CD24-positive malignant and benign tumors are treated by administration of a naturally occurring or modified oncolytic Zika virus. Diseases associated with abnormal T cell activation or T cell-mediated autoimmunity, wherein CD24 expression is increased, are also expected to be treated by administration of a naturally occurring or modified oncolytic Zika virus. Also contemplated are compounds and methods for treating and/or preventing Zika virus infection in a subject.

Children and adults develop tumors that arise from the embryonic neural crest. The latter is a transient structure in vertebrate embryos that gives rise to a population of pluripotent cells that contribute to the formation of multiple tissues and organs throughout the body. Malignant cells mimic many of the behavioral, molecular, and morphologic aspects of neural crest development. This carefully regimented program that normally balances proliferation with differentiation, migration with inhibition, and pluripotency with specification during development can be co-opted by the malignant cell for growth, invasion, and metastasis. Mutations in mature cells may be responsible for reactivating their embryonic developmental programs and initiating tumorigenesis and metastasis. Alternatively, a population of primitive and undifferentiated neural crest stem cells may persist in crest-derived tissues awaiting the proper environmental or cellular cues to stimulate them. Tumorigenesis may thus result in cells derived from the neural crest. Such tumors are referred to herein variously as "neural crest-derived tumors".
One group of neural crest-derived tumors are tumors of sympatho-adrenal lineage. They include neuroblastoma, paraganglioma, and pheochromocytoma.
Paraganglioma and pheochromocytomas are highly vascularized tumors arising from neural crest-derived tissues in the paraxial autonomic ganglia or in the chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla, respectively. Paraganglioma and pheochromocytomas may manifest as head and neck cancers.
Neuroblastoma is the most common tumor of infancy, accounting for 7-10% of all childhood cancers. Neuroblastoma accounts for 6% of tumors in children ages 0-14 years. Approximately 700 cases of neuroblastoma occur each year in the United States, most in the first year of life, and almost all occurring in children under age 5 years.
Primary neuroblastoma occurs within the adrenal medulla and paraspinal sympathetic ganglia, with metastases to other tissues occurring in half of patients. Prognosis varies widely, with a particularly poor prognosis in aggressive disease.
Neuroblastomas are characterized according to risk level. Thirty-seven percent of neuroblastoma cases are low risk, 18% are intermediate risk, and 45% are high risk. Low risk patients may be successfully treated with surgery alone (or no treatment), while intermediate risk patients are treated with a combination of surgery and chemotherapy. High risk patients are treated with a multi-modal therapy that may consist of chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, 13-cis-retinoic acid therapy, stem cell transplantation and/or antibody immunotherapy. Between 20% and 50% of high-risk neuroblastoma patients do not respond to therapy. Relapse is common. Long-term survival for children with advanced disease older than 18 months of age is poor.
Another group of neural crest-derived tumors are tumors of melanocytes, i.e., melanomas. Melanoma is generally curable, if recognized and treated early. Depending on the stage, melanoma may be treated by surgery and/or radiation, with excision of surrounding lymph nodes, and adjuvant chemotherapy. However, melanoma has a high metastatic potential. If not treated early, melanoma can advance and spread to other parts of the body, where treatment becomes difficult, resulting in fatality. If diagnosed before metastasis occurs, surgical excision can often provide an effective, long-term treatment. However, following cellular metastasis, the lesion becomes malignant, and most current therapies including chemotherapy offer little, to no therapeutic benefit.
While melanoma is not the most common of the skin cancers, it causes the most deaths. Malignant melanoma causes 48,000 deaths worldwide annually. Recently, life span has been extended in advanced (stage IV) melanoma patients with "checkpoint inhibitor" immunotherapy drugs such as pembrolizumab (Keytruda®), nivolumab (Opdivo®), and ipilimumab (Yervoy®). There is a need for an effective, specific treatment in view of the increasing incidence of melanoma worldwide.
Another group of neural crest-derived tumors are tumors of Schwann cell lineage. Schwann cell precursors give rise to a variety of cell types, including melanocytes, neurons, fibroblasts, Schwann cells, and parasympathetic ganglia. Schwann cells can give rise to a variety of tumors, including neurofibromas (type 1, also known as von Recklinghausen's disease; and type 2), malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors, and schwannomas. Type 1 neurofibromas are Schwann cell-derived tumors containing fibroblasts, mast cells, and dendritic cells, in addition to Schwann cells. Type 2 neurofibromatosis is associated with schwannomas, which are encapsulated, uniform tumors of mature Schwann cells with minimal malignant potential.
Yet another group of neural crest-derived tumors are type A/B multiple endocrine neoplasias, characterized by multiple tumors of neural crest-derived tissues.
Surgery is typically used as the primary treatment for early stages of cancer. However, many tumors cannot be completely removed by surgical means. The efficacy of chemotherapy is often limited by severe side effects, including nausea and vomiting, bone marrow depression, renal damage, and central nervous system depression. Radiation therapy relies on the greater ability of normal cells, in contrast with neoplastic cells, to repair themselves after treatment with radiation. Radiotherapy cannot be used to treat many neoplasms, however, because of the sensitivity of tissue surrounding the tumor.
Current treatments for neural crest-derived tumors generally rely on these methods of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and, more recently, antibody immunotherapy. Some of these treatments have led to improvements in cancer survival, but often at the cost of significant associated morbidity. Despite these efforts, neuroblastoma and melanoma, in particular, are characterized by a high rate of mortality, especially in advanced stages. The survival rate for stage IV neuroblastoma is only 20%. The survival rate for stage IV melanoma is also ˜20%. Cancer therapeutics for advanced stage neuroblastoma and melanoma are often ineffective.
While neuroblastoma in early infancy often resolve spontaneously and may not need medical treatment, neuroblastoma in older children often requires surgical treatment followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Children with neuroblastoma refractory to therapy may undergo intensive chemotherapy with autologous bone marrow transplantation. Given these treatments, the care of patients with neuroblastoma is very expensive. Because there is a significant rate of therapeutic failure resulting in the deaths of children, the need for further effective novels therapies is high.
What is needed is an alternative, effective treatment for neural crest-derived tumors, neuroblastomas and melanomas in particular, that address the shortcomings of the existing treatments.

Zika virus treatment of CD24-positive tumors and diseases associated with abnormal T cell activation and treating or preventing Zika virus infections


Bus performance in a computer system having multiple devices accessing a common shared bus may be improved by increasing throughput and decreasing latency while accounting for dynamic changes in bus usage. Devices submit a priority level along with a bus request to a bus controller. Upon receiving multiple requests, an arbiter of the bus controller compares the priority levels associated with the different bus requests and grants control of the bus to the device having the highest priority level. During each cycle that a device has control of the bus, a feedback logic circuit of the bus controller determines whether other bus requests are pending, and if so, determines the highest pending request priority level. Signals corresponding to the results of these determinations are fed back to each device. The device having control of the bus uses the combination of the currently pending request priority level and the device's own latency timer to determine whether it should maintain control of the bus or relinquish control of the bus.

