An auto-injector is provided which includes a housing with a syringe slidably received therein. The syringe has a barrel with a piston movable therein and a needle extending therefrom. The piston is releasably secured to one end of a plunger which is slidably secured within a body in the housing and is operable through a bias provided by a motive source. In use, the plunger moves under the bias from a loaded condition to a discharged condition to move the syringe so that the needle extends from a tip at an injection end of the housing and to slide the piston within the barrel to expel the contents of the syringe. The plunger is held in the loaded condition against the bias by a detent extending from the body and which can be selectively released by operation of an actuator when pressure is applied to the tip.

Auto-injectors are medical devices which deliver a preloaded dose of a drug and are usually intended for self-administration or administration by untrained persons. The devices typically employ a spring-loaded syringe which is activated when the device is pushed firmly against the body. They have found widespread use in the intramuscular administration of adrenaline (epinephrine) to patients who suffer from anaphylaxis. They are also now routinely supplied to certain military forces for the administration of drugs used to counter nerve agents or similar biological weapons.
One drawback with especially adrenaline auto-injectors is that the adrenaline expires 18 to 24 months from the date of manufacturing thereof. This means that the entire adrenaline containing auto-injector device must be thrown away and a new one bought whether or not a patient has used it. Given that these devices are generally costly this presents a difficulty for many users.
A further issue is that most auto-injectors do not penetrate to the desired depth within a patient's body. The optimum depth of penetration into muscle will ensure that the medication is absorbed at a faster rate and therefore has a higher probability of saving the patient's life.
Also, most available devices in the market require the user to pull off a safety release at the back of the device and inject themselves with the other side of the device. This causes some confusion as the safety release is in a different location to the activation mechanism. This has resulted in various injuries including injuries caused by injecting with the incorrect side, resulting in a patient injecting his or her thumb or hand instead of the thigh for example.
Many of the available devices require a swing motion of the arm to plunge the auto-injector against muscle thereby activating the device to inject drug into the muscle. It has been found that the swing motion of the arm and the high pressure applied by a user to activate the injection adversely affects the efficiency of drug administration due to ineffective user control and the probability of leakage from a backlash of the auto-injector after impact.
In this specification the term "syringe" shall have its widest meaning and shall include syringes, cartridges, cartridge syringes and any other type of container configured to hold a dose of a drug and having a piston movable therein for discharging the drug from the container. A syringe may be fitted with a needle or may have a needle which extends therefrom.
The preceding discussion of the background to the invention is intended only to facilitate an understanding of the present invention. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgment or admission that any of the material referred to was part of the common general knowledge in the art as at the priority date of the application.


A flexible hose for transporting food liquids, particularly for irrigation or the like, comprising at least one outer protective layer (2) of a first flexible polymer material and at least one inner layer (3) in direct contact with the fluid to be transported, made of a second flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-containing polymer material. The second polymer material includes a plasticizer agent having as low a migration level as to maintain the flexibility of said second polymer material substantially unaltered with time. The plasticizer agent is selected from the group comprising non-phthalate additives, so that it can be non-toxic and non-polluting for the food products to be transported.

PVC hoses are known to be made from a polymer added with plasticizer additives, which are designed to improve processability and flexibility of the final product.
Phthalates are generally used as plasticizers, because they impart excellent cold flexibility to the final product and have low migration characteristics. As a result of migration, the hose stiffens, loses its original flexibility and can crack or even collapse.
When food liquids are to be transported, phthalates may be extracted by the transported fluid. Phthalates are known to be potentially toxic, and ingestion thereof must be absolutely prevented.
Therefore, the need has long been felt of a hose having a PVC layer in direct contact with the fluid to be transported, which also includes at least one plasticizer agent having relatively low migration, to maintain flexibility of the hose substantially unaltered with time, and which will not pollute the transported fluid or add toxicity thereto.

Flexible hose with non-phthalate plasticizers additives for transporting food liquids


A process for illuminating a structured surface initially introduces a fluid into a volume, the fluid nearly completely chemically inactive with respect to the structured surface. Next, pressure and temperature are established within the volume which maintains the fluid in a supercritical state. The structured surface is then immersed in the supercritical fluid, and optical energy is directed through the supercritical fluid and onto the structured surface.

This invention relates to processes for creating and inspecting semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to an immersion type optical system for lithographically printing patterns and for inspecting patterns.
Generally both optical lithography and inspection are performed today by illuminating the surface of the semiconductor wafers while the wafer is immersed in a gas at ambient pressure. Some defect examinations might use oil immersion microscopy. To obtain greater resolution, alternative techniques are under development including electron beam illumination, x-ray illumination, and ion beam illumination.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,256 discusses placing a solid immersion lens in proximity to a wafer, while the wafer itself is maintained in air at ambient pressure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,683 proposes immersing the wafer in a high index of refraction liquid.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved method of optical lithography, wherein the method employs a super-critical fluid as an immersion medium.
It is another object of the invention to proved an improved method of optical inspection, wherein the method employs a super-critical fluid as an immersion medium.

Method for optical inspection and lithography


Device for draining water from at least one gutter of a retractable vehicle roof, characterized in that the intermediate conduit (9), which is linked to the movement of the moving roof, is attached by its upstream part (9A) to the drain (8) and linked by its downstream part (9B) to the drainage conduit (10) by a nesting joint (11), so that when the moving roof moves into the stowed position, this downstream part (9B) is denested so as to break the continuity, and vice versa when the mobile roof covers the passenger compartment.

A moving retractable roof generally includes lateral gutters along the lateral edges of retractable roof elements and a transverse gutter located at the base of the rear window or rear roof element.
The function of these gutters is to collect the water that flows from the roof and, in particular, passes over the sealing means provided between the various roof elements or panels composing the roof and the fixed structure.
This collected water must be drained to the ground through a drainage conduit, generally placed inside the body.
In vehicles with retractable roofs, the roof elements are movable relative to the fixed drainage conduit, and this poses a problem for the channeling of the collected water.
To obviate this problem, it is known from EP 1 281 547 to provide at the outlet of the gutter, between the collector and the drainage conduit, a flexible conduit whose length is greater than the distance between the collector and the drainage conduit.
As a result of its length and flexibility, the movement of the roof is made possible. This flexible conduit is attached at its two ends, i.e. to the collector and to the drainage conduit.
Unfortunately, however, there is wear on this conduit linked to the repeated operations of the roof. These operations fold the conduit each time, thereby weakening it in certain places.
This wear can be accentuated over time due to the aging of the material, which becomes more brittle.


A heat exchanger assembly for an aircraft with an environmental control system includes first and second heat exchangers, a closure bar, and a drain manifold. The first heat exchanger is in fluid communication with a source of bleed air from the aircraft. The second heat exchanger has a second hot air circuit passing through the second heat exchanger and is disposed adjacent to and in fluid communication with the first heat exchanger. The closure bar is disposed between the first and second heat exchangers such that the closure bar prevents fluid communication across the closure bar between the first and second heat exchangers. The drain manifold is mounted to a sidewall of the heat exchanger assembly. A channel of the drain manifold is in fluid communication with a surface of the closure bar.

The present disclosure generally relates to heat exchangers. In particular, the present disclosure relates to drainage features of heat exchanger cores.
An environmental control system ("ECS") aboard an aircraft provides conditioned air to the aircraft cabin. Conditioned air is air at a desired temperature, pressure, and humidity for aircraft passenger comfort. Compressing ambient air at flight altitude heats the resulting pressurized air sufficiently that it must be cooled, even if the ambient air temperature is very low. Thus, under most conditions, heat must be removed from air by the ECS before the air is delivered to the aircraft cabin. As heat is removed from the air, it is dissipated by the ECS into a separate stream of air that flows into the ECS, across heat exchangers in the ECS, and out of the aircraft, carrying the excess heat with it.
In existing heat exchanger assemblies with more than one heat exchanger core, moisture entrained in the bleed air can condense and become trapped in fins of the bleed circuit. This presents risks of freezing of pooled water within the heat exchanger core and obstructing the airflow due to the pooled water.

