A self-squaring corrugated container employs alignment markings on and adjacent to the manufacturing joint to allow quick visual inspection of placement and orientation of the manufacturing joint, and employs interlocking contoured peripheral edges on the major bottom flaps to allow consistent, quick, and easy formation of a container which is square, non-skewed to within small, strict tolerances. Both the alignment markings and contoured bottom flaps are die cut into the carton blank to insure uniform container alignment. Additional container features include employment of a hinged, partially detached top flap to accommodate use of the container to packaged bottles. Method steps are provided for forming the self-squaring container using the innovative features.

In product packaging using corrugated containers, formation of containers having flaps which are correctly aligned and non-skewed is required to meet manufacturer specifications and to provide packaging which is secure, protective, and of pleasing appearance. Certain applications require containers which are consistently and uniformly square and non-skewed. One such application is the use of corrugated containers to package bottled photographic processing chemicals, where the both the container and its bottled chemicals are inserted into a dedicated opening within a photographic processing machine. In this application, the container must be square and non-skewed within extremely tight tolerances. If the container is malformed, that is, out of square and or skewed out side of the required tolerances, it will not fit into the dedicated opening. Containers which are formed nearly within the required tolerances may possibly be inserted within the dedicated opening, but the chemicals may not be correctly aligned within the machine, causing machine malfunction.
Conventional rectangular corrugated containers are typically manufactured from a single piece of corrugated board, corrugated board, or similar material. They are die cut into a blank having a predetermined pattern and provided with indented fold lines to facilitate folding into a rectangular container. The container manufacturer usually folds the corrugated board blank along two of the fold lines so as to overlap and seal the leading and trailing lateral edges, forming a manufacturing joint. This process results in a flattened, or knock-down, product. A random sample of knocked-down containers are inspected by manual measurement using a ruler to insure that the product is formed to packager specifications and within required tolerances. Once the measurements are complete, the measured results are compared to the specifications. Containers measuring within the specifications are retained, and all remaining containers are discarded. Typically, product is shipped to the packaging facility in this compact, knocked-down form.
In instances where consistent and uniformly square and non-skewed containers are required, samples of the knocked-down corrugated board product are again inspected upon arrival at the packaging facility, and additional samples are inspected prior to use on forming-and-filling assembly lines. Upon passing inspections, the knocked-down corrugated board product is erected into a hollow tubular shape, filled, and then the bottom and top flaps are folded and sealed.
In this manufacturing process, there are two stages at which the quality of square and skew of the container are determined. The first stage is the folding of the corrugated board blank to form the manufacturing joint. If the blank is over folded, under folded, or folded so that the edges are not correctly aligned, the resulting container will not be square or will be skewed, or a combination of both. The second stage is when the bottom and top flaps of the tubular, filled container are folded and sealed. If these flaps are not correctly aligned with each other and with the side walls of the container, the container will not be square or will be skewed, or a combination of both. Typically, manufacturers of corrugated containers have difficulty providing containers which are properly aligned and non-skewed, and have no simple way to see that each and every container meets specifications.
Improvements in container design which allow containers to be more easily formed having square and aligned components would greatly improve packaging efficiency and quality. Specifically, a container design which addresses the issue of improvements in consistency in formation of both the manufacturing joint and the top and bottom flap fold are key to creating a consistently and uniformly square and non-skewed corrugated container.


Wells are formed in an external surface of a semiconductor device package body. Capacitors are disposed within the wells at least partially, and preferably fully within the body. Cleaning channels are formed underneath the capacitors, for removing residual flux and/or solder.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,702 discloses a chip carrier package (10) with three layers of conductive planes (14) which are used as power and ground pathways in the package. The conductive planes (14) are separated by dielectric layers (16). Signal lines (24) are provided on a top dielectric layer (18). As noted, generally a dielectric layer will be at least one mil in thickness, and a conductive layer will be 0.7 to 2.8 mils thick.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,253 discloses a ceramic package with a central cavity receiving an integrated circuit chip, and a set of conductors ("leads") connecting external pins to the chip. Typically, the leads are provided by a thick film conductor pattern deposited on a ceramic layer.
Modern semiconductor device assemblies have a high (and dense) lead count, and operate at high speeds. Such high speed semiconductor devices must generally be provided with capacitance across power (V.sub.DD) and ground (V.sub.SS) to ensure noiseless direct current (DC), even when the best of power supplies are provided, since noise can easily be induced onto the power leads by adjacent signal leads. In this regard, the ultimate solution would be to have capacitors (for power lead filtering) located directly on the semiconductor device (chip). Unfortunately, such a solution is not feasible. Therefore, it becomes highly desirable to locate the capacitors as close to the semiconductor device as possible. In this regard, packaging considerations become paramount. Therefore, it has been generally accepted to mount the capacitors external to the semiconductor device assembly, such as within or adjacent a socket into which the semiconductor device assembly is mounted. In real world terms, this means that the capacitors may be located on the order of a half inch or more away from the semiconductor device. Such a "remote", external mounting of the capacitor(s) presents a real limitation to the operating speed of the semiconductor device. Simply put, capacitors located outside the package of the semiconductor device assembly are of limited use for problems occurring within the package. These problems include power droop, ringing, ground plane bounce and voltage surges.
In the prior art it has been known to incorporate a capacitor having a high dielectric constant within the semiconductor device assembly as part of the die attach pad. However, this solution has a major drawback in that the thermal coefficient of expansion characteristics of the capacitor are not readily matched to the thermal expansion characteristics of the remaining components of the semiconductor device assembly.
Alternatively, it has been known to mount a relatively large capacitor externally, on top of the entire semiconductor device assembly. This solution suffers from excessively long capacitor lead lengths, and a tendency for the externally mounted capacitor to catch on neighboring objects. Neither of these solutions properly solves the problem of getting a capacitor very near to the semiconductor device.
Attention is also directed to commonly-owned, copending U.S. patent application No. (Ser. No. 454,751), entitled INTERNAL CAPACITOR ARRANGEMENT FOR SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE ASSEMBLY, filed on Dec. 19, 1989 by Jon Long, showing internal capacitors.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a typical prior art, packaged semiconductor device 10. FIG. 1 is an external view, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view. The packaged device 10 includes a body 12, such as a ceramic multi-layer package. The package (body) 12 has a top surface 12a and a bottom surface 12b. An integrated circuit device (not shown) is contained within the package 12. Capacitors 14 (a-h) are disposed on the top surface 12a of the package 12. The package 12 may be made of a "series" of laid-up layers of ceramic material 16 interleaved with conductive layers 18. As shown in FIG. 2, there are three top layers 16a, 16b and 16c of ceramic, followed by a power plane 18a, followed by a ceramic layer 16d, followed by a ground plane 18b, followed by alternating intermediate ceramic layers 16e-f and wiring ("trace") layers 18c-d, followed by three bottom ceramic layers 16g-i. Such a plurality of layers is not uncommon, and depends on the number of trace and power layers involved, as well as the mechanical constraints upon the package. In this case, the conductive layers 18a and 18b are for power and ground, and the bottom conductive layers 18c and 18d are for signals. External device leads 19 are connected (connections not shown) to the various traces and planes, by vias (not shown). The conductive traces and planes are nominally about one mil thick, and may be formed of Tungsten, or copper plated with nickel and gold. The present invention is not limited to any particular number of ceramic and conductive layers, nor is it limited to any particular materials or thicknesses.
The capacitors 14 are evidently mounted externally (with respect to the package 12), and are connected to the power and ground planes 18a, 18b within the package 12, as follows. Each capacitor 14 is basically a rectangular block with two tinned (metallic) ends 20. For each capacitor 14, two conductive pads 22 are provided on the top surface 12a of the package 12. The capacitor ends 20 are soldered to the pads 22. As shown in FIG. 2, each pad 22 is connected by a conductive via (line) 24 to a particular wiring layer. In FIG. 2, the capacitor 14a is shown connected by via 24a to the power plane 18a, and by via 24a' to the ground plane 18b. Another capacitor 14h is shown connected by via 24h to the power plane 18a. (Another via, not shown, would connect to the ground plane.) For ceramic packages of the type discussed herein, the ceramic layers (16) are typically 2-12 mils thick and are referred to as "green" tape prior to firing, and the conductive layers (18) are typically 1-2 mils thick.
One problem with the prior art technique of mounting capacitors externally is that the length of the vias 24 is non-trivial. For example, a via 8 mils (i.e., per layer that the via passes through) long can create as much as 2 nh (nanohenries) of inductance (per via), which will effectively offset the capacitance of the capacitor 14. In the example of FIG. 2, the vias 24a extend through three thicknesses of ceramic, and the vias 24 must be 6-36 mils long.
Another problem is that there is only a very small gap 26 (See FIG. 2) between the capacitor 14 and the top surface 12a of the package 12. This small gap, on the order of 3 mils, creates a perfect haven for stray solder balls (not shown) to lodge--in some cases shorting out the two pads 22--and resulting in poor yield. Further, it is difficult to clean our flux from the gap. In light of the relatively high cost of packaging (versus the semiconductor device itself), it is unacceptable to have such problems so late in the manufacturing process.
Another problem is that the externally-mounted capacitor 14 extends a substantial height (in relative terms) above the top surface 12a of the package 12. This undesirably increases the overall thickness of the package, and also usurps otherwise usable space atop the package--space which otherwise would be available for the fins of a heat sink 28, for example (See FIG. 1).

