A system for the testing of a software component API includes the generation of a wrapper component. The wrapper component is generated by determining the interface of the software component and by mirroring that interface in the public interface of the wrapper. The wrapper methods delegate to the software component API. Test code is included within the wrapper component to permit capture and playback of interaction with the software component API. Test case software accesses the software component API through the wrapper. The wrapper both generates trace data based on the interaction between the test case and the software component and delegates to the software component API.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an improvement in computing systems and in particular to the automation and isolation of software component testing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the development of large computer systems, modules or components are defined and implemented by computer code. The use of object oriented programming languages such as Java and C++ and the adoption of component environments that support the CORBA, Microsoft COM or Java Bean architectures has resulted in component-based system development becoming more common. Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems.
As such component development becomes more prevalent, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to test and validate such software components at an API (interface) level. Certain testing of components may be, and frequently is, carried out by incorporating test code (also referred to as instrumentation or instrumentation code) in the module or component being tested. However, for the testing of a component to be as rigorous as possible and to provide the most reliable results, it is desirable to test component code at the API level without special testing code being embedded in the component. Such software, without added testing code, is known as "production level code" or "production binaries".
Testing of production level code is popular for graphical user interface (GUI) testing. Software to carry out such testing of graphical interfaces is known as GUI capture and playback tooling. This type of prior art system records user interaction with the GUI (such as mouse clicks and keystrokes) and makes the recorded user-GUI interaction available for repeated test cases. Examples of commercially available systems which include GUI capture and playback tooling are the WinRunner™ product from Mercury Interactive Corp., the Silktest™ product from Segue Software Inc. and the Rational Robot™ product from Rational Software Corp.
The GUI capture and playback tooling found in prior art systems is not typically adapted to test API interfaces that are not graphical in nature. Certain prior art systems have provided for capture and playback tooling for non-graphical interfaces but such systems have built the capture functionality into the test case component of the system. Such an approach is relatively inflexible in that reuse and modification of the test case is cumbersome. The test case is tied closely to the component being tested in such systems.
Such non-graphical interfaces are important in distributed systems found in component-based architectures. As a result, a system to capture API interface interaction, that does not include code within the components or modules being tested, is desirable.
Furthermore, where extensive testing is carried out on software components, it is desirable to have testing tooling that will permit tests to be developed with a minimum of direct developer input. It is therefore desirable to have a test system that will automate the process to be carried out in capturing component API interaction in a test system.

Automation and isolation of software component testing


A printhead of an ink jet printer includes plural ejection nozzles for ejecting ink. In an ink ejection inspecting method for the printhead, the ejection nozzles are photographed in the printhead, to output image data. The image data is analyzed by the pattern recognition, to output analysis result information. According to this, it is judged whether an ejecting state of the ejection nozzles is acceptable or unacceptable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection inspecting method, liquid ejection inspector and image forming apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a liquid ejection inspecting method and liquid ejection inspector in which inspection of liquid ejection to check failure can be effected efficiently without waste of consumables, and an image forming apparatus for use with the liquid.
2. Description Related to the Prior Art
An ink jet printer is known as an image forming apparatus. A printhead includes an ink reservoir for storing ink. Ejection nozzles are connected with the ink reservoir, and caused by an ink supply unit to eject the ink to print an image on a recording medium. The ink jet printer of the type known so far has problems in that ink is dried and deposited on the inside of the ejection nozzles, or that the surplus ink may be scattered by the recording medium, and come back to and deposit on a surface of the printhead, to cause jamming of ink.
When jamming of ink occurs, there is ejection failure in which an amount of ejected ink decreases, or comes down to zero. Unevenness in the density or colors occurs in a streak shape in a recorded image, to lower the image quality remarkably. Therefore, it is necessary in an ink jet printer to detect the ejection failure at the ejection nozzles, and to eliminate the ejection failure in the case of occurrence.
To check the ejection failure, various methods are known. JP-A 8-332736 and 11-078051 disclose test printing to eject test ink to the recording medium and inspection of the shape and arrangement of droplets of the ink. JP-A 11-192726, EP-A 1059172 (corresponding to JP-A 2001-054954), and JP-A 2001-063083 disclose methods in which droplets of test ink are ejected, a beam of laser or other electromagnetic rays is applied to the droplets, to detect a shielded state of the beam at the droplets.
However, those known techniques have problems. In the first of those methods, a test pattern must be recorded together with a target image without any relation. Also, ink for test printing is required in a wasteful manner. A space in the recording medium for receiving droplets of the ink is required for the test printing. In the second of those methods, the same problem occurs in ink for test printing is required in a wasteful manner. Specifically, density in image recording has been higher in recent techniques for printing. The number of the ejection nozzles as arranged in the printhead has been high. This causes a shortcoming in requirement of much time for the detecting the ejection failure. If the ejection failure is checked in the course of the printing, productivity or efficiency in the printing becomes lower.

Liquid ejection inspecting method, liquid ejection inspector, and image forming apparatus


An aspect of the present invention provides an image recording apparatus comprising: an image recording device which records an extended image file storing a plurality of pieces of image data and a basic file storing at least one piece of image data selected from the pieces of image data stored in the extended image file, the extended image file and the basic file being associated with each other; a determination device which determines whether or not the basic file has been deleted or modified; and a basic file recovery device which recovers the basic file from the extended image file if it is determined that the basic file has been deleted or modified.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image recording apparatuses and image recording methods, and more particularly to an image recording apparatus and image recording method in which a plurality of pieces of image data are recorded by storing them in a single image file.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-266420 (FIG. 4) discloses an image data recording method that records a plurality of continuous still images in such a manner that compressed data on the continuous still images generated in one recording operation forms a unit made up of independent compressed data pieces of the still images.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-274091 (FIG. 9) discloses an image data generation apparatus that generates image data from images from a plurality of viewpoints, wherein file headers for the images from the plurality of viewpoints and image information are combined into a single file in an existing format.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-229291 (Paragraph [0125], FIG. 7) discloses an image recording apparatus that saves 3D image data by generating a new folder and saving the 3D image data, right-eye image data, and left-eye image data together in that folder.
If an image file containing a plurality of concatenated pieces of image data is given a special extension different from those for conventional standard image files, the image file cannot be recognized as an image file by image processing apparatuses and image processing applications that do not support that extension. Therefore, to such an image file, it may be possible to give an extension for conventional standard image files (an extension corresponding to the encoding format of the pieces of image data included in the image file, e.g., JPG) so that the image file can be recognized as an image file by conventional image processing apparatuses and so on. Thus, even in an image processing apparatus having no function of reading a plurality of pieces of image data from an image file in which a plurality of pieces of image data are stored and performing processing such as reproducing, the image file can be treated in the same manner as a standard image file. Therefore, at least the first one of the pieces of image data in the image file can be read.

Image recording apparatus and image recording method


The present invention intends to provide a manufacturing method for a PDP that can continuously apply phosphor ink for a long time and can accurately and evenly produce phosphor layers even when the cell construction is very fine. To do so, phosphor ink is continuously expelled from a nozzle while the nozzle moves relative to channels between partition walls formed on a plate so as to scan and apply phosphor ink to the channels. While doing so the path taken by the nozzle within each channel between a pair of partition walls is adjusted based on position information for the channel. When phosphor particles is successively applied to a plurality of channels, phosphor ink is continuously expelled from the nozzle even when the nozzle is positioned away from the channels. The phosphor ink is composed of: phosphor particles that have an average particle diameter of 0.5 to 5 μm; a mixed solvent in which materials selected from a group consisting of terpineol, butyl carbitol acetate, butyl carbitol, pentandiol, and limonene are mixed; and a binder that is an ethylene group polymer or ethyl cellulose containing at least 49% of ethoxy group (—OC2H5) cellulose molecules. After dispersion a charge-removing material is added to the phosphor ink.

