A dispersion includes metallic, metal oxide, or metal precursor nanoparticles; a thermally cleavable polymeric dispersant; an optional dispersion medium; and a thermally cleavable agent. Pastes, coated layers, and patterns may contain the dispersion. A method for producing the specific thermally cleavable dispersant and for producing the metallic nanoparticle dispersions. The dispersions allow the reduction or avoidance of organic residue in coated layers and patterns on substrates, the use substrates of low thermal resistance, and faster processing times.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to compositions comprising a conductive dispersion and a specific carboxylic acid as sintering additive allowing a reduction of the curing time and/or a lowering of the curing temperature when applied to a substrate.
The invention also relates to a process for making such compositions, to coated layers or patterns prepared from such compositions and to curing processes of these coated layers or patterns.
2. Description of the Related Art
The interest in metallic nanoparticles has increased during the last decades due to their unique properties when compared to the bulk properties of a given metal. For example, the melting point of metal nanoparticles decreases with decreasing particle size making them of interest for printed electronics, electrochemical, optical, magnetic and biological applications.
The production of stable and concentrated metallic nanodispersions that can be coated or printed, for example by inkjet printing, with a high throughput is of great interest as it enables the preparation of electronic devices at low costs.
Usually, the production of metallic nanodispersions is carried out in water or organic solvents by the polyol synthesis methodology (as disclosed in Mat. Chem. Phys. 114, 549-555), by a derivative of the polyol synthesis methodology, or by an in-situ reduction of metallic salts in the presence of various reducing agents. Such methods are disclosed in for example US2010143591, US2009142482, US20060264518 and US20080220155, EP-As 2147733, 2139007, 803551, 2012952, 2030706, 1683592, 166617, 2119747, 2087490 and 2010314, WOs 2008/151066, 2006/076603, 2009/152388 and 2009/157393.
Among others, the dilution of metallic nanodispersions, usually less than 1 wt. % of metallic particles, is a severe drawback. Indeed, such highly diluted metallic nanodispersions cannot directly be used to prepare a conductive coating or a printing fluid that requires at least 5 wt. % of metallic nanoparticles based on its composition. An additional concentration step of the diluted metallic nanodispersions is then necessary before it can be used in the preparation of such coating or printing fluids.
WO2006/072959 discloses the production of silver nanoparticles dispersions up to 35 wt. % in water but the method still requires additional purification and isolation steps that impart drastically their industrialization and the scope of their applications.
A metallic nanodispersion typically comprises metallic, metal oxide or metal precursor nanoparticles, a polymeric dispersant and optionally a dispersion medium. The polymeric dispersant is a substance that promotes the formation and stabilization of a dispersion of particles in a dispersion medium. Dispersed particles may have a tendency to re-agglomerate after the dispersing operation, due to mutual attraction forces. The use of dispersants counteracts this re-agglomeration tendency of the particles. The dispersant has to meet particularly high requirements when used for coating fluids and printing inks. Non-stable dispersions may lead to irreversible phase separation causing among other the clogging of the coating or print heads, which are usually only a few micrometers in diameter. In addition, metallic particles agglomeration and the associated blockage of the coating/print heads has to be avoided in the standby periods of the system.
In the case of metallic nanoparticles dispersions, their tendency to re-agglomerate, to flocculate or to precipitate (leading to phase separation) is enhanced due to their high bulk density (ρ) when compared to other organic or inorganic particles like organic pigments (ρ=1.2-2.0 g/cm3), inorganic pigments (ρ=4.2 g/cm3 for titanium dioxide) or inorganic filler (ρ=4.4 g/cm3 for barium sulphate). For example, the bulk densities at room temperature of silver, copper and gold are respectively 10.49, 8.94 and 19.30 g/cm3.
Polymeric dispersants typically contain in one part of the molecule so-called anchor groups, which adsorb onto the metallic particles to be dispersed. In a spatially separate part of the molecule, polymeric dispersants have polymer chains compatible with the dispersion medium (or liquid vehicle) and all the ingredients present in the final coating or printing fluids. Typical polymeric dispersants include homopolymer or random or block copolymers of various topologies and architectures (linear, graft, hyper branched).
Metallic nanoparticles dispersions usually comprise polymeric dispersants selected from homopolymers and copolymers based on acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, vinyl pyrrolidinone, vinyl butyral, vinyl acetate or vinyl alcohol.
EP-A 2147733 discloses a method for producing a silver ink from a dispersion containing a polymeric dispersant, the dispersant comprising a hydrophilic segment and a polyalkyleneimine chain.
US2009/0242854 describes compounds to improve the stability of metallic conductive inks, which comprise metallic nanoparticles, a polymeric dispersant and a solvent, wherein the respective boiling point may be less than 150° C. The polymers may have a head group and a tail group on a nanoparticle, wherein the head group may include compounds such as amines, cationic alkylammonium groups, carboxylic acids, sulfonic acids and phosphoric acid groups. Other additives may also be present in the dispersion, such as dimethyl sulfoxide and oxy-bis-ethanol. Compounds such as BYK-349, BYK-DYNWET800, isostearyl ethylimidazolinium ethosulphate and alcohols were added to some of the inks to promote good wetting properties and adhesion properties.
EP-A 10196244.7 (filed on 21 Dec. 2010) describes a conductive ink comprising metallic nanoparticles and a polymeric dispersant which comprises an anchor group with affinity for the metallic nanoparticles, wherein the polymeric backbone has a 95 wt. % decomposition at a temperature below 300° C., thus allowing to be used in printing processes with lower curing temperatures.
The metallic nanodispersions are used to coat or print metallic patterns on a substrate. Typically, after applying the patterns on the substrate a sintering step, also referred to as curing step, at elevated temperatures is carried out to induce/enhance the conductivity. It has been found that the organic components of the nanodispersions, for example the polymeric dispersants, may reduce the sintering efficiency and thus the surface conductivity. For this reason, higher sintering temperatures and longer sintering times are often required to decompose the organic components.
Typical polymeric dispersants, such as those described above, are characterized by a full decomposition temperature of at least 350° C. Therefore, the patterns coated or printed with the fluids or inks comprising such polymeric dispersants require a sintering step at elevated temperatures to be sure that most of the organic components in the coated or printed layers are decomposed.
Such high sintering temperatures are not compatible with common polymer foils, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polycarbonate, which have relatively low glass transition temperatures. This restricts the choice to more expensive polymers such as polyimide.
In order to enlarge the application of conductive compositions to thermo-sensitive substrates it is desirable to obtain conductive compositions which require lower temperatures and times for the curing step, with good or improved conductivity values. Additionally, it is also desirable to develop a curing process to take advantage of the improved properties of the compositions, i.e. a high throughput coating or printing process.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Dispersion comprising metallic, metal oxide or metal precursor nanoparticles, a polymeric dispersant and a sintering additive


A regulator is provided for establishing asymmetrical voltage increase/decrease capability between an input node and an output node for enhanced regulation of either a voltage sag or a voltage swell within a utility system. The regulator includes an autotransformer having an input tap coupled to the input node of the regulator and an output tap coupled to the output node. The regulator further includes an electronic tap changer system coupled to the winding of the autotransformer. Together, the autotransformer and the electronic tap changer system provide the regulator with its asymmetrical voltage increase/decrease capability between the input node and the output node thereof. The regulator can be configured for voltage increase only, voltage decrease only, or both, provided an asymmetrical voltage increase/decrease capability is defined.

This invention is directed to the arrangement of windings and electronic switches used in inductive devices (for example, transformers and regulators) in order to construct a more economical, fully electronic on-load tap changing mechanism. Tap changing is used extensively in a wide variety of electrical inductive apparatus, such as AC voltage regulating transformers, high voltage DC (HVDC) rectifier and inverter transformers and phase angle regulators, to adjust device turns ratio or phase angle while the device is serving load.
Most of the tap changing methods in present commercial use make use of a mechanical switching means to alternately connect various sections of winding of the electrical inductive apparatus into a circuit. One extensively used switching means is a mechanical contact switch in which a movable contact, which selectively engages stationary contacts, is connected to various sections of the winding in order to connect varying numbers of turns into the circuit. This technique is at present used to the virtual exclusion of all other methods in large power apparatus. In applications where these mechanical devices are used, the arrangement of the windings is such that the buck (decrease) and boost (increase) voltage capable of being provided will be the same magnitude. For example, in the utility industry in the United States of America the most common increase/decrease is .+-.10%.
The electronic switch is another type of switching means, which has generated significant interest recently due to its fast response time and lack of mechanical wear. Because of its fast reaction time it can be used to mitigate voltage sags and swells in addition to performing the more traditional duties of an on load tap changer such as voltage leveling. Electronic switches are typically electronically controlled gate devices, such as thyristors and gate turn-off (GTO) devices, which are configured as an inverse parallel-connected pair to each tap of a winding, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,195,038. Further, tapped secondary windings may be utilized with appropriate switching devices to increase the tap range of the electrical inductive apparatus as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,195,038, 3,909,697 and also 3,700,925. U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,423 teaches an electronic tap changing concept of Discrete-Cycle Modulation (DCM) whereby tap voltage magnitudes are obtained in increments intermediate to the physical tap winding voltage magnitudes. Again, however, in the winding configurations demonstrated in these patents, the buck and boost voltage of the tap changer are the same magnitude.
Today, an increasing amount of industrial and commercial equipment contain electronic components and controls which will not function properly when the voltage supply fluctuates. For example, variable frequency drives, plastic fabrication equipment, microwave heating, and computers are some of the more common loads which are sensitive to supply voltage variations.
Deviations from the nominal ideal of 100% voltage magnitude result from many causes, the most common being voltage sag. Voltage sags are a decrease in the supply voltage that may last from 1 cycle to several seconds and may decrease the supply voltage by 10% to 80% of the nominal supply voltage. The occurrences of sags is the largest and most costly power quality problem facing industrial and commercial concerns today.
Therefore, there is a need in the power utility industry for a new electronic tap changer arrangement for a regulator or transformer which comprises a commercially viable arrangement and which particularly addresses the occurrence of sags within the electrical transmission and distribution system. The present invention addresses this need by providing a regulator/transformer with unsymmetrical boost/buck characteristics.

