A scanner useful as an input device for a computer is operable in two scanning modes: a prescanning mode in which subsampled images are rapidly output to the computer for substantially real-time display, and an input scanning mode in which three successive high resolution color scans are obtained. A fixed image is supported on a movable, hand-manipulated stage that interactively controls the conjugate distances of the optical system so that zooming and cropping is obtained without losing focus. By situating the control buttons for the scanning modes on the movable stage, a single hand can control zooming, cropping, and prescanning without having to interact with a keyboard or like input device to the computer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of manually-operated computer input devices, and, in particular, to manually operated film scanner input devices.
2. Background Art
Manual image scanners are well known devices for inputting textual and pictorial information to a computer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,761 describes a typical ergonomically-designed housing including a linear sensor that is manually dragged by the hand of a human operator (hereinafter referred to as the "user") across the text or pictorial copy. A pressure sensitive switch on the bottom of the scanner turns the unit on when the user forces the scanner against the copy, and turns the unit off when the depression force is removed. Additional functions, such as variation of the enlargement or reduction ratio, may be engaged by keys on the top surface of the scanner. Notwithstanding such functionality, the scanner operates in but one scanning mode, that is, it inputs scanned data when the bottom switch is depressed and the linear sensor is swept across the copy. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,364 shows another example of a scanner capable of multi-functional operation, but only one scan capability.) If playback of the scan is needed, e.g., to evaluate the pictorial information, either the computer has to collect the linear scan data for a complete raster, or, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,865, an intermediate store is provided for first collecting data from the manual scanner at a variable rate dependent on hand motion and then repetitively reading out the data at a constant rate for television viewing.
It is sometimes desirable to formulate a preliminary scan of the copy material before the final scan is obtained. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,265, two scanners are employed: a first scanner does a coarse prescan to determine the positional relationship of pattern blocks on the copy (e.g., a postal envelope), and a second scanner does a fine scan on a selected block. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,974, the same scanner is used twice, first to perform a rapid initial scan to locate a particular pattern (e.g., white blood cells) and then to perform a rescan to examine a detected pattern in greater detail. Obviously, such dual scanning requires a positionally controlled system if the first scan is to identify parameters that would be useful in the second scan. In the '974 patent, for example, the scanner is part of a microscope stage and not subject to hand-induced variations. In a system capable of some image composition, such as enlargement or reduction as provided in the hand-held scanner described in the aforementioned '761 patent, it would be helpful to visualize what the final scan would look like before it is done. Unfortunately, such hand-operated scanners, where the motion of the hand provides the page scan, do not lend themselves to real-time previewing for composition purposes.
Apart from the realm of hand-manipulated scanners, relatively larger desk-top scanners are available for high resolution scanning of slides or negatives in color or black-and white. An example is the 35 mm Rapid Film Scanner manufactured and sold by Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N.Y. This scanner performs a color sequential high resolution area scan (1312.times.1024 pixel area) of color images in 18 seconds for input to a Macintosh.RTM. computer. Besides performing optical zooming, panning, and cropping, the Rapid Film Scanner has a prescan mode in which the image can be viewed either in monochrome or in color. The user selects the mode via a pull-down menu on the computer. Composing the image in color is difficult, however, because of the slow screen update rate due to the need to sequentially capture three color separations by rotating a filter wheel, and due to the color fringes which appear if the film image is moved while the separations are scanned. As a result, image composition is normally done in the monochrome mode. To then capture the image in color, the user must redirect attention to the computer, pull down the computer menu, and select the color mode. Once the color image is captured, the user must pull down the menu again, in order to return to the monochrome mode, and compose the next image. This means that the user must continuously switch from handling the scanner to handling the computer pointer, typically by manipulating a mouse. This is a tolerable situation for user scanning of only a few images, as is typically the case in applications where such a scanner is used. It is less acceptable in the case where real-time interactive image input is desired.
User-friendly zoom and crop features are compromised if the user must continually divert attention back and forth between the scanner and the computer pointer or keyboard for every image to be scanned. There is a need, consequently, for a manually operated film scanner allowing a fully-operational tactile engagement of the scanner (that is, operation of the scanner in all its modes) while providing a virtually simultaneous display of the image on the computer to which the scanner is connected.

Computer input scanner incorporating multiple scanning modes


The Dynamically Determined Difference Regions Apparatuses, Methods and Systems (“DDDR”) transforms backup configuration request, backup data read response inputs via DDDR components into backup configuration response, changed blocks update request outputs. A write command for a data block to write to a data volume is detected. A data volume address of the data block is determined. A superset range associated with the data volume address is determined. Upon determining that the written-to flag of the superset range is set: extend a previously established written-to subset range within the superset range to include the data volume address when it is determined that the data volume address is not within the previously established written-to subset range. Upon determining that the written-to flag is not set: set the written-to flag and establish a new written-to subset range within the superset range that includes the data volume address. Execute the write command.

Computer system backups are utilized to protect data from being lost due to equipment failures, malware and accidental deletions. A backup may involve copying files to be backed up from one location to another location. For example, files may be copied from a solid-state drive in a user's desktop to an external hard drive that may be connected to the user's desktop via USB.
Generally, the leading number of each citation number within the drawings indicates the figure in which that citation number is introduced and/or detailed. As such, a detailed discussion of citation number 101 would be found and/or introduced in FIG. 1. Citation number 201 is introduced in FIG. 2, etc. Any citations and/or reference numbers are not necessarily sequences but rather just example orders that may be rearranged and other orders are contemplated. Citation number suffixes may indicate that an earlier introduced item has been re-referenced in the context of a later figure and may indicate the same item, evolved/modified version of the earlier introduced item, etc., e.g., server 199 of FIG. 1 may be a similar server 299 of FIG. 2 in the same and/or new context.

Dynamically determined difference regions apparatuses, methods and systems


The invention provides an information processing apparatus capable of preliminarily determining a connection number for each communication mode and easily allocating a suitable connection number to a communication mode designated by a user. A method for controlling the information processing apparatus includes receiving a destination number from a user, determining a communication mode for each received destination number, controlling an information processing apparatus in such a way as to use the destination number and a first connection number as a destination if the determined communication mode is a FAX mode, and controlling the information processing apparatus in such a way as to use the destination number and a second connection number as a destination, which is different from the first connection number, if the determined communication mode is an IP-FAX mode.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a method for controlling the information processing apparatus, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
It is conventionally known that a personal computer (PC) on which a FAX driver (software) is installed can transmit image data to an image processing apparatus (e.g., a facsimile machine). The image processing apparatus can transmit a FAX document based on the received image data.
Further, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-112515, there is a conventional image processing apparatus that can transmit a FAX document to an external company or building when an outside line connection number added to the head of a destination telephone number is received from a user. In this case, the image processing apparatus selects a communication mode, such as FAX (G3) or IP-FAX, in accordance with a head number including the outside line connection number entered by the user.
Further, there is a conventional FAX driver that stores outside line connection numbers beforehand so that the procedure for allocating each outside line connection number can be simplified and can allocate a desired outside line connection number to a transmission destination designated by a user in response to a pressing of an outside line connection number calling button.
According to the above-mentioned conventional technique, a fixed outside line connection number is uniformly allocated regardless of communication mode (e.g., IP-FAX or G3). Therefore, the following problems occur.
In general, when the communication mode is IP-FAX, no outside line connection number is required or an outside line connection number dedicated to the IP-FAX environment (which is different from the connection number dedicated to the G3 environment) is required. Therefore, if the above-mentioned function is used in the IP-FAX environment, an error or wrong transmission may occur because an unnecessary outside line connection number is added to the destination.

Information processing apparatus and method for determining fax destination information


The present invention provides a print head capable of ejecting a fluid, containing at least ink, toward a printing medium for printing. The print head has an ink chamber for receiving the ink, a diluent chamber for receiving a diluent for diluting the ink, an ink orifice fluidly connected with the ink chamber for ejecting or oozing out a predetermined quantity of the ink, and a diluent orifice fluidly connected with the diluent chamber for ejecting or oozing out a predetermined quantity of diluent. The ink chamber and the diluent chamber are provided separately from each other and the ink orifice and diluent orifice are provided separately from each other. In addition, the present invention provides a process for making a print on a printing medium by using an ink ejected from a print head, the print head has an ink chamber and a diluent chamber. The process includes the steps of providing a pair of pressure-applying elements at positions corresponding to the ink chamber and the diluent chamber, impressing a quantity-determinative pulse to the pressure-applying element disposed at a position corresponding to the ink chamber, and impressing an ejecting pulse to the pressure-applying element disposed at a position corresponding to the diluent chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a print head for an on-demand type ink jet printer in which the printing on a printing medium is made by ejecting a fluid containing at least an ink, and a process of making the printing on a printing medium by using the print head, and more particularly to an improvement in a tone gradation of an ink concentration of the print images in dot matrix-printing region.
2. Related Art
Color printing has been hitherto carried out by various methods such as an ink jet printing method, a heat-fusion type image-transferring method, a heat-sublimation type image-transferring method, an electrostatic printing method or the like. Among them, the ink jet printing method has excellent features that it can exhibit a high resolution and is capable of expressing mat-glazed images and gentle colors. Further, the ink jet printing method can provide a relatively low running cost and enables the printing on a large-size paper. Consequently, the ink jet printing method is predominately used in the production of large-size posters or monitoring prints in the fields of apparel-relating or interior-relating industries. Since the mat-glazed color tone obtained by the ink jet printing method is suitable to express an excellent texture sense of cloths, there has been particularly an increased demand therefor in the apparel-relating industry.

