This organic light emitting apparatus includes: a filling material between a diode substrate on which an organic light emitting unit is formed and an encapsulation substrate; and an organic protection layer that is interposed between the organic light emitting unit and the filling material and includes at least one thermally depositable organic material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present embodiments relate to an organic light emitting apparatus and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, an organic light emitting apparatus that includes: a filling material provided between a diode substrate on which an organic light emitting unit is formed and an encapsulation substrate; and an organic protection layer formed of at least one thermally depositable organic material and disposed between the organic light emitting unit and the filling material, and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Organic light emitting apparatuses each include at least one organic light emitting diode that is a self-emission diode. Organic light emitting diodes each include a pair of electrodes and an organic layer interposed between the electrodes, are lightweight, consist of a relatively small number of components, are easily manufactured, provide high image quality, and have wide viewing angles. Also, organic light emitting diodes provide high color purity, realize moving pictures well, have low power consumption, and operate at low voltage. Due to such electric characteristics, organic light emitting diodes are suitable for portable electric devices. Thus, organic light emitting apparatuses including such organic light emitting diodes are useful for portable thin flat panel display apparatuses.
Organic light emitting diodes deteriorate by inner factors such as deterioration of an emission layer caused by oxygen generated from ITO that forms an electrode, or deterioration caused by a reaction between the emission layer and an interface. Also, organic light emitting diodes easily deteriorate by external factors such as external humidity, external oxygen, external ultraviolet rays, or manufacturing conditions. External oxygen and humidity have a disadvantageous effect on lifetimes of organic light emitting diodes. Thus, when organic light emitting apparatuses are manufactured, packaging of organic light emitting diodes is very important. The present embodiments overcome the above problems as well as provide additional advantages.

Organic light emitting apparatus and method of manufacturing the same


A support substrate and a liquid ejecting element substrate are bonded to each other with an adhesive agent to manufacture a liquid ejection head. The support substrate is provided with a liquid supply port and a recess or through-hole in its main surface. The adhesive agent is applied onto the main surface of the support substrate by means of a roller holding the adhesive agent on its peripheral surface by moving the support substrate and the roller relative to each other such that the recess or through-hole faces the roller before the liquid supply port faces the roller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a liquid ejection head for ejecting liquid such as ink.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various techniques are being employed in the field of electronic packaging for the purpose of applying liquid such as an adhesive agent or an encapsulant material to the surface of a substrate to which an IC (integral circuit) chip or a wiring substrate is to be bonded. Known such techniques include, for example, a technique of applying liquid in a lump to a substrate with use of a transfer plate and a technique of ejecting liquid through a thin needle fitted to a syringe that is filled with liquid for painting application.
Meanwhile, there is another known technique of applying liquid to a substrate by squeegeeing liquid onto a rotating roller to a desired thickness in advance and transferring the liquid onto the substrate while driving the roller to touch and traverse the substrate. Such liquid transfer using a roller is being widely employed in the field of printing. For example, ink is laid on an offset roller to a desired thickness and a sheet of paper is pressed against the roller for ink transfer in an offset printing operation. Such a technique of transferring liquid by means of a roller can be used to apply liquid onto a substrate to a desired thickness so as to achieve an excellently uniform distribution of thickness if the thickness of the liquid on the roller is controlled. Additionally, the technique of transferring liquid by means of a roller can reduce the time required to apply liquid and hence can apply liquid in a lump for a uniform distribution of thickness in a short period of time. Thus, this technique of transferring liquid by means of a roller has a wide range of potential applications of applying liquid such as an adhesive agent or an encapsulant material to the surface of a substrate in the field of electronic packaging.
In the field of electronic packaging, for instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-131764 discloses a method of applying an encapsulant material to a substrate and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-116917 discloses a method of using a roller to apply molten solder to a substrate as transfer and application techniques using a roller.
As described above, liquid can be applied uniformly and relatively easily onto the entire surface of a substrate by using such a technique of transferring and applying liquid onto a substrate by means of a roller. For example, an adhesive agent can efficiently be applied to a substrate by using such a technique of transferring and applying an adhesive agent onto a substrate by means of a roller.
However, there are instances where a substrate does not have a uniform and plane surface in the field of electronic packaging. For example, plate substrates to be used for liquid ejection heads are provided with a liquid supply port as an aperture for supplying ink to a recording element substrate arranged on the substrate surface. This liquid supply port is a through hole extending from the front surface to the rear surface of the plate substrate and takes an important role for supplying ink to a recording element substrate. Then, as an adhesive agent, for example, for bonding a recording element substrate to the plate substrate is transferred and applied to the latter by means of a roller, the adhesive agent can get into the liquid supply port depending on the physical properties of the adhesive agent.
As the adhesive agent gets into the liquid supply port, the adhesive agent closes part of the liquid supply port, which can change the flow rate of ink flowing through the liquid supply port. Particularly in the case of a liquid ejection head that has a plurality of liquid supply ports, the size of the aperture of each of the liquid supply ports can be changed by the adhesive agent that has gotten into the liquid supply port, to by turn change the ink flow rate of each of the recording element substrates to consequently give rise to a problem to the printing performance of the liquid ejection head.
Furthermore, when a liquid ejection head has small liquid supply ports, the adhesive agent that has gotten into the liquid supply ports can completely clog them.

Method of manufacturing liquid ejection head


The present invention relates to collecting statistics automatically for data in a database. There is provided a method for automated statistics collection comprising determining a likelihood that statistics for data have changed; and collecting statistics for data in response to the likelihood. Indicators of the likelihood that statistics have changed may be useful to trigger automated statistics collection. Tables having statistics that change significantly may be collected more often than statistics of tables that are stable. A preferred model is provided to facilitate the collection of statistics that are more relevant: a table is scheduled for collection in accordance with observed patterns of table activity; a table is considered for collection if it meets a threshold level of activity; and a table is sampled to predict whether the statistics to be collected have changed. When collecting statistics, throttling and lock contention can minimize impact on a database user's response experience.

Many database management systems (DBMS) are configured to collect various statistics for data tables. Such statistics may be later used by a query optimizer for selecting a plan of execution for operation on the database from a plurality of plans for optimizing query access of data or for other handling of the data tables. Database administrators (DBA) often configure their databases to collect statistics using hard coded scripts run during system maintenance hours to avoid disrupting operation of the database for users. In many database management systems not having a DBA, statistics are often not collected.
In addition to DBS-controlled statistics collection, automated statistics collection is available in some DBMS. However, currently known automated operations may result in severe impact to the performance of the database. For example, automated statistics collection operations may be initiated during heavy production periods impacting user response.
Therefore a statistics collection solution that addresses at least one of these needs is desired.

Method, system, and program for collecting statistics of data stored in a database

International Business Machines Corporation


A semiconductor device, such as a PMOS or an NMOS transistor, having a stressed channel region is provided. The semiconductor device is formed by recessing the source/drain regions after forming a gate stack. The substrate is removed under the gate stack. Thereafter, an epitaxial layer is formed under the gate stack and in the source/drain regions. The epitaxial layer may be doped in the source/drain regions. In an embodiment, a lower portion of the epitaxial layer and the epitaxial layer under the gate stack may be doped with a conductivity type opposite of the conductivity type of the source/drain regions. In another embodiment of the present invention, a lower portion of the epitaxial layer is left undoped.

Size reduction of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), including reduction of the gate length and gate oxide thickness, has enabled the continued improvement in speed, performance, density, and cost per unit function of integrated circuits over the past few decades. To further enhance transistor performance, MOSFET devices have been fabricated using strained channel regions located in portions of a semiconductor substrate. Strained channel regions allow enhanced carrier mobility to be realized, thereby resulting in increased performance when used for n-channel (NMOSFET) or for p-channel (PMOSFET) devices. Generally, it is desirable to induce a tensile strain in the n-channel of an NMOSFET transistor in the source-to-drain direction to increase electron mobility and to induce a compressive strain in the p-channel of a PMOSFET transistor in the source-to-drain direction to increase hole mobility. There are several existing approaches for introducing strain in the transistor channel region.
In one approach, strain in the channel is introduced by forming a stress layer, such as silicon germanium, over a silicon substrate. The difference in the lattice structure between the silicon substrate and the overlying silicon germanium creates a stress layer, thereby creating stress in the channel region of a subsequently formed transistor.
In this approach, a silicon capping layer is frequently formed over the silicon germanium to prevent the formation of germanium oxide and to aid in the formation of a gate oxide. The process of forming the silicon capping layer, however, is difficult to control. Furthermore, a silicon germanium oxide may nonetheless form during the process of forming the gate oxide. The silicon germanium oxide often exhibits a high interface state density (Dit) and bulk traps, thereby decreasing the performance of the transistor.
Accordingly, there is need for a method to induce strain in the channel region such that the performance characteristics of transistors are enhanced.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A bit line driver circuit includes a first driver and a second driver. The first driver drives a bit line when the bit line driver is in a first state. The second driver drives the bit line when the bit line driver is in a second state. The first driver is configured to produce a slow slew rate for the bit line and the second driver is configured to produce a faster slew rate for the bit line. The first and second drivers may include a first and second pair of driver transistors that are each coupled to the bit line. The states of the bit line driver circuit may be defined by instruction signals applied to the driver circuit and the driver circuit includes decoder logic to interface the instruction to the first and second pairs of driver transistors.

