An extensible markup language (XML) expression included in a query is parsed to yield an abstract syntax tree. The abstract syntax tree is then transformed into a unified tree including XML algebra operations. The unified tree is then converted into a relational tree including enhanced relational algebra operations. The relational tree is then forwarded to a query processor for optimization and execution of the query at the query processor.

In conventional databases, an incoming query is typically received and manipulated by a database front end prior to being submitted to a query processor for optimization and execution. Generally, the front end uses the incoming query to generate a query plan for executing the query at the query processor. Generating an execution plan is a multi-stage process. For example, SQL Server™ from Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., is a relational database in which an execution plan may be generated as follows. First, the query may be parsed to yield an abstract syntax tree. The abstract syntax tree may then be transformed into a unified tree structure in which nodes represent abstract operations to be performed on the query. An algebrizer may then be employed to convert the unified tree operations into relational algebraic expressions in a log-op tree. The log-op tree is the resulting query plan which is submitted to the query processor for optimization and execution.
A recent development with respect to databases is that, in addition to supporting traditional relational data, the databases also support extensible markup language (XML) data. For example, SQL Server enables data to be defined using an XML data type. Columns with such an XML data type can be created in a data table, and XML variables and parameters can be declared. Such XML data can be searched, retrieved, and updated. Specifically, a query may include an XML expression written in an XML based query language such as XQuery and XSLT.
A limitation of conventional databases is that the existing method of generating a query plan set forth above is inadequate for queries that include such an XML expression. Specifically, the existing relational operations are inadequate for XML expressions that include document order and hierarchical ordering of data. Furthermore, existing algebrizers are inadequate to convert XML operations into relational algebra operations. Furthermore, existing relational algebra operations are inadequate to describe XML operations.
Thus, there is a need in the art for systems and methods for compiling an XML based query. The present invention satisfies these needs.

System and method for compiling an extensible markup language based query


Automated electronic document design systems and methods for combining identified images and layouts into electronic product templates for displaying to a user. A plurality of images and a plurality of layouts are retained. Stored images are identified based on keyword input by the user. Stored layouts contain one or more image containers and are identified based on product type and number of layout images input by the user. Images are automatically sized and cropped to fit image containers. Sizing and cropping constraints are applying to control image quality.

Many individuals, businesses and organizations occasionally have a need for custom printed materials, such as a birth announcement, a party invitation, a brochure describing a product or service, a promotional postcard notification about an upcoming sale, or any number of other things. Simply placing plain text on a plain background is usually not satisfactory. Most people prefer that their information be presented in a pleasing layout combined with one or more attractive images that have some thematic relevance to the purpose of the document. Few individuals, however, have the time, desire and expertise to experiment with possible layout/image arrangements or to search for, upload, resize, and position desirable images. Typically, only larger enterprises with regular and substantial printing requirements are able to employ a specialist with graphic design skills.
One option for individuals and smaller businesses desiring well-designed, professional appearing documents with attractive layouts and images has been the local print shop, where they describe their requirements and look through representative samples. Multiple visits may be required to review proofs, make corrections or pick up the final printed product. As an alternative, various specialized software products are available that present a customer with a set of pre-designed document templates in which the user can insert the user's personal information to allow the user to prepare personalized greeting cards, invitations or the like. These software products must typically be purchased and installed permanently on the user's computer and require at least some familiarization and training to be used properly and efficiently. Further, the printing devices connected to the typical personal computer used by an individual or small business are often not suitable for, or capable of, producing quantities of quality full color materials.
To provide an alternative to the above approaches, printing service providers, taking advantage of the capabilities of the Web and modern Web browsers, provide document design services for user's desiring to create customized documents from any computer with Web access at whatever time and place is convenient to the user. These service providers typically provide their customers with the ability to access the service provider's web site, view product templates and enter information to create a customized markup language document. After the document has been designed by the user, Web-based service providers also typically allow the user to place an order for the production and delivery to the user's home or business of quantities of high quality, printed documents of the type that the user is not capable of producing with the printer systems typically connected to most personal computer systems.
One network-based product design system is disclosed in co-pending and co-owned U.S. application Ser. No. 09/557,571 entitled "Managing Print Jobs", which is hereby incorporated by reference. The system discloses a downloadable editing tool that allows a customer to create and edit WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") markup language documents in the customer's browser. The system makes a number of pre-designed product templates available for customer viewing, downloading, and customizing. The customer can upload the electronic document to a server and place an order for production of the printed products.
Pre-designed document templates that can be individually selected and downloaded to assist the user in creating a document in the user's browser are known in the art. Typically, a number of different templates with various images and design features are provided to offer the user a range of choices. To help the user to locate specific types of templates of interest to the user, template offerings are sometimes divided into predefined search categories (e.g., Type of Industry) and, within a category, into predefined specific subcategories (e.g., Construction, Education, Insurance, Real Estate). After selecting a category and subcategory, the user is presented with thumbnail images of available templates. If the user selects one, the selected template is downloaded to the user's computer system along with downloaded software tools that can be employed by the user to create a personalized electronic document.
Each template is typically individually designed. The template development process includes the definition of all details of the template, such as defining the position of all image and text areas in the template, selecting, sizing and positioning images in the template, defining colors to be used for template elements having a color attribute, and so forth. The template designer will adjust the elements until the designer is satisfied with the overall appearance of the template. This hand crafting of template design is time consuming and, therefore, a significant expense for the service provider. To continue to expand its template offerings and to present potential customers with as many pleasing and varied options as possible, the service provider must typically employ a staff of professional designers. Further, the service provider may have thousands of images that the service provider would like to provide for use, and that customers would like to use, but that cannot be quickly made available and exploited because of the time involved in individually designing templates on a one-by-one basis.
There is, therefore, a need for a novel and flexible template generation system that allows a service provider to greatly increase the number and variety of templates offered to customers without requiring a laborious individual one-template-at-a-time design method


Some embodiments of the invention enable debugging functionality for memory devices residing on a memory module that are buffered from the memory bus by a buffer chip. Some embodiments map connector signals from a tester coupled to the high speed interface between the buffer chip and the memory bus to an interface between the buffer chip and the memory devices. During test mode, some embodiments bypass the normal operational circuitry of the buffer chip and provide a direct connection to the memory devices. Other embodiments use the existing architecture of the buffer chip to convert high speed pins into low speed pins and map them to pins that are connected to the memory devices. Other embodiments are described in the claims.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to memory systems, components, and methods and more particularly to a method and apparatus for providing debug functionality in a fully buffered memory channel that has no direct connection between an edge connector on a DIMM and the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices that reside on the DIMM.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional memory channel 100 that exhibits a "stub bus" topology. The memory channel includes a host 110 and four DIMMs 120-150. Each of the DIMMs 120-150 is connected to the memory bus 115 to exchange data with the host 110. Each of the DIMMs 120-150 adds a short electrical stub to the memory bus 115. For approximately the past 15 years, memory subsystems have relied on this type of stub bus topology.
Simulations have shown that for applications of 2 to 4 DIMMs per memory channel, the stub bus technology reaches a maximum bandwidth of 533-667 MT/s (mega-transactions/second), or 4.2-5.3 GB/s (gigabytes/second) for an eight byte wide DIMM. Achieving the next significant level, 800 megatransfers/second (MT/s) and beyond, will be difficult if not impossible with the stub bus topology.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for providing debug functionality in a buffered memory channel


A tripod head assembly having a tripod head joined with a handle by means of a coupler. The tripod head has a neck. The coupler has (a) a first member having a first end, a second end (b) a second member having a first end, a second end through which a passage is formed , a slit formed in the second end of the second member, thus forming a clamp through which a passage is formed and (c) a block with a passage wherein a number of teeth are formed, the block formed together with the second end of the second member. The first end of the first member is linked to the first end of the second member and the second end of the first member is linked to the block to form a hole for receiving the neck. The handle has a slender tip wherein a threading is formed and a number of teeth formed near the tip. A bolt has a shank and a slender tip on which a threading is formed. The tip of the bolt is insertable through the passage formed in the second end of the second member and the passage formed in the clamp. The tip of the handle is insertable through the passage formed in the block. The threadings engage with each other. The shank pushes the clamp towards the first member so as to clamp the neck. The teeth formed on the handle engage with the teeth formed on the block. The handle is retained in position.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a tripod head assembly including a tripod head joined with a handle by means of a coupler.
2. Related Prior Art
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/984,556 filed by the same applicant teaches a tripod head to which a handle is adjustably linked so that the handle is suitable for manipulation by either the left or right hand of a user.