Recessed chip capacitor wells with cleaning channels on integrated circuit packages


Methods and corresponding systems are provided for managing investment portfolios that includes the steps of identifying at least one security of the investment portfolio to be sold during rebalancing of the investment portfolio, and rebalancing or deferring rebalancing of the investment portfolio based at least in part on a rebalancing threshold for short-term capital gains or losses, investor specified or otherwise. If an implied total short-term capital gain or loss, e.g., a loss or gain that would occur if the at least one security were sold, falls within the rebalancing threshold rebalancing occurs, otherwise rebalancing is deferred for a later time.

The present invention generally relates to investment portfolio management and individual security selection in the rebalancing of investment portfolios in a tax sensitive manner. More particularly, the present invention relates to a methodology and computer systems and programs designed to consider a particular investor's tax situation in the rebalancing of that investor's investment portfolio.
Investment advisers offer professional investment advice to investors through many different vehicles. One such vehicle is the separately managed account ("SMA"). A separately managed account is an individualized portfolio of securities that is owned and held directly by an investor and typically managed under the discretion of a professional investment adviser. To create a separately managed account, an investor works with an investment adviser to define an investor profile and to develop an investment strategy that reflects this profile, taking into account that investor's overall investment objectives and goals, risk tolerance levels and tax sensitivities. A typical SMA program may offer several pre-determined target portfolios from which participants may select, depending upon their investor profile.
Each target portfolio may contain allocations of securities from various market segments and sectors. The investor's SMA will contain individual securities that track the allocations of the selected target portfolio. Periodic rebalancing of the SMA is generally necessary to maintain the desired target portfolio allocation given that security values fluctuate over time. Generally, an investment adviser will rebalance an SMA on a regular basis such as quarterly and in the event that the imbalance of the SMA's portfolio allocations has exceeded a pre-set tolerance level. Rebalancing may also be required in the event that an investor's investment profile changes whether due to life events or otherwise.
Rebalancing or a change of the adviser's strategy, however, always involves the purchase and sale of securities that generate costs for the investor, including brokerage costs, administrative fees and taxable capital gains. Capital gains that are characterized as short-term under the US Internal Revenue Code are taxed at a significantly higher level than long-term capital gains. Generally, investors prefer to avoid taxable capital gains, particularly taxable short-term capital gains, in making investment decisions. Certain investors, however, have special tax circumstances that may cause them to seek the realization of capital gains or losses.
A number of investment systems and methods have been developed that are designed to assist investors in allocating assets within their portfolios and to help mitigate the costs associated with portfolio management, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,484,151, entitled "System and method for selecting and purchasing stocks via a global computer network", and U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,044, entitled "Method and apparatus for enabling individual or smaller investors or others to create and manage a portfolio of securities or other assets or liabilities on a cost effective basis", U.S. Published Application No. 2002/0174045, entitled "System, method, and computer program product for cost effective, dynamic allocation of assets among a plurality of investments", 2002/0138386, entitled "User interface for a financial advisory system", 2003/0088492, entitled "Method and apparatus for creating and managing a visual representation of a portfolio and determining an efficient allocation", and 2002/0138381, entitled "Individually managed accounts with multiple style allocations options", and International PCT Published Application No. WO 01/31538, entitled "Investment advice systems and methods", each of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety. None of these systems or methods, however, provide a decision overlay that is designed to assist investors in the rebalancing of investment portfolios by identifying specific securities for sale by their tax lots in order to fit within a pre-set tax tolerance. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for managing investment portfolios that provide investors with a decision overlay that identifies specific securities by their tax lot for sale in a manner designed to optimize the tax effects of the security sale with respect to that investor's individual tax situation.

Method and computer program for tax sensitive investment portfolio management


There is provided a bidirectional readout circuit for detecting direction and amplitude of an oscillation sensed at a capacitive microelectromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometer, the bidirectional readout circuit converting capacitance changes of the capacitive MEMS accelerometer into a time change amount by using high resolution capacitance-to-time conversion technology and outputting the time change amount as the direction and the amplitude of the oscillation by using time-to-digital conversion (TDC) technology, thereby detecting not only the amplitude of the oscillation but also the direction thereof, which is capable of being applied to various MEMS sensors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit for detecting direction and amplitude of oscillations of a capacitive microelectromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometer, and more particularly, to a bidirectional readout circuit for detecting direction and amplitude of an oscillation by using an enable signal having a time change amount generated by capacitance-to-time converting capacitive changes of an MEMS accelerometer.
The work related to the present invention was supported by the IT R&D program of MIC/IITA [2006-S-054-02, Title: Development of CMOS based MEMS processed multi-functional sensor for ubiquitous environment]
2. Description of the Related Art
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology indicates a micro two-dimensional structure having a sensor or actuator function and a system including the same, in which micro mechanical devices, difficult to be distinguished with naked eyes, such as a sensor built-in a semiconductor chip and an actuator, are coupled with a circuit.
The MEMS technology provides core technology to Ubiquitous sensor network fields such as digital information detection, mass storage, micro displays, micro energy source, and wireless or wired communication. The MEMS technology is applied to components of various information devices such as magnetic and optical heads and utilized as accelerometers in automotive airbags.
Accordingly, researches on Readout Integrated Circuits (ROIC) for processing signals of sensors using the MEMS technology (hereinafter, referred to as MEMS sensors) are actively performed.
MEMS sensors may be largely divided into vector quantity sensors and scalar quantity sensors. The scalar sensors have no direction, such as sensors for temperature or humidity.
As representative vector quantity sensors, there are accelerometers. Capacitive MEMS accelerometers sense and convert displacement, velocity or acceleration, externally applied, into electric signals, which are manufactured using the MEMS technology and semiconductor integrated circuit processing technology. As representative capacitive MEMS accelerometers, there are accelerometers in automotive airbags.
As representative detection circuits used for ROIC of MEMS accelerometers, there are capacitance-to-time converters and time-to-digital converters (TDC), which are advantageous to high resolution. Such detection circuits are generally used for scalar quantity sensors since it is difficult to determine direction of a scalar quantity, such as time.

Bidirectional readout circuit for detecting direction and amplitude of capacitive MEMS accelerometers

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


An electronic device may be provided with a color ambient light sensor. The color ambient light sensor may be used to measure an ambient light spectrum over a wavelength range of interest. Control circuitry in the electronic device can take actions based on the measured ambient light spectrum such as adjusting the brightness and color cast of content on a display. A display may have a display cover layer. The color ambient light sensor can be mounted under the display cover layer and may receive ambient light through the display cover layer. The color ambient light sensor may have a tunable wavelength filter such as an electrically adjustable Fabry-Perot resonator. A light collimator may be interposed between the display cover layer and the Fabry-Perot resonator to collimate ambient light that is passed to the Fabry-Perot resonator. A light detector measures the light passing through the Fabry-Perot resonator.

This relates generally to electronic devices, and, more particularly, to light sensors for electronic devices.
Electronic devices such as laptop computers, cellular telephones, and other equipment are sometimes provided with light sensors. For example, ambient light sensors may be incorporated into a device to provide the device with information on current lighting conditions. Ambient light readings may be used in controlling the device. If, for example bright daylight conditions are detected, an electronic device may increase display brightness to compensate. Color ambient light sensors can detect changes in the color of ambient light so that compensating color cast adjustments can be made to displayed content.
It can be challenging to form a color ambient light sensor for an electronic device. If care is not taken, a color ambient light sensor may consume more space in an electronic device than desired or may lose accuracy when partially occluded.

Color ambient light sensor with tunable filter


A power supply includes a bottom case, a top cover, a circuit board and a heat-dissipating fan. In this case, the bottom case and the top cover are fitted together to delimit an accommodating space. The circuit board is mounted on the bottom case and located within the accommodating space. The circuit board is provided thereon with a plurality of electronic components and a plurality of heat-dissipating elements, each heat-dissipating element being provided correspondingly to one of the electronic components and allowed to conduct heat, respectively. Each of the heat-dissipating elements is provided with a mounting hole. The heat-dissipating fan includes a supporting frame, a driving module provided on the supporting frame, and a fan blade set covering the driving module and being driven by the driving module to rotate. Moreover, the heat-dissipating fan is not provided with a barrier wall around the fan blade set.

At present, each of all power supplies used in personal computers includes a fan for heat-dissipation. The general arrangement of the fan is disclosed in patents, such as US 20090290293, US 20100284149, US 20080266793, U.S. Pat. No. 6,074,296 and so on.
It may be clearly understood that, from patents listed above, each of all currently used fans is provided with an outer frame, via which the fan is mounted on a housing of the power supply. Additionally, a flow-guiding channel, provided for a fan blade set to be suspended therein, is further delimited by the outer frame, such that heat-dissipating airflow generated by the fan is discharged through the flow-guiding channel.
In this manner, although heat-dissipating airflow generated by the fan is collected, the heat-dissipating airflow is allowed to only dissipate heat locally in disguise without providing heat-dissipation for each element within the power supply effectively. Thus, effect of heat-dissipation is reduced.


