A method and apparatus for performing a user interface test by a middleware server including determining a state change of a portion of the user interface, receiving a test command indicative of a user interface functional test from a test interface, determining an auxiliary test associated with the test command, generating an altered test command requesting performance of the user interface functional test and the auxiliary test, transmitting the altered test command to the user interface, receiving a functional result from the user interface in response to the altered test command, generating an altered test result indicative of the functional result, and transmitting the altered test result to the test interface.

As web-based user interfaces become more complex and the use of multiple user operating systems, access software, and access devices increase, the need for user interface testing increases. In addition, compliance checks such as accessibility validation require APIs, libraries and frameworks to be created for each supported language, such as Java, Javascript etc. This leads to duplicated effort and maintenance overhead. These user interface tests typically require non-trivial changes in the user interface testing framework and libraries used by these user interface tests.
User interface compliance testing, such as accessibility validation, are typically targeted to be run against and cover as much unique UI surface area as possible. This increases the test run times by performing redundant tests on parts of the user interface which have not been altered. Currently developers are encouraged to add the compliance checks as part of their UI functional testing workflow, but it is difficult to manually determine the different points along the functional testing workflow when these compliance checks need to be triggered, keep track of the different UI states that need to be checked for compliance and then and add the checks at appropriate places. This increases development and maintenance overhead, thereby increasing the barrier to adoption of these compliance checks.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved method and apparatus for automated compliance checks for user interface tests. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Middleware for transparent user interface testing


A composite substrate on which a heat-generating semiconductor device is to be mounted, comprising a composite layer which includes a matrix made of a metal having a high thermal conductivity and a fibrous or particulate dispersion material having low thermal expansion properties present in the matrix, and a metal layer provided onto one main surface of the composite layer, wherein either one of a heat-generating semiconductor device or a substrate with low thermal expansion properties having a heat-generating semiconductor device provided thereon, is mounted on the other main surface of the composite layer.

The present invention relates to a composite substrate which has excellent heat-dissipating properties (or heat-absorbing properties) and is suitable for a substrate with a semiconductor device generating heat mounted thereon. The present invention also relates to a semiconductor apparatus employing the composite substrate.
Recently, with the development of large-scale semiconductor devices and the increase of the integration density, the amount of heat generated from the semiconductor devices has increased. To prevent thermal distortion, the substrate, on which the semiconductor device generating heat is mounted, (hereinafter, referred to as "heat-generating semiconductor device") must have a small thermal expansion coefficient close to that of the semiconductor device. To increase heat dissipation, the substrate must have an excellent thermal conductivity.
As a material for the substrate having a small thermal expansion coefficient, a ceramic material and a metal material are known. Examples of the ceramic material include alumina, Forstellite, mullite, and the like. Examples of the metal material include an Fe--Co alloy such as Koval, a Ni alloy such as 42 Alloy, and the like. However, these materials have a problem in that they have low thermal conductivities. On the other hand, as a material for the substrate having a high thermal conductivity, copper, copper alloys, aluminum, aluminum alloys and the like are generally known. However, these materials have a problem in that they have large thermal expansion coefficients.
Hence, the conventional semiconductor apparatuses employ a composite substrate which comprises a board having a small thermal expansion coefficient and a board having a good thermal conductivity, both being bonded with a solder having a low melting point. A heat-generating semiconductor device is usually mounted on the side of the board having a small thermal expansion coefficient of the composite substrate.
However, the conventional composite substrate has the following problems. Since the composite substrate is formed of two heterogeneous materials quite different in properties, high bonding strength is hardly obtained. Crackings or peelings are likely to take place at the bonding portion of the composite substrate when the bonding portion repeatedly receives thermal stress due to heat generation from the semiconductor device. As a result, the heat dissipation properties are deteriorated. Furthermore, since the board, on which the heat generating semiconductor device is mounted, is poor in thermal conductivity, the heat dissipation properties of the composite substrate is low.

Composite substrate for heat-generating semiconductor device and semiconductor apparatus using the same


A loudspeaker includes a two-dimensional array of non-housed individual speakers having flat shapes. The non-housed individual speakers are accommodated within a flat housing, the depth of the housing being smaller than 5 cm, for example. Non-housed individual speakers used are advantageously headphone capsules and/or miniature loudspeakers having diaphragm diameters of less than 5 cm.

Interest in flat-panel loudspeaker technologies has seen a marked increase in the last 10 years. Essentially, this is due to the increased space requirements of modern sound reproduction methods such as 5.1 surround or wave field synthesis, and to the diminishing installation space for loudspeakers in increasingly small and/or flat multimedia devices such as mobile phones and notebooks, for example. Utilization of flat-panel loudspeakers rather than conventional loudspeakers is to meet said increased requirements.
Investigations made on various flat-panel speaker technologies, which typically are as old as the cone loudspeakers by Kellogg and Rice, have shown that both utilization of non-housed flat-panel speakers directly on the wall and utilization of a flat loudspeaker housing entail considerable losses of sonic quality. Conventional technology may be found in Beer, D.: Flachlautsprecher—ein Überblick [Flat-panel loudspeakers—an Overview], presented at the DAGA08 trade fair, March 2008, Dresden; H. Azima, J. Panzer, "Distributed-Mode Loudspeakers (DML) in Small Enclosures", presented at the 106th AES Convention, Munich, Germany, May 1999; Beer et al.: The air spring effect of flat panel speakers, presented at the 124th AES Convention, May 2008, Amsterdam/The Netherlands; and Wagner, Roland: Electrostatic Loudspeaker—Design and Construction. Audio Amateure Press, Peterborough, N.H., 1993.
A non-housed flat-panel speaker typically is a dipole radiator having a low sound pressure level in the low-frequency tone range due to the acoustic short circuit. When such a dipole is installed near a wall, reflection and superposition of the rearward sound component with the portions of the sound that is emitted on the front side of the diaphragm, and diffraction effects associated therewith will lead to comb-filter-type sound coloration above the short-circuit frequency. It is for this reason that for conventional loudspeakers, loudspeaker housings are used. However, to preserve the advantage of a flat design, one uses flat housings that typically enclose a relatively small air volume. Just like with conventional speakers, too small an air volume will raise the fundamental resonant frequency of the sound transducer. Consequently, the lower cutoff frequency will also rise, which will result in reduced low-frequency tone reproduction.
US 2005/0201583 A1 discloses a low-frequency two-dimensional array based on a dipole principle. The system includes a support system having an open frame, several sub-woofers being accommodated in the open frame system in a dipole two-dimensional array configuration so as to provide controlled sound dispersion both in the horizontal and vertical planes. The sub-woofers are operable to provide low-frequency sound dispersion below about 300 Hz.
DE 695 07 896 T2 discloses a speaker device having controlled directional sensitivity and having a first set of at least three speakers arranged along a first straight line in accordance with a predetermined pattern, the distances from speaker to speaker being configured in a variable manner, and it also being possible for speakers to be arranged such that they are in contact with one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,602,860 discloses a speaker structure wherein nine conical speakers are symmetrically arranged, within one single frame, in three rows of three, respectively. The frame includes mutually tilted segments to increase the angle of radiation. For example, the distance between the edges of the speakers is to be smaller than the radius of the speakers, all of the speakers being operated from one same source. In addition, no restriction regarding movement of air is to be achieved by a housing, since this would adversely affect the performance at low frequencies.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,328 discloses a column, which is independent of direction and frequency, of electroacoustic transducers controlled using different amplitudes, so that specific conditions of the control operation of the electroacoustic transducers will result.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,801,631 B1 discloses a speaker system featuring several transducers positioned within a plane to achieve an optimum acoustic sound radiation pattern. Four central transducers (woofers) cooperate to reproduce the low and medium frequencies, the woofers being positioned such that no two woofers share a common vertical axis or a common horizontal axis. In addition, a fifth transducer, specifically a high-frequency tweeter, is provided which is arranged at a central location in between the woofers.

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.