4th Fl., No. 2-3, Lane 313, Chang An St.


Frozen taquitos are made on a commercial scale by preparing a flour-based tortilla dough, shaping that dough into generally circular tortillas, baking the tortillas, applying a strip of filling to each baked tortilla, rolling the baked tortilla around the filling to form a filled tortilla, coating the tortilla with batter, frying the batter-coated filled tortillas, and freezing them. To reconstitute, the frozen taquito can be heated in a microwave oven.

Methods and processes for applying batters to food products are, of course, known in the art. Among such methods and processes, for example, are U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,903 issued to deFigtueiredo et al., on Apr. 23, 1991, for a "Method of Making Fried Pie"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,874 issued to D'Amico et al. on Jun. 27, 1989, for a "Composition for Preparing Freeze-Thaw Microwaveable Pre-Fried Foodstuffs"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,684 issued to D'Amico et al. on Oct. 18, 1988, for a "Process for Producing a Freeze-Thaw Stable Microwaveable Pre-Fried Foodstuff"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,607 issued Nov. 2, 1999, to Higgins et al. for a "Water Dispersible Coating Composition for Fat-Fried Foods"; U.S. Pat. No. 6,475,541 issued Nov. 5, 2002, to Ekhart et al. for "Batter-Coated Food Products"; U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,736 issued Jan. 4, 2000, to Motoi et al. for "Steamed Durum Wheat Flour"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,607 issued Jul. 16, 1985 to Lenchin et al. for a "Process for Coating Foodstuff with Batter Containing High Amylose Flour for Microwave Cooking"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,597 issued Jun. 17, 1986, to Lenchin et al. for "Batters Containing High Amylose Flour for Microwaveable Pre-Fried Foodstuffs"; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,463 issued Sep. 12, 2000, to Alexander et al. for a "Process for Preparing Battered Foods".


A resonance type power converter unit has, in an inverter circuit in which voltage driven type semiconductor devices each having the function not to prevent a backward current are connected in series, the respective voltage driven devices are associated with capacitors which are charged or discharged with currents flowing through the devices and voltage detectors for detecting voltages of the capacitors, and drive circuits for turning on and off the voltage driven devices in accordance with outputs of the voltage detectors. With the resonance type power converter unit, stable resonance operation synchronous with a high-frequency load current can be warranted.

The present invention relates to resonance type power converter units and more particularly to a resonance type power converter unit employable in a lighting apparatus for illumination using a high resonance frequency or a resonance type active filter for suppression of higher harmonics.
In recent years, a discharge tube (for example, fluorescent lamp) of the type in which a DC voltage is converted into a high-frequency AC voltage by means of a lighting circuit using an inverter and the high-frequency AC voltage is applied to a resonance load circuit inclusive of the discharge tube has been used widely. The resonance load circuit includes a resonance inductor and a resonance capacitor which are used for setting a resonance frequency. This type of lighting circuit is an inverter circuit having two power semiconductor switching devices which are connected to form a half bridge configuration between positive and negative polarities of a DC power source, and it applies the high-frequency AC voltage across the resonance load circuit. Current flowing through the resonance means can be controlled by changing the operating frequency of the inverter. On the assumption that the switching frequency for alternately turning on and off the two power semiconductor devices is f and the resonance frequency determined by the resonance inductor and capacitor is fo, lamp current changes to make luminescence of the discharge tube unstable unless f is constant for fo.
As a first conventional example for stabilization of the driving frequency of the switching devices, a drive unit as disclosed in JP-A-8-37092 is known. The conventional drive unit features in that it has 1) a timer circuit for generation of a square wave of a desired frequency, 2) high-side and low-side drive circuits adapted to drive two power semiconductor switching devices of an inverter in accordance with a drive signal from the timer circuit, 3) high-side and low-side dead time delay circuits adapted to prevent simultaneous conduction of the two power semiconductor switching devices and 4) a level shift circuit adapted to convert a signal based on a reference of low-side common potential into a signal based on a reference of high-side common potential in order for the drive signal from the timer circuit to be transmitted to the high side, and that these circuits are built in a single integrated circuit. It will be appreciated that in the above conventional example, the switching devices are driven in accordance with the frequency of the timer circuit and essentially, this frequency is asynchronous with a resonance current of the lamp. As a second conventional example for performing switching synchronous with a resonance current flowing through the lamp, a control circuit disclosed in JP-A-8-9655 is known. In the control circuit, a terminal voltage across a circulating diode (having the function not to prevent backward current) provided for a power semiconductor switching device is detected to turn on the power semiconductor switching device, current of the power semiconductor switching device is integrated by means of an integrator, and the device is turned off when the integrated value exceeds a reference value.
In the aforementioned first conventional example, elements in each of the timer circuit, level shift circuit and dead time delay circuit have irregularities in characteristics or suffer from a temperature rise and expectantly, the oscillation frequency will shift and the operation will delay. Especially, in an electrodeless lamp reported recently, luminescence of a discharge tube is controlled by a method in which the frequency is raised to a value of several of MHz so that a high-frequency magnetic field may be generated by a high-frequency AC current and plasma in the lamp tube is sustained by the magnetic field. In such a resonance type inverter of several of MHz as above, a shift of oscillation frequency and a delay in operation cannot be negligible. More particularly, on the assumption that the delay time is 0.1 .mu.s, the operation delay is only 0.5% of one wavelength in a stabilizer using an ordinary driving frequency of 50 kHz but amounts up to 20% of one wavelength in an electrodeless lamp of 2 MHz. Thus, when the high-frequency resonance type inverter of several of MHz is controlled by the conventional method, there arises a problem that the irregularity in driving frequency due to the operation delay becomes considerably large.
In the case of the lighting apparatus, the switching frequency f of the inverter is related to the resonance frequency fo determined by the resonance inductor and resonance capacitor as shown in FIG. 2 and in relation to an operational boundary at a resonance point (f=fo), a lagging phase is defined for f>fo and a leading phase is defined for f<fo. Current IL of the resonance circuit has a smaller value for either the lagging phase or the leading phase than that at the resonance point. Accordingly, the inverter is desired to be operated near the resonance point but in the case of the leading phase, there arises a problem that a through-current flows in the inverter.
When the inverter has power semiconductor switching devices Q1 and Q2 which incorporate circulating diodes QD1 and QD2, respectively, and an output voltage Vo is taken out of a connecting node of the devices Q1 and Q2, the leading phase is defined as a state in which a waveform of the resonance current IL leads a waveform of the output voltage Vo by a phase .phi.. In the case of the leading phase, one-cycle operation proceeds in such a manner that during on-duration of the device Q1, the resonance current IL is switched from positive to negative and the current flows through the circulating diode QD1. Subsequently, the control circuit turns off the switching device Q1 and conversely turns on the device Q2, a backward voltage is abruptly applied to the diode QD1 through which the forward current has passed till then. As a result, electrons and positive holes stored in the diode QD1 (hereinafter referred to as residual carriers) are exhausted and a backward current (hereinafter referred to as a backward recovery current) from cathode to anode flows through the diode QD1. This current passes through the device Q2, behaving as a through-current for the inverter. The time required for the residual carriers to be exhausted is described as backward recovery time of diode in specifications of the device and even for a device of short backward recovery time called a high-speed diode, the backward recovery time is 0.05 to 0.1 .mu.s. When the resonance type inverter of several of MHz is operated near the resonance point, the possibility that the leading phase due to the irregularity in switching frequency occurs is high and besides a high frequency prevails. For these reasons, a loss due to the through-current behaves as a factor which determines a thermal, operational limit of the lighting apparatus.
In the second conventional example, the power switching device is driven by detecting a voltage of a diode connected in parallel with the switching device and therefore, operation at the lagging phase is warranted. As described hereinafter, a larger current is required upon start of the discharge tube than during lighting and as the resonance current flowing through the discharge tube increases, the time required for the aforementioned integral value to reach the reference value decreases, so that the driving frequency of the switching device increases. On the other hand, in the case of lagging phase, the resonance current has such a characteristic that as the driving frequency of the switching device increases, the resonance current decreases as shown in FIG. 2. This leads to a problem that a large current cannot be obtained upon start.

