A liquid crystal display (LCD) device and a method for driving the LCD device are disclosed. The LCD device includes a frame rate adjusting circuit for controlling a frame rate to be maintained at a 1-fold rate in frame periods other than an Nth frame period (“N” is a multiple of 8 or more), while being increased to an “i”-fold-accelerated rate (“i” is a positive integer of 2 or more) in the Nth frame period, to output reference timing signals in the frame periods other than the Nth frame period, and to output accelerated timing signals in the Nth frame period, a timing controller for generating data and gate timing control signals, based on at least one of each reference timing signal and each accelerated timing signal, and a logic circuit for accelerating a frequency of a polarity control signal in the Nth frame period.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates display devices, and more particularly, to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device and a driving method thereof for reducing or eliminating direct current image sticking and flicker.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
LCD devices display an image by controlling the light transmittance of liquid crystal cells in accordance with a video signal. FIG. 1 illustrates a liquid crystal cell of an active matrix type LCD device. In such an active matrix type LCD device, data voltages, which are supplied to liquid crystal cells Clc, are switched by thin film transistors (TFTs) formed in respective liquid crystal cells Clc under the active control of data to achieve an enhancement in the display quality of a moving image. In FIG. 1, the reference character "Cst" designates a storage capacitor to maintain the data voltage charged in the associated liquid crystal cell Clc, the reference character "DL" designates a data line to be supplied with the data voltage, and the reference character "GL" designates a gate line to be supplied with a scan voltage.
The LCD display device having the above described structure may be driven in accordance with an inversion scheme, in which polarity inversion not only occurs between neighboring liquid crystal cells, but also occurs at intervals of one frame, in order to reduce a DC offset of voltages applied to the cells and to reduce degradation of the liquid crystals. However, when any one of data voltages having opposite polarities is dominantly supplied for a prolonged period of time, image sticking may occur. Such image sticking is called "DC (direct current) image sticking" because it occurs when a liquid crystal cell is repeatedly charged with voltages having the same polarity. An example of such a case is the case in which data voltages are supplied to the LCD device in accordance with an interlace scheme. In accordance with the interlace scheme, data voltages are supplied to liquid crystal cells on odd horizontal lines in odd frame periods, while being supplied to liquid crystal cells on even horizontal lines in even frame periods.
FIG. 2 is a waveform diagram depicting an example in which data voltages are supplied to each liquid crystal cell Clc in accordance with the interlace scheme. In this example, it is assumed that the liquid crystal cell Clc supplied with the data voltages depicted in FIG. 2 is one of the liquid crystal cells arranged on one odd horizontal line.
Referring to FIG. 2, a positive voltage is supplied to the liquid crystal cell Clc in odd frame periods, and a negative voltage is supplied to the liquid crystal cell Clc in even frame periods. Since a data voltage having a high positive polarity level is supplied to liquid crystal cells Clc arranged on odd horizontal lines, only in odd frame periods, in accordance with the interlace scheme, the positive data voltage becomes dominant during the 4 frame periods in comparison to the negative voltage, as shown by the waveform in the box of FIG. 2. FIG. 3 is an image showing the experimental results of DC image sticking occurring due to interlace data. When an original image corresponding to the left image in FIG. 3 is supplied to an LCD panel for a certain period of time in accordance with the interlace scheme, the data voltage, which is varied in polarity at intervals of one frame, exhibits a considerable level difference between the odd frame and the even frame, as shown in FIG. 2. As a result, when a data voltage having an intermediate gray scale value, for example, a gray scale value of 127, is supplied to all liquid crystal cells Clc of the LCD panel, after the display of an original image such as the left image in FIG. 3, the pattern of the original image is dimly displayed, as shown by the right image in FIG. 3. That is, DC image sticking occurs.
Another example of DC image sticking may be the case in which an image is moved or scrolled at a certain speed. When an image is moved or scrolled at a certain speed, voltages of the same polarity may be repeatedly accumulated in each liquid crystal cell Clc in accordance with the correlation between the size of the scrolled figure and the scroll speed (moving speed). This example is illustrated in FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is an image showing the experimental results of DC image sticking occurring when an oblique line pattern or a character pattern is moved at a certain speed.
The moving image display quality of the LCD device may be degraded not only due to DC image sticking, but also due to flicker, namely, a periodic brightness difference visible to the naked eye of a viewer. Therefore, it is desirable to prevent the occurrence of DC image sticking and flicker, in order to enhance the display quality of the LCD device.

Liquid crystal display device and method for driving thereof


A computer-implemented system and method are disclosed for facilitating dynamically-priced offer data between a restaurant and a consumer, the data reflecting dynamically-priced offers which are contingent upon the consumer first honoring in full their contractual promises to the restaurant before the restaurant is bound to honor its ‘side’ of the deal. In an embodiment, the method and system enables a consumer to specify, in advance, a minimum amount of money the consumer contractually binds themselves to spend at a restaurant as well as the specific hour of the day of a specific day of the week of a specific week of the year the consumer promises to arrive at the restaurant or expects delivery of an order from a restaurant, in return for more of the goods or services the restaurant contractually, but contingently binds themselves to provide the consumer. Further disclosed is a system and method for dealing with instances where a consumer fails to meet their contractual obligation to the restaurant, upon which assurances the restaurant's bid was contingent. In an embodiment, a controller is provided for an authorized restaurant representative to use to access a data storage device in which is stored restaurant ‘deal’ offers which may be triggered by consumer's Request For Bid (RFB). The same controller receives those RFB's from consumer and accesses the same data storage device as it attempts to present responsive bids from local area restaurants.

How much, when, and where—that is: whether the 'venue' will be eat in, take out, or delivery? The restaurant industry pivots every minute of every day around the answers to those 3 questions.
Ask any restaurant owner which days and what hours their tables are usually empty and they'll be able to tell you, with excruciating exactness, the hours, days, and restaurant location they suffer from a dearth of restaurant customers. Very few restaurants need customers Saturday night at 7:00 PM. They need customers walking in their restaurant doors Monday's at 4:30 PM, or Thursday's at 10:00 PM, when the food and staff are there, the lights are on and the restaurant's financial overhead is overhead—but there just aren't enough persons in seats at such days and times.
The restaurant industry is an incredibly important part of the U.S. gross domestic product—and wildly inefficient. According to The National Restaurant Association, (http://www.restaurant.org/News-Research/Research/Facts-at-a-Glance) U.S. annual industry sales total just shy of $800 Billion. That's just a little less than $2 Billion that is spent-every-day at U.S. restaurants. The industry employs about 15 million people . . . about 10% of the U.S. workforce. Estimates of the total number of U.S. restaurants vary from 600,000 to 1,000,000. Research firm NPD Group says Americans make more than 61 billion restaurant visits annually, about 167 million restaurant visits daily.
The biggest problem in the restaurant industry is that restaurant seats expire. They "spoil", a little bit, every minute, just like seafood and other restaurant inventory. A restaurant cannot generate revenue this hour from a seat or a table, that was empty last hour. That problem exists whether that restaurant is owned by a restaurant chain, or is a small independent "ma and pa" type restaurant which doesn't have the marketing resources or the digital know-how to compete against the chain restaurants. The only and eternal fight in the restaurant industry is over market share. It's a gunfight to which small local restaurants can only bring a knife.
Domino's Pizza, for example, is said to earn more than $1 billion annually just from the slice of revenue produced by its online platform. CNBC financial commentator Jim Cramer tweeted in 2017: "I think Dominos is a tech company with a fabulous online ordering platform that's merely masquerading as a pizza chain."
The owners of small restaurants typically don't have the technical ability or financial resources to create an online presence that would level the playing field, giving them the same advertising and marketing impact and 'footprint' of the big chain restaurants. That said, even the big chain restaurants are also afflicted by empty tables. A chain restaurant's pain from empty tables is multiplied, almost exponentially, by the number of units comprising the chain. Whether it's 10 or 10,000,000 empty tables an hour, the agony, inefficiencies and economic loss are significant.
What's the solution? It's not Groupon. All restaurant owners needed to do was cut their reasonable and fair prices by 50% . . . then pay Groupon 50% of that amount as its fee. Not surprisingly, that's not a solution many restaurant owners continue to embrace.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,527,395 to Pylant describes a buyer-driven, buyer-executed auction but requires not only the prospective buyer's identity be revealed in advance, but the buyer's financial information as well, before a transaction may be completed. Not only that, the U.S. Pat. No. 8,527,395 patent requires confirmation from a third-party source that the buyer is financially capable of completing the transaction. Each of those three flaws are toxic to the usefulness of the U.S. Pat. No. 8,527,395 system. Worse, the U.S. Pat. No. 8,527,395 system only attempts to perfectly fulfill the user's query. If it can't perfectly execute, the Pylant '395 system provides no contingencies to deal with partial fulfillment of a deal. It's just not an ideal solution.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,341,033 issued to Porat describes a buyer's auction that requires responses from at least two sellers, then communicates information about one of the sellers to another one of the sellers, allowing a seller to adjust their offer then receiving that adjusted offer.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,620,741 to Chen describes a method for reducing excess restaurant capacity that involves customers bidding on gift certificates where the certificate is awarded to the highest bidder. A problem with the described system is Chen's intent to drive up the amount of money the consumer pays for a meal. Another aim of Chen is to force a consumer to provide information about themselves "must register with the website and provide certain identification and demographic information during a registration process before being able to obtain a certificate." It would be desirable to provide a system that does not require obtaining demographic information before a user is able to trigger and accept a restaurant offer.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,326,705 to Niessen describes a method that "sends out offers to targeted consumers based on consumer preferences". Such systems can be annoying to consumers.

