A computer-implemented technique can include receiving a media feed from a speaker computing device representing speech of a speaker user captured by the speaker computing device. The technique can include receiving a plurality of translation requests, each translation request being received from a listener computing device associated with a listener user and corresponding to a request to obtain a translated version of the media feed into a preferred language of the listener user. The technique can include determining the preferred language for each listener user. The technique can include obtaining a machine translated media feed for each of the translation requests, the machine translated media feed corresponding to a translation of the media feed from the source language to the preferred language of the listener user associated with the translation request. The technique can also include outputting the machine translated media feeds to the listener computing devices.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Situations arise where a speaker is speaking in a language that is not spoken or understood by a listener. One solution is for a human translator to translate the words of the speaker with a slight delay into a language spoken or understood by the listener. This is also known as manual translation. When there are multiple listeners and different languages, multiple human translators would be required, which could be costly. Therefore, there remains a need for an improvement in the area of language translation and distribution.

Techniques for real-time translation of a media feed from a speaker computing device and distribution to multiple listener computing devices in multiple different languages


The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for completing a well. Particularly, the present invention relates to a single-direction plug for use with cementing applications and with drilling with casing applications. One embodiment comprises a cement plug for installation in a wellbore casing. The plug includes a body and gripping members for preventing movement of the body in a first axial direction relative to the casing. The plug further comprises a sealing member for sealing a fluid path between the body and the casing. The plug is movable in a second axial direction with fluid pressure but is not movable in the first direction due to fluid pressure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for completing a well. Particularly, the present invention relates to positioning a plug in a wellbore. More particularly, the present invention relates to a single-direction plug for use in well completions and drilling with casing applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the oil and gas producing industry, the process of cementing casing into the wellbore of an oil or gas well generally comprises several steps. For example, a string of casing is run in a wellbore to the required depth. Then, cement slurry is pumped into the casing to fill an annulus between the casing and the wellbore wall to a desired height. A displacement medium, such as a drilling or circulation fluid, is pumped behind the cement in order to urge the cement to exit the inside of the casing and enter the annulus. The cement slurry is typically separated from the circulation fluid by at least one cementing plug. Due to the difference in specific gravity between the circulating fluid and the cement slurry, the heavier cement slurry initially drops inside the casing without being pumped by hydrostatic pressure. After the height of cement slurry column outside the casing equals the height of the cement slurry column inside the casing, hydrostatic pressure must be exerted on the displacement fluid to force the rest of cement slurry out of the casing and into the annulus.
After the desired amount of cement slurry has been pumped into the annulus, it is desirable to prevent the backflow of cement slurry into the casing until the cement slurry sets and hardens. This backflow is created by the difference in specific gravity of the heavier cement and the generally lighter displacement fluid. One method for preventing the backflow of cement slurry into the casing involves holding constant the hydrostatic pressure on the displacement fluid in the casing until the cement slurry sets and hardens. This method, however, expands the casing and creates non-adherence of the casing to the hardened cement after the hydrostatic pressure in the casing is released and the casing string contracts. Another method of preventing the backflow of cement slurry involves placing a check valve in the lower end of the casing string to prevent the backflow of the cement slurry into the casing. The check valve may be run on a conventional casing string or pumped down the casing and latched into a float collar with a recess near the bottom of the casing string. Then, the cement slurry is pumped through the check valve. One problem with the use of a check valve in preventing the backflow of cement slurry is that flowing a cement slurry or other fluid through the check valve may damage the check valve and may prevent the check valve from functioning properly. In addition, installing a check valve, even in the open position, on a lower portion of a casing string can cause a pressure surge within the wellbore, thereby damaging surrounding hydrocarbon-bearing formations.
Recently, drilling with casing has become popular as a time saving way to complete a well. Drilling with casing involves using a casing string as a drill string to form a borehole and then using the same string to line the wellbore. Typically, a cutting member is placed at the lower end of the string and is later either retrieved or destroyed by subsequent drilling of another section of wellbore. One challenge of drilling with casing is providing a cementing apparatus in the string to facilitate the circulation of cement after the wellbore is formed. As described above, some type of one-way valve is typically used. However, because drilling fluid must be circulated through the string as the wellbore is formed, any valve in the string can hamper the circulation of fluid that is necessary for drilling
Therefore, a need exists for an improved cementing apparatus for use in completing wells. There is a further need for an improved method of positioning a plug in a wellbore. There is also a need for a downhole tool capable of positioning at a desired depth in the wellbore.


The present disclosure discloses a storage device connected to a support portion. The storage device comprises a storage portion configured for movement relative to the support portion. The storage device further comprises a driving mechanism and a sensor unit configured to determine whether an object is present on the storage portion. The driving mechanism is configured to drive the storage portion so as to control the storage portion to move between at least an in-use state and a non-use state. The sensor unit is communicatively connected to the driving mechanism and is configured to control the driving mechanism to keep the storage portion in the in-use state when the sensor unit determines that there is an object on the storage portion.

A conventional storage device is connected to a support portion and comprises a storage portion that movably connects to the support portion. The storage portion moves relative to the support portion at least between an in-use state and a non-use state. During use, when there is an object on the storage portion, erroneous operation often causes the storage portion to move from the in-use state to the non-use state, thereby causing the object on the storage portion to fall and causing damage to the object when the object falls to the ground or causing the ground to be messy.

Xiamen Solex High-Tech Industries Co., Ltd.


Apparatuses, methods and storage medium associated with deriving power output from an energy harvester are disclosed herein. In embodiments, an apparatus may include one or more processors, devices, and/or circuitry to identify a plurality of times at which an intermediate voltage of a two stage power conversion circuit corresponds to a voltage reference, and ascertain an amount of time between one of the identified times and another one of the identified times. The one or more processors, devices, and/or circuitry may derive a power or current value associated with the second power supply using the amount of time.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Energy scavenging from an ambient source such as a photovoltaic cell (PV), a radio frequency (RF) device, a thermoelectric generator (TEG), or a piezoelectric material (such as lead zirconate titanate) is particularly suited for use in IoT (Internet of Things) products and applications. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. The Internet of Things allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Energy scavenging may be utilized in an IoT application where on-line utility power is not reachable and an off-line stand-alone battery does not fit due to constrains in size and/or weight.
An energy harvesting source may have power characteristics different from a traditional power supply. For instance, total power available may be capped and/or the amount of power may depend on internal I-V characteristics rather than a load demand as the case in other power supplies. Maximizing power output from an energy harvesting source may involve constantly directly measuring the power at the output of the energy harvesting sources. These direct measurements may utilize current sensing (which may result in power losses), may utilize components that significantly contribute to physical dimensions of an electronic device (such as volume or area of the electronic device), and/or may utilize components that increase production costs, such as a bill of materials (BOM) cost.

