the hydraulic side and a sliding disk arranged at the mechanical side. The plane of the sliding disk is oblique to the axis of rotation of the drum and pistons are arranged in the cylinder bores of the drum that are in contact with the surface of the sliding disk by means of sliding blocks. The oppositely disposed end face of the drum at the hydraulic side is in direct contact with the control plate.
The typically axially symmetrical and substantially cylindrical drums of the axial piston machine are typically manufactured by cutting machining of perfectly cylindrical metal pieces. The cylinder bores and the center bore for the reception of the shaft are, for example, drilled into the metal cylinder and outer contours such as neck regions or depressions are milled in the region of the end faces. These methods, however, result in a comparatively high material loss and high wear at the machining tools, particularly since the drums are typically produced from steel.

Method of manufacturing a drum of an axial piston machine


A solar cell of an embodiment includes: a p-electrode in which a first p-electrode and a second p-electrode are laminated; a p-type light-absorbing layer in direct contact with the first p-electrode; an n-type layer in direct contact with the p-type light-absorbing layer; and an n-electrode. The first p-electrode is disposed between the p-type light-absorbing layer and the second p-electrode. The p-type light-absorbing layer is disposed between the n-type layer and the first p-electrode. The n-type layer is disposed between the p-type light-absorbing layer and the n-electrode. The first p-electrode includes a metal oxide containing Sn as a main component.

One of the new solar cells is a cuprous oxide (Cu2O) solar cell. Cu2O is a wide-gap semiconductor with a band gap of 2.1 eV. Since Cu2O is a safe, inexpensive material consisting of copper and oxygen abundantly present on the earth, it is expected to be able to realize a highly-efficient, low-cost solar cell.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show sectional views of a conventional Cu2O solar cell. There are two types of Cu2O solar cell, i.e., a thick film type (FIG. 1A) and a thin film type (FIG. 1B), depending on the method of producing the light-absorbing layer.
The thick film type Cu2O solar cell is an element formed by thermally oxidizing, in an electric furnace, a copper foil having a thickness of approximately equal to or more than 0.1 mm and equal to or less than 0.2 mm to prepare a Cu2O thick film sheet, sequentially laminating an n-type layer and a transparent electrode (light-transmissive n-electrode) on one side, and forming an optically opaque Au electrode (impermeable p-electrode) on the other side. On the other hand, the thin film type Cu2O solar cell is an element formed by forming an Au electrode (p-electrode) on a glass substrate, and then sequentially forming a Cu2O thin film (p-layer) having a thickness of approximately equal to or more than 1 μm and equal to or less than 5 μm, an n-type layer, and a transparent electrode.
As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, in the conventional Cu2O solar cell, an expensive Au electrode is used for the p-electrode in both the thick film type and the thin film type, and it becomes a problem that the p-electrode is expensive when producing a large-area solar cell.

Solar cell, multi-junction solar cell, solar cell module, and photovoltaic system

TOSHIBA ENERGY SYSTEMS & SOLUTIONS CORPORATION


Method for optically scanning an object comprising a flat support for holding the object; a linear optical sensor held in a fixed position on one side of the support; a light source held in a fixed position on the other side of the support for projecting light through the object toward the optical sensor; and a drive mechanism for moving the object along one direction to successive scanning positions. The user may create custom application computer programs for performing desired image scanning and analysis on an object. To enable this, the system stores software tools each capable of performing an image scanning or image analysis function, stores an interpreter program corresponding to a natural language identifiers for the functions, and provides an interactive computer environment for the user to specify a sequence of software tools using the natural language identifiers to be executed to perform the desired image scanning and analysis.

This invention relates to optical scanners suitable for analyzing images on a film. For example, such scanners are suitable for analyzing an autoradiographic image of the products of a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing reaction in order to determine the nucleotide base sequence of a DNA molecule.
DNA is a double stranded or single stranded polymeric molecule formed by covalent joining of the four deoxynucleotide bases, namely, adenine (A), guanine (G), thymine (T), and cytosine (C). The sequence of these deoxynucleotide bases determines the utility of a DNA molecule. For example, a DNA molecule may encode a controlling region for another DNA molecule, or may encode a polypeptide or a protein. It is common to determine the deoxynucleotide base sequence of a DNA molecule in a variety of manners. Generally, this process, called DNA sequencing, involves generation of four populations of single-stranded DNA fragments having one defined terminus and one variable terminus. The variable terminus generally terminates at a specific given nucleotide base. The four different sets of fragments are each separated, on the basis of their length, to form bands on a high resolution polyacrylamide gel. Each band on the gel corresponds colinearly to a specific deoxynucleotide base in the DNA sequence, thus identifying the position in the sequence of a given deoxynucleotide base.
The most commonly use method of DNA sequencing is termed dideoxy-sequencing. This method involves enzymatic synthesis of a DNA strand using a DNA polymerase. Generally, four separate synthesis reactions are run, each reaction being caused to terminate at a specific nucleotide base by incorporation of an appropriate chain terminating agent, e.g., a dideoxynucleotide. Enzymes used for dideoxysequencing include the E. coli DNA polymerase large fragment (Klenow), reverse transcriptase, T7 DNA polymerase, and Tag DNA polymerase.
Tabor and Richardson 86 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 4076, 1989 describe use of a manganese-based buffer (in place of the usual magnesium-based buffer) for a DNA sequencing reaction. Use of manganese results in uniform terminations of DNA sequencing reactions with intensity of adjacent bands on a polyacrylamide gel varying in most instances by less than 10%. They state that this property should be of use for DNA sequencing, particularly by automated procedures.
The normal nomenclature used by persons in this field will be used in this application. Thus, the term "lane" refers to a generally narrow linear band between the top and bottom of an acrylamide gel in which a sample to be electrophoresed is placed and then electrophoresed. A "base" is generally used to refer to a deoxynucleotide base. A "smile" refers to an artifact produced during electrophoresis where the distance traveled by samples within adjacent lanes differs, such that the central lanes in an acrylamide gel will travel further than those on either side, thus creating a curved front in the gel. A "band" refers to the image on an autoradiogram of a DNA product running within a lane at a specific linear position along that lane. DNA products which differ by one or more bases form distinct bands along a lane. In ideal conditions, a band is a rectangular square the width of which is equal to the width of a lane, and the length of which is relatively small such that adjacent bands do not merge.
There follow references to machines designed to aid analysis of products of a DNA sequencing reaction, for example, an autoradiogram resulting from a DNA sequencing reaction. These references are generally based on trade literature. These machines are not admitted to be prior art to the present application.
IntelliGenetics.TM. literature describes a device for acquiring the image of a DNA sequencing autoradiogram and deciphering the pattern of bands. It is described as being capable of compensating for common defects. For example, it is said to straighten distorted lanes, flatten bands, and minimize smiles even in the same lane set.
UltroScan.TM. literature is a laser densitometer suitable for scanning autoradiographs, photographs, slab gels, blots, and tube gels. Slab gels and tube gels refer to agarose or polyacrylamide gels formed, respectively, as a flat rectangular gel or within a tube. The literature states that "only a laser can help . . . get the maximum amount of information from today's high resolution separations . . ."
BioRad.TM. literature describes a video densitometer for analyzing autoradiograms and gels. The system is provided with a 1728 element CCD linear diode array detector, and a light source for transmission or reflectance which illuminates a narrow 20 cm slot. Light from the sample is directed by two mirrors to a lens which focuses the light onto a CCD linear array detector. 1660 elements of the linear array are used to measure the data simultaneously. The sample is placed on a platten controlled by stepper motor. The platten is moved back and forth either automatically or manually. An entire lane of data is illuminated and measured at once.
BioMed Instruments.TM. literature describes several laser scanning densitometers. A ribbon laser beam suitable for scanning by absorbance or transmittance, is used scan two dimensional gels.
Applied Biosystems.TM. literature describes a sequencing system using four different fluorescent dye labels each corresponding to one of the four deoxynucleotide bases. The gel is analyzed by a laser light beam which scans the electrophoresis gel.
Molecular Dynamics.TM. literature describes a densitometer able to automatically scan an entire sample area. 13,000 density measurements are made on each square centimeter of sample.
Hitachi.TM. America literature describes a DNA film scanner. The scanner appears similar to a desk top copier and uses a charge coupled device (CCD).
BioRad.TM. literature describes an automatic sequence reader and analysis system. The optical scanner utilizes a charge coupled device. The software is designed to correct for smiling and other electrophoretic artifacts.
BioImage.TM. literature describes an instrument able to scan whole gels quickly and automatically. The gel is scanned using a Kodak camera or an optional laser scanner. The camera is a Kodak CCD camera, formed as a two dimensional CCD device having 1024.times.1024 arrays. Reflective scanning is also possible.

