An image processing apparatus includes a first processor core configured to allocate a plurality of threads to execute a drawing processing for converting printing object data divided into a plurality of units of printing to printing data, a plurality of second processor cores designated to execute data compression on the printing data converted by the drawing processing, and a storage device in which the compressed printing data are stored. The first processor core allocates a new thread to execute the drawing processing upon determining that the number of the second processor cores in an idle state is greater than the number of threads that are executing the drawing processing by a predetermined number.

An image forming apparatus such as an MFP (multifunction peripheral) executes a RIP (Raster Image Processor) process for converting data described in a PDL (Page Description Language) such as PostScript or PDF (Portable Document Format) to raster data for printing in some cases. The RIP processing includes an analysis processing and a drawing processing. The analysis processing includes a process to divide data of a plurality of pages into intermediate data of a plurality of single pages. The drawing processing includes a process to convert the intermediate data from the analysis processing to the raster data for printing. The raster data for printing is hereinafter referred to as printing data.
The image forming apparatus stores the data converted with the RIP processing in a storage device such as a memory or a HDD (Hard Disk Drive). However, in a case in which data which is a printing object is a color image with high resolution, the data is a very large size. For this reason, the image is stored after compression processing. Since software-based compression takes much time to execute, hardware-based compression using a compression core may be used in some cases.
The image forming apparatus includes a processor having a plurality of cores, such as a multi-core CPU (Central Processing Unit) or a CPU with a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) built therein. The processor operates as a RIP and executes the analysis processing and the drawing processing in parallel by multithreading or the like to improve a speed of the RIP processing. However, even if the RIP processing speed executed by the processor improves, a speed of the compression process by the compression core becomes a bottleneck. Even if the drawing processing is carried out in parallel, if the compression core is not idle, there is waiting time for compression processing. In this case, a speed of the entire process including the RIP processing and the compression processing may not be shortened, while the usage ratio of the processor increases. Since the processor of the image forming apparatus executes various processes other than the RIP processing, there is a case in which processing speed of other tasks becomes slower if the usage ratio by the RIP processing increases too much.

Image processing apparatus and image forming apparatus


A performance measurement, communication fault detection, and fault isolation system for a ring based communication network. The present invention includes mechanisms and procedures operable within each port logic device of a communication network for counting the number of message packets lost by the network versus the number of message packets lost by the particular port or it's attached communication station. The result is a generic loss metric for that particular port. Positive counts represent packets lost by the remainder (i.e., not including the particular port) of the network while negative counts represent packets lost by the port or its attached station. The present invention also includes embodiments wherein the above capabilities are provided for a group of ports but only for messages that contain a particular targeted address as the packet's origin (i.e., targeted loss metric). A source address embodiment is provided so that an individual port responds only to messages containing the address of its attached station. If the attached device is a single station then by computing the difference between the generic loss metric and the source address loss metric for a given port, a single attached station loss metric is determined. By communicating each loss metric result to a central NMS and therein analyzing the results of the generic loss metrics, single and multiple faults within the communication network may be detected and isolated. Dual homed station thru connection errors and duplicate address error configurations may also be isolated by the present invention.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of performance measurement of devices within a communication system or network. More specifically, the present invention relates to the field of device performance measurement, fault detection and fault isolation within a ring based communication network by monitoring of traffic through individual parts of the network.
(2) Prior Art
Local area networks, also called "LANs," are largely used as a means to provide a communication network between various workstations, peripherals and elements of a computer system. Using local area networks, several otherwise independent computer systems may be communicatively coupled together so that each may share information with the others or one may control the other. Also, other computer system components or peripherals, such as disk drives, printers, modems, display devices, etc. may be coupled as stations or nodes to the local area network for communication and control between the workstations. Therefore, within a local area network several workstations may share information between other workstations and/or control other computer system components or peripherals. Local area networks have proven to be a very efficient and advantageous way to interconnect office computers and peripherals into centralized computer systems for information exchange and timesharing of computer peripherals. Therefore, systems are needed and desirable that can monitor the communication performance of such network devices and transmission pathways and that can be used to detect and isolate faults.
In a ring communication topology protocols (i.e., FDDI and token ring), units or nodes of the communication network may be communicatively interconnected in a close-end ring fashion with each node occupying a particular position within the overall communication network. Communication packets (messages) within the network will travel in the same direction along a closed loop communication pathway between each station. Messages that traverse this communication system mainly include the token (in token ring networks), dam frames, and network control packets. These messages are often referred to as communication traffic. A particular node (i.e., network management station) within the communication system may be designated as an active monitor which will control several communication features of the communication ring network.
Managing a local area network requires a determination of the degree of effectiveness that a port or its attached device functions on the network with relation to the remainder of the network. In order to simplify the above process, it would be advantageous to determine if a particular port (station or link) is functioning better, worse, or about the same as the rest of the devices on the network. Aspects of the present invention perform such function. It would further be advantageous to measure error rates on a ring based network and compare performance of a particular port or its attached device to the remainder of the network. The present invention performs such functions. It would further be advantageous to perform the above functions within the port logic of the communication ports of the system. The present invention provides such capability.
The communication scheme of a ring topology network requires that each and every node of the ring be operating properly to repeat ("recast") messages over the ring. A disastrous effect occurs within a communication ring if one particular node or communication link malfunctions and will not accurately repeat messages thus reducing the overall performance of the devices on the network. A faulting communication line, port, or station may intermittently interrupt or break communication flow causing message dataframes to be lost and/or corrupted. This may severely reduce the performance of the entire ring network as messages may not flow past the malfunctioning node or transmission line. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a system within a ring based communication network that can be used to determine the degree of performance of each port or attached device on the network. It would be advantageous to utilize the performance information for each port to then detect and determine the location of transmission faults. The present invention offers such capability.
Several reasons may cause a node along the communication ring to malfunction and thus lose or corrupt message packets. First, a node having an incorrect communication frequency may be inserted into the token ring network. The incompatible frequency will lock out the newly added node from the network. Or, a faulty cable or receiver may inject noise into the system and cause errors in message packets to be undetectable. In any of a number of different scenarios, it would be advantageous to be able to determine how particular stations are performing with respect to the entire communication network and use this information for fault detection and isolation. The present invention offers such an advantageous solution.
Communication networks of the prior art are composed of prior art concentrators. Due to the nature of the electronics within the concentrators of the prior art, the messages traveling through the ports to adjacent stations may not be read or analyzed by the ports themselves because clocking signals within the dataframes may not be recovered by the port logic. In effect, the port logic of prior art concentrator designs is rather limited. The decoding required to read the clocking signal from the serial data flowing between the stations (and ports) is a complex process that is not supported within all concentrators of the prior art design. In this sense, the ports and port logic of the prior art are passive with respect to analyzing the dataframes that pass on the communication ring. Communication errors in the prior art systems are often non-isolatable due to the difficulty of monitoring the messages into and out of the legs of the network. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide ports and port logic within a given concentrator that have enough intelligence to analyze the data streams flowing to and from the coupled stations, and further, it would be advantageous to use such functionality to help provide fault detection and isolation capabilities for the overall network. The present invention offers such advantageous capabilities.
Because prior art token passing systems do not offer the ability for a port to analyze the dataframe packets that traverse the network, any form of dataframe analysis would have to occur within the stations of the network. This is not advantageous because a system for fault analysis that is to watchdog over the communication stations of the network should not execute within or rely on the proper functioning of those same stations for its own error free operation. Given this system, a faulty station may corrupt these watchdog functions resulting in the faulty station not being detected. It would be advantageous to place any fault detection and isolation system outside the scope of the network stations so that the system does not rely upon the error free operation of these stations for its own proper operations. The present invention provides such an advantageous system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a mechanism within a ring based network for device performance measurement, fault detection, and fault isolation. It is further an object of the present invention to provide a mechanism to determine how well a port or attached device (station) functions on the network compared to the remainder of the network by determining if a particular port (station or link) is functioning better, worse, or about the same as the rest of the communication network. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism that can measure error rates on a ring based network and compare performance of an attached device to the rest of the network (i.e., on several ports in a network concentrator) in order to gauge overall error performance and indicate where in the network communication errors are occurring. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism that may monitor, at each port, the number of messages entering and exiting each port that originate from a targeted source address. It is an object of the present invention to compile, for each port, an indication of the performance of that port and utilize this information reported from each port to detect and isolate communication hulls. It is further an object of the present invention to accomplish the message monitoring aspects of the above features within the port logic of the ports of the communication network of the present invention. These and other objects of the present invention not specifically stated herein will become evident upon review of the discussions of the present invention to follow.

Method and apparatus for measuring and monitoring the performance within a ring communication network


A guidewire for insertion into the vascular system of a patient, to provide a path of advancement for an atherectomy catheter which surrounds the guidewire as it advances. The guidewire has an intermediate portion positioned proximally of the distal tip, which intermediate portion defines a transversely enlarged portion of a size to prevent substantial distal advancement of the atherectomy catheter or other catheter that surrounds the guidewire. Particularly, this protects the distal tip portion of the guidewire from engagement with moving blades of an atherectomy catheter.

