A control unit performs a reading operation in a first mode in which a document on a document stand is read by moving a carriage which includes a reading portion, and in a second mode in which a document which is transported by a document transport unit is read using the carriage which is located at a reading position. The device includes a first white reference plate which is arranged in a first white reference reading position which is a standby position in the first mode, and a second white reference plate which is arranged on a side opposite to the first white reference plate by interposing a reading position in the second mode therebetween in the sub-scanning direction.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image reading device which includes a flatbed-type document stand, and a document transport unit such as an automatic document feeder (ADF), and performs reading of a document which is fixed at the document stand, and reading of a document which is being transported at a reading position located in the middle of a transport path of the document transport unit using a reading unit included in a carriage which can move along the document which is fixed at the document stand.
2. Related Art
In the related art, as an image reading device, an apparatus which includes a flatbed-type document stand and an automatic document transport device (hereinafter, also referred to as Auto Document Feeder (ADF)) (as an example of document transport unit) was known. The image reading device includes a carriage which includes a reading unit such as a line sensor which reads a document on document stand glass from the lower part of the document stand, and a document stand cover which presses the document on the document stand. For example, an ADF is provided on the higher side (rear face side) of the document stand cover (for example, refer to JP-A-9-74465). In the image reading device of this type, an image of a document on the document stand is read using the reading unit by moving the carriage in the sub-scanning direction. In addition, documents which are in the middle of being transported from the ADF are sequentially read in the reading unit in a state in which the carriage is stopped at a reading position. In this manner, the image reading device which is disclosed in JP-A-9-74465 corresponds to a fixed document reading mode in which a document fixed at a document stand is read (corresponding to first mode), and a moving document reading mode in which a document which is being transported (being moved) from an automatic document transport device is read (corresponding to second mode).
In addition, in the image reading device of this type, a shading correction in which the entire image is corrected so as to have uniform brightness in average in order to reduce uneven density of the image is performed, and the apparatus includes a white reference plate which is read using a reading unit in order to obtain white reference data which is used when detecting density of a white level, or in the shading correction (refer to JP-A-9-74465). The carriage is moved to a reading position of the white reference plate, the reading unit reads reflected light of light with which the white reference plate is irradiated, and the white reference data is obtained, and is stored in a storage unit. In addition, image data of a document is generated by performing various corrections including the shading correction using the white reference data with respect to read data which is obtained by reading a document using the reading unit.
For example, in JP-A-9-74465, two white reference plates of a white reference plate which is provided in a document reading unit at a time of automatic document transport, and of a white reference plate which is used when reading a document which is in the outside of a document moving path, and is fixed at a document stand are included. In addition, a traveling body (carriage) reads the white reference plate for document stand which is located out of the document moving path before reading one document at a time of reading a plurality of documents which are transported from an automatic document transport device, and after reading the white reference plate, the carriage moves to a position of a document reading unit at the time of automatic document transport, and reads one document which is transported at the time of automatic document transport. In addition, when reading a second document and the following documents, the carriage reads a white reference plate in the document moving path which is located in the document reading unit. In the related art, since a white reference plate out of the document moving path is firstly read, it is possible to reduce an adverse effect which is applied at a time of detecting density of a white level due to attaching of dust, or the like, to the white reference plate, or at a time of a shading correction, when receiving a job of reading a plurality of documents.
Meanwhile, in JP-A-9-74465, the white reference plate for document stand which is located out of the document moving path is read before reading one document at a time of reading a plurality of documents which are transported from the automatic document transport device. For this reason, when a job of reading the plurality of documents is continued, it is necessary to move the traveling body to a position of the white reference plate for document stand which is located out of the document moving path from a position of the reading unit in the moving document reading mode. In addition, the traveling body moves to the reading unit of the document which is transported from the automatic document transport device after reading the white reference plate for document stand, and starts a reading operation of the document in the reading unit. For this reason, it takes for the traveling body a relatively long moving time in order to read the white reference plate, and as a result, there is a problem in that a starting period of a reading operation of a document is delayed.


The present invention relates to a method for preparing a porous organic-inorganic hybrid, which comprises gelling a reaction mixture containing a metal precursor, a water-soluble additive and water or water-containing organic solvent at a gelling temperature of 30° C.˜100° C. to obtain an organogel-containing solution having a viscosity of 2 to 50,000 (cps), subsequently ageing the solution at said gelling temperature under stirring; and subsequently heating the organogel-containing solution at a temperature between said gelling temperature and 250° C. to crystallize the solution.

A crystalline porous organic-inorganic hybrid is a porous material prepared formed by a coordinate bond between at least one metal ion or metal ion cluster and at least one aromatic carboxylate as an organic ligand. When preparing a porous organic-inorganic hybrid as described above, the solvothermal synthetic method is generally used, but a hydrothermal synthetic method may be used as well in order to increase the hydrothermal stability. As representative porous organic-inorganic hybrids prepared by the above synthetic method, mention can be made of a porous organic-inorganic hybrids having the formula of Cr3O(H2O)2X[C6H3(CO2)3]2 (X=F− or OH−) and its hydrate, Fe3O(H2O)2X[C6H3(CO2)3]2 (X=F− or OH−) and its hydrate, Cr3O(H2O)2X[C6H4(CO2)2]3 (X=F− or OH−) and its hydrate, has been reported [Science, 23, 2040 (2005); Chemical Communications, 2820 (2007); Accounts of Chemical Research, 38, 217 (2005)].
Meanwhile, the coordinate bond between a Group IV metal ion such as Zr or Ti and an organic ligand such as an aromatic carboxylate has a feature that the chemical bonding force is stronger than that of the conventional coordinate bond between a Group III metal ion such as Fe, Cr, Al or the like and a carboxylate ligand. Thus, in recent, active researches on the properties and application of the above materials including Zr or Ti are now carried out [Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-0009849 (corresponding to PCT/EP2007/053704); Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-0033172 (corresponding to PCT/EP2007/053781); WO 2009/133366; WO 2010/0945889; J. Am. Chem. Soc., 130, 13850 (2008); J. Am. Chem. Soc., 131, 10857 (2009)]. In recent, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0089102 (Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2011-0031731) has described a microwave synthesis and solvothermal synthesis of a porous organic-inorganic hybrid containing a tetravalent metal ion using a non-aqueous solvent. Said Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0089102 has produced a porous organic-inorganic hybrid comprising tetravalent metal by the solvothermal synthesis method.

Method for preparing porous organic-inorganic hybrid materials

Abstract: According to the method for preparation of the present invention, it is possible to commercially practice the present invention since the reaction can be carried out in water or a water-containing organic solvent at an ambient pressure or a slightly raised pressure under a reflux condition, as well as it is possible to mass-produce a porous organic-inorganic hybrid having a high crystallinity and a large surface even in a high mol ratio of 1:1˜1:30 of solvent to metal.

KOREA RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY


An image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit that fixes an image of a toner using any one of a first toner and a second toner on a recording medium, and a control unit that sets a fixing temperature and a standby temperature of the fixing unit. The control unit sets the fixing temperature when the image of the first toner is fixed to a first temperature, sets the fixing temperature when the image of the second toner is fixed to a second temperature lower than the first temperature, and sets the standby temperature when the fixing unit is in a standby state to a temperature closer than the second temperature than the first temperature.

An electro photographic image forming apparatus has been known. The image forming apparatus heats a toner, which is a colorant, at a predetermined temperature (hereinafter, referred to as a fixing temperature) to fix an image of the toner on a recording medium (for example, a sheet). The image forming apparatus forms an image by the fixing operation. The image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit that fixes an image of the toner on the recording medium. The image forming apparatus has a warming-up mode, a standby mode, and a printing mode, as operation modes. The image forming apparatus controls a temperature of the fixing unit according to each operation mode. The warming-up mode is an operation mode when the image forming apparatus is powered on. The image forming apparatus in the warming-up mode controls the temperature of the fixing unit to raise the temperature of the fixing unit to a predetermined target temperature. The target temperature of the warming-up mode is, for example, a temperature close to the fixing temperature. The standby mode is an operation mode when an image forming operation is not performed after the fixing unit reaches the target temperature. The image forming apparatus in the standby mode controls the temperature of the fixing unit to keep the temperature of the fixing unit at a standby temperature. The standby temperature is, for example, the same temperature as the target temperature. The printing mode is an operation mode when the image forming apparatus is forming an image. The image forming apparatus in the printing mode controls the temperature of the fixing unit to raise the temperature of the fixing unit from the standby temperature to the fixing temperature and to keep the temperature of the fixing unit at the fixing temperature.
As the image forming apparatus, an image forming apparatus using a plurality of toners is known. For example, a color image forming apparatus is provided with four colors (black K/cyan C/magenta M/yellow Y) of toners. The color image forming apparatus forms a color image using four colors of toners. The fixing unit heats four colors of toners at the fixing temperature to fix the image of the toners on the recording medium (for example, a sheet). Fixing temperature characteristics of the toners are different according to kinds of toners. Accordingly, the temperatures necessary for fixing of the toners are different according to kinds of toners. However, the fixing temperature of the color image forming apparatus may be changed by an environmental temperature, but is not changed by kinds of toners to be used. The target temperature of the warming-up mode and the standby temperature of the standby mode in the color image forming apparatus are also not changed by kinds of toners. The reason why the fixing temperature is not changed is that four colors of toners are simultaneously fixing targets in a case of color image formation.
Meanwhile, as the image forming apparatus using the plurality of toners, an image forming apparatus provided with two kinds of toners, that is, a color erasable toner (hereinafter, referred to as an erasable toner) and a color inerasable toner is proposed. In a case of the image forming apparatus, since an image is formed using any one toner, two kinds of toners are not simultaneously the fixing targets. Accordingly, the image forming apparatus changes the fixing temperature of the fixing unit according to the kind of toner to be used. In this case, to achieve image formation using any toner between two kinds of toners, the image forming apparatus sets the target temperature (=the standby temperature) of the warming-up mode to the higher fixing temperature of the fixing temperatures of two kinds of toners.
However, in a case of forming an image using a toner with a low fixing temperature (for example, an erasable toner), since the fixing temperature of the erasable toner is lower than the standby temperature, the image forming apparatus has to lower the temperature of the fixing unit from the standby temperature to the fixing temperature of the erasable toner. A conventional fixing unit has a configuration for heating but does not have a configuration only for cooling. For this reason, generally, a time necessary to lower the temperature of the fixing unit is longer than a time necessary to raise the temperature of the fixing unit. Accordingly, the image forming apparatus provided with the erasable toner and a normal toner imposes an unnecessary standby time on the user when an image is formed using the toner with the low fixing temperature.


