A pliers apparatus is provided, the apparatus comprises two arms, two jaws, struts and a switch allowing the apparatus to function as a ratcheting device, pliers and clamps.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pliers apparatus and more specifically, a pliers apparatus that functions as an all-in-one pliers, ratchet and clamping device.
2. Summary of the Invention
In one embodiment, the present invention relates to a pliers apparatus comprising a first arm having opposing ends, a first end of the first arm forming a first handle, a second end of the first arm comprising a jaw element, the first arm further comprises an arc situated between the handle and the first jaw element, the first arm comprising a channel; a second arm having opposing ends, a first end of the second arm forming a second handle; a second jaw element pivotally attached to a portion of a second arm, the second arm comprises at least one switch and at least one pawl; and at least one strut having opposing ends, a first end is pivotally attached to a portion of the second arm, and the switch is designed to be activated to thereby engage the pawl with the strut so that it functions as a ratcheting device and locks the first and second jaws, and the switch is designed to be deactivated to thereby allow the pawl to disengage with the strut so that the apparatus functions as pliers.
In another embodiment, the second end of the strut comprises a cam, and the cam is designed to be fit within the channel of the first arm of the apparatus. In a further embodiment, the apparatus comprises an insert and the insert may be a cam, roller or any equivalent. In other further embodiments, the insert may be placed into the strut, the handle, the jaws or combinations thereof In still another embodiment, the first jaw element has a first contact surface. In yet another embodiment, at least a portion of the first contact surface comprises a plurality of teeth.
In still yet another embodiment, the arc forms a radius from about 40 degrees to about 140 degrees. In other embodiments, the arc may be on the strut, either handle (stationary or movable) or on both. In a further embodiment, the first jaw element is generally perpendicular to said first arm. In still a further embodiment, the arc has a width from about 5% to about 80% thinner than the rest of the second end of the first arm.
In yet a further embodiment, the second jaw element has a second contact surface. In still yet a further embodiment, at least a portion of the second contact surface comprises a plurality of teeth. In another further embodiment, the first and second jaw elements are moved by squeezing the first and second handles.
In another embodiment, the switch has at least one spring. In yet another embodiment, the second arm has at least one spring. In still another embodiment, the jaw element is a fixed jaw. In another further embodiment, the roller comprises at least one protrusion. In still yet a further embodiment, the roller travels within the channel when the jaw elements contact one another. In another embodiment, the strut has a plurality of teeth that interact with the pawl.
In still yet another embodiment, the apparatus further comprises at least one shoe designed to assist in having the jaw members close parallel to another to provide a tight grip. In a further embodiment, the cam functions as a pawl catch. In another further embodiment, the cam is a roller. In still yet a further embodiment, the apparatus further comprises at least two sleeves designed to cover the handles. In another embodiment, the cam comprises a cavity for receiving a cam spring.
In still yet another embodiment, the present invention provides for a pliers apparatus comprising a first arm having opposing ends, a first end of the first arm forming a first handle, a second end of the first arm comprising a jaw element, the first arm comprising a channel; a second arm having opposing ends, a first end of the second arm forming a second handle; a second jaw element pivotally attached to a portion of a second arm, the second arm comprising at least one switch and at least one pawl; and at least one strut having opposing ends, a first end of the strut is pivotally attached to a portion of the second arm, a second end of the strut has a cam, the cam is designed to be fit within the channel of the first arm, the switch is designed to be activated to thereby engage the pawl with the strut so that it functions as a ratcheting device and locks the first and second jaws, the switch is designed to be deactivated to thereby allow the pawl to disengage with the strut so that the apparatus functions as pliers.
In a further embodiment, the present invention relates to a pliers apparatus comprising a first arm having opposing ends, a first end of the first arm forming a first handle, a second end of the first arm comprising a jaw element, the first arm further comprising an arc situated between the handle and the first jaw element, the first arm comprising a channel; a second arm having opposing ends, a first end of the second arm forming a second handle; a second jaw element pivot ally attached to a portion of a second arm, the second arm comprising at least one switch and at least one pawl; and at least one strut having opposing ends, a first end being pivotally attached to a portion of the second arm, a second end of the strut has a cam, the cam is designed to be fit within the channel of the first arm, the switch is designed to be activated to thereby engage the pawl with the strut so that it functions as a ratcheting device and locks the first and second jaws, the switch is designed to be deactivated to thereby allow the pawl to disengage with the strut so that the apparatus functions as pliers, wherein the first and second jaw elements are moved and contact one another by squeezing the first and second handles.
In another embodiment, the present invention relates to a pliers apparatus comprising: a first arm having opposing ends, a first end of the first arm forming a first handle, a second end of the first arm comprising a jaw element, and the first arm comprises a channel; a second arm having opposing ends, a first end of the second arm forming a second handle; a second jaw element pivotally attached to a portion of a second arm, and the second arm comprising at least one switch and at least one pawl; and at least one strut having opposing ends, a first end is pivotally attached to a portion of the second arm, a second end of the strut comprises a cam, and the cam is designed to be fit within the channel of the first arm of said apparatus, the strut further comprising an arc situated between the first and the second end of the strut, the switch is designed to be activated to thereby engage the pawl with the strut so that it functions as a ratcheting device and locks the first and second jaws, and the switch is designed to be deactivated to thereby allow said pawl to disengage with the strut so that the apparatus functions as pliers.
In a further embodiment, the present invention relates to a pliers apparatus comprising: a first arm having opposing ends, a first end of the first arm forming a first handle, a second end of the first arm comprising a jaw element, the first arm comprising a channel; a second arm having opposing ends, a first end of the second arm forming a second handle; a second jaw element having a first end and a second end, the first end of the second jaw element having a contact surface, the second end of the second jaw element is pivotally attached to a portion of the second arm, the second jaw element further comprising an arc situated between said first and second end of the second jaw element, and the second arm comprising at least one switch and at least one pawl; and at least one strut having opposing ends, a first end of the strut is pivotally attached to a portion of said second arm, a second end of the strut has a cam, the cam is designed to be fit within the channel of the first arm, the switch is designed to be activated to thereby engage the pawl with the strut so that it functions as a ratcheting device and locks the first and second jaws, the switch is designed to be deactivated to thereby allow the pawl to disengage with the strut so that the apparatus functions as pliers.
In another further embodiment, the present invention provides for a pliers apparatus comprising: a first arm having opposing ends, a first end of the first arm forming a first handle, a second end of the first arm comprising a jaw element, the first arm comprising a channel; a second arm having opposing ends, a first end of the second arm forming a second handle; a second jaw element having a first end and a second end, the first end of the second jaw element has a contact surface, the second end of the second jaw element is pivotally attached to a portion of the second arm, the second jaw element further comprises an arc situated between the first and second end of the second jaw element, the second arm comprises at least one switch and at least one pawl; and at least one strut having opposing ends, a first end is pivotally attached to a portion of the second arm, a second end of the strut has a cam, and the cam is designed to be fit within the channel of the first arm, the strut further comprises an arc situated between the first and the second end of the strut, and the switch is designed to be activated to thereby engage the pawl with the strut so that it functions as a ratcheting device and locks the first and second jaws, the switch is designed to be deactivated to thereby allow the pawl to disengage with the strut so that the apparatus functions as pliers, wherein the first and second jaw elements are moved and contact one another by squeezing the first and second handles.
Among those benefits and improvements that have been disclosed, other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments of the present invention and illustrate various objects and features thereof.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A layout design system for designing a semiconductor device includes a processor, a storage module storing an intermediate design, and a correction module used by the processor to correct the intermediate design. The intermediate design includes an active region and dummy designs on the active region. Each dummy design includes a dummy structure and dummy spacers disposed at opposite sides of the dummy structure. The correction module is configured to alter widths of regions of at least some of the dummy designs. The corrected design is used to produce a semiconductor device having an active fin, a hard mask layer disposed on the active fin, a gate structure crossing the over the hard mask layer, and a spacer disposed on at least one side of the gate structure. The hard mask layer, and the active fin, are provided with widths that vary due to the dummy designs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present inventive concept relates to semiconductor devices. In particular, the present inventive concept relates to finFETs, a layout design system for designing finFETs, and to methods of fabricating finFETs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, advances in semiconductor device technology are producing devices that operate at lower voltages and higher speeds. At the same time, there are demands for semiconductor devices that have higher integration densities.
However, increasing the integration density of semiconductor devices constituted by field effect transistors (FET) may lead to short channel effects in the transistors. In order to overcome the problem, i.e., to provide FETs that have high degrees of integration and yet whose gates are effective when supplied with relatively low amounts of power and which can nonetheless operate at high speeds, various research has been conducted in developing transistors that have three-dimensional (3D) channels. One such class of transistors are finFETs.

