Recyclable and repulpable coated paper stock, preferably for use as ream wrap, comprising a substrate coated on at least one surface with a base coat and at least one additional coat over said base coat. Both coats are water based dispersions of a polymer selected from the group consisting of acrylic polymers, acrylic copolymers, polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl alcohol, ethylene-vinyl acetate, polyvinyl chloride, styrene butadiene copolymers, polyvinylidiene chloride and its copolymers, or starch. The wax free coating forms a pin-hole free continuous film on the substrate which is resistant to water and water vapor. The invention also includes processes for making and recycling the invented coated paper stocks.

Polyethylene films and wax coatings, which are generally laminated or coated to paper, are widely used in packaging applications to protect products from moisture and provide water or grease resistance. However, recycling of packaging containing polyethylene films and wax coatings are limited and costly since special equipment is necessary for repulping and various process steps are required prior to reintroducing such a slurry into a recycling stream along with office waste paper. In addition, polyethylene films and some wax coatings will not degrade if the package is composted. These problems are encountered in specific packaging application areas, for example, where such coatings are used in the production of ream wrap.
Conventional ream wraps are typically a multi-ply product having a center ply of polyethylene in between two ply's of paper. Polyethylene is used in ream wraps to provide an effective barrier to water vapor (humidity) which can cause the wrapped paper to curl resulting in misfeeds and jams in copy machines or printing presses. These multilayered plastic film ream wraps cannot easily be recycled. Landfills and incineration are the common ways to dispose of polyethylene packaging materials. Alternatively, other coatings and coating systems are known which do not contain polyethylene but provide the level of moisture resistance necessary for ream wrap. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,199 to Gotoh et al. discloses a repulpable coated paper containing a synthetic rubber latex and a wax emulsion. Coatings such as Vapo-Stop, manufactured by Cham-Tenero Paper Mills, Inc., Cham, Switzerland, include a styrene-butadiene polymer, wax and acrylic polymer components which provide moisture resistance to coated substrates. These systems however contain a high loading of wax which make the formulation unacceptable for recycling as office waste and repulping for white paper production.
Thus it would be desirable to find an alternative for conventional polyethylene films and coatings containing wax that has comparable moisture barrier properties but also has the added benefit of repulpability and recyclablity.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,392,972 to Cheyney discloses surfacing of paper with a coating of vinylidene chloride-vinyl chloride copolymers to produce a coated paper which is resistant to the transmission of water vapor. Other representative patents which describe use of polyvinylidene chloride as a means for imparting water vapor resistance to paper include U.S. Pat. No. 3,476,587 to Demol et al. which discloses compositions comprising two vinylidene chloride copolymers, one hard and the other supple, to waterproof a substrate and U.S. Pat. No. 3,423,232 to Reinhard et al. which discloses coating flat substrates with aqueous dispersions including 80-98% vinylidene chloride polymers as a subcoating and top coating.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,766 to Hathaway et al. discloses a resin coated packaging product, preferably a paper based sheet, having the exposed surface thereof coated with a haloethylene polymer resin, such as saran, and an intermediate flexible foundation coating of extruded ethylene-lower alkyl acrylate copolymer resin. The haloethylene polymer resins, e.g. saran, are resistant to the passage of water vapor and include at least 60% by weight of polyvinylidene chloride resins.
From the prior art mentioned it is seen that coatings which include vinylidene chloride copolymers to provide a moisture barrier are known, however, the prior art does not provide a method for directly applying these coatings to a porous substrate. It would be appreciated that advantage over known applications would be obtained by providing wax free aqueous coatings directly applied to a substrate surface to impart water and water vapor resistance properties comparable to conventional polyethylene or wax coatings but are repulped and recycled more readily. The present invention is directed to the provision of such recyclable and repulpable coatings to produce a coated paper product for use as ream wrap. The water-based coatings of the invention provide an alternative to conventional polyethylene coatings and wax coatings and an advantage over the prior art since the coated paper can easily be repulped without special flotation equipment, which is needed when repulping polyethylene film. The water-based coatings disperse in water, allowing the paper fibers to be easily reclaimed for reuse. The invention coatings, unlike wax-coatings, are repulped and recycled along with office wastepaper to produce a high grade white paper.
Accordingly, it is a broad object of the invention to provide a recyclable and repulpable coated paper stock comprised of a substrate coated with a base coat and at least one additional coat over the base coat, both of which are wax free water-based polymeric dispersions.
An object of the invention is to provide a recyclable and repulpable coated paper stock which is formed into a package, container or label.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide a recyclable and repulpable coated paper stock, for use as ream wrap, having water resistance, grease resistance and moisture vapor barrier characteristics.
A specific object of the invention is to provide a coated paper stock that is readily recycled without dependence on special equipment for repulping.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide a coated paper stock that is readily repulped and recycled along with office waste paper to produce a high grade white paper.

Recyclable and repulpable ream wrap and related methods of manufacture


Circumferentially separate tire pitch sequences are selectively positioned for suppressing tire noise by comparing waveform representations of the separate pitch sequences in a correlation function and using the magnitude of a Hilbert Transform to identify minima of the absolute value of the correlation function. The relative rotated position of the pitch sequences for suppressing tire noise is selected from the vicinity of one of the minima.

This application relates to the art of tires and, more particularly, to arrangements for suppressing tire noise. The invention is particularly applicable for use in selectively rotating mold halves relative to one another to a position that suppresses tire noise. However, it will be appreciated that the invention has broader aspects and can be used for other purposes such as positioning individual tire tread ribs or portions of ribs and for positioning segments of molds.
Various arrangements have been used for positioning tire tread sections relative to one another in a manner that suppresses noise when the tire rolls in engagement with a pavement. Many of the prior procedures cannot analyze all conceivable relative positions between the tire sections and require a significant degree of subjective judgment for determining the relative position of the tire sections. Therefore, the prior procedures are often very time consuming and sometimes inaccurate. It would be desirable to have a procedure for minimizing the degree of subjective judgment involved in relatively positioning the tire segments and that is capable of rapidly analyzing virtually all conceivable relative positions between the tire sections.


The VECSEL includes: a heat spreader dissipating generated heat; a laser chip that is disposed on the heat spreader and is excited by a pump beam of a predetermined wavelength to emit a beam of a first wavelength; a Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) crystal that is disposed on the laser chip or the heat spreader and converts the laser beam of the first wavelength emitted from the laser chip into a beam having a second wavelength that is one-half the first wavelength; and a planar external cavity mirror that is directly formed on the SHG crystal and has a predetermined transmittance with respect to the beam of the second wavelength.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to an end-pumped vertical external cavity surface emitting laser (VECSEL), and more particularly, to a VECSEL having improved optical structure with improved mirror forming an external cavity.
2. Description of the Related Art
VECSELs increase a gain region by adopting an external mirror instead of an upper, integral mirror for a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) and obtains a high output power of several to several tens of watts (W) or higher.
FIG. 1 illustrates optical arrangement of a conventional front-pumped VECSEL. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional VECSEL includes a pumping unit providing a pump beam, a laser chip 11 that is excited by a pump beam to emit a laser beam, and first and second mirrors 17 and 19 that are located outside the laser chip 11 and form an external cavity.
The pumping unit includes a pumping light source 1 mounted on a first heat sink 3 and a collimating lens 5 collimating a pump beam emitted by the pumping light source 1 and provides a pump beam to a portion of the laser chip from which a laser beam is emitted.
A second heat sink 13 is disposed on one surface of the laser chip 11 and dissipates heat generated by the laser chip 11.
The first mirror 17 is separated from the laser chip 11 and is obliquely disposed relative to an axis of incident light emitted from the laser chip 11. The first mirror 17 has a concave reflecting surface 17a facing the laser chip 11 and the second mirror 19. Thus, the first mirror 17 prevents a laser beam resonating between the second mirror 19 and the laser chip 11 from diverging. The second mirror 19 faces the first mirror 17 and reflects light from the first mirror 17 back into the first mirror 17.
A birefringent filter 15 is disposed between the first mirror 17 and the laser chip 11 and filters out all but a laser beam having a predetermined wavelength. A Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) crystal 21 is disposed between the first and second mirrors 17 and 19 and converts the laser beam emitted from the laser chip 11 to its half wavelength beam.
Meanwhile, because the external cavity mirror 17 for the conventional VECSEL of FIG. 1 having the above-mentioned construction has the concave reflecting surface 17a, it is difficult to integrate the external cavity mirror 17 with the laser chip and form a VECSEL as an integrated module. This makes it difficult to reduce the size of VECSEL to less than several to several tens of millimeters (mm).

