A heating apparatus (11) has sheet heaters (12) arranged in both sides of at least one line and heating fluid control devices (2, 3, 4) and joint members (5), heat insulating boards (13, 14) made of an engineering plastic are respectively brought into contact with outer sides of the sheet heaters (12), and the heat insulating boards (13, 14) are coupled to each other by at least one thread member (15), whereby the sheet heater (12) is prevented from dropping out.

A fluid control apparatus used in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is structured such that various fluid control devices are arranged in plural lines, and flow paths of the fluid control devices in adjacent lines are connected at a predetermined position by a device connecting means. In recent years, however, this kind of fluid control apparatus has been made progressively integrated by connecting a mass flow controller, an opening and closing valve and the like without any tube.
In this kind of fluid control apparatus, there is a case that a heating apparatus is required for the purpose of such as condensation prevention and reliquefaction prevention at a time of gasifying a fluid, which is a liquid at room temperature, so as to flow. As this type of fluid control-apparatus with a heating apparatus, a structure in which right and left tape heaters are arranged as the fluid control apparatus with the heating apparatus mentioned above in both sides of at least one line, and the right and left tape heaters are held to corresponding joint members by a plurality of metal clips has been disclosed (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-267100).
In accordance with the conventional fluid control apparatus with the heating apparatus mentioned above, there is an advantage that an increase of an installation area due to an addition of the heating apparatus may be inhibited. However, it is not possible to sufficiently bring the heater into close contact with a fluid control device main body or the like, only with an elastic force by the clips. Accordingly, there is a case that a heating capacity comes short with respect to a required temperature, for example, a case that it is possible to heat to about 50° C. but it is not possible to heat to 80° C. or more. Although a structure in which a silicone sponge is adhered as a heat insulating material to the heater and the heater is pinched on the silicone sponge by the clips may also be conceived, there is a problem in this case that an increase in the thickness of the heater including the silicone sponge makes the heater not suitable to be used in the fluid control apparatus in which the integration mentioned above is required. It is of course possible to increase a power of the heater so as to increase a heating capacity. However, in this case, there is a problem that an electric power consumption increases, and economical and energy losses are caused.
An object of the present invention is to provide a fluid control apparatus with a heating apparatus which improves a heating capacity as well as inhibiting an increase of an installation area due to an addition of a heating apparatus.

Fluid control apparatus with heating apparatus


Light emitting devices having unitary and simplified construction for securing a lighting assembly within the device, and ease of replacement of the light emitting element of the lighting assembly. The lighting assembly is mounted within the light emitting device though use of a fastener.

Lanterns and handheld lighting devices allow one to provide light where no installed light fixtures exist, for example, while camping, on outdoor patios, decks or pools, or where installed light fixtures provide inadequate lighting. Prior art lanterns and lighting devices allow the light emitting element, such as a fluorescent bulb or incandescent bulb, to be accessed and removed from the lantern. However, the prior art lanterns and lighting devices require disassembly of the lantern itself, to allow access to and replacement of the light emitting element from the lantern. For example, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,860,729 and 7,202,614, access and removal of the light emitting element requires removal and handling of the transparent globe or cover. Alternatively, a top cover may be removed, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,697, which allows limited access to the light emitting element inside the transparent cover. Moreover, the lanterns of the prior art require reassembly and handling of several components of the lantern after an old light emitting element is replaced with a new one. The disassembly and reassembly of the lantern is time-consuming and requires the user to be capable of reassembling the device without misplacing the various components.
The prior art describes separating the globe from the lantern without removing the globe. As shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,014,459, the globe separates from the base of the lantern. While the globe is not removable and does not require reassembly, the globe must be separated from the lantern base to gain access to the light emitting element positioned inside the globe. The globe assembly must be kept open in order for a user to gain access to the light emitting element. Furthermore, slide rails impede access to the light emitting element as does the globe mounted to the rails.


The present invention relates to a base station, and to a terminal connection method for the base station. The terminal connection method for the base station according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: a step of connecting to a terminal; an information extracting step of extracting information for determining a timeout value of the connection of the terminal when the connection to the terminal is completed; and a time-out setting step of setting a time-out value of the terminal according to the extracted information. According to the one embodiment of the present invention, the base station may efficiently utilize resources and overhead expenses for connection setup may be reduced.

