This invention relates to glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2) derivatives. In particular this invention relates to GLP-2 peptide derivatives having an extended in vivo half-life, for the treatment or prevention of gastrointestinal disorders or diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and other gastrointestinal functions, from any segment of the gastrointestinal tract, from the oesophagus to the anus.

GLP-2 is a 33 amino acid peptide expressed in a tissue-specific manner from the pleiotropic proglucagon gene, and thus part of the glucagon super-family of peptide hormones. Alternative post-translational processing of proglucagon occurs in pancreas, intestine and brain. Enzymatic cleavages in proglucagon produce numerous multifunctional peptide hormones involved in nutrient metabolism. The major bioactive hormones derived from proglucagon are in the pancreatic α-cells, and GLP-1 and GLP-2 in the intestinal L-cells and brain. It was first discovered to possess potent intestinotropic properties by Drucker et al. (see Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 1996, 93, (115), 7911–7916). GLP-2, as a natural intestinal-derived peptide, has been demonstrated to have a significant reparative activity for the mucosal epithelium of the small and large intestine. It has also been demonstrated to increase the ability of the intestine to digest and absorb nutrients, suggesting a potential therapeutic role in the treatment of intestinal insufficiency. Indeed, intestinal damage in rodent models of colitis, enteritis, total parenteral nutrition and massive resection. Very recently, phase 2 clinical trials of GLP-2 have also been reported, in which patients with short bowel syndrome were demonstrated to exhibit an enhanced ability to absorb enteral nutrients after 30 days of GLP-2 administration, with apparently no undesirable side effects.
The principal metabolic pathway for GLP-2 clearance is through enzymatic degradation. GLP-2 has been shown to be rapidly degraded through the removal of its two N-terminal amino acids by dipeptidylpeptidase-IV (DPP-IV), which represents a major limitation because it leads to the complete inactivation of the peptide. As a result, the half-life of GLP-2 is thus quite short, and current GLP-2 treatment necessitates infusion or frequent injections. Renal clearance has also been shown to be involved in the clearance of GLP-2. The major action of GLP-2 involves stimulation of cell growth, and the mechanism coupling GLP-2 receptor activation, directly or indirectly, to cell proliferation has not been examined.
It has been shown that peptide analogs of native GLP-2 possess enhanced trophic activity at the small intestine as GLP-2 receptor agonists (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,077).
Although very useful, a critical disadvantage of GLP-2 peptides and analogs, as stated above, is their very short half-lives in vivo, which is typically not more than 2 minutes.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a group of chronic disorders that cause inflammation or ulceration in the small and large intestines. It may even be life threatening, and there is currently no known cure. IBD commonly refers to ulcerative colitis (UC), limited to the colon and Crohn's disease (CD) which can involve the entire gastrointestinal tract, resulting in a chronic cycle of remissions and flares. Many pharmaceutical products are known to treat IBD, for example to suppress inflammation, to prevent flare-ups, to control symptoms such as pain or diarrhea, or to replace or supplement essential nutrients that are poorly absorbed because of extensive disease or surgery. Current treatment options include a wide variety of pharmaceutical products like aminosalicylates, corticosteroids, immune modulators, and anti-TNF-α agent, and are designed to reduce inflammation and relieve symptoms in addition to replacing lost fluids and nutrients. Most of these products however have a limited use in IBD because of their undesirable side effects on the body in general.
Approximately one million patients are treated for IBD every year in the United States and Europe, most of them generally suffering from either Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. In fact, it is not uncommon for subjects suffering from IBD to undergo radical surgery involving the removal of major parts of the intestine. Direct annual healthcare costs of IBD are approximately $US 700 million, and the total economic impact of both direct and indirect costs approximate between $2 and $3 billion a year worldwide. Existing treatments, while often providing relief, have some shortcomings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,379 teaches GLP-2 analogs among which one has been developed as DPP-IV degradation of GLP-2 appears to be somehow prevented, its half-life remains limited by renal clearance, and does not exceed 2 minutes, as stated above.
A chimeric antibody (Remicade™) has been developed to bind specifically to human tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) for the short-term treatment of Crohn's. This antibody is indicated for the reduction of the symptoms of moderate to severe Crohn's disease in patients who have had an inadequate response to conventional therapy with corticosteroids, other immunosuppressants and/or antibiotics. Nevertheless, serious side effects are observed with such treatment. For example, it has been associated with hypersensitivity reaction, serious infections including sepsis, as well as fatal infections. Its administration could further predispose patients to infections through TNF-blocking.
With the prevalence of IBD increasing in recent years, it would therefore be highly desirable to develop GLP-2 peptide derivatives or analogs capable of substantially maintaining the same level of activity, low toxicity and therapeutic advantages as GLP-2, but with a much longer in vivo half-life, thus avoiding the necessity for continuous administration thereof in the treatment of various diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis representing the two major inflammatory bowel diseases.

Long lasting glucagon-like peptide 2 (glp-2) for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases and disorders


A continuous stream ink jet printer is provided having an ink droplet forming mechanism for ejecting a stream of ink droplets having a selected one of at least two different volumes toward a print medium and a droplet deflector and ink conduit which are integrally formed to the printhead for producing a flow of gas that interacts with the ink droplet stream to separate droplets having different volumes and collects all droplets not used for printing. The provision of integrally forming the gutter system with the droplet forming mechanism eliminates the requirement to align an external gutter system upon full print engine assembly.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,821 issued to Chwalek et al. discloses a continuous ink jet printhead in which deflection of selected droplets is accomplished by asymmetric heating of the jet exiting the orifice.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,410 by Jeanmaire et al. teaches an improved method of deflecting the selected droplets. This method involves breaking up each jet into small and large drops and creating an air or gas cross flow relative to the direction of the flight of the drops that causes the small drops to deflect into a gutter or ink catcher while the large ones bypass it and land on the medium to write the desired image or the reverse, that is, the large drops are caught by the gutter and the small ones reach the medium.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,450,619 to Anagnostopoulos et al. discloses a method of fabricating nozzle plates, using CMOS and MEMS technologies which can be used in the above printhead. Further, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,663,221, issued to Anagnostopoulos et al., methods are disclosed of fabricating page wide nozzle plates, whereby page wide means nozzle plates that are about 4″ long and longer. A nozzle plate, as defined here, consists of an array of nozzles and each nozzle has an exit orifice around which, and in close proximity, is a heater. Logic circuits addressing each heater and drivers to provide current to the heater may be located on the same substrate as the heater or may be external to it.
For a complete continuous ink jet printhead, besides the nozzle plate and its associated electronics, a means to deflect the selected droplets is required, an ink gutter or catcher to collect the unselected droplets, an ink recirculation or disposal system, various air and ink filters, ink and air supply means and other mounting and aligning hardware are needed.
In these continuous ink jet printheads the nozzles in the nozzle plates are arranged in a straight line, they are between about 150 to 2400 per inch and, depending on the exit orifice diameter, can produce droplets as large as about 100 Pico liters and as small as 1 Pico liter.
As already mentioned, all continuous ink jet printheads, including those that depend on electrostatic deflection of the selected droplets (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,409 issued to Simon et al), an ink gutter or catcher 10 is needed to collect the unselected droplets. Such a gutter has to be carefully aligned relative to the nozzle array since the angular separation between the selected and unselected droplets is, typically, only a few degrees. The alignment process is typically a very laborious procedure and increases substantially the cost of the printhead. The printhead cost is also increased because each gutter must be aligned to its corresponding nozzle plate individually and one at a time.
The gutter or catcher may contain a knife-edge or some other type of edge to collect the unselected droplets, and that edge has to be straight to within a few tens of microns from one end to the other. Gutters are typically made of materials that are different from the nozzle plate and as such they have different thermal coefficients of expansion so that if the ambient temperature changes the gutter and nozzle array can be in enough misalignment to cause the printhead to fail. Since the gutter is typically attached to some frame using alignment screws, the alignment can be lost if the printhead assembly is subjected to shock as can happen during shipment. If the gutter is attached to the frame using an adhesive, misalignment can occur during the curing of the glue as it hardens, resulting in yield loss of printheads during their assembly.
These problems of alignment and assembly are exacerbated as the printhead lengths are increased from an inch or less to page wide which could be tens of inches long.
A need therefore exists for an assembly free and self-aligned ink gutter or catcher for page wide nozzle arrays that is free of misalignment due to changes in the ambient or operating temperature. Furthermore, a need exists for an ink gutter or catcher that is assembly free and self aligned to smaller nozzle arrays, which may then be arranged in a staggered or tiled configuration to form page wide continuous ink jet printheads. Finally, a need exists to reduce the cost of the printheads by eliminating the labor-intensive alignment procedure and the one at a time alignment process of each nozzle plate to its corresponding gutter.

Continuous ink jet printing apparatus with integral deflector and gutter structure


One or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, devices, and systems for operating memory devices having fuse circuits. One method embodiment includes detecting a signal indicating whether a voltage used during operation of at least one of a number of fuse circuits has reached a threshold level, initializing at least one of the number of fuse circuits in response to detecting that the voltage has reached the threshold level, and reading an output of at least one of the number of fuse circuits at least partially in response to a detected state change of an output of the at least one initialized fuse circuit.

Memory devices are typically provided as internal, semiconductor, integrated circuits in computers or other electronic devices. There are many different types of memory including random-access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), and flash memory, among others.
Flash memory devices are utilized as non-volatile memory for a wide range of electronic applications. Flash memory devices typically use a one-transistor memory cell that allows for high memory densities, high reliability, and low power consumption.
Uses for flash memory include memory for personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, and cellular telephones. Program code and system data, such as a basic input/output system (BIOS), are typically stored in flash memory devices. This information can be used in personal computer systems, among other types of electronic systems.
Many memory devices include fuse circuits having memory cells which are used to store information referred to as fuse data. The fuse data can include, for example, redundancy addresses and data used to adjust the levels of various voltages and/or currents generated inside memory chips. Incorrect and/or unreliable data can be read from fuse circuits during power up of a memory device due to the fact that the supply voltage of the device is ramping to a VCC level. An incorrect fuse read operation can result in operational errors such as erroneous redundancy address selection or erroneous trimming operations, among others.


A laser processing system including a laser processing machine capable of operating along an inherent control axis, an axis driving section driving the control axis of the laser processing machine, a laser oscillator supplying a laser beam to the laser processing machine, a control unit controlling the axis driving section and the laser oscillator, and a transfer line connecting the axis driving section and the laser oscillator to the control unit in a daisy-chain mode. The control unit includes a data preparing section preparing, from a given laser processing program, motion data commanded to the axis driving section and laser output-condition data commanded to the laser oscillator; a data converting section converting the motion data and the laser output-condition data, prepared by the data preparing section, into serial data including the motion data and the laser output-condition data described in a time-series fashion, based on a communication data format common to the axis driving section and the laser oscillator; and a data transmitting section transmitting the serial data, obtained by the data converting section, to the transfer line at a predetermined command cycle common to the motion data and the laser output-condition data included in the serial data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In laser processing systems, it is known that a laser processing machine capable of operating along an inherent control axis, such as orthogonal three axes of a machine tool or a rotation axis of a manipulator, is provided. This type of laser processing system is generally provided with an axis driving section (including a servo-amplifier and a servomotor) for driving the control axis of the laser processing machine, a laser oscillator for supplying a laser beam to the laser processing machine, a control unit for controlling the axis driving section and the laser oscillator, and other peripheral devices.
In the above conventional laser processing system, the control unit is usually connected to the axis driving section, the laser oscillator and the other desired peripheral devices, by using mutually different interfaces. The control unit sends a motion command to the servo-amplifier of the desired axis driving section so as to operate the servomotor, at a predetermined command cycle (such as a interpolation cycle in a numerical control) in accordance with a given laser processing program, and drives the desired control axis so as to shift, along a designated path, a table on which a material to be processed is mounted or a processing nozzle for emitting a laser beam. At the same time, the control unit sends a command regarding various output conditions, such as an emission, a halting, a peak power, a frequency, etc., of a laser beam, to the laser oscillator, at a command cycle usually identical to the cycle of the axis motion command, in accordance with the laser processing program. Thus, the laser oscillator supplies a laser beam of a desired power to the laser processing machine at a desired timing during the operation of the laser processing machine, so as to make the laser processing machine execute laser processing.
In the control unit, motion command data (referred to as motion data in the present application) adapted to be sent to the servo-amplifier and output-condition command data (referred to as laser output-condition data, in the present application) adapted to be sent to the laser oscillator are simultaneously prepared on the basis of the given laser processing program. However, there usually are differences in transfer cycles (i.e., inherent transfer timings) and transfer speeds, between an interface connected to the servo-amplifier and an interface connected to the laser oscillator, both provided in the control unit, so that a time lag arises between the time when the servo-amplifier receives the command and the time when the laser oscillator receives the command. The time lag in association with the data transfer may deteriorate a laser processing accuracy.
For example, in some cases, in order to decrease the cycle time of a laser processing, a desired laser processing is carried out by repeating the emission and halting of a laser beam while operating the laser processing machine at an approximately constant speed. In this case, there is a concern about the fact that a starting point and an ending point of an actual laser processing on the material to be processed is deviated from a target position, due to the above-described time lag in relation to the data transfer. Further, the time of changing a laser output condition (such as a starting or ending of a laser oscillation) designated in the processing program does not necessarily coincide with the above-described command cycle in relation to the data transmission, and, in some cases, the change of the laser output condition is commanded at a timing deviated from the command cycle. In this case, the laser oscillator cannot change the laser output condition until a next command cycle starts, which is subsequent to the cycle in which the change of the laser output condition is commanded in the data received from the control unit, so that the laser oscillator executes the change the laser output condition after a certain delay from the command timing. As a result, there is also a concern about the fact that an actual laser processing area on the material to be processed includes more or less errors relative to a designated processing area (such as a positional deviation of a starting or ending point). The processing errors in the actual processing area tend to become larger when a laser processing speed (i.e., the moving speed of the laser processing machine) increases.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-167549 (JP-A-2004-167549) discloses a laser processing machine configured to make it possible to change a laser output condition at a designated timing, without waiting for the start of the subsequent command cycle, in the case where the time of changing the laser output condition in a laser processing program does not coincide with a command cycle of a data transmission. The laser processing machine is configured to calculate a time, on the laser processing program, from the start of a command cycle (or an interpolation cycle), including a changing command of a laser output condition, to the issuance of the command for changing the laser output condition, and, at an instant when the calculated time is spent from the start of the command cycle, to actually command the change of the laser output condition. With this arrangement, it is possible to eliminate a processing error in the actual processing area due to the delay in changing of the laser output condition.
As described above, in order to perform a high-precision processing in the laser processing machine, it is desired to accurately switch or change the various output conditions, such as the emission, the halting, the peak power, the frequency, etc., of a laser beam at a target position, even when the laser processing machine is continuously operating. However, in the conventional laser processing system, a processing error may arise in the actual processing area due to the time lag in association with the data transfer for the axis driving section and for the laser oscillator. The processing error due to the time lag relating to the data transfer is not so serious in a processing speed range in a general or conventional laser processing machine. However, due to a recent development in a laser processing technique or a servo technique, the processing speed of the laser processing machine is improved remarkably and, therefore, the deterioration in a processing accuracy due to the above-described factors becomes more significant.
In order to minimize the processing error due to the time lag in the data transfer, it is effective to shorten a data transfer cycle or increase a data transfer speed, at the individual interfaces in the control unit, respectively connected to the axis driving section and the laser oscillator, which may, however, increase the cost of building the system. On the other hand, the technique described in JP-A-2004-167549 makes it possible to change the laser output condition at a designated timing, without waiting for the subsequent command cycle, in the case where the time of changing the laser output condition in the laser processing program does not coincide with the command cycle of the data transmission. However, based on this technique, it is also difficult to solve the problem of time lag in the data transfer due to the difference of the interfaces in the control unit.


An endoscope insertion portion of the invention includes a distal end portion, and a plurality of image pickup portions each including an image pickup device for obtaining an endoscope image, wherein the plurality of image pickup portions are disposed in the distal end portion such that agreement is made between first and second electric charge transfer directions in which electric charges are transferred from each photoelectric conversion device of the respective image pickup devices, thus avoiding a sense of incongruity (stress to a user) from being caused by endoscope images displayed on a monitor, which are obtained by a plurality of image pickup units.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope insertion portion of an endoscope having a plurality of observation optical systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, endoscopes have been widely used in the medical field and the like. With an endoscope, for example, internal organs in a body cavity can be observed by inserting an elongated insertion portion into the body cavity, and various treatments can be performed using a treatment instrument inserted into a treatment instrument insertion channel as necessary. At a distal end of the insertion portion, a bending portion is provided. By operating an operation portion of the endoscope, observing direction of an observation window at a distal end portion can be changed.
In general, an endoscope is provided with an air/water feeding nozzle for cleaning for a case where body fluid or the like adheres on an outer surface of the observation optical system of the endoscope to disturb the observation when the endoscope is inserted into the body cavity. The outer surface of the observation optical system of the endoscope can be secured of a clean observation field of view with, for example, a cleaning liquid spouted out or air sprayed from the air/water feeding nozzle.
For example, an endoscope having a plurality of observation optical systems is proposed as described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 06-154155. This endoscope has a plurality of image pickup units, wherein the plurality of observation optical systems and an aperture of an air/water feeding nozzle are located at a distal end of an insertion portion to line up on a generally straight line.
With the endoscope including the plurality of image pickup units, an endoscope image obtained by each of the units is displayed on one monitor through switching drivings of the respective image pickup units.


An electrostatic image developing toner including a binder resin; and a colorant, and satisfying following conditions (1) and (2):0.02≦CA/CB≦0.20  (1)1≦Nt/St≦15  (2)wherein CA represents an amount of a carboxyl group and its salt on a surface of the toner, CB represents an amount of a carboxyl group and its salt in the entire toner, Nt represents an amount of a nitrogen element on the surface of the toner, and St represents an amount of a sulfur element on the surface of the toner.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electrostatic image developing toner, an electrostatic image developer, a toner cartridge, a process cartridge and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
At present, a method of visualizing image information through an electrostatic image, such as electrophotographic process, is being utilized in various fields. In the electrophotographic process, an electrostatic image is formed on a photoreceptor through electrically charging and exposure steps, and the electrostatic latent image is developed with a developer containing a toner and then visualized through transfer and fixing steps. As for the developer used here, there are known a two-component developer comprising a toner and a carrier and a one-component developer using a magnetic toner or nonmagnetic toner alone.
On the other hand, the emulsion polymerization particle aggregating method is a production method of forming an aggregate particle in a size corresponding to the toner particle diameter, and then fusing and coalescing the aggregate particles by heating to produce a toner.

Electrostatic image developing toner, electrostatic image developer, toner cartridge, process cartridge and image forming apparatus


A water saving faucet valve includes an elongated body having inlet and outlet ends, and high and low pressure chambers interconnected by a coaxial flow channel. A valve stem is slidably retained in the flow channel to move between a lowered position, in which water is prevented from flowing through the valve, and a raised position, in which water is permitted to flow through the valve. The valve stem is raised and lowered by movement of a cam on a shaft that is rotated by movement of an elongated actuation arm, such that the valve can be fully actuated by a slight pressure applied to the arm, and automatically shuts off when the pressure is removed. The valve includes apparatus for coupling it to the outlet of a conventional standard faucet, and may include apparatus for aerating the water flowing through it.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fluid flow control devices in general, and in particular, to an easily controlled, water-saving, flow-control valve for standard water faucets.
2. Related Art
Washing one's hands at a faucet typically involves wetting the hands with water from the faucet, soaping the hands, mechanically massaging or scrubbing the soapy hands to loosen dirt and other contaminants thereon, and then rinsing the dirt- and contaminant-laden soap from the hands with clean water from the faucet. It will be seen that, for other than faucets left continuously running, this procedure necessarily entails two additional steps, viz., initiating flow of water from the faucet before washing, and terminating the flow afterwards, and further, that many other daily acts of personal hygiene, e.g., teeth brushing, hair combing, and drawing a cup of drinking water can also involve these same two steps.
The on-off flow control steps typically involve the simultaneous, manual actuation of at least one, and typically, two valves supplying water to the faucet, viz., the hot- and cold-water supply valves, although single-handle hot-and-cold faucet flow control valves are known. In any case, the foregoing arrangement can lead to certain problems and inefficiencies.
One of these relates to a waste of water. Thus, although it is unnecessary to have a continuous flow of water during the intermediate steps of, e.g., hand washing, or teeth brushing, many leave the water running throughout the entire activity, and sometimes, even afterwards, either through carelessness or a reluctance to touch the control valves with wet, soapy or just-washed hands. This can result in a substantial waste of expensive, treated water, and has led some institutions to incorporate devices, such as water-flow timing mechanisms, or complex, infrared user-presence-detection devices, to automatically terminate the water flow from the faucet after a predetermined amount of time has elapsed or the user has departed the faucet location, in an effort to reduce the amount of water wasted.
Another problem relates to "cross-contamination," or "re-contamination," that can result when the control valve handles of a faucet are touched, and thereby contaminated, with dirty hands, or alternatively, when washed hands contact previously contaminated faucet handles and are thereby re-contaminated. In some strict-antiseptic standard environments, e.g., surgical scrub rooms, this problem has lead to the implementation of foot- or knee-actuated faucet control valves, so that the user's hands never come into contact with the control valves of the faucet.
Yet another problem relates to the inability of small children or persons with certain physical disabilities to manipulate faucet valves with adequate facility. Thus, small children may be able to reach the outlet of a faucet without a height "booster," but still require adult assistance to reach and/or manipulate the handles of the control valves to achieve an appropriate water flow rate and/or safe temperature. Adults with, e.g., severe arthritis, may be able to reach the valve handles easily, but may be unable to manipulate them without experiencing severe pain.
A long-felt but as yet unsatisfied need therefore exists for an inexpensive, yet reliable faucet control valve that avoids wasting water, is more sanitary, and is easier both to install and use, than conventional faucet valves.


A method for delivering radiation treatment may include defining a preliminary trajectory including a plurality of control points. Each control point may be associated with position parameters of a gantry and a couch. The method may also include generating a treatment plan based on the preliminary trajectory by optimizing an intensity and position parameters of a collimator and MLC leaves for each control point. The method may also include decomposing the treatment plan into a delivery trajectory including the plurality of control points. Each of the plurality of control points may be further associated with the optimized intensity, the optimized position parameters of the collimator and the MLC leaves, an output rate, and a motion parameter of each of the gantry, the couch, the collimator, and the MLC leaves. The method may further include instructing a radiation delivery device to deliver the treatment plan according to the delivery trajectory.

Radiation treatment has been widely used for clinical treatment of cancers and other conditions. A fundamental goal of the radiation treatment is to kill cells (usually tumor cells), suppress inflammation, suppress the immune system, or prevent tumor recurrence by using high-energy radiation beams such as X-rays, gamma rays, alpha rays, beta rays, etc. One of the most challenging problems in the radiation treatment is to locate a region of interest (ROI) precisely for receiving the radiation treatment so as to reduce unnecessary radiation toward the normal organs or tissues surrounding the ROI. The control of radiation beams may be more flexible to avoid critical organs if the gantry and the couch move synchronously during delivery of the radiation treatment, since the radiation source may traverse multiple planes. Therefore, it is desirable to develop systems and methods for multiplanar RT.

Systems and methods for multiplanar radiation treatment

SHANGHAI UNITED IMAGING HEALTHCARE CO., LTD.


A LED is provided to emit a light signal corresponding to an input signal. A PD receives the light signal, and generates a photovoltaic output. A MOSFET receives the photovoltaic output. A FET is provided. A first electrode of the FET is connected to the gate of the MOSFET. A second electrode of the FET is connected to a cathode of the PD through a resistor. A control electrode of the FET is connected to the cathode of the PD. A transistor is provided. A first electrode of the transistor is connected to the gate of the MOSFET. A second electrode of the transistor is connected to the source of the MOSFET. A control electrode of the transistor is connected to the second electrode of the FET. A diode is connected between the second electrode of the FET and the second electrode of the transistor.

A photo relay using a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor is well known. The MOS transistor is driven by a photovoltaic output from a photocoupler circuit as a relay contact. Such a photo relay is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-50952.
The photo relay includes a photo diode coupler circuit, an output MOS transistor, a control resistor, a control transistor, a discharge resistor, and a discharge transistor. An impedance between a drain and a source of the output MOS transistor varies when a capacitance between a gate of the output MOS transistor and the source is charged by a photovoltaic output. The control resistor and the control transistor control charging and discharging of gate charge of the output MOS transistor. The gate charge discharged from the output MOS transistor flows in the discharge resistor and the discharge transistor.
The control resistor generates a bias voltage for turning on or off the control transistor depending on the photovoltaic output from the photocoupler circuit. The discharge resistor generates a bias voltage for turning on or off the discharge transistor depending on the photovoltaic output from the photocoupler circuit.
In the photo relay, the control resistor and the discharge resistor need to have high resistances in the order of MΩ to generate a necessary bias voltage because a current generated by a light receiving element is in the order of μA.
The control resistor and the discharge resistor with such high resistances is formed in a semiconductor chip. The control resistor and the discharge resistor occupy a large area in the semiconductor chip. As a result, there is a problem that integration of the semiconductor chip may be difficult, as the number of such resistors is large.
In addition, for the high-speed switching of the output MOS transistor, it is important to control the resistances of the control resistor and the discharge resistor. However, it may be difficult to form a plurality of resistors of high resistances in a semiconductor chip with high precision.

Photo relay having an insulated gate field effect transistor with variable impedance


A method light enhanced atomic layer deposition for forming a film on a substrate. The method includes disposing the substrate in a process chamber of a light enhanced atomic layer deposition (LEALD) system configured to perform a LEALD process; and depositing a film on the substrate using the LEALD process, where the depositing includes (a) exposing the substrate to a first process material, (b) exposing the substrate to a second process material containing a reducing agent and irradiating the substrate with a first light radiation having either no or at least partial temporal overlap with the exposing of the substrate to the second process material, (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) until the desired film has been deposited. According to one embodiment of the invention, the deposited film can be a TaCN film or a TaC film.

Typically, during semiconductor device manufacturing, a vapor deposition process is utilized to deposit materials along fine lines or within vias or contacts on a silicon substrate. The vapor deposition processes can include thermal chemical vapor deposition (TCVD) or plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). In PECVD, plasma is utilized to alter or enhance the film deposition mechanism. For instance, plasma excitation generally allows film-forming reactions to proceed at temperatures that are significantly lower than those typically required to produce a similar film by TCVD. In addition, plasma excitation may activate film-forming chemical reactions that are not energetically or kinetically favored in thermal CVD. The chemical and physical properties of PECVD films may thus be varied over a relatively wide range by adjusting process parameters.
More recently, atomic layer deposition (ALD) and plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD), which are forms of CVD or more generally film deposition, have emerged as a candidate for ultra-thin gate film formation in front end-of-line (FEOL) operations, as well as ultra-thin barrier layer and seed layer formation for metallization in back end-of-line (BEOL) operations. In ALD, two or more process gases are introduced alternately and sequentially in order to form a material film one monolayer (or less) at a time. Such an ALD process provides a self-limiting characteristic which has proven to provide improved uniformity and control in layer thickness, as well as conformality to features on which the layer is deposited. As in PECVD, PEALD processing is utilized to alter or enhance the film deposition mechanism. However, current PECVD and PEALD processes often suffer from contamination problems that affect the quality of the deposited films and the interfaces between the PECVD or PEALD films and other films in a manufactured device. Further, exposure of a substrate to a plasma can damage sensitive areas of a substrate. Thus plasma enhanced processes may be undesirable in some situations, and alternative processing methods are needed for improving the properties and integration of films in semiconductor devices.

Method of light enhanced atomic layer deposition


Provides an efficient method for aligned heap allocations based upon spare space management, provides an efficient method for MPU region allocations based upon aligned subregion allocations, and provides integrated block pools for small data blocks with heap backup if size or alignment requirements cannot be met from pools or pools are empty. The operation of malloc( ), calloc( ), realloc( ) and free( ) on pool blocks versus heap blocks is transparent to application code. These methods are suitable for limited-memory, real-time systems as well as for general-purpose systems.

The following discussion centers on embedded systems because their requirements are well understood. However, the methods presented herein should not be considered to be limited to embedded systems.
In a previous patent application (Moore U.S. Ser. No. 15/441,065 titled "Optimizable Heap for Embedded and Similar Systems with Enhanced Debugging and Self-Healing", Aug. 23, 2018) an invention comprising several methods to improve heaps for embedded systems was presented. None of the methods presented in this patent application were included in that prior application. Nonetheless, information contained therein may be helpful to understand the requirements for embedded system heaps.
Heaps are well-known structures used in computer systems to provide dynamic memory allocation and deallocation. Due to the simple nature of most embedded systems, heaps have not been used extensively in them. However, embedded systems are becoming more complex and their need for dynamic memory allocation is increasing.
Embedded systems are characterized by the following requirements:                Deterministic and rapid response to events.        Limited memory and processor speed due to cost and power constraints.        Unattended operation in harsh environments.        Substantial functional variation from one embedded system to the next.
Although targeted at the above requirements, this invention is not limited to embedded systems. Other systems may share some of the above characteristics or require the enhanced performance and security offered by this invention and thus benefit from it. Therefore, the term "embedded system" should not be interpreted to exclude other systems.
Aligned Allocations: dlmalloc created by Doug Lea performs aligned allocations (gee.cs.oswego.edu/pub/misc/mallloc-2.8.2.c, 5/27/09). Alignment is on power-of-two boundaries. For an aligned allocation, it seldom happens that the data block is already aligned. Hence, there usually is spare space between the chunk control block (CCB) and the aligned data block. dlmalloc requires that this space be at least as large as the minimum size chunk allowed by it and the space is made into a new free chunk. This approach has two disadvantages:                1. The minimum chunk size requirement forces the chunk found to be larger than if there were no such requirement.        2. Heap fragmentation is increased due to the formation of otherwise unnecessary small chunks.
These create size and performance problems, which may be prohibitive for embedded systems.
In another approach by Alexander Tomlinson (US Pub. 20130346719 titled "Systems and Methods for Efficient Memory Access", Dec. 26, 2013), a pointer to the chunk control block is loaded below the aligned data block and space between it and the chunk control block is simply wasted. This has two disadvantages:                1. Wasted space can be significant and is irrecoverable unless the data block is freed.        2. Creates a chunk that has a different format than normal chunks.
The first is likely to be too inefficient for limited-memory systems. The second introduces debugging complexity.
Numerous power-of-two data block size allocators exist (e.g. Binary Buddy Algorithm: Kenneth Knowlton, "A fast storage allocator" Comm of the ACM 8(10):623-625), for which data blocks are naturally aligned on powers of two. However, these allocators do not permit allocating data blocks specified sizes with specified alignments.
MPU Region Allocations: The Cortex v7M processor architecture from ARM Ltd. is by far dominant architecture for Micro Controller Units (MCUs) used in embedded systems. This architecture is the basis for hundreds of different types of MCUs, manufactured by dozens of semiconductor vendors, and billions of these MCUs have been shipped, to date. The Cortex v7M architecture includes a Memory Protection Unit (MPU), which presents memory regions to application code. Such code cannot access memory outside of the MPU regions. In addition, each MPU region permits only certain types of accesses such as execute never, read only, read/write, etc. Any violation of a memory address or an access attribute triggers a Memory Manage Fault (MMF), which stops the application code and allows the operating system to take over.
Thus, an MPU effectively thwarts malware from gaining system control, thus improving the security of embedded systems that control automobiles, machinery, etc. This has become increasing important due to connection of more and more embedded systems to the Internet, known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Unfortunately, these connections allow hackers access to highly vulnerable embedded systems.
Unfortunately, each Cortex v7M MPU region must be a power of two in size and must be aligned upon its size boundary. This makes the MPU difficult to use in embedded systems, which typically have very small memories compared to general purpose systems such as laptops, servers, and smart phones. As a consequence, the Cortex v7M MPU has been little-used in embedded systems despite growing security threats to embedded systems.
Heaps are typically used to allocate task stacks, buffers, messages, etc. It is highly desirable to put these into individual MPU regions so that malware can be easily caught and hackers stopped in their tracks. However, no known heap permits MPU region allocations.
Large Numbers of Small Data blocks: Due to the increasing complexity of embedded systems, more and more application code is being written in object-oriented languages such as C++ and Java. These languages are easier to use for application code than the traditional C and assembly languages used heretofore.
An inherent characteristic of such languages is that applications often allocate hundreds, or even thousands of small objects from the heap. These objects may be as small as 8 bytes. As a consequence, general-purpose heaps such as dlmalloc place major emphasis upon low overhead per inuse data block. These heaps typically have only 8 bytes of overhead on an 8-byte data block or 4 bytes of overhead on a 12-byte data block, giving overheads of 100% or 50%, respectively. However, even this much overhead may be too much for an embedded or similar system having very restricted amounts memory if hundreds or thousands of small objects are needed.
In addition, the resulting dlmalloc heap structure is fragile since it is not possible to scan the heap in both directions in order to fix broken links. This is an acceptable weakness for general-purpose systems in which applications (e.g. word processors) run for only a few hours or a day, at a time. It is unacceptable for embedded systems, which are expected to run forever in harsh environments and with no operator presence. In such systems many single-bit memory errors are likely to occur during their operational lifetimes. Such errors can cause serious damage if not caught and fixed quickly.
Many heaps are based upon block pools. Examples are McMahon U.S. Pat. No. 5,784,699 titled "Dynamic Memory Allocation in a Computer Using a Bit Map Index" 7/21/98 and Czajkowski U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,403 titled "System and Method for Memory Management Using Contiguous Fixed-Size Blocks", Sep. 17, 2002. See Wilson, "Dynamic Storage Allocation: A Survey and Critical Review", for other examples. The problem with these methods is that while block pools are efficient for very small data blocks, they impose having a very large number of block pools or having data blocks that are generally too large for larger data blocks. Neither of these is good for limited memory systems.
eheap Demonstration Code
eheap source code has been included to meet the full disclosure requirement. eheap.c is the complete code for eheap and edemo.c demonstrates features relevant to this invention. Compile both, link, and run using IAR EWARM C/C++ for any supported evaluation board. Also, can compile and run on a PC using Microsoft Visual C/C++, however some editing may be required due to compiler differences.

Methods for aligned, MPU region, and very small heap block allocations


Provided herein are methods for resetting an array to which a biological sample has been applied that include treating the array with a set of biological sample removal conditions.

Cells within a tissue of a subject have differences in cell morphology and/or function due to varied analyte levels (e.g., gene and/or protein expression) within the different cells. The specific position of a cell within a tissue (e.g., the cell's position relative to neighboring cells or the cell's position relative to the tissue microenvironment) can affect, e.g., the cell's morphology, differentiation, fate, viability, proliferation, behavior, and signaling and cross-talk with other cells in the tissue.
Spatial heterogeneity has been previously studied using techniques that only provide data for a small handful of analytes in the context of an intact tissue or a portion of a tissue, or provide a lot of analyte data for single cells, but fail to provide information regarding the position of the single cell in a parent biological sample (e.g., tissue sample).
An array may be used to process a biological sample (e.g., tissue sample) for various purposes, such as identification or characterization of an analyte within the biological sample. However, incorrectly placing tissue sample within the capture area and/or placing damaged/folded tissue on the array have been proven to be a common issue when using arrays to study spatial organization of gene expression.


The present invention provides a compound of the Formula (I)

Many challenges are encountered during the development of antiviral agents, including adverse events and the development of drug resistant viruses, which necessitate chemists, biologists, and pharmacologists to develop improved, more potent, and less toxic medicines.
Antiviral compounds are previously reported in U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,394, U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,574, U.S. Pat. No. 4,808,716, WO 9405639, WO 9740029, WO 0208244, U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,051, WO 03106461, WO 9109849, U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,021, WO 9214743, WO 9428920, U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,244, U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,937, WO 9933815, U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,032, U.S. Pat. No. 6,083,953, U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,007, U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,338, WO 9117159, WO 9721685, WO 0190106, WO 9509843, U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,972, U.S. Pat. No. 5,763,483, U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,445, WO 9933781, WO 03035077, U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,209, U.S. Pat. No. 3,352,912, U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,438, WO 9414436, U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,421, WO 0218369, WO 9804569, U.S. Pat. No. 3,201,387, WO 9530670, U.S. Pat. No. 3,616,208, WO 0066558, U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,209, WO 9116320, U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,232.
Although there are major differences among viruses, specific virological and pharmacological approaches used to develop novel antiviral agents are similar across many viral diseases.
Due to the threat of resistance posed by the known drugs, there is a constant need to update the development pipeline and consider different antiviral drugs.

Antiviral phosphonate analogues and process for preparation thereof

Abstract: wherein R is 9-isopropyl-9H-purin-6-amine; 2-amino-9-isopropyl-1H-purin-6(9H)-one; 4-amino-1-isopropyl pyrimidin-2(1H)-one; or 1-isopropyl-5-methylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione, R′ is —CH2OC(O)R″, and R″ is —C(CH3)3 or —CH(CH3)2 including pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. The present invention also provides a process for preparing a compound of formula (Ia) and a compound of formula (I) for use in treating a viral infection.


For use with a towing vehicle having a hitch ball on a rearwardly extending bar support, a V-shaped guide to facilitate hitching a trailer to the ball in which to position the guide to withstand hitching forces it is mounted vertical in the clearance between adjacent walls and has a notch in a lower edge which also forms a tongue and groove connection with the bar support.

The present invention relates generally to a V-shaped plate of a type serving as a guide when mounted vertically on a rearwardly extending support of a towing vehicle in surrounding relation to a hitch ball to facilitate the hitching of a boat trailer or other trailer to the hitch ball and, more particularly, to improvements in the manner in which the V-shaped guide is assembled, preparatory to the hitching procedure, to the towing vehicle support so as to withstand the impact forces that are involved and yet retain the convenience of its being readily attachable and detachable to the towing vehicle support.


The invention relates to a coal dewatering system, method and apparatus. The dewatering system includes a preheater vessel (82) having a chamber (101) for heating coal, an inlet (84) to permit the passage of coal into the chamber (101), and an outlet (86) for permitting the passage of coal from the chamber (101). The dewatering vessel also includes a heating mechanism (98) associated with the preheater vessel (82) to heat coal contained in the chamber (101) and a non-return valve (92) to substantially prevent heated coal removed from the preheater chamber (101) via the outlet (86) from re-entering the preheater vessel (82) via the outlet (86). The dewatering system further includes a dewatering unit (60) adapted to receive the heated coal from the outlet (86) via the non-return valve (92) and to thereby dewater the coal.

Lignite (brown coal) is a significant Australian energy resource (major deposits are located throughout Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia). The moisture content of lignite, commonly in the range 60-70% wt, w.b., is generally considered as the major economic barier to its commercial exploitation. Unfortunately, this high moisture lignite is the only solid fossil-fuel resource in Victoria. Taking advantage of the low cost of mining and the huge readily recoverable resources containing several hundred years of supply, Victoria has utilised this high-moisture low energy resource to generate the majority of its electrical power over the last eighty years. In addition, it is a widely accepted view that the coal reserves will remain important to the State economy in the many years to come.
The thermal conversion efficiency of lignite is however rather low, which is exacerbated by the high moisture content of the fuel, leading to higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions than from plants of similar capacity fuelled with gas or even high-rank black coal. Reducing moisture or pre-drying is therefore the first and most important step in developing cost-effective technologies for power generation from this abundant resource and particularly for increasing the efficiency of existing plant.
Most of the total water (up to 70%, as-received basis) in the as-mined lignite is contained in the capillary macrostructure and colloidal microstructure within the coal together with a small portion bound to the solid organic structure through electrostatic attraction and adsorption. Numerous techniques have been investigated for drying high-moisture coals, which can be broadly classified into two main categories—thermal drying and mechanical dewatering.
The thermal methods can be further divided into two groups—evaporative and non-evaporative. Evaporative processes involve applying heat to vaporise water from coal at atmospheric pressure. The heat transfer medium is usually hot flue gas, air or steam, applied either directly or indirectly. The energy requirements of these thermal drying processes involve inputs in the order of 3000-4000 kJ per kg of removed water, which are far greater than the enthalpy required for the evaporation of clean water. Non-evaporative thermal drying (also known as thermal dewatering) methods use steam or hot water to heat the coal up to the corresponding saturated steam pressure and the coal water is then removed as a liquid before cooling and/or depressurising. The energy requirements for non-evaporative thermal drying processes are much less (e.g. 1600-1800 kJ/kg of water) compared to the evaporative methods. This is possible as the enthalpy for evaporating the water can be dispensed through the use of increased pressure and the corresponding saturated steam temperatures to remove the moisture in the liquid form. The Fleissner and Hydro-Thermal Drying (HTD) processes are the most common non-evaporative thermal drying methods in use today.
Mechanical dewatering methods refer to the application of mechanical pressure to separate moisture from raw materials. The dewatered product can generally be created with a significantly lower energy input compared to known thermal methods. Mechanical methods have been widely used for fibrous materials (pulp and paper, citrus peel, sewage sludge, food product, animal waste, etc.) and to a lesser extent for coal slurries containing a high proportion of fines, such as minerals and coal dressings. Screw and disc presses have been investigated for the dewatering of brown coal in laboratory-scale test rigs. Banks P. J. & Burton D. R. 'Press dewatering of brown coal', Part 1, Drying Technology 7(2), 1989 discloses a study of the feasibility of upgrading Victorian brown coal via mechanical dewatering of as-mined coal and coal water slurries. Using a water permeable cell they found that the compressibility and permeability of solid coal decreased greatly during mechanical expression and that the coal displayed viscoelastic properties. Using pressures up to 140 bar, the product moisture content reduced to below 80% (by weight on a dry basis) and was shown to be strongly dependent on the applied pressure, irrespective of the initial moisture content. The coal became consolidated and the volume change recorded during the consolidation was largely irreversible. The moisture in the expressed coal was shown to decrease linearly with increasing pressure when plotted on a semi-logarithmic scale. Murase T et al. 'Press dewatering of brown coal', Part 2, Drying Technology 7(2), 1989 discloses a study of both batchwise and continuous dewatering processes using screw presses. The degree of dewatering was shown to be dependent on both the screw rotational speed and residence time of the material inside the barrel. The extent of dewatering was only significant when the screw speed was below a critical value (usually below 10 rpm) which was in turn determined by the equipment and the material properties. The product throughput was ultimately limited by this speed dependency.
Recent developments in the dewatering of lignite have utilised a method combining both thermal and mechanical treatments. This method, commonly known as the mechanical-thermal expression (MTE) process for dewatering high moisture brown coal and non-coal materials, requires that the coal be both heated and subjected to compression. The heating of the coal is typically achieved by injecting superheated steam into the coal. Pressure has typically been applied to the coal by use of a flat bed press, similar to those used in the manufacture of particle boards.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,745 discloses a process for dewatering coal by heating the coal in water at an elevated temperature and pressure in a heating chamber in order to reduce the moisture content of the coal. After pre-heating, the heated coal is subjected to compression by a compressing device while maintaining the temperature and the pressure of the water before lowering the pressure of the water in a decompressing chamber and then expelling a dewatered coal product. A problem with this dewatering process is that it can be difficult to feed the heated coal into the compressing device due to back-flow of material as the compressing device undergoes a compressing stroke and material is pushed back toward a heating vessel.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus to facilitate feeding of a dewatering device and to ameliorate at least one or more disadvantages of the prior art.


A method of flattening print media in an ink jet apparatus, said apparatus comprising a media feed path, a media drive roller and one or more pinch rollers, said one or more pinch rollers being arranged to rotatably cooperate with said drive roller so as to grip said media therebetween, said drive roller having a rotational axis extending substantially transverse to said feed path and being arranged to rotate in first and second directions to respectively feed said media in first and second feed directions; said method comprising the steps of: feeding said media a first distance in said first feed direction; and then, feeding said media a second distance in said second feed direction, thereby causing said media to flatten in a direction substantially transverse to said feed path.

The present invention relates generally to inkjet apparatus, including inkjet printing mechanisms, and more particularly to improved mechanism and method for avoiding print head crashes in such apparatus.
Inkjet printing mechanisms may be used in a variety of different inkjet apparatus, such as plotters, facsimile machines, copiers, and inkjet printers collectively referred to in the following as printers, to print images using a colorant, referred to generally herein as xe2x80x9cinkxe2x80x9d. These inkjet printing mechanisms use inkjet cartridges, often called xe2x80x9cpensxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cprint headsxe2x80x9d to shoot drops of ink onto print media, which can be used in the form of cut sheets or rolls of print media, which may include paper, vinyl, films, canvas or the like, in a variety of different dimensions.
Some inkjet print mechanisms carry an ink cartridge with an entire supply of ink back and forth across the sheet. Other inkjet print mechanisms, known as xe2x80x9coff-axisxe2x80x9d systems, propel only a small ink supply with the print head carriage across the print zone, and store the main ink supply in a stationary reservoir, which is located xe2x80x9coff-axisxe2x80x9d from the path of print head travel. Typically, a flexible conduit or tubing is used to convey the ink from the off-axis main reservoir to the print head cartridge. In multi-color cartridges, several print heads and reservoirs are combined into a single unit, with each reservoir/print head combination for a given color also being referred to herein as a xe2x80x9cpen.xe2x80x9d
Each pen has a nozzle plate that includes very small nozzles through which the ink drops are fired. The particular ink ejection mechanism within the print head may take on a variety of different forms known to those skilled in the art, such as those using piezo-electric or thermal print head technology. For instance, two earlier thermal ink ejection mechanisms are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,278,584 and 4,683,481, both assigned to the present assignee, Hewlett-Packard Company. In a thermal system, a barrier layer containing ink channels and vaporization chambers is located between a nozzle orifice plate and a substrate layer. This substrate layer typically contains linear arrays of heater elements, such as resistors, which are energized to heat ink within the vaporization chambers. Upon heating, an ink droplet is ejected from a nozzle associated with the energized resistor.
By selectively energizing the resistors as the print head moves across the sheet, the ink is expelled in a pattern on the print media to form a desired image (e.g., picture, chart or text). The nozzles are typically arranged in one or more linear arrays. If more than one, the two linear arrays are located generally side-by-side on the print head, parallel to one another, and substantially perpendicular to the scanning direction. Thus, the length of the nozzle arrays defines a print swath or band. That is, if all the nozzles of one array were continually fired as the print head made one complete traverse through the print zone, a band or swath of ink would appear on the sheet. The height of this band is known as the xe2x80x9cswath heightxe2x80x9d of the pen, the maximum pattern of ink that can be laid down in a single pass.
For placing further print swaths on the print media, a print media feed mechanism is employed to advance or index the medium in the print zone in a second direction, called the media direction, which is usually substantially perpendicular to scanning direction of the print head.
Thus, to print an image, the print head is scanned back and forth across a print zone at a very close distance above the sheet, with the pen shooting drops of ink as it moves. On one hand, for instance, the distance between the printhead and the paper must be as small as possible, for example less than 1.7 mm, in order to obtain an accurate positioning of the ink dots projected from the printhead and to avoid spraying artefacts.
However, when a lot of ink is placed on some print media (especially on low cost paper based media) the print media may be subject to a phenomenon known as xe2x80x9ccocklexe2x80x9d. In existing printers, cockle results from the print media swelling and expanding as it absorbs water contained in the ink, whilst the print media is simultaneously constrained against lateral expansion due to being gripped at given locations along the scan axis (i.e. along the axis of movement of the print head), between the pinch wheels and the main drive roller.
This results in the formation of undulations or wrinkles in the plane of the print media. As a consequence, the distance between the print media and the print head decreases at some localized points. This phenomenon is especially noticeable when printing area fills of more than 200%. By this it is meant that in a given area of print media, the amount of ink deposited during the printing operation is two or more times the quantity of ink that is required to cover that area.
If the degree of cockle is particularly severe, a xe2x80x9cbubblexe2x80x9d in the media may form. If the height of the media bubble is sufficient, the plot may be damaged as ink on the plot is smeared by the print head. Indeed, in more severe cases, a media crash may occur as the print head impacts against the print media itself. A media crash may seriously affect the subsequent print quality or throughput of the printer due to damaging the operation of individual nozzles of the pen. In some cases a media crash may necessitate the replacement of the pen.
This problem is of particular concern where a printer prints a series of plots from a roll of print media, when unsupervised by a human operator, as is often the case in commercial printing operations. This is because the print media expands in a cumulative manner. As a consequence, the chance of a media bubble being generated increases with each successive plot until the pinch rollers are released allowing the media to xe2x80x9crelaxxe2x80x9d and so to flatten once again against the platen of the printer. Thus, even if a printer may print a single high density plot without risk of a media bubble forming, it may be at risk of a print media crash if it is left unattended to print a series of plots form a role of print media. As the skilled reader will appreciate, if the media bubble should grow sufficiently, a media crash may then arise.
Furthermore, even if the occurrence of a media bubble does not result in a print media crash, a further problem may arise. Once formed, during a printing operation a media bubble will generally expand in the opposite direction to that in which the print media is fed at approximately the rate at which the print media advances. Generally, this will continue for as long as the printer continues to print on a continuous sheet or role of print media. In such a situation, all plots printed on the same sheet or roll of print media, subsequent to the one in which the media bubble developed, will additionally be damaged. Thus, the amount of damage that may be caused, in terms of lost output and wasted supplies, may be considerable if a printer which is printing multiple plots from a roll is left unattended.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved inkjet apparatus and an improved method for operating an inkjet apparatus.
A further object of the invention is to provide an inkjet apparatus and method for operating an inkjet apparatus for reducing the likelihood of a print head crashes, particularly when printing on roll fed print media and where the inkjet apparatus is not supervised by a human operator.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet apparatus and method for operating an inkjet apparatus for reducing the damage to plots caused by the occurrence of media bubbles, particularly when using roll fed print media and where the inkjet apparatus is not supervised by a human operator.
To achieve these objects, the present invention provides for an inkjet apparatus and method for allowing print media, which has cockled, to relax and so to lie flat on the platen of the printer, without requiring the pinch rollers to be released from engagement with the main drive roller of the printer. According to the present invention there is provided a method of flattening print media in an ink jet apparatus, said apparatus comprising a media feed path, a media drive roller and one or more pinch rollers, said one or more pinch rollers being arranged to rotatably cooperate with said drive roller so as to grip said media therebetween, said drive roller having a rotational axis extending substantially transverse to said feed path and being arranged to rotate in first and second directions to respectively feed said media in first and second feed directions; said method comprising the steps of: feeding said media a first distance in said first feed direction; and then, feeding said media a second distance in said second feed direction, thereby causing said media to flatten in a direction substantially transverse to said feed path.
By implementing the media flattening method of the present invention in this manner several advantages are realized. Firstly, by periodically implementing the method of the invention, the print media will be left flat, without media bubbles. This means further ink may be deposited on the print media, without the increasing the risk of a media bubble forming, as has been described above. Because the method of the present invention may be implemented without the need to raise the pinch wheels, it may be implemented in an automated manner, without the need for an operator to be present. Consequently, a printer may be left unattended to print a series of images on a roll of print media, without the risk of a series of plots being damaged by the formation of a single media bubble. This feature of the present invention makes it particularly suitable for applications in which it is especially important to avoid wasting printer supplies and where unsupervised operation is desirable; for example commercial print operations.
Using the process of the present invention, the media may be left ready to be printed on again at the end of the process at the exact point where the previous print finished. Thus, it may be ensured that no print media is wasted, which is if course an important consideration in a commercial print operation.
The use of the present invention also allows printer operators to conserve costs by using cheaper paper, that is more normally susceptible to cockling and media bubbles in unsupervised printing operations.

Print media flattening method and apparatus


A serial interface for a programmable logic device provides multiple data rates in different channels by generating a central serial clock and providing at least one divider in each channel that can divide the central clock by different integer values. For additional variation in clock rate, two or more different central clocks can be provided, with each channel then being able to divide any of the central clocks to provide the desired local clock. Lower speed parallel clocks can be generated locally by further dividing the divided serial clock. Alternatively, the central serial clock or clocks may be divided centrally to provide a central parallel clock or clocks which can then be used locally as a local parallel clock.

This invention relates to a multiple channel high-speed serial interface, especially in a programmable logic device, in which different channels may have different transmit data rates.
Recently, PLDs have begun to incorporate high-speed serial interfaces to accommodate high-speed (i.e., greater than 1 Gbps) serial I/O standards—e.g., the XAUI (10 Gbps Extended Attachment Unit Interface) standard. In accordance with the XAUI standard, a high-speed serial interface includes transceiver groups known as "quads," each of which includes four transceivers and some central logic. Within each transceiver, the receiver portion typically includes a phase-locked loop ("PLL"), primarily for the purpose of enabling clock data recovery from a received high-speed serial signal. In addition, the central logic typically includes a PLL, primarily for the purpose of generating a transmit clock to be used by the transmitter portion of each of the four transceivers, and in some cases for generating a reference clock for the receiver PLLs.
In many cases, the individual receivers or transmitters in a quad are intended to be used together, for multi-channel reception or transmission of related signals. In such applications, there is no disadvantage in having a common transmit clock generated in the central logic. However, particularly in programmable logic where the use to which a user puts portions of the device may be unexpected, in some applications the individual channels may be used separately, and it may be desirable to be able to use different transmit clocks in the different channels of the quad.

Multiple transmit data rates in programmable logic device serial interface


An image forming apparatus includes an image support which supports an electrostatic latent image on a surface of the image support. A developing unit has a developing agent support which retains a developing agent, including a toner and carriers, contained in the developing unit. The developing unit converts the latent image on the image support into a toner image by causing the toner to adhere to the surface of the image support. A developing bias supplying unit supplies a developing bias voltage to the developing agent support of the developing unit, the developing bias voltage being one of a DC bias voltage and an AC bias voltage. A timer measures a non-driven period of the developing agent in the developing unit. A control unit selects one of the DC bias voltage and the AC bias voltage from the developing bias supplying unit based on the non-driven period measured by the timer, and controls the developing bias voltage at an output of the developing bias supplying unit such that the selected one of the DC bias voltage and the AC bias voltage is supplied to the developing agent support.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a printer or a facsimile, which is provided with a two-component developing unit.
(2) Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus provided with a two-component developing unit is known, and such a developing unit is used by electrophotographic image forming systems, such as copiers, laser printers, and others. The two-component developing unit uses a two-component developing method which is effective and useful to provide a high speed image forming capability for such an image forming apparatus.
In the two-component developing method, a non-magnetic sleeve containing a magnet therein is used as a developing agent support. A developing agent, including powdered toner and carriers, is carried by the surface of the non-magnetic sleeve. A magnetic brush is formed on the surface of the non-magnetic sleeve, and the brush is placed adjacent to an image support of the image forming apparatus. The developing agent is retained and carried by the brush. On the surface of the image support, an electrostatic latent image is formed. An electric field between the image support and the sleeve is produced by supplying a developing bias voltage to the sleeve. The toner selectively adheres to the surface of the image support due to the electric field to form a toner image according to the latent image, and then the toner image is transferred to blank paper to form the copy.
For example, a laser printer of a certain type scans a laser beam across a positively charged rotating photoconductive drum. The photoconductive drum serves as an image support of the laser printer. The areas hit by the laser beam lose their charge, and the positive charge remains only where the copy is to be black. A negatively charged powdered toner adheres to the positively charged areas of the drum and is then transferred to blank paper to form the copy.
Generally, a unit-mass charge quantity Q/M (.mu.c/g) of the toner within the developing unit varies in a certain range depending on the surface characteristics of the toner and carriers and on the variations of the mass. Also, the toner is electrically charged when it contacts the carriers, and the unit-mass charge quantity Q/M of the toner varies depending on a non-driven period of the developing agent and on a mixing time of the developing agent. When the Q/M is too large, the optical density of the toner image becomes improperly low because of a firm adhesion between the toner and the carriers in the developing unit. When the Q/M is too small, or when the toner is reversely charged, the toner excessively adheres to the surface of the image support so as to produce a background smudge in the copy.
In order to eliminate the above-mentioned problems on the image quality, an AC bias developing method has been proposed. In the AC bias developing method, an AC (alternating current) bias voltage is superimposed to a DC (direct current) component of a developing bias voltage and it is supplied to the non-magnetic sleeve. It is known that the AC bias developing method serves to increase the developing capability. Further, it is known that reduction of the resistance of the carriers in the developing agent serves to provide an improved image quality and dot uniformity of the copy. Hereinafter, the developing capability is defined to be a ratio of the quantity of toner adhering to the image support (or the photoconductive drum) to the quantity of toner carried by the developing agent support (or the non-magnetic sleeve).
However, if the developing agent including reduced-resistance carriers is used, the Q/M of the toner considerably varies depending on the non-driven period of the developing agent and on the mixing time of the developing agent. After the developing agent is held in a non-driven condition over an extended period, the Q/M of the toner becomes too small. If the developing bias voltage wherein the AC bias voltage is superimposed to the DC component, is supplied to the non-magnetic sleeve with the developing agent in such a condition, a background smudge in the copy is likely to be produced.
Therefore, in order to achieve a good image quality of the copy, it is necessary to control the unit-mass charge quantity of the toner in the developing agent such that the Q/M of the toner is maintained at a constant value. If the Q/M of the toner is maintained at a constant value, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of a background smudge in the copy so that a good image quality can be achieved.
Generally, it is difficult to suitably control the charge quantity of the toner in the developing unit. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 8-44177 discloses an image forming apparatus having a developing unit provided with an auxiliary electrode. In the developing unit of the above publication, an AC bias voltage is supplied to the auxiliary electrode, and the supply of the AC bias voltage provides a mixing function of the developing agent and a control of the charge quantity of the toner, so as to reliably provide a good image quality of the copy. However, in the developing unit of the above publication, the developing bias voltage is not controlled in accordance with the charge quantity of the toner. After the developing agent is held in a non-driven condition over an extended period, the developing agent is carried by the non-magnetic sleeve and adheres to the surface of the image support before the time a start-up of the developing agent or the toner is achieved. Hence, in the developing unit of the above publication, a background smudge in the copy is likely to be produced when the developing agent is in such a condition, even if the AC bias voltage is supplied to the auxiliary electrode of the developing unit. Hereinafter, the start-up of the developing agent is defined to be a condition of the developing agent in which the quantity of charge of the toner therein apparently reaches an equilibrium condition.
Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 5-333673 discloses an image forming apparatus having a fixing unit provided with a warm-up time measuring device. The fixing unit is provided adjacent to the image support and serves to supply heat and pressure to a sheet having a toner image transferred from the image support, so that the toner image from the image support is stably fixed to the sheet. The warm-up time measuring device measures a warm-up time of the fixing unit in the image forming apparatus. When the warm-up time of the fixing unit measured by the warm-up time measuring device is larger than a reference time, a developing bias voltage supplied to the sleeve of a developing unit is controlled in accordance with a total number of copies counted by a copy counter of the image forming apparatus. More specifically, when the measured warm-up time of the fixing unit is too small, it is supposed that the start-up of the developing agent is not achieved. In such a condition, the DC component of the developing bias voltage supplied to the sleeve is increased. Also, the DC component of the developing bias voltage is increased as the total number of copies counted by the copy counter is increased to a given number. On the other hand, when the measured warm-up time of the fixing unit is larger than the reference time, it is supposed that the start-up time of the developing agent is achieved. In such a condition, the developing bias voltage supplied to the sleeve is held at a normal level.
However, in the image forming apparatus of the above publication, after the developing agent is held in a non-driven condition over an extended period (for example, one month), the developing agent is carried by the sleeve and adheres to the surface of the image support before a start-up of the developing agent. Hence, in the developing unit of the above publication, a background smudge in an initial copy is likely to be produced when the developing agent is in such a condition. Usually, the developing agent in the developing unit is mixed for a given time after the time a power switch of the image forming apparatus is turned ON in order to achieve the start-up of the developing agent. However, the developing agent, which has been held in a non-driven condition over an extended period, requires a mixing time longer than the given time because of a decrease of the Q/M of the toner.
A conceivable method for eliminating the background smudge with respect to the image forming apparatus of the above publication is that the developing agent, which has been held in a non-driven condition over an extended period, is mixed for a longer time after the power switch is turned ON. However, if the mixing time becomes long, the operator of the image forming apparatus must wait for the start-up of the developing agent over a long period. Hence, the operability of the image forming apparatus when the above-mentioned method is used is considerably lowered. It is difficult for the image forming apparatus of the above publication to provide both a good image quality and a speedy image formation when the developing agent is held in a non-driven condition over an extended period.

