An applicator has a tubular body containing a liquid to be dispensed. A non-return device is movably disposed in the tubular body rearwardly of and in contact with the liquid for preventing backflow of the liquid. A manually-displaceable piston member is displaceable in the tubular body in a forward direction for pressurizing air admitted into a chamber located in front of the piston member, and a normally closed valve communicates with the chamber and is openable by the force of the pressurized air to apply the pressurized air to the non-return device to urge the non-return device forwardly to thereby pressurize the liquid. A resilient member normally urges the piston member rearwardly to a rear stop position. An air passage communicates the chamber with the exterior of the applicator when the piston member is in the rear stop position, and the air passage is blocked by the piston member during displacement of the piston member in the forward direction. The non-return device comprises one or more kinds of greases, and a float having a front portion embedded in the greases and a rear portion to which is applied the pressurized air.

The present invention relates to a dispensing device or a liquid applicator having a compressive means for compressing a liquid chamber containing a predetermined liquid, such as cosmetic appliances including eye-liners and nail polishers, etc. and writing instruments such as ball point pens and correction devices employing a correction liquid.
An example of the prior art liquid applicators which is shown in Japanese Pre-grant Patent Publication No. 10-28921 will be explained. In this publication, a main body containing a liquid material has, at its rear portion, a cylinder chamber which has a piston slidably. At a forward portion of the cylinder chamber, a check valve which is rearward-biased by a spring force of a coil spring is provided so that a forward portion of the check-valve constitutes a liquid container portion.
At the front end of the main body, an applicator tip is disposed and a valve body which is spring-biased in a forward direction is disposed at an applicator opening of the applicator tip.
When the piston is advanced, the cylinder chamber is compressed to release the check valve by the compression force, and the compressed air is fed into the liquid container portion, so that the liquid in the liquid container portion is compressed. In the compressed state described above, the valve body is retracted to thereby discharge the liquid.
In the prior art described above, there is an advantage that liquid application (that is, discharging of a liquid) can successfully be made even when the applicator is positioned with its application tip is positioned upward or directed upward, because the liquid is compressed. As the liquid is decreased by use, however, new air is introduced into the device, and there are cases that that the liquid is dried and, in the worse case, it is completely solidified. Further, unwanted bacteria in the air get mixed with the liquid to result in a deterioration or a change in quality of the liquid and this is unfavorable particularly when the liquid is used for cosmetics.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new applicator which are free from the disadvantages that are inherent to the conventional technique described above.
In a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an applicator comprising a tubular main shaft body containing therein a liquid, a compressive means, disposed at a rear portion of the tubular main shaft body, for compressing the liquid, a non-return device positioned at a rear portion of the liquid and movable along with a decrease of the liquid, and a valve mechanism between the non-return device and the compressive means.
In the structure described above, the non-return device can be made of a liquid material and a solid material.
Further, in the present invention, the non-return device has a large-diameter portion and a small-diameter portion.
Further, a refill is provided in the tubular main shaft body, and the refill has a liquid container tube, a tip holder press-fitted to a front portion of the liquid container tube, and a ball press-fitted to a front portion of the tip holder. Two kinds of greases are disposed at the rear end of the liquid to prevent the liquid from flowing out from a rear end of the liquid container tube. The greases can contain therein a float made of a synthetic resin.
The two kinds of greases include an aqueous (or water-soluble) grease and an oil grease.
The float can have a small-diameter portion at its front portion and a large-diameter portion at the rear portion such that small-diameter portion has a larger diameter than a minimum inner diameter of the tip holder.
In a further (second) aspect of the present invention, there is provided an applicator comprising a tubular main shaft body containing therein a liquid, a compressive means, disposed at a rear portion of the tubular main shaft body, for compressing the liquid, a non-return device positioned at a rear portion of the liquid and movable along with a decrease of the liquid, and a valve mechanism between the non-return device and the compressive means, wherein the valve mechanism is retractable and returnable to its original position so that when the valve mechanism is retracted (that is, moved backward), the compressive force is decreased or released.
In the second aspect of the invention, the valve mechanism can be formed of a rubber-like resilient material.
In a further (third) aspect of the present invention, there is provided an applicator comprising a tubular main shaft body containing therein a liquid, a compressive means, disposed at a rear portion of the tubular main shaft body, for compressing the liquid, a non-return device positioned at a rear portion of the liquid and movable along with a decrease of the liquid, and a valve mechanism at a rear portion of the non-return device so that the liquid is compressed by means of the valve mechanism.
In the third aspect of the invention, a front air space is formed at a front portion of the valve mechanism and a rear air space is formed at a rear portion of the valve mechanism, and the front air space is communicated with the rear air space by a small through-hole.
In a further (fourth) aspect of the present invention, there is provided an applicator comprising a tubular main shaft body containing therein a liquid, a compressive means, disposed at a rear portion of the tubular main shaft body, for compressing the liquid, a non-return device positioned at a rear portion of the liquid and movable along with a decrease of the liquid, and a valve mechanism between the non-return device and the compressive means, wherein the valve mechanism has a first valve device for opening/closing in the direction of the liquid and a second valve device for opening/closing in the direction of the compressive means, wherein the second valve device has a stronger closing force than the first valve device.
According to the present invention, air which is introduced from the outside is compressed by the compressive means and then the compressed air serves to compress the liquid through the non-return device.

Applicator using pressurized air to aid in dispensing liquid


Methods and devices are disclosed for encoding and decoding convolutional codes in a communication system. In various embodiments of the disclosure, a codeword comprises message data and parity data. A convolutional codeword is generated by multiplying the message data and the parity data with a convolutional polynomial. The convolutional codeword may be decoded by a convolutional code decoder that uses the convolutional polynomial and a maximum likelihood divisor to obtain a maximum likelihood message from the convolutional codeword.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed in general to communications systems and methods for operating such systems. In one aspect, the present invention relates to the methods, systems and devices for improved decoding of convolutional codes.
2. Description of the Related Art
The most common form of encoding currently used in wireless communication channels is the serial concatenation of an inner cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code followed by an outer forward error correction code (FEC). One example of FEC code is the convolutional code which is used in many wireless channels in Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)/Enhance Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) second-generation (2G), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) third-generation (3G), and Long Term Evolution (LTE) fourth-generation (4G) mobile telecommunication technologies. Traditionally, FEC code is used to attempt correction of any errors during transmission over a wireless channel, while the use of CRC code is normally limited to detection of the existence of residual errors after FEC decoding. In practice, a CRC codeword is formed by computing parity bits and placing them at the end of an input message. Since the message forms part of the codeword itself, the CRC code is referred to as a systematic code.
Such convolutional codes are specified for use in the wireless standards in mainstream use today. One reason for their popularity is the existence of the Viterbi decoder, which determines the maximum likelihood of the accuracy of a transmitted message in an efficient and relatively uncomplicated manner. However, due to the success of the Viterbi decoder and its efficient implementation of the CRC portion of the CRC/Convolutional code concatenation, it is often ignored during error correction. Indeed, the CRC code is generally relegated to the purpose of residual error detection after convolutional decoding. As a result, error correction decoding is typically restricted to the use of convolutional code alone, even though it is recognized that CRC/convolutional code concatenation can provide more robust error correction performance.
Current approaches to decoding CRC/convolutional code include called-list decoding, where the Viterbi decoder is modified to output the 'N' most likely convolutional code messages. The CRC check is successively applied to these 'N' convolutional code messages until one passes, in which case it is accepted as being the transmitted message, or alternatively, none pass and decoder failure is declared. However, this approach has attendant drawbacks. First, the Viterbi decoder implementation requires significant modification to support the output of the 'N' maximum likely convolutional code messages. Second, the decoding of CRC and convolutional codes occurs separately and not jointly, and third, the complexity of list decoding increases linearly with 'N.'
In view of the foregoing, it is apparent that there is a need for systems and methods for improved Viterbi decoding of convolutional codes for error correction.


A measured amount of a first fluid is metered into a measured amount of a second fluid by a method where a fluid is confined within a first chamber and a plunger of predetermined volume is mechanically moved into the chamber to displace a first measured amount of fluid after which a second plunger is mechanically moved into a defined volume of the chamber to displace a second volume of fluid therefrom different from the first volume whereupon the first and second volumes can be mixed in predetermined proportions.

It is often necessary in medical and process instrumentation to provide a small quantity of sample which is to be diluted with a larger quantity of reagent. Measuring an accurate dosage of the two different quantities provides some difficulty.
In some applications, two fluid displacement pumps or syringe pumps have been used to accurately meter small quantities of sample and larger quantities of reagent. In order to obtain very precise measurements, it is preferred not to use a syringe or displacement pump which to meter less than 10% of the volume of the syringe. So in applications where 10 microliters of samples has to be diluted with for example 500 microliters of reagent, two syringes or displacement pumps are needed such as a 100 microliter pump for sample and a 1000 microliter pump for reagent. This leads to duplication of parts and increased expense. Overall size can be larger than would be necessary with the single unit.

Method of metering a fluid using a multi-mode differential fluid displacement pump


In vitro multiparameter method for the diagnosis and early diagnosis, for determination of the severity and for assessing the course and prognosis of neurodegenerative disorders, in which the concentrations of at least two different vasotropic peptides are determined in a biological fluid from a person suffering from subjective or objectively detectable cognitive impairments, the resulting person-specific measurements are combined computationally to give a person-specific complex reference value, and conclusions are drawn concerning the presence of a neurodegenerative disorder in the person on the basis of the person-specific complex reference value found.

In the context of the present invention, the term "diagnosis" is used as an overall term for medical determinations which may be based on different problems according to the clinical condition of the patient (of the investigated person) for whom the determination is carried out and which serve for the detection and, in the present case, in particular also for the early detection, the determination of the severity and the assessment of the course, including the therapy-accompanying assessment of the course, and the prognosis of the future course of a disease. What is of particular importance in the present context is that a diagnosis may also be a negative diagnosis in which the presence of a certain disease is made improbable owing to the failure to establish certain features typical of the disease, for example the nondetectability of biomarkers or biomarker combinations associated with the relevant disease in a blood sample of a patient.
Biomarkers which can be found at elevated levels in the case of a plurality of different diseases and therefore by themselves do not permit a positive diagnosis of a specific disease—although as a rule they may also be decisive for the positive diagnosis on inclusion of further clinical or biochemical parameters—are also of great value for the negative diagnosis. Biomarker combinations therefore frequently permit statements which could not be made, or could not be made with the same probability, in the case of an isolated determination of only individual biomarkers or parameters.
The diseases regarding the diagnosis of which the present invention is concerned tend to be slowly developing, chronic neurodegenerative diseases of noninfectious etiology, in particular dementias.
Dementias are designated generally as diseases for which a common feature is the loss of acquired intellectual abilities, especially of memory, and of the normal personality level as a result of brain damage. Dementias are as a rule relatively slowly developing diseases of chronic character. If dementias occur prior to old age, in middle age, they are referred to as presenile dementias and they are differentiated on the basis of the symptoms and cerebropathological changes typical of them, in particular the following diseases or groups of diseases:
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most frequent neurodegenerative dementia, accounts for ⅔ of all cases of dementia and is also the practically most important field of use for the present invention. AD is distinguished by three important pathological features which however can be detected with certainty only post mortem: the formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillar bundles and the loss of nerve cells (for an overview cf. (1); literature references in the description in the form of numbers relate to the list of references following the description). Amyloid plaques consist of extraneuronal aggregates of the amyloid-β protein, while the neurofibrillar bundles contain mainly tau-protein and neurofilaments. It is presumed that the plaque and neurofibril formation is the cause of the death of nerve cells.
The most important symptoms of AD are increasing impairment of the capacity to register and disturbance of intellectual function in combination with relatively persistent emotional responsiveness, these symptoms being accompanied by further less specific disturbances which make it more difficult to distinguish AD from other forms of dementia.
Observations of AD patients and patients who develop AD in the course of their clinical observation over many years led to the formulation of criteria for mutually distinguishable groups of patients which cover the entire range of    (a) persons without subjective and objective cognitive disturbances (which in the context of the present invention represent the control group) through    (b) patients who complain about subjective diminished cognitive ability but in whom no cognitive deficits can be found (in the context of the present invention, this is the group of "SCD" patients, where "SCD" represents "subjective cognitive disturbances"), further through    (c) patients who have been found to have mild cognitive disturbances and who have been diagnosed with "possible AD" ("pos AD") where no other dementia-causing diseases are present (in the context of the present invention, this is the group "MCD pos AD", where "MCD" represents "mild cognitive disturbances") to    (d) the group of patients with the typical clinical picture for considerable cognitive disturbances which have begun gradually and progress slowly, which patients are diagnosed with "probable AD" when other causes of dementia can be ruled out (in the context of the present invention, this is the group "pr AD", where the abbreviation represents "probable Alzheimer's").
Regarding the assignment of persons or patients with subjective and/or objective cognitive disturbances to various groups, reference is additionally made to (2), (3), (4) and (5).
Dementia with lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most frequent cause of a dementia after Alzheimer's disease. Neuropathologically, DLB is characterized by the occurrence of so-called lewy bodies in the brain stem and in the cortex. These lewy bodies predominantly comprise aggregates of the presynaptic protein (α-synuclein) and ubiquitin. The lewy body pathology can be associated to various extents with Alzheimer- and Parkinson-typical neuropathological changes. Thus, in the case of DLB too, the formation of beta-amyloid and senile plaques occurs, but not neurofibril bundles (for an overview, cf. (6)). Lewy bodies are also present in the brain of patients with Parkinson's disease, although in a different distribution.
The key symptoms of DLB are a progressive cognitive disturbance, episodes of confusion with fluctuating attentiveness and awareness, Parkinsonism, frequent falls and syncopes (brief, paroxysmal unconsciousness). The sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic criteria are high throughout regarding the specificity but in some cases very low regarding the sensitivity. This means that DLB is frequently not diagnosed in day-to-day clinical routine.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is also referred to as Pick's disease and accounts for about 20% of presenile dementias. FTD is in some cases of genetic origin and is among the so-called tauopathies, which are distinguished by overexpression or underexpression of a tau-protein subtype or by the expression of a mutated tau-protein. Neuropathologically, local atrophy of the frontal and/or temporal cortex and of the substantia nigra and of the basal ganglia occurs. This results in speech disturbances of varying severity, a personality change and behavioral abnormalities. Overall, FTD is underdiagnosed with a sensitivity of 93% and a specificity of only 23%, AD representing the most frequent misdiagnosis.
The term vascular dementia (VAD) summarizes diseases in which a dementia is triggered owing to blood flow disturbances in the brain. There are different types of VAD, of which multi-infarction dementia (MID) and subcortical VAD (also referred to as Binswanger's disease) are the most frequent forms.
Binswanger's disease is a slowly progressing dementia which is characterized pathologically by cerebrovascular lesions in the white brain substance. Clinically, this results in behavioral abnormalities, such as agitation, irritability, depression and euphoria, and slightly impaired memory.
Multi-infarction dementia occurs gradually as a result of a plurality of small strokes, also referred to as transient ischemic attacks (TIA), which led to the destruction of brain tissue in the cortex and/or subcortical areas. The strokes may also have remained completely unnoticed, in which case the dementia is the first noticeable consequence. When MID is present, there is a gradual decrease in cognitive abilities, associated with severe depressions, mood variations and epilepsy.
A diagnosis of dementia is carried out nowadays predominantly on the basis of neuropsychological investigations and observation of the development of the disease and its course, using exclusion criteria for certain forms of dementia. In very many cases, these investigations give ambiguous results, which explain the abovementioned numbers for the underdiagnosed forms of dementia or incorrectly diagnosed cases. The cerebral changes typical of the disease cannot of course be determined directly on living patients, and investigations of the brain functions using medical equipment by means of, for example, X-ray tomography or magnetic resonance imaging are complicated and expensive.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to supplement and thereby considerably improve the detection and in particular early detection of dementias by the measurement of informative biomarkers which can be determined, for example, in a blood sample (serum sample, plasma sample) of a patient with the aid of relatively simple test methods.
For the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Institute of the Alzheimer's Association and the NIA Working Group published guidelines for the criteria which are set regarding an ideal biomarker for the detection of AD (7). The following criteria should ideally be fulfilled by the biomarker:    1. It should be brain-specific and detect a fundamental feature of the neuropathology of these diseases.    2. The diagnostic sensitivity and the specificity of at least 80% should exist.    3. The disease-specific change of the biomarker should manifest itself in as early a stage as possible of the disease, in order to be able to begin suitable therapeutic measures (8).
Up to the present, however, there is no biomarker which could be used in day-to-day clinical routine in the blood or the cerebrospinal fluid with sufficient certainty for the early and differential diagnosis of AD and fulfills all abovementioned criteria. At present, various potential marker candidates are being investigated, including inflammation markers, such as IL-6 and TNFα, markers for oxidative stress, such as 3-nitrotyrosine, and markers which are associated with characteristic pathological changes of AD, such as amyloid β, which is a main constituent of the amyloid plaques, and the tau-protein, which is a substantial constituent of the neurofibril bundles (cf. the overview in (8); (9)).
There is a current demand for supplementary investigative methods which provide valid laboratory findings and which are based on a determination of substances suitable as biomarkers for dementias, in particular for Alzheimer's disease (AD), in blood or plasma samples and are suitable for supporting an early positive diagnosis and/or for a negative diagnosis by exclusion in the case of persons who are suspected of having a dementia, in particular AD.

In vitro multiparameter determination method for the diagnosis and early diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders


An abridged map generating apparatus includes a polygon shape data extraction unit that extracts from map data polygon shape data specifying the shape of a polygon, a polygon shape simplification unit that simplifies the shape of the polygon based upon the polygon shape data which is extracted by the polygon shape data extraction unit, and a polygon drawing unit that draws upon a map the polygon whose shape has been simplified by the polygon shape simplification unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus which generates an abridged map which has been produced by simplifying a road map.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a known method for simplifying the shape of a road based upon map data for displaying a map. For example, with the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent laid-open application Publication No. 11-202762, the shape of the road is simplified by performing procedures such as straightening and orthogonalization and the like upon the links which specify the road shape in the map data, and by displaying only landmark information within a range which is regulated by a mask. A map which is more easily viewed than a normal map is provided by displaying an abridged map generated using the road shape which has been simplified in this manner.
Moreover, an apparatus is also known which displays shorelines upon a map when displaying the map information upon a screen (for example, Japanese Patent laid-open application Publication No. 62-153888).
However, with the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent laid-open application Publication No. 11-202762, although the abridged map is generated by simplifying the road shapes by performing procedures such as straightening or orthogonalization or the like with respect to each of the links, the shapes of the shorelines are not simplified. Furthermore, with the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent laid-open application Publication No. 62-153888, although it is possible to display the shorelines upon the map, the shapes of the shorelines are not displayed after having been simplified. Accordingly, there is a demand for an apparatus which can display shorelines upon a map after having simplified them so that they are easier to see.

Abridged map generating apparatus, on-vehicle information terminal, abridged map distribution system and abridged map generating method


The present invention provides a Web page edit screen that allows an author to edit parent and child documents collectively while showing, in an appropriate manner, the content of the child document embedded in the parent document. Associated documents of a Web page to be edited are managed as managed documents individually. Document-by-document structure information is derived from the content of each managed document. Web page structure information is then assembled by connecting the document-by-document structure information based on embed-related code. Edit screen data is generated based on the content of the managed documents and the Web page structure information to generate a browser-type edit screen. The content of a relevant managed document is synchronized with the edited content on the edit screen. The edit screen data is matched with the edited content on the edit screen.

Page Designer and Dreamweaver®, which are well-known as Web page authoring tools, provide an edit screen on which an HTML document can be displayed like a Web client's browser screen (hereinafter referred to as "browser-like edit screen"), as well as an edit screen for directly editing source code of the HTML document, so that an editor or author can edit the HTML document efficiently on the browser-like edit screen.
On the other hand, JSP (JavaServer Pages™) documents are stored in the memory of a Web server to generate HTML documents as Web pages. The author can use a code such as <jsp:include> or <jsp:directive.include> in a JSP document to embed any other document in the JSP document.
For convenience of explanation, among documents constituting or creating a Web page, a document in which any other document is to be embedded is called a "parent document", while the other document to be embedded is called a "child document".
FIG. 12 shows a display state of a parent document 602 on a browser-like edit screen 601 of a conventional Web page authoring tool 600. A child document is merely indicated as an icon 603, without its specific content, at a position where it is inserted in the parent document 602.
FIG. 13 shows a frame editing screen 610 of a browser type according to the conventional Web page authoring tool 600. The parent document includes an instruction for dividing the browser screen into two flames such as right and left frames and identification of child documents 611, 612 to be embedded in the right and left frames, respectively. Thus, the author can edit two or more child documents embedded in the respective frames of the parent document on the frame editing screen 610 that displays the child documents in a manner similar to an actual browser.
FIG. 14 shows an edit screen 630 of Microsoft® Word. Suppose that a parent document 631 is a Microsoft® Word document while a child document 632 is a document edited in a different application other than Microsoft® Word. In this case, if the author double-clicks on the display area of the child document 632 embedded in the parent document 631, the different application will be started so that the author can edit the child document 632 in the different application. The display area of the child document 632 is limited within a rectangular box 633, that is, the child document can never be displayed in a non-rectangular box. On the other hand, if the child document 632 is also a Microsoft® Word document and is embedded in the parent document 631, the content of the child document 632 turns into the content of the parent document 631. Therefore, even if the embedded text is edited in the parent document 631, the edited content is not reflected in the child document 632.
Japanese Published Patent Application 07-56786 teaches a structured document processor, in which an integrated document is divided into a plurality of document components (e.g., Chapter 1 document component, Chapter 2 document component, . . . ) so that two or more authors can edit each document component while maintaining data consistency with a document component being used as a unit of saving and loading. The structured document processor constructs a tree structure of the integrated document and the document components, controls connections or links between the document components based on the hierarchy of the document components, and manages the logical order (page order) of the document components in the integrated document (see FIGS. 4 and 5 of Japanese Published Patent Application 07-56786).
The browser-like edit screen 601 of the Web page authoring tool 600 shown in FIG. 12 displays only the icon 603 at the embedding position of the child document. Therefore, once the child document is embedded at a specified position in the parent document 602, the author cannot edit these documents on the browser-like edit screen 601 while viewing the display states of the parent document 602 and the child document on the browser screen.
On the other hand, the Web page authoring tool 600 shown in FIG. 13 allows the author to edit, on the frame editing screen 610, the child documents 611 and 612 embedded in the parent document while viewing the display states of the child documents embedded in the parent document, that is, while viewing them on the browser-like edit screen. In this case, however, a form for embedding the child documents 611 and 612 in the parent document is limited to a rectangle. In the Web page frames, the child documents LEFT.html and RIGHT.html are embedded in the parent document using, for example, the following code statement: <FRAMESET COLS="50%, 50%">, <FRAME SRC="LEFT.html"> and <FRAME SRC="RIGHT.html">. Thus, neither can the text and images of the parent document itself be displayed, nor the beginning of each child document be located before or behind any character or image in the parent document. Also, <BODY> (tag name) indicating the body of the parent document is not displayed on the frame editing screen 610. The embed-related code for embedding the child document at any structure position in the parent document may be <jsp:include> or <jsp:directive.include>.
Since a form for embedding the child document 632 in the parent 631 on the edit screen 630 of the word processor shown in FIG. 14 is also limited to a rectangle, like the frame editing screen 610 in FIG. 13, it is difficult to set the beginning of the child document 632 at any position in the parent document 631 and hence to display the set position on the edit screen 630. In addition, if the child document 632 is a Microsoft® Word document like the parent document 631 and is edited on the edit screen 631 after embedding the child document 632 in the parent document 631, the edited content is reflected only in the parent document 631, rather than in the child document 632. Therefore, if the child document 632 is to be embedded also in another parent document or at another position in the parent document 631, the child document 632 portion in another parent document or another position in the parent document 631 would have to be reedited separately.
Page Designer and Dreamweaver®, well-known as Web page authoring tools, have a preview screen showing how the web page being edited on the edit screen is displayed on an actual browser screen, and the author can open a browser from the preview screen to check how the document being edited is actually displayed by the browser. However, the author cannot edit the document on the preview screen showing the browser screen image.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

International Business Machines Corporation


A PWM generation module generates a PWM data signal used to control a light emitting diode (LED) driver for one or more strings of LEDs of a display device. The PWM data signal is synchronized with the frame boundaries of the video content being displayed. The PWM generation module can configure the PWM data signal such that a new PWM cycle is initiated at the start of each successive frame, and further whereby those PWM cycles that would be prematurely terminated at frame boundaries are instead driven at a constant reference level until the frame boundary. With this configuration, a substantially linear average light intensity can be achieved across frames, thereby reducing or eliminating display distortion that is often present in other PWM cycle synchronization techniques. The PWM generation module can use a self-learning process to make adjustments to the expected number of completeable PWM cycles per frame in response to dynamic changes in the frame rate, PWM frequency, or other related display parameters.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) often are used as light sources in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and other displays. LED drivers for these displays often use pulse width modulation (PWM) signals to control the intensity of the light emitted by the LEDs while driving the LEDs at a fixed current, thereby achieving high color fidelity while varying intensity. However, video content is displayed as a series of frames, and if the PWM cycles of an LED driver are not carefully synchronized with the frame rate, visual noise, such as flickering, can occur at the display. One conventional synchronization scheme is to utilize a phase-locked loop (PLL) to directly synchronize the PWM cycles to the frame rate. However, PLLs are relatively expensive and complex to implement. Further, typical frame rates of 30 Hz to 120 Hz often are well below the effective reference frequency range of many PLL designs. For these applications, PLLs typically must have a very small loop bandwidth, leading to large components in the loop filter and a relatively long frequency locking time. These requirements often limit the suitability of conventional PWM synchronization techniques in video applications.

Frequency synthesis and synchronization for LED drivers


A latch releasing device includes a switch that is turned on upon pressing a pressing button towards a switch body and unlatches a door, a base member that holds the switch via the switch body such that the pressing button is arranged on a front surface thereof, a key top member on the base member to cover the pressing button of the switch, and a biasing member between the base member and the key top member that biases the key top member in a direction departing from the pressing button of the switch. The switch is fixed to a panel via the base member such that the pressing button can be pressed via the key top member from outside the panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device that releases a latched condition of a door.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in a vehicle, a release actuator is driven to unlatch a door such as a trunk lid. A latch releasing device applied to such a vehicle generally includes a switch for driving the release actuator. Such a latch releasing device is disclosed in for example, Japanese Patent No. 3534068, in which an operating unit that projects outwards from an opening of a door outer panel axially supports a door handle on a base member. A switch that is more medially located than the door outer panel is turned on by a pressing portion of the door handle when the operating unit is swung.
In the vehicle with the latch releasing device, when an operator swings the operating unit of the door handle to turn on the switch, the release actuator is driven to cause a door latch device to unlatch the door. Thus, compared to a conventional latch releasing device that releases the door latch via a wire cable or a link rod, a control force can be significantly reduced.
In the latch releasing device, the operating unit of the door handle and a load receiving member that receives an operation load for door-opening operation are covered by a waterproof cover. The periphery of the cover is sandwiched between the door outer panel and the base member to ensure desired waterproof performance. Thus, for example, in vehicle washing, washing water can be prevented from entering inside from the opening of the outer door panel.
However, for example, if washing water having a high pressure is sprayed on the cover member at a car washing station, the door handle may swing via the cover member. This causes the switch to turn on, and the trunk lid is accidentally opened. Setting a high spring constant of a return spring inside the switch can prevent such a situation. However, a high spring constant of the return spring causes defects, for example, that the switch is not turned on by operating the operating unit, and the operability is significantly reduced.


An optical information recording medium comprising a substrate; a recording layer comprising as the main component an organic dye component, formed on the substrate, which recording layer has a maximum peak in the spectroscopic reflectance thereof near the wavelength of the information recording and reproduction light, and has a thickness at which the spectroscopic reflectance thereof is maximized at the wavelength of the information recording and reproduction light, and an optical information recording method, and a system for recording and/or reproducing information using this recording medium are disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved optical information recording medium utilizable in the field of optical recording, and to an optical information recording method and a system for recording and/or reproducing information using the same.
2. Discussion of Background
An optical information recording medium such as an optical disk has an extremely large capacity, and information can be recorded in or reproduced from the recording medium without making physical contact with it. Furthermore, information recorded in the optical information recording medium is readily accessible. Owing to such advantages, the optical information recording medium has been widely utilized, for instance, for apparatus for filing documents, motion pictures and motionless pictures, and external storage and back-up memory devices for computers.
Conventional optical information recording media are typically classified into the following three types:
(a) an optical information recording medium comprising a recording layer of a thin film whose main component is a metal having a low melting point such as Te;
(b) an optical information recording medium comprising a recording layer consisting of a light-reflection layer and an organic light-absorption layer; and
(c) an optical information recording medium comprising a recording layer made of an organic pigment having high reflectance.
Since the melting point of the metal used in the recording layer of the above recording medium (a) is low, high preservability cannot be expected.
The recording layers of the recording medium (a) are further divided into two types, that is, a pitting type, and a phase-transition type. When information is recorded in a pitting-type recording layer, pits are formed on the surface of the recording layer by applying light thereto. In case of the phase-transition type, a change in the reflectance, which is caused by phase transition between crystal and amorphous of the metal, is applied to information recording.
The pitting-type recording layer has low resolving power, so that high recording density cannot be expected. Regarding the phase-transition-type recording layer, control of the conditions for production is quite complicated, and the price of the final product thus becomes extremely high.
A recording layer of the optical information recording medium (b) is prepared by coating an organic light-absorption layer on a metallic light-reflection layer. Information is recorded in the organic light-absorption layer, which is performed by forming pits on the layer by applying laser beams thereto.
The recording layer of this type consists of two layers, so that it cannot be easily prepared. In addition, recording or reproduction of information on the substrate side is not easy due to the presence of the light-reflection layer.
A recording layer of the optical information recording medium (c) is prepared by forming a organic-pigment thin layer having high reflectance on a substrate. The organic pigment has a high melting point or decomposition temperature and low thermal conductivity, so that a recording layer having high sensitivity, C/N ratio and reliability is obtainable. Furthermore, since the organic pigment layer can be readily formed on a substrate by means of coating, it can be efficiently mass-produced, and the price of the final product can thus be made lower.
However, the recording medium of this type cannot maintain high sensitivity and C/N ratio unless it is fabricated with an air-sandwich structure. It is therefore difficult to make the recording medium thin, and application of the recording medium to an optical flexible disk is thus quite hard. The recording media of (a) and (b) also suffer from the same problem.
With respect to an optical disk, a disk having a diameter of 30 cm was initially commercialized, and then the size has been made smaller to 20 cm, and even to 13 cm in diameter. Aiming at development of the market for personal-use, a target size of the optical disk is now 9 cm.
It is, however, extremely difficult to obtain a small and thin optical disk as far as it is fabricated with a conventional air-sandwich structure. In the case where a substrate having a thickness of 1.2 mm is employed, the thickness of the final disk becomes at least 3 mm, and it is not easy at all to prepare a disk thinner than 3 mm.
A conventional optical disk comprising a recording medium of the pitting type basically consists of a substrate, a recording layer and air. The air layer serves as a heat insulating layer, so that high thermal efficiency is ensured. Furthermore, since the air layer does not restrain vaporization, decomposition and scattering of the recording layer, which commonly take place when information is recorded, high sensitivity and C/N ratio are also ensured. Therefore, if a protective layer is formed instead of the air layer, the sensitivity and C/N ratio of the optical disk are highly deteriorated.

Optical information recording medium, information recording method and optical information recording system using the medium


A fuse holder device (10) including a fuse housing unit (11) equipped on opposite ends with two cover units (12) (13); wherein the housing unit (11) is dimensioned to at least partially surround an electrical fuse (100) and is provided with apertured shoulder members (17)(18) which are dimensioned to accommodatae the ends (101) of the fuse (100); and, wherein the cover units (12) and (13) are each provided with a hinged flap element (35) which is dimensioned to cover one of the electrical contacts (101) on the ends of the fuse.

This invention was the subject matter of Document Disclosure Program Registration Number 226 195 which was filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on May 4, 1989.
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,091,352; 2,816,193; 3,833,874; and 3,916,363 the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse fuse holder devices which are adapted to function as a protective casing for a fuse.
While the prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they were specially designed, they do suffer from a number of shared deficiencies.
For instance, most of the prior art constructions take up more space than needed This deficiency makes the protection of some fuses using the prior art construction a physical impossibility due to the amount of space available for the fuse. These types of fuses in particular have an even greater need for a fuse holder due to the difficulty in servicing them and the increased danger of accidentally touching one of the contacts.
In addition, another common deficiency in the prior art constructions is the difficulty that is encountered when trying to test the fuse.
There is also a need for a fuse holder that will allow the testing of the fuse without the necessity of removing the fuse from the fuse box.
It should also be noted that virtually all of the prior art constructions are cumbersome and complicated to use. These twin deficiencies can lead to unnecessary danger for the inexperienced electrical worker and wasted time for the more experienced ones. Obviously the less time spent installing or removing a fuse substantially reduces the chance of injury to the installer.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation there has existed a longstanding need for a fuse holder device which incorporates the features of easy operation, compactness, and safety and the development of such a device is the stated purpose and objective of the present invention.


The present invention discloses a mobile communications system, which includes a mobile communication device and a server device. The mobile communication device includes a first reception module for obtaining device information corresponding to the mobile communication device and a transmission module for transmitting the device information via a mobile communication network. The server device includes a second reception module for receiving the device information via the mobile communication network and a connection module for establishing a communication connection between the mobile communication device and a destination end according to the device information when a communication request corresponding to the mobile communication device is received from the destination end.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication system and related management method, and more particularly, to a mobile communication system and related management method for effectively reducing a phone expense, and immediately and smoothly contacting a related user.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Along with the globalization concept unceasing development, more and more enterprises establish transnational organizations to reduce production cost, or provide customer transnational services. In this kind of enterprise, a way of contact with staffs is often a topic. For example, in FIG. 1, if a transnational enterprise has offices or factories in locations NT1 (such as United States) and NT2 (such as Germany), when a staff EP1 in the location NT1 brings a mobile phone MB (which has a subscriber identity model card SIM1 corresponding to a phone number NB1) to the location NT2, there are many situations if a staff EP2 in location NT1 wants to contact with the staff EP1.
Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a tree diagram 20 for illustrating different situations of the staff EP2 contacting with the staff EP1 in FIG. 1. The tree diagram 20 is started with Step 200, and has five branches BR1˜BR5 which means five possible results. Step 200 can be divided into three situations when the staff EP2 wants to contact with the staff EP1. The first situation is corresponding to the branch BR1, which includes the following steps:
Step A: The subscriber identity model card SIM1 can roam in the location NT2, and the staff EP1 already installs the subscriber identity model card SIM1 in the mobile phone MB.
Step A1: The staff EP2 dials or sends a message to the phone number NB1.
Step A2: The staff EP1 and staff EP2 both need to pay an international roaming expense.
The second situation is corresponding to the branches BR2˜BR4, which includes the following steps:
Step B: The staff EP1 purchases a subscriber identity model card SIM2 which is corresponding to a phone number NB2 from a mobile phone company in the location NT2.
Step B1: The staff EP1 installs the subscriber identity model card SIM2 in the mobile phone MB.
(Blow is the Branch BR2 and BR3)
Step B2_1: The staff EP1 tells the staff EP2 the phone number NB2.
Step B3_1: The staff EP2 dials or sends a message to the phone number NB2.
Step 4_1: The staff EP2 needs to pay an international roaming expense.
Step B3_2: The staff EP2 tries to dial or send a message to the phone number NB1, and dials or sends a message to the phone number NB2 again when the phone number NB1 is unable to be connected.
Step B4_2: The staff EP2 needs to pay an international roaming expense, and spends time dialing the phone number NB1.
(Blow is the Branch BR4)
Step B2_2: The staff EP1 does not tell the staff EP2 the phone number NB2
Step B3_3: The staff EP2 dials or sends a message to the phone number NB1.
Step B4_3: The staff EP2 can not contact with the staff EP1.
The third situation is corresponding to the branch BR5, which includes the following steps:
Step C: The subscriber identity model card SIM1 cannot roam in the location NT2, and the staff EP1 does not purchase the subscriber identity model card SIM2.
Step C1: The staff EP2 dials or send a message to the phone number NB1.
Step C2: The staff EP2 can not contact with the staff EP1.
As can be seen from above, when the staff EP1 travels to the location NT2, there is a situation that the staff EP2 cannot contact with the staff EP1 immediately because the staff EP2 cannot get the contact method of the staff EP1. In addition, although the staff EP2 can contact with the staff EP1 through international roaming, whether the staff EP1 uses the subscriber identity model card SIM2 or not, at least one staff needs to pay an extra international roaming expense, which causes phone expense increasing.

Mobile communication system and related management method


Methods and apparatus for determining a subset of a plurality of relationships between a plurality of parameters describing operation of a lithographic apparatus, the method comprising: determining a first set of data describing first relationships between a plurality of parameters of a reference apparatus; based on one or more measurements, determining a second set of data describing second relationships between the plurality of parameters of the reference or a further apparatus; comparing the first set of data and the second set of data; and selecting from the second set of data a subset of the second relationships based on differences between the first set of data and the second set of data.

A lithographic apparatus is a machine constructed to apply a desired pattern onto a substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). A lithographic apparatus may, for example, project a pattern (also often referred to as "design layout" or "design") at a patterning device (e.g., a mask) onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on a substrate (e.g., a wafer).
To project a pattern on a substrate a lithographic apparatus may use electromagnetic radiation. The wavelength of this radiation determines the minimum size of features which can be formed on the substrate. Typical wavelengths currently in use are 365 nm (i-line), 248 nm, 193 nm and 13.5 nm. A lithographic apparatus, which uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation, having a wavelength within the range 4-20 nm, for example 6.7 nm or 13.5 nm, may be used to form smaller features on a substrate than a lithographic apparatus which uses, for example, radiation with a wavelength of 193 nm.
Low-k1 lithography may be used to process features with dimensions smaller than the classical resolution limit of a lithographic apparatus. In such process, the resolution formula may be expressed as CD=k1×λ/NA, where λ is the wavelength of radiation employed, NA is the numerical aperture of the projection optics in the lithographic apparatus, CD is the "critical dimension" (generally the smallest feature size printed, but in this case half-pitch) and k1 is an empirical resolution factor. In general, the smaller k1 the more difficult it becomes to reproduce the pattern on the substrate that resembles the shape and dimensions planned by a circuit designer in order to achieve particular electrical functionality and performance. To overcome these difficulties, sophisticated fine-tuning steps may be applied to the lithographic projection apparatus and/or design layout. These include, for example, but not limited to, optimization of NA, customized illumination schemes, use of phase shifting patterning devices, various optimization of the design layout such as optical proximity correction (OPC, sometimes also referred to as "optical and process correction") in the design layout, or other methods generally defined as "resolution enhancement techniques" (RET). Alternatively, tight control loops for controlling a stability of the lithographic apparatus may be used to improve reproduction of the pattern at low k1.
A lithographic apparatus (or other apparatus such as n inspection or metrology apparatus) can be a complex comprising many components interacting in the apparatus. Maintenance of the different components may be required to help the apparatus function effectively and predictive maintenance methods can be used to determine when to perform maintenance of the whole or a portion of the machine. Lithographic apparatus can be described using a plurality of parameters, which may be based on measurements relating to the apparatus. Some of the parameters may be interrelated, and relationships between the parameters can be used to describe and analyse the apparatus. The relationships between parameters describing the apparatus may be causal relationships. The existence of causal relationships between parameters of an apparatus may be determined using methods and apparatuses as set out in WO2017/055073A1. Analysis of these relationships can be used to determine when maintenance of the whole or a part of the apparatus is required, for example as set out in WO2017/182269A1. The contents of WO2017/055073A1 and WO2017/182269A1 are incorporated herein by reference.

Determining significant relationships between parameters describing operation of an apparatus


Disclosed herein is a reception apparatus including: a reception section configured to receive a signal modulated by a predetermined system defined by a predetermined standard; a decoding section configured to decode transmission parameters included in the received signal; an acquisition section configured to acquire from among sequentially decoded transmission parameters the parameters used in a demodulation process performed on the received signal; and a control section configured such that if the acquired transmission parameters used in the demodulation process on the received signal are different from the sequentially decoded transmission parameters, then the control section controls the demodulation process on the received signal based on newly decoded transmission parameters.

The present disclosure relates to a reception apparatus, a reception method, a demodulation apparatus, a demodulation method, and a program. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a reception apparatus, a reception method, a demodulation apparatus, a demodulation method, and a program for reliably performing a demodulation process.
In the past, digital broadcast reception apparatuses had receivable channels searched for and stored inside when the apparatuses were used for the first time. Based on the result of the channel search, the reception apparatuses then allowed channels to be selected (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-open Nos. 2002-101352 and 2004-222050).
During the channel search, the presence or absence of a broadcast at each modulation frequency is determined. If it is determined that a broadcast is present at a given frequency, transmission parameters of the channel corresponding to the frequency are decoded. The decoded transmission parameters are stored in a memory in conjunction with the modulation frequency. When this process has been performed on all modulation frequencies subject to search, the initial channel search is completed. At ordinary channel change time following the initial channel search, the transmission parameters stored in the memory are referenced and a desired digital broadcast is demodulated.
For example, the DTMB (Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast) standard is a typical terrestrial digital broadcasting system, among others.
FIG. 1 shows the frame format of the DTMB standard.
A frame according to the DTMB standard is made up of a header and a body. A symbol sequence of PN (pseudo noise) is inserted into the header. The body includes system information symbols (SI in FIG. 1) and data symbols ("Data" in FIG. 1), in that order. A symbol sequence obtained by encoding the transmission parameters as per predetermined rules is inserted into the 36-symbol system information at the beginning of the body.
As the transmission parameters, the DTMB standard stipulates FEC (Forward Error Correction) rates (e.g., 0.4, 0.6, 0.8), interleave lengths (e.g., 240, 720), or constellations (e.g., 4 QAM, 4 QAM-NR, 16 QAM, 32 QAM, 64 QAM), for example.

Reception apparatus, reception method, demodulation apparatus, demodulation method, and program


An optical switching network for through-connecting optical message cells has at least one optical space-switching multiple connected at its input side to the inputs thereof and has at least one optical transit time harp formed with a plurality of light waveguides with graduated transit times of whole-number, n-multiples (with n.gtoreq.0) of the message cell duration. The outputs of a transit time harp following a space-switching multiple are respectively combined to a concentrator output of the optical switching network.

The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) based on an asynchronous time-division multiplex technique plays an important part in recent developments of telecommunications technology and in the development of integrated services broadband networks (B-ISDN). In this mode the signal transmission ensues in a bit stream which is subdivided into cells. Each cell, composed of a header part and a useful information part, has a constant length of, for example, 53 octets that are occupied as needed with packeted messages. When useful information is not to be communicated at the moment, then specific dummy cells are transmitted. Virtual connections are set up in ATM switching centers. The virtual connections are connections that actually only use a route section when a message packet (block) is actually to be communicated thereover. The header of each packet contains, among other things, an address covering, for example, two octets for the unambiguous allocation of the packet to a specific virtual connection. In accordance with the respective dial information, each packet can thereby receive the complete information for its route through the switching network at the input to the switching network. The switching elements then through-connect the packet on the defined route themselves (self-routing network; see, for example, Telcom Report 11 (1988) 6, 210 . . . 213).
When one forgoes a header translation or implements this in electronic devices, switching networks for ATM message cells can also be realized with optically transparent devices for queuing and routing functions.
For example, European reference EP-A2-0 313 389 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,818) discloses an optical packet switching system having optical 2.times.2 coupling switches arranged in switching stages. Every coupling switch has buffer memory means at its two inputs that lead to the input of an optical switch-over means whose two outputs form the two coupling switch outputs. The optical switch-over means is preceded in the light waveguide path by an optical demultiplexer with which only light having a wavelength defined individually per switching stage can be coupled out from a routing header. Proceeding from this demultiplexer, the optical switch-over means following in the light waveguide path is controlled via an optoelectric transducer. The optical switch-over means enters into one or the other of its switch states dependent on whether or not the wavelength defined for the appertaining switching stage is contained in the routing header.
In order to avoid cell losses, it is thereby known to provide cell memories that are composed of a fed back line of the switching network having a delay of at least one cell duration. In this known light waveguide telecommunication system, both routing functions as well as associated queuing functions connected therewith in order to avoid cell losses are optically implemented. However, the queuing functions are limited to the insertion of message packets of two input lines onto a common, continuing line.
The same queuing principle can also be employed for a switching matrix wherein the switching matrix outputs are connected to switching matrix inputs via light waveguide delay lines having graduated transit times equal to the message cell duration or to a multiple thereof.
For example, a single-stage or multi-stage ATM switching network is known wherein respectively two successive, optical space switching multiples are connected to one another by light waveguides having a negligibly short transit time as well as by optical intermediate memories. Message cells can then be through-connected across the optical switching network undelayed or with different delays as needed. The optical intermediate storage thereby occurs in an optical apparatus, hereinafter referred to as an optical transit time harp, consisting of a plurality of light waveguides having graduated transit times whose transit times are equal to whole-number n-multiples of the message cell duration in order to avoid cell losses given occupied switching network outputs (see European reference EP-92108243.4). Additionally or alternatively, an optical switching network can have a part of the outputs of an optical space-switching multiple connected to a corresponding plurality of inputs of the space-switching multiple via an optical transit time harp formed with a plurality of light waveguides having graduated transit times. As a result message cells can be through-connected across the optical switching network practically undelayed or with different delays as needed. The transit time harp can have light waveguides having graduated transit times that are shorter than the duration of a message cell in order to reduce a more or less pronounced jitter of message cells that occur unsynchronized (see German reference DE-A1-4 216 077).

Optical switching equipment for the through-connection of optical message cells


A portable or field type tire bead breaker tool comprised of a body member, a jaw member and a bead breaker member where the body member and jaw member are actuatable to bring wedge elements on the body member in position between a tire wall and a tire rim wall proximate to a tire bead. The bead breaker member has a wedge shaped element which is initially disposed in a first position in alignment with the wedge elements on the body member for disposition with the wedge elements between a tire wall and a tire rim wall. The wedge shaped element is arranged to be pivoted independently of the wedge elements to a second position and displace the tire bead from the tire rim. The wedge shaped element thereafter is movable laterally and rotatively to a third position for displacing the tire bead entirely from the tire rim.

Bead breakers for separating a tire bead from a tire rim are well known. With respect to heavy equipment tires, a tire change is more often than not accomplished in a field or remote location from repair facilities because of the difficulty of transporting heavy equipment. For this reason, portable tire bead breakers ar in demand. Such portable tire bead breakers require portability and ease of use as well as reliability in breaking free a tire bead from a tire rim. As can be expected, a tire bead which is normally inflated with air pressure to seal with respect to a tire rim becomes very tightly engaged with a tire rim in heavy equipment over a period of time and use.
One of the problems with tire bead breakers is the inability to control the bead breaker with respect to the flexibility of the tire. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,462, a bead breaker tool has a roller member which engages a tire rim and a jaw member which is inserted between a lip of a tire rim and a tire. The jaw member and roller member are pivotally coupled to one another and actuated by a manually operated screw member. The jaw member is slidably mounted in a frame member so that another screw member can move the jaw member laterally relative to a frame member. The problem with this device is that it often fails because the friction between the slidable jaw member and frame member is too great to overcome and because the jaw member often tends to exert a movement or force on the tire wall which is upward relative to a tire rim rather than inward so that the tire wall can be damaged before the type bead breaks.
Another device called a "Bead Buster" and sold by Gans Tire Co., Inc., 730 Eastern Ave., P.O. Box 22, Malden, Mass. 02148 involves a set of side-by-side wedge elements which are forced into place between a tire and a tire rim by hammer blows on a strike plate. Once positioned, a cam locking device is adjusted by an adjuster screw to orient the device at a position 90.degree. to the rim. A cam device then locks the tool to the rim. A ratchet wrench operates a threaded member to move a set of wedge elements perpendicular to the tool. The tool suffers from friction when the threaded member is actuated which can only be alleviated by expensive load bearing ball bearings or the like. Additionally the tire, during the bead breaking operation, sometimes moves erratically which causes the tool to be forced off the rim or to puncture or damage the tire wall.


A dual sensor system for measuring the presence of a wide range of water vapor concentration in an atmosphere. A first sensor for measuring higher levels of water vapor concentration and a second sensor for measuring lower levels of water vapor concentration. A pair of three way valves operable to provide two flow paths for the atmosphere, a first path including both the first and second sensors, and a second path including only the second sensor. An electronic control arrangement for indicating the water vapor levels in the atmosphere and for providing an electronic signal to actuate the pair of three way valves.

There are many situations in which it is desirable or even necessary to determine the level of moisture in an atmosphere. For instance, in testing the permeability of a material to water vapor. One such instance is the testing of the water permeability of a plastic film or sheet used to form a package for a product. A test instrument is provided which passes a first water vapor containing atmosphere across one side of the plastic film or sheet and a second water vapor free atmosphere across the opposite side of the plastic film or sheet. Measurement of the water vapor level in the second atmosphere, after it has passed over the opposite side of the plastic film or sheet, provides an indication of the water vapor permeability of the plastic film or sheet. In such applications, the water vapor level in the second atmosphere will start out very low and increase as water vapor from the first atmosphere permeates the plastic film or sheet. Thus, it would be desirable to initially accurately read low levels of water vapor in the second atmosphere, and as more water vapor permeates the plastic film or sheet, thereafter read higher levels of water vapor in the second atmosphere. However, in other applications it is desirable to first measure high levels of water vapor, and thereafter measure lower levels. Such as, when it is desirable to monitor moisture being removed from an atmosphere and it is necessary to indicate when the moisture vapor level has reached a desired low level.
Separate systems and sensors have long been available to measure either high levels of water vapor or low levels of water vapor. However, a single testing apparatus and system has not been provided which will respond to water vapor levels in an atmosphere to accurately indicate both high levels of moisture vapor and low levels of moisture vapor, without the need to determine in advance whether high or low levels of water vapor are present in the atmosphere being observed. It has been necessary in the past to have prior knowledge of the water vapor level, since exposure of a typical low level water vapor sensor to other than a very short exposure to high moisture vapor levels would render it either inoperative, until it is dried, or even possibly destroy the sensor.
Accordingly, it would be of considerable advantage to provide a system and method in which a single instrument is provided to indicate both very low levels and also high levels of water vapor in an atmosphere without the need to first determine the water vapor level, so as not to expose a sensor for low levels of water vapor to a high level of water vapor, which would either destroy the sensor or render it inoperative until it is dried for a considerable period of time.

System and method for sensing a wide range of water vapor levels in an atmosphere


An assembling device for assembling an actuator and a lens module. The actuator includes a first top surface for supporting the lens module and a first bottom surface. The lens module includes a top portion for receiving lens and a bottom portion. The diameter of bottom portion is slightly larger than the top portion. The bottom portion further includes a second first bottom surface in contact with the first top surface. The assembling device includes a base, a support set, and a pressing sheet. The base includes a supporting surface for supporting the first bottom surface. The support set is above the base and defines at least three threaded holes therethrough. The pressing sheet is in contact with the second top surface. The at least three pins are movably threaded with the threaded holes correspondingly and configured for pushing the pressing sheet.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an assembling device for assembling an actuator and a lens module.
2. Description of Related Art
Microelectromechanical structure (MEMS) actuators are widely used in the camera modules for driving lens modules to focus. Currently, an assembling device is used to assemble a lens module onto a MEMS actuator. The assembling device includes a base and a pressing pole. When assembling, the MEMS actuator is firstly disposed on the base. Then, the lens module is disposed on the MEMS actuator. Next, the lens module is pressed onto the MEMS actuator using the pressing pole. Finally, glue is applied to a jointing portion of the lens module and the MEMS actuator, thereby assembling the lens module onto the MEMS actuator. The challenge of this assembling process is: pressing force of the pressing pole is applied to only a point of the lens module, thus evenness of the lens module is not guaranteed, which degrades quality of the lens module.
Therefore, what is desired is an assembling device for assembling an actuator and a lens module that can overcome the above described limitations.

Assembling device for assembling actuator and lens module


An electronic aerosol-generating smoking device includes a main body having a heating region for heating aerosol-forming substrate. The main body includes a front housing defining a cavity configured to receive an aerosol-forming substrate, and a heater in the main body and configured to heat the aerosol-forming substrate in the cavity. At least a portion of an internal surface of the main body is at least one of a hydrophobic and super-hydrophobic surface.

At least some example embodiments relate to electronic aerosol-generating smoking devices.
Various aerosol-generating systems are known, wherein an aerosol-forming substrate is heated in order to vaporize substances from the substrate forming an inhalable aerosol. In some systems a tobacco material plug is heated by a heater blade inserted into the plug.

Electronic aerosol-generating smoking device


The invention provides a vectorized representation method of a software source code. The vectorized representation method is an AST-based neural network which is a hierarchical vector representation method comprising the following implementation steps: step 1-1, converting an original software source code into an AST at the lowest layer, and then further dividing the AST according to source code statements to acquire a smaller statement tree sequence, wherein statement trees in the statement tree sequence are different in sequence, and the statement tree sequence is consistent with an original statement sequence; step 1-2, encoding the statement trees into statement vectors e1, e2, . . . , et by a recursive neural encoder; step 1-3, enabling an acquired statement vector sequence to pass through a bidirectional recurrent neural network layer to extract dependency features between statements; and step 1-4, sampling multi-dimensional features of all time steps of the bidirectional recurrent neural network layer through a pooling layer to acquire a final vector representation.

Program comprehension plays a crucial role in many software engineering applications, can help developers improve development efficiency and code quality on the one hand, and also help software maintenance on the other hand. Typical applications include code classification, code clone detection, defect prediction, and code summary generation, wherein the important and difficult part for achieving program comprehensive is how to establish an effective program representation method to capture as much as possible the semantics of the program itself, such as the function of a program.
Although we can manually design or extract program features to realize many relevant applications, the disadvantage of this method is that significant labor is required and features acquired are often limited to specific tasks. Therefore, the prior art often directly uses some conventional methods in information retrieval to extract the features in the program. For example, a program is regarded as a set or sequence of words to realize clone detection of the code. In addition, topic models such as latent semantic indexing (LSI) or latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) are also widely used in program analysis and processing. However, the common problem of these applications is to treat the code as a natural language and apply methods in natural language processing (NLP). In fact, the code contains abundant structural information, which cannot be captured by the above methods.
According to the latest technology, parsing tools are used to convert a program source code into an abstract syntax tree (AST) to structurally represent the program. On this basis, a neural network method is combined to automatically acquire a vector representation of the program for different tasks and scenarios. For example, after the AST of a certain program is acquired, a recursive neural network is directly used to perform bottom-up recursive encoding on the entire syntax tree to acquire a final semantic vector. Similarly, existing research also combines tree-based convolutional neural network (CNN) or long short term memory (LSTM) to enhance the representation capability of structural information. But these methods still have three main problems as follows:
1, the scale of the entire AST is large, and the tree-structured neural network easily causes the problem of gradient vanishing;
2, the method of traversing the entire AST from the bottom up or by using a sliding window tends to lose long-distance dependence information contained in the original program; and
3, most of the existing tree-based neural network methods convert the original AST to be in a form of a binary tree, which destroys the original structural information and semantic information, causes a large increase in the depth of the tree, and further results in the difficulty of capturing long-distance dependence.

Vectorized representation method of software source code


A collector is disclosed that is made of a polyolefin fiber having amidoxime groups and that is capable of efficient adsorptive recovery of useful metals such as uranium, vanadium, cobalt and titanium which are dissolved in small quantities in seawater. In the presence of a polymerizable monomer having a hydrophilic group, a polymerizable monomer having a cyano group is grafted to a polyolefin fiber by radiation-initiated graft polymerization to form both a hydrophilic group and a cyano group in the same graft side chains, and the cyano groups in the graft side chains are reacted with hydroxylamine to be converted to amidoxime groups, thereby producing a collector capable of recovering dissolved metals from seawater.

(a) This invention relates to a collector made of a polyolefinic fiber having an amidoxime group and a hydrophilic group and which is capable of efficient adsorptive recovery of useful metals such as uranium, vanadium, cobalt and titanium that occur dissolved in small quantities in seawater. The invention also relates to a process for producing the collector. PA0 (b) The invention relates to a collector that is produced by introducing an amidoxime group, either alone or in combination with a hydrophilic group, into side chains grafted to a polyolefinic fiber substrate and which needs only to be anchored in seawater to accomplish efficient recovery of useful metals such as vanadium, cobalt, uranium and titanium that are dissolved in the seawater. The invention also relates to a cassette of such collectors and a method of collecting the above-mentioned useful metals from seawater using the cassette. PA0 (a) Conventionally, amidoxime groups are introduced into a polymer structure in accordance with the following scheme (1) by reacting the cyano group (--CN) with hydroxylamine (NH.sub.2 OH): ##STR1## PA0 (b) In seawater, vanadium, uranium and many other rare metals that scarcely occur in Japan are contained dissolved but their concentrations are extremely low, only about 1.9 mg of vanadium per ton of seawater and about 3.3 mg of uranium. PA0 (a) The present has been accomplished with a view to developing a material that is strong enough to withstand hostile weather conditions in ocean and which has high performance in collecting dissolved metals from seawater. To attain this object, the fiber of a polyolefin such as polyethylene or polypropylene that is a highly durable polymer is used as a substrate, side chains are grafted to the substrate polymer by radiation-initiated graft polymerization, and then an amidoxime group and a hydrophilic group are introduced into the same graft side chains. PA0 (b) The collector of the invention needs only to be submerged and anchored in seawater such as the Kuroshio current so that slightly dissolved useful metals such as vanadium, uranium, cobalt, titanium and molybdenum are efficiently recovered from the seawater. The collector is characterized in that the fiber of a polyolefin such as polyethylene that is commonly used in oil fences is irradiated to introduce a chemical structure capable of selective trapping of metals.
Seawater has various metals (see Table 1) dissolved in it and the present invention aims at recovering these dissolved metals by adsorption using a collector.
TABLE 1 Total estimated Concentration dissolved Dependency Rare metal in seawater, quantity, on overseas, sources (mg/ton) (.times.10.sup.8 tons) (%) Cobalt (Co) 0.1 1 100 Yttrium (Y) 0.3 3 100 Titanium (Ti) 1 15 100 Manganese (Mn) 2 30 90 Vanadium (V) 2 30 100 Uranium (U) 3 45 100 Molybdenum (Mo) 10 150 100 Lithium (Li) 170 2,330 100 Boron (B) 4,600 63,020 100 Strontium (Sr) 8,000 109,600 100
To produce the collector of the invention, a polymerizable monomer such as acrylonitrile (CH.sub.2.dbd.CHCN) that contains a cyan group (--CN) is grafted onto a polyolefinic fiber substrate by radiation-initiated graft polymerization so as to form grafted side chains and the cyan groups in these side chains are reacted with hydroxylamine (NH.sub.2 OH) or the like to be converted to amidoxime groups.
A plurality of the thus produced collectors may be sandwiched between nets and a plurality of the resulting assemblies are stacked in position at suitable spacings to construct a collector cassette. The cassette may be placed in a number of cages that are anchored in seawater to recover useful dissolved metals from it by adsorption.
To synthesize a satisfactory amidoxime resin by introducing amidoxime groups into a polymer structure, the introduction of amidoxime groups into substrates typically made of the general-purpose polyacrylic fiber or polyacrylic beads produced by emulsion polymerization. However, these acrylic resins have suffered from deterioration in skeletal strength of the polymer on account of the introduction of hydrophilic amidoxime groups into the cyano groups in the polymer skeleton. With a view to preventing this problem, a review has been made to form crosslinks in the polymer structure. In fact, however, the increase in the degree of crosslinking is accompanied by a decrease in the rate of metal adsorption and this tradeoff has been an obstacle to the solution of the problem.
It is known that a collector that is capable of selective adsorptive recovery of dissolved metals from seawater can be produced by grafting acrylonitrile onto a polyethylene fiber under exposure to radiation and then reacting it with hydroxylamine to introduce amidoxime groups.
It is also known that a selective adsorbent of uranium dissolved in seawater can be produced from a substrate of a desired shape that is made of an inorganic material, an organic material or a composite thereof and into which both an amidoxime group and a hydrophilic group are introduced by radiation-initiated graft polymerization (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 58775/1987) filed by one of present inventors).
Under the circumstances, there has been a pressing need to improve the existing collectors and develop a material that is strong enough to withstand prolonged exposure to hostile weather conditions in ocean and which maintains high performance in collecting vanadium, uranium and other useful metals in seawater.
Heretofore, uranium has been recovered from seawater by the following methods using an adsorbent; seawater is brought into contact with the particles of titanic acid to adsorb uranium from the seawater and fine air bubbles are attached to the particles of titanic acid, which are then floated on the seawater and separated therefrom to recover the uranium (Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 61018/1979); calcium or carbonate ions are removed from seawater before uranium in the seawater is recovered by adsorption onto a hydrous metal oxide adsorbent (Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 79111/1979); a collector produced by reacting a polyethyleneimine derivative with hydroxylamine is used to achieve adsorptive recovery of metal ions dissolved in seawater (Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 48725/1987); and using a kalixarene derivative to recover uranium in seawater by adsorption (Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 136242/1987).
Dissolved metals can also be recovered using chelate resins and conventional methods based on this approach include the following: a specified group is introduced into a chloromethylated crosslinked polystyrene, which is then reacted with hydroxylamine to produce an adsorbent resin that is used to recover dissolved metals from seawater by adsorption (Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 84907/1984); a chelate resin having malonyl dihydroxamate residue is used as an adsorbent to recover dissolved metals by adsorption (Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 83730/1984); and a chelate resin having functional groups of a specified structure in the molecule is used to recover dissolved metals by adsorption (Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 11224/1985).
To date, the conventional methods of recovering uranium from seawater using adsorbents or those for recovering dissolved metals using chelate resins have not been implemented in practice since they are incapable of cost-effective collection of uranium and other rare metals. However, for Japan which is by no means rich in mineral resources, it has been long desired to exploit the metals that are dissolved in the surrounding sea.

Collector of dissolved metal from sea water having an amidoxime group and a hydrophilic group, a method for production thereof


A dental instrument water supply filter includes a hollow cylindrical body which bounds an interior area. The interior area houses a plurality of iodinated resin particles. A pair of water permeable discs are positioned in the interior area of the body at opposed axial ends. End caps close the interior area of the body at the respective opposed ends, and each end cap includes a respective removable fluid fitting. Water that is used in connection with the operation of a dental instrument is passed through the filter. The filter provides filtration and reduces microorganisms in the water that is passed therethrough and also releases ions into the water that are effective to reduce the growth of contaminants in the water lines to the instrument.

Water is frequently used in connection with the operation of dental equipment and dental procedures. It is desirable to have the water that is used in connection with such dental equipment not be contaminated with bacteria, viruses, molds or other harmful materials.
Water that is supplied to dental instruments must travel from a source through lines to reach the dental instruments. Even if the water from the source is free of harmful materials it is possible for the lines to become contaminated with harmful materials. Various approaches can be taken to disinfect the water lines that lead from the water source to the dental instrument or to otherwise minimize the risk of contamination of the water and the lines.
Techniques for minimizing the risk of contamination in water lines that supply dental instruments may benefit from improvements.


A hydraulic switching mechanism for longwall supports. The present invention provides a hydraulic system that is controlled by its own pressure and may be adaptable to those currently in use so that life-threatening and costly faults cannot occur. With the present invention, the retrofitting of existing systems may be made possible without significant expenditure in modification.

The invention relates to a hydraulic switching mechanism for longwall supports. Similar switching mechanisms are generally known and in use. They are hydraulic systems controlled by their own pressure. In these, the pump pressure of the hydraulic circuit is also used for hydraulic pilot control of the valves. This procedure has been successful in the control of supports. It allows the system to function with only two feed lines in the longwall. In contradistinction to this, in systems under external control, the hydraulic pilot control commands are generated via separate control valves operating independently of load pressure or pump pressure, the control valves being supplied with pressurizing medium via separate pressure lines. However, a part of any system of this type is also separate return flow management of all the control volumes. Also due to this, the complexity of the tubing is increased. In case faults appear, the localization of the fault is very difficult since it is not to be ruled out that the two pressure feeds, i.e. operating pressure feed and pilot control feed, interact. Also, the valve construction is significantly more complicated, in particular with regard to pressure equalization and sealing, due to the requirement of decoupling of the operating pressure from the pilot control pressure.
On the other hand, in view of the high level of complexity and the plurality of the switching elements and control elements located in the longwall, in particular control valves and load-maintaining valves, the high safety standards in mining entail a great expenditure in protective measures, even for hydraulic systems controlled by their own pressure. In this connection the basic rule applies that the hydraulic system for the shield support has to ensure that despite the large number of possible operating states, including impermissible operating states or unplanned faults, the personnel below ground can stay under the shields safely, even in the area of the longwall.
Despite these protective measures, it has been observed that in case of a fault in the operation of the pump, the ram (ram cylinder) of a shield, and in rapid temporal sequence also the ram cylinders of other shields, have slackened so that the rock mass could sag.
The objective of the invention is to develop hydraulic systems controlled by their own pressure and currently in use so that life-threatening and costly faults of this type cannot occur, and where the retrofitting of existing systems is also made possible without significant expenditure in modification.

Hydraulic switching mechanism for longwall supports


When an approaching crossroad is detected on a target route, the method and apparatus of the invention determine if the relevant turn signal is operated before the crossroad, as well as informing the driver of the crossroad. According to the invention, if the relevant turn signal is not operated, routes different from the target route are calculated before the vehicle arrives at the crossroad, and if the vehicle does not follow the target route at the crossroad, the target route is changed according to the vehicle position.

The present invention relates to a navigation method and system for a vehicle, and more particularly, to a navigation method and system for stable and prompt vehicle guidance when the vehicle passes a crossroad.
A recent navigation system for a vehicle stores a digital map in a data storage unit, determines the vehicle position on the digital map, and guides the driver along an optimal route. To guide the vehicle on the route, the navigation system, having calculated a target route to a target place as the optimal route, also indicates an appropriate direction to take when the vehicle approaches a crossroad.
If the vehicle does not follow the target route, but instead proceeds on a different branch of the crossroad, the navigation system has to calculate a new target route based on the branch the vehicle is traveling. However, there are problems with guiding the vehicle in the prior art. For example, if two crossroads are near each other, when a vehicle takes a branch departing from the target route at the first crossroad, a new target route must be calculated before the vehicle arrives at the second crossroad. But the time required to calculate the new target route is not negligibly small, and sometimes it is only after the vehicle arrives at the second crossroad that the calculation of the new target route is completed.
Thus, the vehicle position after the second crossroad does not correspond to the new target route and a new calculation of a new target route must be executed. Therefore, the navigation system does not perform the vehicle route guiding function for a substantially long period.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art that is already known to a person skilled in the art.
A preferred embodiment of a navigation method for guiding a vehicle on a route includes: calculating a target route for guiding the vehicle; detecting a forthcoming crossroad on the target route; displaying a signal for informing of the forthcoming crossroad; determining if a relevant turn signal, corresponding to the target route at the crossroad, is operated before the vehicle arrives at the crossroad; calculating at least one backup route different from the target route at the crossroad, when the relevant turn signal is not operated; determining a current vehicle position after the crossroad; determining if the current vehicle position after the crossroad lies on the target route; and changing the target route when the current vehicle position after the crossroad does not lie on the target route.
It is preferable that the changing of the target route changes the target route to one of backup routes. More preferably, calculating the backup routes calculates backup routes for each branch from the crossroad, and changing the target route changes the target route to a backup route on which the vehicle is positioned after the crossroad.
It is also preferable that determining if a relevant turn signal, corresponding to the target route at the crossroad, is operated is executed when a distance between the vehicle and the crossroad falls within a predetermined distance range. It is also preferable that determining if a relevant turn signal, corresponding to the target route at the crossroad, is operated is executed when an expected time for the vehicle to arrive at the crossroad falls within a predetermined time range.
A navigation system for guiding a vehicle on a route according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a data storage unit for storing digital map data, a display unit for displaying received signals, an electronic control unit, and a turn signal operation detector.
The electronic control unit preferably executes instructions for calculating a target route for guiding the vehicle; detecting a forthcoming crossroad on the target route; displaying a signal for informing of the forthcoming crossroad; determining if a relevant turn signal, corresponding to the target route at the crossroad, is operated before the vehicle arrives at the crossroad; calculating at least one backup route, different from the target route at the crossroad, when the relevant turn signal is not operated; determining a current vehicle position after the crossroad; determining if the current vehicle position after the crossroad lies on the target route; and changing the target route when the current vehicle position after the crossroad does not lie on the target route.
It is also preferable that the exemplary navigation system further includes a GPS signal receiver for receiving GPS signals from a GPS satellite, and accordingly said determining a current vehicle position after the crossroad determines the current vehicle position on a digital map, based on received GPS signals. In a preferred embodiment, the navigation method for guiding a vehicle includes; detecting a current vehicle position; calculating a target route for the vehicle; detecting an approaching crossroad along the target route; displaying a signal informing of the approaching crossroad; determining if a turn signal indicates that the vehicle will follow the target route; calculating a backup route if the turn signal indicates that the vehicle will not follow the target route; determining a post-crossroad current vehicle position after the vehicle has passed the crossroad; determining if the post-crossroad current vehicle position lies on the target route; and changing the target route to the backup route if the post-crossroad current vehicle position does not lie on the target route. Preferably, the method calculates a backup route for each branch of the approaching crossroad.
In an additional embodiment, the method also includes detecting a crossroad on the backup route; and calculating a second backup route corresponding to the crossroad on the backup route.

Navigation method and system of a vehicle