The present invention is a universal self-adjusting high pressure liquid connector for use with high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) columns requiring liquid-tight and leak free seals between fittings and unions. The present apparatus provides a liquid-tight seal between the end of a HPLC end fitting and a end cap thereby eliminating any potential dead volume in the area of the connection. The apparatus comprises a body, a fixed ferrule, a replaceable ferrule, a stem disposed in the body and a biasing spring slidingly mounted on a capillary tube of that extends through the connector. The spring biases the capillary tube of the connector into the HPLC end fitting, self-adjusting and maintaining a pressure sufficient to ensure a liquid-tight seal notwithstanding the depth of the HPLC tube stop or ferrule stop of the mating HPLC column.

This invention relates generally to improvements in the field of high pressure liquid connectors and more specifically to high pressure liquid connectors for use in high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) applications.
HPLC columns are produced by a number of different manufacturers. While there are some standard design considerations, HPLC manufacturers employ unique design specifications and techniques resulting in HPLC columns having proprietary parts. Of particular interest in the present invention are the proprietary end fittings of HPLC columns. Each of the columns utilizes an end fitting or end cap. The proprietary end fittings have different ferrule and tube stop lengths. Since each manufacturer uses proprietary end fittings there exists the problem that between the end fitting and the portion of the column containing the filter bed a dead volume can exist. The dead volume refers to the liquid space between the end of the liquid input line and the portion of the column containing the filter bed. Any amount of dead volume reduces the effectiveness of the column, wastes a portion of the liquid sample and could even be hazardous if this dead volume of liquid is spilled when the column is removed from the system or otherwise opened. To eliminate the dead volume, tubing is provided. The tubing provides a path through which the sample is made to flow. The tubing is made to intimately contact an inlet and outlet portion of the column containing the filter bed in a liquid-tight fitting, thereby hopefully eliminating any dead space where liquid can collect. The difficulty associated with trying to eliminate or at least reduce the dead volume in this manner is that each proprietary column requires a different length of tubing in order to bottom out against the column end due to the different ferrule and tubing stop lengths.
As the column is assembled, the tubing of a connector is pushed into the end fitting as far as possible thereby contacting the column end. Technicians and others assembling HPLC columns must individually gauge how far to insert the end cap connector tubing into the HPLC column end fitting. Oftentimes the tubing is crimped or otherwise distorted when the end cap connector is fully tightened. This compromises the tubing and leads to accumulation of fluid or malfunctioning of the column instead of eliminating a dead volume as desired.
The apparatus of the present invention is a universal high pressure liquid connector, which automatically accommodates differing ferrule depths, and tube stops of proprietary HPLC column end fittings thereby reducing and eliminating the potential dead volume and or leaks in mating connections. The present invention employs an internal spring-loaded mechanism that maintains sufficient pressure in the critical area of the connection once the universal high pressure liquid connector of the present invention and the HPLC column fitting have engaged. The critical area of the connection being where the end of the universal high pressure liquid connector mating tubing bottoms out on the internal female fitting and the ferrule of the mating connection seats within the geometry of the mating port connection of the HPLC column. If an incorrect connection is made, i.e. the tubing does not bottom out, and or the ferrule seats improperly, a dead volume is created resulting in poor chromatographic performance or a leak path is created.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a high pressure liquid connector for use in HPLC columns having universal compatibility. Since there are a variety of industry standard port depths relating to HPLC column female fitting geometry, the apparatus of the present invention is designed to accommodate all port depths. Similar to a finger-tight fitting, the apparatus of the present invention does not have a fixed ferrule. Instead, the ferrule has the ability to freely slide up and down the connecting tubing, allowing the apparatus of the present invention to adjust to any port depth. Unlike finger tight fittings however, one using the present invention does not have to maintain pressure on the tubing to ensure a zero dead volume connection. The internal spring-loaded mechanism ensures the zero dead volume connection by maintaining pressure on the tubing into the bottom of the female port. Therefore, regardless of the port depth, the universal high pressure liquid connector of the present invention will always guarantee a zero dead volume connection.
Furthermore, the apparatus of the present invention requires no wrenches or other special tools to make a liquid-tight sealed connection with a HPLC column end fitting. It is important to note that the present invention is stable to 6000 pounds per square inch (psi).
The sliding ferrule-to-capillary tube configuration of the present invention is better than previous connectors having fixed ferrule fitting configurations in a number of ways. First, fixed ferrule fittings are not universal. Normally, once the ferrule has been swaged to the capillary tube in a fixed ferrule connector apparatus, the connector can only be used with a female fitting having an exact matching port depth. Furthermore, it has been observed that female port depths vary even within the same batch of fittings from the same supplier alleging to be made to the same specifications. Therefore, unless a connector having a fixed ferrule fitting is swaged when changing connections from one fitting to the next, a zero dead volume and leak free connection cannot be guaranteed.
Secondly, connectors having fixed ferrule fittings typically require wrenches to make the connection. The universal high pressure liquid connector of the present invention incorporates a finger tight engagement means, which does not require the use of wrenches or other tools in order to effectuate a leak proof mating connection.
Thirdly, the fixed ferrule fittings of previous designs can deform the connecting tubing. By overswaging the fitting onto the capillary tubing, the tubing may be crimped, thereby causing a deformity on the inner wall of the connector capillary tubing, which can lead to poor chromatographic performance.
The apparatus of the present invention is better than traditional finger tight fittings in a number of aspects. First, traditional finger tight fittings require the technician to maintain pressure on the tubing into the female port to ensure a zero dead volume connection. Operator error and or ignorance may, and does, lead to improper connection techniques wherein the end of the capillary tube of the connector does not properly bottom out on the mating female fitting, thus introducing a dead volume and potential leakpaths. The apparatus of the present invention however applies constant pressure on the connector tubing inserted into the female port via the internal spring-loaded mechanism, thereby greatly reducing the potential for operator error.
Secondly, since a technician must maintain pressure on the tubing while making a connection, and different technicians use different hand positions to do so, the connector tubing may become bent in many ways. When the tubing becomes bent in the last 1-2 centimeters where the finger-tight fitting is located, a leak may occur, thus rendering the tubing useless and requiring replacement of the capillary tubing and possibly the finger tight fitting as well since the bent capillary tubing may have deformed the finger tight fitting.
Thirdly, most finger tight fittings use a polymeric male thread that degrades after repeated connections. The male polymeric threads will degrade to a point where they will no longer ensure a positive connection thus rendering the finger tight fitting no longer useable. The finger tight connection then requires replacement. The preferred embodiment of the present universal self-adjusting high pressure liquid connector typically has a stainless steel male thread sold under the name of NITRONIC-60 located on the exterior of the connector""s stem for threadedly engaging with a HPLC column. Yet another version of the present invention would further comprise male threads constructed of an anti-gall material by Carpenter Technology, Inc under the name of GALL-TOUGH. However any other material with similar properties that will not degrade and will not gall due to its metallurgic properties is appropriate and contemplated within the scope of the present invention.
The present invention offers additional benefits not realized from using traditional stainless steel finger tight fittings. Traditional adjustable stainless steel fittings require the technician to maintain pressure on the tubing into the female port to ensure a zero dead volume connection. Additionally, these stainless fittings require the technician to push the ferrule up the tubing to expose enough tubing beyond the ferrule to ensure a zero dead volume connection each time the traditional adjustable connector is used. The universal self-adjusting high pressure liquid connector of the present invention however applies a self-adjusting pressure on the capillary tubing inserted into the female port via the internal spring-loaded mechanism each time the universal self-adjusting high pressure liquid connector is used.
Secondly, most traditional adjustable stainless fittings use a stainless steel male thread, which after repeated connections will degrade. The stainless steel threads will degrade to a point where they will have a tendency to gall and will no longer be useable requiring replacement. The universal self-adjusting high pressure liquid connector, as discussed above, typically has a stainless steel male thread that will not degrade and will not gall due to its metallurgic properties.
Other design applications for the present invention include the incorporation of the connection device into a hand tight cartridge style column and guard column system. The Isolation Technologies, Inc. product known under the trademark QUICKSEAL analytical cartridge system is being modified to include the apparatus connector at the inlet and outlet ends of columns as short as 1 cm in length with no restrictions on column lengths. Column system inner diameters may range from 1.0 millimeters (mm) to 10.0 mm, however these ranges certainly pose no restriction but do show the advantages that the apparatus can bring to the industry.
As such, it is an object of the present invention to provide an universal self-adjusting high pressure liquid connector designed for fluid transfer applications capable of self-adjusting, hand tight connection thereby eliminating the potential for improper connections due to variance in mating fitting geometry.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus that lends itself to both high and low pressure applications, i.e. those applications involving pressures both above and below 6000 psi.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which is chemically inert.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description given hereafter. However, it should be understood that a detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this description.