Layout design system, semiconductor device fabricated by using the system and method for fabricating the semiconductor device


A lock mechanism is mounted on a pair of vertically spaced merchandise display rods to prevent removal of items of merchandise supported on the lower rod. The lock mechanism includes a housing having a internal lock chamber and a pair of upper and lower slots, each receiving one of the rods therethrough. The lower slot has a side opening enabling the lower rod to pass out of the housing when the housing is pivotally moved on the upper rod to an unlocked open position. A bayonet is slidably moveable in the chamber of the housing and has an elongated slot through which both of the rods extend. A locking device has a magnetically attractable locking tine which locks the housing and bayonet in a closed locked position on the pair of rods. A magnetic key moves the tine to an unlocked position enabling the housing and bayonet to move to an unlocked open position exposing the side opening of the housing lower slot for removing the housing out of engagement with the lower rod.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to security devices, and particularly to a security device that prevents large numbers of items of merchandise from being rapidly removed from display racks, and in particular from a double display rod. Specifically, the present invention relates to a security device that is easily attached and locked on the display rod and which allows one or several items of merchandise to be removed from the rod at any one time, but protects a number of the items from being removed from the rod by a shoplifter, and that can only be unlocked using a specially configured magnetic key.
2. Background Information
Numerous items of merchandise are displayed for sale on long protruding rods that are supported from a piece of pegboard, slat board, or other type of supporting structure. These rods are commonly referred to in the art as pegboard rods or slat board rods. Many items of merchandise such as batteries, small tools, tool components, film, or other relatively expensive small items are displayed in areas where consumers may pick them up and take them directly to a checkout counter. These items usually are suspended on the rods by the rod passing through a single hole in the package. Unfortunately, such merchandise is an easy target for shoplifters. It has been found that shoplifters can rapidly empty all of the merchandise from a pegboard display rod and make off with merchandise without being detected, or even if detected upon passing through a checkout security gate, will be difficult to apprehend.
Various devices have been devised to prevent the removal of merchandise from these display rods such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,027,622, 5,275,027, 5,259,220, 5,689,978, 5,676,258, 6,622,979, and 6,474,478. The devices of these patents provide for some type of locking mechanism on the end of the rod preventing the removal of any items of merchandise from the rod. This has the disadvantage in that it requires the customer to contact a clerk who must unlock the lock mechanism from the end of the rod to enable the customer to remove the merchandise for purchase. It has been found that this reduces the amount of sales since many customers do not wish to wait or take the time to find a clerk to unlock the security device to enable the customer to secure the desired item.
Other types of display rods use irregularly shaped ends on the rod which enables the customer to remove the item from the rod by moving it through a circuitous route along various bends at the distal end of the rod. This has proven satisfactory to some extent in that it increases the difficulty of a shoplifter from rapidly removing a large number of the items from the rod. However, it does not prevent the shoplifter from removing all of the items of merchandise from the rod if the shoplifter uses a large amount of force upon sweeping the items from the rod or bunches the items together enabling a plurality of the items to be removed in one motion from the rod.
Another disadvantage with display rods is that a thief will occasionally remove the entire rod from the supporting structure or peg board including the merchandise even if secured on the rod and steal the contents from the store. Therefore, to prevent the theft of the entire display rod and supported merchandise, devices have been developed to lock the display rod to the supporting structure.
Another problem with prior art rod locking devices is that they require more manipulation than desirable in order to attach the lock device on the rod or remove the same from the rod and when in multiple components, the components can be separated and lost.
Certain types of merchandise security devices use magnetic actuated locks which use a magnetic key to unlock the lock. However, thieves have discovered that certain types of magnetic locks can be unlocked by commonly available bar magnets, thus making these locks less desirable for merchants.
Many types of merchandise display rods consist of a pair of upper and lower rods which extend in parallel with respect to each other from a support structure with the merchandise being supported on the lower rod. The upper rod supports an article identification tag identifying the item of merchandise stored on the lower rod. In these double rod arrangements, a lock is usually placed on the lower rod in order to protect the merchandise supported thereon. However, the presence of the closely spaced upper rod makes it more difficult to attach, remove and unlock the security device on the lower rod. Thus, these double display rod arrangements increase the difficulty for conveniently placing and removing a lock mechanism thereon to prevent the theft and rapid removal of the merchandise from the lower rod.
Thus, it is desired in the art to provide a security device for double display rods so that large quantities of merchandise cannot be rapidly removed from the rods yet would allow legitimate customers to remove a limited number of the items from the rod without requiring a merchant or store clerk to assist the customer, and to prevent the double display rods from being unlawfully removed from the supporting structure, and if removed will sound an alarm of a security gate upon passing through the gate in an unauthorized manner.


Water-soluble rigid-rod aromatic heterocyclic polymers having repeating units of the formula: ##STR1## wherein n has a value of 0.05 to 1.00, M is an alkali metal, Q is a benzobisazole of the formula ##STR2## wherein X is --S-- or --O--, and R is selected from the group consisting of: ##STR3##

This invention relates to para-ordered aromatic heterocyclic polymers which are soluble in water.
In general, the class of aromatic heterocyclic extended chain polymers and copolymers is well known for their outstanding thermal, physical and chemical properties. These polymers and copolymers generally exhibit excellent modulus and tenacity properties. Although these materials exhibit superior mechanical properties, they have the drawback that they generally can only be fabricated from strong corrosive acids such as polyphosphoric acid or methanesulfonic acid.
Considerably research effort has been directed to structural modifications of these aromatic heterocyclic extended chain polymers and copolymers to promote solubility in solvents other than strong acids. For example, 2-benzthiazole groups attached to a poly(p-phenylene benzobisimidazole) promote solubility in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). It would be advantageous if the aromatic heterocyclic extended chain polymers and copolymers were water soluble.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide para-ordered aromatic heterocyclic polymers and copolymers which are soluble in water.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


A rotary diaphragm fluid pump includes a rigid tubular body with internal annular groove, a tubular flexible diaphragm whose central portion is caused to orbit by an eccentrically driven bearing. Preferably the diaphragm is a moulding which features an elastic fixed abutment between the inlet and outlet ports, and internal reinforcement to ensure that the full diaphragm stroke is achieved. Two such pumps may compliment each other to produce a pulsation free output.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to rotary diaphragm positive displacement pumps.
2. Background Prior Art
A typical rotary diaphragm pump consists of a rigid tubular housing with an annular channel running around the inner surface, which acts as the pumping chamber, and a flexible tubular diaphragm which is caused to orbit eccentrically in the channel thereby sweeping the fluid in its path from the inlet port to the outlet port. These ports are usually separated by some form of active partition which can form part of the diaphragm moulding and which is caused to be elastic by one of a number of different means.
This type of pump has a wide range of fluid pumping applications. The main benefits are that it does not rely on close fitting sliding components to develop a useful pressure and does not require shaft seals or valves, all of which are subject to wear and can cause pump failures.
Existing rotary diaphragm pump designs aim to provide higher pressures and operating speeds and lower levels of friction and wear but this in turn has led to an increase in problems associated with a pulsating input and output such as cavitation, water hammer and general noise. Pulsations can damage delicate fluids such as carbonated beverages and can cause over-rapid operation of pressure sensitive switches, plunger bounce in solenoid valves, and other system problems.
Existing designs also suffer from a lack of support for the diaphragm where it is at its furthest point from the housing wall. This renders the diaphragm vulnerable to early failure.

Rotary pump having a reinforced flexible annular diaphragm


A method for managing physical resources of a storage system, the method may include transmitting, to a remote site, first information representative of a first snapshot of a logical entity; wherein the first snapshot is associated with first data that is stored in first physical addresses of the storage system; wherein the first physical addresses are mapped to first logical addresses; receiving from the remote site a first acknowledgment indicating that the first information was fully received by the remote site; and disassociating, in response to a reception of the first acknowledgement, the first snapshot from the first physical addresses while maintaining a logical association between the first snapshot and the first logical addresses.

Remote mirroring in storage systems is used to replicate logical volumes of a primary (also called 'local') storage system to a secondary (also called 'remote') storage system. In asynchronous remote mirroring, batches of updates are periodically sent to the remote site. The batches of updates are performed in cycles, wherein in each cycle the local system determines the changes that occurred in the logical volume to be replicated, since the previous cycle and transmits the changes to the remote site.
Snapshots can be taken in the local system upon starting a new cycle and the updates to be transmitted to the remote site in the new cycle are determined by comparing successive snapshots. The local system sequentially transmits all the determined updates to the remote site. Upon completion of the cycle, a snapshot of the mirrored volume may be taken at the remote system to reflect a valid replica of the local volume and can be used for restoring a compatible and consistent state of the mirrored volume, in case of a restart after failure of the remote system.
Snapshots are associated with data that is stored in the storage system while consuming physical resources such as storage space. Upon creation, the snapshot shares the physical space of the source volume (from which the snapshot was taken), until physical blocks of the source volume are written to and cannot longer be shared with the snapshot. When blocks of the source volume are updated, according to one technique, called copy-on-write, the blocks to be updated are copied to a new physical space before being overwritten by new data of the source volume, and the new physical space is now associated only with the snapshot and not shared with the source volume. According to another technique, no copy is performed before the update, but only pointer manipulation is used: the snapshot continues to refer to the old unchanged blocks, while the source volume refers to new address of blocks, where the new data is written. In either case, after the update, the source and the snapshot no longer share a physical copy of the changed blocks. The longer the snapshot exists and the source volume is kept being updated, the more physical space will be consumed by the snapshot alone.
There is a growing need to reduce the allocation of physical resources to snapshots.

