1. Field of the Art
This invention relates to niobium-containing weldable structural steel having good weldability. More specifically, the present invention relates to a niobium-containing weldable structural steel having yield strength of 40-70 kg/mm.sup.2 prepared by providing a niobium-containing steel with a predetermined composition so as to improve toughness in the weld heat affected zone and resistance to weld cracking.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When added in a small amount to steel, niobium improves the strength and toughness of steel, and is an economically advantageous element. It is for this reason that a niobium-containing steel (hereinafter referred to as "Nb-containing steel") has gained a wide application as a weldable structural steel for pipe lines, ship-building, pressure containers, bridges and the like. Among numerous applications of the Nb-containing steel, the detailed description is hereby presented about line pipe steels used in specifically great quantities. Nb-containing non-quenched tempered high tensile strength steel has conventionally been used in great quantities for pipe lines for transporting crude oil and natural gas. However, the pipe lines that have so far been laid down have a small pipe diameter and low inner pressure and are used at a relatively high temperature of not lower than about 0.degree. C. Hence, requirement for toughness in the weld heat affected zone has not been much serious.
As laying of pipe lines has gradually been concentrated on the ultra-cold region such as in U.S.S.R., Canada, U.S.A., etc. and the material transported has also been changed gradually from crude oil to natural gas, however, an unexpected problem has come to the front. The conventional Nb-containing steel for pipe line causes embrittlement of the weld heat affected zone (HAZ) in the seam weld portion at the time of steel making and hence, fails to ensure sufficient toughness to withstand the use in such regions. As countermeasures, a multiple-electrode submerged arc welding process of a low restricted weld heat input or a MIG welding process has been examined on one hand in the aspect of the welding process, in order to mitigate the influence of the welding heat. Research and development has been made on the other hand in the aspect of the steel material to be used, in order to obtain a steel having such a composition of economical components that does not cause degradation of the weld heat affected zone. With regard to the properties of the steel material especially, the most desirable steel would be one that does not cause embrittlement of the weld heat affected zone and yet exhibits good notch toughness even when welding of a large weld heat input such as one side welding or both side welding with one or two layers (not more than three passes in each weld groove) is carried out in order to improve the welding efficiency and reduce the cost of production of the pipe. At the same time, the steel must satisfy a specific requirement of low weld crack sensitivity for the purpose of preventing cracks of the weld portion because when the on-the-site welding is effected in the cold zone, a high cellulose type electrode of a high hydrogen content is generally employed without preheating of the pipe in the low temperature atmosphere.
It has been a pressing need for those concerned in the art to develop a steel strip for a line pipe which simultaneously satisfies the abovementioned requirements, i.e., to have excellent toughness in the weld heat affected zone and to be less hardenable and excellent in its resistance to weld cracking.
Incidentally, the following U.S. patents are located as the prior art most relevant to the present invention;
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,592,633, 3,807,990, 3,619,303, 3,725,049, 3,721,587 and 3,132,025.


This invention relates to a propulsion unit for an inboard-outboard motor and more particularly to an improved propulsion unit that lends itself to reversal of the rotation of the propulsion device in a simple and expedient manner for twin outboard drive arrangements.
It is well known that a marine outboard drive generally has a side thrust due to the direction of rotation of either the propeller or other propulsion device. This side thrust may be countered by employing twin counterrotating outboard drives. For this and a variety of other reasons, it has been increasing practice to use such twin outboard drives, be they outboard motors or the outboard drive unit of an inboard-outboard arrangement.
In connection with such twin outboard drives, normally there is a separate internal combustion engine that powers each outboard driven. In order to achieve the counterrotation of the outboard drives, either the internal combustion engines must rotate in opposite directions or the gearing associated in the drive between the engine and the propulsion device must include a reversing mechanism for reversing the direction of rotation. In addition, each outboard drive normally includes its own forward, neutral, reverse transmission so as to permit propulsion of the watercraft in either forward or reverse directions.
Because of the fact that the outboard drives, either outboard motors or inboard-outboard drives, may be used either singly or in pairs, it is very desirable if the same basic construction can be utilized for both single and twin installations. This presents problems in connection with twin installations since, as aforenoted, the drives should rotate in opposite directions in such applications.
It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide an improved and simplified arrangement for permitting reverse rotation of a marine outboard drive.
It is further object of this invention to provide a marine outboard drive that lends itself to ease in reversing the direction of rotation without necessitating major changes to the overall construction.
In conjunction with most conventional outboard drives, they are designed so that the input shaft rotates in a constant direction and the driving thrust on the unit always apply in the same direction. However, when the drive is designed so as to be driven in reverse directions for facilitating application with twin drives, the previously proposed constructions have not been completely satisfactory.
It is, therefore, a still further object of this invention to provide a marine outboard drive which can easily be rotated in either of two selected directions and wherein the mechanism is designed so as to take loadings regardless of the direction of drive.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic detector for detecting an external magnetic field using a magnetoresistance effect element layer or the like. More specifically, the present invention relates to a magnetic detector that enables highly accurate magnetic detection by adjusting an electrical resistance value, and a method for manufacturing the magnetic detector.
2. Description of the Related Art
A magnetic detector is known. In this magnetic detector, a magnetoresistance effect element layer having an electrical resistance which changes in response to an external magnetic field is connected in series to a resistance element layer having an electrical resistance which does not change in response to an external magnetic field, a power supply voltage is applied to the magnetoresistance effect element layer and the resistance element layer, and a potential at a midpoint between the magnetoresistance effect element layer and the resistance element layer is detected, whereby an external magnetic field is detected. A magnetoresistance effect element layer having an electrical resistance which changes in response to an external magnetic field may be used as the foregoing resistance element layer.
In this type of magnetic detector, the electrical resistances of the magnetoresistance effect element layer and the resistance element layer are adjusted so that the potential at the midpoint is half the power supply voltage when there is no external magnetic field. When an external magnetic field is generated, the electrical resistance of the magnetoresistance effect element layer changes, and thereby the potential at the midpoint changes. In this way, an external magnetic field is detected by measuring a change in potential at the midpoint.
Methods for adjusting the electrical resistances of the magnetoresistance effect element layer and the resistance element layer are disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications No. 2008-46076 and No. 2008-58183.
In the method for adjusting electrical resistance disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-46076, as illustrated in FIG. 21, a plurality of current bypasses, i.e., a first current bypass 601, a second current bypass 602, and a third current bypass 603, are provided to a resistance element layer 703 having an electrical resistance which does not change in response to an external magnetic field, in a stepwise form along the longitudinal direction of the element (X2-X1 direction).
Also, a protruding region 604 that protrudes in a direction away from the resistance element layer 703 is provided in each current bypass.
When a difference in resistance value between a magnetoresistance effect element layer 701 having an electrical resistance which changes in response to an external magnetic field and the resistance element layer 703 is outside an allowable range, current paths in the protruding regions 604 are cut off in order from the protruding region 604 that protrudes the most viewed from the resistance element layer 703, and thereby the difference in resistance value is adjusted to be within the allowable range.
In this method, a plurality of protruding current bypasses are provided to the resistance element layer 703, which inhibits a reduction of the size of a magnetic detector.
In the method for adjusting electrical resistance disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-58183, as illustrated in FIG. 22, magnetoresistance effect element layers 701 and 702 having an electrical resistance which changes in response to an external magnetic field and resistance element layers 703 and 704 having an electrical resistance which does not change in response to an external magnetic field are connected in series, respectively. Also, there are provided output conductive layers 705 and 706 that are connected to midpoints between the magnetoresistance effect element layers 701 and 702 and the resistance element layers 703 and 704, respectively, and that output potentials of the midpoints.
Each of the output conductive layers 705 and 706 extends in one longitudinal direction of the magnetoresistance effect element layers 701 and 702 and the resistance element layers 703 and 704. Each of the output conductor layers 705 and 706 is electrically connected to one of the magnetoresistance effect element layers 701 and 702 and the resistance element layers 703 and 704 via a conductive connection layer 707 or 708. In this way, the positions of the connection layers 707 and 708 are changed, so that the electrical resistance value of one of the magnetoresistance effect element layers 701 and 702 and the resistance element layers 703 and 704 is adjusted.
In the adjustment of changing the positions of the connection layers 707 and 708, a step-and-repeat exposure system (stepper), which performs exposure using a reticle by moving a substrate using a step-and-repeat method, is typically used for forming the pattern of the connection layers 707 and 708. Thus, the pattern of the connection layers 707 and 708 is formed through a plurality of exposure operations. In the plurality of exposure operations, variations in dimension and variations in alignment of the connection layers 707 and 708 occur. Accordingly, highly accurate adjustment of electrical resistance cannot be performed.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the metathesis of olefins. More particularly the invention relates to a process wherein the catalyst is part of a distillation structure and the products are simultaneously separated from the reactants and each other by fractional distillation during the reaction.
2. Related Art
Broadly metathesis has been defined as a chemical reaction in which an element or radical in one compound changes places with another element or radical in another compound. See The Van Nostrand Chemist""s Dictionary, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1953, page 463. More specifically olefin metathesis can be defined as the redistribution of alkylidene moieties to give a mixture of olefins. In effect, this reaction takes place via cleavage of the olefin double bond. Generally the reactions of olefinic molecules in the presence of metal-containing catalysts to produce other olefinic molecules are known in the art as xe2x80x9cdisproportionationxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cdismutationxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cmetathesisxe2x80x9d reactions.
The metathesis reactions are of considerable interest because of the versatility of the reaction and the numerous olefinic hydrocarbons available from petrochemical sources which are suitable for use in the reaction to yield useful products. One such reaction is the metathesis of propylene with itself to produce n-butene and ethylene. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,832. The reverse reaction is the metathesis of ethylene with n-butene to produce propylene and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,026,936. Another use of the metathesis reaction is to produce 2-methyl-2-butene from the reaction of 2-methyl-1-propene and 2-butene. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,827.
Finally, the simultaneous disproportionation of olefins and fractional distillation is reported in U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,115. Therein the disproportionation of butene with itself to produce ethylene or propylene and hexene or pentenes is disclosed.
Catalysts that are known to catalyze the metathesis include the oxides of tungsten, rhenium and cobalt/molybdenum.
Briefly the present invention relates to metathesis reaction carried out a in distillation column reactor, that is, reaction and fractional distillation of the reactants and products are carried out concurrently in the distillation column reactor wherein the catalyst may be in the form to act as a distillation structure or part of a distillation structure or alternatively the catalyst may be located in beds or zones preferably located within the distillation column reactor.
One embodiment of the present invention comprises the production of propylene from the reaction of 2-butene with ethylene in a distillation column reactor. Preferably the catalyst is supplied in the form to act as a distillation structure or part of a distillation structure and loaded into the upper portion of a distillation column reactor. The 2-butene is fed above the bed and the ethylene is fed below the bed. Product propylene is taken as overhead and any heavies produced are removed as bottoms.
In a second embodiment the present invention relates to a process for the production of higher molecular weight olefins useful in the manufacture of detergents. More particularly the invention relates to the metathesis of olefins having higher molecular weight than that desired with lower molecular olefins to produce the desired molecular weight olefins.
In another embodiment the present invention comprises the metathesis of isobutylene with 2-butene to produce 2-methyl-2-butene and propylene. The catalyst is loaded into the upper portion of a distillation column reactor. The isobutylene is fed below the bed. Product 2-methyl-2-butene is taken as bottoms while propylene is removed as overheads.
Another embodiment of the present invention comprises the metathesis of isobutylene with itself to produce 2,3-dimethyl-2-butene (tetramethylethylene or TME) and ethylene. The catalyst is loaded into the upper portion of a distillation column reactor. The isobutylene is fed below the bed. Product TME is taken as bottoms along with any C8= or C12=oligomerization product. Ethylene is removed as overheads. The TME is separated from the heavy oligomers by fractional distillation. The C8=oligomers are then separated from the C12=oligomers by fractional distillation and fed to a single pass down flow reactor with ethylene for metathesis to 3,3-dimethyl-1-butene (neohexene).


