The invention provides processing donated blood, particularly a platelet-containing solution such as platelet-containing plasma, involving separating blood into a red cell containing sediment layer and a supernatant layer, and passing the supernatant layer through a filter until the filter is blocked, thereby leaving platelets to be harvested. The preferred filter comprises a porous medium having a plurality of zones of progressively increasing density.

The development of plastic blood collection bags facilitated the separation of donated whole blood into its various components, e.g., platelet concentrate (hereinafter "PC"), packed red cells (hereinafter "PRC"), and plasma, thereby making platelet concentrates available as a transfusion product. The separation of a single unit of donated whole blood, about 450 milliliter in USA practice, into its components is typically accomplished by use of differential sedimentation.
A typical procedure used in the U.S., the citrate-phosphate-dextrose-adenine (CPDA-1) system, utilizes a series of steps to separate donated blood into three components, each component having substantial therapeutic and monetary value. The procedure typically utilizes a blood collection bag which is integrally attached via tubing to at least one, and preferably two or more, satellite bags. Whole blood may be thus collected and processed as follows:
(1) The donated whole blood is collected from the donor's vein directly into the blood collection bag which contains the nutrient and anti-coagulant containing CPDA-1.
(2) The blood collection bag is centrifuged together with its satellite bags, thereby concentrating the red cells as packed red cells (hereinafter PRC) in the lower portion of the blood collection bag and leaving in the upper portion of the bag a suspension of platelets in clear plasma, which is known as platelet-rich plasma (PRP).
(3) The blood collection bag is transferred, with care not to disturb the interface between the supernatant PRP layer and the sedimented PRC layer, into a device known as a "plasma extractor" which comprises an opaque back plate and a transparent front plate; the two plates are hinged together at their lower ends and spring biased toward each other such that a pressure of about 90 millimeters of mercury is developed within the bag.
With the blood collection bag positioned between the two plates, a valve or seal in the tubing is opened allowing the supernatant PRP to flow into a first satellite bag. As the PRP flows out of the blood collection bag, the interface with the PRC rises. The operator closely observes the position of the interface as it rises and clamps off the connecting tube when in his judgment as much PRP has been transferred as is possible, consistent with allowing no red cells to enter the first satellite bag. This is a time consuming operation during which the operator must visually monitor the bag and judiciously and arbitrarily ascertain when to shutoff the connecting tube. The blood collection bag, now containing only PRC, may be detached and stored at 4.degree. C. until required for transfusion into a patient, or a valve or seal in the flexible tubing may be opened so that the PRC may be transferred to a satellite bag using either the pressure generated by the plasma extractor apparatus, or by placing the blood collection apparatus in a pressure cuff, or by elevation to obtain gravity flow.
(4) The PRP-containing satellite bag, together with another satellite bag, is then removed from the extractor and centrifuged at an elevated G force with the time and speed adjusted so as to concentrate the platelets into the lower portion of the PRP bag. When centrifugation is complete, the PRP bag contains sedimented platelets in its lower portion and clear plasma in its upper portion.
(5) The PRP bag is then placed in the plasma extractor, and most of the clear plasma is expressed into the other satellite bag, leaving the PRP bag containing only sedimented platelets in about 50 ml of plasma; in a subsequent step, this platelet composition is dispersed to make PC. The PRP bag, now containing a PC product, is then detached and stored for up to five days at 20.degree.-22.degree. C., until needed for a transfusion of platelets. For use with adult patients, the platelets from 6-10 donors are, when required, pooled into a single platelet transfusion.
(6) The plasma in the other satellite bag may itself be transfused into a patient, or it may be separated by complex processes into a variety of valuable products.
Commonly used systems other than CPDA-1 include Adsol, Nutricell, and SAG-M. In these latter systems, the collection bag contains only anticoagulant, and the nutrient solution may be preplaced in a satellite bag. This nutrient solution is transferred into the PRC after the PRP has been separated from the PRC, thereby achieving a higher yield of plasma and longer storage life for the PRC.
With the passage of time and accumulation of research and clinical data, transfusion practices have changed greatly. One aspect of current practice is that whole blood is rarely administered; rather, patients needing red blood cells are given packed red cells, patients needing platelets are given platelet concentrate, and patients needing plasma are given plasma.
For this reason, the separation of blood into components has substantial therapeutic and monetary value. This is nowhere more evident than in treating the increased damage to a patient's immune system caused by the higher doses and stronger drugs now used during chemotherapy for cancer patients. These more aggressive chemotherapy protocols are directly implicated in the reduction of the platelet content of the blood to abnormally low levels; associated internal and external bleeding additionally requires more frequent transfusions of PC, and this has caused platelets to be in short supply and has put pressure on blood banks to increase platelet yield per unit of blood.
Blood bank personnel have responded to the increased need for blood components by attempting to increase PC yield in a variety of ways, including attempting to express mere PRP prior to stopping flow from the blood collection bag. This has often proved to be counterproductive in that the PRP, and the PC subsequently extracted from it, are frequently contaminated by red cells, giving a pink or red color to the normally light yellow PC. The presence of red cells in PC is so highly undesirable that pink or red PC is frequently discarded, or subjected to recentrifugation, both of which increase operating costs.
The method and apparatus of the present invention alleviate the above-described problems and, in addition, provide a higher yield of superior quality PC.
In addition to the three above-listed components, whole blood contains white blood cells (known collectively as leucocytes) of various types, of which the most important are granulocytes and lymphocytes. White blood cells provide protection against bacterial and viral infection.
The transfusion of blood components which have not been leucocyte-depleted is not without risk to the patient receiving the transfusion. Chills, fever, and allergic reactions may occur in patients receiving acute as well as chronic platelet therapy. Repeated platelet transfusions frequently lead to alloimmunization against HLA antigens, as well as platelet specific antigens. This, in turn, decreases responsiveness to platelet transfusion. Leucocytes contaminating platelet concentrates, including granulocytes and lymphocytes, are associated with both febrile reactions and alloimmunization, leading to platelet transfusion refractoriness. Another life-threatening phenomenon affecting heavily immunosuppressed patients is Graft Versus Host Disease. In this clinical syndrome, donor lymphocytes transfused with the platelet preparations can launch an immunological reaction against the transfusion recipient with pathological consequences. Some of these risks are detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,620 and in U.S. Pat. 4,880,548.
In the above described centrifugal method for separating blood into the three basic fractions, the leucocytes are present in substantial quantities in both the packed red cells and platelet-rich plasma fractions. It is now generally accepted that it would be highly desirable to reduce the leucocyte concentration of these blood components to as low a level as possible. While there is no firm criterion, it is generally accepted that many of the undesirable effects of transfusion would be reduced if the leucocyte contempt were reduced by a factor of about 100 or more prior to administration to the patient. This approximates reducing the average total content of leucocytes in a single unit of PRC or PRP to less than about 1.times.10.sup.7, and in a unit of PRP or PC to less than about 1.times.10.sup.6.
Growing evidence suggests that the use of leucocyte depleted platelet concentrates decreases the incidence of febrile reactions and platelet refractoriness. Leucocyte depleted blood components are also believed to have a role in reducing the potential for Graft Versus Host Disease. Leucocyte depletion of platelet preparations is also believed to diminish, but not to completely prevent, the transmission of leucocyte associated viruses such as HIV-1 and CMV.
Platelet preparations contain varying amounts of leucocytes. The level of leucocyte contamination in unfiltered conventional platelet preparations of 6 to 10 pooled units is generally at a level of about 5.times.10.sup.8 or greater. Platelet concentrates prepared by the differential centrifugation of blood components will have varying levels of leucocyte contamination related to the time and to the magnitude of the force developed during centrifugation. It has been demonstrated that leucocyte removal efficiencies of 81 to 85% are sufficient to reduce the incidence of febrile reactions to platelet transfusions. Several other recent studies report a reduction in alloimmunization and platelet refractoriness at levels of leucocyte contamination <1.times.10.sup.7 per unit. For a single unit of PC, the goal is to reduce the number of leucocytes from about 7.times.10.sup.7 leucocytes (average leucocyte contamination level under current practice) to less than about 1.times.10.sup.6 leucocytes. The existing studies therefore suggest the desirability of at least a two log (99%) reduction of leucocyte contamination. More recent studies suggest that a three log (99.9%) or even a four log (99.99%) reduction would be significantly more beneficial.
An additional desirable criterion is to restrict platelet loss to about 15% or less of the original platelet concentration. Platelets are notorious for being "sticky", an expression reflecting the tendency of platelets suspended in blood plasma to adhere to any non-physiological surface to which they are exposed. Under many circumstances, they also adhere strongly to each other.
In any system which depends upon filtration to remove leucocytes from a platelet suspension, there will be substantial contact between platelets and the internal surfaces of the filter assembly. The filter assembly must be such that the platelets have minimal adhesion to, and are not significantly adversely affected by contact with, the filter assembly's internal surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,548 provides a convenient and very effective means for leuco-depleting PC. PC is passed through a fibrous porous medium which permits recovery of 90% or more of the platelets, which pass through the medium, while retaining within the medium more than 99.9% of the incident leucocytes. This system is currently in widespread use at bedside in hospitals, but, unlike the device of this invention, it is not as well suited for use in blood banks during the processing of donated whole blood. The unsuitability stems primarily from additional storage constraints associated with PC and the methods of administering PC. For example, platelets in PC are typically suspended in a total volume of only about 40 to 60 ml of plasma. Contrasted with this, the platelets which are processed in accordance with this invention are typically derived from a single unit of whole blood and are suspended as PRP in about 180 to 240 ml of plasma.
Further, the platelets in PC have been subjected, during two centrifugation steps, to severe conditions and may not as readily disperse. It has been suggested that the high forces to which the platelets are subjected as they reach the bottom of the bag during sedimentation, promote increased aggregation by particle-to-particle adhesion.
For these and perhaps other reasons, platelets in PC show a much higher tendency to be retained within the filter during leucocyte depletion compared with platelets in PRP. Accordingly, a much better recovery is obtained when platelets are leucocyte-depleted in the form of PRP, compared with PC; for example, while optimal recovery from PC is about 90 to 95%, recovery from PRP can exceed 99%.
Also, as a consequence of the concentration differences and possibly as a consequence of the lower degree of aggregation in PRP, the preferred critical wetting surface tension (CWST) range when filtering PRP is broader than that for PC.
Devices which have previously been developed in attempts to meet the above-noted objectives have been based on the use of packed fibers, and have generally been referred to as filters. However, it would appear that processes utilizing filtration based on separation by size cannot succeed for two reasons. First, leucocytes can be larger than about 15 .mu.m (e.g., granulocytes and macrocytes) to as small as 5 to 7 .mu.m (e.g., lymphocytes). Together, granulocytes and lymphocytes represent the major proportion of all of the leucocytes in normal blood. Red blood cells are about 7 .mu.m in diameter, i.e., they are about the same size as lymphocytes, one of the two major classes of leucocytes which must be removed. Secondly, all of these cells deform so that the are able to pass through much smaller openings than their normal size. Accordingly, it has been widely accepted that removal of leucocytes is accomplished mainly by adsorption on the internal surfaces of porous media, rather than by filtration.
The separation of the various blood components using centrifugation is attended by a number of problems. First, in the separation of platelet-rich plasma from PRC, e.g., step 3 above, it is difficult to efficiently obtain the maximum yield of platelets while preventing red cells from entering the plasma. Secondly, when PRP is expressed, it is difficult to efficiently recover the more desirable younger platelets located near or in the PRC/PRP interface.


