The present invention relates to a pattern forming method comprising image-wise forming, on a surface of a substrate, a region having an ability to initiate polymerization, forming a graft polymer on the region by atom transfer radical polymerization, and adhering a substance to the graft polymer. The method can be applied for preparing an image forming material, a fine particle adsorption pattern material, a conductive pattern material, or the like by selecting a suitable substance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pattern forming method and in particular to a pattern forming material capable of forming a pattern which has excellent resolution, and a substance adherence pattern material obtained by using said pattern forming material.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming method that utilizes a method of forming a hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern has been widely used. In particular, an image forming method comprising adhering a colorant to a region has been widely used.
For example, an image forming method is employed in which a hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern is on the surface of an image-receiving material, then an image is formed by utilizing a difference in adsorptivity of a hydrophilic or hydrophobic surface toward a visualizing material. Further, various methods of forming a hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern are employed to form a display material, a planographic printing plate material and a semiconductor integrated circuit material.
Particularly from the viewpoint of particularly improving the resolution of a formed image, a method of forming a fine hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern is attracting attention. As the method of forming a hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern, there is disclosed a method in which a surface of a plate which surface has a convex pattern adsorbs a hydrophobic molecule, the hydrophobic molecule is transferred to an image-receiving material, and then a hydrophilic molecule is adsorbed by non-transferred regions on the image-receiving material, whereby a hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern is formed on the image-receiving surface. This method is useful for production of various functional devices and DNA chips (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2002-283530). This method of forming a hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern can be used to form a precise pattern. However, in order to obtain such a precise pattern, a special material is required and further, it is difficult to apply the method of forming a hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern to formation of an image with a large area.
Regarding application to formation of an image with a large area, there is known a planographic printing plate material. When the planographic printing plate material is used, a hydrophilic graft polymer is formed on the entire area of a hydrophobic substrate, and the hydrophilic graft polymer is image-wise released from the surface of the substrate by exposure to laser light to form a hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern comprising the hydrophilic graft polymer and the hydrophobic surface of the substrate, then an ink and water are allowed to adhere thereto based on the pattern (for example, JP-A No. 11-119413). According to this method, a hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern with a large area can be formed. However, because high energy is required for releasing the hydrophilic graft polymer, an expensive high-power laser is required to form an image. Moreover, the qualities and resolution of the formed image are not satisfactory.
Another application of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern is a technique for arranging fine particles in pattern.
Techniques of arranging fine particles are techniques important for achieving higher functions such as larger area, higher resolution and higher density of materials for catalysts, recording materials, sensors, electronic devices and optical devices. Such techniques are extensively studied.
For example, a method of forming aggregated fine particles is proposed in which a liquid dispersing medium containing fine particles is developed on a substrate to form a liquid thin coating thereon, the thickness of the liquid dispersing medium is decreased to a thickness equal to or thinner than the particle diameter, and the fine particles are aggregated by surface tension (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 2828374). According to the invention described in Japanese Patent No. 2828374, a layer of fine particles can be regularly aggregated and uniformly arranged. However, it is difficult by the invention described in Japanese Patent No. 2828374 to obtain a patterned arrangement of the fine particles in a desired region.
As a technique for arranging fine particles according to a pattern, there is described a method in which the surface of an oxide substrate such as TiO2 is irradiated with patterned light to prepare a hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern on the surface, and fine particles are arranged based on the pattern (see, for example, JP-A No. 2002-273209). According to this method, a pattern of fine particles can be formed. However, since the fine particles are merely physically adsorbed without fixation and easily released, the pattern of fine particles is unsuitable for use in various devices. Further, the fine particles tend to adhere to a region other than the particle-adhering pattern, and there is a demand for a method of forming a pattern highly selectively to prevent the particles from adhering to a region other than the pattern.
As another technique of arranging fine particles according to a pattern, a method of laminating fine particles according to a pattern by using a micro-stamp is known as shown by G. M. Whitesides et al. (E. Kim, Y. Xia, G. M. Whitesides, Advanced Materials, vol. 8, p. 245, Wiley lnterscience, 1996). According to this method, fine polymer particles of submicron size can be accumulated in order without adhering to other region than the pattern, thus a pattern can be obtained highly selectively. However, in this method, the procedure is difficult and the rate of solvent evaporation should be controlled in order to prepare an ordered laminate of particles, therefore the particle laminate cannot be easily produced. Further, since the area of the producible laminate is small, this method is unsuitable for producing a laminate with larger area. Also in this method, the adsorption strength of the fine particles laminated according to a pattern to a substrate is weak. Therefore, higher adsorption strength of the fine particles to the substrate is required from a practical point of view.
Another application of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic pattern is a technique regarding a conductive material. Conventionally, various conductive pattern materials have been used for formation of circuit boards (see, for example, Ei Kazuta, Purinto Haisennbann No Seizougijutsu (Techniques of Manufacturing Printed Circuit Boards) (CMC Publishing Co., Ltd., 2001). Typically, such conductive pattern materials are obtained by providing, on an insulating material, a thin conductive material by a known method such as vapor deposition, by treating it with a resist, by removing a part of the prepared resist by exposure to patterned light, and by etching the material to form a desired pattern. However, such methods require at least 4 steps. Moreover, when wet etching treatment is carried out, a step for disposal of waste solution is also required. Hence, the process has to be complicated. As another method of forming a pattern, a method of forming a conductive pattern material by using a photoresist is also known. This method involves applying a photoresist polymer onto a substrate or sticking a photoresist on a dry film to a substrate and then exposing the substrate via an arbitrary photomask to UV rays to form a checked pattern or the like. This method is useful for formation of an electromagnetic wave shield which requires high electrical conductivity.
As micromachines are further developed and ultra-LSI is further downsized, a finer wiring structure is also required to nano-degree. However, there is a limitation of finer processing by metal etching, and the breaking of fine wires during processing is worried about. Accordingly, a method has been desired by which a precise pattern with regulated orientation can be formed.
Meanwhile, regarding a conductive material, a method has been paid attention to in recent years in which a pattern is formed directly from digitalized data without a mask. Various proposals regarding the method have been made (see, for example, JP-A No. 2002-324966).
By utilizing such methods of forming a digitalized pattern, arbitrary formation of fine patterns can be expected. One of these methods is a method of using a self-organizing monomolecular film. This method utilizes a molecular aggregate formed spontaneously when a substrate is dipped in an organic solvent containing surfactant molecules. For example, a combination of an organosilane compound and a SiO2 or Al2O3 substrate or a combination of an alcohol or an amine and a platinum substrate can be used to form a pattern by light lithography or the like. Such a monomolecular film enables formation of a fine pattern. However, since the substrate/material combination usable in the monomolecular film is limited, it is difficult to put the method to practical use. The technique of forming a fine wire pattern which can be practically employed has not yet been established.
From the viewpoint of lightweight, flexibility and environmental compatibility, an organic transistor using a conductive polymer pattern has been studied. A support using such organic material is characterized by that the support is light, thin, and flexible and that an element with a large area can be easily (by the same printing technique as in printing at room temperature) prepared by using such support. By combining these characteristics with electrical and optical characteristics of new organic semiconductor which is being developed, new development can be expected in techniques for personalization of information which is most strongly demanded in the present information technology. Such technique is, for example, techniques of producing wearable portable terminals having simple information processing functions and easily manipulatable input/output functions.
However, any of these techniques do not satisfy demands from practical viewpoints such as durability, stability of conductivity, applicability to larger area, and manufacturing suitability.

Pattern forming method and substance adherence pattern material


Systems and methods for non-stop computing in a virtualization fabric are disclosed. One system includes a computing fabric comprising a plurality of host platforms, the plurality of host platforms including at least a first host platform and a second host platform communicatively connected to the first host platform. The system also includes an interconnect service partitions residing on the first host platform. The system includes a plurality of guest partitions distributed across the plurality of host platforms. The system further includes a DNS server instance managed by at least one of the plurality of interconnect service partitions and defining at least one zone, the at least one zone including one or more partitions from among the plurality of guest partitions distributed across the plurality of host platforms.

