Methodologies for designing and assembling an analog Nyquist filter require a filter unit which includes a low pass filter in cascade with at least one tapped delay filter. A Signal Generator is used to generate a test pattern for input into the filter unit in order to create a reaction signal from the filter unit. This reaction signal is then compared with a desired Nyquist response. Based on this comparison, amplifier gains for taps in the tapped delay filter are weighted to establish a transfer function in the filter unit. In operation the transfer function shapes analog input signals with the desired Nyquist response for use as an output from the Nyquist filter.

All telecommunication systems have the objectives of transmitting signals with minimal signal loss, and with the highest possible signal to noise ratio (SNR). Also, in order to simplify the transmitting system's architecture and reduce its power requirements, it is desirable that signal transmissions be successfully accomplished with limited bandwidth requirements. To further these purposes, filters are often used in transmission systems to reduce bandwidth requirements and to minimize unwanted noise (interference) during a signal transmission.
In the context of the present invention, it is to be understood that many data signals are digitally generated as a stream of bits. Accordingly, digital signal processing techniques are typically considered. It is known, however, that digital processing techniques are generally impractical at high data rates.
With a view toward processing digital data signals at high data rates, it is to be appreciated that these signals can be characterized as a sequence of symbols which are akin to a frequency. In this characterization, each symbol includes an integer number of bits, and each symbol in the sequence has a same duration time, T. A transmitting device can then put symbols onto a channel at a symbol rate, Rs, with T=1/Rs. An important consequence of this is that by using techniques well known in the pertinent art, digital signals can be effectively processed as analog signals.
As implied above, many telecommunications systems incorporate low pass filters for the purpose of limiting a system's bandwidth requirements. As the name implies, low pass filters are designed to pass signals having frequencies which are below a predetermined stop bandwidth frequency. Because the signals are sinusoidal in nature, it happens that the signal level will begin to noticeably diminish at the higher frequencies in a bandwidth which are near, but below, the stop bandwidth frequency.
It is, of course, desirable to effectively use all frequencies in a bandwidth. To do this, a particular type of filter which comes closest to maximizing the useful bandwidth response is a low pass filter which is commonly referred to as a "Nyquist filter." Ideally, a Nyquist filter will reduce the required bandwidth for transmitting a data signal, and it will do so without degrading the signal.
With the above in mind, it is an object of the present invention to present methodologies which employ empirical, analog signal processing techniques for designing and assembling tapped delay filters that provide a Nyquist filter response in a telecommunications system. In another aspect, it is an object of the present invention to provide methodologies using analog techniques for equalizing a simple low pass filter to manufacture an analog Nyquist filter having sophisticated performance characteristics. Another object of the present invention is to provide methodologies for use in the manufacture of analog Nyquist filters that rely solely on altering the hardware characteristics of filter components. It is also an object of the present invention to design a Nyquist filter that is capable of processing digital signals at high data rates. Still another object of the present invention is to provide methods for designing and assembling analog Nyquist filters which are easy to implement, are simple to modify in order to accommodate specific implementations, and are cost effective.

Method for designing an analog Nyquist filter


A Dynamic Color Separation (DCS) color display system employs signals which provide timing, luminance, and chrominance information of the display output. The display system includes a timing circuit which produces unique signals for correcting errors produced when hue is controlled by the phase of the (S) signal and the degree of saturation with its amplitude. The signals may be applied to known CRT beam guns, and modified guns specific to the generated signals are also disclosed.

The invention will be described in relation to the video content of the NTSC TV signal. However, NTSC transmission includes gamma (.gamma.) correction for typical CRT beam drive non-linearity. This feature is not pertinent to some color separation methods and it is to be understood that gamma correction will not apply herein except where shown. NTSC is well known and there are numerous methods by which the signal may be separated into three fund mental components of timing, (sync) lumenance (y) and chrominance (C). The NTSC signal may be further converted divided into the display outputs components, which are brightness, or equal brightness, the means by which the eye sees the intensity output of the display, and into its dominant hue (H) and degree of saturation (S), which are the two components by which the eye recognizes color content (its chromaticity) of a scene. The method of generation of the display, however, relies on the provision of three primary colors, red (R), green (G) and blue (B), which have become the universal standard for providing a full range of color content.
Several methods of color display are known in the art. These include the well known shadow mask and CRT's employing beam penetration phosphors. A third system uses a separate CRT for generation of each color and the three components must be mechanically and optically superimposed exactly to register the three outputs to provide a single full color display. These methods each have distinct disadvantages with respect to parameters such as bulk, complexity, and cost and performance characteristics such as luminous output efficiency, resolution, and display accuracy.
Another type of system, most of which were unsuccessful and eventually abandoned, are known as indexing systems. These systems failed, generally, because of technical requirements, the importance of which were not recognized, or because the art was not sufficiently advanced to meet the systems' needs.
A large majority of these indexing systems rely on a technique known as sequential color separation (SCS). SCS depends upon the scan of an electron beam in a cathode ray tube across a sequential pattern of triads of primary color phosphors (e.g., red, green, and blue). The control signals for each of these colors turn on the beam in the proper sequence for each phosphor position, and this must be very precisely controlled to provide faithful color rendition. The function of indexing is to provide this precise beam position control which, in uniform raster scan applications, implies precise time control.
Because SCS implies a single beam which passes sequentially across all colors, even if a particular color is not to be produced, this technique has a fundamental limitation in beam energy efficiency of 17%. This efficiency is comparable to that of the shadow mask techniques and prevented "indexing" from achieving the advantages over other methods which were expected of it. Attempts to use beam velocity modulation to improve efficiency were not compatible with other requirements specifically including the methods for indexing then used. As a result, these SCS systems failed to become competitive.
Other proposed displays departed from SCS but never achieved the reality of production. These had in common the concept of dynamically directing the beam (necessarily at high speeds for TV) only to the colors to be reproduced in each color triad. This concept has the possibility of a beam efficiency reaching 100% and in addition permits use of more than one beam, both thereby providing means to generate a very bright, high resolution output. This concept has basic features distinctly different from SCS, and the term "dynamic color separation" (DCS) is introduced herein to describe this mode of color separation.
The art of indexing-type color receivers has been substantially dormant for many years except for a minor recent revival of interest in small displays using SCS. During this interval, a substantial variety of improvements has been made in fields unrelated to SCS or DCS displays. A substantial number of improvements, related to the B/W functions of the display or to improved signal control means such as solid state and IC circuits, which are desirable to obtain the performance required to make a DCS display successful, have had no suggestion of applicability in this field.
With respect to the color display functions, a principal DCS signal processing function is conversion from input composite video (CV) to luminance Y, and R, G, and B signals, or to equal brightness monochrome M and saturation S signals, and further from S to hue phase (.THETA.) or derived voltage (HV) and saturation voltage (SV) control signals. The first is well known in the art, and the second (M and S) is not so well known but was first derived by B. D. Loughlin, and a detailed description relating them directly to DCS may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,779 (Washburn).
Prior art employing waveforms providing features essential to DCS in a color display are to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,989,582, (Zworykin et al.) which describes excessively complicated ramp waveforms; U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,966,544, 3,004,098 and 3,096,095 (Gargini) which disclose a saturation signal amplitude modulated ramp waveform for DCS; U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,779 (Washburn) which employs both the amplitude modulated ramp and a saturation signal time modulated, dual slope beam arrest ramp for DCS; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,456 (Liebscher) which describes a three beam system employing a fixed amplitude beam arrest ramp for DCS.
There are a substantial number of prior art systems which use the chrominance component C of composite video to velocity modulate the beam, thereby to provide a degree of color brightness enhancement. Because C is a function of signal luminance Y, it can not perform color separation which is a function only of display format dimensions and scan timing and which must be independent of display luminance or brightness content. The saturation signal S, which is independent of luminance can provide color separation control independently of luminance Y or monochrome M content of the display. Basic color separation using C, of which U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,165 (Sunstein) is a relatively recent example is, however, still SCS.
There are prior systems which use miscellaneous fixed waveforms for deflection of the electron beam across horizontally oriented stripes, which is also SCS. There is no prior art teaching employing DCS for either of these two examples.
The above DCS techniques all employ frequency or time control to control the position of the beam. Thus, Zworykin uses an index pulse as a direct sync signal (sequentially) at each triad. Gargini develops a heterodyned, or beat frequency, signal (as do many SCS systems) controlled by the index signal system. This method of time/position control, which has been a preferred choice for SCS, conflicts with the modulation of the beam velocity and even more directly with DCS because hue position selection demands selective movement of the beam across the color triad of each pixel. This movement is controlled by the phase shift of chrominance C, or S (independent of luminance), whereas the index signal should generate a reference signal having constant phase. There is no prior art teaching which eliminates this problem.
Sunstein's purpose (as is Gargini's) is to ameliorate this problem, and reference is made to columns 2 and 3 of the above Sunstein patent for a background discussion of the problems of such prior art. Liebscher also describes his three beam system using an index generated frequency control signal. It is readily apparent that when the DCS beam arrest is working satisfactorily, both the amplitude and frequency content of the index signal disappear in this disclosed system. In Washburn, time shifts sequentially between DCS action and position control (APC) action, thereby making the functions perform independently. This method introduces circuit complexity but has the more significant disadvantage that it introduces low frequency dead space into the display. The eye is more sensitive to this low frequency content than to otherwise normal pixel structure. Thus prior art discloses no position control means which are well suited to work with DCS.
In summary, there had been much initial interest in SCS indexing color TV receivers because they appeared to be simpler and to provide higher performance--especially a higher resolution display. SCS, however, proved to have low light output efficiency, and methods to increase light output also increased complexity and cost. The very factors which allow increased resolution also add to the difficulties of achieving high brightness and require high precision in control of the beam to provide output color fidelity. Some basic concepts, especially dynamic color separation (DCS) waveforms which increase brightness efficiency, were introduced. These methods, however, all had deficiencies in generating a satisfactory display which were never recognized or overcome because attempts to develop "indexing systems" were abandoned. This has remained the situation for the past twenty years. During this interval demand for higher performance, resolution, size, brightness, etc. have increased, and economical solutions have not appeared. Recent introduction of various aspects of HDTV is one example of such recent demand.