Atherectomy devices of various kinds have been used to break up and remove stenoses formed on the inner walls of the arteries of patients, particularly the coronary arteries. Some of these devices comprise catheters having rotary blades or the like on their distal end to cut through the stenosis and then, typically, to remove the stenosis through the lumen of the catheter, or by some other means.
Such atherectomy devices have typically been advanced along a guidewire in a manner that is similar in broad scope to the advancement of an angioplasty balloon catheter along a guidewire, in which the balloon is used to expand stenoses in arteries to improve the flow of blood therethrough. However, the current guidewires which are used with atherectomy devices having a distal, movable blade for cutting are lacking in handling characteristics, particularly torquability and steerability, which renders them more difficult to advance into narrow, convoluted arteries, particularly the coronary arteries which often are of that type. One reason for this is that many conventional designs of high torquability and high steerability guidewire cannot be safely used with a moving blade atherectomy device. Such known guidewires have a distal spring surrounding a distal tip end portion of the guidewire. Such guidewire should not be used with moving blade atherectomy devices, because of the danger that the moving blade may engage the guidewire spring within a patient's artery, with the potential for serious injury to the patient.
In accordance with this invention, a guidewire for an atherectomy device having a moving blade, specifically a rotary blade, is provided in which the guidewire may have state of the art torquability and steerability, making use of a distal spring as is conventional in some of the best guidewire designs. At the same time, the atherectomy device is prevented from advancing along the guidewire to such a degree that its moving blade can engage the guidewire spring.
Thus, the atherectomy device can be used by the physician with confidence that the atherectomy device will not engage a distal guidewire spring. Such a guidewire thus provides excellent torquability and steerability for access to narrow, occluded, convoluted arteries which cannot be reached by conventional atherectomy device guidewires. At the same time, the device is safe with respect to the blade engaging a guidewire distal spring or similar item. The physician does not need to worry at all about that risk, and thus is free to concentrate upon other aspects of the procedure.


Systems and methods for detecting a vehicle static condition are provided. In this regard, a representative system includes a sensor operative to detect at least one of acceleration and angular rate of a vehicle. The sensor is further operative to generate a vehicle vibration profile based on the at least one of the detected acceleration and angular rate of the vehicle. The system further includes a computing device operative to receive the vehicle vibration profile from the sensor, the computing device being further operative to determine whether the vehicle is stationary or moving based on the vehicle vibration profile. A representative method for detecting a vehicle static condition includes detecting at least one of acceleration and angular grade of a vehicle; generating a vehicle vibration profile based on at least one of the detected acceleration and angular grade of the vehicle; receiving the vehicle vibration profile; and determining whether the vehicle is stationary or moving based on the vehicle vibration profile.

Typically, a global positioning system (GPS) can provide a user with a position, velocity, and time (PVT) solution, sometimes referred to as a navigation solution. The global positioning system includes a GPS receiver which typically incorporates current measurements from four or more satellites to update its most recent PVT solution. The GPS receiver can incorporate dead reckoning techniques that estimate a vehicle's acceleration to propagate the current PVT solution in-between measurement updates. Despite technological advances in the GPS area, the GPS receiver may not be able to receive GPS signals all the time. This is known as a GPS outage, which occurs when fewer than four valid satellite measurements are available at each update. For example, a GPS antenna mounted on top of an aircraft may only detect a limited number of satellites during a banked turn, and the dilution of precision parameters for that visible constellation may be unacceptably high. A vehicle passing through a tunnel may not detect any satellites for an extended period. During the GPS outage, the navigation solution becomes less accurate the longer the outage. Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.


There is provided a display control device including a user information acquisition unit configured to acquire information on presence of one or more users who are using same content as output content, a user position decision unit configured to decide display positions of the presence of the users with the information on the presence of the users acquired by the user information acquisition unit, and a display control unit configured to exert control to display the information on the presence of the users on the basis of the display positions decided by the user position decision unit in a manner that the users appear to be using the content together.

There is a technique that displays comments posted by users who are reproducing the same content (content refers to images, videos, or a combination of images or videos with sounds) in different places on a display screen of the content to allow for communication between the users. This kind of technique does not allow users to know, on the screen, the presence of users who have not posted any comments, failing to show the scale of the whole audience to users who are trying listening to the content.
For example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2 then disclose techniques of displaying, as the presence of users who are concurrently watching and listening to content, characters called avatars serving as the users themselves and face images to show the scale of the whole audience to the users who are trying listening to the content.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Display control device and display control method


An image forming apparatus which makes it possible to perform an image forming operation even during update of a control program. The image forming apparatus is provided with distributed module controllers each including a sub CPU and a flash ROM storing a control program for controlling the sub CPU. The main CPU of the image forming apparatus updates the control programs stored in the respective flash ROMs. The main CPU displays a screen that enables selection of functions to be used in an image forming job executed by the image forming apparatus. During execution of update of a control program targeted for update, out of the selectable functions, the main CPU disables a function which uses a sub CPU associated with the control program.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus equipped with modules having respective microprocessors, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a technique concerning update of firmware installed in an image forming apparatus, there has been proposed a firmware update system (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-108957). The firmware update system described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-108957 upgrades the version of firmware by the following control:
In the case of updating one software part associated with a print job, it is determined whether or not a print job reserved as a timer job awaiting execution includes an operation requiring the use of the software part to be updated. If it is determined that the reserved print job includes no such operation, the software part is updated.
If it is determined that the reserved print job includes such an operation but that a software part provided in another image forming apparatus on a network can be used as an alternative to the software part to be updated, rescheduling is performed so as to use the image forming apparatus that can be used. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no image forming apparatus that can be used as an alternative, the update request is made pending.
By performing the above-described control, it is possible not only to delete and update firmware at high speed, but also to delete and update a software part for executing a timer job, in a timing deemed appropriate such that a general job can be performed without any trouble.
Further, there has conventionally been proposed another firmware update system (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-273143). The firmware update system described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-273143 upgrades the version of firmware by the following control:
In a system where firmware is downloaded from an external apparatus so as to be temporarily stored in a RAM (backup RAM) area, and is then written in a PROM area, first, the firmware is temporarily stored in the RAM (backup RAM) area and is then reset. Further, the system has a firmware update function of writing the firmware stored in the RAM (backup RAM) area into the PROM area and then starting the operation of the firmware, and detects a job which is being executed and a job which is awaiting execution. The system makes the operation of the firmware update function pending for the duration of time that a job currently being executed and a job waiting execution are detected.
In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for the use of an image forming apparatus as a center printer in an office, and therefore it is demanded that an image forming apparatus executes its functions with further reduced downtime. In particular, it is demanded to solve a problem with the conventional technique that the print function of an image forming apparatus cannot be used at all during update of firmware in the image forming apparatus.
In the above-mentioned conventional technique (prior art), it is possible to update firmware without turning on/off the power of an image forming apparatus. However, a print job input to the image forming apparatus after the start of upgrade of the version of firmware is not mentioned.
For example, in the method mentioned in the conventional technique, even when firmware of a post-processing apparatus (finisher) connected to an image forming apparatus is under update, it is possible to continue the operation of the system, but there is no means established for receiving a print job. Therefore, improvement of user friendliness is sometimes insufficient.
In the case of issuing a print job to an image forming apparatus, a user needs to ensure that update of firmware is not being performed, before issuing the print job. For this reason, irrespective of the contents and kind of a module targeted for firmware update, the user cannot issue a print job to the image forming apparatus until the firmware update is completed.

Image forming apparatus capable of updating control program, and storage medium


Tricyclic quinoxalinediones of the formula: ##STR1## wherein X is alkyl, halogen, cyano, trifluoromethyl, nitro, hydroxy, amino, etc.; R.sup.1 is H, etc.; R.sup.2 is H, alkyl, cycloalkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, cycloalkylalkyl, arylalkyl, substituted arylalkyl, aryl, or substituted aryl; W is H, CO.sub.2 R.sup.3, CO.sub.2 Y, CONR.sup.3 R.sup.4, CONR.sup.3 Y, CON(OR.sup.3)R.sup.4, COR.sup.3, CN, tetrazolyl, or substituted alkyl; R.sup.3 and R.sup.4 independently are H, alkyl, cycloalkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, etc.; Y is mono-substituted alkyl or di-substituted alkyl; and n is an integer 0 or 1, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, which are useful as a selective antagonist of glutamate receptor for the treatment or prevention of various diseases in animals including human being, for example, minimizing damage of central nervous system induced by ischaemic or hypoxylic conditions, treatment and/or prevention of neurodegenerative disorders, and further analgesics, antidepressants, anxiolitics, and anti-schizophrenics.