Mobile phone has been popularized to the general public in recent years. The conventional mobile phone supported only basic voice communication. Then the mobile phone evolved to such a degree to support short messaging and multimedia messaging functions. Recently, so-called smartphone is widespread in use. The smartphone allows the user to enjoy various functions such as web-surfing, game, and map services. In order to make a full use of the functions of the smartphone, high-speed data communication is inevitable.
Recently, the 3Rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has ratified significant parts of Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. Besides, some countries have started to offer commercial LTE services. The LTE communication technology supports data communication at a data rate higher than that of Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA). In the following, the description is directed to the communication method complying with the LTE standard. However, the present invention may be applied to other communication technologies as far as not departing from the nature of the present invention.
In the LTE communication technology, Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol is used for radio resource allocation to the users. The RRC protocol is used in the procedure of allocating radio resource to the users and withdrawing the resources from the users who have been allocated the radio resources but not uses the resources any longer.
The RRC protocol is the protocol for use in managing the radio resource to be allocated to the terminals (User Equipment; UE) within the cell. According to the RRC protocol, the UE may be in one of two states. RRC_IDLE state is the state where the UE is not allocated any radio resource from the base station or the connection between the UE and the base station has been released. RRC_CONECTED state is the state where the UE has been allocated radio resource from the base station. In the RRC_CONNECTED state, the UE and the base station may transmit data in downlink (DL) or uplink (UL).
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a connection and connection release procedure between a base station and a terminal in the conventional method. As described above, the terminal may be in one of the RRC_CONNECTED state 120 and RRC_IDLE state 110. The terminal is in the RRC_IDLE state initially. At a time point 130, the terminal receives an incoming call. If the incoming call is received, the terminal has to be allocated radio resource from the base station for data communication to transition to the RRC_CONNECTED state. Although the description is directed to the exemplary case of incoming call, the terminal has to transition to the RRC_CONNECTED state in other cases requiring data communication such as requesting a webpage in response to the user's manipulation. The terminal transitions to the RRC_CONNECTED state after executing the operation for connecting to the base station during the call setup time 140. If the terminal communicates data in the RRC_CONNECTED state, it may transmit/receive data without configuration of Resource Block (RB).
However, the terminal in the RRC_CONNECTED state occupies the large resource as compared to the terminal in the RRC_IDLE state. Accordingly, if a large number of terminals served by the base station are in the RRC_CONNECTED state, this may causes call drop or call block problem due to the resource shortage. Thus, the terminals which have not perform data communication over a predetermined duration have to transition to the RRC_IDLE state. In order to accomplish this, the base station triggers an RRC inactivity timer at the time 150 right after transmitting the last data packet 190 at the time 160. If no data communication occurs before the expiry 180 of the RRC inactivity timeout 170 configured at the RRC inactivity timer, the base station sends the terminal an RRC Connection Release message to release the RRC connection. As a consequence, the terminal transitions to the RRC_IDLE state.
FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the connection and connection release procedure between the base station 210 and the terminal 205 according to the convention method.
The terminal 205 sends the base station 210 a random access preamble at step 220. The base station 210 sends the terminal 205 a random access response in reply to the random access preamble at step 225. The terminal 205 sends the base station 210 an RRC Connection Request (RRCConnectionRequest) message at step 230. The base station 210 sends the terminal 205 an RRC Connection Setup (RRCConnectionSetup) message in correspondence to the RRC Connection Request message at step 235. The terminal 205 sends the base station 210 an RRC Connection Setup Complete (RRCConnectionSetupComplete) message at step 240.
The base station 210 sends the terminal 205 a Security Mode Command (SecurityModeCommand) at step 245. The terminal 205 sends the base station 210 a Security Mode Complete (SecurityModeComplete) message at step 250. The base station 210 sends the terminal 205 an RRC Connection Reconfiguration (RRCConnectionReconfiguration) message at step 255. The terminal 205 sends an RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete (RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete) message at step 260. Through the procedure to step 260, a connection is established for data communication.
The data communication is performed at step 265. For the expiry of the timeout 180 of FIG. 1 or other reasons, it may be requested to release the connection between the terminal 205 and base station 210. In this case, the base station sends the terminal 205 an RRC Connection Release (RRCConnectionRelease) message at step 270. As a consequence, the connection between the terminal and the base station 210 is released, and the terminal 205 enters the RRC_IDLE state to return the occupied resource.
The smartphone user has various traffic patterns. Particularly, the user of the legacy feature phone instead of smartphone generates significantly low traffic as compared to the smartphone user. Although using the same smartphone, the different traffic patterns may be generated depending on the application installed in the smartphone. The traffic pattern may be influenced by various factors such as time and place. For example, the traffic is likely to increase in the daytime rather than nighttime when people are sleeping. Like this, the traffic pattern may vary depending on the time and place. The conventional RRC protocol applies the RRC inactivity timer set to a fixed time (timeout) to all terminals without consideration on the traffic pattern per user.
With the popularization of the smartphone, the use of the social networking applications such as Social Network Service (SNS) or Instant Messenger is widespread. These applications transmit keep-alive messages periodically for push services. The keep-alive message is small in size (1 KB) but transmitted frequently. For this reason, the terminal establishes and releases connection frequently. This results in signaling overhead in the radio network. Thus the battery consumption of the terminal increases, and the Evolved Packet System (EPS) has to take the burden of indirect cost (overhead) for processing the signaling. However, if the timer is applied in consideration of the traffic pattern per user, it is possible to use the resource efficiently and reduce the indirect cost for connection.

Base station and terminal connection method for the base station


The instant invention relates to a filling composition for optical fiber cable, and a fiber optic cable comprising a protective jacket carrying a fiber optic element therein and the filling composition, in which the filling composition comprises hydrophobic fumed silica; an organic oil; and a thermal oxidative stabilizer, wherein the stabilizer is at most monofunctional with respect to ability to hydrogen bond with the fumed silica. Preferably, the thermal oxidative stabilizer is a hindered phenol and the organic oil, which preferably is a polyalkene oil or a mixture of polyalkene oils, has a viscosity of greater than about 1000 cps at 25.degree. C. The organic oil comprises at least one molecular weight fraction; preferably, the maximum molecular weight for each fraction of the organic oil is less than about 4000 and at least about 80% by weight of the molecules in the organic oil have a minimum molecular weight of about 800.

