The present invention relates to power supplies and methods of installing power supplies. More particularly, one embodiment of the present invention relates to a power supply adapted for installation within a computer case for receiving AC current from an AC current source and providing DC current from the power supply to a component disposed inside of the computer case via a removable cable attached to the power supply, comprising: a housing having an interior volume defined by a top panel, a bottom panel and a plurality of side panels; AC to DC circuitry disposed within the interior volume of the housing; and a DC output socket, wherein the DC output socket is fixed to one of the top panel, bottom panel and side panels defining the interior volume in which the AC to DC circuitry is disposed; wherein the AC to DC circuitry receives AC current from the AC current source; wherein the AC to DC circuitry converts the received AC current into DC current and supplies the DC current to the DC output socket; and wherein the DC output socket is fixed to one of the panels of the housing in a position such that when the power supply is installed within the computer case the DC output socket is disposed inside of the computer case for mating with the removable cable.

Various mechanisms for supplying power (e.g., to a computer system or other electrical device) have been proposed. Examples include the mechanisms described in the following patent documents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,979 relates to a power source device for monitors and host computers. The device includes a first power source arrangement having a plug at one end and a capacitor parallel-connected at the other end which is electrically coupled with an internal circuit of a monitor for supplying a DC power to the monitor; and a second power source arrangement with a connecting component having input terminals electrically coupled with an internal switching power supply circuit of a host computer for obtaining a DC power therefrom, and output terminals connected to a socket fixed in a housing unit wall of the host computer; thereby, with the first and second power source arrangements connected together, DC power source will be directly supplied to the monitor from the host computer so as to eliminate any low-frequency and high-frequency interferences on the screen of the monitor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,580 relates to an expansion device which includes a device body which has first and second side surfaces and a bottom surface continuous with the first and second side surfaces. A power cord of the device leads out from the first side surface, and a plug is provided at an extended end of the power cord. The plug is adapted to be connected to a power socket of the electronic apparatus. The device body includes a guide groove formed in the bottom surface, in which part of the power cord is removably fitted. The guide groove includes a first portion having one end open to the first side surface and the other end in the bottom surface, a second portion extending from the other end of the first portion to the first side surface, and a third portion extending from the other end of the first portion to the second side surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,029 relates to an audio power amplifier module which fits in a disk bay of a computer and bolts to the frame of the computer. The module is powered from the power supply in the computer and uses the frame of the computer as a heat sink. The module includes connectors for attachment to an internal sound board and to external speakers. A volume control is provided on the power module, in addition to the volume control typically included in a sound board.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,181 relates to a computer system having a unitary housing structure for containing a display unit, a power supply, and a docking bay receptacle to accommodate an insertion of a main computer body; and an electrical power/signal connection assembly installed to provide electrical power/signal connections between the power supply, the display unit and the main computer body. The electrical power/signal connection assembly includes a connector plug mounted on one side of the unitary housing structure and a corresponding connector socket mounted on the main computer body so that, when the main computer body is inserted into the docking bay receptacle of the unitary housing structure, the corresponding connector socket as mounted on said main computer body is visibly coupled to the connector plug mounted on one side of the unitary housing structure in order to prevent any misalignment that would cause damage to the connector plug.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,932 relates to a modular power supply to be used in a personal computer or other similar device. The preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a base assembly, a power supply housing, a power supply, and a fan assembly. The base assembly provides a foundation for the modular power supply and includes a terminal board attached thereto and a system common quick-disconnect embedded therein which serves as a central junction for the distribution of power to the various electrical components. The power supply housing provides a protective structure for the power supply contained therein. The fan assembly provides cooling for the power supply and is mounted on the outside of the power supply housing. The power supply is electrically connected to the system common quick disconnect which in turn feeds the terminal board attached to the base assembly, the fan assembly, and any other components located within the base assembly. The terminal board provides access to power for peripheral components such as logic cards, I/O boards, and the like. The use of multiple quick-disconnect electrical connectors allows components such as the power supply and fans to be replaced without detaching the components which are normally "hard wired" to the power supply.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,377 relates to a power distribution unit (PDU) for supplying power to at least one electrical device (APP1–APP12). The PDU comprises at least one distribution point (P) for the power supply, and at least one female outlet (J1–J12) on its accessible side. The outlet is adapted to receive a male connector of a cable of an electrical device (APP1–APP12). The point (P) is electrically connected by a respective electrical cable to at least one manually resettable circuit breaker (BRK1–BKR6). The at least one circuit breaker comprises a respective push button (POU1–POU6) for resetting the circuit breaker. The circuit breaker (BRK1–BRK6) is connected by a respective electrical cable to the at least one female outlet (J1–J12). The circuit breaker (BRK1–BRK6) is located inside the unit and at least one reset mechanism capable of resetting the at least one circuit breaker is provided. Several circuit breakers may be supported in line and the reset mechanism is capable of resetting all of the circuit breakers simultaneously. The push button may be responsive to the condition of the circuit breaker with an end extending beyond the wall for the distribution power unit so as to provide a visual indication that an electrical failure has occurred in one of the electrical devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,687 relates to a system for distributing power in a compact peripheral component interconnect (CPCI) computer architecture. A CPCI computer architecture comprises a plurality of CPCI systems each having respective backplanes. The backplanes further have respective local power rails providing power for a corresponding one of the plurality of CPCI systems. The power distribution system provides power to the backplanes, and comprises a common power rail connected to each one of the local power rails of the backplanes. A plurality of power supplies is connected to the common power rail of the power distribution system. Power taken from any one of the plurality of power supplies is available to any one of the backplanes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,744,628 relates to a multi-directional power distribution unit (PDU) which provides flexibility in the configuration of a computer system, disk drive array or other enclosure. The power distribution unit may be installed in one orientation for a power feed having a first configuration (e.g., from the front of the enclosure), and may be installed in a second orientation for a power feed in a second configuration (e.g., from the rear of the enclosure). In either orientation, a set of external power connectors couples to one or more external power feeds.
Depending on the orientation, either a first or second internal connector will interface with the system or enclosure (e.g., a midplane, a power supply). The PDU may include circuitry for filtering electrical power and may also include a heat sink.
U.S. Patent Publication No. US2003222503 relates to automatic voltage selection in a DC power distribution apparatus. Provision is made in the housing of a host to provide a socket, or sockets, to which a peripheral piece of equipment can be connected for receiving directly from the host the low voltage DC power it requires. The socket(s) are connected electrically to the outputs of a power supply (or regulator) of a host for providing the low voltage needed to power the peripheral. The power supply may be mounted on the rear face of a computer. The principal feature of the invention resides in the use of a connector for connecting the host DC power to the peripheral DC power usage device. The connector comprises pins connected to a selected resistor in the power supply. The resistor value (i.e., resistance) is selected to produce a pre-determined control voltage which is fed back to a DC to DC converter in the host's internal power supply. The converter comprises a pulse width modulation control device. The control voltage determines the duty cycle (i.e., pulse width) of the modulation to reduce the output from a maximum voltage to an appropriate voltage suitable for the particular peripheral power usage device. Thus, by simply selecting the appropriate connector (or cable) having the proper pins correlated to a selected resistor previously installed in the power supply, the voltage level for the corresponding peripheral device is automatically selected. In an alternative embodiment, the DC power distribution apparatus of the invention comprises a stand-alone unit having one or more universal ports for receiving a cable with a connector containing the appropriate pins for a selected DC power usage device.
UK Patent Application GB 2,322,972 relates to a universal computer power supply unit. A DC power output access panel (1) is included in a computer power supply unit or a computer power supply system to provide DC power to the external devices connected to the host computer system, such as printers, external fax modems, multimedia speakers, scanners, video conference cameras and many other external media drives. An AC power output socket may also be provided (FIGS. 2,4). The panel (1) may include DC sockets of different sizes (eg A2,A4), LED indicators (A1) and fuses (A3). The panel may be embodied as a separate unit (10, FIG. 5) connected to the rest of the supply unit (9) by a cable (11).
UK Patent Application GB 2,256,319 relates to a computer system having a power supply unit 2comprising a cabinet 4carrying a fan 24 on a removable front panel 18, and a slidably removable circuit board 28 carrying the power supply circuitry 30, whereby the circuit board can be readily replaced/repaired. The computer system includes a disk drive module received in aperture (51) (e.g. FIG. 57) in the front panel of a cabinet (48). The module can be in either of three alternative orientations relative to the cabinet so that the cabinet can be used in different orientations with the disk drive module remaining the same way up. The computer system can receive plug-in cards in sockets (64, 68) (FIGS. 8, 9) on alternative mounting housings (82) located adjacent the back of the cabinet (48).
Among those benefits and improvements that have been disclosed, other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures. The figures constitute a part of this specification and include illustrative embodiments of the present invention and illustrate various objects and features thereof.

