An attachment structure for an urging member includes an attachment member and a ring-like bushing. The attachment member has an insertion hole. The bushing is press-fitted in the insertion hole. The urging member includes an attached portion inserted in an inner side of the bushing. The bushing has a first portion arranged in the insertion hole and a second portion located outside the insertion hole. An inner diameter of the first portion is smaller than an inner diameter of the second portion.

The present invention relates to a structure for attaching an urging member, such as a coil spring, to an attachment member via a bushing.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-142484 discloses a structure for attaching a metal back spring to a metal frame embedded in the seat back of a vehicle seat. The attachment structure includes a plastic bushing, which is arranged in the frame having an insertion hole. The back spring is attached to the frame via the bushing.
Other conventional attachment structures for urging members include, for example, the structure illustrated in FIGS. 20 and 21. In this attachment structure, as illustrated in FIG. 20, an attached portion 111 of an urging member 110 is inserted in an insertion hole 101 formed in a plate-like attachment member 100. The urging member 110 is thus attached to the attachment member 100. A bushing 120 is attached to the insertion hole 101. The bushing 120 includes a first bushing forming member 121 and a second bushing forming member 122.
With reference to FIG. 20, the first bushing forming member 121 includes a first cylindrical portion 121a and a flange portion. The first cylindrical portion 121a is press-fitted into the insertion hole 101 of the attachment member 100 from below as viewed in FIG. 20. The flange portion extends from the basal end (the lower end portion as viewed in the drawing) of the first cylindrical portion 121a. The second bushing forming member 122 has a second cylindrical portion 122a and a flange portion 122b. The second cylindrical portion 122a is fitted into the inner space of the first cylindrical portion 121a from above the attachment member 100 (from above as viewed in FIG. 20). The flange portion 122b extends from the basal end (the upper end portion as viewed in the drawing) of the second cylindrical portion 122a. As illustrated in FIG. 21, a plurality of through holes 122c are formed and arranged circumferentially at the radially inner side of the flange portion 122b, which is connected to the second cylindrical portion 122a.
Referring to FIG. 20, the attached portion 111 of the urging member 110 is inserted into the inner side of the second cylindrical portion 122a. Since the attached portion 111 is bent, the attached portion 111 contacts inner side surfaces of opposite axial ends of the second cylindrical portion 122a.
In the attachment structure illustrated in FIGS. 20 and 21, an excessive load applied to the bushing 120 by the urging member 110 may deform contact sections 123, each of which is a section of the second bushing forming member 122 that contacts the attached portion 111 of the urging member 110. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 21, the attached portion 111 may contact the inner circumferential surface of the basal end of the second cylindrical portion 122a and one of the insertion holes 122c may be located radially outward of the contact sections 123. In this case, if an excessive load is applied to one of the contact sections 123 by the attached portion 111, the load of the attached portion 111 deforms the contact section 123 radially outward, thus causing the attached portion 111 to bite into the second bushing forming member 122. In this state, when the attached portion 111 moves in the direction represented by the arrow of a broken line in FIG. 21, the force produced by such movement of the attached portion 111 may act on the second bushing forming member 122, thus causing the bushing 120 to co-rotate with the attached portion 111. This may cause the bushing 120 to slide on the attachment member 100, thus generating noise from such sliding.


Provided are methods for determining an axis of best vision of an eye or for objectively determining a visual axis of an eye and for making the most accurate measurement of refraction. Generally, an optical measuring device or instrument projects laser beams into the eye during a scan. Positions of the projected beams are detected and measured on the retina to produce a set of projections. Wave front tilt of radiation that is backscattered from the retina is calculated as a best fit from the set of projections. The axis of best vision or the visual axis is reconstructed from a set of those traces of chief rays exiting from the eye that cross the nodal point of the optical system of the eye and that are normal to the wave front tilts. Measuring with the Styles Crawford scans centered over this axis provides the most accurate objective refraction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of ophthalmic instruments that are used to examine the eye. More specifically, the present invention relates to ophthalmic examination instruments that measure and characterize the properties of the eye with high accuracy of their localization.
2. Description of the Related Art
The eye is not an ideal optical system and, therefore, different reference axes can be used to describe its properties in a 3D space. These properties cannot be comparable unless they are calculated with respect to the same reference axis. Four axes are used: optical axis, pupillary axis, line of sight, and visual axis. Similarly to the perfect optical systems, the optical axis of the eye crosses the optical centers of two main optical components, the cornea and the crystalline lens.
In the first steps of aberrometry development, the sub-commission of the Optical Society of America (OSA) working group recommended to the ophthalmic community to use the line of sight as the reference axis for the purposes of calculating and measuring the ocular optical aberrations (1). One of the arguments was that the center of the pupil can be easily designated. In parallel, the visual axis was often taken for the reference, especially in corneal topography, because it was easily identified using Purkinje reflections from the anterior cornea. Having different reference axes in corneal topography, in optical coherence tomography, in aberrometry, in refractometry, etc., caused difficulties when trying to integrate the data from separate instruments. The surgeons discovered worse vision correction in patients with higher angle kappa, i.e., higher angular distance between the pupillary axis and visual axis.
The cause of such statistics was the usage of an incorrect reference axis when performing the surgery. Usually, the eye is pupillary centered during the surgery, meanwhile, the imaging in the eye is taking place through the nodal point which is the case when measuring the aberrations. The major reason for this is the current misconception among many laser companies and surgeons that ablations are centered on the entrance pupil centre instead of the visual axis. In eyes with a large angle kappa, centering the ablation on the entrance pupil centre will result in the creation of a new vertex, whereas the natural vertex is maintained if the ablation is centered on the corneal vertex (2).
In the US Patent Publication 20100114076, a method of performing refractive laser eye surgery on a human eye is disclosed where the ablation pattern is centered along the visual axis, rather than along the line of sight. A wavefront, either ocular, corneal or a combination thereof, is generated by a wavefront sensor centered along the line of sight. Then, an analysis pupil is determined that is centered along the visual axis at the point of intersection with the cornea. The reconstruction of the measured wavefront is done through a least squares fit of a series of slopes from the measured wavefront and/or through the transformation of aberration coefficients. Finally, an ablation pattern, or a lenticule generation pattern, to be performed by a refractive laser centered on the corneal intersect of the visual axis, is produced in accordance with the reconstructed wavefront. However, there is no disclosure on how a new, analysis pupil is determined nor how the point of corneal intersection is found.
In practice, the visual axis is determined subjectively. The patient is asked to orient his sight to overlay two targets, near and far, positioned on the optical axis of the measuring instrument. With this orientation of the eye, measurement of eye parameters is made, for example, with a ray tracing aberrometer (3). Simultaneously, an image of the pupil is registered. On this image, the position of the optical axis of the measuring instrument is identified as the center of the set of measuring laser beams. This position is taken also for reference to identify the visual axis of the eye.
A drawback of this approach is in the uncertainty of its subjective procedure. The accuracy depends on a subjective patient's estimate, not on objective measurement. Subjective judgement is difficult because it is impossible for both points to be in focus for the patient. However, objective measurements allow one to determine the point of the corneal intersection by the visual axis, and to take into account a corresponding shift of eye parameters respectively the pupil, and to use these data to measure any other characteristics of the eye, or to correct the refraction map for vision correction by means, for example, of the corneal tissue ablation.
Thus, there is a recognized need in the art for improved methods for determining the trace of the visual axis objectively without depending on a patient's estimates. Particularly, the prior art is deficient in methods for objectively determining the axis of best vision of the eye. The present invention fulfills this longstanding need and desire in the art.