Many technological advances in the computer industry have depended upon the ability of semiconductor memory devices to store and retrieve ever increasing amounts of data quickly and inexpensively. Thus, the development of the semiconductor memory has played a major role in the advancement of the computer industry over the past few decades.
Most modern computer systems utilize a Random Access Memory (RAM), which emphasizes the ability to examine each stored piece of data independently of any other piece of data. However, with the drive for computer systems to become increasingly faster, there has become a need for memory devices to execute faster searches.
The Content Addressable Memory (CAM) is a relatively new memory device that accelerates applications requiring fast searches, such as database lists. CAMs provide the ability to compare a desired piece of information against an entire list of pre-stored entries simultaneously. This function enables a decrease in search time by an order of magnitude.
CAMs utilize several types of instructions in order to carry out these rapid comparisons. For example, one instruction may activate a small fraction of the total number of bit lines (e.g., 8 or 16) present in the CAM. Such an instruction may be useful where the CAM has been partitioned and only one section of the total storage area needs to be searched for a particular compare operation. Another instruction may activate all of the bit lines (e.g., 84 or more depending upon the memory array architecture) where all storage areas of the CAM require reading.
Instructions that activate only a small fraction of the total number of bit lines in a CAM typically have a more restrictive speed requirement than instructions that activate all of the bit lines. That is, such instructions typically must be executed faster than those in which all of the CAM's bit lines are activated. To accommodate this speed requirement, a strong bit lines driver (i.e., one capable of driving the bit line to its operating voltage relatively quickly) is required. However, if the same strong bit line driver is used to activate all of the bit lines (e,g., where the second type of instruction is executed), the power and ground currents create spikes that are unacceptable. Accordingly, what is required is a circuit and methods for instruction controllable bit line drivers. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method of controlling the slew rate of a bit line driver. Upon receipt of a first signal to activate a first set of bit lines a first set of complementary-pair transistor driver units is energized such that a first set of bit lines is activated within a time period permitted by the first instruction. Upon receipt of a second signal to activate a second set of bit lines, a second set of complementary-pair transistor driver units is energized such that a second set of bit lines is activated within a time period permitted by the second instruction.
In another embodiment, the present invention provides a bit line driver having first driver means for driving a bit line when the bit line driver is in a first state, and second driver means for driving the bit line when the bit line driver is in a second state. The first driver means is configured to produce a first slew rate for the bit line and the second driver means is configured to produce a second slew rate for the bit line. The first and second driver means may include a first and second pair of driver transistors which are each coupled to the bit line. The states of the bit line driver circuit may be defined by instruction signals applied to the driver, and decoder logic may be used to interface the instruction signals to the first and second pair of driver transistors.

Circuit and method for instruction controllable slew rate of bit line driver


In a commutation system, a data packet is transmitted and received by radio among radio communication apparatuses. In the communication system, the data packet is started to be transmitted on a transmission right acquired on contention type access control in response to a transmission request for the data packet. It is detected that there is a predetermined state in which the transmission request is generated during or after reception of a long packet which is over a given packet length. When the predetermined state is detected, a start timing of the access control is shifted to a timing at which a desired delay time passes after completing reception of the long packet. One example is that an elapse time from a start of reception of the long packet to generation of the transmission request is measured and, as the desired delay time, a period of time calculated by multiplying the measured elapse time by a specified coefficient is set.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication method and a device in which a transmittal right is acquired by conditional access control and data transmission is started.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since the past, a wireless communication system has been proposed in which road-vehicle communication and vehicle-vehicle communication can be performed over a single wireless communication channel (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2007-60289).
In the proposed wireless communication system, a transmission signal from a road-side radio communication apparatus includes information on transmission timing of the road-side radio communication apparatus. An on-vehicle radio communication apparatus receiving the transmission signal acknowledges a time at which the road-side radio communication apparatus performs transmission based on the information and stops transmission from the on-vehicle radio communication apparatus during this time.
Therefore, in the wireless communication system, the on-vehicle radio communication apparatus does not interfere with the transmission from the road-side radio communication apparatus. The transmission from the road-side radio communication apparatus to the on-vehicle radio communication apparatus can be given priority and performed with certainty.
In the above-described wireless communication system, the on-vehicle radio communication apparatus stops data transmission while the road-side radio communication apparatus is transmitting data. However, when a data transmission request is generated while the on-vehicle radio communication apparatus is stopped, the on-vehicle wireless communication system enters a data transmission wait state. The on-vehicle wireless communication system starts conditional access control to promptly start data transmission when the road-side radio communication apparatus stops data transmission and a wireless communication channel becomes free.
Therefore, in the above-described wireless communication system, for example, as shown in FIG. 14, when a data transmission is time of the road-side radio communication apparatus (road-side unit [RSU]) increases and a number of on-vehicle radio communication apparatuses for which transmission requests are generated during the data transmission time increases, when the data transmission by the road-side radio communication apparatus subsequently ends, a large number of on-vehicle radio communication apparatuses in a transmission wait state until this point simultaneously start access control. As a result, a temporary excessive traffic state occurs in the wireless communication channel. Probability of transmission packet collision increases.
A problem such as this is not limited to the above-described wireless communication system. The problem similarly occurs when a wireless communication system is that in which a plurality of radio communication apparatuses share a single wireless communication channel.
In other words, in the wireless communication system, when a certain radio communication apparatus starts to transmit a packet that is significantly longer that at an ordinary time (referred to, hereinafter, as a long packet), because other radio communication apparatuses cannot transmit data during this time, the number of radio communication apparatuses entering a data transmission wait state increases.
Therefore, even in a typical wireless communication system such as this, a large number of radio communication apparatuses in the data transmission wait state simultaneously start access control when the certain radio communication apparatus completes transmission of the long packet. In a similar manner as that described above, the temporary excessive traffic state occurs. The probability of transmission packet collision increases.

Wireless communication method and device


Embodiments relate to wrapping of a common cryptographic architecture (CCA) key token. An aspect includes wrapping, by an exporting computer, the CCA key token using a key wrapping export function, the CCA key token comprising a CCA key data section and an unencrypted control vector. Another aspect includes splitting the control vector into a first control vector portion and a second control vector portion. Another aspect includes encrypting the CCA key data section and the first control vector portion using an key encrypting key (KEK) to generate a wrapped key block. Another aspect includes binding the second control vector portion to the wrapped key block to form an associated data section, wherein the associated data section is not encrypted, and wherein the wrapped key block and the associated data section comprise a wrapped key token.

The present invention relates generally to encryption, and more specifically, to key wrapping for a common cryptographic architecture (CCA) key token.
Various methods exist in support of electronic data security. Cryptography is the transformation of intelligible information into apparently unintelligible form in order to conceal the information from unauthorized parties. Cryptography is used various purposes, such as to protect information transmitted through communications networks. It can also be the most economical way to protect stored data. Cryptographic procedures can be used not only to protect the privacy of data, but also the integrity of data.
The cryptographic transformation of data is ordinarily defined by a selected algorithm, or procedure, under the control of a key. Since the algorithm is normally public knowledge, protection of the transformed, or enciphered, data depends on secrecy of the key. Thus the key must be kept secret to prevent an opponent from simply using the known algorithm and key to recover the enciphered data. The protection of the data therefore hinges on the protection of secret keys.

Key wrapping for common cryptographic architecture (CCA) key token


An exemplary method for adjusting clock phase of a monitor includes: setting a reference threshold voltage, when an input voltage of image signals is greater than the reference threshold voltage, a scaler begins to receive clock phases generated by a Phase Locked Loop; dividing the clock phase into a plurality of equal periods, recording a corresponding input voltage at each point dividing two adjacent period, and setting the corresponding input voltage as a threshold voltage of the next period; recording a quantity of the clock pulses in each period; evaluating whether a period of the clock phase is a regular period according to whether the quantity of clock pulse in the period is equal to a reference quantity or not, while the input voltage is generating retardation; and selecting the input voltage of the image signals corresponding to a regular period as a threshold voltage of the scaler.