The inkjet recording apparatus comprises: a printing device including a print head which discharges ink droplets onto a recording medium to perform printing, the print head having discharge ports through which the ink droplets are discharged; a liquid removal device which absorbs droplets deposited on an ink discharge surface of the print head in which the ink discharge ports are formed; and a deposit removal device which wipes away matter deposited on the ink discharge surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus, or to technology for maintaining and cleaning discharge surface nozzles of industrial-use droplet discharge devices or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, inkjet recording apparatuses (inkjet printers) serving as recording apparatuses that print/record images or the like taken by digital still camera have become widely distributed. Inkjet recording apparatuses have a plurality of recording elements in the head, the recording head is moved to scan the recording medium while ink droplets are discharged from the recording elements to the recording medium, the recording medium is conveyed by a single line when one line of image has been recorded on recording paper, and an image is formed on the recording paper by repeating these steps.
There are inkjet printers that use a short serial head and record images while causing the head to scan in the width direction of the recording medium, or those that use a line head in which recording elements are arrayed across the entire range of one side of the recording medium. In printers in which a line head is used, images can be recorded on the entire surface of the recording medium by scanning the recording medium in the direction orthogonal to the array direction of the recording elements. In printers in which a line head is used, a carriage or another conveyance system for moving the short head back and forth is unnecessary, and complex scanning control for the carriage movement and recording medium is not required. Also, the recording medium alone moves, so recording speed can be increased in comparison with printers in which a serial head is used.
In inkjet printers, when ink and other dirt deposited on the nozzle surface (the surface of the print head facing the recording surface, on which nozzle openings are formed), the result is not only nozzle discharge defects (principally abnormal flight direction of the ink droplets), but also contamination of the recorded image with this dirt.
Therefore, a variety of cleaning methods have been proposed for removing ink, paper dust, and other dirt deposited on the nozzle surface.
Also, water-repelling treatment has been performed on the nozzle surface to keep surface wettability uniform, so the liquid part of the ink deposited on the nozzle surface can be relatively easily removed, but it is still difficult to completely remove solidified ink, paper dust from the recording paper, and other types of dirt. As a result, these types of dirt on the nozzle surfaces cause the quality of the recorded image to be degraded, and therefore require to be dealt with.
On the other hand, ink has a characteristic in that its viscosity increases due to moisture evaporation when the ink is in contact with the atmosphere, eventually resulting in hardening; and this higher-viscosity ink (thickened ink) is also the cause of discharge defects in the nozzles (principally abnormal discharge amounts and non-discharge), and the recorded image may be degraded.
Conventionally, known methods for cleaning a nozzle surface include a method for wiping dirt deposited on the nozzle surface using a blade or the like. Also, methods for removing higher-viscosity ink include a method in which a dummy discharge (liquid discharge) of ink is made to a cap or the like at regular intervals.
In the inkjet recording apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-342621, there is proposed a wiping mechanism that performs surface wiping action by causing a roller that is shorter in length than the head array to rotate and move in the nozzle array direction, and the wiping mechanism cleans while eliminating wiping marks on the nozzle surface by imparting a uniform pressure to the nozzle surface.
The image forming method and apparatus thereof cited in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-170566 has a step of performing a preliminary discharge, a step of wiping deposited liquids, and a step of wiping deposited liquids after image formation; and removal of thickened ink and adhered ink is efficiently performed using a rotating cleaning roller and an elastic blade whose external peripheral surfaces are pressed to the head as the cleaning roller and elastic blade move relatively across the head.
Nevertheless, in the above method for cleaning a nozzle surface, the entire surface of the nozzle cannot always be uniformly cleaned. A drawback is that applying a force to the deposited matter is sometimes insufficient and the deposited matter cannot be removed. If a strong force is applied to the deposited matter, the cleaning member, the nozzle surface as such, or the nozzle surface treated with a water repellent, and other such surface-treated layers, may be damaged by the friction force generated between the nozzle surface and the cleaning member.
There is a drawback in that when dummy discharge is frequency performed to remove thickened ink in the vicinity of the discharge port, more ink is consumed.
In the inkjet recording apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-342621, dry wiping takes place in the initial state of the wiping step, and the durable lifespan of the layer treated with an ink repellent on the nozzle surface is reduced.
By periodically performing preliminary discharges, the image forming method and apparatus thereof cited in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-170566 circumvents a known problem in conventional inkjet technology whereby non-discharge is caused by the formation of a discharge film produced by thickened ink on the meniscus surface when the head is left in a inactive state in which no ink is discharged.

Inkjet recording apparatus, and ink discharge surface cleaning method and device


The present invention includes a system and method for enhancing multimedia information shared on electronic systems. The electronic systems are capable of receiving multimedia information and presenting multimedia information. In combination with the multimedia information, a representation is presented which is based on the shared multimedia information. The representation may be an avatar for display. Further, the representation may be based on control of the multimedia information, content of the multimedia information or reaction to the multimedia information.

Electronic devices which exchange information are, on a basic level, an opportunity for social interaction. People in different locales may connect with one another through the use of electronic devices. As one example, it is common for people at different locations to watch a television program or a sporting event while talking on the telephone. The television program acts as the backdrop for the people to interact. As another example, people interact and share information with one another in online social environments, such as instant messaging, short message service (SMS), chat rooms, and bulletin boards.
Technologies have attempted to enhance the social interaction aspect. For example, some digital video recorders allow users to view a common program in different locations. The program may be a movie or a television program which is controlled by the users. Similarly, technologies allow remote users to share a voice connection between the remote users. However, these additional features have their drawbacks. The shared control of the media makes viewing difficult due to contextless control changes in the media programming. With regard to the shared voice connection, it is disconcerting for a person to hear a multitude of disembodied voices from several remote players. As another example, some set-top boxes have collaboration features such as voting or video conferencing. However, video conferencing is not an ideal solution when sharing media because a video conferencing image would take up valuable screen real estate and detract from the shared media.
Online social environments have also attempted to enhance the social interaction aspect using collaborative applications such as text talk, sharing files and video conferencing. However, these applications are image and expression poor, limiting participants in how they can personalize and express their online persona.
What is needed is a richer information experience that provides better social interaction when using electronic devices.


A coagulation instrument has a handle section and detachably connected thereto an electrode shank (4). Electrode conductors (5, 6) are led in the electrode shank from contact pick-off points (7, 8) situated in the direction of the handle to the operating end (9) of the electrode shank. In the region of the contact pick-off points staggered in the longitudinal direction of the electrode shank (4), directly adjacent to the respective internal conductors (5, 6), there is in each case an opening (15) in the insulating outer cover (11). In this region contact sleeves (13, 14) are arranged on the electrode shank and have a depression (16) penetrating the respective opening (15) for contacting the corresponding conductor (5) or (6).

