The present invention relates to a chemically defined medium for eukaryotic cell culture, comprising water, at least one carbon source, one or more vitamins, one or more salts, one or more growth factors, one or more fatty acids, one or more buffer components, selenium and one or more further trace elements and its use in the culture of cancer stem cells, in particular tumorsphere culture of cancer stem cells.

All types of stem cells share the hallmarks of self-renewal and the ability to differentiate into various terminally mature cell types. Since these mechanisms are tightly controlled in normal stem cells this potential is progressively lost during the gradual multi-staged differentiation process of stem cells towards terminally differentiated mature cells [1].
In 1863 the pathologist Rudolf Virchow was the first to propose the model of cancer stem cells (CSCs) stating that 'immature cells' represent the origin of cancer [2]. In 1997 Bonnet described a specific subpopulation of CSCs as 'cancer driver cells' in myeloid leukemia [3]. Recently, CSCs have been identified in various cancers including hematopoietic malignancies and a range of solid tumors [4].
In the cancer stem cell model of tumors, CSCs are defined as a small subset of anoikis-resistant malignant cells with the exclusive ability to self-renew and maintain the tumor. They can differentiate into a heterogeneous mass of non-tumorigenic cancer cell types, which usually constitute the majority of the tumor [5]. It is clear in this context that CSCs, despite their malignant phenotype, share common hallmarks of normal stem cells, assigning extraordinary biologic potential to these cells.
CSCs can separate from the primary tumor, travel and spread through the body where they may form secondary tumors (metastases) in distant organs. Metastases may develop quickly or over several years after seemingly successful treatment of the primary tumor. Traditional therapeutic approaches aim to eliminate as much of the tumor mass as possible by means of surgery, irradiation, chemotherapy and biologics. However, accumulating evidence suggests these measures target the more harmless, rapidly dividing cell mass of the tumor and do not eradicate the putative root of the disease—the CSCs.
It is believed that relapse is caused by quiescent CSCs that are able to evade current therapeutic regimens by using protective mechanisms mediated by their stem cell properties. Thus cancer research is now realigned, especially when exploring new clinical strategies to treat malignancies. CSCs are considered to be a new therapeutic target and it is believed that their elimination could lead to permanent remission or even cure. This might be achieved by direct eradication of the CSCs or by specific adaptation of CSC cell division from asymmetric to symmetric leading to elimination of the CSC population by blocking their self-renewal capabilities [5, 6]. For this to be achieved, biologically relevant culture systems are needed allowing for detailed characterization of CSCs.
It is common to all types of stem cells of human origin that characterization and assessment of their functionality for ethical reasons needs to rely on indirect methods.
Today various types of stem cells are well characterized and techniques to reliably identify these cells have been developed. As an example, for pluripotent stem cells the in vivo formation of teratomas in immunocompromised mice or the in vitro generation of embryoid bodies with differentiation into all three germ layers are used as alternative methods of pluripotency testing [7]. Testing for pluripotency marker expression patterns, e.g. Oct-3/4, Nanog, SSEA and Tra antigens is also currently widely accepted as an indirect proof of a pluripotent state (see [8] for review). Thanks to the recent advance of highly defined and optimized culture systems, today scientists are capable of completely defined/humanized derivation and unrestricted growth of pluripotent stem cells.
In contrast, biologically relevant culture systems for the sustained maintenance of CSCs, as a tool for the exploration of CSC biology and their reliable characterization, are still poorly developed. Therefore, as successfully demonstrated for multiple types of normal stem cells, various approaches have been undertaken to characterize CSCs based on marker detection. These include staining of intra- and extracellular molecules, as well as measuring the activity of certain cellular enzymes, such as aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH1) or small molecule transporters like the ABC transport system [9-11]. However, research is hindered by the heterogeneity of CSC in different cancers [5, 12], as well as a lack of specificity, consistency and correlation of established markers with functional CSC features, such as tumorigenesis [5, 13]. Thus, a robust, reliable, and notably holistic, marker based method for CSC detection and characterization has seemed a distant prospect. As a result, currently the greatest obstacle in CSC research is the isolation and purification of sufficient numbers of functional, homogenous CSC populations. These difficulties are exacerbated by a lack of biologically significant in vitro culture systems, which is in sharp contrast to the technical possibilities available for most other types of stem cells.
At present, CSCs can only be defined experimentally by their ability to recapitulate generation of a continuously growing tumor [5]. To date, the most accepted strategies for the analysis of CSCs are generally based on the detection of their basic functional features. These include typical stem cell properties, such as self-renewal and pluripotency, as well as specific hallmarks of cancer, such as serially transferable tumorigenic potential and anoikis-resistance. However, again the lack of a primary model system means that research is forced to rely on indirect readout generated by alternative model systems and tests. The gold standard functional in vivo assay for CSCs is the serial transplantation into orthotopic sites of immunocompromised mice. However, this is laborious and results can be difficult to interpret [5]. One of the most significant in vitro methods selectively exploiting a combination of inherent features of CSCs on an exclusively functional basis is the formation of serially passageable tumorspheres in a 3D suspension culture [5].
Comparable to a malignant tumor, the main cell mass of established cancer cell lines consists of more or less functional terminally differentiated cells with a tissue specificity depending on the type of cancer and tissue they originate of. Therefore, cancer cell lines are widely used in research as broadly accepted, well-defined model systems instead of primary cells for reasons of cost and a constant source of cells avoiding the limitations set by the finite lifespan of normal primary cells.
Indeed, these cell lines contain a small but stable subpopulation of CSC (driver cells) conferring infinite lifespan and proliferation potential to the culture. Thus, today cancer cell lines also represent the most important in vitro model and a well-defined cell source for cancer research, including CSC-targeted approaches [14-19; 27-28].
The two most prominent culture techniques used for these cell lines are:
1) The adherent 2D culture, mostly in standard basal media, e.g. DMEM or DMEM-Ham's F12 Nutrient Mixture supplemented with various amounts of fetal calf serum and eventually additional supplements [16].
2) The second important culture method is the 3D suspension culture as spheres (tumorspheres) employing non-defined but mostly serum-free media based on DMEM-Ham's F12 Nutrient Mixture [18-20].
The adherent 2D culture technique using non-defined media has several drawbacks with regard to CSC:
a) As demonstrated for several types of stem cells, the non-defined nature of these culture media may interfere with stem cell properties and preferentially support differentiation of stem cells, including CSC [21]. The 2D culture in non-defined media is therefore an appropriate culture method to obtain differentiated cells as a primary cell replacement but is an inferior culture method if the CSC subpopulation, which is usually <1% under these conditions, is the target of interest.b) Non-defined culture media are a potent source of experimental variation. The above mentioned media do not allow for a defined and controlled culture environment. Experimental procedures like cell isolations or drug-screenings to target CSCs may deliver falsified results due to effects of non-defined components of the culture media. In addition, cells may be significantly altered by such culture conditions [22].
The 3D suspension culture technique of tumorspheres was adopted from a method originally developed for the culture of primary neuronal cells as well as brain cancer cells, e.g. glioblastoma as so-called "neurosphere cultures" [23] which could be serially passaged and expanded while maintaining their stem cell pool (self-renewal) and differentiation potential. Thus, this culture method had already proven as a powerful in vitro model for the culture of multipotent neuronal (cancer) cells which helped to speed up exploration of this type of cells significantly.
The media established for these neurosphere cultures worked well in this application and were almost exclusively based on DMEM-Ham's F12 Nutrient Mixture and its variants supplemented with the proprietary B27® supplement (Life Technologies), Insulin, Transferrin, Sodium Selenite, Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF, FGF-2) as a core medium [23]. Eventually, further supplementation e.g. with albumin, hydrocortisone and/or heparin occurred. Since the 3D neurosphere culture technique selectively exploited the inherent biological features of neuronal (cancer) stem cells, e.g. anoikis-resistance and self-renewal capabilities on a merely functional level, it was obvious that this culture method might also prove useful for the culture of CSCs from other types of cancers sharing the same biological properties.
As a result, it was attempted to adopt the neurosphere culture system for other cancer cell cultures as a 3D tumor model system termed "tumorsphere culture" [18, 19]. Since tumorspheres structurally resemble small tumor-like structures and stem cell—as well as tumorigenic properties may be enhanced in this type of culture [20], researchers aimed to use tumorsphere-derived cancer cells instead of cells from 2D standard culture.
However, while the sphere culture method can exploit all afore mentioned technical and biological advantages in the culture of neural (cancer) stem cells, the tumorsphere culture of other cancer cell types still suffers from several shortcomings in this culture system:
1) Not all types of cancer cells cultures can form tumorspheres under these "neurosphere culture conditions" [24].
2) In sharp contrast to neurosphere culture, serial passageability of tumorsphere cultures is often only supported to a limited extend (3-5 serial passages) or even absent [24].
This implies that, as an unwanted effect, the driver cells, i.e. the CSCs, are lost in some way under these culture conditions. Despite these existing limitations, research requests to adopt the unique advantages of tumorsphere culture with regard to its favorable properties as an in vitro tumor model. Thus, scientists are often forced to use cancer cells derived from tumorspheres which have been freshly established from 2D culture or are in very low serial passage. However, cells derived from such degenerating tumorspheres might already be depleted of functional CSCs. In addition, it is very likely that cells in a freshly established tumorsphere culture cannot be compared with cells from a serial passage 10 tumorsphere culture, i.e. the freshly established tumorspheres in low passage would rather exhibit features of the cells from the original serum-containing 2D standard culture while cells from serially passaged tumorspheres in passage 10 will have acquired all the unique features mediated to stem cell populations by this sophisticated culture technique.
Since they trace back to the formulations of the classic neurosphere culture media, the established commercially available and published CSC culture media still share these strong limitations with regard to supporting the culture and maintenance of a broad range of cancer cell types/CSC.
CSCs are a heterogeneous and delicate group of potentially slow-cycling cells [25]. In addition to their stem cell properties, the genetic and metabolic aberrations inherent to cancer cells may be in part responsible for their extended media requirements. Indeed, it is well known that cells undergoing transformation to cancerous cells extensively adapt their metabolism [26].
DMEM-Ham's F12 Nutrient Mixture, as used for established CSC media, was traditionally used as a basis for the development of serum-free culture media and even some chemically defined formulations for several cell types. However, as observed in tumorsphere cultures, DMEM-Ham's F12 Nutrient Mixture cannot reliably fulfil the broadly variable requirements of the heterogeneous group of cancer cells in more defined formulations.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a chemically defined cell culture medium for culture of CSC containing cell populations as serially passageable tumorspheres.