A method for signal degradation alarm detection in a digital microwave system, includes the steps of: summing code violation values from cells of a given buffer except for one of the cells currently indicated in the given buffer to calculate a code violation sum value of a corresponding provision, and setting a code violation limit value to a previously defined value; comparing the code violation sum value with the code violation limit value; setting a signal degradation alarm flag to detect an alarm when the code violation sum value is greater than or equal to the code violation limit value; adding the code violation sum value to a next code violation sum value of a lower buffer to obtain a new code violation sum value when the code violation sum value is less than the code violation limit value; setting the signal degradation alarm flag to detect the alarm when the new code violation sum value is greater than or equal to the code violation limit value; and ending performance of the method without setting the signal degradation alarm flag when a final code violation sum value corresponding to a lowermost buffer is less than the code violation limit value.

The present invention relates to a synchronous digital microwave system, and more particularly, to a method for a signal degradation (SD) alarm detection and cancellation according to a collection of code violation (CV) values.
Communications systems have increased dramatically in size and complexity in recent years. These increases present serious problems in regard to system management and control. One aspect of system management is fault management, and an essential component of fault management is fault identification. The prior art has addressed the problem of fault management in communication systems in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,309,448 entitled Methods And Systems For Alarm Correlation And Fault Localization In Communication Networks issued to Bouloutas et al. In Bouloutas et al. '448, several specific processing algorithms are provided for solving alarm correlation and fault localization problems in a communication network.
In a synchronous digital microwave system, a monitoring controller should be designed to have the function of performing the operation, management, maintenance and repair of the system. In contemplating the design of a controller capable of managing a digital microwave system, however, I note that a problem of excess memory consumption exists. Accordingly, I believe that an improved method for detecting signal degradation in a digital microwave system is in need.

Method for signal degradation alarm detection and cancellation in synchronous digital microwave system


The present disclosure provides a coating method and a coating system. The coating method comprises: providing a substrate, and dropping a first liquid onto the substrate; dropping, onto the first liquid, a second liquid which is immiscible with the first liquid and has a density greater than that of the first liquid; and rotating the substrate, such that the first liquid is diffused on the surface of the substrate, and the second liquid is diffused on the surface of the first liquid.

In a semiconductor manufacturing process, it is often needed to coat a photoresist on a substrate. When coating the photoresist on the substrate, the substrate is first fixedly provided on a bearing surface of a rotary table, and then a certain amount of photoresist is sprayed on the central region of the surface of the substrate by using a nozzle. Afterwards, the rotary table is controlled to rotate to drive the substrate to rotate around the center of the substrate. During the rotation of the substrate, the photoresist at the central region of the surface of the substrate is diffused to the peripheral region under the action of a centrifugal force, and finally a photoresist layer is formed on the surface of the substrate.
However, in the diffusion process of the photoresist, as the viscosity of the photoresist is usually large, the thickness of the photoresist coated on the substrate is non-uniform, thereby affecting the product quality of a manufactured semiconductor.
Therefore, there is a need to develop and improve the related technology.

CHONGQING KONKA PHOTOELECTRIC TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE CO., LTD.


An illuminated windshield system includes a trim member with a channel for receiving a windshield, and a windshield mounted in the channel and having an edge. A light source is interposed between the channel of the trim member and the edge of the windshield. The light source is disposed facing the edge of the windshield.

The invention relates to illuminated glass systems and, more particularly, to an illuminated windshield system cooperable with a windshield secured in a trim member.
The illuminated windshield system according to preferred embodiments includes a light source that is placed on and follows along the edge of a glass component. The system is applicable to any glass type, for example, glass doors, hatches, windshields, and roof systems in industries such as marine, agriculture, power sport, and others. Reference to "windshield" in the present application is intended to refer generically to any glass panel to which the system may be applied.
The light shines into the glass in such a way to allow the glass to have complete or partial internal reflection of light. The light travels internally through the glass until it is redirected by interactions with a finished edge, a painted frit pattern, etching, film or some other form of disruption. In these areas, the light is redirected out of the glass, resulting in a lighted or glowing pattern that is visible on one or both sides of the glass.
In an exemplary embodiment, an illuminated windshield system includes a trim member with a channel for receiving a windshield, and a windshield mounted in the channel and having an edge. A light source is interposed between the channel of the trim member and the edge of the windshield. The light source is disposed facing the edge of the windshield.
The light source may include a light strip with a plurality of lights, where the lights are disposed facing the edge of the windshield. In this context, the light strip may be disposed along an entire length of the edge. The system may additionally include a gasket disposed in the channel between the channel and the windshield, where the light source is disposed between the gasket and the windshield.
The windshield may include a disruption that disrupts internal reflectivity of the windshield. The disruption may be a frit pattern or an etching that is illuminated when the light source is on.
In one embodiment, the light source includes an LED light box.
The system may further include a top trim member with a top channel for receiving the windshield, where the light source is interposed between the top channel and the top edge of the windshield.


A solution for providing user equipment (UE) location during an emergency call (e.g., an E911 call) includes: receiving, at a positioning node (e.g., a gateway mobile location center (GMLC)), a notification of an emergency call; requesting, by the positioning node, an approximated location of the UE; requesting, from the UE, a refined location of the UE, wherein the refined location has a higher expected accuracy than the approximated location; receiving the approximated location; based on at least the approximated location, selecting an emergency service responder point (e.g., a public safety answering point (PSAP)) from among a plurality of emergency service responder points; instructing a call routing destination of the emergency call as the selected emergency service responder point; receiving the refined location; and transmitting the refined location to the selected emergency service responder point. A rapid approximate location enables selecting the PSAP while waiting for a more accurate location report.

When someone requires assistance, and places an emergency phone call, it is often important for emergency responders to know the location of that person. A cellular device, for example a user equipment (UE), has logic to determine and automatically report its location over the cellular network to which it is connected, when making an emergency call, such as an enhanced 911 (E911) call. The UE may use a global positioning system (GPS) receiver or assisted GPS (AGPS) to determine its location. The location of the UE is routed to a public safety answering point (PSAP), where the emergency call is answered, and the person using the UE may make a report on the emergency.
Unfortunately, obtaining accurate location information from the UE may require an extended period of time, relative to the time criticality of many emergency call scenarios. For example, determining location with an assisted global positioning system (AGPS) may require 20 seconds or more. A potentially more rapid solution that uses the known location of the cellular base station that is serving the UE risks sending the emergency call to the incorrect PSAP, when the cell size crosses boundaries of PSAP jurisdiction. This incorrect routing introduces undesirable delay.

Providing user equipment (UE) location rapidly and accurately during an emergency call


In an optical recording medium drive apparatus, an optical recording medium is illuminated with a laser beam emitted from a head via an objected leans, and the head detects light reflected from the optical recording medium being illuminated with the laser beam. A signal generator generates a reflected light signal in accordance with the reflected light detected by the head. A controller drives the objective lens via a focusing unit, and detects peaks in the reflected light signal obtained when the objective lens is driven in a focusing direction. The controller determines whether the optical recording medium is of a single layer type or a multiple layer type by determining whether a pattern of the detected peaks is similar to one of patterns which can occur if the optical recording medium is of the single layer type.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical recording medium drive apparatus adapted to record and/or read a signal on/from an optical recording medium by illuminating the optical recording medium with light, and a method of determining the number of layers of an optical recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
One technique to record and read digital data is to use an optical disk (or magneto-optical disk) such as a CD (Compact Disc), a MD (Mini-Disc), or a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) as a recording medium. The optical disk recording medium (hereinafter referred to simply as the optical disk) is a generic expression of recording media configured in the form of a disk on which a signal is recorded in the form of pits or marks so that the signal can be read by illuminating the disk with laser light and detecting a change in intensity of reflected light.
A disk drive for recording/reading data on/from an optical disk can be configured to handle a plurality of types of optical disks. Parameters used in the recording/reading operation are different depending on the type of the optical disk. Therefore, when an optical disk is mounted on the disk drive, the disk drive determines the type of the mounted optical disk.
When an optical disk of a certain type has a plurality of recording layers, it is necessary to detect the number of recording layers.
In general, an optical disk has physical property information recorded thereon to indicate physical properties such as the type of the disk, the number of recording layers, and so on, so that the disk drive can determine the type of the disk, the number of recording layers, etc. by reading the physical property information.
For further information about related techniques, see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-155791.

Optical recording medium drive apparatus and method of determining the number of layers


A floribunda rose variety producing soft pink flowers.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct floribunda rose variety which was originated by my crossing as seed parent the variety known as `White Dream` and as pollen parent the variety known as `Evelien (a.k.a. `Interlien` U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,368).` The varietal denomination of this new rose is `Suntink.`


A circuit board comprises a signal routing layer, a first dielectric layer, a second dielectric layer, a third dielectric layer, a first ground layer, a second ground layer, and a third ground layer. The signal routing layer includes chip traces, connector traces, and signal traces connected to components. The first dielectric layer, the first ground layer, the second dielectric layer, the second ground layer, the third dielectric layer, and the third ground layer, in that order, are located at gradually increasing distances from the signal routing layer. The first ground layer corresponds to the chip traces, the second ground layer corresponds to the signal traces, and the third ground layer corresponds to the connector traces.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to circuit boards, and particularly to a circuit board with signal routing layer having uniform impedance.
2. Description of Related Art
Trace impedances of circuit boards must be kept uniform throughout all the traces for good signal transmitting ability. Yet, at some points of the traces, for example, the impedance of a trace which is connected to a connector may be smaller than the impedance of a trace which is connected to a chip.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a circuit board which can overcome the limitation described.