The moving picture coding method for coding an input image includes: converting a value of a first parameter into a first binary signal, the first parameter identifying a type of a sample offset process to be applied to a reconstructed image corresponding to the input image; and coding at least a portion of the first binary signal through bypass arithmetic coding using a fixed probability.

Recent years have seen the significant technical development in digital video apparatuses, and increasing chances for compression-coding a video (moving picture) signal (a plurality of pictures arranged in time series) and recording the video signal onto recording media such as DVDs and hard disks or distributing the video signal on the Internet. The H.264/AVC (MPEG-4 AVC) is one of the image coding standards, and the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard is currently being considered as a next-generation standard.
The HEVC standard described in NPL 1 proposes a sample offset process called SAO. The SAO process is a process for adding an offset value to a sample value (pixel value) in an image (reconstructed image) decoded from a bitstream. Accordingly, the reconstructed image in which the SAO process has been performed enables faithful reproduction of an original image (input image) before coding and reduction in image degradation by the coding.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Moving picture coding method, moving picture coding apparatus, moving picture decoding method, and moving picture decoding apparatus


A covered box structure formed of sheet stock, comprising a box member and a cover member, the box member comprising a plurality of side walls and a bottom wall, the upper edges of the side walls having integrally connected cuff portions extending downwardly from the free edges of the side walls along the exterior faces of the side walls, each cuff portion being integrally connected with at least the cuff portion of one adjacent side wall, the cover member comprising a top wall and downwardly extending side walls, at least two side walls of said cover member having downwardly depending flaps which are inwardly and upwardly foldable, whereby they may be disposed between the corresponding side wall and associated cuff portion of the box member for interlocking the cover member to the box member, and forming hand-gripping portions thereat. The box and cover members both may be of foldable design adapted to be erected at time of use, with said cuff portions each being integrally connected at their corner junctions, and at least two cuff members being divided into sections forming intermediate edges extending from the upper edge of the associated cuff portion, permitting intermediate cuff portions of a plurality of walls to be folded from portions in a common plane containing corresponding portions of the box side walls to folded positions at the exterior faces of the respective walls.

The invention is directed to carton structures of the type which may comprise a box member and cover means therefor, which may be manufactured in knocked-down form having a flat knocked-down configuration and adapted to be erected into box structure at time of use by simple assembly operations, and which preferably provides convenient hand-gripping means for lifting the structure.
Various cartons of this type have been produced, particularly for file and transfer cartons, shipping cartons, as well as packing cartons employed in moving operations. Cartons of this general type are in most instances manufactured from corrugated stock, although fiber board cardboards have been extensively employed where practicable in dependence upon size, capacity, nature of contents, etc. More recently, various types of plastic and plastic or wax impregnated sheet stock, suitable for carton manufacture, have been put on the market.
Such cartons may utilize separate cover members or cover flaps and the like, and in many instances, hand-gripping arrangements have been provided, by means of which the carton may be manually picked up and carried. Such hand-gripping means in cartons of this type have taken the form of hand-receiving openings or holes in opposite carton side walls, a short distance below the top edge of the box, usually an elongated opening. Oftentimes such hand hole is formed of a generaly U-shaped cut to form a flap, integrally connected at its upper edge with the side wall, which is folded inwardly into the carton to reinforce the upper edge of the opening. In other cases merely a portion of the side wall is cut out to form the hand hole. In either case, particularly where the carton is heavily loaded, the side walls tear and deform when the carton is picked up. Likewise, the use of hand holes localizes the points at which the carton may be picked up and carried.
In addition, the carton cannot be packed wall-to-wall at such openings as this would prevent insertion of the fingers into the opening, and thus defeat the purpose thereof.
Further, where cartons of this type utilize a separate cover member, to insure retention thereof on the box member, additional means is required, for example, staples, glue, twine or strapping. Likewise, where cover members of this type are employed on box members provided with hand holes, the cover member provides no reinforcement or support with respect to such hand holes.


A device in a size press comprising a nip formed by press rolls through which a paper or board web is passed. The press rolls are provided with coating devices for spreading films of a coating agent onto faces of the press rolls. The coating devices are mounted on applicator beams arranged transverse to the machine direction. The applicator beams are supported pivotally on the frame of the size press or on the loading arms of a displaceable press roll and are provided with pivot cylinders by which the applicator beams can be opened and closed in relation to the rolls corresponding to them. The applicator beams are further provided with catches supported directly or indirectly on bearings of the corresponding press rolls when the applicator beams are being closed by the pivot cylinders. At least one of the applicator beams of the size press is provided with catches at each end of the applicator beam and positioned in accordance with the position of the applicator beam. The catches are attached to the applicator beam by articulated joints and are interconnected mechanically.

The present invention relates to a method and device in a size press in which a nip is formed by a pair of press rolls. A paper or board web is passed through the nip. A first press roll is permanently mounted, or fixed, by means of bearings on a frame of the size press, while a second press roll is mounted on the frame of the size press by means of additional bearings. The second press roll is displaceable by means of loading arms or equivalent loading means. The press rolls are coated by means of coating devices which spread films of a coating agent onto the faces of the rolls. The coating devices are mounted on applicator beams arranged transverse to the machine direction. The applicator beams are supported pivotally on the frame of the size press or on the loading arms of the displaceable roll and are provided with pivot cylinders. By means of the pivot cylinders, the applicator beams can be opened and closed in relation to corresponding press rolls against which the coating devices operate. In addition, the applicator beams are provided with catches arranged to be supported directly or indirectly on the bearings of corresponding rolls when the applicator beams are being closed by means of the pivot cylinders.
In the prior art, it is a typical construction of modern size presses that the size press comprises a pair of rolls which form a nip through which a paper or board web is passed. A coating agent, such as a size or pigment coating, is applied as a film onto the faces of the rolls by means of application devices. The coating agent is transferred onto the web to be coated in the roll nip. Normally, one roll in the pair of rolls is permanently mounted, i.e. fixed, on the frame of the size press by means of bearings, whereas the other roll is mounted on the frame displaceably, e.g., by means of pivot arms. The pivot arms permit the nip to be opened and the press roll to be loaded against one another so as to produce a desired nip pressure.
A significant disadvantage of the size-press construction described above is manifested in particular in connection with the replacement of the rolls. In particular, when the fixed roll is replaced, the new roll is not always positioned optimally on the frame of the size press, rather it may remain slightly inclined. When the nip is closed, the displaceable roll is positioned in a way corresponding to the fixed roll to produce a uniform nip pressure. Thus, the displaceable roll is also positioned in an inclined manner in a way corresponding to the fixed roll.
The application devices of the rolls are typically mounted on an applicator beam arranged transverse to the machine direction. The applicator beam is linked pivotally on the frame of the size press or on the loading arm of the displaceable roll. The applicator beam is usually provided with pivot cylinders, by whose means the beam and the coating device mounted on the beam are "closed" against the corresponding roll, i.e. to form a nip. However, the construction of the applicator beam is very rigid, for which reason it cannot always be positioned by means of its pivot cylinders in a manner corresponding to the positions of the rolls.
An applicator beam is generally provided with mechanical catches, which rest against catch faces formed on the bearing housings of the roll when the beam is closed. If the roll has been positioned in a highly inclined position, upon closing of the beam, a situation may arise in which the catch placed at one side of the beam only reaches contact with the bearing housing of the roll. Therefore, a gap remains between the catch placed at the opposite side and the catch face formed on the bearing housing. Even if the coating member of the coating device could be placed correctly against the roll face, by means of its loading hose, the pivot cylinders of the applicator beam usually produce an error in the nip pressure. This error is increased linearly in the transverse direction of the machine and has a highly detrimental effect on the coating result produced by the application devices on the press rolls.
Hydraulic catches have also been applied in applicator beams of size presses. In their simplest form, they consist of a hydraulic cylinder whose length can be adjusted, i.e., a "jack". By adjusting the length of the hydraulic cylinders, both ends of the applicator beam can be made to rest against the catch faces formed on the bearing housings of the roll. However, the drawbacks related to such a solution are similar to those of the mechanical catches described above, i.e., the regulation is difficult, because the two catches must be adjusted separately. The support forces of both of the catches would have to be adjusted equal in order to prevent the pivot cylinders of the applicator beam from producing an error in the nip pressure. More "advanced" hydraulic catches invariably involve complicated control and regulation circuits, which are also expensive. Also, hydraulic systems always involve an unpredictable risk of leakage.


Systems, methods, and computer program products for managing non-standard data. A data management system stores profile records for non-standard providers in a DTN database, and elements defining an itinerary in an EDR database. The data management system queries the DTN database for profiles matching search criteria, and generates a service request for one of the matching profiles. The service request is stored in an extended data structure of an extended data record in the EDR database. The extended data record includes a standard data structure for storing standard elements and the extended data structure for storing non-standard elements. The service request is also transmitted to non-standard provider systems. Service offers from the non-standard provider systems are stored in the extended data structure. The system thereby manages an itinerary that includes non-standard services defined by the non-standard elements and standard services defined by the standard elements using the extended data record.