In operation of a typical monitor, image signals are first sampled and scaled, the processed image signals are received by a display card of the monitor, and the display card controls voltages in a display panel of the monitor accordingly so that images can be displayed on a screen of the monitor. Nowadays, liquid crystal display monitors are widely used, and these monitors can display digital image signals. Liquid crystal display monitors can be divided into various categories of products according to their display (screen) resolution. For example, an SVGA (super video graphics array) monitor has a display resolution of 800×600 pixels, an XGA (extended graphics array) monitor has a display resolution of 1024×768 pixels, and an SXGA (super extended graphics array) monitor has a display resolution of 1028×1024 pixels.
Referring to FIG. 2, a conventional monitor 10 includes a microcomputer 11, a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) 12, an A/D (analog/digital) converter 13, and a scaler 14. The microcomputer 11 is provided for determining an image display mode according to a frequency of a horizontal synchronization (H-sync) signal and a vertical synchronization (V-sync) signal, and outputting a control signal to perform a signal processing operation according to the image display mode. The PLL 12 is provided for generating a clock phase based on the control signal output from the microcomputer 11. The A/D converter 13 is provided for sampling analog image signals to digital signals according to the clock phase provided by the PLL 12. For example, the A/D converter 13 may sample R/G/B (Red/Green/Blue) image signals transmitted from a signal source. The scaler 14 is provided for adjusting a size of the digital R/G/B signals output from the A/D converter 13 to a plurality of continuous frame units, in response to the control signal of the microcomputer 11 and by using the clock phase provided by the PLL 12. Each frame unit can be represented as a scan waveform, i.e., a clock phase having a plurality of clock pulses. The scaler 14 is also provided for outputting the adjusted digital R/G/B signals to driving circuitry (not shown) of the monitor.
Referring to FIG. 3, graph (A) shows a waveform diagram illustrating ideal operation of an input voltage of the image signals received by the scaler 14; and graph (B) shows a waveform diagram illustrating the clock phase generated by the PLL 12. The input voltage of the image signals is 0.7 volts, and an initial threshold voltage of the scaler 14 is also set at 0.7 volts. That is, when the input voltage of the image signals is greater than or equal to 0.7 volts, the scaler 14 begins to receive the clock phase provided by the PLL 12. In graph (B), the image signal is an H-sync signal that corresponds to a display resolution of 1024×768 pixels (i.e., the monitor 10 is an XGA monitor). Accordingly, a corresponding clock phase generated by the PLL 12 includes 1024 clock pulses.
However, in general, the input voltage of the image signals generates retardation. Even though the scaler 14 is set with a lower threshold voltage in order to reduce retardation, retardation in general cannot be completely avoided. Referring to FIG. 4, graph (A) shows an actual waveform diagram illustrating operation of an input voltage of the image signals received by the scaler 14; graph (B) shows an actual waveform diagram illustrating the clock phase generated by the PLL 12 according to an input voltage of 'b'; and graph (C) shows another actual waveform diagram illustrating the clock phase generated by the PLL 12 according to an input voltage of 'c'.
When the input voltage is greater than or equal to the threshold voltage, the scaler 14 begins to receive the clock phase provided by the PLL 12. As a result, when the input voltage is set at 'b', the clock phase includes 1025 clock pulses; and when the input voltage is set at 'c', the clock phase includes 1024 clock pulses. Therefore if the threshold voltage is improperly set, the quantity of the clock pulses varies when the input voltage generates retardation. This in turn is liable to impair the stability of the monitor and its display performance.
It is desired to provide a method for adjusting clock phase of a monitor that can overcome the above-described deficiencies.

Method for adjusting monitor clock phase that selects scaler threshold voltage corresponding to period having reference number of pulses


A method for diagnosis includes capturing a sequence of two-dimensional ultrasound images of a moving organ within a body of a patient. At least one contour of the organ is identified in a succession of the images in the sequence and is processed to generate an output indicative of motion of the organ over time.

Methods for three-dimensional (3-D) mapping of the endocardium (i.e., the inner surfaces of the heart) are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,096, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for constructing a map of the heart. An invasive probe is brought into contact with multiple locations on the wall of the heart. The position of the invasive probe is determined for each location, and the positions are combined to form a structural map of at least a portion of the heart.
In some systems, such as the one described by U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,096 cited above, additional physiological properties, as well as local electrical activity on the surface of the heart, are also acquired by the catheter. A corresponding map incorporates the acquired local information.
Some systems use hybrid catheters that incorporate ultrasound imaging and position sensing, as well as electrical sensing. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,690,963, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a locating system for determining the location and orientation of an invasive medical instrument that may include an ultrasound imaging head, as well as an electrode.
A catheter with acoustic transducers may be used for non-contact imaging of the endocardium. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,716,166 and 6,773,402, whose disclosures are also incorporated herein by reference, describe a system for 3-D mapping and geometrical reconstruction of body cavities, particularly of the heart.
As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,345, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes an ultrasonic catheter for two-dimensional (2-D) imaging or 3-D reconstruction. The ultrasonic catheter includes at least two ultrasonic arrays having good near and far field resolutions. The catheter provides an outline of a heart chamber, in order to assist in interpreting images obtained by the catheter.
Several methods are known in the art for non-contact reconstruction of the endocardial surface using intracardial ultrasonic imaging. For example, PCT Patent Publication WO 00/19908, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a steerable transducer array for intracardial ultrasonic imaging. The array forms an ultrasonic beam, which is steered in a desired direction by an active aperture. U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,269, whose disclosure is also incorporated herein by reference, describes an acoustic imaging system based on an ultrasound device that is incorporated into a catheter. The ultrasound device directs ultrasonic signals toward an internal structure in the heart to create an ultrasonic image.
PCT Patent Publication WO 99/55233, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for delineating a 3-D surface of a patient's heart. A 3-D mesh model is developed using training data, to serve as an archetypal shape for a population of patient hearts. Multiple ultrasound images of the patient's heart are taken in different image planes. Anatomical locations are manually identified in each of the images. The mesh model is rigidly aligned with the images, in respect to the predefined anatomical locations.
Other methods of contour extraction and 3-D modeling using ultrasonic images are described in European Patent Application EP 0961135, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference. As another example, PCT Patent Publication WO 98/46139, whose disclosure is also incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for combining Doppler and B-mode ultrasonic image signals into a single image using a modulated nonlinear mapping function.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2006/0241445, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for modeling of an anatomical structure. A plurality of ultrasonic images of the anatomical structure are acquired using an ultrasonic sensor, at a respective plurality of spatial positions of the ultrasonic sensor. Location and orientation coordinates of the ultrasonic sensor are measured at each of the plurality of spatial positions. Contours-of-interest that refer to features of the anatomical structure are marked in one or more of the ultrasonic images. A three-dimensional (3-D) model of the anatomical structure is constructed, based on the contours-of-interest and on the measured location and orientation coordinates.
Other patents and patent applications of relevance to the present invention include U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,500, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2005/0283075, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,447,453 and 6,447,454, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2005/014377, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2005/0137661, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,556,695, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Cardiac mechanical assessment using ultrasound


The present disclosure provides a host electronic device, a stylus and a method for determining the location of a stylus with respect to a host electronic device. A magnetic field generator of the stylus is energized and a first magnetic field is sensed at two or more magnetometers of the host electronic device. The location of the stylus with respect to the host electronic device is determined dependent upon the first magnetic field. A second magnetic field may be sensed, while the magnetic field generator is either deactivated or energized with an opposite polarity, to correct for the presence of a background magnetic field. The magnetometers may be directional magnetometers and may be arranged in an array.

Stylus pointing devices enable information to be input to a host electronic device. When the tip of a stylus is placed in close proximity to a display surface of the host device, the position of the tip may be determined by the host by a variety of methods, including the effect of the stylus on the electrical properties of the tablet (i.e., via electromagnetic induction, changes in electrical resistance, electrical capacitance, and the like); the optical properties of the tablet; or by ultrasonic positioning.
One method for determining stylus location is to employ a grid of overlapping coils embedded in a surface of the host to sense an electromagnetic field generated by a transmitter in the stylus. Typically, one set of elongated coils extends in the horizontal (X) direction and another set of elongated coils extends in the vertical (Y) direction. The sensed electromagnetic field information is processed to yield a location.
Another method energizes the X- and Y-coils of the grid sequentially and senses the resulting voltage induced in a receiving coil of the stylus.
One disadvantage of these approaches is that a large number of coils is required to provide accurate location information.
A magnetometer is a sensing device that produces an output signal, such as voltage signal, in response to an applied magnetic field. Commonly, such devices utilize a Hall sensor, which senses the voltage difference produced across a current-carrying conductor in the presence of a magnetic field, or a magnetostrictive sensor. Magnetometers are responsive to the earth's magnetic field and may be employed as compasses.
The earth's magnetic field is altered by the presence of ferrous objects. Accordingly, variations in the earth's magnetic field may be employed to detect ferrous objects by moving one or more magnetometers across a region.
A single compass embedded in an electronic device may be employed to detect changes in a magnetic field caused by movement of a magnetic object, such as a magnetic ring or pen, around the device. This approach senses motion and may be used for gesture detection, but cannot be employed to sense location due to the interfering presence of magnetic fields produced by the electronic device and by the earth's magnetic field and because the magnetic field is dependent upon the orientation of the magnetic object with respect to the electronic device.
It would be useful to provide an alternative way to accurately sense the location of a stylus with respect to a host electronic device.

