The image recording apparatus comprises: a liquid ejection head which ejects liquid onto a recording medium; a conveyance device which relatively conveys the recording medium with respect to the liquid ejection head, by moving at least one of the recording medium and the liquid ejection head; a liquid removal device which is provided after the liquid ejection head in terms of a conveyance direction of the recording medium and removes the liquid on the recording medium; a recording medium determination device which determines a type of the recording medium; a liquid volume determination device which determines a volume of the liquid on the recording medium; a liquid volume threshold value establishment device which establishes a liquid volume threshold value in accordance with the type of the recording medium determined by the recording medium determination device; and a liquid removal control device which controls the liquid removal device in accordance with a comparison between the volume of the liquid on the recording medium determined by the liquid volume determination device and the liquid volume threshold value established by the liquid volume threshold value establishment device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus, and more particularly, to liquid removal technology that prevents the occurrence of cockling by effectively removing surplus liquid on a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, inkjet recording apparatuses have come to be used widely as data output apparatuses for outputting images, documents, or the like. An inkjet recording apparatus ejects ink from nozzles by driving actuators corresponding to nozzles provided in a print head in accordance with data, and thereby forms an image, document, or the like, corresponding to the data, on a recording medium.
Inkjet recording apparatuses often use water-based inks in which coloring material and additives are mixed with a solvent of water, from the viewpoint of easy handling. Water-based ink permeates into the media, and if the amount of permeated ink exceeds a prescribed volume, then cockling (wrinkling) occurs on the media. If cockling of this kind occurs, then the media may make contact with a print head, thereby giving rise to a paper jam. Furthermore, if the ink ejection volume exceeds the volume of the permeation tolerance of the media, then ink remains on the surface of the media. If this residual ink makes contact with another media, then it may cause reverse-side marks or soiling of the images on other media. On the other hand, the treatment liquid is also a water-based liquid which has water as a solvent in a system which, in order to achieve compatibility with a wide range of media, separates the solvent from the coloring material of the ink (causing the coloring material to aggregate) by making a treatment liquid and ink react with each other on the surface of a medium (for example, coated paper, sheets for overhead projectors (OHP), or the like) into which ink (solvent) does not permeate, and thereby the coloring material is fixed on the surface of the media. In such a system, a large amount of solvent (ink solvent and treatment liquid solvent) may be present on the media. Consequently, in a system of this kind, it is necessary to remove the solvent (liquid) from the media, swiftly.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-179959 discloses the ink absorbing body, and the image forming apparatus and method using an ink absorbing body. The ink absorbing body includes a liquid solvent absorbing body and a separating member. The separating member covers the surface of the liquid solvent absorbing body at least partially, and has properties of allowing the ink solvent to pass and properties of releasing the coloring material of the ink. If ink is deposited on a sheet, then the liquid solvent absorbing body is moved in closed proximity to a portion of the sheet, via the separating member. Then, the liquid solvent is absorbed into the liquid solvent absorbing body via the separating member, in such a manner that the coloring material and the liquid solvent of the liquid ink on the sheet are mutually separated.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-86353 discloses the inkjet recording apparatus including a single halogen heater and a semi-cylindrical reflecting plate that covers the exterior of this heater. The halogen heater and the semi-cylindrical reflecting plate are disposed below the platen which opposes the recording head, in such a manner that pre-heating, main heating, and after-heating are carried out with respect to a recording medium conveyed on the platen, by means of the single heater.
However, in the ink absorbing body, the image forming apparatus, and the image forming method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-179959, though unnecessary solvent is gathered by a solvent absorbing member; there is no specific disclosure regarding the time until removal of the solution, and the relationship between solution removal and the type of medium. Thus, the disclosure of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-179959 is not sufficient in terms of preventing cockling.
In the inkjet recording apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-86353, the amount of heat required to remove the solution increases when the amount of solution on the recording medium increases, and consequently, a large halogen heater is required. Moreover, there is no specific disclosure regarding the time until removal of solution, and the relationship between the type of the medium and the solution removal.


A device includes a transmitter to transmit serialized data within a differential direct-current (DC) signal over a differential output line, a multiplexer circuit coupled to the transmitter, and a calibration circuit coupled between the differential output line, a multi-phase clock, and the multiplexer circuit. The multiplexer circuit is to select the serialized data from ones of multiple input lines according to a multi-phase clock and pass the selected serialized data to the transmitter. The serialized data includes a calibration bit pattern. The calibration circuit is to capture and digitize the differential DC signal into a digital stream, measure an error value from the digital stream that is associated with distortion based on the calibration bit pattern, convert the error value into a gradient value, and correct one or more phases of the multi-phase clock to compensate for the distortion based on the gradient value.

Network devices including those that employ serializer/deserializer (SerDes) technology have been designed to correct for clock impairments caused by distortions such as pulse width distortion (PWD). Pulse width distortion can occur between clock correction circuitry and multiplexer circuitry used to perform the serialization of incoming data streams. Pulse width distortion also impacts other network devices that employ a multi-phase clock. As communication speeds in such network devices have increased, the need to correct for clock impairment has increased. For example, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 Ethernet standard requires stringent even-odd jitter (EOJ) compliance, e.g., less than 0.019 unit interval (UI) peak-to-peak. This tight specification cannot be met with correcting only for distortion caused between the clock correction circuitry and the multiplexer circuitry or other data processing circuitry that employs a multi-phase clock.

Transmitter-based, multi-phase clock distortion correction


A butanol producing cell and a method for the production of butanol are provided. Butanol producing cells comprising a butanol synthesis system or butanol export proteins may be used to enhance the production of butanol from a carbon substrate composition.

The production of butanol by solvent-producing strains of Clostridium spp. was one of the most important biotechnological developments in the first half of the 20th Century. Butanol is currently used as a chemical in the production of lacquers, plasticizers, coatings, detergents, and brake fluids. Furthermore, it is useful as a chemical substrate in the plastics industry and as a fuel additive. There is a growing interest in enhancing butanol production via butanol fermentation in bacteria. However, end-product inhibition is often a barrier to efficient productivity in many industrial fermentation processes. This toxicity results in lower than ideal final titers of butanol.
Attempts have been made to adapt fermenting bacteria to growth-limiting conditions. Toxic solvents induce the synthesis of heat shock proteins. The overexpression of heat shock proteins GroESL in Clostridium acetobutylicum results in less inhibition of clostridial growth by butanol challenge and increased final solvent titers. However, the cells are sensitive to low concentrations of butanol.
Efforts to obtain mutants that can tolerate and produce higher concentrations of butanol have been met with limited success. Butanol toxicity may have multiple effects on the cell. While there have been a few butanol-tolerant mutants to produce higher concentrations of solvent than their respective parent strains, none have been able to produce desired solvent levels.
There remains a need for the development of strains that have enhanced butanol end product tolerance and therefore can produce industrially viable concentrations of butanol.

Methods and compositions for butanol production


A technique for selecting discrete data acquisition points in three-dimensional computerized tomograph (3D CT) is based upon the center-to-center distances between detector elements in an area detector used for detecting images. The data acquisition points are selected to avoid excess computer power for processing redundant data and, at the same time, insure that a sufficient number of data points are used to minimize distortion and/or artifacts.