Universal high pressure liquid connector

c/o Isolation Technologies, Inc., 4 Business Way


An analysis device of the present invention includes: a window length decision part that decides a window length of a data stream including tuples each including a timestamp and an observed value; a graph construction part that constructs a graph representing a preset relation between the tuples within a window obtained by dividing the data steam by the decided window length; a tensor construction part that constructs a tensor or a matrix equivalent to the tensor from a plurality of graphs constructed for a plurality of windows, respectively; a pattern extraction part that extracts a pattern from the tensor or the matrix equivalent to the tensor; and a difference extraction part that extracts a residual portion that does not match the extracted pattern, from the data stream. The window length decision part decides a new window length that is different from the previously decided window length.

A sensor device such as a network intrusion detection device (IDS) and a factory temperature sensor generates, from hour to hour, states and values observed thereby (observed values) so as to be correlated to information such as observation time thereof (timestamps). By streaming data including such observed values and timestamps, it is possible to constantly monitor a network, a factory, and so on. A sequence of streamed data including observed values and timestamps is called a data stream. That is to say, the abovementioned monitoring is performed by acquiring and observing a data stream.
Further, by analyzing a data stream, it is possible to perform a status check such as determining whether a monitoring target is normal and finding a suspicious behavior. A data stream is, for example, a tweet in microblogging such as a Twitter, a log of proxy server, and an alert log of IDS.
A data stream contains various events. Therefore, in order to understand an event occurring in a data stream, it is required to extract a set of one or more "meaningful" data (an observed value and a timestamp and other information) such as "often appear" and "abnormal." Such a set of one or more "meaningful" data is called an "event."
An event occurring in a data stream does not always appear at the same cycle or time. Such an event may appear within one hour, within ten minutes or after one day depending on time. This may occur when an abnormality occurs in a target device or when an occurrence time of a pattern is arbitrarily distorted by someone as in a cyberattack on a network.
On the other hand, a data stream has a characteristic of being infinite or very long in length with respect to a time direction. Therefore, at the time of analysis of a data stream, by focusing on an event appearing in a certain time W, a pattern is found. For example, it is a temperature change occurring within 24 hours. Moreover, by dividing a data stream by a certain time W, a pattern appearing in common in a plurality of subsequences after division is found. For example, assuming W=24 hours, it is possible to find an average pattern of daily temperature change and a suspicious behavior on a network that often appears at a specific time.    Non-Patent Document 1: Gaber, Mohamed Medhat, Arkady Zaslaysky, and Shonali Krishnaswamy. "Mining data streams: a review." ACM Sigmod Record 34.2 (2005): 18-26.    Non-Patent Document 2: Rakthanmanon, Thanawin. "Addressing Big Data Time Series: Mining Trillions of Time Series Subsequences Under Dynamic Time Warping". ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data. 7(3): 10:1-10:31    Non-Patent Document 3: Sepp Hochreiter; Jurgen Schmidhuber (1997). "Long short-term memory". Neural Computation. 9(8): 1735-1780
However, in a case where temporal distortion occurs as described above, there is a problem that it is impossible to identify an event completed at time exceeding the division time W with another identical event by the analysis method for a subsequence based on the time W. Moreover, even if there is no distortion, it is required to know in advance how long the division time W is.
Therefore, there is a problem that it is impossible by an existing data stream analysis method to find an event which may contain distortion from a data stream or identify an event which should be originally identified with another identical one, without previous knowledge on a data stream.
Non-Patent Document 1 describes various methods for analyzing a data stream. It is general when analyzing a data stream to use a window or a sliding window, and the length of the window has a great influence on the accuracy of analysis, and so on.
For time-series data (data of waveform type), a method for eliminating temporal distortion by using dynamic time warping is known in a document such as Non-Patent Document 2. However, a data stream assumed in the present invention is not necessarily waveform type and a plurality of events overlap, so that it is impossible to apply the concept of dynamic time warping. Likewise, it is difficult to apply a time series model by a linear model such as AR.
Further, the n-gram model used in natural language processing is known as a means for representing a pattern between words before and after included in the neighborhood by using a statistical model. However, in a data stream, tuples forming events may appear at a very long interval and also a plurality of events are contained, so that it is difficult to catch the relation between the tuples forming the events by using the n-gram that considers the neighborhood. It is also difficult to solve it by a method using a memory such as LSTM shown in Non-Patent Document 3.


In a fluid dynamic pressure bearing, upper herringbone grooves and lower herringbone grooves continuous with the upper herringbone grooves are formed on the inner peripheral surface of a sleeve by plastic deformation. In addition, an annular groove recessed radially inward is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the shaft in a location opposing the region where the upper herringbone grooves and the lower herringbone grooves adjoin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluid dynamic pressure bearing, a spindle motor including this fluid dynamic pressure bearing, and a recording disk drive including this spindle motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a bearing of a motor that drives a recording disk employed in a hard disk drive, a removable disk drive or the like has been variously proposed. As shown in FIG. 10, for example, fluid dynamic pressure bearings 512 and 514 using a dynamic pressure generated from a lubricating fluid such as an oil held in micro gaps between a shaft 502 and a sleeve 504 during rotation of the motor are employed as bearings of the motor.
For the fluid dynamic pressure bearings 512 and 514, a pair of dynamic pressure-generating grooves 506 and 508 are formed on an inner peripheral surface of the sleeve 504. These dynamic pressure-generating grooves 506 and 508 are herringbone-shaped, spiral or the like. The paired dynamic pressure-generating grooves 506 and 508 are adjacent to each other and constituted by alternately arranged hills and grooves, respectively. A difference in height between the hill and the groove corresponds to a depth of each dynamic pressure groove.
As a method for forming these dynamic pressure-generating grooves 506 and 508, press working is often selected. The press working is a method for pressing a hard cylindrical pin having a groove pattern formed on its outer periphery against an inner peripheral surface of the sleeve 504, and for transferring the groove pattern onto the inner peripheral surface of the sleeve 504. Since the press working enables simultaneously forming the paired dynamic pressure-generating grooves 506 and 508 on the inner peripheral surface of the sleeve 504, the sleeve 504 can be manufactured at a low cost, as compared with other machining methods such as electrochemical machining and rolling.
FIG. 11 is an enlarged cross-sectional view that depicts important parts of the spindle motor shown in FIG. 10. FIG. 11 is an enlarged view that particularly depicts the inner peripheral surface of the sleeve 504 on which the dynamic pressure-generating grooves 506 and 508 are formed. An annular groove 510 is formed between the dynamic pressure-generating grooves 506 and 508 on the inner peripheral surface of this sleeve 504. By forming the annular groove 510, a radial gap between the annular groove 510 and a shaft 502 facing the annular groove 510 is enlarged. It is thereby possible to prevent an increase in a bearing loss resulting from a current rise following an increase in an oil internal pressure of the radial gap while the motor is driven.
However, if such an annular groove 510 is to be formed simultaneously with formation of the dynamic pressure-generating grooves 506 and 508, the following disadvantages occur. As shown in FIG. 11, if a protrusion of a cylindrical pin corresponding to the annular groove 510 is pressed against the inner peripheral surface of the sleeve 504, surrounding regions of a region in which the annular groove 510 is to be formed are also attracted toward a direction in which the protrusion of the cylindrical pin goes forward (downward in FIG. 11). As a result, hills 508a and 506a adjacent to the annular groove 510 are formed lower than the other hills by At. Due to this, while the motor is driven, boost pressures applied to central portions of the respective fluid dynamic pressure bearings 512 and 514 cannot be increased in the regions of the dynamic pressure-generating grooves 506 and 508 adjacent to the annular groove 510, respectively. Predetermined pressures cannot be obtained in the respective fluid dynamic pressure bearings 512 and 514, accordingly. As a result, rigidities of the bearings 512 and 514 are reduced and the bearings 512 and 514 are often incapable of stably supporting the shaft 502.

Fluid dynamic pressure bearing including dynamic pressure generating grooves, and spindle motor and disc drive including the bearing


A method of detecting presence and location uses sensor data received from a plurality of thermopiles, each thermopile having a different field of view. In response to detecting a change in the sensor data, stored background values for each field of view are accessed and then the location of a body (e.g. a human or animal)is determined based on differences between the sensor data and sensor values predicted using a forward model and the stored background values for each field of view. Having determined the location, the stored background values are updated based on differences between the sensor data and the predicted sensor values for a body at the determined location.

Consumer computing devices, such as desktop computers, detect the presence of a user based on user interactions (e.g. whether a user is typing on the keyboard or moving the mouse). The same techniques are used on mobile devices, such as smartphones, and may be used to control when to dim or turn off the display. Smartphones may also use a short-range sensor (i.e. one that operates over a distance of less than 15 cm) to detect when a user is holding the smartphone to their ear and this is used to deactivate the touch-screen.
The embodiments described below are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known methods of sensing user presence and location.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Use of thermopiles to detect human location


An objective lens driving apparatus for an optical pick-up, in which an objective lens is loaded on a driving body which is driven in a horizontal and a vertical direction and an objective lens driving portion is supported by four elastic linear members, includes two supports having two penetration holes each through which two pairs of elastic linear members pass, wherein the objective lens driving body is connected to the two pairs of elastic linear members, so as to prevent the driving body from rolling.