The present invention relates to a filling composition for optical fiber cable and articles comprising the composition, particularly telecommunication cables, especially optical fiber cables.
Materials which are placed around optical fibers in optical fiber cable to provide protection against water ingress are commonly referred to as filling compounds. These compositions must possess a number of properties in order to provide protection against water without adversely influencing fiber transmission properties, often referred to as attenuation. The permissible range of these properties will also be affected by the cable design and the coatings used on the optical fiber. However, there are general principles which apply independent of cable design.
First, as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,016, these compositions must have low critical yield stress (be very soft) in order to prevent attenuation of the fiber by a mechanism known as "microbending". Because cables are often exposed to low temperature, typical cable designs require satisfactory performance down to -40.degree. C. For instance, with respect to low temperature stiffness, it has been shown for a slotted-core cable design that penetration as measured by ASTM D217 at -40.degree. C. must be greater than about 180 dmm to give satisfactory fiber attenuation (T. Hattori et al., Proceedings of the International Wire and Cable Symposium, 12-15 (1988)). The critical yield stress of filling compositions for optical fiber telecommunications cable is generally measured at room temperature.
A second requirement with respect to attenuation is related to the swelling of the coating materials on the fiber by oils in the filling composition. This problem is generally associated with the primary (inner) coating on a dual coated optical fiber. Such swelling must be limited or the result may again be an increase in attenuation due to microbending.
Another requirement for filling compositions is that they remain in the cable (not drip out of the cable) at temperatures up to 80.degree. C. Two of the most widely used tests in the industry to determine cable compound flow or drip are the Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) test (Bell Communications Research, Inc., Technical Reference TR-TSY-000020, Issue 4 (March 1989) and the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) test (Rural Electrification Administration, "Specification for Totally Filled Fiber Optic Cable--PE-90" (May 28, 1986). Further, the tendency for oil to separate from the filling compound or gel has been found to correlate to drip of the composition from a cable. Two oil separation tests have been reported by the industry: one is a centrifuge test at ambient temperature (U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,016) and the other is a high temperature oven test reported in M. C. Light, Jr., International Wire & Cable Symposium Proceedings, 459-464 (1988). Because these two tests were developed by manufacturers of different cable designs, there may be different passing criteria for different cable designs. For a design referred to in the trade as a loose tube or buffer tube, passage requires less than about 15% oil separation at 80.degree. C.; this corresponds to no drip from the cable at 80.degree. C. No industry standard has been published for the centrifuge test.
To provide the necessary yield stress properties, filling compositions are generally thixotropic greases such as those formed by blending an oil with a fumed silica and, optionally, a thermal oxidative stabilizer. The use of a hydrophobic fumed silica to gel a mineral oil is disclosed in European Patent Application Publication No. 0067009; the use of a hydrophobic fumed silica to gel polybutene having an average molecular weight of about 250 to 500 is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,959.
To be acceptable with regard to high temperature drip, the oils must not separate from the fumed silica/oil/stabilizer blend. To accomplish this end, high molecular weight polymers or 90.degree. C. softening point waxes, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,701,016 and 4,370,023, have been added to the grease to act as thickeners. Unfortunately, addition of the thickeners of these types also increases the stiffness, which may introduce microbending. In addition, dissolution of these polymers in the oil often requires a high temperature blending operation, which can add significantly to the cost of the filling composition.
In order to obtain compatibility with the fiber coatings, synthetic oils, such as poly .alpha.-olefins, have been used. An acceptable molecular weight range is disclosed in T. Hattori et al., Proceedings of the International Wire and Cable Symposium, 12-15 (1988). These oils, such as polyalkenes, also have inherently low pour points and, therefore, also produce materials which are capable of remaining soft at low temperature.
By far the most difficult set of properties to obtain are low critical yield stress and acceptable low temperature stiffness while retaining low oil separation necessary to prevent drip of the filling composition from the cable at 80.degree. C. Prior art formulations have not been able to obtain, at the same time, both satisfactory low temperature performance with respect to attenuation and high temperature performance with respect to the composition not dripping out of the cable. Thus, there exists a need for an improved filling composition that is capable of remaining in a cable at high temperatures yet able to prevent unnecessary "micro-bending", particularly at low temperatures.
Throughout this application, various publications are referenced. The disclosures of these publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference into this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.

Filling compositions for optical fiber cable and cable containing the same


A digital broadcast signal reproducing system including a first board having a tuner receiving a digital broadcast signal; a second board removably combined with the first board, the second board having a demodulator demodulating the digital broadcast signal into an analog signal and a memory storing information on a broadcasting mode therein; and a device driver controlling the tuner and the demodulator, and various chip sets according to the information on the broadcasting mode stored in the memory. With this configuration, a digital broadcast signal reproducing system and method thereof are economical for a manufacturer and a consumer because only a part thereof depending upon a broadcasting system is changed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a digital broadcast signal reproducing system and method thereof, and more particularly, to a digital broadcast signal reproducing system having a digital broadcast signal receiving unit and a broadcast signal reproducing method using the system, which can be used regardless of the kinds of a broadcast signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a broadcast signal receiving card is employed for reproducing a broadcast signal through a computer system.
Most of the broadcast signal receiving cards have the same configuration regardless of whether the broadcast signal receiving card receives an analog signal or a digital signal. The broadcast signal receiving card is comprised of a tuner for receiving a broadcast signal responding to a selected channel, an IF (Intermediate Frequency) filter converting the broadcast signal selected by the tuner to be within an IF band, a demodulator demodulating the broadcast signal outputted from the IF filter, and a decoder decoding both a video signal and an audio signal from the broadcast signal demodulated by the demodulator.
Further, there are various methods of reproducing the broadcast signal. A PCI (peripheral component interface) method is widely used In the PCI method, the broadcast signal receiving card converts the broadcast signal into a digital signal, and outputs the digital signal to a memory of a graphic card through a PCI bus. Device drivers are provided in the computer system for operating hardware components, and particularly a device driver of the broadcast signal receiving card detects the broadcast signal receiving card for an operating system, and drives the broadcast signal receiving card to output the video and audio signals from the digital signal received through the PCI bus to the graphic card and a sound card, respectively.
Recently, a broadcast signal receiving card, which can be used for a digital broadcast, is being developed in line with a digital broadcasting service. Representative examples of a broadcasting mode for the digital broadcast include, an ATSC (advanced television standard committee) mode, which was chosen in North America, and a DVB (digital video broadcast) mode, which was chosen in Europe. However, the ATSC mode and the DVB mode are different in the IF bands thereof. Further, in the case of the same DVB modes, IF bands are somewhat different.
Therefore, the computer system must have a different broadcast signal receiving card comprising a demodulator and a decoder suitable for the broadcasting mode depending on a locality. That is, the broadcast signal receiving card should be adaptable in response to either the ATSC mode or the DVB mode.
Accordingly, a lot of time and effort is required to develop a demodulator and a decoder, which is suitable for a broadcasting mode. Also to replace the broadcast signal receiving card with a new one whenever the computer system is used in places with a different broadcasting mode is uneconomical.
Consequently, development of a broadcast signal receiving card, which can be used regardless of the broadcasting mode, is needed.