The present invention relates to three-dimensional (3D) computerized tomography (CT) and, more particularly, methods and systems providing an appropriate step size in a complete data scanning path for cone beam CT.
In conventional computerized tomography for both medical and industrial applications, an x-ray fan beam and a linear array detector are employed. Two-dimensional (2D) imaging is achieved. While the data set is complete and image quality is correspondingly high, only a single slice of an object is imaged at a time. When a 3D image is required, a stack of slices approach is employed. Acquiring a 3D data set one 2D slice at a time is inherently slow. Moreover, in medical applications, motion artifacts occur because adjacent slices are not imaged simultaneously. Also, dose utilization is less than optimal, because the distance between slices is typically less than the x-ray collimator aperture, resulting in a double exposure to many part of the body.
In 2D CT, the scanning path of the source is often a simple circular scan about the object. The linear array detector is fixed relative to the source. (Although it is usual to talk about a scan path of a source relative to the object to be imaged, it is to be appreciated that the object may be rotated or otherwise moved to provide relative motion between the object and the source). The data from the linear array detector is acquired at uniform angular intervals .DELTA..THETA.. For a system with a center-to-center separation between adjacent detectors of .DELTA.w, a field of view radius r and magnification M, .DELTA..THETA. is typically chosen to be EQU .DELTA..THETA.=(.DELTA.w/M)/r
This choice simply corresponds to the fact that for data acquired at two adjacent view angles spaced by .DELTA..THETA. to be independent, a point on the circumference of the object (distance r from the center) must move from in front of one detector element to in front of the
adjacent detector element ##EQU1## between view angles.
In a system employing true cone beam geometry fro 3D imaging, a cone beam x-ray source and a 2D area detector are used. An object is scanned, preferably over a 360.degree. angular range, either be moving the x-ray source in a scanning circle around the object or by rotating the object while the source remains stationary. In either case, the area detector is fixed relative to the source. The relative movement between the source and object which is to be imaged provides scanning in either case. Compared to the conventional 2D stack of slices approach to achieve 3D imaging, the cone beam geometry has the potential to achieve rapid 3D imaging of both medical and industrial objects, with improved dose utilization.
The standard scanning path used in cone beam 3D CT imaging is a single circle scan of source and detector around the object. The detector is typically sampled at uniform angular intervals around the circle as in 2D CT. However, the data acquired in a single scanning circle can be shown to be incomplete for 3D CT imaging.
Complete data scanning paths are known, but the paths are not confined to a single plane making the proper choice of a sample interval significantly different from that in the 2D or 3D circular scan case. U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,910 issued Dec. 17, 1991 to the present inventor and Hedengren discloses a complete data scanning path. The patent, which is assigned to the present assignee, is hereby incorporated by reference.
The criteria for data set completeness relative to scanning path in a 3D CT system are described in the paper by Bruce D. Smith entitled "Image Reconstruction From Cone-Beam Projections: Necessary and Sufficient Conditions and Reconstruction Methods", IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Volume MI-4, No. 1, pages 14-25 (March 1985), hereby incorporated by reference.
Whether or not a non-planar scan path for cone beam 3D CT is complete path, locations in the scan path must be identified for acquiring data by the area detector. The source may be moved continuously with data being acquired from the area detector at different locations. Generally, the speed of data acquisition is relatively high compared to the movement of the source such that the small amount of movement of the source during the data acquisition will not introduce unacceptable effects. The data acquisition may be thought of as somewhat similar to use of high speed film to take a photograph of a moving object. If the film and shutter speed are sufficiently fast relative to the movement of the object, the film will show the object to be essentially stationary.
As an alternative to continuous motion scanning, one could use step wise scanning. In step wise scanning, one would move the source relative to the object being imaged, acquire data from the area detector while there is no relative motion between the object and the source, and move the source relative to the object after data acquisition is complete for a given location. The source is then stopped at a second location for data acquisition, data is then acquired, and the source is moved on to a third location for data acquisition and so forth.
Whether the relative motion of the source to the object occurs in a continuous fashion or the motion occurs in a step wise fashion as described, one should determine the locations in the trajectory at which data should be acquired. If the intervals .DELTA.s in the trajectory s are relatively small, one can obtain the most accurate image. However, making the intervals .DELTA.s relatively small will result in obtaining a large amount of redundant data. That is, the data from one data acquisition point in the trajectory s will have a significant overlap with the data from the area detector at the adjacent data acquisition point in the trajectory. More importantly, using especially small intervals .DELTA.s requires a relatively large amount of computer processing power. That is, real-time processing of data becomes more difficult as the stream of data increases from use of smaller intervals .DELTA.s in the trajectory s. Furthermore, it is hard to justify the extra cost to obtain the necessary computer processing power to process data corresponding to relatively small intervals .DELTA.s if the data has a relatively high level of redundancy.
In either the continuous motion or step wise motion scan technique, one can reduce the requirements for data processing power by increasing the size of the intervals .DELTA.s separating adjacent data acquisition points in the trajectory s. However, if the intervals .DELTA.s between data acquisition points in the trajectory s are too large, independent or nonredundant data will be lost and artifacts and/or distortions will be introduced into the image data.

Step size in complete data scanning path for three dimensional computerized tomography


The invention provides carbon membranes for use in fluid separation processes, particularly gas separations, which are treated with a coating that provides a protective barrier which significantly limits permeation of water vapor or other impurities such as hydrocarbons without significantly inhibiting permeation of the faster fluid component or lowering selectivity. The composite membranes retain good fluid separation properties and are resistant to the adverse effects on membrane performance commonly observed in environments having high humidity. The coating is preferably an amorphous polymer of perfluoro-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxole. The membranes can be of a varied configuration: sheet form, hollow fiber, asymmetrical membranes and the like.

The use of membranes for separation processes is well known. Certain carbon membranes are particularly useful for the separation of fluids, especially gases such as oxygen and nitrogen.
The membranes may be fabricated in various geometrical configurations, such as sheet formed membranes and hollow fibers. The membranes may be symmetrical, asymmetrical, single-component or composite.
Carbon membranes have superior selectivities and productivities for many separations. However, a major problem with these membranes has been their vulnerability to the effects of water vapor and other condensible agents and impurities such as oils or other hydrocarbon compounds. For example, humidity levels well below 100% relative humidity are sufficient to significantly impair the performance of the carbon membrane. Small amounts of oil or other hydrocarbons can also significantly impair the performance of the membrane.
In order to reduce the humidity of the fluid to be permeated, the fluid may be treated with dehumidifying agents. This typically involves the use of large, expensive equipment. Such equipment is also prone to failure. In addition, other condensible agents and impurities may be removed from the fluid to be permeated by various filtration, separation or extraction techniques. These measures may also involve the use of large, expensive equipment and are often not successful.
It is known to prepare composite membranes and/or post treat membranes with materials that seal or heal defects or improve the stability of the membrane. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,616,607 and 3,775,303 exemplify gas separation membranes having superimposed membranes on a porous support.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,463 deals broadly with the post treatment of fluid separation membranes. It describes a wide variety of membranes for liquid and gas separations, particularly a multicomponent membrane where the separation properties of the membrane are principally determined by the porous separation membrane as opposed to the material of the coating. The coating cures defects in the surface of the membrane. U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,422 also discloses a method of posttreating composite membranes to cure defects in the thin separation layer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,345 describes a multicomponent membrane for gas separation having a polyphosphazene coating in occluding contact with a porous separation membrane for the purpose of improving stability of the membrane when exposed to aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons contained in a gaseous mixture.
EPO Patent Application 0,337,499 discloses a gas separation membrane with a covering layer formed from a selective film. The covering layer is made from a polymer having a critical surface tension not larger than 30 dynes/cm, such as poly-4-methylpentene-1, fluorinated alkyl methacrylate and polymethyl fluorinated alkyl siloxane.
U.S. Pat. No. Re. 33,273 describes a method of improving the characteristics of separatory membranes by the deposition of a fluorinated amphiphilic compound in an oriented layer on the surface of the membrane so as to increase membrane selectivity and counteract membrane surface properties leading to fouling caused by colloidal materials.
The prior art references do not, however, teach a polymeric membrane treatment for reducing the adverse effects of impurities on the performance of carbon membranes. A carbon membrane is, therefore, needed with good permeation properties and significant resistance to the effects of water vapor and other condensible agents and impurities. The inventive fluid separation membrane is a composite carbon membrane which retains high selectivities for fluid separations and is significantly more resistant to the adverse affects commonly observed in environments having high humidity or other impurities.

Composite carbon fluid separation membranes


The component placement substrate of the present invention can be produced easily with suppressed cracks in a thin film formed on a pattern film of the substrate. The present invention provides a component placement substrate provided with one or more pattern films on a substrate, wherein at least one of the pattern film(s) has a cross-sectional shape composed of a semi-elliptical circular upper part, and one of a forward taper shaped lower part and a approximately vertical taper shaped lower part and the average thickness of the lower part is 50 Å or larger and 3,000 Å or smaller.

