At least one basic program and an auxiliary program run on a computer and collaborate with the computer via an operating system, with windows being displayed on a viewing device allocated to the computer. The auxiliary program determines a basic window pointer on the basis of an identifier that is characteristic of the at least one basic program, the location and size of the basic window on the viewing device being able to be set via the basic window pointer. The auxiliary program, based on this pointer, sets the location and size of the basic window to values determined by the auxiliary program.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an integration method for at least one basic program with a basic window into an auxiliary program with an auxiliary window, of the type wherein the at least one basic program and the auxiliary program run on the computer and collaborate with the computer via an operating system, and wherein the basic window and the auxiliary window can be displayed on a viewing device allocated to the computer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In many instances, there is a necessity in computer systems for an application program to be integrated into another application program, so that both programs can run separately from one another but one program is visually dominant over the other program. The other program thus should be integrated into the one program in this case. The two programs should have a so-called father-child relationship to one another.
Conventionally, the program to be integrated is produced according to a given visual standard for this purpose. The program can be integrated only as a result of this standard. If the program is not produced according to the given visual standard, it cannot really run visually integrated but must be displayed on the user interface, or the viewing device, as a separate program in a separate visual window.

Method and computer program for integrating a basic program with a basic program window into an auxiliary program with an auxiliary window


The present disclosure relates to a method and a system for generating optimized response to user input. The system may receive a user input indicative of a data required by the user. The system identifies one or more keywords based on the user input. The system determines user expertise level based on search graphs generated using the one or more keywords. The system retrieves a plurality of responses relevant to the data based on the one or more keywords. The system assigns a value to each of the plurality of responses based on the user expertise level. The system identifies a base response in one or more responses having the value greater than a threshold value. Finally, the system collates content of the one or more responses excluding the base response with content of the base response, in a pre-defined sequential order, for generating the optimized response to user input.

A search engine or a web-based search platform is an information retrieval system that discovers, transforms and stores information for retrieving and presenting information in response to user queries. Search engines aim to identify and retrieve resources (e.g., web pages, images, text documents, processes, multimedia content) that are relevant to a user need. In response to a query or input submitted by a user, search engines return a list of search results referring to resources identified as relevant or matching the query. The list of search results is retrieved based on textual annotation. Thus, search results provided for a self-learner or an in-experienced person in a particular field may be too detailed and makes it difficult for the self-learner to comprehend the search results and retrieve the relevant information. Whereas the search results provided for a professional may be too generic, as the professional may be aware of the technical aspects and may require in-depth information for the provided user input. For example, a response provided to a keyword "cognitive computing" probed by an undergraduate user and a professional user in computer technology, are currently same while the requirements for each of them are different. The professional may expect a sophisticated and in-depth information, with example linking with the professional experience. Whereas the undergraduate user may expect a simple explanation.
Few contents in the search results provided by the search engine may be redundant and hence may result in the user spending time on sorting the search results to retrieve the results relevant to the user. The user query may include terms that do not align well with the intentions of the user. For example, if there is ambiguity in the meaning of the query terms, or the term might not convey intent of the user, the search results may not be valid for the user. The search results rendered may be relevant to keywords present in the user query, but the results may not be relevant or may be broader or narrower than the user's subjective needs and expertise level of the user in the data required by the user.
The information disclosed in this background of the disclosure section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.

Method and system for generating optimized response to user input


An electrical connector is mounted on a circuit board and used to mate with a mating member. The electrical connector includes: a body made of a wave-absorbing material, the body having an upper surface, a lower surface and at least one first accommodating groove; and at least one ground terminal accommodated in the first accommodating groove. An upper end of the ground terminal is exposed to the upper surface and is in electrical contact with the mating member, and a lower end of the ground terminal is exposed to the lower surface and is electrically connected with the circuit board.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
A conventional electrical connector is used to electrically connect a mating member and a circuit board. The circuit board has a grounding sheet. The electrical connector has a conductive body, which is electrically connected with the grounding sheet. The conductive body has multiple through holes which correspondingly accommodate multiple supporting blocks, and each supporting block and multiple terminals are injection-molded. The terminals include a pair of differential signal terminals and a ground terminal. The conductive body shields a magnetic field of the differential signal terminals, such that multiple pairs of differential signal terminals are free from electromagnetic interference with the purpose of reducing an insertion loss and a return loss. Thus, the high frequency characteristics of the electrical connector are good accordingly. The supporting block is made of an insulating and non-conductive material, such that short-circuiting between multiple terminals does not occur.
The conductive body does shield the magnetic field of the differential signal terminal. However, the capacitance characteristics of the terminal are affected, the characteristic impedance of the terminal is reduced, the insertion loss and the return loss are increased, and therefore the high frequency characteristics of the electrical connector cannot be well improved.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need to design a new electrical connector exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.


The safety of safety cables may be improved, whereby the system of cable and attachment eye is embodied together such that a greater work-to-break energy is possible. The cable is prepared from a blended yarn, comprising fibres made from relatively rigid, highly tear-resistant plastic filaments from a selection of PBO, carbon fibres and p-aramides and a proportion of fibres made from relatively elastic plastic filaments from selection of m-aramides, PBI, polyurethane (elastane) and polyester. The arrester cable is produced from the blended yarn the ends of which have, for example, been immersed in a resin. The end of the cable thus rests in an attachment eye, comprising a conical tubular section, in which the thickened end of the cable is held by wedging.

Safety arrester cables, in the state of the art are applied where rigid connections are to be able to destroyed under certain conditions, and it is to be ensured that the part which has broken away may not fly off in an uncontrolled manner and on account of this create damage or endanger people.
In motor racing sport it is often the case that with collisions of two vehicles, or of a vehicle with the bordering of the racing track, the wheel axles and their suspension break, and the wheel flies off in an uncontrolled manner or is catapulted away. People at the edge of the racing track have often been injured or even killed by way of this. This problem is known and safety regulations have been imposed to the extent that the wheels must be connected to the body of the vehicle via a safety arrester cable. Until now many grave accidents have been avoided by way of this safety precaution, but despite this, the safety arrester cables applied until now still have an insufficient effect.
On the market today there are fibres or yarns manufactured from these which have a tear strength which is a multiple greater than that of steel fibres. Whilst for example steel fibres have tear strength of 3.0 cN/ dtex, carbon fibres have tear strength of 20 cN/ dtex. The relatively elastic m-aramide fibres also have a tear strength of 4.7 CN/dtex, whilst the rigid p-aramide fibres have a tear strength of 19 CN/ dtex and modern PBO fibres even have tear strength of about 37 cN/dtex. Safety arrester cables which are manufactured from these modern highly tear-resistant fibres, such as carbon fibres, p-aramide fibres and PBO fibres are capable of accommodating tensile forces which indeed far exceed the forces which actually occur.
Accordingly such safety arrester cables have been manufactured of corresponding highly tear-resistant fibres, wherein the corresponding yarns of such highly tear-resistant fibres have been endlessly wound between the two end attachment eyes. The corresponding fibres as a result of this all run parallel to one another. With regard to those accidents which were investigated, one could ascertain that the cable stood up to the forces occurring between the two attachment eyes, whilst it was the attachment eyes which were broken. The construction of such a safety arrester cable according to the state of the art is shown in FIG. 6. The actual cable A is shown in FIG. 6. The actual cable A is manufactured of several endlessly wound loops B and runs through an attachment eye C which here is shown merely schematically. A shrinkage sleeve D is attached over the cable A. As already mentioned, the occurring breakages have always been ascertained at the attachment eye. This is not very surprising since the highly tear-resistant materials usually have an extension up to the breakage extension of 1.5 to maximally 3.5 percent. This in principle could also be compensated by way of manufacturing a correspondingly long safety arrester cable. This however cannot be done since on account of this there exists the danger that the wheel which is attached to the arrester cable could impact the driver. Added to this is the fact that it is indeed in motor racing sport that an as light as possible safety arrester cable with an as low as possible air resistance is desired. Thus it is no solution to manufacture the safety arrester cables of a less high-strength but more elastic material and to design the cable accordingly thicker.
The problem may only be solved by way of observing the cable and the attachment eye as a coherent system, wherein this system must have the best possible work-to-break-energy.
In one article, E. R. Barron "Hybrid Tyre Cords Containing Kevlar Aramid" (Kautschuk+Gummi·Kunstoffe, Vol. 40, 1987, No. 2, pages 130–135) describes the advantages of three-ply so-called hybrid cables which are manufactured from combinations of aramide with nylon, polyester or other textile yarns. Such hybrid yarns compared to pure yams have an improved elasticity and an increased resistance to fatigue breakage. These facts have been realised in tyre manufacturing technology, not only in motor racing.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to improve a safety arrester cable of the initially mentioned type such that the work-to-break-energy of the whole system of the safety arrester cable is significantly increased and thus a danger of a breakage of the safety arrester cable may be significantly reduced.


The invention is related to a roundsling in the form of an endless loop consisting of a core containing at least two turns of a load-bearing strand material comprising fibres with a tenacity of at least 10 cN/dTex and a protective covering around said core, wherein the strand material is in the form of a braided or laid rope, the terminal ends of which are connected with a splice. The invention further relates to a method for constructing a roundsling comprising a step of winding a braided or laid rope on two reels such that part of the turns is on the reels and another part is between the reels wherein the part between the reels is supported, and a step of making a splice in the two terminal ends of the rope.

Such a roundsling is for example known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,210,089 and 4,850,629. These patent publications disclose roundslings comprising a load-bearing core in the form of parallel turns (also called loops) of load bearing strand material contained within tubular cover means. These roundslings are constructed by forming an endless loop of strands of load-bearing material to form a load-bearing core, e.g. by placing a plurality of turns of said strands in parallel relationship on a surface having guide means mounted on said surface, fastening said turns at their terminal ends to holding means, pulling a tubular cover means having two ends over one of said guide means to envelop said turns, fastening the terminal ends of said parallel load-bearing turns and fastening the terminal ends of said cover means to form an endless loop. In the prior art, the terminal ends of the load-bearing strand material would ordinarily be fastened to another end of a strand of the same material, thus forming an end connection and the entire inner core of load-bearing material would be hidden inside the cover material. Typically, fastening of ends is done by making an end-to-end connection, or by connecting an end to an adjacent turn, e.g. by knotting or with adhesive tape. In case of rounslings that contain a fabric webbing as load-bearing core, the connection can also be made by stitching; as in for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,022,507.
In EP 785 163 A1 a roundsling is described with a load-bearing core containing a filament fibre selected from polyester (e.g. Dacron®), aramid (e.g. Kevlar®), or polyethylene (e.g. Spectra®). A preferred embodiment of EP 785 163 A1 is a roundsling construction comprising a high performance fibre with a tenacity of at least 10 cN/dTex, such as Kevlar® or Spectra® fibre, as a component of the load-bearing core; which construction is light and strong.
A disadvantage of the known roundslings comprising high performance fibers is that their efficiency is rather low. The efficiency of a roundsling here and hereafter is the ratio (in %) of the tenacity of the load-bearing core and the tenacity of the fibre. The efficiency of known roundslings comprising a core of high performance fibres typically is about 20%.
It is the aim of the present invention to provide a roundsling with a higher efficiency then the known slings.
This aim is achieved with a roundsling wherein the strand material is a braided or laid rope, the terminal ends of which are connected with a splice.
With the roundsling of the invention an efficiency of more than 40% can be obtained. The roundsling according to the invention therefore can be made lighter than the known roundslings having the same loading capacity. An extra advantage is the lower volume that can thus be obtained.
In this application a splice is understood to be a tucked or a buried splice, as described in for example The Splicing Handbook, "Techniques for Modern and Traditional Ropes", by Barbara Merry with John Darwin, ISBN 0-87742-952-9.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,599 buoyant rope assemblies are disclosed that contain a spliced rope. The assemblies described, however, concern a grommet or a hawser but not a roundsling. A grommet is a single endless loop formed by joining two lengths of ropes by end-to-end splices in each leg; a hawser is a single rope with an eye at each end. Nowhere in this publication it is suggested that connecting terminal ends with a splice in a roundsling containing multiple turns of load bearing material would be advantageous.
A roundsling according to European requirements typically comprises 11 turns for one end connection as described in e.g. the standard for polypropylene, polyamide and polyester roundslings EN-1492-2. This relatively high number of turns is required because the end connection in the known roundslings generally is unreliable, thus causing a high variation of the tenacity for slings with less than 11 turns. An advantage of the roundsling of the invention is that the variation of the tenacity is much smaller, even when the number of turns is lower than 11, or even lower than 8. An additional advantage of the roundsling according to the invention is, that also a better efficiency can be obtained when the number of turns is less than 11. Preferably the number of turns is between 2 and 9, or even between 2 and 7.


A hammer tacker has a strike, a tack-driving piston, a tack-feeding mechanism, and a handle for a user to cause a strike against a target. The piston cycles between drive and retraction strokes. The tack-feeding mechanism cycles between recession and feed strokes to feed the tack in a next-to-lead position to the lead position after the preceding tack in the lead position is struck into the target, and includes an escaping driver for engaging a pallet of the tack in the next-to-lead position during the feed stroke to feed that tack to the lead position, as well as for escaping the pallet of that tack during the recession stroke and then receding to engage the pallet of the tack that succeeds to the next-to-lead position, if any. Wherein as the piston's drive stroke coincides with the recession stroke, the feed stroke lags after a pause behind the piston's retraction stroke.

