An image exposure method using a display panel, for exposing an image onto a photosensitive material by dividing the image into pixels which are arranged in a matrix pattern on the display panel and by adjusting amounts by which light is transmitted through or reflected at the pixels or an amount of emitted light. The method steps include: determining to effect exposure processing a plurality of times when a defective pixel whose amount of transmitted light, reflected light or emitted light cannot be adjusted, exists on the display panel; and effecting exposure processing a plurality of times, wherein the exposure processing of a plurality of times includes exposure with a relative position of a group of pixels arranged in a matrix pattern on the display panel and split images corresponding to the pixels being displaced, and an amount of exposure for each time of exposure processing is an amount given by dividing an overall amount of exposure in accordance with the number of times of displacement. Accordingly, it is no possibility that a specified image depends upon the defective pixel completely, and exposure-dependent ratios can be respectively distributed to the plurality of images.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image exposure method using a display panel, for exposing an image onto a photosensitive material by dividing the image into pixels which are arranged in a matrix pattern on the display panel and by adjusting amounts by which light is transmitted through or reflected at the pixels or an amount of emitted light.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed an image exposure method in which an image is formed by adjusting respective amounts by which light is transmitted through a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix pattern on a liquid crystal display panel, and the light transmitted through the liquid crystal display panel is illuminated onto a photosensitive material (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 3-41868 and 4-323640).
In JP-A No. 3-41868, a system is disclosed in which a recording means allowing relative movement of a liquid crystal shutter and a photosensitive material respectively in the longitudinal direction and the transverse direction, and an image reading means are provided. Further, in JP-A No. 4-323640, a liquid crystal printer is disclosed in which an image is exposed with a liquid crystal display panel being two-dimensionally moved in a stepwise manner on the unit of (2n+1)P/2 with respect to a pitch P of pixels exposed onto the photosensitive material.
In this way, an original image is converted into a digital image by using a liquid crystal display function for display of the original image. For this reason, recording and processing of the image becomes easy.
On the other hand, the resolution of the image depends upon the number of pixels. In the above-described JP-A No. 4-323640, one image divided into subdivisions is exposed with pixels being two-dimensionally displaced by one and a half pitch, thereby making it possible to obtain twice the resolution by a rough calculation.
In this case, when a part of the pixels is defective, there is a possibility that the amount by which light is transmitted through the pixels cannot be controlled to be a desired value and may be different from the amount of light obtained from the density of an original image. Particularly, such defective pixels have so-called black point defects in which they are fixed in a state in which light is not transmitted through the image in the least or so-called white point defects in which they are fixed in a state in which light is transmitted through the image in a completely clear state.
As a result, a point having the density which is different from that of its periphery is revealed in part of the image. Particularly, in a case in which a pixel having a white point defect exists in an image, whose color is close to white, on the photosensitive material, or a pixel having a black point defect exists in an image, whose color is closed to black, such defective pixels become remarkable, thereby resulting in deterioration in quality of the image.
In addition to the above-described prior arts, there have been proposed, as the related art of the present invention, a liquid crystal display (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 5-134268) having a fourth liquid crystal display panel for reproducing an image of spectrum or the spectrum of any one of three primary colors; an image display device (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 5-313118) having at least one electro-optic modulating element for correcting defects, only one of light outputs of the electro-optic modulating element and an original electro-optic element for display of an image being introduced in a projection optical system; and the like.
In view of the above-described circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image exposure method using a display panel, which, when a defective pixel whose density (an amount of transmitted light or reflected light, or an amount of emitted light) cannot be adjusted exists and its position can be specified, the defective pixel is corrected by using the density (an amount of transmitted light or reflected light, or an amount of emitted light) of pixels around the defective pixel and an abnormal density condition in the shape of dots on the photosensitive material, which is caused by the defective pixel, is made unmarked accordingly, so as to prevent deterioration in quality of an image.

Image exposure method using display panel


A prosthetic heart valve (10) (e.g., a prosthetic aortic valve) is designed to be somewhat circumferentially collapsible and then re-expandable. The collapsed condition may be used for less invasive delivery of the valve into a patient. When the valve reaches the implant site in the patient, it re-expands to normal operating size, and also to engage surrounding tissue of the patient. The valve includes a stent portion (200) and a ring portion (100) that is substantially concentric with the stent portion but downstream from the stent portion in the direction of blood flow through the implanted valve. When the valve is implanted, the stent portion engages the patient's tissue at or near the native valve annulus, while the ring portion engages tissue downstream from the native valve site (e.g., the aorta).

This invention relates to prosthetic heart valves. For the most part, the invention will be illustratively described in the context of a prosthetic aortic valve that can be temporarily collapsed during a portion of the implantation procedure, and that can be subsequently expanded to its full size at the implantation site. The invention is not necessarily limited to this particular type of use, however, and it will be appreciated that various aspects of the invention can be used in other ways and/or in other contexts.
Many people with severe aortic stenosis go untreated because they are not considered to be suitable candidates for aortic valve replacement using the known prostheses and procedures (e.g., open-chest, open-heart surgery). In an attempt to provide ways of treating these patients, collapsible prosthetic valves have been developed for insertion within stenotic aortic valve leaflets in less invasive ways. For example, such less invasive delivery of the prosthetic valve may be via catheter-like, trocar-like, or laparoscopic-type instrumentation. The delivery may be percutaneous (e.g., via vessels of the patient's circulatory system that lead to the aortic valve), or it may be through the wall of the heart (e.g., through the apex of the left ventricle of the heart (i.e., transapically)), etc. It is believed, however, that current designs for prosthetic valves that are to be delivered in ways such as these are in need of improvement with respect to aspects such as (1) long-term durability, (2) the possibility of undesirable impingement on the adjacent mitral valve, (3) paravalvular leakage, etc.


An image recording apparatus having a plurality of sensors for performing a detection with respect to a recording medium is provided, with which it is made possible for each of the plurality of sensors to detect the state of the recording medium at a desired position of the recording medium even in a case where the width of the recording medium being used has been modified. The image recording apparatus includes a conveyance part configured to convey the recording medium, a first sensor configured to perform a detection with respect to the recording medium, a second sensor configured to perform a detection with respect to the recording medium, and a positional relationship regulation part configured to regulate a positional relationship between the first sensor and the second sensor. The first sensor and the second sensor are movable in conjunction with one another by moving the positional relationship regulation part.

Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to an image recording apparatus provided with a plurality of sensors for detecting a recording medium.
Related Art
Image recording apparatuses (a label printer and a printer) for conveying a recording medium configured so as to be continuous in a direction of conveyance by joining different recording media together, and recording an image onto the recording medium are conventionally known in the art (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2001-239715 (Patent Document 1) and 2003-039683 (Patent Document 2), for example). Some such image recording apparatuses have sensors for detecting the state of the recording medium. For example, the image recording apparatuses disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 are equipped with seam sensors for detecting a seam of the recording medium, in order to control the image recording in accordance with the position of the seam of the recording medium.

Recording medium detection device and image recording apparatus


Provided are a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device can provide a trench MOS transistor having an up-drain structure. The semiconductor device can include a first conductive type well in a semiconductor substrate, a second conductive type well on the first conductive type well, trenches formed by removing portions of the second conductive type well and the first conductive type well; gates provided in the trenches with a gate dielectric being between each gate and the walls of the trench, a first conductive type source region and a second conductive type body region on the second conductive type well, the first conductive type source region surrounding a lateral surface of the gate, and a common drain between the gates, the common drain being connected to the first conductive type well.

A trench-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (Trench MOS) transistor can be used as a power transistor.
The power trench MOS transistor distinctly differs from a typical MOS transistor in that a channel of the power trench MOS transistor is formed in a vertical direction, not a horizontal direction.
The power trench MOS transistor includes a vertical channel and a drain formed in a backside of a wafer as an output region.
The power trench MOS transistor is suitable for high-current and high-voltage operation using a small area. To apply a high voltage to the power trench MOS transistor, a lightly doped drain region (a drift region) is formed to a sufficiently large length.
Since electrons move vertically in the power trench MOS transistor, the lightly doped drain region (the drift region) can be vertically formed to increase a withstand voltage without increasing the area of a chip by adjusting a vertical doping profile. Therefore, high withstand-voltage and high-current operation can be possible using a small area.
Since the power trench MOS transistor is typically fabricated using a single layer silicon substrate, the power trench MOS transistor is suitable for a single product. However, the structure of the above described power trench MOS transistor does not easily provide a power trench MOS transistor on the same chip as a MOS transistor.

Semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same


In a heating and ventilating apparatus for the cabin of an automotive vehicle with a facility for supplying air at different temperatures to the driver and the front passenger at the level of the fascia and at the level of their feet, means are provided to ensure that air used for other purposes shall, where necessary, be at a uniform temperature. The apparatus comprises a housing having a fresh air inlet duct and at least three outlet ducts for fresh or heated air. The housing has a central bulkhead which divides the housing into two separate halves, each containing a separate regulating means for regulating the temperature delivered from that half of the housing into the cabin of the vehicle. The de-icing outlet duct and/or the central fascia ventilating air outlet duct are provided with a mixer for ensuring that the temperature delivered through the corresponding outlet duct is uniform.

