To provide a cell-filled device that is suitable for use in, for example, an implantable or circulation type hybrid artificial organ. In a cell-filled device including hollow fiber membranes whose hollow portions are filled with cells, the hollow fiber membranes have modified cross sections, and a cell aggregate provided in each of the hollow portions has cells formed into two or more layers in arbitrary directions, provided that the distance from an arbitrary point of the cell aggregate to the nearest inner wall of hollow fiber membrane is less than 75 μm. This cell-filled device enables effective use of cells without the necrosis thereof. Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing the cell-filled device.

In recent years, as approaches for treating organs or tissues having functional failure or functional defects, the development of hybrid-type artificial organs (also referred to as biological artificial organs), and regenerative medical technologies, in which cultured cells and biocompatible materials are combined, have received much attention.
Currently, for instance, not less than 600,000 people are allegedly suffering from liver diseases in our country. In addition, about 50,000 patients have died a year because of liver diseases. Of those, about 1,000 patient deaths are due to acute liver failure and the remainder thereof is due to chronic hepatic insufficiency including hepatoma. A basic therapy for liver diseases such as hepatic insufficiency is liver transplantation. However, there is a large problem in that there is an insufficient number of offerers who are willing to donate their organs (i.e., donors). Therefore, the development of artificial livers has been demanded.
However, it is difficult to replace a total of 500 or more complicated liver functions with only an artificial means. As to an artificial liver, recently, a biological artificial liver using hepatic cells themselves has received much attention.
For the biological artificial liver, which is a representative example of a hybrid artificial organ, an extracorporeal circulation type therapeutic system is in the mainstream. The biological artificial liver carries out a therapeutic treatment by allowing a substance exchange through a plasma separator between a circuit on the body side for drawing out blood from all of the hepatic failure patients and circulating the blood and a circuit on the artificial liver module's side for carrying out a plasma circulation to metabolize and detoxify the plasma on the artificial liver module's side.
For such an artificial organ module, using dispersed cells is insufficient. That is, monolayer cultures which have been conventionally used for incubating cells cannot avoid loss or decrease of cellular functions. Thus, it is important to establish and use a multicellular aggregate body that resembles a living tissue.
From such a point of view, recently, a method of culturing an organ-like aggregate such as a spherical cell aggregate (spheroid) or a cylindrical cell aggregate (cylindroid) has been newly established, so that the high functional expression and long-term functional maintenance of cells will now be possible.
For example, as a method of culturing a spherical aggregate (spheroid), the inventors of the present invention have developed a method of forming a spheroid in a polymer base material such as a polyurethane foam (PUF) (JP10-29951A; and H. Ijima et al., "Tissue Engineering", Vol. 4, No. 2, p. 213-226 (1998)). The PUF is made of a porous material having a main framework and a thin membrane beam structure. In addition, a certain degree of passage is formed between the pores of PUF, so a high density culture can be achieved under a good environment for substance exchange. When hepatic cells are cultured in the pores of PUF, about 200 hepatic cells gradually aggregate together to form many spherical multicellular aggregates (spheroids) each having a diameter of about 100 μm spontaneously. The inventors have succeeded in developing a short-term application type (about 10 days) biological artificial liver on a human clinical scale by means of a spherical aggregate (spheroid) using this culture method.
Furthermore, the inventors of the present invention have found that hepatic cells can be introduced into hollow fibers in a very dense state by means of a centrifugal force as a result of seeking out a compact artificial liver of a long-term application type. They have finally obtained an artificial module having a cell density of 2.4×107 cells/cm3 per module (see "Abstracts of 31st Summer Seminar Lectures in 2000 of Society of Fiber Science and Technology, Japan", p. 115-118).
Furthermore, when an improvement in operability of the artificial liver at bedside and resolving the chronic lack of donors are taken into consideration, there is a need of a more compact artificial liver capable of maintaining its functions for a long time. Therefore, the inventors of the present invention have developed a higher density of hepatic cell aggregate (hepatic cell organoid) (JP 2002-247978 A).
However, those conventional cell aggregates (organoids) have been limited to spherical one(spheroid) or cylindrical ones (cylindroids) using perfect circle-shaped hollow fiber membranes. Of those, the cell aggregate of a hollow fiber membrane type is excellent in its handling properties or functionality as a device. On the other hand, if the inner diameter of the hollow fiber membrane used is too large, sufficient amounts of oxygen and nutrients would not diffuse to the cells located at the center of the cell aggregate, causing the necrosis thereof. As a result, there were problems in that one would not be able to use the cells being filled in the hollow fiber membrane efficiently without waste. Utilization efficiency of the cells becomes an extremely large problem when a cell source for making the cell aggregate (organoid) is rarely available like one of a brain-death donor origin. In contrast, if the inner diameter of the hollow fiber membrane is too small, the manufacture of uniform hollow fiber membranes and the modularization thereof becomes difficult. Furthermore, an airlock or the like can be caused and sometimes affected the operation of uniformly filling the cells.
On the other hand, when attention is paid to the structural aspects as a substance production device, a cell culturing device of a hollow fiber membrane type is known and can be roughly classified into a type of culture cells on the internal side of a hollow fiber membrane and supplying a culture medium to the external side thereof and the opposite type. In those cases, in general, a perfect circle-shaped hollow fiber membrane has been used, but sometimes other hollow fiber membranes having a different shape than a perfect circle has been used. For instance, JP 62-171678 A discloses that cells are incubated inside or outside a modified hollow fiber membrane having a fine extending in a longitudinal direction from the outer peripheral portion thereof. In addition, JP 63-233777 A discloses that cells are incubated outside the hollow fiber membrane having unevenness in a hollow portion.
The former case has a description that the hollow fiber membrane may be oval instead of a perfect circle. However, it was the hollow fiber membrane that requires a fin (finny protrusion) on the external portion of the membrane. A main purpose of the fin is to prevent close contact between the membranes to improve the dispersibility of a culture medium and cells. In the latter case, furthermore, the inner portion of the membrane was formed with irregularity in the longitudinal direction to prevent clogging of the membrane by causing turbulence in a culture medium flowing in the membrane.
As a complex, furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,015,585 discloses a hollow fiber membrane having a so-called double structure in which another hollow fiber membrane is incorporated in a hollow fiber membrane. In this case, a gap between two hollow fiber membranes is made uniform for the purpose of keeping a survival rate of the cells filled in the gap. However, in obtaining the double-structured hollow fiber membrane, it is very difficult to make the structure uniform unless the raw materials of the membrane, physical properties of the membrane, size of the module, and the like are limited. Besides, in this case, the cells cannot be expected to be filled uniformly. In terms of this fact, to a large extent, it was not practical.
In this way, various studies have been made on the shapes of cell aggregates and the hollow fiber membrane type cell culturing devices. However, no technology has attempted to increase the efficiency of using the individual cells by fully working on the cross-sectional shape and diameter of the membrane on the basis of the cell aggregate formed in the hollow fiber membrane.

Cell-filled hollow fiber membranes having modified cross-section


Systems and methods are provided for determining and controlling an NO2 to NOx ratio reference target in an exhaust conduit between a first SCR catalyst and a second SCR catalyst. The method includes determining a present NO2 to NOx ratio in the exhaust conduit between the first SCR catalyst and the second SCR catalyst, and providing a reductant doser command in response to a deviation of the present NO2 to NOx ratio from the NO2 to NOx ratio reference target.

Control of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts is of increasing interest to meet modern internal combustion engine emissions standards. The efficiency of a typical SCR catalyst in removing NOx emissions is sensitive to the molar ratio of NO2 to NOx at the inlet to the SCR catalyst. Under most conditions, the ratio of NO2 to NOx at the SCR inlet is established by the operational capability of the upstream diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) and diesel particulate filter (DPF) since these components tend to make NO2 from NO upstream of the SCR catalyst inlet. However, as these components age, this ability to convert NO to NO2 deteriorates, and the molar ratio of NO2 to NOx at the inlet to the SCR catalyst drops. Thus, the efficiency of the SCR catalyst is reduced over time. Accordingly, further technological developments in this area are desirable.

System and method to manage SCR catalyst NO


A targeted advertising system uses a machine learning tool to select an asset for a current user of a user equipment device, for example, to select an ad for delivery to a current user of a digital set top box in a cable network. The machine learning tool first operates in a learning mode to receive user inputs and develop evidence that can characterize multiple users of the user equipment device audience. In a working mode, the machine learning tool processes current user inputs to match a current user to one of the identified users of that user equipment device audience. Fuzzy logic may be used to improve development of the user characterizations, as well as matching of the current user to those developed characterizations. In this manner, targeting of assets can be implemented not only based on characteristics of a household but based on a current user within that household.

