The present invention provides a gate driving circuit, of which respective odd stage GOA unit circuits are cascade connected, and respective even stage GOA unit circuits are cascade connected; the odd stage first, second scan control signals (VfO, VrO), the odd stage scan start signal (STVO), the odd stage first, second high frequency clock signals (CK1O, CK2O) are located corresponding to the odd stage GOA unit circuits; the even stage first, second scan control signals (VfE, VrE), the even stage scan start signal (STVE), the even stage first, second high frequency clock signals (CK1E, CK2E) are located corresponding to the even stage GOA unit circuits; by controlling the voltage levels of the odd stage first, second scan control signals (VfO, VrO) and even stage first, second scan control signals (VfE, VrE) in cooperation with the odd stage scan start signal (STVO) and the even stage scan start signal (STVE) of different sequences, the odd stage GOA unit circuits and the even stage GOA unit circuits can be controlled to perform forward scan or backward scan at the same time or in time division.

The Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) possesses advantages of thin body, power saving and no radiation to be widely used in many application scope. Such as LCD TV, mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), digital camera, notebook, laptop, and dominates the flat panel display field.
Most of the liquid crystal displays on the present market are backlight type liquid crystal displays, which comprise a liquid crystal display panel and a backlight module. The working principle of the liquid crystal display panel is that the Liquid Crystal is injected between the Thin Film Transistor Array Substrate (TFT array substrate) and the Color Filter (CF). The light of backlight module is refracted to generate images by applying driving voltages to the two substrates for controlling the rotations of the liquid crystal molecules.
The Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display (AMLCD) is the most common liquid crystal display device at present. The Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display comprises a plurality of pixels, and each pixel comprises a Thin Film Transistor (TFT). The gate of the TFT is coupled to the scan line extending along the horizontal direction. The drain of the TFT is coupled to the data line extending along the vertical direction. The source of the TFT is coupled to the corresponding pixel electrode. When a sufficient positive voltage is applied to some scan line in the horizontal direction, all the TFT coupled to the scan line will be activated to write the data signal loaded in the data line into the pixel electrodes and thus to show images to control the transmittances of different liquid crystals to achieve the effect of controlling colors.
The driving of the level scan line (i.e. the gate driving) in the present active liquid crystal display is mainly accomplished by the external Integrated Circuit (IC). The external IC can control the charge and discharge stage by stage of the level scan lines of respective stages. The GOA technology, i.e. the Gate Driver on Array technology can utilize the original manufacture processes of the liquid crystal display panel to manufacture the driving circuit of the level scan lines on the substrate around the active area, to replace the external IC for accomplishing the driving of the level scan lines. The GOA technology can reduce the bonding procedure of the external IC and has potential to raise the productivity and lower the production cost. Meanwhile, it can make the liquid crystal display panel more suitable to the narrow frame or non frame design of display products.
The scan way of the gate driving circuit according to prior art is generally simple, and only can perform forward scan or backward scan at a time, and perform scan row by row or interlaced scan at a time. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the gate driving circuit according to prior art for realizing the variety of scans for satisfying demands of various display products.

SHENZHEN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A rail yard management system that takes advantage of infrastructure installed in rail yards and on railcars to allow the management of the railcars within a rail yard. The invention is also applicable to yard management for vehicles other than railcars.

It has become more important for railway owners and operators to be able to monitor and locate assets, including railcars, locomotives and trains on a real time basis.
From a safety point of view, it is important to monitor various operational parameters of railcars, for example, bearing temperature, in real time, to be able to predict and stop impending failures, which could result in severe consequences, such as derailment. It is also important to be able to raise alerts of such conditions, and to communicate these operational parameters relating to alerts to an on-board operator or a remote railroad operations center, such that action to mitigate any unsafe conditions can be taken in a timely manner.
From an operational point of view, it is important for railway operators to determine whether a railcar is in a train consist outside of a rail yard, in a train consist in a rail yard, or if a railcar is in a loaded or unloaded condition. The significance of knowing the status of railcars allows an operator to determine if railcars are being utilized or idle at any given point in time and makes it easier to manage rail yard operations.
As current industry practice, the management of train consists and train yards in railroad operations relies on reading, at fixed points in the rail network, passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tags which are affixed to each railcar. While this method has provided railroad operators with significant increases in performance, it lacks the benefits of a dynamic wireless network capable of transmitting information and data, such as location and condition or performance data when not in range of an RFID reader. Further, the current system does not provide a mechanism to communicate operational alerts to the locomotive which allows the alerts to be actioned in a timely manner.
Given the demanding and harsh environments in which railroad trains operate, any monitoring system must be rugged, reliable and able to operate for long periods with little or no maintenance. In addition, to be cost effective, it should not add significant cost to install, maintain or operate the system. Because there are more than 1.5 million freight railcars in North America alone, a system of monitoring all railcars in use is highly desirable and, as such, the system needs to be scalable to handle a very large number of potential devices.
It is therefore desirable to provide a monitoring system that can be used while a train is operational, to monitor various operational parameters of the railcars and to communicate alert conditions to an on-board operator or off-train, and which also can be used when trains and/or railcars are in a rail yard to ease the management of assembling and de-assembling train consists.