Perfluorocyclobutane (C-318, b.p. -6.degree. C.) is a valuable material which can be used as a propellant, etch gas and fire extinguishant. This compound is typically made by cyclodimerization of tetrafluoroethene (TFE) or is recovered as a by-product from the manufacture of TFE. As a result C-318 may be contaminated with unsaturates such as E- and Z-perfluoro-2-butene (i.e., CF.sub.3 CF.dbd.CFCF.sub.3 or FC-1318my) and perfluoroisobutene (i.e., (CF.sub.3).sub.2 C.dbd.CF.sub.2 or PFIB or FC-1318mmt). These compounds, especially the latter, are highly toxic and must be removed prior to commercial use. FC-1318's are difficult to separate from C-318 by distillation as the boiling points are similar.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,287 discloses a process for treating an impure mixture consisting essentially of at least one olefinic impurity and at least one saturated halocarbon by contacting the mixture with a source of hydrogen in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst. The saturated halocarbon includes perfluorocyclobutane and the catalyst includes Group VIII metals and rhenium. The olefinic impurity is converted to a hydrogenated form. For example, CF.sub.3 CH.sub.2 F containing CF.sub.2 .dbd.CHCl impurity may be treated to produce CF.sub.3 CH.sub.2 F containing CHF.sub.2 CH.sub.2 Cl.
There is a need for alternative methods of purification. In particular, in the case of purifying certain perfluorocycloalkanes, there is a need for a process for obtaining products of reaction of the olefinic impurity which are not simply products of adding hydrogen at the point of unsaturation.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to secure communications, and, more particularly, to secure data communications with a mobile computer over an insecure network.
2. Relevant Background
A typical computing environment includes a secure network, such as a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) that can only be accessed by computers that are authorized by the network administrator to have access. These networks are non-public and so security can be readily controlled with conventional password management techniques. Mobile users can access the network through, for example, dial-up connections through server or gateway that verifies the user""s identity and access privileges.
An important use of the Internet and other public data communication networks is the ability to exchange data between mobile computers and an organization""s secure internal network. However, the public network is not secure. An internal secure network uses a gateway machine or xe2x80x9cfirewallxe2x80x9d to couple the internal network to the external insecure network. A firewall is a hardware and/or software system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. A firewall examines all packets entering and exiting the private network and blocks those that fail to meet specified security criteria. In an Internet environment, the gateway performs security operations on the IP layer by using, for example SunScreen(trademark) SKIP, (SunScreen is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.). SKIP is a public key certificate-based key-management scheme which provides key-management for Internet protocols. Data communications using a secure gateway in this manner are referred to as xe2x80x9csecure IPxe2x80x9d.
All external hosts must be able to communicate with the internal network using secure IP at any time, but must also be allowed to reach the internal network while transmitting in the clear. This is useful if some services on the internal network must be accessible by the general public (e.g., web server or software download access) and by privileged users such as employees which may have additional rights on those services, e.g., downloading proprietary information. Because of this, a gateway device cannot always provide authorization control simply by filtering out transmissions received in the clear.
Prior secure IP systems provide authorization control using access control lists (ACLs) that list each IP network address (or other unique network identifier) that is authorized to access a particular resource on the internal network. In general, a gateway can place a static IP address on its ACL and authorize communication from that address to access services on the internal secure network. While this system addresses some problems related to access control, it does not authenticate that the received data packet truly originated from a particular machine.
A particular difficulty arises in that hosts coupled to the external network may be both regular xe2x80x9cstaticxe2x80x9d Internet nodes (i.e., having a permanently assigned IP address) or mobile nodes (i.e., nodes having a dynamically assigned IP address). It is also possible for a host with a static address to be in secure mode at some time, and be in a clear mode at some other time (e.g., the host running Windows((trademark)) and Unix at different times). Moreover, two mobile hosts with different security properties may appear under the same dynamically assigned IP address at different times. In these instances merely relying on authorization based on the incoming packet""s IP address is insufficient. The gateway machine must be able to authenticate or verify that data received from a remote system truly originated from that system. This situation must be correctly handled by the gateway to prevent, for example, hijacking of TCP connections.
For example, when an outside machine using secureIP disconnects from the Internet, thereby relinquishing its IP address, it can be replaced by a second machine transmitting in the clear that has been assigned the first machine""s IP address. From the secure network""s perspective, the incoming TCP packets may have come from either a second machine using the first machine""s IP address, or from the first machine that is now sending in the clear. The second machine will not be able to break the secureIP security, but it may be able to send data in the clear that will reach the internal network. Desirably, the gateway must detect the difference between these two situations, and hinder the second machine""s attempts to send packets on behalf of the old machine. At the same time, the gateway must not allow the fallback to clear text to be abused by an enemy to force all communication to go on in the clear. However, the incoming IP packets do not identify any machine-specific information that would enable the gateway to distinguish between the first machine and the second machine using the same IP address.
Many proposed approaches to mobile user security require the mobile user to specially configure the security software on the mobile machine. However, this makes the security software more difficult to install and use which is undesirable. To encourage widespread use of secureIP on a variety of machines, it is desirable that the software devices install out of the box, without significant effort to specially configure the software.
Prior solutions, including SKIP and similar IP security protocols, offer support for mobile hosts by either assigning them a permanent ID (called a master key ID or MKID in SKIP) that is stored in the mobile machine and is transferred with every IP packet. Alternatively, a new security association may be established each time a new mobile IP address is acquired. Although these solutions prevent an intruder with a hijacked IP address from reading encrypted packets, they do not solve the problem of address hijacking so long as the gateway allows the mobile host to send data in the clear. In these cases, the intruder may set the MKID field to zero to force communication in the clear while the security association is maintained by the gateway.
Moreover, this approach does not allow machines on the internal network to find out whether the incoming link is secure. The gateway holds the list of authorized addresses and performs the encryption/decryption functions. This information is not transmitted or shared with the internal network devices. Hence, the internal network machines cannot tell from examining the header of a received packet whether the packet was from a secureIP link or received in the clear. It would be useful for the internal devices to be aware of this information so that they could take intelligent action in response to receiving a packet with unexpected security properties.
Another approach uses xe2x80x9cfirewallsxe2x80x9d which give the capability to do address translation for topology hiding. This hinders non-authorized user""s efforts to find out about the structure and potentially vulnerable points of the internal network. Although this approach makes address hijacking less effective, it does not prevent its occurrence. Another solution relies on control messages transmitted from mobile hosts to establish IP tunnels. These tunnels provide a mechanism needed to redirect data addressed to the mobile host to a dynamically assigned IP address. Tunnels hinder address hijacking by encrypting packet header information as well as the packet payload, but are difficult to set up and require complex security management mechanisms.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working groups for mobile IP have focused on one potential solution for the support of mobile hosts in the current Internet structure. For this, mobile hosts get assigned a xe2x80x9chome IP addressxe2x80x9d, and a temporary routing address that is used to address traffic. In the gateway from the mobile network to the traditional Internet, address translation and rerouting may be performed, such that the mobile node appears to be reachable on its home address at all times. This approach can result in a security risk if a request message was sent by a hosts that had hijacked the dynamic IP address without cryptographically verifying the authenticity of such messages. In order to avoid this risk, all request messages transmitted by a mobile host to the secure network must be authenticated using a message authentication code such as, for example, the keyed-MD5 algorithm.
A need exists for a security method and system that support mobile hosts in a public network that solves the security risks created by dynamic IP address assignment to prevent an external machine from impersonating a secured machine, allow internal machines to detect whether the outside machine is coming in using a secured connection, and enable the system to be easily configured and used such that it can bootstrap with little or no user intervention. Desirably, the security method and system can be implemented without access control lists, timers, or other complex security management systems such that it is compatible with load balancing mechanisms.
Briefly stated, the present invention involves a method for secure data communication between an inside network with a mobile machine in which a data packet is received from the mobile machine having a particular network address. A pool of secure addresses is established and a data structure is created to hold address translation associations. Each association is between a particular network address and a particular one of the secure addresses. If the received data packet is a secure data packet an association between the received data packet""s network address and a secure address in the data structure is identified and the data packet""s network address is translated to the associated secure address before forwarding the data packet on to higher network protocol layers. When the received data packet is not secure it is passed it on without address translation to the higher network protocol layers.
When packets are received by the gateway from the inside network, and are addressed to a secure address, then the secure address is replaced by the corresponding network address and the packet is encrypted and authenticated. As used herein, the term xe2x80x9csecuring a packetxe2x80x9d means authentication and/or encryptionxe2x80x94and not necessarily encryption only. In this manner, bidirectional secure communications are supported.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a discrete track magnetic recording medium having one surface or both surfaces of a disk-shaped substrate thereof formed with an annular data-recording area having a plurality of tracks separated from each other by concentric separating grooves or a spiral separating groove.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, as a recording medium on which high density recording can be performed, there has been developed a discrete track magnetic recording medium (e.g. a magnetic recording medium disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No.H04-310621. This magnetic recording medium has a disk-shaped substrate formed with a data-recording area having a plurality of data-recording tracks (hereinafter simply referred to as “tracks”) magnetically separated from each other by a plurality of concentric grooves. This kind of discrete track magnetic recording medium (hereinafter also referred to as the “discrete track medium”) is mounted e.g. on an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and various record data are magnetically recorded thereon via a magnetic head for use in recording or reproduction (hereinafter also referred to as the “magnetic head”). In this case, in the discrete track medium, grooves are provided between tracks to thereby prevent undesired increase in effective recording track width, due to the leakage field from the magnetic head. Further, the discrete track medium has the advantage of reduced occurrences of recording of record data on adjacent tracks and reproduction of record data recorded on adjacent tracks (cross-talk). This makes it possible to reduce the pitch at which tracks are to be formed (hereinafter referred to as the “track pitch”), whereby record data can be recorded with high density.
On the other hand, in an HDD having this kind of discrete track medium (e.g. a discrete track medium 51 shown in FIG. 7) mounted thereon, during recording or reproducing of record data, a motor causes the discrete track medium 51 to be rotated at high speed. Further, as shown in FIG. 8, a servo control mechanism, for example, moves (performs servo control of) a magnetic head 71 along the radius of the discrete track medium 51 such that the central portion of the magnetic head 71 is placed on any one of tracks 62 in a data-recording area 53 formed on a disk-shaped substrate 52. In this case, an air current is generated between the magnetic head 71 and the discrete track medium 51 (data-recording area 53) by the high-speed rotation of the discrete track medium 51, which causes the magnetic head 71 to fly by a lift generated by the air current. As a result, it is possible to move (rotate) the discrete track medium 51 and the magnetic head 71 such that they are prevented from contacting each other.
However, from the study of the proposed discrete track medium 51, the present inventors found out the following points for improvement: In the discrete track medium 51 of the above-mentioned kind, as shown in FIG. 7, an outer area 54 and an inner area 55, neither of which has any grooves 61 (see FIG. 8) formed therein, exist outward and inward of the data-recording area 53 on the disk-shaped substrate 52, and hence inconveniences are caused by the areas 54 and 55. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 9, when data is recorded on or reproduced from a track 62A at the outermost location in the data-recording area 53, it is required to place the central portion of the magnetic head 71 on the track 62A, so that an outer portion of the magnetic head 71, outward of the central portion of the same, protrudes into a region above the outer area 54.
In this case, as shown in FIG. 9, the volume of a space defined between the outer portion of the magnetic head 71 and the outer area 54 is smaller than the volume of a space defined between the inner portion of the magnetic head 71 and the data-recording area 53, by an amount corresponding to grooves 61 that are not formed in the outer area 54. Now, the aforementioned lift applied to the magnetic head 71 tends to become larger, as the amount of air between the magnetic head 71 and the discrete track medium 51 is smaller, that is, the volume of a space defined therebetween is smaller. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9, in a state where the magnetic head 71 is parallel to the surface of the discrete track medium 51, a lift F5 applied to the outer portion of the magnetic head 71 becomes larger than a lift F6 applied to the inner portion of the magnetic head 71. As a result, as shown in FIG. 10, the magnetic head 71 is inclined until the volume of the space defined between the outer portion of the magnetic head 71 and the outer area 54 becomes equal to the volume of the space defined between the inner portion of the magnetic head 71 and the data-recording area 53 (i.e. until the lift F5 becomes equal to the lift F6). Therefore, as shown in FIG. 10, the discrete track medium 51 suffers from the problem that the magnetic head 71 can contact the surface of the discrete track medium 51 (data-recording area 53) due to the thus caused inclination of the magnetic head 71.