Digital broadcast signal reproducing system and method


A semiconductor package includes a first package including at least one first semiconductor chip; a second package including an external connection terminal and at least one second semiconductor chip, the second package being stacked on the first package; and an interposer disposed between the first and second packages and connected to the external connection terminal to electrically connect the first and second packages to each other. The interposer comprises an intermediate connector having an exposed end portion to which the second package is electrically connected via the external connection terminal and a protruding end portion lower than the exposed end portion to which the first package is electrically connected.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to semiconductor packages and methods for manufacturing the same. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a package-on-package (PoP) type semiconductor package and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
In the semiconductor industry, there is an increasing demand for high-capacity, compact, and small semiconductor devices and electronic products using the devices. A variety of packaging technologies are being developed to meet the demand. One of these packaging technologies is a configuration in which various types of semiconductor chips are vertically stacked to achieve high-density chip stacking. According to this packaging technology, semiconductor chips having various functions are integrated into a smaller area than a typical one-chip package.
Unfortunately, the packaging technology of stacking a plurality of semiconductor chips suffers from relatively higher probability of decreased yield than a one-chip packaging technology. Package-on-package (PoP) technology is suggested to overcome yield drop and achieve high-density chip stacking. Since semiconductor packages for use in the POP technology are determined to be acceptable through tests, a defect rate may drop in end products. In this regard, there is a need for developed or improved PoP technology to increase yield and achieve high density.

Semiconductor package and method for manufacturing the same


A data processing apparatus includes a decision section that determines a predetermined plurality of channels of original data and a predetermined channel of correction data based on data of received signals; an exclusive OR circuit that calculates an exclusive OR upon the channels of the decided data; a signal quality decision section that detects signal quality of received data on each channel; and a correction section that replaces a channel of data whose channel has a worst detection result as detected by the signal quality detection section with the result of the exclusive OR calculation when the result of the calculation is other than “0”. The signal quality detection section calculates a mean signal quality and an instantaneous signal quality that are used by the correction section to determine the worst channel.

In the field of data processing, and particularly in the field of data processing such as transmission, recording or reading out of predetermined data by way of predetermined media, there are processes wherein the data are first converted into a predetermined type of data format suitable for the medium to be used. The converted data are then input into and output from the medium, and thereafter, reconstituted into the original data. Such data processing occurs, for example in: power-line carrier communication of a variety of information including voice, image, etc.; communication using telephone lines as its medium; data transmission employing ADSL technology or other XDSL technologies using metallic wires as its medium; data transmission by way of wireless communication in the 2.4 GHz frequency band employing Bluetooth or wireless LAN; data transmission by way of coaxial cables for a CATV service employing CATV technology; employment of HomePNA (Home Phoneline Networking Alliances) using telephone wires present within each home; technologies using optical fiber as their medium; and wireless communication technologies in 800 MHz or 1.9 GHz frequency band when using cell phones or PHS phones, respectively. In the data recording and readout field, technologies to utilize magnetic disks or optical disks, etc., are included. Also, technologies that convert predetermined digital data into bar codes, print the bar codes and read them by using lasers or CCDs so as to reconstitute them into the original data, are included, as well as other equivalent technologies, in the applicable scope of the present invention.
In these data processing technologies, an apparatus that performs the steps of first converting or modulating predetermined data into a predetermined data format suitable for the medium to be used, then outputting the data from the medium and reconstituting to obtain the original data can be considered as a "modem" in the broad sense of the term. In the following examples, for explanatory convenience, descriptions are made in connection with a modem for power-line carrier communication, however, the applicable scope of the present invention is not limited to power-line carrier communication modems. In fact, the present invention is applicable to a variety of fields as stated above.
FIG. 1 shows such a power-line carrier communication system. In the drawing, a distribution substation is indicated by a reference numeral 101, as well as an access node 102, a high-voltage distribution line 103, a pole transformer 104, a low-voltage distribution line 105, a drop wire 106 and interior electric wiring 107.
In this system, high-voltage AC power (for example, 66 kilo VAC) is supplied from the distribution substation 101, by way of the high-voltage distribution line 103, to each pole transformer 104. Then it is stepped down, by means of the pole transformer 104, to obtain electric power of 100 volts or 200 volts that is suitable to be supplied to a consumer's house, such as each home, etc. Then the stepped-down power is supplied, by way of the low-voltage distribution line 105 and the drop wire 106, to the indoor electric wiring 107 of the consumer's house. Thus, various electric equipment connected to the indoor wiring 107 or various electric appliances of which power cords are plugged into convenience outlets can be powered and operated.
Additionally, the access node 102 located at the distribution substation 101 and a modem (not shown in this figure) located at the pole transformer 104 are connected to each other, with a fiber-optic transmission line (not shown in this figure). The fiber-optic transmission line is generally set along the route of the high-voltage distribution line 103. In the modem located at the pole transformer 104, bidirectional signal conversions of optical signals to electric signals and vice versa are carried out. The low-voltage distribution line 105, the drop wire 106 and the indoor wiring 107 are utilized as wire-link data transmission lines. Consequently, just a connection of a terminal unit to the wall socket connected to the indoor wiring 107 can configure a power-line carrier communication system, i.e., the system portion so-called "the last one mile" that can perform data transmission between the access node 102 and the terminal unit.
In such a power-line carrier communication system, the low-voltage distribution line 105, as seen from the modem located at the pole transformer 104, constitutes inductive impedance. In contrast, the drop wire 106 and the indoor wiring 107 constitute capacitive impedance. Further, each unit of the various electric equipment connected to the indoor wiring 107 generally has a structure connecting a capacitor for cutting off noise. Therefore, impedance of the low-voltage distribution line side seen from the modem located at the pole transformer 104 has relatively high inductance and capacitance.
As a result, the low-voltage distribution line (105) side, as seen from the modem located at the pole transformer 104, can be regarded as a low-pass filter, which means that the receive signals coming into another modem connected to the indoor wiring 107 have already been subjected to a substantial attenuation with respect to the high-frequency-range component thereof. Therefore, there is a possibility that the broadband component of the receive signals is submerged in the noise. The low-frequency-range component of the receive signals is not attenuated in such a degree as the high-frequency-range component is, but is quite vulnerable to random noise resulting from various electric equipment, such as an inverter circuit, a switching power supply, etc.