As a method for wiring formation, methods of applying liquid materials such as an ink-jet method have received attention in recent years. For example, in the case of forming a wiring by an ink-jet method, in general, it is carried out by discharging the material to form a wiring, for example a metal colloidal solution containing metal fine particles in guides (also called as banks) formed along a wiring pattern by an ink-jet apparatus and then baking the material for forming a metal wiring pattern. Such formation of a metal wiring using the ink-jet apparatus is advantageous in terms of the production efficiency and basic properties of the wiring. That is, advantageous points of the formation of a wiring by such an ink-jet method are that the method is effective to save investments with no need of apparatus for sputtering, etching and the like; to reduce waste material is improved, and formation of low resistance wiring by thickening a film of wiring is easier than a film formation method in vacuum atmosphere. The wiring substrate produced in such a manner has been investigated for application to various electronic devices, for example, widely investigated for application to substrates of display apparatus.
As previous methods for forming a wiring except methods of applying liquid materials, sputtering depositing for metal layer, photolithography and etching metal layer process shown in FIG. 12 can be exemplified, however they have no such advantages of the ink-jet methods in terms of the production efficiency and the basic properties of the wiring. Further, in such formation of a wiring, the taper shape is to be controlled depending on the etching conditions and in the case where the film thickness becomes thick, it becomes difficult to control the taper shape and in the case of inverse taper shape, the film to be formed on an upper layer, e.g. a CVD (chemical vapor deposition) film, has a crack.
With respect to a method for forming a wiring by an ink-jet method, a method for patterning surrounded region with guides formed on a substrate then filling with the material to form a wiring by an ink-jet method is disclosed (for example, reference to Patent re-publication WO99/48339 (p. 1 and 2)). In such previous guide and ink-jet methods, as shown in FIG. 13, guides 13 are formed and after that a metal colloidal solution is selectively applied between guides 13 and subjected to thermal treatment to form a wiring 4. However, cracks are formed between the guides 13 made of resin material and the metal wiring 4 and if the guides 13 are removed for preventing cracks, the cross-sectional shape of the wiring tends to be inverse taper shape. That is, the taper shape of the guides 13 is transferred to form the inverse taper shape of the cross-sectional shape of the wiring. Further, generally the thickness of the guides 13 is 1 μm (=10,000 Å) or larger, so that removal is very difficult.
Also, as another method for forming a wiring, a method involving forming lyophobic parts and liquid-repelling parts in prescribed patterns on a substrate surface using an organic molecular film, which has a self-alignment characteristic, selectively applying a liquid in which conductive fine particles are dispersed to the lyophobic parts, and converting the fine particles into a conductive film by thermal treatment to form the conductive film only in the lyophobic parts is disclosed (for example, reference to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-164635 (p. 1 and 2)). In such previous self-alignment film patterning and ink-jet methods, for example as shown in FIG. 14, after patterning the self-alignment film (monomolecular film) 14, material to form a wiring, e.g. the above-mentioned metal colloidal solution, is selectively applied and subjected to the thermal treatment to form the wiring 4. However, patterning of the self-alignment film (monomolecular film) 14 is difficult, so that the productivity is considerably lowered. Accordingly, in the formation of a wiring using an ink-jet apparatus, there still remains a margin for improvements to improve the productivity and to obtain a component placement substrate with suppressed defects such as cracking by sufficiently utilizing the advantageous points of ink-jet. Such a margin for improvements is common generally in methods for applying liquid materials.

Component placement substrate and production method thereof


A vehicle alternating-current power generator includes a stator formed by winding an armature winding on a stator core and a rotor arranged on the radial inside of the stator. The rotor includes a field core having a boss part and a plurality of claw-shaped magnetic pole parts, a field winding that is wound on the outer peripheral side of the boss part, and a permanent magnet that is arranged between the circumferentially adjacent claw-shaped magnetic pole parts. A d-axis magnetic circuit formed by magnetomotive force of the field winding and at least part of first and second magnet magnetic circuits formed by magnetic force of the permanent magnet are shared. When an electrical load is connected to the rotor, the relationship between a permeance Prt of the d-axis magnetic circuit and a permeance Pst of a q-axis magnetic circuit is set to satisfy Pst>Prt.

A vehicle alternating-current power generator includes a Lundell rotor with a field winding and a plurality of claw-shaped magnetic pole parts in which magnetic poles different in polarity are alternately excited by the field winding in a circumferential direction. Such a vehicle alternating-current power generator is known as a conventional rotary electrical machine. PTL 1 discloses a power generator including a magnet-equipped Lundell rotor in which permanent magnets are interposed between the claw-shaped magnetic pole parts to obtain higher output density. This type of power generator is designed with consideration given to the size of the permanent magnets and the optimization of a boss part, a disc part, and claw-shaped magnetic pole parts of the Lundell rotor core. Accordingly, the power generator achieves both the improvement of power generation performance and the reduction of back-electromotive force.
PTL 1 describes the mathematical expression derived by determining the relationship between the magnetic flux of a permanent magnet that generates an inflexion point of output characteristics in a power generator and various constants L, W, and θ of claw-shaped magnetic pole pieces. In addition, PTL 1 describes that setting the various constants L, W, and θ would make it possible to decide consistently the residual magnetic flux density Br of the permanent magnets. Accordingly, in the power generator described in PTL 1, the magnetic poles can be set to allow the avoidance of battery overcharge and the achievement of high efficiency and high output at the same time in a universal way even with differences in specifications.
There are is known magnet-embedded rotors (IPM rotor) in which permanent magnets are embedded in the outer peripheral portion of a rotor core such that NS poles alternate in the circumferential direction. The IPM rotor has become rapidly widespread due to its high torque, and installed in vehicle power generators, electric motors, and other components.
In recent years, vehicles have been formed in a slant-nose shape and their engine compartments have been reduced in size for reduction of running resistance. Along with this, the installation spaces for vehicle power generators and starters have been minimized. In this case, particular importance is placed on the capability of a starter, high-efficiency power running for assisting a vehicle in high-efficiency operation, and the performance of regenerative operation. Therefore, there has been relatively decreased demand for improvement in only sheer power generation performance, whereas attention has been focused on the power generation, torque, and regerative ability of power generators for the case where field current becomes large in a short period of time.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Provided is a protecting case for protecting an electronic device. The protecting case includes a protecting case body portion and a sliding case portion having an auxiliary battery cell embedded therein, the sliding case portion being electrically connected with the electronic device, supplying power to the electronic device, and being inserted into/drawn out from the protecting case body portion by sliding movement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protecting case for protecting an electronic device, and more particularly, to a protecting case including an auxiliary battery cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various electronic devices have been provided to users and portable electronic devices, such as portable terminals, MP3 players, Portable Multimedia Players (PMPs), electronic books, and any other similar and/or suitable devices, which allow users to enjoy various contents while carrying them, have come into wide use.
The portable electronic devices are subject to special treatment, such as coating, for protection of outer surfaces thereof, but such special treatment may not protect every trivial damage that occurs in our daily lives.
Thus, to protect a portable electronic device, a protecting case is coupled to the portable electronic device.
Meanwhile, the portable electronic device, which has mainly intended for phone calls or Short Messaging Service (SMS) text transmission and reception, has recently added thereto various additional functions (for example, capturing of still or moving images, various utilities, games, and so forth) as smart phones have been developed. A smart phone that is currently in the market may implement various functions through a wireless network communication network from mail check to Internet use.
To execute various functions without any trouble, a high-capacity battery pack is required. That is, a conventional portable electronic device is supplied with power from a basic battery pack, and if the basic battery pack is discharged, the basic battery pack is separated and a preliminary battery pack is mounted and used.
However, a conventional protecting case does not separately include a rechargeable battery pack, such that when the portable electronic device uses up both the power of the basic battery pack and the power of the preliminary battery pack, the battery should be charged or another preliminary battery pack should be mounted and used on the portable electronic device. Moreover, due to such a limited battery capacity, inconvenient situations occur often during execution of various functions.
An external auxiliary battery has been widely used to increase the battery capacity of the portable electronic device, but a separate connection cable is required for electric connection between the external auxiliary battery and the portable electronic device, and the connection cable should be carried at all times.
Hence, there is a need for a device that includes a rechargeable auxiliary battery pack in the protecting case to supply charging power when coupled to the portable electronic device, to be electrically connected to the portable electronic device without using a connection cable, and also to protect the portable electronic device.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.


A preparation for oral administration comprising: a pregelatinized starch comprising N-[4-[4-(1,2-benzisothiazol-3-yl)-1-piperazinyl]-(2R,3R)-2,3-tetramethylene-butyl]-(1′R,2′S,3′R,4′S)-2,3-bicyclo[2,2,1]-heptanedicarboxyimide hydrochloride (lurasidone) represented by the formula (1) as an active ingredient; a water-soluble excipient; and a water-soluble polymeric binder, the preparation exhibiting an invariant level of elution behavior even when the content of its active ingredient is varied.

