A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture containing instructions for processing multiple point-in-time consistent data sets. The method consists of creating multiple point-in-time data sets associated with a backup appliance which is associated with backup storage. Upon the transfer of a first update from a primary storage controller to the backup appliance, a determination is made whether the update affects data stored in the backup storage has been unchanged following the creation of the respective data sets. If the update does affect data which is unchanged following the creation of a data set, the current, non-updated data is read from the backup storage. A copy of the current, non-updated data thus read from the backup storage is stored in a storage location which can be one of the data sets or an independent memory location. In addition, pointers are associated with the remaining applicable data sets and directed to the copy at its storage location. Subsequently, the update is applied to the data on the backup storage device. In the event an update is subsequently transferred from the primary storage controller to the backup appliance which affects data stored in backup storage which has already been changed since the creation of an applicable data set, no further data is written to the applicable data set and the update is applied to the backup storage.

Computer storage disaster recovery systems typically address two types of failures: a sudden catastrophic failure at a single point in time, or data loss over a period of time. In the second type of gradual failure, updates to data volumes may be lost. To assist in recovery of data updates, a copy of data may be provided at a remote location. The assignee of the subject patent application, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM®), presently provides two systems for maintaining remote copies of data at secondary, tertiary or other backup storage device; extended remote copy (XRC) and peer to peer remote copy (PPRC). These systems provide a method for recovering data updates between a last, safe backup and a system failure. Such data shadowing systems can also provide an additional remote copy for nonrecovery purposes, such as local access at a remote site. In typical backup systems, data is maintained in volume pairs. A volume pair is comprised of a volume in a primary storage device and a corresponding volume in a secondary storage device that includes an identical copy of the data maintained in the primary volume. Typically, the primary and secondary storage volumes will be maintained in a direct access storage device (DASD). Primary and secondary storage controllers are typically provided to control access to the respective DASDs.
In shadowing or remote copy systems such as described above, a device or computer receives inbound transfers of data updates and subsequently transfers the updates outbound to another computer or device. For example, a primary storage controller may send transfers to a primary backup appliance which in turn offloads the transferred data updates to a secondary backup appliance associated with a secondary storage controller at a remote site. It is possible that the transfers are accomplished either synchronously with the initial write of data by the primary storage controller or asynchronously. In an asynchronous system, a backup appliance which is typically a secondary backup appliance receives transfers from the primary storage controller either directy or through intermediate appliances or devices and saves each transfer in a memory device to which it has access. The backup appliance then typically confirms acceptance of the transfer of data with the primary controller. Subsequently, the backup appliance is responsible for offloading this data to the secondary storage controller. A problem exists with asynchronous solutions which can expose the data processing system to possible error scenarios where the primary and secondary storage controllers are not consistent. For example, if data transfers are sent from the backup appliance to the secondary controller in an order that is different from the order they were received from the primary, and a failure occurs during the transfer of data, the secondary controller will not receive the data in the proper order and it is no longer guaranteed that the primary and secondary controllers will contain the same data.
Partial solutions to this problem exist which typically involve the formation of a consistent set of transactions between the primary and secondary controllers at the backup appliance. The backup appliance forms these data sets, or consistency groups, and then offloads them to the secondary controller in a regulated manner. When a data set is offloaded to the secondary, the secondary is then in a point-in-time consistent state with the primary controller. Only after completion of a given set of transfers does the backup appliance begin to offload a second set of transfers.
The formation and regulated transfer of consistent data sets or consistency groups alone is still not sufficient, however, to guarantee that the primary and secondary controllers are always consistent. It is possible that a failure will occur during the transfer of updates to the secondary controller which will result in an inconsistent state because some, but not all, of the transfers in the consistent set have been updated. This situation may be remedied through a technique known as "read-before-write". When read-before-write is implemented, the backup appliance will have received a set of transactions that need to be written to the secondary controller to bring the secondary into consistency with the primary controller. Before writing the new transactions, however, the backup appliance will read the data that is to be updated from the secondary storage and save a current version of it to a storage disk or other memory to which it has access. Only after the current data is stored at the backup appliance will the updated data be written to the secondary controller. Using this method, if a failure occurs while writing the set to the secondary controller, the backup appliance can rewrite the saved version of the data back to the secondary and effectively put the secondary back in its previous consistent state.
The read-before-write technique may allow some data to be lost, but the primary and secondary controllers will still be consistent at the prior point in time, thus it will not require a complete copy of the entire primary controller's data to put the secondary back into a full and current consistent state with the primary.
Typically, read-before-write data set may persist for only a very short period of time depending on the amount of storage allocated for them and the size of each set. Thus, a read-before-write data set will not allow the backup appliance to restore the secondary controller to a previous state that existed prior to the last remaining read-before-write transaction. Also, independent access to previous data storage states for nonrecovery purposes is typically unavailable as the backup appliance must apply the previous states sequentially to restore the secondary controller to the desired state. Thus, the backup appliance can only, when implementing read-before-write techniques, move backward and forward within a group of consistent sets, allowing restoration of the secondary controller to a selected saved state and then updating to any previous or future saved states that exist within the limited set of standard saved states. It is desirable to maintain multiple point-in-time consistent data sets that persist for a longer period of time than the standard read-before-write sets, and that are not subject to the requirement of having to apply each previous read-before-write set in order to successfully apply the desired set. Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved method and apparatus for storing and retrieving multiple point-in-time consistent data sets.

Method and apparatus for storing and retrieving multiple point-in-time consistent data sets


A housing assembly for a printed circuit board is mounted on a vehicle body by pressing a collar nut or the head of a collar screw past a plurality of fingers of a housing assembly so that the fingers retain the nut or screw head in place. The module is then pressed against the vehicle body so that the collar nut or collar screw is lifted while the retainers are deflected outwardly and a tool is used to tighten the screw into a nut or the nut onto the shank of a screw to clamp the printed circuit board on the housing against the vehicle body.

In the automotive vehicle field it is frequently required to attach various components to the vehicle body by screws. This is the case, for example, for electronic modules which may have a printed circuit board received in a housing and usually provided between a housing shell and another housing part, for example, a housing cover. As a practical matter, a screw can be driven through a hole in one of these housing members and into the vehicle body. However this method is not always possible and in many cases it is necessary either to hold a screw or nut by hand while the other screw element is rotated, e.g. by a socket wrench or the head of a driver which may have a normally flat screwdriver blade shape, a Phillips-head shape, an Allen wrench shape or a Torx head.
A problem in such cases is that the nut or screw can readily be dropped and either a new one must be provided or the dropped screw element must be found before it can be used to mount the housing in place.

Collar screw or collar nut housing attachment


A casing pipe extends in a vertical direction, and two adjacent casing pipes are connected by a plurality of link mechanisms; the link mechanism includes two supports, the two supports are hinged by a first pin to form a hinged portion, an upper end and a lower end of the link mechanism are hinged to two adjacent casing pipes by second pins separately, a sensor is fixed to the link mechanism, and the link mechanism has an initial state of extending in the vertical direction and an extending state in which the hinged portion extends outwards to be located on an outer side of the casing pipe; a driving mechanism drives a push portion to move towards the link mechanism; and a downward pressing apparatus is used for pressing a top end of the topmost casing pipe downwards to push the hinged portion into a side wall of the borehole.

As a common geological hazard, the landslide hazard severely threatens our lives and property, 70% of which are large landslides that cause most major casualties and social impacts. It is crucial to construct a professional monitoring and early warning system for the landslide hazards to prevent geological hazards scientifically and actively and reduce the casualties and property losses caused by the geological hazards. As the science and technology keep progressing, technologies monitoring corresponding objects to be monitored keep upgraded, so as to provide early warning information for monitoring personnel before landslide hazards, so monitoring personnel can take engineering measures early to dispose the sliding mass emergently, and human and financial losses can be avoided.
In recent years, as for the key scientific problems about "landslide multi-field evolution and disaster-causing mechanism", for comprehensively monitoring multi-field information feature parameters of a stress field, a gravity field, a seepage field, a displacement field etc., and constructing a new system for comprehensively monitoring landslide multi-field evolution process, automatic monitoring with multi-field information feature variables combined is urgently needed, and the problems of arrangement and diverse types, low information utilization rate, low precision, low fusion degree, etc. of sensors for real-time automatic monitoring of multiple parameters of deformation, stress, temperature, hydrology, etc. are also needs to be solved. Based on that, the monitoring concept of "multi-measurement in one hole" has been introduced and drawn attention from engineering geologists. It develops into an important technical route to arrange the relevant integrated sensors in the soil mass outside the hole via the arrangement probe, but it is unclear whether the arrangement probe has enough arrangement accuracy and arrangement strength to deal with the actual underground situation in a narrow space. Therefore, it is a novel significant way to arrange the integrated sensors on the surface outside the hole. In view of this, it is of great significance to develop an efficient and reliable multi-geological information monitoring technology using "multi-measurement in one hole" in a deep position of the sliding mass.

Arrangement device for multiple sensors outside borehole of sliding mass and arrangement method


The present invention relates to a heteropoly acid catalyst which is used for the production of methacrylic acid by gas phase oxidation of methacrolein and a preparing method thereof. The present invention, thereby, provides a novel heteropoly acid catalyst having excellent methacrolein conversion rate, methacrylic acid selectivity and yield.