Chemically defined medium for the culture of cancer stem cell (CSC) containing cell populations


In a display device according to the present disclosure, leader lines are led out from a display region to a leader region adjacent to the display region. In the leader region, metal portions are disposed between adjacent two of the plurality of leader lines with gaps. The gaps are formed between each of the metal portions and each of the adjacent two of the plurality of leader lines. A sealing layer covers display elements in the display region and covers the leader lines in a first sealing region of the leader region adjacent to the display region. A part of the sealing layer fills the gaps and adheres to each of the metal portions in the first sealing region.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a display device, and particularly to a display device having leader lines in a leader region in the surroundings of a display region.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flat display panels, such as a liquid crystal display and an organic electro luminescence (EL) display device, are widely used. In particular, the organic EL display device is of the self luminescent type, and thus has advantages such as not requiring backlighting, having a wide viewing angle, making it easy to reduce the thickness and power consumption of the display device, and having a high response speed. The organic EL display device is therefore attracting attention as a display to replace the liquid crystal display device.
A common organic EL display device has a structure in which a plurality of organic EL elements are arranged in matrix in a display region on a substrate and opposing substrates are disposed above and below the plurality of organic EL elements. Each of the organic EL elements has a panel structure in which a lower electrode, an organic material layer including a luminescent layer, and an upper electrode are laminated in this order.
Further, to supply a display signal and drive electric power to the plurality of organic EL elements arranged in matrix, a wiring group is disposed in the display region on the substrate. Wires of the wiring group are led out to a wiring leader region provided outside the display region, to thereby form leader lines.
Meanwhile, a material forming the organic EL elements is in general highly active and unstable, and easily reacts with moisture or oxygen in the air. If moisture or oxygen permeates a luminescent area inside the panel, therefore, characteristics of the organic EL elements deteriorate, causing a reduction in the life of the display.
In the organic EL display panel, therefore, it is necessary to seal the organic EL elements from the outside air.
As a sealing technique therefor, it is common to form a sealing film or the like to cover the plurality of organic EL elements. Further, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-86667, a technique is also known which superimposes a sealing film and a sealing insulating substrate upon each other on a display region formed with a plurality of organic EL elements, and seals the space between the insulating substrate and a glass substrate with a sealing agent in a leader region in the surroundings of the display region.


A high power, low loss RF strip transmission line coupling structure is provided. It includes a multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB), a top cover and a bottom cover. The top and bottom covers provide the ground reference for the strip transmission line coupling structure. The PCB is fastened to the top and bottom covers and is used for: creating the center conductor of an air dielectric strip transmission line and edge coupler; providing a means to transition from microstrip to air dielectric strip transmission line; supporting the air dielectric strip transmission line; routing of other signals; and passing ground to the top and bottom covers. To create an air dielectric strip transmission line, the PCB material is adequately removed to effectively form a rectangular bar of dielectric and metal layers. This rectangular bar is plated along the edges where the PCB material was removed to ensure that the top and bottom PCB metal layers are at the same potential.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to high power and/or low loss RF applications. More particularly, the present invention relates to high power and/or low loss RF applications where low loss, high performance coupling structures and a multi-layer PCB are required
2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Background Information
Directional coupling structures are well known in the art of RF design. These directional coupling structures are often used for sampling, combining or injecting signals. Directional couplers may be distinguished from other RF signal sampling, combining or injecting structures by their ability to sample (for example) power flowing in a particular direction while ignoring power flowing an opposite direction. A common metric for the directional coupler then is directivity—the ability of the coupling structure to distinguish between forward and reverse power flow. For a loose directional coupler to have high directivity, as is often required in RF systems, the even and odd mode wave propagation velocities must be equal. It is well known in the art that strip transmission lines utilizing a single type of dielectric are a good choice for implementing directional couplers with high directivity because the even and odd mode propagation velocities are inherently equal.
A strip transmission line comprises a conductor placed between two planar ground planes. If the conductor is suspended in the air between the ground planes, then the strip transmission line is often referred to as an "air dielectric strip transmission line." An air dielectric strip transmission line is an excellent choice for low loss and good directional coupler performance. However, suspending the conductor between the planar ground planes is often difficult to realize using conventional printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing techniques.
An air dielectric strip transmission line known in the prior art is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,712,607 to Dittmer et al. This structure provides low loss, but does not readily allow for a high performance (loose) directional coupler design. In particular, the odd mode propagation velocity will lag the even mode due to the dielectric material between edge coupled transmission lines. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,630 to Kenyon et al., adding capacitance to the even mode may help to equalize the propagation velocities and hence improve the directivity of the coupler. While the method of compensation described by Kenyon et al. does improve directivity performance of a directional coupler, it is difficult to achieve the desired level of performance. Further, design time is extended due to the often difficult task of compensating coupling structures.
Accordingly a need exists for an improved air dielectric strip transmission line structure which overcomes the above noted problems.