The number of functions on a single integrated circuit chip continues to increase in concert with an increase in chip densities. These "system-on-a-chip" integrated circuits typically use a common, shared bus architecture to provide the communication link between the various devices and subsystems of the "computer system." A common bus provides a low cost communication link since it can be shared between multiple devices in the computer system. However, the linking of multiple devices to a single bus may raise concerns over maximum bus performance.
Achieving maximum bus performance may be difficult in a shared bus architecture. Factors which severely impact bus performance include system throughput (i.e., bandwidth) and system response time (i.e., latency). For purposes of determining throughput or bandwidth, a bus transaction is a bus transaction completed by the device which is on the receiving end of the transmission. Throughput or bandwidth is the average number of bus transactions over a period of time. Response time or latency is the time it takes to complete a bus transaction for a particular device beginning with the cycle during which the device first requests the bus until the cycle that the last piece of data is transferred from the device across the bus to a second device. A device which requests access to or control of a bus and transmits and receives data across a bus may be referred to as a "master." A device which transmits or receives data across a bus and is responsive to a master, may be referred to as a "slave." A slave cannot request access to or control of a bus.
In order to achieve a high degree of bus performance, the throughput must be high while the latency must be low. Further, in order to achieve a high level of bus throughput, the slave preferably is never idle and, consequently, the bus is preferably never idle. In contrast, however, since latency refers to the time it takes to complete a bus transaction beginning with the cycle during which a master first requests the bus until the cycle during which the last data is transferred by the master across the bus, latency includes the time during which a master waits for the bus to become available (i.e., idle). As a result, latency is reduced by allowing the bus to be idle.
A number of different architectural designs have been developed in an effort to address bus performance, including throughput and response time. Many of these schemes rely on the "priority" level of the device seeking control of the bus. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,666 to Craft et al. describes an arbitration system for controlling access to a bus. The arbitration system of Craft et al. interrupts the control of the bus by a first device when a second device having greater priority requests access to the bus. Once the second device completes its access to the bus, control of the bus is returned to the first device. The transfer of control is implemented without requiring the timing overhead of arbitrating priority between bus masters having active bus requests.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,680 to Best describes a bus arbitration system for a computer network having multiple master and slave devices which share a common bus. The bus arbitration system includes bus arbitration logic in each master device, and accounts for the slowest master's operational delay when determining which master shall have access to the bus at a given time.
By way of further example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,228 to Heath et al. which is assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, the assignee of the present invention, describes an arbitration system having a central arbitration control circuit and a local arbiter associated with each device seeking access to a common bus. Heath et al. also provides for the programming of each device to operate in either a linear mode or a fairness mode. When operating in the fairness mode, a first device having access to the bus in response to a second device requesting bus access will relinquish control of the bus, once the first device has completed an appropriate number of transfers, allowing the requesting device having the next highest priority level to gain control of the bus.
Other designs which involve sharing of a common bus have attempted to address the conflicting design requirements of high throughput and low latency by using long burst transfers to achieve higher throughputs while using master latency timers to reduce latency by limiting the length of the bursts. Latency timers typically may be implemented in a master using a programmable register and a counter. The initial latency count value which represents the maximum number of clock cycles that the master may maintain control or ownership over the common bus is loaded into the programmable register. The counter is typically reset to zero each time the device gains control of the bus. Once the value of the counter reaches the value stored in the register (i.e., the latency timer has expired), the corresponding device having control over the bus must relinquish the control regardless of the system's bus usage conditions.
As a result, in systems where the bus usage is light (i.e., data transfer across the bus is relatively minimal), a device whose latency timer has expired, and consequently, must relinquish control of the bus even though it has additional data to transfer across the bus, has a bandwidth (i.e., throughput) which may be unnecessarily limited. Moreover, in systems where bus usage is relatively high, in that various devices are requesting the bus simultaneously, a device is likely to use the bus until its latency timer expires. One device's control of the bus until its latency timer expires causes other devices to wait for the bus to become available, and consequently, experience relatively high latencies.
Moreover, the bus usage conditions in a system may vary over time from, for example, light usage to heavy usage back to light usage. Consequently, it may be necessary to update each device's latency timer in order to achieve maximum bus performance. A latency time may be updated by reprogramming the register and counter. However, significant overhead is required to reprogram each device's latency timer, particularly if it occurs on a regular basis. Thus, use of latency timers to improve bus performance is generally ineffective due to dynamically changing bus usage conditions.
Although various arbitration schemes or latency timers are presently used to control access to a common bus in multiple device systems, these prior designs may not effectively address the conflicting design requirements of high throughput and low latency. Moreover, these prior designs do not account for dynamically changing bus usage conditions. In order to improve maximum bus performance, the conflicting problems of high throughput and low latency must be addressed while accounting for dynamically changing bus usage conditions.

Systems and methods for dynamically controlling a bus


A field effect transistor (FET) is used as the protection circuit. The gate is grounded through an electrical element. The voltage source is connected to the drain of the FET. The load is connected to the source of the FET. At low input voltages, the FET conducts in body diode mode. At higher input voltages, the FET turns “on” and conducts more efficiently.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to electronic devices and more particularly to protection circuits for protecting loads from voltage sources.
2. Background
Many electronic devices have electric circuits, known as sensitive circuits, that require protection from certain problematic electrical conditions, such as voltage and power conditions. Common problematic conditions include high voltages (above some threshold), negative voltages and fast changing, negatively moving voltages, also referred to as fast negative transients.
Examples of devices that commonly have circuits that require protection include portable electronic equipment such as, for example, personal digital assistants, laptop computers, and wireless communication devices, including at least cell phones and pagers. Commonly, the sensitive circuits need protection from other circuits to which the sensitive circuits may be connected. For example, AC and DC power sources may present problematic electric conditions to the sensitive circuits. The power source may also be a car power adapter. Another source of problematic electrical conditions is failed AC to DC adapters. Some failed AC to DC adapters may fail such that they present an AC output at the DC side of the adapter.
The numbers and types of electronic devices and their adapters and connections to other electronic devices are growing constantly. It is sometimes troublesome for consumers to be certain that they are connecting the correct connector (e.g., power supply) into their electronic devices. For example, a consumer may have more than one cell phone and more than one charger for each cell phone. The consumer does not want the cell phone to break if the wrong charger is mistakenly plugged into one of the cell phones. Alternately, cell phone manufacturers do not want their cell phones to break if a consumer mistakenly connects the cell phone to the wrong charger. Several companies make cell phone chargers, known as after-market chargers, for other companies' cell phones. The cell phone manufacturers would like to be as certain as possible that the after-market chargers do not break their cell phones, even considering that the after-market chargers may not contain adequate protection circuits.
Some known solutions include connecting the source to the load through a diode, as shown in FIG. 12. The diode 200 is connected to a voltage source 210 and a load 220. The FIG. 12 circuit typically results in poor energy transfer (e.g., charging) efficiency. Diodes have a non-zero forward voltage VF. They therefore consume energy, lower the voltage available to the load, and produce heat.
Another known solution is shown in FIG. 11. The FIG. 11 circuit also uses a diode 230, but in this case, the diode is connected between ground and the input 240 of the load 220. A fuse 250 is connected between a voltage source 210 and the load 220. A problem with the FIG. 11 circuit is that when an excess current condition occurs, the fuse becomes a permanent open circuit and the source 210 is no longer connected to the load.
Some solutions do not provide for protection from fast negative shoot-through. That is, problems occur if an input voltage drops quickly. Fast negative transients can cause negative shoot through. Negative shoot through happens when a fast negative transient results in a negative voltage appearing on the load side of a device. For example, a protection circuit may be designed to prevent negative voltages from passing across the protection circuit to a load. A negative shoot through occurs when a transient negative voltage reaches the load due to a fast changing negative input voltage.

System and method for protecting a load from a voltage source


A liquid crystal display device including a liquid crystal panel, a gate driver configured to drive a plurality of gate lines on the panel, a data driver configured to drive a plurality of data lines on the panel in response to the pixel data stream, a timing controller configured to control the gate driver and the data driver, and a single-chip drive voltage generating section configured to supply voltages used by the common electrode on the liquid crystal panel, the gate driver, the data driver, and the timing controller using an external input voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat panel display device, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display device with a reduced size and number of parts.
2. Description of Related Art
Various flat panel display devices such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) device, a PDP (Plasma Display Panel), and an ELD (Electro Luminescent Display) are used as display devices in different types of equipment. The LCD device is most widely used as a portable image display device due to its excellent image quality, its light weight, its slimness, and its low power consumption. The LCD device is used as a television monitor, a monitor of a notebook computer, etc.
The LCD device displays an image using the optical anisotropy and the polarity of a liquid crystal. That is, the liquid crystal molecules included in the liquid crystal can be arranged in a predetermined (constant) direction. Further, the direction of the liquid crystal molecule arrangement can be controlled by applying an electric field to the liquid crystal. Therefore, when the molecule arrangement direction of the liquid crystal is arbitrary, the molecule arrangement of the liquid crystal can be changed by applying an electric field. In addition, image information can be displayed by changing the polarization of light in the molecule arrangement direction of the liquid crystal using the optical anisotropy.
Also, the LCD device includes a liquid crystal panel displaying an image and a drive section for driving the liquid crystal panel. The drive section includes a gate driver driving a plurality of gate lines on the liquid crystal panel and a data driver driving a plurality of data lines on the liquid crystal panel. Further, the drive section also includes a timing controller controlling the gate and data drivers and a voltage generating section generating drive voltages required for the liquid crystal panel, the gate driver, the data driver, and the timing controller.
In addition, the voltage generating section generates a gate low voltage VGL and a gate high voltage VGH for driving the gate lines and supplies the gate low and high voltages to the gate driver. The voltage generating section also supplies at least two drive voltages (e.g., Vdd and Vcc) used for driving the circuit devices to the gate driver, the data driver, and the timing controller. In addition, the voltage generating section supplies a common voltage Vcom used as a reference voltage to the liquid crystal panel. Also, the voltage generating section is mounted on a printed circuit board together with the timing controller.
In addition, the printed circuit board including the mounted timing controller is individually provided with a gate low voltage generating circuit for generating the gate low voltage VGL, a gate high voltage generating circuit for generating the gate high voltage VGH, a drive voltage generating circuit for generating the at least two drive voltages, and a common voltage generating circuit for generating the common voltage. Further, wires for transferring voltages from the voltage generating circuits to the liquid crystal panel, the gate driver, the data driver, and the timing controller are formed on the printed circuit board.
Thus, because the voltage generating circuits for generating voltages required for the liquid crystal panel, the gate driver, the data driver, and the timing controller are individually formed on the printed circuit board, a large number of devices are mounted on the printed circuit board. Accordingly, the size of the printed circuit board is larger. Therefore, the size and thickness of the related art LCD device is also increased and the manufacturing time and cost is increased.