Print head providing controlled mixing of ink and diluent on the surface of the print head prior to ejectment


Techniques are provided for resource allocation and provisioning in a multi-tier edge-cloud virtualization environment. An exemplary method comprises: obtaining an application request for processing a given data type in a multi-tier environment; processing application requests received within a decision window to allocate resources for virtual nodes to process the application requests received within the decision window, wherein the allocated resources for each virtual node is on a corresponding one of cloud resources and a given edge node; instantiating the allocated virtual nodes to process the application requests; and providing the application requests to the instantiated virtual nodes, wherein the instantiated virtual nodes obtain the data of the given data type from a data repository. The virtual node waits to process a given application request for output data of any predecessor requests and sends the output data of the given application request to any additional virtual nodes holding successor requests to the given application request.

Recently, shared computing techniques (such as cloud computing techniques) have become a prominent model for business computation. Among other benefits of shared computing, companies, as well as end users, only pay for their usage, without a substantial initial investment, by scaling shared computing resources according to their needs. Virtualization is an important technology behind shared computing. Infrastructure providers rely on virtualization to support their business models, as virtualization enables an abstraction of the available resources as virtual components. To efficiently manage these resources, infrastructure providers need efficient scheduling algorithms and resource allocation policies.
Cloud-based systems demonstrate a number of limitations, which, if overcome, could further improve the utility of such shared computing environments. For example, since cloud resources are typically clusters of data centers located in specific geographic locations, the network overhead and latency of moving data into and out of the cloud needs to be addressed. The edge computing framework has emerged as a solution for a number of cloud computing issues. Edge computing proposes decentralized computation through the allocation of specific tasks to nodes at the edge of the network, that are closer to the data sources. Edge computing attempts to mitigate latency and privacy issues, for example, that are often found in cloud-based systems. With the introduction of computing devices at the edge of the network, the processing and storage demands generated by applications can be distributed through an edge-cloud system comprised of multiple tiers.
A need exists for improved techniques for allocating available resources to accommodate the application workload considering the multiple tiers.

Resource allocation and provisioning in a multi-tier edge-cloud virtualization environment


A projectile comprising a body having a channel, one or more recesses in the channel, a plunger in the channel, and a fluid in the channel is provided. When the projectile impacts a target, the plunger is driven down the channel, exerting a force on the fluid. The fluid, in turn, exerts fluidic pressure within the recesses, promoting rapid yet predictable expansion of the projectile. Another embodiment of the present invention provides a projectile utilizing a non-Newtonian fluid to optimize expansion of the projectile upon impacting a target.

Expanding projectiles or bullets as known in the art have several advantages over bullets which are not designed to promote expansion, such as "full metal jacket" or "round nose" bullets. For example, when an expanding bullet travels through a target, it can expand, transferring its kinetic energy to the target. Since an expanding bullet can transfer more of its kinetic energy to the target than can a round-nose bullet, an expanding bullet is less likely to exit the target and cause undesired damage. Accordingly, expanding bullets are useful in military, law enforcement, and hunting applications.
Hollow-point bullets are expanding bullets that contain a cavity or "hollow-point" at the front of the bullet. Upon striking a target, the hollow point fills with material from the target, in effect creating a "wedge" or "penetrater" out of the target material. As the hollow-point bullet travels through the target, the target material is forcefully driven into the hollow point, expanding the front of the bullet. In this manner, a hollow-point bullet with sufficient kinetic energy can expand well beyond its original diameter. Further, the loss of kinetic energy due to expansion slows the velocity of the hollow-point bullet, making it less likely that it will exit the target and cause unintentional damage. At a sufficiently high velocity a hollow-point bullet may break into two or more pieces, or fragment, while it is traveling through the target, transferring a large portion of its kinetic energy to the target while further reducing the likelihood of unintentional harm.
Hollow-point bullets have several drawbacks. If bullet velocity is not optimal, then the front of the bullet may only slightly expand, or not expand at all. Hollow-point bullets often fail to expand when the hollow point becomes clogged with certain types of target material, such as heavy clothing. Often, the forward part of a hollow point may expand slightly and then be sheared off, leaving a large cylindrical projectile to travel through and exit the target, transferring minimal kinetic energy to the target and increasing the likelihood of unintentional harm.
To promote bullet expansion, some projectiles utilize a wedge-like solid "ballistic tip" or "penetrater" at the front end of the bullet. Upon striking a target, the penetrater is driven into the bullet, causing the front of the bullet to expand. At sufficiently high velocities the penetrater of a ballistic-tip bullet may be driven far enough within the bullet to cause fragmentation, reducing the chance for unintentional harm. However, if bullet velocity is not optimal, then the front of the bullet may only slightly expand, or not expand at all. Often, the forward part of a ballistic-tip bullet may expand slightly and then be sheared off, leaving a large cylindrical projectile to travel through and exit the target, transferring minimal kinetic energy to the target and increasing the probability of unintentional harm. Under actual shooting conditions, bullet velocity at the target is often not high enough to cause adequate expansion.
Some projectiles in the art use a cylindrical fluid-filled cavity to exert a radial expanding force. Fluid-filled bullets offer several advantages over hollow-point and ballistic-tip bullets. First, there is no hollow point to clog or malfunction as in a hollow-point bullet. Second, fluid-filled bullets can expand more rapidly than either hollow-point or ballistic-tip bullets. Fluid-filled bullets can offer greater expansion at a given velocity than either a hollow-point or a ballistic-tip bullet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,907 to Petrovich discloses a projectile having a cylindrical cavity containing a fluid and a shaft at the front of the cavity. Upon impact, the shaft is driven into the fluid, exerting a radial expanding force on the projectile. U.S. Pat. No. 3,429,263 to Snyder discloses a plastic bullet for dispensing paint onto the surface of a target, with the bullet carrying the paint in a tubular cavity. U.S. Pat. No. 6,675,718 to Parker teaches a method for making a fluid-filled projectile by first assembling a fluid-filled cylinder or capsule, and then inserting the cylinder into a hollow cavity of a bullet.
Despite the potential advantages of fluid-filled projectiles as taught by the prior art, they have had extremely limited to no commercial success. A primary reason for the lack of success is the fact that prior art fluid-filled projectiles exhibit unpredictable and uncontrolled expansion on a round-per-round basis. Predictable expansion is a primary factor when the military, law enforcement agencies, or hunters choose which bullet they are going to use. Accordingly, the military, law enforcement agencies, and hunters have not adopted fluid-filled bullets.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a fluid-filled projectile that expands in a predictable manner. Such a projectile would be useful in numerous military, law enforcement, and hunting applications.


Routines for manipulating data in a database are performed by a database server by determining whether or not a database manipulation routine is to be isolated from a specified range of memory, and, in response, selectively switching memory access permission to the specified range of memory (e.g., from read/write to read-only) for the database manipulation routine under consideration. The database manipulation routine is then executed using the selectively switched memory access permission. A database manipulation routine that is to be isolated can be executed with read-only memory access thereby protecting the specified range of memory (e.g., corresponding to core data structures) from improper modification.

This invention relates to accessing information in a database.
A database is a body of information that is logically organized so that it can be stored, searched and retrieved in a coherent manner by a "database engine"--a collection of software methods for manipulating data in the database. The software methods typically are implemented as a set of callable routines, either functions, which return a value, or procedures, which do not return a value.
Databases generally fall into three categories: relational databases, object-oriented databases and object-relational databases. A relational database (RDB) is a collection of fixed-field two-dimensional tables that can be related (or "joined") to each other in virtually any manner a database developer chooses. The structure of a relational database can be modified by selectively redefining the relationships between the tables. A database engine may perform complex searches on a relational database quickly and easily by using any of various database query protocols such as the method expressed by the Structured Query Language (SQL) or by other mechanisms. The relationships between the tables enable results of a search to be automatically cross-referenced to corresponding information in other tables in the database.
As shown in FIG. 1, for example, a relational database 100 includes a customer table 102 which is joined by a logical link 103 to an order table 104 which in turn is joined by a logical link 105 to an inventory table 106. A user may query the database 100, for example, for all order numbers higher than a threshold value. Because the order table 104 is joined with the customer table 102 and the inventory table 106, a list of order numbers identified in response to the query can be retrieved and displayed along with the respective customer names and inventory items that correspond to the identified order numbers.
An object-oriented database (OODB) is a collection of "objects"--software elements that contain both data and methods for manipulating that data. In contrast to a relational database which can store only numeric or character-type data, an OODB can store data of virtually any type (text, 3D graphic images, video clips, etc.). An OODB stores its constituent objects in a hierarchy of classes with associated methods so that the OODB contains much of the logic it needs to do useful work. A relational database in contrast contains only data and must rely on external application software to perform useful functions with the data.
An object-relational database (ORDB) is a hybrid of the other two types. Extended data (e.g., a movie file) may be stored and retrieved in an ORDB either as part of a row or as a binary large object (BLOB)--an undifferentiated mass of data. An ORDB also can access methods (e.g., a utility for viewing movie files) for manipulating the data contained within a BLOB. These methods may be maintained separately from the database engine or may be linked to it depending on the particular ORDB implementation.
In an extensible object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) such as the Informix.RTM. Universal Server (IUS.RTM.), methods for manipulating extended data are linked directly to the database engine so that the extended data is treated as a "native" data type--that is, a data type that the ORDBMS itself can manipulate without resorting to external applications. In FIG. 2, for example, an extensible ORDBMS 200 has extensions X and Y, which respectively contain methods for manipulating data types X and Y, linked directly to the database engine 202. In response to a database query that points to data of type X, for example, the database engine 202 automatically invokes the methods in extension X to manipulate the data in an appropriate data type-specific manner.
A non-extensible ORDBMS, in contrast, does not allow data manipulation methods for arbitrary data types to be linked to the database engine but rather requires the use of multiple data type-specific engines, interconnected via layers of middleware, to manage multiple data types. As a result, a non-extensible ORDBMS generally exhibits reduced performance and presents a developer with increased complexity in deploying new applications.

Selectively switching memory access permission for manipulating data in a database


The present invention is directed to a method of making a functionalized elastomer, comprising the steps of: forming a copolymer Y by copolymerizing a first monomer and a second monomer, wherein the first monomer is selected from the group consisting of 1,3-butadiene, isoprene, and styrene; the second monomer is selected from the group consisting of formula 1 or 2

Stereoregular diene polymers are produced and used industrially on a large scale as an important component of tire compounds. Diene polymers with high levels of stereoregularity are almost exclusively prepared with coordination polymerization catalysts, which are in general easily poisoned by polar functionalities. Because of this poisoning effect, the types of monomers that are compatible with coordination catalysts are usually limited to simple hydrocarbons. It is well known within the tire industry that the incorporation of even low levels of functionality into certain tire polymers (prepared through anionic or emulsion polymerization) significantly improves the performance of tires containing such polymers. Unfortunately, there is currently no reliable method to apply this functionalization technology to stereoregular diene polymers, but it is likely that such a polymer would show superior tire properties over known unfunctionalized polymers.
The synthesis of copolymers based on polar and nonpolar olefins via insertion polymerization is a challenging goal of polymer chemistry. Fundamental progress has been made recently in the polymerization of ethylene with polar vinyl monomers (see e.g., Chen, Chem. Rev. 2009, 109, 5157-5214; Drent et al., Chem. Commun. 2002, 744-745; Johnson et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 267-268; Nakamura et al., Chem. Rev. 2009, 109, 5215-5244.) The functionalization of poly(dienes) via direct copolymerization with polar monomers, however, is almost exclusively accomplished by free-radical or anionic methods (see e.g., Sheares et al., J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2000, 38, 4070-4080; Sunada et al., J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2005, 97, 1545-1552; Yang et al., Macromolecules 2006, 39, 8625-8631; Yang et al., Polymer 2007, 48, 105-109.) The lack of microstructure control in these polymerizations is a major drawback because the properties of the poly(dienes), and hence the applicability, are strongly dependent on the polymer microstructure. Post polymerization functionalization is widely applied in polydiene chemistry. Vulcanization in the rubber industry is a prominent example. The reactivity of sulfur compounds with double bonds was also applied in the functionalization of 1,2-polybutadiene and poly(isoprene-co-3methylenehepta-1,6-diene) via the thiol-ene reaction (see e.g., David et al., Macromolecules 2008, 41, 1151-1161; Justynska et al., Polymer 2005, 46, 12057-12064; Li et al., Macromolecules 2016; Brummelhuis, et al, Macromolecules 2008, 41, 9946-9947.) Although the functionalizations were successful, they still require additional activation, namely UV-irradiation and/or the addition of radical initiators. However, this approach cannot be utilized for high 1,4-cis poly(butadiene) (PBD) as cross-linking occurs under the functionalization conditions. A mild method for a versatile post polymerization functionalization of 1,4-cis-poly(butadiene) with a reactivity approach orthogonal to the backbone's double bonds is highly desirable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of making a functionalized elastomer via allylboration

Abstract: wherein B is boron; O is oxygen; R1 and R2 are independently linear or branched alkyl groups containing 1 to 10 carbon atoms; R3 is hydrogen or a linear or branched alkyl group containing 1 to 10 carbon atoms; and R4 is a linear or branched alkane diyl group containing 1 to 20 carbon atoms, or a bridging aromatic group; and reacting the copolymer Y with a compound Z to form the functionalized elastomer, wherein Z is a compound of formula 3

Abstract: where R5 is phenylene, a linear or branched alkane diyl group containing from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, or a combination of one or more phenylene groups and one or more linear or branched alkane diyl groups containing from 1 to 10 carbon atoms; and Q is hydrogen, bromine, or a functional group comprising at least one heteroatom selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, silicon, and sulfur.


A capillary array electrophoresis which can measure fluorescence of a number of capillaries at a time with high sensitivity and can automatically analyze a sample sequentially. An end edge as a sample dissolution edge of a number of capillaries is connected to a polymer filling block having a mechanism of filling the polymer as an isolation medium inside a capillary. Fluorescence irradiated from an edge surface of an end edge portion of the capillary is detected through a detection window in which distance between an external surface and a detection surface is smaller than focal distance of an optical lens closest to a detection flat surface.

Electrophoresis is a basic method for separating and analyzing DNA, RNA, etc. Conventionally, a slab gel electrophoresis apparatus using slab gel having gel between two glasses as electrophoresis separation columns has been utilized. As large scale separation and analysis represented by Human Genome Project become important, however, high speed and high throughput properties have been needed for the electrophoresis apparatus. An apparatus for making real their properties is the capillary electrophoresis apparatus.
For capillary electrophoresis, the capillary array electrophoresis apparatus is described in a patent document 1, which measures on column fluorescence for detecting fluorescence from sample elements by laser irradiation toward plural capillaries simultaneously. In this device, as indicated in FIG. 1, there are provided a capillary 1, a laser beam 2, glass parallel plates 3, the first lens 4, an image splitter prism and combination filter 5, the second lens 6, a two-dimensional CCD camera 7, etc. A non-patent document 1 explains multiplex PCR (polymerase chain reaction)-mini-sequencing through capillary gel electrophoresis and liquid core waveguide fluorescence detection. A patent document 2 explains capillary electrophoresis apparatus including the capillary filled with gel beforehand and a buffer cistern provided in the lower edge portion of the capillary and detecting fluorescence from the lower edge surface of the capillary. A patent document 3 explains the electrophoresis apparatus in which lower portion of plural gel plates arranged in parallel is positioned inside a lower transparent buffering cistern and the receptor of a fluorescence detector is arranged in a facing way with the bottom face inside the buffering cistern. A patent document 4 explains that a capillary type container is used as a waveguide cell. A patent document 5 explains that a gel injection mechanism is used for injecting gel in the capillary. This gel injection mechanism includes, as indicated in FIG. 2, a block 17, an injection syringe 14 for injecting gel 10 in a capillary 11, a filling syringe 15 for filling gel 10 in an injection syringe 14, and a non-return valve 16.    [Patent document 1] JP-A No. 96623/1997    [Patent document 2] JP-A No. 19846/1998    [Patent document 3] JP-A No. 261988/1996    [Patent document 4] U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,447    [Patent document 5] Official Gazette of Japanese Patent No. 3389547    [Non-patent document 1] Johan Roeraade et al, Electrophoresis 2002 23 1467-1472    [Non-patent document 2] Anazawa, T., Takahashi, S., Kambara, H., Anal. Chem., 1996, 68, 2699-2704


A pump for use with a dispensing unit of a liquid hot melt adhesive system, dispensing units including the pump, and a method of operating a pump for pumping a liquid like liquid hot melt adhesive. The pump has a piston movable within a pumping chamber for transferring liquid from an inlet to an outlet. A valve body, which is resiliently biased relative to the piston, is moved out of contact with the inlet when the piston moves in a first direction and into contact with the inlet when the piston moves in a second direction. When the piston is moved in the first direction, the resilient biasing actively lifts the valve body out of contact with the inlet for overcoming any attractive adhesive force acting between the valve body and inlet.

Hot melt adhesive dispensing systems generally include a dispenser coupled with one or more dispensing guns, heated hoses fluidly connected to the dispensing guns, and a dispensing unit for melting and supplying heated liquid adhesive to the guns through the heated hoses. The dispensing units of conventional hot melt adhesive systems feature a heated tank for melting and heating adhesive material received into the tank in solid or semi-solid form, a pump, a pump manifold for pumping the molten hot melt adhesive from the tank to outlet ports coupled with the heated hoses, and a controller. Among other system operations, the controller regulates the power supplied to the tank heater and heated hoses to maintain the liquid adhesive at an appropriate viscosity and temperature, depending on the application.
Traditional hot melt adhesives are thermoplastic adhesives that are widely used in industry for adhesively bonding many diverse types of products. Such traditional thermoplastic adhesives are solid at room temperature and must be heated to cause a phase transition to a liquid or semi-solid state for promoting flowability and dispensability. In contrast to traditional thermoplastic adhesives, liquid hot melt adhesives have been recently developed that exist in a flowable form at room or ambient temperature without heating to precipitate a phase transition.
Liquid hot melt adhesives are characterized by properties that differ significantly from the properties of traditional hot melt materials. Traditional hot melt materials are converted from a room temperature solid to a flowable form in a heated melter and subsequently pumped through a heated hose to a heated manifold and applicator or gun. In contrast, liquid hot melt adhesives are flowable and have a relatively low viscosity at ambient or room temperatures and pressures, form a highly viscous material with adhesive properties similar to traditional hot melt materials when activated by, for example, exposure to elevated temperatures and/or pressures, and solidify upon cooling after being applied to a substrate. The activated and solidified material behaves like a traditional thermoplastic hot melt adhesive and possesses similar bonding characteristics. An exemplary liquid hot melt adhesive, which is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0029980, consists of discrete particle components dispersed in a carrier fluid and is heat activated.
Liquid hot melt adhesives may be activated by, for example, heating shortly before being dispensed from the dispensing gun(s) onto a substrate. The activation may occur at or near the dispensing gun. Alternatively, the activation may occur at any location between the tank and dispensing gun sufficiently close to the dispensing gun so that the viscosity of the activated liquid hot melt adhesive remains low enough to permit flow from the activation site to the dispensing gun. Although liquid hot melt adhesive is not heated at the tank as are traditional thermoplastic adhesives, adhesive dispensing systems nonetheless require a pump, such as a piston pump, for pumping the liquid hot melt adhesive in a nonactivated state from the tank to the dispensing guns.
One difficulty observed when pumping liquid hot melt adhesives and, for that matter, when pumping other traditional thermoplastic adhesives, is that these materials tend to coagulate and form a solid tacky coating on moving components located in the liquid path inside the pump. The residual coating may adversely affect the operation of these moving components and, hence, pump operation. The balls of pump check valves are one type of moving component particularly affected by the formation of these coatings. A coated check valve ball may tend to adhere and stick to its seat, which makes pumping inefficient. Eventually, the presence of the coating may result in a total pump failure that may be remedied only by completely disassembling and cleaning the pump to remove the coating.
A need therefore exists for a dispensing unit of a hot melt adhesive dispensing system having a pump equipped with moving components resistant to the adverse effects of coating by coagulated liquid hot melt adhesive as described above.


An amorphous transformer prevents deformation or deflection caused by the repulsion force between an outer coil and an inner coil and prevents formation of a one-turn-current through a reinforcement member and a coil frame. The amorphous transformer includes amorphous cores, an outer coil and an inner coil, a coil frame and a reinforcement member. The reinforcement member prevents the amorphous core from being deformed inward by the electromagnetic force of the coil, and the frame member and the reinforcement member prevents formation of an electrical closed-loop. Accordingly, the amorphous transformer core is protected from being damaged.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an amorphous transformer with a wound laminated core, and particularly to an amorphous transformer suitable for protecting the core from being damaged and for preventing fragments of amorphous metal from being scattered within coolant oil used to cool the transformer.
2. Description of Prior Art
A transformer has a core or cores forming a magnetic circuit and a coil or coils forming an electric circuit, for converting high voltage/small current alternating current (hereinafter AC) power into low voltage/large current AC power, or vice versa. As for the material of the core, some transformers have cores of amorphous ferromagnetic materials instead of oriented silicon steel. As for the construction of the amorphous metal core, wound laminated cores are used more often than stacked cores.
An example of an amorphous core transformer of the prior art with a wound laminated core is shown in FIGS. 21-24.
A basic construction of the amorphous transformer in the prior art is disclosed in FIGS. 21-23. In this prior art, the amorphous core transformer has a wound laminated core 1 of amorphous metal and a pair of coils 2, as disclosed in FIG. 22, only one of which is discussed in detail. The coil has an opening for inserting a leg portion of the wound laminated core 1. A coil frame 24 for winding the coil 2 thereon is disposed in the opening of the coil 2. As disclosed in FIG. 21, an amorphous sheet has a narrower width than that of a silicon steel sheet. However, in order to obtain a wider sectional area of the core 1 for use in large capacity transformers, two amorphous cores 11a and 11b are disposed side by side within the coil frame 24 as disclosed in FIG. 23. In such a construction, the longer side of the coil frame 24 is likely to be deflected by a force perpendicular to this side. When a large current such as a short-circuit current flows through the coil 2, an electro-magnetic repulsion force is generated between the inner winding 22 and the outer winding 21, between which is an insulation layer 23. The inner winding 22 is forced to move inward, which also forces the coil frame 24 to move inward and cause deflection as shown in FIG. 24. This deflection is transmitted to the amorphous cores 11a and 11b via spacers 3, which causes mechanical stress in the cores 11a, 11b.
In order to prevent the cores from being stressed as disclosed in prior art Japanese patent laid-open publication no. 63-193512 a construction using FRP plates or a plurality of laminated silicon steel plate are used as a reinforcement member disposed in such a manner that both ends thereof are abutted to the inner surface of a coil frame made of an insulating material. In general, insulating materials including FRP cause aged deterioration. In most cases, a decrease of volume occurs as aged deterioration occurs. When the volume of the coil frame decreases, a coil wound thereon becomes loosened and such undesirable phenomena as vibration or noise are likely to occur.


An apparatus for separating fluids and controlling flow of production fluid includes a support structure configured including a fluid conduit and a tubular assembly disposed at the support structure. The tubular assembly includes an outer tube defining a flow path and having an outer tube inlet in fluid communication with the production fluid, and at least one inner tube disposed eccentrically within the outer tube. The support structure and/or the tubular assembly is configured to cause a centrifugal force on the production fluid that at least partially separates the production fluid into a first fluid portion having a higher concentration of high density fluid than an initial concentration, and a second fluid portion having a higher concentration of the low density fluid than the initial concentration of the low density fluid. One or more inner tubes have an inner tube outlet in fluid communication with the fluid conduit.

Exploration and production of hydrocarbons require a number of diverse activities from various engineering fields to be performed in a borehole penetrating an earth formation. Typically, exploration involves surveying and performing measurements known as logging using a survey or logging tool. Production generally involves activities such as drilling, installing permanent installations, casing perforation, hydraulic fracturing, formation evaluation, well integrity surveys, well stimulation, production logging, pressure pumping and cement evaluation.
There are a variety of tools and components that are deployed downhole to facilitate production. Examples of such components include production screens for filtering solids and particulates from production fluid and inflow control devices. Production fluid typically includes a number of different fluid types, such as water, oil and gas. Typically, production operations involve processing production fluids to remove unwanted materials and water therefrom.

Inflow control including fluid separation features


A very low carbon steel alloy is provided for use in manufacturing tubular members such as oil country tubular goods. The tubular members may be radially expanded from at least twenty percent to forty percent. Sections or joints of casing formed from the steel alloy may be installed within a wellbore and radially expanded during completion of the wellbore.

Wellbores for producing oil, gas or other fluids from subsurface formations are often drilled in stages. For example, a wellbore may first be drilled with a drill string and a first drill bit having a relatively large diameter. At a desired depth for a first portion of the wellbore, the drill string and drill bit are removed from the wellbore. A tubular member of smaller diameter, often referred to as a casing or a casing string, may then be placed in the first portion of the wellbore. An annulus formed between the inside diameter of the wellbore and the outside diameter of the casing string is generally filled with cement. The cement provides support for the casing and isolates downhole formations or subterranean strata from each other. Many oil and gas wells are completed with a relatively large diameter casing at the well surface and a smaller diameter casing extending from the large diameter casing in a telescoping or stair step pattern from the well surface to a desired downhole location. One or more strings of production tubing along with appropriate well completion tools may be installed within the casing strings for use in producing formation fluids from one or more downhole locations.
For very deep wells and very long wells, sometimes referred to as extended reach wells (20,000 feet or greater), there may be three or four changes in casing diameter from the well surface to total depth of the wellbore. Each change in casing diameter often results in decreasing the diameter of production tubing used to produce formation fluids from a desired downhole location. Changes in casing diameter associated with deep wells and/or long wells result in significantly increased drilling and completion costs for associated wells.
Steel, an alloy of iron, is typically made by oxidizing excess carbon and other impurities from molten pig iron. Steel alloys may be produced by injecting substantially pure oxygen into molten iron. Steel alloys may also be produced in electric furnaces which use iron ore as a source of oxygen to remove excess carbon.
Steel alloys typically include relatively high percentages of iron (Fe) and one or more nonmetallic elements. Carbon (C) is one of the most common nonmetallic elements associate with steel alloys. One or more metal elements in addition to iron may be included in many steel alloys. For example, some steel alloys may contain chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni). Such alloys may sometimes be referred to as "stainless steel." Oil country tubular goods are frequently formed from steel alloys which have been quenched and tempered to produce desired characteristics such as yield strength and ductility. Such steel alloys often have 90% to 95% or greater tempered martensite by volume of the steel alloy.
Martensite may generally be described as a solid solution of iron which typically contains one percent or less of carbon. Martensite is often a chief constituent of hardened carbon tool steels. Martensite may be formed by heating steel alloys and then quenching them in cold water. Martensite is sometimes difficult to obtain during quenching of low carbon steel alloys and very low carbon steel alloys. A wide variety of commercial techniques and procedures have been developed for use in satisfactorily quenching low carbon steel allows and very low carbon steel alloys with desired martensite concentrations.
A number of oil and gas wells have been completed using solid, expandable casings and other types of solid, expandable tubular members. Electric resistant welded (ERW) pipe has been used to form such casings. Examples of steel alloys and steel compositions which have previously been used to manufacture solid, expandable casings include quenched and tempered steel alloys with carbon concentrations between approximately 0.22% and 0.25%. The yield strength of such steel alloys may range between approximately 70,000 and 80,000 pounds per square inch with an upper limit of approximately 95,000 pounds per square inch. Casing formed from such steel alloys may be radially expanded up to approximately twenty-five percent (25%) within a wellbore. Average radial expansion for casing formed from such steel alloys may be approximately fifteen percent (15%).

Solid expandable tubular members formed from very low carbon steel and method


An injection nozzle assembly for a fuel cell system, the injection nozzle assembly including a housing defining a fuel chamber to accommodate hydrogen-containing fuel therein and coated with a reforming catalytic layer. An inlet is provided in a first side of the housing to introduce the hydrogen-containing fuel in the fuel chamber and an outlet is provided in a second side of the housing to discharge the hydrogen-containing fuel from the fuel chamber. An injection means is provided in the fuel chamber so that noise, vibration and power consumption due to operation of a fuel pump are reduced, and transformation efficiency for producing hydrogen ions and electrons from the hydrogen-containing fuel is increased.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fuel cell systems, and an injection nozzle assembly for the fuel cell system.
2. Discussion of Related Art
To solve environmental or lack of natural resources problems, much attention has been paid to a fuel cell that electrochemically reacts oxygen in air with hydrogen obtained from hydro-carbonaceous fuel such as natural gas or the like, or from hydrogen-containing fuel such as methanol or the like, thereby generating electricity. Such fuel cell is classified into a phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC), a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), an alkaline fuel cell (AFC), etc. according to the electrolyte used. These fuel cells may be applied to various fields such as a mobile device, transportation, a distributed power source, etc. according to a kind of fuel, a driving temperature, an output range, etc.
Among these fuel cells, the PEMFC is beneficial because it has excellent output performance, low operation temperature, and quick start and response. The PEMFC includes a stack in which a plurality of unit cells generating electricity based on a chemical reaction between hydrogen gas and oxygen gas are stacked and a reformer supplying hydrogen gas obtained by reforming hydrogen-containing fuel including a hydro-carbonaceous material such as methanol, ethanol or natural gas to the stack. The PEMFC also includes a fuel feeder for feeding the reformer with the hydrogen-containing fuel by a pumping operation and an air supplier for supplying air to the stack.
A direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) has been developed that uses hydrogen-containing fuel directly to generate electricity without employing the reformer for obtaining hydrogen gas. The DMFC has advantages in that operation temperature is low, response time is short, and the size thereof is small. Therefore, the DMFC has been actively researched. The DMFC includes a stack in which a plurality of unit cells generating electricity based on an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen gas and oxygen gas are stacked. The DMFC also includes a fuel feeder for feeding the stack with hydrogen-containing fuel by a pumping operation; and an air supplier for supplying air to the stack.
In a conventional DMFC, the pumping operation is essential to supply hydrogen-containing fuel to the stack. However, the pumping operation causes noise, vibration and much power consumption. In particular, the DMFC has low transformation efficiency for obtaining hydrogen from the supplied hydrogen-containing fuel.

Injection nozzle assembly and fuel cell system having the same


An optical apparatus that can be used to monitor and/or test targeted optical fibers. The apparatus is contained within a housing that is sized to fit within a shelf of the frame of a fiber administration system. Within the housing is a stationary plate having a face surface. Incoming optical fibers connect to connectors in an array on the side of the housing. The connector array interconnects the incoming optical fibers to a plurality of optical leads in the housing. The optical leads in the housing are optically coupled to target points on the face surface of the stationary plate. A motor is positioned across from the stationary plate. The motor selectively turns an armature that is attached to the shaft of the motor. A light receiving element is disposed on the armature, wherein the light receiving element optically aligns with each of the target points on the face surface of the stationary plate when moved by the motor. An electro-optical converter is optically coupled to the light receiving element on the armature. As the armature aligns the light receiving elements with the various target points on the face of the stationary plate, signals from the incoming optical fibers are optically connected to the electro-optical converter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical monitoring devices that monitor the quality of an optical signal passing through an optical cable. More particularly, the present invention relates to optical monitoring devices that monitor the quality of signals on multiple optical fibers using an optical switching mechanism and a single monitoring device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many applications that utilize an optical fiber network to establish optical communications between a host digital terminal (HDT) at a central office and an optical network unit (ONU) at a remote location. Since a central office serves as the point of origin for the optical fibers in the optical fiber network, fiber administration systems are typically used at the central office to manage the flow of optical signals as they are directed to the various ONUs along the different optical fibers in the network.
In many fiber administration systems, as the optical fibers in a network enter the central office, they are directed into an optical distribution frame where the individual optical fibers are terminated in an organized manner. Such fiber administration systems are exemplified by the LGX.RTM. fiber administration system which is currently manufactured by Lucent Technologies of Murray Hill, New Jersey, the assignee herein. In such fiber administration systems, the optical distribution frames used at the central office are typically large structures that are arranged in parallel rows. Each optical distribution frame is commonly mounted between the floor and ceiling and only a few feet separate each row of frames.
Each optical distribution frame located at the central office typically defines a plurality of bays, wherein each bay houses several fiber distribution shelves. On each of the fiber distribution shelves are optical couplings that receive the ends of all of the individual optical fibers that enter the central office and are contained within the optical fiber network. By terminating each optical fiber at a coupling on one of the different fiber distribution shelves, the location of each optical fiber becomes known within the overall assembly. Once terminated at a known address on one of the fiber distribution shelves, each optical fiber can be selectively coupled to a HDT or a variety of other pieces of optical equipment located at the central office.
Within the fiber administration system it is desirable to monitor the signal quality of optical signals in a variety of different optical fibers. In order to monitor such optical signals, the optical signals must be converted to electrical signals. The electrical signals can then be automatically monitored by a processor under computer control that uses statistical process control software. One problem associated with monitoring various optical signals in a fiber administration system is space. Fiber administration systems are modular in design, wherein different pieces of hardware are designed to fit within one of the shelves in the frame of the fiber administration system. The space dedicated to one shelf in a fiber administration system is small. This leaves little room for complex monitoring systems and numerous optical leads.
A need therefore exists for a optical fiber monitoring apparatus that is small enough to fit in a shelf of a fiber administration system, yet is capable of monitoring numerous optical fibers within that confined space.

Apparatus and method for monitoring optical fibers


A particle beam system for examining and processing an object includes an electron beam column and an ion beam column with a common work region, in which an object may be disposed and in which a principal axis of the electron beam column and a principal axis of the ion beam column meet at a coincidence point. The particle beam system further includes a shielding electrode that is disposable between an exit opening of the ion beam column and the coincidence point. The shielding electrode is able to be disposed closer to the coincidence point than the electron beam column.

Conventional particle beam systems include an electron beam column for generating an electron beam and an ion beam column for generating an ion beam, wherein the two particle beams can be directed on a common work region in order thus to examine a region of an object with the electron beam and process same region with the ion beam. In such conventional particle beam systems, the ion beam column is commonly used to process the object, for example to remove material from the object or deposit material on the latter. The object is typically scanned by the electron beam and the secondary electrons generated in process and the backscattered electrons are detected in order thus to record an image of the object and hence monitor the advance of the processing. Depending on the application, low-energy secondary electrons or higher energy backscattered electrons may be of particular interest here.
The highest precision when processing and examining the object can be obtained in each case when the respectively employed particle beam strikes the object in substantially perpendicular fashion. Thus, the highest precision for processing with the ion beam can be achieved when the ion beam strikes the object in perpendicular fashion. The highest resolution and the best detection efficiency for imaging the object can be obtained when the electron beam strikes the object in substantially perpendicular fashion. Thus, many applications involve the object to be frequently aligned with respect to the ion beam column and the electron beam column.
Conventional particle beam systems, in which an electric field is generated within the electron beam column by the electron beam column in order to reduce the kinetic energy of the electrons of the electron beam prior to the emergence thereof from the electron beam column, are known. However, the electric field also extends from the electron beam column up to the object. In configurations where the object is oriented substantially perpendicular to the ion beam, the electric field causes secondary particles generated at the object to be accelerated substantially perpendicular to the surface in the region of the surface of the object. This may lead to it only being possible to detect a small proportion of the secondary particles emanating from the object via detectors disposed in the interior of the electron beam column.

Particle beam system and method for operating a particle beam system


A laboratory vibration grinding mill comprising a circular oscillating drive that operates in at least two dimensions, at least one support, and a respective elongated grinding bowl held in each support. The grinding bowl has a filling of grinding bodies and is provided with frontal grinding bowl bases. The support for a grinding bowl is configured such that a longitudinal axis of the grinding bowl forms an angle of less than 90° with a plane of movement of the circular oscillating drive such that due to movement paths of the grinding bodies in the grinding bowl caused by the inclined position of the grinding bowl relative to the plane of movement of the circular oscillating drive, the frontal grinding bowl bases are incorporated into a size-reduction process as abutment and grinding surfaces.

The instant application should be granted the priority dates of Jul. 14, 2007, the filing date of the corresponding German patent application 10 2007 032 893.3, as well as Jul. 12, 2008, the filing date of the International patent application PCT/EP2008/005707.
The present invention relates to a laboratory vibration grinding mill having a circular oscillating drive that operates in at least two dimensions, and also having at least one support for an elongated grinding bowl that is held therein, has a filling of grinding bodies, and is IS provided with frontal grinding bowl bases.
A laboratory vibration grinding mill having the aforementioned features is known in one structure as a planetary ball mill having a speed ratio k=1:−1 from the company brochure "Fliehkraft-Kugelmühlen" of F. Kurt Retsch GmbH & Co. KG, Haan from Apr. 1988. With such laboratory vibration grinding mills, which have a circular oscillating drive that operates in two dimensions, the grinding bodies, which are preferably embodied as balls, are pressed against the outer wall of the grinding bowls due to the high centrifugal forces that are active, where they reduce the size of the material to be ground between them and the grinding bowl wall due to rolling pressure and frictional effect. Cylindrical grinding bowls are used as grinding bowls that by means of the grinding bowl support that is provided on the laboratory vibration grinding mill are held in a perpendicular orientation of their longitudinal axis relative to the plane of the two-dimensional circular vibrational movement in the laboratory vibration grinding mill. To improve the grinding result, it is additionally known to design the speed ratio of a planetary ball mill to k>1, so that during the grinding process, the grinding bodies depart from the wall of the grinding bowl and fly through the grinding bowl along a secant-shaped movement line, and strike a region of the wall of the grinding bowl that is opposite the point of departure, so that the size reduction is additionally improved by rebound or impact load.
The object of the present invention, for a laboratory vibration grinding mill having the aforementioned features, is to increase the energy input during the grinding process and to thus improve the overall grinding result.

Laboratory vibration grinding mill having inclined grinding bowls


A first part for picking up a signal being proportional to a ringing tone signal transferred on a subscriber line; a second part for extracting an ac component from the thus picked-up signal; and a third part for receiving both the signals from the first and second parts and comparing, in level, these two signals to produce a ringer stop signal if the level difference therebetween becomes larger than a setpoint value, and thus, a conventional low-pass filter can be removed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ring trip circuit.
A ring trip circuit is employed as, for example, a part of each subscriber line circuit in a telephone exchange system. When a subscriber is called up by ringing the bell of his telephone set, the ring trip circuit functions, if the subscriber removes the handset from the telephone set, i.e., the telephone is put in an off-hook state, to stop the ringing immediately after the detection of the off-hook state.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art ring trip circuit has as one of its essential elements a low-pass filter which cancels an ac component of the ringing tone signal and extracts only a dc component therefrom. However, the use of the low-pass filter produces a major problem that it takes a long time to finally detect a level change of the dc component, this level change occurring in response to a change in state to the off-hook state. This long response time is caused by a first-order response lag inherent to the low-pass filter and usually becomes as long as, e.g., 350 ms. This being so, a ringer stop signal cannot be output until 350 ms lapses after the status change to the off-hook state. Therefore, during the lapse of 350 ms, the called party must unwillingly hear the ringing tone signal from the handset, the sound of this ringing tone signal being generally uncomfortable.
Another problem is that the low-pass filter inevitably requires an amplifier to revive a dc level which has been suppressed together with an ac component when the signal is processed in the low-pass filter.


A method for building a multi-processor system with nodes having multiple cache coherency domains. In this system, a directory built in a node controller needs to include processor domain attribute information, and the information can be acquired by configuring cache coherency domain attributes of ports of the node controller connected to processors. In the disclosure herein, the node controller can support the multiple physical cache coherency domains in a node.

For a multi-processor system, multiple processors share the memory space in the system. Currently, a connection manner of multiple processors is changed from bus connection to point-to-point connection, and a memory is also directly hooked to the processor instead of being hooked to an external bridge chip of the processor. Because of the change of memory hooking manner, distribution of the memory in the system is also changed, thereby causing non-uniformity of memory access in the multi-processor system, and therefore, current multi-processor systems are mostly Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) architecture systems.
The NUMA architecture multi-processor system has the following 3 important characteristics:
1. all memories are addressed uniformly, so as to form a unified memory space;
2. all processors can access all addresses in the memory space;
3. accessing a remote memory is slower than accessing a local memory.
The NUMA system has multiple cache units distributed in the system, and therefore, the NUMA system shall be designed to solve the problem of coherence between multiple caches. A NUMA system satisfying cache coherence is also referred to as a Cache Coherent Non-Uniform Memory Access (CC-NUMA) system. How to solve the problem of cache coherence is a core problem of the CC-NUMA system.
Currently, the processor is directly hooked to the memory, and the processor supports a cache coherence protocol; therefore, in one solution, the processors are directly interconnected to form a multi-processor system, and cache coherence between the processors may be guaranteed by cache coherence protocol maintenance engines of the processors, so as to form a single cache coherency domain. In the single cache coherency domain, various processors are identified and recognized by using processor ID numbers. However, a multi-processor system organized in this manner has a limited scale, because every processor occupies at least one processor ID number in the cache coherency domain, and the number of processor ID numbers that can be distinguished by every processor is limited. For example, a processor can distinguish 4 processor ID numbers, that is, the processor can support direct interconnection of at most 4 processors in the domain. For another example, a processor can only distinguish 2 processor IDs, and can only support two processors in a cache coherency domain. Moreover, due to physical limits and price limits, the number of interconnection ports of processors are also limited, in some circumstances, although the number of processor IDs supported by the processor in the single cache coherency domain can meet the requirement, the direct connection causes large hop counts and delay for cross-processor memory access, and therefore, a high-efficient multi-processor system cannot be formed.
Parameter configuration of processors, the number of interconnection ports and the number of supportable processor IDs are closely related to a pricing system of processors. Generally, the less numbers of the interconnection ports and processor IDs are supported by a processor, the cheaper the price is. A processor supporting 2 processor IDs is cheaper than a processor supporting 4 processor IDs in a domain.
As described above, the multi-processor system formed in the processor direct connection manner has a limited scale. In order to implement a CC-NUMA multi-processor system having a larger scale, node controllers are required. The node controller functions to expand the system scale and maintain global cache coherence. First, each node controller is connected to 1 to 4 processors, no as to form a node and a first-level cache coherency domain, and the intra-domain cache coherence is collectively maintained by the processors and the node controller. The node controller also occupies at least one processor ID in the domain, and therefore, the sum of the numbers of the processors and the node controller in the domain cannot be greater than the number of processor IDs supportable by the processor in the domain. Then, the node controllers are directly interconnected or are connected by using a node router to form a large-scale CC-NUMA system. Second-level cache coherence between nodes is maintained by the node controllers, and when a processor in a certain node accesses a memory of a processor in another node across nodes and cache coherency domains, global cache coherence is maintained by the node controllers.
The CC-NUMA system uses the node controllers to expand the system scale and maintain the global cache coherence, which increases overheads of cross-domain processing and inter-domain communication, resulting in significant reduction of remote memory accessing, and the larger the system scale is, the more obvious the reduction is. If a CC-NUMA system formed by 64 processors is built, two solutions may be used, in solution 1, there are 4 processors in a coherency domain of each node, and therefore, at least 16 node controllers are required for the whole system. In solution 2, a processor only supporting 2 processor IDs in the domain may be used, and therefore, in one node, the cache coherency domain can only be formed by one processor and one node controller, so that at least 64 node controllers are required. So many node controllers result in a very huge interconnection scale of nodes and much more complicated inter-node topology; therefore, the speed of cross-node accessing a remote memory is obviously deteriorated, thereby causing a rapid reduction of system efficiency and a tremendous loss of performance.
It can be seen that, for a multi-node multi-processor system, reducing the number of nodes plays a direct and significant role in reducing interconnection scale of nodes and simplifying inter-node topology, especially for a processor that can support very limited numbers of interconnection ports and processor IDs in a domain. Therefore, whether the number of node controllers can be reduced effectively is a very significant and urgent technical problem to be solved.