Computer system virtualization allows multiple operating systems and processes to share the hardware resources of a host computer. Ideally, the system virtualization provides resource isolation so that each operating system does not realize that it is sharing resources with another operating system and does not adversely affect the execution of the other operating system. Such system virtualization enables applications including server consolidation, co-located hosting facilities, distributed web services, applications mobility, secure computing platforms, and other applications that provide for efficient use of underlying hardware resources.
Existing virtualization systems, such as those provided by VMWare and Microsoft, have developed relatively sophisticated virtualization systems that are architected as a monolithic virtualization software system that hosts each virtualized system. In other words, these virtualization systems are constructed to host each of the virtualized systems on a particular computing platform. As such, the virtualization systems or virtual machine monitors (VMMs) associate hardware resources of a particular platform with each partition. Typically, this involves sharing of resources across multiple partitions. For example, two partitions may share a same processor and memory resource (although may be separated by address ranges or otherwise maintained to ensure isolated memory management). Furthermore, two such partitions may also share input/output devices, such as keyboards, mice, printing ports, Ethernet ports, or other communications interfaces.
Although such arrangements are possible, they are sub-optimal in a number of respects. For example, because each virtual machine lacks knowledge of other virtual machines, it is possible, if not likely, that each virtual machine may utilize the underlying resources of the host system in a way that negatively affects other partitions on the same host system. For example, a particularly bandwidth-intensive application in one partition may cause that partition to utilize the majority of bandwidth available to the host computing system on which the partitition hosting the application resides. In such situations, other partitions on the host computing system may have only limited bandwidth available to them, when they would otherwise expect to have substantially greater available bandwidth. In still other arrangements, partitions may be designated as backups for one another on different host systems, for example for purposes of data reliability and uptime. However, even in these scenarios, the different partitions that may be backups of one another must be managed, such that in the event of a failure of a primary partition, the secondary partition can resume operation. Furthermore, although this may be the case for guest partition redundancy, redundancy of system operational partitions, in particular across host systems, is limited in current systems, Additionally, in cases where partitions are able to intercommunicate, such partitions may not have adequate security with respect to other partitions or systems that are within the same fabric, but which should not necessarily be authorized to intercommunicate.


A method is provided for detecting moisture in a sterilization chamber or other enclosure (including moisture present on the external or lumened surfaces of an instrument or other load placed in the enclosure). The method includes the steps of exhausting air from the enclosure under vacuum until the pressure in the enclosure is reduced from a starting pressure to a predetermined subatmospheric pressure which is above the saturation pressure of water, and then a second predetermined subatmospheric pressure which is below the saturation pressure of water or other liquid. The times taken to reach each pressure from the starting pressure are measured and their difference is calculated and compared to a reference time difference pre-established for a dry system (or, alternatively, in a known, leak-free system, only the pull-down time period to reach the second subatmospheric pressure is measured and compared to a pre-recorded reference pull-down time for a dry system).

In general, the various lumens of an endoscope that has been used on a patient are first cleaned with brushes that remove gross debris, like fecal matter, and are then flushed with a liquid such as alcohol or water, and dried with pressurized air forced through the lumens. The outside surfaces of the endoscope are then wiped dry with a lint-free cloth.
Occasionally, an instrument may not be thoroughly dried or the drying step may be skipped accidentally altogether. Thus, moisture on the internal or external surfaces of the instrument may be inadvertently introduced into the sterilization system. Water splashed accidentally into the chamber may also increase the level of moisture present when sterilization begins.
It is generally desired to limit the amount of moisture present in a vapor phase sterilization system. Water in the sterilization chamber, or on the internal or external surfaces of a load placed in the chamber, may act as a barrier and prevent sterilant vapor from effectively contacting the surfaces to be sterilized. Also, water may cause condensation of the liquid sterilant, thereby diluting the concentration of sterilant vapor and reducing its efficacy or requiring longer kill times. In addition, condensed sterilant, such as liquid hydrogen peroxide, may degrade or harm the contents of the sterilization chamber. Synthetic materials employed in flexible endoscopes, for example, may be degraded by condensed hydrogen peroxide.
When a sterilant vapor such as hydrogen peroxide, which is a strong oxidizer and corrosive to a wide range of metals, is employed, a conventional humidity detector, which directly senses humidity levels, should not be employed. The corrosive vapors may easily damage or destroy such a humidity detector.
There is a need for a method of accurately detecting moisture levels in a vapor phase sterilization system, to alert the user to remove any excess water (i.e.. an amount of water that is unacceptable for the intended application) before sterilization proceeds. There is a further need for an indirect method of detecting moisture in a sterilization system employing a corrosive vapor sterilant.

Method of detecting liquid in a sterilization system


A head space inserting system is used in a packaging machine for forming, filling and sealing packages. The inerting system directly introduces an inerting gas into the head space of the formed package subsequent to filling and prior to sealing. The inerting system includes an inerting gas source, an inerting gas heater to heat the inerting gas and an inerting gas nozzle. The inerting gas nozzle is disposed within the form, fill and seal packaging machine to introduce the inerting gas directly into the head space of the packages. The nozzle is further disposed between the top heating station and the sealing station. A method for inerting an atmosphere in the package head space is also disclosed.

This invention pertains to an apparatus for providing an inert environment in a gable top carton head space. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a form, fill and seal packaging machine that provides an inert gas in the head space area of a sealed gable top carton and a method for providing the inert environment.
Gable top cartons are in widespread use. In one typical use, these cartons are used for storing liquid food products such as milk, juice and the like. Numerous advances have been made in the manufacture and construction of gable top cartons. These advances include the incorporation of sealable spouts which provide ease of access, i.e., pouring, as well as enhanced reseal capabilities. Consumers have come to expect such enhanced carton designs and demand these increased performance characteristics.
In order to provide increased shelf life and "freshness" of product, form, fill and seal packaging machines presently incorporate various sterilization features. These features generally reduce or eliminate the microbes, such as bacteria, yeast and molds that might otherwise be associated with a packaging operation. It has been found that such sterilization steps can increase the shelf life of product so that fresh product can be provided in markets having less than optimal distribution systems.
It is well-known that although oxygen is a necessary part of our environment, it provides an optimum environment for the growth of microbes such as bacteria. To this end, regardless of the degree to which packages or cartons can be sterilized, the oxygen head space (that is oxygen within the volume of the carton that is not taken up by product), can provide an environment for microbial growth, and otherwise adversely effect the chemical composition of the product.
It has also been observed that oxygen can tend to take away from the flavor of certain products. For example, it has been found that oxygen that is present in the head space of cartons containing certain juices, such as orange juice can adversely effect the flavor of the juice. This is due to the natural oxidizing effect of oxygen. It has also been observed that such oxidizing can adversely effect the nutritional characteristics of juices and the like, again, by the natural deleterious effect that oxygen has on, among others, B vitamins and vitamin C.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an apparatus and method for providing an inert atmosphere or environment within the head space of a carton formed and filled on a form, fill, and seal packaging machine. Desirably, such an apparatus and method provides an environment that reduces or eliminates microbial growth within the package. Most desirably, such an apparatus and method provides an environment that enhances flavor retention and the nutritional characteristics of the packaged product, and maintains the hygienic and sterility levels and standards of the packaged product.

Method for inerting gable top carton head space


Apparatus for directing steam against one side of a running web of fibrous material has a housing defining one or more steam chambers and having walls which surround the chamber or chambers. One of the walls is apertured and is located at the path for the web to direct jets of steam toward successive increments of the running web. The steam is dried prior to admission into the chamber or chambers via one or more adjustable valves, and at least one wall of the housing is heated by dried and/or undried steam in order to reduce the likelihood of condensation of steam in the chamber or chambers.