An apparatus of this type is already known that has a housing which contains a fresh air inlet duct and at least three air outlet ducts for fresh or heated air. The outlet ducts serve respectively for air which is used for de-icing the windshield, for ventilating the cabin at the level of the fascia (this being the central or main air supply or ventilating outlet), and for delivering warm air to the lower part of the cabin, e.g. for foot warming purposes. The housing has a central bulkhead which divides the housing into two separate halves, each of which contains a separate regulating means for regulating the air temperature in that half of the housing. The central bulkhead extends at least partly into each of the outlet ducts, so that air at different temperatures from the two halves of the housing can be delivered respectively to the two front seats in the cabin, i.e. the right hand side and the left hand side of the front part of the cabin.
The de-icing outlet duct feeds at least one de-icing vent, and typically two de-icing vents, which are arranged respectively on the right and left hand sides of the windshield. The main air supply outlet duct feeds at least two outlet vents in the fascia, typically one on the right, one on the left, and a third one in the middle of the fascia. Finally the warm air or foot warming outlet duct feeds two vents which are arranged in the lower part of the cabin, one near the feet of the driver and one near the feet of the front passenger.
With that arrangement, the two occupants of the front seats, i.e. the driver and the front passenger, are each able to regulate individually the temperature of the air delivered into the cabin on their own side of the latter. This leads to improved comfort, while the air is distributed in identical ways in the two halves of the housing of the apparatus.
However, this known arrangement does involve drawbacks under certain circumstances in use. In particular, there is a problem when the occupants of the two front seats want very different air temperatures from each other. For example, if the driver wants air at a moderate temperature and the front passenger wants much hotter air, then the result will be that air delivered behind the windshield will be much hotter on the passenger's side than on the driver's side. This can lead to difficulties in ensuring proper de-icing and/or de-misting of the windshield on the driver's side, which in turn can be prejudicial to the driver's visibility through the windshield. This can be prejudicial to safety.
In the same example, the air delivered through the fascia vents will be hotter on the passenger's side than on the driver's side. This difference will manifest itself essentially at the level of the central fascia vent. Then, given a distribution configuration of the "bi-level" kind (with temperature stratification, in which the air delivered at the fascia vents is required to be cooler than that delivered into the lower part of the cabin), what happens is that air emitted from the central fascia vent emerges in the form of two layers, namely a cold upper layer and a hot lower layer. This is most uncomfortable to the occupants of the vehicle.
It is therefore desirable, at least under certain circumstances, to be able to deliver air towards the windshield and/or towards the fascia vents at a homogeneous temperature, while at the same time retaining the facility for having different air temperatures in the lower part of the cabin in the vicinity of the driver's feet and of the passenger's feet respectively. At the same time it is desirable to preserve the facility for delivering air at different temperatures as between the right and left hand sides of the fascia.

Zone controlled automobile air conditioning system with air mixers at selected outlets


An illumination apparatus includes a first light-emitting device, a second light-emitting device, and a third light-emitting device. The light emitted from the third light-emitting device is selectively mixed with the light emitted from the first light-emitting device or the second light-emitting device to form a white light having a chromaticity coordinate point substantially located on a Black Body Locus. A color of the light emitted from the third light-emitting device is determined by linear relationships between chromaticity coordinate points corresponding to wavelengths of the lights emitted form the first light-emitting device and the second light-emitting device and corresponding to a color temperature of the white light. A method for generating a white light is also disclosed herein.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an illumination apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to an illumination apparatus with variable color temperature.
2. Description of Related Art
With the advance of technology, demands of illumination for users increase daily, and requirements of illumination quality for users gradually increase as well. Recently, traditional light sources have been replaced by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) gradually because the LEDs have advantages such as better light-emitting efficiency, long lifetime, high reliability, small volume, etc., compared to the traditional light sources, and thus the LEDs are widely applicable.
For a present illumination apparatus which is capable of generating white light, an operation of light mixture is performed with a device for generating warm white light and a device for generating cold white light such that the illumination apparatus can emit corresponding white light according to different configurations.
However, in the aforementioned operation, a chromaticity coordinate point on a CIE chromaticity diagram, which represents the white light formed by light mixture, usually cannot be accurately located on a Black Body Locus (BBL) such that the color of the white light formed according to the aforementioned operation has an apparent deviation.
Furthermore, when the illumination apparatus emits corresponding white light according to different configurations, the light-emitting devices therein must be controlled to be fully bright or fully dark, and thus the aforementioned operation of light mixture cannot be performed flexibly and the color of the white light formed by the operation of light mixture will be non-uniform.
Moreover, in order to place the devices which generate the warm white light and the cold white light in a same lamp for convenience of the operation of light mixture, a large number of LEDs have to be disposed in the same lamp based on the aforementioned operation, thereby causing an increase of the production cost and further resulting in an expensive price of the illumination apparatus, and even the size of the illumination apparatus itself cannot be significantly reduced.