The present invention relates to an objective lens driving apparatus for use in an optical pick-up which is installed in a light recording and/or reproducing system, and more particularly to an improved objective lens driving apparatus in which the structure of a supporting mechanism, for elastically supporting an objective lens driving portion, is improved so as to perform a precise servo control of an objective lens.
Generally, optical pick-ups for projecting a light beam from a laser, etc. onto the surface of a recording medium and detecting the reflected light beam are installed in players using light recording media such as a laser disc player (LDP), a compact disc player (CDP), a multi-disc player (MDP) for a mageneto-optic disc drive (MODD), and so on. Such optical pick-ups for optical discs are apparatuses for reading out digital information stored on the surfaces of the disc in which the reading method is completed by scanning a disc with a laser beam and reading a binary signal via the reflected beam.
Thus, when using an optical pick-up for an optical disc, in order to read the signals correctly, the focus of the objective lens must be controlled accurately. Accordingly, elastic supporting means is provided in the objective lens driving portion, so that the main body of the driving portion is minutely moved in the horizontal direction for tracking and in the vertical direction for focusing.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional objective lens driving apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,283 of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (Japan), includes four conductive elastic linear members W1 to W4 for connecting both sides of a main body 1 in the driving portion on which an objective lens L is loaded, to the front plate of a nonconductive fixed block 2, thereby elastically supporting main body 1 of the driving portion in the horizontal and vertical directions. Here, conductive elastic linear members W1 to W4 are of the same size and each have respective elasticities of a predetermined direction. Also, conductive elastic linear members W1-W4 pass through fixed block 2 for support, and at the same time are connected to an external circuit (not shown). That is, the above Matsushita patent teaches a technology of supporting the objective lens driving portion as well as supplying current to coils, using the conductive elastic linear members.
In the objective lens driving apparatus having the above construction, when driving portion main body 1 moves in the vertical direction for focusing, parts of tracing coils Tc, which are wound in driving portion main body 1, depart from the magnetic field. At this time, since differences occur between the electromagnetic forces generated in the tracing coils within the magnetic field and those outside the magnetic field, a rolling force is produced in the driving portion main body. Accordingly, elastic linear members W1-W4 twist due to this rolling force.
Thus, as shown in FIG.2, vertically disposed elastic linear member pairs W1 and W2 and W3 and W4 experience a twisting action, caused by the rolling of driving portion main body 1. For this reason, the light beams via objective lens L are obliquely scanned on a recording medium (not shown), which causes imprecise servo control.
Certain improvements have been proposed in an attempt to prevent driving portion main body 1 (on which objective lens L is loaded) from rolling, which include modifying the structure of tracking coils Tc. However, such modifications lead to a complicated structure, a rise in production cost and greater power consumption.

Objective lens driving apparatus designed to minimize rolling effects of an optical pick-up


Various systems and methods provide users with the ability to track, detect, record analyze and report various events associated with the life of an electronic mail message delivered to any recipient. Some of the events that may be tracked by the systems and methods of the preferred exemplary embodiment include identification of when a recipient views a message and clicks on any web page links contained within the message. In accordance with another aspect of the preferred exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the systems and methods provide a simple mechanism for storing, monitoring and accessing information relating to various events that have transpired with respect to a large volume of electronic mail messages. Electronic mail message list may also be automatically generated with the data acquired by the systems and methods of the present invention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of automated electronic communications systems. More specifically, the present invention is directed to systems and methods for electronically monitoring events associated with the transmission of electronic mail messages as well as the storage of information that is generated pertaining to the monitoring of various events in the life of an electronic mail message. Specifically, in accordance with the preferred exemplary embodiment, the systems and methods of the present invention may be utilized to provide tracking information pertaining to the access and utilization of electronic mail messages and includes sophisticated techniques for automatically storing this information. Additionally, the systems and methods disclosed herein may be utilized for the purpose of generating electronic mail message lists.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic mail messaging has grown dramatically with the corresponding increase in usage and access to computer systems. Electronic mail is now recognized as a simple and convenient means for communicating information and is now widely used in the business world as well as for communicating personal information. It is also widely used in the marketing industry for transmitting advertising information.
Conventional electronic mail messaging systems provide the ability to monitor certain events associated with messages that have been transmitted. The use of so-called "clickthrough" tracking provides the ability to determine when recipients have accessed a message and some systems also provide the ability to ascertain when other events take place such as the opening of a message. One of the shortcomings of these existing electronic mail systems is that the existing systems utilize cumbersome and computationally expensive techniques for storing information relating to what happens with a message once it has been transmitted from an electronic mail server to a recipient.
The amount of information that can be generated regarding access and other events associated with electronic mail messages is extremely large especially for high volume electronic mail messaging systems. The industry has recognized increasing demand for this information as it has been found to be particularly useful in the advertising industry. There are also numerous other applications in other fields as well for this technology. Historically, there has been no convenient, economical and reliable mechanism for receiving and archiving information relating to the monitoring of events associated with an electronic mail message once the message has been transmitted from a mail server.
In existing systems, users are able to receive information regarding when a user initially receives a message and when a recipient accesses a message. For example, Microsoft Outlook is one electronic mail platform that provides this functionality. In this program, a user is able to request a return receipt to indicate when a recipient has received a particular message. As noted above, other additional information is also available concerning other events associated with the message.
There is currently no system available for economically storing large quantities of information in a convenient format pertaining to events that are associated with a large number of electronic mail messages. Furthermore, there is currently no system available for automatically transferring this information into an archive automatically in a quick and convenient manner. These are especially difficult tasks due to the tremendous volume of electronic mail messages that are transmitted from certain systems. The existing systems that are available for storing this information require tremendous amounts of processing time and resources in order to tabulate information and provide reports and tracking information. Accordingly, in order to provide this service, there is a significant expense associated with providing this type of information, especially for systems that handle large lists or provide complex reports.
There is also a need for providing easy access to this information so that electronic mail message lists may be automatically generated. In adopting electronic mail as a mode of communication for retailers, there have been several problems. The manual collection of electronic mail addresses for customers is inefficient, prone to errors and results in the capture of only a small portion of the electronic mail addresses for the customers of a particular store.
In light of these and other shortcomings, the inventors have proposed new systems and methods that provide a variety of techniques for monitoring various events associated with electronic mail messages. The innovations are directed to high volume electronic mail message transmission systems and the storage of information that is derived from monitoring various events in the life of a electronic mail messages. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the storage techniques and innovations disclosed herein may be useful in other applications as well.
Some of the preferred exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods of the present invention are particularly well suited for monitoring and maintaining information relating to access and utilization of electronic messages that are transmitted through high-volume electronic mail messaging systems. Yet additional alternate preferred exemplary embodiments provide systems and methods for automatically generating electronic mail messaging lists that are derived from the access and utilization information generated through the electronic mail monitoring innovations of the present invention.

Systems and methods for monitoring events associated with transmitted electronic mail messages


One or more stationary wireless readers are used to determine the relative strength of calibration signals sent from fixed locations adjacent to POS terminals. Then, the signal strength of signals being transmitted by wireless devices within range of the one or more wireless readers is evaluated to determine the relative position of each wireless device to the POS terminals. This allows an operator of the POS system to determine the proximity of each wireless device relative to the POS terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to wireless point of sale systems and, more particularly, to wireless payment systems used in connection with point of sale terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless payment systems (also known as "mobile commerce systems") promise to become ubiquitous as enabling wireless devices such as cellular phones and PDAs proliferate the consumer market. Multiple companies are vying for a market share of the wireless payment market, competing with respect to standards and implementations.
Typically, a vendor will set up one or more point of sale terminals (POS terminal) in a vendor location and configure the POS terminals to communicate with the wireless devices of customers visiting the vendor location. The vendor, when choosing to communicate with a customer's wireless device via a POS terminal, must be able to associate the correct device with a particular transaction being performed at a particular POS terminal. For example, if there are five POS terminals next to each other and a customer is checking out on terminal #3, his wireless device may be within communication range of the other four POS terminals. Further, there may be ten or more other customers standing in line among all of the five terminals, and each may have wireless devices (cell phones, Bluetooth-equipped PDAs, etc.) and each of them will be within range of all five of the POS terminals.
A problem encountered with such systems is coming up with a way to assure that once the customer checking out at a particular terminal, e.g., POS terminal #3, has had his or her items scanned, and thus the terminal is ready to perform the wireless payment transaction, POS terminal #3 can be associated with the proper wireless device to complete the financial transaction.
One method of making this association is to have the customer initiate a physical contact with a device at the POS terminal, linking his or her wireless device to the POS terminal (e.g., insert the device into a cradle); this, however, defeats the purpose of a wireless system, since the device is physically connected to the POS terminal.
Another option is to have POS terminal #3 (in this example) broadcast a query to all devices in its proximity, requesting the customer at POS terminal #3 to indicate that his or her device is the correct one. This suffers the problem that someone else could "hijack" the session by falsely acknowledging that he or she is the customer at POS terminal #3, when in reality he or she may be at POS terminal #2, or worse, outside the store altogether. This might enable an unscrupulous person to perform unauthorized tasks, such as to identify what others are purchasing, obtain confidential financial information, and/or obtain data that could be used for "spamming". When the POS terminal sends the transaction details to the inappropriate device, it is confusing and inconvenient, and the real customer loses privacy. In addition, all of the customers are inconvenienced by the incessant broadcast queries being received on their wireless devices. Further, requiring the customer to push an extra button on their wireless device decreases the transparency of the wireless payment process.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a wireless payment system which is essentially transparent to the user but which can accurately, dependably and automatically associate the correct wireless device with the correct point of sale terminal to complete the transaction.