Dual pass heat exchanger with drain system


An ink cartridge includes a case including an ink chamber configured to store ink therein, and a particular face facing an exterior of the case and having a first opening formed therethrough. The ink cartridge also includes an ink supply portion extending from a particular portion of the particular face in a particular direction, in which the particular portion surrounds the first opening, and the ink supply portion has a tube shape. The ink supply portion includes a particular chamber formed therein, an end wall having a second opening formed therethrough, and a peripheral wall extending from the end wall. The ink supply portion is configured to supply ink from the ink chamber to the exterior of the case via the particular chamber and the second opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to ink cartridges configured to be used in an image recording apparatus. More specifically, the present invention is directed towards ink cartridges comprising an ink supply portion and an ink holding portion formed at the ink supply portion.
2. Description of Related Art
A known ink-jet image recording apparatus has a recording head and an ink supply device configured to supply ink to the recording head. A known ink cartridge is configured to be mounted to the ink supply device. The known ink cartridge has a case, and the case has an ink chamber formed therein. The ink chamber is configured to store ink therein. The known ink cartridge also has an ink supply portion, and ink is supplied from an interior of the ink chamber to an exterior of the ink chamber via the ink supply portion. When the known ink cartridge is mounted to the ink supply device, ink stored in the ink chamber is supplied to the recording head via the ink supply portion. The recording head is configured to selectively eject ink toward a sheet of paper, such that an image is recorded on the sheet.
Another known ink cartridge, such as the ink cartridge described in JP-A-2007-144808, has an ink supply portion having a tube-shaped wall extending from a particular face of a case of the ink cartridge. The ink supply portion also has an elastic member positioned at the end of the tube-shaped wall. The elastic member has an opening formed therein. When the another known ink cartridge is mounted to the ink supply device, an ink tube of the ink supply device is inserted into the opening of the elastic member. When this occurs, the elastic member is configured to elastically deform and to contact the outer surface of the ink tube liquid-tightly. The ink supply portion also has a cap, and the elastic member is sandwiched between the end of the tube-shaped wall and the cap while the elastic member is elastically deformed. The cap has an end wall having an opening formed therein, and a peripheral wall covering a portion of the elastic member and a portion of the tube-shaped wall. When the another known ink cartridge is mounted to the ink supply device, the ink tube is inserted into the opening of the cap and then into the opening of the elastic member. The ink supply portion further has a valve element and a spring positioned in the tube-shaped wall. The spring biases the valve element toward the elastic member. When the another known ink cartridge is not mounted to the ink supply device, the valve element contacts the elastic member and covers the opening of the elastic member while being biased by the spring. When the ink tube of the ink supply device is inserted into the opening of the elastic member, the ink tube contacts and pushes the valve element against the biasing force of the spring, such that the valve element moves away from the elastic member. As such, ink is supplied from the interior of the ink chamber to the exterior of the ink chamber via the ink tube.
When the another known ink cartridge is mounted to and removed from the ink supply device, ink may leak from the ink supply portion or the ink tube, or both, and the leaked ink may adhere to the outer surface of the cap. When the another known ink cartridge is repeatedly mounted to and removed from the ink supply device, such leaked ink may drip from the ink cartridge.


A low doped semiconductive layer is formed on a semiconductor substrate of a highly doped first conductivity type, and a first region of a highly doped second conductivity type is selectively formed at a portion of the semiconductive layer. In a top-incidence type photo-sensing device having a pn junction area of the above structure as a photo-sensing region, the first region is surrounded by a second region of the second conductivity type formed at a portion of the semiconductor layer. The second region has the same or a larger depth as that of the first region. Thus, even if light is directed to the outside of the photo-sensing region, extra charges generated therein are absorbed by the second region and the flow of extra charges into the photo-sensing region is prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photo-sensing device used for monitoring an output of a semiconductor laser or as a photo-sensor of a light communication system.
2. Related Background Art
FIGS. 1A and 1B respectively show a top view and an X--X sectional view of a structure of a prior art photo-sensing device. As shown, in the prior art photo-sensing device, a semiconductive crystal layer 2 of a first conductivity type including a light absorption layer is laminated on a surface of a semiconductor substrate 1 of a first conductivity type having an electrode 8 of the first conductivity type formed on an underside there, and impurities are selectively diffused into the semiconductive crystal layer 2 to form a first region 3 of the second conductivity type. This is a pin photo-diode structure where the semiconductor substrate 1 is an n layer (or a p layer), the semiconductive crystal layer 2 is an i layer and the first region 3 is a p layer (or an n layer), and a photo-sensing region 10 is formed in the i layer. An electrode 6 of a second conductivity type is formed on the first region 3 on the surface of the semiconductor crystal layer 2, and the first region 3 inside the electrode 6 is covered with an anti-reflection film 5 while the semiconductive crystal layer 2 outside the electrode 6 is covered with a device protection film (i.e. passivation film) 9.
When a reverse bias is applied to the semiconductor device thus constructed, a depletion layer is created in a pn junction area in the semiconductive crystal layer 2. Thus, an electric field is developed in the depletion layer and electrons and holes generated by a light applied to the photo-sensing region 10 are directed to the first conductivity type semiconductor substrate 1 and the second conductivity type region 3, respectively, and accelerated thereby. In this manner, a photo-current is taken out and a light signal is detected.
In the structure shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, when the light is applied to the photo-sensing region 10, light generating carriers are captured by the depletion layer and a good response characteristic is offered. However, when the light is directed to the outside of the region 10, the generated carriers reach the pn junction while they are diffused by a density gradient and are taken out as a photo-current. As a result, the response characteristic is adversely affected. FIG. 2A shows a response characteristic of the photo-sensing device. Since the movement of the carriers by the diffusion is slow, a response waveform for a light pulse includes a tail at the end as shown in FIG. 2A.
When such a photo-sensing device is used for the light communication, light emitted from an optical fiber is condensed so that it is directed to the photo-sensing region 10. However, when a portion of light leaks out of the photo-sensing region 10, it leads to the reduction of the response speed of the photo-sensing device by the reason described above. In a high speed photo-sensing device, the area of the photo-sensing region 10 is reduced to reduce a junction capacitance. As a result, a ratio of light directed to the outside of the photo-sensing region 10 increases and a diffused component which has a low response speed increases. This leads to the degradation of the response speed.
When the light emitted from a rear end plane of the semiconductor laser is sensed by the photo-sensing device to feedback-control a drive current for the semiconductor laser in order to keep the light output of the semiconductor laser at a constant level, if the light emitted from the semiconductor laser spreads to the outside of the photo-sensing region 10 of the photo-sensing device, a low response speed component is generated by the diffusion as described above. This adversely affects the feedback control.


An electronic device is connected to a server device. The electronic device includes: a detection unit that detects a state of the electronic device; a generation unit that generates third information in which first information that is information indicating the state of the electronic device and second information that is information indicating time of detection by the detection unit are associated with each other; a registration unit that registers the third information in a memory unit in order of generation; and a control unit that performs, when power supply to the electronic device is started, control to transmit latest third information among one or more pieces of the third information stored in the memory unit, to the server device, as stop information related to time at which the electronic device was stopped.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device, a control method, and a system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a system in which a plurality of electronic devices such as printers and a server device are connected to each other through a given data transmission path such as a network. There is known the form of such a system in which the server device accesses each of electronic devices periodically to acquire information of the state of each electronic device. For example, the server device acquires information of the power state of each electronic device, and can create, based on the acquired information, a report indicating a temporal change in the power consumption of each electronic device. Conventional examples are described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-191989 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-116111.
However, when the number of electronic devices controlled by the server device is huge, or when the electronic devices controlled by the server device are provided in a plurality of countries, it is difficult that the server device accesses each of electronic devices with a sufficient frequency, and the period in which each electronic device is not accessed by the server device becomes long.
Consequently, even when the server device accesses an electronic device and detects that the electronic device has been stopped (the power supply to the electronic device has been stopped), it cannot grasp the time at which the electronic device was stopped or the power state of the electronic device immediately before it was stopped, for example.
Moreover, the electronic device does not have a mechanism of notifying the server device of information related to the time at which the electronic device was stopped (information allowing estimation of the time at which the electronic device was stopped or the power state immediately before the electronic device was stopped, for example).
In view of the above aspects, there is a need to provide an electronic device, a control method, a computer program, and a system that can improve the function of managing the state of the electronic device.