Nonsubstituted tricyclic quinoxalinediones, 6,7-dihydro-1H, 5H-pyrido[1,2,3,-de]quinoxaline-2,3-dione and 5,6-dihydro-1H-pyrrolo[1,2,3-de-quinoxaline-2,3-dione are described in A. Richardson, JR. and E. D. Amstutz, J. Org. Chem., 25 1138 and A. Richardson, JR., ibid., 25, 2589 (1965), respectively. Amine-substituted tricyclic quinoxalinedione,6,7-dihydro-6-(di-n-propylamino)-1H, 5H-pyrido[1,2,3,-de]quinoxaline-2,3-dione is disclosed in WO 90/15058, and M. W. Moon, et al., J. Med. Chem., 35, 1076 (1992) as an example of series of imidazoquinolinones and related compounds having dopaminergic and serotonergic activities, and especially, as a selective and potent D.sub.2 agonist. The compound described there would not be expected to exhibit antagonistic activities of glutamate receptors, since, to date, none of compounds possessing cross affinities to both glutamate and dopamine receptors have been appeared.
Certain quinoxalinediones and benzo[1,2-f]qunoxalinediones have been shown to have antagonist activities against glutamate receptors including glycine modulatory site of NMDA receptors and AMPA receptors (For example, D. E. Pellegrini-Giampietro, et al., Br. J. Pharmacol., 98, 1281 (1989), M. J. Sheardown, et al., Eur. J. Pharmacol., 174, 197 (1989), Y. Yoneda and K. Ogita, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 164, 841 (1989), and M. J. Sheardown, et al., Science, 247, 571 (1990)).

Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals Company, Limited


A method of predicting an intein insertion site in a protein that will lead to a switching phenotype is provided. The method includes identifying a plurality of C/T/S sites within the protein; selecting from the plurality of C/T/S/sites those that are ranked 0.75 or higher by a support vector machine, within ten angstroms of the active site of the protein, and at or near a loop-β-sheet junction or a loop-α-helix junction. A method of controlling protein activity and hosts including proteins with controlled activity are also provided. Also, intein modified proteins and plants containing intein modified proteins are provided.

Many proteins have useful characteristics but in certain settings a protein can be difficult to use. For example, hydrolytic enzymes have important industrial and agricultural applications, but their expression and production may be associated with undesirable phenotypic effects in some expression hosts. For example, cell wall degrading enzymes, which include cellulases, xylanases, ligninases, esterases, peroxidases, and other hydrolytic enzymes, are often associated with detrimental effects on growth, physiological, and agronomic performance when expressed in plants. Xylanases are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of beta-1,4-xylan, a linear polysaccharide component of hemicellulose contained in plant cell walls Cellulases are enzymes that catalyze either the internal or terminal hydrolysis of glucose polymers linked by beta-1,4-D-glycosidic bonds contained in cellulose, cellulose strains with different degrees of polymerization, and cellobiose. Based on these activities, expression of a xylanase or a cellulase in a plant may lead to undesirable degradation of plant components. Some enzymes may also be poorly expressed in microbial hosts, due to their hydrolytic activity.

Intein-modified enzymes, their production and industrial application


A building having a security and safety function of the present invention may include: a house body that is configured to include an inner panel that defines an interior space, an outer panel that surrounds the inner panel to be spaced a predetermined distance from the outer surface of the inner panel, a heat insulating material that is installed between the inner panel and the outer panel, and an air flow passage that is formed between the inner panel and the outer panel to facilitate a fluid flow therebetween and to block the heat transfer with respect to the outside; an indoor entrance door configured to be installed on one side of the house body for entering the interior space; and an outdoor entrance door configured to be installed on the house body in front of the indoor entrance door. The building can control the entry of children or outsides into the rooftop of the building without permission from the user in order to thereby prevent safety accidents and in order to thereby improve a security function.

In general, a prefabricated building or a factory-fabricated building, which is a kind of building, may be used by using panels or light construction materials while being simply moved, and has been developed and provided in a variety of forms and structures according to the purpose of usage, such as a suburban house, a camping house, a bungalow, or a movable house. Such a building may be easily installed and used in the places, such as regions of beautiful scenery, resorts, or construction sites. The buildings adopt cooling/heating equipment that is installed therein in order to provide the convenience of usage.
Korea Patent Publication No. 2010-0061899 discloses an environment-friendly simple movable house. The floor of the disclosed movable house is configured with a non-toxic waterproof mortar layer in which reinforcing bars are embedded, Styrofoam, a non-toxic waterproof concrete layer, and a loess layer of which the front and back surfaces are covered with meshes in sequence as it goes from the outer side to the inner side thereof, and the wall of the house body is configured with Styrofoam of which the front and back surfaces are coated with a flame retardant, and a non-toxic waterproof mortar layer in which reinforcing bars are embedded, a loess layer of which the front and back surfaces are covered with meshes, a paint layer that is mixed with the loess layer, a Korean paper layer, and silver nano-water, which are formed in sequence on the inner side of the Styrofoam.
Korean Patent No. 1383889 discloses a container house that is applied with a stand-alone solar power system.
In order to increase the usability of the rooftop of the prefabricated building, it is essential to install separate means for people to go up to the rooftop. A general ladder is used for the means for people to go up to the rooftop. However, in the case where the ladder is installed indoors, there is a problem that the space usability is relatively reduced. On the contrary, in the case where the ladder is installed outdoors, it causes a trespassing and poses a risk of safety accidents because children can easily go up through the same.
In particular, the conventional prefabricated buildings have relatively poor heat-insulation and cooling/heating efficiencies, and thus, in order to improve this, the present inventor was granted Korean Patent No. 10-1421471 regarding a simple house having a multi-function, which can: reduce management costs with the seasons; increase the durability; and be simply used for a variety of purposes according to installed places. The present invention has been developed and filed by associating a ladder to go up to the rooftop of a simple house with a door.

Building having security and safety function


An apparatus is provided for controlling the transfer of data between first and second service processors; wherein the respective first and second service processors are adapted to provide respective transfer instructions requesting such data transfers, the apparatus comprising: first lines for conducting digital signals; second lines for conducting digital signals; first integrated circuit for providing digital signals to said first lines in response to first control signals and for receiving digital signals from said second lines in response to second control signals; second integrated circuit for receiving digital signals from said first lines in response to second control signals and for providing digital signals to said second lines in response to first control signals; a first microcode protocol unit for receiving the instructions and for alternatively providing first control signals or second control signals to said first integrated circuit; and a second microcode protocol unit for receiving the instructions and for alternatively providing first control signals or second control signals to said second integrated circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the transfer of data within a computer and more particularly to the control of the transfer of data between multiple processors of a computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In large computers having multiple central processing units, each CPU typically has an associated service processor. The service processor, for example, initializes the CPU by loading microcode, setting internal latches and activating clocks when the computer is started. Also, service processors often can be used to facilitate diagnostics by keeping a running record of the status of their associated CPUs.
In operation, for example, the multiple service processors of a multiple CPU computer alternatively can operate independently or can operate jointly as a unit. Generally, in order to operate jointly, each service processor needs to have access to computer system information which is available to the others.
For example, when the respective service processors operate independently, they can keep independent running records of the status of their associated CPUs. In order to operate as a unit, however, these independent records often must be made available to each service processor.
Such sharing of information typically involves the transfer of data between the respective service processors. The transfer of such data ordinarily is a relatively routine task. It is desirable that the operating systems of the service processors not be unduly burdened with controlling the transfer of such data.
Thus, there has been a need for an apparatus and method to control the transfer of data between multiple service processors of a computer without unduly burdening the operating system of the service processor. The present invention meets this need.

Apparatus and method for controlling the transfer of digital information between service processors memories in a computer


A carriage including a base frame and a retractable handle vertically mounted on the base frame, wherein the base frame has a track in the middle, a slide plate moved in and out of the track, spring means connected between the track and the slide plate to force the slide plate out of the track, and lock means controlled to lock the slide plate inside the track.

The present invention relates to carriages, and relates more particularly to the frame unit of a hand truck or luggage carrier which has a slide plate mounted on the base frame and moved between two alternative positions according to the volume of the load.
Regular hand trucks and luggage carriers are commonly equipped with a retractable handle, that can be collapsed when the hand truck or luggage carrier is not in use. However, the base frames of regular hand trucks and luggage carriers are commonly fixed and cannot be adjusted according to the volume of the load. If the volume of the load surpasses the capacity of the hand truck or luggage carrier, the excessive volume of the load must be separately carried by the user.

103, Ta Ming 1 Rd., Tung Pao Tsun, Tan Tzu Hsiang


A method of installing insulation under a pre-existing roof of a building of a type having a spaced apart structural beams standing in one direction under the roof and a plurality of spaced apart elongated purlins extending transversely to the structural beams and being supported by the structural beams. Purlin clips are used which connect to the purlins at the top and to a lower support member at the bottom thereof. The method includes installing an upper support member across from one to the other of an adjacent pair of purlins. An upper strip of insulation is positioned between adjacent pairs of purlins above the upper support member whereby the strip of insulation will be supported by the upper support member. A lower strip of insulation is attached at one end into one of the structural beams, under the upper layer of insulation, and to the other of the structural beams at the other end thereof. A lower support member is then attached between adjacent purlin clips and under the lower strip of insulation for supporting the under side of the lower strip of insulation. The upper support member or members are then removed so that the upper strip of insulation will move down and be supported on top of the lower strip of insulation.

