A disk recording and/or reproducing device includes a disk tray having a concave disk housing portion for putting in and taking out a disk-like recording medium; a tray housing case supporting the disk tray so as to be movable in a direction in which the disk tray is inserted and ejected; and a disk cover mounted to the tray housing case and covering over the disk housing portion of the disk tray when the disk tray is housed in the tray housing case. The disk cover includes an annular contact portion at an outer periphery thereof, extending outwardly and continuous in a circumferential direction thereof, a dimension of a width of the annular contact portion is larger than that of a thickness of the disk cover, and the annular contact portion is brought into contact with an entire periphery of the disk housing portion of the disk tray.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a disk recording and/or reproducing device having a configuration that a disk housing portion of a disk tray, having a concave shape for housing a disk-like recording medium, is covered by a disk cover.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known disk recording and/or reproducing device of this sort is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-68051 . Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-68051 discloses an optical disk device including a disk drive device capable of preventing occurrence of vibration when a disk is rotated at a high speed. The optical disk device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-68051 is "an optical disk device having a configuration in which a disk is placed on a disk placement portion of a tray in a non-operating position and thereafter, when the tray is shifted to an operating position, the disk is placed on a turn table", and the disk drive device of the optical disk device is characterized in that "a disk-like cover for covering a disk surface when the tray is in the operating position is provided over the disk".
According to the disk drive device of the optical disk device having the above-described configuration (hereinafter referred to as the "first related art"), such an effect is expected that "since the affect of air current to disk rotation can be minimized, the disk rotation characteristic can be improved" (paragraph [0019] of the specification).
Another known disk recording and/or reproducing device is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 09-17082 . Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 09-17082 discloses an optical disk drive device that suppresses attachment of dust to an optical disk recording medium and an optical pickup as much as possible. The optical disk drive device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 09-17082 is "a tray-loading-type optical disk drive device having a disk tray that slides on a front surface and an interior surface of a case, in a horizontal direction, through a front opening portion of the case, so as to be freely put in and drawn out from the case, while an optical disk recording medium is being placed thereon in a detachable manner", and the disk drive device is characterized in "including a cover for covering the optical disk recording medium from a top surface through a side surface thereof when the disk tray is housed in the case in a space relative to the disk tray, and a driving mechanism for suppressedly biasing the cover from above to the disk tray".
According to the optical disk drive device having the above-described configuration (hereinafter referred to as the "second related art"), such an effect is expected that "the attachment of dust to an optical disk recording medium and an optical pickup can be remarkably reduced while adopting a tray-loading-type optical disk device" (paragraph [0032] of the specification).
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the above-described first related art. In FIG. 1, a reference numeral 100 denotes a disk, a reference numeral 101 denotes a tray, a reference numeral 102 denotes a disk-like cover, and a reference numeral 103 denotes a support member. The tray 101 includes a disk housing portion 104 formed in a circular concave shape in which and from which the disk 100 can be placed and taken out. In the disk housing portion 104, the disk 100 is placed on a not-shown turn table and is rotatably supported. All of the disk housing portion 104 is covered by the disk-like cover 102.
Although not shown, the disk-like cover 102 is rotatably supported by a support member 103 together with a clamp member placed to face the turn table. An outer periphery of the disk-like cover 102 is provided with a side surface portion 102a continuously formed in an annular shape. A continuous ring-shaped tip end face of the side surface portion 102a of the disk-like cover 102 is brought into contact with a circumference of the disk housing portion 104 provided on a main surface of the tray 101.
In the first related art, the disk-like cover 102 for covering a disk surface of the disk 100 is provided above the disk 100 to control the air current involved in disk rotation, and thereby an affect given to disk rotation by the air current is minimized and the disk rotation characteristic is enhanced. However, since the continuous ring-shaped tip end face of the side surface portion 102a of the disk-like cover 102 is opposed to the main surface of the tray 101 and the area of the tip end face of the side surface portion 102a is relatively small, a space tends to be created between the tip end face of the side surface portion 102a of the disk-like cover 102 and the main surface of the tray 101. Accordingly, the air current involved in a rotation of the disk 100 flows through the space between the side surface portion 102a of the disk-like cover 102 and the main surface of the tray 101, resulting in causing a problem that a noise level due to the air current becomes relatively high.
In the second related art, although a disk-like cover for covering the optical disk placed on the disk tray from the top through the side portion is provided to prevent invasion of dust with the cover, the circumference portion of the cover is bent downwardly to have the end surface of the circumference portion opposed to the main surface of the tray. Therefore, as in the first related art, due to a small area of the end surface of the circumference portion of the cover opposed to the main surface of the tray, a space tends to be created between the circumference portion of the cover and the main surface of the tray 101. As a result, the air current involved in disk rotation flows through the space between the circumference portion of the cover and the main surface of the tray 101 to similarly cause a problem of a high noise level due to the air current.

Disk recording and/or reproducing device


Described are apparatus and methods for preventing sperm passage through a reproductive structure of a patient, and also for subsequently reversing the preventative measure in order to restore fertility to the patient. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes an elongate member arranged to form a frame having a distal and proximal opening and configured to be positioned within a lumen of the reproductive structure. The apparatus may also have a flow reducing member coupled to the frame such that when the frame is positioned within the lumen, the flow reducing member substantially impedes, reduces, or totally obstructs passage of sperm through the lumen.

Devices exist for stenting tubular structures in patients. Stents typically maintain patency in tubular structures such as blood vessels. As a result, flow of fluid such as blood through the tubular structures is generally maintained. Two occlusion devices on the market, ESSURE® and ADIANA®, are used to permanently block the fallopian tubes. These irreversible contraception devices rely on scar tissue growth around the device to occlude the fallopian tube.


In response to simultaneous ON settings of a heater switch signal HSW and an eco switch signal ESW, an eco priority map is set to an intermittent operation permission map (step S350). The heater switch signal HSW is output from a heater switch that is operated to warm up a passenger compartment, while the eco switch signal ESW is output from an eco switch that is operated to give preference to improvement in fuel consumption of the vehicle over the heater function. The eco priority map is designed to allow intermittent operation of an engine in a lower range of cooling water temperature Tw of the engine than that in a heater-on state map set in response to OFF setting of the eco switch signal ESW and ON setting of the heater switch signal HSW. The control procedure of the invention refers to the intermittent operation permission map and determines whether the intermittent operation of the engine is allowed or prohibited, based on the current cooling water temperature Tw and a starting-time cooling water temperature Tst, which represents a temperature of cooling water at a first start of the engine since activation of the vehicle system (step S360).

One proposed hybrid vehicle is equipped with an air conditioning system to warm up a passenger compartment with an engine as a heat source and intermittently operates the engine, based on a measured internal temperature of the passenger compartment, a target temperature set in the air conditioning system, and a cooling water temperature of the engine (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 9-233601). This prior art hybrid vehicle drives the engine to ensure the sufficient level of heating performance even at a stop of the vehicle or in a motor drive mode using an electric motor alone for driving, when a temperature difference ΔT between the target temperature set in the air conditioning system and the measured internal temperature of the passenger compartment is not less than a preset reference level, which depends upon the cooling water temperature of the engine.

Hybrid vehicle and control method thereof


One aspect of an apparatus for wireless communications is disclosed. The apparatus includes a controller, a first transceiver, and a second transceiver. The first transceiver is configurable by the controller to support first communications through a cellular network to at least one of a packet-based network and a circuit-switched network. The second transceiver configurable by the controller to operate with the first transceiver to support first communications through the cellular network in a first mode and support second communications through an access point to the packet-based network in a second mode. In an aspect, the second transceiver is further configured to switch from the first mode to the second mode by moving its wireless connection from the cellular network to the access point while maintaining a network-layer connection to the cellular network.

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example of an emerging telecommunication standard is Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). LTE is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using OFDMA on the downlink (DL), SC-FDMA on the uplink (UL), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology.
Existing wireless devices use multiple antennas, modems, and processors to enable the device to communicate with other devices using multiple communications protocols. Some of these protocols can be used simultaneously, such as using one protocol to enable voice communications over a wide-area network (WAN), while using a different protocol to enable data communications over a local-area network (LAN). However, use of such antennas, modems, and processors usually involves adding redundant components to the device to enable use through the different communications protocols, which take up valuable area within the device and consume unnecessary power.
Based on these issues, there exists a need for improvement of wireless devices to handle multiple communications protocols efficiently. Preferably, a solution would efficiently use components within the device and save physical area occupied to enable such communications.

