A cover for a for a book-type article includes a front and a back cover, each of the front and the back cover having an inner and an outer surface, and a spine joining the front and the back cover. The cover also includes flaps extending from outer edges of the front and the back covers and being separated therefrom by groove portions, the flaps being folded along the groove portions substantially parallel to the outer surface of the front and back covers. An outer surface of the flaps is joined to connecting portions of the book-type article such that the inner surface of both the front and the back cover and at least one of an inner surface of the flaps and the connecting portions of the book-type article define an air pocket, the air pocket being closed at outer edges of the front and the back cover and being open toward the spine.

The present invention relates to a cover for a printed matter which cover comprises front and back covers with outer surfaces and a spine joining them, the cover being attached to a book block in the printed matter by means of connecting means in the printed matter.
It is known from prior art to make both hard covers and paperback covers for printed matters. Nowadays so-called hard covers are formed by joining together by gluing, for example, different cover manufacturing materials, these materials being glued to each other at their surfaces. Covers manufactured in this way in a separate manufacturing process are attached to the flyleaf or the book block of the printed matter. The cover manufactured in this manner is rigid and hard, but the manufacture of the cover requires a laborious work process in which the different parts of the cover are shaped and attached to one another.
On the other hand, so-called paperback books have flexible paperboard covers. These covers are normally of the same size or smaller than the book block. Covers of this kind cannot, however, keep the printed matter in shape. Also, covers such as these get damaged easily, they get bent and their edges crack, for example.
Prior art further teaches combinations of these which attempt to imitate a hard cover with a flexible paperboard. These kinds of cover assemblies are disclosed in WO 95/34430, U.S. Pat. No. 3,169,029 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,541, for example. Covers such as these are, however, complicated in structure and require a rather great amount of material and separate production lines when manufactured.
Finally, prior art teaches different detachable covers that are inserted into a strong false cover in a book or into a cover of a paperback book. These kinds of covers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,630, for example. This kind of a cover also requires a separate production line and it is difficult to join it into the book or the book block. The detachable cover cannot stay in place properly but the book block tends to fall off from the cover.
The object of the present invention is to form a cover for a printed matter that is simple to manufacture and is flexible, soft and comfortable to handle. A further object of the invention is to form a cover that does not restrict the mutual format of the book block and the cover.
The present invention will obviate the disadvantages mentioned above and provide a cover for a printed matter that can be formed fast and advantageously.
This object is achieved in such a manner that the cover for the printed matter has the characteristics specified in the claims in accordance with the invention. More exactly, this product according to the invention is characterized in that the front and back covers comprise at their outer edges flaps separated by grooves, which flaps, when folded between the connecting means and the front and back covers essentially in the direction of their outer surface and joined together and/or to the connecting means, provide an air pocket in both front and back covers making the assembly of the cover rigid.
The invention is based on the idea that as each book block comprises false covers in both front and back surface of the block, or the flyleaves, they should be utilized more efficiently in the adhesion and forming of the covers. In this way an assembly is attained in which the book cover is formed only by joining together the book block according to the invention and the false covers or the flyleaves, that is, in the following, the so-called connecting means.
Considerable advantages are achieved by means of the invention. Thus by means of it the covers of the printed matter will be made soft, flexible and comfortable to handle by simple solutions in such a manner that the shape of the cover is also in its format independent of the book block.
As the cover block according to the invention is a kind of a semi-manufactured product that will obtain its final shape when arranged in connection with the book block, a considerable amount of material will be saved in manufacturing the cover. Considerable manufacturing costs are preserved by means of saved material and an easier adhesion of the cover block. As the cover block is preferably assembled only by folding, a considerable amount of glue will also be saved. On account of the reduced amount of glue and its uniform structure, the cover according to the invention can also be recycled efficiently without having to be detached and sorted out separately.
The thickness of the cover for the printed matter according to the invention and its appearance can be varied in a simple way by changing the shape or number of the groovings at the edges. This uncomplicated way of changing the thickness of the cover makes it easier to provide various pockets and compartments in the cover. The possibility to vary the thickness of the cover according to the invention also makes it easier to use different ways of surface profiling and surface printing or even surface piercing as an effect on the cover. On account of its assembly, the weight of the cover according to the invention will nonetheless remain at 10 to 50 per cent of the weight of the covers for printed matters at present. This method of manufacturing a lighter book will make transportation cheaper and handling of the book more comfortable.
When using the cover according to invention, the spine of the book is not glued to the spine of the book block as in paperback books, but when gluing is done, the spine between the cover and the false covers will be free, thus making it possible for it to bend freely when the book is opened. In this way, the book will remain open better and the spine of the book block or the spine of the cover will not break in use.
The processing of the cover block can easily be combined to the manufacturing process of the book block, which will prevent the cover from being handled separately. The printing and cutting of the cover and also its make-up and gluing take place preferably at the same time as the printing and the shaping of the book block.


A method is described for determining a discrete boundary for an object to be rendered into a raster pixel image having a plurality of scanlines. In the method, the object is rotated by an integer multiple of 90 degrees, and an outline of the rotated object is decomposed into line segments. For each scanline to be rendered, points of intersection between the line segments and the scanline are determined, and each point of intersection is rounded to an adjacent position selected from a finite set of positions on the scanline using a rule chosen according to the amount of rotation. The rounded points of intersection delimiting the discrete boundary. If the object is rotated by odd multiple of 90 degrees the method includes the steps of identifying points of intersection that satisfy a predetermined criterion; and shifting the identified points of intersection prior to rounding.

