Preparations and extracts of valerian, as well as isovaleramide, isovaleric acid, and certain structurally related compounds exhibit clinically significant pharmacological properties which implicate a treatment for a variety of pathological conditions, including spasticity and convulsions, which are ameliorated by effecting a modulation of CNS activity. The compositions in question generally are non-cytotoxic and do not elicit weakness or sedative activity at doses that are effective for the symptomatic treatment of such pathological conditions.

The present invention provides methods of treating pathological conditions, such as spasticity and convulsions, the symptoms of which are alleviated by a modulation of activity in the central nervous system (CNS), without producing undesirable excessive sedation or muscle weakness in animal subjects, including humans. More particularly, the invention relates to the therapeutic use of isovalerarnide, isovaleric acid, and related compounds in patients suffering from pathologies of this nature.
A number of pathological states, diseases, and disorders are characterized by a profound aberration in the normal function of the central nervous system (CNS). Such conditions include spasticity, strokes, spinal cord injuries, chronic neurodegenerative disorders and diseases such as Parkinson""s and Huntington""s diseases, Alzheimer""s disease, and epilepsy. At the clinical level, these states usually only respond to pharmacologic intervention with compounds or substances that possess significant activity at the level of the CNS.
Many agents currently employed in the treatment of pathologies such as spasticity and convulsions display troubling side-effect profiles which limit their long-term clinical utility. Among these agents, for example, are the benzodiazepines, which can cause impairment of cognition (impairment of memory-related performance, or xe2x80x9ccognitive bluntingxe2x80x9d). See, for example, ANTIEPILEPTIC DRUGS, Fourth Edition, (Levy et al, eds.), Raven Press, (1995). Two other clinically used agents are valproate and related therapeutically useful salts such as valproic acid hemisodium salt, which are hepatotoxic and teratogenic, and baclofen, which produces excessive muscle weakness and sedation. These side-effects severely limit the therapeutic potential for both drugs. It is apparent, therefore that improved and better-tolerated treatments for spasticity, convulsions, and other therapeutic indications are greatly to be desired.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a therapeutic approach for the treatment of various pathologies by effecting a modulation of CNS activity without producing excessive sedation, muscle weakness, fatigue, teratogenicity or hepatotoxicity.
It also is an object of the present invention to provide a method for alleviating one or more symptoms associated with a condition, such as spasticity, that is ameliorated by means of a centrally mediated decrease in muscle tone.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel anticonvulsant therapy.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel prophylactic therapy for migraine and other headache pathologies.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel therapy for affective mood disorders such as bipolar disorder.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel neuroprotective therapy.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel therapy to assist with substance withdrawal therapy and the substance cravings that often accompany such abuse.
In accomplishing these and other objectives, there has been provided, according to one aspect of the present invention, a method of using a compound selected from the group consisting of isovaleramide, a pharmaceutically acceptable ester of isovaleric acid, a pharmaceutically acceptable amide of isovaleric acid, and a compound selected from the group consisting of 2-methyl isovaleramide, 3-methylisovaleramide, 2,2-dimethylisovaleramide, 2,3-dimethylisovaleramide, 4-methylisovaleramide, 2,4-dimethylisovaleramide, 3,4-dimethylisovaleramide, 2,2,4-trimethylisovaleramide, 3-hydroxyisovaleramide, 4-hydroxyisovaleramide, 4-hydroxy-3-methyl-isovaleramide, 2-hydroxyisovaleramide, N-(2-acetamido)isovaleramide, 2-methyl-1-propyl sulfonamide, 1-methylethyl sulfamate, 2-methyl-1-propyl sulfamate, isopropyl carbamate, and isobutylcarbamate.
Thus, the present invention also provides a method of treatment comprising the step of administering, to a patient suffering from a pathology that is ameliorated by a modulation of CNS activity, a therapeutically effective amount of a pharmaceutical formulation comprising a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier and a composition selected from the aforementioned group of agents.
According to one embodiment of the invention, the pharmaceutically acceptable amide of isovaleric acid is selected from the group consisting of isovaleramide, N-ethyl isovaleramide, N-methyl isovaleramide, N,N-dimethyl isovaleramide, N-methyl,N-ethyl isovaleramide, N-(2-acetamido)isovaleramide (xe2x80x9cN-isovaleryl glycinamidexe2x80x9d), and N-isovaleryl GABA.
According to yet another embodiment of the invention, the treated pathology is an affective mood disorder, convulsions, a central neuropathic pain syndrome, a headache, or a restessness syndrome. In still another embodiment, the pathology is spasticity that is ameliorated by a centrally mediated decrease in muscle tone. In a further embodiment, the treated pathology is, a cerebral insult, neurodegeneration, or the acquisition of epilepsy. For still another embodiment, the treated pathology is substance abuse, craving of substance, addiction, and withdrawal.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method of use is provided for an extract of Valerianaceae, cramp bark, black haw, or hops in a method of treating a symptom of spasticity, where the extract comprises at least one compound that is hydrolyzed in vivo to yield isovaleric acid or isovaleramide. By the same token, the present invention provides a method for alleviating a symptom of spasticity in a subject in need of such treatment, comprising the step of administering a therapeutically effective amount of an extract as described above.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and the specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the present invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

Treating a variety of pathological conditions, including spasticity and convulsions, by effecting a modulation of CNS activity with isovaleramide, isovaleric acid, or a related compound


Plural streams of ink droplets are emitted from a nozzle, each stream comprising uniform size ink droplets. The size of ink droplets of the respective streams is different from each other. Charging electrodes are provided for each of the streams of ink droplets in order to charge the ink droplets included within the respective streams in accordance with a video signal. A selector is provided for allowing the application of the video signal to selected one of the charging electrodes associated with selected one of the streams of ink droplets in response to the size of characters desired to be printed.

The present invention relates to a ink jet system printer of the charge amplitude controlling type and, more particularly, to an ink jet system printer of the charge amplitude controlling type which can print different size characters without deteriorating print quality.
Generally, in an ink jet system printer of the charge amplitude controlling type, a stream of ink droplets having a given frequency is emitted from a nozzle toward a record receiving paper and each ink droplet is charged to a desired amplitude in accordance with a video signal through the use of a charging electrode. Each ink droplet is deflected in the vertical direction as it passes through a fixed high voltage field established by a pair of deflection plates in accordance with the charge amplitude carried thereon and deposited on the record receiving paper. The nozzle is carried on a carriage which is driven to travel in the horizontal direction at a fixed speed during print operation, whereby printing is performed in a dot matrix fashion.
When the gain of the video signal is increased and the velocity of the travelling carriage is increased, a size of the printed character is enlarged. Contrarily, when the gain of the video signal is decreased and the velocity of the travelling carriage is decreased, the size of the printed character becomes smaller.
When the character size is varied without varying the size of the ink droplets, dot density will vary. This will deteriorate print quality.

Ink jet system printer of the charge amplitude controlling type capable of printing different size characters


In a display device in which a shape of a parallax barrier is changed depending on the relative positional relation to the viewer, the occurrence of crosstalk is suppressed. Images are displayed in a part of a plurality of sub-pixels included in each pixel, and images are not displayed in the other sub-pixels. That is, a display area in the pixel is reduced. Thus, the occurrence of crosstalk can be suppressed. Further, sub-pixels have a square shape or a substantially square shape. Thus, even when sub-pixels which display images are selected depending on the relative positional relation to the viewer, the shape of the display area in the pixel does not change greatly. Therefore, even in the case where the positional relationship is changed (in the case where the arranged parallax barrier is changed), the occurrence of crosstalk can be suppressed without respect to the positional relationship.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device. In particular, the present invention relates to display devices capable of displaying three-dimensional (3D) images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Display devices are widely used, ranging from large display devices such as television devices to small display devices such as mobile phones. From now on, products with higher added values will be needed and are being developed. In recent years, display devices that can display 3D images have been developed in order to display more realistic images.
As methods for displaying 3D images, there are a method using glasses for separating an image seen with a left eye and an image seen with a right eye (also referred to as stereoscopy), and autostreoscopy by which 3D images can be seen by the naked eye by addition of a structure for separating an image seen with a left eye and an image seen with a right eye in a display portion. It is not necessary to prepare glasses to see autostreoscopic 3D images, which offers a high convenience. Autostereoscopic 3D display is coming into widespread use such as mobile phones and mobile game consoles.
As a method for displaying autostreoscopic 3D images, there is known a parallax barrier method in which a parallax bather is added to a display portion. A parallax barrier for the parallax barrier method is a stripe-shaped light-shielding portion and causes a decrease in resolution when display is switched from 3D display to 2D display. In view of this, for the parallax barrier method, there is suggested a structure in which a liquid crystal panel having a patterned transparent electrode is used for switching between 2D display and 3D display (see Patent Document 1). In that case, transmission or shielding of light by a liquid crystal layer can be controlled by controlling voltage applied to the transparent electrode in order to set the presence or absence of a parallax barrier.
Moreover, there are mobile phones and the like in which a direction in which a parallax barrier is arranged is changed when an orientation of a display portion with respect to a viewer is changed.