Low loss, high power air dielectric stripline edge coupling structure


An embroidery frame for a cap includes a cap support having a pair of side walls capable of being disposed at both sides of a cylinder bed so that the side walls are parallel to a direction of extension of the cylinder bed, a pair of body supports mounted on the upper ends of the respective side walls for supporting a cap, body, the side walls including a pair of visor supports mounted on upper ends of the proximal ends of the side walls, respectively. The visor supports receive a visor of the cap from below at a position located higher than the body supports, and a pair of visor escapes on the side walls for escaping the visor of the cap, respectively. A cap pressing frame mounted to be contacting with and departing from the cap support.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an embroidery frame for caps capable of sewing embroidery on a visored cap.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of embroidery sewing machines have conventionally been proposed and practiced in which an embroidery frame for caps is attached thereto so that various types of embroidery patterns are sewn on an embroidery part of a cap supported by the embroidery frame. For example, JP-A-H11-200228 discloses a cap frame device provided with a rectangular cloth carriage frame moved in X and Y directions on a work table. X-direction and Y-direction driving mechanisms are provided for moving the cloth carriage frame in the X and Y directions respectively. Further, a sewing machine body frame includes a sewing bed body to which a rear end of a support shaft is secured. A base frame of the cap frame device is supported on the support shaft. The base frame is moved via a link mechanism back and forth (in the Y direction) with the cloth carriage frame. A rotating frame for attaching the cap frame is rotatably mounted on the base frame. The rotating frame is rotated in synchronization with the right-and-left movement of the cloth carriage frame by a wire wound thereon.
Furthermore, JP-A-2000-334190 discloses an embroidery frame for caps including a flat plate-shaped frame body with a visor presser and a presser frame pivotally mounted on the frame body. A visor of a cap is inserted between the frame body and the visor presser. The cap body other than the visor is spread so that the embroidery sewing part becomes as planar as possible. The cap body is then pressed by the presser frame, and the inside of the cap is affixed to the underside of the frame body by a seal interlining.


Disclosed is a use of albiflorin or a metabolite thereof in preparation of antianxiety and sleep disorder improving drugs or health-care food. Tests prove that albiflorin has significant antianxiety effects and sleep disorder improving effects achieved by prolonging SWS and low the toxic side effects, thus being a safety monomer compound capable of effectively treating anxiety and sleep disorder.

In modern society, due to the increasing competition and the accelerated pace of life, more and more people suffer from anxiety and sleep disorder. The function of current sedative hypnotics and anti-anxiety drugs (such as the benzodiazepine class) is characterized by making insomniacs fall asleep quickly. Although the time of light sleep may be prolonged, two important kinds of sleep, slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement sleep (REMS), are damaged in varying degrees. Accordingly, the sleeping quality has not been really improved, and the phenomena of dizziness, fatigue, drowsiness, inattention and the like occur inevitably. Repeated administration may result in psychological and physical dependence. A new generation of anti-anxiety, sedative hypnotics (such as buspirone) has made much progress in improving the sleeping quality, and without obvious addiction. However, after administration, side effects of dizziness, headache, and gastrointestinal disorders may occur. Therefore, it is necessary to continue to seek and develop new medicaments for the treatment of anxiety and sleep disorder.
Albiflorin is a natural active substance categorized as monoterpene, with a molecular formula of C23H28O11 and a molecular weight of 480.46, and the molecular structure thereof is shown in Formula I. It is originated from the root of Paeonia lactiflora Pall, Paeonia veitchii Lynch or P. suffrsticosa Andrz of Ranunculaceae plants.

Albiflorin has a cyclic structure of lactone, but without a hemiacetal structure. It is converted under anaerobic conditions into two products, paeonilactone A and paeonilactone B, respectively. The structures of paeonilactone A and B are shown as Formula (II) and Formula (III), respectively:

Modern pharmacological studies indicate that Albiflorin has analgesic, anticonvulsant effects, immune system-related effects, smooth muscle-related effects, anti-inflammatory effect, effects against pathogenic microorganisms, and liver protection effect. Clinically speaking, it is mainly used for anti-epilepsia, analgesia, drug abuse rehabilitation, nausea-stopping, the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, the treatment of bacillary dysentery and enteritis, the treatment of viral hepatitis, the treatment of age-related diseases, the resistance to barium sulfate flocculation and mucus dissolution.
As stated in the prior art (Anping, ZHANG et al., Effects of total glucosides of paeony on sleep-waking rhythm in rats, Chinese Pharmacological Bulletin, 1993, 9 (6): 454), the total glucosides of paeony are active components extracted from Paeonia lactiflora Pall, including paeoniflorin, hydroxyl paeoniflorin, paeonin, albiflorin, benzoyl paeoniflorin and the like, wherein the content of paeoniflorin is more than 90% with respect to the total glycosides. Therefore, the pharmacological effects of the total glucosides of paeony are substantially represented as those of paeoniflorin, and the total glucosides of paeony have effects on the sleep-waking rhythm in rats. In other words, it is only recorded in the prior art that the total glucosides of paeony have effects on the sleep-waking rhythm in rats, but there in no teaching of the efficacy of albiflorin as a monomer compound for the treatment of anxiety and sleeping disorder.
By means of advanced separation and purification technology, the inventor extracts albiflorin, the active component for the treatment of anxiety and sleep disorder, from the root of Paeonia lactiflora Pall, with a purity of 50-99%, and the inventor makes pharmacodynamical and pharmacological studies of albiflorin and the corresponding pharmaceutical preparations thereof on the amelioration, treatment of anxiety and sleep disorder (especially the treatment of sleep disorder associated with depression). The results showed that the albiflorin monomer are of clear pharmacological effects for treating anxiety and sleep disorder, significant therapeutic effect, low toxicity and side effects, and high safety. Albiflorin may also make it possible to provide a highly effective and low-toxic medicament for patients suffering from anxiety and sleep disorder. In addition, the comparison between paeoniflorin and albiflorin in the improvement of sleep disorder is also performed. The experimental results showed that albiflorin is notably better than paeoniflorin (which is the main effective component of the total glucosides of peony for treating anxiety and improving sleep disorder) in the improvement of sleep disorder. The traditional view is corrected due to these results.
Health-care food, also called as dietary supplement, is an oral product or preparation containing nutrients, which are uptaken for the purpose of increasing the nutrient in addition to daily meals. It is not a drug, but a kind of food. However, it also differs from those on the table during three meals a day. "Health-care food" falls into the scope of food, but differs from that in the traditional sense. Its function is intended to supply nutrients in addition to daily meals, regulate body functions, and enhance physical fitness.

Use of albiflorin and metabolites thereof


An appliance for accumulating a viscid material from a pliant tube including a structural frame which defines a wedge-shaped channel having a major longitudinal open end and a minor longitudinal open end. The appliance may include a transversely pliant, longitudinally arcuate flap positioned laterally along the forward edge of the frame at the minor end of the channel for selectively compressing a tube operably retained with the appliance between the flap and a rear panel by pressing the flap towards the rear panel. The appliance is particularly well adapted for dispensing toothpaste from a standard toothpaste tube.

Many different devices have been developed for squeezing viscid materials from a pliant tube. These devices range from simple devices such as the one-piece clamp disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,787 to complex devices such as the electrical dispenser disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,773. The simple devices, while inexpensive, are generally difficult to operate and/or ineffective for completely squeezing the viscid material from the tube. In contrast, the complex devices, while generally easy to use and effective for squeezing substantially all the viscid material from a pliant tube, are relatively expensive and subject to malfunction.
Accordingly, a need exists for a simple, inexpensive device which is easy to operate and effective for completely squeezing the viscid material from a pliant tube.