Traditionally, software applications such as word processors create page-based documents where each page contains graphic objects such as text, lines, fill regions and image data. When representing the document data on a display device or a printing device, such software applications typically send commands defined in terms of the graphics interface services of a native operating system within which the software application operates.
One such operating system is Microsoft Windows™, which has graphics interface services typically known as the graphics device interface (GDI) layer. The GDI layer is generally an application programming interface (API) providing a rich set of graphics features to all applications. Typically, a graphics rendering system renders the graphics objects received from the GDI layer, generating pixels which are then sent to a target device for storage, display, or printing. Rendering is the process by which the graphics objects received from the GDI layer are converted to pixels by the graphics rendering system.
The graphics rendering system may, at times, be requested to render a page at 90, 180, or 270 degrees rotation, as illustrated in FIGS. 3A to 3D.
There are various reasons why a page may be rotated from the original data. A printer may be limited regarding the orientation of a printed page. If a printer is only capable of printing an A4 portrait page, then a page created in A4 landscape needs to be rotated before the page can be printed. Also, a user may request a specific page rotation based on his/her requirements. Typically, modern day printer drivers allow a user to create output formats for special purposes. Such formats include birthday cards, n-up pages (multiple pages scaled to fit on the one page), double-sided pages, letters, cards and even books.
For example, FIG. 4A shows a rendering 400 of the page 300 of FIG. 3A using 4 pages per sheet, two of the renderings (marked page 2 and page 3) being rotated by 180 degrees. Page 400 may be folded in half along Fold 1 401 and then folded again along Fold 2 402 to form a "card" that has four upright renderings on it. The resulting card can be seen in FIGS. 4B and 4C.
In such cases, original data passed by the GDI layer needs to be transformed by the graphics rendering system and then rendered according to the specific format requested by the user. Often such formats require page data to be rotated at a specific angle to produce the final output.
To rotate a page containing graphics objects, each object on a page is rotated by a specified angle. The page boundary may also be rotated depending on the final output requirement. FIGS. 3B, 3C and 3D show renderings of the example page 300 of FIG. 3A, rotated 90, 180 and 270 degrees respectively. It may not always be necessary to rotate a page. For example, there is no use in rotating FIG. 3A to produce FIG. 3C when printing. However, such inversion may be useful when rendering the page 300 to a screen. There are also circumstances where the objects on the page are to be rotated but the page itself is not. An example of this is shown in FIG. 3E, where the page boundary is the same as that of page 300, but the data is printed 2-up with each of the two renderings rotated by 90 degrees.
An object boundary is typically described by a path made up of a number of points. Since this path is described as a continuous entity, using a defined point system, these continuous paths must be resolved into discrete pixel values at the rendering stage. Typically, paths are broken up and dealt with in monotonically increasing order. A variety of rules are available to resolve a continuous path into its equivalent discrete format. These rules are typically known as pixelization rules. A couple of well known pixelization rules are the GDI pixelization rule and the PostScript pixelization rule. The GDI pixelization rule uses the Grid Intersection Quantization rule in order to determine which pixels are activated by a path.
Representing a continuous signal, i.e. a path defined as a set of points, with a discrete approximation causes errors to be introduced in representing a final pixelized object. Typically, there are problems representing very small objects as the paths themselves are not discrete, but their final representation must be, so much of the original "signal" is lost in the digital conversion. Also, since pixelization rules typically do not take the rotation of an object into account, any shift or arbitration required to resolve a path into a pixel is typically not rotation invariant. That is, if a path is rendered at 90 degrees, and the same path is rendered at 180 degrees, then it is unlikely that the same set of pixels is turned on for each of the rendered paths.
Traditionally, there are a number of ways of accurately rendering an object to be rotated. The most basic method is to render the object with no rotation to produce pixel data and then to rotate the rendered pixel data. Since the original path has been quantized, the rotated version will be pixel accurate. However, this method requires large amounts of memory and CPU resources for a full page and is slow if done on an object-per-object basis.
Another method used to produce pixel-accurate rotations is to produce the pixedges of a path (pixedges are the edges of each pixel) and then rotate the pixedges. Since the pixedges define the exact boundary of the object to be rendered, the same pixels will be filled regardless of the rotation of the objects. This method is very cumbersome, since each edge defines a pixel boundary, and consequently the path data for the entire set of edges defining the boundary of an object may be huge. Compared with the original points of the path, the pixedge data uses more memory and typically takes more time to rotate. Rendering objects in such a manner is expensive in terms of CPU resources consumed.
An example is shown in FIGS. 5A-C. The object 500 shown in FIG. 5A has an object boundary 501 as shown in FIG. 5B. FIG. 5C shows a quantized path 502 derived from the boundary 501. The path 502 can be accurately rotated since it has been quantized. However, where the original path 501 only has 7 points, the quantized version 502 has 31 points. Clearly, rotating many such quantized objects would consume a large amount of CPU resources.
In some known graphic rendering systems, rendering is a two-stage process. In these rendering systems, graphics objects are first converted into an intermediate language before the rendering process begins. This intermediate form, containing all the converted graphic objects, is known as a display list. In one such system, the first stage of the process converts each graphic object received from the GDI layer into an intermediate edge-based object graphics format, such that all edges are sorted in ascending y-order, then ascending x-order. The x and y axes correspond respectively to the scan lines and pixel locations on such scan lines in a rasterized display. The output from the first stage is typically a display list of edges and their associated fill priority (z-order), along with other information such as whether an edge is a clipping edge or a filling edge. The output from the first stage is sometimes called a job. The job contains all the information needed by the second stage to render the page.
The second stage of the process involves a rendering module parsing the job and generating the pixels for the output device for each scanline down the page.
For renderers that use such a two-stage approach in which information is stored in an intermediate form, each object has to be converted to the intermediate form. However, it is often the case that not all the objects stored in the display list will actually be part of the rendered output. For example, the second stage of the rendering system may only be asked to render a specific part of a page, or the objects that are stored in the intermediate format may actually lie on and/or outside the bounds of the page. These cases represent a problem for edge-based renderers because the edges of the objects that lie outside the region to be rendered still need to be tracked. Such edges that lie outside the region to be rendered need to be tracked because they may enter the region to be rendered. Edges are typically tracked scanline by scanline, and thus tracking such objects can be time consuming and greatly slow the performance of the renderer.
There are a couple of methods used to deal with objects that do not lie within the region to be rendered. The first method is the simplest, and simply involves tracking the edges of all objects in the display list and only rendering pixel data when the edges are within the region to be rendered. Another method is to clip all objects to the current rendering boundary. This involves tracing a path in and out of the region to be rendered and clipping any part of the path that lies outside the region to be rendered. This task is not trivial and requires precious CPU resources to trace a path and determine the points that lie outside the area to be rendered. Furthermore, if another part of the page needs to be rendered, a new display list has to be constructed. Also, because an object boundary is represented by edges that typically use a fixed format to represent the edge position, accuracy problems can arise when clipping the boundary. For example, consider the line joining the two points, (0, −4) and (55¾, 56). This line crosses the x-axis at about 3.72. If this line is clipped to the x-axis and the accuracy of the points of the line is limited to 1/16, then 3.6875 would replace 3.72. Hence, accuracy has been lost in the clipping of the line. This loss in accuracy can lead to distortion of the final rendered output of an object.
Another problem with edge-based renderers lies in the speed of updating edges for the next scanline. This is because the x position of each edge needs to be updated to the next scanline according to the dx value of an edge. The updating of the edge also depends on the type of edge, further increasing the complexity of updating the edges. Typically, as each edge on a scanline is encountered, an edge update function is called. This function takes the current position of the edge, determines the real x position for the next scanline, and then determines the integer position for the next scanline. Typically, pages to be printed contain thousands of edges, and each of these edges must be updated by calling the update function for every scanline on which the edge is active. This represents a major part of the rendering time in a two-stage edge rendering system. Current methods used to update edges involve calling one update function that updates an edge according to its type. The problem with the approach is that every time an edge is updated the code must branch according to the edge type, which results in a slow method.
Another method of updating edges is to have a specific update function associated with each edge (using a function pointer). When an edge is to be updated the renderer can simply call the function according to the edge's function pointer. In this case the renderer only needs to set the function pointer once for each edge, and not every scanline, so the branching problems presented above are removed. However, each of these edge functions must be called whenever an edge is updated, so there are still large function call overheads, ultimately restricting the rendering speed.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or at least ameliorate one or more aspects of the prior art.

Method of realising a boundary of a rotated object


A mixing system includes a housing and a motor mount disposed on the housing and having a passage extending therethrough. A dive motor is coupled with the motor mount for selectively rotating the motor mount relative to the housing. A rotational assembly includes a hub having a passageway extending therethrough and a casing at least partially encircling the hub, the hub being rotatable to the casing. The rotational assembly is removably coupled to the housing so that the passageway of the hub aligns with the passage of the motor mount.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mixing systems that can be used in the biopharmaceutical industry.
2. The Relevant Technology
The biopharmaceutical industry uses a broad range of mixing systems for a variety of processes such as in the preparation of media and buffers and in the growing of cells and microorganisms in bioreactors. Many conventional mixing systems, including bioreactors, comprise a rigid tank that can be sealed closed. A drive shaft with impeller is rotatably disposed within the tank. The impeller functions to suspend and mix the components.
In many cases, great care must be taken to sterilize and maintain the sterility of the mixing system so that the culture or other product does not become contaminated. Accordingly, between the production of different batches, the mixing tank, mixer, and all other reusable components that contact the processed material must be carefully cleaned to avoid any cross contamination. The cleaning of the structural components is labor intensive, time consuming, and costly. For example, the cleaning can require the use of chemical cleaners such as sodium hydroxide and may require steam sterilization as well. The use of chemical cleaners has the additional challenge of being relatively dangerous, and cleaning agents can be difficult and/or expensive to dispose of once used.
The operation and maintenance of such mixing systems can be daunting for many facilities, especially where it is desirable to make a large number of smaller batches. Accordingly, what is needed are mixing systems that require minimum cleaning or sterilization, can be used for mixing or suspending a broad range of materials, can consistently provide a sterile environment, and are relatively inexpensive and easy to operate.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A new cultivar of Dianthus plant named ‘STARDUST’ that is characterized by compact habit, grey-green foliage, and double flowers that are pale coral in color. In combination these traits set ‘STARDUST’ apart from all other existing varieties of Dianthus known to the inventor.

This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(f) of the earlier application for European Community Plant Breeders Rights, Application Number 2007/2058 filed Sep. 19, 2007.
The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Dianthus that is grown for use as a flowering plant for pots and containers and as a hardy perennial for the garden and landscape. The new cultivar is known botanically as Dianthus×hybrida and will be referred to hereinafter by the cultivar name 'STARDUST'.
'STARDUST' is a complex hybrid plant that is the product of a long term breeding program conducted in a greenhouse environment in Houndspool, Dawlish, Devon, United Kingdom. The primary focus of the breeding program is to produce new cultivars of Dianthus that exhibit unique growth habit and flower colors. The inventor selected 'STARDUST' in 2004 for its double flowers that are pale coral in color.
'STARDUST' resulted from the controlled pollination between an unreleased and unpatented Dianthus previously raised by the inventor and known by its code name Dianthus 'SUW03.08' as female parent plant, and an unreleased and unpatented Dianthus previously raised by the inventor and known by its code name Dianthus '00.16' as male parent plant.
'STARDUST' is distinguishable from both of its parents by having smaller flowers and greyer, more glaucous foliage.
The variety of Dianthus which is considered by the inventor to most closely resemble 'STARDUST' is the inventor's variety Dianthus 'Devon Winnie' (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 14,893). Whereas the flowers of 'STARDUST' and 'Devon Winnie' are both double, those of 'Devon Winnie' are slightly smaller (ranging from 25 mm to 35 mm in diameter) and are dark pink in color.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar was first accomplished by the inventor in 2004 in a cultivated area of Houndspool, United Kingdom. The method of asexual propagation used was vegetative cuttings. Since that time the characteristics of the new cultivar have been determined stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.


A cathode assembly including certain features designed to protect the integrity of a filament contained therein is disclosed. In particular, the cathode assembly is configured to prevent damage to the filament should it inadvertently contact another portion of the cathode assembly. In an example embodiment, an x-ray tube incorporating features of the present invention is disclosed. The x-ray tube includes an evacuated enclosure containing a cathode assembly and an anode. The cathode assembly includes a head portion having a head surface. A slot is defined on the head surface and an electron-emitting filament is included in the slot. A protective surface is defined on the head surface proximate to a central portion of the filament. The protective surface in one embodiment is composed of tungsten and is configure to prevent fusing of the filament to the protective surface should the filament inadvertently contact the protective surface.

1. Technology Field
The present invention generally relates to x-ray generating devices. In particular, the present invention relates to features for implementation in a cathode of an x-ray tube, for example, that prevents contamination or damage to a filament during high temperature operation.
2. The Related Technology
X-ray producing devices, such as x-ray tubes, are extremely valuable tools that are used in a wide variety of applications, both industrial and medical. For example, such equipment is commonly employed in areas such as medical diagnostic examination and therapeutic radiology, semiconductor manufacture and fabrication, and materials analysis.
Regardless of the applications in which they are employed, x-ray tubes operate in similar fashion. In general, x-rays are produced when electrons are emitted, accelerated, and then impinged upon a material of a particular composition. This process typically takes place within an evacuated enclosure of the x-ray tube. Disposed within the evacuated enclosure is a cathode, or electron source, and an anode oriented to receive electrons emitted by the cathode. The anode can be stationary within the tube, or can be in the form of a rotating annular disk that is mounted to a rotor shaft which, in turn, is rotatably supported by a bearing assembly. The evacuated enclosure is typically contained within an outer housing, which also serves as a reservoir for a coolant, such as dielectric oil, that serves both to cool the x-ray tube and to provide electrical isolation between the tube and the outer housing.
In operation, an electric current is supplied to a filament portion of the cathode, which causes a cloud of electrons to be emitted via a process known as thermionic emission. A high voltage potential is placed between the cathode and anode to cause the cloud of electrons to form a stream and accelerate toward a focal spot disposed on a target surface of the anode. Upon striking the target surface, some of the kinetic energy of the electrons is released in the form of electromagnetic radiation of very high frequency, i.e., x-rays. The specific frequency of the x-rays produced depends in large part on the type of material used to form the anode target surface. Target surface materials with high atomic numbers ("Z numbers") are typically employed. The target surface of the anode is oriented so that the x-rays are emitted as a beam through windows defined in the evacuated enclosure and the outer housing. The emitted x-ray beam is then directed toward an x-ray subject, such as a medical patient, so as to produce an x-ray image.
In order to produce as focused an x-ray beam as possible, it is generally preferred to first shape or focus the stream of electrons emitted from the cathode filament. Such control of electron emission at the cathode in turn results in precise electron impact at the desired location on the anode target surface for desirably focused x-ray emission. Similarly, electron stream shaping by the cathode head prevents "wings," which are streams of off-focus electrons that serve no purpose other than the reduce the clarity of the resulting x-ray image.
As such, cathodes used in x-ray tubes and other filament-containing devices typically include a head portion that houses the filament. The cathode head can be shaped in order to desirably focus the electrons that are produced by the filament, as mentioned above. Often, the filament is positioned in one or more slots or similar structures that are defined in the cathode head for electron focusing. Further, a close tolerance often exists between the filament and the head surface defining the slot structure, as it has been recognized that minimizing the spacing between the filament and surfaces of the cathode head enables the electron stream to be shaped off-focus wings to be minimized with relatively lower cathode control voltages than what would otherwise be possible.
Unfortunately, the placement of the filament in close proximity to portions of the cathode head, such as slot sides or other similar features, undesirably raises the risk of inadvertent contact of the filament with the cathode head surface during operation of the cathode-containing device, such as an x-ray tube. In detail, during tube operation the filament is electrically energized at a high temperature in order to produce electrons by thermionic emission. At such times, inadvertent contact between the filament and the proximate cathode head surface may occur. Such contact may be precipitated by a transient event, such as mechanical shock to the cathode, a relative voltage spike, or some other occurrence.
Should undesired contact between the filament and cathode head structure occur, damage to the filament may result. In particular, the filament is typically composed of a high melting point, refractory material such as tungsten in order to withstand the temperatures necessary for thermionic emission to be achieved. Cathode heads, in contrast, are often composed of materials that are selected for high voltage compatibility and machinability. Examples of such materials include nickel and nickel alloys, steel, stainless steel, iron and iron alloys, and copper. These materials have melting points lower than that of tungsten. As such, when the hot filament inadvertently contacts the cathode head, it can fuse to the cathode head surface, thus electrically shorting the filament and rendering the cathode unusable.
In other known cathode head configurations, contact between the filament and the cathode head surface is not necessary for damage to nonetheless occur to the filament. For instance, heat emitted from the filament during operation is absorbed by portions of the head structure proximate to the filament. If the proximate head structure is composed of a lower melting point material such as nickel, evaporation of nickel from the head will occur. The nickel evaporate can then redeposit on the filament surface, thereby contaminating the filament and reducing its performance. This filament contamination effect can also occur when the filament touches the head surface but fails to permanently weld to it.
The above-described challenges can be exacerbated in cathode heads that employ "gridding," a technique used to further control electron emission from cathode by selectively varying the relative electric potential between the filament and the head structure. Unfortunately, however, gridding can often increase relative electrical attraction between the filament and the head structure, thereby increasing chances for undesirable filament contact with the head surface.
Previous attempts to mitigate the above-described challenges have met with only limited success. For instance, cathode head designs have been altered to increase the filament-to-head surface spacing in order to reduce the likelihood of filament-to-head surface contact. But this unfortunately requires that a relatively greater amount of voltage be used to control the filament electron stream during cathode operation.
In light of the above discussion, a need currently exists for filament and cathode assemblies that resolve the challenges described above. In particular, there is a need for a cathode assembly suitable for use in x-ray and other cathode-containing devices that prevents damage to or destruction of a filament from structures proximate thereto during device operation. Any solution should be suitable for filaments employed in stationary and rotary anode x-ray tubes, as well as any devices where unintentional welding or contamination of high temperature filaments is a risk.

Cathode head having filament protection features


A stacked electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device includes a substrate; a deep well with a first conductive type formed in the substrate, the deep well defining a plurality of element regions with a second conductive type therein; and a plurality of ESD protection elements, each of which is formed in one of the element regions. A current path is formed by connecting the plurality of ESD protection elements in series.

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is a transient process of high energy transformation from external to internal of an integrated circuit (IC) when the IC is floated. Hundreds or even thousands of volts are transferred during ESD. Such high voltage transformation is a common failure mechanism that is seen on integrated circuit devices. Due to the ever increasing shrinkage in transistor geometries, prevention of ESD damage will become increasingly important.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram with ESD protection devices. In FIG. 1, before an input signal is provided into a core circuit 101 via an input pad 102, ESD clamps 104 and 105 are used to bypass an ESD current to the system voltage trace VDD and the ground voltage trace GND, respectively. Similarly, additional ESD clamps 106 and 107 may also be used to bypass an ESD current to the system voltage trace VDD and the ground voltage trace GND, respectively, before an output signal is delivered to the output pad 103. Furthermore, a power clamp 110 may be installed across the VDD and the GND to protect the core circuit 101 against ESD damages.
The grounded-gate n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor (GGNMOS) transistor has been investigated to serve as an effective ESD protection device. The GGNMOS device is based on snapback mechanism. When the voltage reaches a level beyond the IC normal operation due to ESD zapping, the snapback mechanism enables the GGNMOS to conduct a high level ESD current between its drain and source and subsequently directs the ESD current into the ground. While the ESD zapping occurs, some elementary transistors may firstly turn on, and immediately breakdown with the onset of secondary snapback and the other elementary transistors may be inactive to contribute to the ESD protection. Such phenomenon is referred to as "latch-up".
The holding voltage of these high-voltage devices in snapback breakdown condition has been found to be much smaller than the power supply voltage. Such characteristics will cause the ICs to be susceptible to the latch-up-like danger in the practical system applications, especially when these devices are used in the ESD power clamp circuit (such as the power clamp 110 of FIG. 1).
Recently, some people have reported to use stacked structures in power clamps. For example, in Proc. EOS/ESD Symposium 2004, Lin et al. have published a new latch up-free design on the power-rail ESD clamp circuit with stacked-field-oxide structure proposed and successfully verified in a 0.25-μm 40-V CMOS process to achieve the desired ESD level. The total holding voltage of the stacked-field-oxide structure in snapback breakdown condition can be larger than the power supply voltage. Therefore, latch-up or latch-up-like issues can be avoided by stacked-field-oxide structures for the IC applications with a power supply of 40 V.
FIG. 2 shows another example of a stacked ESD protection device 200. In FIG. 2, the stacked ESD protection device 200 comprises a p-type substrate 201 and a plurality of high-voltage deep n-wells (HVDNWs) 202 formed in the p-type substrate 201. Each of the HVDNWs 202 is isolated from one another. A p-well as an element region 203 is formed in each of the HVDNWs 202. In each element region 203, a pair of separated highly doped n+ regions 205 are formed as drain/source regions. A dielectric layer (not shown) is formed on a channel region between the drain/source regions 205. A conductor 207 as a gate electrode is formed on the dielectric layer. Therefore, an n-channel MOS field-effect transistor (NMOSFET) is formed. Furthermore, a highly doped p+ region 206 in a p-well 204 is provided to connect the p-type substrate 201 to the ground GND. Accordingly, an ESD protection device with stacked NMOSFETs is completed by conducting a current path to connect the NMOSFET ESD protection elements in series.
It is noted that the stacked ESD protection device 200 shown in FIG. 2 with the isolated HVDNWs 202 requires a large layout area. Therefore, there is need in providing a layout area shrink design for high density very-large-scale integration (VLSI) applications.

Stacked electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device


A method and apparatus for efficiently interconnecting a large number of high frequency high bandwidth signals includes two interface plates (100, 200), each having two substantially coplanar faces, a mating face (110, 210) and a non-mating face (120, 220). Each interface plate has waveguides (116, 216) disposed between the coplanar faces such that when the mating faces of the interface plates are brought together, a plurality of waveguide connections are made. An energy absorbing gasket (300) having a hole pattern matching the waveguide pattern is disposed between the mating faces of the interface plates so that reflections caused by misalignment and non-coplanarity of faces can be reduced.

Phased array antenna systems are in widespread use today. These systems generate one or more directional antenna beams by independently adjusting the phase of a number of signals. Each phase shifted signal is coupled to an array element in the antenna such that when the signals are transmitted, a directional wave front is created in the direction that the signals sum in-phase, thereby forming a beam.
Existing phased array antenna systems are typically capable of generating a few directional beams. The number of phase shifted signals necessary to generate the beams is related to the number of beams, so that as the number of beams increases, the number of signals within the system increases. In prior art phased array antenna systems, signals are typically cabled from one subsystem to another. When the system is built, assembly operators manually interconnect the cables. During testing and alignment of the prior art systems, when adjustments are necessary, the assembly operators manually disassemble the cables. Since prior art systems have relatively few cabled connections, this is a reasonably cost effective approach.
Modern communications systems, especially satellite communications systems, have placed increased demands on phased array antenna systems that have resulted in an increase in the number of beams generated by phased array antenna systems. Where prior art systems have only a few beams, modern systems can have as many as a few hundred to a few thousand beams. The prior art method of manually cabling signals is inadequate for the newer systems because of the drastic increase in the number of signals. Given the increased number of signals, it is no longer reasonably cost effective to manually assemble the cabling between subsystems in modern phased array antenna systems.
Fluctuations in gain (or attenuation) can affect the signals within a phased array antenna system. It is desirable to have very low passband slope or ripple across the bandwidth of interest. Cables inherently have some gain fluctuations over frequency, and in prior art systems where the bandwidths are reasonably narrow, cables provide a reasonable solution. In modern systems with wider bandwidths, however, the gain variation of cables can have a detrimental effect on the system. It is desirable, therefore, to be able to quickly connect a large number of signals without introducing significant gain variations over frequency.
What is needed is a method and apparatus for interconnecting a large number of high frequency, wide bandwidth signals without introducing substantial gain variations over frequency. What is also needed is a method and apparatus that allows for the quick mating and de-mating of a large number of high frequency signals.

High density connector and method therefor


Materials and methods are provided for making plants (e.g., Nicotiana varieties) that are suitable for producing therapeutic polypeptides suitable for administration to humans and animals, particularly by making TAL effector endonuclease-induced mutations in genes encoding xylosyltransferases and fucosyltransferases.

Unlike animal glycoproteins, plant glycoproteins have beta(1,2) xylosyl and core-alpha(1,3) fucosyl residues, and lack terminal beta(1,4) galactosyl residues and sialic acid. Beta-1,2-xylosyltransferase ("XylT") catalyzes the transfer of xylose from UDP-xylose to the core β-linked mannose of protein-bound N-glycans. This enzyme is unique to plants and some non-vertebrate animal species, and does not occur in human beings or in other vertebrates. α-1,3-fucosyltransferase ("FucT") catalyzes the transfer of fucose from GDP-fucose to the core β-linked N-acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc) of protein-bound N-glycans. This enzyme is found in plant and animal species, including humans.

Method for making nicotiana plants with mutations in XylT and FucT alleles using rare-cutting endonucleases


A scanner for a lidar system is configured to direct emitted light to scan a field of regard of the lidar system in accordance with a scan pattern. The scanner includes a mirror and an actuator assembly. The mirror includes a reflective surface and a rear surface and is pivotable along a mirror axle. The actuator assembly is disposed along the rear surface of the mirror and is configured to exert a torque on the mirror to cause the mirror to pivot about the mirror axle.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
An autonomous (or "self-driving") vehicle moving along a roadway with dedicated lanes may include a lidar system using a number of sensors and movable mirrors for scanning in different directions. For example, a single elevation mirror may be used for y-scanning purposes. Such mirrors are typically coupled with one or two motors positioned on ends of the mirror to apply the torque thereto to cause rotation. Such a system may be undesirable due to the motors occupying large amounts of space, thereby requiring a larger overall package, and additionally can have dynamic control problems due to the application of torque.
While the precision and efficacy of these systems have continually improved, the power requirements and physical dimensions of existing systems have posed obstacles to designers of such systems. With the increasing prevalence of the use of lidar systems in autonomous vehicles, such considerations are of increased concern to designers of these systems.

Imaging system having coil on mirror actuator


An OSD display unit generates test pattern data to spread image patterns stored in a storage unit as digital font data for OSD display so as to match the number of pixels of a liquid crystal panel and sends the test pattern data to a panel processor for display on the liquid crystal panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inspection method of an image displayed on a liquid crystal display for a TV, a liquid crystal display, a liquid crystal module, and an IC having the inspection method and in particular to those using OSD display unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a large number of TVs using a liquid crystal display as a display of a TV receiver have hit the consumer market. The TV liquid crystal display has a liquid crystal module. FIG. 5 is a schematic layout drawing of a liquid crystal module in a related art.
A liquid crystal module B shown in FIG. 5 has a timing controller 81, a liquid crystal panel LCP, a source driver SD for controlling the voltage of a source electrode attached to the liquid crystal panel LCP, and a gate driver GD for controlling the voltage of a gate electrode.
An external digital signal is input to the liquid crystal module B and is converted into a liquid crystal drive signal of the source driver SD and the gate driver GD in a timing controller 81 and the liquid crystal drive signal is input to the source driver SD and the gate driver GD for producing display on the liquid crystal panel LCP.
Broadcast signals of terrestrial TV broadcasts and satellite broadcasts are analog, and a signal conversion section 82 for converting the analog broadcast signal (composite signal, component signal, etc.,) into a digital signal for display in the liquid crystal module B is provided outside the liquid crystal module B.
In the configuration, the liquid crystal display requires the signal conversion section 82 in addition to the liquid crystal module B and the number of components increases. Then, a one-chip IC containing the timing controller 81 and the signal conversion section is proposed. FIG. 6 is a schematic layout drawing of a liquid crystal module having the one-chip IC.
A liquid crystal module C shown in FIG. 6 has the same liquid crystal panel, source driver, and gate driver as the liquid crystal module B shown in FIG. 5, denoted by the same reference numerals. The liquid crystal module C has a one-chip IC having a video processor 91 for converting an external input broadcast signal into a video signal, a scaling processor 92 for changing the video size, system, etc., a panel processor 93 for adjusting the video brightness, tint, etc., so as to match the display state of the liquid crystal panel LCP, and a timing controller 94 for converting the video signal into a drive timing signal for liquid crystal drive to be sent to the source driver SD and the gate driver GD and outputting the drive timing signal.
The video processor 91 includes a conversion section for converting an analog signal into a digital signal (not shown) and converts an external input signal into a digital signal and then converts the digital signal into a video signal. Thus, an analog broadcast signal can be input directly to the liquid crystal module C; the need for providing an external signal conversion section as in the liquid crystal module B shown in FIG. 5 is eliminated and the number of components can be suppressed and the structure can be simplified accordingly.
One example of a conventional liquid crystal module as described above is disclosed in JP-A-11-006987.

Liquid crystal display device and inspection method


An electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery comprises lithium salts including LiPF6 and LiBF4; a non-aqueous organic solvent including an organic solvent with high boiling point; and vinylene carbonate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery and a lithium secondary battery comprising the same, and more particularly, to an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery that may prevent the battery from swelling while maintaining its electrochemical properties, and a lithium secondary battery comprising the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Due to recent trends toward more compact and lighter portable electronic equipment, there has been a growing need to develop high performance and large capacity batteries. Lithium secondary batteries with good safety characteristics and improved electrochemical properties have been extensively researched. These batteries use materials that reversibly intercalate or deintercalate lithium ions during charge and discharge reactions for positive and negative active materials. The positive active materials may include lithium metal oxide and the negative active materials may include lithium metals, lithium-containing alloys, or materials that are capable of reversible intercalation/deintercalation of lithium ions such as crystalline or amorphous carbons, or carbon-containing composites.
The average discharge voltage of a lithium secondary battery is about 3.6 to 3.7V, which is higher than alkali batteries, Ni-MH batteries, Ni—Cd batteries, and other similar batteries. An electrochemically stable electrolyte in the charge and discharge voltage range of 0 to 4.2V is required in order to generate such a high driving voltage. As a result, a mixture of non-aqueous carbonate-based solvents, such as ethylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate, and diethyl carbonate is typically used as an electrolyte. However, this electrolyte may have significantly lower ion conductivity than an aqueous electrolyte used in a Ni-MH or Ni—Cd battery, thereby resulting in battery characteristic deterioration during high rate charging and discharging.
During the initial charge of a lithium secondary battery, lithium ions, which are released from the battery's lithium-transition metal oxide positive electrode, are transferred to a carbon negative electrode, where they are intercalated into the carbon. Because of its high reactivity, lithium reacts with the carbon negative electrode to produce Li2CO3, LiO, LiOH, and the like, thereby forming a thin organic solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film on the negative electrode's surface. The initially formed organic SEI film prevents a reaction between lithium ions and the carbon negative electrode, or other materials during charging and discharging. It also acts as an ion tunnel that allows the passage of only lithium ions and prevents the carbon negative electrode's disintegration, which is caused by co-intercalation of organic solvents having a high molecular weight along with solvated lithium ions into the carbon negative electrode.
Once the organic SEI film is formed, lithium ion numbers are not reduced because they do not react again with the carbon electrode or other materials. In other words, stable charging and discharging are maintained because when the carbon of the negative electrode initially reacts with an electrolyte, a passivation layer, such as an organic SEI film, is formed on the negative electrode's surface and prevents the electrolyte solution from decomposing (Journal of Power Sources, 51(1994), 79-104). For these reasons, in the lithium secondary battery, there is no irreversible formation reaction of the passivation layer, and a stable cycle-life may be maintained after initial charging.
However, during the organic SEI film-forming reaction, gases are generated inside the battery due to decomposition of a carbonate-based organic solvent (J. Power Sources, 72(1998), 66-70). Depending on the type of non-aqueous organic solvent and negative active material used, these gases may include H2, CO, CO2, CH4, C2H6, C3H8, C3H6, and the like. Internally generated gases may increase battery thickness.
Electrochemical and heat energy slowly disintegrate the passivation layer. Disintegration may increase over time when the battery is stored at a high temperature after charging. As a result, a continuous side reaction occurs in which an exposed surface of the negative electrode reacts with surrounding electrolyte to generate gases, which increases the battery's internal pressure and induces deformation of prismatic or pouch battery. Consequently, regional differences in the cohesion among electrodes inside the electrode assembly (positive and negative electrodes, and separator) of the battery occur, thereby deteriorating the battery's performance and safety, which makes it difficult to mount the lithium secondary battery set into electronic equipment.
In order to improve low temperature characteristics, a lithium secondary battery having a liquid electrolyte uses an organic solvent with a low boiling point. But a prismatic or pouch battery may swell during high temperature storage, which deteriorates the battery's reliability and safety at a high temperature.
Accordingly, extensive research into a liquid electrolyte with a high boiling point is needed. An ester solvent, such as gamma butyrolactone, is an example of an electrolyte with a high boiling point. When using 30 to 70% of an ester solvent, however, cycle-life characteristics may significantly deteriorate. In order to reduce swelling at a high temperature and improve cycle-life characteristics, an electrolyte with a high boiling point, a mixture of gamma butyrolactone/ethylene carbonate (7/3), and a boron-coated mesocarbon fiber (MCF) as a negative active material have been suggested (Journal of Electrochemical Society, 149(1) A(9)˜A12(2002)). However, when an uncoated carbonaceous material is used as a negative active material, cycle-life characteristics may deteriorate even when an electrolyte with a high boiling point is used.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,352,458 and 5,626,981 disclose an electrolyte comprising vinylene carbonate in order to overcome cycle-life deterioration shortcomings of a high viscosity electrolyte. However, sufficient cycle-life improvement may not be obtained.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,859 discloses a battery with improved performance that uses an electrolyte prepared by adding a halogenated organic solvent such as chloroethylene carbonate to propylene carbonate. U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,635 discloses a battery with improved performance that uses an electrolyte prepared by adding a halogenated organic solvent such as chloroethylene carbonate to a mixed solvent of propylene carbonate and ethylene carbonate. However, the propylene carbonate has a high viscosity, and it may decompose when it is intercalated into a carbon layer of crystalline negative active material such as graphite. Decomposition products of propylene gas and lithium carbonate may result in deterioration of capacity and increase of irreversible capacity. In the above patents, propylene carbonate and chloroethylene carbonate is mixed in a volume ratio of 1:1, which may deteriorate electrolyte wettability.

Non-aqueous electrolyte and a lithium secondary battery comprising the same

Abstract: The electrolyte may inhibit battery swelling at high temperature storage and may improve battery cycle-life characteristics.


Systems and methods for rendering items with a user interface of an electronic device are described. According to certain aspects, an electronic device may detect its orientation and render, in a user interface, a physical item using a rendering effect determined from the orientation. As a user of the electronic device reorients the electronic device, the electronic device may automatically and dynamically update the rendering with an updated rendering effect to reflect the updated orientation. In embodiments, the user may use the electronic device to complete an order for the physical item.

Individuals or customers frequently purchase or order products or items for certain applications or users. For example, an individual may order customized printed products such as brochures and business cards associated with a business. Conventionally, individuals seeking to purchase or order items from a company or business through an e-commerce platform such as a website or software application, encounter problems particular to these channels or platforms.
It is known that final product visualization is important to the customer experience during product ordering. However, replicating a product visualization that is accurate and lifelike on an e-commerce platform has heretofore presented unique challenges. For example, e-commerce platforms are not able to render, in a lifelike manner in a user interface, customized business cards to be reviewed by customers. Thus, customers may not be readily inclined to finalize orders, and businesses may not fully realize product sales.
Accordingly, there is an opportunity for platforms and techniques to render physical products in more accurate and lifelike manner for review by customers.

Technologies for rendering items within a user interface using various rendering effects


An ultrasonic and electrosurgical handpiece housing has an axis, a distal end, a proximal end and a passage defined by an inside wall. A piezo stack has elements carried along a plane generally transverse to the axis. A retainer for the elements has distal, intermediate and proximal portions. The distal portion has a fastener; the proximal portion has a threaded shoulder bolt. The stack about the shoulder has an energy input and a reference output positioned axially apart from one another. An insulating sleeve about the bolt is between central openings of the elements and the bolt. A pair of insulators about the bolt has the stack therebetween; one insulator is between the plane and the stack and the other is near the threads. The intermediate portion attaches to the housing at the plane with decoupling and sealing. An irrigation channel conveys fluid. The drive energy input, the feedback signal and the reference outputs are insulated by the sleeve and pair from the bolt. A washer against the insulator and about the threads applies axial but not torsion to the insulator when a clamping nut on the threads holds components on the bolt. The clamping nut is in circuit with electrosurgical energy as the reference return for electrosurgery. A tool fastens to a connector for transmitting axial vibrations in the form of a predefined stroke at a tip thereof.

Ultrasonic and electrosurgical handpieces of various configurations to facilitate their usefulness and reliability have been used for a variety of surgical procedures. The combination of an electrosurgical and ultrasonic handpiece presents an number of challenges and problems. The most notable difficulty is the isolation of the radio frequency energy from the ultrasonic driving energy.
The handpiece requires a compact design that is facilitated by a piezo driver for the ultrasonic vibration. The use of piezo crystals such as barium titanate or lead titanate zirconate to drive the tool at ultrasonic frequencies is known in an Ultra product sold by Sharplan Laser and is manufactured by Fibrasonics Inc. That product is merely an ultrasonic tool with air cooling and without electrosurgical high frequency cutting and/or coagulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,498 has an electrosurgical system in which a blade is made to vibrate at a frequency sufficient to cause cavitation to take place as RF energy is simultaneously applied to electrodes on the blade for effecting cutting or coagulation. U.S. Pat. NO. 4,886,060 has an ultrasonic knife including high frequency electric coagulation. Cardiac floating isolation for the ultrasonic aspirator enables monopolar coagulation with the handle therefore as a completely passive conductor. The insulation circuit of the ultrasonic knife has specific dimensions to withstand RF energy to earth. Protecting the user with such circuitry neglects the preferred double insulation technique for maximum protection and double insulation has not been disclosed in the prior patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,696 has a generator that powers the electrodes of electrosurgical implements and at the same time the ultrasonic transducer for imparting vibratory motion to such implements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,047 has a solution to incorporating a RF coagulating and RF cutting capability with a vibrating tip of an ultrasonic aspiration and fragmentation device. Switching is provided for the surgeon to use RF and/or ultrasonic as desired and without need of changing the surgical instrument. Insulation of the piezo driver from the high frequency electrosurgical energy is not known or in the devices available since the use of high dielectric electrical insulators in an ultrasonic transducer includes stress and structural problems heretofore unsolved.

Piezo ultrasonic and electrosurgical handpiece


A load lock adjustment mechanism for use with a load lock for trailers is provided. The load lock has a pad positionable against a trailer wall with a connecting rod extending from the pad and at least one tube sized and shaped for receiving the connecting rod. The load lock adjustment mechanism comprises an insert receivable within the tube with the insert having a threaded aperture extending therethrough and a pad holder having a first end and a second end with the first end of the pad holder having a bore for receiving the connecting rod extending from pad and the second end of the pad holder having a threaded hole formed therethrough to the bore. A threaded stud is receivable within the threaded aperture of the insert and receivable within the threaded hole of the pad holder. A tightening mechanism is secured between the first end and the second end of the stud. A lock collar is movable along the second end of the stud between the insert and the mechanism for securing the final distance between the pad and the tube.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a load lock adjustment mechanism for securing freight inside a trailer and, more particularly, the invention relates to a load lock adjustment mechanism enabling the load lock to adjust to different trailer widths.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art load lock 10, as illustrated in FIG. 1, has two lengths of round tubing 12, 14 with the tube 12 telescopingly received within the tube 14. A gear rack and pinion system 16 is used to adjust the position of one of the tubes with respect to the other tube. The gear rack and pinion system 16 includes a rack 18 secured at one end 18a to the tube 12 (or the tube 14) and extends in the direction of and over the other tube 14. A handle-locking device 20 is attached to the tube 14 (not the tube to which the rack is attached). The handle-locking device 20 has a U-shaped plate 22, which is disposed about the tube 14. The distance between the two free ends 22a, 22b (not shown) is wide enough to receive the rack 18. A bolt 24 secured between the two free ends 22a, 22b forms the center pin extending through a pinion gear 26. The pinion gear 26 can rotate about the center pin 24 extending through a hole 25. A handle 28 is secured to the pinion gear 26. The pinion gear 26 has a section without gears, preferably disposed in the opposite the direction to which the handle extends, so that when the handle is positioned perpendicular to the centerline 30 through the telescoping tubes 12, 14, the tubes can move with respect to each other. When the handle 28 is pivoted to a positioned parallel to the centerline 30, the pinion gear 26 engages the rack 18 and moves the telescoping tubes 12, 14 in opposite directions from each other. The handle 28 can be locked in place by conventional means.
Pads 32 and 34, formed of a slightly compressible material such as rubber, each have connecting rod 36 and 38, respectively, extending there from. The connecting rods 36 and 38 are attached to tubes 12 and 14, respectively, by bolts 40 and 42, respectively, extending through holes 41, 43 (see FIG. 3) in the tubes 12 and 14 and therefore have some degree of movement with respect to the tubes.
To install the conventional load lock 10 in the semi-trailer, the handle lock 28 is released and moved to a position parallel to and above the tube 12. Next, while holding the load lock with the pad 34 at the end of the larger diameter tube 14 against the semi-trailer wall and in a parallel position to the trailer floor, the smaller diameter tube 12 is extended until the pad 32 at the end of that tube touches the opposing wall. Then the handle 28 is moved 180 degrees from the position above the tube 12 in position above the tube 14 whereby the pinion gear 26 moves the rack 18 to further push the tubes 12, 14 away from each other to generate a clamping force that presses the pads 32, 34 into securing engagement with the side walls of a semi-trailer. The handle locks into place securing the load lock 10 between the trailer walls. The load lock 10 is supposed to secure the freight inside the semi-trailer in its loaded positioned until it is unloaded at the customer's facility.
The problem with the load lock 10 is that it is unable to be adjusted to the different widths encountered from trailer to trailer to a sufficient degree that the maximum clamping force is exerted against the trailer sidewalls. The reason for this inability to properly adjust the length of the load lock is caused by the coarse pitch of the rack and pinion 16. The pitch has to be coarse to make the rack strong enough to withstand the force exerted in order to hold the load lock in place while in transit. When the load lock is extended and the handle clamping maneuver results in the pinion hitting a tooth on the rack, the load lock length has to be slightly shortened to allow the pinion to engage between the teeth on the rack. This result in less clamping pressure than is needed to keep the load lock in place between the walls of the trailer. The reduced clamping pressure sometimes results in the load lock falling to the floor of the trailer. This can result in the freight shifting and causing damage to the freight. Sometimes, when the load lock falls to the floor, the driver is injured by falling freight while in the process of preparing the trailer to be unloaded at the customer's facility.


Automation objects are implemented in a client-server model to control operations on one or more client machines from a single machine automation control module, such as a test program. The machine automation control module instantiates machine automation server objects in a server process. The control module can then instruct the server objects to instantiate corresponding machine automation client objects on specified client machines via a connection mechanism. Object-oriented automation classes are provided in a library and may be extended to meet customized requirements of a given testing procedure. Examples of automation objects may include, without limitation, application objects, machine image objects, snapshot objects, file and registry access objects, reboot objects, autologon objects, and command execution objects. Automation objects allow the re-establishment of remote control after the loss of control resulting from a reboot, a relogon, or a disk image restoration, for example. Automation objects may also be used to automate the deployment of software throughout an enterprise.

Software testing is an important stage of a software product development process. Ideally, a software testing process exhaustively tests as many user scenarios and machine configurations as possible, including installs, reinstalls, reboots, logons, multiple system configurations, etc. Identifiable user scenarios and machine configurations are numerous, and tests often require significant manual interaction to configure and execute. The complexity of modern testing requirements combined with manual interaction can introduce unnecessary errors, labor costs, and delays to the software testing process.
One approach to minimize the risks of manual errors, costs, and delays is to automate the testing process. Test automation software exists to decrease the manual interaction required, but these existing solutions are not architected to fully or flexibly support the complex testing requirements of a modern software product development process. Example testing requirements not adequately addressed by existing solutions are related to scenarios such as loss of control (e.g., reboots, hard disk image restores, and logouts) and remote test control of multiple test client machines from a single test server machine.

Object-based machine automation method and system


A system and method for disinfecting an exposed portion of a female luer connector is disclosed. A male luer connector coupled to a male luer connector cap is provided where the male luer connector cap has a chamber containing a disinfectant and a sealing member for sealing the disinfectant in the chamber. The chamber is at least partly opened and the disinfectant exposed by movement of the sealing member. An exposed surface of a female luer connector is caused to come in contact with the disinfecting fluid in the chamber prior to the female luer connector mating with the male luer connector.

Luer connectors as used in medical applications are generally designed to be connected to a patient's IV line, drug or solution source, or other medical implements. For example, in IV dispensing systems, a male luer connector may be connected to a fluid source, and a female needleless luer connector having a needless valve may be connected to a catheter via an infusion line.
It is important to disinfect an exposed surface of a female luer connector before the female connector is mated with a male luer connector. Unless such a disinfection operation is performed on the exposed surface, any microbes (e.g., bacteria) that are present on the surface can find their way into a patient's blood stream via a catheter, thereby exposing the patient to a serious health risk associated with bloodstream infections caused by the microbes.
Typically, the disinfection operation is performed by a nurse or other caregiver who is required to apply a disinfectant swab to the exposed surface prior to the male-to-female luer connection. However, there have been numerous studies that indicate that nurses do not consistently disinfect needleless luer connectors and while education improves compliance, the compliance degrades over time. Causes of the noncompliance include: nurses not having disinfectant swabs at hand and neglecting the duty to obtain more; and the nurses forgetting the requirement to apply disinfectant swabs in the first place. As indicated above, not properly cleaning and disinfecting the connectors can contribute to catheter related blood stream infections and other catheter related complications.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device, system and method that can increase the probability that an exposed surface of a female luer connector receives a disinfectant swab before a male-to-female luer connection is made.


A method for service binding includes: identifying a service provider identifier of a terminal and binding the terminal into a corresponding tunnel dependent upon the identified service provider identifier. The present invention implements dynamic binding of a terminal with a service through identifying a service provider identifier of the terminal, which offers more flexible selection of a service by a user, a reduced operation and maintenance cost of an operator, good extensibility of a network service and facilitated deployment of the service.

In Triple Play service, there are multiple service terminals in a home. At present, there are typically three terminals: one is a modem terminal for Internet service, one is a Set Top Box (STB) terminal for TV service, and another is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) terminal for Voice service. Different terminals have access to network equipment of an operator through a same network device, such as a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) and a Home Gateway (HG).
A Triple Play user may have access to a network of a Network Service Provider (NSP) through a fixed line, and can be provided with a service from an Internet Service Provider (ISP). A currently used method is such that the NSP batch-dispatches fixed users to the ISP corresponding to the users directly with lines of the users through a tunnel, such as a Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS), Mac in Mac, and QinQ. As an increasing number of ISPs provide the Triple Play service for end users, this fixed line based batch-dispatch makes it very difficult for the NSP to accomplish extensibility of a network and facilitated deployment of a service.
The DSL forum has proposed a method by which a personal service can be transferred transparently through a tunnel to a remote service processing device of the ISP, such as a Provider Edge (PE) device with provision of a data service, a TV service, and a VoIP service. by binding of the user (layer-1 Q or layer-2 Q) with the VPLS or a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tunnel through static configuration, by mapping the VLAN having access to a user into the corresponding VPLS, or by the N:1 method for VLAN.
In the Triple Play service, however, an end user may select different ISPs, provided that the user and an ISP reach an agreement with respect to the selection of the ISP. Typically, an ISP identifier is set directly in a terminal device (e.g., a set top box) to distinguish the ISP. A network service provider typically has already established for different ISPs Multi-Protocol Label Switching Virtual Private Network (MPLS VPN) channel (such as VPLS) for transferring transparently something to the end user, which inevitably requires that those different terminals in the family have to be online by adopting a same port, VLAN or inner layer or outer layer VLAN. This method may be limited largely in practical operation due to stringent and inflexible network planning. Additionally, this method requires strong association of a user with his physical location. Once a service provider is changed, the network has to be planned over again or configuration of an access device has to be changed, which may be disadvantageous to practical operation due to a high maintenance cost.


A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and an application delivery controller for receiving a notification from a client computing device when an application is selected. A configuration file including one or more instructions is identified from one or more memory locations. One or more instructions within the application delivery controller is updated with the one or more instructions present within the identified configuration file to provision the selected application. The selected application is provisioned to the requesting client computing device using the updated one or more instructions.

Provisioning application delivery services including simple load balancing often requires external management framework for provisioning. Existing technologies include extensive development work using interfaces which requires manual intervention for provisioning application delivery services. Additionally, the system programmers or administrators within the organization often may not have the resources or skill sets necessary to perform such provisioning in a fully automated manner.
Further, in existing technologies, portability across environments is inhibited by an over-reliance on hypervisor and virtualization-based nascent specifications such as OVF as instructions could be written in different languages which could not be understood by all the system administrators and programmers. These specifications are slow to emerge and do not fully address the basic problem of automating a simple provisioning process in a heterogeneous environment because they fail to encapsulate even primitive application delivery service descriptions.

Methods for provisioning application delivery service and devices thereof


A high molecular material and a medical material which is a mixed material containing a copolymer A produced by copolymerization of a monomer composition containing a monomer having a side chain represented by the formula (1) ##STR1## (R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3 ; H or a C1-4 alkyl group) and a hydrophobic monomer, and one or more sorts of hydrophobic polymer B other than the copolymer A; wherein structure of said mixed material shows phase separation in which domains of several hundred micrometers or less in size consisting of the copolymer A are uniformly distributed in a phase consisting of said hydrophobic polymer B. A liquid high molecular composition in which the copolymer A and the hydrophobic polymer B are dissolved in a mixed solvent consisting of a halogenated hydrocarbon solvent and a lower alcohol solvent, which has turbidity of 60% or less.

A polymer containing a phosphorylcholine group has a structure similar to that of a phospholipid constituting a cell membrane, and therefore has high biocompatibility, to exhibit superior properties as a medical high molecular material, such as non-activating ability of a complement including blood coagulation factor, lack of biomaterial (including protein and cells) absorbing property, antithrombus property, moisture holding property, and lipid bilayer stabilizing ability (Kazuhiko Ishihara, et.al., Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, 24(1990) 1069-1077, Kazuhiko Ishihara, et.al., Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, 25(1991) 1397-1407).
Development of bio-related materials utilizing these properties has actively been performed. For example, it is described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No.91-39309 that a copolymer of 2-methacryloyloxyethylphosphorylcholine and an ester of methacrylic acid is a superior biocompatible material. It is described in WO93/01221 that, when a polymer containing a phosphorylcholine group is utilized as a coating material, the coated article can be used as a material having a biocompatible surface for various bio-related purposes. It is disclosed in WO93/16117 that a water-soluble cellulose derivative produced by graft polymerization of a water-soluble cellulose with 2-methacryloyloxyethylphosphorylcholine has both biocompatibility and affinity with cellulose, and can be used as biocompatible material for, e.g., hemocatharsis. It is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No.84-43342 that a high molecular composition of a moisture sensor material consisting of a polymer having a phosphorylcholine group and a thin film material which is a water-soluble polymer is useful as a moisture sensor material. It is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open PCT application No. 95-504459 that a high molecular composition of a polymer having a phosphorylcholine group and a polymer having desirable mechanical and/or physical properties is suitable for a biomedical material. Various monomers, homopolymers, and copolymers having a phosphorylcholine group, and methods for producing the same are previously known as described in, e.g., Japanese Laid-open Patent Application Nos. 79-63025, 83-154591, 88-222183, 93-107511 and 94-41157, and WO093/01221.
Although a polymer or copolymer having the phosphorylcholine group has significant biocompatibility, mechanical properties such as dynamic strength and durability are not always sufficient, in terms of a medical material. Thus, various studies have been made regarding copolymerizable monomers to be copolymerized with the monomer having a phosphorylcholine group. An attempt to improve dynamic strength and durability by mixing a hydrophobic polymer having such properties has also been made. However, in the case of the polymer having a phosphorylcholine group, which is a functional group exhibiting a uniquely significant water-solubility, sufficiently good result has not yet been obtained unlike the case of conventionally performed mixing of hydrophobic polymers with another hydrophobic polymer.
Alternatively, it is known that a segmented polyurethane is superior in dynamic properties, and has better blood compatibility than other materials (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No.82-139352, European Patent Specification No.68385, U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,904, WO83/00695). Such segmented polyurethanes are widely used as medical materials such as blood circuits, artificial hearts, various catheters, and medical sensors ("Artificial Organs" Ed. Tetsuzo Agishi, 1994-95, Published by Nakayama Shoten). However, when these materials are used for a long time in an organism, inflammatory response, deterioration of materials caused by cell adhesion, and calcification occur. Therefore ideal antithrombus property is not always obtained, thus not being sufficient.
An attempt to mix two or more sorts of high molecular compounds having different properties to reform the material is called "polymer blend" and is commonly performed. When a film is produced with a mixture of two high molecular compounds having properties in contrast, such as a mixture of a high molecular compound having high hydrophilicity and a high molecular compound having high hydrophobicity, or a mixture of a high molecular compound having a high crysterization property and a high molecular compound having a high non-crysterization property, molecules of high molecular compounds having the same property gather by movement of molecules, to occur phase separation. Reform of materials utilizing the phase separation is also a common method of polymer blend. A multi-phase structure material has been developed utilizing phase separation mechanism of a high molecular mixture system which can be mutually dissolved. However, if high molecular compounds having extremely different hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity are mixed, aggregation or cloudness occurs because of phase separation, thus being not suitable for a biocompatible material for preventing adhesion of cells of the order of micrometers.
For example, in the method for producing a high molecular compound described in the aforementioned Japanese Laid-open PCT Application No.95-504459, 1:2 copolymer of 2-(methacryloyl)oxy-2'-(trimethylammonium)ethyl phosphate and n-dodecyl methacrylate, and segmented polyurethane are dissolved in a single solvent of dichloromethane or a mixed solvent of ethyl acetate and propane-2-ol. However, when the solvents are employed with such combination of high molecular compounds, only a part thereof is dissolved or swelled, and a uniform solution cannot thus be obtained. Therefore, a film obtained by evaporation of the solvent from such an ununiform solution cannot be utilized as a biocompatible material because of aggregation and cloudiness. In the combination of high molecular compounds having extremely different hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity, it is known that a mixture system without cloudiness in macro observation can be obtained as long as the compounds are covalently bonded to form a blocked copolymer. However, such a mixture is not known produced by mere mixing of two high molecular compounds.

Polymer material, medical material and liquid high molecular composition

Japan Science and Technology Corporation


The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that includes receiving a collection of measurements of electric current amplitude in a primary winding of an engine ignition system having the primary winding and a spark plug, identifying an ignition start time, identifying an inflection point based on the plurality of measurements, determining an inflection point time representative of a time at which the identified inflection point occurred, determining a spark start time based on an amount of time between the ignition start time and the inflection point time, and providing a signal indicative of the spark start time.

Spark plugs are used to create electric sparks in the combustion chambers of an internal combustion engine to ignite a compressed fuel/air mixture. Spark plugs typically have a metal threaded shell and a ceramic insulating layer that electrically isolates the shell from a central electrode. The central electrode extends through the ceramic insulator into the combustion chamber. A spark gap is defined between the inner end of the central electrode and the threaded shell.
Spark plugs are typically connected to a high voltage generated by an ignition coil connected to an ignition driver. A voltage is developed between the central electrode and the threaded shell as current flows from the coil. Initially, the fuel and air in the spark gap act as an insulator, preventing current flow. As the voltage continues to rise, the structure of the gases between the electrodes begins to change and the gases become ionized once the voltage exceeds the dielectric strength of the gases. The ionized gas is electrically conductive and allows current to flow across the gap.
Voltage ranges of 12,000-25,000 volts are typically used to cause the spark plug to spark (or "fire") properly, but higher voltages (e.g., up to 45,000 volts) can be used as well. By supplying higher currents during the discharge process, sparks that are hotter and have a longer duration can be created. The voltages used can vary depending on a number of engine operating conditions, such as fuel quality, cylinder compression levels, spark gap, engine loading, extender material, cylinder head dimensions, and gas turbulence levels in the cylinder.


The invention relates to a method for monitoring blowing in secondary air to the exhaust gas in an internal combustion engine equipped with a measuring sensor for detecting the oxygen content in the exhaust gas. The method is based on the reaction of the measuring sensor to the switch in of the secondary air. The quantity of the air inducted by the engine is increased when the secondary air is supplied to the exhaust gas.

In the operation of internal combustion engines, air is supplied to the exhaust gas of the engine after a start. The exothermal reaction of the air, which is blown in between the outlet valves of the engine and the catalytic converter, and the hot exhaust gas and the further oxidation thereof before and in the catalytic converter leads to an accelerated warming of the catalytic converter to its operating temperature and therefore to a reduction of the emission of toxic substances in the warm-up phase of the engine.
Statutory requirements in the United States provide for monitoring systems for blowing in secondary air so that a minimum air flow is supplied.
A method and arrangement for diagnosing secondary air systems is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,975. According to the teaching in this patent, the reaction of the exhaust-gas probe (or of the lambda control, which is coupled to the exhaust-gas probe, for adjusting the composition of the air/fuel mixture for the engine) is evaluated as to the activation of an electrically driven secondary air pump. An intact secondary air system leads to an excess of oxygen in the exhaust gas. Especially for high capacity secondary air pumps, the problem is present that the supply of a large quantity of secondary air triggers an intense enrichment of the air/fuel mixture by the lambda control loop. The quantity of the emitted toxic substances then increases dramatically because the engine burns a very rich mixture. The running performance of the engine can, under some circumstances, deteriorate significantly. In order to keep these disadvantages at a minimum, the known method provides for an adaptation of the supplied secondary-air quantity to the value of the exhaust-gas quantity, which is supplied by the engine, by varying the pumping capacity of the secondary-air pump. For this purpose, means are provided which make it possible to drive the secondary-air pump in at least two stages in dependence upon operating parameters of the engine.

Method for monitoring the supply of secondary air to the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine


A method and apparatus for performing a fast jump address calculation is disclosed. A field from the instruction is provided to an adder, on the assumption that it is the displacement value, without actually determining whether it is a displacement value. A fixed instruction length is also provided to the adder, on the assumption that the instruction will have that length. Finally, the current instruction address bits from the program counter are provided to the adder. These are added together to provide a jump address.

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for calculating jump addresses in a microprocessor.
Before a jump to another location can be done, the instruction must be first decoded to determine that it is a jump instruction. A jump instruction will contain a displacement value, which may be one or more bytes. The instruction must be decoded to determine the number of bytes which belong to the displacement value. This displacement value is then added to the current instruction address to determine the location of the instruction being jumped to. The current instruction address is stored in a program counter register. In addition, the length of the instruction itself must be added to the jump address. This is because the program counter points to the beginning of the instruction, and a displacement indicates a value from the end of the instruction, so that the length of the instruction must be added to bridge the gap.
A jump may also be unconditional or conditional. If it is unconditional, it will always be taken. If it is conditional, an operation designated by the instruction must be first performed to determine whether the jump is to be taken. This is typically done in an execution stage of the microprocessor logic following the decoding stage.
Finally, the calculated jump address must be converted into a physical address. In some systems, the memory may be segmented so that a constant value indicating the segment must be added to the address. This is often called a virtual (or effective) address to linear address conversion. In addition, the memory system may use paging, which would further break up the segments of memory. Certain high order bits designate the page, and must be translated into the actual physical address in order to fetch the instruction from memory. The address after the segmentation calculation and before the paging calculation is sometimes called a linear address, an intermediate address between the virtual and physical addresses.
In some programs, approximately 25% of the instructions may be jump instructions. These jump instructions may take as many as nine cycles for execution. Accordingly, it is desirable to reduce the number of cycles required to execute a jump in order to increase the speed of processing.

Apparatus for quickly determining actual jump addresses by assuming each instruction of a plurality of fetched instructions is a jump instruction


A computing resource service provider provides a certificate management service that allows customers of the computing resource service provider to create, distribute, manage, and revoke digital certificates issued by public and/or private certificate authorities. In an embodiment, when a new certificate is generated, a certificate template is used to apply various settings and policies for the new certificate. In various examples, templates may be used to establish default values, enforce required and optional values, place restrictions on one or more data fields, and enforce signature requirements. In some embodiments, the template establishes rules for rejecting certificate requests that don't conform to the template.

Computer-based transactions are an important part of running a modern business. By performing operations in a computing environment, transaction data can be exchanged electronically between parties over computer networks, thereby allowing the transactions to occur quickly over great distances. However, when exchanging data over a publicly accessible computer network, it takes considerable resources to prevent third parties from interfering with the transaction by impersonating one of the parties or by altering the transaction data. In order to mitigate this risk, a digital certificate may be used to prove the identity of the certificate owner. Such digital certificates are widely used to authenticate the exchange of information between computer systems and therefore, providing improved systems for managing and using digital certificates is an important problem.


Provided are a method and an apparatus for controlling access to memory. The method, performed by a memory device, of controlling access of a master device, includes: receiving, from the master device, an access request with respect to at least one of a plurality of banks included in the memory device; determining whether access to each of the at least one bank to which access was requested is granted; and generating validity information representing whether the access to each of the at least one bank to which access was requested is granted, and transmitting the generated the validity information to the master device.

Use of banked multi-port memory that includes a plurality of banks and allows a plurality of master devices to perform simultaneous data transmission has increased. The banked multi-port memory allows the plurality of master devices to perform simultaneous access, thereby increasing a data processing speed as compared with single-port memory.
However, when the plurality of master devices request access to the same bank included in the memory, bank conflict may occur, which may degrade the performance of the banked multi-port memory.
Accordingly, research into banked multi-port memory for enhancing the performance thereof by appropriately controlling accesses of a plurality of master devices has been actively conducted.

Memory access control method and apparatus


A display device includes: a panel in which plural pixels that emit lights according to a video signal are sectioned into plural areas; a light reception sensor that is arranged in each of the areas and outputs a light reception signal according to light emission luminance; and signal processing means. The area includes first and second pixel groups including at least one pixel and plural pixels other than the first pixel group, respectively. The signal processing means includes arithmetic means for outputting an arithmetic signal according to arithmetic operation of an offset value and a light reception value; converting means for outputting digital data according to the arithmetic signal; and correcting means for correcting the video signal according to the digital data and supplying the corrected video signal to the first pixel group.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and a display control method, and, more particularly to a display device that makes it possible to perform burning correction at high speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the development of plane self-emitting panels (EL panels) including an organic EL (Electro Luminescent) device as a light emitting element is actively performed. The organic EL device is a device that has a diode characteristic and makes use of a phenomenon in which an organic thin film emits light when an electric field is applied thereto. The organic EL device is a self-emitting element that consumes low power because the organic EL device is driven at applied voltage equal to or lower than 10 V. The self-emitting element emits light by itself. Therefore, the organic EL device has a characteristic that an illumination member is unnecessary and reductions in weight and thickness are easy. Response speed of the organic EL device is extremely high at about several microseconds. Therefore, the EL panels have a characteristic that an after-image during moving image display does not occur.
Among the plane self-emitting panels including the organic EL device used for pixels, in particular, an active-matrix panel including thin film transistors, which are integrated and formed in pixels as driving elements, is actively developed. The active-matrix plane self-emitting panel is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2003-255856, JP-A-2003-271095, JP-A-2004-133240, JP-A-2004-029791, and JP-A-2004-093682.


The invention concerns a device for crimping a contact on a cable end portion, comprising an axial bore (2) and: first means for crimping (3) the contact on one stripped part of the cable and second means for crimping (4) the contact on one sheathed part of the cable, said means being mobile between a spaced apart position and a crimping position; first and second means for moving (6, 17) said first and second crimping means (3,4) between their spaced apart position and their crimping position; the first displacement means (6) being actuatable in translation along an axial direction and the second displacement means (17) being actuatable in rotation about the axis of the bore (2).

To associate a contact with the end of a cable, it is known to crimp a contact upon the end portion of the cable in order to make an electric connection of the cable with the contact. Then, it is provided to crimp the contact on a stripped part of the end portion of the cable, i.e. on the core of the cable. Such crimping operation is called an "electric crimping".
For certain cables, more particularly those, the core of which is made up of aluminium, making a second crimping of the contact on the end portion of the cable on a part where the sheath is present can also be provided. As a matter of fact, in the case of a cable, the core of which is made of aluminium, an oxidation of the core may occur when in contact with air or moisture which may affect the efficiency of the electric contact because of the creation of resistive materials such as alumina during the oxidation reaction. Then, the crimping of the contact on the cable sheath also called a "sealing crimping" is also provided in order to prevent the penetration of air or moisture to the stripped core of the cable.
Both crimping operations may be carried out using a unique tool making it possible to crimp on the one hand the contact on the stripped core of the cable and on the other hand the contact on the sheath of the cable. Document WO-2006/012979 more particularly describes such a unique tool.
In the embodiments of the prior art, the tool is a hand tool of the pliers type comprising crimping means rotatingly operated about the contact and the end portion of the cable. The crimping means are separated into first crimping means making it possible to carry out the electric crimping and second crimping means making it possible to carry out the sealing crimping. Such a tool makes it possible to carry out both crimpings in one operation.
However, the simultaneous activation in rotation of the first and second crimping means implies the deployment of a very important effort from the tool operator, which makes the tool not very practical to use. More particularly, the energy curve of the effort applied by the crimping means shows a high peak of energy during the rotation motion which reduces the lifetime of the tool because of the premature wearing resulting from such peak of energy.

Crimping device for electrical crimping and sealed crimping