Broadcast network content or programming is commonly provided in conjunction with associated informational content or assets. These assets include advertisements, associated programming, public-service announcements, ad tags, trailers, weather or emergency notifications and a variety of other content, including paid and unpaid content. In this regard, asset providers (e.g., advertisers) who wish to convey information (e.g., advertisements or "ads") regarding services and/or products to users of the broadcast network often pay for the right to insert their information into programming of the broadcast network. For instance, advertisers may provide ad content to a network operator such that the ad content may be interleaved with broadcast network programming during one or more programming breaks. The delivery of such paid assets often subsidizes or covers the costs of the programming provided by the broadcast network. This may reduce or eliminate costs borne by the users of the broadcast network programming.
In order to achieve a better return on their investment, asset providers often try to target their assets to a selected audience that is deemed likely to be interested in the goods or services of the asset provider. The case of advertisers on a cable television network is illustrative. For instance, an advertiser or a cable television network may target its ads to certain demographic groups based on, for example, geographic location, gender, age, income etc. Accordingly, once an advertiser has created an ad that is targeted to a desired group of viewers (e.g., targeted group) the advertiser may attempt to procure insertion times in the network programming when the targeted group is expected to be among the audience of the network programming.
More recently, it has been proposed to target assets to individual households. This would allow asset providers to better target audience segments of interest or to tailor messages to different audience segments. However, targeting households is problematic. Again, the case of a cable television network is illustrative. It is often possible to obtain audience classification information for a household based on name or address information. For example, information based on credit card transactions or other financial transactions may be available from third party databases. However, information based on an identified household does not always ensure appropriate targeting of assets. In the case of a family household, for example, a current network user might be a mother, a father, a child, a babysitter, etc. Additionally, where the matching of ads to households is performed in the network, some mechanism is required to target the selected ads to the appropriate households. This is difficult in broadcast networks. Accordingly, household-based targeting, while an improvement over untargeted asset delivery or conventional ratings-based asset targeting in a broadcast network, still entails significant obstacles and/or targeting uncertainty.

Fuzzy logic based viewer identification for targeted asset delivery system


The present invention is directed to a system and method for measuring a current in an integrated circuit comprising measuring a first output count from a first voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) using a first measurement voltage, simultaneously measuring a second output count from a second VCO using a second measurement voltage, and calculating the current in the integrated circuit using a voltage proportional to a difference between the first and second output counts.

Traditionally, a microprocessor's average current draw is monitored by converting analog values of current to digital values that can be used by the microprocessor. This required some form of analog-to-digital (A/D) converter and an averaging circuit. The standard method of measuring current involves sending the current through a known "sense" resistance and measuring the voltage drop across the resistor. The known resistance and measured voltage can be plugged into Ohm's law (I=V/R) to calculate the current.
This method involves the design of an A/D converter for measurement of the voltages on both sides of the sense resistor. Using a discrete, off-die A/D converter to measure the voltage drop requires a separate component that is on or very near the microprocessor package, which increases the microprocessor package cost. Furthermore a separate interface is needed between the microprocessor and the A/D converter, which further complicates the design.
An alternative design is to put the A/D converter into the package, which would be a very complicated process and is likely to yield relatively inaccurate results in a digital integrated circuit manufacturing process by which the microprocessor is fabricated. The addition of the sense resistor also wastes power by dissipating power in the resistor instead of putting it to useful work in the circuit.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A scalable computer system includes a reconfigurable chassis module, plural hardware units and one or more inter-plane. The chassis module has plural modular units for configuring the hardware units therein respectively. Each of the modular units has dedicated framework to attach the inter-plane or dedicated fans. The inter-plane is to connect with the separated hardware units between the modular units. Each of the modular units is equipped with compatible male and female joints to engage with each other. Certain fastening assemblies may be applied to secure male-male or female-female joints, thereby enabling the modular units to be front-to-back and/or side-by-side connections.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the enclosure design of an electronic apparatus, and more particularly to a scalable computer system equipped with a reconfigurable chassis module.
2. Related Art
Traditional electronic enclosure design requires a fixed and predefined overall support chassis that provides the mechanical support for the internal electronic components. This limitation prevents some configurable options to be part of the base design dictated by the overall dimensions of the chassis and its internal structure. Generally, any system that does not require the full configurable options has unnecessary weight, empty unutilized space and cost associated with the system mechanical design. As future technology improvement become available, the mechanical design may not be able to accommodate the new form factors and may require a redesigned new chassis to support the feature, which would require extra cost. For example, new CPU and memory upgrades have to be supported with new power supplies or new interface sockets for higher power density and faster access speed requirements. Then extra cost comes after because the overall form factor of the chassis is fixed.
Furthermore, the traditional chassis design involves structural pieces of the chassis assembled within a sheet metal shell which prevent chassis level modularization. The traditional design also makes service of internal parts very difficult to reach and take longer time to complete.

Scalable computer system and reconfigurable chassis module thereof


The present invention provides for selection of bovine animals that will display phenotypes associated with increased rates of growth. These phenotypes include hot carcass weight, average daily gain, shipping weight, end of test rib eye area, and adjusted weaning weight which is a measure of post-natal growth, based on the knowledge of their CRH, POMC and MC4R genotypes. The predictive value comes from the discovery that certain single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these genes are linked to higher growth rate phenotypes. Specifically, the phenotypes that correlated with specific SNP's are end-of-test rib-eye area, adjusted weaning weight, average daily gain, shipping weight and hot carcass weight. The invention also provides novel kits that can be used in making the determination of these genotypes. The invention further provides for methods of screening bovines to predict which animals will have higher growth rate, allowing producers to selectively breed and manage animals based on desired characteristics, thereby maximizing productivity and profitability in commercial meat production operations.

Increased growth rates are typically associated with higher economic returns to beef producers. Consequently, methods to improve growth rate in cattle are of significant benefit to producers. Prior art methods of increasing growth has included such approaches as the use of hormone implants (Bagley et al., 1989), sub-therapeutic levels of antibiotics (Schumann et al., 1990) and by selective breeding based on expected progeny differences (EPD) (Kress et al., 1977). However, hormone implants and the use of antibiotics are becoming unpopular and may be banned in North America in the near future. Therefore, alternative methods of improving growth rates of cattle that don't require artificial forms of stimulation will become increasingly important and desirable in the industry.
Corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) indirectly causes the release of glucocorticoids (Dunn and Berridge, 1990), naturally occurring hormones that are suggested to be growth inhibitors (Sharpe et al., 1986). Although commonly referred to as a "stress-related hormone", CRH is released from the hypothalamus, an area of the brain known to be involved in appetite control. The release of CRH regulates appetite via two distinct mechanisms; (1) indirectly triggering the release of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), and (2) by increasing the production of leptin (FIG. 1)
The up-regulation of POMC levels leads to increased synthesis of alpha melanocyte stimulating hormone (αMSH) which, when bound to the melanocortin-4 receptor, reduces appetite (Marsh et al., 1999). The increase of leptin, which is induced by glucocorticoids, reduces appetite by four other interactions (FIG. 1). Primarily leptin acts to decrease the levels of neuropeptide Y, an appetite stimulant. Leptin also acts to increase POMC levels, an agonist for the melanocortin 4-receptor (MC4R); decrease the levels of antagonist agouti related protein (AGRP); and increase the production of CRH (Houseknecht et al., 1998; Marsh et al., 1999; Pritchard et al., 2002).
The CRH gene comprises two exons, however only exon 2 is translated and codes for the pre-pro-protein (Roche et al., 1988; Shibihara et al., 1983). The CRH gene has been mapped to chromosome 14 (Barendse et al., 1997), and the results of quantitative trait linkage (QTL) mapping suggested an association between a locus for post-natal growth identified on chromosome 14 and the CRH gene (Buchanan et al., 2000). In addition, we previously reported a non-conserved amino acid substitution at position 77 (CRH77) in the pro-peptide region of CRH and showed an association with post-natal growth in beef cattle (Buchanan et al., 2002b).
The POMC pro-hormone peptide is an integral component of the appetite regulation pathway (FIG. 1) and has also been identified by QTL analysis in our unpublished studies as a positional candidate gene for average daily gain and carcass weight. We identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the POMC gene that is translationally silent and used the SNP to map the POMC gene to chromosome 11 in beef cattle (Thue et al., 2003), confirming its position to previously identified QTL loci. We also identified SNPs in two other genes integral to this pathway, leptin and MC4R (Buchanan et al., 2002a; Thue et al., 2001).
We have recently identified a novel SNP in the CRH gene, at position 4 of the signal sequence, equivalent to position 22 of the sequence defined in SEQ ID NO: 1. Together with the existing gene tests for POMC, MC4R and LEP (Buchanan et al., 2002a; Buchanan et al., 2002b; Thue et al., 2001; Thue et al., 2003) we genotyped a group of 256 steers. Our results show that knowledge of genotypes of cattle, with respect to these particular genes, can be used to better predict growth and yield during beef production.