Deriving power output from an energy harvester


A semiconductor integrated circuit comprising: a power controller which outputs a voltage select signal for selecting one of at least two types of voltages; a power supply voltage controller which generates and outputs a power supply voltage at an arbitrary voltage change rate on the basis of the voltage select signal; and a circuit portion which receives the power supply voltage and performs processing, wherein said circuit portion keeps operating while said power supply voltage controller is outputting the power supply voltage generated at the arbitrary voltage change rate.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit and, more particularly, to a semiconductor integrated circuit including a power supply voltage controller which limits the change rate when the power supply voltage is to be changed.
Recently, to reduce the power consumption of a semiconductor integrated circuit, the power supply voltage is dropped to a minimum necessary voltage in accordance with the operation state.
For example, a 100-MHz, 1.2-V semiconductor integrated circuit is sometimes operated by downing the power to 50 MHz and 0.9 V in accordance with the margin of the data processability. In this case, before the power supply voltages are switched, the clock is lowered from 100 MHz to 50 MHz to temporarily stop data processing. Then, the power supply voltage is lowered from 1.2 V to 0.9 V, and data processing is resumed after the voltage has stabilized.
To return to 100 MHz and 1.2 V, data processing is temporarily stopped before the power supply voltages are switched. After the power supply voltage is raised from 0.9 V to 1.2 V and the voltage has stabilized, the clock is returned from 50 MHz to 100 MHz to resume data processing.
This is so because, during the abrupt transition of the power supply voltage, a problem such as clock out of sync or circuit delay fluctuation arises, and it is necessary to avoid a period like this.
It is also necessary to avoid the problem that a period during which the power supply voltage falls outside the operating voltage is produced by overshoot caused by an abrupt transition of the power supply voltage. That is, it is necessary to avoid the event in which, assuming that the designed voltages are 1.2 V±0.05 V and 0.9 V±0.05 V, no stable operation can be ensured any longer because these voltage ranges are exceeded.
Conventionally, therefore, before and after the power supply voltages are switched, data processing must be temporarily stopped until the power supply voltage stabilizes, and this lowers the processing speed.
A reference disclosing the conventional semiconductor integrated circuit is as follows.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-330549

Semiconductor integrated circuit having controller controlling the change rate of power voltage


A method for authorizing an action on a self-service system, in which a user is authorized, by using an authorization server, to carry out an action on a self-service system is provided. The user is equipped with a token for his/her identification.