Circuit board with signal routing layer having uniform impedance


An adjustable finger splint having a main body and slide. The slide configured to move relative to the main body and including a wedge to apply variable pressure to an injured finger to cause the injured finger to extend or straighten. The main body having a proximal interphalangeal platform to support the proximal interphalangeal joint, a metacarpophalangeal platform to support the palm and metacarpophalangeal joint, and a slide platform to support the slide.

A human hand has numerous bones, including phalanges and metacarpals. Each finger has three phalanges: a proximal phalange, an intermediate phalange, and a distal phalange. A thumb has two phalanges. Phalanges are hinged together with interphalangeal joints. For example, a finger's proximal phalange and intermediate phalange are joined by a proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint, while a finger's intermediate phalange and distal phalange are joined by a distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint. A finger's proximal phalange is joined to a metacarpal with a metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint.
Unfortunately, accidents or other medical conditions can impact the flexion and/or extension of a finger's interphalangeal joints. For example, when a tendon used to extend a finger becomes torn while another tendon used to pull the finger toward the palm of the hand remains intact, the finger can become contracted against the palm. Treatment of such an injured finger can involve bracing the finger into a desired position while the finger heals. Some devices have been developed that use screws to move parts into place to brace an injured finger. However, conventional devices fail to achieve sufficed magnitude of force or rigidity on the finger.


A device for transferring cigarette portions from an output bed of a dual-rod manufacturing machine to an input roller of a filter assembly machine; the device having a transfer unit rotating about an axis inclined with respect to the bed, and which picks up the cigarette portions from the bed and feeds them respectively into first and second seats of a drum conveyor; the first and second seats being arranged respectively along a circular first path and a circular second path coaxial with a common axis; and drums being provided to transfer the second cigarette portions from the second path to a path defined by the input roller of the filter assembly machine and common to the first and second cigarette portions.

The present invention relates to a device for transferring cigarette portions from a dual-rod cigarette manufacturing machine to a filter assembly machine.
On dual-rod cigarette manufacturing machines, the two rods, once formed, are fed parallel to each other along a normally horizontal output bed; and, as they travel along the bed, the rods are fed through a cutting station where they are cut transversely into portions of equal length, which continue traveling along the bed in the same direction as the rods.
When producing filter-tipped cigarettes, the cigarette portions are transferred by a transfer device from the bed to a filter assembly machine, the input station of which is normally defined by a drum conveyor positioned with its axis parallel to the rods, and comprising outer axial grooves, each for receiving at least one cigarette portion.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,777, the cigarette portions are transferred from the output bed of the manufacturing machine to the filter assembly machine by means of a transfer device comprising a transfer drum rotating about an axis parallel to the cigarette portions, and a number of pickup units facing the transfer drum and each comprising two seats. Each pickup unit is movable in such a manner as to keep the respective seats parallel to themselves at all times, and to feed the seats along a first and a second path lying in planes perpendicular to the bed and at different distances from the transfer drum; and each pickup unit picks up one cigarette portion of one rod and the corresponding cigarette portion of the other rod, and feeds the two cigarette portions along a portion of said paths and into two adjacent seats formed on the transfer drum.
To receive both the cigarette portions picked up by each pickup unit, one of the seats in each pair of adjacent seats on the transfer drum is fitted to a lever, which is activated by a cam device to vary the distance between the seat and the axis of the transfer drum, and so enable the seat to receive the cigarette portion traveling along the path furthest from the outer surface of the transfer drum.
Once the pair of cigarette portions has been deposited, the lever is withdrawn to bring the seat back onto the outer surface of the transfer drum, which then transfers the cigarette portions to the input drum conveyor of the filter assembly machine.
The above device involves considerable drawbacks on account of the levers, which make the transfer drum mechanically complex and, hence, unreliable and relatively expensive to produce.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,577, pairs of cigarette portions are transferred using a transfer device in which the seats of the pickup units describe a first and a second path similar to those described above. In this case, however, the transfer conveyor comprises a first and a second drum comprising respective seats for receiving the cigarette portions. More specifically, the first drum is in the form of a cage rotating about a first axis and about the second drum, which rotates about a second axis separated from the first axis by such a distance that the seats of the first and second drums respectively describe a third and a fourth circular path. The two paths are respectively tangent to the first and second paths to receive the cigarette portions from each pickup unit, and are also tangent to each other at a point in which the third and fourth paths are tangent to the input drum conveyor of the filter assembly machine.
The above transfer device provides for effectively transferring pairs of cigarette portions from the bed of a manufacturing machine to the input drum conveyor of a filter assembly machine, but has the disadvantage of comprising a high-cost, structurally complex transfer drum.

Device for transferring cigarette portions from a dual-rod cigarette manufacturing machine to a filter assembly machine


A wheelchair driver having a simple, efficient structure is mountable to a horizontal frame extension of a wheelchair between a wheel and the wheelchair's frame. The driver is mounted directly to a spindle sleeve fastened to the horizontal frame extension which provides a race for the driver to run upon. The spindle sleeve also isolates the driver from the wheel preventing any friction between the wheel and the driver. The driver has a lever extending upward from the spindle sleeve above the tire of the wheel. A handle is provided on the uppermost end for a user. The lever has a pawl extending over the tire of the wheel. The pawl has teeth on a lower surface and contacts against the tire. When the lever is rotated around the spindle sleeve, the pawl teeth grab the tire, causing the wheelchair to move. When the lever is stopped or rotated oppositely, the pawl teeth release the tire and allow the wheelchair's momentum to move the wheelchair until another forward rotation of the lever provides additional force. Brake pads on the lever, adjacent to rims of the wheels, are forcible against the rims, providing the user with a wheelchair brake. The wheelchair driver provides a user with a safe and efficient method of wheelchair motivation which does not require gripping and releasing of any moving part of the wheelchair.

The usual method of wheelchair movement is for the user to grip circular handrails fixedly mounted to the outside of the wheelchair's wheels. To do this, the user must continually grab, push and release the handrail. For many users, this action is very difficult or even physically impossible. Many devices in the art provide alternative wheelchair moving means which do not require the user to continually grip and release moving parts. Each of these devices in the prior art have disadvantages not shared by the device of this application. Some of the prior art devices restrict the free motion of the wheels increasing rolling resistance of the wheels and increasing the physical exertion required to move the wheelchair. Other devices in the prior art extend outside the wheels of the wheelchair increasing the width of the wheelchair and making the wheelchair more cumbersome to maneuver in tight spaces. Still other devices in the prior art require extensive mechanical modification of the wheelchair and hamper standard adjustments of the wheelchair increasing the cost and complexity of maintenance and repair of the wheelchair.
The following patents reflect the state of the art of which applicant is aware and are included herewith to discharge applicant's acknowledged duty to disclose relevant prior art. It is stipulated, however, that none of these references teach singly nor render obvious when considered in any conceivable combination the nexus of the instant invention as disclosed in greater detail hereinafter and as particularly claimed.
______________________________________ INVENTOR PATENT NO. ISSUE DATE ______________________________________ Krueger, T. F. 654,986 July 31, 1900 Williams, T. E. December 11, 1906 Everest et al. June 30, 1953 Petersen June 15, 1965 Bulmer March 14, 1967 Good May 13, 196701 Bulmer, D. L. March 4, 1975 Barroza April 15, 1975 Saunders et al. October 19, 1982 Platt et al. June 22, 1983 Lucken, W. O. June 12, 1984 Korosue, A. March 26, 1985 Tait, R. E. April 5, 1988 Myron Medical Products Ltd. GB 2,213,438A August 16, 1989 ______________________________________
The patent to Bulmer teaches a device for moving a wheelchair without requiring the user to grip and release any moving parts. Bulmer is distinguishable from the device of this application in that the Bulmer device places the main lever arm outside the wheel on each side of the wheelchair. This increases the width of the wheelchair and increases the likelihood that the lever will catch on a passing object. Also, the lever of the Bulmer device is of a material flexible enough to allow the brake pad to engage the rim of the tire. This requires a material of sufficient flexibility.
The present invention utilizes a rigid lever with flexibility designed into the interface between the lever and its spindle sleeve. Furthermore, the device of this application has a spindle sleeve upon which the lever is mounted which isolates the lever from the wheel. This feature prevents the lever from interfering with the free rotation of the wheel and also allows the wheel to be easily removed or adjusted without removal of the wheelchair driving device.
The pawl construction of the instant invention is further distinguished over the pawl construction of the Bulmer device in that the curved toothed surface of the instant device more easily grips and releases the tires of the wheelchair. The construction of the pawl of the instant invention utilizes gravity to engage and release the pawl's curved toothed surface from the surface of the tire. This feature lessens the force necessary to engage and release the wheelchair driver while causing less wear to the tires. A corollary benefit to the curved tooth surface manifests itself when the chair travels in reverse.
The invention by Everest is of interest in that it has levers which the user can keep his or her hands on at all times. The device of this application is distinguishable from Everest in that the Everest patent requires substantial modification to the wheels of the wheelchair and also the Everest invention requires that the user learn to coordinate the power strokes of each lever together in alternating patterns while the device of this application allows a user to establish a motion pattern that is the most convenient, such as pushing together with both hands simultaneously. Furthermore, the Everest device lacks the simplicities of action associated with a pawl attached to a lever.
The patent to Tait provides a device which includes a lever which drives wheels of a wheelchair. The Tait device is substantially different from the device of this application in that it requires substantial modification of the standard wheelchair, requiring that gears and belt or chain drives be mounted on the wheelchair. The device of this application is easily attachable to a standard wheelchair and avoids interfering in any way with the existing operation of the wheelchair.
The other prior art patents listed above diverge more starkly from the present invention than those specifically distinguished. The device of this application provides a unique and useful method of modification of a wheelchair to provide users with limited physical abilities with a means for transporting themselves without assistance.