Methods for objectively determining the visual axis of the eye and measuring its refraction


An apparatus for generating a phase delay is disclosed. The apparatus includes a buffer utilized for buffering an input signal and then outputting an output signal; a digital to analog converter (DAC) utilized for converting a digital value representative of phase delay into a corresponding control voltage and outputting a control voltage; and a variable capacitor that has a capacitance value controlled by the control voltage. By controlling the variable capacitance value, the apparatus for generating a phase delay can adjust the phase delay between the input signal and the output signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for generating a phase delay, and more specifically, to an apparatus for generating a phase delay, which can compensate a phase difference between input signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many types of circuits, such as clock generators or RF transceivers, require signals with phase of high precision because imprecise signal phases have a large impact on the whole system performance. In regards to a multiphase clock generator, the precision of each output signal phase is also very important. The larger the phase error is, the larger the jitter of output clock signal(s) may be. For systems in need of precise clock signals, such jitter may result in serious performance degradation in circuits of the following stages, such as erroneous sampling operation of an ADC (analog to digital converter) or an increased bit error rate.
When designing a circuit, it is necessary to be very cautious when considering routing paths that involve signals in need of highly precise signal phases. However, because a number of factors, such as temperature, manufacturing process variations and fluctuations in supply voltage, cannot be completely controlled, conventional VLSI circuits alone usually cannot provide precise phase delays, necessitating the use of additional mechanisms to correct the shifts in signal phases.
One of the techniques of phase adjusting is, by charging/discharging a capacitor, to insert an RC delay to a signal transmitted to circuits in the next stage. In general, a plurality of switches are respectively utilized to connect/disconnect a plurality of capacitors, so as to adjust the capacitance value, and the capacitance value in conjunction with a buffer is utilized to provide an RC delay to delay the phase of the signal.
Please refer to FIG. 1. OLE_LINK1FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of such a typical apparatus 100 for generating a phase delay. OLE_LINK1 The apparatus 100 contains a plurality of capacitors, a plurality of switches, and a buffer, and is utilized to generate an output signal by delaying an input signal. By turning on different combinations of switches, the capacitance value seen at a node N of the circuit can be adjusted. Turning on more switches results in a higher capacitance value at the node N, which in turn increases the amount of phase delay in the input signal.
In order to precisely control the phase delay of the transmitted signal, it is desirable that the capacitance and the resistance of the above-mentioned plurality of switches are of such insignificant values that they can be ignored when compared to the capacitance value of the plurality of capacitors and the resistance value of the buffer. Reason being if the parasitic capacitance value and resistance value brought by the switches are too large, the amount of RC delay may deviate from designated values, which is not desirable in circuit operation.
However, along with advances in technologies, a need for even further fine control of signal phase delay emerges, which in turn necessitate the use of devices (capacitors, buffers, etc) with even smaller resistance and capacitance in facilitating the RC delay. Under such circumstances, switches implemented by MOS transistors face the following dilemma: in order to minimize the capacitance value of the switch, the size of the MOS transistor needs to be as small as possible; on the other hand, in order to minimize the resistance value of the switch, the size of the same MOS transistor needs to be as large as possible. Hence, such dilemma results in difficulties in the design of the apparatus 100.

Apparatus and method for generating a phase delay


An operating method of a memory controller controlling a nonvolatile memory device including a plurality of pages includes receiving a read request and a logical address from an additional device; determining a program state of an upper unselected word line of a selected word line corresponding to the received logical address; and transmitting a physical address corresponding to the logical address, state information, and a read command to the nonvolatile memory device according to a result of the determination in response to the read request, wherein the state information indicates a level of a first unselect read voltage the nonvolatile memory device is to apply to the upper unselected word line.

1. Field
At least some example embodiments of the inventive concepts herein relate generally to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, to an operation method of a nonvolatile memory device and/or an operation method of a memory controller controlling the nonvolatile memory device.
2. Related Art
A semiconductor memory device is embodied using semiconductor such as silicon Si, germanium Ge, gallium arsenide GaAs, indium phospide InP, etc. A semiconductor memory device is classified into a volatile memory device and a nonvolatile memory device.
A volatile memory device loses its stored data when its power supply is interrupted. Examples of a volatile memory device include a static RAM (SRAM), a dynamic RAM (DRAM), a synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), etc. A nonvolatile memory device retains its stored data even when its power supply is interrupted. Examples of a nonvolatile memory device include a read only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a flash memory device, a phase-change RAM (PRAM), a magnetic RAM (MRAM), a resistive RAM (RRAM), a ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), etc.
As semiconductor integration technology improves, flash memory devices become smaller. Accordingly, a space between word lines may become more narrow. As a result, an incorrect operation may occur due to a coupling between word lines. To overcome these issues, a method is used of reading out a program state of memory cells connected to the selected word line by applying a voltage higher than an unselect read voltage by a predetermined level to word lines adjacent to a selected word line.
However, since a high voltage is applied to an adjacent word line, in the case that a flash memory device repeatedly reads a same page, deterioration of memory cells connected to the adjacent word line may occur. Since deteriorated memory cells may result in failed programming operations, reliability of a flash memory device can be degraded.

Operating method of nonvolatile memory device and operating method of memory controller controlling the nonvolatile memory device


An image mask and image mask assembly. The image mask includes a glass substrate having a thickness of less than 2 mm and a patterned mask disposed on a surface of the glass substrate. The image mask assembly includes a transparent backer plate coupled to the glass substrate. Methods of writing a pattern on a glass sheet and writing a master pattern into a layer comprising a mask material are also provided.

The invention relates to image masks for photolithography. More particularly, the invention relates to an image mask assembly. Even more particularly, the invention relates to image masks and image mask assemblies for writing color filters and thin film transistors for liquid crystal display panels.
Image masks are used to write patterns on photoresist films in photolithography applications. Light of a selected wave length is projected through the patterned image mask onto portions of the photoresist layer, causing those portions to react. Unreacted or reacted portions of the photoresist layer are then stripped away to leave either a positive or negative pattern. Features may be formed on the portions of the substrate underlying the stripped regions of the photoresist layer.
Image mask technology is particularly useful in forming color filters and thin film transistors on glass panels that are used in liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. LCD image masks currently include a monolithic piece of high purity fused silica onto which a patterned layer comprising chromium is deposited. Fused silica is expensive to form, and requires extensive polishing to achieve the finish needed for an image mask. Each patterned chromium layer is unique; whenever the pattern design is changed or an image mask is damaged or becomes worn, the entire image mask must be scrapped or rebuilt, and replaced.
As the size of LCD panels increases, the corresponding size of the image mask needed to write patterns on various pieces of the panel increases. Consequently, the cost of providing a fused silica image mask having a precision polished surface that is very flat and has a very low total thickness variation becomes even greater.
Other technologies, such as ink jet technologies, have been used to reduce the cost of fused silica image masks by replacing precision photolithography with direct write technologies. However, these technologies are less precise than photolithography.
Attempts have been made to substitute lower quality glasses, such as soda lime glass, for fused silica in the image mask. However, problems, such as high thermal expansion coefficients, tendency of the glass to sag, low transmission, and high concentrations of inclusions, tend to make such substitutions ineffective.


A boom foot pin is attached to a pair of vertical plates so as to be able to be pulled out along an axial direction of the boom foot pin. A housing box has a box main body with a housing space inside and an opening/closing lid configured to allow an opening region of the box main body to be opened and closed. The box main body is disposed on the right of the right vertical plate in a state where the boom foot pin is placed opposite the housing space with reference to the opening region in a side view in which the upper slewing body is viewed along an axial direction and the box main body is shaped to open the boom foot pin in the axial direction. The opening/closing lid is rotated to a position where the opening region is closed to lie at a position where the opening/closing lid overlaps the boom foot pin in the side view, and is rotated to a position where the opening region is opened to lie at a position where the boom foot pin is opened in the axial direction.