The present invention is in the field of checkout systems/point of sale (POS) systems and in particular checkout/paydesk/cash point systems, such as those used in the wholesale and retail trade.
Traditional POS systems essentially consist of a known PC or comprise elements known from the PC technology on which software is implemented for providing a POS functionality, as well as other units connected to this PC, such as a scanner, keyboard, printer, monitors and cash drawer.
A disadvantage of such traditional POS systems is, among other things, the lack of mobility and the limited usability of these a POS systems which in particular in larger wholesale and retail stores leads to the need to provide a large number of fully equipped POS systems at fixed locations. This is not desirable with regard to the relatively high price for the required PC. As a result, storage space is furthermore wasted, since 100% utilization of the POS systems is not always given.
It is an object of the invention to provide a POS system with which a high mobility, usability and utilization of the POS system can be ensured.
This object is achieved by a device having the features of claim 1 and by a method having the features of the independent method claim.
Advantageous further embodiments of the invention are specified in the dependent claims.
In essence, the invention comprises a POS system that is comprising a stationary unit which is connected to at least one POS peripheral unit via at least one connection. Furthermore, the POS system comprises a mobile unit which comprises a display device as well as an input device, wherein the mobile unit is configured to execute a POS software, wherein in said process an access to the POS peripheral unit takes place. The POS peripheral units can be one or more of the following components: an automatic cash safe, a cash drawer, a printer, a keyboard, a scanner, a 3d scanner, a pin pad (over LAN), a card reader, a monitor, a line display, a scale, a NFC reader, a banknote deposit device, a banknote disburse device, a coin deposit device and/or a coin disburse device.
Another component of the POS system is a management unit. The goal is to provide a mobile unit with one or more POS peripheral units by means of the stationary unit. In order for such access not to take place in an uncontrolled manner, there exists a management unit which controls the access of the mobile unit to the POS peripheral units and the stationary unit.
The mobile unit can be connected to the stationary unit via a first connection. This connection may, on the one hand, be a radio connection via which data is exchanged that is to be sent to the POS peripheral units, and also the data necessary for authentication. On the other hand, it can also be a contact connection, by which a physical contact of the two units is produced, and via which, in one embodiment, only authentication data is exchanged. In a further embodiment, data is exchanged for the POS peripheral units via a second contact connection. It should be noted that these connections should preferably work within a narrow radius between the stationary unit and the mobile unit in order to avoid an excessive removal of the mobile unit from the stationary unit in order to keep the cash drawer in sight. Here, the Bluetooth Low Energy (BT LE) Beacon technology can be used, since it is possible to scale the transmitter range within a range up to 10 m. For wireless standards these should therefore be selected that work in a narrow spatial range.
Furthermore, the mobile unit is connected to the management unit via a second connection. Said connection is generally used to exchange access information and parameters that control the access to the POS peripheral units.
The stationary unit is also connected to the management unit via a third connection. This connection also essentially serves to control the access of the mobile unit to the POS peripheral units. Through these connections, both the mobile unit and the stationary unit are controlled by the management unit in order to obtain access to the POS peripheral units.
For this purpose, the management unit is set up to check, based on a rule set, whether a first logical connection of the mobile unit to the stationary unit and/or a second logical connection of the mobile unit to the at least one POS peripheral unit is to be established, and if the check is successful, an access is permitted via the logical connection of the mobile unit to the stationary unit and/or an access via the logical connection of the mobile unit to the POS peripheral units, and the management unit detects a corresponding logical connection of the devices. In this context, a logical connection is a connection which can actually be physically performed via several different protocols and network technologies but appears to the mobile unit as a connection via a local interface with a local interface protocol. By way of example, a virtual RS232 or USB port, which is implemented as a virtual driver on the mobile unit, can thus be provided as a standard interface for the application software. This virtual interface is then used to connect to a POS peripheral unit using different network protocols and the stationary unit. For example, the actual connection can be established via a network, so as to be then converted by the stationary unit into a serial interface or a USB interface by which the POS peripheral unit is connected to the stationary unit. For the mobile unit, it appears as if the POS peripheral unit would be directly connected to the mobile unit. However, there is a physical link across multiple protocols and networking technologies. A virtual COM port is an emulation of serial RS232 interfaces (real COM ports), which are implemented by means of an operating system driver and emulate all calls to peripheral devices and their return messages.
The driver can receive data from the application in the same way as the driver for a physically available, serial RS232 interface (WRITE). In the case of the virtual RS232 interface the data is however passed on to another computer via wire-wired or wireless communication. RS232 Control signals such as DSR which indicate whether a RS232 device is connected to the computer, are virtualized by the driver assigned to the virtual COM port, such that if an connection interruption via the network occurs, these signals are emulated accordingly. Thus, the real RS232 driver and the virtual RS232 driver are transparent to the application. The application therefore cannot distinguish between a peripheral device physically connected to the computer via an RS232 cable, or whether it is a virtual RS232 driver, which carries out the communication via a network with the other computer and the data traffic to a connected device Peripheral device.
Thus, the virtual COM port wirelessly or wire-bound replaces a conventional serial wire-bound connection without software modification of the upper layers.
In a preferred embodiment, the rule control system is implemented by software on the management unit and stored there on. Processors, memory, persistent storage, operating system and databases can be combined. The data can be stored in a database and determine certain access rights. An ID which is associated with the mobile unit and the stationary unit can be recorded in the set of rules. Using this ID, the mobile unit and the stationary unit can be uniquely identified and it can be determined whether certain devices may be combined with one another. In addition, there is also an ID for the POS peripheral units. In this way, it can be mapped which components are logically connected. Furthermore, said rule set also manages the current status of the connections. Based on the current status, the rules can decide which POS peripheral unit can be connected to which mobile unit. A multiple assignment is thereby excluded. Also, certain categories of POS peripheral units should not be connected to mobile units when the mobile units are not in immediate surroundings. If for example, the mobile unit is at a too far away, such that there is no radio contact with the stationary unit, the stationary unit then notifies the management unit thereof, and the management unit and/or the stationary unit can then decide that the assignment of certain POS peripheral units is cancelled. Money dispensing units can for instance considered to be important POS peripheral units. Hereby it should be avoided that mobile units which are too far away from the money dispensing unit, can be controlled in order to output money. The response behaviour is also regularly checked. If too large latencies occur, this is an indication that the connection is not optimal or too far apart, such that an assignment is cancelled. One additional aspect that can be included in the rule set is the user ID that a user should provide when logging-in on to the mobile device. Further aspects may be the type of the mobile unit and the stationary unit or their configuration. For example, certain software development or hardware development levels may cause certain connections to fail. A variety of further rules are conceivable.
In a further possible embodiment, the mobile unit is connectable to the stationary unit via the connection. This connection between the mobile unit and the stationary unit can be carried out both wirelessly and via physical contacts, as stated above. When the connection is established, a request is sent to the management unit such that the management unit checks, by means of the rule set, whether a connection of the mobile unit to the stationary unit and/or its POS peripheral unit is permitted, and if it is permitted, the management unit transmits a corresponding message to the mobile unit and/or the stationary unit to allow access via the logical link.
In a preferred embodiment, the management unit should receive both a request for the connection from the mobile unit and at the same time a request about the connection from the stationary unit to allow access via the logical connection. In this case, both devices transmit the respective ID of the partner and their own ID with a time stamp to the management unit. Based on these parallel data, the management unit can specify a time window within which the request must be transmitted. If the requests from both devices arrive within the time window, both devices are accordingly informed that an access is permitted on the basis of the rule set. In this case, corresponding information is sent to the mobile unit so that the corresponding virtual drivers can be configured. The configuration is done automatically. A corresponding message is sent to a stationary unit. The stationary unit then releases the corresponding POS peripheral unit for the mobile terminal so that an access can be accomplished.
The mobile unit and/or stationary unit are designed to exchange their ID via a contact connection or via a wireless short-range connection such as NFC, RFID, Zigbee, Bluetooth and/or Bluetooth Low Energy to be transmitted via a network such as WLAN, Ethernet, Bluetooth to the administration server.
The connection between the individual units is preferably encrypted, the keys being exchangeable with one another via a different channel. Due to the triangle connection of the units, such a channel is normally available. Encryption can be either symmetric or asymmetric. Alternatively, the keys may be generated and managed by the management unit. In one embodiment, the use of signatures and a new PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) is also conceivable. Identity Based Encryption can also be based on the ID. Alternatively, the keys can also be exchanged with one another via a USB stick or other storage media in advance or during the configuration. Alternatively, said process can also be done by a highly secure key generation via interchangeable SmartCards.
After establishing the connection between the mobile and stationary unit, the connection is made from the stationary unit and/or mobile unit to the management unit via LAN, WLAN or Bluetooth. However, the connection of the mobile unit to the stationary unit requires a spatially limited network, preferably Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy, Bluetooth low energy iBeacon™, Zigbee or a cable connection e.g. plug connection. However, it is also conceivable that a WLAN is used, but only a limited number of uncritical POS peripheral units, such as a printer or a display unit, are provided. Due to the classification or rating of the POS peripheral units, uncritical devices can thus be addressed if a network standard is used between the stationary unit and the mobile unit which permits a greater distance.
In a further embodiment, the management unit is embodied as a logical unit in the POS HUB/stationary unit. The management unit is preferably separated from the stationary unit, logically or physically. This may be implemented by an additional hardware, or by virtualization, such that the management unit operates as a virtual system on the hardware of the stationary unit. Therefore, there are a plurality of stationary units, out of which one is the master unit having the management unit. Alternatively, a plurality of management units are conceivable, out of which each operates redundantly and exchanges data with each other, such that in the event of a failure of one management unit, another management unit can take over the function.
In another embodiment, the mobile unit is configured to allow interactive selection of a stationary unit and/or POS peripheral units. In this case, an application is provided to the user, which scans the surrounding area in order to list the stationary units available there. The list of the stationary units is then also be restricted by inquiry of the management unit, so that only the stationary units which allow a connection are displayed. In addition to the stationary units, their POS peripheral units are displayed, and the user can assign the individual units to his mobile unit by a selective selection. As soon as a corresponding selection has been made, the above-described process proceeds, in which a corresponding logical connection is established to the POS peripheral units.
The proximity of the stationary device is provided by means of an autonomously supplied transmitting unit (e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy iBeacon™ or nearables). Said unit is supplied by a small battery and cyclically transmits data with the unique identification number of the respective stationary unit to the mobile unit.
In a further embodiment, the mobile unit may be physically connected to the stationary unit. This is for instance possible by a plug-in contact. As soon as such a connection is established and a corresponding assignment of the stationary unit to the mobile unit by the management unit has taken place, the mobile unit is physically interlocked with the stationary unit. A physical interlock is performed by an actuator after physically connecting the stationary unit to the mobile unit, the interlock being controlled by the management unit according to a rule set. Alternatively, the interlock can be automatically performed without using the rule set of the management unit. The rule set can determine that only specific users are allowed to release this interlock by means of a corresponding command.
Another part of the invention is a method implemented by the described device. In this case, the communication is between the stationary unit and the mobile unit and the management unit. The management unit controls the allocation of the mobile unit to the stationary unit and its POS peripheral units. Only if the rule set, which has also been described above, allows a connection, the desired POS peripheral units are assigned. By the assignment, the mobile unit and stationary unit then establish a logical connection to the POS peripheral unit, which is formed on the mobile unit such that it appears as a physical direct connection for the applications. For this purpose, a corresponding virtual driver is configured in such a way that it transmits its data either directly or indirectly via the stationary unit to the POS peripheral unit.
According to the invention, the POS system comprises a mobile unit that is comprising a display device, as well as an input device, wherein the mobile unit is configured to execute a POS software. Furthermore, the POS system comprises a stationary unit which is connected to at least one POS peripheral unit. Furthermore, the POS system comprises a management unit. The mobile unit can be connected to the stationary unit via a first connection and can be connected to the management unit via a second connection. The stationary unit is connectable to the management unit via a third connection. Furthermore, the management unit is set up to establish a first logical link of the mobile unit to the stationary unit and/or a second logical link of the mobile unit to the at least one POS peripheral unit.
One basic idea of the present invention resides in the breakup of the strict allocation from one unit executing the POS software to the remaining POS peripheral units. By separating the mobile unit according to the invention, on which the POS software is executed, from the remaining POS peripheral units, it is advantageously achieved that one and the same POS peripheral units can be used by several mobile units. Since, the operation of the POS software performed by the user of the mobile unit—for example the registration of the goods selected by the customer or the preparation of the invoice generation—is the most significant time component in contrast to the final processing which presupposes the existence of the POS periphery units—for example, printing the receipt, processing the payment process, a better utilization of the POS peripheral unit can be achieved. This inter alia leads to a reduction in costs and to a saving in foot-printing, since fewer POS peripheral units have to be used. Furthermore, such a separation from the mobile unit executing the POS software from the rest of the POS peripheral unit units allows an improved customer support and handling of the purchase as the users of the mobile unit can accompany and advise the customer in the business premises as well as the purchase of the goods selected by the customer can already be prepared here.
According to the present invention, a user of the mobile unit makes a purchase and uses the POS peripheral unit only for the final processing. For this purpose, according to the invention, with the aid of the stationary unit, a connection is established between the mobile unit and the POS peripheral unit that is connected to the stationary unit such that the POS software executed on the mobile unit can access the POS peripheral units connected to the stationary unit. In order to establish this connection, the management unit according to the invention is required, which controls the allocation of a mobile unit to a stationary unit and/or to the associated POS peripheral unit. If such a connection is to be established, it is advantageous to check whether a particular mobile unit and/or a user operating this unit is allowed to access at least one particular stationary unit or at least a particular associated POS peripheral unit. As a result, it can advantageously be avoided that the same POS peripheral unit is simultaneously used by different mobile units and/or that unauthorized users operate a particular POS peripheral unit (for example, open the cash drawer).
The POS system preferably is a POS system for wholesale and/or retail trade. It is preferably connected to a database containing information of the goods to be sold and/or on the transactions carried out on a POS system. Such information is preferably the stock of the goods, price of the goods and/or information on the packaging of the goods, such as volume and/or color.
The mobile unit may be any portable device which allows the execution of a POS software and has at least one display device, as well as at least one input device. In a preferred embodiment, the POS software is executed on the mobile unit. The mobile unit is preferably operated with power from an accumulator. The display device for displaying information is provided by the POS software. It is preferably a screen, more preferably an LCD or OLED display. The input device serves to input information by the user of the POS system. The input information is preferably intended for the POS software. Preferred input devices are scanners, keyboard and/or touch screen. The mobile unit is preferably designed as a portable PC. More preferably, the mobile unit is formed as a so-called tablet computer (tablet PC). Further, the tablet computer preferably has a touchscreen which advantageously serves as a display and input device, simultaneously.
The POS software is preferably the same or a slightly adapted application which already has been installed on complete stationary units. The goal is to make as few changes as possible to the software, but to achieve the highest possible variability. This can be achieved if the same operating system is running on the mobile unit and on the traditional POS system, e.g. Windows or Linux. However, in a further embodiment computers can also be used as mobile units, which can, for example, run tablets or SmartPhone operating systems, e.g. Linux, Unix, iOS, Blackberry and Android.
The stationary unit serves to connect the at least one POS peripheral unit. As a stationary unit, any conventional PC can be considered, in particular a minimally equipped and therefore a low-cost PC. The stationary unit preferably serves as a charging unit for the accumulator of the mobile unit. The at least one POS peripheral unit is connected to the stationary unit via a connection. This connection can be of any type to ensure data exchange between the POS peripheral unit and the stationary unit, for example via a wireless, wire-bound or optical connection. A permanent connection is the preferred connection, and more preferably a wire-bonded connection. Most preferred POS peripheral units and stationary units are connected via USB and/or RS232 connections.
POS peripheral unit or POS peripheral units are preferably an automatic cash safe, a cash drawer, a printer, a keyboard, a scanner, a 3d scanner, a pin pad, a card reader, a monitor, a line display, scale, a NFC reader, a banknote deposit device, a banknote disburse device, a coin deposit device and/or a coin disburse device.
The management unit serves to manage the access of the mobile unit and/or the POS software executed thereon to the POS peripheral unit connected to the stationary unit. The management unit may be a conventional PC, or preferably implemented as a server. The management unit is preferably designed as an independent unit, but can also be integrated into the stationary unit. The first scenario is advantageous if the POS system according to the invention is to be integrated into an environment in which a server is already used and/or if a larger number of mobile and/or stationary units are to be managed. The latter scenario is advantageous if such a server is not already present, because the costs for such a server can be saved, and/or only a smaller number of mobile and/or stationary units are to be administered. Here, it is sufficient to integrate the management unit into one of the stationary units that is used.
The invention described herein allows the reuse of existing application program architectures from a traditional POS system in a mobile device and secures comparatively unsecure wireless communications to these devices, in contrast to the physical connection of POS peripheral units, against tapping and manipulation.
Previous wire-bound interfaces are replaced by a software stack and interference-free wireless transmission technology (e.g., WLAN in combination with Bluetooth or ZigBee), wherein authentication may take place wirelessly or wire-bound.