Method for building multi-processor system with nodes having multiple cache coherency domains

INSPUR ELECTRONIC INFORMATION INDUSTRY CO., LTD


A regulator circuit may be configured to operate with multiple power supplies. The regulator circuit may be configured to receive an input voltage and provide a regulated output voltage at an output terminal as a function of the input voltage. The regulator may include at least two drivers. A first driver may have a driver output coupled to the output terminal and have a supply terminal coupled to a high power supply, and a second driver may have a driver output coupled to the output terminal and have a supply terminal coupled to a low power supply. A selector circuit may be configured to compare the input voltage with a control voltage that has a magnitude just below a magnitude of the low power supply, to determine which driver to select from the first driver and the second driver, and enable either the first driver output or the second driver output to be active according to which driver has been selected. The regulator circuit may be configured to operate with any number of power supplies by including corresponding drivers and selection logic in the selector circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to voltage/current driver/regulator circuit design and, more particularly, to the design of a regulator circuit operating with multiple supply voltages.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of driver circuits exist today for use in integrated circuits and systems for driving a signal line or a bus. Oftentimes driver circuits are configured to enable bus transactions between a source device and a target device, and feature complex designs in order to meet various system specifications. Typically, these driver circuits may be relatively expensive to build. Other driver circuits may feature simple or simpler designs, failing, however, to accurately control output currents and output voltages, while also having slow rise and fall times.
One variety of driver circuits generally comprises a relatively low power circuit that drives, or controls, a higher power device, which may be part of a power driving stage for a load. One example might be a load that is a motor, such as a brushless motor, that provides the motive force for a fan. Fans are oftentimes used in computer systems to evacuate hot air from enclosures to prevent certain circuit components, such as central processing units (CPUs) from overheating. Linear driver circuits are therefore often used to drive the fan motor, and/or controlling the rotational speed of the fan in a wide variety of computer systems.
Linear drivers are also a feature of output stages in many amplifiers—whose basic function is to produce an output signal with a power that is a multiple of the power of an input signal—since many applications call for an output waveform that faithfully reproduces the shape of the input signal while magnifying its voltage and/or current in a linear fashion. In order to increase the efficiency of an amplifier while maintaining a high degree of linearity, a class G design may be employed, which involves changing the power supply voltage from a lower level to a higher level when larger output swings are required.
A variety of methods and solutions exist for implementing class G operation in an efficient manner. The simplest solution typically involves a single class AB output stage connected to two power supply rails by a diode, or a transistor switch. In this solution, under most circumstances, the output stage is connected to the lower supply voltage, and automatically switches to the higher rails for large signal peaks. Another approach features two class AB output stages, each stage connected to a different power supply voltage, with the signal path determined by the magnitude of the input signal. Using two power supplies improves power efficiency enough to allow significantly more power for a given size and weight.
Class G amplifiers typically include current blocking diodes configured to prevent driving current into a lower voltage supply when the amplifier output exceeds the lower supply voltage. While this provides effective protection, it also places a limit on the efficiency of the contribution provided by the lower voltage power supplies to the overall amplifier output. Some power will unavoidably be dissipated in the diode as a result of the voltage drop across the diode, any time a lower voltage supply is contributing to the overall output of the amplifier. In addition, a power device typically included in each output stage to control the flow of current to the load will dissipate power that is equal to the load current multiplied by the difference between the supply voltage and the amplifier output. This power would be wasted any time the supply contributed to the amplifier output.
When a power supply is contributing maximum current to the amplifier output, the output device may be operating in either saturation mode or linear mode, generally with a voltage drop in the tenth volt range (typically few tenths of a volt). When the voltage drop across the output device is combined with the voltage drop across the diode when using a lower voltage supply, the total difference between the supply voltage and the amplifier output may be around one volt. While such a voltage drop and corresponding inefficiency may be acceptable in relatively high voltage amplifiers where the output is in the 10V range (typically tens of volts), integrated circuit amplifiers for low-power applications are typically designed to operate with minimum supply voltages below two volts, and such a drop in output stage voltage would limit the amplifier's maximum efficiency to less than fifty percent.
One solution for the design of more efficient class G amplifiers is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,838,942 (Efficient class-G amplifier with wide output voltage swing). According to this solution, the amplifiers include multiple output stages, each associated with a distinct supply voltage, the amplifiers thereby operating off of multiple supply voltages. Each output stage contributes current to the output of the amplifier over a range of amplifier output voltages, with possibly overlapping voltage ranges. Each output stage also contributes current until the amplifier output voltage reaches the supply voltage associated with that output stage. When the amplifier output voltage is close to the supply voltage associated with an output stage, both that output stage and the output stage associated with the next highest supply voltage may contribute to the amplifier output.
Certain drawbacks of this solution are apparent, however. For example, current may flow from a high supply to low supply during fast signal transients, causing extra power dissipation. This may occur due to the pass devices to the two supplies conducting simultaneously, in addition to the slow speed of the control loop. Another issue may be the less than optimal power saving due to a transition region from one supply to the next supply having a value in the 100 mV range (typically hundreds of mV). Finally, the feedback loop can be very difficult to stabilize.
Other corresponding issues related to the prior art will become apparent to one skilled in the art after comparing such prior art with the present invention as described herein.

Regulator circuit with multiple supply voltages


The device includes at least one oblong gripping element located at the periphery of a ball with which it is in contact, either indirectly via a covering element enclosing the ball, or directly by extending its external casing, or inner bladder or an element interposed between the two latter elements. The device has an elastic articulation between the gripping element and the ball, permanently returning the gripping element in a radial position relative to the ball center.

This invention relates to the field of items for dogs and in particular to a device making it possible to play ball with a dog using a ball or the like, as used in team sports, intended to be inflated with pressurized air, equipped with an automatic shut-off inflation valve or ball of the preinflated type, so that a dog can, among other things, bring it back in his mouth without puncturing it, of the type consisting of at least one grip, said grip being designed to be grasped in the mouth of the dog, said ball having at least a median circumference of a width of at least 90xc2x0 of angular sector with respect to the center of the ball free of any grip protruding from this surface so as to allow the ball to roll in at least one direction.
At the present time, there is no large ball in existence for dogs, even though it is far more fun to play ball with a dog using a large ball than using a small ball. Since none of the current large balls (footballs, handballs, basketballs, volleyballs, etc.) has any grip, the dog tries to grab them in its mouth in order to pick them up, and thus very soon punctures them. However, for the sport of horse ball there is a six handled net, through the meshes of which a deflated large ball is introduced to then be reinflated once inside. The six tall and broad leather handles completely surround the ball, preventing it from rolling or bouncing at all, as demanded by that sport, for convenience of the riders. These tall and broad handles, designed to be grasped by a human hand, prove entirely unsuitable and dangerous for hoisting the ball into the air by kicking it and for being gripped in the mouth of a dog. In addition, the fact that this ball does not roll or bounce at all removes the entire interest of playing ball with a dog. Certain large balls are sold in a net with two fine handles so that they can be more readily transported. As the handles are not arranged radially, they cannot be stood up, project, and protrude to a marked extent from the outer cover of the ball. Indeed they rather tend to lie flat against the outer cover of the large ball. As a result, the dog cannot grip them and therefore tries to grab the ball in its mouth in order to pick it up, and thus very soon punctures it. Furthermore, an American patent numbered U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,559 describes a toy for a dog consisting of a flexible grip tied to a grip in the shape of an arc of a circle which is itself attached to a portion of a large ball. As these two grips are not elongate, do not have a certain rigidity, do not have a.
This present invention provides a solution to these problems.
Its object is a device of the aforementioned type, characterized in that said grip has an oblong shape along a longitudinal axis, such as the shape of a cylinder, a cone, a bar, a.
rod or such that it resembles an object such as, for example, a bone or a sausage, and in that the part of said grip closest to the center of the ball is rigid or semi-rigid so that it can keep itself erect and in that said base of said grip defines, with the zone of said ball adjacent to this said base, an articulation such that, under the effect of a force exerted laterally on said base of the grip, the latter finds itself in a position such that the grip protrudes to a marked extent beyond the zone of the ball where it is located and projects, it therefore being readily accessible to the mouth of the dog, thus dissuading the dog from gripping the large ball directly by its outer cover as this would soon cause the ball to be punctured.
This device is characterized in that the base of the grip is securely and firmly connected to a full or perforated wrapping or enveloping element made of a strong material such as plastic, synthetic cord, natural cord, lashing, Kevlar (trade name), synthetic strapping, natural strapping, intended to be run right around a ball, closely following its shape, at least temporarily while the ball is being used with a dog, the elastic articulation with a position of equilibrium being between the wrapping element and the zone of the ball adjacent to the base of the grip by virtue of the elastic deformation of this zone of the ball. This device is characterized in that the wrapping or enveloping element is cording or strapping wrapped around a ball in such a way as to describe at least three circumferences, such as circles, located in at least three mutually different planes, secured together so as to trap the ball in a strong net, from which the ball can be extracted and reintroduced by deflating. This device is characterized in that the base of the grip passes through the wrapping or enveloping element so that part of the base of the grip is inserted
Another subject of the invention is the use of such a device as a ball for playing with dogs.