Patent Document 1 discloses that a compound such as lurasidone can be orally administered and an oral preparation can be prepared by blending an active ingredient with a conventional carrier, excipient, binder, stabilizer and the like, but there is no disclosure of an oral preparation which shows a rapid dissolution and has an equivalent dissolution profile of the active ingredient even though contents of the active ingredient therein are varied in the wide range, particularly an oral preparation with increased contents of the active ingredient which has a similar dissolution profile to that of multiple tablets with a lower content of the active ingredient per tablet.
For the purpose of securing the bioequivalence when pharmaceutical preparations with different contents of the active ingredient were administered so as to be the same dose to each other, a guideline has been issued, i.e., "Guideline for Bioequivalence Studies of Oral Solid Dosage Forms with Different Content" (Notification No. 64 of the Evaluation and Licensing Division, Pharmaceutical and Food Safety Bureau, promulgated on Feb. 14, 2000) by which it has been required that pharmaceutical preparations with different contents should have an equivalent dissolution profile in each test solution such as buffers of pH1.2, 3.0 to 5.0 and 6.8 (which correspond to the pH values of stomach, intestine and oral cavity, respectively), water, and saline.
Patent Document 2 discloses an oral preparation comprising lurasidone as an active ingredient, which shows a rapid dissolution and has an equivalent dissolution profile even though contents of the active ingredient therein are varied, particularly an oral preparation with increased contents of the active ingredient which has an equivalent dissolution profile to that of multiple tablets with a lower content of the active ingredient per tablet and can release a slightly water-soluble active ingredient therefrom at a desired concentration.
Patent Document 2 further discloses an oral preparation, particularly a tablet, which shows a rapid dissolution of the active ingredient even though contents of the active ingredient therein are varied in the range of several mg to several tens of mg (e.g. in the range of 5 mg to 20 mg or in the range of 5 mg to 40 mg), and further has an equivalent dissolution profile in the same componential ratio. An oral preparation has been frequently required to be a preparation with higher contents of the active ingredient in order to get higher clinical effects, or a preparation which has an equivalent dissolution profile to that of multiple tablets and can release the active ingredient therefrom at a desired concentration in wider ranges of contents in order to adjust clinical effects depending on conditions of patients. The art disclosed in Patent Document 2 may provide an oral preparation which has an equivalent dissolution profile in the range of 5 mg to 40 mg of lurasidone per tablet, as shown in FIG. 1. However, as shown in FIG. 2, when the content of the active ingredient per tablet was increased to double, i.e., 80 mg tablet, it could not have an equivalent dissolution profile. Hence, it remains in a state of administering multiple tablets at one time or using a tablet having a big size which is difficult to administer. Therefore, for such a slightly water-soluble active ingredient as lurasidone, it has been difficult to provide an oral preparation having an equivalent dissolution profile even in high content or in wider ranges of contents of the active ingredient.
In Patent Document 2, a water-soluble polymer binder includes starch, but there is no description about a pregelatinized starch therein. The pregelatinized starch is known to remarkably improve a disintegration and a dissolution of a pharmaceutical composition as described, for example, in Patent Document 3, but it is often used, typically, in 10% or less of contents as also described in Non-patent Document 1.    Patent Document 1: JP2800953    Patent Document 2: WO2002/024166    Patent Document 3: JP2000-26292    Non-patent Document 1: Handbook of Pharmaceutical Excipients, 2nd edition, 491, 1994, The Pharmaceutical Press


Automatically detected and identified tasks and calendar items from electronic communications may be populated into one or more tasks applications and calendaring applications. Text content retrieved from one or more electronic communications may be extracted and parsed for determining whether keywords or terms contained in the parsed text may lead to a classification of the text content or part of the text content as a task. Identified tasks may be automatically populated into a tasks application. Similarly, text content from such sources may be parsed for keywords and terms that may be identified as indicating calendar items, for example, meeting requests. Identified calendar items may be automatically populated into a calendar application as a calendar entry.

Within any number of business, social or academic enterprises, electronic mail typically serves as the primary source of communication among members of the enterprise, as well as, among members of the enterprise and persons outside the enterprise. Unfortunately, typical electronic mail (email) users receive and review tens or even hundreds of email messages on a daily basis and the users often have trouble managing and prioritizing incoming electronic mail items. This is especially problematic when the messages contain requests or tasks that need a response or follow-up by the receiving user. In particular, many users often receive tasks or job assignments as part of individual electronic mail messages, for example, "Please redesign the company web site by next Friday," but because the example task is embedded in an electronic mail message, the user may fail to generate a corresponding electronic task or calendar item to remind the user to complete the given task.
Similarly, email and other electronic communications often have embedded content that may be considered calendar entries, but that may be overlooked by the receiver. For example, a statement may be included in an email message like "Let's meet for lunch at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday." Such a statement, particularly if responded to, is very similar to a calendar entry, but if the user forgets to mark his/her calendar with the stated meeting, he/she may miss the meeting.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.

Automatic task extraction and calendar entry


According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a measurement apparatus for measuring a property of an eye of a subject, having a target arranged to be viewed by the subject, the target including a first light and a second light arranged to undergo a modulation in anti-phase, the modulation decreasing from an initial modulation frequency at which an initial flicker of the first light and second light is not perceivable by the subject; and an indication device allowing the subject to indicate when a flicker is perceived, the modulation frequency at which the subject indicates that the flicker is perceived being defined as a threshold modulation frequency.

The eye is an extremely sensitive organ. The high sensitivity can be used to accurately determine a wide range of properties of the eye, for example the eye's temporal, spatial and chromatic performance. In turn, these and other properties can yield, directly or indirectly, information pertaining toward the health of the eye.
Due to the importance of the eye and the associated sense of sight, it is not unsurprising that diagnosis and treatment of problems with the eye is the subject of vast amounts of research and development. Of particular interest to many researchers is the retina.
The parts of a human or animal body involved in the processing of light, or 'the sense of sight' are, amongst others: a lens, a retina, an optic nerve and a brain.
The retina is the part of the eye upon which light impinges after passing through the lens. The retina is a thin membrane inside the wall of the eye, and comprises a large number of light (and colour) sensitive cells, or 'photoreceptors'. The retina transforms the light transmitted by the lens into chemical and electrical signals that are sent to the brain via the optic nerve. Maintenance of the health of the retina is crucial to maintaining a healthy eye and thus good sight.
One way of determining the health of the eye is to determine the optical density of one or many of the various constituent components of the retina. One such component is macular pigment. This is a yellow substance located in the central (macular) region of the retina. Macular pigment is believed to be entirely of dietary origin. It is composed of the carotenoids, lutein and xeanthanin.
Research indicates that macular pigment contributes to maintaining the health of the eye in two ways. First, it has anti-oxidant properties, thereby depressing the activity of oxidative substances that are responsible for the degeneration of outer layers of the retina in elderly eyes. Second, it absorbs strongly in the short-wavelength (blue) region of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is known to be damaging to the delicate outer layers of the retina.
The macular region of the eye is prone to degeneration in older people. This condition is particularly debilitating because it affects the ability to drive, read and live a normal life. For example, some people with macular degeneration notice that straight lines in a landscape—such as telegraph poles, the sides of buildings or streets, appear wavy. Other symptoms include blurring of type or a page of print, with dark or empty spaces that may block the centre of the field of vision. Such degeneration is known as age related macular degeneration, or ARM for short. For demographic reasons associated with the aging population, the incidence of age related macular degeneration is on the increase in developed and developing countries, and the potential protective properties of macular pigment has lead to a great deal of interest in its in-vivo measurement.
The benefits of measuring macular pigment are clear. It identifies those patients who are at high risk of developing age related macular degeneration because of low macular pigment. Individuals who have low levels of macular pigment can be advised to modify their lifestyle and diet in a way that is already known to significantly reduce the risk of developing age related macular degeneration. An accurate and reliable measurement of the amount of macular pigment therefore has immense clinical and commercial potential.
In terms of the commercial exploitation, there are now many food supplements containing lutein, which is known to boost the levels of macular pigment in the retina. By measuring the amount of macular pigment from time to time, individuals taking lutein will know how much their macular pigment is increasing due to the ingestion of the lutein. The market for lutein-based products is large and increasing, especially in the United States of America, and manufacturers of the supplements are keen to encourage individuals to be aware of how their eyes are benefiting from the lutein so that they will continue to purchase the lutein-based product. A measurement that yields the amount of macular pigment quickly, accurately and consistently can aid such encouragement.
One aspect of the eye's, and in particular the retina's performance that is of particular interest is the sensitivity to temporal modulation, or 'flicker'. The human eye is highly sensitive to flicker, and the borderline between the presence and absence of flicker (the flicker threshold) can be easily identified. It is well known in the art that the eye's sensitivity to flicker decreases with age and also with the onset and development of many disease states. In particular, the flicker threshold has been used to determine the amount of macular pigment in the retina, and thus the susceptibility to, onset and progression of age related macular degeneration.
It is well known that sensitivity to temporal modulation of a target is linearly related to the luminance of the target. If two targets are superimposed in space and temporally modulated in anti-phase, the targets appear to flicker only if the luminances of the targets are different. When the relative intensities of the targets are adjusted so that flicker is absent or minimised, then the targets are defined as being of equal luminance as perceived by the eye. This observation is particularly useful when two targets of different wavelength are required to be equalised in luminance, a method called heterochromatic flicker photometry. Such a method is used to determine the amount of macular pigment in the retina.
In a conventional prior art method, the targets are lights of different colours, usually blue and green. The two colours are superimposed and are modulated in anti-phase. The frequency of the modulation is constant, and is usually 15 Hz, although other frequencies such as 10 Hz and 20 Hz have also been used. A subject viewing the superimposed lights perceives them to be flickering. The use of blue light is important as this is preferentially absorbed by the macular pigment. Thus, by comparing the absorption of the blue light in the macular and non-macular (peripheral) parts of the retina, where there is no macular pigment, information relating to the amount of macular pigment can be extracted.
The method requires the subject to view the superimposed lights in such a position that the lights are incident on the macular region of the retina. The subject then adjusts the intensity of the blue flickering light until the flicker disappears. At the point at which flickering is perceived to disappear, the subject has perceived the green and blue light as being of equal intensity.
Although the subject perceives the intensities of the lights to be equal, in reality they are (in general) not. The perceptions of the subject are used to determine properties of the subject's eye, or more specifically their retina.
At the point at which flicker disappears, a ratio of the intensity of blue light and green light is established. For the central (macular) region of the retina, the corresponding luminance of the blue light is known as the central luminance, Lc.
The measurement is repeated for a peripheral part of the retina, where there is no macular pigment. Since there is no macular pigment in the peripheral part of the retina, this measurement acts as a normalisation measurement. The measurement is taken, for example, at an angle of 6° from the macular region. At the point at which flicker disappears, a ratio of the intensity of blue light and green light is established. For the peripheral region of the retina, the corresponding luminance of the blue light is known as the peripheral luminance, LP.
As is known in the art, an indication of the amount of macular pigment in the macular region of the retina can be derived from entering the measured central and peripheral luminances into the following formula:
  MPOD  =            Log      10                  [                        L          C                          L          P                    ]      where LC and LP are the central and peripheral luminances, and MPOD is the optical density of macular pigment in the macular region.
Although the basic concept of this measurement method is straightforward, its actual implementation is not. This measurement for measuring flicker sensitivity relies on expensive apparatus that needs careful and repeated calibration and a professionally trained operator. Even with such highly stringent conditions, the results obtained are often prone to error and maybe misleading. Similar research studies conducted by different research groups often yield results that are inconsistent at best, with large discrepancies sometimes apparent between the results.
As well as errors inherent in the apparatus used, a wide range of errors is introduced due to each subject's different perceptions and sensitivities to the method used. For example, subjects may have different sensitivities to flicker and colour saturation, both of which will introduce errors into the results obtained from the prior art method. One suggested method of reducing errors in the prior art method is to take the average results of a plurality of measurements. While reducing the errors to a limited extent, such a multi-measurement experiment requires careful control of all physical and psychological factors. In an attempt to control such factors, a professionally trained operator is required. Clearly this is impractical and prevents the method being used on a wide scale, such as in pharmacies and even health centres. In particular, the requirement of a professionally trained operator prevents the method being used by an unskilled user, for example the patient or subject.
Although techniques such as taking the average of a plurality of measurements do result in the reduction of some errors, other errors remain. For example, when exposed to a prolonged period of continuous flicker, the eye's natural response is to adapt to this flicker. Responding to or sensing continuous flicker is energetically inefficient for the eye, and thus the flicker is 'blurred out' or, to some extent 'suppressed' by the eye. This is known as the Troxler Effect, and is widely known to those skilled in the art. The prior method, which involves exposing a subject to a continuous period of flicker, is consequently prone to errors introduced by the Troxler Effect.