Managing physical resources of a storage system


An information technology system for a healthcare facility is provided. The system includes a first computer device to keep track of rounding intervals for caregivers and to determine whether the caregivers successfully complete their rounds in a timely manner for their assigned patients. The system also has a real time locating system (RTLS) that tracks locations of the plurality of caregivers and that is in communication with the first computer device. The system further has a number of graphical displays in communication with the first computer device. Each graphical display is operable to display a list of patients for whom rounds are due and to display reminder messages to the plurality of caregivers relating to rounding.

The present disclosure relates to systems for monitoring successful completion of tasks performed by caregivers in a healthcare facility, and particularly, to systems that monitor caregiver rounding. The present disclosure also relates to real time locating systems (RTLS's) used in healthcare facilities.
As part of normal procedures in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, caregivers are expected to make periodic patient rounds. According to this disclosure, a "round" is considered to be a visit to the patient's room by a caregiver to check on the patient. Some hospitals, for example, require rounding every two hours during the day and less frequently at night. Forgetting to round or having a low rounding frequency contributes to negative patient experiences in healthcare facilities, potentially resulting in lower Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Provider (HCAHP) scores. Accordingly, there is room for improvement in healthcare information technology systems from the standpoint of patient rounding.

Caregiver rounding with real time locating system tracking


A graphene foam ceramic composite (GrF-CC) comprises an open cell graphene foam (GrF) surrounded by and infiltrated with a sintered low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) matrix. The GrF-CC can be prepared by infiltrating an open cell GrF with an LTCC slurry, removing the solvent from the slurry with solidification to a ceramic-GrF green body, and sintering the ceramic-GrF green body to form the GrF-CC. Sintering by spark plasma sintering (SPS) allows an LTCC GrF-CC that has a density of at least 90%.

Much attention has been given to 2D graphene for development of new composite materials with unprecedented properties and advanced applications. Due to extraordinary mechanical, thermal and electrical properties, graphene addition has been found to improve strength, toughness, stiffness and thermal-electrical conductivity of ceramic materials. Despite graphene's excellent intrinsic properties, there are numerous practical challenges associated with engineering graphene-ceramic composites with desired microstructure and predictable properties. Graphene flakes tend to agglomerate and form clusters arising from intermolecular π-π interactions. These agglomerates act as stress concentrators within the microstructure that can initiate failure upon mechanical loading. The non-homogeneous distribution can impede electron and phonon conduction, limiting electrical and thermal properties of the composites. To achieve homogeneity, various physical and chemical dispersion techniques have been adapted to integrate graphene into the ceramic matrix including, alone or in combination, ball milling, sonication, centrifugation, surface modification, and functionalization. Unfortunately, these techniques are time-consuming, expensive, and/or involve the addition of chemicals/secondary particles that lead to undesirable impurities and can physically and chemically damage the graphene flakes. Additionally, due to the 2D morphology of the graphene flakes, the degree of alignment of the graphene flakes can lead to highly anisotropic and inconsistent properties. These processing and microstructure control challenges in the formation of graphene-ceramic composites constitute major bottlenecks in bulk scale manufacturing and real-world application for this promising class of nanocomposites.
To simplify the processing and improve the microstructure homogeneity, graphene with a free-standing 3D architecture as the filler material in the composite can be used. Macroporous graphene foam (GrF) is a promising filler material for developing composites. GrF has an ultra-low density (<5 mg/cm3), high surface area (˜850 m2/g), and large pore sizes (exceeding 500 μm). GrF consists of an interconnected network of nodes and branches, providing seamless pathways for the transfer of stresses, electrons, and phonons. The hierarchical structure of GrF has been exploited by infiltration with polymer resin followed by curing to create a composite material with a defined and homogeneous distribution of the filler phase. By introduction of a pre-fabricated 3D foam, superior microstructure control and uniform properties result without the need for complex dispersion techniques. As a result, this material displays remarkable flexibility and resistance to failure, damping capability, and excellent electrical and thermal conductivities. GrF-reinforced composites are desirable in application for strain sensors, supercapacitors, electrochemical biosensors, biocompatible scaffolds, electromagnetic shields, fuel cells, thermal interfaces, acoustic backers, vibration dampeners, and structural materials with enhanced failure resistance. Graphene foam's desirable mechanical attributes have been exploited in metallic metamaterials with ultra-high stiffness, damage tolerance, and fatigue resistance.
GrF-ceramic composites (GrF-CCs) have been prepared for applications in Li-ion batteries, supercapacitors, biosensors, and high-performance electromagnetic interference shielding. These applications require high surface area; hence, these composites are porous with a deposition or decoration of ceramic on the GrF surface. No dense, non-porous 3D GrF-ceramic matrix composite for structural applications have been demonstrated, even though a 3D GrF's interconnected network of branches could allow unprecedented toughness and stiffness in a dense ceramic by facilitating extensive stress transfer, crack deflection, and crack absorption. Such toughness and stiffness has been reported for 2D graphene-based composites, presumably due to the rather localized and discrete nature of the reinforcement graphene phase. Hence, the 3D continuous GrF holds the potential for superior ceramic composites with the additional advantages of enhanced electrical and thermal properties. Typically, processing and densification of ceramics requires application of relatively high temperatures and pressures, which is a major challenge when the intent is to preserve the structural integrity of GrF during ceramic densification.

Method to produce graphene foam reinforced low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) composites

The Florida International University Board of Trustees


A disk discrimination method for a digital versatile disk (DVD) system uses a sum signal and a focus error signal as a difference signal obtained from the amount of light detected from divided optical detection areas of a divided-by-eight photodiode in a loaded disk, to discriminate whether a loaded disk is a DVD or compact disk (CD). When offsets of the sum signal and the focus error signal are normal, and are larger than predetermined reference signals, it is judged that the loaded disk is a DVD, while the loaded disk is judged to be a CD when the sum signal and the focus error signal are smaller than the reference signals. When disk type discrimination fails, an optical pickup moves a predetermined number of times to retry discrimination. Such discrimination method increases reliability of the discrimination results.

The present invention relates to a disk discrimination method for a digital versatile disk (DVD) system.
A larger amount of information can be recorded on a DVD than a compact disk (CD), and a better quality of picture can be reproduced therefrom, which may be a next-generation information media.
A DVD system for reproducing signals from a DVD mostly includes a DVD/CD combination optical pickup, so that it can reproduce signals from a CD having a relatively smaller track pitch as well as the DVD. The DVD system having a DVD/CD combination optical pickup should discriminate whether a disk is a DVD or CD before signals are reproduced from the disk. An admitted prior art technology for discriminating whether a disk is a DVD or CD is disclosed in Korean Patent Application 96-1605 filed by Samsung Electronics Co., Itd.
FIG. 1 is a flow-chart diagram showing a DVD/CD discrimination method disclosed in the above Korean Patent Application, which relates to a method which is adapted in a DVD system adopting a DVD/CD combination optical pickup which is provided with a ring-shaped shielding film. As is well known, the thickness of a CD is about 1.2 mm and that of a DVD is about 0.6 mm. When information is read from a relatively thin DVD, light in a near-axial region and a far-axial region reaches a photodiode. Meanwhile, when information is read from a relatively thick CD, only near-axial light reaches the photodiode. The amount of light detected from the DVD becomes more than that detected from the CD.
If an optical disk is loaded (step 110), the DVD system swings a focusing actuator up and down (step 120). During the time when the focusing actuator is swung up and down, if a focus error signal Sf according to the amount of light reaching a divided-by-four split photodiode is larger than a first reference value corresponding to a DVD as shown in FIG. 2A (step 130), the DVD system judges that a loaded disk is a DVD. Meanwhile, if a focus error signal Sf is smaller than the first reference signal as shown in FIG. 2B and larger than a second reference value corresponding to a CD (step 140), the DVD system judges that the loaded disk is a CD. If it is judged that the focus error signal Sf is smaller than the second reference value, an error message indicating that disk discrimination fails is output from the DVD system.
The method disclosed in the above prior art application discriminates the thickness of a disk only once using only one of a sum signal and a focus error signal of the amount of light. Accordingly, reliability of discrimination is lowered at the place where an initial position of an object lens is locally and severely damaged in the disk or a smaller signal is detected than the second reference value. Also, such a disk discrimination is not performed properly even when an offset of a detection signal fluctuates.