Stylus location utilizing multiple magnetometers


Systems and methods are provided for drawing a wedge from an array of data. An angular reference table contains a plurality of angle values. An angle sampler samples a subset of angle values for a given arc of a plurality of arcs that will constitute the wedge from the angular reference table to provide an even sampling along a representative portion of the arc. A pixel locator determines horizontal and vertical coordinates for each of the sampled angle values. A pixel indexer determines an associated row and column of the two-dimensional array for each of the sampled angle values and retrieves a color for each of the sampled angle values from the two-dimensional array. A graphical renderer draws pixels with the retrieved colors at the determined horizontal and vertical coordinates.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to sensor systems and, more specifically, to systems and methods for displaying sensor data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In some sensor and graphical applications, it is desirable to translate data from a two-dimensional, rectangular array into a wedge-shaped graphic. For example, in many sensor applications, sensors are arranged as to monitor a wedge of space. Each individual sensor can be conceptualized as scanning a smaller wedge-spaced beam in the wedge of space to produce a measurement at each of a plurality of radial distances. The measurements for each beam, as taken, represent a single vector of data. The combined measurements for the plurality of beams can be conceptualized as a rectangular array.
In most sensing applications, it is desirable to provide data to a user in a manner that reflects the geography that is being sensed. While a user may be able to puzzle out the meaning of a rectangular display of data given time, displaying the sensor data as a wedge allows the user to quickly understand the importance of the sensed data. It will be appreciated that it is desirable to perform the translation efficiently, however, to avoid excessive computational expense while providing the user with a real-time display of the sensed wedge of space.

Efficient translation of data from a two-dimensional array to a wedge


Systems, methods, and instrumentalities are disclosed for separating a channel and data without the use of reference signals. For example, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) may determine a first orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol based on a data vector. The WTRU may determine a second OFDM symbol by applying a circular time-inverse operation and a conjugate operation to the first OFDM symbol. The WTRU may send the first OFDM symbol and the second OFDM symbol. The first and the second OFDM symbols may be sent to consecutively. Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)-spread and nonlinear preprocessing (exponential transformation at the transmitter) may be used and/or peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) may be reduced via randomizer block at the receiver.

In Long Term Evolution (LTE), orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) may be used for downlink (DL) transmission. Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) may be used for uplink (UL) transmission. In a cyclic prefix (CP) DFT-s-OFDM, the data symbols may be spread with a DFT block, and may be mapped to the corresponding inputs of an inverse DFT (IDFT) block. The CP may be prepended to the beginning of the symbol to avoid inter-symbol interference (ISI) and allow one-tap frequency domain equalization (FDE) at the receiver. A cyclic prefix (CP) DFT-s-OFDM may be referred to as single carrier (SC) frequency-division multiplexing (SC-FDMA) with multiple accessing.
In conventional wireless systems, including LTE, reference symbols may be used to estimate the channel and equalize the received signals. Common reference symbols may be transmitted on subcarriers distributed over the system bandwidth. WTRU-specific reference signals may be distributed over the sub-band that is allocated to a specific user equipment (UE).

Reference signal-free transmission for wireless systems


In an image forming apparatus, a consumable accommodates printing material and is mounted in a main casing. The consumable includes a consumable memory. A controller performs a restriction process to rewrite the first status information to indicate the used product to prohibit the consumable from being used in other image forming apparatuses in a case where first status information stored in the one of the consumable memory and a main memory indicates the new product. The controller performs an updating process to update the second status information so that the second status information indicates that the consumable can be temporarily used in the another image forming apparatus in a case where the controller receives a contract cancellation instruction. The contract cancellation instruction instructs to cancel an agreement concluded for the image forming apparatus.

In recent years, a wide range of flat-rate printing services is provided to users of image forming apparatuses. The flat-rate printing service is known as a subscription service and allows a user to subscribe to a printing service for each image forming apparatus. For example, on a contracted machine, i.e., an image forming apparatus for which an agreement is concluded to use the flat-rate printing service, printing is allowed at a fixed rate up to a preset number of pages within a predetermined period.
Under a flat-rate printing service, generally the service provider specifies that subscription consumables for exclusive use with the flat-rate printing service are to be used in the image forming apparatus for which the agreement is concluded. In such cases, a mechanism to ensure the appropriate use of subscription consumables on the contracted machine is needed.
In order to ensure the appropriate use of subscription consumables, a technology is disclosed for differentiating between subscription consumables and ordinary consumables that can be used independent of entering a service, for example. Another technology is disclosed for managing subscription consumables and contracted machines in association with each other so that the subscription consumables are used on specific contracted machines.

Image forming apparatus updating status information to indicate that consumable can be temporarily used in another image forming apparatus


A device may determine a behavioral pattern of an account over a past time period based on data relating to one or more transactions associated with the account. The device may identify one or more quantitative features of the behavioral pattern and one or more spatial features of the behavioral pattern. The device may determine an account type cluster to which the account belongs, based on the one or more quantitative features and the one or more spatial features identified. The device may determine, based on the account type cluster that is determined, a model for processing the behavioral pattern. The device may predict, using the model that is determined, an amount of funds that is likely to remain in the account during a future time period. The device may perform one or more actions based on the amount of funds that is predicted.

A liquidity buffer is a proportion of deposits at a financial institution that the financial institution must hold as capital to ensure an ability to meet short-term obligations. The financial institution may invest capital that is not maintained as the liquidity buffer to generate profit for the financial institution. The Basel Accords, promulgated by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision, require certain financial institutions to hold a liquidity buffer against 25% of corporate operational deposits (e.g., working capital used by an account holder for day-to-day business operations) and 40% of non-operational corporate deposits (e.g., capital not immediately required for day-to-day business operations of an account holder). Thus, classification of deposits as operational or non-operational may affect the profitability of the financial institution.


A particularly reasonably priced cylinder liner (1) for combustion engines, especially for one-cylinder diesel engines with a cylinder (2) cast on the crankcase, is produced from steel by deep drawing or deformation by compression and inserted with a tight sliding fit into the cylinder bore (12).

The invention relates to a combustion engine with one or more cylinders, which are lined with liners, which are produced from steel by deep drawing or by deformation by compression.
From methods for repairing, in particular, large engines and those, for which the crankcase is cast in one piece with the cylinders, the idea was developed, for reasons of costs, of using cylinder liners. The worn or damaged cylinders are drilled out, provided that the wall thickness permits such a procedure, and the cast cylinder liner, the bore of which corresponds to the original, is then inserted, so that the pistons can continue to be used.
There are also engine constructions, for which cylinder liners are inserted from the very start as an exchangeable part (DE 4029427 A1). In general, these cylinder linings are produced by the centrifugal casting method and have a wall thickness of 2.5 to 3.5 mm. The liner is pushed in without external finishing and honed on its running surface to fit to the piston diameter.
Such measures do not come into consideration for inexpensive engines, such as small one-cylinder engines, since the costs associated therewith are too high in relation to the total costs of a new cylinder block or a new engine.
However, from the point of view of preserving raw materials, it is desirable to line small engines, instead of having to discard them after they are worn out.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to make the repair even of inexpensive engines meaningful from an economic point of view.
A known, particularly thin-wall liner (U.S. Pat. No. 2,229,671) requires that the manufacturing process be highly accurate, since the liners are inserted dry into the cylinder bore. In this connection, it is important to realize a gap-free press fit in order to achieve undisturbed conduction of heat. This fit is achieved using a certain flexibility of the liner wall, which has a very small thickness. After the known liner is inserted into the cylinder bore, its running surface is lapped.


A liquid membrane matrix is disclosed in the form of an aquaporin containing bulk liquid membrane matrix (BLM), wherein said liquid membrane matrix is formed from a solution of an amphiphilic copolymer detergent wherein transmembrane proteins have been functionally incorporated and wherein said matrix further contains a stabilizing oil phase. The uses of the membrane matrix include water extraction from liquid aqueous media by forward osmosis, e.g. for desalination of salt water.