Method and apparatus for determining adjacency of wireless device to POS terminal

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for providing a character in an online game includes, by a character provision apparatus, selecting at least one season character from a plurality of general characters previously provided in a game according to a preset season character selection criteria, generating at least one season character pool according to a period for which the season character is selected, and storing the selected season character in a corresponding season character pool, judging whether a status point limit adjustment item is provided, setting a status point limit of the at least one season character differently according to the period such that the status point limit of the at least one season character is higher than a status point limit of each general character acquired using the status point limit adjustment item, and displaying, on a user terminal, that the at least one season character is added to the game.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to technologies with regard to an online game that manages characters, which achieve character differentiation through provision of a so-called season character, a status point limit of which is differently set according to when the character appears in a game, thereby allowing characters, which have conventionally been regarded in the same light because of the same status point limit thereof, to be utilized as different characters.
2. Background Art
In recent years, online games have become of great importance in online culture owing to advances in network and computer technologies. Development of online games arouses user demand for various genres of online games, and a wide variety of genres of online games are available at present.
Most current online games are character based. A user may access a game server using a user terminal, and enjoy an online game by selecting and manipulating game characters provided in online games. The characters provided in online games may be free of charge, or may be purchased in game using game points. Assuming that the user possesses a plurality of characters, the user may play a game while changing characters between turns. In an exemplary online game having a character provision function, the user possesses a team consisting of a plurality of characters, and manages the team by individually scouting, employing, or making a contract with each of the plurality of characters constituting the team.
In the case of a character that may be used in a game, although the character may be provided to a user regardless of restrictions on a usage period thereof, the usage period of the character may be limited according to the kind of games. Accordingly, if the usage period of the character expires, it may be necessary to pay character use costs via renewal and to extend the usage period of the corresponding character.
Some online games having a character provision function may provide a special character, which has different status points from those of a general character, in order to increase interest of the user in the games. The special character may be set to have higher status points than those of the general character, or to have special skills that are not given to other characters.
However, either of the general character or the special character has a status point limit that is basically set to a particular value, although skills or status points of the general character or the special character may vary according to the level of the character. Such a character, the status point limit of which is set to a fixed value, may be consequently regarded as having constant status points regardless of a current level of the character. That is, the characters finally have constant ability regardless of the level.
Accordingly, an online game service provider has a burden of developing and providing a novel character to a game, to assist the user who loss interest in existing characters in continuously enjoying games.

Method and apparatus for providing character in online game


A method for surface treating a mandrel bar used for hot rolling of high-alloy seamless steel pipe is provided. The method includes heat treating the mandrel bar to develop a scale, and after heat treatment, rolling ordinary steel comprising 8% or less of chromium for at least 50 passes. This achieves a mandrel bar for rolling high-alloy steel possessing both durability and superior resistance to seizure.

Mandrel mill rolling is a step in the process for producing seamless pipes or tubes by hot working. A hollow shell is rolled by being axially transferred through multiple stands of grooved-rolls while supported on a mandrel bar. The surface of the mandrel bar is usually coated with lubricant that is solid lubricant. Satisfactory lubrication is difficult because the mandrel bar undergoes harsh sliding friction against the inner surface of the shell. This type of rolling damages the surface of the mandrel bar resulting in repeated friction, seizure, roughening, or cracking that shortens the mandrel bar service life.
The mandrel bar is made of hot working tool steel such as SKD6 and SKD61. The steel used for a mandrel bar is polished on its surface and then quenched and tempered in order to adjust the hardness and develop a scale on the surface.
Recent rising demand for high-alloy steel pipes such as of 13% chromium steel has revealed some problems, one of which is seizure on the mandrel bar. That is because high alloy steel has high deformation resistance and it is difficult to form oxidized scale on the inner surface of the hollow shell made of the high alloy steel. Such problems are handled by applying lubricant to the surface of the mandrel bar during rolling of the high alloy steel, though seizure cannot be avoided altogether. The seizure might cause oscillations during rolling, exerting adverse effects on finished dimensions and causing mandrel bar stripping defects. This seizure results in axial streaking flaws occurring on the inner surface of the hollow shell that require a large amount of time and money to repair.
Patent document 1 proposes a mandrel bar for manufacturing hot-worked seamless tube having a nitride treated layer with an average roughness of 0.5 to 5.0 μm along the axial center line of the surface of its base material in order to resolve these problems.
Patent document 2 proposes a method for producing a piercing mandrel bar for rolling seamless stainless tube characterized by the following steps;
diffusing Cu, Zn, Al, or an alloy thereof over the frictional surface of a mandrel bar formed in a piercing shape for use in rolling seamless steel tube, thereby embrittling the grain boundaries on the frictional surface and subjecting heat treatment for thermal refining; or
generating fine hexagonal surface cracking on the embrittled grain boundaries by rapid heating at high temperature in the initial rolling stage.    [Patent document I] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-262220    [Patent document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-339709

Mandrel bar for high-alloy rolling, method for surface treating a mandrel bar, method for producing mandrel bar, and method for operating seamless pipe mill


A backlight assembly and an LCD having the same are disclosed to prevent wrinklings of optical sheets due to close contact of optical sheets or prism sheets. The backlight assembly includes multiple optical sheets disposed between a light guiding plate and a display unit, for the diffusion of light, collection of light and securing of horizontal viewing angle. The front surface or the rear surface of each of the optical sheets each has an embossing structure or a matte structure to decrease a contact area between the multiple optical sheets and to minimize frictions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD), and more particularly, to a backlight assembly and LCD having the same capable of preventing optical sheets from wrinkling due to close stacking of optical sheets or prism sheets employed in the backlight assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, LCDs are the representative flat panel display. In order to display an image in these LCDs, an electric power is applied to liquid crystal having a specific molecular configuration to thereby vary the molecular arrangement of liquid crystal. The molecular variations of liquid crystal change optical properties such as birefringence, rotary polarization, dichroism and light scattering. The LCDs converts the optical property changes into the variations in the visual properties, thereby displaying a desired image.
LCDs are generally classified into two types according to liquid crystal used: a twisted nematic (TN) type; and a super-twisted nematic (STN) type. These LCDs are also classified into an active matrix display type using switching devices and TN liquid crystal, and a passive matrix display type using STN liquid crystal according to a difference in the driving way.
The two typed LCDs have apparent difference. The active matrix type display is employed in TFT-LCDs utilizing thin film transistors (TFT) as switching element. The passive matrix display does not utilize TFT as switching element. In other words, the passive matrix display does not need complicated circuits such as TFTs.
LCDs are passive device that does not emit light by itself. Thus, LCDs need a backlight assembly as light source to display images. This backlight assembly is established at the rear surface of the LCD panel.
Recently, in order to secure the competitiveness of LCD products, LCDs are being developed in a slimmer and lighter structure. Especially, considering that the LCDs are mainly used for portable computers, the present LCDs deal with lightness more significantly.
In these LCDs, present interests are especially focused on roles and functions of the backlight assembly. This is because size and light efficiency of LCDs become different and mechanical and optical properties are affected depending on the LCD structure to a considerable degree.
There is disclosed a structure of a general backlight assembly used in these LCDs in U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,208.
FIG. 1 is a simplified exploded perspective view of a conventional LCD having the backlight assembly, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are simplified sectional views of the backlight assembly of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a backlight assembly includes a lamp 12 for emitting a light, a light guiding plate 20 for guiding the light emitted from the lamp 12, and a lamp cover 14 established at one side of the light guiding plate 20, for surrounding the lamp 12.
As the lamp 12, a cold cathode lamp is mainly used. Light generated from the lamp 12 is incident through a side wall of the light guiding plate 20. Inner surface of the lamp cover 14 is made of a reflector plate. The light guiding plate 20 reflects light generated from the lamp 12, thereby enhancing a light efficiency.
The light guiding plate 20 guides the light generated from the lamp 12 to proceed toward an LCD panel 15 mounted thereon. The light guiding plate 20 includes various patterns such as a fine dot pattern (not shown) formed on the rear surface thereof to convert a light proceeding direction toward the LCD panel 15.
A reflector plate 22 is disposed beneath the light guiding plate 20 and a diffusion sheet 32, a first prism sheet 34, a second prism sheet 36 and a protective film 38 are placed in such an order on the light guiding plate 20.
The reflector plate 22 reflects light beams that are not reflected by the printed patterns of the light guiding plate 20 and leak, toward the light guiding plate 20, thereby reducing loss of incident light to the LCD panel 15 and simultaneously enhancing the uniformity of light beams passing through the light guiding plate 20 upward.
The diffusion sheet 32 is placed between the light guiding plate 20 and the first prism sheet 34 and disperses the light incident from the light guiding plate 20, to thereby prevent a partial concentration of light beams. A plurality of beads 32a and 32b are formed on the front surface and the rear surface of the diffusion sheet 32, and they make uniform the light flux distribution of light beams reflected from the reflector plate 22.
The first prism sheet 34 and the second prism sheet 36 are stacked in the named order on the diffusion sheet 32 and they each have a plurality of triangle prisms at the front surface thereof. The first prism sheet 34 and the second prism sheet 36 collect light beams diffused by the diffusion sheet 32 toward a first and second direction normal to a plane parallel to the LCD panel 40 in order to make a viewing angle narrow, thereby enhancing the brightness at the front side.
The protective film 38 is placed between the second prism sheet 36 and the LCD panel 40 to protect the front surface of the second prism sheet 36. The protective film 38 has a plurality of acryl beads 38a formed at the front surface thereof, to prevent moiré phenomenon and rainbow phenomenon. Thus, the light beams generated from the lamp 20 and then passing through multiple optical sheets show images formed by the LCD panel 40.
Meanwhile, when the horizontal viewing angle is important, there is widely used a backlight assembly structure utilizing only either one of the first prism sheet or the second prism sheet having a light collection characteristic and for enhancing the luminance at the front side. In this case, a reflection polarization film is used, which improves a luminance lowering per viewing angles due to the lack of one prism sheet, increases the luminance of the light through the entire surface of the prism sheet and enhances the luminance characteristics every viewing angles.
FIG. 3 shows an example of a backlight assembly having only one prism sheet and a reflection polarization film for improving the brightness characteristic from every viewing angle is also used.
As shown in FIG. 3, a reflection polarization film 39 is placed between the first prism sheet 34 and the protective film 38. The reflection polarization film 39 has smooth front surface in contact with the protective film 38 and smooth rear surface in contact with the first prism sheet 34.
However, the aforementioned conventional backlight assemblies have the following drawbacks. First, since the prisms formed at the front surface of the prism sheet have a shape of ridge, optical sheets wrinkle due to close stacking of another prism sheet or the reflection polarization film.
Second, when a single prism sheet and the reflection polarization film are employed, a contact area is widened between the reflection polarization film and the underlying prism sheet and between the reflection polarization film and the overlying protective film, increasing a friction coefficient. As a result, curl occurs between optical sheets.
Third, since the optical sheets are of compound resin, electrostatic current is easily generated. The electrostatic current allows the optical sheets to be closely attached to each other, however, creating wrinkles between optical sheets.