A Global Distribution System (GDS) is a data processing system that provides processing and database functions which facilitate management of travel related services from multiple providers. User systems may connect to and use the GDS to search for, price, book, purchase, and use travel related services, such as flights, hotel rooms, or car rentals. To provide these management functions, the GDS relies on a centralized database to keep track of travel services that have been reserved, booked, and/or used by the traveler. This centralized database is often referred to as a Passenger Name Record (PNR) database, and stores a collection of database records (i.e., PNRs) that include data fields containing information about travelers and their itineraries.
To manage the sale and use of a travel service, the GDS will typically communicate with a computer system operated by the provider of the travel service. For example, the GDS may interact with a Computerized Reservation System (CRS) operated by an airline, a hotel, or a car rental company to manage the sale and use of the travel services identified in the PNR. For this reason, the GDS is limited to managing travel services from a few large providers that have a CRS or other suitable system capable of interfacing with the GDS.
A destination service provider is a company that provides travel services locally at a destination. Destination service providers typically possess specific knowledge relating to the traveler's destination and/or expertise in providing a specialized service at the destination. In some cases, a traveler may wish to book a travel service from a destination service provider. However, assuming the destination service provider maintains a computer system for reserving services at all, these systems are unable to communicate with the GDS or access PNRs due to standardization constraints, to protect sensitive information stored in the PNR, and for security reasons. Thus, a travel agent or a traveler booking a trip including a service from a destination service provider will not be able to use the centralized management functions provided by the GDS, or add a record to the PNR for managing a full travel itinerary that includes a service provided by a destination service provider.
The inability to manage destination service provider services using the GDS may create several problems for the travel agent or the traveler. For example, the GDS search engine may lack access to destination service provider information, making it difficult for the system user to identify a desired service. If the system user manages to identify the service, for destinations in foreign locations, differences between the language used by the system user and the language used by the destination service provider may hinder booking of the destination travel service. In cases where the system user identifies and books the service, the user will still be unable to use the GDS or the centralized record keeping provided by the PNR to manage the service as part of a complete itinerary.
Thus, improved systems, methods, and computer program products are needed that improve the ability to search for, reserve, price, book, and track the use of travel services provided by destination service providers.

Non-standard data management in a data management system


An embodiment of the disclosure provides a method, performed by a resource management server, for mapping a plurality of unassigned virtual machines (VMs) to a plurality of physical machines (PMs). The resource management server includes a non-transient computer readable medium and a processor to execute computer executable instructions stored on the non-transient computer readable medium, so that when the instructions are executed, the resource management server performs the method of: (a) obtaining a total resource demand for each dimension requested by the plurality of unassigned VMs; (b) activating at least one PM in the plurality of PMs to create a set of activated PMs; (c) assigning at least one unassigned VM to the set of activated PMs, wherein a VM assigned to a PM has an equal or lower resource demand for each dimension compared to a remaining resource capacity for each respective dimension of the PM; (d) determining whether all unassigned VMs have been assigned to a PM in the set of activated PMs; and (e) conditionally activating one or more PMs when all unassigned VMs have not been assigned to a PM in the set of activated PMs.

Data centers provide a platform for users to run applications. A data center usually contains a number of computer servers which provide hardware and software resources for storage, management and dissemination of data and information related to the applications. Using these hardware and software resources, data centers may provide elastic services in terms of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Software as a Service (SaaS) to users based on user demands.
The servers of the data center may also provide a plurality of virtual machines, one or a subset of which are used to run applications. A virtual machine is an operating system or an application environment that is run within a current operating system on a computer as one of its programs. The selection of virtual machines chosen to run the applications depends on a workload of each of the applications.
The management of both the hardware and software resources of a data center has a significant impact on the cost of operating the data center. The efficient management of the resources of the data center depends on the organization of the resources based on the workloads of the applications.

Virtual machine placement in a heterogeneous data center


Disclosed is apparatus for storing energy and generating electricity. The apparatus comprises (1) first means (10) for storing energy in the form of compressed gas and (2) second means (12) for generating electricity by allowing the gas compressed by the first means to expand, doing useful work.

As is well known, there is a difference of several hundred percent between the cost of commercial electricity during peak and off-peak hours. Several systems have already been designed to take advantage of this fact, perhaps the best known being one in which water is pumped up-hill to a storage facility (such as a mountain lake) during off-peak hours and then allowed to flow down-hill through a turbine during peak hours. Although this system is obviously tremendously inefficient in one sense, the cost of the electricity used to store the energy during off-peak hours (that is, to pump the water up-hill) is so much less than the selling price of the electricity during peak hours (when the stored energy is used to turn the turbine) that the system is commercially feasible.
Another prior-art method for generating electricity which is relevant to the presently preferred embodiment of the invention takes advantage of the difference in density between surface water and very deep water, the difference in density being due to their difference in temperature and pressure. Thus, systems have been designed in which dense cold water from far beneath the surface of a body of water is channeled upwardly through a vertical pipe of large diameter at the top of which a turbine wheel is turned by the rising water.
Another prior-art technique may be relevant to the presently preferred embodiment of the invention although it is not a method of generating electricity. Compressed air forced to an end of a pipe immersed beneath water and used to push water up the pipe has been used in connection with dredging operations and in connection with the recovery of doubloons along the Florida coasts. Although of no relevance to dredging or doubloon recovery operations, I have observed that, the deeper the submerged end of the pipe, the greater the velocity of the water exiting the top of the pipe.
Another prior art device consists of turbines or pistons in cylinder mechanisms or small comparable devices called "air motors." Such devices operate by using compressed air to cause a crank shaft to rotate, thereby providing the rotating power to operate winches where the use of other power causes hazards.

Apparatus for storing energy and generating electricity


An attachment for releasably gripping a hook at one end of a winch cable to facilitate coupling of the hook to a boat that is to be pulled from a body of water onto a trailer has a body provided with a hook-accommodating slot in one side thereof and a groove in the opposite side thereof for accommodating an elongated support. The slot is tapered and has side walls between which the hook may be wedged.

A fishing or similar other kind of boat conventionally is transported by means of a vehicle-drawn trailer on which the boat is removably supported. Conventionally the trailer is provided with a winch around which is trained a cable terminating at its free end in a hook that is adapted to be coupled to and removed from a ring fixed to the bow of the boat. Usually, the trailer on which a boat is supported during transport is backed along a ramp into a lake or stream to a depth sufficient to enable the boat to be floated off the trailer. Difficulty rarely, if ever, is encountered in floating a boat off its trailer. However, when the boat is to be returned to the trailer, it is necessary to attach the winch cable to the boat before the boat is drawn onto the trailer.
The winch cable conventionally has a hook at its free end that is adapted to be fitted to a ring or cleat fixed to the bow of the boat so as to enable the boat to be secured to the cable, following which the winch may be activated to wind the cable around the winch drum and thereby move the boat toward and onto the trailer.
Difficulty often is experienced in attaching the cable hook to the bow ring or cleat. Quite often the person seeking to return the boat to the trailer is unassisted and must either wade into the water or stand upon the trailer in a position to attach the cable hook to the ring or cleat. Often it is inconvenient or uncomfortable to wade into the water and it is not uncommon for a person standing on a trailer and reaching for the bow ring to slip and fall into the water.
Apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention is particularly useful in attaching a winch cable hook to the bow ring of a boat preparatory to moving such boat onto a trailer and without requiring the operator to wade or risk falling off the trailer.


Camera and/or lens calibration information is generated as part of a calibration process in video systems including 3-dimensional (3D) immersive content systems. The calibration information can be used to correct for distortions associated with the source camera and/or lens. A calibration profile can include information sufficient to allow the system to correct for camera and/or lens distortion/variation. This can be accomplished by capturing a calibration image of a physical 3D object corresponding to the simulated 3D environment, and creating the calibration profile by processing the calibration image. The calibration profile can then be used to project the source content directly into the 3D viewing space while also accounting for distortion/variation, and without first translating into an intermediate space (e.g., a rectilinear space) to account for lens distortion.

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for capturing, streaming, and/or playing back immersive content, such as to simulate an immersive three-dimensional (3D), virtual reality environment.
Head mounted devices for displaying immersive content can allow a user to turn his or her head and experience a corresponding change in the displayed scene. Such devices can allow users to adjust head position to view greater than about 180 degrees of a captured scene in at least one dimension, and can provide up to about 360 degree viewing in at least one dimension.
While some display devices allow for 360 degree viewing, at any given time human eyes are capable of perceiving a limited field of view corresponding to only a portion of the entire available viewing area. This field of view can be less than about 180 degrees in a horizontal dimension. Thus as the user turns their head, the playback device can adjust the displayed content to present the portion of the viewing scene corresponding to where the user is looking. For example, when the user is looking forward the display device presents a user with a sector of the scene centered about a forward direction, which can correspond to an angle of 0 degrees in a horizontal plane that is approximately parallel to the ground. When the user turns around to face backward, the display device presents the user with the sector of the scene centered about a backward direction, which can correspond to an angle of 180 degrees in the horizontal plane.
Immersive systems capable of generating 360 degree viewing scenes typically combine content captured using multiple cameras. The cameras can capture stereoscopic content including image content corresponding to left and right eye views to allow for a stereoscopic 3D viewing effect.
In order to provide a wide field of view, cameras in immersive content capture systems can be fitted with wide angle lenses. These can include fisheye lenses or other ultra wide angle lenses that do not produce a rectilinear image. Fisheye lenses can produce strong visual distortion including significant barrel distortion, and create a wide panoramic or hemispherical image, which can make them well-suited for use in immersive content systems.
Spatial distortion, chromatic distortion, and/or other optical properties may vary from lens to lens and/or from camera to camera due factors including lens imperfections and differences between positioning of the lens relative to the sensor in the camera. This can make it difficult to reliably use images captured by cameras with fisheye lenses and to seam images together that are captured by adjacent cameras/lenses. In the case of stereoscopic images, for example, where separate left and right eye images are captured and then presented during playback to produce a 3D effect to the viewer, distortions and differences between the cameras used to capture the left and right eye images may be problematic and/or degrade the stereoscopic image quality if left unaddressed.

