The invention relates to a process for the preparation of a glass-ceramic blank for dental purposes with lithium silicate as crystal phase, in which lithium silicate blanks that are no longer required and in particular residues thereof are used as starting material and which allows the production of a homogeneous starting glass within a short time.

Lithium silicate glass-ceramics have excellent mechanical properties, and the optical properties of natural tooth material can be imitated very well with the aid thereof. For this reason, such glass-ceramics are already extensively used for the production of aesthetically demanding dental restorations with very good mechanical properties.
The lithium silicate glass-ceramics are generally used in the form of corresponding blanks, such as blocks, discs or cylinders, from which the desired dental restorations, such as crowns or bridges, are then shaped. The shaping is usually effected by pressing at increased temperature and increased pressure or by machining in computer-aided milling devices.
For the production of lithium silicate glass-ceramics, in a first step, a corresponding starting glass is usually melted at temperatures of in particular 1300 to 1600° C. from a mixture of materials in powder form. The materials in powder form used are in particular oxides, carbonates, phosphates, borates and fluorides. In order to achieve a sufficiently homogeneous glass and, in particular, the removal of bubbles within the glass, the mixture in powder form has to be heated to the melting temperature for several hours and typically from 7 to 12 hours, which is uneconomical because of the long duration and the large quantity of energy used. The starting glass obtained is then poured into suitable moulds and transformed into the desired blanks of lithium silicate glass-ceramic via one or more heat treatments. Such a procedure is disclosed, for example, in EP 1 505 041, EP 1 688 398, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,316,740 and 7,452,836, both of which U.S. patents are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Process for the preparation of a glass-ceramic blank for dental purposes


An image processing device includes first and second image signal processors (ISPs) independently capable of processing an image received from an image sensor. The first ISP processes a first image having a first resolution and the second ISP processes a second image having a different second resolution.

The inventive concept relates generally to image processing devices and methods for processing image signal(s). More particularly, the inventive concept relates to image processing devices capable of processing multiple image streams having different respective resolutions, as well as image processing methods used in such image processing devices.
The term "image sensor" is used to denote a class of electronic devices that capture a visual image and convert the captured image into a corresponding electrical signal. Image sensors are used not only in general consumer electronics, such as digital cameras, mobile phone cameras, and portable camcorders, but also in vehicles, security devices, robots, etc. The CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) image sensor is one type of image sensor commonly used in contemporary products. The CMOS image sensor includes a pixel array, wherein each pixel includes a light sensing device. Each light sensing device is configured to generate an analog electrical signal corresponding to the intensity of light received (or absorbed) by the light sensing device. Hereafter, the light received by a light sensing device will be termed "incident light".
An image signal processor (ISP) processes the analog electrical signal(s) provided by one or more light sensing devices of an image sensor by converting the analog electrical signal(s) into corresponding digital data. An ISP may be configured for this purpose and disposed within a variety of devices, such as mobile devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets, etc.).
In certain operative configurations, an ISP may be required to simultaneously process dual image streams, where one image stream has a relatively lower resolution than the other. For example, a mobile device may include two (or more) camera modules, each having a different respective resolution. Thus, a single ISP incorporated in the mobile device may be required to rapidly process both a low-resolution image stream and a high-resolution image stream. However, address the potential requirement of simultaneously processing the low-resolution image stream and high-resolution image stream, the constituent ISP must operate with a sufficiently high processing speed and processing capacity to acceptably process the high-resolution image stream. As a result of this necessity, the ISP must provide a line buffer and/or a kernel size sufficiently large to accommodate the high-resolution image processing requirement. Power consumption by the ISP may also be adversely influenced by the high-resolution image processing requirement.

Image processing device with multiple image signal processors and image processing method


Multiple branch operations using one or more associative memories are performed, which may be of particular use for, but is not limited to implementing security classification and access control lists. One embodiment generates a first lookup value including a first branch search level indication. A first lookup operation is performed on a set of associative memory entries based on the first lookup value to identify a first associative memory result, with each of associative memory entries including a branch level indication. The associative memory result is used to identify an adjunct memory result associated with a second branch level indication. A second lookup value is derived based on the second branch level indication. A second lookup operation is then performed on the associative memory entries based on the second lookup value to identify a second associative memory result.

The communications industry is rapidly changing to adjust to emerging technologies and ever increasing customer demand. This customer demand for new applications and increased performance of existing applications is driving communications network and system providers to employ networks and systems having greater speed and capacity (e.g., greater bandwidth). In trying to achieve these goals, a common approach taken by many communications providers is to use packet switching technology. Increasingly, public and private communications networks are being built and expanded using various packet technologies, such as Internet Protocol (IP).
A network device, such as a switch or router, typically receives, processes, and forwards or discards a packet based on one or more criteria, including the type of protocol used by the packet, addresses of the packet (e.g., source, destination, group), and type or quality of service requested. Additionally, one or more security operations are typically performed on each packet. But before these operations can be performed, a packet classification operation must typically be performed on the packet.
Packet classification as required for, inter alia, access control lists (ACLs) and forwarding decisions, is a demanding part of switch and router design. The packet classification of a received packet is increasingly becoming more difficult due to ever increasing packet rates and number of packet classifications. For example, ACLs typically require matching packets on a subset of fields of the packet header or flow label, with the semantics of a sequential search through the ACL rules.
Access control and quality of service features are typically implemented based on programming contained in one or more ACLs. A network administrator controls access to a network using access control lists (ACLs). ACLs are very flexible and allow the network administrator to specify several conditions to be met and several actions to be taken. The syntax is such that it is most easily interpreted in a serial fashion. When an ACL entry matches a packet in a process of serially evaluating an ACL in a known system, one of the actions that may be required is to skip over a certain number of subsequent ACL entries before resuming the serial evaluation. When implemented by a software program, a serial interpretation is quite natural, however, the number of packets per second that can be processed is limited.
In high performance network switches, a ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) is commonly used to increase the number of packets per second that can be processed as it allows lookup operations to be performed in parallel on numerous entries corresponding to ACL actions. However, the performance advantage of a TCAM is only available if all entries are evaluated at once and a TCAM chip can only provide the address of the first matching entry.
So, to implement features in hardware in which more than one matching condition can be specified, these multiple ACL lists are typically combined into one list using a software merge transformation which can be used for programming and associative memory. Various techniques are known for combining these items, such as Binary Decision Diagram (BDD) and Order Dependent Merge (ODM). For example, if there are two ACLs A (having entries A1 and A2) and B (having entries B1 and B2, then ODM combines these original lists to produce one of two cross-product equivalent ordered lists, each with four entries: A1B1, A1B2, A2B1, and A2B2; or A1B1, A2B1, A1B2, and A2B2. These four entries can then be programmed into an associative memory and an indication of a corresponding action to be taken placed in an adjunct memory. Lookup operations can then be performed on the associative and adjunct memories to identify a corresponding action to use for a particular packet being processed. There are also variants of ODM and BDD which may filter out the entries which are unnecessary as their values will never allow them to be matched.
However, these software merge techniques can cause each ACL entry to consume multiple entries in the TCAM. If this memory usage expansion could be avoided, a smaller, less expensive TCAM could be used or, for the same size TCAM, larger ACLs could be supported.
Similar lookup operations are required for implementing security features, such as, but not limited to the security architecture for the Internet Protocol (IPsec) defined in. S. KENT and R. ATKINSON, "Security Architecture for IP," RFC 2401, November 1998, which is hereby incorporated by reference. An IPsec (IP security) implementation operates in a host or a security gateway environment, affording protection to IP traffic. The protection offered is based on requirements defined by a Security Policy Database (SPD) established and maintained by a user or system administrator, or by an application operating within constraints established by either of the above. In general, packets are selected for one of three processing modes based on IP and transport layer header information matched against entries in the database. Each packet is either afforded IPsec security services, discarded, or allowed to bypass IPsec, based on the applicable database policies.
IPsec provides security services at the IP layer by enabling a system to select required security protocols, determine the algorithm(s) to use for the service(s), and put in place any cryptographic keys required to provide the requested services. IPsec can be used to protect one or more "paths" between a pair of hosts, between a pair of security gateways, or between a security gateway and a host. The set of security services that IPsec can provide includes access control, connectionless integrity, data origin authentication, rejection of replayed packets (a form of partial sequence integrity), confidentiality (encryption), and limited traffic flow confidentiality. Because these services are provided at the IP layer, they can be used by any higher layer protocol, e.g., TCP, UDP, ICMP, BGP, etc.
IPsec packet classification is specified as a two-layer hierarchy: the relevant security policy (SP) must be found first out of an ordered list of SPs, and then within the context of the located SP, the correct security association (SA) must be found. A security association is a simplex "connection" that affords security services to the traffic carried by it. To secure typical, bi-directional communication between two hosts or between two security gateways, two security associations (one in each direction) are required. A security association is uniquely identified by a triple consisting of a Security Parameter Index (SPI), an IP Destination Address, and a security protocol identifier. In principle, the destination address may be a unicast address, an IP broadcast address, or a multicast group address. The set of security services offered by an SA depends on the security protocol selected, the SA mode, the endpoints of the SA, and on the election of optional services within the protocol. For example, one security protocol provides data origin authentication and connectionless integrity for IP datagrams.
RFC 2401 defines a two-step process for performing lookup operations to in order to identify a SA associated with a packet, i.e., by first performing a lookup in a security policy database and then, performing a subsequent second lookup operation based on the identified security policy to identify the corresponding security association). Especially as packet rates and then number of packets to be processed by a packet processor increases, this two-stage lookup process can be limiting. Moreover, this security processing is just one operation to be performed on a packet, as additional access control list processing is also typically performed on a packet. Desired are new mechanisms for performing these lookup operations.