Disk discrimination method for digital versatile disk system


An integrated circuit is described including internal circuitry and having at least one external connection. A pad cell is electrically interposed between the external connection and the internal circuitry, the pad cell comprising a first group of components adapted to protect the internal circuitry from transients at the external connection and providing, during normal operating conditions of the integrated circuit, a first signal path to the internal circuitry, and a second group of components providing a second signal path from the external connection to the internal circuitry. The second signal path is non-operable during the normal operating conditions but on application of a predefined voltage at the external connection becomes operable.

Pad cells or pads facilitate the interface between the macroscopic world of BNC cables, lab benches, manual and automated handling equipment, oscilloscopes, and signal generators and the microscopic world of the core of an integrated circuit. Output pads include buffers with current driving capability sufficient to drive off-chip loads with the desired transient response. Input and Input/Output (IO) pads include some measure of protection against damage due to an electrostatic discharge (ESD) event. Further information on pads and ESD protection can be found in Chapter 18, pages 657-660 of "Design of Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits" International Edition 2001 as published by McGraw Hill, the contents of which are incorporated by reference.
As is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,525, co-assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference, integrated circuits are vulnerable to electrical overstress (EOS). EOS results from an external source discharging large transient voltages onto one or more pins of an integrated circuit. These transient voltages can include very fast transients such as those produced by an electrostatic discharge (ESD) event, or slower transients such as may result from power-line surges.
ESD events can have differing characteristics due to the equivalent circuitry present. The human body model (HBM) correlates to a human-induced ESD event. The machine model (MM) correlates to a machine-induced ESD event. The field-induced charge device model (FICDM) relates to an ESD event induced by the discharge of the device through a pin.
ESD is a well-known cause of failure in integrated circuits (ICs), especially integrated circuits manufactured using MOS processes, but also, albeit to a lesser extent, those produced by bipolar processes. MOS devices sustain two types of permanent damage as a result of ESD. In MOS devices, the thin oxide layer of input gates cannot support high voltages without incurring damage. Where the input voltage across a diode junction becomes excessive, breakdown damage will occur when the EOS current becomes excessive. Secondly, the source/drain junction diodes may get damaged if they carry a large current in forward or reverse bias, thereby creating a short to the bulk (well) of the device or creating an open circuit. This diode junction breakdown occurs in both bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and MOS devices. Input protection circuits are frequently used in integrated circuits to protect against such failures and are normally provided within a pad cell so as to prevent the ESD interfacing with and corrupting the circuitry of the main portion of the integrated circuit. In addition to U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,525, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,602,409 and 6,236,087 both describe a number of exemplary protection circuits that may be provided to obviate the effect of ESD within an IC environment.
It is also known that a pad cell may be provided with two or more signal paths for interfacing with the internal circuitry of the IC. Typically, a first signal path is operable for normal operating conditions and the second signal path is effective by specific input signals applied to the input pin of the IC. A reason for such multiple signal paths is to enable dual or multiple usage of the same input pin of the IC. It will be appreciated that when an IC is to be operated in test mode or some other non-normal application that it is sometimes necessary to access hardware and/or functions within the IC that is, or are, normally not used. To obviate the need to provide a specific input pin to enable this interface, it is common to provide a pin with multiple configurations such that it may be re-configured into a test mode if required. This ensures that a packaged IC is not provided with redundant pins, and as such the area of the chip can be reduced. Similarly, if the circuitry is to be used in JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) boundary scan testing or similar environment where a hardware method of talking to memory and flash without requiring any application running on the hardware is implemented, then it is important that there is provided a methodology for interfacing with the specific circuits of the IC without requiring additional pins.
A further example of multiple pin usage is three-state bus and IO usage. In this case, the pin function can alternate between read and a write functions, as defined by a shared RD/WR input.
Yet another example of multiple pin usages are devices, such as the Analog Devices ADμC812 product, which have user-definable pin interface re-configuration so that a user can define how the interface pins are to be used, depending on the application or specific requirement at the time.
There is therefore a need to provide an interface to an integrated circuit package that enables multiple pin functionality yet does not lead to current leakage within the circuit. There is additionally a need to provide a circuit that can operate with and in parallel to known ESD protection circuits to provide alternative communication input paths from a pin to circuitry within the IC so as to maximize the usage of the pin(s), reduce pin count, package area, package cost and the number of PCB signals required.


An improved apparatus for making disposable pressware features a pneumatic feeding system which accelerates a paperboard blank into a forming die. In a typical embodiment, a pair of adjustable air knives propel a paperboard blank into the forming cavity.

Disposable paper plates and similar containers are generally made from either pressed paperboard or molded pulp. Molded pulp containers, after drying, are strong and rigid but generally have rough surface characteristics. They are not usually coated and are susceptible to penetration by water, oil and other liquids. Pressed paperboard containers, on the other hand, can be decorated and coated with a liquid-resistant coating before being pressed by the forming dies into the desired shape.
General background with respect to pressed paperboard containers is seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,203,491 entitled "Bake-In Press-Formed Container" of R. P. Marx et al.; 4,721,500 entitled "Method of Forming a Rigid Paper-Board Container" of G. J. Van Handel et al.; 4,721,499 entitled "Method of Producing a Rigid Paperboard Container" of R. P. Marx et al.; 4,609,140 entitled "Rigid Paperboard Container and Method and Apparatus for Producing Same" of G. J. Van Handel et al.; and 4,606,496 entitled "Rigid Paperboard Container" of R. P. Marx et al., all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The following commonly-assigned patents and co-pending patent applications contain further information as to pressware materials, processing techniques and equipment and are also incorporated herein by reference: U.S. application Ser. No. 10/963,686, entitled "Pressed Paperboard Servingware with Improved Rigidity and Rim Stiffness"; U.S. application Ser. No. 10/600,814, entitled "Disposable Servingware Containers with Flange Tabs" (Publication No. US2004-0069788A1); U.S. Pat. No. 7,048,176, entitled "Deep Dish Disposable Pressed Paperboard Container"; U.S. Pat. No. 6,893,693, entitled "High Gloss Disposable Pressware"; U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,852, entitled "Disposable Serving Plate With Sidewall-Engaged Sealing Cover"; U.S. Pat. No. 6,715,630, entitled "Disposable Food Container With A Linear Sidewall Profile and an Arcuate Outer Flange"; U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,357, entitled "Rotating Inertial Pin Blank Stops for Pressware Die Sets"; U.S. Pat. No. 6,589,043, entitled "Punch Stripper Ring Knock-Out for Pressware Die Sets"; U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,506, entitled "Side Mounted Temperature Probe for Pressware Die Sets"; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,497, entitled "Smooth Profiled Food Service Articles".
Equipment and methods for making paperboard containers are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,249,946 entitled "Plate Forming Die Set" of R. P. Marx et al.; 4,832,676 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Forming Paperboard Containers" of A. D. Johns et al.; and 4,781,566 entitled "Apparatus and Related Method for Aligning Irregular Blanks Relative to a Die Half" of A. F. Rossi et al. In addition, applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/057,959, entitled "Apparatus for Making Paperboard Pressware with Controlled Blank Feed" filed Feb. 15, 2005, discusses use of a variable speed blank feeder that includes a pervious feed belt, vacuum source and drive means.
The forming section of pressware apparatus may typically include a plurality of reciprocating upper die halves opposing, in facing relationship, a plurality of lower die halves. The upper die halves are mounted for reciprocating movement in a direction that is generally oblique or inclined with respect to the horizontal or vertical plane. The paperboard blanks, after cutting, are gravity fed to the inclined lower die halves in the forming section. The construction of the die halves and the equipment on which they are mounted may be substantially conventional; for example, as utilized on presses manufactured by the Peerless Machine & Tool Corporation, Marion, Ind. U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,143 entitled "Small Blank Feed and Tray Former" to Dempsey describes such apparatus. See also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,293 to Dowd. Optionally included are hydraulic controls as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,539 to Rossi et al.
For paperboard plate stock of conventional thicknesses, i.e., in the range of from about 0.010 to about 0.040 inches, it is preferred that the spacing between the upper die surface and the lower die surface is as taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,721,499 and 4,721,500. Note also the following patents of general interest with respect to forming paperboard containers: U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,687 to Fortney et al. which discloses a cut-in-place forming system with a draw ring and ejection means comprising air jets; U.S. Pat. No. 3,305,434 to Bernier et al. which discloses a paperboard forming apparatus; U.S. Pat. No. 2,832,522 to Schlanger which discloses another paperboard forming apparatus; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,595,046 to Amberg which discloses yet another paperboard forming apparatus.
It is conventional in the manufacture of pressed paperboard containers to feed paperboard blanks to a die set by way of gravity, that is, by passive means. "Active" feed techniques, where paperboard webs or blanks are supplied to the die set by means other than gravity, such as by belt or chain driven conveyors, are not generally employed due to their relative complexity and the need for close synchronization with the press. Pneumatic assist for pressing paperboard articles has heretofore generally been limited to assisting in product ejection, de-nesting or stripping from the mold, or in reducing friction during conveying from one processing station to another, and these functions have been accomplished with relatively simple air nozzles and the like. For example, in connection with ejection, de-nesting or stripping of pressed paperboard articles from a mold, the following patents are noted: U.S. Pat. No. 1,793,089 entitled "Paper Utensil Forming Die" to Heyes; U.S. Pat. No. 2,332,937 entitled "Molding Press" to Schmidberger; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,755,128 entitled "Apparatus for Releasing a Press-Formed Article From a Die Set" to Alexander et al. Pneumatic assists for ejection and de-nesting of other manufactured articles are found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,583 entitled "Method and Device for Removing an Injection-Molded Piece From a Mold" of Hayashi, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,693,346 entitled "Automatic Molded Hardboard Unnesting System" to Dull.
In connection with air cushioning or conveying of pressed paperboard articles previously cited U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,435,143 and 4,755,128 are noted. Air cushioning in connection with production of other types of articles are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,196 entitled "Air Conveyor and Method for Removing Parts from a High Speed Forming Press" to Stewart, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,052 entitled "Cup Conveyor" to Bartylla; U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,636 entitled "Flexible Object Handling System Using Feedback Controlled Air Jets" to Jackson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,042,107 entitled "Device for Contact-Free Sheet Guidance in a Sheet-Fed Printing Press" to Stephan; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,259 entitled "Delivery of a Machine for Processing Flat Printing Materials" to Kerpe et al.
As to conveying equipment utilized in manufacturing operations generally, the following patents are noted: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,945,137 to Mizuno et al.; 5,816,994 to Hill et al.; 5,163,891 to Goldsborough et al.; 5,074,539 to Wells et al.; 5,026,040 to Gibert; 4,748,792 to Jeffrey; 4,494,745 to Ward, Sr. et al.; 4,359,214 to Eldridge; and 3,228,066 to Rippstein.
It has been found in accordance with the present invention that paperboard blanks can be pneumatically propelled into a forming die by selective use of laminar air flow air knives to increase speed and reliability of the pressing operation. Air knives heretofore have been used in industrial processes primarily for drying applications. The apparatus and method of the invention eliminates moving parts as opposed to mechanical options for active blank feeding and thus requires less maintenance and capital investment as will be appreciated especially from the appended drawings.