A reliability buffering technique applies a reliability time buffer to a project planning model having activities. The reliability time buffer is placed before an associated downstream activity to provide a buffered downstream activity. The reliability buffer is provided having a time duration value and an activity time precedence relationship, including a lead or lag value, with at least one upstream activity. The time duration value and the activity time precedence relationship are generated so as to reduce the overall schedule delay resulting from possible time delays that occur in the one or more upstream activities and to increase the overall project schedule advance from possible schedule advances in the one or more upstream activities.

As is known in the art, a model is a representation or approximation of a real world process, device or concept. A model can be implemented in computer code for execution on a processor in order to allow a user to rapidly vary model parameters and to understand the impact on the process, device or concept of varying such parameters.
A project planning model is a model that can be used to plan a project (e.g. a construction project). Some well-known project planning models include a dependency structure matrix (DSM), a critical path method (CPM), a precedence diagram method (PDM), a concurrent engineering technique, a critical chain technique, an overlapping framework technique, various system dynamics techniques, a simulation language for alternative modeling technique (SLAM), a graphical evaluation and review technique (GERT), a queue graphical evaluation and review technique (Q-GERT), and a program evaluation and review technique (PERT). Such conventional project planning models are used to plan and control projects.
As mentioned above, such models can be implemented in as computer code for execution on a processor to provide computer implemented project management tools which can be used to aid in the planning and management of projects such as construction projects and the like. In this manner, computer tools which apply the principles of particular project planning models are provided. Such tools provide a project manager with the ability to generate an initial project plan and to update and modify the project plan thereafter.
As is also known, a so-called "network based" project planning model provides a model of a project plan having activities and time relationship linkages between the activities. A database underlying the conventional project planning model will be referred to herein as conventional project plan data, having conventional project plan data elements. Of the above-mentioned techniques, CPM, PDM, PERT, and GERT will be recognized to be the most common network based project planning models.
Conventional project plan data elements of PDM, for example, include a list of activities, an activity duration value for each activity, and time precedence relationships between the activities. A time precedence relationship describes a relationship between two activities. For example if a first activity must finish before a second activity can start, the first and second activities are said to be in a "finish to start" time precedence relationship. Time precedence relationships include finish to start (FS), finish to finish (FF), start to finish (SF), and start to start (SS) relationships. The time precedence relationships can also include lead or lag times. For example, when two activities are related in an FS time precedence relationship, a downstream activity is planned to start at the completion of an upstream activity to which it is related. For another example, when two activities are time related in an FS relationship with lead, a downstream activity can begin a lead period before the completion of an upstream activity to which it is related. This is contrasted with an FS relationship with lag for which the downstream activity is delayed to start with a lag delay after the completion of an upstream activity to which it is related.
Contingency time buffers, also called contingency buffers, are conventionally applied to the end of one or more activities in the project plan to absorb the effect of time delay, or slippage, of individual activities. Contingency buffers attempt to ensure that the total time duration of the project is preserved even when the durations of individual activities expand, either from expected or from unexpected changes.
To the conventional project plan data elements above, PERT and GERT add various other conventional project plan data elements. PERT, for example, includes probability values associated with the duration value of each activity. The probability value assigns a probability to the likelihood that an activity will be completed within its scheduled duration. PERT also adds a path probability value to each time precedence relationship. The path probability value corresponds to the likelihood that a time precedence relationship will be achieved as planned. GERT adds probabilistic time precedence relationship branching.
Conventional project planning models that utilize contingency buffers are generally inefficient in protecting the project schedule performance. Once added to the duration of an activity, a contingency buffer can be considered by those workers performing the activity to be part of the original time schedule of the activity without distinction. When workers realize that they have extra time to complete a task, their work tends to expand to fill the perceived extra time, creating an indeterminate duration. As a result, the contingency buffer generally does not function effectively to protect the initially planned overall schedule duration.
Furthermore, when contingency buffers are applied to a project plan at a "merging point," no benefit is gained to the overall project schedule from an activity that finishes early at the merging point. A merging point will be understood to be a place in a project plan at which a first and a second activity both have a time precedence relationship with a third activity.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a project planning method as part of a project planning model that has the ability to absorb time slippages and project changes yet which does not tend to expand a project schedule when such slippages and changes occur. It would be further desirable to provide a project planning method with which the overall project schedule benefits from the early completion of activities at a merging point.

Reliability buffering technique applied to a project planning model


The present invention encompasses a novel S. aureus bioconjugate vaccine. More generally, the invention is directed to Gram-positive and other bioconjugate vaccines containing a protein carrier, at least one polysaccharide such as a capsular Gram-positive polysaccharide, and, optionally, an adjuvant or pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The instant invention also includes methods of producing Gram-positive and other bioconjugate vaccines. An N-glycosylated protein is also provided that contains one or more polysaccharides such as Gram-positive polysaccharides. The invention is additionally directed to engineered prokaryotic organisms comprising nucleotide sequences encoding a glycosyltransferase of a first prokaryotic organism and a glycosyltransferase of a second prokaryotic organism. The invention further includes plasmids and prokaryotic cells transformed with plasmids encoding polysaccharides and enzymes which produce an N-glycosylated protein and/or bioconjugate vaccine. Further, the invention is directed to methods of inducing an immune response in a mammal comprising administering said bioconjugate vaccines.