Liquid membrane separation processes have been used for removal of dissolved substances such as ions from aqueous solutions, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,448(A). Said invention relates to a process for the removal of dissolved species from aqueous solutions, which comprises contacting said aqueous solution with an emulsion, said emulsion comprising an exterior phase which is characterized as being immiscible with said aqueous solution and yet permeable to said dissolved species, and an interior phase which contains a reactant, such as an ion exchange compound, capable of converting said dissolved species to a non-permeable form. The dissolved species permeate the exterior phase, into the interior phase where they are converted into non-permeable forms and thus retained in the interior phase of said emulsion. The aqueous solution, depleted in said dissolved species, is separated from said emulsion and the emulsion cycled for reuse. However, when multiple or unspecified ions or solutes are present in an aqueous solution or medium, such as a biological liquid it becomes increasingly complex to remove solutes by this or similar methods, since it would be necessary to device a specific reactant for each species to be removed. Another example of the use of a liquid membrane extraction process is described in (WO 87/002380) Production of Low-Ethanol Beverages by Membrane Extraction which relates to membrane extraction systems designed to selectively remove ethanol from wine and other beverages while retaining the water and numerous other organic constituents. Thus, liquid membrane separation methods have hitherto been developed for selective removal of solutes in, e.g. aqueous liquids. Seeing a need to selectively remove or extract water from aqueous liquid sources the present inventors have devised a liquid membrane process suitable to removal or extraction of pure water from an aqueous liquid using the selective water channel known from aquaporin proteins.
Fluorescent-based activity assays are well-established for soluble proteins, but not for membrane proteins. A likely reason for this is that membrane proteins are fragile when they are taken out of their natural environment—the biological membrane. Moreover, the accessibility to commercially available protein species has been restricted to only a few membrane proteins. This is related to the difficulty in expressing and purifying membrane proteins in large quantities (gram-scale). Membrane proteins typically retain their function upon reconstitution into a biomimetic membrane that sufficiently mimics the protein's natural environment. There is today an unmet need for an assay for screening lipid membrane components for their usefulness in the creation of a biomimetic membrane formulation that meets the membrane protein requirements, i.e. specific hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions or layers. At the same time, such an assay would provide useful information about the folding state of a membrane protein.

Liquid membrane suitable for water extraction


A technique for configuring a processor allows the processor to interface with external buses of different types; for example, busses having different data widths. Configuration data is stored in a memory, typically a read-only memory, and transferred to the processor during a system configuration period. An initial configuration fetch may be accomplished to retrieve the configuration information prior to executing an actual processor instruction. Alternatively, the configuration information may be included in an actual instruction word. The system configuration period typically occurs during the initial power-on sequence, but may occur at other times.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to programmably configuring an integrated circuit or use with a bus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Integrated circuit (IC) processors, including for example microprocessors, microcontrollers, and digital signal processors, typically communicate addresses and data to and from external devices over multi-conductor uses. These buses typically include 8, 16, 32 or 64 conductors in the case of data uses, and perhaps 20 to 30 conductors in the case of address buses, depending on memory size. The number of conductors in a bus is referred to as the bus "width". In many cases, the data bus and the address bus are separate. In other cases, the addresses are time-multiplexed with the data on the same bus conductors. It is desirable in some cases for a processor to be able to interface with more than one bus width. For example, a microcontroller may interface with an 8-conductor data bus in a low-cost system, or may alternatively interface with a 16-conductor data bus in a higher-performance system. However, it is usually necessary to instruct the processor prior to system start-up as to what type of bus it must interface with, in order to avoid corrupted data and/or incorrect instructions that could lead to system failure.
Configuring the processor so as to interface with the chosen bus type has been accomplished using integrated circuit terminals that are connected to a high or low voltage source (V.sub.DD or V.sub.SS). However, that technique typically requires extra integrated circuit terminals that serve no other function. It is also known that processors can be configured using external pull-up or pull-down resistors connected to terminals that serve a dual-use function. For example, the terminals may be sampled during an initial configuration period at system power-up, and then used as input or output terminals after the initial configuration period. However, that technique requires space for the configuration resistors on a printed circuit board. Such space is increasingly at a premium as fine pitch packages and various flip-chip technologies lead to finer conductor spacing. In addition, the use of external resistors may complicate in-board circuit testing, as via JTAG (IEEE Standard 1149.1), and results in power dissipation during system activity. It is known also to use an initial configuration period for setting the control signal modes; for example, active logic high or alternatively active logic low.

Integrated circuit with programmable bus configuration


A method performed by a wireless communication device for monitoring for a paging message from a core network node in a wireless communications network.

In a typical radio communications network, wireless communication devices, also known as mobile stations and/or user equipments (UEs), communicate via a Radio Access Network (RAN) to one or more Core Networks (CN). The radio access network covers a geographical area which is divided into cell areas, with each cell area being served by a base station, e.g., a radio base station (RBS), which in some networks may also be called, for example, a "NodeB" or evolved Node B (eNB, eNode B). A cell is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio base station at a base station site or an antenna site in case the antenna and the radio base station are not collocated. Each cell is identified by an identity within the local radio area, which is broadcast in the cell. Another identity identifying the cell uniquely in the whole mobile network is also broadcasted in the cell. One base station may have one or more cells. A cell may be downlink and/or uplink cell. The base stations communicate over the air interface operating on radio frequencies with the user equipments within range of the base stations.
A Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile communication system, which evolved from the second generation (2G) Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) is essentially a RAN using wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) and/or High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) for user equipments. In a forum known as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), telecommunications suppliers propose and agree upon standards for third generation networks and UTRAN specifically, and investigate enhanced data rate and radio capacity. In some versions of the RAN as e.g. in UMTS, several base stations may be connected, e.g., by landlines or microwave, to a controller node, such as a radio network controller (RNC) or a base station controller (BSC), which supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural base stations connected thereto. The RNCs are typically connected to one or more core networks.
Specifications for the Evolved Packet System (EPS) have been completed within the 3GPP and this work continues in the coming 3GPP releases. The EPS comprises the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), also known as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) radio access, and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), also known as System Architecture Evolution (SAE) core network. E-UTRAN/LTE is a variant of a 3GPP radio access technology wherein the radio base station nodes are directly connected to the EPC core network rather than to RNCs. In LTE the base station nodes are for example directly connected to Mobility Management Entities (MME). The MME is responsible for idle mode UE tracking and paging procedure including retransmissions. In general, in E-UTRAN/LTE the functions of a RNC are distributed between the radio base stations nodes, e.g. eNodeBs in LTE, and the core network. As such, the Radio Access Network (RAN) of an EPS has an essentially "flat" architecture comprising radio base station nodes without reporting to RNCs.
Machine Type Communications (MTC) is an area within telecommunications, sometimes also referred to as M2M or Internet of Things (IoT), in which it is envisioned that all types of devices which may potentially benefit from communicating will do so. That is, everything from agriculture and/or industrial sensors and actuators to things in the smart home or workout gauges in the personal networks will be connected wirelessly. Many devices may not, like a smart phone, be charged frequently and therefore it is beneficial if many of the MTC wireless communication devices, or UEs, try to conserve energy and power by sleeping as much as possible, i.e., having as much of their circuitry turned off as much as possible. For example, sensors and other devices may reside in remote locations and the number of deployed devices may be so large that it may be practically infeasible to replace the batteries of this kind of devices. Thus, it is an important goal to aim for reduction in the power consumption when considering improvements for current wireless or cellular systems.
In wireless communications networks, such as in 3GPP LTE networks, the UEs may save power by a discontinuous reception (DRX) mechanism. During DRX the UE may keep its receiver circuitry powered off to save power except at configured intervals. But during a DRX sleep the network may not reach the UE to inform it about incoming data traffic, system information updates, etc.
When the network tries to send data traffic to the UE, the network uses a paging procedure, where a paging message is sent from the CN through the base station to the UE. The paging message lets the RAN and the UE know that the CN is looking for the UE. The UE is expected to listen to the paging channel at certain time instants which are calculated using UE identification number (IMSI) and the current System Frame Number (SFN) in the cell. For a UE in idle mode this procedure is specified in 3GPP TS 36.304, e.g. in version 12.4.0. During each DRX cycle the UE goes to sleep after monitoring the DL channels if there is no activity. In LTE, the SFN denotes a radio frame, which is 10 ms in length, comprising 10 subframes. The available SFN number goes from 0 to 1023. The full SFN cycle length is 10.24 seconds, therefore the SFN wraps around every 10.24 seconds in each cell. The UE should be awake at least during one paging occasion during a DRX cycle so the network paging message may reach the UE. The paging occasion is defined as the subframe during which the UE shall monitor the paging message. The paging occasion and Paging Frame (PF) is determined based on the length of the DRX cycle of the UE and based on an identification of the UE, such as a UE ID in LTE.
When a UE wakes up in a cell and does not know the downlink timing of the radio frames, the subframes and the symbols, it needs to obtain synchronization to the network first. There are different technology dependent ways to achieve these synchronizations. In LTE, in order to calculate the paging frame and the paging occasion the SFN synchronization is obtained. This may be achieved by reading the broadcasted Master Information Block (MIB) which includes information on the current SFN. If the UE sleeps for a very long period, its internal clock may experience clock drift large enough to require the UE to read the MIB again after the UE has woken up.
In the current LTE system the DRX cycle length and thus the paging cycle length is at most 2.56 seconds. For UMTS currently the longest specified DRX cycle lengths is 5.12 s.
As mentioned above it is important to save power and therefore there is incentive to extend the DRX cycle length in order to save more power, especially for MTC UEs. However, if the DRX cycle length in idle more, i.e. the paging cycle length, of the UEs is extended beyond the SFN range, the current procedures of determining the paging occasion are not applicable any more.
LTE will be used as examples of a wireless communications network in which a problem may arise.
The current procedures in LTE, and similar procedures in UMTS, determine one paging occasion per SFN period. In LTE the paging occasion is given by SFN mod T=(T div N)*(UE_ID mod N), where T is the DRX cycle of the UE and N is the minimum of T and nB, where nB is chosen from 4T, 2T, T, T/2, T/4, T/8, T/16, T/32. Since there is one paging occasion per SFN period the paging cycle, i.e. the period between paging occasions cannot be longer than one SFN period.
Moreover, the SFN is not synchronized across different cells. Thus, if the UE moves to another cell while it is sleeping, this will also lead to problems related to the calculation of the correct wake-up time for paging, especially if the maximum paging cycle is extended. This is especially a problem if the maximum paging cycle is extended and even in the case the SFN range is extended.
As described above extended DRX cycles may require some changes or alternative ways of handling procedures and features which rely on the relatively short timers governing the DRX cycles and the fact that legacy UEs may be assumed to be reached, i.e. respond to paging, at most after a couple of seconds.
In idle mode, extending the DRX cycle may mean extending a UE-specific paging-cycle and allowing a UE-specific paging cycle to be used instead of the shorter default system paging cycle.
As described above, in a RAN the SFNs are used as the time reference when calculating paging frames and occasions.
When DRX cycle lengths are increased beyond the SFN range, which is currently 10.24 s, an alternative mechanism is needed to indicate times for UEs to receive paging.
One way to achieve this would be a direct extension of the SFN numbering scheme, i.e., using more bits for indicating the SFN in one way or another.
However, by simply extending the SFN range, a new problem would occur especially affecting mobile UEs. Considering that different cells, and their respective eNBs, are typically not synchronized with respect to the SFN, there are issues to guarantee certain paging reliability and thus reachability for UEs changing cells. A paging occasion may be missed because a given paging occasion occurs at different points in time in different cells due to the lack of synchronization of the SFN between cells and because the UE may perform cell reselection during a DRX sleeping period.

