System, method, and non-transitory medium for selecting a test scenario template useful for testing a configuration change involves execution of the following: identifying runs of test scenarios run by users belonging to different organizations implementing configuration changes on software systems; identifying first connections between configuration changes and the runs; clustering the runs into clusters of similar runs; identifying, from the first connections and the clustering, second connections between configuration changes and the clusters; receiving a certain configuration change of a certain user; identifying a certain cluster of similar runs which correspond to the certain configuration change by comparing the certain configuration change with configuration changes that take part in the second connections; generating test scenario templates based on runs belonging to the certain cluster; and selecting, based on number of different organizations associated with the templates, a representative test scenario template to represent the certain cluster.

Complex software systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, have found their way into practically all medium and large-scale businesses, and have become the computational backbone for conducting many aspects of business. Thus, it is important these the software systems perform as expected. Consequently, organizations often devote many resources for the purpose of testing and validating the performance of their software systems. Every time there are changes to a system, such as when a software module is installed, removed, updated, and/or customized, tests should typically be run in order to determine that the software system operates as expected and that there were no adverse effects. In particular, implementing configuration changes to software systems, e.g., changes to values in configuration tables or changes to user generated code, are often considered to be a risky process which requires regression testing to validate affected configuration elements (e.g., business processes impacted by the changes). Often, the cost and time of a full regression test may be overwhelming.
Furthermore, deciding which tests to run, and what those tests should involve, in order to validate a configuration change is typically not an easy task. Often, configuration changes may have unintended and/or unexpected side effects, which a tester may not be aware of. Since tests are usually designed and run by each organization separately on the organization's systems, this means that each organization must build up the necessary knowledge, and independently discover important aspects that should be tested when validating different configuration changes. Gaining this knowledge may require much effort and experience; in the meantime, testing the software systems may be a less effective and prolonged process. However, organizations that are able to utilize each other's testing-related knowledge, which is in a sense a wisdom of the crowd (of testers), may be able to come up with a more effective and efficient testing plan.
Collecting testing data from multiple organizations may not be that helpful if there is no way to sift through the massive amounts of data that can be collected and select appropriate tests for the task at hand. Additionally, not all tests are equal. While some organizations may have knowledge of how to test certain aspects of a software module (e.g., effective tests for testing a certain configuration change), others may have devised erroneous, ineffective, and/or irrelevant tests.

Generating a configuration test based on configuration tests of other organizations


A display screen of an onboard display device is disposed so that a speedometer is displayed in front of a driver of a vehicle. When a right-turn instruction is detected, a blinker is displayed and a rightward rear view image outside the vehicle is displayed on the right side of the display screen. When a left-turn instruction is detected, a blinker is displayed and a leftward rear view image outside the vehicle is displayed on the left side of the display screen. Displaying the image in different positions of the display screen according to the right or the left turn instruction facilitates an intuitive determination of a meaning of the image and makes it easier to drive the vehicle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an onboard display device mounted on a vehicle, a vehicle, a display method, an image display program, and a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicle is provided with an instrument panel for indicating driving conditions of the vehicle.
Recently, an arrangement has been proposed in which a display device is provided on the instrument panel so as to display on the display device an image captured by a camera mounted on a vehicle. In this arrangements, content to be indicated on the instrument panel such as content of a speedometer can be displayed on a screen of the display device. For example, if a rear view image of the vehicle is displayed on the screen, it is possible to check an area at the rear of the vehicle without looking away from the front. This makes it easier to drive the vehicle.
For example, Japanese publication of Patent Application 123848/1997 (Tokukaihei 9-123848; published on May 13, 1997) discloses an arrangement in which a display device displays thereon a rear view image of a side on which a blinker is turned so as to indicate that the vehicle is to turn to the side (cf. Paragraph [0033], FIG. 16, etc.). In this arrangement, rightward and leftward rear view images are respectively displayed on a right side of a display area of a wide display regardless of which direction a driver is looking when driving.
Further, Japanese publication of Patent Application 257482/1998 (Tokukaihei 10-257482; published on Sep. 25, 1998) discloses an arrangement in which a rear view image is displayed at all times on a screen.
Further, Japanese publication of Patent Application 39217/2001 (Tokukai 2001-39217; published on Feb. 13, 2001) discloses a monitor for displaying rightward and leftward rear view images in accordance with a direction in which a driver is looking, in an arrangement in which a display device is mounted at a location other than an instrument panel (cf. the Embodiments and FIGS. 1 and 2, etc.).
However, the foregoing arrangements have a problem in that the rear view images captured by a camera, for example, are not sufficiently distinguishable as to whether they are a rightward rear view image or a leftward rear view image. Therefore, even if the sideward (i.e., rightward or leftward) rear view image is displayed, this does not ensure that the driving of the vehicle becomes easy.
Specifically speaking, the arrangements in which an image captured by the camera is displayed on a screen aims to make it easier to drive the vehicle by supplying image information via the image. However, for the following reasons, these arrangements do not ensure that the driving of the vehicle becomes easy. In some cases, these arrangements may make it difficult to drive the vehicle.
In the arrangement of Japanese publication of Patent Application 123848/1997 (Tokukaihei 9-123848), a driver may not be able to distinguish at a glance whether the rear view image is a rightward rear view image or a leftward rear view image.
In the arrangement of Japanese publication of Patent Application 257482/1998 (Tokukaihei 10-257482), because a rear view image is displayed at all times on the screen, a moving image always comes into sight of a driver. This may cause a problem in maneuvering the vehicle, and is not preferable for the sake of safe driving.
Further, in the arrangement of Japanese publication of Patent Application 39217/2001 (Tokukai 2001-39217), display devices are disposed respectively in positions near mirrors, i.e., at a distance from an instrument panel. That is, a right monitor and a left monitor are respectively disposed in positions remote from the instrument panel. Also, the monitors cannot display another kind of driving information. This may cause a problem of whether it becomes easy to check an image and whether driving of the vehicle can become easier.

Onboard display device, vehicle, display method, image display program and recording medium


A rotating element display includes a matrix having discrete regions of cells of different sizes occupied by rotatably disposed optically and electrically anisotropic elements (e.g., electrically anisotropic bichromal spheres). The regions of larger cells are occupied by larger rotating elements having a first combination of optical properties while the regions of smaller cells are occupied by smaller elements having a second combination of optical properties. The rotating elements having different combinations of optical properties are separately addressable by electromagnetic signals that cause rotation of selected optically dissimilar elements and create a desired color image. In a different aspect, a rotating element display includes a plurality of optically anisotropic rotatable elements occupying cells of a transparent matrix, in a configuration where a background color is viewable through the matrix. A color image is created using a combination of background color with optical properties of the rotating elements.

Rotating element displays (REDs) are electro-optic displays that employ rotation of optically and electrically anisotropic elements to generate images. The first REDs were developed in the 1970s at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. These displays, often referred to as "gyricon" displays, rotating element displays, or twisting ball displays, are typically based on rotation of optically and electrically anisotropic spheres embedded in an elastomer. In one example of a rotating element display, each sphere is composed of negatively charged black wax or plastic on one side and positively charged white wax or plastic on the other side. Each sphere is suspended in a dielectric fluid contained within a cavity formed in a plasticized elastomer and is free to rotate in the fluid so that it could turn with black or white side to the viewer, thus providing a pixel with a black or white appearance. When an appropriate voltage is applied to the electrodes addressing selected spheres, the spheres rotate in accordance with their dipole moment and display an image to the viewer. Such devices have been described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,126,854 and 6,441,946 issued to Sheridon et al.
Rotating element displays are often referred to as electronic paper, because they can be fabricated in flexible form and can be used without backlight, just as ordinary paper. Rotating element technology, however, failed to produce image quality comparable to that of images printed on paper. In particular, such displays did not possess the high reflectance of white paper, therefore providing low-contrast images. Rotating element displays based on elastomer substrate also had limited environmental stability, because plasticized polymer was not capable of withstanding high-temperature or high-humidity conditions. Further, only few dielectric fluids were suitable for use in gyricon displays, since dielectric fluid in gyricon was serving both as a polymer plasticizer and as a rotation media and therefore had to possess properties suitable for both of these applications.
Rotating element displays are generally limited to black-and-white devices. While use of color filters in combination with gyricons was described, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 7,071,895 issued to Wampler, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,306 issued to Sheridon et al., commercial use of such displays was limited due to manufacturing difficulties and due to low brightness and contrast of the resulting devices. Since black and white electrophoretic displays in general and gyricon displays in particular have limited brightness in the white state, adding a color filter on top of the display reduces the brightness of the display even further, creating a display with washed out colors and poor readability.
Other techniques for fabrication of color gyricon displays included the use of multi-segmented multi-colored spheres described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,760,761 issued to Sheridon et al., and the use of multi-layer gyricon stacks, where each layer of the stack is responsible for a specific color, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,321 issued to Silverman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,767,826 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,346 issued to Sheridon et al. The displays described in these references similarly suffered from manufacturing difficulties and were not successfully commercialized. Rotating element devices disclosed in these patents involve particles disposed in an elastomer substrate swelled by a plasticizer fluid, where the particles are disposed in random configuration resulting in poor packing density, lower brightness, contrast and saturation of colors in a device. In addition, the devices described in these patents require complex manufacturing of small multi-segment rotating elements, combining transparent and colored regions.


A filter includes: a filter circuit connected between a first terminal and a second terminal; and a matching circuit connected between the filter circuit and the second terminal, wherein an impedance viewed from the second terminal toward the matching circuit is less than an impedance viewed from a node between the filter circuit and the matching circuit toward the filter circuit.