Case-based radio platform for wireless network


A method and apparatus to determine the constituent ingredients in a sample by a spectroscopic procedure is disclosed. A Fourier transformation infrared spectrometer can secure data of a power spectrum of a sample and data of a power spectrum of a reference. A absorption spectrum of the sample from this respective data can be determined. A set of wave number points across the absorption spectrum of the sample that exhibit a predetermined linear characteristic can be selected and the absorption spectrum values corresponding to the set of wave number points can be used to calculate the concentrations of the constituent ingredients. A plurality of sets of wave number points can also be predetermined for a specific sample and limit values can be stored and compared to pick the most desirable set of wave number points for calculating the concentration of the constituent ingredients.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a quantitative analytical method and apparatus for spectrometric analysis in which a sample is irradiated with light radiation such as infrared light, and a concentration of ingredients contained in the sample are measured on the basis of absorptivities at a plurality of appointed wave number points across an absorption spectrum.
2. Description of Related Art
A Fourier transformation infrared spectrometer (hereinafter referred to as FTIR) 1 having a construction as shown in, for example, FIG. 1, has been used for quantitative analytical results. The FTIR 1 is composed of an analytical portion 2 and a data-treating portion 3 for processing an interferogram which is the output of the analytical portion 2.
The analytical portion 2 is further composed of a light source 4 constructed so as to emit parallel infrared beams, an interference mechanism 8 comprising a beam-splitter 5, a fixed mirror 6, and a movable mirror 7 movable in the X-Y direction, a cell 9 housing a sample to be measured therein and irradiated with the infrared beams from the light source 4 through the interference mechanism 8, and a detector 10 composed of a semiconductor detector and the like.
The data-treating portion 3 comprises a spectrum-operating portion 11 processing an absorption spectrum of data composed of, for example, a computer and a quantitative operating portion 12 capable of calculating concentrations of ingredients contained in the sample to be measured by applying Lambert-Beer's law to the calculated absorption spectrum
In addition, the spectrum-operating portion 11 comprises an adding and averaging portion 13 for adding and averaging, for example, the data of the interferogram, a high-speed Fourier transforming portion 14, in which output data from the adding and averaging portion 13 are subjected to a high-speed Fourier transformation, and an operating portion 15 for carrying out a spectral operation to determine the ingredients to be measured on the basis of output data from the high-speed Fourier transforming portion 14.
In an FTIR 1 having the above-described construction, a reference sample and an unknown sample to be measured, are separately housed in the cell 9 in order to measure an interferogram of the reference sample and of the sample to be measured, respectively. These interferograms are subjected to a Fourier transformation to obtain a characteristic power spectra; that is, a spectra of beams which have been transmitted through the cell 9. A ratio of the power spectrum of the sample to be measured to the power spectrum of the reference sample is then determined. A value of this ratio is converted to an absorptivity scale to obtain the absorption spectrum of the sample.
In the quantitative operating portion 12, which is a latter stage of the data-treating portion 3, the concentrations of the ingredients contained in the sample to be measured can be calculated by applying Lambert-Beer's law to the calculated absorption spectrum
Problems have occurred in the prior art where concentrations of a sample can vary across a significant range. Also, when the sample contains multiple ingredients which are to be simultaneously analyzed during a continuous measurement cycle, and the amount of concentration of individual ingredients can vary widely, it is difficult to secure accurate readings These problems frequently occur in the analysis of the by-products of combustion from vehicles
Accordingly, a demand exists in the prior art to address these problems.

Quantitative analytical method and apparatus for spectrometric analysis using wave number data points


Systems and methods for cooling an internal combustion engine via flowing air through the internal combustion engine during select conditions are presented. In one example, lift of intake and/or exhaust poppet valves may be adjusted as a function of engine temperature. In addition, opening and closing timings of intake and exhaust poppet valves may be adjusted as a function of engine temperature.

An engine may be cooled via a liquid coolant. The liquid coolant is typically circulated within a coolant system via a pump. The liquid coolant may pass through the engine where it is heated, after being heated the coolant may flow to a radiator where it may be cooled via ambient air. The liquid coolant may be recirculated back to the engine where it may again cool the engine. Under most conditions, the liquid coolant is more than sufficient to cool the engine. However, there may be times when engine cooling via the engine coolant is insufficient to maintain engine temperature to less than a threshold temperature. For example, if the vehicle is driven over an object that pierces the engine coolant system, the liquid coolant may not be retained in the coolant system. In addition, operation of a thermostat within the engine coolant system may degrade over time such that the thermostat restricts coolant flow from the engine. Consequently, engine temperature may rise above a threshold temperature during these conditions. Therefore, it may be desirable to provide a way of cooling an engine during conditions when engine coolant may be insufficient to cool the engine.
The inventors herein have recognized the above-mentioned issues and have developed an engine control method, comprising: deactivating an engine cylinder in response to an engine temperature exceeding a threshold temperature; and adjusting an amount of lift of an intake valve of the engine cylinder in response to the engine temperature exceeding the threshold temperature.
By deactivating one or more cylinders and adjusting an amount of lift of an intake valve in response to an engine temperature exceeding a threshold temperature, it may be possible to provide the technical result of cooling an engine without flowing excessive amounts of air through the engine. In particular, an amount of air that flows through the engine may be adjusted as a function of engine temperature so that air that flows through the engine and reaches a catalyst may be small enough to allow the catalyst to operate at a higher efficiency level. In addition, the deactivated cylinders that air flows through may be changed from engine cycle to engine cycle so that all cylinders are cooled nearly equally, thereby reducing the possibility of localized higher engine temperatures.
The present description may provide several advantages. In particular, the approach may reduce the possibility of an engine temperature exceeding an upper threshold limit. Further, the approach may provide for improved catalyst efficiency when the engine is being cooled via air flowing through the engine. The approach may also adjust timing of deactivated cylinders to control air flow through the engine so that air flow through the engine may be adjusted to suit engine cooling requirements and to improve catalyst efficiency.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

System and method for reducing engine temperature


Conjugates comprising a drug, cell or biological molecule bound to a photoluminescent polymer nanoparticle, in particular a cross-linked polyfluorene nanoparticle, are described herein, as well as their methods of manufacture and their uses in biological imaging and sensing applications.

Molecular dyes and Quantum Dots (QDs) have previously shown promise in a number of in vitro and in vivo bioimaging applications, where they can be internalized by cells, allowing individual organelles to be stained. However, their propensity for photooxidative degradation, which in the case of QDs can release toxic heavy metal species (e.g. cadmium and lead), ultimately precludes their use in humans or in long-term cell-tracking applications. Moreover, the use of such heavy metals is heavily restricted in certain territories, thereby underlining a need for less-toxic alternatives.
There is therefore a need for viable alternatives to molecular dyes and QDs for biological imaging applications, which are bright, stable, of high purity and are less toxic.
The present invention was devised with the foregoing in mind.


A method, system and apparatus for managing delivery service instructions. A method for managing delivery service instructions can include receiving a telephone call from a customer through a PSTN linkage. Identifying information for the customer can be retrieved through a data communications network linkage without identifying said customer using data derived from the telephone call. As such, the retrieved identifying information can be correlated with the telephone call. Finally, access to apply delivery service management instructions received over the PSTN linkage can be authenticated based upon the identifying information.

1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the management of service delivery instructions for a telephone subscriber, and more particularly to the management of service delivery instructions based upon call processing provided in a public switched telephone network (PSTN).
2. Description of the Related Art
The intelligent network of today bears little semblance to the PSTN of old. In fact, the term "intelligence" has little to do with the operation of the conventional PSTN. Rather, the conventional PSTN of old incorporates a massive complex of switching matrices and transport trunks that, through the electronic equivalent of "brute force", forge the interconnections necessary to call completion. More particularly, for decades for every call processed the PSTN relied upon each successive switch to route a voice signal to the next. Still, the modern volume of calls processed within the conventional PSTN demands a faster, more streamlined approach to call routing.
To overcome the elements of the brute force aspect of the conventional PSTN, physically separate signaling networks have been grafted upon the transport and switching PSTN elements to oversee call set-up and billing. These "out-of-band" adjuncts speed routing data and commands directly to the switches involved, establishing all the necessary links prior to the actual transmission of a call. Consequently, with "out-of-band" signaling the PSTN has become "conscious" of the operations it is to perform prior to their execution. As a result, the PSTN has become a more flexible beast, capable even of substantial logic.
The development of the "out-of-band" protocol, Signaling System 7 (SS7), has led to the widespread deployment of intelligent network technology. In SS7signaling links transmit routing packets between switches. Consequently, specialized SS7 Signaling Transfer Points (STPs) appeared to shepherd routing messages from local switches onto a high-capacity packet switches for distribution to other switches, STPs and call-related databases, such as the Line Information Database (LIDB), the Local Number Portability (LNP) database, the Toll Free Calling database and other databases containing customer information or additional call routing instructions. And, so, the agility of high-speed computer networking began exerting control over the raw power of the PSTN.
The marriage of convenience between SS7and the PSTN soon produced the Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN)—an architecture where centralized databases control call processing. Logic ported via STPs to select switches now have become widely distributed throughout the network. AIN-capable switches also have begun to function as interactive signaling-platforms. Equipped with resident software triggers, AIN capable switches now can halt a call in progress long enough to query Service Control Points (SCPs), databases containing service logic and subscriber information which can provide instruction as to how to route, monitor, or terminate the call. The PSTN of today now effectively includes long-term memory as well as intelligence. Accordingly, the modern local exchange carrier holds the means to deploy such advanced telecommunications features such as telephone number portability, wireless roaming, call waiting and a host of other subscriber options.
The LIDB is a database configured for coupling to the PSTN through an SCP. The LIDB typically includes amorphous records arranged to store information regarding telephone callers, such as the business name of the caller, the address of the caller, billing information for the caller, and the like. By storing invariable information regarding the caller, such as the name, address and billing method, many intelligent telephonic services can be provided over the PSTN through a simple query to the LIDB. In this regard, several local exchange carriers have deployed independent LIDB access services to facilitate the deployment of intelligent telephonic services which can exploit the invariant information stored within the LIDB.
Despite the wealth of information associated with a telephone caller stored in the LIDB, the LIDB seems to remain an untapped resource suitable only for advanced telephony billing applications. Accordingly, many conventional inconveniences remain prevalent in the world of the call center and in the customer service industry. For instance, oftentimes a customer receiving a product for delivery will attempt to manage the delivery of the product by contacting the product vendor for delivery information. The management of the delivery can range from determining a more accurate delivery time to changing the delivery time, the delivery address, the delivery instructions, or the identity of a person authorized to sign for the delivery.
As the delivery of a product can be the last element of control by the vendor applied to the product, the vendor wisely is to remain cautious in permitting the telephonic modification of delivery instructions. To that end, the vendor (or the delivery agency) can require the customer to produce ample evidence of the identity of the customer. Generally, the evidence can include name, home address, phone number, social security number, order number, account number, delivery address, billing address, credit card number, credit card authorization code, a PIN code, and countless other forms of identifying information.
Of course, for the typical customer on the go, access to this type of information can be difficult, particularly when the customer cannot access the requisite paperwork. As a result, customers are forced to speak with several layers of customer service representatives without a guarantee that the customer will be successful in changing or confirming the delivery process for an ordered good or service. In consequence, customers can become irritated conversing with one or more customer service representatives, an interactive voice response system, or both simply to provide identifying information sufficient to manage the delivery of the product or service.