System and method for exchanging dynamically priced offer data between a restaurant and a consumer


The electronic tag authentication device of the present invention authenticates the contents of an electronic tag attached to goods. The electronic tag authentication device comprises an antenna directivity change unit for changing the directivity of an antenna for transmitting/receiving electrical waves in order to authenticate the contents of the electronic tag.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the authentication method of an electronic tag attached to a goods, more particularly to provide an electronic tag authentication device capable of improving the authentication accuracy of an electronic tag and reducing interference with another electronic tag authentication device by changing the directivity of the antenna of the relevant electronic tag authentication device and a communication adjustment method with the electronic tag.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in the fields of production and distribution, attention has been focused on a radio frequency identification (RFID) method as the management system of components or inventory. For example, if a different reader/writer is used for each showcase to manage goods with an electronic tags in a showcase, using such RFID, it causes a problem that the authentication accuracy of a tag degrades due to interference with another reader/writer or the like, although it depends on the disposition way of showcases.
As the prior arts concerning the data reading of such an electronic tag and an IC card, there are the following references.    Patent reference 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2000-242742 "Interrogator System"    Patent reference 2: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2003-283367 "Interrogator System"
Each of these references discloses a system interrogating a moving IC card, using a plurality of readers/writers. Patent Reference 1 discloses a technology for preventing the interference of a transmission signal between readers/writers by transmitting an interrogation signal when one reader/writer detects that a radio transmission signal from the other reader/writer is in a no-signal state.
Patent Reference 2 discloses a system for preventing interference caused when one reader/writer receives a transmission signal from the other reader/writer while expanding a communicable area, by overlapping and setting the communicable area of each of antennas corresponding to a plurality of readers/writers and synchronizing the transmission/reception of the plurality of reader/writers.
However, in the technology of Patent Reference 1, a plurality of readers/writers cannot be simultaneously operated. In order to solve the problem of the present invention aims to solve, a communicable area must be rather restricted. The technology of Patent Reference 2 cannot also be applied.

Electronic tag authentication device and communication adjustment method with electronic tag


An electronic device includes a housing, a printed circuit board mounted within the housing, an earphone and a cable storing compartment. The earphone includes a connecting cable and a head member. One end of the connecting cable is connected to the printed circuit board, the other end is connected to the head member. The cable storing compartment includes a recessed portion and an earphone compartment. The recessed portion is defined in a peripheral wall of the housing. The earphone compartment is defined in the peripheral wall and adjacent to the recessed portion. The recessed portion receives the connecting cable. The earphone compartment receives the head member.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an electronic device and, particularly, to an electronic device incorporating an earphone.
2. Description of related art
Usually, earphones are used to listen to music stored in portable electronic devices (e.g., MP3 players). However, the earphone typically has a long connecting cable and the connecting cable can easily get tangled. In addition, when the earphone is detached from the electronic device, the earphone may be easily lost or misplaced.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.


A system (1) is described for determining offsets (δ) of measuring instruments, in particular of measures with a null or constant mean value, composed of first processing means (3) adapted to compute, from at least one value of a measuring signal (S) deriving from an instantaneous measure performed by at least one measuring instrument or a sensor, at least one offset value (δ) of such signal (S); and second processing means (5) adapted to subtract such offset value (δ) from the value of the instantaneous measure signal (S) to obtain a corrected measure value (S−δ) of such signal S. A process is also described for determining offsets (δ) of measuring instruments, in particular of measures with a null or constant mean value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to a system for determining offsets (bias) of measuring instruments (included electronic adaptation and interface), in particular measures with null or constant mean value. The present invention is applicable to all sensors, complete of electronic interfacing, used to measure variations of one physical phenomenon: there is a steady state condition and a variation respect to this condition. When the interest is the real value of physical phenomena it is necessary to use a sensor with adequate absolute precision; it isn't possible to subtract bias (offsets). If the interest is the variation respect to the steady state value, it is possible to estimate offsets and to applier the present invention. The known that the physical phenomena moves respect a constant mean value allows the estimation of offsets (bias) and the measure, with the presented method, of physical phenomena with very high precision (higher the sensors used). The present invention further refers to a process for determining offsets of measuring instruments through a system according to the present invention. It is applicable to all type of sensors: linear or angular position, speed and acceleration sensors, pressure, temperature, rate of flow, heading, etc. to measure the variation with very high resolution or with a precision better than the original physical sensor. The method allows estimating total bias (due to sensor, its physical arrangement and its conditioning and adapting electronic circuits)
2. Background Information
As known, any measuring instrument or sensor is substantially affected by an offset composed of two types of errors:                systematic measuring errors, constant and dependent from the physical principle used and the sensibility of the instrument or sensor itself;        slowly-varying errors, dependent from environmental and use conditions in which the instrument or sensor has to operate, such as for example temperature, pressure, humidity, instrument and electronic ageing, height variation on sea level (for accelerometers measure), etc.
When measures performed by the measuring instrument have a null or constant mean value, or point out the difference with respect to a fixed position, it is possible to determine the measuring error rather accurately, and thereby clean the measure itself from the global error, as sum of fixed and slowly-varying errors with respect to the dynamics of the system to which it is applied.
In particular, for example, it is also known in the art that angular speed sensors have a particularly important role in stabilisation systems for roll and pitch in boats and other different systems, since the rolling speed has a major weight on the efficiency of adjustments through fins. In order to be able to use sensors with acceptable costs, currently angular speed sensors are used with a ±50°/s full scale, while the working range for measures is on the maximum order of magnitude of 2 or 3°/s. Every sensor therefore has a systematic error and a slowly-varying error that depends on environmental temperature, ageing, and other above-mentioned conditions: this error is typically on the order of 1%. In this case the measuring error is of the same order of magnitude of the amount that has to be measured, and it would therefore be essential to clean the sensor from fixed and (slowly with respect to the phenomenon that has to be detected) varying errors automatically, and obtain a measure with a better accuracy than the one obtained by the pure sensor. However, without the estimation and subtraction of this error, it is not possible to use the sensor importantly and with relevant efficiency with respect to other measures and, consequently, the regulating systems, in which the sensor is used, cannot have relevant performances.
Similar example is the problem of estimation of the vertical movement of an object. To make a good estimation of vertical movement is necessary to extract'the bias of accelerometer measure; this is possible, with the present invention, with the estimation and subtraction of the bias. The offset of accelerometers changes with temperature, sensor ageing, height respect the sea level, etc. The present invention allows the correct calculation of bias and its subtraction.
Documents U.S. Pat. No. B1-6,498,409 and U.S.-A1-2010/164425 disclose systems according to the preamble of claim 1.