Systems, methods, and devices for trading financial instruments with an improved ergonomic graphical user interface (GUI) with non-overlapping screen components that include a display of offers to buy and sell, which can include a graphical display of bid, ask, and spread information, a user's current positions, and one or more areas to enter trades. The systems, methods, and devices involve receiving and updating trade information in real time.

In the United States, the trading of securities is closely regulated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. §§78a-78mm. The term "security" is defined in 15 U.S.C. §78c(a)(10) as "any note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, certificate of interest or participation in any profit-sharing agreement or in any oil, gas, or other mineral royalty or lease, any collateral-trust certificate, preorganization certificate or subscription, transferable share, investment contract, voting-trust certificate, certificate of deposit, for a security, any put, call, straddle, option, or privilege on any security, certificate of deposit, or group or index of securities (including any interest therein or based on the value thereof), or any put, call, straddle, option, or privilege entered into on a national securities exchange relating to foreign currency, or in general, any instrument commonly known as a 'security'; or any certificate of interest or participation in, temporary or interim certificate for, or warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase, any of the foregoing . . . but shall not include currency or any note draft, bill of exchange, or banker's acceptance which has a maturity at the time of issuance of not exceeding nine months, exclusive of days of grace, or any renewal thereof the maturity of which is likewise limited." Stocks are specific instances of securities. Although the preferred embodiment is primarily concerned with computerized stock trading, it is fully applicable to trading of any securities.
Securities are conventionally traded on exchanges. As set forth in 15 U.S.C. §78c(a)(1), "the term 'exchange' means any organization, association, or group of persons, whether incorporated or unincorporated, which constitutes, maintains, or provides a market place or facilities for bringing together purchasers and sellers of securities or for otherwise performing with respect to securities the functions commonly performed by a stock exchange as that term is generally understood, and includes the market place and the market facilities maintained by such exchange". Well known exchanges include, for example, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Such known exchanges are referred to herein as national exchanges.
Usually securities are traded through brokers and dealers, which frequently use an on-line system to receive orders and facilitate trades. As set forth in 17 C.F.R. §240.17a-23(b)(2) a broker/dealer trading system is "any facility that provides a mechanism, automated in full or in part, for:
(i) Collecting, receiving, disseminating, or displaying system orders [i.e., orders to purchase or sell a security]; and
(ii) Matching, crossing, or executing system orders, or otherwise facilitating agreement to the basic terms of a purchase or sale of a security between system participants [i.e., the users of the trading system], or between a system participant and the system sponsor, through use of the system or through the system sponsor [i.e., the entity controlling the broker/dealer system]."
In this patent application, the terms "security", "exchange" and "broker/dealer trading system", are used as defined above.
Systems are known for trading securities over the Internet on the national exchanges at the prices quoted on those exchanges. These systems support trading during normal business hours of the national exchanges, which may not be convenient for many users, such as many individuals who would prefer to trade from home after the close of the exchanges. The existing systems, however, do not support active trading after the closing hours of the exchanges. Thus, there is a need for a system that permits the users to execute trades after normal market hours (after-hours trades) without using an established exchange. And, there is a need for a system that permits users to trade with each other ("user-to-user trading") without involving an exchange.
The presently available systems are directed toward the presentation of numerically formatted information. Moreover, these systems do not provide a visualization of the status of securities as they are traded so as to enable users to gain an essentially immediate and accurate impression of a stock's status, direction of movement, and rate of change, without having to resort to complex mental calculations and holding such calculations in short-term memory. But humans are unsuited to processing numeric information quickly and accurately, and performing mental calculations under stressful conditions places very high cognitive workloads on humans. In addition to being poor processors of numeric information, humans also tend to have very weak short-term memories. Requiring users to perform mental calculations and then hold the results of those calculations in short-term memory while performing even more calculations is unnecessarily difficult and demanding, especially when users are placed under the additional stress of having to decide whether to buy, sell or hold a stock. Traditional on-line trading systems further compound the problem by requiring users to navigate from page to page within the site to gather news and information on their positions, their profit and loss, their open orders, their current positions, and their financial account information. Each time a user moves to a new screen he is forced to store values, which are critical to informed trade-decision-making, in short-term memory.
Another deficiency in current Internet trading systems is that users cannot obtain a real-time quotation on a particular stock (or a portfolio of stocks) without manually requesting a specific quotation from the trading system server, often by typing it every time they need a quote, or hitting "refresh." That is, users of current Internet trading systems cannot simply access the trading system and receive a continuously updated display of real-time quotes for a particular stock or a portfolio of stocks. The need to type in a stock symbol every time a quote is desired further contributes to the inefficiency of the existing systems.
Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient Internet-based trading system which provides improved human interaction and after-hours trading.

Computer systems, methods, and devices for trading with an ergonomic interface


A trenching apparatus (10) is for excavating deep trenches in which inground concrete retaining or foundation walls may be formed. The trenching apparatus (10) has a crawler base (11) on which a carrier assembly (14) is pivotally supported by pivots (16) whereby it may be tilted by rams (17) to maintain the platform horizontal. An automatic control device (64) is provided for this purpose. The carrier assembly (14) has a pair of rails (18/19) along which a carriage (21) may move. The carriage (21) supports a sleeve (24) through which a trenching arm (25) may be lowered to excavate a trench section as the carriage (21) is driven along the rails (18/19).

In the erection of above-ground structures it is often necessary to form inground retaining walls for use as a load bearing foundation or about a site to be excavated, as a means of retaining the earth about the excavation. Where such excavations are adjacent an existing structure the retaining wall or walls along the excavation line adjacent the existing building must be formed to resist soil pressures established beneath the adjoining structure. In particular, such retaining walls must be put in place so that the soil beneath the adjoining structure will not collapse outwardly into the excavation as the latter progresses. Walls of this type may also be constructed to cut off ground water movement.
Various methods have been employed to form such walls including driving sheet piling along the excavation line to form a retaining wall, and boring a closely spaced row of holes and casting reinforced concrete piles in the respective holes to form the desired wall. If the latter process is used for retaining walls, it is necessary to add substantial horizontal strengthening to the row of piles to maintain their alignment. It is also difficult to form such walls as watertight cutoff walls. Continuous reinforced concrete walls provided excellent supporting, retaining and/or cutoff walls. However to date, it is generally not possible to form inground reinforced concrete walls economically.
Techniques for the continuous excavation of trenches of cross-section suitable for such retaining and/or cutoff walls are available. A typical machine is the subject of Australian patent application No. 41139/85. Such machines can continuously excavate a relatively deep trench along an excavation line. However, their trenching capacity is limited by flexural and machine weight considerations. Accordingly, while it may be possible to construct trenching apparatus which would excavate any desired trench, the size of the machine necessary for normal inground retaining wall trenching operations would render it impractical.
Furthermore, such trenching machines may incorporate an arm supporting an endless chain carrying cutting teeth for their trenching tools. The teeth generally project a significant distance outward from the pivots of the chain, so that cutting forces acting at a cutting tooth in a direction along the line of the chain impose bending moments which tend to flex the cutting chain in such a way as to increase the cutting depth of the cutting tooth uncontrollably, resulting in excessive loading on the cutting tooth, the chain and the trenching machine. The problem could be alleviated by using a chain of much longer pitch, but this approach would require the use iof correspondingly larger chain sprockets.
Such trenching arms must be forced forward in the excavation by advancing the machine to which the cutting arm is attached. As the depth of excavation becomes greater, this technique places large bending moments on the cutting arm and its support structure, due to the increasing vertical offset between the centroid of the normal forces on the cutting teeth and the line of action of the advance force at ground level. This problem can be alleviated by using an advance system placed within the trenching arm below ground level to force the trenching arm forward by engaging plates with the sides of the excavation and forcing the trenching arm forward by pushing the plates rearward relative to the arm.

Trenching apparatus and methods of forming inground retaining walls


A modular mounting system for the delivery of office utilities from a utility distribution system of an office partitioning system to a worksurface positioned in an individual workspace includes a mounting rail having an upper portion shaped for abutting attachment to a bottom surface of the worksurface and further includes a lower mounting portion defining at least one mounting aperture therein. A utility distribution bracket is abutted to the lower mounting portion wherein the bracket includes a base and an upper frame connected to the base defining therein a cavity shaped to closely receive a utility distribution block. The base and frame further define at least one aperture for user access to the utility distribution block. The utility distribution bracket further includes an engagement member extending through the mounting aperture and closely engaging the lower mounting portion of the mounting rail in a fastenerless fashion wherein the utility distribution bracket is disengagable from the mounting rail and interchangeable with others of like utility distribution brackets.