Service delivery instruction processing system and method

International Business Machines Corporation


Proposed herein is a process for preparing thermoplastic elastomers, which comprises dynamically heat treating polymer particles together with a crosslinking agent, each of the polymer particles being composed of a portion comprising a crystalline olefin polymer and portions comprising an amorphous olefin polymer, the polymer particles having an average particle diameter of at least 10 .mu.m and an apparent bulk density of at least 0.2 g/ml.

Heretofore, thermoplastic elastomers have been widely used as materials for the manufacture of automotive parts such as bumper. The thermoplastic elastomers have characteristics of both thermoplasticity and elasticity, and are capable of being formed by injection or extrusion molding into molded articles which are excellent in heat resistance, tensile properties, weatherability, flexibility and elasticity.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-34210 discloses thermoplastic elastomers prepared by partially curing a blend of from 60 to 80 parts by weight of a monoolefin copolymer rubber and from 40 to 20 parts by weight of a polyolefin plastics under dynamical conditions. Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-21021 discloses thermoplastic elastomers comprising (a) a partially crosslinked copolymer rubber comprising a ethylene/propylene/non-conjugated polyene copolymer rubber having a gel content of from 30 to 90% by weight and (b) a polyolefin resin. Further, Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-18448 discloses thermoplastic elastomers prepared by partially or fully curing a blend of an ethylene/propylene copolymer rubber and a polyolefin resin under dynamical conditions.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 58-187412 discloses a crosslinked block copolymer derived from an olefinic copolymer comprising from 50 to 70 parts by weight of one or more blocks [A] selected from homopolymer blocks of propylene and binary random copolymer blocks of propylene and ethylene of a C4-12 .alpha.-olefin and having a propylene content of from 100 to 60% by weight, and from 30 to 50 parts by weight of one or more blocks [B] selected from binary random copolymer blocks of ethylene and propylene and having an ethylene content of from 30 to 85% by weight, said crosslinked block copolymer having a specified content of hot xylene insoluble components and a specified fluidity.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publications Nos. 63-165414, 63-165415 and 63-415416, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,306 disclose a process for preparation of a crosslinked olefinic block copolymer which comprises melt kneading an olefinic block copolymer comprising one or more homopolymer blocks of propylene [A], one or more first binary random copolymer blocks of propylene and ethylene [B]and one or more second binary random copolymer blocks of propylene and ethylene [C] and prepared using a specific Tiegler's catalyst, together with an organic peroxide, a divinyl compound and an antioxidant, at a temperature of not higher than 230 .degree. C.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 48-21731 discloses a method for improving a processability of block copolymers wherein a block copolymer comprising from 3 to 30% by weight of copolymer segments primarily comprised of ethylene and containing up to 70% by weight of at least one other .alpha.-olefin and from 97 to 70% by weight of polymer segments primarily comprised of propylene is admixed with an organic peroxide and the admixture is heat treated at a temperature of from 180.degree. to 270.degree. C.
We have carried out extensive researches on the preparation of thermoplastic elastomers by direct dynamic heat treatment of polymer particles, and found that if polymer particles having a specific morphology are so treated, there can be economically prepared thermoplastic elastomers which are very smooth, excellent in strength and elasticity even though they have a reduced rubber content, and capable of being molded into articles having good appearance, in particular, good appearance after painted. The invention is based on the findings.
Thus, an object of the invention is to provide processes for the preparation of thermoplastic elastomers which have excellent elasticity even with a reduced rubber content and excellent strength, and are capable of being molded to articles which are very uniform, and excellent in strength properties such as tensile strength, heat resistance, weatherability, flexibility, elasticity, surface smoothness, properties of being painted and economy.

Process for preparing thermoplastic elastomers


A heat-sensitive color-developing layer of a heat-sensitive recording medium and a coating liquid for forming the heat-sensitive color-developing layer each contain a leuco dye, a color developing agent and a polyvinyl alcohol resin containing an acetoacetyl group and a sulfonic acid group or a combination of a polyvinyl alcohol resin containing an acetoacetyl group and a polyvinyl alcohol resin containing a sulfonic acid group. Therefore, the heat-sensitive recording medium and the coating liquid for forming the heat-sensitive color-developing layer are excellent in light resistance, and free from unintended color development and discoloration even when exposed to ultraviolet radiation.

Heat-sensitive recording media have a heat-sensitive color-developing layer formed on a support base, for example, by applying an aqueous dispersion containing a leuco dye, a color developing agent and a dispersant on the support base and drying the applied aqueous dispersion. When such a heat-sensitive recording medium is heated, the leuco dye and the color-developing agent are melted and mixed together to react with each other, whereby the heat-sensitive color-developing layer develops a color. There has been developed a heat-sensitive recording medium which employs a polyvinyl alcohol (hereinafter abbreviated as PVA) containing a sulfonic acid group (modified with sulfonic acid) as the dispersant for dispersing the leuco dye and the color-developing agent (see PLT1).
The heat-sensitive recording media are relatively inexpensive, and permit easy maintenance of a recording device. Therefore, the heat-sensitive recording media are used as various recording media such as facsimile paper sheets, POS labels and various tickets. In recent years, the heat-sensitive recording media are often used outdoor and, therefore, exposed to sunlight more often.
When the heat-sensitive recording media are exposed to ultraviolet radiation, however, the chemical structures of the color developing agent, the leuco dye, a sensitizer and the like are changed to develop the color. Problematically, this results in so-called background fogging.
In order to solve the problem associated with light, a technique for providing an intermediate layer containing an aqueous UV-absorbing polymer between the heat-sensitive recording layer (heat-sensitive color-developing layer) and a protection layer has been proposed (see PLT2).
However, a heat-sensitive recording medium according to this technique is insufficient in light resistance. This is supposedly because the leuco dye and the like to be influenced by the light and the UV absorbing agent are contained in different layers, which are spaced from each other.
It is undesirable that the heat-sensitive recording layer (heat-sensitive color-developing layer) contains an organic compound such as the UV absorbing agent. This is because the leuco dye and the color developing agent are liable to be dissolved in the organic compound to react with each other to develop the color, resulting in the background fogging.

Heat-sensitive recording medium, and coating liquid for forming heat-sensitive color-developing layer

THE NIPPON SYNTHETIC CHEMICAL INDUSTRY CO., LTD.


A fuel emulsion blending system and method for operating the same is provided. The disclosed embodiments of the fuel emulsion blending system includes a plurality of fluid circuits, including a hydrocarbon circuit, a fuel emulsion additive circuit, a water circuit and an optional alcohol/methanol circuit. Each of the inlet circuits are adapted for receiving the identified ingredient from a suitable source which optionally may be included as part of the blending system. The disclosed blending system further includes a first blending station adapted to mix the hydrocarbon fuel and fuel emulsion additives and a second blending station adapted to mix the hydrocarbon fuel and additive mixture received from the first blending station together with the water received from the source of water. The disclosed blending system further includes an emulsification station downstream of the blending stations which is adapted to emulsify the mixture of hydrocarbon fuel, additives and water to yield a stable fuel emulsion.