Personal computer power supply installed within a case of a personal computer


A system for the strategic controlled delivery of materials to the dental surfaces of the intraoral cavity is disclosed. These materials have a desired or predetermined activity with respects to such dental surfaces. In particular, the system enables delivery of fluoridizing and other agents to interproximal sites among others, specially to contact points/areas (aproximal sites), to enable the prevention, treatment, diagnosis, elimination or retardation of dental caries.

Dental caries (demineralization, decay) ranks among the most significant of human diseases simply because of its frequency of occurrence in the modern world where over 90% of the population is affected, ranking dental caries first amongst the chronic diseases affecting humans in terms of the numbers of people involved. (see Poole, D. F. G. and Silverstone, L. M. in Hard Tissue Growth, Repair and Remineralisation pp 35–52 Ciba Foundation Symposium No. 11, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, 1973; Legler D. W. and Menaker, L. in The Biological Basis of Dental Caries; Menaker, L. pp 211–225, Harper & Row, 1980; Winston, A. E. and Bhaskar S. N. JADA 129:1579–1587, 1998, Achievements in (US) Public Health, 48(41):933, 1999).
Although the severity of this disease in terms of its life threatening potential is limited to rare instances, certain important consequences exist. Dental caries treatment is costly (requiring highly skilled and exacting manpower as well as complex biomaterials), it is time consuming, it often involves pain and discomfort (both because of sequellae and treatment); it affects aesthetics and furthermore there is a need to avoid or limit restorative dentistry because of the potential hazards of radiation, treatment and dental materials slowly degrading in the oral cavity over many years (see Nathanson, D. et al. JADA 128:1517–1523, 1997; Berry, T. C. et al. JADA 129:1547–1556,1998; Saxe, S. R. et al. JADA 130:191–199, 1999; Soderholm, K. J. and Marlott, A. JADA 130:201–209, 1999).
The major etiological factors involved in the demineralization process (dental caries) is the interplay over time of host factors (the teeth and the saliva), the microflora and the diet. Many factors can prevent dental caries such as oral hygiene, diet, fissure sealants and fluoride; the latter being the most simple, least time consuming and the most cost effective. Indeed, teeth are not dead tissue as they undergo ion exchange which determines whether there is demineralization or remineralization. The demineralization leaves the soft tooth matter porous but it has been shown that within certain limits tooth tissue may recover its original hardness after remineralization. In all cases remineralization processes are significantly enhanced by the presence of fluoride ions (Poole, D. F. G., Silverstone, L. M. in Hard Tissue Growth, Repair and Remineralisation, pp 35–52 Ciba Foundation, 1973; Donty, K. J. et al. JADA 130:817–825, 1999) for adequate periods of time or frequency (Ostrom C. A. in the Biological Basis of Dental Caries, Menaker L. 445–460, Harper & Row, 1980).
Tooth mineral consists primarily of carbonated calcium hydroxyapatite (substitutions of carbonate for a portion of phosphate in calcium hydroxyapatite) which becomes increasingly soluble as the localized pH drops. Teeth are in a constant flux of demineralization when the pH drops and remineralization when the plaque acids are neutralized by the saliva. Remineralization occurs when calcium and phosphate ions are present in adequate proportions forming hydroxyapatite which is less soluble than original carbonated calcium hydroxyapatite. However, when fluoride is present fluorapatite is formed which is even less soluble than hydroxyapatite and remineralization of carious lesions occurs when fluoride also allows the deposition of a mixture of fluoride salts. Furthermore, fluoride has antimicrobial activity itself (Ostrom, C. A. in the Biological Basis of Dental Caries, Menaker, L. 445–460, Harper & Row 1980; Kautsky, M. B. and Featherstone, J. D. B. Caries Res. 27, 373–377, 1993).
The disadvantage of current topical fluoride applications are toxicity, dilution and buffering effects of saliva, the lack of ability to reach into all susceptible sites, especially interproximally (Guo M. K. et al. J. Dent. Res. 68:496–498, 1989) and failure to penetrate through the depth of plaque and the need for relatively frequent applications. These failures are primarily governed by the lack of time that the topical fluoride can be held in the mouth and by the potential toxicity of swallowing the active agent which is used in a gross form and in relatively large amounts, even by more advanced methods (U.S. Pat. No. 5,770,182) which is also cumbersome, uncomfortable, unhygienic and fails to reach contact points or areas of teeth. An attempt to overcome some of these problems was reported by Rose K. et al J. Dent. Res. IADR Abs. 77:972, 1998. It is felt that the wedges described therein would not physically reach the contact points or areas of teeth and they would not be retained for extensive periods in a clinical situation because of physical and chemical considerations. Another approach is U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,297 which also does not deal with directly negotiating the contact points or areas, nor does an extensive literature review (Rawls, H. R. Adv. Dent. Res. 5,50–55 1991) refer to this approach. Furthermore, nor do orthodontic bands, which hold archwires onto orthodontic brackets, and release fluoride (available in the U.S.A. from Ortho-Byte) specifically target the interproximal contact points/areas. Rather, these bands release the fluoride into the saliva.
Referring to FIG. 1, there are primarily three tooth zones that are more susceptible to caries:—the fissures, marked (A), the contact points/areas (B1) (approximal zones) of interproximal regions marked (B), and the cervical margins, marked (C), which can extend into the interproximal sites at the gingival margins. Contact points exists between adjacent teeth: with aging, these points wear to form small areas of contact. Fissure sealants are reasonably effective for fissures but besides being costly and not always durable, they are not applicable to interproximal regions which are even more costly and difficult to treat. Topical fluoride applications (e.g., as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,770,182 and 6,136,297) are effective at cervical regions which are more prevalent today as geriatric patients have saved many of their teeth with exposed weaker dentin due to gingival recession (Mandel, ID Quintessence Int. 16,81–87 1985). However, there is a need for a more localized or targeted means of preventing microscopic cervical caries.
Dentinal caries comprises four zones, namely the infected necrotic zone, the infected superficial demineralized zone, the affected deep demineralized zone and the hypermineralized zone (Massler, M. Dental Clinics of North America pp 663–673, 1967). Although bacteria are abundant in the superficial demineralized zone only on rare occasions are a few bacteria found in the affected deep demineralized zone which comprises well formed residual tubular matrices. Indeed the major difference between this zone and sound dentin appears to be depletion of the mineral components. The clinical appearance at this zone is that of dry leathery dentinal structure (Hoffman, S. in The Biological Basis of Dental Caries. Menaker, L. pp 226–246, Harper & Row, 1980) which is the dentin collagen which may be partially denatured. Current dental treatment involves mechanically removing this layer and the more superficial layers using drills and mechanical excavation. Attempts to avoid this invasive and painful technique include air abrasion, lasers, atraumatic restorative therapy, and chemomechanical caries removal. None of these techniques have been fully accepted clinically because of a series of disadvantages and failures. This further emphasizes the need for effective preventative techniques.
An aim of the present invention is to provide a system for the controlled or sustained delivery of a material having a desired or predetermined activity to a desired dental site in the oral cavity that overcomes the disadvantages of prior art systems.
It is another aim of the present invention to provide such a system that is particularly directed to the contact points/areas of interproximal sites.
It is another aim of the present invention to provide such a system that employs a matrix as a carrier for the active material.
It is another aim of the present invention to provide such a system in which the matrix for the active material may be biodegradable, resorbable or non-resorbable.
It is another aim of the present invention to provide such a system which is particularly adapted for physical fixation onto the dental site, in particular on and/or around the interproximal contact points/areas, for at least a predetermined time period, typically sufficient to enable the controlled or sustained delivery of a required quantity of the active material from the matrix to the site.
It is another aim of the present invention to provide such a system in which fixation of the matrix is by way of a physical property of the matrix, in particular wherein the matrix comprises a hydrophilic polymer which softens and swells in situ by the hydration thereof in the oral cavity after accommodation at the dental site.
It is another aim of the present invention to provide such a system in which physical fixation of the matrix is primarily by means of a carrier member which is itself adapted on the one hand to accommodate the matrix and align the same with the dental site, and on the other hand is also adapted for affixing the carrier at the site by virtue of its shape, configuration and elasticity/resilience of the material from which it is made. In particular, such adaptation includes sufficient elasticity and toughness of the matrix material, which are important criteria when positioning the matrix between teeth.
It is another aim to provide such a system wherein the matrix is sufficiently flexible for insertion into the interproximal site, and at the same time of sufficient toughness to maintain mechanical integrity thereat, while being soft enough not to be a source of discomfort within the oral cavity.
It is another aim of the present invention to provide any one or combination of a plurality of chemical and other agents that have a desired activity at the dental site, in particular such as to enable inter alia the prevention, treatment, diagnosis, elimination or retardation of dental caries at tooth surfaces or at tooth interfaces with restorations or prostheses.
Other purposes and advantages of the invention will appear as the description proceeds.