In recent years, there have been high expectations for the realization of large-screen televisions with superior picture quality. One example of such televisions are televisions for the "HiVision" standard used in Japan. In the field of display devices, research is being performed into a variety of devices, such as CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes), LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), and Plasma Display Panels (hereafter PDPs) with the aim of producing suitable televisions.
Cathode ray tubes that are conventionally used in televisions have superior resolution and picture quality. However, the depth and weight of CRT televisions increases with screen size, so that CRTs are not suited to the production of large televisions with screen sizes of forty inches or more. LCDs have some notable advantages, such as low power consumption and low driving voltages, but it is difficult to manufacture large-screen LCDs.
On the other hand, PDPs enable large-screen slimline televisions to be produced, with fifty-inch models already having been developed.
PDPs can be roughly divided into direct current (DC) types and alternating current (AC) types. At present, AC types, which are suited to the production of panels with fine cell structures, are prevalent.
A representative AC-type PDPs is described hereafter. Display electrodes are provided on a front cover plate. This cover plate is arranged in parallel with a back cover plate on which the address electrodes are provided, so that the sets of electrodes form a matrix. A gap left between the plates is partitioned by partition walls in the form of stripes. Layers of red, green, and blue phosphors are formed between the partition walls and discharge gas is sealed in these spaces. Driving circuits are used to apply voltages to the electrodes, which causes discharge and the emission of ultra-violet light. This ultra-violet light is absorbed by the particles of red, green and blue phosphors in the phosphor layers, which causes excited emission of light. This light forms an image on the panel.
Most PDPs of this type are manufactured by forming the partition walls on the back plate, forming the phosphor layers between these walls, and introducing the discharge gas after arranging the front cover plate on the back plate.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. H06-5205 teaches a commonly used method for forming the phosphor layers between the partition walls. In this method (a screen-printing method), the gaps between the partition walls are filled with phosphor paste which is then baked. However, it is difficult to produce a PDP with a fine cell structure using screen printing.
As one example, when producing a television that is fully compatible with the specification for Japanese "HiVision" broadcasts, screen resolution needs to be 1920 by 1125 pixels, so that the pitch (cell pitch) of the partition walls for a 42-inch screen is only around 0.1 to 0.15 mm and the gaps between partition walls are only around 0.08 to 0.1 mm wide. Since the phosphor inks used by screen-printing is highly viscose (generally in the region of tens of thousands of centipoise), it is difficult to apply the phosphor inks to the narrow gaps between partition walls accurately and at high speed. It is also difficult to produce the screen plates for a PDP of such a fine construction.
Aside from screen printing, phosphor layers can be formed using a photoresist film or ink-jet printing.
One example of a method that uses a photo-resist film is described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. H06-273925. In this method, resinous film that is sensitive to UV light and contain phosphors of the one of the three colors is placed between adjacent partition walls. Only parts of the resinous film that are used to form a phosphor layer of the desired color are exposed, and remaining parts are washed away. With this method, a film can be inserted between the partition walls with a fair degree of accuracy, even when the cell pitch is narrow.
However, for each of the three colors, a film has to be inserted, the desired parts of the film need to be exposed, and the remaining parts need to be washed away. This makes the manufacturing process difficult, with there being a further problem of the different colors often becoming mixed. Phosphors are a relatively expensive material and since the phosphors that are washed away are unsuited to recycling, this method is also costly.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. S53-79371 and H08-162019 teach techniques that use ink-jet printing. A liquid ink formed of phosphors and an organic binder is pressurized and so is expelled from a nozzle that scans an insulating board, thereby forming a desired pattern of phosphor ink on the surface. These ink-jet methods generally use phosphor inks that are manufactured in the following way. Phosphors are dispersed in a mixture including (1) an organic binder such as ethyl cellulose, acryl resin, or polyvinyl alcohol, (2) a solvent such as terpineol or butyl carbitol acetate using a disperser such as a paint shaker.
With this kind of ink jet method, ink can be accurately applied to the narrow channels between the partition walls, though the ink that is expelled from the nozzle tends to form droplets and so is only intermittently applied to the channels. As a result, it is difficult to apply ink smoothly along the stripe-like channels.
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. H08-245853 and H09-253749, the inventors of the present application describe a method where low-viscosity, highly fluid phosphor inks are used. These inks are pressurized and so are continuously expelled from a moving nozzle, thereby applying the inks smoothly.
However, if the phosphor inks have been applied in the above manner, blurred lines tend to appear along the partition walls and along the gaps in the address electrodes when the resulting PDP is driven. Such blurred lines are especially evident in areas of the screen where white is being displayed.
It is believed that such blurred lines appear due to inconsistencies in the phosphor layers formed in the channels or due to the mixing of different-colored phosphors. Inconsistencies appear in the phosphor layer for the reasons given below.    (1) During application, the phosphor ink becomes electrically charged, and so can be affected by electrical charge that builds up due to the manufacturing environment or conditions. This means that the amount of phosphor ink that is applied can vary at different positions on the PDP.    (2) If the phosphor inks of the three colors are applied one at a time in order, the phosphor inks for the second and third colors are applied with phosphor ink already present in the neighboring channels. Phosphor ink being applied is subject to rheological effects of the phosphor ink present in these neighboring channels, so that it is difficult to apply the ink evenly.
Note that if the phosphor ink of each color is allowed to dry properly before the next ink is applied, such rheological effects can be eradicated. However, the drying process has to be performed more often, making more equipment necessary and complicating the manufacturing process.    (3) When phosphor ink is applied in the channels between the partition walls, it is preferable for the nozzle to scan along the centers of the channels so as to apply the ink evenly. However, even if the nozzle moves in a straight line, inconsistencies in the width of the channels and curvature of the channels can prevent the nozzle from following the center of the channels, making the consistent application of ink extremely difficult. This problem is especially evident with PDPs that have a fine cell structure.    (4) If a highly fluid phosphor ink is applied using fine nozzle, the switching on and off of the nozzle is accompanied by variation in the amount of ink that is actually expelled from the nozzle and in the angle at which the ink jet emerges. This makes it difficult to accurately apply the phosphor ink between the partition walls.
As another problem, it is difficult to apply the phosphor ink to the side faces of the partition walls on both sides of the channels, so that the ink tends to accumulate at the base of the channels. A balanced application of phosphor ink to both the base and the side faces of the walls is therefore difficult to achieve. When the balance between the amounts of phosphor ink on the side faces of the walls and in the base is poor, high panel luminance is difficult to achieve.
The diameter of the nozzle used in inkjet methods needs to be small in keeping with the pitch of the partition walls. This makes it easy for the nozzle to become blocked and prevents the prolonged continuous application of phosphor ink. In particular, when making a highly intricate PDP with a partition wall pitch of 0.15 mm or below, the diameter of the nozzle has to be set at a narrower distance, making blockage of the nozzle more common.

Plasma display panel manufacturing method for manufacturing a plasma display panel with superior picture quality, a manufacturing apparatus, and a phosphor ink