Pressware die set with pneumatic blank feed


The present invention relates to a device for displaying a sequence of 3D images on the basis of a first sequence of source images corresponding to the left eye and of a second sequence of source images corresponding to the right eye of an observer, said source images being conveyed respectively by a video signal S.sub.1 and by a video signal S.sub.2 of respective luminous intensities E.sub.1 and E.sub.2. The device includes a first means of calculation (6) intended to generate from said video signals S.sub.1 and S.sub.2 a luminous signal S having an overall luminous intensity E calculated as a function of the luminous intensities E.sub.1 and E.sub.2, said means of calculation (6) co-operating with a second means of calculation (8) in such a way as to split, for each pixel, the overall luminous energy E in proportion to the luminous intensities E.sub.1 and E.sub.2.

a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for displaying a sequence of 3D images on the basis of a first sequence of source images corresponding to the left eye and of a second sequence of source images corresponding to the right eye of an observer, said source images being conveyed respectively by a video signal S.sub.1 and by a video signal S.sub.2 of respective luminous intensities E.sub.1 and E.sub.2 and either emanate from reception and/or decoding units which split the light along a first analysis path for light corresponding to the left eye and along a second analysis path corresponding to the right eye of the observer, or are produced in a manner known per se by electronic means of image synthesis.
b. Description of the Prior Art
The 3D display or stereoscopic display of images usually consists in viewing on one and the same device a series of images corresponding to the right eye and a series of images corresponding to the left eye of an observer. These two video sequences are in general captured or generated in such a way as to make it possible to comply with the geometry of human vision so that the offsets between the left view and the right view of the observer are reconstructed correctly by the psychovisual process which allows stereoscopic vision.
Among the known solutions for generating a luminous signal compatible with stereoscopic vision, the double-display or double-projection devices display the two video sequences simultaneously. The two paths are combined by polarizing one of these two paths in a first specified direction and by polarizing the other path in a second direction direction. Separation of the two paths, at the observer, is achieved by appropriate polarizing glasses. These devices have the drawback, however, of duplicating the number of image generator devices which may be, for example, television type monitors stationed symmetrically on each side of a semi-reflecting plate, so that the screens appear merged from the viewpoint of the observer. In this case, it is necessary to station a polarizing filter in front of each screen so as to create the desired polarization orientation. The image generator devices may also consist of two video projectors. In this case, it is necessary to fit out each beam with an appropriate polarizing filter. Furthermore, projection must be carried out onto a special screen so as to preserve the orientation of the polarization. This considerably raises the complexity and cost of such devices.
Other known solutions use either time-sequencing devices or spatial-interlacing devices. In the first case, the images are time-division multiplexed for example, by interlacing, on one and the same signal and at video rate, video signals corresponding respectively to the right eye and left eye of the observer. Said paths are separated in general by special glasses which block off the right eye and the left eye alternately and in synchronism with the interlacing. In a manner known per se, the blocking off of a path is achieved by stationing a liquid crystal cell between a polarizer and an analyser. The rotation (by 90.degree.) or non-rotation of the polarization by the liquid crystal makes it possible to render the glass passing or blocking at the desired rate. A major drawback of this type of device stems from the fact that the apparent frequency of display (for each eye) is halved as compared with non-stereoscopic display.
As far as the spatial-interlacing devices are concerned, they consist of micropolarizing halftone filters enabling each R, G or B sub-pixel of an image to be assigned an identified polarization direction. Multiplexing the signals S.sub.1 and S.sub.2 in tandem with the polarization frame makes it possible to generate a suitable luminous signal. In these types of device, the apparent spatial resolution (for each eye) is halved as compared with non-stereoscopic display.
The purpose of the invention is to alleviate the drawbacks of the prior art devices by means of a compact device which makes it possible to preserve the frequency of display and the resolution of the images to be displayed at least at the same level as those achieved by non-stereoscopic devices.


A method for assigning an IP address to a terminal device and a communication system. The method includes: a router transmitting to a layer-2 device network a Router Advertisement message carrying routing prefix information; the layer-2 device network generating extended routing prefix information which identifies the downlink port uniquely within the broadcast domain of the subnet where the layer-2 device network is located according to the routing prefix information in the Router Advertisement message, and transmitting to the terminal device a Router Advertisement message carrying the extended routing prefix information; and the terminal device generating its IP address according to the extended routing prefix information in the Router Advertisement message and an Interface ID of the terminal device. Accordingly, it is unnecessary for the terminal device to perform address uniqueness check across the layer-2 devices in the network to ensure uniqueness of the IP address of the terminal device, thus improving the operating performance of the network.