System for the controlled delivery of an active material to a dental site


A sensor for measuring the position of an actuating element has at least one position sensor to detect the position at a drive connection, a circuitry connected to the position sensor, and configured to receive signals from the position sensor, a voltage- and signal-carrying line connecting the circuitry and the position sensor, at least one current measuring device connected in the circuitry to the voltage- and signal-carrying line, and an operating voltage source arranged in a circuit formed by the voltage- and signal-carrying line, the at least one position sensor and the at least one current measuring device. A change in current is transmitted, via the voltage- and signal-carrying line via the signals from the at least one position sensor as a function of the position of the actuating element.

The invention relates to a sensor for measuring the position of an actuating element, which is operated electromotively via a drive connection, of an internal combustion engine, at least one position sensor being arranged in the housing of the actuating element, which position sensor detects the position at the drive connection.
Extremely high requirements are placed on sensors of this type with regard to reliability since erroneous functioning or failures may even result in risks under certain circumstances. This relates to both the sensor itself and the electrical connections between the sensor and circuits which supply the sensor with operating voltage and receive and evaluate the output signals from the sensor.
In this case, the cable connections and contact points used for this purpose may represent causes of faults, which may result in serious faults in safety-relevant systems for reasons of redundancy even in the case of a dual embodiment of the sensors and connecting elements. In addition, owing to the increasing use of electronic devices in motor vehicles, the number of cable connections is increasing continuously, and laying a large number of lines is disadvantageous for reasons of cost and weight.

Sensor for measuring the position of an actuating element


An apparatus for controlling a messenger in a terminal is provided. A display displays an answer phrase to a specific chat phrase among a plurality of chat phrases in a messenger chat window. Upon receiving an answer phrase to a specific chat phrase which is not displayed in a display area of the messenger chat window, a controller notifies of the reception of the answer phrase, and if ‘View Answer Phrase’ is selected, the controller moves to a position area where the specific chat phrase is displayed, and displays the specific chat phrase and the answer phrase. The controller manages the plurality of chat phrases using index information indicating a position for each of the plurality of chat phrases. If an answer phrase to the specific chat phrase is sent, the controller generates index information of the answer phrase associated to the index information of the specific chat phrase.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for controlling a messenger in a terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a messenger control apparatus and method for allowing a user to selectively answer a specific chat phrase among a plurality of chat phrases in a messenger chat window in a terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Thanks to the combination of mobile telecommunications services and Internet services, users may wirelessly access the Internet on their terminal even while on the move, search a wide variety of Internet information and E-mails, and enjoy a variety of multimedia content such as music and videos. Based on these technical advances, the instant messenger services, which have been used in the wired Internet, are now available even via wireless Internet when using user terminals.
When messenger chat is carried out on a terminal in real time, the chat phrases through the messenger are displayed in a messenger chat window in chronological order.
However, in the case where the chat phrases through the messenger are displayed in chronological order, if a user of a terminal receives multiple questions from a counterpart terminal in a row and gives an answer to any one of the received questions, a user of the counterpart terminal may have difficulty in determining to which question the user of the terminal entered (or gave) the answer.
FIG. 1 illustrates a messenger operation performed in a second terminal B according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, chat phrases received from a first terminal A, which is a counterpart terminal, are displayed in the left side of the messenger chat window, while chat phrases entered in the second terminal B are displayed in the right side thereof.
If a user of the second terminal B enters one chat phrase after receiving four chat phrases from the first terminal A in a row as illustrated in FIG. 1, a user of the first terminal A may have difficulty in determining to which of the four chat phrases the chat phrase entered in the second terminal B is matched.
Therefore, the user of the second terminal B needs to annoyingly specify one of the fourth chat phrases when answering the chat phrase.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.

Apparatus and method for controlling messenger in terminal


When there is an error in setting of a companding law of an encoder or a decoder, there is a problem of an error in judgment although it should be originally judged that the continuity of the testing channel does not exist.