A short circuit protection circuit which has a first short circuit protection circuit in parallel with a second short circuit protection circuit is disclosed. The first short circuit protection circuit includes a sense resistor and a comparator for detecting the short circuit, and a transistor and current source for turning off the low side driver when the short circuit is detected. The second short circuit protection circuit includes a current mirror, zener diode, transistor, and current source connected in series. The second short circuit protection circuit is in parallel with the first short circuit protection circuit. The second short circuit protection circuit accelerates the turn-off of the low-side driver with out affecting the stability of the circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic circuits, and more specifically to short circuit protection circuits, and still more specifically to short circuit protection circuits used to protect a low-side driver transistor.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
The problem addressed by this invention is encountered in short circuit protection circuits which are used to protect power transistors such as the power transistors used to drive inductive loads. FIG. 1, for example, shows power transistors 9 and 10 driving the inductive load 14. Inductive load 14 is the schematic representation of the stator coils, arranged in a wye configuration, of a DC motor. Power transistor 9 is the high-side driver for coil 14A. Similarly, power transistor 10 is the low-side driver for coil 14B. It is understood be persons skilled in the art that the circuitry necessary to run the DC motor is not shown in FIG. 1.
Under normal conditions, the current through the low-side driver is limited because of the impedance of the stator coils. However, stator coils can fail in a manner which short circuits node 13 to a high voltage. The problem addressed by this invention occurs in trying to protect the low side driver 10 from excessive current when pin 13 has been short-circuited to a high voltage.
FIG. 1 illustrates the prior art short circuit protection circuit for the low-side driver 10. In this circuit, a short circuit on node 13 will cause an excessive current through the drain-source channel of low-side driver 10 and through sense resistor 12. The excessive current will increase the voltage drop across sense resistor 12. When the voltage drop across sense resistor 12 exceeds the reference voltage Vref, the output of comparator 4 will change from a low voltage to a high voltage thereby turning on transistor 6. Consequently, current source 8 draws current from the gate of low side driver 10 since current source 8 is larger than current source 2. Thus, transistor 10 is turned off at a controlled slew defined by the difference between current source 2 and current source 8. The slew rate is designed to optimize the response time and yet maintain stability, as is known in the art. However, current source 8, by necessity to add stability to the circuit, slows down the response time of the short circuit protection circuit.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a stable short circuit protection circuit which has improved response time. It is another object of the invention to improve the response time of the short circuit protection circuit with out changing the stability of the circuit. This and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the invention, when read with the drawings and appended claims.

Short circuit protection circuit for a low-side driver circuit


A method for automatically matching the color of a printed representation of an object or swatch to that of the object or swatch itself is provided. The method includes the steps of measuring the colors of the object with a calorimeter. An object image, showing mainly the object, is produced and a representative image color is determined. From the colors of the object (as measured by a colorimeter or some other color measuring device), a representative object color is determined. Finally, the colors of the object image in the vicinity, in color space, of the representative image color are corrected to colors in the vicinity, also in color space, of the representative object color.

Color brochures, catalogs and magazines contain many colored images. In mail order catalogs, the printed images are images of real things, such as clothing, which the producer of the catalog wishes to sell. Since the buyer does not see the object being bought until it arrives on his or her doorstep, the buyer wants the image he views to match the object as closely as possible. This is particularly important for clothing, in which the buyer often buys a product to match, in color, an already owned outfit. If the color printed in the catalog is not a close, if not exact, replica of the actual color, the buyer may find himself with an unacceptable match which he will return to the seller. Therefore, it is important to reproduce the colors in a mail order catalog as closely as possible.
There are many ways to match the color. Typically, a photograph is first taken of the object to be sold, after which, the photograph is scanned to produce a digital image thereof. Alternatively, the images are obtained by digital photography. A mask is produced which separates the object, for example a skirt, from the other elements in the image. Color specialists then view both the masked digital image (i.e. the image of the object itself), a color book containing many patches of color printed by the target printing process and the object to be sold and changes the colors of the digital image to colors which more correctly match those of the object. This is a difficult process since the object typically has shape and texture and since shadows might fall on the object due to the illumination arrangement.
The digital image is then printed on a proofer which provides an indication of the colors which will be printed in the actual catalog. Once again, the color specialist may change the colors in the digital image such that the colors of the proof will more closely match those of the object to be sold.
Finally, the digital image is printed on a printing press. Since the color range and quality of proofers do not match that of printing presses, it is possible that the colors which are printed by the printing press might not be the desired ones. It is known to automatically match the colors of the proofer and printing press so as to avoid this problem. One such automatic color correction scheme is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,176. Other color correction schemes are described in the following patents:
______________________________________ 2,920,131 3,663,744 3,679,816 3,708,614 3,763,310 3,780,218 3,871,023 3,882,534 3,959,813 4,051,510 4,091,411 4,296,432 4,314,274 4,458,265 4,511,916 4,647,963 4,668,979 4,694,286 4,805,016 4,811,108 4,812,902 4,819,077 4,833,546 4,857,994 4,862,251 4,864,357 4,924,323 4,928,167 4,954,883 4,956,718 4,959,711 4,977,448 5,028,991 5,060,060 5,072,305 5,077,604 5,109,274 5,121,199 5,126,834 5,140,413 5,142,356 5,172,244 5,204,948 5,233,413 5,255,076 5,270,808 5,289,295 5,296,945 5,317,426 ______________________________________

Method for matching colors of an object to printing colors


A neural prosthesis for providing a signal indicative of a predicted event from a cycle of events includes a signal-acquisition system for receiving a neural signal, and a fuzzy-logic inference system for receiving, from the signal acquisition system, a signal indicative of a current location within the cycle of events. The fuzzy-logic inference system is configured to predict a successive event in the cycle of events.

The process of walking is a sequence of steps, each of which is characterized by certain landmark events. These landmark events are often referred to as "gait events." The five gait events most often used in the analysis of gait are: weight acceptance ("WA"), mid-stance ("MSt"), terminal stance ("TSt"), pre-swing ("PSw"), and initial swing (ISw"). These events are described in detail by Perry, "Gait Analysis: Normal and Pathological Function," Delmar Thomson Learning, Clifton Park, N.Y., 1992, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The time between gait events may be short, as in a brisk walk, or it may be long, as in a leisurely stroll. However, regardless of the time interval between them, these gait events are expected to occur in the same order. Moreover, the time intervals between gait events are expected to be related. For example, if the interval between pre-swing and initial swing is short, then the interval between terminal stance and pre-swing should also be short, otherwise the gait will degenerate into a sequence of lurches.
When walking, the legs move into positions that are appropriate for each gait event. To carry this out requires cooperation between muscles, which move the legs, and nerve impulses, which trigger the muscles into contracting at appropriate times. In persons afflicted with cerebral palsy, the muscles are available, but the nerve signals either do not arrive, or they do not arrive at the correct times.

Neural prosthesis with fuzzy logic control system


Structural composite airfoils include a primary structural element, a secondary structural element defining the trailing edge of the structural composite airfoil, and a discrete leading edge structure defining the leading edge of the structural composite airfoil. The primary structural element includes an upper skin panel, a lower skin panel, and a middle C-channel spar that is coupled to the upper skin panel and the lower skin panel. The discrete leading edge structure is coupled to the upper leading edge end of the upper skin panel and to the lower leading edge end of the lower skin panel. The upper skin panel may include a first panel bend adjacent the discrete leading edge structure, and the lower skin panel may include a second panel bend adjacent the discrete leading edge structure.

Aircraft, including fixed-wing aircraft and rotary-wing aircraft, employ a variety of aerodynamic control surfaces, such as ailerons, air brakes, elevators, flaps, rudders, slats, spoilers and the like. By manipulating one or more of the aerodynamic control surfaces, a pilot may control the lift generated by the aircraft, such as during takeoff, climbing, descending and landing, as well as the aircraft's orientation about its pitch, roll, and yaw axes. For example, the trailing edge of a wing of a fixed-wing aircraft typically includes one or more flaps, with the flaps being moveable between retracted and extended positions. At cruise, the flaps are typically maintained in a retracted position. When extended, the flaps increase the camber of the wing. Therefore, during takeoff, climbing, descending, or landing, the flaps may be extended, either partially or fully, to increase the maximum lift coefficient and effectively reduce the stalling speed of the aircraft. Said aerodynamic control surfaces are typically airfoils formed of composite materials, and thus are referred to herein as structural composite airfoils.
Structural composite airfoils, such as flaps, have an aerodynamic cross-sectional profile that is typically formed by connecting an upper skin to a lower skin proximate both the leading edge and the trailing edge of the structural composite airfoil. In conventional construction of inboard and outboard flaps, for example, a primary structural element of the flap is defined by the upper and lower skins being coupled to three spars that extend the width of the flap. The leading edge of the structural composite airfoil (which typically includes a bullnose shape), and the trailing edge (which is tapered to a thin cross-section) are typically outside of the primary structural element, forming respective secondary structural elements of the flap. Various fasteners and components (e.g., splice straps and/or nut plates) are used to secure the upper and lower skins to the spars and other structures that form the flap. Large numbers of fasteners can increase costs, manufacturing cycle time, and weight of the resulting assemblies. Accordingly, those skilled in the art continue research and development efforts directed to improving structural composite airfoils and the manufacturing thereof.