IPv6 stands for "Internet Protocol Version 6", also referred to as the next generation of Internet Protocol, which is a new IP protocol developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to take the place of current IPv4. IPv6 is proposed for addressing the problems and deficiencies with IPv4 and has brought out improvements in various aspects such as routing, autoconfiguration and the like. IPv6 will completely take the dominant place of IPv4 in the Internet after a relatively long period of their coexistence. IPv6 has the following characters in comparison with IPv4: a simplified head; flexible extension; a hierarchical address structure; a plug-and-play networking approach; authentication and encryption at the network layer; fulfillment of Quality of Service; and a better support for mobile communications.
IPv6 extends the length of a current IP address by a factor of 4, i.e., the length of 32 bits for current IPv4 is extended to 128 bits, so as to support a large number of network nodes. Thus, the total number of the IPv6 addresses is about 3.4×1038. If it were averaged over the surface of the earth, there would be 6.5×1023 addresses per square meter. IPv6 supports more levels of address hierarchy in that its address space is designed to be divided as per different address prefixes, and the hierarchical address structure is used to facilitate rapid forwarding of data packages by a router in a backbone network.
A global IPv6 address is composed of a global routing prefix, a subnet identifier and an interface identifier. As defined in Section 2.5.4 of RFC3513 and shown in FIG. 1, a global routing prefix is a value indicative of a typical hierarchical structure assigned to a site (a group of subnets or links), a subnet ID identifies a subnet within a site, and an interface ID identifies an interface on a link.
The Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) governs a consolidated assignment of global routing prefixes. An organization provided with a global routing prefix is responsible for the assignment of subnet IDs, in a similar way to the assignment of subnet masks in an IPv4 context, for which there is no related standard and which, at present, is usually achieved through manual management and configurations. The assignment of interface IDs can be realized through state and stateless autoconfiguration, where the state autoconfiguration can change the IP addresses of all hosts within the network without manual intervention and hence has been applied more widely.
RFC2462 describes a stateless autoconfiguration procedure for the assignment of an IP address to an IPv6 terminal device. The stateless autoconfiguration requires a support for multicast by a local link and the abilities of a network interface to transmit and receive a multicast message. This procedure requires a host within the network to perform the following steps.
First, the host for autoconfiguration determines a local link address of its own.
Then, the uniqueness of the local link address of the host is checked within the broadcast domain of the subnet.
Finally, the host determines information required for the configuration, for example, including an IP address of a node and/or other configuration information.
Specifically, during the stateless autoconfiguration, the host first generates a local link address through appending the MAC address of its network card after the prefix, 1111111010, of the local link address, and particularly in the case of a 48-bit MAC address of the network card used by the host, the IPv6 driver of the network card can convert the 48-bit MAC address into a 64-bit MAC address according to a certain formula. Then, the host transmits to this address a multicast message of Neighbor Discovery Request (NDR) for the check of the uniqueness of the address. If there is no response to the request, it indicates that the local link address configured by the host itself is of uniqueness; otherwise it indicates that there is an address on the link identical to the local link address configured by the host itself. In the latter case, the host can use an interface ID generated randomly to compose a new local link address, and then with this address being as a source address, multicasts to all the routers on the local link a Router Solicitation (RS) to request configuration information, and the routers respond with a Router Advertisement (RA) containing a global address prefix and other relevant configuration information. The host configures a global address automatically by adding its own interface ID to the global address prefix obtained from the routers, and then gets the ability to communicate with another host within the Internet.
Stateless autoconfiguration in the prior art provides an IP address configuration method that is well suitable for an IP network interconnected through routers. However, the uniqueness check of a local link address in the stateless autoconfiguration requires a support for multicast by the local link and a broadcast feature of the network forming the local link. In the context of a network where routers are connected with terminal devices through a Non Broadcast Multi Access (NBMA) layer-2 network, including, for example, a frame delay network, an asynchronous transfer mode network and the like, however, the terminal devices can not conduct the address uniqueness check by means of the broadcast characteristics of the link during address configuration, and hence the stateless autoconfiguration of addresses is impossible.
Moreover, in the case that a layer-2 device at a convergence location implements Neighbor Discovery and communication with a host within a subnet through an agent, the layer-2 device has to implement broadcast even if there is no link-layer address corresponding to the requested IP address. At this point, the broadcast would be impossible when a router and a terminal device are connected through an NBMA layer-2 device, and a broadcast message thus generated may affect the network performance to some extent.

Method for assigning IP address to terminal device and communication system


A server connectable to a client able to manage successively transitioned-to states. The server has a set storage unit for storing a set including a predetermined state; a server-side communication unit for communicating with the client using a privacy-preserving set-intersection protocol for detecting whether an element in a mutual set is a common element between mutual sets while preserving privacy; and a determining unit for determining whether the state of the client is included in the set stored by the set storage unit on the basis of ciphertext received in accordance with the privacy-preserving set-intersection protocol. Also provided is an information processing method which is able to manage successively transitioned-to-states.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system, server, client, method, and program for detecting whether or not the state of a client matches a predetermined state stored in a server.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are systems in which a server monitors the state of a client, and generates a warning when the state is not in a predetermined state. In this case, the server has to periodically acquire the state of the client, and determine whether or not the state of the client is the predetermined state.
However, when a server periodically acquires and monitors the state of a client, there is a possibility that the state to which the client is transitioning can be estimated on the server side.
Also, there is a method for checking whether or not a string possessed by a client has been accepted by an automaton possessed by a server which is called oblivious automaton evaluation. Oblivious automaton evaluation is a method where the checking process is executed without disclosing the string possessed by the client to the server and without disclosing the automaton possessed by the server to the client. Because the state of the client is oblivious to the server when this checking method is used, the state of the client is not estimated.
However, in oblivious automaton evaluation, the checking process has to be executed each time by returning the automaton to its initial state and transitioning in successive order through the states of the automaton. Therefore, when the state of the client is periodically monitored, the amount of transitioning (processing) increases as time elapses and the processing burden is more substantial.

System for detecting whether client state matches predetermined state

International Business Machines Corporation


An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device, a fixing device, a high voltage power supply board, a main body housing and a door. The door is provided in the main body housing so as to face the fixing device. The fixing device includes a fixing member, a pressure roller, a charge applying device, a fixing housing and a contact member. The fixing member is rotatable. The charge applying device is applied with a voltage from the high voltage power supply board and applies a charge to the fixing member. The fixing housing stores the fixing member, the pressure roller and the charge applying device. The contact member is provided in the fixing housing at a position accessible by opening the door and to which a feed line on the high voltage power supply board side and a feed line on the charge applying device side are connected.

The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus including a fixing device.
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus is provided with a fixing device which fixes a toner on a sheet. The fixing device includes a cylindrical fixing member (a belt or a roller), a pressure roller which holds the sheet between the fixing member and the pressure roller, and a heater which heats the fixing member. In the fixing device, there is a case where an electrostatic offset occurs in which the toner is transferred from the sheet to the fixing member due to frictional charging or peeling charging of the fixing member. Therefore, in order to suppress the electrostatic offset, a charge applying device which applies a charge having a polarity opposite to that of the charge is provided. The charge applying device removes electricity from the fixing member by corona discharging from a needle-like electrode facing the fixing member.
By the way, the product is inspected after the completion of assembly at the factory. At this time, a voltage from the high voltage power supply board to the charge applying device is also checked. However, since the charge applying device is provided inside the fixing device, it is conventionally necessary to detach the fixing device from the image forming apparatus in order to directly check the output. As a means for checking the output without detaching the fixing device, it is considered to form an image by using image data prepared so as to generate the electrostatic offset when the electric charge is not normally applied, and to check that the electrostatic offset does not occur thereby to indirectly check the output. However, the fixing process needs to be continued for a long time before the electrostatic offset occurs, which is inefficient.


To effectively cool an electric power steering system having an electric motor. A rough terrain vehicle includes an electric motor that is disposed substantially orthogonal to a steering shaft with an engine and an exhaust pipe that are disposed behind the steering shaft and under a seat. A forced air cooling fan is provided for cooling the electric motor. The forced air cooling fan is provided behind the electric motor and in front of the engine or exhaust pipe.

A rough terrain vehicle including an electric power steering system that is disposed in front of an engine is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2004-231011.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2004-231011, the electric power steering system includes a drive motor 60 that is disposed in front of an engine unit 3 mounted on an all terrain small four-wheeled vehicle 1 with an exhaust pipe 38 extending rearwardly from the front part of the engine unit 3.
When the vehicle is being operated, the drive motor 60 is cooled by air flowing over the motor. However, especially while the vehicle is stopped or operating at low speed, the drive motor 60 cannot be expected to be cooled by air flow. In addition, it is necessary to consider that heat generated by the engine unit 3 and exhaust pipe 38 radiates directly to the drive motor 60 to raise the temperature of the drive motor 60.

Rough terrain vehicle with electric power steering system


There is provided a resin molded product including a first member and a second member which are laser welded. A laser welded portion includes a first welding portion which is welded by laser welding of galvano method and a second welding portion which is welded by laser welding of flash method or laser welding of scanning method.

There has been proposed a laser welding technique of projecting laser beams to form a resin molded product. A lamp housing, as an example of the resin molded product, has a resin lamp body and a resin front cover which are laser welded along a periphery of an opening of the lamp body. In this case, a laser welding of scanning method, galvano method or flash method may be used as described in JP-A-2005-339873. The scanning method is a technique of moving a laser head which emits laser beams along a welding portion to perform welding. The galvano method is a technique of deflecting (changes the irradiation direction) the light from a stationary laser head by a movable mirror or the like to project the light onto a welding portion. The flash method is a technique of projecting laser beams from each of a plurality of laser heads arranged along a welding surface onto a welding portion respectively.
The scanning method takes time for the laser head to move across the entire welding portion, so that it is difficult to make the welding portion be in a melting state simultaneously when the welding portion is large or long. Therefore, the scanning method may not be suitable for welding a large lamp. The flash method does not cause such problems in the scanning method or the galvano method but needs a plurality of or a large number of laser heads to be disposed along the length direction of the welding portion, which increases the cost of the welding apparatus. The galvano method can quickly and simultaneously melt the welding portion but is difficult to perform welding with high reliability when there is a portion onto which laser beams cannot be projected at a small incident angle due to the three-dimensional shape of the welding portion. JP-A-2011-255575 solves this problem in the galvano method by using a plurality of laser heads to weld different areas of the welding surface.

Resin molded product and welding apparatus


Apparatus and methods are described for monitoring a subject. A sensor monitors the subject and generates a sensor signal in response thereto and a plurality of filters are used to filter the sensor signal using respective filter parameters. A computer processor receives the sensor signal, filters the signal with each of two or more of the filters, and in response to a quality of each of the filtered signals, selects one of the plurality of filters to filter the sensor signal. Subsequently, the computer processor detects that the subject has undergone motion, by analyzing the sensor signal, and in response thereto, filters the signal with each of two or more of the filters, and in response to a quality of each of the filtered signals, selects one of the plurality of filters to filter the sensor signal. Other applications are also described.

