The present invention relates to multifunctional β-agonist compounds comprising a reactive oxygen species scavenger group and a nitric oxide donor, and their use for the treatment of respiratory diseases involving airway obstruction, such as asthma and chronic bronchitis. The invention further relates to methods and devices for administering the compounds.

NO (nitric oxide) is formed from the amino acid L-arginine by several forms of NO synthases, and plays a role in a number of physiological functions, including the relaxation of airway smooth muscle. NO formed in endothelial cells in response to chemical agonists and to physical stimuli plays a key role in regulation of vascular tone, platelet aggregation and adhesion, as well as modulating smooth muscle proliferation (Haj-Yehia et al. (2000) Drug. Development Res. 50:528-536). NO overproduction has also been associated with numerous disease states (WO 99/66918). NO levels have been shown to be increased in the asthmatic airways (Kaminsky et al. (1999) J. Allergy Clin. Immunol 104(4)I:747-754). The role of NO in the respiratory system has been studied (Tamaoki et al. (1995) Am. J. Physiol. 268(6)I:C1342-C1346). NO has also been used in the treatment of asthmatics, though such treatments demonstrated a great deal of inter- and intra-individual variability (WO 01/32202).
Publications disclosing nitric oxide donor compounds or compounds which promote the synthesis of nitric oxide include WO 98/42661, WO 99/37616, WO 00/31060, WO 97/34871, WO 00/35434, WO 99/62509, WO 97/25984, WO 00/67754, WO 9961018, WO 99/61430, WO 97/31654, WO 96/32946, WO 00/53191, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,248,895 and 6,232,331 and Wolf et al. (1998) J. Neurosurg. 89:279-288. Publications disclosing nitric oxide scavenger compounds include WO 98/55453.
The endothelium, in addition to producing NO, also produces superoxide (SO) anion and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) under physiological conditions. Despite SO being a reducing agent that is itself incapable of initiating oxidative reactions, SO is considered the most important source of oxidative stress. Compounds for the removal of SO are described in the art, including WO 96/39409 and U.K. Pat. App. No. 2349385A.
Many disease states, including diabetes mellitus and various cardiovascular diseases, are associated with oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction. Nitroglycerin (GTN) has been used for the treatment of various types of myocardial ischemia Because of its pathogenic nature (chronicity with acute exacerbation), prophylactic and acute treatments are necessary to prevent complications with potentially fatal outcomes (>25% death for acute MI). However, the phenomenon of tolerance to the anti-anginal effects of GTN and to all other existing organic nitrates is of a special clinical significance. In particular, early development of tolerance to the drug is by far the most serious drawback of nitrate therapy.
A number of respiratory disorders have been recognized. Many of which have overlapping and interacting etiologies. The majority of these disorders are characterized by acute pulmonary vasoconstriction or bronchoconstriction. Inflammation and edema are also often associated with respiratory disorders such as asthma, respiratory distress syndrome (child or adult), bronchitis, pneumonia and others.
Various compounds and treatments for respiratory disorders are disclosed in the art, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,299,863, 6,124,319, 6,297,762, 6,254,882, 6,083,993, 5,824,669, 5,821,259, RE 37,116E, WO 97/34871, WO 01/32202, WO 99/40787, WO 95/30641 and Australian Patent No. 733202.
At the therapeutic level, β2-agonists are the first drugs that are used in the acute treatment of asthma (Roberts et al, Lung (1990) 168:Suppl. 105-110, and Rees, BMJ (1991) 302:1166-7). It is more controversial whether they should be used for chronic maintenance therapy (Haahtela et al., NEJM (1991) 325:388-92 and Burrows and Lebowitz, NEJM (1992) 326:560-1). Several effective β2-agonists are currently available. However, patients may respond better to one drug over another so it is reasonable to switch drugs if a patient is not responding (Thompson et al., Clin Pharm. 1985; 4:383-8). The inhaled route of administration is the preferred route and a metered dose inhaler is the preferred way of administering the drug by inhalation. Methods of making aerosol formulations of β-agonists are known in the art, as described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 6,238,647.
Most β2-agonists cause somewhat similar adverse effects. These adverse effects include but are not limited to cardiovascular effects such as palpitations, increased heart rate, and tachycardia; central nervous system symptoms such as nervousness, dizziness, headache and drowsiness; respiratory side effects such as dyspnea, wheezing, drying or irritation of the oropharynx, coughing, chest pain and chest discomfort; hand tremors, muscle tremors, and immediate hypersensitivity reactions such as urticaria, angioedema, rash and even bronchospasms. In addition, some β2-agonists can cause angina, vertigo, central stimulation and insomnia, airway hyperreactivity (hypersensitivity), nausea, diarrhea, dry mouth and vomiting (see also Boushey, "Basic & Clinical Pharmacology" 7th Ed., pp. 118-151 and 325-342, Katzung, Ed. 1998, Appleton & Lange, Stamford, Conn.). N-agonists may sometimes cause systemic adverse effects such as weakness, fatigue, flushed feeling, sweating, unusual taste, hoarseness, muscle cramps and backaches.
Furthermore, patients have a tendency to develop a tolerance to the bronchodilating effect of β-agonists. This is related to desensitization, which is one of the most clinically significant phenomena involving the β-adrenergic receptor. It has been observed that patients in prolonged β-agonist therapy have a tendency to increase the dosage their medication. This occurs because after prolonged administration, the β-receptor appears to become desensitized to the agonist, thus requiring larger doses of the compound to effect an equivalent physiological response. Often an increase in dosage leads to an increase in the kind, number or severity of adverse effects (see e.g. Paterson et al: American Review of Respiratory Disease (1979) 120:844-1187); Lancet (1990) 336:1411-1412; Spitzer et al. New England J. Med. (1992).
There is a need for improved drugs for the treatment of respiratory disorders such as asthma

Beta-agonist compounds comprising nitric oxide donor groups and reactive oxygen species scavenger groups and their use in the treatment of respiratory disorders

Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem


A service disconnect including a lock actuatable between a first state that prevents a removal of a service disconnect from a closed position and a second state that permits the removal.

This disclosure relates generally to a service disconnect and, more particularly, to a lock for a service disconnect to prevent an unauthorized install or removal.
Generally, electric vehicles differ from conventional motor vehicles because electric vehicles are selectively driven using one or more battery-powered electric machines. Conventional motor vehicles, by contrast, rely exclusively on an internal combustion engine to drive the vehicle. Electric vehicles may use electric machines instead of, or in addition to, the internal combustion engine.
Example electric vehicles include hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), fuel cell vehicles, and battery electric vehicles (BEVs). A powertrain of an electric vehicle is typically equipped with a battery that stores electrical energy for powering the electric machine. The battery may be charged prior to use. The battery may be recharged during a drive by regeneration braking or an internal combustion engine.
Electric vehicles can include a service disconnect. During normal operation, the service disconnect is in a closed position. Opening the service disconnect may be required when, for example, performing maintenance on the electric vehicle. Opening the service disconnect can prevent operation of the electric vehicle.

Electric vehicle service disconnect lock


A front end tuning system includes a tuning signal generator. The tuning signal generator includes a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to receive a pre-conditioned tuning signal at a reference input, to receive a digital value at a digital control input, and to produce a modified tuning signal based on the digital value and the pre-conditioned signal. Preconditioning the tuning-voltage allows a simple current type DAC to be can be used, rather than an 8-bit ladder type DAC used by some other front end tuners. Significant cost savings can be achieved because less memory is required to store the digital values supplied to the DACs, and set up times can be reduced. An adjustable temperature compensation circuit provides additional adaptability.