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A computer system has multiple performance states. The computer system periodically determines utilization information for the computer system and adjusts the performance state according to the utilization information. If a performance increase is required, the computer system always goes to the maximum performance state. If a performance decrease is required, the computer system steps the performance state down to a next lower performance state.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems and more particularly to power management of such systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Power consumption and associated performance and thermal issues are considerations for every computer system design. For example, a conventional notebook computer (also commonly referred to as a laptop or portable computer) has power and thermal constraints that cause it to operate at performance states below an equivalent desktop computer.
Many power saving techniques have been introduced to try and mitigate the impact of thermal and battery power constraints. The frequency of operation (clock frequency) of the processor and its operating voltage determine its power consumption. Since power consumption and therefore heat generation are roughly proportional to the processor's frequency of operation, scaling down the processor's frequency has been a common method of staying within appropriate power limitations. Microprocessors utilized in mobile applications, i.e., those used in battery powered systems, are particularly sensitive to power considerations and therefore generally require the lowest supply voltage that can achieve the rated clock speed. That is in part due to the small, densely packed system construction that limits the ability of the mobile computer system to safely dissipate the heat generated by computer operation.
A common power management technique called "throttling" prevents the processor from overheating by temporarily placing the processor in a stop grant state. During the stop grant state the processor does not execute operating system or application code and typically has its clocks gated off internally to reduce power consumption. Throttling is an industry standard method of reducing the effective frequency of processor operation and correspondingly reducing processor power consumption by using a clock control signal (e.g., the processor's STPCLK# input) to modulate the duty cycle of processor operation. A temperature sensor monitors the processor temperature to determine when throttling is needed. Throttling continuously stops and starts processor operation and reduces the effective speed of the processor resulting in reduced power dissipation and thus lowers processor temperature.
Referring to FIG. 1, one prior art system capable of implementing throttling is illustrated. Processor (CPU) 101 receives voltage 102 from voltage regulator 103. The voltage regulator is controlled by voltage identification (VID) signals 104 which are set by system jumper settings 105. A clock multiplier value 107 (bus frequency (BF)[2:0]), supplied from system jumper settings 105 is supplied to CPU 101. CPU 101 multiplies a received bus clock 109 by the multiplier value 107 to generate the core clocks for the processor.
CPU 101 receives a STPCLK# (the # sign indicates the signal is active low) input, which is used to temporarily suspend core clock operation and conserve power. An asserted STPCLK# signal results in the processor entering a stop grant state. In that state, execution of operating system (OS) and application code is stopped, and the core clocks are typically stopped although some minimum logic including clock multiplier logic may still operate.
Appropriately monitoring and controlling the processor's operating parameters is important to optimizing performance and battery life. Power management in older personal computer systems was typically implemented using micro-controllers and/or proprietary use of the system management interrupt (SMI). Current x86 based computer systems utilize an industry supported power management approach described in the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Specification (ACPI). The ACPI is an operating system (OS) controlled power management scheme that uses features built into the Windows 9x and Windows NT or other compatible operating systems. It defines a standard interrupt (System Control Interrupt or SCI) that handles all ACPI events. Devices generate system control interrupts to inform the OS about system events.
As part of that power management approach, ACPI specifies sleep and suspend states. Sleep states temporarily halt processor operation, and operation can be restored in a few milliseconds. A computer enters the sleep state when internal activity monitors indicate no processing is taking place. When a keystroke is entered, a mouse moves or data is received via a modem, the processor wakes up.
Suspend states shut down more of the subsystems (e.g., display or hard drive) and can take a few.seconds for operation to be restored. Suspend states may copy the present context of the system (sufficient for the computer to resume processing the application(s) presently opened) into memory (suspend to RAM) or to the hard drive (suspend to disk) and may also power down peripherals.
For example, in a word processing application, a processor will do a brief burst of work after each letter is typed, then its operation is stopped until the next keystroke. Additionally, peripheral devices may be turned off to obtain more power savings. For example, the computer's hard drive may be suspended after a certain period of inactivity until it is needed again. If the system detects another period of inactivity, e.g., a few minutes, the display may be turned off. Such techniques are useful in conserving power, especially in battery-powered systems, and in the case of the processor, reducing the amount of heat needed to be dissipated. It is also common practice to use a cooling fan to increase the amount of heat removed from the system, lower processor temperature and prevent damage to the system.
While the ACPI environment provides a number of mechanisms to deal with thermal and power issues, it fails to provide a sophisticated power management capability that can satisfactorily reduce power consumption in computer systems. While power consumption issues are particular important for small portable computers, power consumption issues are important for all types of computers as well. For example, while battery life may not be a consideration for desktop computers, thermal considerations are still an important criteria. In particular, for desktop computers, the hotter they run, the more likely fans are turned on to try and cool the processor, which results in fan noise or frequent cycling of the fans that may be objectionable to the computer user. In addition, saving power can have real economic benefits.
Further, traditional throttling techniques have limitations for certain types of applications. More particularly, throttling has a time overhead associated with it that may disallow its use for some real time (e.g., a soft modem) applications. Thus, although throttling can achieve an "effective frequency," an effective frequency is not always as useful as an actual frequency. For example, assume legacy power management techniques are throttling a 1 GHz CPU down to an "effective speed" of 300 MHz. The latency (actual stopped time and switching time) involved in throttling can cause a CPU having an "effective speed" of 300 MHz, to be unable to satisfactorily support a real time application, while a processor actually running at 300 MHz could properly support the application. Thus, there is a difference between actual and effective frequencies for certain applications.
In view of the above considerations, it would be desirable to save power in computer systems, such as desktop systems or portable systems, without affecting the performance perceived by the user. In order to do that it would be desirable for power management techniques to determine what performance states were required, and adapt power levels to meet the performance requirements. Those and other improvements in power management are desirable to more effectively provide high performance in conjunction with effective power management.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for improving responsiveness of a power management system in a computing device


A collapsible fuel-burning stove includes a burner assembly and a collapsible frame for supporting the burner assembly, the frame including a plurality of support members, the support members being pivotal relative to one another about a common axis on which the burner assembly is supported.

Liquified petroleum gas (LPG) is generally utilized as a fuel or liquid which vaporizes at ambient pressures and temperatures, but which is stored in containers under pressure in liquid form. Most conventional burning appliances which utilize LPG are relatively simple, comprising a valve adapted to connect the pressurized LPG container to a burner. Most of these burning appliances operate on a vapor-withdrawal principle, drawing vapor from the container. The container is generally oriented so that the liquid settles to the bottom and the self-pressurized vapor collects at the top. The appliance draws this vapor from the container in order to fuel the burner.
While simple to operate, this type of burning appliance has several drawbacks. As the vapor is withdrawn, the pressure in the container will drop. Also, additional vapor will bubble from the remaining liquid in the container. As this occurs, the liquid will cool and the pressure in the container will drop further. As the pressure drops, so does the output of the burning appliance. In addition, if the fuel is a mixture of gases, such as commonly used blend of propane and butane, these different components will bubble out of the liquid at different rates. Thus, the mixture of the gaseous components in the vapor will change, altering the performance of the appliance as it consumes the fuel. All of these factors, which are aggravated at low temperatures, result in inconsistent burner output.
Prior attempts to develop burning appliances, which operate on liquid-withdrawal principles generally involve a porous wick depending from a check valve within the container. The wick draws liquid fuel from the container, and the fuel is vaporized after it is extracted from the container. While these liquid withdrawal arrangements do not suffer from cold weather performance difficulties to the same extent as vapor withdrawal appliances, it is difficult to maintain a sufficient wicking rate to keep up with the output demands of many appliances, particularly at low fuel levels.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a pressurized LPG container which permits withdrawal of liquid fuel from the container, and from which liquid fuel can be withdrawn at an acceptable rate, regardless of fuel levels.
In order to withdraw liquid from a canister of a container using a dip tube, it is necessary that the dip tube be submersed in the liquid in the canister. This can be accomplished by orienting the canister. For example, the dip tube can be straight, and the canister can be designed to operated in the upright position. Alternatively, the dip tube can be designed to extend to a sidewall of the canister, and the canister can be designed to be oriented with the dip tube pointing down, to where the liquid will accumulate. However, these approaches require the canister orientation to be maintained, which can be burdensome in a camping setting.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a canister from which liquid can be withdrawn regardless of the canister orientation.
With liquid withdrawal, it is desired that the liquid fuel be properly vaporized before it reaches the burner. Thus, there is an additional need in the art for a connector between the fuel container and the burning appliance which assists in vaporizing the fuel.
Because campers and backpackers seek to minimize the volume, weight, and amount of equipment they carry, appliances such as camp stoves must be compact, lightweight, and versatile, yet easy to assemble and operate. It is therefore desirable to provide a compact, lightweight, and versatile portable stove.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,790 to Zenzaburo, for a "Pocket camp Stove", discusses one such approach, in which a stove has three wire legs attached to a hub. The three legs are movable between a folded position, in which all three legs are relatively together, and an in-use position, in which the three legs are substantially equally spaced apart and extend radially outwardly from the hub member. Although this stove is compact and lightweight, the independently movable legs can be awkward to manipulate and unstable if not properly oriented.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a stove frame which not only is compact, lightweight, and versatile but which also is stable and simple to operate.
It is often challenging to achieve a proper fuel flow to a burning appliance during start-up. Often, the flow rates will be set too high or low for proper ignition. It is difficult to gauge from sight or sound exactly how far a valve should be opened prior to ignition. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a mechanism by which the fuel flow rate can be properly controlled during start-up.
It is also desirable to provide a quick and simple mechanism for securing a container to a burning appliance. One attempt, Iwaniti's CB-55E stove, connects the canister by providing a notch in an extended rim of the canister cap. This notch matches a lever on the stove adjacent the valve mechanism. In order to engage the canister to the stove, the canister has to be oriented so that the lever fits within the notch. Once engaged, turning the canister actuates the lever, which, in turn, actuates a revolving collet. Within the collet sits a stationary cam. As the collet revolves, it contacts the cam, which forces fingers of the collet into a groove in the canister cap, securing the canister to the stove.
While such a mechanism provides a secure connection between the canister and the stove, it requires the canister to be oriented properly for engagement. It also requires that the canister include an extended canister rim, which increases the overall size of the canister.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a connector which permits a simple mechanism for securing a canister to a burning appliance or other outlet, and which does not require considerable effort to orient prior to connection, and which does not increase the overall size of the canister.


Embodiments in accordance with the present invention recite utilizing scripting for provisioning actions. In one embodiment, a removable data storage device is communicatively coupled with a portable electronic device. An executable script file stored by the removable data storage device is utilized to cause the portable electronic device to perform an action.

Currently, there are numerous types of portable electronic devices having a limited communication capability and/or a limited user interface capability. This may be desirable in some instances in order to keep the unit cost of the device to a minimum, or because it is not desired that a casual user is able to interact with the software or firmware running on the device.
As an example, some position tracking and reporting devices which generate an autonomous position report when movement is detected, or when a position request is received from a user or monitoring service. These devices are often used for fleet monitoring, asset tracking and recovery and the like. The position tracking device typically does not have an integrated user interface or display device both because they are not necessary for the normal operation of the device and to keep the unit cost of the device to a minimum.
However, at times it may be desirable to be able to reconfigure the position tracking device, or to retrieve data from it. This typically involves coupling the position tracking device with a laptop computer and manually initiating the desired operation. This can be cumbersome and heavy for the operator performing this, especially when there may be dozens, or hundreds of position tracking devices in use. Some position tracking and reporting devices have wireless communication capability. However, some users, especially those with multiple tracking devices, may find wireless communications too costly, or not secure enough to configure, retrieve data from their position tracking devices in this manner.

Utilizing scripting for provisioning actions


A yellow bug lamp whose coating is cadmium-free. The coating comprises sulfate precipitated silica, aluminum silicate pigment, zirconium praseodymiun yellow zircon and nickel titanium yellow rutile and has color coordinates of x=0.5341 to 0.5406 and y=0.4400 to 0.4378.

Bug lamps which emit yellow light are known. Such lamps generally derived their yellow color by virtue of a coating on a surface thereof, which coating contained large amounts of cadmium. Recently, the disposal of such lamps has raised environmental concerns because of the danger of the cadmium entering into ground water supplies or otherwise causing potential damage to the environment. One solution to the problem has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,395, wherein the main color component comprises rutile titanium dioxide containing antimony and chromium. However, this coating can also contain up to 15% cadmium. Additionally, some of the prior art coatings, which have a high bulk density, are difficult to coat causing agglomerates, pinholes and/or stratifications.


A resin tank and a method for manufacturing a resin tank in which positional deviation and deformation of an inserted member is prevented. In a resin tank formed through resin injection molding, a gradually changing thickness portion in which a thickness of a resin layer gradually changes from one side to the other side with respect to a surface of an insert plate for attachment of an auxiliary component is formed in the resin layer at a region into which the insert plate is inserted.

In the related art, a resin tank formed by insert-molding an insert plate for attachment of an auxiliary component is known (see Patent Literature 1, for example). Patent Literature 1 describes insert-molding a ring-shaped plate directly inside a resin tank body at the time of blow-molding.
Also, injection-molding using a thermoplastic synthetic resin with a barrier layer inserted into an inner side surface in a case in which a large-scale closed container such as a fuel tank for a vehicle is molded is known (see Patent Literature 2, for example). According to Patent Literature 2, a plurality of split bodies with open shapes are molded through injection molding, and the split bodies are pressurized with circumferential edges of the openings united with each other and are thus integrally bonded to each other, thereby molding a large-scale closed container.

Resin tank and method for manufacturing resin tank


In techniques for adaptive denoising with internal and external patches, example image patches taken from example images are grouped into partitions of similar patches, and a partition center patch is determined for each of the partitions. An image denoising technique is applied to image patches of a noisy image to generate modified image patches, and a closest partition center patch to each of the modified image patches is determined. The image patches of the noisy image are then classified as either a common patch or a complex patch of the noisy image, where an image patch is classified based on a distance between the corresponding modified image patch and the closest partition center patch. A denoising operator can be applied to an image patch based on the classification, such as applying respective denoising operators to denoise the image patches that are classified as the common patches of the noisy image.

Image denoising is a challenging problem that is not readily solved. A digital image can include noise in the form of electronic noise, such as may be introduced into the image by the electronics and/or sensor of a digital camera that is used to capture the image. Another common cause of image noise is when an image is captured in low light. Much like a grainy photograph taken with a conventional camera in a low light environment, noise can appear as random specks in a digital image that has been captured with a digital camera in a low light environment. Noise may also be introduced into a digital image during image processing, such as when a compression technique is applied. Noise in a digital image reduces image detail and clarity, and is likely most notable when the image is displayed on a larger size monitor, rather than on a smaller display device that may be integrated with a digital camera, mobile phone, or other portable media device.
Conventional approaches to eliminating or reducing the noise in an image, referred to as denoising the image, leverages image priors, such as utilizing patch recurrence in an image. Patch recurrence is based on similar patches that recur in the same image (e.g., internal patches) and/or similar patches that recur in different, other images (e.g., external patches). The current techniques attempt to leverage one or the other of the two types of priors, the internal patches or the external patches. A technique that leverages the internal, similar patches in an image can still introduce artifacts or blurring effects in the image when there is not a sufficient number of self-similar patches in the image. A technique that leverages the external, similar patches does not perform well with images having only a small or limited noise because other internal patches in the image are difficult to sample and model.

Adaptive denoising with internal and external patches


A hot melt adhesive material dispensing system includes a communication system for transmitting information or data between the adhesive supply unit (ASU) and one or more applicator heads, wherein the number of hard wires actually interconnecting the adhesive supply unit (ASU) and the one or more hot melt adhesive material dispensing applicator heads can be reduced by the employment of signal couplers. In addition, the number of applicator heads that can be utilized in conjunction with a particular adhesive supply unit (ASU) can be increased by incorporating the temperature controller, normally disposed upon the adhesive supply unit (ASU), upon the applicator head.

As is well known in the hot melt adhesive material dispensing art or industry, a typical hot melt adhesive material dispensing system comprises three primary components, an applicator head which comprises a hot melt adhesive material dispensing nozzle for dispensing a predetermined amount of the hot melt adhesive material, in a predetermined pattern, onto a substrate, an adhesive supply unit (ASU) which supplies the hot melt adhesive material to the applicator head, and a hot melt adhesive material hose assembly by means of which the hot melt adhesive material is conducted from the hot melt adhesive supply unit (ASU) to the applicator head. The hot melt adhesive material hose assembly conventionally comprises a tubular member which may be fabricated, for example, from TEFLON®, a stainless steel wire braid-type woven layer disposed therearound, and a pair of end fittings disposed upon opposite ends of the tubular member so as to respectively connect the opposite ends of the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly to the adhesive supply unit and to the applicator head. The tubular member, the end fittings, and the stainless steel wire braid-type woven layer together define the hot melt adhesive material hose core, and the hot melt adhesive material hose core is encased within multiple layers of wrapped tape. Furthermore, a heater circuit or wire is operatively associated with the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly, by being wrapped around the hot melt adhesive material hose core and disposed beneath one or more of the aforenoted layers of tape, in order to maintain the hot melt adhesive material, being conducted through the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly, at a predetermined temperature level such that the hot melt adhesive material will have or exhibit the proper viscosity properties when the hot melt adhesive material is to be dispensed from the dispensing nozzles of the applicator head.
Still yet further, it is also noted that the adhesive supply unit (ASU) comprises various electrical components, such as, for example, hot melt adhesive material supply pumps for supplying predetermined amounts of the hot melt adhesive material to the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly and ultimately to the applicator head, hot melt adhesive material supply valving for controlling the actual supply of the hot melt adhesive material into, through, or out from the adhesive supply unit (ASU), and the like. In a similar manner, it is noted that the applicator head also comprises various electrical components, such as, for example, solenoid-controlled mechanisms operatively associated with the hot melt adhesive material dispensing nozzle valving structure, valving structure utilized for controlling the routing or flow of control air streams, and the like. Accordingly, opposite end portions of the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly are respectively provided with electrical connectors which are not only adapted to be electrically connected to mating electrical connector structures fixedly mounted upon the hot melt adhesive supply unit (ASU) and the applicator head, but in addition, are adapted to terminate coaxial power cable assemblies through which various electrical wires, for providing electrical power and electrical connections to the aforenoted electrical components of the hot melt adhesive supply unit (ASU) and the applicator head, are routed.
It can therefore be readily appreciated that in view of the multiplicity of electrical connections that need to be made and implemented, a multiplicity of electrical wires must be routed between the various electrical components housed within the adhesive supply unit (ASU) and the various electrical components housed within the applicator head, and since the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly is effectively the only means effectively interconnecting the adhesive supply unit (ASU) to the applicator head, the wires must be routed along the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly. Accordingly, not only does a multiplicity of electrical wires need to be routed between the adhesive supply unit (ASU) and the applicator head, and along the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly, and not only does a multiplicity of electrical connections need to be made upon both the adhesive supply unit (ASU) and applicator head ends of the system, but in addition, the multiplicity of electrical wires add considerable size, bulk, and weight to the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly. Still yet further, it is also known in the hot melt adhesive material art or industry that the adhesive supply unit (ASU) conventionally comprises a temperature controller which is adapted to control the energization of the heater circuit or wire incorporated within the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly and/or the heater element incorporated within the applicator head so as to maintain the temperature of the hot melt adhesive material, either within the hot melt adhesive material hose assembly or within the applicator head, at a predetermined set point or level in response temperature levels sensed by one or more temperature sensors which may comprise, for example, resistance temperature detectors (RTDs). It is noted, however, that the space which is available upon the adhesive supply unit (ASU) for accommodating one or more temperature controllers is somewhat limited, and accordingly, only a limited or pre-determined number of temperature controllers are in fact able to be accommodated upon the adhesive supply unit (ASU). Thus, in view of such limited amount of available space upon the adhesive supply unit (ASU), the number of applicator heads that may be serviced by means of a single adhesive supply unit (ASU) is correspondingly limited.
A need therefore exists in the art for a new and improved hot melt adhesive material dispensing system wherein not only can the number of electrical wires and electrical connections between the adhesive supply unit (ASU) and the applicator head be substantially reduced, but in addition, the temperature controllers can be respectively incorporated within the applicator heads such that a multiplicity of applicator heads can easily be serviced by means of a single adhesive supply unit (ASU).