Illumination apparatus and method for generating white light


A system and method is provided having a flash analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that includes an input signal buffer, a plurality of identical voltage comparators, and a reference generator. A clock signal defines the time instances at which the instantaneous input signal voltage is compared against a plurality of reference voltages generated by the reference generator. The individual comparator consists of a an integrating amplifier stage followed by an analog latching stage and a digital latch. The integrating amplifier input is allowed to track the input signal continuously. The amplifier output voltage is forced to a voltage close to zero before each conversion cycle is initiated by the ADC clock. At the beginning of the conversion cycle, the amplifier output is released and its voltage will follow an excursion related to the integral of the input of the amplifier. At a predefined time moment later, the analog latch is activated. When activated, the analog latch performs a binary decision that exclusively depends on the sign of the amplifier output voltage at the moment of the an analog latch is activation. The analog latch output may be synchronized with the ADC clock with a digital latch. After a latch period, the amplifier and latch may be reset to zero and the comparator is ready to perform another comparison. In this manner, the analog signal is sampled by use of a sliced integration technique which corresponds to an integral of individual slices of the analog input.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to comparators, and more particularly to comparators for flash analog to digital converters utilized in data storage systems such as, for example, magnetic disk storage systems having read/write channel circuits.
2. Description of Related Art
In data storage systems data is stored on a storage media such as a CD-ROM, writable CD, DVD or other optical disk, magnetic tape, magnetic hard disk, etc. Typically, when data is read from the storage media, some form of data detection circuitry is utilized to process the signal generated from the storage media. In magnetic disk storage systems for computers, such as hard drives, digital data serves to modulate the current in a read/write head coil so that a sequence of corresponding magnetic flux transitions are written on a magnetic medium in concentric tracks. To read this recorded data, the read/write head passes over the magnetic medium and transduces the recorded magnetic transmissions into a signal of an analog nature that contains pulses that alternate in polarity. These pulses are then decoded by read/write channel circuitry to reproduce the digital data.
Decoding the pulses into a digital sequence can be performed by a simple peak detector in an analog read channel or, as in more recent designs, by using a discrete time sequence detector in a sampled amplitude read channel. Discrete time sequence detectors are preferred over simple analog pulse detectors because they compensate for intersymbol interferences (ISI) and, therefore, can recover pulses recorded at high densities. As a result, discrete time sequence detectors increase the capacity and reliability of the storage system.
There are several well known discrete time sequence detection methods for use in a sampled amplitude read/write channel circuit including discrete time pulse detection (DPD), partial response (PR) with Viterbi detection, partial response maximum likelihood (PRML) sequence detection, decision-feedback equalization (DFE), enhanced decision-feedback equalization (EDFE), and fixed-delay tree-search with decision-feedback (FDTS/DF). When discrete methods are utilized for sampled amplitude read channel systems, an analog to digital converter (ADC) is typically utilized to convert the high frequency data which is contained on disk.
One type of ADC which may be utilized to convert high frequency disk data is a flash ADC. Such an ADC may contain multiple comparators for conversion of the analog data to digital data. The comparators typically utilize amplifier circuits of some form. In general, a comparator may be a circuit that has two analog inputs, one digital output and one clock input such as shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the comparator circuit 10 compares an input voltage (V1) 12 to a second input voltage (V2) 14 at an instance defined by a transition of the clock signal 16. The comparator output 18 is a binary signal which will be HIGH if the input voltage V1 is larger than the input voltage V2 at the clock transition time instance, or LOW if V1 is smaller than V2. Within this behavioral definition, the input voltage V1 is said to be connected at the non-inverting input, while the input voltage V2 is said to be connected at the inverting input of the comparator.
A large number of such comparators, interconnected as depicted in FIG. 1A, can perform an analog to digital conversion function. FIG. 1A depicts a typical flash analog to digital converter. The converter input signal (Vin) 27 is simultaneously applied at the non-inverting inputs of an arbitrary number of identical comparators 10. The inverting inputs are connected separately to a set of N different reference voltage sources 22 as shown in FIG. 1A. The set of N reference voltage sources 22 may generate N equally spaced reference voltages (Vref) with the lowest voltage level being the least significant bit (LSB) size of the ADC. Since the outputs of the comparators are digital signals, the comparison operation performs an analog to digital conversion. The ADC digital output 25 may be the N-bit thermometer code digital representation of the input signal 27.
A typical implementation of the comparator 10 is shown in FIG. 1B. The ADC input (Vin) 27 may first be provided to a track/hold circuit 32. The track/hold circuit 32 is clocked by the ADC clock signal 16. The track/hold circuit may be conceptually viewed as a switch and capacitor as shown in FIG. 1B. The ADC clock signal 16 effectively defines the time instances at which the comparison between the input signal (Vin) 27 and the reference voltage (Vref) 22 takes place. The output voltage of the track/hold circuit will remain constant for the entire time the ADC clock stays HIGH and the comparison operation may entirely take place within this time. The comparator 10 may also contains a number of high gain amplifier stages 34. The gain amplifier stages 34 essentially amplify the difference between Vin and Vref voltages to a level that is compatible to the digital logic circuitry input requirements. It may also be customary to resynchronize the digital output of the comparator with the ADC clock 16 by means of a clocked digital latch 36. The comparator 10 of FIG. 1B has several disadvantages which relate to the use of the track/hold circuit 32. The accuracy of the comparison operation is highly dependent on the how constant the track/hold output is during sample time and any other errors introduced by the track/hold circuit. Further, the maximum comparison time needs to generally be shorter than the hold time since the hold time cannot be larger than half of the clock cycle due to the finite amount of time that the sample operation requires. This results in comparison speed constraints on the design of the subsequent stages of the comparator. In addition, because the track/hold circuit is located at the front-end of the comparator, the accuracy of the comparator as a whole is greatly affected by the track/hold circuit accuracy.
Another comparator circuit design may utilize the circuit of FIG. 1B without the track/hold circuit. With such an approach, the first gain stage may be implemented as a differential pair with resistive loads. Such a comparator, however, suffers from large accuracy problems since generally the output of the first gain stage may be overdriven to the power supply rail and the recovery from the overdrive will follow very different trajectories depending on the rate at which the input voltage swings.
FIG. 1C shows another flash ADC comparator where a track/hold circuit was implemented. In FIG. 1C the track/hold implementation utilized a storage capacitor C1 in conjunction with an auto-zero switch 50. A switch 40 is controlled by the SIG signal such that when SIG is high the switch 40 connects the input signal V.sub.in to the capacitor C1. When the SIG signal is low, the switch 40 connects the reference voltage source V.sub.ref to the capacitor C1. The auto-zero switch 50 closes a negative feed-back loop around the amplifier 60 when the AZ signal is high. This feedback loop holds both the input V.sub.a and the output V.sub.o1 of the amplifier 60 at a zero voltage during the auto-zero cycle. The output of the amplifier 60 is resampled by the switch 62 controlled by the signal SHO, in conjunction with the storage capacitor C2. The resampled voltage is applied at the input of the analog latch 70. The analog latch 70 can be reset by the switch 80 controlled by the LATCHB signal such that the switch is closed when LATCHB is high.
The operation of the comparator of FIG. 1C will be explained in more detail with additional reference to FIG. 1D. At the beginning of each comparison, the AZ signal is high and switch 50 is closed keeping the top plate of the capacitor C1 at zero volts. At the same time the SIG signal is high and the V.sub.in input signal is applied to the capacitor 2. This means that the voltage across the capacitor C1 (V.sub.cap) will track the input voltage (see the T.sub.track times of FIG. 1D). At the end of the track time T.sub.track, the AZ signal goes low, rapidly succeeded by the SIG signal going low. This will freeze the voltage V.sub.cap across the capacitor C2 (as indicated by points 90 on the V.sub.cap graph) for the entire period the auto-zero switch 50 is opened (i.e. AZ is low). When the SIG signal goes low, the reference voltage V.sub.ref is applied to the capacitor C1. Obviously, if the voltage V.sub.in stored on the capacitor C1 is equal to V.sub.ref, than the voltage V.sub.a at the input of the amplifier 60 will remain zero. Otherwise, the voltage V.sub.a will be the difference between the voltage V.sub.in (i.e. the sample of the input when the AZ signal went low) and the reference voltage V.sub.ref. The amplifier 60 will amplify this constant difference by integrating over a finite amount of time, T.sub.hold as shown by the amplifier output V.sub.o1. The integration end point when the hold time has elapsed is point 92 on the V.sub.o1 graph. The latching of the amplifier output needs to be done simultaneously with the acquisition of a new sample. This is the reason for the second track/hold circuit which will store the voltage of V.sub.o1 at points 92 and apply it to the input of the analog latch for the entire duration of the track time. The analog latch will quickly take a decision that is exclusively depending on the polarity of V.sub.o1 at the instance the SHO signal goes low (i.e. switch 62 closed).
The comparator of FIGS. 1C and 1D has a number of limitations. First, the comparator utilizes a track/hold action and therefore capacitor C1 needs to be able to be quickly charged to V.sub.in within a track cycle. To accomplish this a small capacitance such as approximately 25 fF may be utilized. However, such a small capacitor does not hold the voltage for long periods of time. Thus, the information of the capacitor C2 must be refreshed often, for example every ADC clock cycle. Because the comparator stores the sampled V.sub.in input and compares it against the reference voltage, the reference voltage generator design must be made to settle switching transients every conversion cycle. Further, a long reset time is needed (the AZ signal low) which is approximately equal to one-half the ADC cycle. Finally, the comparator operates in a two staged pipe-line mode which introduces latency into the system.

Method and system for sliced integration of flash analog to digital converters in read channel circuits


An aerosol valve actuator with a top portion rotatable on a bottom portion. The entire top portion in one rotatable position is depressible vertically to actuate the valve. A click post and clicking rib provide a single click in each direction of rotation. Flanges on top and bottom portions interact to stop rotation as soon as each click occurs. Plastic springs interact with spring biasing members only when the top portion is in actuating position, and assure return of the actuator top portion to full upward position for rotation after actuation of even a short-stemmed valve. Downwardly extending flexible connecting flanges connect the actuator top and bottom portions. The top portion has a lower periphery with a plurality of upwardly extending indentations to overlie lateral ribs in the lower portion in actuation position. The top and bottom portions have interfitting cylinders to stabilize the top portion and maintain verticality.

Prior art locking aerosol dispensers have existed for years and have had many different structural designs of interrelating parts. Some of these designs are overly complex to mold, while others require more force than desirable for the user to operate between the inoperative and operative positions.
Still other designs in the unlocked position may not, following valve actuation, adequately return the top portion of the actuator upwardly to its rotatable position when used with aerosol valves having shorter stem heights due to normal variations in stem heights, etc. Such designs when used with shorter stem heights may also result in rattling between the top and bottom actuator portions to imply a flimsiness to the consumer.
Additional designs are not sufficiently robust and are vulnerable to damage to their parts and operation due to excessive top loads from misuse, handling, shipping, etc.
Locking actuators also often incorporate clicking mechanisms of various forms to advise the consumer regarding whether the actuator has been rotated to its locked or unlocked position. Such mechanisms, however, are often overly complex and may provide multiple clicks with multiple clicking mechanisms when rotating between such positions, so that the consumer may be confused as to the status and operation of the actuator. Such mechanisms may also involve a considerable angular rotation of the actuator parts, which may further confuse the consumer.


A communications controller includes a physical interface and an internal transmit and receive circuit. The physical interface has a port for connection to a communication medium, an input, and an output, and operates to receive a first sequence of data bits from the input and to transmit the first sequence of data bits to the port, and to receive a second sequence of data bits from the port and to conduct said second sequence of data bits to the output. The internal transmit and receive circuit is coupled to the physical interface, and has an internal architecture to conduct a first plurality of symbols at a first rate in a low frequency mode and a second plurality of symbols at a second rate in a low latency mode, wherein the first plurality is greater in number than the second plurality, and the second rate is higher than the first rate.