Device, method, and system for reporting device state information to a server


A stabilizing ring assembly for stabilizing a mold in a centrifugal pipe casting machine during operation includes a plurality of ring segments mounted on the mold and cooperating to form an annular ring retained in the mold by a plurality of resilient O-rings positioned in grooves extending around the annular ring with the O-rings fitting within and being compressed radially by the casting machine housing surrounding and rotating with the mold, and water flow passages are formed in the ring segments to permit the flow of cooling water axially of the casting machine between the internal surface of the housing and the external surface of the mold.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pipe casting machines for centrifugally casting metal pipe, and more particularly to such pipe casting machines having improved intermediate mold support means for centering and supporting the pipe mold in the casting machine for rotation about its longitudinal axis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pipe casting machines for centrifugally casting metal pipe, typically from cast iron, are well known and widely used commercially. In such pipe casting machines, a measured amount of molten metal is poured into an elongated generally cylindrical metal mold progressively from one end thereof to the other while the mold is being rotated about its longitudinal axis at a rate to evenly distribute and retain the molten metal over the interior wall of the mold. During pouring of the molten iron and for a predetermined time thereafter, the external wall of the mold is cooled to prevent damage to the mold and to extract heat of fusion from the molten metal. This cooling is accomplished either by directing a spray or multiple streams of water onto the external surface of the mold or by submerging the mold in a cooling water bath. In either case, the mold must be cooled uniformly to avoid damage to the pipe being cast and to prevent excessive distortion of the mold.
The high speed rotation required of a centrifugal casting mold makes it necessary that any eccentric loading resulting from mold bending or being out of round be maintained at a minimum since any eccentric loading not only places uneven stresses on the equipment but also tends to produce uneven metal thickness in the pipe being cast. Any eccentric loading produced by uneven distribution of the molten metal being cast can also result in mold distortion which may further aggravate the problem. This is particularly true for relatively long molds used to cast smaller diameter pipe since the relatively slender lightweight mold structure has less rigidity in bending.
In one centrifugal pipe casting machine manufactured by Pont-a-Mousson S.A., intermediate mold stabilizing rings are provided between the external surface of the pipe mold and the rotating cylindrical casting machine having a sleeve surrounding the mold. In this machine, cooling water flows into the annular space between the rotating housing and the pipe mold mounted concentrically therein through an inlet at one end of the housing, then along the length of the mold between the mold and the housing to an exit at the opposite end of the assembly. The intermediate stabilizing or centering ring assemblies each consist of two substantially semicircular ring halves having a radial tongue on their inner diameter which fits into an annular groove in the outside diameter of the pipe mold. The outside diameter of the ring halves have a machined recess that is hardened and serves as a seat for an endless coil or garter spring which holds the split ring firmly against the mold. The outside diameter of the garter spring is sized to have a close tolerance fit within the inside diameter of the rotating housing structure and the cooling water flowing through the chamber between the mold and housing can flow over the split ring through the open coils of the spring. When a smaller diameter pipe is being cast, the ring halves may have radially inwardly extending flanges with axial bores formed therein to provide additional water flow passage. The split ring centering assemblies provide a radial load carrying support for transferring loads between the outside diameter of the mold and the larger diameter rotating sleeve or housing assembly to stabilize the rotating mold.
In the known split ring intermediate mold support design discussed above, the close tolerance fits required between the pipe mold and the split ring, the split ring and coil spring, and between the coil spring and the rotating sleeve are difficult to achieve and to maintain. Unavoidable movement of the spring relative to the split ring OD and to the rotating sleeve causes wear on the contact surfaces and when the wear becomes excessive, the mold may vibrate and/or run eccentric with respect to the axis of rotation of the assembly. This, in turn, can result in scrap pipe, and the sleeve or rings may have to be replaced. Further, wear and problems in maintaining the proper fit causes difficulty in assembly and disassembly of the pipe mold and the rotating sleeve. Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a centrifugal pipe casting machine having improved mold stabilizing means disposed between the mold and the casting machine housing.
Another object is to provide a centrifugal pipe casting machine with an improved split ring mold stabilizing assembly having greater dimensional tolerances and which does not require hardening the external surface of the split ring to reduce wear during use.
Another object is to provide such a pipe casting machine employing split ring type intermediate mold stabilizing assemblies which are more economical to produce, which facilitate assembly and disassembly of the pipe mold and rotating sleeve, and which require less maintenance during use.
Another object of the invention is to provide such an improved split ring intermediate stabilizing assembly which reduces mold vibration and increases stability and which provides a longer life than the known intermediate mold stabilizing assemblies.

Pipe casting machine having improved pipe mold stabling rings


The present invention provides altered lac repressor proteins that recognize the lactose operator with increased affinity and have either normal or enhanced ligand responsivity. For example, the lac repressor Gln60Gly mutant protein exhibits increased binding affinity for lactose operator DNA, while maintaining near-normal responsivity to IPTG. Alternatively, the present invention provides modified repressors which exhibit responsiveness to an alternative ligand, such as arabinose, or have enhanced responsivity to IPTG. For example, Gln60Gly/Leu148Phe binds with wild-type affinity to lactose operator DNA and exhibits enhanced responsivity to IPTG. The present invention also provides for repressors that exhibit both characteristics: increased affinity for lactose operator and enhanced ligand responsivity. Enhanced ligand response enables induction of gene expression to be finely controlled by a researcher. DNA sequences encoding the altered lac repressor proteins and bacterial and eukaryotic cells containing altered lac repressor proteins are also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to repressor proteins that: (i) recognize the lactose operator with increased affinity compared to wild type protein and exhibit normal inducibility; (ii) recognize the lactose operator with normal affinity while exhibiting enhanced inducibility (i.e., increased sensitivity to normal inducing sugars or responsiveness to alternative ligands); or (iii) alternatively, repressor proteins exhibiting increased affinity for the lactose operator DNA and enhanced inducibility.
2. Description of Related Art
The lac repressor protein is a genetic regulatory protein used widely to control the expression of cloned genes and is the prototype for negative control of transcription initiation in E. coli (Jacob & Monod, 1961). The lac repressor normally regulates expression of the lactose metabolic enzymes and couples cellular response with environmental availability of metabolites (Miller & Reznikoff, 1980). Multiple vector systems are commercially available that employ this repressor protein in cloning genes and overexpressing their protein products. These systems rely on the ability of the lac repressor to inhibit transcriptional initiation in the absence of an inducer.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic depicting how the lac repressor protein (LacI) and lac operator (LacO) work. The "i" gene product forms a tetrameric lactose repressor protein (LacI), which binds with high affinity to the partially two-fold symmetric lac operator DNA target sequence (LacO) that overlaps the promoter sequence "p". RNA polymerase binding, transcriptional initiation, and/or transcriptional elongation are inhibited when Lac1 occupies this site, thereby precluding production of the mRNA encoding the lac enzymes (z, y, a) (reviewed in Matthews & Nichols, 1998). In the absence of inducer sugars, the high affinity of LacI for LacO allows production of only small quantities of lacZYA mRNA. However, when inducer sugars, "I", are present, they bind LacI and cause a conformational change (depicted as (O→□)) (Lewis et al., 1996), which reduces the repressor's LacO binding affinity without having effect on its binding affinity for nonspecific DNA (Lin & Riggs, 1975). Excess non-LacO DNA in the cell thereby effectively competes for binding to the protein and sequesters the repressor-inducer complex, allowing transcription of downstream lac mRNA to proceed for as long as inducer sugar is available. When inducer sugar levels are depleted, inducer dissociates from the repressor protein. The repressor protein subsequently reassumes the conformation with high affinity for LacO DNA, associates with LacO, and shuts down further synthesis of lac mRNA. The lactose regulatory cycle, therefore, involves association with both specific and non-specific DNA sequences, binding of inducer sugar molecules (ligands), and conformational shifts in response to these ligands.
When lactose is available in the environment, the low constitutive amounts of lac permease transport this sugar into the cell, and the correspondingly low levels of β-galactosidase result in production of the natural in vivo inducer, β-1,6-allolactose (Jobe & Bourgeois, 1972). When lactose levels are sufficiently decreased, the intracellular store of β-1,6-allolactose is depleted by β-galactosidase hydrolysis. These enzymatic activities ensure that the lac enzymes are not expressed except in the presence of lactose. In the E. coli genome, two additional operator sequences, located within the "i" and "z" genes, bind LacI with lower affinity (Miller & Reznikoff, 1980). Each dimer of the LacI tetramer binds one operator sequence; simultaneous binding of tetrameric LacI to two operators results in looped DNA and enhances repression (reviewed in Matthews & Nichols, 1998).
A different inducer, isopropyl-β,D-thiogalactoside (IPTG), that is not hydrolyzed by β-galactosidase, is commonly used to turn on transcription of genes cloned under control of the lac promoter-operator (in place of the z, y, and a genes depicted in FIG. 1). For expression systems that employ LacI/LacO interaction, the secondary operator sequences are usually not present, and the level of repression is consequently diminished.
For proteins that exert toxic effects or for which expression prior to addition of inducing sugar is otherwise deleterious, the ability to increase the efficacy of LacI repression while still maintaining a normal induction response would be very useful. Different, unique repressor proteins that recognize the primary lac operator sequence (O1) with increased affinity, yet exhibit binding comparable to wild-type LacI in the presence of inducer (i.e., exhibit a normal induction response) would significantly enhance expression for many genes. Such repressor proteins could be used in any system in which the lac operator is used as the target sequence for transcriptional control and would provide an enhanced regulatory mechanism for the expression of cloned protein products.

Lactose repressor proteins with increased operator DNA binding affinity


A polarization imaging system for generating a super resolution image is disclosed in the present invention. The polarization imaging system consists of multiple functional elements for the generation of the super resolution image including a camera device, a polarization analysis module, a weight module, a fusion module and an output module. The lens of the imaging system captures light coming from a subject which is detected and acted upon by a polarization sensor. The polarization sensor generates multiple low resolution images and calculates degree of linear polarization and angle of polarization of the light rays based on which a guided mask is generated. The system employs an algorithm to combine the one or more low resolution images to produce a final super resolution image as the output.