Display device and driving method of the same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A phase locked loop (PLL) circuit is provided to operate in a broad band, including two separate loops one of which is for feed-back of an output from an oscillator to the same oscillator through its associative proportional control unit and the other of which is for feed-back of an output of an oscillator to the same oscillator via an integral control unit. The proportional control unit is arranged to control an output frequency of the oscillator and is operable to generate a control signal based on a difference between input and output signals. The integral control unit is arranged to control the phase of an output signal of the oscillator to thereby generate a control signal based on a phase difference between input and output signals.

In recent years, phase-locked loop circuits (referred to as "PLL circuits" hereinafter) have been often employed as the built-in clock generator means of microprocessors while the operating frequencies thereof have also increased to offer widened ranges in accordance with the application of such microprocessors.
To enable the PLL circuits to operate in wide regions in this way, use of some bias-generation/control means proportional to the operation frequency is inevitable. Several techniques for achieving this have been disclosed until today.
One example is found in JP-A-4-37219, which discloses therein a technique for attaining a stabilized operation by applying a bias control including the steps of detecting a loop filter voltage and then controlling it at Vcc/2 in any events in view of the fact that at a point whereat an operating frequency was moved out of a preset value a loop filter output voltage can also move in PLL circuits. Another example is taught by JP-A-2-230821 or by JP-A-8-139597, which disclose therein a method of making use of a replica circuit having the same delay characteristics as a current-controlled oscillator (CCO) to set up an operating point of such CCO in PLL circuitry, which method is used to perform setting of the CCO's operating point in a way proportional to an input operating frequency to thereby accomplish the intended operability with increased stability.
However, the prior known approaches above are such that circuitry is designed and controlled under a mere assumption that CCO must be linear in its input/output characteristics which are requisite conditions or criteria for enabling a PLL circuit to operate in a wide range. Unfortunately the input/output characteristics of CCOs in high-frequency regions are non-linear characteristics—in this case, a setup point of the center frequency and/or CCO control gain will likewise become nonlinear so that letting it operate in a wide range can result in major parameters of a PLL control system behaving to go out of the optimal design value, which in turn makes impossible or at least greatly difficult to achieve any stable or stabilized operations. Accordingly, the prior art approaches are encountered with a problem that in order to provide stabilized operability, the CCO must be designed to operate only within a limited low frequency side with good linearity.
While currently available PLL circuits are typically for use in controlling an oscillator in accordance with a phase difference between an input signal and an oscillation signal of the oscillator, achievement of this control requires that a difference in frequency between the input signal and oscillation signal stay within a specified range; otherwise, the PLL circuit will no longer offer its intended functions. In short, prior art PLL circuits suffer from the limited applicability—namely, these may offer expected operability only within a narrow range of a limited frequency difference between the input and oscillation signals.
On the other hand, as the LSI technologies in this field are becoming more advanced every year in per-chip component miniaturization and voltage reduction plus frequency increase, the saturation of CCO characteristics and other nonlinearities are likewise increasing year by year, which in turn makes it extremely difficult to meet the system designer's needs for enhancing operabilities of PLL circuits covering extended ranges.
It should also be noted that prior art circuitry that requires high-speed analog switches, including but not limited to PLL circuits and analog-to-digital (A/D) converter circuits as well as digital-to-analog (D/A) converter circuits or else, is designed to employ a cascode switch circuit and/or a current switch circuit having a level-shift driver stage of low impedance. One exemplary configuration of the current switch circuit with such level-shift drive stage has been set forth in J. Grame, "Monolithic D/A Improves Conversion Time," EDN Magazine, Mar. 15, 1971 at pp. 39–41.
Incidentally the cascode switch circuit above is incapable of sufficiently shortening the turn-on/off time period because of its time constant occurring due to a parasitic capacitance in switch-off events. This makes it impossible to sufficiently speed up the switching operations.
A problem associated with the current switch circuit with the level-shift drive stage is that this circuit is complicated in configuration of such level-shift drive stage (an increase in number of series-connected components therein) and thus can easily be influenced by unevenness of components. Due to this, the level-shift drive stage must be constituted from an emitter-follower thereby letting this drive stage perform high-voltage operations. Accordingly the current switch circuit with level-shift drive stage is not suitable for use in achieving voltage reduction of LSIs. If an attempt is made to force it to operate at low voltages, then the resulting drive impedance in a direction in which an emitter current decreases relative to a switching signal would become higher than the drive impedance in the opposite direction in which such current increases, thereby causing resultant switching time to increase nonsymmetrically. For this reason, it remains impossible to achieve the intended switching operations at high speeds.

Phase-locked loop circuit, information processing apparatus, and information processing system


A volleyball player training device especially useful for teaching volleyball players to block and tip a volleyball at the volleyball net is disclosed. The device includes a frame which may be removably fastened to the volleyball net, a volleyball, and a pedestal or support extending upwardly from the frame for holding a volleyball above the volleyball net. During use, a player may block or tip the volleyball causing it to be pivoted from its supported position above the net. A return mechanism returns the volleyball to its supported position placing it in position to be blocked or tipped again.

The sport of volleyball originated in the United States around the turn of the century. Since that time, volleyball has experienced tremendous growth in popularity and has become an important part of many collegiate and high school athletic programs as well as an Olympic sport.
A volleyball game is begun by a server hitting or serving a ball over a net to a receiving team. The receiving team then has three contacts to return the ball over the net. These three contacts will usually include a pass to the net area, a set to an attacker, and an attack which usually consists of a spike across the net, the objective being to hit the ball to the floor in the opposing team's court area. The opposing team's first line of defense to the attack is the block. The block may be formed by one, two or three players depending on the situation and the team's strategy. The object of the block is to intercept an attacked ball before, during, or immediately after it crosses the net.
Consequently, an important skill that volleyball players must develop is the ability to target block and tip the volleyball at the net. Thus, volleyball coaches have evolved many practice drills to teach these skills to volleyball players. However, the effectiveness of the drills could be increased dramatically if an effective training aid were developed that would simulate placement of a volleyball above the net so that players may practice target blocking and setters may practice tipping at the net.


A transparent component comprises a substrate (1) having an interface surface, with a pattern of electrically conductive copper (2) disposed on the interface surface with of the substrate, wherein the copper has a copper sulfide surface coating (3). It is found that copper with a suitably thin coating layer of copper sulfide has reduced visibility compared with uncoated copper, so that the metal pattern is less distracting to a viewer. The component finds application as part of a touch-sensitive display, with the substrate overlying or forming part of the display, with images on the display being visible to a user through the transparent component.

Touch-sensitive components such as touch screens are an increasingly common feature of opto electronic displays e.g. in items such as computers, mobile phones, etc. Such displays require an electrode on the front surface of the display, which must be substantially transparent, in order not to block light transmission from the display and so to enable the display to perform its intended function. A common approach is to use a transparent conductor such as Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) as this electrode. ITO suffers from a number of drawbacks. It is brittle. It is relatively expensive, due to the scarcity of indium. It has high resistivity (typical layers have a sheet resistivity in the range 100-1000 Ohms per square). The high resistivity means that extra processing steps are required to make connections to the grid. It is difficult to etch, making further processing expensive.
An alternative approach is to use an array or grid of fine metal lines, wires or tracks, forming an electrically conductive mesh micropattern disposed on the front surface of the display as the front electrode. The metal grid may be made with very thin wires, e.g. less than 10 micron in width, using standard photolithographic processing. Provided sufficiently large gaps are left between the fine wires of the grid, the wires block very little of the light from the display, and the wires not readily visible to the eye.
A metal grid is malleable, allowing the use of flexible substrates. Thin copper layers typically have a sheet resistivity in the range of 100 mOhms per square. The low resistivity means that bulk metal connections to the grid can be made using the same layer as the fine mesh, reducing the number of processing steps (and hence cost).
A drawback of using metal wires is that the reflective nature of the metal can make the mesh highly visible to a user, which is undesirable.
WO 2009/108758 of 3M concerns touch screen sensors with such conductive micropatterns, and discloses a number of methods of reducing the visibility of a metallic mesh.
The present invention concerns an alternative approach to reducing the visibility of a copper mesh.
There is a good deal of prior art on blackening treatments for copper and copper alloys. Historically brass optical devices such as telescopes were blackened to reduce internal reflections either by the use of matt black paint, or by oxidising processes to produce thick opaque layers. Recently the manufacture of plasma display panels (PDPs) has required the use of fine metal grids to reduce electromagnetic emissions. These are blackened to reduce visibility to the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,460,896 discloses a method of blackening copper-based optical components using a mixture of sodium chlorite and sodium hydroxide. The specification notes that "Heretofore, copper and copper alloy surfaces have been blackened by the so-called 'oxidising process' in which the surface is cleaned and a copper sulfide film is formed by immersing the surface in solutions of sodium sulfide or ammonium sulfide or other water soluble sulfides. This produced brown or black coatings on the surface.".
JP2005139546 discloses the use of an electrolytic solution of cobalt sulfate to form a resilient black surface layer on copper foil and copper mesh suitable for a PDP.
Other recent examples, e.g. JP 2010010179, JP2009231426, use the electrolytic deposition of a black nickel-tin oxide to achieve the same result.
JP2009218368 uses electrolytic deposition of copper oxide from a solution of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide to deposit a layer of copper oxide of 0.6 to 3 micron in thickness. This surface treatment is applied to printed circuit boards in particular.
EP 0963416 discloses a transparent member for use as a shield against electromagnetic waves with a copper layer having a brown to black coloured surface layer e.g. of copper sulfide. The thickness of the surface layer is not disclosed and the issue of regulation and control of the thickness is not addressed.
GB 1012224 discloses a transparent electronically conductive film in which a cadmium sulfide layer 250 Angstroms thick is converted to copper sulfide.
GB 986697 discloses preparation of transparent electrically conducting copper sulfide films by contacting a copper film with a sulfur-containing gas.


A piston slide valve including a valve housing, a piston slide mounted movably in the valve housing, which is reciprocally movable in the valve housing and configured to manipulate a fluid flow, and a valve drive. The valve drive includes a rotatable drive shaft, which is mechanically connected to the piston slide via a mechanical coupling. The mechanical coupling includes an actuating element which is eccentrically mounted on the rotatable drive shaft and which engages with a coupling piece that is attached to a radial outside of the piston slide, wherein either the actuating element has a spherical outer surface, which engages into said cylindrical opening of said coupling piece, or the coupling piece has an outer surface, which engages into a cylindrical opening of the actuating element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to piston slide valves, and, more particularly, to a directly controlled servo valve.
2. Description of the Related Art
Piston slide valves are used in hydraulic systems as switching valves and proportional servo valves. The piston slide of the piston slide valve is being moved in a valve housing in such a manner—as a rule within a bore inside the valve housing—that flow cross sections for a fluid in the valve are more or less opened or closed, depending on the position of the piston slide relative to the valve housing in order to adjust hereby various switching positions having various flows through the valve from a pressure source to a pressure sink or respectively to a user, whereby the pressure source, the pressure sink and/or the user or several users are connected to appropriate fluid connections of the piston slide valve.
A distinction is made between pilot operated and direct controlled valves. With pilot operated valves the piston slide that is also referred to as the valve piston is moved hydraulically, whereby in order to produce the pilot forces, hydraulic valves are again used, which then as a rule must work clearly smaller and faster than the pilot operated valve—the so-called main stage. In contrast, with directly controlled valves an actuator acts mechanically or magnetically directly upon the piston slide (main piston), in order to switch the same between the various switching positions. Directly controlled valves are simpler in construction, however they are also limited in their size and positioning speed of the piston slide due to the control force that is to be applied.
One embodiment of direct controlled valves provides that the rotational movement of a motor that functions as an actuator, in particular a dynamic stepping or servo motor is converted into the desired linear movement of the piston slide. One problem with such valves is the high production cost for very precise fits of the components for the drive, in order to convert the rotational movement into the linear movement. This leads to high production costs and to the risk of jams during operation.
WO 2009/097703 A1 describes a proportional valve, wherein the drive shaft of an electric motor moves the piston slide reciprocally via a cam that engages into a recess of a yoke that is attached to the piston slide. The pivot point of the cam in the recess of the yoke is positioned on the longitudinal axis of the piston slide, inside a notch in the yoke that progresses parallel to the rotational axis of the electric motor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,681 A describes a coupling between the drive shaft of an electric motor and the piston slide of a hydraulic valve which is split and designed elastically resilient and pre-tensioned against spring forces.
Patent Application US 2007/0069592 A1 describes the transfer of a rotational movement of a stepper motor via a planetary gear onto a cam that is positioned in an opening of a piston slide.
DE 25 09 523 A1 describes a switch head to operate a piston slide of a directional control valve in longitudinal direction, wherein a spherical surface engages into the cylindrical bore of a control slide and interacts with a flat surface in order to permit the piston slide to engage in certain switching positions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,575 A describes an eccentric cone that is positioned on a motor drive shaft that engages in an insert that is positioned in a bore in the piston slide in order to move the piston slide by means of driving the electric motor.
WO 01/96749 A2 describes a ball eccentrically mounted on the drive shaft of an electric motor that engages into a bore, a slot or a notch of the piston slide in order to move it reciprocally.
The aforementioned arrangements have the disadvantage that between the actuating element that is mounted eccentrically on the motor drive shaft and that engages into diversely designed openings in the piston slide shaft, unfavorable surface pressures arise that vary with the displacement of the piston slide and which, on the one hand require highly precise fits during production and on the other hand favor excessive wear and tear, and jamming of the actuating element in the piston slide.
What is needed in the art is an improved piston slide valve of the aforementioned type in such a way that the valve can be produced cost effectively and simply and that the mechanism between the valve drive and the piston slide operates reliably and with little wear and tear.


A TFT substrate is provided in which a wire defect can be easily solved. A method of solving a wire defect in the TFT substrate is also provided. In an embodiment, the TFT substrate is configured so that (i) a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of source lines are arranged in a matrix manner, (ii) a TFT is provided in at least one of intersection regions where the plurality of gate lines and the plurality of source lines intersect with each other, and (iii) the at least one of intersection regions is divided by a slit, which is formed in a corresponding one of the plurality of gate lines, so that the at least intersection region is divided into parts arranged along a longitudinal direction of the plurality of source lines.

Conventionally, a defect of a wire such as a gate line or a source line in a TFT substrate is solved by (i) cutting the wire and then (ii) restoring an electric connection of the wire by use of a bypass line which is provided outside of a display region.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a method of repairing a wire defect, such as a short circuit of a source line or a lack of a source line, in a TFT substrate. According to the method, an electric connection of a wire is restored by (i) cutting the wire at a point in the upstream of a defect caused in the wire, and then (ii) connecting the wire to a bypass line which is provided outside of a display region.
Specifically, Patent Literature 1 discloses a method of repairing a wire defect in a TFT substrate 100 (see FIG. 4). The TFT substrate 100 is configured such that (i) gate lines G1 through Gm and drain lines (source lines) D1 through Dn are arranged in a matrix manner and (ii) a plurality of repair lines (preliminary wires) R1 through Rs are provided along the periphery of the TFT substrate 100 so that each of the plurality of repair lines R1 through Rs (i) forms a quadrangular configuration with one (1) corner cut and (ii) intersects two positions of each of the gate lines G1 through Gm and the drain lines (source lines) D1 through Dn, at which two positions each of the plurality of repair lines R1 through Rs is electrically insulated from each of the gate lines G1 through Gm and the drain lines D1 through Dn. According to the method, an electric disconnection B of the gate line G or the drain line D is repaired by providing a bypass line for the electric disconnection B. Specifically, the bypass line is provided by connecting the gate line G or the drain line D to a repair line R at two intersections where the gate line G or the drain line D intersects the repair line R. Further, according to the method, a short circuit S, which has happened to an intersection where the gate line Gg and the drain line Dr intersect with each other, is repaired by (i) cutting and removing the intersection and then (ii) providing bypass lines with use of two repair lines in the same manner as the above case where the electric disconnection B is repaired.

TFT substrate and method for correcting wiring fault on TFT substrate


Apparatus for regulating the humidity inside a semi-sealed, partly air-permeable container for a magnetic disk drive. An opening provided in the semi-sealed container is sealed by an insulated humidity regulating element which includes a hydrogen ion conductor (which may be a solid electrolyte) and porous film-like first and second electrodes that are bonded to respective surfaces of both sides of the hydrogen ion conductor. A DC voltage is impressed across both electrodes to regulate the humidity.

This invention relates to a humidity regulating apparatus whereby the humidity inside a semi-sealed container having an interior indirectly exposed to outside air can be regulated, and particularly to such an apparatus for a magnetic disk drive.
FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional diagram illustrating a conventional magnetic disk drive having a humidity regulating apparatus. Such a diagram is described on page 17 of paper No. 46-2 "TRIBOLOGY FOR MAGNETIC DISK STORAGE" of the No. 36 research association materials of a meeting of The Magnetics Society of Japan (Corporation) (held at the Kikai Shinko Hall July 21, 1986) titled MAGNETIC RECORDING (MAGNETIC RECORDING AND TRIBOLOGY). FIG. 2 is a graph of the adsorptive quantity of moisture of silica gel based on a wt% ratio of absorbed water per absorbent (g:g) listed, for example, on page 854 of the Handbook of Chemical Engineering (editor: Chemical Engineering Society of Japan) issued by Maruzen Co., Ltd. (2-6 Nihonbashi-doori, Chuo-ku Tokyo).
In FIG. 1 semi-sealed type container 1 for magnetic disk drive comprises a base 2 and a case 3 that is secured in a sealed manner on the base 2. Several ventilation holes 4 are provided in the top of case 3. Cap 5 is secured on the top of case 3 to cover the ventilation holes 4. Several ventilation holes 6 are provided in cap 5. Primary filter 7 is fitted inside cap 5 between ventilation holes 4 and 6. Filter case 8 is secured to the inner surface of case 3. Secondary filter 9 is fitted inside filter case 8 and covers ventilation holes 4. Throttle 12 is fitted into the top of absorbent case 11. Filter 14 is inserted between throttle 12 and silica gel 13.
A container of a conventional humidity regulating apparatus used in magnetic disk drives encloses a disk that is driven and rotated, a head that is held in proximity to the recording surface of the disk thereof and an actuator that causes the head to move in the radial direction of the disk.
Outside air is sucked in by rotation of the disk is cleaned by passing through ventilation holes 6 of cap 5,. primary filter 7, ventilation holes 4 of case 3, secondary filter 9 and throttle 10 of filter case 8,. and flows into the inside of container 1. Water in the outside air also enters the container 1 through diffusion and the humidity inside the container rises. If rotation of the disk is stopped and the head is made to contact the disk in this state,. there is a danger of stiction wherein the head sticks to the disk. The disk, and possibly the head can be damaged if the disk drive is restarted in this condition.
A moisture adsorption device, including silica gel 13 in the absorbent case 11, is provided inside container 1 to adsorb the water that has entered. Further, throttle 12 provided at absorbent case 11 controls the adsorptive quantity of the water and prevents the inside of container 1 from attaining excessively low humidity.
Silica gel 13 is porous, and its surface area per unit weight is extremely large. Further, the absorptive quantity of moisture of silica gel 13 is almost proportional to humidity within a range of humidity in which the gel structure is maintained as illustrated in FIG. 2. However, when the humidity rises and the water content increases, a state of saturation is reached. In a conventional humidity regulating apparatus such as described aboVe. When the adsorptive quantity of moisture in silica gel 13 reaches a state of saturation, the capability to adsorb water is lost even if the humidity rises excessively.
Furthermore, there have been problems in that the adsorptive quantity of moisture could not be regulated if the size of throttle 10 that regulates the suction of the outside air and the size of throttle 12 that controls the adsorptive quantity of moisture were fixed and in that the humidity inside container 1 could not be regulated in accordance with changes in the humidity of the outside air.

Humidity regulating apparatus for magnetic disk drive


Squelch circuit and method useful in frequency-scanned radio receivers are provided. Generally, the squelch circuit includes an audio-removal filter coupled to receive an audio signal. The passband of the audio-removal filter is selected sufficiently high relative to frequency components of the audio signal. An absolute value detector is coupled to the audio-removal filter to supply an output signal having a positive polarity regardless of the polarity of the signal supplied by the audio-removal filter. An integrating filter is coupled to receive the output signal from the absolute value detector and supply an integrated signal. The integrating filter has at least one selectable filter coefficient indicative of the response time of the integrating filter. A control module is configured to select a first value for the selectable filter coefficient so that during a first mode of operation of the squelch circuit the response time of the integrating filter is sufficiently fast to determine the power level of the integrated signal over a predefined time interval relative to respective squelch thresholds. The control module is further configured to select a second value for the selectable filter coefficient so that during a second mode of operation subsequent to the first mode of operation the response time of the integrating filter is sufficiently slow to smooth out power level variations, if any, due to fading of the audio signal.

The present invention is generally related to signal processing, and, more particularly, to signal processing for controlling squelch in a radio receiver operable to scan at least a priority channel.
In Specialized Mobile Radios (SMRs), also generally known as LMR (Land Mobile Radio, PAMR (Public Access Mobile Radio), PMR (Private Mobile Radio), TMR (Trunked Mobile Radio), and TRS (Trunked Radio System), a squelch circuit is commonly used for automatically muting the audio response of a radio receiver configured to receive frequency modulated (FM) voice signals. That is, preventing annoying noise from being heard when there is no received signal present or the received signal is too weak to be intelligible, and unmuting the audio response when a signal likely to be intelligible is received.
Typical squelch circuits employ a measurement of the energy of a portion of the spectrum of the recovered audio ("out-of-band audio" that starts sufficiently above the highest audio frequency components, generally at about 3 kHz) as a factor in determining whether to mute the recovered voice signal. This is based on the well-known phenomenon that the energy in the out-of-band region decreases in response to a stronger radio signal. Unfortunately, known squelch circuits, when used on the priority channel of a frequency-scanned radio, typically require excessive processing time to determine the presence or absence of a signal. The excessive processing latency creates noticeable gaps in the speaker audio if the priority channel scan happens to interrupt an ongoing signal reception. Also, excessive priority channel squelch processing time can be detrimental if the priority channel is scanned during an ongoing reception of the control channel of a trunked system; in such cases, the processing time should be sufficiently less than the control channel slot time. Many of the earlier solutions rely on single speed techniques that require processing times on the order of 50 milliseconds or more before deciding if a signal is present or absent. During this processing interval, the audio is muted. This processing time would be fast enough if the radio is in a "standby" mode and not scanning. In fact, many conventional voice radio receivers that are not designed for channel scanning employ continuous detection of the energy of the out-of-band audio, often combined with hysteresis techniques, to avoid muting a recovered audio signal during brief periods of weak signal reception caused by fading. The response time of such circuits is typically 50 milliseconds (msec) or more, and they have provided reliable and efficient operation for non-scanning applications. However, such a processing time would be too slow for utilization in the priority channel for frequency-scanned operation for the reasons stated above.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,904 describes a technique that purportedly generates a fast squelch through various actions that require generating a noise signal from a demodulated signal, generating a squelch check request of one of two types, performing a release of a reset control in response to the squelch check request, generating an integrated noise signal having essentially no decay rate from the noise signal starting at the release of the reset control, generating a result of a comparison of the integrated noise signal to one of two values corresponding to the one of two types of squelch check requests at an expiration of a predetermined delay started at the release of the reset control, and controlling a muting of a speaker in response to the comparison. Thus, it appears that such technique requires relatively complex logic for implementing the above-described actions. In addition, such technique appears to use various circuit components, such as a resettable noise integrator consisting of a reset switch and logic for resetting a capacitor used for grounding the noise signal. Needless to say, such components add incremental costs and hardware complexity to the squelch circuit described in that patent.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide circuit and techniques, colloquially referred to as "Dual-Speed Squelch" or DSS techniques, that, at relatively low-cost, accurately and reliably provide sufficiently fast processing speed for priority scan operation in a radio terminal. It would be further desirable to minimize noticeable gaps in the speaker audio. A significant improvement over known techniques could be achieved if one could determine that there is no signal present and leave the priority channel in about 25% of the time of earlier squelch algorithms without having to use cumbersome logic or circuitry. It would be further desirable to provide circuit and techniques that enable high probability of detection for worst-case faded signal levels and low probability of falsing on nonexistent signals. It would be further desirable to provide an improved squelch technique that can be readily integrated or retrofitted into existing frequency-scanned radios so that such radios can provide improved performance without affecting the basic design of the radio.


A method for calibrating a test light to simulate a fire includes measuring a baseline resistance induced in a sensor cell of a two-color detector in response to a controlled fire. The method includes monitoring a test resistance induced in the sensor cell in response to exposure to emissions from a test light and adjusting the emissions of the test light until the test resistance of the sensor cell equals the baseline resistance of the sensor cell to achieve a calibration setting for the test light. A test light for a detector includes a housing and a first LED within the housing having a first emission wavelength. A second LED is within the housing. The second LED has a second emission wavelength. The second emission wavelength is different than the first emission wavelength.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to two-color detectors, in particular to two-color detectors such as cadmium sulfide (CdS) flame detectors.
2. Description of Related Art
Two-color detectors, such as CdS flame detectors, typically use two visible wavelengths to distinguish fires from non-fires, for example, green and red within the visible spectrum. The settings for these two-color detectors generally are made to avoid false responses to sunlight. Traditional testing of two-color detectors in remote installations, e.g. field testing, can be done with a flashlight with either a red or green window over the light bulb. Flashlights emitting either red or green light can determine whether the two-color detector is working, e.g. when the red light is being used the flame detector indicates a positive signal and when the green light is being used the flame detector indicates a negative signal. The detector itself, however, provides no way of determining whether the two-color detector has lost any of its original sensitivity to light generated by fires.
Such conventional methods and systems have generally been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose. However, there is still a need in the art for systems and methods that allow for improved testing of two-color detectors. The present invention provides a solution for these problems.

Systems and methods for testing two-color detectors


A routing and wavelength assignment method for use in an optical fiber system, comprising: (i) identifying a plurality of paths between a source node and a destination node, (ii) selecting one of the plurality of identified paths, (iii) defining within the spectrum band of the selected path one or more blocks of spectral resource, in which each block comprises either: one or more unused wavelength channels, or one or more wavelength channels having the same spectral width, (iv) obtaining an entropy value of the selected path defining the spectrum fragmentation across its spectrum band, based on a logarithm of the ratio of the number of wavelength channels in each of the one or more blocks, to the total number of wavelength channels across the spectrum band, (v) iterating (ii) to (v) until the entropy value of each of the plurality of identified paths has been determined, and (vi) choosing from the plurality of identified paths a path having the lowest entropy value.

The way optical networks are used is undergoing significant change, driven in part by the huge growth of traffic such as multimedia services and by the increased uncertainty in predicting the sources of this traffic due to the ever changing models of content providers over the Internet. Sophisticated modulation schemes for higher bandwidth 100 Gb/s services and beyond are known and come into commercial use in optical networks of large and increasing link and node numbers.
A bottleneck to widespread deployment of such schemes is the "fixed" wavelength grid approach specified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in which the relevant optical spectrum range in the C-band is divided into fixed-sized spectrum slots. As used herein, a "slot", "wavelength" or "channel" is defined as a wavelength or a spectrum of wavelengths associated with a certain signal size. A connection is made by assigning spectral (i.e. wavelength) slots on the optical links comprising the path between source and destination. A problem arises with bit rates greater than 100 Gb/s, which occupy spectral widths too broad to fit into such fixed-sized spectrum slots or channels; forcing to fit by adopting higher spectral-efficiency modulation methods which tend to compromise transmission distances. It seems clear that this decade-old ITU "fixed grid" approach will not work for bit rates significantly greater than 100 Gb/s (e.g. 400 Gb/s and above), highlighting the need for a more flexible approach to be developed. Work on such a new "elastic optical networking" approach is underway, based on a "flexgrid" WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) approach, in which the optical spectrum can be divided up in a way to form spectral slots of arbitrary widths which are selectable depending on, e.g., the bit rates being used, tailored to the requirements of the optical transceiver and accommodating new bit rate services.
Representations of the fixed and flexible grid approaches are depicted in the example graphs shown in FIG. 1, in which graphs (a), (c) and (d) depict examples of fixed grid implementations, while (b) and (e) illustrate the flexgrid approach. Graph (a) illustrates the strict guard bands partitioning adjoining optical channels in a fixed grid implementation, and demands or wavelengths at a particular bit rate. Graph (b) shows how the channels for the demand can be grouped into a single "superchannel" which can be transported as one entity in a flexgrid system. In graph (c), five demands (of varying bit rates and distances) and their spectrum needs are shown on a fixed grid, assuming quaternary phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation. Graph (d) depicts the same service demands of graph (c), with adaptive modulation optimized for the required bit rate and reach. Arbitrary-size spectrum slot allocation is shown in the flexgrid implementation of graph (e) which has the same demands as graphs (c) and (d).
In brief, there is typically only one way in fixed grid networks to implement a given demand as the wavelength bit rate, optical reach, and spectrum parameters are highly constrained in their allowable implementation solutions so as to ultimately align with the fixed grid architecture. This means that the demand can occupy less than a full slot resulting in wasted spectrum capacity like that shown in graph (c). On the other hand, a superchannel width wider than the fixed slot width as illustrated in (b) cannot be accommodated in a fixed grid network. In the flexgrid scheme, a choice can be made when implementing a demand, by assigning a modulation format that gives sufficient performance to reach the required distance, while relaxing the requirements on the actual width of the spectral bandwidth occupied by the optical path. The spectrum savings that may be achieved using a flexgrid approach may be seen by a comparison between the fixed grid scheme shown in (d) and an identical scenario when used under the flexgrid scheme shown in (e). In other words, moving away from the use of fixed-position guard bands defining channel widths in the fixed grid approach, can achieve efficiencies by spacing channels contiguously or at least closer to each other, across the spectrum. This can result in the freeing up of spectrum resource for other demands. In this way, the flexgrid scheme allows greater flexibility and choice in allocating spectrum.
A drawback suffered particularly by flexgrid systems, however, is that the optical spectrum can become "fragmented", consisting of non-contiguous used spectrum sections in a manner akin to a computer hard disk including fragmented disk blocks. This is because when a signal or demand reaches its destination node, the optical connection terminates and the wavelength or channel "vacates" the spectrum slot. One way of preventing spectrum fragmentation is to find a new resource request having an identical or near-identical slot width, to occupy that slot just at the point when the slot becomes available. The chances of such coincidences occurring are, however, not high, and as may be expected, such vacated slots are likely to remain wholly or partly unfilled. In other words, even if a wavelength channel is found which is capable of fitting into the vacated slot, this is likely to be narrower in width to the previous wavelength channel, resulting in the creation of unused sections of the spectrum so that the level of fragmentation tends to increase over time. The state in which a spectrum comprises non-contiguous used or unused sections results in a state of "entropy" (randomness or disorder). Matters become especially problematic when the unused spectrum parts are so narrowly splintered that they cannot be used to accommodate a demand, even when the total (summed) amount of actual unused spectrum might otherwise have been usable. By way of illustration, graph (e) of FIG. 1 depicts an optimal situation in a flexgrid environment, in which the demands essentially occupy contiguous positions in the spectrum. In a less ideal case, fragments of unused "stranded" spectrum fragments can be represented as gaps between neighboring used slots, as shown in, e.g., FIG. 3 (discussed below). It can be expected that failure to address this problem may eventually result in significant inefficiencies in the use of the precious spectrum resource, possibly resulting in the need to build expensive new links to cope with traffic levels.
As might be expected, this is much less of a problem in fixed grid systems owing to the standardized slot size arranged contiguously to each other. Indeed, splintering of the spectrum is simply not an issue in a fixed grid system, since all slots are of the same standard size, such that when a channel is terminated and frees up spectral space, then any new demand that arises will automatically be of the same (standardized) width to fit into the available slot.
There is therefore a need to address the above issues, especially in connection with the routing of optical data traffic in flexgrid implementations in the elastic optical networking paradigm.
Some approaches referring to an entropy measure along optical links are known. For example, "Utilization Entropy for Assessing Resource Fragmentation in Optical Networks" (W. Xi et al., Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OSA Technical Digest (Optical Society of America, 2012)) discusses spectral fragmentation using qualitative and algorithmic descriptions, which as an approach may not provide a predictive measure of the overall spectral fragmentation. This is because algorithmic approaches often implies a degree of non-linearity (e.g. the presence of binary logic steps, i.e. XOR, OR, AND operations etc.), which may cause non-monotonic (and/or non-linear) behavior of the output result of the algorithm. Nor does an algorithm necessarily offer the degree of 'sensitivity' or ability to distinguish between subtle differences of fragmentation—it depends on the construction of the algorithm, and its quantitative behavior. Methods based on this approach might not be sufficiently reliable for deployment in the field.
Another document titled "Planning and Provisioning of Elastic O-OFDM Networks with Fragmentation-Aware Routing and Spectrum Assignment (RSA) Algorithms" (M. Zhang et al., Asia Communications and Photonics Conference, OSA Technical Digest (online) (Optical Society of America, 2012)) describes a fragmentation-aware RSA, which uses a fragmentation ratio when making resource allocations. It does not however use an entropy-based metric for choosing routes, and the paper explicitly notes that the utilization entropy approach of the W. Xi document above does not sufficiently quantify bandwidth fragmentation to be helpful.
"Dynamic Routing and Frequency Slot Assignment for Elastic Optical Path Networks that Adopt Distance Adaptive Modulation" (T. Takagi et al., Optical Fiber Communication Conference/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference 2011, OSA Technical Digest (CD) (Optical Society of America, 2011)) describes a classical style RSA applied to elastic networks and does not take into account spectrum entropy.
As such, the idea of assessing resource fragmentation and fragmentation-aware routing are known, as is the application of entropic concepts in the area of optical fiber spectrum. However, a stochastically well-ordered study of optical networking on statistical mechanical principals using information-theoretic definitions of entropy has not yet been known to have been conducted in connection with optical networks, whose size with their ever-larger link and node numbers, and featuring an ever-increasingly exploitable optical spectrum (atomized to an ever-smaller quantum, 100 GHz→6.25 GHz) now makes them particularly amenable to such statistical mechanical (thermodynamical) analyses. In particular, there is currently no known approach which allows calculation of an entropy measure in manner which is essentially quantitative in behavior, (i.e. it can be expressed as a compact mathematical equation) which has highly predictive behavior, is monotonic as a measure of entropy, and can sensitively distinguish between arbitrarily fine differences of fragmentation. There is also no method allowing for such a measure to be used in an optical path routing choice in a manner which allows overall network resource (i.e., utilization of overall network capacity) to be more greatly exploited before overall networking blocking probabilities start exceeding certain thresholds (e.g. at 5%). In particular, it would be useful to reduce or stop the spectrum becoming fragmented in the first place. With the aim of full and efficient use of the spectrum resource, network operators would wish to have tools to address the above problems.