Short-run print jobs, e.g., business cards, letterheads, sell sheets, invitations, announcements, folders, brochures, and marketing materials, are generally printed by commercial printers using relatively small, low cost printing equipment. Because of the set-up time involved in changing from one print job to the next, and the relatively low volumes printed (often less than 1000 units/order), the printing cost is typically relatively high, e.g., $20–50 per thousand square inches (“MSI”). In some cases, several print jobs are manually “ganged” together (consolidated or aggregated) onto a single master, in an attempt to reduce the average set-up time per order. Another strategy for controlling cost, employed by printers of products such as invitations, office stationery, and address labels, is to offer customers a limited selection of papers, formats and colors from which to choose.
Printing costs per MSI are much lower for high-volume high-quality full-color publishing and packaging print jobs, e.g., food labels, consumer good packaging, magazines, catalogues and high volume marketing materials. Publishing and packaging printing is generally done using large, expensive offset printing presses (either web press or sheet feeding of large-format paper stock) in a highly automated large-volume manufacturing environment. Because these presses have high set-up and amortization costs, their use has been focused on long print runs that are typical in the packaging and publishing segments of the printing market.
Attempts have been made to reduce the high cost of short-run printing. Set-up costs may be reduced by using rapid changeover production machinery, digital technologies, thermographic printing, or single-color offset printing. Typically, these techniques assume that each print job is to be processed as a discrete production run subject to economies of scale based on the quantity of that print job.
Another approach has been to preprint high volumes of a standard base product (e.g., invitation “blanks” bearing high quality color graphics) using high quality offset printing, and then to overprint variable, custom text (e.g., the text of the invitation) for each order, typically using simpler printing processes and conventional short run printing methods.
Yet another approach has been to reduce the cost of setting up a print job by letting the customer, or an intermediary other than the printer, be responsible for the layout, sales and administration aspects of the customer's order. For example, some companies, such as Hallmark, have provided WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) terminals at which a customer can view a WYSIWYG display of the item to be printed, and then upload information regarding the print job to a local or remote printing site. Another example of this approach is desktop publishing software, which allows a customer to design a print job on-screen.
Computers have been used to reduce cost and improve efficiency of printing processes, e.g., to make the process of page layout, proofing, approvals and transmission to the printing floor more efficient. For example, in the newspaper and printing industries, on-the-fly page markups have been sent directly to the production floor using digital workflow technology. Prepress software and equipment that automates workflow is also used by printers and graphics professionals. Recently, Internet companies such as Noosh and Impresse have been providing services that improve the efficiency of buyer-seller transactions involving printing, e.g., by giving users of their websites the ability to “connect” with a wide variety of print vendors, from short-run demand printers to long-run offset printers.