Regulator with asymmetrical voltage increase/decrease capability for utility system


A new and improved wide area air removal apparatus includes at least one air duct that traverses a portion of the wide area and includes a plurality of apertures arrayed along the length of the air duct. An electric fan assembly is connected to the plural-aperture-including air duct for creating a vacuum in the plural-aperture-including air duct and for moving air from the wide area through the apertures and through the air duct to outside the air duct. The air that is removed from the wide area can be filtered and returned to the wide area; or it can be moved outside the wide area. The air that is removed from the wide area can be laden with smoke or other odor-bearing substances. The wide area can be a room in a building. The plural-aperture-including air duct may include a plurality of air duct branches. In addition, ash tray collars may be provided for placement circumferentially around ash trays. The ash tray collars include apertures for drawing in air adjacent to the ash trays. Feeder lines are connected at a first end to the ash tray collars and at a second end to the plural-aperture-including air duct. Adjustable hanger assemblies may be provided for connecting the plural-aperture-including air duct to a ceiling.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatus for removing unwanted air from a location, and more particularly, to an apparatus for pulling unwanted air out from a wide area, such as a room.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ventilation apparatuses, which pull unwanted air away from locations are well known in the art. For example, the following U.S. patents disclose ventilation apparatuses: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,726,202 of Ahlberg; 4,732,591 of Tujisawa et al; 4,903,894 of Pellinen et al; 4,975,251 of Saceman; and 5,031,515 of Niemela et al. The prior art devices disclosed in the above-mentioned patents share a common characteristic which is that air is removed by a conduit that has two open ends and a closed tubular body therebetween. In this respect, air is drawn from one open end, an input end, passed through the closed tubular body, and passes out the other open end, an output end.
With such prior art devices, only the unwanted air present in the general vicinity of the open input end is drawn into the closed tubular conduit. In order for other unwanted air to be removed from a wide area, such as a room, to be removed from the wide area, the unwanted air must circulate to the open input end of the prior art devices. In this respect, it would be desirable if an apparatus were provided which removed unwanted air from a wide area without the need for the unwanted air to circulate to a single open input end of a ventilation system.
One form of unwanted air that is common in restaurants, lounges, nightclubs, bars, and the like is smoke-laden air. Because of the risks of cigarette smoke to both smokers and nonsmokers alike, it would be desirable if ventilation systems in such establishments provided adequate smoke removal. Yet, many such establishments do not have adequate ventilation systems to purge rooms of unwanted smoke. Moreover, it would be very costly if such establishments had to replace their ventilation systems with newer systems that had greater smoke removal capacities. In this respect, it would be desire if public establishments could be easily and inexpensively retrofitted to provide adequate smoke removal.
Ventilation systems that are already in place in an establishment include hidden duct work installed in walls and ceilings. To replace or modify such hidden duct work would require much time and labor. In this respect, it would be desirable to retrofit an establishment to remove unwanted smoke-laden air without the need to replace or modify hidden duct work that is associated with the in-place ventilation system.
Installation of duct work that is in-place in an establishment often requires the fabrication of customized ducts, bends, and couplings. Making and installing such customized components require much time and labor and contribute to the relative high costs of making and installing a ventilation system. In this respect, for retrofitting an establishment to provide a ventilation system to remove unwanted, smoke-laden or other odor-bearing air, it would be desirable if the retrofitted system employed relatively low cost off-the-shelf ducts, couplings, and bends.
Smoke, by its very nature, being associated with heated air, rises in a room. Thus, a retrofitted smoke-removal apparatus can be installed near a ceiling of a room. Installation of a retrofitted smoke removal apparatus near a ceiling would suggest that the retrofitted system be suspended from the ceiling. However, if components of a retrofitted smoke removal apparatus are to be suspended from a ceiling, they should be light weight.
Air in a room may have been treated in some way before it entered the room. For example, the air may have been heated, cooled, humidified, or dehumidified depending upon temperature and humidity outdoors. In this respect, it would be desirable to be able to remove smoke and other odor-bearing substances from the room air and return smoke-free air to the room.
The smoke that enters a room enters from cigarettes that are held by a smoker and from cigarettes that are placed in ash trays. In this respect, it would be desirable if a smoke-removal apparatus included devices adapted to remove smoke directly from ash trays.
Thus, while the foregoing body of prior art indicates it to be well known to use hidden, expensive ventilation systems to remove air from rooms, the provision of a more simple and cost effective device is not contemplated. Nor does the prior art described above teach or suggest removal of unwanted air from a wide area without the need for the unwanted air to circulate to a single open input end of a ventilation system. Also, the prior art does not provide for easy and inexpensive retrofitting of public establishments to provide for adequate removal of smoke and other odor-bearing substances. The prior art does not provide retrofitting of an establishment to remove unwanted smoke-laden air without the need to replace or modify hidden duct work that is associated with the in-place ventilation system. In addition, the prior art does not provide a retrofitting system that employs relatively low cost off-the-shelf ducts, couplings, and bends. Also, the prior art does not provide components of a retrofitted smoke removal apparatus that are to be suspended from a ceiling, and that are light weight.
The foregoing disadvantages are overcome by the unique wide area air removal apparatus of the present invention as will be made apparent from the following description thereof. Other advantages of the present invention over the prior art also will be rendered evident.


A rotation information detection device detects rotation information of a DC motor based on a surge component waveform superimposed on a voltage waveform between the terminals of the DC motor or a current waveform of the DC motor, a circuit is provided which supplies a current of a current value Ipwm 45% during motor forward rotation or Ipwm 55% during reverse motor rotation to the motor over the period from when the motor starts braking operation to when it stops.

An automobile includes a number of systems using DC brush motors, for comfort and usability. For example, an air conditioner is provided with several DC motors for driving a door for changing its outlet and an air mix amount. The positions of door mirrors, sheet positions, and window positions in a power window system are operated by DC motors used as actuators. Furthermore, DC motors are also used in a system that changes the optical axis of headlight according to a steering turning angle.
In these systems, the positions of driving targets such as door positions, mirror positions, sheet positions, window positions, headlight positions are controlled by DC motors. Therefore, it is important to detect the positions of driving targets, that is, motor rotation information.
Conventional methods of detecting the positions of driving targets (motor rotation information) include a method of determining positions by measuring motor rotation information using Hall sensors and the like as described in JP 2003-049586A, and a method of determining positions by potentiometers. However, since such methods require sensors such as the Hall sensors and potentiometers, an increase in costs of the sensors and sensor mounting, and reduction in reliability due to spatial limitations, an increase in the number of signal lines, and sensor life cannot be ignored.
Accordingly, a method not requiring such sensors is proposed. According to the method, a ripple component waveform and a surge component waveform superimposed on a signal waveform (driving signal waveform) of one of voltage between the terminals of a motor and a current flowing through the motor are extracted, and motor rotation information is obtained based on the extracted ripple component waveform and surge component waveform.
Specifically, when a DC brush motor is driven, a driving signal waveform of the motor is represented as a surge component waveform due to discontinuity at the time of switching between the brushes and segments of commutators, added to a ripple component waveform of a specified cycle. For example, in the case of a motor having two brushes and three commutators, six ripples and surges occur in a driving signal waveform of the motor per rotation. Therefore, pulse signals corresponding to motor rotation are generated by extracting signals corresponding to a ripple component waveform and a surge component waveform from the driving signal waveform of the motor through appropriate filters and the like, and binarizing the extracted signals based on specified threshold values. By successively counting the number of pulses of the pulse signals thus generated, motor rotation information is obtained.
The surge component waveform is a high-frequency signal. Therefore, it is easily separated from low-frequency components attributable to fluctuations of external loads applied to a motor shaft and fluctuations of motor rotation speeds, contained in the driving signal waveform together with the surge component waveform. Therefore, methods of using a surge component waveform are considered to be particularly useful to detect motor rotation information, as proposed in JP 2000-308390A and JP 2001-138812A.
FIGS. 8 and 9 show examples of rotation information detection conditions of a device that obtains motor rotation information based on a surge component waveform. FIG. 8 is a time chart showing the transition of rotation speeds of a motor and the transition of a surge component superimposed on a motor voltage waveform between the terminals of the motor. FIGS. 9A and 9B are circuit diagrams showing the driving conditions of the motor in the operation modes of steady operation and braking operation.
As shown in FIG. 8, the motor is in steady operation until switching to braking operation at timing T11. As shown in FIG. 9A, an appropriate driving signal is fed to transistors constituting a bridge circuit, which is a driving circuit of a motor M, and a driving voltage Vd is applied to the motor M. When the motor M is switched to braking operation at timing T11, that is, as shown in FIG. 9B, when an appropriate driving signal is fed to the transistors of the bridge circuit and the terminals of the motor M are short-circuited, regenerative braking is applied to the motor M and its rotation speed begins to decrease.
Since a surge component waveform is attributable to self-induction of a motor coil when the segments of brushes and commutators are switched, when a current flowing through the motor (motor coil) is smaller, its signal strength becomes smaller. An induction current is fed to the motor M by counter-electromotive force due to inertia rotation (power generation operation) during braking operation. However, since the induction current decreases as the rotation speed of the motor M decreases, a surge detection error (counting error) E or the like might occur immediately before the motor stops (timing T12). Furthermore, such detection errors are accumulated in applications in which start and stop of the motor are frequently repeated, possibly leading to a large detection error.