A wiring layout apparatus includes a layout design unit configured to design a wiring layout for a semiconductor integrated circuit; a critical wiring detection unit configured to analyze a delay of signal propagation in the wiring layout so as to detect wiring strip conductors that configure a signal path whose timing is critical; a rewiring unit configured to rearrange the wiring strip conductors so as to improve the uniformity of a wiring pattern of an area in the vicinity of the critical wiring strip conductor, with regard to the wiring layout; and a strip-conductor-size variation determination unit configured to evaluate the uniformity of the pattern of the rearranged wiring layout so as to determine whether or not variation in the size of the critical wiring strip conductor falls within a tolerance range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiring layout apparatus, a wiring layout method, and a wiring layout program for a semiconductor integrated circuit, and particularly to a wiring layout apparatus, a wiring layout method, and a wiring layout program, for a semiconductor integrated circuit, configured to lay out wiring strip conductors whose width and the spaces therebetween are as small as the resolution limit of an exposure apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
To date, in designing a wiring layout for a semiconductor integrated circuit, based on the assumption that the respective characteristics of circuit elements and parasitic elements on the chip are approximately homogeneous, the design has been performed with a margin. In other words, on the assumption that, even though some variations exist in the characteristics of the elements on the chip, the variations fall within a tolerance range, designing of a wiring layout for a semiconductor integrated circuit has been performed in consideration only of a desirable timing specification.
In recent years, due to promotion of device miniaturization, the dimension of a strip conductor such as a wiring strip conductor drawn on a semiconductor substrate has become smaller than the light-source wavelength of a drawing exposure apparatus; therefore, it has become difficult to process wiring strip conductors in accordance with intended design sizes. In particular, due to the miniaturization and the high-density integration of a mask pattern, pattern arrangement and adjacency relationship affect largely each other in a process of forming strip conductors through photolithography or etching processing. In order to cope with the foregoing problem, the optical proximity correction processing (hereinafter, described as OPC processing), in which a correction pattern is preliminarily added to a designed pattern, is generally performed so that the size of a processed strip conductor becomes equal to the desirable size of the strip conductor.
However, in order to accurately realize a densely integrated layout pattern, through the OPC processing, considerably large data processing time is required. In addition, depending on the combination of the shapes of adjacent strip conductors, a variation in processing size is caused, and a parasitic capacitance and a resistance also vary; thus, a delay, of a signal that propagates on the wiring strip conductors, which is a critical path in timing design, is caused to vary. In other words, because, in the OPC processing, the designed pattern is not sufficiently corrected, the sizes of the processed strip conductors do not become the desirable size, whereby electrical characteristics, especially a delay, of a signal that propagates on the wiring strip conductors, which is a critical path in timing design, is caused to vary. Accordingly, it has been a problem that a chip is produced that cannot realize a preliminarily set operating frequency, thereby deteriorating the yield rate of the chip.
As measures for the variation in the size of a strip conductor, semiconductor integrated circuit devices have been proposed (e.g., refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-303089) in which, by adding dummy strip conductors each having a predetermined regularity to a designed pattern, the variation in the size of a strip conductor due to processing is suppressed.
However, it has been a problem that, because, with the miniaturization of devices in recent years, wiring has come to be densely formed in an overall chip, a vacant space where no wiring is laid has become very small, whereby, it is difficult to add dummy strip conductors to a designed pattern, as is the case with the semiconductor integrated circuit device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-303089.

Wiring layout apparatus, wiring layout method, and wiring layout program for semiconductor integrated circuit


A user equipment described herein receives content delivered by a telecommunication network at a first rate. The first rate is a highest rate possible for the telecommunication network. The user equipment then renders the content at a second rate that is lower than the first rate.

Cellular communication devices, such as mobile devices, use network radio access technologies to communicate wirelessly with geographically distributed cellular base stations. Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is an example of a widely implemented radio access technology that is used in 4th-Generation (4G) communication systems. New Radio (NR) is a newer radio access technology that is used in 5th-Generation (5G) communication systems. Standards for LTE and NR radio access technologies have been developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for use by wireless communication carriers.
NR radio access technology is typically used for user-plane communications of data, such as video data, at high speeds. The radio frequency spectrum used for NR transmissions is limited and sometimes cannot meets the demands made of it by all the desired deliveries. Thus, while certain types of content, types of subscribers, and types of services may not call for a delivery at a best available throughput rate, delivery over such limited spectrum at a lower rate creates needless bottlenecks.

Device-side playback restrictions on high throughput networks


A method is provided for a planar surface of a semiconductor integrated circuit, and an integrated circuit formed according to the same. A gate electrode is formed over a substrate having source/drain regions adjacent to the gate electrode and in the substrate. A silicon dioxide layer is formed over the gate electrode and a portion of the substrate not covered by the gate electrode. A first phosphorous doped spin-on-glass layer is formed over the silicon dioxide layer, wherein the spin-on-glass is doped to a concentration sufficient to facilitate gettering of charge mobile ions. An opening is then formed in the spin-on-glass layer and the silicon dioxide layer exposing a portion of the source drain region.

The manufacturing costs of integrated circuits are largely dependent upon the chip area required to implement desired functions. The chip area, in turn, is defined by the geometries and sizes of the active components such as gate electrodes in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) technology, and diffused regions such as MOS source and drain regions and bipolar emitters and base regions. These geometries and sizes are often dependent upon the photolithographic resolution available for the particular manufacturing facility. The goal of photolithography in establishing the horizontal dimensions of the various devices and circuits is to create a pattern which meets design requirements as well as to correctly align the circuit pattern on the surface of the wafer. As line widths shrink smaller and smaller in submicron photolithography, the process to print lines and contact holes in photoresist becomes increasingly more difficult.
With circuit advancement to the very-large-scale integration (VLSI) levels, more and more layers are added to the surface of the wafer. These additional layers in turn create more steps on the wafer surface. The resolution of small image sizes in photolithography thus becomes more difficult over the additional steps due to light reflection and the thinning of the photoresists over the steps. Planarization techniques are generally incorporated to offset the effects of a varied topography.
Many different planarization techniques have been used in the past, each with its own disadvantages. Multilayer photoresist processes have been used to create the desired images. The particular photoresist process depends upon the severity of the topography and the size of the desired images. These processes however, take longer and require more yield-limiting steps. Polyimides and reflow glass layers are used to planarize the surface of the wafer. Polyimides can be spun onto the wafer like the photoresist materials. After application, the polyimide is covered with a hard layer and patterned like the photoresists. Reflow glass layers are generally doped with boron or phosphorous or both to lower the temperature at which the glass layer will flow. While these layers achieve more planarization than previous methods, additional planarization is still required as the device geometries continue to shrink.
Spin-on-glass (SOG) is also a hard planarizing layer which is a mixture of silicon dioxide in a solvent that quickly evaporates. There may be carbon in the SOG to reduce the SOG's susceptibility to cracking after it is baked. SOG, by itself, however, is unable to prevent mobile ionic contaminants from travelling through the layer and into the devices or wafer surface below the SOG.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a method of forming a planarizing layer which is capable of preventing mobile ionic contaminants from traveling through the planarizing layer and into the underlying layers.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a method which utilizes a doped spin-on-glass insulating layer.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a method which utilizes conventional process flows.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having reference to the following specification together with the drawings.

Method of gettering using doped SOG and a planarization technique


To provide a pneumatic tire capable of improving resistance to stone drilling while ensuring snow traction performance, protrusions are arranged at intervals in a groove, each of the protrusions being lower than a height of a block and being separated from the block. The protrusion includes a protrusion main portion having a top portion, and a sloped portion having a slope of which angle with a groove bottom is formed in a range from 3 to 60°. The sloped portion is formed at positions in two directions which are mutually opposite to each other at least along the groove. Consequently, a stone trapped within the groove moves up to the top portion along the slope, and is ejected from the groove. Since the protrusions are arranged separately from the block and are arranged at intervals, the capacity of the groove is ensured. Thus, the resistance to stone drilling can be improved while the snow traction performance is ensured.

In conventional pneumatic tires, stones are sometimes held or trapped within grooves that are formed on the tread area of a pneumatic tire fitted to a vehicle, during its travel. Furthermore, such stones may penetrate the bottoms of the grooves due to rolling of the pneumatic tire, and so-called "stone drilling" may occur. If the stone drilling occurs in the above manner, then the stones having penetrated causes cracking of the groove bottoms and damage to a belt layer when the stone penetration occurs so deeply. If the belt layer is damaged, water comes into the belt layer from the outside through a hole made by the stone drilling, and steel forming the belt layer is rusted, which may lead to tread separation.
Some of the conventional pneumatic tires have protrusions in the grooves in order to minimize stone trapping in the grooves. For example, in Patent Literature 1, a pneumatic tire has circumferential grooves, along which protrusions are provided. These protrusions can minimize stone trapping in the circumferential grooves. Furthermore, in the Patent Literature 1, a protrusion is located at an intersection between a circumferential groove and a lateral groove, and is formed so as to fit also along the lateral groove. Stones or the like are easily held in the portion where the grooves intersect each other, and stone trapping thereby easily occurs therein. However, by forming the protrusion disposed at this portion into such a form that the protrusion fits also along the lateral groove, the stone trapping hardly occurs. Since the pneumatic tire runs on the snowy road, snow traction performance is also required. High snow traction performance can be obtained by increasing the capacity of the grooves to cause the snow on the road to enter the grooves, and by pushing aside the snow. Therefore, the protrusions, which are almost cuboids, are arranged at intervals to ensure the capacity of the grooves.
[Patent Literature 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H03-67706.

Pneumatic tire with tread having grooves including protrusions connected by joint