Method and device for controlling a cash register system


Remote computing resource service providers allow customers to execute one or more applications in a virtual environment on computer systems provided by the computing resource service provider. The virtual machines may be managed by a hypervisor executing on computer systems operated by the service provider. The virtual machines' memory may be protected by a memory obfuscation service and the hypervisor. The memory obfuscation service may enable the virtual machines to maintain at least a portion of sensitive information in an obfuscated format. The virtual machines may request access to the virtual machines' memory, the memory obfuscation service may obtain the requested memory in an obfuscated format and un-obfuscate the memory such that it may be used by the virtual machines.

The use of remote computing services, such as remote program execution and remote data storage, has greatly increased in recent years. Customers may reduce expenses and overhead by purchasing these services from a computing resource service provider (also referred to as a service provider). Customer applications may be distributed over multiple virtual machine instances and computing systems. The virtual machine instances may be controlled by a hypervisor operating on a computing system. The hypervisor may provide secure partitioning of computer system resources by executing multiple virtual machine instances on a single physical host machine. Various components of the hypervisor may require privileged access to the physical host machine in order to provide effective administration of the virtual machine instances. Although reasonable precautions may be taken when developing hypervisors, reducing the risk of such attacks is a complex endeavor, typically requiring a lot of skill and resources.
Operating systems and applications, including virtualized operating systems and applications, use data obfuscation techniques to implement secure channels and trust zones for secure application execution. A variety of cryptographic techniques may be used to accomplish secure channels and trust zones such as by encrypting sensitive data at rest when in persistence storage or encrypting communications over an un-secure public network. Generally, during application execution, cryptographic keys and other sensitive information used by the application may be stored in memory without any protection. In a virtualized environment supported by a hypervisor, the application's security is typically limited to the security features provided by the guest operating system. Furthermore, physical hardware may be shared across multiple operating systems when the operating systems run in a virtualized environment.