Data processing apparatus and data processing method


An apparatus stacks, compresses and packages compressible batts. The batts, once at least partially compressed, remain under compression during the stacking, compressing and packaging.

Fibrous insulation material is typically manufactured in common lengths and widths, called insulation batts, to accommodate typical building frame structure dimensions. Fibrous insulation batts are commonly made of mineral fibers, such as glass fibers, and usually have a density within the range of from about 0.2 to about 1.0 pounds per cubic foot (3.2 to 16 kg/m3). Typical batt sizes are 16 or 24 inches (40.6 cm or 61.0 cm) wide by 8 to 10 feet (2.44 m) long. These batts can be packaged in various ways. The batts can be staggered and rolled together along their lengths so that a roll would contain about 10 batts.
Alternatively, in order to reduce storage and transportation costs, it is common practice to package insulation batts by compressing them and then providing them with a covering, for example, a bag, which maintains the batts in their compressed state. When the bag is subsequently removed at the point of utilization of the batts, the batts expand to their normal size.
In the past, the compression of the insulation batts has been achieved by stacking the batts in a compression chamber which has a fork for compressing the batts and a piston for discharging the compressed batts from the compression chamber into a bagging apparatus. The compressed baits are typically forced into the bag.
The insulation batts are delivered to the compression machine by an endless conveyor from a production line. To avoid interruption of the operation of the production line or an accumulation of uncompressed insulation batts, it is necessary to ensure that the insulation batts are promptly handled by the compression machine.
Normally, the insulation batts are manually collected from the conveyor belt into batches. Each batch comprises a stack of the bats, which are then manually loaded into the compression chamber. This collection process requires a considerable amount of manual handling of the insulation batts, which is uneconomical. At times, the batts expand during this packaging process, which causes further delays and sometimes damage to the batts.
Also, the compression machine itself sometimes causes damage to the batts. For example, top and bottom batts are damaged due to the shear motion between the adjacent batts and/or the batts' contact with the doors and snouts on the compression machine.
In other instances, the batts can be subjected to facing flange damage due to mechanical finger movements of the compression machine.
Another concern with currently available compression machines is that there is a loss of efficiency in the packaging process since the compression machines often must use a mechanical retracting motion which takes critical time in the overall packaging process.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a novel and improved apparatus for compressing and packaging compressible batts which, while entirely eliminating manual handling of the compressible batts, enables a larger number of the compressible batts to be included in one package.
The invention will be more readily understood from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof given, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

High speed, high performance bagging assembly


A method and apparatus for control of a multiple copy print job involving documents in multiple languages. The method and apparatus prompt a document user to specify any languages other than that of the original document. The apparatus causes the translation of the document into the specified languages. The user may also specify how many of each translation are desired and direct copy subsets independently to specific printer trays.

In recent years the expansion of computer use, the Internet and other factors have contributed to a global economy and global work environment. It is not uncommon for those in business and industry to interact on a daily basis with others in many countries. In fact, it is increasingly common for co-workers of an individual company to communicate regularly with others within the same company who are in other countries—anywhere around the world. With the increased prevalence of a global workforce and global interaction, the ability to communicate in other languages is becoming a necessity.
Further, while computer and printing technology has accelerated rapidly, in many instances the usefulness of high-speed communication devices and high-speed printers is of limited use for effecting communication of documents between users who are fluent in different languages. For example, a person may create a document in English and wish to send the document to users who understand only German. The difficulties associated with document communication may be further exacerbated in situations where the number of people and exclusive languages understood by each increase to three or more. The English document may have little or no use to correspondents who do not understand it. Of course, the document may be translated by a person who performs language translation services, but locating and enlisting the services of such skills can be a time consuming and costly process. Further, employing a translator each time a document is produced greatly reduces the efficiency associated with business and personal communication.
Alternatively, documents may be translated using a software program having language translation capabilities. Although language translation software applications are not typically as accurate as translations performed by persons skilled in language translation, language translation software tools are an attractive alternative for many computer users because the software may be used immediately upon receiving documents to quickly perform a rough translation.
Unfortunately, if a user opts to use a language translation software application to translate documents, the software program must be installed on the user's computer and the user must learn how to operate the language translation software. Moreover, when language translation software is used to translate documents, the usual single-step method of printing documents becomes a multiple step process. The additional steps may include receiving and opening the document, storing the document in a memory location on the user's computer, launching the language translation software, supplying the document to the translation software and executing the translation of the document. Further, if there are several users, each of whom need a different language translation, the document creator may have to perform the multiple steps many times. In addition, there are many printers available now for printing multiple copies, often called mopies, which can be collated. In some instances, there are needs to print mopies in several different languages for the same reasons rehearsed above, however the capability to do so is lacking.
Some existing copiers and printers are capable of evenly distributing output from a job between a plurality of trays in a collated manner. That is, it is known to collate output copies in a single language to form multi-page documents by depositing a copy of a first page of a multi-page original document in each of a plurality of output receptacles. A copy of the second page of the original is then copied and deposited into each of the output receptacles. This process continues until a complete set of all the pages of the original document is in a corresponding number of the output receptacles. Other collating methods are known. For example, it is known to produce collated output documents by depositing a complete multi-page document in a first output receptacle, then, depositing a second complete multi-page document in a second output receptacle, depositing a third complete document in a third receptacle, and so on, until the desired number of complete copies of the original have been produced. The prior art also includes a number of methods broadly dealing with document delivery to trays of document production apparatuses.
The teachings of this prior art, however, leave many problems in this field unresolved. While the printing of multiple copies has been limited in the past due to the generally higher cost of a printed page as compared to a photocopied page, technological advances have made the printing of multiple copies cost competitive as compared to photocopying. The result is that many modem printer users utilize a printer to produce multiple copies of documents. By way of example, a user may wish to print thirteen copies of an original in a first language to a first work group, four copies of the original in a second language to a second work group, nine copies of the original in a third language to a third work group, sixty-seven copies of the original in a fourth language to a fourth work group, and twenty one copies of the original in a fifth language to a fifth work group. The only known method for accomplishing these results would be to execute separate translating and printing jobs for each work group, or to execute one large print job and then manually subdivide and translate each of the respective work group copies in required numbers in subsequent steps. Further, each of these workgroups may have need for copies in two or more different languages depending on the fluency of the group members. Executing separate copy jobs, creating language translations, and/or manually separating an aggregate job is not practical when the required number of distribution sets becomes large.
These and other problems remain unresolved in the art. Thus, there is a need in the art for a system and method of producing multiple hardcopies of an electronic document in two or more languages as specified by a user.