Various communications protocols support a physical interface connected to a communication medium, and operate according to a protocol. For example, the PCI Express (PCIE) standard describes certain protocols for such communications. The PCIE standard is an extension of the PCI standard that uses existing PCI programming concepts. According to the PCIE standard, packets are transferred between various PCIE compatible requesters and completers of a PCIE compatible system. As is known, the PCIE standard describes a link as the collection of two ports and their interconnecting lanes and the link is a dual-simplex communications path between two components. The PCIE standard further describes a lane as a set of differential signal pairs, one pair for transmission and one pair for reception, where a by-N link is composed of N lanes. For example, a by-16 link operating at a 2.5 Giga transfers per second (GT/s) data rate represents an aggregate raw bandwidth of 40 Gigabits/second in each direction. The PCIE standard describes operations for by-1, by-2, by-4, by-8, by-12, by-16, and by-32 links.
The PCIE standard describes a symbol as a 10-bit quantity using 8 bit (b)/10b encoding (8 bits encoded as 10 bits), and an 8-bit quantity using 128b/130b encoding (2 bits of Sync Header and 128 bits of payload). The PCIE standard also describes the symbol time as the period of time to place a symbol on a lane (10 times a unit interval when using 8b/10b encoding, and 8 times a unit interval when using 128b/130b encoding). The PCIE standard further describes the unit interval as the value measured by averaging the time interval per bit, over a time interval long enough to make all intentional frequency modulation of the source clock negligible.
Once a PCIE compatible system initializes each link, the link operates at one of the supported data rates. The PCIE 1.0a standard specifies an effective data rate of 2.5 Gigabits per second, per lane, per direction, of raw bandwidth. The PCIE 2.0 standard specifies an effective data rate of 5.0 Gigabits per second, per lane, per direction, of raw bandwidth. The PCIE 3.0 standard specifies an effective data rate of 8.0 Gigabits per second, per lane, per direction, of raw bandwidth. Also, the future PCIE 4.0 standard is expected to specify an effective data rate of 16.0 Gigabits per second, per lane, per direction, of raw bandwidth. Future versions of the PCIE standard will likely continue to increase the specified data rate. For example, historically the PCIE standard has doubled the PCIE bandwidth for each major revision (generally every 3-4 years).
As communication standards such as the PCIE standard continue to specify increasing data rates, the design of the associated communication controllers will become increasingly difficult.
In the following description, the use of the same reference numerals in different drawings indicates similar or identical items. Unless otherwise noted, the word "coupled" and its associated verb forms include both direct connection and indirect electrical connection by means known in the art, and unless otherwise noted any description of direct connection implies alternate embodiments using suitable forms of indirect electrical connection as well.


Disclosed is a light emitting module. The light emitting module includes a substrate and a plurality of light emitting devices disposed on the substrate, at least one of the plurality of light emitting devices includes a plurality of light emitting cells which are individually driven, and the plurality of light emitting cells include a light emitting structure including a first semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second semiconductor layer, and has a light emitting surface emitting light.

In general, a lamp refers to an apparatus which supplies or adjusts light for a specific purpose. As a light source of the lamp, an incandescent light, a fluorescent light, or a neon light may be used. Recently, a light emitting diode (LED) is used.
A lamp unit may generally include a light emitting module and a reflector setting an orientation angle of light emitted from the light emitting module. Here, the light emitting module may include at least one light emitting diode (LED) provided on a printed circuit board (PCB).
Such a lamp unit may be used in a backlight, a display device, a lighting lamp, an indicating lamp for vehicles, or a headlamp according to purposes thereof.
Particularly, a lamp unit used in vehicles closely relates to safe driving of a vehicle and thus, needs to be operated to be suit safe driving standards. For example, the lamp unit used in vehicles needs to satisfy regulations regarding a cut-off line so as not to obstruct a field of vision of a driver of a vehicle approaching on the opposite side of the road.


A trench liner system used for forming a single or a dual containment trench where expansion and contraction of the liner is controlled. For single containment, the trench system has a primary liner or a primary liner and a separator. For dual containment, the trench system has a primary liner and a secondary liner, or a primary liner, a separator and a secondary liner. Each system also includes anchors spaced along the length of the liner so as to partition the liner into juxtaposed vertical segments. The anchors allow unimpeded contraction and expansion of the liner between anchors within a segment. These embodiments may include a holding element for holding the liners against the trench walls so as to allow each segment to expand and contract along its respective length. Another embodiment of this invention provides laterally extending cavities spaced along the length of the trench. For single or dual containment, the liners contain lateral extensions along their respective length which are disposed within the respective cavities.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the construction industry and, more specifically, to an improved trench lining system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The general concept of trench drainage has long been used. Trenches are used where liquid run-offs occur, such as chemical plants, food processing operations, pulp and paper mills, pharmaceutical manufacturing, bottling plants, in parking garages and parking areas of shopping centers. The fluid from a trench generally goes into a catch basin or sewer large enough to release the material from the trench as it arrives. The top of the trench is normally covered with a slotted grate to allow entrance of the fluids, catching of debris, load carrying capacity for whatever may pass over it and, in some applications, they are solidly covered, such as crossing sidewalks or where conduits are carried within the trench and fluid entry is minimal and not necessarily desirable.
The temperature of trenches may vary widely. This is due to the surrounding temperature of the ground or to the temperature of the liquid runoff. Therefore, it is essential that a trench system be able to function properly either when extremely hot or extremely cold and to withstand the changes in temperature. For example, a trench system should not block the passage of the liquid runoff as may occur under hot temperatures if the liner expands nor break and leak under extremely cold temperatures as the liner contracts.
In the prior art, worn out trenches had to be completely removed by cutting the surrounding concrete, removing all brick linings when present, removing the frames and effectively starting over again to build a new trench. In the prior art, there was no way to convert an existing trench into a dual containment trench, or to build a trench by conventional ways and at the same time turn it into a dual containment trench. In the prior art, there also does not exist a method or system for containing the expansion of trench liners.
Thus, there exists a world-wide need for an economical method to line a trench into a single or double containment trench.
There also exists a need for a system to renew a trench without replacing it in its entirety.
There also exists a need to provide a means to control the expansion and contraction of trench liners.
There also exists a need for a system which can be rapidly installed, thereby decreasing plant down time.

Method for controlling expansion and contraction of trench liners


The present invention 10 discloses a stepladder having a ladder portion 18 that is comprised of rungs 24 and includes two ladder side rails, and a support portion that includes two angularly disposed telescoping legs 20 that provide mechanism for stabilizing the ladder. The telescoping support legs 20 are interconnected to each other and to the ladder side rails by lockable rigid spanner arms 22. When in use, the spanner arms 22 are locked in an open position to form a tripod formation between the rails while additionally limiting the angle of spread between the ladder portion 18 and the support legs 20. The present invention 10 also provides a retractable fly assembly 26 at the top of the ladder rails to provide for additional usable working height. A safety belt 36 is provided on the handle for additional support. A series of apertures with lock key fasteners 28 in each of the support legs provide mechanism for the user to securely position the legs at a desired length. The lock key fastener 28 includes a locking pin that engages an aperture in the corresponding leg to secure the desired position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to ladders and, more specifically, to an extension stepladder with tripod forming support rails. The three legs of the tripod are the two support rails and the ladder which is described as one leg.
The stepladder of the present invention consists of a ladder portion that is comprised of rungs and includes two ladder side rails, and a support portion that includes two telescoping rails that provide means for stabilizing the ladder.
The telescoping support rails are interconnected to each other and to the ladder side rails by lockable rigid spanner arms. When in use, the spreader arms are locked in an open position providing means to form a tripod formation between the rails while additionally limiting the angle of spread between the ladder rails and the support rails.
When not in use, the spanner arms are pivotally rotated to allow the support legs to close and retract toward the ladder rails forming a compact and transportable ladder assembly.
The tripod style extension stepladder of the present invention provides means for improved safety, increased capability and convenience. The tripod legs maximize the base spans of the stepladder by extending divergently from the ladder portion creating a large base support. The higher the ladder extension the larger the base spans on the floor so that the user does not have to compromise the stability at any elevation setting. Each of the support rails is independently telescopic to allow for use on uneven surfaces.
Additionally, the stepladder of the present invention also provides a retractable support rail at the top of the ladder rails to provide means for additional usable working height. Since the user can easily place themselves out of balance when both hands are off of the stepladder creating a safety hazard, a safety belt is provided on the handle for additional support.
The tripod stepladder of the present invention provides extendable retractable support legs having rigid spanners forming a tripod structural support member to prevent movement of the legs relative to each other when in the extended position. Furthermore, additional safety features are incorporated comprising telescopic support legs for use on an uneven base surface, an extendable hand rail at the top of the ladder and a safety belt, with both providing safety and a secure working environment for the user.
A series of apertures with lock key fasteners in each of the support legs provide means for the user to securely position the legs at a desired length. The lock key fastener includes a locking pin that engages an aperture in the corresponding leg to secure the desired position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are other extension ladders and stepladders that provide improved stabilization. Typical of these is U.S. Pat. No. 46,105 issued to Hayes on Jan. 31, 1865.
Another patent was issued to Bowser on Feb. 19, 1895 as U.S. Pat. No. 534,463. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 1,670,653 was issued to Cummins on May 22, 1928 and still yet another was issued on Aug. 22, 1961 to Wojtowicz as U.S. Pat. No. 2,997,127.
Another patent was issued to Conrad on Apr. 28, 1970 as U.S. Pat. No. 3,508,628. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,112 was issued to Stewart on Dec. 24, 1974. Another was issued to Beach on Feb. 28, 1984 as U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,754 and still yet another was issued on Jan. 17, 1989 to Margolies as U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,262.
Another patent was issued to High, et al. on Jan. 7, 1997 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,739. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,071 issued on Mar. 18, 2003 to Smith. Another European Patent was issued to Klenk on Apr. 27, 1981 as EP0039078. WIPO Patent Publication No. WO 00/32900 was filed by Laug and published on Jun. 8, 2000.


The present invention is a cryogenic subterranean fracturing fluid, comprising a liquefied industrial gas and a viscosity increasing additive. The liquefied industrial gas may be liquefied carbon dioxide, liquefied nitrogen, or a blend of the two. The liquefied industrial gas mixture should be substantially free of water. In this context, substantially free of water means less than 10% water by volume, or preferably less than 5% water by volume. In addition to the viscosity increasing additive, a proppant may be added to the fracturing fluid. In addition to the viscosity increasing additive and/or proppant additional additives may be added to the liquefied industrial gas as required.

The treatment of subterranean formations penetrated by a well bore to stimulate the production of hydrocarbons therefrom or the ability of the formation to accept injected fluids has long been known in the art. One of the most common methods of increasing productivity of a hydrocarbon-bearing formation is to subject the formation to a fracturing treatment. This treatment is effected by injecting a liquid, gas or two-phase fluid which generally is referred to as a fracturing fluid down the well bore at sufficient pressure and flow rate to fracture the subterranean formation. A proppant material such as sand, fine gravel, sintered bauxite, glass beads or the like can be introduced into the fractures to keep them open. The propped fracture provides larger flow channels through which an increased quantity of a hydrocarbon can flow, thereby increasing the productive capability of a well.
A traditional hydraulic fracturing technique utilizes a water or oil-based fluid to fracture a hydrocarbon-bearing formation.

Hydraulic fracturing with improved viscosity liquefied industrial gas based solution


A computer system implements a plurality of modules, including a tenant administration proxy that receives session credentials from a tenant application in the private communication system and authenticates the tenant application in response to the session credentials, a connector service that receives a bridge setup request from the tenant application and establishes a bridge connection with the tenant application in response to the bridge setup request; and a configuration manager that stores service information regarding a cloud-based service that is accessible through the computer system. The tenant administration proxy retrieves the service information from the configuration manager and provides the service information to the tenant application in response to a request from the tenant application, and wherein the connector service facilitates communication between the cloud-based service and an enterprise service in the private communication system over the bridge connection.

The present inventive concepts relate to communications networks. In particular, the present inventive concepts relate to systems, methods and computer program products for accessing network services available in enterprise communication systems from external networks.
Cloud-based computing services are becoming ubiquitous in the information technology (IT) industry. In a cloud-based system, services consumed by a business may be hosted and managed by a remote cloud service provider instead of being hosted by the business. The physical resources employed by the cloud service provider, such as servers, storage devices, communication devices, etc., can be shared among multiple consumers, allowing IT customers to benefit from economies of scale that they may not be able to achieve on their own. Moreover, these resources can be reallocated dynamically by the service provider to meet changing demands.
Cloud-based services may be hosted in a manner that allows the service provider to provide redundancy, load sharing, automated backups, and other features in support of the customer's services. In addition, cloud-based services may provide a number of other benefits to IT consumers, as the customer may experience reduced infrastructure costs, reduced IT management costs, and an increased ability to respond to changing market conditions.
However, even when an IT customer relies on cloud-based services for at least some of its IT processing needs, the IT consumer may still host some services themselves within private networks. These may include legacy services that cannot easily be migrated to a cloud service provider, services that the IT consumer prefers to maintain as strictly enterprise-based services, services that for some other reason cannot be migrated to a cloud service provider, or services that generate, store and/or consume data that for security reasons cannot be exposed to the cloud.
When an IT consumer relies on both cloud-based services and private enterprise-based services, it is sometimes necessary for the cloud-based services to access the enterprise-based services, and vice versa.
For example, in an example network configuration shown in FIG. 1, an IT consumer may operate a private communications system 10 that hosts enterprise services 12. The IT consumer may also consume cloud services 14 that are hosted by a cloud service provider within a cloud 15. For example, the cloud services 14 may include a mobility service, a credit card processing service, etc., and the enterprise services may include a directory service, a certificate authority, a content management service, etc. Although specific examples are provided in the various embodiments described herein, many other different types of services may be provided as cloud services and/or enterprise services.
The enterprise services 12 may reside inside the private communications system 10 (e.g., within an Intranet) behind a secure firewall (not shown) in an effort to limit access to the enterprise services 12 to authorized entities only.
To enhance security of the enterprise services 12, external communications with the enterprise services may be routed through a virtual private network (VPN) server 13 that establishes VPN connections with the cloud services 16 that are authorized to access the enterprise services 12. This approach may thereby provide a number of secured site-to-site VPN tunnels 18 between the VPN server 13 and the respective cloud-based entities 14, which may include cloud-based clients and/or cloud-based services.
However, this solution is not ideal. From the standpoint of the cloud service provider, each VPN tunnel 18 may require manual configuration, and each cloud service may need to support various VPN protocols and networking vendors. Thus, the establishment and maintenance of VPN connections to new IT consumers may be laborious, as the VPN connections for each new IT consumer may require customized configuration and setup.
From the standpoint of the IT consumer, each VPN tunnel is a direct connection to the cloud 15, as a site-to-site VPN opens up access to remote cloud-based services. Each VPN connection represents an entrance point to the private communications system 10 that could potentially be subject to security breaches instead of exposing only those services that are required for operation.

Accessing enterprise communication systems from external networks


An image processing apparatus performs a first generation process generating first partial print data by a first color conversion process using a first profile corresponding to a first direction, and a second generation process generating second partial print data using a second color conversion process using a second profile. When a color difference is smaller than a reference, the apparatus sets a printing direction to the first direction, and outputs the first partial print data to a print execution unit for printing the first partial print data while the main scan moves in the first direction. When the color difference is larger than or equal to the reference, the apparatus sets the printing direction to the second direction, and outputs the second partial print data to the print execution unit for printing the second partial print data while the main scan moves in the second direction.

A first conventional image processing apparatus provided for a multifunction peripheral that prints images using ejection processes for ejecting ink while moving a print head in a forward direction, and ejection processes for ejecting ink while moving the print head in a reverse direction. This image processing apparatus determines based on pixel values in band image data whether a condition has been met, and specifically whether a relatively large color difference is produced between a band image printed through an ejection process in the forward direction and a band image printed through an ejection process in the reverse direction. The image processing apparatus sets the direction for the ejection process to the forward direction when the condition is met and to the direction opposite the direction used in the preceding ejection process when the condition is not met.
A second conventional image forming apparatus also prints images while scanning in in a forward direction, and prints images while scanning in a reverse direction. In a case where it is estimated that a printed band has color irregularities, if the scanning direction is the forward direction, a color conversion process is executed using a basic table, and if the scanning direction is the reverse direction, the color conversion process is executed in a table which is adjusted so that a printed color becomes approximately the same with that when the scanning direction is the forward direction.

Image processing apparatus converting target partial image data to partial print data using first profile or second profile


A vehicle power liftgate cable drive has a cable drive housing. An electric motor with a motor housing and an output shaft is secured to the cable drive housing. A clutch pack with a first clutch driven by the output shaft and a second clutch driven by the first clutch, is mounted in the cable drive housing. One of the clutches in the clutch pack is a one way clutch and the other clutch is an electromechanical clutch. A pinion gear is driven by the second clutch. A driven gear is rotatably journaled on a fixed shaft and driven by the pinion gear. The cable drum is attached to the driven gear. A coil spring has one end fixed to the fixed shaft and its other end attached to the cable drum. The fixed shaft is rotated to preload the coil spring in a direction that tends to wind a cable on the cable drum and then the fixed shaft is fastened to the cable drive housing. A cable is attached to the cable drum and to the liftgate.

Liftgates and other doors on vans and other utility vehicles are large and heavy. Their weight is increased by windows, window wipers, defoggers and other equipment. Their hinges with a horizontal pivot axis at the top of the liftgate cause a fully open liftgate to be above the reach of many people. Power liftgate opening and closing systems are needed to reduce the effort required to manually open and close heavy liftgates. Power closing system are also needed by all but the tallest people to close liftgates that are above their reach.
A number of power systems have been proposed for opening and closing vehicle liftgates. These systems include complicated linkages in combination with a manual window crank mechanism. Such linkage systems are slow, require substantial effort to use and are unreliable.
Automotive deck lid closures with gear trains, gear racks and drive pinions have been proposed. Such systems are heavy, expensive and require a substantial amount of space.
Cable drives have been proposed for use on vehicle liftgates as well as on trunk or deck lids. These units generally have not maintained tension on the cables. When cables become slack they can get kinks, catch on cargo in the vehicle, become misrouted and have limited control over the position of open liftgates and deck lids. Manual opening and closing is at best difficult and operation during a vehicle electrical failure may be impossible.


A FIT evaluation method for an IC is provided. The FIT evaluation method includes accessing data representing a layout of the IC comprising a number of metal lines and a number of VIAs; picking a number of nodes along the metal lines; dividing each of the metal lines into a number of metal segments based on the nodes; and determining a FIT value for each of the metal segments or VIAs to verify the layout and fabricate the IC.