The invention relates to a coagulation instrument with a handle section having an electrical connection for a cable as well as including a detachably fittable electrode shank, in which electrode conductors are led from contact pick-off points, which are situated in the direction of the handle and are staggered in the longitudinal direction of the electrode shank, to the operating end of the electrode shank.
In coagulation instruments with detachable electrode shank, the contact pick-off points situated at the handle-end zone are contacted by contact springs situated on the handle section. Plug contacts are provided at the rear end of the handle section and serve for connection to an electric cable. The ends of the electrical conductors or electrode conductors guided within the electrode shank are soldered to the contact pick-off points, whereby the first electrode wire passes to the first contact pick-off point and the second wire passes to the handle-end zone of the electrode shank to the second contact pick-off point. By this means, a mechanical weak point is formed between the first and second contact pick-off point, resulting in an increased risk of rupture. In addition, soldered joints between the electrode wires and the contact pick-off points form electrical weak points.
A further drawback encountered with this prior art is the use of a comparatively large number of component parts, such as insulating intermediate elements, metal turned parts and milled parts, which then also have to be assembled in a time-consuming fashion.
As a result of the complex design of the electrode shank in the connecting area of the electrode wires at the handle-end, this embodiment with electrode shank separable from the handle section is used only where the space conditions still permit such a design. In the case of coagulation instruments having an electrode shank with a diameter of less than about 3 mm, for example in microcoagulation instruments, a one-piece embodiment of electrode shank and handle section is therefore prior art.

Select Medizin-Technik Herman Sutter GmbH


A garment marking machine includes a lower marker-supporting track supported by a base plate, and a garment-supporting plate positioned and supported above the lower track. An upper marker-supporting track is positioned above the garment-supporting plate by means of posts that extend upwardly from the base plate and through the lower track and the garment-supporting plate. Marker assemblies positioned along the upper and lower marker tracks are used to mark garments processed by the garment marking machine. A marker assembly utilized in the garment marking machine includes a marker cap having a bore, a marker having a marking end disposed through the bore of the marker cap such that only a portion of the marker extends beyond the marker cap, and an adjusting rod operative to move the marking end of the marker through the bore of the marker cap. The bore of the marker cap is sized to tightly hold the marking end of the marker.

The present invention relates generally to the field of garment marking machines, and more particularly to improvements for such machines.
In producing garments, it is often necessary to mark the position where buttons, pockets, buttonholes, etc., are to be located. The garments are often marked by marking devices, e.g., crayons and inks, which are seen only under ultraviolet light or which disappear soon after application. This feature is necessary to prevent unsightly marks from remaining on the garments after production.
When marks for buttons and buttonholes are made on garments, it is desirable to make all of the marks simultaneously with the two fronts of the garment aligned together and with the top and bottom marks being made at the same points on the horizontal axis to insure proper alignment between the buttons and the buttonholes when they are subsequently placed on the garments. This operation is performed by marking a garment when the garment edges are juxtaposed and aligned.
A number of garment marking machines have been disclosed in prior U.S. Patents. Specifically, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,331,135 and 2,572,682 disclose marking machines essentially including a machine frame on which is mounted a number of upper marking devices and a number of lower transfer markers. A slotted garment-supporting plate is positioned between the upper marking devices and the lower transfer markers. The lower transfer markers extend through the slot in the garment-supporting plate such that both the spring-loaded upper marking devices and the lower transfer markers mark the garment when the upper marking devices are lowered into contact with the garment.
The upper marking devices include marking media, e.g., crayons and inks, whereas the lower transfer markers comprise textured heads having no marking media. Thus, before a garment is placed in the marking machine for marking, the upper marking devices are lowered onto the heads of the lower transfer markers to deposit a portion of marking media onto the heads. Subsequent to this priming operation, the garment is placed in the marking machine and is marked by the marking media contained in the upper marking devices and the marking media deposited on the heads of the lower transfer markers.
After the marked garment is removed, the above-described priming operation must be repeated to load the lower transfer markers with marking media. The necessity of this priming operation results in lower marking efficiency and, thus, decreased garment production. Also, the marks left by the lower transfer markers are typically not as dark as those left by the upper marking devices. This often makes it difficult for sewing machine operators to identify the bottom marks, which results in decreased productivity.
Marking machines eliminating the above-described priming operation are known in the art. Specifically, such a marking machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,849. The '849 marking machine includes upper and lower marking plates mounted on a machine frame. Both the upper and lower marking plates includes a plurality of marking media, e.g., crayons, for marking a garment placed on a garment-supporting platen positioned intermediate the upper and lower marking plates.
Even though the '849 marking machine eliminates the need for the above-described priming operation through the use of upper and lower marking media, a number of disadvantages and/or problems still exist with the above-described marking machines. For example, the lower marking media are typically unstable because they extend too far beyond their holders. This design often causes the marking media to fracture during use. Also, if the upper and lower marking media are not perfectly aligned before commencement of the marking operation, the marking media will wear unevenly and, eventually, may break. Furthermore, the design of marking media holders has typically been such that the marking media are not easily removed and replaced.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a garment marking machine with marker assemblies which allow marking media to be positioned therein such that only a small portion of the marking media extends beyond the assemblies.
It is another object of the present invention to provide marker assemblies which allow the marking media to be easily removed and replaced with other marking media.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide marker assemblies which can be easily moved between an operational and a neutral position.
It is yet still another object of the present invention to provide marker assemblies which can be easily adjusted horizontally along a marker-supporting track.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide marker assemblies which reduce the occurrence of marking media breakage during operation of the garment marking machine.


Systems and methods for processing and analyzing samples are disclosed. The system may process samples, such as biological fluids, using assay cartridges which can be processed at different processing locations. In some cases, the system can be used for PCR processing. The different processing locations may include a preparation location where samples can be prepared and an analysis location where samples can be analyzed. To assist with the preparation of samples, the system may also include a number of processing stations which may include processing lanes. During the analysis of samples, in some cases, thermal cycler modules and an appropriate optical detection system can be used to detect the presence or absence of certain nucleic acid sequences in the samples. The system can be used to accurately and rapidly process samples.