Structural composite airfoils with a single spar, and related methods


The present invention is directed to mammalian enzymatically active calpain produced in insect cells by recombinant means. Recombinant vectors and baculoviruses containing cDNA encoding the 80 kDa subunit, 30 kDa subunit, and both subunits are described. Methods for producing recombinant enzymatically active mammalian calpain are also described.

A. Calpain
Calpain is a calcium-activated neutral protease, also known as CANP; EC 18.104.22.168. It is an intracellular cysteine protease which is ubiquitously expressed in mammalian tissues (Aoki et al., FEBS Letters 205:313-317, 1986). Calpain has been implicated in many degenerative diseases including, but not limited to, neurodegeneration (Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, and Parkinson's disease), amyotrophy, stroke, motor neuron damage, acute central nervous system (CNS) injury, muscular dystrophy, bone resorption, platelet aggregation, and inflammation.
Mammalian calpain, including human calpain, is multimeric. It consists of two different subunits, which are a 30 kDa subunit and an 80 kDa subunit, and, therefore, is a heterodimer. There are two forms of calpain, calpain I (.mu.-calpain, .mu.CANP) and calpain II (m-calpain, mCANP), which differ in their sensitivities to the concentration of calcium necessary for activation. Calpain I requires only low micromolar concentrations of calcium for activation, whereas calpain II requires high micromolar or millimolar levels (Aoki et al. supra, and DeLuca et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1216:81-83, 1993). The same 30 kDa subunit is common to both forms. The two human calpains differ in the sequences of the DNA encoding their 80 kDa subunit, sharing 62% homology. There is evidence that the 80 kDA subunit is inactive, but that it is autolyzed to a 76 kDa active form in the presence of calcium (Zimmerman et al., Biochem. Biophys. Acta., 1078:192-198, 1991).
R. Siman, in Neurotoxicity of Excitatory Amino Acids, A. Guidotti, ed., Raven Press , Ltd., New York (1990) reported upon the role of calpain I in excitatory amino acid (EAA) induced neurotoxicity, eventually leading to neuronal cell death. Siman advanced the proposition that calpain I activation is an early event in the neurodegenerative process and not just a secondary response to neuronal death. Siman further reported that only one highly selective blocker of calpain was available at that time--calpastatin. However, calpastatin is not readily taken up by cells, as it is a large globular protein of approximately 280 kDa. Siman also reported that protease inhibitors of broader specificity, including leupeptin, were unsuccessful in lowering EAA-induced protein breakdown in vivo. Leupeptin was ineffective presumably because it failed to enter the cells.
Iwamoto et al., Brain Research, 561:177-180 (1991), described that activation of calpain may be an important factor in the abnormal proteolysis underlying the accumulation of plaque and tangles in brain tissue from people who suffered Alzheimer-type dementia.
Saito et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 90:2628-2632 (1993) reported that synaptic loss and neuronal cell death correlate strongly with the degree of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease. They also reported that calpain I was significantly activated in human postmortem brain from patients with Alzheimer's disease, and that the degree of activation correlated with those regions of the brain showing the greatest amount of degeneration. It was suggested that the influences of calpain activation may contribute to neurofibrillary pathology and abnormal amyloid precursor protein processing prior to causing synapse loss or cell death in the most vulnerable neuronal populations. Because of the association between calpain and nerve degeneration diseases, pharmacological modulation of the calpains by inhibitors merits consideration as a potential therapeutic strategy in such diseases, for example, in Alzheimer's disease.
Rami et al., Brain Research, 609:67-70 (1993) reported that both calpain inhibitor I and leupeptin protected neurons against ischemic and hypoxic damage resulting from ischemia induced by clamping both carotid arteries and lowering the arterial blood pressure of rats.
Lee et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88:7233-7237 (1991) provide evidence that calcium-activated proteolysis is an important event in the process of post-ischemic cell death and they reported that inhibition of calcium-activated proteolysis by means of the proteolytic inhibitor leupeptin protected against the degeneration of vulnerable hippocampal neurons after ischemia. Leupeptin was selected because it was the only protease inhibitor that was previously shown to block a trauma-evoked calpain response in vivo (Seubert et al., Brain Res., 459:226-232, 1988). The authors noted, however, that the therapeutic utility of modulating calcium-activated proteolysis will probably depend on the development of more permeable, potent and specific protease inhibitors.
As evident from the foregoing, specific inhibitors of calpain may provide a means of treating those neurodegenerative diseases in which calpain is implicated. Calpastatin offers limited utility due to its cell impermeability. Protease inhibitors of broader specificities may not function in vivo and/or may have undesirable side-effects. Thus, other calpain inhibitors must be identified, and a ready, convenient, safe source of calpain will promote the search for such inhibitors.
B. Calpain cDNA
Recombinant enzymatically active human calpain for testing for inhibitors offers the advantages of 1) being a considerably more convenient, readily available source of large amounts of enzyme 2) being easier to purify and 3) being free from the safety issues which must be addressed when the source is human tissues, especially human blood cells, i.e., potentially hazardous viruses. Native human calpain is currently isolated from human erythrocytes and can be purified to what the authors characterize as apparent homogeneity (Hatanaka et al., Biomed. Res., 4:381-388, 1983). However, aside from the obvious problems with source, the purification procedure can be quite tedious, due to the low levels of calpain relative to the amount of starting material. Furthermore, native calpain is isolated in the presence of an endogenous inhibitor (calpastatin) which must be separated during purification. A good source of large amounts of enzymatically active calpain would greatly enhance the search for calpain inhibitors by 1) increasing the availability of calpain for use in reproducible assays for calpain inhibitors and 2) by facilitating crystallization of the enzyme, thereby permitting the design of rational inhibitors. A recombinant system for production further facilitates the production of directed mutants to assist in structural studies. Therefore, a recombinant system for producing active calpain is needed.
The problem in producing enzymatically active calpain by recombinant means is that of expressing two different gene products (the 80 kDa subunit and 30 kDa subunit), getting proper processing and folding of the individual products, and obtaining the proper combination of the two products to produce enzymatically active molecules. As stated in the previous discussion, activated calpain has been implicated in the killing of neuronal cells. Unfortunately, then, any enzymatically active calpain produced in a recombinant system would be expected to be deleterious or lethal to that expression system. Any deleterious effects upon the expression system utilized would be expected to increase as more of the activated product is expressed. Notably, many mammalian cells produce an endogenous inhibitor of calpain, which may exert an important control over the activity of an otherwise lethal protease.
Aoki et al., supra, described the complete amino acid sequence of the 80 kDA subunit of human calpain I (.mu.CANP) which they deduced from the sequence of a cDNA clone of human calpain. The cDNA clone of human calpain was isolated from the cDNA library from human skeletal muscle using a cDNA for the large subunit of rabbit .mu.CANP as a probe. Expression of the cDNA is not reported.
Imajoh et al., Biochemistry, 27:8122-8128 (1988) described the isolation of a cDNA clone for the large subunit of human calpain II from a human skeletal muscle library probed with chicken CANP and rabbit mCANP. It is reported that the deduced protein had essentially the same structural features as those described for .mu.CANP and chicken CANP. The amino acid sequence similarities of the human mCANP to human .mu.CANP and chicken CANP were reported as 62% and 66%, respectively. Expression of the cDNA is not described or suggested.
Ohno et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 14:5559 (1986) described the sequence of a cDNA coding for the small subunit (30 kDa) of human calcium activated protease isolated from a human spleen cDNA library. Comparisons with the reported amino acid sequences of rabbit and porcine sequences revealed only 3% differences.
DeLuca et al., supra., reported the molecular cloning and bacterial expression of cDNA for the rat calpain II (mCANP) 80 kDa subunit. The cDNA encodes a protein reportedly exhibiting 93% sequence identity with human calpain II, and 61% identity with human calpain I. Expression of the cDNA was in E. coli bacteria in a phagemid expression vector. Because the expressed product was insoluble and inactive after cell sonication, it could not be used to screen for calpain inhibitors.
C. Baculovirus Expression Systems
V. Luckow, Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 4:546-572 (1993) and Kidd et al, Applied Biochem. and Biotech., 42:137-159 (1993) recently reviewed baculovirus systems for the expression of human gene products and the use of baculoviruses as expression vectors, respectively. Luckow discussed the production of a number of different kinds of proteins, including enzymes. However, the production of only one proteolytic enzyme is mentioned, namely, the metalloprotease stromelysin. Unlike calpain, this enzyme is not multimeric.
Kidd et al., discussed the use of baculovirus-produced proteins for X-ray structural analysis and for assembly of subunits to form functional multisubunit molecules. A number of examples displayed the proper assembly of the subunits to produce functional molecules. Although the author broadly stated that baculovirus expression results in the structural integrity of the folded molecules and full biological function in virtually all cases, the assembly of subunits of dimeric or multimeric enzymes into a functional enzyme was not reported. Further, in other instances involving multisubunit molecules, i.e. Na,K,ATP-ase, the assembly of subunits was sometimes inefficient. (See DeTomaso et al., infra.)
Others have reported the expression of enzymes in the baculovirus system. Vernet et al., J. Biol. Chem., 27:16661-16666 (1990) described the secretion of a papain precursor from insect cells. Papain is a cysteine protease. The prepropapain gene was cloned into the transfer vector IpDC125 behind the polyhedron promoter. The recombinant construct was incorporated by homologous recombination into the genome of the polyhedrosis virus Autographa californica. An enzymatically inactive papain precursor was recovered from Spodoptera frugiperda Sf9 cells infected with the recombinant baculovirus. Proper processing of the papain precursor to produce an active enzyme did not occur in the infected cells.
Fertig et al., Cytotechnology, 11:67-75 (1993) described the production of pro-kallikrein, which is a precursor of kallikrein, a serine protease. Pro-kallikrein was produced in insect cells from Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) and Mamestra brassicae (IZD-Mb503) infected with a recombinant nuclear polyhedrosis virus Autographa californica (AcNPV), strain E2. To obtain an active enzyme, the pro-kallikrein produced was activated in vitro using trypsin.
Button et al., Gene, 133:75-81 (1993) described the production of the metalloproteinase GP63 of Leishmania major in a baculovirus-insect cell expression system. The enzyme was secreted from Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cells infected with a recombinant nuclear polyhedrosis virus Autographa californica (AcNPV) as a latent protease which was subsequently activated to full proteinase activity by means of HgCl2 treatment.
Hirowatari et al., Arch. Virol., 133:349-356 (1993) described the expression of a polypeptide believed to exhibit two viral proteinase activities required for the processing of the viral precursor protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV). The polypeptide was expressed in the insect cell line Sf21 infected with a recombinant baculovirus. Baculovirus transfer vector pVL941 was utilized. The proteinase activities were inferred from the presence of a 70 kDa processed protein.
Although the production of enzymatically active multimeric proteases in the baculovirus system has not, to the inventors' knowledge, been reported, the baculovirus system has been used to express functional, multimeric enzymes other than proteases. DeTomaso et al., J. Biol. Chem., 268(2):1470-1478 (1993) describe the expression of functional, rat Na,K-ATPase using the baculovirus expression system. An expression system using insect cells was chosen because some insect cells have little or no levels of Na,K-ATPase. A baculovirus system was chosen since baculovirus-infected cells produce high levels of foreign protein. Sf-9 cells derived from Spodoptera frugiperda were utilized. The baculovirus was Autographa californica. However, because the activity of enzyme from insect cells was only 20-25% as great as that from dog kidney outer medulla, the authors concluded that a portion of the enzyme expressed was inactive.
Wen-Ji et al., J. Biol. Chem., 268(13):9675-9680 (1993) describe the expression of functional mammalian protein farnesyltransferase in a baculovirus system using SF9 cells. The specific activity of the expressed protein was 510 nM/mg/hr, which is stated to be essentially identical to that reported for the rat brain enzyme. It was noted, however, that the quantities of protein obtained from native tissue did not previously allow direct assay of the protein concentration, so this is the first time specific activity of the protein was determined using a standard protein assay.
There is no disclosure, or suggestion, of expressing an enzymatically active, multimeric, potentially lethal, protease such as calpain in any expression system. It was expected that expression of calpain I, in particular, would be difficult and would require the presence of an inhibitor, because calpain I is activated at extremely low levels of Ca++ that could be achieved during the infection cycle. Surprisingly, the present inventors unexpectedly found that enzymatically active calpain can be expressed in the baculovirus system, and in the absence of an inhibitor.