British Telecommunications Public Limited Company


This invention provides a 5-substituted uridine derivative of the formula ##STR1## wherein X is F or CF.sub.3, R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 each represent a group --OSi--(R.sub.4)(R.sub.5)(R.sub.6) (wherein R.sub.4, R.sub.5 and R.sub.6 represent C.sub.1 -C.sub.10 alkyl or the like), OH, aminoacyloxy group wherein the amino group may be substituted with lower alkyl group or carboxylalkylcarbonyloxy group, R.sub.3 is a group --OSi(R.sub.4)(R.sub.5)(R.sub.6), H, OH, aminoacyloxy group wherein the amino group may be substituted with lower alkyl group, or carboxylalkylcarbonyloxy group, and at least one of R.sub.1, R.sub.2 and R.sub.3 is a group --OSi--(R.sub.4)(R.sub.5)(R.sub.6), with the proviso that when X is fluorine atom, R.sub.3 is not hydrogen, and an intermediate for the preparation thereof, preparation processes of the derivative and anti-tumor agent containing the derivative as an active ingredient.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to 5-substituted uridine derivatives which are novel substances and 5'-trityl-5-substituted uridine derivatives which are useful as intermediates for preparing the 5-substituted uridine derivatives. The 5-substituted uridine derivatives of this invention are useful for treating tumors.
2. Description of the Related Art
5-Fluorouridine (hereinafter referred to as "FUR"), which was synthesized in 1959, is known for its excellent activity against malignant tumors (U.S. Pat. No. 2885398). However, FUR has a problem on clinical use because of its high toxicity.
Many attempts have been made to resolve this problem by converting FUR into various derivatives (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos.64280/1975; 52183/1976; 91997/1982; 246196/1986). However, such attempts failed to give useful derivatives.
5-Trifluoromethyl-2'-deoxyuridine (hereinafter referred to as "F.sub.3 TdR") represented by the formula ##STR2## has an anti-tumor activity [Cancer Research 24, 1979 (1964)] and a strong antiviral activity [Cancer Research 30, 1549, 1970]. In view of these activities, various investigations have been made on the utility of F.sub.3 TdR as pharmaceuticals, but without developing a useful compound.


A method of providing location privacy of a mobile station in a wireless access system is disclosed. The method of providing location privacy of a mobile station comprises the steps of transmitting a deregistration request message to a serving base station, the deregistration message requesting entry to an idle mode; and receiving a deregistration command message from the serving base station, the deregistration command message including a temporary identifier allocated to the mobile station. In this case, the temporary identifier is an identifier for uniquely identifying the mobile station from a paging group to which the serving base station belongs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of providing security of a mobile station in a wireless access system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Hereinafter, a paging group and an idle mode of a mobile station, which are related to the embodiments of the present invention, will be described in brief.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a paging group comprised of a plurality of base stations.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a plurality of base stations (BS) which support an idle mode belong to a paging group to constitute a paging region.
At this time, the paging group represents a logical group. The paging group is to provide a neighboring range region that can be paged to a downlink (DL) if there is any traffic targeting a mobile station (MS). Preferably, the paging group fulfils a condition that a specific mobile station should be great enough to exist for most of time within the same paging group and should be small enough to maintain a proper level of paging load.
FIG. 1 illustrates four paging groups defined in multiple base stations located in hexagonal lattices. One base station can be included in one or more paging groups. The paging group is defined by a management system. A paging group-action backbone network message can be used in the paging group. Also, a paging controller can manage a list of mobile stations which are in an idle mode, using a paging-announce message which is one of the backbone network message, and can manage initial paging of all base stations belonging to the paging group.
The idle mode means a support operation that allows a mobile station to periodically perform downlink broadcast traffic transmission even though the mobile station is not subscribed to a specific base station when moving a wireless link condition of multiple base stations.
The mobile station can be benefited by the idle mode as action requirements related to handover and general operation requirements are removed in the idle mode. The idle mode can save the power and management resources used by the mobile station by limiting action of the mobile station so as to scan radio resources during a discrete period.
Furthermore, the idle mode provides a simple and proper mode that can notify the mobile station of downlink traffic which is pending. The idle mode can provide benefit to a network and a base station by removing a wireless interface and network handover (HO) traffic from the mobile station which is not active.


A method and system for monitoring and changing the operation of a computer system which comprises a local area network or interconnected local area networks, each having a plurality of computers. The system further comprises at least one event report generator in each executable program (4) whose execution should be monitored: an event processing machine (15) for processing events which are reported by an event report generator depending on a flexible rule base (16) which is included in the event processing machine and associates a certain event with a predetermined action, for determining the action associated with the reported event: equipment (18) controlled by the event processing machine and adapted to perform an action determined by the event processing machine: and an interface (13) for transferring an event reported by an event report generator to an event processing machine, and for transmitting a message regarding an action associated with the event, from the event processing machine to a program which is executable in the computer system, for changing or starting thereof.

Equipment and programs which are intended for monitoring the operation of a computer or the execution of a program are previously known. However, they are specific for the computer concerned or the program concerned.
The object of the present invention is to provide a common instrument, i.e. a general method and a general system for such monitoring and changing of a computer system having a plurality of computers interconnected in at least one local area network. Such monitoring and changing may concern e.g. error processing, i.e. detecting, registering and rectifying errors occurring during the operation of a computer system; performance processing, i.e. detecting, registering and changing the performance of a computer system in operation; and utilisation processing, i.e. detecting, registering and changing the utilisation of different resources of the computer system, which are utilised by different users and programs.

Method and system for monitoring a computer system


Provided is a speaker module, comprising a sound passage of a front cavity, wherein the sound passage is defined by a speaker unit, a housing and a sound hole provided on the housing, wherein the speaker module further comprises a sealed cavity and a communication hole, wherein the sealed cavity is provided on a side wall of the sound passage of the front cavity, and the sealed cavity is in communication with the sound passage of the front cavity via the communication hole. By means of the present invention, an SPL peak at Fh and harmonic distortion caused by front cavity resonance can be reduced, so that the acoustic performance of a speaker is enhanced, and the sound quality is improved.

Speaker is a common electroacoustic transducer for converting electric energy into acoustic energy, and its sound quality is one of the important indicators for measuring the quality of the speaker. In the existing speaker, especially for the speaker module emitting sound at a lateral side, it will inevitably have the problems of sharp and distorted sound caused by lower resonant point in the front cavity, higher SPL of resonant point, higher THD and so on. In order to achieve a euphonic sound quality, the SPL (sound pressure level) corresponding to Fh cannot be too high. Otherwise, the sound will be sharper at Fh, thus affecting the sound effect of the entire speaker module.
In order to reduce the SPL corresponding to Fh, it is common practice to increase the damping by attaching sound absorbing material in the front cavity of the speaker module or other methods, however, which will correspondingly reduce the SPL in other frequency bands, especially the SPL of the frequency band in the vicinity of f0.

Speaker module with sealed cavity and a communicating hole


Apparatus and methods for noninvasively diagnosing diabetes mellitus, the prediabetic condition, and cataracts in the human (or other) body are disclosed. Diagnoses are made by illuminating ocular lens tissue with a narrow-band light source at a selected wavelength, detecting the backscattered radiation intensity at the peak of the fluorescent response, and normalizing the detected value with the intensity of its Rayleigh component. Measurements provided in this manner can be used as improved indicators of the presence or absence of certain diseases or conditions.

Existing methods for diagnosing diseases, particularly diabetes, are often less than desirable. One such method, the oral glucose tolerance test, attempts to assist diagnosis of diabetes mellitus by determining whether elevated blood glucose levels exist in patients suspected of having the disease. Because many patients having elevated levels fail subsequently to develop the clinical symptoms of the disease, however, the reliability of the test is generally questioned.
A second diagnostic method, the Islet Cell Antibody (ICA) test, may be used to predict those patients at risk for type I diabetes and can predate the onset of debilitating clinical symptoms by as much as five years. The ICA test is not typically utilized, however, because of its complexity, expense, and lack of specificity and because of a lack of standardization among evaluating laboratories. Furthermore, the test is useful only for detecting type I diabetes, which strikes only approximately ten percent of the entire diabetic patient population. By contrast, patients suspected of having the prediabetic condition for type II diabetes currently have no confirming diagnostic procedure.
It is well known that certain portions of the eye fluoresce when illuminated. The lens of the eye, for example, can be made to fluoresce intensely when illuminated with radiation having a wavelength between approximately 350 nm and 550 nm. Utilizing radiation of a wavelength less than approximately 400 nm typically is avoided (unless power levels and exposure times are restricted), however, since this higher frequency radiation is known to cause damage to ocular tissue.
The presence of certain diseases in the human body cause chemical changes in the lens of the eye, altering the amount of the fluorescent response to an illumination of the lens. The lenses of cataract patients, for example, become opaque due to lipid peroxidation, protein glycosylation, and the conversion of sulfhydryl (--SH) bonds to disulfide bonds (--SS). Similarly, in diabetes mellitus and galactosemia, the glucose and galactose are converted to sorbitol and dulcitol, respectively. Accumulation of these compounds results in a high osmotic gradient within the lenticular cells. Prolonged therapy with drugs such as corticosteroids and chlorpromazine also causes opacities of the human lens.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,895,159 and 4,883,351 to Weiss (which patents are incorporated herein in their entireties by this reference), thus, disclose methods for detecting the existence of diabetes using light scattered from lenticular cells. As described in the Weiss patents, the backscattered light from a patient suspected of having diabetes is used to calculate a diffusion coefficient for that patient. A second determination of diffusion coefficients is made for a control group of nondiabetic patients, and the diffusion coefficient of the suspected diabetic is compared with those of nondiabetic, control group patients of the same age.
Because lenses typically cloud naturally as patients age, however, measurements made in connection with the methods of the Weiss patents can be taken only from clear sites in the patients' lenses. The Weiss techniques also appear unable to distinguish the ultimate cause of changes in diffusion coefficients or to detect the prediabetic condition (i.e. where no overt clinical signs of diabetes are displayed but will be exhibited within approximately five years as, for example, when a positive ICA test occurs), since myriad diseases and physiological conditions are known to affect the lens in the manner therein described. Use of the diffusion coefficient as a stand-alone diagnostic test also suffers from its variability as a function of patient age, particularly since results have both age-dependent and age-independent variance.
Other patents, such as West German Patent No. 261957A1 to Schiller and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,987 to Lohmann (each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference), describe alternate diagnostic methods in which the fluorescence signal intensities are compared. The Schiller patent, for example, discloses comparing fluorescence signal intensities at two wavelengths using a single excitation wavelength in an effort to detect the presence of cataracts. The ratio of the resulting fluorescence intensities is compared to the ratio obtained at the same wavelengths from known cataract patients to achieve the desired diagnostic result. As described in the Schiller patent, the excitation wavelengths are selected from the ranges 320-340 nm, 380-390 nm, and 430-450 nm, while the intensity of fluorescence peaks is measured within wavelength ranges of 410-440 nm, 450-460 nm, and 500-520 nm. In contrast to the Schiller patent, the Lohmann patent measures the magnitude of fluorescence intensity at a single wavelength created by light of one excitation wavelength and compares this intensity to known intensities at the given wavelengths in order to determine the degree of eye lens cloudiness. Neither of these patents, however, teaches or suggests detection of diabetes or the prediabetic condition.

Apparatus and methods for quantitatively measuring molecular changes in the ocular lens


A bag filter arrangement having a cleaning system that exhausts a reverse pulse of compressed air through the bags thereof to remove collected dust particles from the surface of the bags. The arrangement is directed to a special cooperation of interlocking elements that positively align the several elements thereof in order that maximum dust removal is effected.

This invention relates to bag filter apparatus that is adapted to receive gas carrying a quantity of dust or other particulate matter and permit clean gas only to pass therethrough while retaining the particulate matter on the surface of the bag filter apparatus. To remove collected dust from the surface of the filter, a blast of compressed air is then exhausted into the open end of a filter bag to momentarily reverse the flow of gas therethrough and cause a reverse flexing of the bag and removal of the collected dust therefrom. To amplify the action of the blast of compressed air, a venturi is usually spaced above the end of the filter bag and aligned with the blast of cleaning air. Inasmuch as an apertured tube sheet separates the dust laden inlet gas from the clean outlet gas, the venturi is carried by said tube sheet and it opens outward toward the source of compressed cleaning air. To prevent each bag from collapsing when subjected to the flow of dust bearing gas to be cleaned, wire frames or cages are inserted into each bag, thus providing a structural support therefor.


A display controller having only three color channels per pixel is used to control a display system having four or more color channels. Mapping of the possible luminance values for each color channel of each pixel to the 2n intervals represented by the n bits in each color channel are provided according to a function that is based on human color perception, so as not to generate artifacts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for transmitting video data intended for an light emitting diode (LED) display unit having LEDs of four or more color channels, using a conventional LED display controller having only three color channels.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
LEDs are used to form the picture elements ("pixels") that display the images shown on modern advertising structures, such as electronic signboards. In a typical electronic signboard, each pixel is formed by three or more separately controlled basis colors ("color channels"), with each color channel of the pixel being implemented by several LEDs. The LEDs in a color channel may be serially connected. Therefore, the LEDs deployed to produce the multicolored images number in from hundreds of thousands to millions. By properly controlling the intensity of light emitted from each color channel, it is possible to produce light of a wide variety of colors and intensities at each pixel.
In a conventional LED, the emitted light intensity at any time is a function of the average electrical current through the LED over a short time period immediately before that instance in time. Any possible color and brightness can be achieved by precise adjustment of the average current in each color channel.
To display an image, digital data specifying the intensities of the color channels of each pixel is downloaded from a data source to the electronic signboard. The downloaded digital data is usually temporarily stored in a display controller or "player," which repetitively plays the data on the electronic signboard in the form of a sequence of images.
Until recently, electronic signboards are formed by pixels having only three color channels. Thus, most commercially available players for such an electronic signboard support only three color channels per pixel and, most often, each color channel is specified by 8 bits. Therefore, to support more than three color channels, the downloaded digital data are typically played using a multiplexing technique. However, in such a player, as each color channel is limited to eight bits, the bits are carefully allocated to avoid introducing artifacts in the resulting image displayed on the electronic signboard.


A system for recovering an embolic protection device having an expandable filter disposed on a guide wire includes an inner catheter loaded inside a recovery sheath. The inner catheter has a distal portion which extends beyond the distal end of the recovery sheath when the recovery system is being advanced over the guide wire of the embolic protection device. The inner catheter has more flexibility than the recovery sheath, and enhances delivery through tortuous anatomy to the location of the deployed filter. Once the recovery system is advanced in close proximity to the expandable filter of the embolic protection device, the recovery sheath is advanced over distal portion of the inner catheter and over the expandable filter to collapse the filter for removal from the body vessel. The recovery sheath has sufficient column strength to collapse the expanded filter for removal from the body vessel.

The present invention relates generally to a system which can be used when an interventional procedure is being performed in a stenosed or occluded region of a blood vessel to capture embolic material that may be created and released into the bloodstream during the procedure. The system of the present invention is particularly useful when performing balloon angioplasty, stenting procedures, laser angioplasty or atherectomy in critical vessels, such as the carotid arteries, where the release of embolic debris into the bloodstream can occlude the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain or other vital organ. It is to be understood that the system and method of this invention can be used in numerous other vascular interventional procedures.
Numerous procedures have been developed for treating occluded blood vessels to allow blood to flow without obstruction. Such procedures usually involve the percutaneous introduction of the interventional device into the lumen of the artery, usually through a catheter. One widely known and medically accepted procedure is balloon angioplasty in which an inflatable balloon is introduced within the stenosed region of the blood vessel to dilate the occluded vessel. The balloon catheter is initially inserted into the patient""s arterial system and is advanced and manipulated into the area of stenosis in the artery. The balloon is inflated to compress the plaque and press the vessel wall radially outward to increase the size of the blood vessel.
Another procedure is laser angioplasty which utilizes a laser to ablate the stenosis by super heating and vaporizing the deposited plaque. Atherectomy is yet another method of treating a stenosed blood vessel in which a cutting blade is rotated to shave the deposited plaque from the arterial wall.
In another widely practiced procedure, the stenosis can be treated by placing a device known as a stent into the stenosed region to hold open and sometimes expand the segment or blood vessel or other arterial lumen. Stents are particularly useful in the treatment or repair of blood vessels by percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) or removal by atherectomy or other means. Stents are delivered in a compressed condition to the target site, and then are deployed at the target location into an expanded condition to support the vessel.
In the process of treating lesions in the blood vessels, release of plaque (embolic debris) may possibly occur during the treatment. Detached from the lesion, the embolic debris enters the bloodstream and subsequently migrate through the patient""s vasculature. Larger embolic debris can obstruct a vessel and cause ischemia, apoptosis, or vessel necrosis.
To allow the use of more aggressive treatment of vascular lesions, procedures have also been developed for capturing embolic debris flowing through the vessels with the blood. One approach involves the placement of a filter downstream from the treatment site to capture embolic debris before it reaches the smaller blood vessels downstream. The placement of a filter in the patient""s vasculature during treatment of the vascular lesion can reduce the presence of the embolic debris in the bloodstream. Such filters are usually delivered in a collapsed position through the patient""s vasculature and then expanded to trap the embolic debris. Once the procedure is completed, the filter can be collapsed, and the filter (with the trapped embolic debris) can then be removed from the vessel. While a filter can be effective in capturing embolic material, the filter still needs to be collapsed and removed from the vessel. During this procedure, it is important that the captured embolic debris remain trapped within this filter so that particles are not released back into the body vessel. Additionally, the recovery apparatus should be relatively flexible to avoid straightening the body vessel. Recovery devices which are too stiff can cause trauma to the vessel walls as the filter is being collapsed and removed from the vasculature.
There is a need in the art for an apparatus and method which can collapse a deployed filter containing captured embolic material for removal from the vasculature. Such an apparatus and method should be capable of being delivered through tortuous anatomy to the desired treatment site, and avoid straightening of the vasculature during delivery. Such an apparatus and method should be easy and safe to deploy, and be easily removed from the vasculature with minimal adverse impact or immunological response to the patient.
The present invention is directed to embolic protection systems having reduced stiffness characteristics. The recovery system of the present invention can be used to recovery an embolic protection device which generally includes a guide wire having a distal end and an expandable filter located near the distal end of the guide wire. The recovery system utilizes an inner catheter which is capable of being introduced over the guide wire, along with a recovery sheath that extends co-axially over the inner catheter. The inner catheter is capable of being loaded inside a lumen of the recovery sheath. In use, a distal portion of the inner catheter extends beyond the distal end of the recovery sheath allowing the inner catheter to initially approach the expandable filter which has been deployed within the patient""s vasculature. In one aspect of the present invention, the distal portion of the inner catheter can initially extend approximately ten to fifteen centimeters, or more, beyond the distal end of the recovery sheath during initial delivery within the patient""s vasculature. Thereafter, once the inner catheter has been placed near the expandable filter, the recovery sheath can then be advanced up over the inner catheter to collapse the expandable filter as the recovery sheath advances over the expandable filter. Thus, during delivery, the composite embolic protection recovery system has reduced stiffness characteristics at the distal end since the more flexible distal portion of the inner catheter extends beyond the recovery sheath. This reduced stiffness improves tracking over the guide wire through the patient""s vasculature and also helps to avoid the tendency of curved vasculature to xe2x80x9cstraightenxe2x80x9d due to the presence of a somewhat stiff recovery sheath. In this regard, the inner catheter, which has a smaller diameter and can be more flexible by having less column strength than the recovery sheath, initially tracks through the vasculature allowing the patient""s vasculature to first conform to the inner catheter, rather than being xe2x80x9cstraightenedxe2x80x9d due to the presence of a stiffer recovery sheath. The inner catheter could also have high column stiffness, but be relatively easily bent radially, as if a polyimide were being used. Thereafter, the patient""s vasculature will be less likely to straighten as the recovery sheath is advanced over the inner catheter to collapse the expandable filter.
In one aspect of the embolic protection recovery system, the recovery sheath has greater column strength than the inner catheter. As a result, the composite recovery system has reduced stiffness characteristics at the distal end where it would be needed. This particular delivery structure which reduces stiffness helps to improve the trackability of the composite recovery system over the guide wire and through the vasculature, as well.
The method of using the embolic protection recovery system includes loading the inner catheter inside a recovery sheath, wherein the recovery sheath is initially placed over the inner catheter such that a distal portion of the inner catheter extends beyond the distal end of the recovery sheath. The inner catheter can then be introduced over the guide wire having an expanded filter located near the distal end of the guide wire; and advancing the distal end of the inner catheter to a position adjacent to the expanded filter located within the patient""s vasculature. The recovery sheath can then by advanced over the distal portion of the inner catheter and over the expanded filter in order to collapse the expanded filter. The recovery sheath, inner sheath, and collapsed filter can then be removed from the vasculature.
It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited by the embodiments described herein. The present invention can be used in arteries, veins, and other body lumens. Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying exemplary drawings.