Quality and duration of sleep plays an important role in overall physical and psychological wellbeing. Unfortunately, many subjects have difficulty falling or staying asleep. Thermoregulation during sleep affects sleep quality.
An article entitled "Mechanisms and functions of coupling between sleep and temperature rhythms," by Van Someren (Prog Brain Res 2006, 153:309-324) describes heat production and heat loss as showing circadian modulation. The article states that sleep preferably occurs during the circadian phase of decreased heat production and increased heat loss, the latter due to a profound increase in skin blood flow and, consequently, skin warming.
An article entitled "Functional link between distal vasodilation and sleep-onset latency," by Kräuchi et al. (Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2000, 278:R741-R748) describes a study in which the role of heat loss in sleep initiation was evaluated. The article states that the study provides evidence that selective vasodilation of distal skin regions (and hence heat loss) promotes the rapid onset of sleep.
An article entitled "Skin temperature and sleep-onset latency: Changes with age and insomnia," by Raymann et al. (Physiology & Behavior 90 (2007) 257-266) states that changes in skin temperature may causally affect the ability to initiate and maintain sleep. The article describes findings on the relation between skin temperature and sleep-onset latency, indicating that sleep propensity can be enhanced by warming the skin to the level that normally occurs prior to, and during, sleep. The article describes a study to investigate whether different methods of foot warming could provide an applicable strategy to address sleep complaints.

Apparatus and methods for monitoring a subject


A surgical drape with a functional interface for engaging surgical instruments, including a flexible, tube-like sleeve for creating a sterile barrier around a non-sterile holding arm. The drape is open at a proximal end, and has a hub at a distal end for connection to a distal end of the holding arm. The hub has sterile external surfaces that allow surgical instruments to be easily removably attached in a variety of directions and orientations, providing sufficient mechanical strength to transmit forces from the instruments to the holding arm. The hub includes an externally accessible, sterile actuator for actuating an electronic circuit local to the holding arm on the non-sterile side of the barrier.

There is a need during surgical procedures to maintain a sterile field around a patient's wound site. To maintain this sterile field, surgical instruments are typically sterilized by various means prior to being brought into the sterile field. These means of sterilization include the use of radiation, heat (such as in an autoclave), and the like. However, some devices used during surgery are not easily sterilized because of their size or sensitivity to sterilization procedures.
Rather than sterilize such devices, they are typically isolated through the use of surgical drapes that isolate the sterile field from non-sterile surfaces of the devices. These surgical drapes are typically composed of fabric or synthetic sheets that are draped, taped or clipped in such a way as to create a barrier between the sterile environment of the surgical field and the non-sterile environment surrounding such a device.
The isolation of a surgical device is more complicated when it is necessary for a portion of the device to hold an instrument that will directly contact a patient, or when the device has controls that need to be accessed by a medical practitioner. For example, in the case of a multi-jointed arm that can be used for holding surgical instruments in contact with the patient, the arm will typically need a portion outside of the surgical drape to attach to the instrument. Moreover, because a surgeon will often require several different instruments to be held in different positions at different points of a surgical procedure, and since it is critical for a surgeon to focus on the operation at hand, the means of attaching and removing instruments must be simple enough so as to not serve as a distraction, and versatile enough to be used in a variety of orientations.
Furthermore, the isolation of the arm may be more complicated because the arm may have controls located thereon, such as for altering the configuration of the arm. While a practitioner could operate the controls through the surgical drape, such operation may complicate the use of the controls, and may increase the risk of compromising the sterile barrier provided by the surgical drape.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a sterile barrier apparatus and related methods to provide a non-sterile fixture with sterile attachments, and with access to internal controls. Typical embodiments of the present invention satisfy these and other needs, and provide further related advantages.


A technique for generating a layout of an integrated circuit places standard cells in position and provides power rail conductors formed in a second metal layer overlying power connection conductors formed in a first metal layer via which the power is supplied to the standard cells. Routing connection conductors are added in the first metal layer and are permitted to pass through gaps between the power connection conductors of the first metal layer and underneath the power rail conductors of the second metal layer. Once routing has been performed, gaps between the power connection conductors of the first metal layer underlying the power rail conductors and not being used by routing connection conductors are closed so as form interrupted power rail conductors within the first meal layer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of integrated circuits. More particularly, this invention relates to the generation of layouts for integrated circuits including the layouts for the power supply within those integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to provide mechanisms, such as appropriately programmed general purpose computers, that generate layouts for integrated circuits using libraries of standard cell designs and data defining the functionality and/or the circuits to be provided. This process is termed synthesis. One stage in the synthesis process is placing the standard cells at appropriate positions within the integrated circuit so that they are relatively nearby the other standard cells with which they need to communicate. A routing step then generates the conductors to route signals between the standard circuit cells which have been placed. Metal layers, such as the first metal layer, are normally used for such signal routing. Placement and signal routing are facilitated when there is a high degree of flexibility in the routing which may be provided, i.e. routing hotspots may be reduced and signal paths may be shortened.
Another part of the generation of layouts for an integrated circuit is the provision of the power supply for the circuitry formed from the standard cells. The power supply is typically provided by running power rail conductors across the integrated circuit at a regular spacing and parallel to one another. The standard cells are then be linked to these power supply rails so as to draw electrical energy therefrom. One known technique is to use a second metal layer to provide power rail conductors running across the integrated circuit. Power connection conductors positioned at least partially overlaid by the power rail conductors and provided within a first metal layer are used to connect the power rail conductors to appropriate points within the standard cells using connection vias. Providing the power connection conductors in the first metal layer in combination with the power rail conductors of the second metal layer enables gaps to be provided between the power connection conductors within the first metal layer thereby allowing signal routing conductors within the first metal layer to pass beneath the power rail conductors and provide signal porosity via the first metal layer in a direction perpendicular to the power rail conductors. This ability to provide routing conductors running under the power rail conductors helps reduce routing hotspots and enables more efficient placement.
A problem with the above use of power connection conductors within the first metal layer to link power from the power rail conductors to the circuits of the standard cells is that the via connections between the power rail conductor and the power connection conductor are a potential source of manufacturing errors which can disadvantageously reduce the manufacturing yield. If the via connections between the power rail conductor within the second metal layer and the power connection conductor within the first metal layer are not properly formed, then the power supply to an associated standard cell will not operate correctly leading to a failure of the integrated circuit. As integrated circuits increase in complexity and have increased numbers of standard cells therein, there is an increased likelihood of an error occurring in the via connections between the power rail conductors and the power connection conductors resulting in a failed component.

Post-routing power supply modification for an integrated circuit


In order to ascend and descend the stairs safely even in the nighttime, the invention presents a stairs antiskid member capable of reducing the thickness of the entire antiskid member, enhancing the visual recognition of stairs by light, and assuring sufficient safety when ascending and descending stairs, by accommodating and holding an illuminating plane in a stair antiskid member having an illuminating function, forming a permeable light transmitting portion at least in the front edge of front, rear and side edges, except the middle portion of the member upper surface, and forming a reflecting portion for radiating the light from the illuminating plane through the light transmitting portion at the luminous side of the illuminating plane.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stairs antiskid member having an illuminating function so as to ascend and descend stairs safely even in the nighttime. Herein, stairs include any stepped position regardless of the number of stairs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the stairs antiskid member having an illuminating function, hitherto, a lamp contained a thin tube or a light-emitting diode is disposed as light source in the upper portion of an angle-shaped frame member as the base, and transparent antiskid members are buried from above the light source.
In such conventional stairs antiskid members, since the lamp or light-emitting diode is used as the light source, the thickness of the entire stairs antiskid member is increased.

Anti-skid stair covering with illuminating areas therein


A high density electrical interconnection device provides a uniform complementary pattern of thieving lines on both X and Y interconnect layers of the high density device to provide for uniform plating of the copper conductors, as well as reducing both nonuniformity and the amount of contraction and expansion of the insulating substrate. The complementary line pattern of thieving lines is generated by computer-aided design techniques and also includes provisions for gaps in thieving lines in one layer so as to eliminate crossover coupling with another layer and provides for visual identification of the thieving lines by the use of an undulating pattern.