A high-frequency circuit of a wireless terminal such as a mobile phone includes a duplexer including a transmission filter and a reception filter coupled to a common antenna terminal. Used for each filter is an acoustic wave filter using an acoustic wave such as a surface acoustic wave (SAW), a bulk acoustic wave (BAW), a LOVE wave, a boundary wave, or a Lamb wave (e.g. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-263624).
Multi-functionalized and sophisticated wireless terminals require a filter and a duplexer having good characteristics (low-loss, wide bandwidth).


A receiver includes an amplifier which is responsive to a control signal to amplify an input signal and which outputs a corresponding amplified signal, a demodulator which demodulates the amplified signal to generate first and second components, a converter which generates first samples corresponding to the respective first and second components and which digitalizes the first sample, and an auto gain controller (AGC) which generates second samples corresponding to the digitalized first samples and which generates the control signal corresponding to the second samples.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a control circuit, and, more particularly, to a receiver and method for generating a control signal.
This is a counterpart of and claims priority to Japanese patent application Serial Number 176740/2002, filed on Jun. 18, 2002, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional receiver converts a frequency of a received signal from a radio frequency to an intermediate frequency, generates a signal of a desired frequency band, demodulates the signal to generate an in-phase component and a quadrature phase component, and digitalizes the in-phase component and the quadrature phase component. Then, the conventional receiver generates a control signal by comparing the digitalized components and threshold values.
However, the conventional receiver exhibits increases an error rate when reception level of an adjacent channel signal is large.

Receiver and method for generating a control signal


Attributes of data recorded on a magnetic tape are stored in an attribute information table saved in an MIC (Memory in Cassette) of a tape cassette accommodated in a tape streamer drive connected to a host computer. The attributes are recorded for every identifier used for identifying a recording unit of the data. For each identifier, the attributes include the name of a file, a title, a file creation date/time, a file updating date/time, the amount of data contained in the file, the type of the data and a compression rate of the data. The attributes include not only those supplied by the host computer but also attributes generated after a data recording operation as information on the recording location of data. The attributes generated after the data recording operation include a group number and an offset from the beginning of the group identified by the group number. For example, the present invention can be applied to the tape streamer drive.

The present invention relates to information-processing apparatus, an information-processing method adopted by the information-processing apparatus, a program implementing the information-processing method and recording mediums for storing the program. More particularly, the present invention relates to information-processing apparatus properly used for recording data onto recording media for recording data sequentially as well as relates to an information-processing method adopted by the information-processing apparatus, a program implementing the information-processing method and recording mediums for storing the programs.
As the conventional data recording/reproduction apparatus capable of recording digital data onto a magnetic tape and reproducing digital data from the magnetic tape, a tape streamer drive is commonly known. A magnetic tape of a tape cassette mounted on the tape streamer drive as recording media can have a very large recording capacity of about several tens to several hundreds of GB (gigabytes). Thus, for example, such a tape cassette is widely used as a backup for data stored in a hard disk of a host computer or used in formation of an archive from video data having a large amount, moving-picture data having a large amount or the like. For more information, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 9-134256, which is used in this specification as patent document 1.
In the tape streamer drive described in patent document 1, an SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) interface is used in data input and output operations. That is to say, in an operation to record data onto a magnetic tape of a tape cassette mounted on the tape streamer drive, data is transferred from a host computer in recording units each having a typical size of 32 Kbytes and supplied to the tape streamer drive by way of the SCSI interface. Then, the data supplied to the tape streamer drive is compressed and, if necessary, subjected to processing such as a buffering process, a modulation process and an RF amplification process before being supplied to a magnetic head for writing the data onto the magnetic tape. In an operation to read out data from the tape cassette, on the other hand, the data read out by the magnetic head is demodulated and, if necessary, subjected to processing such as a buffering process to be followed by a decompression process before being supplied to the host computer.
In addition, the tape cassette has a non-volatile memory referred to as an MIC (Memory in Cassette) for storing data received from a memory controller employed in the tape streamer drive. The memory controller employed in the tape streamer drive is also capable of reading out data from the non-volatile memory. In addition, an SCSI command can be used to exchange information between the host computer and the non-volatile memory. It is thus necessary to provide for example a serial data bus independent of the SCSI interface between the host computer and the non-volatile memory.
Various examples of the host computer using the tape steamer drive to create a backup of data or an archive include a mainframe computer and an ordinary personal computer.
Examples of a file format adopted in a process to record data onto a magnetic tape during the era of wide use of mainframe computers include a magnetic tape format with an attached ANSI (American National Standards Institute)/JIS label and a magnetic tape format with an attached IBM label. JIS-SX-0601, which is one of these magnetic tape formats, prescribes an operation to record data onto a magnetic tape by repetition of a label and a file main body. The file label includes a file name consisting of up to 17 characters. The format prescription also includes formation of a file and classification by record fixed length and record variable length.
The magnetic file formats include the formats of files, which cannot be recorded onto a magnetic tape without the need for the user to become accustomed to driving and/or control of the tape, that is, files unrecordable onto the magnetic tape as they are. Examples of such a file are an ISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method) file and a VSAM (Virtual Storage Access Method) file. In data construction such as construction of fixed rows, the data of these formats cannot be recorded onto the magnetic file as it is.
Contemporary file formats widely used at the present time include a file format referred to as a sequential-file format, which allows data to be recorded onto a magnetic tape directly. In UNIX (a registered trademark), for example, the file system itself treats recording mediums such as a disk and a magnetic tape as a single byte stream without distinguishing the recording mediums from each other. For operations such as formation of data recorded on a magnetic tape in a file system, however, an application program such as a tar (tape archiver) is set.
In addition, in an interface between the conventional tape streamer drive and the host computer, a set of logical commands on an application layer is a command set obtained by correcting and extending a set of commands for making random accesses to an HDD or the like into a set of commands for the tape streamer drive. The application layer is not a physical or transport layer, which can be electrically connected to others. Instead, the application layer is a layer prescribing, among others, the set of logical commands.
Typical interfaces between the conventional personal computers and peripheral apparatus include the SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), ATA (AT Attachment) and ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) The SCSI interface is used mainly as a system interface for connecting a peripheral apparatus conforming to ANSI (American National Standards Institute) specifications to a personal computer. Examples of the peripheral apparatus are an HDD (hard disk drive), an MO (Magneto Optical) drive and a CD-R drive, which are externally connected to the personal computer. The ATA interface is the formal specification name of an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface used mainly as an interface with an HDD, which conforms to the ANSI specifications as described above. The ATAPI interface is a packet interface devised as an interface for connecting an IDE controller to a device other than a hard disk. An example of the device other than a hard disk is a CD-ROM. In comparison with the IDE interface, the ATAPI interface improvement of the transfer speed, support for removable media, functions for portable PCs and others are prescribed in specifications. Since the ATAPI interface is capable of converting an SCSI command into an ATA command, by using the ATAPI interface, relatively with ease, it is possible to develop a CD-ROM drive, which does not require an expensive SCSI interface.
An extended command set for operations to record data onto a magnetic tape and reproduce data from the tape is defined for each of these interface specifications. By using these command sets, it is possible to treat data to be recorded onto the magnetic tape as a single data stream, issue commands to position a magnetic head and read out data or write data at the address of any block, the address of any byte, at any file mark or any set mark with the start position of the magnetic tape or the present position of the magnetic head taken as a reference.
That is to say, in the specifications of interfaces such as SCSI, ATA and ATAPI, which are mainly used as the conventional interfaces between a personal computer and peripheral apparatus, there is no concept of a data unit used as a file or a folder in the host computer. In addition, the tape streamer drive carries out an operation to record data onto a magnetic tape and read out data from the magnetic tape without having the concept of a data unit used as a file or a folder in the host computer.
The formats of a file of data to be recorded onto a magnetic tape are prescribed by an application program. Since the application program is executed in the host computer, the program is consciousness of a data unit used as a file or a folder in the host computer. The prescribed formats include a format prescribing tar (Tape Archiver) commands for typically Microsoft Windows (a trademark), an MTF (Microsoft Tape Format) prescribed by NT and a UNIX (a registered trademark) format. The tar commands do not have a compression function. However, the tar commands are commands for collecting a plurality of files into a single one or restoring data to an archived file and transmitting the single file.
While the tape streamer drive is characterized in that the magnetic tape accommodated therein can have a large storage capacity, the drive raises a problem that time it takes to position the magnetic head during recording and reproduction operations is long.
In the tape streamer drive, it may be impossible to know the substance of data recorded on the magnetic tape of a tape cassette mounted on the drive unless the identifier of a file recorded on the tape along the data is fetched. In many cases, an identifier is recorded at the beginning of each data recorded on the magnetic tape. For this reason, in order to read out desired data from a location on a magnetic tape employed in a tape cassette mounted on the tape streamer drive or record data onto a location on the tape, the user needs to make an access to the location by scanning data already recorded on the tape from the beginning of the tape. Thus, in comparison with, for example, an HDD allowing a random access to be made by virtue of a directory information area allocated to the file system, time it takes to make an access to desired data is long.
In order to solve the above problem raised in an access to a location on a magnetic tape employed in a tape cassette mounted on the tape streamer drive, the host computer holds a catalog in typically a backup utility included in Windows (a registered trademark) as a utility named NTBAKUP.EXE. The catalog is information such as indexes or a directory. By using the catalog, the host computer controls the tape streamer drive in operations to read out data from the magnetic tape and write data onto the tape. That is to say, the host computer holds file information of data recorded by the tape streamer drive on the magnetic tape.
Since the magnetic tape is a removable recording medium, it may be mounted on a host computer other than the host computer holding the file information. In this case, when the other host computer reads out data from the magnetic tape or writes data onto the tape, the computer needs to scan the magnetic tape in order to create the catalog. This is because the host computer does not hold a catalog. The larger the storage capacity of the magnetic tape, the longer the time it takes to scan the tape in order to create the catalog.
As described above, it is the host computer that controls operations carried out by the tape streamer drive. Thus, it is difficult to reduce the number of damages inflicted on the magnetic tape and shorten the access time by optimizing the operations of the tape streamer drive independently of processing carried out by the host computer.
In addition, in many cases, the tape streamer drive is used as means for creating a backup or archive of data on the magnetic tape. That is to say, in an operation to write data onto the magnetic tape in a backup or archive process, the data already exists as a complete file on a hard disk employed in the host computer. Thus, for example, attributes such as the name and size of the file have been determined. In an operation carried out by the conventional tape streamer drive to record data onto the magnetic tape or reproduce data from the tape, however, attributes such as the size of a file cannot be utilized in controlling the operation.

Information-processing apparatus, information-processing method, programs and recording mediums


A base assembly is provided for a meter socket assembly of a meter center including an enclosure having a panel member. The meter socket assembly includes a meter. The base assembly includes a base member having a first side coupled to the panel member, a second side disposed opposite and distal from the first side, and first and second ends. Meter jaws are disposed on the second side of the base member and receive the meter. Electrical bus members are coupled to the base member at or about the first side thereof, and are electrically connected to at least one of the meter jaws at or about the second side thereof. The electrical bus members are coupled to and supported by the base member of the base assembly, without the use of a number of separate fasteners. A meter socket assembly and meter center are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to meter centers for electrical power distribution systems and, more particularly, to base assemblies for the meter socket assemblies of meter centers. The invention also relates to meter socket assemblies for meter centers.
2. Background Information
Meter centers including a number of watt-hour meters are commonly used to measure electric power consumed by the tenant(s) of a residence (e.g., without limitation, a single family home; an apartment building) or commercial site (e.g., without limitation, an office complex).
FIGS. 1A and 1B show an example meter center 1. The meter center 1 includes an upright cabinet forming an enclosure 3. The enclosure 3 is divided by an internal longitudinal wall 5 into side-by-side meter and disconnect switch compartments 7,9 (disconnect switch compartment 9 is shown in FIG. 1A only). A pair of vertical supply buses 11A,11B (FIG. 1A) are electrically connected at one end to a meter socket assembly 13 within the meter compartment 7 and, at the other end, to an electrical switching apparatus, such as the circuit breaker 15 shown in FIG. 1A, within the disconnect switch compartment 9. The meter socket assembly 13 includes a meter socket 17 (FIG. 1B) for mounting a meter 19 (FIG. 1B) in the meter compartment 7 for each tenant load circuit, and to electrically connect the meter 19 (FIG. 1B) to line buses 21A, 21B (line bus 21A is shown in FIG. 1A only) which are electrically connected to the respective supply buses 11A,11B (FIG. 1A). Meter centers and electrical bus work therefor are described in detail, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,937 (Campbell et al.), which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The meter socket assembly 13 of FIGS. 1A and 1B is designed to be interchangeable between an underground feed configuration (shown), and an overhead feed configuration (not shown). In the underground feed configuration, the utility lines (not shown) are routed to the meter center 1 underground and are typically fed through the bottom (from the perspective of FIGS. 1A and 1B) of the meter center enclosure 3 to be electrically connected at or about the lower end (from the perspective of FIGS. 1A and 1B) of the line buses 21A,21B (line bus 21A is shown in FIG. 1A only). In an overhead feed configuration, the utility lines (not shown) are routed to the meter center 1 above ground and are fed through the top (from the perspective of FIGS. 1A and 1B) of the meter center enclosure 3 to be electrically connected to the upper end (from the perspective of FIGS. 1A and 1B) of the line buses 21A,21B.
Each line bus 21A,21B has two twisted sections of about 90 degrees each, in order that the upper and lower ends of the line buses 21A,21B are horizontal (with respect to the plane of the back panel 27 of the meter cabinet 3) and the middle portions of the buses 21A,21B are vertical (with respect to the plane of the back panel 27 of the meter cabinet 3). As best shown in FIG. 1A, the vertical portion of each of the line buses 21A,21B is side mounted to a corresponding individual base member 23A,23B by a pair of side-mount screws 25. These separate sub-assemblies, which together form the meter socket assembly 13, are then mounted to the back panel 27 of the meter cabinet 3 by first and second pedestal assemblies 29,31 (FIG. 1B). Each pedestal assembly 29,31 comprises multiple components and employs a plurality of fasteners 33. The first and second pedestal assemblies 29,31 are disposed at the upper (from the perspective of FIGS. 1A and 1B) and lower (from the perspective of FIGS. 1A and 1B) ends of the line buses 21A,21B, respectively. In addition to functioning as mounting brackets for mounting the meter socket assembly 13, the pedestal assemblies 29,31 also serve to support the line buses 21A,21B. A still further number of fasteners 35 (FIG. 1B) are required to secure wire connectors, commonly referred to as lugs 37, to the line buses 21A,21B for providing the electrical connection between the meter socket assembly 13 and, for example, the utility lines (not shown).
Accordingly, the meter socket assembly 13 has numerous separate components and fasteners 25,33,35 therefor. This makes assembly, repair, replacement, and/or maintenance of the meter socket assembly 13 difficult. For example, removal or replacement of the line buses 21A,21B would require the side-mount screws 25 (FIG. 1A) to be removed in four locations, the lug fasteners 35 and lugs 37 to be removed in two locations, and the line buses 21A,21B to be disengaged from both of the pedestals 29,31. The fasteners 25,33,35 could be lost and/or can strip or break during the above removal or replacement process. Also, access to some of the fasteners, such as the aforementioned side-mount fasteners 25 (FIG. 1A), is limited, and can require special tools to be used to loosen or tighten them. Furthermore, the twisted structure of the line buses 21A,21B unnecessarily uses more material than required.
There is, therefore, room for improvement in meter centers and in meter socket assemblies therefor.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Base assembly, and meter socket assembly and meter center employing the same


A lift axle control module is disclosed that is simpler than prior art lift axle control systems, and does not require cycling the input pressure to the regulator. The module includes a housing fluidly connected to a first pressurized air supply and having one chamber with a load bladder port, a second chamber with a lift bladder port, and a common vent port. A pilot pressure is selectively provided for switching the module between the retracted and deployed modes. When the control module is set to the retracted mode, the lift bladders are pressurized to the system pressure, and the load bladders are vented. When the control module is set to the deployed mode, the lift bladders are vented and the load bladders are inflated and maintained at the regulated pressure.

Some heavy-duty vehicles, such as tractor-trailer trucks, utilize suspension systems that include an axle that can be selectively raised and lowered with respect to the undercarriage of the vehicle. An axle capable of being raised and lowered is commonly known in the industry as a lift axle. When the lift axle is lowered, or deployed, its wheels contact a road or other ground surface. In its lowered position, the lift axle assists the non-lift axles, known as primary axles, in bearing a portion of the vehicle or load weight. Distributing this weight across the additional axle may allow a vehicle to meet weight restrictions such as maximum weight per axle.
When the lift axle is lifted, or retracted, its wheels disengage from the road or other ground surface and no longer assist in the bearing of weight. When the load weight of the vehicle is less than the load capacity of the primary axles, the lift axle suspension may be raised to avoid extra wear on the lift axle and tires. Operating the vehicle with the lift axle suspension raised can also improve fuel economy, traction, and maneuverability. In addition, when the trailer is driven in reverse, the positive castor angle of the lift axle wheels may hinder self-steering and cause excess wear to the tires. Raising the lift axle disengages the wheels from the ground, thereby avoiding these issues.
A typical, conventional lift axle control system 900 is shown in FIG. 10. This prior art system includes a pressurized air tank 904 that provides air at the system pressure. A master valve 912 is provided between the system-pressurized air from the air tank 904 and a regulator 906. The regulator 906 is adjustable, to permit the user to set the regulated air pressure to a desired value, for example to accommodate the anticipated load and/or driving conditions. A second supply air output 905 fluidly connects the components to the system-pressurized air tank 904. As will be appreciated by persons of skill in the art, in FIG. 10 the character "S" indicates an air source connection to the associated component, the character "C" indicates a lower-pressure control or pilot air connection to the associated component, and the character "D" indicates a delivery side connection.
When the valve 912 is set to an open position, opening a fluid path to the regulator 906, the regulator 906 provides a control air pressure to a first regulated relay 901. The first regulator relay 901 inflates load bladders 918 until the load bladders 918 are at the control air pressure determined by the regulator 906. A second regulated relay 902 connects to the lift bladders 920 through an inverter valve 903, such that the lift bladders 920 are vented when the valve 912 is set to the open position. When the valve 912 is set to the closed position, closing the fluid path to the regulator 906, the first regulated relay 901 vents the load bladders 918, and the inverter valve 903 transmits a control pressure to the second regulated relay 902, such that the lift bladders 920 are inflated to the control pressure. Such prior art systems are relatively complicated, requiring two regulated relays and an inverter valve. It would be advantageous to provide a simpler pneumatic lift axle control system, that is easier and less-expensive to manufacture, and more reliable.
In addition, such prior art systems require cycling the regulator 906 on the supply side, which is hard on the regulator, and can result in premature failure of the system and/or the need for a more expensive and rugged regulator. It would therefore also be advantageous to provide a lift axle control system that does not require cycling the supply side pressure on the regulator 906 when switching between lift axle deployment or load operation, and retracted operation.


A removable vehicle window security screen system includes a reticulated netting formed to a shape of a window opening, a resilient border strip secured to the netting, a plurality of apertures in a window frame, and a plurality of fasteners for projecting through the border strip into the apertures. The fasteners are insertable only from an inside of the vehicle thereby allowing the user to lock the vehicle while stationary without fear of theft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Vehicle Window Screen Devices and more particularly pertains to a new Removable Vehicle Window Security Screen System for providing adequate ventilation to a vehicle without objects within the interior of the vehicle flying out through a window and for reducing debris accumulation within the vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of Vehicle Window Screen Devices is known in the prior art. More specifically, Vehicle Window Screen Devices heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art Vehicle Window Screen Devices include U.S. Pat. No. 3,960,195; U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,562; U.S. Pat. No. Design 337,297; U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,212; U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,586 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,383.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new Removable Vehicle Window Security Screen System. The inventive device includes a reticulated netting formed to a shape of a window opening, a resilient border strip secured to the netting, a plurality of apertures in a window frame, and a plurality of fasteners for projecting through the border strip into the apertures.
In these respects, the Removable Vehicle Window Security Screen System according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing adequate ventilation to a vehicle without objects within the interior of the vehicle flying out through a window and for reducing debris accumulation within the vehicle.

Removable vehicle window security screen system


Improved pharmaceutical compositions are provided comprising one or more solubilized HIV protease inhibiting compounds having improved solubility properties in a medium and/or long chain fatty acid, or mixtures thereof, a pharmaceutically acceptable alcohol, and water.

Inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease have been approved for use in the treatment of HIV infection for several years. A particularly effective HIV protease inhibitor is (2S,3S,5S)-5-(N-(N-((N-methyl-N-((2-isopropyl-4-thiazolyl)-methyl) amino)carbonyl)-L-valinyl)amino-2-(N-((5-thiazolyl)methoxy-carbonyl)-amino)-1,6-diphenyl-3-hydroxyhexane (ritonavir), which is marketed as NORVIR®. Ritonavir is known to have utility for the inhibition of HIV protease, the inhibition of HIV infection, and the enhancement of the pharmacokinetics of compounds which are metabolized by cytochrome P450 monooxygenase. Ritonavir is particularly effective for the inhibition of HIV infection when used alone or in combination with one or more reverse transcriptase inhibitors and/or one or more other HIV protease inhibitors.
HIV protease inhibiting compounds typically are characterized by having poor oral bioavailability, and there is a continuing need for the development of improved oral dosage forms for HIV protease inhibitors having suitable oral bioavailability, stability, and side effects profiles.
Ritonavir and processes for its preparation are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,206, issued Jul. 30, 1996, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. This patent discloses processes for preparing ritonavir which produce a crystalline polymorph of ritonavir, known as crystalline Form I.
Another process for the preparation of ritonavir is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,823, issued Oct. 22, 1996, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. The process disclosed in this patent also produces ritonavir as crystalline Form I.
Pharmaceutical compositions comprising ritonavir or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,206, issued Jul. 30, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,801, issued Jan. 16, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,878, issued Mar. 10, 1998; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,158, issued Sep. 24, 1996 and in International Application No. WO98/22106, published May 28, 1998 (corresponding to U.S. Ser. No. 08/966,495, filed Nov. 7, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,232,333), the disclosures of all of which are herein incorporated by reference.
The use of ritonavir to inhibit an HIV infection is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,206, issued Jul. 30, 1996. The use of ritonavir in combination with one or more reverse transcriptase inhibitors to inhibit an HIV infection is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,523, issued Jun. 3, 1997. The use of ritonavir in combination with one or more HIV protease inhibitors to inhibit an HIV infection is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,882, issued Oct. 7, 1997. The use of ritonavir to enhance the pharmacokinetics of compounds metabolized by cytochrome P450 monooxygenase is disclosed in WO 97/01349, published Jan. 16, 1997 (corresponding to U.S. Ser. No. 08/687,774, filed Jun. 26, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,157). The disclosures of all of these patents and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference.
Examples of HIV protease inhibiting compounds include:    N-(2(R)-hydroxy-1(S)-indanyl)-2(R)-phenylmethyl-4(S)-hydroxy-5-(1-(4-(3-pyridylmethyl)-2(S)-N′-(t-butylcarboxamido)-piperazinyl))-pent aneamide (for example, indinavir) and related compounds, disclosed in European Patent Application No. EP 541168, published May 12, 1993, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,999, issued May 9, 1995, both of which are herein incorporated by reference;    N-tert-butyl-decahydro-2-[2(R)-hydroxy-4-phenyl-3(S)-[[N-(2-qu inolylcarbonyl)-L-asparaginyl]amino]butyl]-(4aS,8aS)-isoquinoline-3(S)-carboxamide (for example, saquinavir) and related compounds, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,438, issued Mar. 23, 1993, which is incorporated herein by reference;    5 (S)-Boc-amino-4(S)-hydroxy-6-phenyl-2(R)-phenylmethylhexanoyl -(L)-Val-(L)-Phe-morpholin-4-ylamide and related compounds, disclosed in European Patent Application No. EP532466, published Mar. 17, 1993, which is incorporated herein by reference;    1-Naphthoxyacetyl-beta-methylthio-Ala-(2S,3S) -3-amino-2-hydroxy-4-butanoyl 1,3-thiazolidine-4-t-butylamide (for example, 1-Naphthoxyacetyl-Mta-(2S,3S)-AHPBA-Thz-NH-tBu), 5-isoquinolinoxyacetyl-beta-˜nethylthio-Ala-(2S,3S)-3-amino-2-hydroxy-4-butanoyl-1,3-thiazolidine-4-t-butylamide, and related compounds, disclosed in European Patent Application No. EP490667, published Jun. 17, 1992 and Chem. Pharm. Bull. 40 (8) 2251 (1992), which are both incorporated herein by reference;    [1 S-[1 R-(R-),2S*])-N1 [3-[[[(1,1-dimethylethyl)amino]carbonyl](2-methylpropyl)amino]-2-hydroxy-1-(phenylmethyl)propyl]-2-[(2-quinolinylcarbonyl)amino]-butanediamide (for example, SC-52151) and related compounds, disclosed in PCT Patent Application No. WO92/08701, published May 29, 1992 and PCT Patent Application No. WO93/23368, published Nov. 25, 1993, both of which are herein incorporated by reference;
(for example, VX-478) and related compounds, disclosed in PCT Patent Application No. WO 94/05639, published Mar. 17, 1994, which is incorporated herein by reference;
(for example, DMP-323) or
(for example, DMP-450) and related compounds, disclosed in PCT Patent Application No. WO 93/07128, published Apr. 15, 1993, which is incorporated herein by reference;
(for example, AG1343, (nelfinavir)), disclosed in PCT Patent Application No. WO 95/09843, published Apr. 13, 1995 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,926, issued Jan. 16, 1996, which are both incorporated herein by reference;
(for example, BMS 186,318) disclosed in European Patent Application No. EP580402, published Jan. 26, 1994, which is incorporated herein by reference;
(for example, SC-55389a) and related compounds disclosed in PCT Patent Application No. WO 9506061, published Mar. 2, 1995, which is incorporated herein by reference and at 2nd National Conference on Human Retroviruses and Related Infections, (Washington, D.C., Jan. 29–Feb. 2, 1995), Session 88; and
(for example, BILA 1096 BS) and related compounds disclosed in European Patent Application No. EP560268, published Sep. 15, 1993, which is incorporated herein by reference; and
(for example, U-140690 (tipranavir)) and related compounds disclosed in PCT Patent Application No. WO 9530670, published Nov. 16, 1995, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,195, issued Dec. 22, 1998, the disclosures of both of which are herein incorporated by reference; or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt of any of the above.
Another example of an HIV protease inhibiting compound includes a compound of formula I:
or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, disclosed in PCT Patent Application No. WO 94/14436, published Jul. 7, 1994, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,206, issued Jul. 30, 1996, the disclosures of both of which are herein incorporated by reference.
The compounds of formula I are useful to inhibit HIV infections and, thus, are useful for the treatment of AIDS. Another example of an HIV protease inhibiting compound is a compound of formula II:
and related compounds, or a pharmaceutically-acceptable salt thereof, as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/572,226, filed Dec. 13, 1996 now abandoned and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/753,201, filed Nov. 21, 1996 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,332, and International Patent Application No. WO 97/21685, published Jun. 19, 1997, the disclosures of which are herein incorporated by reference. A preferred compound of formula II is known as ABT-378 and has a chemical name of (2S,3S,5S)-2-(2,6-dimethylphenoxyacetyl)-amino-3-hydroxy-5-(2S-(1-tetrahydropyrimid-2-onyl)-3-methyl-butanoyl)amino-1,6-diphenylhexane, or a pharmaceutically-acceptable salt thereof. The preparation of this compound is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,332, issued Jun. 22, 1999, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference.
Solubility is an important factor in the formulation of HIV protease inhibiting compounds. Compounds of formula I typically have an aqueous solubility of approximately 6 micrograms per milliliter at pH>2. This is considered to be extremely poor aqueous solubility and, therefore, a compound of formula I in the free base form would be expected to provide very low oral bioavailability. In fact, the free base form of a compound of formula I, administered as an unformulated solid in a capsule dosage form, is characterized by a bioavailability of less than 2% following a 5 mg/kg oral dose in dogs.
Acid addition salts of a compound of formula I (for example, bishydrochloride, bistosylate, bis-methane sulfonate and the like) have aqueous solubilities of <0.1 milligrams/milliliter. This is only a slight improvement over the solubility of the free base. This low aqueous solubility would not make practical the administration of therapeutic amounts of an acid addition salt of a compound of formula I as an aqueous solution. Furthermore, in view of this low aqueous solubility, it is not surprising that the bis-tosylate of a compound of formula I, administered as an unformulated solid in a capsule dosage form, is characterized by a bioavailability of less than 2% following a 5 mg/kg oral dose in dogs.
In order to have a suitable oral dosage form of a compound of formula I, the oral bioavailability of a compound of formula I should be at least 20%. Preferably, the oral bioavailability of a compound of formula I from the dosage form should be greater than about 40% and, more preferably, greater than about 50%.
One measure of the potential usefulness of an oral dosage form of a pharmaceutical agent is the bioavailability observed after oral administration of the dosage form. Various factors can affect the bioavailability of a drug when administered orally. These factors include aqueous solubility, drug absorption, dosage strength and first pass effect. Aqueous solubility is one of the most important of these factors. When a drug has poor aqueous solubility, attempts are often made to identify salts or other derivatives of the drug which have improved aqueous solubility. When a salt or other derivative of the drug is identified which has good aqueous solubility, it is generally accepted that an aqueous solution formulation of this salt or derivative will provide the optimum oral bioavailability. The bioavailability of the oral solution formulation of a drug is then generally used as the standard bioavailability against which other oral dosage forms can be measured.
For a variety of reasons, such as patient compliance and taste masking, a solid dosage form, such as capsules, is usually preferred over a liquid dosage form. However, oral solid dosage forms, such as a tablet or a powder, and the like, of a drug generally provide a lower bioavailability than oral solutions of the drug. One goal of the development of a suitable capsule dosage form is to obtain a bioavailability of the drug that is as close as possible to the bioavailability demonstrated by the oral solution formulation of the drug.
While some drugs would be expected to have good solubility in organic solvents, it would not necessarily follow that oral administration of such a solution would give good bioavailability for the drug. It has been found that a compound of formula I has good solubility in pharmaceutically acceptable organic solvents and that the solubility in such solvents is enhanced in the presence of a pharmaceutically acceptable long chain fatty acid. Administration of the solution as an encapsulated dosage form (soft elastic capsules or hard gelatin capsules) provides an oral bioavailability of as high as about 60% or more.
Thus, it would be an important contribution to the art to provide an improved pharmaceutical formulation comprising at least one solubilized HIV protease inhibiting compound having enhanced solubility properties.


A flexible kink-resistant introducer sheath (10). The introducer sheath includes an inner liner (31), a coil (33) and an outer tube (33). The inner liner includes a passageway (30) extending longitudinally therethrough, where a catheter (50) can be advanced through the passageway. The coil (33) has a plurality of turns positioned longitudinally and compression fitted around the inner liner (31), where the turns have a predetermined spacing therebetween. The outer tube (20) is positioned longitudinally around the coil (33) and the inner liner (31), and is connected to the inner liner through the spaces between the turns. A diameter difference between the inner liner and the catheter is in a range of about 0.0005 to about 0.004 inch (0.013 to about 0.10 mm).

Technical Field. This invention relates generally to medical devices and, in particular, to a delivery catheter or sheath and, more particularly, to a flexible, kink-resistant introducer sheath having a plurality of distal segments that are of decreasing durometer.
Background Information. Introducer catheters or sheaths are widely used to provide a conduit for percutaneous access to the vascular system. Such sheaths are generally of thin-wall construction, and thus, have a tendency to kink when traversing within the narrow confines of the vascular system. Increasing the thickness of the sheath wall minimally improves the level of kink resistance, however this level is still often considered unacceptable. In addition, increasing the thickness of the sheath wall is generally considered undesirable, because it necessitates the use of a larger entry hole than would otherwise be required.
Sheaths used in certain medical procedures wherein a fluid is to be introduced and/or removed from the vasculature of a patient, such as hemofiltration and dialysis, are particularly prone to kinking, since such sheaths remain positioned in a patient's body for an extended period of time. While positioned in a patient, the sheath may be bent or pinched off and, as a result, kink due to repeated use or patient movement. A kinked sheath is unusable and cannot be straightened while positioned in the body of a patient. Consequently, the sheath must be removed, leaving an enlarged, bleeding opening which typically cannot be reused. Vascular access must then be re-attempted at an alternative site, and the procedure is restarted. Restarting the procedure causes a time delay, which is inconvenient, and at times may be life threatening. In addition, in some cases, an acceptable alternative site is not available for introducing another sheath.
Another problem with existing introducer sheaths is that the sheath may kink when a physician attempts to insert an interventional device, such as a catheter or a stent, through the sheath during an emergency procedure. Small diameter introducer sheaths are particularly prone to being bent and kinked under the time constraints that arise during an emergency situation. If kinking occurs, the sheath becomes unusable and a new sheath must be introduced at the same or another access site.
Introducer sheaths are widely used for delivering an implantable medical device, such as a stent or a stent graft, to a deployment site well within the vasculature of the patient. However, catheters or sheaths used to deliver such devices are susceptible to kinking, particularly when the implantable medical device or pusher does not have a uniform diameter to reinforce the delivery catheter or sheath along its entire length. The possibility of kinking is increased when the sheath is to be used to introduce an implantable device into one of the many smaller vessels that branch off from major vessels, such as the aorta. In this event, the sheath may not have enough flexibility at the very point where such flexibility is required in order to enable proper positioning of the device.
It is desired to provide an introducer sheath that has sufficient stiffness to permit it to be introduced into the vascular system to perform an interventional procedure, and yet is sufficiently flexible at designated areas of the sheath to permit it to be directed to one or more small branch vessels.


A data processing system (100) comprises a system bus (120), a plurality of devices (110, 150, 160, 170) coupled to the system bus (120), a bus monitor circuit (140), and a clock generator (130). The plurality of devices (110, 150, 160, 170) includes at least one bus master (110, 150) which is capable of performing accesses on the system bus (120). The bus monitor circuit (140) is coupled to the at least one bus master (110, 150), and has an output for providing a bus idle signal to indicate that no bus master is attempting to perform an access on the system bus (120). The clock generator (130) has an output coupled to at least one of the plurality of devices (110, 150, 160, 170) and provides a bus clock signal having a first frequency when the bus idle signal is inactive and having a second frequency lower than the first frequency when the bus idle signal is active.

Low power consumption is an important requirement in the design of data processing systems. For example many applications such as cell phones, personal digital assistants, and the like are powered by a battery. In order to avoid frequent battery changes or the need to connect the battery to a charger, it is desirable that all integrated circuits consume a minimum amount of power. Modern digital integrated circuit fabrication techniques use complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors which facilitate low power consumption. CMOS logic circuits only consume significant amounts of power when they are switching and integrated circuits built using CMOS technology, or significant portions thereof, may be designed to operate statically, allowing the power to be reduced during periods of inactivity.
Early power reduction techniques were hardware based. For example in an electronic hand held calculator, the user would enable the arithmetic circuitry by depressing a key. The arithmetic circuitry would input the operands and perform the calculation before shutting down.
However these techniques proved to be inadequate for microprocessors which might, for example, perform periodic functions independent of any user input. U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,945 invented by James J. Remedi discloses two software-based techniques for power reduction. The first technique, known as WAIT mode, causes the clock signals to be interrupted between the oscillator and the data processing system in response to a WAIT instruction. WAIT mode takes advantage of the fact that clock signals provided to a static CMOS microprocessor can be interrupted without the microprocessor losing its state. The second technique is known as STOP mode. In STOP mode, not only are the microprocessor's clock signals interrupted, but the oscillator itself is also disabled. Thus even the power consumed by the oscillator circuit is saved. However exit from STOP mode requires a wake-up delay for the clock signals from the oscillator to stabilize before being driven to the microprocessor and STOP mode cannot be used in situations that require fast response to external events.
Recently the level of integration of functions onto a single integrated circuit has increased. For example there is a new class of integrated circuit known as a system-on-chip (SOC). SOCs incorporate a central processing unit (CPU), memory, and various I/O peripherals onto a single semiconductor chip. Many of the I/O peripherals are themselves complex and may be bus masters. For devices of this complexity, software control is no longer adequate. Software control assumes that the CPU is able to determine through the flow of software itself the occurrence of periods of activity and inactivity. However in complex SOCs, events requiring operation of the peripherals and the system bus occur indeterminately with respect to the flow of software on the CPU. Furthermore in such SOCs the percentage of chip area devoted to the CPU is relatively small, and the amount of power reduction that can be achieved by the CPU going into WAIT mode or STOP mode alone is not sufficient.
Thus a new method for power reduction that is not limited to the CPU and that does not rely on the flow of software running on the CPU would be desirable. Such a method and a data processing system using it are provided by the present invention, whose features and advantages will become more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Method and apparatus for lowering bus clock frequency in a complex integrated data processing system


A non-human chimeric animal is obtained by transplanting a non-human mammal host having a T cell deficiency with a human liver tissue preparation or with a liver tissue preparation from a non-human animal capable of being infected by the hepatitis virus (HV). The non-human chimeric animal is useful as an HV model for evaluating anti-HV therapy and prophylaxis.

Five different viruses have been identified as causes of viral hepatitis. These include hepatitis A, B, C, D and E viruses. Of these, the viruses which cause the most serious infections are hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Hepatitis A virus has a single serotype and causes a self-limited acute infection. A large percentage of the population, approaching 50%, has hepatitis A antibodies in serum and is probably immune to disease. Infection with hepatitis A does not progress to chronic disease.
HBV is implicated in both acute and chronic hepatitis. The disease is endemic in Asia, is increasing in prevalence in the U.S. and Europe. Chronic liver disease, resulting in significant morbidity and increased mortality, is sequela of infection in 1-10% of infected individuals. HBV infection is also correlated with the development of primary liver cancer.
HCV was recently shown to be the major causative agent of parenterally transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis.sup.(1). It is estimated that 0.5-1% of the world population is infected with HCV, and in some developing countries the prevalence rate is up to 40%. Moreover, 40-60% of newly infected patients develop persistent HCV infections.sup.(2) and are at risk of developing acute, fulminant hepatitis and various chronic liver diseases (including cirrhosis, chronic active hepatitis and in some cases hepatocellular carcinoma).
Hepatitis D virus ("Delta Virus") is a defective RNA virus that can only infect the liver in the presence of an active HBV infection. Hepatitis E virus appears to be a single-stranded RNA virus. Infection with hepatitis E virus is not known to progress to chronic liver disease.
Although HBV and HCV have been identified and characterized, the development of new anti-viral strategies has been greatly hampered by the lack of adequate, simple and low cost animal model systems.
Currently, biological assays for HBV and HCV have been limited to the experimental inoculation of chimpanzees.sup.(3,4), which are expensive and limited in numbers. In addition, an in vitro system for the propagation of HCV was developed in the murine retrovirus infected human T cell lines, HPB-Ma.sup.(5) and Molt4-Ma.sup.(6), in which replication of HCV is achieved.
It has recently been demonstrated in several studies that human solid organs such as fetal thymus or fetal liver as well as several types of tumors were successfully grafted into SCID mice under the kidney capsule.sup.(7). In addition, transplantation of other organs such as lymph nodes and bone marrow spicules and engraftment of organs to other sites (i.e. subcutane and peritoneum) have also been reported.
A SCID mouse mutant was reported to support human cell implantation, i.e. single hepatocyte transplantation.sup.(8,9), and was also used as a model for human infectious diseases, i.e. HIV-1 infections.sup.(10).
It has been disclosed that lethally irradiated mice, radio-protected with bone marrow from SCID mice, developed marked immune-deficiency and supported engraftment of human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) for a long period of time.sup.(11). It was also disclosed that human implants of non-hematopoietic origin were accepted and maintained for prolonged periods of time after transplantation under the kidney capsules of these chimeras.sup.(12).

Animal model for hepatitis virus infection


A check valve using a valve element (2) which is so constructed that the valve element comprises three members: a cover (4); an annular packing (5) and a pressing plate (6), the pressing plate (6) is provided with a snap fit claw (7), a flexible flange (12) pressed to the peripheral edge of a valve seat (11) when the valve element (2) is put in the valve closing state is formed on the outer periphery of the annular packing (5), a peripheral stepped part (13) to which the outer periphery of the pressing plate (6) is fitted is formed on the inner periphery thereof, the cover (4) is provided with a fitting hole (8) for the snap fit claw (7) and a peripheral wall (14) formed on the outer periphery thereof, to which the main body part of the annular packing (5) except the flange (12) is fitted, the annular packing (5) is fitted to the cover (4), the pressing plate (6) is fitted to the annular packing (5), and the snap fit claw (7) is fitted in the fitting hole (8), thereby clamping the annular packing (5) with the cover (4) and the pressing plate (6), in which while the convenience of assembling is kept, the sealing performance in the valve closing state is improved.

This invention relates to a check valve of a fuel tank for preventing fuel from flowing in the reverse direction from a fuel tank to an oil filler port in an oil filler pipe.
It is known that in a fuel tank of an automobile or the like, the moment the fuel tank becomes full during feeding, fuel suddenly flows in the reverse direction from the fuel tank to an oil filler port in an oil filler pipe. A check valve is a component which is provided at the end of the oil filler pipe opened to the fuel tank or in the oil filler pipe and put in the closing state except being pushed to open by fuel flowing from the oil filler pipe toward the fuel tank, and for example, cited is the valve in which a valve element having a turning shaft disposed on the valve seat side is energized from the fuel tank side toward an oil filler port by a torsion coil spring. U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,709 is taken as an example of the above type, and in addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,816 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,910 have proposed a check valve in which a flat valve comprises two layers, a first soft flexible layer and a second layer of a rigid plastics material, and the hinge part is formed only by the former soft flexible layer.
To accomplish designated operation in the above mentioned structure, the check valve has to satisfy the mutually contradictory requirements for holding down the pressing force of the valve element to the valve seat to be always opened in feeding fuel and for the sealing performance between the closed valve element and the valve seat in fuel reversal. That is, in order to easily open the valve in oil feeding, the energizing force to the valve element has to be held down, and on the contrary, in order to secure the sealing performance in the valve closing state, it is desirable that the energizing force to the valve element is increased to press the valve element to the valve seat. Especially the sealing performance in the valve closing state is important for fuel slowly flowing in the reverse direction due to increase in pressure in the fuel tank after the fuel tank is made full by oil feeding.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,709 shows a check valve (corresponds to a check valve of the present invention) having a pair of semicircular valve discs with openings, in which a seal material press-contacting the valve element in the valve closing state is formed on the peripheral edge of the valve seat to mainly improve the sealing performance in the valve closing state. The check valve, however, has the problem that the structure is so complicated as to cost high and be inferior in assembling efficiency.
Accordingly, the inventors of the present invention have previously proposed one disc type valve plate improved in assembling efficiency and fitting efficiency, which is provided on the end of an oil filler pipe in a fuel tank in U.S. Pat. No, 5,327,933. On the basis of the above proposal, the present invention has examined the structure of a new check valve of such a type as to be installed in the interior of a pipe, which is not inferior in assembling efficiency and improved in sealing performance in the valve closing state.


When a horizontal skipping operation is performed in a solid-state imaging apparatus that includes an A/D converting circuit in each column and that applies an arithmetic operation process to a digitalized signal and an arithmetic operation is performed with signals held by a plurality of register circuits, A/D converters and register circuits in columns in which signals are skipped, or not read out, are not involved in the operations. A more consideration is needed in terms of the use efficiency of circuits. A unit for connecting a register circuit of a certain column and a register circuit of a different column is arranged.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state imaging apparatus, and particularly, to a solid-state imaging apparatus and a method of driving the solid-state imaging apparatus including an A/D converting circuit in each column and characterized by applying an arithmetic operation process to obtained plurality of digital signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
So-called horizontal skipping read out (hereinafter synonymous with horizontal skipping operation) is known as an application that requires high-speed operations of moving images in conventional solid-state imaging apparatuses, in which among the pixels arranged in a matrix, an analog electric signal converted from an incident light is read out every other columns in each pixel, for example.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-025189 discloses a technique for arranging an A/D converting circuit in each column of pixels and applying an arithmetic operation process to a digitalized signal. Specifically, an image sensor is disclosed in which two register circuits are arranged in each pixel column, two different signal levels of the same pixel are stored, and then an arithmetic operation is performed to the difference of the two in a digital domain.
When a horizontal skipping operation is performed in a circuit configuration as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-025189 and an arithmetic operation is performed with signals held in a plurality of register circuits, A/D converters and register circuits in columns that are skipped, or not read out, are not involved in the operations. A more consideration is needed in terms of the use efficiency of the circuits.

Method of driving solid-state imaging apparatus


A method includes inspecting function summaries generated during a static analysis of a program and identifying a set of function summaries for a same method that have structural similarities. The method includes replacing the set of structurally similar summaries with a coarse summary. The method further includes using the coarse summary in subsequent static analysis operations. Apparatus and program products are also disclosed.

This invention relates generally to analysis of program code and, more specifically, relates to static analysis of program code.
This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention disclosed below. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise explicitly indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Static security analysis is a specific form of data flow analysis that analyzes program code without execution of the program code. Instead, model(s) are made of the program code and those models are analyzed. For instance, an input program may be modeled as an interprocedural control-flow graph with certain privileged nodes:                Source nodes are statements reading (untrusted) user-provided data;        Sink nodes are statements performing security-sensitive operations; and        Finally, downgrader nodes are statements endorsing the user-provided input (e.g., turning untrusted data to trusted data) either by sanitizing the input or by validating the input. Untrusted data is typically referred to as being potentially tainted (e.g., as in an operating program, the data may not actually be tainted but is assumed to be potentially tainted for analysis).
An exemplary goal of static security analysis is to find data-flow paths extending from sources to sinks that do not go through downgraders. The implication is that untrusted data is able to reach a security-sensitive operation without first being endorsed.
The only practical way of carrying out static security analysis is by applying a functional approach to interprocedural analysis. See M. Sharir and Amir Pnueli, "Two Approaches to Interprocedural Data Flow Analysis", Technical Report, New York University, 1978. Specific polynomial algorithms—like the IFDS (Interprocedural, Finite, Distribution, Subset) framework—are used by commercial solutions for security analysis. An IFDS framework is described in T. Reps, S. Horwitz, and M. Sagiv, "Precise Interprocedural Dataflow Analysis via Graph Reachability", POPL 1995.
The main idea of functional—or summary-based—interprocedural analysis is to create a reusable input-output summary for the target method for the specific data flow fact flowing into the method. That is, the summary may be reused each time the target method is called. This form of memorization is useful and effective in one of the two following cases:
1. The domain of data flow facts is small.
2. The domain is potentially large, but the method behaviors demonstrated during analysis are constrained.
Unfortunately, static security analysis has neither of these properties in general. The domain is exponential in the program size, and the method behaviors examined by the analysis are in some cases are very wide and varied.

Building reusable function summaries for frequently visited methods to optimize data-flow analysis

International Business Machines Corporation


A decurl device includes: a curl detecting section having a plurality of toothed wheels each which detects a curling amount and a curling direction of a sheet having a curl; and a plurality of uncurling sections each arranged downstream of the curl detecting section in a conveyance direction of the sheet having the curl, which uncurls the sheet by bending and transforming the sheet in a direction reverse to a curling direction thereof. One of the uncurling sections, which reduces the curl, is selected on the basis of the curling amount and the curling direction that have been detected by the curl detecting section, thereby uncurling the sheet.

The present invention relates to a decurl device which detects a curl of a sheet and uncurls the sheet, and an image forming apparatus provided with the decurl device.
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus, i.e., a copy machine, a printer, a facsimile or a multi-functional machine having the functions thereof, performs image formation by transferring a toner image, obtained by developing an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrier, with a developing device, on a sheet directly or via an intermediate transfer member, then feeding the sheet through a pressuring position between a heat roller for fixing or a fixing belt and a pressure roller to fix the image.
In a fixing process, dehydration of a sheet causes so-called curling, a phenomenon such that the sheet after fixing warps upward or downward in a wavy form. Particularly, such curling of a sheet tends to noticeably occur due to increased amounts of toners supplied to the sheet at the time of forming a color image, the use of multifarious kinds of sheets, etc.
A curl of a sheet raises a problem particularly in a case of forming images on both sides of a sheet or a case of making an article bound by bookbinding or so in a finisher.
There is a case where a decurl member for correcting a curl of a sheet which occurs after fixing is used to avoid reduction in image quality or so originating from paper jamming, reduced sheet storability in a sheet ejecting section, a transfer failure at the time of double-side image formation, or the like all caused by such a curl.
A sheet curl control apparatus described in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 05-238624 (FIG. 4) has a decurler and adjusting means which adjusts the decurling action of the decurler, detects the amount of curling by measuring a time interval between the first interruption of an infrared ray irradiated from one light source by passing of the leading edge of a sheet and the next interruption of the infrared ray using infrared sensors at two locations, and changes the decurling action according to the curling amount.
In above-mentioned sheet curl control apparatus, as the sensors are disposed downstream of a sheet in the sheet conveying direction, the sensors detect a curl at the leading edge of a sheet in the sheet conveying direction but cannot detect a curl which occurs on the entire surface of the sheet. Because a curl is detected by a horizontal sheet conveying section, the curling amount changes due to the dead weight of the sheet, disabling detection of the accurate curling amount.
A sheet conveying device described in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-60112 (FIG. 1) detects a curling amount with a reflection type displacement sensor, and performs such control as to change the sheet suction force generated by a suction fan according to the detected sheet curling amount.
Because the sheet conveying device also has the sensor disposed at an end portion of a sheet to detect the amount of displacement of the leading edge of the sheet in the sheet conveying direction at the horizontal sheet conveying section, it also cannot detect an accurate curling amount.
A decurl system described in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-80158 comprises decurl devices, curling amount measuring devices and correction amount modifying means, and detects a curling amount by the displacement of an actuator or a reflection type displacement sensor.
In this system, a curl is detected in the vicinity of the decurl device on the downstream side in the sheet conveying direction to detect the curling amount after the sheet is uncurled.

Decurl device and image forming apparatus provided therewith

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A combination bottle/can beverage cooler and bottle cap opener, which is comprised of a thermal insulated holder having an inner layer and outer layer to serve as a cooler for a beverage bottle/can, wherein the bottom of the inner layer is comprised of a double bottle cap opening means. With the aid of the double cap opening means, the cap of a beverage bottle can be conveniently twisted off or pried off. The opened beverage bottle/can then can be placed inside of the holder to keep the beverage cold and the users' hands from getting wet or cold.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of containers and coolers which are used to hold a beverage can or bottle and also to devices which are used to open a bottle cap.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Beverage container coolers and bottle cap openers are well known in the prior art. The following 14 patents and published patent applications are the closest prior art references which are related to the present invention.
1. U.S. Pat. No. 937,850 issued to Edmund A. Parker on Oct. 26, 1909 for "Coaster And Bottle Opener" (hereafter the Parker patent");
2. U.S. Pat. No. 1,755,086 issued to Charles Ernest Tapp on Apr. 15, 1930 for "Combination Tumbler And Bottle Opener" (hereafter the "'086 Tapp patent");
3. U.S. Pat. No. 1,810,630 issued to Charles Ernest Tapp on Jun. 16, 1931 for "Combination Container And Bottle Opener" (hereafter the "'630 Tapp patent");
4. U.S. Pat. No. 2,745,301 issued to Edward Grunwald on May 15, 1956 for "Cap Remover And Bottle Opener For Bottles And Cans" (hereafter the "Grunwald patent");
5. U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,126 issued to Werner W. Martinmaas and assigned to The Future Bottle Corp. on Feb. 22, 1966 for "Beverage Container With Integral Crown Cap Remover" (hereafter the "Martinmaas patent");
6. U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,300 issued to Asim Ghosh et al. and assigned to Carling O'Keefe Breweries of Canada Limited on Jan. 17, 1989 for "Bottle With Integral Cap-Removing Recess" (hereafter the "Ghosh patent");
7. U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,618 issued to Carl B. McKee on May 16, 1989 for "Coaster/Opener For Beverage Containers" (hereafter the "McKee patent");
8. U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,271 issued to Curt Edward Silbert on Apr. 22, 2003 for "Neoprene Bottle Insulator" (hereafter the "Silbert patent");
9. U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 367,413 issued to Scott Ballin on Feb. 27, 1996 for "Combined Shot Glass And Bottle Opener" (hereafter the "Ballin Design patent");
10. U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 388,660 issued to Harald Gründl and assigned to Bergmann, Bohmann, Gründl—Design GmbH on Jan. 6, 1998 for "Drinking Cup With Cover And Opener For Beverage Tins" (hereafter the "Gründl Design patent");
11. U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,380 issued to Peter Dorney on May 16, 2000 for "Glow Cup System" (hereafter the "Dorney patent");
12. United States Published Patent Application No. 2002/0175169 issued to Khetrat Tham-itthisak on Nov. 28, 2002 for "Drinking Glass With Integral Bottle Opener" (hereafter the "Tham-itthisak Published patent application");
13. U.S. Design Pat. No. D506,910 issued to Khetrat Tham-itthisak on Jul. 5, 2005 for "Glass Bottle Opener" (hereafter the "Tham-itthisak Design patent");
14. United States Published Patent Application No. 2006/0016294 issued to Michael W. McGrath et al. on Jan. 26, 2006 for "Temperature Insulated Beverage Container Receptacle And Opening Apparatus" (hereafter the "McGrath Published patent application");
The Parker patent discloses a combination of a coaster and a bottle cap opener. This invention discloses the concept of having a bottle which can sit on the coasters and alternatively turning over a portion of the coaster so that it can be used as a bottle cap opener.
The '086 Tapp patent discloses the combination of a tumbler and a bottle cap opener incorporated into the side wall of the tumbler.
The '630 Tapp patent is a combination container having a bottle cap opener in the bottom wall of the container by which the bottle cap can be removed in a crown removing method as discussed in the patent.
The Grunwald patent is a combination of having a bottle cap remover either formed into the bottom of a bottle or having a can or a container into which the bottle is placed. Therefore, this patent also discloses the concept of having a container in which the bottle can be placed and having a bottle cap remover in the container.
The Martinmaas patent discloses a beverage container which has built into the bottom wall a cap removing means which can be used to remove a crown cap from a bottle, wherein the cap removing means is formed in the exterior of the bottom surface.
The Ghosh patent discloses a bottle having a bottle remover formed into the bottom surface of the bottle with a twist-off type removing mechanism. Therefore, one bottle can be placed underneath a second bottle and then the bottle on top can be twisted to remove a twist-off bottle cap.
The McKee patent discloses a coaster onto which a can or bottle can be placed and has means on the bottom of the coaster so that the bottle cap can be twisted off. There is also a mechanism to enable a pop top can to be opened. This invention discloses the concept of having a twist-off bottle opener in the bottle extending from the outward bottom surface of the coaster.
The Silbert patent is a combination neoprene bottle insulator which has a thermally insulated beverage bottle holder having a detachable carrying strap and a bottle opener and a bottle cap.
The Ballin patent is a design patent which discloses a combined shot glass and bottle opener. The bottle opener is placed in the bottom of the shot glass which is more of a crown as opposed to a twist-off type bottle opener so that the bottle can be opened from the bottom of the shot glass and the liquor poured in.
The Gründl patent is also a design patent which discloses a drinking cup with a cover and a sharp opener for beverage tins.
The Dorney patent discloses a glow cup system. The primary function of the device is to have a phosphorescent glowing mechanism by which the cup can be seen in the dark. The invention also discloses a twist-off bottle opener with teeth incorporated into the bottom of the container so that it can be used to twist-off a bottle cap.
The Tham-itthisak Published patent application discloses a drinking glass with integral bottle opener, which is more of a crown type bottle opening device. The drinking glass has beverage retaining section. The outer surface of the closed end includes a bottle opener formed therein. The bottle opener is positioned in the drinking glass such that a bottle can be opened with the drinking glass while the drinking glass contains liquid without spilling the liquid in the glass or in the bottle.
The Tham-itthisak Design patent is essentially the same device as shown in the previous published patent application.
The McGrath Published patent application discloses a temperature insulated beverage container receptacle and opening apparatus. In this case the device includes a twist-off mechanism to twist-off a bottle cap. The bottom also contains a second cavity so that the device can be used to remove a crown type bottle cap. Therefore, this published patent application discloses the concept of having side-by-side twist-off and crown cap opening features.
There is significant need to provide a holder which can serve as a combination bottle/can beverage cooler and bottle cap opener.

Combination bottle/can beverage cooler and bottle cap opener


A semiconductor memory device comprises a bit line, a memory cell connected to the bit line, a sense amplifier, a power source for providing a first voltage to the sense amplifier as an operational power source voltage, a MOS transistor connected between the sense amplifier and the bit line and a stabilized power source for providing to a gate electrode of the MOS transistor a second voltage lower than the first voltage, so that a restore voltage of the memory cell is determined by the source voltage of the MOS transistor.

1. Field of the Invention!
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and, more particularly, to gate circuits of MOS transistors for connecting sense amplifier to bit lines in a DRAM.
With increase in high-packing densities of DRAMs, the physical size of memory cells has been made smaller and smaller recently. As the size of a memory cell becomes smaller, the gate length of a transistor used in the memory cell becomes shorter and shorter. For example, it is of the order of 0.9 .mu.m in 4M bit and of the order of 0.5 .mu.m in 16M bit. If the gate length is made short, the withstand voltage of a transistor will inevitably become low. Thus, it is required to lower a voltage applied to memory cells. Also, power dissipation of a memory cell array can be reduced by lowering voltage applied to a memory cell, namely, the magnitude of voltage on a bit line. Thereby, it becomes possible to avoid an increase of power dissipation resulting from an increase of the number of bit lines which are charged or discharged simultaneously with an increase in packing density.
2. Related Art!
The connection between sense amplifiers and bit lines is almost always made through MOS transistors. These MOS transistors have mainly the following three objects.
(1) The first is to insert a resistive component, which is the channel resistance of an MOS transistor, between a sense amplifier and bit lines to form a CR time constant with capacitance associated with the bit lines and to prevent the bit-line capacitance from being imposed on the sense amplifier as a large capacitive load at the time of operation of the sense amplifier. To this end, the MOS transistor has only to remain conductive. That is, it is necessary only that the gate of the transistor be connected to an externally applied supply voltage Vcc.
(2) The second is to control the gate of the transistor by means of clocks so that it can be turned off when the sense amplifier operates and the bit line can be prevented from being imposed on the sense amplifier as a load. In this case, the gate of the transistor is connected not to a power supply directly but to a clock generating circuit. Since clocks control the gate of the transistor in synchronism with RAS clocks, the clock generator, as part of a row peripheral circuit, is powered from a power supply of the row peripheral circuit or an external power supply.
(3) The third is to use the transistor as an array select switch in the case of a shared sense amplifier which is shared among two pairs of bit lines. As a change-over switch the transistor is connected between the sense amplifier and the bit line. A transistor on the side of a cell array to be selected is rendered conductive and the other transistor is rendered nonconductive. The relationship among the conducting transistor, the sense amplifier and the bit line is the same as that in (1).
In any of the above cases, the transistor for connecting the sense amplifier with the bit line is not used as means for determining a voltage to be written into an memory cell but used merely as a array select switch in the case of the shared sense amplifier, a time-constant forming resistance, etc.
FIG. 1 illustrates power distribution in a hypothetical DRAM. The dynamic RAM is composed of a blocked cell array 10, a sense amplifier group 11, a RAS (Row Address Strobe) peripheral circuit 12, a CAS (Column Address Strobe) peripheral circuit 13 and a data output peripheral circuit 14. The peripheral circuit 14 is generally supplied with a supply voltage Vcc of 5V, the peripheral circuits 12 and 13 are supplied with Vcc2 of, for example, 4V that is produced from the Vcc, and the sense amplifier group 11 is supplied with a voltage Vcc1 of, for example, 3.3 V that is produced from the Vcc. MOS transistors Q1, Q2, . . . , Qn, which connect bit lines of the cell array with the sense amplifiers, have their gates connected to the power supply Vcc in this example and thus function as mere resistors.
When the gates of the MOS transistors are connected to Vcc, i.e., an external power supply, a maximum voltage of the bit lines, i.e., a restore voltage to cells becomes Vcc - Vth which is lower than the supply voltage Vcc. The restore voltage thus obtained tracks the supply voltage so that it always becomes the threshold voltage Vth less than the supply voltage Vcc. The restore voltage on the bit line will also vary as the supply voltage varies. Simply connecting a transistor between a bit line and a sense amplifier and connecting its gate to the supply voltage Vcc, which will lower the operating voltage within a memory cell by about 0.7 V, is not useful as means of limiting the operating voltage stable.
Heretofore there are the following two methods for limiting a voltage applied to a memory cell stable.
(1) A voltage (for example, 3.3 V) is produced within a chip from an externally supplied voltage (for example, 5V) and then used as a supply voltage for the entire circuit in the chip. A voltage transform circuit used for this voltage transformation is well designed to produce a voltage which remains steady irrespective of variations in temperature and externally supplied voltage. Thus, even if the structure of a memory cell is made fine, the voltage transform circuit has only to generate a voltage most suitable for the cell. This method is simple in conception. However, with this method, a voltage for cells which require to be made fine rapidly as packing densities improve and a voltage for peripheral circuits which do not affect the size of a chip even if they are not made fine so rapidly cannot be made independent of each other. Thus, the method is not necessarily suited for an optimum design. With a dynamic RAM in which current dissipation varies dynamically, an instantaneous current produced by the operation of part of circuits has an effect on other circuits as noise. Therefore, with the method which supplies all of circuits within a chip with a common voltage produced by lowering an external supply voltage within the chip, it is not easy to render stable a voltage applied to the cell array.
(2) Within a chip a voltage (for example, 4V) is produced from an external supply voltage (for example, 5V) for application to peripheral circuits. At the same time, a separate voltage (for example, 3.3V) produced within the chip is applied to sense amplifiers so as to lower the voltage applied to the cell array which has progressed in miniaturization. FIG. 1 illustrates this example. Vcc1 is set at 3.3 V and Vcc2 is set at 4V. With this method, the sense amplifiers having a great instantaneous current variation and the peripheral circuits can be operated from separate power supplies. Thus, there is an advantage that the sense amplifiers will provide no noise to other circuits. However, with this method which limits the magnitude of a restore voltage on a bit line with the sense amplifier, the lower the voltage becomes, the smaller the driving power of the sense amplifier for driving data buses becomes. This disadvantageously makes long address access times on the side of columns. This disadvantage will be caused in (1) as well when the voltage is lowered.
In the case where, in that way, a voltage for driving the memory cell array is lowered in accordance with the extent of miniaturization of memory cells, if the voltage is lowered for common use with other circuits, stabilization of voltage within a chip will be difficult because a load current varies heavily in a DRAM. Specifically, voltage control must be performed by the use of a large-sized transistor which can drive a large instantaneous current and moreover the large-sized transistor requires a large-sized driving amplifier consuming a large amount of power. The stabilization of the feedback loop of a control circuit is not easy. Moreover, voltages for a cell array and peripheral circuits cannot always be optimized. Furthermore, even in the case where the peripheral circuits and the sense amplifiers are driven by separate voltages that are generated within a chip, if the amplitude of the sense amplifier were lowered in accordance with a desired voltage of the cell array, the access time would be prolonged.


The various aspects of the present invention are directed to moving carts and moving cart assemblies. One embodiment comprises a moving cart assembly with a plurality of interlocking, vertically stackable, storage modules. The modules of this embodiment comprise a frame, preferably having at least four sides, e.g., a top, a back, a right side and a left side. Each module also comprises something to enclose the interior space, such as a pair of doors or a drawer which is selectively slidable into the frame. The needs of a particular office can be readily accommodated by using greater or fewer numbers of drawer modules and/or cabinet-type modules.

Businesses change locations for a variety of reasons including expansions, contractions, or simply for more attractive office space. Many modern offices comprise computer equipment including a computer monitor, a CPU, a keyboard, a printer, and possibly other computer peripherals. Additionally, offices typically comprise many files which can be of different sizes, for example, folders for holding letter size files (8½×11 inches) and folders for holding legal size paper (8½×14 inches), as well as books, stationary and other business and personal items.
Presently, when a business comprising many offices is moving, a moving company will typically put the computer equipment and files into boxes or crates, place the boxes on dollies, and then transport the boxes onto moving trucks for transporting to the new location. The boxes need to be taped, labeled and still pose a significant risk of confusion when numerous boxes are being moved. The business disruption caused by such a move can extend over several days in light of the time for boxing, transportation and delivering the equipment and files to each employees' new office or work area. Typically, employees do not have access to their files while a move is in progress.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide equipment which facilitates a more efficient and cost-effective move, while minimizing the risk of confusion, business disruption and the risk of mingled files.