Backlight assembly and liquid crystal display having the same


A safety switch assembly includes a body constructed to be mounted in a support structure and generally enclose the operative structure of the safety switch. The safety switch assembly includes an actuator constructed to pass through one of the support structure or the base to operatively engage the operative structure of the safety switch to control the safety switches electrical orientation to communicate or terminate communication of electrical power to a device equipped with the safety switch.

The present invention relates to safety switches, and to safety switch assemblies.
A safety switch may be considered as an emergency electrical shut off switch, and either allows or prevents electricity from passing through it (i.e. it provides a closed circuit or an open circuit). If the safety switch is activated, such that it forms an open circuit, electricity will not pass to any device to which the safety switch is connected.
Safety switches are often used in places where access to particular enclosures is to be restricted, such enclosures enclosing electrically operated machinery. For example, safety switches are often found in factories that use kinetic machinery powered by electricity. The safety switch may be used to prevent access to an enclosure containing the machinery when the machinery is in operation. Specifically, power will only be supplied to the machinery when the switch is closed, and this is conveniently achieved by the closure of a gate incorporated in the enclosure. When the gate is opened, the safety switch is activated, the circuit is broken, and the electrical power supply to the machinery is interrupted (i.e. the machinery cannot run when the gate is opened and the safety switch is thereby activated). Safety switches are well known in the art, and come in a variety of different forms.
A safety switch will usually comprise a switch mechanism which is housed in a housing and attached to part of a structure forming the enclosure. A protruding actuator (i.e. a key) may be attached to a gate which is movable relative to the enclosure and the safety switch mechanism. When the gate is closed, the actuator engages with the switch mechanism to allow supply of electrical power to the machinery.
While safety switches are intended to be beneficial to workers using and moving around dangerous machinery within a factory, it is not uncommon for the switches themselves to be tampered with. For example, it may be that workers wish to inspect dangerous machinery while it is in operation. In order to do this, they may take off the cover of the safety switch housing and tamper with its internal mechanisms such that the circuit is closed and electrical power supplied to the machinery even when the gate to the enclosure remains open. Alternatively, a worker may obtain a replacement key, or fabricate a makeshift one for him/herself to engage with the safety switch mechanism such that the machinery may be operable even when the gate remains open. Since the purpose of the safety switch is to prevent such access, and to maintain the safety of the workers, tampering with a safety switch or using a replacement key is not desirable.
As stated above, the switch mechanism is housed in a housing and attached to the structure forming the enclosure. It is not uncommon for the switch mechanism to become damaged by repeated use, and in particular damaged by impact from objects such as equipment being carried into and out of the enclosure, or damaged by the gate itself.
It is therefore desired to provide a safety switch to obviate or mitigate at least one of the above-mentioned disadvantages.


A facility is provided for allowing a caller to place a telephone call by merely uttering a label identifying a desired called destination and to charge the telephone call to a particular billing account by merely uttering a label identifying that account. Alternatively, the caller may place the call by dialing or uttering the telephone number of the called destination or by entering a speed dial code associated with that telephone number.

Telephone credit or calling cards, although convenient, are susceptible to being compromised by potential unauthorized users. Indeed, fraudulent use of such cards has become a serious problem.
To combat such fraudulent use, a telecommunications system may employ automatic speech recognition to verify the identity of a caller who is charging a call to a credit or calling card. Unfortunately, it appears that the use of automatic speech recognition in credit and calling card services end there and does not go beyond such verification. (Hereinafter credit and calling card services will also be referred to as calling card services.)

Voice directed communications system platform


A method for separating and recovering trivalent and tetravalent actinoids in a simple and less costly manner without using an organophosphorus compound is provided. This method selectively separates and recovers the tetravalent actinoid plutonium Pu (IV) and the trivalent actinoids americium Am (III) and curium Cm (III) from trivalent lanthanoids Ln (III), etc. with the use of an extractant having a functional group with neutral multidentate ligand activity which is a hybrid donor type organic compound having both of donor atoms, i.e., an oxygen atom and a nitrogen atom.

Currently, the PUREX process has found practical use as a method for separating and recovering plutonium from nuclear spent fuels (SF). This method is a method which comprises dissolving SF substances in a nitric acid solution, separating uranium (VI) and plutonium (IV) from nuclear fission products by the solvent extraction method using an organic solvent containing tributyl phosphate (TBP), and then separating plutonium (IV) from uranium (VI).
Americium (III) and curium (III), on the other hand, have so far been handled as high-level wastes, rather than reprocessed and recycled as has been plutonium (IV). Available as a method for separating transuranics (TRU) including americium (III) and curium (III) from high-level waste liquors is a wet separation process such as the solvent extraction method using CMPO (carbamoylmethylphosphine oxide), DIDPA (diisodecylphosphoric acid), or the like.
Further available is a method targeting a solution of nuclear spent fuels from a power generating reactor, the method comprising separating and recovering only uranium (VI) in a first extraction stage; separating and recovering all of the remaining actinoids, namely, neptunium (V), plutonium (IV), americium (III) and curium (III), in a second extraction stage; separately denitrating the resulting two actinoid solutions, i.e., a uranium(VI)-containing solution and an actinoid-containing solution; converting them into highly soluble oxide solids; and storing the oxide solids for a subsequent demand (see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-243890
Patent Document 2: JP-A-2005-214706

Method for selective separation of trivalent and tetravalent actinoids from trivalent lanthanoids using hybrid donor type extractant having functional group carrying active oxygen and nitrogen atoms


A display apparatus associated with a pair of glasses displays three-dimensional (3D) content. The pair of glass includes a transmitting circuit for establishing bi-directional communication with the display apparatus; and a proximity sensor, which is for sensing whether the pair of glasses is worn, controlling the pair of glasses, and for controlling whether to perform 3D display on the display apparatus. The display apparatus includes an image capturing apparatus, which is for capturing an image, determining whether the pair of glasses is worn, and for controlling the display apparatus and the pair of glasses according to a determination result. The display apparatus includes an image processing module for extracting two-dimensional (2D) content from the 3D content.

In modern information society, a large amount of various types of messages, information, news, knowledge, opinions, ideas, experiences and interactive contents are electronicalized to digital data contents, which are played by an image playback system to users. In order to enhance audible-visual (AV) experience, 3D content playback has become one of most important developing trends of future playback systems.

Display apparatus and associated glasses


A method of manufacturing an organic EL element according to the present invention comprises the steps of forming pixel electrodes (801), (802), (803) on a transparent substrate (804) and forming on the pixel electrodes by patterning luminescent layers (806), (807), (808) made of an organic compound by means of an ink-jet method. According to this method, it is possible to carry out a high precise patterning easily and in a short time, thereby enabling to carry out optimization for a film design and luminescent characteristic easily as well as making it easy to adjust a luminous efficiency.

An organic EL element is an element which has a configuration in which a thin film containing a fluorescent organic compound is held between a cathode and an anode. In the organic EL element, electrons and holes are injected from the respective electrodes into the thin film to generate excitons through the recombination of the electrons and holes. The organic EL element produces luminescence by utilizing emission of light (fluorescence or phosphorescence) at the deactivation of the excitons.
The features of the organic EL element is that it is possible to obtain a high intensity surface luminescence on the order of 100 to 100,000 cd/m2 at a low voltage of less than 10V, and that it is possible to produce luminescence of from blue to red y the selection of the kind of fluorescent material.
The organic EL element is drawing attraction as a device for realizing a large area full color display element at a low cost (see, Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) Technical Report, Vol. 89, No. 106, 1989, p. 49). According to the report, bright luminescence of blue, green and red were obtained by forming a luminescent layer using an organic luminescent material which emits strong fluorescence. This fact is considered to mean that it is possible to realize a high brightness full color display by using an organic coloring matter which emits strong fluorescence in a thin film state and has less pin hole defects.
In addition, in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 5-78655, there is proposed to use an organic luminescent layer containing a luminescent material which is formed of a mixture of an organic charging material and an organic luminescent material, thereby obtaining a high brightness full color element by preventing quenching due to higher concentration as well as expanding the latitude in the selection of the luminescent material.
Further, in Appl. Phys. Lett. Vol. 64, 1994, p. 815, it is reported that a white luminescence was obtained by using polyvinyl carbazole (PVK) as a luminescent material and doping it with coloring matters corresponding to three primary colors R, G and B. However, in neither of the above references, the configuration or the method of manufacture of an actual full color display panel is not shown.
In the organic thin film EL elements using the organic luminescent materials described above, in order to realize a full color display device, it is necessary to arrange organic luminescent layers which emit any one of the three primary colors for the respective pixels. However, there is a problem in that a polymer or precursor that forms the organic luminescent layer lacks a sufficient resistance to a patterning process such as photolithography, so that it is very difficult to carry out patterning with highly precision.
Further, when several organic layers are to be formed by a vacuum deposition method, it takes a long time. Therefore, such a method cannot be said to be an efficient method of manufacturing the element.

Method of manufacturing organic EL element, organic EL element and organic EL display device


There is provided an address generation apparatus for one of an interleaver and a deinterleaver in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) system. The apparatus includes an address pair generator for generating an address pair (n, P(n)) in real-time for one of an interleaver operation and a deinterleaver operation that includes inter-row permutation and intra-row permutation. The address pair (n, P(n)) is generated such that, for the interleaving operation, data to be interleaved are read out from the at least one memory device using the P(n) and interleaved data are written into the at least one memory device using the n. Further, the address pair (n, P(n)) is generated such that, for the deinterleaving operation, data to be deinterleaved are read out from the at least one memory device using the n and deinterleaved data are written into the at least one memory device using the P(n).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) and, more particularly, to an address generation apparatus for turbo interleavers and deinterleavers in W-CDMA systems.
2. Background of the Invention
Turbo codes are widely used in digital data transmission because of their high coding gain. A Turbo code is a built from a concatenation of two Recursive Systematic Convolutional (RSC) codes, linked together by an internal interleaver.
The internal interleaver is an important component in a Turbo encoder and greatly affects the performance of the Turbo code. Typically, a turbo interleaver is a block-type interleaver with inter-row permutation, intra-row permutation and pruning. However, other types of interleavers may be used for turbo codes including, for example, random interleavers. In a block interleaver, the data are read in by rows and form a matrix, with certain paddings if the data does not fill up the matrix. After permutations are performed within rows and among rows, the data are read out in columns with pruning of the paddings. A random interleaver rearranges the data using a randomly generated permutation pattern.
Commonly, interleavers/deinterleavers are implemented by using a memory device to store the address pattern of the interleavers/deinterleavers. However, in W-CDMA systems, the length of a Turbo code block can vary from 40 bits to 5114 bits. Hence, 5075 different address patterns need to be stored in the memory device, resulting in the need for a significantly large memory device that may not be practical.
Accordingly, it would be desirable and highly advantageous to have an address generation apparatus for turbo interleavers and deinterleavers that overcomes the above-identified deficiencies of the prior art.

Address generation apparatus for turbo interleaver and deinterleaver in W-CDMA systems


Example methods and systems for multicast packet handling based on flow cache information are described. In one example, a network element may configure flow cache information associated with a multicast flow. The flow cache information may specify a set of actions that is configured based on a sequence of function calls. In response to detecting a multicast packet associated with the multicast flow, fast-path processing may be performed based on the flow cache information. This may include executing a replication action to generate a first packet replica and a second packet replica. First processing action(s) may be executed to process the first packet replica to generate and send a first output packet towards a first multicast destination. Second processing action(s) may be executed to process the second packet replica to generate and send a first output packet towards a second multicast destination.

Virtualization allows the abstraction and pooling of hardware resources to support virtual machines in a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) environment, such as a Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC). For example, through server virtualization, virtualization computing instances such as virtual machines (VMs) running different operating systems may be supported by the same physical machine (e.g., referred to as a "host"). Each virtual machine is generally provisioned with virtual resources to run an operating system and applications. The virtual resources may include central processing unit (CPU) resources, memory resources, storage resources, network resources, etc. In practice, multicasting refers to the transmission of information from a source to a group of destinations simultaneously. It is desirable to improve the handling of multicast packets in the SDN environment.

Multicast packet handling based on flow cache information


A process for replicating a surface on a machine base support surface relative to a reference surface, comprising the steps of providing a reference surface on the machine base; providing a fixture having a surface; positioning the fixture surface over the support surface to a predetermined position in close proximity to the support surface so that a gap is maintained between the fixture surface and the support surface; adjusting the fixture surface relative to the reference surface such that the fixture surface is precisely parallel with the reference surface; filling the space between the fixture surface and the support surface with flowable hardenable substance; permitting the substance to cure; removing the fixture.

A machine tool such as a lathe has one or more movable cutting elements which operate on a work piece rotated by a spindle or headstock assembly. The headstock and the movable components are mounted to a base, which typically is made of metal, although cementitious materials are known.
The conventional machine tool base is a large bulky assembly to which the operating components are attached. The bedways on which the cutting elements move and the headstock support structure are typically manufactured from metal, such as steel or cast iron, and must be secured to the base. Positive securement of a fabricated metal component to a cementitious base requires that alignment be maintained with extreme accuracy for a machine tool that operates within extremely small tolerances. Grouting of the metal components to a cementitious base has been used in the past. However, grouting has some drawbacks, such as difficulty of accurately aligning the bedways due to the shrinkage forces generated by the grout during curing and the limited burial depth of the bedways into the cementitious base.

Machine tool assembly having replicated support surfaces


An infusion pump including an optical imaging and an RFID reading module connected thereto through a host interface. The optical imaging and RFID module comprises a system microcontroller that interconnects an optical image capture subsystem and an RFID subsystem preferably routed through a single interface to the infusion pump. This infusion pump controls operation of the optical imaging and RFID module through commands provided through the interface and, as a result, capable of obtaining data encoded on barcodes and RFID tags. The infusion pump, through the optical imaging and RFID module, may thus automatically retrieve patient data, pharmacological information, dosage amounts, etc. from barcodes or RFID tags applied to the patient, intravenous medication, and even medical staff.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to image capture and data collection systems and, more specifically, to a system and method for integrating radiofrequency identification and optical imaging with an infusion pump.
2. Description of Prior Art
Infusion pumps are important for the administration of intravenous (IV) therapy are designed to improve the accuracy and continuity of IV infusions by allowing nurses to program an hourly infusion rate and volume. Approximately 90% of hospitalized patients receive IV medications, a large portion of which are delivered by infusion pumps. Infusion pumps are often involved in one of the leading causes of medical injuries, referred to as adverse drug events. Most infusion pump-related errors occur because the pump is programmed with incorrect settings by the medical staff. For example, leaving out a decimal point or adding a zero when setting the infusion rate can easily result in a overdose. Alternately, infusion pumps may be inadvertently programmed to administer micrograms per kilogram per minute instead of micrograms per minute. Finally, there is no link at the bedside between the patient and type of drug being administered. Conventional infusion pumps thus lack the ability to independently verify the appropriateness of the manual programming performed by the medical staff to the patient at the bedside.
Recent attempts to overcome the limitations of infusion pumps involve the integration of "smart" infusion pumps with hospital patient and medical databases. Before using smart pumps at the bedside, a facility programs the pumps with its own specific data sets, or "profiles." These profiles specify the infusion requirements for different patient types and care areas, such as pediatric, adult, obstetrics, oncology, anesthesia, ICU, and post-anesthesia care units. Each profile includes a drug library that contains hospital-defined drug infusion parameters, such as acceptable concentrations, infusion rates, dosing units, and maximum and minimum loading and maintenance dose bolus limits, for 60 or more medications. The infusion pump will then alert the user if an infusion program is outside of recommended parameters, such as dosage, dosing unit (mcg/kg/min, units/hr, etc.), rate, or concentration. Although some infusion pumps are capable of communicating remotely with hospital databases, thereby avoiding the need for extensive programming prior to use, the risk associated with human entry of data remains.