Resonance type power converter unit, lighting apparatus for illumination using the same and method for control of the converter unit and lighting apparatus


A heat dissipation lid that includes a plate having a first surface, an opposing second surface, and at least one sidewall extending from the plate second surface. The heat dissipation lid also includes at least one fluid delivery conduit and at least one fluid removal conduit, each extending between the plate first and second surface, and at least one spacing projection extending from the plate second surface to establish and maintain a desired distance between the plate second surface and a microelectronic device, when the heat dissipation lid is positioned to remove heat from the microelectronic device.

The microelectronic industry is continually striving to produce ever faster and smaller microelectronic devices for use in various mobile electronic products, such as portable computers, electronic tablets, cellular phones, digital cameras, and the like. As these goals are achieved, the density of power consumption of integrated circuit components within the microelectronic devices has increased, which, in turn, increases the average junction temperature of the microelectronic device. If the temperature of the microelectronic device becomes too high, the integrated circuits within the microelectronic device may be damaged or destroyed.

Heat dissipation lid having direct liquid contact conduits


A medium handover device is provided including: a fixed peripheral side section that covers portions of side faces enclosing a periphery of a collection space in which a paper sheet shaped medium is collected, other than at least a portion of an opposing side face opposing a medium support section supporting the medium inside the collection space, which portion is open, and other than at least a portion of an adjacent side face adjacent to the opposing side face, which portion is open; a lid section that has a shape covering portions of the side faces enclosing the periphery of the collection space that are not covered by the fixed peripheral side section; a transition section that transitions the lid section to enable the lid section to adopt a closed state with respect to the fixed peripheral side section in which the lid section is close to or abutting the fixed peripheral side section and the collection space is closed, and to adopt an open state with respect to the fixed peripheral side section in which at least a portion of the lid section is separated from the fixed peripheral side section and the collection space is opened; and a transfer section that transfers the medium between an interior and an exterior of the collection space.

Conventionally, banknote processing devices are commonly used to perform various transaction processing such as cash deposits or withdrawals for a customer, operated by an operator who is a service counter representative (known as a teller) at a service counter of a financial institution (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2009-140420, FIG. 1).
Such banknote processing devices are provided with banknote handover sections in pay-in sections into which the operator inserts banknotes, and pay-out sections from which the operator removes banknotes, namely, in sections that exchange banknotes with the operator.
For example, as illustrated in FIG. 19A and FIG. 19B, in a conventional banknote handover section 610, a space for holding banknotes BL (referred to below as a collection space SC) is formed inside a rectangular block shaped frame 621. The banknotes BL are held overlapped in an upright state in the collection space SC, namely with their sheet faces facing each other, and with their short direction running from top to bottom.
The banknote handover section 610 is provided with an openable and closable shutter 622 at a portion, for example at an upper side, of the collection space SC from the perspectives of reducing noise and securing safety.
When banknotes BL are paid out in the banknote handover section 610, the banknotes BL to be paid out are conveyed one note at a time from inside the device, discharged into the collection space SC by a discharge section 28, and thereby sequentially stacked, in a closed state of the shutter 622. The shutter 622 is then opened, enabling the operator to remove the banknotes BL from the collection space SC.

Medium handover device and medium processing device


A method and an apparatus handle an emergency in a wireless communication system. A method of a serving Base Station (BS) for detecting an emergency in a wireless communication system includes receiving an emergency call signal from Mobile Stations (MSs) in a cell; determining whether the number of the received emergency call signals exceeds a threshold number of times; when the number of the received emergency call signals exceeds the threshold number of times, detecting an emergency of a BS; and transmitting a message indicating the emergency to an MS in the cell.

For an emergency such as disaster, wireless communication systems provide services which promptly inform users of the emergency. For example, when a disaster occurs, a base station in the wireless communication system provides a service which broadcasts a message informing of the disaster over a specific frequency so that all of users can recognize the disaster.
In particular, since a catastrophe such as earthquake, fire, or terror attack can cut a line interconnecting the base station and a core network, a conventional wireless communication system provides a service for handling the isolation of the base station by periodically transmitting and receiving a keep-alive message between the base station and the core network.
However, when the base station and the core network periodically transmit and receive the keep-alive message over a certain number of times and the transmission and reception of the keep-alive message continuously fails over a threshold number of times, the using of the keep-alive message can detect the isolation of the base station. In result, it takes a long time to detect the isolation of the base station. For example, when the keep-alive message transmitted and received at intervals of 5 seconds continuously fails for 11 times, the conventional base station and core network determine the line disconnection between the base station and the core network and accordingly it takes 55 seconds to detect the isolation of the base station. Though 55 seconds can be a short time period in general situations, it is not short at all in case of an emergency could damage human life and property within a few seconds.
In this respect, a method and an apparatus for detecting the emergency of the base station within a short time and maintaining the communication of the mobile station in the base station are demanded.

Apparatus and method for detecting emergency status in wireless communication system


An organic light-emitting component includes a translucent substrate, on which an optical coupling-out layer is applied. A translucent electrode overlies the coupling-out layer and an organic functional layer stack having organic functional layers overlies the translucent electrode. The organic functional layer stack includes a first organic light-emitting layer on the translucent electrode and a second organic light-emitting layer on the first organic light-emitting layer. The first organic light-emitting layer includes arbitrarily arranged emitter molecules and the second organic light-emitting layer includes anisotropically oriented emitter molecules having an anisotropic molecular structure.

In organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), only part of the generated light is coupled out directly. The rest of the light generated in the active region is distributed among various loss channels, for instance in light guided in the substrate, in a transparent electrode and in organic layers as a result of waveguiding effects, and also in surface plasmons that can be generated in a metallic electrode. The waveguiding effects arise, in particular, as a result of the differences in refractive index at the interfaces between the individual layers and regions of an OLED. Typically, in known OLEDs, only approximately one quarter of the light generated in the active region is coupled out into the surroundings, that is to say air, for example, while the emission is deprived by virtue of approximately 25% of the generated light being lost as a result of waveguiding in the substrate, approximately 20% of the generated light being lost as a result of waveguiding in a transparent electrode and the organic layers and approximately 30% being lost as a result of the generation of surface plasmons in a metallic electrode. In particular, the light guided in the loss channels cannot be coupled out from an OLED without additional technical measures.
In order to increase the coupling-out of light and thus the emitted light power, measures are known, for example, for coupling out the light guided in a substrate into emitted light. For this purpose, by way of example, films comprising scattering particles, and films comprising surface structures such as microlenses, for instance, are used on the outer side of the substrate. It is also known to provide a direct structuring of the outer side of the substrate or to introduce scattering particles into the substrate. Some of these approaches, for example, the use of scattering films, are already in use commercially and can be scaled up with regard to the emission area in particular in the case of OLEDs embodied as lighting modules. However, these approaches for coupling out light have the major disadvantages that the coupling-out efficiency is limited to approximately 60%-70% of the light guided in the substrate, and that the appearance of the OLED is influenced significantly, since a milky, diffusely reflective surface is produced by the applied layers or films.
Furthermore, approaches are known for coupling out the light guided in organic layers or in a transparent electrode. However, to date these approaches have not yet become established commercially in OLED products. By way of example, the document Y. Sun, S. R. Forrest, Nature Photonics 2,483 (2008) proposes forming so-called "low-index grids", wherein structured regions comprising a material having a low refractive index are applied to a transparent electrode. Furthermore, it is also known to apply high refractive index scattering regions below a transparent electrode in a polymeric matrix, as is described in U.S. Publication No. 2007/0257608, for example. In this case, the polymeric matrix generally has a refractive index in the region of n=1.5 and is applied wet-chemically. Furthermore, so-called Bragg gratings or phototonic crystals having periodic scattering structures having structure sizes in the light wavelength range are also known, as are described in the documents Ziebarth et al., Adv. Funct. Mat. 14, 451 (2004) and Do et al., Adv. Mat. 15, 1214 (2003), for example.
However, by means of such measures, that proportion of the light generated in the active region of an OLED which is converted into plasmons cannot be influenced or even coupled out.


The support element (4) is provided with a plurality of connectors (7), (8), (11) which receive corresponding counter-connectors of a blood treatment device. The support element is also predisposed to include a fluid distribution circuitry cooperating with the blood treatment device in order to provide an integrated module for blood treatment. An assembly process of the integrated module for blood treatment is also described.