Recovery system for retrieving an embolic protection device


A system is disclosed for multiplexing, transmitting, and receiving picture data and sound data, wherein the picture data and sound data are balanced in a limited transmission capacity so as to obtain a better overall quality to effectively use the transmission ability of a medium. The content of at least one of the picture data and sound data are detected and used for control of the content of the transmission. The content of the transmission is controlled by changing data and sound to correct a difference between the processing speed of the picture data and the sound data, thereby improving the quality of a video conference system or the like where the transmission capacity is insufficient.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a video and audio multiplex transmission system, more particularly relates to a system for coding audio data and video data and multiplexing and transmitting the same.
In recent years, there has been a boom in communications transmitting both audio data and video data, such as with video conferences and television-equipped telephones. In such a multiplex communications system, it is becoming important to performing the coding and decoding of the two at a high efficiency and to maintain a balance between the audio data and video data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a video and audio coding system known in the past, which transmits coded audio data multiplexed with video coded data and other control data, in the case of a transmission speed of a particularly low bit rate such as in a 2.times.B system which uses two 64 kb/s lines, the 2B system which uses one 128 kb/s line, or the B system which uses one 64 kb/s line, the ratio of transmission between the audio and video signals is in general fixed to about 1:1 (for example, the case where the audio coding speed is 56 kb/s and the video coding speed is 64 kb/s), about 1:3 (for example, the case where the audio coding speed is 32 kb/s and the video coding speed is 96 kb/s), or about 1:7 (for example, the case where the audio coding speed is 16 kb/s and the video coding speed is 112 kb/s).
However, the ratio of the data density between the audio signal and video signal is inherently different by several hundred-fold. Despite this, the data is transmitted by the above ratios. Therefore, in the case of a transmission ratio of 1:1, the amount of video data transmitted per unit time becomes small, inviting deterioration of the quality of the reproduction of moving images. On the other hand, in the case of a transmission ratio of 1:7, the audio quality becomes poorer. In particular, in the latter case, when coding a picture with little movement, unnecessary bits (fill bits) are added for matching of the transmission bit rate so as to meet with the transmission capacity.
As mentioned above, in the conventional system, there has been the problem of a sacrifice of one of the video quality and audio quality.
In the video coding unit used in such a video and audio multiplexing system, the redundancy of the video data is reduced by interframe predictive coding, intraframe predictive coding, motion compensation predictive coding, variable word length coding, and other coding techniques, but the amount of data for video signals is far greater than for audio signals, so a delay occurs with respect to the coding and decoding processing times of audio signals.
Therefore, it was not possible to secure synchronization between the picture and sound at the receiving side (lip sync), and an unnatural reproduction with mismatched picture and sound resulted.
Therefore, the technique was used of finding in advance the average of the delay times of processing of video signals with respect to the sound and, based on this as a reference, causing a fixed delay time determined during the audio processing of the system. However, there was a problem in that the actual delay time changed depending on the content of the video data and therefore the unnaturalness could not be sufficiently improved.
Normally, also, the amount of the video data is far greater than that of the audio data, so not all of the video data is actually transmitted. That is, the portion which is not transmitted is ignored and the video data is sent with lapses. Due to this, the picture reproduced at the receiver side appears rough in movement. This is because picture quality is less important than real time transmission.
On the other hand, with respect to audio signals, there are silent periods in sound. Despite this, 16 kps/s worth or 56 kps/s worth of transmission capacity is secured. Therefore, it is desirable to use the silent periods in audio signals for the video signals.

Video and audio multiplex transmission system


The present invention relates to an uplink framing method and apparatus in a mobile communication system. After a mobile terminal and a base station are connected to each other in a wireless manner, the base station allocates an uplink radio resource to a medium access control (MAC) layer of the mobile terminal, and then scheduling is performed for each connection in a buffer. Next, a packet data unit (PDU) is generated to satisfy the uplink time constraint and then transmitted to the base station. Therefore, hardware implementation complexity can be minimized in a mobile communication system that should support fast data transmission, and at the same time, a required uplink framing time can be minimized in a system that supports a short frame period.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication system, and in particular, to an uplink framing method and apparatus.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In a portable Internet system, which is one type of mobile communication system, when a long frame period of 8 ms or more is transmitted, it is necessary to ensure a sufficient amount of time to allow a medium access control (MAC) scheduler to generate and transmit an uplink packet data unit (PDU) of the selected frame. Accordingly, all of the functions of a system that transmits a frame are implemented by software (SW) due to implementation complexity and to further function improvement flexibility.
As the frame period becomes longer, the round trip time (RTT) of a transport control protocol (TCP) as an upper layer becomes increased. Then, the TCP layer recognizes that congestion occurs in the system. Accordingly, a congestion control algorithm is performed, and thus only slow data transmission is possible.
Meanwhile, all of the functions of the system may be implemented by hardware (HW). To fast transmit a frame period of 5 ms or more, an uplink scheduler needs to generate and transmit the uplink PDU during an uplink period defined by a base station.
When all of the functions of the system are implemented by hardware, implementation complexity and debugging complexity are increased. Particularly, when a plurality of constituent elements are connected to the system, it is difficult to implement a memory management routine by hardware. In addition, it is difficult to apply a new function or algorithm to the system.
The functions of the system may be implemented by hardware and software. To support traffic session connection between a terminal and a base station, a plurality of external memories are needed. Accordingly, it is difficult to implement an interface between a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and the external memories. Further, an external interface delay additionally occurs.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Uplink framing method and apparatus in mobile communication system


An apparatus has N optical structures positioned on a two-dimensional lattice defining a plane. The N optical structures are configured to redirect light out of the plane. The N optical structures are collectively arranged in a configuration that includes select elements on the two-dimensional lattice. N optical waveguides are integrated in the plane to individually supply optical power to each of the N optical structures.

FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art optical phased array 100 with a laser source 102 that delivers optical power to waveguides 104_1 through 104_N, which are connected to phase tuners 106_1 through 106_N. The optical output of the phase tuners 106_1 through 106_N is applied to corresponding optical emitters 108_1 through 108_N.
Optical phased array 100 implements beam shaping. By controlling the phase and/or amplitude of the emitters 108_1 through 108_N, the electro-magnetic field close to the emitters, known as the near field, can be controlled. Far away from the emitters 108_1 through 108_N, known as the far field, the electro-magnetic field can be modeled as a complex Fourier transform of the near field. To achieve a narrow beam in the far field, a flat phase profile in the near field is required. The width of the array determines the width of the far-field beam, scaling inversely. The slope of the near field phase profile determines the output angle of the beam. This means that by phase tuning the emitters, beam steering is achieved.
There is an ongoing need for improved optical phased array configurations, which is addressed with the embodiments disclosed herein.

Integrated phased array for two dimensional beem steering through constructive interference by light emitting structures comprising select elements on a two-dimensional lattice