Multiple branch operations in an associative memory


A circuit for receiving an input signal and generating an output signal, the input signal having a first frequency, the output signal having a second frequency. The circuit comprises a forward branch for generating the output signal and a return branch for feeding back the output signal. The return branch comprises a frequency divider for receiving the output signal, for dividing the frequency of the output signal by a factor, and for outputting a modified output signal. The forward branch comprises a detector for comparing the input signal and the modified output signal and outputting a comparison signal indicative of the comparison; a word-length reduction circuit for reducing the number of bits of the comparison signal, thereby generating a reduced-length comparison signal; a digital-to-analog converter for converting the reduced-length comparison signal to analog, thereby generating an analog signal; and an oscillator, controlled by said analog signal. By reducing the word length of the input to the digital-to-analog converter, the digital-to-analog converter may be greatly simplified.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to frequency synthesis and particularly, but not exclusively, relates to frequency- and phase-locked loops.
2. Description of the Related Art
Frequency-locked loops, or alternatively phase-locked loops (FLLs and PLLs respectively), are blocks that perform the function shown in FIG. 1. That is, an input signal at a fixed first frequency Fin is supplied to the FLL 10, and the FLL outputs a signal at a fixed second frequency Fout that is not equal to Fin. This general principle is known as frequency synthesis.
It is advantageous to realize as much of the FLL as possible in digital, due to the benefits that are inherent with digital processing (i.e. cheaper, smaller die area, rapid testability, etc).
FIG. 2 shows an implementation of an FLL 20. A digital signal having a frequency Fin is input to a frequency detector 22. The frequency detector 22 detects the frequency of the input signal, compares it with the frequency of a fed-back signal, and outputs a further digital signal that is indicative of the difference in the two frequencies. This signal is input to a loop filter 24 which has an integrating function, and outputs a digital integrated signal. In the majority of FLLs, the digital integrated signal preferably has a high resolution such that the FLL works accurately. Signals of the order of 20 bits or more are typical.
The integrated signal is input to a DAC 26, which converts it to an analog signal which controls a voltage-controlled oscillator 28 (VCO). The frequency of the output signal from the VCO 28 is controlled by its input signal. A high input signal leads to a high-frequency output signal, and vice versa. The signal output from the VCO 28 is fed to a ÷N block 29. The frequency Fout of the output signal is divided by a factor N, which is chosen by the designer of the system, and the signal containing this divided frequency is fed back to the frequency detector 22. In this way the system converges to an output signal with a frequency of Fout=N×Fin.
As aforementioned, the output of the loop filter 24 must have a high resolution in order for the DAC to operate correctly, of the order of 20 bits. However, designing a 20-bit DAC is extremely difficult.


The present invention provides an electronic device comprising a base substrate to be surface-mounted on a circuit board, one or more electronic component elements mounted on a surface of the base substrate and/or therein, an external electrode provided on an end portion of the base substrate and in the form of a post perpendicular to a rear surface of the base substrate for connecting the one or more electronic component elements to the circuit board. Furthermore, the base substrate is provided on its end portion with a slope crossing a side surface and a rear surface of the base substrate. A surface of the external electrode is exposed on the slope.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic devices including a base substrate to be surface-mounted on a circuit board, and a structure of a base substrate board serving as an intermediate product of the electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
A portable telephone has, for example, an antenna duplexer mounted thereon for sharing one antenna with transmitting system and receiving system. The antenna duplexer is generally provided by a composite device of laminate type as shown in FIG. 9. With the composite device of laminate type, a plurality of ceramic layers 61 are laminated to constitute a base substrate 6 of laminate type, as shown in FIG. 10. An uppermost ceramic layer 61 has a plurality of chip components 7 mounted on a surface thereof. Intermediate ceramic layers 61 are each provided on a surface thereof with circuit elements including inductor patterns and capacitor patterns. The circuit elements and the chip components 7 are connected to each other to provide an antenna duplexer circuit.
Furthermore, with the composite device of laminate type, the base substrate 6 is provided on a side surface 60 with a plurality of external electrodes 20 in the form of a post perpendicular to the base substrate 6 in order to surface-mount the base substrate 6 on a circuit board, as shown in FIG. 9, to expose the external electrodes 20 on a rear surface of the base substrate 6.
When the composite device of laminate type is surface-mounted on the circuit board, the base substrate 6 has a side surface 60 formed with solder filets 30 for covering the external electrodes 20, as shown in FIG. 7(a). The solder fillets 30 mechanically join the base substrate 6 to the circuit board (not shown), and electrically connects the electrodes 20 to the circuit board (JP-B No. 2976049).
It has been required with ever increasing severity that electronic devices such as the composite device of laminate type be reduced in size. This gives rise to the important problem of downsizing a surface mounting area on the circuit board. However, the following problem arises. When the composite device of laminate type is surface-mounted on the circuit board as shown in FIG. 7(a), the solder filets 30 greatly project outward from the side surface 60 of the base substrate 6, resulting in enlarging a surface mounting area A by the amount of projection of the solder fillets 30.

Electronic device and intermediate product of electronic device


Transactional database replication techniques are disclosed that do not require altering of the database management system implementation. A replicator module includes a dynamic membership manager, which is configured to manage the persistent membership of a coordination group. The persistent membership can be, for example, a durable set of sites that can replicate changes amongst themselves. Changes from sites not in the persistent membership are discarded. The set of recovered members is a subset of the persistent membership. The persistent membership changes incrementally by either removing or adding members. Failed members may still be part of the persistent membership. The dynamic membership manager module manages the modification of the persistent membership, initialization of replicas, and propagation of membership information.

Modern computer systems typically consist of a CPU to process data, a networking interface to communicate to other computer systems, and one or more durable storage units. The system may stop processing due to power failure, program incorrectness, or a hardware fault. Such failures are often called process failures. The durable storage units are able to keep the data intact while the fault is repaired.
A set of these computer systems can be networked to form a cluster. Although the network is generally reliable, occasional faults may occur to disrupt communication between certain nodes or sets of nodes. This disruption in communication is often called a network partition.
Each of these nodes runs a transactional storage system that both reads and writes data (a database management system). Some of this data is concurrently accessed by applications operating on different nodes. To guarantee data consistency, transactional database replication techniques are used to manage and regulate access to that data. However, such conventional replication techniques are associated with a number of problems.
For instance, conventional replication systems typically require an administrator to stop all applications, then stop the databases running at each of the nodes in the replicating group, then go to each node and notify it about the change in membership (usually by editing a table), then restarting the databases on each of these machines, then restarting the applications. This necessity of having to stop the databases running in the system can be undesirable.
What is needed, therefore, are transactional database replication techniques that do not require stopping of databases during replication.

Dynamic membership management in a distributed system


In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including a semiconductor element and a chip carrier which has conductive leads bonded to the semiconductor element, a first resin mold portion is formed by a first resin mold portion to locate inner parts of the conductive leads together with the semiconductor element within the first resin mold portion. Thereafter, a second resin mold portion is formed to cover the first resin mold portion on a side of the semiconductor element and to uncover the first resin mold portion on another side opposite to the semiconductor element. Alternatively, a heat spreader may be attached to the semiconductor element and may be sealed by the first and the second resin mold portions.