Method and apparatus for language translation of production job output

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The present invention provides methods for detecting changes in tryptophan concentrations in a cell and methods for identifying agents that modulate cellular tryptophan concentrations. In particular, the present invention provides methods for detecting cellular exchange between tryptophan and kynurenine, and methods for identifying agents that modulate this exchange. The present invention also provides methods for treating a disease associated with immunosuppression in a subject in need thereof. In particular, the present invention is directed toward a method of treating a disease associated with immunosuppression comprising contacting the disease with an agent that modulates cellular Trp/kynurenine exchange. Furthermore, the present invention provides methods for identifying an agent that modulates an immunosuppression.

L-Tryptophan is an essential amino acid necessary for protein synthesis in mammalian cells. In addition, tryptophan is the precursor for the neurotransmitter serotonin, the hormone melatonin, and contributes to the synthesis of the coenzymes NAD and NADP. Abnormalities in serotonin production or signaling are related to depression, anxiety and substance abuse (Gingrich et al. (2001) Psychopharmacology (Berl) 155:1-10). Melatonin is necessary for regulation of somatic day-night rhythm (Saper et al. (2005) Nature 437:1257-1263). Mammalian cells cannot synthesize L-tryptophan and depend on transport machineries for its uptake and protein turnover for its production. Identified transporter proteins that are involved in uptake of tryptophan in human cells are b0AT1 (Brocr et al. (2005) Biochem. Soc. Trans. 33:233-236), b0,+AT (Feliubadalo et al. (1999) Nat. Genet. 23:52-57), TAT1 (Kim et al. (2002) Genomics 79:95-103), y+-LAT1 and y+-LAT2 (Pfeiffer et al. (1999) EMBO J. 18:49-57; Torrents et al. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273:32437-32445), LAT1, LAT2, LAT3 and LAT4 (Babu et al. (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278:43838-43845; Bodoy et al. (2005) J. Biol. Chem. 280:12002-12011; Rossier et al. (1999) J. Bio. Chem. 274:34948-34954; Verrey et al. (2003) Eur. J. Physiol. 44:529-533). Of these, b0,+AT, LAT1, LAT2, y+-LAT1, and y+-LAT2 are amino acid exchangers; they swap an internal amino acid molecule for an external one.
Tryptophan can be degraded through the kynurenine (or kynurenin) pathway for the biosynthesis of niacin. The rate-limiting step in this pathway is the opening of the indole ring by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO). Since the discovery that inhibition of IDO induced fetal allograft rejection in mice, the immunosuppressive function of tryptophan catabolism has been well established (Munn et al. (1998) Science 281:1191-1193). One proposed mechanism for the observed immunosuppression is the local depletion of tryptophan, which inhibits adaptive T-cell responses by forcing them into growth arrest and inducing apoptosis (Mellor et al. (2003) Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 527). As such, the immune escape of many cancer cell types correlates with upregulated IDO expression and can in some cases be overcome by IDO inhibition (Muller et al. (2005) Nat. Med. 11:312-319). In addition, products of the kynurenine pathway are immunosuppressive themselves and may provide leads for the treatment of autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis (Platten et al. (2005) Science 310:850-855). The transport machinery for the displacement of kynurenines across the cell membrane is not known.
Traditionally, cellular uptake of molecules has been determined using radiolabeled substrates, and levels have been measured in cell extracts via liquid chromatography or gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Both methods are neither time-resolved nor specific, and lack high temporal or cellular/subcellular resolution. Tryptophan is also aromatic, and binds to many molecules non-specifically. Given the importance of L-tryptophan for human health, an analytical tool for non-invasive, time-resolved determination of intracellular L-tryptophan levels was deemed highly desirable.
Fluorescent indicator proteins (FLIPs) have been successful tools for real-time monitoring of metabolite levels in living cells. Typically, the nanosensors consist of a ligand-sensing domain, allosterically coupled to a pair of green fluorescent protein variants capable of resonance energy transfer, referred to as Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) or fluorescence resonance energy transfer. FRET efficiency depends on the distance between and relative orientation of the dipoles of the fluorophores. Ligand-binding induced conformational changes in the sensors result in altered FRET efficiencies, which correlate with the levels of the respective metabolites. Periplasmic binding proteins (PBPs) have been successfully exploited for the construction of FLIPs for imaging of key metabolites such as glucose (Fehr et al. (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278:19127-19133) maltose (Fehr et al. (2002) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99:9846-9851), ribose (Lager et al. (2003) FEBS Lett. 553:85-89) and glutamate (Okumoto et al. (2005) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:8740-8745). However, no tryptophan-binding PBPs have been described to date, thus an alternative ligand-sensing scaffold was explored for construction of a tryptophan nanosensor.
In γ-proteobacteria like Escherichia coli, transcription of the tryptophan biosynthetic operon is regulated by attenuation (Yanofsky (1981) Nature 289:751-758), and by the inhibitory binding of the tryptophan-activated repressor protein, TrpR, to the trp operator (Joachimiak et al. (1983) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80:668-672). Binding of L-tryptophan to the repressor results in conformational changes that enhance the repressor's affinity for the operator sequence (Zhang et al. (1987) Nature 327:591-597).