Vaccines have been one of the great public health inventions of modern medicine and have saved millions of lives. Immunizations have been proven to be an ideal means to prevent and control infections. Each year vaccines prevent up to 3 million deaths and 750,000 children are saved from disability. (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization—Press Releases (Mar. 11, 2006) at www.gavialliance.org/media_centre/press_releases/2006_03_09_en_pr_queenrania_delhi.php). In 1999 the CDC declared immunizations the number one public health achievement of the 20th century (Ten great public health achievements-United States, 1900-1999. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 48:241-3 (Apr. 2, 1999)). Some bacteria like those causing tetanus or diphtheria produce a toxin that is largely responsible for the disease. This toxin can be used in a detoxified form as vaccine. However, for most bacteria there is no single toxin that can be used to develop a vaccine.
Among the most successful vaccines are surface polysaccharides of bacterial pathogens like Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria meningitidis, and Streptococcus pneumoniae conjugated to carrier proteins. These bacteria are surrounded by a capsule, which promotes microbial virulence and resistance to phagocytic killing, as well as preventing them from desiccation.
Bacterial polysaccharides can elicit a long-lasting immune response in humans if they are coupled to a protein carrier that contains T-cell epitopes. This concept was elaborated 80 years ago (Avery, O. T., and W. F. Goebel. 1929. Chemo-immunological studies on conjugated carbohydrate-proteins. II Immunological specificity of synthetic sugar-proteins. J. Exp. Med. 50:521-533), and proven later for the polysaccharide of Haemophilus influenza type B (HIB) coupled to the protein carrier diphtheria toxin (Anderson, P. 1983. Antibody responses to Haemophilus influenzae type b and diphtheria toxin induced by conjugates of oligosaccharides of the type b capsule with the nontoxic protein CRM197. Infect Immun 39:233-8; Schneerson, R., O. Barrera, A. Sutton, and J. B. Robbins. 1980. Preparation, characterization, and immunogenicity of Haemophilus influenzae type b polysaccharide-protein conjugates. J Exp Med 152:361-76). This glycoconjugate was also the first conjugated vaccine to be licensed in the USA in 1987 and introduced into the US infant immunization schedule shortly thereafter. Besides HIB, conjugated vaccines were successfully used against the encapsulated human pathogens N. meningitidis and S. pneumoniae. Routine use of these vaccines has resulted in decreased nasopharyngeal colonization, as well as infection. Currently approximately ˜25% of the global vaccine market comprises conjugated vaccines.
Gram-positive bacteria have a cell membrane that is surrounded by capsular polysaccharides. Staphylococcus is one such Gram-positive bacterium.
Staphylococcus aureus causes infection. S. aureus is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen responsible for a diverse spectrum of human diseases. Although S. aureus may colonize mucosal surfaces of normal humans, it is also a major cause of wound infections and has the invasive potential to induce severe infections, including osteomyelitis, endocarditis, and bacteremia with metastatic complications (Lowy, F. D. 1998. Staphylococcus aureus infections. New Engl J Med 339:520-32). S. aureus is one of the most common agents implicated in ventilator-associated pneumonia, and it is an important and emerging cause of community-acquired pneumonia, affecting previously healthy adults and children lacking predisposing risk factors (Kollef, M. H., A. Shorr, Y. P. Tabak, V. Gupta, L. Z. Liu, and R. S. Johannes. 2005. Epidemiology and outcomes of health-care-associated pneumonia: results from a large US database of culture-positive pneumonia. Chest 128:3854-62; Shorr, A. F. 2007. Epidemiology and economic impact of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: review and analysis of the literature. Pharmacoeconomics 25:751-68).
S. aureus is the second most common cause of nosocomial bacteremia, and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains account for more than 50% of all infections in intensive care units in the U.S. S. aureus infections within the hospital and in the community are increasing. MRSA strains were isolated from 2% of staphylococcal infections in 1974 and from 63% of staphylococcal infections in 2004. Many of the nosocomial MRSA strains are multi-drug resistant, and even methicillin-sensitive strains can be deadly. A recent report using population-based, active case finding revealed that 94,360 invasive MRSA infections occurred in the U.S. in 2005, and that the majority of these (58%) occurred outside of the hospital (Klevens, R. M., M. A. Morrison, J. Nadle, S. Petit, K. Gershman, S. Ray, L. H. Harrison, R. Lynfield, G. Dumyati, J. M. Townes, A. S. Craig, E. R. Zell, G. E. Fosheim, L. K. McDougal, R. B. Carey, and S. K. Fridkin. 2007. Invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in the United States. JAMA 298:1763-71). In this analysis, more Americans died from MRSA (>18,000 deaths) in 2005 than from AIDS.
S. aureus USA100, also known as the New York/Japan clone, is an MRSA strain that represents the predominant U.S. hospital-acquired MRSA strain (McDougal, L. K., C. D. Steward, G. E. Killgore, J. M. Chaitram, S. K. McAllister, and F. C. Tenover. 2003. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis typing of oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates from the United States: establishing a national database. J Clin Microbiol 41:5113-20).
Epidemiologic analyses indicate that S. aureus causes approximately 2 million clinical infections each year in the U.S. alone (Fridkin, S. K., J. C. Hageman, M. Morrison, L. T. Sanza, K. Como-Sabetti, J. A. Jernigan, K. Harriman, L. H. Harrison, R. Lynfield, and M. M. Farley. 2005. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus disease in three communities. N Engl J Med 352:1436-44; King, M. D., B. J. Humphrey, Y. F. Wang, E. V. Kourbatova, S. M. Ray, and H. M. Blumberg. 2006. Emergence of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus USA 300 clone as the predominant cause of skin and soft-tissue infections. Ann Intern Med 144:309-17; Klevens, R. M., M. A. Morrison, J. Nadle, S. Petit, K. Gershman, S. Ray, L. H. Harrison, R. Lynfield, G. Dumyati, J. M. Townes, A. S. Craig, E. R. Zell, G. E. Fosheim, L. K. McDougal, R. B. Carey, S. K. Fridkin, and M. I. for the Active Bacterial Core surveillance. 2007. Invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in the United States. JAMA 298:1763-1771). Not only are S. aureus infections increasing in number, but the resistance of S. aureus to antibiotics is also on the increase. MRSA accounts for 40%-60% of nosocomial S. aureus infections in the U.S., and many of these strains are multi-drug resistant. Notorious as a major source of nosocomial infections, S. aureus has recently taken on a new role in causing an escalating number of community-acquired infections in non-hospitalized persons without predisposing risk factors. Virulent community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) strains are becoming more prevalent across the U.S. and Europe, and their dissemination has been observed globally (Baggett, H. C., T. W. Hennessy, K. Rudolph, D. Bruden, A. Reasonover, A. Parkinson, R. Sparks, R. M. Donlan, P. Martinez, K. Mongkolrattanothai, and J. C. Butler. 2004. Community-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus associated with antibiotic use and the cytotoxin Panton-Valentine leukocidin during a furunculosis outbreak in rural Alaska. J Infect Dis 189:1565-73; Gilbert, M., J. MacDonald, D. Gregson, J. Siushansian, K. Zhang, S. Elsayed, K. Laupland, T. Louie, K. Hope, M. Mulvey, J. Gillespie, D. Nielsen, V. Wheeler, M. Louie, A. Honish, G. Keays, and J. Conly. 2006. Outbreak in Alberta of community-acquired (USA300) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in people with a history of drug use, homelessness or incarceration. Canad Med Assoc J 175:149-54; Kazakova, S. V., J. C. Hageman, M. Matava, A. Srinivasan, L. Phelan, B. Garfinkel, T. Boo, S. McAllister, J. Anderson, B. Jensen, D. Dodson, D. Lonsway, L. K. McDougal, M. Arduino, V. J. Fraser, G. Killgore, F. C. Tenover, S. Cody, and D. B. Jernigan. 2005. A clone of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among professional football players. N Engl J Med 352:468-75).
Not only has S. aureus resistance to methicillin become more common, but numerous isolates with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin have been reported. Seven clinical isolates of S. aureus that carry vanA and are fully resistant to vancomycin have been isolated in the U.S. These isolates are also methicillin resistant (Chang, S., D. M. Sievert, J. C. Hageman, M. L. Boulton, F. C. Tenover, F. P. Downes, S. Shah, J. T. Rudrik, G. R. Pupp, W. J. Brown, D. Cardo, and S. K. Fridkin. 2003. Infection with vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus containing the vanA resistance gene. New Engl J Med 348:1342-7). Because S. aureus cannot always be controlled by antibiotics and MRSA isolates are becoming increasingly prevalent in the community, additional control strategies, such as a vaccine, are sorely needed.
S. aureus capsular polysaccharides are involved in infection. Many virulence factors contribute to the pathogenesis of staphylococcal infections, including surface-associated adhesions, secreted exoproteins and toxins, and immune evasion factors (Foster, T. J. 2005. Immune evasion by staphylococci. Nature Reviews Microbiology 3:948-58). Like many invasive bacterial pathogens, S. aureus produces a capsular polysaccharide (CP) (FIG. 4) that enhances its resistance to clearance by host innate immune defenses. Most clinical isolates of S. aureus are encapsulated, and serotype 5 and 8 strains predominate (Arbeit, R. D., W. W. Karakawa, W. F. Vann, and J. B. Robbins. 1984. Predominance of two newly described capsular polysaccharide types among clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis 2:85-91). The type 5 (CP5) and type 8 (CP8) capsular polysaccharides have similar trisaccharide repeating units comprised of N-acetyl mannosaminuronic acid (ManNAcA), N-acetyl L-fucosamine (L-FucNAc), and N-acetyl D-fucosamine (D-FucNAc) (Jones, C. 2005. Revised structures for the capsular polysaccharides from Staphylococcus aureus types 5 and 8, components of novel glycoconjugate vaccines. Carbohydr Res 340:1097-106). CP5 and CP8 are serologically distinct, and this can be attributed to differences in the linkages between the sugars and in the sites of O-acetylation (FIG. 4).
Previous studies have correlated S. aureus capsule production with resistance to in vitro phagocytic uptake and killing (Fattom, A., R. Schneerson, S. C. Szu, W. F. Vann, J. Shiloach, W. W. Karakawa, and J. B. Robbins. 1990. Synthesis and immunologic properties in mice of vaccines composed of Staphylococcus aureus type 5 and type 8 capsular polysaccharides conjugated to Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A. Infect Immun 58:2367-74; Thakker, M., J.-S. Park, V. Carey, and J. C. Lee. 1998. Staphylococcus aureus serotype 5 capsular polysaccharide is antiphagocytic and enhances bacterial virulence in a murine bacteremia model. Infect Immun 66:5183-5189; Watts, A., D. Ke, Q. Wang, A. Pillay, A. Nicholson-Weller, and J. C. Lee. 2005. Staphylococcus aureus strains that express serotype 5 or serotype 8 capsular polysaccharides differ in virulence. Infect Immun 73:3502-11). Human neutrophils phagocytose capsule-negative mutants in the presence of nonimmune serum with complement activity, whereas encapsulated isolates require both capsule-specific antibodies and complement for optimal opsonophagocytic killing (Bhasin, N., A. Albus, F. Michon, P. J. Livolsi, J.-S. Park, and J. C. Lee. 1998. Identification of a gene essential for O-acetylation of the Staphylococcus aureus type 5 capsular polysaccharide. Mol Microbiol 27:9-21; Thakker, M., J.-S. Park, V. Carey, and J. C. Lee. 1998. Staphylococcus aureus serotype 5 capsular polysaccharide is antiphagocytic and enhances bacterial virulence in a murine bacteremia model. Infect Immun 66:5183-5189; Watts, A., D. Ke, Q. Wang, A. Pillay, A. Nicholson-Weller, and J. C. Lee. 2005. Staphylococcus aureus strains that express serotype 5 or serotype 8 capsular polysaccharides differ in virulence. Infect Immun 73:3502-11). Nilsson et al. (Nilsson, I.-M., J. C. Lee, T. Bremell, C. Ryden, and A. Tarkowski. 1997. The role of staphylococcal polysaccharide microcapsule expression in septicemia and septic arthritis. Infect Immun 65:4216-4221) reported that peritoneal macrophages from mice phagocytosed significantly greater numbers of a CP5-negative mutant compared to the parental strain Reynolds. Once phagocytosed, the CP5-positive strain survived intracellularly to a greater extent than the mutant strain. Cunnion et al. (Cunnion, K. M., J. C. Lee, and M. M. Frank. 2001. Capsule production and growth phase influence binding of complement to Staphylococcus aureus. Infect Immun 69:6796-6803) compared opsonization of isogenic S. aureus strains and demonstrated that the CP5-positive strain bound 42% less serum complement (C′) than the acapsular mutant.
S. aureus vaccine development conventionally has involved the capsule as a target. Vaccine design for protection against staphylococcal disease is complicated by the protean manifestations and clinical complexity of S. aureus infections in humans. Many S. aureus vaccine candidates have been investigated in animal models of infection, but it has been reported that only two immunization regimens have completed phase III clinical trials (Schaffer, A. C., and J. C. Lee. 2008. Vaccination and passive immunisation against Staphylococcus aureus. Int J Antimicrob Agents 32 Suppl 1:S71-8). The first vaccine is based on the two capsular polysaccharides (CPs) (FIG. 4) that are most prevalent among clinical strains of S. aureus. Fattom et al. (Fattom, A. R. Schneerson, S. C. Szu, W. F. Vann, J. Shiloach, W. W. Karakawa and J. B. Robbins. 1990. Synthesis and immunologic properties in mice of vaccines composed of Staphylococcus aureus type and type 8 capsular polysaccharides conjugated to Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin. Infect Immun 58: 2367-74) conjugated the serotype 5 (CP5) and serotype 8 (CP8) polysaccharides to nontoxic recombinant P. aeruginosa exoprotein A (rEPA). The conjugate vaccines were immunogenic in mice and humans, and they induced opsonic antibodies that showed efficacy in protecting rodents from lethality and from nonlethal staphylococcal infection (Fattom, A. R. Schneerson, S. C. Szu, W. F. Vann, J. Shiloach, W. W. Karakawa and J. B. Robbins. 1990. Synthesis and immunologic properties in mice of vaccines composed of Staphylococcus aureus type 5 and type 8 capsular polysaccharides conjugated to Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin. Infect Immun 58: 2367-74; Fattom, A., R. Schneerson, D. C. Watson, W. W. Karakawa, D. Fitzgerald, I. Pastan, X. Li, J. Shiloach, D. A. Bryla, and J. B. Robbins. 1993. Laboratory and clinical evaluation of conjugate vaccines composed of S. aureus type 5 and type 8 capsular polysaccharides bound to Pseudomonas aeruginosa recombinant exoprotein A. Infect Immun 61:1023-32; Fattom, A. I., J. Sarwar, A. Ortiz, and R. Naso. 1996. A Staphylococcus aureus capsular polysaccharide (CP) vaccine and CP-specific antibodies protect mice against bacterial challenge. Infect Immun 64:1659-65; Lee, J. C., J. S. Park, S. E. Shepherd, V. Carey, and A. Fattom. 1997. Protective efficacy of antibodies to the Staphylococcus aureus type 5 capsular polysaccharide in a modified model of endocarditis in rats. Infect Immun 65:4146-51). Passive immunization studies have indicated that both CP5- and CP8-specific antibodies significantly reduce infection in a murine model of S. aureus mastitis (Tuchscherr, L. P., F. R. Buzzola, L. P. Alvarez, J. C. Lee, and D. O, Sordelli. 2008. Antibodies to capsular polysaccharide and clumping factor A prevent mastitis and the emergence of unencapsulated and small-colony variants of Staphylococcus aureus in mice. Infect Immun 76:5738-44). The combined CP5- and CP8-conjugate vaccine was shown to be safe in humans and elicited antibodies that showed opsonophagocytic activity.