Information communication systems between components of a hot melt adhesive material dispensing system


A rheometer for determining and/or monitoring the flow behavior of viscous fluids, in particular plastic melts and plastic solutions, includes a housing, in which at least one substantially rectilinear channel is formed between an inlet opening and an outlet opening, the channel having a rectangular cross section, and a plurality of pressure measuring devices which are arranged along the channel, wherein the channel is provided over its length with a cyclically narrowing and widening cross section.

The invention relates to a rheometer, in particular for determining and/or monitoring the flow behavior of thermoplastics.
Thermoplastics are normally processed by means of extrusion processes or injection-molding processes. For material preparation, compounders or co-rotating twin screw extruders are normally used. In this case, the plasticization of the plastics is normally realized by screw plasticizing units. The plasticized plastic melts are generally non-Newtonian fluids, which exhibit time- or shear rate-dependent behavior. Here, the viscosity is not a constant, but rather varies with the shear rate. However, plastic melts and plastic solutions also exhibit complex extensional rheology behavior since the extensional viscosity is dependent on the strain rate and the stress duration and specific effects occur, such as for example strain hardening. From, for example, H.-J. Luger, J, Miethlinger: Study of glass-fiber-reinforced polypropylene in elongational and shear rheometry. Advances in Plastics Technology Conference, Sosnowiec, Poland (2015) or Miethlinger: Polymer Extrusion und Compounding [Polymer extrusion and compounding]—current research work. 24th Leoben Plastics Colloquium, Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria (2015), it is known that extensional rheology investigations are able to deliver important additional information in comparison with pure shear rheology experiments. As a result of this, very complex processes arise when processing thermoplastics, which processes can be captured mathematically and described theoretically only to a limited extent. It is possible only to a limited extent for said processes to be simulated or investigated experimentally in order for example to record and to optimize, and also to further develop, the quality of the plasticization processes. This applies in particular to barrier screws and screws with extension elements which are used mainly for plasticization. Of particular importance in this case are wave screws and energy transfer screws.
In order to investigate the viscosity of plasticized non-Newtonian materials, a device for measuring viscosity, in which the material produced from an extruder screw is pressed through a rectangular slot, was proposed in DE 42 20 157 A1. A multiplicity of pressure sensors are provided in the channel-like slot.
A device for measuring the inner friction of liquid substances is known from DE 34 90 044 T1. In addition to the friction, the coefficient of friction of liquids can also be determined by means of said device. For this purpose, a sleeve through which the liquid flows is provided. Within the sleeve, a constriction may be provided, this working in a manner similar to a Venturi tube. For the purpose of recording measurement values, thermometers are provided.
DE 195 29 578 A1 presents a further device for determining rheological properties of flowable substances. The slot rheometer proposed in said document has a tapering annular gap at which pressure measurements are performed.
DE 198 46 579 C1 describes a device for determining the pressure decrease when plasticized masses flow through a capillary with a defined cross section and defined length. Here, melt is pressed through the capillary by means of a pump which is able to be regulated volumetrically. Monitoring of the flow processes may be realized by means of pressure transducers and temperature measurement transducers.
A rheometer with a settable gap is already known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,058 A. Shear rates and shear forces can be determined by means of the rheometer.
Although the rheometers known from the prior art are able to capture specific processes during the flow of non-Newtonian fluids, due to the respective construction of the rheometer, these are limited to very singular applications and do not permit reproduction of the quality of the complex processes of plasticization by way of kneading and conveying elements, barrier screws, wave screws and/or energy transfer screws.
The prior art thus shows different continuously working rheometers, so-called extrusion rheometers, which have one or more melt channels or fluid channels. Here, the multiple channels are in each case normally connected in parallel in order for it to be possible to record multiple measurement values with different shear rates by way of one measurement process. However, it is not possible in this way for the complex processes in plasticizing screws, in particular barrier screws, to be simulated or investigated.


An example arial image capture system captures a sequence of images from a camera attached to a flight vehicle while the flight vehicle moves in a lateral direction relative to underlying terrain and while concurrently rotating the camera along a circular path about an axis of rotation. The rotation of the camera controllably alters the camera's field-of-view to trace a curved swath of the underlying terrain with each rotation period of the camera around an area external to the camera's field-of-view.

High-Altitude Balloons are useful platforms for applications like atmospheric sampling, celestial imaging, and communications repeating. Due to the high vantage point of the stratosphere, there exists potential for using high-altitude balloons for earth observation and remote sensing applications. Yet, there exist fundamental technological hurdles that typically preclude high-altitude balloons from being used for applications where instruments look down at the earth. These hurdles arise largely from the inability to control balloon system speed and from the lightweight nature of such systems that creates vulnerabilities relating to inertial stability.
The first major problem with using high altitude balloons for earth observation applications is placement. Because high-altitude balloons are pushed by the wind, and most commonly do not have propulsion capabilities, it is very difficult to precisely place a high-altitude balloon over a predetermined point on the ground. Without an ability to place a balloon over a specific point on the ground, applications like earth imaging are minimally useful because a balloon operator is not able to choose exactly what they would be imaging. This problem would be lessened if a wide coverage swath from a high-altitude balloon were possible so as to allow a balloon to be placed near but not directly over its target while still collecting useful data.
Another challenge to remote sensing applications using high altitude balloons is stability. Lighter-than-air balloons typically do not have a large mass moment of inertia and therefore do not command significant inertial stability. Balloons also typically travel at very low airspeeds and so do not command substantial aerodynamic stability. Small balloons are very lightweight and are therefore prone to large changes in attitude as a response to relatively small forces. Without a stable operating platform, remote sensing equipment (such as long focal length lenses capturing highly detailed data) may not be able to collect useful data. While sensing equipment that can be actively angled and gimbaled could, in theory, help to address the aforementioned challenges relating to the inability to control balloon placement, the act of moving on-board sensing equipment generates a reaction force that is likely to upset the stability of lightweight systems, causing undesirable wobble and a failure of the equipment to accurately point at and capture its target

Aerial image capture system with single axis camera rotation


An apparatus for controlling the coning in a brake rotor in which the brake rotor comprises a central rotor portion, a first set of mounting members connected to the central rotor portion and an inboard friction section and a second set of mounting members connected to the central rotor portion and an outboard friction section where the inboard and outboard friction sections are connected by a plurality of air directing structures. A channel comprising the first set of mounting members, the second set of mounting member and the plurality of air directing structures is provided.

Those skilled in the art know that disc brake assemblies are commonly used for motor vehicles and comprise a rotor and an associated caliper assembly. One or more brake pads of the caliper assembly frictionally interface with the rotation of the rotor to slow its movement. Through the frictional interfacing of the brake pads with the rotor, the kinetic energy of the moving vehicle is converted to heat. The heat within the rotor leads to an unequal distribution of thermal stresses which distort the brake rotor. This process is known as coning. Coning can result in braking roughness and may be a factor that may lead to disc thickness variation.
Prior art rotor designs have attempted to reduce, or prevent, coning with limited success. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,851 a brake rotor is provided with a flange attached to a hub assembly. A portion of the flange extends from the hub assembly to an inboard friction section. An outboard friction section is connected to the inboard friction section by a plurality of vanes. The portion of the flange extending from the hub to the inboard friction section is designed to act as a heat sink to offset the tilting of the inboard friction section toward the hub assembly. The described design, however, is problematic since heat induced during braking will increase the outer diameter of the outboard friction section at a greater rate than that of the inboard friction section connected to the heat sink. The result will be that the rotor will cone toward the inboard direction.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,409 a brake rotor is provided having a central portion and an extending portion located at the periphery of the central portion. A friction portion having a first friction plate is attached to the extending portion and a second friction plate is attached to the first friction plate. This design is also problematic since heat induced during braking will increase the temperature of the inboard friction section at a greater rate than that of the outboard friction section connected the heat sink. The result will be that the rotor will cone toward the outboard direction.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,726 a brake rotor is provided comprising a hub portion connected to the inboard and outboard friction surfaces. The inboard and outboard friction surfaces are both connected to the hub with individual solid portions. An air inlet port for the outboard friction surface is axially aligned with an air inlet port for the inboard friction surface to allow air to enter into the rotor. The air inlet ports for both friction surfaces alternate with the solid portions. The disadvantage of this design is that the portions connecting the inboard and outboard friction sections to the hub may be too weak to adequately support the rotor.