In digital photography, the conventional image sensor and human visual system can only be used to detect and convey the intensity and narrowband wavelength of light-waves into signals used to make an image. However, these completely lose the polarization information and limit the perception ability of imaging system. Light waves, which can be characterized by its amplitude, wavelength, phase and polarization. In contrast, the goal of polarization sensing is to simultaneously measure the amplitude and polarization of incoming optical field. Various visual systems in the animal kingdom including insects, fish, crustaceans and mantis shrimp are sensitive to the polarization information. The combination of polarization and intensity information enables a variety of tasks such as navigation, communication, and localization enhancing visual contrast of object against its background.
Polarization imaging technology has a wide range of applications in the fields of earth remote sensing, astronomical observation, target recognition, medical diagnosis and three-dimensional reconstruction. Natural light does not exhibit polarization characteristics. Natural light is uniformly distributed in all directions and has the same amplitude. For partially polarized light, the amplitudes of light waves in different polarization directions are different, and the amplitudes in two mutually perpendicular directions have maximum and minimum amplitudes. Therefore, some substances can be distinguished by the degree of polarization, such as the degree of polarization of natural substances and camouflage substances.
The principle of polarization imaging is: when natural light (unpolarized light) interacts with a substance, such as reflection, refraction, scattering, and absorption, the emitted light usually becomes partially polarized light or linearly polarized light. According to Kirchhoff's law and Fresnel's formula, the degree of polarization of the emitted light is directly related to the inherent properties of the material interface and the angle of reflection (or refraction angle). The inherent properties of the material interface include composition, structure, roughness, and content.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,426,362B2 assigned to MEMS Drive Inc. describes an image resolution enhancing technique. Application of the technology disclosed herein significantly enhances the resolution of an image captured by a camera with a limited image sensor size and a limited pixel density. However, the technology described does not make use of a polarization sensor inside the camera which helps in measuring physical properties that are not detectable using conventional imaging.
Another Chinese Patent 105551009A assigned to Habrin Institute of Technology overcomes the limitations of the above mentioned prior art to some extent. The prior art relates to an image interfusion method based on continuous Terahertz cofocus scanning polarization imaging. By employing image fusion involving image interpolation, the invention aims to enhance image quality. The invention overcomes the limitations of the US patent described earlier by introducing polarization imaging. The technology described offers numerous benefits, not only detecting geometry and surface, but measuring physical properties that are not detectable using conventional imaging. Also, the described technology can be used to enhance contrast for objects that are difficult to distinguish otherwise. However, one of the major disadvantages of the described invention is that for the process of interpolation and obtaining good picture quality, a large amount of points need to be taken which increases imaging time. In case of considering less amount points so as to reduce imaging time, the quality of the image obtained is compromised.
To overcome the shortcomings of the prior art mentioned above another Chinese patent 105139339A assigned to Chinese People's Liberation Army Officer Academy discloses a polarization image super-resolution reconstruction method based on multi-level filtering and sample matching. The invention uses polarization imaging and generates images with clear contour structure, less obvious jagged edges and rich information of details. However, the described invention lacks the technique of image fusion resulting in poor preservation of the spectral content of the image.
Thus, to overcome the disadvantages of the prior arts mentioned, a polarization imaging system for generating a super resolution image is disclosed in the present invention. The polarization imaging system of the invention employs the techniques of polarization imaging and image fusion to generate a super resolution image.
It is apparent now that numerous methods and systems are developed in the prior art that are adequate for various purposes. Furthermore, even though these inventions may be suitable for the specific purposes to which they address, accordingly, they would not be suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.

Polarization imaging system with super resolution fusion


A wireless communications device may reduce power consumption by determining that a received communications sequence is not addressed to the wireless communications device, determining how long the communications sequence will last, and placing its own receive circuitry into a low power state until the communications sequence has ended.

Due to the proliferation of battery powered wireless communications devices, and the constant pressure to do more computing in smaller devices, extending battery life for as long as possible in these devices has become an important goal in the industry. Various techniques have been developed to reduce power consumption by placing all or part of the battery powered wireless communications device into low power modes under certain circumstances. Because the transmit operation generally creates the biggest drain on power, much of this effort has been directed to reducing power consumption that is tied to transmit operations. But other operations have been comparatively neglected in this effort.

Receive-aware power saving in a wireless communications device


The present invention provides a method for treating patients with Alzheimer's Disease which comprises administering a an effective amount of a celastrol formulation to the patients. One source of raw material for such a celastrol formulation is the root of the vine tripterygium wilfordii Hook F.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating condition of the later decades of life. The prevalence rate in a geographically defined US community were reported by Evans et al. (J. Amer. Med. Assn. 262:2551-56, 1989). Of individuals over 65 years of age, about 10.3% probably had AD. Stratified by decades, the prevalence was 3% for 65-74 years, 18.7% for 75-84 years and 47.2% for 85 and over. With the increasing age of the elderly population, the magnitude of the AD problem is expected to increase.
The criteria for diagnosing AD in the above-mentioned study included 1) a loss of intellectual abilities sufficient to interfere with social or occupational functioning and 2) neuropsychological testing with deficits in two or more areas of cognition. Deficits in neuropsychology tests can be a score of 2 or less on the delayed memory test, a score of 7 or less on the delayed recognition memory span test, or a decrease of two or more between immediate and delayed memory. In addition, there often is impairment in 1) language (a score of 10 or less on naming), 2) spatial ability (score of 5 or less on figure copying) and/or 3) abstraction (score of 6 or less on visual abstraction). The AD diagnosis also requires a history of no sudden onset of symptoms, a clear state of consciousness, and no hearing or visual impairment which could affect test results.
Although the etiology of AD is still being studied, the end-pathology is now well known, neuronal loss and the widespread appearance of neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques. Some areas of the brain are more heavily involved, such as the temporal cortex and hippocampus, while the occipital cortex and cerebellum are much less affected. Large numbers of reactive microglia in affected regions of AD brains actively express HLA-DR of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) (McGeer et al., Neurosci. Lett. 79:195-200, 1987). The classical function of HLA-DR is to present foreign antigen to the T-lymphocytic system. Thus, the causative process may be a cell-mediated immune reaction. McGeer et al. analyzed post-mortem brain tissue from AD and normal patients. The differences were striking: In the AD brains, but not the normal brains, activated leukocytes, reactive microglia/macrophages, reactive astrocytes, and T8 and T4 lymphocytes were observed. In both brains, antibody-mediated antigens (HLA-A,B,C) were prominent along the capillary lining cells. The AD-prominent cell types are all important actors in cell-mediated immunity: Reactive microglia express HLA-DR and send signals to activate the T-lymphocytic system, namely T-4 and T-8 lymphocytes. The T-4 cells bind to HLA-DR-expressing cells with antigen and stimulate a further response. The T-8 cells can help destroy cells with this complex and/or inhibit an antibody response. The presence of these various cell types (mainly located in the senile plaques) indicates an active chronic inflammatory process in AD (Itagaki, McGeer and Akiyama, Neurosci. Lett. 91: 259-64, 1988). The antigen which initiates this reaction still is not known; however, amyloid, paired helical filaments (PHF) and A68 are "foreign" proteins found in senile plaques and nowhere else, making them candidates for the causative antigen.
When AD brain and age-matched brain were examined for the presence of several complement components, McGeer et al (Neurosci. Lett. 107:341-346, 1989). reported that the classical complement pathway was activated in AD and that the amyloid deposits appeared to be made of unassembled C7 and C9 complement molecules. The classical pathway is activated by antibodies and a few enzymes, so the etiology is not firmly ascertained. The C9 complement complexes which cause cell lysis and death were found only on dystrophic neurites and neurofibrillary tangles and not on amyloid deposits. This indicates that some protein is being attacked on abnormal neurons.
Because of the apparent chronic immune reaction in AD, McGeer et al. expected to find an increased prevalence of AD in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, another chronic immune reaction. There was actually a relatively low prevalence of both AD and rheumatoid arthritis, which the authors proposed could be caused by rheumatoid patients taking anti-inflammatory agents on a chronic basis, particularly non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). McGeer et al. hypothesized that such NSAIDs also inhibited an inflammatory process which caused AD in other patients (McGeer et al. The Lancet 335:1037, 1990).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,753 to McGeer discloses the use of anti-rheumatoid NSAIDs in the treatment of AD. Five patients clinically diagnosed with early AD were entered into a six-month, open-label study with indomethacin, an NSAID. They were tested before and after by four neuropsychological tests: the Mini Mental Status Exam (MMSE), the Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS), the Boston Naming Test (BNT), and the Token Test (TT). In addition, at three months, the patients also underwent the MMSE and the ADAS. The neuropsychologists performing these tests did not know the patients' treatment regimens. One patient discontinued for failure to take medication. Although most parameters would be expected to deteriorate noticeably in AD patients during the six month interval, there was almost no change on the MMSE, a slight improvement on the BNT, and only slight decrements on the ADAS and the TT. These results were interpreted as successful treatment with an NSAID. In the file history, McGeer disclosed that other AD patients had received prednisone, a steroidal anti-inflammatory, which represented the steroid class. In the file history, McGeer et al. disclosed that prednisone had no effect.
To date, AD has no known prevention or cure. Treatment at this time is still palliative, consisting of proper nutrition, exercise and supervision of daily activity. Medication can help in reducing agitation and behavior problems. Propranolol, pindolol, buspirone and valproate have all been reported to help reduce agitation and aggression. Haloperidol and other high-potency dopamine-blocking agents may be used to control acute behavior disturbances. However, none of the proceesing improve memory or any of the underlying functional problems of AD. A subgroup of patients with AD shows improvement in cognitive and functional measures when treated with tacrine (COGNEX.RTM., Parke-Davis Division of Warner-Lambert, Morris Plains N.J.), a potent centrally active, reversible acetycholinesterase inhibitor (Kaplan and Sadock, eds., CONCISE TEXTBOOK OF CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY, Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, Md., 1996, p. 592)
What is needed is a drug which helps maintain or improve the mental status of AD patients, particular those functions associated with memory.