Many nucleic acid sequences have clinical relevance. For example, nucleic acid sequences associated with infectious organisms provide indications of the presence of an infection by the organism. Nucleic acid sequences not normally expressed in a patient sample may indicate activation of pathways associated with a disease or other conditions. Still other nucleic acid sequences may indicate differences in a patient's likely response to proposed therapies.
Determination of clinically relevant nucleic acids generally depends on controlled amplification of specific nucleic acid sequences and detection of the amplification products. Amplification improves analytical sensitivity by generating sufficient copies of nucleic acids found in the sample for ready determination. Amplification may also improve analytical specificity by selectively generating only those nucleic acids of clinical interest. A problem with amplification-based determinations, particularly when amplification generates large numbers of copies of a target nucleic acid sequence, is the possibility that some of these copies from one sample might contaminate other samples to produce apparently elevated results where none of the target nucleic acid sequence was originally present in the sample.
Other sources of contamination could affect nucleic acid determinations. Carryover between samples can contribute contaminating material. An amplification mixture may receive contaminating materials from environmental sources transferred on surfaces or by laboratory technicians or by aerosols. In some cases, unintended transfers of reagents, such as inappropriate amplification primers, may contaminate mixtures and cause erroneous results. Amplification mixtures may also retain interfering substances originally present in the sample through incomplete purification of target nucleic acids. Thus, there is a need for automation of nucleic acid analysis that avoids transfer and retention of contaminating material from a variety of sources.
Clinical laboratory workflow is a consequence of medical care delivery and varies between institutions. A clinic or large group practice may generate patient specimens throughout the course of a day at a relatively constant rate. In contrast, a clinical reference laboratory may receive all of its specimens in one or two deliveries and a large hospital may generate specimens through a large blood draw in the morning supplemented by an irregular stream of samples throughout the day. Most nucleic acid analysis specimens arrive at a clinical laboratory in a sequence unrelated to the type of requested assay. In some cases, selected specimens may be of high priority with immediate or critical treatment decisions dependent on the outcome. Other specimens may be of more routine priority. Non-specimen samples such as laboratory controls may be interspersed among the clinical specimens according to individual laboratory practice. In some cases, exhaustion of reagents or of particular lots of reagents may dictate the insertion of controls and calibration samples irrespective of other samples in queue.
Thus, there is a need for an analytical system having flexible and adjustable operating capabilities to match the unpredictable demand of clinical laboratories.
Nucleic acid analysis determines multiple analytes from diverse source organisms using a mix of specimen types. These inputs drive diverse processing requirements. For example, RNA and DNA have different chemical properties and stabilities; their preparation may use different processing regimens, different enzymes, and different thermal conditions. Both the base sequence and the length of target analytes affect binding energy, and hence processing. The length and sequence of complementary oligonucleotides used for amplification further affect amplification conditions.
Different source organisms for analytical targets may require different steps to release or isolate the nucleic acid sequences. For example, release of DNA sequences from gram positive bacteria might use elevated temperatures not used for release of DNA sequences from relatively labile white blood cells.
Thus, there is a need for an analytical system able to freely intermix a variety of processing protocols, each composed of a variety of processing steps. Technologies exist that attempt to address some of the issues described above.
Russel/Higuchi in U.S. Pat. No. 5,994,056, Homogeneous Methods for Nucleic Acid Amplification and Detection, described improved methods for nucleic acid detection using methods such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Higuchi described methods for simultaneous amplification and detection to enhance the speed and accuracy of prior methods. The methods provide means for monitoring the increase in product DNA during an amplification reaction. According to the description, amplified nucleic acids are detected without opening the reaction vessel once the amplification reaction is initiated and without any additional handling or manipulative steps subsequent to the reaction.
K. Rudi et al. described a Rapid, Universal Method to Isolate PCR-Ready DNA Using Magnetic Beads in BioTechniques 22(3) 506-511, March 1997. Rudi et al. described application of a magnetic bead-based kit for rapid DNA isolation (Dynabeads® DNA DIRECT™; Dynal A.S.) to diverse organisms and tissues to produce a general approach for the purification of PCR-ready DNA. DNA suitable for PCR was prepared in less than 30 minutes.
Systems that automate nucleic acid analysis have a long history. Integrated platforms demonstrated the entire range of automated analytical and preparative steps, including isolation of nucleic acid, amplification of the isolated material, and detection of the amplification products.
For example, Bienhaus et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,978, Device for Treating Nucleic Acids from a Sample, described a single device to link treatment steps that separate nucleic acids from other sample components with steps for amplification of the nucleic acids. The device included reaction chambers for individual treatment steps with the outlet of one chamber attached to inlet of another. A conventional pipetting instrument transferred both the nucleic acid-containing sample liquid and all possibly necessary reagents from sample and reagent storage containers into the device. Bienhaus et al. described magnetic separation, amplification by PCR or NASBA, and using a hybridization probe complementary to the PCR amplificate in a detection reaction measured using an ES analyzer (manufactured by Boehringer Mannheim).
P. Belgrader, et al. described Automated DNA Purification and Amplification from Blood-Stained Cards Using a Robotic Workstation in BioTechniques 19(3) 427-432 1995. Belgrader et al. introduced a prototype which could perform coupled DNA purification and amplification that required no user participation once the process was initiated. The method was implemented into a high throughput automated system using a Biomek® 1000 robotic workstation (Beckman Instruments) using phenol and isopropanol to purify DNA on blood-stained cards. The Biomek® 1000 performed DNA purification and amplification using an HCU (Biomek® on-board heater-cooler unit) as a thermal cycler. Belgrader et al. described that the next objective was to integrate a detection step for a completely automated DNA typing system.
Patrick Merel et al. described Completely Automated Extraction of DNA from Whole Blood in Clinical Chemistry 42, No. 8, p 1285-6 1996. Merel et al. disclosed using the Biomek® 2000 (Beckman Instruments) and DNA DIRECT™ (Dynal France S.A.) in combination to fully automate the DNA extraction procedure using magnetic particle separation. Merel et al. used several different PCR protocols to evaluate the quantity and quality of the DNA obtained. Merel et al. routinely used the described materials for a 10-min automated DNA extraction procedure, a 10-min automated PCR setup step for 96 tubes, PCR for 80 min, and a simple electrophoresis analysis of 15 min.
Ammann et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,166 Automated Process for Isolating and Amplifying a Target Nucleic Acid Sequence described an automated analyzer including multiple stations, or modules, in which discrete aspects of the assay are performed on fluid samples contained in reaction receptacles. The analyzer includes stations for automatically preparing a specimen sample, incubating the sample at prescribed temperatures for prescribed periods, preforming an analyte isolation procedure, and ascertaining the presence of a target analyte. An automated receptacle transporting system moves the reaction receptacles from one station to the next. Ammann also describes a method for performing an automated diagnostic assay includes an automated process for isolating and amplifying a target analyte. The process is performed by automatically moving each of a plurality of reaction receptacles containing a solid support material and a fluid sample between stations for incubating the contents of the reaction receptacle and for separating the target analyte bound to the solid support from the fluid sample. An amplification reagent is added to the separated analyte after the analyte separation step and before a final incubation step.
Even though such automated systems have been available, further improvements are desirable. In particular, multiple sources of contamination continues to risk erroneous results. Further, complexities of multi-step processes needed for complete nucleic acid analysis can produce processing bottlenecks and degrade repeatability, limiting answer reporting turnaround and processing flexibility. Limited answer reporting turnaround may increase the time to institute proper clinical treatment. Lack of processing flexibility limits support for variations in assay protocols for a broad and expandable test menu. Lack of processing flexibility may also force laboratories to sequence or batch samples and reagents in a manner at odds with clinical need.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems, individually and collectively.


A power wrench has a rotation motor, and a hydraulic pulse unit. The pulse unit includes an inertia drive unit connected to the motor. The inertia drive unit includes an oil chamber with an impulse generating mechanism, and an output spindle extending into the oil chamber to receive torque impulses. The inertia drive unit has a cylindrical member defining the oil chamber, a rear end wall, and an air separator element co-rotating with the wall and having a substantially axially facing surface which together with a congruent surface on the rear end wall forms oil passages in the form of a clearance gap through which oil mixed with air is circulated between one or more oil inlet openings, past one or more air outlet openings, to one or more oil outlet openings. Air is extracted from the oil and is gathered in a centrally located air collecting chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates an impulse type power wrench including a rotation motor, and a hydraulic pulse unit intermittently coupling the motor to an output shaft for delivering repeated torque impulses to a screw joint to be tightened.
In some power wrenches of this type there is a problem to fill the pulse unit with an exactly correct amount of oil such that there will be enough air left inside the pulse unit to absorb some heat related expansion of the oil during operation of the wrench. The main reason, though, why a certain amount of air is left in the oil volume is to make the oil volume somewhat elastically compressible to thereby enhance the impulse frequency of the pulse unit. A too small percentage of air in the oil will cause a great pressure inside the pulse unit resulting in friction losses and overheating, whereas a too large percentage of air will reduce the efficiency of the pulse unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In some other pulse units the oil filling problem is solved by using an elastic element or accumulator to compensate for heat related expansions and to obtain a certain elasticity of the oil volume, which means that in those cases the pulse units can be filled up completely without leaving any air in the oil volume. An impulse generator having this feature is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,110,045.
However, there is still a problem in that there will inevitably be a certain oil leakage, although initially small, from the pulse unit during operation of the wrench, which means that air will penetrate into the pulse unit in a corresponding amount. The result is that that there will be an increased amount of air inside the pulse unit over time. Accordingly, the percentage of air in the oil volume will increase successively, and after some service time of the wrench the increased amount of air in the pulse unit will cause an impaired efficiency and finally a complete loss of impulse generation, so called spinning.
Theoretically, it would be possible to extend the service intervals of the power wrench by substantially increasing the size of the entire oil containing volume of the pulse unit to thereby keep down the percentage of air in the oil volume caused by leakage. The result would be that the elasticity of the oil volume would be kept low during an extended power wrench operation time and that the pulse generation efficiency would be maintained at a high level for prolonged service intervals. After some time of operation, though, there will still be an undesirably high percentage of air, even in such an enlarged oil chamber. The obvious drawback of such an enlarged oil volume would be increased outer dimensions and weight of the pulse unit and, hence, the entire power wrench. That would not be acceptable.


Implementing synchronization among threads in a workflow. A memory area stores a plurality of work items in a scheduler queue. The work items are associated with an activity in the workflow, and each work item is associated with a thread. A processor is configured to assign a synchronization handle to each of the work items. The synchronization handle indicates a particular shared resource to be accessed by the work items. A token value is computed for each work item based on the assigned synchronization handle and the work items in a hierarchy in the activity. The work items are sorted in a synchronization queue based on the token value associated with each work item. The processor sequentially executes each of the sorted work items in the synchronization queue to serialize the access to the particular shared resource and effects a synchronous execution of the threads associated with the work items.