The present invention relates to utility distribution systems, and in particular to a modular mounting system for the distribution of utilities at individual workstations.
Portable partition systems for open office spaces, and other similar settings, are well-known in the art. Individual partition panels or other demountable partition systems are interconnected in different configurations to form separate offices, workstations, or work settings. For such an office division system to be practical and usable for office workers, provisions must also be incorporated in such systems for the routing and delivery of office utilities to the individual work areas. Typically, office utilities are either preassembled within individual office panels, or are routed along raceways positioned at the top or bottom of the panel whereby user accessible outlets are provided at regularly spaced intervals. More recent, demountable wall systems incorporate a beltway positioned at worksurface height in which a modular utility distribution system is housed to provide office utilities such as electrical power, data, and communications at user access ports located at spaced intervals along the beltway. However, the placement of these user accessible outlets are often inconveniently positioned, inaccessible, or in insufficient quantity to fulfill the needs of the user.
As an attempted solution to alleviate the problems of inadequate accessibility of utility outlets, a variety of utility distribution modules have been introduced into the market. Generally, these modules incorporate within one housing a plurality of electrical outlets in combination with a plurality of data/communication connection outlets. The modules are then attached to or integrated with worksurfaces positioned within the individual workspaces of an office setting. These modules are typically mounted below the worksurface at a rear portion thereof such that accessibility by the user is gained either by an access door incorporated into the worksurface thereby dedicating valuable real estate for utility access or the user must inconveniently reach below and to a rear portion of the worksurface to gain access to the utility outlets.
Further, these utility distribution modules are generally preconfigured with a fixed number of utility outlets. Utility requirements of individual users usually is not consistent, and some users will require a large number of utility outlets while an adjacent user may have minimal requirements therefor. Single modules having a fixed number of utility outlets and a predetermined mounting position with respect to the worksurface detract from and run counter to the current trend of adaptability and flexibility of modular office systems designed to tailor the workspace to the needs of a particular user.
Thus, there is a need for a utility distribution mounting system which is tailorable to the individual needs of a workspace occupant. Further, such a utility delivery system should be tailorable with respect to its location within the workspace as well as tailorable to the quantity and configuration of utility outlets available to the user. Prior utility delivery systems have certain drawbacks and disadvantages, particularly with respect to the need for flexibility, positioning, and providing an optimum quantity of utility outlets for an individual user.

Modular utility distribution mounting system


A process for forming oversized circular pipe has the steps of affixing an elliptically-shaped forming head onto a spiral pipe forming machine, driving a metal strip along the forming head such that the metal strip takes on a shape of the forming head, moving said metal strip out of the forming head into a spiral pattern such that edges of the metal strip engage with each other so as to form an elliptically-shaped spiral pipe, removing the spiral pipe from the forming machine, and forming the elliptically-shaped pipe into a circular shape. The circular pipe has a diameter of greater then forty-eight inches. The forming head has an adjustable diameter.

Spiral seamed pipes made from strips of sheet metal are widely used to transport fluids. For example, these pipes are frequently used to transport air in order to ventilate, heat and cool buildings. In this application, as well as others, it desired that the pipe produced is strong, lightweight and inexpensive, and provides minimum resistance to fluid flow. The pipe must be sufficiently strong to maintain rigidity over long expanses and against pressure from external forces. Any aberration in the uniformity of the inner pipe surface, such as bends or dents, increases the resistance to fluid flow through the pipe. It is desirable for the pipe to be lightweight so that less manpower is required to carry and install it.
In the past various U.S. patents have issued for devices relating to the formation of spiral pipe. U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,742, issued on Feb. 4, 1986 to W. P. H. Castricum, describes a ribbed spiral pipe producing machine. This machine includes conventional elements of a frame, a drive roller for feeding the strip through the frame, a flange roller and folding finger for bending the outer edges of the metal strip, a forming head for forming the strip into a pipe so that the outer edges of the strip mate, and a clenching roller and contra roller for compressing the mated edges to produce a spiral seam. This patented device improves on conventional apparatus by providing only two pairs of edge forming roller assemblies that cooperate to bend the left edge of the strip perpendicular to the strip, and the right edge of the strip into an upward facing, V-shaped channel with its outer edge perpendicular with respect to the stip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,684, issued on May 15, 1990 to W. P. H Castricum, describes a apparatus and method for forming and cutting spiral pipe. The pipe forming apparatus includes an enclosed forming head and a mandrel. A continuous strip of metal is driven around the mandrel and inside a lateral bore in the forming head in a helical manner. First and second rollers are mounted in the forming head so as to partially form a spiral lockseam. A third roller is mounted in the upper portion of the forming head so as to close the spiral lockseam. The mandrel is both rotatable and pivotable.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,639, issued on Apr. 21, 1992 to W. P. H. Castricum, also discloses an apparatus for forming spiral pipe. In particular, this device is configured for forming spiral pipe having a diameter of approximately one inch or less. A continuous strip of metal is driven around the mandrel and inside a lateral bore in the forming head in a helical manner. First and second rollers mounted in the forming head partially form a spiral lockseam. A third roller mounted in the upper portion of the forming head closes the spiral lockseam. Various knives are employed so as to sever the pipe as it rotates.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,055, issued on Mar. 11, 1997 to W. P. H. Castricum, teaches a method and apparatus for cutting and notching a hollow pipe. This apparatus includes a upper knife assembly having a pipe cutting knife and notch cutting knives with cutting edges adjacent a surface of the pipe and a lower knife assembly having a pipe cutting knife and notch cutting knives with cutting edges adjacent an opposite surface of the pipe. The method of this invention includes stopping the axial and rotational movement of the pipe and moving the lower knife assembly into an overlapping relationship with the upper knife assembly. The notch cutting knives are also moved into cutting position and the axial and rotational pipe movement is resumed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,541, issued Jun. 10, 1997 to W. P. H. Castricum, also teaches an apparatus for forming and cutting spiral pipe having a diameter of less than one inch. The device for slitting the spiral pipe into sections includes a first knife that is positioned inside the spiral pipe and a second knife that is positioned outside of the pipe. A support sleeve is also positioned outside of the pipe and is in a fixed radial position with respect to the pipe. The inner and outer knives and the support sleeve move axially with the pipe as the pipe is severed.
The conventional spiral pipe forming machine is manufactured by Spiral-Helix, Inc. of Buffalo Grove, Ill. On this device, a forming head is positioned on the machine so as to extend outwardly of a frame portion. Conventionally, the forming head is of a relatively small diameter so that relatively small diameters of ductwork can be formed through the use of such spiral pipe forming process. This ductwork is often used for the passing of ventilation, air conditioning and heating within a building or a very large vehicle. The forming rollers associated with the forming head are positioned adjacent to an outwardly extending frame portion. As such, the maximum diameter of forming head that can be accommodated in such machines must be less than seventy-eight inches in diameter. If the spiral pipe is of oversized diameter, then other techniques are required for the creation of such large diameter ductwork. Conventionally, when such oversized ductwork is required in a particular project, the oversize ductwork is not formed through the use of the spiral-Helix machine, but rather through complicated seam welding processes. In other words, the large circular portion of the ductwork are formed on a roll forming machine. Each of these circular sections is then joined and welded together in end-to-end relationship. This process of forming such oversized circular pipe is extremely expensive, requires a great deal of manpower, and is relatively inefficient. Unfortunately, none of the existing machines have the capability of creating such large diameter spiral pipe. Inevitably, if a forming head of such diameter were utilized on the Spiral-Helix machine, then the edges of the circular forming head would contact the frame portions of the machine and prevent adaptation and use thereof. As such, a need has developed so as to create a forming head by which such large oversize diameter spiral pipes can be formed by using such Spiral-Helix machines. Additionally, there is a need in the art to provide the ability to create such oversize ductwork through the use of a spiral forming process rather than seam welding and roll forming.
The requirements to manufacture such large oversize diameter ductwork are particularly important in view of the expanding market for such oversize ducts. Larger athletic facilities are being created throughout the world. These athletic facilities often require the transport of air conditioning and heating to the spectators at the stadiums. As a result, there is a need to transport extremely large volumes of air conditioned or heated air from one location to another within the stadiums and athletic facilities. In other circumstances, larger and larger buildings are being built for manufacturing facilities, entertainment facilities and residential facilities. In view of the size of these large buildings, it is desirable to have such oversized ducts for the transport of large volumes of air from one location to another. Still, and in addition, there is a further requirement to have air conditioning and heating facilities at one location while the requirements of use of such air conditioned or heated air are at a remote location. Once again, there is a need for oversized ducts for the transport of such large volumes of air. There is a need at the present for the creation of such large ductwork through the spiral forming processes associated with previously small diameter ducts.
Typically, forming heads used for the creation of such circular pipe are relatively expensive. These forming heads are typically roll formed of steel or aluminum material. The forming heads must be sufficiently strong so as to withstand the forces associated with the formation of the spiral pipe. In certain circumstances, minor adjustments in the diameter of the spiral pipe are necessary after the forming head has been manufactured. If minor adjustments to the diameter of the circular pipe are required, then the previously manufactured forming head must be scrapped and a new forming head created. As such, a need has developed so as to be able to adjust the diameter of the forming head with minimal cost and inconvenience. Additionally, where the forming head is of a relatively large diameter, a need has developed so as to avoid deflections in the large diameter of the forming head.
It is an object of the present invention a method and apparatus for the forming of oversized circular pipe which utilizes spiral forming procedures.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for the formation of oversized circular pipe which can utilize the Spiral-Helix machines.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for the formation of spiral pipe which provides the ability to form spiral pipe having a diameters of greater than forty-eight inches without offsetting the forming head.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for the spiral pipe formation of circular pipe which minimizes the costs and labor required for such sections of circular pipe.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for the formation of circular pipe which allows the forming head to be adjusted between diameters without significantly increasing the cost of the forming head.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.