Use of celastrol to treat alzheimer's disease


A pneumatic nozzle capable of removing dry solid debris, liquids, and mixtures of solid and liquid waste is provided. The pneumatic nozzle uses a pressurized gas stream to push materials through the nozzle. The force of a pressurized gas stream provides a partial vacuum to allow material to be introduced into an opening of a nozzle via a slight suction force. Thereafter, individual particles and materials introduced into the pneumatic nozzle are pushed by a stream of pressurized gas through the nozzle.

This invention relates to pneumatic conveyance devices. Typical pneumatic conveyance devices use a high vacuum suction device which relies upon large quantities of air or other fluids to achieve material movement into and through a nozzle. For instance, there are a variety of venturi-type nozzles which use an air supply flow that is substantially parallel to the introduced material flow. As a general rule, the more shallow, i.e., close to 0°, of the air supply introduction angle, the greater the amount of suction which may be achieved, provided a greater volume of air is supplied. Such devices are known in the art including the devices set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,841 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,289, both of which are incorporated herein by reference. The patents referenced above use a high air flow with an entry angle of the air to the nozzle of close to a 0° angle. As used herein, the angle referred to is in reference to the central conveyance axis of the device. While such devices are useful for creating a high suction, there are inherent limitations in their design and operation both as to the particle size, conveyance height, and overall efficiency for removal of a solid material.
Conventional pneumatic conveyors are limited in their capacity and the type of materials to be handled. While conventional pneumatic conveyors are useful for certain materials such as powders, granules, or pellets, there is a need for a pneumatic conveyor which can handle more diverse materials in terms of size, shape, and composition as well as a nozzle capable of removing materials from depths which cannot be achieved using a traditional vacuum-type nozzle.
A vacuum-type nozzle such as the ones described above are theoretically incapable of removing solid debris, liquids, or combinations of mixed liquid and solid waste from depths greater than approximately 32 feet. 32 feet is the maximum theoretical conveyance height that can be generated by a vacuum at sea level. However, given the inefficiencies of a vacuum and friction within a conveyance tube, depths greater than approximately 25 feet cannot be reliably serviced by a vacuum-type nozzle. Further, the efficiency of a vacuum-type nozzle does not provide an adequate mechanism for conveying materials great distances through a pneumatic hose or similar structure. There are a number of situations such as deep waste tanks and similar environments which accumulate waste material and debris which must be removed. Many of these environments have a depth below grade level in excess of 40 feet and, therefore, a pneumatic suction apparatus is impossible to use. Similarly, there are many situations where materials need to be conveyed a distance of 70 to 100 feet or more through a substantially horizontal conveyance hose. The vacuum-type nozzles described above lack sufficient air movement properties to achieve transport of materials such distances.
The ability to achieve an efficient material conveyance through a pneumatic nozzle and hose is directly correlated with the efficiency of the material conveyance apparatus. Material conveyance using air is a turbulent flow and associated with known pressure drop values as turbulent air passes through a hose or similar structure. It is known that the pressure drop of turbulent air through a conduit is an exponential function of the inside diameter of the conduit. Accordingly, any increase in the efficiency of the nozzle and nozzle delivery process can achieve a large effect on the transport efficiency.
Accordingly, there remains room for improvement and variation within the art directed to an apparatus and techniques for removing materials which overcome the inherent limitations of a venturi-type suction nozzle.

Pneumatic conveyance apparatus and process


An image reading apparatus of the present invention is provided with a driving unit for supplying a driving force to a scanner module and for supplying a driving force to an ADF. Changeover between the driving force for the scanner module and the driving force for the ADF is carried out by moving the scanner module, where the driving force of the scanner module and the driving force for the ADF are supplied from a single driving force source. A low cost member is used for the changeover of driving force transmission where the same driving force source (motor) supplies necessary driving force for a fed document reading mode and for a stationary document reading mode. This lowers a cost of the apparatus.

Conventionally, facsimile machines and photocopying machines are provided with an image reading apparatus for reading a document as image information.
Examples of such image reading apparatus include an image reading apparatus that carries out reading in one of a fed document reading mode and a stationary document reading mode, which are switched over according to a need, where reading means for reading is fixedly-positioned to read a fed-in document in the fed document reading mode, while the reading means is moved to read a stationary document in the stationary document reading mode.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication, Tokukaihei, No. 6-268790 (Publication date: Sep. 22, 1994) (Conventional Art 1) discloses a "facsimile machine" that reads a cut-sheet type of document (sheet type of document), which can be separated sheet by sheet, and a book type of document, such as a spread-book document (document of a book spread), which cannot be separated sheet by sheet.
The facsimile machine carries out reading in one of a fed document reading mode and a stationary document reading mode, which are switched over according to a need. In the fed document reading mode, the cut-sheet type of document is read by a fixedly-positioned reading unit (reading means) while the cut-sheet type of document is fed in by a document feeder. In the stationary document reading mode, the book type of document or the cut-sheet type of document is placed (is still placed (being stationary)) on a document platform, and is read by the reading unit, which is being moved to read.
However, the image reading apparatus of the facsimile apparatus that is disclosed in the Conventional Art 1 provided with separate driving force sources (motors); (a) a driving force source (motor) for supplying a driving force to the feeder, which is used in the fed document reading mode, and (b) a driving force source (motor) for supplying a driving force to the reading unit, which is being moved to read, in the stationary document reading mode. For this reason, it is necessary to provide the image reading apparatus with separate systems for supplying the driving forces from the motors to the driving force sources, respectively. This complicates a whole apparatus, thus arising problems that the apparatus has a large size and a high cost.
In view of this, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication, Tokukaihei, No. 1-266529 (Publication Date: Oct. 24, 1989) (Conventional Art 2), discloses an art in which a driving motor is used both as a driving force source (motor) for supplying a driving force to a feeder used in the fed document reading mode, and as a driving force source (motor) for supplying a driving force to a reading unit that is moved in the stationary document reading mode.
With this arrangement, in which the same driving force source (motor) supplies the driving force required in the fed document reading mode and stationary document reading mode, it is possible to simplify a system to transmit the driving force. As a result, the whole apparatus can be miniaturized.
In the art disclosed in the Conventional Art 2, however, a solenoid or an electromagnetic clutch, which is high in cost, is used to switch over (change over) the driving force for the feeder used in the fed document reading mode and the driving force for the reading unit that is moved in the stationary document reading mode. The high cost of those members increases the cost of the whole apparatus.


A storage module may include a NAND-type flash memory array and one or more controllers configured to increase gate bias voltage levels applied to gates in the memory array to overcome possible gate shorts and recover data identified as being uncorrectable. The increased gate bias voltages may be applied to gates of a single type of transistor or to different types of transistors in the memory array, including drain select transistors, source select transistors, or floating gate transistors.

Storage modules may store and manage storage of data in memory arrays in response to commands received from a host, such as program, read, and erase commands. When a read command is received, data may be retrieved from the memory array that an error correction code (ECC) engine may identify as having uncorrectable errors. These uncorrectable errors may occur for various reasons. One reason may be that there is a gate short in the memory array, which may span across multiple wordlines in the array.

Data recovery from blocks with gate shorts


A semiconductor device including a circuit substrate including n number of terminals; a semiconductor chip provided on the circuit substrate and including n number of terminals; and a relay chip including a triangular substrate having a first side, a second side and a third side which form triangle, n number of first terminals located along the first side, n number of second terminals located along the second side, and a plurality of wires connecting the first terminals and the second terminals respectively; a first wire connecting each of the n number of terminals of the circuit substrate to a corresponding first terminal among the n number of first terminals; and a second wire connecting each of the n number of terminals of the semiconductor chip to a corresponding second terminal among the n number of second terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-chip package (hereinafter, referred to as the "MCP") encapsulating a plurality of semiconductor chips in one package, and specifically to a technology for reducing the wiring capacitance of a wiring chip used for wire-bonding the plurality of semiconductor chips.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, MCPs encapsulating a plurality of semiconductor chips for different purposes in one package are widely used. For example, a plurality of memory chips for different purposes are stacked on one MCP substrate, and an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), for example, a memory controller or other devices are stacked thereon. For stacking elements in an MCP, it is common to use wire bonding for connecting a memory chip and an ASIC.
However, wire bonding involves limitations such as the wire length or the like. In addition, where a memory chip has a large size, it is difficult to connect an ASIC stacked on the memory chip directly to the MCP substrate by wiring. Therefore, a wiring chip is generally used as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-327993.
The wire used for wire bonding can be bent into a loop in a height direction (the direction vertical to a joint plane at which the semiconductor chip is jointed with the circuit substrate), but cannot be bent into a loop in a transverse direction (the direction parallel to the joint plane). Therefore, a relay chip for direction conversion is used as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-056023.