S. aureus vaccine development has also involved surface proteins as a target. The second S. aureus clinical vaccine trial was based on the protective efficacy of antibodies to staphylococcal adhesions in preventing staphylococcal infections. S. aureus clumping factor A is a cell wall-anchored protein that is surface expressed, mediates staphylococcal adherence to fibrinogen (Foster, T. J., and M. Hook. 1998. Surface protein adhesins of Staphylococcus aureus. Trends Microbiol 6:484-8), and promotes the attachment of S. aureus to biomaterial surfaces (Vaudaux, P. E., P. Francois, R. A. Proctor, D. McDevitt, T. J. Foster, R. M. Albrecht, D. P. Lew, H. Wabers, and S. L. Cooper. 1995. Use of adhesion-defective mutants of Staphylococcus aureus to define the role of specific plasma proteins in promoting bacterial adhesion to canine arteriovenous shunts. Infection & Immunity 63:585-90), blood clots, and damaged endothelial surfaces (Moreillon, P., J. M. Entenza, P. Francioli, D. McDevitt, T. J. Foster, P. Francois, and P. Vaudaux. 1995. Role of Staphylococcus aureus coagulase and clumping factor in pathogenesis of experimental endocarditis. Infection & Immunity 63:4738-43). The fibrinogen-binding domain of ClfA is located within region A of the full-length protein (McDevitt, D., P. Francois, P. Vaudaux, and T. J. Foster. 1995. Identification of the ligand-binding domain of the surface-located fibrinogen receptor (clumping factor) of Staphylococcus aureus. Molecular Microbiology 16:895-907). ClfA plays an important role in S. aureus binding to platelets, an interaction that is critical in animal models of catheter-induced staphylococcal endocarditis (Sullam, P. M., A. S. Bayer, W. M. Foss, and A. L. Cheung. 1996. Diminished platelet binding in vitro by Staphylococcus aureus is associated with reduced virulence in a rabbit model of infective endocarditis. Infection & Immunity 64:4915-21).
Nanra et al. reported that antibodies to ClfA induced opsonophagocytic killing of S. aureus in vitro (Nanra, J. S., Y. Timofeyeva, S. M. Buitrago, B. R. Sellman, D. A. Dilts, P. Fink, L. Nunez, M. Hagen, Y. V. Matsuka, T. Mininni, D. Zhu, V. Pavliak, B. A. Green, K. U. Jansen, and A. S. Anderson. 2009. Heterogeneous in vivo expression of clumping factor A and capsular polysaccharide by Staphylococcus aureus: Implications for vaccine design. Vaccine 27:3276-80). Furthermore, mice immunized with a recombinant form of the binding region A of ClfA showed reductions in arthritis and lethality induced by S. aureus (Josefsson, E., O. Hartford, L. O'Brien, J. M. Patti, and T. Foster. 2001. Protection against experimental Staphylococcus aureus arthritis by vaccination with clumping factor A, a novel virulence determinant. Journal of Infectious Diseases 184:1572-80). Passive immunization experiments were performed in rabbits given a human polyclonal immunoglobulin preparation that contained elevated levels of antibodies specific for ClfA (Vernachio, J., A. S. Bayer, T. Le, Y. L. Chai, B. Prater, A. Schneider, B. Ames, P. Syribeys, J. Robbins, J. M. Patti, J. Vernachio, A. S. Bayer, T. Le, Y.-L. Chai, B. Prater, A. Schneider, B. Ames, P. Syribeys, J. Robbins, and J. M. Patti. 2003. Anti-clumping factor A immunoglobulin reduces the duration of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia in an experimental model of infective endocarditis. Antimicrobial Agents & Chemotherapy 47:3400-6). The combination therapy resulted in better bacterial clearance from the blood of rabbits with catheter-induced S. aureus endocarditis than did vancomycin treatment alone. In addition, passive transfer of ClfA-specific antibodies significantly reduced infection in a murine model of S. aureus mastitis (Tuchscherr, L. P., F. R. Buzzola, L. P. Alvarez, J. C. Lee, and D. O. Sordelli. 2008. Antibodies to capsular polysaccharide and clumping factor A prevent mastitis and the emergence of unencapsulated and small-colony variants of Staphylococcus aureus in mice. Infect Immun 76: 5738-44).
A phase III clinical trial was reportedly designed to protect against late-onset sepsis in 2000 low birth weight, premature neonates. The infants received up to four administrations of Veronate, a human immunoglobulin preparation pooled from donors with elevated antibody titers against ClfA and SdrG. Despite the promising results from a similar phase II clinical trial, this prophylactic therapy resulted in no reduction in the frequency of staphylococcal infections in the neonates (DeJonge, M., D. Burchfield, B. Bloom, M. Duenas, W. Walker, M. Polak, E. Jung, D. Millard, R. Schelonka, F. Eyal, A. Morris, B. Kapik, D. Roberson, K. Kesler, J. Patti, and S. Hetherington. 2007. Clinical trial of safety and efficacy of INH-A21 for the prevention of nosocomial staphylococcal bloodstream infection in premature infants. J Pediatr 151:260-5).
It has been shown that protein glycosylation occurs, but rarely does so naturally, in prokaryotic organisms. On the other hand, N-linked protein glycosylation is an essential and conserved process occurring in the endoplasmic reticulum of eukaryotic organisms. It is important for protein folding, oligomerization, stability, quality control, sorting and transport of secretory and membrane proteins (Helenius, A., and Aebi, M. (2004). Roles of N-linked glycans in the endoplasmic reticulum. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 73, 1019-1049). Protein glycosylation has a profoundly favorable influence on the antigenicity, the stability and the half-life of a protein. In addition, glycosylation can assist the purification of proteins by chromatography, e.g. affinity chromatography with lectin ligands bound to a solid phase interacting with glycosylated moieties of the protein. It is therefore established practice to produce many glycosylated proteins recombinantly in eukaryotic cells to provide biologically and pharmaceutically useful glycosylation patterns.
Conjugate vaccines have been successfully used to protect against bacterial infections. The conjugation of an antigenic polysaccharide to a protein carrier is required for protective memory response, as polysaccharides are T-cell independent antigens. Polysaccharides have been conjugated to protein carriers by different chemical methods, using activation reactive groups in the polysaccharide as well as the protein carrier. (Qian, F., Y. Wu, O. Muratova, H. Zhou, G. Dobrescu, P. Duggan, L. Lynn, G. Song, Y. Zhang, K. Reiter, N. MacDonald, D. L. Narum, C. A. Long, L. H. Miller, A. Saul, and G. E. Mullen. 2007. Conjugating recombinant proteins to Pseudomonas aeruginosa ExoProtein A: a strategy for enhancing immunogenicity of malaria vaccine candidates. Vaccine 25:3923-3933; Pawlowski, A., G. Kallenius, and S. B. Svenson. 2000. Preparation of pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide-protein conjugates vaccines utilizing new fragmentation and conjugation technologies. Vaccine 18:1873-1885; Robbins, J. B., J. Kubler-Kielb, E. Vinogradov, C. Mocca, V. Pozsgay, J. Shiloach, and R. Schneerson. 2009. Synthesis, characterization, and immunogenicity in mice of Shigella sonnei O-specific oligosaccharide-core-protein conjugates. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:7974-7978).
Conjugate vaccines can be administered to children to protect them against bacterial infections and can provide a long lasting immune response to adults. Constructs of the invention have been found to generate an IgG response in animals. It is believed that the polysaccharide (i.e. sugar residue) triggers a short-term immune response that is sugar-specific. Indeed, the human immune system generates a strong response to specific polysaccharide surface structures of bacteria, such as O-antigens and capsular polysaccharides. However, as the immune response to polysaccharides is IgM dependent, the immune system develops no memory. The protein carrier that carries the polysaccharide, however, triggers an IgG response that is T-cell dependent and that provides long lasting protection since the immune system develops memory. For this reason, in developing a vaccine, it is advantageous to develop it as a protein carrier—polysaccharide conjugate.
Prokaryotic organisms rarely produce glycosylated proteins. However, it has been demonstrated that a bacterium, the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni, can glycosylate its proteins (Szymanski, et al. (1999). Evidence for a system of general protein glycosylation in Campylobacter jejuni. Mol. Microbiol. 32, 1022-1030). The machinery required for glycosylation is encoded by 12 genes that are clustered in the pgl locus. Disruption of glycosylation affects invasion and pathogenesis of C. jejuni but is not lethal as in most eukaryotic organisms (Burda P. and M. Aebi, (1999). The dolichol pathway of N-linked glycosylation. Biochim Biophys Acta 1426(2):239-57). It has been shown that the pgl locus is responsible for N-linked protein glycosylation in Campylobacter and that it is possible to reconstitute the N-glycosylation of C. jejuni proteins by recombinantly expressing the pgl locus and acceptor glycoprotein in E. coli at the same time (Wacker, M., D. Linton, P. G. Hitchen, M. Nita-Lazar, S. M. Haslam, S. J. North, M. Panico, H. R. Morris, A. Dell, B. W. Wren, and M. Aebi. 2002. N-linked glycosylation in C. jejuni and its functional transfer into E. coli. Science 298:1790-3).
The N-linked protein glycosylation biosynthetic pathway of Campylobacter has significant similarities to the polysaccharide biosynthesis pathway in bacteria (Bugg, T. D., and P. E. Brandish. 1994. From peptidoglycan to glycoproteins: common features of lipid-linked oligosaccharide biosynthesis. FEMS Microbiol Lett 119:255-62). Based on the knowledge that antigenic polysaccharides of bacteria and the oligosaccharides of Campylobacter are both synthesized on the carrier lipid, undecaprenyl pyrophosphate (UndPP), the two pathways were combined in E. coli (Feldman, M. F., M. Wacker, M. Hernandez, P. G. Hitchen, C. L. Marolda, M. Kowarik, H. R. Morris, A. Dell, M. A. Valvano, and M. Aebi. 2005. Engineering N-linked protein glycosylation with diverse O antigen lipopolysaccharide structures in Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:3016-21). It was demonstrated that PglB does not have a strict specificity for the lipid-linked sugar substrate. The antigenic polysaccharides assembled on UndPP are captured by PglB in the periplasm and transferred to a protein carrier (Feldman, M. F., M. Wacker, M. Hernandez, P. G. Hitchen, C. L. Marolda, M. Kowarik, H. R. Morris, A. Dell, M. A. Valvano, and M. Aebi. 2005. Engineering N-linked protein glycosylation with diverse O antigen lipopolysaccharide structures in Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:3016-21; Wacker, M., M. F. Feldman, N. Callewaert, M. Kowarik, B. R. Clarke, N. L. Pohl, M. Hernandez, E. D. Vines, M. A. Valvano, C. Whitfield, and M. Aebi. 2006. Substrate specificity of bacterial oligosaccharyltransferase (OTase) suggests a common transfer mechanism for the bacterial and eukaryotic systems. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:7088-93). It was shown that Campylobacter PglB transfers a diverse array of UndPP linked oligosaccharides if they contain an N-acetylated hexosamine at the reducing terminus (Wacker et al. (2006)), allowing conjugation of an antigenic polysaccharide to a protein of choice through an N-glycosidic linkage. While this may provide a theoretical basis for production of conjugated vaccines in vivo, many difficult challenges need to be overcome in order to realize this theoretical possibility.
Based on this previous discovery that C. jejuni contains a general N-linked protein glycosylation system, E. coli had been modified to include the N-linked protein glycosylation machinery of C. jejuni. In this way, glycosylated forms of proteins native to C. jejuni in an E. coli host were produced. It had been further shown that this process could be used to produce glycosylated proteins from different origins in modified E. coli host for use as vaccine products. Production by E. coli is advantageous because large cultures of such modified E. coli hosts can be produced which produce large quantities of useful vaccine.
Using this process to produce a glycosylated protein in a modified E. coli host for use as a vaccine product for S. aureus encounters problems that have been perceived to be insurmountable. First, E. coli is a Gram-negative bacterium and its saccharide biosynthesis pathways differ greatly from those of a Gram-positive bacterium, such as S. aureus, after the polymerization step. In addition, it would have been infeasible to genetically engineer E. coli to produce the S. aureus capsular polysaccharide directly consistent with previous technologies. For example, S. aureus is a Gram positive organism and its capsule synthesis is associated with cell envelope structure and construction of the cellular hull. The capsule producing biosynthetic machinery is specifically designed to arrange the capsular polysaccharide (PS) on the outside of the cell and its cell wall. It would have been extremely difficult, for at least the reason that it would be highly resource-intensive, to produce this capsule in a modified E. coli organism, because the cell envelope of E. coli is constructed in a fundamentally different way. The biosynthetic machinery for capsule assembly from PS precursor would be non-functional due to the different environment. Whereas the S. aureus capsule must transit a single membrane, in E. coli there is an additional membrane which needs to be crossed to reach the final location of an authentic capsule. Furthermore, as the S. aureus capsule is very large, it was believed to be infeasible to make a large capsule like the S. aureus capsule between the two membranes of E. coli.
The principle that enzymes from different organisms can work together has been shown before (e.g. Rubires, X., F. Saigi, N. Pique, N. Climent, S. Merino, S. Alberti, J. M. Tomas and M. Regue. 1997. A gene (wbbL) from Serratia marcescens N28b (O4) complements the rfb-50 mutation of Escherichia coli K-12 derivatives. J. Bacteriol 179(23): 7581-6). However, it is believed that no modified LPS polysaccharide from a Gram-positive organism has previously been produced in a Gram-negative organism.