The invention relates to a support element, to an integrated module for blood treatment comprising the support element, and to an apparatus for extracorporeal treatment of blood equipped with the integrated module. The invention also relates to a manufacturing process for an integrated module for blood treatment.
As is known, for carrying out extracorporeal blood treatments, such as, for example, hemodialysis, hemofiltration, hemodiafiltration, plasmapheresis, extracorporeal blood oxygenation, extracorporeal blood filtration or other treatments, there must be present at least one extracorporeal circuit through which the blood is made to circulate in order to be transported towards a treatment device. The treated blood is then returned to the patient's cardiovascular system.
With reference, by way of example, to a dialysis treatment, the extracorporeal circuit used comprises: a dialysis filter constituted by a container body including at least a first and a second chamber, separated from each other by a semipermeable membrane, a blood withdrawal line leading to the first chamber of the dialyzer filter and a blood return line destined to receive blood outletting from the first chamber and to return it to the patient. The second chamber of the dialyzer filter is connected to a dialysis liquid circulation circuit destined to receive the impurities present in the blood, as well as the excess fluid which is to be removed from the patient's blood.
At present, in extracorporeal blood treatment apparatus, the totality of lines destined for dialysis liquid circulation is housed inside the dialysis machine, while the lines forming the extracorporeal blood circuit are changed after each single treatment and are connected to the dialyzer filter, which can be changed either at each treatment or periodically, according to needs.
From the structural point of view, the dialyzer filter, the dialysis liquid circulation lines and the lines forming the patient's blood withdrawal and return branches are constituted by separate parts which are connected up and cooperate operatively following assembly.
The market offers apparatus, in particular destined for intensive kidney failure treatment, which are advantageously provided with integrated modules comprising a support structure, a dialyzer filter constrained to the support structure by means of a support element emerging from the support structure, as well as a hydraulic circuit comprising the tubing necessary for defining the withdrawal branch and the return branch of the blood from and to the patient, the lines (if present) for infusion of anticoagulant, or of substitution liquids, the dialysis liquid supply line, the discharge line for discharge liquid outletting from the dialysis filter second chamber.
The above-described integrated modules enable an easy and immediate attachment of the lines on the treatment apparatus and do not need any connection between the treatment device, for example a dialyzer filter, and the various tubes or lines destined to carry blood and other fluids. Further, the integrated modules enable removal both of the tubes carrying the blood and those carrying other fluids once the treatment has been concluded. In other words, with a simple loading operation and a connecting-up of the terminals and the fluid transport lines to the relative sources, i.e. bags or other, the user can start up the dialysis apparatus.
Similarly, once the treatment has been concluded, a small number of disconnecting operations and dismounting of the integrated module from the blood treatment machine will enable the operator to completely remove the extracorporeal circuit, the blood treatment device, any tubing for circulation of infusion liquids as well as for the dialysis liquid.
The ease with which the module can be set up guarantees efficiency and speed, much to be appreciated. in the case of intensive treatment, where the personnel involved, not necessarily expert in the use of blood treatment machines, can operate quickly and extremely reliably.
Though the above-described integrated modules have had a notable market success, they have shown themselves to be susceptible to improvement in various aspects.
Firstly, in the prior art, the connection between the support body and the blood treatment device includes an additional support interpositioned between the body of the treatment device and the support element, considerably complicating the overall structure of the integrated model.
The presence of an intermediate support structure between the support body and the dialyzer body causes the integrated module to be considerably unwieldy.
Additionally, the need to connect the dialyzer filter or another treatment device used with the extracorporeal blood circuit lines and the treatment fluid lines constitutes a further difficulty, as the connecting-up operations have to be performed in a zone which is difficult to access.
The above has obviously hampered the possibility of automating the assembly stages, considerably increasing production costs of the integrated modules at present on the market.

Support element for an integrated module for blood treatment, an integrated module for blood treatment, and a manufacturing process for an integrated module for blood treatment


An apparatus for enhancing audibility of a far-end speech signal from a far-end user to a near-end user in a telephony system includes a near-end background noise signal level estimator (26) at the near-end user. A near-end speech signal level estimator (24) is also provided at the near-end user. A gain control logic (22) determines a gain (G) for amplification of the far-end speech signal based on both estimated speech and background noise signal levels.

When making a telephone call in a noisy environment the audibility of the far-end speech may at times be low, since the loudspeaker signal may be drowned by the background noise at the near-end. At such occasions, it would be beneficial to increase the loudness of the far-end speech signal in order to improve the audibility.
Most mobile terminals used today include a manual volume control that can be used for increasing the loudspeaker volume. However, this may not always solve the problem of enhancing the audibility, and that mainly depends on the so-called side-tone that most often is included in a mobile terminal. The side-tone adds a portion of the talkers voice to the loudspeaker in order to make the terminal sound "more alive". Typically, the side-tone is at a level of approximately 10–20 dB below the microphone level, see ITU-T Recommendation G.12I. The perception of the side-tone is very sensitive to the time-delay between the side-tone and the talkers voice. This time-delay should preferably be short, hence the side-tone has traditionally been implemented as an attenuated (by 10–20 dB) version of the microphone signal.
Although the side-tone is intended to add the talkers voice to the loudspeaker, any background environmental noise may also be added to the loudspeaker via the side-tone, thus causing the far-end voice to be contaminated by near-end noise. If the near-end background environmental noise is very high, this may cause the audibility of the far-end speech to be reduced due to a low signal-to-noise ratio. In this situation it is desirable for the user to increase the level of the far-end speech. Depending on the implementation of the volume control in the terminal, this may or may not increase the audibility. If the volume control is implemented (digitally) on the down-link signal and the side-tone level is not connected to the volume level, then the signal-to-noise ratio of the far-end speaker will be increased by this action. Should, however, the volume control be implemented as an analogue amplification of the loudspeaker signal, or the side-tone level is dependent on the volume setting of the phone, then the mobile terminal user is not helped by any manual volume control in the handset, since this will amplify both the far-end speech and the near-end noise stemming from the side-tone, and the signal-to-noise ratio will remain at a constant value regardless of the loudspeaker volume level.
The problem of increasing the audibility has been addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,5524,148, Allen et al. by including a processing function in the network that amplifies the far-end signal based on the noise level present at the mobile user side. Since this amplification only affects the far-end signal and not the noise signal added locally in the terminal via the side-tone, this approach will increase the signal to noise ratio.
The solution described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,5524,148, Allen et al. amplifies the far-end signal based on the noise level from the near-end. This solution is based on the assumption that whenever a user is present in an environment with a high background noise level, the user will benefit from an increased level of the far-end signal.
This assumption may be valid if the user is using a mobile terminal with a traditional design, i.e. a mobile handset where the side-tone is implemented as an attenuated replica of the microphone signal. However, with the increased diversity in the design of mobile terminals, there may be several situations when the user does not have any problem with the audibility of the far-end speaker, although the user is positioned in an environment with a high background noise. Examples of terminal equipment where there possibly are no problems with the audibility although used in a noise environment are:    1. Handsets with volume control that does not affect the side-tone level or with more advanced side-tone implementations (including noise suppressing techniques in the side-tone).    2. Hands-free accessories designed for noisy conditions (such as car hands-free kits with loudspeaker volume and frequency characteristics dependent on the environmental noise) and for which there are no side-tones added to the loudspeaker.    3. Headsets or ear-plugs which reduce the perceived environmental noise level.    4. Handsets with active noise control.
This should not be seen as an exclusive list, but serve as examples of terminal equipment that are designed to operate properly in environments with a high acoustical background noise.
In situations where the terminal equipment has been designed to operate in noisy conditions, any level adjustment made in the network may degrade the overall perceived quality of the conversation. Firstly, raising the level of the far-end speech may cause the terminal equipment at the near-end to not function as designed. Secondly, and perhaps most important, the speech and talker levels in a conversation is coupled via the human perception of speech levels. As outlined in the following, any amplification of the signal in the network may influence the speech levels in a non-desired way if implemented without specific knowledge of the situation.
In a conversation, a talker tends to adjust the level of the voice to the level of the other party and also to the background noise. Similarly, when exposed to speech in a telephone conversation via a loudspeaker (either in a handset, hands-free or headset), a talker tends to adjust the voice level to a similar level as perceived from the loudspeaker. Thus, if the level of the far-end speech is raised the near-end user is also likely to unconsciously increase the voice level. If the terminal equipment at the near-end has been designed to work properly even in an environment with a high background noise, this increase of the voice level is affecting the user in a negative way (e.g. more strain to the voice) without adding any benefit of increased audibility.
An example of the problem described in the previous section is when using a headset in a noisy environment. With a proper design of the headset, the user is likely to have no problems hearing the far-end talker at nominal signal levels and is likely to talk at a comfortable and natural speech level. Should, however, the level of the far-end talker be increased by any network equipment (due to the measurement of a high background noise level from the near-end), the near-end talker may unconsciously also increase the voice level with more strain to the voice and less privacy as an effect.
In the example above it should be noted that with a headset the user is less exposed to the background noise and the voice is not raised due to the high level of the background noise, as would be the case if using an ordinary handset. When using an ordinary handset in a noisy environment and being fully exposed to the background noise and having a side-tone in the handset with a high noise level, the near-end user would benefit from having an increased far-end speech level, as outlined in the previous section.
Thus, there is a need for an improved method for enhancing the audibility for users of ordinary mobile handset without degrading the overall performance in situations with terminal equipment designed for environments with high near-end background noise.