TRP/HIS exchange and kynurenin induced TRP transport

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A system includes persistent storage configured to store data on behalf of a managed network and a discovery application configured to perform operations. An application system hosts software applications on behalf of the managed network. The operations include obtaining a service identifier for the application system and, based thereon, determining partitions into which the application system is divided. The operations also include determining, within each respective partition, spaces between which the software applications of the managed network are distributed, and determining, within each respective space, one or more software applications of the software applications of the managed network. The respective space provides an isolated computing environment for execution of the one or more software applications therein. The operations further include determining a mapping that indicates a distribution of (i) the spaces among the partitions and (ii) the software applications among the spaces, and storing, in the persistent storage, the mapping.

Computing devices, software applications, storage structures, and other computing resources that make up a computer network may be discovered and the relationships therebetween may be mapped. These elements of the computer network, as well as the relationships, may be stored as configuration items in a database. The stored configuration items may later be retrieved and used to generate a visualization of a state or arrangement of these elements within the computer network. Discovering computing resources involves developing software processes that are capable of gathering the information needed for detection, classification, and/or identification of these computing resources.

Discovery and mapping of a platform-as-a-service environment


The present invention provides a novel aromatic amine derivative having a specific structure and an organic electroluminescence device in which an organic thin film layer comprising a single layer or plural layers including at least a light emitting layer is interposed between a cathode and an anode, wherein at least one layer in the above organic thin film layer, particularly a hole transporting layer contains the aromatic amine derivative described above in the form of a single component or a mixed component. Use of the aromatic amine derivative described above materialize an organic electroluminescence device which reduces an operating voltage and makes molecules less liable to be crystallized and which enhances a yield in producing the organic EL device and has a long lifetime.

The present invention relates to an aromatic amine derivative and an organic electroluminescence (EL) device using the same, specifically to an aromatic amine derivative which reduces the operating voltage and inhibits the molecules from being crystallized by using an aromatic amine derivative having a specific substituent for a hole transporting material and which enhances a yield in producing an organic EL device and improves a lifetime of the organic EL device.

Aromatic amine derivatives and organic electroluminescent device using same


A document processing apparatus includes a keyboard for inputting data, a first memory for storing the data input by the keyboard, an image reader for reading printed data on recording material, a second memory for storing the printed data read by the image reader, a controller for setting a print area of the recording material in accordance with the print data stored in the second memory, and a display screen for displaying the data stored in the first memory in the print area set by the controller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus, e.g., a wordprocessor.
2. Related Background Art
In a recent document processing apparatus such a wordprocessor, when characters, symbols, figures, and the like are printed on a blank recording paper sheet having a predetermined size (e.g., A4 size), they can be easily printed since the apparatus has a predetermined standard format. That is, the wordprocessor prestores the standard format, for example, for an A4-size recording paper sheet, in which a top margin=25 mm, a bottom margin=20 mm, left and right margins=25 mm, the number of characters per line=40, and the number of lines per page=30. For this reason, as long as a document is edited or characters, symbols, and the like are printed using the standard format, an operator need only select default values to desirably print data on a recording paper sheet.
However, when a recording paper sheet does not match the standard format, when a recording paper sheet has a size different from that used for printing, or when a format such as a frame is logically printed on a recording sheet, the size or print start position of the recording sheet must be measured, and default values must be changed based on the measurement results.
When a format wherein characters or a frame are already printed is used, a plurality of tabs or indentations must be set in order to discontinuously print characters or symbols. In this case, a document format setting error tends to occur, and very often only after several errors, a desired print result can be obtained.

Document processing apparatus for displaying inputted data in a print area based upon the size of a recording material and the reprinted data printed thereon


An answering machine detection module is used to determine whether a call recipient is an actual person or an answering machine. The answering machine detection module includes a speech recognizer and a call analysis module. The speech recognizer receives an audible response of the call recipient to a call. The speech recognizer processes the audible response and provides an output indicative of recognized speech. The call analysis module processes the output of the speech recognizer to generate an output indicative of whether the call recipient is a person or an answering machine.