Process and apparatus for forming oversized circular pipe


A method of securely transferring user data from a first communication device to a second communication device includes receiving with the first device a public encryption key transmitted by the second device over a first communication medium using a first communication protocol. The user data is encrypted with the first device using the received public key. The encrypted user data is transmitted from the first device to the second device over a second communication medium using a second communication protocol.

There are several methods for sending data over the Internet, including electronic mail (email), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Internet email is generally not secure, and in typical email configurations, users need to initiate manual retrieval of email messages, and manually print out the messages. A brief summary of how a typical Internet email communication is accomplished and which points out these issues is provided below.
A sender email application (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) is configured by the user (or by a system administrator) with the Internet Protocol (IP) address or domain name of the sender Internet Service Provider (ISP) Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) server. The user composes an email in the sender email application and selects "send." The sender email application initiates a connection to the sender SMTP server using the SMTP protocol, and transfers the email to the sender SMTP server.
Since SMTP is based on a "push" model, an SMTP server, or any device with an SMTP server, needs to have a fixed IP address or domain name so other SMTP servers are able to contact it. For a home user product, such as a home user with a cable modem service, it is typically not practical to have a device with an SMTP server in it.
Based on the destination IP address associated with the email, the sender SMTP server initiates a connection to an appropriate receiver SMTP server, and transfers the email to the receiver SMTP server using the SMTP protocol. The receiver SMTP server may not be the final SMTP server. Typically, there will be several of these SMTP server to SMTP server transfers. At each point, the SMTP server looks at the email address and knows the next SMTP server to pass the email to. The SMTP servers do not know or care whether the next SMTP server is an intermediate server or the final step. The email message is automatically pushed along, until it reaches the final receiver SMTP server.
A receiver email application (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) is configured by the user (or by a system administrator) with the Internet Protocol (IP) address or domain name of the receiver ISP SMTP server. The receiver email application initiates a connection to the receiver SMTP server, typically using a POP3 or IMAP protocol, or possibly a proprietary protocol if the receiver email application and the receiver SMTP server are provided by the same vendor/service provider. And the receiver email application retrieves emails from the receiver SMTP server.
Typically, the receiver email application does not automatically run and print out all received email messages automatically. The receiver email application typically runs manually when desired by the user, and prints out messages only when desired by the user. This is because the user performs a filtering function to screen out undesirable emails (spam) and emails that do not require printing. This manual filtering function cannot easily be automated.
Between the sending computer and the receiving computer, the email packets may travel through several computers, and the exact routing is not necessarily fixed. Many computers may get to see the email packets, and the user essentially has no control over this. Thus, Internet email is generally not secure because any computer along the way can snoop, copy, or see the exact email message that the receiver will see. There is also no sender authentication in SMTP. The sender can say that they are whomever they want, and no verification is performed. Only the destination email address is needed for the email to be transferred to the destination. At any point in time, a computer passing the email packets along has the ability to alter any history of the packets. The only thing that needs to be preserved is the destination email address.
Other methods of Internet document transfer include FTP and HTTP. Both of these methods use servers in the communication devices. The servers have the same IP address problem as an SMTP server. FTP provides authentication capabilities, but IT administration is typically needed to implement the capabilities.
The security of the Internet—a public network that, by design, saves the transmitted data at intermediate locations—is not foolproof. There are techniques to increase the security of data sent over the Internet, but these techniques typically involve either a computer, an information technology (IT) expert to setup the system, or both.
Consumer companies that wish to transfer confidential documents or other data to their customers typically use a process similar to the following:
(1) Offline, via phone or mail, an account login and password are arranged. This communication occurs "out of band", not over the Internet, for security purposes.
(2) Typically, when a new document or other data is ready, the company sends the customer a notification email. The document is not typically emailed, because conventional Internet email is generally not secure.
(3) The user "pulls" information from the Internet by a manual process of logging onto a company website and saving/downloading a document or other data.
(4) The user typically manually prints out the document, and/or saves an electronic copy.
In the above-described method, multiple communication media are used for security purposes, but the customer must perform numerous manual operations.
In addition to transmitting data via the Internet, data may also be transmitted via facsimile (fax). Normal faxes do not provide security for any eavesdropping on the phone line, plus the receiver typically has no secure mechanism (not subject to impersonation) to know the identification of the sender.
There are some fax products that send data securely over the phone lines (e.g., the SCS-700 from Copy-Tele, Inc.). Other fax products include scramblers that encrypt fax data (e.g., FaxScrambler from Thomas Investigative Publications, Inc., FS916 Fax Scrambler from Electromax International, and Surety Fax Device 3700 from AT&T). These fax products are costly, and the cost of a phone connection for fax communications is typically more expensive per byte than an Internet connection. In addition, if a communication device uses only the phone line for secure transmission, the data can be rerouted or entirely captured by a party that gains access to the phone line.

Securely transferring user data using first and second communication media

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A cooled turbine blade having a base and an airfoil, the base including cooling air inlet and an internal cooling air passageway, and the airfoil including an internal heat exchange path beginning at the base and ending at a cooling air outlet at the trailing edge of the airfoil. The airfoil also includes a “skin” that encompasses a tip wall, an inner spar, a leading edge rib, and a leading edge air deflector. The leading edge rib is configured to form a leading edge chamber in conjunction with the leading edge of the skin. The leading edge air deflector is shaped and positioned such that cooling air leaving the leading edge chamber is both turned and diffused.

High performance gas turbine engines typically rely on increasing turbine inlet temperatures to increase both fuel economy and overall power ratings. These higher temperatures, if not compensated for, oxidize engine components and decrease component life. Component life has been increased by a number of techniques. Said techniques include internal cooling with air bled from an engine compressor section. Bleeding air results in efficiency loss however. In addition, stationary gas turbine engines typically may have less available compressed air than moving gas turbine engines.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,600,973 issued to Tibbott, et al. on Oct. 13, 2009 shows a gas turbine blade with an aerofoil having a root portion, a tip portion located radially outwardly of the root portion, and leading and trailing edges extending between the root portion and the tip portion. In particular, a shroud extends transversely from the tip portion of the aerofoil and the aerofoil defines interior cooling passages which extend between the root portion and the tip portion. The aerofoil includes a wall member adjacent the trailing edge and a support structure extending from the wall member to the shroud to support the shroud. The support structure permits a flow of cooling air from a cooling passage to the trailing edge at a region proximate the tip portion of the aerofoil. Optionally, the aerofoil also includes a flow disrupting arrangement.
The present disclosure is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discovered by the inventors.

Cooled turbine blade with leading edge flow redirection and diffusion


In a flat display panel, a surface of at least one of a sustain electrode and an address electrode may be formed to have a curved surface. The surface of the electrode may be formed as a continuous curved surface. The sustain electrode and the address electrode may be elongated in a lengthwise direction thereof. These lengthwise directions may be perpendicular to each other. The electrode may be formed by transferring an electrode material onto the substrate using an electrode frame defined with electrode forming grooves each having a same sectional shape as the electrode. Therefore, the surface of the electrode may be formed as the curved surface.