A tool for a power drill allows fast and convenient loading and unloading of a screw bit, drill bit, or other implement. The user preferably loads the tool with the necessary implements which are then carried with the tool. Each received implement is movable from a storage position to an in use position in drive engagement with the power drill or power screwdriver. The desired implements can rapidly be changed from one to the other, while the implements are retained on the tool.

Power drills and in particular power hand drills are extremely convenient and are commonly used as a power screwdriver. The chuck of the drill is often a keyless chuck allows rapid securement and release of a screw bit or drill bit as opposed to a conventional key drill chuck. Various power drills have included adjacent the hand grip a separate storage area for maintaining one or more screw bits when not in use. It is also known use screw bits that are reversible having different screw bits at each end. It is also known to provide a magnetic screw bit holder which is separately received in the drill chuck. The holder has a socket at one end for releasably engaging a cooperating bit. The screw bit is typically slide inserted into the socket and is removable by hand. This magnetic screw bit accessory reduces the time required to attach the desired screw bit or to replace screw bits. It is less desirable for drill bits as the drill bits tend to pull out of the accessory when the drill bit is being pulled out of the material.
This type of fast securement and release arrangement has proven quite popular and screw bits and drill bits have been sold in a kit form for easy insertion in the drill bit accessory. Although such systems are more convenient than separate securement of the drill bits or screw bits, the kit of the various bits is not always immediately available or requires the user to interrupt the task to allow selection and attachment of the next bit. This attachment procedure is awkward and time consuming and is a particular problem when the replacement bit is not readily available or is dropped during replacement. There are many tasks which are completed by use of a power drill where the user is constantly alternating between two different bits such as a particular size drill bit and a particular screw bit or between two different types of screw bits, etc. Some workers faced with this problem use two different drills.
The present invention provides a tool for a power drill which overcomes a number of these disadvantages.


A black-matrix-equipped filter including a black matrix adapted to selectively shield light being incident from a light introduction side, and to transmit the unshielded light to a light output side, wherein the black matrix includes: a light shielding layer; and a first reflection inhibition layer formed at the light introduction side of the light shielding layer.

A color filter used in a color liquid crystal display, which is currently extremely widespread, is configured so that colored pixel layers R, G, and B (respectively corresponding to red, green, and blue) are formed on a transparent substrate, and that a black matrix is formed on each of the gaps between adjacent ones of the colored pixels R, G, and B so as to enhance display contrast. Especially, in a liquid crystal display device of the active matrix driving type using TFTs, the black matrix is used to prevent picture quality from being degraded due to an electric current leakage caused by irradiating light onto the TFTs. In recent years, a high optical density (O.D.), which is equal to or higher than 4.0, has been demanded for the black matrix so as to enhance the display contrast of a displayed image. On the other hand, the surface smoothness of the color filter is reduced by increasing the thickness of the black matrix. Thus, it is necessary that the black matrix is formed like a thin film.
Hitherto, a metallic thin film has been used to manufacture a black matrix for a display device, which has a high light shieldability. The black matrix is manufactured by performing the following method (see "Color TFT Liquid Crystal Display", published by Kyoritsu Shuppan Co., Ltd., Apr. 10, 1997, pp. 218 to 220.). That is, a photoresist is applied onto a metallic thin film made of a metal such as chrome, which is formed by performing an evaporation process or a sputtering process. Subsequently, the photoresist is exposed and developed using a photomask having a light shielding film pattern for a display device. Then, the exposed metallic thin film is etched. Finally, the photoresist remaining on the metallic thin film is peeled and removed to form the black matrix.
This method uses a metallic thin film. Thus, even in a case where the thickness of the film is small, a high light shielding effect is obtained. However, this method requires a vacuum film formation step of performing the evaporation process or the sputtering process, and also requires an etching step. Thus, this method has a problem in that the cost of the black matrix is high. Additionally, because the metallic film is used, the reflectance of the film is extremely high. Thus, this method has another problem in that the display contrast is low under strong external light. On the other hand, a method using a low reflectance chrome film (including, for example, two layers respectively made of metallic chrome and chromic oxide) has been proposed. However, because waste liquid containing metallic ions is discharged in the etching step, this method has a major problem in that an environmental load is large. Especially, chrome, which is most frequently used, is harmful and has a very large environmental load. Recently, as implied by EU directives such as ELV and RoHS, there has been increased public concern about reduction in the environment load. A metal material to be substituted for chrome has been proposed.
Meanwhile, one of techniques of obtaining a black matrix, whose environment load is small, is a technique using carbon black (see, for example, JP-A-62-9301 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application")). According to this technique, as shown in FIG. 7, a photosensitive resin composition containing carbon black is applied onto a substrate 1. This applied layer is dried. Then, a black matrix BM is obtained by exposing and developing the dried layer. However, the optical density of a unit application amount of carbon black is low. Thus, to obtain a high light-shieldability and a high optical density, the thickness t of the film is necessarily increased.
In the case of using carbon black, when an optical density of, for example, 4.0, which is equivalent to that of the metallic film, is ensured, the thickness of the film should be 1.2 μm to 1.5 μm. Therefore, in a case where RGB pixels are formed after the black matrix BM is formed, sometimes, boundary parts of adjacent colored pixels R and G expand as projected portions 3, 3, for example, as shown in FIG. 7. In a color filter 5 the planarity and smoothness of which are impaired, external light passes through the projected portion 3 around the black matrix and causes leakage of light from a thin film transistor (TFT) due to irradiation of light thereonto. Consequently, the technique using carbon black has problems in that picture quality is degraded, and that light from a backlight light source is incident from a side part of the projected portion 3 to thereby degrade display quality.
A method using metal microparticles instead of carbon black is known as a method of obtaining a black matrix that has a small environment load and a high optical density and that is formed as a thin film, in view of the above problems (see, for example, JP-A-2004-240039). According to this method, a black matrix, which has a small environment load and a high optical density and which is formed as a thin film, can be obtained, as compared with the method of forming a metallic thin film.
In the case of a black-matrix-equipped filter formed using metal microparticles, the film thickness of the black matrix can be reduced, as compared with the case of forming a black matrix using carbon black. Also, in the case of a filter with a black matrix formed using metal microparticles, the environment load can be reduced, as compared the case of forming a black matrix using a metal thin film.