Wireless communication device, a core network node and methods therein

Abstract: The wireless communication device monitors (304) for the paging message at one or more paging occasions during a time period for monitoring paging. The start of the time period is based on an instant of time when the wireless communication device registers to the core network node.


A sheet feeding device, which is incorporated in an image forming apparatus, includes a sheet container that contains a sheet therein, an outer end part connectable to the sheet container, a sheet feeding member, a swing shaft, a sheet loading member supported by the swing shaft to swing according to an amount of sheets loaded on the loading surface, a rotary shaft, and a sheet amount indicator being rotatably supported by the rotary shaft and having a contact end contacting the sheet loading member swinging according to a remaining amount of sheets and a sheet amount display end moving in a given display range visible from the outside of the sheet feeding device. The sheet loading member has a sloped surface sloped to a loading surface of the loading member and disposed at a portion where the contact end of the sheet amount indicator contacts the loading surface.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a sheet feeding device that feeds sheets, and an image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet feeding device.
2. Related Art
Known sheet feeding devices that are incorporated in an image forming apparatus includes one or more sheet containers to feed a recording media such as a sheet image forming apparatus from a selected sheet container to a sheet conveying path for copying and printing.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP H10-297793-A discloses a sheet loading device that indicates an amount of remaining sheets loaded in a sheet container. The sheet loading device disclosed in JP H10-297793-A includes a sheet loading plate, a biasing member that biases the sheet loading plate to move according to the amount of loaded sheets, and a sheet amount indicator that moves in a vertical direction. The sheet loading plate, the biasing member, and a swing member are provided in a box-shaped container. The sheet amount indicator is provided to extend from a slit formed on a cover member that is detachably attached from a downstream side of the sheet container in a sheet feeding direction. One end of the swing member is in contact with a lower side of a loading surface of the sheet loading plate and the other end of the swing member is connected to the sheet amount indicator. As the sheet loading plate moves vertically according to the amount of loaded sheets, the swing member having one end of which in contact with the lower side of the loading surface of the sheet loading plate swings. In response to the movement, the sheet amount indicator connected to the other end of the swing member moves vertically. The vertical movement of the sheet amount indicator visually indicates the amount of sheets loaded on the sheet loading plate.
To reduce the cost of the sheet feeding device, the sheet amount indicator can be used in common to multiple sheet containers that have different maximum loadable amounts.
However, in the sheet feeding device (i.e., the sheet loading device) disclosed in JP H10-297793-A, the position of the edge of the sheet amount indicator varies between a sheet full state and a sheet empty state according to the maximum loadable amount of the sheet container. Therefore, the maximum movable amount (the maximum amplitude) of the edge of the sheet amount indicator that extends from the slit having a given length of the cover member changes depending on the maximum loadable amount of the sheet container. Accordingly, the sheet feeding device disclosed in JP H10-297793-A cannot determine the remaining amount of sheets loaded in the sheet container with accuracy depending on the position of the edge of the sheet amount indicator.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus incorporating same


Disclosed is a bonded-substrate fabricating apparatus capable of reducing defective bonded substrates fabricated. A transfer robot sucks the outer edge area of the bottom surface of a substrate and spouts gas toward the bottom surface of the substrate to carry the substrate into a vacuum process chamber of a press machine while keeping the substrate horizontally. A press plate holds the substrate, which is held by the transfer robot, by suction.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for fabricating bonded substrate (panel). More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for fabricating bonded substrate for a liquid crystal display (LCD), which is provided by bonding two substrates at a predetermined gap.
Nowadays, there are demands for large and thin liquid crystal display (LCD) panels capable of providing fine display on a large display area, and apparatus which fabricates such LCD panels have been developed. An LCD panel is fabricated by arranging two glass substrates to face each other at an extremely narrow gap (several micrometers) and filling a liquid crystal between the two glass substrates. The two glass substrates are, for example, an array substrate on which a plurality of TFTs (Thin Film Transistors) are formed in a matrix form and a color filter substrate on which color filters (red, green and blue), a light shielding film, etc. are formed. The light shielding film contributes to improving contrast and shields light toward the TFTs to prevent generation of an optical leak current. The array substrate is bonded to the color filter substrate by a sealing material (adhesive) containing a thermosetting resin.
A method of fabricating an LCD panel includes a liquid crystal sealing step of sealing a liquid crystal between two glass substrates. The conventional liquid crystal sealing step is carried out by the following vacuum injection method. First, the TFT-formed array substrate is bonded to the color filter substrate (opposing substrate) via a sealing material. The sealing material is cured. The bonded substrates and a liquid crystal are placed in a vacuum tank and an inlet port provided in the sealing material is dipped in the liquid crystal. The pressure in the tank is set back to the atmospheric pressure so that the liquid crystal is sucked from the inlet port. Finally, the inlet port of the sealing material is sealed.
Recently, attention has been paid to the following dropping method instead of the vacuum injection method. First, the frame of a sealing material is formed in such a way as to enclose the outer periphery of the array substrate. A predetermined dose of a liquid crystal is dropped on the surface of the array substrate within the frame of the sealing material. Finally, the array substrate is bonded to the color filter substrate in vacuum. The dropping method can reduce the amount of a liquid crystal in use significantly and can shorten the time needed for the liquid crystal sealing step, thus resulting in a reduction in panel fabrication cost. It is therefore expected that mass production will be improved.
A bonded-substrate fabricating apparatus which operates according to the dropping method has the following problems.
1. Improper Chuck Originated From the Bending of Substrate
Normally, a substrate is held by suction by vacuum chuck or chucking by electrostatic chuck. In the vacuum-chuck holding, a holding plate which can hold a substrate by vacuum suction is used. The array substrate is held by the holding plate and the frame of the sealing material is formed on the array substrate. The adequate amount of a liquid crystal is dropped on the surface of the array substrate from a dispenser. Finally, the array substrate is bonded to the color filter substrate in a vacuum atmosphere.
In the electrostatic-chuck holding, a holding plate which has an electrode is used. A voltage is applied between the electrode of the holding plate and a conductive film formed on a glass substrate to generate Coulomb's force between the glass and the electrode. The Coulomb's force electrostatically holds the glass substrate on the holding plate.
In the vacuum-chuck holding, when the degree of vacuum in the process chamber becomes as high as a certain level, vacuum chuck does not work. In this respect, the substrate is electrostatically held by electrostatic chuck before suction by vacuum chuck stops working.
Normally, two substrates are separately held by an upper holding plate and a lower holding plate and are bonded together. Specifically, to prevent transfer of dust on the bonded surfaces or contamination thereof, the outer edge areas (portions outward of the frame of the sealing material) of the substrates are held by a transfer robot and are moved into the process chamber. However, the large and thin substrates are likely to curve (bend) due to their dead loads. The holding plates cannot stably hold the bent substrates. If the process chamber is depressurized for the purpose of bonding the substrates, therefore, the misalignment of the substrates or separation of the substrates from the holding plates may occur.
In a case where the holding plate (electrostatic chuck) electrostatically holds a bent substrate, glow discharge occurs during depressurization of the process chamber. This case brings about a problem such that a circuit or TFT devices formed on the substrate are damaged, resulting in generation of defects. In addition, as air remains between the holding plate and the substrate, the substrate may be released from the electrostatic chuck while depressurizing the process chamber.
2. Improper Bonding Originated From the Bending of Substrate
In the bonding step, two substrates are pressed while keeping a predetermined substrate gap. The important factors in the bonding step are to keep the two substrates parallel to each other and to press the two substrates with a uniform load. If the substrates are bent, however, the frame of the sealing material is pressed unevenly in the bonding step, so that the liquid crystal may be pushed out of the frame of the sealing material. If the pressing pressure is uneven, the pressing pressure needed to seal the liquid crystal increases so that the influence on the substrates becomes greater. This makes it difficult to fabricate stable products.
3. Dust Oriented Improper Chuck
The holding plates that hold the two substrates separately have chuck surfaces which are planarized at a high precision. In a case where dust or glass pieces are adhered to the chuck surfaces, the dust is transferred onto the substrates, causing the misalignment of the substrates or separation of the substrates from the holding plates. As minute dust is adhered to the holding plates by electrostatic force, however, it is difficult to remove the dust from the holding plates.
4. Defects Originated From Variation in Cell Thickness
It is necessary to properly adjust the amount of a liquid crystal to be sealed in an extremely narrow substrate gap (cell thickness). The gap between the two substrates is determined by placing spacers between the substrates or forming poles on one of the substrates. However, the spacers and poles have a slight height variation. This results in a change in the substrate gap, so that the amount of the liquid crystal sealed may become too much or too little locally. This would bring about a problem such that the cell thickness would vary after the substrates were bonded. The variation in cell thickness cause uneven display of the LCD panel.