The invention relates to improvements in apparatus for discharging fluids, and more particularly to improvements in apparatus for directing jets of a fluid, such as compressed steam, toward successive increments of a running web of paper or the like. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus of the type disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,915,788 (granted Apr. 10, 1990) and 5,059,285 (granted Oct. 22, 1991) to Stefan H. Winheim. The disclosures of these patents are incorporated herein by reference.
The patents to Winheim disclose an apparatus wherein a housing defines a plurality of chambers each of which receives steam from a discrete valve. The housing has a wall which is adjacent one side of the path for movement of a running web of moisture-containing fibrous material. Such wall has numerous apertures which discharge jets of steam toward the running web. Additional walls of the housing are designed to cooperate with the apertured wall to completely enclose the chambers.
The purpose of the patented apparatus is to raise the temperature of the running web of fibrous material (e.g., in a paper making machine) and to thus promote expulsion of moisture from the web. The patented apparatus can be used with equal or similar advantage in certain types of paper finishing or processing machines, e.g., in so-called soft compact calenders wherein a running web of paper or the like is caused to advance through one or more nips each of which is defined by two neighboring calender rolls. It is often necessary to contact a running paper web with steam ahead of a nip in a soft compact calender wherein the web is to undergo a smoothing or another quality-improving action. The just outlined calenders employ soft rolls which are subject to wear and must be replaced or repaired at certain intervals. The period of time which is required to replace a damaged or spent soft roll in a soft compact calender is in the range of ten times n minutes wherein n normally equals or approximates two Thus, the treatment of a web must be interrupted for an interval of twenty minutes or so. In other words, the chambers of the aforementioned apparatus are sealed from the source of hot steam for an equal period of time which results in cooling and condensation of steam that remains confined in the chambers while the operation of the calender is interrupted for a period of approximately twenty minutes. Though the apparatus of Winheim are equipped with means for evacuating condensate from the chambers, a certain period of time subsequent to restarting of the calender is required in order to refill the chambers with fresh steam and to heat the condensate (if any) which has remained in the chambers in spite of the provision of the aforementioned evacuating means. Heating of the condensate results in conversion into hot steam which is ready to be directed through the apertures of the respective wall of the housing to impinge upon the running web or to be admitted into a treating zone between the outer side of the apertured wall and the adjacent side of the path for the running web. As a rule, the quantities of steam which must be directed against a running web in a soft compact calender are relatively small; therefore, the energy contents of such steam do not always suffice to ensure reconversion of condensed steam into steam which is ready to contact the running web. This results in entrainment of droplets of condensed steam by freshly admitted steam, and such droplets act not unlike small missiles or projectiles whose inertia suffices to puncture the running web. Moreover, some droplets of entrained condensed steam deposit on the surface of a soft roll and cooperate with the adjacent hard roll of the soft compact calender to perforate the web in the nip between the soft roll and the hard roll. Such undesirable circumstances are likely to prevail for a reasonably long interval of time subsequent to starting of the calender so that a rather long portion of the running web must be discarded before the expulsion of last traces of condensed steam from the chambers of the apparatus is completed.
German patent application No. 22 03 973 of Pagendarm (published Aug. 9, 1973) discloses a method of and an apparatus for moistening a running web. The apparatus of Pagendarm employs conduits which discharge steam directly against one side of the running web at a location where the other side of the web is contacted by a heated roller or by other propping means. The conduits extend along the inner side of a wall structure which surrounds a compartment. Steam which is discharged by the conduits is caused to rebound and to enter the compartment. The wall structure is or can be heated for the purpose of reducing the likelihood of condensation of steam which enters the compartment subsequent to impingement upon the running web. Alternatively, Pagendarm proposes to provide means for evacuation of condensed steam from the compartment wherein the running web is contacted by steam issuing directly from a plurality of conduits. The proposal of Pagendarm results in considerable reduction of the quantity of condensed steam which can drip onto the running web. However, such undertakings are of no assistance during starting of the apparatus of Pagendarm, i.e., steam which is discharged by the conduits when the operation of the apparatus is restarted is likely to entrain some condensate from the compartment into actual contact with the restarted web.
International patent application No. WO 91/14045 of Sawley et al. (published on Sep. 19, 1991, i.e., subsequent to the priority date of the present application) discloses a steam shower which is to be applied to the upper side of a running web. A steam supplying conduit is provided to admit steam into two channels of pipes One of these channels or pipes serves to heat a set of series-connected steam chambers, and the other channel or pipe serves to admit steam into the first chamber of the set. The apparatus of Sawley et al. exhibits the drawback that droplets of condensed steam are likely to issue from the steam supplying conduit when the operation of the apparatus is restarted. Therefore, the inventors propose to employ screens which consist of wire mesh or the like and are installed in the path of inflowing steam to serve as a means for intercepting the droplets of condensate ahead of the path for the running web. Thus, the proposal of Sawley et al. is intended to prevent existing condensate from reaching the web rather than to prevent the development of droplets of condensed steam.

Apparatus for contacting running paper webs with dried steam


A decoding apparatus for low density parity check codes includes a variable-to-check message generator and a check-to-variable message generator. The variable-to-check message generator includes a variable-to-check processing unit block, provided with an adder, and which is arranged between registers corresponding to locations of ‘1’s in a check matrix. The check-to-variable message generator includes a check-to-variable processing unit block, provided with a comparator, between registers corresponding to locations of ‘1’s in the check matrix. The decoding apparatus for low density parity check codes is simple in configuration and is able to perform high speed processing without using RAMs without the necessity of performing complex control operations.

In satellite communication systems or mobile communication systems, an error correction coding technique, having a large code gain, is being introduced to meet requirements for system configurations, such as reduction of the required power or the antenna size. The low density parity check code is known as an error correction code having a very large code gain and is increasingly adopted for use in a variety of communication systems and recording devices, such magnetic recording devices.
The low density parity check code does not designate a single error correction coding system, but collectively denotes an error correction code system featured in that a check matrix is sparse, that is, elements of the check matrix are mostly 0, with the number of the elements 1 being extremely small.
The low density parity check code is featured by the fact that, by using an iterative decoding system, such as a sum-product algorithm or a min-sum algorithm, with selection of a sparse check matrix, an error correction coding system can be constructed which has an extremely large code gain close to a theoretical limit (see Non-Patent Publication 1 and Non-Patent Publication 2, for instance).
The decoding apparatus for the low density parity check code performs the operation of updating a variable-to-check message by a variable-node processor and the operation of updating a check-to-variable message by a check-node processor, in alternation with each other. After updating each message a preset number of times, the estimated result of the transmission data is obtained from the check-to-variable message and the received data (see Non-Patent Publication 2 and Non-Patent Publication 3, for instance).    Non-Patent Publication 1: Robert G. Gallager, 'Low Density Parity Check Codes', United States, MIT Press, 1963, pp. 39-56    Non-Patent Publication 2: David J. C. MacKay, 'Good Error-Correcting Codes Based on Very Sparse Matrices, United States, IEEE Transactions on formation Theory), Vol. 45, No. 2, March 1999, p 399-431    Non-Patent Publication 3: Jinghu Chen and Marc P. C. Fossorier, 'Near Optimum Universal Belief Propagation Based Decoding of Low-Density Parity Check Codes', United States, IEEE Transactions on Communications), Vol. 50, No. 3, March 2002, pp. 406-414


An intake air control device, which is mounted to a fixed member, includes a throttle body and a throttle valve. The throttle body defines an intake air passage. The throttle valve is rotatably supported in the throttle body to control an amount of intake air flowing through the intake air passage. The throttle body includes a cylindrical portion, a plurality of fixed portions, and a strain absorbing portion. The cylindrical portion defines the intake air passage that accommodates the throttle valve. The plurality of fixed portions are connected to the fixed member. The strain absorbing portion connects the cylindrical portion with the plurality of fixed portions to absorb displacement arising in the plurality of fixed portions. The strain absorbing portion is a deformable connecting arm that connects to the cylindrical portion in a location, which is apart from a radially inner periphery of the plurality of fixed portions.

A throttle body is mounted to a fixed member, such as an intake manifold of an internal combustion engine. The fixed member has a connecting portion such as a connecting face that may be varied in dimension due to manufacturing tolerance or aging. A conventional throttle valve has a cylindrical portion forming an intake air passage. The cylindrical portion may deform due to strain arising in the fixed member.
Accordingly, a shut off position of a conventional throttle valve is set at a position in which the throttle valve slightly opens relative to a position, in which the throttle valve makes contact with the cylindrical portion, considering a variation in dimension. In this structure, leakage of intake air increases in the shut off position. Besides, when the shut off position is set at a position, in which the throttle valve is further closed, seizure may occur between the throttle valve and the inner wall of the cylindrical portion. By contrast, when leakage of intake air is large in a condition, in which the throttle valve is in the shut off position, the engine may not be capable of adapting to a low idling standard of the engine for reduction in fuel consumption.
In addition, a throttle body of an intake air control device is conventionally formed of a metallic material such as aluminum. However, in recent years, a throttle body is formed of resin for reduction in cost and weight.
The resinous throttle body is apt to deform due to its material property. Accordingly, strain of the fixed member may be transmitted to a cylindrical member, which receives a throttle valve, via a flange in the throttle body, and the cylindrical member may be deformed. Here, the flange of the throttle body is a sealing collar portion that includes multiple fixed portions to be connected to the fixed member. When the cylindrical member deforms, leakage of intake air may increase, and seizure may occur between the throttle valve and the inner surface of the cylindrical portion.
According to conventional structures disclosed in JP-A-10-280981, JP-A-11-013562, and JP-A-11-062739, as shown in FIG. 13, a thin wall portion J5, which is a low rigidity portion for absorbing strain, is provided between a fixed portion J2 and a cylindrical portion J4. The fixed portion J2 is fixed to the fixed member using a securing member such as a bolt and a screw J3. When strain is transmitted from the connecting portion of the securing member J3 to the fixed portion J2, the thin wall portion J5 is deformed, so that the strain is restricted from being transmitted to the cylindrical portion J4.
However, the thin wall portion J5 can be formed to be only a small portion between the fixed portion J2 and the cylindrical portion J4. Accordingly, the thin wall portion J5 may not sufficiently absorb strain. Therefore, strain transmitted to the fixed portion J2 may be further transmitted to the cylindrical portion J4 via the thin wall portion J5. As a result, the cylindrical portion J4 may be deformed.