Vertical external cavity surface emitting laser (VECSEL)


The present invention is a method of disposing selectively on a surface of a substrate a first substance having a hydrophilic surface and a second substance having a surface coated with a hydrocarbon group. The substrate has on the surface thereof a hydrophilic first region, a second region coated with a hydrocarbon group, and a third region coated with a fluorocarbon group. The method of the present invention includes the steps of; (1) applying a solution containing the first substance and an aqueous solvent to the substrate; (2) removing the aqueous solvent from the surface of the substrate so as to dispose the first substance on a surface of the first region; (3) dipping the substrate in a liquid containing alcohol having fluorine in its molecule; (4) applying a solution containing the second substance and an organic solvent to the surface of the substrate that has been dipped in the liquid; (5) pulling the substrate out of the liquid; and (6) removing the organic solvent from the surface of the substrate so as to dispose the second substance on a surface of the second region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of disposing selectively two types of substances on the surface of a substrate.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, intensive research and development efforts have been made in various sectors to fabricate electronic devices, such as thin-film transistors, light-emitting display elements, and microlenses, by a printing method instead of a conventional photolithography method. The reason why a printing method has attracted attention as a method of fabricating electronic devices is as follows. Since the components of an electronic device can be formed directly on a substrate if a printing method is used, both the number of fabrication steps and the number of materials to be used can be reduced compared to when the photolithography method is used. As a result, the cost of manufacturing electronic devices may be reduced significantly.
The size of a thin-film transistor, a light-emitting element, or a microlens generally is several tens to 100 μm. Therefore, the formation of such an electronic device by a printing method requires a printer capable of forming a pattern of several tens to 100 μm in size. Among various types of printers, an ink jet printer and a gravure offset printer can form a pattern as small as several tens μm in size, and there has been reported methods of fabricating electronic devices using these printers.
JP 3541625 B2 (Document 1) and JP 3858809 B2 (Document 2) each disclose a method of fabricating a light-emitting element for an organic electroluminescence display by an ink jet printing method. JP 2006-318850 A (Document 3) discloses a method of fabricating a light-emitting element for an organic electroluminescence display by a gravure offset printing method.
As another printing method, there has been proposed a method in which hydrophilic regions surrounded by a water-repellent region are formed on a substrate in advance, and an ink is applied to the substrate by a spin coating method or a dipping method, or using a brush, so as to dispose the ink selectively onto the hydrophilic regions. Hereinafter, this method is referred to as a dewetting method.
In recent years, the dewetting method has attracted attention as a method of fabricating electronic devices. The principle of the dewetting method is described briefly below, and then conventional examples using this method are shown.
The basic procedure of the dewetting method includes a step of bringing an ink into contact with a substrate, and a step of separating the ink from the substrate.
FIG. 10A to FIG. 10E are schematic cross-sectional views showing how the ink is disposed in a hydrophilic region in this basic procedure.
FIG. 10A is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a movement of a droplet of an ink 122 that has been brought into contact with a substrate 121 in air 130. The droplet of the ink 122 moves in the direction of an arrow 123. According to the movement of the droplet, the ink 122 is brought into contact with the surface of the substrate 121 and then separated therefrom. In FIG. 10A, according to the movement of the ink 122, a common interface 128 at which three interfaces among the ink 122, the substrate 121 and the air 130 contact with each other moves in the direction of the arrow 123.
FIG. 10B to FIG. 10E are enlarged views of the vicinity 124 (see FIG. 10A) of the common interface 128. FIG. 10B shows the beginning of the movement of the ink 122. At this point in time, the common interface 128 is located on the water-repellent region 125. Then, as shown in FIG. 10C, the common interface 128 moves on the water-repellent region 125 as the ink 122 moves, and reaches the boundary between the hydrophilic region 126 and the water-repellent region 125.
As the ink 122 further moves, the center of the gravity of the entire ink 122 also moves in the direction of the arrow 123 as shown in FIG. 10D, but the common interface 128 stays on the boundary between the water-repellent region 125 and the hydrophilic region 126.
As shown in FIG. 10B and FIG. 10C, the common interface 128 on the water-repellent region 125 moves according to the movement of the ink 122. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 10D, the common interface 128 on the boundary between the hydrophilic region 126 and the water-repellent region 125 stays there. Presumably, this is because the adhesion that acts between the ink 122 and the water-repellent region 125 is weaker than the adhesion that acts between the ink 122 and the hydrophilic region 126.
As used herein this specification, the phrase "the adhesion that acts between a liquid (ink in the above case) and a water-repellent region is weaker than the adhesion that acts between the liquid and a hydrophilic region" means that the amount of work required to separate the liquid that has adhered to a unit area of the water-repellent region is smaller than the amount of work required to separate the liquid that has adhered to a unit area of the hydrophilic region.
Next, as shown in FIG. 10E, as the ink 122 further moves, a part of the ink 122 is cut and disposed in the hydrophilic region 126. Subsequently, the common interface 128 is located on the water-repellent region 125 adjacent to the hydrophilic region 126 in the direction of the movement 123 of the ink 122.
When the spacing between the adjacent two hydrophilic regions 126 and 129 is small, the common interface 128 may move to the next hydrophilic region 129, in some cases, upon cutting the ink 122 on the hydrophilic region 126.
In the example shown in FIG. 10A to FIG. 10E, the ink is brought into contact with the substrate and separated therefrom according to the movement of the ink droplet on the substrate.
Such contact and separation of the ink also can be performed by a spin coating method, a dipping method, or a brush method.
The spin coating method is a technique of applying an ink to a substrate by dropping the ink on the entire surface of the substrate and then rotating the substrate at high speed. In this method, dropping of the ink brings the ink into contact with the substrate, while a centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the substrate separates the ink from the substrate.
The dipping method is a technique of applying an ink to a substrate by dipping the substrate into the ink and then pulling up the substrate out of the ink. In this method, dipping of the substrate brings the ink into contact with the substrate, while pulling-up of the substrate separates the ink from the substrate.
The brush method is a technique of applying an ink to a substrate by moving a brush impregnated with the ink on the substrate. In this method, moving of the brush both brings the ink into contact with the substrate and separates the ink from the substrate.
JP 2007-129227 A (Document 4) and "S. P. Li et al.; Applied Physics Letters 89, 122105-1 to 3 (2006)" (Document 5) each disclose a method of fabricating a field-effect transistor using the dewetting method. In this method, hydrophilic regions corresponding to the shape of source electrodes and drain electrodes as well as a water-repellent region surrounding these hydrophilic regions are first formed on the surface of a conductive silicon substrate having a surface coated with a 100 nm thick thermal oxidized silicon film.
In this method, the hydrophilic regions and the water-repellent region are formed in the following manner.
First, a mold with a relief pattern, in which the shape of recesses correspond to the shape of source electrodes and drain electrodes, is produced using a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material.
Next, this relief mold is impregnated with a solution of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorododecyltrichlorosilane (CF3(CF2)7C2H4SiCl3), and then the mold is pressed against a substrate. The CF3(CF2)7C2H4SiCl3 impregnated into the projections is transferred onto the substrate to form a water-repellent thin film.
As a result, hydrophilic regions having the shape of electrodes and water-repellent region that surrounds the hydrophilic regions are formed on the substrate.
Subsequently, an ink in which a conductive polymer material is dissolved is applied to the substrate by the brush method, so that the conductive polymer is disposed only in the hydrophilic regions.
The resulting pattern of the conductive polymer corresponds to the source electrodes and the drain electrodes.
Next, an ink in which a polymeric organic semiconductor is dissolved is applied to the substrate by a spin coating method. As a result, a bottom-gate field-effect transistor is fabricated.
JP 2007-500587 T (Document 6) discloses a method of printing on a flexible substrate by a continuous roll-to-roll process using the dewetting method. In one example of this method, using a flexographic printing method, a fluororesin pattern is formed on the surface of a polyethylene terephthalate resin substrate, which has been undercoated with gelatin. Then, aqueous glycerol, conductive polymer, liquid crystal, or the like is formed by printing in hydrophilic regions by a hand coating method.
"Daniel M. Hartmann, Osman Kibar, and Sadik C. Esener; Optics Letters, 2000, vol. 25, pp. 975-977" (Document 7) discloses a method of fabricating a microlens by the dewetting method. In this method, a thin film pattern made of water-repellent wax is first formed on a substrate by the photolithography method, so that circular hydrophilic regions surrounded by a water-repellent region are formed.
Next, an ultraviolet curable resin is applied to this substrate by the dipping method, and then the resin is irradiated with ultraviolet rays to be cured. In this manner, microlenses with a diameter of 50 μm are formed in the hydrophilic regions.
"Fang-Chung Chen et al.; IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 2006, 18, pp. 2454-2456," (Document 8) also discloses a method of fabricating a microlens by the dewetting method. In this method, circular hydrophilic regions surrounded by a water-repellent region are formed on a substrate by the same method as used in Document 7, an ultraviolet curable resin is applied to the substrate by the spin coating method, and then the resin is irradiated with ultraviolet rays. Thus, microlenses are fabricated.
Applicators used in the dewetting method are simple in structure and inexpensive compared with ink-jet printers and gravure offset printers. Therefore, the use of the dewetting method may enable the fabrication of electronic devices at lower cost.
Due to the processing limitation of an ink jet head and a mold, it is considered to be difficult to reduce the size of the minimum pattern to be printed by the ink jet method and the gravure offset method to less than 10 μm.
In contrast, in the dewetting method, the size of hydrophilic regions can be reduced to 1 μm or less by using a PDMS mold and the photolithography method. Therefore, the use of the dewetting method enables the printing of a pattern of 1 μm or less.
As described above, the dewetting method has attracted attention because it has a potential to print micro-patterns at low cost.
It is, however, difficult to print selectively two types of inks (two types of substances) in predetermined regions on the same substrate by the dewetting method. This is because in the dewetting method, two types of regions, that is, a water-repellent region and a hydrophilic region are formed on a substrate and a difference between the adhesion that acts between the ink and the water-repellent region and the adhesion that acts between the ink and the hydrophilic region is utilized to dispose the ink thereon.