Capsular gram-positive bacteria bioconjugate vaccines


A web conferencing system which, in one aspect has time-shifting capabilities. Session content is recorded so that participants are able to observe the session in real-time, delayed while the session is still in progress, or after the session has completed. Participants are also able to observe the session at normal, slower, or faster speeds, while maintaining substantially consistent perceived audio quality.

1. Field
The field is web conferencing, specifically the application of time-shifting presentation techniques to the field of web conferencing.
2. Prior Art
Web conferencing systems can be used hold meetings and give presentations where participants are in remote locations. Web conferencing systems allow participants to share content with and observe content from other participants. Typical types of content include screen video data, camera video data, audio data (through computers and through telephones), chat data, documents, and the like
The current generation of web conferencing systems is focused primarily on real-time interaction. That is, participants join a virtual meeting at a designated time and are able to present and observe in real time (hereafter synchronously). Secondarily, many web conferencing systems can record the meeting. This allows a participant to observe the content of the meeting after the meeting has concluded.
However current web conferencing systems are unable to enable participants to asynchronously observe a live meeting, i.e., observe a previously recorded part of the meeting while the meeting is still in progress. This is undesirable for several reasons. First, if a participant joins a meeting five minutes late, their only choices are to either observe real-time and simply miss the first five minutes, or wait until the entire meeting has concluded to watch the entire recorded content or a selected part of it. Second, if a participant is observing real-time there is no way for them to pause the content to deal with an interruption, or to easily replay a portion of the content to repeat something they missed. Third, if a participant is observing in real-time and the presenter is moving too quickly, there is no way for the participant to slow the presentation.
A key struggle with using existing web conferencing systems is the organization and scheduling required to ensure that all participants are available and connected before the presentation begins. This leads to great inefficiencies, because some participants will simply have to wait for the rest of the participants to join, and some participants may miss part of the presentation or have to wait until the presentation has completed to observe it in its entirety.
In a separate field, commercial digital video recording services and associated equipment, such as one sold under the trademark TiVo by TiVo, Inc, Alviso, Calif., have paved the way in providing live time-shifting capabilities for television viewing and have begun to affect consumers' expectations. Prior to digital video recorders (DVRs), consumers had limited control over their viewing experience. Consumers could either watch a television show in real-time, or with devices like video cassette recorders they could watch a recorded version of the show after the whole show had finished.
DVRs have empowered consumers by allowing them to time-shift real-time television content.
In yet another field, algorithms have been devised to time-scale manipulate audio content with high fidelity reproduction. These algorithms allow an audio stream to be played back at a faster or slower rate while maintaining other perceived aspects of the audio, such as timbre, voice quality, and pitch.
Audio time-scale modification techniques have been applied to applications such as voice-mail and dictation tape playback, post synchronization of film and video, and playback of recorded content. These techniques have also been employed in adaptive buffering schemes for streaming audio (to speed up or slow down audio playback to maintain an optimal buffer length).