The present invention is directed to a high density electrical interconnection device and method therefor and more particularly to an apparatus and method utilizing a thieving pattern.
In the printed circuit board (PCB) industry where the PCB carried electrical conductors (such as copper) to interconnect the various devices, it has been the practice to manually or automatically add large pieces of metal pattern (called "thieving") where the signal conductors were not present. This is intended to make the plating more uniform. In other words, during deposition the distribution of current density and the processing of the electroplating is thus made more uniform.
The foregoing problem is exacerbated or is more critical in a high density electrical connecting structure which is utilized for example to interconnect components (generally integrated circuits or ICs) of high performance digital computers. These structures include multiple layers consisting of conductors disposed in a polymer matrix. Such a high density signal carrier (HDSC) is disclosed in a U.S. application, Ser. No. 055,794, entitled "Method of Forming a Multi-Level Interconnection Device," filed Jun. 1, 1987, in the name of Ho, et al., and assigned to the assignee of the present application.
In addition to the foregoing application, interconnection techniques and structures for interconnecting IC chips on a chip carrier, which includes metallic conductors and polymer materials are also shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,288 to Gazdik, et al., and 4,650,545 to Laakso, et al. In fact, the Gazdik patent discusses a technique for compensating for thermal mismatch between the chip and substrate. This problem is made much more critical in a high density signal carrier structure with which the present invention is especially useful.

High density electrical interconnection device and method therefor


An accessory gear box driveshaft in a turbojet engine with intermediate casing, designed to be mounted in a radial arm of the intermediate casing is disclosed. The shaft is mechanically connected, at a first end, to a an engine shaft of the turbojet engine, and is mechanically connected, at a second end, to a gear box. The shaft includes a bevel gear between the two ends, to provide mechanical transmission to an additional accessory. This shaft is notable in that, together with the gear, it is contained in a case forming an oil circuit sealed against the arm. The accessory includes a drive shaft collaborating with the gear of the transmission shaft and forming a modular assembly therewith.

The present invention relates to the field of multispool and multiflow turbojet engines, particularly twin spool bypass turbojets. It is aimed at mounting an accessory and at the mechanical transmission between this accessory and a shaft of the engine.
To drive the accessories mounted on the engine, such as electric generators, oil pumps or fuel pumps, which are necessary to the operation of the engine or that of the aircraft on which it is mounted, the required power is generally taken off the main shaft. A twin spool turbojet engine has two coaxial shafts, one of them, known as the low-pressure or LP shaft, connecting the low-pressure compressor to the low-pressure turbine and together forming the LP spool and the other, known as the high-pressure or HP shaft, connecting the high-pressure compressor to the high-pressure turbine and together forming the HP spool. In the case of such an engine, transmission of power to the accessories is generally provided by a radial shaft, housed in an arm of the intermediate casing, one end of which has a bevel gear collaborating with a gear secured to the high-pressure spool. The other end is mechanically connected to a box containing a number of gears and forming a support for the accessories while at the same time providing them with drive. When the engine is a bypass engine, the radial transmission shaft passes through both the primary flow and the bypass flow streams, respectively, because the accessory gear box, also known by its English-language acronym AGB, is mounted on the casing of the fan that generates the bypass flow.
Because of evolutions in engine design and engine operating conditions, proposals have been made to mount additional pieces of equipment on the primary flow casing to engage with the radial accessory driveshaft between the two ends thereof. Such pieces of equipment may, for example, consist of a motor for driving the radial transmission shaft, to supplement the drive from the HP spool. Such supplementing is actually useful when the engine layout means that a great deal of power is demanded when this engine is running at idle, in order to drive certain accessories such as electric generators. At idle speed, the HP spool may be unable satisfactorily to supply all the power required in such a design.

Turbojet engine accessory gear box driveshaft; modular additional accessory


A method for measuring motion from biological imaging data including collecting non-carrier data images; patterning the non-carrier data images with synthetic carrier properties; and processing the patterned non-carrier data images with a carrier based motion tracking technique to generate images representing motion measurements. The method preferably converts images lacking a carrier signal to ones with a synthetic carrier signal such that highly accurate and robust speckle tracking can be achieved.

Traditional ultrasound speckle tracking relies on pattern matching algorithms to follow speckles. The speckles are produced from the interaction of the ultrasound signal with tissue micro-structure. Local tissue displacement is calculated through a series of image frames. If raw, radio-frequency (RF) data is used, the ultrasound carrier signal can be used to provide highly accurate (sub-acoustic wavelength) and robust displacement measurements due to the carrier frequency property of RF data. However, there are many forms of ultrasound images and other physiological imaging data that have no carrier information, like B-mode and magnitude images. Tracking using non-carrier ultrasound data requires different methods than established RF based tracking algorithms. Current algorithms for processing non-carrier imaging data have poor performance and high computational demand. Thus, there is a need in the physiological motion processing field to create a new and useful method for measuring image motion with synthetic speckle patterns in the physiological motion processing field. This invention provides such a new and useful method.

Method for ultrasound motion tracking via synthetic speckle patterns


A radio transmission system is disclosed for operating in a multipath transmission environment having improved reception, and in the case of bi-directional systems, also improved transmission. This is achieved by using at least two reception beams, corresponding to one fixed reception beam and one scanning reception beam, and by continuously evaluating the quality of these beams as to their signal-to-noise-and-interference ratios or bit-error-rates (BERs). The best beam is dynamically chosen to be the fixed beam. Alternatively, the fixed beam is updated with the best beam acquired by the scanning beam as compared to the current fixed beam. In a bi-directional system, the receiving radio apparatus applies the direction of the best reception beam for transmission to the opposite radio apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio transmission system comprising at least one radio apparatus which comprises a receiving arrangement with at least two receiver front-ends which are coupled to an array of at least two antennas and combining means so as to form beams. Such a system can be a mobile radio system, a cordless telephony system, a paging system, a car radio broadcast system, a GPS (Global Positioning System), an in-house audio link system or home-cast system, wireless headphones, or any other radio transmission system.
The present invention further relates to a radio apparatus for use in such a system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A radio transmission system of this kind is known from the European Patent Application EP 0 459 038, in which off-line processing is applied to process signals from a phased-array of antennas for optimising the reception of a desired signal in the presence of interfering signals. In the known system coefficients of tapped delay lines as phase shifting networks are computed and updated so as to find an optimum for a received signal quality. The method as applied in the known system is a complicated brute-force method which is not suitable in environments where reception conditions vary quickly. Such a brute force method is difficult to implement in e.g. a low power portable radio apparatus because a lot of processing capacity is required, requiring considerable battery power. Furthermore, when applying the known method, it cannot be guaranteed that a global optimum is found. In the European patent application EP 0 308 830 another known system is described in which a direction of arrival of incoming radio waves is detected, i.e. the direction of incoming radio waves having the maximum intensity among all the incoming radio waves arriving in all directions. The incoming radio waves are supplied via an array of antennas to a number of receiver front-ends, and via FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) processing means such a maximum intensity direction is determined. By adjusting phase shifters in receiving branches the direction of reception can be changed. In the European Patent Application EP 0 610 989, another known radio transmission is described, in which radio waves are received via at least two antennas. Before the received signals are fed to a receiver, a phase difference between the radio signals as received by the antennas is determined. Such a phase difference contains information as to the direction from which was sent. In EP 0 308 830 and EP 0 610 989 bi-directional transmission systems are described in which radio waves are transmitted in a detected optimum reception direction. The methods applied in the known systems, whether uni-directional or bi-directional, are not optimal for a multipath environment in which signal absorbing or reflecting objects such as buildings or strong interference sources are present in reception paths. When applying the information from the thus determined optimum reception direction in a bi-directional transmission for transmitting in the opposite direction, this could even lead to a transmission in a wrong direction, e.g. into the direction of an interference source or into the direction of an absorbing object so that at the opposite reception side a poor quality signal or no signal at all is received.

Radio transmission system and a radio apparatus for use therein


A server system with one or more processors and memory receives respective client environment data from a first client device of a plurality of client devices, where the respective client environment data is provided to the server system according to predetermined collection parameters. The server system determines characteristic criteria for identifying potential target clients for additional data collection based on the respective client environment data received from the first client device. The server system sends a data collection command to at least one second client device of the plurality of client devices in accordance with the characteristic criteria.

In recent years, there has been rapid development of Internet technologies, and various products based on Internet technologies have been developed. To better maintain and optimize these products and to provide a better user experience, user behavior data of these products needs to be collected. User behavior data includes reasons for uninstalling a product, the number of successful installations of the product, defects encountered when using the product, the phase in which the defects occur, time spent on pages, the phase in which users exit the product, the defect rate of the product, reasons for crashes of the product, and so on. In this way, market penetration of the product and the product's number active users is known. At the same time, the product's quality is tracked. In addition, user habits, causes for defects or crashes, and influences of the product are also learned.
In the prior art, user behavior data as to a product is typically obtained by conducting questionnaires or surveys of users at critical times (e.g., when the user installs or uninstalls the product), and the information from the questionnaires or surveys is manually analyzed.
Such a method for collecting user behavior data largely relies on user input; therefore, the user behavior data is subjective and uncertain. Not only is the data collection range limited, but, also, the reliability of the collected user behavior data is poor. This greatly affects the accuracy of results obtained from analyzing the user behavior data.

Method, device and system for processing client environment data

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED