The invention relates to a self-climbing perimetric protection system with at least one module comprising                two masts (1) spaced out from one another and formed by two vertical channel irons (1) with U-shaped cross section between which pairs of support elements (6, 7) are immobilized in different horizontal planes;        a protection panel (2) attached to the masts;        pairs of anchors (4) comprised by respective anchoring frames (11) coupled to guiding heads (10) each comprising two mobile horizontal claws (16) which, in the closed position, brace the mast (1); and a rotational bearing rocker (13, 13′) in a vertical plane between a position in which its front part (13) is rotated and supports a support element (6, 7) and a position in which it is rotated downwardly in which it allows the passage of the support elements (6, 7), the pairs of anchors being immobilized at different heights in a part of a building (5, 9) in which they support a pair of support elements (6, 7).

The proliferation of very tall buildings, i.e., skyscrapers, in large cities has considerably improved the systems for their construction both in terms of efficiency and safety in recent years. The need to work safely at great heights and to continue working even with adverse meteorological conditions (wind or rain) has made it necessary to install in the periphery of the framing perimetric protections which safeguard the physical integrity of workers. The peripheral protections installed in the construction of the Espacio, Cristal and Sacyr towers (built by the Spanish company ULMA Construcción) in Madrid can be mentioned as an example.
These protections have historically been made with simple rails. However, the concept of protection that is currently used entirely covers framing, for example the last three framing structures being worked on, with canvas, wooden boards, wire mesh, etc. Said protections were first introduced on the market in non self-climbing versions, such as the protection system used by the Spanish company ULMA Construcción in the Sacyr tower works in Madrid. In this version, each set of the protection has to be hoisted with a crane and this took time away from the availability of the crane for performing other tasks on site. As can be concluded from the foregoing, it makes no sense to install a complex self-climbing system to lift the wall formworks of the central core of a building if the crane is later occupied for long periods of time to raise the perimetric protection. On the other hand, the automatic lifting is safer because it is not necessary for there to be people guiding the assemblies in dangerous working positions. To that end, there is currently a growing demand for the perimetric protections to be self-climbing, such that the can be lifted independently from the remaining work tasks.
To meet this demand, self-climbing formwork systems have been developed, such as, for example, those described in documents EP-A-1899548, EP-A-1899549 and EP-A-1902185. Nevertheless, there continues to be a need in the construction sector to be able to have alternative self-climbing perimetric protection systems with respect to those known which are reliable, easy and quick enough to handle and not excessively expensive.

Self-climbing perimetric protection system for construction works in buildings


A mounting apparatus adapted to be disposed within a channel formed in an outer body surface of a vehicle, wherein the channel includes a permanently disposed hook portion, for securing a slat to the hook portion without the use of conventional riv-nut fasteners and without requiring holes to be drilled in the outer body surface. The apparatus comprises a mounting bracket having a base portion and a pair of offset arm portions. The base portion is adapted to slide under a lip of the permanently secured hook portion so as to be disposed substantially completely within the channel formed in the outer body surface of a vehicle. The arm portions include threaded openings which allow conventional fastening elements to be used to secure the slat to the mounting bracket. The mounting bracket can be used with or without a conventional resilient mounting pad. Since the mounting bracket does not require the drilling of any holes in the outer body surface, the risk of water entering into the interior area of the vehicle is significantly reduced. Furthermore, the securing of the slats to the outer body surfaces is significantly simplified since no holes must be marked and drilled in the outer body surface for attachment of the slats thereto.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to vehicle article carriers, more particularly to a mounting apparatus for securing a slat of a vehicle article carrier to an outer body surface of a vehicle without the need to drill holes in the outer body surface and insert threaded fasteners through such holes.
2. Background
Vehicle article carriers are used in a wide variety of applications to secure various articles above an outer body surface of a vehicle such as a roof or deck wood of the vehicle. Many vehicle article carriers comprise a pair of slats which are mounted fixedly to the outer body surface of the vehicle. The slats are secured typically by fasteners known in the art as "riv-nut" fasteners. The rib nut fasteners are installed by first drilling holes in the outer body surface at a plurality of locations along the areas where the slats are to be secured. As will be appreciated, this is a labor intensive procedure and must be performed with precision to permit the holes to align with pre-formed openings in the slats which are being secured to the vehicle. Once the holes are drilled, the riv-nut fasteners are inserted therethrough. The slat is then positioned over the riv-nut fasteners and threaded fastening elements are used to secure these slat to the riv-nut fasteners. Thus, the use of riv-nut fasteners adds to the cost of the vehicle article carrier both in terms of adding more components to the vehicle article carrier and the labor necessary to install the slats on the vehicle.
In most vehicles, a channel exists where the metal roof panel is joined to the metal side panels by a plurality of spot welds. Some vehicle manufacturers have begun disposing hooks within these channels. The hooks are typically welded within the channels and form a very sturdy point of attachment. Also, since these channels are typically formed very close to the outer edges of the roof of the vehicle, these points of attachment are extremely structurally strong areas of the vehicle roof.
The above mentioned hooks have typically been used for securing pads designed to simply cover the channel to present a more aesthetically appealing surface. In some instances, these hooks have been used to mount brackets or other like elements. However, it is not believed that these hooks have heretofore been used in connection with any external devices or elements which enabled a slat of a vehicle article carrier to be secured to the outer body surface over the channel by attachment to the hook. This form of attachment would permit a slat to be secured to the outer body surface without the need for drilling holes and installing riv-nut fasteners in the outer body surface, and therefore significantly simplify and reduce the cost of installing the slats of a vehicle article carrier on the vehicle. Such a means of attachment would also increase the strength by which the slats are secured to the vehicle since the slats would be secured at a structurally strong point on the vehicle roof.
In view of the foregoing, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a means by which a conventional slat may be secured to an existing hook disposed within a channel of an outer body surface of a vehicle so as to obviate the need for riv-nuts and for drilling holes in the outer body surface.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for mounting a slat to an existing hook disposed within a channel of an outer body surface of a vehicle, where the apparatus may be secured to the hook without any external fastening elements or any fastening procedures such as welding.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which forms a low cost, simple to manufacture means for attaching a conventional slat of a vehicle article carrier to an existing hook disposed within a channel in an outer body surface of the vehicle.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a mounting apparatus which permits a conventional slat to be attached to an outer body surface of a vehicle in a manner such that the apparatus is concealed substantially entirely within a channel formed in the outer body surface of the vehicle so as to maintain a low profile of said slat on the outer body surface.

Mounting member for a slat of a vehicle article carrier


Transparent structures containing a transparent electrically conductive fluid are used for aesthetically appealing designs and/or improved fatigue performance. Some structures have multiple isolated conductors while others have a single conductive area that may be used as a transparent antenna or a transparent EMI shield. Other embodiments employ fluids that change crystalline structure under an applied voltage such that a structure can change color and/or display a message.

To meet the demands of consumers, electronic devices are required to be increasingly thin, lightweight and low cost with constantly increasing feature sets. Because of these demands, the packaging densities of electronic devices are increasing and the area available for interconnects, sensors and structures is being reduced. To meet the needs of future electronic devices new electronic structures and interconnects will be required.

Transparent structures filled with electrically active fluid


A electrical connector for connecting conduit or cables to a junction box. The connector includes a tubular connector body with a longitudinal slot extending substantially along the length of the connector body and dividing the tubular connector body into an upper half and a lower half. A lateral slot extends through the upper half of the connector body at the leading end thereby hinging the upper half to the lower half at the trailing end of the connector. A tubular snap ring including one or more locking tangs is disposed and held thereon on the leading end of the connector body by a spring bias. The trailing body portion includes a threaded aperture and a threaded fastener therein. When inserted into a knockout in a junction box, the leading end of the snap engagement connector is held firmly but adjustably therein by engagement of the locking tangs with the panel, thereby allowing the orientation of the connector with respect to the box to be adjusted as desired. A conduit may then be inserted into the trailing end of the connector and secured therein by the fastener. Tightening of the fastener upon the conduit forces the upper half of the connector body away from the lower half and spreads the leading end of the connector body and the snap ring into tight engagement with the electrical panel.

Snap fitting electrical connectors are popular as a means of connecting cables to electrical junction boxes. Typically, the snap fitting connectors include a solid connector body adapted on the leading end to snap into a knockout in a panel or junction box and adapted on the trailing end to receive a conduit or cable to be secured thereto.
Although many snap engagement electrical connectors are available for connecting electrical cables or conduit to electrical junction boxes, they typically include solid connector bodies. When snapped into the knockout, the connector is connected rigidly with respect to the junction box thereby making it impossible to change the orientation of the connector with respect to the box. However, in many situations, such as where space around the box is severely restricted, the installer must change the orientation of the connector with respect to the box, and for a solid connector body this is not possible.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,739, having common ownership and inventorship as the present invention, presented a connector for fastening electrical metal tubing to junction boxes. The connector included wedge holding tabs integral with and extending from the nose portion of the connector for forming a tight and secure fit with the junction box after the fastening screw was tightened.
Although the electrical connector of U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,739 forms a tight fit with a junction box once the fastening screw is tightened, the tabs, being integral with the nose portion of the connector and formed of a non-resilient die-casting alloy, formed a loose initial fit when first pressed into the junction box. As a result, prior to tightening the connector with the fastening screw, unintended contact with the connector could lead to an undesirable change in orientation of the connector with respect to the junction box.
Therefore, what is needed is a snap engagement electrical connector that may be inserted within a knockout of an electrical box with a firm but adjustable initial fit allowing the connector to be adjusted in orientation or rotated with respect to the electrical box prior to securing the electrical connector with respect to the box.
These and other advantages will become apparent by reading the attached specification and claims in conjunction with reference to the attached drawings.