Calibration for immersive content systems


A method for producing a casting by pouring a metal melt by gravity into a gas-permeable casting mold having a cavity comprising at least a sprue, a runner and a product-forming cavity, comprises pouring a metal melt into a desired cavity portion including the product-forming cavity through the sprue, the melt being in a volume smaller than the volume of an entire cavity of the gas-permeable casting mold and substantially equal to the volume of the desired cavity portion; supplying a gas to the desired cavity portion through the sprue before the desired cavity portion is filled with the poured melt, so that the melt fills the desired cavity portion and solidifies; the gas being supplied from a gas-blowing nozzle fit into the sprue.

To produce castings by gravity pouring, a casting mold composed of sand particles, which is a gas-permeable casting mold (a so-called sand mold), is most generally used. With such a gas-permeable casting mold, which may be simply called "mold," a gas (generally air) remaining in a cavity of a particular shape is pushed out of the cavity by a metal melt (simply called "melt"), and the melt is formed into a casting having substantially the same shape as the cavity. The cavity of the casting mold generally includes a sprue, a runner, a feeder and a product-forming cavity, into which a melt is supplied in this order. When a melt head in the sprue becomes high enough to fill a product-forming cavity, the pouring of the melt is finished.
A solidified melt forms a casting integrally extending from the sprue to the runner, the feeder and the product-forming cavity. The feeder is not an unnecessary portion for obtaining sound castings, while the sprue and the runner are merely paths for a melt to reach the product-forming cavity, which need not be filled with the melt. Thus, as long as a melt is solidified in a state of filling the sprue and the runner, drastic improvement in a pouring yield cannot be expected. In the case of castings integrally having unnecessary portions, considerable numbers of steps are needed to separate cast products from unnecessary portions, resulting in low production efficiency. Accordingly, the sprue and the runner pose large problems in increasing efficiency in gravity casting.
A revolutionary method for solving the above problems is proposed by JP 2007-75862 A and JP 2010-269345 A. To fill a desired cavity portion, part of a cavity in a gas-permeable casting mold, this method pours a metal melt in a volume smaller than that of an entire cavity in a gas-permeable casting mold (hereinafter referred to as "casting mold cavity") and substantially equal to that of the desired cavity portion, into the cavity by gravity; supplies a gas (compressed gas) into the cavity through a sprue before the melt fills the desired cavity portion; and then solidifies the melt filling the desired cavity portion. By this method commonly disclosed in JP 2007-75862 A and JP 2010-269345 A, which may be called "pressure-casting method," it is expected to make it substantially unnecessary to fill a sprue and a runner with a melt, because pressure to be obtained by the melt head height is given by the compressed gas.
As a result of experiment to follow the pressure-casting method described in JP 2007-75862 A and JP 2010-269345 A, the inventors have found that in the method of JP 2007-75862 A for closing a sprue with a flange of a gas-supplying pipe to prevent the leak of a compressed gas supplied through the sprue, the positioning of the gas-supplying pipe in the sprue is difficult because the flange conceals the sprue, likely resulting in a slow gas-supplying timing and cold shut in products. In addition, because melt droplets scattered while pouring are likely attached to the sprue in contact with the flange, providing a gap between the flange and the sprue, a large amount of a gas may leak. It is thus desired to develop a means capable of supplying a gas quickly and surely after pouring a melt.

Method for producing castings, casting apparatus, and gas-blowing nozzle used in casting apparatus


A sectional system for constructing newspaper and other periodical stands in a variety of different configurations. The system includes a plurality of generally U-shaped sections that are stackable upon each other. The sections are preferably formed of spin-molded plastic and include a base section, a shelf section and a display section. The shelf section comprises a horizontal display section while the display section comprises an angled display section.

When marketing newspapers, magazines and the like, at retail levels, the newspapers or other periodicals are stacked on a rack or stand for both storage and display to customers. Conventionally customers pick the newspaper or other periodical off the rack and present the newspaper to a cashier for purchase. Because so many newspapers and other periodicals are sold in this manner, the capability of storing large amounts of stock as well as properly displaying it is very important.
Traditionally, racks and stands for presenting newspapers and other periodicals for sale have included an open box, which is normally fabricated of metal wires or bars, or of solid sheet material. For a number of reasons designs having solid metal sides have lost popularity except when used as vending machines. When using the most popular open wire design, the wires are welded together to form five sides of the box, which is usually open at either the front or the top.
Unfortunately, such arrangements have certain drawbacks. For example, a rack made out of a wire frame often appears to be of cheap or flimsy construction. This perception can have an adverse effect on potential customers, who may look upon the product as not being worth the effort of a better presentation.
In many cases the wire frame rack is flimsy, requiring that the rack be located close to the ground in order to maintain the assemblence of stability. Because of this location, customers are often forced to stoop for the newspaper creating inconvenience and possible aggravation. Thus, leading to adverse feelings towards the product dispensed in such a fashion. Very often the wire frame racks are so flimsy that they do not long survive normal abuse, such as accidental collisions with pedestrians, hand trucks, bicycles or the like. Such accidental collisions are always likely in any public place. Since the wire frame structures are relatively flimsy, there are severe limitations on the amount of product that can be stored therein.
Because of the construction of the wire racks and stands, there is a tendency for such racks to deform, leading to hazards such as sharp edges. This condition can lead to additional difficulty since customers are often very casual when reaching into the rack to obtain newspapers or other periodicals. As a result, customers can be injured by the sharp edges or even accidental contact with jagged or warped sides of the rack which are not easily perceived.
Conventional wire frame racks are also awkward in that they are difficult to assemble and move about. In order to obtain the desired level of rigidity, wire racks often have to be secured to a wall, floor or other stationary support, thereby creating additional inconvenience for the vendor as well as possible customers.
Another type of conventional rack used for dispensing newspapers and other periodicals is a type having solid walls which are made entirely of plastic. Such structures are usually molded to form a shelf on which the products to be dispensed are supported. The plastic structure must be formed of sufficient strength to endure the normal abuse received by any piece of equipment in a public place. Further, the plastic newsstand must also be sufficiently tall to raise the newspapers or periodicals a sufficient distance from the ground or floor to properly display the product for sale. Racks of molded plastic are conventionally adapted to become much thicker and apparently more clumsy in order to support a newspaper display at the "eye-height" of a normal consumer. As a result, plastic racks and newsstands are often as awkward in appearance as the wire frame rack.
The required rigidity to support newspapers at a desired height in combination with an appealing appearance is found in the structure disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,997 to Gollob. This structure includes wire shelves that slide into groves molded into the sidewalls of a plastic body. The free standing body is hollow and is formed by rotation molding. The stand is a very rigid structure, easily able to withstand the usual abuse of a public sales-location. The sidewalls extend only half way along the shelves, leaving the separately-formed shelves protruding from the sidewalls. As a result, the rack is strong and substantial while still maintaining an attractive appearance. The newspapers or other periodicals are presented for sale in an accessible manner. The plastic body is so molded to include groves having notches, acting as detents to hold the separately-formed shelves firmly within the groves.
The arrangement of the Gollob newspaper rack is limited to that determined during the original manufacture of the rack. Consequently, this rack lacks adaptability to a variety of different locations and presentations requirements. In contrast, a variety of presentation arrangements is available using the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,996 to Harris. This device is a holder for displaying articles such as pamphlets, brochures and the like. The holder is formed out of plastic or paperboard sheet and is foldable into a generally triangular section which defines a base panel, back panel and inclined display portion. A front pocket is united with the triangular section to define a front panel, side panel and forward extension of the base panel for insertion of articles into the front pocket section so that the articles rest against the inclined support of the triangular section.
While offering adequate presentation of the periodicals to be sold, the Harris device has many of the limitations of the wire newspaper rack. For example, the Harris display holder must be elevated by some structure. Otherwise, customers must stoop to pick up the articles from the floor on which the display holder is placed. Further, the display holder of Harris is somewhat limited in it's storage capacity, as well as it's display configuration.
A more adaptable newspaper display rack is disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. No. 242,751 to Wells. A central column is used to support a number of newspaper/periodical holders which are attached thereto. The arrangement of Wells requires that the central column be supported by radially extending feet, large enough to provide stability for a column capable of supporting radially extending newspaper racks. Because of this arrangement, there are severe limitations on the amount of newspapers, pamphlets or other periodicals that can be placed on each of the extending racks. Further, there are severe constraints regarding the amount of product that can be stored with this system as well as being displayed. While varying numbers of newspaper racks can be arranged around the central column, there are some other constraints with respect to the type of arrangement which is possible and the space into which it can be arranged.
Accordingly, despite the variety of different newspaper display and storage systems available, there is still an acute need for highly flexible newspaper display and storage systems for use at point-of-sale locations. Such systems must be flexible enough to fit into a variety of different locations and thus, must have a wide range of configurations. Such display systems must also be sufficiently adaptable to be arranged to accommodate a large number of newspaper and periodical types and sizes.