The present invention relates to a channel check test system for checking the continuity of a channel in digital circuit multiplication equipment (hereinafter called xe2x80x9cDCMExe2x80x9d).
The DCME is known as an equipment for transmitting a voice signal over a telephone communication line with high efficiency using low rate encoding technique and a digital speech interpolation technique. In this DCME, a channel check test for checking existence or nonexistence of the continuity of a transmission channel is made.
A conventional channel check test system will be explained with reference to the drawings. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the structure of the conventional channel check test system.
In FIG. 12, reference numerals 1 and 2 respectively designate a transmitting side DCME and a receiving side DCME. Reference numeral 3 designates an input signal nonlinear-quantized by an A-law or a xcexc-law and inputted to the transmitting side DCME 1. An input pattern generator 4 generates an input test pattern nonlinear-quantized by the A-law or the xcexc-law. An A-law input pattern data memory 4a stores input test pattern data nonlinear-quantized by the A-law. A xcexc-law input pattern data memory 4b accumulates input test pattern data nonlinear-quantized by the xcexc-law. Reference numeral 4c designates a selector. A test pattern insertion circuit 5 inserts an output signal of the input pattern generator 4 into a channel to be tested. An encoder 6 encodes an output signal of the test pattern insertion circuit 5 with high efficiency.
In this figure, a decoder 7 decodes the encoded signal. Reference numerals 8a and 8b respectively designate a decoded signal nonlinear-quantized by the A-law or the xcexc-law and outputted from the decoder 7, and an output signal nonlinear-quantized by the A-law or the xcexc-law from the receiving side DCME 2. An output pattern generator 9 generates an output test pattern nonlinear-quantized by the A-law or the xcexc-law. An A-law output pattern data memory 9a stores output test pattern data nonlinear-quantized by the A-law. A xcexc-law output pattern data memory 9b stores output test pattern data nonlinear-quantized by the xcexc-law. Reference numeral 9c designates a selector. A comparator 10 compares the decoded signal 8a and the output test pattern. A counter 11 counts the number of conformity bits of the output test pattern and the decoded signal 8a. A judging circuit 12 judges existence or nonexistence of the continuity of a channel on the basis of an output of the counter 11. Reference numeral 13 designates judged results. Reference numerals 14a, 14b, 14c and 14d designate companding law setting signals.
An operation of the above-mentioned conventional channel check test system will next be explained with reference to the drawings.
The operation of the conventional channel check test system with respect to an operated channel which is not being tested, i.e., a channel for transmitting a voice talking signal will first be explained.
An input signal 3 inputted to the transmitting side DCME 1 is provided to the encoder 6 without inserting the input test pattern into this signal in the test pattern insertion circuit 5 and is encoded with high efficiency. Output data of the encoder 6 are outputted to the receiving side DCME 2.
The input signal 3 is a PCM signal nonlinear-quantized by the A-law or the xcexc-law prescribed in ITU Recommendation G.711. When a companding law of the nonlinear quantization of the input signal 3 is the A-law, the companding law setting signal 14b is provided such that an operating mode of the encoder 6 is set to the A-law. In contrast to this, when the companding law of the input signal 3 is the xcexc-law, the companding law setting signal 14b is provided such that the operating mode of the encoder 6 is set to the xcexc-law.
In the receiving side DCME 2, the received output data of the encoder 6 are decoded in the decoder 7, and are outputted as an output signal 8b from the receiving side DCME 2. The output signal 8b from the receiving side DCME 2 is also a PCM signal nonlinear-quantized by the A-law or the xcexc-law. The companding law setting signal 14c is provided, and an operating mode of the decoder 7 is set such that the output signal 8b from the receiving side DCME 2 is set to a predetermined companding law (the A-law or the xcexc-law).
The operation of the conventional channel check test system with respect to the channel which is being tested will next be explained.
The input pattern generator 4 generates an input test pattern for checking the channel. The test pattern insertion circuit 5 outputs this input test pattern instead of the input signal 3 inputted to the transmitting side DCME 1 to the encoder 6. The encoder 6 encodes the input test pattern with high efficiency, and output data of the encoder 6 are outputted to the receiving side DCME 2.
It is necessary to set the companding law of the input test pattern outputted from the input pattern generator 4 in conformity with the companding law of the encoder 6. Therefore, one of output data of the A-law input pattern data memory 4a and output data of the xcexc-law input pattern data memory 4b is selected in the selector 4c in accordance with a companding law setting signal 14a and is made to be an output signal of the input pattern generator 4.
In the receiving side DCME 2, the received output data of the encoder 6 are decoded in the decoder 7. Each bit of a decoded signal 8a outputted from this decoder 7 is compared with the corresponding bit of an output signal of the output pattern generator 9 in the comparator 10. Output data of the output pattern generator 9 should be an expected pattern of the decoded signal obtained by firstly encoding the output signal of the input pattern generator 4 and secondly re-decoding this encoded signal.
It is necessary to set the companding law of the output test pattern outputted from the output pattern generator 9 in conformity with the companding law of the decoder 7. Therefore, one of output data of the A-law output pattern data memory 9a and the xcexc-law output pattern data memory 9b is selected in the selector 9c in accordance with a companding law setting signal 14d and is made to be an output signal of the output pattern generator 9.
Compared results of each bit outputted from the comparator 10 are inputted to the counter 11 and this counter 11 counts the number of nonconformity bits within a predetermined time. The counted number of nonconformity bits outputted from the counter 11 is inputted to the judging circuit 12. When the counted value exceeds a predetermined value, the judging circuit 12 judges that the continuity of the testing channel does not exist. In contrast to this, when the counted value does not exceed the predetermined value, the comparing circuit 12 judges that the continuity of the testing channel exists, and outputs results 13 of this judgment.
In the channel check test system constructed above, when plural coding systems (e.g., coding systems prescribed in ITU Recommendations G.726, G.728, G.729, etc.) are supported in the DCME, one of the solution for this case is to prepare an input test pattern and an output test pattern in accordance with the coding systems separately. However, when the input test pattern and the output test pattern are respectively prepared in accordance with the coding systems, a problem exists in that a circuit scale of the channel check test system is large-sized.
A system for checking continuity by using a tone signal as the input test pattern and monitoring a sign bit of an output of the decoder 7 within the receiving side DCME 2 is considered as a method able to be commonly used irrespective of the coding systems with a simple structure.
FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the structure of another conventional channel check test system shown in e.g. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-131832.
In FIG. 13, reference numerals 100, 101 and 102 respectively designate a frequency information detecting section, a sign bit and a delay circuit for delaying the sign bit 101 by a data amount for about a half period of an input digital tone signal. An exclusive OR circuit 103 inputs the sign bit 101 and the output of the delay circuit 102 thereto and calculates an exclusive OR. A nonconformity number integral period counter 104 determines the number of added data of an output of the exclusive OR circuit 103. A nonconformity number adding integrator 105 adds and integrates the output of the exclusive OR circuit 103 corresponding to the data amount determined by the nonconformity number integral period counter 104. A nonconformity number comparator 106 judges conformity or nonconformity with respect to a frequency of the input digital tone signal in accordance with an output of the nonconformity number adding integrator 105.
An operation of another conventional channel check test system will next be explained.
If the digital tone signal is a normal digital tone signal, the sign bit 101 continuously repeats xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d every half period. The frequency information detecting section 100 detects this continuous repetition of xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d as follows. Namely, the sign bit 101 is delayed by the half period in the delay circuit 102. The sign bit 101 and the output of the delay circuit 102 are inputted to the exclusive OR circuit 103. The exclusive OR circuit 103 calculates an exclusive OR of the sign bit 101 and the output of the delay circuit 102.
Thus, as shown by a numerical reference 114 of FIG. 14(e), all outputs of the exclusive OR circuit 13 show xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d when the digital tone signal is the normal digital tone signal. The outputs of this exclusive OR circuit 103 are added to each other by a data number designated by the nonconformity number integral period counter 104 by using the nonconformity number adding integrator 105. An output of the nonconformity number adding integrator 105 corresponds to a degree of the continuous repetition of xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d every half period of the sign bit 101. Then, frequency is inspected by inspecting the output of the nonconformity number adding integrator 105 by the nonconformity number comparator 106.
Since another conventional channel check test system is constructed as mentioned above, the continuity of a channel can be checked by a simple structure by detecting the periodic repetition of the sign bit.
However, there are the following problems when another conventional channel check test system having the above structure of FIG. 13 is applied to the DCME.
FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing an example in which another conventional channel check test system having the structure of FIG. 13 is applied to the DCME.
In FIG. 15, an internal operation of the transmitting side DCME 1 is the same as the internal operation of the transmitting side DCME 1 explained in the structure of FIG. 12. In contrast to this, in the receiving side DCME 2, an output signal nonlinear-quantized by the A-law or the xcexc-law from the decoder 7 is provided to a sign extracting section 108 and a sign bit 101 is extracted. The sign bit 101 is inputted to the frequency information detecting section 100 and existence or nonexistence of the continuity of a channel is judged by detecting periodic repetition of the sign bit 101. A detailed operation of this frequency information detecting section 100 is equal to that explained in the structure of FIG. 13.
In FIG. 15, for example, an operation of the channel check test system will be considered when both a companding law of the input signal 3 to the transmitting side DCME 1 and a companding law of the output signal 8b from the receiving side DCME 2 are the xcexc-law. In this case, it is necessary to operate the encoder 6 within the transmitting side DCME 1 and the decoder 7 within the receiving side DCME 2 by the xcexc-law. However, it is here supposed that the decoder 7 is operated erroneously by the A-law by an error in the companding law setting signal 14c.
Assume that a series of signals as shown in a table of FIG. 16 is used as the input test pattern. The signal series shown in the table of FIG. 16 shows a tone signal having 500 Hz in frequency and 3 dBm0 in signal level (in the case of 8 kHz in sampling frequency).
Influences of the deterioration of a signal waveform on coding and decoding are neglected to simplify the explanation. If the channel check test system is set such that both the encoder 6 and the decoder 7 are correctly operated by the xcexc-law, the pattern of a decoded signal 8a outputted from the decoder 7 should be the same as an input test pattern shown in the table of FIG. 16. However, when the decoder 7 is incorrectly operated by the A-law by the error in the companding law setting signal 14c, the pattern of the decoded signal 8a outputted from the decoder 7 shows values in a table of FIG. 17.
The signal series shown in the table of FIG. 16 and the signal series shown in the table of FIG. 17 are different from each other. However, when only a sign bit is noticed, a period of the sign bit of the signal series in the table of FIG. 16 is equal to a period of the sign bit of the signal series shown in the table of FIG. 17. Further, the frequency information detecting section 100 for judging existence or nonexistence of the continuity of a channel by detecting periodic repetition of the sign bit should originally judge that the continuity does not exist when there is an error in setting of the companding law of the decoder 7. However, a problem exists in that the frequency information detecting section 100 judges that the continuity of the channel exists.
The above explanation is made with respect to the operation of the channel check test system when the companding law of the decoder 7 is set erroneously. However, there is also a similar problem in the operation of the channel check test system when the companding law of the encoder 6 is set erroneously.
To solve the above-mentioned problems, an object of this invention is to provide a channel check test system applicable to a DCME and able to perform a detecting operation including an error in setting of a companding law (A-law/xcexc-law) and able to be realized by a simple structure.
To achieve this object, a channel check test system according to this invention comprises a transmitting side DCME including an input pattern generator for generating a nonlinear quantized input test pattern; a test pattern insertion circuit for inserting an output signal of the input pattern generator into a channel to be tested; and an encoder for encoding an output signal of the test pattern insertion circuit with high efficiency; and a receiving side DCME including a decoder for decoding a received signal from the channel to be tested; a linear converting section for converting the decoded signal to a linear quantized PCM signal; an adder for adding a predetermined offset value to an output value of the linear converting section; a sign extracting section for extracting a sign from an output signal of the adder; a delay unit for delaying the extracted sign by a predetermined time; an exclusive OR arithmetic unit for performing an exclusive OR operation of the extracted sign and an output signal of the delay unit; a counter for counting the number of times of conformity in which an output value of the exclusive OR arithmetic unit is in conformity with a predetermined value; and a comparator for comparing a counted value of the counter and a predetermined threshold value and outputting judged results.
In the channel check test system according to this invention, the receiving side DCME includes a second comparator for comparing the output value of the linear converting section and a second predetermined threshold value instead of the adder and the sign extracting section; the delay unit delays an output signal of the second comparator by a predetermined time; and the exclusive OR arithmetic unit performs the exclusive OR operation of the output signal of the second comparator and the output signal of the delay unit.
Further, a channel check test system according to this invention comprises a transmitting side DCME including an input pattern generator for generating a nonlinear quantized input test pattern; a test pattern insertion circuit for inserting an output signal of the input pattern generator into a channel to be tested; and an encoder for encoding an output signal of the test pattern insertion circuit with high efficiency; and a receiving side DCME including a decoder for decoding a received signal from the channel to be tested; a linear converting section for converting the decoded signal to a linear quantized PCM signal; an adder for adding a predetermined offset value to an output value of the linear converting section; a zero crossing number calculating section for calculating a zero crossing number of an output value of the adder; a first comparator for comparing a value of the zero crossing number outputted from the zero crossing number calculating section and a first predetermined threshold value and outputting first compared result; a second comparator for comparing the value of the zero crossing number outputted from the zero crossing number calculating section and a second predetermined threshold value and outputting second compared result; and a judging circuit for judging existence or nonexistence of continuity of the channel to be tested on the basis of the first and second compared results.
In the channel check test system according to this invention, the receiving side DCME includes a zero crossing interval calculating section for calculating a zero crossing interval of an output value of the adder instead of the zero crossing number calculating section; the first comparator compares a value of the zero crossing interval outputted from the zero crossing interval calculating section and the first predetermined threshold value, and outputs the first compared results; and the second comparator compares the value of the zero crossing interval outputted from the zero crossing interval calculating section and the second predetermined threshold value, and outputs the second compared results.
In the channel check test system according to this invention, the receiving side DCME includes a level crossing number calculating section for calculating a level crossing number of the output value of the linear converting section instead of the adder and the zero crossing number calculating section; the first comparator compares a value of the level crossing number outputted from the level crossing number calculating section and the first predetermined threshold value, and outputs the first compared results; and the second comparator compares the value of the level crossing number outputted from the level crossing number calculating section and the second predetermined threshold value, and outputs the second compared results.
In the channel check test system according to this invention, the receiving side DCME includes a level crossing interval calculating section for calculating a level crossing interval of the output value of the linear converting section instead of the adder and the zero crossing number calculating section; the first comparator compares a value of the level crossing interval outputted from the level crossing interval calculating section and the first predetermined threshold value, and outputs the first compared results; and the second comparator compares the value of the level crossing interval outputted from the level crossing interval calculating section and the second predetermined threshold value, and outputs the second compared results.
Further, a channel check test system according to this invention comprises a transmitting side DCME including an input pattern generator for generating a nonlinear quantized input test pattern; a test pattern insertion circuit for inserting an output signal of the input pattern generator into a channel to be tested; and an encoder for encoding an output signal of the test pattern insertion circuit with high efficiency; and a receiving side DCME including a decoder for decoding a received signal from the channel to be tested; a linear converting section for converting the decoded signal to a linear quantized PCM signal; a zero crossing number calculating section for calculating a zero crossing number of an output value of the linear converting section; a level crossing number calculating section for calculating a level crossing number of the output value of the linear converting section; a subtracter for calculating the difference between the calculated zero crossing number and the calculated level crossing number; an absolute value circuit for calculating an absolute value of an output value of the subtracter; a comparator for comparing an output value of the absolute value circuit and a predetermined threshold value and outputting compared result; and a judging circuit for judging existence or nonexistence of continuity of the channel to be tested on the basis of the compared result.
In the channel check test system according to this invention, the receiving side DCME includes a zero crossing interval calculating section for calculating a zero crossing interval of the output value of the linear converting section and a level crossing interval calculating section for calculating a level crossing interval of the output value of the linear converting section instead of the zero crossing number calculating section and the level crossing number calculating section; and the subtracter calculates the difference between the calculated zero crossing interval and the calculated level crossing interval.
In the channel check test system according to this invention, the receiving side DCME further includes a signal intensity calculating section for calculating intensity of the output signal of the linear converting section; a signal intensity judging section including a fourth comparator for comparing the calculated signal intensity and a fourth predetermined threshold value and outputting fourth compared results, and a fifth comparator for comparing the calculated signal intensity and a fifth predetermined threshold value and outputting fifth compared results; and a judging circuit for judging existence or nonexistence of continuity of the channel to be tested on the basis of the all compared results.
In the channel check test system according to this invention, the receiving side DCME further includes a signal intensity calculating section for calculating intensity of the output signal of the linear converting section; and a signal intensity judging section including a fourth comparator for comparing the calculated signal intensity and a fourth predetermined threshold value and outputting fourth compared results, and a fifth comparator for comparing the calculated signal intensity and a fifth predetermined threshold value and outputting fifth compared results; and the judging circuit judges existence or nonexistence of continuity of the channel to be tested on the basis of the all compared results.
In the channel check test system according to this invention, the predetermined time in the delay unit is set to be a multiple of the time of a half period of the input test pattern.