Semiconductor device, relay chip, and method for producing relay chip


Optical pulses are output from a light source to an optical fiber at one selected emission wavelength, a reflection light reflected at a fiber Bragg grating at the optical fiber is received at an optical receiver and is converted to a reflection signal by an optical to electrical conversion, a fiber Bragg grating which reflects the reflection light is identified by the signal processing unit when an intensity of the reflection signal obtained by the optical receiver is over a predetermined threshold value, and a measurement step that calculates acoustic frequencies at the fiber Bragg grating based on a temporal change of the intensity of the reflection signal at the fiber Bragg grating is repeated more than two times while changing an emission wavelength of the light source. The acoustic frequency at each fiber Bragg grating is calculated to determine an acoustic distribution along a longitudinal direction of the fiber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of measuring an acoustic distribution and a distributed acoustic sensor.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to search and extract resources such as oil or gas (natural gas or shale gas), distributed measurement technologies using an optical fiber sensor are utilized. As an optical fiber sensor, there are Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS), Distributed Strain Sensing (DSS), Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), and so on.
For example, in "First Downhole Application of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) for Hydraulic-Fracturing Monitoring and Diagnostics," M. M. Molenaar et al., Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE 140561, a distributed acoustic sensor which is configured using a Coherent Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (COTDR) and a conventional single-mode fiber is disclosed. However, a COTDR has a complex structure and requires a lot of expensive optical components.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and has an object to provide a method of measuring an acoustic distribution and a distributed acoustic sensor which are capable of measuring an acoustic distribution without using a coherent detection method.

Method of measuring acoustic distribution and distributed acoustic sensor


A packet switching node is coupled by links to other nodes of a network, and receives and assembles packets belonging to a specified packet flow, into bursts of packets with a burst control packet indicating a sequence of the burst in the flow. The node determines whether to distribute the flow across several links. If so, the bursts are then forwarded for switching to the output ports of the selected links. Distributing the flow over multiple links can enable more flexible and efficient filling of allocated bandwidth on links, as traffic increases. To reduce the risk of losing the order of packets the sequence of the bursts is indicated for use in reordering at intermediate nodes during transmission through the network.

The need to achieve low cost delivery of new bandwidth hungry services such as IPTV (internet protocol television) has required the re-design of the networks for an efficient and flexible packet transport. Transport technologies, historically related to SDH (synchronous digital highway), are evolving towards Ethernet which has a higher networking responsibility.
However the deployment of Ethernet networks demand integration with the optical layer since metro bandwidth requirements has lead to the adoption of DWDM optical transmission systems that rely on a circuit-oriented architecture. Different solutions aiming at reducing capital and operational costs while integrating packet and circuit layers have arisen. For example there are systems based on a single-platform node architecture with multi-layer switching structure. They combine the WDM/OTN optical layer with the new connection oriented Ethernet transport technologies such as PBB-TE (provide backbone bridge traffic engineering) and MPLS-TP (Multi-Protocol Label Switching Transport Profile). Such technologies are able to replicate SDH carrier class performance and provide tunnel switching, allowing removal of coupling between transport and services, and aggregation of flows over WDM wavelengths.
On the other hand there are solutions, such as Matisse "packet WDM", based on an optical burst switching paradigm that eliminates the need for optical circuits and aims at assuring the "any-to-any" flexibility of Ethernet.
In parallel, high speed Ethernet switches with fully distributed architecture are continuing to evolve to accommodate changes in networked applications and to pave the way for the next generation of Ethernet at 100 Gbps.
Solutions based on MPLS-TP/PBB-TE carrier Ethernet technologies present limited scalability and flexibility, and require a sophisticated control plane to coordinate different switching layers so as to optimize bandwidth utilization. Alternative solutions based on OBS require complex resource management (Medium Access Control (MAC) scheme) to exploit their potentiality in capacity efficiency and at the same time are limited by technology constraints. The current state of the art does not allow, for instance, efficient contention resolution mechanisms due to the lack of practical all-optical wavelength converters.
The best trade-off between connectivity and bandwidth may be achieved through next generation Ethernet switches by solving critical issues such as scalable forwarding performance and robust control functions. Layer 2 Ethernet switching, is expected to dominate next generation networks in the next five years. But Ethernet and packet switching in general has scalability issues owing to the amount of time needed to process every packet. Current distribution mechanisms such as the Ethernet LAG protocol split traffic across multiple links at flow granularity, but may waste resources by up to 60% in dynamic environments. This occurs because flow level granularity do not enable efficient filling of the capacity of the link.

Switching node with load balancing of bursts of packets


A portable (travel) charger or power adaptor (10) can minimize the protrusion from a wall when used as a wall mounted charger and can further maximize the number of power adaptors that can be (safely) plugged into a standard AC strip. The power adaptor can include a housing (12) containing a power transformer and a pair of pivoting prongs (13 and 15) forming a plug (14) arranged to be substantially near a top portion of the housing. The pair of pivoting prongs in a first position or horizontal position can make the adaptor suitable or configured for coupling to an AC wall outlet receptacle and in a second position or vertical position can make the adaptor suitable or configured for placement in an AC strip receptacle (22) of a standard power strip (20).

Rechargeable devices such as cellular phones that use a wall mounted power supply to charge the internal batteries of such device are limited to charging only one or two devices at a time when using a standard 6 receptacle AC strip due to the geometry of standard receptacle AC strip. These power supply chargers or alternating current (AC) adaptors are designed for use with a standard wall receptacle to minimize the protrusion from the wall so they do not fall out due to gravity. When used in a AC strip, such existing AC adaptors take up too much space to allow more than two power supplies at a time or at least do not allow two such AC adaptors to be adjacent to each other. Some manufactures offer a vertically mounted supply that is specifically designed and fixed to allow mounting into a 6 receptacle AC strip. This device would then protrude too far from a wall to be practical for a wall mounted charger. The protruding adaptor in such instance would typically fall out of the wall mounted receptacle and likely cause obstacles for furniture placement or hazards for walkers passing by the protruding adaptor.

System and method for multi-positional power supply adaptor


A scanning system device has a predetermined aberration as it scans or switches light along selected optical paths. A deformable membrane receives the light and introduces an inverse “aberration” that offsets that of the scanning system. In one embodiment the scanning system includes a torsion arm that supports an oscillatory body. The torsion arm and/or body can be machined from metal, micromachined in silicon or formed in a variety of other ways. Alternatively, the scanning system may include a rotating polygonal scanner or other type of optical scanner. In another approach, an optical switch replaces the scanner.