Apparatus for controlling the coning in a brake rotor


A system, method, and computer program product are provided for GPU demand paging. In operation, input data is addressed in terms of a virtual address space. Additionally, the input data is organized into one or more pages of data. Further, the input data organized as the one or more pages of data is at least temporarily stored in a physical cache. In addition, access to the input data in the physical cache is facilitated.

Some graphics processing unit (GPU) based applications require that input data is processed when the overall size of the input data is too large to fit completely into GPU device memory. One solution for this problem is to split computation into multiple kernel runs, and process one chunk of data at a time. This approach works well with algorithms that process data sequentially, but can become problematic in cases where random (read/write) access to data is required (e.g. recursive ray tracing, etc.). Thus, there is a need for addressing this issue and/or other issues associated with the prior art.

System, method, and computer program product for graphics processing unit (GPU) demand paging


An apparatus and a method for measuring physiological parameters of an eye. The apparatus includes a transmitter for transmitting a first set of electromagnetic waves of a first set of frequencies towards the eye, a receiver for receiving reflected electromagnetic waves corresponding to the transmitted first set of electromagnetic waves of the first set of frequencies, a comparator configured to compare the transmitted first set of electromagnetic waves with the received reflected electromagnetic waves for determining an amplitude response and a phase response for each of the electromagnetic waves of the first set of frequencies, and a calculation unit configured to fit the determined amplitude response and phase response to a physiological model of the eye to determine the physiological parameters of the eye.

Presently, a growing amount of human population is suffering from serious eye diseases, such as, but not limited to, glaucoma and dry eye syndrome without necessarily even knowing it themselves. Also, refractive surgery is common and use of eye contact lenses is very popular. In order to accurately diagnose eye-related problems and diseases, analysis of properties of eyes is required. Therefore, nowadays, specialized equipment operable to measure physiological properties of the eyes, are being developed.
However, existing equipment to measure physiological properties of the eye suffer from a number of limitations. In an example, the existing equipment are based on precision optics and fine mechanics making their structure complex and expensive to manufacture. Usability often is complicated and requires special skills. In another example, existing equipment may require physical contact with the eyes for measuring the physiological parameters of the eye. However, such physical contact often leads to irritation and high risk of infection in the eyes and requires ocular anaesthesia.
Therefore, in light of the foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks associated with existing equipment and techniques for measuring physiological properties of eyes.

Apparatus and method for measuring physiological parameters of eye


The present invention is directed to a system and method for percutaneous delivery of bone cement during a surgical procedure. The system of the present invention has a plunger assembly 100, comprising: a shaft having a first end, a middle section, and a second end, wherein the middle section is threaded; and a handle attached to the first end of the shaft. The system further comprises a dispenser hub assembly 200 around the shaft having a collar and a hand-grip attached to the collar, and a threaded portion formed on an interior surface of the collar. The system may further comprise a hollow tube 300 for containing the bone cement during the surgical procedure having a first end and a second end, the first end of the hollow tube adapted to be removably engaged with the threaded portion of the dispenser hub assembly. The shaft is axially displaceable through the hollow tube for controlled displacement of the bone cement through the second end of the hollow tube. The system of the present invention may be provided as a kit, which may further comprise: at least one tubing assembly, at least one cannula, and at least one stylet. The stylet may have a tip geometry selected from the group consisting of: a sharp pyramid tip, an angled tip, a blunt tip, and a corkscrew tip.

As the population ages, cases of bone fracture and skeletal fragility, such as those caused by osteoporosis, have become more prevalent. The development of medical procedures to combat these problems has become increasingly vital. One procedure to prevent progressive bone loss and structural weakness in patients with bone fractures is the injection of bone cement (or cement-like material) into the damaged area. The procedure is performed to reinforce the fractured bone, prevent further damage, and alleviate pain associated with the injury.
The cement delivery process is a percutaneous procedure performed by highly skilled medical personnel. Using X-ray, fluoroscopic guidance, or other imaging techniques, the physician positions a needle through the patient's skin and into the affected area. After other equipment, including a cement delivery apparatus, is attached to the needle, medical grade cement is injected into the patient. The cement is injected in a liquid form that quickly hardens to reinforce the damaged area. The procedure can often provide pain relief and increased mobility for the patient within only a few days.
The medical personnel who work to treat bone fractures, however, are faced with significant challenges. Conventional devices used to deliver the bone cement to the patient are complex, costly, and difficult to use. Simpler devices are often less effective in delivering the bone cement to the patient, leading to longer and more traumatic surgical procedures for the patient. Still other devices are difficult to clean and maintain, and cannot be used for multiple procedures, leading to greater expense for the medical provider, and consequently, the patient.
Moreover, the kits in which cement dispenser devices are provided to medical personnel are often inadequately and inefficiently designed. Kit products on the market for bone cement delivery today typically allow the user up to two cement dispensers per kit. If the physician takes on a procedure that requires more than two injections of cement, they must either try to clean out a device that they just used, or open up another kit. Given the high cost of each kit, the procedure becomes expensive if more than one kit is used. Moreover, the cement that is used for these procedures begins to harden after about 20 minutes, making it quite difficult to clean up a device for multiple uses. Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and kit that provides medical personnel with a safe, effective, affordable, flexible, and convenient system for the percutaneous delivery of bone cement.

Multi-use surgical cement dispenser apparatus and kit for same


A spinal stabilization system includes a connecting rod and a bone screw. The connecting rod includes an elongate rounded section, an elongate head portion, and a neck portion connecting the elongate rounded section with the elongate head portion. The bone screw includes a head portion defining a slot, a shank extending longitudinally from the head portion, and a cap. The slot includes a leading end portion configured to receive the elongate rounded section of the connecting rod and a trailing end portion defining a planar surface. The cap is configured to enclose the planar surface of the trailing end portion of the slot and secure the connecting rod in the slot to the bone screw.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to orthopedic surgical devices and, more particularly, to a spinal stabilization system.
2. Background of Related Art
The spinal column is a complex system of bones and connective tissues that provide support for the human body and protection for the spinal cord and nerves. The adult spine is comprised of an upper and lower portion. The upper portion contains twenty-four discrete bones, which are subdivided into three areas including seven cervical vertebrae, twelve thoracic vertebrae, and five lumbar vertebrae. The lower portion is comprised of the sacral and coccygeal bones. The cylindrical shaped bones, called vertebral bodies, progressively increase in size from the upper portion downwards to the lower portion.
An intervertebral disc along with two posterior facet joints cushion and dampen the various translational and rotational forces exerted upon the spinal column. The intervertebral disc is a spacer located between two vertebral bodies. The facets provide stability to the posterior portion of adjacent vertebrae. The spinal cord is housed in the canal of the vertebral bodies. It is protected posteriorly by the lamina. The lamina is a curved surface with three main protrusions. Two transverse processes extend laterally from the lamina, while the spinous process extends caudally and posteriorly. The vertebral bodies and lamina are connected by a bone bridge called the pedicle.
The spine is a flexible structure capable of a large range of motion. There are various disorders, diseases and types of injury, which restrict the range of motion of the spine or interfere with important elements of the nervous system. The problems include, for example, scoliosis, kyphosis, excessive lordosis, spondylolisthesis, slipped or ruptured discs, degenerative disc disease, vertebral body fracture, and tumors. Persons suffering from any of the above conditions typically experience extreme or debilitating pain and often times diminished nerve
Spinal fixation apparatuses are widely employed in surgical processes for correcting spinal injuries and diseases. When the disc has degenerated to the point of requiring removal, there are a variety of interbody implants that are utilized to take the place of the disc. These include interbody spacers, metal cages and cadaver and human bone implants. In order to facilitate stabilizing the spine and keeping the interbody in position, other implants are commonly employed, such as bone screws and connecting rods.
In the case of set screw type bone screws, torsional force is required to threadably insert the set screw into the head of the bone screw to secure the connecting rod to the bone screw. Alternatively, in the case of a taper lock type bone screw, additional tools are needed to move an outer housing of the taper lock type bone screw relative to an inner housing of the taper lock screw to secure the connecting rod to the bone screw.
Therefore, a need exists for a simple and effective screw and rod construct that enables surgeons to easily and safely secure a connecting rod to bone screws during a surgical procedure.