Electro-migration (EM) is one of the most important issues in designing integrated circuits (ICs). Specifically, EM is the transportation of material caused by the gradual movement of ions in a conductor due to the momentum transfer between conducting electrons and diffusing metal atoms. The effect appears in applications where high-current pulses are generated, such as in microelectronics and related structures.
The EM effect becomes more apparent as the structure size decreases in electronics such as integrated circuits (ICs). The EM effect is usually evaluated by lifetime and failure rates, and the failure-in-time (FIT) is often utilized to indicate the failure rate of the IC. Therefore, a method for calculating FIT will be needed to evaluate the EM effect on the IC.
Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures generally refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The figures are drawn to clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of the embodiments and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD


A web-based system for integrating casino gaming with non-casino interactive gaming comprises a central server system, a plurality of player-operated gaming machines, and a player-operating computing device. The central server system offers a plurality of wagering games. The gaming machines are located in a land-based casino and linked to the central server system by a reconfigurable, multi-site computer network such as an intranet. The computing device is remote from any land-based casino and linked to the central server system by the Internet. The wagering games may be conducted via either the gaming machines or the computing device. In one embodiment, each wagering game is offered in two distinct versions: basic and enhanced. The basic version is played over the network using JavaScript or other language. The enhanced version includes upgraded audiovisual content that is downloaded to and stored locally on the machine or computing device used to conduct the wagering game.

Gaming machines have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. They are operable to play such wagering games as mechanical or video slots, poker, bingo, keno, and blackjack. A typical gaming machine is cluttered with numerous hardware and software components for implementing such functions as game software execution, currency handling, player tracking, ticket reading and printing, and communicating with a back-of-house computer system. The numerous hardware and software components add significantly to the cost of manufacture (and therefore the selling price), complexity, and amount of maintenance and servicing required by the gaming machine in the field. Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is directed toward a gaming machine that is cost-effective and easy to manufacture and requires less maintenance and servicing in the field.
Many gaming players want to be able to play gaming machines much more frequently then they are currently able to do. Such players are often limited because of the requisite travel required to attend casinos or other legal gaming establishments. The involvedness, cost, and inconvenience of a player being forced to travel to a casino severely limits the amount of gambling excursions that a player can assume. Furthermore, since these excursions are infrequent, a gaming player is often forced to spend as much time gambling as possible during the excursion because such a player may not have the means to return to the casino for several months or years. There is continuing need for a gaming player to be able to gamble more frequently or for a shorter period time than is currently available and to be able to do so from a location remote from the casino.
Toward that end, interactive or "online" gaming allows a player to gamble from a location, such as a residence, remote from the casino. The player may access a gaming web site on a global computer network, such as the Internet, from a computing device coupled to the global computer network. The computing device may, for example, be a personal computer, Internet appliance, personal digital assistant, or wireless telephone. To play a wagering game on the gaming web site, a player generally must supply credit or debit card account information. Wagers are deducted from the account, and payouts for winning outcomes are added to the account.
Interactive gaming is one of the most rapidly growing industries in the world. Although many jurisdictions prohibit interactive gaming, it is expected that such jurisdictions will ultimately legalize interactive gaming under detailed regulations. Also, despite the prohibition against interactive gaming, the global computer network includes countless gaming sites generally hosted by companies with minimal brand name recognition. These gaming sites are operational and generate substantial annual revenues.
It is believed that when interactive gaming is legalized, casinos with widespread brand name recognition will be positioned to capitalize on the interactive gaming market because players will be eager to wager with trustworthy brands. Casinos with the strongest brands will receive greater online patronage at their gaming web sites than gaming web sites hosted by less recognized companies. It is believed that casinos will want to maximize their relationship with players by integrating a player's casino gaming experience with the player's interactive gaming experience. Accordingly, another aspect of the present invention is directed toward a method, system, and gaming machine for efficiently achieving this integration.

Integration of casino gaming and non-casino interactive gaming


Substituted imidazoline derivatives corresponding to Formula I:

The present invention relates to substituted imidazoline derivatives, processes for their preparation, medicaments containing these compounds, and the use of substituted imidazoline derivatives for the preparation of medicaments.
The treatment of chronic and non-chronic pain states is extremely important in medicine. There is therefore a widespread need for highly effective pain treatments. The urgent need for a patient-friendly and targeted treatment of chronic and non-chronic pain states, which from the patient's point of view is hereinafter understood to mean the successful and satisfactory handling and treatment of pain, is well documented in the large number of scientific papers and articles that have appeared in recent years in the field of applied analgesics and in basic research on nociception.
Conventional opioids such as morphine are highly effective in the treatment of severe to extremely severe pain. Their use is however limited by their known side effects, for example respiratory depression, nausea, vomiting, sedation, constipation and development of tolerance. Also, they are less effective in neuropathic or incidental pain, including in particular tumour patients.
In Org. Lett. 2003, 5, 3759-3762 substituted imidazolines with a carboxylic acid/carboxylic acid ester group are likewise disclosed, which however are not coupled to an aminomethyl-substituted cyclohexane ring.

Abstract: a method for producing them from substituted aldehyde compounds of Formula B:

Abstract: and the use of such imidazoline derivatives and aldehyde compounds to treat pain, depression, urinary incontinence, diarrhea, pruritus, alcohol and drug misuse, drug dependency, lethargy and/or anxiety.


A system for instructing a user on repairing a vehicle configured to (i) receive, from the user, a request to repair a vehicle, including information about the vehicle; (ii) present, to the user via a user computer device, a user interface to allow the user to search for a repair facility to repair the vehicle; (iii) receive, from the user via the user interface, a selection of a repair facility; (iv) determine whether the selected repair facility is a select service location, where a select service location is a pre-authorized repair facility; and (v) if the selected repair facility is a select service location, transfer the information about the vehicle to a computer device associated with the selected repair facility.

In most cases of damage to a vehicle, the damage must be reviewed by an individual, such as an appraiser, to determine a cost to repair the damage. This may be done to inform the owner of the vehicle on how much it will cost to repair, or to inform an insurance provider of the cost to repair. In order to determine the cost to repair the owner of the vehicle must either transport the vehicle to the appraiser for inspection, or the appraiser must travel to the vehicle. Depending on the amount of damage to the vehicle, it may not be worthwhile to require either the owner or the appraiser to travel for the inspection. Furthermore, in some cases the appraisers are repair shops that may or may not have capacity to repair the vehicle at the time of the appraisal. Thus, after getting the appraisal, the owner may have to return with the vehicle or take it elsewhere to get it repaired. There exists a need to automate this process to reduce the need for travel and improve the speed of this process.

Systems and methods for performing repairs to a vehicle

STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY


The present invention provides a mobile communication apparatus with a rotatable display screen. The mobile communication apparatus, according to the invention, includes a main module, a display module, and an actuating device. The display module includes a frame and a rotatable screen mounted on the frame. The actuating device is operatively connected to the screen and capable of actuating the screen to rotate 180 degrees in response to movement of the display module from a closed position to an open position with respect to the main module.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication apparatus, and more particularly, to a mobile communication apparatus with a rotatable display screen.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Mobile phones and similar communication devices are rapidly expanding in use and function. Such devices will soon accommodate more diverse services, such as Internet access, personal information management, facsimile, image messaging, and video conferencing, in addition to telephone communication. To accomplish this, there is a need to provide keypads, function buttons, and larger display screens that are compatible with more complex applications to which the mobile device will be adapted. Full function text keyboards, such as the standard QWERTY typing array of keys and buttons, are difficult to provide while maintaining the compact size required in the mobile device. An equally difficult problem is presented by the need for display screens that can display the vast amount of different information that will be accessible by these devices. Such devices on the market today are bulky and often require several accessories to obtain the full array of functions, e.g. a portable keyboard.
There is, therefore, a need to provide a simple and inexpensive full function mobile communications apparatus which can access many services through the use of a single device. It is also a purpose of this invention to provide a configuration of keypad, button deck, and rotatable display which provide a simple and easy-to-use user interface.

Mobile communication apparatus with rotatable display screen


There is provided a method for preventing clogging in an apparatus for handling (meth)acrylic acid or esters thereof which is capable of inhibiting occurrence of clogging in nozzles or conduits connected to a gas-phase portion of the apparatus and ensuring a stable continuous operation of the apparatus for a long period of time. The method for preventing clogging in an apparatus for handling (meth)acrylic acid or esters thereof, comprises blowing a gas having a polymerization inhibiting action into a nozzle or conduit connected to a gas-phase portion of the apparatus, wherein said gas having a polymerization inhibiting action, which is blown into the nozzle or conduit, has a temperature not less than a temperature of the gas-phase portion.

