Abstract: A portable tube holder apparatus and tube loading method facilitates safe and rapid loading of tubes containing electronic components into a machine. The tube holder has a tube guide sized to receive a plurality of tubes and a support to selectively hold the tubes in that guide. The holder can be loaded with a relatively large number of tubes at a workstation area and then used to safely transport the tubes to the machine without risk of the components falling out of the tubes. The support, which is preferably slidable, permits all of the tubes in the guide to be readily released into the machine's feeding system, enabling fast loading of the machine and also minimizing down-time for machines that cannot run while being loaded. The portable tube holder preferably has an interface designed to facilitate alignment of the tube holder's guide with the feeding system guide in the machine.

Abstract: A computer system and method for outputting printer commands to a printer in response to a print request from an application program are presented. The printer includes a device font whose characters are addressed for printing via a single, double, or n-byte code. The text data to be printed, however, utilizes the Unicode Standard to identify its characters. The system, therefore, includes a graphics device interface, which is compatible to read the Unicode data, to invoke the printer driver functions for controlling the outputting of the text data to the printer. A printer OEM supplied minidriver contains a characterization of the printer, including information identifying the device font resident in the printer and the code used to identify the individual characters of the font. A printer driver uses this information to translate the text data to be printed from the Unicode Standard to a code capable of selecting a device font provided character.

Abstract: A system and method of printing documents having merged text and graphics is presented which overcomes the Z-order problem of merging text and graphics on a raster printer and which enhances printing performance. The system and method analyze a location of the text and graphics elements to be printed to determine if and where any potential merging problems exist. In these regions, the system and method selectively redraws the text as part of the merged bitmap graphic. The remainder of the text on the document is printed with device resident fonts, either directly or through downloading the device font, if possible. This greatly enhances printing performance. If the text information is not supported or supportable by a device font, the text elements are drawn as bitmaps to be printed by the printer.

Abstract: Novel screening methods for identifying antimicrobial agents involving use of membrane potential indicator dyes are provided.

Abstract: A system and method of printing documents having merged text and graphics is presented which overcomes the Z-order problem of merging text and graphics on a raster printer and which enhances printing performance. The system and method analyze a location of the text and graphics elements to be printed to determine if and where any potential merging problems exist. In these regions, the system and method selectively redraws the text as part of the merged bitmap graphic. The remainder of the text on the document is printed with device resident fonts, either directly or through downloading the device font, if possible. This greatly enhances printing performance. If the text information is not supported or supportable by a device font, the text elements are drawn as bitmaps to be printed by the printer.

Abstract: A system and method of printing documents having merged text and graphics is presented which overcomes the Z-order problem of merging text and graphics on a raster printer and which enhances printing performance. The system and method analyze a location of the text and graphics elements to be printed to determine if and where any potential merging problems exist. In these regions, the system and method selectively redraws the text as part of the merged bitmap graphic. The remainder of the text on the document is printed with device resident fonts, either directly or through downloading the device font, if possible. This greatly enhances printing performance. If the text information is not supported or supportable by a device font, the text elements are drawn as bitmaps to be printed by the printer.

Abstract: Novel screening methods for identifying antimicrobial agents involving use of membrane potential indicator dyes are provided.