Apparatus and method for fabricating bonded substrate


A system and methodology that facilitates improving performance of a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) during overload conditions, by embedding a unique Application Session Identifier (app session ID) within multiple requests associated with a single call processing session is provided. Moreover, the system includes an overload protection component that identifies whether an incoming request is associated with previously processed requests based in part of the app session ID embedded within the incoming request. When the HSS is overloaded, the incoming requests that initiate a new call processing session and are not associated with previously processed requests are rejected/dropped before incoming requests that are associated with requests that have been previously processed.

Advances in wireless and/or wired telecommunications are rapidly increasing the utilization of IMS user endpoint devices (UEs) that facilitate communication between users. Typically, a master database, such as a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) in 3GPP architecture, is utilized to store subscription-related information (e.g., subscriber profiles) and registration information associated with the IMS user endpoint devices (UEs). Moreover, the HSS can perform authentication and authorization of the user and can provide information about the subscriber's location and/or IP information. In addition, the HSS provides services to other call processing servers within the communication network, such as Call Session Control Functions (CSCF), application feature servers in 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks.
With evolution and growing popularity of wireless and/or wired communication, the HSS can grow to a very large server complex, which can experience various overload conditions. In one example, a faulty server or network connectivity can reduce the available capacity for the HSS. In another example, other portions of the Next Generation Network (NGN) can experience fault recovery resulting in a large number of user equipments (UEs) to flood the NGN core network with initial registration requests. Many conditions including the above examples can cause the HSS to enter an overload condition.
Conventionally, the HSS utilizes an overload protection design that randomly rejects or drops requests from its clients. In particular, when an overload threshold is reached, the conventional system will kick in the associated overload protection policy, which results in rejection or dropping of one or more processing requests. However, when HSS randomly rejects or drops some requests in overload condition, it can drop a second or third Diameter request from a call processor processing a single Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) request, wherein the first or second request has already been processed. To this end, the SIP request fails and the HSS processing for the first and second Diameter request results in a complete waste of the stressed HSS resources. Thus, the traditional approach for overload protection within the HSS, wherein requests are randomly dropped and/or rejected is inefficient and can negatively impact performance and even aggravate the overload condition.

Methods to improve overload protection for a home subscriber server (HSS)


The present disclosure describes processes for producing cyclohexenes using Lewis acidic ionic liquids comprising the steps of providing to a reactor an α,β-unsaturated carbonyl dienophile, providing to the reactor a 1,3-diene, providing a Lewis acidic ionic liquid to the reactor; and reacting the α,β-unsaturated carbonyl dienophile with 1,3-diene to form a substituted cyclohexene product. The α,β-unsaturated carbonyl dienophile can be mesityl oxide, the 1,3-diene can be piperylene; and the Lewis acidic ionic liquid can be AlCl3:[C2mim]Cl; AlCl3:[C8mim]Cl; or mixtures thereof.

Perfume and aroma enhancing compounds are widely used as additives in the detergent and food industries. These compounds are used, for example, to augment or enhance the aromas of certain detergent compositions and perfumes, or to enhance the aroma and flavor characteristics of certain food or tobacco products among other products. Compounds with floral, fruity, woody, or other pleasing aroma are particularly desirable.
Many of these compounds have specific molecular features, such as the presence of a cyclic ring and/or a ketone, ester or other carbonyl derivative. For example, many fragrance components may include a substituted cyclohexene structure. These structures include, for example, various isomers of ionone, isomers of damascone, isomers of cyclogeranate, and isomers of irone. Other cyclic fragrance compounds are also known.
The damascones, including α-damascone, β-damascone, and δ-damascone are examples of compounds having pleasing floral, fruity aromas used in the perfumery art. The damascone isomers differ in the position of the ring double bond as shown in Scheme 1.
For example, trans,trans-δ-damascone is one of the most widely used fragrance additives in the detergent and food industries. Therefore, the industrial scale production of δ-damascone and other related compounds is of great interest.
Ayyer et al., Journal of the Chemical Society Perkin Trans., 1975, 1, 1727-1736 discloses a 3-step synthesis of damascone starting from 1,3-pentadiene (piperylene) and mesityl oxide. The synthesis of the isomers of damascone involved three separate reaction processes, a Diels-Alder cycloaddition, epimerization of the resulting cyclohexenyl methyl ketone, and condensation/elimination with acetaldehyde in an aldol condensation process.
The Diels-Alder cycloaddition of piperylene as the diene and mesityl oxide as the dienophile forms a mixture of trans and cis-1-(2,6,6-trimethylcyclohex-3-en-1-yl)ethanone (Equation 1). Prior art references utilize the Ayyer method or slight modifications thereof. Ayyer disclosed a Lewis acid (AlCl3) catalyzed Diels-Alder using conventional organic solvents (CH2Cl2), which affords the cyclohexene product in low yield (45%). Further optimization by other groups increased yields to 63% (U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,098 to Mookherjee et al.) using toluene as solvent. The cycloadduct is a mixture of the cis and trans ring isomers, with the cis-isomer of the cycloadduct predominating.

The prior art Lewis acid catalyzed Diels-Alder cycloadditions to form 1-(2,6,6-trimethylcyclohex-3-en-1-yl)ethanone suffer from low yields and result in a mixture of cis and trans ring isomers. Further, the reaction requires a large excess of piperylene and aluminum chloride (AlCl3) and results in undesirable self polymerization of the piperylene diene. In addition, the use of aluminum chloride results in formation of aluminum hydroxide upon workup, resulting in handling and disposal problems of the aluminum hydroxide solid, particularly on an industrial scale. Isolation of the cycloadduct product also requires steam distillation, extraction, and fractional distillation to obtain a purified mixture of cis and trans-cyclohexene product. Finally, because of the high reaction dilutions, slow additions of reagents, large reaction vessels, long reaction times, and complex workup requirements, utilizing the conventional Diels-Alder cycloaddition technology on industrial scale is problematic.
Thus, for a commercially viable production of the isomers of damascone and other cyclohexane and cyclohexene based perfume components, rapid and efficient syntheses of cyclohexene intermediates, including for example, 1-(2,6,6-trimethylcyclohex-3-en-1-yl)ethanone, are necessary.

Process for conducting an organic reaction in ionic liquids


A system for monitoring, diagnosing, and/or controlling a flow process uses one or more flow meters based on an array of pressure sensors. A signal processor outputs at least one of a flow signal, a diagnostic signal, and a control signal in response to the pressure signals from the pressure sensors. The flow signal indicates the at least one parameter of the fluid, the diagnostic signal indicates a diagnostic condition of a device in the flow process, and the control signal is effective in adjusting an operating parameter of at least one device in the flow process. The system may be arranged as a distributed control system (DCS) architecture for monitoring a plurality of flow meters based on array-processing installed at various locations throughout a flow process.