Radio receivers are generally understood to comprise a front end and a back end. The front end of the receiver selects a desired signal from among the many frequencies collected by the radio's antenna and converts the selected signal to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal that can be easily processed by the back end. The back end extracts information from the IF signal provided by the front end.
The process performed by the radio receiver's front end is loosely referred to as tuning the receiver, and can be broken down into three sub-functions: 1) generating a mixing signal; 2) selecting a desired radio signal by filtering; and 3) mixing the desired radio signal with the mixing signal to generate an IF signal. While various methods of performing each of the functions can be used, most modern radio receivers use automatic tuning systems as described below.
The local oscillator (LO) signal is a signal that has a frequency selected so that when the LO signal is combined with a selected radio signal, the selected radio signal is converted to an IF signal. The LO signal is generated as follows. A frequency synthesizer provides a tuning voltage, commonly referred to as a VCO tuning voltage, to a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The VCO generates the LO signal having a frequency dependent on the value of the VCO tuning voltage. The LO signal is fed back into the frequency synthesizer, which checks to see if the frequency of the LO signal is correct by comparing it to a reference frequency derived from an accurate crystal oscillator. If not, the frequency synthesizer changes the VCO tuning voltage to adjust the frequency of the LO signal. The frequency of the LO signal is again checked, and the VCO tuning voltage is altered as necessary. This process continues until the output of the VCO, the mixing signal, is locked onto the appropriate frequency.
The desired radio signal is selected using tunable filters. The tunable filters use varactor tuning diodes similar to those used in the VCO, and have frequency responses that can be changed by application of a filter tuning voltage. When an appropriate filter tuning voltage is applied to the front end filters' tuning diodes, the desired radio signal is passed through the front end and delivered to a mixer, along with the signal from the VCO. The mixer then combines the LO signal and the selected radio signal to generate a constant IF signal suitable for processing by the back end of the radio receiver.
In most conventional automatic front end tuners, the necessary filter tuning voltage provided to each front-end filter is generated by using an 8 bit multiplying digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to alter the VCO tuning voltage for use by a particular front end filter. The VCO tuning voltage (the same tuning voltage supplied to the VCO as discussed above) is provided to a reference input of the DAC, and a digital value corresponding to the frequency of the tuned radio signal is retrieved from a non-volatile memory and applied to a digital input of the DAC. The DAC then generates the required filter tuning voltage.
One limitation of the radios described above, is that for the DAC to provide the tuning voltages required by radios used in different international markets, the DAC must be capable of applying a large range of different gains to the VCO tuning voltage. The necessary range of gains is achieved by using a large number of digital values, which are stored in the radio's non-volatile memory. To provide the number of different digital values needed to achieve the necessary range of gains, each of the stored digital values is represented as an 8-bit number. Relatively large amounts of non-volatile memory are needed to store all of the required 8-bit numbers, and large memory requirements can significantly increase the manufacturing cost of radio receivers.
In addition to the cost of the memory itself, large amounts of production time are often needed to determine what the 8-bit digital values should be, and to store those digital values in the non-volatile memory. A system that reduces the number of bits required for operation of the DAC could result in a significant savings in production costs by limiting hardware costs and setup time.

Tuning signal generator and method thereof


An optical plug-in connection including: an optical plug-in connector; a coupling configured to receive the plug-in connector; and locking means for locking the plug-in connector in the coupling when the plug-in connector is inserted into the coupling, wherein the locking means are designed to prevent unintentional unlocking when in a locked state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of fiber-optic technology and, more specifically, to an optical plug-in connection.
2. Description of the Related Art
In fiber-optic communications technology, use has long been made of optical plug-in connector systems in which two optical fibers are coupled to each other by two plug-in connectors, in each of which one of the fibers ends in a ferrule, being inserted from opposite sides into a coupling or an adapter in such a way that the ferrules slide from both sides into a guiding sleeve arranged in the coupling and butt with the end faces against each other. Plug-in connector systems of this type are known and marketed under the designation SC, LC, E-2000 (LSH) or LX.5.
In the known plug-in connections, use is usually made of locking devices by which the plug-in connector is locked when it is inserted into the coupling, so that it can only be pulled out of the coupling again after unlocking. In the case of a plug-in connection of the type E-2000 (LSH), as substantially described in EP-B1-0 570 652 cited at the beginning, a locking tongue is formed in the coupling and has a hook formed on its end as a locking element. When the plug-in connector is inserted, this hook locks in at an undercut in the plug-in connector and in this way holds the plug-in connector in the coupling. This locking can be released by the locking tongue being raised by a tilting lever which is arranged on the plug-in connector and can be operated from the outside.
In the case of a plug-in connection of the type LX.5, as substantially described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,995 cited at the beginning, a locking arm with an upwardly angled-away, hook-shaped locking element is formed on the plug-in connector itself. When the plug-in connector is inserted into the coupling, the locking element locks in at an undercut arranged on the upper side of the coupling and can be unlocked again by the locking arm being pressed downward in a portion located outside the coupling. A similar principle with a locking lever pivotably mounted on the plug-in connector is also realized in EP-A1-1 072 917 cited at the beginning.
In the case of the known plug-in connection systems described above, the locking mechanisms are formed in such a way that they can easily be unlocked by pressing a lever or the locking arm itself. This can easily also lead to unintentional disengagement of the locking and ultimately unintentional disconnection of the plug-in connector. This not only has the consequence that the fiber-optic connection is unwantedly interrupted at this point, but also leads to safety problems, because laser radiation of a hazardous intensity can possibly escape from the interrupted connection.
It is therefore desirable to have optical plug-in connections which do not exhibit the aforementioned disadvantages.


An electrophotographic imaging member has a support, and at least one photoconductive layer having from about 90% by weight to about 10% by weight of the photoconductive particles of a photosensitive substituted perylene pigment, and, correspondingly, from about 10% by weight to about 90% by weight of at least one other n-type photosensitive pigment that is sensitive to shorter wavelength light than is the perylene pigment.

This invention relates, in general, to electrophotography and, in particular, to charge generation layers for electrophotographic imaging members using a tungsten exposure.
In electrophotography, an electrophotographic imaging member containing a photoconductive insulating layer on a conductive layer is imaged by first uniformly electrostatically charging its surface. The imaging member is then exposed to a pattern of activating electromagnetic radiation, such as light. The radiation selectively dissipates the charge in the illuminated areas of the photoconductive insulating layer, while leaving behind an electrostatic latent image in the non-illuminated areas. This electrostatic latent image can then be developed to form a visible image by depositing finely divided electroscopic marking particles on the surface of the photoconductive insulating layer. The resulting visible image can then be transferred from the electrophotographic imaging member to a support, such as paper. This imaging process can be repeated many times with reusable photoconductive insulating layers.
As such photoconductive materials, inorganic materials have often been used. In electrophotographic photoreceptors, for example, inorganic photoreceptors provided with a photosensitive layer that contains selenium, zinc oxide, or cadmium sulfide as the primary component have been widely used.
However, these inorganic photoreceptors are not always satisfactory in characteristics of photosensitivity, thermal stability, moisture resistance, and durability, which are essential for electrophotographic photoreceptors used in copying machines. For example, selenium is liable to crystallize from heat or stain, creating finger spots.
For improving upon the disadvantages of inorganic photoconductive materials, various organic photoconductive materials have come to attract much attention in the art, and a number of approaches have been made to use them in the photosensitive layer of electrophotographic photoreceptors.
An electrophotographic imaging member may be provided in any of a number of forms. For example, the imaging member may be a homogeneous layer of a single material such as vitreous selenium, or it may be a composite layer containing a photoconductor and another material. One type of composite imaging member comprises a layer of finely divided particles of a photoconductive insulating organic compound dispersed in an electrically insulating organic resin binder.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,904,407 to Regensburger et al. discloses an electrophotographic plate having a photoreceptor comprising a photoinjecting pigment selected from the class of perylene pigments and an active transport material that is substantially transparent in the wavelength region of xerographic use and capable of supporting charge carrier injection from the pigment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,102 to Horgan et al. discloses an imaging member comprising a layer of organic resin in which a photoconductive material comprising trigonal selenium is dispersed. This layer can be the charge generation layer in an imaging member also containing a charge transport layer. The photoconductive material so prepared is useful for improving cyclic charge acceptance and control, and for improving dark decay.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,333 to Staudenmayer et al. discloses an imaging member comprising a charge generating layer comprising a photoconductive pigment such as a perylene compound, a charge transport layer, and an acrylonitrile copolymer interlayer disposed between the charge generating layer and the support.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,189 to Hor et al. discloses photoconductive imaging members comprising a vacuum sublimation deposited benzimidazole perylene charge generating layer for photoelectric imaging and performance enhancement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,402 to Mishra et al. discloses an imaging member comprising an organic resin binder and photoconductive materials containing selenium particles coated with a hydrolyzed amino silane.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,595 to Pai et al. discloses a listing of photoconductive materials including, inter alia, amorphous and trigonal selenium, phthalocyanines, dibromoanthanthrone, and benzimidazole perylene, that can be used as charge generating materials in photogenerating layers. It is further disclosed that charge generating binder layers comprising particles or layers comprising a photoconductive material such as vanadyl phthalocyanine, metal free phthalocyanine, benzimidazole perylene, amorphous selenium, trigonal selenium, selenium alloys such as selenium-tellurium, selenium-tellurium-arsenic, selenium arsenide, and the like and mixtures thereof are especially preferred because of their sensitivity to white light. See, also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,089,369 and 5,164,276.
There is a continuing interest in the development of photoreceptors in which manufacture is simplified, print defects are reduced, particularly over extended use, and useful life is lengthened. Benzimidazole perylene (BzP) is a useful pigment in such photoreceptors because, in addition to being an organic pigment, it represents no health threat or other hazard to the environment, such as some other inorganic and other known carcinogenic organic pigments. Another reason for using BzP is that it is a pigment with good cyclic and environmental stability with regard to its xerographically relevant electrical properties, while simultaneously possessing adequate photosensitivity across nearly all of the visible spectrum.
Using BzP alone as the photoactive pigment results in two machine performance shortfalls. The first is the possible appearance of background print-out. Such background can be acceptably diminished by altering the xerographic setpoints of a xerographic machine, but doing so would violate the goal of designing a photoreceptor that performs equivalently to the photoreceptors having a tungsten light source that are already on the market.
The second manifestation of machine performance shortfall due to the use of BzP alone as the photoactive pigment is in the relative grey level response to various colored input document color and halftone patches. That is, for example, the relative grey level response to a blue patch compared to a yellow patch of the same value on the input document results in one ratio of output grey levels for a photoreceptor already marketed, and a different output grey level ratio for a particular photoreceptor design using BzP alone as the photoactive pigment. Owing to the shape of the spectral response inherent to BzP pigment as compared with that of the desired response, in combination with the input optics, simple design changes in the BzP based photoreceptor, such as layer thicknesses, or pigment to binder ratios, or similar such design parameters as are well known in the art, cannot provide adequately equivalent grey level response to various colored input as the desired response, while simultaneously maintaining equivalent xerographic electrical properties.