System and process for determining offsets of measuring instruments


Systems and methods for the detection of motions of a pointed object upon a writing surface such as a touchpad are disclosed. The motions will be detected and converted in an analog-to-digital converter to digital codes representing the location of the pointed object upon the touchpad. The motion will be translated into a pen detect signal indicating the presence of the pointed object upon the touchpad. The digital codes will be filtered to minimize noise and formed into a filtered absolute coordinates digital code. The filtered absolute coordinate digital code and the pen detect signal will be converted to a touchpad-computer interface protocol and transferred to a computer system for further processing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer system input devices such as a digitizers referred to as touchpads and more particularly to the systems and methods necessary to acquire signals from such input devices, to condition the acquired signals to eliminate noise, and to convert the acquired and conditioned signals to digital codes that are transmitted to a computer system.
2. Description of Related Art
Touchpads are small digitizer based devices that allow a person to write or draw upon the surface of the touchpad and have the signals and codes from a controller to be interpreted by a computer system. The touch pad digitizers may be of three types, capacitive, resistive and electromagnetic.
Referring to FIG. 1, the surface 12 of the touchpad becomes a "writing surface" for capturing the position of an pointed object 10 such as a finger, pen or stylus upon the touchpad. The touchpad signals are analog signals that will be captured by a touchpad interface circuit 28 and translated to digital codes that will be transferred to a computer system 32 on an interface 30. The interface 30 may be an industry standard serial interface, an industry standard parallel interface, or a custom interface requiring special adapter circuitry within the computer system 32 to accept the digital codes from the touchpad interface 28.
An example of a resistive touchpad is shown in FIG. 1. The resistive touchpad is made up of multiple layers of resistive films and protective layers. The protective hard coating 12 is the surface onto which the pointed object 10 is pressed upon during the writing and drawing. A first layer of resistive film 14 is attached to the protective hard coating 12 on the surface opposite the writing surface. This first layer of resistive film forms the Y-plane of the touchpad. Attached to the surface of the Y-plane resistive film 14 opposite the surface attached to the hard protective coating 12 is a second resistive film 16. This second resistive film 16 forms the X-plane of the touchpad. Finally attached to the side of the X-plane resistive film 16 is a supporting back layer 18. This back layer provides protection and mechanical support for the for the X-plane and Y-plane resistive films 14 and 16.
The touchpad interface 28 is connected through the touchpad interface lines 20, 22, 24, and 26. Each line will provide a stimulus such as a current or voltage to the periphery of the X-plane resistive film 16 and the Y-plane resistive film 14. As shown in FIG. 2, as the pointed object 10 is pressed 40 on the touchpad surface 12, the Y-plane resistive film 12 will deform and touch the X-plane resistive film 14. The X-plane resistive film can not deform because it is supported by the supporting back layer 18. This causes the Y-plane resistive film 14 and the X-plane resistive film 16 to come into contact with each other. This will cause a response in the form a change in voltage or current depending upon whether the stimulus from the touchpad interface 28 of FIG. 1 is a constant voltage or a constant current. If the stimulus from the touchpad interface 28 of FIG. 1 is a constant voltage the currents through the touchpad interface lines 20, 22, 24, and 26 will be modified according the position of the pointed object 10 on the touchpad surface 12. However, if the stimulus from the touchpad interface 28 of FIG. 1 is a constant current the voltages between the touchpad interface lines 20, 22, 24, and 26 will be modified according to the position of the pointed object 10 on the touchpad surface 12.
Referring back to FIG. 1, the touchpad interface 28 will have a set of analog to digital converters that will sense the change in the analog responses from the touchpad interface lines 20, 22, 24, and 26 and convert them to digital codes indicating the absolute position of the pointed object 10 upon the touchpad surface 12. The digital codes may be transmitted directly to the computer system across the interface 30 and translated to absolute coordinates within the computer system or the touchpad interface 28 may determine the absolute coordinates and transmit them directly to the computer system 32. For the computer system 32 to use the absolute coordinates generated by the touchpad interface 28 to control the movement of the cursor 36 upon the display screen 34, these absolute coordinates must be modified to codes that define the relative motion of the cursor 36. The relative motion will be the speed and direction of the cursor 36 as it is moved across the display screen 34. The modification from absolute coordinates to relative motion information must be done within an internal mouse emulation program resident within the computer system 32.
As the pointed object 10 is placed upon the touchpad surface 12 and is moved in the path 11, the hand 5 will cause the motion of the path 11 to vary as a result of vibration or rocking of the hand 5 or the hand 5 will vary in pressure causing the center location 40 of the indentation shown in FIG. 2 to vary. This will cause unwanted changes in the digital codes being sent to the computer system 32. Additionally, the hand 5 will have electrical noise that will be coupled to the analog signals on the touchpad interface lines 20, 22, 24, and 26.
If there is dirt or moisture on the surface 12 of the touchpad, the analog signals will be corrupted causing unwanted variations in the digital codes being transferred to the computer system 32. Other noise that may effect the analog signals on the touchpad interface lines 20, 22, 24, and 26 may be internal to the computer system 32 such as from the computer system clocking subsystem, drivers on the nearby integrated circuit chips that will control the display 34, and other electromagnetic noise present within the computer system 32.
The unwanted variations in the digital codes may cause unwanted results such as the cursor 36 moving erratically across the display screen 34 or strokes or sweeps of that use the absolute locations of the pointed object 10 upon the touchpad surface 12 will become misinterpreted causing errors in handwriting recognition or graphics programs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,161 (Logan, et al.) describes a method to emulate mouse input devices using a program resident within a computer system. A touchpad input device has a controller that generates a digital code that contains the absolute position of a pen or finger on the mouse pad. This requires a special interface that is unique to the touchpad circuitry. Additionally, this patent describes a method for the continuation of cursor movement when a pointed object is touching the touchpad and has been moved on the touchpad to a special border area. The pointed object must be stopped within the border for the continuous motion to be engaged. The direction of the scrolling may be made as a modification of the original direction and velocity of the pen prior to the transiting and stopping within the border area of the touchpad. This modification will be made as a change in the velocity of the movement of the cursor along an axis parallel to the edge of the touchpad adjacent to the border area where the pointed object is resting.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,946 (Mikan) describes a circuit using an EPROM to convert signals from a touch screen adhered to a computer display screen to digital codes of the industry standard computer input mouse protocols.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,590 (Gillespie, et al.) describes a capacitive sensor system that can detect the location of a finger or stylus on a sensor matrix. The location is determined and translated as electrical signals for use in other circuitry such as a computer system to control a cursor upon a display screen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,591 (Gillespie, et al.) discloses methods for recognizing tapping, pushing, hopping and zigzagging gestures upon a conductive sensor pad that can be interpreted into cursor control motions such as clicking, double clicking, and click and drag use with computer mouse devices. Further this patent also describes the use of a running average for X and Y position data.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,204 (Mead) shows a proximity sensor system that has a capacitive touchpad. The capacitance of the touchpad changes with the proximity of an object to the touchpad. As the capacitance changes a voltage changes which is converted to electrical signals representing the X and Y coordinates of the object on the touchpad. A conductive paint brush stylus is used to produce paint-like strokes on a display screen associated with the touchpad. The system also incorporates features that allow the stylus to emulate the actions of a computer mouse including an "edge motion" where a cursor can be moved over long distances without rowing or stroking the stylus.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,119 (Drumm) describes a computer input device using orientation sensors. Orientation sensors are mounted on the head of an operator. The movement of the head of the operator will cause a cursor on a computer display screen to move. Part of the algorithm for the control of the data from the sensors involves averaging of a present value of orientation with a previous value of orientation before transmission of the orientation data to the computer system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,118 (Nash et al) describes a circuit to extract a low frequency signal component from a composite signal composed of a high frequency signal and a low frequency signal. An analog-to-digital converter will convert the composite signal to a digital output signal. A storage register carries a running average of the composite that represents the low frequency component of the composite signal.

Method and system for noise reduction for digitizing devices

Tritech Microelectronics International, Ltd.


A collapsible upright wall extends the height of the sides on the load hauling box on a truck. The collapsible upright wall comprises a fabric which when vertically stretched provides adequate resistance to substantial lateral load. A method of increasing the volumetric capacity of the box on a truck comprises the steps of: a) providing a rectangular frame above, and dimensioned to seat adjacent to an open top side portion of the load hauling box on the truck; b) providing a substantial lift mechanism to uniformly lift the rectangular frame above the box; and, c) providing and attaching an elongate strip of fabric having a top elongate side portion peripherally attached to the rectangular frame, and a bottom elongate side portion peripherally attached to the open top side portion of the box. Then when the rectangular frame is lifted to an upper operable position the fabric is stretched taut and is thereby able to sustain significant lateral load.

The inventors are in the business of hauling grain and seeds with tractors and trailers. Recently they have been hauling sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds have a high bulk to weight ratio. When a trailer is fully loaded with sunflower seeds it is carrying less than 70% of its licensed load weight. To substantially increase profitability the inventors have experimented with different methods of increasing the volumetric capacity of their trailers.
One method of increasing the capacity is to attach a peripheral fabric extension to the top portion of the walls of the trailer. A collapsible peripheral extension can be raised when hauling load and lowered to reduce drag and conserve fuel when driving unloaded. The problem with this solution is that the fabric extension lacks sufficient strength to support lateral load produced by the shifting cargo. Sustained vibration and rapid deceleration both result in large lateral loads on the fabric extension.
The inventor has found that only when the fabric is maintained taut that it is able to sustain significant lateral loading. Within this specification fabric is broadly defined to include any plastic or other material which is capable of centrally flexing.

Flexible and stiff wall extension for an open load hauling box on a truck


The present invention relates to a novel peptide or a partial sequence thereof for enhancing expression efficiency of a target protein, and a fusion protein comprising the same. The novel peptide according to the present invention can enhance expression efficiency of a target protein, and furthermore, the peptide can also be applied to a solubility-enhancing fusion protein in order to enhance solubility of the target protein, so that solubility as well as expression efficiency of the target protein is enhanced, which allows such a peptide to be usefully used for production of a recombinant target protein.