1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention may relate to a flat display panel. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention may relate to a flat display panel and method in which a first flat substrate and a second flat substrate are coupled with each other to display an image.
2. Background
Flat display panels may include a liquid crystal display panel and a plasma display panel. The plasma display panel is a kind of an image display device in which two glass substrates are airtightly coupled with each other to display an image using an electric discharge phenomenon of a gas in a space defined between the two glass substrates.

Flat display panel and method for manufacturing a flat panel display


A training device and method of use thereof to initiate and develop proper shooting technique for basketball players. The device comprises a pair of arm braces that when worn overlay the inside portion of the forearm and upper arm of the shooting arm of the player, a pair of sleeves attached to the arm braces that are adapted to snugly fit around the player's forearm and upper arm, and an interconnecting pivot which allows the arm braces to pivot relative to one another over a predetermined range of motion whereby the forearm is prevented by mechanical resistance from pivoting beyond the point at which it forms a right angle with the upper arm.

This invention relates to a training device to initiate and develop proper shooting technique for basketball players. More particularly, the invention relates to a training device which is adapted to be worn by a basketball player to develop proper form for shooting a basketball, wherein the forearm of the player's shooting arm is prevented by mechanical resistance from moving back towards the player's body beyond the point at which it forms a right angle with the upper arm of the shooting arm, and in which the elbow of the shooting arm is maintained in close lateral proximity to the player's non-shooting arm.
A problem often encountered with basketball players is that of initiating the use of the proper shooting technique which thereafter becomes learned and is automatically followed as the shooting skills of the basketball player are developed. The untrained player has a tendency when shooting a basketball to use an exaggerated motion in which the forearm of the player's shooting arm is brought too far back towards the player's body, the upper arm of the shooting arm is brought up beyond the point at which it is parallel to the ground, and the elbow of the shooting arm is swung laterally away from the player's non-shooting arm. Such an exaggerated motion requires that the player rely too extensively on the wrist action of the shooting arm in projecting the ball toward the basket, which causes the ball to be "thrown" at the basket in an overstated motion and thereby to often follow an inaccurate trajectory.
Although devices for training the basketball player are generally known, most of such devices are complex, bulky and cumbersome. Further, such devices do not train the basketball player to restrict the movement of the forearm of the player's shooting arm in relation to that of the upper arm and to limit the lateral movement of the elbow of the player's shooting arm, while at the same time allowing for proper follow-through of the forearm of the player's shooting arm in propelling the basketball towards the basket. As such, a need exists for an improved device for training basketball players in the proper method of shooting a basketball which emphasizes proper alignment and movement of the shooting arm and is lightweight and not cumbersome when worn by the player.

Training device for basketball players for developing proper shooting technique


A telecommunications enclosure includes a housing for retaining telecommunication lines therein, the housing including at least one of a splice closure and a terminal closure. At least one of the terminal closure and the splice closure includes a loopback testing station having at least one coupling mounted therein. The coupling is adapted to receive a first terminated end of a first telecommunication line and adapted to receive a second terminated end of a second telecommunication line. The testing station permits loss testing of installed distribution lines at a terminal from a central network facility.

Telecommunication networks based on optical fiber cables are well known. As telecommunication cables are routed across networks, it is necessary to periodically open the cable and splice or tap into the cable so that data may be distributed to "branches" of the network. The branches may be further distributed until the network reaches individual homes, businesses, offices, and so on. The distributed lines are often referred to as drop lines or distribution lines.
In order to assure that an optical fiber-based network performs at the highest level, in regards to speed and reliability, optical tests are often performed during the installation of the network. Some of the testing includes bidirectional optical return loss (ORL) testing and bidirectional end-to-end optical loss testing.
Usually, upon completion of the installation of an interconnection point in the network (such as at a fiber closure, a fiber terminal closure, a fiber terminal, a fiber distribution terminal (FDT), or a fiber distribution hub (FDH)), a technician is dispatched to the location of the interconnection point. The technician is often called on to conduct such network qualification testing for each fiber terminated or interconnected at this specific location. In order to conduct the bidirectional ORL and optical loss tests, a second technician is simultaneously dispatched to the FDH or central office (CO). This process requires the time of two technicians and the use of two optical loss test sets (OLTS) and/or two ORL test sets to conduct the network qualification testing. Also, because fiber terminal closures and fiber terminals are installed typically one unit per every 6 to 8 houses or other drop locations, the technician has to spend valuable time traveling from terminal/closure to terminal/closure to qualify the network for service.

Optical fiber loopback test system and method


This disclosure relates to a method, performed in an apparatus 300 for profile control, for switching profile data in one or more vehicle sub-systems 401, 402 of a vehicle 406. Each vehicle sub-system 401, 402 comprises a vehicle sub-system data storage 403, 404. The method comprises: detecting a presence of an occupant in the vehicle 406, identifying the occupant in the vehicle 406, retrieving from a profile data storage 405 the profile data corresponding to the identified occupant, assigning the retrieved profile data to one or more vehicle sub-systems 401, 402; and sending the retrieved profile data for storage in the vehicle sub-system data storage 403, 404 of the assigned one or more vehicle sub-systems 401, 402.

Services provided to a user in a vehicle, e.g. entertainment and navigation, tend to be more customizable to the present driver, or to one of the present passengers. Other services, e.g. road use tax, need to be billed per user and per mile rather than per vehicle. There are thus a growing number of vehicle sub-systems requiring increased connectivity to support these external services. At the same time, vehicles are to an increasing extent shared by multiple users and even have multiple owners in e.g. large cities. This results in a general increase of the average number of users per vehicle. With the growing number of vehicle sub-systems and the plurality of users and owners per vehicle, complexity in managing these sub-systems increases.
Existing systems for customization of services focus on customizing the mobile communication service. US2011/0306318 discloses a user device on which SIM data of a wireless network subscriber may be downloaded and stored. The device of US2011/0306318 may switch among multiple SIM profiles, each profile being associated with a different wireless account for the same user. US2010/0311468 discloses a virtual SIM card for mobile devices allowing provisioning of data for multiple service providers to be stored within the virtual SIM card and to be selectively enabled and disabled in order to select an optimal service.
The existing systems mentioned above are not able to address the complexity generated by having customizable vehicle sub-systems and a plurality of users of the same vehicle.

Method and apparatus for assigning profile data to one or more vehicle sub-systems of a vehicle


A Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) apparatus includes an emitter array comprising a plurality of emitter units configured to emit optical signals responsive to respective emitter control signals, a detector array comprising a plurality of detector pixels configured to be activated and deactivated for respective strobe windows between pulses of the optical signals; and a control circuit configured to provide a strobe signal to activate a first subset of the detector pixels while leaving a second subset of the detector pixels inactive.

Time of flight (ToF) based imaging is used in a number of applications including range finding, depth profiling, and 3D imaging (e.g., lidar). Direct time of flight measurement includes directly measuring the length of time between emitting radiation and sensing the radiation after reflection from an object or other target. From this, the distance to the target can be determined. Indirect time of flight measurement includes determining the distance to the target by phase modulating the amplitude of the signals emitted by emitter element(s) of the lidar system and measuring phases (e.g., with respect to delay or shift) of the echo signals received at detector element(s) of the lidar system. These phases may be measured with a series of separate measurements or samples.
The emitter elements may be controlled to emit radiation over a field of view for detection by the detector elements. Emitter elements for ToF measurement may include pulsed light sources, such as LEDs or lasers. Examples of lasers that may be used include vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). Methods for configuring lasers for use in optical systems are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 10,244,181 to Warren entitled "COMPACT MULTI-ZONE INFRARED LASER ILLUMINATOR."
In specific applications, the sensing of the reflected radiation from the emitter element in either direct or indirect time of flight systems may be performed using an array of single-photon detectors, such as a Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) array. SPAD arrays may be used as solid-state detectors in imaging applications where high sensitivity and timing resolution are useful.
A SPAD is based on a p-n junction device biased beyond its breakdown region, for example, by or in response to a strobe signal having a desired pulse width. The high reverse bias voltage generates a sufficient magnitude of electric field such that a single charge carrier introduced into the depletion layer of the device can cause a self-sustaining avalanche via impact ionization. The avalanche is quenched by a quench circuit, either actively or passively, to allow the device to be "reset" to detect further photons. The initiating charge carrier can be photo-electrically generated by means of a single incident photon striking the high field region. It is this feature which gives rise to the name "Single Photon Avalanche Diode." This single photon detection mode of operation is often referred to as "Geiger Mode."
Power consumption in lidar systems can be particularly problematic in some applications, e.g., unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), automotive, and industrial robotics. For example, in automotive applications, the increased emission power requirements must be met by the car's power supply, which may add a considerable load for car manufacturers. Also, heat generated from the higher emission power may alter the optical performance of the light emitting array and/or may negatively affect reliability.