Intake air control device having strain absorbing structure


A ROM built in a controller is provided with a guide information memory storing information display data for displaying information about methods of operating an embroidery device, and an additional information memory storing additional information display data for displaying additional information, such as information to be displayed during a stitching operation. A ROM included in an external ROM card is provided with a guide information memory storing guide information about the latest embroidery patterns and optionally available devices. During an embroidering operation for embroidering each of component color sections of an embroidery pattern, ordinary information to be displayed during a stitching operation is displayed on a display, and a plurality of images illustrating pieces of guide information about the latest embroidery patterns and optionally available devices are displayed sequentially at predetermined intervals to provide the operator with the latest information and to avoid boring the operator during the embroidering operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sewing and embroidering machine system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a sewing and embroidering machine system capable of sequentially displaying pieces of guide information including a method of operating an embroidery system during each stitching operation.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional electronically controlled sewing and embroidering machine for home use comprises a stitching mechanism which includes a needle driven for vertical reciprocation and a looper for forming a loop in cooperation with the needle, an embroidery frame driving mechanism for moving an embroidery frame detachably holding a workpiece (cloth) in two perpendicularly intersecting directions, a pattern data storage storing pattern data of a plurality of patterns such as vehicles, flowers and animals, a display, and a control panel. When the operator manipulates the control panel to display a desired embroidery pattern on the display for pattern selection and to make the sewing machine stitch the selected embroidery pattern, the driving mechanism is controlled on the basis of the pattern data of the selected embroidery pattern. The driving mechanism and the stitching mechanism cooperate to stitch the selected embroidery pattern in a plurality of colors on the workpiece held on the embroidery frame.
During the embroidering operation using a plurality of color threads to stitch a colorful embroidery pattern, stitching information about the embroidering operations including a plurality of component color sections to be embroidered respectively with the plurality of color threads, and time necessary to embroider the component color sections of the embroidery pattern in which the embroidering operation is in progress is displayed in addition to the selected pattern on the display. Upon each completion of forming stitches in one of the component color sections of the embroidery pattern, the stitching operation is stopped and the information displayed on the display is changed to display information about operations for forming stitches in the next component color section of the embroidery pattern. This necessitates the operator to watch the information displayed on the display continually, to check the pattern being stitched, and to confirm that the thread is not broken, i.e., to confirm that the stitching operation is not interrupted.
When embroidering a component color section of an embroidery pattern selected from the plurality of component color sections of the embroidery patterns, the stitching operation is stopped and information displayed on the display changes each time the stitching operation for embroidering the component color section pattern is completed. However, as long as the stitching operation for embroidering the same component color section pattern continues, substantially the same information is displayed continuously on the display for a long period, e.g., ten or fifteen minutes, thus boring the operator.

Sewing and embroidering machine system capable of changing display image during each stitching operation


A gear and shaft assembly that translates the bevel of a power tool to an indicator more easily readable by an operator provides a front bevel indicator and locking mechanism. A locking mechanism is conveniently placed within reach of the operator and directly controls the motion of the gear assembly. The front bevel indicator may provide a higher resolution of the tilt angle by selection of the various gear ratios of the gears that translate the bevel position of the power tool mounted in the rear to the front of the mount of the power tool.

Miter saws are power saws that have bevel housings to permit the saw blades to produce angled cuts. Most miter saws have a knob at the rear of the tool where the rotation of the bevel housing occurs that allows a user to lock the bevel of the saw blade. A scale mounted near the bevel housing measures the bevel. As the upper arm of the saw blade is rotated through 45-degree angle (single bevel version) or a 90-degree angle (dual bevel version), a pointer on the scale is moved through an identical amount of angular rotation.
The placement of the scale at the rear of the tool and the size of the scale makes it difficult to accurately read the tilt angle. Reaching to the back of the tool mounting to latch a bevel is inconvenient.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a miter saw having a front bevel indicator with a good resolution and to provide an easily accessible latch mechanism for setting the bevel.


A robotic charging station for charging a battery of an electric vehicle includes a base plate, a riser coupled with the base plate and extending substantially transverse to the base plate, and a robotic arm. The robotic arm extends from the riser and supports an end effector. The end effector includes a plurality of electrical contacts configured to couple with a receptacle disposed on the electric vehicle. The robotic arm is configured to move the end effector in three degrees of motion.

Various types of automotive vehicles, such as electric vehicles (EVs), extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are equipped with an energy storage system that requires periodic charging. Typically, this energy storage system may be charged by connecting it to a power source, such as an AC supply line. While it may be advantageous to re-charge the vehicle's energy storage system before or after each vehicle use, current systems require the vehicle operator to manually plug the supply line into the vehicle. Such manual operation may not always be convenient for the vehicle operator, which may result in missed charging instances and/or subsequently degraded vehicle performance.

Robotically operated vehicle charging station


A flow channel switching valve is provided including a stator and a rotor inside a housing, in which the rotor is rotated by a rotor drive portion while sliding on the stator. A rotor drive shaft holding the rotor is biased to a housing top side by an elastic member. A drive shaft stopper is provided that limits movement when the rotor drive shaft moves to the housing top side from a normal position when a housing top is attached to a housing body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flow channel switching valve for use in, for example, an auto-sampler that introduces a sample to an analysis flow channel of a liquid chromatograph.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example, in an auto-sampler that introduces a sample to an analysis flow channel of a liquid chromatograph, after the sample is taken into a sample loop from a sample container, the sample loop is connected to an upstream side of a separation column in the analysis flow channel by switching of a flow channel switching valve, which allows the sample in the sample loop to be transported to a separation column side by a mobile phase flowing in the analysis flow channel.
As the flow channel switching valve for use in the liquid chromatograph, a rotary type switching valve is common. The rotary type switching valve switches a connected flow channel by rotating a rotor (rotary part) (e.g., refer to Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2008-215494).
In the rotary type switching valve, a plurality of connection ports for connecting flow channel piping are provided in an upper portion of a housing, and a rotor and a stator (stationary part) are contained inside the housing. In the housing, the upper portion (hereinafter, a housing top) of the housing provided with the connection ports is detachable from a body of the housing (hereinafter, a housing body), and the exchange of parts such as the rotor, the stator, and the like is performed in a state where the housing top is detached from the housing body. The rotor and the stator are in contact with each other in a state where planes thereof keep liquid tightness with each other, and the stator is fixed by a pin or the like so as not to rotate with respect to a housing side. The connection ports communicate with the rotor through flow channels provided in the housing and holes of the stator. A groove forming a flow channel connecting between the connection ports is provided in a surface on a stator side of the rotor, and driving and rotating the rotor while sliding on the stator changes a position of the groove, thereby switching connection between the connection ports. There is also a rotary type switching valve in which a stator is integrated with the housing top.
The rotor is held by a forefront portion of a rotor drive shaft extending to a housing top side from a housing body side. A rotational mechanism that rotates the rotor drive shaft, such as a motor and the like, is provided on a base end side of the rotor drive shaft, and rotating the rotor drive shaft allows the rotor to be rotated. In order to keep the liquid tightness between the rotor and the stator, generally, a spring extendable in an axial direction of the rotor drive shaft is contained in a compressed state inside the housing body, and biases the rotor drive shaft to the housing top side by an elastic force of the spring, which increases a contact pressure between the rotor and the stator.
When inspection of an inside of the valve or exchange of consumable stores such as the rotor and the like are performed, the housing top needs to be detached from the housing body. The housing top is attached to the housing body by a plurality of bolts, and when the bolts are loosened, the spring pushing the rotor drive shaft to the housing top side tries to return to a natural length, thereby largely lifting the rotor drive shaft, and at this time, there may be posed problems that a contact pressure applied to the rotor is largely biased, thereby damaging the rotor, and the like. Thus, the respective bolts need to be loosened evenly little by little (e.g., by 90° or the like), and the detachment of the housing top needs to be performed carefully. Similarly, when the housing top is attached to the housing body, the bolts need to be fastened carefully to make the contact pressure on the rotor even.


A method can comprise parsing a PDF file to collect a plurality of primitive objects. The method can also comprise iteratively joining a subset of the plurality of primitive objects to form editable design objects for a corresponding design file.

Portable Document Format (PDF) is an open standard for document exchange. The file format can be used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system. Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout 2D document that includes the text, fonts, images, and 2D vector graphics which compose the documents. In some examples, three-dimensional drawings can be embedded in PDF documents. PDF files can be comprised of objects such as Boolean values, numbers, text strings, etc. Objects of a PDF file can be either direct (embedded in another object) or indirect. Indirect objects can be numbered with an object number and a generation number.

Systems and methods for converting a PDF file

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Systems, methods, and media for providing visual indication of a blade configuration are disclosed. Embodiments may include a visual blade configuration system with a chassis and a plurality of hot pluggable blades, where each blade is adapted to be physically connected to one or more other blades, where the physically connected blades each form a visual indication device (VID) assembly. Embodiments may also include where each blade has one or more visual indication devices (VIDs) each having a plurality of states, where each of the visual indication devices changes its state to provide a visual indication of the VID assembly associated with its attached blade. The plurality of states may include different colors, alphanumeric characters, images, symbols, patterns, number of active elements, actions, animations, etc. In a further embodiment, each visual indication device may potentially change its state in response to detection of addition or removal of a blade.