Hypervisor assisted virtual memory obfuscation


The invention is directed to a pharmacologically active peptide conjugate having a reduced tendency towards enzymatic cleavage comprising a pharmacologically active peptide sequence (X) and a stabilizing peptide sequence (Z) of 4-20 amino acid residues covalently bound to X.

There exist a large number of pharmacologically active peptides, e.g., naturally occurring in man or in animals, or synthetic analogues of such peptides. An illustrative example of such a peptide is the analgetically active peptide enkephalin that has given rise to a vast number of synthetic analogues. However, due to precisely their peptic nature, the routes of administration thereof have been rather limited. Thus, peptides are rapidly and very effectively degraded by enzymes, generally with half-lives in the range of minutes. Proteases and other proteolytic enzymes are ubiquitous, particularly in the gastro-intestinal tract, and therefore peptides are usually susceptible to degradation in multiple sites upon oral administration, and to some extent in the blood, the liver, the kidney, and the vascular endothelia. Furthermore, a given peptide is usually susceptible to degradation at more than one linkage within the backbone; each locus of hydrolysis is mediated by a certain protease. Even if such obstacles are overcome, for neuropeptides in particular, difficulties have been encountered in their transport across the blood-brain barrier.
There has been a number of attempts to protect peptides against premature degradation (reviewed in Prokai, 1997, Exp. Opin. Ther. Patent 7:233-245, Tamai et al., 1996, Adv. Drug Delivery Rev. 19:401-424 and Zhou et al., 1991, Int. J. Pharm. 75:97-115). One approach includes osmotically altering the blood-brain barrier by infusion of hypertonic solutions of mannitol, arabinose, lactamide, saline, urea, glycerol and radiographic contrast agents. However, there could be toxic side effects.
Another approach involves the use of protease inhibitors (reviewed in Zhou et al., 1991, Int. J. Pharm. 75:97-115). This approach has yielded mixed results.
A third approach has involved the use of absorption enhancers in peptide formulations (reviewed in Zhou et al., 1991, Int. J. Pharm. 75:97-115). Examples include fatty acids and bile salts. However, varying results have been obtained regarding efficacies and the value of a particular enhancer is dependent on the route of administration used.
Another approach for enhancing the absorption of peptides involves chemically modifying the peptide by, for example, attaching a liphophilic moiety. It has also been found that attaching a pyroglutamyl residue at the N-terminal end can render a compound relatively resistant to hydrolysis. Tamai et al., 1996, Adv. Drug Delivery Rev. 19:401-404, discloses that E2078, a dynorphin analog was chemically modified to make it more stable to enzyme degradation by adding an N-methyl group at the amino-terminus of Arg and replacing D-Leu with L-Leu and adding ethylamine at the carboxy-terminal.
A different approach involves the formation of chimeric peptides. This approach involves coupling the peptide that is not normally transported through the blood-brain barrier to peptide or protein 'vectors' that undergo receptor-mediated or adsorptive-mediated transcytosis.
WO 98/22577 discloses a method for increasing the resistance of a "core protein" to proteolytic degradation by linking or inserting a "stabilizing polypeptide" having the formula [(Glya)X(Glyb)Y[(Glyc)Z]n. X, Y, and Z may be alanine, serine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine, proline, and threonine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,719 discloses molecules comprising protein fragments homologous to an active region of protein fragments capable of stimulating nerve growth (neuronotrophic proteins such as epidermal growth factor, tubulin, nerve growth factor, laminin, fibronectin, ncam and ependymin) no greater than 80 amino acids long connected to a secondary molecule which can be a second protein fragment derived from the original protein, from another protein or from a non-proteinaceous moiety. This secondary molecule facilitates the transport of the peptide across the blood-brain barrier. It is stated in column 3, lines 3-7, "Upon entering the central nervous system, prodrug can remain intact or the chemical linkage between the carrier and the protein fragment may be hydrolyzed thereby separating the carrier from the fragment to release the nerve growth-stimulating fragment". A preferred method for facilitating the coupling of the secondary molecule to the protein fragment is via one or more basic amino acids, preferably a pair of Lys residues, an Arg residue, or Arg-Lys.
Fawell et al., 1994, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91: 664-668 discloses chemically crosslinking various Tat peptide fragments to β-galactosidase, RNAse A and domain III of pseudomonas exotoxin A. These included Tat-(37-72), Tat-(37-58) and Tat-(47-58). All of these peptides appeared to promote uptake of galactosidase, RNAse and domain III into cells. It was stated that this is the basic region of Tat. Conjugates containing poly (L-lysine) or poly (L-arginine) were not taken up by the cells.
WO 97/24445 discloses fusion proteins of albumin and growth hormone or variants thereof. It is stated in the specification that variants of albumin should have the oncotic, ligand-binding and non-immunogenic properties of full length albumin and that variants of growth hormone should have its non-immunogenicity and ability to bind and activate the growth hormone receptor.
WO98/28427 discloses an Fc-OB fusion protein. Fc is an immunoglobulin fragment and OB is leptin. It has been found that such conjugates are more stable than OB alone. The Fc fragment is 378 amino acids in length. The Fc fragment can be conjugated directly or via a linker to OB or an OB fragment.
A further approach involves preparing peptide analogs with increased stability and/or activity by adding a peptide tail. Greene et al., J. Pharm. Exp. Therap. 277:1366-1375, discloses results of studies with various enkephalin analog prodrugs of [D-Pen2, D-Pen5] enkephalin (DPDPE) and [D-Pen2, L-Cys5] enkephalin (DPLCE) (SEQ ID NO: 1), specifically DPLCE-Arg-Pro-Ala (SEQ ID NO: 2), DPDPE-Phe (SEQ ID NO: 3), DPLCE-Phe (SEQ ID NO: 4), DPDPE-Arg-Gly (SEQ ID NO: 5), DPLCE-Arg-Gly (SEQ ID NO: 6), DPDPE-Phe-Ala-NH—C6H13 (SEQ lD NO 7), DPDPE-Phe-Ala-CONH2 (SEQ ID NO: 7). The half lives of most of the analogs, except for DPDPE-Arg-Gly are less than the parent compounds. It is stated on page 1372, column 2 that "the ideal CNS-targeted prodrug would have a long half-life in the serum and a short half-life in the brain." U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,229 discloses vasopressin antagonists which have a tripeptide side chain having three basic amino acids, such as arginine, lysine or ornithine which have potent antagonistic activity. U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,124, discloses vasopressin antagonists which have a dipeptide side chain having two amino acids, one of which is basis which has potent vasopressin antagonistic activity.
In the international patent application PCT/DK97/00376 (Bjarne Due Larsen and Ame Holm) prodrugs of pharmacologically active peptides are described, wherein the pharmacologically active peptide is coupled at its C-terminal to a peptide pre-sequence via a linker, the linker typically being an α-hydroxy carboxylic acid. These special peptide derivatives were found to have a prolonged half-life in the presence of proteolytic enzymes such as carboxypeptidase A, leucine aminopeptidase, pepsin A and α-chymotrypsin. In addition, PCT/DK97/00376 discloses (as reference compounds) four different peptides equipped with a peptide pre-sequence but without linker, namely DSIP-(Lys-Glu)3 (SEQ ID NO: 8), DSIP-(Glu)6 (SEQ ID NO: 9), Leu-enkephalin-(Glu)6 (SEQ ID NO: 10) and Leu-enkephalin-(Lys)6 (SEQ ID NO: 11).
It is evident that there is a need for a peptide conjugate which contains a pharmacologically active peptide and a stabilising protein that is relatively simple to synthesize, retains its activity even without removing the stabilising peptide, is stable in plasma or serum and is relatively resistant to enzyme degradation. Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a peptide conjugate comprising a pharmacologically active peptide and stabilising peptide that is relatively resistant to enzyme degradation.

Pharmacologically active peptide conjugates having a reduced tendency towards enzymatic hydrolysis


An ink jet print head is disclosed which comprises: a head chip having a plurality of heating elements thereon, a flow passage forming member including a plurality of injection ports respectively corresponding to the heating elements for jetting out ink, a substrate for fixing the head chip, and a joint for supplying ink, wherein the substrate includes an opening so formed as to extend in the arrangement direction of the heating elements, the flow passage forming member is disposed so as to cover the opening from a position above the head chip, at least part of the joint is connected to the flow passage forming member, and ink supplied from the joint is supplied along the flow passage forming member to the heating elements disposed on the head chip.

The present invention relates to an ink jet print head of a thermal type that air bubbles are produced in ink due to the heat that is generated by a heating element and the ink is jetted out due to the pressure of the thus produced air bubbles, thereby carrying out recording.
Conventionally, as an ink jet print head of a thermal type, there have been developed a side shooter type and a roof shooter type. The ink jet print head of a side shootor type is a head of a type that a heating element is disposed in the intermediate portion of an ink flow passage and ink is jetted out in a direction parallel to the surface of the heating element. With use of the print head of a side shooter type, for example, as shown in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Sho 61-230954, the Examined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-98758, the Examined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-98763, and the like, an anisotropic etching is enforced in a Si substrate to thereby be able to form an injection port for ink. That is, a side shooter type is suitable for a high-density print head.
On the other hand, the print head of a roof shooter type is structured such that ink is jetted out. from an injection port, which is formed in a surface opposed to the surface of a heating element, in a direction at right angles to the surface of the heating element. The print head having this structure is disclosed in the Examined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-4320, the Examined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 7-29437, the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-79874, and the like. According to this type of print head, a high injection efficiency can be obtained, the print head can he driven at high frequencies, and a strong injection force can be provided. On the other hand, however, the print head of a roof shooter type is disadvantageous in that it is unable to provide a highly dense arrangement of the injection ports per line. For this reason, the injection ports are arranged in a plurality of lines in order to be able to enhance the recording density thereof.
Further, as disclosed in the Examined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Sho 63-6356, the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Sho 55-59975, and the like, there is also known another structure in which a heating element is disposed in the intermediate portion of an ink slow passage as in the print head of a side shooter type and the surface of the heating element is directed toward ink injection ports as in the print head of a roof shooter type.
As an example of the ink jet print head of a roof shooter type, for instance, in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-79874, there is disclosed a structure in which a tape member includes a member having an orifice and an ink flow passage. Also, in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-8434, there is disclosed a print head of a roof shooter type which is the same in structure as in the above publication and also which further includes a fluid channel structure for jetting out ink from an ink tank through the back, side and upper surfaces of a substrate carrying a heating element thereon. Further, in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-8472, there is disclosed a seal structure for a flow passage disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-8434 and, in an embodiment thereof, there is illustrated a flow passage structure in which tape having injection ports formed therein is connected to a barrier layer. Still further, in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,794,411, there is disclosed a heating element which is formed square. Moreover, in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 7-1739, there is disclosed a method for manufacturing such ink jet print head.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional ink jet print heads, for example, when trying to realize a higher density such as 600 dpi or more, or when trying to enhance the drive frequencies of the individual channels and, at the same time, to increase the number of drive bits to thereby realize a higher speed, there arise the following problems. At first, the dimensions of the injection ports in the arrangement direction thereof are reduced so that the freedom of design of the injection ports is lowered, and it is difficult to secure the strength of the part in which the injection ports are formed. For example, in the structures as set forth in the above-mentioned publications, a photosensitive resin layer is used as an ink flow passage, while the ink flow passage, in particular, the ink flow side of the ink flow passage onto the heating element is reduced in size in the direction of arrangement of the injection ports in order to prevent the ink from flowing backward. Provision of such size reduction structure not only makes it difficult to secure a sufficient resolution for etching of the photosensitive resin, but also reduces the cross section of the flow-in side of the ink flow passage to thereby increase the resistance of the ink flow passage. Also, in the structure in which the ink supply passage is so formed as to extend around the back portion, end portion and upper portion of the substrate with the heating element carried thereon, If the injection ports are increased in number and the substrate is thereby extended in length, then the support of the back surface of the substrate is short, with the result that the substrate itself becomes weak in strength and thus it can be broken easily. Further, a distance from the heating element to the injection port is preferably about 100 .mu.m or less from the viewpoint of a jetting performance and, in the above-mentioned publications as well, the distance is controlled down to about 75 .mu.m because the injection ports are formed in the tape member. However, the tape member is short of strength as a component of the print head.
In order to enhance the strength of a component in which the injection ports are to be formed, for example, in the Examined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-4320 and FIGS. 10A and 11 of the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,728, there is disclosed a structure in which a rather thick plate is used and there are formed recessed portions in the ink injection port surfaces of the plate. However, in such structure in which the ink injection port surfaces are simply recessed suddenly, there arises a problem that, when the ink injection ports are wiped in maintenance, they cannot be cleaned up.
By the way, as a method for reducing the size of the ink flow passage on the ink flow-in side thereof onto the heating element, not in the print head of a roof shooter type but in the print head of a side shooter type, for example, as disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Sho 55-100169 and the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Sho 60-204352, there is known a method in which a barrier layer is provided on the ink flow-in side of the ink flow passage so as to enhance the jetting performance of ink, or, as disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 7-232433, the Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 7-112097, and the like, there is known a method in which the cross section of an ink flow passage formed in a synthetic resin layer is reduced not only in the arrangement direction of injection ports but also in directions respectively at right angles to the arrangement direction of the injection ports and to the direction of flow of ink. On the other hand, in the print head of a roof shooter type, as disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,333, there is known a structure in which heating elements are respectively separated by partition walls to thereby prevent the pressure from being propagated in other directions than the direction of the injection ports.
Further, as a structure of a roof shooter type, for example, there is known a structure in which the size of the ink flow passage is reduced in the arrangement direction of injection ports but, as disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,613, a pressure chamber in which a heating element is formed is formed in a circular or elliptical shape. In this case as well, the resolution for etching the photosensitive resin cannot be enhanced. Still further, as disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 5-31898, there is known a structure in which no such size reduced portion is provided in an ink flow passage but a rectangular pressure chamber is, as it is, connected to a common ink flow passage. In this case, however, the pressure propagation to other directions than that of the injection ports cannot be avoided.
Now, referring to the structure of a nozzle, for example, as disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-328699 as well as in the before-mentioned Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 5-31898, there is known a structure in which the nozzle is tapered. However, in an ink jet print head disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-328699, similarly to the above-mentioned roof shooter type, some of nozzles are formed in tape member or the like so that such nozzles are lacking in strength from the viewpoint of the parts of an ink print head. Also, more preferably, the whole of the upper portion of the heating element may be tapered but it is impossible to provide such taper in the barrier layer.
Referring to the structure of an ink flow passage, there are known several structures for example, a structure in which an ink flow passage starts from the back side of a substrate with a heating element placed thereon, passes through the side portion thereof, and then arrives at the top surface thereof, as disclosed in the above-mentioned Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 6-8434; a structure in which there are opened up holes in a substrate and ink is supplied through the holes, that is, from both sides of a heating element onto the top surface of the heating element, as disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Sho 60-206653; and, a structure in which there is opened up a hole between two heating elements, and ink is supplied from the hole and is diverged to two sides so that the ink can be supplied onto the respective top surfaces of the two heating elements. However, because the substrate on which the heating element is carried is hard, in the method to open up a hole in the substrate, it is not easy to machine the substrate to open up the hole in the substrate and also such machining operation inevitably has an ill effect on the substrate.
In a structure disclosed in the Unexaminied Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Sho 63-183855, a substrate on which two heating elements are placed is disposed on the two sides of an elliptic hole formed in a base member, that is, without opening up a hole in the substrate, there can be obtained a similar structure to the above-mentioned Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 7-144418. However, in such structure, similarly to the above-mentioned structure using the tape member, a sufficient strength cannot be secured for a member in which injection ports are formed. Also, when a metal plate formed of metal such as Al or the like is used as the base member, it gives an advantage to radiation of heat but, since the metal plate provides a flow passage for ink, it is exposed to the ink and is thereby easy to corrode.
Further, as illustrated in the above-mentioned Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 5-31898, there is proposed a structure in which an opening is formed in an ink tank cover, a head chip is fixed in such a manner that the head chip covers the opening, and a top plate is placed on the head chip. However, in this structure, because the head chip is not in contact with the metal plate formed of metal such as Al or the like, radiation of heat is poor, so that the performance and durability of the structure are poor. If the ink tank cover is formed of metal such as Al or the like, then good heat radiation can be provided but, because the ink tank cover is part of the ink tank, the ink tank cover is always in contact with ink, so that the ink tank cover can be corroded as described above.
Referring now to a method for manufacturing an ink jet print head using a similar technique to the prosent invention, for example, in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 7-223316, a nozzle plate blank material is injection molded and a nozzle is machined by us of laser. Also, in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 2-121843 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,604, after the outer shape of a top plate, individual flow passages and the like are formed by use of a resin mold, a nozzle is formed by use of laser. However, these techniques are used to manufacture an ink jet print head of a side shooter type, but not to manufacture an ink jet print head of a roof shooter type.
Now, according to the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,577, in an ink jet print head of a roof shooter type, an ink flow passage and a nozzle are formed in an orifice plate using an electro-forming method which is different from the method of the present invention. Also, according to the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,226, an ink flow passage and a nozzle are formed in a tape member by use of laser. The laser machining operation is truly able to machine such flow passage and nozzle with high precision but, disadvantageously, it takes much time to machine the whole shape of the flow passage and nozzle by laser. Further, in the above-mentioned Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 7-144418, the nozzle, flow passage and the like are formed in an integral manner. The integral formation does not require additional machining, whereas the integral formation has a limit to fine or minute machining.

Ink jet print head, method for manufacturing the same, and ink jet recording device


Probe systems configured to test a device under test and methods of operating the probe systems are disclosed herein. The probe systems include an electromagnetically shielded enclosure, which defines an enclosed volume, and a temperature-controlled chuck, which defines a support surface configured to support a substrate that includes the DUT. The probe systems also include a probe assembly and an optical microscope. The probe systems further include an electromagnet and an electronically controlled positioning assembly. The electronically controlled positioning assembly includes a two-dimensional positioning stage, which is configured to selectively position a positioned assembly along a first two-dimensional positioning axis and also along a second two-dimensional positioning axis. The electronically controlled positioning assembly also includes a first one-dimensional positioning stage that operatively attaches the optical microscope to the positioned assembly and a second one-dimensional positioning stage that operatively attaches the electromagnet to the positioning assembly.

Probe systems may be utilized to test and/or to quantify the operation and/or performance of a device under test (DUT), examples of which include a semiconductor device, a solid state device, an electrical device, an optical device, and/or an optoelectronic device. For some DUTs, it may be desirable to perform such tests while the DUT is subject to, or experiences, a magnetic field. While probe systems configured to apply a magnetic field to the DUT have been developed, these probe systems generally are slow to operate and/or are unable to apply a precisely controlled magnetic field to the DUT. Thus, there exists a need for improved probe systems configured to test a device under test and/or for methods of operating the probe systems.


The present invention provides a DNA fragment having a cold-inducible promoter function of yeast, which has high activity in a low temperature range, by identifying a DNA fragment, which exists in a non-translation region located upstream of the 5′-terminal side of a gene selected from the group consisting of cold-inducible genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and has a cold-inducible promoter function.