A printed wiring board includes first, second, and third wiring layers, first and second insulating members, and first and second vias. The first wiring layer includes a recognition mark and a first wiring on a first surface. The second wiring layer includes a first pad and a second wiring. The third wiring layer includes a third wiring. The first via penetrates the first insulating member and electrically connects the recognition mark to the first pad. The second via penetrates the second insulating member and electrically connects the first pad to the third wiring. The first pad and the first and second vias are in a region within an outer perimeter of the recognition mark when viewed from a direction orthogonal to the first surface.

A memory system often includes electronic components such as a non-volatile memory and a controller that controls the non-volatile memory. The electronic components are mounted on a printed wiring board, which may also be referred to as printed circuit board or the like. The printed wiring board has a surface with a wiring pattern (or a circuit pattern) formed thereon. The electronic components are mounted on the wiring pattern.
A recognition mark (or a fiducial mark) is often provided on the surface of the wiring board together with the wiring pattern. When an electronic component is mounted on the wiring pattern of the wiring board, a position of the recognition mark can be read by image recognition processing or the like. Based on the read position of the recognition mark, a mounting position of the electronic component with respect to the wiring pattern of the wiring board can be determined. The recognition mark typically occupies a large area on the surface of the wiring board in order to improve an accuracy of image recognition, but the recognition mark is generally not used after product completion. Hence, it would be desirable for the recognition mark, or the area otherwise occupied on the printed wiring board by the recognition mark, to be usable in some manner in the final device after product fabrication is completed.


The present invention relates to a water cooling system with full heat recovery comprising a condenser, an evaporator, a compressor and an expansion valve; the evaporator connects with a cooling water recycling circuit; one side of the condenser is disposed in a position corresponding to a cooling air opening; the cooling air opening connects with an air pipe; the air pipe connects with an indoor air outlet and an outdoor air inlet through subsidiary pipes; the other side of the condenser is provided with an exhaust vent; and a cooling fan is disposed between the exhaust vent and the cooling air opening. The present invention utilizes low temperature, low humidity indoor exhaust air as cooling air for the evaporative condenser. It makes use of the sensible heat (temperature difference) of indoor exhaust air as well as the latent heat (humidity difference) of indoor exhaust air, thereby attaining better condensation effects.

The present invention relates to air-conditioning cooling apparatus and more particularly pertains to a water cooling system with full heat recovery.
Following the increasing popularity of air-conditioners, the air-conditioning industry has been fast developing in the past decade. However, the increasing popularity of air-conditioners exerts enormous pressure on the existing insufficient electricity supply facilities. Statistics show that electricity consumption of air-conditioners amounts to 35% of the total electricity consumption of an office building. The operational costs of air-conditioners are huge. Developing air-conditioning facilities of effective energy saving capability has therefore been a development trend in the air-conditioning industry.
The existing cooling systems are mainly divided into two types, namely air-cooled cooling systems and water-cooled cooling systems. Air-cooled cooling systems utilize outdoor air directly as the cooling agent to cool the apparatus. Since the refrigeration operation of air-conditioners is mainly in the seasons of higher temperature, the refrigeration efficiency of directly using outdoor air for cooling is therefore relatively low, where the COP (coefficient of performance) is maintained at around 2.0. It can be seen that this type of cooling systems is of high energy consumption. However, air-cooled cooling systems dominate the market because of the convenience in installation and the flexibility in location. Water-cooled cooling systems utilize water as the cooling agent and bring the exhaust heat of the refrigeration system to the cooling tower. Heat is then discharged outdoor by the cooling tower. Since the cooling tower can lower the temperature of cooling water to approximately the outdoor wet-bulb temperature, in comparison with the refrigeration system it has good condensation effects. The refrigeration efficiency of the cooling systems is thereby increased and the COP can reach 3.8 to 4.0. Nevertheless, since water-cooled cooling systems are installed with an additional cooling system, costs of the apparatus are increased and locations for installation are also limited. Moreover, for the purposes of heat radiation, traditional cooling towers usually use water sprinklers to spray water evenly. Water drops from this type of sprayers are relatively small. Further, there are relatively strong winds in the cooling tower. Therefore, it is common for water drops to "fly" out of the cooling tower during its operation as small water drops are carried by strong winds to spill out from the tower directly. This water spillage amounts to over 50% of the total water consumption of the cooling tower, while the water used for actual evaporation and heat radiation is less than 50%. Furthermore, the existing cooling systems produce large volume of condensate during the refrigeration process. Known skills are to directly discharge the condensate that is produced. Since the temperature of condensate is as low as 10° C. to 15° C., the cooling energy loss is relatively high. If the condensate can be directly recycled to assist cooling, the temperature of cooling water can be lowered and energy can be saved, and this can greatly reduce the consumption of cooling water.
In addition, when the water cooling system is used, for the purposes of satisfying the hygienic requirements of indoor air, fresh air has to be supplied continuously to the air-conditioning area. In existing air-conditioning systems, fresh air load amounts to around 30% of the total air-conditioning load and the energy consumption is high. To reduce the total load, fresh air reduction methods are often used, which lead to poorer air quality in the air-conditioning area and fail to satisfy the hygienic requirements. Further, an exhaust system that discharges some of the indoor air to the outside has to be installed to facilitate indoor air exchange. The discharged air is a cooling air source of low temperature and humidity. Its temperature is usually relatively low at 25° C. to 28° C. Its relative humidity is also low at 60% to 70% and its wet-bulb temperature is even as low as 20° C. to 23° C. The existing cooling systems of air-conditioning systems fail to utilize this cooling energy and thus lead to wastage directly.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Water cooling system with full heat recovery


The present invention relates to water-based coatings compositions containing low volatiles and high resistance to the dirt grip. Such compositions contain conventional low VOC coalescing latexes which favor the evolution of hardness of films of inks and films of polymers by providing coatings with high resistance to the catch of dirt that can be used in various applications. Such coalescents are predominantly diesters with a boiling point greater than 260° C., preferably boiling point greater than 280° C., and molecular weight between 230 and 342 atomic mass units prepared from diacid and alcohol or monoacid reactions and diols.

The development of water-based coatings technology has been the focus of long-term research. The first industrial scale coatings that excluded the use of organic solvents from their composition appeared in the mid-twentieth century. Nowadays, most of the architectural projects already use the technology of water-based coatings.
Most water-based coatings contain acrylic and vinyl latexes obtained by emulsion polymerization and require a low solvent content, also known as a coalescing agent or coalescer, to form continuous films under various temperature and humidity conditions yielding coatings with gloss and mechanical properties suitable for each application.
The agents or coalescing agents need to be efficient to plasticize the polymer particles present in the latexes without destabilizing them, and still need to be compatible with the other ingredients present in the water-based coating formulations.
Currently, there is a growing demand for coalescing agents that are not considered Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in accordance with environmental regulations that control the volatile organic compound content in coatings formulations. Coalescing agents with low amount of VOC exhibit a boiling point greater than 250° C. according to the European Directive 2004/42/CE and boiling point greater than 280° C. for the Green Seal Standard. For the US Environmental Protection Agency, low VOC coalescents have negligible photochemical reactivity or do not emit volatiles, except water, when subjected to a temperature of 110° C. for 1 hour according to Method 24. Typically, these coalescents have a boiling point equal to or greater than 344° C.
Increasing the boiling point reduces the volatility of the coalescents and hence the emissions to the atmosphere which is desirable from the environmental point of view by not polluting the environment with vapors that favor the formation of tropospheric ozone. However, these coalescents, by evaporating more slowly, can keep the films of coatings or polymers permanently plasticized and with low hardness. This permanent decrease in the hardness of the films of coatings or polymer coatings greatly increases their tackiness, favoring the increase of adhesion between coated surfaces (thereby reducing their resistance to blocking) and increasing adhesion of dirt to painted surfaces (thereby resistance to dirt). These two undesirable effects diminish the performance and durability of inks, especially coatings applied to outdoor surfaces such as decorative paints and industrial paints.
Consequently, there is a very relevant demand for coalescents that have low VOCs and are concomitantly more efficient at lowering the minimum film forming temperature (TMFF) and improving the final properties of the paints. Among these properties, washability and resistance to dirt grip are noteworthy.
The efficiency of a coalescer depends on the affinity between coalescent and polymers present in pure latexes and compositions of coatings formulated with such latexes. When interacting with the polymer chains present in the latex particles, increase the mobility of the polymer chains favoring:                1) The deformation and packaging of the latex particles and the formation of latex films without holes, continuous and transparent under various conditions of temperature and humidity;        2) The interdiffusion of the polymer chains from one particle to another, an event reported in the literature as coalescence, and the entanglement of the polymer chains responsible for the mechanical resistance of the film;        3) The leveling of the film that is related to its brightness and appearance is promoted, according to the literature, predominantly by the balance between the interfacial tension polymer-air that favors the leveling of the surface of the film with the objective of reducing the surface area and the internal resistance of the polymer chains to the movement related to the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the polymer.        4) The distribution of hydrophilic and hydrophobic species in the film that can impact the gloss, water resistance and washability of polymer films, adhesives and paint films.
In addition to the above features, the low coalescing VOCs, due to the fact they are, at least partially, retained in the films as mentioned above, can be homogeneously distributed throughout the film, predominantly migrate to the interfaces, or distribute within the film and partially migrate to the interfaces. Each distribution pattern affects the hardness of the film. Thus, it is expected that some low volatility coalescents molecules will have a distribution pattern in the films of water-based coatings that allows the evolution of hardness. Therefore, molecules that have this behavior are potential solutions to mitigate the problem of high dirt grip or low dirt grip resistance observed for formulations of water-based coatings containing commercially available low VOC coalescers.
Another solution to mitigate the problem of high dirt grip in water-based coatings formulated with low VOC coalescents is to use low VOC coalescents which are more efficient to form film, and which can be used in a lower concentration.
A potential solution for improving the high dirt grip problem of water-based coatings containing low VOC coalescents is described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,120,936 B2. In this invention coating compositions containing conventional low VOC coalescents and antioxidants have been shown to increase dirt grip strength by up to 70%.
The Mexican patent application MX 2012013639 A proposes the use of coalescents containing amide functional group to mitigate the problem of high dirt grip.
Most of the low VOC coalesces with a boiling point above 280° C. on the market are diesters. Previous lab work has shown that market diesters have excellent plastification potential. However, these coalescents usually are retained at least partially in the coating film, preventing the hardness evolution of the coating films and decreasing their resistance to the dirt grip.

Composition of water based coating with a low content of volatile organic compounds and high resistance to dirt handle, and, use of water based coating


An imprint apparatus according to embodiments includes a stage, a dropping unit that drops resist, an imprinting unit that presses a circuit pattern of a template against the resist on a transfer target substrate, an underlying position detecting unit, a correcting unit, and a dropping position control unit. The underlying position detecting unit detects a position of an underlying pattern on the transfer target substrate. The correcting unit corrects a dropping position of the resist on a basis of a position of the underlying pattern. The dropping position control unit causes the resist to be dropped onto a dropping position after correction on the transfer target substrate on the basis of corrected dropping position.

Recently, an imprint method of transferring a template pattern onto a substrate, such as a wafer, attracts attention. In the imprint method, a template on which a template pattern is formed is pressed against resist applied to a substrate and the resist is irradiated with light in the pressed state. Then, the resist is cured by light irradiation, thereby transferring the template pattern onto the resist.
Conventionally, when an application module (dispenser) of resist ejects resist by an inkjet method, the amount of ejection and the dropping positions of resist are controlled with high accuracy with respect to design data on a template pattern.
However, when an underlying pattern itself is distorted, displacement occurs between the underlying pattern and the dropping positions of resist. In such a case, a major filling failure and a protrusion failure of resist may occur in a shot periphery. Then, occurrence of such failures in some cases results in a critical defect in manufacturing semiconductor devices. Therefore, it is desirable that resist is dropped onto an appropriate position with respect to an underlying pattern.

Imprint apparatus, imprint method, and manufacturing method of semiconductor device


A multicore system 2 includes a main system program 610 that operates on a first processor core 61 and stores synthesized audio data, which is mixed audio data, to a buffer for DMA transfer 63, a standby program 620 that operates on a second processor 62, and an audio output unit 64 that sequentially stores the synthesized audio data transferred from the buffer for DMA transfer 63 and plays the stored synthesized audio data. When an amount of storage of the synthesized audio data stored to the buffer for DMA transfer 63 has not reached a predetermined amount of data determined according to the amount of storage of the synthesized audio data stored to the audio output unit 64, the standby system program 620 takes over and executes the mixing and the storage of the synthesized audio data that is executed by the main system program 610.

A processor (MPU: Micro Processing Unit) including a plurality of CPU (Central Processing Unit) cores for embedding usage that is composed of a multicore has been developed. These processors are formed in one chip including peripheral devices. A technique of operating several different OSs (Operating System) on a multicore CPU is known. Further, a means to notify a single interrupt request (IRQ: Interrupt ReQuest) to a plurality of CPU cores is known as a function of an MPU. Furthermore, the MPU can be configured to assign which interrupt request to which CPU core according to register setting.
Additionally, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, a technique of transferring audio data via an I2S (Inter-IC Sound) bus from a CPU inside a MPU 50 to an ADAC (Audio DAC) 51 is known. The audio data is PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) audio, for example. Note that I2S is a serial communication format manufactured by PHILIPS (registered trademark) which forms an interface device of the audio data. In the I2S standard, PCM audio and compressed audio (such as μ-law and ADPCM) can be output to the ADAC 51 via the I2S bus. Moreover, in FIG. 8, the I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) bus is a serial bus for device control developed by PHILIPS (registered trademark). The ADAC 51 converts the audio data into stereo audio. A DAC is a D/A Converter. Analog audio (stereo) output from the ADAC 51 is played via a speaker.
In addition, an I2S device including a FIFO (First In First Out) buffer is known. Such an I2C device dequeues audio data stored to the FIFO buffer and outputs it to an ADAC via an I2S bus. Then, when the size of data, which is dequeued from the FIFO buffer and reduced, reaches boundaries such as 4, 8, 16, and 32 bytes, there is the IS2 device that can generate an interrupt (hereinafter referred to as a "FIFO boundary interrupt"). Generally, this interrupt is used for PIO (Programmed Input/Output) transfer.

Multicore system, control method of multicore system, and non-transitory readable medium storing program


A diversity receiver includes a first antenna and a second antenna. A first receiving section connected to the first antenna serves to convert a digital modulation wave induced at the first antenna into a first intermediate-frequency signal. A first band pass filter connected to the first receiving section serves to subject the first intermediate-frequency signal to a band pass filtering process. A second receiving section connected to the second antenna serves to convert a digital modulation wave induced at the second antenna into a second intermediate-frequency signal. A second band pass filter connected to the second receiving section serves to subject the second intermediate-frequency signal to a band pass filtering process. A switch alternately selects one of output signals of the first and second band pass filters at a period equal to a half of a period corresponding to the symbol rate. A quadrature demodulator connected to the switch serves to demodulate an output signal of the switch into quadrature baseband signals. An analog-to-digital converter connected to the quadrature demodulator converts the quadrature baseband signals into corresponding digital signals. A decision feedback adaptive equalizer connected to the analog-to-digital converter serves to subject the digital signals to an equalizing process.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a diversity receiver for radio communication using digital modulation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In radio communication between a mobile station and a base station or between mobile stations, a received signal in a reception side tends to undergo fading effects. A diversity reception system is a well-known art for minimizing fading effects by combining at least two received signals or selecting one of at least two received signals.
Generally, in transmission of a radio signal between a mobile station and a base station or between mobile stations, a part of the radio signal directly propagates from a transmitter to a receiver while a remaining part thereof tends to be reflected and scattered by various bodies such as buildings or mountains and then reach the receiver with a delay. Thus, the radio signal propagates from the transmitter to the receiver via multipaths. Accordingly, the signal received by the receiver has a direct signal component and a delay signal component, suffering from a distortion called a multipath distortion. In addition, the received signal tends to undergo frequency selective fading effects caused by multipath propagation.
Generally, it is difficult for a simple or primitive diversity reception system to adequately suppress such frequency selective fading effects.
Some of prior art advanced receivers are designed so as to suppress frequency selective fading effects. As will be described later, such a prior art advanced receiver has some problem.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A cooling system for a battery pack including a tapered first conduit for receiving a fluid therein, a second conduit for receiving the fluid therein, and at least one secondary conduit for receiving the fluid therein, the first conduit in fluid communication with the second conduit through at least one fluid channel formed between a plurality of battery units, wherein the battery units are in heat transfer communication with the at least one fluid channel to transfer heat from the battery units to the fluid disposed in the cooling system.

A battery pack has been proposed as a clean, efficient and environmentally responsible power source for electric vehicles and various other applications. The battery pack typically includes numerous components and devices such as a plurality of individual battery cells, a plurality of spaced apart battery holders, cooling conduits, and control modules, for example. Two types of battery cells are a nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) cell and a lithium-ion battery cell. Both the NiMH and the lithium-ion battery cells are rechargeable and can be formed into a wide variety of shapes and sizes so as to efficiently fill available space in electric vehicles.
Both the NiMH and the Lithium-ion battery cells are known to generate heat during a charge and discharge cycle of operation. Overheating of the battery cells or an exposure thereof to high-temperature environments, may undesirably affect the operation of the battery assembly. Accordingly, cooling systems are typically employed with the battery cells in the battery pack. Prior art cooling systems, however, cause a significant temperature variation among the individual battery cells and a substantial pressure variation in fluid channels formed between the battery cells. Particularly, a pressure drop of the fluid channels at an inlet end of the battery pack is much lower than a pressure drop of the fluid channels at an outlet end of the battery pack. As a result, flow rates and surface convection coefficients of the fluid channels at the inlet end of the battery pack are less than flow rates and surface convection coefficients of the fluid channels at the outlet end of the battery pack.
Therefore, it is desirable to produce a battery pack including a cooling system, wherein temperature and pressure variations in the battery pack and a size thereof are minimized, and a capacity and a durability of the battery pack are maximized.


Tamper evident devices and methods including devices that can be used with pill bottles and other packages to provide evidence of tampering by an unauthorized user are provided.

There is a serious and fast growing worldwide problem related to abuse of prescription drugs. In particular, unauthorized persons may remove drugs, often addictive narcotics, from prescription bottles in the home or elsewhere such medications are found.
According to the Los Angeles Times, drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States. Recent analysis of government data has found drugs exceeded motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in the United States, killing at least 37,485 people nationwide.
While most major causes of preventable death are declining, drugs are an exception. The death toll has doubled in the last decade, now claiming a life every 14 minutes. By contrast, traffic accidents have been dropping for decades because of huge investments in auto safety. Public health experts have used the comparison to draw attention to the nation's growing prescription drug problem, which they characterize as an epidemic.
Fueling the surge in deaths are prescription pain and anxiety drugs that are potent, highly addictive, and especially dangerous when combined with one another or with other drugs or alcohol. Among the most commonly abused are OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma. One relative newcomer is fentanyl, a painkiller that comes in the form of patches and lollipops and can be about 100 times more powerful than morphine. Such drugs now cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. See http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/17/local/la-me-drugs-epidemic-20110918.
The present invention relates to tamper evident devices and methods that do not restrict access by the authorized user to a medicine package or bottle containing pills or medication. For example, a combination lock restricts access if the authorized user forgets the combination. Likewise, a lock and key locks out the authorized user if the authorized user looses the key. Further, combination lock solutions allow any unauthorized user to try every possibility until finding the right combination.
The present invention records almost all illegitimate attempts to access a package or container utilizing the devices disclosed herein. Further, the present invention can be incorporated or used with almost any pill container or medicine package.
Some devices described as tamper-evident can be more correctly called tamper-resistant because they make a package more difficult to open for both the authorized user and the unauthorized user.
There are many types of containers on the market. Some of these are intended for medicines and the like. Because of the danger of an unauthorized person such as a child, or an unauthorized person seeking narcotics, taking a medicine, manufacturers have designed some bottle caps which are difficult to remove. However, this approach does not prevent the possibility of an unauthorized user opening the bottle and removing or tampering with the contents.
Some of these medicine bottles are claimed to be tamper-proof and achieve this alleged claim by having outer seals around the neck and cap. Some containers claim to be are tamper-evident. These are often quite complicated or bulky.
One such container is shown in Hoag, U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,004, which discloses a tamper-evident container that completely encloses a medicine bottle. Two box-like portions are connected by frangible portions. To access the bottle, the box-like portions are broken apart. Colella, U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,654, discloses a safety container which uses a key to open the container. Walker, U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,070, discloses a tamper-evident bottle cap having frangible pins.
Many of the drugs abused are narcotic pain killers. Thus, patients suffering from severe pain have little tolerance for a package that is difficult to open or has a locking mechanism as discussed above.
Many people take one or more medications, several times a day to maintain or improve their health. Often, these medications or supplements must be taken at specific times each day. If medications or supplements are not available to be taken at the proper times, individual health may be jeopardized.
For example, failure to take a prescribed medication for treatment of chronic pain can result in severe health consequences such as severe pain or withdrawal.
Non-compliance with a prescribed regimen of one or more medications, particularly in the elderly and the aging population of "baby boomers", can result in billions of dollars of unnecessary health care costs.
Further, it can be extremely difficult to monitor tampering with multiple medication schedules. Failure to properly monitor tampering can result in catastrophic health consequences to the patient and high levels of care taker anxiety, which can also lead to increased health problems for care takers.
Known medicine tamper-evident systems have severe limitations. One such limitation is that the authorized user may be prevented from taking their medicine. Another such limitation is the inability for an authorized user or a care taker to track whether someone other than the authorized user is taking medication.
The present invention solves these difficult problems in a novel manner. As such, this invention makes it more difficult for prescription drug abusers to take medicine from family members or other persons without being detected.
Novel tamper evident devices and methods for monitoring and improving authorized users' knowledge of tampering are disclosed herein.

Oneworld Design and Manufacturing Group, Ltd.


An appliance having: a control unit managing the operation of the appliance; at least one hydraulic component actionable for distributing water/treating liquids within the appliance; a plurality of sensors arranged for acquiring information regarding physical parameters associated with the operation of the appliance, and a module managing at least part of the water/treating liquids distribution within the appliance. The module includes the at least one hydraulic component; at least two sensors of the plurality of sensors, and a local control unit managing the operation of the at least one hydraulic component and/or receiving the information acquired by the at least two sensors.

Appliances of any typology (e.g., dishwashers, laundry machines, refrigerators, ovens, etc.) generally comprise a plurality of hydraulic components (e.g., valves, pumps, manifolds, pipes, diverters, etc.) for providing water and/or treating liquids (e.g., detergents, softeners, bleachers, etc.) required for performing laundry-treating procedures.
Generally, an electronic control board, or control unit, is provided in order to manage the operation of the plurality of actionable hydraulic components (e.g., valves, pumps, diverters, etc.).
The generic actionable hydraulic component typically may be actuated electrically, e.g. the actionable hydraulic component is operatively coupled with corresponding input/output ports of the electronic control board in order to receive (electric) power from the electronic control board.
Therefore, a great number of different connections elements, usually one or more wirings for each actionable hydraulic component, has to be provided within the body of the appliance running from the electronic control board to the actionable hydraulic component.
In its turn, the electronic control board has to comprise a corresponding great number of input/output ports in order to being properly connected to each one of the actionable hydraulic component.
Moreover, the electronic control board requires storage and computing capabilities configured for managing each one of the actionable hydraulic components provided in the appliance according to a selected laundry-treating procedure among a set of selectable laundry-treating procedures that the appliance is configured to implement.
In the art some expedients have been proposed in order to mitigate the complexity of the electronic control board and wirings for controlling actionable components provided in the appliance. For example, aggregation of two or more actionable components have been proposed in order to reduce a number of wirings required for actuate such actionable components.

Appliance comprising a water inlet module


A transflective liquid crystal display with a single LC cell gap. Each of a plurality of pixel regions comprises a reflective region and a transmissive region. A liquid crystal cell wall structure between the upper and lower substrates creates a first channel at reflective region and a second channel at transmissive region. A first liquid crystal layer is filled into the first channel of the reflective region. A second liquid crystal layer is filled into the second channel of the transmissive region.

Conventional transmissive type liquid crystal displays (LCD) suffer low image contrast when the ambient environment is bright. That is, the color reproducibility is lower and the display is not sufficiently recognizable because the ambient light is brighter than the display light. Moreover, use of the backlight increases power consumption. Reflective liquid crystal displays comprise a reflector formed on one of a pair of substrates rather than a backlight so that ambient light is reflected from the surface of the reflector. The method is disadvantageous, however, in that the display is less visible when the ambient environment is dark.
In order to overcome the aforementioned problems, a liquid crystal display which realizes both a transmissive mode and a reflective mode in a transflective liquid crystal display device has been disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,281,952 and 6,295,109, the entireties of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Each pixel of the transflective liquid crystal display splits into reflective (R) and transmissive (T) sub-pixels. Usually, the R and T area ratio is 4:1, in favor of reflective display. The transmissive display is used only in dark environments for power conservation.
FIG. 1A is a cross section of a conventional transflective liquid crystal display with a single LC cell gap. FIG. 1B is a cross section of a conventional transflective liquid crystal display with a double cell gap.
In FIG. 1A, a transflective LCD 10 with a single LC cell gap comprises an upper substrate 12 and a lower substrate 14 with a liquid crystal layer 16 interposed therebetween. The lower substrate 14 comprises a plurality of pixel electrode regions. Each pixel electrode region comprises a reflective electrode region 18 and a transmission region 20, separately defining a reflection region (R) and a transmission region (T). The upper substrate 12 comprises a transparent electrode 22 to serve as a common electrode. A first polarizer 26I is disposed on the upper substrate 12 opposing the liquid crystal layer 16. A first quarter wave plate 24I is disposed between the first polarizer 26I and the liquid crystal layer 16. A second polarizer 26II is disposed on the lower substrate 14 opposing the liquid crystal layer 16. A second quarter wave plate 24II is disposed between the second polarizer 26II and the liquid crystal layer 16. A backlight is provided under the lower substrate 14. The cell gaps at the R and T regions are the same, as shown in FIG. 1A. The cell gap is optimized for R region. In FIG. 1B, a transflective LCD 28 with a double LC cell gap is nearly identical to the transflective LCD 10 in FIG. 1A and for simplicity its detailed description is omitted. The transflective LCD 28 differs from the transflective LCD 10 in that the liquid crystal layer 16 of each pixel comprises two different thicknesses, i.e. the cell gaps are d1 and d2 for the R and T sub-pixels, respectively. In this approach, both the R and T sub-pixels have high efficiency. However, the response time of the T mode is four times slower than the response time of the R mode. Moreover, because this approach requires complicated structures and processes, the cell gap accuracy and uniformity can be poor. This can result in deteriorating LCD performance, such as variations in brightness and color.
It is desirable to overcome these and other problems of the prior art and to provide transflective LCDs including T and R regions with similar retardation changes that provide both regions with high light modulation efficiency.


A resealable watertight mailing envelope has a ziploc style strip for sealing the envelope closed. A flap portion is foldable over the ziploc seal, secured in the closed position by a snap closure. The envelope also has an interior watertight lining joined with the ziploc strip to seal the contents within from wetness or to prevent leakage of liquid items placed inside the envelope.

The present invention relates generally to an envelope enclosure for storing or mailing important papers, and more particularly, it relates to a ziploc(trademark) style closure and a snap closure.
Traditional envelopes are provided with a moisture activated glue strip along the closure flap, with which to seal a mailing envelope closed. This type of envelope is typically discarded after a single use, as the adhesive does not permit repeated sealing of the same envelope. Also, the paper used in these envelopes is normally of a non-waterproof material, so that one cannot store or send wet or damp items in them without messy leakage.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a reclosable envelope with a waterproof liner, with an additional snap closure for the flap.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an envelope for repeat usage, which can be reclosed for multiple usages and for permanent storage.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an envelope with two means of closure for safekeeping of documents and for mailed items.
What is disclosed is a resealable waterproof mailing envelope comprising an expandable pouch open at one end, and a waterproof interior lining portion. A recloseable sealing means is provided, adjacent an open end, which is integrally joined with the lining portion to form a liquid tight seal which retains liquid within said lining portion. Also included is a flap portion adjacent the open end, and a means for fastening the flap portion to securely close said flap portion over the sealing means adjacent the open end, to protect the contents therein, said fastening means also disengageable for removing said contents and refastenable for repetitive use. The recloseable sealing means comprises a ziploc type arrangement having opposable polyethylene strips, one said strip having a resilient protruding longitudinal rib portion, and a second said strip facing said first strip having a longitudinal channel adapted to engage said rib portion retentively to form a seal along said open end. In a preferred embodiment, the fastening means is comprised of a circular protruding ring portion attached to said flap portion and a circular receptacle portion attached to the exterior of said envelope removably interlockable with said ring portion such that when said flap portion is disposed over said open end to face said envelope the ring portion aligns with the receptacle portion such that a slight force compresses them into engagement providing additional stability and protection for said sealing means.


Alkanolamines of the formula EQU R--NHCH.sub.2 CH(OH)CH.sub.2 CH.sub.3 (I). or mixtures thereof wherein R is H, --CH.sub.2 CH(OH)CH.sub.2 CH.sub.3, an alkyl group having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an aryl group having from 6 to 12 carbon atoms, an aralkyl group having from 6 to 12 carbon atoms, or a cycloalkyl group having from 3 to 6 carbon atoms in combination with a tertiary alkano/amine are effective in the removal of acidic gases from a fluid stream containing same and show superior degradation properties as compared to alkanolamines conventionally used in the gas purification applications.

Purification of fluids involves removal of impurities from fluid steams. Various fluid purification methods are known and practiced. These fluid purification methods generally fall in one of the following categories: absorption into a liquid, adsorption on a solid, permeation through a membrane, chemical conversion to another compound, and condensation. The absorption purification method involves the transfer of a component of a fluid to a liquid absorbent in which said component is soluble. If desired, the liquid containing the transferred component is subsequently stripped to regenerate the liquid. See, for example, A. Kohl and R. Nielsen, "Gas Purification, 5.sup.th edition, Gulf Publishing, 1997; A. Kohl and F. C. Riesenfeld "Gas Purification, 4.sup.th edition, Gulf Publishing, 1985; A. Kohl and F. C. Riesenfeld "Gas Purification, 3rd edition, Gulf Publishing, 1979; and "The Gas Conditioning Fact Book" published by The Dow Chemical of Canada, Limited, 1962; all incorporated herein by reference.
Aqueous solutions of various primary, secondary and tertiary alkanolamines, such as, for example, monoethanolamine(MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), diglycolamine (DGA), diisopropanolamine (DIPA), methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and triethanolamine (TEA), have been used as absorbent liquids to remove acid gases from liquid and gas streams. In a regeneration method, the aqueous alkanolamine solution containing acid gas is then subjected to heat to regenerate the aqueous alkanolamine solution.
Primary alkanolamines such as MEA and DGA, or secondary alkanolamines such as DEA or DIPA are generally suitable for highly exhaustive removal of CO.sub.2, however they have disadvantage of requiring large expenditure of energy for regeneration.
Tertiary alkanolamines, especially MDEA and TEA, require less energy consumption for regeneration, but since they do not react directly with CO.sub.2, they do not remove CO.sub.2 completely from the fluid stream. Tertiary alkanolamines are, however, suitable for selective removal of H.sub.2 S from a fluid containing both H.sub.2 S and CO.sub.2, since the absorption rate for H.sub.2 S is about the same for all alkanolamines.
The chemistry of acid gas reactions with aqueous alkanolamine treating solutions is well known and is described in many publications such as, for example, the aforementioned publications and references cited therein, and publications described below and references cited therein.
Canadian Patent No. 1,091,429 (G. Sartori et al) describes the use of aqueous solutions containing water-soluble primary monoamines having a secondary carbon atom attached to the amino group in gas purification applications. Primary monoamines having a secondary carbon atom attached to the amino group specifically mentioned in this reference as being suitable are 2-amino-1-propanol, 2-amino-1-butanol, 2-amino-3-methyl-1-butanol, 2-amino-1-pentanol, 2-amino-1-hexanol and 2-aminocycloxexanol. It is notable that this reference is completely silent as to degradability and corrosivity of these primary monoamines which have a secondary carbon atom attached to the amino group.
Chem. Eng. Comm., 1996, Vol. 144, pp. 103-112, "Effects of Composition on the Performance of Alkanolamine Blends for Gas Sweetening", describes the influence of blend composition and components on some of the parameters which can be used to monitor the performance of amine blends for aqueous blends of MDEA and MEA, MDEA and DEA, and MDEA and DIPA.
48.sup.th Annual Laurance Reid Gas Conditioning Conference, Mar. 1-4, 1998, pp. 146-160, "Amine Degradation Chemistry in CO.sub.2 Service", describes the degradation chemistry of various ethanolamines in CO.sub.2 service. The paper promotes gas treating solvents which are not formulated with primary or secondary ethanolamines as a solution for the loss rates associated with the use of various ethanolamines such as MDEA, MMEA and DEA.
Primary and secondary alkanolamines can also be used as activators in combination with tertiary alkanolamines to remove CO.sub.2 down to as low as 100 parts per million (ppm) or less requiring less regeneration energy than is required using the primary or secondary alkanolamines alone.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,209,914 and 5,366,709 show how activators such as ethylmonoethanolamine (EMEA) or butylmonoethanolamine (BMEA) can be used with MDEA to achieve better CO.sub.2 removal than MDEA alone.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,233 discloses that the use of a combination of piperazine and MDEA results in an improved acid gas removal. However, one particular disadvantage of piperazine is that piperazine carbamate formed from the reaction of piperazine and CO.sub.2 is not soluble in the aqueous MDEA/piperazine solution. Thus, the additive level is limited up to about only 0.8 moles/liter, which severely limits the capacity of the solvent, or requires higher circulation rates to treat the same amount of fluid than other MDEA/alkanolamine activator blends require.
The primary disadvantage of using primary and secondary alkanolamines such as MEA, DEA and DIPA is that CO.sub.2 reacts with these alkanolamines to form degradation compounds such as oxazolidinones and ethylenediamines. C. J. Kim, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 1988, 27, and references cited therein show how DEA reacts with CO.sub.2 to form 3-(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-oxazolidi-none (HEO) and N,N,N'-tris(2-hydroxyethyl)ethylenediamine (THEED). This reference also shows how DIPA reacts to form 3-(2-hydroxypropyl)-5-methyl-2-oxazolidinone (HPMO). These degradation compounds reduce the amount of alkanolamine available for acid gas removal, increase the viscosity of the solution and potentially increase the corrosivity of the solvent.
It is evident that there is still a great need and interest in the gas purification industry for alkanolamine compounds which will be effective in the removal of acidic gases from fluid streams and will have improved degradation properties compared to alkanolamines commonly used for this purpose.
It has now been discovered that 1-amino-2-butanol and its derivatives are effective in removing acidic gases from fluid stream and that they have superior degradation properties as compared to alkanolamines conventionally used in the gas purification industry.
In the context of the present invention the term "fluid stream" encompasses both a gaseous stream and liquid stream.

Composition and process for removal of acid gases


A substrate inspecting apparatus to inspect a substrate printed on by a print head to determine whether a printing operation is being accurately performed includes a camera unit to photograph the substrate before the substrate is printed on and to photograph the substrate after the substrate is printed on, and a control part to compare a first image of the substrate before the substrate is printed on with a second image of the substrate after the substrate is printed on through the camera unit and to determine whether the printing operation is being accurately performed on the substrate. Thus, the substrate inspecting apparatus is capable of precisely inspecting the substrate during the printing operation and reducing processing time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a substrate inspecting apparatus, and more particularly to, a substrate inspecting apparatus to inspect a substrate to determine whether a printing operation is being accurately performed thereon, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flat display apparatuses, such as thin film transistor-liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) and organic electro luminescence displays (ELD), are generally provided with display panels on which images are formed.
A process of manufacturing a display panel comprises a printing process to form a color filter on a display panel substrate. Inkjet devices have been used in the printing process.
Using an inkjet device, ink to form the color filter is ejected from a plurality of orifices on a print head and then cured on a plurality of pixels formed on the display panel substrate.
A substrate inspecting apparatus may be used in the printing process to inspect colors and positions of ink printed on a transparent substrate.
A conventional substrate inspecting apparatus obtains images by positioning a printed transparent substrate on a white background inspection base and photographing it with a camera after a printing operation has been performed on the transparent substrate by the print head. Using images of the printed transparent substrate photographed in this manner, colors and positions of ink printed on the transparent substrate are inspected to determine whether the printing operation was performed accurately on the transparent substrate.
However, since this conventional substrate inspecting apparatus typically uses the white background inspection base to inspect the printed transparent substrate, the white background inspection base may be stained with ink during the printing operation. When the white background inspection base is stained with ink, exact images of the printed transparent substrate cannot be obtained in an inspection operation. As a result, precise inspection is not possible.
When using the conventional substrate inspecting apparatus, the printing operation and the inspection operation are performed separately, since the inspection operation typically must be performed after the printing operation has been completed on the transparent substrate. If the printing operation and the inspection operation are performed simultaneously, no separate inspection time is needed, thereby effectively reducing processing time.

Substrate inspecting apparatus and control method thereof


A method for disinfecting a contact lens contacts the lens with a sterilizing composition comprising about 0.0001% to 10.0% by weight peracetic acid for a time period sufficient to disinfect the lens, and then antiseptically removes the peracetic acid using a peracetic acid removing agent to leave the lens and the remaining composition sterile, biocompatible to the human eye, and isotonic to human tears. The peracetic acid removing agent can be a peracetic acid decomposition catalyst or a peracetic acid neutralizing compound.

The present state-of-the-art in contact lenses involves two broad categories of materials: hard or rigid lenses, and soft lenses. Hard lenses were originally made of PMMA(polymethyl metacrylate), but those in widest use now are silicon/acrylates. Silicone/acrylates contain different component ratios (silicone: acrylate) or other additives such as fluorine to make them unique among a large group of related compounds. Soft lenses are generally made of polyhydroxymethylmethacrylate, crosslinked with a variety of compounds to create a lens with distinctive properties. There are other materials and configurations available (and many unique materials not presently available for clinical use), but the foregoing compositions are in widest use.
Although the present invention will primarily be discussed with reference to soft contact lenses, it is equally applicable to hard or other contact lenses.
Soft lenses are extremely hydrophilic by nature, absorbing about 25%-80% of their composition as water. Accordingly, they provide an excellent medium for microbial growth and concentration of contaminants both inside the lens, and on the surface, these microbes and contaminants typically come from the eye, the patient's hands or the solution in which the lenses are stored. As a result, the lenses must be regularly cleaned and disinfected upon removal, but not usually more than once a day.
Cleaning is generally accomplished using a surfactant which is rubbed on the lens using the fingers. This is rinsed off using saline (isotonic NaCl solution) solution. The lenses are then ready to be disinfected.
There are presently three broad categories of disinfection methods. All leave the lenses nearly isotonic to human tears, and at a substantially neutral pH (in order to decrease the potential for irritation upon reinsertion of the lenses on the eye).
The first method uses heat. The lenses are placed in a container with saline, followed by insertion of the container into a heating unit. The temperature in the heating unit is the raised to 80 to 100 degrees centrigrade for 30 minutes to one hour. Thereafter the unit automatically shuts off, and is allowed to cool for an equal length of time before the lenses can be placed on the eyes. One drawback of heat disinfection is that it cannot be used on lenses which are greater than 50% water, or damage to the lens will result. There is also evidence that lenses which are less than 50% water are prematurely aged by the heating process. Furthermore, small amounts of debris and organic material remain on the lenses even after cleaning. These literally become baked on the lenses by the sterilizing heat.
The second disinfection method uses a microbicidal chemical in saline solution. Lenses are placed in the solution for about four hours, rinsed with saline, and reinserted on the eyes. Exemplary microbicides include chlorhexidine, benzalkonium chloride, and polyaminopropyl biguanide. Although this method is a simple and generally effective way to disinfect lenses, many patients are sensitive to the microbicides used above, and cannot use them. Generally recognized sensitivity rates are between 10 to 40% of the general population. "New" Chemical sterilants simply cause the same allergy and sensitivity problems shortly after appearing on the market.
The third and most popular disinfection method uses 3% hydrogen peroxide (H.sub.2 O.sub.2) to sterilize the lenses, followed by neutralization of the hydrogen peroxide to simple biocompatible products. Neutralization must occur since the eyes can be damaged by hydrogen peroxide, and even 50 ppm H.sub.2 O.sub.2 may cause mild irritation. A one-step H.sub.2 O.sub.2 disinfection process involves placing the lenses in a container of hydrogen peroxide and saline which has a platinum catalyst at the bottom to neutralize the H.sub.2 O.sub.2 while disinfecting the lenses (U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,451). Six hours are required for this process. However, a major disadvantage of this process is that the H.sub.2 O.sub.2 is neutralized logarithmically (i.e. the concentration of H.sub.2 O.sub.2 is reduced quite rapidly in the beginning). As a result, effective microbicidal concentrations may not be present long enough to do a good job of disinfection. Even under optimum conditions, H.sub.2 O.sub.2 is only a fair bactericide, and is not a good sporicide or fungicide.
Several other systems using H.sub.2 O.sub.2 and a variety of neutralizers (or dilution with saline) involve two or more steps. For example, the lenses are placed in 3% H.sub.2 O.sub.2 for 5-20 minutes, followed with one or more rinses, and placement in a neutralizer and isotonic saline for 10 minutes to one hour. Drawbacks of this process typically involve a lack of patient compliance or inadequate removal of H.sub.2 O.sub.2. Some patients forget to complete the second neutralizing step described above, with resultant eye damage, or don't leave the lenses in the H.sub.2 O.sub.2 long enough for effective disinfection to occur. An additional problem is that many patients do not disinfect their lenses because of the perceived inconvenience of having to complete two steps. Single step systems have a substantially greater compliance rate.
A further problem has recently developed involving the appearance of new microbes and their effect on contact lens users. Two of these microbes includes the AIDS virus and Acanthamoeba. The AIDS virus is a well known, potentially lethal virus which has been isolated in tears. The importance of killing this virus is more pronounced in the doctor's office, where the same lens can be used on many different patients. Present studies indicate that the AIDS virus can be killed by either heat or H.sub.2 O.sub.2. However, Acanthamoeba is capable of spore formation, and is resistant to H.sub.2 O.sub.2. However, heat is fairly effective against Acanthamoeba. Acanthamoeba, although rare, causes a particularly painful eye infection, with no acceptable cure at present. It usually results in permanent blindness to that eye. Accordingly, many eye doctors are turning back to heat disinfection, although this method cannot be used with contact lenses having a 50% or greater water content. Furthermore, heat does not kill Bacillus organisms, as discussed in Shovlin J. "Contact Lens Q and A." Review of Optometry 1988 (March 15); 125(3): 95.
Thus the three major problems (as seen by today's contact lens practitioner) with existing state-of-the-art contact lens disinfection systems are:

Method of disinfecting contact lenses with peracetic acid


A mobile device case including a housing sized to receive a mobile device. The housing includes at least one corner defining an aperture there through. A corner element is included and is removeably insertable within the aperture.

As mobile phones and other mobile electronic devices become more technologically advanced and include more features, the cost to purchase these mobile devices increases, as does the cost to replace them should they break. To prophylactically protect such devices from damage or breakage, protective cases have been devised to reduce the risk that a mobile device breaks should it be dropped or otherwise exposed to an impact force.
In particular, materials such as polycarbonate, thermoplastic polyurethane, and silicone are common materials found in mobile device cases. These materials are either molded or otherwise incorporated into the mobile device case to either provide stability to the case, or to cushion the mobile device within the case during an impact event. Independent of which materials comprise a mobile device case, the amount of impact protection afforded by a housing that retains the mobile device remains constant. Short of surrounding the entire housing with an additional layer of material, such as silicone, which makes any case heavier and bulkier, the user cannot customize the amount of impact protection a particular case provides, without significantly changing the appearance, weight, and size of the case.
Indeed, depending on the circumstances, the user of a mobile device case may desire greater or lesser impact protection. For example, a user of the case may want greater impact protection while rock climbing and lesser impact protection during everyday use. Current mobile device cases, however, fail to provide any amount of customizable impact protection that does not dramatically change the appearance of the case and/or requires the user to carry large materials sized to fit over a particular case.

Mobile device case with removably insertable corners


The present invention intends to provide a cable protection spring capable of being attached and fixed through one-touch operation without requiring an ironmongery goods or a tool for fixing.

The present invention relates to a cable protection spring for protecting a cable from mechanical damage and a method for fixing the cable protection spring to a structure.
In the case of disposing an electric cable in a structure such as a mechanical device or a casing, it is known to pass the electric cable within and through a coil spring in order to protect the electric cable from mechanical damage caused by, for example, stress due to strong bending, rub due to contact with a rough surface, shear due to contact with a sharp portion. A coil spring used for such a use is generally called a cable protection spring. In particular, in the case of disposing a power cable, a signal line or a pipe for a pneumatic device within the arm of an articulated robot, the cable etc. moves relatively within the arm in accordance with the movement of the arm. Thus, the cable protection spring for protecting the cable etc. from the damage caused by being rubbed is indispensable.
The conventional cable protection spring has such a simple shape that the diameter thereof is constant along its entire length, and so a saddle having an xcexa9-shaped section is employed in the case of fixing the cable protection spring to a structure etc.
FIG. 5 is diagrams for explaining a state where the conventional cable protection spring is fixed to a structure etc, in which (a) is a plan view and (b) is a side view seen along a line A-Axe2x80x2 in (a). In the figures, numeral 1 depicts a cable protection spring which is a coil spring formed by winding a steel wire with a fine interval. The diameter of the cable protection spring 1 is constant along its entire length. Numeral 2 depicts a structure, that is, to be more concrete, the arm of an industrial robot etc. Numeral 3 depicts a saddle which is an ironmongery goods formed by bending a rectangular steel plate into an xcexa9-shape. The saddles 3 are attached on the structure 2 so as to cross over the cable protection spring 1 in a manner that the cable protection spring 1 is fastened or gripped by the xcexa9-shaped sectional inner side of the saddle and fixed to the structure 2 by means of screws 4.
However, such a conventional cable protection spring requires a dedicated ironmongery goods such as a saddle for fixing the spring to a structure and further requires a tool such as a screwdriver or a wrench in order to fix the ironmongery goods. Thus, since the number of parts and the number of assembling processes increase, there arises a problem that a cost of the spring increases.
Further, there is another problem that skilled technique is required to fix the saddle. That is, if the saddle is fixed in a state that the spring is squeezed, that is, the spring is pushed down and deformed in an elliptic shape in its section, the spring will come out of the saddle easily when the robot moves and a tension acts on the spring. Thus, it is required to fix the saddle while paying attention so as not to deform the spring.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a cable protection spring capable of being attached and fixed through one-touch operation without requiring an ironmongery goods or a tool for fixing. Further, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for attaching and fixing a cable protection spring through one-touch operation.
In order to attain the aforesaid object, the invention claimed in claim 2 is a cable protection spring which a wiring cable is passed within and through a coil spring to protect the wiring cable from mechanical damage. The cable protection spring is characterized in that the coil spring is provided with a portion having a diameter larger than a diameter of remaining portion thereof, and a winding interval of the large diameter portion of the coil spring is made larger than a winding interval of the remaining portion of the coil spring. Further, the invention claimed in claim 4 is a method for fixing a cable protection spring wherein the coil spring is provided with a portion having a diameter larger than a diameter of remaining portion thereof, the structure is provided with a groove having an inlet and an outlet with a small width and a center portion with a large width, the large diameter portion of the coil spring is compressed and pushed into the center portion of the groove thereby to fix the coil spring within the groove by a force acting at the center portion of the groove which is generated at the large diameter portion of the coil spring by trying to restore to its original length. The invention claimed in claim 3 is a method for fixing a cable protection spring wherein the coil spring is provided with a portion having a diameter smaller than a diameter of remaining portion thereof, and the structure is provided with a groove having an inlet and an outlet with a large width and a center portion with a small width, the small diameter portion of the coil spring is expanded and pushed into the center portion of the groove thereby to fix the coil spring within the groove by a force acting at the center portion of the groove which is generated at the small diameter portion of the coil spring by trying to restore to its original length.

Cable protective spring and method for fixing the cable protective spring

Abstract: In order to attain this object, according to the present invention, in the cable protection spring which is arranged in a manner that a wiring cable is passed within and through a coil spring 5 to protect the wiring cable from mechanical damage, the coil spring 5 is provided with a portion 5a having a diameter larger than a diameter of remaining portion thereof.


A system for automated speech recognition utilizes computer memory, a processor executing imaging software and audio processing software, and a camera transmitting images of a physical source of speech input. Audio processing software includes an audio data stream of audio samples derived from at least one speech input. At least one timer is configured to transmit elapsed time values as measured in response to respective triggers received by the timer. The audio processing software is configured to assert and de-assert the timer triggers to measure respective audio sample times and interim period times between the audio samples. The audio processing software is further configured to compare the interim period times with a command spacing time value corresponding to an expected interim time value between commands, thereby determining if the speech input is command data or non-command data.

This disclosure relates to the field of automatic speech recognition and receiving audible commands from a speech input device, wherein the audible commands are cross-checked with image data from an imaging device or image sensor such as a camera focused on a source of the audible commands. Spoken words are created through mouth movements adjusting sound waves that are transferred from the speaker's mouth through air. Vehicle speech entry systems for users often consist of one or more microphones positioned to detect the sound. Typically, these microphones are electromechanical assemblies which mechanically resonate over a range of the mechanical frequencies of speech (sound waves at frequencies less than 20 khz). Digital voice tokens (temporal speech fragments) can be sent to artificial voice recognition systems and converted to digital requests (e.g. information technology requests in the vehicle infotainment or vehicle control systems; or external web-based service requests transmitted through wireless networks). The result of these audible requests is to simplify and/or automate a desired function to enhance user comfort and/or convenience and/or safety—often all three.
Numerous digital and algorithm-driven methods have been developed in an attempt to improve the performance of artificial voice recognition systems. For example, token matching systems based on learning a specific user speech characteristic from audible content is often used to improve the success rates of artificial voice recognition systems. Another typical method is to use artificial intelligence techniques to match the speech characteristic of the voice input with one or more phonetic characteristics (e.g. languages, pronunciations, etc.). One additional method, that is often used to reduce noise, is to require that the user press an electromechanical button, often on the steering wheel, to limit voice capture to the times when the button is depressed.
In some cases a sound detection and processing system uses one or more microphones, and subsequent signal processing is utilized to reduce the effects of noise (including road noise, noise from vehicle entertainment systems, and non-user audible inputs). Noise reduction can be accomplished through appropriate geometric placement of the microphones to enhance user voice inputs while reducing noise. Also, appropriate symmetric placement of multiple microphones relative to the position of the user during normal driving helps reduce the effects of outside noise sources. Specifically, microphones are positioned symmetrically relative to the boresight vector of the natural mouth position while the eyes are naturally facing forward e.g. if the user is a driver of the vehicle, "eyes on the road." The subsequent phase cancellation processing of the microphone inputs has been shown to substantially reduce the effects of noise. In this example, the phase of the user speech signal detected at the multiple microphones is the same (due to same travel distance from the user's mouth), while the phase of the noise from other locations inside/outside the vehicle will have different phases at the multiple microphones and thus this sound can be filtered out through various signal processing techniques.
Errors in automated speech recognition processes can lead to incorrectly determining the intended user speech, resulting in potential frustration (and/or distraction) of the user. For example, the speech recognition might incorrectly interpret the sound and make the wrong request (e.g. calling the wrong person). Or, the speech recognition may ignore the request. One goal of the automated speech recognition process, including the sound detection and measurement system is to maximize the quality of the user's speech input sounds (signal) and minimize un-desired sounds (noise); e.g. maximize Signal to Noise (SNR) ratio.
One problem in the field of automated speech recognition lies in the lack of credible ways for prior art systems to double check a perceived speech input with additional out-of-band information (i.e., information other than standard audio signal analysis). A need in the art exists in configuring automatic speech recognition systems so that user commands, issued to the system for vehicle operation and performance, are confirmed in terms of origin, authorization, and content.

System and method of correlating mouth images to input commands