In today's environment, a server computer system often includes several components, such as the server itself, hard drives, or other peripheral devices. These components are generally stored in racks. For a large organization, the storage racks can number in the hundreds and occupy huge amounts of expensive floor space. Also, because the components are generally free standing components (i.e., they are not integrated), resources such as disk drives, keyboards, and monitors cannot easily be shared. Blade servers have been developed to bundle the server computer system described above into a compact operating unit. A blade server may be a high-density, rack-mounted packaging architecture for servers that provides input/output (I/O), systems management, and power to individual blades. Blades may include servers, processor nodes, storage nodes, or other components and may each plug into and operationally connect to the blade server to share in resources such as power, cooling, network connectivity, management functions, and access to other shared resources (such as a front-panel or CD-ROM drive). 'Sidecar' blades may also be attached to other parent blades to provide additional functionality to the parent blade. Child 'sidecars' may be stacked more than one deep and may include storage add-ons, PCI expansion add-ons, special function (e.g., daughter cards) add-ons, etc.
In server design, as in the design of many other types of computer systems, there is a trend towards higher densities of components. For example, it is often desirable to put a greater number of server blades into a package of given size. One feature of blade servers is that individual blades may be 'hot swapped' without affecting the operation of other blades in the system. An administrator or other user may simply remove one blade (such as one that is inoperable or that will be replaced) and place another in its place. Such flexibility, however, comes at the price of additional complexity as to the current configuration of a system. When combined with the higher densities of modern systems, users may have difficulty determining the current configuration of the blades in a blade server. This problem may be exacerbated by the typical chassis design that keeps hidden from the user the connections between blades and sidecars when such components are installed. Child sidecars may be smaller than, larger than, or the same size as a parent blade and may be stacked to the left, right, above, or below its parent blade. In some cases, the child sidecar may be another blade. Particularly when combined with the fact that sidecars may be stacked on top of each other, it is often difficult to determine which blade components are attached to which. This causes problems, for example, when a user decides to change the blade configuration just by looking at the physical devices as they cannot easily determine the current configuration. The difficulty in determining the current configuration of blades and sidecars can result in frustration, wasted time in trying to determine the configuration, and wasted resources when sidecars are not properly utilized.
One solution to this problem is for users to physically pull out a blade in order to ascertain which other blades and sidecars to which it is connected. Besides the time-consuming nature of this solution, such a solution does not provide an effective indication of sidecars that are not attached to any blade. A retracted blade also is not providing functionality while it is retracted. Moreover, a user would have to repeat the task of manually pulling out each blade if they forgot the configuration, and other users (e.g., other administrators from different shifts) would also have to perform the same task. Another solution would be to record (such as in a notebook) an indication of the current blade configuration, but such a solution is inefficient and prone to errors when administrators forget to update the log. There is, therefore, a need for an effective and efficient system to provide an indication of the configuration of blades that does not require retraction of the blades.

International Business Machines Corporation


An instrument panel assembly for a passenger compartment is provided, including an instrument panel surface, a light emitter that emits a light beam so that the light beam extends along a beam path, and a light receiver that senses the light beam and detects a desired instrument setting change.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to an instrument panel assembly. More specifically, the invention relates to a light emitter and a light receiver that cooperate to detect a desired instrument setting change.
2. Related Technology
An instrument panel for the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle passenger compartment or in an aircraft cockpit typically has a plurality of instrument display components that display various vehicle settings and conditions, such as speed, mileage, and fuel level. During the operation of the vehicle, the vehicle occupant may desire to change an instrument setting, such as to reset a trip odometer or to switch the units of measurement of the display component. Direct access to a display component, however, is difficult because the instrument panel typically includes a base panel supporting the instrument display component(s) and a transparent protective cover spaced apart from the base panel to protect the instrument display components from accidental contact and to prevent dirt and dust from collecting thereon.
To make these components accessible to the vehicle operator, a mechanically-actuated instrument control member typically extends from the base panel, across a gap distance, and through an opening in the protective cover. A typical control member is an elongated, generally cylindrical, rod or knob that is able to be rotated and/or depressed by the vehicle operator to change a vehicle display setting. One common mode of operation is for this type of knob to be rotated to change an odometer display between a "trip odometer mode" and a "vehicle odometer mode" and to be depressed to reset the trip odometer.
This type and other types of mechanically-actuated instrument control members typically must extend across the gap distance between the respective panels, which may be aesthetically undesirable. Furthermore, the opening in the protective panel for the knob may allow dirt or other debris to gain access to and collect on the surface instrument display components.
Another type of instrument control assembly utilizes an optoelectronic keypad to detect desired instrument setting changes. More specifically, as disclosed in U.S. Application Publication No. 2003/0090470, published on May 15, 2003, an optoelectronic keyboard is spaced apart from a light emitter and a light receiver, which are adjacent to each other. The light emitter emits light towards a keyboard surface in a direction that is perpendicular thereto when the keyboard is in its natural resting position. Therefore, the light is reflected back to the light emitter (as opposed to being reflected to the light receiver) when the keyboard is in its natural resting position. However, when a user depresses a portion of the keyboard during operation of the control assembly, the keyboard surface is deflected and the light emanating from the light emitter is reflected in multiple, random directions. The light receiver is positioned along on the path of one or more of the deflected directions so as to receive the light and complete an electrical connection between the light emitter and the light sensor. This type of control assembly, however, may fail to complete the electrical connection due to unpredictable or inconsistent light deflection based on slight variations in the position of the user's finger when depressing the keyboard and based on slight variations in the depressing force used. Furthermore, multiple light receivers to receive the unpredictable light may increase the complexity and/or increase the component cost of the assembly.
It is therefore desirous to provide an instrument control assembly that consistently and accurately detects a desired instrument setting change while having a relatively simple, low cost design and an aesthetically pleasing design.


Disclosed are various embodiments of a flexible application-level partitioning scheme for data storage components. A data store is accessible by one or more computing devices and includes multiple partitions. One of the partitions is identified by mapping a key value of a data item to one of the partitions according to one of multiple versions of mapping metadata. Each of the versions of mapping metadata specifies a respective list of some or all of the partitions and an approach for mapping the key value to one of the partitions. The data item is inserted into the identified partition.

Partitioning of data may refer to a division of a data store or its constituent elements into distinct independent parts. Partitioning of data storage components may be done, for example, to improve manageability, performance, and/or availability. For example, in horizontal partitioning, various ranges of data records may be stored in multiple tables instead of a single table. In vertical partitioning, various attributes of a data record may be distributed among multiple tables.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An enhanced heat transposer comprised is of a vapor chamber. The surface of the vapor chamber that holds the fluid comprises an array of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that are grown in a way that enables the fluid to come into maximum contact with the CNTs. The fluid evaporates in the sealed vapor chamber when it is in touch with a hot surface. The vapor comes in contact with a hollow pin-fin structure that provides additional surface area for vapor cooling and heat transfer. The condensed vapor then drops back into the fluid container, and the cycle continues.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to heat sinks. More specifically, the invention relates to heat sink comprising a vapor chamber.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
State of the art heat sinks have the ability to transfer heat from a hot surface. Some of these heat sinks have a vapor chamber comprising a sealed compartment that contains a fluid. The fluid container is contacted to a hot surface, causing the fluid to boil. Vapors of the fluid expand and come in contact with a cool surface of the vapor chamber and condense on that surface, thereby transferring heat to that surface. As a result, heat is transferred from the hot surface to the cooler surface, thereby cooling the hot surface.
A primary aim of the various known solutions is to provide a low resistance path from the hot surface to the cool surface, so that heat is transferred from the hot surface as efficiently and effectively as possible. This is of particular importance in, for example, semiconductor devices where, at relatively low surface temperatures, the structures may be permanently damaged by excess heat.
Various designs and methods are provided in the prior art to achieve better contact between the hot surface and the vapor chamber.
Mok et al. suggest, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,180,179 and 7,002,247, a thermal interposer for the thermal management of semiconductor devices. The interposer comprises of an upper and lower plates, where both the upper and lower plates have grooves. The walls created by the lower plate extend to within less than 250 microns from the walls of the upper plate, thereby forming the separation required for the creation of a vapor chamber. In one embodiment of Mok et al., a section of the wick structure, e.g. grooves, and walls of the upper plate and/or the lower plate are covered with a layer of graphite foam, graphite fiber, or carbon nanotubes. Mok et al. note, specifically, that the upper plate and/or the lower plate are made of silicon, and the surfaces of the wick structure are further processed to deposit or otherwise add anisotropic graphite foam, graphite fiber, or carbon nanotubes (CNTs) onto them. In various embodiments, the graphite foam, graphite fiber, or CNTs cover some or all of the wick structures. Accordingly, this added layer of material increases the surface area to provide increased wicking action to return the vapor chamber fluid to the semiconductor chip where it is vaporized. Furthermore, the high thermal conductivity of the graphite foam, graphite fiber, or CNTs increases the performance of the Mok et al. thermal interposer. Unfortunately, the Mok et al. invention suffers from several deficiencies. First, growing CNTs on an uneven surface that comprises grooves is complex due to different growth orientations. Second, attachment of the CNTs to the surface is not guaranteed due to the uneven surface. Third, a dense population of CNTs may result in a limited ability of the fluid to make actual contact with a maximal surface area of CNTs, thereby loosing its effectiveness. Last, the length of the CNTs is limited due to the 250 microns or less distance between the walls, further reducing the possible effective surface area coming into contact with the vapor fluid.
Therefore, due to the limitations and/or deficiencies of the prior art, it would be advantageous to provide a vapor chamber heat sink that benefits from the use of CNTs as an effective heat conducting medium.