Process-oriented or process-centric programs have evolved to enable processing of complex instructions modeling real-world interactions between autonomous agents. Existing systems attempt to map business problems to high-level workflows by modeling the business problem. However, real world workflows vary in a variety of dimensions such as (a) execution and modeling complexity, (b) knowledge of the structure of the flow at design time, (c) statically defined or ad-hoc/dynamic, (d) ease of authoring and editing the flow at various points in its lifecycle, and (e) weak or strong association of business logic with the core workflow process. Existing models fail to accommodate all these factors.
Further, most existing workflow models are based on either language-based approaches (e.g., BPEL4WS, XLANG/S, and WSFL) or application based approaches. Language based approaches are high-level workflow languages with a closed set of pre-defined constructs which help model the workflow process to the user/programmer. The workflow languages carry all of the semantic information for the closed set of constructs to enable the user to build a workflow model. However, the languages are not extensible by the developers and represent a closed set of primitives that constitute the workflow model. The languages are tied to the language compiler shipped by the workflow system vendor. Only the workflow system product vendor may extend the model by extending the language with a new set of constructs in a future version of the product. This often requires upgrading the compiler associated with the language. In addition, the languages usually do not declaratively expose or define functions or operations that can be readily and efficiently used by other programs.
Application based approaches are applications which have the workflow capabilities within the application to solve a domain specific problem. These applications are not truly extensible nor do they have a programmable model.
In addition, with the existing approaches, the issues of complexity, foreknowledge, dynamic workflows, authoring ease, and strength of associations with business logic and core workflows are not adequately addressed. There are no extensible, customizable, and re-hostable workflow designer frameworks, available to build visual workflow designers to model different classes of workflows. Existing systems lack a rapid application development (RAD) style workflow design experience which allows users to graphically design the workflow process and associate the business logic in a programming language of developer's choice.
Also, workflow processes deal with cross cutting orthogonal and tangled concerns that span multiple steps of a workflow process model. For example, while parts of the workflow process are designed to participate in long running transactions, other parts of the same process are designed for concurrent execution or for accessing a shared resource. Due to design shortcomings, existing systems fail to provide interleaving of execution threads which enable users to design synchronous or interleaved execution of activities. Still other portions of the same workflow process require tracking, while other portions handle business or application level exceptions. There is a need to apply certain behaviors to one or more portions of a workflow process.
Some workflow modeling approaches are impractical as they require a complete flow-based description of an entire business process including all exceptions and human interventions. Some of these approaches provide additional functionality as exceptions arise, while other approaches exclusively employ a constraint-based approach instead of a flow-based approach to modeling a business process. Existing systems implement either the flow-based or constraint-based approach. Such systems are too inflexible to model many common business situations. These systems also lack the capability to asynchronously handle exceptions or cancellations.

Declarative model for concurrency-control across lightweight threads


A method and apparatus to generate a test suite from an abstract state machine (ASM) involves generating a finite state machine (FSM) for the ASM, and generating the test suite from the FSM. An initial state of the ASM is selected. A first encoding having a plurality of bits is generated to represent the initial state. Each bit of the first encoding represents a result of an evaluation of a non-trivial guard condition of the ASM. The initial state is associated with the first encoding in the data structure for the FSM. At least one other states of the ASM are identified that result from applying at least one actions of the ASM to the initial state. At least one other encodings are generated, each of the at least one other encodings corresponding to one of the at least one other states, and for each one of the at least one other states, when the corresponding of the at least one other encodings is not the same as the any one encoding already associated with a state in the data structure, data is included in the data structure associating the one of the at least one other states and a corresponding of the at least one other encodings.

The behavior and operation of devices may be described using abstract state machines (ASMs). For each action that the device may taken, the ASM defines conditions that must be met to effect changes to the state of the device. The conditions may be said to "guard" changes to the device state, and may thus be referred to as guards on the device state. In a normalized form, state settings, for each action that the device may take are guarded by simple (e.g. non-nested) conditions. For a more complete description of normalized ASMs, see Y. Gurevich, Evolving Algebra, 1993: Lipari Guide, and In Egon Boerger, Specification and Validation Methods, pages 9–36, Oxford University Press, 1995. ASMs have applications beyond describing the behavior and operation of devices. For example, ASMs may describe the behavior and operation of software programs executing on a general purpose computer system.
Each unique combination of state settings represents a state of the device in the ASM. For this reason, ASMs may have a large, even infinite number of states. For example, consider a simple device comprising a door that can be opened and closed. The device may include a counter which tracks the number of times the door has been closed. The counter is a state setting. An ASM for the device has an infinite number of states, one for each potential value of the counter.
Well known techniques exist for generating test suites from finite state machines (FSMs), e.g. state machines with a finite number of states. FSMs define the behavior of a device in terms of device states and the events that result in state changes.
Due to the very large or infinite number of states of the ASMs, it is often impractical to apply to ASMs the techniques for generating test suites from FSMs. A need exists for a manner of producing an FSM from an ASM, which would lead to the application of FSM test suite generation techniques to ASMs.

Generating a test suite from an abstract state machine


An interior rearview mirror assembly for vehicles relating to interior rearview mirror assemblies without a frame or bezel having inputs corresponding to elements representing a symbol. The symbols are located behind a reflective element and not visible until activated by selection of the corresponding input or other means.

Conventional systems for controlling appliances and devices, such as garage door openers, security gates, home alarms, lighting, computers, etc., use individual remote controls to operate a respective appliance and/or device. With this conventional system, it is difficult to control multiple devices or appliances, much less consolidate operation of the appliances and devices into a single, controllable system. For example, garage door opener mechanisms open and close a garage door in response to a radio frequency control signal. The control signal is typically generated and transmitted from a remote control that is sold with the garage opener. The control signal has a preset carrier frequency and control code such that the garage door opener mechanism is responsive only to the remote control issuing the associated control signal. A problem associated with this type of system is that the door opener must receive a specific predetermined control signal in order to be operated. That is, each appliance and device must receive a specific predetermined control signal. Therefore, a user wishing to control multiple appliances and/or devices is required to have multiple remote controls.
Communication systems currently exist which enable multiple appliances and devices to communicate with a central or single remote device. One such system is Homelink™ owned by Johnson Control's, Inc., in which a trainable transceiver is able to "learn" characteristics of received control signals such that the trainable transceiver may subsequently generate and transmit a signal having the learned characteristics to a remotely controlled device or appliance. For example, one such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,854,593, hereby incorporated by reference. Another such system is disclosed in EP Pat. No. 0 935 226 B1, also hereby incorporated by reference.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an electrical circuit of a trainable transceiver in block and schematic form. Trainable transceiver 43 includes a conventional switch interface circuit 49 connected to one terminal of each of the push button switches 44, 46, and 47. In addition to microcontroller 57, transceiver circuit 55 includes a radio frequency (RF) circuit 58 coupled to microcontroller 57 and to an antenna 59. Each of switches 44, 46, and 47 may each correspond to a different device or appliance to be controlled such as different garage doors, electrically operated access gates, house lighting controls or the like, each of which may have their own unique operating RF frequency, modulation scheme, and/or security code. Thus, switches 44, 45, and 47 correspond to a different radio frequency channel for trainable transceiver 43.
Systems, such as those described above, may be incorporated as a feature into a vehicle to provide users with easy access to wireless devices and appliances. Once such embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 2, which shows an interior rearview mirror assembly. Interior rearview mirror 10 has a reflective surface 11 encased in a frame or bezel 12. User inputs 18a correspond, for example, to switches 44, 46 and 47 of FIG. 1 and likewise operate a different device or appliance to be controlled. Appearing on each of the inputs 18a is a logo, icon, indicia or graphics, such as a vehicle logo, and may have other appearances as desired. For example, the Homelink™ icon appears on three of the four user inputs 18a, each of which may be backlit with one or more illumination sources or LEDs. Selection of a user input 18a operates to backlight the input, indicating selection of the corresponding user input 18a. Alternatively, as illustrated, each user input 18a may not be backlit, but instead illuminates LED 22 when selected.

Interior rearview mirror assembly with integrated indicator symbol


A flash suppression system for increasing the reliability of an autoloading firearm has a body having a central bore including the front opening and a rear opening. The rear opening of the body terminates in a conical feature having a front opening and a rear opening. The central bore of the body receives the rear opening of a conical element. The rear opening of the conical element is positioned within the central bore of the body to create a gap between the front opening of the conical feature and the rear opening of the conical element. The front opening of the conical feature has a larger diameter than the rear opening of the conical element.

Flash suppressors are devices attached the muzzle of a rifle or other firearm that reduce the visible signature of the burning gases that exit the muzzle. This is useful from a tactical standpoint because it reduces the chance of the shooter's position will be given away and reduces the chance that the shooter will be blinded in dark conditions.
Early rifle designs tended to have longer barrels the modern assault rifles. The beneficial side effect of the long barrel is that the propellant is completely burnt before the bullet leaves the barrel, usually resulting in only a puff of smoke being emitted from the muzzle. With the advent of shorter rifle barrels, the bullet often leaves the barrel before the powder is completely consumed. The still burning powder emits a bright flash when it exits the muzzle. Since essentially all modern infantry weapons have short barrels with this problem that limits their use in night combat, flash suppressors are almost universally used on these weapons currently.
Flash suppressors reduce the muzzle flash from a firearm by diverting the incandescent gases resulting from firing the weapon to the sides, away from the shooter's line of sight. This also reduces the flash that is visible to the enemy. Slots, tubes, and/or holes in the outside body of the flash suppressor divert the gases and reduce or eliminate the flash by rapidly cooling the gases as they leave the end of the barrel. Although the overall amount of burning propellant is unchanged, the density and temperature greatly reduced, along with the brightness of the flash.
Previous flash suppressors have not been entirely satisfactory in hiding the flash because of unconsumed propellant exiting the suppressor and continuing to burn. Prior art flash suppressors are not easily removed, cleaned, and reassembled. Furthermore, previous flash suppressors do nothing to improve the function of the host weapon's autoloading capabilities.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a flash suppression system that generates increased backpressure for more reliable operation of gas-operated firearms.