A modified adaptive minimum mean square error (MMSE) receiver detects a spread spectrum signal, minimizing interference among multiple users. The receiver receives multiple pilot bits and corresponding data bits. A channel is estimated using at least one of the received pilot bits and, simultaneously, the data bits are detected based on the pilot bit and an inverse of a gain of the receiver. The spectrum signal may be spread in accordance with a wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) format, in which the pilot bits are modified to include a predetermined bit sequence of alternating ones and negative ones.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to reducing interference in code division multiple access (CDMA) communication systems.
2. Acronyms
The written description provided herein contains acronyms which refer to various telecommunications services, components and techniques, as well as features relating to the present invention. Although some of these acronyms are known, use of these acronyms is not strictly standardized in the art. For purposes of the written description, the acronyms are defined as follows:
Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN)
Binary Phase Shift Key (BPSK)
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA)
Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI)
Maximum Likelihood (ML)
Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE)
Multi-Access Interference (MAI)
Multi-User Detection (MUD)
Single User Detection (SUD)
Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF)
Quaternary Phase Shift Key (QPSK)
Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS)
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA)
Wide Sense Stationary Uncorrelated Scattering (WSSUS)
3. Background Information
The communications industry has experienced significant growth in the demand for wireless communications. The increased demand is related, in part, to the improved quality and reliability of wireless networks, including mobile cellular networks, which have essentially evolved through three generations. The first generation included analog systems that modulated voice signals onto radio frequency (RF) carrier waves, which were transmitted and received between base stations and mobile units. The second generation of cellular networks introduced digital encoding of analog voice signals, and included the time division multiple access (TDMA) and code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular systems. The second generation required a symmetric, full-duplex network and was directed to accommodation of voice traffic. The third generation of cellular systems includes packet-switched transmissions and can accommodate voice, data, audio and video communications.
With the increase in interest in commercial CDMA based mobile systems, as well as CDMA's dominance in third generation systems, research and development efforts have been directed to exploring receiver structures and detection techniques. CDMA systems belong to the genre commonly known as spread spectrum systems, the use of which is wide spread throughout wireless telecommunications. In spread spectrum systems, data from the transmitted signal is spread over a predetermined bandwidth, such that the transmission bandwidth of each transmitted signal is much higher than the actual data bandwidth. Therefore, numerous CDMA signals, originating from different users, are essentially spread and multiplexed onto the same transmission bandwidth. The signals corresponding to the different users are distinguishable by the CDMA receiver (or detector) based on the respective spreading codes or signatures.
CDMA systems include direct sequence CDMA (DS-CDMA), or direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS), and frequency hopping CDMA. DS-CDMA, in particular, codes transmitted signals in sequential channels, combining the transmitted bits with a higher sampling rate chip sequence and spreading the signal according to a spreading ratio. Because each bit is, in essence, redundantly represented by multiple chips, a spread DS-CDMA data signal is more likely to be recovered by the receiver, even when portions of the data are lost or encounter interference during transmission. DS-CDMA includes various conventional coding schemes, such as IS-95, cdma2000 and wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA).
The capacity of operational DS-CDMA systems is limited by cross-interference among the different user signals, all of which occupy the same frequency at the same time. The cross-interference among signals from different users is referred to as multi-access interference (MAI). Attempts to improve the capacity of CDMA systems included reducing the level of perceived interference among the users, including minimum mean square error (MMSE) detection. However, implementation of an adaptive MMSE detection scheme in universal mobile telecommunications systems (UMTS) requires major changes in the physical layer and the data link layer (layers 1 and 2, respectively) in the WCDMA air interface. Although a blind MMSE detection schemes (i.e., without training sequences) require only minor changes to W-CDMA air interface, they do not promise the kind of performance improvement as adaptive MMSE.
The receivers implemented in the second generation of CDMA systems were relatively simple matched filter based (correlation detectors) single user receivers. By the early 1990s, it became apparent that CDMA systems are not multi-access interference (MAI) limited. Rather, MAI was a limitation of the single-user Rake architecture incorporated into CDMA receivers. Therefore, the combined CDMA and Rake systems needed to be changed, or replaced, to minimize the MAI, as well as to account for internal signal interference (ISI), caused by other data bits transmitted from the same user.
Accordingly, the concept of multi user detection (MUD) was developed, by which a receiver jointly estimates all received signals from multiple transmission sources. However, an optimal MUD receiver, which is based on joint maximum likelihood (ML) estimation of all users, is impractical to implement because of the large computational complexity. MUD receivers are complex in CDMA systems because they must appropriately estimate the channels of all the users, as compared to a traditional single user detector, having the Rake architecture, which need only estimate a channel of a single user.
In a traditional CDMA system, the estimated parameters of the channel are hk(t) and τk, the amplitude/phase variation and the delay associated with each path, respectively. In a maximal ratio combining process, the receiver compensates for the delay and the amplitude/phase variation to obtain the maximum possible signal to noise ratio. An inherent limitation of the Rake architecture is its inability to suppress the residual cross-correlation between signals with different signatures.
The present invention overcomes the problems associated with the prior art, as described below.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Pilot aided adaptive minimum mean square interference cancellation and detection


Systems and methods are included for providing anti-aliasing in a sample-and-hold circuit. One embodiment of the present invention includes a method for sampling of an input signal for providing to an analog-to-digital converter. The method comprises generating a sample signal having a given frequency and a period that defines both a sample phase and a hold phase. The method also comprises sampling the input signal at both the sample phase and the hold phase. The method further comprises generating a decimated output sample that is an aggregate of consecutive samples of the input signal obtained during the sample phase and the hold phase.

With high definition TV (HDTV) broadcasts widely available and with the requirement of supporting standard definition TV (SDTV) as well as PC graphics, cost effective system-on-chip (SOC) HDTV/SDTV/Graphics solutions are very desirable. These SOCs require analog front end integration on the same die with a very large amount of digital circuitry. For example, a typical HDTV/SDTV/PC-graphic processor may integrate 3 ADC channels, multiple asynchronous phase-locked-loops (PLLs) and delay-locked-loops (DLLs), and 6 digital-to-analog converters (DACs) with a digital signal processing section of 8 million digital gates or more in a 90 nm or smaller digital CMOS process. An integrated circuit (IC) package with 544 pins or more may be required to implement such a processor due to such a large number of input/output pins. These packages may have a large inductance on analog power supply connections, thus creating additional internal power-supply noise. Also, with the competitive market in consumer electronics and high wafer costs in smaller geometry processes, any solution that will require large die-area, such as multi-stage active analog filters, is not very desirable. In addition, since analog video signals can be single-ended, meeting the noise requirements for an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) can be much more difficult.
A typical interface for an analog signal to an ADC is a sample-and-hold circuit. FIG. 1 demonstrates a typical sample-and-hold circuit 10. The sample-and-hold circuit 10 obtains samples of an input signal VIN at a given sampling rate, and provides discrete time output samples of the input signal VIN to a given ADC. The input signal VIN could be a differential signal. The sample-and-hold circuit 10 includes a sample stage 12 and a hold stage 14. The sample stage 12 could operate to obtain the samples of the differential signal VIN at a given sampling rate. The hold stage 14 could operate to transfer the obtained samples to an output of the sample-and-hold circuit 10 as discrete time output samples VOUT at output terminals 18.
The sample stage 12 includes a pair of switches controlled by a clock signal P1 (hereinafter "P1 clock switch(es)"), a pair of switches controlled by a clock signal P2 (hereinafter "P2 clock switch(es)"), a pair of switches controlled by a clock signal PS (hereinafter "PS clock switch(es)"), a capacitor C1, and a capacitor C2. The differential signal VIN is demonstrated in the example of FIG. 1 as a positive rail input signal VIN+, a negative rail input signal VIN−, and a common mode voltage signal CM that is associated with the input signal VIN. The common mode signal CM can have a voltage potential that is substantially centered (i.e., mean) between the signal VIN+ and the signal VIN−. It is to be understood that, because the input signal VIN is a differential signal, the negative rail input signal VIN− is a complement of the positive rail input signal VIN+. Thus, the negative rail input signal VIN− may not be negative relative to zero, but could be negative relative to the common mode signal CM. In addition, the common mode signal CM could have a floating voltage potential, as well. The sample stage 12 also receives another common mode signal CM2, which could be a fixed voltage potential. It is to be understood that the common mode signal CM and the common mode signal CM2 could be the same voltage potential. The hold stage 14 includes a pair of P2 clock switches, a capacitor C3, a capacitor C4, and an inverting amplifier 16. The inverting amplifier 16 has a positive input terminal that is coupled to both the capacitors C1 and C3 and a negative input terminal that is coupled to both the capacitors C2 and C4. The common mode signal CM2 can be a voltage potential that is sufficient to bias the inverting amplifier 16. The inverting amplifier 16 also has output terminals that are coupled to the output terminals 18 of the sample-and-hold circuit 10, which outputs the discrete time output samples VOUT of the input signal VIN.
The PS clock signal defines a sample signal (not shown) that defines a sampling rate associated with the sample-and-hold circuit 10. The sample signal can have a period that defines both a sample phase and a hold phase. An example of the operation of the sample signal in relation to the P1, P2 and PS clock switches is demonstrated in the example of FIG. 2. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a timing diagram 50 associated with the sample-and-hold circuit 10 in the example of FIG. 1. The timing diagram 50 is demonstrated in the example of FIG. 2 as being an ideal timing diagram. However, it is to be understood that, in actuality, there are delays associated with the timing diagram 50. For example, the example of FIG. 2 demonstrates that the P1 clock switches and the PS clock switches activate and deactivate at substantially the same time. However, it is to be understood that the PS clock switches may actually deactivate before the P1 clock switches to avoid signal dependent charge injection.
In the example of FIG. 2, the sample signal can define the sample phase when the sample signal is asserted (i.e., P1 and PS being logic high) and the hold phase when the sample signal is de-asserted (i.e., P2 being logic low). Accordingly, the P1 and PS clock switches can close during the sample phase, and the P2 clock switches can close during the hold phase. It is to be understood that, throughout the discussion herein of FIG. 2, reference will be made to FIG. 1, such that like identifiers and reference numbers will be used.
During the sample phase, due to the closure of the P1 and PS clock switches, the capacitor C1 is coupled to the signal VIN+ and the common mode signal CM2, and the capacitor C2 is coupled to the signal VIN− and the common mode signal CM2. Therefore, the capacitors C1 and C2 each become charged with a voltage potential of VIN+ and VIN−, respectively, during the sample phase. The timing diagram 50 demonstrates a sample of the input signal VIN being captured at the end (i.e., falling edge) of two separate sample phases, demonstrated in the example of FIG. 2 at the dashed lines 52.
The captured sample of the input signal VIN then gets transferred to the hold stage during each of the subsequent hold phases. For example, during the hold phase, the P1 and PS clock switches open and the P2 clock switches close. The capacitors C1 and C2 become coupled to the common mode voltage CM and the capacitors C3 and C4, respectively. The capacitors C3 and C4 also become coupled to the output terminals 18. The capacitors C1 and C2 therefore discharge the captured sample of the input signal VIN to the capacitors C3 and C4, respectively. During the transition from the sample phase to the hold phase, the capacitors C1, C2, C3, and C4 conserve the total amount of charge between them. Thus, because the capacitors C3 and C4 are also coupled to the common mode signal CM at the input of the inverting amplifier 16 during the hold phase, the input signal VIN at the respective capacitors C3 and C4 experiences a gain that is approximately equal to the ratio of capacitance of the sampling capacitors C1 and C2 to the feedback (i.e., hold) capacitors, and is output at the output terminals 18 as a discrete time output sample VOUT. It is to be understood that, in order to decrease the voltage gain of the sample-and-hold circuit 10, the capacitance value of the capacitors C3 and C4 can be increased linearly or the capacitance value of the capacitors C1 and C2 can be decreased linearly. It is also to be understood that a typical sample-and-hold circuit may set the capacitance of C1 equal to C2, and the capacitance C3 equal to C4.
It is to be understood that the sample-and-hold circuit 10 is not intended to be limited to the example of FIG. 1. For example, the sample-and-hold circuit 10 could have additional common mode voltages associated with the P1, P2 and PS clock switches. Furthermore, the P2 clock switches could merely couple the capacitors C1 and C2 together during the hold phase, instead of coupling each to the common mode signal CM. As another example, another set of P1 clock switches could couple the capacitors C3 and C4 to yet another common mode signal, such that the discrete time output samples VOUT could reflect a level-shifted voltage potential. In addition, the sample-and-hold circuit 10 can also perform single-ended input to differential output conversion, programmable gain, and offset correction functionalities preceding an analog-to-digital converter. Accordingly, the sample-and-hold circuit 10 could be modified in a variety of ways as known in the art.
A potential problem for a typical sample-and-hold architecture is aliasing. For example, noise components having a frequency that is approximately equal to the frequency of a sample signal, or an integer multiple of the frequency of the sample signal, can result in aliasing of the noise components to the baseband signal around approximately 0 Hz at the sampled output. A common solution to the problem of aliasing is filtering the input signal prior to sampling it. For example, a passive RC or LC filter can be implemented to filter the input signal prior to the given sample-and-hold circuit. Simple RC and LC filters are convenient, but often lack efficiency since they attenuate noise efficiently on very high frequencies and hence require the ADC to use a very high sampling frequency. A high order active filter, with multiple-stage amplifiers, can be implemented to filter the input signal prior to the given sample-and-hold circuit with much better attenuation than a passive filter. However, a typical active filter often consumes an undesirably large amount of power. In addition, a typical active filter is larger, thus requiring more die area and making it more difficult to integrate with the sample-and-hold circuit and/or ADC to avoid external noise coupling. They may also degrade the linearity of the signal and introduce phase distortion. Sigma-delta converters are also not very suitable because they cannot handle large analog video input bandwidth requirements.

Systems and methods for providing anti-aliasing in a sample-and-hold circuit


An erectable container apparatus constructed from a substantially square blank of material for use in releasably storing various articles therewithin. The apparatus includes a plurality of side panels each having an inner edge attached to a base portion, an outer edge attached to a corresponding top flap member, and a left and right edge. The left and right edges are operably positioned at acute angles relative to the respective inner edges to which they intersect so as to provide substantially upright and inwardly sloping side panels upon articulation of the erectable container apparatus toward and into its fully articulated orientation. Locking elements are operably associated with at least two of the top flap members for releasably locking the erectable container apparatus in a fully erected orientation, as well as to releasably maintain the top flap members and the inwardly sloping side panels in a base and article covering orientation.

The present invention relates to article containment devices, and, more particularly, to an erectable container apparatus constructed from a substantially square blank of material for use in releasably storing various articles therewithin.
Article containment devices of the type constructed from a substantially square blank of material have been known in the art for many years. Typically, such prior art devices have included a base, four side panels attached to the base, and four flaps, or cover members, attached to a corresponding side panel. In addition, some of such prior art has also utilized webs, or corner members, attached to adjacently positioned side members, for substantially eliminating the spacial gap which would otherwise exist between the side panels after the device has been fully erected. Examples of such prior art include: Beach, U.S. Pat. No. 1,760,106; Stubbs et al., U.S. Pat. No. 1,774,299; Bemiss, U.S. Pat. No. 2,987,237; and Pryor, U.S. Pat. No. 3,252,650.
Other than Pryor, '650, none of the above-identified prior art containment devices teach, much less disclose, an erectable container apparatus having inwardly sloping side panels which result upon articulation of the container toward and into a fully erect orientation. Although Pryor, '650 does appear to disclose sloping side panels, among other differences to the present invention is that after articulation of the Pryor '650 reference, a portion of the side edges of the top flaps extend to hang over or overlap a portion of adjacently positioned side panels--thereby resulting in protrusions which could inadvertently catch, or snag, on an external object during manipulation of the fully erected container. Further, such a construction precludes clean, "mitered" edge abutment of the panels; of extreme importance to sanitary food containment or complete article enclosure.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an erectable container apparatus constructed from a substantially square blank of material so as to minimize the material waste associated with constructing such containers from other blank configurations.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an erectable container apparatus having side panels with right and left ends positioned at acute angles relative to the inner and outer edges of the respective side panels from which they intersect, so as to provide substantially upright and inwardly folded side panels which, in combination with corresponding top flaps, collectively serve to cover the base portion of the apparatus at abutting edges--without resulting in excessive overhanging of the top flaps after the apparatus has been articulated into its fully erected orientation.
It is still further an object of the present invention to provide an erectable container apparatus which is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture, as well as which is simple to erect into its articulated shape.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an erectable container apparatus which is lockable, and alternatively releasable, to and from its fully erected orientation respectively without having locking means requiring enlargement of the required blank shape.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent in light of the present Specification, Claims and Drawings.


The present invention provides a video information delivery and display system including display devices respectively mounted on cars of a train and including display units configured to display a guidance screen, a part-content storing unit configured to store a part content, which is a content at a part level, used for formation of the guidance screen, and a guidance-screen creating unit configured to select, according to a guidance content displayed on the guidance screen, based on train information, the part content used for the formation of the guidance screen from the part-content storing unit, arrange the selected part content on the guidance screen according to part arrangement definition data, and cause the part content to act according to part action definition data to thereby cause the display units to display the guidance content.

Recently, systems are proposed and put to practical use that deliver and provide video information to passengers using display devices set in cars of a train (see, for example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2).
In these video information delivery and display systems in the past, contents forming guidance screens for destination guidance and the like (hereinafter referred to as "guidance contents") are stored in advance in storing units of the display devices as one content for each of the screens.
In this way, in the video information delivery and display system in the past, one guidance content is displayed for each of the screens stored in the storing unit. Therefore, even when information is the same except a part of train information such as a train type, a destination, or a car number, it is necessary to create one guidance content anew and store the guidance content in the storing unit. Therefore, there is a problem in that a data storage volume increases according to the number of guidance contents.
In the video information delivery and display system in the past, when the video information delivery and display system copes with, for example, addition of a station, even if there are common parts such as a train type, a destination, and a car number, it is necessary to create an entire guidance content anew. Therefore, there is a problem in that an increase in guidance contents is caused. Further, when it is desired to add, for example, date information, date information data has to be added to all guidance contents. Therefore, there is a problem in that considerable time and labor are required for correction of the guidance contents.
To solve these problems, in Patent Literature 3, in a system including display devices that display a guidance screen of a still image corresponding to train information, storing units are provided that store part contents, which are contents at a part level, respectively corresponding to pieces of information forming the guidance screen, a necessary part content is selected from the storing units according to train information, and the selected part content is arranged in a predetermined position on the guidance screen, whereby the guidance screen is formed. Consequently, it is possible to reduce a data storage volume and easily cope with addition and correction of guidance contents.