It is, of course, well known that buildings must be insulated in order to retain heat or cold when the temperatures outside are very different from the desired temperature within the building. This is particularly a problem in metal buildings of a commercial type, since metal is a very good conductor of heat.
In order to install insulation in the ceiling of a metal building, it has become a common practice to insulate during the initial construction of the building and to provide the insulation in the top of the building before the final layer of the roof is put onto the building, for example, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,543 to Wilson et al. One of the problems with this approach is that the installation of the insulation interferes with the construction of the building. Usually, different people do the insulation work, and since the speed of installing the building is typically very important, the insulation steps detract from the timeliness of construction. Consequently, there is a need to be able to insulate a building more quickly.
Another category of insulation problems relates to insulating a building which is already existing, or adding insulation to such existing building in order to increase the R-factor of the ceiling or walls. Especially since each existing building is somewhat different, there is no one approach that seems to be universally acceptable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,651 to Fligg dealt with a similar problem, but the problem was solved by blowing loose insulation into the space between the purlins above a lower fiberglass matt. While there has been a desire by the inventor herein to replace the blown-in loose fiberglass material with a fiberglass matt, the problem has been a perplexing one until this present invention was developed.

Insulation supporting strip and holding bracket for receiving it


This invention relates generally to methods and compositions for producing a sesquiterpene alcohol comprising contacting a sesquiterpene with a p450 polypeptide with monooxygenase activity.

Terpenes hydrocarbons such as alpha and beta santalenes have been produced via biochemical processes for example such as through genetically altered cells. These terpenes and the alcohol derived from them are major constituents of sandalwood oil and the alcohols are important perfumery ingredients typically obtained commercially through the distillation of the heartwood of Santalum species (e.g., Sandalwood). Examples of such alcohols include α-sinensol, β-sinensol, α-santalol, β-santalol, α-trans-bergamotol and epi-β-santalol. Although new biochemical pathways have been developed, including genetically engineered cells, to generate the terpene hydrocarbons, it is desirable to find a biochemical pathway to generate and produce the alcohols derived from the santalenes. It is further desirable to use a biochemical pathway to not only generate such alcohols but it is further desirable to selectively produce, via a biochemical pathway, cis-isomers of the alcohols such as iso-α-sinensol, iso-β-sinensol, (Z)-α-santalol, (Z)-β-santalol, (Z)-α-trans-bergamotol and (Z)-epi-β-santalol.
Cytochrome P450s represent a family of enzymes of oxidases. P450s commonly catalyze a monooxygenase reaction. Cytochrome P450 enzymes are classified into families and subfamilies based on the amino acid sequences homology. Members of a same subfamily share over 55% amino acid sequence identity and have usually similar enzymatic activities (substrate and/or product selectivity). CYP71AV1 (NCBI accession No ABB82944.1, SEQ ID No. 51 and 52) and CYP71AV8 (NCBI accession No ADM86719.1, SEQ ID No. 1 and 2) are two members of the CYP71AV sub-family and shares 78% sequence identity. CYP71AV1 has previously been shown to oxidize amorphadiene (Teoh et al, FEBS letters 580 (2006) 1411-1416). CYP71AV8 has previously been shown to oxidize (+)-valencene, germacrene A and amorphadiene (Cankar et al, FEBS Lett. 585(1), 178-182 (2011)).
Processes using engineered cells have been reported that use terpene synthases to catalyze the production of a diterpene or sesquiterpene. The diterpenes or sesquiterpenes were further processed using a cytochrome P450 polypeptide to catalyze the hydroxylation, oxidation, demethylation or methylation of the diterpene or sesquiterpene produced by the cell.


An improved printed circuit card or second level electronics package (circuit board) including a laminate of lossy material and dielectric material between the voltage supply plane (Vcc) and the ground (GND) plane. The laminate suppresses common mode noise that is generated by active components on the card or circuit board.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to circuit card or board and, in particular, to its internal plane structure.
2. Prior Art
The electromagnetic interference (EMI) radiated by electronic products is controlled by regulatory bodies both in the U.S. and in foreign countries, who set emission standards for electronic products. If a product does not meet the applicable emission standards, the manufacturer may be fined exorbitant fees and, in extreme situations, the product may have to be withdrawn from the market.
To avoid these inconveniences, most manufacturers have built EMI facilities for testing products prior to marketing the products. The facilities are expensive and require personnel trained in the EMI discipline to operate them. Even after the initial release of a product, there is a need to recertify the product if it is to be used in a different system or if a new feature is added. The certification and recertification of products lead to an ever-increasing workload which demands more technicians and testing facilities. The net result is that the certification recertification of products has become costly and will become more so in the future.
It is believed that a major cause of radiated EMI is common-mode current on system cables. The common-mode current is caused by thousands of digital circuits that are on the circuit board or card, many of which are switching simultaneously. As the circuits switch, large current surges are generated causing high-Q, parallel-resonant circuits between the card's voltage and ground planes.
One prior art approach for solving the common-mode current problem is to decouple the digital logic. This is done by placing a series inductor and bypass capacitor or bypass capacitor alone between a module's power pin and the Vcc/ground planes. This solution is a step in the right direction in that it suppresses the problem at the source. For this approach to be completely effective, a decoupling network would be required for each active device on the card/bard. Due to the large number of active devices, providing separate decoupling networks for each device would be impractical and costly. Instead, what is done is to try and place a decoupling network on a few devices that are believed to be generating the most noise and only use bypass capacitors elsewhere. As a result, this technique is usually inadequate and requires additional techniques for solving the noise problem.
The ground isolation method is another technique used in the prior art. In this technique, a large ground sink (metal or metalized cabinet) is coupled via a very low impedance connection to the isolated ground plane. This implies that all card cable connectors must be located in the same area as the isolated ground and have the capability of being strapped to the metal sink. This technique is unsatisfactory since it is not always possible to have the cables in the same location.
Another method used to solve the prior art problem is the placing of large ferrite cores on the offending cables. The effectiveness of this approach is limited in that its attenuation is usually less than 4 to 6 dB. Moreover, the FCC prohibits this approach unless the seller provides all the cables with the products. This is not usually practical since a customer may elect to provide their own cable.
Finally, the transformer/balun approach is another technique used in the prior art. In this technique, a balun/transformer is mounted on the card. This approach is not practical in that its effectiveness is typically less than 4 dB and requires that all wires in an offending cable pass through the device. Furthermore, one input pin and one output pin, with traces, are required for each wire. All of this is difficult to accomplish with large cables and is usually limited to cables with 8 or 10 wires. In addition, unless all system cables are suppressed in the same manner, the noise energy tends to bypass the suppressed cable. Moreover, when any cable length is changed, the effectiveness of this approach is changed over the entire frequency spectrum and the system usually exhibits different failing frequencies.

Circuit board EMI suppressor including a lossy dielectric layer


The invention provides apparatus and methods for improving systems which expose samples to reactive plasmas, and more particularly for inverting the sample within these systems. The systems are of the type which have one or more process chambers, at least one intermediate chamber, and a robot transport mechanism to transport the sample between the several chambers. The invention includes flipping and gripping assemblies which mount within the intermediate chamber. These assemblies grasp and remove the sample as transported by the robot mechanism, and invert the sample within the intermediate chamber. The inverted sample is re-positioned at the robot mechanism so that the sample can be transported to one or more process chambers for deposition in a "face down" orientation, which reduces contamination.