Abstract: Therefore, a channel check test system includes a transmitting side DCME for inserting a nonlinear quantized input test pattern into a channel to be tested, and a receiving side DCME. The receiving side DCME includes an adder for adding an offset value to an output value of a linear converting section, a sign extracting section for extracting a sign from an output signal of the adder, a delay unit for delaying the extracted sign, an exclusive OR arithmetic unit for performing an exclusive OR operation of the extracted sign and an output signal of the delay unit, a counter for counting the number of times of conformity in which an output value of the exclusive OR arithmetic unit is in conformity with a predetermined value, and a comparator for comparing a counted value of the counter and a threshold value and outputting judged results.

Abstract: Existence or nonexistence of the continuity of the channel to be tested can be checked including an error in setting of the PCM companding law in one of the transmitting side DCME and the receiving side DCME.


An integrated multi-function analog circuit includes at least one MOSFET gate-drive circuit coupled to a first I/O pad. At least one voltage-sensing circuit is coupled to a second I/O pad. At least one current-sensing circuit is coupled to the second I/O pad and a third I/O pad. At least one temperature-sensing circuit is coupled to a fourth I/O pad.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to integrated circuits. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated circuit device including a multi-function analog circuit that contains voltage, current, and temperature monitor blocks and a gate-driver circuit block.
2. Background
Integrated circuits that perform both analog and digital functions are known in the art. Recent developments include system-on-a-chip integrated circuits that include programmable logic that may be programmably coupled to one or more analog circuits disposed on the same integrated circuit, multichip module or flip-chip assembly.
Traditionally, FPGAs and other programmable logic devices (PLDs) have been limited to providing digital logic functions programmable by a user. Recently, however, FPGA manufacturers have experimented with adding application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) blocks onto their devices (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,150,837). Such ASIC blocks have included analog circuits (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,821,776). In addition, ASIC manufacturers have embedded programmable logic blocks in their devices to add programmable functionality to otherwise hardwired devices (See, e.g., devices offered (or formerly offered) by Triscend Corporation, Adaptive Silicon Inc., and Chameleon Systems.

Integrated multi-function analog circuit including voltage, current, and temperature monitor and gate-driver circuit blocks


A method for configuring devices in a computer system using pattern matching is disclosed. The method constructs the initial configuration pattern by retrieving and storing a working device configuration in the configuration pattern. For each resource item of a supported resource type of a device, the method generates a resource combination matching a configuration pattern, which is updated after each testing iteration, to check in a deterministic order for a configuration conflict until a non-conflicting resource is found. If a conflicting resource is found, the method has the option of moving the conflicting resource to a non-conflicting resource. The process recursively repeats itself for each supported resource type of a device to produce a device configuration matching the configuration pattern. Each next potential device configuration is deterministically generated using a configuration index and the configuration pattern. The method thus eliminates the need to continuously store device configurations and the need to check the configurations of every device in a computer system before configuring a device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to personal computers, and more particularly, to a system for resolving conflicts encountered during the setup of personal computer hardware.
2. Description of the Related Art
The growth of the personal computer industry is attributable in part to the availability of inexpensive, yet powerful, personal computers. Improvements in processor, memory, data storage capability, and communications technologies have resulted in computers which can provide sufficient processing capability for applications such as multimedia, three dimensional (3D) animation, and teleconferencing, among others. To ensure manufacturing efficiency, common components of a computer such as a processor and a memory system are provided on a motherboard. The motherboard further provides one or more expansion buses to enable the motherboard to be customized to the user's specific requirements. The use of interchangeable circuit boards has allowed lower cost, highly-flexible computer systems to be developed.
After obtaining the motherboard, the user adds the desired circuit boards having the desired memory and input/output features to complete the computer system. In this way, individualized computer system can be easily and efficiently developed. These circuit boards typically make complex demands on the computer system resources, particularly on the limited common computer resources such as interrupt request lines (IRQ lines), direct memory access (DMA) channels, and input/output and memory address space. Additionally, the circuit boards often require internal initialization or selection of internal options to meet the desired conditions. The configuration of a variety of circuit boards in the computer system leads to potential configuration conflicts and complex decisions to resolve such conflicts, particularly as the complexity of the circuit board increases or the installer's experience decreases. The choices are often made based on the reading of highly cryptic or obscure manuals. Further, on some older add-on boards, the actual configuration depends on the familiarity of the user with the printed circuit board. Although the appearance of add-on boards which support software reconfigurability via a Plug and Play (PnP) specification has eased the installation process somewhat, a need remains for an apparatus and a method for transparently resolving resource conflicts amongst the devices of the computer system.
Conflict resolution is the automated process of detecting resource conflicts and configuring peripheral devices so that they can work concurrently by using unique (or non-unique, and sharable) resources. The great difficulty experienced in resolving system conflicts is caused by the premium in system resources. Typically, a personal computer's architecture limits the number of system resources available to the devices, and each device can use any combination of the four resource types: interrupt request (IRQ) lines, direct memory access (DMA) channels, input-output (I/O) addresses and memory (MEM) addresses. The system's available resources are limited because the architecture restricts them to the following: 16 IRQ lines, 8 DMAs, I/O addresses within the region of 0.times.0000-0.times.FFFF and memory address ranges inside 0.times.00000000-0.times.FFFFFFFF. The DMA channels allow the peripherals to communicate with each other at burst speeds to move blocks of memory at a time. The interrupt vectors can often be shared with other devices, so long as only one device is in active use at any one time. The I/O ports are control registers by which the personal computer controls a particular hardware. The I/O ports may never be shared with any other devices. With respect to the memory, a section of personal computer address space, unused by the personal computer physical memory, virtual memory or other hardware devices, is available for interfacing to the peripheral devices. In modern peripheral devices, the setting of the interrupt, DMA and address options is performed by programming in various software-activated options. The initialization of software-activated options has to be included in special initialization procedures. As a result, configuration was very complex and time consuming. Further, conflicting devices which attempt to use the same machine resources need to be reconfigured to use unique resources after they have been detected. The memory segment configuration is the most common source of conflict due to (a) the limited amount of free memory address space under one megabyte, (b) the large number of programs, devices and memory managers vying for memory address space, and (c) the ability of the 80386 or later processors to dynamically reassign the memory address space. Further, unlike interrupt vector or I/O port conflicts which are hardware based, memory conflicts can be caused by conflicting software options.
The number of devices in the system using some combination of the above resources depends on the system and varies greatly. The system when shipped may contain roughly 18 devices and have roughly 4 slots for plug-in expansion cards. Since a plug-in card can usually have up to eight devices on a card, the number of devices in a system can increase significantly. Thus, it is not unheard of to have forty or fifty devices in a system, all clamoring for system resources. As the personal computer requires conflict-free configuration of resources for successful use, if the newly added peripheral is assigned to use resources already occupied, the resulting configuration conflict can produce a variety of symptoms: at one extreme, the personal computer may not boot, at the other extreme all devices may appear to function but operate with intermittent failures.
Further, interdependencies can exist between resources and affect the number of potential configurations for a device, the method by which resource combinations are assembled within the conflict resolution, and ultimately, the ease of resolving conflicts. Typically, one or more of a device's resource requirements may be defined as independent. Such a resource can be assigned any possible non-conflicting value supported by the device without checking any of its other resource requirements. Because of this flexibility, independent resources are considerably easier to assign to a device. It is also important to note that a device defining an independent resource must be configured to use that type of resource.
Two or more of a device's resource requirements may defined as dependent. Such resources can only be assigned in groups. Dependent resources are considerably more difficult to assign to a device as they limit the number of possible working configurations that can be assigned to a device. Further, some devices may use different resource types for different dependent resource groups.
To resolve system conflicts, the user historically had two choices. The first is to use a set-up package which is activated by pressing a F10 key upon a power-on-self-test (POST) sequence so that each resource value for each device can be altered until a conflict-free environment is established. For details of such a method, and for a review of the problems of conflict resolution generally, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,570, issued on Sep. 12, 1995 to Richek, et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference. The second option is to rely on a Plug and Play (PnP) operating system, such as Windows 95 to resolve the conflicts. However, both options are prone to failure in situations involving a large number of peripheral devices and options. Thus, what is needed is an apparatus and a method for setting up and installing expansion peripheral devices quickly and with confidence that the installation is correct.

System for configuring computer devices according to configuration patterns


Provided is a device that records or outputs information, which acquires a first image to be a display target, judges whether at least a part of the acquired first image is a preset non-target image, and determines whether the acquired first image is an image to be recorded or output. When it is determined that the acquired first image is the image to be recorded or output as a result of the determination, the device records or outputs the acquired first image.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an information outputting device, an information outputting method, a computer readable recording medium, and an image projecting signal.
2. Related Art
In recent years, in corporate activities, information has been actively shared through slide shows by using presentation software.
There are systems in which images and voices can be reproduced after presentations are held.
In such systems, when the images and voices are reproduced afterward, information unrelated to the presentation may be reproduced together.

Information outputting device, information outputting method, computer readable recording medium, and image projecting system


A method for grinding cast steel railroad wheels is provided. The apparatus comprises a railroad wheel support assembly that includes a roller assembly to receive and grasp the railroad wheel and rotate the railroad wheel about its center axis. A grinding assembly is also provided that includes a motor operatively connected to a grinding wheel. The motor and grinding wheel are mounted to a support assembly. The railroad wheel support assembly oscillates about an axle assembly during grinding. The grinding assembly is designed to advance the grinding wheel laterally into the railroad wheel during grinding. The lateral advancing of the grinding wheel and oscillating of the railroad wheel are controlled to achieve a finish grinding of the selected surface of the railroad wheel to a preselected contour.

The present invention relates to a method for grinding railroad wheels, and more particularly, a method for the sprue removal and finish grinding of cast steel railroad wheels.
The preferred method for manufacturing cast steel railroad wheels is the bottom pressure casting foundry operation wherein molten steel under pressure is forced upwardly into a graphite mold and filled from the bottom upwardly. This bottom pressure casting operation eliminates many of the concerns associated with traditional top pouring molten steel in foundry operations such as splashing and insufficient filling of molds. In the casting of railroad wheels, it is usual for the front side of the wheel, which also corresponds with the top half of the mold, to have a raised center hub portion and, depending on the size of the wheel, from 6 to 14 raised sections or sprues extending from the plate portion of the wheel near the rim. The raised hub area and the raised sprue areas extending from the plate are remnants of risers that are designed to hold additional metal to be available to fill downwardly into the mold during the cooling and solidification of the wheel just after pouring. The center raised hub section is removed during the flame cutting of the axle hub, which is later finished by a hub-boring operation. The sprues are difficult to remove and would require considerable effort if removed by normal-sized, hand-held grinders. In fact, such hand-held grinding operation is not currently used in present wheel-making operations. The current method for removal of such sprues is a so-called sprue washing operation which amounts to a carbon arc melting of the raised sprue. A hollow electrode is utilized to electrically melt the sprue with air blown through the hollow portion of the electrode to blow away the molten metal. This operation is like carbon arc welding but with no material depositing. However, removed molten metal is deposited on adjacent sections of the wheel which requires subsequent chipping away which is a time consuming and difficult process. Further, the sprue washing operation is not a desirable work area as the operators must wear a protective suit with a separate airhood supply and adequate noise protection.
After such sprue washing and chipping operations are completed, the cast steel wheel must be heat treated by raising its temperature, allowing it to cool, cleaning the wheel by a shot-blast operation, and then finish grinding the surface areas from which the sprues were removed. Such finish grinding is a typical hand-grinding operation and again a difficult process for the operator.
Machine grinding of ingots and billets are known in the steel industry. Typically, such operation amounts to scarfing of the ingot's surface to remove minor cracks or surface imperfections after the ingot has cooled, although certain scarfing operations are preferred when the ingot is at an elevated temperature. Applicants are not aware of any operation wherein sprues are removed from cast steel railroad wheels when the wheel has just solidified from the initial casting operation.

Method for sprue removal and grinding of railroad wheels


The present invention automatically establishes a connection to each participant of a teleconference. Conference call set up and connect information may be provisioned in a variety of ways, including via a menu-based Dual Tone Multiple Frequency (DTMF) mechanism and via a form or formatted file sent from a subscriber. Additionally, a conference participant is not tied to one telephone number or other such address. The present invention queries a profile database to determine a conference participant's current location before connecting the participant to the conference. Therefore a conference participant who happens to be working from home on a particular day need only update one database, and any conferences in which the telecommuting worker is expected to participate will automatically be connected to the worker's home telephone number, rather than the worker's office telephone number.

As telecommunications systems advance, demand increases for subscriber features in both wireless and wire line networks. One example of a subscriber feature that is commonly used is conference calling. Private parties and corporations frequently encounter situations in which a meeting between geographically separated parties would be appropriate, but there are difficulties associated with bringing the parties together at a specific meeting place at a specific date and time. Conference calling provides a convenient solution by allowing individuals from various geographic locations to have a conference over the telephone.
Conventional three-way conference calling enables one party already established in a telephone call with a second party to place a telephone call to a third party, and then to conference the two separate telephone calls together into a single, three-way telephone-call. To enable parties having only one telephone line to initiate a three-way conference call, the two separate telephone calls are conventionally conferenced at a telephone switch, either at the subscriber's premises or at the central office of the telephone company, and then transmitted to the initiating party on the single telephone line. Typically, at least one of the parties involved in the conference call subscribes to three-way calling service.
Conventionally, such a call is accomplished by the first party flashing the telephone line to indicate to the switch that the current party (second party) is to be put on hold, and a dial tone is to be presented to the first party. The first party then dials out to or calls a third party, and establishes a call between them. The first party then flashes the telephone line again to indicate to the switch to conference together the telephone call to the second party with the call to the third party, and to present the same to the first party as a single telephone call. Thus, a three-way call is established. This conventional technique of three-way calling is sometimes inconvenient to establish and is limited to three party participation.
An additional conventional system for establishing conference calls, usually used by businesses, involves a caller contacting a conference call operator in advance of a meeting to set-up a conference bridge. After the conference bridge is set-up, the call organizer is given a contact number, which the conference parties have to use to call in to the bridge. The call organizer then needs to communicate the contact numbers and the conference call date and time to all invitees. Each invitee is then required to dial the contact number at the specified time to join the conference call, which may already be in progress. This system has several disadvantages such as individual participants having to remember the specific date, time, and number to call in to connect to the conference call. This system also involves the conference organizer having to call an operator in advance of the conference call to set-up a conference bridge.
Sometimes, a conventional conferencing user either forgets to call at the appropriate time or forgets the conference telephone number or passcode. Such a forgetful user is penalized by being precluded from attending a conference session. A conventional conference participant may compensate by writing the conference telephone number and passcode down and posting that information near a telephone. This, however, defeats the security aspect of requiring knowledge of a telephone number and confidential passcode to access a teleconference.
Another disadvantage of conventional teleconference methods is that conference participants must initiate the conference connection. With the exception of three-way calling, conferencing requires each party to place a call to a conferencing facility that houses a conference switch. The switch is then set-up at the conferencing facility to enable the conference participants to talk among themselves.
Yet another disadvantage of certain conventional teleconference systems, particularly those in which participants are called by another participant, is that many such systems require a conference participant to be associated with one particular telephone number. Workers of today operate in a very mobile society. They may be at the office one day, and telecommuting from home the next day. Therefore, being tied to one telephone number can be very restrictive for today's worker.
What is needed are methods and systems that overcome the disadvantages of conventional systems. Such methods and systems should provide additional advantages, including cost effectiveness, flexibility, and ease of implementation.


A spike nail for nailing in walls made of gypsum boards or fiber boards has a nail body which consists of a first blade and a second blade. The nail body includes a striking section, a upper guiding sleeve, a lower guiding sleeve, a screw thread guiding section and a nail point section. The spike nail thus constructed can be nailed into gypsum board or fiber board walls to facilitate hanging articles.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a spike nail structure and particularly to a spike nail for nailing in walls made of gypsum boards or fiber boards to hang articles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional spike nail 1 (referring to FIG. 1) for nailing in walls made of gypsum boards or fiber boards such as the one disclosed in French patent No. 012420 includes a first blade 11 and a second blade 12 folding together. It has a striking section 13 to receive hitting of a tool to drive a nail point section 14 into a gypsum board or fiber board wall. Then a lag spike may be inserted to drive the first and the second blades apart to anchor the spike nail on the wall W. The lag spike can be used to hang articles. Such a structure still has drawbacks in use, notably:                1. The nail point section 14 of the spike nail 1 is formed by coupling a first nail point 111 of the first blade 11 and a second nail point 121 of the second blade 12. The first nail point 111 is longer than the second nail point 121. When the spike nail 1 is hit by a tool, the first nail point 111 pierces into wall W first. When the second nail point 121 pierces into the wall W, the cross sections of the first blade 11 and the second blade 12 increase the instantaneous resistance of piercing. The spike nail 1 tends to be deformed or split due to not sufficient strength. As a result, construction quality suffers. The wall W could even cracks.        2. The longitudinal distance between the nail point section 14 of the spike nail 1 and the striking section 13 is relatively long. In the event that either the first blade 11 or the second blade 12 is tilted slightly, the lag spike is skewed during fastening due to lack of guiding support.


The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for intra prediction. The intra prediction method for a decoder, according to the present invention, comprises the steps of entropy-decoding a received bitstream, generating reference pixels to be used in the intra prediction of a prediction unit; generating a prediction block from the reference pixels on the basis of a prediction mode for the prediction unit and reconstructing an image from the prediction block and a residual block, which is obtained as a result of entropy encoding, wherein the reference pixels and/or the prediction block pixels are predicted on the basis of a base pixel, and the predicted pixel value can be the sum of the pixel value of the base pixel and the difference between the pixel values of the base pixel and the generated pixel.

The present invention relates to a video processing technique, and more particularly, to an intra prediction method in encoding/decoding video information.
Recently, demands for high-resolution and high-quality images have increased in various fields of applications. As images have higher resolution and higher quality, amount of information on the images also increases. Accordingly, when video data is transferred using media such as existing wired and wireless broad band lines or is stored in conventional storage media, transfer and storage costs of the video data rise.
Thus, high-efficiency video compression techniques may be utilized to effectively transmit, store or reproduce images with superior resolution and superior quality.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for intra prediction within display screen


A holder for a hand-held urinal that is for releasable mounting from a bed rail or the like. The holder includes a mounting bracket having at least one plate member that is supported from the bed rail; and a holder for receiving the hand-held urinal. The holder is removably supportable from the plate member and includes a headed stud constructed and arranged facing the plate member and for engagement with an arcuate slot in the plate member to permit pivotal support of the holder from the mounting bracket while providing limited sliding motion between the headed stud and slot so as to enable the holder to stay substantially vertical even as the mounting bracket tilts.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a holder or retainer for supporting a hand-held urinal. More particularly, the present invention relates to such a holder that is adapted for use, for example, in a hospital or nursing facility.
2. Related Art
The bed-ridden patient typically requires the use of a hand-held urinal device. With the ever increasing workload imposed on nurses and orderlies, it is usually desirable to have the urinal stationed within easy reach from the bed. These portable urinals are either left standing or hung by their handle from the bedrail. In either case spillage can occur leading to an unsterile situation.
The prior art does describe urinal holders for bedside use such as in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,473,772 and 3,653,624. However, these holders are generally not easily attachable and detachable from the bedrail. Furthermore, these prior art holders do not provide a simple and effective means for maintaining their upright position even as the bedrail is tilted.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved urinal holder particularly one that is of simple construction and that can be readily attached to and detached from the bedside.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved urinal holder that is constructed and arranged to be easily maintained in a vertical upright position even as the bed or bedrail is tilted.


An impact absorbing airbag module is disclosed. The module includes a chassis that holds an inflator, and is connected to a mounting system. The chassis includes a forward side wall, a first lateral side wall, a second lateral side wall, and a rear side wall. One of the side walls includes a deforming zone that includes a first angled portion and a second angled portion. In some cases, the deforming zone extends around the periphery of the chassis.

The present invention relates generally to motor vehicles, and in particular the present invention relates to an impact absorbing airbag module.
In order to meet current safety regulations, most modern motor vehicles include some form of supplemental restraint system. These systems often include an airbag. Airbags are generally contained in a housing with a suitable inflator. This complete system is sometimes referred to as an airbag module. During an impact, the inflator quickly releases compressed gasses to inflate the airbag, which is deployed by the gasses. In the deployed condition, airbags are designed to cushion the impact experienced by the driver or passengers.
While airbag systems can be helpful during some types of collisions, there are some other collisions where the motor vehicle may have difficulty passing certain government mandated crash test requirements because passengers or drivers may impact the airbag module itself. These collisions generally occur at low speeds or low impact impulses where airbags are not designed to deploy. In these types of collisions, occupant impact with airbag modules can cause compliance problems with government mandated crash tests. To avoid this, the following airbag systems have been proposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,312,008 to Neag and assigned to Daimler Chrysler Corporation is directed to an energy absorbing bracket for an airbag system. Neag discloses a side airbag that is deployed with generally less force than a frontal airbag. The airbag module of Neag includes an energy absorption bracket 40 with upper downstanding leg 46 and lower downstanding leg 48. These downstanding legs are designed to bend when the airbag module experiences an impact.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,277 to Bittinger et al. and assigned to Chrysler Corporation is directed to a passenger restraint system with a crush zone. The '277 patent teaches crush zones 32 and 34 disposed on end caps 16 that are designed to absorb the impact of a passenger's knees during a collision. However, the end caps 16 of Bittinger are not part of the airbag.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,942 to Bossenmaier et al. and assigned to Daimler Chrysler Corporation is directed to a deformable air bag housing. The '942 patent provides a good background discussion of deformable air bag housings and notes that prior deformable air bag housings presented sharp corners or edges after deformation. These sharp corners could tear or snag a deploying air bag. The '942 patent discloses a deformable airbag housing that is designed to minimize damage to the airbag during inflation. To accomplish this, the '942 patent discloses a slot 15 that runs nearly the entire width of side cover 8. Slot 15 divides side cover 8 into two parts 16 and 17 as shown in cross-sectional views A-A and B-B. Upper part 16 includes a slightly bent lower edge that allows upper part 16 to slide outward of lower part 17 as side cover 8 deforms.
The following patents disclose air bag modules with collapsible side walls. Generally, some feature or provision is provided so that a portion of the side wall is weakened and assists in promoting deformation of the side wall at that weakened region.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,684 to Repp et al. and assigned to Morton International and Chrysler Corporation teaches an air bag canister with grooves of various cross-sectional shapes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,747 to Rose and assigned to Morton International discloses the use of slots 40 to provide a weakened region. Rose also teaches a "zigzag" shaped side walls 28 and 30. U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,163 to Amamori et al. and assigned to Tanaka Corporation teaches a side wall that includes stress concentration portions 61 to assist the air bag container in deforming. Finally, referring to FIGS. 16 and 17, related art air bag inflator module 2000, designed to use a cylindrical inflator 2008, includes walls 2002 and 2004 with perforations 2006. These perforations 2006 can assist air bag inflator module 2000 in deforming.
While the related art teaches a variety of features that can be used to reduce the severity of an impact with an airbag module, none of the references teaches an airbag module that is easy to design and manufacture, that is easy to tune and configure for different motor vehicles, different locations and different types of collisions, and an airbag module that can reduce the possibility of tearing an airbag during deployment.