A construction machine provided with an upper slewing body which includes a housing box in which various tools and the like are housed is conventionally known (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-052226 [hereinafter referred to as Patent Literature 1] and Japanese Patent No. 5257117 [hereinafter referred to as Patent Literature 2]).
A construction machine described in Patent Literature 1 includes a tank with an expanded portion and a housing box removably mounted on the expanded portion of the tank.
A construction machine described in Patent Literature 2 includes a toolbox having an opening/closing lid with a first step recessed therein and an auxiliary step plate removably attached to the opening/closing lid and serving as a second step. Thus, the toolbox can be utilized as a rising-and-falling step.
During a boom assembly operation at a factory and during a boom maintenance operation at a construction site, a working space needs to be secured for lateral removal of a boom foot pin from the construction machine.
In the construction machine described in Patent Literature 1, the housing box is disposed to overlap the boom foot pin in a side view. Thus, temporarily removing the housing box from the upper slewing body provides a working space.
In the construction machine described in Patent Literature 2, the auxiliary step plate is disposed to overlap the boom foot pin in a side view. Thus, temporarily removing the auxiliary step plate from the upper slewing body provides a working space.
However, in the construction machine described in Patent Literature 1, a whole of the housing box needs to be removed from the upper slewing body, thus disadvantageously increasing a workload on an operator.
In the construction machine described in Patent Literature 2, only removal of the auxiliary step plate from the opening/closing lid allows the working space to be secured, thus reducing the workload compared to removal of the whole of the toolbox. However, the operation of removing the component is still needed, resulting in a large number of work steps. Moreover, in the construction machine described in Patent Literature 2, the toolbox has a small height enough to prevent the toolbox from overlapping the boom foot pin in a side view. Thus, a housing space for the toolbox is small in size.

Upper slewing body for construction machine

KOBELCO CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY CO., LTD.


A zoom lens system comprising, in order from an object side: a first lens unit comprising two lens components; and a second lens unit comprising one lens component, during zooming, a space between the first lens unit and the second lens unit changing, the first lens unit and the second lens unit having aspherical surfaces, at least one aspherical surface of the first lens unit satisfying the following condition: R1/hl 1.35, wherein R1 denotes a paraxial radius of curvature of the at least one aspherical surface, and hi denotes a length from a first intersection between a chief ray reaching a point of maximum image height on an image surface and the at least one aspherical surface to an optical axis in the wide-angle end at a time when the chief ray enters the zoom lens system with an angle of incidence equal to or larger than 36 degrees.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens system-and an electronic image pickup apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, it has been general to mount a zoom lens system as a photographing lens on an electronic image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera. Moreover, to miniaturize an electronic image pickup apparatus such as the digital camera, there has further risen a demand for thinning of the zoom lens system as the photographing lens.
However, in the zoom lens system for use in the digital camera including a small image sensor, a focal length shortens. Therefore, in a case where various aberrations are designed to be small while satisfying an oblique incidence characteristic of the image sensor, the number of lenses constituting the zoom lens system easily increases. Therefore, it becomes difficult to constitute the zoom lens system to be thin.
To solve the problem, in general, a thickness of the zoom lens system when stored (collapsed) is reduced by decreasing the number of the lenses constituting the zoom lens system including a plurality of lens units. It is considered that a zoom lens system including a minimum of two lens units be adopted in order to reduce a total length of the above zoom lens system. As the zoom lens system having its thickness reduced when stored, there is known a system described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-102,211.
The zoom lens system described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-102211 includes, in order from an object side, a lens unit A having a negative refractive power, and a lens unit B having a positive refractive power. The lens unit B is constituted of three meniscus lenses convex toward the object side, thereby reducing the total length of the zoom lens system.
Moreover, with a progress of high definition of the image sensor, an image is trimmed and enlarged so that it is possible to obtain an effect similar to that produced during zooming on a telephoto side. Therefore, there is a strong demand for a wide angle of the zoom lens system in addition to the reduction of the thickness of the zoom lens system.
A negative-lead type zoom lens system constituted of two or three lens units is advantageous in the reduction of the thickness. However, in a case where the number of the lenses constituting the lens units is large, a thickness of a lens element is large, or a lens closest to the object side is a positive lens, the thickness of the zoom lens system does not decrease even when the system is of a collapsible type. Such tendency is seen in zoom lens systems described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 11-52,246 and 11-142,734. As an example of a presently known system which is suitable for the electronic image pickup apparatus and which is satisfactory in image forming performances such as a zooming ratio, an angle of field and the F number and which might be most thinned when collapsed, there is a system described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-33810. When an entrance pupil position of a first lens unit is shallow, a diameter of the pupil decreases. As a result, the first lens unit itself can be thinned. However, for this purpose, a magnification of a second lens unit has to be high, that is, a refractive power of the unit has to be strengthened. Therefore, the image forming performance has to be sacrificed. Alternatively, the number of the constituting lenses has to be increased to thereby sacrifice reduction of depth.

Zoom lens system and electronic image pickup apparatus using the same


A downhole well system can use a fiber optic cable that can be positioned downhole along a length of a wellbore. The well system may include a top plug, a bottom plug, or both that are used to contain a cement slurry during a cementing operation. The movement of the top plug and bottom plug may cause acoustic noise along the downhole portion of the casing. A reflectometer may detect the acoustic noise from strain in the fiber optic cable and determine a location of the top plug or bottom plug downhole.

A well system (e.g., oil or gas) may include a wellbore drilled through a subterranean formation. The subterranean formation may include a rock matrix permeated by oil or gas that is to be extracted using the well system. For surety of access during a production phase, cementing operations may be conducted during drilling to provide stability of the well structure. A cementing operation generally includes pumping cement into the well system using a one or two plug system. The one or two plug system may be implemented while pumping the cement to prevent contamination of the cement by wellbore fluids. Another important function of a top plug (e.g., a top plug in either a one or two plug configuration) is to indicate to the surface that the cementing operation has been completed.
Determining when the top plug has landed on a top collar within a wellbore may be measured by a positive pressure increase in the cement pumping. However, during cement pumping, the top plug may not land at the expected time if a leak of displacement fluid around the top plug causes the top plug to move at a slower than expected rate. Additionally, if a leak develops around the top plug, an increase of pressure may not be experienced as the displacement fluid leaks around the top plug allowing some pressure to be relieved. This may result in inaccurate measurements of a location of the top plug within the wellbore. Additional variables that can cause the top plug to not reach the planned landing location are: compressible fluids in the wellbore and or used for displacement, incorrect volume calculation, inefficient surface pumps, or loss of integrity of the casing.

Distributed acoustic sensor with trackable plug


The bottling installation for bottling a liquid in containers includes at least one filler terminal comprising a filler spout (2) comprising a spout body having a top end portion connected to a filler spout feed duct (7) and a bottom end provided with an orifice (8) fitted with a controlled valve, the filler spout being fitted with a feed-back duct (10) opening out into the spout body (6) above the controlled valve (9) and suitable for being connected by a connection member (11) to a general feed duct (12) between a stop valve (14) and an isolating valve (15), a purge valve (17) being connected to the general feed duct (12) between the isolating valve (15) and the connection member (11).

