A disk player includes comprises a magazine and a player portion. When a disk is played, the magazine is loaded in the player portion. A plurality of plates on which disks are to be put are stacked in the magazine. Each of the plates can be separated from each other by not sliding but moving upward and downward. In this separated state, a pickup arm which is equipped with a pickup and a chucking mechanism enters a portion between the plates. After the entrance, the plates in steps above the selected disk further rise, and the plate on which the selected disk falls. By the fall, the selected disk is put on a disk table in the chucking mechanism. Thereafter, a claw member protrudes from the disk table, to clamp the selected disk through a center hole of the selected disk. The necessity of a member for rotatably pressing the selected disk from above is eliminated. Consequently, the disk player can be made thin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk player using a magazine in which a plurality of disks are loaded in a stacked state for selecting the arbitrary disk out of the plurality of disks and playing the selected disk, and a disk chucking mechanism suitable for use in the disk player.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An example of this type of conventional disk player is one so adapted that a plate on which a disk is put is slid backward and forward or sideward and is pulled out from a magazine, to position the plate above or below a pickup in a player main body portion, and the disk on the plate is clamped by a disk chucking mechanism provided in the player main body portion to rotate the disk.
In the conventional structure, however, a space for pulling out the disk from the magazine must be ensured on the side of the disk player, and the space increases the size of the disk player.
Therefore, considered is a structure in which plates, each having a disk thereon, in steps above and steps below a plate of selected disk are respectively separated upward and downward without sliding the plate on which the selected disk is put, and a component equipped with a pickup and a disk chucking mechanism is moved into a magazine to clamp the selected disk.
Consequently, a disk player having such a structure can be miniaturized, as compared with the disk player having the structure in which the selected disk is pulled out and is played, because the necessity of the space for pulling out the disk is eliminated.
The conventional general disk chucking mechanism comprises a rotary driving portion rotated by a motor and a rotatable driven portion for pressing a disk from above, and enters a center hole of the disk from below. The thickness of the disk chucking mechanism having such a structure is increased because the rotatable driven portion for pressing the disk from above is required.
When the above-mentioned disk chucking mechanism is employed for the disk player having the structure in which the plates on which the disks are put are separated from each other upward and downward, therefore, the distance between the separated plates is increased, whereby the thickness of the disk player is increased, or the number of disks which can be loaded in the magazine is decreased.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 157859/1991 discloses a disk chucking mechanism having a structure in which the thickness thereof is decreased. The mechanism comprises a disk table, on which a disk provided with a center hole is put, rotated by a rotary driving mechanism, a fitting member arranged in the center of the disk table and fitted in the center hole of the disk, and a plurality of spherical members so disposed that they can retract into the fitting member and urged in the direction in which they protrude from the fitting member by an elastic member for pressing and supporting the disk put on the disk table against the disk table. It is considered that the disk chucking mechanism having such a structure is incorporated into the above-mentioned structure in which the plates are separated from each other upward and downward.
In the mechanism disclosed in the above-mentioned gazette, however, an inner side surface of the center hole of the disk must get over the spherical members in order to chuck the disk. For this purpose, a force for temporarily pressing the disk against the disk table is required. In the structure using the magazine, the force cannot be applied by a person. Therefore, the force must be applied by any mechanism. When such a structure is newly incorporated, the structure of the disk chucking mechanism becomes complicated.
Furthermore, in the disk player having the structure in which the plates in the magazine are separated from each other upward and downward, there is provided an arm for supporting and moving the disk chucking mechanism in order that the disk chucking mechanism is positioned in the center hole of the disk in a separated state (playing time), while retracting from the disk in a non-separated state (non-playing time). In this case, the length of the arm is larger than the radius of the disk. A pickup and its moving mechanism are carried on the arm in addition to the disk chucking mechanism. Further, the disk is put thereon at the time of playing. When a mechanism for rotating the arm by a supporting shaft provided at its one end is employed, the arm is slightly inclined when the disk is put thereon. If the amount of rise of the disk in a case where the disk is raised from the plate is small, the disk may be brought into contact with the plate. Further, the arm easily vibrates because it is supported on one side. When the vibration is increased due to the occurrence of resonance, focusing and tracking in the pickup may be interfered with.

Disk player including a disk chucking mechanism and plate separator device


The present invention relates to an informing apparatus and method for exchange time of expendable supplies in a refrigerator. In the present invention, an exchange date of the expendable supplies is calculated on the basis of data on the exchange of the expendable supplies inputted by a user upon exchange of the expendable supplies, and indication of request for the exchange of the expendable supplies is displayed onto a screen 50 on the relevant date in accordance with the exchange date of the expendable supplies. According to the present invention, the expendable supplies can be replaced at more accurate exchange time, and the operation of the refrigerator in a state where its performance has been reduced by using the expendable supplies of which a term of validity has passed can be prevented beforehand.

The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to an informing apparatus and method for exchange time of expendable supplies used in the refrigerator.
There is a tendency for recent electronic appliances to have various functions. In case of a refrigerator, the functions of automatically making ice and purifying water have in addition to fundamental functions such as refrigeration and freezing. Since the above functions are added thereto, various kinds of expendable supplies are needed. Herein, as an example of the expendable supplies, a filter needed for purifying the water will be specifically described.
FIG. 1 is a constitutional view schematically showing a refrigerator with the filter housed therein, which has the prior functions of purifying the water and making the ice. As shown in this figure, an interior space of the refrigerator is sectioned into a refrigerating chamber 10 and a freezing chamber 20 by a longitudinal barrier BR, and a machine room 30 thereof is formed below the refrigerating chamber 10 and the freezing chamber 20. The refrigerating chamber 10 and the freezing chamber 20 are opened and closed by doors 16, 26.
A first valve 32 for blocking off the water, which is introduced from a water pipe, upon exchange of the filter and a second valve 34 for distributing the purified water to respective parts of the refrigerator are installed into the machine room 30. The first and second valves 32, 34 are solenoid valves and are opened and closed by an attractive force that results from a magnetic field generated when an electric power is applied thereto.
The first valve 32 is connected through a connecting tube D1 to a filter 12 installed in the refrigerating chamber 10. The filter 12 has a function of purifying the water introduced into the refrigerator. The water purified within the filter flows into the second valve 34 through a connecting tube D2. Further, onto a side of the refrigerating chamber 10 is installed a tank 14 in which the water purified within the filter 12 is temporarily stored before it is supplied to a dispenser 22 to be described later.
On the other hand, in the freezing chamber 20 is installed an icemaker 24 which is connected to the second valve 34 through a connecting tube D4.
Furthermore, the dispenser 22 for supplying the purified water to the exterior of the refrigerator is installed in front of the refrigerating chamber 10. The dispenser 22 is connected to the tank 14 of the refrigerating chamber 10 through a connecting tube D5.
In the prior refrigerator constructed as such, the water supplied from a source of supply water outside of the refrigerator is supplied, through the first valve 32, to the filter 12 which in turn, purifies the supplied water. The water purified within the filter 12 is supplied, through the second valve 34, to the tank 14 which stores the supplied water. Then, the water stored in the tank 14 is transferred to the dispenser 22. Otherwise, it is transferred directly to the icemaker 24 and utilized therein.
However, there are some problems in the above conventional refrigerator, as follows:
That is, since the filter 12 is one of the expendable supplies, it should be replaced with a new filter after optimal running time thereof has passed. However, a control portion for informing a user of the perceived running time of the filter has not yet been provided in the conventional refrigerator with the filter housed therein. Therefore, the user should keep an exchange date of the filter in mind and should replace the filter with a new one at that time.
However, it is generally difficult to properly perform replacing the filter. In most cases, the filter is frequently replaced after the exchange time thereof has considerably passed. In a case where the exchange time of the filter has considerably passed as mentioned above, the problem that the contaminated water is provided to the user is produced.
Furthermore, in a case where the exchange time of the filter has considerably passed, flow-passage resistance within the filter is increased and a flow rate of the water supplied to the icemaker or the dispenser is remarkably reduced. Therefore, there is also a problem in that a shape of the ice thus formed is not uniform.
Therefore, the present invention is conceived to solve the problems of the prior art. An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for informing a user of exchange time of filters for purifying water.
In order to achieve the above object of the present invention, the present invention provides an informing apparatus for exchange time of expendable supplies in a refrigerator, comprising a screen installed on one side of an outer surface of the refrigerator for displaying data; a control portion for processing the data to be displayed on the screen and performing control relevant to operation of the refrigerator; an input portion for receiving data on the exchange of the expendable supplies which are transmitted to the control portion; and an exchange date setting portion for setting an exchange date of the expendable supplies calculated in the control portion on the basis of the data on the exchange of the expendable supplies, and informing the control portion of the exchange date to be displayed on the screen in due time for replacement of the expendable supplies.
The screen may be provided integrally with an input section in which the data are inputted into the screen by a touch.
The informing apparatus of the present invention may further comprise a communication means for transmitting a signal of the exchange of the expendable supplies generated from the control portion to suppliers of the expendable supplies.
Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides an informing method for exchange time of expendable supplies in a refrigerator, comprising the steps of mounting the expendable supplies into the refrigerator; receiving data on the exchange of the mounted expendable supplies inputted by a user; calculating the next exchange date on the basis of the data on the exchange of the expendable supplies; comparing the calculated exchange date with the present date; and displaying information on the exchange of the expendable supplies onto a screen on a front surface of the refrigerator when the exchange date is consistent with the present date.
The step of displaying information on the exchange of the expendable supplies may further comprise a step of displaying the exchange information onto a main menu window in the morning of the exchange date.
The exchange information may continue to be displayed until the expendable supplies have been replaced.
The exchange information on the expendable supplies may be transmitted to suppliers via an additional communication means while it is displayed onto the screen.
According to the present invention constructed as such, there are advantages in that the exchange time of the expendable supplies used in the refrigerator can be punctually kept and the expendable supplies can be rapidly supplied directly from the supplier.

Informing apparatus and method for exchange time of expendable supplies in refrigerator


A magnetic recording medium having a magnetic layer on one surface of a non-magnetic base and having as required a backcoat layer on the other surface, having at least one of p-tolyldiiodemethylsulfone, 2,3,3-triiodoallyl alcohol and 2-methoxycarbonylaminobenzimidazole and 2-methoxycarbonylaminobenzimidazolium salt as an anti-fungus agent on or in the magnetic layer and/or the backcoat layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic recording medium, such as a magnetic tape. More specifically, the present invention relates to a magnetic recording medium that has undergone anti-fungus treatment.
2. Prior Art
Generally, the magnetic layer of a magnetic recording medium is formed by coating a magnetic paint, obtained by dispersing and blending ferromagnetic powders, binders, dispersants, and lubricants in organic solvents, on a non-magnetic substrate, such as a polyester film, or by directly depositing a ferromagnetic metal through a technique such as vacuum deposition. It is also widely practiced to provide a so-called backcoat layer on the other side of the non-magnetic substrate. The backcoat layer is formed by mixing electroconductive carbon black in a binder. This is effective in preventing a loose winding or electrification of the tape, reducing the dropout or friction coefficient, improving running stability, and reducing a transfer of the lubricant from the magnetic layer.
Typically, the binder for the magnetic recording medium consists of synthetic resins, such as vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate-vinyl alcohol copolymer, cellulose derivatives, epoxy resins, polyvinyl butyral, polyurethane resins, synthetic rubber resins, acrylic resins, and polyester resins.
In the magnetic layer and the backcoat layer, described above, various additives, such as dispersants, lubricants, and anti-static agents, are utilized. These are usually a variety of organic compounds such as fatty acids and derivatives thereof, for example fatty acid esters, fatty acid metal salts or fatty acid amides, aliphatio alcohols, and other organic compounds having saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbon groups.
Some of these binders and additives contain compounds that can function as a source of nutrition for fungi. In this regard, certain fungi can grow on these layers by gradually decomposing and absorbing these compounds. When a fungus does grow in the magnetic recording media that utilize these compounds, it can cause the magnetic layer to peel off due to adhesion of tapes to each other, head contamination, deterioration in the tape smoothness and signal errors of the tape or disk. Fungus that grow on these layers can include Aspergillus, Penicillium (blue mold), and Paesilomyces.
To suppress the generation of these fungi or molds, U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,280 discloses a technique that includes adding various anti-fungus agents into the binder of the magnetic layer.
However, the anti-fungus effect of the conventional magnetic recording medium may not be sufficient and there is a demand for the development of a magnetic recording medium having a more potent anti-fungus effect.

Magnetic recording medium utilizing a fungicide


A high-speed current switch (36) comprises a differential switch (14), a current source (12), an op-amp (32), a feedback switch (38), a hold capacitor (40), a biasing transistor (42), and a second current switch (44). The high-speed current switch (36) receives a complementary control signal (46) and a control signal (48), and generates an output current (26).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to current switches and in particular to a high-speed current switch suitable for use in high speed electronic systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many electronic systems it is important to rapidly switch a current on or off, or to rapidly redirect the current. The faster the current is switched or redirected, the more ideal the behavior of the overall circuit which the switch is supporting. High speed current switching is useful in digital-to-analog converters (DACs) for high performance audio such as compact disc (CD) players and direct digital synthesizers used in communication base stations. Further, high speed current switching is useful in current-mode (or charge pump) phase locked loop (PLL) circuits to improve noise and spurs performance.
Historically, a simple series switch 10 as shown in FIG. 1 was implemented using a single bipolar or field effect transistor to turn on and off a current source 12. When the simple series switch 10 was in the open position, the current source 12 was forced to shut down, thereby drawing no current. When the simple series switch 10 was in the closed position, the current source 12 drew current. A drawback of the simple series switch 10 was that when the current source device was turned off it was slow to turn back on, thereby causing the simple series switch 10 to be unsuitable for use in high performance DACs and PLLs.
Various approaches have been tried to improve the high-speed performance of these current switches. One such approach used a differential switch 14 as shown in FIG. 2. The differential switch 14 could be designed using metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), metal semiconductor field effect transistor (MESFET), or bipolar technology. The differential switch 14 of FIG. 2 comprised a first transistor 16 and a second transistor 18 that acted as switches to steer a source current 20 between an output terminal 22 and an internal node 24. An output current 26 would be either zero or the value of the source current 20 depending on the state of the control signal. Because the current was steered to the output, the current source 12 was always on. For this reason, the differential switch 14 was able to switch the output current 26 on arid off significantly faster than the simple series switch 10, which forced the current source to shut down when the switch was opened.
The differential switch 14 shown in FIG. 2 had limitations that slowed its operation. When on, FET or bipolar devices stored a charge inside the device in the inversion layer or in the space-charge region. The amount of charge is a function of the internal device capacitance and the terminal voltages of the device. For example, in a MOSFET the stored inversion layer charge is a function of the inversion layer capacitance, gate oxide capacitance, and the gate-source voltage (Vgs) and the drain-source voltage (Vds). In the differential switch 14 of FIG. 2, the voltage at the internal node 24 probably was different from the voltage at the output terminal 22, and the amount of charge stored in the first transistor 16 was typically different than that in the second transistor 18. When the differential switch 14 changed state, the difference in charge must be transferred from parasitic capacitance in the circuit, and this modulated the voltage at a tail node 28. This modulation of the voltage of the tail node 28 caused the output switch Vgs to vary, slowing the process of turning the device on and settling the output current 26. In addition, variations in the voltage at the tail node 28 and any charge drawn from the output terminal 22 would create a spike of current at the output terminal 22 that took some time to settle. Part of this current spike was the charge difference needed for storage when the second transistor 18 was on. The current spike developed at the output terminal 22 increased the settle time of the output current 26 and could degrade the performance of the overall circuit that the current source 12 was supporting.
Recently, the limitations of the differential switch 14 have been improved on by forcing the voltage at the output terminal 22 and the voltage at the internal node 24 to be equal. When the first transistor 16 and the second transistor 18 are on, the charge differences are minimized and the switch will react more rapidly. One method of forcing the two terminal voltages to be equal is described in an article by Howard C. Yang, et al., entitled "A Low Jitter 0.3-165 MHz CMOS PLL Frequency Synthesizer for 3V/5V Operation", IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, V32, N4, pp.582-586, April 1997.
A balanced current switch 30 as described in the Yang et al. article is reproduced in FIG. 3. The reference numbers of the differential switch 14 of FIG. 2 have been retained for those elements that are common. The balanced current switch 30 of FIG. 3 includes all the elements and functionality of the differential switch 14 illustrated in FIG. 2 and further comprises an operational amplifier (op-amp) 32. In the balanced current switch 30, the op-amp 32 is connected in a unity-gain buffer configuration such that it forces the voltage at the internal node 24 to track the voltage at the output terminal 22. Because the terminal voltages of the first transistor 16 and the second transistor 18 are equalized, the charge stored in each transistor (when each is on) is equalized as well. This significantly reduces the amount of charge that is drawn from parasitic capacitance in the circuit, and from the output node or the tail node, improving the settle time of the switch.
Although possessing improved performance over the differential switch 14, the balanced current switch 30 still has drawbacks. The primary drawback of the balanced current switch 30 is that the op-amp output current 34 must rapidly switch between the source current 20 and zero when the current is steered to the output. Thus, the bandwidth and slew rate of the op-amp 32 constrains the reaction time of the feedback system, and therefore, the speed of the balanced current switch 30. An additional drawback of the balanced current switch 30 is that the op-amp 32 must be able to source a current equal to the source current 20, which can be quite large. This makes the op-amp design problem very difficult. The op-amp is required to simultaneously meet large output current and wide bandwidth and high slew rate constraints. The high performance op-amp required to meet these specifications would typically consume high current drain, be significantly large in size, and thus costly, which are undesirable in battery operated, portable products.
Despite the development of techniques such as those described previously above, a need still remains for improving the performance of high-speed current switches without the use of high performance operational amplifiers.


A system, method, program product and service for implementing a holographic enterprise network. A system for providing an interface between an operations center and a three dimensional (3D) virtual simulator system capable of rendering holographic images of the operations center is disclosed. Included is a holographic enterprise interface having a translation system for translating standard enterprise data associated with the operations center and 3D holographic data. Also enclosed is a communications manager for managing parallel communications between the holographic enterprise interface and a 3D data processing infrastructure having a holographic bus.

As greater demands are placed on operations centers, such as those utilized by information technology providers, utility providers, military and intelligence, service centers, etc., the greater the management challenges become. For instance, a data center, which is used to house mission critical computer systems and associated components (e.g., server hardware, environmental controls, redundant/backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, high security systems, etc.), may be housed in large buildings covering tens of thousands of square feet. Managing all of the operations of such a facility can be both difficult and costly.
One approach to managing such a facility is to utilize some type of virtual representation of the operations center, which can provide operational information and allow the operator to respond or act accordingly. However, current approaches lack a standardized and scalable interface for converting data back and forth between real world data generated from standard enterprises processes and three dimensional data. Accordingly, a need exists for a standardized interface that addresses the above-mentioned issues.

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention discloses a method to optimize a neural network computational graph. The computational graph is used for performing neural network calculation by a computational platform. The computational platform reads data needed by the calculation from off-chip memory. The method comprises: layers which can be fused are selected at least based on an optimization rule to reduce frequency of data exchange between the computational platform and the off-chip memory, carrying out fusion for at least two adjacent layers in the computational graph according to the selected layer objects. Here, the at least two adjacent layers are at least one of the following: horizontally adjacent layers having the same input of feature maps; and longitudinally adjacent layers in which the calculation results of a feature map of a previous layer are at least part of input for a next layer. The method to optimize a computational graph of the present invention can be automatically carried out based on rules or through isomorphic subgraph matching. Thus, an optimal reconstruction mode for executing the computational graph is found out, execution efficiency of the neural network computational platform is improved.

In recent years, neural networks (NNs) have become a research hot spot in image recognition domains. A neural network model achieved by training can be applied to fields such as image classification, object recognition, significance detection, etc. In recent years, there is a trend of increasing calculation scale and increasing complexity for neural network models, its practical requirements cannot be satisfied by traditional CPU platforms. Therefore, utilizing an FPGA, a GPU-based heterogeneous computational platform to design a neural network accelerator, has become a new research hot spot. Here, compared with a GPU platform, FPGA can achieve higher computation energy ratio, meanwhile, the characteristic that FPGA can be quickly iterated and can carry out hardware configurability, further better satisfies requirements of rapid development of algorithms.
Neural network algorithms from different deep learning frameworks are converted into a generic computational graph, the computational graph is optimized and reconstructed, then the optimized computational graph is mapped into instructions and machine codes of a hardware platform, thus, the compilation process of the algorithm on the hardware platform is finished. Because there exist limits caused by on-chip storage resources, bandwidth, computation resources, and hardware architectures, etc., and bit-width of custom instruction set architectures (ISA) on different hardware platforms, additionally, there also exist limits caused by factors such as various computation operations, dimension transformations, different parameters of computation operations, etc. in different deep learning frameworks, as a result, how to find out an optimal way to execute the computational graph during the algorithm-to-instruction mapping process, in other words, how to make the instructions generated by compiler from the algorithms to be efficiently executed on the hardware platform, is an important problem that needs to be solved when designing a computational platform.
Therefore, a method to improve the overall efficiency to execute the neural networks on a computational platform is still needed.

Methods of optimization of computational graphs of neural networks


In order to ameliorate the overload at an overloaded network node that is discarding some of the SMSs it is receiving, when a node is overloaded with received SMSs, it sends a message to the nodes from which it is receiving SMSs of that fact and includes a parameter indicating the extent to which it is overloaded. That parameter, for instance, may be the percentage of SMSs that it is receiving that are being discarded. With this information, the sending node can determine a percentage of the pending SMSs during such conditions that will help remove the overloaded node from the overload condition more quickly. Furthermore, the network protocol may be adapted to include a priority parameter in SMSs. Then, when an SMS sending node knows that a node to which it is sending SMSs is overloaded, the sending node may decide which SMSs to send to the overloaded node based on such priority information.

The short message service ("SMS") provided by many cellular telephone companies is a service that permits the cellular customers to compose short text messages that can be transmitted via the network from the sender's cell phone to another cell phone and viewed on the other cell phone. In more recent years, these messages (commonly called SMSs themselves) can also contain other types of media, including audio clips and video clips. SMSs differ from conventional telephone calls because they are not a real time, two-way communication between the owners of the two cell phones. An SMS is more akin to an email in the sense that it is a one way communication from the sender to the receiver.
Due to this difference, communication networks tend to handle SMSs differently than voice calls in some respects. For instance, when one of the nodes involved in a conventional voice call between two cell phones is too overloaded to service all of the voice calls being made through that node at a given time, the overloaded node discards some of the voice calls. It is then up to each individual calling party whose call failed to try to make its call again.
On the other hand, since SMSs are not real-time two-way communications, when an SMS is discarded at a node, the node that sent the SMS typically continues to try to send the SMS repeatedly until it is successfully received by the target cellular telephone (or other device). Every network operates according to its specific design parameters. However, as an example, in the ANSI-41 protocol, the SMS sending node (i.e., a Short Message Service Center or SMSC) sends a Short Message Service Point to Point invoke message (hereinafter SMSDPP) containing the SMS to the SMS receiving node (i.e., a Mobile Switching Center or MSC) and typically waits to receive an acknowledgement message (i.e., a Short Message Service Point to Point return result or smsdpp return result) from the receiving node. If it does not receive the acknowledgment within a relatively short period of time, e.g., less than a minute (or if it receives a delivery failure notification; which is the protocol in certain networks), the sending node will assume the SMS did not reach its destination and send the SMS again. Typically, the sending node may try to send the SMS ten or more times in relatively quick succession before giving up.
Thus, this practice of resending an unacknowledged SMS to an overloaded node actually can exacerbate the overload condition at that node because every discarded message may cause the sending node to repeatedly send the same message over and over again in a reasonably short window, thus adding even more traffic to the overloaded node.
Furthermore, SMS messages do not contain any data as to priority of one SMS message relative to another or even whether the SMS is itself an acknowledgement message. Accordingly, an overloaded node that is discarding some portion of the SMSs it is receiving is discarding some of the SMSs and delivering others of the SMSs without any knowledge as to the importance of any of the SMSs.

Method and apparatus for SMS termination overload protection


This disclosure provides conjugate compounds comprising antibodies and fragments thereof engineered with one or more reactive cysteine residues and more specifically to conjugate compounds with therapeutic or diagnostic applications. The conjugate compounds comprise cysteine-engineered antibodies or fragments thereof conjugated, for example, with chemotherapeutic drugs, toxins, and detection labels such as radionuclides or fluorophores. The disclosure also provides methods of using the disclosed conjugate compounds for in vitro, in situ, ex vivo, and in vivo diagnosis or treatment of mammalian cells, or associated pathological conditions.

The present disclosure provides cysteine-engineered antibodies and Fc fusion protein, and conjugate compounds comprising such cysteine-engineered molecules. Such conjugates can be utilized for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
The use of antibodies has been established for the diagnosis and targeted treatment of patients with cancer, immunological and angiogenic disorders. The use of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), i.e., immunoconjugates, for the local delivery of cytotoxic or cytostatic agents, i.e., drugs to kill or inhibit tumor cells in the treatment of cancer (Lambert (2005) Curr. Opinion in Pharmacology 5:543-549; Wu et al (2005) Nature Biotechnology 23:1137-1146; Payne (2003) Cancer Cell 3:207-21) theoretically allows targeted delivery of the drug moiety to tumors, where they bind to the target and may be internalized resulting in intracellular accumulation therein, where systemic administration of these unconjugated drug agents can result in unacceptable levels of toxicity to normal cells as well as the tumor cells sought to be eliminated. Efforts to design and refine ADC have focused on the selectivity of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) as well as drug-linking and drug-releasing properties (Lambert, J. (2005) Curr. Opinion in Pharmacology 5:543-549). These methods include the conjugation of antibodies to drugs, toxins, radioisotopes, peptides, other antibodies, etc.
Conventional means of attaching, i.e., linking through covalent bonds, a drug moiety to an antibody generally leads to a heterogeneous mixture of molecules where the drug moieties are attached at a number of sites on the antibody. For example, cytotoxic drugs have typically been conjugated to antibodies through the often-numerous lysine residues of an antibody, generating a heterogeneous antibody-drug conjugate mixture.
Cysteine residues have been introduced into proteins by genetic engineering techniques to form covalent attachments to ligands or to form new intramolecular disulfide bonds. However, engineering cysteine thiol groups by the mutation of various amino acid residues of a protein to cysteine amino acids is potentially problematic, particularly in the case of unpaired (free cysteines) residues or those that are relatively accessible for reaction or oxidation. For example, formation of intramolecular or intermolecular disulfides can cause protein aggregation. The location of the engineered cysteine can affect the accessibility of the drugs during conjugation resulting in low yields. The introduction of new cysteines can render the antibody inactive or cause loss of binding specificity to its target due to misfolding or loss of tertiary structure (Zhang et al (2002) Anal. Biochem. 311:1-9). Also, the conjugated compounds can have poor serum stability, leading to loss of activity and degradation (e.g., by proteolytic degradation or clearance of the antibody moiety, or by hydrolysis of the drug moiety). Thus, it is an object of the present disclosure to provide improved cysteine engineering strategies capable of yielding conjugate compounds with enhanced stability, e.g., serum stability.

Conjugated compounds comprising cysteine-engineered antibodies


A system and method are provided for determining the onset of gamma interactions for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging more accurately than with existing techniques. The timing of a sequence of primary trigger events is obtained and used to determine a weighted combination, which mixes the timing information from the various primary trigger events to compute an overall event trigger timing with improved time resolution. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the invention improves time resolution by approximately 10% over state-of-the-art methods. This improved time resolution directly benefits the imaging performance of the PET scanner, especially in time-of-flight (TOF) mode, where a high time resolution directly translates to a reduction in image noise at the same dose—or, alternatively, a reduction of dose to the patient or scan time for the same image quality.

Medical radionuclide imaging, commonly referred to as nuclear medicine, is a unique specialty wherein ionizing radiation is used to acquire images which show the function and anatomy of organs, bones or tissues of the body. The technique of acquiring nuclear medicine images entails first introducing biologically appropriate radiopharmaceuticals into the body—typically by injection, inhalation, or ingestion. These radiopharmaceuticals are attracted to specific organs, bones or tissues of interest (These exemplary organs, bones, or tissues are also more generally referred to herein using the term "objects"). Upon arriving at their specified area of interest, the radiopharmaceuticals produce gamma photon emissions which emanate from the body and are then captured by a scintillation crystal. The interaction of the gamma photons with the scintillation crystal produces flashes of light which are referred to as "events." Events are detected by an array of photodetectors (such as photomultiplier tubes) and their spatial locations or positions are then calculated and stored. In this way, an image of the organ or tissue under study is created from detection of the distribution of the radioisotopes in the body. Known applications of nuclear medicine include: analysis of kidney function, imaging blood-flow and heart function, scanning lungs for respiratory performance, identification of gallbladder blockage, bone evaluation, determining the presence and/or spread of cancer, identification of bowel bleeding, evaluating brain activity, locating the presence of infection, and measuring thyroid function and activity. Hence, accurate detection is vital in such medical applications.
One particular nuclear medicine imaging technique is known as positron emission tomography, or PET. Positron emission tomography is used to produce images for diagnosing the biochemistry or physiology of a specific organ, tumor or other metabolically active site. The measurement of tissue concentration using a positron emitting radionuclide is based on coincidence detection of the two gamma photons arising from a positron annihilation. When a positron is annihilated by an electron, two 511 keV gamma photons are simultaneously produced and travel in approximately opposite directions. Gamma photons produced by an annihilation event can be detected by a pair of oppositely disposed radiation detectors capable of producing a signal in response to the interaction of the gamma photons with a scintillation crystal. Annihilation events are typically identified by a time coincidence between the detection of the two 511 keV gamma photons in the two oppositely disposed detectors; i.e., the gamma photon emissions are detected virtually simultaneously by each detector. When two oppositely disposed gamma photons each strike an oppositely disposed detector to produce a time coincidence event, they also identify a line-of-response (LOR) along which the annihilation event has occurred.
After being sorted into parallel projections, the LOR defined by the coincidence events are used to reconstruct a three-dimensional distribution of the positron-emitting radionuclide within the patient. In two-dimensional PET, each 2D transverse section or "slice" of the radionuclide distribution is reconstructed independently of adjacent sections. In fully three-dimensional PET, the data are sorted into sets of LOR, where each set is parallel to a particular detector angle, and therefore represents a two dimensional parallel projection p(s, φ) of the three dimensional radionuclide distribution within the patient—where "s" corresponds to the distance of the LOR from the center of the detector and "φ" corresponds to the angle of the detector plane with respect to the x axis in (x, y) coordinate space (in other words, φ corresponds to a particular LOR direction).
Coincidence events are integrated or collected for each LOR and stored in a sinogram. In this format, a single fixed point in f(x, y) traces a sinusoid in the sinogram. In each sinogram, there is one row containing the LOR for a particular azimuthal angle φ; each such row corresponds to a one-dimensional parallel projection of the tracer distribution at a different coordinate along the scanner axis. This is shown conceptually in FIG. 1.
An event is registered if both crystals detect an annihilation photon within a coincidence time window τ (e.g., on the order of 4-5 nsec), depending on the timing properties of the scintillator and the field of view (FOV). The FOV is defined as the volume between the detectors; and a pair of detectors is sensitive only to coincidence events occurring in the FOV. Therefore, the need for physical collimation is eliminated and sensitivity is significantly increased. Accurate corrections (for example, attenuation correction) can be made for the self-absorption of photons within the patient so that accurate measurements of tracer concentration can be made.
The number of time coincidences detected per second within a FOV of a detector is the count rate of the detector. The count rate at each of two oppositely disposed detectors, A and B, can be referred to as singles counts or SA and SB, respectively. The time required for a gamma photon to travel from its point of origin to a point of detection is referred to as the time-of-flight (TOF) of the gamma photon. TOF is dependent upon the speed of light c and the distance traveled. A time coincidence or coincidence event is identified if the time difference between the arrivals of signals in a pair of oppositely disposed detectors is within the coincidence time window τ. In conventional PET, the coincidence detection time window τ is wide enough so that an annihilation event occurring anywhere within the object will produce annihilation gamma photons reaching their respective detectors within the coincidence window. Coincidence time windows of 4.5-12 nsec are common for conventional PET, and are largely determined by the time resolution capabilities of the detectors and electronics.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, if an annihilation event occurs at the midpoint of a LOR, the TOF of the gamma photon detected in detector A (TA) is equal to the TOF of the gamma photon detected in detector B (TB). If an annihilation event occurs at a distance Δx from the midpoint of the LOR, the difference between TA and TB is Δt=2Δx/c, where c is the speed of light. If d is the distance between detectors, the TOF difference Δt could take any value from −d/c to +d/c, depending on the location of the annihilation event.
Time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) ("TOF-PET") is based on the measurement of the difference Δt between the detection times of the two gamma photons arising from the positron annihilation event. This measurement allows the annihilation event to be localized along the LOR with a resolution of about 75-120 mm FWHM, assuming a time resolution of 500-800 ps (picoseconds). Though less accurate than the spatial resolution of the scanner, this approximate localization is effective in reducing the random coincidence rate and in improving both the stability of the reconstruction and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), especially when imaging large objects. Thus, in TOF-PET, the "TOF" coordinate, Δt, is stored together with s and φ.
One task of a good PET detector is to measure the time stamp of the gamma interaction in the detector (usually within the scintillator) as accurately as possible. The required accuracy of a few hundred ps (picoseconds) is on a much shorter time scale than the width or duration of the photon emission and also, normally, the width of the pulse from the photosensor for a single photon. The figure of merit is the coincidence time resolution, which is defined as the full width half maximum (FWHM) of the measured trigger time difference between two detectors, when detecting the signal from a fixed point source positron emitter between them.
Time resolution is a measure of the uncertainty of the measured time difference Δt between the two detections. The time resolution is used in the reconstruction algorithm as a kernel for a localization probability function. The events are located along the LOR identified by the two detectors; its most probable position is set to the position corresponding to the measured TOF difference t.
There are various types of photosensors that are used or have been studied for use in PET scanners: most commercial systems today are based on photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), which detect the light emitted by a scintillator following a gamma event and convert detected light photons into electrical signals. Some recent systems and scanner prototypes have used avalanche photodiodes (APDs) to detect the gamma event. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) seem to be a promising sensor type for future detector generations, because they combine some advantages of PMTs (high signal gain and high speed) with those of APDs (small form factor and compatibility with magnetic fields).
SiPMs offer some of the best time resolutions among existing photosensor devices, and in particular are very suitable for detecting the scintillation light from Lutetium Oxyorthosilicate (LSO) and other typical PET scintillators. Coincidence time resolution values in the range of 150 to 500 ps have been obtained for different sensor types and different coupling configurations, demonstrating the feasibility of this technology for TOF-PET. The best timing resolution is usually achieved by coupling each single LSO crystal with typical dimensions of 3×3×20 mm3 to a single sensor pixel, which is matched to the 3×3 mm2 light extraction face.
Analog SiPMs consist of an array of Geiger-mode APDs (or microcells) connected in parallel to form a two-terminal device. Then, although the state of the individual microcell can be described as digital (ON or OFF), the overall output becomes an analog signal, which is roughly proportional to the amount of incident light.
One very recent development in this field is the so-called digital SiPM (dSiPM) technology by Philips (see, e.g., WO2009/019660 A2). This sensor design achieves a high signal-to-noise ratio and an excellent time resolution by integrating CMOS electronics on the same wafer as the SiPM sensor and digitizing the signal of each Geiger-mode APD cell. In contrast to the analog sensors discussed above, the dSiPM can directly measure the trigger time for the first, second, third, . . . avalanche, thus giving measured arrival times for the first few measured photons. Setting the trigger on the first photon has been shown to give the best timing results for any SiPM so far (T. Frach et al., "Digital Silicon Photomultiplier—Principle of Operation and Intrinsic Detector Performance," IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, Talk 28-5, 2009). It has been shown theoretically that the first few photons from the emission statistics carry the most precise information about the time of the original event interaction (Y. Shao, "A new timing model for calculating the intrinsic timing resolution of a scintillator detector," Phys. Med. Biol. 52 (2007) 1103-1117).
Increasing the accuracy of the trigger time for detecting the onset of a gamma interaction event is especially important for time-of-flight PET (TOF-PET), where the variance in the reconstructed image is reduced by using the additional spatial information from the trigger time differences of the two opposite detectors that measure the same positron decay (W. Moses, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. vol NS-50, p. 1325-1330, 2003).
In time-of-flight PET, the noise equivalent count rate (a measure of the detected counts corrected for the noise contribution of scatter and random coincidences; in other words, a measure of the effective sensitivity of the PET scanner) is inversely proportional to the time resolution of the PET scanner. Thus, improving the time resolution is the key for better performing TOF-PET scanners. Table 1 illustrates the time resolution, spatial uncertainty, and estimated TOF noise equivalent count rate (NEC) gain for a 40 cm diameter uniform cylinder (M. Conti, "State of the art and challenges of time-of-flight PET," Physica Medica 25: 1, p. 5, 2008).
TABLE 1Effects of Improved Time ResolutionTime resolution (ns)Δx (cm)TOF NEC gain0.11.5188.8.131.52.220.127.116.11.218.02.2

System and method for improving detection of gamma interactions in a positron emission tomography system


A method for manufacturing a diamond single crystal substrate, in which a single crystal is grown from a diamond single crystal serving as a seed substrate by vapor phase synthesis, said method comprising: preparing a diamond single crystal seed substrate which has a main surface whose planar orientation falls within an inclination range of not more than 8 degrees relative to a {100} plane or a {111} plane, as a seed substrate; forming a plurality of planes of different orientation which are inclined in the outer peripheral direction of the main surface relative to the main surface on one side of this seed substrate, by machining; and then growing a diamond single crystal by vapor phase synthesis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a diamond single crystal substrate, and more particularly relates to a method for manufacturing a large-surface area and high-quality diamond single crystal substrate, and to this diamond single crystal substrate, which can be used in semiconductor materials, electronic components, optical components, and so forth.
2. Description of Related Art
Diamond has many outstanding characteristics as a semiconductor material not found in other materials, such as its high thermal conductivity, high electron and hole mobility, high dielectric breakdown field, low dielectric loss, and wide bandgap. In recent years there has been particularly active development of field effect transistors having excellent high-frequency characteristics, and ultraviolet light emitting devices that take advantage of a wide bandgap.
Utilizing diamond as a semiconductor requires a high-quality single crystal substrate, just as with other semiconductor materials. At present, diamond single crystals are mainly obtained industrially by high-temperature, high-pressure synthesis methods, which result in better crystallinity than naturally occurring crystals, and these crystals have physical properties that allow them to be used as semiconductor substrates. However, the size of single crystals that can be obtained with today's high-temperature, high-pressure synthesis methods is limited to the order of one centimeter. The problem with such a small substrate is the semiconductor wafer process, which makes use of electron beam exposure, a stepper, or other such technology that is used in the micro fabrication of silicon and other ordinary semiconductors. A small substrate makes it difficult to use these processing apparatus that were designed with wafers a few inches in diameter in mind, and even if there were a processing apparatus specially intended for small substrates, this would not resolve the difficulties encountered in peripheral steps, such as the photoresist coating step.
One method that has been disclosed for obtaining a diamond single crystal substrate with a large surface area is to prepare a diamond single crystal consisting of low-index planes, and homoepitaxially grow diamond over this by vapor phase synthesis (Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication 11-1392A).
Another method that has been disclosed involves forming a substrate that will serve as the nucleus of vapor phase growth by disposing a plurality of high-pressure phase substances having essentially mutually identical crystal orientations, and growing a single crystal over this by vapor phase synthesis, thereby obtaining an integrated, large single crystal (Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Publication 3-75298A).
When diamond single crystals are grown by the method in Patent Document 1, the expansion growth rate in the lateral direction will never in principle exceed the growth rate in the upward direction. Obtaining a large-surface area substrate requires corresponding growth in the upward direction as well, which not only is inefficient, but when the crystal is grown rapidly in the upward direction, it is difficult to maintain the single crystal growth conditions in the lateral growth region.
When the method for obtaining a large single crystal described in Patent Document 2 is used, a single crystal seed substrate consisting of a plurality of plates usually does not have exactly the same orientation of the growth planes, and each plate has a slightly different planar orientation. When single crystal vapor phase synthesis is conducted using this substrate and the single crystals are integrated, the joined portions thereof have growth boundaries of different angles, called small angle boundaries, which are defects in the broad sense, and these basically do not disappear no matter how long the single crystal growth is continued. As a result, the semiconductor properties of the regions straddling the small angle boundaries are inferior to those of perfect single crystals, and when a device or the like is produced on the integrated single crystals, performance suffers at the portions that straddle the small angle boundaries.

Method for manufacturing diamond single crystal substrate


A gate line extending in a horizontal direction is formed on an insulating substrate, and a data line is formed perpendicular to the gate line defining a pixel of a matrix array. Pixel electrodes receiving image signals through the data line are formed in a pixel, and a thin film transistor having a gate electrode connected to the gate line, a source electrode connected to the data line, and a drain electrode connected to the pixel electrode is formed on the portion where the gate lines and the data lines intersect. A storage wire including a storage electrode line in the horizontal direction, a storage electrode connected to the storage electrode line, and at least one of the storage electrode connection portions connecting storage electrodes of neighboring pixels is formed in the same direction as the gate line. A redundant repair line overlaps and is insulated from the storage wire at one end and overlaps the storage wire or the gate wire of a neighboring pixel at the other end is formed in the same layer as the data wire. Also, a storage wire connection portion connecting the storage wires of a neighboring pixel is formed in the same layer as the pixel electrode. In this structure, if portions of the gate wire or the data wire are disconnected, the portions overlapping the disconnected wire, the storage wire, and the redundant repair line are shorted to repair an open wire defect.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor array panel for a liquid crystal display and a method for manufacturing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a thin film transistor array panel for a liquid crystal display having wire structures that can repair data line or gate line open and short and a method for manufacturing the same.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are one of the most widely used flat panel display (FPD) configurations. The liquid crystal display has two panels having electrodes for generating an electric field and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two panels. The transmittance of incident light is controlled by the intensity of the electric field applied to the liquid crystal layer.
In the most widely used liquid crystal displays, field-generating electrodes are respectively formed on both of the panels, and one of the panels has switching elements such as thin film transistors.
A typical liquid crystal display uses a thin film transistor as a switching element. Data lines and gate lines, which cross each other and define pixels in a matrix array, are formed on the panel on which the thin film transistors are disposed. Further, a pixel electrode, which receives an image signal from the data lines through the thin film transistor and generates an electric field with a common electrode, is formed in each pixel.
In the thin film transistor array panel for a liquid crystal display, a storage electrode line is formed overlapping the pixel electrode via an insulating layer and provides storage capacitance along with the pixel electrode to improve the capacitance of a liquid crystal capacitor.
On the other hand, in the thin film transistor array panel for a liquid crystal display having a panel with pixel electrodes and common electrodes at the same panel and generating an electric field parallel to the panel, a common electrode line connected to the common electrodes and transmitting a common voltage works as a storage electrode line.
However, in manufacturing a thin film transistor array panel for a liquid crystal display, the gate lines and the data lines respectively connecting the output terminals of a integrated drive circuit to source and gate terminals of the thin film transistor tend to be damaged by open/short defects. These open/short defects are the main reasons that reduce the yields. Furthermore, costs to repair the open/short defect are expensive.


A position/orientation measurement apparatus inputs the two-dimensional image of a measurement object captured by an image capturing apparatus, obtains the distance data of the measurement object measured by a distance sensor, detects an image feature of the measurement object from the two-dimensional image, determines the state of the measurement object, sets, based on the determined state, a usage mode regarding the image feature and the distance data when measuring the position/orientation, and measures the position/orientation of the measurement object in accordance with the set usage mode.

Along with the recent advance of robot technologies, robots have taken the place of humans in doing complicated tasks (for example, assembling industrial products). Such a robot grips a component by an end effector such as a hand to assemble a product. For this assembly, it is necessary to measure the relative position/orientation between the component to be gripped and the robot (hand).
A method of measuring the position/orientation by performing model fitting for features detected from a two-dimensional image captured by an image capturing apparatus is known. Another known method converts various points of a distance image obtained by a distance sensor into three-dimensional point cloud data and performing model fitting for the three-dimensional point cloud.
In the model fitting for a two-dimensional image, a three-dimensional shape model is projected onto the two-dimensional image based on the position/orientation of an object, and the projected image is fitted to features detected from the two-dimensional image, thereby measuring the position/orientation of the object.
In the model fitting for a distance image, various points of the distance image expressing distance data are converted into three-dimensional point cloud data, and it is fitted to a three-dimensional shape model, thereby measuring the position/orientation of an object. Also known is a method of measuring the position/orientation of an object using both measurement information obtained from a two-dimensional image and that obtained from a distance image.
The arrangement that measures the position/orientation of an object using both measurement information obtained from a two-dimensional image and that obtained from a distance image is generally expected to improve the measurement accuracy.
However, the measurement can sometimes be done more accurately by using only one of the measurement information obtained from the two-dimensional image and that obtained from the distance image depending on the measurement situation (for example, the shape of the object or the manner the object is placed).
A sufficient measurement accuracy may be ensured only by performing measurement using one of the measurement information obtained from the two-dimensional image and that obtained from the distance image according to circumstances. In this case, it is unnecessary to perform the measurement using both methods. Considering the calculation time or calculation resource, the processing may be wasteful instead.

Position/orientation measurement apparatus, measurement processing method thereof, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium


An apparatus is provided for mating and unmating electronic equipment to a rack in an associated electrical or electromechanical system. The apparatus is further operative to hold the electronic equipment in a mated condition to prevent separation during severe vibration or shock. The apparatus includes an actuator for moving a plurality of latches which engage hold-down brackets on the electronic equipment. The engagement of the latches on the apparatus and the hold-down brackets enables insertion, withdrawal and holding down of the electronic equipment in the rack. A clutch assembly is provided to prevent over-insertion of the electronic equipment into the rack.

A mateable pair of electrical terminals comprises a first terminal disposed to engage at least one contact beam of a second terminal. A good electrical connection requires the terminals to exert a contact force against one another. These contact forces between mated terminals typically are derived from the resiliency of the metal from which the terminals are formed. In particular, terminals may be aligned to deflect during mating, and the resiliency of the metal will urge the deflected terminals back toward an undeflected condition, thereby generating the contact forces.
An over-insertion of two mateable connectors can cause contact beams of terminals in one of the connectors to deflect beyond a point at which they will resiliently return to an undeflected condition. This over-insertion and over-deflection may prevent the contact beams from exerting the required contact force against the mated terminal. Alternatively, such over-deflection can damage the connector housing or otherwise shorten the life of the connector.
The deflection of a contact beam which occurs during mating requires the generation of an insertion force. Similarly, the unmating of two electrically conductive terminals requires the exertion of a withdrawal force to overcome the normal contact force between the terminals.
Most electrically conductive terminals are very small, and therefore require reasonably low insertion and withdrawal forces. Consequently, it is generally easy to mate small electrical connectors having only a few pairs of mateable terminals. Many electrical connectors, however, comprise a large number of pairs of mateable terminals. The insertion force required for such multi-terminal connectors is the sum of the insertion forces of the various pairs of mated terminals therein. Thus, insertion forces increase in proportion to the number of terminals in a connector. Some electrical apparatus comprise modular subassemblies of electronic equipment having complex arrays of electrical components and a plurality of multi-terminal connectors. For example, a modular subassembly may comprise a plurality of circuit boards extending from a panel to which a plurality of multi-terminal electrical connectors are mounted. Modular subassemblies such as these may be referred to as drawers and may be insertable into a rack or cavity in an electrical or electromechanical apparatus. The various connectors mounted on the panel of the modular subassembly typically are simultaneously mated with a corresponding array of connectors in the rack. The sum of the insertion forces for the many terminals in such modular subassemblies of electronic equipment often will be very high and may require mechanical means for assisting the technician who carries out the mating.
The mating of the electrical connectors often occur at an inaccessible location within an apparatus. The technician performing this blind mating often cannot be certain that the several electrical connectors mounted to the modular subassembly are properly aligned for mating. As a result, the modular subassemblies being inserted into a rack may comprise guide means for facilitating alignment of the connectors, and the respective connectors may be floatably mounted to the panel to overcome any initial misalignment. Frictional forces of the guide means and biasing forces of the electrical connector float means further contribute to the insertion forces.
Many modular subassemblies of electronic equipment are used in aircraft, ground vehicles or machines that generate vibrations or that are subject to physical shock. As a result, the individual terminals in the complex modular assemblies must be constructed to exert high normal contact forces for achieving adequate electrical connection through all ranges of anticipated vibrations and shock. Thus, the total insertion force for such modular subassemblies or drawer connectors used in high vibration environments may be very high.
The prior art includes mechanical means for assisting the technician performing the mating of the above described modular subassemblies of electronic equipment. The prior art mating assistance means typically has included a lever for urging the modular subassembly into a rack or a cavity of the electrical or electromechanical apparatus. These simple lever arrangements typically have not been adapted to facilitate removal of these complex modular subassemblies. Thus, the technician was left to employ brute force to effect the removal or to employ available tools to assist in the initial unmating of the modular subassembly. The tools employed by technicians for attempting removal of a modular assembly can damage the subassembly of costly electronic equipment, thereby requiring down-time and increasing maintenance costs. The prior art lever apparatus for facilitating insertion of the modular subassemblies of electronic equipment has generally not included means for preventing over-insertion. In many instances, the forces generated by the lever would exceed the mating forces specified for selected terminals in the assembly or for the plastic housings in which the terminals are mounted.
The prior art has included pairs of parallel threaded means for urging a modular subassembly into a rack or the mating cavity of an apparatus. These prior art arrangements have required either the simultaneous use of two tools by the technician or alternating incremental advancement of the threaded means for slowly moving the drawer or modular subassembly into the rack or the cavity of the apparatus. These prior art multi-screw systems have required either exceptional dexterity for the technician to simultaneously use two tools, or have required a slow insertion process where alternate screws are incrementally advanced. The incremental alternate advancement of parallel screws would often skew the modular subassembly relative to the rack and thereby create the potential for damage to the expensive equipment. Systems of this type have been particularly vulnerable to either incomplete mating or over-insertion since the threaded insertion means provide no readily recognizable indication of complete insertion.
Modular subassemblies of electronic equipment and drawer connector assemblies employed in high vibration environments, such as aircraft or land vehicles may desirably include means for retaining the drawer or other such modular subassembly in the apparatus. Prior art systems of this type have included latch means that are structurally and functionally separate from any mating or unmating assistance apparatus that may also be provided.
In view of the above, it is an object of the subject invention to provide a apparatus for efficiently assisting in the mating of drawer connectors or other such modular subassemblies of electronic equipment.
It is another object of the subject invention t provide an efficient means for unmating drawer connectors and other such modular subassemblies of electronic equipment.
An additional object of the subject invention is to provide mating and unmating assistance means that ensures parallel movement of the subassembly along a mating axis.
Still a further object of the subject invention is to provide a mating and unmating assistance apparatus that further functions to retain the modular subassembly of electronic equipment in a mated condition within an apparatus.
Yet another object of the subject invention is to provide a mating and unmating apparatus for modular subassemblies of electronic equipment that is easy to employ and inexpensive to manufacture.
An additional object of the subject invention is to provide a mating and unmating system that prevents damage from over-insertion or excessive mating forces.

Apparatus for mating, unmating and holding down electronic equipment


A large scale video display has a plurality of colored electrodeless lamps which are excited by RF energy coupled from a RF cavity upon which the lamps are mounted. The lamps are easily replaced and do not degrade as fast as conventional lamps which have electrodes.

This invention pertains to large scale video displays of information, data, images and the like, and more particularly is concerned with displays having lamps arranged as pixels. Applications for such arrays include display boards for advertising and instant replay information in sports stadiums One type of such array includes the use of large numbers of fluorescent lamps which are arranged in groups of three or more to form pixels. Each pixel contains a light source for each of the primary colors, blue, red, and green. The selective excitation of each pixel in an array of many thousand pixels can provide images similar to television images to observers located at some distance. The relative excitation of the primary color sources within each pixel determines the color which the observer perceives as emanating from that pixel, and, in the aggregate, the color information necessary to perceive entire images in color. Each lamp is coated with a primary color phosphor to emit blue, red, or green light.
In the prior art, each lamp contains at least one cathode chosen from the conventional art of fluorescent lamp making. The cathode is suitably impregnated with low work function material, and is a copious source of emitted electrons when raised to some elevated temperature. The lamps also contain a noble gas, e.g., argon, at low pressure (typically, a few torr) and a small quantity of mercury. Electrons are emitted by the cathode and are accelerated by a voltage applied between the cathode and an anode. Some of the electrons undergo collisions which result in the excitation of mercury atoms, which then emit ultraviolet light at 254 nm. This radiation is converted by the phosphor to produce colored light. The anode serves as a collector of the charge flowing in the fluorescent tube and is the electrode which supplies voltage which controls the quantity of electron current, the intensity of the 254 nm emission, and therefore, the brightness of the light emitted by the individual pixel element.
One difficulty in using small fluorescent lamps relates to the deleterious effect of the cathode emissive material, which is gradually evaporated at the required elevated temperature and is subsequently deposited on the walls of the phosphor coated lamp. This is one of several mechanisms which gradually diminish the light output of the lamp and is one which is particularly troublesome in lamps of very small dimension. In the large scale display application this gradual dimming is troublesome because of the degradation of image quality, particularly where it may occur on time scales of a few hundred hours. Any imbalance in the aging process can produce uneven image brightness or color and lamp replacements may stand out as exceedingly bright pixels.
Another potential problem area in conventional fluorescent lamp technology is the glass to metal seals employed. While this a well established technology and can be accomplished with a great deal of reliability, the use of as many as one hundred thousand lamps in a single display places unusually rigid demands on reliability of these seals as well as the electrode structures which they support.
It is clear that there is a need for a display which uses lamps having improved reliability and which are extremely slow to deteriorate.
The individual lamps now commonly used are typically operated at power levels near 1 watt. Accordingly, each lamp must be individually supplied with power of this amount totalling as much as 10 to 100 kW for a typical large display. Depending on the requirements of the individual lamps for cathode heating or pre-heating, additional wiring may be required. Power circuitry is costly and complex making construction and repair difficult. A need, therefore, also exists for reduction in the cost and complexity of the wiring and socketing of the light emitting pixel lamp.
A principal object of the invention is to provide a large scale display which has high reliability and long operating life.
A further object of the invention is to provide a large scale display which is energy efficient and which may be constructed at low cost.

Radio frequency powered large scale display


A system and method for displaying additional traffic information beyond that received from an ADS-B or other transponder communication. Such additional traffic information may be displayed on a display screen within a cockpit, and may include such things as an aircraft's make, model, manufacturer, or other information. The additional information may be displayed as text, or one or more pictures, icons, or symbols that correspond to this additional information, or any combination of text and such items. The additional information may be determined from one or more databases that correlate information received in the transponder communication to the additional information that is not contained within the transponder communication.

The present invention relates to aircraft displays, and more particularly to aircraft displays that display traffic information, such as, but not limited to, traffic collision avoidance systems (TCAS).
Cockpit display devices for displaying aircraft traffic have been known for years. Such devices generally operate by monitoring transponder signals emitted from nearby aircraft. Based upon the information transmitted within the transponder signals, as well as the timing of the transponder signals, the cockpit display device is able to determine the location of the neighboring aircraft relative to the device's ownship. Such display devices are commonly referred to as traffic collision avoidance systems (TCAS). The display device may display the location of the nearby aircraft in a variety of different manners, such as a plan view that shows the location of the neighboring aircraft as they would appear to a person looking down from above both the ownship and the neighboring traffic, three-dimensional views that indicate the neighboring aircrafts' locations in three dimensions, as well as other views.
In the past, the display of the neighboring traffic has been accomplished through the use of generic symbols that are applied to all detected traffic. Such generic symbols may include solid or hollow diamonds, circles, half-circles, and/or other shapes wherein each shape provides specific information about the position or bearing of the neighboring aircraft relative to the ownship. Positioned next to these generic symbols may be a vertical trend arrow that points up if the neighboring aircraft is ascending, or that points down if the aircraft is descending. Still further, a number may be positioned next to the generic symbol that indicates the relative altitude of the neighboring aircraft with respect to the ownship. For example, the number "+06" would indicate the neighboring aircraft was six hundred feet above the ownship, while the number "−03" would indicate the aircraft was three hundred feet below the ownship.

L-3 Communications Avionics Systems, Inc.


A novel group of compounds is disclosed for decorating the surface of synthetic polymeric or tissue derived prostheses to prevent adverse rejection events. The decorating molecules are obtained as derivatives of naturally occurring polysaccharides, derivatized to provide functionally reactive groups at the termini thereof, and the reacting with nucleophilic or other groups on the surface of the prosthesis in a simple one step reaction. Some of these reagents are useful in noncovalent adsorption to polyolefinic or perfluorocarbon based materials. Finally, phospholipids partially substituted with the nonantigenic polysaccharides provide a superior bipolar component for liposome formation.

The biocompatibility of materials and devices exposed to vital processes of the body is critical to their utility in therapeutic applications. More than 3 million people in the United States have long-term biomedical implants, including breast prostheses, joint replacements, vascular grafts, pacemakers and catheters, in which therapeutic efficiency is determined in part by the duration of the implant. If the exposed surfaces of these prostheses are not biocompatible, adverse reactions associated with rejection of the implant such as inflammation, necrosis, hemolysis, complement activation, cell adhesion, protein adsorption, thrombus formation, anaphylaxis, fever, calcification, rigidity, phagocytosis, antibody generation, neointimal proliferation, platelet aggregation, fibrosis, coagulation, and infection are frequent and sometimes life-threatening immune responses that may be elicited by a foreign entity. The classical foreign body reaction may not trigger the foregoing response, but will impair or occlude the function of the prosthesis.
Disruption of the endothelium is a potent stimulus for neointimal proliferation, a common mechanism underlying the restenosis of atherosclerotic vessels after balloon angioplasty. (Liu et al., Circulation, 79:1374-1387, 1989.) In addition, chronic inflammatory responses, accompanied by macrophage and/or foreign body giant cell accumulation, may give rise to accelerated calcification, bioprosthesis degeneration, stress cracking, or hydrolysis of exogenous synthetic polymers used in device manufacture. The implant may be poorly integrated into the tissue, and undesirable tissue contracture may result.
Biocompatible materials are constructed of synthetic polymers that are relatively inert, unreactive, and non-toxic. For example, polymers such as polyolefins are used in tubings, shunts, sutures and prosthetic valve structures. Polymethacrylates are used in the construction of membranes, controlled release hydrogels, and as vascular prosthesis coatings. A general description of many synthetic polymers useful in prosthesis construction is given in Implantation Biology: The Host Response and Biomedical Devices, R. S. Greco, Editor, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fla., 1994, p.13 et seq.
In situations where bioincompatibility cannot be overcome, as where heterologous proteins or foreign body antigenic determinants are present, surfaces may be rendered more biocompatible by partial enzymatic hydrolysis of the antigenic determinants or by masking of such determinants by covalent attachment of exogenous or endogenous polymers such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) or albumin, respectively. The resultant extended circulating lifetime of heterologous cells or cellular components derivatized in this way may improve the adequacy of drug delivery, reduce the metabolic demand on the body, or prevent undesirable blockade of the reticuloendothelial system.
The term bioprosthesis refers to devices derived from biological tissue that is treated to impart in vivo durability. In this process, the treatment invalidates the regenerative properties of the tissue. This characteristic distinguishes bioprostheses from treatments which are meant to retain the cell-regenerative capability of the tissue, such as cryopreservation. Examples of bioprostheses include heart valves, vascular grafts, biohybrid vascular grafts, ligament substitutes, and pericardial patches. When animal tissue is used, it is termed a xenograft, while with human tissue, it is either an autograft (derived from the patient) or a homograft.
Many prosthetic implants are fabricated from donor tissues. These tissues must be stabilized to prevent their disintegration, since the collagen component begins to deteriorate almost at once. Methods for stabilization of collagenous tissue are available. (Khor, E., "Methods for the treatment of collagenous tissues for bioprostheses", Biomaterials, 18: 95-106, 1997.) Stabilizing tissue involves a process yielding a non-viable biohomologous material by promoting bonds between functional groups of the amino acids contained in the tissue. Chemical methods typically utilize bifunctional reagents that interact with collagen at two different sites to give rise to cross-links between two collagen molecules.
One of the most widely used reagents for tissue treatment is glutaraldehyde. (Jayakrishnan A, Jameela SR, "Glutaraldehyde as a fixative in bioprostheses and drug delivery matrices", Biomaterials, 17: 471-484, 1996.) Since 1960, when this chemical agent was first used, many variations and conditions have been applied to optimize its efficiency. In fact, glutaraldehyde is the only agent used commercially to treat bioprosthetic tissues.
Despite its broad utility, glutaraldehyde has a number of shortcomings. The most serious of these is tissue calcification after implantation, a process that is the predominant cause in the failure of porcine aortic valves and bovine pericardium bioprostheses.
Attempts to control calcification include strategies for interrupting or retarding one or more steps in the calcification process. For example, the use of surfactants in tissue treatment is believed to control calcification by removing phospholipids. Other agents which have been employed to increase biocompatibility include sole or continued use of diphosphonates, amino-oleic acid, dimethyl sulfoxide, polyglycidyl ethers, and metal ions. However, none of these treatments has proven sufficiently beneficial to gain regulatory approval and general clinical use, and their applications are confined to laboratory models.
If these strategies are not used, these materials, bioprostheses, or moieties, like any foreign body, trigger acute inflammatory responses that may be followed by chronic inflammation and rejection. (Tang, L, Eaton, JW, "Inflammatory Responses to Biomaterials", Am. J. Clin. Pathol., volume 103 (no. 4), 466-471, 1995.) In general, in these processes a layer of host proteins accumulate on the surface and rapidly denature and degrade. As a result, large numbers of phagocytic cells are attracted to and bound to the site. These phagocytes, perhaps with the collaboration of other cells, initiate inflammatory and fibrotic responses that have both short- and long-term adverse effects on the host.
New approaches are needed for rendering surfaces biocompatible. This need extends to both artificial prosthetic surfaces and also to bioprosthetic tissues, for methodology by which bioprosthetic tissues may be treated to maintain structural and functional integrity for long periods of time following implantation in vivo.

Biocompatible surfaces and a method for their preparation


Reinforced sulphur concrete wherein one or more metal reinforcing members are in contact with sulphur concrete is disclosed. The reinforced sulphur concrete comprises an adhesion promoter that enhances the interaction between the sulphur and the one or more metal reinforcing members.

Elemental sulphur or modified sulphur can be used to bind aggregate and filler, thereby providing sulphur concrete. Sulphur concrete can be used in a variety of pre-cast concrete applications such as marine defenses, paving slabs, road barriers and retaining walls.
Concrete materials are typically strong under compression yet demonstrate weakness under extension. Their strength may be improved by incorporating metal reinforcement in the areas of the concrete subject to extension. The inventors have found that, in sulphur concrete, the metal reinforcing members may not adhere well to the sulphur and this can cause problems. The metal may loosen from the sulphur and the metal-sulphur interface may become saturated due to capillary uptake of water, leading to corrosion of the metal and failure of the concrete.
JP 2007 270553 discloses a construction method for preparing metal-reinforced sulphur concrete, but does not address the problem of improving the metal-sulphur interface.
The present inventors have sought to provide improved reinforced sulphur concrete, wherein there is effective adhesion between the sulphur and the metal reinforcing members.


A coating assembly for coating a plurality of substrates. The coating assembly includes a chamber. At least one target is disposed in the chamber and includes a coating material. At least one power supply is connected to the target. At least one support fixture is disposed in the chamber. The at least one support fixture includes a base having a plurality of recesses formed in an upper surface of the base. A first mounting component has a plurality of slots. The first mounting component is positioned on the upper surface of the base wherein at least some of the plurality of recesses are in registry with corresponding ones of the plurality of slots to define a plurality of cavities, each of the plurality of cavities configured to hold at least one of the plurality of substrates to be coated.

Conventionally fixtures have been used for holding substrates that are to be coated. These fixtures include features for grasping the substrates. However, for small substrates, such as saw blade teeth, it is difficult to hold the substrate and still coat the surfaces of the substrate. One conventional method is to place the teeth on a surface and coat the teeth using a typical coating process. However, this tends to result in a small surface area for brazing/soldering during a subsequent processing step. Another conventional method is to braze/solder the teeth to a steel, circular saw blade disk and then coat the entire assembly. However, coating the assembly often warps the assembly thereby causing the assembly to be unbalanced and unusable.
The present invention provides an apparatus for improving the positioning of substrates, e.g. saw blade teeth in a coating chamber.

OERLIKON SURFACE SOLUTIONS AG, PFÄFFIKON


The present invention is directed to an invertible garment having an outer layer and an invertible inner layer. A first design is disposed on the outer layer and a second design is disposed on the invertible inner layer. A light source is sandwiched between the first design and the second design, wherein the light source is configured to selectively light the first design, the second design or both the first design and the second design.

It is common for individuals to wear garments such as t-shirts, pants, and jackets that display various visual designs, logos, or fashionable patterns. Further, light emitting garments exist such as glow-in-the-dark and fiber-optic garments, that individuals may choose to wear at night to draw attention or to enhance their presence.
Therefore, the garment market will appreciate novel configurations of light emitting garment systems, especially systems that may enhance or add value to visual designs and patterns on garments.


A compact complementary transistor switch (CTS) memory cell structure utilizing both vertical PNP and vertical NPN transistors in gallium arsenide technology is described. The base region of the vertical PNP transistor merges with the collector region of the vertical NPN transistor. The collector region of the vertical PNP transistor merges with the base region of the vertical NPN transistor. The emitter of the vertical PNP transistor is at the top, and the emitter of the vertical NPN transistor is at the bottom in relation to the emitter of the vertical PNP transistor. This structure leads to improvements in memory density, performance and wireability of a memory array comprising many such cells. A novel yet simple process for making such compact CTS memory cells is also disclosed.

The advantages of monolithically integrated circuits and the emergence of very large scale integration (VLSI) techniques, have made possible denser and higher speed random access memory (RAM). Moreover, the demand for high performance computers has placed an ever increasing requirement for higher performance RAM. In response to these demands, the electronic data processing industry continues to strive for higher performance static RAM devices and processes for making such static RAM devices, especially in cache memory applications.
Generally, the industry has employed emitter-coupled logic (ECL) circuits to meet high performance requirements. In particular, for high performance memory applications, ECL RAM using a complementary transistor switch (CTS) memory cell has been employed.
For instance, in an article entitled, "A 1024--Byte ECL Random Access Memory Using a Complementary Transistor Switch (CTS) Cell", by J. A. Dorler, et al, pages 126-134 IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 25, No. 3, May, 1981, the performance advantages of CTS cells in achieving high circuit density and good performance in silicon RAM are described.
Heretofore, CTS Memory devices employing a vertical NPN transistor and a relatively large lateral PNP transistor in silicon technology are known. Recently, III-V compounds such as gallium arsenide (GaAs), with higher electron mobility, higher transconductance, and less delay associated with less charge storage, have been considered important for high performance applications.
Many efforts have been directed at fabricating complementary vertical NPN and vertical PNP transistors on a monolithic semiconductor device. U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,039 issued May 25, 1976 to Bonis, et al, entitled "Method of Manufacturing Vertical Complementary Bipolar Transistors each with Epitaxial Base Zones" describes a method for realizing an epitaxial region which can serve as the base of a vertical transistor as well as the collector of a second complementary vertical transistor in a Darlington arrangement. Related U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,482 teaches and claims the resulting Darlington device structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,552 issued Dec. 4, 1984 to Magdo, et al, entitled "Complementary Transistor Structure and Method for Manufacture" teaches a method for making both complementary vertical NPN and vertical PNP transistors having matched performance characteristics, in which transistors are completely isolated from one another.

Process for fabricating complementary vertical transistor memory cell

International Business Machines Corporation


A stop apparatus includes a stop operation member, a plurality of stop blades, each of which is provided with a pivot and a driving pin, a blade supporter that supports the stop blades in such a way that the stop blades are rotatable about the pivots of the respective stop blades, a first cam member provided with a first cam groove with which the driving pins of the respective stop blades engage, a second cam member provided with a second cam groove having a shape different from the first cam groove, and a driving force transmission member that transmits rotational driving force of the stop operation member to the second cam member. At least one of the driving pins engages with both the first cam groove and the second cam groove.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stop apparatus used in a lens apparatus for image taking and more particularly to a stop apparatus in which the aperture diameter is varied by a rotational operation. The present invention also relates to a lens apparatus and an image pickup apparatus having such a stop apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known heretofore a stop apparatus having a plurality of stop blades each having a pivot that are arranged in the same circumference at regular angular intervals so that a stop aperture defined by overlapping edges of the stop blades can be varied with swinging of the stop blades about the respective pivot shafts. In a typical stop apparatus of this type, each blade is provided with a pivot pin and a driving pin, and the position of the driving pin relative to the pivot pin, which is supported at a fixed position, is guided by a cam groove formed in a disk-like cam plate.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-294678 discloses a stop apparatus in which pivot pins of six stop blades are fitted to engagement holes provided on a blade supporter, and the stop aperture size is varied by rotating a cam plate having six cam grooves engaging with the driving pins of the respective blades. When this stop apparatus is built in a lens apparatus, the cam plate is directly linked with a rotational operation member to allow manual adjustment of light quantity.
The shape of the stop aperture affects the quality of image blur characteristics (so-called "bokeh") in background regions around the main subject in taken images. Specifically, the more circular the shape of the stop aperture is, the better the blur characteristics in images can be. A typically used method of making the stop aperture shape closer to a circle is to increase the number of stop blades. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-123299 discloses a stop apparatus having an aperture shape made closer to a circle by the use of as many as fourteen stop blades.
For the above-described reason, stop apparatuses are desired to have a stop aperture that is close to a circle in shape and to have a large rotational operation angle in manual operation in order to allow fine adjustment of the light quantity. Both the aspects mentioned above are required particularly in the case of lens apparatuses that need to generate aesthetically fine images and to allow fine light quantity adjustment, as is the case with cinema lenses.
However, in the prior arts disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2004-294678 and 2012-123299, it is difficult to achieve a large rotational operation angle while using a large number of stop blades, because it is necessary to prevent the cam grooves for guiding the driving pins of the stop blade from interfering with each other. Consequently, the conventional stop apparatuses that use a large number of stop blades in order to make the shape of the stop aperture close to a circle cannot allow fine adjustment of the light quantity using an operation member. This deteriorates the usability of the lens apparatuses in image taking.
On the other hand, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H03-182709 there has also been known a structure that enlarges the rotation angle of a manipulated member relative to the rotation angle of a rotary member in a lens apparatus by means of a differential mechanism using rollers. However, the use of this structure in a stop apparatus leads to a problem of increased overall size of the stop apparatus including the differential mechanism.

Stop apparatus, and lens apparatus and image pickup apparatus having the same