System for use with a high resolution scanner for scheduling a sequence of software tools for determining the presence of bands in DNA sequencing samples


Certain embodiments of the invention may include systems, methods, and apparatus for controlling bi-directional drive current through an actuator. The method may include receiving a direction control signal, manipulating one or more devices to establish at least one switchable positive current path or at least one switchable negative current path through an actuator based at least in part on the direction control signal, providing feedback based at least on current associated with the actuator, and controlling the current based at least in part on the feedback. The method may include manipulating one or more devices to establish at least one positive current path and at least one negative current path through an actuator via pulse width modulation control.

Gas and steam turbines utilize servos for controlling actuators associated with various components of the turbines. The actuators typically move fuel valves, speed ratio valves, compressor vanes, and other mechanisms to control air and fuel flow in the turbine system. To control the position of the servo actuator, a precise and controlled amount of DC current (typically up to +/−200 mA) is passed through the actuator coil, and the current may be based in part on feedback from a transducer coupled to the mechanism or the actuator. Conventional servo controllers may provide the drive current for the actuators using linear buffers or linear amplifiers, which typically require bulky heat sinks to dissipate excess heat produced from the drive electronics.
In many turbines, the various valves and vanes may be controlled using hydraulic actuators. The position of the hydraulic actuators, valves, or vanes may be monitored and fed-back to the controller using transducers such as resolvers, linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs) or linear variable differential reluctance (LVDR) devices. Such devices are highly reliable in the harsh turbine environments, but they usually require AC excitation current for proper operation. The AC excitation current is typically provided by an excitation drive circuit with a linear output amplifier, which also can require a bulky heat sink to dissipate the excess heat produced by the drive electronics.
When turbines have a large number of valves, each with associated actuators and LVDTs, the turbine's servo controller may become excessively bulky due to the required number and size of heat sinks for the drive circuitry. Furthermore, when drive energy is converted to heat through the linear drive circuitry, the energy efficiency of the circuit is reduced, and the dissipated heat adds to the overall temperature of the control panel.

Systems, methods, and apparatus for controlling Bi-directional servo actuator with PWM control


Disclosed is an annular flow duct for a turbomachine, the flow duct arranged concentrically about a machine axis running in the axial direction and defined by a boundary wall of circular cross section for directing a main flow, wherein the boundary wall has a plurality of return flow passages distributed over its circumference and through which in each case a partial flow is detached from the main flow at a bleed position and returned to the main flow at a feed position situated upstream of the bleed position, and having aerofoils, arranged radically in the flow duct, of a blade ring, the aerofoil tips of which lie opposite the boundary wall, with a gap formed in each case, wherein the aerofoils are movable in a predetermined rotation direction along the circumference of the boundary wall. Furthermore, a compressor which is insensitive to pumping and flow separations, as viewed in rotation direction, the bleed position of each return flow passage lies upstream of the corresponding feed position.