Recent fuel developments have resulted in a number of aqueous fuel emulsions comprised essentially of a carbon based fuel, water, and various additives such as lubricants, emulsifiers, surfactants, corrosion inhibitors, cetane improvers, and the like. These aqueous fuel emulsions may play a key role in finding a cost-effective way for internal combustion engines including, but not limited to, compression ignition engines (i.e. diesel engines) to achieve the reduction in emissions below the mandated levels without significant modifications to the engines, fuel systems, or existing fuel delivery infrastructure.
Advantageously, aqueous fuel emulsions tend to reduce or inhibit the formation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates (i.e. combination of soot and hydrocarbons) by altering the way the fuel is burned in the engine. Specifically, the fuel emulsions are burned at somewhat lower temperatures than a conventional fuels due to the presence of water. This, coupled with the realization that at higher peak combustion temperatures, more NOx are typically produced in the engine exhaust, one can readily understand the advantage of using aqueous fuel emulsions.
A major concern of aqueous fuel emulsions or water blend fuels, however, is the stability of the fuel. As is well known in the art, the constituent parts of such aqueous fuel emulsions have a tendency to separate over time. Blending of the fuel emulsions in a manner to achieve long-term stability is essential if such fuels are to be commercially successful. The problems associated with fuel emulsion separation are very severe inasmuch as most engine operating characteristics are adjusted for a prescribed fuel composition. Where the fuel emulsion composition has changed due to ingredient separation, the engine performance is markedly diminished.
Several related art references have disclosed various devices or techniques for producing or blending a fuel emulsion for internal combustion engines. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,708 (Valentine) discloses a process for forming an emulsion of an aqueous urea solution in diesel fuel and combusting the same for the purposes of reducing NOx emissions from diesel engines. See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,606 (Kunz) discloses an apparatus for producing an emulsion for internal combustion engines that employs an oil line, a water line, a dosing apparatus and various mixing and storage chambers. Another related art process and system for blending a fuel emulsion is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,230 (Argabright) which discloses a specialized process for blending a fuel emulsification system useful for the reduction of NOx in a gas turbine.
The present invention addresses the aforementioned problems associated with separation of aqueous fuel emulsions by providing a blending system and method that enhances the long term stability of such emulsions.


A human lens epithelial cell line capable of expressing an exogeneous immortalizing gene, which is established without infecting with a live virus. A method for producing the human lens epithelial cell line, which comprises transfecting human lens epithelial cells with an expression vector functionally carrying an exogeneous immortalizing gene, and subculturing said cells in a medium. The above-mentioned human lens epithelial cell line wherein the cells proliferate in a temperature sensitive manner. A method for producing a temperature sensitive human lens epithelial cell line, which comprises transfecting human lens epithelial cells with an expression vector functionally carrying an exogeneous immortalizing gene, and subculturing said cells in a medium. Since the human lens epithelial cell line of the present invention is free of infection with a live virus, the cells are useful as biomaterials. Moreover, since the temperature sensitive human lens epithelial cell line of the present invention stops proliferation at about 36.degree. C. or above, it may be used as a biomaterial for regenerating a human lens.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a human lens epithelial cell line and a production method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Various studies have been made to clarify cataract which is the main cause of blindness. A truly efficacious agent for prophylaxis and treatment of cataract has not been developed, and the most effective therapy is currently a surgical extraction of an opacified lens and implantation of an artificial lens (intraocular lens). Artificial lenses are prepared from polymethylmethacrylate, silicone and the like, and may lack bioavailability and biocompatibility, causing ocular inflammation, edema and the like at graft site. Such artificial lenses are under development, which includes, for example, monofocal lenses and multifocal lenses capable of acquiring sight on both far view and near view. Nonetheless, artificial lenses are markedly different in precision, shape and the like from inborn lenses having authentic amplitude of accommodation.
While artificial lenses prepared from inborn materials may be of interest, the peculiarity of the lens in that it is composed of transparent and refractive tissues has hindered the development of artificial lenses made from inborn materials.
Under the circumstances, the present inventor took note of grafting human-originated lens epithelial cells in place of an artificial lens and allowing proliferation and differentiation of said cells at the graft site, thereby to regenerate human lens to cure cataract.
The lens consists of a single cell species inclusive of lens epithelial cells and lens fiber cells resulting from differentiation and elongation of the lens epithelial cells, with its entirety covered by a lens capsule made by collagen in the main. Inasmuch as the lens fiber cells have been known to have lost proliferation potency and disintegrates DNA and nucleus as they become fibrous, lens epithelial cells alone can be actually grafted for regeneration of a lens. The lens epithelial cells of many animal species have been known to differentiate into lens fiber cells in vitro, and have been used for elucidation of differentiation mechanism of cells and studies of cataract.
The human lens epithelial cells have noticeably low proliferation potency when compared to lens epithelial cells of animals such as cow and chicken. Furthermore, lens epithelial cells obtained from adult cataract patients or senile cataract patients are either substantially incapable of culture or barely proliferated even if they permit culture at all. While the lens epithelial cells obtained from infants can be cultured rather easily and the cultured cells can be subcultured several times, their proliferation potency is limited and cytomegalic cells and cell degeneration in a long-term subculture have been reported Reddy V. N. et al., Exp. Eye Res., vol. 47, pp. 465-478 (1988), Ibaraki N. et al., Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., vol. 36, pp. 2304-2312 (1995)!. Consequently, they are not suitable for practical use.
In view of this, it has been tried to make a human lens epithelial cell line. However, spontaneous human lens epithelial cell line has not been obtained. In the meantime, a human lens epithelial cell line has been successfully prepared by infecting human lens epithelial cells with adenovirus 12 in which large T antigen gene derived from simian virus 40 (SV40) known as an immortalizing gene has been incorporated Andley U. P. et al., Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., vol. 35, pp. 3094-3102 (1994)!. This method leads to the production of viruses from said cell line, since cells are infected with a live virus for the introduction of the immortalizing gene. It is an undeniable fact that a patient may be infected with the virus when such cells are grafted, even if the lens should be successfully regenerated.
In this method, moreover, a high efficiency of virus infection makes it difficult to isolate a cell line from a single clone, and the cell population produced as a result may possibly include heterogeneous cells from plural clones of different derivation.
Therefore, the establishment of a safe human lens epithelial cell line has been desired, which is useful for the physiological and biochemical studies of the lens and the development of medicaments for the prevention and treatment of lens diseases such as cataract, and which has homogeneous properties and does not cause viral infections when grafted to living organisms.
When a lens is regenerated by grafting human lens epithelial cells into the living body, proliferation of said human lens epithelial cells need to be stopped at a certain stage and the cells should proceed to differentiation into lens fiber cells. Hence, the establishment of a human lens epithelial cell line has been simultaneously desired, which is capable of terminating the proliferation of the cells at a desired time to induce differentiation.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a monoclonal human lens epithelial cell line having homogeneous property, which is useful for the physiological and biochemical studies of the lens and the development of medicaments for the prevention and/or treatment of lens diseases such as cataract, and which is free of viral infection in patients who underwent cell grafting. Another object of the present invention is to provide the above-mentioned human lens epithelial cell line capable of easy control of cell proliferation.


A method of recording image files to CD. The real-time method of recording digital image files to CD establishes ISO file parameters of a waiting recordable CD, and determines the files' recording location accordingly, with no need for additional hard drive or computer support.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for recording, and in particular to a method and apparatus for recording digital image data to optical disks.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the progress of the Internet and digital image input hardware, more users are utilizing multimedia web pages, thereby causing the rapid development of editing and recording of digital image data, such as JPEG and GIF files. Conventionally, users transfer imagines that obtained from scanner to files, and store them on hard disk. Generally speaking, the size of a digital image file ranges from hundreds of KB to MB (depending on resolution), such that plurality of digital photos are difficult to access by floppy disk or transmit through the internet. Users normally save digital image files on the hard disk and write the image files to an optical disk for backup or viewing.
Recently, digital cameras and digital video recorders are more popular than before, and the capacity of non-volatile memory cards (such as CF card, Smart Media card) and portable drives are significantly increased. Digital photos stored directly to non-volatile memory cards are considerably more popular. There are, however, various formats of non-volatile memory cards. Thus, although there exists disk readers for the different formats, the most popular and convenient data storage medium is the optical disk.
Currently, videoCD players support VCD 2.0 specifications, allowing video and static graphics to be viewed at high resolutions (704×480 Full color) Also, because prices of non-volatile memory cards are still high, users must conserve occupied capacity in digital devices by deleting photos or uploading photos frequently. If a computer is not available, users must delete photos to conserve occupied memory capacity, presenting inconvenience and possible loss of desired data.