A method for using a smartcard is provided. The smartcard may include a microprocessor chip, a button, a dynamic transaction authorization number, a Bluetooth low energy (“BLE”) device, and a battery. The battery may power the BLE and the microprocessor chip. The smartcard may also include memory. The memory may store the dynamic transaction authorization number. The smartcard may also include a dynamic magnetic strip. The dynamic magnetic strip may include a digital representation of the dynamic transaction authorization number. The method may include pressing the button. The method may also include transmitting an instruction to a smartphone for a request for a dynamic transaction authorization number. The transmission of an instruction may be in response to the pressing of the button. The method may also include receiving a dynamic transaction authorization number from a smartphone.

Credit and debit card information may include a card number, a card security code, a card holder name, a card expiration date and/or any other pertinent information.
Credit and debit card information has been subject to many security breaches in recent years. Credit and debit card information may be stolen in many different ways. For example, this information can be stolen at an automatic teller machine ("ATM") or in any other suitable location.
Card information theft can occur if someone places a skimming device on the ATM card reader which reads the information from the card's magnetic strip.
Card information can also be stolen at a retail location. This can occur if someone places a skimming device on the card reader at the retail location, which reads the card information from the card's magnetic strip. The skimming device may save the card information and/or may transmit the card information to a thief. The thief may then use the card information to make unauthorized purchases. In addition, there are many other ways that have not been described, in which card information may be stolen.
A card user may realize, at a later date, that his or her credit card information was stolen. The realization may occur when the card user receives his or her credit or debit card bill, and sees transactions that he or she did not execute and/or authorize. The card user may then contact the company which issued the card—e.g., the bank, or credit card company—to report fraud on his or her card.
The issuing company may decide to refund the user for the fraudulent transaction(s), and issue the user a new card. Issuance of a new card, including new card information, in addition to refunding a transaction, may be expensive for the company issuing the card.
In addition, if fraudulent activity occurs in a major retail store, the issuing card company may automatically send out new cards, with new card information, to any user who frequented the particular retail store in a specific time frame, e.g., a recent time frame. Sending new cards, with new card information, to millions of shoppers can be very costly for the company issuing the cards.
Therefore, it would be advantageous for a company issuing a card to have the ability to change the card information without sending new physical cards.

Method and apparatus for providing real time mutable credit card information and for providing sleep mode functionality


In a two-stroke engine including a scavenging port (43b) having an open end (42d) opening out in a side wall of the cylinder bore (3a) and communicating with a crank chamber (2a), the open end being configured to be closed and opened by the piston (22), a fuel injection device (71) is mounted on the engine main body so as to inject fuel onto a back side of the piston and/or a part of the side wall of the cylinder bore located under the piston via the open end of the scavenging port or via the open lower end of the cylinder bore. The fuel deposited on the surfaces of the piston and the cylinder inner wall promotes the cooling of such parts.

The two-stroke engine is often preferred over the four-stroke engine in the field of general purpose engines because of the simplicity in the structure. The two-stroke engine is often not provided with any lubrication system, and the required lubrication is achieved by the use of mixed fuel containing lubricating oil. As the fuel is supplied to the crank chamber before being forwarded to the combustion chamber, the various rotating parts and sliding surfaces are lubricated. The lubricating oil is also known to be useful in removing heat from various moving parts. However, because the lubricating oil supplied in this manner is highly limited in quantity, as compared to the case of a four-stroke engine equipped with a lubricating oil recirculation system, cooling of the piston and the cylinder is a major problem in the two-stroke engine.
It has been proposed to form a passage in a two-stroke engine opening out toward the back side of the piston, and to blow compressed air against the back side of the piston via this passage. See JP04-237815A, for instance. It has also been proposed to provide a guide plate extending at an angle to the cylinder axial line on the back side of the piston such that gas may be guided to the back side of the piston as the piston moves downward for the purpose of cooling the piston. See JP61-101655A, for instance. In the two-stroke engine disclosed in JP61-101655A, an opening is formed in the skirt of the piston so as to communicate with the intake port during the downward stroke of the piston. The mixture mixed with fuel in the intake port is conducted through the intake port, the opening, a space on the back side of the piston and the crank chamber, in that order, and this flow cools the piston. According to yet another proposal, an opening is formed in the skirt of the piston such that the mixture may be conducted through the crank chamber, a space on the back side of the piston, a scavenging port and the combustion chamber. See JP03-026820A, for instance.
However, according to the invention disclosed in JP04-237815A, in addition to a pump, special passages are required in the engine so that the complexity and the size of the engine inevitably increase. As for the invention disclosed in JP61-101655A and JP03-026820A, the piston is required to have a skirt having an opening formed therein so that the compatibility is impaired, and the manufacturing cost increases.


Catheter-based delivery systems for delivery and retrieval of a leadless pacemaker include features to facilitate improved manipulation of the catheter and improved capture and docking functionality of leadless pacemakers. Such functionality includes mechanisms directed to deflecting and locking a deflectable catheter, maintaining tension on a retrieval feature, protection from anti-rotation, and improved docking cap and drive gear assemblies.