Vapor chamber heat sink having a carbon nanotube fluid interface


A casing for forming a rippled meat product includes a generally tubular stockinette fabric integrally knitted with a restrictive structure. The restrictive structure may include one or more helical threads. The differential expansion of the stockinette and the restrictive structure when the casing is stuffed creates a helical bulge in the surface of the meat product. The restrictive structure may include a chain of longitudinal connections that promote a decrease in the longitudinal spacing of the turns of the helical thread in response to the radial expansion of the helical thread during stuffing. Such a restrictive structure also facilitates a method for releasing the casing from the meat product following processing by severing the endmost connection in the chain. Alternatively or in addition, the restrictive structure may include a series of longitudinal jumps that similarly promote a decrease in the longitudinal spacing of the turns of the helical thread in response to the radial expansion of the helical thread during stuffing. The resulting slack or bunching in the stockinette fabric between adjacent turns or circumferential loops of the helical thread allows the meat to bulge outwardly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to knitted casings or nettings for encasing meat products during processing and, more specifically, to a casing comprising a stockinette integrally formed with one or more circumferential ribs for forming a meat product having a rippled or ribbed appearance.
2. Description of the Related Art
Meat products, such as hams, poultry and the like, are traditionally encased in a netting during the cooking and/or smoking processes. The meat tends to bulge through the netting, forming a visually pleasing pattern or texture of squares on the surface of the product when the netting is removed following processing. The extent to which the meat bulges through the netting depends upon its consistency and is difficult to control. As a result, in many meat products, portions of netting may become embedded in the meat during processing and hamper removal of the netting. The problem is particularly acute in forming products from raw meat mixtures in ground or emulsion form. To overcome this problem, the raw meat mixture may be stuffed into a casing made of a suitable synthetic, collagen, or knitted material prior to being encased in the netting. A knitted fabric casing is generally known as a stockinette. The finely knitted fabric stockinette is especially advantageous because it is permeable to smoke yet not sufficiently porous to allow the meat particles to penetrate it.
Practitioners in the art have improved upon the above-described process involving a stockinette and netting combination. U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,148 describes a casing comprising a finely knitted, relatively resilient or stretchable stockinette fabric integrally knitted with more widely spaced longitudinal and circumferential strands that are made of a heavier thread and are less resilient or stretchable. When the raw meat mixture is stuffed into the casing, the square areas of stockinette fabric bounded by the longitudinal and circumferential strands expand or stretch to a much greater extent than the strands, thereby forming the desirable pattern of square bulges on the surface of the meat.
A rippled surface texture resembling a series of annular bulges is desirable in certain types of ham products known as ripple hams or ribbed hams or, in certain regions of the United States, as Virginia hams. The most prevalent process comprises stuffing a raw meat mixture into a liquid-impermeable cook-in bag, placing the stuffed bag in a stainless steel mold having a concavely rippled interior surface texture, and cooking it in the mold. Following cooking, the product is removed from the mold and cook-in bag and chilled. To smoke the product, it is laid on a rack or hung in a stockinette in the smokehouse.
Handling, cleaning, maintaining and replacing stainless steel molds is uneconomical. It would be desirable to provide a method for forming rippled meat products that obviates the above-described molding step. These needs are satisfied by the novel method and casing of the present invention in the manner described below.

Casing and method for forming a rippled meat product


A switching circuit is configured to switch on/off a current that flows through a resonance circuit constituted by a primary winding of a transformer, a capacitance element, and an inductor that are connected in series. Electric power that is induced in a secondary winding of the transformer is rectified by a rectifier circuit. A switch is connected in parallel with the capacitance element. A control unit is configured to control the switching circuit and the switch. The control unit is configured to select a first operation in which an operation frequency of the switching circuit is controlled by switching off the switch, and select a second operation in which a period during which a current flows from the switching circuit to the primary winding of the transformer is controlled by switching on the switch.

Conventionally, electric power conversion devices are known that perform electric power conversion using a switching element and transmit electric power between an input and an output via a transformer. For example, a bidirectional DC/DC converter that transmits DC power bi-directionally is disclosed in JP 2011-234541 A (hereinafter referred to as "Document 1") as this type of electric power conversion device. The electric power conversion device described in Document 1 is provided with a primary circuit and a secondary circuit that sandwich a transformer.
The primary circuit and the secondary circuit each include a bridge circuit configured by a reverse conducting type semiconductor switch (switching element). The electric power conversion device can transmit desired DC power bi-directionally by controlling duty cycles (on duties) of the switching element of the primary circuit and the switching element of the secondary circuit.
Incidentally, although the electric power conversion device described in Document 1 can transmit desired DC power between the primary circuit and the secondary circuit by controlling the duty cycles of the switching elements, a voltage ratio between an input voltage and an output voltage depends on the winding ratio of the transformer. That is, the electric power conversion device described in Document 1 cannot output voltage by boosting the input voltage and only performs current adjustment, since bridge circuits are used in the primary circuit and the secondary circuit, and only the duty cycles are controlled.
On the other hand, an electric power conversion device that is used for utilizing electric power of a storage battery that is mounted in an automobile having an electric motor serving as a power source, a storage battery used by being attached to a building, or the like is required to have a function of adjusting a relationship between an input voltage and an output voltage over a wide range.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


The present invention relates to isolated and/or recombinant C-C Chemokine Receptor 3 (CKR-3, CCR3) proteins or polypeptides.

Chemokines, also referred to as intecrines, are soluble, low molecular weight members of the cytokine family which have chemoattractant function. Chemokines are capable of selectively inducing chemotaxis of the formed elements of the blood (other than red blood cells), including leukocytes such as monocytes, macrophages, eosinophils, basophils, mast cells, and lymphocytes, such as T cells, B cells, and polymorphonuclear leukocytes (neutrophils)). In addition to stimulating chemotaxis, other changes can be selectively induced by chemokines in responsive cells, including changes in cell shape, transient rises in the concentration of intracellular free calcium ([Ca2+]i), granule exocytosis, integrin upregulation, formation of bioactive lipids (e.g., leukotrienes) and respiratory burst, associated with leukocyte activation. Thus, the chemokines are early triggers of the inflammatory response, causing inflammatory mediator release, chemotaxis and extravasation to sites of infection or inflammation.
The chemokines characterized to date are related in primary structure. They share four conserved cysteines, which form disulphide bonds. cDNA cloning and biochemical characterization of several chemokines has revealed that the proteins have a leader sequence of 20-25 amino acids, which is cleaved upon secretion to yield a mature protein of approximately 92-99 amino acids. Based on the conserved cysteine motif, the family is divided into two branches, designated as the C-C chemokines (β chemokines) and the C-X-C chemokines (α chemokines), in which the first two conserved cysteines are adjacent or are separated by an intervening residue, respectively. Baggiolini, M. and C. A. Dahinden, Immunology Today, 15: 127-133 (1994)).
The C-X-C chemokines include a number of chemoattractants which are potent chemoattractants and activators of neutrophils, such as interleukin 8 (IL-8), PF4 and neutrophil-activating peptide 2 (NAP-2). The C-C chemokines include molecules such as human monocyte chemotactic proteins 1-3 (MCP-1, MCP-2 and MCP-3), RANTES (Regulated on Activation, Normal T Expressed and Secreted), and the macrophage inflammatory proteins 1α and 1β (MIP-1α and MIP-1β), which have been characterized as chemoattractants and activators of monocytes or lymphocytes, but do not appear to be chemoattractants for neutrophils. For example, recombinant RANTES is a chemoattractant for monocytes, as well as for memory T cells in vitro (Schall, T. J. et al., Nature, 347: 669-671 (1990)). More recently a chemokine called lymphotactin with a single cysteine pair in the molecule has been identified which attracts lymphocytes (Kelner, G. S., et al., Science, 266: 1395-1359 (1994)).
The C-C chemokines are of great interest because of their potential role in allergic inflammation. For example, MCP-1 induces exocytosis of human basophils, resulting in release of high levels of inflammatory mediators, such as histamine and leukotriene C4. Similarly, there is great interest in the receptors for the C-C chemokines, which trigger these cellular events in response to chemokine binding. A receptor for C-C chemokines has recently been cloned and is reported to bind MIP-1α and RANTES. Accordingly, this MIP-1α/RANTES receptor was designated C-C chemokine receptor 1 (CKR-1; Neote, K. et al., Cell, 72: 415-425 (1993); Horuk, R. et al., WO 94/11504, published May 26, 1994; Gao, J.-I. et al., J. Exp. Med., 177: 1421-1427 (1993)). An MCP-1 receptor has also been cloned (Charo, I. F. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 91: 2752 (1994)). This receptor, designated CKR-2, is reported to bind MCP-1 with high affinity and MCP-3 with lower affinity (Charo, I. F., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 91: 2752-2756 (1994)). CKR-2 has been shown to exist in two isoforms resulting from the use of an alternative splice site in isoform A producing a distinct cytoplasmic tail. Isoform B, which is not spliced in this region, has been shown to be a functional receptor for MCP-1 and MCP-3 in binding and signal transduction assays (Charo, I. F., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 91: 2752-2756 (1994); Myers, S. J., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 270: 5786-5792 (1995)). More recently, a new receptor called CKR-4 has been described; cRNA from this receptor was reported to produce a Ca2+ activated chloride current in response to MCP-1, MIP-1α, and RANTES when injected in to X. laevis oocytes (Power, C. A., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 270: 19495-19500 (1995)).
The MCP-1 receptor (CKR-2) and C-C chemokine receptor 1 are predicted to belong to a superfamily of seven transmembrane spanning G-protein coupled receptors (Gerard C., and Gerard, N. P., Annu. Rev. Immunol., 12: 775-808 (1994); Gerard C., and Gerard N. P., Curr. Opin. Immunol., 6: 140-145 (1994)). This family of G-protein coupled (serpentine) receptors comprises a large group of integral membrane proteins, containing seven transmembrane-spanning regions. The ligands of these receptors include a diverse group of molecules, including small biogenic amine molecules, such as epinephrine and norepinephrine, peptides, such as substance P and neurokinins, and larger proteins, such as chemokines. The receptors are coupled to G proteins, which are heterotrimeric regulatory proteins capable of binding GTP and mediating signal transduction from coupled receptors, for example, by the production of intracellular mediators.
The cloning and sequencing of two IL-8 receptor cDNAs reveals that these C-X-C receptor proteins also share sequence similarity with seven transmembrane-spanning G protein-coupled receptor proteins (Murphy P. M. and H. L. Tiffany, Science, 253: 1280-1283 (1991); Murphy et al., WO 93/06299; Holmes, W. E. et al., Science, 253: 1278-1280 (1991)). Additional receptors for chemotactic proteins such as anaphylatoxin C5a and bacterial formylated tripeptide fMLP have been characterized by cloning and been found to encode receptor proteins which also share sequence similarity to these seven transmembrane-spanning proteins (Gerard, N. P. and C. Gerard, Nature, 349: 614-617 (1991); Boulay, F. et al., Biochemistry, 29: 11123-11133 (1990)). Although a number of other proteins with significant sequence similarity and similar tissue and leukocyte subpopulation distribution to known chemokine receptors have been identified and cloned, the ligands for these receptors remain undefined. Thus, these proteins are referred to as orphan receptors.
The isolation and characterization of additional genes and the encoded receptors, and the characterization of the corresponding ligands, is essential to an understanding of the interaction of chemokines with their target cells and the events stimulated by this interaction, including chemotaxis and cellular activation of leukocytes.