Method of disposing selectively two types of substances on surface of substrate


In order to minimize the requsite expenditure of energy involved in a positional change of a microscope for the microsurgery mounted on a floor stand or suspended from a ceiling suspension mount that comprises a viewing element (17, an eyepiece (12), an objective (13), a beam divider (11) disposed between the viewing element (17) and a magnification power changer (12), in which the microscope is swivelably disposed in a suspension mount in such a way that a microscope swivel axis is located in the beam divider exit axis (A), the point of intersection of the microscope swivel axis (B) and the beam divider exit axis (A) is located at the center of gravity or within the immediate proximity of the center of gravity of the microscope (Fig.).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope for microsurgery mounted on a floor stand or suspended from a ceiling mount, with a viewing element, an eyepiece, an objective, a beam divider disposed between the viewing element and a magnification power changer, in which the microscope is swivelably disposed in a mounting bracket or suspension mount in such a way that a microscope swivel axis lies in the beam divider exit axis.
2. Description of the Related Art
Already in U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,057, such a microscope is described which is comprised of a plurality of modularly assembled elements whose selection is adapted to the specific requirement or purpose. Depending on additional peripheral equipment, microscopes are constantly becoming more voluminous and heavier, for which reason operating microscopes, as a rule, are mounted or suspended from suspension mounts, in many cases on the ceiling. This also facilitates the incorporation of an electromotive positional adjustment means, which is also used for focusing.
In order to make certain that additional supports components, such as cameras, movie cameras or television cameras or other co-viewer devices do not constitute an obstruction for the microscope operator when the microscope is swiveled, it is proposed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,057 to swivelably dispose the microscope in a suspension mount, in which case the microscope swivel axis is Located in the beam divider exit axis. It is ensured in particular hereby that the additional supports components, such as cameras or movie cameras or such like, when the microscope is swiveled, have merely to be rotated but not displaced longitudinally, which would require an additional expenditure of energy.
The technical problem of the present invention consists in developing further the aforementioned microscope for microsurgery to the effect that the expenditure of energy necessary for a positional change of the microscope is minimized further so that the handling of the microscope is simplified.


According to one embodiment, a DC-DC converter includes a comparator circuit that compares a feedback voltage of an output voltage with a reference voltage and a control circuit that controls an output voltage based on an output signal of the comparator circuit. The comparator circuit performs a discrete-time operation in response to a clock signal, and a frequency of the clock signal is adjusted according to a load condition.

Conventionally, in a DC-DC converter that executes control to equalize a DC input voltage with a reference voltage, a pulse width modulation (hereinafter, PWM) method in which a pulse width is controlled by maintaining a frequency of a signal that turns on a switching transistor constant, and a pulse frequency modulation (hereinafter, PFM) method in which a frequency is controlled by maintaining a pulse width constant have been known.
There is also a technique that executes control by the PWM method at the time of a heavy load, and switches to control by the PFM method that can reduce the number of switching operations of the switching transistor at the time of a light load. However, even in the PFM method that suppresses power consumption, a comparator that operates by a steady current is generally used in order to monitor a load condition. Therefore, there is still a room for improvement in suppressing power consumption by the comparator and increasing the conversion efficiency.


Techniques for handling synchronization headers for serial data transmission with multi-level signaling are described. In an example, a transmitter includes a multiplexer circuit configured to serialize an input signal to generate an output bit sequence having a plurality of bits between pairs of synchronization header bits. The transmitter includes a re-ordering circuit, coupled to the multiplexer circuit to receive the output bit sequence, configured to re-order the output bit sequence by moving at least one of the plurality of bits between the synchronization header bits in each of the pairs of synchronization header bits. The transmitter includes an output driver circuit configured to drive the re-ordered output bit sequence onto a transmission medium.

Serial data transmission protocols, such as Ethernet and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express, make use of framing bits to encapsulate data at the physical coding sublayer (PCS). In particular, a two-bit header is often used, where the value 01 denotes a data word and the value 10 a control word, with 00 and 11 reserved for error conditions. In a system that uses bipolar or non-return to zero (NRZ) sianaling (i.e., systems that represent 0 and 1 by voltages +1 and −1), inserting such headers periodically ensure that the transmitted data has regular transitions to aid dock recovery at the receiver. By using values 01 and 10, the DC balance of the link is also preserved. This forms the basis of 66b/64b and 130b/128b encoding schemes.
If the transmission medium uses a higher-order modulation scheme instead of NRZ, the synchronization header as described above may not fulfill its stated purpose. For example, high-end serial transceivers are moving towards pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) signaling, which for example uses four levels (e.g., PAM41 rather than two levels. This means that two bits are encoded to one transmitted symbol, and the 01 or 10 pattern will occupy a single symbol (if aligned) or else one bit each of two adjacent symbols (if not aligned). Assuming the framed data is random in nature, it is clear that the probability of a transition occurring in this case is reduced to 75%. Moreover, if Gray code mapping of the transmitted data is used, the DC balance of the link is upset because the voltage transmitted for the symbol 01 is not the negative of that transmitted for 10.

Synchronization headers for serial data transmission with multi-level signaling


A system, and computer usable program product for expanding memory size are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A desired size of an expanded memory and a first information about a workload in the data processing system are received. A size of a compressed memory pool to use with the memory to make the desired size of the expanded memory available is computed. A representation of the memory is configured, the representation of the memory appearing to be of a size larger than the size of the memory, the representation of the memory being the expanded memory, and the size of the representation being the size of the expanded memory. The expanded memory is made available such that the memory in the data processing system is usable by addressing the expanded memory.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular, to managing memory in a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a system, and computer usable program code for offering and accessing an expanded size of a memory in a data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems include memory devices for storing, processing, and moving data. A memory device, or memory, is generally a physical component of a data processing system configured to store data. A memory may also include logical or virtual components, such as a space on a hard disk designated to be used as a part of the memory.
A component of the operating system of the data processing system, such as a memory controller, manages the movement of data in and out of the memory, and generally the operation of the memory. Applications and the operating system can use the memory for storing, processing, or moving data they each need for their respective functions.
Data processing systems can be configured in a variety of ways. For example, the components in a data processing system may be configured to operate in a manner such that the data processing system behaves as a single data processing unit. The memory in such a configuration operates to support data manipulation for the single data processing unit.
As another example, data processing systems can be divided into logical partitions (LPARs). Such data processing systems are also known as logical partitioned data processing systems. A logical partition is also known simply as a "partition". Each partition operates as a separate data processing system independent of the other partitions. Generally, a partition management firmware component connects the various partitions and provides the network connectivity among them. A Hypervisor is an example of such partition management firmware.
One or more memory devices may be present in a logical partitioned data processing environment. A partition may access one or more memory devices for manipulating data. Methods exist to address several portions of several memory devices in a manner that the several memory devices appear as a single memory to the applications and the operating system of a partition.
Data compression is a technique used for manipulating data such that a size of storage smaller than the actual size of the data can hold the data. Data compression is used in conjunction with a memory to accommodate more data than the actual size of the memory can hold. For example, 1 Giga Byte (GB) of memory can be made to hold 2 GB of data by suitably compressing the data.
Typically, data is compressed when stored in the memory and uncompressed when an application has to retrieve the data from the memory. Many algorithms for data compression exist and some are suitable for compressing data in memory.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


An alerting system for use in generating an alert in respect of usage of a device, the alerting system including a detector capable of detecting an event that is indicative of usage of the device, the alerting system being arranged to invoke a selected alert state prior to the activation of a forthcoming said event by a user, the alert state being selectable from a plurality of different alert states, wherein each of the different alert states represents a different stage of elapsed time since a previous said event, and wherein the alerting system is arranged to select an alert state in dependence on the elapsed time.