Cardiac pacing by an artificial pacemaker provides an electrical stimulation of the heart when its own natural pacemaker and/or conduction system fails to provide synchronized atrial and ventricular contractions at rates and intervals sufficient for a patient's health. Such antibradycardial pacing provides relief from symptoms and even life support for hundreds of thousands of patients. Cardiac pacing may also provide electrical overdrive stimulation to suppress or convert tachyarrhythmias, again supplying relief from symptoms and preventing or terminating arrhythmias that could lead to sudden cardiac death.
Cardiac pacing by currently available or conventional pacemakers is usually performed by a pulse generator implanted subcutaneously or sub-muscularly in or near a patient's pectoral region. Pulse generator parameters are usually interrogated and modified by a programming device outside the body, via a loosely-coupled transformer with one inductance within the body and another outside, or via electromagnetic radiation with one antenna within the body and another outside. The generator usually connects to the proximal end of one or more implanted leads, the distal end of which contains one or more electrodes for positioning adjacent to the inside or outside wall of a cardiac chamber. The leads have an insulated electrical conductor or conductors for connecting the pulse generator to electrodes in the heart. Such electrode leads typically have lengths of 50 to 70 centimeters.
Although more than one hundred thousand conventional cardiac pacing systems are implanted annually, various well-known difficulties exist, of which a few will be cited. For example, a pulse generator, when located subcutaneously, presents a bulge in the skin that patients can find unsightly, unpleasant, or irritating, and which patients can subconsciously or obsessively manipulate or "twiddle". Even without persistent manipulation, subcutaneous pulse generators can exhibit erosion, extrusion, infection, and disconnection, insulation damage, or conductor breakage at the wire leads. Although sub-muscular or abdominal placement can address some concerns, such placement involves a more difficult surgical procedure for implantation and adjustment, which can prolong patient recovery.
A conventional pulse generator, whether pectoral or abdominal, has an interface for connection to and disconnection from the electrode leads that carry signals to and from the heart. Usually at least one male connector molding has at least one terminal pin at the proximal end of the electrode lead. The male connector mates with a corresponding female connector molding and terminal block within the connector molding at the pulse generator. Usually a setscrew is threaded in at least one terminal block per electrode lead to secure the connection electrically and mechanically. One or more O-rings usually are also supplied to help maintain electrical isolation between the connector moldings. A setscrew cap or slotted cover is typically included to provide electrical insulation of the setscrew. This briefly described complex connection between connectors and leads provides multiple opportunities for malfunction.
Other problematic aspects of conventional pacemakers relate to the separately implanted pulse generator and the pacing leads. By way of another example, the pacing leads, in particular, can become a site of infection and morbidity. Many of the issues associated with conventional pacemakers are resolved by the development of a self-contained and self-sustainable pacemaker, or so-called leadless pacemaker, as described in the applications cited below.
Similar to active fixation implantable leads used with conventional pulse generators, leadless pacemakers are typically fixed to an intracardial implant site by an actively engaging mechanism such as a screw or helical member that screws into the myocardium.
Leadless pacemakers are typically delivered to an intracardial implant site via a delivery system including catheters, sheaths and/or introducers. Introduction of a leadless pacemaker into the venous system and navigation of the leadless pacemaker through and past delicate tissues and anatomical structures to the implantation site is a complicated task. To achieve this task, manipulation of the sheaths, catheters and introducers relative to each other must often be precise.
Similarly, retrieval of previously implanted leadless pacemakers requires precise manipulation of the catheters, sheaths and/or introducers to secure the implanted leadless pacemaker, disengage the leadless pacemaker from the intracardial implant site, and extract the leadless pacemaker through the venous system. Absent sufficient control and precision during the retrieval process, damage to one or more of the leadless pacemaker, the cardiac tissue of the implant site, and the venous system may result.
There is a need in the art for systems and methods that facilitate, precise manipulation of a leadless pacemaker delivery and systems for purposes of both implanting and removing leadless pacemakers from intractardial implant sites.

Catheter-based system for delivery and retrieval of a leadless pacemaker


A method of testing a semiconductor memory device using a parallel march pattern method of testing. All of the memory bits in a memory device are programmed to a first logic state. All of the memory bits in selected rows are programmed to a second logic state. All of the memory bits in rows adjacent to the rows programmed to the second logic state are read to determine if the memory bits programmed to the second logic state have caused the memory bits programmed to the first logic state in the adjacent rows to change logic state. The selected rows are determined by a periodicity value that can be values such as 4, 8, or 16. The periodicity determines the number of clock cycles needed to test the entire memory device. A periodicity of 8 requires only 8 clock cycles to test the entire memory device, regardless of the size of the memory device. The parallel march pattern method of testing can be by rows, by columns or by diagonals.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods of testing semiconductor memory devices. More specifically, this invention relates to a method of testing semiconductor memory devices that utilizes parallel march patterns that substantially increase testing speed.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The rapid growth of technological requirements and the worldwide acceptance of sophisticated electronic device have created an unprecedented demand for large-scale, complex, integrated circuits. Meeting these demands has required technological advances in materials and processing equipment and a significant increase in the number of individuals involved in integrated circuit design and testing. In addition, there has been an increased emphasis on effectively utilizing sophisticated test instruments and procedures to aid in the analysis of the manufacturing parameters so that the design and manufacturing process can be improve and in the testing of semiconductor devices before the devices are shipped to customers.
In order to meet the increasing demand, there has been an ever-increasing requirement to increase the density of devices manufactured in a semiconductor device. The number of devices manufactured on a chip exceeded the generally accepted definition of VLSI (very large scale integration) of more than 100,000 devices per chip in the mid-1970s. By 1986, this number of devices manufactured on a chip had grown to over 1 million devices per chip. As is well known, today the number of devices per chip is well over 1 million devices per chip and is still growing at an exponential rate.
To keep up with the growing demand for technological growth, there has been a concomitant demand for a growth in the size of memory devices. Large memory devices are one of the keys to the continued growth of technology. Memory devices have grown dramatically with some memory devices being manufactured with multiple millions of memory bits. It is the practice and a requirement of the semiconductor industry to test each memory bit in the memory device before it is sent to a customer. One current method of testing memory is known as the serial march method of testing. In this method, a selected number of consecutive memory bits are programmed logic high and adjacent logic low memory bits are read to determine if they have changed state due to leakage or a short from the programmed logic high memory bits. The selected number of memory bits is moved one bit and the reading of the adjacent logic low memory bits is repeated. This process continues until the entire memory device has been tested. As can be appreciated, the number of clock cycles needed to test the memory device is approximately equal to the number of memory bits in the memory device. For example, a memory device having 1 million memory bits would require approximately 1 million clock cycles to completely test the memory device. As the memory devices have grown, the number of required clock cycles to test has grown at the same pace.
While the time to test a memory device completely has increased, at the same time the price of the memory devices has decreased. The decease in the selling price of the memory devices has caused increased pressure upon the testing facility to decrease the cost of testing.
Therefore, what is needed is a method to test memory devices that is rapid, cost effective, and thorough.

Method to improve testing speed of memory


A resistor grid for dynamic braking of diesel electric locomotives has a rigid frame that includes outer metal side pieces and metal dividers within the frame between which are positioned columns of fan-folded resistor ribbon. The dividers carry support plates having transverse aligned tabs along both sides fixed normal to the support plate, each tab having a notch in its inside edge, and supported plates for the resistor ribbon which slide in those slots longitudinally. The supported plates and the folds of the resistor ribbon carry studs and bushings which interfit by movement normal to those plates.

Resistor grids of the type generally used in diesel electric locomotives are the subject of Kirilloff, et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,100,526 and 4,651,124. An improved resistor grid of their type is that of Kirilloff, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,585. All the above grids have several columns of fan-folded resistor material carrying studs at their folds, which studs fit into insulating bushings carried by the frame of the grid. The manufacture of a grid of that type involves fitting each insulating bushing into its place in the assembled frame, usually one after another. When a grid of that type requires repair, it is usually necessary to take the grid apart. Much time, both assembly and repair, could be saved if the grid could be sectionalized, so that individual sections could be worked on at the same time.