Video information delivery and display system and video information delivery and display method


Embodiments herein concern compositions, methods, and uses for inducing an immune response to all four dengue virus serotypes in a child or young adult from about 1 year to about 20 years of age. Some embodiments concern compositions that can include dengue virus chimeras that, either alone or in combination with other constructs, can be used in vaccine compositions against all four dengue virus serotypes. Compositions can include constructs of more than one serotypes of dengue virus, such as dengue-1 (DEN-1) virus, dengue-2 (DEN-2) virus, dengue-3 (DEN-3) virus and/or dengue-4 (DEN-4) virus, at various concentrations or ratios to improve protection from infection in children and young adults. In certain embodiments, viruses of the formulations are limited to dengue virus serotypes. Other embodiments concern methods of administering immunogenic compositions against dengue virus that can include chimeric dengue constructs and live, attenuated dengue viruses using single, dual or other regimens.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by infection from a dengue virus. Dengue virus infections can lead to debilitating and painful symptoms, including a sudden high fever, headaches, joint and muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and skin rashes. To date, four serotypes of dengue virus have been identified: dengue-1 (DEN-1), dengue-2 (DEN-2), or dengue-3 (DEN-3) in combination with dengue-4 (DEN-4). Other subtypes may be discovered in the future (e.g., DEN-5). Dengue virus serotypes 1-4 can also cause dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS). In the most severe cases, DHF and DSS can be life threatening. Dengue viruses cause 50-100 million cases of debilitating dengue fever, 500,000 cases of DHF/DSS, and more than 20,000 deaths each year, a large portion of which are children. To date, there is no effective vaccine to protect against dengue fever and no drug treatment for the disease. Mosquito control efforts have been ineffective in preventing dengue outbreaks in endemic areas or in preventing further geographic spread of the disease. It is estimated that 3.5 billion people are threatened by infection with dengue virus. In addition, dengue virus is a leading cause of fever in travelers to endemic areas, such as Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Additionally, DHF/DSS is a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in some Asian and Latin American countries.
All four dengue virus serotypes are endemic throughout the tropical regions of the world and constitute the most significant mosquito-borne viral threat to humans in tropical regions, worldwide. Dengue viruses are transmitted to humans primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Infection with one dengue virus serotype results in life-long protection from re-infection by that serotype, but does not prevent secondary infection by one of the other three dengue virus serotypes. In fact, previous infection with one dengue virus serotype leads to an increased risk of severe disease (DHF/DSS) upon secondary infection with a different serotype. The development of an effective vaccine, especially in children and young adults, represents an important approach to the prevention and control of this global disease.

Compositions and methods of vaccination against dengue virus in children and young adults


A user-friendly technique is described for assisting users to compose original documents, such as essays, research papers, literary papers, historical papers, memoranda, and the like. Interactive software provides document-specific active assistance with creating, researching, writing, editing, and finalizing documents. Such assistance may take the form of providing document specific guides, automatically generating and inserting content, and/or checking for document specific errors.

Advances in microprocessor related technology have led to the widespread development and the adoption of computing devices. Computing powers that used to be available only in expensive mainframe computers requiring special operating environments are now available in many personal-computing devices. The form factors vary from desktop, laptop, palm-sized and so forth. A number of these computing devices are packaged as "special purpose" devices, such as set top boxes, entertainment personal digital assistants ("PDA"), pagers, text messengers, smart appliances and wireless mobile phones.
Concurrently, advances in networking, telecommunications and related technologies, in particular, in the area of wireless networking/communications, have led to increased connectivity between computing devices, over local, private, wide area, and/or public networks. Of particular notoriety is the Internet.
Together, these and other related factors contributed to the availability of rich content and functionality available from a variety of devices. Recently, this availability of connected devices has made significant advances in allowing communications and data retrieval over networks, such as the Internet from a variety of connected devices.
To facilitate the creation of rich content, applications and services have been implemented to allow document composition. However, these applications and services have been mainly limited to the creation of documents in which a user is interacting with a computer user interface without assistance from an application or service for composing a document.


A method of compressing a compressible fluid, using a hydraulically driven compressor comprising a precompressor, a first cylinder, and a second cylinder. The precompressor receives a low pressure input of compressible fluid and fills the first cylinder to a precompressor output target pressure. A piston within the first cylinder then forces the compressible fluid into the second cylinder. This cycle is repeated until the second cylinder is filled to a first-cylinder output target pressure, whereupon a piston within the second cylinder forces the compressible fluid out of the second cylinder as a high pressure compressible fluid output, typically into some sort of storage vessel. This cycle is repeated until the compressible fluid output pressure reaches a second-cylinder output target pressure. Pressure and position sensors may be employed to provide signals to a controller, which in turn provides signals to hydraulic fluid control valves which control operation of the precompressor, the first cylinder, and the second cylinder.

The problem of air pollution generated by the use of automobiles and other motor vehicles is a major global environmental concern. Traditional gasoline burning internal combustion engines produce a great many products of incomplete combustion which are released into the atmosphere at the rate of millions of tons per year and which lead to a host of environmental problems, either themselves or as precursors of other pollutants formed by atmospheric chemical reactions. The search for cleaner alternatives has been extensive and is ongoing.
Motor vehicles which burn natural gas have recently been developed which produce significantly smaller amounts of pollutants. Major impediment to widespread use of such vehicles have been the problems of fuel availability and storage. The availability problem would seem to be easily solvable. Many residential and commercial buildings have a natural gas supply lines for heating and cooking, and tapping into these existing supply lines would seem to pose no great problem. However, the pressure in these supply lines is low, rendering the volume of the amount of natural gas required to power a vehicle over any practically useful distance too large to store and/or carry on board the vehicle.
Compressors are devices for converting a volume of compressible fluid at a given temperature and pressure to a smaller volume having a correspondingly higher pressure but preferably the same temperature. Such devices are useful for storage of gases, which are quite compressible and whose volumes vary inversely with pressure at constant temperature. Therefore a natural solution to the gas storage problem associated with natural gas powered vehicles is compression of the natural gas and storage of the compressed gas at a much higher pressure than is available from typical residential or commercial supply lines.
There are, however, problems associated with use of a compressor in this particular application. A typical compressor is substantially similar in its structure and operation to an internal combustion engine. Pistons for compressing the gas are reciprocated at high speeds within cylinders by piston rods connected to a crankshaft. Such a compressor comprises a large number of moving parts which are subject to large frictional forces, high temperatures, and therefore may wear and/or fail quickly. It has been estimated that a typical compressor used in this application would require a major overhaul and/or replacement on approximately a yearly basis, burdening a vehicle owner with considerable inconvenience and expense. In addition, such compressors are bulky, consume a large amount of power, are noisy, and generate large amounts of heat.
A hydraulically driven compressor is an alternative solution to this particular problem. The only power source required is a hydraulic power supply, which may be driven by an electric motor, runs quietly, and is durable, having fewer moving parts and requiring little maintenance. Higher final pressures may be attained with a hydraulically driven compressor. A hydraulically driven compressor may be driven slowly, significantly ameliorating problems associated with power consumption, friction, heat generation, and wear. In addition, the hydraulic power supply need only be connected to the compressor by supply and return lines for the hydraulic fluid, thereby allowing placement of the power supply far from the compressor itself. When dealing with high pressure combustible fluids such as natural gas, this may be a major safety advantage. Several examples of hydraulically driven compressors can be found in the patent literature, in particular U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,390,322; 4,761,118; 5,238,372; and 5,464,330, each of which exhibit hydraulically driven pumps or compressors.
Gas liquefaction methods and/or apparatus are described in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,172,711; 4,456,459; 4,923,492; 5,473,900; 5,537,827; and 5,385,176.

Method for compressing gases using a multi-stage hydraulically-driven compressor


A first housing member and a second housing member are divided by a dividing surface including a center axis of a valve hole. Connecting holes are formed in joint surfaces of the respective housing members at locations of the joint surfaces opposed to each other. Connecting pins are inserted into the connecting holes, the connecting holes and the connecting pins are fixed to each other through solder, thereby integrally connecting the first housing member and the second housing member to each other to form a housing.

As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,803 for example, a valve having a junction type housing formed by connecting a plurality of housing members to one another is conventionally known. In this conventional valve, the housing is divided into upper and lower two housing members from a division surface including an axis of a valve hole. These housing members are connected to each other, and joint surfaces thereof are integrally connected to each other by adhesion or welding.
In such a junction type housing, when the two housing members are to be connected to each other, they are prone to be deviated from each other and thus, it is necessary to hold both the housing member so that they are not deviated from each other in some way. If both the housing members are deviated in position and connected to each other, when the valve hole is formed thereafter, a working margin is increased by the deviated amount, and labor and time required for forming the valve hole are increased and thus, the costs are increased. Since the conventional valve does not have means to position the housing members at the time of connection thereof, it is difficult to precisely connect the housing members to each other.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-65453 discloses a technique for soldering the two housing members in a state in which they are positioned by fitting a convex portion and a concave portion to each other. However, since a slight gap exists between the convex portion and the concave portion, the two housing members are deviated and moved, and the positioning precision is deteriorated in some cases. In order to eliminate the gap to enhance the positioning precision, it is necessary to form the convex portion and the concave portion with high fitting precision, and labor is required for producing the housing members.