Charge generation layers comprising pigment mixtures


A user (e.g., a network administrator) can enter user verification information once for each switch on which the user desires to perform an administrative activity (e.g., ROM flash, reboot, etc.). Rather than having to enter the user verification information each time a switch is accessed for an administrative activity, the verification information is entered once and stored in non-volatile memory for subsequent use when accessing the switch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer networks. More particularly, the invention relates to an efficient technique for logging on to multiple switches in a fabric. Still more particularly, the invention relates to a control console which prevents a user from having to enter log in information for a switch in a fabric more than once, despite desiring to access the switch more than once.
2. Background Information
Initially, computers were most typically used in a standalone manner. It is now commonplace for computers and other types of computer-related and electronic devices to communicate with each other over a network. The ability for computers to communicate with one another has lead to the creation of networks ranging from small networks comprising two or three computers to vast networks comprising hundreds or even thousands of computers. Networks can be set up to provide a wide assortment of capabilities. For example, networks of computers may permit each computer to share a centralized mass storage device or printer. Further, networks enable electronic mail and numerous other types of services. Generally, a network's infrastructure comprises switches, routers, hubs and the like to coordinate the effective and efficient transfer of data and commands from one point on the network to another.
Networks often comprise a "fabric" of interconnected switches which are devices that route data packets from a source port to a destination port. The switches in a network are relatively complex devices that include processors, memory, and related components and execute firmware stored in non-volatile memory which may comprise read only memory ("ROM"). The switches typically have multiple ports which may be physically connected to other switches or other devices such as consoles, storage devices and other types of I/O devices. Via one or more consoles connected to the switches, a network administrator can monitor the status of any of the switches in the fabric, configure any switch, flash the switch's ROM and generally perform any of a variety of desired administrative activities.
For sake of security, each administrative task with respect to a switch typically requires the administrator to enter user verification information, such as a User ID and Password, to reduce the risk of an unauthorized entity gaining administrative access to the fabric. Although not terribly cumbersome with a relatively few switches in the fabric, the action of manually entering a User ID and Password via a keyboard coupled to the console for each switch to be accessed for an administrative action can be very cumbersome and time consuming in a fabric having a large number of switches. Further, at least in some fabric implementations, the administrator's User ID and Password must be entered each time a switch is accessed even if the same switch is accessed more than once to perform an administrative action. For example, the administrator may desire to flash a switch's ROM. Then, the administrator may desire to reconfigure one of the switch's ports. For each of these actions, the administrator will be inconvenienced by having to enter a User ID and Password. As noted above, this inconvenience is exacerbated as the number of switches in the fabric grows. Accordingly, a solution to this problem is needed.


Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for preemptively evaluating whether roles are over-privileged within an (IAM) identity and access management system. Roles may be over-privileged when they are granted permissions to perform certain actions outside the scope granted to those roles. The evaluation occurs without submitting the certain actions to the IAM system and allows roles to be evaluated on a preemptive basis so that corrective actions may be taken to prevent unauthorized access to resources. Roles may be associated with policies which may each define different permissions for accessing resources. The evaluation may involve generating an effective policy from the policies associated with a role to provide a comprehensive view of all permissions associated with the role. The specified solution operates to generate an effective permission for accessing a resource and evaluating whether that effective permission is outside of a permissible scope of access for the role.

Identity and access management (IAM) systems manage and control access to resources. IAM systems may be deployed on premises, provided by a third party provider, or a combination of these approaches. However deployed, an IAM system receives requests for accessing the resources from an entity, typically in an enterprise system. To determine whether to grant or deny requests, the IAM system may evaluate whether the entity has appropriate privileges for accessing the resource. This evaluation of an entity's privileges is done by the IAM system on a per-request basis as requests are received. The IAM system may then inform the entity and the enterprise system whether access to the resource is granted or denied. The enterprise system therefore only becomes aware of any security issues with its privileges for accessing resources after submitting requests to the IAM system.
IAM systems are currently limited to this reactive evaluation (i.e., after a request is sent) because privileges associated with entities in an enterprise system can be exponentially complex. For example, a cloud environment may allow entities to be associated with a number of different policies with each policy providing multiple privileges such as a read privilege or a write privilege. The complexity arises when a privilege, such as a read privilege, is defined in multiple policies (e.g., with respect to different resources) and may be associated with different versions of the same policy. The nature of how these privileges are stored—across different policies—and the sheer scale of the privileges and policies involved therefore prevent IAM systems, including those within a cloud environment, to proactively evaluate privileges associated with entities in an enterprise system.

Crafting effective policies for identity and access management roles


A parallel processor has a plurality of communication buses advantageously interconnecting the arithmetic processor elements, the memory controller elements, a global controller circuitry, and input/output processors. The processor preferably has at least one central processing unit cluster, the cluster having at least one integer processor and one floating point processor. A plurality of I/F buses interconnect the integer and floating point processors of a cluster for communications therebetween. Integer load buses connect the integer processors of each cluster and selectively connect those processors to the memory controllers for transferring data from memory to the clusters and for providing inter-integer processor data communications. A plurality of floating point load buses connect the floating point processors of the clusters to selected memory controllers for transferring data from the controllers to the floating point processors and for providing inter-floating point processor data communications. A plurality of physical address buses provide one-way communications for transferring memory addresses from the integer processors to the memories and a plurality of storage buses connect the floating point processors to the memory controllers along a one-way communications path for transferring data to be stored in the memories. The hardware architecture provides advantageous communications between the elements of the data processing system for enabling wide bandwidth communications and high instruction throughput.

The invention relates generally to computer architecture methods and apparatus and in particular to the bus structure of a high speed parallel processing computer method and apparatus.
Substantial improvements in processing time have been made during the past few years in computer technology. The advances have come both from improved semiconductor technology, which allows a higher level of integration, greater flexibility, and increased speed, and in computer architectures which provide, for example, parallel processing. Parallel processing derives its substantial speed advantage by spreading a computation over a plurality of computational elements. The number of elements can vary significantly depending upon the problem being solved as well as the computer interconnection hardware. A particular limitation, however, with respect to parallel processors, is that their performance reaches a maximum only when the data which they process can be arranged into data sets which are independent of each other and which can then be processed simultaneously. Machines which exhibit this characteristic have often been termed single-instruction-multiple-data (SIMD) machines or, more commonly, vector machines.
Another approach has been to provide multiple-instruction-multiple-data (MIMD) machines, often called multiprocessors. In this architecture, processing units execute different instructions simultaneously and each processor executes an instruction which does not depend upon the results of another processor operating on a different instruction in the same machine cycle. Accordingly, the performance of the MIMD machine is program-dependent and the machines are fastest when the program can be broken into multiple discrete self-contained tasks.
It has been found that both vector machines and multiprocessors are best suited to specialized environments. Further, certain programs can be fine-tuned toward the strengths and away from the weaknesses of a particular machine. However, such manipulation of code is performed by hand and is generally too costly and difficult to implement. And, even if a computer programmer can optimize his program by creating large data vectors, or by giving it so-called "coarse-grained" parallelism, he is still faced with certain parts of the code that cannot be made to execute faster. That so-called "junk code" takes up almost half of the execution time for a typical program. Thus the increase in speed due to very fast semiconductor circuits and specialized architecture tends to be overshadowed by "junk code" which executes at a relatively slow pace.
Apparatus for overcoming this traditional processing bottleneck has been the subject of much investigation. These investigations have been directed to so-called "fifth generation" computers. One particularly advantageous method relates to the use of a reduced instruction set consisting primarily of basic level register and memory operations and related computational hardware that maintains a relatively simple configuration. A particularly useful method has been referred to as a Trace Scheduling computer and relates to a data processor whose compiler generates source code that makes the best use of the memory and computational resources which are available to it. In this way execution time for both loop-oriented, easily paralleled code and for "junk code" that appears frequently, especially in scientific code, is reduced significantly over the traditional as well as modern data dependent or code dependent design strategies.
Even the Trace Scheduling computer, however, must have an architecture which allows it to take full advantage of the Trace Scheduling philosophy and concept.
Accordingly, a primary object of the invention is a computer architecture which enables a Trace Scheduling computer to operate near its theoretical high capacity and reliability. Other objects of the invention are a computing method and apparatus for increasing the throughput of a data processing apparatus, for providing extensive and useful high bandwidth data paths between components of the computing apparatus, for enabling a high speed refilling of instruction cache when an instruction cache miss occurs, and for providing high bandwidth memory access in a parallel computing environment.