A scheduler in a base station determines or estimates a cumulative throughput based on the scheduling criteria used by the base station. Based on the cumulative throughput for each slot, the mobile terminals are divided into one of two groups. The first group is provided for mobile terminals having a lower throughput, while the remaining mobile terminals are placed in a second group associated with higher throughput. The mobile terminal in the first group having the lowest throughput has data scheduled for transmission on the next slot over the best available carrier. The remaining mobile terminals in the first group are iteratively scheduled for transmission on the best remaining carriers, until no mobile terminals remain. Once scheduling for the first group is complete, scheduling for the second group can take place. Preferably, scheduling for the second group is performed to maximize throughput on the remaining carrier or carriers.

Wireless communication networks that allocate communication resources, such as time or frequency, require a scheduler to select data to be transmitted. When multiple users are vying for these resources, the scheduler must analyze the incoming data and determine the data having the highest priority for transmission. Priority has traditionally been based on maximizing overall system throughput or maintaining a certain Quality of Service (QoS) level to ensure that data is transmitted in a timely fashion. When maximizing throughput, users having better channel conditions are favored over those with worse channel conditions. Thus, the users with the less favorable channel conditions are always given lower priority. As a result, those users with poor channel conditions are prone to lower QoS levels. In contrast, trying to maintain certain QoS levels often leads to unnecessarily low system throughput.
Many schedulers prioritize packets based solely on carrier-to-interference ratios (CIRs) derived from information fed back from the mobile terminals. Such schedulers maximize throughput without regard to fairness or minimum throughput requirements and typically schedule delivery for users that are closest to the base station. Schedulers attempting to provide some degree of fairness use rudimentary scheduling criteria, resulting in poor system throughput. There are also many problems with existing schedulers in terms of supporting multi-media wireless-internet services. Further, most schedulers are not designed for multi-carrier operation, which makes them unsuitable for multiple carrier—data and voice (MC-DV) environments.
These existing scheduling techniques fail to provide an adaptive scheduling criterion that is capable of evolving to meet the constantly varying demands of the wireless communication environment to optimize throughput while ensuring a defined degree of fairness among users. Accordingly, there is a need for an adaptive scheduling technique to optimize throughput while ensuring fairness among users. There is a further need for a scheduling technique with these capabilities that can optimize multi-carrier diversity in order to maximize overall system throughput while maintaining a desired degree of fairness.

Adaptive scheduling for multi-carrier systems


An anti-swallow pacifier includes: a base member having nipple member protruding forwardly from the base member, a bivalve shell having a pair of half-shell pieces hingedly secured to the base member having a restoring spring retained on the base member for resiliently automatically closing the two half-shell pieces for covering the nipple portion, an anti-swallow shield circumferentially formed on a rear portion of the base member for preventing from swallow of the pacifier by a baby as the shield may be obstructed beyond the baby's mouth without being swallowed, and a handle secured to the anti-swallow shield.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,058 (the prior art) issued to the same inventor of this application disclosed a hygienic pacifier having a bivalve shell hingedly secured to the base member for closing the nipple portion protruding from the base member for preventing contamination of the nipple portion.
However, such a prior art still has the following drawbacks:    1. When the two half-shell pieces (31) are opened for baby's soothing, the two half-shell pieces (31) will be obstructed beyond the baby's mouth, being unable to be swallowed by the baby. However, when the bivalve shall (3) is closed, the pacifier may be possibly swallowed by a baby to possibly cause baby's fatal suffocation.    2. It is lacking of automatic closing mechanism for closing the bivalve shell (3). Even a pair of meshed gears 34a are provided for simultaneously closing the two half-shell pieces (31), at least one half-shell piece (31) should be continuously driven for closing the two half-shell pieces, still being inconvenient for closing the bivalve shell for protecting the nipple portion.
The present inventor has found the drawbacks of the prior art and invented the present anti-swallow pacifier.

Anti-swallow pacifier with bivalve shell


An ink cartridge is disclosed. The ink cartridge comprises an ink refill bag, and an ink refill bag housing in which the ink refill bag is accommodated. The ink refill bag includes a cap having an ink passage through which ink is supplied to an inkjet recording apparatus that ejects ink droplets for printing, and an ink storing section formed in a bag-like shape by thermally welding plural flexible film members together. The ink refill bag housing is provided with at least one bag loading opening through which the ink refill bag is loaded and removed.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an ink cartridge for supplying ink to a recording head of an inkjet recording apparatus, an inkjet printer, or the like, and an inkjet recording apparatus equipped with the ink cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been liquid ejectors for use as inkjet recording apparatuses and inkjet printers that print on paper and the like by ejecting ink droplets. A typical inkjet printer is equipped with a replaceable ink cartridge. In most cases, once the ink cartridge becomes empty, a new ink cartridge filled with ink is loaded to replace the empty ink cartridge. The empty ink cartridge is not reused, which is not cost effective. In view of that, Patent Document 1 discloses an ink cartridge including a housing that is rigid enough to protect an ink bag, which is filled with ink, accommodated therein for protection from impact during delivery. This ink cartridge is designed to allow replacement of the ink bag. Patent Document 2 discloses an ink cartridge having a refill port through which ink is resupplied.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-50823
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-305863
The ink cartridges disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, however, have various drawbacks and have not come into wide use.
For example, according to Patent Document 1, the housing of the ink cartridge, which is formed with the use of screws or bonding, is disassembled for replacing the ink cartridge accommodated in the housing. The ink cartridge disclosed in Patent Document 2 is disadvantageous in that refilling with ink is time-consuming and may cause contamination. The newly supplied ink is mixed with the ink remaining in the cartridge, resulting in lowering the ink quality.

Ink cartridge and inkjet recording apparatus equipped with the ink cartridge


A reverberation reduction device includes, a processor; and a memory which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to execute, calculating reverberation characteristics in response to an impulse response of a path of a sound from an audio output unit to an audio input unit by determining the impulse response from a first audio signal and a second audio signal that represents a sound that the audio input unit has picked up from the first audio signal reproduced by the audio output unit, and estimating a distance from the audio input unit to a sound source in accordance with at least one of a volume and a frequency characteristic of a third audio signal that represents a sound that the audio input unit has picked up from a sound from the sound source; correcting the reverberation characteristics so that the reverberation characteristics.

A microphone may pick up a sound around the microphone arranged in a space surrounded by a sound-reflecting material. In such a case, a sound may directly reach the microphone from a sound source and another sound emitted from the sound source may indirectly reach the microphone after being reflected off the material at least once. The sound indirectly reaching the microphone is referred to as a reverberation sound. The timing at which the reverberation sound reaches the microphone is later than the timing at which the sound directly reaches the microphone. If a reverberation sound is present, the reverberation sound is superimposed on the sound having directly reached the microphone, and the resulting sound is difficult to hear. Recently, a cellular phone having water-tightness has been available. If such a cellular phone is used in a bath room where reverberation is likely to take place, the sound picked up by the cellular phone becomes very hard to listen to because of reverberation. Techniques of reducing the reverberation sound have been studied.
In a reverberation removal method disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-67127, an impulse response of a feedback path formed by an acoustic coupling between a speaker and a microphone is adaptively identified by an adaptive filter, and an echo component of the feedback path is estimated from a reverberation audio signal picked up by the microphone. In the reverberation removal method, the estimated echo component is subtracted from an output signal of the feedback path, and a filter coefficient of the adaptive filter is updated in a manner such that an estimated error of the estimated value of the echo component is minimized. Furthermore in the reverberation removal method, the filter coefficient with the estimated error of the estimated value of the echo component minimized is substituted for the impulse response of a reverberation space. An original audio signal is thus determined by performing a computation operation on a transfer function of the reverberation space determined from the filter coefficient, and the reverberation audio signal picked up by the microphone.
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-67127, the reverberation characteristics of the sound emitted by the speaker and picked up by the microphone are used to approximate the reverberation characteristics of a sound emitted from the sound source and reaching the microphone. A user may talk using a handsfree function of the cellular phone. In such a case, a distance between the sound source and the microphone may become much longer than or much shorter than a distance between the speaker and the microphone. The reverberation characteristics of the sound emitted by the speaker and picked up by the microphone become distinctly different from the reverberation characteristics of the sound emitted from the mouth of the user and reaching the microphone. As a result, the reverberation component of the sound emitted from the sound source is not appropriately removed.
Techniques of estimating a distance to a sound source using a microphone array have also been disclosed. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-53062 discloses a sound source distance measurement device. The sound source distance measurement device respectively converts signals received by a plurality of microphones into signals in a in frequency domain, and vectorizes the signals in the frequency domain to calculate a space correlation matrix. The sound source distance measurement device determines power of a direct sound and power of a reverberation sound from the space correlation matrix and location information of the microphones, references a distance direct-indirect ratio database, and determines a sound source distance estimation value corresponding to a direct to indirect ratio. The direct to indirect ratio is determined by dividing the direct sound power by the reverberation sound power.