Many conditions are treated by taking one or more drugs at regular intervals, and the success of the treatment is largely dependent on the ability of the user to comply with the regimen associated with the drug. Management of regimen compliance is assisted by various reminding devices and systems, which either generate an alarm at certain specified times or inform the user whether or not a dose is due in response to a request for medication. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,016 discloses an alarm system arranged to generate an alert when a next dose is due to be taken and a time keeping system that displays the amount of time since a last dose is deemed to have been taken. The alert is generated on the basis of absolute time, in that, upon reaching a time that a dose is due, an alarm is generated, whilst the time keeping system merely serves to provide information to the user. WO 02/078593 is a development of the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,016, in that it uses the time that medication was last taken to identify time of next dose, that is to say it has a reminder system based on dose history informing the user whether a dose is due or not in response to a user requesting a dose.
It would be desirable to provide an improved alerting system for use in a medicament dispenser, where the generation of alerts is based on dose history.


The liquid ejection device comprises: an ejection head including a plurality of nozzles which eject droplets of liquid onto an ejection receiving medium; a liquid flow speed determining device which determines a flow speed of the liquid in each of the nozzles, the liquid flow speed determining device being arranged in each of the nozzles; an ejection abnormality detecting device which detects an ejection abnormality in each of the nozzles according to the flow speed of the liquid determined by the liquid flow speed determining device; an ejection direction deflecting device which deflects a direction of ejection of a droplet of the liquid ejected from each of the nozzles, the ejection direction deflecting device being arranged in each of the nozzles; and an ejection compensation control device which performs control in such a manner that, when an abnormal one of the nozzles having an ejection abnormality is detected by the ejection abnormality detecting device, a compensatory ejection is performed by deflecting a direction of ejection of a droplet of the liquid ejected from one of the nozzles adjacent to the abnormal nozzle, by means of the ejection direction deflecting device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection device and an image forming apparatus, and more specifically to an ejection abnormality compensation technology for detecting and compensating ejection abnormalities in the nozzles of an ejection head.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, inkjet printers have come to be used widely as data output apparatuses for outputting images, documents, or the like. By driving recording elements, such as nozzles, provided in a recording head in accordance with data, an inkjet printer is able to form data onto a recording medium, such as recording paper by means of ink ejected from the nozzles.
An inkjet printer forms an image on recording paper by causing a recording head having a plurality of nozzles and a recording medium to move relatively to each other, while causing ink droplets to be ejected from the nozzles. If an ejection abnormality occurs for some reason in a portion of these nozzles, then a fault occurs in the resulting image, thereby causing image quality to decline. Therefore, it is necessary to take countermeasures.
Conventional methods for detecting ejection abnormalities at nozzles include a method in which a test pattern or an actual image is printed and ejection abnormalities are detected from the resulting image, and a method in which the ejection characteristics are measured inside the recording head. Furthermore, if an ejection abnormality is detected by one of these methods, then droplet ejection control is implemented in order to prevent image faults, for instance, compensatory ejection is performed in such a manner that larger dots than normal are formed by adjacent nozzles in place of the nozzle having an ejection abnormality, or compensatory ejection is performed by driving complementary nozzles, if the recording head is provided with complementary nozzles.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-63008 discloses a recording apparatus, control method for same and computer-readable memory, in which data on defective recording elements is stored, complementary elements are chosen according to the data thus stored, and recording is performed by the complementary elements chosen in the defective elements stead.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-315318 discloses an inkjet recording apparatus and inkjet recording method, in which non-ejecting nozzles are detected and the amounts ejected from nozzles adjacent to the non-ejecting nozzles are adjusted.
However, in a method where print results, such as a test pattern or an actual image, are determined, it is necessary to eject ink onto the recording medium, and hence recording medium and ink are consumed wastefully for the purpose of determination. Moreover, in a method where physical properties are measured inside the recording head, although it is possible to accurately identify nozzles having an ejection abnormality, it is difficult to determine the extent of the ejection abnormality.
Moreover, if complementary nozzles are provided, then space for installing these complementary nozzles is required, and hence there is a problem in that the head becomes large in size.
The recording apparatus and control method for same described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-63008 requires recording actually to be performed in order to identify defective recording elements, and hence it does not resolve the problem of recording media and ink being used wastefully. Furthermore, in order to identify recording elements which become defective over the passage of time, it is necessary to identify defective recording elements periodically and to register these defective recording elements.
Moreover, in the inkjet recording apparatus and the inkjet recording method according to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-315318, since a defective nozzle is compensated for by changing the amount of ink ejected by the nozzles adjacent to the defective nozzle, it is necessary to change the ejection algorithm (ejection control) accordingly, and hence the burden on the ejection control system becomes very large.

Liquid ejection device and image forming apparatus


A system and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device upon sensing a triggering event is disclosed. A redirector program operating at the host system enables a user to continuously redirect user-selected data items from the host system to the user's mobile data communication device upon detecting that one or more user-defined triggering events has occurred. The redirector program operates in connection with event generating applications and repackaging systems at the host system to configure and detect particular user-defined events, and then to repackage the user-selected data items in an electronic wrapper prior to pushing the data items to the mobile device. The system includes information processing components for identifying one or more information processors in the vicinity of the mobile device and then routing an attachment or information from the host system, the device or an external information source to a selected information processor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally toward the field of mobile communications, and in particular to managing the processing of message attachments and other information from a mobile data communication device.
A further aspect of the invention provides a system and method for sending message attachments or other information from the mobile data communication device to one or more processing devices. Systems and methods according to this aspect of the invention are particularly useful for mobile devices, such as pagers, PDAs, cellular telephones, etc., that have limited memory capacity and thus may have difficulty processing attachment files.
2. Description of the Related Art
Present systems and methods for replicating (or redirecting) information from a host system to a user's mobile data communication device are typically "synchronization" systems in which the user's data items are warehoused (or stored) at the host system for an indefinite period of time and then transmitted in bulk to the mobile device only in response to a user request. In these types of systems and methods, when replication of the warehoused data items to the mobile device is desired, the user typically places the mobile device in an interface cradle that is electrically connected to the host system via some form of local, dedicated communication. Software executing on the mobile device then transmits commands via the local communications link to the host system to cause the host to begin transmitting the user's data items for storage in a memory bank of the mobile device.
In these known synchronization schemes, the mobile unit "pulls" the warehoused information from the host system in a batch each time the user desires to replicate information between the two devices. Therefore, the two systems (host and mobile) only maintain the same data items after a user-initiated command sequence that causes the mobile device to download the data items from the host system. A general problem with these synchronization systems is that the only time that the user data items are replicated between the host system and the mobile data communication device is when the user commands the mobile device to download or pull the user data from the host system. Five minutes later a new message could be sent to the user, but the user would not receive that message until the next time the user fetches the user data items. Thus, a user may fail to respond to an emergency update or message because the user only periodically synchronizes the system, such as once per day. Other problems with these systems include: (1) the amount of data to be reconciled between the host and the mobile device can become large if the user does not "synchronize" on a daily or hourly basis, leading to bandwidth difficulties, particularly when the mobile device is communicating via a wireless packet-switched network; and (2) reconciling large amounts of data, as can accrue in these batch-mode synchronization systems, can require a great deal of communication between the host and the mobile device, thus leading to a more complex, costly and energy-inefficient system.
A more automated, continuous, efficient and reliable system of ensuring that user data items are replicated at the user's mobile device is therefore needed.
There remains an additional need for such a system and method that provides flexibility in the types and quantities of user data items that are pushed from the host system to the mobile data communication device and that also provides flexibility in the configuration and types of events that can serve to trigger the redirection of the user data items.
There remains yet an additional need for such a system and method that can operate locally on a user's desktop PC or at a distance via a network server.
There remains still another need for such a system and method that provides for secure, transparent delivery of the user-selected data items from the host system to the mobile device.
There remains an additional need for such a system and method in which the user is provided with a flexible means of processing message attachments that may be too large or incompatible with the configuration of the mobile device.