Image forming apparatus having a developing bias control unit


In an SOI-type semiconductor device, a power supply voltage is applied to back gates of P-channel MOS transistors in a standby mode, and a voltage lower than the power supply voltage is applied to the back gates of the P-channel MOS transistors in an active mode. A ground voltage is applied to back gates of N-channel MOS transistors in the standby mode, and a voltage higher than the ground voltage is applied to the back gates of the N-channel MOS transistors in an active mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silicon-on-insulator (SOI)-type semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable electronic apparatus have required less power dissipation, and therefore, the a power supply voltage for integrated circuits in such apparatuses has been lowered. However, the lower the power supply voltage, the lower the operation speed.
For example, in an N-channel MOS gate circuit, the operation speed is approximately in proportion to EQU (V.sub.DD -V.sub.th).sup.2
where V.sub.DD is a power supply voltage; and
V.sub.th is a threshold voltage of a MOS transistor.
Therefore, when the power supply voltage is lowered without changing the threshold voltage, the operation speed is rapidly lowered. Conversely, when the power supply voltage is lowered simultaneously with the lowering of the threshold voltage, a sub threshold current is increased so that the power dissipation in a standby mode is increased.
In a first prior art semiconductor device, in an active mode, a power supply voltage V.sub.DD is applied to back gates of P-channel MOS transistors, and a ground voltage is applied to back gates of N-channel MOS transistors, so as to increase the operation speed with the increase of the power dissipation. Conversely, in a standby mode, a voltage higher than the power supply voltage is applied to the back gates of the P-channel MOS transistors, and a negative voltage is applied to the back gates of the N-channel MOS transistors. Therefore, the absolute values of threshold voltages of the P-channel MOS transistors and the N-channel MOS transistors are increased so as to reduce the power dissipation with the lowering of the operation speed (see JP-A-4-302897).
In the first prior art semiconductor device, however, since charge pump circuits are required to generate the voltage higher than the power supply voltage and the negative voltage in a standby mode, the effect of reduction of the power dissipation in the standby mode is compensated for by the power dissipation of the charge pump circuits. Thus, a substantial power reduction cannot be expected.
In a second prior art semiconductor device, in an active mode, a shallow negative voltage is applied to a back gate of an N-channel MOS transistor, so as to increase the operation speed with the increase of the power dissipation. Conversely, in a standby mode, a deep negative voltage is applied to the back gate of the N-channel MOS transistor, to raise the threshold voltage thereof, thus reducing the power dissipation with the lowering of the operation speed (see JP-A-60-10656).
Also, in the second prior art semiconductor device, since charge pump circuits are required to generate the shallow and deep negative voltages, the effect of reduction of the power dissipation in the standby mode is compensated for by the power dissipation of the charge pump circuits. Thus, a substantial power reduction cannot be also expected.
In a third prior art semiconductor, in an active mode, a voltage lower than a power supply voltage is applied to a back gate of a P-channel MOS transistor, and a positive voltage is applied to a back gate of an N-channel MOS transistor, so as to increase the operation speed with the increase of the power dissipation. Conversely, in a standby mode, the power supply voltage is applied to the back gates of the P-channel MOS transistors, and the ground voltage is applied to the back gates of the N-channel MOS transistors. Therefore, the absolute values of threshold voltages of the P-channel MOS transistors and the N-channel MOS transistors are increased so as to reduce the power dissipation with the lowering of the operation speed (see JP-A-6-21443).
Thus, in the above-described third prior art semiconductor device, since charge pump circuits are unnecessary, the power dissipation can be expected.
However, when the above-descrived third prior art semiconductor device is applied to a conventional CMOS device, the following problems occur. First, a short-circuit is generated between a well and a substrate, and accordingly, it is impossible to control the threshold voltages. Also, in a large scale semiconductor device, a large parasitic capacitance is generated between the well and the substrate. Therefore, when the control is transferred from a standby mode to an active mode or vice versa, the large parasitic capacitance needs to be charged or discharged, which requires a long transition time. This will be also explained later in detail.

SOI-type semiconductor device with variable threshold voltages


Methods and apparatus enable the execution of processing sequences including the computation of a register index that is loaded into one of a plurality of registers, utilizing that index to identify another of the plurality of registers, and accessing data from or copying data to the indexed register to or from yet another register or a memory location.

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for utilizing a plurality of registers in an indexed fashion such that data manipulation may be achieved using the registers as a local memory and such that data storage or loading from random access memory may be avoided.
Although the processing power of superscalar RISC processors is significant due, in part, to the fact that they use functional units (in which several instructions can be executed simultaneously), there are problems with this processing approach, for example, pipeline interlock. A pipeline interlock causes a delay in the fetching of successor instructions due to interruptions in the execution of preceding instructions.
There are two basic types of interlock delays in conventional RISC processors. The first kind of interlock delay is a data dependence delay that determines instruction latency. In this context, an instruction is not executed until all source data have been evaluated by prior instructions. The second kind of interlock delay is a reservation delay, which means that two instructions that are being executed may require a shared resources (e.g., data buses, internal registers, functional units, etc.) that are not always immediately available.
One of the conventional approaches to minimizing the impact of pipeline interlock delays is to utilize a fast random access memory (RAM), such as a hierarchical cache memory. Indeed, a level 1 (L1) cache memory may require only about 6 to 10 cycles to effect a storage or loading of data (when coupled to a processor running at a clock frequency on the order of a GHz). Reducing memory access latency generally has a positive effect on the overall processing speed, even when pipeline interlock delays exist.
There is, however, a limit on the efficacy of using hierarchical cache memories to offset the deleterious effects of pipeline interlock delays. Indeed, even hierarchical cache memories may exhibit latencies of about 6 to 10 clock cycles, where even lower latencies are desirable.
In order to avoid the latencies of RAM access, hierarchical cache access, or other data storage techniques, there has been a trend to utilize a large number of hardware registers as a stack for manipulating data. As hardware registers typically have latencies on the order of 1 clock cycle, they represent an attractive alternative to the use of RAM, cache, or other local memories that have higher latencies.
Although a substantial number of hardware registers may be employed as a surrogate memory for the manipulation of data, conventional instructions set architectures have not been optimized for intra-register data manipulation. For example, in order to move the data from one hardware register to another hardware register, some conventional instruction sets require that memory access take place, such as a memory store and a memory load. For example, the following operational code illustrates the dependency on RAM that conventional instruction sets have when effecting a transfer of data from one register, R1, to another register, R2.    STORE R1, address1; store R1's data in RAM at address1    LOAD address1, R2; load data from RAM address1 into R2
The substantial latencies associated with RAM, however, may offset any benefits from utilizing the hardware registers as a data stack. This problem is exacerbated when the software program being executed requires a significant number of table lookups and/or branch instructions.
It is noted that some existing instruction sets may permit access to a few registers as operands, which involves indexing to such registers. Unfortunately, any such access would have to be defined at the time that the software code was written. No real-time indexing by computing index values during program execution can be achieved using these existing instruction sets. Thus, reliance on memory access is still problematic in these systems. Other existing instruction sets might permit non-indexed register to register movement of data, but again the register definitions must be established at the time that the program is written and no run-time definitions can be performed.
Therefore, there are needs in the art for methods and apparatus that are capable of improving intra-register data processing such as moving data from one register to another, copying data from one register to another, etc. so that memory accesses may be significantly reduced and the associated latency may be avoided.

Methods and apparatus for indexed register access


A switch unit is provided, comprising: a display part configured to display an image in at least one input area; an input part provided above the display part, the input part comprising a contact, wherein when the input part is pressed toward the at least one input area displayed on the display part, the contact corresponding to the input area is conducted; and an operating button configured to cause conduction of the contact of the input part, the contact corresponding to the input area, by a press-down operation toward the input area of the display part, wherein the operating button is made of a translucent rectangular parallelepiped member, and at least one side wall of the translucent rectangular parallelepiped member is formed into an inclined surface widening outwardly toward bottom of the operating button.

The present invention relates to a switch unit, and particularly to a switch unit in which the operational feeling of a touch panel is improved and a game machine equipped with the same.
Conventionally, there has been a game machine called a slot machine. In a slot machine, a plurality of reels on each of which a plurality of types of symbols are displayed are spun. Then, a winning combination ("yaku") is determined on the basis of a matching pattern of symbols that are displayed when the reels are stopped and the matched symbols, and a prize is given according to the determined winning combination and the number of bets.
Further, operations such as the setting of the number of bets, and the spinning of the reels have been performed by pressing a button. More specifically, a player presses a bet button with his/her hand to determine the number of bets to be set. Further, when a player presses a reel spinning button with his/her hand, a win lottery result is determined. After the determination of the win lottery result, the spin of the reels is started, and the reels are automatically stopped.
In the meantime, a slot machine is placed, for example, in a casino. In a casino, not only slot machines manufactured by a single game machine manufacturer, but also slot machines manufactured by various game machine manufacturers are placed. A player selects a slot machine that suits his/her preference from slot machines manufactured by various game machine manufacturers, and plays the selected one. Therefore, each casino takes the business strategy to ensure superiority to its competitors by placing slot machines that are popular to players. Therefore, each game machine manufacturer makes efforts to provide slot machines that can attract the attention of players.
As one example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-111137, published on Apr. 28, 2005) discloses a slot machine as a game machine that is provided with a display part including a touch panel. In this slot machine, a character and a numeric keypad are displayed on the display part, and the setting of the number of bets and the start of spin of reels are performed by using the touch panel.
However, in the configuration of the above conventional game machine, a player merely directly touches a screen of the touch panel. Therefore, unfortunately, it is not possible to provide an intuitive operational feeling to the player. The reason thereof is as follows.
In a game machine that includes a conventional push-button switch unit, a player presses down a push button by the number of bets to be set to thereby sensuously set the number of bets. However, in an operation of touching a screen of a touch panel, it is necessary to confirm on the screen as to whether the number of bets has been set by the touch in each operation. Therefore, a touch panel is inferior in operational feeling and click feeling to a conventional push button. Accordingly, it is not possible to provide an intuitive operational feeling. In addition, if each operation takes long time, a time required for a single game will be increased.
On the other hand, it is not preferred to make it difficult to view a display on a display part in order to solve such problems.
The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional problems, and is directed to provide a switch unit and a game machine that are capable of providing an intuitive operational feeling without making it difficult to view a display of a display part during an input operation.