High bandwidth multiple computer bus apparatus


The present invention relates to a device for dispensing beverages from receptacles such as bottles and the like, characterized by a dispensing unit comprising a tap (10) adapted to clean all the zones involved in the circulation of the beverage, thus limiting the consumption of inert gas required for this operation, by employing two separate modules for managing the beverage dispensing and for managing the inert gas emission.

Devices and apparatuses adapted to automatically dispense beverages from containers such as bottles and the like are known in the art. Some of these devices and apparatuses maintain the bottles or similar receptacles in an upside down position and dispense the beverage contained therein by suitably opening a valve which allows the beverage to fall by gravity into a container conveniently positioned at the mouth of the receptacle itself.
Other known devices keep the bottles, or similar receptacles, in an upright vertical position, resting on their bottom, and dispense the beverage by means of two tubes introduced into the bottle through the cap of the bottle itself. An inert gas is pressurized into the bottle through one of the aforesaid tubes thus keeping the beverage pressurized. When the dispensing tap associated with a tube is opened, the pressurized gas allows the beverage to be dispensed through the other tube. Devices and apparatuses of this second type are particularly suitable in all those cases, such as for example in the case of wine, in which the beverage contained in the bottle would suffer a decline of its organoleptic quality due to the upside down position of the bottle itself.
However, the devices and apparatuses from the state of the art have drawbacks and limitations which prevent the distribution and a more widespread use thereof.
In the case of devices adapted to dispense beverages from containers kept in vertical or standing position, one of the most common problems relates to the level of cleanliness of the dispensing tube, which is often insufficient to ensure the complete suppression of the problem related to possible beverage residues in the tube when subsequently dispensing.
Patent number IT1352873 describes an apparatus for dispending beverages from containers kept in a vertical or standing position, comprising a tapping unit consisting of a main body comprising a solenoid valve and a tap adapted to engage with the neck of the bottle from which the beverage is to be tapped by means of a conical mouth. A first conduit adapted to allow the inert gas to enter into the bottle, and a second conduit in which the tapped beverage flows and is connected to the dispensing spout, are inside the tap. The second conduit has a chamber closed by the plunger of the solenoid valve and a branch connected to the inert gas circuit.
During operation, the pressurized gas contained in the bottle will push the liquid through the second conduit and the chamber up to the dispensing spout where it will be collected by the user.
Once the preset quantity of liquid has been tapped, the solenoid valve closes and, after a short time span required to allow the liquid remaining in the second conduit to flow downstream of the branch, a gas jet is blown through the branch, which allows all the remaining liquid drops to be completely eliminated in the second conduit and in the spout.
This embodiment requires the presence of two separate circuits for pressurizing the gas, one of which intended to dispense the beverage and the other one intended to emit the jet for cleaning the dispensing tube once the dispensing itself has been occurred. The two separate circuits have different pressures and thus constitute two devices for adjusting the gas pressure. This construction is complex, costly, and subject to gas leakages if not appropriately maintained by preventive maintenance and checking.
Moreover, such construction requires that, during dispensing, the beverage travels within the described chamber, which chamber is not involved with the cleaning jet and, in the case of beverages coming up against organoleptic degeneration such as wine, may cause problems for the subsequent dispensing operations.
Therefore, when using a dispensing unit with beverage dispensing devices it should be constructed to overcome the described drawbacks while allowing the construction to be simplified by introducing a single gas pressurizing circuit. Preferably, such unit has two valves and a single reducer, thereby decreasing the complexity and cost of the construction as well as the incidence of gas leakages.

Tap for beverage dispensing from receptacles such as bottles and the like


A multi-band antenna (1) used in wireless communications includes a radiating portion (2), a grounding portion (4), and a connecting portion (3). The radiating portion (2) includes a first radiating element (21) operating at 900 MHz frequency band and a second radiating element (22) operating at 1800 MHz frequency band. The connecting portion (3) connects the radiating portion (2) and the grounding portion (4). The grounding portion (4), the radiating portion (2), and the connecting portion (3) locate in the same plane.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an antenna, and more particularly to a planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) used in a portable electronic device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the development of wireless communication, more and more portable electronic devices, for example note book, install an antenna system for working in a Wireless Local-area Network (WLAN). Transmitting and receiving signals plays an important role in wireless communication process. In recent years, a majority of WLAN bases on Bluetooth technical standard or 802.11 technical standard. Antenna in Bluetooth technical standard bases on 2.4 GHz frequency band, and in 802.11 technical standard bases on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. So, antenna in notebook mostly works in the above frequency bands at the present time.
However, user would not satisfy a portable wireless communication devices only working in WLAN in the future. It's desired to make portable wireless communication device working in Wireless Wide-area Network (WWAN). The portable wireless communication device working in WWAN can work and entertain in more broad area. WWAN adopts two techniques, GSM and CDMA at present. However, a portable wireless communication device can work in GSM unless it has an antenna working in the frequency band of GSM. Antennas in notebook and other portable wireless communication device mostly work in 2.4 GHz frequency and 5 GHz frequency now. However, antennas of the mobile phone working in GSM mostly cannot be set in notebook or other portable wireless communication device because of size or power.
For example, China Patent No. 2689482Y discloses a PIFA capable of working on three frequency bands. The antenna includes three radiating elements, respectively operating at 1800 GHz, 900 MHz, and 2450 MHz. So, the antenna can be set in notebook or other portable wireless communication device for working in GSM. However, this antenna adopts solid structure, that is, the radiating elements, connection element, and grounding element respectively locate in different planes. Complex configuration and taking up more space result in the antenna going against industrialization manufacture, wasting cost and breaching trend of miniaturization development of antenna.
Hence, in this art, a planar inverted-F antenna to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art will be described in detail in the following embodiment.

Planar inverted F antenna and method of making the same


A fuel injector control method comprises determining a required separation time between a termination of an on signal associated with a first injection event and an initiation of an on signal associated with a second injection event. The method comprises calculating an overlap time between the separation time and the time to charge the piezoelectric stack to a first level; dividing the overlap time into first and second time periods as a function of the charge and discharge currents; applying the charge current to the piezoelectric stack for a charge time; and applying the discharge current to the piezoelectric stack for a discharge time so as to discharge the stack to a second level, wherein the discharge time is calculated on the basis of the second time period of the overlap time. Thus, first and second injection events are merged in a pulse mode of operation.

Piezoelectric fuel injectors are well-known for use in automotive engines and employ a piezoelectric actuator, made of a stack of piezoelectric elements arranged mechanically in series, for opening and closing an injection valve to meter fuel injected into the engine. One type of piezoelectric fuel injector is the de-energize-to-inject injector described in EP174615. The injector stack is held in a charged state during periods of non-injection, and when it is required to inject fuel the stack is de-energized. When injection is to be terminated the stack is re-charged again. In an energize-to-inject injector, operation is reversed so that charging of the stack initiates injection and discharging of the stack terminates injection.
Piezoelectric actuators, and hence fuel delivery, are controlled by an engine control module (ECM). The ECM incorporates strategies that determine the required fuelling and timing of injection pulses based on the current engine operating conditions, including torque, engine speed and operating temperature. Such strategies determine the number, size and timings of the injections and tend to be large and complicated. Furthermore, such strategies are calibrated for specific applications (i.e., specific customers and specific engines).
Strategies of this type allow for multiple injection pulses, such as pilot and post injections. Pilot injections are generally used to reduce combustion noise, and make the engine sound less like older diesel engines. Post injections are generally used in a couple of ways: close to the main injection they are used to reduce soot (this is sometimes referred to as split main); and late post injections are used for aftertreatment systems, i.e., deNOx filters and particulate traps.
Although pilot injections are used in diesel engines to reduce combustion noise, they can lead to an increase in smoke production. Minimising the separation between the pilot and main pulses can improve the smoke-noise tradeoff, i.e., achieving good noise reduction with smaller increases in smoke.
The quantity, fuelling and timing of these injection pulses is continuously variable across the engine operating range. This allows optimization of the engine operation in terms of performance, fuel economy and emissions.
The ECM selects the injector to be opened and determines when the injector is to be opened, how long it is to remain open before being closed (this is known as an injection event), and for how long the injector is to remain closed before the next injection event.
The time separation between one injection event and another, i.e., the time period between a termination (i.e., conclusion) of an electrical on signal associated with the first injection event and an initiation of an electrical on signal associated with the second injection event, is known as the demand time, and is controlled by the ECM depending on the current operating strategy (i.e., driver demands and current engine operating conditions).
Being able to control the demand time accurately is key to the flexibility of the ECM. It allows optimization in terms of engine performance, noise and other unwanted emissions, for example nitrous oxides and particulates.
In known injectors of the de-energize to inject type, the stack is charged fully to ensure that the electrical charge across the stack returns to a known level, providing a reference for the next discharge phase. As a result, there is a limit to how short the demand time can be because it is governed by the time required to charge the stack fully, the time it takes to open the injector, and the time required for the switching means controlling the injection to switch on and off as appropriate. However, in order to increase flexibility of operation it is desirable to reduce the demand time beyond the limit imposed by known injection control strategies.


A motor driven needling device for treating patients having chronic muscular pain includes a motor driven poking tool for mounting a needle, a control unit for adjusting the frequency and the depth of the poking, a mechanical swivel arm for holding and positioning the tool, a remote switch for activating the motorized tool, and an aid useful in causing the needle to puncture the patient's skin once the tool is positioned at a proper location over the muscle to be treated.

The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for automating the treatment of muscular pain by intramuscular stimulation, and in particular, to improvement of the apparatus to facilitate the initial insertion of the needle in the affected muscles.
Intramuscular stimulation (IMS) is a known method used to treat muscular pain by inserting a needle into an affected muscle. Intramuscular stimulation was first developed, and initially described by Gunn, "Dry Needling of Muscle Motor Points for Chronic Low-Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial With Long-Term Follow-up", Spine, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 279-291 (1980). The intramuscular stimulation method has also been used by others (see, e.g., Chu, "Dry Needling in Myofascial Pain Related to Lumbosacral Radiculopathy", European Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 106-121 (1995). A detailed method for performing the intramuscular stimulation treatment is described in Gunn, Treating Moyofascial Pain: Intramuscular Stimulation for Myofascial Pain Syndromes of Neuropathic Origin, Health Sciences Center for Educational Resources, University of Washington, Seattle Wash. (ISBN: 1-55910-003-6).
Briefly, the method involves the insertion of a fine needle, similar to an acupuncture needle, into the involved muscle and stimulating the muscle by repeatedly moving the needle back and forth linearly within the muscle. In this disclosure, "back and forth" movement will be taken to mean that the needle is first pushed in a linear direction into the muscle, then partially withdrawn in a linear direction, and then pushed back in, again along the same linear path of penetration. This action is repeated many times, at each of several muscular sites. For brevity, such needle manipulation will be referred to as "poking" in the remainder of this disclosure.
The involved muscle is usually tightly contracted. Such tightness of the muscle tends to apply severe pressure or pinching forces to the nerve fibers within the muscle, thereby causing chronic pain. When the contracted muscle is made to relax by repeated intramuscular stimulation treatments, the pain eventually subsides. The frequency of the treatment depends on the severity of the muscle contraction. A severely contracted muscle will require more frequent treatments over longer periods, whereas the required frequency will be less for the more lightly injured muscles. Intramuscular stimulation treatment is most usually performed at multiple points to be most effective.
Although the method developed by Gunn, and used by others, is quite effective in treating patients with chronic muscular pain, it was found that in practice, the method itself was self-limiting because of its detrimental effects on the person administering the treatment. To treat a patient, it is necessary to manually poke a needle into the injured muscle at a rate of approximately one to two times per second. Usually, a treatment session lasts about 45 minutes. This results in a total number of manual poking steps on the order of 2,700 to 5,400 times per session. For the case of a person treating eight patients per day, each with a 45 minute treatment session, the total number of manual poking steps will be on the order of 21,600 to 43,200 times per day. This enormous number of repeated, manual poking steps could at times cause such severe strain and pain to the shoulder and neck muscles of the person performing the treatment that, in time, damage to that person's muscles could itself require treatment (frequently, by an intramuscular stimulation treatment).
Another factor to consider is that the manual poking of the needle was itself very painful to the patient. This is presumably because the needle is constantly accelerated and decelerated during manual insertion and withdrawal during the course of a treatment. For this reason, the patient usually had to be premedicated (e.g., with narcotics) to avoid the excessive discomfort occurring during the treatment.
To overcome the problems associated with conventional intramuscular stimulation treatment, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/641,516 discloses an automated, motor driven, needling instrument for administering an intramuscular stimulation treatment to patients suffering from chronic muscular pain. The disclosed apparatus replaces manually operated muscle stimulation with a muscle stimulator (a needle) which is mechanically linked to an electrically-driven motor, which is in turn electrically connected to a programmable control unit. In its preferred mode, the intramuscular needling device is mechanically linked to a linear action motor, allowing the motor to drive the needle continuously, back and forth within the muscle in a controlled manner. The person administering the treatment can then hold the instrument steadily at a desired treatment site while the motor provides controlled, uniform back and forth linear motion to the intramuscular stimulator needle, at fixed penetration depths. This was found to eliminate, to a great degree, the tedious muscle-straining labor involved in a conventional (manual) poking treatment, thereby relieving the physical burden on the person administering the treatment.
For extended intramuscular stimulation treatment sessions, a mechanical swivel arm is provided to hold the stimulator needling instrument, and a foot switch is provided to remotely turn the motor on and off. In this way, intramuscular stimulation treatments can be performed with minimal physical effort, helping to avoid muscle injury to the person administering the treatment.
A further, and major additional advantage resulting from the use of such a device is a dramatic reduction in the pain experienced by the patient during treatment. In a conventional, manual poking treatment, the needle is frequently accelerated and decelerated because of the uneven poking action which is inherent in a manual operation. This leads to a transient shearing action that is enormously painful to the patient. The constant speed and uniform motion provided by an automated poking apparatus has been found to eliminate such pain, to a very significant degree (e.g., clinical tests have shown about a 75% reduction in the pain experienced by the patient during treatment).
In practice, the automated intramuscular stimulation apparatus disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/641,516 has been found to work quite well in performing desired treatments. However, it has also been found that the apparatus can be still further improved to make the treatment process even more comfortable for the patient and more convenient for the person administering the treatment. For example, to begin intramuscular stimulation treatment, the needle must first puncture the skin. However, the skin is often very tough, and resistant to puncturing with even a very sharp needle, especially the skin found over the affected muscle. To minimize treatment pain, this puncturing step has to be performed as quickly as possible, and even so, the patient can experience significant discomfort.
It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to provide an automated intramuscular stimulation needling device which is not only capable of developing a mechanical, uniform back and forth motion for the stimulator needle, but which is further able to facilitate initial insertion of the needle to puncture the skin at the treatment site.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an automated intramuscular stimulation needling device which is able to facilitate initial insertion of the needle to puncture the skin at the treatment site while minimizing the patient's discomfort during this portion of the procedure.

Intramuscular stimulator having a puncture aid


Methods and apparatus are provided for producing mixed light in a direct-view luminaire. The luminaire includes a plurality of light sources (132) that, in combination, are configured to generate a plurality of different colors of light, a first light mixing chamber (110) and at least one second light mixing chamber (120) in light communication with the first mixing chamber through at least one opening (134). At least one directly viewable light exit surface (112) is coupled to the first light mixing chamber. The light sources are contained in the second light mixing chamber(s), which is configured to prevent light emitted from the light sources from directly impinging on the light exit surface(s). The first light mixing chamber and the light exit surface(s) are configured to mix the light emitted from the light sources such that all light exiting the light exit surface(s) is substantially uniform in brightness and color.