DC motor rotation information detecting device


Methods and systems for service providers to provide hosted enterprise solutions to businesses, allowing these businesses to collaborate with other business partners or clients, via the Internet. Under such systems and methods, service providers would allow clients to decide which partners to invite to enroll in subscription plan in order to share and minimize the cost to the clients without having the clients incur a cumbersome approval process from all their partners.

Whereas clients are often responsible for the cost when they are committed to use enterprise solutions hosted by service providers to collaborate with their partners via the Internet, their partners are often not. Since the partners get to use the solutions paid for by the Clients, although sometimes with relatively limited functions, they now have little incentive to subscribe to such enterprise solutions from the service providers.
Thus, the client is often the only paying party in his collaboration community. This is not a fair model. In the long run, clients would harbor resentment for being the only payee in the collaborating community, resulting in potential loss of business for the service providers.
There are also those solutions hosted by service providers that require all participants within the collaboration community to pay subscription fees based on an open formula, which treats all participants equally. A Client, who chooses these solutions, may invite others to join. In this model, clients typically obtain approvals from all participants. This is a very cumbersome process. Until every partner reaches an agreement, collaboration solutions cannot begin to execute.
There are also those solutions hosted by service providers that require all participants within the collaboration community to pay subscription fees, according to different formulas. They nonetheless still require a complex approval process.

Billing method and system for collaboration solutions


A system and method for Flex Over or On Suspension (FOS) fault detection under a write gate for magnetic disk drives may employ a flex over suspension fault comparator that compares a predetermined reference threshold to a positive delta of a disk drive write head data stream and outputs a positive or negative FOS fault indication. A max/min buffer detects polarity of a disk drive read/write head and applies a positive buffered delta to the fault comparator. A transition-free window detector triggers the fault comparator to output the fault indication when a transition-free window of zero-value data bits of a predetermined length is detected from the disk drive head, and the transition-free window detector provides a fault validation signal to validate output of the fault comparator when the transition-free window of zero-value data bits of the predetermined length is detected from the disk drive head.

Magnetic disc drives may utilize a Flex Over (or On) Suspension (FOS) circuit to couple a preamp or the like to read-write head assemblies. An FOS assembly may be routed along an actuator assembly and may be supported on a read-write head suspension assembly. The FOS assembly may comprise a pair of electrically insulating plastic layers which encapsulate two separate pairs of conductors, which transmit write currents and read bias currents, to the write and read elements of the head assembly. The conductors may interconnect from a preamp to the read write heads. Transitory effects may exist for impedance becomes greater due to cracks in the conductors. FOS fault detection may be required to ensure a poor FOS connection does not exist in the head assembly. Writer open fault detectors, or the like, look for opens that are on the scale of kilohms (kΩs), while poor FOS connection-based faults may occur in the 20Ω to kΩs range.
In existing FOS fault detection, the FOS fault is detected, by way of example, approximately 8 ns after entering read mode and prior to degauss (i.e. after the read/write head slews from write current to degauss current, degauss is enabled and the FOS fault detection is performed) and when enabled, this fault delays the entire writer degauss function and reader turn-on by 3 ns in such an example, resulting in a 60% time penalty. This is demonstrated in FIG. 1, which is a diagrammatic waveform illustration of example prior art FOS fault detection 100. Therein, when a FOS fault is detected, and despite its immediate entry to the fault register, the fault is not reported until the following write cycle (mode) is entered. Thus, the previous complete write cycle 102 was potentially performed with an existing FOS fault 104 that is only detected at 106, during read cycle 108. There is an inherent sensitivity in existing FOS fault detection, such as when the end user opts to use a different degauss write current than what was used in the previous write cycle. The prior art waveform example of FIG. 1 shows an allotted time at 110 for this slewing to occur, and a magnitude delta between write and degauss currents, along with the polarity of slewing, leave a significant margin for error in existing FOS fault detection.

Flex over suspension fault detection under a write gate for magnetic disk drives


The present invention is directed to a printing plate using an indirect electrophotographic process. The printing plate comprising an image receiving layer provided on a surface of plastic film wherein the image receiving layer comprises two types of extender pigments having different average particle size range to impart unevenness to the surface of the image receiving layer. The printing plate is suitable for use as a printing plate for lithography.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printing plates using the indirect electrophotographic process. In particular, it relates to printing plates using the indirect electrophotographic process, which can reduce toner scattering, i.e., unwanted background images formed by toner particles, and prevent blur around toner images without reducing toner image density upon image formation.
2. Related Art
With recent developments of office work equipments and office automation, printing techniques utilizing printing plates using the indirect electrophotographic process of which plate making is easily accomplished by electrophotography, laser beam printers or the like are rapidly spreading in light printing field.
In particular, techniques where computer data or the like are directly outputted to printing plate materials by means of electrostatic printing machines including laser beam printers do not require block copy making unlike electrophotography and therefore they are excellent in plate making speed and their cost. For this reason, demand for such techniques are increasing late years.
Such electrostatic printing machines use dry toners for transferring and fixing images on surfaces of printing plates and, upon printing, surface portions of the plates deposited with toner receive lipophilic printing ink, i.e., they are made into image areas. Printing plates carrying image areas so formed are then subjected to a desensitization treatment with an etching solution and used as printing masters in lithography.
As such printing plates using the indirect electrophotographic process as described above, various materials such as those having an image receiving layer containing zinc oxide and formed on a water-resistant support have been proposed.
However, conventional printing plates using the indirect electrophotographic process suffer scattering of toner in non-image areas, i.e., unwanted background images formed by toner particles, upon toner image formation during plate making. Even if such unwanted background images formed by toner particles are not recognizable in images printed by laser beam printers, small amount of toner particles may carry ink when the plates are used for printing and may cause serious contamination to such an extent that commercial value of resulting printed matter is deteriorated.
Printing plates utilizing strongly hydrophilic resins such as carboxymethyl cellulose as a binder of image receiving layer have been known as materials which may solve the problem of unwanted background images formed by toner particles. However, since surface hardness of the image receiving layers utilizing such a binder is not so good and therefore printing durability is reduced.
To improve printing durability, printing plates utilizing polyvalent metal salts as a hardening agent together with hydrophilic binders have also been proposed. However, these printing plates have a drawback that they show reduced efficiency of toner transfer upon printing by electrostatic transfer techniques, since surface resistivity of their image receiving layers is lowered.
To solve the problem of unwanted background images formed by toner particles, also proposed is the method wherein printing plates are subjected to a desensitization treatment with an etching solution after toner image formation on the plates and non-image areas of the plates are treated with a special emulsion to eliminate unwanted background images formed by toner particles (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open KOKAI! No. 4-320844). However, this method is not so preferred because it requires further specific treatments after the etching treatment, which may lower operability and increase the process cost.
In addition, toner images formed by output of laser beam printers often exhibit blur around the images and resulting printing plates obtained from such images cannot provide clear toner images.
Apart from these problems, paper, plastice films or the like have been used for the conventional substrate of the printing plates using the indirect electrophotographic process.
However, paper, despite of its low cost, has problematic durability. Plastic films has durability but deformes at a relatively low temperature. For example, since the most common polyester film deforms at about 120.degree. to 150.degree. C., the plastic films begins to soften and deform when it is heated over that temperature. Accordingly, in case that a printing plate material having a plastic film as its substrate is formed to a printing plate by PPC copier, the plastic film is deformed by fusing heat and thereby the printing plate is out-put with severely waving. This phenomenon is particular when using the machine whose fusing temperature is high or that whose fusing time is long, such as laser beam printer (referred as LBP hereinafter) and it causes a jamming of the printing plate on the pass inside the machine.