A controller monitors resource usage in each of a plurality of sectors and identifies any sector with resource usage that exceeds a threshold value as a high usage sector. The controller evaluates the mobile stations in its area and identifies any mobile station that is using a high usage sector and at least two other sectors for a communication session as a candidate mobile station. The controller applies a predictive algorithm to determine whether any candidate mobile station is able to continue its respective communication session without using its respective high usage sector. In this determination, the signal levels that a mobile station reported for the sectors in its active set, other than the high usage sector, may be used to calculate a combined signal level. If the combined signal level exceeds a predefined value, the mobile station is instructed to drop the high usage sector.

For certain types of wireless communication, such as wireless communication that uses code division multiple access (CDMA), a mobile station may able to use more than wireless link for a communication session. Even though each wireless link may convey the same information, the signal diversity from using multiple wireless links may be used to achieve a signal gain that is often described as "soft handoff gain." Thus, the mobile station may be able to combine the forward link signals from the multiple wireless links to achieve a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the forward link, and the network may be able to combine the reverse link signals from the multiple wireless links to achieve a higher SNR for the reverse link.

Method and system for balancing soft handoff gain and resource usage


A superscalar microprocessor is provided that includes a predecode unit configured to predecode variable byte-length instructions prior to their storage within an instruction cache. The predecode unit is configured to generate a plurality of predecode bits for each instruction byte. The plurality of predecode bits associated with each instruction byte include an end bit and two ROP bits. The ROP bits indicate a number of microinstructions required to implement the instruction. The plurality of predecode bits are collectively referred to as a predecode tag. An instruction alignment unit then uses the predecode tags to identify microinstructions. The instruction alignment unit dispatches the microinstructions simultaneously to a plurality of decode units which form fixed issue positions within the superscalar microprocessor. Because the instruction alignment unit identifies microinstructions, the multiplexing of instructions from the instruction alignment unit to the decoders is simplified. Accordingly, relatively fast multiplexing may be attained, and high performance may be accommodated.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to superscalar microprocessors and more particularly to the predecoding of variable byte-length computer instructions within high performance and high frequency superscalar microprocessors.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Superscalar microprocessors are capable of attaining performance characteristics which surpass those of conventional scalar processors by allowing the concurrent execution of multiple instructions. Due to the widespread acceptance of the x86 family of microprocessors, efforts have been undertaken by microprocessor manufacturers to develop superscalar microprocessors which execute x86 instructions. Such superscalar microprocessors achieve relatively high performance characteristics while advantageously maintaining backwards compatibility with the vast amount of existing software developed for previous microprocessor generations such as the 8086, 80286, 80386, and 80486.
The x86 instruction set is relatively complex and is characterized by a plurality of variable byte-length instructions. A generic format illustrative of the x86 instruction set is shown in FIG. 1A. As illustrated in the figure, an x86 instruction consists of from one to four optional prefix bytes 102, followed by an operation code (opcode) field 104, an optional addressing mode (Mod R/M) byte 106, an optional scale-index-base (SIB) byte 108, an optional displacement field 110, and an optional immediate data field 112.
The opcode field 104 defines the basic operation for a particular instruction. The default operation of a particular opcode may be modified by one or more prefix bytes. For example, a prefix byte may be used to change the address or operand size for an instruction, to override the default segment used in memory addressing, or to instruct the processor to repeat a string operation a number of times. The opcode field 104 follows the prefix bytes 102, if any, and may be one or two bytes in length. The addressing mode (MODRM) byte 106 specifies the registers used as well as memory addressing modes. The scale-index-base (SIB) byte 108 is used only in 32-bit base-relative addressing using scale and index factors. A base field of the SIB byte specifies which register contains the base value for the address calculation, and an index field specifies which register contains the index value. A scale field specifies the power of two by which the index value will be multiplied before being added, along with any displacement, to the base value. The next instruction field is the optional displacement field 110, which may be from one to four bytes in length. The displacement field 110 contains a constant used in address calculations. The optional immediate field 112, which may also be from one to four bytes in length, contains a constant used as an instruction operand. The 80286 sets a maximum length for an instruction at 10 bytes, while the 80386 and 80486 both allow instruction lengths of up to 15 bytes.
Referring now to FIG. 1B, several different variable byte-length x86 instruction formats are shown. The shortest x86 instruction is only one byte long, and comprises a single opcode byte as shown in format (a). For certain instructions, the byte containing the opcode field also contains a register field as shown in formats (b), (c) and (e). Format (j) shows an instruction with two opcode bytes. An optional MODRM byte follows opcode bytes in formats (d), (f), (h), and (j). Immediate data follows opcode bytes in formats (e), (g), (i), and (k), and follows a MODRM byte in formats (f) and (h). FIG. 1C illustrates several possible addressing mode formats (a)-(h). Formats (c), (d), (e), (g), and (h) contain MODRM bytes with offset (i.e., displacement) information. An SIB byte is used in formats (f), (g), and (h).
The complexity of the x86 instruction set poses difficulties in implementing high performance x86 compatible superscalar microprocessors. One difficulty arises from the fact that instructions must be aligned with respect to the parallel-coupled instruction decoders of such processors before proper decode can be effectuated. In contrast to most RISC instruction formats, since the x86 instruction set consists of variable byte-length instructions, the start bytes of successive instructions within a line are not necessarily equally spaced, and the number of instructions per line is not fixed. As a result, employment of simple, fixed-length shifting logic cannot in itself solve the problem of instruction alignment.
Superscalar microprocessors have been proposed that employ instruction predecoding techniques to help solve the problem of quickly aligning, decoding and executing a plurality of variable byte-length instructions in parallel. In one such superscalar microprocessor, when instructions are written within the instruction cache from an external main memory, a predecoder appends several predecode bits (referred to collectively as a predecode tag) to each byte. These bits indicate whether the byte is the start and/or end byte of an x86 instruction, the number of microinstructions required to implement the x86 instruction, and the location of opcodes and prefixes. After instructions are fetched from the cache, the superscalar microprocessor converts each instruction to one or more microinstructions referred to as ROPS. The ROPS are similar to RISC instructions in that they are associated with a fixed length and with simple, consistent encodings. The function of each x86 instruction is implemented by one or more ROPs. The number of ROPs required to implement an instruction must be detected prior to multiplexing the instructions to decode units.
The number of ROPs required to implement the x86 instructions are detected and the instructions are multiplexed to decode units based on the predecode bits. The circuitry to detect a number of ROPs and multiplex the instructions to the decode unit based on the number of ROPs is complex and relatively slow.

Method and apparatus for five bit predecoding variable length instructions for scanning of a number of RISC operations


A touch panel is provided including at least one first electrode pattern including a plurality of electrode lines arranged in a first direction; and at least one second electrode pattern including a plurality of second electrode lines arranged in a second direction to crossing the first direction; with each of the first and second electrode patterns including a center electrode line and two electrode lines positioned on a side of the center electrode line, with a first space separating the center electrode line from one of the two electrode lines, with a second space separating the one of the two electrode lines from the other of the two electrode lines, and with the first space being different from the second space.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a touch panel, and, in particular, to a touch panel and an input recognition device using the touch panel, which are for accurately recognizing a pen input.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a touch panel is installed on a display surface of a display device such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), and generates a voltage or current signal when a user touches and presses the touch panel with a stylus pen or a finger as the user is looking at the display device. Input types of such a touchscreen include a resistance film and a capacitance.
The resistance film type touchscreen senses direct contact of two thin conduction layers on the screen by pressure applied onto the layers by a user's finger or stylus pen, and it does not matter whether the subject of sensing is a conductor or a nonconductor. By contrast, in the capacitance type touchscreen, the subject of sensing should be a conductor, and a predetermined contact area is required in order to change the sensible capacitance. Accordingly, there is no problem with sensing the finger. However, in the case of a conductor tip, its touch area is small, and thus the touch may not be sensed and cause errors to occur frequently. Even in the capacitance type, a stylus pen having a conductor tip, which is adjacent to the screen and generates an electric signal, can be used so that a user interface or an input by writing for a precise coordinate designation is possible. In the case of using an electronic pen or a stylus pen which has a built-in battery and generates an electric signal, electrode patterns, which are different from the existing capacitance type that can sense only the finger touch, are used in the touchscreen panel. In this case, a mutual capacitance type is used as the sense type.
Accordingly, the capacitance type is divided into a self-capacitance type and a mutual capacitance type. A self-capacitance type touch panel has a structure, as illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an electrode pattern 100 that is used to sense a finger in a general self-capacitance type touch panel. According to a detailed structure 110 of a diamond-patterned electrode pattern 100, a first pattern 120 is formed in a first direction, and a second pattern 130 is formed in a second direction, which is perpendicular to the first direction. The first pattern 120 and the second pattern 130 intersect. In the case where a portion indicated by a reference numeral 140 and a portion indicated by a reference numeral 150 in the electrode pattern are touched, the capacitance is proportional to the area, and, thus, a difference in signal size may occur even though a portion on the same pattern 130 is touched. Due to this difference in signal size, a coordinate detection error may occur at a touch point.
A mutual capacitance type touch panel has a structure as illustrated in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an electrode pattern 200 that is used to sense a stylus pen in a general mutual capacitance type touch panel. According to a detailed structure 210 of the lattice-patterned electrode pattern 200, as illustrated in FIG. 2, a first line 220 and second lines 230, 240, and 250 are formed in a first direction and in a second direction, respectively. In this type, as constituent elements, a transmission unit transmitting an electric field and a reception unit sensing the change of the electric field are dividedly provided to extract coordinates by sensing the change of the electric field that is caused by the contact of a conductor. If the intention is to sense the contact of a finger using this type, a method is used, which makes the electrode in the first direction function as the transmission unit and makes the electrode in the second direction function as the reception unit. If the intention is to sense the contact of a stylus pen, a method may be used, which makes the stylus pen itself serve to transmit the electric field instead of the electrode in the first direction. As described above, the touch panel of FIG. 2 has a structure that operates based on the mutual capacitance type.

Touch panel and input recognition device using the touch panel


An edger having a main frame that can be advanced controllably relative to subjacent terrain, a cutting assembly on the main frame, and a drive for rotating the cutting assembly around a first axis. The cutting assembly has a plurality of cutting teeth that dig into underlying terrain as the cutting assembly is operated to thereby cooperatively produce a trench in the underlying terrain. The plurality of cutting teeth includes a first cutting tooth that has an elongate configuration with a leading end and a length extending along a first line. The first cutting tooth is oriented on the cutting assembly so that the length of the first cutting tooth traces a path with a circumference that has a radial extent with respect to the first axis that is substantially less than the length of the first cutting tooth. The length of the first cutting tooth is aligned generally in a circumferential direction.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to edgers with a powered cutting assembly that is used to define a demarcation, as between different landscape areas.
2. Background Art
Over the years, the landscaping industry has become more meticulous in terms of making a precise transition between different landscape areas. For example, where lawns are adjacent to beds with flowers and/or bushes, and/or surround trees, a distinct and precise dividing line is desirably formed. Commonly, this line is defined by cutting a trench with a vertical wall at the edge of the lawn area. This avoids spreading of the grass to the adjacent beds and also produces an aesthetically pleasing, sharp, dividing line between the different types of landscape.
It has long been known to form such trenches utilizing conventional hand tools, such as flat-bladed shovels. While manual formation of trenches is desirable from the standpoint of the flexibility and control that it affords a worker, this process has a number of drawbacks.
First of all, manual trench formation can be labor intensive. Since the trench is formed several inches at a time, extended trench formation may require an investment of many man hours, which could dictate the need for potentially large crews. This task is potentially made even more onerous by dry and hard ground conditions. Even with large crews, the nature of this work is such that it may lead to significant worker fatigue.
Another problem with manual trench formation is that it does not lend itself to precise trench placement. Since the trench is formed progressively in small increments, there may result an overall jagged appearance that does not precisely follow an intended course.
Still further, workers must deal with the material removed during the trench formation. In the typical formation using a shovel, large chunks of terrain may be separated. These chunks must either be hauled away to another site or broken up to be distributed in the beds so that they are not identifiable.
Edgers with powered cutting assemblies have long been used in the landscaping industry. One such edger has a rotary, generally flat, disk-shaped blade that is caused to penetrate the ground to produce a trench with spaced vertical walls. The edger has a frame with one or more wheels that facilitate controlled repositioning thereof over a subjacent surface. While this type of edger is relatively simple to use and overcomes problems associated with manual trenching, edging using such a structure has its own limitations and drawbacks.
First of all, the cutting blade is efficient only when it is operating in a state wherein it can aggressively cut the underlying terrain. After extended use, such a blade may be prone to wear, and even failure. In forming a trench in different locations, or over an extended length at a single location, the blade may encounter roots, rocks, metal objects, and virtually an unlimited number of different immersed objects that are hard enough to progressively wear or damage teeth on the blade. Even without encountering any foreign objects, the blade may be compromised due to the continuous abrasive effect from the ground composition, be it dirt, sand, or the like.
A further drawback with this type of edger is that effective trench formation may require a complementary manual step after the cutting blade has performed its intended operation. That is, once the two vertical walls are formed, the material defining one of the vertical walls must be removed. This step is required to create a step below the height of the vertical wall, as at the lawn, whereby a space is defined to accept mulch, or the like, that can be filled to the height of the lawn. This step also avoids the collapse of material into the trench that is likely to otherwise occur naturally under normal weather conditions, or in the event that there is pressure applied in the vicinity of the trench, as by normal traffic or the passage of equipment. The end result is that manual labor is required, with the same associated drawbacks as discussed above.
It is known to produce a beveled trench with an edger that utilizes a rotary cutting assembly. One known construction has a frame with a series of teeth that are strategically disposed so that they cooperatively produce a beveled or "V"-shaped trench as the cutting assembly is directed into underlying terrain and rotated in operation. This design is preferred from the standpoint that it makes possible the elimination of heavy manual steps and causes a trench of desired configuration to be formed in a single pass of the edger over the underlying terrain. Commonly, this type of edger is supported on a wheeled frame and is steered and advanced through frame components that can be engaged by an operator with the operator in a comfortable, upright position. However, this design has also had significant drawbacks which have limited its viability and acceptance in the industry.
First of all, the teeth are commonly made with an elongate configuration and are oriented on a support so that a substantial length of each of the teeth engages the underlying terrain to produce the cutting action. During operation, there may be significant bending forces imparted to the teeth that dictates that there be an overall heavy construction, that may nonetheless be prone to failure. Additionally, the repetitive contact of a large area of the teeth makes the teeth prone to progressive abrasion that over time may not only affect cutting ability but may alter their shape and that of the cut effected therewith in the terrain.
As a result, these cutting assemblies may have to be made with such a robust construction that they are impractical from both the standpoint of weight and cost. Even then, the above construction makes the teeth unavoidably prone to dulling, reconfiguration, and potentially failure.
These altered teeth conditions could lead to some other significant undesired consequences. Most significantly, if the teeth do not aggressively cut the underlying terrain, there may be a tendency of the edger to "jump" randomly from the terrain in operation. Aside from the fact that the result is an imprecise trench formation, this condition may lead to an injury.
Alternatively, a worker contends with the fact that the resulting trench may be imprecisely formed. This leaves the option of leaving the trench in this condition, which may be aesthetically compromised, or manually dressing the trench, which introduces other inconveniences and costs, as discussed above.
Alternatively, the user of such edgers may be required to sharpen or periodically refurbish the cutting assembly. This leads to down time and may be impractically expensive.
Still another problem associated with the latter type of edger is their propensity to accumulate dislodged material in a manner whereby the same interferes with the edger operation. As one example, a cutting assembly may have a wall that moves in close proximity to a main frame and/or a component thereon, such as a guard. In moist terrain, as cutting takes place, material may accumulate between the cutting blade assembly and adjacent components relative to which the cutting assembly moves. The accumulation may be to the point that there is a constant frictional force produced upon the cutting assembly, as an incident of which there may be abrasive wear. Even if there is not significant wear, the foreign material buildup may result in there being undesired, extra loading upon the drive for the cutting assembly. Still further, this buildup may be to such an extent that it blocks the normal anticipated path of movement of terrain as it is being broken up and redistributed in operation.
An additional problem with this conventional powered edging structure is that there is also a tendency of existing designs to keep the cut terrain in place in the trench. This potentially results in a churning action as the cutting assembly continues to rotate within the accumulation of cut material that may be in large proportion stagnant within the completed trench. This phenomenon also contributes to buildup of foreign matter on the cutter assembly and elsewhere throughout the edger. These conditions all detract from the efficient and effective operation of the edger.
In spite of the desirability of using edgers that are powered, landscapers continue to manually form beveled trenches and contend with the inherent difficulties. The industry continues to seek out designs that make powered edgers more practically usable, particularly from the standpoints of efficiency, effectiveness, weight, reliability and affordability.