System and method for accessing information processor services for a mobile communication device


A jet burner construction, heating apparatus utilizing the jet burner construction and methods of making the same are provided, the jet burner construction having opposed ends and having a fluted portion disposed spaced from and intermediate the inlet and the outlet of the burner body and having opposed ends, the fluted portion defining a central opening part and radiating portions of the outlet opening of the burner body which is generally located in the middle of the fluted portion, the fluted portion expanding and extending axially beyond the central opening part at one of the opposed ends thereof and comprising part of a flame retainer unit that also comprises a generally ring-like structure between the one of the opposed ends of the fluted portion and the one of the opposed ends of the burner body, the one of the opposed ends of the fluted portion expanding outwardly substantially at a right angle to the longitudinal axis of the burner construction.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new jet burner construction and to a new heating apparatus utilizing such a jet burner construction as well as to new methods of making such a jet burner construction and such a heating apparatus.
2. Prior Art Statement
It is known to provide a jet burner construction comprising a burner body means having a chamber means therein and having an inlet means leading to the chamber means for directing fuel from a fuel source therein and an outlet means leading from the chamber means and defining an outlet opening means through which the fuel is adapted to issue from the chamber means to burn externally to the burner body means, the burner body means having a longitudinal axis extending between the inlet means and the outlet means, the outlet opening means having a central opening part and a plurality of spaced apart opening portions interconnected thereto and radiating outwardly therefrom whereby flows of fuel respectively issuing out of the portions and the central part of said outlet opening means merge together in a turbulent manner externally to the outlet opening means, the burner construction comprising flame retainer means carried by the body means and having outer edge means extending beyond the outlet opening means of the body means to prevent flows of induced air from being created between the flows of fuel issuing from the radiating portions of the outlet opening means, the burner body means being formed of two generally similar body sections secured together in superimposed relation and each having one-half of the outlet opening means and one-half of the flame retainer means thereon, the body means having opposed ends and having a fluted portion disposed spaced from and intermediate the inlet means and the outlet means and having opposed ends, the fluted portion defining the central opening part and the radiating portions of the outlet opening means, the outlet opening means being generally located in the middle of the fluted portion, the fluted portion expanding and extending axially beyond the central opening part at one of the opposed ends thereof and comprising part of the flame retainer means, the flame retainer means also comprising a generally ring-like structure between the one of the opposed ends of the fluted portion and one of the opposed ends of the body means, each one-half of the flame retainer means being integral and one-piece with its respective body section, the one of the opposed ends of the fluted portion expanding outwardly substantially at an angle to the longitudinal axis. For example, see FIGS. 1-9 and 17 of this application for such prior known jet burner construction.

Jet burner construction, heating apparatus utilizing the jet burner construction and methods of making the same


Fusion proteins comprising human FH domains 18-20 (FH18-20) linked via an optional linker to IgG Fc, wherein the FH has mutation of D to G at position 1119 in domain 19; FHD1119G/Fc), and methods of use thereof, e.g., to treat pathogen infections.

Antimicrobial resistance remains a major threat to public health worldwide and we are witnessing an era where several medically important microbes are becoming untreatable with antibiotics currently in clinical use. Organisms such as Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumanii, and several additional members of the family Enterobacteriaceae have become resistant to most conventional antibiotics (1, 2). Similarly, Neisseria gonorrhoeae has also demonstrated a remarkable capacity to resist almost every antibiotic that it has encountered (3). The recent isolation of N. gonorrhoeae strains resistant to ceftriaxone, the last remaining option for empirical monotherapy, in several parts of the world represents a major public health problem (4-7). In addition to complications including pelvic inflammatory disease and its sequelae such as infertility, ectopic pregnancy and chronic pelvic pain, gonorrhea can increase the transmission and acquisition of HIV-1 infection (8, 9). Thus, spread of multidrug resistant gonorrhea represents a serious public health threat and there is an urgent need to develop novel antimicrobials and (ideally) vaccines and immunotherapeutics against this pathogen.


Transponders capable of providing identification information and possibly additional information are detected from wireless access points of a computer network as a substitute for closed radio frequency identification (RFID) systems while providing numerous additional functionalities and applications. Total asset visibility or responses to more limited queries are provided by inclusion of a geographic information system software application. Location reporting of proximity of devices/transponders to access points can be enhanced to a fine-grained level by triangulation or other algorithms including neural networks.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the tracking of movement of people and objects using wireless communication links and, more particularly, to combined tracking of and communication with people and objects using a widely available and well-developed communications medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems have been known for a number of years, particularly in the field of theft deterrence. Many retail establishments now mark goods with a removable tag or include a permanent device in or on the goods which can be deactivated by a magnetic field or other arrangement. Tags which have not been deactivated or removed are then detected at some point of egress from the store by radio frequency interrogators positioned to detect active tags brought into proximity therewith.
RFID systems are not at all limited to theft deterrence and may be used for a wide variety of applications ranging from, for example, inventory control to secure location access control to global supply chain problems. Any object, animal or person with which a detectable tag can be physically associated can be tracked and its location reported to any desired level of accuracy or resolution with a suitably designed RFID system. Depending on the application, the tags may be active or passive (e.g. powered or unpowered) and may or may not have the capability of being separately identifiable, either uniquely or in groups/categories, or other capabilities. Radio interrogators may also be of widely varying configurations, depending on the intended application.
Unfortunately, current RFID systems are generally custom designed for particular application and/or rely on proprietary, dedicated hardware. Therefore, such systems can be expanded or modified only with substantial difficulty and cannot be adapted for any other data intensive application. Further, in general, RFID products from different vendors are not interoperable and, moreover, may interfere with or have their performance degraded by other radio frequency applications, including other RFID systems, used in the same environment. The geographic scope of the RFID system is generally fixed with the system design and, in general, the detectable range of tags from radio interrogators is very limited, often to a few feet or meters.
Local area and wide area networks are known for providing communications between data processing devices such as personal computers to allow them, for example, to access a common data base. Such networks may be hard-wired or wireless or a combination thereof. Wireless portions of a local or wide area network communicate with individual terminals through radio frequency transmitters and receivers which are spatially separated and generally referred to as access points. The network has the capability of tracking the particular terminals with which communications can be conducted from a given access point at any given time.
It should be recognized that RFID systems can interfere with wireless portions of local and wide area networks and other radio frequency systems and vice-versa. That is, for example, a RFID system may preclude use of a wireless portion of a LAN or WAN (hereinafter collectively referred to as networks) in certain locations of a facility. Further, the detectable tag of an RFID system may compromise other devices or arrangements that rely on radio frequency communications, particularly compromising reliable communications between terminals and access points of a network.
It should also be recognized that while RFID systems and wireless portions of networks are similar enough in some ways to interfere with each other, the proprietary nature of the former and the intended function of the latter does not permit combined functions to be realized. For example, while a wireless portion of a network may have a rudimentary capability to track and/or switch the access point for communication with a particular terminal, it cannot generally report the location of the assets that such terminals or particular operators which particular terminals may represent, much less track assets represented by equipment connected to a given terminal which may communicate with a central server or other terminals through a wireless portion of a network. Conversely, RFID systems cannot provide data communications using standard wireless data networking protocols, such as IEEE 802.11. Special purpose transmitter/receiver devices, known as interrogators, are equipped to merely sense the proximity of identifiable tags or to engage in limited read/write data traffic with the tags using protocols that preclude the inclusion of other network-aware devices participating in the communication.

Asset tracking using wireless LAN infrastructure


Concrete mounting apparatuses, concrete connector installation assemblies, and methods of installing a concrete mounting apparatus are disclosed. In some embodiments, the concrete mounting apparatus may include a mounting base that is planar and is configured to be supported on concrete. The mounting base may include a plurality of apertures sized to receive one or more fasteners. The apparatus may additionally include an attachment member attached to, or formed with, the mounting base. The apparatus may further include a support member configured to be supported on the mounting base. The support member may include a hole configured to receive at least a portion of the attachment member, a plurality of holes that is adjacent to the attachment member when the attachment member is received in the hole, and one or more spaced fins configured to receive one or more rails of the fence.

Fences are freestanding structures that are designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary. Fences can be made of any suitable materials, such as wood, metal, concrete, and/or other materials. Some fences include vertically oriented posts that are inserted into a hole in the ground and the hole is then filled with dirt and/or cement.
Examples of fences are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,920,221; 4,286,772; 4,508,320; 5,015,117; 5,456,441; 5,632,464; 5,666,774; 6,015,138; 6,098,353; 6,173,945; 6,176,471; 6,745,529; 7,325,790; and 7,866,636; and U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2003/0209701, 2013/0212966, and 2013/0256619. The complete disclosures of the above patents and patent applications and all other publications referenced in the present disclosure are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.