Gas turbines and the modes of operation thereof are generally known. The air drawn in by a compressor of the gas turbine is compressed therein and afterwards mixed with fuel in a burner. Subsequently, the mixture flowing into a burning chamber burns to form a hot gas which subsequently flows through a turbine arranged downstream of the burning chamber and in the meantime, owing to the relaxation thereof, causes the rotor of the gas turbine to rotate. The rotation of the rotor drives, in addition to the compressor, also a generator which is linked to the rotor and converts the mechanical energy provided into electrical energy.
Both the compressor and the turbine are each composed of a plurality of successive stages each comprising two successive collars of blades. A turbine stage is composed of a guide blade collar formed by rotationally fixed guide blades and a moving blade collar arranged downstream thereof, whereas a compressor stage is composed of a moving blade collar and a guide blade collar arranged downstream thereof; viewed in each case in the flow direction of the medium flowing through. In the case of a single-shaft gas turbine, all moving blades are fixedly mounted on the common rotor.
The compressor stages, which are arranged in series, i.e. in axial succession, convey, owing to the moving blades revolving with the rotor, the drawn-in air from the input of the compressor in the direction of the compressor output, the air experiencing an incremental rise in pressure within each stage (or collar). The total rise in pressure over the compressor is the sum of all incremental pressure rises over each stage (or of all collars).
In a known manner, it can occur during operation of the gas turbine, in particular during operation of the compressor of the gas turbine, that, on approaching the stability limit, recirculation is increased as a result of defective flow and growing gap vortex. Within the compressor, this can cause a stall on one or more aerofoils, i.e. the flow of air in the main flow direction stops through a part of a compressor stage, as the energy transmitted from the rotor to the air is not sufficient to convey said air through the compressor stage and to establish the required pressure ratio of the compressor stage in question. The pressure ratio is the increase in pressure occurring over the relevant stage of the compressor, based on the input pressure of the respective stage. If the stall is not immediately counteracted, it can advance to form a rotating stall and possibly even lead to the entire flow of air through the compressor changing its direction; this is known as compressor pumping. This particularly critical operating state jeopardizes the blades and prevents a sufficient supply of compressor air to the burning chamber, so that a disturbed operation of the gas turbine must be diagnosed and the machine switched off immediately.
For this purpose, EP 0 719 907 A1, which seeks to counteract the described problem, discloses a structured boundary wall which lies opposite the tips of the moving blades. This structuring of the casing, known as the casing treatment, serves positively to influence the flow close to the gap for situations in which there is a risk of a stall on an aerofoil. Owing to the structuring, partial flows are bled from the main flow in the region of low flow velocities and subsequently returned to the main flow upstream of the bleed position. The air bled on the pressure side of the compressor blades in the tip region is supplied to the suction-side main flow of the compressor blade in question to prevent a stall which might occur there. The ducts guiding the partial flows are accordingly inclined relative to the machine axis or axis of rotation in such a way that—viewed in the direction of rotation of the rotor—the bleed position lies after the feed position at which the detached partial flow is returned to the main flow close to the gap. This is required so that, owing to the stagger angle and the tips, positioned obliquely relative to the direction of rotation, of the aerofoils, the partial flow can be guided beyond the aerofoil tip from the pressure side to the suction side. Thus, the longitudinal extension of the return flow duct is oriented substantially transversely to the straight line of the blade tip-side stagger angle, i.e. approximately parallel to the machine axis.
A similar device is known from EP 1 286 022 A1.
The aforementioned configurations have the drawback that the flow guidance of the partial flows is not optimal.
Furthermore, FR 2 325 830 discloses a compressor casing with grooves formed therein. These grooves are intended to prevent a stall of the limit flow and thus the pumping of the compressor, although the flow set by the grooves does not flow counter to the main flow, but rather with it.

Annular flow duct for a turbomachine through which a main flow can flow in the axial direction


The present invention relates to benzopyran derivatives substituted with secondary amines including tetrazole, method for preparing thereof and pharmaceutical compositions containing them. The compounds of the present invention can be used for protecting neuronal cells and brain damage; antioxidation; inhibiting NO generation; protecting heart; suppressing angiogenesis; protecting preserving organs such as kidney, heart and tissue, and protecting organs in major cardiovascular surgery.