Recombinant enzymatically active calpain expressed in a baculovirus system


An electrophotographic photoreceptor comprises: an electroconductive support; and a photosensitive layer on the electroconductive support, wherein the photosensitive layer comprises a functional layer, the functional layer comprising: a compound having a triple bond and a hydroxyl group in a molecule; and a cured product of a curable resin.

(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photoreceptor, an image forming apparatus, and a process cartridge.
(ii) Related Art
An image forming apparatus of a xerography system has an electrophotographic photoreceptor (which is hereinafter referred simply to as a photoreceptor in some cases), a charging device, an exposing device, a developing device and a transferring device, and forms an image through an electrophotographic process using the devices.
In recent years, an image forming apparatus of a xerography system is improved in speed and service life through progress in technology of the constitutional members and the systems. Associated therewith, the subsystems are increasingly demanded to attain high speed operation and high reliability. In particular, a photoreceptor used for writing an image and a cleaning member for cleaning the photoreceptor are highly demanded to attain high speed operation and high reliability. The photoreceptor and the cleaning member receives larger stress through friction therebetween than the other members. Accordingly, the photoreceptor suffers from damages and abrasion, which cause image defects.
Therefore, in order to improve the service life of the photoreceptor, it is significantly important to suppress damages and abrasion from occurring, and the use of a curable resin is being considered from the standpoint of improving the mechanical strength of the photosensitive layer.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge


A method for providing traffic incident information is disclosed. Selected images of a traffic incident are associated with corresponding traffic incident data. The combined information is provided to an end-user application, such as a navigation system, the Internet, and a television station. A user can obtain the combined traffic incident information from the end-user application and/or device to obtain a better understanding of the traffic incident.

Most drivers have been impacted by traffic delays. Traffic delays are caused by one or more traffic incidents, such as congestion, construction, an accident, a special event (e.g., concerts, sporting events, festivals), a weather condition (e.g., rain, snow, tornado), and so on. Regardless of the reason, drivers may become frustrated, which may result in bad driving (e.g., road rage) and stress-related health effects.
A driver is more likely to avoid a traffic incident or at least plan for the incident if the driver receives information regarding the incident prior to reaching the area impacted by the incident. A driver may obtain traffic information from numerous sources, such as television stations, the Internet, and in-vehicle or portable navigation systems. A traffic-information provider typically provides traffic information to these end-user applications.
The traffic-information provider obtains and compiles traffic data from one or more sources. For example, traffic data may be available from commercial traffic data providers, government departments of transportation, police and emergency services, road sensors, cameras, and airborne reports. The traffic-information provider then broadcasts compiled traffic data over a radio frequency to equipment designed to receive the broadcasts. For example, one system for broadcasting traffic and road condition information is the Radio Data System-Traffic Message Channel (RDS-TMC), which is used in some European countries. The traffic-information provider may also upload the data on one or more servers accessible via the Internet. Other distribution methods are also possible.
The end-user application (e.g., television, Internet, navigation system) typically provides a visual indicator on a map identifying a traffic incident. For example, the visual indicator may be an icon merged with the map. The icon may be customized for the type of incident. As another example, the visual indicator may be a color-coded traffic flow graphical representation that uses status colors (e.g., green, yellow, red) to reflect analysis of traffic flow data.
In addition to providing a visual indicator on a map, the end-user application may display images of a traffic incident from cameras located adjacent to a roadway. However, camera images can be difficult to interpret, especially if the driver does not know the direction and/or angle of the camera. As the cameras can often be moved in various ways, the driver cannot easily distinguish what roads are being presented. For example, some road-side cameras can cover a radius of over five miles.
Additionally, camera images may be overly distracting to a driver. Currently, there is no way for a driver to know whether there is something worthwhile in the image, so the driver is required to interpret the image while driving. As a driver views the camera image, the driver is not concentrating on current driving conditions and may cause another traffic incident.
Thus, it would be beneficial to provide images in a manner that allows a person to easily evaluate a traffic incident.