A variety of techniques are available for providing visual displays of graphical or video images and for acquiring images. In many display applications, cathode ray tube type displays (CRTs), such as televisions and computer monitors produce images for viewing. Such devices suffer from several limitations. For example, CRTs are bulky and consume substantial amounts of power, making them undesirable for portable or head-mounted applications.
Matrix addressable displays, such as liquid crystal displays and field emission displays, may be less bulky and consume less power. However, typical matrix addressable displays utilize screens that are several inches across. Such screens have limited use in head mounted applications or in applications where the display is intended to occupy only a small portion of a user's field of view. Such displays have been reduced in size, at the cost of increasingly difficult processing and limited resolution or brightness. Also, improving resolution of such displays typically requires a significant increase in complexity.
Devices for acquiring images, such as cameras and scanning microscopes may have similar constraints. For example, small cameras often use CCD arrays to convert light energy to electrical signals. In high resolutions systems, the CCD array can be complex. Full color CCD applications can add further complexity.
One approach to overcoming many limitations of conventional displays or image capture devices is a scanned beam approach, such as that described for displays in U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,104 of Furness et al., entitled VIRTUAL RETINAL DISPLAY, which is incorporated herein by reference or as described for image capture in U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,419 to Dickensheets et al., entitled MINIATURE SCANNING CONFOCAL MICROSCOPE, which is incorporated herein by reference.
As shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1, in one embodiment of a scanned beam display 40, a scanning source 42 outputs a scanned beam of light that is coupled to a viewer's eye 44 by a beam combiner 46. In some scanned displays, the scanning source 42 includes a scanner, such as scanning mirror or acousto-optic scanner, that scans a modulated light beam onto a viewer's retina. In other embodiments, the scanning source may include one or more light emitters that are rotated through an angular sweep.
The scanned light enters the eye 44 through the viewer's pupil 48 and is imaged onto the retina 59 by the cornea. In response to the scanned light the viewer perceives an image. In another embodiment, the scanned source 42 scans the modulated light beam onto a screen that the viewer observes. One example of such a scanner suitable for either type of display is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,444 to Melville et al., entitled MINIATURE OPTICAL SCANNER FOR A TWO-AXIS SCANNING SYSTEM, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Sometimes such displays are used for partial or augmented view applications. In such applications, a portion of the display is positioned in the user's field of view and presents an image that occupies a region 43 of the user's field of view 45, as shown in FIG. 2A. The user can thus see both a displayed virtual image 47 and background information 49. If the background light is occluded, the viewer perceives only the virtual image 47, as shown in FIG. 2B.
One difficulty that may arise with such displays is raster pinch, as will now be explained with reference to FIGS. 3–5. As shown diagrammatically in FIG. 3, the scanning source 42 includes an optical source 50 that emits a beam 52 of modulated light. In this embodiment, the optical source 50 is an optical fiber that is driven by one or more light emitters, such as laser diodes (not shown). A lens 53 gathers and focuses the beam 52 so that the beam 52 strikes a turning mirror 54 and is directed toward a horizontal scanner 56. The horizontal scanner 56 is a mechanically resonant scanner that scans the beam 52 periodically in a sinusoidal fashion. The horizontally scanned beam then travels to a vertical scanner 58 that scans periodically to sweep the horizontally scanned beam vertically. For each angle of the beam 52 from the scanners 58, an exit pupil expander 62 converts the beam 52 into a set of beams 63. Eye coupling optics 60 collect the beams 63 and form a set of exit pupils 65. The exit pupils 65 together act as an expanded exit pupil for viewing by a viewer's eye 64. One such expander is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,132 of Kollin et al., entitled VIRTUAL RETINAL DISPLAY WITH EXPANDED EXIT PUPIL, which is incorporated herein by reference.
One skilled in the art will recognize that, for differing applications, the exit pupil expander 62 may be omitted, may be replaced or supplemented by an eye tracking system, or may have a variety of structures, including diffractive or refractive designs. For example, the exit pupil expander 62 may be a planar or curved structure and may create any number or pattern of output beams in a variety of patterns. Also, although only three exit pupils are shown in FIG. 3, the number of pupils may be almost any number. For example, in some applications a 15 by 15 array may be suitable.
Returning to the description of scanning, as the beam scans through each successive location in the beam expander 62, the beam color and intensity is modulated in a fashion to be described below to form a respective pixel of an image. By properly controlling the color and intensity of the beam for each pixel location, the display 40 can produce the desired image.
As the beam is scanned, a variety of optical effects may affect the quality of the displayed or captured image. For example, millimeter scale optical instruments typically require lens elements in the intermediate size range of several hundred micrometer clear apertures. Although considerable progress has been made in the fabrication of single refractive microlenses in this regime, the construction of high-power, high-resolution systems of refractive microlenses capable of diffraction limited imagery over a large field of view remains a considerable technological challenge.
When attempting to form an image with a simple lens (one that is not fully corrected), one observes aberrations in the image that depend on the location in the field-of-view. The optical surface that works optimally for resolving a point in the center of the field is usually not quite the same as the optical surface that optimally resolves a point off to one side in the field-of-view. To solve this problem, the lens designer typically adds additional lens surfaces until the system is fully corrected throughout the field-of-view. This can add considerable complexity for the micro-optical instrument, and in many cases a practical design may not be realized. If, however, the design constraints are reduced so that the lens design can be optimized for one particular position in the image field, a much simpler lens could be used; however, the optimal lens would usually be slightly different for each pixel. Array based imaging systems that image all of the pixels in the field simultaneously therefore use lens systems fully corrected to the desired level of performance.
Considerable effort has been devoted to developing the theory and devices for adaptive optics for the correction and optimization of imaging systems such as telescopes and antennas. Much of that work has focused on random aberrations from such external sources as atmospheric turbulence, and the surfaces required to compensate such fluctuations are highly variable. Adaptive mirrors for these applications typically have tens or hundreds of actuators in an array pattern, often with a thin continuous membrane over the surface of the array. Control of such a surface often uses local wavefront sensing and feedback control, and these surfaces typically are for slowly varying aberrations.
In some examples of such an approach continuous membrane micromachined adaptive mirrors are use for correction. Such approaches are described in Gleb Vdovin and P. M. Sarro, "Flexible mirror micromachined in silicon," Applied Optics vol. 34 no. 16, pp 2968–2972, 1995; P. K. C. Wang and F. Y. Hadeagh, "Computation of static shapes and voltages for micromachined deformable mirrors with nonlinear electrostatic actuators," JMEMS vol. 5 no. 5, pp205–220, 1996; Thomas G. Bifano et. al., "Continuous-membrane surface micromachined silicon deformable mirror," Optical Engineering, vol. 36 no. 5, pp 1354–1359, 1997; Linda M. Miller, Michael L. Agronin, Randall K. Bartman, William J. Kaiser, Thomas W. Kenny, Robert L. Norton and Erika C. Vote, "Fabrication and characterization of a micromachined deformable mirror for adaptive optics applications," SPIE 1945, 1993; and Adrian M. Michalicek, Natalie Clark, John H. Comtois, Heather K. Schriner, "Design and simulation of advanced surface micromachined micromirror devices for telescope adaptive optics applications," SPIE 3353, pp. 805–815, 1998 each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Returning to the general description of scanning, simplified versions of the respective wave forms of the vertical and horizontal scanners are shown in FIG. 4. In the plane In the scanned beam display 40 of FIG. 3, the beam traces the pattern 68 shown in FIG. 5. Though FIG. 5 shows only eleven lines of image, one skilled in the art will recognize that the number of lines in an actual display will typically be much larger than eleven. As can be seen by comparing the actual scan pattern 68 to a desired raster scan pattern 70, the actual scanned beam 68 is "pinched" at the outer edges of the beam expander 62. That is, in successive forward and reverse sweeps of the beam, the pixels near the edge of the scan pattern are unevenly spaced. This uneven spacing can cause the pixels to overlap or can leave a gap between adjacent rows of pixels. Moreover, because the image information is typically provided as an array of data, where each location in the array corresponds to a respective position in the ideal raster pattern 69, the displaced pixel locations can cause image distortion.
Further optical aberrations in the optical train may produce pixel non-uniformities, distortion, or other artifacts that may reduce the appearance or degrade the performance of a scanned display or image capture device.


Guide members to guide the guide edges of plug-in units upon insertion of the plug-in units into the U-shaped bus duct of a low voltage switchgear assembly. The guide fittings are arranged on the inside of the side legs of the U-shaped bus duct, and the plug-in units are held between the side legs of the bus duct. Each of the guide members extends from and is made of the same material continuous with its corresponding side wall of the bus duct.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a low-voltage switchgear assembly or switchboard or switching station or distribution switchboard for distribution of electrical energy. The low-voltage switchgear assembly contains switching equipment or equipment groups located in plug-in units, containing equipment such as power circuit breakers, motor circuit breakers, motor control centers or similar devices. The plug-in units have guides in the switchgear cabinet and are provided with a cabinet-shaped metal housing and at least one switchgear cabinet door. At least the electrical connection from the bus bars to the switching equipment is of the plug-in type, whereby the guide fittings are stamped and the plug-in units have guide edges which run parallel to the plane of the floor, whereby moreover the bus bars are field bus bars which are connected to main bus bars.
2. Background Information
In power distribution applications, low-voltage switchgear assembles consisting of switching equipment or groups of equipment located in switchgear cabinets, also called motor control centers (MCCs) or energy control centers, have long been successfully used for the protection of equipment and motors.
The output and distribution of the electrical energy is achieved by means of common busbars or interchangeable equipment units or groups of equipment, whereby these groups of equipment contain switching and protection components, and are engaged with the busbars by means of plug-in contacts.
At least some of the equipment groups on distribution boards of this type are of the plug-in type, whereby at least the load current taps are realized in the form of plug-in contacts which are engaged on the busbars.
The load current and the control current connections or similar connections can be realized either as plug-in type connections or can be hard-wired.
The switching and protection components can be power circuit breakers, motor circuit breakers, contactors and combinations of these components, such as a reversing star-delta combination or a similar combination.
German Patent No. A1 42 10 679 describes a similar power distribution board which has cross struts which run parallel to the insertion direction, which cross struts have guide means for the plug-in units, whereby the guide means are realized in the form of graduated or step-shaped or Z-shaped guide extensions and are stamped in one piece out of the material, which material was used to manufacture the guide means.
These guide means, of course, are relatively economical, but if the field bus bar system is designed to be a compact unit, cross struts are also necessary for guidance. European Patent No. 0 186 556 illustrates and describes a field bus bar system with a bus duct, whereby the plug-in units are located on the sides. The bus system forms a compact unit which can be installed in any desired metal switchgear cabinet. However there is no guidance of the plug-in units in the sense of the present invention.
WO 93/18564 also describes a power distribution board which has guide slots located on wall elements, although the distribution board in question is complex and expensive to construct.

Low-voltage switchgear assembly for the output or distribution of electrical energy


A picture information converting apparatus for generating a plurality of output picture signals. The apparatus includes first data selecting means; second data selecting means; memory means for storing a pre-obtained estimation expression coefficient; pixel value generating means for generating the first pixel with the second pixels selected by the first data selecting means and a linear estimation expression of the estimation expression coefficient; class determining means for generating class information corresponding to the third pixels selected by the second data selecting means and supplying the estimation expression coefficient to the pixel value generating means corresponding to the class information; scanning line structure converting means, connected to the pixel value generating means, for converting a conversion picture to a designated scanning line structure; and controlling means for receiving a control signal that designates a scanning line structure of the output picture signal and for switching over at least one of the estimation expression coefficient, the second pixels selected by the first data selecting means and the third pixels selected by the second data selecting means, corresponding to the control signal.