Snap engagement electrical connector with split connector body


Capacitive touch panels may include a plurality of positive voltage lines that are driven at a first phase. These positive voltage lines may be used to provide the drive capacitance signal sensed by one or more sense regions. The touch panels may also include a plurality of negative phase voltage lines that are driven at a phase that is different than the first phase. Both the positive and negative voltage lines may cross-under one or more sense regions. The negative phase voltage lines are able to counter act and reduce the static capacitance in the sense regions.

Many types of input devices are available for performing operations in a computing system, such as buttons or keys, mice, trackballs, joysticks, touch sensor panels, touch screens, and the like. Touch screens, in particular, are becoming increasingly popular because of their ease and versatility of operation as well as their declining price. Touch screens can include a touch sensor panel, which can be a clear panel with a touch-sensitive surface, and a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) that can be positioned partially or fully behind the panel so that the touch-sensitive surface can cover at least a portion of the viewable area of the display device. Touch screens generally allow a user to perform various functions by touching (e.g. physical contact or near-field proximity) the touch sensor panel using a finger, stylus or other object at a location dictated by a user interface (UI) being displayed by the display device. In general, touch screens can recognize a touch event and the position of the touch event on the touch sensor panel, and the computing system can then interpret the touch event in accordance with the display appearing at the time of the touch event, and thereafter can perform one or more actions based on the touch event.
Mutual capacitance touch sensor panels can be formed from a matrix of drive and sense lines of a substantially transparent conductive material, such as Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). The lines are often arranged orthogonally on a substantially transparent substrate. It is due in part to their substantial transparency that capacitive touch sensor panels can be overlaid on a display to form a touch screen, as described above. However, overlaying a display with a touch sensor panel can have drawbacks, such as added weight and thickness, and decreased brightness of the display.

Touch sensor panels with reduced static capacitance


In a multicast networking device having a plurality of output ports, a hierarchical packet scheduling tree is generated for a first port. The hierarchical packet scheduling tree is generated from a transmission queue for the first port. A sequential search of the hierarchical scheduling tree is performed to determine a packet pointer to a first packet in the transmission queue of the first port. Based on the packet pointer, packet data for the first packet is obtained and the first packet comprising the packet data is transmitted to a destination device via the first port.

Traditional Internet Protocol (IP) communication allows a source device to send packets to a single network-connected destination device (unicast transmission) or to all network-connected destination devices (broadcast transmission). A third technique, referred to as multicast transmission or multicasting, has evolved to support increased demands for various audio and video applications (e.g., online conferences, video on demand, etc.) that involve high data rate transmission to multiple (but not all) destination devices.
Multicasting is a form of communication that allows a source device to send an IP packet to a network for distribution to multiple destination devices. The network usually includes at least one multicast-enabled networking device (e.g., router or other switching device) configured to replicate the packet and forward the replicated packets to the multiple destination devices. Multicast-enabled networking devices typically include a centralized controller to replicate the received packets, and one or more output interfaces (ports) to forward the replicated packets to the destination devices over various data links.


Clock time information displayable together with a corresponding image upon image playback display is recorded in a header field of an image file as EXIF data, and clock time information specific to a digital camera is recorded in a header field of the image file difference from the header field for the clock time information recorded as the EXIF data. Since the camera-specific time information is recorded in addition to the display time information, even if pictures are taken with a digital camera abroad where there is a difference in time after the display clock time is corrected or changed to the local time, images of the pictures can be playback-displayed in order of actual shooting based on the camera-specific time information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of recording, as an image file, a subject image shot with a digital camera, a method for playback display of the recorded image file by uploading it to a personal computer (PC) or the like, and a system and apparatuses for implementing the methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image data shot with a digital camera are typically converted into JPEG format and recorded on a recording medium or the like in an image file format. The DCF standard specifies rules for ensuring image file compatibility among digital cameras of different manufacturers and the EXIF standard specifies rules for recording shooting-related information, such as the shutter speed or shooting date and time data, while ensuring information compatibility. Therefore, data interchangeability is ensured by these standards even if photos are taken with a digital camera of any manufacturer, facilitating user convenience. When image data shot with a digital camera are stored in a storage device in a personal computer (PC) or the like, a folder is generally created on the PC and the image data are copied to the created folder to store and record them as image files. In this recording method, however, since the date and time of creation of the recorded image data is set as the date and time at which the image data were stored and recorded on the PC from the digital camera, the date and time of shooting with the digital camera cannot be known from the recorded image files, making it difficult to manage the image files in order of shooting date and time.
In order to enable sorting of image data in order of shooting date and time, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-322300 describes that upon reading and recording image data stored in a digital-still camera, the time stamp of a file to be recorded is changed to shooting date and time data on the camera. This publication also describes that the file name and the folder name can also be set as the date and time of creation of the image data, i.e., as the shooting date and time on the camera. During shooting with a digital camera, shot images are recorded as image files on a recording medium loaded or built in the digital camera. At this time, in order to ensure the compatibility of image files, a recording format and the like are typically prescribed pursuant to each of the above-mentioned standards. The shooting date and time is recorded in each image file together with its file name so that upon playback display of the image, the shooting date and time is also displayable on a screen. There have been needs to display the shooting date and time together with the image since long ago, and even many of film cameras have a function for optically recording the shooting date and time on a film upon exposure so that the user can figure out the shooting date and time on its print.
In the meantime, many people go abroad nowadays on business or for pleasure, and when going abroad where there is a difference in time, some confusion exists about shooting date and time, causing a problem. For example, assuming that a user departed from Japan at 18:30 on January 15 and arrived in San Francisco after eight hours of flying, the arrival time in San Francisco is 2:30 on January 16 in Japan Standard Time. However, since there is a time difference of 17 hours between Japan and San Francisco (i.e., in San Francisco, it is 17 hours later than in Japan), the local time in San Francisco is 9:30 on January 15. It means that the local arrival time is earlier than the departure time from Japan on the same day. In generally, since travelers adjust their schedule to the local time, they usually set their watches or the like to the local time upon or immediately before the arrival at the local place.
As for a digital camera carried abroad with a user on his-or her trip, if the clock time set in a clock function built in the camera to decide on the shooting time to be recorded in each image file is not changed at all, the time for each shot image is all recorded in Japan Standard Time, and displayed in Japan Standard Time upon image playback. Therefore, for example, the time displayed on an image shot in the daytime at a local sightseeing place could be a midnight time due to a time difference from Japan. In such a case, it cannot be denied that there is a sense of discomfort between the time displayed together with the image and the image content. At the local place, since the user has set his or her watch to the local time to adjust his or her schedule to the local time, it is desirable that the time displayed together with the playback image should be represented in the local time. In order to avoid causing this sense of discomfort, the clock time set by the clock function built in the digital camera has only to be changed to the local time. However, in the above example, the departure time from Japan is 18:30 on January 15, while the local arrival time is 9:30 on the same day. In this case, for example, an image shot at the time of departure from Japan is dated January 15, 18:30. Suppose here that the user adjusted the time clock of the digital camera to the local time on an airplane during eight hours of flying, and took a picture with the digital camera when the airplane landed at the airport in San Francisco. In this case, the image shot upon arrival is dated January 15, 9:30. Since the shooting time of the image shot upon arrival is inconsistent in terms of the order of shooting, the order of shooting time of the recorded image does not match with the order of actual shooting date and time, thus causing confusion.
After taking a large number of pictures abroad and going back to Japan, if the user uploads the images to a personal computer or the like for playback display, the order of shooting will become inconsistent with the order of shooting time as mentioned above, ending in undesirable results. If the user took pictures with a single digital camera, the image data representing those pictures can be played back in order of image file name to display the images in order of shooting. However, if the user took pictures with plural digital cameras, e.g., two digital cameras, the images cannot be displayed in order of actual shooting even if they are played back in order of image file name. This point will be described in detail below. Here, it is assumed that two digital cameras made by manufacturer A are used to take pictures.
The details of a file name deciding method vary from manufacturer to manufacture. For example, a digital camera of manufacturer A assigns file names starting from DSCP0001, incrementing the number part by one from the second file name, like DSCP0002, DSCP0003 . . . . Similarly, a digital camera of manufacturer B assigns file names starting from KIMG0001, incrementing the number part by one like KIMG0002, KIMG0003 . . . . Further, a digital camera of manufacturer C assigns file names starting from G1125001, which is followed by G1125002 . . . in a like manner, except that the first four digits "1125" represent the shooting date. In this case, date information is acquired at the time of shooting from clock means built in the digital camera, and the file name is decided based on the date information. The last three digits represent a number part independent of the date, starting from "001" and followed by "002", "003" . . . . For example, suppose that the first and second frames are shot on November 25 and the third frame is shot on November 26. In this case, respective file names are G1125001, G1125002, and G1126003.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-177646 discloses a technique teaching that basic information for creating a file name is not reset so that serial numbers (numbers in consecutive order) are assigned across different recording media even if a recording medium is replaced with another as long as shooting is continued with the same digital camera. This function is a very commonly employed technique, and it is assumed here that the two digital cameras of manufacturer A used in the following example have this function so that consecutive file numbers will be assigned.
For example, suppose that the user went abroad with two digital cameras of manufacturer A and took pictures using the two digital cameras in combination. Suppose also that the file names of image files shot with one digital camera are DSCP0114 to DSCP0120 and the file names of image files shot with the other digital camera are DSCP0001 to DSCP0009. Suppose further that, after the total of 16 pieces of image data are uploaded to a PC and stored in a single folder for collective management, the image data are playback displayed in order of file name. Since the order of playback display of the image files is determined according to the alphabetical order and numeric order of the characters forming a character string of each file name, DSCP0001 is first displayed, followed by DSCP0002, DSCP0003, . . . , DSCP0009, then DSCP0009 is followed by DSCP0114, DSCP0115, DSCP0116 . . . , and DSCP0120 comes last. In this case, the order of image display will be inconsistent with the order of actual shooting unless after pictures corresponding to DSCP0001 to DSCP0009 are taken with and recorded on the first camera, the user changes the camera to the second camera to take pictures corresponding to DSCP0114 to DSCP0120. Further, even if the image files are sorted in order of shooting time prior to playback display, the order of shooting time is inconsistent with the order of actual shooting because of the time difference as mentioned above. Therefore, the sorted order does not match with the order of actual shooting. The fact is that it is impossible for the conventional technique to perform playback display of the image files in order of actual shooting after all.

Image file recording method, image recording and playback method, image recording and playback system, image recording apparatus, and image playback apparatus


Azeotrope-like mixtures of 1,1-dichloro-2,2,2-trifluoroethane and 1,1-dichloro-1-fluoroethane, being useful as cleaning solvents, refrigerants and foam blowing agents.

Closed-cell polyurethane foams are widely used for insulation purposes in building construction and in the manufacture of energy efficient electrical appliances. In the construction industry, polyurethane (poly-isocyanurate) board stock is used in roofing and siding for its insulation and load-carrying capabilities. Poured and sprayed polyurethane foams are also used in construction. Sprayed polyurethane foams are widely used for insulating large structures such as storage tanks, etc. Pour-in-place polyurethane foams are used, for example, in appliances such as refrigerators and freezers plus they are used in making refrigerated trucks and railcars.
All of these various types of polyurethane foams require expansion agents (blowing agents) for their manufacture. Insulating foams depend on the use of halocarbon blowing agents, not only to foam the polymer, but primarily for their low vapor thermal conductivity, a very important characteristic for insulation value. Historically, polyurethane foams are made with CFC-11 as the primary blowing agent.
Another important type of insulating foam is phenolic foam. These foams, which have very attractive flammability characteristics, are generally made with CFC-11 and CFC-113 blowing agents.
As modern electronic circuit boards evolve toward increased circuit and component densities, thorough board cleaning after soldering becomes a more important criterion. Current industrial processes for soldering electronic components to circuit boards involve coating the entire circuit side of the board with flux and thereafter passing the flux-coated board over preheaters and through molten solder. The flux cleans the conductive metal parts and promotes solder fusion. Commonly used solder fluxes generally consist of rosin, either used alone or with activating additives, such as amine hydrochlorides and oxalic acid derivatives.
After soldering, which thermally degrades part of the rosin, the flux-residues are often removed from the circuit boards with an organic solvent. The requirements for such solvents are very stringent. Defluxing solvents should have the following characteristics: Have a low boiling point, be nonflammable, have low toxicity and have high solvency power, so that flux and flux-residues can be removed without damaging the substrate being cleaned.
While boiling point, flammability and solvent power characteristics can be adjusted by preparing solvent mixtures, these mixtures are often unsatisfactory because they fractionate to an undesirable degree during use. Such solvent mixtures also fractionate during solvent distillation, which makes it virtually impossible to recover a solvent mixture with the original composition.
On the other hand, azeotrope-like mixtures, with their essentially constant compositions, have been found to be very useful for these applications. Azeotrope-like mixtures, for all practical purposes, do not fractionate on evaporation or boiling. These characteristics are also important when using solvent compositions to remove solder fluxes and flux-residues from printed circuit boards. Preferential evaporation of the more volatile solvent mixture components would occur if the mixtures were not azeotrope-like. This could result in mixtures with changed compositions and less-desirable solvency properties, such as lower rosin flux solvency and lower inertness toward the electrical components being cleaned. This azeotrope-like character is also desirable in vapor degreasing operations, where redistilled solvent is generally employed for final rinse cleaning.
Many solvent compositions used industrially for cleaning electronic circuit boards and for general metal, plastic and glass cleaning are based upon CFC-113.
Refrigeration systems such as centrifugal chillers are used to cool water, food, etc. These systems presently may use CFC-11 as the refrigerant.
In the early 1970s, concern began to be expressed that the stratospheric ozone layer (which provides protection against penetration of the earth's atmosphere by ultraviolet radiation) was being depleted by chlorine atoms introduced to the atmosphere from the release of fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons. These chlorofluorocarbons are used as propellants in aerosols, as blowing agents for foams, as refrigerants and as cleaning/drying solvent systems. Because of the great chemical stability of fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons, according to the ozone depletion theory, these compounds do not decompose in the earth's atmosphere but reach the stratosphere where they slowly degrade liberating chlorine atoms which in turn react with the ozone.
Concern reached such a level that in 1978 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed a ban on nonessential uses of fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons as aerosol propellants. This ban resulted in a dramatic shift in the U.S. away from chlorofluorocarbon propellants (except for exempted uses) to primarily hydrocarbon propellants. However, since the rest of the world did not join the U.S. in this aerosol ban, the net result has been to shift the uses of chlorofluorocarbons in aerosols out of the U.S., but not to permanently reduce the world-wide total chlorofluorocarbon production, as sought. In fact, in the last few years the total amount of chlorofluorocarbons manufactured worldwide has exceeded the level produced in 1978 (before the U.S. ban).
During the period of 1978-1987, much research was conducted to study the ozone depletion theory. Because of the complexity of atmospheric chemistry, many questions relating to this theory remained unanswered. However, assuming the theory to be valid, the health risks which would result from depletion of the ozone layer are significant. This, coupled with the fact that world-wide production of chlorofluorocarbons has increased, has resulted in international efforts to reduce chlorofluorocarbon use. Particularly, in September, 1987, the United Nations through its Environment Programme (UNEP) issued a tentative proposal calling for a 50 percent reduction in world-wide production of fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons by the year 1998. This proposal was ratified on Jan. 1, 1989, and it is scheduled to become effective on Jul. 1, 1989.
Because of this proposed reduction in availability of fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons such as CFC-11, CFC-12 and CFC-113, alternative, more environmentally acceptable, products are urgently needed.
As early as the 1970s with the initial emergence of the ozone depletion theory, it was known that the introduction of hydrogen into previously fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons markedly reduced the chemical stability of these compounds. Hence, these now destabilized compounds would be expected to degrade in the atmosphere and not reach the stratosphere and the ozone layer. The accompanying Table lists the ozone depletion potential for a variety of fully and partially halogenated halocarbons. Greenhouse potential data (potential for reflecting infrared radiation (heat) back to earth and thereby raising the earth's surface temperature) are also shown.
______________________________________ OZONE DEPLETION AND GREENHOUSE POTENTIALS Ozone Depletion Greenhouse Blowing Agent Potential Potential ______________________________________ CFC-11 (CFCl.sub.3) 1.0 0.4 CFC-12 (CF.sub.2 Cl.sub.2) 1.0 1.0 HCFC-22 (CHF.sub.2 Cl) 0.05 0.07 HCFC-123 (CF.sub.3 CHCl.sub.2) 0.02 less than 0.1 HCFC-124 (CF.sub.3 CHFCl) 0.02 less than 0.1 HFC-134a (CF.sub.3 CH.sub.2 F) 0 less than 0.1 HCFC-141b (CFCl.sub.2 CH.sub.3) 0.1 less than 0.1 HCFC-142b (CF.sub.2 ClCH.sub.3) 0.06 less than 0.2 HFC-152a (CHF.sub.2 CH.sub.3) 0 less than 0.1 CFC-113 (CF.sub.2 Cl--CFCl.sub.2) 0.8 0.3-0.8 ______________________________________
Halocarbons such as HCFC-123, HCFC-123a and HCFC-141b are environmentally acceptable in that they theoretically have minimal effect on ozone depletion. (Although these values have not been calculated for HCFC-123a, it is estimated that they would be similar to those for HCFC-123.)
Unfortunately, as recognized in the art, it is not possible to predict the formation of azeotropes or azeotrope-like mixtures.
This fact obviously complicates the search for new azeotrope-like compositions, which have application in the field. Nevertheless, there is a constant effort in the art to discover new azeotrope-like compositions, which have desirable characteristics.
An objective of this invention is to provide ozone compatible novel azeotrope-like compositions based on 1,1-dichloro-2,2,2-trifluoroethane and 1,1-dichloro-1-fluoroethane which have good solvency power and other desirable properties for cleaning applications and are useful as foam blowing agents and as refrigerants.
Another object of the invention is to provide novel azeotrope-like solvents which are liquid at room temperature, will not fractionate under use-conditions and also have the foregoing advantages.
A further objective is to provide azeotrope-like compositions which are relatively nontoxic and nonflammable.


There is provided multilayer ceramic capacitor including, a ceramic body including a plurality of dielectric layers laminated therein, an active layer including a plurality of first and second internal electrodes alternately exposed through both end surfaces of the ceramic body, with the dielectric layers interposed therebetween, and having capacitance formed therein, an upper cover layer formed on an upper portion of the active layer, a lower cover layer formed on a lower portion of the active layer and having a thickness greater than that of the upper cover layer, first and second dummy electrode terminals provided in the lower cover layer to be alternately exposed through both end surfaces of the lower cover layer, and first and second external electrodes covering the both end surfaces of the ceramic body.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor and a mounting board for a multilayer ceramic capacitor.
Description of the Related Art
A multilayer ceramic capacitor, a multilayer chip electronic component, is a chip type capacitor commonly mounted on printed circuit boards of various electronic products, such as image display devices including a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display panel (PDP) and the like, computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, and the like, and serving to charge or discharge electricity.
Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) may be used as components of various electronic products due to having the advantages of a small size, high capacitance, and ease of mounting.
Multilayer ceramic capacitors may have a structure in which a plurality of dielectric layers are stacked and internal electrodes having different polarities are alternately interposed therebetween.
Since these dielectric layers have piezoelectricity properties and electrostrictive properties, a piezoelectric phenomenon may occur and thus cause vibrations between the internal electrodes when AC or DC voltage is applied to the multilayer ceramic capacitor.
Such vibrations may be transferred to a printed circuit board having the multilayer ceramic capacitor mounted thereon through external electrodes of the multilayer ceramic capacitor, such that the overall printed circuit board becomes an acoustic reflective surface to generate a vibratory sound regarded as noise.
The vibratory sound may correspond to an audible frequency in a region of 20 to 20,000 Hz, which may cause listener discomfort and is referred to as acoustic noise.
In order to reduce acoustic noise, a product having a form in which a lower cover layer of the multilayer ceramic capacitor has an increased thickness has been researched.
However, when the thickness of the lower cover layer of the multilayer ceramic capacitor is increased, delamination may occur in a boundary surface between an active layer including the internal electrodes and the lower cover layer, due to a difference in a sintering shrinkage behavior.
In order to prevent the delamination, a multilayer ceramic capacitor having a structure in which dummy electrode terminals exposed in the same direction are formed in the lower cover layer has been disclosed.
However, the multilayer ceramic capacitor having dummy electrode terminals may have a defect in that a step between a region in which the internal electrodes of an active layer overlap each other and a region of longitudinal margin portions of the dummy electrode terminal thereof is increased, and thus, delamination may occur in the longitudinal margin part.
The following Patent Document 1 discloses content in which the thickness of the lower cover layer of the multilayer ceramic capacitor is increased, but does not disclose a structure in which the lower cover layer includes a dummy electrode.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Multilayer ceramic capacitor and mounting board for multilayer ceramic capacitor


A method for fabricating semiconductor device is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: providing a substrate having a dielectric layer; forming an aluminum layer on the dielectric layer; forming a platinum layer on the aluminum layer; performing a first etching process to remove part of the platinum layer and part of the aluminum layer for forming a patterned platinum layer; and performing a second etching process to remove part of the aluminum layer exposed by the patterned platinum layer and part of the dielectric layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for fabricating semiconductor device, and more particularly to a method of using aluminum layer as etching stop layer for patterning a platinum layer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Along with the development of technology and the improvement of the semiconductor techniques, electronic devices are widely used in modern life. Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology is used to fabricate micro mechanical devices by using conventional semiconductor technologies like electroplating, or etching, such that a mechanical component in a micro-meter scale may be formed. The MEMS devices may be applied, for example, in the voltage controlling component in an ink printer, the gyroscope in a car to detect the tilt of the car, the vibration membrane in a microphone to sense a sound, or the micro-heaters in air detectors, chemical detectors, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) biological chips to provide a local heating function. The MEMS technology which combines the fabrication process of the mechanical and the electronic devices has the advantages of low costs, high performances and high density.
Platinum (Pt), the promising material, can be widely used in very-large-scale integration (VLSI) and MEMS field as electro-thermal, humidity and gas sensor due to its chemical stability and excellent oxidation resistance. Pt also has a high work function and forms a high potential barrier against electron transfer at the interface with the dielectric material, which may suppress leakage current. However, etching process used for patterning platinum in current fabrication is unable to be controlled effectively thereby influencing the uniformity of the product and inducing the loss of the dielectric layer underneath. Hence, how to resolve this issue and improve the current fabrication for patterning platinum has become an important task in this field.

Method of using aluminum layer as etching stop layer for patterning a platinum layer


A magnetic field generator (G1) for a magnetocaloric thermal device which comprises first (SM11) and second (SM21) identical magnetizing structures mounted head-to-tail, on either side of a central plane (P) and defining two air gaps (E1, E2). Each magnetizing structure (SMM11, SM12) comprises first (AM1) and second (AM2) magnetizing assemblies, whose induction vectors are oriented in opposite directions, and mounted on a support (SUP1). Each magnetizing assembly (AM1, AM2) has a permanent magnet structure (API, APC) which comprises a passive side (FP1, FP2) and an active side (FA1, FA2), delimiting the air gaps (E1, E2). The induction vectors of the first (AM1, AM19) and the second (AM2, AM29) magnetizing assemblies, form inside the generator, a single circulation loop of a magnetic field through the supports (SUP1) and the air gaps (E1, E2, E3, E4).

Magnetic refrigeration technology at ambient temperature has been known for more than thirty years and its advantages in terms of ecology and sustainable development are widely acknowledged. Its limits in terms of its useful calorific output and its thermal performance are also well known. Consequently, all the research undertaken in this field tends to improve the performances of the magnetocaloric thermal appliances, by adjusting the various parameters, such as the intensity of the magnetic field, the performances of the magnetocaloric material, the heat exchange surface between the heat transfer fluid and the magnetocaloric materials, the performances of the heat exchangers, etc.
In these appliances, it is indispensable to generate a uniform and intense magnetic field in at least one air gap in which at least one thermal element out of magnetocaloric material enters and exits. The higher the magnetic field in the air gap, the stronger the magnetocaloric effect induced in the magnetocaloric element, which leads to an increase of the thermal output as well as of its temperature gradient and therefore of the global efficiency of such a magnetocaloric thermal appliance.
Moreover, in certain areas, the compactness of the thermal appliance is essential and leads to a rotary configuration or structure wherein the magnetic system is in relative movement with respect to the magnetocaloric material(s). Such a rotary configuration has the advantage of showing a good magnetocaloric material per used volume ratio. Since the thermal output of the thermal appliance depends in particular on the quantity of magnetocaloric material used, such arrangement is actually very advantageous.
However, there is today no magnetic field generator with a small size, a reduced cost price, that can be mounted in a rotary thermal appliance and is liable to generate an intense and uniform magnetic field concentrated to about one Tesla in at least two air gaps.

Magnetic field generator for a magnetocaloric thermal device, and magnetocaloric thermal device equipped with such a generator


A mask including a transparent substrate, a semi-transparent layer and a film layer is provided. The transparent substrate at least has a first region, a second region and a third region. The semi-transparent layer covers the second region and the third region of the transparent substrate and exposes the first region. The film layer covers the halftone layer disposed at the third region, to make the transmittance of the third region lower than that of the second region. The halftone layer and the film can be made of phase shift layers, to form a phase shift mask. Besides, several fabrication methods of the mask are also disclosed to form the above-mentioned mask.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a mask and fabrication method thereof and its application. More particularly, the present invention relates to a phase shift mask, PSM as well as its fabrication method and application.
2. Description of Related Art
The fabrication method of the conventional mask includes first providing a quartz substrate and a metal layer is formed on the quartz substrate. After then, a photoresist layer is formed over the quarts substrate and the metal layer. By performing light exposure and developing at the specific region, a portion of the photoresist layer is removed, so as to expose a portion of the metal layer, corresponding to the removed portion of the photoresist layer. Then, the exposed portion of the metal layer is removed by a dry etching process or a wet etching process. After the photoresist layer is completely removed, a light shielding pattern and a light transparent pattern are formed on the quartz substrate. A transparent pellicle layer is formed over. Then, a binary mask is accomplished.
Even though the binary mask is widely used in semiconductor fabrication, due to the disadvantage of poor precision for this mask, the precision of the photoresist pattern, which is formed by using the binary mask for light exposure, is affected. In order to solve this disadvantage, a phase shift mask is then proposed.
The conventional phase shift mask is formed by the similar fabrication processes for the binary mask. First, a binary mask is preliminarily accomplished. Then, a phase shift layer is formed over the binary mask. A photoresist layer is formed over the binary mask and the phase shift layer. After performing light exposure and developing at the specific region, a portion of the photoresist layer is removed for exposing the phase shift layer at the portion, corresponding to the removed portion of the photoresist layer. Then, the exposed portion of the phase shift layer is removed by a dry etching process or a wet etching process. After removing the photoresist layer, a transparent pellicle layer is formed over mask. The phase shift mask is accomplished. It should be noted that the material for the conventional phase shift layer is highly transparent material, such as quartz. Therefore, the only different between the light passing the phase shift layer and the light without passing the phase shift layer is the phase difference. The light intensity has no apparent difference.
Although the phase shift mask can solve the issue of poor resolution, however, due to the fabrication process including the etching process, the etching process has non-uniform etching on the phase shift layer, resulting in the non-uniform thickness for the phase shift layer on the mask. After the light passes the phase shift layer at the different positions of the mask, the transmittance or the phase angle may be different, resulting in poor yield for the photolithographic process.
In addition, the fabrication for the phase shift mask is further forming a phase shift layer over the mask after the binary mask is preliminarily accomplished. The phase shift layer is defined by the photolithographic process and then the pattern is transferred to the phase shift layer by the etching process. The photoresist layer is then completely removed. Comparing with the conventional binary mask, since it has more fabrication processes, the probability for defects occurring on fabricating the mask is increasing. This would cause the higher cost for fabricating the mask.

Mask and fabrication method thereof and application thereof


An apparatus is disclosed for a module structure of a mobile communication terminal. The module structure comprises a radio frequency portion for processing communicated radio frequency signals, and a base-band portion commonly used by the radio frequency portion for providing modular replacement of a radio frequency multi-chip module connected to the radio frequency portion. The radio frequency multi-chip module is selected in accordance with a corresponding frequency band of the mobile communication terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure having a radio frequency multi-chip module that is replaceable from the RF portion of a mobile communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a general mobile communication terminal.
Referring to FIG. 1, a mobile communication terminal includes a radio frequency (RF) system 10, a base-band system 20, and a peripheral device 30.
The RF system 10 provides an antenna, a transmission unit, a reception unit and a local oscillator (LO). The base-band system 20 has a mobile station modem (MSM) chip corresponding to a central processing unit (CPU) of a computer. The base-band system also provides a memory and peripheral devices.
The peripheral device 30 provides a user with an output signal of the base-band system 20 or transmits a signal inputted by a user to the base-band system 20. The peripheral device 30 generally includes a speaker, a microphone, a keypad, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a camera or the like.
For miniaturizing size and improving transmission and/or reception performance of a mobile terminal through elimination of signal interference, the RF system 10 and the base-band system 20, in the conventional art, are integrated on a single board.
If an RF frequency band, such as PCS, CDMA, AMPS, of the RF system changes, the RF system needs to be re-designed. Consequently, the conventional art has a disadvantage that the board requires redesign when the RF frequency band changes even though the base-band chip set remains the same. Therefore, there is a need for a system that overcomes the above problem and provides advantages over other integrated RF and base-band systems.

RF module structure of a mobile communication terminal


A fabric for use on a paper machine includes a plurality of filaments woven together. At least a portion of the filaments have a generally flat machine side base, a generally flat web side face, and a pair of generally flat side walls extending between the base and the face. The portion of the filaments having a generally trapezoidal shaped cross section is defined by the base, the face and the pair of side walls.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fabrics for use in paper machines, and, more particularly, to fabrics used for moulding fiber webs.
2. Description of the Related Art
A paper machine typically includes a number of discrete sections along the running length of the machine, such as the fordrinier section, forming section, press section, and drying section. Each section of the paper machine typically includes a plurality of rolls and possibly other components which carry a corresponding fabric. A fabric typically has opposite ends which are joined together to define an endless fabric carried by the rolls, with the particular configuration of the fabric corresponding to the particular use in the paper machine.
One type of fabric is a through air dryer (TAD) fabric used to produce a tissue web. During production of such a tissue web using the TAD drying process, the tissue web is moulded inside the fabric structure, creating pillows that provide desired bulk and water absorption properties to the tissue web. At the end of the TAD process, the tissue web is removed from the fabric topography to be transported downstream in the machine direction (MD) of the paper machine. It is therefore desirable for the fabric to have good sheet release properties so that the tissue web can be successfully removed from the TAD fabric. The release properties of the fabric can be affected by the shape of the individual filaments in the fabric and chemical release agents applied to the fabric. The use of chemical release agents is minimized so as not to adversely affect the runability and production cost issues.
What is needed in the art is a fabric for TAD applications having better release properties than conventional fabrics.

Paper machine fabric with trapezoidal shaped filaments


A power steering control valve includes relatively rotatable inner and outer valve members. A power steering resistance control system resists relative rotation between the inner and outer valve members with a force which varies as a function of variations in vehicle speed. The power steering resistance control system includes a force transmitting member which rotates with the outer valve member and moves axially relative to the inner and outer valve members. Fluid pressure is applied against the force transmitting member urging it in a first direction along the axis of rotation of the valve members. Fluid pressure is also applied against the opposite side of the force transmitting member to urge it in the opposite direction along the axis of rotation of the valve members. A speed responsive control valve, connected with a fluid return conduit for the power steering valve is operable to vary the fluid pressure applied against the opposite side of the force transmitting member as a function of variations in vehicle speed. At relatively low vehicle speeds, the fluid pressure force applied against the opposite of the force transmitting member is relatively large and it is easy to actuate the steering control valve. As vehicle speed increases, the fluid pressure force applied against the force transmitting member decreases and the resistance to actuation of the steering control valve increases.

The present invention relates to a vehicle power steering system, and more specifically to a hydraulic vehicle power steering system which transmits a larger manual steering effort to the steered wheels at higher vehicle speeds than is transmitted at lower vehicle speeds.
A known rotary power steering directional control valve has an inner valve member (valve core) which is coaxial with and rotatable relative to an outer valve member (valve sleeve). To effect actuation of a power steering motor to turn steerable vehicle wheels, the inner valve member is rotated relative to the outer valve member for a few degrees against the bias of a torsion bar. Since actuation of the control valve is resisted by only the torsion bar, the resistance to actuation of the valve does not vary as a function of vehicle speed. The construction of this known power steering control valve is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,812 issued Jul. 7, 1981 and entitled "Power Steering Valve and Method of Making the Same".
It is known to increase the resistance felt by an operator of a vehicle to actuation of a power steering system as vehicle speed increases by having the fluid pressure in a reaction chamber decrease as vehicle speed increases. The fluid pressure reaction chamber is provided to regulate the torque required to rotate an inner valve member relative to an outer valve member. Decreasing the fluid pressure in the reaction chamber increases the resistance to relative rotation between a pair of valve members which control flow to a power steering motor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,545 is one example of such a system.


A light weight, portable, gymnastic assembly made for children to climb on is fabricated of tubular members formed of cut-to-length standard plastic tubings and standard plastic fittings. The tubular members are releasably held within the sockets of the fittings by pairs of opposing spring-loaded pins that are carried in opposing holes on the end portions of the tubular members and engage within opposing holes on the end portions of sockets of the fittings when the tubular members are slipped into the sockets. Because of the mechanical connections used, such an assembly provides a flexible overall structure that can be readily modified from time-to-time by an adult to enable a number of separately assembled different types of accessories of interest to children to be mounted on the surface of the assembly or within the interior thereof.

Gymnastic structures provided for children in the past have been heretofore constructed with reticulated structures the elements of the assembly forming three dimensional cells have been lengths of metal pipe provided with reverse threading on the opposite ends thereof which are joined to metal fittings having sockets with reverse threading thereon to form corners of the cells. Such a manner of connecting the elements of the assembly limits the ability of an adult to readily modify the structure of the assembly after it has once been assembled.


A disk storage medium processing apparatus includes at least an apparatus body having a disk loading/unloading slot, a traverse unit which is disposed in the apparatus body to conduct at least one of recording, deletion, and reproduction of information onto or from a disk, and a clamper supporting device for supporting a clamper which clamps the disk to the traverse unit. A disk conveying device conveys the disk into the apparatus body when a part of the disk is inserted through the disk loading/unloading slot and ejects a part of the disk through the disk loading/unloading slot from the state that the disk is housed in the apparatus body. A control device controls the disk conveying device.

The present invention relates to a technical field of a disk storage medium processing apparatus which can be used for audio instruments, image instruments, information instruments, communication instruments, measuring instruments, and the like to record information onto and reproduce information from disks such as CDs or DVDs and, more particularly, to a technical field of a disk storage medium processing apparatus which can hold a disk at the periphery thereof to convey the disk and can be formed compactly.
For example, for audio instruments, many disk recording/reproduction apparatuses of a type using a CD storing a plurality of songs have been conventionally developed. As one of such conventional disk recording/reproduction apparatuses, a disk storage medium processing apparatus has been proposed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2002-334507, which comprises an apparatus body having a disk loading/unloading slot, a traverse unit which is disposed in the apparatus body to conduct at least one of recording, deletion, and reproduction of information onto or from a disk, and a disk conveying means which conveys the disk into the apparatus body when a part of the disk is inserted through the disk loading/unloading slot and which ejects a part of the disk through the disk loading/unloading slot. In the disk storage medium processing apparatus, the disk conveying means comprises at least a first disk conveying arm which is pivotally attached to the apparatus body and which has at its end a driving roller capable of holding the periphery of the disk and a second disk conveying arm which is pivotally attached to the apparatus body and which has at its end a driven roller capable of holding the periphery of the disk, wherein the driving roller is driven to rotate by a motor. The first and second disk conveying arms pivot while the periphery of the disk is held by the driving roller and the driven roller, thereby conveying the disk.
Since only the periphery of the disk is touched by a pair of the driving roller and the driven roller, the conventional disk storage medium processing apparatus can convey the disk without scratching a recording surface of the disk.
In the disk storage medium processing apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2002-334507, the disk conveying means holds the disk of which a portion is inserted through the disk loading/unloading slot to convey the disk to a store position in the apparatus body and holds the disk at the store position to eject a portion of the disk, not for conveying the disk between the store position and the traverse unit. Therefore, another conveying means is required to convey the disk between the store position and the traverse unit and, in addition, another means for centering the disk relative, to the traverse unit is required. Accordingly, the disk storage medium processing apparatus must have complex structure and the increased number of parts. This makes the reduction in size of the apparatus difficult.
Further, since control is required for the conveyance of the disk between the disk loading/unloading slot and the store position, the conveyance of the disk between the store position and the traverse unit, and the centering of the disk relative to the traverse unit, the control for disk conveyance must be complex.
Since the periphery of the disk is held by the driving roller and the driven roller, the disk can be held somehow. Since the disk is held by the two rollers which both rotate, however, it is desired to hold the disk in a more stable state.

Disk apparatus having disk conveying arms


Certain embodiments are directed to an ultrasensitive poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) ELISA microfluidic microplate, where the protein is covalently bound to a poly-lysine modified or carboxylated PMMA surface.

There is a fragile balance with respect to continual emergence of new infectious disease and the reemergence of old infectious disease, together with the potential for their global spread (Nelson and Williams, Infectious disease epidemiology, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2014). Infectious disease stand out among many challenges to health because of their profound impact on human species, unpredictable and explosive global effects due to their pandemics. Unlike other diseases, which can result from multiple interacting risk factors, most infectious disease are caused by single agent, the identification of which leads not only the control measures but treatment measures as well (Fauci and Morens, New England Journal of Medicine, 2012, 366:454-461). This underlines the need of accurate surveillance and the development of new strategies for fast, rapid, and sensitive detection of infectious diseases for their control.
Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) is one of the most commonly and widely used laboratory methods in medical diagnostic, food industry (food allergen), plant pathology, quality control, toxicology, and research applications. ELISA utilizes antibodies and color change to identify a substance. This biochemical assay detects proteins both quantitatively and qualitatively based on their binding to immobilized antibodies or antigens. Most ELISAs are performed in 96-well plates and take several hours to complete because of the hour-long incubation and blocking time, as well as consume large volumes of precious samples and reagents, and must be performed in lab, which is not suitable for point-of-care detection. Highly complicated and specialized instruments have been developed to automate the assay, including robotic pipetters, plate washers, and optical colorimetric detectors.
The sensitivity of the bioassay performed on a microfluidic device depends upon the total activity of the proteins or enzymes attached to the surface of the microfluidics chip. The interaction of the protein with the chip surface has a profound effect on sensitivity and specificity of the immunoassay. The hydrophobic physical adsorption of proteins onto the microfluidics surface may reduce functional site or activity of protein by even more then 90% (Ren et al. Solid State Phenomena, 2006, 111:13-18; Tabata and Ikada, Advanced drug delivery reviews, 1998, 31:287-301) and may result in strong non-specific binding (Toepke and Beebe, Lab Chip, 2006, 6:1484-1486). So, to increase the sensitivity and binding efficiency of the microfluidic chip, an appropriate surface modification is required. Many different kinds of binding between protein and the polymer surface has been defined; passive adsorption on polymer beads (Sato et al. Analytical Chemistry, 2001, 73:1213-18), lipid layer grafted on PDMS (Mao et al., Analytical chemistry, 2002, 74:379-85), and protein A bound to PDMS surface (Dodge et al., Analytical chemistry, 2001, 73:3400-09).
Functionalization of PMMA with amine groups have been reported but consists of too many steps and yielded a low amine density (Bulmu et al., Chemical Engineering Journal, 1997, 65:71-76) or involves unstable intermediates and non-environment friendly solvents (Henry et al., Analytical chemistry, 2000, 72:5331-37).
Brown et al. (Lab Chip. 2006, 6(1):66-73) characterized the surface modification of PMMA microfluidic devices. PMMA surfaces, which were modified using air plasma, acid catalyzed hydrolysis, and aminolysis (using ethylenediamine), to determine if covalent and or hydrogen bonds between modified PMMA substrate and cover plate increase the adhesion. Llopis et al. (Electrophoresis. 2007, 28(6):984-93) studied the surface modification of PMMA microfluidic devices for high-resolution separation of single-stranded DNA. They created an amine terminated PMMA surface by chemical or photochemical process by using ethylenediamine, which was then used to covalently anchor methacrylic acid used as scaffold to produce linear polyacrylamides (LPAs). It helped them increase the efficiency of separation of single stranded DNA electrophoretically. Bai et al. (Langmuir. 2006, 22(22):9458-67) studied the surface modification of PMMA to enhance the antibody binding on polymer-based microfluidic device to perform ELISA. They found that the poly(ethyleneimine) modified PMMA was 10 times more active in binding antibodies as compared to those without treatment or treated with small amine-bearing molecule, hexamethylenediamine (HMD). They performed the ELISA of IgG with a similar detection limit as the conventional 96-well plate microtiter plate. Bai et al. (Biotechnol Bioeng. 2007, 98(2):328-39) performed ELISA of Escherichia coli on PEI modified PMMA.

Sensitive ELISA for disease diagnosis on surface modified poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microfluidic microplates

THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SYSTEM


System and method embodiments are provided for a virtual busy-tone for full-duplex wireless networks. Embodiments provide a mechanism for efficiently eliminating the hidden node problem. In an embodiment, a method in a full-duplex enabled wireless network component for avoiding collisions includes receiving, at the network component, a data transmission from a first station; and transmitting a busy indicator from the network component, the busy indicator including a time duration determined in accordance with an expected time duration of the data transmission to instruct any non-transmitting station to not transmit data during the included time duration.

Full-duplex operation is a promising manner in which to increase throughput of wireless systems. For example, in the media access control (MAC) layer, the full-duplex operation can be used to increase the efficiency of random access. A wireless access point (AP) utilizing full-duplex mode may communicate with several wireless devices. If two or more devices transmit data to the AP at the same time on the same channel, the data from both wireless devices is undecipherable by the AP. In this situation, neither wireless device is successful in its data transmission. To avoid this scenarios, may wireless systems utilize carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) collision avoidance (CA) in which the various wireless devices use carrier sensing to avoid collisions by transmitting only when the channel is sensed to be "idle." However, even using CSMA/CA, collisions sometimes occur due to the hidden node problem.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless network 100 illustrating the hidden node problem. Wireless network 100 includes an AP1 104, a first wireless station (STA1) 102 and a second STA2 106. STA1 102 is a hidden node from STA2 106. AP1 104 can detect transmissions from STA1 102 and STA2 106, but STA2 106 cannot detect transmissions from STA1 102. In other words, STA2 106 is in the range of AP1 104, but is out of range of STA1 102. Since STA2 106 cannot detect the transmission from STA1 102, STA2 106 may transmit at the same time as STA1 102. When this happens, AP1 104 is unable to decipher the data sent by either STA1 102 or STA2 106. Thus, hidden nodes cause CSMA efficiency (i.e., approximately 90% channel efficiency) to deteriorate to the ALOHA efficiency (i.e., approximately 18% channel efficiency).
One existing solution to the hidden node problem is request-to-send (RTS), clear to send (CTS). FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a wireless network 200 illustrating an RTS-CTS solution to the hidden node problem. Wireless network 200 includes an AP1 204, a first STA1 202, and a second STA2 206 similar to network 100. To solve the hidden node problem, STA1 202 transmits an RTS1 to the AP1 204. The AP1 204 then transmits a CTS1 which the STA2 206 overhears. The STA2 206 sets-up a "virtual carrier sensing" timer to disable its transmission during the transmission from the STA1 202 to the AP1 204. However, although the RTS-CTS mechanism solves the hidden node problem, it is inefficient due to its overhead. Furthermore, if full-duplex is implemented over the entire bandwidth (with a single channel), CSMA does not work since a station overhearing the signal has no idea if it is from the AP or another STA.

Virtual busy-tone for full-duplex wireless networks


A control is bound to a data item that provides a data binding context. Controls inside the template of a data bound control have properties which are bound to fields of the data item via a bidirectional data binding process. Bidirectional data binding allows a page developer to specify that a field in a data item is inserted into a control property value when a page is rendered on a client. Bidirectional data binding also allows the data-bound control to automatically and codelessly extract an arbitrary control property value associated with a data item field in a template when the page is posted back to the server.

Certain technologies and frameworks for developing web applications, such as an active server page (e.g., ASP.NET), use the notion of controls that may be dropped on a design surface to quickly develop the outlines of a web application. The controls are further customized through code written by a developer, setting of properties, etc. One class of controls is data-bound controls which are bound to a data source and allow access to a data item, such as in a database. The data item offered by the data bound control constitutes a data binding context for the controls within the data bound control to refer to when setting their properties.
Data binding may occur at the request of a page programmer or the data-bound control may initiate the data binding process. Whenever an event occurs on the data-bound control, such as paging to the next visible set of data records, data binding the control to new data refreshes the rendering of the control. Similarly, when a user requests a data manipulation operation such as updating a record, the program needs to retrieve the new data out of the text entry controls on the page, execute the necessary calls to the data store to update the record, and then execute a call to the data binding process to refresh the rendering of the control.
A data-bound control commonly offers a data item as the data binding context for the controls inside the parent (data-bound) control. If the data-bound control determines the layout of the controls displaying data, the data-bound control can populate the control properties with data and retrieve new data values from the control properties when new values are posted back to the server. However, if the data-bound control supports user-defined templates which dictate the selection and layout of the controls within the data-bound control, the data-bound control cannot easily retrieve the values of the control properties associated with a data item field. For example, a table control may receive data from a row of a database to display to the client. A textbox within the table control may set its text property to the values of a column in the data row using a data binding statement. If the text within the textbox is changed by the client to indicate updated data, the new text must be retrieved and associated with the data row field. However, if the table control does not know which textbox contains the new value, the value cannot be retrieved and associated with a data field automatically. Instead, user code is required to retrieve the new value.
Some of the limitations of template control property data binding are addressed by one-way automatic data binding. One-way automatic data binding binds the properties of controls inside a template to data from the parent control's data binding context. However, it is common for the server control to retrieve the data from the control property at a later time. For instance, controls are commonly used for updating data in addition to displaying data. A user may modify a control property value after the page renders to the client. The page programmer is required to manually write code to retrieve control property values to update data store field values. This process is laborious and prone to error. In addition, specific knowledge of the control tree within the parent control and the template is required which may result in failure if the control tree changes across page revisions.

Method and system for bidirectionally data binding a control of a template


A GOA circuit is disclosed. The circuit includes multiple cascaded GOA units, wherein the nth stage GOA unit charges the nth horizontal scanning line, and the nth stage GOA unit includes: a pull-up control circuit, a pull-up circuit, a voltage stabilization circuit, a pull-down circuit, a first pull-down maintaining circuit and a second pull-down maintaining circuit; a pull-up control circuit for outputting a pull-up control signal Q(n); and a pull-up circuit for outputting an nth stage transmission signal ST(n) and the nth stage scan driving signal G(n); the voltage stabilization circuit for maintain the stability of the Q(n) at low voltage level; the pull-down circuit makes the Q(n) and G(n) to be at an off state; the pull-down maintaining circuit and the second pull-down maintaining circuit alternately operate to maintain Q(n) and G(n) at the off state. A liquid crystal display device having the above GOA circuit is also disclosed.

The liquid crystal display has the advantages of thin and light, energy-saving, and lower radiation index than that of a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) display, so that it gradually replaces the CRT display and realizes wide application in various electronic products. At present, the driving of the horizontal scanning line of the active liquid crystal display panel is mainly completed by an IC (Integrated Circuit) which is externally connected to the panel, and the external IC can control the charging and discharging of the horizontal scanning lines of each stage. The GOA technology uses a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) liquid crystal display array process to fabricate a gate scan driving signal circuit on an array substrate, thereby implementing a driving way to gate electrodes row by row. Therefore, an original manufacturing process of the liquid crystal display panel can be used. In the original process, the driving circuit of the horizontal scanning line is fabricated on the substrate around the display region. GOA technology can reduce the bonding process of external ICs, increase productivity and reduce product cost, and make LCD panel to be more suitable for a narrow-frame or a frameless display product.
The main architecture of the GOA circuit includes a pull-up control circuit, a pull-up circuit, a pull-down circuit, and a pull-down maintaining circuit. Wherein, the pull-up circuit is configured to output a clock signal as a scan driving signal, the pull-up control circuit is configured to output a pull-up control signal to control a turn-on time of the pull-up circuit, and the pull-down circuit is configured to pull low the pull-up control signal and the scan driving signals, and the pull-down maintaining circuit is used to maintain the pull-up control signal and the scan driving signal at a low voltage level. Wherein, the more stable the low voltage level of the pull-up control signal is, the more stable the low voltage level of the scan driving signal is, so maintaining the stability of the low voltage level of the pull-up control signal has a great significance for improving the driving capability of the GOA circuit.

GOA circuit and liquid crystal display device having the same

SHENZHEN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A print control apparatus, a print control method, and a storage medium in which even in case of performing a face-up paper delivery, an N-up output result can be obtained in accordance with a combination of pages and a page arranging order which are similar to those in the normal order printing are provided. A device to realize them without modifying a conventional portion is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a print control apparatus, a print control method, and a storage medium. More particularly, the invention relates to a print control apparatus, a print control method, and a storage medium which are suitable in case of performing a printing such that a plurality of pages are reduced and arranged in one page in a system comprising an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer or the like and an output apparatus such as a printer or the like.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, in an output apparatus (hereinafter, also referred to as a printer) such as a printer or the like, there is an output apparatus having a function to perform a printing such that a plurality of pages based on print data transmitted from an information processing apparatus to which the output apparatus is connected are reduced and arranged into one page, namely, a function to perform what is called an N-up printing. The N-up printing function is a function prepared for the printer for the purpose of a draft printing, a saving of papers, or the like.
On the other hand, in the output apparatus, there is an output apparatus having a function to perform a face-down paper delivery which is a general operation in a laser beam printer or the like or an output apparatus having a function to perform a face-up paper delivery which is a general operation in an ink jet printer, a copying apparatus, or the like. In case of the face-down paper delivery, output papers are aligned in accordance with the page order based on the print data received from the information processing apparatus. However, in case of the face-up paper delivery, an output result in which the page based on the print data received lastly from the information processing apparatus is arranged at the top position is obtained.
Therefore, as a method of setting the page order to the normal order in case of the face-up paper delivery, when the print data is transmitted from the information processing apparatus, a method of transmitting in accordance with the reverse page order is used. Although a method of outputting the print data in accordance with the reverse page order on the output apparatus side is also considered, in this case, a memory or a disk to temporarily spool the print data of all of the pages included in a job into the output apparatus is necessary or it is necessary to prepare an apparatus to rearrange the printed papers in accordance with the reverse order in the output apparatus. However, since a large amount of costs are required for this purpose, it is actually a general way to use the method of transmitting the print data in accordance with the reverse order from the information processing apparatus.
However, the above conventional technique has the following problems. That is, as mentioned above, hitherto, the reverse order printing has been performed from an application to the printer having the function to perform the face-up paper delivery. However, if the N-up printing function of the printer is further used, in the printer, N pages from the head page based on the print data received from the application are reduced and arranged into one page. Therefore, there is a problem such that a combination of the pages which are reduced and arranged in each page differs from that in case of the normal order. There is also a problem such that the arranging order of the pages which are reduced and arranged in each page differs from that in case of the normal order.
The invention is made in consideration of the above problems and it is an object to provide a device such that even in case of performing a face-up paper delivery in a page printer, namely, even in case of performing a reverse order printing, an N-up output result can be obtained in accordance with a combination of pages similar to that in the normal order printing and in accordance with a page arranging order similar to that in the normal order printing.
Another object of the invention is to provide a device such that when an instruction to designate both of a reverse order printing and an N-up printing is received from the user, an information processing apparatus such as a host or the like forms print data to be N-up outputted in accordance with a page arranging order similar to the normal order printing and can output the modified print data to a printing apparatus.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a device such that the reverse order printing and the N-up printing can be designated without newly producing a portion to form a PDL (Page Description Language) from a print information (for example, DDI: Device Driver Interface) function generated from a printer driver portion corresponding to a printer which does not have the conventional N-up printing function, namely, from a graphic engine (for instance, GDI: Graphical Device Interface), and an output result can be obtained in accordance with a page arranging order similar to that of the normal order printing.
To accomplish the above objects, according to the invention, there is provided a print control apparatus having a reduction arrangement printing function for reducing, arranging, and printing a plurality of pages into one page, comprising: specifying means for specifying a logical page which is arranged onto a physical page in case of performing the reduction arrangement printing and the reverse order printing; inserting means for inserting blank logical pages into the remaining portions in the case where the number of logical pages does not reach the upper limit in which they can be arranged onto the physical page; and print control means for controlling so as to arrange a plurality of logical pages including the blank logical pages onto the physical page and to print.
According to the invention, the apparatus further comprises forming means for forming drawing data of one page by reducing drawing data of the plurality of logical pages including the blank logical pages, and the print control means controls so as to arrange the drawing data of one page onto one physical page and to print.
According to the invention, the logical page is an ordinary page which is handled in the application, and the physical page is a page which includes a plurality of reduced pages and is actually printed and outputted.
According to the invention, the reverse order printing denotes that the logical pages are arranged onto the physical page in accordance with the order from the small page number and the physical pages are reversely arranged from the last page and are printed.
The invention can be applied to a system such that print data is transmitted from an upper apparatus such as a computer or the like to a printing apparatus such as a printer or the like and is printed.
The invention further comprises: preserving means for temporarily preserving the data in an intermediate code format different from that of the print data; and forming means for forming the print data on the basis of the data temporarily stored.
According to the invention, there is provided a print control apparatus for outputting print data including at least one physical page in which a plurality of logical pages are reduced and arranged, comprising: dispatcher means for receiving common print information which is formed on the basis of drawing data formed by an arbitrary application from drawing means depending on an OS; intermediate data converting means for converting the print information received by the dispatcher means into intermediate data and storing the intermediate data into spool means; designating means for designating a reverse order printing and the reduction arrangement of the logical pages; specifying means for specifying the logical pages which are arranged onto the physical page in the case where the reverse order printing and the reduction arrangement are designated by the designating means; inserting means for inserting blank logical pages into the remaining portions in the case where the number of logical pages does not reach an upper limit in which they can be arranged on the physical page; modifying means for forming intermediate data in which a plurality of logical pages including the blank logical pages are arranged on the physical page from the intermediate data stored in the spool means and generating the formed intermediate data to the drawing means in the drawing data format; and print data forming means for converting the print information received by the dispatcher means into print data constructed by a control command and outputting the print data to an external apparatus.
According to the invention, the drawing data is a GDI (Graphical Device Interface).
According to the invention, the print information is a DDI (Device Driver Interface).
According to the invention, the print data is a page description language.

Print control apparatus, print control method, and storage medium


A method and apparatus for re-initializing a GMR head after losing initialization is disclosed. The invention may use a voltage controlled waveform, which allows the current to vary with the resistance of the GMR head. Furthermore, according to a further aspect of the invention a stack of GMR heads may be reinitialized having the same orientation to preclude inversion of the reset magnetic fields on half of the heads. In addition, improvements in re-initializing GMR heads is provided by implementing wave shaping. The invention can also provide re-initialization of GMR heads at different points in the manufacturing process.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to sensors for reading magnetic flux transitions from magnetic media such as disks and tapes, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for re-initialization of a GMR head after losing initialization.
2. Description of Related Art
An MR sensor detects magnetic field signals through the resistance changes of a magnetoresistive element, fabricated from a magnetic material, as a function of the strength and direction of magnetic flux being sensed by the element. The conventional MR sensor operates on the basis of the anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) effect in which a component of the element resistance varies as the square of the cosine of the angle between the magnetization in the element and the direction of sense or bias current flow through the element.
MR sensors have application in magnetic recording systems because recorded data can be read from a magnetic medium when the external magnetic field from the recorded magnetic medium (the signal field) causes a change in the direction of magnetization in the MR read head. This in turn causes a change in electrical resistance in the MR read head and a corresponding change in the sensed current or voltage.
A different and more pronounced magnetoresistance, called giant magnetoresistance (GMR), has been observed in a variety of magnetic multilayered structures. The essential feature of a GMR sensor is that is contains at least two ferromagnetic metal layers that are separated by a nonferromagnetic metal layer. This GMR effect has been found in a variety of systems, such as Fe/Cr or Co/Cu multilayers exhibiting strong antiferromagnetic coupling of the ferromagnetic layers, as well as in essentially uncoupled layered structures in which the magnetization orientation in one of the two ferromagnetic layers is fixed or pinned. The physical origin is the same in all types of GMR structures: the application of an external magnetic field causes a variation in the relative orientation of the magnetizations of neighboring ferromagnetic layers. This in turn causes a change in the spin-dependent scattering of conduction electrons and thus a change in the electrical resistance of the structure. The resistance of the structure changes as the relative alignment of the magnetizations of the ferromagnetic layers changes.
A particularly useful application of the GMR effect is a sandwich structure comprising two only weakly coupled ferromagnetic layers separated by a nonmagnetic metallic spacer layer in which the magnetization of one of the ferromagnetic layers is pinned. The pinning may be achieved by depositing the ferromagnetic layer to be pinned onto an antiferromagnetic layer, such as an iron-manganese (Fe--Mn) layer, to create an interfacial exchange coupling between the two layers. The spin structure of the antiferromagnetic layer can be aligned along a desired direction (in the plane of the layer) by heating beyond the blocking temperature of the antiferromagnetic layer and cooling in the presence of a magnetic field with a predetermined direction.
The blocking temperature is the temperature at which exchange anisotropy vanishes because the local anisotropy of the antiferromagnetic layer, which decreases with temperature, has become too small to anchor the antiferromagnetic spins to the crystallographic lattice. The unpinned or free ferromagnetic layer may also have the magnetization of its extensions (those portions of the free layer on either side of the central active sensing region) fixed, but in a direction perpendicular to the magnetization of the pinned layer so that only the magnetization of the central region of the free-layer can rotate in the presence of an external field. The magnetization in the free-layer extensions may be fixed by longitudinal hard biasing or exchange coupling to an antiferromagnetic layer. However, if exchange coupling is used, the antiferromagnetic material is different from the antiferromagnetic material used to pin the pinned layer, and is typically nickel-manganese (Ni--Mn). This resulting structure is called a spin valve (SV) MR sensor. However, for clarity, the term GMR sensor will be used herein to denote both spin valve as well as GMR sensors.
In a GMR sensor only the free ferromagnetic layer is able to rotate in the presence of an external magnetic field. U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,513, assigned to IBM, discloses a GMR sensor in which at least one of the ferromagnetic layers is of cobalt or a cobalt alloy, and in which the magnetizations of the two ferromagnetic layers are maintained substantially perpendicular to each when an externally applied magnetic field is not present by exchange coupling of the pinned ferromagnetic layer to an antiferromagnetic layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,590, also assigned to IBM, discloses a basic GMR sensor wherein the free layer is a continuous film having a central active region and end regions. The end regions of the free layer are exchange biased by exchange coupling to one type of antiferromagnetic material, and the pinned layer is pinned by exchange coupling to a different type of antiferromagnetic material.
GMR sensors are a replacement for conventional MR sensors based on the AMR effect. They have special potential for use as external magnetic field sensors, such as in anti-lock braking systems, and as read heads in magnetic recording systems, such as in rigid disk drives. However, the GMR sensor, which is typically fabricated by depositing an antiferromagnetic layer of Fe--Mn onto the ferromagnetic pinned layer of cobalt (Co) or permalloy (Ni--Fe), suffers from the problem that the range of blocking temperature for this interface is relatively low, i.e., it extends only from approximately 130.degree. C. to approximately 160.degree. C. These temperatures can be reached by certain thermal effects during operation of the disk drive, such as an increase in the ambient temperature inside the drive, heating of the GMR sensor due to the bias current, and rapid heating of the GMR sensor due to the head carrier contacting asperities on the disk. In addition, during assembly of the disk drive the GMR sensor can be heated by an electrical current resulting from an electrostatic discharge often referred to as electrical overstress.
If any of these thermal effects cause the GMR sensor to exceed the antiferromagnet's blocking temperature the magnetization of the pinned layer will no longer be pinned in the desired direction. This will lead to a change in the GMR sensor's response to an externally applied magnetic field, and thus to errors, in data read back from the disk.
Nevertheless, the height of MR and GMR sensors used in magnetic recording is determined by mechanical lapping. This mechanical machining process results in wide tolerances in the sensor height. Typically a sensor of 1.5 .mu.m average height may vary from sensor to sensor from 0.7 .mu.m to approximately 2.3 .mu.m. The sensor resistance therefore also shows a wide tolerance from sensor to sensor. If such a sensor were reset by means of a current pulse, the dissipation I.sup.2 R would be the highest in the highest resistance sensor, i.e., the sensor with the lowest sensor height. The temperature rise in the latter sensor would also be the highest.
If, instead the sensors are reset by a voltage pulse, the resulting current density is the same in all sensors independent of their height. The temperature rise of the sensor due to the pulse can be calculated to be proportional to the square of the current density. Therefore, all sensors, reset with a voltage pulse, would experience the same temperature increase regardless of their sensor height.
It can be seen that there is a need for re-initializing a GMR head after losing initialization by using a voltage waveform rather than a current pulse.
It can also be seen that there is a need for a method for re-initializing a stack of GMR heads so that the GMR heads all have the same orientation thereby precluding the inversion of half of the GMR heads facing oppositely from the rest.
It can also be seen that there is a need for an apparatus that can provide re-initialization of GMR heads at different points in the manufacturing process.

Preamplifier bias mode to re-initialize a GMR head after losing initialization

International Business Machines Corporation