Neurons in the mammalian CNS (central nervous system) are highly sensitive to the availability of oxygen. It is well known that a transient critical reduction of oxygen within the intact brain, triggers a various pathological phenomena, finally a fatal brain damage [K. Nieber, Pharmacol. Ther. 1999, 82, 71]. Oxygen can become unavailable to the brain through a loss of blood flow (ischemia) following cardiac arrest or occlusion of intracranial vessels by thrombosis and embolism, or through an insufficient oxygen concentration in the blood (hypoxia).
Ischemic cell injury may arise from complex interactions biochemical cascades, which includes disturbances in among electrophysiological, hemodynamical and energy metabolism [W. Paschen and B. Djuricic, J. Neurochem. 1995, 65, 1692] and modifications in synaptic transmission [H. J. Luhmann, Prog. Neurobiol. 1996, 48, 131]. The disturbed ion homeostasis characterized by enhanced cellular K+ efflux and Na+ and Ca2+ influx is followed by a substantial extracellular acidosis, free radical formation, cell swelling, and inhibition of protein synthesis, which are connected with excitatory amino-acid receptor, Ca-dependent or ATP-dependent K-channel, etc. As explained above, the ischemic cell damage occurred by a cascade of biochemical events, not by single event. So, several strategies are suggested for the development of neuroprotective agents and it is also suggested that the effective intervention on several key steps during ischemic cascade is necessary to be an effective therapeutic agent for brain ischemia [De Keyser et al. Trends Neurosci., 1999, 22, 535; Dirnagl et al. Trends Neurosci., 1999, 22, 391; Gladstone et al. Stroke, 2002, 33, 2123].
Even after blood flow is restored, oxygen can also enhance the biochemical reactions that generate free radicals, which can lead to a potential for "reperfusion injury" to occur. Both acute and chronic injury of tissues and organs are known to be caused by ischemia-reperfusion or by endotoxins via bacterial infection. In order to prevent the brain injury caused by ischemia-reperfusion, the brain must be protected during ischemic period to avoid additional injury and pathological progressive cellular changes have to minimize.
For that purpose, the development of several neuroprotectives such as excitatory amino acid antagonists, anti-oxidants, adenosine agonists and KATP channel openers are being pursued.
Damage or death of neurons is known to be a main cause for various neurological disorders such as stroke, head trauma, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, infant asphyxia, glaucoma and daiabetic neuropathy, etc [G. J. Zoppo et al., Drugs 1997, 54, 9: I. Sziraki et al., Neurosci, 1998, 85, 1101].
Neurons are damaged by various factors including increases in iron concentration, reactive oxygen species, and peroxidants within neurons [M. P. Mattson et al., Methods Cell Biol. 1995, 46, 187; Y. Goodman et al., Brain Res. 1996, 706, 328].
Free radicals are generated in cells by the oxidative stress. An excess of oxygen free radicals facilitates lipid peroxidation, so that peroxidants are accumulated in neurons and it also causes the change in protein synthesis and DNA. The reactive free radicals accumulated in cells are known to be responsible for a variety of diseases [J. M. McCord, Am J. Med. 2000, 108, 652]. Including inflammatory diseases such as arthritis; atherosclerosis; cardiac infarction; and neurodegenerative disease such as dementia, allergy, cancer as well as acute and chronic injury of tissues and organs.
Therefore, therapeutic approaches to minimize the damage or death of neurons have been pursued, including the inhibition of lipid peroxidation, NO formation, and reactive oxygen species induced by endotoxins. To date, anti-oxidants are reported to ameliorate the neuronal damage and death caused by an increase of iron concentration within neurons. Much effort has been continued to develop pharmaceutical drugs which are able to prevent neuronal damage by oxidative stress (Y. Zhang et al., J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 1993, 13, 378).
There are reports that KATP opening is related to the induction of anti-oxidant enzymes [S. Okubo et al., Mol. and cell Biochem., 1999, 196, 3], and to decrease the release of excitatory amino acid [J-L Moreau, G. Huber, Brain Res., 1999, 31, 65].
Diazoxide, a KATP channel opener, has been reported to reversibly oxidize flavoproteins in mitochondria, resulting in inhibition of the formation of oxygen free radicals, which may protect cell injury by oxidative stress [A. A. Starkov, Biosci, Rep. 1997, 17, 273; V. P. Skulachev, Q. Rev. Biophus. 1996, 29, 169].
Infant asphyxia (IA), triggered by transient deficiency of oxygen supply during delivery, was reported to be caused by the reduction of energy production, damage of cell membrane due to oxygen free radical, release of excitatory neurotransmitters, change of intracellular ion concentrations including calcium, zinc, etc. IA is a major worldwide problem, because if IA is severe, the chances of mortality are high (approximately ⅓ of the total infant mortality). In addition, it can produce long term sequela such as movement disorders, learning disabilities, epilepsy, dystonia, mental retardation, and spasticity [C. F. Loid et. al. Physiology and Behavior, 2000, 68, 263-269].
Antioxidant enzymes, allopurinol, Vitamine C & E, free radical scavengers, inhibitors of excitatory neurotransmitters, calcium channel blockers such as nimodipine and flunarizine, inhibitors of NO formation, hyperglycemic and hypothermic therapy may be beneficial for the protection of brain injury, but their clinical application is still limited.
Glaucoma, one of the leading causes of blindness, is defined as an optic neuropathy associated with characteristic changes in optic nerve. In humans, the optic nerve consists of 1 million axons from neurons whose perikarya reside primarily in the ganglion cell layer and, to a less extent, in the inner part of the inner nuclear layer. The excavated appearance of the optic nerve head in glaucoma is thought to be caused by the death and subsequent loss of ganglion cells and their axons [N. N. Osborne, et. al. Survey of ophthalmology, 43; suppl. 1999, S102-s128].
Neuroprotective agents in glaucoma may protect death of retinal neurons, in particular the ganglion cells, either directly or indirectly. A variety of agents such as NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor antagonist, â-blockers, calcium antagonists, and antioxidants can be used to protect the death of retinal neurons induced by ischemia and damage of optic nerves.
Although the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy has not been clearly established, two main hypotheses have been proposed for it. One is metabolic abnormalities, and the other is blood flow deficits in peripheral nerve [K. Naka et. al. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 1995, 30, 153-162]. Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) by stimulating metabolism of lipid and improving impaired nociceptive responses of neurons, and Prosaptide by releasing neutrophic factors are in clinical trials. In addition, Memantine, showing good effects on vascular dementia through the regulation of NMDA receptor, is pursuing clinical trial. Then, neuroprotective agents having a variety of mechanisms of action may be developed to treat diabetic neuropathy.
Ischemic heart diseases are usually caused by myocardial ischemia, when the oxygen supply is significantly decreased compared to the oxygen demand due to the imbalance between them [G. J. Grover, Can. J. Physiol., 1997, 75, 309; G. D. Lopaschuk et al. Science &Medicine, 1997, 42]. Myocardial ischemia triggers various pathophysiological changes progressively that will ultimately lead to irreversible myocardial injury, cell death and tissue necrosis. At a stage where the injury to the cells is reversible, this process can be prevented by early reperfusion of the myocardium. However, there is potential for "reperfusion-injury" to occur [D. J. Hearse, Medicographia, 1996, 18, 22].
To delay the ischemic cascade and to minimize the reperfusion-injury, the use of adenosine agonists, inhibitors of Na+-K+ antiport, oxygen free radical scavengers and KATP (ATP sensitive potassium channel) openers are investigated as well as ACE (Angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitors and calcium antagonists. In addition, global ischemia occurs during cardiac surgery or during heart storage prior to transplantation. Recent studies reported that the addition of KATP openers to a hyperkalemic cardioplegic solution, improved the recovery of postischemic contractile function after normothermic or short periods of hypothermic ischemia [D. J. Chambers, D. J. Hearse, Ann. Thoar. Surg., 1999, 68, 1960.]. The use of those compounds as protectants or curatives for the organs related to "ischemia-reperfusion injury" such as retina and skeletal muscles besides heart and brain, in being investigated.
As mentioned above, since ischemic cascades proceed by complex interactions, it may be a useful strategy to develop the compound acting at more than one target site in ischemic cascade.
KATP is found in a variety of tissues including cardiac muscle, smooth muscle skeletal muscle, kidney, pancreatic β-cells, the brain and central nerve system, which makes it attractive as a drug target. However, the same diversity poses a difficulty of finding tissue selective agents.
Differently from conventional potassium channel openers, the benzopyranyl cyanoguanidine compound (BMS-180448) represented by the following formula 4 and benzopyranyl imidazole compound (BMS-191095) represented by the following formula 5, have been reported to show modest antiischemic potency with excellent cardiac selectivity. Although the compound represented by formula 5 had all desirable features to serve as a lead compound, it still retains some degree of vasorelaxant and hypotensive activities [K. S. Atwal et al., J. Med. Chem., 1995, 38, 3236; K. S. Atwal et al., J. Med. Chem., 1996, 40, 24; K. S. Atwal et al., Current Pharmaceutical Design, 1996, 2, 585]. Therefore, more cardioselective compounds which have cardioprotective potency without lowering of blood pressure significantly, still give the prospects for the development of a novel cardioprotectant.