A compound semiconductor device includes: a compound semiconductor layer; and a gate electrode formed above the compound semiconductor layer; and a source electrode and a drain electrode formed on both sides of the gate electrode, on the compound semiconductor layer, wherein the source electrode has a plurality of bottom surfaces along transit electrons out of contact surfaces with the compound semiconductor layer, and the plural bottom surfaces are located at different distances from the transit electrons, with the bottom surface closer to the gate electrode being more apart from the transit electrons.

Applying nitride semiconductors to high-withstand-voltage and high-power semiconductor devices by utilizing their characteristics such as a high saturation electron velocity and a wide band gap has been considered. For example, GaN being a nitride semiconductor has a band gap of 3.4 eV, which is wider than a band gap of Si (1.1 eV) and a band gap of GaAs (1.4 eV), and has high breakdown electric field intensity. This makes GaN very promising as a material of semiconductor devices for power supply realizing a high voltage operation and a high power.
Many reports have been made on field-effect transistors, in particular, HEMTs (High Electron Mobility Transistors) as semiconductor devices using nitride semiconductors. For example, among GaN-based HEMTs (GaN-HEMTs), an AlGaN/GaN HEMT using GaN as an electron transit layer and using AlGaN as an electron supply layer has been drawing attention. In the AlGaN/GaN HEMT, a distortion ascribable to a difference in lattice constant between GaN and AlGaN occurs in AlGaN. Owing to piezoelectric polarization caused by the distortion and spontaneous polarization of AlGaN, high-concentration two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is obtained. Therefore, the AlGaN/GaN HEMT is expected as a high-efficiency switch element or a high-withstand-voltage power device for electric vehicles and the like.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2012-134345
A GaN-HEM is expected to have a high withstand voltage of, for example, 400 V or more. There has been a conventional concern about a breakdown of a gate electrode when a high voltage as above is applied to the GaN-HEMT. In recent years, it has come to be found out that a breakdown occurs also in a drain electrode in ohmic-contact with a nitride semiconductor. The breakdown of the drain electrode is ascribable to electric field concentration occurring on an end of the drain electrode. Consequently, electrons and holes are simultaneously generated by an avalanche effect, and the electrons and the holes further continuously cause the cumulative generation of electrons and holes, so that a current rapidly increases to cause the breakdown in the drain electrode. It has been confirmed that this breakdown of the drain electrode occurs both when a recess is formed in the nitride semiconductor and the drain electrode is formed in the recess and when the drain electrode is formed on the nitride semiconductor without a recess being formed.

Compound semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same


A method and system for managing channels in a voice response system is provided. The method comprises periodically monitoring utilization of a system resource and determining a number, N, of voice channels required to be quiesced based on the utilization level of the system resource. This number is compared with the number of channels currently quiescing, Q, and the number of quiescing channels is adjusted accordingly. A quiescing channel is disabled when it becomes inactive.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems are an important tool for customer relationship management and play a critical role in providing information and features to existing and potential business customers who use the telephone as an interface to an enterprise. IVR systems allow efficient exchange of information with reduced human interaction.
An Interactive Voice Response, also known as a Voice Response Unit, is a computer application that allows callers to interact with a communications system over the telephone. The IVR answers a call by playing one or more pre-recorded messages or scripts. The messages usually prompt the caller to provide input either verbally or by pressing touchtone keys. The IVR supplies the caller with information based on the responses. Examples of well known uses of IVR systems include automated answering services, electronic voice mail, automated ticket ordering or recorded timetable information.
In a multi-channel IVR system, data used by the IVR to respond to a caller is often stored in a database accessible by a data processing system on which runs the IVR applications. The dialogs that control the interaction between a caller and the data can be provided in many different application programming environments including Java™, (Java is a trade mark of Sun Corporation), and VoiceXML (Voice extensible Markup Language), as well as state tables. It has been found that multi-channel IVR systems, especially those using Java and VoiceXML, can easily become overloaded. At present, when a critical system load is detected channels are disabled to protect the system. Manual intervention is then usually required to return the system to a working state.
One system which attempts to overcome the problem of overloading a multi-channel IVR is described in US 2003/0114166. This system employs a switching centre to control an external switching technology resource. The switching centre is controlled so as to block and release ports between the switching centre and the external resource according to a capacity utilisation of the resource. This can cause disruption of calls when the channel on which a call is being carried out is suddenly blocked by the switching centre.
The present invention aims to provide an improved system and method for managing load in a telephony system with minimum disruption of calls. Rather than blocking a busy channel, the invention marks channels for disablement, and disables them only once the current call has finished. Preferred features are that the system is stateless, in that it does not need to know details of what it has done before, that it iteratively finds the optimum level of channel/system usage, and that it can work without the need for a separate signalling link, so can thus be used with Channel Associated Signal (CAS) protocols.
The invention can be applied both to systems where all channels are in use, as well as systems that may not be using all channels. For systems in which all channels are in use, one method which can be used to reduce system load is to take actions that increase the effective length of the calls, for example by adding in a waiting message. However, if not all channels are in use, increasing the call length would have the effect of driving new users onto the idle channels, rather than reducing the utilisation of system resources. Indeed, it may have the opposite effect as the system will have to maintain more open dialogs to different users.
IVR systems typically have a limited number of channels which are available, for example 480 channels. At times, for example when a central processing unit, on which an IVR is running, is also carrying out a data backup, a large amount of the processing capacity available is being used to do the backup. Thus there may not be sufficient processing capacity to maintain all 480 channels, and thus a system overload can occur even when the system is not using all channels.

Method and system for channel management in a voice response system

International Business Machines Corporation


Apparatus and method for forming long lengths of laminated superconducting tape by passing three foils over idler pulleys, through a solder bath and between pinch rollers having a portion which extend above the solder bath to enable cleaning of the pinch rollers during the formation of the superconducting tape with means to adjust the pressure applied by the pinch rollers, and to adjust the laminated tape takeup tension independently from the foil process tension.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for manufacturing laminated tapes suitable for use in superconducting magnets.
As is well known, a magnet can be made superconducting by placing it in an extremely cold environment, such as by enclosing it in a cryostat or pressure vessel containing liquid helium or other cryogen. The extreme cold reduces the resistance in the magnetic coils to negligible levels, such that when a power source is initially connected to the coil (for a period, for example, of ten minutes) to introduce a current flow through the coils, the current will continue to flow through the coils due to the negligible coil resistance even after power is removed, thereby maintaining a magnetic field. Superconducting magnets find wide application, for example, in the field of magnetic resonance imaging (hereinafter called "MRI").
Considerable research and development efforts have been directed at eliminating the need for a boiling cryogen, such as liquid helium, and in providing superconducting magnets which maintain the magnetic state and do not "quench," or discontinue superconductivity. However, the differential thermal expansion and contraction between materials in superconducting magnets, which are cycled from ambient temperature to temperatures in the range of absolute zero (-270.degree. C.), and the extremely large magnetic forces provided, and utilized, in an MRI lead to conflicting characteristics required of the materials used in MRI tapes. In addition, the desired superconducting magnet material such as Nb.sub.3 Sn is often relatively brittle and difficult to handle in winding coils.
Improved materials for use in superconducting magnets and associated superconducting switches are disclosed in United States patent applications of Bu-Xin Xu, R. Jaykumar and John Wollan, entitled "Persistent Superconducting Switch for Conduction-Cooled Superconducting Magnet," serial number 001,692 filed Jan. 7, 1993, and the patent application of Bu-Xin Xu and John Wollan, entitled "Stable Flux-Jumping Resistant Superconducting Tape and Superconducting Magnet," application serial number 984,819 filed Dec. 3, 1992, both of which are assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. The subject patent application is particularly suitable for use in winding superconducting coils and superconducting switches of the type disclosed in the aforementioned copending patent applications.
However, the manufacture of laminated tape suitable for superconducting use involves the lamination of long lengths of different materials such as niobium tin (Nb.sub.3 Sn) and copper by applying pressure while the Nb.sub.3 Sn and copper foils are fed through a molten solder bath and pinched together. A persistent problem encountered in such a process is contamination at the pinch point by debris and copper particles or compounds in the solder bath. Also, the tension required for feeding the thin foils through the solder bath and pinch point is different than the tension required for proper spooling of the resultant laminated tape onto a takeup spool.
It is highly desirable to be able to clean the pinch point or compression mechanism without lifting the mechanism out of the solder bath and while the process continues in operation. In addition, it is important to provide a uniform and carefully controlled laminated tape through control of the pressure exerted on the foils at the pinch point. Still further, it is highly important that the feed mechanism be reliable, be able to handle the extremely thin foils involved, and that provision be included for ease of replacement and/or repair of components in order to decrease process down-time for repair or maintenance purposes.

Method and apparatus for laminating foils into a superconducting tape for use in a superconducting magnet


A method for generating a nuclear reprogrammed cell in accordance with the present invention includes the step of: introducing, into a somatic cell, (i) at least one gene selected from the group consisting of a gene encoding histone H2aa or a homologue thereof, a gene encoding histone H2ba or a homologue thereof, and a gene encoding a phosphorylation-mimic form of histone chaperon Npm2 or a phosphorylation-mimic form of a homologue of Npm2, and (ii) a nuclear reprogramming factor.

Research on generation of a so-called iPS cell (induced pluriopotent stem cell) and a use of the iPS cell has been actively carried out so as to apply the iPS cell to regenerative medicine, for example (see Patent Literature 1).
The iPS cell is generated by causing a given nuclear reprogramming factor to act on a somatic cell. Therefore, the iPS cell is less likely to cause an ethical problem as compared to an embryonic stem cell (ES cell) established from an early embryo.

Nuclear reprogrammed cells generated by introduction of a histone H2aa or TH2A gene, a histone H2ba or TH2B gene, or a phosphorylation-mimic of histone chaperon Npm2 gene, an Oct family gene and a klf family gene into a mammalian somatic cell


A radio selective calling receiver has a function of causing a reception section for receiving a transmitted radio signal to intermittently receive the radio signal by intermittently supplying a reception section power supply ON signal for turning on the reception section. The radio selective calling receiver detects the movement of the receiver out of a coverage zone on the basis of data indicating that the radio signal received by the reception section contains no sync signals having a predetermined period. The receiver then determines the state of movement out of the coverage zone on the basis of a received state of the sync signals within a predetermined period of time in the past until the movement of the receiver out of the coverage zone is detected, and controls the time intervals at which the reception section power supply ON signal is supplied to the reception section in accordance with the determined state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio selective calling receiver and, more particularly, to a radio selective calling receiver having a battery saving function. The present invention also relates to a scanning type radio selective calling receiver.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a radio selective calling receiver using a battery as a power supply, to prolong the service life of the battery, the power consumed by the reception section must be suppressed low. In addition, if a large-capacity battery is used, the overall radio selective calling receiver increases in size. For this reason, to reduce the size of the compact radio selective calling receiver, it is important to reduce the power consumption of the reception section.
Under the circumstances, in a general radio selective calling receiver, battery saving (to be referred to as BS hereinafter) control is performed such that the reception section is not always operated but is intermittently operated at predetermined time intervals to suppress the power consumption of the reception section low.
To suppress the power consumption of the reception section low, it is desired that the reception section be intermittently operated at long time intervals. However, excessively long time intervals increase the probability that the radio selective calling receiver fails to receive a radio signal which should be received. As a result, the reception function of the radio selective calling receiver may be impaired. For this reason, BS control in a general radio selective calling receiver is performed such that the reception section is intermittently operated at time intervals which are set to ensure the reception function.
Such BS control may be effective while the radio selective calling receiver is in the coverage zone in which radio signals can be received. If, however, the reception section is intermittently operated at such short time intervals even while the radio selective calling receiver stays in an area, outside the coverage zone, in which no radio signals arrive at the receiver, the power is wasted.
The radio selective calling receiver disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-304043 has been proposed as a means for solving such a problem. This radio selective calling receiver is designed to detect whether a sync signal is received. On the basis of this detection, it is checked whether the receiver is in the coverage zone. Upon detecting the movement of the radio selective calling receiver out of the coverage zone, the receiver switches the BS control modes to reduce the power consumption of the reception section. More specifically, when this radio selective calling receiver moves out of the coverage zone, the receiver starts counting a period of time that elapses upon moving out of the coverage zone. The reception section is intermittently operated at first time intervals which are relatively short time intervals until this elapsed time reaches a predetermined time A. After the elapsed time exceeds the predetermined time A, the reception section is intermittently operated at second time intervals which are longer than the first time intervals.
According to this radio selective calling receiver, since intermittent reception is performed at short time intervals when the time period of a stay outside the coverage zone is shorter than the predetermined time A, even a call signal that arrives immediately after the receiver returns to the coverage zone can be quickly received. If the time period during which the receiver stayed outside the coverage zone is longer than the predetermined time A, the time intervals of intermittent reception are switched to the long time intervals. With this operation, the power consumption of the reception section can be suppressed low, and hence the service life of the battery can be prolonged.
In the above conventional radio selective calling receiver, movement of the receiver out of the coverage zone is detected when no sync signal is received, and the time intervals of intermittent reception are uniformly prolonged. According to this BS control, a problem may be caused in performing synchronization establishment when the receiver returns to the coverage zone depending on the time intervals of intermittent reception after the movement of the receiver out of the coverage zone. This problem will be described below.
Consider two cases in which the radio selective calling receiver moves out of the coverage zone: the first case in which the receiver moves out of the transmission area in which radio waves transmitted from a transmitting station can be received; and the second case in which the receiver enters a place, e.g., a subway or a building, within the transmission area, in which radio waves are blocked.
In the first case, an abrupt operation for restoration to the coverage zone is rarely required. No problem is therefore posed even if the time intervals of intermittent reception outside the coverage zone are prolonged to a certain extent. In contrast to this, in the second case, quick restoration to the coverage zone and synchronization establishment for this purpose are required immediately after the blocked state of radio waves is canceled. If, therefore, the time intervals of intermittent reception outside the coverage zone are prolonged, such quick synchronization establishment is difficult to perform.
In the above conventional radio selective calling receiver, however, the time intervals of intermittent reception are uniformly switched without checking whether the movement of the receiver out of the coverage zone corresponds to the first or second case. For this reason, if priority is given to a reduction in power consumption by prolonging the timer intervals, a problem may be posed in quick synchronization establishment for restoration to the coverage zone. To prevent this problem, the time intervals of intermittent reception outside the coverage zone need to be shortened. If, however, the time intervals are shortened, the power consumption cannot be sufficiently reduced.
Demands have recently arisen for a receiver to which a plurality of frequencies at which a self-call number is transmitted are assigned in advance (to be referred to as a scanning receiver hereinafter). This type of receiver is used as a multi-area receiver which can automatically switch a plurality of areas with different frequencies. According to this receiver, since a plurality of frequencies at which the self-call number is transmitted are assigned to the receiver, the receiver searches for a sync signal in a transmission signal to be received while sequentially scanning the assigned frequencies when the receiver is outside the coverage zone.
Upon reception of the sync signal, the receiver stops scanning the frequencies, and locks the frequency to the above frequency. As a result, the receiver is set in the state in which a self-call signal can be received, i.e., the coverage-zone state. In the coverage-zone state, the frequency is kept fixed until a condition for determination of movement out of the coverage zone is satisfied. According to the scanning receiver, automatic multi-area selection is realized as follows. In the coverage-zone state, a frequency is fixed. When the receiver moves out of the coverage zone, synchronization with a transmission signal, which has been established in the coverage-zone state, is canceled, and a sync signal is detected while the frequencies are switched.
According to such automatic multi-area selection, for example, in the receiver disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 06-315001, in the out-of-coverage-zone state, frequency scanning is performed a predetermined number of times according to a predetermined pattern. If no sync signal is detected, frequency scanning is performed again according to the above pattern after a lapse of a predetermined period of time. A general condition of determination of movement out of the coverage zone is that no sync signal is consecutively received a predetermined number of times at the sync signal transmission timings in the coverage-zone state.
In such a conventional radio selective calling receiver as a scanning receiver, since a plurality of frequencies cannot be simultaneously received, the intervals at which a sync signal is detected at a specific frequency are prolonged in proportion to the number of scanning frequencies. That is, as the number of frequencies to be detected increases, detection of a sync signal delays even if the receiver is in the signal transmission area, and a longer period of time is required for a shift from the out-of-coverage-zone mode to the coverage-zone mode.
If the number of times of detection of a sync signal is simply increased, the BS effect deteriorates in the out-of-coverage-zone state although a detecting operation is performed at short intervals.
In the first case in which the above out-of-coverage-zone state is established, priority should be given to the BS effect. In the second case, synchronization must be quickly established. In contrast to this, in the conventional radio selective calling receiver disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-315001, predetermined BS control is performed after the receiver moves out of the coverage zone regardless of the immediately preceding reception state in the coverage zone. That is, the above two cases are not discriminated. For this reason, if priority is given to the BS effect, synchronization establishment delays. If priority is given to synchronization establishment, the BS effect in the out-of-coverage-zone state deteriorates.

Radio selective calling receiver having battery saving function


Embodiments are disclosed that relate to the use of speech inputs including indefinite quantitative terms as computing device inputs. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a method of operating a computing device, the method including receiving a speech input comprising an indefinite quantitative term, determining a definite quantity corresponding to the indefinite quantitative term, and applying the definite quantity to an action performed via the computing device in response to the speech input.