Methods and systems for spatially distributed strobing comprising a control circuit to provide a strobe signal to activate a first subset of the detector pixels of a detector array while leaving a second subset of the detector pixels inactive


A network system equipped with an air conditioner and a control method may be provided. The network system may include: the air conditioner operating for air conditioning of a set space; a control device for updating set data in the air conditioner, and a control unit equipped in the air conditioner and for receiving update data from the control device. The control unit may include: an external memory for storing update data received from the control device, and an internal memory for selectively storing the update data stored in the external memory based on whether an update execute signal is received from the control device.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a network system having an air conditioner and a control method thereof.
2. Background
An air conditioner is a consumer electronic device that maintains air in a room to be in a most appropriate status based on use and purpose. For example, the air conditioner may be used to control a room to be in a cool state in summer and to be in a warm state in winter. The air conditioner may also be used to regulate humidity of a room, and clean the air in a room for a pleasant and clean state. The air conditioner may have a cooling cycle of compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation processes of a refrigerant. Accordingly, the air conditioner may provide a cooling operation or a heating operation of a set space (e.g. an indoor space).
An air conditioner may be a separate type air conditioner having a separate indoor unit and outdoor unit, and/or an integrated type air conditioner having an integrated indoor unit and outdoor unit, based on whether an indoor unit and an outdoor unit are separated or are not separated. The outdoor unit may include a compressor and an indoor heat exchanger for exchanging heat with outdoor air. The indoor unit may include an indoor heat exchanger for exchanging heat with indoor air.
When a cooling operation is performed in a cooling cycle, the outdoor heat exchanger may serve as a condenser, and the indoor heat exchanger may serve as an evaporator. On the contrary, when a heating operation is performed in a heating cycle, the indoor heat exchanger may serve as a condenser, and the outdoor heat exchanger may serve as an evaporator.
FIG. 1 shows a network system for operating an air conditioner that includes an indoor unit and an outdoor unit. Other arrangements may also be provided.
FIG. 1 shows that a network system may include a plurality of indoor units 1, a plurality of outdoor units 2 and a control device 5. The indoor units 1 may discharge conditioned air into an indoor space. The outdoor units 2 may be in a communication enabled connection to the plurality of indoor units 1. The control device 5 may deliver a control signal from the indoor unit 1 to at least one of the outdoor units 2.
The plurality of indoor units 1 may include a first indoor unit, a second indoor unit . . . and an Nth indoor unit. The plurality of outdoor units 2 may include a first outdoor unit, a second outdoor unit . . . and an Nth outdoor unit.
The control device 5 may deliver a control signal to the specific outdoor unit 2 that matches the first indoor unit 1 when the control signal is provided (or generated) from the first indoor unit 1 (from among the plurality of indoor units 1). The control device 5 may only serve to deliver control information of the indoor unit 1 to the outdoor unit 2 after simply matching the indoor unit 1 to the outdoor unit 2.
However, the air conditioner may differently set state information or function information (i.e., operating standards) based on outdoor unit conditions and/or indoor loads. The state information or function information may be necessarily updated periodically and/or based on predetermined standards.
However, since there are limitations in remotely updating the above information, a user who controls the air conditioner may feel inconvenient. For example, a service technician may personally visit a place having an installed air conditioner and may inconveniently update the state information or function information.

Network system equipped with air conditioner and control method thereof


The invention relates to a process for the preparation of an epoxidation catalyst, which process involves impregnating a silicon containing carrier with a gas stream consisting of titanium halide. The invention also relates to a process for the preparation of alkylene oxide using such catalyst.

An epoxidation catalyst is understood to be a catalyst which catalyzes the manufacture of an epoxy group containing compound. One process comprises contacting a hydroperoxide and an alkene with a heterogeneous epoxidation catalyst and withdrawing a product stream comprising alkylene oxide and an alcohol.
Catalysts for the manufacture of an epoxy group containing compound are known. EP-A-345856 describes the preparation of such catalyst comprising titanium in chemical combination with a solid silica and/or inorganic silicate. The preparation comprises (a) impregnating a silicon compound with a stream of gaseous titanium tetrachloride preferably comprising an inert gas, (b) calcining the obtained reaction product of step (a), and (c) hydrolyzing the product of step (b). The stream of inert gas also has the function of a carrier for the gaseous titanium tetrachloride. For such use, the gas is to be present in a relatively large amount.
There is a continuous interest in improving the selectivity of epoxidation processes in general, and more specifically of processes for the preparation of alkylene oxides.


A network security system takes an active approach to network security. This is accomplished by providing intelligence about other networks. A master network intelligence database is established that uses a plurality of network information agents for gathering information about networks and providing the information to the master network intelligence database. A customer network security system is then able to secure the customer network in dependence upon information received from the master network intelligence. Security information includes at least one of hostility level on the Internet, collected from numerous sites; security event history; spam levels; hosted services; public wireless; organization type; organization associations; peer ISPs; bandwidth connection to the Internet; active security measures; number of users on the network; age of the network; inappropriate content served; industry; geographic placement; open proxy servers; and contact information.

The rapid development of the Internet, World Wide Web and E-commerce has made it increasingly important to be able to monitor the traffic going into and coming out of a network in order to discover abnormal network traffic that may be an indication of attacks from hackers or misuse of network resources by users inside the network. A network of computers may be attacked by a hacker using Smurf, Denial of Services (DoS), or be abused by a rogue employee within the network, who may attack some other networks or download pornography.
Various network security software, such as firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), network monitors, and vulnerability assessment tools, have been developed to protect a network from abuse and hacking.
IDS systems are used to spot, alert, and stop intrusions. Typically running on dedicated computers hooked to the network, IDS systems actively monitor network traffic for suspicious activities. Statistics or rule-based artificial intelligence is used to detect abnormal activities. Thus, IDS systems depend on the recognition of known attack patterns. For example, contents in the network traffic may be monitored to match the patterns in an IDS system's databases. The real-time analysis of the network traffic provides the capability to send instant notifications via e-mails, pager alerts, or other means. Based on a predefined security policy, some IDS systems can take defensive actions against intrusions, such as initiating the termination of network connections or changing the configuration of network devices (e.g., firewalls and routers). Since hacking activities and misuse of new patterns are under constant development, IDS systems are also under constant development.
IDS systems have a number of weaknesses. IDS systems depend on the recognition of known attack patterns, sequences, or signatures. Currently known signatures of attacks are collected to write rules to detect and disable network activities with these signatures. However, IDS systems cannot detect or stop the attacks of unknown signatures. IDS systems have to be upgraded when the rules are updated to handle attacks of signatures that are only recently recognized.
A grave concern of network administrators is the exponential increase in attacks seen as the size and reach of the Internet increases with time. A consequence of this is that in the foreseeable future IDSs on networks will be overwhelmed by such attacks and will no longer be able to keep pace with mutating forms of attack.
All of the above issues and techniques and structures to address the issue arise for the anonymous nature of data communications. Unlike real world interactions between people where an identity is exchanged fairly early in the conversation, in cyber space ones identity and hence ones reputation can hide behind a network address. To make matters worse, the Internet is stateless, that is it does not retain information about previous activity that would affect current activity. For example an end user could try to hack into a private network, send an e-mail to a fellow hacker about the attempt and then do on-line banking, without any of the previous activity affecting their access to the banking network.
Even on a larger scale, such as a network, there is no way on knowing whom you are dealing with other than relying on anecdotal information. As a consequence network administrators have to rely on tools to detect intrusion and misuse. The concern is that this kind of behavior will continue to increase to the point where current methods will be overwhelmed by the numbers of such incidents.


A chromogenic assay for determination of Protein S, using an indicator of Factor Xa as a measure of Protein S concentration. This technique utilizes the dependency of activated Protein C on Protein S in order to inactivate a known portion of Factor VIII. Residual Factor VIII is then activated and acts with Factor IXa to activate Factor X. The chromogenic substrate is then cleaved by Factor Xa and the rate of conversion of the indicator molecule is an indirect indicator of free Protein S.