The ratio of cancer in human diseases is being gradually increased. Angiogenesis, formation of new blood vessels, is recognized as the core process for growth and metastasis of solid tumors (Folkma, J. et al., J. Biol. Chem. 1992, 267, 10931-10934). Angiogenesis is controlled by inducers and inhibitors of angiogenesis. When the balance between them is broken, that is, when angiogenesis inducers prevail over angiogenesis inhibitors, a large quantity of new blood vessels are formed. Angiogenesis is closely related to various physiological phenomena, such as embryonic development, wound healing, chronic inflammation, hemangiomas, diabetic retinopathy, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, AIDS complications, and the growth and metastasis of malignant tumors (Forkman, J., Klagsbrun. M. Science, 1987, 235, 442-447). Angiogenesis includes a series of processes such as the migration, proliferation and differentiation of endothelial cells, and is an important prerequisite for the growth and metastasis of cancers. In detail, because the growing tumor cells require the formation of blood vessels from host cells, angiogenesis promoters derived from tumors stimulate to induce the angiogenesis into the tumor mass. Afterwards, the blood vessels formed around the malignant tumors facilitate to metastasize the tumor cells to other sites. Therefore, the inhibition of angiogenesis leads to the prevention of the growth and metastasis of cancers. As one of the important research areas for the developing of anti-cancer drugs, extensive attention is paid to the finding of angiogenesis inducers and angiogenesis inhibitors, and the revealing of their working mechanisms.
Thus far, proteins such as prostamine and tumor necrotic factors, factors derived from cartilage tissues, and cortisone called angiostatic steroids and various steroid derivatives, have been found to be able to play roles as angiogenesis inhibitors. In particular, hydrocortisone exhibits anti-angiogenetic activity by cotreatment with heparin (Lee, A. et al., Science, 1983, 221, 1185-1187); Crum, R. et al., Science, 1985, 230, 1375-1378). However, these compounds have a potential problem to treat cancers effectively owing to their cytotoxicity.

Benzopyran derivatives substituted with secondary amines including tetrazole, method for the preparation thereof and pharmaceutical compositions containing them


A microcomputer includes an actual DUTY value detection section that detects an actual DUTY value γx by measuring the ratio of time in which an output voltage of each phase becomes a power supply voltage in a cycle of a triangular wave. A dead time compensation computation section subtracts the actual DUTY value γx from a DUTY instruction value αx before correction, thereby computing a difference value Δx. Subsequently, the dead time compensation computation section adds the difference value Δx to dead time compensation amounts βxp, βxm, which have been used for correcting the DUTY instruction value αx, thereby determining new dead time compensation amounts βxp′ and βxm′. The dead time compensation amounts βxp, βxm stored in a memory are renewed with the new dead time compensation amounts βxp′, βxm′.

The present invention relates to a motor controller.
Conventionally, a type of a motor controller has been used which converts direct-current voltage supplied from a direct-current power supply to three-phase (U, V, W) drive power using a PWM (pulse-width modulation) inverter, and supplies the three-phase drive power to a brushless motor.
As shown in FIG. 3, a PWM inverter is configured of three arms 52 in parallel as basic units. Each arm 52 corresponds to one of the phases and includes a pair of switching elements (for, example, power MOSFETs) 51A, 51B in series. The motor controller alternately turns on and off the high voltage side switching element 51A and the low voltage side switching element 51B of each arm 52 at a predetermined timing, thereby supplying three-phase drive power to a brushless motor 53.
In such a motor controller, to prevent a short circuit (arm short circuit) between each high voltage side switching element 51A and the corresponding low voltage side switching element 51B, "dead time" is set when the switching elements 51A, 51B are turned on and off, in which both switching elements 51A, 51B are off. However, the dead time causes errors to occur between a voltage command value and an output voltage of the PWM inverter. This in turn creates torque ripples, vibrations, and current distortion, which can cause noise. Therefore, a number of types of motor controllers executes "compensation" for reducing errors between a voltage command value and an output voltage due to dead time, thereby preventing current distortion. See Hidehiko Sugimoto et al. Facts of Theory and Design of AC Servo Motor Systems, 6th edition, Denshi Shuppansha, August 2002, pp. 56–58.
For example, as shown in FIG. 4, a method has been proposed in which a dead time compensation amount β is added to or subtracted from a DUTY instruction value αx. The DUTY instruction value αx is compared with a triangular wave δ, which is a carrier wave, for determining the timing of turning on and off the switching elements 51A, 51B. The dead time compensation amount β is set in advance according to the direction of current of the DUTY instruction value αx.
More specifically, when the direction of current of X-phase (X=U, V, W, the same applies hereinafter) that corresponds to one of the arms 52 is toward the brushless motor 53 from the arm 52, that is, when the direction of current is "positive" (see FIG. 3), the dead time compensation amount β is added to the DUTY instruction value αx. When the direction of current is toward the arm 52 from the brushless motor 53, that is, when the direction of current is "negative" (see FIG. 3), the dead time compensation amount β is subtracted from the DUTY instruction value αx. This equalizes a time in which the X-phase output voltage Vx becomes the power supply voltage Vb (t3+t4 or t5+t6) in a cycle T of the triangular wave 5 with the corresponding time (t1+t2) in a case where no dead time is set (ideal voltage waveform). Thus, the voltage command value is caused to match the output voltage of the PWM inverter, so that current distortion due to dead time is prevented.
Other than the method described above, a method has been proposed in which the output voltage of PWM inverters are detected, and feedback control is executed so that the values of the output voltage match a voltage command value. This method also prevents current distortion due to dead time.
However, the switching elements forming a PWM inverter vary in response speed. Further, the switching elements vary in temperature characteristics and aging characteristics, which depend on the usage environment. Therefore, the above introduced method in which the DUTY instruction value αx is corrected using the dead time compensation amount β, compensation amounts of the phases and directions of current can be insufficient or excessive depending on the usage environment. This may lead to a situation where current distortion due to dead time is not prevented with accuracy. On the other hand, the method using feedback control, a delay is inevitable in providing compensation.