This invention relates to apparatus and methods for processing samples, such as wafers or substrates, with a process, such as a process directed towards chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). In particular, the invention provides apparatus and methods for improving the handling, cleanliness, and exposure of those samples within CVD and PECVD processes.
As used herein, a "sample" generically describes a substrate, such as a glass panel or a silicon wafer, which is suitable for deposition techniques, for example PECVD. The sample has a front side, which is treated to receive one or more coating depositions onto the surface, and has a back side, which is generally used to support and manipulate the sample.
Systems which deposit semiconductor films onto samples are well-known today and are utilized in a range of scientific fields. The semiconductor industry, for example, has developed a number of complex PECVD systems to manufacture devices such as thin film transistors (TFTs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs), flat panel displays (FPDs), solar cells, photodetectors, and other integrated circuits.
Typically, these systems include one or more evacuated process chambers that are used to expose the sample to reactive plasmas. The chambers include an electrode pair, to create radio-frequency (RF) discharges between the electrodes, and gas outlets, to pass selective gases, such as silane, between the electrodes. Once the gas passes within the RF electric field, it forms a reactive plasma which deposits onto surfaces in contact with the plasma, including the front side of the sample. By controlling the power and the frequency of the RF energy, the electrode spacing, and the exposure-time during which the sample contacts the reactive plasma, a selective thin film is deposited on the sample surface.
Generally, one process chamber is used for one particular coating or thin film deposition. If a sample is to have more than one type of film deposited on its surface, the system typically has more than one process chamber, and has a robot transport mechanism to move the sample between the several evacuated process chambers. Such a system also has an evacuated intermediate chamber, which serves to access the several process chambers and to reduce the amount of unwanted spurious gas or other contaminants which travel between process chambers. For example, once a film is deposited on the sample in a first chamber, it is transported by the robot through the intermediate chamber and to the second process chamber. The second process chamber is then sealed from the intermediate chamber and the additional film is deposited on the sample.
In certain prior systems, the intermediate chamber also conveniently provides an access port to the system. That is, the samples are loaded into the system and individually processed through the intermediate chamber before deposition in the respective process chambers; and finished samples are removed through the intermediate chamber.
One recurring problem in these systems is contamination. During a deposition cycle, non-uniformities in the RF electric field can result in the formation of floating powder-like substances in the plasma which thereafter fall onto the sample, creating defects in the sample's film structure and consequently in its semiconductor characteristics. Furthermore, plasma-generated films tend to form and accumulate on every chamber surface in contact with the reactive plasma. After the process chamber cycles through several deposition operations, the accumulated films often flake apart, producing minute particles that again fall on and contaminate the sample surface.
This is a severe problem; and the known solutions are not cost effective. One practice is simply to reduce the effective manufacturing yield. For example, portions, or even all, of the sample are discarded if it is contaminated or otherwise degraded by the powder or particles. Another known practice is to mechanically clean the process chamber often, so that the unwanted films on the chamber wall do not accumulate to a thickness that can flake off onto the sample. The chamber is typically flushed with a cleansing gas and then opened to clean and remove the accumulated particles. Yet another practice utilizes etching gases. These gases are injected through the process chambers between depositions, to etch the accumulated films on the chamber walls, thereby lengthening the time interval between the more thorough mechanical cleanings.
These practices, however, are wasteful. They reduce production yield, which costs the manufacturer valuable resources in an ever-competitive market. In the manufacture of Flat Panel Displays (FPDs), for example, forty percent of the sales costs are in materials. Thus production yields are important. The loss of even one sample due to contamination reduces revenue significantly.
Cleaning process chambers mechanically is also costly. The system is shut-down during the cleaning procedures, since it cannot effectively continue to deposit films onto samples at the same time; and there is an additional delay to re-evacuate the chamber and to re-qualify the process. Likewise, auto-cleaning techniques, which utilize etching gases, inhibit production yield rates by reducing the throughput of the system. These etching techniques effectively double the time between sample depositions, since etch rates and deposition rates are approximately equal. Thus the speed and effectivity of the production line are handicapped by contamination problems.
It is, accordingly, an object of the invention to provide improvements to CVD and PECVD systems and methods.
Another object of the invention is to provide improvements to systems which expose samples to reactive plasmas, and in particular to improve the production yield for uncontaminated samples.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide PECVD apparatus and methods which reduce the contamination on samples used in semiconductor devices.
Still another object of the invention is to provide improved apparatus and methods for exposing samples to reactive plasma which are relatively low in cost, and reliable in operation.
More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide improved apparatus and methods for handling samples within a PECVD system.
These and other objects of the invention will be apparent in the description which follows.

Method and apparatus for inverting samples in a process


In an apparatus and a method for detecting a phase state capable of improving reliability of an air conditioner by preventing an abnormal operation of the air conditioner by detecting a phase state (antiphase and open-phase) of three phase AC power supplied to the air conditioner and displaying the detected phase state, the apparatus includes a phase detector for detecting first, second and third phases of a three phase current; an interrupt detector for detecting a falling edge of a pulse signal corresponded to the third phase of the detected first, second and third phases, recognizing an interrupt occurrence by the third phase when the falling edge is detected and generating a counting signal; a counter for counting a pulse signal corresponded to the first and second phases on the basis of the interrupt occurred-third phase according to the counting signal; an antiphase/open-phase detector for detecting a state as a normal connection state, an antiphase state on the basis of a pulse signal corresponded to the first or second phase counted by the counter and detecting an open-phase state on the basis of the interrupt counting times; and a display unit for displaying a message indicating the antiphase state or the open-phase state or the normal connection state on a screen according to a control signal of the antiphase/open-phase detector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and in particular to an apparatus and a method for detecting a phase state of AC power supplied to a multi air conditioner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a multi air conditioner consists of one outdoor unit and plural indoor units.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a construction of a general air conditioner.
As depicted in FIG. 1, the air conditioner includes a compressor 6 for sucking and compressing low temperature-low pressure refrigerant vapors discharged from an indoor heat exchanger 8 in order to change them into high temperature-high pressure vapors; an outdoor heat exchanger 3 for changing the high temperature-high pressure vapors discharged from the compressor 6 into a high pressure saturated solution; an indoor heat exchanger 8 for converting the high pressure saturated solution discharge from the outdoor heat exchanger 3 into a low temperature-low pressure refrigerant and evaporating it in order to get saturated vapors without having a liquid element; a four way valve 5 for adjusting flow of the refrigerant according to a heating or a cooling model and a two way valve 1 for discharging a high pressure refrigerant into the indoor heat exchanger 8 in a dehydration mode.
The indoor heat exchanger 8 includes a first heat exchanger 8-1 for sucking a high pressure liquid and gas mixture refrigerant and discharging a high pressure liquid by emitting heat included in the sucked refrigerant in the dehydration mode; an expander 8-2 for making the high pressure liquid discharged from the first heat exchanger 8-1 as a lower pressure liquid; a second heat exchanger 8-4 for sucking the lower pressure liquid and gas mixture refrigerant through the expander 8-2, evaporating it and discharging a low temperature-low pressure refrigerant having no liquid element; and a two way valve 8-3 for cutting off the high pressure liquid discharged from the first heat exchanger 8-1 in order to prevent the high pressure liquid discharged from the first heat exchanger 8-1 from being directly discharged to the second heat exchanger 8-4 in the dehydration mode.
First, in the heating mode, the high temperature-high pressure refrigerant compressed in the compressor 6 is sucked into the indoor heat exchanger 8 through the four way valve 5, is condensed and is converted into a low temperature-low pressure refrigerant through the expander 2. Herein, indoor air sucked through an indoor fan 7 is heat-exchanged while passing the surface of the indoor heat exchanger 8, warm air is discharged into the indoor, and accordingly a temperature in the room rises. Herein, the indoor heat exchanger 8 opens the two way valve 8-3 between the first and second heat exchangers 8-1, 8-4 and makes the indoor heat exchanger 8 operate as a condenser (not shown).
Afterward, the outdoor h eat exchanger 3 sucks the low temperature-low pressure refrigerant, evaporates it and discharge a gas state refrigerant, the compressor 6 sucks the gas state refrigerant discharge from the outdoor heat exchanger 8 and compresses it as a high temperature-high pressure refrigerant, the above-mentioned operation is performed repeatedly in the heating operation.
In the meantime, in the cooling mode, the high temperature-high pressure refrigerant compressed in the compressor 6 passes through the four way valve 5, is sucked into, is condensed in the outdoor heat exchanger 3 and is converted into a low temperature-low pressure refrigerant through the expander 2.
The indoor heat exchanger 8 sucks the low temperature-low pressure refrigerant, evaporates it and discharges a gas state refrigerant, the compressor 6 sucks the gas state refrigerant discharged from the indoor heat exchanger 8 and compresses it as a high temperature-high pressure refrigerant. Herein, the indoor heat exchanger 8 opens the two way valve 8-3 between the first and second heat exchangers 801, 8-4 and makes the indoor heat exchanger 8 operate as the evaporator.
Herein, the indoor air sucked through the indoor fan 7 is heat-exchanged while passing the cooled surface of the indoor heat exchanger 8, cold air is discharged into the indoor, and accordingly a temperature in the room falls.
In the meantime, in the dehydration mode, the high temperature-high pressure refrigerant compressed by the compressor 6 is sucked into the outdoor heat exchanger 3 through the four way valve 5. Herein, an outdoor fan 4 rotates at a low speed, the high temperature-high pressure refrigerant passes through the two way valve 1 without being cooled almost and is sucked into the indoor heat exchanger 8 directly.
Afterward, the first heat exchanger 8-1 emits heat by sucking high pressure liquid and gas mixed cold air and discharge the high pressure liquid, the second heat exchanger 8-4 sucks the high pressure liquid discharged from the first heat exchanger 8-1 as a low pressure liquid through the expander 8-2, evaporates it and discharges a high temperature-high pressure refrigerant having no liquid element. Herein, the indoor air sucked through the indoor fan 7 is heat-exchanged while passing the cooled surface of the second heat exchanger 8-4, moisture is removed, the dried air is heated while passing the heated surface of the first heat exchanger 8-1 and is discharged into the indoor. Herein, the indoor fan 7 is installed at the indoor heat heat exchanger 8, and the outdoor fan 4 is installed at the outdoor heat exchanger 3.
However, in the conventional art, after installing the air conditioner at a pertinent position, in order to operate the air conditioner, when three phase Ac power is supplied to the air conditioner, by connecting a terminal of the three phase AC power with a power terminal of the air conditioner abnormally, the compressor 6 of the air conditioner is operated abnormally. In more detail, an installer may not classify a R phase terminal, a S phase terminal and a T phase terminal of the three phase AC power terminal accurately and may connect the three phase AC power terminal with the power terminal of the air conditioner abnormally, and accordingly antiphase (opposite phase) or open-phase occurs.
In addition, by connecting a terminal of the three phase AC power with a power terminal of the air conditioner abnormally, when antiphase (opposite phase) or open-phase occurs, a control unit of the air conditioner is damaged, and accordingly it can not be operated.
As described above, in the conventional art, an installer can not classify a R phase terminal, a S phase terminal and a T phase terminal of the three phase AC power terminal accurately.
In addition, in the conventional art, when the installer supplies three phase AC power to the air conditioner, by connecting a terminal of the three phase AC power with a power terminal of the air conditioner abnormally, the compressor of the air conditioner is operated abnormally.
In addition, in the conventional art, when the installer connects the three phase AC power terminal with the power terminal of the air conditioner abnormally, antiphase (opposite phase) or open-phase occurs, a control unit of the air conditioner is damaged, and accordingly it can not be operated.