Printing plates using indirect electrophotographic process


The present invention is directed to novel methods of synthesizing multiple copies of a target nucleic acid sequence which are autocatalytic (i.e., able to cycle automatically without the need to modify reaction conditions such as temperature, pH, or ionic strength and using the product of one cycle in the next one). In particular, the present invention discloses a method of nucleic acid amplification which is robust and efficient, while reducing the appearance of side products. The method uses only one primer, the “priming oligonucleotide,” a 3′blocked promoter oligonucleotide and optionally, a means for terminating a primer extension reaction, to amplify RNA or DNA molecules in vitro, while reducing or eliminating the formation of side products. The method of the present invention minimizes or eliminates the emergence of side products, thus providing a high level of specificity. Furthermore, the appearance of side products can complicate the analysis of the amplification reaction by various molecular detection techniques. The present invention minimizes or eliminates this problem, thus providing an enhanced level of sensitivity.

The detection and/or quantitation of specific nucleic acid sequences is an important technique for identifying and classifying microorganisms, diagnosing infectious diseases, detecting and characterizing genetic abnormalities, identifying genetic changes associated with cancer, studying genetic susceptibility to disease, and measuring response to various types of treatment. Such procedures are also useful in detecting and quantitating microorganisms in foodstuffs, water, industrial and environmental samples, seed stocks, and other types of material where the presence of specific microorganisms may need to be monitored. Other applications are found in the forensic sciences, anthropology, archaeology, and biology where measurement of the relatedness of nucleic acid sequences has been used to identify criminal suspects, resolve paternity disputes, construct genealogical and phylogenetic trees, and aid in classifying a variety of life forms.
A number of methods to detect and/or quantitate nucleic acid sequences are well known in the art. These include hybridization to a labeled probe, and various permutations of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), coupled with hybridization to a labeled probe. See, e.g., Mullis et al., "Process for Amplifying, Detecting and/or Cloning Nucleic Acid Sequences," U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,195; Mullis, "Process for Amplifying Nucleic Acid Sequences," U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,202; Mullis et al., "Process for Amplifying, Detecting and/or Cloning Nucleic Acid Sequences," U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,159; Mullis et al. (1987) Meth. Enzymol. 155, 335-350; and Murakawa et al. (1988) DNA 7,287-295. The requirement of repeated cycling of reaction temperature between several different and extreme temperatures is a disadvantage of the PCR procedure. In order to make PCR convenient, expensive programmable thermal cycling instruments are required.
Additionally, Transcription-Mediated Amplification (TMA) methods may be used to synthesize multiple copies of a target nucleic acid sequence autocatalytically under conditions of substantially constant temperature, ionic strength, and pH in which multiple RNA copies of the target sequence autocatalytically generate additional copies. See, e.g., Kacian et al., "Nucleic Acid Sequence Amplification Methods," U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,491, and Kacian et al, "Nucleic Acid Sequence Amplification Methods," U.S. Pat. No. 5,824,518, the contents of each of which patents are hereby incorporated by reference herein. TMA is useful for generating copies of a nucleic acid target sequence for purposes which include assays to quantitate specific nucleic acid sequences in clinical, environmental, forensic and similar samples, cloning and generating probes. TMA is a robust and highly sensitive amplification system with demonstrated efficacy. TMA overcomes many of the problems associated with PCR-based amplification systems. In particular, temperature cycling is not required. Other transcription-based amplification methods are disclosed by Malek et al., "Enhanced Nucleic Acid Amplification Process," U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,238; Davey et al., "Nucleic Acid Amplification Process," U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,818; Davey et al., "Method for the Synthesis of Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)," U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,586; Davey et al., "Nucleic Acid Amplification Process," U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,517; Burg et al., "Selective Amplification of Target Polynucleotide Sequences," U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,591; and Burg et al., "Selective Amplification of Target Polynucleotide Sequences," U.S. Pat. No. 6,410,276.
An inherent result of highly sensitive nucleic amplification systems is the emergence of side-products. Side-products include molecules which may, in some systems, interfere with the amplification reaction, thereby lowering specificity. This is because limited amplification resources, including primers and enzymes needed in the formation of primer extension and transcription products are diverted to the formation of side-products. In some situations, the appearance of side-products can also complicate the analysis of amplicon production by various molecular techniques.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a robust nucleic acid amplification system to synthesize multiple copies of a target nucleic acid sequence autocatalytically under conditions of substantially constant temperature, ionic strength, and pH which reduces the appearance of side-products, thereby increasing specificity and improving detection and quantitation of amplification products.

Composition kits and methods for performing amplification reactions


An electrified bus bar assembly is provided. The electrified bus bar assembly includes a track and one or more take-away adaptors that each are capable of acting as a power source to one or more display components. Each take away adaptor is mountable to the track via an electrical and mechanical connection.

It is common to find electrified bus bar assemblies in retail settings because they are a convenient and reliable power source for lighting and electrical devices. Typical electrical bus bar assemblies have an insulator mounted within a housing and two electrified conductors mounted to the insulator. Track lighting and continuous plug-in busways are common examples of this type of track assembly. Take-away adaptors are typically used to tap power from the track or busway and provide a power source for the attached take-away devices. This type of bus bar can typically power any low voltage device from an LED light to a three phase machine. Thus, the appeal of a bus bar assembly is the ability to insert any number of take-away adaptors along the track to power any number of low voltage electrical devices.
Retailers typically use bus bar assemblies because it is cost prohibitive to install and maintain a typical three prong outlet for every electrical device in a retail setting. Conventional bus bar assemblies often found in retail settings are typically designed to mount to a displays shelving. A problem arises when a retailer occasionally or frequently decides to change the location of a display implementing a mounted bus bar assembly. The retailer must decide to un-mount the bus bar assembly from the display for relocation or to relocate the display with the bus bar assembly attached. In either scenario the retailer is disrupting a display, using man hours to un-mount and remount the bus bar assembly or to relocate the shelving with the bus bar assembly still mounted; all while running the risk of damaging the shelving and/or bus bar assembly during relocation.
Another problem faced by retailers using conventional bus bar assemblies is the electrical conductors or bus bars are often exposed to provide a contact point for the take-away adaptor. This increases the risk that an employee or patron will contact the exposed conductors and be exposed to hazardous electrical shock. Likewise, having the conductors exposed increases the risk of a low resistance connection being made between the conductors and shorting the circuit, which forces the retailers to incur the expense of repairing or replacing the bus bar assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,025, hereinafter incorporated by reference in its entirety, illustrates the problems described above, which the current invention overcomes. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,025 a display panel is described that is formed from a single piece, in which parallel recesses are opened that allow electrical lighting means, powered by low voltage from a step-down transformer, to be mounted. The mechanical attachment and electrical supply of each flange is effected between two consecutive recesses of the panel, longitudinal electrical conductors being disposed externally, in the surface of the panel, along the edges of the recess. In such a system, the electrical conductors are directly accessible to be touched and the electrical devices powered by the assembly are mounted to the display shelving.
Therefore, the prior art fails to provide a bus bar assembly for a retail environment that is safe, reliable, inexpensive, robust, and simple to manufacture. The present invention provides such an electrified bus bar assembly. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.

Electrified bus bar and bus bar system for retail merchandise displays


A method, computer readable medium and system are provided which generate model driven forms that represent data models. Using the method, to generate a form that represents a data model, such as a business model, a selection is made to identify which of a plurality of different logical form types is to be used to generate the form to represent the data model. Then, a logical form is generated at run-time using the data model and the selected logical form type.

The present invention relates to the generation of forms. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for generating and updating forms or form user interfaces (UIs).
In typical business software products and applications, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) products, a large number of forms or form user interfaces are used. A form is a window, a dialog, a page, or another UI element for viewing and/or entering data. It is not uncommon for the number of forms which are used in conjunction with a business software application to exceed several thousand. Developing a large number of forms has traditionally been a labor-intensive task for software developers.
Traditionally, in generating the large number of forms required for some business or other types of software applications, software developers have created each of the forms separately and somewhat independently. In order to achieve a certain degree of consistency between forms, developers have frequently adhered to some type of standards which dictated the general layout of the forms. These standards for the forms have been implemented as "best practice" or preferred implementations. While software developers can reply upon best practices for guidance in determining how a particular form should look, even with best practices, the developers face the labor intensive task of creating each of the many different forms largely independently of each other.
Another difficulty which both software developers and customers or users face relates to the labor intensive task of updating forms when needed. Traditionally, if a form was based on a particular business model, changes to the business model would require that the developer change the form associated with the business model separately. Further, if a large number of forms corresponded to the same business model, changes to the business model would require that each of the corresponding forms be updated as well. Also, any time the layout or the contents of a large number of forms was desired to be changed, each of the large number forms were revised independently. Thus, these difficulties made it a labor-intensive task for software developers to create a large number of forms, and likewise made it difficult for customers or users of the software applications to make changes to the business model and forms themselves.
The present invention provides solutions to one or more of the above-described problems and/or provides other advantages over the prior art.

Method and apparatus for generating forms using form types


An out-of-band relay node (800) reports its composite operating band capability to a donor base station or to another network node. The reported information indicates frequency band support separately for each of the backhaul and access links, which may operate over different frequency bands. In some embodiments, a controlling network node (700) such as a donor base station, an O&M node, an OSS node, a SON node, or another relay node, requests the relay node to report its backhaul link and access link operating frequency band capabilities to the network node. A network node (700) that receives the frequency capability information may use the information to select appropriate frequency bands for access and backhaul link operation and to configure the relay node accordingly. The received frequency band capability information may also be used for one or more network management functions such as radio resources management, network planning, dimensioning, and coverage enhancement.

A relay node (RN) in a wireless communication system sits between one or more mobile stations (user equipment, or "UEs," in 3GPP terminology) and a conventional base station in a wireless network, and is used to receive and re-transmit, i.e., forward, signals sent by the base station and intended for mobile stations, as well as to receive signals transmitted by the mobile stations, for forwarding to the wireless network. A number of UEs can be served by a single relay. One objective of the relay node is to enhance the radio access coverage in both the uplink (mobile station to base station transmissions) and downlink (base station to mobile station transmissions).
In the "Long-Term Evolution" (LTE) systems developed by the 3rd-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the specified architectures for relay node connectivity include a RN connected wirelessly to a "donor cell" of a "donor base station." Base stations are known as eNodeB's, or eNB's, in 3GPP terminology, thus the donor eNB is referred to herein as a DeNB. The connection to the donor eNB is via a radio backhaul link. Simultaneously, one or more UEs may be connected to the RN, via the radio access link.
In LTE, the backhaul link (DeNB-RN link) and access link (RN-UE link) are called the Un and Uu interfaces respectively. FIG. 1 illustrates the connections among the various nodes in a network that includes relay nodes. In this straightforward configuration, UE 110 communicates (wirelessly) with RN 120 over the Uu interface, which is the access link. RN 120 in turn communicates (wirelessly) with eNB 130 over the Un interface, which is the backhaul link. eNB 130, in its turn, is connected to the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) 140, using the standard interfaces developed by 3GPP.
In practice, the RN may be fixed or movable. Both of these types of RN are wireless RN in that they receive and transmit wireless signals over the access and backhaul links. A "fixed" RN is stationary or immovable. For simplicity, the generic term RN or relay is used throughout this document. In some cases, a movable RN may be implemented as a standalone mobile relay, i.e., as a wireless device dedicated to operation as an RN. In other cases, a wireless terminal that is capable of providing end-user services, whether to a user or to a machine, such as in a machine-to-machine context, may also act as a relay. In some cases, a mobile relay may be deployed in a moving vehicle such as a bus, train, ferry, or the like, in which case it may primarily serve UEs that are aboard the movable vehicle. However, a moving mobile relay may also serve UEs in surrounding areas.

Capability reporting for relay nodes in wireless networks


Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture, where in one embodiment of the method metadata related to a packet may be allocated in a host memory by a protocol processor, where the host memory may be comprised in a host that may be capable of being coupled to a network adapter. The metadata may be copied from the host memory to an adapter memory that may be associated with the network adapter. The copied metadata may be processed by the protocol processor.

1. Field
The disclosure relates to a method, apparatus, system, and an article of manufacture for processing control data by an offload adapter.
2. Background
A network adapter may be coupled to a host system to provide communications. Some network adapters may provide hardware support for the processing of data related to the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) that may be used for communications. Such network adapters may be referred to as TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) adapters. Further details of the TCP/IP protocol are described in the publication entitled "Transmission Control Protocol: DARPA Internet Program Protocol Specification," prepared for the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (RFC 793, published September 1981).
TOE adapters may perform all or major parts of the TCP/IP protocol processing. including processing send requests, i.e., requests to send packets from a host system to a computational device. High speed data transmission technologies may be used for coupling a host system to a network. As a result a TOE adapter coupled to the host system may have to handle a large number of connections. The flow of packets to and from the host system in such high speed transmission technologies may be high. The TOE adapter may store control data related to a large number of packets and connections, where the control data may include information about the packets and connections. Further details of the TOE adapter in high speed data transmission technologies, such as, Gigabit Ethernet, are described in the publication entitled "Introduction to the TCP/IP Offload Engine" available from the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance (published April, 2002).

Method, apparatus, system, and article of manufacture for processing control data by an offload adapter


A locking pedicle screw assembly has been designed which avoids misalignment and locks into place once the cap is fully threaded into the tulip, avoiding over tightening or stripping of the threads. The locking cap includes a retaining or locking ring, positioned either at the bottom of the cap so that it locks into a groove at the bottom of the threads in the tulip or at the top of the threads in the cap, locking into a groove at the top of the tulip when the cap is fully seated. In one embodiment, an audible signal is generated when the cap locks. In another embodiment, the cap is secured to a swiveling saddle that locks the rod into place as the screw cap is tightening, but does not interfere with the locking mechanism.

Fusion plates are used to immobilize and fuse adjacent spinal vertebrae following a discectomy (spinal disc removal) or for immobilizing the area surrounding a corpectomy (removal of an entire vertebral body). These procedures create a gap in the spine from the removed disc or vertebral body. The gap typically is closed by inserting a bone graft, usually from a cadaver. The adjacent vertebrae surrounding the discectomy or corpectomy site are then immobilized by attaching a fusion plate, usually on the anterior side of the spine, so that the vertebrae fuse to the bone graft, forming an entire fused section of the spine. Fusing of vertebrae to the bone graft requires that the vertebrae remain immobile.
The term "fusion" means achieving a rigid bone union. When metallic internal fixation devices were first introduced in the 1950s it soon became evident that the stress factors directed to this instrumentation by the human body turned out to be much greater than anticipated, leading to a quest for structurally stronger instrumentation rather than a quest for more functional and physiologic stabilizations.
Devices such as the Luqué ring allowed better fixation than its predecessors but the laminar wires needed to attach the ring to the lamina were unwieldy and, if the system was removed at a late date, the fixating wires, (which had an unfortunate tendency to erode through the adjacent dura mater), could create serious cerebro-spinal fluid leakage problems. Ring implants fell into disuse with spine surgeons when their attention became focused on pedicle screw fixation systems in the 1960s. Boucher, in 1959, has been credited as being the first to use pedicle screws but it was Roy-Camille, in the late 1970s, who was the first to use screws and hooks and connecting them with rods or plates. In 1983 Arthur Steffee patented the VSP spinal fixation system.
The early pedicle screw fixation systems utilized rather thick rods to support the screws. Not only were the rods difficult to bend at surgery but they tended to exert significant adverse stress on the screws and adjacent spinal segments. Complications involving nerve compression or injury associated with the placement of pedicle screws still occur in approximately 8-15% of cases. With heavy rods and large screws these problems tended to be increased. Initially, fractures of both pedicles and screws were fairly common.
An important advance in spinal fusion systems was the replacement of heavy plates with rods, particularly those allowing some degree of flexibility. Front and back (360° fusion) became possible, as well as anterior interbody femoral ring allografts placed at multiple levels. The front and back approach was the first type of fusion capable of producing consistently solid and rigid spine stabilization, even among patients who were smokers when multi-level rigid stabilization was considered desirable
Today, there are many different types of metal devices used to perform a lumbar fusion. These devices connect two or more vertebrae together, hold them in the correct position, and keep them from moving until they have a chance to grow together, or fuse. This is not an easy task. The vertebrae are small, so there is not much room to put in the screws, plates, or metal rods that surgeons typically use to connect bones. Another problem is that many nerves get in the way of putting screws into the vertebral body. Finally, there is a great deal of stress across the lumbar spine when standing upright or even sitting. Finding a metal device that is able to hold the bones together can be difficult.
Most of the current devices that surgeons favor use metal screws that are placed through the small tube of bone, called the pedicle, and into the vertebral body. These screws are attached to metal plates or metal rods that are bolted together in the back of the spine. This combination of hardware creates a solid "brace" that holds the vertebrae in place. These devices are intended to stop movement from occurring between the vertebrae that are being fused, allowing a solid fusion to occur. These metal devices give more stability to the fusion site and allow the patient to be out of bed much sooner.
The best applications of rigid pedicle screw and rod fixation systems have been in cases of post-traumatic spine instability, where the adjacent segments are basically normal. For patients with advanced scoliosis or deformity which can result in progressive pulmonary or neurologic impairment, or in the management of spinal trauma, pedicle screw systems can be life-saving.
Pedicle screws may be titanium or stainless steel construction. Screw design differs as well. For example there are:
Polyaxial screws, which allow the head to rotate and lock onto the rod at any angle, which is important for ease of insertion.
Monoaxial screws provide more rigidity and are important for deformity correction.
A tulip head allows for less rod bending since the head can angle to engage the rod.
Cannulated screws provide a central canal for placement over a K-wire during a percutaneous application.
Fenestrated screws are designed with multiple holes allowing for bony in-growth and/or influx of polymethylmethacrylate.
Vertebral stabilization systems containing both polyaxial pedicle screws and variations of vertebral hooks for effecting temporary vertebral fixation for spinal fusion procedures are currently available. These spinal systems are manufactured by large medical device companies such as Zimmer (ST360 Spinal Fixation System), Medtronic Sofamor Danek (CD Horizon Legacy System), DePuy Spine (of Johnson & Johnson) Fixation Systems, and Synthes (Click'X Spine System).
For at least the reasons discussed above, even rods and pedicle screws can be difficult to install, with small spaces, degenerate bone due to osteoporosis or cancer, and misaligned vertebrae.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide pedicle screws that are easier to install into the pedicles and to use to secure the spinal fixation system.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved method for securing a rod during spinal fusion surgery.

Institute of Musculoskeletal Science and Education, Ltd.


A communication device which has high cooling efficiency and can be reduced in size and weight. The communication device in which a plurality of electronic circuit boards are mounted to a back wiring board (BWB) includes a casing containing the electronic circuit boards as a unit, an intake fan unit for introducing air into the casing to cool the electronic circuit boards, and a discharge fan unit having a plurality of blower fans each arranged such that air intake and discharge directions thereof form an angle of nearly 90 degrees, the blower fans discharging the air introduced into the casing. Combined use of an axial fan and the blower fans permits air to be introduced into and discharged from the casing from rear and front sides, respectively, of the casing, whereby spaces that the fan units occupy in the communication device can be reduced.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a communication device provided with a plurality of electronic circuit boards, such as a platform information communication device, a cooling fan unit and an operation control method for the cooling fan unit, and more particularly, to a communication device comprising multiple electronic circuit boards mounted to a back wiring board (BWB).
(2) Description of the Related Art
A conventional cooling structure for an electronic unit is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 05-259673, for example. According to this publication, a cooling system is constructed by mounting a cooling fan to an electronic unit constituted by a combination of intense heat-generating communication devices, such as electronic exchanges, such that air is forced to flow through the interior of the electronic unit. In this cooling system, the intense heat-generating communication devices are provided with fins, in order to reduce the size of the heat radiator of the electronic unit and thereby reduce the size and weight of the unit, and cooling air is forced to flow along the fins by an axial fan.
FIG. 19 is a side view schematically showing the construction of a communication device using a conventional cooling system.
The cooling system for the communication device 1 has axial fans arranged on cooling air inlet and outlet sides, respectively, and is generally called push-pull type. A fan unit 100 constituted by two axial fans 101 and 102 serves to suck cooling air coming from an air inlet 110 arranged at a lower portion of the device into the interior of the communication device 1. A discharge fan unit 200 is adapted to dispel heat to outside from an air outlet 210 arranged at an upper portion of the communication device 1, and is constituted by two axial fans 201 and 202.
A plurality of electronic circuit boards (not shown), for which the cooling system is provided, are inserted as a plug-in unit (PIU) into the communication device 1 from the front side thereof such that the boards are directed vertically between the two fan units 100 and 200 and arranged side by side. Arrow A appearing in the left part of FIG. 19 indicates the direction of insertion of the electronic circuit boards.
In the conventional cooling system, the four axial fans 101, 102, 201 and 202 are operated at all times to function as a push-pull type fan system so that heat can be dispelled to outside from the communication device 1. Thus, the communication device 1 needs to include spaces for containing the two fan units 100 and 200, respectively, a space for containing a shielding plate 111 which allows air to be introduced into the intake fan unit 100 from the air inlet 110 at the lower portion of the front of the communication device, and a space for containing another shielding plate 211 which guides the air from the discharge fan unit 200 toward the air outlet 210 at the upper portion of the back of the communication device.
In the push-pull type cooling system constituted by axial fans as described above, the cooling air is sucked in and discharged both in a horizontal direction, as indicated by arrows B and C, respectively, in FIG. 19. Accordingly, the communication device 1 inevitably has an increased size which is larger than the width or height of the electronic circuit boards by an extra amount corresponding to the thicknesses of the axial fans of the fan units 100 and 200 and the spaces allotted to the air inlet 110 and outlet 210. Also, in the case of the conventional communication device 1 in which the electronic circuit boards as a plug-in unit are positioned horizontally and arranged one above another, the cooling air cannot be smoothly sucked in and discharged when a plurality of such communication devices are mounted on a rack.

Communication device, cooling fan unit, and operation control method for the cooling fan unit


A reactive vinyl polymer containing units derived from a vinyl monomer (A) having a hydrolyzable silyl group and units derived from a vinyl monomer (B) having an aminimide group, in which the polymer obtained is used in preparation of dispersions suitable for coating of substrates to provide a tough, water-resistant film which optionally has a rust inhibiting effect on the substrate, if needed.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reactive polymer, dispersion thereof and an article coated and cured therewith. In particular, the present invention relates to an aqueous dispersion containing the reactive polymer having a hydrolyzable silyl group and an aminimide group, which is stable and provides a tough and water-resistant film. The present invention also relates to a coating composition for rust-inhibition.

Reactive polymers, dispersions thereof and articles coated therewith


The present invention relates to an adhesive composition comprising (A) a block copolymer composition comprising a block copolymer (a) formed from at least two polymer blocks composed mainly of a monoalkenyl aromatic compound and at least one polymer block composed mainly of a conjugated diene compound and a block copolymer (b) formed from a polymer block composed mainly of a monoalkenyl aromatic compound and a polymer block composed mainly of a conjugated diene compound, wherein the block copolymer (a) has a GPC peak molecular weight of 60,000 to 110,000 in terms of standard polystyrene, the polymer block composed mainly of a monoalkenyl aromatic compound has a peak molecular weight of 10,000 to 30,000 and a molecular weight distribution Mw/Mn of 1.0 to 1.6, the block copolymer composition (A) has a content of the block copolymer (b) of 50 to 90% by weight, the block copolymer composition (A) has a total monoalkenyl aromatic compound content of more than 40% by weight and 50% by weight or less, the conjugated diene unit has a vinyl bond content of less than 20%, and the block copolymer composition (A) has a viscosity in a 15% toluene solution of 10 to 40 cP at 25° C.

Recently, in view of energy saving, resource saving and reduction of environmental burdens, hot melt adhesives have been widely used. Block copolymers (SBS, SIS etc.) composed of a monoalkenyl aromatic compound and a conjugated diene compound are widely used as base polymers of such hot melt adhesives. However, in such adhesive compositions obtained by using these block copolymers, the balance of the holding power, tack properties and processability is insufficient, and their improvement has been desired. JP-A-61-278578 discloses, for example, an adhesive composition comprising a triblock copolymer and diblock copolymer as a method for improving the above properties. In addition, JP-A-63-248817 discloses an adhesive composition comprising a block copolymer obtained by coupling using a specific bifunctional coupling agent (specific dihalogen compound).    Patent Document 1: JP-A-61-278578    Patent Document 2: JP-A-63-248817
However, in recent years, properties required for hot melt adhesives have become more and more advanced and complicated. For example, adhesives used for sanitary goods such as disposable diapers and sanitary napkins are expected to have a wide range of properties such as transparency, heat discoloration resistance, deodorization and low viscosity in view of the appearance, sanitation and processability. Moreover, in response to the demand for improvement in the technique of coating of adhesives and the corresponding demand for increasing the productivity of final products, adhesive compositions need to have a low viscosity. Also, for retaining the strength of the object to be bonded, hot melt adhesives having excellent coatability at lower temperatures are in demand.
However, SBS, for example, generally has poor heat resistance because it contains a vinyl bond in the conjugated diene chain, and when the viscosity of the adhesive is reduced at high temperature so as to improve the processability, for example, heat discoloration, gelation or thermal decomposition may occur and impair the appearance of the adhesive composition, and adhesive performances may be deteriorated. On the other hand, when an adhesive composition is processed at low temperature to suppress such heat discoloration and heat degradation, processing is difficult due to high melt viscosity. Further, when taking processability into account, a method in which a large amount of a softener is added to improve the processability or a method in which the amount of addition of the block copolymer is reduced may be used. However, in these methods, the balance of adhesive performances may be deteriorated or bleeding of the softener may occur, often resulting in degradation of the appearance and sanitary properties of the adhesive composition. Moreover, although simple reduction of the molecular weight of SBS improves the heat discoloration or processability of the resulting adhesive, this is not preferred because adhesive performances are significantly deteriorated.


An IC card having high reliability, which is not only in that printing can be surely conducted with respect to the reversible display layer provided on the surface of the card substrate, but also in that the IC chip is surely protected by the reinforcing sheet. An IC card which has: an IC module (1) including an IC chip (14) mounted on an insulating substrate (11), and a reinforcing sheet (16) provided over the IC chip (14) through a sealing resin (15) for sealing the IC chip (14); a card substrate (2) comprised of a resin for sealing the IC module (1); and a reversible recording layer (3) provided on at least one surface of the card substrate (2), wherein reinforcing film patterns (13), (13′) having openings (13a), (13a′) which expose the IC chip (14) mounted portion are provided on at least one of the IC chip (14) mounted surface and the non-mounted surface of the insulating substrate (11).

In information recording card including an ID card and a credit card, magnetically or optically reading methods have been widely used. However, the techniques are popularized and the data in the cards is easily altered or forged cards are spread, and there are increasing cases where people actually suffer damage from the forged cards, causing social problems about the privacy of personal information. For this reason, in recent years, as a material for controlling personal data, an IC card having an IC chip incorporated into a substrate for card made of a resin has drawn attention since it has a large data capacity and it can contain coded data.
For exchanging information between an IC circuit and an external data processing apparatus, the IC card has a connection terminal for electrically and mechanically connecting them. Therefore, the IC card has various problems in that the airtightness in the IC circuit must be secured, an electrostatic discharge damage is avoided, a failure of the electrical connection between terminal electrodes is likely to occur, and the mechanisms of the reader/writer are complicated. In addition, a manual operation of inserting or putting an IC card into or on a reader/writer is inevitably needed, and therefore the efficiency is low or the operation is burdensome in some business. Therefore, there has been desired the development of non-contact IC cards which need no burdensome operation and which can exchange information with a portable remote data processing apparatus.
For meeting the demand, a non-contact IC card which has an antenna utilizing electromagnetic waves and an IC chip having a memory and a calculation function in a substrate for card has been developed. In this IC card, the IC is driven by the induced electromotive force excited in the antenna in the card substrate by external electromagnetic waves from a reader/writer, and no battery power source is required in the card, and thus a card having excellent activity can be provided. According to applications, attempts are made to incorporate a thin battery, such as paper battery, into the card to enlarge the communication distance or to utilize higher frequency bands, but, from the viewpoint of reduction in the cost and widening applications, cards requiring no battery are strongly desired.
For recording information onto these cards, digital recording is conducted by a recordable IC chip provided on part of the card. For display or reading of the data recorded on the card, it is necessary to read the recorded data by means of a special reading apparatus, and therefore general users cannot read the data by themselves. For example, in membership cards in which a high premium or a point is put on members, information by an information note or the like is separately required if it is merely recorded onto the card. Therefore, demands of easy display of the recorded data are increasing.
For meeting the demands, technique has been developed in which a reversible display layer (for example, reversible heat-sensitive recording layer; hereinafter, referred to simply as "heat-sensitive recording layer") is provided on the surface of the card substrate wherein the reversible display layer is of a polymer/low-molecule-type and includes an organic low molecule dispersed in a resin binder, and achieves display by utilizing the opaque-transparent contrast. The polymer/low-molecule-type reversible display medium is constituted by a support, e.g., a plastic sheet/colored layer/recording (polymer/low-molecule) layer/protecting layer.
Further, recently, for reducing the cost, a bare chip mounting method is attempted in which an IC chip is directly mounted on the card by providing an electrode portion for connecting an antenna to the IC chip on a sheet-form insulating substrate. In this case, a face down bonding method is employed in which a protrusion called bump is formed from solder or gold on an electrode portion on the circuit-formed surface of the IC chip, and connection is made to the electrode portion through the bump. The connection is made for filling the gap between the IC chip circuit surface and the insulating substrate with an an isotropic conductive film, a resin containing conductive particles, such as an anisotropic conductive resin, or under filling material.
By the way, in the IC cards, for securing reliability of the IC chip operation, the IC chip is protected by a sealing resin having a hardness different from that of the card substrate. Further, for avoiding an accident that the IC chip is mechanically broken leading to lose all data, a task is to improve the IC card in mechanical strength with respect to bending and a point pressure caused by impact at a point or the like. For achieving the task, a structure such that a reinforcing sheet is provided on the sealing resin to prevent the connection portion of the IC chip or the IC chip itself from being broken is considered.
A general process for producing the IC card is conducted in accordance with, for example, the following procedure. First, a resin sheet is printed by a known printing method, such as offset printing, gravure printing, or screen printing, and protecting sheets comprised of a thin film resin having high transparency are laminated on both surfaces of the printed resin sheet. Then, an IC module is disposed between these sheets and they are integrated by hot melting by means of a hot press, and punched out using a die having a predetermined size into a card form. Then, the card is embossed to make characters called embossed characters, and supplied to users.
However, the above-mentioned IC card having a reinforcing material poses the following problem. Specifically, when the reinforcing sheet and the sealing resin having a cure shrinkage behavior are used in combination, the reinforcing sheet deforms due to the cure shrinkage of the sealing resin. For this reason, when the IC module having the reinforcing sheet disposed on the IC chip sealed by the sealing resin is sealed between the resin sheets (card substrate), the deformation of the reinforcing sheet cannot be satisfactorily cancelled by the card substrate, so that the surface of the card substrate may become uneven.
In the card substrate having an uneven surface, when a printing operation is conducted with respect to the heat-sensitive recording layer, a spacing is caused between the heat-sensitive recording layer and a thermal head, so that the heat-sensitive recording layer cannot be satisfactorily heated, leading to a problem that missing of image recording is likely to occur.
An object of the present invention is to provide an IC card which can surely protect the IC chip by a reinforcing sheet while securing surface flatness of the card substrate, thus making it possible to surely achieve printing with respect to the reversible display layer provided on the surface of the card substrate.


A method and apparatus for searching the synchronization signal of a next frame in encoded digital signal without the need of referring to a frame length indication signal. The encoded digital signal contains a plurality of frames, wherein each frame may have varying length and contain a synchronization signal. The method includes determining a search region, and locating the synchronization signal in the search region.

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for searching the synchronization signal of a next frame and thus determining the frame length of the current frame in digital encoded signals. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for utilizing a lookup table to determine a search region and backward-searching the synchronization signal of the next frame in the search region.
Various digital video/audio processing standards are widely used in the industry to encode the video or audio data into digital encoded signals for further transmission or storing operations. For instance, MPEG audio standard (ISO/IEC 11172-3 and ISO/IEC13818-3) is for compressing and decompressing audio signals with different sampling rates and bit rates. MPEG audio standard defines three layers, which are Layer I, Layer II, and Layer III. The digital encoded signals conforming to MPEG audio standard includes a plurality of frames; each frame includes a plurality of fields. FIG. 1 illustrates the format of a frame specified in the three different layers of the MPEG audio standard. Take MPEG audio layer-1 for example, each frame includes header, alloc, scalefactors, samples, and ANC fields. Though MPEG audio layer I, II, and III have different formats of frames, they have the same header formats, as shown in FIG. 2.
PEG audio standard defines compressing and decompressing audio signals with different sampling rates and bit rates. For some specific sampling rate and bit rate, frames with varying lengths are used to achieve average bit rate. Since each frame may have different length, the actual length of each frame has to be obtained when the digital encoded signal is to be decoded. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,992, a method used to calculate the length of a current frame is disclosed, and the following formula is included:
      P    =                  Br        N            ×                        n          S                          F          S                      ,where P represents the number of slots included in the current frame; Br is a bit rate of the digital encoded signal; N is the number of bits included in a slot; nS is the number of samples included in a frame; and FS is the sampling rate of the digital encoded signal.
When a decoder of the related art receives a current frame of the above-mentioned digital encoded signal, the decoder first utilizes the above-mentioned formula to calculate the length of the current frame and then perform the following decoding operations toward the current frame. When P calculated by utilizing the formula is an integer, the current frame includes P slot(s); when the calculated P is not an integer, the current frame possibly includes P′r P′+1 slot(s), wherein P′ is the highest integer whose value is less than P. To correctly decode the digital encoded signals with varying frame lengths, the decoder needs an approach to determine the number of slots (equal to either P′ or P′1) included in the current frame.
In MPEG audio standard, the header includes a padding bit signaling the length of the frame. If the calculated P by utilizing the above-mentioned formula is not an integer, the decoder of the related art checks the padding bit; if the padding bit is 0, the current frame includes P′ slots; if the padding bit is 1, the current frame includes P′+1 slots. In other words, the decoder of the related art utilizes the above-mentioned formula to calculate P and then determine the length of the current frame by checking the padding bit.
In the header of each frame in the digital encoded signal, a synchronization signal is included. The synchronization signal generally owns specific data patterns for easy identification. For digital encoded signals conforming to the MPEG audio standard, the synchronization signal is called 'syncword' The data pattern of the syncword is fixed as '1111 1111 1111' in the binary system, which is '0xFFF' in the hexadecimal system. The system of the related art can forward-search the fixed data pattern ('0xFFF') from the current frame so as to determine the syncword in a next frame. Afterwards, by calculating the difference of the positions between the syncword of the current frame and the syncword of the next frame, the length of the current frame is obtained.
There have been many MPEG audio encoders accumulated in the market, and some does not encode audio signals in a way strictly conforming to MPEG audio standard. According to MPEG standard, the specific data pattern is exclusively reserved for the syncword and should not appear in any other positions in the frames. However, for some digital encoded signals not strictly conforming to MPEG audio standard, the specific data pattern may appear in other positions in the frames. For instance, in MPEG audio standard, '0' should be utilized as a stuffing bit, so the stuffing sequence is '0000 . . . ' However, some encoders utilize '1' as the stuffing bit, so the stuffing sequence is '1111 . . . ' and may be confused with the syncword ('1111 1111 1111'). Therefore, the above-mentioned forward-searching method does not work due to the possibility that other data (such as the inappropriate stuffing sequence '1111 . . . ' may be incorrectly interpreted as the syncword, and thus an incorrect frame length of the current frame is obtained.

Method and related apparatus for searching the syncword of a next frame in an encoded digital signal


Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method that includes providing a semiconductor substrate comprising a semiconductor material, forming a dielectric layer on the semiconductor substrate, forming an interconnect layer on the dielectric layer, attaching a semiconductor die to the semiconductor substrate, and electrically coupling an active side of the semiconductor die to the interconnect layer, the interconnect layer to route electrical signals of the semiconductor die. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Integrated circuit devices, such as transistors, are formed on semiconductor dies that continue to scale in size to smaller dimensions. The shrinking dimensions of the semiconductor dies are challenging conventional substrate fabrication and/or package assembly technologies and configurations that are currently used to route electrical signals to or from the semiconductor die. For example, laminate substrate technologies may not produce sufficiently small features on a substrate to correspond with the finer pitches of interconnects or other signal-routing features formed on the semiconductor dies.

Package assembly having a semiconductor substrate


A needleless luer access connector is disclosed having a septum disposed in a housing. The septum has a proximal portion with a cross section, a medial portion with a cross section smaller than the cross section of the proximal portion, and a distal portion. A longitudinal slit extends through the septum from the proximal portion to the distal portion. The septum and housing are designed so that septum will not be rotated or removed from the housing when the connector is accessed by a male luer taper. In addition, the septum and housing are designed to bias the slit at the distal portion closed and so a male luer connector does not have to extend completely through the distal portion to open the slit at the distal portion. Finally, the septum and housing are designed to minimize the amount of dead space in the connector when accessed with a male luer taper.

The subject invention relates to a needleless connector referred to generally as a luer access device that allows a clinician to access a fluid flow line without the use of sharp needles. More particularly, the subject invention relates to a needleless luer access connector that may be opened by a standard male luer taper of a medical device, such as a syringe. The penetration of the connector by the male luer taper allows fluid flow through the connector. When the male luer taper is removed from the connector, it closes to prevent fluid flow therethrough.
In the treatment of patients, fluids are transferred between various containers and intravascular (IV) lines or through IV catheters into the patient through a closed system to prevent microbial ingress to the patient. During the course of such treatment where an IV catheter has been placed into a patient to gain access to the patient's vasculature, it may be necessary to infuse other fluids, such as medicaments, through the catheter into the patient or to withdraw blood from the patient for blood gas or other analysis. Such fluid withdrawal or injection into a patient may be through IV lines, saline wells, arterial lines, or hemodialysis lines. Previously, a rubber or silicone septum was used to cover an opening in the catheter or the IV line to prevent fluid from flowing out of the opening and to maintain a closed system. A clinician could access the opening by inserting a sharp needle from a syringe through the septum. This allowed the clinician to infuse fluid from the syringe into the patient or withdraw fluid from the patient into the syringe. The septum would reseal after the needle was withdrawn to prevent back flow of the fluid.
In recent years, there has been great concern over the contamination of clinicians with a patient's blood or other fluid and a recognition that such "blood contaminated sharps" must be immediately disposed. This concern has arisen because of the advent of currently incurable and fatal diseases, such as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ("AIDS") and hepatitis, which can be transmitted by the exchange of body fluids from an infected person to another person. Thus, contact with the body fluid of an AIDS or hepatitis infected person must be avoided to prevent the transmission of such diseases to a healthy person. If a needle has been used to access an IV line in communication with an AIDS or hepatitis infected person, the needle is a vehicle for the transmission of the disease. Although clinicians are aware of the need to properly handle "blood contaminated sharps", unfortunately in certain medical environments, such as emergency situations or as a result of inattention or neglect, needlesticks with contaminated needles still occur. As a result of the problem of accidental needlesticks by "blood contaminated sharps", much effort has been expended in developing various connectors that avoid the use of sharp needles.
One type of needleless connector includes a longitudinally movable diaphragm that controls the flow of fluid through an internal cannula fixed in the connector. This internal cannula defines the fluid flow path through the connector. The movable diaphragm cooperates with a biasing member such as a spring or other flexible member that biases the top of the movable diaphragm toward the inlet or proximal opening to the connector. The opening is typically in the form of a female luer connection. When the movable diaphragm is adjacent to the inlet of the connector, the movable diaphragm occludes the opening to the internal cannula to close the connector to fluid flow. The connector can be opened when the clinician inserts the male luer taper of another medical device, such as a syringe, into the female luer portion of the connector. When this is done, the movable diaphragm is pushed down into the housing so the internal cannula extends through a pre-formed slit in the movable diaphragm providing a fluid flow path through the connector.
Although such connectors can generally operate in accordance with their intended function, such connectors could be improved. When the tip of the internal cannula engages the movable diaphragm, the internal cannula has a tendency to core the movable diaphragm. This may cause pieces of the movable diaphragm to be broken off and potentially infused into a patient. In addition, this coring of the movable diaphragm promotes fluid leakage of the connector and can result in a pathway for microbial ingress. Finally, the force needed to move the movable diaphragm pas the tip of the internal cannula could be quite high making it difficult to operate and resulting in a substantial kickback force that tends to push the male luer taper back out of the connector.
A potential improvement to connectors with internal cannula are connectors that include a longitudinally movable diaphragm having a molded in opening through the diaphragm to control the flow of fluid through the connector. Some biasing member biases the movable diaphragm toward the inlet of the device. In this position, the proximal portion of the movable diaphragm is radially biased by the sidewalls of the housing defining the inlet opening of the connector to bias closed the molded in opening. This prevents fluid flow through the connector. When the clinician inserts the male luer taper of the syringe into the inlet of the connector, the movable diaphragm is moved down into the connector to an area that does not contact the proximal portion of the movable diaphragm. This allows the proximal portion of the diaphragm to return to its unbiased condition with the molded in opening in the open position to provide a fluid flow through the connector. Thus, these connectors do not need an internal cannula to extend through the diaphragm to provide the fluid flow path through the connector.
However, connectors having a molded in opening are not without problems. For example, the molded in opening in the movable diaphragm may not be tightly closed when in the inlet. This could result in leakage through the connector and provide a path for microbial ingress. In addition, the high activation force and kick back problems are not resolved because of the biasing mechanism that is still used in these types of connectors.
Yet another approach has been the development of a connector that can be accessed by a blunt cannula that is connected to the standard male luer taper of a standard syringe. Such a connector has a septum having a longitudinal slit extending through it disposed over an opening on a proximal end of the connector. The distal end of the connector includes a standard male luer taper so the connector can be connected to other medical devices and IV lines having a female luer connection. This type of connector cannot be accessed with a standard male luer taper because a standard male luer taper is too large to fit into the space in the opening not already occupied by the septum. Instead this type of connector is accessed by a blunt cannula that is narrower than a standard male luer taper and which can be attached to a standard male luer taper. When the clinician desires to access the medical device or IV line, a blunt cannula is placed on the syringe and is then inserted through the slit in the septum. This places the syringe in fluid communication with the medical device or IV line. After fluid is injected into or withdrawn from the patient, the syringe with the blunt cannula is removed from the septum. Because of the design of the connector, the slit in the septum closes and prevents the backflow of fluid through the device.
Although slit septum connectors that can be accessed by a blunt cannula work generally in accordance with their intended purpose they could be improved. For example, this type of connector requires that a separate blunt cannula be connected to the male luer taper of another medical device to allow the connector to be accessed. This requires excess inventory problems and adds costs to the health care facility using the connector. Moreover, the blunt cannula typically does not fill up the space in the housing of the connector when it is accessed. This leaves an annular "dead space" cavity in the housing between the sides of the blunt cannula and the inner walls of the housing. Residual blood may be left in this cavity and provide a breeding ground for various germs and microbes and is difficult to flush.


A vehicle accessory such as an armrest includes a base having an open compartment, a cover pivotally mounted to the base for covering the compartment, and a transferably mounted drawer movable between a retracted storage position so that the drawer is retained on the cover, and an extended use position so that the drawer is retained on the base. The base and cover include a latching system that releases the drawer permitting movement of the drawer when the cover is closed, but preventing removal of the drawer from the cover when the drawer is in the stored position and the cover is open. In a preferred embodiment, the drawer includes a container holder therein.

The present invention relates to a vehicle accessory such as an armrest or console and in particular to a container holder drawer for such an accessory.
Armrests are a convenient location for the mounting of container holders and as a result are often used to support container holders which are frequently movably mounted to the armrests for movement between use and storage positions. In particular, many armrests include an interior compartment with a cover, and the container holders are adapted to move into and out of a front portion of the compartment. U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,008 shows two examples of such construction, one being a slidable drawer (FIG. 1), and another being a pivotable member (FIG. 7). While this provides an aesthetic appearance with the container holder in the storage position, the container holder reduces access to the compartment when in the storage position, and also when stored is subject to being damaged or soiled by items placed in the compartment. In addition to reducing access to the interior of an armrest storage area, a container holder which is stored in the storage compartment of an armrest uses valuable storage space in the compartment which could otherwise be used for storage of other items.


According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes, an error detector configured to make an error check of the stream received, a player configured to reproduce the stream, a memory configured to store a plurality of pieces of displaying data indicating formats of the streams that can be processed by the image processing apparatus, a transmitter configured to transmit the pieces of displaying data stored in the memory to the external device in response to a request from the external device, and a rewriting module configured to delete one piece of displaying data stored in the memory when an error is detected by the error detector.

Image processing apparatuses capable of recording and reproducing image content (stream) such as movies, television programs, and games have been in widespread use.
Further, image processing apparatuses provided with a terminal (HDMI terminal) conforming to the standard such as HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) (registered trademark) are in widespread use. An HDMI compliant device can send out a stream to another HDMI compliant device via an HDMI cable.
Normally, an image processing apparatus has determined reproducible resolving levels, reproducible color depths, and receivable frequencies in accordance with device specs and the type of receivable streams will not change. Thus, if a received stream cannot be reproduced due to a failure on a communication path, the failure cannot be automatically avoided, posing a problem that user's convenience may be sacrificed.