Method and apparatus for recording digital image data to optical disks


A sensor device includes a time determining part that determines time point information, and adds the time point information to the output supplied from a part subjected to failure diagnosis and related to generation of a failure detection signal, and to the output related to generation of a sense signal. With this structure, the failure detection signal is correlated with the sense signal by the time point information. Alternatively, the sensor device includes an output circuit that correlates the failure detection signal with the sense signal supplied at the same time point as the failure detection signal, and outputs both signals using a time division method.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sensor device for use in a vehicle, various types of electronic devices, or the like.
2. Background Art
FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an inertial sensor, which is an example of a conventional sensor device. This sensor device includes driving circuits 1A and 1B, sensing element 2, detecting circuits 3A and 3B, processing circuits 4A and 4B, output circuits 5A and 5B, and failure diagnosing circuit 6. Each of driving circuits 1A and 1B outputs a drive signal. Driving circuits 1A and 1B supplies the drive signals to sensing element 2. Sensing element 2 includes an angular velocity detector and an acceleration detector. Each of detecting circuits 3A and 3B extracts a response signal from sensing element 2. Processing circuits 4A and 4B extract sense signals from the response signals extracted from detecting circuits 3A and 3B, respectively. Output circuits 5A and 5B output the sense signals extracted from processing circuits 4A and 4B, respectively. Failure diagnosing circuit 6 determines whether a part subjected to failure diagnosis is normal or abnormal, and outputs a failure detection signal that is based on the results. At least one of detecting circuits 3A and 3B, processing circuits 4A and 4B, and output circuits 5A and 5B is the part subjected to failure diagnosis. Patent Document 1 is known as the document information on a conventional art related to this application, for example.
However, such a conventional sensor device has a problem in improving the reliability thereof. In the above structure, the sense signal is not temporally correlated with the failure detection signal. Thus, the output sense signal cannot be determined precisely in an instant to be a signal in a normal state or a signal at the time of failure. Therefore, it is likely that an object to be controlled according to the output of this sensor device, such as a vehicle, is controlled using a sense signal at the time of failure.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. H08-327363


An application sends primitives to a graphics processing system so that an image of a 3D scene can be rendered. The primitives are placed into primitive blocks for storage and retrieval from a parameter memory. Rather than simply placing the first primitives into a primitive block until the primitive block is full and then placing further primitives into the next primitive block, multiple primitive blocks can be “open” such that a primitive block allocation module can allocate primitives to one of the open primitive blocks to thereby sort the primitives into primitive blocks according to their spatial positions. By grouping primitives together into primitive blocks in accordance with their spatial positions, the performance of a rasterization module can be improved. For example, in a tile-based rendering system this may mean that fewer primitive blocks need to be fetched by a hidden surface removal module in order to process a tile.

Graphics processing systems are used to process graphics data. For example, an application running on a computing system may need to render an image of a three dimensional (3D) scene for display to a user. The application can send graphics data, typically in the form of a sequence of primitives to a graphics processing system which can render the image of the scene in accordance with the primitives.
FIG. 1 shows some elements of a graphics processing system 100 which may be used to render an image of a 3D scene. The graphics processing system 100 comprises a graphics processing unit (GPU) 102 and two portions of memory 1041 and 1042. It is noted that the two portions of memory 1041 and 1042 may, or may not, be parts of the same physical memory, and typically both memories 1041 and 1042 are situated "off-chip", i.e. not on the same chip as the GPU 102. Communication between the memories (1041 and 1042) and the GPU 102 may take place over a conventional communications bus in the system 100, as is known in the art.
In the example shown in FIG. 1, the graphics processing system 100 is a tile-based deferred rendering system, meaning that the rendering space of the system 100 is divided into a plurality of tiles and that hidden surface removal is performed on a primitive fragment prior to performing texturing and/or shading on the primitive fragment in order to render the scene. However, in other examples, graphics processing systems may be non tile-based and/or not deferred rendering systems. The GPU 102 comprises a geometry processing module 106, a tiling module 108 and a rasterization module 110, wherein the rasterization module 110 comprises a hidden surface removal (HSR) module 112 and a texturing/shading module 114. The graphics processing system 100 is arranged such that a sequence of primitives provided by an application is received at the geometry processing module 106. The geometry processing module 106 performs functions such as clipping and culling to remove primitives which do not fall into a visible view or rendering space of the computing system. The geometry processing module 106 may also project the primitives into screen-space. The geometry processing module 106 puts the received primitives into primitive blocks. Each primitive block has a header which includes state information (such as a depth compare mode, a blending state, a texture state, a primitive type, etc.) to describe how the primitives in the primitive block are to be rendered. There are many reasons to split the sequence of primitives into primitive blocks. For example, splitting the sequence of primitives into primitive blocks in this way is useful so that the primitives can be stored and fetched from memory in small, manageable blocks. Furthermore, there may be a limited number of vertices in each primitive block (e.g. up to 64 vertices in each primitive block), so indices of the vertices in a primitive block can be represented with a fixed number of bits, for example only 6 bits are needed for the indices when the primitive block stores up to 64 vertices. Therefore, splitting the sequence of primitives into primitive blocks will reduce the cost of vertex index data storage in computer graphics processing hardware. Furthermore, there are often many primitives which share the same state, so including these primitives in the same primitive block means that they can share the same state information in the header of the primitive block, which may reduce the total amount of state information needed for the primitives. Furthermore, splitting the sequence of primitives into primitive blocks allows for more opportunities to compress the primitive blocks before storing them in a memory. For example, if the first byte of all of the primitives in a primitive block are the same then the primitives can be compressed by storing the data for the first byte just once and an indication that this byte is to be used for every primitive within the primitive block. This is just one example of many ways in which primitive data within a primitive block can be compressed.
As a person skilled in the art will know, the sequence order of the incoming primitives can affect the way in which the scene is rendered. For example, if a plurality of overlapping primitives are translucent then the order in which they are processed will typically affect the way in which in the primitives are blended to form the rendered scene. Therefore, in order to maintain the sequence order of the incoming primitives, the geometry processing module 106 places them into primitive blocks without altering their sequence order. The primitives are initially put into a first primitive block and when the first primitive block is full then it can be output from the geometry processing module 106 and further incoming primitives can be placed into a new primitive block. In this way the sequence order of the primitives is maintained in the primitive blocks that are output from the geometry processing module 106. A primitive block may be considered to be "full" if the number of vertices in the primitive block is greater than or equal to a vertex threshold (e.g. the maximum number of vertices in a primitive block may be 64 or 256 to give two examples) and/or if the number of primitives in the primitive block is greater than or equal to a primitive threshold (e.g. the maximum number of primitives in a primitive block may be 128 or 512 to give two examples).
The primitive blocks which are output from the geometry processing module 106 are passed to the tiling module 108 which determines which primitives are present within each of the tiles of the rendering space of the graphics processing system 100. The tiling module 108 determines per-tile display lists which indicate which primitives are present within each of the tiles of the rendering space. The display lists and the primitive blocks are outputted from the tiling module 108 and stored in the memory 1041. The rasterization block 110 fetches the display list for a tile and the primitive blocks relevant to that tile from the memory 1041 and the HSR module 112 performs hidden surface removal to thereby remove fragments of primitives which are hidden in the scene. The remaining fragments are passed to the texturing/shading module 114 which performs texturing and/or shading on the fragments to determine pixel values of a rendered image which can be passed to the memory 1042 for storage in a frame buffer. The rasterization block 110 processes each of the tiles and when the whole image has been rendered and stored in the memory 1042, the image can be outputted from the graphics processing system 100 and, for example, displayed on a display.

Allocation of primitives to primitive blocks


A monolithic capacitance multiplication circuit serves to reduce the required die area when larger capacitance values are needed such as in filter and loop frequency compensation circuits. A current mirror/cascoding device arrangement reduces the effective series resistance of the multiplier capacitor. As a result, the multiplier topology exhibits improved bandwidth over prior art capacitance multiplier circuits.

The present invention relates to monolithic circuit topologies which function to magnify the apparent size of a capacitor that is used in a AC filtering or compensation applications.
In integrated circuit designs, there is occasionally the need to use a relatively large capacitance to achieve the desired circuit performance. For example, to stabilize the feedback loop found in a phase lock loop or in a linear switch-mode voltage regulator, a low frequency zero can be installed in the loop gain to enhance the phase margin and improve transient response. Larger capacitance values on the order of tens of picofarads or more may be required, depending on the particular loop crossover frequency and circuit impedance levels.
Unfortunately, a substantial die area may be incurred in the construction of these capacitors. In particular, in some 0.6 uM CMOS processes, a poly-poly capacitor may require about 800 μM2 per picofarad of capacitance. Alternatively, larger capacitors may also be placed external to the die, but at the expense of a pin-out increase and reduced convenience at the application level.
A capacitance multiplier circuit in which a smaller monolithic capacitance appears to have the current and □V/□T characteristic of a larger capacitor may be useful in these instances. The reduction in chip area can reduce the IC cost and/or leave extra area for other circuits on the die.
Capacitance multiplier circuits are known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,900,771 and 6,084,475 describe both bipolar and CMOS capacitance multipliers using basic current mirror techniques. In accordance with both of these references, the circuit topology is arranged to sum a capacitive current directly into a diode-connected device (gate and drain tied on MOS or CB in bipolar), which serves as the input side of a mirror structure.
In terms of frequency response, the known mirror-based approaches have a bandwidth limit imposed by the series resistance of the sensing path. At high frequencies, this limit causes the circuit to appear to be resistive rather than to exhibit the desired capacitive behavior. In terms of the AC pole-zero response, a zero is inadvertently inserted by the series resistance. Hence, the range and performance of filter and compensator networks using these multipliers may very well be limited.
By contrast, the present invention employs a cascoded current summing topology, in which a capacitive current is summed into a virtual node formed by the source-drain connection of two transistors. This arrangement reduces the series resistance of the current sensing path. As a consequence, the present multiplier circuit remains capacitive at higher frequencies than are possible using prior art mirror approaches. This attribute is beneficial to the performance of filters and compensator networks in which the capacitance multiplier may be used. In particular, the resulting higher bandwidth permits greater design flexibility since the zero frequency has been pushed higher, often outside of the critical range.
In accordance with the illustrated preferred embodiment of the present invention, a capacitance multiplier circuit is provided having two external nodes (an output node and a return node). Between these two external nodes, the circuit electrically multiplies the apparent size of a capacitor having its first terminal connected to the output node and its second terminal connected to a first internal node of the circuit.
The first internal node is connected to the second terminal of the capacitor and to a first MOS transistor drain terminal and a second MOS transistor source terminal. At a second internal node, the gate of the first MOS transistor is connected to the drain terminal of the second MOS transistor. In addition, the gate terminal of a third MOS transistor is connected to the second internal node together with the first terminal of an external bias current source. The drain and source terminals of the third MOS transistor are connected between the output node and the return node, respectively.
The amount of capacitance multiplication by the circuit of the present invention is determined by a ratio factor K, greater than unity, that is representative of the physical sizes of the first and third transistors. That is, the third transistor is K times larger than the first transistor.

Capacitance multiplier circuit exhibiting improving bandwidth


An alcoholic beverage dispenser for receiving individual containers and dispensing alcohol from one or more of the received containers comprising a base having multiple compartments therein each for receiving the individual containers therein. A valve having a valve stem extending therefrom is coupled around the opening of each individual container and each container is in turn connected with a dispensing system within the base. The dispensing system receives liquid from each individual container and dispenses the received liquid through a receiving outlet such as a tap, drink dispenser, or an individual glass.

Federal regulations prohibit the sale of distilled alcoholic beverages in containers larger than 1.75 liters. This regulation requires restaurants, bars, and similar establishments to open multiple alcoholic beverage containers in a short amount of time, e.g., a bartender must continuously open and connect new containers with beverage dispensers such as taps, bottle spouts, fountain dispensers, etc. For example, an establishment serving margaritas will require a large amount of tequila in a short amount of time in order to serve a busy crowd during happy hour, etc. A bartender must spend an inordinate amount of time opening and connecting subsequent bottles, thereby reducing time available for other duties such as taking orders, preparing and serving drinks, etc.
The present invention comprises an alcoholic beverage dispenser which overcomes the foregoing and other difficulties which have long since characterized the prior art. In accordance with the broader aspects of the invention an alcoholic beverage dispenser comprises a base having multiple compartments for receiving individual beverage containers therein and a dispensing system for simultaneously dispensing alcoholic beverages from the individual beverage containers.
In accordance with more specific aspects of the invention the dispensing system comprises valves for coupling the opening of each individual beverage container to a delivery system, the valve having a gear wheel thereabout and a valve stem extending therefrom. The valves seat into a valve receiving plate having a lanyard equipped with gear engaging beads for engaging the gear wheels of each valve as the lanyard is rotated in a counterclockwise direction thereby facilitating the flow of liquid from within each individual beverage container. Accordingly, the lanyard may be rotated such that liquid may be flowing simultaneously from one or more individual beverage containers. The valve stem is received into one of a plurality of receiving stems comprising a manifold located beneath the valve receiving plate. The manifold comprises a connector at one end for connecting the dispensing system with a receiving outlet and a control valve for controlling the flow of liquid through the connector into the receiving outlet.
The alcoholic beverage dispenser of the present invention enables a bartender to install multiple individual beverage containers the beverage container and thereafter dispense the alcoholic beverage contained within the multiple containers without requiring removal, replacement, or reconnection of additional individual beverage containers.


An apparatus and method of transmitting/receiving a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) is disclosed. The present invention enables ARQ and HARQ to be applied to the MBMS transmission, thereby enabling more efficient data transmissions at a greater rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS), and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving an MBMS using Automatic Repeat Request (ARC) and Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ). Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for providing a multicast transmission using adaptive modulation and channel coding and Hybrid ARQ to a wireless mobile user equipment to enable the user equipment to receive high-speed multicast data.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a network structure of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). A UMTS includes user equipment (hereinafter abbreviated UE), a UMTS terrestrial radio access network (hereinafter abbreviated UTRAN), and a core network (hereinafter abbreviated CN).
The UTRAN includes at least one radio network sub-system (hereinafter abbreviated RNS). The RNS includes one radio network controller (hereinafter abbreviated RNC) and at least one base station (hereinafter called Node B) managed by the RNC. At least one or more cells exist in one Node B.
FIG. 2 illustrates an architectural diagram of a radio interface protocol between one UE and a UTRAN. A radio interface protocol vertically includes a physical layer, a data link layer, and a network layer and horizontally includes a user plane for data information transfer and a control plane for signaling transfer. The protocol layers in FIG. 2 can be divided into L1 (first layer), L2 (second layer) and L3 (third layer) based on three lower layers of the open system interconnection (OSI) standard model widely known in the communications systems.
The physical layer (hereinafter named PHY) offers information transfer services to an upper layer using physical channels. The physical layer is connected to a medium access control (hereinafter abbreviated MAC) layer above the physical layer via transport channels. Data are transferred between the MAC layer and the PHY layer via a transport channel. Data are transferred between different physical layers, and more specifically, between one physical layer of a transmitting side and the other physical layer of a receiving side via physical channels.
The MAC layer of the second layer offers services to a radio link control layer above the MAC layer via logical channels. The radio link control (hereinafter abbreviated RLC) layer of the second layer supports reliable data transfer and performs segmentation and concatenation of RLC service data units (hereinafter abbreviated SDU) sent down from an upper layer.
A radio resource control (hereinafter abbreviated RRC) layer located on a lowest part of the third layer is defined in the control plane only and is associated with configuration, reconfiguration and release of radio bearers (hereinafter abbreviated RB) for controlling the logical, transport and physical channels. A RB is a service offered to the second layer for the data transfer between the UE and the UTRAN. The configuration of a RB is a process of regulating characteristics of protocol layers and channels necessary for offering a specific service and a process of setting their specific parameters and operational methods, respectively.
A multimedia broadcast/multicast service (hereinafter abbreviated MBMS) offers a streaming or background service to a plurality of UEs using a downlink dedicated MBMS bearer service. One MBMS includes at least one session, and MBMS data are transmitted to a plurality of the UEs via the MBMS bearer service only during an ongoing session.
A UTRAN offers the MBMS bearer service to a UE via a radio bearer. The types of RB used by the UTRAN include a point-to-point radio bearer and a point-to-multipoint radio bearer. A point-to-point radio bearer is a bi-directional radio bearer and includes a logical channel DTCH (dedicated traffic channel), a transport channel DCH (dedicated channel) and a physical channel DPCH (dedicated physical channel) or a physical channel SCCPCH (secondary common control physical channel). A point-to-multipoint radio bearer is a unidirectional downlink radio bearer.
FIG. 3 illustrates channel mapping for MBMS. A point-to-multipoint radio bearer includes a logical channel MTCH (MBMS traffic channel), a transport channel FACH (forward access channel) and a physical channel SCCPCH. The logical channel MTCH is configured for each MBMS offered to one cell and is used in transmitting user-plane data of a specific MBMS to a plurality of UEs.
A logical channel MCCH (MBMS control channel) is a point-to-multipoint downlink channel used in transmitting control information associated with the MBMS. The logical channel MCCH is mapped to the transport channel FACH (forward access channel), while the transport channel FACH is mapped to the physical channel SCCPCH (secondary common control physical channel). One MCCH exists within one cell.
The UTRAN offering the MBMS transmits MCCH information to a plurality of UEs via the MCCH. The MCCH information includes a notification message associated with the MBMS, for example, an RRC message associated with the MBMS. The MCCH information may include a message that indicates MBMS information, a message that notifies point-to-multipoint radio bearer information or access information indicating that an RRC connection is requested for a specific MBMS.
FIG. 4 illustrates a transmission system of MCCH information. The MCCH information is periodically transmitted according to a modification period and a repetition period.
The MCCH information is divided into critical information and non-critical information. The non-critical information can be freely modified each modification period or each repetition period. The modification of the critical information can be made only each modification period. Specifically, the critical information is repeated one time each repetition period and the transmission of the modified critical information is possible at a start point of the modification period only.
The UTRAN periodically transmits a physical channel MICH (MBMS notification indicator channel) to indicate whether the MCCH information is updated during the modification period. Therefore, a UE attempting to receive only one specific MBMS does not receive the MCCH or MTCH until a session of the service begins, but receives MICH (MBMS notification indicator channel) periodically. For reference, the update of the MCCH information means a generation, addition, modification or removal of a specific item of the MCCH information.
FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of a process for executing an MBMS according to the related art. Once a session of a specific MBMS begins (S51), a UTRAN transmits an NI (notification indicator) to a UE attempting to receive a specific MBMS (S52). The NI indicates that an MCCH channel should be received. The UE, having received the NI via an MICH, receives an MCCH for a specific modification period indicated by the MICH.
A UE attempting to receive a specific MBMS using a point-to-multipoint radio bearer receives MCCH information including radio bearer information via an MCCH and then configures the point-to-multipoint radio bearer using the received information (S53). After completion of configuring the point-to-multipoint radio bearer, the UE keeps receiving a physical channel SCCPCH, to which an MTCH is mapped, in order to acquire data of the specific MBMS transmitted via the MTCH (S54). If a session ends (S55), the configured point-to-multipoint radio bearer is released (S56).
FIG. 6 illustrates a method of transmitting MBMS data discontinuously via MTCH. A UTRAN periodically transmits a scheduling message to a UE via an SCCPCH (SCCPH carrying MTCH) to which an MTCH is mapped. The scheduling message indicates a transmission start point and transmission section of MBMS data transmitted during one scheduling period. The UTRAN should previously inform the UE of a transmission period (scheduling period) of scheduling information.
The UE acquires the scheduling period from the UTRAN, receives the scheduling message periodically according to the acquired scheduling period, and then receives the SCCPCH (SCCPH carrying MTCH) to which the MTCH is mapped. The SCCPCH is received discontinuously and periodically using the received scheduling message. Specifically, the UE, using the scheduling message, receives the SCCPCH carrying the MTCH during a timing section for which the data is transmitted but does not receive the SCCPCH carrying the MTCH during a time section for which the data is not transmitted. The method is advantageous in that the UE can efficiently receive the data to reduce its battery consumption.
An HS-DSCH transmission of transmitting high-speed data in downlink to one UE is explained as follows.
An HS-DSCH has a 2 ms transmission time interval (hereinafter abbreviated TTI) (3 slot) and supports various modulation code sets (hereinafter abbreviated MCSs) for a high data rate. By selecting an MCS most suitable for a channel status, an optimal throughput is provided. HARQ is adopted to enable a reliable transmission. HARQ involves combining ARQ and channel coding.
FIG. 7 illustrates an HS-DSCH protocol stack according to the related art. A data unit delivered from an RLC layer of a serving radio network controller (hereinafter abbreviated SRNC) is delivered to an MAC-d entity managing a dedicated channel via a logical channel DTCH (dedicated traffic channel) or DCCH (dedicated control channel). The data unit is then passed through a MAC-c/sh/m of a controlling radio network controller (hereinafter abbreviated CRNC) to deliver the corresponding data to a MAC-hs of a Node B. The MAC-d is an entity that manages the dedicated channel. The MAC-c/sh/m is an entity that manages a common channel. The MAC-hs is a MAC entity that manages the HS-DSCH.
A physical channel HS-PDSCH is used for delivering the HS-DSCH, which is a transport channel. A spreading factor of the HS-PDSCH is fixed at 16 and the HS-PDSCH corresponds to one channelization code selected from a channelization code set prepared for a HS-DSCH data transmission. When performing a multi-code transmission for one UE, a plurality of channelization codes are assigned during the same HS-PDSCH sub-frame.
FIG. 8 illustrates a HS-DSCH sub-frame and slot according to the related art. A HS-PDSCH transfers QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) or 16-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) modulation symbols. In FIG. 8, "M" designates a bit number per modulation symbol. For QPSK, "M" is equal to 2 (M=2) and for 16-QAM, "M" is equal to 4 (M=4).
FIG. 9 illustrates a channel configuration according to the related art. A transmission of HS-DSCH control information is needed to transfer user data via an HS-DSCH. The information is transmitted via a downlink high-speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH). An uplink HS-DPCCH transfers uplink feedback signaling associated with a downlink HS-DSCH data transmission. A DPCH (dedicated physical channel) is a bidirectional physical channel to which a transport channel DCH is mapped. The DPCH is used to deliver dedicated data of a UE and L1 control information dedicated to a UE, such as a power control signal necessary for closed loop power control.
An F-DPCH (fractional dedicated physical channel) is a downlink channel for transferring several DPCHs using one channelization code. One F-DPCH does not transfer UE dedicated data for several UEs but rather is used to transfer UE-dedicated L1 control information for several UEs, such as the power control signal necessary for the closed loop power control. If the downlink F-DPCH exists, the downlink F-DPCH interfaces with an uplink DPCH. A plurality of UEs share the F-DPCH for use via one channel code. Each of the UEs is provided with an uplink DPCH.
FIG. 10 is a structural diagram of a sub-frame of HS-PDSCH according to the related art. A downlink HS-SCCH is a downlink physical channel transferred with a spreading factor set to 128 such that the data rate is 60 kbps. Information transferred over the downlink HS-SCCH can be classified into transport format and resource related information (hereinafter abbreviated TFRI) and HARQ related information. UE identity (H-RNTI) information, which indicates to which user the corresponding information belongs, is masked for transfer.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an HS-SCCH coding method according to the related art. HS-SCCH information for HS-SCCH coding is illustrated in Table TBD. HARQ and UE ID information is illustrated in Table II.
TABLE IChannelization-code-set information (7 bits): xccs 1, xccs 2, . . . , xccs 7Modulation scheme information (1 bit): xms 1Transport-block size information (6 bits): xtbs 1, xtbs 2, . . . , xtbs 6
TABLE IIHybrid-ARQ process information (3 bits): xhap 1, xhap 2, xhap 3Redundancy and constellation version (3 bits): xrv 1, xrv 2, xrv 3New data indicator (1 bit): xnd 1UE identity (16 bits): xue 1, xue 2, . . . , xue 16
FIG. 12 is a structural diagram of a frame of uplink HS-DPCCH according to the related art. An uplink HS-DPCCH transfers uplink feedback signaling associated with a downlink HS-DSCH data transmission.
The HS-DPCCH is a channel dedicated to a specific UE and interfaces with an uplink DPCH (dedicated physical channel) and a downlink DPCH (dedicated physical channel). The feedback signaling includes ACK (acknowledgement) or NACK (negative acknowledgement) information for HARQ and a CQI (channel quality indicator). A frame of the HS-DPCCH includes five sub-frames, each of which has a length of 2 ms. Each of the sub-frames includes three slots.
The ACK/NACK information for HARQ is transmitted for a first slot of the HS-DPCCH sub-frame. The CQI is transmitted for second and third slots of the HS-DSCH sub-frame.
The HS-DPCCH is always transmitted together with UL DPCCH. The CQI delivers status information of a downlink radio channel. The status information is obtained from a measurement of a downlink CPICH (common pilot channel) by a UE. The ACK/NACK indicates the ACK or NACK information for a user data packet transmission transmitted over a downlink HS-DSCH by the HARQ mechanism.
However, related art methods provide a maximum data rate for MBMS of only 256 Kbps, which corresponds to a maximum speed of one SCCPCH. Therefore, the related art methods are unable to provide an MBMS having a data rate greater than 256 Kbps. Furthermore, since an uplink channel for the MBMS is not provided, related art systems are unable to deliver information (ACK or NACK) in response to the MBMS transmission.
Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus and method to provide MBMS at a data rate greater than 256 Kbps and allow ACK/NACK information to be provided in response to the MBMS transmission. The present invention addresses these and other needs.

Apparatus and method of transmitting/receiving MBMS


Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for recognizing a specific subject from a still image or a moving image at a high speed. An object of the apparatus and the method is to reduce the amount of information required for image recognition. One feature vector value is extracted by using one feature template for dividing an image into a plurality of areas, and learning and image recognition is performed with respect to a subject to be recognized in the image using the extracted feature vector value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for recognizing an image, and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for recognizing a specific subject from a still image or a moving image at a high speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to recognize a specific subject from an image, a device for recognizing an image must receive learning data for the image and information about candidate areas used for distinguishing the specific object from other objects in the image. At this time, the use of both subject information and pixel information about the candidate area requires a great amount of time and computing power.
For this reason, the conventional technique uses either feature information or edge information about a concerned area used for determining a certain subject instead of inputting all pieces of information about the concerned area, thereby reducing the amount of information required for image recognition. Thus, various schemes for reducing the amount of information may exist according to schemes of extracting feature information. However, the schemes for reducing the amount of information determine a subject using either feature information or an intrinsic vector and an intrinsic value extracted from an edge image. In the conventional technique, even when the minimum size of a candidate area used for determining a subject is, for example, 64×64 pixels, the number of the pixels is 4096. The 4096 pixels become 20480 dimensions when they are multiplied by the dimensions of x and y coordinates and RGB. If a candidate area having an amount of information larger than an amount of information of 64×64 pixels is employed, the dimension of input information may be within the range of several hundreds of thousands to several millions.
This great amount of information degrades the performance of a device for recognizing an image and requires a great amount of initial learning time. In addition, an image having this great amount of information is not suitable for both a portable terminal having little computing power and a server environment over a network.
A variety of typical schemes for finding an edge image used for reducing the amount of information required for recognizing an image only extract more detailed edge information, but actually do not reduce an amount of input information.

Apparatus and method for recognizing an image


A method for tile-based rendering may include verifying a size of a memory available in an apparatus for rendering, and determining a number of buffers required for performing a rendering based on graphics data input, and may further include determining a size of a tile to be used for performing the rendering based on the determined number of buffers and the size of the memory available.

1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to a method and apparatus for rendering, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for tile-based rendering.
2. Description of the Related Art
A display device representing an image in a two-dimensional (2D) setting may represent a three-dimensional (3D) model more realistically, using 3D graphics. Research into providing information using the 3D graphics is being conducted because an effect of representing the 3D model more realistically may be achieved.
In a case of representing the 3D model using the 3D graphics, the display device to be viewed by a user may provide a 2D screen. Accordingly, there is a need for a process of converting the 3D model into the 2D screen viewed from a viewpoint of the user. As such, in the converting of the 3D model into the 2D screen, multiple graphic calculations may be used.
The method for tile-based rendering may divide a screen into a small basic unit, such as a tile, and perform a rendering on the tile. In the method for tile-based rendering, a memory space required for a geometry processing may be difficult to be estimated. Further, an external memory as well as an internal memory may need to be used because a significant size of a result produced by the geometry processing. When a small tile is used, the significant size of the result produced by the geometry processing may increase. Correspondingly, use of the external memory may grow due to the increase of the significant size of the result produced by the geometry processing. Accordingly, a size of the tile may be of crucial importance in utilizing a memory.

Method and apparatus for tile-based rendering


Provided is a transmission electron diffraction measurement apparatus including an electron gun; a first optical system under the electron gun; a sample chamber under the first optical system; a second optical system under the sample chamber; an observation chamber under the second optical system; a region that emits light by receiving energy from an electron in the observation chamber; and a camera facing the region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transmission electron diffraction measurement apparatus and a method for measuring a transmission electron diffraction pattern. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for measuring change in a transmission electron diffraction pattern of a substance.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an oxide semiconductor film has attracted attention. For example, a transistor which includes an amorphous In—Ga—Zn oxide film is disclosed (see Patent Document 1). An oxide semiconductor film can be formed by a sputtering method or the like, and thus can be used for a semiconductor film of a transistor in a large display device. Moreover, a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film has a high field-effect mobility; therefore, a high-performance display device where driver circuits are formed over the same substrate can be obtained. In addition, there is an advantage that capital investment can be reduced because part of production equipment for a transistor including an amorphous silicon film can be retrofitted and utilized.
Synthesis of a single crystal In—Ga—Zn oxide is reported in 1985 (see Non-Patent Document 1). Furthermore, it is reported that an In—Ga—Zn oxide has a homologous structure and is represented by a composition formula, InGaO3(ZnO)m (m is a natural number) (see Non-Patent Document 2).
A transistor which includes a crystalline In—Ga—Zn oxide film and has excellent electrical characteristics and reliability as compared to a transistor including an amorphous In—Ga—Zn oxide film is reported (see Non-Patent Document 3). Non-Patent Document 3 reports that a clear crystal grain boundary is not observed in an In—Ga—Zn oxide film including a c-axis aligned crystal (CAAC).
It is known that a crystal grain boundary in a semiconductor film adversely affects the electrical characteristics of a. transistor. There is a possibility that a crystal structure in which a crystal grain boundary is not clearly observed, such as an In—Ga—Zn oxide film including CAAC, is a novel crystal structure.

Transmission electron diffraction measurement apparatus and method for measuring transmission electron diffraction pattern

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to receive a request for data from a multi-dimensional cube divided into partitions distributed across nodes supporting a shared nothing distributed multi-dimensional database. The request is transformed into physical access layer operators in a tree structure. The tree structure is reduced into an index scan operator.

Distributed computing refers to hardware and software systems containing multiple processing elements and concurrent processes running under loose control. In particular, in distributed computing, a program is split into parts that run simultaneously on multiple computers communicating over a network. Shared nothing architecture distributed computing refers to a computing architecture where each node in the network is independent and self-sufficient. Such a system stands in contrast to a large amount of centrally-stored information, such as in a database or data warehouse.
A query processing task to be performed in a distributed environment is split into operators. An operator is a unit of work to complete a sub-task associated with the task. The unit of work may be an operational code (opcode) or set of opcodes. An opcode is the portion of a machine language instruction that specifies an operation to be performed. The specification and format of an operator are defined by the instruction set architecture of the underlying processor. A collection of operators forms a data processing operation that executes in a pipelined fashion.
An operator works on objects. As used herein, an object refers to operands or data that are processed by an operator. In a distributed computing environment, objects are commonly processed as batches, partitions, keys and rows. A batch is a large collection of data (e.g., 1 billion rows). Partitions define the division of data within a batch. Keys correlate a set of data within a partition. Each key has an associated set of data, typically in one or more rows, also called tuples.
Shared nothing architecture distributed computing holds great promise because of its scalability. However, the sizes of the batches of data handled in such environments creates many challenges with respect to storing and accessing the data. In addition, processing queries for the data is challenging. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide improved data storage, access and query processing in a shared nothing architecture distributed computing system.

Apparatus and method for processing multi-dimensional queries in a shared nothing system through tree reduction


A motor controller controls a motor's rotational speed using sensed back electromagnetic force (back EMF) of the motor. The sensed back EMF is presumed to contain an error component caused by series resistance in the motor coil. A velocity sense signal is continually generated representing the sum of the measured back EMF and an error-cancelling quantity equal to the current in the coil scaled according to a gain-control signal stored in the controller. During the first part of a calibration operation, the coil current is set to zero until a time T.sub.1 at which the coil current is substantially zero and the motor velocity is substantially constant. The value of the velocity sense signal is stored at the time T.sub.1, this value representing the zero-current back EMF of the coil. A current pulse of predetermined magnitude and duration is then provided to the coil such that at a predetermined equal-speed time during the pulse the coil current is non-zero and the motor speed is substantially equal to the motor speed at time T.sub.1. At the equal-speed time, the gain-control signal is set to a calibrated value which causes the velocity sense signal to be equal to the zero-current back EMF value, so that the error-cancelling component is sufficient to remove the series resistance error. The calibrated gain-control signal is used during subsequent normal operation of the motor.

The present invention is related to the field of motor controllers.
Motor controllers are employed to control the rotational speed of a motor. One type of controller relies upon a measurement of the back electromagnetic force (back EMF) appearing across a motor coil to obtain an indication of motor speed. In theory, the back EMF value is proportional to the motor's speed. The controller compares the back EMF measurement to a velocity command signal in order to sense deviation of the motor's actual speed from the desired speed, and in response adjusts the drive applied to the motor to correct for the speed deviation.
In reality, the back EMF measured across a motor coil is not perfectly proportional to the motor's rotational speed. One factor responsible for the imperfection is the non-zero series resistance of the motor coil. While the ideal motor coil has zero resistance, a real coil can have several ohms of resistance. This is true, for example, in voice-coil motors commonly used as actuators for read/write heads in computer disk drives. When a non-zero current is flowing in the coil, a non-zero voltage component equal to the product of the current and the resistance appears in the measured back EMF. The measured back EMF, then, can be viewed as the sum of an this error component and an ideal back EMF to which the motor rotational speed is proportional.
In some motor controllers, the presence of this error in the back EMF measurement is ignored. In these controllers the error is safely ignored because the resulting error in motor speed is within specified speed deviation limits for the application in which the motor is used.
In some applications, however, it is desirable to more accurately control motor speed. In such applications the back EMF measurement error is unacceptable. One example is the case mentioned of a voice-coil motor for a head actuator. It is important to accurately control the speed of a read/write head as it is being loaded onto a disk, so that the head does not strike the disk hard and cause damage. Similarly, it is important to avoid striking the head against a head stop when retracting the head from the disk. In applications like a head actuator in which greater motor speed accuracy is required, it is necessary to minimize the error component from the back EMF measurement.

Calibration technique to remove series resistance errors in the sensed back EMF of a motor