Apparatus and method for detecting phase state


Buckling restrained braces may include a core rod and a buckling restraining tube concentrically surrounding at least a majority of a longitudinal length of the core rod. The buckling restraining tube may be configured to inhibit buckling of the core rod upon compressive loading of the core rod. An end plate assembly may be attached, and longitudinally movable with respect, to an end of the core rod, the end plate assembly being located at a longitudinal end of the buckling restrained brace. A sleeve member may concentrically surround an end of the buckling restraining tube, the sleeve member affixed to the end plate assembly. A spring may be located laterally between the core rod and the sleeve member of the end plate assembly and longitudinally between, and in contact with, an end of the buckling restraining tube and a portion of the end plate assembly.

In many areas of the world, large buildings and other structures may periodically be subjected to seismic or other loads (e.g., earthquakes, wind, weather related events, explosive blasts). In order to prevent structures from being damaged by such loads, particularly the displacements that follow the application of seismic loads to structures, or to at least reduce the amount of damage that loading may cause to such structures, various devices have been developed to absorb such displacements to reduce the loading experienced by other elements of the structure.
One such device is commonly referred to as a "buckling restrained brace." A buckling restrained brace may include an elongate yielding core element connected at two ends to a building frame, e.g., diagonally across a rectangular "bay" formed by two horizontal frame members and two vertical frame members. Plastic deformation of the yielding core element under applied forces can absorb a significant amount of energy and may mitigate or prevent damage to other elements of the building structure. The yielding core element is typically surrounded by a sleeve configured to allow the core element to lengthen in response to applied tensile forces, while hindering or preventing the yielding core element from buckling under compressive forces by providing the yielding core with lateral support.
In many buckling restrained braces, the sleeve includes a metal shell within which an annular layer of grout or cement is formed. The grout or cement material may be separated from the yielding core by a layer of, e.g., polymer material or by a small gap (i.e., void). For example, a buckling restrained brace featuring such an arrangement is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,452 to Sridhara, filed Mar. 11, 2003, and issued Mar. 13, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference.

Buckling restrained braces and related methods


An Oldham-style coupling assembly wherein a driving shaft (12) is rotatably coupled to a driven shaft (32) using a reduced-lash flexible coupling assembly. The coupling assembly includes an intermediate coupling plate (38) stationed between the driven (32) and driving (12) shafts. A driven lug (34) associated with the driven shaft (32) has tapered contact faces (36) and engages a driving slot (40) in the center of the coupling plate (38). Likewise, a pair of diametrically opposed half-lugs (18) associated with the driving shaft (12) engage in respective half slots (42) through a similar tapered interface. Springs (28) backing each of the half lugs (18) establish a continuous axial compression force within the coupling plate (38) to urge seating of the tapered interfaces but without frustrating transverse sliding in the respective slots (40, 42), thereby taking up lash from the system. The lugs (18, 34) are oriented perpendicular relative to each other, so as to simulate a traditional Oldham-style coupling. The coupling assembly is useful to rotatably unite a fuel pump (14) and a vacuum pump (10) in a vehicular engine.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a coupling assembly for transmitting rotational motion between a driving shaft and a driven shaft, and more particularly toward an Oldham-style coupling with reduced lash.
2. Related Art
In various power transmission configurations, rotating shafts are coupled to each other with a coupling joint to accommodate small amounts of shaft misalignment from collinearity. Such coupling devices have been proposed in a variety of configurations. One design of fairly ancient origin is the Oldham coupling, as shown in FIG. 7, wherein a center torsion block is provided with diametric slots on opposite faces that are oriented perpendicular to each other. Sliding of the center block permits a substantial amount of lateral shaft offset, while built-in clearance permits some angular misalignment as well.
A particular concern with such couplings can arise in certain applications where lash, i.e., clearance or play between contact faces, is undesirable. For example, vacuum pumps are used in some vehicular applications to assist operation of the brake system. For safety reasons, these vacuum pumps are not allowed to be driven from the front end accessory drive (FEAD) belt, and therefore are commonly driven from a timing chain, belt or gear from the cam shaft or other convenient power shaft. When driven from a cam shaft gear or timing gear, as an example, torsional vibrations inherent in the subsystem can introduce unwanted noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), as well as component wear.
The source of backlash in prior art style Oldham couplings (FIG. 7) is found at the interfaces between the drive lugs and the coupling plate slots. Because a slip fit condition is required to achieve proper sliding function and accommodate axial misalignment, lash necessarily exists in the prior art systems. Accordingly, there is a need to couple two rotary members having respective driving and driven shafts in close proximity while accommodating modest shaft misalignment, without introducing unwanted NVH or wear into the mechanical system. The terms "driving" and "driven" refer to the direction of power flow. A driving feature transmits torque to a driven feature in the same hand of rotation as the direction of rotation, whereas a driven member transmits torque to the driving member in a hand of rotation opposite to the direction of rotation.


The present invention provides a display driving circuit and a liquid crystal display panel with adding a first AND gate (AND1), a second AND gate (AND2) and a third AND gate (AND3). Two input ends of each of the three gates receives a branch control signal and a conditioning signal (BURR), and the conditioning signal (BURR) first performs several high and low voltage level conversions and then maintains the high voltage level, respectively in the high voltage level durations of the respective branch control signals to make the signal outputted by the output end of the first AND gate, the signal outputted by the output end of the second AND gate and the signal outputted by the output end of the third AND gate first perform several high and low voltage level conversions and then maintain the high voltage level.

The Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) comprises a plurality of pixels arranged in array, and each pixel generally comprises sub pixels of red, green, blue, three colors. Each sub pixel is controlled by one scan line and one data line. The scan line is employed to control the on and off of the sub pixel, and the data line applies various data voltage signals to make the sub pixel show various gray scales, and thus for realizing the full color image display.
With the development of the liquid crystal display technology, the demand of the people for the LCD display screen is growing, but the requirement of the display resolution is getting higher and higher, the pursuit of the image display quality gets more and more stringent. Thus, how to promote the image display quality to improve the signal quality of each input and output signal unit, becomes a subject worthy of research and discussion.
For decreasing the wiring layout, most of the present LCDs utilize the multiplex (MUX) display driving circuit. Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a multiplex type display driving circuit according to prior art, comprising:
a plurality of pixel units P arranged in array, scan lines set corresponding to each row of pixel units P, data lines set corresponding to each column of pixel units P and multiplex modules DM set corresponding to each column of pixel units P.
Each pixel unit P comprising a red sub pixel R, a green sub pixel G and a blue sub pixel B which are aligned from left to right in order, and a first switch TFT T1 electrically coupled to the red sub pixel R, a second switch TFT T2 electrically coupled to the green sub pixel G, a third switch TFT T3 electrically coupled to the blue sub pixel B; each multiplex module DM comprising a first control TFT T10, a second control TFT T20 and a third control TFT T30 respectively set corresponding to a red sub pixel R column, a green sub pixel G column and a blue sub pixel B column.
n, m are set to be positive integers, and for the pixel unit P of a nth row, a mth column: all of a gate of the first switch TFT T1, a gate of the second switch TFT T2 and a gate of the third switch TFT T3 being electrically coupled to a nth scan line G(n) set corresponding to a nth row of pixel units P, and a source of the first switch TFT T1, a source of the second switch TFT T2 and a source of the third switch TFT T3 being electrically coupled to a drain of the first control TFT T10, a drain of the second control TFT T20 and a drain of the third control TFT T30 in a mth multiplex module DM set corresponding to a mth column of pixel units P, respectively, and a drain of the first switch TFT T10, a drain of the second switch TFT T20 and a drain of the third switch TFT T30 being electrically coupled to the red sub pixel R, the green sub pixel G and the blue sub pixel B, respectively. For the mth multiplex module DM: a gate of the first control TFT T10, a gate of the second control TFT T20 and a gate of the third control TFT T30 respectively receiving a first branch control signal MUXR, a second branch control signal MUXG and a third branch control signal MUXB, and all of a source of the first control TFT T10, a source of the second control TFT T20 and a source of the third control TFT T30 being electrically coupled to a mth data line D(m) set corresponding to the mth column of pixel units P.
With combination of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the working procedure of the multiplex type display driving circuit according to prior art is:
step S100, the scan signal in the nth scan line G(n) is changed from low to high, all of the first switch TFTs T1, the second switch TFTs T2 and the third switch TFTs T3 of the nth row are on, and after the duration Δt, the first branch control signal MUXR is pulled high, and then, all of the first control TFTs T10 are on, and the data signals in the respective data lines start to charge all of the red sub pixels R of the nth row via the first control TFTs 10 and the first switch TFTs T1 which are on.
step S200, after charging all of the red sub pixels R is accomplished, the first branch control signal MUXR is pulled down, and after the duration Δt, the second branch control signal MUXG is pulled high, and then, all of the second control TFTs T20 are on at the same time, and the data signals in the respective data lines start to charge all of the green sub pixels G of the nth row via the second control TFTs 20 and the second switch TFTs T2 which are on.
step S300, after charging all of the green sub pixels G is accomplished, the second branch control signal MUXG is pulled down, and after the duration Δt, the third branch control signal MUXB is pulled high, and then, all of the third control TFTs T30 are on at the same time, and the data signals in the respective data lines start to charge all of the blue sub pixels B of the nth row via the third control TFTs 30 and the third switch TFTs T3 which are on.
step S400, after charging all of the blue sub pixels B is accomplished, the third branch control signal MUXB is pulled down, and after the duration Δt, the scan signal in the nth scan line G(n) is pulled down to complete the signal charging of one row cycle.
step S500, then, the scan signal in the next scan line is changed from low to high, and the aforesaid step S100 to step S400 are repeated to complete charging the entire LCD.
In the duration that the scan signal of one row is pulled high, the present multiplex type display driving circuit respectively and successively pulls up the first branch control signal MUXR, the second branch control signal MUXG, the third branch control signal MUXB to complete the charging to the red sub pixels R, the green sub pixels G, the blue sub pixels B of one row. However, as the first branch control signal MUXR (or the second branch control signal MUXG or the third branch control signal MUXB) is pulled high, all of the red sub pixels (or the green sub pixels G or the blue sub pixels B) of the corresponding row are in the larger current charging state to result in that the liquid crystal module (LCM) instantly forms a larger current pumping to the driving integrated circuit (IC) of the liquid crystal panel to lead to the IC output. Namely, the actual input signal of the driving circuit appears the glitch shown in FIG. 3.