A first reception wiring and a first magnetic flux coupler form a first track having a shape periodically changing in a rotation direction of the rotor at a first pitch. A second reception wiring and a second magnetic flux coupler form a second track having a shape periodically changing in a rotation direction of the rotor at a second pitch. The first reception wiring and the second reception wiring are stacked via a first insulative layer in a direction in which a rotation shaft extends. The first magnetic flux coupler and the second magnetic flux coupler are stacked via a second insulative layer in a direction in which the rotation shaft extends.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inductive detection type rotary encoder for measuring a rotation angle of an object by use of magnetic flux coupling between wirings provided in a rotor and a stator.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rotary encoder includes a stator arranging therein a transmission wiring and a reception wiring, and a rotor arranging therein a magnetic flux coupler capable of magnetic flux coupling therewith (see U.S. Pat. No. 7,385,389). When the rotary encoder is applied to a hand tool such as micrometer, a plurality of tracks (transmission wiring, reception wiring and magnetic flux coupler) generating signals with different wavelengths need to be collected and the outer diameter of the rotary encoder needs to be reduced.
In an inductive detection type rotary encoder, at least two tracks are required to measure an absolute position (see U.S. Pat. No. 7,385,389, for example). However, when two tracks are concentrically arranged like the apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,385,389, the outer diameter of the inductive detection type rotary encoder increases.


A method capable of efficiently adjusting both the resonance frequency and impedance of a resonant system in contactless power transmission by a resonance method is provided. A variable capacitor adjusts a resonance frequency of a secondary self-resonant coil. An impedance matching box adjusts an input impedance of a resonant system. An ECU first adjusts the resonance frequency of the secondary self-resonant coil by controlling the variable capacitor, and after the adjustment of the resonance frequency, adjusts the input impedance of the resonant system by controlling the impedance matching box. During the adjustment of the resonance frequency by the variable capacitor, the ECU sets an impedance of the impedance matching box to a predetermined fixed value.

Electrically powered vehicles such as electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles have attracted a lot of attention as environmentally friendly vehicles. These vehicles incorporate a motor for generating a driving force for running, and a rechargeable power storage device for storing power supplied to the motor. A hybrid vehicle refers to a vehicle incorporating a motor as well as an internal combustion engine as a power source, a vehicle incorporating a power storage device as well as a fuel cell as a direct-current power supply, and the like.
As with an electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle having a vehicle-mounted power storage device that can be charged from a power supply outside of the vehicle is known. For example, a so-called "plug-in hybrid vehicle" is known in which a power storage device can be charged from a power supply of an ordinary household by connecting a power supply outlet provided in the house to a charging inlet provided on the vehicle by a charging cable.
Contactless power transmission without using a power cord or a power transmission cable has been receiving attention in recent years as a power transmission method. Power transmission using electromagnetic induction, power transmission using a microwave, and power transmission by a resonance method are three dominant techniques known for the contactless power transmission.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-272134 (Patent Document 1) discloses a contactless power feeding apparatus using electromagnetic induction. This contactless power feeding apparatus includes a high-frequency power supply unit, a primary lead, a power receiving coil, a resistance detection circuit, and a frequency control unit. The high-frequency power supply unit generates high-frequency electric power. The primary lead converts the high-frequency power generated by the high-frequency power supply unit to a high-frequency magnetic flux. The power receiving coil receives the high-frequency power in a contactless manner from the primary lead by the action of electromagnetic induction, and supplies the same to a load. The resistance detection circuit detects a resistance component of the load. The frequency control unit controls the frequency of the high-frequency power generated by the high-frequency power supply unit, in accordance with the resistance component of the load detected by the resistance detection circuit.
According to this contactless power feeding apparatus, the frequency of the high-frequency power generated by the high-frequency power supply unit is controlled in accordance with the resistance component of the load detected by the resistance detection circuit, so that the power factor of the high-frequency power output from the high-frequency power supply unit can be substantially close to "1". According to this document, this increases efficiency of power consumed in the load relative to apparent power (voltage×current) supplied by the high-frequency power supply unit, thereby attaining efficient power transmission (see Patent Document 1).

Contactless power receiving apparatus and vehicle incorporating same, contactless power feeding facility, method of controlling contactless power receiving apparatus, and method of controlling contactless power feeding facility


A system, method, and computer program for analyzing code execution and software performance characteristics are disclosed. Samples of code during run-time or from crash logs can be displayed as both a top-down tree of calls from a particular function and a bottom-up tree of calls to the particular function. Data mining techniques, including filtering and focusing, remove code that is not of interest and display code that is more relevant to performance analysis. In particular, functions contained in libraries such as system libraries can be stripped from view. The cost associated with an excluded function can be propagated to a calling function, in either the top-down or bottom-up tree.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to analyzing software performance, and more particularly, to a system, method, and program for analyzing code execution in order to analyze and improve software performance by rapidly identifying of areas of code based on cost and use, and which may be candidates for optimization.
2. Related Art
Performance is an important aspect of software design. If an application does not perform well, users will not likely want to use that application. Performance is a subjective term referring to the general way in which something operates. Performance may include how efficiently system resources (e.g., CPU, memory, and hard disk drive) are used. There are aspects of performance, including but not limited to speed, memory footprint, memory turnover, memory usage, file-system usage, etc., that can be measured. Improving on these measurements increases the efficiency of the software.
The reason for poor performance of a software program is not always apparent. In particular, large-scale software can be extremely complex, with multiple layers and many modules, such that implementation details (those causing performance problems) are often hidden across layers and modules.
Software programs can be "sampled" when various events occur at runtime. Samples may be taken, for example, at a specified time interval (time-based sampling). When a sample is taken, the program's stack backtrace and other information can be recorded, and entered into a "trace table." A trace table may have many thousands of such entries, depending on how many samples were taken.
When a sampling run is complete, the trace table can be analyzed to build a single function call tree, showing the full tree of all function calls that were made, from the application's main entry point to the lowest leaf function. That "top-down" function call tree can be navigated to see the pattern of function calls in the application, to see overall how resources were used by the application. It is difficult, however, to see all the ways that a particular "leaf" function (i.e., a terminal function with no children) was reached, since that leaf function may appear at the ends of many different branches of the function call tree.
A function call tree can be "inverted" to create a list of all leaf function calls, and for each such call, a "bottom-up" function call tree of all the ways that the leaf function call was reached can be shown. In many cases, however, the leaf function calls are system-level functions that are not interesting to the programmer.

Software performance analysis using data mining


A robotic cleaning device having a main body with a controllable drive device to move the device over a surface, a cleaning device to clean the surface, an obstacle detecting device, and a control device connected to the drive device and the obstacle detecting device. The main body has a left wall connecting a front end portion with a left rear end portion and a right wall connecting the front end portion with a right rear end portion. The control device receives information from the obstacle detecting device about a detected obstacle and controls the drive device to rotate the device around a main left-turn axis at the left rear end portion or a main right-turn axis at the right rear end portion, such that the device turns one around one of the axes. The side walls are configured such that the device clears the obstacle by the turning motion.

Robotic cleaning devices, such as robotic vacuum cleaners, are known in the state of the art. One such robotic cleaning device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,347, which reference is incorporated herein. This known device comprises a housing having an overall shape of a circular block. For driving the device, the device is provided with one driving wheel and two support wheels, which support wheels are arranged at diametrical opposite sides of the device. For steering the device, the driving wheel is pivoted around a vertical axis.
Such a known device can be operated in the following manner. When the device moves forwards, the driving wheel is oriented in parallel with the support wheels. If, for example, the device hits an obstacle on the left side thereof, the driving wheel is pivoted 90° to the right, whereby the device is brought to a complete halt before it will start to rotate. The rotation will be to the right and, because the support wheels are arranged on a diameter of the circular device, around a central axis between the support wheels. Furthermore, due to the round shape of the device, the obstacle will not obstruct the rotation of the device. When the device has turned 90°, the driving wheel is pivoted 90° to the left it will again be parallel with the support wheels. The device will start to move forward and is allowed to travel a small distance. Then, the driving wheel is pivoted 90° to the left, wherein the device again is caused to stop before it starts to turn left around the central axis.
After the device has turned 90° left, the driving wheel is pivoted back to being parallel with the support wheels and the device will again travel forward in the original direction. A problem with this known robotic cleaning device is that it is time and energy consuming to steer the device around obstacles, for example table legs or chair legs, which are common in normal home environments. This is especially a problem with battery operated robotic cleaning devices, since the batteries thereof often have to be reloaded or recharged, which extends the cleaning time even more.
It is of course also possible to rotate the driving wheel less then 90° when the device hits an obstacle. However, since the device in that case will not turn around a central axis, a problem with this way of operation is that the device will not move clear of the obstacle, but will be pushed backwards by the obstacle during the rotation or will even get stuck.


Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to performing a handover on a user equipment [140] from a serving base station [110] to a target base station. In one embodiment, a method is disclosed, comprising: receiving a handover report from the user equipment [140]; identifying at least one access point [130A, 130B]; transmitting a request message to at least one of the at least one access point [130A, 130B] and a network entity; receiving the response messages from at least one of the at least one access point [130A, 130B] and the network entity; and processing at least one of the first response message and the second response message for performing the handover from the serving base station [110] to one of the neighbouring target base stations [120A, 120B].