A fluid flow process (flow process) includes any process that involves the flow of fluid through pipes, ducts, or other conduits, as well as through fluid control devices such as pumps, valves, orifices, heat exchangers, and the like. Flow processes are found in many different industries such as the oil and gas industry, refining, food and beverage industry, chemical and petrochemical industry, pulp and paper industry, power generation, pharmaceutical industry, and water and wastewater treatment industry. The fluid within the flow process may be a single phase fluid (e.g., gas, liquid or liquid/liquid mixture) and/or a multi-phase mixture (e.g. paper and pulp slurries or other solid/liquid mixtures). The multi-phase mixture may be a two-phase liquid/gas mixture, a solid/gas mixture or a solid/liquid mixture, gas entrained liquid or a three-phase mixture.
Operation of a flow process often requires that various aspects of the process be monitored, controlled, and/or diagnosed. For example, monitoring tasks may include observing and/or recording various parameters of the process. These parameters may include consistency of the fluid, composition of the fluid, mass flow rate of the fluid, volumetric flow rate of the fluid, among others. Control tasks may include adjusting operating parameters of various devices in the flow process based on the monitored parameters. For example, pump speed or valve position may be adjusted based on flow rate, composition of the fluid, and the like.
Many industrial plants and processes also have a need to monitor various machinery for failures, malfunction and/or maintenance problems. In particular, it is desirable to predict when various components, devices or equipment (e.g., motors, fans, pumps, generators, engines, gears, belts, drives, pulleys, hangers, clamps, actuators, valves, meters, etc.) within a plant or process are in need of maintenance, repair or replacement. Such diagnostic monitoring and prediction for industrial machinery can reduce or eliminate flow process shutdown time and thereby reduce operating expenses.
Typically, the monitoring, control, and/or diagnosis of a flow process is performed using numerous meters, each performing a single function. For example, flow meters are used to monitor fluid flow, temperature gages are used to monitor fluid temperature, and pressure sensors are used to measure fluid temperature. Because each meter performs a single function, monitoring, control, and/or diagnosis of the flow process requires the use of many different meters.
Modern flow processes may implement a Distributed Control System (DCS) architecture, in which signals indicative of the parameter sensed by each meter are provided to a central processor, which may record and display the parameters. The DCS architecture may further be arranged to provide control signals to various devices in the flow process in response to the signals from the meters. One commercially available DCS architecture is manufactured by Emerson Corporation under the trade name of Plant Web® (www.plantweb.com). While such DCS architectures are effective in monitoring and controlling flow processes, a large number of meters in the flow process can burden the central processor. Therefore, it is desirable to decrease the number of meters in the flow process.
In addition, typical meters are invasive. That is, they are installed such that they extend through piping into contact with the fluid in the flow process. As a result, installation or maintenance of the meter often requires at least a portion of the flow process to be isolated. Therefore, it is desirable to have a meter that is easily installed.

System and method for operating a flow process


The present invention relates to an extract of mixed herb medicine, and a pharmaceutical composition for the prevention and treatment of obesity containing the extract as an effective ingredient or health food containing the same, more precisely, an extract of mixed herb medicine extracted from the mixture of cassia seeds (Cassia obtusifolia L.), green tea (Thea sinensis L.), eucommia bark (Eucommia ulmoides Oliver), garlic (Allium sativum var. pekinense), hawthorn (Crataegus Pinnatifida Bunge), fresh pine needle (Pinus densiflora Siebold et Zuccarini) and wormwood (Artemisia capillaris Thunberg) using water or aqueous alcohol solution, a pharmaceutical composition for the prevention and treatment of obesity containing the above extract and a fermented extract extracted after adding rice, malt and yeast to the above mixture, or health food containing the same. The extract of the present invention can be effectively used for the prevention and the treatment of obesity by inhibiting weight gain by high-fat diet, lowering blood cholesterol and decreasing neutral fat (triglyceride).

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an extract of mixed herb medicine, and a pharmaceutical composition for the prevention and the treatment of obesity containing the extract as an effective ingredient or health food containing the same, more precisely, an extract of mixed herb medicine extracted from the mixture of cassia seeds (Cassia obtusifolia L.), green tea (Thea sinensis L.), eucommia bark (Eucommia ulmoides Oliver), garlic (Allium sativum var. pekinense), hawthorn (Crataegus Pinnatifida Bunge), fresh pine needle (Pinus densiflora Siebold et Zuccarini) and wormwood (Artemisia capillaris Thunberg) using water or aqueous alcohol solution, a pharmaceutical composition for the prevention and the treatment of obesity containing the above extract and a fermented extract extracted after adding rice, malt and yeast to the above mixture, or health food containing the same.
(b) Description of the Related Art
The surplus of calorie intake is converted into fat, which is accumulated in many regions of a body especially in hypodermic tissues and in abdominal cavity, causing obesity. Triglyceride is a compound chemically produced by ester bond between glycerine and three molecules of fatty acid. As a neutral fat synthesized from carbohydrate, triglyceride is stored in adipose tissues of an animal, and releases free fatty acids in blood when it is hydrolyzed by a specific enzyme. Triglyceride stored in adipose tissues is decomposed into nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) and glycerol to be released in blood when an energy source glucose is insufficient. After being used as a substitute energy source, the surplus of nonesterified fatty acid is converted into triglyceride in the liver again. Triglyceride flowing through blood is called endogenous neutral fat. The high accumulation of triglyceride in the adipose tissue closely relates to artherosclerosis, coronary artery diseases, etc.
Obesity means the more accumulation of fat than that required in a body. Thus, a patient with obesity suffers from disorders by biochemical and physiological malfunctions in a body. Obesity is not only a major cause of various diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hyperlipemia, hypertension, coronary artery disease and joint disease, but also is an obstacle to normal social activities.
To alleviate suffering from obesity, efforts have been made to develop weight reducers, appetite inhibitors or fat absorption inhibitors, etc. Recently, products for not only the prevention and treatment of obesity but also the weight control to have a nice appearance are under development. However, there are a variety of problems about such products unfortunately. For example, a diuretic and a laxative, which are commercially obtainable at low prices, might reduce body weight but the weight loss effect is temporary only by reducing moisture in a body, which is far from eliminating the cause of obesity, such as surplus fat. Moreover, overuse of those medicines can even cause dehydration and abnormal heartbeat by the loss of electrolytes. The habitual dosage of those medicines causes side effects such as edema or constipation by lowering the function of excretion. And diet products using an anorexigenic agent for weight control can induce side effects such as hypertension caused by nerve excitation, abdominal pain, hypersensitivity, insomnia, dizziness, etc. Besides, long term administration of a fibrous product, as one of popular diet products, can cause malnutrition because a fibrous product is produced not for losing weight but simply for satiety.
Even after all the hard work to develop a medicine for the prevention and treatment of obesity, a successful result is not in our hands, yet.
Thus, the present inventors have made extensive effort to develop, by using safe food, an effective composition inhibiting obesity without side effects. As a result, the present inventors have completed this invention by developing a novel herb extract having an excellent effect on the treatment of obesity inhibiting effect without such side effects as conventional drugs have.

Alcohol-fermented food or pharmaceutical composition for prevention of obesity and process for preparation thereof


A flame-retardant compound is disclosed, comprising a polyolefin alloy and a combination of flame-retardant agents. The polyolefin alloy comprises at least one polyolefin and a metallocene-catalyzed olefin copolymer. The flame-retardant agents comprise a nanoclay and at least one inorganic flame-retardant. An essentially halogen-free flame-retardant compound is preferred. Surface coverings for mammalian-occupied spaces benefit from the properties of the flame-retardant compound.

Fire kills people and destroys property. Any material that offers flame retardance benefits the public. Flame retardants are often added to compounds to provide flame resistance to products made from such compounds.
Nanoclays are exciting additives for a variety of purposes, including flame retardancy. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,376,591; 6,251,980; 6,232,388; 6,225,394; 6,090,734; 6,050,509; 5,998,528; 5,844,032; and 5,837,763 disclose the manufacture and use of nanocomposites. Nanocor, Inc. is a significant commercial source of exfoliated or intercalated nanoclays and has a web site: www.nanocor.com.
ASTM International (www.astm.org) has established a strict standard for testing the surface burning characteristics of building materials. This test is No. E84 and concerns the fire-test-response standard for the comparative surface burning behavior of building materials applicable to exposed surfaces such as walls and ceilings. The test is conducted with the specimen in the ceiling position with the surface to be evaluated exposed face down to the ignition source. To satisfy E84, the material, product, or assembly shall be capable of being mounted in the test position during the test. Thus, the specimen shall either be self-supporting by its own structural quality, held in place by added supports along the test surface, or secured from the back side.
There are other flame tests, such as MVSS-302 promulgated by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration of the U.S. government. However, the E84 test is more stringent in performance because it concerns occupied buildings, not vehicles.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,414,070 (Kausch et al.) disclosed flame retardant polyolefin compounds that have passed the MVSS-302 test, in which the nanoclay is a required flame retardant and an inorganic flame retardant is optional.
PCT Patent Publications WO 00/66657 and WO 00/68312 both disclose thermoplastic materials containing both nanoclay and inorganic flame retardants.
None of these three documents report the ability of the compositions disclosed therein to pass the stringent ASTM E84 test.

Flame-retardant polyolefin compounds and their use in surface coverings