A transmission method for a display device is provided. The display device includes a one-to-many timing controller and a plurality of source drivers. The transmission method includes determining whether the plurality of source drivers being operated in different operational modes are switched on or off according to a command signal, to receive a display information of the one-to-many timing controller. The display information comprises at least a first control triggering signal, a first control signal, a first display information triggering signal, a first display signal, a second display information triggering signal and a second display signal, and the command signal is an internal setting signal or an external setting signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transmission method for a display device, and more particularly, to a transmission method which adaptively sets operations of a source driver being operated in different operational modes of a display device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As technology advances, people gradually pursue higher resolution as well as thinner/smaller sizes of hardware devices. A conventional display device utilizes a one-to-one differential signal transmission method, such that a timing controller correspondingly transmits a differential signal to every source drivers via a single or a plurality of differential pairs to finish settings of every source drivers. Please refer to FIG. 1, which illustrates a schematic diagram of a conventional display device 10. The display device 10 is depicted with a part of composition modules/units for simple descriptions, and comprises a timing controller 100, a circuit board 102, source drivers SD_1-SD_N, high-speed transmission lines D0_PN_1-D0_PN_N and D1_PN_1-D0_PN_N and a low-speed transmission line LN. The display device 10 further comprises a display device control chip, a gate controller, a source controller, a backlight module, a plurality of display units, a display panel, and so on, which is not described hereinafter for brevity. As shown in FIG. 1, the timing controller 100 can utilize the high-speed transmission lines D0_PN_1-D0_PN_N and D1_PN_1-D0_PN_N and location information LOC of the source drivers SD_1-SD_N to transmit the differential pair signals corresponding to the source drivers SD_1-SD_N to the correct positions of the source drivers SD_1-SD_N by the one-to-one differential signal transmission method. In the meanwhile, the low-speed transmission line LN also transmits a corresponding control signal to the source drivers SD_1-SD_N to control the source drivers SD_1-SD_N being turned on or off. Other conventional timing controllers can also be utilized to directly transmit the control signal to the source drivers SD_1-SD_N without utilizing the location information LOC.
Please refer to FIG. 2, which illustrates a schematic diagram of a conventional transmission signal between the timing controller 100 and one of the source drivers SD_1-SD_N. As shown in FIG. 2, the timing controller 100 and the source drivers SD_1-SD_N have a high-speed transmission signal 20 via a high-speed transmission method and a low-speed transmission signal 22 via a low-speed transmission method, wherein the high-speed transmission signal comprises a control triggering signal 200, a control signal 202 corresponding to the control triggering signal 200, an information triggering signal 204 and a display picture signal 206 corresponding to the information triggering signal 204, and the low-speed transmission signal 22 comprises at least a triggering control signal 220. Under such circumstances, the triggering control signal 220 cooperates with the location information LOC to be transmitted to different source drivers SD_1-SD_N. When the source drivers SD_1-SD_N receive the control triggering signal 200 transmitted by the high-speed transmission lines D0_PN_1-D0_PN_N and D1_PN_1-D0_PN_N, the source drivers SD_1-SD_N are correspondingly triggered to receive the control signal 202. Also, when the source drivers SD_1-SD_N receives the information triggering signal 204 via the high-speed transmission lines D0_PN_1-D0_PN_N and D1_PN_1-D0_PN_N, the source drivers SD_1-SD_N are correspondingly triggered to receive the display picture signal 206.
However, the conventional display device needs to utilize the high-speed transmission lines D0_PN_1-D0_PN_N and D1_PN_1-D0_PN_N with the one-to-one differential signal transmission method to transmit the control signal from the timing controller 100 to the exclusive source drivers SD_1-SD_N. Accordingly, the conventional display device has no choice but to utilize lots of transmission lines, which is difficult for developing high-speed transmission application of high resolution display devices with thinner/lighter hardware weights and less costs. Therefore, it has been an important issue to provide another efficient transmission method for the display device.


A dual piston centrifuge tube includes an elongate tubular receptacle having upper and lower ends interconnected by a sidewall. First and second common inlet/outlet ports are formed respectively in the upper and lower ends of the tubular receptacle. First and second liquid impermeable pistons are mounted within an interior chamber of the tubular receptacle for sliding longitudinally therein. The first piston is interconnected to the first port by a flexible fluid-conducting pipe that extends through the first piston to communicate with a region of the chamber between the first and second pistons. Blood or other biological fluid is introduced through the first port and pipe into the tubular receptacle to drive the first piston upwardly. The tube is centrifuged to separate the fluid into a plurality of constituent component levels between the first and second pistons. One of the layers is aspirated through the pipe and first port and re-introduced into the receptacle through the second port. The tube is centrifuged a second time to separate the re-introduced fluid into constituent components, which are then aspirated through the second port.

Platelet-rich blood plasma is required for use in various medical procedures. This blood product is particularly effective due to its growth promoting features, which assist greatly in wound healing and bone regeneration. Presently, blood plasma with a high concentration of platelets is utilized for dental implants and other periodontal procedures, facial reconstruction, oral or maxillofacial surgery and chronic wound care. In order to obtain a required concentration of platelets, a blood sample normally must be centrifuged in order to separate the blood into its component blood products (i.e. plasma, red blood cells and platelets). The platelets, typically in a form of a white "buffy coat", are then separated from the blood sample and sequestered in concentrated form through aspiration. Conventional aspiration techniques often fail to provide a satisfactory concentration of platelets. Cross-contamination between the constituent products is frequently encountered. I have determined that a continued the need exists for a cost effective apparatus that facilitates the sequestration of platelets and provides for highly pure platelet production, while minimizing cross-contamination between blood components.
I have developed various centrifuge assemblies as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,835,353 and 7,976,796, as well as pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/741,920 to address the foregoing concerns. These products have achieved superior results and proven to constitute a significant improvement over the prior art. Nonetheless, I have determined that further beneficial advancements can be made in centrifuge tube technology. Existing tubes that employ a sliding piston or diaphragm can exhibit an unbalanced operation when centrifuged if blood product is not filled to the capacity of the tube and air is trapped within the tube below the piston. Maintaining an optimal purity of the platelet rich product (PRP) remains a significant concern and the need exists for new and improved ways to protect the PRP from being contaminated by air and other blood components present in the tube. Likewise, the need continues to exist for centrifuge tubes that feature a simpler and failure resistant construction that enables PRP and other constituents of fluid biological products to be obtained in a quick, convenient and reliable manner for use in various surgical, medical and veterinary applications. It is especially important that the components of the fluid product being centrifuged avoid cross contamination as well as airborne contamination.


