An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a unit supporting member for supporting the image forming unit, and an exposure device, wherein the unit supporting member includes a first contact supporting portion for supporting the image forming unit, and a second contact supporting portion disposed on a downstream side of the first contact supporting portion in a taking out direction of the image forming unit with a step portion. The image forming unit includes a first contact supported portion contacting and being supported by the first contact supporting portion, a second contact supported portion contacting and being supported by the second contact supporting portion, and a cleaner for cleaning the exposure device. Because the cleaner cleans the exposure device when the image forming unit is taken out from the unit supporting member, light from the exposure device is surely radiated to an image carrier surface.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
2. Background of Related Art
Image forming apparatuses such as printers, facsimile machines, and photocopiers, inter alia printers, in prior art are provided with such as, e.g., image forming units, LED (Light Emitting Diode) heads serving as exposure devices, transfer rollers, fixing devices, and paper cassettes. The image forming units are disposed detachably to the printer body or the apparatus body, being equipped with such as, e.g., photosensitive drums, charge rollers, developing rollers, developing blades, toner supply rollers, cleaning blades, and toner cartridges. Toners are contained in the toner cartridges, respectively, and paper is contained in the respective paper cassettes.
In such an image forming unit, the LED head exposes a surface of the photosensitive drum charged uniformly with the charge roller to form electrostatic latent images. The toner supplied in the image forming unit body from the toner cartridge is further supplied to the developing roller with a toner supply roller, thereby forming a thin toner layer on the developing roller by the developing blade. The toner on the developing roller is attached to the electrostatic latent images on the photosensitive drums to form toner images on the photosensitive drums by developing the electrostatic latent images.
The paper fed out from the paper cassette is conveyed between the photosensitive drum and the transfer roller, and the toner image is transferred onto the paper with the transfer roller. The paper is fed to the fixing device, and the toner image is fixed to the paper at the fixing device. The images are thus formed, and the paper subject to printing is ejected from the apparatus body.
The LED head includes such as, e.g., a substrate, an LED array made of plural LED elements and attached to the substrate in extending in an axial direction of the photosensitive drum, and lens arranged between the LED array and the photosensitive drum in extending in an axial direction of the photosensitive drum. Where the LED head is driven and where the respective LED elements are selectively emitted, the respective rays according to light emission are focused by the lens to form the electrostatic latent images upon radiation to the surface of the photosensitive drum (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-88,384 (A1)).
With the prior art printer, however, the toner may attach to the LED head to make the lens surface dusty during the printing operation, so that electrostatic latent images may not be formed accurately where rays according to the LED elements' light emissions are not radiated properly onto the surface of the photosensitive drum, and so that the printer may resultantly suffer from inferior image quality.
It is an object of the invention to provide an image forming apparatus solving above problems on prior art printers, being capable of cleaning the exposure device of the image forming apparatus, and preventing the image quality of the image forming apparatus from becoming inferior.

Image forming apparatus having an image forming unit arranged detachably to an apparatus body and having an image carrier, an exposure device, arranged in the apparatus body, for exposing the image carrier, and a cleaner for cleaning the exposure device


Provided are methods and systems for flagging security threats in web service requests. Specifically, a method for flagging security threats in web service requests can include receiving a request addressed to an addressee. The method can further include analyzing the request based on at least one security signature. The method can continue with determining a threat level associated with the request. The determination can be carried out based on the analysis. The method can further include creating a flag corresponding to the threat level. The method can further include inserting the flag into a network packet associated with the request, thereby creating a modified request. The method may further include sending the modified packet to the addressee. An application associated with the addressee can be operable to selectively process the request based on the threat level.

The approaches described in this section could be pursued but are not necessarily approaches that have previously been conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
In a secured data network, a service request is subjected to a security check. If a service request matches a threat signature, also referred to as a security signature, the request can be denied or discarded. Using this approach, the request cannot reach an intended application, thereby preventing a possible security threat. Examples of such threats include Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, web site phishing, email virus, zero-day attack, and many others. Typically, security systems are implemented on a network device, such as a switch, a router, a load balancer, or a network appliance within a data network.
However, security signatures are not fool proof. There are false positive situations where a proper service request is falsely identified as a threat when the service request matches a security signature. Due to the security system's strict denial policy, the benign service request may never reach the intended server no matter how many times a user tries to resend the same service request. The user would believe, upon failure of the service request, that the network session or the service request is unavailable. Therefore, it is desirable to mark the network session or the service request with a threat level without blocking or denying the network session or service request.

Flagging security threats in web service requests


In a light deflector including a polygon mirror having a plurality of reflecting surfaces; and a motor configured to rotate the polygon mirror, each of the reflecting surfaces, which has leading and trailing edges with respect to a direction of rotation of the polygon mirror and a center between the two edges, is configured to curve with the center displaced with respect to a reference straight line passing through the two edges in a plane perpendicular to an axis of rotation of the polygon mirror, radially, to a first side under a non-operating state in which the motor is not in operation, and to a second side (opposite to the first side) under a first rotating state in which progress of deformation of each of the reflecting surfaces has converged after a lapse of a first period of time from a start of rotation of the motor.

A polygon mirror arranged to receive a light flux emitted from a light source and configured to reflect and deflect the light flux is known in the art. Such a polygon mirror is subject to change in shape between a non-operating state and a stably-operating state which is brought about after operation for a predetermined period of time and in which the shape has been stabilized, due to centrifugal force produced by its spinning motion. Defocusing due to such change in shape may be corrected by providing a surface that is slightly recessed in the non-operating state.
In general, determination of design specifications of the light deflector is based, for convenience, on the premise that the reflecting surfaces of the polygon mirror are flat; thus, in order to obtain performance according to the required design specifications, it is preferable that the reflecting surfaces of the polygon mirror under operating conditions for deflecting a light flux be as nearly flat as possible.

Light deflector and image forming apparatus including a rotating polygon mirror having displaceable reflecting surfaces


Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for backing up data through recordation and issuance of extended copy and media commands. One embodiment of the present invention can include a method for backing up data comprising, receiving one or more extended copy commands for a requested operation, receiving one or more media commands for the operation, recording the one or more media commands, recording the one or more extended copy commands and retrieving and issuing the recorded one or more extended copy commands and the recorded one or more media commands for the operation to perform the requested operation.

Businesses, governmental organizations and other entities are increasingly saving large volumes of data necessary for daily operations. In order to provide proper protection of data for business and legal purposes (e.g., to ensure quick recovery of data in the event of a disaster or to comply with document retention requirements), entities often back up data to a physical media, such as magnetic tapes, on a regular basis. Traditional backup systems placed an application server, backup server, source device, destination device and a local area network ("LAN") in the data path of backup operations. Under these systems, the LANs were becoming overburdened by the amount of data being copied. Often, the backup window (the period in which data unavailable for normal operations in order to permit backup) was too short to achieve a complete backup of data. Many entities have now implemented Storage Area Networks ("SAN") to relieve much of the burden of mass data storage and backup from the LAN, freeing the LAN for more immediate data storage and manipulation operations.
The T10/99-143r1, "Working Draft SCSI Extended Copy Command" (the "99-143r1 Draft") and NCITS T10 SPC-2 (SCSI Primary Commands-2) ("SPC-2") provide a mechanism for a computer backup application to delegate actual data movement to third party devices known as "copy manager devices" or "data mover devices". In addition to the extended copy commands, the backup application may issue media commands. For example, if either the source or destination of the extended copy command is a removable media device, then the backup application may first have to issue media commands to move the media to the proper position (e.g., to rewind the tape).
The copy manager devices move data from source devices to destination devices as designated by the backup application in "segment descriptors" which in part constitute the parameter list of an extended copy command. The copy manager devices translate the extended copy commands into a series of lower-level read/write commands and execute the lower-level commands. The extended copy command is often used to backup data from random access devices, such as hard drives, to sequential access devices, such as tape drives.
The execution of an extended copy command to backup data carried out over a SAN may fail because of problems with tapes, tape drives, tape libraries, and the transmission of data across the SAN. An attempt to recover from the failure may fail, because the data is no longer available. The data, for example, may have been modified before the recovery attempt, and no other copy of the data may be available. To recover from backup failures, some entities use disk to disk to tape backup mechanisms. Backup is first performed from primary disk storage to secondary disk storage and then from secondary disk storage to tape. The data in the secondary disk storage is preserved, at least until backup is successful. On the failure of an attempt to backup data from secondary disk storage to tape, the data is available unchanged for retrying the backup of the data. The use of disk to disk to tape backup mechanisms to provide guaranteed backup is relatively slow and inefficient in the use of space. The copying of data from primary disk storage to secondary disk storage adds considerably to the time required for backup. In addition, as successive backups are made, the copying of data from primary storage to secondary storage requires space for multiple copies of the data copied from primary disk storage. Further, restoration is a cumbersome process, requiring the copying of data from the tape to the secondary disk storage followed by the copying of the data from the secondary disk storage to the primary disk storage.

System and method for backing up extended copy commands


A airline travel supplier evaluation tool is provided which will allow companies to efficiently evaluate the value of preferred airline supplier scenarios and improve their negotiating position vis-à-vis their airline suppliers. The user of the software tool may choose which, if any, preferred supplier set is best given the user's preferences for such criteria including but not limited to saving money and/or saving travel time.

Airlines generally provide preferred pricing to corporate accounts in return for an expected level of revenue, segments or share of the corporation's expenditure on air travel. For example, the airline and corporation will enter into an agreement whereby the airline will provide the corporation a 10% discount on all airline tickets in return for a 35% share of the corporation's total spend on airline ticket purchases. This style of contract element is often referred to as a market share goal. Alternatively, the airline may agree to a predetermined discount if the corporation agrees to spend at least $2 million per year with the preferred airline. This style of contract element is often referred to as a revenue goal. A contract element requiring the corporation to fly a minimum number of segments in a time period is known as a segment goal.
A corporation participating in a preferred airline pricing program will typically receive a discount at the time of ticketing. For example, a $1,000 ticket will be discounted by 10% per the agreement, resulting in a $900 charge to the corporation. These discounts are known as front-end discounts, since they are given at the time of ticketing. Under a front-end discounting program, the airline must trust the corporate account to give the airline enough business to meet the revenue, segment or market share goal stated in the agreement. Alternatively, these discounts can be paid retroactively by the airline, in which case they are known as back-end discounts. Variations of these pricing agreements exist and are well known to the business travel community. Such variations include providing a flat fare for a specified city pair for a specified time period, or providing one free ticket in return for a predetermined number of purchased tickets, or payment of a predetermined amount in return for reaching a volume or market share goal. Most forms of a preferred pricing agreement can be converted to an equivalent discount; hence the term discount herein is meant to include these other forms of preferred pricing. A corporation's travel agent or travel manager is generally responsible for monitoring these agreements and reporting the corporation's compliance level to the airline. Should the corporation not meet the required goal(s), the airline typically has the right to rescind or modify the pricing agreement.
Some pricing agreements provided to a corporate airline customer can be very simple such as 15% off all fares anywhere the airline flies. However, the pricing can often be fairly complex, such as 23% off all transatlantic U.S. fares for trips that do not originate or terminate in Chicago or Dallas and are ticketed in Europe. To properly evaluate an airline's bid one must be able to apply each element of the bid to past or expected spend on the appropriate city pair, point of sale fare class and/or fare basis code, among other factors.
Typically, an airline that serves a significant portion of an account's air spend by virtue of having a hub airport near the account's primary originations and/or destinations will provide less aggressive discounts than will those airlines that would require the account's travelers to take significantly more one-stop flights. Consequently, the corporation may need to evaluate the cost of travel inconvenience associated with an airline's proposed pricing. Doing so would likely require at a minimum the comparison of the relevant airlines' flight schedule for potentially hundreds or thousands of city pairs.
It is also extremely rare for one airline to be able to serve all the destinations traveled to by a corporation's employees, so the corporation will typically negotiate pricing agreements with two or more airlines, such that most of the required destinations are covered. Those airlines which agree to provide a corporation with preferred pricing are known as preferred airlines and the corporation will instruct its employees to give these airlines preference when purchasing airline tickets.
When a corporation selects more than one preferred airline, and if the selected airlines offer significant overlapping coverage of the corporation's city pairs, the corporation will likely want to specify each airline's status among the set of preferred airlines. Note that the lack of a specified status likely implies either equal status, or the status may be obvious to those familiar with specific facts. Illustrative status levels are Primary, Co-primary, Secondary, Co-secondary, Tertiary, etc. These statuses are used to indicate to the airlines, travel agency and travelers which of the two or more competing preferred airlines should be given preference for the corporation's travel. Consequently, by designating an airline's status the corporation further influences the amount of business the airline should expect, and in turn the airline may modify its goals and discounts accordingly.
Typically, a preferred airline will include some form of goal, commensurate to some extent with the amount of business the airline expects or wishes to receive from the corporation, and which the corporation must likely meet in order to continue the benefit of the preferred pricing agreement. These goals often are such that a corporation cannot meet each preferred airline's goals, so that the corporation must choose a subset of the proposed pricing agreements, or negotiate new goals, or risk defaulting on one or more goals and thereby jeopardize one or more preferred pricing agreements.
Another problem with the evaluation of airline-nominated goals is that airlines use different methods for calculating their expected market shares at the city pair and system levels. Consequently, airlines are quite likely to disagree about what each airline's neutral (a.k.a. QSI, QSP or Fair) share is for a given city pair or a given account. Since these neutral market share estimates are the basis for most airlines' construction of pricing agreements, the differences often result in overlapping and inconsistent goals from the travel manager's perspective.
A key problem with the aforementioned business arrangement is the difficulty for a corporation to choose an appropriate set of preferred airlines. In order to make an informed decision, the travel manager should want to evaluate the expected economic value of a reasonable number of alternative sets of preferred airline suppliers using various assumptions (a set may contain one or more airlines and/or one or more assumptions). These sets are referred to as scenarios. Note that even if a travel manager could determine which set of preferred suppliers would likely cost the least, he/she may wish to consider many other factors before selecting a set of preferred airlines, including such factors as carrier reputation and quality of service, likely traveler inconvenience, other business relationships between the corporation and the airline(s), attitude and flexibility of the carrier's sales people, etc.
To illustrate the problem of making an informed economic evaluation of alternative sets of airline suppliers, suppose a corporation receives four bids on its North American travel spend. The term travel spend is herein defined as the amount of money spent annually on airline ticket purchases. The corporation has listed 200 city pairs (which are traveled between by its employees), as well as provided the number of trips and dollars spent traveling on each city pair. Airline A bids a 15% discount on all North American fares; Airline B bids a 17% discount on all North American fares, except the non-refundable fares, which it will discount 10%; Airline C bids a 10% discount on all fares anywhere in North America, unless the trips start or end in Newark, Cleveland or Houston, in which case the discounts on full fares will be 5%, and 0% for all other fares; and Airline D bids a 20% discount on all fares for travel between any city pair that does not start or end in Atlanta. If the travel does start or end in Atlanta, the discount is 12% for all fares except those in the K and L fare classes, for which the discount will be 7%.
Further, each airline has set fairly aggressive market share goals for most of the 200 city pairs. For example, for the city pair Cleveland-Atlanta, assume Airline A wants 30%, Airline B wants 45%, Airline C wants 65% and Airline D wants 70%. Consequently, many of the city pairs may have market share goals that, when added across all of the airlines, add to far more than 100%.
In the aforementioned example, the corporation's travel manager will typically want to pick the two, or possibly three airlines that will provide broad coverage of the corporation's 200 city pairs, while considering the overlap of the bidding carriers' routes, the travel inconvenience caused by taking less convenient flights, and the savings provided by the selected airlines' discount structure. The travel manager will probably not want to name all four carriers as preferred airlines because this will likely limit the travel manager's ability to concentrate travel purchases in return for better discounts, as well as limit his/her ability to deliver the market share required by each of the preferred airlines, and therefore put the corporation's discounts at risk.
Evaluating the economic value of even a small set of preferred airlines requires significant analysis. For example, even if an airline clearly offers the largest discount, it may serve only a small portion of the corporation's city pairs. Or, it may turn out that Airline A and Airline B both serve the majority of the corporation's city pairs, but overlap to a high degree, so that one airline should be chosen over the other.
Another significant consideration is the status of each preferred airline. The economic evaluation of considering Airline A as the corporation's primary preferred airline paired with Airline B as the secondary preferred airline will likely differ significantly from that found by evaluating Airline A as the primary preferred airline and paired with Airline D as the secondary preferred airline. It is apparent that there are many potential combinations of preferred airlines that a travel manager may wish to evaluate. Thus, the basic dilemmas facing a travel manager during airline negotiations are being able to 1) realistically estimate the range of business that his/her corporation can give to an airline, and 2) decide which set of preferred airlines to put under contract.
Therefore, it is desirable that the travel manager have a reasonable estimate of the range of business the corporation can provide any specific airline, together with the supporting details of city pair market shares, revenues and segments associated with each level of overall revenue. Further, it is desirable that the travel manager be able to accurately evaluate each airline's pricing proposal, as well as be informed of the incremental cost or benefit associated with any change in the travel time required to fulfill the scenario.
However, formulating these estimates depend on a number of factors in addition to the flight schedules of the airlines. Factors such as the strength of the corporation's travel policy and its enforcement, each airline's popularity with the corporation's travelers, the airline's status and the travelers' sensitivity to additional travel time should preferably be considered.
In order to rigorously prepare for negotiations with multiple airlines, a corporation would preferably assess a range of likely outcomes by articulating and testing a reasonable number of scenarios. Scenario herein means a prospective set of preferred airlines, together with assumptions about the corporation's ability to move market share to or from any specific airline. Each scenario preferably includes a viable set of preferred airlines, and together the scenarios should represent a reasonable range of preferred airline sets. The benefit of using scenario analysis is that it can reasonably quantify each airline's expected market share and revenue, which in turn can be used to assess the economic value of the scenario to the corporate airline customer. The benefit of scenario analysis to an airline is that it shows the airline the realistic range of revenue it might receive from the corporate airline customer, depending on whether the airline is selected as a preferred carrier or designated some other carrier status.
In view of the above challenges for analyzing potential airline supplier options and negotiating preferred pricing agreements, it is desirable to provide an airline travel supplier analysis system and method for associating complex sets of information necessary for assessing the economic value of a group of airline supplier scenarios. It is further desirable to provide a system and method for analyzing this information for each scenario and generating quantitative information relating to the expected travel volumes and costs of traveling in accordance with each scenario's parameters.
In view of the above, an object of the invention is to utilize the following factors to estimate an airline's scenario market share, and therefore segments and revenue, for each city pair: travel policy factor; airline sales factor; airline status factor; equipment factor and incremental travel time factor.
Another object of this invention is to provide a software tool for rapidly and rigorously calculating the economic value of an airline's current or proposed price agreement.
Another object of the invention is to provide a software tool for calculating the amount of hours spent traveling for each scenario and allow the user to take the value of this time into account when choosing a set of preferred airlines.
Another object of the invention is to provide a software tool that allows an account or airline to set one or more indexed goals that accommodate changes in the airline's flight schedules and/or the account's travel pattern.

Tool for analyzing corporate airline bids


A data transmitting method, a data receiving method, a terminal device, and a network device are provided. The method includes: determining, by a terminal device, a target resource based on a time index and/or configuration information; and transmitting, by the terminal device, data to a network device on the target resource. The terminal device can control resource granularity of the target resource to meet transmission requirements of the terminal device, and can further avoid an actual data transmission process from occurring only on a same frequency domain resource and can further improve the frequency diversity gain in the non-slot transmission. In addition, randomness of interference can be enhanced as much as possible to avoid a same user from always or frequently being in conflict, so when a DMRS of the terminal device conflicts with that of other terminals, performance of user identification can be effectively improved.

At present, inter-slot and intra-slot frequency hopping are introduced in fifth-generation mobile communication technology (5-Generation, 5G) New Radio (NR) systems. In addition, intra-slot frequency hopping has been sufficiently discussed, but basically there is no clear conclusion or inter-slot frequency hopping. Therefore, current intra-slot frequency hopping is not able to work.
In addition, Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communication (URLLC) is also introduced in 5G. This communication service is characterized by achieving ultra-reliable (e.g., 99.999%) transmissions within extreme delays (e.g., 1 ms). To achieve this goal a concept of grant free is proposed. Grant free uses a pre-configured/semi-persistent resource allocation mode, and a terminal can transmit on configured resources according to service needs. This technology avoids a process of schedule request (SR) and buffer status report (BSR), which increases effective transmission time of the terminal.
However, in a grant free transmission, a location where a user initiates a transmission is flexible, including starting at a determined location and a random location. Due to starting at a random location, an access user is not controllable, so the problem of interference by the access user also needs to be considered in the design of frequency hopping. For example, if a terminal device uses a non-slot transmission, as shown in FIG. 1, the actual transmission of the terminal may only occur on a same frequency domain resource. Frequency diversity gain cannot be guaranteed to be obtained in the non-slot transmission. As a result, transmission resources of multiple terminals overlap, thereby causing user conflicts.

Data transmitting method, data receiving method, terminal device, and network device

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.


A method to limit surface zone recrystallization in a superalloy article includes limiting recrystallization in a surface zone of a superalloy article by treating the superalloy article in an oxygen-containing environment to introduce oxygen into the surface zone in an amount sufficient to pin any new grain boundaries in the surface zone.

This disclosure relates to superalloy components, such as components that are used in turbine engines.
Superalloy materials, such as nickel or cobalt-based superalloys, are known and used to fabricate components that are subject to severe operating environments. As an example, airfoils that are used in the high temperature section of gas turbine engines may be made of superalloy material. The superalloy material is typically cast into the desired shape and subjected to post-cast processing steps, such as grinding, polishing and grit blasting, to finish the component.

Method for limiting surface recrystallization


The invention relates to a photographic element comprising a paper base, at least one photosensitive silver halide layer, a layer of polymer sheet between said paper base and said silver halide layer, incorporating a thin tinted polymer layer directly below said silver halide layer.

In the formation of color paper it is known that the base paper has applied thereto a layer of polymer, typically polyethylene. This layer serves to provide waterproofing to the paper, as well as providing a smooth surface on which the photosensitive layers are formed. The formation of a suitably smooth surface is difficult requiring great care and expense to ensure proper laydown and cooling of the polyethylene layers. It would be desirable if a more reliable and improved surface could be formed at less expense.
In photographic papers the polyethylene layer also serves as a carrier layer for titanium dioxide and other whitener materials as well as tint materials. It would be desirable if the colorant materials rather than being dispersed throughout the polyethylene layer could be concentrated nearer the surface of the layer where they would be more effective photographically.
Prior art photographic materials have suggested coextruded layer coatings on paper base that are thicker and/or more concentrated with titanium dioxide (TiO.sub.2) and colorants than monolayers. Other high refractive index materials like zinc oxide or other finely divided solids are also used. In general, these improvements are costly and processing and coating these concentrated layers create manufacturing problems with specks, lines and surface disruptions. The highly loaded layers deteriorate the strength property of the coatings and may result in poor adhesion to the base paper or to the image bearing emulsion layer. Also, the coating speed of these layers may be lower.
The details of an invention and a description of the problems encountered with highly loaded coextruded layers is recorded in U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,519.
It has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,861 to utilize biaxially oriented polypropylene in receiver sheets for thermal dye transfer. As will be shown, these materials appear to have very unique abilities to optimize thin layers for improved colorimetric performance.
An example of coextruded thin layer technology improvements and limitations is explained in U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,708 where it is proposed that sharpness improvements in photographic systems can be achieved by an untinted, unpigmented thin skin made to be used under a light sensitive emulsion. A crude correlation is made suggesting that, if the limits of coextrusion technology are pushed to the maximum, a clear layer of thickness as low as 1.5 micrometers is the optimum for optical photographic response.

Imaging element with thin biaxially oriented color layer


In magnetic resonance apparatus, particularly magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, it is found that magnetic resonance signals generated in an alias region (D) will be aliased into the signals received by the primary receive coil (4) from the desired signal region (A-B). An additional receive coil 5 is provided to receive the signals from the alias region, and processing means (6) reduces the effect of these alias signals on the resulting desired data.

This invention relates to magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus. The invention is especially concerned with the reduction of artefacts caused by so-called xe2x80x9caliasingxe2x80x9d in magnetic resonance images in magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, and the reduction of artefacts caused by aliasing in magnetic resonance spectroscopy apparatus.
Magnetic resonance apparatus comprises a magnet for producing a main magnetic field to align magnetic resonant active nuclei such as hydrogen in tissue in a patient, and radio frequency excitation means such as a radio frequency coil to excite these nuclei to resonance. The resulting relaxation signals generated by the nuclei are picked up by a receive coil or coils, which may be separate from the transmit coil or may be one and the same coil(s). The signals provide information on the distribution of the nuclei and hence information about the tissue itself. Spatial information on the distribution of the nuclei, in magnetic resonance imaging, is obtained by spatially encoding the MR signal by means for generating magnetic field gradients.
In any magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, the region selected for imaging is within the region of good field produced by the magnetic system. The requirements for the region of good field is that the field of the main magnet must be homogeneous to a very high degree, and the magnetic field gradients imposed on the main field must be uniform to a very high degree.
Thus, referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, in one design of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, the magnet 1 receives patients on a couch 2 into a cylindrical bore 3, and the region of good field extends between radial planes A and B.
In the case of a radial slice being imaged, the particular slice which is selected is determined by the frequency of the radio frequency excitation pulse, which excites nuclei precessing at a certain frequency. The frequency at which the nuclei precess is dependent on the magnetic field strength. For example, in FIG. 1, the axial gradient results in the magnetic field strength increasing (in a linear manner) in an axial direction from A to B. Unfortunately, where the gradient field and the main magnetic field strength fall off, the resultant magnetic field will pass through the same values as over the linear region. Thus, the region D is subject to the same magnetic field strength as the slice B. When slice B is excited, region D will also be excited, and a certain amount of the MR signal generated in region D will be picked up by the radio frequency coil 4 and be processed as if it had been generated by the selected slice B.
This is the problem referred to as aliasing, and is responsible for generating artefacts in the image produced by the MRI apparatus. This is a particular problem with shorter magnets, which have been proposed to reduce problems of claustrophobia, because the fall off now takes place closer to the region of good field than hitherto. Hence, it is more difficult to arrange that no part of the patient lies in the alias region during imaging.
Various proposals have been made to alleviate this problem of aliasing. Thus, it has been proposed to shield alias regions such as D in FIG. 2 from the excitation pulse generated by the radio frequency coil 4, but this requires the use of a separate shield. It has been proposed (British patent application no. 98 11445.7) to use an array of transmitting coils to generate a radio frequency excitation pulse which collapses in the region D.
Arrays of coils have been used before as transmitting or receive radio frequency coils and, it has been proposed (British patent application no. 98 28428.4) to use an array of receive coils in the region of good field (from A to B) in order to reduce the number of slice encode steps which would otherwise be needed to distinguish between different simultaneously excited radial slices.
The invention provides magnetic resonance apparatus, comprising means for producing a main magnetic field and a magnetic field gradient in a desired signal region, radio frequency means for exciting magnetic resonance in a volume of the desired signal region, a primary radio frequency receive coil for receiving MR signals from the desired signal region, an additional radio frequency receive coil for receiving MR signals from an alias region outside the desired excited volume, in which alias region the magnetic field has a value equal to that in the desired excited volume, and processing means for producing data from the desired excited volume which uses signals from the additional radio frequency receive coil as well as from the primary radio frequency receive coil in order to reduce artefacts caused by aliasing in the data produced from the desired excited volume.
The invention takes a different approach to that of shielding or nulling out the radio frequency signal in that a radio frequency coil is provided for collecting the alias signal, and the signal is then used to reduce the effect of aliasing on the desired data.
The present invention provides the foregoing and other features hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and accompanying drawings set forth certain illustrative embodiments of the invention. It is to be appreciated that different embodiments of the invention may take form in various components and arrangements of components. These described embodiments being indicative of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed. The drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating a preferred embodiment and are not to be construed as limiting the invention.

Anti-aliasing magnetic resonance device which reduces aliasing from regions outside of the excitation volume


A tool for installing a blind fastener including a core bolt and a core nut is provided. The tool includes a driving member, a collet driven by the driving member for engaging the core bolt, and an external sleeve for holding the core nut and preventing the core nut from rotating during installation of the blind fastener. The external sleeve is movable between a first position in which the external sleeve is driven by the collet to rotate with the collet and a second position in which the external sleeve is stationary despite rotating action of the collet.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
A blind fastener is typically used to secure multiple panels together and to be installed from one side (i.e., a front side) of the panels. The blind fastener may include a core bolt and a sleeve surrounding the core bolt, which are inserted into a hole of the panels. A portion of the sleeve adjacent to a rear side of the panel may be deformed during installation of the fastener. The deformed portion of the sleeve provides a bearing surface to induce preload in the fastener such that the panels can be clamped together.
After the deformed portion of the sleeve is formed, the core bolt may be rotated to provide a preload to the fastener. When the fastener is completely installed, a front portion of the core bolt may break off. Installing the blind fastener is time-consuming because installation of the fastener requires tightening the core bolt to deform the sleeve and breaking off portions of the core bolt and the core nut.

Automatic double-action fastener installation tool


Methods that include acquiring aerial images of a reticle for different values of a member of a set of lithographic variables are provided. One method also includes determining a presence of an anomaly in a design pattern of the reticle by comparing at least one pair of the aerial images corresponding to at least two of the different values. A different method includes comparing at least one pair of the aerial images corresponding to at least two of the different values and determining an area on the reticle where a lithography process using the reticle is most susceptible to failure based on the results of the comparison. Another embodiment includes determining a presence of transient repeating defects on the reticle by subtracting non-transient defects from the aerial images and comparing at least one pair of the aerial images corresponding to at least two of the different values.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the manufacture of microelectronic devices and, in particular, to a method of qualifying a pattern, patterning process, or patterning apparatus used in the fabrication of microlithographic patterns for producing microelectronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
The rapid decrease in k1 (line-width=k1 (λ/NA)) in lithographic manufacture of semiconductor devices has necessitated the use of Resolution Enhancement Techniques (RET). These RET include, but are not limited to, Optical Proximity Corrections (OPC), Phase Shift Masks (PSM), and assist bar corrections. Although they are implemented in semiconductor device designs to facilitate low k1 lithography, these RET make reticles more difficult and consequently more expensive to manufacture.
Semiconductor device design and reticle manufacturing quality are verified by different procedures before the reticle enters a semiconductor fabrication facility to begin production of integrated circuits. The semiconductor device design is checked by software simulation to verify that all features print correctly after lithography in manufacturing. The reticle is inspected at the mask shop for reticle defects and measured to ensure that the features are within specification. Marginal RET designs not noted by simulation checks translate into electrical failures in wafer fabrication, affect yield, and possibly remain unnoticed until wafer fabrication is complete.
Traditional methods employed in the inspection of complex mask patterns place tremendous demand on reticle inspection tools. One technique for performing image qualification entails using focus exposure matrix techniques. Performing an inspection of a conventional focus exposure matrix introduces a complication in that every exposure field is different. Die-to-die comparison is performed between adjacent local exposure fields. Any pattern change that may occur at a defocus position that is physically located farther than one exposure field from the nominal exposure field will not, therefore, be detected as different because the nominal exposure field is no longer factored in the comparison. Moreover, current reticle inspection techniques cannot detect the presence of an error in the design database. Prior art single die reticle inspection entails implementation of a design simulation technique in which a signal derived from an actual reticle is subtracted from a simulated design reference.
What is needed, therefore, is an inspection technique that is effective in locating pattern anomalies in a single die or a multi-die reticle and detecting reticle design errors resulting from errors in the design data base.

Qualifying patterns, patterning processes, or patterning apparatus in the fabrication of microlithographic patterns


The present invention relates to novel mutant thioesterase enzymes and naturally-occurring equivalents thereof, compositions made from such enzymes and uses of thioesterase enzymes. In particular, the present invention provides mutant thioesterase enzymes that have altered properties, for example, altered substrate specificity, altered activity, altered selectivity, and/or altered proportional yields in the product mixtures. The present invention also provides polynucleotides encoding such mutant thioesterase enzymes, and vectors and host cells comprising such polynucleotides. The invention further provides for novel uses of thioesterases in the production of various fatty acid derivatives, which are useful as, or as components of, industrial chemicals and fuels.

Developments in technology have been accompanied by an increased reliance on fuel and industrial chemicals from petrochemical sources. Such fuel sources are becoming increasingly limited and difficult to acquire. With the burning of fossil fuels taking place at an unprecedented rate, it is likely that the world's demand for fuel and petrochemical derived chemicals will soon outweigh current supplies.
As a result, efforts have been directed toward harnessing sources of renewable energy, such as sunlight, water, wind, and biomass. The use of biomass to produce new sources of fuel and chemicals which are not derived from petroleum sources (e.g., biofuel) has emerged as one alternative option.
Biofuel is a biodegradable, clean-burning combustible fuel which can be comprised of alkanes and/or esters. An exemplary biofuel is biodiesel. Biodiesel can be used in most internal combustion diesel engines in either a pure form, which is referred to as "neat" biodiesel, or as a mixture in any concentration with regular petroleum diesel or other biodiesels.
Biodiesel offers a number of beneficial properties compared to petroleum-based diesel, including reduced emissions (e.g., carbon monoxide, sulphur, aromatic hydrocarbons, soot particles, etc.) during combustion. Biodiesel also maintains a balanced carbon dioxide cycle because it is based on renewable biological materials. Biodiesel is typically completely biodegradable, and has good safety profile due to its relative high flash point and low flammability. Furthermore, biodiesel provides good lubrication properties, thereby reducing wear and tear on engines.
Current methods of making biodiesel involve transesterification of triacylglycerides from vegetable oil feedstocks, such as from rapeseed in Europe, from soybean in North America, and from palm oil in South East Asia. Industrial-scale biodiesel production is thus geographically and seasonally restricted to areas where vegetable oil feedstocks are produced. The transesterification process leads to a mixture of fatty esters which can be used as biodiesel, but also to an undesirable byproduct, glycerin. To be usable as biodiesel, the fatty esters must be further purified from the heterogeneous product. This increases costs and the amount of energy required for fatty ester production and, ultimately, biodiesel production as well. Furthermore, vegetable oil feedstocks are inefficient sources of energy because they require extensive acreage for cultivation. For example, the yield of biodiesel from rapeseed is only 1300 L/hectare because only the seed oil is used for biodiesel production, and not the rest of the rapeseed biomass. Additionally, cultivating some vegetable oil feedstocks, such as rapeseed and soybean, requires frequent crop rotation to prevent nutrient depletion of the land.
PCT Publication No. WO 2007/136762 discloses recombinant microorganisms that are capable of synthesizing products derived from the fatty acid synthetic pathway, including, inter alia, fatty acid esters and fatty alcohols. In particular, certain fatty acid derivatives are described having defined carbon chain length, branching and saturation levels. The '762 publication describes recombinant cells that utilize endogenous overexpression or heterologous expression of thioesterase proteins in the production of fatty acid derivatives.
PCT Publication No. WO 2008/119082 discloses genetically engineered cells and microorganisms that produce products from the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway, including, inter alia, fatty acid esters and fatty alcohols. The '082 publication describes recombinant cells that utilize overexpression of acyl-CoA synthetase enzymes to more efficiently produce fatty acid derivatives.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,955,329 discloses genetically engineered plant acyl-ACP thioesterase proteins having altered substrate specificity. In particular, the '329 patent discloses producing engineered plant acyl-ACP thioesterases, wherein the engineered plant acyl-ACP thioesterases demonstrate altered substrate specificity with respect to the acyl-ACP substrates hydrolyzed by the plant thioesterases as compared to the native acyl-ACP thioesterase.
While the prior art discloses certain useful disclosures regarding the production of certain fatty acid derivatives, a need exists in the field for improved methods and processes for more efficient and economical production of such fatty acid derivatives, and also for technology facilitating the production of compositions that have altered product specifications. As a specific example, a need exists for the production of fatty acid compositions having pre-designed, or "tailored," specifications and properties for particular applications such as fuels, detergents, lubricants, industrial precursor molecule and other valuable applications of fatty acid derivatives.

Methods and compositions related to thioesterase enzymes


A pipeline analog to digital converter that includes a main pipeline including a plurality of analog to digital converter stages and a shadow pipeline for compensating the output of the main pipeline. Each of the analog to digital converter stages in the main pipeline provides a digital output and an analog residue signal. The shadow pipeline includes one or more stages that receive at least one gain error signal from one of the analog to digital converter stages in the main pipeline. The shadow pipeline is configured and arranged to processes the gain error signal to form a compensation signal. The compensation signal is combined with the analog residue signal to provide a compensated residue signal in which the finite error gain has been substantially removed. Alternatively, the compensation signal may be converted into a digital format and combined with the digital output bits of one or more of the analog to digital converter stages in the main pipeline to provide a compensated digital output that has had substantially all of the gain error removed therefrom.

N/A
N/A
Pipelined analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are well known in the art. A typical pipelined ADC includes a plurality of ADC stages in which each ADC stage converts a portion of an analog input signal into one or more digital bits. The first ADC stage receives the analog input signal and provides two outputs, the first output includes one or more digital bits and the second output is an analog residue voltage. The one or more digital bits represent the portion of the analog input signal that has been converted into a digital format. The analog residue voltage represents the amount of the analog input signal remaining after the portion converted into the one or more digital bits by the ADC stage has been removed. Each subsequent ADC stage receives the analog residue voltage from the preceding ADC stage and converts a portion of it into one or more digital bits. The ADC stage then removes that portion converted into the digital format from the received input analog residue signal and provides an output analog residue signal to the next adjacent stage. Typically, the first ADC stage in a pipelined ADC provides the most significant bit(s) and the last stage provides the least significant bit(s). The digital bits from each ADC stage taken together represent the digital value of the input signal provided to the ADC.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical prior art pipeline ADC 100 having a main pipeline 101 that includes a plurality of N stages 102, 104, 106, 108, and 110. The first stage 102 receives an input signal, Vin, on input line 111. Each stage 102-110 provides one or more digital output bits on lines 103-111 respectively. Stage 108 is shown in more detail as an exemplary ADC stage.
Stage 108 includes a M-bit ADC 112 that receives the input signal Vin via line 109. The input signal Vin may be either the analog input signal or a residue signal from a preceding stage. The M-bit ADC 112 provides M-bits as an output digital signal on line 114. A M-bit digital-to-analog-converter 116 also reads the M-bit digital output and provides an analog voltage on line 117 that corresponds to the M-bit word provided by ADC 112. A subtraction module 119 subtracts the analog voltage on line 118 from the input voltage Vin on line 109. The resulting difference is the residue of the input signal remaining after the portion of the input voltage converted by the ADC stage 112 has been removed. An amplifier 120 amplifies the residue voltage, wherein the amplifier has a gain equal to 2M, or in some cases 2Mxe2x88x921. The amplified residue signal is provided to the next adjacent ADC stage in the pipeline via line 122.
In theory the pipelined ADC 100 should provide a nearly perfect digital representation of the input signal. However, in practice the components and amplifiers used in the pipelined ADC are not ideal. For example the operational amplifiers (op-amps) used in the amplifier modules in each ADC stage have a finite open-loop gain. Because of the finite gain, each amplifier module has a gain that is not 2M. Therefore, the residue signal provided by the amplifier will not accurately reflect the amount of the analog signal after the digitized portion has been removed therefrom. In addition to amplifying and promulgating the errors form preceding stages, each stage will also add a finite gain error to the overall error that will be further amplified by the down-stream amplifiers in the main pipeline as well.
FIG. 2 is a typical op-amp circuit configured and arranged to function as the amplifier 120 depicted in FIG. 1. The gain of the amplifier is given by:                               V          out                =                                                            V                in                            *              G                                      1              +                              G                A                                              ⇒                                    V              out                        ≈                                          V                in                            *                              G                                                  (                                      1                    -                                          G                      A                                                        )                                                                                (        1        )
Where the nominal gain of the amplifier, G, is equal to (C1+C2)/C2. As illustrated by equation (1) however the error term G/A reduces the actual gain of the amplifier. If the open-loop gain, A, is not large enough such that this error term is insignificant, then the actual gain of the amplifier stage will be smaller than expected. Consequently, the residue signal will be smaller than anticipated and each subsequent analog to digital conversion of the residue signal will result in an inaccurate output. As noted above, this inaccurate output will be amplified and promulgated by each subsequent ADC stage. Each ADC stage will also add to the overall error due to the finite gain errors inherent in each of the amplifier modules comprising the ADC stages. Therefore, as the residue signal propagates from stage to stage, the error from the upstream ADC stages is amplified and added to by each downstream ADC stage. Because of the size constraints and the processing required when making a pipelined ADC, the open loop gains of the op-amps often have a value of one-thousand (1000) or less and therefore the finite gain errors cannot be ignored.
Therefore it would be advantageous to provide a pipelined ADC that has reduced errors caused by the finite gain of the operational amplifiers used within the amplifier modules of the pipelined ADC.
A pipeline analog to digital converter that includes a main pipeline including a plurality of analog to digital converter stages and a shadow pipeline for compensating the output of the main pipeline. Each of the analog to digital converter stages in the main pipeline provides a digital output and an analog residue signal. The shadow pipeline includes one or more stages that receive at least one gain error signal from one of the analog to digital converter stages in the main pipeline. The shadow pipeline is configured and arranged to processes the gain error signal to form a compensation signal. The compensation signal is combined with the analog residue signal to provide a compensated residue signal in which the finite error gain has been substantially removed. Alternatively, the compensation signal may be converted into a digital format and combined with the digital output bits of one or more of the analog to digital converter stages in the main pipeline to provide a compensated digital output that has had substantially all of the gain error removed therefrom.
In one embodiment, a plurality of analog to digital converter stages in the main pipeline form a plurality of error correcting stages that provide one or more gain error signals to the shadow pipeline. The shadow pipeline processes the received gain error signals and provides a compensation signal. The compensation signal is combined with the analog residue signal to provide an input to a subsequent stage that is substantially free of finite gain error from the preceding amplifier stages.
In another embodiment, the shadow pipeline receives a plurality of gain error signals from a plurality of analog to digital converter stages and accumulates and processes these gain error signals to provide a compensation signal. The compensation signal may be combined with a corresponding analog residue signal to remove the finite gain error terms, or the compensation signal may be converted into a digital form and combined with the digital bits provided as outputs from one or more of the analog to digital converter stages in the main pipeline to remove the finite gain errors contained therein.

Correction of operational amplifier gain error in pipelined analog to digital converters


A projection type image display device provided with an unauthorized use preventing system includes a button unit or a remote controller for operating the display device, a condition memory for storing information indicating at least one use condition in an authorized use of the display device, a password memory for storing a password for releasing a restriction on the use of the display device, a detector for detecting a used condition of the display device at a power on timing, and a processor for imposing restrictions on the use of the display device when the use condition detected by the detector does not match the at least one use condition indicated by the information stored in the condition memory and for relieving the restriction based upon input of the password.

The present invention relates to a projection type image display device provided with an unauthorized use inhibiting mechanism. These days, uses of projection type image display devices inclusive of projectors are rapidly spreading in a variety of applications, such as presentation at conferences, lecturing in the fields of education, viewing films at home theaters, and so on. Because of the relative easiness of carrying the display devices, though they are expensive products, damages of theft of the display devices are tending to increase. As countermeasures against theft and unauthorized use of them, manufacturers are providing the products with such functions as to nullify changes made to settings and to lock the screen with use of password protection. An example of such art is disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2004-77967.
According to the above mentioned art disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2004-77967, a user at the time when starting up the device is requested to input his password and, only when the input password coincides with the password previously input by the rightful user, operation of the device is allowed and, thereby, unauthorized use of the device is prevented. However, it has been necessary even for a rightful owner of the device, when he uses the device, to input his password for verification of his ownership and therefore operation of the device has been very troublesome.


Methods and systems are disclosed for traversing a graph database. The graph database may be used for search for information for a variety of applications, a web search and dictionary look-ups for voice recognitions for examples. Issues on quickly traversing a graph in the graph database with highly connected entities (nodes) may be addressed by generating a subgraph upon a graph traversal for an entity and traversing the subgraph in subsequent occurrences of looking up the entity. The methods and systems are disclosed for updating the entity of the subgraph with a newer version of data of the corresponding entity of the graph when the data in the entity of the subgraph and the data in the graph are distinct. The differences of versions of data may be identified based on an availability status of data for versions of data and timestamps of last updates to data in the entity of the graph.

The demand for a higher performance in searching for information has become significant as more people search for and retrieve information from web search services that return search results based on a vast amount information over the Internet and other networks. There have been drastic increases in both a number of users of such services and in an amount information to be searched in response to queries. In a case of news aggregation services, for example, new information about facts and analyses may become available at any moment.
It is with respect to these and other general considerations that the aspects disclosed herein have been made. Also, although relatively specific problems may be discussed, it should be understood that the examples should not be limited to solving the specific problems identified in the background or elsewhere in this disclosure.


In an embodiment, a method includes authenticating a computing device and a different entity for a session of communication between the computing device and the different entity. The authenticating includes generating a hash of a value selected from the group consisting of an encrypted attribute associated with computing device stored in the computing device and the identification of the session stored in a protected storage within the computing device. The authenticating also includes encrypting a random number based on the hash. The authenticating includes transmitting the encrypted random number to the different entity.

In open network systems (such as the Internet), communication paths may be exposed to various attacks by malicious entities. Such attacks may include eavesdropping, spoofing, impersonation, etc. Communications by computing devices using these networks are therefore, also subject to these types of attacks.
Computing devices (both wired and wireless) are being used to perform different types of electronic commerce transactions over such networks. For example, mobile computing devices, such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc., are used to purchase and/or update the purchase of an electronic (e)-Ticket (for a music concert, an airline ticket, etc.). There are a number of challenging security requirements for such devices when supporting mobile eCommerce. One such requirement is authentication of the computing device and the operator/service provider. In particular, without physical access to the equipment of the operator/service provider, users of the mobile computing devices need to ensure that connection is being made to legitimate access points on the wireless network. In other words, the users of the mobile computing devices need to avoid connection to a "rogue" access point or mobile device that is set up as part of a man-in-the-middle attack.

Multi-authentication for a computing device connecting to a network


Compounds that are central nervous system drug candidates for the treatment of cognitive decline and, more particularly, Alzheimer's disease are provided. Methods of treating, inhibiting, and/or abatement of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease with a derivative of ginger oil are also provided. Also provided is a method of conditioning biological extracts, such as a medicinal plant extract, by a reductive amination process to give nitrogen-containing derivatives.

Cognitive decline, such as memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, personality changes, disorientation, and loss of language skills occurs in much of the population as they age, in varying degree. The most common, severe and irreversible form of cognitive decline is Alzheimer's disease, which, at present, is always fatal.
The symptoms of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease are thought to stem from the formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, which are thought to contribute to the degradation of the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain and the subsequent onset of symptoms. Amyloid is a general term for protein fragments that the body produces normally. Beta-amyloid is a fragment of a protein that is snipped from another protein called amyloid precursor protein (APP). In a healthy brain, beta-amyloid protein fragments are broken down and eliminated. In individuals with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of cognitive decline, the fragments accumulate to form hard, insoluble plaques. Neurofibrillary tangles are insoluble twisted fibers that are found inside of the brain's cells. The protein contained in neurofibrillary tangles, i.e., the tau protein, forms a microtubule, which helps transport nutrients and other important substances from one part of the nerve cell to another. In Alzheimer's disease the tau protein is abnormal and the microtubule structures collapse.
Beta-secretase is the enzyme in the human brain responsible for the production of Beta-amyloid, the pathogenic substance responsible for the formation of brain plaques and tangles in the Alzheimer's diseased brain. See, e.g., Citron et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA (1996) 93(23): 13170-13175. Beta-amyloid and its oligomers are also believed to be responsible for early cognitive decline in the pre-Alzheimer's diseased brain. Inhibition of beta-secretase would be expected to lessen beta-amyloid burden in the brain and thus slow cognitive decline, block the formation of amyloid oligomers, the production of plaques and tangles, halt neurodegeneration, and to potentially treat mild cognitive impairment and more serious forms of cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer's disease.
The gingerols are a series of natural small molecules isolated from ginger, Zingiber Officinale, and are classified according to their alkyl chain length e.g., [6]-gingerol, [8]-gingerol. Gingerols are known to be relatively unstable under both chemical and biological conditions, forming inactive substances. For example, the beta-hydroxycarbonyl function of the gingerols is vulnerable to oxidation or dehydration to form inactive products, and the gingerols are particularly prone to rapid dehydration under acidic conditions, such that even the pure substance is difficult to store for long periods. Further information on gingerols can be found in, for example, Deniff et al., J. Chem. Soc. Perkin I, 1981, 82-87; Mustafa, et al., J. Drug Dev., 1993, 6, 25-39; and Young-Joon et al., Life Sciences, 1994, 54, PL 321-326. Accordingly, simple oral dosing of the gingerols for medicinal action might not be possible due to the acidic environment of the stomach and upper intestinal tract. Further, chemical and biological instability is also likely to be a serious problem for intravenous doses. Accordingly, there is strong need to discover inhibitors of cognitive decline, and in particular, compounds that are useful in the treatment and abatement of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease, by methods such as inhibiting amyloid production, aggregation, and/or deposition (i.e., plaqing), inhibiting neuorodegeneration, and/or restoring long term potentiation. There is also a need for inhibitors of cognitive decline that are chemically and biologically stable.
Plants have attracted relatively little attention as potentially valuable resources for drug discovery in the area of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. The use of plant extracts to produce unnatural derivatives of compounds of medicinal interest is not generally used. Accordingly, there is also a need for a method of producing compounds of medicinal interest from plant extracts and extracts from other biological sources. In particular, there is also a need to produce and identify compounds derived from plant extracts that are useful in the treatment and abatement of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease.


A sugar cane milling system for two roll or three roll crushing mill modules in tandem in which one or more of these mill modules is provided in addition and adjacent to it with at least one toothed feeder roller and with a juice drainer in the form of a scraper-cum-short deflector for feeding a compact mat of prepared cane/bagasse directly to the nip of the crushing rolls of the modules. The prepared cane mat is fed approximately at the same speed as the surface speed of the crushing mill rolls without sharp changes in direction. Superficial juice is separated out as the cane mat is fed. A pressurized juice extracting conveyor is provided for removing the extra unabsorbed juice as well as squeezing out the absorbed juice out of cush-cush.

In the prior art, a sugar cane crushing mill comprises a two roll mill module consisting of a top roll and a feed roll or a three roll mill module consisting of a top roll, a feed roll and a discharge roll. These rolls are made of cast iron or cast steel and are provided with peripheral grooves. A plurality of these main crushing mill modules are provided in tandem forming the cane crushing mill.
The main drawbacks of these cane crushing mills are:
1. The bulk density of the prepared cane/bagasse being fed to the mills is very low. This results into a very low cane crushing rate of the mill. PA1 2. There is a slippage between the cane/bagasse and rolls resulting in higher frictional losses and thus, besides low cane crushing rate, power consumption is more. PA1 3. Feed to discharge operating opening ratio is higher due to low bulk density and slippage of cane/bagasse. This causes lower juice extraction and higher juice reabsorption. As used herein, feed to discharge operating opening ratio means the ratio of the gap between top roll and feed roll to the gap between top roll and discharge roll in operating position of the mill, i.e. in lifted/shifted position of the rolls against the hydraulic pressure.
In the prior art, to increase the bulk density of the cane/bagasse, feeding equipment in the form of over/under feeder rollers provided above or below the prepared cane mat, being fed through a conveyer and/or Donnelly chute, are incorporated with the crushing mill module. The over or under feeder roller has peripheral grooves or axial or helical ribs.
This feeding equipment is not able to provide any significant relief to the drawbacks of the prior art cane crushing mill, described hereinbefore, due to its inherent limitations of developing pressure.
Further, in the prior art, a pair of grooved feeder rollers or a pair of toothed feeder rollers are incorporated in front of the feed and top rolls of the main crushing mill module, nearly in a parallel plane and in-line, i.e. having approximately the same central axis. A closed stationary diverging pressure chute, having a wider opening towards the main mill rolls, is required to be connected between the pair of feeder rollers and the main crushing mill rolls.
The main drawback of this arrangement is that the speed of the cane in comparison with the mill rolls surface speed is very low. This results in more frictional losses, more wear and tear and choking in the cane feeding system. As a result of this undue pressure leads to damage of various parts and hence there is frequent breakdown of the mill, resulting into low milling capacity, high power consumption and maintenance cost. Additionally, skilled personnel are required for maintenance and operation of these mills.
Furthermore, in the prior art sugar cane crushing mills, the cush-cush soaked with juice in the strainer is fed into the mill module, under the strainer, for milling along with the bagasse. The main drawback of this system is that the high purity of the juice in the cush-cush is recirculated through the mill module. This creates extra slippage, juice overloading and poor juice drainage and results in lower capacity and efficiency of milling.

304, Punit Apartments, 526, Narayan Peth


An imaging system for processing a media includes a media transport path, an imaging station, a displacement device that controllably displaces the media along the media transport path relative to the imaging station, and a controller assembly. The controller assembly includes a feedback filter, a feedforward filter, a low-pass filter and a memory that stores and time delayed releases control data. During operation, the displacement device is actuated in response to an actuation command generated by the controller assembly. The actuation command has a feedback component based on a filtering by the feedback filter of an error signal including information about the position error between a desired and an actual position of the media and a feedforward component based on a time delayed, low-pass filtered, frequency dependent filtering of the error signal by the feedforward filter. The feedforward filter is configured such that the closed-loop controlled characteristics of the displacement device are compensated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging system for processing a media, including a media transport path, an imaging station arranged along the media transport path, a displacement device that controllably displaces the media along the media transport path relative to said imaging station, and a controller assembly.
2. Description of Background Art
In known imaging systems the media is positioned relative to the imaging station by means of commonly known transport pinches, which are driven by electric motors. The increasing demands for higher image quality and speed result in increasingly strict demands of positioning precision of the media with respect to the imaging station. For example, in a printing system, where an image of marking material is applied on a print media, the print media is displaced stepwise relative to the printing station such that the image can be applied in several swaths. In such systems, print media has to be positioned at the exact required position when the marking material is applied. Any deviation of the position of the print media relative to the printing station may result in a degraded image quality, as a result of misplacement of particles of marking material on the print media. In general, due to the stricter positioning requirements, it becomes increasingly more difficult to satisfy the strict positioning tolerances. This imposes higher requirements for the mechanical construction of the displacement device of the media and for the specifications of the electrical drive that is used for driving the displacement device. In general, this leads to an increasingly more complex and expensive construction of the known imaging systems.


A data capture system utilizes a sensor with emitters adapted to transmit light into a fleshy medium and a detector adapted to generate intensity signals in response to receiving light after absorption by the fleshy medium. A monitor is configured to input the intensity signals, generate digitized signals from the intensity signals at a sampling rate and compute at least one physiological parameter responsive to magnitudes of the digitized signals. A data storage device is integrated with the monitor and is adapted to record data derived from the digitized signals on a removable storage media at the sampling rate.

Pulse oximeters have gained rapid acceptance in a wide variety of medical applications, including surgical wards, intensive care units, general wards and home care by providing early detection of decreases in the arterial oxygen supply, reducing the risk of accidental death and injury. FIG. 1 illustrates a pulse oximetry system 100 having a sensor 110 applied to a patient, a monitor 120, and a patient cable 130 connecting the sensor 110 and the monitor 120. The sensor 110 has emitters (not shown) and a detector (not shown) and is attached to a patient at a selected fleshy medium site, such as a fingertip 10 as shown or an ear lobe. The emitters are positioned to project light of at least two wavelengths through the blood vessels and capillaries of the fleshy medium. The detector is positioned so as to detect the emitted light after absorption by the fleshy medium, including hemoglobin and other constituents of pulsatile blood flowing within the fleshy medium, generating at least first and second intensity signals in response. A pulse oximetry sensor is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,256,523 entitled Low Noise Optical Probes, and a pulse oximetry monitor is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,060 entitled Signal Processing Apparatus, both assigned to Masimo Corporation, Irvine, Calif. and both incorporated by reference herein.
The monitor 120, which may be a standalone device or may be incorporated as a module or built-in portion of a multiparameter patient monitoring system, computes at least one physiological parameter responsive to magnitudes of the intensity signals. A monitor 120 typically provides a numerical readout of the patient's oxygen saturation 122, a numerical readout of pulse rate 124, and a display of the patient's plethysmograph 126, which provides a visual display of the patient's pulse contour and pulse rate.
In one embodiment, the pulse oximetry system 100 has a portable instrument 210 and a docking station 220, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,584,336 entitled Universal/Upgrading Pulse Oximeter, assigned to Masimo Corporation, Irvine, Calif. and incorporated by reference herein. The portable 210 is a battery operated, fully functional, stand-alone pulse oximeter monitor, as described above, which can be installed into the docking station 220 to expand its functionality.
FIG. 2 illustrates data communications for the portable 210 and docking station 220. The portable 210 has bi-directional serial data communications with the docking station 220 using universal asynchronous receive, Rx0, and transmit, Tx0, (UART) signals, and the docking station 220 has bi-directional serial data communications with an external device 230 using Tx1 and Rx1 UART signals.


A novel breast localization and biopsy system employs a chest support for holding the patient in a slightly rotated (20.degree.-30.degree.) prone position allowing the breast tissue hang downward and fit through an opening in the chest support, while holding the other breast against the subject away from the imaging region. A pair of support plates compress the breast tissue. At least one of the support plates has a grid with reference markers for localization and windows allowing a physician access to the breast tissue. A thick biopsy plate with a plurality of holes at marked positions fits into one of the grid openings and guides an interventional device, such a biopsy needle, into a desired location in a lesion. In an alternative embodiment, both breasts fit through the chest support. There are two stabilization plate assemblies, one for each breast and two medical imaging sources. Each source points from the lateral to medial support plate to accomplish imaging of both breasts simultaneously.

1. Scope of the Invention
The present invention relates to tissue localization in a living subject.
2. Related Prior Art
Typically, it is necessary to determine if a lesion is present within breast tissue of a living subject prior to treating it. To locate a lesion within the breast, tissue is imaged with a reference frame having reference markers which show up on the image. The lesion location relative to the markers is identified. A corresponding external location on the subject's breast is then determined relative to reference frame. This external location may then used to target the lesion in a medical procedure.
The breast tissue should remain fixed between the imaging step and the localization or the medical procedure. If the breast tissue moves after imaging and before localization, the location relative to the reference markers will apply to different tissue than the lesion. Therefore, the breast must be immobilized.
Once the proper location of the lesion is determined, it is often necessary to insert an invasive device into the lesion as part of the medical procedure. One such procedure is to biopsy the lesion with a biopsy needle. Since the lesion material is sometimes has a higher density than surrounding breast tissue, it is not always easy to insert a biopsy device into the lesion.
Prior art devices for localization, biopsy and treatment of breast lesions provide support for the breast tissue and/or guides to insert an interventional device. However, many of these devices suffer a lack of access to the breast tissue. Sometimes it is necessary to use a scalpel to "nick" or cut the skin in order to provide biopsy or treatment access to the lesion. The prior art devices do not provide both access for a scalpel, and accurate spatial targeting simultaneously.
It is necessary to minimize the distance (the amount of tissue affected) traveled by the biopsy or interventional device. Therefore, it may also be necessary to access the lesion from either the medial or lateral side of the breast. Many prior art devices do not provide both medial and lateral access to the breast tissue.
In addition to these problems, many of the prior art devices do not pull the breast tissue away from the chest wall and access the entire breast, including most of the axilla, for localization, biopsy, treatment as well as imaging.
Currently there is a need for a breast lesion localization device which images the entire breast, guides an interventional device into the lesion accurately, and allows a Physician greater access to breast tissue.

Image guided breast lesion localization device


A battery monitoring unit is provided with a semiconductor power switch, which is looped into the battery lead and can serve for interrupting the battery current in a controlled manner. The battery monitoring unit comprises a sense FET circuit arrangement, which determines the battery current bidirectionally and the power FET part of which forms the semiconductor power switch, which is looped into the battery lead. Aside from the controllable interruption of battery current, a bidirectional determination of battery current and, with that, a continuous monitoring of the charge state of the battery is possible with this circuit arrangement, and can be used for monitoring vehicle batteries.

The invention relates to a battery monitoring unit with a semiconductor power switch coupled into a battery lead.
A battery monitoring unit of the type mentioned above was introduced by the White Products company at the fifteenth meeting of "Elektronik im Kraftfahrzeug" (Electronics in the Motor Vehicle) in 1995 in Essen in the form of a modular unit for motor vehicle batteries, the modular unit being coupled to a battery terminal. The purpose of the semiconductor power switch there is to have the ability to switch off the battery current in a controlled manner, for example, as protection against unauthorized use of the vehicle or as short circuit protection.
German Patent document DE 43 39 568 A1 discloses an apparatus for determining the charge state of a battery. The apparatus carries out a charge balance of the battery by evaluating the charging and discharging currents and, with the help of a measurement, checks and corrects the off-load voltage of the battery. Furthermore, the use of this procedure for an on-board electrical supply system of the vehicle is shown, which comprises a generator, the output voltage of which is controlled by a voltage regulator, a battery, which is charged by the onboard generator, and electrical supply system consumers, which can be connected over switching circuits to the supply voltage made available by the generator or the battery. The method for determining the charge state of the battery is implemented in a computer, which receives suitable measured values, particularly with regard to the battery voltage, the off-load voltage, the charging current, the discharging current, as well as the temperature of the battery.
German Patent document 38 35 662 C2 discloses an MOS-FET used as a reverse battery protection circuit within an apparatus for energizing inductive consumers in a motor vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,633 describes a circuit arrangement for the bidirectional determination of current for a power MOS-FET, particularly for a DMOST. For this purpose, the respective DMOST is constructed so that it has a relatively low-ohm sampling resistance in series with its drain connection.
In the field of power FETs, which are composed of a plurality of integrated individual FET components connected in parallel, so-called sense FET circuit arrangements are known, which make it possible to measure the frequently comparatively high amperage flowing over the power FETs with relatively little loss. For this purpose, a few individual FET components are combined into a so-called sense FET part, while the large number of remaining individual FET components form the actual power part, which lies with its source-drain segment in the power circuit. By suitable wiring, it is ensured that a fraction of the current, which flows over the power segment and corresponds exactly to the ratio of the number of individual sense FET components to those of the individual power FET components, is diverted over the sense FET part. This diverted measurement current, which is consequently clearly less than that in the power segment, can be measured with little dissipation of power, for example, as a voltage drop, at a sense resistance. Such sense FET circuit arrangements are described, for example, in the German Patent document 195 20 735 A1 and in the literature cited there.
It is an object of the invention to solve the technical problem of making available a battery monitoring unit, which offers, with relatively little effort, the possibility of switching off the battery current in a controlled manner and, in addition, the possibility of determining the battery current bidirectionally, with which it is possible to realize the monitoring of the charge state of the battery.
Pursuant to the invention, this objective is accomplished by making available a battery monitoring unit with a semiconductor power switch, which is coupled in series with a battery lead. A sense FET circuit arrangement determines the battery current bidirectionally. The power FET part of the arrangement forms the semiconductor power switch.
This battery monitoring unit according to the invention contains a sense FET circuit arrangement, which is designed so that it is capable of determining the battery current, that is, the charging and discharging current of the battery bidirectionally with a sense FET part, so that, by monitoring the battery continuously, a balancing for the charging state of the battery becomes possible. At the same time, the power FET part of the sense FET circuit arrangement functions as a semiconductor power switch, which can be energized and is coupled with the battery lead and over which the battery current can be switched off as required, for example, as short-circuit protection or when the batteries of the vehicle are used as protection against unauthorized use of the vehicle.
In a further development of the invention, the battery monitoring unit is realized as a modular unit, which is positioned close to the battery terminal. Alternatively, it can be integrated with the associated battery terminal into a single component.
In the case of a preferred embodiment of the battery monitoring unit, the sense FET circuit arrangement comprises a suitable evaluation circuit, particularly in the form of a current mirror switching circuit, which transforms the current signal into an asymmetric, ground-related signal
In the case of another preferred embodiment of a battery monitoring unit, the sense FET circuit arrangement comprises a single sense FET group with two current decoupling paths as well as a current mirror circuit, connected to one of these paths, so that a bidirectional detection of current is attained by means of the single sense FET group.
In the case of a further developed battery monitoring unit, the sense FET circuit arrangement consists of two parallel, oppositely poled sense FET groups for achieving a bidirectional determination of current.
In the case of a still further developed battery monitoring unit, the possibility of an offset voltage adjustment is created for the sense FET group.
In the case of yet another preferred embodiment of a battery monitoring unit, the power FET part of the sense FET circuit arrangement, which is purposefully appropriately designed, serves additionally as a reverse battery protection circuit for which purpose the power FET part has two oppositely poled power FET groups, which are connected in series.
In the case of a further developed battery monitoring unit, the power FET part is divided into several groups which can be switched off separately. This permits the ratio between the load current and the sense current to be adapted to the magnitude of the load current.
Especially preferred embodiments of the invention as well as a conventional, basic sense FET circuit, which is intended to help in understanding the embodiments, are shown in the drawings and described below.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Battery monitoring unit having a sense FET circuit arrangement


The disclosure claims a cleaved Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) detection method, a DNA fragment detection kit and use thereof. Wherein, the method includes the steps of: designing primers according to a test site or a test region of the DNA fragment; cyclizing the DNA fragment to obtain acyclized DNA; implementing Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification for the cyclized DNA by using the primers; and detecting the PCR amplification product. In the disclosure, by cyclizing the DNA fragment, the amplification can be implemented even if only one PCR primer can match with a template, thus, the adaption range and effective template amount of the primer amplification can be greatly increased, and the detection sensitivity of the DNA fragment can be greatly improved.

Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates to the field of molecular biology, and in particular to a cleaved Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) detection method, a DNA fragment detection kit and the use thereof.
Background
Scientific researchers need to extract DNA from different tissue samples in the molecular biology research. Wherein, the body fluid contains the fragmented DNAs, and the detection of the fragmented DNA is an important step for the molecular biology research. For example, the plasma DNA, also called as the circulating DNA, is the extracellular DNA in the blood, of which the length is tens to hundreds of nucleotides (the main peak is approximately 167 bp); the plasma DNA can exist in the form of DNA-protein complex, and also can be free DNA fragments. The plasma DNA is derived from the DNA release of a small amount of aging dead cells. The generation and removal of the plasma DNA are in a dynamic balance status, and are maintained in a relatively constant low level; 1 mL of the plasma approximately includes the amount of 2000 genomic DNA, namely, the content is extremely low, thus the gene information cannot be detected by adopting the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in the prior art.
In addition, the source of fresh tissue samples is limited, the Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) method solves the problem that the fresh tissues are hard to be stored for a long time, but during the preparation and storage process of the FFPE tissue samples, the tissue is fixed by formalin and embedded by paraffin which is easy to cause cross-linking and fragmentation of the DNA, which is 100 bp-3000 bp fragments, the scientific researchers are hard to obtain enough DNA samples with high quality for high-sensitive detection. At present, a large amount of samples in the world are processed by the FFPE method, and the tissue samples have become one of the most normal biological resources for the scientific research.
The traditional method of detecting whether the DNA fragment has base mutation or other mutations mainly implements detection by implementing PCR amplification for the specific test region. The traditional PCR technology usually adopts a pair of primers which cross two sides of the target region, takes the DNA as a template, which is a method for in vitro enzymatic synthesis of specific DNA fragments. high temperature denaturation, low temperature annealing (renaturation), optimum temperature extension and the like form a period, which circularly operate, so as to make the target DNA be rapidly amplified; the technology has characteristic of high specificity, high sensitivity, simple operations, time-saving property and the like, and is widely applied in fundamental research of gene isolation, cloning and nucleotide sequence analysis, and the diagnosis of diseases. But the PCR technology requires that the DNA template between a pair of primers has no fragmentation point, which provides a great challenge for the seriously-fragmented DNA templates. As the traditional PCR amplification requires that the amplified region is kept complete, the traditional method has low detection sensitivity for the DNA fragment, which limits the application thereof in detecting the DNA fragment samples.

DNA fragment detection method, DNA fragment detection kit and the use thereof


An engine includes a combustion chamber, a cylinder head, an intake valve, a partition wall plate, and a tumble valve. The cylinder head includes an intake port that communicates with the combustion chamber. The intake valve includes a head configured to open and close an open end of the intake port. The partition wall plate partitions the intake port into first and second passages. The tumble valve is configured to open and close either one of the first passage and the second passage. A cross sectional shape of the partition wall plate is defined on a basis of a shape of a gap that is surrounded by a contour of the head and a contour of the open end, as viewed in a reference direction. The reference direction is a direction from a reference point in the intake port to a gap between the open end and the head.

The disclosure relates to an engine including a combustion chamber.
To increase the thermal efficiency of an engine, a tumble flow is generated in a combustion chamber. Techniques for generating a tumble flow are known (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Applications Publication Nos. 2001-193469, H6-167220, and 2017-150379). In these techniques, a partition wall plate for defining a passage is provided in an intake port that introduces intake air into a combustion chamber. This partition wall plate adjusts a flow direction and a flow velocity of the intake air, whereby it is possible to generate a tumble flow in the combustion chamber, resulting in improvement in thermal efficiency.