Infusion pump having radiofrequency identification and optical imaging capabilities


Antibody molecules that specifically bind to APRIL are disclosed. The antibody molecules can be used to treat, prevent, and/or diagnose disorders, such as IgA nephropathy.

IgA nephropathy is one of the most prevalent, chronic glomerular diseases worldwide. Conservative epidemiological estimates cite a global incidence of approximately 5-50 cases/million (children) and 10-40 cases/million (adults). This incidence of disease presents a regional bias with a higher prevalence in Asia and the Americas, with a particularly higher disease burden in Japan and regions of China. Biopsy confirmed cases of IgA nephropathy in Japan are projected at approximately 350,000. In the US, this projection is approximately 100,000—as such, it is the most frequently diagnosed 1° glomerular disease in adults. While a relatively indolent disease, IgA nephropathy leads to end stage renal disease (ESRD), i.e., renal failure in 20-50% of patients within a 20-30 year span. These numbers are likely grossly underreported given the need to confirm the disease by kidney biopsy, a protocol that is variably practiced in various clinical settings. The disease has a complex pathogenesis with genetic, epidemiological, and potentially environmental components to disease etiology, pathology, and progression. It likewise has a variable clinical presentation ranging from asymptomatic to end-stage renal failure (ESRD). IgA nephropathy is caused by the deposition of IgA, typically in the form of immune complexes in the mesangium of the kidney. There are currently no disease-specific treatments to address primary disease or progression.
There is a need for developing new approaches for treating, preventing and diagnosing IgA nephropathy and other disorders that share similar disease mechanisms.

Antibody molecules to a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL)


A collar for a venetian blind has two generally rectangular rings or half rings, one fitting over the headrail and the other fitting over the bottom rail. A sidewall or pair of spaced apart sidewalls extend between the two rings or half rings, such that the headrail and bottom rail are maintained in a desired spaced apart relationship. That spacing corresponds to a distance between the headrail die cavity and a bottom rail die cavity in a cut-down machine. Consequently, the end of a venetian blind to which the collar is attached may be readily inserted into the cutting die of a cut-down machine.

Many home centers and other retailers of window covering products purchase venetian blinds in stock sizes from a blind manufacturer and display those blinds in retail store locations. These retailers have machines, called cut-down machines, which a salesperson or technician can use to trim a stock blind to fit a window, door or other opening having dimensions smaller than the dimensions of a stock blind. Typically, the customer provides these dimensions. For example, a customer may tell a salesperson that the dimensions of the window to be covered by the blind are 34 inches wide and 48 inches tall. The stock blind closest to those dimensions is 36 inches wide and 48 inches in length. Consequently, it will be necessary to cut two inches from the width of the stock blind to create a blind that will fit the customer's window. Because the customer usually wants each of the two ladders in a venetian blind of this size to be the same distance from the edge of the blind nearest the ladder, the retailer will cut away an equal amount of material from each edge of the blind rather than cut all the material from one edge of the blind. In the example, one inch would be cut from each edge of the blind. If the blind is too long for the opening, extra slats or other window covering material can be removed from the bottom of the blind. A cut-down machine is not used for this purpose.
There are several types of blind trimming machines known in the art. One type of blind trimming or cut-down machine has a set of cutting dies that act as the cutting mechanism for trimming a venetian type blind. The operator of these machines must insert the headrail into one die cavity, insert the bottom rail into another die cavity and insert the slats into a third die cavity. Examples of this type of machine can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,799,557 and 5,927,172 to Wang, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,806,394 and 6,196,099 to Marocco and U.S. Pat. No. 6,761,099 to Lin et al. In each of these machines the die cavities are in fixed locations relative to one another. Typically, an operator of the machine will remove the blind to be cut from its container and place the blind on a table adjacent the cutting dies. Then the operator will maneuver the headrail, slats and bottom rail until they are positioned within the appropriate die cavities. The machine may have an alignment guide to assist the operator in positioning the blind. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,172 Wang discloses an end stop having three recesses, which is positioned opposite the cutting die. The operator positions the headrail, slats and bottom rail within the appropriate recesses prior to cutting.
An operator can spend several minutes removing a venetian blind from its box and positioning the blind on the cut-down machine so that the headrail, slats and bottom rail are aligned with the appropriate die cavities. Consequently, the art has proposed boxes with removable end caps that can be used for venetian blinds such that the blind can be trimmed without fully removing the blind from the box. One example of such a container is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,793,073 to Tu. Since the headrail and bottom rail of the venetian blind are free to move relative to one another when partially within a container such as that described by Tu, an operator of a cut-down machine must still adjust the relative positions of the headrail, slats and bottom rail to align them with there respective die cavities in the cut-down machine. Consequently, there is a need for a collar that can be placed around a venetian blind to maintain the headrail, slats and bottom rail in relative positions that correspond to the die cavities in the cut-down machine. Such a collar may also restrain the blind from lateral movement within the box during shipping and handling. If such a collar were provided, then an operator of a cut-down machine could rapidly remove one end of a venetian blind from its container and easily insert the headrail, slats and bottom rail into their respective die cavities without handling each one individually.


An inductor includes a first core, a conducting wire, a second core and a first lead frame. There is an accommodating space formed on a first side of the first core and there is a recess portion formed on a second side of the first core, wherein the first side is opposite to the second side. The first core has a first height. The conducting wire is disposed in the accommodating space. The second core is disposed on the first side of the first core and covers the accommodating space. The first lead frame has an embedded portion embedded in the recess portion. The embedded portion has a second height. After embedding the embedded portion in the recess portion of the first core, a total height of the embedded portion and the first core is smaller than the sum of the first height and the second height.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an inductor and, more particularly, to an inductor adapted to be integrated with an integrated circuit (IC) chip by system-in-package (SIP) technology.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An inductor is a passive electrical component that can store energy in a magnetic field created by the electric current passing through it. An inductor's ability to store magnetic energy is measured by its inductance. Typically an inductor is a conducting wire shaped as a coil, the loops helping to create a strong magnetic field inside the coil due to Faraday's Law of Induction. Inductance is an effect resulting from the magnetic field that forms around a current-carrying conductor which tends to resist changes in the current. The number of loops, the size of each loop, and the material it is wrapped around all affect the inductance. For example, the magnetic flux linking these turns can be increased by coiling the conductor around a material with a high permeability such as ferrite magnetism.
So far there are various types of inductors disclosed in the prior arts. For example, a drum type of inductor is disclosed in Japanese patent No. 3-83909, another drum type of inductor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,477,122, and a compact power semiconductor package with stacked inductor and integrated circuit die is disclosed in U.S. published application No. 20090160595. In general, most of the conventional inductors are integrated with an IC chip by two manners depicted in the following.
The first manner is that a lead is extended from a lower core of an inductor so as to be welded on a welding foot of a circuit board. However, in order to keep specific structure strength, the lower core must have a specific thickness, such that the total height of the inductor integrated with the IC chip will increase.
The second manner is that an external lead frame is connected under a lower core of an inductor so as to be welded on a lead frame of an IC chip. However, the height of the external lead frame will make the total height of the inductor integrated with the IC chip increase.
Thus, if the inductance has to be kept in a specific value, the total height of the conventional inductor integrated with the IC chip cannot be reduced, such that it cannot be adapted to a thin design.


A vapor compression system having a compressor, condenser, receiver, evaporator, two liquid refrigerant tanks, a phase separator and a liquid refrigerant heat exchanger. The liquid refrigerant is pumped alternatively from one of the tanks through the heat exchanger using controlled valving such that there is no phase change and gaseous refrigerant is withdrawn by the compressor from the top of the phase separator.

In known refrigerators, the temperature of spaces or products stored in such spaces is reduced by using a cooling cycle through which an evaporable liquid coolant is circulated. The liquid coolant is introduced in at least one evaporator in which the coolant is evaporated at constant pressure and temperature. Accordingly, the heat content of the spaces or products to be refrigerated is always reduced by mere evaporation of the liquid coolant. This applies even to cases where the temperature of the spaces or goods to be cooled has to be reduced significantly. In such cases, the large temperature difference in the heat exchange performed results in loss of energy and thus, in poor efficiency.
According known measures that have been in use in the technical field concerned, in cases where the temperature of the spaces or goods to be cooled has to be reduced significantly, the energy consumption of the refrigerators applied can be reduced significantly by cooling performed at varying temperatures and/or by pre-cooling the liquid coolant to or at least near to its temperature of evaporation.
Hungarian Patent Specification No. 201141 discloses a method and a device for performing the same, where for reducing the energy consumption of refrigerators the condensed liquid coolant is introduced, for the purpose of its limited expansion, from a liquid collector of the device in a liquid recipient from which the expanding vapour phase of the coolant is being continuously removed by means of a piston-type reciprocating displacement pump. The vapour phase removed is being reintroduced in the path of flow of the circulated coolant at a location between a condenser and a compressor of the refrigerator. This results in that the amount of liquid coolant contained in the liquid recipient is cooled down, by means of limited expansion, to temperature values that are equal or at least near to the temperature of evaporation of the liquid coolant, and the cooled liquid coolant is introduced in the path of flow of the circulated coolant for evaporation. Since upon passing the throttle or feed valve arranged prior to the evaporator a liquid coolant the temperature of which is higher than the temperature of evaporation would always cool down without the reduction of its enthalpy that is associated with great losses of energy, by introducing a cooled liquid coolant in the cooling cycle as disclosed in the Hungarian Patent Specification No. 201141, considerable savings of energy can be realized.
Besides its significant advantages, the known method and apparatus according to Hungarian Patent No. 201141 show a number of shortcomings, too. The liquid coolant looses its pressure while passing the cooling device, and its pressure will be substantially corresponding to its low temperature. Because of this, either the use of a booster pump becomes necessary for its reintroduction in the cooling cycle, or the cooling has to be terminated well before reaching the temperature of evaporation. In addition to this, a liquid collector of enlarged volume has to be foreseen and used in the device because of the necessity of storing, at least temporarily, the liquid coolant content of the liquid recipient during its discharging. Finally, in contrast to conventional ones, larger capacity feed valves are needed for operation because of the reduced temperature difference upon coolant introduction.
The principal object of the invention is to provide an improved cooling method of reduced energy consumption whereby any known cooling apparatus that also includes a device for cooling a circulated liquid coolant, in a quasi-continuous mode of operation by means of its limited expansion, can be operated at improved economics.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved device for cooling a circulated liquid coolant by means of its limited expansion that would, due to improved process control and changes in design, be free of the shortcomings of the known device referred to further above.
It has been discovered that by combining the possibility of continuously producing a cooled supply of coolant in a refrigeration plant with the fact that the efficiency and thus, the energy consumption of a cooling process depends, with high significance, on the temperature difference of the cooling process, an improved utilization of the liquid heat content of the cooled liquid coolant can be realized for reducing, in an energy saving manner and at least initially, the relatively high temperature of spaces or products to be cooled.


An approach is provided in which a system under test is subjected to thermal cycling that include transferring the system under test between two different environments that generate two different ambient temperatures. In turn, a test system tests the electronic assembly in response to the electronic assembly being subjected to the thermal cycles.

The present disclosure relates to testing electronic components on electronic assemblies with large thermal mass. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to thermally stressing electronic assemblies by transferring the electronic assemblies between different environments that produce different ambient temperatures.
A business may employ sophisticated testing methods and techniques in order to reduce a product's time to market. Many of today's products are capable of operating under environmental extremes and for thousands of hours without failure. Accelerated testing allows a business to collect an increased amount of information within a given time period by subjecting a product to severe test environments compared to traditional test methods. These severe test environments may include higher temperatures, higher vibration levels, and/or an increased amount of temperature cycling.

Testing electronic components on electronic assemblies with large thermal mass


A mechanical seal has a housing having a collecting space for a coolant/lubricant medium. A sleeve is disposed in the housing. A counter ring is disposed in the housing and fixedly connected to the sleeve. A slide ring is disposed in the housing and interacts with the counter ring. At least one inlet conduit communicating with the collecting space is provided. The at least one inlet conduit is positioned between a radial bottom of the housing and a radial ring segment of the sleeve.

The invention concerns a mechanical seal comprising a counter ring and a slide ring arranged in a housing in which a collecting space for a coolant/lubricant is provided into which at least one inlet conduit line opens.
Mechanical seals are used, for example, in water pumps of automobiles. The mechanical seal must be embodied in such a way that it can be operated without the liquid to be sealed for a sufficiently long period. The heat generated in the sealing gap between counter ring and slide ring should not cause thermal damage of the sliding partners themselves nor should it cause thermal damage of the sealing components surrounding the sliding partners. So that in dry run conditions a sufficiently low sealing gap temperature is reached, special coal graphite materials which are relatively soft are used for the slide ring. However, such materials are not very resistant toward abrasive attack. The counter ring is typically made of a hard material, like SiC. Such a soft/hard sliding pair has therefore a lower life span than a hard/hard sliding pair in which the counter ring and the slide ring are made, for example, from SiC. Such sliding pairs however have relatively bad dry run properties. The mechanical seal is provided therefore with a collecting space in which coolant/lubricant is stored that imparts to the mechanical seal the required dry run permanence, even when a soft/hard sliding pair is used. The inlet conduit serves to transport coolant/lubricant from the receiving space of the pump to the collecting space of the mechanical seal.
The object of the invention is to embody a mechanical seal of the aforementioned kind in such a way that the inlet conduit can be provided in an easy manner in the mechanical seal. In this connection, the inlet conduit should be provided in such a way that the coolant/lubricant contained in the collecting space resides for a longer period of time in the collecting space when the mechanical seal works in dry run conditions.


A filter system for an air cleaner is provided according to an embodiment of the invention. The filter system includes a filter frame adapted to fit within the air cleaner and a filter assembly configured to fit to the frame. The filter assembly includes a top aperture and one or more filter panels. A filter panel of the one or more filter panels includes one or more panel edges and one or more interlocking tabs formed on the one or more panel edges.

Air cleaners and purifiers are widely used for removing foreign substances from the air. The foreign substances can include pollen, dander, smoke, pollutants, dust, etc. In addition, an air cleaner can be used to circulate room air. An air cleaner can be used in many settings, including at home, in offices, workrooms, etc.
In a prior art air cleaner, a filter is typically inserted directly into some manner of filter slot or filter receptacle in the air cleaner. However, this prior art approach has drawbacks. The stand-alone prior art filter may not be sufficiently rigid, and can flex and buckle under conditions of a strong airflow. In the prior art air cleaner, the filter generally fits somewhat loosely into a slide-in holder, grooves, etc., and therefore air can leak around the edges of the filter. The prior art air cleaner generally does not clamp or securely hold the filter. The prior art air cleaner cannot clamp or securely hold one or more filters. The prior art comprises a flat filter panel, with a limited surface area for airflow to pass through. The limited surface area of the prior art impedes the airflow, increases the power required to generate the airflow, and is more susceptible to clogging.


A device for handling profile parts, including a mechanism for linearly and/or axially positioning such parts perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the profiles, for conveying, for measuring, for controlling the cutting and/or for stacking such parts, with at least one supporting beam placed parallel to the longitudinal direction of the profiles wherein the beam is provided with a mechanism for picking up the parts, and wherein the device includes a mechanism for axially rotating the beam and a mechanism for linearly moving the beam in two or more directions perpendicular to its longitudinal direction.

The invention relates to a method and a device for handling profile parts. Metal and plastic profiles are in general produced in continuous rolling and/or extrusion processes; the obtained continuous profiles are then cut into profile parts, which have to be properly collected, stacked and bundled. Nowadays the stacking, bundling and packing of such profiles has often still to be carried out manually, certainly when complex shapes are involved, or when the profile of rather great lengths are involved, or when the profiles have to be stacked according to defined patterns for optimal packaging. Attempts to automate such processes have not been very successful up till now, whereby the main obstacle has shown to be the adaptability of the methods to the variable shapes, lengths, etc. of the profile parts.
Methods and devices for linearly and/or axially positioning longitudinal articles perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the articles, for conveying and/or for stacking said articles, are known from the state of the art, in particular methods and devices involving a supporting beam placed parallel to the longitudinal direction of the articles, provided with means for picking up said parts, and means for axially rotating said beam and means for linearly moving said beam in two or more directions perpendicular to its longitudinal direction.
Thus U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,101 discloses an apparatus for stacking and unstacking articles, involving a swivellable supporting beam comprising means for picking up the articles, and involving means for axially rotating said beam and means for linearly moving said beam in two or more directions.
UK patent 1 412 304 discloses a stacking device for steel profiles, comprising means for adjusting the vertical position of a support beam and means for pivoting magnets supported below said supporting beam through an arc of 90.
It is now the objective of the present invention to provide a flexible and versatile method and device for handling profile parts, which is capable of properly positioning such profile parts, according to axial and linear movements perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the profiles, and more particularly to provide an automated process able to handle (stack and bundle) the profiles according to a programmed pattern.

Method and device for handling profile parts