Multilayer black-matrix-equipped filter and liquid crystal display


Method for optimizing the number of power outputs of an electronic control device of the application specific integrated circuit type mounted onto a printed circuit board, the number of power outputs required depending on the application. The method includes mounting into two packages having geometrically identical connecting configurations, an integrated circuit of a first type having a first number of power outputs and an integrated circuit of a second type having a second number of power outputs, respectively, in such a manner as to make the two circuits compatible for their installation on the board, and to provide at least two locations on the board for the installation of the packages, the number of power outputs required for the application being obtained by installing in the locations at least two circuits chosen from between the integrated circuit of the first type and the integrated circuit of the second type.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for optimizing the number of power outputs of an electronic control device, of the application specific integrated circuit type mounted onto a printed circuit board, the number of power outputs depending on the application targeted. The present invention more particularly relates to automobile motor control applications, without however being limited to this.
2. Description of the Related Art
Application specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, are integrated circuits designed at the request of the user. Some application specific integrated circuits comprise a central processing unit (for example a digital signal processor, or DSP, in the case of an integrated circuit dedicated to the processing of the signal) associated with a certain number of devices depending on the circuit application, and especially power outputs.
The user therefore provides the manufacturer with the application program for the circuit and information on the configuration of the desired circuit, such as the type and number of power outputs necessary for the application. The integrated circuit is then designed on a chip intended to be mounted on a printed circuit board while associating the specified devices with the central processing units, and especially the power outputs.
In the field of automobile motor control applications for example, the number of power outputs required will vary greatly depending on the type of motor, but will also depend on the application desired by the user. However, in order to reduce the development costs for the application specific integrated circuit manufacturers, the diversity of power output circuits has been reduced while at the same time nevertheless trying to cover the largest range of applications. This goal is however far from being attained.
Thus, for producing a power output stage, manufacturers typically use of 16 output circuits, by means of which designs can be adapted to applications requiring 16 or 32 outputs by applying, for example, one or two circuits of this type. For applications requiring an intermediate number of outputs, manufacturers also use 4 output ASIC circuits which allow them to adapt designs to applications requiring 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36 and 40 outputs, for example.
Accordingly, manufacturers currently have a fairly moderate flexibility in the distribution of the number of power outputs required for the application desired by the user. For example, with the configuration described hereinabove, for an application requiring 22 outputs, the manufacturer will not be able to adapt the design exactly to this number of outputs desired by the user and will have to offer a circuit with 24 outputs to meet the requirement. This lack of flexibility in the adaptation of the number of power outputs to the desired application is a problem for the manufacturers since the users clearly do not wish to pay for additional outputs that are unused and which cannot be made use of in their application.
Moreover, the 16 output and 4 output circuit packages imply a different design of the printed circuit board for their installation. They will not therefore be freely interchangeable on a board without modifying its design, which, for the scalability of the number of outputs, leads to additional development costs and a lack of flexibility in the use of these circuits.
The object of the present invention is to overcome these drawbacks by providing a method that allows the number of power outputs available to be optimized as a function of the application desired by the user, so as to be able to ideally cover a wide range of applications with a great flexibility and low cost.

Optimization of the number of power outputs for an integrated circuit


A method of predicting failure of an information handling device, such as a server, by monitoring an error rate, i.e., n errors per error period. Errors are reported only if the error rate is exceeded. An error count is kept, and errors are leaked from the count if the time difference between errors is more than the error period.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An enterprise system, such as a shared storage cluster, is one example of an information handling system. The storage cluster typically includes interconnected servers that can access a plurality of storage devices.
Typically, a server system has some sort of software mechanism for pre-failure detection on various hardware. A pre-failure detection process monitors hardware such as memory or buses for impending failures. If an impending failure is detected, the process provides advance warning to an operator who can then take appropriate measures. Specific examples of pre-failure detection are of various interfaces, such as tracking errors of memory, IO, and CPU caches.

System and method for predictive failure detection


A sealed connector assembly includes a female connector having an inner wall, an outer wall substantially parallel to the inner wall, and a resilient seal circumferentially extending from the inner wall and a male connector having a shroud extending parallel to the mating axis and a male blade stabilizer (MBS) moveable from a pre-staged position to a fully staged position and back to the pre-staged position. The MBS is configured to move from the pre-staged position to the fully staged position as the shroud is received between the outer wall and the resilient seal, thereby disposing the MBS between the inner and outer walls and retaining the resilient seal in an intended location. The MBS remains engaged to female connector until the shroud is withdrawn from between the outer wall and the resilient seal, thereby retaining the resilient seal in the intended location as the male connector is unmated.

In automotive electrical connectors, sealing is a safety critical function to protect the connector system from failure due to water intrusion. There is a seal failure mode where the connector seal tends to roll out during connector assembly disengagement. Various design solutions have been implemented to retain the seal in position, e.g., extending integrated/independent secondary locks or primary lock retainers, adding seal retaining features to the inner housing, etc. When these solutions are not feasible, a dedicated seal retainer component is added to retain the seal which increases the overall cost of the connector system.

Sealed electrical connector having a male blade stabilizer with a seal retention feature


A system and method for detecting if an object has been tampered with comprising a characterizer, a comparator, and indicator, and optionally, a signer. The characterizer generates a first digital characterization of an object at a first time and at least one subsequent digital characterization of the object at at least one subsequent time. The comparator compares the first digital characterization with the at least one subsequent digital characterization, and the indicator generates a pre-selected characterization signal if the first and subsequent digital characterizations don't match. Optionally, the first digital characterization can be accompanied by a first digital signature. The signer optionally verifies the digital signature at the at least one subsequent time.

The present invention relates generally to detection of alteration of physical goods, and specifically to automated detection when objects or the like have been altered between inspections.
There are major shortcomings in the traditional brute force approach of continuously monitoring the security of physical entities throughout the various stages of packaging, distribution, and transportation at origination, at intermediate points and times, and at the destination. Because of the amount of inspection and accounting required, manual approaches for continuous monitoring can only be performed properly on a small subset of objects. Of the more than 200,000 vessels and 11.6 million shipping containers passing through U.S. ports during 2000, fewer than 1% were physically inspected.
Current shipping inspection technology is, if exhaustive, invasive and time consuming. For example, 15 person-hours are required to properly inspect an 18-wheel tractor-trailer. Less exhaustive inspections that randomly sample shipping containers allow the potential for unwanted and dangerous cargo to pass. Targeted inspection mechanisms, such as a trained dog detecting drugs or explosives, miss the bigger picture—a narcotic-detecting dog may not be trained to detect all forms of explosives.
Similar situations occur during luggage check-in at airports. Even with recent airport security increases, luggage inspection and passenger screening occurs at random, providing a very low level of security assurance. Current use of invasive physical inspection of luggage and passengers is time consuming, intrusive, and potentially dangerous to screening personnel and nearby passengers. The use of X-rays is error prone and labor intensive.
At the same time, detection of both intentional and accidental alterations to physical goods during packaging, distribution, and transportation has become an ever-increasing concern for a wide-range of entities. This problem is of particular importance when the situation involves potential hazard to human life.
There appear to be no "smart" systems that allow streamlined repeated stationary or en-route inspections. Most conventional inspection systems make only one inspection (at departure for luggage and passengers, at the border for shipping). Furthermore, it appears that no inspection systems provide knowledge, such as travel route of the shipment, that can be trusted.
There appears to be no accepted mechanism to provide authentication for remote, upstream, or lapsed-time inspections. All inspections must be repeated at each port and periodically at the same port, because there appears to be no common way to quickly check for changes since the last inspection. Also, there appear to be no common mechanisms to generate a digital representation or "fingerprint" of a shipping item or person's being, one that can be quickly re-verified during subsequent inspections, thus reducing time consumed for these inspections. Current systems, such as X-ray machines, official inspectors, visible inspections, intrusive physical inspections, and chemical detection units (dogs or machines), provide partial solutions to the problem of security. However, none of these, separately or in combination, can verify the integrity of a objects or physical entities such as goods, shipments, and the like in a timely and non-invasive manner, nor simultaneously meet the needs of such business domains as transportation, manufacturing, packaging, and distribution.
A system is needed that automates the traditional brute force approach of continuously monitoring the security of physical entities throughout the various stages of packaging, distribution, and transportation at origination, at intermediate points, and at the destination. A system is needed that could transfer the burden and the complexity of proving the integrity of a shipment to the origination point of the shipment, while maintaining overall physical security. Further, a system is needed that quickly and non-intrusively allows repeated physical inspection of objects.

System and method for detecting alteration of objects


An electric generator including: a main generator, including a rotating portion having main field windings; a stationary portion having generator armature windings; and a woven insulator at least partially enclosing the main field windings of the rotating portion, the woven insulator being included of strips or fibers of a material woven together, wherein the woven insulator is permeable to a coolant in a liquid form.

The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to electrical generators, and more specifically to a method and an apparatus for cooling electrical generators.
Electric generators are becoming more energy dense, and this is leading to thermal challenges. One of these challenges is to get a coolant to the hottest portions of the electric generator.