The discussion below is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Use of automated outbound telephone calling systems is quite common. Besides being used for marketing purposes, such systems can also be used by doctor offices or clinics to contact patients to confirm or change appointments, by schools to inform students of schedule changes, by charities to obtain contributions, and governmental agencies to provide notification or other information, to name just a few other applications.
In many instances, it may be necessary or helpful to automatically ascertain whether the recipient of the telephone call is an actual person or an answering machine. Depending on whether an actual person has answered or an answering machine is in use, different actions may be taken by the outbound telephone calling system. However, this task, call analysis, is difficult and currently inaccurate.
Call analysis is commonly performed at the hardware switch level. Analysis is implemented by using a short interval when the recipient initially picks up the call and before the call is connected to the telephony application. During this interval, when the recipient begins to speak, the system will process the received audible signals as to, for example, energy content, strength or other signal parameters of the audible signals, in order to make a determination as to whether the recipient is an actual person or answering machine. It is important to understand that the telephony application does not even know the call has been picked up at this step, and therefore, has not delivered any initial prompts. Thus, on the other end of the line, although the recipient has answered the call and given a greeting such as "Hello", the recipient only hears silence in return as the system is performing call analysis. In many instances, the recipient will then simply hang up.

Detecting an answering machine using speech recognition


A method for eliminating discontinuity of block boundaries of an image encoded in units of blocks and an apparatus thereof. A filter for eliminating discontinuity of block boundaries of an image encoded in units of blocks with a predetermined size includes: a vertical edge filtering unit which eliminates the discontinuity in the vertical direction of the blocks, by filtering sequentially in units of blocks; a determination unit which determines a start point of discontinuity filtering in the horizontal direction according to a filtering mode of a macroblock formed with the blocks; and a horizontal edge filtering unit. If the vertical direction discontinuity filtering of the blocks is finished to the filtering start point determined by the determination unit, discontinuity filtering in the horizontal direction of the blocks is sequentially performed for which the vertical direction discontinuity filtering is finished. Accordingly, time taken for filtering is reduced and unnecessary memory is not required.

This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2004-0051519, filed on Jul. 2, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to digital image processing, and more particularly, to a method for eliminating discontinuity of block boundaries of an image encoded in units of blocks and an apparatus thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
When an image is transmitted through a network with a predetermined bandwidth, or stored in a storage medium, it is important to encode the image data. Many research activities have been being carried out to transmit and store efficiently image data, and among a variety of image encoding methods, transform-based encoding methods are most widely used. In the transform-based encoding, the discrete cosine transform (DCT) technology has been widely used.
Meanwhile, among a variety of image coding standards, there is an H.264 AVC video coding standard. In the H.264 AVC standard, DCT is applied to predicting an infra frame and an inter frame in order to obtain a high compression ratio and is used to encode the difference between a predicted image and an original image. Through the DCT transform, information with lower importance among DCT coefficients is discarded such that the quality of the image when decoded through inverse transform is lowered. That is, because of the compression, the transmission bitrate of image data is lowered, while the quality of the decoded image is degraded. DCT is performed in units of blocks, each obtained by dividing an image into a predetermined size. Since the DCT is performed thus, in units of blocks, a blocking effect in which discontinuity on a boundary between blocks appears occurs.
Motion compensation in units of blocks is another cause of the blocking effect. Motion information of a current block that can be used for decoding an image is obtained by one motion vector determined for each block with a predetermined size in a frame. Also, a predictive motion vector (PMV) is obtained by using a motion vector of a current block and a motion vector of a block adjacent to the current block. The thus obtained PMV is subtracted from an actual motion vector for encoding.
Motion-compensated blocks are generated by copying interpolated pixel values from blocks in other locations in the previous reference frames. Accordingly, pixel values of each block are not linked smoothly and discontinuity occurs on the boundary between blocks. In addition, in the process of copying, the discontinuity between blocks in a reference frame is transferred to a block to be compensated directly. Accordingly, even though a block of a 4×4 size is used in the H.264 AVC, filtering of the decoded image should be performed in order to eliminate the discontinuity on the block boundary.
The blocking effect occurs in the process of block-based transform and quantization as described above, and causes a degradation phenomenon of picture quality in which when a compression ratio increases, the discontinuity on the block boundaries appear regularly as if tiles are laid. As an example of a filter to eliminate the discontinuity, there is a deblocking filter. Meanwhile, in the blocking effect, the discontinuity of an image on the block boundaries includes discontinuity on the horizontal direction edge and discontinuity on the vertical direction edge.
Generally, in a deblocking filter, a vertical direction edge is first filtered and then, a horizontal direction edge is filtered. Accordingly, since it is difficult to perform edge filtering in the vertical direction and edge filtering in the horizontal direction at the same time, time for filtering becomes longer and a memory to temporarily store the result of the vertical direction edge filtering is needed.

Filter for eliminating discontinuity of block-based encoded image, and method thereof


A system comprises at least one processor having a browser. The processor is configured for: receiving a request to purchase a first item (where a browser performs the receiving), displaying by the browser an indication that the first item has been added to a shopping cart of the user, before receiving an acknowledgement that the request has been received by a server, transmitting the request from the browser to the server, and receiving the acknowledgement of the transmitted request from the server after displaying the indication by the browser.

Online sales form a major component of electronic commerce. Online sales include a broad range of transactions, ranging from wholesale and business-to-business buying and selling to shopping web sites for direct retail sales to consumers. Each year, the share of retail sales from online retailing gains ground relative to brick-and-mortar stores.
In E-commerce web sites, a shopping cart is a program on a web server that allows visitors to select one or more items for eventual purchase. The shopping cart allows a customer to accumulate multiple items for purchase in a single order. When the customer selects an item for purchase using a client computer, the client computer transmits a request to the shopping cart service application executing in the seller's web server or cloud server. The shopping cart service application accesses an inventory database to determine whether the item is in stock. If the item is in stock, the shopping cart service application adds the item to a data structure representing the user's shopping cart. The shopping cart service application sends an acknowledgement to the client computer. The client computer can then provide an indication to the user that the item has been added to the shopping cart. For example, the browser of the client computer can display a graphic representing a shopping cart, with a numeral in the graphic indicating the number of items in the shopping cart. Once the shopping cart graphic in the client is updated, the customer can resume shopping.