The invention generally relates to a manual hammer tacker for striking a procession of inventive fasteners or tacks on a repetitive and highly efficient basis. Such tacks are characterized by, among other things, a broad flat head that is particularly effective for fastening soft, thin, membrane materials, such as vapor wraps like Tyvek®. In accordance with the present invention, the hammer tacker disclosed herein is particularly improved for more dependable and reliable operability, especially on vertical surfaces in contrast to flat or gently sloping surfaces.
The hammer tacker in accordance with the present invention is the culmination to date of a development project extending back over time that included several prototype versions, two of which are disclosed in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,922, entitled "Tack, Hammer Tacker Therefor, and Method," the disclosure of which is incorporated fully herein by this reference. A third prototype version is disclosed in connection with FIGS. 1-3 hereof. These three prototype versions form a thread of design strategy which has been significantly abandoned in favor of the hammer tacker in accordance with the present invention.
The first version in this thread of three is shown and described in connection with FIGS. 2-5 as well as 10a-15b of U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,922; the second version in connection with FIGS. 16-18 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,922. All three of the prototype versions are either more particularly described in (or can be sufficiently "particularly" reckoned by reference to) U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,922.
These three prototype versions essentially share the following characteristics. They all utilize a "double parallelogram" leaf spring as the main workhorse for the tack-driving mechanism. Also, they all utilize a tack-feeding mechanism that reaches around from an origin above the tack heads to push the tacks by contact underneath their heads, and thus by their legs (or more accurately, shanks). As an aside, the previous reference directions "above" and "underneath" are referenced relative to the tacks' heads and shanks merely for convenience in this description and otherwise do not limit the use of the hammer tacker to any particular orientation, even upside down if possible, as against a ceiling.
Versions two and three of the prototypes represent comparable projects of debugging bugs that were found in each's previous iteration. Version three hereof represents the most advanced and comparatively debugged version of this thread. Nevertheless it still retains, or else gave arise to new, bugs which appear to have no simple fixes. Hence, this design thread was sort of abandoned in favor of proceeding a different way, and as in accordance with the invention.
To digress briefly, and dwell on FIGS. 1 through 6, they show the culmination of the final (referred to as the third) version of the prototype versions. FIG. 1 shows a hammer tacker 525, fairly comparable to hammer tacker 25 or 125 in U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,922. FIG. 2 is an enlarged scale perspective view taken in the direction of arrows II-II in FIG. 1, wherein the near-side half of the split housing (preferably produced nowadays from plastic) is removed to reveal the tack driving-and-feed mechanism 540, which includes, in its main aspects, a double parallelogram leaf spring 541, a piston 542 held at the vibrating end of the leaf spring 541, a ram 543 extending down from the piston 542, and a rocker-arm/pawl linkage 544/545 actuated by the piston 542. The rocker arm 544 portion terminates in pawl portion 545. A tack 520 in the lead position (eg., the position in the procession from which the ram discharges a tack on the strike stroke) is shown in broken lines, other tacks 520−n of the strip 570 being shown in broken lines as well in the handle 533's interior feed track 576.
Each of these prototype versions are generally typified by, namely, a double-parallelogram leaf spring (eg., 541 in FIG. 3), and a reach-around rocker-arm/pawl linkage (eg., 544/545 in FIG. 3). The third prototype version described hereby also has a supplemental spring 546 for the rocker-arm/pawl linkage 544/545. There is also a tack-strip hold-down spring 547 (shown pressing at least on the tack 520−n in the next-to-lead position, which immediately succeeds the tack 520 in the lead position). Some of the shortcomings that persist or have arisen in the third version include the following, which are described over the following extended passage.
To begin with, the spring designs are custom, original designs. As such, the spring designs prove challenging to fabricate and nearly impossible to achieve uniformity between one copy to the next. An early design choice was to produce these spring components out of beryllium copper. A factor in favor of this material is its expected longer working life when compared to an equivalent construction out of spring steel.
Nevertheless, regardless if steel or beryllium copper, fabrication of these springs requires layout on and lancing from flat stock, followed by multiple forming steps to produce all the bends and curves. After this, the formed parts have to be heat treated for, among other reasons, returning the material back to serviceable spring material after much degradation thereto occurs through the forming processes. However, industry-specified heat treatments cause distortions, probably in all cases, it being usual that such distortions are readily apparent to by the un-aided eye alone. Hence the parts usually have to be given individual attention after heat treatment to re-tune back to specified dimensional tolerance and performance metrics.
Moreover, each individual custom spring-design is likely overly-complicated in terms of both layout and formation. As for formation especially of the rocker-arm/pawl linkage and its supplemental spring, these involve formation of tricky bends and curves that prove challenging to keep within even a loose dimensional tolerance. As said, dimensional tolerance laxness is only further compounded by a heat treatment that predictably adds distortion. In consequence, it is practically impossible to produce duplicate copies of the same part.
Also, assembly is difficult. FIGS. 2 and 3 shows that the three springs 541, 544/545 and 546 have to be intertwined like a three-dimensional puzzle, and then carefully rested between both halves of the split housing. If the parts as they often do get jarred apart, then a worker has to start over. In fact, experience finds that truly it is a two-worker job to solve this puzzle.
Another shortcoming is that, if during use any of these springs gets deformed through mishap, it is virtually impossible for the customer-owners of the hammer tacker to repair the hammer tacker like new because of the challenge of re-tuning the springs. In fact, the assignee hereof has not really been any more successful at re-tuning springs deformed in the field than customer-owners. Indeed, repairing a broke-down hammer tacker with replacement parts re-encounters a shortcoming described above, namely, that there is virtually no uniformity between copies of the same part, ie., replacement parts. It often happens that after a replacement part is installed, the springs of the hammer tacker under-repair still require individual attention and tuning so that the package of springs as a whole works in concert as designed. For example, perhaps the piston will not return to its fully retracted position, and in consequence the ram's impulse surface will not clear the heads of the tacks in the strip. Without clearance, the tack strip will not advance, the rocker-arm/pawl linkage might stay caught in a strained position. An ill-advised attempt of solving this situation is to whack the hammer tacker as it is intended to be used, except to see if that might shake things loose. The reason that this is ill-advised is that, it risks damaging or in other words deforming any of the delicate springs/linkages. As an aside, the part most vulnerable to damage is the rocker-arm/pawl linkage.
Over the time that was spent refining this thread of designs (eg., the ones involving the double parallelogram spring and the reach-around pawl), it turned out that one attempt to solve a set of shortcomings tended to birth a different set of shortcomings. For example, in order to ensure that the ram's impulse surface clears the plane of the tack heads in the strip, the double parallelogram spring has evolved to provide a substantial force against the piston to keep it steady in its retracted or rest position, as between whacks. However, what also happens is that a substantial pre-load is built into the hammer tacker. The piston is forced so tight against its rest stop that it requires a worker to work that much harder on each whack, a fraction of which is waste just to overcome the resting force. Needless to say, this speeds up worker fatigue and detracts from worker efficiency.
FIGS. 4 through 6 are a series of views comparable to FIGS. 8c, 6a and 7a, respectively, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,922. That is, FIG. 4 hereof shows a collated strip of tacks in accordance with the prior art, wherein the direction of feed or procession of the strip through the hammer tacker 525 would be right to left in the view. FIG. 5 shows a single tack 520 in isolation. FIG. 6 is a bottom plan view of FIG. 4. The noteworthy aspect of FIGS. 4 and/or 6 is that, when tacks 520 are collated in the strip 570 according to the prior art, there is virtually no aperture left between the leading edge 571 of a tack head of a succeeding tack (eg., 520−1) and the leading edge of the head slot (eg., 568) in its preceding neighbor (eg., 520). This matter will be more particularly dealt with below.
What is needed is an improvement which overcomes various ones of the above-described shortcomings.
It is an object of the invention to eliminate where possible custom design springs in favor of readily available, off-the-shelf parts.
It is an alternative object of the invention to eliminate various heat-treatment steps during fabrication of the improved hammer tacker, it being presumed that the majority of required/advised heat treatments will have already been taken care of by the OEMs of such off-the-shelf parts.
It is an additional object of the invention to impose much closer dimensional tolerances on the springs because of simpler designs which are achieved by simply trimming such off-the-shelf stock to size or, in other words, eliminate overly-complicated spring designs achieved by layout on flat stock, formation into convoluted shapes, heat treatment to render the material serviceable again as a spring component, and then re-tuning the component to compensate for distortions brought on by the heat treatment.
A number of additional features and objects will be apparent in connection with the following discussion of the preferred embodiments and examples with reference to the drawings.


A power-saving method and associated electronic device are provided. The electronic device is connected with a first external electronic device and a second external electronic device, and a first sensor and a second sensor are deployed on the first external electronic device and the second electronic device, respectively. The electronic device includes: a third sensor, and a processor, wherein the first, second, and third sensors have the same type. The processor gathers information from the first pedometer sensor, the second pedometer sensor, the first external electronic device, and the second external electronic device, and determines whether to turn off at least one of the first, second, and third pedometer sensors according to the information gathered.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronic device, and, in particular, to a power-saving method and associated electronic device capable of turning off unnecessary sensors on other electronic devices to save power.
Description of the Related Art
Wearable devices, such as watches or other wrist-worn devices, are by their nature relatively small in size, and may be less than 40 mm in diameter. A wearable electronic device with multiple functions such as data display, email, text messaging, and wireless communication requires interact with the device to input data, scroll through software menus, etc. Due to the very limited battery capacity of the wearable device, it is a big challenge to reduce the power consumption of the wearable device.
In addition, a user may carry his portable device (e.g. a smartphone) and other wearable devices (e.g. a smart watch or a smart wristband) together. These devices may have the same type of sensors, such as pedometer sensors or location sensors. Since these devices are being carried by the same user, the sensors of different devices may gather similar sensor data. In other words, some of the gathered sensor data are redundant. Accordingly, there is demand for a power-saving method and an associated electronic device to solve the aforementioned issue.

Power-saving method and associated electronic device


The present invention provides a polynucleotide (ubcp) which identifies and encodes a novel ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (UBCP). The invention provides for genetically engineered expression vectors and host cells comprising the nucleic acid sequence encoding UBCP. The invention also provides for the use of substantially purified UBCP and its agonists, antagonists, or inhibitors in the commercial production of recombinant proteins and in pharmaceutical compositions for the treatment of diseases associated with the expression of UBCP. Additionally, the invention provides for the use of antisense molecules to ubcp in pharmaceutical compositions for treatment of diseases associated with the expression of UBCP. The invention also describes diagnostic assays which utilize diagnostic compositions comprising the polynucleotide, fragments or the complement thereof, which hybridize with the genomic sequence or the transcript of ubcp or anti-UBCP antibodies which specifically bind to UBCP.

The ubiquitin system is a major pathway for selective protein degradation (Finley D et al (1991) Annu Rev Cell Biol 7: 25-69). Degradation by this system is instrumental in a variety of cellular functions such as DNA repair, cell cycle progression, signal transduction, transcription, and antigen presentation. The ubiquitin pathway also eliminates proteins that are misfolded, misplaced, or that are in other ways abnormal. This pathway requires the covalent attachment of ubiquitin (E1), a highly conserved 76 amino acid protein, to defined lysine residues of substrate proteins.
Substrate recognition by this pathway involves a specialized recognition and targeting apparatus, the ubiquitin-conjugating system. Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (E2) and ubiquitin-protein ligase (E3), either independently or in conjunction, catalyze isopeptide formation between the carboxyl terminus of ubiquitin and amino groups of internal lysine residues of target proteins (Scheffner M et al (1995) Nature 373: 81-83). Ubiquitin-protein conjugates are then recognized and degraded by a specific protease complex, the 26S proteasome. Both E2 and E3 exist as protein families, and their pattern of expression is thought to determine substrate specificity (Nuber U et al (1996) J Biol Chem 271: 2795-2800).
The yeast ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme Ubc3 (also known as CDC34) plays a crucial role in the progression of the cell cycle from the G1 to S phase and the correct positioning of ubiquitin on a surface of Ubc3 is a requirement for this cell cycle transition (Prendergast J A et al (1995) J Biol Chem 270: 9347-9352). Mutation studies have suggested that amino acids S-73, S-97, and S-139 of Ubc3 may be critical for substrate specificity, while C-95 is the site of catalytic activity (Liu Y et al (1995) Mol Cel Biol 15: 5635-5644). An alteration in C-95 and another highly conserved amino acid, L-99, resulted in a dominant negative mutation (Banerjee A et al (1995) J Biol Chem 270: 26209-26215). Overexpression of this mutation of Ubc3 was found to block cell growth in otherwise wild type strains.
Diseases and E2
A decrease in muscle mass, known as muscle wasting or cachexia, has been shown to be associated with the ubiquitin-dependent proteolytic system. Rats bearing the Yoshida AH-130 ascites hepatoma for 7 days showed a significant decrease in muscle mass in relation to non-tumor bearing controls (Llovera M et al (1995) Int J Cancer 61: 138-141). The muscle wasting was found to be associated with an increased proteolytic rate related to the ubiquitin-dependent proteolytic system. Muscle wasting is common among human cancer patients. In addition to cancer, ubiquitin-dependent muscle wasting is also influenced by nutritional manipulation (such as fasting and dietary protein deficiency), muscle activity and disuse, AIDS, and the pathological conditions, sepsis, trauma, and acidosis (Attaix D et al (1994) Reprod Nutr Dev 34: 583-597). In a rat model for long lasting sepsis, researchers found that E2 mRNA levels increase during the acute and chronic disease phases and parallel a rise in muscle protein breakdown (Voisin L et al (1996) J Clin Invest 97: 1610-1617).
The presence of ubiquitin and ubiquitin conjugates has been detected in patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Whereas the intracellular amyloid beta-protein precursor (APP) did not show appreciable ubiquitin-mediated degradation, three extracellular APP forms were degraded by this proteolytic pathway, suggesting a potential regulatory role for the ubiquitin-dependent system in the in vivo APP metabolic pathway (Gregori L et al (1994) Biochem Biophys Res Commun 203: 1731-1738). Paired helical filaments (PHF) are fibrillar structures that accumulate in degenerating neurons in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. One component of PHF, the PHF-smear, consists of the tau protein fragment bound to ubiquitin (Morishima M et al (1994) Dementia 5: 282-288).
Evidence from experiments on mouse and rabbit reticulocytes indicates that ubiquitin conjugation is a key rate-limiting step in antigen presentation (Grant E P et al (1995) J Immunol 155: 3750-3758). The rates of degradation of beta-galactosidase constructs correlated with the rates of class I antigen presentation in vivo. This shows that ubiquitin degradation pathway may have a critical role in generating major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-presented peptides.
Depletion of specific cellular proteins may have many medical and agricultural benefits. Redirecting the ubiquitin-dependent proteolytic pathway may facilitate specific proteolytic removal. Gosink M M et al (1995, Proc Natl Acad Sci 92: 9117-9121) report 5 examples in which E2 target recognition was redefined by engineering E2 to contain appropriate protein-binding peptides fused to their C termini. Thus, it may be possible to design E2 capable of directing the selective removal of many intracellular proteins, such as those implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.
The selective modulation of E2 activity may allow successful management of the diseases associated with protein degradation, such as Alzheimer's disease, muscle wasting syndrome, and diseases in which undesired proteins may be targeted for degradation, such as viral infections and cancer. A newly discovered E2 may have novel specificity and could thus target a unique set of proteins for degradation.


An imaging system may output embedded data in an output frame. Selected bits of pixel data words, corresponding to data read out from imaging pixels and non-imaging pixels, may be modified to correspond to bits of embedded data. Modifying pixel data words may include receiving a pixel data word and decatenating the pixel data words into fragments of the data word. A first fragment may correspond to bits of the data word that are replaced by embedded data bits output from an embedded data engine. A second fragment may be modified using arithmetic circuitry based on whether the embedded data bits that replace the first fragment are the same as bits of the first fragment. An output data word may be produced that includes embedded data bits at its least significant bits, most significant bits, or intermediate bits.

This relates generally to imaging systems, and more particularly to imaging systems that include non-imaging data in output image frames.
Electronic devices such as cellular telephones, cameras, and computers often include imaging systems that include digital image sensors for capturing images. Image sensors may be formed having a two-dimensional array of image pixels that convert incident photons (light) into electrical signals. Electronic devices often include displays for displaying captured image data.
An imaging system often includes sources of non-imaging data that may be useful or valuable to a user of an imaging system. Non-imaging data, or more specifically, data that is not read out from image pixels may also be provided to a host processor in an imaging system, for use in image processing or calibration of the imaging system. Non-imaging data is often referred to as embedded data. Conventional imaging systems append embedded data in rows above and/or below image pixel data in an output frame. When an imaging system has a fixed or finite bandwidth for an output frame, using additional data rows to store embedded data may necessitate unwanted reduction in the amount of image pixel data that can be stored in an output frame. As an example, if an imaging system has a bandwidth of 100 rows for an output frame, and embedded data rows account for 10 rows of data above and below imaging data, only 80 rows of image pixel data is captured and stored.
As camera systems are being used to provide imaging data for use in sensitive applications such as autonomous vehicle control, it is important to maximize the amount of image pixel data that is captured in an output frame, while retaining the ability to store embedded data with the image pixel data in the output frame.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide imaging systems with improved embedded data transmission capabilities.

Imaging systems with embedded data transmission capabilities

SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC


The present invention generally provides apparatus for supporting a large area substrate in a plasma reactor. One embodiment, a substrate support for using in a plasma reactor includes an electrically conductive body has a top surface with a plurality of roll-formed indents.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to an apparatus and method for processing large area substrates. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a substrate support for supporting large area substrates in semiconductor processing and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Equipment for processing large area substrates has become a substantial investment in manufacturing of flat panel displays including liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma display panels (PDPs), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), and solar panels. A large area substrate for manufacturing LCD, PDP, OLED or solar panels may be a glass or a polymer workpiece.
The large area substrate is typically subjected to a plurality of sequential processes to created devices, conductors, and insulators thereon. Each of these processes is generally performed in a process chamber configured to perform a single step of the production process. In order to efficiently complete the entire sequential processes, a number of process chambers are typically used. One fabrication process frequently used to process a large area substrate is plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD).
PECVD is generally employed to deposit thin films on a substrate such as a flat panel substrate or a semiconductor substrate. PECVD is typically performed in a vacuum chamber between parallel electrodes positioned several inches apart, typically with a variable gap for process optimization. A substrate being processed may be disposed on a temperature controlled substrate support disposed in the vacuum chamber. In some cases, the substrate support may be one of the electrodes. A precursor gas is introduced into the vacuum chamber and is typically directed through a distribution plate situated near the top of the vacuum chamber. The precursor gas in the vacuum chamber is then energized or excited into a plasma by applying a RF power coupled to the electrodes. The excited gas reacts to form a layer of material on a surface of the substrate positioned on the substrate support. Typically, a substrate support or a substrate support assembly in a PECVD chamber is configured to support and heat the substrate as well as serve as an electrode to excite the precursor gas.
Generally, large area substrates, for example those utilized for flat panel fabrication, are often exceeding 550 mm×650 mm, and are envisioned up to and beyond 4 square meters in surface area. Correspondingly, the substrate supports utilized to process large area substrates are proportionately large to accommodate the large surface area of the substrate. The substrate supports for high temperature use typically are casted, encapsulating one or more heating elements and thermocouples in an aluminum body. Due to the size of the substrate support, one or more reinforcing members are generally disposed within the substrate support to improve the substrate support's stiffness and performance at elevated operating temperatures (i.e., in excess of 350 degrees Celsius and approaching 500 degrees Celsius to minimize hydrogen content in some films). The aluminum substrate support is then anodized to provide a protective coating.
Although substrate supports configured in this manner have demonstrated good processing performance, two problems have been observed. The first problem is non-uniform deposition. Small local variations in film thickness, often manifesting as spots of thinner film thickness, have been observed which may be detrimental to the next generation of devices formed on large area substrates. It is believed that variation in substrate thickness and flatness, along with a smooth substrate support surface, typically about 50 micro-inches, creates a local capacitance variation in certain locations across the glass substrate, thereby creating local plasma non-uniformities that result on deposition variation, e.g., spots of thin deposited film thickness.
The second problem is caused by the static charge generated by the triboelectric process, or the process of bringing two materials into contact with each other and then separating them from each other. As a result, electrostatics may build up between the substrate and the substrate support making it difficult to separate the substrate from the substrate support once the process is completed.
An additional problem is known in the industry as the electro-static discharge (ESD) metal lines arcing problem. As the substrate size increased, the ESD metal lines become longer and larger. It is believed that the inductive current in the ESD metal lines becomes large enough during plasma deposition to damage the substrate. This ESD metal lines arcing problem has become a major recurring problem.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved substrate support.

Susceptor with roll-formed surface and method for making same


A floating seal assembly for sealing two static parts is disclosed. Each static part has an opposing groove, and the opposing grooves define a seal cavity. Floating seal assembly includes a floating circumferential seal having a middle portion and opposing end portions, each opposing end portion is positioned within a groove in one of the static parts, wherein each end portion has a curved side facing a low pressure side of the seal cavity. The floating seal assembly according to embodiments of the invention is pressure driven in that each curved side of the end portions is configured to engage a low pressure side of the seal cavity in response to a pressure differential across the sealing cavity reaching a threshold value.

In turbomachines, such as gas turbines, seals are often used between static parts, for example, between casings, in cooling air paths of guide vanes, between the individual segments of a series of guide vanes, or as a circumferential seal between a housing part of the turbine and a guide vane.


Provided is a bottle including a bottom part having a bottom wall part. The bottom wall part includes a grounding part located at the outer circumferential edge thereof, a standing peripheral wall part connecting to the grounding part from a radial inner side of the bottle and extending upward, an annular movable wall part projecting from an upper end of the standing peripheral wall part toward the radial inner side of the bottle, and a depression peripheral wall part extending upward from an inner end of the movable wall part in a radial direction of the bottle. The movable wall part is disposed to freely pivot around a connection part connected with the standing peripheral wall part so as to move the depression peripheral wall part in an upward direction, and the depression peripheral wall part is formed to have multiple stages.

Conventionally, a configuration has been known in which, as a bottle formed of a synthetic resin material in the shape of a bottomed cylinder by blow molding, as shown in, for instance, Patent Document 1 below, a bottom wall part of a bottom part includes a grounding part located at an outer circumferential edge thereof, a standing peripheral wall part that connects to the grounding part from a radial inner side of the bottle and extends upward, an annular movable wall part that protrudes from an upper end of the standing peripheral wall part toward the radial inner side of the bottle, and a depression peripheral wall part that extends upward from an inner end of the movable wall part in a radial direction of the bottle, wherein the movable wall part pivots about a connection part with the standing peripheral wall part so as to move the depression peripheral wall part in an upward direction, thereby absorbing decompression in the bottle.


A disk drive includes a rotatable data storage disk and a vane positioned adjacent to the disk that receives airflow generated during rotation of the disk. A sensor is operably coupled to the vane and measures airflow force on the vane. Because of a known relationship between altitude and airflow force, the amount of airflow force on the vane is indicative of altitude of the disk drive. The sensor provides an output signal that is indicative of measured airflow force on the vane. The vane surface may be oriented substantially orthogonal to a plane of the disk or substantially parallel with a plane of the disk.

Disk drives are digital data storage devices which can enable a host device to store and retrieve large amounts of data in a fast and efficient manner. A typical disk drive includes a plurality of magnetic recording disks which are mounted to a rotatable hub of a spindle motor and rotated at a high speed. An array of read/write transducers is disposed adjacent surfaces of the disks to transfer data between the disks and the host device. The transducers can be radially positioned over the disks by a rotary actuator and a servo system.
A plurality of nominally concentric tracks can be defined on each disk surface. As understood by those skilled in the art, a preamp and driver circuit generates write currents that are used by a transducer to selectively magnetize the tracks during a data write command and amplifies read signals detected by the transducer from the selective magnetization of the tracks during a data read command. A read/write channel and interface circuit are connected to the preamp and driver circuit to transfer the data between the disks and the host device.
Each transducer is connected to a structure referred to as a "slider." The slider is mounted on a spring-loaded flexible arm that causes the slider with the connected transducer to press against a disk surface when the disk is stationary. When the disk spins up to operating speed, the high rotational speed causes air to flow under the slider thereby generating a fluid or hydrodynamic bearing, commonly referred to as an "air bearing" by those skilled in the art. The purpose of the air bearing is to provide adequate and appropriate force on the transducer-bearing slider so that a known separation is maintained between the transducer and the disk. Thus, a transducer floats over the surface of a spinning disk without physically touching the disk. The space between a transducer and a spinning disk (i.e., the transducer-to-disk clearance) is referred to as the "head/disk clearance" or just "clearance." Clearance is an important parameter for operation of a disk drive. If clearance is too large, a transducer cannot properly read and write a disk. If clearance is too small, there is chance that the transducer will crash into the spinning disk and cause physical damage to either or both the transducer and disk (referred to as "disk crash").
The altitude at which a disk drive operates influences clearance. At high altitudes, the reduced air pressure renders the air bearing incapable of maintaining the proper clearance, which can cause disk crash. Unfortunately, conventional disk drives are not configured to detect operating altitude. Although numerous altitude detection technologies exist that utilize pressure transducers for barometric estimation of altitude, cost, measurement sensitivity, accuracy and packaging concerns have prevented incorporation into disk drives here-to-date. As such, a need exists for a way to detect operating altitudes of disk drives.

Disk drive with altitude detection air vane


A semiconductor device to which active drive current programming is applied, comprising current load cells each having a current load and a current load driving circuit, which are arranged in a matrix, capable of reducing the circuit scale of a current driver with little change made in the structure of the current load driving circuit, and a driving method of the same.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a known structure of a semiconductor device in which current loads are arranged in a matrix. The semiconductor device is finding various applications. In FIG. 1, a semiconductor device 200 comprises a plurality of data lines 202 in a parallel arrangement, a plurality of scanning lines 203 in a parallel arrangement running in a direction perpendicular to the data lines 202, and a matrix of current load cells 201 set at the intersections of the data lines 202 and scanning lines 203, respectively. The data lines 202 are voltage-driven or current-driven by a voltage driver or a current driver 230. The scanning lines 203 are driven by a scanning circuit 240. Examples of the semiconductor device include an organic EL (Electro Luminescence) display device in which organic EL elements being current loads are used as the current load cells 201.
There are two main driving methods for the semiconductor device, in which the current loads are arranged in a matrix, as follows:
(1) passive drive by which the lines are selected one by one, and the loads are driven only for a selected period of time; and
(2) active drive by which the lines are selected one by one, the value of current is memorized by memorizing information for driving the loads during a selected period of time, that is, a voltage corresponding to the value of current fed to each current load, and thereby the loads are driven with the memorized current value until next time the same line is selected.
A passive driving device is formed of current loads. For example, as shown in FIG. 2 (a), the current load cells 201, which are arranged in a matrix, may be realized from a simple structure with only a plurality of the data lines 202, a plurality of the scanning lines 203, and current loads 206 each being connected between the respective data lines 202 and scanning lines 203. In the passive driving device, however, since the loads are driven only for a selected period of time, a large current flow is required. Consequently, in the case of the passive driving device, the current loads 206 take heavy loads instantaneously, which may cause a problem with the reliability of elements that form the current loads 206. Moreover, the passive driving device consumes a measurable amount of power because of a drop in efficiency.
On the other hand, in an active driving device, the current load cells 201, which are arranged in a matrix, includes a plurality of the data lines 202, a plurality of the scanning lines 203, the current loads 206, and current load driving circuits 207 each of which is connected with the current load 206 between the data line 202 and the scanning line 203 for memorizing a voltage corresponding to the value of current fed to each current load 206 to drive the load as shown in FIG. 2 (b).
The current load driving circuit 207 in the respective current load cells 201 is made of a transistor or the like. The current load cell 201 has a complex structure as compared to that of the passive driving device. Nevertheless, the active driving device requires a small load driving current and the load on the current loads is reduced since they are driven for a long period of time from when a line is selected to when next time the same line is selected after all lines are selected. In addition, the active driving device consumes lower amounts of power because of its high efficiency. For the reasons mentioned above, the active drive may be superior to the passive drive in the load on the current loads and electric power consumption.
The structure of the current load driving circuit 207 for the active drive is broadly classified into two types: in one type (referred to as "voltage write-in structure"), a voltage to be applied by a semiconductor device (voltage driver 230 in FIG. 1) that feeds the respective current load driving circuits with voltage is memorized, and the respective loads are driven by a current corresponding to the voltage memorized; and in another type (referred to as "electric current programming structure"), current is applied by a semiconductor device (voltage driver 230 in FIG. 1) that feeds the respective current load driving circuits 207 with current, a voltage corresponding to the current is memorized, and the loads are driven by a current corresponding to the current.
Taking an organic EL display device as an example, it is often the case that current is memorized in an organic EL element of each picture element or pixel, and the current load driving circuits are formed of polysilicon Thin Film Transistors (abbreviated to "p-Si TFT"). Incidentally, since the p-Si TFT (obtained by low-temperature p-Si process) has high field effect mobility, it is possible to integrate parts of peripheral circuits or drivers with the display substrate, which enables high-speed and large-current switching control.
There has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application laid open No. HEI5-107561 the voltage write-in structure as shown in FIG. 3 (see FIG. 7 of the Patent Application). A one-pixel display section 210 comprises: a light emitting element 220 whose one end (anode terminal) is connected to a power supply line 204; a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) 211 formed of polysilicon n-channel MOSFET, whose drain is connected to the other end (cathode terminal) of the light emitting element 220, and whose source is connected to a ground line 205; a hold capacitance 212 connected between the gate of the TFT 211 and the ground line 205; and a switch 213 placed between the gate of the TFT 211 and a data line 202. A control line K 215 is connected to the control terminal of the switch 213, and ON/OFF control is carried out based on a control signal K 215 transmitted through the control line K 215 (hereinafter a control line and a signal transmitted on the control line will be designated by the like reference numeral). When the control signal K 215 becomes active and the switch 213 is turned on, the hold capacitance 212 is charged by the voltage of the data line 202. At the same time, the voltage of the data line 202 is applied to the TFT 211 as a gate voltage, thereby turning on the TFT 211. Consequently, the current path of the power supply line 204, the light emitting element 220 and the ground line 205 is allowed to conduct, and the light emitting element emits light. The brightness or luminance of the light emitting element 220 is changed according to the gate voltage of the TFT 211.
However, with the p-Si TFT, there are considerable variations in the current capacity of respective transistors, and therefore, it is highly likely that the driving current differs between TFTs even when the same voltage is used. In this case, variations are produced in the brightness of the organic EL elements, and display accuracy deteriorates.
In order to solve the problem, there has been proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application laid open No. HEI11-282419 the electric current programming structure as shown in FIG. 4 (see FIG. 1 of the Patent Application). With this structure, effects are produced only by relatively small variations in the current capacity of TFTs in adjacent areas, and high-precision display can be achieved.
Referring to FIG. 4, in this circuit, one terminal of the switch 213 in FIG. 3, not the one being connected to the gate of the TFT 211, is connected to the gate of the TFT 216 (current conversion element) formed of polysilicon n-channel MOSFET, whose gate and drain are connected (i.e. diode-connected) to each other and whose source is connected to the ground line 205. Besides, the drain of the TFT 216 is connected to the data line 202 through the switch 214, and the control terminals of both the switches 213 and 214 are connected to the control line K 215. The control signal for controlling the brightness of the organic EL element is fed to the data line as a variable control current. The TFT 216 converts the current input into a voltage via the switch 214.
However, a current driver employed for the electric current programming structure needs an output circuit for supplying current to respective data lines so that it can simultaneously supply current to the respective current load driving circuits on the selected line through the data lines during a one-line selection period. Consequently, it is necessary to provide the current drivers as many as all the data lines, which drives up costs.
In addition, there is another problem in that contact points between the current drivers and a device having current load cells for active drive arranged in a matrix increase, which reduces reliability and productivity.
Furthermore, it has been considered to form the voltage drivers or current drivers with the p-Si TFT as well as a matrix of organic EL elements and current load driving circuits on the same substrate so as to reduce the number of parts and costs. In this case, however, yields, reliability and productivity decrease because the device as a whole increases in circuit size or scale as the circuit scale of current driver part becomes larger.

Semiconductor device provided with matrix type current load driving circuits, and driving method thereof

Abstract: A current load cell (113, 114) includes a current load driving circuit which is provided with a transistor (115) connected in series with a current load (122) between first and second power supplies (109, 110); a capacitance (116) connected between the control terminal of the transistor (115) and the first power supply (109); and switches (117, 118) connected between the control terminal of the transistor (115) and a corresponding data line. The output (101) of a current driver is connected to a plurality of data lines via a selector (123, 124), and the plural data lines connected to one output of the current driver via the selector and at least one of the switches of each of the current load cells corresponding to the respective data lines are drive-controlled in a time division manner during one horizontal period.


A dual-sided smart card reader, and method for operating the same, is disclosed. The dual-sided smart card reader permits the simultaneous insertion of at least two different smart cards from opposing sides. The dual-sided smart card reader may additionally include a biometric verification device, such as a fingerprint scanner, for comparing biometric information from an operator of the reader to biometric information stored on a smart card. Also, the dual-sided smart card reader may additionally include a pulse monitor, such as a sensor, to detect a pulse of an operator of the reader.

Smart card readers have been known for some time. However, conventional smart card readers do not provide the ability to independently verify the identity of a smart card holder. Additionally, conventional smart card readers do not permit dual-sided operation, such that at least two (2) smart cards may be inserted into a single card reader simultaneously. Finally, conventional smart card readers do not provide the ability to visually display information regarding data stored on a smart card.
Thus, there is presently a need for a smart card reader system which permits user identification, and which allows insertion of multiple smart cards simultaneously. There is also presently a need for a smart card reader system which permits the visual display of information.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present invention provides a method for producing a novel β-lactam antibiotic from a protoplast fusion strain. The method is to fermentatively culture the protoplast fusion strain of Penicillium chrysogenum and Cephalosporium acremonium. The ferment filtrate is isolated, lyophilized, and extracted by acetone or acetone/methanol. The extract is concentrated by decompression, and then analyzed by preparation type HPLC to isolate the active antibiotic compound.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing a novel β-lactam antibiotic from a protoplast fusion strain, and more particularly to a method for producing a novel β-lactam antibiotic from a protoplast fusion strain of Penicillium chrysogenum and Cephalosporium acremonium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Antibiotics are the most effective drugs for curing bacteria-infectious diseases clinically. They have a wide market for their advantages of strong bactericidal effect, low toxicity and small side effect. Among them, β-lactam antibiotics (mainly penicillin and cephalosporin) are widely used since it has very strong bactericidal effect (by blocking cell division) and very low toxicity. It is estimated that the global sales volume of β-lactam antibiotic is about 21 billion USD in 1999.
Among the β-lactam antibiotics, 210 billion USD is almost contributed from 6-APA (6-amino-penicillinic acid, the intermediate of penicillin, as shown in FIG. 1), 7-ACA (7-amino-cephalosporanic acid, the intermediate of cephalosporin, as shown in FIG. 2), and 7-ADCA (7-amino desacetoxi-cephalosporanic acid, the intermediate of cephalosporin, as shown in FIG. 3). That is, the three aforesaid intermediates predominate above 95% market of β-lactam antibiotics.
However, since the antibiotics have been abused for tens of years, drug-resistant bacteria are rapidly increased. As a result, the current commercially available β-lactam antibiotics, even the first-line antibiotics of their second or third generation, cannot repress the spread of the drug-resistant bacteria, which becomes a serious medical problem. Therefore, it is needed to develop a novel β-lactam antibiotic with small side effect and strong bactericidal effect.
To overcome the problems described above, the present invention provides a method for producing a novel β-lactam antibiotic from a protoplast fusion strain of Penicillium chrysogenum and Cephalosporium acremonium. That is, the protoplasts of Penicillium chrysogenum and Cephalosporium acremonium are fused by protoplast fusion to generate a protoplast fusion strain, and a novel β-lactam antibiotic is isolated from this fusion strain. In 1983, Dr. Elander of Brisal Mylc company (Bristal Mylc Squill company now) in USA had tried this method, but he only got the fusion stain, and did not isolate a novel β-lactam antibiotic from the fusion strain (Chang, L. T., Terasaka, D. T. & Elander, R. P. (1982), "Protoplast fusion in industrial fungi", Developments in Industrial Microbiology 23, 21-29; Elander, R. Pin "Overproduction of Microbial Products" (Krumphonal, R., Sikyta, B., and Vanok, Z.), pp353-369, Academic Press, New York (1982)). However, through profound studies for many years, the present inventors obtain the fusion strain of Penicillium chrysogenum and Cephalosporium acremonium, and isolate the novel β-lactam antibiotic therefrom.