Fiber woven insulator for electric generator


The invention provides for simultaneous local area networking and analog telephony using a single telephone line. The local area networking is carried out using two or more high-frequency modems, which when coupled to devices, can transfer data on high-frequency signals. These high-frequency signals may be carried on the telephone line along with the lower frequency signals used for analog telephony provided there is proper isolation. Thus, the invention utilizes selectively high-frequency bandpass and audio frequency bandpass filters coupled to the telephone line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of communications systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to the networking of devices using phone lines.
2. Description of Related Art
The telephone lines that connect together and are wired into residences and businesses as a part of the telecommunications infrastructure (POTS--Plain Old Telephone System, PSTN--Public Switched Telephone Network) often come in one or more pairs, each pair consisting of two wires. Although most establishments have four wires, only two of those wires, known as "tip" and "ring" (collectively, "analog pair"), are utilized for voice and data communication. Voice and data communication carried over tip and ring utilize very low frequencies, typically below 3 KHz. When data is carried over the analog pair, a modem, which is typically a low-frequency device, is connected to a device such that the modem can convert binary information into low-frequency analog signals that can be transmitted over the analog pair.
On a single analog pair, currently there is no practice for simultaneously utilizing that pair for both voice (audio) and local area network (LAN) data communication, i.e., a person talking on the telephone line with a standard POTS telephone while a modem or other data device transmits information to other nodes (i.e., other modems) utilizing the same analog pair. The same pair cannot be used simultaneously for both voice and data on a traditional telephone line because the low-frequency signals which carry information originating from the modem or device would conflict and interfere with the voice and audio signals which travel over those same lines and at those same frequencies.
There is currently practice for utilizing the unused pairs in an establishment for performing networking or other data communication while analog pairs are being used for voice. The unused pairs do not substantially interfere with the voice communications ongoing on the active telephone line since the two lines are physically separate. However, this practice requires that the residence or other establishment have at least two pairs-one that is used for analog telephony, and one or more pairs dedicated to data communications. Some residences are only equipped with two pairs, one of which is required for voice telecommunications. In many instances, it is too cost prohibitive to install additional pairs that are devoted solely to data communications and networking. For example, to undertake 10 BaseT, CEBus.TM. (Consumer Electronics Bus, a trademark of the Electronics Industry Association), or Localtalk (a trademark of Apple Computer Corporation) communications, at least two additional pairs, which are quite expensive, are required. In those establishments which do have an additional pair, that pair is often used as a second phone line.
Another use of the existing analog pair for networking is ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), which uses high frequencies to communicate across the PSTN (i.e. to dial outside the local area) for connecting, for example, to the Internet. ADSL however, cannot be used for local area networking on one analog pair since it is point-to-point (i.e. requiring a central master which is located distant from the local loop). ADSL requires significant changes to POTS wiring and the PSTN infrastructure. Since ADSL attempts to transmit high frequency signals over a long distance, a large amount of power is required to overcome parasitic losses. For local area networking, therefore, ADSL is not impractical, but inapplicable.
Thus, there is needed a practice for utilizing a single analog pair to carry out both voice communications and local area networking simultaneously without the signals interfering with or interrupting each other.


A method for automatically ordering printer consumables which includes determining when a printer consumable is close to depletion and automatically ordering a replacement to the printer consumable based upon a plurality of criteria. The criteria includes the amount of consecutive time a consumer has been a member of a printer consumable subscription service and the number of printer consumables ordered by a consumer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printers, and more particularly to ordering print cartridges for printers.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems. Known printers are another example of an information handling system.
Printers often include consumables that become depleted with use and then need to be replaced. For example, laser printers typically include toner cartridges, both black and color, that have a limited print capacity. Also for example, ink jet printers typically include ink cartridges, both black and color, which have a limited print capacity. All these consumables need to be replaced with use, often more than once, during the life of the printer.
Many business and individuals need to print documents. In fact, the ability to print documents can be a critical requirement in many cases. Accordingly, printer owners place a high value on the functionality of their printers. Some businesses may own and operate a large number of printers. One challenge that can be encountered is ensuring that printers are available when needed. This involves ensuring that replacements to printer consumables are available when the printer consumable within the printer is depleted.
Some printer owners solve this problem by maintaining a local inventory of replacement printer consumables. To maintain the inventory, the printer owner may assign an employee with the task of ordering new printer consumables when needed. In addition, the business may assign an employee with the task of monitoring the printers to determine when consumables in the printer should be replaced and also to replace the consumables when needed. Unfortunately, this solution can be expensive and time consuming.
Additionally, some printer companies provide printers and printer consumables to customers via the mail and may not have a retail storefront presence. A consumer may ignore the automatic warning of "low ink" levels when generated. When the ink finally runs out, they can only order on-line and at best with next day delivery. With this type of supply chain, it becomes important to provide a printer customer with the forewarning of the need to replace a printer consumable before the consumable is depleted. If a customer waits until the printer consumable is already depleted, then the printer customer would be unable to use their printer until receiving a replacement consumable in the mail. The option of just running down to the store is not available.
It is known to provide coupons to encourage potential customers to purchase products. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,098 discloses electronic distribution and redemption of coupons via the Internet. U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,281 discloses a system for processing coupons which includes assembling multiple encoding and decoding of coupons. U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,519 discloses an electronically controller coupon redemption system.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an automatic print cartridge ordering system which alleviates the problem of running out of printer ink and the inability to access print cartridges locally.


A fryer basket having at least one bottom wall or panel that is normally retained in a closed relationship relative to side walls of the basket but which is released to pivot to an open position upon operation of a latching mechanism that is operable adjacent to a handgrip of a handle connected to the basket.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fryer baskets and more particularly to heavy duty or commercial long handle fryer baskets that are used to support food items being cooked by being immersed in cooking oil within a fryer.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Commercial fryer baskets, also known as deep fat fryer baskets, include an open mesh-like structure that forms a receiver or container for retaining a food product to be cooked by being immersed in a fryer vat or tub. The receiver or container is welded or otherwise secured to an elongated handle that is designed to extend outwardly beyond the fryer vat or tub so that the handle may be safely grasped without a person having to extend their hands above hot oil within the fryer vat or tub.
In use, a conventional fryer basket is initially filled with a food product such as french fries, coated onion rings, chicken, and the like, after which the basket is lowered into a vat or tub of heated cooking oil until seated such that the handle thereof extends outwardly from the fryer vat or tub. After the food product is cooked, a worker responsible for the fried product engages the handle of the basket and elevates the basket from the vat of cooking oil. The basket must normally be retained above the vat of cooking oil for a brief period so that oil from the basket and the food product may drip back into the vat. Once the food product is sufficiently drained, the food product must be removed from the fryer basket. The food product is removed by the worker turning the basket upside down over a food retention bin or area so that the food product is discharged by gravity from an open top of the fryer basket.
The weight of long handle fryer baskets can very greatly from less than a pound to several pounds, or more, depending on the size of the basket and the food product being cooked. Further, because the weight of the basket and food product is at the end of the handle spaced from a workers hand(s) and wrist(s), the amount of stress being placed on the workers hand(s) and wrist(s) is considerable. Considering the number of times it may be necessary for a worker to rotate loaded fryer baskets to discharge food products during a given work shift, it is not unusual for workers to develop or experience hand, wrist and forearm pain from fatigued and strained muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints. Once a worker develops an injury, the chance of an accident occurring during the handling and manipulating of loaded fryer baskets is significantly increased.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need to provide a new type of long handle fryer basket that prevents muscle, ligament, tendon and joint strain and injury.


A method for the synthesis of cyclobuta aromatic compounds by cyclizing two ortho dibromoalkyl substituents is described. Using a mediator, such as nickel metal, and continuous removal of product from contact with the mediator, high product yields are achieved. A method for bromination of ortho alkyl substituents of aromatic compounds is also described.