Reverberation reduction device and reverberation reduction method


Techniques are described for compressing multidimensional datasets. For instance, a compression module obtains lists of indices of data along dimensions of the multidimensional dataset. The compression module calculates lists of offset values from the lists of coordinates. The compression module then performs a statistical redundancy data compression algorithm on the lists of offset values. Because the lists of offset values may contain more repetitious values than the initial lists of coordinates, a compression ratio on the multidimensional dataset may be higher than without first calculating the lists of offset values.

Enterprise software systems are typically, sophisticated, large-scale systems that support many, e.g., hundreds or thousands, of concurrent users. Examples of enterprise software systems include inventory management systems, budget planning systems, order management systems, inventory management systems, sales force management systems, business intelligent tools, enterprise reporting tools, project and resource management systems, and other enterprise software systems.
A computing device for a user typically connects to the enterprise software system via a computing network. Typically, the user computing device includes a cache to store datasets requested by the user. The user computing device may provide an operating environment for concurrent execution of multiple planning applications that access the datasets stored to the cache. In many cases the cache stores complex, multi-dimensional datasets, i.e., data cubes, which the user computing device may download from the enterprise software system via the network connection.
Frequently, the planning applications perform operations that require access to a subset of the data within the multidimensional datasets. To perform these operations, the computing device may create and maintain additional multi-dimensional datasets within the cache to temporarily hold the subset of the data being manipulated. The additional datasets consume additional memory resources and require synchronization so as to maintain consistency with the original datasets. These data synchronization techniques may present significant overhead, which may further delay execution of the operations.

Compression of multidimensional datasets

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention relates methods and apparatus for lining a wellbore. In one aspect, a drilling assembly having an earth removal member and a wellbore lining conduit is manipulated to advance into the earth. The drilling assembly includes a first fluid flow path and a second fluid flow path. Fluid is flowed through the first fluid flow path, and at least a portion of which may return through the second fluid flow path. In one embodiment, the drilling assembly is provided with a third fluid flow path. After drilling has been completed, wellbore lining conduit may be cemented in the wellbore.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates apparatus and methods for drilling and completing a wellbore. Particularly, the present invention relates to apparatus and methods for forming a wellbore, lining a wellbore, and circulating fluids in the wellbore. The present invention also relates to apparatus and methods for cementing a wellbore.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the drilling of oil and gas wells, a wellbore is formed using a drill bit that is urged downwardly at a lower end of a drill string. After drilling a predetermined depth, the drill string and bit are removed, and the wellbore is lined with a string of casing. An annular area is thus defined between the outside of the casing and the earth formation. This annular area is filled with cement to permanently set the casing in the wellbore and to facilitate the isolation of production zones and fluids at different depths within the wellbore.
It is common to employ more than one string of casing in a wellbore. In this respect, a first string of casing is set in the wellbore when the well is drilled to a first designated depth. The well is then drilled to a second designated depth and thereafter lined with a string of casing with a smaller diameter than the first string of casing. This process is repeated until the desired well depth is obtained, each additional string of casing resulting in a smaller diameter than the one above it. The reduction in the diameter reduces the cross-sectional area in which circulating fluid may travel. Also, the smaller casing at the bottom of the hole may limit the hydrocarbon production rate. Thus, oil companies are trying to maximize the diameter of casing at the desired depth in order to maximize hydrocarbon production. To this end, the clearance between subsequent casing strings having been trending smaller because larger subsequent casings are used to maximize production. When drilling with these small-clearance casings it is difficult, if not impossible, to circulate drilled cuttings in the small annulus formed between the set casing inner diameter and the subsequent casing outer diameter.
Typically, fluid is circulated throughout the wellbore during the drilling operation to cool a rotating bit and remove wellbore cuttings. The fluid is generally pumped from the surface of the wellbore through the drill string to the rotating bit. Thereafter, the fluid is circulated through an annulus formed between the drill string and the string of casing and subsequently returned to the surface to be disposed of or reused. As the fluid travels up the wellbore, the cross-sectional area of the fluid path increases as each larger diameter string of casing is encountered. For example, the fluid initially travels up an annulus formed between the drill string and the newly formed wellbore at a high annular velocity due to smaller annular clearance. However, as the fluid travels the portion of the wellbore that was previously lined with casing, the enlarged cross-sectional area defined by the larger diameter casing results in a larger annular clearance between the drill string and the cased wellbore, thereby reducing the annular velocity of the fluid. This reduction in annular velocity decreases the overall carrying capacity of the fluid, resulting in the drill cuttings dropping out of the fluid flow and settling somewhere in the wellbore. This settling of the drill cuttings and debris can cause a number of difficulties to subsequent downhole operations. For example, it is well known that the setting of tools, such as liner hangers, against a casing wall is hampered by the presence of debris on the wall.
To prevent the settling of the drill cuttings and debris, the flow rate of the circulating fluid may be increased to increase the annular velocity in the larger annular areas. However, the higher annular velocity also increases the equivalent circulating density ("ECD") and increases the potential of wellbore erosion. ECD is a measure of the hydrostatic head and the friction head created by the circulating fluid. The length of wellbore that can be formed before it is lined with casing sometimes depends on the ECD. The pressure created by ECD is sometimes useful while drilling because it can exceed the pore pressure of formations intersected by the wellbore and prevents hydrocarbons from entering the wellbore. However, too high an ECD can be a problem when it exceeds the fracture pressure of the formation, thereby forcing the wellbore fluid into the formations and hampering the flow of hydrocarbons into the wellbore after the well is completed.
Drilling with casing is a method of forming a borehole with a drill bit attached to the same string of tubulars that will line the borehole. In other words, rather than run a drill bit on smaller diameter drill string, the bit is run at the end of larger diameter tubing or casing that will remain in the wellbore and be cemented therein. The advantages of drilling with casing are obvious. Because the same string of tubulars transports the bit and lines the borehole, no separate trip out of or into the wellbore is necessary between the forming of the borehole and the lining of the borehole. Drilling with casing is especially useful in certain situations where an operator wants to drill and line a borehole as quickly as possible to minimize the time the borehole remains unlined and subject to collapse or the effects of pressure anomalies. For example, when forming a sub-sea borehole, the initial length of borehole extending from the sea floor is much more subject to cave in or collapse as the subsequent sections of borehole. Sections of a borehole that intersect areas of high pressure can lead to damage of the borehole between the time the borehole is formed and when it is lined. An area of exceptionally low pressure will drain expensive drilling fluid from the wellbore between the time it is intersected and when the borehole is lined. In each of these instances, the problems can be eliminated or their effects reduced by drilling with casing.
The challenges and problems associated with drilling with casing are as obvious as the advantages. For example, each string of casing must fit within any preexisting casing already in the wellbore. Because the string of casing transporting the drill bit is left to line the borehole, there may be no opportunity to retrieve the bit in the conventional manner. Drill bits made of drillable material, two-piece drill bits, pilot bit and underreamer, and bits integrally formed at the end of casing string have been used to overcome the problems. For example, a two-piece bit has an outer portion with a diameter exceeding the diameter of the casing string. When the borehole is formed, the outer portion is disconnected from an inner portion that can be retrieved to the surface of the well. Typically, a mud motor is used near the end of the liner string to rotate the bit as the connection between the pieces of casing are not designed to withstand the tortuous forces associated with rotary drilling. Mud motors are sometimes operated to turn the bit (and underreamer) at adequate rotation rates to make hole, without having to turn the casing string at high rates, thereby minimizing casing connection fatigue accumulation. In this manner, the casing string can be rotated at a moderate speed at the surface as it is inserted and the bit rotates at a much faster speed due to the fluid-powered mud motor.
Another challenge for a drilling with casing operation is controlling ECD. Drilling with casing requires circulating fluid through the small annular clearance between the casing and the newly formed wellbore. The small annular clearance causes the circulating fluid to travel through the annular area at a high annular velocity. The higher annular velocity increases the ECD and may lead to a higher potential for wellbore erosion in comparison to a conventional drilling operation. Additionally, in small-clearance liner drilling, a smaller annulus is also formed between the set casing inner diameter and the drilling liner outer diameter, which further increases ECD and may prevent large drilled cuttings from being circulated from the well.
A need, therefore, exists for apparatus and methods for circulating fluid during a drilling operation. There is also a need for apparatus and methods for forming a wellbore and lining the wellbore in a single trip. There is a further need for an apparatus and methods for circulating fluid to facilitate the forming and lining of a wellbore in a single trip. They is yet a further need to cement the lined wellbore.

Method and apparatus for wellbore construction and completion