Bottling installations for bottling a liquid are known that comprise a series of filler terminals, each comprising a filler spout and a support member for supporting a container directly below the filler spout, so as to fill the containers in succession, each with a predetermined quantity of a liquid.
In those installations, the filler spout comprises a spout body having a top end connected to a feed duct and a bottom end provided with an orifice fitted with a controlled valve.
When the installation is being started up for bottling a new product liquid, it is necessary firstly to ensure that the spout bodies are filled. In view of the structure of the filler spouts, it is necessary for that purpose to feed the filler spouts while keeping their bottom orifices open until the ducts and the spout bodies have been completely purged of the air they initially contain, i.e. until the liquid flowing through said orifices does not contain any air bubbles. The liquid flowing through the bottom orifices is collected by a collector adjacent to said orifices. In order to ensure that air bubbles have not moved up into the feed duct of the filler spouts, it is necessary to let the liquid flow for a relatively long time, during which time the installation is not used for bottling the product liquid in containers.
In addition, for reasons of compactness, the collector that is used for recovering the product liquid during initial filling of the filler spouts is generally also used for recovering the washing and rinsing liquid from the filler spouts in such a manner that it is not possible to envisage re-using the liquid that passes during initial filling of the filler spout. That liquid therefore represents a loss, not only in terms of the cost of unused product liquid, but also in terms of the additional cost of treating the liquids recovered in the collector.
In addition, there currently exist ecological concerns to limit not only losses of the product liquid, but also water consumption when cleaning the installation. Traditional installations generally include a filler tank that is connected to the filler spout in order to enable the delivery rate of the liquid to be regulated, e.g. by controlling the air pressure at the surface of the liquid. That layer of air prevents any opening and closing of the spout valves leading to variations in pressure or in the delivery rate of liquid at the outlet of the filler tank. However, washing that filler tank and its associated tubing requires large quantities of water, so that there is a trend towards reducing the size of filler tanks.
There thus exist installations for bottling a liquid in which the general feed duct is connected to the filler spouts by a connection member or diffuser mounted in the place of the filler tank.
Complete removal of air from the feed ducts, from the connection member, and from the filler spouts is performed during a preproduction stage during which the spouts are fed with the liquid, which is then poured out either into containers and then discarded, or else into a liquid recovery tray, until the bubbles have disappeared completely. A relatively large quantity of product liquid is spoiled. During production, the liquids for bottling trap air, generally in the form of bubbles, which air must be eliminated in order to improve the accuracy and the repeatability with which containers are filled, and in order to prevent overflow from the containers. In addition, a portion of that air runs the risk of accumulating in the high portions of the feed ducts, thus making operator intervention necessary during production in order to exhaust the accumulated air by operating a vent valve.
One solution to that problem has been to replace the connection member with a filler tank of reduced volume.
In filler tanks, bubbles rise easily to the surface of the liquid: the filler tanks thus facilitate the removal of gas or bubbles from the liquid and they are correspondingly more useful the greater the viscosity of the liquid. However, the question of washing the tank once again arises.

Bottling installation including filler spouts fitted with feed-back ducts from the spout bodies


Representative implementations of devices and techniques provide error detection for a phase-locked-loop (PLL) device. A timing monitor is arranged to count pulses output by one or more portions of the PLL device, a quantity or pattern of the pulses indicating an error of the PLL device.

Phase-locked-loop (PLL) devices are control systems that generate signals having a fixed relationship to the phase of a reference signal. Typically, a phase-locked loop device generates a desired signal in response to both the frequency and the phase of the reference signal as well as a control signal. Often this includes raising or lowering the frequency of a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) until a modified form (a fraction, for example) of the VCO signal is matched with the reference signal in both frequency and phase. Phase-locked loops are widely used in radio, telecommunications, computers, and other electronic applications.
PLL devices may include a lock detector which compares the frequency of the modified output signal (e.g., the output of the VCO divided by a divider value) to the frequency of the reference signal, to determine whether the PLL device is "locked" to the desired frequency. The lock detector may output a "lock OK" signal when the compared frequencies are close or within an acceptable tolerance. Generally, the lock detector may be designed with a wide enough tolerance to accept certain lags and inconsistencies that may occur with sigma-delta modulator-based dividers, for example. Consequently, isolated and sporadic errors of the PLL device (such as a divider error, for example) may not be detected by the lock detector.
Other error detection methods may be used that include measurement of the VCO frequency spectrum or analysis of the VCO control voltage. Measurement of the VCO frequency spectrum may only detect those errors that fall outside of an acceptable range for the PLL device or for the particular application. Further, errors could go undetected for a substantial time, resulting in incorrect operation of the electronic appliance. Analysis of the VCO control voltage can be problematic, and may not yield the desired results. For example, on one hand, the VCO control voltage may be an analog signal that is not easily processed without additional analog to digital processing. Additionally, the VCO control voltage may maintain a predictable profile even while errors are occurring within the PLL, such as with an offset current.


A method for preloading data in a CPU pipeline is provided, which includes the following steps. When a hint instruction is executed, allocate and initiate an entry in a preload table. When a load instruction is fetched, load a piece of data from a memory into the entry according to the entry. When a use instruction which uses the data loaded by the load instruction is executed, forward the data for the use instruction from the entry instead of from the memory. When the load instruction is executed, update the entry according to the load instruction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pipeline in a central processing unit (CPU). More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for preloading data in a CPU pipeline.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the CPU gets faster and faster and the pipeline gets deeper and deeper, the speed of the memory relative to the CPU gets slower and slower. As a result, when loading data from a memory, the CPU has to wait more and more cycles. Such memory load latency stalls the pipeline and decreases pipeline throughput. In some cases, for example in instruction loops, the CPU is idle in 30% of the time because of memory load latency. The waste of CPU resources is very undesirable.
A conventional solution to this problem is hiding memory load latency. The hiding can be implemented by software or hardware.
The software approach is unroll-and-jamming the loop, and try to hide the latency by rescheduling the core loop. However, unroll-and-jamming the loop increases its foot print in the instruction cache, occupying precious cache space. Rescheduling the core loop means moving load instructions forward to hide the memory load latency. The moved load instructions need registers to store the loaded data. Sometimes the registers in the CPU are not enough to store all the loaded data. Moreover, not all loops are suitable for unroll-and-jamming.
The hardware approach uses specialized hardware to perform data speculation based on addressing patterns of load instructions. However, the cost of speculation hardware is still high. The speculation is not accurate enough. Besides, the speculation hardware cannot handle general instruction loops.

Method for preloading data in a CPU pipeline


An annuloplasty ring and support assembly includes a ring support that has a peripheral wall with a peripheral shoulder surface, and a flange extending at generally right angles to the shoulder surface. The flange is removed or terminated in a selected portion of the peripheral wall so that the shoulder surface is unobstructed and provides a backing support against which a cutting force will be reacted when the annuloplasty ring is cut.

The present invention relates to an annuloplasty ring holder assembly. The flexible annuloplasty ring is tied to and positioned against a shoulder and an overlying flange above the shoulder for shaping and positioning the annuloplasty ring. A cut zone is provided on the holder to permit a surgeon to cut away portions of the annuloplasty ring as needed.
Annuloplasty rings are useful in a variety of surgical procedures including mitral and tricuspid annular repair. The ring repairs the heart valve annulus and restores orifice area and normal function. In these procedures, a holder that is of the desired shape and size is provided, and the annuloplasty ring is attached to the holder. The holder secures and maintains the shape of the ring while suturing the ring into a location in a heart or other tissue.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,041,130 shows and describes an annuloplasty ring and holder wherein the edge of the holder is recessed to form a trough to position an annuloplasty ring on the surface. The annuloplasty ring is C-shaped, and does not form a full annulus.
The use of a full annulus annuloplasty ring permits a surgeon to select the amount of the ring that should be implanted, and cut away the portions of the ring that are not needed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,481 also illustrates a holder for an annuloplasty ring where the holder has an annular support wall with a plurality of fingers that extend out from the support wall and have depending ends. The annuloplasty ring is supported between the holder wall and the depending ends of the fingers.


Collaboratively reviewing a digital document in a computing environment having a visual interface involves first presenting multiple users with a copy of the digital document in a visual interface. Annotations (such as highlights, underlines, or textual annotations) are made by the users and separately recorded, independently of the client application used to view the digital document. The annotations, though, are logically linked to the digital document, and annotations made by a particular user can be recorded over multiple overlays.

Groupware is technology designed to facilitate the work of groups. Groupware may be used to communicate, cooperate, coordinate, solve problems, compete, or negotiate. While traditional technologies, such as the telephone, satisfy this broad definition, the term groupware is ordinarily used to refer to a specific class of technologies that rely on modern computers and computer networks, and applications such as e-mail, newsgroups, videophones, or chat. Groupware technologies are typically categorised along two primary dimensions:    (i) whether users of the groupware are working together at the same time ("realtime" or "synchronous" groupware) or different times ("asynchronous" groupware); and    (ii) whether users are working together in the same place ("collocated" or "face-to-face") or in different places ("non-collocated" or "distant").
Table 1 below presents these differentiating dimensions in tabular form and indicates typical CSCW applications that can be categorized using these dimensions.
TABLE 1synchronousasynchronouscollocatedvoting, presentation supportshared computersdistantvideophones, chate-mail, workflow
Software applications are used to create documents or objects that are termed "artefacts" herein. An artefact may be, for example, a research paper written by a scientist, which must be reviewed before a journal can publish the paper. Alternatively, the artefact may be a design document consisting of architecture and design diagrams created by a system analyst. Artefact refers to any digital document that is an output of a software application. Examples include text documents created by word processors, spreadsheet documents, design documents, illustrations, or software code written in a programming language. Any digital object that needs to be reviewed can, for present purpose, be assumed to be an artefact.
The review process usually involves an owner (or an owner team) who has created the artefact to be reviewed. The owner usually initiates the review process. The review typically involves a few experts, who play the role of reviewers. Review efforts by the reviewers result in review comments for provided for the benefit of the owner or owner team. Modifications to the artefact based on the review comments may then be made. The modified artefact may be further reviewed, if required.
The review can be synchronous or asynchronous. Usually, in synchronous reviews, the reviewer and the owner meet in a conference room and discuss the artefact. Reviewers provide their comments on the artefact for the perusal of the owner. Sometimes, the artefact gets modified in accordance with the review process. In the case of asynchronous reviews, the reviewers view and scrutinise the artefact offline, and document the review comments. The document is then posted to the owner, who bases modifications and further arguments upon the review document.
In both cases (synchronous and asynchronous), the way in which the review comments are communicated to the owner plays an important role in the whole process. Since the comments document forms the input for further arguments and modifications, this document should serve its purpose well by precisely and accurately capturing and communicating the thoughts of the reviewers. The objectives are to minimise the loss of information during communication and provide easy ways for the reviewer to document his thoughts on the artefact.
A reviewer can easily take a hardcopy of the artefact, and review the artefact by hand. The reviewer can readily make marks freehand on the hardcopy, drawing arrows or other visual cues, highlighting certain lines of text and so on. After this process (when the actual review takes place) is over, the reviewer then sits down to document the review comments. Most often, the reviewer is forced to document the review comments in a text file or at the most in a rich text file (providing word processing features). The reviewer is usually not allowed to make modifications to the original artefact due to configuration control issues. This step includes translation of ideas and thoughts jotted down on the hardcopy of the document, to a linear text document. It is clear that in such cases, loss of information results in several cases, and in the remaining cases too, the reviewer has to put in extra effort to capture all of his thoughts that have been already laid out. Hence this is an extra, tedious and unnatural step that can be eliminated.
The second important point concerns facilities provided for performing synchronous reviews. If the reviewers and the owner are not collocated and the review must be done synchronously, the existing groupware tools such as display-sharing applications and shared whiteboards do not provide explicit facilities for reviewing. These groupware tools do not replace meeting in a conference room and jotting down comments freehand at the most relevant places on the artefact itself.
This facility of providing the reviewers and the owner to directly communicate by making freehand marks and writing comments on the artefact, together with the support for the group interactions that are required in such an activity seems to be lacking in the existing groupware tools. Providing such a tool not only facilitates easy communication of ideas between the reviewers and the owner, but also allows those ideas and thoughts to be stored for later retrieval and use.
In view of the above comments, a need clearly exists for improved groupware applications that better facilitate the collaboration process.

Collaborative review of distributed content

International Business Machines, Corporation


An exemplar dimension measuring apparatus includes a objective, a stage for fixing a workpiece, a projecting member located between the objective and the stage, a light source under the stage, configured for illuminating the workpiece such that a projection of the workpiece is formed on the projection member, an eyepiece coupled with the objective, and a processing unit. The eyepiece has a reticle, configured for viewing opposite extremities of the projection and facilitating alignment of the reticle with each of the extremities of the projection. The processing unit is configured for storing X-coordinates of the extremities of the projection on a Cartesian coordinate system, and calculating a difference between X-coordinates of the opposite extremities of the projection.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a measuring apparatus, and more particularly, a dimension measuring apparatus for measuring for example a length of a workpiece.
2. Description of Related Art
In manufacturing, workpieces are commonly fixed on a spindle and machined. During machining, the workpiece may be frequently detached from the spindle to be measured. However, a typical precise measuring apparatus generally has complex structure, high price, and complicated operation. Therefore, it is needed to provide a dimension measuring apparatus to overcome the problems described above.


A method for providing display redundancy on a machine is provided. The machine includes a first display configured to perform a first set of functionalities associated with one or more operations of the machine and a second display configured to perform a second set of functionalities associated with the one or more operations of the machine, the second set of functionalities being different from the first set of functionalities. The method includes detecting, by a controller, failure of the first display. The method further includes executing, by the controller, at least a subset of the first set of functionalities on the second display along with at least a subset of the second set of functionalities, when the failure of the first display is detected.

Large machines, such as articulated trucks, excavators, electric rope shovels, etc., may have multiple sensors or cameras positioned thereon, to sense multiple operation related parameters associated with the machine. For example, there may be safety cameras installed on the exterior of the machine to monitor the surroundings of the machine to facilitate smooth operations of the machine at a worksite. These cameras and sensors may be coupled to one or more output devices positioned inside an operator cabin to generate output for an operator sitting inside the operator cabin. For example, when an object is detected in proximity of the machine, an alert may be provided on the one or more output devices positioned inside the operator cabin to alert the operator. These one or more output devices may include displays, speakers, tactile feedback devices, etc., positioned inside the operator cabin to provide visual, audio and/or tactile output to the operator.
In recent times, more and more machines are implementing displays with embedded alarm systems. However, when the display fails or malfunctions, the alarms would also not be generated to alert the operator. Additionally, the displays may also perform many other functionalities that may be critical for smooth operations of the machine. Therefore, malfunctioning or failure of the displays may affect smooth operations of the machine, which is not desirable.
US Patent Publication No. 2016/0350049 (hereinafter referred to as the '049 publication) relates to redundant display systems and methods for providing display redundancy. The '049 publication further provides that a display system includes a primary display and at least one secondary display. The primary display and the at least one secondary display are stacked in series relative to a line of sight of a user, and the at least one secondary display is configured to serve as a backup to the primary display upon a failure of the primary display.

Method and system for providing display redundancy on a machine


A vehicle power supply apparatus includes a generator, a first electricity storage, a second electricity storage, a switch, a generator controller, and a switch controller. The generator controller controls the generator into a first electric power generation state and a second electric power generation state higher in electric power generation voltage than the first electric power generation state. The switch controller controls the switch into an electrically-conductive state and a cutoff state. The switch controller controls the switch into the electrically-conductive state and the generator controller controls the generator into the first electric power generation state when a high-load apparatus is stopped. The high-load apparatus is one of a plurality of electrical loads coupled to the first electricity storage. The switch controller controls the switch into the cutoff state and the generator controller controls the generator into the second electric power generation state when the high-load apparatus is in operation.

The technology relates to a vehicle power supply apparatus to be mounted on a vehicle.
Various proposals have been made on a vehicle power supply apparatus to be mounted on a vehicle. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2014-36557 proposes a power supply apparatus that includes a generator, such as an alternator coupled to an engine. The power supply apparatus disclosed in JP-A No. 2014-36557 also includes a lead-acid battery and a lithium-ion battery as electricity storages. The lead-acid battery and the lithium-ion battery are coupled in parallel to each other. Such a configuration makes it possible to store electric power derived from regeneration not only in the lead-acid battery but also in the lithium-ion battery when the generator is caused to generate electricity by means of the regeneration upon deceleration of a vehicle. This in turn makes it possible to increase the electric power derived from the regeneration and thereby to enhance a fuel consumption performance of the vehicle.


A surface wave device is made by forming conductors on a surface of a piezoelectric material in a conductor pattern defined by exposing photoresist via a reticle. The conductor pattern is provided on the reticle in two parts each defining a set of substantially alternate fingers of the pattern, and the photoresist is exposed by two overlaid exposures each via a respective one of the two parts of the conductor pattern. Exposed photoresist can optionally be developed between the two exposures, and conductors can optionally be formed on the surface between the two exposures. The method reduces diffraction limits, permitting manufacture of surface wave devices with sub-micron linewidths for filtering at increased frequencies.

It is well known that surface wave devices provide substantial benefits, such as small size, low cost, and desirable characteristics, for a variety of applications including, in particular, filtering at RF (radio frequency) and IF (intermediate frequency) in radio communications equipment such as cellular telephone base stations and terminals. Various forms of surface wave device filter are known, comprising IDTs (interdigital transducers) and possibly reflection gratings both of which are constituted by conductors deposited in a desired pattern on a surface of a piezoelectric substrate. The conductors of this pattern include periodically spaced electrodes or fingers of the IDTs or gratings, the period being determined by the wavelength .lambda. of the propagated surface wave for the center frequency for which the filter is designed.
Manufacture of surface wave devices for filtering at very high frequencies presents a significant problem. For example, it is increasingly desirable for cellular telephone communications equipment to mass produce low loss surface wave devices for RF filtering at a center frequency in the range of 1.8 to 2.0 GHz. For piezoelectiic substrate materials that may be used for such devices, such as quartz, lithium niobate, and lithium tantalate, this requires a sub-micron linewidth (about 0.5 .mu.m). Surface wave devices are produced using photolithography techniques, and the established equipment for this at sub-micron wavelengths is the so-called stepper. Typically, a so-called 5.times. stepper, in which the pattern on the reticle from which the conductor pattern is produced is five times the size of the device pattern, can be used to provide high resolution.
However, the dense line pattern of a surface wave device means that it acts in the stepper as a diffraction grating, so that the resolution limit of the stepper is determined by the diffraction limit of its numerical aperture. As a result, it has not been practical to mass produce surface wave devices with linewidths of about 0.5 .mu.m using a 5.times. stepper.
While a higher magnification stepper could conceivably be provided to avoid this problem, this becomes commercially impractical. For example, a 10.times. stepper has been used for manufacture of semiconductor devices, but such a stepper is no longer commercially available due to field size constraints. The cost of such a stepper is justifiable for manufacturing relatively expensive semiconductor devices, but is not justifiable for economically manufacturing surface wave devices. Furthermore, due to the increased magnification of a 10.times. stepper, using this to produce surface wave devices would require a substantial increase in number of exposures, and hence in cost of manufacture, compared with using a 5.times. stepper. It is also observed that advanced 5.times. steppers are designed for processing relatively large (e.g. 30 cm) semiconductor wafers, and can not handle the small (e.g. 7.5 to 10 cm) wafers of piezoelectric material used for surface wave devices.
Accordingly, in practice surface wave device RF filters at frequencies in the range of 1.8 to 2.0 GHz have not been mass produced (as distinct from small numbers of devices being produced under laboratory conditions which are more favourable), and instead filters at such frequencies have had to be provided using other technologies; for example RF designers have had to use dielectric resonator filters having higher cost, greater size, and inferior characteristics compared with surface wave devices.
An object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an improved method of making surface wave devices, which can facilitate the manufacture of surface wave devices using sub-micron linewidths.


Systems and methods that use probabilistic grammatical inference and statistical data analysis techniques to characterize the behavior of systems in terms of a low dimensional set of summary variables and, on the basis of these models, detect anomalous behaviors are disclosed. The disclosed information-theoretic system and method exploit the properties of information to deduce a structure for information flow and management. The properties of information can provide a fundamental basis for the decomposition of systems and hence a structure for the transmission and combination of observations at the desired levels of resolution (e.g., component, subsystem, system).

The development of successful cyber security systems for intrusion and malicious activity detection involves the ability to fuse information from many disparate sources at multiple levels of a system, potentially from deep packet analysis to traffic analysis within and between networks. While the large volume of transactions to be considered provides a vast amount of data for the inference of models and the collection of statistically significant samples, it also offers substantial cover for bad actors making the identification of intrusions and malicious activity akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Problems associated with the detection of cyber attacks are compounded when it comes to cyber-physical systems that integrate computational, networking, and physical processes. Cyber-physical systems are engineered systems that are built from and depend upon the synergy of computational and physical components. Computers and networks monitor and control the physical processes, with feedback loops where physical processes affect computations and vice versa. Examples of the many CPS application areas include the smart electric grid, smart transportation, smart buildings, smart medical technologies, next-generation air traffic management, and advanced manufacturing
The physical dynamics of cyber-physical systems may be exploited to either mount or obscure an attack. Our nation's critical infrastructure includes many large-scale, complex cyber-physical systems. For example, the modernization of electric power transmission systems has included the implementation of new sensors, control actuators and a communications network overlay on legacy power systems for monitoring and control.
Compound cyber-physical electric power generation and transmission systems are susceptible to both physical and cyber attacks. For instance synchrophasors, phase measurement units synchronized using GPS time to monitor voltage angles at points separated by large distances, are susceptible to GPS time spoofing. The communication network transmissions of the synchrophasor observations can also be maliciously corrupted. Thus, data can be corrupted at the source, or in transmission, to induce dangerous control actions potentially resulting in the destabilization of power generation and distribution systems.
A related issue is that the power generation and distribution systems are also needed to power the monitoring and control systems. Thus, the effects of local disturbances are tremendously amplified when the monitoring and control resources for larger areas are taken off-line.
Cyber physical systems typically comprise a large number of disparate components, where the number of interactions between components can increase exponentially with the number of components. The intentional corruption of phase measurement data, as well as other forms of deliberate exploitation, often cannot be identified by conventional analysis of network traffic or condition monitoring of sensors. In many cases, cyber and/or physical attacks are indistinguishable from expected behavior when viewed using traditional observation approaches and processes which typically have a very local scope based on limited sensing. However, malicious attacks, particularly cyber attacks focused on corrupting data do not, in general, do so in a way that is physically consistent with other, non-corrupted sources of information. Cyber and/or physical attacks can become distinguishable from naturally occurring behavior when observations are interpreted in a broader context embedding the physical constraints inherent in system dynamics considered over a larger (potentially global) spatiotemporal domain.
Traditional analysis tools are unable to cope with the full complexity of cyber-physical systems or adequately predict system behavior. The present electric power grid has experienced blackouts over large regions, tripped by minor events that escalate with surprising speed into widespread power failures. Even minor changes to consumer devices, such as air conditioners, have been shown to affect behavior of the power grid. For example, a recent event was caused by a low-cost relay that took longer to close in conditions that stalled the air conditioning unit's compressor pump motor. The aggregate effect of multiple air conditioning units having stalled motors caused an inductive load, causing voltage sag, that in turn stalled more pump motors leading to a voltage collapse. This illustrates the limitations of the current technology.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present invention relates to a transgenic plant, comprising one or more plant cells transformed with exogenous nucleic acid which increases expression of vacuolar pyrophosphatase in the plant. Also encompassed by the present invention are transgenic progeny and seeds of the transgenic plants described herein. Progeny transgenic plants grown from seed are also described. Plant cells (e.g., root cells, stem cells, leaf cells) comprising exogenous nucleic acid which increases expression of vacuolar pyrophosphatase in the plant cells are also the subject of the present invention. Also encompassed by the present invention are methods of making a transgenic plant described herein. The present invention also relates to a method of increasing the yield of a plant, a method of making a plant which is larger than its corresponding wild type plant, and a method of producing a transgenic plant with increased salt tolerance.

The prospects for feeding humanity as we enter the new millennium are formidable. The progressive salinization of irrigated land compromises the future of agriculture in the most productive areas of our planet (Serrano, R., et al., Crit. Rev. Plant Sci., 13:121-138 (1994)). Arid regions offer optimal photoperiod and temperature conditions for the growth of most crops, but suboptimal rainfall. Artificial irrigation has solved the problem in the short term. However, water supplies always contain some dissolved salt, which upon evaporation gradually accumulates on the soils.
To grow in saline environments, plants must maintain a much lower ratio of Na+/K+ in their cytoplasm than that present in the soil. A need exists for crops having increased tolerance to salt.

Plant cells and plants overexpressing vacuolar proton pyrophosphatases

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research


The invention enables collaboration between first and second users at first and second workstations having first and second browsers, respectively. A page is loaded into the first browser. An instant messaging connection is established between the first workstation and the second workstation. Then an address of the page loaded at the first browser is sent to the second browser via the instant messaging connection. At the second browser the page is loaded in response to receipt of the page address. A network connection is then established between the first browser and the second browser. Thereafter, messages are sent from the first browser to the second browser via the network connection responsive to screen events by a user at the first workstation to control screen events at the second workstation.

When in the middle of a browsing session by a first user and the first user wishes to share certain screen content of a displayed page with a second user, typically the first user will start an instant messaging connection with the second user and paste an address of the page in the IM client. The second user then must open a browser if not already open and navigate to the page. The second user must then determine where to focus in the displayed page by communicating with the first user using the IM chat session. This is difficult and confusing and can be quite frustrating.
There are other known solutions to this problem, such as Webcasts, Netmeetings and Follow-me techniques. Each of these techniques have drawbacks. In the case of Webcasts and Netmeetings, screen sharing is poor in terms of response time, color performance is poor and connection performance degrades as users are added. In Follow-me techniques there is no continuous peer-to-peer data exchanges and every user uses his or her own network connection. Nevertheless, only page addresses are shared and there is no way to determine where on a page each user is focusing. This is especially frustrating on large pages.

Instant messaging with browser collaboration

International Business Machines Corporation


Disclosed is a path switching control system for controlling path switching, including: an active path control unit for controlling active paths; a standby path control unit for controlling standby paths; and a path switching control unit being configured in hardware and for controlling the path switching, wherein the path switching control unit includes: a control information reading unit for reading control information from the active path control unit on the occurrence of a failure in the active path control unit; and a control information writing unit for writing the control information read by the control information reading unit into the standby path control unit. A computer system using the path switching system and a path switching control method are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a path switching control system and a path switching control method for controlling switching of paths which connect units (apparatuses). The present invention also relates to a computer system using the path switching control system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a computer system or a communication system, which includes active paths and standby paths, if the system detects an interface failure on an active path, it generally controls path switching from the active path to the standby path. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. JP10-276205A describes an ATM communication system in which STM communication equipment controls switching to a standby interface apparatus if a fault occurs in an active interface apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,727 discloses a technique for switching to a reserved path if a failure occurs on an active path.
When the system including active paths and standby paths controls the path switching, software processing controls the path switching from an active path which has detected the failure to a standby path. For example, in case of switching from the active path to the standby path due to an interface failure, the path switching is conducted using a software routine for failure management. In this switching, the path which has detected the failure is inactivated and the standby path is activated.
However, the path switching through the software processing wastes processor time and causes access to an interface card by the software. Therefore, it takes a long time to process the switching from the active path to the standby path.

Path switching control system, path switching control method and computer system using path switching control


A rack-handling system includes a rack-handling device having a rack-coupling portion and one or more handles. The rack-coupling portion can be coupled with a rack. The handles can be gripped by a user to move the rack from one location to another when the rack-coupling portion is coupled to the rack.

Many companies and other organizations operate computer networks that interconnect numerous computing systems to support their operations and the services they provide to their end customers distributed worldwide. For example, data centers housing significant numbers of interconnected computing systems have become commonplace, such as private data centers that are operated by and on behalf of a single organization, and public data centers that are operated by entities as businesses to provide computing resources to customers.
Racks in a data center sometimes need to be moved from one place to another within a computing room. A rack having a full complement of servers, power supply components, network components, or other systems may be quite heavy. Often, racks are mounted on casters to facilitate moving the rack on the floor of the computing room. Because many racks may be held in close proximity to one another, however, service personnel may encounter hazards when working with the rack being moved. For example, a person's hand may be smashed or pinched between the rack being extracted from a row of racks and an adjacent rack. In addition, some techniques for moving racks involve applying loads to various parts of the structure of a rack in a manner that can deform the rack structure. For example, in an open frame rack, pulling the rack by a single vertical corner post may bend the corner post.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words "include," "including," and "includes" mean including, but not limited to.


An input/output (I/O) device with programmable I/O characteristics is provided for use on an integrated circuit to serve as a communication interface whose input/output characteristics can be set through programmable means to be matched to the external circuitry to which the IC chip is connected for use. This allows the IC chip on which the I/O device is provided to be matched for use with various kinds of external systems. Further, the I/O device can also be provided with a self-control feature that can detect whether the I/O characteristics of the I/O device are matched to the external circuitry and, if not, automatically set the I/O device to the required I/O characteristic. The I/O device can prevent an IC chip from being discarded due to a mismatch in the I/O characteristics with the external circuitry to which the IC chip is connected for use.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to input/output (I/O) devices for integrated circuits, and more particularly, to an I/O device for use on an integrated circuit to serve as a communication interface whose input/output characteristics is programmable after foundry to be matched to the external circuitry to which the IC chip is connected for use. The invention also relates to a self-control I/O device which can detect whether the I/O characteristics of the I/O device are matched to the external circuitry and, if not, automatically set the I/O device to the required I/O characteristics.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the top view of a conventional IC chip. As shown, the layout area of the IC chip is partitioned into a center area 11, where the core functionality of the IC chip is provided, and an I/O area 12, where a plurality of I/O devices serving as a communication interface for the core circuitry of the IC chip to perform I/O functions with external circuitry is provided. These I/O devices are formed together with the core circuitry on the center area 11 in the foundry process for the IC chip.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the inside structure of each of the above-mentioned I/O devices provided on the I/O area 12 in the IC chip 10 of FIG. 1. As shown, this I/O device includes an output buffer 21 and an input receiver 22, both of which are connected between the external circuitry and the core circuitry provided on the center area 11 of the IC chip 10 of FIG. 1. The output characteristic of the output buffer 21 and the input characteristic of the input receiver 22 are factory-set and fixedly built in the I/O component 20 during the foundry process in compliance with the particular external circuitry to which the IC 10 is to be connected for use. Once set, the I/O characteristics of the I/O component 20 cannot be changed.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the various stages in a typical IC manufacturing process, which include design, photomasking, foundry, packaging, and system verification. If the I/O characteristics of an IC chip are mismatch to the external circuitry to which the IC chip is connected for use, that IC chip will fail to pass the system verification. The mismatch can be caused by several reasons as described below.
For the output buffer 21, the mismatch in its output characteristic can be caused by such factors as variable loading, system variation, mismatch in the specifications between the IC chip and the external circuitry, and noise, to name a few. For the input receiver 22, the mismatch in its input characteristic can be caused by such factors as a mismatch in CMOS/TTL (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor and transistor-transistor logic) pull-up/pull-down modes, whether a noise-immune Schmitt trigger is provided, and so on.
In the event of a mismatch in the I/O characteristic, since the I/O characteristics are factory-set and fixedly built in the I/O device, they cannot be changed thereafter to match the external circuitry. As a result, the IC chip may have to be discarded and new IC chips with matched I/O characteristics are to be manufactured. This will not only cause a waste in the semiconductor materials but cause a delay in the delivery of the ordered IC products to the customer, both of which would cause loss to the manufacturer.

On-chip input/output device having programmable I/O unit being configured based upon internal configuration circuit


Embodiments are directed to bursting application portions to different types of cloud computing systems, managing distributed applications distributed over a plurality of different cloud types and to creating a cloud bursting target in a specified cloud. In one scenario, a computer system provides an indication of available cloud computing systems including at least a first and a second cloud computing system of different types. The computer system receives a selection indicating that a portion of a software application currently hosted on the first cloud computing system of the first type is to be bursted onto the second cloud computing system. The computer system then, in response to the selection, bursts the software application portion from the first cloud computing system of the first type to the second cloud computing system of the second, different type.

Computers have become highly integrated in the workforce, in the home, in mobile devices, and many other places. Computers can process massive amounts of information quickly and efficiently. Software applications designed to run on computer systems allow users to perform a wide variety of functions including business applications, schoolwork, entertainment and more. Software applications are often designed to perform specific tasks, such as word processor applications for drafting documents, or email programs for sending, receiving and organizing email.
In some cases, software applications are designed for distribution and implementation on multiple different computer systems. Such software applications are referred to as distributed applications. These applications may be configured such that different portions or tiers of the application are capable of being run on different computer systems. As such, these application portions may be assigned for execution on different computer systems. In some cases, the computer systems may be the same type of computer system, while in other cases, the computer systems are different types of computer systems that may include different hardware, software and/or operating systems.
These computer systems may be provided and managed by a cloud hoster or cloud provider in the same or in another geographic region. As used herein, a "cloud provider" refers to an entity that provides cloud computing resources. The physical computer systems that actually run the cloud are opaque to the workload that uses the computer systems. As such, when a software application or service is running on the cloud, the application or service owner does not know on which computer system the service/application is actually running

Cloud bursting and management of cloud-bursted applications


Disclosed herein is a control apparatus, including: a supplying section to which a voltage which varies in response to a variation of a state is supplied from an electric power generation section; and a control section configured to change the number of battery units, for which charging is to be carried out, in response to a relationship between the voltage and a reference value.

The present disclosure relates to a control apparatus and a control method for carrying out charging control, for example, into a battery unit.
In recent years, in order to enhance the output capacity, a plurality of power supply modules are connected in parallel such that electric power is supplied from each of the power supply modules. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No 2006-034047 discloses a power supply apparatus which includes a plurality of power supply units connected in parallel such that they are started up successively.


Vehicles that are capable of connecting to the AC grid are described that comprise a prime mover and at least one motor generator. In one embodiment, a vehicle may be constructed as a plug-in hybrid system and using the powertrain under controller instruction to either place power on an AC power line (to service AC grids) or to draw power from the AC power line to add electrical energy to the batteries on the vehicle. In some aspects, vehicles may test whether the power needed to service the AC power line may be satisfied by the on-vehicle batteries or, if not, whether and how much power to extract from the prime mover. In some aspects, vehicles may have a thermal management system on board to dynamically supply desired heat dissipation for the powertrain, if the powertrain is using the prime mover to supply power to the AC grid.

In the field of electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), there are many possible powertrains that may affect a wide variety of operating modes. For example, in the field of HEVs alone, HEV powertrains may be constructed to affect series, parallel, series-parallel modes of operation. In addition, certain of these modes may be constructed to operate according to different policies,—e.g., charge-sustaining, charge-depletion and the like.
In some of these vehicles, it may be desired to connect the vehicle to an Alternating Current (AC) power line and to transfer power to and/or from the AC power line to the vehicle. This may be desired, in particular, with vehicles owned and/or operated by the power utility companies—that are tasked to go into the field to aid with repair, installation or replacement with portions of the power lines.

Vehicle with AC-to-DC inverter system for vehicle-to-grid power integration


An apparatus and method converts a power generation combined cycle (CC) power plant to a load management compressed air energy storage (CAES) power plant. The CC power plant includes at least one combustion turbine, a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to receive exhaust heat from an associated combustion turbine, a steam turbine associated with the HRSG, and an electric generator associated with the steam turbine. An air storage stores compressed air. At least one compressor supplies the air storage with compressed air so that off peak energy can be converted to compressed air energy stored in the air storage. Compressed air from the storage is received by the HRSG and the HRSG provides heat to compressed air received from the air storage. The steam turbine receives heated compressed air from the HRSG and expands the heated compressed air to produce power.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,389,644 and No. 7,406,828 disclose CAES plant concepts with a power generation section including a combustion turbine as a prime power generation component, with a recuperator recovering the combustion turbine exhaust heat to preheat stored compressed air, withdrawn from a storage, to be expanded through a bottoming cycle expander driving an electric generator that generates the bottoming cycle additional power with additional power being generated by the air injection into combustion turbine assembly with associated power augmentation of combustion turbine. These CAES plants could be built based on existing combustion turbines.
There is significant conceptual similarity between the disclosed CAES plant concepts and CC power plants that include a combustion turbine with Heat Recovery Steam generator (HRSG) recovering the combustion turbine exhaust heat for steam generation to be expanded through the bottoming cycle power generating steam turbine.
When using renewable energy resources like wind and solar power that are not controllable, there is a need for CAES plants to store the renewable energy during off-peak hours when it is not needed and to release it when it is needed during peak hours.
There is a need to convert existing CC power plants to CAES power plants into load management CAES plants to significantly reduce cost and improve economics of CAES plants that are needed to load manage and enhance economics of renewable resources.

Conversion of combined cycle power plant to compressed air energy storage power plant


A non-immunogenic selection epitope may be generated by removing certain amino acid sequences of the protein. For example, a gene encoding a truncated human epidermal growth factor receptor polypeptide (EGFRt) that lacks the membrane distal EGF-binding domain and the cytoplasmic signaling tail, but retains an extracellular epitope recognized by an anti-EGFR antibody is provided. Cells may be genetically modified to express EGFRt and then purified without the immunoactivity that would accompany the use of full-length EGFR immunoactivity. Through flow cytometric analysis, EGFRt was successfully utilized as an in vivo tracking marker for genetically modified human T cell engraftment in mice. Furthermore, EGFRt was demonstrated to have cellular depletion potential through cetuximab mediated antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) pathways. Thus, EGFRt may be used as a non-immunogenic selection tool, tracking marker, a depletion tool or a suicide gene for genetically modified cells having therapeutic potential.

Immune cell products with homogenous expression of tumor targeting chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) are desirable for clinical evaluation of adoptive therapy strategies to eliminate the product-to-product variability of transgene expression otherwise intrinsic to transduction and other genetic modification procedures without subsequent selection. Immunotherapy using genetically redirected immune cells is an attractive approach for treating minimal residual disease in a variety of cancer patients. However, immunologic rejection of cell products expressing antibiotic selection proteins as part of the transduction strategy has impeded this strategy. A novel selection marker that is not expressed on human lymphocytes, does not contain endogenous signaling or trafficking function, and is recognized by a known, preferably commercially available, pharmaceutical grade antibody reagent that can be utilized for selection, in vivo tracking, and depletion of transduced cells would be a significant improvement in the art.

Truncated epiderimal growth factor receptor (EGFRt) for transduced T cell selection