Polyacenes are polymers predicted to show industrially important properties including non-linear optics and high-temperature superconductivity, see references 1. Unfortunately, confirmation of the predicted properties has not yet been performed due to the lack of an efficient method to prepare polyacenes.
Cyclobutabenzenes, especially the 7,8-dibromo derivatives 2 (depicted in scheme 1), are valuable synthons for functionalized ortho-quiodimethanes that can be trapped by Diels-Alder reactions. The product of such a reaction is a tetrahydronaphtalene 4 derivative having two cis bromine atoms in the 1 and 4 positions. If the dienophile has two cis hydrogen atoms, and since the Diels-Alder addition is completely endo, these hydrogen atoms end the reaction antiperiplanar to the bromine atoms. Such an orientation facilitates elimination of two HBr molecules to form the corresponding naphtalenic system 6 as described in reference 2 and depicted in scheme 1:

Reference 4 discloses the Diels-Alder condensation of 7,8,9,10-tetrabromo-[1,2][4,5] bicyclobutabenzene 16 with tetracyanoethylene 18, scheme 2:

Reference 4 further discloses the Diels-Alder condensation of two equivalents of 7,8-dibromo cyclobutabenzene 2 with one equivalent of 1,4-benzoquinone 12 to form the bis-adduct that eliminates four equivalents of HBr to form the pentacyclic quinone 14, scheme 3:

Thus, it is expected that of 7,8,9,10-tetrabromo-[1,2][4,5] bicyclobutabenzene 16 can react with benzoquinone 12, in analogy to schemes 2 and 3, to form polyquinone 20, scheme 4:

As further seen in scheme 4, subsequent reduction of polyquinone 20 is expected to yield polyacene 22.
As the use of non-brominated bicyclobutabenzene would result in two saturated centers between the aromatic and quinone moieties, deconjugating the polyacene 20, to synthesize polyquinone 20 it is necessary to use the brominated bicyclobutabenzene, compound 16 or any of the four all-trans tetrabromo isomers thereof. For the Diels-Alder condensation to take place, two bromine atoms on a cyclobutane ring must be in a trans orientation.
A number of methods for synthesizing compound 16 or any of the four all-trans bromo isomers thereof have been disclosed. Reference 5 discloses a synthesis of compound 16 using iodide-mediated ring closure and reports a 2% yield. Reference 4 describes a synthesis of compound 16 using stochiometric amounts of (Bu3P)2Ni(COD) and reports a 10% yield.
The bottleneck of the above-proposed route of synthesizing polyacenes such as 22 is the preparation of compounds such as 16. The known methods of synthesizing compound such as 16 suffer from low yields.
It would be highly advantageous to have a high-yield synthesis for (trans dibromocyclobuta) aromatic compounds such as 16.

Synthesis of (dibromocyclobuta) aromatic compounds

Technion Research and Development Foundation


A misfire-detecting system for an internal combustion engine detects values of operating parameters of the engine, determines ignition timing of the engine, based upon detected values of operating parameters of the engine to generate an ignition command signal indicative of the determined ignition timing, generates high voltage for causing generation of sparking voltage across a spark plug for discharging the spark plug, according to the ignition command signal, detects a value of the sparking voltage generated across the spark plug when the high voltage is generated, compares the detected value of the sparking voltage with a predetermined reference value, and determines whether or not a misfire has occurred in the engine, based upon results of the comparison. It is determined that the system is abnormal, when it is determined that no misfire has occurred while fuel supply to the engine is being interrupted.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a misfire-detecting system for internal combustion engines, and more particularly to a misfire-detecting system of this kind, which is adapted to detect a misfire attributable to the fuel supply system.
2. Prior Art
An internal combustion engine has spark plugs provided for cylinders for igniting a mixture of fuel and air drawn into the respective cylinders. In general, high voltage (sparking voltage) generated by the ignition coil of the engine is sequentially distributed to the spark plugs of the cylinders of the engine via a distributor, to ignite the air-fuel mixture. If normal ignition does not take place at one or more of the spark plugs, i.e. a misfire occurs, it will result in various inconveniences such as degraded driveability and increased fuel consumption. Furthermore, it can also result in so-called after-burning of unburnt fuel gas in the exhaust system of the engine, causing an increase in the temperature of a catalyst of an exhaust gas-purifying device arranged in the exhaust system. Therefore, it is essential to prevent occurrence of a misfire. Misfires are largely classified into ones attributable to the fuel supply system and ones attributable to the ignition system. Misfires attributable to the fuel supply system are caused by the supply of a lean mixture or a rich mixture to the engine, while misfires attributable to the ignition system are caused by failure to spark (so-called mis-sparking), i.e. normal spark discharge does not take place at the spark plug, due to smoking or wetting of the spark plug with fuel, particularly adhesion of carbon in the fuel to the spark plug, which causes current leakage between the electrodes of the spark plug, or abnormality in the ignition system.
The present assignee has already proposed a misfire-detecting system for detecting misfires attributable to the fuel supply system, which comprises sparking voltage detecting means, and misfire-determining means which determines occurrence of a misfire based on results of comparison between the detected value of the sparking voltage and a predetermined reference value (Japanese Provisional Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-279768), and further a misfire-determining system of this kind which comprises sparking voltage-detecting means, and misfire-determining means which determines that a misfire has occurred when a time period (hereinafter referred to as "high voltage time period") over which the detected value of the sparking voltage exceeds a predetermined voltage value or a value proportional to an area (hereinafter referred to as "high voltage area") of a portion of the detected sparking voltage exceeding the predetermined voltage value exceeds a reference value (U.S. Ser. No. 07/846,238 filed Mar. 5, 1992 based on Japanese Patent Application No. 3-67940).
However, according to the above proposed systems, if there exists a portion of the secondary side of the igniting circuit which is low in insulation, the sparking voltage does not rise to a level required for causing dielectric breakdown between the electrodes of the spark plug. As a result, there occurs almost no difference in the sparking voltage, the high voltage time period, or the high voltage area, between when a misfire occurs and when normal firing occurs, which prevents an accurate determination of occurrence of a misfire.
Further, the present assignee has proposed a misfire-detecting system in which a diode is incorporated in the secondary side of the igniting circuit, which serves to prolong the high voltage time period at a misfire to thereby achieve more accurate misfire determination, e.g. by U.S. Ser. No. 07/846,309 filed Mar. 5, 1992. According to this proposed system, however, if the diode is short-circuited, the system can only exhibit the same degree of misfire-detecting accuracy as a system not employing such an diode.
Further, if the spark plug smolders, it is also impossible to achieve an accurate misfire determination based on the high voltage time period, etc.

Misfire-detecting system for internal combustion engines


Provided is a method of generating a model, the method including generating a first model representing a change in the location or the shape of the region of interest during the respiration cycle, using diagnostic images that are obtained at two points of time in the respiration cycle and that represent the region of interest; extracting shape information of one or more tissues included in the region of interest at a shape information extractor, using a 3D ultrasound image that is obtained at one point of time in the respiration cycle; determining a characteristic point of the 3D ultrasound image corresponding to a characteristic point of the first model by matching the first model with the extracted shape information; and generating a second model by updating the first model with the determined characteristic point.

1. Field
The following description relates to methods and apparatuses for generating a model representing deformation of a shape and a location of an organ in a respiration cycle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment is an operation technique to remove and treat a tumor by radiating HIFU to a tumor part (focus) to be treated and causing focal destruction or necrosis of tumor tissue.
Removing a lesion by using the HIFU is a widely used treatment techniques because it is possible to treat a human body without directly cutting into it. When the HIFU is radiated to the lesion from outside of the human body, a location of the lesion changes due to movement of the human body. For example, if a patient respires during therapy, the location of the lesion changes depending on respiration. Thus, a location (focus) to which the HIFU is radiated should also change. A method of tracking the location of the lesion that is changed by the movement of the human body and radiating the HIFU has been studied.
The location of an organ changes depending on respiration and thus a shape of the organ also changes, i.e., there is a close relation between the respiration and changes in the location and shape of the organ. In addition, since the respiration changes periodically, it is possible to estimate current locations of the organ and the lesion by using respiration signals of a patient if locations of the organ and the lesion depending on the respiration of the patient are known before therapy.
However, diagnostic images, such as, for example magnetic resonance (MR) or computed tomography (CT) images are captured at the full expiration (FE) and at the full inspiration (FI) of the patient to obtain changes in the location and shape of the organ depending on a change in the respiration of the patient. In this case, there are some cases where diagnostic images, such as, for example the desired MR or CT images are not obtained because the patient fails to temporarily stop respiration or a proper time period in which a contrast medium stays in a blood vessel cannot be calculated.

Method and apparatus for representing changes in shape and location of organ in respiration cycle