Concrete mounting systems, apparatuses, and methods for fences and other concrete mounted structures


When optical disk defects are managed by using non-defective areas in place of defective areas, different criteria are used for detecting the defects, depending on the type of data recorded on the disk. For example, to avoid interruptions of real-time recording, less strict criteria are used when audio or video data is recorded than when computer data is recorded. The criteria themselves may also be recorded on the disk.

The present invention relates to a method of managing defects in a disk recording medium, an optical disk device recording data on the optical disk using such a defect management method, and an optical disk capable of storing information concerning a defect criteria used for replacing a defective area of disk with a non-defective area.
A very high degree of reliability less than 10xe2x88x9212 at worst is required of a disk used for recording computer data. Defect-managing systems have been used hitherto to accommodate the reality that defects in recording sectors which lead to an error are unavoidable, even very rare, in the current disk-manufacturing technique.
Disk mediums are subjected to the defect management for assuring data reliability even when dirt, scratches or degradation due to repetition of rewriting operation is caused. Primary defects occurring at the time of manufacture of the disks are found through a certifying process carried out at the time of initializing disks, and secondary defects occurring after being put to use are found through verification carried out at the time of writing, or the like. Sectors found to have a defect are replaced, using sectors located in a spare area formed on part of a disk other than a user area. In the defect management, a pair of a user area and a spare area is called a group.
In an example of arrangement of user areas and spare areas on a disk, the data area consists of a single group. However, there are many optical disks in which a data area is divided into a plurality of groups. When a defective group is found in a group, it is first attempted to replace the defective sectors using sectors in a spare area of the same group. In many cases, an optical disk is configured such that a recording capacity of a spare area is several % of that of a user area. The 90 mm magneto-optic disk standard defined by ECMA-154 or ECMA-201, and the DVD-RAM standard defined by ECMA-272 are examples of such configuration.
Incidentally ECMA is an abbreviation of European Computer Manufacturers Association, DVD is an abbreviation of digital video disk, and RAM is an abbreviation of random-access memory.
The presence or absence of a defect in a sector can be determined by an error in an ID signal representing a physical address of the sector, an error in a recorded data signal, or a servo error signal.
When a plurality of ID""s are recorded in the header area for each sector, if not less than a predetermined number of ID""s for each sector contain an error, the sector in question is found to have a header defect. In the DVD-RAM standard for example, each sector is provided with four ID""s, and an error can be detected for each ID. Each sector is found not to have a header defect if it has not more than two ID errors: a sector having three or more ID errors is found to have a header defect, since its reliability is low.
Further, the presence or absence of an error in a recorded data signal is detected by the use of an error correcting code added thereto. When more than a predetermined number of errors are included per unit of recording, the data signal is found to have a data defect. The xe2x80x9cunit of recordingxe2x80x9d may be a sector or a block constituted of a plurality of sectors depending on the span of an error correcting code (ECC).
In the DVD-RAM standard, data is recorded in sectors on a disk, and is subjected to error-correcting coding in units of 16 sectors, called an ECC block. Data of 32 KB constituting one ECC block is arranged in the form of matrix of 172xc3x97192 bytes (or 172 columnsxc3x97192 rows), and Reed-Solomon codes (inner code PI, outer code PO) of 10 bytes and 16 bytes are added in column direction and row direction, respectively, to constitute a product code.
The inner code PI is disposed so as to be completely within a sector. By means of the inner code PI, the number of error bytes in each row of the reproduced data can be determined. In accordance with the detected number of errors, reliability of each row is evaluated, and whether each sector or each block has a data defect can be determined based on the number. For instance, a sector including four or more rows having four or more error bytes is found to have a data defect, or a block including six or more such rows are found to have a data defect.
With regard to detection of defects based on a servo error signal, when the magnitude of the servo error signal such as a tracking error signal exceeds a predetermined value that makes it difficult to ensure the servo control stability required of data recording, a sector in question is found to have a servo defect.
When a sector is found to have a header defect, a data defect or a servo defect, it is found to be defective.
Generally, in the defect management, two different methods are used for performing replacement of a sector. One is a slip replacement, and the other is a linear replacement.
The slip replacement is applied to primary defects. If a defective sector is found at the time of certifying a disk, the next sector is used in place of the defective sector. In a disk drive device, for accessing a sector containing data, a logical address is converted into a physical address representing the position of the sector, and a sector having ID""s representing the physical address is accessed. When the slip replacement has been performed, the physical address numbers corresponding to the logical addresses are shifted, or xe2x80x9cslipxe2x80x9d by one.
The slip replacement is carried out within each group. For instance, if there occur two slip replacements of m sectors and n sectors in a user area, the end of the user area of the group is shifted into the head of the spare area by (m+n) sectors. If such slip replacements are made, the linking relation between the physical addresses and logical addresses is shifted by the number of replaced sectors for all the sectors succeeding the replaced sectors. Primary defects subjected to the slip replacement are registered in a PDL (Primary Defect List). The list contains the physical addresses of defective sectors in each entry.
Linking the physical addresses with the logical addresses can be made only when a disk is initialized, and therefore, the slip replacement is applied to primary defects only.
The linear replacement is applied to secondary defects. When a defective sector is found, replacement is effected using spare sectors in a spare area. When an ECC block (formed of 16 sectors) is found to contain a defective sector, the entire ECC block is replaced with 16 sectors in a spare area. There may be a case where a block in a spare area having replaced another block is subsequently replaced with another block. A substitutive sectors are given the same logical addresses as the original sectors.
The linear replacement is effected within the same group first. For instance, when two linear replacements of m blocks and n blocks respectively occur in a user area, m blocks and n blocks at the beginning of the unused part of the spare area are used. It may be so designed that when the spare area of the same group has been used up the spare area in another group is used. Secondary defects subjected to linear replacement are registered in an SDL (Secondary Defect List). The list contains physical addresses of defective sectors and substitutive sectors in each entry.
When such a linear replacement has been made, every time an access is made using a logical address which designated a substitutive sector, an access to the substitutive sector and subsequent return have to be made. Therefore, the average data transfer rate is substantially lowered when the secondary defects exist.
A set of the defect lists PDL and SDL is stored in a defect management area within a control information area in each of outer and inner periphery parts. They are disposed at a plurality of locations, and they are recorded together with information on the structure of a disk.
Generally, in recording devices, criteria for detecting primary and secondary defects are set in the following way.
A disk is at its best condition when primary defects are detected and registered. The number of defects on the disk increases with time or usage due to scratches and dirt, and resultant degradation. Therefore, the primary defects are detected and replacement is effected by using a criteria which is more strict than that for detecting the secondary defects, so that some additional scratches or dirt will not results in the finding of a defect according to the criteria for detecting the secondary defects.
Although the secondary defects are detected with a criteria which is less strict than that for the primary defects, a margin of safety is left between the criteria for detecting the secondary defects and the error-correcting capability, so as to ensure error correction during reproduction. In this way, different criteria are used for the primary defect detection and the secondary defect detection.
Conventionally, optical disks are used mainly for computer date recording, and therefore, the primary concern was to improve the data reliability, and defect management mainly consisting of replacement using spare sectors has been developed to deal with the defects in the recording sectors causing the errors.
In recent years, with increasing capacity of optical disks, their uses are expanding to the video recording field, such as in DVD.
Data files for recording computer data (PC files) are expected to be completely error-free, and high reliability is required of recording. In contrast, data files for recording audio or vide data (AV files) require recording data inputted continuously in real time. In some cases, errors are permissible as long as the disturbance of reproduced images or sounds is not noticed, so that data reliability is not required to be as high as in computer data recording. Instead, non-interruption of recording is important.
That is to say, with regard to storage devices for computer data recording, primary importance is the reliability rather than recording time, while, for storage devices for video recording, primary importance is continuous recording performance. Consequently, in case of using the same type of disk for recording both audio or video data and computer data, it is required to ensure reliability and recording speed which meet the requirements of the respective recordings. Likewise, defect management must be adaptable to both types of recording.
Conventional defect management for optical disks has the following drawbacks.
For carrying out replacement to deal with secondary defects of a disk at the time of recording, data is reproduced from the recorded part for verification, and if errors of more than a prescribed criteria, or a defective part from which reproduction is impossible is found, the data recorded in that part is re-recorded in substitutive sectors in a spare area, and data is again reproduced from the substitutive sectors for verification. Thus, when a secondary defect is detected, and replacement is effected, the time needed is four times more than the time needed for recording data once. In case of recording audio or video data in real time, it is likely that recording is interrupted if a defect is detected.