Display driving circuit and liquid crystal display panel

WUHAN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


Circuits and a method for testing an integrated circuit (IC) are disclosed. A disclosed circuit block includes a selector circuit that is coupled to receive an enable signal and two clock signals. One of the two clock signals is selected as an output of the selector circuit based on the enable signal received. A storage element is coupled to receive the enable signal and the output of the selector circuit as a clock input signal. A logic gate is coupled to receive the output of the storage element and the enable signal. Another selector circuit is coupled to receive an output from the logic gate and the enable signal. The selector circuit selects either the output from the logic gate or the enable signal as a scan enable signal for a scan chain on the IC.

Integrated circuits (IC) devices go through a series of vigorous tests before and after production. Each device can and must be put through a rigorous industry standard test methodology to verify the quality of the device. Simple test circuits can also be embedded in an IC device to test the functionality of different parts of the device. These test circuits are usually used to carry out post-production tests to ensure that the IC device is error free and is operating as expected.
Generally speaking, design for test (DFT) is a name for design techniques or embedded circuits that are used to detect various kinds of faults on a manufactured IC device. For instance, a DFT circuit can be used to detect stuck-at faults in a logic block on the IC device.
Scan chains, typically formed by connecting logic elements such as flip flops and other storage elements in series, are integrated into the device to test the device for various logic defects. A scan chain can be configured to receive a set of test vectors that can be used to test the functionality of the particular device. Typically, the device is allowed to operate using the set of test vectors for at least several clock cycles before the data from the scan chain is read to determine the functionality of the device.
In a typical scan test, two fast clock transitions are needed. The first transition launches the test value and the second transition captures the result based on the test value. Two of the more common scan test methods are launch-on-capture (LOC) and launch-on-shift (LOS). Even though LOC scan test is commonly used, the LOC scan test may not be able to capture every stage of registers in the scan chain at-speed. In this aspect, the LOS scan test may be a better option because all stages of registers can be tested at-speed with the LOS scan test. Even though the LOS scan test is a better scan technique as compared to the LOC scan test, in an LOS scan test, the scan enable signal that is used to put the scan chain into a "scan mode" needs to be routed as a clock, which generally requires more area on the IC device.


Gas and liquid products of an ethylene plant, steam cracking zone, are used for the coproduction of alkylated benzene. Dilute ethylene in typical concentrations of 7-20 mol percent is coproduced along with pure ethylene product. Impure benzene containing typically less than 8 wt % C6 and C7 non-aromatics is formed by hydratreating and fractionation of pyrolysis gasoline, rich in benzene and toluene, and also by hydrodealkylation of the toluene. The impure benzene reacts with dilute ethylene to form ethylbenzene and hydrogen rich vent gas. The impure benzene can be also a source for production of cumene, by reaction with propylene.

Conventional ethylene production consists of the following key process operation:
(a) Thermal cracking of hydrocarbons in presence of dilution steam, of C.sub.2 + hydrocarbon at about 15-25 psig and 1,500-1,600.degree. F. to form cracked gas containing ethylene in an amount of 25-40 wt % (with the exception of ethane feed), and other by products such as propylene, acetylene, hydrogen, methane and C.sub.3 + products. The thermal section includes cracked gas cooling, steam generation and C.sub.9 + hydrocarbon condensation. Traces of CO, CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2 S are formed in the cracking. PA1 (b) Cracked gas compression to 400-600 psig, traces of CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2 S removal, drying, and bulk C.sub.4 + product recovery by condensation at about 100.degree. F., using cooling water. PA1 (c) Acetylene conversion to ethylene via selective hydrogenation, chill down and cryogenic recovery of ethylene by fractionation at below -30.degree. F. PA1 (d) Recovery of propylene, propane and C.sub.4 + hydrocarbons by warm distillation at above 80.degree. F. PA1 (e) Cascade refrigeration of ethylene and propylene refrigerants, to support the above, down to a temperature of below -100.degree. F. PA1 (f) Methane refrigeration and or turbo expander to reach refrigeration below -180.degree. F. PA1 (g) In case of Naphtha feed, and to a lesser extent with propane/butane feed, residual liquid products from cracking such as pyrolysis fuel oil and pyrolysis gasoline, which are rich in aromatics, are selectively hydrotreated for di-olefin and olefin saturation. PA1 (h) Benzene/toluene and xylene (BTX) are extracted from the hydrotreated pyrolysis gasoline, and toluene is fractionated and converted to benzene by hydrodealkylation.
Efficient cryogenic recovery of the ethylene is a key element in design of ethylene plants. The motive power for compression and refrigeration, and consequently the capital cost escalates rapidly as the rate of ethylene recovery increases. For example, the typical ethylene recovery of 99.7-99.9% requires much higher investment and 50% more refrigeration energy in the demethanizer as compared with 95% rate of ethylene recovery. Thus, reduction of the marginal refrigeration required for ethylene recovery by using 95% or lower recovery could substantially improve the overall economics of the ethylene plant, if a down stream outlet, other than fuel gas, is found for the 5% more of the unrecovered gaseous ethylene. Normally the unrecovered ethylene 0.1-0.3% is routed with the methane to the fuel gas system. However, the value of ethylene as fuel is only about 15-20% of its equivalent value as downstream product. The ethylene product is commonly used as a feedstock to many downstream processing including ethylbenzene. Production of ethylbenzene from pure ethylene against dilute ethylene feed, although somewhat advantageous from a stand point of the ethylbenzene plant alone, is not an absolute requirement and its relative cost impact is rather marginal as compared with the estimated saving in the ethylene plant.

Combination process for manufacturing ethylene, benzene and alkylated benzene


A floating inductor assembly for use in heating a generally conical valve seat formed concentrically around a central bore in an engine component, wherein the assembly is adapted to be moved toward and away from the valve seat by a selectively movable element. This floating inductor assembly comprises a carrier, an inductor having a shape generally matching the valve seat and mounted on the carrier, an aligning nose member extending from the carrier in a given direction and generally concentric with the inductor, and first and second flange portions supported on the carrier and extending radially outwardly in a direction perpendicular to the given direction of the nose member, whereby each flange portion is adapted to engage a coupling member for supporting the assembly onto the movable element in a manner to allow floating in the radial direction only.

