A motorized power steering apparatus is equipped with a torque sensor including a primary potentiometer for detecting a steering torque applied to the steering wheel by a driver. The torque sensor further includes an auxiliary potentiometer so as to detect variations in the output voltage of a constant voltage power supply to the potentiometers. When there is a difference between the outputs of the primary and auxiliary potentiometers which is greater than a prescribed level, a fail-safe relay is turned off to nullify the power steering operation of a motor. When the output voltage of the power supply for supplying a constant voltage to the primary and auxiliary potentiometers drops below or rises above a predetermined level, the output voltage of the auxiliary potentiometer, which is not used for power steering control, is raised. This increases the difference between the output voltages of the potentiometers to a detectable level, whereby a fail-safe operation is carried out to nullify the power steering operation of the electric motor. Thus, the steering wheel is prevented, in a reliable manner, from being turned spontaneously or unintentionally against the driver's will due to variations in the neutral point of the torque sensor resulting from fluctuations in the voltage supplied thereto.

The present invention relates a motorized power steering apparatus for power assisting the steering of a motor vehicle through the rotating force of a motor.
Conventionally, in this type of power steering apparatus, for the purpose of detecting a steering torque, a steering-torque to displacement converter is provided for converting the steering torque applied to a steering wheel by a driver into a twisting displacement of a torsion bar. A potentiometer is mounted on the converter so that it converts the displacement output of the converter into an electric signal with one half of the source voltage for the potentiometer being made as the neutral point for the steering torque.
In order to ensure fail-safe operation of the apparatus in the case of a failure in the potentiometer, it is a general trend to employ another potentiometer, so that the output signal of one of the two potentiometers is utilized as a primary signal for controlling the apparatus. The output signal of the other potentiometer is used as an auxiliary signal for comparison with the primary signal. When the difference between the primary signal and the auxiliary signal is greater than a prescribed level, a control unit determines that the potentiometers are abnormal. It thereafter performs a fail-safe operation whereby a fail-safe relay is turned off to deenergize a power steering motor and an electromagnetic clutch which controls transmission of a power steering torque from the motor toward steerable road wheels.
With the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, however, the power source for the potentiometers, which act as a torque sensor, is a constant voltage power source which is commonly utilized as a power supply to other electronic elements such as a microcomputer incorporated in the control unit. Accordingly, from an economical point of view, it is general practice to supply power to the primary and auxiliary potentiometers from the common power source through a buffer.
As a result, if a failure takes place in which the source voltages for the primary and auxiliary potentiometers concurrently drop for some reason, the voltage at the neutral point of each potentiometer falls or rises. This causes the primary potentiometer to generate an erroneous signal indicative of a steering torque being applied to the steering wheel by the driver even if there is actually no steering torque applied.
In this kind of failure, however, the output signals of the primary and auxiliary potentiometers concurrently fall or rise, so there will be no appreciable difference therebetween. As a result, the control unit determines that there are no abnormalities in the potentiometers, and hence it does not perform any fail-safe operation, allowing an erroneous and improper power steering operation due to the motor.


For a vehicle having a brake system, a driver assistance system includes a detection system having at least one sensor configured to output measurement signals, and a control unit configured to receive at least one measurement signal, determine whether the vehicle is in a critical state based on measurement signal(s), and output an external brake request signal to a brake control device of the brake system for priming or biasing the brake system when the vehicle is determined to be in the critical state. The external brake request signal comprises an acceleration setpoint value signal having a higher acceleration setpoint value than a current actual acceleration value of the vehicle.

Driver assistance systems generally serve to assist the driver in controlling the vehicle during driving. Such systems can, in particular, be surroundings detection systems that detect foreign objects by means of suitable sensors in order to change the driving behavior of the vehicle correspondingly. In this context, on the one hand, a collision with a detected external object can be prevented or the severity of an accident can be reduced by braking the vehicle suitably. Furthermore, a vehicle that is traveling ahead can be detected and the distance from the driver's own vehicle can be regulated, for example, in the form of an ACC (adaptive cruise control) process or as the vehicle traveling in a convoy mode in a line composed of a plurality of vehicles. In particular, radar-based or ultrasound-based sensors can be used as surroundings detection sensors for detecting distance, and video systems can be used for recording and detecting the objects and, if appropriate, for detecting distance through the evaluation of stereo images. Furthermore, the driver assistance systems may also be systems that detect a critical driving state, for example, a tendency of the vehicle to tip over or a tendency of the vehicle to skid, and that communicate this to the brake control device.
Driver assistance systems are typically implemented separately from the brake control device, and can output what are referred to as external brake request signals to the brake control device of the brake system, in particular, via a data bus. The brake control device therefore carries out a control process of the brakes on the basis of internal brake signals, which may comprise, in particular, the setpoint brake request input by the driver via a brake value signal generator and, for example, internal closed-loop control processes such as ABS or a stability control process, and on the basis of additional external brake request signals.
DE 101 18 708 A1 and DE 101 18 707 A1 describe processes for regulating vehicle speed and for preventing collisions, in which, when a possibly imminent braking intervention is detected, a hydraulic brake system can be biased by increasing the brake pressure of the brake hydraulics without an appreciable braking operation already being initiated. For this purpose, an appropriate flag can be set by a decision unit that also receives a brake request signal S1 of the driver. The actual braking operation can therefore subsequently be carried out more quickly since the corresponding pressure build-up of the brake hydraulics does not have to be initiated first so that time can be gained during the actual braking operation.
Such biasing when a relatively high probability of a collision is detected may be carried out in a hydraulic brake system in a directly internal fashion by means of the control device. However, in the case of pneumatic brake systems of commercial vehicles, surroundings detection systems are generally embodied as external systems that communicate with the brake control device, for example, via a vehicle-internal data bus such as the CAN bus, and by means of suitable protocols. The external request for biasing without a braking effect, or without a relevant braking effect, would therefore require a suitable set of instructions that cannot be implemented with current systems.
In pneumatic brake systems of a commercial vehicle field, external brake requests can be requested by means of various standards. SAE-J1939 describes the logging of such external brake requests, and, accordingly, an external brake request contains information about the priority, the control mode, and the acceleration setpoint value.
The indication of the priority is relevant since, according to this standard, the external brake request signal is continuously output by the external system, with the result that when a necessary braking effect is absent, a low priority is specified; in the case of a priority signal with three stages, the lowest priority can therefore be indicated. The control mode can, in particular, be additive or maximal; in the case of an additive control mode the external brake request is set in addition (additively) to the internally set braking effect, and, on the other hand, in the case of a maximum control mode, formation of a maximum value is brought about, i.e., the highest value of the internal brake request and the highest value of the external brake request are respectively formed. Furthermore, the external brake request signal has an indication about the setpoint acceleration to be set, i.e., the acceleration setpoint value, wherein braking operations correspondingly have a negative value.

Driver assistance system and method for controlling a vehicle brake system


A machine operator control station circuit which uses capacitive proximity switches to replicate the function of mechanical switches used in prior art control stations. A monitoring circuit for monitoring the "on" state of the capacitive proximity switches used in a two hand industrial machine control station is disclosed. The circuit also reduces the chance of unintended operation of the machine being controlled as a result of emitted or conducted radio frequency interference which might be detected by the capacitive proximity switches. An isolation transformer provides an isolated power supply for the monitoring circuit. The monitoring circuit includes a first capacitive proximity switch for detecting the presence of one of the machine operator's hands, and a second capacitive proximity switch for detecting the presence of the other of the machine operator's hands. Each proximity switch has a monitoring circuit for monitoring the length of time the proximity switch remains in the activated or "on" state. The monitoring circuits of the first and second proximity switches are connected together such that both switches must be activated within a set time window in order to activate the machine control circuit.

O.S.H.A. requirements for many industrial machine controls specify that the operator must use both hands to initiate operation of the machine. This requirement was established to prevent possible hand injuries to the machine operator. Most machine control stations of this type employ two palm button mechanical switches. The two palm buttons must close the operating circuit to cause the machine to operate. The force required to press the palm buttons is variable with each palm button, however, it is sufficient enough to give the operator a "tactile feel" indicating to him that the switch has been activated. U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,268 to Dessow discloses an industrial machine control station employing two proximity switches which replicate the function of the more conventional palm button mechanical switches for controlling an industrial machine. In Dassow's device the machine operator is required to touch a sensing plate to operate the machine. The control circuit of Dessow does not provide for proximity switch failure monitoring. It is also noted that the machine control station disclosed in the patent to Dassow has output contacts which are connected in series with the line power to the machine being controlled. As a result, the high current carried by the output contacts significantly increases the chance of welding such contacts closed which could result in the machine being controlled continuing to run after the operator has removed his hands from the operator station. Dassow's output circuit is also controlled by an anti-cheat timer which would appear to provide a pulsed output to the machine. A pulsed output would require adjustment to match the machine's operating time cycle. The patent to Dassow also discloses the provision of proximity switches which are tuned to different frequencies for the purpose of preventing "inadvertent operation as a consequence of operating the first switch", i.e. unintended activation of one of the two proximity switches caused by interference from the other switch. However, the patent to Dassow does not address or even recognize the problem of unintended simultaneous activation of both capacitive proximity switches which is caused by the presence of emitted or conducted radio frequency interference.