A Web crawler system and method for quickly fetching and analyzing Web pages on the World Wide Web includes a hash table stored in random access memory (RAM) and a sequential Web information disk file. For every Web page known to the system, the Web crawler system stores an entry in the sequential disk file as well as a smaller entry in the hash table. The hash table entry includes a fingerprint value, a fetched flag that is set true only if the corresponding Web page has been successfully fetched, and a file location indicator that indicates where the corresponding entry is stored in the sequential disk file. Each sequential disk file entry includes the URL of a corresponding Web page, plus fetch status information concerning that Web page. All accesses to the Web information disk file are made sequentially via an input buffer such that a large number of entries from the sequential disk file are moved into the input buffer as single I/O operation. The sequential disk file is then accessed from the input buffer. Similarly, all new entries to be added to the sequential file are stored in an append buffer, and the contents of the append buffer are added to the end of the sequential whenever the append buffer is filled. In this way random access to the Web information disk file is eliminated, and latency caused by disk access limitations is minimized.

Web documents, herein called Web pages, are stored on numerous server computers (hereinafter "servers") that are connected to the Internet. Each page on the Web has a distinct URL (universal resource locator). Many of the documents stored on Web servers are written in a standard document description language called HTML (hypertext markup language). Using HTML, a designer of Web documents can associate hypertext links or annotations with specific words or phrases in a document and specify visual aspects and the content of a Web page. The hypertext links identify the URLs of other Web documents or other parts of the same document providing information related to the words or phrases.
A user accesses documents stored on the WWW using a Web browser (a computer program designed to display HTML documents and communicate with Web servers) running on a Web client connected to the Internet. Typically, this is done by the user selecting a hypertext link (typically displayed by the Web browser as a highlighted word or phrase) within a document being viewed with the Web browser. The Web browser then issues a HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) request for the requested document to the Web server identified by the requested document's URL. In response, the designated Web server returns the requested document to the Web browser, also using the HTTP.
As of the end of the 1995, the number of pages on the portion of the Internet known as the World Wide Web (hereinafter the "Web") had grown several fold during the prior one year period to at least 30 million pages. The present invention is directed at a system for keeping track of pages on the Web as the Web continues to grow.
The systems for locating pages on the Web are known variously as "Web crawlers," "Web spiders" and "Web robots." The present invention has been coined a "Web scooter" because it is so much faster than all known Web crawlers. The terms "Web crawler," "Web spider," "Web scooter," "Web crawler computer system," and "Web scooter computer system" are used interchangeably in this document.
Prior art Web crawlers work generally as follows. Starting with a root set of known Web pages, a disk file is created with a distinct entry for every known Web page. As additional Web pages are fetched and their links to other pages are analyzed, additional entries are made in the disk file to reference Web pages not previously known to the Web crawler. Each entry indicates whether or not the corresponding Web page has been processed as well as other status information. A Web crawler processes a Web page by (A) identifying all links to other Web pages in the page being processed and storing related information so that all of the identified Web pages that have not yet been processed are added to a list of Web pages to be processed or other equivalent data structure, and (B) passing the Web page to an indexer or other document processing system.
The information about the Web pages already processed is generally stored In a disk file, because the amount of information in the disk file is too large to be stored in random access memory (RAM). For example, if an average of 100 bytes of information are stored for each Web page entry, a data file representing 30 million Web pages would occupy about 3 Gigabytes, which is too large for practical storage in RAM.
Next we consider the disk I/O incurred when processing one Web page. For purposes of this discussion we will assume that a typical Web page contains 20 references to other Web pages, and that a disk storage device can handle no more than 50 seeks per second. The Web crawler must evaluate each of the 20 page references in the page being processed to determine if it already knows about those pages. To do this it must attempt to retrieve 20 records from the Web information disk file. If the record for a specified page reference already exists, then that reference is discarded because no further processing is needed. However, if a record for a specified page is not found, an attempt must be made to locate a record for each possible alias of the page's address, thereby increasing the average of number of disk record seeks needed to analyze an average Web page to about 50 disk seeks per page.
If a disk file record for a specified page reference does not already exist a new record for the referenced page is created and added to the disk file, and that page reference is either added to a queue of pages to be processed, or the disk file entry is itself used to indicate that the page has not yet been fetched and processed.
Thus, processing a single Web page requires approximately 20 disk seeks (for reading existing records and for writing new records). As a result, given a limitation of 50 disk seeks per second, only about one Web pages can be processed per second.
In addition, there is a matter of network access latency. On average, it takes about 3 seconds on average to retrieve a Web page, although the amount of time is highly variable depending on the location of the Web server and the particular hardware and software being used on both the Web server and on the Web crawler computer. Network latency thus also tends to limit the number Web pages that can be processed by prior art Web crawlers to about 0.33 Web pages per second. Due to disk seek limitations, network latency, and other delay factors, a typical prior art Web crawler cannot process more than about 30,000 Web pages per day.
Due to the rate at which Web pages are being added to the Web, and the rate at which Web pages are being deleted and revised, processing 30,000 Web pages per day is inadequate for maintaining a truly current directory or index of all the Web pages on the Web. Ideally, a Web crawler should be able to visit (i.e., fetch and analyze) at least 2.5 million Web pages per day.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved Web crawler that processes millions of Web pages per day. It is a related goal of the present invention to provide an improved Web crawler that overcomes the aforementioned disk seek limitations and network latency limitations so as to enable the Web crawler's speed of operation to be limited primarily by the processing speed of the Web crawler's CPU. It is yet another related goal of the present invention to provide a Web crawler system than can fetch and analyze, on average, at least 30 Web pages per second, and more preferably at least 100 Web pages per second.