Stackable newspaper rack having U-shaped sections


A perforated metal sheet including diamond particles brazedly attached.

The present invention relates to abrasive sheets and methods of producing abrasive sheets. More particularly, the present invention relates to flexible abrasive sheets for withstanding heavy usage in the abrasion of materials. The present invention also relates to an abrasive sheet which provides for improved swarf clearance and reduction in quantities of diamond grit material used.
It has been a goal in the art to provide flexible abrasive sheets which have diamond-like hardness abrasive grit particles attached to discrete portions of the sheets. While many such constructions have been attempted in the past the resulting abrasive sheet materials were generally lacking in their durability in that particles were easily disattached during use, thereby rendering the abrasive sheet unsuitable for some uses. It has also been a goal to provide abrasive sheets which include discrete patterns or areas where abrasive grits are attached while leaving other areas open and without abrasive grits. It has also been a goal in the art to provide structures wherein portions of the abrasive grit particles remain exposed after formulation of the abrasive sheet to provide a biting or cutting type structure.
A flexible abrasive sheet is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,400 to Prowse et al. In this patent an abrasive sheet is disclosed wherein a perforated sheet material or mesh material is embedded in a non-conductive backing substrate such that portions of the sheet or mesh extend from the substrate. Thereafter the grit particles are electroplated onto the extending areas to provide the final abrasive grit structure. While this abrasive sheet provides an advantageous construction because the abrasive grit particles are attached by electroplating, the durability of the article is still limited as to an electroplated structure. Patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,902 to Wiand and U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,086 to Raymond disclose the use of masks or templates or the like to provide for discrete areas of diamond to attach to a substrate. While such structures have reduced diamond grit consumption, such procedures are not readily adaptable to braze techniques. Also, resulting structures have no provision for swarf removal or introduction of coolants or lubricants through the abrasive sheet as may be required in some applications.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an abrasive sheet which is more durable than the prior constructions.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cutting type abrasive sheet.
It is still further an object of the present invention to provide improved methods of formulating abrasive sheets to produce an abrasive sheet in accordance with the above objects.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a brazed abrasive sheet which allows for swarf removal and increase of coolants and lubricants and further is a brazed sheet with discrete areas of diamond for saving consumption of diamond in production of such a sheet.


A transmit power supply optimization method optimizes power supply voltage to high voltage transmitters of an ultrasound imaging apparatus for each operating mode of the apparatus. The method comprises the steps of linking the operating mode of the apparatus, the output of the high voltage transmitters, and the power supply. It is then determined when a change in optimum power supply voltage will be desired. Operation of the high voltage transmitter power supply and the high voltage transmitters is coordinated to react to the determination that a change in optimum power supply voltage will be desired, before the change in optimum power supply voltage is actually desired. Finally, a distributed power supply filter is provided to allow the high voltage transmitters to operate while the change in optimum power supply voltage is occurring.

During the operation of a medical ultrasound instrument, the efficiency of the high voltage transmitters can be optimized by setting the supply voltage of the transmitters to the minimum level required for the transmitters to operate. This supply optimization reduces the power consumed by the instrument and reduces the heat generated by the power supply and transmitters.
The optimum power supply voltage for the transmitters will depend upon the particular mode (i.e. B-mode, doppler, color flow, or continuous wave) in which the ultrasound machine is operating. The operating mode may change very rapidly, and optimum supply voltage can change at millisecond rates as the operating modes are intermixed.
In situations where the operating mode is changing rapidly, previous power supplies have not been able to change output voltage rapidly enough to track the mode changes without introducing lengthy delays at each mode change. In order to eliminate these delays when intermixing modes, the supply must be set to provide adequate voltage for the worst case mode. The other modes in the operating sequence then operate at higher than optimal voltage levels, reducing electrical efficiency and creating excess heat.
It would be desirable then to have a means for optimizing the power supply voltage to the high voltage transmitters for each operating mode, even when the modes are rapidly intermixed.

Method for optimizing power supply voltage to high voltage transmitters


The present invention provides a headwear comprising a head receiving portion and a visor/peak, which is substantially improved in sweat absorption and evaporation performance, thereby achieving superior stain-resistant properties.

In general, a headwear (including a cap) comprises a crown which is a wearing portion worn on a head, and a visor or a peak attached to the crown.
When a headwear wearer sweats, the headwear should quickly absorb and evaporate sweat before getting wet so that the headwear may feel soft and dry to the wearer.
In addition, when a headwear does not properly function in sweat absorption and evaporation, it may become stained with sweat.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Abstract: A headwear according to the present invention comprises: a sweat band coupled along an inner lower edge of the crown including a sweat absorbing portion to absorb sweat and a sweat storing portion to store the sweat absorbed to the sweat absorbing portion; and a sweat evaporating portion surrounding at least a part of the visor of the headwear to evaporate moisture from the sweat stored in the sweat band by being connected with the sweat band.


Objects of the present invention are the compounds of formula (I), their pharmaceutically acceptable salts, enantiomeric forms, diastereoisomers and racemates, the preparation of the above compounds, medicaments containing them and their manufacture, as well as the use of the above compounds in the control or prevention of illnesses such as cancer.