Yeast has widely been used for production of foods by fermentation, such as alcoholic beverages including beer or Japanese sake, or breads, for production of metabolites such as amino acids, and also as a host used for production of proteins of homogeneous or heterogeneous organisms using the recombinant DNA technique. The characteristics of yeast used in production of proteins by such recombinant DNA technology include: the safety of yeast as an organism, which is assumed from the past record in that yeast has previously been used in the food industry; a relatively high probability of success in the expression of proteins of animals such as a human because yeast is not a prokaryote such as Escherichia coli, but a eukaryote; and sufficiently developed gene recombination technology regarding yeast.
In general, it has been already known regarding production of beer or brewage that fermentation at a low temperature such as 10° C. or lower brings on exquisite flavor and taste, and that the quality as food can be improved. Since the existence of a chemical substance for improving flavor or taste is assumed from such improvement of flavor and taste, it is considered that the functions of a gene of an enzyme synthesizing such a chemical substance are appropriately regulated by decreasing the temperature. However, there is only a limited amount of information regarding genes of yeast functioning at a low temperature. Thus, the type of a gene that is important for improvement of the flavor or taste of foods is still unknown.
In gene recombination technology using yeast or Escherichia coli as a host, promoters functioning at an ordinary culture temperature (30° C. in the case of yeast and 37° C. in the case of Escherichia coli) have conventionally been used to produce proteins. In general, strong promoters producing a more large amount of mRNA have been used. It is considered that culture at a low temperature is disadvantageous in the production of proteins by genetic recombination. As a matter of fact, however, there are some cases where a low temperature is intentionally used to produce proteins. For example, when a protein produced at an ordinary temperature does not have a correct three-dimensional structure, a protein having a correct three-dimensional structure may be then produced at a low temperature. Thus, in order that a protein has a correct three-dimensional structure, there are some cases where production of a protein may be carried out at a culture temperature that is 10° C. lower than the ordinary temperature (Prot. Exp. Purif. 2, 432-441 (1991)). In addition, it is also expected that application of such a low temperature prevent the produced protein from being decomposed with protease of a host. Thus, it is considered that production of proteins at a low temperature has advantages. On the other hand, it is also considered that in the case of the currently used promoter functioning at an ordinary temperature, the promoter activity decreases together with a decrease in the temperature. Accordingly, it is appropriate to use a promoter exhibiting high activity in a low temperature range to establish an efficient protein production system at a low temperature.
To date, there has been a report that the mRNA of each of YBR067C (TIP1), YER011W (TIR1), YGR159C(NSR1), YGL055W (OLE1), YOR010C (TIR2), YKL060C (FBA1), YIL018W (RPL2B), YDL014W (NOP1), YKL183W, YKL011W, and YDR299W (BFR2), is increased by treating the yeast at a low temperature. However, the degree of cold inducibility of each of the promoters of the above genes has not yet been examined.

Yeast-origin promoter and vector and expression system using the same

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology


A retransmission control scheme and a wireless communication apparatus wherein the efficiency of retransmission control is enhanced to further improve the system throughput. In this wireless communication apparatus (100), an error occurrence factor addressing part (140) receives information related to the error occurrence factor of a transmitted packet or information related to the schemes of forming or transmitting a retransmittal packet corresponding to that error occurrence factor, and switches, based on the received information, the schemes of forming or transmitting the retransmittal packet. In this way, the schemes of forming or transmitting the retransmittal packet can be switched in accordance with the error occurrence factor of the transmitted packet. At the end of receiving the retransmittal packet, therefore, the performing of a decoding processor the like in accordance with that scheme of forming or transmitting can enhance the efficiency of the retransmission control. As a result, the system throughput can be improved.

In recent years, as a technique for enabling large-capacity data communication such as images, attention has been directed toward MIMO (Multi-Input/Multi-Output) communication. In MIMO communication, the transmitting side transmits different items of transmission data (substreams) from a plurality of antennas, and a receiving side separates the original transmission data from a plurality of items of transmission data mixed over the channel using estimation values (for example, see Patent Document 1).
Actually, in MIMO communication, signals transmitted from a transmitting apparatus are received using the same number of antennas as the antennas of the transmitting apparatus or more, and, based on a pilot signal inserted in a signal received in each of the antennas, channel characteristics between the antennas are estimated. The estimated channel characteristics H are expressed by a 2×2 matrix when the number of transmitting side antennas is two and the number of receiving antennas is two. In MIMO communication, a transmission signal (substream) transmitted from each transmitting antenna is obtained based on the inverse matrix of the obtained channel characteristics H and a received signal obtained in each receiving antenna.
Further, automatic repeat request (ARQ) is generally performed whereby, when the bit error rate on the receiving side does not meet a predetermined value, the receiving side transmits a retransmission request signal to the transmitting side and, in response to the request, the transmitting side transmits the same transmission data again. Particularly, in packet transmission, data transmission without errors needs to be guaranteed, and this makes error control by ARQ indispensable. In addition, in packet transmission, although adaptive modulation and error correction are applied such that throughput increases by selecting an optimal modulation scheme and coding scheme in accordance with the state of the channel, packet errors are inevitable due to measurement error, control delay and the like, so that hybrid ARQ (hereinafter referred to as HARQ) is adopted incorporating FEC (Forward Error Correction) functions.
Thus, MIMO communication is performed using a plurality of antennas during data transmission, so that large-capacity data can be communicated, and, when received data is erroneous on the receiving side, data is retransmitted, and the receiving side combines the received data in the initial transmission and in retransmission by HARQ. By this means, increased throughput of wireless communication system is expected. Non-patent Document 1 also suggests applying HARQ to MIMO communication.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-44051
Non-patent Document 1: 3GPP TSG-RAN Working Group 1, Collection, R1-010879, "Increasing MIMO throughput with per-antenna rate control", Lucent Technologies

Retransmission control scheme and wireless communication apparatus


An information handling system (IHS) docking system includes an IHS chassis defining an alignment member passageway and an IHS connector opening. An IHS connector is movably coupled to the IHS chassis adjacent the IHS connector opening and resiliently biased into a retracted orientation. An alignment member securing device is moveably coupled to the IHS chassis adjacent the alignment member passageway and resiliently biased into a non-securing orientation. At least one docking actuator is located in the alignment passageway and coupled to the IHS connector and alignment member securing device. When the IHS chassis is docked with a docking station including a docking connector and an alignment member, the alignment member engages the at least one docking actuator to move the IHS connector relative to the IHS chassis to mate with the docking connector, and move the alignment member securing device relative to the IHS chassis to engage the alignment member.

The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to retractable docking system for an information handling system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some conventional portable IHSs such as, for example, laptop and/or notebook IHSs, are operable to connect to a docking station in order to quickly and easily couple the portable IHS to a plurality of external peripheral devices including a pointing device, a keyboard, a monitor, a network connection, an external hard drive, and/or a variety of other peripheral devices known in the art that may be connected to the docking station. The docking station includes a docking connector that provides a single connection between the portable IHS and the peripheral devices coupled to the docking station that allows the functionality of the portable IHS to be expanded. The docking connectors on a majority of conventional docking stations have become standard among many users with large existing user bases utilizing docking stations having the same type or types of docking connectors. Those type docking connectors were conceived of many years ago when portable IHS were much thicker, and as portable IHSs become thinner, it is becoming more and more difficult to accommodate the required mating features and dimensionsfor the docking systems in the portable IHS.
For example, docking stations typically include a base having two fixed alignment posts with the docking connector located between the alignment posts. The distance between the tops of the alignments posts and the mating portion of the docking connector is fixed and was designed for relatively thick portable IHSs that can allow the alignment posts to extend into the portable IHS such that the docking connector mates with the IHS connector on the portable IHS. However, as portable IHSs become thinner, the alignment posts must extend too far into the portable IHS in order to allow the docking connector to mate with the IHS connector and would require the alignment posts to occupy a volume in the portable IHS that is used for other portable IHS components (e.g., the keyboard). As such, docking systems are not currently provided for thin or ultra-thin portable IHSs.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved docking system.