System for adding new entry to web page table upon receiving web page including link to another web page not having corresponding entry in web page table


There is described a machine for applying labels on articles transferred by respective labelling units along a given path (P); each unit comprises a receiving member having a lateral wall, which is adapted to receive a relative label and extends along an axis (F) transversal to the path (P); a cam and tappet device axially displaces the receiving members between a lowered position and a raised position and comprises a cam device, which is adjustable between a first and a second configuration; in the first configuration, cam followers of the units move along a first track (R) of the cam device to displace the respective receiving members between the lowered and raised position during transfer of the respective units; in the second configuration, the cam followers move along a second track (Q) of the cam device to maintain the respective receiving members in the lowered position during movement of the units along their path (P).

As it is generally known, labelling machines are used to apply labels to containers or articles of all sort. Typically, for beverage bottles or vessels, two alternative techniques can be provided to attach the labels on the external surface of respective bottles. According to a first technique, the back surfaces of the labels (commonly called "roll labels") are covered with glue and are stuck onto the external surfaces of the bottles. According to a second technique, after having placed tubular labels made of heat-shrinkable film (commonly called "sleeve labels") around respective bottles, the tubular labels are heated to fit and adhere onto the bottles.
In particular, these tubular labels are obtained by:                cutting a web unwound from a supply roll into a plurality of rectangular or square labels;        bending each label in a cylindrical configuration such that the opposite vertical edges overlap one another; and        welding the overlapped edges of each cylindrical label.
A particular type of labelling machine is known which serves to bend and weld labels in a tubular configuration and then to produce insertion of the bottles into the so formed tubular labels before the heating operation. This kind of machine basically comprises a carousel rotating about a vertical axis to define a circular path, along which it receives a succession of unlabelled bottles by a bottle input wheel and, then, a succession of rectangular or square labels by a label input wheel, produces application of the labels in a tubular configuration onto the respective bottles, and releases the labelled bottles to an output wheel.
More specifically, the carousel comprises a plurality of labelling units which are equally spaced along a peripheral edge of the carousel and are moved by the latter along the above-mentioned circular path.
Each labelling unit comprises a supporting assembly adapted to support the bottom wall of a relative bottle and an upper retainer adapted to cooperate with the top portion of such bottle, to hold it in a vertical position during the rotation of the carousel about its vertical axis.
Each supporting assembly comprises a vertical hollow supporting mount, secured to a horizontal plane of a rotary frame of the carousel; and a cylindrical receiving member, which engages the supporting mount in sliding and rotating manner with respect to its vertical axis, and is adapted to carry a relative bottle on its top surface and a relative label on its lateral surface.
The receiving members are displaced by a cam and tappet device between a raised position and a lowered position, while moving along the above mentioned circular path.
In the lowered position, the receiving member is fully retracted within the relative supporting mount, so that the top surface of each receiving member is flush with the top surface of the supporting mount. At the output wheel and at the bottle input wheel, each receiving member is located in its lowered position, so that the bottles are transferred onto and from the carousel along the same transfer horizontal plane.
In the raised position, each receiving member protrudes from a top surface of the relative supporting mount and is adapted to receive a relative label on its lateral surface from the label input wheel; in particular, the label is wrapped around the receiving member such that the opposite vertical edges of the label overlap one another. In order to produce this complete wrapping, the receiving member is rotated about its vertical axis during the transfer of the label from the label input wheel. The label is retained on the lateral surface of the receiving member by suction; for this purpose, at least a region of the lateral surface of the receiving member is provided with a plurality of holes, which are connected to a pneumatic suction device.
After having welded the overlapping edges of the tubular label, the suction is released and the receiving member is lowered, so as to produce the insertion of the relative bottle downwards inside the tubular label, therefore making the ensemble of the bottle and the surrounding label ready to be transferred to the output wheel.
The known labelling machines of this kind, working with the so-called "sleeve labels", are not suitable to work also with the so-called "roll labels", because the latter have to be stuck to the external surfaces of the bottles without providing vertically movable receiving members, i.e. without vertically moving the bottles. Indeed, in carousels provided to support and transfer bottles onto which labels are applied by means of glue, the supporting assemblies of the labelling units are simplified in comparison to the above described ones.
A need is felt to provide a single machine that can be configured by means of a relatively low number of operations to apply either the so-called "sleeve labels" or the so-called "roll labels", without removing or changing components from all the labelling units of the carousel.


A system and method of recovering from errors in a data processing system. The data processing system includes one or more processor cores coupled to one or more memory controllers. The one or more memory controllers include at least a first memory interface coupled to a first memory and at least a second memory interface coupled to a second memory. In response to determining an error has been detected in the first memory, access to the first memory via the first memory interface is inhibited. Also, the first memory interface is locally restarted without restarting the second memory interface.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to data processing systems, and more particularly, to memory management of data processing systems. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to memory error recovery in data processing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Almost all modern computer systems utilize some type of memory for data storage. However, those skilled in this art will appreciate that higher memory storage capacity frequently results in higher latency required to locate and access data on the high-capacity memory. Therefore, to address the access latency problem, many modern data processing systems include a memory hierarchy to keep frequently accessed data in low-capacity, fast access memory (e.g., L1, L2, or L3 cache) and retrieving data from higher-capacity, slower access memory (e.g., dynamic random-access memory (DRAM)) only when data only stored in that memory is required for processing.
However, like all electronic memory storage devices, DRAMs are prone to errors. For example, these errors may be caused by a defective DRAM module. DRAMs may be poorly manufactured or develop a defect due to wear-and-tear. Correctable errors caused by a defective DRAM module can be corrected by an algorithm such as Error Correction Code (ECC), discussed herein in more detail. Uncorrectable errors (UEs) can be handled by deconfiguring, or disabling the defective portion of the memory.
Those skilled in this art will appreciate that a way to correct errors in memory is to restart the computer system, which returns the system to a default state. However, the shutdown and restart of the computer system is inefficient and time consuming because the system is typically taken off-line and the services provided by the computer system are unavailable during the shutdown and restart.
Therefore, there is a need for a way to correct memory access errors without the shutdown and restart of the entire computer system.

System and method for recovering from errors in a data processing system

International Business Machines Corporation