Two hand operated machine control station using capacitive proximity switches


A system for providing a solar harvesting building envelope is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of solar harvesting apparatus configured to be installed as or on a building envelope in manner like that of traditional shingles or siding. The apparatus includes a frame having a photovoltaic end wall, as well as reflective base and side walls. A translucent, wedge-shaped body layer is positioned on the frame. A luminescent species film is positioned at and substantially parallel to a base of the wedge-shaped body layer, such that the luminescent species film is positioned at an angle relative to the photovoltaic end wall. Light incident on the wedge-shaped body layer is concentrated towards the photovoltaic end wall, such as through absorption and re-emission along with scattering by the luminescent species film and internal reflection by the wedge-shaped body layer and the reflective base and side walls of the frame. A plurality of apparatus may be wired together to create the building envelope, which has the added advantage of substantially eliminating shading losses of traditional solar harvesting systems.

Photovoltaics (PV) are envisioned to be part of net-zero energy building design. However, this may remain an elusive goal unless economically and environmentally sensible solutions are found to allow for the widespread use of this technology. The modest ratio of performance (efficiency of energy conversion) to system cost remains the main obstacle to the widespread use of PV cells. One way to reduce cost is by using concentrators to collect sunlight from large surface areas and concentrate it onto small areas of PV cells. Some exemplary concentration systems include reflective, refractive, and luminescent concentrators.
Luminescent solar concentrators typically consist of a plastic sheet doped with luminescent materials. The light incident on the concentrator's surface is partially absorbed and re-emitted by the luminescent species at longer wavelengths. The luminescent emission and remaining incident light is concentrated onto an edge where a photovoltaic cell is placed.
Luminescent solar concentrators have key advantages over refractive or reflective concentrators. They accept direct and indirect daylight and thus may eliminate the use of solar tracking systems. Further, they may be spectrally coupled to solar cells by matching the emission peak to the peak in the solar cell's spectral response, which results in enhanced conversion efficiencies (more efficient conversion of light to electricity).
Effectively utilizing phosphors in luminescent solar concentrators is challenging because they are highly light scattering, which may increase both non-emissive absorption and escape cone losses. For this reason, there have been very few investigations into the performance of luminescent solar concentrators utilizing phosphors.

Solar power harvesting building envelope


A normal image representing a normal structure of a predetermined structure in an input medical image is generated with higher accuracy. Further, an abnormal component in the input medical image is separated with higher accuracy. A supervised learned filtering unit inputs an input image representing a predetermined structure to a supervised learned filter to generate an image representing a normal structure of the predetermined structure. The supervised learned filter is obtained through a learning process using supervisor images, each representing a normal structure of the predetermined structure in a subject (individual), and corresponding training images, each containing an abnormal component in the corresponding subject (individual). Further, a difference processing unit separates an abnormal component in the input image by calculating a difference between the input image and the image representing the normal structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for generating an image representing a normal structure of a predetermined structure within a subject contained in an input medical image, and a technique for separating an abnormal component in the medical image.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a technique for separating an abnormal component in a medical image, a computer-aided imaging diagnosis system (CAD: Computer Aided Diagnosis) has been known. The system automatically detects a candidate abnormal shadow in the image and displays the detected candidate abnormal shadow in an enhanced manner.
For example, a technique has been known, in which a first shape-dependent filter, such as a morphological filter, is used depending on the shape of a small calcification shadow to generate a small structure image, and then a second shape-dependent filter which meets imaging conditions, and the like, of the small structure image is used to generate an enhanced image (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,242,794).
Further, a technique has been known, in which a model representing a shape and texture of a normal structure of a subject, which is obtained by a technique known as AAM (Active Appearance Models) is applied to an inputted image to generate a normal structure image, and then differences between the inputted image and the normal structure image are calculated to detect an abnormal shadow (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-041694).
However, since abnormal tissues with calcification may take various shapes, there still is a room for improvement in accuracy of recognition, even if the above image recognition technique described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,242,794 is used.
The use of the technique for separating an abnormal component based on differences between the inputted image and the normal structure image described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-041694 allows separation of the abnormal component without depending on the shape of the abnormal tissue, however, there still is a room for improvement in accuracy of the generated normal structure image.

Device, method and recording medium containing program for separating image component, and device, method and recording medium containing program for generating normal image


The present application provides a radiation damage protecting agent comprising hydrogen gas as an active ingredient at a concentration of 18.5% by volume or less, for treating or alleviating, in a hyperbaric capsule under a pressure higher than standard atmospheric pressure, radiation damage in a human patient who has been exposed to radiation or who has received or receives radiotherapy, and a hyperbaric capsule for administering a hydrogen gas-containing therapeutic agent such as the radiation damage protecting agent to a patient including a human.

Workers in nuclear power plants, clinical laboratory technicians dealing with radioactive test agents, doctors and radiological technicians engaged in X-ray examination and cancer radiation treatment and others are always exposed to a small amount of radiation during work. Also, nuclear power plant accidents may cause the workers as well as residents in the surrounding areas to be exposed to radiation. Depending on the amount of radiation exposure, the hematopoietic system, immune system, digestive system, respiratory system, central nervous system and the like may be damaged, and if the exposure dose exceeds the lethal dose, it may lead to death.
Further, recent statistics have suggested that, in our country (Japan), one in two persons suffers from cancer and one in three persons dies from cancer in his or her life. Examples of the major treatments for cancer include three treatments, that is, surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy using an anticancer agent. Among them, radiotherapy is an effective therapy for inhibiting proliferation of cancer cells by applying radiation to the cancer-affected area, but it not only damages the target cancer tissue, it also affects and damages the normal tissues present in the irradiation area.
In recent years, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) using a device referred to as "TomoTherapy" is used to alleviate the above-described radiation damage. IMRT has the advantage that by using computer technology, the direction, position, intensity, irradiated range and irradiation time of radiation can be adjusted according to the complicated shape of the cancer lesion to irradiate a patient with the radiation, and can thereby reduce the irradiation dose to the normal tissues compared to conventional irradiation.
However, in fact, even if the radiation dose to the normal tissue is reduced in the patient by using IMRT, damage by radiation (adverse effects) cannot be avoided when the patient has multiple lesions and the tumor volume is large. The development of adverse effects is one of the limiting factors in IMRT irradiation. For this reason, hyperbaric therapy in which patients are placed under a hyperbaric environment after irradiation has been performed, but it has not led to a significant effect for alleviating the adverse effects. Also, radiation damage protecting agents such as L-cysteine, glutathione, SOD (superoxide dismutase), GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor), 5-aminolevulinic acid, romiplostim (thrombopoietin receptor agonist), nitroprusside and lactoferrin have been reported, but these also has not led to effective alleviation of radiation damage as well (Patent Literatures 1, 2 and 3).
It is known that molecular hydrogen does not react with a reactive oxygen species which plays an important role in living organisms, and it reacts selectively with a reactive oxygen species having particularly strong oxidizability and reactivity such as OH radicals, O2− radicals or ONOO− ions to detoxify them and exhibit an antioxidant effect. Recent studies mainly using animal models have reported that molecular hydrogen exhibits effects other than the antioxidant effect such as an anti-inflammatory effect, an anti-apoptotic effect, an anti-allergic effect, a lipid metabolism-improving effect and a signal transduction-regulating effect.
Regarding radiation damage, for example, it has been reported that as a result of examining the quality of life (QOL) of liver cancer patients, who received radiotherapy (total radiation dose of 50 to 60 Gy for 7 to 8 weeks), when drinking hydrogen-dissolved water, anorexia and taste disorder were improved, but nausea (vomiting) and diarrhea were similar to the control and the white blood cell count, red blood cell count and platelet count in blood also did not differ significantly from the control (Non Patent Literature 1). On the other hand, it has been reported that in an experiment in which hydrogen-dissolved water was fed to mice irradiated with 60Co gamma rays (0.1 to 4.0 Gy), the number of endogenous hematopoietic splenic colony-forming cells, the number of bone marrow nucleated cells and the peripheral white blood cell count increased (Non Patent Literature 2). The inhibition mechanism of cancer cell proliferation by irradiation is a damage of cancer cells caused by a reactive oxygen species and free radical generated at the time of irradiation, but damages to the surrounding tissues as an adverse effect are inevitable. There is therefore a strong desire for a radiation damage protecting agent which is not reduced in its therapeutic effect of radiation but can alleviate only the adverse effects at the time of irradiation.

INCORPORATED MEDICAL INSTITUTION YUKOKAI


A roller inscribed circle R1 diameter of tapered rollers fitted in pockets of a bearing retainer is such that a circle R1 portion protruding radially outwardly of an inner race small flange radially outer surface when the rollers are at radially outermost positions in pockets with an outer race unmounted, and when the circle R1 is offset from a raceway circle center of an inner race raceway end at the flange so as to point contact the raceway circle. The circle R1 portion which does not radially outwardly protrude from the flange outer surface has a central angle >180° and ≦240°. Flange thickness is such that when the roller inscribed circle is offset from the raceway circle center to point contact the raceway circle, and swung about the contact point toward the flange, the flange does not interfere with the arcuate locus of the roller inscribed circle swing end.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a tapered roller bearing which can be assembled without the need for the steps of bottom expanding of the retainer and caulking of the retainer.
2. Background Art
A typical tapered roller bearing includes an inner race having a tapered raceway on its outer periphery, an outer race having a tapered raceway on its inner periphery, a plurality of tapered rollers disposed between the raceways of the inner and outer races so as to be circumferentially spaced apart from each other, and a retainer keeping the tapered rollers spaced apart from each other.
Retainers used in this type of tapered roller bearing include resin retainers, which are frequently used in bearings for automobiles, and pin type retainers (which are in the form of a plurality of pins inserted through holes formed in the respective tapered rollers to retain the tapered rollers), which are used in extra-large bearings used to support e.g. spindles of windmill generators. But other than these retainers, most retainers used in tapered roller bearings are in the form of iron plates.
JP Patent Publication 2001-50281A discloses an iron plate retainer. This iron plate retainer is a conical member located radially outwardly of a pitch circle that passes through centers of the respective tapered rollers and having a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart pockets in which the respective tapered rollers are received. The pockets are all identical in shape. The tapered rollers are all identically shaped too. The inner race has a large flange at the large-diameter end of its raceway which supports axial loads that act on the tapered rollers, and a small flange at the small-diameter end of its raceway which prevents separation of the tapered rollers from the inner race.
The separately prepared retainer, tapered rollers, inner race and outer race are assembled into the tapered roller bearing of JP Patent Publication 2001-50281A in the following manner. The tapered rollers are inserted into the respective pockets of the retainer from radially inside of the retainer. Since the pockets are narrower than the diameter of the tapered rollers, once fitted in the pockets, the tapered rollers are retained in the pockets without radially outwardly separating from the retainer.
The inner race is then axially inserted into the retainer. If, in this state, the roller inscribed circle of the tapered rollers fitted in the retainer is smaller in diameter than the outer diameter of the small flange of the inner race, the small flange of the inner ring interferes with at least one of the tapered rollers, making it impossible to insert the inner race into the retainer. Thus, in order to prevent the small flange of the inner race from interfering with at least one of the tapered rollers, it is necessary to radially expand the small-diameter end of the retainer beforehand.
In particular, using a presser and bottom expanding die, the small-diameter end portion of the retainer is plastically deformed radially outwardly (this step is hereinafter referred to as "bottom expansion") such that when the tapered rollers are fitted in the retainer, the roller inscribed circle has a larger diameter than the outer diameter of the small flange of the inner race.
The tapered rollers are fitted in, and then the inner race is inserted into, the thus bottom-expanded retainer. Then, using the presser and a caulking die, the small-diameter end portion of the retainer is plastically deformed radially inwardly until the retainer returns to its original shape, i.e. until the diameter of the roller inscribed circle of the tapered rollers becomes smaller than the outer diameter of the small flange of the inner race (this step is hereinafter referred to as "caulking"). Thus after caulking, the inner race cannot slip out of the retainer. Thus, the subassembly of the inner race, tapered rollers and retainer are complete, in which the respective components are securely coupled together. As a final step, this assembly is fitted in the outer race to complete the tapered roller bearing.
It is necessary to prepare plural different bottom expanding dies and caulking dies for retainers having different model numbers and thus having different diameters and/or different number of pockets. This has been a major cause of increased manufacturing cost of conventional tapered roller bearings.
In order to bottom-expand a retainer of a different model number, it is necessary to change the bottom expanding die set in the presser to a new one and adjust it. In order to caulk a retainer of a different model number too, it is necessary to change the caulking die set in the presser to a new one and adjust it. A long time is needed for such die change and adjustment. Before caulking a retainer of a different model number, it is necessary to set the bottom dead center of the presser using an extra retainer. This extra retainer cannot be used in an actual bearing.
If the retainer, tapered rollers and inner race are configured such that when the tapered rollers are fitted in the retainer, the roller inscribed circle has a diameter equal to or smaller than the outer diameter of the small flange, it is possible to omit the bottom expanding and caulking of the retainer. In this arrangement too, once the tapered roller bearing is mounted between a shaft and a housing, the tapered rollers can never move over the small flange of the inner ring, separating from the bearing because the bearing interior space is sufficiently small in this state. But in the state of the subassembly of the inner race, tapered rollers and retainer, the inner race could slip out of the retainer, disintegrating the subassembly.


The invention concerns a process for hydrophobation of materials for microbacteria-retaining air filters which are preferentially used for blood transfusion and therapy by infusions. Fluorocarbons or their compounds are used for surface coating of filter materials, the contacting of which are effected either by spraying or by immersion. During these procedures, the hydrophobating agent can be in the form of either a solution, emulsion, or in pure form.

The invention concerns a process for hydrophobization of microbacteria-proof air filter materials. Using this process such air filter materials are made hydrophobic for the purpose of retaining microparticles and microbial components of air and which are preferentially used in blood transfusion services, for infusion therapy, and in anaesthesia and surgery.
In almost all the fields of medicine, procedures are known during which liquids contained in a receptacle have to be conveyed to patients or to other containers. Often the transfer is possible only with simultaneous venting of the receptacles during use. In most cases, the moved volume is atmospheric air, which before reaching the respective receptacles has to be cleaned of microparticles. Cleaning of the air is effected by means of filter materials such as ceramics, papers, fleeces and membranes (compare Wirtschaftspatent WPB ol D/293 811.1, DD), which during this process or during interruptions for medical reasons may come into contact, with the liquids to be infused. This contact however, should always be avoided, since otherwise clogging of the filter pores may arise also a nutritive substrate for the conveyed microorganisms may originate. If this occurs, contamination of the transfer line may no longer be excluded, causing the transfer set as well as the preserved liquid to have to be discarded.
Therefore, the agents of hydrophobation used must meet special requirements. This means that they have to be physiologically unobjectionable, since they may come into contact both with air as well as with the liquids to be infused. Furthermore, the use of the hydrophobizing agent should not cause clogging of the filter pores and the hydrophobic effect must be maintained over a period of about 5 years.
The current level of technology is characterized by two procedures. In the first case, filter materials are used, which due to their chemical structure are already hydrophobic, e.g., membranes from polyethyleneterephthalate. In the second case, filter materials are used, which subsequently have to be treated with hydrophobizing agents.
The first-mentioned filter materials are suitable for use, with venting under a small differential pressure, but are relatively expensive to manufacture. The filters made of ceramics, paper, glass fleece, textiles, leather, or of other materials, which are hydrophobized subsequently, are considerably more simple to manufacture. Before put into use, however, they have to be treated unilaterally with a hydrophobizing agent which meets the respective requirements. The most well-known agents among them are paraffins, waxes, metallic soaps, with additives of aluminium- and zirconium salts, quarternary organic compounds, derivatives of urea, fatty acid modified melamine resins, complex chromium salts and silicone. During hydrophobization, the filter material maintain their porosity because of impregnation in the coating of individual fibres (see Rompps Chemie Lexikon, 8.sup.th Edition Frankh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1983). One hint given in the same source, stating that perfluoridized compounds also are suitable for hydrophobization, although they are predominantly used in oleophobation and soil resistance equipment, is of no importance for a process of hydrophobization of microbacteria-proof materials for air filters.

Process for hydrophobization of microbacteria retaining air filter

VEB Kombinat Medizinund Labortechnik Leipzig


A cord stopper releasably fastens a cord thereto. The cord stopper has a front body and a housing attached to a rear side of the front body. The housing has a through hole and a seat formed around the through hole. An annular spring rests on the seat. The annular spring is slightly less in diameter than the through hole so that the inner peripheral part of the annular spring appears beyond the periphery of the through hole. The cord is joined to the annular spring so that the cord is retained against the front body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cord stopper used for garments, pouches, baggages etc. and more particularly to a cord stopper used for fastening a cord and allowing for length adjustability. When used on these articles, usually the cord stopper has its front surface used for decorative purposes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical cord stopper of the type described is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 49-14097. The disclosed cord stopper generally comprises a front decorative plate having a threaded stud mounted centrally on the rear side thereof, a guide plate including a substantially fiat middle plate having a central through hole formed in the middle, a pair of juxstaposed upper tubes and a lower tube mounted on the rear side at the upper and lower end, respectively, of the middle plate; and a holding disk having a central threaded hole formed in the middle thereof. A cord is first threaded up through the single lower tube of the guide plate, then through one of the two upper tubes, then returns and passes through the other of the two upper tubes and is eventually threaded through the single lower tube again. After the cord is adjusted in length to the wearer's wish, the holding disk is screwed to the threaded stud of the decorative plate to thus retentively clamp the cord between the holding disk and the rear side of the guide plate.
Another cord stopper of this type is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 2-28736. The conventional cord stopper comprises a circular front plate and a rear plate having a through hole formed centrally thereof. The circular front plate has a pair of side flanges mounted one on each side of the rear side thereof and a basin interposed between the opposed side flanges with both ends thereof remaining open. The circular front plate also has a stud formed integrally on the middle of the basin. The stud has an inner threaded hole. For fastening a cord to the cord stopper, the cord is inserted into the basin from one end, wrapped around the stud and comes out of the basin through the end. Then, the rear plate is fitted over the stud to thus hold the cord against the basin of the circular front plate. And then, a separate screw is fitted into the through hole of the rear plate and screwed into the inner threaded hole of the stud so as to tightly fasten the cord between the front plate and rear plate.
However, these conventional cord stoppers suffer disadvantages.
Whenever the length of the cord needs to be adjusted in both types of conventional cord stoppers, it is absolutely necessary to first unscrew either the holding disk or the screw, adjust the cord length and then screw it again. Therefore, the adjustment of the length of the cord is very tedious and time-consuming with these two types of conventional cord stoppers.


In an image display apparatus composed of a vacuum container having an electron source composed of multiple electron-emitting devices and a phosphor film that is irradiated with an electron from the electron source to emit light for display, an ion pump for exhausting the vacuum container through a communicating path by virtue of an action of a magnetism forming portion is arranged. A magnetic shielding member is arranged in a space where the ion pump and the electron-emitting devices are in communication with each other, whereby an influence of a magnetic field generated by the magnetism forming portion on the trajectory of an electron emitted from any one of the electron-emitting devices and display luminance unevenness incidental to the influence are removed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display apparatus using an electron-emitting device.
2. Background Art
In a flat display in which: a large number of electron-emitting devices are arranged as electron sources on a flat substrate; a phosphor as an image forming member on an opposing substrate is irradiated with electron beams emitted from the electron sources; and the phosphor is allowed to emit light to display an image, the inside of a vacuum container including the electron sources and the image forming member must be kept at a high vacuum. When a gas is generated in the vacuum container to increase the pressure in the container, the increase adversely affects the electron sources to reduce an electron emission amount, thereby making it impossible to display a clear image, although the degree of the adverse effect varies depending on the kind of the gas.
In particular, the following problems are characteristic of a flat display. A gas generated from an image display member accumulates near an electron source before it reaches a getter placed outside an image display area, so a local increase in pressure and the deterioration of the electron source incidental to the local increase occur. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H09-82245 describes that a getter is arranged in an image display area to immediately adsorb a generated gas, thereby suppressing the deterioration and breakage of a device. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-133136 describes a structure in which a non-evaporable getter is arranged in an image display area and a evaporable getter is arranged outside the image display area. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-315458 proposes that a series of operations consisting of degassing, getter formation, and seal bonding (making a vacuum container) are performed in a vacuum chamber.
Getters are classified into a evaporable getter and a non-evaporable getter. The evaporable getter shows an extremely large exhaust velocity with respect to water or oxygen. However, each of the evaporable getter and the non-evaporable getter shows an exhaust velocity close to zero with respect to an inert gas such as argon (Ar). An argon gas is ionized by an electron beam to generate a plus ion. The plus ion is accelerated in an electric field for accelerating an electron to be bombarded with an electron source, thereby damaging the electron source. Furthermore, the argon ion may cause discharge inside an apparatus to break the apparatus.
Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H05-121012 describes a method involving connecting a sputter ion pump to a vacuum container of a flat display to maintain a high vacuum for a long period of time. However, the method requires a strong magnet, so the electron trajectory of the display is curved in a magnetic field to affect an image.

Image display apparatus having ion pump and electron-emitting devices in communication via mesh or stripe shaped member


An exposure method of sequential beam, contributing to the improvement of alignment accuracy at connecting portion at the end part of an exposure region, as well as pattern dimension accuracy is provided. The method comprises the steps of dividing an area to be exposed into a plurality of fields each being determined by the deflection width of the main deflector, dividing each field into a plurality of sub-fields each being determined by the deflection width of the sub-deflector, applying a sequential exposure process to each field by using a variable shaped electron beam, and applying a multiple exposure process to an area where adjacent fields overlap each other, wherein the multiple exposure process is conducted in the area in units of sub-field, the exposure dose at each of exposure unit is determined such that the total exposure dosage in the area subject to the multiple exposure process is set equal to an exposure dosage used when single exposure process is applied, the exposure dosage in the area subject to multiple exposure process is decreased in steps, in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the boundary portion from the outer edge of the field towards the outside of the field, an exposure dosage in the area subject to the multiple exposure process is determined using the minimum exposure dosage available in the exposure apparatus as the lower limit.

The present invention relates to a technique to image an LSI pattern onto an energy-sensitive material on a substrate and more specifically to an exposure system and method in which an exposure area is divided into subareas and the subareas are exposed in a step and repeat fashion using shaped beams.
With conventional various exposure techniques, an area to be exposed is generally larger than a unitary area that can be covered by exposure systems. For this reason, each area to be exposed is divided into subareas and each of the subareas is exposed in sequence. In the case that an area corresponding to a transferred pattern is constituted by a plurality of divided areas, it is very important how well the boundary portions of adjacent exposure areas are to be connected.
It has been known that in a system in which an exposure area is exposed by using light and combining unitary exposure areas, mask patterns are transferred so that adjacent exposure areas overlap each other in their boundary portions. According to this method, a problem of pattern failure is eliminated in which exposure dosage and position change in step-like manner in the overlapping zone of the exposure areas. To be specific, when two exposure areas are arranged to overlap each other in their boundary portions, the exposure dosages are adjusted so that the exposure in the overlapping zone of one exposure area is decreased progressively toward the end of that area and, in the other exposure area, the exposure is decreased in the opposite direction. As a result, at the termination of exposure, the sum of exposure dosages at any point in the overlapping zone of two exposure areas becomes constant. It therefore becomes possible to prevent pattern size and position from changing in step-like manner in the overlapping zone.
However, such a method as described above has not been able to be used with a step and repeat exposure system that controls exposing energy based on beam blanking time management.
In the step and repeat exposure system, each of shots, the minimum unit of exposure, is exposed in a different size but with a predetermined exposure dosage, by a predetermined or shaped beam. The system suffers from a limitation on the minimum beam irradiation time. The exposure dosages are treated as digital data (as opposed to analog data) and hence set in steps.
Having such features, the step and repeat (including step and scan) exposure system has no ability to, in exposing the overlapping zone, change progressively the exposure dosages from a constant value to zero as in photolithography. In electron-beam step and repeat lithography, therefore, the use of the overlap exposure as utilized in photolithographic techniques has been limited to the following ways.
One of conventionally proposed methods is to, in exposing each of overlapping adjacent exposure areas, expose shots of a pattern that resides across the boundary between the areas with half of exposing energy for the non-overlapping portions of the exposure areas, thereby improving the exposure accuracy in the boundary portion of the exposure areas. With this method, additional data processing is required to select patterns that reside across the boundary, making the overall data processing complex. In addition, there is a limit on the effectiveness of improvement in accuracy.
Another approach has been adopted which reduces and makes uniform the effects of the boundary portion by changing the boundary position and making multiple exposure. With this method, the degree to which exposure dosages change in steps in the boundary portion is reduced. However, as the multiplicity of exposure increases, the time required for exposure processing increases. In addition, the effect of step-like changes in exposure dosage still remains. Thus, a sufficient reduction of pattern failures cannot be effected.
Thus, there have been various proposals in the field of step and repeat lithography for improving the accuracy of connection between patterns in the boundary portion of exposure areas. However, these methods cannot be applied to the step and repeat lithography without modifications or cannot achieve sufficient effectiveness in the step and repeat lithography.

Exposure method utilizing partial exposure stitch area


Disclosed are active shutter glasses and a three-dimensional image recognition unit capable of visually recognizing a three-dimensional image with excellent display quality. The active shutter glasses are active shutter glasses for three-dimensional image recognition. The active shutter glasses comprise a right temple, a left temple, a right-eye lens, and a left-eye lens. The right-eye lens and the left-eye lens comprise liquid crystal cells. The right-eye lens and the left-eye lens have an inclination with respect to a state where the right-eye lens and the left-eye lens are arranged on the same plane, and are arranged on a surface orthogonal to a horizontal surface including the top surfaces of the right temple and the left temple. The direction of inclination of the right-eye lens is the direction in which the outer edge of the right-eye lens approaches an observer side at an azimuth angle φ2 in a range of ±45° with respect to an azimuth angle φ1, at which a contrast ratio has a maximum value, at a polar angle θ1 having an angle difference in a range of 2 to 17° from a line normal to the surface of the right-eye lens when not inclined. The direction of inclination of the left-eye lens is the direction in which the outer edge of the left-eye lens approaches the observer side at an azimuth angle φ4 in a range of ±45° with respect to an azimuth angle φ3, at which a contrast ratio has a maximum value, at a polar angle θ2 having an angle difference in a range of 2 to 17° from a line normal to the surface of the left-eye lens when not inclined.

As a type of a three-dimensional image recognition unit using glasses, an anaglyph type, a passive type, an active type, and the like are known. In the anaglyph type, display quality is exceptionally poor bad and so-called crosstalk occurs. Both the passive and active types use polarized glasses.
In the passive type, while the polarized glasses can be manufactured lightweight at low cost, in order to generate a left-eye image and a right-eye image, it is necessary to separately provide right-eye and left-eye pixels. Since three-dimensional image display requires a spatial resolution twice that of normal two-dimensional image display, in general, the resolution of a three-dimensional image is low. The display quality is low compared to the active type. It is also necessary to pattern and form a polarizing element, such as a λ/2 plate, for each pixel, resulting in an increase in cost of an image display device.
The active type has excellent display performance. For example, when the spatial resolution of an image display device (hereinafter, referred to as a 3D display device) for a three-dimensional image recognition unit is full high-definition (1920×1080), stereoscopic display can be performed with the resolution of full high-definition. The primary performance which is required for a 3D display device of an active type is high frame rate and high-performance image processing capability, and these can be satisfied in an existing high-end image display device. That is, the image display device can be developed as a 3D display device before the widespread use of 3D content without providing a special member in the image display device itself.
Hereinafter, polarized glasses which are used in the active type are referred to as active shutter glasses. As the active type of three-dimensional image recognition unit, for example, a technique using liquid crystal shutter lens-type active shutter glasses, which have a pair of polarizing plates and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the pair of polarizing plates is disclosed (for example, see Patent Literature 1).

Active shutter glasses and three-dimensional image recognition unit


A sealing device that hermetically seals a gap between a first member and a second member that is reciprocally movable with respect to the first member. The sealing device seals liquid supplied into a pressurizing chamber surrounded by the first member and the second member. The sealing device includes a seal member that is attached to the second member. The seal member slides relative to the first member while being in contact with the first member. The seal member includes a base portion and a protruding portion. The protruding portion protrudes from the base portion toward the first member to separate the first member from the base portion. After the liquid is supplied into the pressurizing chamber to fill the pressurizing chamber with the liquid, the protruding portion elastically deforms to bring the base portion into close contact with the first member.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sealing device and, more particularly, to a sealing device that hermetically seals a gap between a first member and a second member reciprocally movable relative to the first member to seal liquid supplied into a pressurizing chamber surrounded by the first member and the second member.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-207820 (JP-A-2006-207820), Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-46550 (JP-A-2006-46550) and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-273782 (JP-A-2005-273782) each describe a technique related to a sealed housing.
JP-A-2006-207820 suggests a technique for achieving high hermeticity and low sliding resistance in such a manner that, in a lip that seals an oil chamber, recesses or protrusions that define recesses are formed on a sliding surface to store hydraulic oil. JP-A-2006-46550 suggests a technique for reducing a sliding resistance in such a manner that a protrusion is provided on a sliding surface to hold hydraulic oil. JP-A-2005-273782 suggests a piston equipped with a lip that holds lubricating oil for applying lubricating oil over the entire contact surface at the time when the piston is assembled to a clutch drum.
In a frictional engagement device, such as a clutch and a brake, installed in a vehicle automatic transmission, hydraulic pressure is applied to a piston to press a plurality of frictional engagement elements to engage the frictional engagement elements, thus selectively activating respective gears. When a specific shift of the automatic transmission is carried out, two different frictional engagement devices may respectively engage and release at the same time (so-called clutch-to-clutch shift).
In the clutch-to-clutch shift, if the progress of engagement of the engaging-side frictional engagement device delays from the progress of release of the releasing-side frictional engagement device, there occurs a situation that both the releasing-side and engaging-side frictional engagement devices are not sufficiently engaged. As a result, an engine rotational speed increases, and a phenomenon, so-called "engine racing", occurs. This makes it difficult to achieve a desirable shift feel. For example, when air is trapped into an oil chamber by which the piston of the frictional engagement device is controlled for movement, air is compressed to delay an increase in hydraulic pressure when the hydraulic pressure in the oil chamber is increased. This may cause engine racing.
Even when the engine racing occurs because of a delay of rising of the hydraulic pressure in the oil chamber, a command value may be fed back through learning control. Specifically, delaying hydraulic control over the releasing-side frictional engagement device or advancing hydraulic control over the engaging-side frictional engagement device is, for example, carried out as the learning control. In this manner, it is possible to suppress occurrence of engine racing from the next shift.
However, the amount of air trapped in the oil chamber is not constant, and is variable. As the amount of air in the oil chamber increases, rising of hydraulic pressure delays against a command value to cause engine racing. In addition, as air suddenly comes out of the oil chamber and then the amount of air trapped in the oil chamber reduces, the progress of engagement of the engaging-side frictional engagement device advances relative to the progress of release of the releasing-side frictional engagement device. As a result, there occurs a state (tie-up) in which a plurality of frictional engagement devices for different gears are engaged at the same time. This causes a shift shock that is dependent on a difference in rotational speed between frictional engagement elements.
It is difficult to recognize when air is trapped in the oil chamber. Trapped air usually accumulates in the oil chamber, but the air may suddenly come out of the oil chamber. Thus, it is difficult to predict the amount of air in the oil chamber. When a command value for learning control is set in a state where air is trapped in the oil chamber, there is a problem that controllability deteriorates because of variations in the amount of air trapped in the oil chamber, and, as a result, engine racing or a shift shock occurs. However, the above related techniques have not suggested a solution to the above problem.


The invention provides three novel disarmed strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens bacteria useful for the transformation of plants. The invention provides three engineered A. tumefaciens Chry5 strains or bacterial cells thereof which comprise the Chry5 strain chromosomal background and a disarmed pTiChry5 vector, and methods of using said bacterial strains or cells for transformation of fungal or plant cells, in particular dicot or monocot plant cells, including soybean, maize, wheat, and sugarcane cells. The invention further relates to the transgenic plants created by these methods.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a gram-negative soil bacteria that causes the crown gall disease in plants by infecting cells through wound sites. A. tumefaciens infects by injecting into the cell a strand of DNA (termed T-DNA) derived from the large tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid (van Larebeke et al., 1975, Nature 255: 742-743). The T-DNA then integrates into a chromosomal location in the plant and produces enzymes that synthesize hormones which cause the crown gall symptoms, including tumor formation (Chilton et al., 1977, Cell 11: 263-271). The genes encoding these enzymes, and the eukaryotic regulatory control elements associated therewith, are located on the T-DNA. In addition, the integrated T-DNA also encodes enzymes that direct the synthesis of compounds known as opines, which are amino acid and sugar derivatives. Exactly which opines are produced varies depending upon the A. tumefaciens strain.
Mobilization of the T-DNA requires proteins encoded by genes located elsewhere on the Ti plasmid and on the bacterial chromosome, called collectively the vir genes. vir genes are activated by certain elicitors from wounded plant cells and act within the A. tumefaciens cell to synthesize and transfer a single-stranded copy of the T-DNA (the T-strand) to the plant cell (Zambryski, 1992, Ann. Rev. Plant. Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 43: 465490; Zupan and Zambryski, 1995, Plant Physiol. 107: 1041-1047). The T-DNA sequence on the Ti plasmid is flanked by short 24-bp imperfect direct repeats (Yadav et al., 1982, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA)), which are required for the recognition of the T-DNA (Wang et al., 1984, Cell 38: 455-462). Sequences immediately surrounding these borders appear to be involved in the polarity of T-strand synthesis, which initiates at the right border (Wang et al., 1987, Mol Gen. Genet. 210: 338-346).
The discovery of the mechanism by which A. tumefaciens infects plant cells, i.e. by DNA transfer, led to the realization that this microorganism might be useful, via its Ti plasmid, for transferring agronomically useful genes to plants. It is known in the art that foreign DNA flanked by T-DNA border sequences can be transferred into plant cells using A. tumefaciens as the vector (Hernalsteens et al., 1980, Nature 287:654-656). Furthermore, inactivation or removal of the native T-DNA genes involved in hormone synthesis renders A. tumefaciens incapable of producing the crown gall disease symptoms. This process of inactivating or removing genes responsible for disease symptoms is termed "disarming." Disarmed Agrobacterium strains are now routinely used to introduce exogenous DNA into plants by a process referred to as Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.
Agrobacterium has a diverse dicot host range, and additionally some monocot families. There are several different strains of Agrobacterium. A major disadvantage of using Agrobacterium for plant transformation is the organism's host specificity, resulting in low levels of transformation in certain plant species and/or genotypes. Soybean (Glycine max) has proven to be very difficult to transform withAgrobacterium. This is at least in part because it is refractory to infection by known strains of A. tumefaciens. Studies with a number of soybean cultivars and different Agrobacterium strains have suggested that soybean susceptibility to Agrobacterium is limited, and may be both cultivar- and bacterial strain dependent. One strain, A281, is a supervirulent, broad host-range, L,L-succinamopine-type A. tumefaciens with a nopaline-type C58 chromosomal background, containing the L,L-succinamopinetype Ti plasmid, pTiBo542. Disarming this strain has produced EHA101 and EHA105, strains now widely used in conjunction with soybean transformation.
Unfortunately, transformation of soybean using even these strains remains inefficient. There is still a significant need for strains of Agrobacterium capable of effectively and efficiently transforming soybean. The A. tumefaciens Chry5 strain, which was isolated from naturally occurring galls on Chrysanthemum morifolium, has a wide host-range and the ability to produce tumors on multiple plant species including soybean, tobacco, tomato and sunflower (Bush and Pueppke, 1991, Appl Environ Microbiol. 57: 2468-2472). Of particular interest is the high level of virulence of Chry5 on soybean. Its potential for efficient soybean transformation was noted by Bush and Pueppke (1991).
Both the chromosomal background and the Ti plasmid of Chry5, as well as another plasmid present in the Chry5 (the "cryptic plasmid") appear to contribute to its supervirulence on soybean (Kovacs and Pueppke, 1993, Mol Plant Microbe Interact. 6: 601-608). The Ti plasmid of Chry5 is referred to as pTiChry5. A fully disarmed pTiChry5 in the Chry5 strain would potentially retain the supervirulence on soybean without causing crown gall disease symptoms. Such a strain would be extremely useful for transformation of plants, such as soybean, which are known to be difficult to transform by readily available Agrobacterium-mediated systems. pTiChry5 has two T-DNA regions, TL-DNA and TR-DNA, which are separated by approximately 15 Kb (Palanichelvam et al., 2000, Mol Plant Microbe Interact 13: 1081-1091). A partially disarmed Chry5 strain KYRT1 (Torisky et al, 1997, Plant Cell Rep. 17: 102-108; U.S. Pat. No. 5,929,306), which still contained an entire TR-DNA and a portion of TL-DNA, exhibited high efficiency in transforming pea (Grant et al., 2003, Plant Cell Rep. 21: 1207-1210) and soybean (Ko et al., 2004, Planta 218: 536-541). However, this strain was not fully disarmed. A fully disarmed Agrobacterium strain would be advantageous for production of transgenic plants which satisfy commercial and regulatory requirements. A fully disarmed pTiChry5, named pTiKPSF2, was constructed in E. coii and introduced into a C58-derived NTL4 strain by electroporation (Palanichelvam et al., 2000). The resulting strain, NTL4 (pTiKPSF2) successfully transformed sorghum (Howe et al., 2006, Plant Cell Rep. 25: 784-791). However, the resulting strain is not a Chry5 strain. Repeated efforts in several labs to introduce pTiKPSF2 back into the cured Chry5 strain (Chry5C) were unsuccessful. There is no report of another disarmed Chry5 strain. Since both the chromosomal background and pTiChry5 contribute to Chry5 supervirulence and its ability to transform cells, there remains a need in the art for a Chry5 strain carrying a fully disarmed pTiChry5.


A length-adjustable truss stiffener is intended to be used to strengthen truss systems at locations of localized over-stress to reduce the cost from the alternative solution which is to reduce truss spacings. The stiffener consists of two or more sleeves locking around two or more components of the main truss. The sleeves mounted on different truss components are connected to one another with a length-adjustable shank. The stiffener may be used in two-dimensional or three-dimensional trusses. Of a collection of prefabricated trusses necessary to erect a structure, only a subset of one or more trusses are customized with stiffeners according to loading calculations predicting failure of that subset under required loading conditions, while all other trusses are installed in their original prefabricated state.

Trusses are commonly used in the construction industry. Trusses are typically consisted of an upper chord element and a lower chord element inter connected by plurality of web members. Trusses are used in variety of structures from bridges to residential houses. Specially in buildings, it is common to combine identical trusses with equal spacing to create a load-resisting system such as roof of residential houses or frame of fabric buildings.
In the case of combining identical trusses, it is common to prefabricate the trusses in a manufacturing shop and transfer them as a whole unit or in several parts to the construction site. Prefabricating trusses provides superior quality control, cost efficiency and precision compared to the construction in the job site.
In some fields of application, such as housing and fabric buildings, truss manufactures provide a variety of pre-designed trusses with defined load capacity to be used in typical loading situations. Moreover, some truss manufacturers provide modular truss systems that can be combined to accommodate to variety of structural geometries. The modular systems, for example, are common in the field of pre-made tubular arched steel trusses used as the load resisting systems in fabric buildings.
In such cases the modular systems are optimised for a variety of typical loading scenarios; however, the optimization for every load combination is not possible. Therefore, there might be load cases that result in localized failure of one or a few elements of the truss assembly under extreme loading while the rest of the elements are still far from their maximum allowable capacity. Since factory-level customization of the truss for each individual case may not be cost effective, in most cases the solution is to increase the number of trusses in length of the building by reducing the bay spacing (i.e. the distance from one truss assembly to the next). This will result in a structure in which the majority of trusses are over-designed relative to their experienced loads just to correct overloading of a small subset of the trusses that might otherwise fail.
Therefore, this conventional practice of increasing the overall number of trusses and reducing the bay spacing between trusses can be considered inefficient from both a cost and materials standpoint.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide improved or alternative approaches to construction projects using prefabricated trusses.

Auxiliary stiffener and customization of prefabricated trusses using same


A system and method for controlling movement of a door or other apparatus, such as to provide and restrict access to a chicken coop, including a plurality of input devices, a plurality of output devices, and a microprocessor configured on a circuit board to detect signals from the input devices, process the signals, and based upon predetermined logic generate and transmit output signals to the output devices. One of the input devices is a wireless smart switch remotely controlled by a user, which transmits electric current based upon user input such that when the user input indicates an intention that the apparatus move in a first direction, the switch will transmit electric current, and when the user input indicates an intention that the apparatus move in a second direction, the switch will stop transmitting electric current.

The disclosed technology regards a novel system and method for controlling movement of a door or other apparatus, such as to provide and restrict access to a chicken coop, including a plurality of input devices, a plurality of output devices, and a microprocessor configured on a circuit board to detect signals from the input devices, process the signals, and based upon predetermined logic generate and transmit output signals to the output devices.

Method and system for operating an apparatus through multiple input and output devices coupled with a microprocessor


A coupled nanomanipulation and nanospray mass spectrometry (NMS) system for single cell, single organelle, and ultra-trace molecular analysis is disclosed herein. The system primarily comprises a bio-workstation coupled to a NMS. The bio-workstation primarily comprises of a nanomanipulator stage with a plurality of nano-positioners attached to a cabinet with a piezo voltage source and a pressure injector. The present invention further describes a fingerprint lift method that when coupled with the system disclosed herein can be used for retrieval and analysis of trace amounts of drug and explosive residues. The system described herein has been used in the areas of trace and document analysis within the forensic field, trace fiber analysis, and electrostatic lifts for illicit drugs, as well as document and painting analysis.

Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with mass spectrometry techniques and methods.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0261244 (Syms, 2009) provides a method of aligning a nanospray capillary needle, a set of electrodes, and a capillary input to a mass spectrometer. The electrode system is formed using microengineering technologies, as an assembly of two separate chips. Each chip is formed on an insulating plastic substrate. The first chip carries mechanical alignment features for the capillary electrospray needle and the API mass spectrometer input, together with a set of partial electrodes. The second chip carries a set of partial electrodes. The complete electrode system is formed when the chips are assembled in a stacked configuration, and consists of an einzel lens capable of initiating a Taylor cone and separating ions from neutrals by focusing.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,385,189 (Goodley et al. 2008) provides an apparatus and method for use with a mass spectrometry system. The invention provides an ion source for providing radiative heating to an ionization region. The ion source includes a nanospray ionization device for producing ions and a conduit adjacent to the ionization device for receiving ions from the ionization device. The conduit includes a conductive material for, providing indirect radiative heating to the ionization region. Direct radiative heating may also be provided using a heater in the conduit. The ion source may be used separately or in conjunction with the mass spectrometry system. When used in conjunction with a mass spectrometry system a detector may also be employed down stream from the device. A method for desolvating an analyte using the device is also disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,812,460 (Stallcup and Baur, 2004) discloses a method of nano-manipulation, including providing a nano-scale object movably positioned over a substrate and positioning a probe of a scanning probe microscope proximate the nano-scale object. The probe is then moved across the substrate along a gyrating path proximate the nano-scale object to reposition the nano-scale object.

Nanomanipulation coupled nanospray mass spectrometry (NMS)


An optical attenuator for use in optical power regulation uses a shutter to control the insertion loss of a gap in a pair of substantially coaxially aligned waveguides, for example a pair of optical fibers. The shutter is part of a MEMS accuator device and is coupled to the movable one of a pair of spaced plates, the movable plate being movable by a voltage applied between the pair of plates. To regulate the power, a small portion of the optical power is abstracted and used to derive a control voltage that is applied to the optical attenuator for varying the attenuation inserted in the optical wave path.

Optical components in optical communication networks need to operate over a wide range of power levels, varying from those emanating from high power sources and amplifiers that may be tens of watts to signals of fractions of microwatts arriving at receivers for detection. Moreover, there is often the need in such networks for a wide dynamic range of optical power sources and receivers. For example, in wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) systems, the power needs are dependent on the number of channels present at a particular time in a WDM system. Also fixed optical attenuators are frequently used to add attenuation to short optical fiber spans to reduce the power impinging on the receiver's detector and variable attenuators have been proposed for use in WDM networks to regulate the signal power to a level appropriate to the number of channels then active.
It is important for a variable optical attenuator to add little excess insertion loss when the signal power is already as low as desirable.
It is also important for a variable optical attenuator to be able to respond rapidly to sudden increases in power levels since excessive power levels that are allowed to persist too long often can do considerable damage or otherwise impair operation.
The present invention provides a variable optical attenuator that should be able to meet these various requirements. In particular, the invention provides a variable power attenuator that is especially useful for power regulation.
The invention involves the use of a novel micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) device to provide control of the attenuation. MEMS technology is now a well-recognized technology. Basically, it involves forming a multilayer structure by sequentially depositing and shaping on a silicon substrate a plurality of polysilicon layers that are separated by layers of silicon oxide and/or silicon nitride. The shaping of the layers is generally done by the techniques used in the manufacture of silicon integrated circuits and generally involves the patterning of the layers by photolithographic techniques. The basic principles of MEMS technology are described in a paper entitled "MEM'S the Word for Optical Beam Manipulation" that was published in Circuits and Devices, July 1997, pp. 11-18. MEMS devices are available from many sources, such as, for example, the MEMS Technology Application Center at North Carolina (MCNC) that custom makes devices on order.
Various applications of MEMs devices are described in copending application Ser. No. 09/088,182, filed Jun. 1, 1998 by five of the present applicants and having a common assignee.


A virtual server system and a method of provisioning a plurality of virtual servers is described. The system may comprise a plurality of physical servers, at least one switch connected to the plurality of physical servers, and a virtual frame director to direct provisioning of a plurality of virtual servers on the physical servers. The virtual frame director may be configured to monitor an event related to a link between each physical server and the switch and, in response to the event, update a virtual server database. The system may comprise a Storage Area Network (SAN) and the virtual frame director may be arranged to configure the network fabric to allow the plurality of physical servers to access to the SAN. For example, the network fabric may be configured to access storage on the SAN from which each physical server is to boot.

Virtual servers may be used to make more efficient use of physical servers. Physical servers may be added into a virtual frame data repository in order to be managed by a virtual frame management system. The physical servers have many attributes, and in a large environment, it becomes tedious and error-prone to enter these details manually. Additionally, once assets are added, it is important to be able to locate the equipment as well as correlate the added equipment with interconnected equipment to enable the assessment of changes to equipment. For example, if a system administrator knows that server A is connected to switch B then the system administrator can determine that bringing switch B down for maintenance will have an effect on service provided by server A.
Some existing systems, such as Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) either provide information or the ability to derive information about which switch port a physical server interface is connected to. Some existing switches provide information on what MAC addresses are visible from a switch port. Also, it is common for some switches to provide SNMP traps on linkUp and linkDown events.
However, not all switches provide this information. Furthermore, conventional systems fail to correlate virtual servers with physical servers and their corresponding physical connections.

Physical server discovery and correlation


Methods, systems, and computer program products for transmitting neural signal information. Methods, systems, and computer programs products are disclosed for neural channel selection in a multi-channel system. A method according to one embodiment can include a step for receiving a plurality of neural signals on a first plurality of channels. The method can also include a step for calculating criterion variable value for the neural signal on each of the channels. In addition, the method can include a step for ranking the channels by the criterion variable value. The method can also include a step for calculating mutual information between a measured output and a total population activity for the first plurality of channels. Further, the method can include a step for determining a second plurality of channels that encodes a predetermined amount of the mutual information.

The human brain is an exceedingly complex processing system, which integrates continual streams of incoming sensory input data with stored memories, uses the input data and memories in complex decision processes at both conscious and unconscious levels and, on the basis of these processes, generates observable behaviors by activation of its motor or movement control pathways and the muscles which these innervate. The neurons of the nervous system propagate input data by generating characteristic electrical pulses called action potentials (APs), or neural spikes, that can travel along nerve fibers in the form of neural signals. A single neuron or a group of neurons represent and transmit information by firing sequences of APs in various temporal patterns. Information is carried in the AP arrival times and spike counts.
In certain cases of traumatic injury or neurological disease, the brain can be partially isolated from the periphery. Input data from certain senses are thus lost, at least for a portion of the body, as are many voluntary movements. Spinal cord injury is a well-known example of traumatic injury. With spinal cord injury, the pathways that link higher motor centers in the brain with the spinal cord and that are used for control of voluntary movements can be functionally transected at the site of the injury. As a result, the patient is paralyzed, and can no longer voluntarily activate muscles that are innervated by regions of the spinal cord below the level of the injury. Despite the injury to their long fibers, however, many of the cells in these higher brain regions that control voluntary movement will survive and can still be activated voluntarily to generate electric signals for controlling voluntary movement. By recording the electrical activities produced from these cells with implantable neural sensors (e.g., a microwire electrode array, a microwire, a magnetic field detector, chemical sensor, or other neural sensor), a decoding algorithm can be applied to interpret and reproduce the user's intended movements for the control of external prostheses, such as an assist robot or an artificial limb, or functional electrical stimulation of paralyzed muscles. Additionally, these generated signals can be used for control of computer operations such as the movement of a cursor on a computer display. Current equipment allows extracellular records of hundreds of cortical neurons in primate subjects to be acquired onto a plurality of neural channels and processed to make predictions of hand position during a target tracking task. These predicted motor outputs can be used to control a multi-jointed robotic limb.
Current devices for obtaining neural signals employ hundreds of neural sensors and neural signals to obtain predictions of the user's intended movements. Generally, it has been assumed to require as many neural signals as can be recorded that are distributed across different areas of the frontal and parietal cortices in order to obtain the best predictions. However, even using hundreds of neural signals that are currently recorded places a significant burden on neural signal acquisition and processing equipment. It is possible that different groups of neural signals carry redundant information. If this is the case, a subset of the neural signal population may provide as much information as the whole population for prediction purposes.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved and more efficient methods, systems, and computer program products for neural channel selection in a multi-channel system.

Methods, systems, and computer program products for neural channel selection in a multi-channel system


An attachment interface is configured to mount a bed leg. The attachment interface includes a base having a support platform and a guiding surface; an abutment; and a helical screw defining an axis oriented at a right angle to the abutment. The helical includes an actuation wheel, and threads positioned under the support platform. A mobile member is configured to move relative to the abutment, the mobile member defining a sliding surface configured to contact the guiding surface of the base.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an attachment interface, of a type comprising a support platform fitted with a laterally setting flange, designed to allow, viz. to facilitate and to improve the mounting of bed legs, fitted with standard fasteners, onto square/rectangular cross-section tubular bed bases, or onto L-shaped angle irons making up the North-American type, metallic, bed base support structures.
2. Description of Related Art
A device of the prior art, the subject of patent No. FR2862503, provides for vertical three-step clamping of tubes: the lowering, on both sides of a tube, of a U-shaped flange, the vertical sides thereof being laterally fitted with racks, onto a laterally serrated block forming a counter-rack; the introduction of the ensemble—U-shaped flange+serrated block—in a vertical tube clamping interface and, last, the clamping by a rotating movement of the bed leg fastener within a threaded recess arranged at the bottom of the serrated block, whereby the top horizontal part of the bed leg comes to rest upon the vertical clamping attachment interface.
A second vertical tube clamping method, the subject of patent No. FR2912477, provides for vertical tube clamping through a bet rod driven by the rotating movement of the bed leg being installed. Its implementation takes necessarily place in three steps; to begin with, the height adjustment of a threaded recess, integral with the bent rod and designed to receive the upper bed leg fastener threads; next, the mounting of the unit onto the tube and the height adjustment and angle positioning of the tube clamping bent rod; and, last, the clamping of the ensemble leg/interface/tube.
Patents No. FR2862503 and FR2912477 provide, second, a lateral setting of tubes, in the first case, by means of symmetrical steps, arranged at the top of the vertical clamping interface, in a centered manner with respect to the U-shaped flange and with each couple thereof corresponding to a defined tube width; in the second case, by means of a lateral tube setting device, made up of a reversible chock which may be inserted into recess, the number thereof being necessarily limited.
The device according to patent No. FR2862503 has the drawback of spilling out in an unsightly and dangerous manner on the circulation space surrounding the bed.
The <<clamp>> arrangement adapted on patents No. FR2862503 and FR2912477 is a source of weakness in that it renders interdependent, first, the stability tube/attachment interface stability and, second, the stability of the bed leg attachment, both attachments being exposed to shock and vibration induced rotary motions.
The devices according to French patents No. FR2862503 and FR2912477 present the drawback of being only able to fit out square/rectangular cross-section tubes and not bed base supporting L-shaped angle iron structures.
These metallic structures are fitted out with various leg assembly attachment interfaces, essentially tubular, which only allow for mountings into dowels, wing nuts or directly into tubes which lack robustness and rigidity.
The device according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,571 is meant to make up for these drawbacks by allowing for the addition of a specific interface, welded and bolted to the ending of a tube acting as a leg and, which can only be installed onto lateral angle irons.
Consequently, the device cannot be installed on L-shaped iron angles laid out transversely, the angles and, as a result, the horizontal flanges of which being positioned at the top. The installation of midpoint legs on large-size structures cannot, accordingly, be envisaged. The installation of the device implies, furthermore, the use of a tool.
Finally, the use of a device according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,571 excludes any freedom of choice of bed legs, inasmuch as the attachment device is intrinsically part of each leg.

Interface for attaching bed legs to bed base tubes and bed frame angle irons


Method and apparatus are disclosed for managing access to a plurality of resources including host servers where selected ones of the host servers provide at least one application accessible to users across a network. The apparatus comprises a session manager and a request manager. The session manager couples to the resources for managing sessions for administrative and non-administrative ones of the users including login, authentication and logout to selected ones of the plurality of resources. The request manager couples to the session manager to condition access for administrative ones of the users on access request records each including a target resource among the plurality of resources and a time of access to the at least one target resource.

1. Field of Invention The field of the present invention relates in general to networks and more particularly to the managing of access on networks
2. Description of the Related Art
The growth of the global network identified as the Internet has in part been spawned by a range of software applications made available on the Internet. These include online catalogs; shopping; financial services; financials management; human resource management; business exchanges; customer relationship management; and entertainment such as news and sports. Each of these online applications requires a complex set of hardware and software for delivery. The hardware elements include at a minimum: firewalls; switches; routers; web, application and database servers and backup devices all of which need to be connected to the Internet. The skill sets required to manage these elements and the associated software are formidable.
The management task is made more formidable by the availability and security requirements for online applications. Typically an online application must target 24/7/365 availability. This availability target dictates the introduction of redundancy into the hardware and software which in turn adds to the complexity of the management task. The security requirements are dictated by the nature of the information, typically highly sensitive, being transmitted and stored by each of the applications. Since the Internet is an open medium the hardware environment used to provide the application is subject to constant threat of attack. Even when information is transmitted securely the packets in which it is bundled may be intercepted. Various measures and counter-measures exists to address each security issue, but they are in a constant state of flux.
Not surprising the task of managing and provisioning of Internet applications has fallen on the shoulders of a specialized class of service providers identified as Application Service Providers (ASPs) or Managed Service Providers (MSPs). These service providers may be part of a large enterprise or a separate entity there from. Alternately, these service providers may be part of the businesses that provides a specific application or may exist separately from the business which provides the specific application. They manage and distribute software-based application services and solutions to customers across a wide area network such as the Internet from a central data center on which the applications are hosted. ASPs provide a way for companies to safely outsource key aspects of their information technology (IT) needs that are business critical. A typical ASP manages the hosting of multiple applications for multiple businesses, with each application having its own discrete client audiences. The ASP is thus in a position to justify the considerable investment in personnel, hardware, and software needed to host Internet applications.
Success or failure of an ASP rests on providing personalized solutions for each client group, e.g. corporation, department, division, subsidiary etc. A typical ASP achieves this level of service with a corresponding growth in personnel, which cuts into profitability. What is needed are new service solutions for ASPs which enhance profitability and improve customer responsiveness while leveraging their resources efficiently and productively.

Method and apparatus for access management

International Business Machines Corporation


This application discloses a heat dissipator for a charging connector, a heat dissipation device and a vehicle. The heat dissipator comprises a body formed to have a cooling chamber and an internally circumferentially defined receiving hole, wherein the receiving hole is configured to accommodate the charging connector.

At present, due to the energy and environmental issues, new energy vehicles are promoted to grow explosively, and the number of new energy vehicles is also increased constantly. Compared with traditional fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles have great advantages in energy conservation and environmental protection. However, the long charging time of electric vehicles in new energy vehicles is a long-standing criticism.
At present, the method of increasing the charging power to shorten the charging time is generally adopted. The accompanying problems are as follows. Due to the excessive current, the connecting terminal at the charging socket generates lots of heat, which causes the charging terminal to burn out or charge failure, so that the entire vehicle cannot be charged normally, and the charging safety cannot be effectively guaranteed.
In addition, although certain methods are also actively used by some manufacturers to reduce the temperature at the connecting terminal, for example, by arranging a cooling device at a charging wire harness. However, the cooling effect is undesirable and the arrangement is complicated.

Heat dissipator for charging connector, heat dissipation device, and vehicle


Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for compression of tables based on occurrence of values. In general, a number representing an amount of occurrences of a frequently occurring value in a group of adjacent rows of a column is generated, a vector representing whether the frequently occurring value exists in a row of the column is generated, and the number and the vector are stored to enable searches of the data represented by the number and the vector. The vector may omit a portion representing the group of adjacent rows. The values may be dictionary-based compression values representing business data such as business objects. The compression may be performed in-memory, in parallel, to improve memory utilization, network bandwidth consumption, and processing performance.

The present disclosure relates to data processing by digital computer, and more particularly to compression of tables based on occurrence of values.
Search engines may search large amounts of data in database tables, such as relational tables, to find results. For massive amounts of data, such as a combination of tables containing millions of records, processing of the data may require lots of hardware resources. For example, large amounts of random access memory space may be needed to store all the records that are relevant to executing a user request.

Compression of tables based on occurrence of values