The present invention generally relates to semiconductor devices (here, the invention chiefly relates to semiconductor memory devices, and a semiconductor memory device will hereinafter be described), and particularly to the redundancy technique for relieving defects by replacing defective memory cells by spare memory cells.
High-density integration of semiconductor memory has been highly advanced up to the mass production of dynamic random access memories (DRAM) of 256 mega bits. This high-density integration advancement involves extreme reduction of element size and great increase of the number of elements, thus causing a problem of low yield due to defects. As a countermeasure against this problem, the so-called redundancy technique is known, in which the defective memory cells are replaced, or repaired by redundant memory cells as the spare, or back-up memory cells that are previously provided on a memory chip. Efforts to enhance the efficiency of the defect repair have been made in this technical field. An example of the defect repair technology for DRAM is disclosed in JP-A-2-192100 (laid open Jul. 27, 1990) in which the decision for column-side repair performed according to a row address, and column selection lines are replaced by redundant column selection lines so that block repair can be made. This method is powerful because a large number of defective memory cells can be replaced by a small number of redundant column selection lines.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a conventional logic construction for block redundancy. Here, a memory cell group of two regions including defects is replaced by a redundant memory cell group. A memory cell array NMCA and a redundant cell array RMCA are provided and controlled by a repair decision circuit YRC. The memory cell array NMCA has memory cells provided at the intersections of N word lines WLs and M data lines DLs, and the memory cells are selected by a row decoder XDEC and a column decoder YDEC. The redundant cell array RMCA has redundant memory cells provided at the intersections of N word lines WLs and P data lines RDLs, and the redundant memory cells are selected by the row decoder XDEC and a redundant column decoder RYD. The row decoder XDEC decodes a row address AX of n bits and selectively drives one of the 2n, or N word lines. The column decoder YDEC decodes a column address AY of m bits and selects one of the 2m, or M data lines DLs. The redundant column decoder RYD decodes p bits of the column address AY, and selects one of the 2p, or P redundant data lines RDLs. A repair decision result RYH from the repair decision circuit YRC controls the column decoder YDEC and the redundant column decoder RYD. If the repair decision result RYH is xe2x80x980xe2x80x99, the column decoder YDEC is activated to select memory cells within the memory cell array NMCA. If the repair decision result RYH is xe2x80x981xe2x80x99, the redundant column decoder RYD is activated to select redundant memory cells within the redundant cell array RMCA. Thus, the memory cell group of defects DF1, DF2 can be replaced by a redundant memory cell group. A unit of memory cells to be replaced is the area selected by Q word lines and P data lines.
The repair decision circuit YRC is formed by two row address comparators AXC, two column address comparators AYC, two dual-input AND gates AND2, and an dual-input OR gate OR2. A pair of one row address comparator AXC and one column address comparator AYC stores one region to be repaired, or replaced. Each row address comparator AXC includes address storage means for storing a repair address of (nxe2x88x92q) bits, and compares it with the (nxe2x88x92q) bits of the row address AX. Each column address comparator AYC includes address storage means for storing a repair address of (mxe2x88x92p) bits, and compares it with the (mxe2x88x92p) bits of the column address AY. The dual-input AND gates AND2 take logic products of coincidence decision results XHC1, XHC2 from the row address comparators AXC and coincidence decision results YH1, YH2 from the column address comparators AYC to produce decision results HC1, HC2 for the two, first and second replacements. The dual-input OR gate OR2 takes a logical sum of these decision results to produce the repair decision result RYH. Since the repair decision circuit is constructed as above, defects at separate column addresses can be repaired according to the row addresses, or replaced by redundant memory cells on the same redundant data line.
In the column block redundancy shown in FIG. 2, the row addresses in the first replacement must be different from those in the second replacement. In other words, the repair row address stored in one of the two row address comparators AXC must be different from that of the other. If the same row address were stored in the two comparators, the replacing regions RPD would be one region, or the replaced regions would compete with each other for acquiring the one region irrespective of whether the column addresses of the replaced regions RPO are different or not. Therefore, even though two repair addresses can be stored, it is impossible to repair the case in which two defects occur in different-column-address regions but in the same-row-address regions each of which is selected by Q word lines and P data lines. In order to reduce the probability of that case in which both defects cannot be relieved because the replaced regions RPO compete with each other about taking one replacing region RPD, it can be considered to decrease the number, Q of word lines that are one replacement unit. However, if the number Q is decreased, it is necessary to increase the number of bits, (nxe2x88x92q) of the row address that the row address comparator AXC compares with, so that the circuit scale of the row address comparator becomes large.
Accordingly, it is desired to contrive a method of effectively repairing a plurality of defects at the same time. That is, it is an object of the invention to provide a semiconductor memory device having a redundancy circuit capable of effectively repairing defects by use of small-circuit-scale address comparators that compare with a smaller number of bits, and by controlling the replacement operation so that the competition between the replaced regions can be avoided.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a semiconductor memory device having a plurality of word lines, a plurality of bit lines arranged to intersect the plurality of word lines, a large number of memory cells arranged at necessary intersections between the plurality of word lines and the plurality of bit lines, a plurality of spare bit lines arranged to intersect the plurality of word lines, a plurality of spare memory cells arranged at necessary intersections between the plurality of word lines and the plurality of spare bit lines, and a redundancy circuit for replacing memory cell groups, including defects, of the large number of memory cells by spare memory cell groups of the spare memory cells, wherein the redundancy circuit has functions to control a first replacement to be made by a first replacing unit, and a second replacement to be made by a second replacing unit that is smaller than the first replacing unit, and to give the second replacement priority when the first and second replacements compete with each other about taking the replacing spare memory cell groups.
In other words, the redundancy circuit controls the first replacement to be made by the first replacing unit and the second replacement to be made by the second replacing unit that is smaller than the first replacing unit, and it includes a first decision circuit for deciding about at least a first part of an address provided to select the large number of memory cells, a second address decision circuit for deciding about a second part of the address, and a third address decision circuit for deciding about at least a third part of the address except the second part, whereby when the second address decision circuit produces a miss, the second replacement is not performed but the first replacement is made according to the output from the first address decision circuit, and when the second address decision circuit produces a hit, the first replacement is not performed but the second replacement is made according to the output from the third address decision circuit.


(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image editing apparatuses and, in particular, to an image editing apparatus capable of editing an image.
(2) Description of the Related Art
It is known that there are image editing apparatuses and image editing programs which can easily edit materials such as obtained still image data and video data. For example, Patent Reference 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-157197) discloses a photo movie creating apparatus for creating a photo movie made of still images with dynamic visual effects added thereto, and gives the images various stories.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vaccine for protection of mammals from disease caused by Neospora caninum. More specifically, the invention relates to safe and immunogenically effective vaccines for protection of bovines and canines from abortion caused by Neospora caninum.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Neospora caninum was first reported by Dubey et al (JAVMA, Vol. 192, No. 9, May 1, 1988) as a Toxoplasmosis-like illness affecting dogs. Neospora caninum was found to be structurally distinct from Toxoplasma gondii and did not react with anti-T. gondii antiserum in an immunoperoxidase test. Dubey et al described the major lesions associated with the organism as meningoencephalomyelitis and myositis. Within the past few years, neosporosis has become recognized as a major reproductive disease in cattle (Anderson et al., 1994, Food Animal Practice, 10: 439-461) with cases reported in North and South America, Europe, Africa, the Pacific-rim countries as well as in the United States. The major clinical manifestation of bovine neosporosis is fetal abortion, with focal nonsuppurative necrotizing encephalitis, nonsuppurative myocarditis, and myositis in the fetus (Anderson et al., 1991, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 198: 241-244). According to Anderson et al., 1997 (Journal of the Veterinary Medical Association, 210: 1169-1172), retrospective studies of cattle in California indicate that neosporosis has been endemic since at least 1985. These authors state that 18 to 19% of all aborted bovine fetuses submitted to the California Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory System have Neospora sp infection. In a prospective survey of selected dairies in California, the number of abortions attributed to Neospora sp infections was even greater (42.5%).
Ho et al (J. Parasitol., 1997, 83(3)) have recently reported the successful reproduction of bovine abortion and fetal infection by infecting pregnant cows with tachyzoites of Neospora caninum. This publication suggests that there may be a correlation between serological titer as measured by indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) testing and protection from abortion caused by Neospora caninum in cows. Cows with IFA titers of 320 and 640 did not abort after infection with tachyzoites of this organism.
As mentioned previously, neosporosis has also been reported in puppies and in dogs as old as 15 years of age. The percentage of infected dogs that show clinical signs is unknown. In dogs, Neospora caninum can infect any tissue, although it is most commonly found in the central nervous system and spinal nerve roots. The most severe infections are seen in puppies that were infected in utero. These puppies exhibit ascending paralysis. Abortion can be reproduced in experimental infection of pregnant bitches during the early stage of gestation. Sulfonamides, pyrimethamine and clindamycin have been used to treat neosporosis in dogs.
Neospora caninum can also produce a fatal infection in experimentally inoculated cats. However, the disease has not yet been reported to occur naturally in cats.
Neosporosis has been observed to cause abortion in sheep and goats but to a lesser extent than is found in cattle. Experimental infection is readily induced in sheep and goats by subcutaneous injection of tachyzoites.
Although neosporosis, especially in cattle, appears to pose an increasingly serious problem and there is certainly a long felt need to solve this problem by protecting mammals using a vaccine, there are no descriptions of vaccines, vaccine development nor suggestions of methods of preparing vaccines to protect cattle and other animals from disease caused by Neospora caninum.


Integrated circuits include increasing numbers of memory access requestors such as video processing units, graphical processing units, general purpose processors, peripherals, and the like. The amount of information consumed by these memory access requesters as well as their expected throughput is constantly increasing.
On the other hand, the power consumption of the integrated circuit should be maintained at a relative low level, especially in integrated circuits that are powered by batteries. Accordingly, an integrated circuit is expected to provide a trade-off between performance (throughput, speed) and power consumption.
Various power reductions techniques include dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), and power gating. DFVS alters the voltage supply level and the frequency of clock signals that are provided to a circuit while power gating involves shutting down the entire circuit or selected portions of that circuit.
The power consumption of various memory access requesters can be reduced by applying DVFS techniques.


1. Field
This disclosure relates to audio signal processing.
2. Background
Beamforming is a signal processing technique originally used in sensor arrays (e.g., microphone arrays) for directional signal transmission or reception. This spatial selectivity is achieved by using fixed or adaptive receive/transmit beampatterns. Examples of fixed beamformers include the delay-and-sum beamformer (DSB) and the superdirective beamformer, each of which is a special case of the minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer.
Due to the reciprocity principle of acoustics, microphone beamformer theories that are used to create sound pick-up patterns may be applied to speaker arrays instead to achieve sound projection patterns. For example, beamforming theories may be applied to an array of speakers to steer a sound projection to a desired direction in space.


As a result of the development of machines for automatically inserting electronic components into printed circuit boards, it has become desirable to provide mechanisms to automatically supply the board to the component insertion machines. Devices of this type are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,722,062; 3,808,662; 4,209,898 and 4,283,847. These mechanisms all operate on the principle of transferring the board from one end of the component insertion device to the other by means of a continuous conveyor of some type upon which the board is carried. This requires the board to be removed from one storage magazine and transferred to a separate receiving magazine after the component insertion has taken place.


The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
A vehicle may include an internal combustion engine and/or one or more electric motors that generate torque. A transmission selectively transfers torque to one or more wheels of the vehicle. An engine control module (ECM) controls operation of the engine. The ECM or another control module, such as a motor control module, may control an electric motor. A transmission control module (TCM) controls the transmission. The vehicle may also include one or more other control modules, such as a chassis control module, etc.
The control modules may communicate with one another via a network that can be referred to as a car area network (CAN). The control modules may communicate, for example, to share data. One or more of the control modules may make a decision and/or take action based on the shared data.
The vehicle also includes a communications module that is connected to the car area network. The communications module may also selectively establish a connection to a remote server. The communications module may update one or more of the control modules based on data from the remote server. The communications module may selectively output one or more vehicle parameters to the remote server.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gaming system, more specifically to a gaming system with a plurality of terminals where players can make a selection from a plurality of games or a plurality of images to be displayed on a display, which collects various information regarding the selected games or the selected images and provides a visual display desired by the players for each time of day.
2. Related Art
Information such as a player's behavior and preference is extremely important in game halls having a plurality of terminals to provide games. Generally, game halls provide a plurality of types of games; however, space for installing gaming machines is limited. Therefore, games to be installed in the game hall and the allocation thereof have a great influence on operation of the game hall. A game hall with an unpopular gaming machine may discourage players from visiting.
In addition, especially with video games, operating rates may be different between similar games; for example, those with popular characters displayed may have a higher operating rate than those with banal character displayed.
As described above, installation of game machines in the game hall is directly linked to operation and profit of the game hall, and thus plays an important part in management of the game hall. In order to solve the abovementioned problems, a game hall simulation system, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,425, is known. With the game hall simulation system, a game hall manager can simulate the operational status of the game hall and traffic route of players. The manager can decide the location of game machines based upon a result thereof, their own experience and the like.
However, in reality, players of different generations and different preferences visit the game hall, depending on the operating hours of the game hall. In such a case, simulating each case with a simulation system to decide which gaming machines to install may take too much time and can not provide a flexible response.
Even with terminals that allow players to select a game, less experienced players tend to choose a gaming machine to play by looking at a display thereof and judging that the gaming machine provides a desired game. Therefore, if a stand-by screen of the gaming machine does not show the player's desired game, the players may misunderstand that the desired game is not provided in the game hall and leave the game hall.
In order to solve the abovementioned problems, the present invention provides a gaming system that allows players to select a game from a plurality of games, storing information regarding games and images selected in each terminal to a server, and provides a display for a game most selected in the same unit time; thus providing an appropriate gaming machine for players at each time of day.


Conventionally, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-287321 (JP '321) and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-087026 (JP '026), a vehicular communication system that establishes a narrow area communication channel, such as a Bluetooth communication channel (Bluetooth: a registered trademark), to a cellular phone that is brought into the vehicle compartment is known.
Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-309865 (JP '865) a wireless communication apparatus establishing a wide area communication channel to a wireless communication access point, or a so-called hot spot, at places such as a coffeehouse, a convenience store, a dealer, which are outside of a vehicle, is also known.
The communication standards for establishing a wide area communication channel, such as IEEE802.11b, IEEE802.11g, and IEEE802.11n, use a communication band of 2.4 GHz, which is also used for establishing a Bluetooth communication channel. Therefore, simultaneous use of two types of communication, that is, the wide area communication channel according to IEEE802.11b, IEEE802.11g, or IEEE802.11n and the narrow area communication channel by the Bluetooth standard, may require a work-out scheme, such as a separate/distant positioning of respective communication antennas, a time division communication control or the like.
However, such work-out scheme may lead to a deteriorated throughput of the wide area communication channel, due to the communication operation of the narrow area communication channel. More specifically, the wide area communication channel assumes a large amount of data communication to and from the access point, thereby making it necessary and urging for the communication apparatus, which is capable of establishing both of narrow and wide area communication channels, to prevent the throughput deterioration of the wide area communication channel caused by the communication operation of the narrow area communication channel.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the verification of, based on emulation, system-level digital circuits which have been designed; more particularly, relates to a prototyping system which implements rapidly a designed digital circuit in the same form of actual hardware with "Reusable Field Programmable Devices" (or chips) and other discrete devices and verifies the designed digital circuit in a short time, and to a method for operating the prototyping system.
2. Description of Prior Art
As technologies for the design of integrated circuits and the manufacture of semiconductor improve rapidly, the scale and complexity of digital circuit design has increased tremendously, and it has been possible to design and manufacture system-level digital circuits capable of implementing microprocessors, digital signal processors, memory devices, application specific logic circuits, etc. on a single chip. Meanwhile, since it becomes necessary to develop a new high quality product in a very short time in order to survive the vicious competition in the market, high-speed prototyping systems capable of implementing and verifying designed circuits effectively have become increasingly important.
Up to now, a logic simulator based on software has been used to verify the operation of designed digital circuits; however, the logic simulator is not absolutely reliable since it is based on software modeling in a virtual environment, not on implementing an actual circuit. The capability of simulation software and computer cannot affiliate the size and complexity of digital circuits to be verified. To overcome the shortcomings of the logic simulator and to verify a designed circuit more accurately, it has been developed a technology for verifying a designed circuit based on hardware emulation which is closer to the actual digital circuit and which technology is capable of verifying the designed circuit more accurately (hereinafter referred to as "Rapid Prototyping"). The verification of a designed digital circuit by using the "Rapid Prototyping" can be executed at high speed since it is executed by an actual hardware implementation. The verification of a designed digital circuit by using the "Rapid Prototyping" also allows the design verification to be performed in an environment close to the actual hardware. The verification process for a digital circuit design using this prototyping is such that verifying signals are applied at the input of hardware on where the designed circuit to be verified is implemented, and logic values appearing on many signal lines existing in the circuits including output lines are probed to see if they match the logic values intended by the designer by rigorously probing the signal lines.
Recently, "Reusable Field Programmable Devices" (hereinafter referred to as "RFPDs") have been frequently used in industry, since any digital circuit can be implemented in the RFPDs by being simply programmed onto the devices, and further, due to the unlimited programmable number, the devices can be reused. There are several types of RFPDs such as a field programmable gate array, a complex programmable logic device, etc. In general prototyping systems based on emulation, the digital circuit to be verified is implemented in the prototyping engine which is composed by interconnecting several ten to several thousand RFPDs and other discrete devices such as microprocessors, digital signal processors, application specific non-memory devices or memories. The capacity of a prototyping system is determined based on an important factor, which is whether the prototyping system can provide solutions for the following problems. First, probing signal lines is inherently difficult since many signal lines existing within the digital circuits to be verified exist inside RFPDs; this problem becomes more serious when more highly integrated RFPDs are used. Second, in a circuit design using the so called "Intellectual Property" (hereinafter referred to as "IP") which has begun to be used frequently in system-level designs, it is required that a variety of IPs can be used in convenience by the prototyping system, since the system uses different IPs to execute the verification of a designed circuit effectively. To solve this problem, a method for replacing the existing devices or boards into prototyping engine with devices or boards needed by a user or for newly adding the needed devices or boards should be provided. Third, the usage rate of RFPDs by the prototyping engine is very low when a digital circuit is implemented in the prototyping engine, since the number of pins of RFPDs cannot be increased proportionally regardless of increasing RFPDs' integration degree. Fourth, it is required that low integrated RFPDs used in conventional prototyping engine can be replaced with high integrated RFPDs with ease so as to increase the capability of the prototyping engine.
As a conventional prototyping system, for example, U.S. patent publication No. 5,452,231 has been disclosed, and the content of the publication is incorporated in this specification as a reference. FIG. 38 is a schematic diagram of a conventional prototyping system. As shown in FIG. 38, in the conventional system, a conventional prototyping engine 8 is connected to a server computer 40 through an interface module 42. In the prototyping engine 8, a plurality of RFPDs 2 used for implementing logic gates and a plurality of RFPDs 4 which are used for connection are connected to an emulation system bus 6, and the emulation system bus 6 is connected to a system interface bus 26. To form the conventional prototyping engine (8), the RFPDs used in the prototyping engine are divided into two groups, RFPDs used for implementing logic gates and RFPDs used for interconnection of logic gates. The connection between the two groups is implemented in partial crossbar, where there is no direct connection between the RFPDs in the same group. This connection type can be a solution for the timing problems, which occur in logic emulation, but also causes other problems. In the conventional prototyping systems, other devices accept the RFPDs, such as microprocessors, digital signal processors and application specific non-memory devices cannot be used easily in the prototyping engine, and it is not easy to replace the RFPDs used in the prototyping engine with high integrated and high speed RFPDs. Further, in case that signal lines existing in a designed circuit to be verified exist also in certain RFPDs, real time probing is impossible, and too many RFPDs are needed in the emulation since the rate of using the resources in the RFPDs is too low due to the physical limitation of the number of input/output pins of each RFPD.


Databases, such as relational databases, are commonly used for managing large amounts of data, and a database user, such as a developer or end-user, can access, modify or add data within the database by way of a query. For example, in the Structured Query Language (“SQL”), a query may have what is referred to as multi-part identifiers in the conventional “dot notation,” such as “A.B.C.D. ” As the name implies, such identifiers has are composed of multiple parts (e.g., A, B, C and D) separated by “dots,” or periods. Such a multi-part identifier is typically read from right to left, where the rightmost part is a column name, preceded by a table name, schema name and database name. Thus, in the above example, D would be the column name, C the table name, B the schema name and A the database name. Less than the entire path may be specified if the user is currently using the database within one of the specified levels. For example, if the user is currently operating in the table in which the desired information resides, then simply entering D as the query would result in the desired column. If the user is operating in the same database, but in a different schema, then a query of B.C.D would be required.
As databases become more advanced, a user is provided with greater flexibility, both in terms of the types of data that may be requested and the manner in which a query may be made to request the data. For example, User Defined Types (“UDTs”) are user-defined, structured data types that may be implemented using the conventional dot notation discussed above. A multi-part identifier of A.B.C may be used to query a database for a “property C of property B of column A” or a “property C of column B of table A.” These are in addition to the “legacy” multi-part identifier meaning discussed above.
A database that is attempting to resolve the A.B.C multi-part identifier discussed above does not know which of the above-noted interpretations the user is intending to achieve. In most cases, only one of the interpretations will achieve a result (i.e., will “bind successfully”). This is because typically there will only be one interpretation that will bind for every identifier specified in a query. Thus, one interpretation of the A.B.C multi-part identifier may look for column C of table B of schema A. If one or more of the identifiers do not correspond to a value in the database, then the database will assume that this interpretation is not correct. The database may then attempt to bind an interpretation of the A.B.C query that looks for a property C of property B of column A, or for a property C of column B of table A, and so forth. If only one of the interpretations binds successfully, the database may assume that such an interpretation is the user's desired interpretation, and may return a result.
Unfortunately, in some scenarios more than one interpretation may bind successfully. Using the above A.B.C multi-part identifier example, if the database being queried has both a column C of table B of schema A, and a property C of property B of column A, the database will not know which interpretation was desired by the user. Conventionally, this conflict was resolved by using the “most local” interpretation. In other words, the interpretation that contains the least number of column prefixes would be assumed to be the correct interpretation. In the above example, such an assumption would give the highest precedence to the interpretation of “property C of property B of column A,” followed by “property C of column B of table A,” and then “column C of table B of schema A.” Once this assumption is made, the result is returned to the user.
Such an algorithm has a significant shortcoming. Namely, if the assumption returns an incorrect result (e.g., property C instead of the intended column C), the user may not know that the returned result is incorrect. This shortcoming is particularly acute when the returned result is in the same format as the intended result. For example, if the returned and intended results are both numerical values, there may be no way for a user to realize that the returned result is incorrect by merely looking at the result. The incorrect result might then go on to corrupt other data if it is used in calculations or the like. Tracking down the source of such an incorrect result may prove to be extremely difficult for a user because there will be no outward sign that the multi-part identifier resulted in two possible interpretations.
In other scenarios, none of the possible interpretations bind successfully. Conventionally, in such a case a generic error message such as “could not find A.B.C” would be issued. Such a message is typically not very helpful to a user because it does not describe the interpretation(s) that were attempted, and what the exact problem with each interpretation was.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a mechanism for discerning user intent when interpreting a multi-part identifier such as a UDT. In addition, it is desirable to have a mechanism that provides useful error messages to a user in the event of an interpretation conflict, failure or the like. The present invention satisfies these needs.


Diisocyanates which contain urea groups are generally distinguished by a relatively high melting point. Due to the low vapor pressure thereof and due to the presence of the urea groups, they are preferably used as starting materials for the production of highgrade polyurethane/polyurea plastics. These diisocyanates are usually produced by reacting 2 mols of diisocyanate with 1 mol of water in an inert solvent. It is preferred to use diisocyanates which have two differently-reactive groups, when a definite reaction course is to be achieved. Thus, French Pat. No. 1,103,329 describes the production of bis-(3-isocyanato-4-alkoxy-, -alkyl- or chloro-phenyl) ureas by a reaction of diisocyanate and water in a molar ratio of 2:1, in a solvent, which solvent must not contain reactive hydrogen atoms (for example in the form of hydroxyl groups). Ethyl acetate, diethyl ether or acetone are preferably used as solvent.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,906,019 describes a process for the production of monomeric di-(isocyanatotolyl)-urea, in which the reaction is carried out in an excess of one of the two non-miscible reactants (toluylene diisocyanate and, preferably, water) at from 20.degree. to 40.degree. C. The urea which is not soluble in either of the starting materials is separated in a yield of from about 60 to 85%, mainly in monomeric form, and it must then be purified. Lewis acids or Lewis bases may be used as catalysts for the reaction described therein, but pyridine is preferred
All these processes are carried out in solvents. The diisocyanates must be very soluble and the water which is added must be at least partly miscible in the solvents. The solvent must not exert a polymerizing effect on the isocyanate and must be free from isocyanate-reactive functional groups. The urea diisocyanates are produced as relatively insoluble compounds and are isolated by filtration. For further processing of these urea isocyanates for polyurethane production, it is necessary to convert the urea isocyanates obtained by filtration (and freed from solvents under vacuum) into a finely-divided form by a suitable grinding operation. As a result of the high melting point and the difficult solubility of these isocyanate ureas, inhomogeneous products are often obtained during the reaction.
According to German Auslegeschrift No. 2,902,469, suspensions of (poly)-urea-diisocyanates in isocyanateprepolymers are produced by dissolving 1 mol of aromatic diisocyanate in the NCO-prepolymer and reacting it with from about 0.4 to 0.8 mols of water. Organic diisocyanates which have differently-reactive NCO groups are used to produce the NCO-prepolymers, as well as to produce the (poly)urea diisocyanates.
No process has been known in which a polyisocyanate containing urea groups is directly produced by reacting organic polyisocyanates with water in an NCO-reactive organic solvent, for example long-chain hydroxyl polyethers or hydroxy polyesters. According to the prior art, such a process would not seem very promising since the hydroxyl groups of the polyether or polyester generally have approximately the same reactivity with respect to NCO groups as water. Thus, it would be expected during the reaction of a polyisocyanate with water in a polyether or polyester for the NCO groups to react to about the same extent with the water and with the OH-groups of the polyol.
The separate production of urea-isocyanates, the isolation and purification thereof and the subsequent dispersion or dissolution of the urea-isocyanates in relatively high molecular weight polyols, such as are used for the synthesis of polyurethanes, is expensive. An object of the present invention is to synthesize urea isocyanates directly in the relatively high molecular weight polyols from aromatic isocyanates which are easily accessible in a simple and economic process, in order to be able to use these urea isocyanate/polyol dispersions or solutions directly for the synthesis of polyurethanes.


The present invention relates generally to a housing for a two spool tape or data cartridge for magnetic recording tape of the type used in computers and the like, and is particularly concerned with an improved fastener mechanism or system for coupling or connecting the opposed lower and upper walls of the housing together.
Typical magnetic tape cartridges include an outer housing and various internal components including tape, a pair of rotatable spools carrying the tape, and a drive mechanism. The housing usually comprises a metallic baseplate and an opposing cover member of plastic material. Where the baseplate and cover member are rigidly secured together, warpage of the housing can occur as a result of the different rates of thermal expansion of the materials forming the baseplate and cover. This warpage results in some deflection of the tape transport path, which is unacceptable in view of the very high track densities on current magnetic data tapes, requiring a high degree of precision in the tape transport.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,789 of Morioka, a fastener mechanism for connecting the baseplate to the cover in a manner allowing for some degree of different relative thermal expansion is described. The mechanism comprises a single rigid fastener between the baseplate and cover which is located on the mid-line of the cartridge, and a series of snap fasteners between the baseplate and cover, one each adjacent each corner of the cartridge. The snap fasteners each have a pair of spring arms separated by a slot which can absorb some of the differential expansion between the baseplate and cover by allowing the arms to move towards and away from each other. However, this arrangement only allows relative motion between the baseplate and cover in one lateral direction, parallel to the front of the baseplate, since the spring arms can only move towards and away from each other in this direction, as permitted by the slot. The snap fasteners are actually quite stiff in the front to rear direction. Additionally, the snap fasteners do not provide a secure connection between the baseplate and cover and thus allow some potential for separation of the baseplate from the cover, especially along the front edge of the cartridge where it contacts the drive mechanism and thus encounters relatively large forces.


The present invention relates to an orthodontic appliance for use in the treatment of dental malocclusion.
The newest and the most effective method of orthodontic treatment, the main purpose of which is to treat dental malocclusion, is the technique of firmly fixing a bracket to each tooth and inserting and fixing a U-shaped wire into these brackets in order to correct a malalignment of the teeth by the elastic force of this wire. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, when the upper jaw central incisor (1) protrudes abnormally toward outside as shown by the solid line, it is corrected to the state shown by the broken line, by a method in which a band (2) is applied to each tooth (1) as shown in FIG. 1 and brackets (3) are welded to the outsides of these bands (2), i.e. to their labial surfaces or buccal surfaces, then a curved orthodontic wire (4) is fixed to these brackets (3) to correct teeth malalignment by the elastic force of this wire (4). As examples of this method, there are the ribbon arch technique, the edgewise technique, the Begg technique, the universal technique, etc. Among them, the brackets of the edgewise technique are, as shown in FIG. 3, composed of a flange (5) like a metal net or a plate and the tip (6) is attached to this flange (5). A fixing groove (7) is formed in the tip (6), so that a rectangular wire (4) may be inserted horizontally. Wings (8) are formed on both sides of the groove, and a ligature wire (9) retains the wire 4 in the groove. In the Begg technique, brackets (3) are also composed of the flange (5) and the related tip (6), as shown in FIG. 4, but the fixing groove (7) is formed so that a wire (4) may be inserted vertically from the opposite side of the occlusal plane. In addition, a slot is made for insertion of a lock pin (10) shown by the broken line. This pin is inserted from the gingival side and the protruding lower edge of the inserted lock pin (10) is bent and fixed. The ribbon arch technique and the universal technique similar to the edgewise technique or the Begg technique.
The main disadvantage of these conventional methods is that the bracket (3) and wire (4) are visible clearly from the outside of the mouth when the mouth is opened, because the brackets (3) are bonded or welded to the outer surfaces of teeth (1) i.e. their labial or buccal sides. This detracts from the facial beauty of the patient and, accordingly, imposes a considerable psychological burden on the patients.
In conventional orthodontic treatment, there are some methods for treating malocclusion from the lingual or palatal side. Those are the lingual arch appliance or the palatal plate appliance. Those methods push several teeth simply from the inside by the auxiliary spring attached to the lingual arch or plate. Therefore, the cases which can be treated by those techniques are limited. Accordingly satisfactory results are not obtained in the treatment of all teeth. Neither is it possible to use the conventional bracket itself by bonding same to the inside surface of the teeth. For example, it is not only extremely difficult to bond the bracket for the edgewise technique or Begg technique to the inside surface of the teeth, but also insertion of a wire into the grooves of brackets from the gingival side, fixation by the ligature wire, and insertion and fixation of lock pins into brackets are extremely difficult or impossible. The same difficulties also exist in the ribbon arch technique or the universal technique.


The mixer bowls of horizontal mixers tend to be quite large and therefore commonly have a bowl tilt feature so that mixed product such as dough can be emptied from the bowl (e.g., into a dough trough alongside the bowl). During tilt the bowl pivots on a horizontal axis relative to an overhead canopy that covers the open top of the bowl during mixing. Standard canopy sealing for single tilt (i.e., to only one side of the canopy) mixer bowls is with a straight compression seal across the front of the canopy (where the front is the tilt side) and a scraper on the rear of the canopy to scrape the downward facing surface of the canopy during the tilt. For two-way tilting (i.e., to either side of the canopy), seal bars that pneumatically are positioned and compressed against line of contact between the bowl and canopy have been used. However, the pneumatic sealing arrangement is complex and can create maintenance issues.
Bowl mounted seals are also known, but provide less than desirable results and may increase the possibility of seal mount components entering the food product.
It would be desirable to provide a simpler, but effective system for sealing the bowl relative to the canopy, particularly in the case of two-way tilting.


This invention relates to random sequence generators and in particular to a one-dimensional cellular automaton for generating random sequence signals.
Sequences that seem random are needed for a wide variety of purposes. They are used for unbiased sampling in the Monte Carlo method, and to imitate stochastic natural processes. They are used in implementing randomized algorithms on digital computers, and their unpredictability is used in games of chance. Random sequence generators are used as repeatable noise sources for electronic testing purposes.
To generate a random sequence on a digital computer, one starts with a fixed length seed, then iteratively applies some transformation to it, progressively extracting a random sequence which is as long as possible. In general, a sequence is considered "random" if no patterns can be recognized in it, no predictions can be made about it, and no simple description of it can be found. However, even if the sequence can be generated by iteration of a definite transformation it can nevertheless seem random if no computations done on it reveal this simple description. The original seed must be transformed in such a complicated way that the computations cannot recover it.
The fact that acceptably random sequences can be generated efficiently by digital computers is a consequence of the fact that quite simple transformations, when iterated, can yield extremely complicated behavior. Simple computations are able to produce sequences whose origins can apparently be deduced only by much more complex computations.
Most current practical random sequence generation computer programs are based on linear congruence relations (of the form x'=ax+b mod n), or linear feedback shift registers of the type discussed in "Shift Register Sequences", S. W. Golomb, Holden-Day (1967). The linearity and simplicity of these systems has made complete algebraic analysis possible, and has allowed certain randomness properties to be proved. But these characteristics also lead to efficient algebraic algorithms for predicting the sequences (or deducing their seeds), and limits their degree of randomness.
There are many standard mathematical processes which are simple to perform, yet produce sequences so complicated that they seem random. An example is taking square roots of integers. Many physical processes also yield seemingly random behavior and, in some cases, the randomness can be attributed to the effects of an external random input. Thus for example "analog" random sequence generators such as noise diodes work by sampling thermal fluctuations associated with a heat bath containing many components. Coin tossings and Roulette wheels produce outcomes that depend sensitively on initial velocities determined by complex systems with many components. It seems however that in all such cases, sequences extracted sufficiently quickly can depend on only a few components of the environment, and must eventually show definite correlations.
I have found that randomness in many physical systems may not arise from external random inputs, but rather through intrinsic mathematical processes. This invention makes use of such a process employing a one-dimensional cellular automaton.


Many vehicles, such as recreational vehicles, currently have furniture that includes a human support surface (e.g., beds, couches, chairs, etc.) that an occupant can sit and/or lay on to occupy the furniture. However, the furniture is typically affixed to one or more surfaces (e.g., the floor and/or one or more walls) of the vehicle. Where the furniture is affixed to the vehicle, the owner of the vehicle and/or an occupant of the furniture cannot relocate the furniture within the vehicle without having to detach the furniture, move the furniture to the desired position, and reattach the furniture to the vehicle.
Additionally, where the furniture is affixed to the vehicle, when a person is occupying the furniture, and the vehicle experiences accelerations as a result of one or more maneuvers of the vehicle, the person may shift position because of changes in their inertia, and may be disturbed as a result. This can be problematic, particularly where an occupant of the furniture is performing any sort of task that requires attention to detail and/or fine motor skills.


Mobile communication systems continue to grow in popularity and have become an integral part of both personal and business communications. Various mobile devices now incorporate Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) features such as calendars, address books, task lists, calculators, memo and writing programs, media players, games, etc. These multi-function devices usually allow electronic mail (email) messages to be sent and received wirelessly, as well as access the Internet via a cellular network and/or a wireless local area network (WLAN), for example.
Cellular devices have radio frequency (RF) processing circuits and receive or transmit radio communications signals typically using modulation schemes. In the typical device, the RF processing circuits may include a modulator, a power amplifier coupled downstream from the modulator, and an antenna coupled downstream from the power amplifier. Depending on the immediate surroundings of the cellular device, the impedance load of the antenna may vary, which can impact antenna performance.
Some cellular devices include an impedance matching device between the antenna and the power amplifier to compensate for the impedance mismatches. One drawback to this approach is that a phase change is imparted onto the transmitted signal. Depending on the wireless protocol being used, this may cause issues with the receiver device.


1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to methods of analyzing, screening and/or evaluating enzyme(s), polypeptide(s), mixtures of enzymes, mixtures of polypeptides, and/or mixtures of enzymes and polypeptides of interest. The methods are useful for, inter alia, detecting residual cellulose and evaluating hydrolysis activity of enzymes, polypeptides, or mixtures of interest. The present disclosure further relates to high-throughput assay(s), for example, a high-throughput assay for quantifying cellulolytic activity and/or cellulase activity of enzyme(s) or polypeptide(s) of interest in a pretreated corn stover (PCS) hydrolysis is disclosed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current methods of analyzing, evaluating, or screening the hydrolysis activity of an enzyme, polypeptide, or mixtures of interest are problematic and not well designed for high-throughput analysis. For example, one method of analyzing pretreated corn stover (hereinafter referred to as “PCS”) hydrolysis requires a lengthy high pressure liquid chromatography (hereinafter referred to as “HPLC”) analysis for determining the quantity of sugars. Here, cellulose, in the PCS is enzymatically hydrolyzed to glucose, cellobiose, and higher beta-glucans. HPLC is used to measure the glucose and cellobiose. One of skill in the art, knowing the cellulose content of the substrate, can then use this information to calculate the percent conversion of cellulose into sugars. Accordingly, cellulolytic activity of the enzymes in the hydrolysis can be measured. However, the HPLC step is time consuming and laborious. Assays using HPLC are not suitable for high-throughput analysis, and/or a quick analysis of multiple enzymes of interests in a single assay.
Attempts have been made to improve the HPLC assay using a pipettable substrate loaded in deep well plates; however post-hydrolysis HPLC sugar analysis is still required. The HPLC assay is time-consuming, for example, a 96 well plate takes approximately 19 hours of HPLC time. The attempted improvements are problematic in that they include time-consuming filtration, pipetting, and dilution steps prior to HPLC.
Problems with the known assays lead to higher research costs, tedious assay formatting, as well as time-consuming enzyme activity evaluation. Accordingly, there is a continuing need for assays and analysis methods having improved accuracy and/or reduced performance time, having excellent accuracy, an excellent reaction rate, and/or excellent cellulose conversion, especially where high-throughput analysis is desirable.


Caps are used to prevent fluid leakage from a container filled with fluid. For fluid containers that are dispensed through various dispense apparatuses, the caps are designed to enable drawing the fluid out of the fluid container while the fluid container is connected to a dispensing apparatus. Some caps reseal once the fluid container is disconnected from the dispensing apparatus to prevent spillage. Furthermore, the caps are used to prevent the fluid inside the fluid container from being contaminated with dirt or other substances that can reduce the fluid quality.
Known dispensing apparatuses rely on gravity to pump the fluid from the fluid container through the cooler to the faucet of the dispensing apparatus. Thus the fluid container must be connected to the top of the dispensing apparatus. Some fluid containers comprise a sealing component that is removed before the fluid container is connected to the dispensing apparatus. Some of these sealing apparatuses are removed when the fluid container is connected to the dispensing apparatus. When the sealing apparatus is removed by a rigid tube, the fluid container is placed on the top of the dispensing apparatus and the force of gravity pushes the fluid container down on the rigid tube. When the rigid tube comes in contact with the sealing component, the rigid tube pushes out or breaks the sealing element so that fluid may flow into the dispensing apparatus.
Some capping apparatuses, such as the commercially available cap of Scholle provide for a silicon cap attached to a retaining ring. The silicon cap is flexible and comprises an aperture via which a pin enters to allow passage of fluid via the silicon cap.


Full coverage of a second generation (2G) or third generation (3G) network such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) has been basically implemented.
With development of Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) network technologies, LTE networks have covered some urban areas and traffic hotspot areas. In this way, in current communications networks, the LTE network coexists with the 2G or 3G network.
In a call process, user equipment (UE) may enter a 2G or 3G network from an LTE network. Because the LTE network has a different bearer mechanism from the 2G or 3G network, and the UE needs to be handed over from a packet switched (PS) domain to a circuit switched (CS) domain, interruption may occur in a voice call, which affects continuity of the voice call of a user.
Circuit switched fallback (CSFB) means fallback of UE covered by LTE to a network that has a CS domain when the UE processes a voice service. The US is triggered to be handed over from an LTE network to a CS domain of a 2G or 3G network, falls back, in a handover manner, to the network that has a CS domain, and processes the voice service in the network that has a CS domain.
However, in the prior art, after the UE falls back from the LTE network to the 2G or 3G network by means of handover, a registered public land mobile network PLMN of the UE changes from a first PLMN of the LTE network to a second PLMN of the 2G or 3G network.
When the UE returns to the LTE network from the 2G or 3G network, the UE may preferably camp on the second PLMN because the current registered PLMN of the UE is the second PLMN. As a result, the UE cannot return to the first PLMN in the LTE network, an LTE network operator of the first PLMN encounters a user turnover in a CSFB process, and operators cannot cooperate with each other.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a master cylinder, particularly for an anti-locking hydraulic brake system comprising means for determining the position of the master piston within the longitudinal bore of the master cylinder housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
A brake system including a master cylinder of the general type described above is disclosed in German Specification DE-OS 37 51 603. The master cylinder, through a brake conduit, is in communication with a wheel brake. The brake conduit can be blocked by means of an inlet valve. The wheel brake, through a by-pass provided by an outlet valve, is in communication with a reservoir. A pump delivers fluid from the reservoir into the working chamber of the master cylinder. During deceleration, the rotating pattern of the wheel is permanently monitored to immediately detect if a wheel tends to lock. Upon detection of a locking condition, the pump drive is actuated to cause the pump to deliver fluid into the master cylinder. By opening and closing the inlet and outlet valves, the pressure in the wheel brake can be so modulated that the brake torque attains a value corresponding to the friction between tire and road. The pressure fluid delivered by the pump into the working chamber of the master cylinder forces the master piston back into its initial position. To prevent the piston from being completely returned, it has previously been suggested that the position of the master piston be determined and the pump delivery be regulated in response to the determined position of the master piston. According to greater detail in the aforementioned German Specification, it is insured that the master piston, during a brake slip control, assumes a position in advance of its initial position.
The means for determining the position of the master piston, according to the German Specification, may comprise, for example, a plunger actuating a switch and being excited by a ramp on the master piston. According to another embodiment in which the master cylinder is actuated by a vacuum brake force booster, a switch is positioned in the housing wall of the brake force booster, and the switch is actuated by the booster wall.
Both of the above proposed solutions disadvantageously require special structures for the master cylinder or for the vacuum brake force booster. Moreover, there is a high possibility of malfunction because the proposed corrective means do not work in a contact-free manner with the consequence that substantial adjustment efforts are needed to insure precise positioning of the master piston during a brake slip control.