A method and apparatus for reconfiguring a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) are directed to receiving an active set update message indicating that a mode of operation allowing a certain modulation scheme is enabled or disabled and performing at least one of: performing a MAC reset procedure, updating a set of reference enhanced transport format combination indicators (E-TFCIs) and associated power offsets, determining actions related to E-DPCCH boosting, modifying information related to an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH), and modifying an index that indicates an E-DCH transport block size table. The update message includes at least one modified information element (IE).

Higher-order modulation for the uplink (UL) has been introduced for some wireless communication networks. One example is Release 7 of the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) specifications. In these specifications, for example, a user equipment (UE) may operate (or not) in the 16-symbol quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) mode. When the UE operates in the 16QAM mode, it has to utilize one of several newly defined enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) transport block tables appropriate for transmitting at data rates up to the maximum rates allowed by 16QAM operation. When the UE does not operate in the 16QAM mode, it has to utilize one of the original E-DCH transport block tables.
In practical deployments, not all cells of a radio network are necessarily upgraded at the same time to support a new feature such as 16QAM operation. Therefore, it is likely that in initial deployment, some cells in the network will support the feature and other will not. As the UE moves within the network, it will have to add cells to and remove cells from its active set that may or may not support 16QAM operation. A cell that supports 16QAM operation can properly receive signals from a UE not operating in 16QAM mode. However, a cell not supporting 16QAM operation can not properly receive signals from a UE operating in 16QAM mode. For this reason, a modification to the active set update procedure has been introduced whereby the network can signal to the UE whether it should start or stop 16QAM operation. The network would typically signal to the UE to stop 16QAM operation when a cell not supporting 16QAM operation is added to the active set, and may signal to the UE to start 16QAM operation when all cells in its active set support it.
Although this modification allows the network to signal the start or stop of 16QAM operation to the UE, the UE still does not have all the information it needs to properly switch between the two modes of operation. When switching operation, the UE cannot use some E-DCH configuration parameters as they are currently defined.
Additionally, when these parameters are changed, the enhanced media access control (MAC-e) needs to flush the UL hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) buffers which contain MAC-e PDUs with the old enhanced transport format combination index (E-TFCI) tables.
However, the current active set update procedure does not have any provisions to change the above mentioned E-DCH configuration parameters. Some of the parameters, such as E-DPCCH/DPCCH power offset and Reference E-TFCI, may be changed with the active set update but only when a serving E-DCH cell change occurs. However, starting and stopping of 16QAM operations may also occur when adding a new cell to the E-DCH active set without changing the serving cell.
The absence of this signaling in the active set update procedure prevents proper transitioning between 16QAM mode and non-16QAM (normal) mode when a cell is added or removed from the (E-DCH) active set or when the E-DCH serving cell is modified. By providing the mechanisms for proper transition between 16QAM mode and non-16QAM mode resulting from an active set update procedure, the embodiments to be described herein allow a reduction in reconfiguration delays and a reduction of signaling overhead (power and bandwidth).

Method and apparatus for accommodating higher order modulation in wireless communication


A system and method for active array temperature sensing and cooling. The system includes an active temperature sensing layer, a thermoelectric cooling layer and a heatsink layer. The temperature sensing layer is formed of temperature sensing elements that sense the temperature gradient across an unevenly heated region of the active array substrate. The thermoelectric cooling layer controls the temperature gradient sensed by the temperature sensing layer. The heatsink layer includes a plurality of cooling channels for absorbing thermal energy from the unevenly heated region. The system is under the control of a process control computer.

Active matrix backplanes are widely used in flat panel displays for routing signals to pixels of the display in order to produce viewable pictures. Presently, active matrix backplanes for flat panel displays are formed by performing a photolithography manufacturing process, which has been driven in the market by the demand for higher and higher resolution displays, which is not otherwise possible with other manufacturing processes. Photolithography is a pattern definition technique which uses electromagnetic radiation, such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation, to expose a layer of resist that is deposited on the surface of a substrate. Exemplary photolithography processing steps to produce an active matrix backplane include coat photoresist, pre-bake, soak, bake, align/expose, develop, rinse, bake, deposit layer, lift off photoresist, scrub/rinse, and dry. As can be seen, the active matrix backplane fabrication process includes numerous deposition and etching steps in order to define appropriate patterns of the backplane.
Because of the number of steps required to form an active matrix backplane with the photolithography manufacturing process, foundries of adequate capacity for volume production of backplanes are very expensive. An exemplary partial list of equipment needed for manufacturing active matrix backplanes includes glass-handling equipment, wet/dry strip equipment, glass cleaning equipment, wet clean equipment, plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment, laser equipment, crystallization equipment, sputtering equipment, ion implant equipment, resist coater equipment, resist stripping equipment, developer equipment, particle inspection equipment, exposure systems, array filet/repair equipment, dry etch systems, anti-electrostatic discharge equipment, wet etch systems, and a clean oven. Furthermore, because of the nature of the active matrix backplane fabrication process, the foregoing equipment must be utilized in a class 1 or class 10 clean room. In addition, because of the amount of equipment needed and the size of each piece of equipment, the clean room must have a relatively large area, which can be relatively expensive.
Alternatively, a vapor deposition shadow mask process is well known and has been used for years in microelectronics manufacturing. The vapor deposition shadow mask process is a significantly less costly and less complex manufacturing process, compared to the photolithography process; however, the achievable resolution of, for example, an active matrix backplane formed via shadow mask technology, is limited. Today's shadow mask manufacturing techniques are limited to forming, for example, up to 80 pixels per inch, which is representative of, for example, a typical laptop display resolution. However, for small displays, such as in mobile phones and PDAs, a much higher resolution (up to 200 pixels per inch) is desired. Because of this demand for higher resolution, active matrix backplane manufacturers are migrating away from the less costly and less complex vapor deposition shadow mask process in favor of the photolithography process, but at the tradeoff of cost and complexity. Therefore, what is needed is a way to provide improved resolution that uses the more cost-effective vapor deposition shadow mask process and thereby extends its use in the manufacturing of flat panel displays.
Furthermore, in order to achieve improved resolution, the aperture size and spacing of the shadow mask is reduced accordingly. Therefore, the ability to maintain positional accuracy of the shadow mask in relation to the substrate during the deposition process becomes more and more critical to ensure proper placement of the electronic elements formed therewith. Because there are various heating effects that occur during a high-temperature deposition process, the ability to achieve small microelectronics dimensions and, thus, high resolution, by use of the vapor deposition shadow mask process is limited by thermal errors that play a considerable role in achieving positional accuracy. For example, the materials used for forming both the shadow mask and the substrate have an associated coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). CTE is defined as the linear dimensional change of a material per unit change in temperature. A typical substrate material is anodized aluminum, which is aluminum atop which is grown a thin insulation layer. Aluminum has a CTE of 24 parts per million/degree Celsius (ppm/° C.). By contrast, typical materials used to form a shadow mask include nickel, stainless steel, and copper. Stainless steel has a CTE of 9.9–17.3 ppm/° C., copper has a CTE of 17 ppm/° C., and nickel has a CTE of 13.3 ppm/° C. Consequently, it is difficult to maintain proper registry between the two conjoined surfaces (i.e., the surface of the shadow mask in contact with the surface of the substrate), because of their differing CTEs, which results in different rates and amounts of expansion or contraction. This CTE mismatch creates geometric errors between the shadow mask and the substrate that are not tolerable.
Further, the radiant heat source used for vapor deposition produces hot spots and temperature gradients across the face of the shadow mask. As the shadow mask contains slots and holes, it does not come into uniform contact with the substrate to which it is mounted and, therefore it does not sink heat in a consistent way. As a result, thermal expansion can occur in the shadow mask relative to the substrate and thereby cause misregistration. To control this misregistration, specific locations on the shadow mask may need to be thermally regulated. By achieving a uniform temperature across the mask, uniform manufacture can take place. Accordingly, a need exists for a way to overcome the heating effects during a high-temperature deposition process and, thus, maintain positional accuracy of the shadow mask in relation to the substrate.
An exemplary system for fabricating an electronic device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,933, entitled "Process for Manufacturing Organic Electroluminescent Device." The '933 patent describes a method for producing an organic electroluminescent device, which is formed of a first electrode formed on a substrate, a thin film layer on the first electrodes, the thin film layer formed of at least an emitting layer formed of an organic compound, a second electrode formed on the thin film layer, and a plurality of luminescent regions on the substrate. The method for producing the organic electroluminescent device forms spacers that have a height which exceeds a thickness of the thin film layer on the substrate and vapor-deposits a deposit while a mask portion of a shadow mask is kept in contact with the spacers. The shadow mask forms apertures that have reinforcing lines. Highly precise, fine patterning can be effected under wide vapor deposition conditions without degrading the properties of organic electroluminescent elements, and high stability can be achieved by the method without limiting the structure of the electroluminescent device. While the '933 patent provides a suitable system for fabricating an electronic device, it does not address ways to overcome the heating effects that cause misregistration between the shadow mask and the substrate during a high-temperature deposition process. Therefore, the production system described in the '933 patent does not minimize temperature gradients across a shadow mask and substrate. Further, the invention of the '933 patent does not ensure negligible relative movement between the shadow mask and the substrate during any of the critical deposition stages of the manufacturing process and, therefore, does not extend the use of the vapor deposition shadow mask process for manufacturing high-resolution displays.
It is therefore an object of the invention to manufacture, for example, a flat panel display with improved resolution using the more cost-effective vapor deposition shadow mask process.
It is another object of this invention to overcome the heating effects that occur during a high-temperature deposition process and, thus, maintain positional accuracy of a shadow mask in relation to the substrate.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a temperature measurement and cooling system to provide thermal regulation and minimize temperature gradients across a shadow mask and substrate.
It is yet another object of this invention to ensure negligible relative movement between the shadow mask and the substrate during any of the critical deposition stages of the manufacturing process.

System and method for active array temperature sensing and cooling


An image processing apparatus capable of preventing erroneous transmission due to a change in destination information in a shared address book. A CPU acquires destination information including at least an identifier and a destination, and a destination of the image data is designated from the acquired destination information. Information on the designated destination of the image data is stored in a destination usage history table. The CPU determines whether or not the acquired destination information has been changed by comparing the designated destination information and the destination information stored in the destination usage history table. If it is determined that the destination information has been changed, a screen for confirming the destination information is displayed. The destination information is designated from the acquired destination information according to a user's confirming operation on the displayed screen.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a method of controlling the same, and a storage medium, and more particularly to a technique for preventing erroneous transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been proposed a facsimile machine having a destination confirmation function for causing a user to confirm whether or not a destination is correct by displaying destination information designated before transmission in order to prevent erroneous facsimile transmission (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H11-234458). In general, in facsimile transmission or E-mail transmission, a user selects a destination while confirming destination information using an address book or the like. The destination confirmation function equipped in the facsimile machine is used for preventing erroneous transmission by displaying detailed destination information again after the user has selected a destination to thereby prompt the user to confirm the selected destination.
On the other hand, in recent years, there has appeared a technique of sharing an address book on a network. For example, an apparatus (address book client) which uses a shared address book accesses an apparatus (address book server) that holds and manages the address book to thereby share the address book. Thus, when a user uses a transmission function or a transfer function of the address book client, the user can use destination data in an external shared address book. Note that the transfer function is a function that automatically transfers received image data to a set destination according to set conditions.
However, an administrator of the address book server sometimes changes destination information in the shared address book, which has already been in use by the address book client. In such a case, for example, if a user performs facsimile transmission using the changed destination information as it is, without knowing that the destination information on the shared address book has been changed, this can cause erroneous transmission. As described above, when the shared address book is used for various functions of a plurality of address book clients, a change in destination information in the shared address book can cause an increase in the frequency of erroneous transmission.
Although the destination confirmation function disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H11-234458 makes it possible to confirm destination information before transmission, this requires a user to confirm destination information each time even when there is no change in the destination information, which is annoying to the user. Particularly, in these days, URLs (uniform resource locator) and E-mail addresses tend to become long, so that it is an extra burden for the user to confirm the destination each time. As a result, the user is apt to carelessly confirm the destination from habit and can overlook a change in the destination. Therefore, it is preferable to prompt the user to confirm destination not at each time of transmission but at a time a client uses destination information in the shared address book for the first time and a time the client uses the destination information after it has been changed, for the first time.
In general, each piece of destination information is formed by a destination name and a destination address (including a destination facsimile number). When a user uses the destination information for the first time, the user carefully confirms whether or not the destination name and the destination address are correct. Then, if the destination address has not been changed when the user uses the destination information next time, it is not necessary to carefully confirm the destination information. Thereafter, if the destination address has been changed, it becomes necessary to carefully confirm again whether or not the destination address is correct.
Further, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H11-234458, in the case of a function that automatically operates in a state in which a user is not in front of the apparatus, such as the transfer function, the user cannot confirm the destination. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a confirmation method adapted to a function which uses a destination to the user.

Image processing apparatus that prevents erroneous transmission, method of controlling the same, and storage medium


In a communication system, a call processing system receives a first signaling message for a special service call indicating a special service number. The call processing system processes the special service number to determine a first carrier identity and an organization identity for a responsible organization that is responsible for a routing database system for the special service number. The call processing system processes the organization identity for the responsible organization to select a second carrier identity. The call processing system transfers a second signaling message that indicates the second carrier identity. In some examples, a communication node receives the second signaling message and processes the second carrier identity to route the special service call to the responsible organization.

Communication enterprises own special service telephony numbers, such as "800" and "900" type numbers. The communication enterprises lease these special service numbers to various telephony customers, such as retail businesses and government entities who usually receive large volumes of calls. When a call to a special service number is placed, the special service number is typically used to route the call to the communication enterprise that owns the special service number—or its designated host network. The communication enterprise or its host then accesses a special service routing database system to translate the special service number into a routable telephony number using various criteria, such as caller number, time-of-day, customer routing plans, and the like. Thus, the special service numbers trigger dynamically intelligent call routing for the special service telephony customers.
Special service calls may traverse multiple communication networks to reach the communication enterprises that own the special service numbers. The special service calls often utilize signaling systems such as Signaling System 7 (SS7), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and the like. These protocols may use Carrier Identification Codes (CICs) or the like to individually identify the various communication networks. On some special service calls, the communication network is also the enterprise who owns the special service number, and the CIC for that network is used to route the special service calls to the communication network.
The entity that controls the special service routing database system for a given special service telephony number is referred to as the Responsible Organization (RespOrg) for that special service number. The RespOrg is typically one of the communication enterprises described above that also owns and leases special service numbers. In many cases, the communication enterprise that owns the special service number also operates a communication network identified by a CIC, and in these cases, CIC-based routing may be used on special service calls.
In other cases, the communication enterprise that owns the special service number may be the RespOrg, but may not operate a communication network identified by a CIC. In these other cases, the RespOrg enterprise typically contracts with a network operator who does have a CIC. The following technology provides a attractive RespOrg-based routing alternative for these other cases.

Carrier identity translation for special service calls based on the organization responsible for the special service routing database