An insulation beverage container (10) is provided and includes a gauge (40) for indicating the level of beverage held in the container (10). The gauge (40) includes a float (42) positioned within the container (10), a visual indicator (44) extending outside of the container (10), and a link (46) connecting the float (42) to the indicator (44) to move the indicator (44) with the float (42) as the position of the float (42) varies with the level of the beverage in the container (10).

Some beverage containers, particularly those that are insulated, do not provide an adequate view of the beverage contained therein in order to determine the level of the beverage held in the container, i.e., how full the container is. Examples of such beverage containers include coffee pots or servers and coffee urns, such as gravity feed servers with a spout located at or near a bottom of the server to dispense the beverage. For these types of beverage containers, one known gauge is provided in the form of a vertical glass tube that is connected by various plumbing between the bottom of the container and the spout. U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,752 shows a similar gauge that is built into the handle of a coffee server. While these constructions may work well for their intended purpose, there are some disadvantages. For example, the structure of these known gauges can be complicated, difficult to clean, and/or expensive to manufacture or maintain. Cleaning can be particularly important in the restaurant industry due to NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) cleaning standards.

Gauge to indicate the level of beverage held in a beverage container


The present invention provides a compound of the formula (III):

Tetrahydropyrrolo[1,2-a]pyrazin-4-spiro-3′-pyrrolidine derivatives which are promising therapeutic agents for diabetic complications showing a potent aldose reductase inhibitory activity are disclosed in the literature (for example, see JP-A-5-186472; and J. Med. Chem., 1998, 41, p. 4118 to 4129). Also Ranirestat [AS-3201; (3R)-2′-(4-bromo-2-fluorobenzyl)spiro[pyrrolidin-3,4′(1′H)-pyrrolo[1,2-a]pyrazine]-1′,2,3′,5(2H′)-tetraone] selected among these derivatives has been developed clinically.
The process for preparing the compound of the formula (XI) mentioned below is described in a literature, and the literature describes that the optical resolution of the compound (wherein R4 is a protecting group of a carboxyl group) into each enantiomer is carried out by forming diastereomer salts with an optically active acid [for example, (+)-camphor acid, (1S)-(+)- or (1R)-(−)-camphor-10-sulfonic acid, L-(+)- or D-(−)-tartaric acid, L-pyroglutamilic acid, (S)-(−)- or (R)-(+)-malic acid, hydrogenphosphate (S)-(+)- or (R)-(−)-1,1′-binaphthyl-2,2′-diyl, (−) or (+)-2′-nitrotartronic acid, D-(+)-tartronic acid, (−)-dibenzoyl-L-tartaric acid, (+)-dibenzoyl-D-tartaric acid, (−)-diacetyl-L-tartaric acid, etc.] according to the conventional method, followed by isolating the two diastereomer salts and converting them into free bases thereof (see, for example, JP-A-5-186472).

However there is no specific disclosure of the diastereomer salt of the compound of the formula (XI) (wherein R4 is a protecting group of a carboxyl group) and no suggestion of a direct preparation of the compound of the formula (VI′) mentioned above using the diastereomer salt.
A literature describes that racemic compounds (Ia) and (Ib) shown below can be resolved into two enantiomers by forming diastereomer salts with an optically active amine according to the conventional method, followed by separating them into two kinds of diastereomer salts by a fractional crystallization and then decomposing these salts (see, for example, JP-A-6-192222).
wherein R1 is a protecting group of a carboxyl group and R4 is a group cleavable by hydrogenolysis or a tert-butoxycarbonyl group, with proviso that when R4 is a group cleavable by hydrogenolysis, then R1 is a group cleavable by hydrolysis.
However there is no description and no suggestion on an optical resolution of the compound of the formula (Ia) wherein R4 is a hydrogen atom.
The process for preparing Ranirestat is described in the literature as shown in the below scheme (see, for example, J. Med. Chem., 1998, 41, p. 4118 to 4129).
wherein Z is a benzyloxycarbonyl group.
However there is no description and suggestion on an optical resolution of racemic ethyl 3-amino-2,5-dioxopyrrolidine-3-carboxylate.
The process for preparing optically active 2,5-dioxo-3-(pyrrol-1-yl)pyrrolidine-3-carboxylates described in the literature requires essentially a step of removing an optically active amine used as an optical resolution agent by using an acid after an optical resolution of racemic intermediates and also requires a large number of steps as shown in the scheme below (see, for example, JP-A-6-192222 and J. Med. Chem., 1998, 41, p. 4118 to 4129).
wherein Ra is a protecting group for an amino group such as a benzylcarbonyl group and Rb is a protecting group for a carboxyl group such as an ethyl group.

Optically active 3-amino-2,5-dioxopyrrolidine-3-carboxylate, process for production of the compound, and use of the compound

Abstract: wherein R is a C1-6 alkyl group,as a novel optically active intermediate for preparing tetrahydropyrrolo[1,2-a]pyrazin-4-spiro-3′-pyrrolidine derivatives such as Ranirestat being a promising therapeutic agent for diabetic complications in a short process, in an economically advantageous manner and in high yields, and the process for preparing the same.


Asphalt is packaged in consumable containers (10) having breakage means, such as short notches or long channels (110, 111), to allow for easy breakage into smaller portions for ease of handling and feeding into kettles. The containers are advantageously made of an asphalt-polymer composition so that the entire asphalt package may be melted in a kettle, e.g., for use in a roofing or paving application. The containers may have various features to enhance processability and handleability, including a generally rectangular shape and multi-faceted or stepped sides 20 and/or walls 30 with handhold portions and/or scooped portions.

In the asphalt industry, one way of transporting asphalt to the users is in the form of individual packages, which are used often by building contractors as a source of asphalt for roofing and other construction applications. Individual packages of asphalt are often formed at conventional asphalt-processing facilities by pouring molten asphalt into containers made of a metal bottom and paper cylindrical sidewalls. The asphalt is typically poured at temperatures of about 177.degree. C. and the packages are allowed to cool for up to twenty-four hours prior to shipping to users, such as roofing contractors. After removing the paper and metal container, which become waste, the roofing worker places the solid asphalt from the container in a gas-fired melting kettle to melt the asphalt for application. Removal of the paper and metal container is time-consuming and the disposal of the paper and metal container material is burdensome.
Packages have been developed that eliminate the need to remove or dispose of the container. One type of such a package is disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,452,800 and 5,307,608, which relate to asphalt packages employing thin polypropylene films as the sole containment means and methods for their manufacture.
Another type of consumable asphalt package that has been developed is a moldable container described in International Publication No. WO 96/40838, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. The consumable containers molded from compositions comprise asphalt and polymer material. The containers may be of cylindrical or rectangular designs, and may be tapered for stacking and include such features as handholds to facilitate handling and annular protrusions or circumferential ribs to enhance dimensional stability.
Although moldable consumable containers have been attained, which have an advantage of reducing fuming in an asphalt-melting kettle, further improvements are desired. More particularly, improvements are sought to facilitate the processing of the containers into asphalt packages as well as the use of the packages.

Asphalt packages with consumable containers

Owens Corning Fiberglas Technology, Inc.


A grilling appliance includes a housing defining an internal grilling compartment for receiving a food article to be grilled; an impaling member mounted within the grilling compartment for impaling a food article to be grilled; a circular array of electrical heaters surrounding the impaling member for heating the food article impaled thereon. The impaling member is non-rotatably mounted to the housing within the grilling compartment, and the electrical heaters are sequentially energized to produce a rotating heating front which rotates around the impaling member to heat the article impaled thereon.

The present invention relates to grilling appliances such as used for grilling various types of food articles, e.g., chicken, beef, lamb, and the like.
The present invention is particularly applicable to grilling appliances of the type which include an impaling member mounted within a grilling compartment for impaling a food article to be grilled, and a circular array of electrical heaters surrounding the impaling member for heating the food article impaled thereon. This type of grilling appliance is illustrated, for example, in Austrian Patent No. 217592 of October 1961, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,575,196, 4,810,856, 4,715,273, 1,819,301 and 1,612,252. In such grilling appliances, the impaling member is generally rotated within the grilling compartment with respect to the electrical heaters to evenly grill the outer surface of the food article impaled on the impaling member.
Such grilling appliances, however, are relatively bulky and expensive to produce primarily because of the rotary drive for the impaling member. Such rotary drives generally include an electrical motor and a step-down transmission to rotate the impelling member at the desired slow speed.