First doped semiconductor regions having the same type doping as a bottom semiconductor layer and second doped semiconductor regions having an opposite type doping are formed directly underneath a buried insulator layer of a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The first doped semiconductor regions and the second doped semiconductor regions are electrically grounded or forward-biased relative to the bottom semiconductor layer at a voltage that is insufficient to cause excessive current due to forward-biased injection of minority carriers into the bottom semiconductor layer, i.e., at a potential difference not exceeding 0.6 V to 0.8V. The electrical charges formed in an induced charge layer by the electrical signal in semiconductor devices on the top semiconductor layer are drained through electrical contacts connected to the first and second doped semiconductor regions, thereby reducing of harmonic signals in the semiconductor devices above and enhancing the performance of the semiconductor devices as a radio-frequency (RF) switch.

Semiconductor devices such as field effect transistors are employed as a switching device for radio frequency (RF) signals in analog and RF applications. Semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrates are typically employed for such applications since parasitic coupling between devices through the substrate is reduced due to the low dielectric constant of a buried insulator layer. For example, the dielectric constant of silicon, which comprises the entirety of the substrate of a bulk silicon substrate, is 11.7 in gigahertz ranges. In contrast, the dielectric constant of silicon oxide, which isolates a top semiconductor layer containing devices from a handle substrate, is 3.9. By providing the buried insulator layer, which has a dielectric constant less than the dielectric constant of a semiconductor material in a bulk substrate, the SOI substrate reduces capacitive coupling between an individual semiconductor device and the substrate, and consequently, reduces secondary capacitive coupling between semiconductor devices through the substrate.
However, even with the use of an SOI substrate, the secondary capacitive coupling of electrical signals between semiconductor devices is significant due to the high frequency range employed in the radio frequency applications, which may be, for example, from 900 MHz to 1.8 GHz, and may include even higher frequency ranges. This is because the capacitive coupling between electrical components increases linearly with frequency.
For a radio frequency (RF) switch formed on an SOI substrate, the semiconductor devices comprising the RF switch and the signal processing units in a top semiconductor layer are capacitively coupled through a buried insulator layer to a bottom semiconductor layer. Even if the semiconductor devices in the top semiconductor layer employ a power supply voltage from 3 V to 9V, the transient signals and signal reflections in an antenna circuitry may increase the actual voltage in the top semiconductor layer up to 30V. Such voltage conditions induce a significant capacitive coupling between the semiconductor devices subjected to such high voltage signals and an induced charge layer within an upper portion of the bottom semiconductor layer, which changes in thickness and charge polarity at the frequency of the RF signal in the semiconductor devices in the top semiconductor layer. The induced charge layer capacitively couples with other semiconductor devices in the top semiconductor layer including the semiconductor devices that an RF switch is supposed to isolate electrically. The spurious capacitive coupling between the induced charge layer in the bottom semiconductor layer and the other semiconductor devices provides a secondary capacitive coupling, which is a parasitic coupling that reduces the effectiveness of the RF switch. In this case, the RF signal is applied to the other semiconductor devices through the secondary capacitive coupling although the RF switch is turned off.
To enhance the performance of an RF switch, reduction of signal coupling between the bottom semiconductor layer and the semiconductor devices in the top semiconductor layer is desirable. Further, reduction of harmonic generation through the signal coupling is desirable to enhance the performance of the RF switch.

SOI radio frequency switch for reducing high frequency harmonics

International Business Machines Corporation


Methods, systems, and apparatuses for unlocking a persistent region in memory are disclosed. An information handling apparatus includes a controller, a memory coupled to the controller, the memory having a persistent region that can either be locked or unlocked, and a firmware configured to determine whether the persistent region of the memory is locked, obtain a stored passphrase from a storage device if the persistent region is locked, and use the passphrase to unlock the persistent region of the memory.

Storage technologies in modern computers have developed drastically in recent years to provide more options to the computers for storing data. For example, Non-Volatile Dual In-Line Memory Module (NVDIMM) are being deployed in servers, and are compatible in physical interface with traditional Dual In-Line Memory Module (DIMM). Some types of NVDIMM offer two different modes, namely a memory mode in which the NVDIMM works like DIMM, where data is gone when the system is powered down, and an App Direct mode in which the data remains stored even when the system is powered down. In the App Direct mode, the NVDIMM behaves therefore like a conventional persistent storage device (e.g. a hard disk drive) and contains persistent region(s) to achieve persistent data storage.
As the NVDIMM contains persistent region(s) for data storage even when the system power is shut off, a locking function is provided to the persistent region so that an unauthorized attempt to access data in the persistent region(s) will be denied just like a secured hard disk drive. If the persistent region is locked, then the operating system (OS) cannot recognize and access this locked persistent region.
However, conventionally, to allow access to a locked persistent region (i.e., to unlock it), user intervention is required to complete the unlocking process. In particular, the user has to manually provide a passphrase used to lock the persistent region in order to unlock the same at the time of the system start-up. For example, the user could do the unlocking action in the firmware of the computer first, and then boot to the operating system with the unlocked state of the persistent region. Or, the user could boot to the operating system directly and then use a special tool to unlock the persistent region in the operating system. These manual processes not only increase the labor intensity of the user, but also decrease the operation efficiency of the computer system.

Information handling apparatus and method for unlocking a persistent region in memory

LENOVO ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.


A first light reflection surface (51) and a second light reflection surface (52) are formed on a lower half of a mirror block (50) in a state that these light reflection surfaces (51), (52) make 90 degrees therebetween. A first light reflection surface (51) and a second light reflection surface (52) are also formed on an upper half of the mirror block (50) in a state that these light reflection surfaces (51), (52) make 90 degrees therebetween. A third light reflection surface (53) and a fourth light reflection surface (54) are formed between the first light reflection surface (51) and the second light reflection surface (52) such that these light reflection surfaces (53), (54) make 90 degrees therebetween. According to this optical switch, by changing a region which reflects the light between the upper half and the lower half of the mirror block (50), the coupling relationship between an input optical fiber and an output optical fiber can be changed over.

In the field of optical communication, an optical switch is used for changing over an optical fiber transmission path or a light transmission/reception terminal device or the like. Views shown in FIG. 1(a) and FIG. 1(b) are a plan view and a cross-sectional view for explaining the structure of a main part of a 2×2 type optical switch which has been proposed conventionally. In this optical switch, a recessed portion 3 is formed in a flat-panel like switch board 2 and a first and second light reflection surfaces 4, 5 are formed on inner surfaces of the recessed portion 3 such that these reflection surfaces 4, 5 make an angle of 90 degrees. Further, an elongated resilient member 6 is formed on a bottom surface of the switch board 2 in a cantilever manner, wherein a distal end of the resilient member 6 having resiliency is fixed to a cubic movable reflection member 7. The movable reflection member 7 is arranged to be positioned in an inner corner portion constituted by the first and second light reflection surfaces 4, 5. Further, a third and fourth light reflection surfaces 8, 9 are formed on two neighboring surfaces of the movable reflection member 7. The resilient member 6 is configured, as shown in FIG. 1(b), bendable in the up-and-down directions and the movable reflection member 7 which is positioned in the inner corner portion of the first and second light reflection surfaces 4 is lowered more downwardly than the first and second light reflection surfaces 4, 5 along with the downward bending of the resilient member 6. Although not shown in the drawings, an electromagnet is arranged below the switch board 2, wherein when the electromagnet is energized, the resilient member 6 is attracted downwardly and hence, the movable reflection member 7 is lowered downwardly, while when the electromagnet is deenergized, the resilient member 6 is attracted upwardly and hence, the resilient member 6 returns upwardly whereby the movable reflection member 7 returns in front of the first and second light reflection surfaces 4, 5.
FIG. 2(a), (b) are views for explaining the changeover operation of the above-mentioned optical switch. In this example, a first input optical fiber 10 is arranged to face the first light reflection surface 4 in an opposed manner, a second input optical fiber 11 is arranged to face the fourth light reflection surface 9 in an opposed manner, a first input optical fiber 12 is arranged to face the third light reflection surface 8 in an opposed manner, and the second input optical fiber 13 is arranged to face the second light reflection surface in an opposed manner.
Here, when the movable reflection member 7 is elevated and is positioned in front of the first and second light reflection surfaces 4, 5, as shown in FIG. 2(a), a light 14 radiated from the first input optical fiber 10 is reflected on the first light reflection surface 4 and the third light reflection surface 8 and, thereafter, is coupled to the first output optical fiber 12. A light 15 radiated from the second input optical fiber 11 is reflected on the fourth light reflection surface 9 and the second light reflection surface 5 and, thereafter, is coupled to the second output optical fiber 13.
Further, when the movable reflection member 7 is lowered and is not positioned in front of the first and second light reflection surfaces 4, 5, as shown in FIG. 2(b), the light 14 radiated from the first input optical fiber 10 is reflected on the first light reflection surface 4 and the second light reflection surface 5 and, thereafter, is coupled to the second output optical fiber 13. The light 15 radiated from the second input optical fiber 11 is reflected on the second light reflection surface 5 and the first light reflection surface 4 and, thereafter, is coupled to the first output optical fiber 12.
Accordingly, in the optical switch having such a constitution, by elevating and lowering the movable reflection member 7 by driving the resilient member 6 with the electromagnet, the coupling destinations of the lights radiated from the first input optical fiber 10 and the second input optical fiber 11 can be changed over between the first output optical fiber 12 and the second output optical fiber 13.
However, in the optical switch having such a structure, since the first and second light reflection surfaces 4, 5 and the third and fourth light reflection surfaces 8, 9 are formed on different members (inner surfaces of the recessed portion of the switch board 2 and the movable reflection member 7), in an assembling step of the optical switch and at the time of coupling the optical switch and the optical fiber, the positioning of the respective light reflection surfaces and the optical fiber becomes extremely cumbersome and hence, these operations become difficult to perform.
To explain the above more specifically, it is as follows. First of all, in a state before mounting the movable reflection member 7 on the resilient member 6, the first and the second input optical fibers 10, 11 and the first and the second output optical fibers 12, 13 are arranged parallel to each other and, thereafter, as shown in FIG. 2(b), the positions of centers of four optical fibers 10, 11, 12, 13 are aligned with each other for every combination of inputting and outputting of lights such that the light 15 which is radiated from the second input fiber 11 is incident on the first output optical fiber 12 and the light 14 which is radiated from the first input optical fiber 10 is incident on the second output optical fiber 13 and, in a post center-alignment state, the respective optical fibers 10, 11, 12, 13 are fixed by solidifying them with an adhesive agent or the like. Next, the movable reflection member 7 is arranged in front of the second input optical fiber 11 and the first output optical fiber 12 and a position and an angle of the movable reflection member 7 are adjusted by moving the movable reflection member 7. As shown in FIG. 2(a), when the position and the angle of the movable reflection member 7 are adjusted with respect to the respective optical fibers 10, 11, 12 and 13 such that the light 14 radiated from the first input optical fiber 10 is incident on the first output optical fiber 12 and the light 15 radiated from the second input optical fiber 11 is incident on the second output optical fiber 13, the movable reflection member 7 is fixed to an upper surface of the distal end portion of the resilient member 6 using an adhesive agent or the like while holding the state.
However, in the state that the movable reflection member 7 is not yet mounted on the resilient member 6, the centers of the respective optical fibers 10, 11, 12 and 13 are aligned with each other and, thereafter, the respective optical fibers 10, 11, 12 and 13 are fixed. Accordingly, in the adjustment of the position and the angle of the movable reflection member 7 in front of the optical fibers 11, 12, the positional relationship among the optical fibers 10, 11, 12 and 13 cannot be changed and hence, it is difficult to adjust the position and the angle of the movable reflection member 7 with high accuracy. Further, when there exist irregularities with respect to the positions of the first light reflection surface 4 and the second light reflection surface 5, there also arise the irregularities with respect to the positions of the optical fibers 10, 11, 12 and 13 which are determined by reference to the light reflection surfaces 4, 5 and hence, the adjustment of the position and the angle of the movable reflection member 7 become further complicated. Accordingly, with respect to the optical switch having such a structure, before and after mounting the movable reflection member 7, it is necessary to adjust the positions of the optical fibers 10, 11, 12 and 13 and the position and the angle of the movable reflection member 7 in a trial-and-error manner thus making the assembling of the optical switch difficult.


An image reading unit includes an image sensor for converting light from a document into an electric signal, and a circuit board provided with the image sensor on one side. In the image reading unit, a heat dissipating member for controlling a temperature of the image sensor is attached to one side of the circuit board, and a shield member for reducing a noise is provided on the other side of the circuit board. The heat dissipating member and the shield member are connected by a heat conductive member. Also, the heat dissipating member is interposed between the image sensor and the circuit board.

The present invention relates to an image reading unit and an image reading apparatus using the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image reading unit in which a circuit board is provided with an image sensor for reading image data, a heat dissipating member for controlling a temperature of the image sensor is provided on one side of the circuit board, and a shield member for reducing a noise is provided on the other side and connected to the heat dissipating member via a heat conductive member.
As shown in FIG. 16, a conventional image reading apparatus for reading an image on a document with various sizes as image data includes a light source 86 for irradiating light to the document; a plurality of reflecting mirrors 83, 84, 85 for deflecting the light from the document; a condenser lens 87 for condensing the light reflected by the reflecting mirrors 83, 84, 85; and an image sensor 80 for detecting the light from the condenser lens 87. The light detected by the image sensor 80 is subjected to the photoelectric conversion, and then processed as the image data.
The image sensor for converting the received light into an electric signal reads the image with timing in synchronization with a clock signal with a predetermined frequency. Upon reading the image signal from the image sensor, noises in a frequency band including the clock signal frequency and frequencies with an integral multiple of the clock frequency are generated.
Therefore, in order to prevent the noise from leaking outside, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 05-347685 and Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 08-32762, a shield cover made of a metal is provided for covering a periphery of a circuit board.
However, the shield cover is provided to cover not only the circuit board to which the image sensor is attached, but also a larger area including a periphery of the circuit board and the lens, resulting in a large shield cover. Thus, there has been an example that the shield cover covers only the circuit board.
In general, as shown in FIG. 16, the image sensor 80 is attached on the circuit board 81 such that a position of the image sensor 80 with respect to an optical axis can be adjusted by screws or the like. Then, the circuit board 81 provided with the image sensor 80 is fixed to a frame 92 disposed in a chassis of an apparatus main body by using a fixing member 90 such that the image sensor can properly receive the light from the condenser lens 87. A screw 91 fixes the circuit board 81 at a proper position with respect to the condenser lens 87. Then, the shield cover 82 covers the circuit board 81 in order to prevent the noise.
Further, since the image sensor is formed of several millions of electric elements arranged on a silicon board to be a large scale integrated circuit (LSI), a large amount of electricity is consumed, and a heat generation rate per unit-hour becomes high. Especially, in recent years, the number of pixels of the sensor in the image reading apparatus has been steadily increased to achieve a higher-density and higher-speed image reading. The clock speed has been also accelerated in order to achieve higher-speed image data transmission. Consequently, as the image sensor generates more heat, a heat sink or heat dissipating plate needs to be attached to an outline package of the image sensor in order to dissipate the heat generated by the image sensor.
Therefore, in the conventional image reading apparatus, it is necessary for the circuit board to separately provide with a fixing and supporting member for attaching the circuit board to a frame of the apparatus main body, a shield cover for preventing the noise from entering the circuit board or shielding an external noise, and a heat dissipating member (a heat sink member) for dissipating the heat. Therefore, the number of parts increases, and a manufacturing operation becomes cumbersome, resulting in a higher manufacturing cost.
Also, a precise positioning is required for attaching the circuit board to the frame of the apparatus main body, so that a cumbersome adjustment operation is required.
The present invention has been made in view of the aforementioned problems, and an object of the invention is to provide an image reading unit and an image reading apparatus using the same, in which an image sensor and a circuit board are attached to a shield member for shielding and dissipating the heat, so that the number of the parts and manufacturing cost can be lowered while a position of the circuit board is easy to adjust.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.

Image reading unit and image reading apparatus using the same


Transitions between users at shared workstations that permit access to private health information or other secure data may be handled, without incurring unnecessary delays due to shut-down of all applications used by the departing user, by selectively hiding applications with sensitive information on a shared desktop while allowing temporary system access for the interrupting user.

As computer systems become ubiquitous in both the home and industry, the ability for any one individual to access applications and data has increased dramatically. Although such ease of access has streamlined many tasks such as paying bills, ordering supplies, and searching for information, the risk of providing the wrong data or functionality to the wrong person can be fatal to an organization. Instances of data breaches at many consumer-product companies and the need to comply with certain statutory measures (e.g., Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Child Online Protection Act (COPA), Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), etc.) have forced many companies and institutions to implement much stricter system access policies.
Healthcare regulations mandate that "protected health information" (PHI) be accessible only by a caregiver explicitly authorized to access the information. Computer systems used in the healthcare sector, therefore, require proper user authentication before granting access to and/or allowing alterations in PHI; this not only ensures patient privacy and safety, but also permits changes made to patient records to be audited later. User authentication and subsequent access to PHI (or other secure data) and/or to software applications utilizing such data is generally governed by well-known authentication sequences and access workflows. Challenges arise, however, in circumstances where multiple users share a workstation. In the event of a user transition, it may be necessary to prevent the new user from accessing or even viewing information utilized on-screen by the departing user.
One approach employed extensively in the healthcare sector, and which is derivative of the well-known desktop security model used with personal computers, involves security software that controls the workflow following a user switch to (1) prevent the new user from accessing the departing user's desktop, e.g., by shutting down all the applications launched by the departing user or otherwise disabling access, and (2) close the departing user's desktop and provide a new desktop personalized to the new user. Clearing and restarting the desktop introduces a significant delay due to the need for the operating system to release resources associated with one user before they are reallocated for the new user. These operations are generally tolerable between work shifts since initial log-in delays are common in most secure networks and occur only once. But the delays can be unduly disruptive in fast-paced environments, such as hospitals, where workers constantly move from one computer to another and control of a workstation must often shift on a frequent and unpredictable basis. For example, a treating physician may require immediate access to a patient's records, and will utilize the nearest workstation to obtain it; a long transition procedure inconveniences both the physician and the workstation user being "bumped"—particularly the latter if such interruptions occur often.
To reduce the delay associated with restarting a new desktop each time a transition occurs, hospitals use different strategies to isolate one user's applications from another. A common technique is to operate the workstation in a "kiosk mode" where a common desktop is shared by all users using a generic system account with limited access to system functionalities. Users in this kiosk mode log on via a "screen-saver" application that, upon a user switch, locks the desktop and shuts down (or logs the departing user off) all applications before unlocking the generic desktop for the new user; the screen saver provides a log-on screen similar to that provided by the operating system. Eliminating the need to switch "ownership" of the desktop reduces system delays, and each new user starts with a pristine instance of the shared desktop (since all applications started by the previous user are terminated).
A second technique relies on running the user's session on a back-end server and delivering a "virtualized desktop" to the workstation using a terminal emulation program (such as CITRIX RECEIVER, VMWare VIEW or Microsoft RDP). Upon a user switch, the screen-saver program disconnects the terminal emulation program from one server session (blocking user access) and then reconnects the emulator to another user's session. Since a user's session is never terminated—it runs on the back-end server—this approach allows the user to roam from one device to another while maintaining the state of all applications she is running.
While both of these approaches reduce delay relative to full shut-down and restart operations, they still take time, and therefore are better suited to long-term transitions (e.g., between shifts) than to handling priority interruptions in which a computer being used by one user must be quickly (and briefly) relinquished to another user for a critical task. With either of the conventional approaches described above, the interrupted user, on giving up the computer, still needs to log off (possibly losing work with active applications) before allowing the interrupting user to log in. All of these operations take time and induce frustration in circumstances involving frequent, temporary workstation transfers.

Secure access supersession on shared workstations


An ultrasonic imaging system includes an ultrasonic probe for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave, a driver unit for driving the ultrasonic probe, a detector unit for detecting an echo signal received by the ultrasonic probe, a filter unit operative to pass a detection signal from the detector unit and having a plurality of passbands which have respective flat frequency response characteristics and respective gains different from each other, a scanning conversion unit for converting the detection signal, which has passed through the filter unit, to a display signal to be displayed on a television, etc., and a display unit receiving the display signal from the scanning conversion unit to display it as a tomographic image. The filter unit operates to decrease respective amplitudes of high frequency components contained in the detection signal and to reduce a difference in brightness between adjacent scanning lines of the display unit, and flat frequency response characteristics of the filter unit prevent deterioration of frequency response characteristics of the detection signal. This makes it possible to produce a tomographic image of high resolution up to the resolution limit of the scanning lines of the display unit without impairing the image quality.

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic imaging system for visualizing the structure and movement in a living body.
FIG. 1 shows a construction of a conventional ultrasonic imaging system. In FIG. 1, an ultrasonic probe 51 converts a pulse signal into an ultrasonic signal, transmits the converted ultrasonic signal to an object under measurement, receives an echo signal from the object under measurement, and converts the echo signal into an electrical signal. Driver means 52 generates the pulse signal and supplies it to the ultrasonic probe 51. An amplifier 53 amplifies the echo signal returning from the object under measurement and received by the ultrasonic probe 51. Logarithmic conversion (compression) means 54 performs logarithmic conversion of the amplitude of the echo signal amplified by the amplifier 53. Detector means 55 performs AM detection of the logarithmically compressed echo signal and detects an envelope of the echo signal. Scanning conversion means 56 composed of an A/D converter 56a, a memory 56b and a D/A converter 56c, takes in a detection signal of the echo signal, which has been AM detected by the detector means 55, and converts the detection signal to an image signal according to a TV system represented by the NTSC system to form a two-dimensional tomographic image. Display means 57 such as a television displays a tomographic image indicating inner portions of the object under measurement. Generally, a low-pass filter for preventing generation of an aliasing noise on the basis of the sampling theorem is provided at an input portion of the A/D converter 56a. However, this low-pass filter is different from filter means of the present invention, and it is not illustrated here in order to simplify the explanation of the present invention.
With respect to the above-described construction, the operation thereof will be described hereunder.
The ultrasonic probe 51 is driven by a pulse signal generated by the driver means 52 to perform transmitting and receiving operations by transmitting an ultrasonic pulse, while performing a scanning operation with the transmitted ultrasonic pulse, and by receiving an echo signal returning from a tomographic plane in an object under measurement. The echo signal thus obtained is amplified by the amplifier 53 and its amplitude is subjected to logarithmic conversion by the logarithmic conversion (compression) means 54. The logarithmically converted echo signal is subjected to AM detection by the detector means 55 so that the detection signal represents an envelope of the echo signal, and the detection signal is outputted to the scanning conversion means 56. The detection signal is converted to a digital signal by the A/D converter 56a of the scanning conversion means 56, and the A/D conversion signal is written in the memory 56b. Since an address of the memory 56b, in which the A/D conversion signal data is written, is made to correspond to a position of the portion of the object under measurement from which the echo signal has been generated, tomographic image information of the object under measurement is stored in the memory 56b, being arranged two-dimensionally therein. The tomographic image information stored in the memory 56b is subjected to D/A conversion by the D/A converter 56c so as to comply with the television display system for the display means 57 and is outputted to the display means 57, whereby a tomographic image is displayed on the display means 57.
As described above, in the conventional ultrasonic imaging system, the ultrasonic probe 51 performs transmitting and receiving operations of an ultrasonic pulse, while performing a scanning operation, to thereby obtain a tomographic image of portions of an object under measurement.
In the conventional ultrasonic imaging system, however, an image displayed on a television display used as the display means 57 is represented by the scanning line. Accordingly, the resolution of an image which can be displayed is determined by the television scanning line. In addition, even if the resolution of an image is retained within a resolution limit, when displaying a tomographic image of a fine composition which is near the resolution limit, a difference in brightness between adjacent television scanning lines is increased due to a high spatial frequency of the tomographic image. As a result, it becomes impossible to represent intermediate brightness, which raises a problem that the quality of a diagnostic image is deteriorated significantly.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A method of charging a battery of a device using a battery of a computer powered by the battery, in which the procedure is implemented by a circuit independent of the computer's processors. The method includes supplying a power supply voltage, insufficient to charge a battery, to a computer port, as long as a device is detected as connected to the port, controlling the supply of a charging voltage to the port, while supplying charging voltage to the port, detecting an end of charging condition of a battery of the device, and controlling the cutting off of the charging voltage to the port if the end of charging condition is detected, where this condition is determined according to the intensity of a charging current and according to a quantity of electrical charge supplied to the port and/or of a charging period.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to devices used for charging portable devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
A large variety of portable devices has recently appeared on the market, such as laptop computers, notepads, mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, music and video players, cameras and video cameras. The common features of these devices are that they can all be battery-operated and have compatible connection interfaces allowing them to be connected to a computer, laptop or other, especially for exchanging data. The most commonly used connection interfaces are USB (Universal Serial Bus) and IEEE 1394 ("Firewire").
A proposal has therefore been made to charge the batteries of these small portable devices through these connection interfaces with the device connected to a computer. This charging method is possible even with a laptop computer not connected to a charger, in other words, operating on its battery, since the latter is significantly larger than that of a device like a mobile telephone.
In some laptop computer configurations, the connection interface feeds power supply and/or charging voltage to a connected device, regardless of the power status of the laptop computer, and especially even if it is not switched on. In other laptop computer configurations, especially in the case of notepads or so-called "ultraportable" computers, the connection interface is set to a low power mode in which it only supplies low power supply voltage without enabling any charging of a device, or only charging of devices powered by very small batteries. In both of these configurations, an interface control circuit may or may not have detected the presence of a connected device. The connected device decides autonomously to stop the charging process, but does not usually provide the charger with any information concerning this status change. Only devices operating an energy management protocol can supply this information, and this information is only used if the computer supplying the charging voltage is not in standby mode.

Procedure for charging a portable device using a battery-operated computer

STMicroelectronics Design and Application S.R.O.


A transmission system for a vehicle includes an automatic transmission configured to automatically change speed ratios between an input member and an output member. An indicator is configured to provide an indication of predetermined speed ratio changes to a driver inside a passenger compartment. A corresponding method is also provided. The method includes establishing a speed ratio, determining that a speed ratio change is appropriate, and generating an indication perceptible to a driver.

Prior art vehicles include automatic transmissions that simplify vehicle operation by changing speed ratios, i.e., "shifting," automatically based on such factors as vehicle speed, engine speed, and throttle position. Thus, the driver has some influence over when the transmission shifts via the accelerator pedal, but has limited direct control over the timing of the shift.
Although the driver may have no need to know when a shift is occurring in typical vehicle operation, there may be instances where awareness of an automatic shift is desirable. For example, some high-performance vehicles have a transmission controller that is programmed to make an automatic transmission behave more like a manual transmission under certain predefined driving scenarios. More specifically, one vehicle controller is programmed to detect if the vehicle is going around a turn by evaluating the lateral vehicle acceleration, throttle, and braking history. With positive detection, the controller is programmed to command a downshift from the transmission so that the vehicle will respond with power when the throttle tip-in occurs upon completion of the turn.

Transmission shift indicator apparatus and method


A method for combining transfer functions with predetermined key creation. In one embodiment, digital information, including a digital sample and format information, is protected by identifying and encoding a portion of the format information. Encoded digital information, including the digital sample and the encoded format information, is generated to protect the original digital information. In another embodiment, a digital signal, including digital samples in a file format having an inherent granularity, is protected by creating a predetermined key. The predetermined key is comprised of a transfer function-based mask set to manipulate data at the inherent granularity of the file format of the underlying digitized samples.

Increasingly, commercially valuable information is being created and stored in "digital"form. For example, music, photographs and video can all be stored and transmitted as a series of numbers, such as 1's and 0's. Digital techniques let the original information be recreated in a very accurate manner. Unfortunately, digital techniques also let the information be easily copied without the information owner's permission.
Because unauthorized copying is clearly a disincentive to the digital distribution of valuable information, it is important to establish responsibility for copies and derivative copies of such works. For example, if each authorized digital copy of a popular song is identified with a unique number, any unauthorized copy of the song would also contain the number. This would allow the owner of the information, such as a song publisher, to investigate who made the unauthorized copy. Unfortunately, it is possible that the unique number could be erased or altered if it is simply tacked on at the beginning or end of the digital information.
As will be described, known digital "watermark" techniques give creators and publishers of digitized multimedia content localized, secured identification and authentication of that content. In considering the various forms of multimedia content, such as "master," stereo, National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) video, audio tape or compact disc, tolerance of quality will vary with individuals and affect the underlying commercial and aesthetic value of the content. For example, if a digital version of a popular song sounds distorted, it will be less valuable to users. It is therefore desirable to embed copyright, ownership or purchaser information, or some combination of these and related data, into the content in a way that will damage the content if the watermark is removed without authorization.
To achieve these goals, digital watermark systems insert ownership information in a way that causes little or no noticeable effects, or "artifacts," in the underlying content signal. For example, if a digital watermark is inserted into a digital version of a song, it is important that a listener not be bothered by the slight changes introduced by the watermark. It is also important for the watermark technique to maximize the encoding level and "location sensitivity" in the signal to force damage to the content signal when removal is attempted. Digital watermarks address many of these concerns, and research in the field has provided extremely robust and secure implementations.
What has been overlooked in many applications described in the art, however, are systems which closely mimic distribution of content as it occurs in the real world. For instance, many watermarking systems require the original un-watermarked content signal to enable detection or decode operations. These include highly publicized efforts by NEC, Digimarc and others. Such techniques are problematic because, in the real world, original master copies reside in a rights holders vaults and are not readily available to the public.
With much activity overly focused on watermark survivability, the security of a digital watermark is suspect. Any simple linear operation for encoding information into a signal may be used to erase the embedded signal by inverting the process. This is not a difficult task, especially when detection software is a plug-in freely available to the public, such as with Digimarc. In general, these systems seek to embed cryptographic information, not cryptographically embed information into target media content.
Other methods embed ownership information that is plainly visible in the media signal, such as the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,739 to Braudaway et al. The system described in Braudaway protects a digitized image by encoding a visible watermark to deter piracy. Such an implementation creates an immediate weakness in securing the embedded information because the watermark is plainly visible. Thus, no search for the embedded signal is necessary and the watermark can be more easily removed or altered. For example, while certainly useful to some rights owners, simply placing the symbol "©" in the digital information would only provide limited protection. Removal by adjusting the brightness of the pixels forming the "©" would not be difficult with respect to the computational resources required.
Other relevant prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,210 and 5,073,925 to Nagata et al., which encodes information by modulating an audio signal in the amplitude/time domain. The modulations introduced in the Nagata process carry a "copy/don't copy" message, which is easily found and circumvented by one skilled in the art. The granularity of encoding is fixed by the amplitude and frequency modulation limits required to maintain inaudibility. These limits are relatively low, making it impractical to encode more information using the Nagata process.
Although U.S. Pat. No. to prevent collusion attacks in digital watermarks, the disclosed method may not actually provide the security described. For-example, in cases where the watermarking technique is linear, the "insertion envelope" or "watermarking space" is well-defined and thus susceptible to attacks less sophisticated than collusion by unauthorized parties. Over-encoding at the watermarking encoding level is but one simple attack in such linear implementations. Another consideration not made by Leighton is that commercially-valuable content may already exist in a un-watermarked form somewhere, easily accessible to potential pirates, gutting the need for any type of collusive activity. Digitally signing the embedded signal with preprocessing of watermark data is more likely to prevent successful collusion. Furthermore, a "baseline" watermark as disclosed is quite subjective. It is simply described elsewhere in the art as the "perceptually significant" regions of a signal. Making a watermarking function less linear or inverting the insertion of watermarks would seem to provide the same benefit without the additional work required to create a "baseline" watermark. Indeed, watermarking algorithms should already be capable of defining a target insertion envelope or region without additional steps. What is evident is the Leighton patent does not allow for initial prevention of attacks on an embedded watermark as the content is visibly or audibly unchanged.
It is also important that any method for providing security also function with broadcasting media over networks such as the Internet, which is also referred to as "streaming." Commercial "plug-in" products such as RealAudio and RealVideo, as well as applications by vendors VDONet and Xtreme, are common in such network environments. Most digital watermark implementations focus on common file base signals and fail to anticipate the security of streamed signals. It is desirable that any protection scheme be able to function with a plug-in player without advanced knowledge of the encoded media stream.
Other technologies focus solely on file-based security. These technologies illustrate the varying applications for security that must be evaluated for different media and distribution environments. Use of cryptolopes or cryptographic containers, as proposed by IBM in its Cryptolope product, and InterTrust, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,827,508, 4,977,594, 5,050,213 and 5,410,598, may discourage certain forms of piracy. Cryptographic containers, however, require a user to subscribe to particular decryption software to decrypt data. IBM's InfoMarket and InterTrust's DigiBox, among other implementations, provide a generalized model and need proprietary architecture to function. Every user must have a subscription or registration with the party which encrypts the data. Again, as a form of general encryption, the data is scrambled or encrypted without regard to the media and its formatting. Finally, control over copyrights or other neighboring rights is left with the implementing party, in this case, IBM, InterTrust or a similar provider.
Methods similar to these "trusted systems" exist, and Cerberus Central Limited and Liquid Audio, among a number of companies, offer systems which may functionally be thought of as subsets of IBM and InterTrust's more generalized security offerings. Both Cerberus and Liquid Audio propose proprietary player software which is registered to the user and "locked" in a manner parallel to the locking of content that is distributed via a cryptographic container. The economic trade-off in this model is that users are required to use each respective companies' proprietary player to play or otherwise manipulate content that is downloaded. If, as is the case presently, most music or other media is not available via these proprietary players and more companies propose non-compatible player formats, the proliferation of players will continue. Cerberus and Liquid Audio also by way of extension of their architectures provide for "near-CD quality" but proprietary compression. This requirement stems from the necessity not to allow content that has near-identical data make-up to an existing consumer electronic standard, in Cerberus and Liquid Audio's case the so-called Red Book audio CD standard of 16 bit 44.1 kHz, so that comparisons with the proprietary file may not yield how the player is secured. Knowledge of the player's file format renders its security ineffective as a file may be replicated and played on any common player, not the intended proprietary player of the provider of previously secured and uniquely formatted content. This is the parallel weakness to public key crypto-systems which have gutted security if enough plain text and cipher text comparisons enable a pirate to determine the user's private key.
Many approaches to digital watermarking leave detection and decoding control with the implementing party of the digital watermark, not the creator of the work to be protected. A set of secure digital watermark implementations address this fundamental control issue forming the basis of key-based approaches. These are covered by the following patents and pending applications, the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 5,613, 004 entitled "Steganographic Method and Device" and its derivative U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/775,216 (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,236 on Nov. 11, 1997), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/587,944 entitled "Human Assisted Random Key Generation and Application for Digital Watermark System," (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,432 on Oct. 13, 1998) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/587,943 entitled "Method for Stega-Cipher Protection of Computer Code," (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,569 on Apr. 28, 1998) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/677,435 entitled "Optimization Methods for the Insertion, Protection, and Detection of Digital Watermarks in Digitized Data," (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,889,868 on Jul. 2, 1996) and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/772,222 entitled "Z-Transform Implementation of Digital Watermarks" (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,078,664 on Jun. 20, 2000) Public key crypto-systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,770, 4,218,582, 4,405,829 and 4,424,414, the entire disclosures of which are also hereby incorporated by reference.
In particular, an improved protection scheme is described in "Method for Stega-Cipher Protection of Computer Code," U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/587,943 (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,569 on Apr. 28, 1998). This technique uses the key-based insertion of binary executable computer code within a content signal that is subsequently, and necessarily, used to play or otherwise manipulate the signal in which it is encoded. With this system, however, certain computational requirements, such as one digital player per digital copy of content, may be necessitated. For instance, a consumer may download many copies of watermarked content. With this technique, the user would also be downloading as many copies of the digital player program. While this form of security may be desirable for some applications, it is not appropriate in many circumstances.
Finally, even when digital information is distributed in encoded form, it may be desirable to allow unauthorized users to play the information with a digital player, perhaps with a reduced level of quality. For example, a popular song may be encoded and freely distributed in encoded form to the public. The public, perhaps using commonly available plug-in digital players, could play the encoded content and hear the music in some degraded form. The music may-sound choppy, or fuzzy or be degraded in some other way. This lets the public decide, based on the available lower quality version of the song, if they want to purchase a key from the publisher to decode, or "clean-up," the content. Similar approaches could be used to distribute blurry pictures or low quality video. Or even "degraded" text, in the sense that only authenticated portions of the text can be determined with the predetermined key or a validated digital signature for the intended message.
In view of the foregoing, it can be appreciated that a substantial need exists for a method allowing encoded content to be played, with degraded quality, by a plug-in digital player, and solving the other problems discussed above.

Method for combining transfer functions with predetermined key creation


A holder for removably supporting a compact disc or other object with a hole in the center. The compact disc is supported by at least two arms which are held on a flexible step. The arms have an outwardly extending protrusion which holds the compact disc in place. When it is desired to remove the disc the arms are pressed from above and they hingedly move together and cause the compact disc to pop upwardly from the arms.

The field of the invention is devices for holding compact discs or other flat typically circular objects with a circular opening. Compact discs or laser discs are increasing in popularity. They have reached a dominant position in the recorded music area and are rapidly growing in the field of computer data and computer program storage and retrieval. The typical compact disc has an outside diameter somewhat over 41/2". A currently dominant package for holding compact discs is referred to as a "jewel case". The compact disc is held by a plurality of cantilevered arms and one patent showing such holder is U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,888. Attempts have been made to provide a low cost disc holder and one that permits the user to remove the disc by pressing in the center of the holder. One such approach is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,252 where a central hub 20 basically in the shape of a flat topped dome may be depressed to facilitate the removal of the disc. The device is designed so that the central hub is supported both from below and from above in a receptacle.