Digital lighting technologies, i.e., illumination based on semiconductor light sources, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), offer a viable alternative to traditional fluorescent, HID, and incandescent lamps. Functional advantages and benefits of LEDs include high energy conversion and optical efficiency, durability, lower operating costs, and many others. Recent advances in LED technology have provided efficient and robust full-spectrum lighting sources that enable a variety of lighting effects in many applications. Some of the fixtures embodying these sources feature a lighting module, including one or more LEDs capable of producing different colors, e.g. red, green, and blue, as well as a processor for independently controlling the output of the LEDs in order to generate a variety of colors and color-changing lighting effects, for example, as discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,016,038 and 6,211,626, incorporated herein by reference.
In many lighting fixtures (or "luminaires") that embody one or more LEDs capable of producing light at particular color points and color temperatures, it may be desirable to appropriately mix the light output of such LEDs prior to the light output exiting the LED-based lighting fixture. Appropriate mixing of the LEDs may reduce the presence of any undesired chromatic nonuniformity in the light output of the lighting fixture and provide more desirable light output characteristics. In implementing mixing solutions, many lighting fixtures employ multiple large mixing chambers and/or only provide illumination from a single planar light exit opening. Such configurations may result in an undesirably large mixing solution and/or a mixing solution of limited utility.
Also, various techniques developed for mixing light from LED light sources in the far field, i.e., illuminating a distant surface with light having uniform brightness or color, do not satisfactorily address the color mixing, uniformity, or lit appearance of a direct-view luminaire. Specifically, one important characteristic of a direct-view luminaire is the uniform appearance of the surface that emits light. A uniform appearance is one in which there are no bright or dark areas or color variations in the light, such as greenish or pinkish spots. Preferably, an observer should not be able to distinguish individual light sources (or rows thereof) or discern individual colors (e.g., red, green, or blue) simply by looking at the luminaire.
Color uniformity is important because architects and lighting designers go to great lengths to obscure individual bright spots and color variations on luminaires for aesthetic appeal. For example, fixtures may be installed within a recess (or at a further distance from a wall) to hide scalloping effects and direct glare. The value of a product that creates uniform color on a wall is greatly diminished when the luminaire exhibits prominent color or brightness non-uniformities that have to be hidden using other techniques.
The discrete nature of color LED light sources used in luminaires makes it more difficult to provide a uniform brightness and color for direct-view LED-based luminaires. Prior approaches often employ additional hardware, for example, secondary lenses to try to achieve uniformity in appearance. However, these approaches do not provide a luminaire that has the desired light-output characteristics and aesthetic appeal.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide an LED-based direct-view luminaire producing satisfactory mixing of light output from a plurality of LEDs, such that its light-emitting surface appears substantially uniform in brightness and color, without using secondary lenses or other techniques, and that may optionally overcome one or more drawbacks with existing mixing solutions.

LED-based direct-view luminaire with uniform mixing of light output


In order to enable a user to acquire a desired content more quickly by performing a matching process by using search target ID information identifying a search target so as to properly acquire a content regarding the search target and to shorten a time required to complete the matching process, a communication device such as router is configured such that, when receiving an interest form a content-centric network, the communication device performs a search process on contents accumulated therein, aiming to find one or more contents which meet a search criteria set specified by the interest, performs the matching process for verifying whether the content found in the search process matches the search target ID information (face image) to acquire a content regarding the search target, and transmits the acquired content to a communication device of a content request source.

The Internet is widely used today. In order for a user terminal to acquire a necessary content accumulated in a server through the Internet, the user terminal obtains an IP address of the server so that the user terminal can access the server using the IP address to acquire the content.
In addition, content-centric networking technology is known as an alternative to the Internet (See Patent Document 1, JP2015-212935A). This content-centric network, which is also referred to as CCN (Content-Centric Network), ICN (Information-Centric Network), or NDN (Named Data Network), is designed to enable users to retrieve and collect a content from contents accumulated in a device(s) within a network by using a name of the content.

Communication device, communication system, and content collection method


A digital camera generates principal image data of a predetermined size and backup image data of a maximum size, and records the principal image data and the backup image data in a memory card and an internal memory respectively. In a resize processing in a replay mode, if the backup image data corresponding to the principal image data has been recorded, and a designated size is larger than the principal image data, a resize processing section reads the backup image data from the internal memory and performs the resize processing to the backup image data.

Digital cameras and mobile phones with cameras are widely used as image capture apparatuses. Such image capture apparatuses capture an image of a subject with an image sensor such as a CCD, and convert image signals from the CCD into digital image data, and record the digital image data in an internal memory, a memory card, or the like. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications No. 2001-024928 and No. 2003-199020 disclose image capture apparatuses which perform image processing under several processing conditions to image signals obtained by one image capture operation to convert the image signals into plural image data of different sizes and image qualities, and record such image data in a memory.
Resizing function to change a size of the image data is known. Since the resizing function is intended for the data of captured image, the image can be resized only to a smaller size but not to a larger size than the original image data. Accordingly, if the image is mistakenly captured in a relatively small size such as VGA (640×480 dots), it is necessary to recapture the image with a correct image data size or to use the small-sized image without recapturing. Further, in the case, for instance, the user is intentionally capturing the image with a small image size and unexpectedly captures a best scene, it is also impossible to increase the image data size after the image is captured.
In the above prior art, the image is captured with the maximum size, and various image data with different sizes and image qualities are generated therefrom and recorded. Therefore, the above inconvenience has been solved. However, due to the large image size, the image processing takes a long time, and high consumption power is necessary. Moreover, due to the enormous amount of image data, the memory runs out in a short time.

Image capture apparatus including generation of backup data


An application entity may be created and defined by a user at an application. Related service entities managed by different service applications may be matched and consolidated. The application entity may be associated with one or more related service entities. Metadata corresponding to the associated service entities may be provided to the application. Such metadata may enable the associated service entities to be managed from within the application.

In conventional resource management systems, application services typically function in connection with applications. Such application services may each manage different components of a resource. For example, two application services may manage different components of a loan approval process. Specifically, a first application service may manage a credit history component of the loan approval process, while a second application service may manage a down payment component of the loan approval process. Each of the application services may manage related service entities associated with the loan approval process. For example, the first application service may mange "applicant" service entities, while the second application service may manage related "loan" service entities.
Applications functioning in connection with the application services may be, for example, electronic mail applications, word processing applications, or spreadsheet applications that enable the production of documents. Such documents may often refer to service entities and influence the management of the service entities at the application services. For example, a document may include the text, "John Smith has missed a credit card payment." "John Smith" may be an instance of both the applicant entity managed by the first application service and the loan entity managed by the second application service. Thus, the document may influence the management of the applicant entity "John Smith" and the loan entity "John Smith". Specifically, the document may influence a user to change the state of the applicant entity "John Smith" at the first application service to a "deny loan" state. The document may also cause the state of the loan entity "John Smith" at the second application service to be changed to a "refund down payment" state.
Although documents may often influence the management of service entities at the application services, there is generally limited ability to access, query, and manage service entities from within an application. For example, if the document influences a user to change the state of applicant entity "John Smith" at the first application service, then, to change the state, the user must access the first application service and identify the applicant service entity at the first application service. It may often be difficult, however, to identify a service entity at a application service because a document often does not provide sufficient semantics about attributes by which the service entity is defined. For example, while the document refers to the loan applicant "John Smith" by his full name, the first application service may define the applicant service entity by separate "first name" and "last name" attributes.
The limited ability to access, query, and manage service entities from within an application is particularly cumbersome when a document influences the management of related entities from different application services. For example, if the document causes a user to change the state of applicant entity "John Smith" at the first application service and to change the state of loan entity "John Smith" at the second application service, then the user must separately access each application service and separately identify each service entity at each application service. Separately identifying of service entities at different application services is cumbersome because, even if the different service entities are related, the service entities may be defined at each application service by different sets of attributes. For example, while the first application service may define the applicant service entity by separate "first name" and "last name" attributes, the second application service may define the loan entity by an "applicant" attribute rather than by a name attribute.
Another difficulty relating to the management of service entities in conventional resource management systems is that an application typically provides limited information about the availability of actions which can be performed on service entities at the application services. Specifically, each application service may have specific rules and conditions related to the performance of actions on service entities. For example, such rules and conditions may include a maximum number of times which an action may be performed, a period in which an action must be performed, a limited user or class of users which may perform an action, or a condition which must occur before or after the performance of an action. An application generally cannot determine what such rules and conditions are and whether they are satisfied. Thus, a user must access each component process to determine if an action is available within the process.
Additionally, an application typically has limited abilities to coordinate the management of resources among multiple users according to such rules and conditions. Specifically, an application has limited ability to track the performance of actions and to prevent or advise against the performance of actions that are invalid or likely to generate conflicts. Furthermore, applications typically have limited ability to provide users with information about relationships between entities and processes managed by different application services and the performance of actions on such related entities by other users. Such information may be used to determine the availability of an action and to protect against conflicts related to the performance of the action.
Thus, there is a need in the art for systems and methods for integrating resource management between application services and applications. It is desired that such systems and methods enable, for example, matching of related service entities from different application services, association of service entities with documents, and management of service entities from within an application.

System and method for integrating management of components of a resource


A scanning optical equipment provided with the means to detect scanning beam spot at more than two points of the scanned surface and the means to enable direct observation of the state of focussing of the beam spot, thus enabling extremely precise control of the state of focussing and forming an extremely high density image which could not be obtained by the conventional methods.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning optical equipment such as image forming equipment to scan a recording member such as photosensitive member by a flying spot coming from laser etc., particularly to a scanning optical equipment with stable spot diameter.
2. Related Background Art
With the conventional laser beam printer which employs electronic photosensitizer or silver salt photosensitizer, it has been customary that the state of formation of beam spot image on the photosensitive member is observed by guiding the beam to the photoelectric conversion device via a reflective mirror placed at a part on the line of laser scanning and based on the results of such observation, the state of formation of beam spot image on the photosensitive member is adjusted (for example, Japanese application Laid-Open No. 61-275868).
There was also a type where a reflective mirror is placed at outside the photosensitive member on the laser beam scanning line and thus the state of formation of beam spot image is observed in the same way (Japanese patent publication No. 60-9243).
However with such conventional equipments, the state of formation of beam spot image on the photosensitive member is observed not by directly detecting the beam from the photosensitive member but by what may be called an indirect mimetic method.
On the other hand, in recent years, with the rapid dissemination of desk top publishing, a higher picture quality is demanded to the laser beam recording. However according to the aforesaid conventional method, it has been known that there is certain limitation to the increase of resolution which is at around 400 dpi (dot per inch) to 600 dpi and to obtain the resolution of for example 1200 dpi or 2500 dpi responding to such demand for higher picture quality, other method of observation is believed to be necessary.
Now therefore, to solve the aforesaid problem, the objective of the present invention is to provide the scanning optical equipment which is so composed that the state of focussing of the spot on the irradiated member such as photosensitive member is directly detected.
In order to achieve the aforesaid objective, the scanning optical equipment of the present invention is provided with the spot detecting means which detects the state of focussing of the scanning beam on the scanned surface of the photosensitive member etc. by receiving the scanning beam having scanned the objective surface of photosensitive member etc. and the control means to control the state of focussing of the said scanning beam in response to the output signal emitted by the detecting means.
In the case of the aforesaid scanning optical equipment, the spot detecting means to observe the spot of the scanning beam to be focussed on the irradiated member such as photosensitive member is provided and therefore the state of focussing of the spot on the irradiated member is detected directly and with certainty and consequently such state of focussing can be precisely controlled.


Disclosed herein is a disk drive in which servo-sector addresses are reproduced from a disk, a target data sector to be accessed is specified, and data is read from or written in the target data sector. The servo-sector addresses are recorded on the disk and randomized in accordance with a specific translation rule, thus arranged in an order different from the order they should be arranged in the same cylinder. The disk drive has a read head and a CPU. The head reads the randomized servo-sector addresses from the disk. The CPU refers to a back translation table, translating the servo-sector addresses back to the original servo-sector addresses. The CPU then checks the continuity of each servo-sector address with respect to the adjacent ones. If the servo-sector address has have no continuity, the CPU determines that the servo-sector address has an error.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a system for randomizing sector addresses, which is designed for use in, particularly, a hard disk drive and which efficiently detect errors in servo-sector addresses for identifying the servo sectors provided on a disk.
A hard disk drive (HDD) has a plurality of disks used as data storage media. A number of concentric tracks (also called xe2x80x9ccylindersxe2x80x9d) are provided on each disk. Each track consists of sectors of two types, i.e., servo sectors and data sectors. On the servo sectors, servo data is recorded. On the data sectors, user data is recorded. The servo sectors are arranged in the track, equidistantly spaced part from one another. Each servo sector has two recording areas for recording a cylinder address and servo burst data. (The cylinder address is used to identify the track, and the servo burst data represents burst patterns.) The data sectors are provided among the servo sectors. More precisely, one data sector or a few data sectors are arranged between two adjacent servo sectors. Some of the data are divided, each into two or more sub-data sectors, each of which is arranged between two adjacent servo sectors.
The HDD has a head, which is moved to a target position (or a target cylinder) over the disk in accordance with the cylinder address and the servo burst data. Each servo sector has another area, in which the servo-sector address (also known as xe2x80x9csector addressxe2x80x9d for short) is recorded. After the head has been positioned at the target track, the servo-sector address is used to designate a target sector at which data accessing will be performed. Thus, on each disk, the data sectors take specific positions with respect to the servo sectors. In the HDD, each data sector is identified by decoding the sector address recorded in the servo sector that corresponds to the data sector.
The servo data including the sector address is reproduced from a read signal read by the head. (The head is a read head which is either an MR head or a GMR head.) The servo data may not be reproduced correctly if the read signal is superimposed with noise or the like. If the servo-sector, in particular, is not correctly produced, data accessing may be performed at a wrong data sector. This is why the HDD recently developed has the function of checking the continuity of servo-sector addresses to determine whether the servo-sector address read is correct or not. More specifically, to access the data sector having the servo-sector address xe2x80x9c38,xe2x80x9d the HDD checks the servo-sector addresses xe2x80x9c36,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c37xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c38,xe2x80x9d one after another in the order mentioned. The use of any servo-sector address incorrectly reproduced due to the noise in the read signal supplied from the head is, therefore, prevented. The checking of the continuity of servo-sector addresses can effectively determine whether the servo-sector address read is correct or not, particularly when the noise influencing the serve-sector address is random noise.
One of the means used in the recent HDDs to accomplish high-density recording is a read/write head that has an MR (Magnetorisistive) head or a GMR (giant MR) head used as the read head. The read head can indeed excel in reproduction characteristic. However, as is known in the art, the magnetic sensitivity of its MR element abruptly changes, inevitably generating irregular noise called xe2x80x9cBarkhausen noise,xe2x80x9d and the read signal, i.e., the output signal, will be superimposed with this noise.
Unlike random noise, this noise is generated, depending on the waveform of the read signal. That is, the noise appears at specific positions of the signal waveform, though not always. Hence, the checking of the continuity of servo-sector addresses, described above, cannot always determine whether the servo-sector address read is correct, when the noise influencing the servo-sector address is Barkhausen noise, not random noise.
Assume that each servo-sector address is a data pattern composed of six bits 0 to 5, and that Barkhausen noise regularly appears at bit 5, or a specific position in the data pattern. If this happens, the servo-sector addresses xe2x80x9c3,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c4xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c5xe2x80x9d (or 000011, 000100 and 000101 in binary notation) will change to utterly different addresses xe2x80x9c35,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c36xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c37xe2x80x9d (100011, 100100 and 100101), respectively. In other words, if a reading error is regularly made (in bit 5 only, in this instance), the checking of the continuity of servo-sector addresses can no longer determine whether the servo-sector address read is correct or not. As a consequence, the data to be recorded in the data sector having the sector address xe2x80x9c38,xe2x80x9d for example, is inevitably recorded in the data sector having the sector address xe2x80x9c6.xe2x80x9d In summary, a specific bit of each sector-sector address will change, causing reproducing errors, if noise such as Barkhausen noise regularly appears at the specific bit of the servo-sector address. It is therefore impossible to determine whether the servo-sector address read is correct even if the continuity of servo-sector addresses is checked, and data accessing is performed at a wrong data sector.
The object of the present invention is to provide a disk drive in which it can be determined whether the servo-sector address read is correct, merely by checking the continuity of servo-sector addresses, even if an error may regularly occur at a specific one of the bits of each servo-sector address.
A disk driver according to the invention comprises: a disk on which a plurality of concentric cylinders are provided, each cylinder having servo sectors equidistantly arranged in circumferential direction of the cylinder, servo sectors including at least one data sector each and respectively having sector addresses recorded and randomized in accordance with specific translation rule; a head for reading the sector addresses from the servo sectors provided and reading and writing data from and in the data sectors; address generating means for translating the sector addresses read from the servo sectors by the head, back to the sector addresses specific to the servo sectors; and read/write means for designating a target servo sector by using the sector address of the target servo sector and causing the head to read and write data from and in the data sector provided in the target servo sector.
The sector addresses recorded on the same cylinder provided on the disk are translated to randomized ones, i.e., sector addresses that are not sequentially arranged in the initial order, in accordance with the prescribed rule. Thus, the servo-sector addresses have no continuity even if regular error occurs at a specific bit of each servo-sector address. The sector addresses arranged sequentially and reproduced from the disk differ from one another. Hence, the servo-sector addresses, back-translated by the address generating means, have no continuity. As a result, whether the reproduced sector addresses have an error or not can be reliably determined by checking the continuity of the back-translated sector addresses. In other words, the authenticity of the sector addresses can be determined. This prevents data from being recorded in a wrong data sector designated by an incorrect sector address.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.

Method and apparatus for randomizing sector addresses in a disk storage device


An emitter structure for a field emission display includes: a substrate (100) having a top surface; an address line (142) embedded in the substrate (100) and having an upper surface substantially coplanar with the top surface of the substrate (100); and an emitter site (152) having an emitter (154) superjacent to the top surface of the substrate (100) apart from the address line (142) and having a contact (153) having a first portion coupled to the emitter (142) and a second portion coupled to the address line (142). The substrate (100) may further include a base layer (110), and a dielectric layer (120), and the contact (153) may further act as a resistor to limit the current to the emitter (154).

Field emission displays ("FEDs") are flat panel displays for use in computers, television sets, instrument displays, camcorder view finders and a variety of other applications. FEDs generally have a face plate with a substantially transparent anode covering an inner surface of a glass panel and a cathodoluminescent film covering the anode. FEDs also have a baseplate with an emitter substrate and an extraction grid. FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a conventional FED baseplate 20 with an emitter substrate 30 that carries a plurality of emitters 32. The emitter substrate 30 also carries a dielectric layer 40 with a plurality of cavities 42 around the emitters, and the dielectric layer 40 supports a conductive extraction grid 50 with a plurality of holes 52 over the emitters 32. The cavities 42 and the holes 52 expose the emitters 32 to the face plate (not shown).
FIG. 2 is a top schematic view of the baseplate 20 that illustrates one technique for extracting electrons from selected emitters. The emitters 32 may be grouped into discrete emitter sets 33 configured in rows (e.g., R.sub.1 -R.sub.3) and columns (e.g., C.sub.1 -C.sub.2). A number of high-speed row interconnects 60 on the extraction grid 50 commonly connect a plurality of emitter sets 33 along row address lines, and a number of high-speed column interconnects 70 on the emitter substrate 30 commonly connect emitter sets 33 along column address lines. As best shown in FIG. 1, the row interconnects 60 are formed on top of the extraction grid 50 and the column interconnects 70 are formed on top of the emitter substrate 30 and beneath the extraction grid 50. It will be appreciated that the row and column assignments illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 are for illustrative purposes only, and that other row/column assignments may be implemented in field emission displays.
To operate a specific emitter set 33, drive circuitry (not shown) generates row and columns signals along the coordinates of the specific emitter set 33 to create a voltage differential between the extraction grid and the specific emitter set. Referring to FIG. 2, for example, a row signal along row R.sub.2 of the extraction grid 50 and a column signal along column C.sub.1 of the emitter substrate 30 activates the emitter set 33 at the intersection of row R.sub.2 and column C.sub.1. The voltage differential between the extraction grid 50 and the selected emitter set 33 produces a localized electric field that extracts electrons from the emitters 32 in the selected emitter set. The anode on the face plate then attracts the extracted electrons across a vacuum gap between the extraction grid and the cathodoluminescent layer. As the electrons strike the cathodoluminescent layer, light emits from the impact site and travels through the anode and the display screen. The emitted light from each area becomes all or part of a picture element.
One manufacturing concern with FEDs is that it can be difficult to fabricate high-speed interconnects for the address lines in the baseplate. To form the interconnect 70, for example, a conductive layer is deposited onto the top of the substrate 30 prior to forming the emitters 32. The conductive layer is then patterned and etched to form the interconnect 70. The emitters 32 are subsequently constructed by depositing an emitter material on the substrate 30, patterning the emitter material, and then etching the emitter material with processes known in the art. The difficulty in fabricating the high-speed interconnects 70 arises because etching the metal layer is a dirty process that may befoul the substrate with contaminants. Even when the substrate is thoroughly cleaned, some of the contaminants may remain on the substrate and impair the performance of the baseplate.
Another manufacturing concern with FEDs is that the interconnects increase the difficulty of fabricating the extraction grid over the emitter substrate. The conventional interconnect 70 shown in FIG. 1 increases the step height over which the dielectric layer 40 and grid 50 must conform during the fabrication. Large step heights in the grid generally increase the complexity of planarizing the grid conductor during formation of the self-aligned holes over the emitters. Additionally, large step heights may also increase the complexity of depositing the dielectric and conductive layers, particularly in low temperature processes that do not have good conformal coverage over steep topographies. To avoid problems and defects produced by the increased complexity in depositing and planarizing the dielectric and conductive layers, the processes are generally slowed down to ensure that cracks do not form at large steps and that the baseplate is planarized to the correct endpoint. Reduced processing speeds increase the cost and difficulty in producing field emission displays. Also, even when great care is exercised in forming the extraction grid, large step heights may cause defects that impair the performance of the baseplate. Conventional interconnects, therefore, limit the ability to economically and reproducibly fabricate large quantities of field emission displays.

Conductive address structure for field emission displays


A geometry board having pegs arranged on its top face for the demonstration of planar geometric figures by stretching of elastic bands about the pegs. The disclosed board is of clear injection-molded plastic and has a square face with the pegs arranged in a grid on the face including along edges of the board. Pegs along the edges are in the shape of semi-cylinders and the arrangement is such that a pair of boards may be located side-by-side so that the semi-cylinders are paired up so that each pair of semi-cylinders forms a single cylinder. Pegs located at the corners of the board are in the shape of quarter-cylinders so that when four corner pegs are located at the center of four boards laid side-by-side the four quarter-cylinders form a singe cylinder. When four boards are assembled together a Cartesian coordinate system is obtain with x- and y-axes along adjacent edges of the boards and point (0,0) located at the intersection of all four boards. All four edges of the board have downwardly depending walls which are crenelated so as to be capable of accommodating edge pegs of an underlying board when boards are stacked one upon the other. Further, pairs of opposite walls extend outwardly and upwardly so as to form an upwardly open trough, which trough receives one of the downwardly depending walls of another board when the boards are assembled in side-by-side relationship so as to hold the boards together.

It is common in the field of education to use devices for demonstrating mathematical concepts. Well known for many years has been a familiar type of geometry board, the pegboard, having pegs arranged on its front or top face. Strings may be tied or elastic bands looped around a number of pegs to obtain various geometric figures such as a line, a triangle, a thombus, etc. and various combinations thereof.
In a classroom setting it may be desirable to have a children work individually or together in groups with these boards. As such, it is advantageous for a board to be adaptable for either usage.
A known board is of injection-molded plastic and has integrally molded pegs or posts arranged in a grid pattern across a sqaure face of the board. The board has a short wall surrounding the square face about the height of the pegs. Such a board is available in translucent material and can thus be used in conjunction with an overhead-type projector commonly used in classrooms for demonstrations to groups of people. A number of such boards can be stacked one atop the other to show a number of overlapping or transformed figures, etc.


A system and method for translating communications transmitted via a computer network from a first language to a second language, and particularly via the Internet is described. The communication is conveyed to a central translation site where it is translated and then conveyed to the destination site. In one preferred arrangement, the destination address for the communication includes a first level domain field, a second level domain field, and a username field which complies with the Internet Protocol. At the origination site, a translation address is concatenated onto the destination address so that the communication is delivered to the translation site before being delivered to the destination site. At the translation site the communication is translated from the first language into at least the second language to generate a translated communication. The address of the translation site is then removed from the destination address and the translated communication is conveyed via the computer network to arrive at the site designated by the destination address where it is received and reproduced in a humanly perceptible manner such that an intended recipient can comprehend the contents of the translated communication.

1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods for automatically translating messages from a first language to one or more different languages. More particularly, the present invention provides a system and method for translating messages transmitted via a computer network which is transparent to both the sender and recipient of the message.
2. The Background Art
Modern communications techniques now allow persons to convey information across the street or across the world nearly instantaneously. With land-based and wireless communication systems in place, real time communications can be transmitted from one location to another location almost anywhere in the world. Members of modern industrialized societies have come to expect instantaneous global communication of video, audio, and textual information from one location to another location.
With the widespread availability of worldwide communications it is possible to convey a communication across the globe in seconds but if the recipient does not understand the language of the communication, the recipient will likely not understand the communication for a period of time until the recipient obtains a translation thereof. Thus, the speed at which communications travel the globe is rendered ineffective by the differences in languages found throughout the world.
Importantly, the high cost and inconvenience of obtaining a translation may hinder the recipient of a message from obtaining a translation. In some cases, the recipient may even ignore a communication if in an unfamiliar language, even if the communication is important or one which will benefit the recipient. In such a situation, the sender or originator of the communication is also harmed since the sender is not provided any assurance that the recipient understands the communication once it is received. Moreover, due to political and legal requirements, some senders may be compelled to utilize a language which may not be understood by one or more recipients of a communication.
Under present circumstances, if a sender of a communication wishes to ensure that the recipient of a communication will understand the communication, the sender must ascertain the language or languages understood by the recipient or recipients, obtain translation(s) of the communication, and dispatch the translated communication(s) to the proper recipients. While all senders will find such tasks daunting, in the case of a communication which is to be dispatched to many recipients, each of whom understands a different language, the sender is faced with an unsettling task of obtaining numerous different translations and then dispatching the translated communications to the proper recipients.
As barriers to commerce erode, more people find a need or desire to communicate in a language other than their own. Such communications may be conveyed in text messages, in audio messages, or in audio/textual messages embedded in video messages. Business people, students, scientists, and all other members of a modern industrialized society can benefit from access to easy and convenient translation of their electronically transmitted communications.

System and method for transparent translation of electronically transmitted messages