The present invention relates to novel pyrimidyl derivatives, to a process for their manufacture, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their manufacture as well as the use of these compounds as pharmaceutically active agents.
Protein kinases ("PKs") are enzymes that catalyze the phosphorylation of hydroxy groups on tyrosine, serine and threonine residues of proteins (Hunter, T., Cell 50 (1987) 823-829). The consequences of this seemingly simple activity are staggering; cell growth, differentiation and proliferation, i.e., virtually all aspects of cell life in one way or another depend on PK activity. Furthermore, abnormal PK activity has been related to a host of disorders, ranging from relatively non-life threatening diseases such as psoriasis to extremely virulent diseases such as glioblastoma (brain cancer).
The PKs can be conveniently broken down into two classes, the protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and the serine-threonine kinases (STKs).
One of the prime aspects of PTK activity is their involvement with growth factor receptors. Growth factor receptors are cell-surface proteins. When bound by a growth factor ligand, growth factor receptors are converted to an active form which interacts with proteins on the inner surface of a cell membrane. This leads to phosphorylation on tyrosine residues of the receptor and other proteins and to the formation inside the cell of complexes with a variety of cytoplasmic signaling molecules that, in turn, effect numerous cellular responses such as cell division (proliferation), cell differentiation, cell growth, expression of metabolic effects to the extracellular microenvironment, etc. For a more complete discussion, see Schlessinger, J. and Ullrich, A., Neuron, 9 (1992) 383-391, which is incorporated by reference, including any drawings, as if fully set forth herein.
Growth factor receptors with PTK activity are known as receptor tyrosine kinases ("RTKs"). They comprise a large family of transmembrane receptors with diverse biological activity. At present, at least nineteen (19) distinct subfamilies of RTKs have been identified. An example of these is the subfamily designated the "HER" RTKs, which include EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor), HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2), HER3 and HER4. These RTKs consist of an extracellular glycosylated ligand binding domain, a transmembrane domain and an intracellular cytoplasmic catalytic domain that can phosphorylate tyrosine residues on proteins.
Another RTK subfamily is referred to as the platelet derived growth factor receptor ("PDGFR") group, which includes PDGFR alpha, PDGFR beta, colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R), c-kit and flt-3. These receptors consist of glycosylated extracellular domains composed of 5 immunoglobin-like loops and an intracellular domain wherein the tyrosine kinase domain is interrupted by a kinase inert domain.
Another group which, because of its similarity to the PDGFR subfamily, is sometimes subsumed into the latter group is the fetal liver kinase ("Flk") receptor subfamily. This group, containing extracellular immunoglobulin loops made up of kinase insert domain receptor/fetal liver kinase-1 (KDR/Flk-1), and fins-like tyrosine kinase 1 (Flt-1 and Flt-4). The human analogue of FLK-1 is the kinase insert domain-containing receptor KDR, which is also known as vascular endothelial cell growth factor receptor 2 or VEGFR-2, since it binds VEGF with high affinity.
Of the three PTK (protein tyrosine kinases) receptors for VEGFR identified VEGFR-1 (Flt-1); VEGRF-2 (Flk-1 or KDR) and VEGFR-3 (Flt-4), VEGFR-2 is of peculiar interest.
The process of angiogenesis is the development of new blood vessels, generally capillaries, from pre-existing vasculature. Angiogenesis is defined as involving (i) activation of endothelial cells; (ii) increased vascular permeability; (iii) subsequent dissolution of the basement membrane and extravasations of plasma components leading to formation of a provisional fibrin gel extracellular matrix; (iv) proliferation and mobilization of endothelial cells; (v) reorganization of mobilized endothelial cells to form functional capillaries; (vi) capillary loop formation; and/or (vii) deposition of basement membrane and recruitment of perivascular cells to newly formed vessels.
Normal angiogenesis is activated during tissue growth, from embryonic development through maturity, and then enters a period of relative quiescence during adulthood.
Normal angiogenesis is also activated during wound healing, and at certain stages of the female reproductive cycle. Inappropriate or pathological angiogenesis has been associated with several disease states including various retinopathies; neuropathologic diseases like stroke, Alzheimer's disease and motor neuron disease, ischemic disease; atherosclerosis; chronic inflammatory disorders; rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer. The role of angiogenesis in disease states is discussed, for instance, in Fan, T. P., et al., Trends in Pharmacol Sci. 16 (1995) 57-66; Folkman, J., Nature Medicine 1 (1995) 27-31, and Greenberg, D. A., et al., Nature 438 (2005) 954-959.
It has been proposed that various receptor-type tyrosine kinases, and the growth factors binding to them, play a role in angiogenesis, although some may promote angiogenesis indirectly (Mustonen, T., et al., J. Cell Biol. 129 (1995) 895-898). One of these receptor-type tyrosine kinases is fetal liver kinase 1, also referred to as FLK-1. The human analogue of FLK-1 is the kinase insert domain-containing receptor KDR, which is also known as vascular endothelial cell growth factor receptor 2 or VEGFR-2, since it binds VEGF with high affinity. Finally, the murine version of this receptor has also been called NYK (Oelrichs, R. B., et al., Oncogene 8 (1993) 11-15). VEGF and KDR are a ligand-receptor pair which plays a vital role in the proliferation of vascular endothelial cells and the formation and sprouting of blood vessels, referred to as vasculogenesis and angiogenesis respectively.
Angiogenesis is characterized by excessive activity of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF actually consists of a family of ligands (Klagsbrun, M., et al., Cytokine & Growth Factor Reviews 7 (1996) 259-270). VEGF binds the high affinity membrane-spanning tyrosine kinase receptor KDR and the related fms-like tyrosine kinase-1, also known as Flt-1 or vascular endothelial cell growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR-1). Cell culture and gene knockout experiments indicate that each receptor contributes to different aspects of angiogenesis. KDR mediates the mitogenic function of VEGF, whereas Flt-1 appears to modulate non-mitogenic functions, such as those associated with cellular adhesion. Inhibiting KDR thus modulates the level of mitogenic VEGF activity. In fact, tumor growth has been shown to be susceptible to the antiangiogenic effects of VEGF receptor antagonists (Kim, K. J., et al., Nature 362 (1993) 841-844).
Solid turnouts can therefore be treated with tyrosine inhibitors since these tumors depend on angiogenesis for the formation of the blood vessels that are necessary to support their growth. These solid turnouts include monocytic leukaemia, carcinomas of the brain, urogenital tract, lymphatic system, stomach, larynx and lung, including lung adenocarcinoma and small cell lung carcinoma. Further examples include carcinomas in which overexpression or activation of Raf-activating oncogenes (for example, K-ras, erb-B) is observed. Such carcinomas include pancreatic and breast carcinoma. Inhibitors of these tyrosine kinases are therefore suitable for the prevention and treatment of proliferative diseases caused by these enzymes.
The angiogenic activity of VEGF is not limited to tumors. VEGF accounts for the angiogenic activity produced in several disease states including various retinopathies (e.g. in or near the retina in diabetic retinopathy), neuropathologic diseases like stroke, Alzheimer's disease and motor neuron disease, ischemic disease; atherosclerosis; chronic inflammatory disorders; rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer. The role of angiogenesis in disease states is discussed, for instance, in Fan, T. P., et al., Trends in Pharmacol Sci. 16 (1995) 57-66; Folkman, J., Nature Medicine 1 (1995) 27-31, and Greenberg, D. A., et al., Nature 438 (2005) 954-959.
A more complete listing of the known RTK subfamilies is described in Plowman, G. D., et al., Drugs News and Perspectives 7 (1994) 334-339, which is incorporated by reference, including any drawings, as if fully set forth herein.
In addition to the RTKs, there also exists a family of entirely intracellular PTKs called "non-receptor tyrosine kinases" or "cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases." This latter designation, abbreviated "CTK," will be used herein. CTKs do not contain extracellular and transmembrane domains. At present, over 24 CTKs in 11 subfamilies (Src, Frk, Btk, Csk, Abl, Zap70, Fes, Fak, Jak, LIMK and Ack) have been identified. The Src subfamily appear so far to be the largest group of CTKs and includes Src, Yes, Fyn, Lyn, Lck, Blk, Hck, Fgr, and Yrk. A further important group of CTKs is the Abl family including Abl and Arg. For a more detailed discussion of CTKs, see Bolen, J. B., Oncogene 8 (1993) 2025-2031, which is incorporated by reference, including any drawings, as if fully set forth herein.
The serine/threonine kinases, STKs, like the CTKs, are predominantly intracellular although there are a few receptor kinases of the STK type. STKs are the most common of the cytosolic kinases; i.e., kinases that perform their function in that part of the cytoplasm other than the cytoplasmic organelles and cytoskeleton. The cytosol is the region within the cell where much of the cell's intermediary metabolic and biosynthetic activity occurs; e.g., it is in the cytosol that proteins are synthesized on ribosomes. The STKs include CDk2, Raf, the ZC family of kinases, the NEK family of kinases, and BUB 1.
The coordinated action of both protein kinases and phosphatases controls the levels of phosphorylation and, hence, the activity of specific target proteins. One of the predominant roles of protein phosphorylation is in signal transduction, where extracellular signals are amplified and propagated by a cascade of protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation events, e.g. in the ras/raf pathway.
Activated Ras is necessary for the activation of the c-raf-1 proto-oncogene, but the biochemical steps through which Ras activates the Raf-1 protein (Ser/Thr) kinase are now well characterized. It has been shown that inhibiting the effect of active ras by inhibiting the rat kinase signaling pathway by administration of deactivating antibodies to raf kinase or by co-expression of dominant negative raf kinase or dominant negative MEK, the substrate of rat kinase, leads to the reversion of transformed cells to the normal growth phenotype see: Daum, G., et al., Trends Biochem. Sci. 19 (1994) 474-480; Fridman, M., et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269 (1994) 30105-30108. Kolch, W., et al., Nature 349 (1991) 426-428, and for review, Weinstein-Oppenheimer, C. R., et al., Pharm. & Therap. 88 (2000) 229-279.
RTKs, CTKs and STKs have all been implicated in a host of pathogenic conditions including, significantly, cancer. Other pathogenic conditions which have been associated with PTKs include, without limitation, psoriasis, hepatic cirrhosis, diabetes, angiogenesis, fibrosis, restenosis, ocular diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory disorders, immunological disorders such as autoimmune disease, cardiovascular disease such as atherosclerosis and a variety of renal disorders.
With regard to cancer, two of the major hypotheses advanced to explain the excessive cellular proliferation that drives tumor development relate to functions known to be PK regulated. That is, it has been suggested that malignant cell growth results from a breakdown in the mechanisms that control cell division and/or differentiation. It has been shown that the protein products of a number of proto-oncogenes are involved in the signal transduction pathways that regulate cell growth and differentiation. These protein products of proto-oncogenes include the extracellular growth factors, transmembrane growth factor PTK receptors (RTKs), cytoplasmic PTKs (CTKs) and cytosolic STKs, discussed above.
In view of the apparent link between PK-related cellular activities and wide variety of human disorders, it is no surprise that a great deal of effort is being expended in an attempt to identify ways to modulate PK activity. Some of these have been made to identify small molecules which act as PK inhibitors.
WO 2002/032872 describes nitrogenous aromatic ring compounds useful as PK inhibitors. WO 2003/099771 and WO 2005/051366 relate to diaryl urea derivatives useful for the treatment of PK inhibitor dependent diseases.

Pyrimidyl derivatives as protein kinase inhibitors


A separable electrical connection may be provided with a landside pad on one of two electrical components to be joined. The landside pad may be made up of two parts, including a flat portion and a raised edge formed on the flat portion. In some embodiments, the raised edge may have a closed geometric shape. Then, a socket contact engaging the junction between the flat portion and the raised edge is prevented from sliding off of the landside pad by the raised edge. In addition, dual areas of electrical connection can be established between both the flat portion and raised edge of the landside pad and the correspondingly shaped pair of portions on the socket. This increases the electrical efficiency of the connection and its security.

This invention relates generally to separable electrical interconnection systems and, particularly, to electrical sockets for connecting two electrical components.
In conventional electrical sockets, a socket contact may contact a generally flat pad of a substrate. The pad, often called a landside pad, is connected to one electrical component and the socket contact is connected to another.
As substrate landside pads are shrunk to improve electrical performance, the socket contacts may tend to slide off the pads. In addition, while the pads are shrunk, the contact resistance between the socket contacts and the substrate landside pads may still be relatively high due to the small contact area.