The present invention relates to an information signal processing apparatus, a picture information converting apparatus, and a picture displaying apparatus.
When an output picture signal is generated with an input picture signal in such a manner that the scanning line structure of the output picture signal is different from the scanning line structure of the input picture signal, a dedicated circuit for the output picture signal may be used. When a sum-of-product calculation is performed, a plurality of calculated results may be required. To obtain a plurality of calculated results, respective calculating circuits may be switched over. However, when the circuits are switched over, since the hardware scale may become large and the circuits may become redundant.
As a practical application, when an SD signal is converted into an output signal with high quality and high resolution, circuits corresponding to the types of output signals are disposed. A relevant circuit is used corresponding to a designated output signal. In this method, the hardware scale becomes large and circuits become redundant. To obtain an output picture signal corresponding to a picture pattern of an input picture signal, a plurality of output signals are required. It is considered that an interlace SD (standard definition) picture signal having 525 scanning lines is converted into an interlace HD (high definition) picture signal having 1050 scanning lines. Since the number of scanning lines is doubled, in the case of a natural picture, an output picture signal with high quality and high resolution is obtained. However, since the output picture signal is an interlace picture signal, in the case of a graphic picture, a line flicker becomes conspicuous. Thus, corresponding to the type of an input picture signal, the scanning line structure of an output picture signal should be switched over.
As a known method for removing a line flicker component, an interlace signal is converted into a progressive signal. However, in this method, an input signal is linear-interpolated and an interpolated signal is obtained. Thus, the resolution of the output signal cannot be improved against that of the input signal. In addition, when an interpolating method (for a still picture process or a moving picture process) is switched over corresponding to the detected result of a motion, the difference of resolution between the original signal and the interpolated signal becomes large. In particular, when a motion is incorrectly detected, the picture quality largely deteriorates.
As related inventions of the present invention, the applicant of the present invention has obtained the following U.S. patents.
1. U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,072: Digital Video Signal Resolution Converting Apparatus
2. U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,164: Image Signal Converting Apparatus

Information signal processing apparatus, picture information converting apparatus, and picture displaying apparatus


The invention provides a method for gift selection and fulfillment, especially suited to children, which comprises: contacting a potential gift giver by conventional advertising; providing information to the potential gift giver for contacting an order accepting system; obtaining an order from the gift giver that includes a set of gift selection criteria; supplying a computer program for comparing that is used for comparing the gift selection criteria with a set of gift selection rules; and generating a set of gift choices and storing the gift choices in a database record-keyed to a unique access code: notifying the recipient of the unique access code to make a gift choice by means of a connection to a computer network; generating a display of the available gift choices along with a personal message and photo of the gift giver, keyed to the unique access code; recording the recipient's gift selection and generating a delivery order for delivery of the gift selected to the recipient. The method may that further comprise obtaining from the gift giver information regarding other children to whom the gift giver wishes to give gifts on specified occasions; storing the information with gift giver contact information; and sending a reminder of the specified gift occasion to the gift giver to initiate a new gift selection and delivery. The method may include having the set of gift selection rules include special interest items. The method may also include gift selection rules that are provided by a team having one or more experts in child development, and with input from children.

Several methods of gift distribution using the Internet are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,175,823 describes a system for purchasing, distributing and regaining electronic gift certificates. U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,211 describes methods and systems for electronically accepting and exchanging an online gift. However, the methods currently in use require the gift giver to have access to a computer in order to initiate the transaction. Each also requires that the proprietor of the gift selection business be provide with personal information regarding the recipient including the recipient's e-mail address or screen name. These characteristics of the prior art systems create a hardship for persons who lack computer literacy or access, and raise a privacy issue that is particularly sensitive where the recipient is a child. The present invention overcomes these problems by providing non-electronic gift purchase and notification mechanisms combined with an electronic gift selection system. This integrated system combines the speed and graphic display qualities of the internet with additional safeguards for privacy and communication security.


Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for previewing images to be rendered on multiple pages. A representation of the image mapped onto a two dimensional canvas is displayed. The canvas representation includes content of the image and describes a layout of the image content across multiple pages.

The present invention relates to rendering images on multiple pages.
Applications that support printing electronic images often include the ability to print an image that is too large to fit on a single page using multiple pages. These pages can then be assembled by a user to produce a printed image. The printed pages can include cut marks and alignment marks to facilitate the assembly of the printed image. Cut marks are used to indicate regions of the printed pages that must be removed before assembly. These regions typically include unprintable regions of the page that cannot be used by the printer. Alignment marks are used as a guide to align the multiple pages during assembly.

Previewing an image rendered on multiple pages


A method and apparatus for predicting sand-grain composition and sand texture are disclosed. A first set of system variables associated with sand-grain composition and sand texture is selected (605). A second set of system variables directly or indirectly causally related to the first set of variables is also selected (610). Data for each variable in the second set is estimated or obtained (615). A network with nodes including both sets of variables is formed (625). The network has a directional links connecting interdependent nodes. The directional links honor known causality relationships. A Bayesian network algorithm is used (630) with the data to solve the network for the first set of variables and their associated uncertainties.

Bayesian networks are a tool for modeling systems. A description of Bayesian networks is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,290, which description is provided below, with omissions indicated by ellipses. FIG. 1 from the U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,290 patent is replicated as FIG. 1 hereto:                A Bayesian network is a representation of the probabilistic relationships among distinctions about the world. Each distinction, sometimes called a variable, can take on one of a mutually exclusive and exhaustive set of possible states. A Bayesian network is expressed as an acyclic-directed graph where the variables correspond to nodes and the relationships between the nodes correspond to arcs. FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary Bayesian network 101. In FIG. 1 there are three variables, X1, X2, and X3, which are represented by nodes 102, 106 and 110, respectively. This Bayesian network contains two arcs 104 and 108. Associated with each variable in a Bayesian network is a set of probability distributions. Using conditional probability notation, the set of probability distributions for a variable can be denoted by p(xi|Πi,ζ) where "p" refers to the probability distribution, where "Πi" denotes the parents of variable Xi and where "ζ" denotes the knowledge of the expert. The Greek letter "ζ" indicates that the Bayesian network reflects the knowledge of an expert in a given field. Thus, this expression reads as follows: the probability distribution for variable Xi given the parents of Xi and the knowledge of the expert. For example, X1 is the parent of X2. The probability distributions specify the strength of the relationships between variables. For instance, if X1 has two states (true and false), then associated with X1 is a single probability distribution p(xi|ζ) and associated with X2 are two probability distributions p(xi|x1=t,ζ) and p(xi|x1=f,ζ) . . . .        The arcs in a Bayesian network convey dependence between nodes. When there is an arc between two nodes, the probability distribution of the first node depends upon the value of the second node when the direction of the arc points from the second node to the first node. For example, node 106 depends upon node 102. Therefore, nodes 102 and 106 are said to be conditionally dependent. Missing arcs in a Bayesian network convey conditional independencies. For example, node 102 and node 110 are conditionally independent given node 106. However, two variables indirectly connected through intermediate variables are conditionally dependent given lack of knowledge of the values ("states") of the intermediate variables. Therefore, if the value for node 106 is known, node 102 and node 110 are conditionally dependent.        In other words, sets of variables X and Y are said to be conditionally independent, given a set of variables Z, if the probability distribution for X given Z does not depend on Y. If Z is empty, however, X and Y are said to be "independent" as opposed to conditionally independent. If X and Y are not conditionally independent, given Z, then X and Y are said to be conditionally dependent given Z.        The variables used for each node may be of different types. Specifically, variables may be of two types: discrete or continuous. A discrete variable is a variable that has a finite or countable number of states, whereas a continuous variable is a variable that has an uncountably infinite number of states . . . . An example of a discrete variable is a Boolean variable. Such a variable can assume only one of two states: "true" or "false." An example of a continuous variable is a variable that may assume any real value between −1 and 1. Discrete variables have an associated probability distribution. Continuous variables, however, have an associated probability density function ("density"). Where an event is a set of possible outcomes, the density p(x) for a variable "x" and events "a" and "b" is defined as:
      p              (      x      )        =            Lim              a        ->        b                        [                        p                                (                          a              ≤              x              ≤              b                        )                                                          (                          a              -              b                        )                                        ]                       where p(a≦x≦b) is the probability that x lies between a and b.
Bayesian networks also make use of Bayes Rule, which states:
      p              (              B        ❘        A            )        =                    p                          (          B          )                    ·              p                          (                      A            ❘            B                    )                            p                    (        A        )            for two variables, where p(B|A) is sometimes called an a posteriori probability. Similar equations have been derived for more than two variables. The set of all variables associated with a system is known as the domain.
Building a network with the nodes related by Bayes Rule allows changes in the value of variables associated with a particular node to ripple through the probabilities in the network. For example, referring to FIG. 1, assuming that X1, X2 and X3 have probability distributions and that each of the probability distributions is related by Bayes Rule to those to which it is connected by arcs, then a change to the probability distribution of X2 may cause a change in the probability distribution of X1 (through induction) and X3 (through deduction). Those mechanisms also establish a full joint probability of all domain variables (i.e. X1, X2, X3) while allowing the data associated with each variable to be uncertain.
Geoscientists are frequently interested in sandstone reservoir porosity and permeability, which are often related to the likelihood of producing commercial quantities of hydrocarbons from the reservoir. Some existing tools predict sandstone reservoir porosity and permeability as a function of compaction and cementation using physics- and chemistry-based numerical models. Many of these tools take sand composition and grain-size information as inputs.

Predicting sand-grain composition and sand texture