The use of speech inputs to control computing devices may have various advantages over other input methods, as they may allow for hands-free operation and efficient navigation shortcuts. Speech inputs generally specify actions to take. For example, when operating a media player, a user may use speech commands such as "stop" and "play" to control the media player. Speech inputs also may be used to select menu items from a displayed menu, and perform other such actions.
In some instances, a speech input also may specify a quantity or other parameter that modifies the action. For example, in the media player context, a user may request the media player to "skip ahead five minutes." However, in many instances, users may find it difficult to use such parameterized speech inputs. For example, users may lack familiarity with the range of parameters that can be specified for an action, and may not know what system response to expect in response to a specified parameter. Thus, in light of these difficulties, speech input systems may be configured to have limited functionality to avoid such commands, or may utilize other input methods that facilitate such parameterized inputs (e.g. physical volume controls used in conjunction with a car entertainment system that supports speech inputs).


A system and method for transferring a reticle (201) pattern to a substrate image (203) by scanning. The reticle is placed between an illumination system (118) and the projection lens (117). The substrate is located below the projection lens. A loading system, wafer adjustment system, and focusing system are also disclosed.

The present invention relates to the field of photolithographic techniques. More specifically, one embodiment of the invention provides an improved lithographic method for fabricating a multitude of electronic devices, including those fabricated on silicon wafers such as those used for linear, power, and other applications. This method is also useful for printing multichip modules, CCDs, diskdrive heads, etc. and smaller flat panel displays. Still more specifically, the present invention relates to a manufacturing method and apparatus wherein an image from a photomask or a reticle (hereafter called a reticle) is imaged onto a photosensitive substrate by scanning means.
Currently there are three types of machines used for printing various patterns in the manufacture of electronic devices. The first type of machine is called a contact or proximity printer. This is the oldest type of machine. The reticle and substrate are in contact or close proximity and are aligned to each other. A flood exposure illuminator illuminates the reticle and thereby exposes the substrate. This machine is relatively low in complexity, and relatively low in cost, but has the large disadvantage that reticles are ruined after a certain number of uses. Manufacturers who use these machines would like to switch to one of the other two types of machines, except the cost is often unacceptable.
The second type of machine is commonly called a step and repeat camera because it moves to a specified location and prints a portion of the photosensitive substrate and then moves to another location and typically prints the same image on another portion of the substrate, repeating this process until the entire substrate is printed. Within this category, there are at least three different object to image magnifications used. Some of the machines manufactured by Nikon, Canon, GCA and others are called reduction steppers, and can print a portion of the final image at 1/5.times. or 1/10.times. magnification. The reticle area printed is equal to the image area divided by the magnification. The state of the art machines can now print image areas of up to 20 mm.times.20 mm at 0.45 or higher numerical aperture. Another manufacturer of step and repeat cameras, Ultratech uses a 1.times. magnification. The Ultratech stepper can print a field of at least 10 mm.times.30 mm at 0.40 numerical aperture. One disadvantage of the 2.times. or any non-1.times. step and repeat technology is the need for precise magnification control. The step and repeat technology requires very precise alignment, which requires a very expensive stage with a precise metrology system. All the step and repeat cameras are complex, expensive and very large, consuming a large area of expensive floor space. The step and repeat cameras have been designed primarily for printing dynamic memory integrated circuits. This market requires resolution down to sub-micron which in turn requires extreme performance from these machines.
The third type of machine is called a scanner. Silicon Valley Group (formerly Perkin-Elmer) and Canon both make scanners that print a 6-inch (150 mm) wide image at 1.times. magnification with resolutions down to about 1 micrometer. These machines are very complex and expensive. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,748,015 and 4,293,186. The types of lens system described in the patents consists of two mirrors and putatively forms an image of good resolution in a circle of about half the diameter of the larger mirror. The lens configuration only uses a portion of the high resolution circle, giving these machines the title "Ring field scanner." The reticle object is imaged on the substrate in the form of a circular arc. Printing is accomplished by moving both the reticle object and substrate together, with the reticle object and substrate to be printed on opposing sides of the optical system. Although a symmetric unity or 1.times. magnification lens system does not necessarily have any inherent distortion, the difficulty in manufacturing these optical systems causes them to have a large amount of "manufactured" optical distortion. The Canon MPA-600 and Silicon Valley Group PE700 can typically print an approximately 6-inch wide path.
Both types of machines typically use off-axis alignment techniques which require calibration and the use of more environmentally stable materials. The by-product again is increased costs and decreased productivity.
From the above information it is seen that an improved system and method for fabricating substrates is needed.

Method and apparatus for transfer of a reticle pattern onto a substrate by scanning


Soap lather dispensers are known which process soap solution and air via a flexible arrangement in a foaming unit to produce lather. These devices are either costly to manufacture or produce lather of unreliable and/or poor quality. A uniform lather quality can be ensured independently of the actuation path (P) by a metering pump (1) which operates synchronously with the air pump (12) and has no dead spaces. With special blower units, in particular by the incorporation of the foaming unit (18) in an air chamber (17), the lather quality is further improved. The device is suitable in particular for frequent use in public washrooms.

A device corresponding to the preamble for dispensing cleaning or disinfection agents or the like is known from CH-A5-676 227. This design is based on production engineering adaptations to the designs in EP-A1-0 019 582 and EP-A1-0 079 853.
The foaming unit used here is also already known (CH-A5-676 456) and is most commonly used in the closures and dispensers fitted to bottles, usually plastic. Pressing the bottle walls causes liquid and air to be pressed into the "foamer" mounted on the bottle, where it is swirled, foamed, forced through a microfilter and dispensed directly at the nozzle as foam. In all the design forms, tolerances necessary for production engineering reasons are compensated by relative movement between the parts.
The known appliances are of relatively complicated construction (EP-A1-0 019 582 and EPA1-0 079 853) or leave something to be desired in their foam quality (CH-A5-676 227). The sizes of the individual foam portions differ with slow movements and quick movements of the lever; the valves and arrangements used tend to dribble. In addition, the air buffers in the metering pump, which are intended to ensure the ejection of the soap, have a negative effect on the constancy of the metered quantity.

Device for producing soap lather and use thereof


A multithreading processor achieves a very large lookahead instruction window by allowing non-sequential fetch and processing of the dynamic instruction stream. A speculative thread is spawned at a specified point in the dynamic instruction stream and the instructions subsequent to the specified point are speculatively executed so that these instructions are fetched and issued out of sequential order. Very minimal modifications to existing processor design of a multithreading processor are required to achieve the very large lookahead instruction window. The modifications include changes to the control logic of the issue unit, only three additional bits in the register scoreboard.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to speculative instruction execution in a processor, and more particularly to achieving a very large lookahead instruction window via non-sequential instruction fetch and issue.
2. Description of Related Art
A rather common computer program feature is a loop where each iteration has a large number of dependent floating-point operations but there are few or no data dependencies between iterations. A traditional issue mechanism in a prior art processor was unable to extract much instruction-level parallelism (ILP) because the processor has a limited lookahead instruction window.
Typically, the number of entries in an issue queue of the processor limited the size of the lookahead instruction window. Consequently, the processor only picked instructions for issue from one iteration of the loop. Unfortunately, these instructions were dependent on one another. Thus, the processor was forced to execute the instructions sequentially.
To achieve a very large lookahead instruction window, a traditional out-of-order processor required a very large issue queue. However, such an issue queue was impractical since the issue queue was usually implemented as a content-addressable memory (CAM) structure to support associative searches. A large CAM typically had an unacceptable cycle time and/or power impact.
On the other hand, some processors, with a capability to selectively defer execution of instructions, (See for example, commonly assigned, U.S. Pat. No. 7,114,060 B2, entitled "Selectively Deferring Instructions Issued in Program Order Utilizing a Checkpoint and Multiple Deferral Scheme," of Shailender Chaudhry and Marc Tremblay, issued on Sep. 26, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety) could potentially support a very large instruction window because long latency operations such as L2 cache misses did not block the pipeline. However, in the above loop example, the current implementation of such processors, even in a Simultaneous Speculative Threading (SST) mode, does not achieve a very large lookahead instruction window because the processor processes the dynamic instruction stream sequentially. Since each loop iteration is a long chain of dependent floating-point (e.g. execution of instruction fmuladd) operations, the issue mechanism processes the dynamic instruction stream slowly and is unable to achieve a large lookahead instruction window. Such a processor supports two threads, and to implement the SST mode, provides mechanisms to allow close interaction between the two threads, e.g., each thread has a copy of the register file. See commonly assigned, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0212689 A1, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Simultaneous Speculative Threading" of Shailender Chaudhry et al., published Sep. 21, 2006, and filed Apr. 24, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Structure and method for achieving very large lookahead instruction window via non-sequential instruction fetch and issue