This invention relates to a semiconductor device which has a semiconductor element sealed by a synthetic resin (will be simply called a resin hereinunder) and mounted on a chip carrier, such as a tape carrier.
As a rule, it is a recent trend that a semiconductor device becomes small in size, thin in thickness, and light in weight. In order to be matched with this trend, automation has been made also as regards an assembling process of mounting a semiconductor element or chip onto a package which has a plurality of wiring patterns or outer leads on a package surface. Since the semiconductor element is mounted or attached onto the package surface of the package, the above-mentioned assembling process is referred to as a surface mounting method in the art. The surface mounting method has been usually adopted in a semiconductor device of a Quad Flat Package (QFP) structure or a Small Outline J-leaded Package (SOJ) structure.
Herein, it is to be noted that the outer leads are located along an outer periphery of the package and are one-dimensionally extended and that they are electrically connected to electrodes of the semiconductor elements by the use of conductive wires one by one.
With this structure, a spacing or a pitch between two adjacent ones of the electrodes of the semiconductor element becomes narrow as the electrodes are increased in number. Such a narrow pitch makes a mounting process difficult when the pitch becomes narrow over a limit of a mounting technique.
On the other hand, a semiconductor device has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,278 issued to Paul T. Lin et al and has a package structure known as a Ball Grid Array (BGA). With this structure, it is possible to derive wiring patterns two-dimensionally from the electrodes of the semiconductor element arranged two-dimensionally in the form of pads on the semiconductor element.
More specifically, the package structure comprises a carrier substrate of a flexible material, such as a resin material, which has a die attach surface and a package mounting surface opposite to the die attach surface. A semiconductor element which has a plurality of pads is bonded to the die attach surface through a conductive layer. Any other package leads are arranged around the semiconductor element on the die attach surface and are electrically connected to the pads on the semiconductor element through conductive lines. Some of the package leads are electrically connected through via holes to package leads formed on the package mounting surface.
A plurality of solder balls are placed on the package leads on the package mounting surface to be attached to a printed circuit board. Thus, a combination of the carrier substrate and the package leads on the die attach surface and the package mounting surface may be collectively called a chip carrier.
Furthermore, the semiconductor element on the die attach surface of the carrier substrate is sealed or molded by a resin material.
With this structure, the resin material is formed only on a side of the die attach surface of the carrier substrate. This shows that the resin material is adhered to the chip carrier only on a side of the die attach surface with a side of the package mounting surface uncovered with the resin material.
Consequently, the resin material is fixed to the chip carrier only by adhesion of the resin material.
Herein, it is to be noted that the resin material is liable to absorb moisture and has a thermal expansion coefficient different from that of the chip carrier. In addition, the carrier substrate itself has a high hygroscopicity.
Moreover, such a semiconductor device of the type described is heated on mounting the semiconductor device onto the printed circuit board so as to melt the solder balls and to attach the semiconductor device to electrodes laid on the printed circuit board.
Under the circumstances, the semiconductor device is disadvantageous in that the resin material is easily peeled from the chip carrier when the semiconductor device is heated on mounting the semiconductor device onto the printed circuit board. This is because evaporation of moisture takes place in the resin material by a heat treatment on mounting the semiconductor device onto the printed circuit board and the resin material is largely expanded in comparison with the chip carrier.
Taking the above into consideration, the resin material is dried within an oven to eliminate the moisture before the semiconductor device is mounted onto the printed circuit board. Thus, the semiconductor device should be deliberately handled in order to prevent the resin material from being peeled from the chip carrier. As a result, the semiconductor device is troublesome in handling.
Furthermore, the semiconductor device is degraded in characteristics and can not be guaranteed in a long term reliability because the semiconductor device is directly bonded on the chip carrier which has a high hygroscopicity and is also not sealed by a resin material.
In addition, since the conductive lines are used to electrically connect the pads of the semiconductor element to the leads, a pitch between two adjacent ones of the pads should be equal to or wider than 120 micron meters. As a result, it is difficult with the above-mentioned method to mount, on the chip carrier, a semiconductor element which has a pitch narrower than 120 micron meters.
The semiconductor device also has disadvantages that bonding strength of connections is weak between the leads and the conductive lines, because the leads are formed by copper which is soft and which can not be heated to a high temperature.
Moreover, long electrical paths are required between the pads of the semiconductor element and the printed circuit board, which results in a long transmission delay time and a large noise.

Semiconductor device capable of accomplishing a high moisture proof


A generator set for a transport refrigeration unit that is operable at a first frequency and a second frequency. The generator set includes a generator and a prime mover coupled to the generator. The prime mover selectively drives the generator in least at a first non-zero speed and a second non-zero speed. A sensor is in electrical communication with the generator to sense a load of the generator and to deliver a signal indicative of the generator load. A controller is in electrical communication with the generator, the prime mover, and the sensor, and receives the signal indicative of the generator load. The controller selectively operates the generator at one of the first speed and the second speed in response to the signal indicative of the generator load.

The present invention relates to a generator set for a transport refrigeration system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a control system for a multi-speed generator set that changes the speed of the generator set based on a load of the transport refrigeration system.
Existing transport refrigeration systems are used to cool containers, trailers, and other similar transport units. Modern containers may be efficiently stacked for shipment by ship or rail. When containers are shipped by truck, a single container is placed on a trailer chassis. When cargo in the container includes perishable products (e.g., food product, flowers, etc.), the temperature of the container must be controlled to limit loss of the cargo during shipment.
Some existing transport units include a generator set that supplies power to temperature-controlling components of the transport refrigeration system. These generator sets are typically attached directly to the container or trailer, and include an engine or motor to power a generator. During shipment of the transport units, the transport refrigeration systems must operate for extended periods of time (e.g., days, weeks).
Existing generator sets operate at a single, relatively constant speed to produce a constant output frequency and one or more output voltages (e.g., 230/460 VAC, etc.). The speed of these generator sets must be fast enough to provide adequate electrical power to the transport refrigeration system when the transport refrigeration system has a high demand or load. However, these generator sets operate at the same single speed regardless of whether the load on the transport refrigeration system is relatively high or relatively low. During extended periods of time without inspection by transportation workers, these generator sets may experience an out-of-fuel condition caused by operation of the generator set at the same single speed. The out-of-fuel condition causes a loss of power to the transport refrigeration system that may result in a loss of the perishable cargo. This is especially true when ambient temperature conditions are very hot or very cold.


A container suitable for shipping and dispensing a plurality of individual products is disclosed. The container conforms with accepted beverage industry handling and distribution practices, is conveniently transported from the point of retail sale by the consumer, and facilitates the consumer's dispensing of individual products from the container. The container includes a carton that is adapted with a zone of weakness to break partially away along predetermined lines of weakness. This structure forms a pair of interhinged trays having a common handle between them. The contents of each tray are then disposed in a position that facilitates placing the carton in the consumer's refrigerator without the need for adjusting the spacing of shelves.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a packaging system suitable for shipping and dispensing a plurality of individual products. Specifically, this invention relates to a primary and secondary packaging system designed for the commercial handling, distribution, and domestic dispensing of beverage products.
2. Description of Related Art
The beverage industry, particularly the brewing industry, is faced with a number of limitations that impact the shipping, distribution, and handling of its products. These constraints affect both the commercial and consumer levels of product handling and storage.
The comestible products industry generally utilizes two types of packaging known as "primary" and "secondary" packaging. Primary packaging is used for individual products, whereas secondary packaging holds the primary packages for commercial handling and distribution.
The comestible products industry takes into account numerous considerations when designing packaging, such as quality, structural integrity, optimum size, and the like. For example, an optimum size for individual servings may be governed by law. The geometric shape of the primary packaging is designed to enclose a required volume while taking into consideration the convenience of storing and dispensing the primary packaged goods at the consumer level. Structural considerations arise in connection with the container's ability to withstand compressive forces that may be occasioned when a plurality of secondary packages are stacked during commercial handling. Further, the design must give due regard to the orientation of the primary packaging during commercial handling and the amount of air space in the primary packaging. In the beverage industry, specifically the brewing industry, where primary packages are typically cylindrical, it is desirable that a minimum amount of beverage surface be exposed to the air space when the can or the like is stored, shipped, etc. The exposure to air space can be minimized when the container is maintained in an upright position. Thus, quality preservation may dictate that the primary packaging be arranged in the secondary packaging in an upright orientation.
When dispensing primary packaged products from the secondary packaging at the consumer level, the upright orientation of the primary package is not always desirable. An upright container may not present sufficient surface area to be firmly grasped. In addition, storage space in a household refrigerator is not always ideally suited to having a can or bottle in an upright posture. It can be undesirable for the consumer to have to rearrange the refrigerator shelving to accommodate the presence of the product in its secondary packaging. In many cases, the primary packaging is simply removed from the secondary packaging. The secondary packaging is then discarded or stored elsewhere for later use, such as a container for returning empty primary packaging for recycling. These practices are inconvenient for the consumer, and there is interest in finding alternate methods of dispensing primary packaged products from associated secondary packaging. A number of attempts to solve this problem appear in the patent literature.
Canadian Patent Number 988,477 relates to a secondary packaging carton that utilizes a tear-away flap to open the carton. The flap can be torn away to expose the contents of the carton, which are cans oriented in an upright posture. A significant amount of vertical storage space is required if this arrangement is to be successfully used in a domestic refrigerator.
Other solutions have been advanced in the attempt to overcome the shortcomings that are attributable to the above-mentioned tear-away flap system. Examples include the packaging disclosed in Canadian Patent Numbers 1,006,852 and 1,182,792. In both of these patents, secondary packaging or cartons hold the primary packaging or "cans" serially. The cans are removable from a chute formed in a base portion of the associated carton. These cartons do not permit the consumer to see readily the number of cans remaining inside the carton. Moreover, while this design can handle a relatively small number of cans with relative ease, large numbers of cans present difficulties associated with vertical storage space.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,791,362 discloses a container for a plurality of fragile articles. The container has a one-piece partition member. The container and the partition member are adapted to divide easily in half along pre-scored lines. This construction prevents the partition member from being pulled from the half container when used as a carrying handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,983,362 discloses a container adapted to enclose a desired number of articles. The container is broken or split longitudinally to expose the ends of the articles in the container. The articles are rendered accessible for convenient removal from the container and easily reinserted for storage or subsequent disposal.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,018,919 discloses a can carrier designed to hold a plurality of cans evenly divided in two sets or rows. The carrier is constructed so as to be readily separable into two holders with each holder containing half of the cans. The device also has a handle that is also separable into two parts. This structure provides each of the two halves of the carrier, when separated, with its own handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,458 discloses an end-loading, twin carton that is separable into two cartons. The twin carton has folded handles usable with the twin carton and also with the separated cartons. A blank for the carton is also disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,223 discloses a display carton having two compartments that are movable between a carrying and a display configuration. A display panel with a display window opening therein is provided on each of the compartments. The display panels are exposed for viewing when the carton is in its display configuration but not when it is in its carrying configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,870 discloses a package comprising a rigid tray member having an upstanding peripherally located rim portion. A plurality of discrete container assemblies are within the rigid tray member. Each container assembly has a plurality of individual containers in a regular geometric array interconnected by a unitary thermoplastic carrier means. A cover shroud overlays the tray and is secured to the tray rim to complete the package.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,249,738 and 5,299,733 both disclose a package formed from a one-piece wrapper. The one-piece wrapper is typically made of carrier board. The carrier board is folded around twenty-four cans or bottles including a top and bottom of the package. The package has cuts or perforations that partially separate the package into two twelve-packs. Each side of the package has at least one tear-strip aligned with the cuts or perforations that complete the separation to form two twelve-packs. The top of the package has a second pair of tear-strips that allows the two twelve-packs to be separated into four six-packs. The wrapper can be folded in such a manner that the two six-packs of each of the two twelve-packs are separated by an individual divider in the wrapper. This divider has a perforated top end that is aligned with the tear-strips. The two sides of the divider are held together by an adhesive. The adhesive allows the six-packs to be separated. The combination of the tear-strips and the adhesive holds the container together in a package of twenty-four cans or bottles that can be divided into two twelve-packs or four six-packs.
There remains a need in the beverage packaging industry for a primary and secondary packaging system that facilitates shipping in a secondary package and dispensing of a plurality of primary packages contained therein for the consumer.

Primary and secondary packaging system for beverage products


A process is disclosed for making paper having improved filler retention and opacity. The process includes the step of adding Additive A and Additive B to a slurry in a wet end of a paper machine wherein the slurry comprises pulp and a filler. Additive A is a wet strength agent. Additive B is an anionic polymer having a charge density from about −3000 to about −7000 ueq/g on a dry basis when measured in a buffer having a pH of about 6. Additive B also has a weight average molecular weight of from about 150,000 to about 1,000,000, Daltons.

The prior art discloses various attempts to improve different aspects of décor (laminating) grades of paper, see for example, CN102174761, U.S. Pat. No. 5,679,219, JP2011219874, CN102174768, CN102174769, CN101435169, DE102008046856, CN102174761, US2016059530, and SU1481307. Some prior art discloses increasing of filler content such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,163,134, 5,759,346, while other art focuses on opacity, e.g. DE102013100353. Still other art discloses retention and drainage such as US patent 20040221977. However, there remains a need in the industry to maintain or improve filler retention, opacity and wet strength in highly filled paper.

Process for making paper with improved filler retention and opacity while maintaining wet tensile strength


In a dielectric composition for use in formation of a dielectric layer in a plasma display panel, comprising glass powder, the glass powder is powder of glass which contains PbO of 50% or less and CuO as one of essential elements contained in the glass for preventing color change of the dielectric layer from being caused due to reaction with Ag electrodes in the plasma display panel. Ceramics powder can be mixed with the glass powder. The dielectric composition can also be provided in a form of paste, alternatively in a form of a green sheet.

This invention relates to a dielectric material useful in plasma display panels (PDPs) and, in particular, to a dielectric composition used for forming a light transparent dielectric layer on a front glass plate of a high strain point in PDPs.
A plasma display panel is known as a self-luminescent type flat display having excellent properties of such as a small weight, a thin type etc. and draws considerable attention because of its possibility of a large screen face.
Generally speaking, a PDP has a front glass plate on which a plurality of electrodes are disposed for generating plasma discharge by cooperation with electrodes deposited on a rear glass plate confronting the front glass plate with a gap therebetween. A light transparent dielectric layer is formed with a thickness of about 30–40 micrometers on the glass plate to cover the electrodes so as to maintain the plasma discharge generated.
Usually, the front glass plate is made of soda-lime glass or other high strain point glass and Ag is used for the electrodes, while the light transparent dielectric layer is formed from dielectric material comprising low fusion point glass powder, for example, high Pb-content glass powder.
When forming the light transparent dielectric layer, the dielectric material is fired or baked at the softening point of the low-fusion point glass powder so as to avoid the reaction with metal of the electrodes.
However, the conventional dielectric material has a problem that the glass powder and the Ag electrodes react with each other to make the dielectric layer color (change to yellow).
Further, it is important as known in the art that the dielectric material has various properties such as (1) thermal expansion coefficient compatible with glass plate, (2) firing temperature at 500–600° C., (3) excellent defoamability in firing to produce the dielectric layer of high light transmittance and high withstand voltage with a reduced amount of bubbles.
JP-A 11-21148 discloses a dielectric material using a glass powder of PbO—B2O3—SiO2—BaO glass which has the thermal expansion coefficient compatible with that of the high strain point glass plate. The PbO—B2O3—SiO2—BaO glass is rapid in viscosity change across the softening point and is, therefore, readily defoamed.
Although the dielectric material using PbO—B2O3—SiO2—BaO glass powder can provide a dielectric layer having a high light transmittance because of its excellent defoamability, it has a problem that the produced dielectric layer has residual large bubbles having diameters of 30 μm (micrometers) or more.

Dielectric composition comprising powder of glass containing copper oxide useful for light transparent layer in PDP


A life maintenance apparatus to be used in case of earthquake or other disasters when users are buried in debris of a collapsed building. A six sided includes two parallel upper and bottom layers of high strength material made plates, two covering plates at front and back, and two adjustable plates on both sides.

The present invention relates life maintenance apparatus, and more particularly relates to a type of life maintenance apparatus, which is while an earthquake is occurring.
As one of the most powerful natural disasters, earthquakes have always been a nightmare since ancient times. With the development of modern science and technology, people have made significant progress in seismic forecast and anti-seismic buildings, however, owing to the difficulty in predicting earthquakes, earthquakes still injure thousands around world every year. Sudden unexpected strong earthquake at night provides a lifetime of nightmares for those who experienced or survived the quake.
People are very fragile to the strike from collapsing buildings or even small parts of buildings. As a result they die from the first strike of such collapse. Among those who survive, some are buried deeply underneath the ruins, waiting desperately for rescue. However, rescuers often come too late owing to low efficiency in locating survivors and avoiding the use of machines. People who survive more than one week, by their own confidence to live on and with great luck to be found by rescuers, are so rare that normally they are regarded as miracles.
The present invention provides a type of life maintenance apparatus which can be used by the people who involved in the earthquake to rescue themselves.
The Life Maintenance Apparatus (LMU) according to the present invention is a six sided shell of high strength material, composed of two parallel horizontal rectangular plates, bolstered with five to nine round stands. Fixed on the front and back, there are two vertical covering plates. On two sides, there are two adjustable plates which can be, folded inside, beneath the upper layer.
The bottom layer is covered with one extra layer of cushion material such as rubber on top of which there is another manual instant inflating air cushion in the shape of an L whose extra bulge part gives extra protection to the head. Safety belt(s) combined with two handles fixed beneath the upper layer to protect user from rolling are installed in proper position as well.
Beneath the upper layer is a wireless signal transmitter which is operated by battery and can send a fixed frequency signal. Surrounding the transmitter, there are several chambers of chemicals, that when unsealed acts as an oxygen re-producer, by consuming carbon-dioxide. Also beneath the upper layer are several storage chambers for life maintenance materials, essentially water, and other items such as medicine, battery, food, mobile phone, radio etc. Opposite to the air cushion, there are 2 fixed handles.
The two folding side-plates can be pulled down in case of need, to form a complete six sides shelter.
The six sided structure of this apparatus, made from high strength material, can significantly reduce the impact from collapsing building to protect the user from being killed or hurt. When the user is buried inside the debris, the user can install the battery to the wireless signal transmitter to send it""s position to the its receiver (such as rescuer) so that the latter can rapidly and accurately find the position. With the stocked material and oxygen reproducer, the user can easily stay alive for twenty days or more subject to the quantity of stock, even when in suffocating surroundings.
The help to users are both physical and psychological, as the user knows that their chance to be found is quite large, or if he could use one sort of two-way communication, the confidence to survive increases too. Storage chambers could be filled with some basic material like water and other alternatives in user""s option. They could be whatever may be necessary in case of being trapped, such as medicine, compact food, blanket, mobile phone, radio, or even chess or poker card, while waiting to be rescued. Because of the shelter, rescuers, when locating the accurate position of the user, could use machines to speed up the digging process.
It is ideal to be in the form of a bed, as in sudden strong night earthquake, under a bed is probably the only possible distance a user would be able to reach in a short time. Below is the further explanation of the fulfillment of this invention in connection with the corresponding figures.


An improved mouse structure has a cover and a base pivotally connected to the cover. The cover is an elliptically curved shell with two ends, and has a pivoting portion extending downwardly from one of the ends thereof as well as a hook formed on another end thereof. The base comprises a receiving portion formed on an end thereof for receiving the pivoting portion, an engaging seat formed on another end thereof, and an engaging hole formed in the engaging seat for engaging with the hook.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved mouse structure, and particularly to a compact wireless optical mouse with improved arrangement of the inner elements for convenient carrying.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the Windows operating system, the mouse has become an essential and indispensable computer peripheral. The mouse can be classified according to its function into two types, the optical mouse and mechanism mouse, and each type is further dividable into the wired and wireless mouse. The wireless optical mouse utilizes light for sensing movement of the mouse, and the power consumption is consequently much more and thus this mouse requires frequent battery replacement. Referring to FIG. 1, the prior art battery device can be classified as two kinds. In the first kind, the mouse 80 is formed with a battery chamber 82 on a bottom thereof, and a detachable cover 84 covers the battery chamber 82. In the second kind, the mouse 90 is formed with a battery chamber 92 on a top thereof, and a detachable cover (not shown) covers the battery chamber 92.
The conventional wireless optical mouse has the following disadvantages:
1. The battery arrangement occupies a lot of space. When the battery is arranged on the bottom of the first kind mouse, the other elements must be disposed on the battery, and therefore the overall volume of the mouse must be increased. This results in inconvenience when carrying, and is contrary to the wireless and unrestricting trend.
2. The mouse has one more cover. This additional cover requires not only a lot of attention to engaging the cover on the battery chamber when replacing the battery, but also one more die for molding the cover. The whole cost and assembling time are increased.
3. The upper and lower shell (85, 86) of mouse are usually assembled by screwing or engaging with some hooks and grooves. This also consumes time when assembling the mouse.
Therefore, the present invention according to the disadvantages of the prior art provides a wireless optical mouse for convenient carrying and assembling as well as ease of changing the battery.


Systems and methods are provided for using a light weight protocol (LWP) and protocol agent in a network communication system. A protocol agent receives a message in LWP from an end node. The message in LWP is directed to a destination network node that uses a network protocol that the end node is incapable of supporting, such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) or other network protocols. The protocol agent determines a network protocol to map the message to, and generates a message in the determined network protocol based on the received LWP message. The protocol agent then sends the generated message to the destination network node.

In current network architectures, there may be many protocols serving different purposes and working for different applications. Such protocols include, for example, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). For the protocols to properly function, end nodes in the network need to maintain a full stack. This increases the complexity of managing the end nodes since an end node must maintain its own protocol stack for multiple protocols.
In the context of some networks such as the Internet, end node devices are not limited to intelligent computing devices such as a desktop computer, laptop computer, or server. Rather, devices connected to the network may include, for example, a phone, a household appliance, a machine, building equipment, a remote control, and the like. Currently, network end node devices may need to use protocols that are heavy in overhead and require significant resources. Particularly, the protocols may require significant bandwidth, especially when the network connection is wireless. With the proliferation of the number of protocols and number of end nodes, the complexity and effort needed to manage such network architectures are significant. Therefore, there may be a need for simplifying network protocol architecture.

Light weight protocol and agent in a network communication


There is disclosed a semiconductor device having an insulating film formed on a substrate in which a semiconductor element is formed; an electrode pad is formed on the insulating film and is electrically connected to the semiconductor element by a signal line; an insulating protective film which covers the semiconductor substrate and has an opening for connecting an external circuit connection device to expose the surface of the electrode pad and an exposing opening, provided at peripheral portion of the electrode pad, for exposing a side of the electrode pad; and an external circuit connection device connected to the electrode pad via the opening for connecting.. Since the side of the electrode pad can be exposed by forming an exposing opening in the insulating film, in the case where the inner lead is connected to the electrode pad via bump using ILB or the case where the wire bonding is applied to the electrode pad, the force applied to the electrode pad can be released by deformation of the electrode pad.

Semiconductor devices such as LSI and IC generally have external terminals through which semiconductor elements inside the semiconductor devices are electrically connected to external circuits. As an external terminal, an outer lead of a tape carrier is sometimes utilized and a lead of a lead frame or other means is also utilized. The outer lead is connected to an inner lead of the tape carrier, and the inner lead is electrically connected to an internal circuit of a semiconductor device through an electrode pad provided to the surface of the semiconductor device. The lead of the lead frame is electrically connected to the electrode pad via a bonding wire.
The electrode pads are left exposed for a long time before finally being sealed and protected by resin. However, since materials of the electrode pads consist mainly of aluminum or aluminum alloy, their moisture-resistance characteristic is insufficient and they are therefore easily corroded. Consequently, an insulating protective film is provided on the surface of the electrode pad. Since the electrode pads have to be connected to an external circuit connecting means, the insulating protective film is partially removed on the electrode pads to expose the pads and the external circuit connecting means is then connected. The insulating protective film is removed by a so-called excessive removal method in which an insulating protective film of larger area than that of the electrode pad is removed, has usually been used because of the ease of the process. However, by this method, the function of protection will almost be lost because the electrode pad is excessively exposed. Therefore, a so-called partial removal method in which the insulating protective film is partially removed to expose the necessary area of the electrode pad has come to be used. According to this method, since the electrode pad is sufficiently protected, the characteristics of semiconductor devices are not deteriorated.
With reference to FIGS. 14 to 17, a conventional semiconductor device using the partial removal method will be described hereinbelow.
As shown in FIG. 7 which is a plan view of a semiconductor device of the present invention, a semiconductor device 1 having a bump structure is provided with a semiconductor element 10 and a plurality of electrode pads 2 arranged around the outer periphery of the semiconductor element 10, with the semiconductor element 10 and the electrode pads being connected by signal lines 5. FIG. 14 shows a cross sectional view of the electrode pad part of the conventional semiconductor device. The electrode pads 2 are connected to inner leads 15 of a tape carrier by an ILB (Inner Lead Bonding) process, for instance, so that signals can be transmitted or received or a power voltage can be supplied between the electrode pads 2 and the inner lead 15. The ILB is a bonding to connect the electrode pad and the inner lead by a bump.
Next, with reference to FIGS. 14 and 15, the structure of an electrode pad of a conventional semiconductor device will be described. FIG. 15 is a perspective plan view of the structure shown in FIG. 14, with the inner lead 15 omitted. An electrode pad 2 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 11 via an insulating film 12, and the electrode pad 2 is covered with a protective film 9. This protective film 9 is formed with an opening 6 for bump connection, and a bump 7 is formed on the electrode pad via the opening 6 for the bump connection. This bump 7 serves to connect the inner lead 15 to the electrode pad 2. A barrier metal layer 8 is formed between the electrode pad 2 and the bump 7.
Though an example in which a bump is provided on an electrode and the bump is connected to the inner lead of a tape carrier has been described, there is also a wire bonding method in which a fine wire of aluminum or gold is connected to the electrode pad. The other end of the fine wire or the bonding wire is connected to the lead frame and a terminal formed on the lead frame becomes an external terminal of the semiconductor device.
When the inner lead 15 of a tape carrier is heated and pressed by an ILB tool, the force applied to the inner lead is transmitted to the bump 7. This force applied from the inner lead 15 to the bump 7 is transmitted to the electrode pad 2 via the barrier metal layer. The force transmitted to the electrode pad 2 will be transmitted in all directions. However, the transmission of force is hindered at the side and upper surface of the electrode pad 2 resulting the force to concentrate in the downward direction. As a result, the force is transmitted to the semiconductor substrate 11 through the insulating film 12 as a base film. In this case, when the gap between the two adjacent electrode pads is narrow as shown in FIG. 16, the force applied to the electrode pad 2 increases so that a crack 4 occurs in the insulating film 12 under the electrode pad 2 or another crack 3 occurs under between the two adjacent electrode pads 2. As described, the operation of the force at the bonding is explained in the cross sectional views of FIG. 16 and 17.
In the case of the occurrence of cracks 3 or 4 in the insulating film 12, since moisture enters the cracks, the pads are corroded, thus raising a problem in that signals sometimes cannot be transmitted between the electrode pads 2 and the inner leads 15. Furthermore, electric leakage sometimes occurs between the two adjacent electrode pads due to moisture which has entered the crack. The force from the bonding wire which is connected to the lead frame is another force transmitted from the electrode pad to the substrate through an insulating film other than the force transmitted from the inner lead to the bump at ILB. The wire bonding method has the electrode pads on the semiconductor substrate connected to external circuit connection terminals by bonding wires using bonding tools such as capillaries or wedges. Since this bonding is performed by pressing metals to be connected with the application of heat and/or ultrasonic waves, there is a force which is transmitted to the insulating film.
Thus, if the partially removal method described with reference to drawings is employed as the method to expose the electrode pad from the insulating film in place of the excessive removal method, there still exists the problem of damage by the occurrence of cracks in the insulating film because of the concentration of forces applied at bonding, to the insulating film.
With these problems in mind, the object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor device which does not generate cracks in the insulating film during ILB or wire bonding and the method of manufacturing the same semiconductor device.

Semiconductor device having an opening and method of manufacturing the same


A garment refreshing apparatus is provided. The garment refreshing apparatus includes a case, a steam generator, and a discharging device. The case stores garments. The steam generator supplies steam to the inside of the case. The discharging device is extendably connected to the steam generator, to discharge steam generated by the steam generator to the inside of the case.

A garment refreshing apparatus is a home appliance that stores garments inside, and refreshes garments by removing odors and wrinkles therefrom.
Specifically, a garment refreshing apparatus uses steam and heat to perform straightening of creases and/or removal of odors from the clothes. Garments that are stored within the garment refreshing apparatus are deodorized by the removal of imbedded odor particles, or the removal of wrinkles (producing effects similar to ironing).
Garment refreshing apparatuses can be largely divided into condenser-type and exhaust-type apparatuses, depending on the refreshing method used. That is, a condenser-type apparatus circulates steam supplied for refreshing garments within the refreshing apparatus, and an exhaust-type apparatus exhausts steam out from the garment refreshing apparatus after the steam has refreshed the garments.
A garment refreshing apparatus includes an inner case forming a garment storage compartment, and a steam generator for generating steam. A heater is further installed on the steam generator. A separate water supplying line or a water tank for supplying water is connected to the steam generator. The water that is thus supplied is heated by the heater and converted to steam. The steam removes odor particles imbedded in garments stored within the storage compartment or straightens wrinkles in the garments.
However, in a garment refreshing apparatus according to the related art, a nozzle for discharging steam is fixed, so that the steam must necessarily be applied to the entirety of the storage compartment after garments are stored therein. Especially in the case of a small load of garments, having to apply steam to the entire inner compartment of the refreshing apparatus is a waste of energy resources.
Furthermore, when a user wishes to apply steam locally to only a particular portion of the garments, or steam needs to be applied only to one region of the garments, a user's options are limited because the apparatus is only able to apply steam to the entire interior of the garment refreshing apparatus.


The present invention provides small molecules having high affinity to the ATP binding site of protein kinases, which are conjugated to apeptide or peptidomimetic moiety which mimics the substrate of PKB. The chimeric compounds according to the present invention preferably serve as PKB inhibitors with improved activity and selectivity. Novel ATP mimetic compounds, particularly isoquinoline derivatives, conjugated with peptides or peptidomimetics are useful as inhibitors of protein kinases for experimental, medical, and drug design purposes. Furthermore, pharmaceutical compositions comprising these protein kinase inhibitors, and methods of using such compositions for treatment and diagnosis of cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular pathologies, hemorrhagic shock, obesity, inflammatory diseases, diseases of the central nervous system, and autoimmune disease, are disclosed.

Protein kinases are involved in signal transduction pathways linking growth factors, hormones and other cell regulation molecules to cell growth, survival and metabolism under both normal and pathological conditions. The superfamily of protein kinases includes protein kinase A and protein kinase C, as well as the more recently discovered protein kinase B (PKB).
PKB is a newly recognized anti-apoptotic protein kinase whose activity is strongly elevated in human malignancies. PKB was originally discovered as a viral oncogene v-Akt in rat T-cell leukemia. It was later established that v-Akt is the oncogenic version of a cellular enzyme PKB/c-Akt, in which a truncated viral group specific antigen, gag, is fused in frame to the full length Akt-1 and is membrane bound whereas PKB/c-Akt is cytoplasmic. Sequencing of Akt revealed a high degree of homology to PKA (˜75%) and PKC isozymes (˜50%), a fact which led to its renaming as PKB.
PKB activation involves phosphorylation of two amino acid residues, Ser473 and Thr308. The enzyme is activated by the second messenger PIP3 produced by PI′-3-kinase. PIP3 binds to the pleckstrin homology (PH) domains of PKB, recruits it to the membrane where it is phosphorylated and converted to its activated form. Since PKB activation is PI′-3-kinase dependent, the persistent activation of certain protein tyrosine kinases, such as IGF-1 receptor, EGF receptor, PDGF receptor, pp60c-Src, and the like, leads to the persistent activation of PKB which is indeed encountered in many tumors. Deletions in the gene coding for the tumor suppressor PTEN also induce the persistent activation of PKB/cAkt since it is the negative regulator of this enzyme. Also, PKB is overexpressed in 15% of ovarian cancers, 12% of pancreatic cancers and 3% of breast cancers, and was shown to produce a survival signal that protects cells from apoptosis thus contributing to resistance to chemotherapy.
PKB has emerged as a crucial regulator of widely divergent cellular processes including apoptosis, proliferation, differentiation and metabolism. Disruption of normal PKB/Akt signaling has now been documented as a frequent occurrence in several human cancers and the enzyme appears to play an important role in their progression (Nicholson and Anderson, Cellular Signalling 14, 381, 2002). Therefore PKB is, in principle, an attractive drug target for the treatment of cancer. Ideally, a drug that inhibits PKB should cause both cell cycle arrest and promote appoptosis. Such activity would result in increased cell death of tumor tissue where PKB is elevated, and in decreased resistance to chemoterapy agents.
These molecular properties of PKB and its central role in tumorigenesis, implies that this protein kinase may be an attractive target for novel anti-cancer agents. To date no specific inhibitors of PKB are known in the art, nor are any of the disclosed inhibitors of protein kinases A and C known to act on PKB.
Hidaka H. et al. (Biochemistry, 32, 5036, 1984) describe a class of isoquinolinesulfonamides having inhibitory activity towards cyclic nucleotide dependent protein kinases (PKA and PKG) and protein kinases C (PKC). The same class of compounds is claimed in EP 061673, which discloses said compounds as having cardiovascular activity. Additional derivatives of isoquinolinesulfonyl were disclosed by Hidaka in EP 109023, U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,757, U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,589, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,755.
Antitumor activity has been suggested for some of these isoquinolinesulfonamides. Martell R. E. et al. (Biochem. Pharm., 37, 635, 1988) found effects of two isoquinolinesulfonamides, namely 1-(5-isoquinolinsulfonyl)-2-methylpiperazine (H-7) and N-[2-guanidinoethyl]-5-isoquinolinesulfonamide (HA-1004), which have a certain selectivity for PKC and cyclic nucleotide dependent protein kinases, respectively, on calcitriol-induced cell differentiation. Further, Nishikawa M. et al., Life Sci., 39, 1101, 1986), demonstrate that the same compound H-7 inhibits cell differentiation induced by phorbol diester.
International PCT application WO 93/13072 discloses 5-isoquinolinesulfonamide derivatives as protein kinase inhibiting agents wherein the claimed compounds all contain two sulfonyl moieties.
Other classes of compounds known in the prior art (EP-A-397060, DE-A-3914764 and EP-A-384349) showed the capacity of inhibiting protein kinases, however, said compounds have a chemical structure which is totally different from that of the compounds of the present invention. In addition, international PCT application WO 98/53050 discloses short peptides derived from the HJ loop of a serine/threonine kinase which modulate the activity of serine/threonine kinases.
The minimal consensus sequence for efficient phosphorylation by PIM was found by Alessi et al. (Fed. Eur. Biochem Soc., 399, 333, 1996). This is a 7-mer motif faith the most active peptide substrate having the sequence Arg-Pro-Arg-Thr-Ser-Ser-Phe (SEQ ID NO: 1). International application WO 97122360 discloses certain PKB substrate peptides having 7-amino acids length, useful as substrate for measuring PKB activity.
Obata et al. (J. Biol. Chem., 17, 36108, 2000) described the use of an oriented peptide library approach to determine optimal amino acid sequence of the PKB substrate. All the substrates identified contained the known motif having the sequence Arg-Xaa-Arg-Xaa-Xaa-Ser/Thr (SEQ ID NO: 2).
Ricouart et al. (J. Med. Chem. 1991, 34, 73-78), described conjugates of isoquinolinesulfonamides and peptides for the inhibition of PKA. Loog et al. (Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 1999, 9, 1447-1452), described a chimera with adenosine and peptides for the inhibition of PKA and PKC. The inhibition obtained with the disclosed compound is very poor. Schlitzer et al. (Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 2000, 1991-2006) deal with a small molecule linked to non-peptidic long chain moieties that are supposed to replace the peptide part of the substrate. The disclosed compounds show poor inhibitory activity.
Parang et al. (Nature Structural Biology 8, 37, 2001), describe peptide-ATP bisubstrate analogs of a protein kinase A inhibitor, wherein ATP is linked to a protein kinase peptide substrate. Nevertheless, this approach has a limitation of suboptimal pharmacokinetic properties. WO 01/70770 discloses bisubstrate inhibitors for the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase and a specific potent and selective inhibitor comprising an ATP-gamma-S linked to a peptide substrate analog via a two-carbon spacer.
Numerous disclosures in the background art and in co-pending International Patent Application WO 01/91754 by one of the present inventors relate to specific isoquinoline derivatives, which are PKB inhibitors. The present invention is directed to novel isoquinoline derivatives and more specifically isoquinoline conjugates, and excludes all known compounds previously claimed for their capacity to inhibit PKB.
The present invention overcomes the limitations of known inhibitors by providing ATP surrogates and peptidomimetics with protein target specificity.

Protein kinase inhibitors comprising ATP mimetics conjugated to peptides or peptidomimetics


An apparatus and method for mounting a wind turbine and blade assembly on the upper end of a wind turbine tower. In one aspect the apparatus generally includes a ginpole that is used to assemble the tower and a lifting frame or truss that is removably secured to a top bay assembly of the tower using the ginpole. The lifting frame or truss is operated using either cables or hydraulic rams and extends fore of the tower when the frame or truss is in a first position and generally above the tower when in a second position. When in the first position, a wind turbine or blade assembly can be hoisted to the top of the tower. The wind turbine or blade assembly is then moved into position for mounting to the tower as the frame or truss is pivoted to a second position. When the turbine and blade assembly are secured to the tower, the frame or truss is disconnected from the tower and lowered to the ground followed by the ginpole being lowered to the ground.

Wind turbines are an increasingly popular source of energy in the United States and Europe and in many other countries around the globe. In order to realize scale efficiencies in capturing energy from the wind, developers are erecting wind turbine farms having increasing numbers of wind turbines with larger turbines positioned at greater heights. In large wind turbine farm projects, for example, developers typically utilize twenty-five or more wind turbines having turbines capable of producing on the order of 1.2 Megawatts (MW) of power positioned at a height of fifty meters or higher above the ground. Providing wind turbines of these specifications typically provide scale efficiencies that reduce the cost of energy while making the project profitable to the developer. Placing larger turbines at greater heights enables each turbine to operate substantially free of boundary layer effects created through wind shear and interaction with near-ground irregularities in surface contours, e.g., rocks and trees. Greater turbine heights also lead to more steady operating conditions at higher sustained wind velocities, thereby producing, on average, more energy per unit time. Accordingly, there are economic and engineering incentives to positioning larger turbines at greater heights.
Positioning larger turbines at greater heights comes, however, with an added cost. The cost is associated with the larger and more massive towers that are required to withstand the additional weight of the larger turbines and withstand the wind loads generated by placing structures at the greater heights where wind velocities are also greater and more sustained.
An additional cost concerns the equipment that is required to erect the wind turbine. For example, the weight of conventional tube towers for wind turbines, e.g., towers having sectioned tube-like configurations constructed using steel or concrete—increases in proportion to the tower height raised to the 5/3 power. Thus, a 1.5 MW tower typically weighing 176,000 lbs at a standard 65 meter height will weigh approximately 275,000 lbs at an 85 meter height, an increase of about 56 percent. Towers in excess of 250,000 lbs, or higher than 100 meters, however, generally require specialized and expensive cranes to assemble the tower sections and to mount the turbine and blades on the assembled tower. Just the cost to transport and assemble one of these cranes needed to assemble a large tower and turbine can exceed $250,000 for a typical 1.5 MW turbine. In order to amortize the expense associated with such large cranes, wind turbine farm developers desire to pack as many wind turbines as possible onto the geographic area allocated to the towers and turbines, generally referred to as the "project footprint," thereby spreading the crane costs over many wind turbine installations. However, with sites having limited footprints, developers are forced to amortize transport and assembly costs of the crane across fewer turbines, which may be economically unfeasible. Further, projects installed on rough ground require cranes to be repeatedly assembled and disassembled, which may also be economically unfeasible. Projects located on mountain top ridges or other logistically difficult sites may, likewise, be all but eliminated due to unfeasible economics, in addition to engineering difficulties associated with locating a crane at such sites.
In view of the forgoing, it will be appreciated that it would be an advantage over the previously available systems to be able to assemble high-elevation structural towers and to mount heavy wind turbines on the top of such towers without relying on relatively large and prohibitively expensive crane equipment. It would be another advantage over the previously available systems to provide an apparatus and method for assembling high elevation structural towers and mounting wind turbines on top of such assembled towers without the need for large and prohibitively expensive crane equipment. The illustrative embodiments described herein overcome these disadvantages as will become more apparent with an understanding of the below provided description.

Lifting system and apparatus for constructing and enclosing wind turbine towers


A flying insect trap which includes a container body, a lid for engaging the container body, a plurality of apertures in the lid, and an attractant containing at least apple cider, vinegar and liquid soap in the container body.

Flying insects present a very tedious problem in our daily lives. Flying insects are more prevalent in warm weather climates such as in the southern states of the United States. While some flying insects present a biting or stinging hazard to humans, other flying insects may present other problems when they gather around food items attracted by the smell of foods. For instance, fruit flies and gnats are the more frequently seen flying insects that are attracted by fragrance of fruit. It is therefore desirable to provide a flying insect trap that is particularly suitable for attracting and trapping flying insects such as gnats such that they are kept away from food items.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide flying insect trap that does not have the drawbacks or shortcomings of the conventional insect traps.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a flying insect trap that is particularly suitable for attracting flying gnats.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a flying insect trap that is particularly suitable for attracting and trapping flying gnats.