A circuit for controlling the actuation of a vehicle air bag system includes a two terminal electrically actuated ignition element connectable to a drive voltage line through a first transistor and to a circuit ground through another transistor. The voltage source includes the vehicle battery and a capacitor that is charged by the vehicle battery and which supplies operating power in the event the vehicle battery is removed from the circuit, for example, as a consequence of a collision. The transistors are normally biased to a non-conducting state sufficient to isolate the ignition element from the drive voltage source and circuit ground. Vehicle acceleration is sensed by an acceleration sensor which, in the event of a collision, biases both transistors into conduction to effectively connect the two terminals of the ignition element to the drive voltage line and to ground to actuate the vehicle air bag. During normal operation, a bias circuit controls one of the transistors to provide a minute current flow that is used to sense fault conditions and illuminate an alarm lamp. During a collision, the acceleration sensing circuit re-configures the bias circuit to drive both transistors into conduction. A low-voltage circuit senses the drive voltage and controls the bias to the one transistor to inhibit the minute current flow to conserve power during low-voltage conditions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicular safety devices such as air cushions, belt tighteners, or similar arrangements, and, more particularly, to a control circuit for activating a releasing circuit for the safety device in a more reliable manner.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In such a releasing circuit for the safety device as described above, a checking circuit is provided to check for the presence of a defect or malfunction in the releasing circuit. The checking circuit is, in general, designed to continuously supply an electric current from a vehicle battery to an ignition element of the safety device thereby to render the ignition element in an operable condition for checking. For this reason, it is required to reduce the power consumption from the battery to as small a value as possible. It is also assumed that, when the vehicle has been subjected to an accident, the ignition element may not be activated due to its disconnection from the battery. For the purpose of avoiding such a problem, a capacitor is adapted as a back-up power source for supplying a charged voltage therefrom to the ignition element, wherein the capacitor is arranged to be previously charged by the power from the battery. There will, however, occur a lapse of time due to the characteristic of an acceleration sensor prior to supply of the charged voltage from the capacitor to the ignition element. If in this instance a large amount of electric current was supplied to the checking circuit from the capacitor before the lapse of time, the ignition element would not be activated due to an insufficient supply of the charged voltage from the capacitor.

Releasing circuit for actuating vehicular safety device


There is provided an automotive wheel with a cavity between the bolt holes in a hub mounting section, and more particularly, to an automotive wheel with a cavity between the bolt holes in a hub mounting section, wherein a cavity between the bolt holes in a hub mounting section structured to secure an automotive wheel to a wheel hub is uniformly formed to reduce the weight and noise of the automotive wheel, and wherein a damper rubber is inserted into the cavity to reduce the vibration and noise generated during driving an automobile.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive wheel with a cavity between the bolt holes in a hub mounting section, and more particularly, to an automotive wheel with a cavity between the bolt holes in a hub mounting section, wherein a cavity between the bolt holes in a hub mounting section structured to secure an automotive wheel to a wheel hub is uniformly formed to reduce the weight and noise of the automotive wheel, and wherein a damper rubber is inserted into the cavity to reduce the vibration and noise generated during driving an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automotive wheels are manufactured using metal materials, usually steel or aluminium. Generally, this automotive wheel is secured to an automotive wheel hub comprising a brake drum or brake disk by a spherical head screw or conical head screw.
To improve the fuel-efficiency of an automobile through decreasing the weight of the automobile, aluminium which is a light material has been used for an automotive wheel. Further, a technology to structurally lighten the weight has been also developed.
Usually, when a wheel is designed, it is considered to primarily satisfy the strength requirements. The structures, such as the thicknesses and designs of a hub mounting section 21 and a spoke section 22 of a disk member 2, have been designed to satisfy the minimum required strength of the wheel. Then, a process for secondary weight lightening (decrease of weight) has been performed inside the hub mounting section 21 and the spoke section 22 of the wheel to improve the fuel-efficiency.
However, as the wheel weight has been lightened through the aforementioned ways, the stiffness becomes insufficient, causing vibration and noise of the wheel during the driving of the automobile. To prevent these problems, casting thickness is again provided inside the hub mounting section 21 and the spoke section 22 of the wheel. Even the entire shape of the disk member 2 is thickened to increase the unnecessary stiffness rather than the minimum required strength. This again increases the weight and therefore, it is restricted in the improvement of fuel-efficiency.
Korean Patent Published Application No. 10-2006-0044653 (hereinafter, referred to as 'Prior Art 1') discloses a technology to decrease weight and block noise by forming a hollow chamber in a rim. The technology of forming a hollow chamber in the rim and spoke is disclosed in not only Prior Art 1 but also Korean Patent Published Application Nos. 1999-0062973 and 10-2013-0044465. The method of forming the hollow chamber has the effect of reducing weight and absorbing noise but it has a problem in that durability is weakened.
Korean Patent Published Application No. 10-2007-0053386 (hereinafter, referred to as 'Prior Art 2') discloses technology to absorb noise and vibration by forming a hollow chamber in a rim and filling it with an aluminum foam core. The technology of forming a hollow chamber in the rim and spoke and filling it with the foam core has a better effect of absorbing noise in comparison with Prior Art 1 but less effect of reducing weight.

Automotive wheel with cavity between bolt holes in hub mounting section


Systems, methods and computer software are disclosed for performing a secure software update in a mesh network. In one embodiment, a method is disclosed, comprising: receiving, at each node of a network, a notification from a coordinating server, wherein each node of the network is listening for an image available notification; receiving, at a first node of the network, the image available notification; downloading and installing a software update image by the first node of the network; broadcasting, at the first node of the network, the image available notification to other peer nodes of the first node of the network; and downloading and installing the software update image from the first node of the network by at least one other peer node of the network.

The present invention relates generally to a wireless networking system, and in particular, to providing secure software updates of nodes within a wireless mesh network. Currently, each node in a wireless mesh network loads a software update from a Heterogenous Network Gateway (HNG). Updating each mesh node of the wireless mesh network directly from the HNG is a linear sequence and results in a highly inefficient use of time and bandwidth. From a user interface standpoint, the user must enter a Command Line Interface (CLI) command for each node. Each mesh node must download the release archive from the HNG through the Gateway Node (GN) backhaul connection. This becomes an issue even in the smallest of mesh networks (for example, 4 nodes or less). The further a node is located from the HNG the longer the download will take as traffic passes through peer nodes.
Accordingly, a flexible and cost-effective deployment model is needed for performing software updates on nodes of a wireless mesh network.

Secure software update in a wireless mesh radio network using peer-to-peer file sharing


The present disclosure discloses a model loading method and apparatus for a head-mounted display device and a head-mounted display device. The method includes: obtaining a type of a target handheld device, in which the target handheld device is a handheld device connected to a current application service; determining whether the type of the target handheld device is an existing type in the head-mounted display device; obtaining, in response to the type of the target handheld device being not the existing type in the head-mounted display device, corresponding model resource data based on the type of the target handheld device; and generating, based on the model resource data, a handheld model corresponding to the target handheld device, and loading the handheld model.

With the gradual maturation of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies, various head-mounted display devices such as virtual reality helmets and virtual reality glasses have emerged one after another, which can provide users with an immersive virtual reality experience by presenting a virtual reality scene when they play games, watch videos and interact with scenes. Therefore, the presentation of virtual reality scenes is a key factor affecting the virtual reality experience available to users.
At present, during development of a virtual reality application, for the display of a handheld device such as a joystick controller in a virtual scene, a handheld model that may be required is pre-built into a Software Development Kit (SDK), and then a developer uses the handheld model built into the current SDK to develop an application or a game. Once the game or application is developed and uploaded to an application store, it cannot be modified.
However, when users use handheld devices with other shapes and styles, a mismatch occurs between a model in the virtual scene and a handheld device in reality. To match the model in the virtual scene and the handheld device in reality, the developer needs to re-adapt a new SDK, modify a logic of the game or application, and re-upload the game or application to the application store. In this way, it is undoubtedly that development costs will be increased.

Model loading method and apparatus for head-mounted display device, and head-mounted display device


A wireless multicasting service method using a relayed transmission scheme is provided. In the wireless multicasting service method, a mobile node moves from a first wireless network to a second wireless network. Then, the mobile node performs a new joining request to a mobile multicast agent managing a multicasting service in the second wireless network. If the mobile node receives a joining approval for the new joining request, the mobile node performs a secession request to a previous mobile multicast agent managing a multicasting service in the first wireless network.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless multicasting service method using a relayed transmission scheme for effectively providing multicasting services without modifying a conventional network structure in the Internet environment where wired or wireless networks are integrated.
This work was supported by the IT R&D program of MIC/IITA[2006-P10-40, System and method for providing multicast service in a mobile network by using relayed multicast]
2. Description of the Related Art
As a communication technology has been advanced, a user is allowed to easily access the Internet through a wired or a wireless link. Due to such an easy Internet access, the demands of users have been advanced from text based services to multimedia data services. The multimedia data service basically requires high capacity data transmission. Especially, a wireless multimedia group communication service, for example, a mobile IPTV, requires high capacity multimedia data to transmit in a comparatively narrower wireless environment. When a plurality of receivers are present at the same mobile network, it needs to protect the network resources from being wasted by high capacity multimedia.
A wireless multicasting service was introduced as a mechanism to effectively support the above described services. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a system for providing a multicasting service in a wired and wireless integrated Internet environment according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, the system includes a multicast data sender 100 for transmitting data, a plurality of mobile nodes 500-1 and 500-2 for receiving data transmitted from the sender 100, mobile networks 30-1 and 30-2 for enabling the mobile nodes MN 500-1 and 500-2 to transmit and receive data through a wireless link, and a multicast network 20 having a plurality of multicast routers 21, 22, 23, and 24 between the sender 100 and the mobile networks 30-1 and 30-2.
A multicast tress that is a data transmission path among the multicast routers is set in the multicast network 30. When the sender 100 transmits predetermined data to the mobile nodes 500-1 and 500-2 joining to the multicast routers 21, 22, 23, and 24 through an internet group management protocol (IGMP), the data is transferred to the predetermined mobile nodes 500-1 and 500-2 through the corresponding multicast tree and the mobile network. Herein, when the mobile nodes 500-1 and 500-2 move to a new mobile network, the multicast tree in the wired network is required to be newly formed.
In order to provide multicasting services to a wired and wireless integrated Internet environment, a multicast network using multicast routers is required to be built by modifying the conventional network structure.
If a predetermined mobile node frequently moves to various locations in a wireless environment, the mobile node frequently performs handovers. According to the frequent handover, the multicast trees must be continuously modified.

Wireless multicasting service method using relayed transmission scheme

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute