A composite source wire for use in treating malignant tumors within a patient's body by localized in vivo radiation with a radioactive source, via a catheter providing a path from a point external to the body to the tumor site. The source wire includes a thin continuous cylindrical flexible elongate stainless steel tube having encased therein a backbone wire running from its proximal end to a point short of its distal end to strengthen and enhance its flexibility, a cylindrical radioactive core adjacent to the distal end in abutting relation to the backbone wire, and a cylindrical plug at the distal end in abutting relation to the other end of the core, with the backbone wire, core and plug being tightly secured within the tube and the tube being securely enclosed about the plug with a tapered tip portion formed at that point. The source wire has an overall diameter sized to permit ease of movement through the catheter in advancement to the tumor site for the radiation treatment and to allow its retraction through the catheter from the point external to the body. The exterior surface of the tube is gold plated from its tip to the far end of the portion overlying the core. The source wire has an extremely small diameter (under 0.7 mm) and is sufficiently flexible that even in high radioactive dose sizes it is capable of passing through very narrow and even kinked catheters, making it useful for treating inoperable tumors such as common bile duct pancreatic cancer.

The present invention relates generally to radioactive sources used in the treatment of cancerous tissue. More particularly, the invention resides in devices, apparatus, and processes for relatively short term delivery of a radioactive source into the body of a cancer patient to expose the malignant tumor(s) to localized in vivo radiation from within through a catheter which terminates at or beyond the tumor site.
Radiation treatment of malignant tumors is one of the three traditional methods of treating cancer, the other two being surgery and chemotherapy. One technique for radiation treatment involves directing a beam of radiation from a point external to the patient's body onto the area of the body in which the tumor is located. The purpose of such treatment is to shrink and ultimately destroy the tumor, but since the treatment is not particularly selective except in a very gross sense, in delivering the treatment healthy tissue is also exposed to the high dosage of radiation in the beam and is therefore subject to injury. Another technique for radiation treatment involves the delivery of a highly radioactive source into the body directly to the tumor site for localized irradiation, for the same purpose as the external beam radiation technique, except that in this treatment exposure and injury to healthy tissue can be avoided to a considerably greater extent than with the external beam radiation.
A conventional localized low level radiation procedure involves the use of radioactive sources or "seeds" having activity levels on the order of one millicurie per source or seed. Typically, the seeds are implanted in either of two ways. They may be injected directly into the tumor site after surgically opening the patient, the incision then sutured to close the patient, with the intention that the radioactive seeds will be left permanently in place.
A second technique is to implant one or more catheters in the patient's body to extend through the tumor site, then insert a tube containing the radioactive sources or seeds through one of the catheters into the region of the tumor where the tube is left in place for the predetermined period of treatment, and repeat the procedure for each of the other catheters. The low level seeds expose the tumor to gamma rays during the period they are left in place. While undergoing such treatment the patient remains ambulatory, but among the disadvantages of such procedures, in addition to the requirement of surgical implantation, the patient must remain in the hospital during the entire treatment phase which is usually several days, during which time all personnel working with the patient are exposed to radiation.
Another method of localized internal radiation treatment of deep tumors also involves implanting one or more catheters to provide a path from a point external to the patient's body to and through the tumor site, to provide accessibility to the interior of the tumor mass via the catheter(s). A highly radioactive source, typically having an intensity of ten curies, is then mechanically delivered on a retractable guidewire through the catheter for localized irradiation of the tumor for a very short period, usually in the range of only seconds up to a few minutes per treatment.
The high dose source is secured to the distal or remote end of the guidewire, and is advanced or retracted through an attachment of the proximal or near end of the guidewire to the loader machine, by appropriate manipulation of controls by the attending technician or physician from the control panel of a console for actuating the apparatus. The loader is located in a remote radiation shielded room into which the patient is moved for the treatment. The source wire is advanced through the catheter to the proper location for treatment of the tumor, based on measurement of the extent of advancement of a previously positioned dummy wire having an opaque tip marker for fluoroscopic observation. The dummy wire is retracted prior to moving the patient into the shielded room for the actual treatment.
In the case of an abdominal tumor, for example, an incision is made in the patient to open the abdominal cavity, and a needle is inserted into and through the tumor to provide a desired number of entries. A separate catheter is then implanted in each passageway formed by the needle, of sufficient length to be accessible from a point external to the body after the patient is closed. For purposes of determining or verifying the point to which the radioactive source wire must be advanced into the catheter for the treatment, a dummy wire is manually inserted into the catheter by the physician until the opaquely marked tip of the distal end is properly positioned as viewed under fluoroscope.
After this procedure is repeated for each catheter and the results are recorded, the patient is moved into the shielded treatment room, which is provided with apparatus to permit television viewing from outside, and the patient is hooked up to the loading machine. Using the controls on the console panel, the source wire is driven by the loader to the recorded (programmed) depth into the respective catheter, for example 100 cm. The source wire is left in place in that position for the time interval required for the treatment (which is also programmed into the loader). The source wire is then automatically retracted by the loader and returned to a shielded storage area within the loader.
If several catheters are implanted through the tumor site or region, the loader repeats the process automatically for each one. The source wire is driven into the first channel (catheter), the period of treatment is performed, the source wire is then withdrawn, a wheel on the loader turns automatically to the position for insertion of the source wire into the next channel, whereupon it is advanced through the new catheter to the proper depth and is retracted after the treatment interval, and so forth.
For treatments conducted on an outpatient basis, the catheters are left in place and the patient comes in for the procedure as scheduled. This is described in copending patent application Ser. No. 07/255,045, filed Oct. 7, 1988. Where the geometries of the catheters are fixed, as by the technique disclosed in that application, it is unnecessary to reimplant the catheters daily (or on other periodic bases, according to the treatment regimen), which serves to spare the patient from the considerable trauma of more surgery. This is particularly important for a patient experiencing life-threatening illness, and the resulting psychological effect. It is only necessary to verify by fluoroscopy that the catheters have not been dislodged, and if that is the case, a treatment card previously produced for that particular patient is simply inserted into the loader, to cause the loader to go through an automatic repetition of the treatment according to the prescribed regime.
The treatment regime may be repeated at regular short intervals over the entire period of time that the patient requires treatment to shrink and ultimately eliminate the tumor. Among the advantages of this type of radiation therapy are exposure of the tumor to fractionated treatment doses of localized radiation so that each individual treatment need only be of extremely short duration to provide the desired effect while reducing the magnitude of patient discomfort, and to provide more rapid shrinking of the tumor while avoiding prolonged exposure of healthy tissue to the radiation.
The loader has many additional functions but the foregoing description of its operation is sufficient for present purposes. In essence, the machine serves to move the highly radioactive source into the patient a precise distance for treatment of the cancerous mass, and then retracts the source. If the source wire encounters a kink or other barrier to its advancement along the catheter path, the feed mechanism of the loader is designed to slip, and upon detection of such slippage, to reverse the drive for retraction of the source wire into the shielded storage safe. An error flag is then displayed to the operator at the console panel, together with information that the source wire cannot be advanced into the particular catheter beyond the specified distance (at which the kink or other barrier was encountered).
Because the malignancy may be located deep within the body, and its nature and extent may make it inoperable, it may be extremely difficult to reach by use of the source wire as the latter is guided through the path provided by the implanted catheter. It may be necessary as a practical matter that the catheter take a long and tortuous route to the site of the cancer, with numerous sharp bends and turns as well as longer and narrower passages. It is essential, therefore, that the source wire should be extremely thin, small diameter and flexible, and yet sufficiently strong to traverse such a path and reach the cancer site without breakage or significant delay, and that it be retractable in the same fashion.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a new and improved radioactive source wire which possesses those desirable characteristics and features.
A feature of the present invention is the provision of a design which enables the source wire to be maneuvered through tight turns, even kinks, so that treatment may be rendered as scheduled without need for additional procedures to allow advancement to the tumor site.
One of the more serious problems encountered in the use of hot (radioactive) cores capable of delivering high dosage radiation to the tumor site by means of remotely activated electromechanical loader, is that the hot core is rigid and relatively brittle. A suitable core, for example, is composed of substantially pure iridium (although other conventional source materials such as cobalt, cesium, palladium, iodine and so forth may be used instead), which can be irradiated to a relatively high level of radioactivity in a rather small size. Ir-192, produced in a nuclear reactor with dosages of up to 10 curies in a diameter that results in a source wire diameter of about 1.1 millimeters (mm) is typical of the prior art. Unless the core is adequately protected and packaged it may scale, flake or even fracture when in use. The brittleness of the core tends to cause flaking during mere handling, which increases the order of difficulty of forming the source wire. If radioactive flakes are deposited on the wire or other surfaces in which the core comes into contact, the result is undesirable contamination.
Also, the method of attaching the core to the guide-wire becomes critically important to assure its retention while the wire is being advanced into or withdrawn from the catheter, particularly in regions where binding may occur because of kinks and tight turns in the catheter. In one conventional prior art assembly the core is placed inside a stainless steel capsule with an open end on one side and welded to the delivery wire or guidewire. This technique suffers not only the disadvantage of increased flaking of the core material, but unless the weld is virtually perfect, can result in the presence of a dangerously weak spot at the point of the weld. Such weakness can result in fracture of the connection and separation of the core from the delivery wire in use, which would require emergency measures to be taken for its removal from the patient's body. Moreover, attempts to reduce the source and wire size, by reducing the respective outside diameter, only result in a decrease of the surface area to be welded, thereby further weakening the weld location.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a source wire for in vivo localized radioactive treatment of malignant tumors, in which the source wire components require no critical welds for their retention in the wire.
The rigidity of the typical hot core exacerbates the relatively unyielding nature of prior art source wires to tight turns in the catheter as the source wire is advanced or withdrawn therethrough. Beyond the possibility of breakage of the source wire from binding in the catheter, the surrounding tissue at the point of the binding is exposed to the high dosage of radiation for the duration of the time interval required to free the source wire, and the source wire may be prevented from being advanced fully to the tumor site.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved source wire which avoids such difficulties.
In my copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/228,400, filed Aug. 4, 1988, there is disclosed a method of producing an ultra-thin iridium source wire of less than about 0.6 to 0.7 mm in diameter, by imbedding a smaller diameter core of substantially pure iridium in a hole drilled (e.g., by use of a laser) in a platinum wire of somewhat larger diameter than is ultimately desired, and then drawing the wire down to the smaller sized diameter. The platinum wire is reasonably strong and flexible, and despite the rigidity of the iridium core is capable of being maneuvered over relatively long passages through an implanted catheter, using a remote afterloader equipment.
After assembly, the overall substantially unitary source wire of the 228,400 application is irradiated in a nuclear reactor to provide the iridium core with the desired high dosage of radiation (depending on size of the iridium core) appropriate for delivery to the tumor site within the body. The small diameter of this source wire allows the use of a commensurately small diameter catheter. A preferred embodiment of that source wire system is a substantially pure iridium fiber core approximately one cm in length and about 0.2 mm diameter, disposed one mm from the distal end of the platinum delivery wire which is about two meters long. In practice, this source wire is advanced, positioned and retracted using a remote afterloader of the type disclosed in copending U.S. application Ser. No. 255,044, filed Oct. 7, 1988 in the names of Spako et al. and titled "Apparatus and Method for the Remote Treatment of Cancer Using High Radioactivity Sources."
Despite the important advantages of such apparatus and methods for in-vivo radiotherapy of malignant tumors, there are certain problems which remain to be addressed and resolved. A problem encountered with a highly radioactive core (high dose) source wire employing the principles of the invention disclosed in the 228,400 application is that the platinum becomes radioactive and is unusable for a period of several weeks (approximately ten platinum half-lives). In the meantime, the radioactivity of the core partially leaks away. The platinum wire and the cold iridium core imbedded in it are irradiated together in a nuclear reactor. The differential in the half-lives of the irradiated iridium and the irradiated platinum is important to the capability of the completed source wire to perform properly, but while the radioactive core becomes heavily radioactive, the platinum wire becomes slightly radioactive over a period of time and causes undesirable contamination.
It is another important object of the present invention to provide an improved design and method of fabrication for a high dose source wire.
A low dosage, hand loaded source wire having a platinum wire and iridium core is useful, because the cold core is readily encapsulated in platinum in long length on a spool, and the entire spool of wire may then be irradiated in a reactor. However, this source wire is of such low dose (typically, 0.4 to 25 milligram radium equivalent per cm, a standard unit of measure for radioactive strength) that the platinum contamination is insignificant. It is when the dosage exceeds one curie that the platinum contamination can become significant. In the low dose version, platinum is non-corrosive and will not oxidize in the presence of the radioactive core. The wire may be unspooled, cut into the length desired for treatment, and is self-sealing, as described in my copending patent application Ser. No. 07/061,468, filed Jun. 15, 1987.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a low dose radioactive source wire having an improved design and method of fabrication, and which is readily usable in conjunction with a miniaturized source loader apparatus, or mini-loader, of the type previously described herein.
Yet another broad object of the present invention is to provide improvements in radioactive source wires and methods of manufacture thereof, to overcome the disadvantages found in prior art source wires.

Source wire for localized radiation treatment of tumors


Selected memory locations of a buffer memory having an m x n address space are loaded each with a trigger code. First and second data words, in bits and n bits respectively, are used to read the numerical value stored at a memory location of the buffer memory. If the numerical value bears a predetermined relationship to the trigger code, a predetermined response signal is generated.

This invention relates to a method of operating a buffer memory to provide a trigger pattern.
A buffer memory is a random access memory having memory locations that map to map to displayable pixels of an imaging device. For example, a buffer memory may be used to store a virtual image of a display that is to be provided on a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device of a rasterscan oscilloscope. In this case, the pixels of the imaging device are addressed in accordance with a raster-scan pattern and the contents of the buffer memory are used to determine the intensity with which each pixel of the display device is illuminated.
An oscilloscope is conventionally used to display a waveform representative of change of a first variable as a function of a second variable. It will be convenient in the following description to assume from time to time that the first variable is the magnitude of a measured quantity and that the second variable is time, so that the waveform represents magnitude of the measured quantity as a function of time, but it will be understood that the second variable need not be time or even related to time. In a known rasterscan oscilloscope, waveform data composed of a stream of pairs of related data words is acquired. One word of each pair represents the value of a first variable and the other word of the pair represents the value of a second variable. Typically, the first variable is the magnitude of a sample of a signal existing at a test point and the second variable is the time at which the sample was taken. The range of values of the first variable is transformed so that it is the same as the range of the address space of the oscilloscope's display device along the vertical deflection axis, and the range of values of the second variable is transformed so that it is the same as the range of the address space of the display device along the horizontal deflection axis. Each pair of related data words in the waveform data then defines a discrete location in the address space of the display device. For each such pair, the content of the corresponding memory location of the buffer memory is read, incremented and written back to the same memory location. A display of the contents of the buffer memory illustrates graphically the function that relates the first variable to the second variable, and the relative intensities of the pixels represents the relative frequencies of occurrence of the various events defined by the pairs of related digital words.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,571 (Dagostino et al) discloses a vector digital oscilloscope having an acquisition waveform memory into which sample values are loaded in linear fashion and a reference waveform memory in which sample values representing a reference waveform are stored. The waveform record stored in the acquisition waveform memory is compared with the waveform record stored in the reference waveform memory, and when a deviation from the reference waveform, beyond a predetermined tolerance, is detected in a newly acquired waveform, a record of the new waveform is stored in a changed waveform memory.
It is known to test waveform data representing signal magnitude as a function of time to determine whether the signal magnitude falls within an envelope by storing pairs of minimum and maximum values associated with the sample times respectively. When a new sample value is acquired, it is compared with the maximum and minimum values for the sample time. Typically, if the new sample value is not between the minimum and maximum values, a trigger is generated to initiate termination of the signal acquisition.
This type of envelope testing is subject to disadvantage since it is limited to a single pair of minimum and maximum values for each sample time and therefore is applicable only to single-valued waveforms. It is necessary to perform memory access operations to read the minimum and maximum values and carry out the comparison.
A generalization of envelope testing is accomplished by defining polygons in a display space and converting each polygon into an envelope of min-max pairs. As each sample value is processed, it is compared to an envelope data base. If the data point is within the X-extent of an envelope, and is between the minimum and maximum values of Y for that X point of the envelope, a trigger is generated. This envelope testing procedure requires several steps to determine if a single data point justifies a trigger.

Method of operating a buffer memory to provide a trigger pattern by storing a trigger code in preselected areas of the buffer memory


An embodiment provides a print cartridge body with three or more compartments in series, and a partition formed between each successive pair of compartments. Each partition is substantially parallel to a scanning direction of the cartridge body.

Multicolored ink-jet cartridges usually include a body having a plurality of ink reservoirs, each for containing different colored ink, and a print head having a print head die with a plurality of slots communicatively coupled to the plurality of ink reservoirs via an ink-delivery manifold. Ink-delivery manifolds increase the size of ink-jet cartridges. This is a problem, especially for applications involving ink-jet cartridges having smaller form factors. Ink delivery manifolds may increase the number and complexity of the process steps used to manufacture ink-j et cartridges and thus the cost of the ink-jet cartridges. Moreover, the body of some ink-jet cartridges is formed as a one-piece injection-molded part and may involve using one or more mold-slide inserts for forming channels in an ink-delivery manifold. Each mold-slide insert leaves behind one or more openings (or mold-slide-insert access holes) in the cartridge body. One or more plugs subsequently seal each mold-slide-insert access hole. The use of a plug and mold-slide-inserts can be costly from a manufacturing standpoint.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The present invention relates to an oxide thin film for a bolometer-type uncooled infrared detector having high sensitivity. An amorphous vanadium tungsten oxide (V—W—Ox), i.e. a tungsten-doped vanadium oxide, is provided as an oxide film for a bolometer application. An oxide for bolometer having characteristics of low resistance of 5 to 200 k Ω and variable TCR between −1.5 and −4.1%/° C. can be obtained by an oxidation of vanadium-tungsten metal film at a low temperature around 300° C., with changing a tungsten content and oxidation time. And a reproducible thin film can be fabricated by low price equipment for thin film deposition, without expensive ion beam or laser apparatus. Accordingly, an oxide for bolometer having characteristics of resistance lower than 100 kΩ and TCR higher than −3%/° C. can be obtained with reproducibility, whereby an uncooled-type infrared detector having high sensitivity can be fabricated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oxide thin film for a bolometer. More specially, it relates to an oxide thin film for bolometer-type uncooled infrared detector having high sensitivity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bolometer, as a kind of infrared detector, can detect infrared through measuring changes in electrical resistance caused by the temperature increase, which is occurred by absorbing the infrared radiated from an object and converting it to a thermal energy. Accordingly, an infrared image can be realized by making a 2-dimensional focal plane array of the bolometer having such characteristics.
The characteristics required for a bolometer material are a high TCR (temperature coefficient of resistance), a low device resistance, a compatibility with a IC process, a low cost and simplification in manufacturing process, a high reliability and so on.
The bolometer materials recently used are metal thin films such as Ti, a vanadium oxide, an amorphous silicon, etc. The use of metal films causes a merit of low resistance at room temperature and a demerit of a very low TCR, which requires an improvement of device responsibility. In case of amorphous silicon, the property of responsibility is pretty good because of a high TCR value, but a Johnson noise increases with an increased device resistance.
And vanadium oxide has relatively higher TCR values around −2.0%/° C. than metal film and relatively lower device resistance below 100 kΩ than amorphous silicon. Besides, vanadium oxide has problems that it is difficult to fabricate thin films with high reproducibility due to the existence of various metastable phases, accordingly the preparation of vanadium oxide films requires expensive apparatuses such ion beam and laser equipment, or high process temperature over 400° C.
In order to solve the problems of high resistance of vanadium oxide for application to bolometer device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,380 discloses a method for reducing the resistance of vanadium oxide by doping other metals such as tungsten, chrome, manganese into vanadium oxide.
Although this prior art is invented to reduce the resistance of vanadium oxide by doping, it just very roughly gives a description on doping effect without providing specific doping composition etc., and does not reveal an improvement of TCR value and the performance of a infrared detector caused by doping. And this prior art suggests co-sputtering in an oxygen atmosphere as a method for doping other metals such as tungsten into a vanadium oxide. Since the characteristics of a vanadium oxide are strongly dependent on an oxygen partial pressure due to existence of various metastable phases, an oxygen partial pressure has to be precisely controlled in such method for reactively producing a vanadium oxide in an oxygen atmosphere. Accordingly it is very difficult to produce a reproducible vanadium oxide thin film and control the characteristics of the vanadium oxide film.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,613 (Dec. 3, 2002) discloses a method for producing an oxide thin film having a high TCR and a relative low resistance value through substituting a vanadium of vanadium oxide with other metal ion (Cr, Al, Fe, Mn, Nb, Ta, Ti) by sol-gel method and a heat treatment at the temperature of 400° C. to 450° C. However, this technique has the drawbacks in viewpoint of process that the heat treatment temperature is relatively high over 400° C., and a long-term heat treatment is required including successive anneals in oxidation and reduction atmospheres after deposition of oxide thin film. Furthermore, if an oxide thin film is deposited by a sputtering method, not a sol-gel technique, the problem in reproducibility can be easily occurred due to the difficult of controlling oxygen content.

Oxide thin film for bolometer and infrared detector using the oxide thin film

Korea Institute of Science and Technology


Methods and structure for selective cache mirroring. One embodiment includes a control unit and a memory. The memory is able to store indexing information for a multi-device cache for a logical volume. The control unit is able to receive an Input/Output (I/O) request from a host directed to a Logical Block Address (LBA) of the logical volume, to consult the indexing information to identify a cache line for storing the I/O request, and to store the I/O request at the cache line on a first device of the cache. The control unit is further able to mirror the I/O request to another device of the cache if the I/O request is a write request, and to complete the I/O request without mirroring the I/O request to another device of the cache if the I/O request is a read request.

In a storage system, a host provides Input/Output (I/O) requests to a storage controller. The I/O requests indicate that data should be written to, or read from, one or more Logical Block Addresses (LBAs) of a logical volume. The storage controller processes incoming I/O requests to correlate the requested LBAs with physical addresses on one or more storage devices that store data for the volume. The storage controller can then split an I/O request into individual requests that are each directed to a corresponding storage device for the logical volume in order to retrieve/store the data at the physical addresses. Storage controllers utilize caches in order to enhance the overall speed of processing.

Selective mirroring in caches for logical volumes

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A power supply degradation determination apparatus which is mounted to the vehicle includes a controller and a DC-DC converter that control execution of a charge phase in which a capacitor capable of accumulating regenerative energy of the vehicle is charged and execution of a discharge phase in which the capacitor is discharged. The controller detects the internal resistance of the capacitor using the difference between the terminal voltage and the open circuit voltage of the capacitor during the execution of the discharge phase and the discharge current thereof, determines whether the internal resistance is a predetermined value or more, and delays the execution start of the discharge phase for a predetermined time when the internal resistance is determined to be the predetermined value or more.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power supply degradation determination apparatus.
Description of Related Art
Hitherto, apparatuses have been known in which, for example, an open circuit voltage measured at the time of charge interruption during pulse charging of a secondary battery, or the like is used as a nonresistance voltage, and the amount of charge of the secondary battery is estimated based on the nonresistance voltage (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H9-139236).

Power supply degradation determination apparatus


An optical fiber communication system is provided which uses remote pumping that is capable of improving pumping efficiency and reducing a noise figure. A coupler (20) of a linear repeater (18) couples signal light to pumping light outputted from a pumping light source (19). The outputted signal light and pumping light reach a linear repeater (25) through transmission fibers (22 to 24) and remote pumping modules (27F and 27R). A coupler (30) of the linear repeater (25) couples the signal light to the pumping light supplied from a pumping light source (29), to output the signal light and the pumping light to the transmission fiber (24). The remote pumping module (27F) divides the pumping light propagated in the transmission fiber (22), from the signal light. The remote pumping module 27F branches the divided pumping light in two directions with a predetermined ratio. After branching, each of the branched pumping light is coupled to the signal light to be supplied to both ends of an erbium-doped fiber. The remote pumping module (27R) is similar in structure to the remote pumping module (27F).

FIG. 8 is a configuration example illustrating a conventional remote pumping system which is used in a wavelength division multiplexing optical fiber communication system (referring to K. Aida et al., Proc. Of ECOC, PDA-7, pp. 29-32, 1989 and N. Ohkawa et al., IEICE Trans. Commun., Vol. E81-B, pp. 586-596, 1998). In this remote pumping system, signal light is transmitted from a transmitting circuit 2 of a transmitter 1 and is received by a reception circuit 11 of a receiver 10 via three transmission fibers 5 to 7. Erbium-doped fibers (EDFs) 13F and 13R are positioned between the transmission fiber 5 and the transmission fiber 6 and between the transmission fiber 6 and the transmission fiber 7, respectively. Remote pumping light sources 3 and 13 are located in the transmitter 1 and receiver 10, respectively. The signal light is coupled to the pumping light supplied from the pumping light source 3, by a coupler 4. Furthermore, the signal light is coupled to the pumping light supplied from the pumping light source 13, by a coupler 14. Each of the transmitter 1, the receiver 10, and the pumping light sources 3 and 13 is connected to power source to be supplied with a power. The pumping light sources 3 and 13 adjacent to the transmitter 1 and the receiver 10 will be called a front stage pumping light source and a rear stage pumping light source, respectively. In addition, the pumping light supplied from the pumping light sources 3 and 13 will be called a forward pumping light and a backward pumping light, respectively. After passing through the transmission fiber 5, the forward pumping light pumps the EDF 13F. After passing through the transmission fiber 7, the backward pumping light pumps the EDF 13R.
Each pumping light has a wavelength near 1.48 μm which is appropriate for pumping the EDF. The signal light outputted from the transmitter 1 is attenuated in the transmission fiber 5 and is amplified in the EDF 13F. Furthermore, the signal light is attenuated in the transmission fiber 6 and is amplified in the EDF 13R. After passing through the transmission fiber 7, the signal light is received by the receiver 10. Under such circumstances, it is possible to un-repeatedly transmit the signal light over the entire length of the transmission fibers 5, 6, and 7, without supplying power on the way. In comparison to a repeating system which does not use the remotely pumped EDFs 13F and 13R, there is an advantage in greatly enlarging the un-repeated distance, namely, repeater spacing, in the above-mentioned remote pumping. Incidentally, it is possible to adopt either one of a configuration using the forward pumping light source 3 and EDF 13F and a configuration using the backward pumping light source 13 and EDF 13R. In addition, a certain degree of distributed gain (Raman gain) is given to the signal light, since the signal light is generally subjected to Raman amplification in the transmission fiber in which the pumping light is propagated.
In the conventional remote pumping system illustrated in FIG. 8, the pumping light, which reaches the EDFs 13F and 13R, travels from the pumping light input ends of EDFs 13F and 13R to the pumping light output ends of EDF 13F and 13R that are positioned at opposite sides of the pumping light input ends, since the gain wavelength region is set to C band (1530 nm to 1560 nm) of EDFA in the signal light. As a result, the pumping light pumps the EDFs 13F and 13R across the entire fiber lengths, respectively.
However, it has been found that the pumping light, which reaches the EDFs 13F and 13R, only pumps to the vicinities of pumping light input ends of EDFs 13F and 13R and almost none travels to the opposite pumping light output ends, in the case where the gain wavelength region is set to L band (1570 nm to 1600 nm) of EDFA in the signal light. Since the EDF for the L band has a length which is several times as long as the length of EDF for C band, the pumping light reaches only the vicinity of the pumping light input end. In addition, absorption occurs in the part of EDF that is not pumped, except in the vicinity of the pumping light input end. As a result, there is a problem in that the pumping efficiency is reduced in each of the EDFs 13F and 13R and the noise figure increases in each of the EDFs 13F and 13R. Incidentally, the L band is a gain wavelength region for signal light and is as important as the C band. More particularly, the L band is an important gain wavelength region for signal light since it is possible to prevent the four-wave mixing, which is a problem in the C band, in a system using a dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF).