Presently, in an outgoing cellular deployment, suitable powered macro cells are being deployed in order to cover large areas. However, the deployment of such macro cells does not manage to abate quick capacity degradation as the number of user equipment (UE) operating in the macro cells coverage areas increases. To this end, the cellular operators are now reinforcing the macro cells deployment along with one or multiple low-powered small cellular cells (termed as Femto/Pico/Microcells) placed at multiple strategic locations within one or more macro coverage areas and such an arrangement of the macro cells along with the small cellular cells is termed as a Heterogeneous Network or HetNet.
In a typical HetNet, the strategic locations for small cells generally include areas with high density of users, such as shopping malls, airports, railway/bus stations, colleges, etc. Also, these locations might include an area with dead-spots, or areas with low macro cell signal strengths, such as indoor establishments or peripheral locations of the macro cell coverage area. The placement of the small cellular cells along with macro cells at multiple strategic locations as described above, results in HetNets that not only provide an increased mobile data capacity but also provides better mobile coverage, thereby enhancing the overall mobile broadband experience of the user.
In recent years, technologies such as Wi-Fi based on IEEE 802.11 standards have also undergone tremendous growth and commercialization. In current market scenario, nearly all available UE with cellular capability support are being integrated by default with Wi-Fi capability in order to connect with available Wi-Fi networks operating in the unlicensed frequency bands such as 2.4 GHz, or 5 GHz. Therefore, with technological enhancement, the cellular operators use universal and cost-effective Wi-Fi technology in pursuing the HetNet deployment and implementation strategy. Also, many operators are now deploying low-powered Wi-Fi cells along with cellular small cells at multiple strategic locations identified for the HetNet. Further, for ease of maintenance and provision, a few operators are also using Wi-Fi integrated versions of small cellular cells, wherein the Wi-Fi and the cellular small cell technology are made available on common equipment.
An exemplary case of a typical HetNet comprises a macro base station for providing wide area coverage to service users. Within the macro cell coverage, several low power nodes are employed in service areas having a higher density of users requiring high data rates. Examples of such low power nodes comprise a first microcell and a second microcell where the first microcell and the second microcell integrated with Wi-Fi radio are widely used to provide multi-technology hotspot capacity/coverage goals. Alternatively, the operators could deploy sovereign and cost-effective Wi-Fi access points in hotspot areas to offload the cellular load to meet the capacity/coverage requirements of the users. In the HetNet, the macro base station coverage could be used for wide area overlay mobility coverage while the micro base stations along with coverage of the Wi-Fi access points could be used for upgrading the mobile capacity.
In a typical cellular deployment, where a UE is clamped to a serving base station in a radio resource control (RRC) connected state, the handover from the serving base station to another base station is network based. The handover is therefore, executed based on certain cellular events reported by the UE to the serving base station along with the evaluation of such events by the serving base station. These cellular events are based on cellular measurements that are performed by the UE on the serving base station and one or more neighbouring base stations present in the vicinity of the UE.
In an exemplary case of handover (A3 event), in an event the signal strength reference signal received power (RSRP)/reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of the neighbouring base station is observed better than the corresponding signal strength (RSRP/RSRQ) of the serving station by a pre-configured offset, the UE carries out the cellular measurements and triggers a handover.
Similarly, a handover is performed from a macro base station to a micro/pico base station located in a hotspot coverage that is within a macro coverage area. However, there could be a possibility of hotspot area/s within the macro coverage area where the signal strength of the macro base station continues to be high as compared to signal strength of the relatively low powered micro/pico base stations deployed in the hotspot area/s. In such events, the UE in these hotspot area/s will only detect the signal strength of these micro/pico base station and will not observe the signal strength of micro/pico base station/s going above the signal strength of the corresponding macro base station so as to allow the handover based on traditional handover event triggers. For instance, if the RSRP of the small cell (micro/pico cell) does not exceed RSRP of the macro cell in former's coverage area, the UE in an RRC connected state with macro station and located in the corresponding small cell coverage area will not be handed over by macro station to the small cell based on traditional event based handover triggers.
Further, there exist several known solutions to overcome the limitations occurred in performing the handover in the heterogeneous network. In one of the solutions for performing the handover, the macro base station detects and advertises an appropriately adjusted cell individual offset (CIO) of the corresponding micro/pico base station to the UE, thereby allowing the UE to send a handover trigger report to the macro base station even when the macro base station signal strength outweighs the signal strength of neighbouring micro/pico base station at the UE location. However, the self-organizing network (SON) procedures such as mobility load balancing (MLB) are required to interwork between a macro base station and multiple micro/pico base stations in order to iteratively adjust the initial configured CIO value to a more optimal one and are further used to adjust the CIO values for optimal handover from macro base station to micro/pico base station. This results in slower processing that usually runs with a long periodic time interval. Also, the CIO values of multiple micro/pico base stations need to be sent to the UE irrespective of a position of the UE with respect to a hotspot area with micro/picocell coverage. This results in huge overhead in the event of a large number of micro/pico base stations operating at various hotspot locations in the macro coverage area.
Accordingly, existing technologies do not solve the problems related to performing handover procedures in the HetNet deployment so as to offload the cellular load to meet the capacity/coverage requirements of the users.

Systems and methods for performing a handover in heterogeneous networks


Techniques are disclosed that permit storage and availability operations, such as backup and restore, snapshot and cloning, application disaster recovery, and reporting and analytics, to be performed for stateful containerized applications. In one embodiment, a container cluster service is configured to create application instance objects that capture metadata associated with containerized applications and that (optionally) specify scripts to be run before and/or after taking an application consistent snapshot and/or an order in which to take snapshots. Application instances having the configurations specified in the application instance object may then be deployed. In addition, the container cluster service may use an application instance object to create a snapshot of a deployed application instance that includes a point-in-time copy of configuration information specified by the application instance object and reference(s) to snapshot volume(s) created from volume(s) associated with the application instance as part of the snapshot operation.

Computer virtualization is a technique that involves encapsulating a physical computing machine platform into virtual machine(s) executing under control of virtualization software on a hardware computing platform or "host." A virtual machine (VM) provides virtual hardware abstractions for processor, memory, storage, and so on to a guest operating system. The virtualization software, also referred to as a "hypervisor," includes one or more virtual machine monitors (VMMs) to provide execution environment(s) for the VM(s). As physical hosts have grown larger, with greater processor core counts and terabyte memory sizes, virtualization has become key to the economic utilization of available hardware.
VMs provide for hardware-level virtualization. Another virtualization technique is operating system-level (OS-level) virtualization, where an abstraction layer is provided on top of a kernel of an operating system executing on a host computer. Such an abstraction is referred to herein as a "container." A container provides for the isolation of a group of processes from others on an operating system. By making use of existing operating system functionality (such as Linux™ name spaces), containers maintain their own private view of the operating system, file system structure, and network interfaces. Containers share the operating system kernel with other processes, but can be constrained to some extent to use an amount of resources such as the central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), or input/output (I/O) devices. Containers typically have a small system "footprint." That is, containers provide a relatively thin encapsulation layer above and beyond any applications contained therein.
Increasingly, stateful applications are being run in containers, and in particular in container clusters. For example, multiple containers may be created and managed by container orchestrators (e.g., Kubernetes® clusters or Docker® swarm) across a number of VMs and host computers. For containers running in VMs in particular, storage and availability operations, such as backup and restore, snapshot and cloning, application disaster recovery, and reporting and analytics, traditionally require replicating the entire VMs. For example, a backup and restore operation may include replicating a VM with containers running therein and restoring the replicated VM. However, replicating a VM typically includes replicating the state of the guest OS in the VM, contents of the guest OS, as well as well as application (e.g., container) states, applications themselves, and application data, which can be computationally expensive. Further, containers can run anywhere and move from one VM to another, requiring associated application data to move as well between VMs, i.e., the data is not necessarily associated with any particular VM. In addition, VM replication is platform dependent, as VMs cannot be replicated and recovered across different types of hypervisors (e.g., from a vSphere® hypervisor to a Hyper-V™ hypervisor, or vice versa), even though containers running in VMs may be platform agnostic.


The inventive device disclosed in the present application is a new case for iPhone 5 which has a built-in cable holder along one side of the phone. The holder is on the side opposite the volume and vibration controls. The user leaves their headphones plugged in and attached to their phone, wraps the headphone cable between the two prongs on the side of the case, and clips the ear buds into the earphone clip at the top. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure.

1. Field of the Invention
The inventive device disclosed in the present application generally relates to a new case for iPhone 5 which has a built-in cable holder along one side of the phone. The iPhone 5 is a portable cellular phone developed by APPLE, Inc. a U.S. Corporation from Cupertino (Calif.). The holder is on the side opposite the volume and vibration controls. The user leaves their headphones plugged in and attached to their phone, wraps the headphone cable between the two prongs on the side of the case, and clips the ear buds into the earphone clip at the top.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
iPhone cases and accessories are well known in the art. Various Patents and Published Patent applications are in fact directed to spittoons. While developing the invention of the instant application independently the Inventor researched extensively the public record as well as the current market for spittoons and the most relevant examples found in the search are mentioned in the Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) attached.
Despite all the efforts listed above prior art patents describe structures that are either not truly convenient or else involve complicated, expensive, and overly difficult assembly and/or disassembly parts and procedures. Other devices have been advertised on various media but never patented or described into a printed publication.


The invention relates to compounds including peptides and peptidomimetics having anti-fungal activity alone, and in combination with other agents that have anti-fungal activity. The invention includes the use of cell cycle G2 checkpoint abrogators as anti-fungal agents, such as anti-fungal medicine.

The cell cycle comprises S phase (DNA replication), M phase (mitosis), and two gap phases (G1 and G2 phases) between S and M phases. Checkpoints in the cell cycle ensure accurate progression, such as monitoring the state of DNA integrity, DNA replication, cell size, and the surrounding environment (Maller, J. L. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol., 3:26 (1991)). It is especially important for multi-cellular organisms to maintain integrity of genome, and there are multiple checkpoints that monitor the state of genome. Among them are G1 and G2 checkpoints existing before DNA replication and mitosis, respectively. It is crucial to correct DNA damage before entering S phase for multicellular organisms, because once damaged DNA is replicated it often gives rise to mutations (Hartwell, L. Cell, 71: 543 (1992)). Progression through G1 and G2 checkpoints without repairing extensive DNA damage induces apoptosis and/or catastrophe.
Most cancer cells carry abnormalities in G1 checkpoint-related proteins such as p53, Rb, MDM-2, p16INK4 and p19ARF (Levine, A. J. Cell, 88:323 (1997)). Abrogated G1 checkpoint contributes to higher mutation rates and the many mutations observed in cancer cells. As a result, most cancer cells depend on G2 checkpoint for survival against excessive DNA damage (O'Connor and Fan, Prog. Cell Cycle Res., 2:165 (1996)). This state is similar to unicellar organisms such as yeasts and fungus which does not have strict cell cycle G1 checkpoint and have strict G2 checkpoint. The unicellular organisms can survive as a species if only one of them could adopt circumstantial change by obtaining advantageous mutations. The low stringency at G1 checkpoint especially against DNA damage is advantageous to get favorable mutations.
The mechanism that promotes the cell cycle G2 arrest after DNA damage is believed to be conserved among species from yeast to human. In the presence of damaged DNA, Cdc2/Cyclin B kinase is kept inactive because of inhibitory phosphorylation of threonine-14 and tyrosine-15 residues on Cdc2 kinase or the protein level of Cyclin B is reduced. At the onset of mitosis, the dual phosphatase Cdc25 removes these inhibitory phosphates and thereby activates Cdc2/Cyclin B kinase. The activation of Cdc2/Cyclin B is equivalent to the onset of M phase.
In fission yeast, the protein kinase Chk1 is required for the cell cycle arrest in response to damaged DNA. Chk1 kinase acts downstream of several rad gene products including rad3 (orthologue of human ATM) and is modified by the phosphorylation upon DNA damage. The kinases Rad53 of budding yeast and Cds1 of fission yeast are known to conduct signals from unreplicated DNA. It appears that there is some redundancy between Chk1 and Cds1 because elimination of both Chk1 and Cds1 culminated in disruption of the G2 arrest induced by damaged DNA. Both Chk1 and Cds1 phosphorylate Cdc25 and promote Rad24 (orthologue of human 14-3-3) binding to Cdc25, which sequesters Cdc25 to cytosol and prevents Cdc2/Cyclin B activation. Cdc25 appears to be a target of these kinases.

Anti-fungal compounds and methods of use


Methods for enhancing the stability of thickening agent solutions, especially guar solutions, by sterilizing the solution with UV light and/or adding a surfactant to the solution are disclosed. Thickening agent solutions and powders, including guar solutions and powders, as well as products made from these solutions and powders, are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to enhancing the stability of thickening agent solutions, including but not limited to guar solutions. More specifically, the present invention relates to enhancing the stability of thickening agent solutions by sterilizing these solutions with UV light, and/or by adding a surfactant to these solutions.
2. Background Information
Natural and synthetic polymers containing hydroxy groups have been used as thickeners for foods, coatings, paints, explosive slurries, oil well fluids, cosmetics and other personal care products, and many other functional applications.
One class of polymers that have been widely used as suspending and viscosity agents are polygalactomannans. Polygalactomannans are polysaccharides composed principally of galactose and mannose units and are usually found in the endosperm of leguminous seeds such as guar, locust bean, honey locust, flame tree, tara, fenugreek and the like. Guar flour, for example, is composed mostly of a galactomannan which is essentially a straight chain mannan with single membered galactose branches. The mannose units are linked in a 1-4-.beta.-glycosidic linkage and the galactose branching takes place by means of a 1-6 linkage on mannose units in an irregular manner. The ratio of galactose to mannose in the guar polymer is about one to two.
Locust bean gum is also a polygalactomannan gum of similar molecular structure in which the ratio of galactose to mannose is one to four. Guar and locust bean gum are the preferred sources of the polygalactomannans, principally because of the commercial availability thereof.
Polygalactomannan may be used in either its natural state (i.e., pure guar gum or locust bean gum) or may be derivatized. Derivatized polygalactomannans include one or more non-ionic and/or ionic groups. Examples of such polygalactomannans include hydroxypropyl guar, hydroxyethyl guar, carboxymethyl guar, carboxymethyl hydroxypropyl guar and the like having varying degrees of substitution and molar substitution. Such derivatized polygalactomannans are sold by Rhone-Poulenc Inc. under the trade names Jaguar 8000 (hydroxypropyl guar), Jaguar 8710 (carboxymethyl guar) and Jaguar 8600 (carboxymethyl hydroxypropyl guar). Many commercially available starting guar materials may contain small amounts of additives such as borax, glyoxal and the like. These starting materials are expressly covered as constituting part of the present invention.
The term "degree of substitution" as employed herein is the average substitution of functional groups per anhydro sugar unit in the polygalactomannan gums. In guar gum, the basic unit of the polymer consists of two mannose units with a glycosidic linkage and a galactose unit attached to a hydroxyl group of one of the mannose units. On the average, each of the anhydro sugar units contains three available hydroxyl sites. A degree of substitution of three would mean that all of the available hydroxyl sites have been esterified with functional groups. A particularly preferred functional group is the carboxymethyl group, with good results obtained with starting materials having a degree of substitution of between about 0.0 and about 3.0, specifically including materials having a degree of substitution ranging from about 0.10 to about 0.15.
Similarly, the term "molar substitution" as employed herein is the average number of moles of functional groups per anhydro sugar unit in the polygalactomannan gum. A particularly preferred functional group is the hydroxypropyl group, with good results obtained with starting materials having a molar substitution of between about 0.0 and about 3.0. In a preferred embodiment, the resulting polysaccharide is carboxymethyl hydroxypropyl guar having a molar substitution of hydroxypropyl groups of between about 0.25 and about 0.35 and a degree of substitution of carboxymethyl groups of between about 0.10 and about 0.15.
While the use of polygalactomannans, and guar gum in particular, as thickening agents has been met with great success, it is still desired to improve the physical properties of the guar gum when dispersed in a solution such as water. One such property is guar's ability to retain its viscosity over extended periods. Solutions of guar in water are known to lose viscosity over time.
As will be known to those skilled in the art, the guar endosperm is commonly referred to as "purified splits", "double purified splits" or "triple purified splits" depending upon the degree of purification. "Purified splits" are obtained by mechanical separation of the endosperm from the hull and germ of the guar seed in as pure and intact a form as possible with no other processing steps. Repeating the process produces double purified splits. Repeating the process again produces triple purified splits. Splits are then ground into guar powder.
There are several methods to sterilize solutions including, for example, steam sterilization, pasteurization, and chemical sterilization. Steam sterilization of guar solutions results in polymer degradation and loss of viscosity of the guar solution; this reduction in viscosity can be as high as 80%. Pasteurization can be similarly ineffective in that certain spore forming bacteria such as Bacillus species, which have been found in guar, usually cannot be killed by simple pasteurization processes; pasteurization can even facilitate spore germination. Chemical sterilization such as the use of biocides and bactericides as well as chemicals such as ethylene oxide also have drawbacks. Use of various biocides and/or preservatives is often restricted or even prohibited with certain products such as food products and personal care products. Use of ethylene oxide can lead to formation of trace amounts of ethylene glycol and 2-chloroethanol on guar.
Wellington, Soc. Pet. Eng. J., 23:901-912 (1983) and Mitchell, et al., Food Hydrocolloids, 5:141-143 (1991) report the use of antioxidants to stabilize various galactomannans such as xanthan gum and guar gum. Neither of these references report the use of UV light sterilization or the use of surfactants, alone or in combination, to increase the stability of thickening agent solutions.
The use of ultraviolet (UV) radiation for sterilization of various products is known. Many industrial systems are available for UV sterilization, especially for sterilization of water. For example, laboratory water purification systems such as the Milli-Q UV Plus Water System, commercially available from the Milli-Pore Corporation, uses UV light to sterilize water. The use of UV light to sterilize guar solutions or other thickening agents, however, has not been reported.
Thus, improved methods for sterilizing or otherwise treating guar solutions so they retain their viscosity stability over time are needed.
The entire disclosure of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/040,182, filed Mar. 12, 1997, is considered as being part of this disclosure and is hereby incorporated by reference herein.