Method for producing novel β-lactam antibiotic from protoplast fusion strain


A replacement grill having slidable headlight covers is Provided for trucks, sport utility vehicles, and other motor vehicles. The grill includes a frame with a grillwork to allow airflow into the engine compartment. Headlight covers are slidably mounted within the frame for movement between open and closed positions. The movement of the headlight covers is controlled by a motor which is electrically connected to the vehicle headlight switch. Thus, the headlight covers are automatically opened when the headlights are turned on and automatically closed when the headlights are turned off. A chain and sprocket assembly connects the headlight covers to the motor.

Headlight covers are well known in the automotive industry, both as original equipment and as aftermarket add-ons. One type of aftermarket headlight covers snap in place and must be manually removed to expose the headlights for night time driving, which is inconvenient. Another type of conventional headlight covers are pivotally mounted for movement between a closed position covering the headlights and an open position exposing the headlights. Such pivotally moving headlight covers require space above or below the headlights to receive the cover when moved to the open position.
Some headlight covers are combined with the grill of the motor vehicle. However, the structure required in such grills having movable headlight covers is complex and therefore adds to the cost of the unit.
Accordingly, a primary objective of the present invention is the provision of a replacement grill having slidable headlight covers for a motor vehicle.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a grill with headlight covers which are automatically moved between open and closed positions when the vehicle headlights are turned on and off.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of an aftermarket grill with slidable headlight covers which is easy to install, durable in use, economical to manufacture, and having a pleasing appearance.
These and other objectives will become apparent from the following description of the invention.

Replacement grill with sliding headlight covers


A method and an apparatus for continuously extracting a wax component contained in a solid residue with a solvent, in which method, the solid residue obtained from the juice of sugar cane is used as a raw material. To make the extraction time uniform and to obtain the wax at a high efficiency of extraction, the solid residue and an organic solvent for extraction are mixed under shear force and agitated in directions perpendicular to the flow direction. The mixing is conducted under an agitated flow condition so as to form a substantially plug flow in the flow direction.

The common method for producing sugar from sugar canes comprises squeezing juice from the stalk of sugar canes by milling and then boiling down the juice to obtain crude sugar.
Along with sugar component, however, the cane juice inevitably contains impurities such as the bark of crushed stalks, vascular bundles and small pieces of stalk pith as well as wax and resin. The wax and resin components are separated from the juice by precipitation followed by filtration, if necessary, with the addition of flocculating agents and filter aids. Other impurities such as the bark of crushed stalks, vascular bundles and small pieces of stalk pith are also eliminated from the juice together with the wax and resin components by the filtration. While crude sugar is produced by boiling down the resulting filtrate, the crude wax are produced from the filter cake (generally known as "cachaza"), which contains wax, resin, bark of crushed stalks, vascular bundles, small pieces of stalk pith in addition to precipitating agents and mud. This filter cake usually contains from 70 to 80 wt % of water, although it is solid in appearance.
In the first pressing, because the sugar cane is crushed or smashed, its filter cake obtained by filtration is a deformable solid substance which is an agglomerate of crushed substances containing water. The crushed pieces or broken pieces forming the agglomerate are in irregular forms or in fiber-like state. As it is an entangled agglomerate containing water, it is a lumpy mass maintaining its own form to some extent. It is not a viscoelastic substance in a true meaning, however, it seemingly exhibits the properties resembling those of a viscoelastic substance.
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-122892, there is proposed a method for continuously extracting crude wax using a hydrophobic organic solvent without any previous drying of the filter cake. In this method, the extraction is carried out while kneading the filter cake with the hydrophobic solvent and, as suitable apparatus for use in the method, transferring machines having heating and agitating means which are equipped with mixing elements such as screw, ribbon impellers or paddles, are proposed. Furthermore, it is described to be preferable that the filter cake and solvents are mixed together under shearing stress in order to break down the filter cake, which is partly in lumpy state, into small pieces and to disperse well in the solvents (ibid., page 4, column 5, para. 0017). However, because the substances to be treated are the mixture of the solvent in liquid state and the filter cake in solid agglomerate, the extraction can hardly be carried out by means of the above-mentioned simple transferring apparatus with a mixer such as the single shaft screw extruder as disclosed in the above patent gazette.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,554,073, another method to produce wax from filter cake is disclosed in which a vertical continuous extracting column is used. In this method, counter-current extraction of filter cake and solvent is simply carried out by fingers and stirring arms which are turning round on each plate in the column. The water contained in filter cake is considered to exist in the crushed pieces and the spaces among the crushed pieces of the filter cake. When hydrophobic solvent is used, such water obstructs the solvent extraction. The obstruction of this kind cannot be avoided by the simple stirring operation. Meanwhile, if the vigorous stirring is done, the filter cake is dispersed into the solvent in the form of very fine pieces. The finely dispersed filter cake is not desirable because it is inconvenient for the subsequent transferring and other treatment and there is apprehension of the blocking of transfer pipe lines.
It has been found out in the studies carried out by the present inventors that, in the solvent extraction of the wax from the filter cake obtained by processing sugar cane, the wax is a main component of the extract in the early stage of the extraction, however, as the extraction proceeds, the extraction of other components like lignin from the sugar cane fiber tend to increase and the separation of such components from the wax component is very difficult even by utilizing a separation method such as recrystallization operation in a subsequent step. Therefore, it is necessary to control the retention time of the mixture in the extraction equipment in an adequate range in order to obtain crude wax with less lignin content.
From this point of view, a batchwise solvent extraction process has an advantage of offering comparatively narrow distribution of the extraction times. However, it is not suitable for the treatment of large quantities and it is essentially not adequate as an industrial production method.
The conventional methods are not always satisfactory in order to treat a large quantity of material and to avoid the dispersion of retention time in solvent extraction.
In view of the above described circumstances, the object of the present invention is therefore the provision of the extraction apparatus which permits the solvent extraction of crude wax from the solid residue as a raw material separated from the juice obtained by milling sugar cane without substantial dispersion in the extraction times and with high extraction efficiency.

Method of continuous extraction of crude wax and apparatus therefor


A driving system and its corresponding driving scheme for electroluminescence displays that employs the principle of electric charge conservation and recycling in order to reduce switching current requirement against the system power source. In an electroluminescence display of a matrix of electroluminescence elements arrayed in rows and columns, wherein anodes of the electroluminescence elements on each row being electrically connected to a corresponding anode line, and cathodes of the electroluminescence elements on each column being electrically connected to a corresponding cathode line, a driving system for driving said electroluminescence display comprises a row/column control circuit for lighting at least one of said electroluminescence elements by establishing an electrical route across the power source and the ground in a driving scheme. The driving scheme sequentially scans each of the cathode lines while simultaneously drives at least one of the anode lines during each scanning. The control circuit equalizes electric charges in electroluminescence elements in the cathode line being scanned and in an adjoining cathode line to be scanned subsequently by electrically connecting both cathode lines together before the scanning cycles to the adjoining cathode line.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electroluminescence displays and more particularly to a driving system for electroluminescence displays and the method of operating the system with reduced power demand and increased performance in response speed.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical electroluminescence display is an apparatus based on a panel of electroluminescence elements organized in a two-dimensional matrix of rows and columns. In general, each of the electroluminescence elements of the display has two electrodes of the opposite electric polarity: an anode and a cathode. One of the electrodes is connected to a row line while the other to a column line of the driving circuitry of the system. Each of the electroluminescence elements in the matrix is located where the addressing row and column lines for that particular element intersect.
An electroluminescence element emits light when it conducts electric current. This is achievable when a voltage across the anode and cathode of the element is supplied in the forward polarityxe2x80x94a positive voltage to the anode and a negative to the cathode. Intensity of the light emitted is determined by the magnitude of the current, which, in turn, is dependent on the voltage applied across the electrodes.
In operation, a driving scheme is employed to display data on the panel of the two-dimensional matrix of an electroluminescence display. A typical driving scheme for driving such an electroluminescence display involves sequentially activating each and every of either rows or columns of the electroluminescence elements in the matrix, one at a time in a scanning manner. While each row or column is activated, selected elements in the activated row or column are then turned on via established electrical routes to the power source of the drive system so that they can be energized and emit light. The addressed elements are activated sequentially in the repeated scanning cycles at a speed sufficiently fast such that the sequentially emitting elements appear to the human eyes as being lighted simultaneously, allowing for a properly perceived image.
A common driving scheme in such electroluminescence displays is one that scans the rows in the matrix of display elements. Display element rows in the matrix are addressed one after another sequentially. Meanwhile, appropriate power or ground sources drive the element columns so as to activate or deactivate the electroluminescence elements respectively in accordance with the requirement of the image data to be displayed.
FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating the circuit configuration of a conventional driving system for an electroluminescence display panel. The prior-art panel exemplified here has a matrix of 64 rows by 132 columns of display elements. In the matrix, each element is designated as elements EC,R, wherein the subscript xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d identifies the column and xe2x80x9cRxe2x80x9d the row positional designation. In the entire matrix consisting of E1.1-E132.64, anodes of each column of the electroluminescence display elements are electrically connected together and to their respective anode lines A1-A132. In a similar arrangement, cathodes of each row of the elements are connected to their respective cathode lines B1-B64.
As is seen in the drawing, one among the 64 display element rows, namely the top row with elements connected to the cathode line B1 in the depicted prior-art example, is activated by connection to ground via its assigned cathode line scanning switch 51 of the cathode line scanning circuit 1. Meanwhile, all the other elements in cathode lines B2-B64 remain de-activated by connection to power Vcc via their respective cathode line scanning switches 52-564. Note that cathode line scanning circuit 1 is essentially an array of switches that are responsible for connecting the rows of display elements alternatively to power and ground voltages of the system.
Anode line driving circuit 2, essentially an array of switches for connecting the display element columns to the power source, activates selected ones of the display element columns by connecting them to their respectively-assigned ones of the current sources 21-2132. Such connection is achieved by switching control of the anode line driving switches 61-6132. Columns to be de-activated are instead connected to ground through anode line resetting switches 71-7132 in the anode line resetting circuit 3, which is essentially an array of switches used to selectively connect the columns to ground.
Note that switching operation of the cathode line scanning switches 51-564 in the cathode line scanning circuit 1 is basically in a sequential and cyclic repeating manner. By contrast, switching operation of the anode line driving switches 61-6132 in the anode line driving circuit 2 and switches 71-7132 in the anode line resetting circuit 3 are in synchronism in accordance with the column data of the image to be displayed.
For example, in the prior art system of FIG. 11, elements E1.1. and E2.1 are emitting light while other elements are turned off. In order for elements E1.1 and E2.1 to be turned on and emit light, switches 61 and 71 corresponding to the anode line A1 have to be switched in synchronization while their row, the one at cathode line B1, is scanned. The same applies to switches 62 and 72.
Off elements include those uncharged ones such as E3.1 and charged ones such as E3.2. In the drawings, turned-on display elements are represented by the symbol of a light-emitting diode, and turned-off elements are represented by the symbol of a capacitor, with charged elements expressed as symbols of capacitors with shading, and partially-charged and uncharged ones as regular capacitors. The charged and uncharged status of these turned-off display elements depends on the magnitude of the electric potential present across the electrodes of the elements.
In an electroluminescence display, parasitic capacitance inherent in the elements represents a major problem. Because of large capacitive loading on the lines as well as the effect of charge storage, quality of displayed image deteriorates when light emission time duration for any particular element becomes non-uniform in the repeated frame cycles as a result of different image patterns. The phenomenon that off elements are induced to emit slightly due to signal cross-coupling under large-capacitance load switching conditions also degrades the display quality.
At least one prior art, for example, Okuda et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,368 titled xe2x80x9cDriving system for driving luminous elementsxe2x80x9d disclosed a system that attempted to minimize these problems by forcing the rows and columns to definite supply levels in order to achieve certain reference situation before activation of the elements. In another prior art, Lee in U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,691 titled xe2x80x9cScan inversion symmetric drivexe2x80x9d disclosed a system that reversed the scan sequence of the rows for each frame. The reversed scanning in its alternating sequences of applications of the write voltage to the row electrodes was hoped to cause the average residual dc voltage across each of the display pixel elements to be substantially reduced, so that problems such as latent image caused by the inherent capacitive characteristics of electroluminescence displays may be avoided. However, in these prior attempts, the large panel capacitance are charged and discharged by supplying large switching currents from the power sources. These switching currents increase with panel size and with scan speed. Minimizing these switching currents and their subsequent noise issues have become important particularly for driving systems used in mobile electronic appliances.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a driving system and its corresponding driving scheme for electroluminescence displays that employs the principle of electric charge conservation and recycling in order to reduce switching current requirement against the system power source.
In an electroluminescence display of a matrix of electroluminescence elements arrayed in rows and columns, wherein anodes of the electroluminescence elements on each row being electrically connected to a corresponding anode line, and cathodes of the electroluminescence elements on each column being electrically connected to a corresponding cathode line, a driving system for driving said electroluminescence display comprises a row/column control circuit for lighting at least one of said electroluminescence elements by establishing an electrical route across the power source and the ground in a driving scheme. The driving scheme sequentially scans each of the cathode lines while simultaneously drives at least one of the anode lines during each scanning. The control circuit equalizes electric charges in electroluminescence elements in the cathode line being scanned and in an adjoining cathode line to be scanned subsequently by electrically connecting both cathode lines together before the scanning cycles to the adjoining cathode line.

Driving system and method for electroluminescence display


In order to efficiently detach and collect an IC tag (1) from a paper sheet (2) to which the IC tag (1) is attached, the IC tag (1) is detached from the paper sheet (2) by applying external force to the adhesive surface between the paper sheet (2) and the IC tag (1) (detachment step). Next, the detached IC tag (1) is fractionated from other substances (fractionation step).

An IC tag, in which an IC chip and an antenna are interposed between two thin sheets, has recently been used as a medium for storing information. The IC tag has many advantages. For example, much information can be stored in the IC tag and information can be read out from the IC tag without contacting it. Thanks to these advantages, the IC tag is widely utilized in commodity management, physical distribution management, etc.
When using an IC tag in commodity management, physical distribution management, etc., it is normally attached to a commodity to be managed by an adhesive such as paste, double-coated tape, etc., whereby information stored in the IC tag is tied to the commodity. Because of this, if an IC tag is detached and it is attached to another commodity, the corresponding relationship between a commodity and information will be impaired. Hence, for example, in a technique disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-167240, when an IC tag attached once to a commodity is detached, it is destroyed so that the corresponding relationship between a commodity and information is not impaired.
In the above-described conventional technique, an IC tag is used only once and then it is thrown away. However, an IC tag can be used many times if it is rewritten from old information to new information, so it is wasteful to discard it without reusing. One IC tag is cheap, but if a great number of IC tags are used and all are discarded, the cost cannot be ignored. Because of this, depending on users, there is a demand for collecting and reusing IC tags used in order to reduce costs.
In order to collect an IC tag, it must be detached from a commodity to which it is attached. In most cases, an IC tag is attached to not a commodity itself but the packing paper or corrugated cardboard box, or a paper sheet such as a mount. The operation of detaching an IC tag from a paper sheet is performed by hand, and it is forcibly separated from the adhesive surface of a paper sheet. As in the above-described prior art, in the case where an IC will be damaged if it is separated by force, it is necessary to detach it so that it is not damaged.
In the case where IC tags are detached and collected by hand, as described above, there is a limit to the number of tags to be processed per person. Therefore, if the number of IC tags to be processed is increased, the number of persons increases accordingly. However, an increase in the number of persons increases lobar cost and often counterbalances the advantage of cost reduction to be obtained by collecting and reusing IC tags. For that reason, users who desire to collect and reuse IC tags require a method of efficiently detaching and collecting IC tags from a large quantity of paper sheets to which they are attached.

Method, system, and apparatus for detaching and collecting an IC tag from a paper sheet to which it is attached