Optical fiber communication system using remote pumping

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


Disclosed is an antenna controller of a digital television receiver and a controlling method thereof including an antenna receiving channel signals of digital television broadcasting and having a directionality dependent on a control signal, a signal processing part tuning a wanted channel signal from the channel signals and processing the tuned channel signal as a wanted form, a detection part detecting state signals of the channel signal outputted from the signal processing part, a memory, when every new state signal is detected, storing the detected new state signal sorted with previously-detected state signals, a control part producing the control signal corresponding to an optimal direction of the antenna by comparing the new state signal to the previous state signals, and an interface part providing the antenna with the control signal, thereby enabling to increase the integration of the receiver.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital television receiver and method of controlling an antenna of the same, and more particularly, to an antenna controller of a digital television receiver and a controlling method thereof.
2. Background of the Related Art
VSD (Vestigial Side Band) has been chosen as a standard form for transmitting a terrestrial microwave channel in digital television broadcasting. Thus, concepts and ideas have been made to propose the early-stage antennas for a VSB receiver, and ATSC prepares the standardization of the VSB antennas. Yet, no antenna applied to a digital television receiver has been introduced in public, and further has been commercialized.
Generally, antennas able to be used for digital television receivers are mainly divided into two categories.
First, there is a general outdoor antenna having a benefit of high receive performance but having defects such as large size and installment inconvenience.
Second, there is an indoor antennal having benefits of small size and installment convenience but defects such that a viewer has to adjust a direction of the antenna by monitoring a screen in direct when a receive sensitivity is reduced.
Besides, a plurality of multi-paths and frequency obstacles have a chance to exist in the terrestrial channels in the digital television broadcasting. Therefore, receive characteristics of an antenna of a digital television receiver may have a great influence on the entire characteristics of the digital television receiver. Other antennas and their problems depending on their environments are described as follows by referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 3.
FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 show diagrams of a no-directional antenna, a directional antenna, and a smart antenna, respectively.
First, a television receiver using a non-directional antenna in FIG. 1 enables to receive the major signal from all directions only through the channels where intensity of the main signal is strong while signals in multi-paths are weak. Yet, the television receiver in FIG. 1 fails to easily receive the wanted channel in the channels where the main signal is weak and the signals in the multi-paths are strong through indoor antennas, downtown-building-area antennas and the like, thereby reducing the performance of the digital television receiver.
Second, a direction antenna in FIG. 2 may be used in order to overcome the defects of the non-directional antenna. Yet, the main signal may be blocked by the moving obstacles against radio waves under the circumstance that states of the channels vary severely. In this case, it is difficult for the antenna to receive the main signal from other directions, whereby the performance of the digital television receiver is reduced as well. As mentioned in the foregoing explanation, the non-directional antenna has a trade-off relation with the directional antenna.
Third, a smart antenna in FIG. 3 may be considered as a solution so as to solve the problems of the non-directional and directional antennas. The above defects/problems may be settled by making use of the smart antenna on the assumption of the existence of a control system.

Digital television receiver and method of controlling antenna of the same


A freestanding portable partition assembly and related system are provided for open office spaces and the like. Each partition system includes a floor channel having an aperture defined therein; a partition frame having a downwardly projecting leg assembly received in said aperture; and a locking plate slidably engaging the floor channel and having a slot receiving a portion of the downwardly projecting leg assembly therein for releasably coupling the partition frame to the floor channel. With this construction, the partition frames may be quickly and easily connected to the floor channels, and the entire assembly may be shipped with the floor channel attached without fear of damage. Moreover, the resulting assembly resists damage from catastrophic events, such as earthquakes.

The present invention relates to partition arrangements for open office spaces and the like, and in particular to a freestanding portable panel and related partition system.
Portable partition systems for open office spaces, and other similar settings, are well known in the art. Individual partition panels are interconnected in different configurations to form separate offices, work stations or work settings. The partition panels are extremely durable, and can be readily disassembled and reassembled into alternative configurations to meet the ever-changing needs of the user. Examples of such partition systems are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,822,146; 3,831,330; and 4,144,924, which are owned by Steelcase Inc., the assignee of the present application.
Most such partition panels are capable of carrying wires in some fashion, so as to provide electrical power at the various work stations for computers, typewriters, dictating equipment, task lighting, and other electrical appliances. These partition panels are also typically capable of routing cabling for telephones, computers, signaling, etc. to the individual work stations. Examples of such panel wiring systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,429,934; 4,060,294; 4,228,834; and 4,382,648. Wireways and/or raceways are normally provided with the interiors of the panels to carry the utilities throughout the panel system.
The space available for utility raceways in many such panel systems is rather limited. This is particularly true with respect to several of the older style partition panel systems. The advent of computerized work stations, with sophisticated communication systems, and other electronic support equipment has greatly increased the need for partition panels to carry more power and cabling throughout the panel system.
The finishing or fitting-out of building spaces for offices, medical treatment facilities, and other similar environments has become a very important aspect of effective space planning and layout. Work patterns, technology, and business organizations are constantly evolving and changing. The building space users require products which facilitate change at lower costs. Space planning is no longer a static problem. Changing technology and changing work processes demand that a design and installation be able to support and anticipate change.
There is presently an oversupply of office space and furniture systems which do not properly respond to or support change. Many older buildings do not have adequate utility capabilities, and the cost of conventional renovations or improvements often renders the same impractical. Even relatively new buildings can be quickly rendered obsolete by the fast paced changes in modern technology.
Consequently, a fully integrated prefabricated furnishing system has been developed to finish or fit-out both new and existing open plan building spaces. One requirement of this integrated furnishing system is a freestanding portable partition system that has enhanced utility carrying capabilities.
Another desired aspect of the present integrated furnishing system is to provide a panel connection system having increased flexibility for interconnecting reconfigurable partition panels in office layouts. For example, a panel connection system is desired that allows use of standardized base panels even where the dimensions of the office layouts are not multiples of the base panel width dimension. Additional functionality of the connection system is also desired, such as to permit removing a partition panel from the middle of an in-line wall construction without progressive disassembly of in-line connected partition panels in the wall construction from an unconnected end of the wall construction, and such as to permit some wall sections to be constructed with a non-uniform or increased height.
Thus, a wall construction solving the aforementioned problems and providing the aforementioned functionalities is desired.


An integrated circuit inductor may have upper and lower loop-shaped line portions that are connected in series. The upper and lower portions may have 45° bends that form hexagonal or octagonal loops. Each loop portion may have one or more turns. Intervening metal-free regions of metal routing layers may be formed between the two layers to reduce capacitive coupling. Each loop portion may have sets of two or more metal lines shorted in parallel by vias. The upper and lower loops may be laterally offset or nested to reduce capacitive coupling.

This relates generally to integrated circuits, and more particularly, to integrated circuits with inductors.
Integrated circuits often have circuitry such as wireless communications circuitry that uses inductors. An inductor is typically formed using conductive traces arranged in a loop in layers on an integrated circuit.
An inductor formed on an integrated circuit is characterized by an inductance value and a quality factor. The inductance value is dependent on parameters such as the length of the conductive lines and the number of turns in the loop. The quality factor is dependent on the resistance of the conductive lines and coupling effects.
As integrated circuit fabrication technology advances, integrated circuit components are being scaled to increasingly small sizes. Particularly in integrated circuits such as these, it is desirable to consume minimal area when forming an inductor. At the same time, design constraints such as minimum acceptable values of inductance and quality factor must be satisfied. It can be challenging to accomplish these goals simultaneously. For example, conventional inductors that exhibit large inductance values may consume excessive amounts of surface area on an integrated circuit.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved inductors for integrated circuits.

Integrated circuits with series-connected inductors


To avoid degrading the packet transmission performance, a method for improving a determining procedure of stopping a high speed downlink operation corresponding to a CELL_FACH state for a user equipment, also called UE, in the CELL_FACH state in a wireless communications system is provided. The method includes changing a setting of a dedicated variable corresponding to a dedicated HS-DSCH radio network transaction identifier, hereinafter called H-RNTI, from a use state to a close state; and determining that the setting of the dedicated variable and a setting of a common variable corresponding to a common H-RNTI are valid configuration if the setting of the common variable is a close state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for improving a high speed downlink operation corresponding to a CELL_FACH state for a wireless communications system and related communications device, and more particularly to a method for improving a determining procedure of stopping a high speed downlink operation corresponding to a CELL_FACH state for a UE in the CELL_FACH state for a wireless communications system and related communications device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The third generation (3G) mobile telecommunications system has adopted a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) wireless air interface access method for a cellular network. WCDMA provides high frequency spectrum utilization, universal coverage, and high quality, high-speed multimedia data transmission. The WCDMA method also meets all kinds of QoS requirements simultaneously, providing diverse, flexible, two-way transmission services and better communication quality to reduce transmission interruption rates. Through the 3G mobile telecommunications system, a user can utilize a wireless communications device, such as a mobile phone, to realize real-time video communications, conference calls, real-time games, online music broadcasts, and email sending/receiving. However, these functions rely on fast, instantaneous transmission. Thus, targeting at the third generation mobile telecommunication technology, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) provides High Speed Package Access (HSPA) technology, which includes High Speed Downlink Package Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Package Access (HSUPA), to increase bandwidth utility rate and package data processing efficiency to improve uplink/downlink transmission rate.
On the basis of HSDPA, the 3GPP further introduces HS-DSCH reception in a CELL_FACH state allowing the UE in the CELL_FACH state to monitor a High Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH) accompanied with a Shared Control Channel for HS-DSCH (HS-SCCH) for downlink data reception, so as to improve a peak data rate, a signaling delay, a state transition delay, download times and flexible cell capacity.
A UMTS radio access network (UTRAN) enables the HS-DSCH reception in the CELL_FACH state by including parameters, related to radio resource control (RRC) configuration of HS-SCCH, HS-DSCH and a common HS-DSCH radio network transaction identifier (common H-RNTI), in the system information broadcast. For the UE in an idle mode, the parameters are configured in a "Downlink HS-PDSCH system information" information element (IE) included in a system information block (SIB) type 5/5bis. For the UE in an RRC connection mode, the parameters are configured in a "Downlink HS-PDSCH system information for connected mode" IE included in an SIB type 6.
The UE may use a common or a dedicated H-RNTI to perform the HS-DSCH reception in the CELL_FACH state. The common and dedicated H-RNTIs are both used as an identity of the UE so that the UE can receive its own packets. Furthermore, the common H-RNTI can be shared by multiple UEs, whereas each dedicated H-RNTI is only allocated to one UE. During reception of media access control (MAC) packets, the UE using the common H-RNTI needs to determine whether the received packets belong to it via UE identification information (i.e. UE ID and UE ID Type) in the packet header. On the other hand, the MAC packets for the UE using the dedicated H-RNTI include no UE identification information to provide better data transmission efficiency.
The UE selects a suitable common H-RNTI to use from the common H-RNTI parameter. On the other hand, if the UTRAN attempts to allocate a dedicated H-RNTI to the UE, the UTRAN sends a related configuration through RRC procedures, such as an RRC connection or a cell update procedure, and the UE stores the configuration in an H-RNTI variable. Each time the HS-DSCH reception in the CELL_FACH state is enabled, the UE uses the dedicated H-RNTI if the H-RNTI variable is set; otherwise the UE uses the common H-RNTI.
The UE has an HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_CELL_FACH_STATE and an HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_OF_CCCH variable revealing a use state of the dedicated and common H-RNTIs, respectively. When the HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_CELL_FACH_STATE variable is set to "TRUE", the UE receives packets mapped to a Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH) and a Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) according to the dedicated H-RNTI. When the HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_OF_CCCH variable is set to "TRUE", the UE receives packets mapped to a Common Control Channel (CCCH) according to the common H-RNTI. If both of the variables are set to "FALSE", this means that the HS-DSCH reception in the CELL_FACH state is deactivated.
According to the RRC specification, the UE has to perform a variable determining procedure to activate or deactivate the HS-DSCH reception in the CELL_FACH state. For applying the HS-DSCH reception in the CELL_FACH state, the following conditions must be met: (1) the UE is in the CELL_FACH state; (2) the variable H-RNTI is set; (3) the SIB type 6 is defined and includes the "Downlink HS-PDSCH system information for connected mode" IE or the SIB type 5/5bis includes the "Downlink HS-PDSCH system information for connected mode" IE. If all the conditions are met, the variable HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_CELL_FACH_STATE is set to "TRUE" for starting HS-DSCH reception in low layers (the MAC and physical layer).
If any of the above conditions is not met and the HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_CELL_FACH_STATE variable is set to "TRUE", the UE sets the variable to "FALSE". In addition, if the UE is in the CELL_FACH state and the HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_OF_CCCH variable is set to "FALSE", the UE stops the HS-DSCH reception and sets an INVALID_CONFIGURATION variable to "TRUE", which means that the settings of the HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_CELL_FACH_STATE and HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_OF_CCCH variables are considered an invalid RRC configuration. In this situation, the UE may disconnect the RRC connection and enter the idle mode.
As can be deduced from the above, the situation causing the UE in the CELL_FACH state to change the HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_CELL_FACH_STATE variable from "TRUE" to "FALSE" is either the variable H-RNTI is cleared or the SIBs type 5/5bis and type 6 do not indicate the support of HS-DSCH reception in the CELL_FACH state.
The UE may initiate the cell update procedure during the HS-DSCH reception in the CELL_FACH state, and the cause to initiate the cell update procedure may be cell reselection, periodical cell update, a radio link failure, an RLC unrecoverable error or uplink data transmission. The UE also initiates a URA update procedure when performing UTRAN registration area reselection (URA Reselection) or periodical URA update.
When the UE initiates the cell/URA update procedure due to cell/URA reselection and the selected cell/URA supports the HS-DSCH reception in the CELL_FACH state, the H-RNTI variable storing the dedicated H-RNTI is cleared, and the HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_OF_CCCH variable is set to "TRUE" for the UE to perform the HS-DSCH reception with the common H-RNTI.
If the selected cell/URA does not support the HS-DSCH reception in the CELL_FACH state, neither the SIB type 6 includes the "Downlink HS-PDSCH system information for connected mode" IE nor does the SIB type 5/5bis include the "Downlink HS-PDSCH system information for connected mode" IE. As a result, the HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_CELL_FACH_STATE variable changes from "TRUE" to "FALSE". In this situation, the INVALID_CONFIGURATION variable is set to "TRUE" through the abovementioned variable determining procedure if the HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_OF_CCCH variable is set to "FALSE". However, the settings of the HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_OF-CCCH and HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_CELL_FACH_STATE variables, which can be used for configuring the UE to perform a non-high speed downlink operation, should not be considered illegitimate in the above case. Furthermore, setting the INVALID_CONFIGURATION variable to "TRUE" configures the UE to disconnect the RRC connection, thereby resulting in repeated reconnections for packet reception. Thus, the variable determining procedure of the prior art degrades packet transmission performance.

Method of deactivating high-speed downlink operation in CELL


A semiconductor device has a memory cell array including a multi-level memory cell having multiple and different threshold values, a first latch circuit latching information of multiple-word of input information, a second latch circuit latching write information in which the information of the multiple-word of the input information is converted into information according to each level of the multi-level memory cell, a write circuit writing information into the multi-level memory cell on a group basis corresponding to the number of memory cells simultaneously programmable, according to the write information, and a control circuit controlling programming the memory cell array. The information is simultaneously programmed on the group basis into which multiple-word input information is divided, and makes it possible to shorten a program period substantially on a word basis. The program period is not increased, even if programming and verification are repeated several times in programming the multi-level memory cell.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to semiconductors and writing methods, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device having a multi-level memory cell and a method for writing data into the multi-level memory cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
The semiconductor memories are categorized into volatile ones that lose the information therein and non-volatile ones that retain the information therein, when the power turns off. Flash memories, in which the rewriting time is shortened by erasing the data at one time, are well known as a representative of the non-volatile ones.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of programming a flash memory that does not have a write buffer for SLC (Single Level Cell) therein. In this flash memory, programming is performed for each one word (16 bits). As shown in FIG. 1, a flash memory 1 includes an input buffer 2, a write latch circuit 3, write voltage applying circuit 4, a memory cell array 5, a sense amplifier circuit 6, a comparator circuit 7, and a control circuit 8. The input buffer 2 retains a user write data. The write latch circuit 3 latches the user write data applied from the input buffer 2.
The write voltage applying circuit 4 writes the data into the memory cell to be associated with the write data. The sense amplifier circuit 6 reads out the data of the memory cell in a verify period, and the comparator circuit 7 compares the read-out data with the write data input from the outside. If the memory cell is sufficiently programmed, the write latch circuit 3 inverts the write data in the latch therein, and completes programming. On the other hand, if the memory cell is not sufficiently programmed, the write latch circuit 3 continues programming. The comparator circuit 7 determines whether all bits have passed. If all the bits have passed, the control circuit 8 controls the program operation at the next level.
Also, the flash memory having MLC (Multi Level Cell) has conventionally been proposed. The product type having the multi-level cell has four threshold levels, level 1, level 2, level 3, and level 4. The higher the level becomes, the higher the threshold level is configured. The aforementioned four levels compose two kinds of output (or input) data. Generally, at the time of programming the data of level 4, the writing method of going through the level 1 through the level 3 to reach the level 4.
Patent Document 1 proposes a semiconductor memory device having a binary data register that retains the write data that has been input. In addition, Patent Document 2 proposes another semiconductor device having a data latch circuit that latches the write data applied from the outside and a sense latch circuit that latches the write control information.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-73790
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-232886
Programming the multi-level memory cell, however, has a concern of over programming that exceeds the level, and programming has to be performed to increase the threshold voltage Vth little by little. In the aforementioned programming method, programming and verification have to be repeated several times, causing a problem in that a programming period increases. The devices described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 cannot solve the problem of increasing the programming period.


A system and method are provided for making strips of edible material. Edible material is contained in a hopper having a discharge opening including a first side and a second side. A discharge shaping roller is positioned so that its surface is adjacent to the first side and said second side. Similarly, a cooling roller is also positioned so that its surface is adjacent to the first side and the second side. Edible material passes between the first side, the second side, the cooling roller, and the discharge roller to from a strip of edible material that is deposited on the cooling roller. The cooling roller then cools the strip of edible material and it is separated from the cooling roller by a blade. Once the strip is separated from the cooling roller it is deposited on a base of edible material such as a cookie or wafer.

The present invention generally relates to making strips of edible material. More particularly, the present invention relates to making strips of edible material and applying the strips to a base of edible material such as a cookie or wafer.
Current systems and methods for making strips of edible material may have certain drawbacks or may not be usable depending on the specific edible material desired to be processed.
For example, in a prior art system, a strip of an edible material such as confectionary may be made and then applied to a base of another type of edible material, such as cookie or wafer, for example, to form a confectionary product. In this context, current strip-making devices may suffer from one or more of the following drawbacks: they may allow skipping (missed areas). They may supply too much of the edible material in the strip which may lead to waste and/or overuse. They may be labor intensive, for example, when the edible material comprising the strip is a solution, solids may fall out of the solution and may cause blockages and/or component wear. Further, the devices may be recipe and/or line rate dependent, which may undesirably dictate how the production line must be run.
Some prior art strip applicators may be simple devices, but may have drawbacks because of their simplicity. For example, the strip applicator may be composed of an open hopper on a drum with a slotted gate to define strip geometry and allow a strip to be pulled out of the hopper. Such a system may be usable with certain types of edible material. However, for certain other types of edible material used to form the strips, the prior art system may not be viable.

Systems and methods for making and applying strips of edible material


A hair brush includes a self-contained ion generator that subjects the hair and scalp being brushed to an outflow of ionized air containing safe amounts of ozone. The ion generator includes a high voltage pulse generator whose output pulses are coupled between first and second electrode arrays. Preferably the first array comprises at least one metal pin spaced coaxially-apart from a metal ring-like structure. Alternatively, the first array may comprise one or more wire electrodes spaced staggeringly apart from a second array comprising hollow "U"-shaped electrodes. Preferably a ratio between effective area of an electrode in the second array compared to effective area of an electrode in the first array exceeds about 15:1 and preferably is about 20:1. An electric field produced by the high voltage pulses between the arrays produces an electrostatic flow of ionized air containing safe amounts of ozone. The outflow of ionized air and ozone is directed between the brush bristles onto the hair and scalp being groomed.

Hair brushes have been used for thousands of years in an attempt to groom hair. In the grooming process, bristles projecting from a hair brush are forced toward the scalp in an attempt to cause individual hairs to either fall into place, or to align with each other somewhat.
However common experience indicates that conventional hair brushing is not always successful. For example, individual hairs frequently refuse to closely align closely with each other. One explanation may be that scales on the individual hair shafts can project outward, which prevents adjacent hairs from being forced into close alignment; the projecting scales simply get in the way.
While hair brushing can be stimulating to the scalp, brushing per se does not always achieve a well groomed appearance, and accomplishes little or nothing with respect to cleaning or conditioning the hair. While sufficiently large foreign particles, e.g., dirt, dandruff, may be brushed out of the hair, smaller particles can remain in place on the hair shafts or hair scales. Brushing one's hair truly does not provide conditioning in that after brushing the hair frequently is as it was before, give or take some mechanical repositioning of the hairs.
It is known in the art to produce an air flow electro-kinetically by directly converting electrical power into a flow of air without mechanically moving components. One such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,801 to Lee (1988), depicted herein in simplified form as FIGS. 1A and 1B. Lee's system 10 provides a first array of small area ("minisectional") electrodes 20 is spaced-apart symmetrically from a second array of larger area ("maxisectional") electrodes 30, with a high voltage (e.g., 5 KV) pulse generator 40 coupled between the two arrays. Generator 40 outputs high voltage pulses that ionize the air between the arrays, producing an air flow 50 from the minisectional array toward the maxisectional array results. The high voltage field present between the two arrays can release ozone (O.sub.3), which can advantageously safely destroy many types of bacteria if excessive quantities of ozone are not released.
Unfortunately, Lee's tear-shaped maxisectional electrodes are relatively expensive to fabricate, most likely requiring mold-casting or extrusion processes. Further, air flow and ion generation efficiency is not especially high using Lee's configuration.
There is a need for a hair brush that can not only brush hair, but provide a measure of cleaning and/or conditioning as well. Preferably such hair brush should subject the hair being brushed to an ion flow to promote cleaning and grooming.
The present invention provides such a grooming brush.


An anti-rattle door assembly includes a first member and a second member. The first member includes a first base plate and a roller disposed on the first base plate. The second member is configured to receive the roller of the first member. The second member includes a bumper that is configured to at least partly enclose the roller of the first member when the first member and the second member are engaged.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an anti-rattle door assembly, and more particularly, to a vehicle door incorporating such an assembly.
2. Background of the Invention
Currently almost all vehicles that are equipped with a tailgate, e.g., sport utility, station wagon, and the like, have some kind of mechanism to stabilize the tailgate assembly in the cross car and up and down directions of the vehicle. Most commonly used systems are wedges made of plastic or rubber. Some of these systems have a built-in adjustment feature that allows a user to adjust the systems to achieve an optimal balance between closing efforts and stability. In such systems, a wedge is received in a wedge receiver which slides relative to the wedge, thus causing high frictional forces between them and contributing to high closing efforts. Any misalignment of the parts, which can occur over lifetime, e.g., door sag, can disrupt the relation of the two mating components relative to each other. This results in high operation efforts to close the door.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,585 discloses an anti-rattle door assembly. The assembly includes a first member on a vehicle door and a second member which is provided on a part of the vehicle defining the door. The first member includes a roller serving as a guide for directing alignment between the first member and the second member. The roller is rotatably mounted on a base plate. When the door is closed, the roller traverses along a tapered face of a recess provided within the second member so that the roller rolls up the upwardly inclined ramp, thereby lifting the vehicle door and aligning the first and second members. The roller is then received in a semi-circular recess having a diameter which is slightly larger than that of the roller. Wedge elements in cooperation with springs stabilize the position of the roller within the recess and the position of the first member with respect to the second member.


Systems and methods are disclosed for integrating JAVA objects, such as handlers, into a scripting language to be used as part of a test automation environment including a test automation tool. The environment can access and execute one or more script files coded using diverse scripting languages designed to exercise and test DNS servers, registries, and/or other network entities. The test automation tool can invoke a set of generalized handlers that may comprise compiled JAVA objects configured to perform specific testing functions. The test automation tool may load a script for a test case and a scripting language, establish a controller, and interface the script to the intermediate JAVA handlers to abstract individual script files for use in a more universal fashion, avoiding incompatibilities that can arise between various script languages.

Manual testing of software often represents a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. Automated testing tools for software applications can therefore offer a number benefits in project speed and efficiency. For example, the speed and efficiency of the automated testing of domain name server (DNS) platforms exceed those of the manual process of sending individual DNS requests and checking the validity of the returned result. Automated DNS tools therefore can execute far more test cases and produce a more complete dataset associated with discovered defects than manual approaches. A test case may for instance comprise a series of instructions for executing a specific functional test, such as to determine whether a registered domain name resolves to the correct Internet protocol address, links to a proper source file, or produces other desired results. Software applications, such as testing scripts, may be designed to perform specific test routines for DNS or other applications.
Systems used for some test cases, however, prove difficult to automate using standardized tools. For example, in many software testing environments, testing scripts may be coded using any of a wide range of programming languages. For instance, the syntax for opening a file in the scripting language "Jython" is distinct from other scripting languages, such as "Groovy." Thus, a test case calling for file manipulation may require separate coding for each scripting language used in the testing environment. In such scenarios and others, the differences between scripting languages, file formats, and other details may lead to practical issues, such as complicated syntax which must be hand-coded several times for each test case, increasing the chances of human error or coding incompatibilities.
In the operation of networks including the Internet, DNS platforms or services cooperate with a set of registries which maintain lists of registered domain names along with associated Internet protocol (IP) addresses along with a host of related information. Different registries may, however operate different support systems using a number of different protocols, and the like, and may implement upgrades and service features that are different from or incompatible with other registries. These complexities have led to considerable difficulty in attempts to thoroughly and efficiently test registries. Likewise, the ability to perform effective, automated testing of DNS resolution servers has as noted been equally problematic. It would therefore be desirable to provide tools, platforms, and techniques that are capable of efficiently testing infrastructure systems such as domain registries, DNS resolution servers, and other infrastructure systems.

Utilizing a test automation tool in a test automation environment


Data transmission between transmitting/receiving nodes in a bus system may be controlled based on an error check of received data. When an error in the received data is detected, the transmitting node may cease data transmission, and other nodes, which may not have detected the error, may be notified of the detected error.

1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to bus systems, bus apparatuses, and methods of operating bus systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
A bus allows for a communication channel to be shared by several devices. For example, physically, a bus may be a group of communication wires, which connects several devices to each other, either, in parallel or in serial, according to a bus specification. In another example, a bus may be a protocol for data transmission between transmitters and receivers.
For data transmission, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) may be used to detect data transmission failure. For example, a data transmitter may compute a CRC code of data to be transmitted and may append the computed CRC code to the transmitted data, for example, in a portion of the data known as the header. The data receiver may receive the transmitted data with the CRC code and compute the CRC code to compare the computed CRC code with the received CRC code appended to the received data. The integrity of the received data may be determined based on the comparison.
The data transmitter and the data receiver may divide data transferred therebetween into multiple segments each of which may include data having a given length. Each segment (e.g., packet, frame, etc.) may include a data header and a data body. The data receiver may compute the CRC code of data header and the CRC code of the data body to compare with the received CRC codes of the data header and the data body, respectively, to determine an integrity of the received data.
Bus protocols may also be adopted for a multi-layered bus architecture. In a multi-layered bus architecture, a bus component, which belongs to a lower layer such as a physical layer, may operate in response to a request from an upper layer such as a logical layer.
As sizes of digital data and/or device performance are increased, increased speed in transmitting data may be needed for a bus interface in order to accommodate various types of devices (e.g., transmitters and/or receivers, etc.). For example, bus usage time for each bus device may be decreased such that other bus devices may have more opportunities to use limited bus resources shared by multiple bus devices. In current bus systems and/or specifications, the CRC may not increase an efficiency of the bus.
For example, the IEEE-1394 bus standard enables increased speed data transmission between various digital devices such as a personal computer, digital camcorder, personal digital assistant (PDA), etc. The IEEE-1394 bus may utilize a tree type or daisy-chain type topology, and may support data rates up to, for example, 400 Mbps.
A node (e.g., transmitting and/or receiving) conforming to the IEEE-1394 standard may include a lower layer, for example, a physical layer (PHY layer) and an upper layer, for example, a link layer (LINK layer). The PHY layer and the LINK layer may each be implemented on a chip, and the node may include a PHY layer chip and a LINK layer chip.
In operation, the PHY layer chip may initialize the bus, encode and decode data, perform bus arbitration and/or generate and detect a bias voltage. The LINK layer chip may perform CRC computation, CRC error detection, and data packet generation and detection.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example related art IEEE-1394 network topology.
Referring to FIG. 1, each of nodes U0, U1, U2 and U3 may represent a system adapted to transfer data according to the IEEE-1394 protocol. Each of the nodes U0, U1, U2, and U3 may have an input and an output port for data transfer. As shown in FIG. 1, the node U0 may serve as a root node, which may be positioned on a top (e.g., vertex) of the network topology, and may serve as an arbiter for the bus. When a node other than the root node U0, for example, the node U1, needs to transmit data via the bus, the node U1 may send a bus request to the node U0. The node U0 may perform bus arbitration and may send a bus grant the node U1. The node U1 may receive the bus grant from the root node U0, and data may transmit data to another node (e.g., U2, U3, etc.) via the bus. The transmitting node U1 may continue to transmit data and the receiving nodes (e.g., U2, U3, etc.) may receive data during a data transmission duration time, which may be specified by IEEE-1394 specification (e.g., 20 ms).
Each of the nodes U0, U2, U3 may individually determine whether received data is intended for itself by checking address information included in a header of the received data. When a CRC error is detected in a header of the received data, the remaining data no longer needs to be transmitted from the transmitting node U1 or received by the receiving nodes U0, U2 and U3. However, in related art bus systems (e.g., according to the IEEE-1394 bus standard), the transmitting node U1 may continue to transmit data and the receiving nodes U0, U2 and U3 continue to receive the data during the entire data transmission duration time. As a result, bus resources may be unnecessarily wasted during at least one data transmission duration time.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a related art data transmission process for a related art bus system (e.g., according to the IEEE-1394 standard).
Referring to FIG. 2, at S210, a transmitting node may send a bus request command to a root node and may receive a bus grant command from the root node.
At S220, the transmitting node, granted bus usage by the root node, may start transmitting data via the bus and other remaining nodes (e.g., receiving nodes) may start to receive data. At S230, the receiving nodes may verify an integrity of received data by checking a CRC of a data header included in the received data.
However, regardless of whether the CRC error is detected, the receiving nodes continue to receive data during data transmission duration time (e.g., S240 and S250). When a CRC error is detected, the received data may be flushed, at S255, the bus may be released by the transmitting node, at S260, and the process may restart from S210.
When a CRC error is not detected in the data header, the bus may be released by the transmitting node, at S260, and the process may restart at S210. The above described process may be repeated, for example, each time a transmitting node sends a bus request command to a root node.

Bus systems, apparatuses, and methods of operating a bus


Methods, systems, and devices are described for configuration of multiple power distribution units (PDUs) in an efficient manner. Power distribution units may be discovered on a network, and automatically configured according to a configuration defined for a particular location. A location may be, for example, a geographical region, a data center, a zone within a data center, a cabinet, or an individual PDU. All PDUs associated with a particular location may be provided with a common configuration file that defines operating parameters for the PDUs. In such a manner, a user may simply connect the PDU to the network, with the appropriate configuration provided without additional involvement of the user.

A conventional Power Distribution Unit (PDU) is an assembly of electrical outlets (also called receptacles) that receive electrical power from a source and distribute the electrical power to one or more separate electronic appliances. Each such unit has one or more power cords plugged in to one or more of the outlets. PDUs also have power cords that can be directly hard wired to a power source or may use a traditional plug and receptacle connection. PDUs are used in many applications and settings such as, for example, in or on electronic equipment racks. One or more PDUs are commonly located in an equipment rack (or other cabinet), and may be installed together with other devices connected to the PDU such as environmental monitors, temperature and humidity sensors, fuse modules, or communications modules that may be external to or contained within the PDU housing. A PDU that is mountable in an equipment rack or cabinet may sometimes be referred to as a Cabinet PDU, or "CDU" for short.
As mentioned, computing facilities generally include electronic equipment racks, such as standard RETMA racks, that commonly comprise rectangular or box-shaped housings sometimes referred to as a cabinet or a rack and associated components for mounting equipment, associated communications cables, and associated power distribution cables. Electronic equipment is commonly mountable in such racks so that the various electronic devices are aligned vertically one on top of the other in the rack. Often, multiple such racks are oriented side-by-side, with each containing numerous electronic components and having substantial quantities of associated component wiring located both within and outside of the area occupied by the racks. Such racks commonly support equipment that is used in a computing network for an enterprise, referred to as an enterprise network.
In many cases, computing facilities such as server farms or data centers support large networks, referred to as enterprise networks. Enterprise networks exist to support large world-wide organizations and depend on a combination of technologies, e.g., data communications, inter-networking equipment such as frame relay controllers, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches, routers, integrated services digital network (ISDN) controllers, and application servers, and network management application software. Such enterprise networks can be used to support a large company's branch offices or campuses throughout the world and, as such, these networks have become mission critical to the functioning of such organizations. Masses of information are routinely expected to be exchanged, and such information exchanges are necessary to carry on the daily business of modern organizations. For example, some international banks have thousands of branch offices placed throughout Europe, Asia and North America that each critically depend on their ability to communicate banking transactions quickly and efficiently with one another and with their respective headquarters. A typical enterprise network uses building blocks of router and frame relay network appliances mounted in equipment racks. Such equipment racks are distributed to remote point of presence (POP) locations in the particular network. Each equipment rack can include, for example, frame relay controllers, routers, ISDN controllers, servers, network attached storage devices, etc., each of which are connected to one or more power sources.
Many equipment racks may be located in a data center, each of which having one or more associated PDUs. One or more such data centers may serve as data communication hubs for an enterprise. On the other hand, more than one enterprise may use computing facilities in a data centers. In any event, a particular enterprise and/or a particular data center may have a large number of equipment racks and associated PDUs. Furthermore, many PDUs include network connections that provide for remote control and/or monitoring of the PDUs. Such PDUs generally have configurations that are programmed into the PDU such as, for example, network communication configurations, alarm threshold configurations, control configurations, etc. As mentioned, a particular enterprise and/or data center may have numerous PDUs, which may each need to be programmed with configuration information. Traditionally, each PDU is required to be programmed individually by initiating a programming session and then programming the PDU. Furthermore, any time configuration information is required to be updated, each PDU traditionally is required to be individually updated. As will be recognized, such a task may consume significant amounts of time when being performed on hundreds, or even thousands, of PDUs that may be located in one or more data centers, for example. Additionally, when new data centers are brought on-line, or additions to data centers are brought on-line, the pressure to get equipment installed and running often results in PDUs that are not configured, even though such PDUs have the capability to provide information and be controlled over the network. In some cases, even after the data center is brought on-line, such PDUs may not be configured, or are eventually configured after a relatively long time period, due to higher priority tasks to be performed by data center personnel.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems and methods for configuring a power distribution unit


A method of statically testing dependence in a dataflow program is provided, the method comprising receiving a dataflow program which provides parameters, including consumption rates, production rates on connections between actors in the program and a number of initial samples (delays) on the connections, generating from the parameters a model of a precedence graph for the dataflow program representing dependence constraints between distinct firings of the number of actors. For the model, determining a feedback distance between multiple firings of a same actor, determining sets of parallel regions comprising a given number of actor firings of a same actor, composing mutually independent component regions comprising at least a part of the sets of parallel regions, and composing one or more composite regions comprising one or more component regions and/or one or more sets of parallel regions, being composed so that a pre-determined criteria is satisfied.

The interest in parallel computer systems has increased rapidly in recent years. Several physical problems, in particular that of power density, prevents further increase of clock frequency, which makes parallel execution the most viable path to further significant growth of performance.
Parallel computing using a multitude of processors executing in parallel is one solution attracting interest and research. The use of parallel computer systems is a particularly attractive solution if performance is put in relation to power consumption and related metrics, such as heat dissipation. However, it is hard to develop software that efficiently utilizes parallel computer systems; development cost and lead time present obstacles to progress in this direction.
Multiprocessing computer systems, including multiple-instruction stream multiple-data, MIMD, architectures utilizes several CPUs, which operate in parallel, such that computational tasks may be distributed over the CPUs. Computer clusters, multi-core or many-core processors and processors with support for hardware multi-threading, including hyper threading, are examples of multiprocessing computer systems or alternatively building blocks of such systems.
In contrast, a synchronous parallel computer, such as a single-instruction stream multiple-data, SIMD, architecture, may comprise a single CPU which decodes a single instruction stream and multiple processing elements each of which consists at least of an ALU and memory. In this case the parallelism is achieved by performing a single operation on multiple instances of data. Processor arrays, vector computers and parallel stream processors, including graphics processors, GPUs, are examples of this class of architectures. The border between the two classes of parallel architectures is not clear-cut: a GPU for instance may comprise several CPUs, which decode independent instruction streams and provide hardware support multi-threading, thus an MIMD architecture. Further, each CPU of the graphics processor may generally comprise multiple processing elements including a SIMD architecture.
However, developing software that efficiently utilizes parallel computer systems is costly and time consuming. One solution to this problem is to write programs that are independent of the target architecture at hand and transform the program into a form, which exposes parallelism in a manner that is appropriate for the particular target architecture. Such program transformation is known as parallelization in the context of MIMD architectures and vectorization in the context of SIMD architectures. Parallelization and vectorization have been studied extensively in the area of high-performance computing. A fundamental part of these tasks have typically included dependence analysis, a task whose complexity depends on the programming language being analyzed. In particular, it is well-known that programming languages with pointers, such as the C programming language, make the analysis of data dependence a very complicated matter. Analysis of the dependence caused by array references may also be complex and may generally be solved by heuristic methods and approximation.
As computer software traditionally has been written for serial computation, sequential computer programs are not laid out for easy parallelization. Thus, dataflow programming is investigated to specify massively parallel algorithms, and though the dataflow programs are easier to parallelize, they still need to be mapped onto the different processing units of the system. The mapping may be done statically at compile time or dynamically at run-time. Static scheduling, of the entire program or part thereof, is beneficial in certain situations and in particular, the run-time overhead, which is typically associated with dynamic scheduling, may be avoided.
However, mapping a dataflow program onto a number of processors, each performing a specific subtask, is not straight forward as for example synchronization between the different subtasks must be achieved. Furthermore, typically, a program may comprise parts that are parallelizable as well as parts that are non-parallelizable, i.e. sequential.
It has been suggested to perform parallelization by finding looped schedules in synchronous dataflow programs. A looped schedule may be seen as a serialization of the actor firings in the form of a loop nest, which means that traditional parallelization techniques are applicable, see for example S. S. Bhattacharyya and E. A. Lee, "Scheduling Synchronous Dataflow Graphs for Efficient Looping", J. VLSI Signal Processing, 6, pp. 271-288, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993. However, there are generally a large number of options for both the loop nest and the serialization of the actor firings and the choices made affects the properties of the resulting parallel program, such as the CPU utilization, latency, synchronization overhead, storage requirements etc. Furthermore, the formation of a looped schedule makes premature decisions, which may likely lead to suboptimal solutions.

Method for exploiting massive parallelism


A method is provided of identifying a security document using an identifying device. The identifying device is provided with a capacitance sensor and a second sensor. The method includes capacitively coupling a first element of the security document with the capacitance sensor and obtaining first data from the first element using the capacitance sensor. Second data is also obtained from the security document using the second sensor. Output data is then generated based upon the first and second data. A corresponding device and system are also presented.

The use of capacitive techniques provides a convenient and straightforward method of obtaining information from a security document, in particular information concerning the nature of the document which may include some measure of its authenticity. Unfortunately the nature of capacitive coupling means that problems are encountered in terms of the accuracy with which such information can be read. This is caused by limitations of the sensors used for this purpose and the different conditions under which such documents are interrogated, these including different contact conditions caused, in particular, by the condition of the security document. The outcome of these effects is that a problem occurs in the reliability of the identification of the documents. There are a range of practical situations in which this can very restrictive upon the usability of the technique. Thus the extent of wider adoption of capacitive sensing techniques upon security documents has a strong dependence upon advances in capacitive sensing technology. It is in this context that the present invention has been developed.

Method and system for identifying a security document


The specification and drawings present a new method, apparatus and software product for determining a mechanical shutter exposure time (e.g., an actual closing time) with a rolling readout of an image (e.g., complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) sensor using a predetermined calibration area of the image sensor in digital cameras or in electronic devices with digital cameras.

An image sensor is a component that converts a visible image to an electric signal in a camera (e.g., a digital camera). The image sensors can be divided into two categories: CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) or CCD (charge coupled device) sensors. CMOS sensors are used commonly in mobile phones due to their higher degree of integration, lower price and lower power consumption.
One of the biggest problems in a CMOS sensor is its property called a rolling shutter. If a sensor has the rolling shutter, it is exposed line by line, instead of globally. Since each line is exposed at a slightly different time moment, images of moving targets seem to bend. This bending is called a motion skew.
The motion skew can be avoided by using a mechanical shutter, but, when a mechanical shutter is used, the exposure time cannot be set very accurately. This is because capturing an image with a mechanical shutter requires mechanical movement, which is never perfectly accurate. The exposure time of the same mechanical shutter can vary, e.g., ±0.2 ms. So if the required exposure time is 1 ms, the actual exposure time with the mechanical shutter is between 0.8 ms and 1.2 ms. This 20% variance may be acceptable, but if the required exposure time would be shorter, say 0.2 ms, the mechanical shutter could not be used because the actual exposure time would vary from 0 ms to 0.4 ms.
The problem becomes even worse when some new high dynamic range technologies are used. In these technologies, the exposure time is divided into two parts: long and short. So if the required exposure time is again 1 ms, the sensor would actually be exposed two times with, e.g., 0.8 ms and 0.2 ms exposure times. In this case, the mechanical shutter variance would be equal to the short exposure time, i.e., instead of the requested 0.2 ms short exposure time, the actual short exposure time would be between zero and 0.4 ms. This will obviously make the high dynamic range mode unusable.
In earlier implementations, the exposure time was selected so that the mechanical shutter variation was not too larger a portion of a total exposure time. The exposure time has been made longer by allowing less light to hit the sensor. This has been achieved using a filter in front of the lens or a variable iris, whose aperture becomes smaller if the requested exposure time becomes too short compared to its variance.
The problems in the earlier implementations include but are not limited to:                mechanical components, such as filter or variable iris, increase the cost and size the of the camera module.        very short exposure times are not possible: this may cause problems in some photographic situations, such as capturing a very fast movement.

Determination of mechanical shutter exposure time