The blood coagulation cascade or system is comprised of a group of zymogens that are converted by limited proteolysis to active enzymes. This active cascade of enzymes ultimately forms a fibrin clot from fibrinogen. This blood clotting cascade is divided into two pathways, extrinsic and intrinsic. The series of reactions that convert the zymogens to enzymes requires a variety of protein cofactors such as Blood Factors VIII and V. In turn these cofactors are regulated by a number of other proteins such as Protein S and Protein C. High, K.A., Antithrombin III, Protein C, and Protein S, Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. (1988); Vol. 112:pp.28-36.
Protein S is a naturally occurring anticoagulant protein. It circulates in two forms--free and bound to C4B. Approximately 40% of the protein is found in the free form while 60% exists in the bound form. Only the free form has functional activity. Blanc, P., et al., Deficit Constitution en Proteine S a l'Origine de Thrombose Vasculaire Digestive, La Presse Medical (1990): Vol. 19: pp.416-419. Protein C is also an anticoagulant.
Protein S and Protein C exert their effect on the intrinsic pathway of the clotting cascade system. Protein S does not require activation by another factor, however, it is active only in the presence of activated Protein C which is activated by thrombin (Factor IIa). Activated Protein C acts as an anticoagulant by inactivating Factor V and VIII. Protein S increases the anticoagulatory effect of Protein C.
Von Willebrand Factor decreases the inactivation of Factor VIII by activated Protein C and Protein S and that effect is enhanced by the active site of Factor IXa. The von Willebrand Factor acts by binding Factor VIII, thereby protecting it from inactivation. Rick, M.E., Factor IXa and von Willebrand Factor Modify the Inactivation of Factor VIII by Activated Protein C, Journal Lab. Clin. Med. (1990); Vol. 115(4): pp. 415-421.
Deficiency of Protein S has been associated with a number of disease states. For example, individuals who have reduced Protein S levels have an increased risk of venous thromboembolism. In fact, Protein S deficiency is responsible for 8-10% of the cases of venous thromboembolism occurring in young people. Preda, L. et al., A Prothrombin Time-Based Functional Assay of Protein S, Thrombosis Research (1990); Vol. 60:pp.19-32.
There are two types of Protein S deficiency. The first type is associated with mildly reduced levels of total Protein S, but markedly reduced levels of free Protein S, while the second type of Protein S deficiency has markedly reduced levels of both free and total Protein S Woodhams, B.J., et al., Functional Protein S Assay Shows Improved Correlation with Clinical Symptoms in Hereditary Deficiency, Thrombosis Research (1990); Vol. 57:pp.651-657. The only known treatment for Protein S deficiency is lifelong therapy with sodium warfarin. High, K.A., Antithrombin III, Protein C, and Protein S, Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. 1988; 112:pp.28-36.
There are a number of methods available to measure Protein S levels in individuals. These methods can be divided into two classes. The first class, Protein S antigen level assays, measures both free and bound (total) Protein S. The second class, functional Protein S assays, measures only free Protein S since only free Protein S has any functional activity.
In the antigen level assays, Protein S levels (total Protein S) are measured using a variety of techniques including: ELISA, RIA, IRMA, and electroimmunodiffusion (Laurell Rocket Technique). All of these techniques use polyclonal antibodies to the antigen. One difficulty associated with these methods, however, is that the relative affinities of the antibodies to the free and bound Protein S must be known in order to determine the actual concentration of functional Protein S. Therefore, antigen level assays are of limited value since they cannot unequivocally distinguish the functionally active or free form of Protein S from the bound form which is not functionally active. Bertina, R., Specificity of Protein C and Protein S Assays, Res. Clin. Lab. (1990); Vol. 20:pp127 at 132-134. Moreover, this measurement of the total Protein S antigen does not distinguish between the the two types of Protein S deficiencies. Furthermore, antigen level assays require high sample dilutions and long incubation times.
Alternatively in the functional Protein S assays, functional or free Protein S activity levels are measured using clotting times or thromboplastin times. One functional Protein S assay is based on a prolongation of Factor Xa initiated clotting times. In this assay, Protein S which requires activated Protein C, acts as a co-factor for the activated Protein C to inactivate Factor Va which therefore prolongs clotting times. Some of the other functional Protein S assays activate the Protein C using a snake venom activator. Another functional Protein S assay is based on the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT). This method is based on the need for functional Protein S to act as a co-factor for the activated Protein C dependent inhibition of blood coagulation. A primary problem associated with this type of test is its inapplicability to patients who are receiving anti-coagulants such as heparin. Since most patients requiring Protein S tests are using oral anticoagulants at the time of the sample collection, these types of tests cannot be used accurately. Bertina, R., Specificity of Protein C and Protein S Assays, Res. Clin. Lab.; 20:p.127. Another problem associated with the APTT type assay is that it relies upon the presumption that normal plasma will give a 100% correction in thromboplastin time. It has been recognized that there is a dependence of prolongation of clotting times on activated Protein C concentration. Thus, persons performing the assay must construct a full standard curve each time the assay is run. Moreover, the assay is very costly and a long time is needed for measurement, while the coagulation time may only be extended by 10 seconds. These factors leave room for error and reduce lab efficiency.
To solve many of the above problems, we have created a test using chromogenic substrates to measure activity levels of functional Protein S. Chromogenic substrates have previously been used in the determination of Factor VIII levels. These Factor VIII assays recognize that Factor Xa concentrations can be linked to Factor VIIIa concentrations by exploiting the coagulation cascade system (Dade.RTM. Factor VIII Chromogenic Assay: Baxter Diagnostics Inc.). Protein C concentrations also have been determined with chromogenic substrates which are cleaved by activated Protein C making a direct and simple measurement for Protein C. High, K.A., Antithrombin III, Protein C, and Protein S, Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. (1988); Vol. 112:pp.28-36. Since Protein S is not an enzyme, however, it cannot be measured directly using chromogenic substrates. Thus, this invention exploits the relationship of Protein S with other blood coagulation proteins.
The method of the present invention provides an assay which quantitatively determines only the functional levels of Protein S and does not utilize expensive antibody technology to determine the Protein S concentration. This method has an advantage over other Protein S assays in that this assay does not have the problems associated with arbitrarily designating normal pools as having a clotting of 100% and basing other samples on that normal pool value. This is especially true since pregnancy lowers the free Protein S activity. Suzuki, K. et al., Plasma Protein S Activity Measured Using Protac, A Snake Venom Derived Activator of Protein C, Thrombosis Research (1988); Vol. 49:pp.241-251. including a sample from a pregnant woman into the pool would obviously lower the final pool value and distort results.
This invention provides a highly sensitive, reproducible, and convenient assay for determination of the levels of Protein S contained in blood serum, plasma, and other fluids. The invention recognizes that the effect of von Willebrands factors must be eliminated to obtain accurate and reproducible results. Again, since Protein S is not an enzyme, its functional concentration cannot be measured directly by way of a chromogenic substrate. Instead, the ability of Protein S to enhance the inactivation of Factor VIII by activated Protein C is exploited. Residual Factor VIII is activated and then acts wi&:h Factor IXa to activate Factor X. An indicator such as a chromogenic substrate to Factor Xa is then converted by Factor Xa to a measurable signal molecule. The signal molecule can then be related to the amount of Protein S in the sample.


The present invention provides a system and method for detecting edges of an object in a pre-crash sensing environment. The method includes extracting vertical edges from peaks in an array of column sums of absolute values of normalized horizontal derivates computed in the intensity image. The pixels with corresponding range image depths proximate the estimated object's closest surface contribute the column sums. The search is conducted for all likely combinations of left/right edge pairs preferably within a pre-determined horizontal range about the object's detected center. The left/right edge pairs that delimit a width within the pre-determined range of possible widths for the object are selected. Alternatively, an additional search is performed on each pair of edges to support any angular or inward slant on the edges of the object.

Over the past decades developments in passive safety devices have resulted in a significant reduction of fatalities and injuries in road accidents. A further reduction is expected from intelligent safety devices that use anticipatory sensors like radar, camera or infrared. In these so-called pre-crash sensing (PCS) systems the time-span between observation of a possible crash event and the actual occurrence is used to increase the effectiveness of the safety device. The safety devices may include modules for vehicle control, adaptable interior or exterior structures, restraint systems or any combinations of these. For the development of the PCS systems, new numerical tools and test methods such as improvements in the designing of the sensor system have been commonly known.
The pre-crash sensing (PCS) system typically utilizes a sensor system for detecting objects in front of a vehicle or platform. In general, a platform can be any of a wide range of bases, including a boat, a plane, an elevator, or even a stationary dock or floor. The sensor system may include radar, an infrared sensor or another detector. In any event, the sensor system generates an image of an object and the background. By processing that imagery, dimensions of the object can be detected.
Furthermore, the pre-crash sensing (PCS) system uses object dimensions (width, height and length) to support classification of detected objects. The distributions of typical vehicle and pedestrian heights are too similar to use for robust classification. Length is a less reliable feature, since it is only observable for objects in side lanes (large angles) at close distances, and thus cannot discriminate between classes at most locations. With distributions are more discriminating across the set of potential classification categories and serve as valuable features, requiring a good width estimation algorithm.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a pre-crash sensing system that provides accurate determinations as to the presence of a potential collision target. In particular, it would be desirable to provide a system that takes into consideration the edges of the object in order to obtain its width.

Method and apparatus for detecting edges of an object