A method, apparatus and an article of manufacture having thereon a computer program, all for reducing data in groups of N values per group. The largest X values of the N values of each group is found. All but the largest X values of each group is set equal to zero. Respective ones of the N values produced are averaged to produce N average values. The largest Y of the N average values are set equal to a first binary value, and a remainder of the N average values are set equal to a second binary value. In one application, a signal is divided into a series of frames. For each frame, a spectrum of the signal is divided into a series of N frequency segments and the N values represent the amplitudes of the frequencies in the signal. Broadcast content is recognized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods, apparatus and articles used for the analysis of data. More particularly, it relates to methods, apparatus and articles used to reduce large amounts of data to much smaller forms. More particularly still, it relates to methods, apparatus and articles which may be used to reduce the data to a form conducive to efficient analysis of the data.
2. Prior Art
There are many instances in which a great deal of data is produced, and it is a lengthy and costly process to analyze the data. By way of example only, and not by way of limitation, in the broadcast industry, it is desirable to monitor the programs broadcast by stations to determine whether specific content, such as for example music or songs, have been broadcast.
An example of how this may be accomplished is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,050, entitled Method and Apparatus for Recognizing Broadcast Information Using Multi-Frequency Magnitude Detection, issued to Lamb et a1. and assigned to the same assignee as that of the present invention.
As noted in this patent, a wide variety of copyrighted recordings and commercial messages are transmitted by broadcast stations. Copyrighted works such as moving pictures, television programs, and phonographic recordings attract audiences for broadcast stations, and the aforementioned commercial messages, when sent to the audiences, provide revenue for the broadcast stations.
There is an interest among various unions, guilds, performance rights societies, copyright owners, and advertising communities in knowing the type and frequency of information being broadcast. Owners of copyrighted works, for example, may be paid a royalty rate by broadcast stations depending on how often their copyrighted work is broadcast. Similarly, commercial message owners such as advertisers, who pay broadcast stations for air time, have an interest in knowing how often their commercial messages are broadcast.
It is known in the art that commercial radio and television broadcast stations are regularly monitored to determine the number of times certain information is broadcast. Various monitoring systems have been proposed in the prior art. In manual systems, which entail either real-time listening or delayed listening via video or audio tapes, people are hired to listen to broadcast information and report on the information they hear. Manual systems although simple, are expensive, lack reliability, and are very often highly inaccurate.
Electronic monitoring methodologies offer advantages over manual systems such as lower operating costs and reliability. One type of electronic monitoring methodology requires insertion of specific codes into broadcast information before the information is transmitted. The electronic monitoring system can then recognize a song, for example, by matching the received code with a code in a reference library. Such systems suffer from both technical and legal difficulties. For example, such a coding technique requires circuitry, which is expensive to design and assemble and which must be placed at each transmitting and receiving station. Legal difficulties stem from the adverse position of government regulatory agencies toward the alteration of broadcast signals without widespread acceptance thereof by those in the broadcast industry.
A second type of electronic monitoring methodology requires pre-specification of broadcast information into a reference library of the electronic monitoring system before the information can be recognized. A variety of pre-specification methodologies have been proposed in the prior art. The methodologies vary in speed, complexity, and accuracy. Methodologies which provide accuracy are likely to be slow and complex, and methodologies which provide speed are likely to be inaccurate.
The apparatus and method described in the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,050 has met with commercial success and has in large part met the needs of many segments of the broadcast industry. This approach is based on the discovery that the broadcast information on which recognition is based lies in the narrow frequency bands associated with the semitones of the music scale, rather than in the continuum of audio frequencies or in other sets of discrete frequency bands. It is also based on the principle that the set of semitones that have energies above a threshold amount at each instance provide sufficient information for recognition, and that it is not necessary to use the absolute energies of all frequencies for recognition.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,050 provides an apparatus and a method of recognizing broadcast information, including the steps of receiving broadcast information, the broadcast information being in analog form and varying with time; converting the broadcast information into a frequency representation of the broadcast information; dividing the frequency representation into a plurality of separate frequency bands (generally 48 bands over four octaves); determining a magnitude of each separate frequency band of the digital sample; and storing the magnitudes. The method of recognizing broadcast information also includes the steps of performing a significance determination a plurality of times, the significance determination including the steps of generating a magnitude of each separate frequency band, using a predetermined number of previously stored magnitudes for each respective frequency band; storing the magnitudes; and determining a significance value, using a predetermined number of previously stored magnitudes for each respective frequency band. The method of recognizing broadcast information further includes the steps of comparing the significance value to the most recently generated magnitude of each separate frequency bands generating a data array, the data array having a number of elements equal to the number of separate frequency bands, the values of the elements being either binary 1 or binary 0 depending on the results of the comparison; reading a reference data array, the reference data array having been generated from reference information; comparing the data array to the reference data array; and determining, based on the comparison, whether the broadcast information is the same as the reference information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,050 also provides a digital recording method in conjunction with the monitoring system to achieve recognition of broadcast information pre-specified to the monitoring system. The digital recording method can also achieve recognition of broadcast information not previously known to the monitoring system, while preserving a complete record of the entire broadcast period which can be used for further reconciliation and verification of the broadcast information.
More specifically, the method of recording broadcast information, includes the steps of receiving a set of broadcast information; recording the set of broadcast information in a compressed, digital form; generating a representation of the set of broadcast information; comparing the representation to a file of representations; making a determination, based on the comparison, of whether the representation corresponds to any representations in the file; upon a determination that the representation corresponds to a representation in the file, recording the broadcast time, duration, and identification of the set of broadcast information that corresponds to the representation; upon a determination that the representation does not correspond to any representations in the file, performing the following steps: (a) performing a screening operation on the representation in order to discern whether the representation should be discarded; (b) upon a determination that the representation should not be discarded, performing the following steps: (c) playing the recorded set of broadcast information which corresponds to the set of broadcast information from which the representation was generated in the presence of a human operator; and (d) making a determination, based on the playing of the recorded set of broadcast information, of whether the representation should be added to the file of representations and whether a recording should be made of the broadcast time, duration, and identification of the set of broadcast information that corresponds to the representation.
As noted above, while the technology described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,050 has been widely used, over the years it has become apparent that it has some limitations. While working well in its intended application, attempts to apply it to other applications have met with varying degrees of success. The technology is not extremely effective at short-term matching; that is determining whether a match exists between the data produced by a short segment of source material and a previously stored reference. In general, relatively few bits are set; on average, only 3 bits in a 48 bit frame. Often, the same bits are set for many frames in a row. When a strong melody is not present, continuity may be weak. Further, in the presence of a strong melody, it is possible that only one bit will be set for many frames.
Slightly different results may be produced, in terms of the specific bits set for the same source material, when different amounts of audio compression are used. Further, different bits may be set when transients are suppressed.

Method for determining the likelihood of a match between source data and reference data


A fuel cell system that includes a liquid fuel tank containing a non-sulfur-containing liquid fuel and water; a reformer generating a hydrogen-rich gas from the liquid fuel and water received from the liquid fuel tank; a reformer burner heating the reformer by burning a gaseous fuel received from a gaseous fuel tank, and a fuel cell stack generating electrical energy from the hydrogen-rich gas received from the reformer. The liquid fuel tank is connected to the gaseous fuel tank, and the liquid fuel mixed with water is supplied to the reformer by the pressure of the gaseous fuel tank.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a fuel cell system, and more particularly, to a fuel cell system that facilitates the supply of a liquid fuel to a reformer using the pressure from a gaseous fuel tank.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fuel cell is an electricity generation system that transforms chemical energy directly into electrical energy through a chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen contained in hydrocarbon groups of such molecules as methanol, ethanol, or natural gas.
A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack and a fuel processor (FP) as main components, and a fuel tank and a fuel pump as auxiliary components. The fuel cell stack has a structure in which a few to a few tens of unit cells are stacked. Each unit cell comprises a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and a separator on both sides of the MEA.
A fuel pump supplies a fuel from the fuel tank to a fuel processor, in which a reformer produces hydrogen by reforming the fuel and supplies the hydrogen to the fuel cell stack. The hydrogen in the fuel cell stack reacts electrochemically with oxygen to generate electrical energy.
The fuel processor reforms hydrocarbon groups and chains using a catalyst. If the molecule contains a sulfur compound, the catalyst can be easily poisoned by the sulfur compound. Therefore, the sulfur compound must be removed from the molecule before the hydrocarbon group or chain may be processed in the reformer. Accordingly, the hydrocarbon is processed in a desulfurizing process before the hydrocarbon is fed to the reformer.
The hydrocarbon produces hydrogen while it is being reformed, and also produces carbon dioxide and a small amount of carbon monoxide. However, the carbon monoxide acts as a catalyst poison to the catalytic layer of the electrodes in the MEA. Therefore, the reformed fuel must be processed in a shift unit in which the concentration of carbon monoxide is decreased before the fuel is supplied to the fuel cell stack. At this time, the concentration of the carbon monoxide may be decreased to less than 5000 ppm.
FIG. 1 is a configuration of a conventional fuel cell system.
Referring to FIG. 1, in a fuel cell system that uses a gaseous fuel, the gaseous fuel may be simultaneously supplied to a reformer 40 and a reformer burner 30 from a gaseous fuel tank 10. Desulfurizer 14 removes sulfur compounds from the gaseous fuel so as to preserve the catalytic materials within the reformer 40. Gaseous fuel, such as liquefied petroleum gas or LPG, that has passed through the desulfurizer 14 must have a sulfur concentration of less than 1 ppm.
The reformer burner 30 heats the reformer 40 to maintain the reformer 40 at a temperature of approximately 750° C. The combustion gas from the reformer burner 30 is exhausted to the atmosphere after having transferred heat to the liquid fuel and water flowing through a first heat exchanger 71.
A liquid pump 22 supplies water to the reformer 40 from a water tank 20. The water supplied to the reformer 40 by the liquid pump 22 is preheated by passing through first and second heat exchangers 71 and 72.
The reformer 40 generates hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide from the hydrocarbon groups and water. A shift reactor 60 decreases the concentration of carbon monoxide in the fuel produced at the reformer 40 to a predetermined level, such as 5000 ppm or less, before the hydrogen-rich gas is supplied to the fuel cell stack 50.
In the fuel cell arrangement of FIG. 1, a gaseous fuel containing sulfur is used as a fuel to supply to the reformer 40. Therefore, the desulfurizer 14 is necessary to remove such sulfur from the gaseous fuel before entering into the reformer 40. Also, this arrangement requires that the liquid pump 22 supplies water to the reformer 40.
A liquid fuel that does not include sulfur can be used instead of the gaseous fuel including sulfur. However, in this case, an element for supplying the liquid fuel to the reformer burner 30 is required.