With the advent of low lead gasoline, it is now common practice to provide hardened valve seats in internal combustion engines. In this manner, the valve seats have a better wear characteristic and can withstand the constant pounding by a poppet valve. This is needed because the lubricating effect of lead and phosphorous in the gasoline being consumed is no longer available. Several concepts have been used in providing such hardened valve seats. One of these is to utilize hardened inserts to define the valve seats themselves. Of course, this solution presents obvious difficulties in that the valve seats are more expensive and require substantially more manufacturing and assembling costs. The most common approach is to inductively heat the conical surface forming the valve seat of an internal combustion engine by positioning an inductor adjacent the seat and directing high frequency currents through the inductor. After the inductor has been energized to heat the valve seats inductively, the heating operation is discontinued. At that time, the valve seat is quenched, generally by mass quenching which results from conduction of heat from the valve seat rapidly into the surrounding metal. In high production, it is desirable to heat all valve seats at the same time for subsequent quench hardening by liquid or mass cooling.
U.S. Pat. No. Re. 29,046 illustrates a machine for inductively heating several valve seats simultaneously. In accordance with the teachings of this prior patent, incorporated by reference herein, a plurality of floating inductor assemblies are provided in a plurality of housings which are movable toward and away from respective valve seats of an engine component. Each of the inductor assemblies includes an inductor loop at one end of a carrier and a nose concentric with the loop extending toward the valve seat. This nose contacts the valve bore in the engine component to center the respective inductor carriers with respect to the valve seat preparatory to induction heating. This action occurs when the housings carrying the respective inductor assemblies are moved toward the valve seats. By using the inductor carrier and nose which enter the bore, each of the inductor assemblies is centered with respect to the particular valve seat to be heated, irrespective of certain manufacturing tolerances between adjacent valve seats.
After the housings move the carriers into the position with the inductors concentric with the valve seats, the motion of the housing toward the valve seats continues until the inductors actually engage the valve seats. Thereafter, the various housings carrying the inductor assemblies are locked together and moved in unison away from the engine component a distance corresponding to the desired air gap for proper induction heating. In this manner, the machine compensates for axial offset of the respective valve seats being processed during a given cycle. To allow for radial alignment of the respective inductor assemblies with respect to the valve seats as the aligning noses enter the valve bore, each of the inductor assemblies floats within their respective housings in a manner to allow movement only in the radial direction. To accomplish this, a flange is provided around the inductor carrier of the inductor assembly. This flange is clamped within a companion housing to allow only radial movement. During processing of the valve seats, the inductor at the end of the inductor assembly is properly positioned in the radial direction and in the axial direction for the desired heating of the valve seats. This prior machine has been exceedingly successful and is generally used throughout the automotive industry.
As the engines being used in automobiles are reduced in size, the spacing between adjacent valve seats to be hardened has been reduced. Consequently, the prior housings carrying the floating inductor assemblies were too large to allow the desired small spacing between the adjacent inductors. This problem was solved in one of two ways. Either the engine component was processed twice so that only alternate valve seats were hardened during a heating cycle or the floating inductor assemblies were machined so that the inductor and nose were offset from the primary axis of the total floating inductor assembly. Each of these solutions had disadvantages. If the engine component required two cycles for processing its valve seats, the production rate was substantially reduced. If offset inductor assemblies were provided, it was necessary to provide different structures for the inductor assemblies used at adjacent valve seats. Consequently, at least twos designs had to be manufactured and stockpiled. Also, even with the offset inductors, it was not always possible to simultaneously process the valve seats of the head of a relatively small engine.


A threshold assembly comprising a sill and a pair of lateral brackets which are upwardly extending and oppositely facing. Each lateral bracket is attached at the lower, outside part of each jamb of a door frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of thresholds. More specifically, it relates to a threshold assembly which substantially contributes to sealing capacity of the doors against water attempting to infiltrate from the outside area into the building.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of doors in conjunction with threshold assemblies is common in today's construction. External doors are usually mounted together with a threshold assembly, above which the door is located in its closed position. Basically, a threshold assembly comprises a sill facing outwardly from the building and a threshold facing inwardly towards the building.
It is known, that one of the major problems in house construction is that of preventing the leakage of water from the exterior of the house. Among other functions, thresholds accomplish the important function of barrier to moisture and water infiltration.
As it is known, threshold assemblies are attached to the jambs of door frames. During manufacture, transport, assembly with the door frame in buildings and use, a gap between each jamb and the sill appears. Moreover, since the sill is formed from aluminum and the threshold is formed from a plastic, such as polyvinyl chloride or any of a plurality of relatively rigid plastics, commonly known under the name "vinyl" their dilation and contraction characteristics are very different, and a gap due to the climatic changes appears. This gap enlarges the gap mentioned above.
From the prior art there are known sealing attachments which are joined to the doors to eliminate or at least substantially reduce only the passage of water beneath 10 the lower edge of the door frame.
Several U.S. and Canadian Patents have addressed the issue of sealing attachments to the doors.
The following disclosures relate to various types of known attachments:
Sowers (U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,588, issued Jul. 1, 1997); Biebuyck (U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,665, issued Nov. 28, 1995); Fulford (U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,552. issued Nov. 8, 1994); Biebuyck (U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,882, issued Jun. 14, 1994); Geoffrey (U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,181, issued Jul. 27, 1993); Woodruff (U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,880, issued Jun. 1, 1993); Knapp (U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,669, issued Dec. 8, 1992); Burnett (U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,544, issued Sep. 29, 1992); Shield (U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,206, issued Jun. 11, 1991); Heikkinen (U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,396, issued Feb. 28, 1989); and Opdyke (Canadian Appl. No. 2,203,482, publ. Oct. 26, 1997); Wilson (Canadian Appl. No. 2,132,741, publ. Sep. 30, 1993); Grimsdale (Canadian Pat. No. 2,072,909, issued Jul. 18, 1995); and Wicks (Canadian Pat. No. 2,034,320, issued Nov. 22, 1994).
The applicant believes that the cited disclosures, taken alone or in combination, neither anticipate or render obvious the present invention. The forgoing citations do not constitute an admission that such disclosures are relevant or material to the claims. Rather the disclosures are related to the field of the invention and are cited as constituting the closest art of which the applicant is aware.


A cooling device that is included in an image forming apparatus includes a first cooler configured to cool a first face of a recording medium and a second cooler configured to cool a second face of the recording medium. The first cooler includes a first heat absorbing face and a first liquid flowing passage. The first heat absorbing face is configured to contact an inner circumferential surface of a belt to face the first face of the recording medium. The second cooler includes a second heat absorbing face and a second liquid flowing passage. The second heat absorbing face is disposed facing the second face of the recording medium.

Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a cooling device to cool a recording medium and an image forming apparatus incorporating the cooling device.
Related Art
Image forming apparatuses are known to include a cooling device to cool a heated recording medium with a cooling unit using, for example, a heat pipe or a heat sink. Further, a cooling device is also known to have multiple cooling units disposed on both sides of a recording medium in order to cool both sides of the recording medium effectively. In this case, the multiple cooling units are located shifted to each other in a sheet conveying direction.
When multiple cooling units are employed in an image forming apparatus, the multiple cooling units have the same cooling method.
Depending on a cooling method, however, a cooling device needs a specified space to be installed. Therefore, it may be difficult to dispose multiple cooling units employing the same cooling method or multiple cooling units with the same cooling method may not be installed due to a space requirement.
More specifically, when a cooling device employs a heat pipe roller, the heat pipe roller includes a roller and a radiation fin, and the diameter of the radiation fin is greater than the diameter of the roller. Due to this configuration, in a case in which multiple heat pipe rollers are aligned, the radiation fin of one heat pipe roller of the multiple heat pipe rollers interferes movement of the radiation fin of another heat pipe roller disposed adjacent to the one heat pipe roller. Even when respective positions of the multiple heat pipe rollers are shifted to have wider space therebetween in order to prevent the multiple heat pipe rollers from interfering with each other, the cooling device increases in size in a sheet conveying direction. In addition, a gap between two adjacent heat pipe rollers increases, resulting in deterioration of the cooling performance to a recording medium to be conveyed.
By contrast, when a cooling device employs a heat sink, the heat sink includes a fin extending in a vertical direction that interferes with a sheet conveying direction in which a recording medium is conveyed. Accordingly, when a heat sink is provided above and below the recording medium in the sheet conveying direction, the cooling device is extended in a vertical direction, and therefore the size of the cooling device increases.
Further, the cooling units having the same cooling method include respective heat absorbing surfaces having the same shape. Therefore, the cooling units have a sheet entry direction of the recording medium toward the cooling device and a sheet discharging direction of the recording medium from the cooling device, which is the same direction as the sheet entry direction.
Accordingly, a guiding member is provided to guide the recording medium after passing the cooling device toward a sheet discharging unit that is disposed at a position different from a sheet ejecting direction.
In addition, the cooling device may need to provide a belt disposed facing the recording medium to hold and convey the recording medium, and further respective belt drive units for the cooling units disposed at the upstream side and the downstream side in the sheet conveying direction.
Accordingly, a large section in which the recording medium is not cooled is provided between a cooling unit disposed at the upstream side and another cooling unit disposed at the downstream side. As a result, the image forming apparatus increase in size, and therefore the cooling efficiency deteriorates.

Cooling device and image forming apparatus incorporating the cooling device