The (meth) acrylic acid and esters thereof are easily-polymerizable compounds. In the processes for production and use of these compounds, undesired polymerization of the compounds tends to be frequently caused in handling apparatuses therefor such as distillation columns, evaporators, heat exchangers, tanks or the like, resulting in stoppage of the operation of these handling apparatuses.
In order to ensure a stable continuous operation of the apparatuses for handing (meth)acrylic acid and esters thereof, it has been inevitably required to measure process conditions such as pressure, temperature, liquid level or the like. For the purpose of measuring the process conditions, measuring devices are fitted to the above apparatuses through nozzles or the like. In these nozzles or the like, especially in the nozzles connected to gas-phase portions of the apparatuses, there have been frequently observed production of polymers of (meth)acrylic acid and esters thereof.
In order to prevent production of the polymers of (meth)acrylic acid and esters thereof, a polymerization inhibitor such as hydroquinone and copper-containing compounds is introduced into the apparatuses. However, these polymerization inhibitors introduced are present only in a liquid phase within the apparatuses, and are not contained in a gas phase therein. In order to prevent production of the polymers in the gas phase portion of the apparatuses, there is known the method of blowing a gas having a polymerization inhibiting action such as an oxygen-containing gas, for example, a mixed gas obtained by mixing an inert gas such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide gas and argon with air, or air into the handling apparatuses (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (KOKAI) No. 2003-231661).
However, in practice, the above conventional method fails to completely prevent troubles due to production of the polymers of (meth)acrylic acid or esters thereof. According to the present inventors' knowledge, the reason therefor is that since the gas having a polymerization inhibiting action which is introduced into the apparatuses has a low temperature, the (meth)acrylic acid or esters thereof tend to be condensed in a gas phase portion thereof, so that polymers of these compounds tend to be produced in a condensed solution thereof containing no polymerization inhibitor, which is formed in the gas-phase portion.

Method for preventing clogging in apparatus for handling (meth)acrylic acid or esters thereof


The present invention provides a clay extruder having a reinforced plunger for shaping clay into desired patterns. The extruder has a screw disposed within a sleeve, a reinforced plunger located on the screw and inside the sleeve, a handle located on the screw and outside of the sleeve, and a perforated disk opposite the insertion of the screw into the sleeve. The handle is used to turn the screw and move the plunger through the sleeve. As the plunger pushes clay out the sleeve, an o-ring around the plunger prevents clay from leaking back, and a perforated disk molds the clay into a desired pattern. Metal construction and a thicker side of the plunger allow the extruder to be subjected to high amounts of torque and pressure without damage or failure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to clay shaping tools, and more particularly, to clay extruders.
2. Description of Related Art
To aid in the shaping of clay, artisans have long used clay extruders. Simple clay extruders consist of a plunger that is pushed through a hollow structure by application of pressure on a handle connected to the plunger. By use of holes with different designs at the ends of extruders, clay can be extruded into different shapes. Hand held extruders are basically syringes for clay. Plastic syringe type clay extruders require great force to extrude clay and are subject to failure from the stress required to push clay through an open end. Metal syringe type extruders are more rigid than plastic extruders and are able to accommodate more force than plastic extruder. However, metal extruders are also difficult to operate. Both metal and plastic extruders are prone to leaking back of clay past the plunger. Because of the force that must be exerted on the plunger to extrude clay, the plunger is also prone to failure.
It is therefore desirable to have an extruder that prevents leaking back of clay. It is also desirable to have an extruder that needs less force to operate. It is further desirable to have an extruder with a reinforced plunger that can accommodate a high amount of torque.


A camera has a camera body in which a film is drawn out of a film cartridge to be wound by a film take-up spool positioned in a spool chamber. The camera has a film passage formed in the camera body for guiding the film drawn out of the film cartridge to the spool chamber. The rear surface of the camera body extends substantially in parallel to a plane connecting an axial center of the film take-up spool with an axial center of a cartridge spool of the film cartridge. The film passage is formed such that a surface of the film located in the film passage intersects the plane connecting the axial center of the film take-up spool with the axial center of the cartridge spool.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera structure which uses a film cartridge or cassette containing a rolled film.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cameras using a film cartridge or cassette containing a rolled film such as a conventional 35 mm cassette or an IX240 cassette recently developed for use with a camera employing the Advanced Photo System are widely known. In such a type of camera, a cartridge chamber that accommodates the film cartridge, and a spool chamber that accommodates a film take-up spool which takes up the film from the cartridge, are respectively arranged on right and left sides within the camera body. The rectangular image plane of the film to be exposed is located on a focal plane and determined by the rectangular photographic aperture of the camera which forms the limits of each frame exposed. This plane is positioned between the cartridge chamber and the spool chamber, extending substantially parallel to the right/left (lengthwise) direction of the camera.
In a camera having such a structure, it is necessary for the cartridge chamber and the spool chamber to be separated from each other by a sufficient distance so as to form a light path (picture format) therebetween for leading light from the rear end of the photographic optical system to the film surface to be exposed. However, this restricts the ability to reduce the size of the camera, particularly for making the width of the camera short in the right/left direction thereof.
Furthermore, in the aforementioned type of camera having the conventional structure, in the case that the camera is provided with a well-known automatic film loading system, the film cassette is usually loaded in the camera according to the following procedure: opening the back lid of the camera and placing the cartridge in the cartridge chamber with the film slot of the cassette facing the film take-up spool; drawing out enough film to place the tongue (i.e., film leader) of the film across the film take-up spool, and finally closing the back lid of the camera. According to such a conventional film loading procedure, if the film tongue is not properly placed across the film take-up spool so as to be surely caught by the film take-up spool when the back lid is shut, the film tongue will not be caught, which results in a loading error.


Provided is a distributed control method of data by a client connected to a first server and a network and a distributed control apparatus. The distributed control method includes: registering at least one piece of characteristic information of the client in the first server; generating a uniform resource locator (URL) address in a URL format based on the registered at least one piece of characteristic information; and acquiring data stored on the second server, wherein the acquired data is mirrored from data stored on the first server by using the generated URL address.

1. Field of the Invention
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to a distributed control method and an apparatus using a uniform resource locator (URL) in a distributed network environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the growth of Internet technologies, consumer electronic (CE) devices are merging with rapidly developing Internet technologies, and thus a server/client network is becoming a complex network of devices over time.
When the number of CE devices continuously increases, and thus there are a plurality of CE devices providing the same service, a load is concentrated in a centralized server managing the CE devices thereby increasing expenses for maintaining and managing the centralized server.
Moreover, in Internet-based CE devices, services corresponding to characteristics of each product, such as firmware upgrade or various application upgrades, are increasingly being used.
In a network environment including a centralized server and a plurality of clients, the centralized server manages all the clients, where each client transmits its own product characteristic information to the centralized server via a certain interface, and the centralized server returns control information according to each characteristic by logic-processing the product characteristic information. For example, when a device transmits an identifier (ID), a model name, firmware version information, and various tokens, which are product characteristic information, to the centralized server, the centralized server analyzes the product characteristic information, searches for control data applicable to the device in a database of the centralized server, and returns the control data to the device. The device is operated by downloading the control data from the centralized server, and changes its own status, such as upgrading a firmware version.
In other words, when the device periodically transmits a query to the centralized server, logic of the centralized server transmits a control command message to the device via version check, pre-scheduling, and policy control. Moreover, when the device transmits a message for requesting to download various contents from the centralized server, the centralized server transmits a binary image of data corresponding to the request via throttle control, wherein the data in the binary image is encoded.

Distributed control method and apparatus using URL


A method for manufacturing optoelectronic devices is disclosed. A layered structure may be formed with a plurality of layers including a bottom electrode layer, a top electrode layer, and one or more active layers between the top and bottom electrode layers. The layered structure is divided into one or more separate device module sections by cutting through one or more of the layers of the layered structure. At least one of the layers is an unpatterned layer at the time of cutting. Each of the resulting device module sections generally includes a portion of the active layer disposed between portions of the top and bottom electrode layers. An edge of a device section may optionally be protected against undesired electrical contact between two or more of the bottom electrode, top electrode and active layer portions. Two or more device module sections may be assembled into a device and connected in series by electrically connecting the bottom electrode layer portion of one device section to the top electrode layer portion of another device module section.

Optoelectronic devices interact with radiation and electric current. The interaction can be photoelectric where the device converts incident radiant energy (e.g., in the form of photons) into electrical energy. Optoelectronic devices often tend to be high voltage and low current devices. Currently many optoelectronic devices, e.g., thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cells and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are made by depositing patterns of material on a substrate to form the various device layers, e.g., a bottom electrode, an active layer stack and a top electrode (plus auxiliary layers), of individual devices. For example, in the case of PV cells, typically all the bottom and top electrodes as well as the active PV layer stack are patterned to create individual PV cells that are later series-wired. The patterning is typically done via laser or mechanical scribing, or photolithographic patterning. This patterning adds extra processing steps and often introduces complications that can reduce the yield of useful devices. For example, laser patterning or mechanical scribing may result in a condition known as overscribing where the scribing cuts too deeply into one or more layers. Similarly, such scribing techniques may result in underscribing where the scribing does not cut sufficiently deep into one or more layers. Furthermore, many scribing techniques can generate debris that may be inadvertently and undesirably incorporated into the finished devices. All of these effects may interfere with proper device performance or cause catastrophic failure of devices and thereby add to the overall cost of useful devices.
Furthermore, certain conventional thin-film PV cells, e.g. Mo/CIGS/CdS/TCO or TCO/CdS/CdTe/top metal or stainless steel/insulator/metal/a-Si PV stack/top TCO, require patterning steps and may also need insulators on metal foil substrates. Techniques for singulation into individual cells, e.g., laser scribing, often can not be used on such cells because of the associated risk of also cutting the underlying bottom electrode (e.g. Mo).
Thus, there is a need in the art, for a method for manufacturing optoelectronic devices that overcomes the above disadvantages.


A device includes a housing, a processor that is coupled to the housing, the processor is configured to process a software program stored in a memory. A touch screen is coupled to the housing and configured to display graphical objects, wherein a sensor signal associated with a user's interaction with the touch screen is provided to the processor. A first actuator is coupled to the touch screen and positioned within the housing. The first actuator is configured to output a first haptic effect to the touch screen upon receiving a first activating signal from the processor. A second actuator is coupled to the housing and configured to output a second haptic effect to the housing upon receiving a second activating signal from the processor. The first activating signal is associated with a foreground event and the second activating signal is associated with a background event occurring in the software program.

Mobile gaming has become increasingly popular with the improvements Internet speed as well as more sophisticated mobile devices. Such portable mobile devices include smart phones (e.g. Blackberry®, iPhone®) as well as mobile video game consoles (e.g. Playstation® Portable, Nintendo DS Lite®).
Additionally, many of the existing mobile devices incorporate one or more touch screens through which the user interacts with an avatar or other object while playing a game. However, none of the existing mobile devices are capable of outputting haptics through the touch screen as the user is playing a game on the device.

Multiple actuation handheld device with housing and touch screen actuators


The present invention provides a pharmaceutical composition including a probiotic and a prebiotic for treatment of stunting in children. More particularly, the pharmaceutical composition includes at least one Lactobacillus specie(s) as a probiotic and at least one oligosaccharide as a prebiotic. The present invention further provides a method of treatment of stunting including administering an effective amount of a pharmaceutical composition including a probiotic and a prebiotic to children in need thereof.

Background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Short stature or stunted growth refers to children whose height or rate of height gain is lower than other children of the same age and gender. Stunting is defined as the percentage of children, aged 0 to 59 months, whose height for age is below minus two standard deviations (moderate and severe stunting) and minus three standard deviations (severe stunting) from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards.
Stunting is not a growth disorder, and is often associated with malnutrition. It is a primary manifestation of malnutrition or under-nutrition and recurrent infections, such as diarrhea, in early childhood. Stunting may start from pre-conception in an adolescent girl and who later becomes mother is undernourished and anaemic; it worsens when infants' diets are poor, and when sanitation and hygiene is inadequate. It is irreversible by the age of two. Child survival and health is inseparably connected to reproductive and, maternal health.
The world health organization estimates that 165 million of the world's children are stunted and majority of them are from developing countries. Children in such countries grow up under poor hygienic conditions, multiple episodes of gastrointestinal infections, with poor nutrition. This results in suboptimal physical growth, under developed brain, with long-lasting harmful consequences, including diminished mental ability and learning capacity, poor school performance in childhood, reduced earnings and increased risks of nutrition related chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in future.
Many studies have been reported to improve care seeking behavior of mothers; complete vaccinations, intervention with supplementary food to improve protein, calorie, vitamin and mineral intake etc. However, none of these conventional therapeutic agents and methods has produced a visible impact on reducing stunting so far, and each of them have their own limitations and side-effects.
Dysbacteriosis (change in types or number of bacteria) is a term first described by Russian scientists more than a century ago, although there are mentions of similar problems in ancient Ayurveda as well. Dysbacteriosis in the gut in south Asian, African, and latin American countries is now considered to be playing a major role in giving rise to many nutritional disorders including stunting and poor neurocognitive development. Diarrhea (often chronic), along with macro- and micronutrient deficiency, and enteric enteropathy are believed to be cofactors in stunting. It is difficult to say if these factors separately, in sequence (one after other), or together drive stunting. This is particularly so, because many of these factors are present in the population that gets high rates of stunting. So, discerning the difference in terms of their contribution is difficult.
Although malnutrition points typically to under or over-nutrition (obesity), for the current disclosure, we have considered the term malnutrition for representing under nutrition, with the understanding that over-nutrition can also disrupt the normal intestinal flora. Recent studies in Africa have shown dysbacteriosis in children with under-nutrition. Elegant studies in human children and mice with transfer of stool samples have shown that indeed gut microbiota from sick and stunted children can produce stunting, neural defects, and problems with bone development and growth. (Blanton et al. Gut bacteria that prevent growth impairments transmitted by microbiota from malnourished children. Science. 2016 Feb. 19; 351(6275). pii: aad3311. doi: 10.1126/science.aad3311. PubMed PMID: 26912898).
Tropical Enteropathy (TE) is a condition where intestine of children (sometimes others) are deranged in terms of structure and function and there is inflammation. There is derangement of enzymes, but, the most important dysfunction is lower absorption and passage of nutrients out due to inflammation of the intestine by bombardment of with many bacteria from food and drinks in the contaminated environment. There is recent interest in addressing stunting by modulating TE (Naylor et al., Environmental Enteropathy, Oral Vaccine Failure and Growth Faltering in Infants in Bangladesh. E Bio Medicine. 2015 Sep. 25; 2(11):1759-66. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2015.09.036. eCollection 2015 Nov.).
A recent study showed that there were drastic reduction in respiratory infections, blood infection called sepsis, and other infections including diarrhea, skin infections, and umbilical stump infection as provided in Panigrahi et al., A randomized synbiotic trial to prevent sepsis among infants in rural India. Nature. 2017 Aug. 24; 548 (7668): 407-412; Epub 2017 Aug. 16; PubMed PMID: 28813414.
There is an ongoing need in the art to develop newer and efficacious pharmaceutical compositions for treatment of stunting in children. The composition should also have benefits such as promoting gut maturation, enhancing gut health, enhancing protection later in life, and boosting of immune system.

Pharmaceutical composition comprising a combination of probiotic and prebiotic to treat stunting


An ink-jet head is provided with a container having an ink-discharge opening in its wall section; a structural element that has peripheral edges at least both ends in one direction of which are secured to the wall faces inside the container, that divides the inside of the container in a fluid-separated state, and that is allowed to be distorted; and a voltage-applying unit for applying a voltage to the structural element. The structural element is constituted of a piezoelectric material, and the shape of the structural element is changed in response to the voltage applied by the voltage-applying unit so that ink is allowed to discharge from the ink-discharge opening. Therefore, the above-mentioned arrangement makes it possible to provide a greater ink-discharging force and ink-discharging speed, while maintaining a small size of the head. Moreover, it is possible to provide an ink-jet head having a good discharging efficiency with long service life.

Conventionally, an ink-jet recording method, which carries out a recording operation by emitting and spraying recording fluid, has been known. The ink-jet recording method has achieved various advantages: relatively high-speed printing can be carried out with low noise, the apparatus can be miniaturized, a color recording process is easily carried out, etc.
With respect to ink-jet heads used in the ink-jet recording method, several arrangements have been conventionally proposed. For example, one of such ink-jet heads has an arrangement wherein pressure is applied to the ink indirectly through a diaphragm by subjecting a piezoelectric element to an in-plane deformation resulting in ink emission.
However, the following problems have been presented from the above-mentioned conventional arrangement. In the above-mentioned ink-jet head, the piezoelectric element is subjected to an in-plane deformation in order to obtain sufficient pressure to emit the ink. In this case, in order to emit the ink, the amount of distortion of the piezoelectric element has to be increased by, for example, stacking piezoelectric materials or providing a bimorph-type piezoelectric actuator with a comparatively large dimension. One of the resulting problems is that a piezoelectric element and a pressure chamber, which are far greater in size than the nozzle pitch, are required, making the ink-jet head become bulky as well as making it difficult to form a multi-nozzle head wherein nozzles are integrated. The other problem is that since the pressure is indirectly applied to the ink by vibrating the diaphragm using the piezoelectric element, it is difficult to effectively convert mechanical energy generated by the piezoelectric element into discharging energy of the ink droplets.

Ink-jet head having ink chamber and non-ink chamber divided by structural element subjected to freckling deformation


The present invention provides a method, apparatus and system for a protocol and line-rate transparent WDM passive optical network architecture that scales in terms of bandwidth and number of ONUs. Both an included optical line terminal and each of a plurality of ONUs use substantially the same reflective modulators to modulate respective wavelength channels to impart data thereto. In various embodiments of the present invention, the reflective modulators are composed of a SOA having on one facet a pigtailed fiber and the other facet coated with a highly reflective coating. In the WDM passive optical network of the present invention, the ONUs each comprises a separate wavelength for communication in the upstream and the downstream directions. The present invention allows for all-passive components to be placed in the field, thus, requiring no power between a central office and a user or subscriber's premises.

Fiber-to-the-home broadband-access is becoming increasingly popular. Such high capacity communication links provide broadband transmission access capable of reaching all the way to the individual subscribers of a communication network. Known technologies and techniques like classic passive optical networks are standardized in full-service access networks (FSAN). However cost issues do not allow for a large-scale deployment.
Different architectures employ point-to-point transmission and perform opto-electronic conversions to aggregate traffic where electro-optic conversion takes place to transmit to the next point of aggregation in the network. Such techniques, however, require in field power resources. To this point, it has been shown difficult to realize a proper physical layer solution for a low cost fiber-optic access network. Current solutions fall short because they are protocol sensitive, require expensive opto-electronic components and do not scale.

Protocol and line-rate transparent WDM passive optical network