The total demand for methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the world wide market is now over 2 million tons and Asia, USA and Europe lead the market. In Asia, the demand for MMA in 2000 was approximately 750,000 tons, which was 4-5% increased from the previous year (400,000 tons in Japan; 110,000 tons in Taiwan; 90,000 tons in Korea; 80,000 tons in China and 70,000 tons in others). MMA demand in Asia is expected to increase further by an average of 4-5% per year owing to the growing demand in each country including China, Japan and others.
In Asia, MMA monomer has been mostly used for copolymer resins such as acrylonitrile-styrene (AS) and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), paints for buildings and cars, paper coating, plastic, and resin modifier such as methylmethacrylate-butadiene-styrene (MBS).
In spite of the increasing demand for MMA, the production of acrylonitrile byproduct has been always short and thereby new production methods have been tried. One example is the gas phase oxidation based production established by Nippon Shokubai in 1982, which was the first in the world that uses isobutylene as a raw material. Since then, Mitsubishi Rayon, Sumitomo Chemical, and Kuraray/Mitsui Chemicals have initiated industrialization of MMA monomer by taking advantage of the gas phase oxidation. Another example is MAN process developed by Asahi Kasei by using methacrylonitrile (MAN). Mitsubishi Gas Chemical succeeded in industrialization of MMA by using novel acetone cyanohydrin (ACH) method which does not generate waste acid. KMC and FPC in Taiwan produce MMA by ACH method, while LG MMA and Honam Petrochemical Corp. in Korea, That MMA in Thailand and Singapore MMA Monomer in Singapore produce MMA by gas phase oxidation method.
Studies on the catalyst containing heteropoly acid as an active ingredient which is used for the partial oxidation of methacrolein into methacrylic acid by gas phase oxidation have been continued since the first commercialization in 1980s.
To produce heteropoly acid, MoO3 and V2O5 precursors are reacted with H3PO4 in the presence of water solvent at the temperature of at least 80° C. or ammonium paramolybdate and ammonium paravanadate are dissolved together in water. Details of the methods are described in the publication made by Tsigdinos, et al (Inorganic Chemistry, 7(3), p 437 (1968)).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,028 (granted on Dec. 10, 1985) describes a catalyst represented by MoaPbAcBdCeDfOx (A is one or more elements selected from the group consisting of As, Sb, Ge, Bi, Zr and Se; B is one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Cu, Fe, Cr, Ni, Mn, Co, Sn, Ag, Zn and Rh; C is one or more elements selected from the group consisting of V, W, and Nb; D is one or more elements selected from the group consisting of alkali metals, alkali earth metals and Ti; a is 12; b is 0.5-4; c is 0-5; d is 0-3; e is 0-4; f is 0.01-4 and x is the value indicating the oxidation of each element). The catalyst that is defined as the above needs to be dried, molded and fired in the presence of oxygen or nitrogen at 300-500° C. to be a final catalyst product. In general, the catalyst is molded as a pellet of 5 mm in diameter and 5 mm in length and at this time, decomposable ammonium or nitrate salt is decomposed to be a catalyst having the right structure and composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,155 (granted on Nov. 4, 1986) describes a method of preparing a heteropoly acid catalyst in which nitrogen containing pyridine, piperidine or peperazine is additionally included to increase plasticity, physical strength and reproducibility of catalyst production.
This method of preparing a heteropoly acid catalyst depends on the precursor of a metal component, but generally nitrate (NO3−) is used.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,333,293B1 (granted on Dec. 25, 2001) describes a method of preparing a catalyst. In this method, ammonium paramolybdate and ammonium paravanadate are dissolved in heated water, followed by stirring. Then, proper amount of 85% H3PO4 is added thereto and cesium nitrate and copper nitrate are additionally added. The mixed solution is heated and dried to give a catalyst.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,458,741B2 (granted on Oct. 1, 2002) describes a method of preparing a catalyst. In this method, ammonium paramolybdate, ammonium metavanadate and pyridine are added to 85% H3PO4, to which nitric acid, cesium nitrate and copper nitrate are additionally added, followed by co-precipitation. Then the precipitate is heated and dried to give a catalyst. According to this patent, the ratios of NH4/Mo12 and NH4/NO3 included in the precursor affect the activity and selectivity of the catalyst.
In spite of the development of various methods for producing a heteropoly acid catalyst, the low activity of the conventional heteropoly acid catalyst is still a problem. Therefore, it is required to improve the methacrolein conversion rate and selectivity in gas phase oxidation and the low productivity resulted from low yield as well.

Heteropoly acid catalyst and method of preparing the same


The systems, methods, and devices disclosed herein relate to a bit-per-stage ADC. The bit-per-stage ADC extracts one or more bits at each stage and creates a residue so that succeeding similar or identical stages can extract more bits. The ADC uses a reflected binary output code so that a bit can be extracted by observing the sign (e.g., polarity) of an input. The residue can be generated by rectifying the input, multiplying it by two, and level-shifting it by half the span. The generation of the residue is achieved using capacitors and switches. This causes the ADC to have low power consumption and a small size.

Analog to digital converters (ADCs) convert an analog voltage input to a digital output, usually in binary code, at a certain sampling rate. ADCs have been implemented using various architectures including successive approximation, Sigma Delta, and bit-per-stage architectures. ADCs are commonly characterized by their resolution (the number of output levels, expressed in bits, to which they can quantize a signal), and their sampling rate.
In certain applications, it is necessary to increase the resolution of conventional analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) while maintaining a small size. In particular, maintaining a small size can be important in embedded applications, such as for ADCs embedded in accelerometers or micropower impact sensors. It is also desirable for an ADC to provide low power consumption and a variable resolution (e.g., a variable number of output bits).
It is difficult to increase the resolution of existing successive approximation analog-to-digital converters because such converters are already relatively large and would need to be enlarged further to accommodate 14 or more bits. Furthermore, additional trimming features may be required beyond 13 bits. Sigma-delta ADCs provide higher resolution, but at the expense of higher power consumption. Additionally, sigma-delta converters cannot usually be multiplexed. Binary bit-per-stage ADCs produce residue output signals with discontinuities corresponding to the points where the comparator changes state and causes a DAC to switch. These discontinuities in the residue output waveforms are a fundamental problem with such an architecture. Adequate settling time must be allowed for these transients to propagate through a stage and settle at the final comparator input, and as a result, it is difficult to make these architectures operate at high speeds.
Folding bit-per-stage ADCs avoid the discontinuity problems of the binary bit-per-stage architectures. F. D. Waldhauer presents an implementation of the folding architecture in U.S. Pat. No. 3,187,325. Waldhauer's implementation of the folding transfer function uses solid state operational amplifiers with diodes in the feedback loop. However, the Waldhauer implementation is best suited to low resolution applications because it has various independent error sources. For example, a cascade of Waldhauer's stages suffers from independent errors in every stage. Additionally, the Waldhauer implementation exhibits high power consumption. Therefore, there remains a need for ADCs that provide high resolution (e.g., 12 bits or more) while having low power consumption and a small size. Furthermore, there is a need for small low-power ADCs that have variable resolution.

High resolution analog to digital converter


An explosion-proof enclosure includes a front cover (first housing half or portion) and a rear cover (second housing half or portion) joined together by a retention member inserted into a passageway at least partially formed by structures of both the front cover and the rear cover. The enclosure includes an internal chamber for containing an associated electronic device. The passageway generally extends peripherally about the internal chamber. In one exemplary embodiment, the retention member is a ball-chain and the passageway completely surrounds the internal chamber such that respective end portions of the ball-chain overlap. A sealing element is provided for sealing respective mating surfaces of the front cover and rear cover. In another example, the retention member is a rigid split retention member.

The use of electronic devices, such as tablets and cell phones for example, in certain environments where explosive chemicals may be present can be an ignition hazard. For example, a static discharge from the device, or a malfunction of the device (e.g., battery explosion) can ignite explosive chemicals near the device.
Accordingly, it is known to provide explosion-proof enclosures for electrical devices used in the explosion-prone areas. Such devices generally comprise front and rear mating covers that surround and enclose the electronic device to prevent explosive gasses from coming into contact with the electronic device and/or any spark or ignition source generated by the electronic device. The front and rear cover can be joined together with adhesive, in which case it is generally very difficult to reopen the enclosure should access to the electronic device become necessary. In other arrangements, the front and rear cover can be joined together with fasteners, such as screws or the like, that make separating the front and rear cover easier when access to the electronic device is necessary.
While the prior art enclosures may provide suitable ignition protection, enclosures joined with adhesives are not generally serviceable, while enclosures joined with metal screws or other metal fasteners are less desirable as they are more difficult to obtain certification from certain regulatory bodies and require recertification any time a fastener's location is changed (for design purposes or other reasons).

Explosion-proof tablet form closure housing


A representative point for pixel value adjustment at which the same pixel value is to be set is selected from each of a correction image to be corrected and a reference image of a mosaic image. A tone curve that defines an output pixel value with respect to an input pixel value is generated by a line that passes through a pixel-value-conversion coordinate point defined by pixel values indicating the representative points selected from the correction image and the reference image, which are set as input and output values. This line is generated by a spline curve. The pixel value of the correction image is converted based on the generated tone curve.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method and a computer program. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method for correcting for color variations in a mosaic image (multi-view image) produced by joining a plurality of images photographed from different viewpoints, and to a computer program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Panoramic pictures or star maps are produced by joining camera pictures photographed from different viewpoints. An object may be photographed from different viewpoints using a single camera or a plurality of cameras.
An object may be photographed using a single camera that is manually or automatically pointed in many directions to obtain multi-view images of the object, and the images may then be joined. In this case, the object is not photographed from a plurality of viewpoints at the same time. Thus, basically, an object is photographed using a single camera under the condition that the object is stationary.
However, when the photographic environment, e.g., the lighting conditions, changes while photographing a stationary object, changes in hue occur in the photographed images. In a picture, such as a panoramic picture, produced by joining the images including such changes in hue, the boundaries of the joined images become noticeable.
In another method, an object is photographed using a plurality of cameras that are pointed in different directions from a plurality of viewpoints at the same time, and the plurality of photographed images are then joined. In this method, a moving object can be photographed, which is not possible by using a single camera; however, a problem of color variations due to the difference among the cameras still exists.
Due to the difference in characteristics of, for example, a lens, a data capturing unit, and a memory, and the difference in image processing parameters of the cameras, the same object photographed using the cameras is not stored as the object having the same color data. In a composite picture in which these images are merged, therefore, the difference in hue among the images becomes noticeable.
At boundaries of the joined images, unnatural discontinuous color fields appear, and the image boundaries are exaggerated. Thus, a high-quality mosaic image, such as a panoramic picture, cannot be obtained. In particular, a composite picture made using a plurality of cameras having different characteristics is more susceptible to such color variations, which are not negligible compared to the change in hue caused as the single-camera environment changes over time.
In order to overcome color variations in a mosaic image produced by joining a plurality of photographed pictures, one known approach is to superpose and average the overlapping regions. This approach will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1C.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show pictures of an object photographed from different viewpoints, and FIG. 1C shows a panoramic picture produced based on the pictures shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. The object is photographed so that the pictures shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B include an identical object scene region, called an "overlapping region".
The pictures shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B include overlapping regions 11 and 12 indicating an identical scene region.
When the panoramic picture shown in FIG. 1C is produced as a mosaic image based on the pictures shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, color correction is performed so that an overlapping region 21 in the panoramic picture shown in FIG. 1C has the mean color value of the overlapping regions 11 and 12 of the pictures shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. This color correction results in a panoramic picture in which boundaries of the adjacent pictures are not noticeable.
Color correction may be performed using a technique other than such a simple pixel-averaging correction. Correction using a weighting and averaging procedure may be performed, taking distances 31 and 32 from the pictures into account, so that the amount of pixel value correction can vary depending upon the distances 31 and 32.
A variety of image processing procedures based on "overlapping regions" are disclosed in the art. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-342344 discloses that color conversion is performed using an overlapping region so that color histograms of two color images for the overlapping region are matched, to thereby match the hue of the two images.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-92306 discloses a method for compositing two CCD images including an overlapping portion at the image boundaries, in which the amount of offset in a mean value of pixel data histograms of the two images for the overlapping portion is added to the images, thereby reducing color variations in the boundaries of the joined images.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-169151 discloses that a plurality of images photographed using a single camera so as to include an overlapping region are joined to form a composite image that is less noticeable at the boundaries of the joined images by adjusting the hue, brightness, etc., at the boundaries.
In the "overlapping region"-based correction disclosed in the above-noted publications, adjacent images must include an identical scene region or an "overlapping region." Without an "overlapping region," correction cannot be performed. A larger overlapping region is required for correcting for worse color variations between adjacent images. If the "overlapping region" is small, it is difficult to accurately perform correction.

Image processing apparatus and method, and computer program


The server receives data from a network appliance. The server may then deliver an application and data to the client machine for viewing and manipulating the data. The client machine may display the data as a mapping, displaying icons associated with the network appliances. The client machine may also graph the data. Further, the client machine may manipulate the organization of the data, the configuration settings of the network appliances, and store map and graph configurations.

Data traffic on networks, particularly on the Internet, has increased dramatically over the past several years, and this trend will continue with the rapid growth of e-commerce and other services on the Internet requiring greater bandwidth. With this increase in data traffic on networks, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of computer equipment rooms, known as "server rooms," used to house the equipment necessary to support data traffic routing. Furthermore, the increasing dependency of companies on their Internet presence has created an urgency to keep the server rooms up and running at all times. Industry estimates show that there are over 400,000 such rooms currently in existence in the United States.
The growth in Internet traffic has prompted many businesses to construct a server room to allow their employees to access Internet information or enable e-commerce and store data. As such, continuous server up time has become important. Keeping track of numerous computers, along with associated bridges, routers, backup power supplies, etc., can be a formidable task. A large company with server rooms in more than one city might well be faced with spending thousands of dollars on software packages to keep their equipment running. Dedicated technicians are also needed to monitor network equipment and issue work orders to repair failed units.
While reliable, modern computer systems cannot tolerate excess heat, dust or humidity. Heat can rapidly cause equipment deterioration. Failure of cooling fans can reduce equipment lifetime to days or hours. A single high-speed LAN (local area network) failure can cause slow system response. These and other such failures within the equipment in a server room occur routinely and can cause great disruption to a business.
Typical solutions only permit inspection of devices on a local basis. Others permit a technician to inspect geographically diverse installations from a central console. However, all of these solutions are expensive to implement, complex, and difficult to maintain and train personnel to use them.
As a result, small to medium companies having small to medium networks are left in the position of requiring a means to monitor and maintain their computer network equipment from failing while not having the resources to afford the high-priced solutions. Many firms cannot afford a high-end solution or simply do not have the time and resources to train their IT personnel to learn and use complex systems. Instead, the typical monitoring method in many such companies is user complaints to the IT manager to indicate when a problem has occurred.
This is especially true for companies having multiple server rooms and that have concerns about routine access to each of these rooms. Additionally, concerns exist with current solutions regarding the manpower intensiveness of these solutions. Most network monitoring solutions can consume a fall or part-time employee. The financial justification for these systems is, therefore, difficult because network equipment typically fails yearly or on a disaster basis, and the cost of recovery is seen as less than that of maintaining a full-time employee to routinely monitor the equipment.
Similar concerns exist for monitoring rack-mounted components. Typical problems include localized environmental excesses leading to failure. Another problem is theft. Typical monitoring solutions do not provide for video imaging of remote server locations over a network. Computer equipment is typically placed in server rooms for two reasons: security and environmental control. Remote video imaging of a server room over a network can provide for maintaining security of the equipment despite the lack of a physical presence on site.
A typical computer room can house hundreds of devices, ranging from expensive server grade computers to bridges, routers, uninterruptible power supplies and telephone equipment. A server room's environment requires monitoring because out-of-limit environmental variables can eventually affect the equipment in the room. For example, high temperatures, humidity (for example, from water leaks), or lack of airflow can detrimentally affect the equipment. Similarly, alarms, such as smoke and fire alarms, or the status of room openings, are important to determine. While the expense of replacing server room components if they fail is great, currently existing monitoring solutions are not cost effective for smaller-sized companies to implement despite the potential costs of such losses.
These typical monitoring systems use a centralized application. While these mechanisms can be quite effective, they introduce additional costs, through additional software, hardware, configuration, administration, and network bandwidth.
Beyond the application to server rooms and rack mountings of network equipment, various other monitoring systems suffer from the same failures and deficiencies associated with information accessibility, organization, and presentation.
As such, many typical network monitoring systems suffer from deficiencies in information accessibility, organization, and presentation. Many other problems and disadvantages of the prior art will become apparent to one skilled in the art after comparing such prior art with the present invention as described herein.


A combined stability cane and device for assisting a handicapped person in traveling up and down a flight of stairs having vertically spaced steps is disclosed. A rectangular block member or platform has a flat upper surface within which a connector mechanism is provided at its central area, and a second connector mechanism is provided in the upper surface adjacent one of the sides of the block member and opposite the central area. A walking cane having a cooperative connector mechanism adjacent its lower end is provided to alternatively rigidly connect the same to one of the two connector mechanisms in the upper surface of the block member. When the cane is connected to the connector mechanism at the central area of block member, the combination functions as an excellent stability cane. When the cane is connected to the connector mechanism adjacent one side of the block member, the latter functions as a half-step which the handicapped person may utilize to facilitate travel up and down the steps by taking only a half-step at a time, at first on the block member and then upon the next step, thereby reducing the elevation change required through a series of half-steps. Alternatively, the walking cane may be disconnected from the block member so as to use the same in its normal manner.

Various devices have been designed in the past to facilitate the travel by a handicapped person up and down a flight of stairs. None of these, to the best of my knowledge, has proved sufficiently satisfactory to enable the designer to continue to furnish them upon the market. Some of them, such as the one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,199, issued to Nimz on Jul. 4, 1989, requires the user to move at right angles to the flight of stairs, with the net result that the handicapped person is required to repeatedly move backwardly or turn about, which is a dangerous requirement for a handicapped person because they generally do not have very good balance. Moving upwardly causes the user to repeatedly move toward one of the walls defining the staircase, so that the user soon is confronted with that wall and is required to move rearwardly toward the opposite wall, or completely turn oneself about.
Others, such as that shown in U.S. Design Pat. No. 287,283, issued to Johnson on Dec. 16, 1986, requires a plurality of half-step devices, one for each step, as shown therein.
Another device, such as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,735, issued to Meade on Mar. 31, 1981, shows a step pivotally mounted on the lower end of a cane, with the stairs having vertically spaced steps, without the assistance of others. The device includes a platform or block member having flat parallel upper and lower surfaces and vertical dimensions of approximately four (4) inches, which is about half the vertical dimensions of the risers of most steps in a flight of stairs. A pair of connector mechanisms, comprising keyed openings in the upper surface of the block member, are provided. One such connector mechanism is disposed at the central area of the upper surface of the block member, and the other adjacent one side of the block member.
A walking cane having a cooperative connector mechanism adjacent its lower end is also provided. When the cane is connected to the block member adjacent its side, the device enables a handicapped person to travel up and down the steps, without any assistance, by using the platform as a half-step and carrying it with him from step to step, moving up or down, as the case may be, as each step is completed. The device provides high stability and minimizes the vertical distance the handicapped person must move his body in each movement.
When the walking cane is connected to the central area of the block member, the handicapped person enjoys a highly stable stability cane in that the broad-based under-surface of the block member bears evenly upon the supporting surface therefor. The rectangular undersurface of the block member is continuous, rather than having bearing surfaces at three (3) or four (4) isolated locations, and thus it is much more stable.
Rigidly mounted within the block member immediately below its upper surface is a plastic socket member having a pair of rigid sockets therein for stabilizing the connection between the block member and lower end of the cane protruding when used as a walking stick, with all the dangers of slipping normally attendant to the use of a cane, which has a relatively small tip and is prone to slipping upon individual slippery spots on the floor or sidewalk. To overcome such disadvantages, others have designed so-called "stability canes" most, if not all of which, are characterized by three (3) or four (4) prongs which help to minimize the dangers of slipping in that more points of contact with the supporting surface are provided Even then, however, they do occasionally slip or, more often, one or more of the supporting prongs, which extend downwardly, is unsupported when the supporting surface is uneven, and the required support for the user is thus no longer provided.
Still another, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,882,796, issued to Blue on Oct. 29, 1954, provides a device for aiding a handicapped person up and down a flight of stairs, but is ineffective as a walking cane or stability cane because the vertical handle is fixedly attached to the side of the half-step, making the device too cumbersome and awkward for such purposes.
It is apparent from the above that a distinct need is present for a versatile aid for the handicapped which will provide assistance in climbing a stairway, and which can be readily and easily transformed into a walking cane or, alternatively, a broad-based stability cane.


A video signal apparatus allows multiple pictures to be displayed. A plurality of input video signals are processed to produce a plurality of signals corresponding to a respective plurality of pictures. The plurality of pictures corresponding to the plurality of signals are displayed. At least one of the plurality of pictures which have been displayed is selected. First and second modifications are made to the selected picture. The first modification to the selected picture indicates that the selected picture is being provided with the second modification.

The present invention relates to a display apparatus in which a plurality of pictures are displayed on a single screen by sharing pictures on a plane separately or partially overlapped. Especially, it relates to a video signal display apparatus which can display an indication on the picture so as to be able to correctly recognize the picture which a user is now adjusting (handling), when the user selects a picture which the user wants among a plurality of pictures and adjusts brightness, contrast, color, hue and the like of each picture.
In recent years, displaying by sharing various kinds of video signals into a plurality of pictures has increased and complexity of picture handling concerning to adjustment or switching of picture display according to an input source has also increased.
Therefore, video signal display apparatus which can display multipicture with easy handling at picture handling have been desired for users.
Taking a case displaying two pictures on a screen, the performance of a video signal display apparatus in accordance with the prior art is explained below, referring to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video signal display apparatus in accordance with the prior art. The block 1 is a first video signal processing means inputting a first video signal 1a and outputting a luminance signal 1b and a color signal 1c. The block 2 is a second video signal processing means inputting a second video signal 2a and outputting a luminance signal 2b and a color signal 2c. The block 77 is a handling signal discriminating means inputting a picture handling signal 7a from a remote control box and the like and outputting a selection signal 77b according to handling information. The block 9 is an on-screen circuit outputting a display information signal 9b according to the selection signal 77b.
A video signal display apparatus configured like the above in accordance with the prior art is explained below, referring to FIGS. 1 and 3.
A display example in which a screen is divided into two pictures is shown in FIG. 3. When the user handles (selects) a channel for picture 2, a handling button corresponding to the picture 2 is pushed through remote control box or the like and then the channel is selected. A picture handling signal 7a based on the signal generated at the remote control box or the like is supplied to a handling signal discriminating means 77, it is detected that the button for picture 2 was pushed and a selection signal 77b indicating that the picture 2 was selected is outputted. At the on-screen circuit 9, a display information signal 9b according to the selection signal 77b is outputted and the user can recognize through the information on the screen that the picture he/she is selecting is picture 2. In FIG. 3, an indication that "picture is under handling" and a channel number indicating handling information are displayed on the screen.
In the above configuration, however, when the number of divided pictures increases, the picture which is now selected can be recognized only by the displayed information and it is difficult to see which picture is now selected and the other picture than the user wants is sometimes handled by mistake. Thus, there is a problem that picture handling is extremely deteriorated at an increased number of picture divisions.
A block diagram of a partially improved video signal display apparatus in accordance with the prior art is shown in FIG. 2. The block 1 is a first video signal processing means inputting a first video signal 1a and outputting a luminance signal 1b and a color signal 1c. The block 2 is a second video signal processing means inputting a second video signal 2a and outputting a luminance signal 2b and a color signal 2c. The block 33 is a first handling information detecting means inputting first to n-th picture handling information signals and outputting a display information signal 33b according to display information. The block 34 is a second handling information detecting means inputting first to n-th picture handling information signals and outputting a display information signal 34b according to display information. The block 8 is a picture display means inputting a first luminance signal 1b, a first color signal 1c, a first display information signal 33b, a second luminance signal 2b, a second color signal 2c and a second display information signal 34b and outputting a synthesized video signal 8b (based upon control signal 8a ) after a deflection processing.
A video signal display apparatus configured like the above in accordance with the prior art is explained below, referring to FIGS. 2 to 5. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a first handling information detecting means 33 of a video signal display apparatus. Also a second handling information detecting means 34 has the same configuration.
The block 331 is a decode circuit inputting first to n-th picture handling information signals, 33al to 33an and generating a handling information address signal 331b according to the inputted handling information. The block 332 is an ROM table circuit inputting the handling information address signal 331b and outputting a display information data signal 332b. The block 333 is a D/A converter converting the display information data signal 332b (digital) into a display information signal 33b (analog) and outputting the converted signal 33b.
As shown in FIG. 5, when the user handles picture 1, picture handling is done by pushing a handling button corresponding to picture 1 by the remote control box or the like. In this case, first to n-th picture handling information signals, 33al to 33an, according to picture handling are inputted to the first handling information detecting means 33.
At the decode circuit 331, the input signal is decoded, a state in which the picture is now being handled is detected and the handling information address signal 331b corresponding to the display information data stored in the ROM table circuit 332 of the next stage is generated. The display information data signal 332b outputted from the ROM table circuit 332 is outputted from the D/A converter 333 as a display information signal 33b and a picture according to the handling is displayed on the screen 1 as shown in FIG. 3.
In the above configuration, because handling buttons corresponding to each of pictures 1 and 2 are provided on the remote control box as shown in FIG. 5, inconvenience is removed that the other picture than the picture which the user wants to handle is handled by mistake. However, when the number of picture divisions increases, it is necessary to provide a set of handling buttons on the picture handling box (remote control box) corresponding to each picture and it brings problems that handling gets difficult at a multipicture display system and the picture handling box becomes too big.

Multipicture video signal display apparatus with modified picture indication

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


STI structures with step height control are produced using a relatively thin nitrogen-containing layer formed over a substrate. The nitrogen-containing layer may consist of SiN and SiON films with a combined thickness of 900 angstroms or less. Trench openings are formed to extend through the nitrogen-containing layer and into the substrate. Chemical vapor deposition is used to form a dielectric such as an oxide within the trench openings and over the top surface of the nitrogen-containing layer. A polishing operation is used to partially polish the CVD dielectric layer leaving a reduced thickness over the nitrogen-containing layer, and then a dry etch is used to remove the dielectric from over the nitrogen-containing layer and uniformly recede the top surface of the dielectric within the trench. Dishing effects are avoided. The nitrogen-containing layer is removed to produce STI structures with step heights of less than 500 angstroms.

The advent of ultra large scale integrated (ULSI) circuits has allowed semiconductor manufacturers worldwide to fabricate semiconductor devices to extremely compact dimensions. The highly integrated devices thereby require the tightly packed device features to be electrically isolated from one another. The fabrication process for forming such integrated circuits therefore includes the formation of isolation structures within the semiconductor device. In order to fabricate such a highly integrated circuit, isolation structures are typically formed as STI (shallow trench isolation) structures in the silicon or other semiconductor substrate. Such isolation structures are a requirement because even a small amount leakage in a ULSI integrated circuit can induce significant power dissipation and/or failure of the circuit.
STIs are typically produced by depositing layers over a semiconductor substrate surface and forming a trench extending through the layers and into the semiconductor substrate, filling the trench with a dielectric that is also formed above the layers, then polishing. The dielectric is typically formed using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and is commonly an oxide. Chemical mechanical polishing is advantageously used to remove the dielectric layer from over the layers, the upper one of which is a polishing-stop layer such as silicon nitride layer or other materials. The polishing terminates when the deposited dielectric is removed from over the polishing-stop layer. A shortcoming associated with conventional STI formation methods, in particular with the CMP operation used for polishing a CVD dielectric file, is "dishing." A dishing effect is created when the CVD oxide being polished takes on a depressed concave shape as it becomes recessed below the polishing-stop surface because the CVD oxide polishes at a rate faster than the polishing-stop surface. Dishing creates problems in subsequent films formed over the structure and also impacts the control of subsequent implantation processes. STI Structures are especially susceptible to dishing is when STI structures of different widths are being formed at the same time in the same polishing operation. The effects of dishing are particularly problematic when the convex top surface produced by polishing extends well above the substrate surface. This occurs when the layers formed over the substrate and used during the polishing operation including the polishing stop layer, are of considerable thickness.
It would therefore be desirable to produce STI structures that are free of any dishing effects and in which the STI structures include a substantially planar top surface that protrudes above the substrate surface to a lesser extent than prior art structures.

Method for forming STI structures with controlled step height

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


One embodiment of a paper cushioning structure includes a corrugated, hollow support member of H cross-section having two open ends, the support member comprising a hollow, intermediate plate interconnecting both hollow sides; and two fixing members shaped to securely assemble at both ends of the support member respectively so as to form a packing space defined by the fixing members, the intermediate plate, and upper portions of the sides of the support member.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to cushioning materials and more particularly to a paper-based cushioning structure with improved characteristics.
2. Description of Related Art
Package cushioning is inside a shipping container. It is known that the high price articles (e.g., laptop computers) are required to be fully protected during transport.
Various type and styles of paper cushions are commercially available. Paper cushions are more environmentally friendly. However, conventional paper cushions do not provide sufficient resiliency or offer complete protection to articles packaged in a paper container. Thus, the need for improvement still exists.


In a casing unit for accommodating a printed circuit board, a case has a plurality of walls, one of the walls being partially or entirely open to form an open surface through which the board is inserted into the case. Guides, secured on side walls, comprise two guide protruding members each formed to protrude from the side walls and positioned to partly contact both sides of the board to be inserted into the case, whereby the board is positioned in a planar direction thereof. A cover, applied to the case to cover the open surface of the case, comprises a vertically positioning member positioning the board in a vertical direction, when the cover is applied to the case to cover the open surface, by pinching an end of the board in the vertical direction. The end of the board is located in the open surface of the case.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a casing unit for electronic devices wherein a printed circuit board, on which electronic component parts are mounted, is supported in an internal space defined by a case and a cover.
2. Description of the Related Art
In electronic apparatuses, it is frequent that printed circuit boards are arranged in cases for protection, shielding against noise, or other influences. In order to achieve such purposes, there have been various types of cases. Electronic component parts are mounted on a printed circuit board enclosed by a case. One conventional structure for an electronic device, which is categorized into the above case, is disclosed in, for instance, Japanese Patent Provisional Laid-open Publication No. 9-74291. That is, a printed circuit board on which electronic component parts are mounted is supported in an internal space cooperatively defined by a case and a cover.
To be specific, with the casing structure disclosed in the above publication, a case (body section) has both side surfaces formed with support portions (in engagement slits), which support both side surfaces of a printed circuit board (substrate) to cause the printed circuit board to be pressed against a rearward area of the case and a cover (lid) to be flexed under a status wherein the cover is coupled to the case, and press portions (protrusions) adapted to cause the printed circuit board to be brought into pressurized contact with the support portions. Thus, the printed circuit board is pressed and flexed downward by the actions of the support portions and fixed in place due to the resulting reaction force.


A heating apparatus comprising an energetic nanolaminate film that produces heat when initiated, a power source that provides an electric current, and a control that initiates the energetic nanolaminate film by directing the electric current to the energetic nanolaminate film and joule heating the energetic nanolaminate film to an initiation temperature. Also a method of heating comprising providing an energetic nanolaminate film that produces heat when initiated, and initiating the energetic nanolaminate film by directing an electric current to the energetic nanolaminate film and joule heating the energetic nanolaminate film to an initiation temperature.

1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to energetic nanolaminate films and more particularly to electrical initiation of an energetic nanolaminate film.
2. State of Technology
U.S. Pat. No. 6,991,855 for a reactive multilayer foil with conductive and nonconductive final products issued Jan. 31, 2006 to Timothy P. Weihs et al and assigned to Johns Hopkins University provides the following state of technology information: "Reactive multilayer coatings are useful in a wide variety of applications requiring the generation of intense, controlled amounts of heat in a planar region. Such structures conventionally comprise a succession of substrate-supported coatings that, upon appropriate excitation, undergo an exothermic chemical reaction that spreads across the area covered by the layers generating precisely controlled amounts of heat. While we will describe these reactive coatings primarily as sources of heat for welding, soldering or brazing, they can also be used in other applications requiring controlled local generation of heat such as propulsion and ignition."
United States Published Patent Application No. 2004/0234914 for a percussively ignited or electrically ignited self-contained heating unit and drug-supply unit employing same by Ron L. Hale et al and assigned to Alexza Molecular Delivery Corporation published Nov. 25, 2004 provides the following state of technology information: "Self-contained heat sources are employed in a wide-range of industries, from food industries for heating food and drink, to outdoor recreation industries for providing hand and foot warmers, to medical applications for inhalation devices. Many self-contained heating sources are based on either an exothermic chemical reaction or on ohmic heating. For example, self-heating units that produce heat by an exothermic chemical reaction often have at least two compartments, one for holding a heat-producing composition and one for holding an activating solution. The two compartments are separated by a frangible seal, that when broken allows mixing of the components to initiate an exothermic reaction to generate heat. This type of non-combustible, self-heating unit is suitable for heating food, drink, or cold toes and fingers, since the heat production is relatively mild."
United States Published Patent Application No. 2005/0142495 for methods of controlling multilayer foil ignition by David Peter Van Heerden et al published Jun. 30, 2005 provides the following state of technology information: "Reactive multilayer foils are nanostructured materials typically fabricated by vapor depositing hundreds of nanoscale layers that alternate between elements with large, negative heats of mixing such as Ni and Al. Several different means have been employed for igniting self-propagating reactions (e.g., initiating the chemical transformation) in nanoscale multilayer foils. In some methods, impact of a sharp stylus initiates ignition, and in other ignition is started with a spark from an electrical source (examples of which are disclosed in an article by Ma et al. entitled "Self-propagating Explosive Reactions in Al/Ni Multilayer Thin Films" published in Applied Physics Letters, Volume 57, page 1262 in 1990 ("Ma"); an article by Reiss et al. entitled "Self-propagating Formation Reactions in Nb/Si Multilayers" published in Mat. Sci. and Eng. A., Volume A261, pages 217-222 in 1999; an article by van Heerden et al. entitled "Metastable Phase Formation and Microstructural Evolution during Self-Propagating Reactions in Al/Ni and Al/Monel Multilayers" published in Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proceedings, Volume 481, pages 533-8 in the Fall of 1997; and TMS, the entirety of all of which are incorporated herein by reference). Alternatively, the heat from a filament (examples of which are disclosed in an article by Anselmi-Tamburni et al. entitled "The Propagation of a Solid-State Combustion Wave in Ni—Al Foils" published in the Journal of Applied Physics, Volume 66, page 5039 in 1989; and an article by Dyer et al. entitled "The Combustion Synthesis of Multilayer NiAl Systems" published in Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia, Volume 30, page 1281 in 1994, the entirety of both of which are incorporated herein by reference), or laser radiation (examples of which are disclosed in an article by Wickersham et al. entitled "Explosive Crystallization in Zirconium/Silicon Multilayers" published in the J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, Volume 6, page 1699 in 1988 ("Wickersham"), the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference) may be used to start ignition."

Electrical initiation of an energetic nanolaminate film

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC


Method for wire-free transmission of data packets between network nodes in a control network, wherein the data packets each have a preamble for synchronization consisting of a predetermined number of preamble symbols, and wherein during a first operating mode, each preamble-subsymbol of a preamble symbol in the preamble is coded by the phase angle of a transmitted single signal pulse, during a second operating mode to increase the signal recognition performance, for the preamble which is transmitted in the data packet, a signal pulse sequence for coding the preamble-subsymbol is transmitted instead of a single signal pulse, where the single signal pulse within the signal pulse sequence is transmitted repeatedly.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to data packet transmission and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for Wireless transmission of data packets between network nodes in a control network.
2. Description of the Related Art
During wireless communication between network nodes in a control network, for example, for controlling machines, data packets are transmitted via radio interfaces. Wireless communication for controlling machines requires, on the one hand, very low latencies and, on the other, very high data transmission reliability. It is also necessary for the control network to be able to co-exist with other wireless networks, particularly if the control network serves as a higher-level control network. In this case, the provision of high data transmission reliability represents a technical challenge because the majority of conventional measures used to increase reliability during data transmission increase latency. Industrial production plants with machines controlled by a control network constitute a difficult environment for wireless communication via radio interfaces. Production plants or industrial production cells with machines are associated with metal surfaces that interrupt or reflect the data transmission signals so that a relatively high level of electromagnetic noise is present. The reflecting metal surfaces result in multipath signal propagation.
The above-named problems mean conventional radio network technologies, such as Bluetooth or Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard 802.15.4 are not really suitable for control networks, i.e. in industrial production environments or factory automation.
Therefore, data transmission according to IEEE standard 802.15.4a was proposed in which data packets are transmitted in a wireless manner between network nodes of a control network. However, it has been found that data packet transmission according to IEEE standard 802.15.4 results in a high data packet loss rate. Here, the high packet loss rates are above all due to incorrectly recognized preambles in the headers of the data packets. This occurs in particular in receivers of network nodes, which work by energy detection.

Method and apparatus for wireless transmission of data packets


This invention is related to a novel peptide consisting of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, and a pharmaceutical composition comprising the peptide thereof.

The present invention relates to novel haptotactic peptides, and in particular, to novel peptides which are homologous to a portion of the carboxy termini of fibrinogen chains, as well as to potential uses for these peptides.
Fibrinogen is the plasma protein which forms the clot when blood coagulates. Many studies have been conducted on the amino acid sequences and structure of fibrinogen (Mosesson, M. and Doolittle, R. (Eds.) "The biology of fibrinogen and fibrin", Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 408, 1983, Henschen, A. et al., "Structure of fibrinogen", Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 408, 1983, Spraggon, G. et al., "Crystal structure of fragment D from human fibrinogen and its crosslinked counterpart from fibrin", Nature. 389:455–462, 1997, Murakawa, M. et al., "Diversity of primary structures of the carboxy-terminal regions of mammalian fibrinogen Aα-chains", Thromb. & Haemostat., 69:351–360, 1993). Normally, fibrinogen itself has a molecular weight of 340 kDa and is constructed from two sets of three peptide chains, named α, β, and γ. The constituent chains of fibrinogen are highly conserved between species. Recent work has also described a fibrinogen protein with a longer α chain, called αE fibrinogen, which has a concomitantly higher molecular weight of 420 kDa and which may play a role in development (Fu, Y. and Grieninger, G. "Fib420: A normal human variant of fibrinogen with two extended α chains". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 91: 2625–2628, (1994), Fu, Y. et al., "Carboxy-terminal-extended variant of the human fibrinogen α subunit: A novel exon conferring marked homology to β and γ subunits" Biochem., 31:11968–11972, (1992)). Thus, these four types of fibrinogen chains, α, β, γ and αE, have 610, 410, 391 and 1096 amino acids, respectively (numbering based on the Gene-bank data base at email@example.com).
Fibrin clots are formed in vivo at the sites of tissue injury based upon the reaction of fibrinogen and thrombin in the presence of calcium ions. These clots have a major role in hemostasis. After clot formation, fibrin serves a provisional matrix for cell recruitment into the wound bed. Normally, the earliest cells mobilized into the wound bed are inflammatory, such as leukocytes and particularly macrophages. Concomitant With their penetration into the fibrin, these inflammatory cells participate in lysing the fibrin by generating plasmin, metallo-proteinases (MIPs) and/or free radicals. Thus, the wound bed contains substantial quantities of peptides A and B (FPA and FPB) released by thrombin during the onset of coagulation and numerous fibrin breakdown products are generated by lytic enzymes or free-radicals (Gray, A. J., Reeves, J. T., Harrison, N. K., Winlove, P. and Laurent, G. J., "Growth factors for human fibroblasts in the solute remaining after clot formation", J. Cell Sci., 96: 271–274, (1990), Marx G. "Immunological monitoring of Fenton fragmentation of fibrinogen". Free Radicals Res. Comm. 12: 517–520 (1991), Francis, C. W., Marder, V. J. and Barlow, G. H., "Plasmic degradation of crosslinked fibrin". J. Clin Invest., 66: 1033–1043, (1980), Cottrell, B. A. and Doolittle, R. F. "The amino acid sequence of a 27-residue peptide released from α-chain carboxy-terminus during the plasmic digestion of human fibrinogen", Acad. Press., 71: 754–766, (1976)).
Subsequently, the inflammatory cells are followed by the migration of cells of the mesenchymal cell lineage such as fibroblasts which further digest fibrin, replacing it with extracellular matrix (ECM). Endothelial cells also infiltrate the wound bed and generate microcapillary structures. Ultimately these cells replace the provisional fibrin matrix with granulation tissue populated by parenchymal cells and vasculature within the newly synthesized ECM.
The attachment and migratory responses of cells to matrix were proposed to be controlled mainly by specific receptors (integrins) or by intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM) that interact with cell membrane receptors which subsequently induce either migratory reactions or cell adhesion to matrix. These interactions may trigger other regulatory mechanisms of cell activity, such as shape change or proliferation. Growth factors and cytokines activate such cell receptors by binding to them, and thus, trigger cellular responses (Ruslahti, E. (1996) RGD and other recognition sequences for integrins. Ann. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 12, 697–715 and Hynes, R. O. (1992) Integrins: Versatility, modulation and signaling in cell adhesion. Cell 69, 11–25).
Cytokines of different classes regulate cellular activity and responses, control cell survival, growth and differentiation. Excluding classical endocrine hormones, cytokines encompass those families of cell regulators variously known as growth factors, interleukins, lymphokines and interferons.
All previously described cytokines are composed of more than 50 amino acids (aa); most are over 100 aa long. Based on X-ray crystallography, cytokines exhibit 8 structural groups (Nathan C. & Sporn M., "Cytokines in context", J. Cell. Biol. 113: 981–986 (1991)) and bind to a variety of cellular receptors such as integrins or interferon receptors. Binding to cell receptors triggers a cascade of events leading to intra-cellular phosphorylation of proteins, which is transduced into gene expression, cell proliferation, cell differentiation, changes in cell shape, motility and apoptosis. Thus, cytokines play an important role in physiological processes such as development and wound healing.
Human fibroblasts are the major cellular entities responsible for the regeneration of the extracellular matrix Within the wound bed. Human fibroblasts also express specific membrane receptors to fibrinogen and thrombin. In the case of skin wounds, human fibroblasts reform the matrix of the dermis. For example, during the course of healing of an incisional skin wound, human fibroblasts are mobilized from the surrounding tissue and enter into the fibrin clot, help to dissolve the clot, and then generate as well as reform the collagen in the extracellular matrix. Based upon these properties of human fibroblasts, fibroblast implants have been suggested to supplement the process of healing in damaged skin (Gorodetsky, R. et al., Radiat. Res. 125:181–186, 1991).
One material used for this purpose is benzoylated hyaluronic acid (HA) sheets containing holes or pores as a carrier for fibroblasts and keratinocytes for wound healing (Andreassi, L., et al., Wounds, 3:116–126, 1991). Specifically, HA sheets were cultured with such cells which grow within the pore structure. The HA sheets were then affixed to the site of the burn injury, where the cells migrated out of the sheet and ultimately accelerated the rate of wound re-granulation. A major problem with implanted HA sheets, however, is that they are not metabolized by tissue, are mechanically cumbersome to administer, and may cause undesired immunological effects in the long term.
Another material used for prosthetic tissue engineering is collagen from pig or beef sources. However, collagen has several mechanical limitations and may reduce the new collagen synthesis by cells that are incorporated in it. There is also concern regarding the safety of animal collagen products for medical implantation and its use has been severely limited in Europe.
Fibrin microbeads (FMB) have been disclosed as possessing both chemotactic and proliferative effects for certain types of cells in U.S. application Ser. No. 08/934,283, filed in Sep. 19, 1997 and Gorodetsky, R., Vexler A., Shamir M., An J., Levdansky L., and Marx G. (1999). J. Invest. Dermatol. 112, 866–872 (1999)). The cells that are attracted to FMB include fibroblasts and smooth muscle endothelial cells, but typically not keratinocytes. The cells were shown to migrate into these FMB by chemotaxis, attach to them (haptotaxis) and then to proliferate on the FMB. Furthermore, the cells were shown to remain stable for prolonged periods of time when cultured within the FMB. Thus, the disclosed FMB appeared to stimulate both cell chemotaxis, haptotaxis and cell growth.
However, the fibrin microbeads themselves have certain inherent limitations. For example, the FMB are particularly useful only as three-dimensional micro-structures. If other structures were desired, and in particular if the lack of such was desired, FMB would not be particularly useful Furthermore, FMB would not be particularly useful for avoiding the use of blood plasma proteins.
A more useful approach would identify the epitopes of fibrin(ogen) responsible for its chemotactic and haptotactic properties. Attempts have been made to find these small epitopes within the larger fibrin(ogen) molecule. A voluminous literature exists which describes the binding of fibrinogen (γ400–411) to platelets through the GPIIb/IIa receptor (see for example Savage B., Bottini E. & Ruggeri Z M., "Interaction of integrin alpha IIb beta with multiple fibrinogen domains during platelet adhesion", J. Biol. Chem. 270: 28812–7 (1995)), and the aggregation activity of the amino Bβ 15–42 terminus which is exposed after release of fibrinopeptide B. In addition, a peptide containing the 16 amino acids of the sequence of the γ-carboxy terminus of fibrinogen was synthesized and was found to bind to platelet integrin (D'Souza, S. E. et al., J. Biol. Chem., 265:3440–3446, 1990). However, the biological activities of only a few other fibrinogen breakdown products have been investigated with cells and the activity of these different breakdown products seems to be widely variable.
In another example, fibrinogen fragment E was reported to exhibit angiogenic properties and to inhibit endothelial cell migration in a Boyden chamber chemotactic assay (Thompson, W. D., Smith, E. B., Stirk, C. M., Marshall, F. I., Stout, A. J. and Kocchar, A., "Angiogenic activity of fibrin degradation products is located in fibrin fragment E", J. Pathol. 168: 47–53 (1992)). Fragment D was reported to cause detachment of cultured endothelial cells from the extracellular matrix (ECM) substratum in a process which was both concentration and time dependent (Savage B., Bottini E. & Ruggeri Z M., "Interaction of integrin alpha IIb beta with multiple fibrinogen domains during platelet adhesion", J. Biol. Chem. 270: 28812–7 (1995)). Isolated constituent chains of fibrinogen (Aα1, Aα2 and Bβ) released upon activation of the fibrinogen by thrombin were observed to stimulate fibroblast proliferation by 23–31% above controls whereas isolated γ chain had no effect (Gray. A. J., Bishop, J. E., Reeves, J. T. and Laurent, G. J.; "Aα and Bβ Chains of fibrinogen stimulate proliferation of human fibroblasts", J. Cell Sci., 104: 409–413, (1993)). Human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) were shown to bind to fibrin(ogen) coated surfaces via a type 3 (CD11b/CD18) complement receptor homologous to the GPIIb/IIIa receptor through a decamer of the γ chain carboxy terminus (LGGAKQAGDV). Vasoactive peptides corresponding to residues 43–47 of the Bβ chain and 220–230 of the Aα chain were identified (Gray A. J., Bishop, J. E., Reeves, J. T. and Laurent, G. J.; "Aα and Bβ Chains of fibrinogen stimulate proliferation of human fibroblasts", J. Cell Sci., 104: 409–413, (1993)).
The biological activities of only few other fibrinogen breakdown products have been investigated, whose cellular activity seems to be widely variable (Saldeen T: Vasoactive peptides derived from degradation of Fibrinogen and fibrin. Proc. NY Acad Sci USA, 408: 424–431 (1983)).
Fibrinogen itself when bound to sepharose beads, did not significantly affect cell proliferation, but elicited haplotactic/attachment reactions from human (HF) or mouse (MF) fibroblasts, endothelial cells (EC) and smooth muscle (SMC) cells. Thrombin treatment of fibrinogen-sepharose beads (SB-fib), which would not affect the carboxy termini of the molecule, did not alter cellular responses, though plasmin, which clips off gamma carboxy termini and digests D-domain sequences, nearly totally abrogated the cell-attractant properties of SB-fib (Gorodetsky R., Vexler A., An J., Mou X, Marx G. (1998) J. Lab. Clin. Med. 131: 269–280).
Specific epitopes on fibrinogen have been hypothesized to express cell binding (haptotactic) properties. However, the amino acid sequence(s) of such putative haptotactic epitopes have not yet been specified. The identification of such epitopes would have a number of applications, enabling more specific intervention in the wound healing process and in the development of novel therapeutic compositions or devices. Furthermore, novel diagnostic tests for testing cellular haptotactic responses could potentially be developed. Thus, the identification of these specific epitopes or peptides exhibiting cellular activity would have great utility.
There is thus a recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a peptide or peptides with specifically determined cellular effects, such as cell proliferative or chemotactic or haptotactic properties, which do not require the presence of the entirety of the fibrin molecule to exert cellular effects.

Medical Research Services and Development Ltd.


A semiconductor memory device which includes at least two memory cell arrays, a sense amplifier shared by the memory cell arrays and at least two transfer gates connected respectively between each of the memory cell arrays and the sense amplifier. The semiconductor memory device further includes a first voltage supplier supplying a first voltage to the transfer gates, and a second voltage supplier supplying a second voltage to the transfer gates, with second voltage being higher than the first voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a semiconductor memory device and a testing method thereof, and more particularly, to a semiconductor memory device and a testing method thereof which device is tested by using a high voltage.
2. Description of the Related Art
In developing a semiconductor memory device, reducing a circuit scale has always been a concern, and thus conventional technologies have devised a semiconductor memory device having a plurality of memory cell arrays sharing a sense amplifier. The sense amplifier is generally referred to as a shared sense amplifier.
In the semiconductor memory device having the above-mentioned structure, two memory cell arrays, for example, share a sense amplifier. A gate, referred to as a bit-line transfer (BT) gate, is provided between each of the memory cell arrays and the sense amplifier. The opening and closing of each of the BT gates is controlled according to which of the memory cell arrays is targeted in reading data so that data is read selectively from either of the memory cell arrays into the sense amplifier.
Conventionally, the above-mentioned BT gates are controlled by a method referred to as xe2x80x9cVPP driving method via VDDxe2x80x9d. In the xe2x80x9cVPP driving method via VDDxe2x80x9d, the electric potentials of BT gate drive lines regulating the opening and closing of the BT gates are at the level of a power-source voltage VDD in a standby state, and then in reading or writing data, the level is driven to the level of a boosted voltage VPP or a ground voltage VSS. This method is effective in reducing an amount of electric power being consumed compared to a method of driving the BT gates continuously by the boosted voltage VPP.
However, in a wafer-level burn-in (WLBI) test, when applying a voltage of, for example, 4V to a bit line, a voltage higher than the 4V by a threshold voltage of transistors composing the BT gate has to be applied to gates of the transistors. Raising the level of the above-mentioned power-source voltage VDD to a level higher than the 4V imposes unnecessary stress on the sense amplifier supplied with the power-source voltage VDD and controlling circuits thereof, more specifically, transistors and other devices included in these circuits, the transistors and other devices having a short-length gate and driven by the internal power-source voltage. Hence, there is a problem that a WLBI test cannot be sufficiently performed.
It is noted that the xe2x80x9cWLBI testxe2x80x9d here means a test investigating stresses such as a leak between adjacent bit lines, or between opposing memory cells connected to a bit line leading to a sense amplifier.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide an improved and useful semiconductor memory device and a testing method thereof in which device and method the above-mentioned problems are eliminated.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor memory device which device can be tested by using a high voltage with ease, and a testing method thereof which method can test a semiconductor memory device by using a high voltage with ease.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, there is provided according to one aspect of the present invention a semiconductor memory device comprising:
at least two memory cell arrays;
a sense amplifier shared by the memory cell arrays;
at least two transfer gates connected respectively between each of the memory cell arrays and the sense amplifier;
a first voltage supplier supplying a first voltage to the transfer gates; and
a second voltage supplier supplying a second voltage to the transfer gates, the second voltage being higher than the first voltage.
The present invention can prevent unnecessary stress from imposing on unintended circuits of the semiconductor memory device.
Additionally, the semiconductor memory device according to the present invention may have a normal-operation mode and a test mode testing a quality of the memory cell arrays, wherein the second voltage supplier may be activated only in the test mode.
According to the present invention, a test testing a quality of the memory cell arrays can be easily performed.
Additionally, in the semiconductor memory device according to the present invention, the first voltage supplier may supply the transfer gates with the first voltage, in a first state in the normal-operation mode, and may supply at least one of the transfer gates with one of voltages opening and closing the transfer gate, in a second state in the normal-operation mode.
According to the present invention, reading and writing data from/to the memory cell arrays can be performed easily.
Additionally, in the semiconductor memory device according to the present invention, the second voltage supplier may supply the second voltage to all of the transfer gates.
According to the present invention, the above-mentioned test can be performed to all of the memory cell arrays at the same time.
Specifically, in the semiconductor memory device according to the present invention, each of the transfer gates may include at least one transistor having a gate supplied with the first voltage and the second voltage.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, there is also provided according to another aspect of the present invention a method of testing a semiconductor memory device including at least two memory cell arrays, a sense amplifier shared by the memory cell arrays, and at least two transfer gates connected respectively between each of the memory cell arrays and the sense amplifier, the method comprising the step of:
supplying the transfer gates with a higher voltage in a test than a voltage supplied in a normal operation.
The testing method according to the present invention can prevent unnecessary stress from imposing on unintended circuits of the semiconductor memory device.
Additionally, in the method according to the present invention, the semiconductor memory device may have a test mode testing a quality of the memory cell arrays, and the step of supplying may include regulating the higher voltage supplied to the transfer gates according to a signal activated by the semiconductor memory device in the test mode.
According to the present invention, a test testing a quality of the memory cell arrays can be easily performed.
Additionally, the method according to the present invention may further comprise the steps of:
supplying the transfer gates with a first voltage, in a first state in the normal operation; and
supplying at least one of the transfer gates with one of second and third voltages opening and closing the transfer gate, in a second state in the normal operation.
According to the present invention, reading and writing data from/to the memory cell arrays can be performed easily.
Additionally, in the method according to the present invention, the step of supplying may supply the higher voltage to all of the transfer gates.
According to the present invention, the above-mentioned test can be performed to all of the memory cell arrays at the same time.
Specifically, in the method according to the present invention, each of the transfer gates may include at least one transistor, and the step of supplying may supply the higher voltage to a gate of the transistor.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Semiconductor memory device having a second voltage supplier supplying transfer gates with a second voltage higher than a first voltage


A device, system and method for self-administration of a bolus dosage of a treatment fluid are disclosed. A device according to embodiments of the present invention may comprise a housing comprising an external lever operable by a user, an internal lever, for applying pressure to a compression spring, which in turn may press a piston to pressurize treatment fluid contained in an internal reservoir, in a high flow rate, through a small diameter catheter, into a patient body. A system according to some embodiment may comprise a device having an external reservoir connected to an inlet thereof, and a catheter connected to an outlet thereof. A method according to some embodiments may comprise actuating levers of the device, compressing a partially loaded compression spring contained in a spring cage, and pressurizing fluid contained in an internal reservoir of the device to be released through an outlet of the device.

Since the early 1990's, the use of infusion pumps to continuously administer anesthetic medications has been common practice for achieving long term continuous regional anesthesia (such pumps are sometimes referred to as "pain-pumps"). These pumps are either electro-mechanical pumps or mechanical pumps, most of them designed to be ambulatory, utilizing a carrying pouch or similar means.
Post-operative patients and some oncology patients are among those who may require continuous regional anesthesia, which can be achieved by the steady infusion of an analgesic medication, supplied subcutaneously and/or submuscularly by means of an infusion pump connected to a designated catheter. The designated catheter is connected to the patient, who normally receives a dosage of about 2 ml/hr to 12 ml/hr therethrough.
Postoperative patients may suffer severe pain, for example, as a result of movements or of unpredictable incidence. Such severe pain is addressed either by complementary medications or by adding additional anesthetic medication doses.
Currently, there are two main clinical procedures that are used for continuous long terms regional anesthesia. The first method is Surgical Site Infiltration (SSI, or sometimes called Wound Bathing), in which the medication is introduced into or near to the surgical incision by the use of a catheter with a long fenestrated segment inserted into the patient body tissue. The second method is Continuous Peripheral Nerve Block (CPNB), in which the medication is introduced close to the main nerve that controls the area of the pain source (mainly, the area of the surgical incision).
Some pumps are equipped with a Patient Control Analgesia (PCA) device that enables the patient to administer additional medication to deal with severe pain. When the PCA device is activated, a relatively large medication volume (bolus) is injected at a relatively high flow-rate. In parallel PCA administration (the most common version), the bolus medication is in addition to the pump basal flow. In in-line (series) administration, only the bolus medication is delivered. Efficient pain blockage is achieved once the nerve cord is fully circulated with the anesthetic medication. Fully circulated medication spread over the nerve cord is achieved with bolus' flow rate of at-least 5 ml/minute to 6 ml/minute, while the volume of medication delivered is typically between 4 ml to 10 ml, depending on the specific nerve that is being blocked.
As a result of the high hydraulic resistance of a typical Nerve Blocking (NB) catheter, the maximum bolus flow rate of the prior art infusion pumps is about 1.0 ml/minute to 1.5 ml/minute.
Furthermore, prior art mechanical devices fail to efficiently and safely prevent parallel continuous flow through the bolus unit when not being activated. Moreover, the designs of prior art mechanical devices fail to be intuitively activated by those out-patients who have been trained only shortly after being released from the recovery room and don't recall how to activate the bolus unit.

Device, system and method for self-administration of a treatment fluid


Piperazine derivatives, particularly ranolazine, are useful for treatment of tissues experiencing a physical or chemical insult, and specifically for treating cardioplegia, hypoxic and/or reperfusion injury to cardiac or skeletal muscle or brain tissue, and for use in transplants.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of treatment using ranolazine or another piperazine derivative compound of Formula I, particularly to methods of using ranolazine for treatment of tissues experiencing a physical or chemical insult, and specifically to methods of treating cardioplegia, hypoxic and/or reperfusion injury to cardiac or skeletal muscle or brain tissue, and for use in transplants.
2. Background Information
Ranolazine, i.e., .+-.N-(2,6-dimethylphenyl)-4-2-hydroxy-3-(2-methoxyphenoxy)propyl!-1-pipe razine acetamide or 1-3-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-2-hydroxypropyl!-4-(2,6-dimethylphenyl)aminocarbo nylmethyl!piperazine, and the dihydrochloride salt thereof, and the compounds of Formula I, are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,264, incorporated herein by reference. Ranolazine is disclosed as a calcium entry blocking compound useful in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, such as, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, angina and arrhythmia.
The anti-ischemic effects of ranolazine have been described in a number of publications, such as, Jain et al, "A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF A NEW ANTI-ANGINAL AGENT", Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 252 (October 1987); Allely and Alps, "THE EFFECTS OF THE NOVEL ANTI-ANGINAL AGENT RANOLAZINE (I.D.) IN A CANINE MODEL OF TRANSIENT MYOCARDIAL ISCHAEMIA", Br. J. Pharmacol., 1988, 22, 246P; and by Ferrandon et al., "PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF THE NOVEL ANTI-ISCHAEMIC AGENT RANOLAZINE (RS-43285) IN PERFUSED RAT HEARTS", Br, J. Pharmacol., 1988, 93, 247P, where utility in protecting hearts from the potentially lethal biochemical and functional injury produced: by ischaemia and/or reperfusion was reported. Tissue protection, however, is not achieved by a calcium entry blockade nor by a beta-blockade mechanism (Brown et al., Br. J. Pharmacol. 1988, 93, 248P), nor would such active agents be expected to have a tissue protective effect. Moreover, cardiodepression has been identified as a limiting factor for extensive use of CEBs in the treatment of cardio-related ischaemic conditions (Packer, et al., Circn., 75(V), 56-64, 1987; Barjon, et al., J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., 9, 622-630, 1987).

Methods of treatment using ranolazine and related piperazine derivatives


Compositions containing p-dinitrosobenzene deposited onto a support of a chemically inert material which is solid at room temperature are provided. The composition is preferably formed by depositing p-dinitrosobenzene from a solution or by sublimation or in the course of its synthesis in the presence of one or more supports. Hydrophilic or hydrophobic silica, hydrophobicized zeolites, carbon blacks and layer silicates are examples of supports. The composition is useful in the production of adhesives, more particularly for bonding elastomers, e.g. in the polymerization or crosslinking of elastomers, and even more particularly in the bonding of rubber to metal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to p-dinitrosobenzene on a support, to its production and to its use as a crosslinking aid.
2. Discussion of Related Art
p-Dinitrosobenzene (DNB) is a finely crystalline, dark green product which is only sparingly soluble in alcohol, xylene and water. It is supplied in the form of an approximately 25 to 50% suspension in aromatic hydrocarbons. It is used as a highly active crosslinking agent, for example in adhesives, and as a sulfur-free vulcanizing agent for synthetic and natural rubber mixtures.
Thus, DE 22 28 544 describes a binder for the production of composites by vulcanization of rubber mixtures onto metals or other stable substrates. In addition to chlorosulfonated polyethylene, chlorinated rubber, polyisocyanates and a phenolic resin, this binder also contains dinitrosobenzene in the form of a suspension in solvents.
In DE 34 00 852, DNB is described as a constituent of a moisture-curing one-component polyurethane lacquer for coating elastomers. The DNB may be used both in the form of a pure chemical substance and in the form of a 30 to 40% suspension in quantities of 0.5 to 4% by weight, based on the solventless lacquer resins.
In DE 34 00 340, DNB is described as a constituent of an adhesive for the electrostatic flocking of flexible substrates. The adhesive additionally consists of an isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer, a reaction product of polyfunctional epoxides with aromatic diisocyanates and solvents and/or dispersants. The DNB is present in quantities of 0.5 to 4% by weight, based on the solventless adhesive. It may be used both as a pure substance or as a solution or dispersion in nonsolvents. Although reference is made to a 30 to 40% by weight solution of dinitrosobenzene, for example in xylene, toluene or methyl isobutyl ketone, the dinitrosobenzene cannot be p-dinitrosobenzene because p-dinitrosobenzene only forms an approximately 2% solution in boiling xylene (see P. Ruggli and G. Bartusch in Helvetia Chimia Acta 27 (1944), page 1371 et seq.).
DE 30 35 181 describes a bonding agent based on an aqueous dispersion of an organic polymeric film former for bonding rubber to metallic or non-metallic substrates under vulcanization conditions, the dispersion containing adhesion-promoting additives, an aromatic polynitroso compound and optionally fillers. The aromatic polynitroso compound is inter alia dinitrosobenzene which is added as a 40% aqueous dispersion consisting of 5 parts of dinitrosobenzene, 1 part of carbon black and 9 parts of water in quantities of 10 to 100 parts by weight, based on the copolymer.
DE 12 72 301 describes the thermal stabilization of aromatic nitroso compounds by an addition of 20 to 200% by weight, based on the dinitroso compound, of a decomposable metal or ammonium salt or by addition of 0 to 234% by weight, based on the dinitroso compound, of a silicate-containing water adsorbent. MgSO.sub.4.7H.sub.2 O is preferably used as the salt. Calcium silicate, clay and other inert fillers and carriers are mentioned as adsorbents.
Although the known use of DNB in binders leads to permanent bonds, more particularly between synthetic or natural rubber and metals, and although the bonds thus obtained are also distinguished by high permanent strength and by high resistance to aggressive media, it is also attended by disadvantages. Unreacted DNB can give rise to continuing vulcanization in the event of subsequent heat treatment, resulting in unwanted embrittlement of the bond. DNB is also relatively expensive.

Henkel Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien (KGaA)


When a time card is inserted in a time recorder, for daily flextime, and selection is made of a work starting time column using a printing column selection key, the current time is printed onto a specific location of the work starting time column of the card. The printer time may be a work starting time rounded off in any desired manner. The standard number of work hours is stored in a memory circuit and any break times are added to the standard number to obtain an anticipated work ending time. The anticipated work ending time is displayed on a display unit and/or printed on the card.

Conventional time recorders exist which print the starting and work ending times, calculate the total of the working hours and overtime hours for each day, and have prestored starting and work ending times. Based on these stored times, times that are later than normal work starting times and earlier than normal work ending times are printed in separate colors.
When a time recorder of the kind described above is used at companies which adopt a flextime in which the actual working hours in a day are fixed, but in which the work starting and ending times are not fixed, it is necessary to perform the troublesome verification of the work ending time by adding the fixed working hours and resting hours for a day to the printed work starting time.


The present invention provides an adjustable body spray including an adjustable spray assembly and an adjustable mounting assembly that, alone or in combination, ensure proper alignment of components of the body spray and adequate sealing between the components.

When installing a traditional body spray, all of the components need to be properly aligned in order for a spray face to be mounted flush with an escutcheon and the spray face to be centered in an opening in the escutcheon. If misalignments are introduced during installation, the spray face will not be mounted flush with the escutcheon and/or the spray face will not be centered in the opening in the escutcheon.