The key to modern biotechnology is production of recombinant proteins; and in particular, it is important to produce large amounts of recombinant proteins. Recombinant proteins produced in large amounts are very important for production and recovery of active exogenous proteins, crystallization for functional studies, industrialization, and the like. To date, many recombinant protein production studies using E. coli have been conducted, because E. coli has advantages of easy manipulation, short growth time, safe expression, low cost, and easy scalability. However, since exogenous recombinant proteins produced in E. coli have low expression levels or lack adequate "post-translational chaperons" or "post-translational processing," a disadvantage that the produced recombinant proteins result in formation of insoluble protein inclusion bodies has been pointed out (Francois Baneyx, Recombinant protein expression in Escherichia coli, Current Opinion in Biotechnology (1999), 10:411-421).
The problem that proteins are produced in insoluble form has been addressed by developing a method in which the protein is fused with a highly-soluble protein and the resulting fusion protein is expressed (Dominic Esposito and Deb K Chatterjee, Enhancement of soluble protein expression through the use of fusion tags, Current Opinion in Biotechnology (2006), 17:353-358). In addition, attempts have been made to increase solubility of recombinant proteins using an RNA binding domain such as lysyl tRNA synthetase (LysRS) (Choi, S. I. et al., Protein solubility and folding enhancement by interaction with RNA, PLoS ONE (2008), 3:e2677). However, LysRS is not only a large protein of more than about 100 kDa (its monomer size=about 58 kDa), but also has steric hindrance due to its structural limitation of having to form a dimer; and therefore, LysRS may prevent a recombinant protein from forming a three-dimensional structure or forming a dimer or higher-order multimer, or from being converted into monomers, so that the recombinant protein does not have a desired active form. Thus, RNA interacting domain (RID) (N-terminal appended RNA binding domain of lysyl tRNA synthetase) has been used as an RNA binding domain for replacing LysRS. However, RID itself has a great drawback of having a very low expression level.
Meanwhile, norovirus is one of the major pathogens causing acute gastroenteritis worldwide, with 200,000 children of developing countries under the age of 5 dying from norovirus every year. Norovirus is mainly transmitted through the fecal-oral route and causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, and the like. Norovirus, a member of the Caliciviridae family, is a non-enveloped virus and is about 30 to 40 nm in diameter. This virus consists of single-stranded (+)RNA having a length of 7.6 kbp, and has three open reading frames (ORFs). Among these, ORF2 encodes the major structural protein VP1 that constitutes norovirus; and ORF3 encodes the protein VP2 that is not directly involved in structural formation thereof. VP1 has a total size of 59 kDa and forms a dimer. As such, 90 dimers result from self-assembly of VP1s, in which a total of 180 VP1s form one viral particle. The VP1 protein consists of two domains, S domain and P domain. The S domain acts to form a structure of the protein, and the P domain is involved in inducing an actual immune response.
To date, no cell culture method for norovirus is known and no suitable animal model has been developed. Therefore, in order to develop an effective norovirus vaccine, it is essential to develop a vaccine in the form of virus-like particles (VLPs) on which no limitation is imposed in terms of cell culture. VLPs are highly complex and sophisticated structures obtained by allowing viral structural proteins to be specifically expressed to exhibit a structure similar in appearance to the wild-type virus. Because of their similar structure to the wild-type virus, VLPs have advantages capable of inducing a high-level immune response in the body and stimulating both T-cell and B-cell immune pathways. In addition, VLPs are characterized by having no infectious capacity due to absence of genetic material in their formed structure, and thus being highly safe, and by showing excellent structural stability. However, VLPs have a disadvantage that due to their complex structure, it is very difficult to create complete VLPs.
It is known that norovirus VLPs can be produced in baculovirus-insect cells and can also be produced in yeast. However, although there have been reports that a structural protein (VP1) is expressed in soluble form in E. coli, there has been no report that virus-like particles (VLPs) are formed in E. coli. From the viewpoint that most casualties caused by norovirus occur in developing countries, development of norovirus VLPs that are derived from E. coli will provide a low-cost vaccine as compared with vaccines obtained using other expression systems, and thus will be able to make a great contribution to human society.
In the previous study, the present inventors revealed that RNA binding domain (RBD)-containing lysyl tRNA synthetase (LysRS) as a binding partner is involved in protein folding and increased solubility of various proteins. However, LysRS is not only a large protein of more than about 100 kDa (its monomer size=about 58 kDa), but also has steric hindrance due to its structural limitation of having to form a dimer; and therefore, LysRS may prevent a recombinant protein from forming a three-dimensional structure or forming a dimer or higher-order multimer, or from being converted into monomers, so that the recombinant protein does not have a desired active form. Thus, RNA interacting domain (RID) (N-terminal appended RNA binding domain of lysyl tRNA synthetase) has been used as an RNA binding domain for replacing LysRS. However, RID itself has a great drawback of having a very low expression level.
Although a protein expression level may be determined by several factors, the N-terminal sequence, precisely the mRNA sequence, of a protein is known to be important for the protein expression level.
Accordingly, while studying solubility and expression efficiency of proteins, the present inventors have identified that the protein, urate oxidase, is abnormally well expressed in E. coli, and have identified effects of the N-terminal sequence of urate oxidase on expression level of a target protein and on expression of RID, thereby completing the present invention.

Peptide for enhancing expression efficiency of target protein, and fusion protein comprising same


An electrically controlled lock (10), including a retractable latchbolt and a clutch mechanism disposed between a latchbolt retracting mechanism for retracting the latchbolt and a drive member (11) for driving the latchbolt retracting mechanism. The clutch mechanism includes a pair of engageable bodies (18, 22) which are relatively movable between an engaged condition in which drive of the drive member (11) is transmitted to the latchbolt retracting mechanism for retracting the latchbolt, and a disengaged condition in which transmission of drive between the drive member (11) and the latchbolt retracting mechanism is interrupted so as to prevent retraction of the latchbolt. The relative movement of the engageable bodies (18, 22) occurring as a result of engagement of at least one of the bodies with an actuating member (32) which is controlled by an electrical actuator (31). The actuating member (32) being movable between a first position facilitating disengagement of the engageable bodies (18, 22) and a second position displaced from the first position, and facilitating engagement of the engageable bodies (18, 22).

The present invention relates to an electrically controlled lock for a door and is principally concerned with such locks that form part of a door closure installation which includes a latchbolt that is retractable under manual actuation of a lever or knob actuator disposed on at least one side of a door to which the lock is fitted to allow the door to be opened from a closed position.
Door closures that have the above kind of operation are well known in door installations and they can be locked to prevent door opening by a variety of different mechanisms. For example, some closures can be locked by arrangements which do not effect the operation of the levers or knobs, such as by a deadbolt which is operable independently of the levers or knobs. Alternatively, the lock may be arranged to act on the lever or knob such as to prevent its rotation so that the retracting mechanism for retracting the latchbolt cannot be actuated. Still alternatively, the lock can be arranged to act directly on the latchbolt retracting mechanism, or the latchbolt itself, to prevent latchbolt retraction. The present invention is concerned with arrangements of the latter kind, in which the door closure is locked when the latchbolt cannot be retracted.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrically controlled lock for a door closure which can assume either a locked or unlocked condition and in which movement between those conditions is controlled electronically. It is a further object of the invention to minimise the electric current drawn by the electronic control. It is still a further object to provide a mechanism to override the electronic control.
According to the present invention there is provided to an electrically controlled lock, including a retractable latchbolt and a clutch mechanism disposed between a latchbolt retracting mechanism for retracting said latchbolt and a drive member for driving said latchbolt retracting mechanism, said clutch mechanism including first and second engagable bodies which are connected to said drive member and said latchbolt retracting mechanism respectively, so that said drive member is operable to rotate said first engagable body and said latchbolt rectracting mechanism is operable upon rotation of said second engagable body, said engagable bodies being relatively movable between an engaged condition in which drive of said drive member is transmitted to said latchbolt retracting mechanism for retracting said latchbolt, and a disengaged condition in which transmission of drive between said drive member and said latchbolt retracting mechanism is interrupted so as to prevent retraction of said latchbolt, said relative movement of said engagable bodies occurring as a result of engagement of at least one of said bodies with an actuating member which is controlled by electrical actuating means to move between a non-actuated and an actuated position, in said non-actuated position said actuating member is disposed between said engagable bodies and is operable, upon drive by said drive member to rotate said first engagable body, to engage at least one of said first and second engagble bodies and to cause them to disengage, and in said actuated position, said actuating member is positioned to permit said engagable bodies to remain engaged upon rotation of said first engagable body by said drive member for transmission of drive through said second engagable body to said latchbolt retracting mechanism.
The actuating means can take any suitable form and can for example be an electrical motor that drives the actuating member. Alternatively the actuating means could be a solenoid and the actuating member is a plunger driven by the solenoid.
A lock according to the invention is advantageous for several reasons. In particular, electrically controlled locks are increasingly being used in commercial applications where access through a door is controlled by a signal recognition system, such as a validated magnetic or electric card or key system, which system reads a code and determines from that whether the door is to be unlocked. Such systems are useful not only to permit or prevent access through a door, but can also be used to electronically monitor and record movement past the door, such as the frequency and identity of personnel who gain door access.
An electrically controlled lock is further advantageous, as it can be programmed to react differently to the signals or codes of different personnel. Thus, personnel can be provided with different access availability by appropriate programming of the code reader. Reprogramming can also be relatively simple, so that the availability of access can be altered easily. Such reprogramming furthermore does not necessarily require the card or key to be programmed or changed. This differs from a traditional mechanical key system, in which access through a door is generally available as long as a person has in their possession, the relevant key. Thus, in that system access is difficult to control and if access is to be prevented, the key needs to be retrieved or the barrel of the lock changed. A further benefit of electrically controlled locks relates to the generally simplified unlocking of a door.
Electrically controlled locks have found widespread use in the hotel industry. In that industry, the locks can be programmed to permit a guest room door to be opened by a particular card given to a guest for the duration of his or her booking. At the end of that booking the lock can be reprogrammed so that further access to that guest by the card is not available. This renders the card ineffective to gain entry to the room until it is further reprogrammed. This is also a useful characteristic for other commercial and domestic buildings.
A lock according to the invention is applicable to installations in which a manually operable drive member is applied to only one side of the door, as well as to installations in which drive members are disposed on both sides of the door. The lock of the invention is particularly advantageous for installations of the latter kind in which a door is required to be opened from either side. In such installations, a drive member is disposed on either side of the door and a clutch mechanism may be applied to each drive member, or only one of those drive members. In an arrangement employing a clutch mechanism applied to only one of the drive members, the door can be locked from one side only and this arrangement is highly acceptable and preferred in many situations. In particular, that arrangement is preferred when the lock is applied to the door of a hotel guest room, because it facilitates easy egress from the room by operation of the drive member on the inside of the door which is permanently operable, but prevents entry through the door from the outside, unless the person attempting to gain entry has the correctly coded card, or other coded instrument. Accordingly, this system is also appropriate for areas to which restricted entry is gained past a door, but to which exit from that area need not be controlled.
A drive member which is suitable for the invention can be of a conventional form, such as a conventional drive lever or knob which can be rotated manually to operate the latchbolt retracting mechanism, with return rotation returning the latchbolt to its previous, normally extended position. Alternatively, the drive member may be of a different form and may itself may be electrically operated to activate the latchbolt retraction mechanism. The latchbolt retracting mechanism can also be of a conventional form, with modification as necessary to connect it to the clutch mechanism. Also, the electrical control that activates the actuating means can be of any suitable form which provides an electrical current in the desired manner.
In a preferred form, the engaging members of the clutch mechanism are cylindrical discs which in an engaged condition permit transmission of a drive load from the drive member to the latchbolt retracting mechanism by rotation of the engaging members. The engaging members can be engaged by any suitable means and in one arrangement, one of the engaging members includes at least one protruding portion that can be received within a recessed portion in the other of the engaging members and while the protruding portion remains received within the recessed portion, the drive load can be transmitted to the latchbolt retracting mechanism. The protruding and recessed portions are preferably disposed on facing engagable surfaces of the engaging members and separation of engaging members to remove the protruding portion(s) from the recess(es) serves to disengage the clutch mechanism.
The surface which is engaged by the actuating member may be provided in a recess and that recess may be formed on one of the engaging members, or be partially formed in both of the engaging members. The recess is preferably formed at the perimeter of the or each engaging member, particularly if these are formed as discs. Preferably the recess arrangement is such that the end of the actuating member can be accommodated in the recess without disengaging the engaging members until such time as the drive member is rotated. In that arrangement, the recess can be arranged, so that movement of the engaging member connected to the drive member is influenced by its engagement with the actuating member to move in a direction that disengages it from the other of the engaging members. Thus, in this arrangement, disengagement of the clutch mechanism only takes place when the drive member is operated. This arrangement is advantageous, in that the end of the actuating member can be disposed within the recess at all times and when the drive member is operated, the engaging bodies will be separated so that access through the door cannot be obtained. Advantageously, the actuating member can be removed from the recess by actuation of the solenoid actuator and in that removed condition, a rotational force applied to the drive member will be transmitted to the latchbolt retracting mechanism through the engaged clutch mechanism.
Where the recess is formed partially on both engaging members, the separate recess surfaces may be formed differently for engagement with the actuating member. In particular, one of the surfaces may include a profile that causes displacement of one engaging body relative to the other, such as by a ramped surface. Alternatively, all surfaces that come into contact with the actuating member may be contoured to promote the desired separation and these may also include appropriate abutment services to prevent rotation of the engaging members beyond a certain degree.
The present invention further provides an override mechanism which prevents disengagement of the clutch mechanism by the actuating means. The override mechanism is provided as a means to unlock a door when the means normally provided for that purpose has failed. That failure may be due to a lack of electrical energy, or to a mechanical breakdown in the actuating means, or to misplacement or loss of the card that actuates the actuating means.
It is a principle function of the override mechanism that the actuating member is removed from the position at which it disengages the clutch mechanism so that the latchbolt can be retracted by rotation of the drive member. This can be achieved in any suitable manner, but in a preferred form, the override mechanism causes movement of the actuating member to a position in which the plunger end cannot adopt the disengagement position relative to the clutch mechanism. That movement can be in any suitable direction and in a preferred form the movement is rotary. Alternatively the movement can be linear. The override mechanism can be operated by mechanical or electrical means and in a preferred form includes a cylinder assembly that is key operated and the barrel of which rotates in engagement with the actuating member, to displace the actuator or which causes the actuating member to be displaced from the disengaging position.


A reprogrammable packet processing system for processing a stream of data is disclosed herein. A reprogrammable data processor is implemented with a programmable logic device (PLD), such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), that is programmed to determine whether a stream of data applied thereto includes a string that matches a redefinable data pattern. If a matching string is found, the data processor performs a specified action in response thereto. The data processor is reprogrammable to search packets for the presence of different data patterns and/or perform different actions when a matching string is detected. A reconfiguration device receives input from a user specifying the data pattern and action, processes the input to generate the configuration information necessary to reprogram the PLD, and transmits the configuration information to the packet processor for reprogramming thereof.

It is highly desirable to possess the ability to monitor the content of packets transmitted over computer networks. Whether the motivation is to identify the transmission of data files containing material such as copyrighted audio, film/video, software, published articles and book content, to secure confidential data within a company's internal computer system, to detect and eliminate computer viruses, to identify and locate packet transmissions that may be part of a criminal conspiracy (such as e-mail traffic between two persons planning a crime), or to monitor data transmissions of targeted entities, the ability to search packet payloads for strings that match a specified data pattern is a powerful tool in today's electronic information age. Further, the ability to modify the data stream permits the system to, among other things, filter data, reformat data, translate between languages, extract information, insert data, or to notify others regarding the content.
String matching and pattern matching have been the subject of extensive studies. In the past, software-based string matching techniques have been employed to determine whether a packet payload includes a data pattern. However, such software-based techniques are impractical for widespread use in computer networks because of the inherently slow packet processing speeds that result from software execution.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,776 issued to Hile et al. (the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference) discloses a system wherein data in transit between a source medium and a destination medium is tested using a finite state machine capable of determining whether the data includes any strings that represent the signatures of known computer viruses. However, because the finite state machine of Hile is implemented in software, the Hile system is slow. As such, the Hile system is impractical for use as a network device capable of handling high-speed line rates such as OC-48 where the data rate approaches 2.5 gigabits per second. Furthermore, software-based techniques are traditionally and inherently orders of magnitude slower than a hardware-based technique.
Another software-based string matching technique is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,424 issued to Clayton et al. (the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference). Clayton discloses a software-based AWK processor for monitoring text streams from a telephone switch. In Clayton, a data stream passing through a telephone switch is loaded into a text file. The Clayton system then (1) processes the content of the text file to determine if particular strings are found therein, and (2) takes a specified action upon finding a match. As with the Hile system described above, this software-based technique is too slow to be practical for use as a high-speed network device.
Furthermore, a software tool known in the art called SNORT was developed to scan Internet packets for combinations of headers and payloads that indicate whether a computer on a network has been compromised. This software program is an Open Source Network Intrusion Detection System that scans packets that arrive on a network interface. Usually, the packets arrive on a media like Ethernet. The program compares each packet with the data specified in a list of rules. If the fields in the header or parts of the payload match a rule, the program performs responsive tasks such as printing a message on a console, sending a notification message, or logging an event to a database. As with the above-described systems, SNORT, by virtue of being implemented in software, suffers from slow processing speed with respect to both its matching tasks and its responsive tasks.
In an effort to improve the speed at which packet payloads are processed, systems have been designed with dedicated application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that scan packet payloads for a particular string. While the implementation of payload scanning on an ASIC represented a great speed improvement over software-based techniques, such ASIC-based systems suffered from a tremendous flexibility problem. That is, ASIC-based payload processing devices are not able to change the method of searching for the string against which packets are compared because a change in the search string necessitates the design of a new ASIC tailored for the new search string (and the replacement of the previous ASIC with the new ASIC). That is, the chip performing the string matching would have to be replaced every time the search string is changed. Such redesign and replacement efforts are tremendously time-consuming and costly, especially when such ASIC-based systems are in widespread use.
To avoid the slow processing speed of software-based pattern matching and the inflexibility of ASIC-based pattern matching, reprogrammable hardware, such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), have been employed to carry out pattern matching. Such an FPGA-based technique is disclosed in Sidhu, R. and Prasanna, V., "Fast Regular Expression Matching using FPGAs", IEEE Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM 2001), April 2001 and Sidhu, R. et al., "String Matching on Multicontext FPGAs Using Self-Reconfiguration", FPGA '99: Proceedings of the 1999 ACM/SIGDA Seventh International Symposium on Field Programmable Gate Arrays, pp. 217–226, February 1999, the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The Sidhu papers disclose a technique for processing a user-specified data pattern to generate a non-deterministic finite automata (NFA) operable upon being programmed into a FPGA to determine whether data applied thereto includes a string that matches a data pattern. However, Sidhu fails to address how such a device can also be programmed to carry out a specified action, such as data modification, in the event a matching string is found in the data. Thus, while the Sidhu technique, in using an FPGA to perform pattern matching for a redefinable data pattern, provides high speed through hardware implementation and flexibility in redefining a data pattern through the reprogrammable aspects of the FPGA, the Sidhu technique fails to satisfy a need in the art for a device which not only detects a matching string, but also carries out a specified action upon the detection of a matching string.
Moreover, while the Sidhu technique is capable of scanning a data stream for the presence of any of a plurality of data patterns (where a match is found if P1 or P2 or . . . or Pn is found in the data stream—wherein Pi is the data pattern), the Sidhu technique is not capable of either identifying which data pattern(s) matched a string in the data stream or which string(s) in the data stream matched any of the data patterns.
Unsatisfied with the capabilities of the existing FPGA-based pattern matching techniques, the inventors herein have sought to design a packet processing system able to not only determine whether a packet's payload includes a string that matches a data pattern in a manner that is both high-speed and flexible, but also perform specified actions when a matching string is found in a packet's payload.
An early attempt by one of the inventors herein at designing such a system is referred to herein as the "Hello World Application". See Lockwood, John and Lim, David, Hello, World: A Simple Application for the Field Programmable Port Extender (FPX), Washington University Tech Report WUCS-00-12, Jul. 11, 2000 (the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference). In the Hello World Application, a platform using reprogrammable hardware for carrying out packet processing, known as the Washington University Field-Programmable Port Extender (FPX) (see FIG. 10), was programmed with a state machine and a word counter designed to (1) identify when a string comprised of the word "HELL" followed by the word "O***" (wherein each * represents white space) was present in the first two words of a packet payload, and (2) when that string is found as the first two words of a packet payload, replace the word "O***" with the word "O*WO" and append the words "RLD." and "****" as the next two words of the packet payload. The reprogrammable hardware used by the FPX was a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The Hello World Application thus operated to modify a packet with "HELLO" in the payload by replacing "HELLO" with "HELLO WORLD".
While the successful operation of the Hello World Application illustrated to the inventors herein that the implementation of a circuit in reprogrammable hardware capable of carrying out exact matching and string replacement was feasible, the Hello World Application was not accompanied by any device capable of taking full advantage of the application's reprogrammable aspects. That is, while the FPGA programmed to carry out the Hello World Application was potentially reprogrammable, no technique had been developed which would allow the FPGA to be reprogrammed in an automated and efficient manner to scan packets for a search string other than "HELLO", or to replace the matching string with a replacement string other than "HELLO WORLD". The present invention addresses a streamlined process for reprogramming a packet processor to scan packets for different redefinable strings and carry out different redefinable actions upon packets that include a matching string. Toward this end, the present invention utilizes regular expressions and awk capabilities to create a reprogrammable hardware-based packet processor having expanded pattern matching abilities and the ability to take a specified action upon detection of a matching string.
Regular expressions are well-known tools for defining conditional strings. A regular expression may match several different strings. By incorporating various regular expression operators in a pattern definition, such a pattern definition may encompass a plurality of different strings. For example, the regular expression operator ".*" means "any number of any characters". Thus, the regular expression "c.*t" defines a data pattern that encompasses strings such as "cat", "coat", "chevrolet", and "cold is the opposite of hot". Another example of a regular expression operator is "*" which means "zero or more of the preceding expression". Thus, the regular expression "a*b" defines a data pattern that encompasses strings such as "ab", "aab", and "aaab", but not "acb" or "aacb". Further, the regular expression "(ab)*c" encompasses strings such as "abc", "ababc", "abababc", but not "abac" or "abdc". Further still, regular expression operators can be combined for additional flexibility in defining patterns. For example, the regular expression "(ab)*c.*z" would encompass strings such as the alphabet "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz", "ababcz", "ababcqsrz", and "abcz", but not "abacz", "ababc" or "ababacxvhgfjz".
As regular expressions are well-known in the art, it is unnecessary to list all possible regular expression operators (for example, there is also an OR operator "|" which for "(a|b)" means any string having "a" or "b") and combinations of regular expression operators. What is to be understood from the background material described above is that regular expressions provide a powerful tool for defining a data pattern that encompasses strings of interest to a user of the invention.
Further, awk is a well-known pattern matching program. Awk is widely used to search data for a particular occurrence of a pattern and then perform a specified operation on the data. Regular expressions can be used to define the pattern against which the data is compared. Upon locating a string encompassed by the pattern defined by the regular expression, awk allows for a variety of specified operations to be performed on the data. Examples of specified operations include simple substitution (replacement), back substitution, guarded substitution, and record separation. These examples are illustrative only and do not encompass the full range of operations available in awk for processing data.
As a further improvement to the Hello World Application, the present invention provides users with the ability to flexibly define a search pattern that encompasses a plurality of different search strings and perform a variety of awk-like modification operations on packets. These features are incorporated into the reprogrammable hardware of the present invention to produce a packet processor having a combination of flexibility and speed that was previously unknown.

Methods, systems, and devices using reprogrammable hardware for high-speed processing of streaming data to find a redefinable pattern and respond thereto


In an inkjet printing apparatus, heaters are enclosed with a heater casing, achieving accumulation of heated air and efficient performance of heating. A blowing fan blows air to the heaters. The heater casing includes a blowing port configured to narrow and blow warm air heated with the heaters to a transportation path outside the heater casing in a direction along the transportation path. The warm air narrowed at the blowing port obtains an increased air velocity thereof. In addition, uniform air-quantity distribution and uniform heat-quantity are obtainable. Moreover, the heaters face the transportation path. Consequently, the heaters are provided closer to the transportation path than a conventional external heater. This suppresses heat loss.

Conventional examples of such an apparatus include an inkjet printing apparatus. The inkjet printing apparatus includes inkjet heads configured to discharge ink droplets to a print medium (e.g., web paper), a mechanism configured to move the inkjet heads and the print medium relatively, and a drying unit configured to dry the ink droplets adhering to (impacting on) the print medium.
Examples of the drying unit include one having a heat drum (also referred to as a heating roller) with a heater embedded therein. See, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2010-188708A. A back face of the print medium contacts the heat drum, and is wound on the heat drum. Here, the heat drum is pre-heated. Accordingly, when the print medium passes while being wound on the heat drum, the ink droplets adhering to the print medium is dried with heat from the heat drum. Examples of the drying unit include another one having a warm-air supplying unit configured to supply warm air to a front face of a printing sheet. See, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2010-082937A. A conventional inkjet printing apparatus 301 includes a drying unit 319. The drying unit 319 includes a heat drum 331 and additionally a warm-air supplying unit 333 as illustrated in FIG. 20. Here, the inkjet head is denoted by a numeral 323, and the print medium (web paper) is denoted by a numeral WP.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2011-230494A discloses an inkjet recorder. The inkjet recorder includes a blowing mechanism configured to blow hot air onto a recording medium (a print medium) to be transported, and a preheating unit configured to heat the print medium at an upstream side in an area in a direction in which the hot air flows. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2010-137399A discloses an inkjet recording device having a suction platen that achieves stable sucking of a sheet held with the platen by acting a suction force on a back face of the sheet.


A method, system and computer readable medium for performing automatic detection and identification of installed NICs with a minimized likelihood of performing an illegal operation that would hang the detection process. Once the NIC is identified, software appropriate for the NIC may be loaded. Automatic detection and identification of NICs may be performed by inserting a portable medium such as a floppy disk in a target computer and executing a detection program upon startup, or a server computer may be used which executes a program to detect and identify NICs installed in computers connected to the server via a network connection.

The present invention broadly relates to distributed computing environments. Specifically, the present invention relates to the configuration of computer components in a computer network. More specifically, the present invention relates to automatic detection and identification of network interface cards.
Computer networks often incorporate equipment containing different components. Components may differ because of the specific function of the individual computer, vendor source or age of the component, or the time at which the component was updated. As a result, the network interface card (NIC) used to connect the computer to the network often differs from machine to machine. One of the tasks of a network administrator is to update various software used on the network, including operating system software and specific application software. Often, in order to update the software on an individual computer, the network administrator must modify system and protocol files stored in the computer to specify the network driver interface specification (xe2x80x9cNDISxe2x80x9d) driver and characteristics of the NIC. These characteristics often include resource allocation of the PC such as input/output (xe2x80x9cI/Oxe2x80x9d) addresses, memory mapping, direct memory access (xe2x80x9cDMAxe2x80x9d) channels, and interrupt assignments. In modem PC designs, these resources are dynamically allocated by the basic input output system (xe2x80x9cBIOSxe2x80x9d) of the PC in such a fashion as to eliminate conflicts. Hard encoding this information in the system and protocol initialization files is incompatible with these dynamic allocation standards. In the case of deploying an updated operating system across an entire computer network, the configuration time is costly because the common practice is to use different magnetic floppy disks (xe2x80x9cboot floppiesxe2x80x9d) to support the various configurations throughout the network, and deployment is a largely manual process.
Embedded in the firmware of most NIC""s is a unique media access controller (xe2x80x9cMACxe2x80x9d) address that complies with an established IEEE standard. This MAC address could be used to identify the NIC during the configuration process. However, access to this information early in the boot process can be problematic. Low level program access to this information normally requires detailed knowledge of the hardware design of the NIC. This information is not readily available in the PC industry and access often requires licensing provisions.
Another problem occurs with the NDIS driver version verification. The NDIS driver provided in the suite of drivers for a particular NIC are proprietary to the NIC provider. These drivers often go through numerous updates and these updates are distributed via such diverse channels as the Internet. An older or newer version of this driver may not provide the compatibility required and thus verification through testing is needed for proper configuration.
One of the problems facing the detection of a wide variety of NMC""s is the likelihood of performing an illegal operation that will hang the process. There have been significant efforts by various industry committees to eliminate conflicts by creating standardized access methods for identifying an installed NIC. However, in some cases there still is no alternative to using direct hardware access methods to detect installed peripheral components. Unfortunately, there are numerous risks and pitfalls associated with the use of direct hardware access methods. Direct hardware access methods involve accesses to memory and I/O space in undefined regions to detect the presence of hardware registers or memory structures on a NIC that specific to that device. However, if some other device resides in these spaces, the response of that device may be indeterminate. Indeterminate responses often result in conditions which disrupt the boot process, such as an unexpected interrupt or hanging the bus signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,722, xe2x80x9cSystem and Method for Automatic Configuration of Home Network Computers,xe2x80x9d discloses a system and method for determining local service provider information by looking up a directory of local service providers stored on a server. Client computer specific information is also obtained from a database and used by a server computer. The client computer then downloads the local service provider information and configuration information from the server computer to configure itself and establish connection to the local service provider. However, the ""722 patent does not address the issue of network interface card detection.
Thus, there remains a need for a method and apparatus of rapidly configuring a network computer network that detects and identifies different NICs without performing illegal operations.
The present invention addresses the problems discussed above by providing a method and apparatus for performing device driver configuration and by performing automatic detection and identification of installed NICs with a minimized likelihood of performing an illegal operation that would hang the detection process. Once the NIC is identified, the present invention verifies and loads software appropriate for the NIC.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a method of automatically configuring a computer having at least one network interface card comprising the steps of: a) applying at least one standardized access method to identify at least one network interface card located on the computer; b) obtaining information in response to the application of the standardized access method; and c) loading software appropriate for the network interface card onto the computer in response to the first information.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a method of automatically configuring a computer having at least one network interface card comprising the steps of: a) applying at least one standardized access method to identify the network interface card; b) obtaining information in response to the application of the standardized access method; c) applying at least one direct hardware access method to said computer to identify at least one network interface card located on the computer; d) obtaining second information in response to the application of the direct hardware access method; and e) loading software appropriate for the network interface card onto the computer in response to the second information.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a computer system for configuring another computer having at least one network interface card, the computer system comprising: a) a first interface for receiving requests to configure the computer; b) a processor coupled to the first interface; c) a memory containing instructions to be executed by the processor; and d) a second interface for communicating network interface card information between the processor and the other computer.
In yet another aspect, the present invention provides a computer readable storage medium for use with computer apparatus, the medium including computer instructions which, when executed by the computer apparatus: a) apply at least one standardized access method to identify at least one network interface card located on the computer; b) obtain information in response to the application of the standardized access method; and c) load software appropriate for the network interface card onto the computer in response to the first information.
In still another aspect, the present invention provides a computer readable storage medium for use with computer apparatus, the medium including computer instructions which, when executed by the computer apparatus: a) apply at least one standardized access method to identify the network interface card; b) obtain information in response to the application of the standardized access method; c) apply at least one direct hardware access method to said computer to identify at least one network interface card located on the computer; d) obtain second information in response to the application of the direct hardware access method; and e) load software appropriate for the network interface card onto the computer in response to the second information.
Other features and benefits of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description of the invention when considered with the accompanying drawings.

Method for automatically configuring network interface card and capable of randomizing a media access controller address of the network interface card


A tubular electromagnetic shielding sleeve has a longitudinal slit. The inventive sleeve includes a substrate (11) and a layer (12) of electrically-conductive material which is fixed to the inner face of the substrate (11), the layer (12) extending essentially from one edge (11a) to the other longitudinal edge (11b) of the substrate (11). Moreover, the substrate (11) and the layer (12) are separated from one another along a split segment (13) on at least one first longitudinal edge (11a). The invention can be used, for example, to protect bundles of electric cables (14) for use in aeronautics.

The present invention relates to an electromagnetic shielding sleeve used in particular in the field of aeronautics to protect bundles of electrical cables.
The present invention applies generally to protecting wires, cables or bundles of wires by electromagnetically shielding them in order to protect them from electromagnetic interference and radio-frequency interference.
This type of electromagnetic protection is routinely used in the automotive, rail cabling and aeronautical fields.
Electromagnetic interference protection standards are drawn up for each field of application and may require protection of the order of 40 to 45 dB in the automotive field or of the order of 80 to 90 dB in the aeronautical field.
Self-closing sleeves of polyester fabric coated with copper or nickel for providing electromagnetic protection are known in the automotive field, for example.
Electrical continuity is provided by an overlap on the outside face of the textile sleeve, where a folded longitudinal edge produces copper-to-copper contact.
A protective sleeve of the above kind is described in the document EP 1 175 683 in particular.
However, this kind of sleeve can offer only low protection to interference and is therefore difficult to transpose to the aeronautical field.
In the aeronautical field, maximum efficiency in terms of electromagnetic shielding is obtained by using copper wires, for example in the form of a copper braid.
In the conventional way, copper wires are overbraided around the cable to be protected, for example with a coverage rate of around 75%. The coverage rates required in the aeronautical field are frequently in excess of 90%.
A layer overbraided with textile filaments may be added to provide mechanical protection of the bundle of cables and the copper shielding.
However, the above shielding is difficult to fit to a bundle of cables.
Moreover, it is particularly difficult, or even impossible, to maintain and replace shielding and mechanical protection elements if the bundles of cables are installed and connected in their operational configuration.

Electromagnetic shielding sleeve which is intended, for example, to protect bundles of cables for use in aeronautics


An image forming apparatus having a spacer that maintains a given clearance between a cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the squeezing roller and a cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the cleaning roller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an image forming apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a squeezing roller for applying a pressure in order to remove a solvent in a liquid toner from an image developed on a photoconductive drum which is formed with a photoconductor on a surface thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 5, in an image forming apparatus having a squeezing roller 17 for removing a solvent in a liquid toner from an image developed on a photoconductor belt 15, it has been known that a load distribution in a roller axis direction between a squeezing roller 17 and a back-up roller 18 is required to achieve a uniform drying ratio over the entire image. For this purpose, a surface elastic body of the squeezing roller 17 is formed into a crown shape.
However, in the conventional image forming apparatus constructed as set forth above, in order to clean toner particles which are mechanically or electrically deposited on the squeezing roller 17, a cleaning roller 16 that electrically removes the toner particles on the squeezing roller 17 is provided at an opposite position to the contacting surface of the photoconductor belt 15. Since the surface elastic body of the squeezing roller 17 is formed into a crown shape, field gap in the axial direction of the squeezing roller tends to be non-uniform.
In the conventional image forming apparatus, the tip end portion of a cleaning blade (not shown) is positioned so a to clean the toner particles electrically deposited on the cylindrical outer periphery of the cleaning roller 16. The cleaning blade contacts stirring hair of a brush roller (not shown) so as to remove toner particles firmly stacked on the tip end portion thereof. The tip end position of the cleaning blade becomes significantly worn due to the rubbing of the tip end portion of the cleaning blade by the brush roller.
The present invention in the conventional image forming apparatus as set forth above. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus which compensates for the unevenness of the field gap in an axial direction of a squeezing roller, can efficiently clean the squeezing roller, and can prevent the wearing of a tip end portion of a cleaning blade due to rubbing so as to provide a longer life.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned and other objects, an image forming apparatus, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, comprises:
a solvent-based liquid toner;
a squeezing roller applying a predetermined pressure on the liquid toner on a photoconductor belt for removing the solvent in the liquid toner from an image developed on the photoconductor belt;
a cleaning roller arranged at a position opposing to the squeezing roller for removing a toner particle depositing on a cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the squeezing roller by application of a voltage; and
a spacer maintaining a given clearance between a cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the squeezing roller and a cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the cleaning roller.
With the invention set forth above, since the clearance between the cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the squeezing roller and the cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the cleaning roller is maintained, at a set distance by the spacer a field gap in the axial direction of the squeezing roller will not become uneven, and therefore, permit efficient cleaning of the squeezing roller.
In the preferred construction, the squeezing roller may include a cylindrical bare pipe; an elastic body attached on a cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the bare pipe; and a shaft extending through the bare pipe. The bare pipe and the shaft are preferably connected at two points along a substantially central portion along the axial direction of the squeezing roller.
In the preferred construction, the pressure between the photoconductor belt and the squeezing roller in the axial direction of the squeezing roller can be made uniform, and the clearance between the squeezing roller and the cleaning roller can be constantly maintained without being influenced by a deflection of the squeezing roller due to high load placed thereon.
Preferably, the spacer is a disc provided at an end portion of the cleaning roller, and rotates integrally therewith.
Accordingly, with this simple construction, the clearance between the cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the squeezing roller and the cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the cleaning roller can be maintained.
Also, the disc may be attached on the cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the squeezing roller, and may contact the cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the bare pipe of the squeezing roller. The disc may also be fixed to a rotary shaft of the cleaning roller.
The disc may contact with the cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the bare pipe of the squeezing roller.
The disc may be fixed to a rotary shaft of the cleaning roller.
By the construction set forth above, depending upon the size of the disc as the spacer, the clearance between the cleaning roller and the squeezing roller can be adjusted.
In another preferred construction, an engaging dimension between an external diameter of the shaft of the cleaning roller and an internal diameter of a bearing is set such that the radial thickness portion of the disc defines the radial thickness portion of the disc defines the clearance between the squeezing roller and the cleaning roller and the clearance can be constantly maintained.
Accordingly, since the clearance between the squeezing roller and the cleaning roller can be constantly maintained by defining only the dimension of the thickness portion of the disc as the spacer, manufacturing of the image forming apparatus can be easily facilitated.
The image forming apparatus may further comprise a cleaning blade having a tip end thereof in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the cleaning roller for removing toner particles electrically deposited on the outer peripheral surface of the cleaning roller, and a liquid toner storage portion for storing the liquid toner defined around the tip end portion of the cleaning blade.
Accordingly, with the stored liquid toner, the toner particles stacked on the tip end portion of the cleaning blade can be removed without contact between the ends of the brush of the brush roller and the tip end portion of the cleaning blade.
The liquid toner storage portion may be adjustable so as to vary the liquid toner storage amount.
By this, the cleaning effect of the tip end portion of the cleaning blade can be adjusted.


A driving circuit for a liquid crystal display includes a plurality of driving units each including a first OP amplifier, a second OP amplifier and a plurality of switches for switching outputs and feedback paths of the OP amplifiers. Because the switches are disposed in the feedback paths of the OP amplifiers of the driving unit, an output impedance of the driving unit can be effectively reduced and the stable time of the output voltage can be shortened.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a driving circuit for a liquid crystal display (LCD), and more particularly to a driving circuit having a plurality of switches disposed between a negative input terminal and an output terminal of an OP amplifier.
2. Related Art
A LCD typically needs a source driving circuit for driving a source of a thin film transistor (TFT) so as to control a transmission rate of the TFT. FIG. 1 shows a circuit of a driving unit 10 in a conventional driving circuit. Referring to FIG. 1, the driving unit 10 includes two OP amplifiers 11 and 12 and two switches 13 and 14. The positive input terminal of the first OP amplifier 11 receives a first analog signal outputted from a positive digital-to-analog converter (PDAC), and the output terminal of the first OP amplifier 11 is connected to an output node OUT through the first switch 13. The positive input terminal of the second OP amplifier 12 receives a second analog signal outputted from a negative digital-to-analog converter (NDAC), and the output terminal of the second OP amplifier 12 is also connected to the output node OUT through the second switch 14. In addition, the output terminal of each of the OP amplifiers 11 and 12 is directly fed back to the negative input terminal of the OP amplifier.
FIG. 2 shows another circuit of a driving unit 20 of the conventional driving circuit. As shown in FIG. 2, the driving unit 20 includes two OP amplifiers 11 and 12 and two switches 13 and 14, and further includes a third switch 13′ and a fourth switch 14′. The connections between the OP amplifiers 11 and 12 and the two switches 13 and 14 of the driving unit 20 are the same as those of the driving unit 10 of FIG. 1. That is, the OP amplifiers 11 and 12 are connected to a first output node OUT_ODD through the switches 13 and 14. But the driving unit 20 further connects the output terminal of the first OP amplifier 11 to a second output node OUT_EVEN through the third switch 13′, and connects the output terminal of the second OP amplifier 12 to the second output node OUT_EVEN through the fourth switch 14′.
However, the driving unit in either FIG. 1 or FIG. 2 has the equivalent circuit shown in FIG. 3 after the switch is turned on. So, the equivalent output impedance Rout viewed from the output node into the OP amplifier is:Rout=Ron(OP)+Ron(Switch)  (1).
Because the output impedance Rout is increased due to the switch, the time of the stable output voltage of the output node is thus influenced so that the response speed of the LCD cannot be effectively enhanced.

Driving circuit for TFT liquid crystal display


A parallel-axis gear differential includes pairs of combination gears (66 and 68) mounted within pockets (76 and 78) formed in a differential housing (10, 12). Each combination gear includes a first gear section (70) for meshing with one of two side gears (58 or 60), a second gear section (72) for meshing with the first gear section of its mating combination gear, and a stem section (74) interconnecting the first two gear sections. Each pocket includes two bearing portions (84 and 86) for rotationally supporting the gear sections (70 and 72) and an intermediate portion (88) providing clearance for the stem sections (74). Windows (90) are formed through an exterior (92, 94) of the housing as passageways connecting the exterior of the housing to the intermediate portions (88). A spacing block (50) separates the side gears (58 and 60) through a distance approximately equal to an amount of overlap between the stem sections (74 ) of the combination gear pairs.

Gear differentials include compound planetary gear sets carried within a differential housing interconnecting a pair of output shafts for opposite directions of rotation with respect to the housing. An input shaft is connected to the housing for rotating the housing about a common axis of the output shafts. Sun gear members of the respective planetary gear sets, also referred to as "side" gears, are coupled to inner ends of the output shafts. Planet gear members of the planetary gear sets, also referred to as "element" gears, operatively connect the two side gears for relative rotation in opposite directions.
One known arrangement of the planetary gearing positions the sun and planet gears within the housing for rotation about axes that extend parallel to each other. Differentials with this type of gearing arrangement are referred to as "parallel-axis" gear differentials. The planet gears of this type of differential are generally mounted in pairs within the differential housing. One portion of each planet gear meshes with one of the side gears, and another portion of each planet gear meshes with its paired planet gear.
The planet gears are individually supported for rotation on shafts or within pockets formed in the housings. The pockets provide bearings for slidably supporting outside cylinder surfaces of the planet gears including the top lands of the planet gear teeth. Alternatively, bores formed in the housing can be used to support opposite ends of the shafts.
Ordinarily, the planet gear pairs are evenly distributed about the central axis of the differential. The pockets supporting the element gears occupy most of the circumference of the housing, leaving little room between the pairs of pockets to form window passages through the housing to circulate lubricant or to gain access to the interior of the housing. In addition, the remaining portions of the housing between the pairs of pockets are important for preserving structural strength of the housing.
A commonly assigned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 735,821, filed Jul. 25, 1991, discloses an example of a parallel-axis gear differential in which the planet gears are formed as so-called "combination" gears having two gear sections separated by a stem. A first of the gear sections of each combination gear meshes with one of two side gears, and a second of the gear sections meshes with the first gear section of its paired combination gear. The two meshes between paired combination gears straddle the two meshes between the paired combination gears and the side gears.
The side gears, however, are positioned together between the straddled combination gear meshes, and this limits access to space between the side gears for fastening ends of the output shafts within the differential or for connecting a coaxial input shaft to the differential housing. In addition, relative sliding between the two side gears can produce different frictional effects between opposite directions of torque transfer through the differential housing (e.g. "drive" and "coast" directions). The opposite directions of torque transfer thrust the side gears either together or apart against opposite ends of the housing. The relative sliding velocity between the side gears is twice as great as the relative sliding velocity between either side gear and the housing.

Parallel-axis gear differential with extended planet gears