Method for providing images of traffic incidents


The apparatus for automatically adjusting a direction of a light axis of a vehicle headlight of the invention has a configuration in which the swivel control unit determines that the vehicle is making a left or right turn and halts the swivel control on the light axis of a vehicle headlight, if the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor is equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold speed and at least one of the conditions that the turn indication signal is in the on state, and that the steering angle is outside a predetermined angular range is satisfied. The swivel control unit resumes the swivel control when the turn indication signal is changed into the off state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically adjusting a light axis or a lighting area of a light beam emitted from a vehicle headlight in the horizontal direction on the basis of a steering angle.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known to perform a swivel control on a vehicle headlight for adjusting horizontally the light beam emitted from the vehicle headlight in accordance with the steering angle of the steering wheel of the vehicle.
Generally, such a swivel control is enabled while the vehicle is traveling at a speed higher than a predetermined threshold speed. Accordingly, when the vehicle is stopped or the vehicle's speed falls below the threshold speed, the swivel control is disabled, so that the vehicle headlight is returned, irrespective of the steering angle at that time, to its initial angular position where the light axis of the vehicle headlight projects in the straight forward direction or initial direction. Such a case occurs when the vehicle is making a left or right turn at an intersection, for example. When the vehicle starts moving after it has stopped to make a left or right turn, and the vehicle speed exceeds the predetermined threshold speed, the swivel control is resumed. So, the light axis of the vehicle headlight may change abruptly from the initial direction to a swivel-controlled direction depending on the steering angle at that time. Such an abrupt change in the direction of the light axis of the vehicle headlight often causes the driver to feel awkwardness in the control of beam patterns.
It is also known to disable or halt the swivel control upon the satisfaction of the conditions that the steering angle is larger than a predetermined angle, that the vehicle speed is equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold speed, and that a turn indication signal indicative of a status (on or off) of a turn indicator of the vehicle is in the on state, and to enable or resume the swivel control upon the satisfaction of the conditions that the vehicle speed is higher than the predetermined threshold speed, and that the turn indication signal is in the off state. However, in such a prior art swivel control system, there is a problem in that the driver sometimes cannot benefit the effects of the swivel control for a relatively long period of time. One example is that the vehicle travels at a low speed along a road running alongside a railroad, makes a right turn to cross a railroad crossing keeping the low speed, and makes a second right turn to go into another road running alongside the same railroad. In this example, the swivel control is disabled until the vehicle finishes the second right turn.

Apparatus for automatically adjusting direction of light axis of vehicle headlight


A short pulse rejection circuit may include an edge detector, a filter circuit, a comparison circuit, and a gating circuit. The edge detector may delay an input signal to generate a delayed input signal, and detect an edge of the input signal to generate an edge detection signal. The filter circuit may perform a low pass filtering on the edge detection signal to generate a first signal. The comparison circuit may compare the first signal with a reference voltage. The gating circuit may gate the delayed input signal based on an output signal of the comparison circuit. Therefore, the short pulse rejection circuit may have a sufficient setup/hold time margin of a flip-flop, and may sample an input signal even when a state of the input signal does not change during an initial operation.

1. Technical Field
Example embodiments relate to a short pulse rejection circuit and method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A signal distortion is caused when an electric signal passes through a noisy channel. The polarity of the electric signal may be changed due to the signal distortion, thereby causing a problem in a signal processing.
Typically, a low pass filter is used at an input terminal of a semiconductor integrated circuit in order to reject or remove a noise in an input signal. In such a configuration, a wrong waveform may be caused at an output of the low pass filter when the input signal includes a short pulse, such as a pulse width of 5 nanoseconds (ns).

Short pulse rejection circuit and method thereof


Provided is a dry-film suitable for use in forming an optical component. The dry-film includes a carrier substrate having a front surface and a back surface. A non-photoimageable, thermally curable polymeric layer is provided over the front surface of the carrier substrate. The polymeric layer includes a thermally active component and units of the formula (RSiO1.5), wherein R is a substituted or unsubstituted organic group. A protective cover layer is disposed over the front or back surface of the carrier substrate. Also provided are methods of forming optical devices with dry-films. The invention finds particular applicability in the optoelectronics industry.

The present invention relates generally to the field of optoelectronics. In particular, the present invention relates to dry-films which are suitable for use in forming optical components such as waveguides. As well, the invention relates to methods of forming optical components with a dry-film. The invention additionally relates to methods of forming electronic devices such as printed wiring boards having optical functionality.
Signal transmission using pulse sequences of light is becoming increasingly important in high-speed communications and data transfer. For example, optical integrated circuits are gaining importance for high bandwidth optical interconnects. As a result, the integration of optical components such as waveguides, filters, optical interconnects, lenses, diffraction gratings, and the like, is becoming increasingly important.
The incorporation of optical layers in the form of embedded optical waveguides into printed wiring boards is known. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,731,857 and 6,842,577 to Shelnut et al, disclose embedded optical waveguides formed using silsesquioxane chemistry on a printed wiring board substrate. The optical waveguides include a core and a clad surrounding the core, with optical radiation propagating in the core due to its higher index of refraction as compared to the clad.
Embedded optical waveguides are typically formed by coating a bottom clad layer over a substrate, coating a core layer over the bottom clad layer, patterning the core layer to form a core structure, and forming a top clad layer over the bottom clad layer and core structure. The bottom clad, core and top clad layers may be formed from compositions in liquid form which include solvent and polymer components. Where the waveguides are to be formed as part of a printed wiring board, use by the board manufacturer of a specialized coating tool such as a roller coater, curtain coater, slot coater or spin-coater is typically required. Once the liquid composition is coated, the solvent is removed from the coating by a drying process. The solvents used in the liquid compositions may be flammable and/or explosive in nature, and may additionally be deemed environmental pollutants. As a result, board manufacturers must take measures to contain or treat the solvent and maintain its vapor concentration at safe levels. Such measures include, for example, solvent collection, incineration with or without catalytic converters and use of explosion-proof equipment. The costs associated with these activities can be significant. It would thus be desired for component manufacturers to have at their disposal an optical material which is in an easily-applicable form and is solvent-free or extremely low in solvent-content.
Formation of optical waveguides on a printed wiring board using a series of pre-cast, or dry-film, layers has been proposed. For example, International Publication No. WO 03/005616 discloses methods of forming multi-level printed wiring boards that integrate optical data communications with other boards without electrical connections. Optical waveguides are formed on the printed wiring board by laminating the entire top surface of the printed wiring board with a first polymeric optical conductive layer, a second, higher refractive index polymeric layer, and a third layer of the first layer polymer material. As understood, the disclosed polymeric material is acrylate-based. There are, however, various drawbacks associated with the use of acrylates in forming optical components. For example, acrylates are generally not suitable for use in high temperature applications, for example, in chip-to-chip applications. At temperatures approaching 200° C., most acrylate materials begin to decompose and depolymerize. Moreover, acrylates are structurally and optically dissimilar to glass, which is the current material of choice for optical fibers and pigtail structures.
The aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,731,857 discloses silicon-based photoimageable waveguide compositions which can be coated as a dry-film. These photoimageable compositions include silsesquioxane units of the formula (RSiO1.5), wherein R is a side chain group selected from hydroxyphenyl and hydroxybenzyl. Photoimageable compositions lend themselves to the formation of patterned waveguide core structures. Patterning of the core structures involves exposing a layer of the photoimageable composition with actinic radiation through a photomask, followed by development of the exposed layer and thermal curing. The capital cost and labor associated with the use of exposure equipment, however, can be significant. It would therefore be desirable to use a lower cost alternative and one having fewer process steps in forming a waveguide clad layer using a silsesquioxane-containing polymeric dry-film.
There is thus a need in the art for optical dry-films and for methods of forming optical components which overcome or conspicuously ameliorate one or more of the foregoing problems associated with the state of the art.

Optical dry-films and methods of forming optical devices with dry films


A foamer dispenser includes a hollow stem, an air piston configured to pressurize and pump air, and a tubular guide that is coupled integrally to the air piston, that defines an airway for air supply between the hollow stem and the tubular guide, that holds the hollow stem slidably, and that is configured to come out of abutment with the flange in response to sliding of the hollow stem, thereby opening the airway is provided. The flange is provided with: an outer annular wall protruding upward from an outer edge of the flange; and a guide rib located on an outer side of the tubular guide in the radial direction and configured to be guided by the tubular guide during sliding of the hollow stem.

To omit the need for the action of foaming a content medium to improve usability, containers filled with shampoo, body soap, hand soap, face cleanser, and so forth are often used with a dispenser that allows the content medium contained in the container to be directly dispensed in the form of foam.
Such a dispenser includes a base cap, which is held by a mouth of the container, and a single cylinder fitted to the base cap. The single cylinder includes coaxially and serially arranged two pistons, i.e., one piston that sucks, pressurizes, and pumps the content medium, and the other piston that sucks, pressurizes, and pumps air. By actuating these pump pistons synchronously by depressing a nozzle head, the content medium and air are sucked, pressurized, and pumped into the corresponding cylinder portions. The content medium and air are mixed together in confluence space located on outlet sides of the pumps and passed through a foaming member such as a mesh. Thus, the content medium is dispensed in the form of foam. (Refer to Patent Literature 1, for example.)
The foaming member is generally assembled to a jet ring (which is called "the foaming member fitting tube" in Patent Literature 1) in advance to facilitate assembly to, for example, a dispenser. The jet ring includes, in a lower part thereof, a small-diameter tubular portion that is suited for being inserted into an upper end portion of a stem.


A filler solution is supplied to an upper surface of a substrate, forming a coating that is a film of the filler solution. Clearance in the structure on the upper surface of the substrate is filled with the filler solution. Then, a stripping solution is applied to a peripheral region of the upper surface of the substrate, to strip off a portion of the coating formed on the peripheral region. Also, a gas is injected toward a boundary portion between the peripheral region and an inner region of the upper surface of the substrate, to accelerate solidification of an outer edge portion of the coating formed on the inner region, to suppress the spread of the coating from the inner region to the peripheral region. A substrate holder/rotator, fluid supplies, and a gas injection part are provided to carry out the above process.

In the process of manufacturing semiconductor substrates (hereinafter, simply referred to as "substrates"), various processing has conventionally been performed on the substrates. For example, chemical solution processing such as etching is performed on the surface of a substrate by ejecting a chemical solution from nozzles to the top of the substrate on which a resist pattern (i.e., a structure that is a group of a large number of fine structural elements) is formed.
Such a substrate ordinarily has no pattern on a peripheral region of its upper surface, and has a pattern only on an inner region located inward of the peripheral region. The substrate processing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-210580 (Document 1) performs processing (so-called "bevel etching") for forming a film on the entire upper surface of a substrate and then removing the film formed on the peripheral region by etching.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2015-70018 (Document 2) and 2015-70019 (Document 3) propose techniques for avoiding a situation where a processing liquid ejected toward the peripheral region of a substrate splashes as a result of collision with a processing liquid on the peripheral region and enters the inner region while processing is performed on the peripheral region. Specifically, in the substrate processing apparatus according to Document 2, a gas nozzle is disposed upstream of a processing liquid nozzle in the direction of rotation of a substrate so that a gas is injected from the gas nozzle toward the peripheral region. Thus, an old processing liquid that has been supplied one cycle before from the processing liquid nozzle and has not been shaken off during one rotation of the substrate is removed by the gas injected from the gas nozzle. This suppresses a collision between the processing liquid newly supplied from the processing liquid nozzle and the old processing liquid on the substrate.
The substrate processing apparatus according to Document 3 ejects a first processing liquid toward the peripheral region of a substrate, then stops the ejection of the first processing liquid, and injects a gas toward the peripheral region. Thus, the first processing liquid is removed from the top of the peripheral region. Thereafter, a second processing liquid is ejected toward the peripheral region. This suppresses a collision between the second processing liquid and the first processing liquid on the substrate.
Execution of the chemical solution processing on the substrate is followed by execution of rinse processing for removing chemical solutions by supplying deionized water or other liquids to the substrate and dry processing for removing liquids on the substrate by rotating the substrate at high speed. If the rinse processing and the dry processing are performed in succession when the aforementioned structure is formed on the surface of the substrate, a liquid surface of deionized water is formed between two adjacent structural elements in the course of drying. In this case, the structural elements may collapse due to the surface tension of the deionized water acting on the structural elements. In view of this, techniques have been proposed in which clearance in the structure (i.e., between structural elements) is filled with a filler before execution of dry processing so as to prevent the collapse of structural elements during dry processing. The filler on the substrate will be sublimated and removed by, for example, a separate apparatus performing dry etching after dry processing. Note that the unnecessary filler adhering to the peripheral region of the substrate is stripped off and removed from the top of the substrate by supplying a stripping agent to only the peripheral region of the substrate, because there is a risk of that filler undesirably soiling a transport mechanism during transport of the substrate.
Incidentally, in the case of removing the filler on the peripheral region of the substrate, the stripping agent supplied to the peripheral region causes slack in the outer edge portion of a coating of the filler on the inner region. This incurs the risk of part of the outer edge portion of the coating on the inner region spreading radially outward in streaks by centrifugal force with an increase in the rotation speed of the substrate during dry processing, which is performed after removal of the coating of the filler on the peripheral region. That is, there is a risk of part of the coating remaining in streaks on the peripheral region even after the end of the processing for removing the coating on the peripheral region. If the substrate in such a condition is transported out of the processing apparatus, the coating on the peripheral region may adhere to a mechanism for transporting the substrate.

Substrate processing method and substrate processing apparatus


The invention relates two a jack connector assembly having a circuitry components integrated providing power over LAN, functionality, in particular for use with regard to Ethernet-networks. An object of the present invention is to provide a jack connector assembly providing integrated power over LAN-functionality and especially avoiding any undesirable and destructive heat accumulation. The object is achieved by a modular jack connector assembly having at least one connector housing (100) and at least one connector insert (200) insertable into the connector housing, each connector housing (100) having a front mating side with at least one port opening (301, 312) for receiving a plug having a plurality of electrical contacts and a rear side (112) for inserting at least one of said connector inserts (200), each connector insert (200) having a front end side and a rear end side and is supporting electrical contacts (240) with contact sections (245, 246) arranged at the front end for detachable connection with corresponding electrical contacts of at least one of said plugs, and is supporting at the rear end side components (260) of a circuitry providing a power over LAN-functionality, that components (260) are arranged outside the jack connector housing (100).

Usually, a jack connector assembly provides within an common outer housing a given amount of ports in an arrangement stacked on top of each other and/or in a side-by-side relationship. For defining the ports the type of which correspond for example with an RJ-45, RJ-11, RJ-21 and/or may be used for example in local area network (LAN), the connector housing comprises a mating side with respective plug receiving openings. Electrical contacts are supported by at least an insert insertable into the housing and arranged within the plug receiving openings for providing detachable connection with at least one plug received.
Typical local area networks for example may be telephone switching networks, computer networks and/or networks for automation using a plurality of data transmitting means including coaxial cables, optical fibers and/or telephone cables. Such topographies of local area networks are known for example as Ethernet-networks and are subject of a plurality of electrical standards as for example IEEE 802.3. The Ethernets-networks usually have to provide a huge amount of shared and/or distributed connections. Since such networks are operated at rates of about 1 Gigabit and more there is a need for a significant conditioning of the signals to be transferred. Accordingly, a metal outer shield encapsulating the connector housing usually is needed for providing for example a common mode rejection (CMR) and a pre-given electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) or electromagnetic immunity (EMI). For the conditioning of the signals usually corresponding components such as for example coils or capacitive elements have to be arranged within the assembly, too.
Due to the demand of an ever increasing miniaturization in providing a plurality of different connections there is a need with regard to the manufacturing of space-saving jack connector assemblies.
Moreover, there is the demand of providing a power over LAN functionality and hence, with regard to Ethernet compatible networks a power over Ethernet (POE) functionality. As known, such POE or "active Ethernet" additionally may eliminate the need to run 110/220 VAC power to wireless access points and other devices on a wired LAN.
Until today however, most of the components necessary for ensuring power of LAN as well as respective jack connector assemblies used within such LANs are provided independently from each other and the functional integration and/or combination thereof is made on the premises only. Moreover, each customer or provider of a LAN such as an Ethernet usually has its own specific designs and constructions, such as a PCB-design with regard to the wiring/routing layouts and the components which have to be incorporated within the concept of a connector assembly providing power over LAN. Accordingly, the today's concepts involve a lot of space and a plurality of undue components as an early functional combination or splitting of tasks and/or purpose in principle is impossible. This however, would result in saving components.
Thus, there is the need for an integration within a jack connector assembly of circuitry components enabling power over LAN, especially enabling POE.
US-document 2003/0194912 A1 is describing an active area network connector for use in a local area network including at least one LAN node, the active connector comprising at least one active connector housing, at least one first plurality of first electrical contacts mounted in said housing and arranged for detachable connection with corresponding electrical contacts of at least one plug, at least one second plurality of second electrical contacts mounted in that housing and arranged for connection with corresponding electrical contacts of local area network equipment, and active power control circuitry located within said housing and coupled to at least some of said first and second electrical contacts, said active power control circuitry being operative for controlling the supply of electrical power over said local area network cabling to at least one node of the local area network.
A main disadvantage of such an connector assembly is however, that the heat produced by such an integrated power control circuitry accumulates inside the housing and hence is causing misoperations up to a total breakdown of the entire connector assembly and hence, will result in that other parts of the network including other components coupled with the network will failure, too.

Jack connector assembly having circuity components integrated for providing POE-functionality


A current supply circuit providing a data line with a current corresponding to a digital signal composed of data bits includes a current control circuit, a precharge switch and a precharge regulating circuit. The current control circuit responds to control signals reflecting respective data bits to control the amount of current along the data line. The precharge switch precharges the data line to a predetermined voltage prior to current supply. The precharge regulating circuit exchanges with the data line electric charge corresponding to the control signals to move the voltage on the data line closer to a steady voltage corresponding to the data bits. In this way, an analog current corresponding to digital data can be promptly produced.

In the field of flat panel displays, self-emitting display devices with each pixel composed of a current-driven light-emitting device are gaining in popularity. A self-emitting display device features good visibility as well as excellent dynamic imaging characteristics. Among the current-driven light-emitting devices, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are particularly well known.
Generally, a display device has a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, which are successively driven using dot-sequential or line-sequential scanning and are supplied with a display current. They provide a brightness corresponding to the display current supplied during the driving until they are driven next time. The display current received by the pixels is typically an analog current to achieve gray-scale display. The analog current is set at levels between the maximum and minimum brightnesses for each emitting device such that it can provide gray-scale display.
Thus, a display device including a current-driven light-emitting device requires a current supply circuit that accurately generates a display current corresponding to image data indicating brightness in gray-level for each pixel. In general, image data is digital data with a plurality of bits.
A current supply circuit in such a display device for supplying a display current for gray-scale display (hereinafter also referred to as "gray-scale current") is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 11-212493 (hereinafter referred to as "conventional art"), FIG. 1. A current supply circuit according to the conventional art uses thin film transistors (TFTs) which are selectively turned on/off in response to a plurality of bits composing image data to connect a plurality of constant-current supplies in parallel to generate a gray-scale current, which is the sum of supply currents from these constant-current supplies.

Current supply circuit and display device having the current supply circuit


An insertion device sets engage range which it prescribed in return power to the neutral position by elastic force of the spring and rotation resistance force by the slide power by elastic member for dial portion performing curving operation of a curving portion. If a rotary angle is beyond an engage range, the dial part lets a rotary point of view to order return in an engage range and, if there is a rotary angle in an engage range, the dial part keeps a target part in an observation field of vision.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an insertion device comprising an operation input portion which maintains a curving state of a curving portion even if a hand is taken off during operation and which returns to a range including a neutral position beyond a predetermined curving operation range.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, there is an insertion device which comes into a body cavity or into a duct having curved parts for visual observation. This insertion device includes a medical or industrial endoscope device comprising an insertion portion which is elongated and flexible and which is provided with a curving portion at its distal end. For example, when the medical endoscope device is used for a diagnosis or surgery of the body cavity, an operation portion is operated to drive the curving portion provided on the distal side of the insertion portion into the body cavity while vertically and horizontally curving the curving portion.
For example, in an endoscope device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2008-264107), a curving portion is coupled to a curving operation portion by an operation wire, and this operation wire is pulled by the curving operation portion to bend the curving portion. In this endoscope device, a curving operation dial which is rotationally operated is used as the curving operation portion, and an operation is input by one (360°) or more rotational operations of the dial.
If the operation dial is configured to be rotated on or more times (360° or more) as in Patent Literature 1 described above, an operator makes a round trip to the rotation direction of the operation dial and then repeats the rotational operations. As a result, the operator finds it difficult to find an original neutral position and know the actual curving state of the curving portion. In this case, the operator returns the operation dial to the neutral position under visual observation, and then again performs a curving operation.
Accordingly, Patent Literature 2 (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2009-226125) has suggested an operation portion of an endoscope device comprising an urging mechanism which returns an UD (up/down) or RL (right/left) operation dial of the operation portion to a neutral position. The operation portion has the urging mechanism in which two spiral springs that are wound in opposite directions face each other and have their inner ends attached to a rotating shaft of the operation dial and their outer ends attached to a fixed member. In this urging mechanism, the elastic forces (urging forces) of the springs are adjusted to balance at the neutral position (initial position: a curving portion linearly extends) of the operation dial. If the operation dial is rotated in this configuration, one of the springs expands its spiral, while the other spring shrinks its spiral. As a result of these actions, the operation dial returns to the original neutral position which is the initial position in response to each of the springs when a hand is taken off the operation dial.

Insertion device with the operation input unit


A sensor for a conductive coating delivery system subject to high voltage including a movable member, such as a pig received through a delivery line having a magnet and a sensor in the delivery system subject to high voltage including an optically polarizing device subject to magneto-optical change upon approach of the magnet generating a polarized light signal, optical fibers connected to the sensor receiving the polarized light signal connected to an electrical device situated remotely from the high voltage generating an electrical signal for controlling a valve, metering pump or the like.

Electrostatic coating application systems for conductive coatings, such as water base paint, for mass production applications are known in the art. In a typical application, a series of work pieces, such as automotive bodies, are conveyed through a paint booth, wherein each work piece may be coated, for example, with a different color paint. In such applications, the coating apparatus typically includes a color changer, a rotary atomizer and a line connecting the color changer and the rotary atomizer, either directly or through a paint cannister. Following each application of coating or paint, the line or lines are generally purged with a solvent, typically ionized water for water base paint. However, similar systems may be utilized for powder coating materials. One means of transmitting the paint or solvent through the lines includes a movable member, such as a pig or pigging element, which is transmitted through the line or lines to either push the coating, separate one coating from another coating, or separate the coating from a solvent, etc. In paint application systems having one or more pigs or pigging elements, it is also conventional to include one or more pig stations. For example, the coating delivery system may, for example, include a first pig station adjacent the color changer and a second pig station adjacent the applicator which is typically a rotary atomizer which imparts a high voltage to the coating. Where the coating delivery system includes an intermediate cannister, the coating delivery system may, for example, include four pig stations, including a first pig station adjacent the color changer, a second pig station adjacent the cannister inlet, a third pig station adjacent the cannister outlet and a fourth pig station adjacent the applicator.
As will be understood, in such coating application systems, it is necessary to determine the location of a movable element or pig in the system under high voltage conditions. For example, a valve may be opened to supply coating material or solvent to the line upon receipt of a pig in a pig receiver station. Typically, the pigs are moved or transferred back and forth between the pig stations. One method of locating a pig in a coating delivery system is to utilize a magnet or other magnetically acting transmitter element in the pig and utilize a magnet sensor in the pig station or adjacent the delivery line. However, where the coating is conductive and subject to high voltage, conventional sensing and actuator systems may not be accurate or require complicated hardware or software as set forth below. Other examples of movable members are the shaft of a metering pump, a rotary atomizer, etc. used in water base paint applications subject to high voltage.
In one disclosed embodiment, the position or movement of which needs to be determined within a section of such a paint application system that is connected to a high voltage, are pigs that can be moved back and forward between pig stations of a color supply line. For example, EP 0 319 172, DE 100 33 987 and DE 101 31 562 describe methods in which a high voltage is applied to the pig stations on the atomizer side during the coating operation of the atomizer via the electrically conductive paint column. Special initiators with pneumatic switches are utilized for determining the pig positions in the lines and pig stations that are connected to a high voltage, wherein said pneumatic switches respond to magnets integrated into the pig body and able to operate under a high voltage. However, a high space requirement and undesirably long reaction times need to be accepted in this case. Similar problems occur in other system sections as described below.
The invention is based on the objective of disclosing a sensor arrangement that makes it possible to determine the position or movement of a moving member within a section of the coating system that is connected to a high voltage without delay and in a space-saving fashion. This objective is attained with the sensor arrangement of this invention.

Pig sensor arrangement for high voltage coating system


All-optical output precision measuring gauges that sense the displacement of an internal scale grating are disclosed. Each type of gauge includes a compact, miniature, or ultra-miniature optical readhead that includes a light source for transmitting light to the scale grating, and optical-fiber detector channels for receiving light from the scale grating and outputting optical measuring signals from the gauge. In various embodiments, the optical-fiber detector channels have respective phase grating masks for receiving a periodic light pattern that moves in correspondence to the scale grating, and the channels are arranged in balanced pairs. In various embodiments, the optical readhead is an interferometric-type optical readhead that provides a measuring resolution as fine as 10–50 nanometers or less. In various embodiments, the gauge is provided in an unprecedented miniature size. In various embodiments, the gauge is motorized to provide a precision actuator.

Various precision measuring gauges for sensing linear, rotary or angular displacement or dimensions are currently available. These gauges are generally based on either optical systems, magnetic scales, inductive transducers, or capacitive transducers.
For gauges based on optical systems, a number of different optical displacement measuring systems have been developed. Typically, for gauges that provide high resolution measurements over a comparatively long measuring range, a measuring signal arising from the displacement of an internal grating scale is detected. In such optical displacement measuring systems, the grating scale is illuminated and a set of photodetectors or a photodetector array is arranged to derive four periodic quadrature-type signals from light fringes that arise from grating scale. However, such optically-based measuring gauges have heretofore had several undesirable limitations. One limitation is that such gauges have reached a typical minimum size that makes their use inconvenient or impossible in a number of applications. Another limitation is that such gauges suffer limitations in converting the high frequency photodetector signals associated with high speed gauge displacements and transmitting those signals over long cables without significant signal loss or interference.
Another limitation is that such gauges are typically "incremental" type gauges, that is, the measuring signals arising from the various periods of the periodic grating scale are indistinguishable from one another. Therefore, for displacements exceeding one period, each increment or period of the scale must be accumulated in order to determine the net displacement of the gauge. Absolute type optical gauges are known. However, such gauges tend to be even larger in size than the aforementioned incremental type gauges. Also, absolute type gauges tend to have even lower measurement cycle rates, and thus also suffer limitations in providing the high frequency photodetector signals needed to track high speed gauge displacements in real time.
Various optical encoder systems utilizing optical fibers are known, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,071, to Tokunaga. The system described in the '071 patent has a code member scale, and an optical sensor head comprising an optical fiber tip light emitter and two optical fiber tip receptors closely arranged along the code member measuring axis. However, the accuracy of the resulting encoders have either been relatively crude, or their size has been excessive, or both. Thus, such systems have not been effective for use in precision measuring gauges.
Precision measuring gauges based on magnetic, inductive, or capacitive transducers, in addition to typically providing cruder levels of resolution and accuracy, generally also suffer from the other limitations outlined above.

Precision measuring gauges with optical fiber output channels


An inexpensive, efficient seal member having a tubular housing member that can be integral to or attached to a frame of a motor to form a ring seal around the shaft of the motor prior to mating the shaft with a pump or other driven device. The flexible elastomer washer member is located in a pocket at the end of the housing. The inner diameter of the flexible elastomer washer member is smaller than the shaft diameter. The thickness of the flexible elastomer washer member is larger than the depth of the pocket and is held in the pocket by a resilient retaining member having a plurality of tangs forming an interference fit with the walls of the housing. Next, the shaft is slidably extended through the flexible elastomer washer member forming the ring seal.

The world is full of sealing members for use in applications wherein the sealing member functions to seal a bearing from the influx of dirt and grime to retain lubrications such as found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,740. Another sealing member typically used in an "o" ring seal which is used to maintain the pressure and fluid on one side of the seal from "leaking" to the other side of seal such as is found in the assembly of fuel injectors to internal combustion engines.
Seals are used to rotate around a housing member such as found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,731 wherein the seal rotates with a roll as in a rolling mill. Seals are used as packing materials in applications where in the water or fluid under pressure is to remain on the one side of the seal and not "leak" through to the other side. Seals are used to occupy the space between mating parts to accept normal manufacturing tolerances on such mating parts; an example of such a seal is U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,694.
Seals are made from polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) material to function as gaskets. An example of such a PTFE seal is found in EP A2 0 352 608. In each of these types of seals, the pressure differential across the seal is typically high and as such the devices have hard external surfaces and are slightly deformable in order to mate in tight places.

Seal member mounted in housing pocket by resilient retaining member


A system and methods for presenting a hybrid cloud cache as a file system. The system implements a set of standard file system command line interfaces that present the objects stored by the hybrid cloud cache to users of the system as if the users were viewing and interacting with a traditional file system. The system provides an interactive shell to the users to view the contents of the hybrid cloud cache. The system may be configured to operate on a live instance as well as on an on-disk structure of the hybrid cloud cache. The system may provide the ability to present partially cached cloud data as a file system via the interactive shell for the purposes of development, support, and troubleshooting.

A hybrid cloud is a computing architecture that combines an on-premise data center with a public cloud environment. Hybrid cloud caches are local data storage elements used in conjunction with a public cloud-based data storage and serve as an important component of internet applications, as they help achieve improved throughput and increased data access speeds. Conventionally, such caches persist data and metadata regarding operations or transactions on a local file system. The integrity of data stored locally by a hybrid cloud cache may be increased by implementing a journaling system, where a system adds records representing user requested transactions and the associated operations to a journal. Thus, the journaling system may be a data storage location where records are added to represent operations initiated by a user or by a computing system at the direction of a user, and the backing store for a journal may comprise disk blocks. Journals may also be referred to as logs and the two terms are often used interchangeably.
With the evolution of cloud-file-sharing technologies and the tremendous growth of data both in terms of the number of files and the sizes of the files, hybrid cloud caches and systems are becoming an increasingly important aspect in advancements in the cloud-file-sharing space. A hybrid cloud cache may offer a "window" or access node to a cloud-file-sharing system, while providing a user with performance capabilities as if the data was stored in a local data storage. In some scenarios, a local hybrid cloud cache may provide a partial copy of the data residing in a cloud-based platform, such as a public cloud. Even though the contents of the hybrid cloud cache may be presented as a file system to users, the contents and hybrid cloud cache conventionally do not comprise a file system themselves. This can present a challenge when it comes to investigating and remedying problems involving the operation of a hybrid cloud cache system both internally, as well as in the field, and is especially evident as problems are reported in reference to file system objects viewed by users.
Conventional approaches to solving the challenges associated with investigating and remedying problems involving the operation of a hybrid cloud cache system include utilizing virtual file systems and tools that read on-disk file system structures (e.g., fsdb, xfs repair) and presenting them in a desired format. While these approaches provide benefits and efficiencies, such technologies and methodologies still have shortcomings. Embodiments of the system, apparatuses, and methods described herein are directed to processes and techniques to overcome disadvantages associated with conventional approaches to providing users with tools to investigate and remedy operational problems of systems that include a hybrid cloud cache.

System and method of presenting a hybrid cloud cache as a file system


A method and apparatus for imaging a network monitor. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving information concerning a customer network to be monitored by a network monitor, and selecting a bootable image for the network monitor using the network information. The bootable image contains network monitoring software and an operating system, and can be booted on any computing device of the customer network. The method further includes providing the bootable image of the network monitor to a requester, and then receiving a fixed IP address of the network monitor from a computing device on the customer network that is designated to host the network monitor.

Networked computers are used to transmit and fetch information to and from local sources (e.g., computers used in a business) and remote sources (e.g., enterprise services offered over the Internet). To ensure privacy and security during communication between networked computers, authentication and verification mechanisms may be used. Thus, the authentication and verification mechanisms can be used to establish a trusted session between a server and client. The trusted session can be used to transfer communications for monitoring and managing network monitors so that security and privacy for each user can be maintained.
A network monitor is typically arranged to act as an intermediary between a host network and a system that is used to manage the host network. The network monitor receives monitoring information from hosts on a network and sends the received monitoring information to a service provider server in the system. The received information is processed through the network monitor, which passes the processed information to the service provider server. The service provider server typically stores information for monitored local URLs, hosts (monitored servers and/or applications), and checks (specific information gathered from a host). The service provider server also can generate notifications, log all monitoring events, and communicate with service provider daemons executing on monitored hosts.
A network monitor uses a trusted session to provide information for managing a network to system administrators at a service provider server. For example, administrators from a service company can manage an in-house system for a client company by using networking configuration software over a public network. The conventional network monitor allows monitoring of behind-the-firewall network infrastructure without the need to open incoming network ports. The conventional network monitor is a hardware device that is typically pre-configured. The network monitor is typically configured with no listening ports activated so that external intrusion attempts are avoided. Network communications from the network monitor to the systems to be monitored (host systems) and to the service provider server are normally one-way and initiated by the network monitor. The network monitor periodically collects monitoring data from the customer network environment and packages and sends the data to the configuration service provider server at regular intervals using a trusted session
The network monitor can also request any updates for the configurations, and monitoring schedules during the session. The configuration service provider server can deliver any changes that the customer may have made via the trusted session portal, as well as provide updates such as new features or bug fixes available after a product release. However, the cost of dedicated hardware for network monitoring systems for maintenance of relatively small systems can be a significant portion of the cost for maintaining a system. In such cases, customers are normally required to pay the relatively high cost to maintain secure network monitoring or to forgo using a secure system for network monitoring.