One solution to this problem is not to detect secondary defects during the recording of audio or video data. In this case, the reproduced image or the like may have disturbances at parts having the secondary defects, but such disturbances are considered less objectionable than interruption of recording. The underlying assumption is that once primary defects have been removed at the time of initialization of the disk, any secondary defects that might occur will be minor. If the scale of the secondary defects is greater than predicted, the disturbance of the reproduced picture may be intolerable, and thus this solution fails.
Where the optical disks are used for recording audio or video data, it is considered unnecessary to detect defects with criteria which is as strict as that used in recording computer data. This is because, if the excessively strict criteria is used, sectors which are permissible for audio or video data are also found defective, and video recording is interrupted when the time-consuming replacement is effected. Because the conventional defect management method does not take into consideration the intended use of the optical disk, and the criteria used is of the same level regardless of the intended use of the optical disk, there was no conception of using the optimum defect detecting method.
The present invention has been made overcome the above-outlined problem, and its object is to adapt defect management to the type of data recorded on an optical disk, or the intended use of the disk.
Another object is to improve the interchangeability of the optical disk.
A further object is to improve the utility of optical disks for recording audio or video data.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of managing defects on an optical disk used for recording data, including
determining a criteria for detecting defects according to the type of data for which defects are to be detected; and
detecting defects using said criteria when data is recorded on or reproduced from the disk.
With the above arrangement, it is possible to use the criteria suitable for the particular type of data for which defects are to be detected.
The step of detecting defects may be performed with regard to data recorded on the disk.
In this case the defects may be detected when the data is recorded on the disk, or when the data is reproduced for verification of the data having been recorded. When the defects are detected when the data is recorded, determination of presence or absence of servo defects and header defects can be made, but determination of presence or absence of data defects cannot be made. When the defects are detected during reproduction for verification, presence of absence of data defects as well as servo defects and header defects can be determined.
The step of detecting defects may alternatively be performed when the data is reproduced. In such a case, if defects are detected, the reproduction of the data is re-tried. Decision on whether the reproduction is to be re-tried is made using different criteria depending on the type of data being reproduced.
The method may further comprise the step of using non-defective areas of the optical disk in place of defective areas of the optical disk.
With the above arrangement, the result of the defect detection can be used in making a decision as to whether the areas found to be defective should be replaced with non-defective areas.
The step of determining a criteria may include:
selecting one of the plurality of criteria according to the type of data for which defects are to be detected.
With the above arrangement, the defect criteria can be determined simply by providing a signal which selects one of the plurality of criteria provided in advance, rather than specifying the values forming the criteria.
The plurality of criteria may include at least a first criteria, and a second criteria, the second criteria being less strict than said first criteria, and said step of selecting may include selecting the first criteria when the data for which defects are to be detected is one for which time restriction with regard to data recording or reproduction is less strict, and selecting the second criteria when the data for which defects are to be detected is one for which time restrictions with regard to data recording or reproduction is more strict.
An example of the data for which time restriction with regard to data recording or reproduction is less strict is computer data. An example of the data for which time restriction with regard to data recording or reproduction is more strict is audio or video data.
By using a less strict criteria for the audio or video data, interruption of the audio or video data recording is avoided unless the defect is of such a degree that the resultant disturbance in the sound or picture is intolerable.
The method may further include sending control information for specifying the criteria, from means for processing data to be recorded, to means for recording said data.
The above-mentioned means for processing data to be recorded is for example a host device. The above mentioned means for recording the data is for example a disk device.
With the above configuration, the host device can set criteria which is finely optimized for the type of the data to be recorded on the disk.
The data may be recorded in units of recording, and the step of sending control information may send the control information for each unit of recording.
With the above configuration, it is possible to dynamically set criteria which is finely optimized for each unit of recording (e.g., sector or ECC block), depending on the type of the data to be recorded in each unit of recording. That is, even when different types of data, e.g., audio or video data, and computer data, are both recorded on the same disk, since the host device sends the criteria control information in association with the data to be recorded, and the defect management can be effected using the optimum criteria for the respective data.
The control information specifying the criteria may select one of a plurality of criteria.
With the above configuration, the amount of control information is small, since it only needs to specify one of the plurality of predetermined criteria, rather than specifying values forming the criteria itself.
Data may be recorded in units of recording, and said method may further include recording control information representing the criteria for each unit of recording, on the optical disk, in association with each unit of recording.
With the above configuration, the criteria to be used for defect detection for each unit of recording (sector or ECC block) is known by reading the control information, and can be used for performing maintenance of the data recorded on the disk.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a disk device for accessing data on an optical disk, including:
means for determining a criteria for detecting defects according to the type of data for which defects are to be recorded; and
means for detecting defects using the criteria when data is recorded on or reproduced from the disk.
With the above arrangement, it is possible to use the criteria suitable for the particular type of data for which defects are to be recorded.
The detecting means may detect said defects with regard to data recorded on the disk.
In this case the defects may be detected when the data is recorded on the disk, or when the data is reproduced for verification of the data having been recorded. When the defects are detected as the data is recorded, servo defects and header defects can be detected, but data defects cannot be detected. When the defects are detected during reproduction for verification, data defects as well as servo defects and header defects can be detected.
The detecting means may alternatively detect defects when the data is reproduced. In such a case, if defects are detected, the reproduction of the data is re-tried. Decision on whether the reproduction is to be re-tried is made using different criteria depending on the type of data being reproduced.
The device may comprise means for managing defects on the optical disk by using non-defective areas of the optical disk in place of defective areas.
With the above arrangement, the result of the defect detection can be used in making a decision as to whether the areas found to be defective should be replaced with non-defective areas.
The determining means may include:
means for storing a plurality of criteria; and
means for selecting one of said plurality of criteria according to the type of data for which defects are to be detected.
With the above arrangement, the defect criteria can be determined simply by applying a signal for selecting one of the plurality of criteria provided in advance, rather than specifying the values forming the criteria.
The plurality of criteria may include at least a first criteria, and a second criteria, the second criteria being less strict than the first criteria, and the selecting means may select the first criteria when the data for which defects are to be detected is one for which time restriction with regard to data recording or reproduction is less strict, and selects the second criteria when the data for which defects are to be recorded is one for which time restriction with regard to data recording or reproduction is more strict.
An example of the data for which time restriction with regard to data recording or reproduction is less strict is computer data. An example of the data for which time restriction with regard to data recording or reproduction is more strict is audio or video data.
By using a less strict criteria for the audio or video data, interruption of the audio or video data recording is avoided unless the defect is of such a degree that the resultant sound or picture is intolerable.
The determining means may determine the criteria according to a control signal supplied from outside of the device.
The control signal may be supplied from a host device connected to the disk device.
With the above configuration, the host device can set criteria which is finely optimized for the type or contents of the data for which defects are to be detected.
The device may further comprise means for recording data, in units of recording, on the disk,
wherein
said determining means may determine the criteria for each of the units of recording, and
the recording means may also record criteria control information controlling the criteria for each unit of recording, in association with the each unit of recording.
With the above configuration, the criteria to be used for defect detection for the data of each unit of recording (e.g., sector or ECC block) is known by reading the control information, and can be used for performing maintenance of the data recorded on the disk.
According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided an optical disk for recording data, including an area storing criteria control information specifying criteria to be used for detecting defects for data recorded on or reproduced from the disk.
With the above configuration, the criteria to be used for detecting defects when the disk is accessed is known by reading the criteria control information recorded on the disk. Accordingly, the maintenance of the data on the disk is facilitated, and the interchangeability of the disk is improved since the criteria control information can be read by any disk device.
The data may be recorded in units of recording, and the criteria control information indicating the criteria to be used for detecting detect with regard to the each unit of recording may be recorded in association with the each unit of recording.
With the above configuration, the criteria to be used for each unit of recording, e.g., sector or ECC block, is known by reading the criteria control information, and can be used for performing maintenance of the data recorded on the disk.
The information may select said criteria from a plurality of predetermined criteria.
With this configuration, the amount of control information is small, since it only needs to specify one of the plurality of predetermined criteria, rather than specifying values forming the criteria itself.

Optical disk, an optical disk device, and a method of managing defects in an optical disk


Disclosed is a method of manufacturing a substrate for an organic EL device, the method comprising the step of: filling grooves of the optical element with sol-gel coating solution or organic metal cracking solution when a diffraction grating 12 is formed on the glass substrate 11, wherein an encapsulation member 5 is mounted to the glass substrate 11 in order to fill the groove 12a with the coating solution, and the coating solution is injected into a gap between the encapsulation member 5 and the diffraction grating 12, so that the organic EL device can be stably manufactured with low variation between optical properties according to positions of the substrate and with improved luminous efficiency. Further, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a substrate for an organic EL device having a glass substrate 11 with an diffraction grating 12, wherein the dispersion solution of particles is applied to the glass substrate 11 to form the diffraction grating 12, so that the organic EL device can be stably manufactured with low variation between the optical properties according to the positions of the substrate and with the improved luminous efficiency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a substrate for an organic electroluminescent display device, which comprises an optical element such as a diffraction grating, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic electroluminescent device (hereinafter, referred to as "organic EL device") is an emitting device employing a principle that fluorescent material emits light using recombination energy of holes injected from an anode and an electrons injected from a cathode. As an exemplary organic EL device, there is a low-voltage drive organic EL device with layered devices, reported by Tang C. W. et al. (Tang, C. W., VanSlyke, S. A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 51, p 913, 1987), and such layered device has remarkably improved luminescence properties of the organic EL device. Further, the organic EL device has been being widely developed for recent practical utilization since such a high powered organic EL device was developed.
The organic EL device having a two-layered structure, developed by Tang et al., comprises an emitting layer containing tris (8-quinolinol) aluminum (AlQ), and a hole transporting layer containing a tri-phenyl thiamine derivative such as tri-phenyl thiamine diphosphate (TDP). The reason why the two-layered structure gives good luminescence properties is because efficiency of injecting the holes into the emitting layer is increased, efficiency of creating excitons by means of the recombination is increased by blocking the electrons injected from the cathode, and the created excitons can be encapsulated in the emitting layer. Also, as an exemplary advanced structure of the two-layered structure, there has been reported a three-layered structure comprising a hole transporting layer, an emitting layer, and an electron transporting layer. Together with the two-layered structure composed of the hole transporting layer and the electron transportable emitting layer, this three-layered structure has been known as a representative structure of the organic EL device. Further, such a layered device is being required to improve its recombination efficiency of the holes and the electrons. For this purpose, various studies have been performed.
Because the organic EL device is a spontaneous emitting device having high-speed response characteristic, it is expected that the organic EL device is practically used as a fine pitch display for portable terminals and televisions. However, to produce the fine pitch organic EL display on a commercial scale, the organic EL device should be improved in luminous efficiency. Therefore, necessity to improve the luminous efficiency will be described hereinbelow.
First, in consideration of a carrier recombination principle of the organic EL device, the electrons and the holes, which are injected from the electrodes respectively, are formed into electron-hole pairs by a coulomb reaction, wherein some of the electron-hole pairs are singlet-excitons and some of them are triplet-excitons. Here, the singlet-excitons and the triplet-excitons are created at a ratio of 1 to 3. That is, when there is no phosphorescence in a triplet state, the maximum quantum yield of the emission is 25%, which means that the maximum efficiency in the organic EL device is 25%. Further, in the organic EL device, when a refraction angle of light is larger than a critical angle depending on a refractive index of the emitting layer, the light is totally reflected and thus cannot escape.
That is, if the emitting layer has a refractive index of 1.6, effective emission is about 20% of the whole emission. Additionally, under the consideration of the creation ratio of the singlet-excitons, the effective emission is about 5% of the whole emission. Thus, the luminous efficiency of the organic EL device is lowered (Tsutsuidetsuo, "Effects and trends in organic electroluminescence," Display Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 3, p 11, September 1995). For this reason, there is no alternative but to improve the luminous efficiency of the organic EL device.
To improve the luminous efficiency, there has proposed various methods of developing inorganic EL device technology, etc. By way of examples of the methods, there have been disclosed a condensed structure of a substrate (Japanese Patent Publication No. S63 (1988)-314795) and a reflection surface formed in a side of the device (Japanese Patent Publication No. H01(1989)-220394).
The foregoing examples are effective in a relatively large-sized substrate, but are disadvantageous in the fine pitch display having a small-sized substrate because it is difficult to manufacture a condensed lens and to form the reflection surface onto the side of the device. Further, in the organic EL device comprises the emitting layer having a thickness of several microns or less, it is very difficult for an ultra fine processing technology to form a reflector on the side of the organic EL device. Also, even if the reflector can be formed on the side of the organic EL device, a production cost thereof is so high that it is disadvantageous in the practical utilization.
As another example, there is disclosed a structure employing a flat layer interposed between a glass substrate and an emitting layer as an anti-reflection layer, wherein the refractive index of the flat layer is an intermediate value of the respective refractive indexes of the glass substrate and the emitting layer (Japanese Patent Publication No. S62(1987)-172691).
However, this structure improves the luminous efficiency limited to a frontward direction, but it is impossible to prevent a total reflection. That is, this anti-reflection layer is effective in the emitting layer having a high refractive index such as the inorganic EL device, but it is difficult to improve the luminous efficiency in the organic EL device which has a low refractive index as compared with the inorganic EL device.
As described above, there have been proposed various structures to improve the luminous efficiency of the organic EL device, but they are not enough to satisfy desirable performance. Accordingly, there has been disclosed still another structure comprising a substrate formed with an optical element such as a diffraction grating (Japanese Patent Publication No. H11(1999)-283751), which is considered to be effective to improve the luminous efficiency.
The above-described structures disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 1988-314795 and 1989-220394 are effective in a relatively large-sized substrate, but is disadvantageous in the fine pitch display having a small-sized substrate because it is difficult to manufacture a condensed lens and to form the reflection surface onto the side of the device. Further, in the organic EL device where the emitting layer has a thickness of several microns or less, it is very difficult to form a reflector on the side of the organic EL device by use of an ultra fine processing technology. Also, even if the reflector can be formed on the side of the organic EL device, a production cost thereof is too high to be disadvantageous in the practical utilization.
Further, the structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1987-172691 improves the luminous efficiency in one (e.g. frontward) direction, but it is impossible to prevent a total reflection.
That is, this anti-reflection layer is effective in the emitting layer having a high refractive index such as the inorganic EL device, but it is difficult to improve the luminous efficiency in the organic EL device which has a low refractive index as compared with the inorganic EL device.
As described above, there have been proposed various structures to improve the luminous efficiency of the organic EL device, but they are not enough to satisfy desirable performance. Accordingly, there has been disclosed the structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1999-283751, and a substrate formed with an optical element such as a diffraction grating is considered to be effective to improve the luminous efficiency of the organic EL device.
However, in the organic EL device comprising the optical element, disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1999-283751, the luminous efficiency can be remarkable enhanced, but it is difficult to manufacture this structure. Particularly, it is difficult to stably form a good optical element, and variation is generated between luminescence properties in the surface of the substrate having the optical element.
Additionally, a state-of-the-art processing technology is inevitable to form grooves of the diffraction grating as the optical element by a fine pitch, and a production cost is highly increased. Therefore, there is required technology for stably and easily forming the optical element on the substrate.
Further, it is very difficult to fill the grooves during the process of forming the optical element. Typically, layer formation technology such as a sputtering method is used for filling the grooves of the optical element. However, in the conventional layer formation technology, it is impossible to completely and uniformly fill the grooves with the layer because the layer is formed depending on a surface profile of the substrate.

Method of manufacturing a substrate for organic electroluminescent device


A modular setting diamond jewelry includes a noble metal base with the bottom thereof being in a shape of taper. A plurality of diamond holes is defined in the top of the noble metal base for receiving diamonds therein. A protrusion is formed between each two adjacent diamond holes which locate at the circumference of noble metal base. The peripheral setting diamonds abut against the central diamond with inner edges thereof. The outer edge of each peripheral diamond is aligned to the peripheral edge of the noble metal base. One diamond hole is defined in the center of the noble metal base, and eight diamond holes are defined around the central diamond hole. The modular setting diamond jewelry of the present invention is ready to make with low cost, since the diamond holes defined in the noble metal base and the protrusions formed between the peripheral diamond holes can install several diamonds and the diamonds together with the noble metal base form an artistic whole to have the same effect as a big grain diamond.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a jewelry, particularly relates to a modular setting diamond jewelry.
2. Description of the Related Art
The current diamond resource is more and more scarce. The quantity of small-scale diamond is relatively great, but the small-scale diamond is hard to meet the customer's requirement to wear a large-scale diamond. The conventional product combined with diamonds is usually made manually through bending several long claws to fix the diamonds, which is time-consuming. Furthermore, the aspect of the product depends on human's handicraft, which often results in poor aspect.
The current large-scale diamond such as more than 1 carat diamond is expensive, which cannot satisfy the demand in the low- and middle-end market. The conventional array of several diamonds around one diamond is only to show a pattern of the jewelry. However, and the array of several diamonds around one diamond cannot show the style of a whole grain diamond.
Therefore, the present technology needs to be improved and developed.