A flash memory system including a memory manager. The memory manager manages data transmission and reception between a host computer and a flash memory. The memory manager mutually converts a logical address in which the flash memory is accessible from the host computer, and a physical address has an actual address of the flash memory. It stores a change of internal information as xcex94 record in said flash memory and after resetting, restores an internal state to a state before the resetting by information of the xcex94 record. The flash memory system can be realized in which the delay of the writing/reading time can be decreased, or writing operation can be relatively easily performed, high speed operation is possible and defective sectors, defective bits and the like can be adequately managed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flash memory which is a nonvolatile memory, more particularly to a flash memory system provided with a management system for appropriately managing a flash memory.
2. Discussion of the Background
As a storage medium for use in a computer system, a magnetic recording medium such as a hard disc or a floppy disc has been heretofore used. Above all, the hard disc having a large capacity and capable of operating at a high speed can store a large amount of data, and therefore it is positioned as a central storage medium of the system.
However, the manufacturing process of the hard disc is complicated, and it is difficult to realize its miniaturization, weight-saving and cost reduction. Since a structure is moved during the use of the hard disc, a relatively large consumption power is required, and particularly in the case that the hard disc is applied to a portable apparatus or the like, this problem tends to rise.
As the storage medium other than the hard disc, a flash memory is known as a nonvolatile storage element. In the flash memory, a power supply to maintain storage is unnecessary, and the miniaturization and the weight-saving are possible.
The flash memory, for structural reasons thereof, has a finite physical life of about 1010 in terms of an rewriting times. Therefore, in order to use the flash memory relatively safely and stably for a long period of time, an expired storage element and a section in which a defect occurs are detected, and these troubles need to be avoided to store data. Furthermore, in the case of the flash memory, new data cannot be written over a section in which data has already been stored. Therefore, when the new data is to be stored, a stored area must be once erased before the data is written. However, a unit which can be erased is not an individual storage element (=bit) unit, but it is a block unit such as 4 kilobytes or 8 kilobytes. Therefore, generally, after a data portion other than the data to be rewritten is taken out of the block to be erased, the block is erased, and the data portion needs to be newly added/written again.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 292798/1990, a flash EEprom system is described for the purpose of enhancing a writing/reading speed to a flash memory and managing a defective cell and the like. In the flash EEprom system described therein, an access time is intended to be enhanced using a cache memory. However, shortening of the access time dependent on the cache memory is naturally limited, and in order to further enhance the writing/reading speed to the flash memory, an operation speed of the entire flash memory system needs to be enhanced.
Moreover, in the above-described publication, for the management of the defective cell and the like, a redundant portion is provided with ECC and another information, and replacement bit, replacement sector and another information, and the defective cell and the like are managed only with the information of the redundant portion. However, since the defective cell and the like are managed only with the redundant portion, the storage capacity of the redundant portion has to be enlarged, which diminishes an area to store actual data. Furthermore, since the system manages the defective cell and the like only with the redundant portion, before reading the actual data, the redundant data is read, and a propriety of data stored in the memory is judged or recovery or the like of the data is performed, which remarkably delays the access time.
Additionally, the flash memory system is a nonvolatile memory, but during turning-on of a power supply or during resetting, for a controller to grasp a content and state of the flash memory, the content of the flash memory, especially the redundant data needs to be read. However, as described above, the reading speed of the flash memory is slower as compared with ordinary RAM or the like, much time is therefore required to grasp all information, and as a result, the system becomes slow in starting.
Such delay in rising is a fatal problem, for example, for a digital camera or another system which needs to be instantly ready for operation after power is turned on, and a flash memory system which can be started at a higher speed has been demanded.
An object of the present invention is to realize a flash memory system which is fast in rising speed during turning-on of a power supply or after resetting, has little delay in writing/reading time, can relatively easily perform a writing operation, can realize a high-speed operation and which can adequately manage a defective sector, defective bit or the like.
The present inventors have extended researches to enhance a writing/reading speed to the flash memory, and as a result, have proposed an address conversion table. The address conversion table formed on S-RAM or another storage medium which is accessible at a high speed correlates a logical address designated by a host computer side with an actual address of the flash memory or physical address, and mutually converts the addresses.
The address conversion table is also defined for each block as a minimum erasing unit of the flash memory, and the above-described addresses are treated as a logical block address and a physical block address, respectively. In this manner, by performing address conversion for each block corresponding to the minimum erasing unit, the management of the flash memory particularly in the writing operation is facilitated, and the writing operation can be performed at a high speed.
Moreover, an area of the logical address and an area of the physical address differ in size, and the logical address area is set smaller than the physical address area. By such setting, a difference of both areas can be used as a spare area. Specifically, the spare area is used as a queue in an operation standby state, and changed with a defective block, or used as a substitute for an area in which new data is to be written during the writing operation. This further enhances the operation speed.
Furthermore, in addition to the address conversion table, there is provided a block status table which has, as data indicating a state of each physical block on the flash memory, data indicating at least whether or not the block is good, whether or not a bad sector is present and whether or not the block is used. Since the block status table is provided, without accessing the flash memory relatively slow in the operation speed, the state of each block in the flash memory can instantly be grasped, a defective block and defective sector can easily be managed, and the operation speed is further enhanced.
Additionally, the address conversion table, block status table, queue and another internal information are usually formed on the storage medium (S-RAM) which is accessible at a high speed. However, since such storage medium is volatile, during cutting-off of power supply or during resetting, the medium is extinguished, or reliability is lost. Therefore, the storage data, i.e., the above-described internal information needs to be stored on the nonvolatile storage medium or flash memory. Then, during turning-on of the power supply or during resetting, the flash memory is accessed, and the address conversion table, block status table, queue and another internal information are restored to a previous state by the stored data.
However, the internal information changes every time the writing/reading operation to the flash memory is performed, but if every information is stored, an enormous storage area becomes necessary. Moreover, to perform such operation for each writing/reading, the longer time the storing takes, the more time is wasted, and as a result, the operation speed is decelerated. Furthermore, if during the turning-on of the power supply or during resetting all areas of the flash memory are accessed, and the address conversion table, block status table, queue and another internal information are restored, an enormous time further becomes necessary, and a system becomes very slow in rising.
To solve the problem, it is convenient to store these internal information data collectively in such a manner that they can instantly be read. Moreover, for a content to be stored, initial value+xcex1 record, i.e., all data only of the initial value are stored, and for subsequently generated changes, only data of the change (xcex94 record) is stored. Then, the data capacity can be reduced, and the access time can considerably be shortened. Moreover, in this case, by also recording error correction code data indicating a position and size of a trouble occurring in the xcex94 record, data reliability is significantly enhanced. Additionally, during the turning-on of the power supply or during resetting these data can be used to restore the previous state.
Specifically, the above-described object is attained by the following constitutions.
(1) A flash memory system comprising a memory manager for managing data transmission/reception between a host computer and a flash memory, wherein
said memory manager mutually converts a logical address in which the flash memory is accessible from said host computer, and a physical address as an actual address of the flash memory,
said memory manager stores a change of internal information as xcex94 record in said flash memory, and
said memory manager, after resetting, restores an internal state to a state before the resetting by information of said xcex94 record.
(2) The flash memory system according to the above (1) wherein said xcex94 record is successively stored as data indicative of subsequent changes with respect to an initial value of the internal information to restore the internal information after the resetting.
(3) The flash memory system according to the above (1) or (2) wherein said xcex94 record has error correction code data.
(4) The flash memory system of any one of the above (1) to (3) wherein said xcex94 record is continuously written to a predetermined storage area.
(5) The flash memory system according to any one of the above (1) to (4) wherein:
said memory manager sets a size of an area of said logical address to be smaller than a size of an area of the physical address as the actual address of the flash memory, and
said memory manager has said xcex94 record in a surplus area of the physical address area which does not correspond to the logical address area.
(6) The flash memory system according to any one of the above (1) to (5) wherein said memory manager treats the physical address and the logical address every block divided corresponding to a minimum erasing unit of the flash memory.
(7) The flash memory system according to any one of the above (1) to (6) wherein:
said memory manager has an address conversion table for mutually converting a logical block address and a physical block address, and
this address conversion table and information of changes thereof are included in said xcex94 record.
(8) The flash memory system according to any one of the above (1) to (7) wherein:
said memory manager further has a block status table,
this block status table has data indicating a state of said physical block on the flash memory,
said data indicating at least whether or not the block is good, whether or not a bad sector is present and whether or not the block is used, and
the block status table and information of changes thereof are included in said xcex94 record.
(9) The flash memory system according to any one of the above (5) to (8) wherein:
said memory manager has a queue in a ready-to-use state in the surplus area of said physical address area not corresponding to the logical address area, and
information of this queue is included in said xcex94 record.
(10) The flash memory system according to any one of the above (1) to (9) wherein:
when data is written to the flash memory, said memory manager writes new data in a predetermined block in the queue, and
this data is set as the logical block address of an estimated writing destination, and an estimated writing destination block is set as the queue.
(11) The flash memory system according to any one of the above (1) to (10) wherein:
in a case where the estimated writing destination block has data other than data to be updated,
after transfer of a predetermined amount of data from the host computer is completed,
said memory manager transfers the existing data from the estimated writing destination block to the predetermined block in the queue in which the new data is written.
(12) The flash memory system according to any one of the above (1) to (11) wherein when a trouble occurs in an arbitrary block in the physical address area, said memory manager replaces the block with an arbitrary block in said queue.
(13) The flash memory system according to any one of the above (1) to (12) which is an IC chip.
(14) The flash memory system according to any one of the above (1) to (13) which is integral with the flash memory and is a card-shaped external storage system.

Flash memory system for restoring an internal memory after a reset event