A laser apparatus comprises a laser generating unit, and an intensity pattern regulating unit including a pair of blocking parts and a pair of semi-through parts, wherein the pair of semi-through parts are placed between the pair of blocking parts and adjust an intensity of an incident laser beam.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a laser apparatus and a manufacturing method of a thin film transistor using the same, and more particularly to a laser apparatus used to make an amorphous silicon layer uniform during a crystallization process and a manufacturing method of a thin film transistor substrate using the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A flat panel display device is widely used for a display device. The flat panel display device comprises, for example, a liquid crystal display or an organic light emitting diode display.
The liquid crystal display and the organic light emitting diode display show images by different mechanisms, but both include thin film transistors.
The thin film transistor comprises, for example, a channel area, a gate electrode, a source electrode, and a drain electrode. The channel area may be formed by amorphous silicon. The amorphous silicon has low electrical properties and reliability due to its low mobility.
A polysilicon thin film transistor of which the channel area is formed by polysilicon having mobility of about 20 cm3/Vsec to about 150 cm3/Vsec has been developed. Since the polysilicon thin film transistor has higher mobility than a thin film transistor comprising the channel area formed by an amorphous silicon, chip in glass, which means forming a driving circuit within a substrate, can be performed without difficulty by the polysilicon thin film transistor.
Processes for forming polysilicon layers include an evaporating process evaporating the polysilicon on the substrate at high temperature, a high temperature crystallization process depositing the amorphous silicon and crystallizing the amorphous silicon at about 600° C., and a heat treating process depositing the amorphous silicon and treating by laser.
A conventional process using the laser comprises a sequential lateral solidification (SLS) method and an excimer laser annealing (ELA) method. In the SLS method, grains of the polysilicon grow parallel with the substrate. In the ELA method, grains of the polysilicon grow perpendicular to the substrate.
The ELA process crystallizes the amorphous silicon by scanning the amorphous silicon layer with a strip-shaped laser beam. While the size of the substrate becomes larger, the length of the laser beam is limited. Accordingly, a double scan method scanning the laser beam twice to one substrate has been employed. However, the double scan method generates an overlapping region where the laser beam is overly irradiated, thereby causing the polysilicon layer to be inhomogeneous.

Laser apparatus and manufacturing method of thin film transistor using the same


A self contained heated root canal dental instrument which combines the operations of a root canal spreader, a root canal condenser and a root canal filling material heater is provided. The instrument has batteries in its handle for use as a power source for heating root canal filling material and employs a non-corrosive dental tool that has a resistive element in its tip to provide the heating when electricity from the batteries is conducted through the tip. A method for making the dental tool is provided which comprises threading a resistive element through a cannula which is used as a dental tool.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a self-contained heated root canal dental instrument that combines the operations of a root canal spreader, a root canal condenser, and a root canal filling material heater.
2. Prior Art
Masreliez, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,560 teaches a dental probe having a resistive, integrally heated tip. The tip itself is a resistive heating element in which an electrically conductive core is surrounded by a non-conductive layer, such as dielectric insulation. The outer resistive heating layer encircles the core and is electrically connected to the core at a leading end of the core. Electrical current passing through the core and into the resistive layer causes the resistive layer to heat up. This reference, at col. 2 lines 10-14 indicates that a tip may be implemented by a resistive core surrounded by a conductive layer, but does not teach how to implement such a tip.
Martin, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,827 teaches a dental instrument for root canal condensation work. The tool described may be provided with a power supply component for producing heat; and a transmission component for transmitting heat produced by the power supply to a material heating component of a plugger component. The heat transmission component comprises a heating element which is folded and formed to establish a tapered section and the tapered section is covered with teflon.
3. Background
Gutta percha is the standard root canal filling material. However, it is to be understood that this invention is usable on other root canal filling materials that are spread and condensed in the root canal and which are heated to improve the flow qualities of the root canal filling material.
Gutta percha deforms when warmed and compressed. It becomes pliable at 25.degree. to 30.degree. Celsius, it becomes soft at 60.degree. Celsius, and it decomposes at 100.degree. Celsius. At such temperatures phase transitions occur allowing the gutta percha to flow into many irregularities of the prepared root canal, thus allowing for a three-dimensional obturation and sealing to occur. Such a three dimensional obturation and sealing is necessary for success in root canal therapy.
When the filling material, such as gutta percha, is softened, it is then compressed into the numerous aberrations of the root canal in order to effectively seal the root canal cavity. The compressing of the filling material in the prior art is performed by using root canal filling spreaders and filling condensers of a variety of sizes and with several handle designs (both long and short).
The filling spreaders and condensers of the prior art for root canal work are generally made of stainless steel or nickel-chromium plated brass. The filling spreaders are smooth, flat ended and slightly tapered.
The conventional means for achieving a heated instrument tip is to heat the tip externally, for example, by holding the tip in a flame or in contact with a resistive heater. The primary disadvantage of this approach is that the instrument tip cools off too rapidly, particularly if the tip is narrow. To achieve the desired degree of heating at the end of the tip, it is often necessary to heat the tip to glowing. This degree of heating increases the risk of accidental burns and tends to rapidly destroy the tip.
Heating of the tip by contact with a resistive heater sometimes involves contacting the tip between an open circuit so that current flows through the tip and thereby heats the tip. Alternatively, the instrument tip may be placed in contact with a resistive heating element so that heat is transferred to the tip by conduction. This method is similar to the common operation of a soldering iron.
A disadvantage of contacting the instrument tip across an open circuit is that sparking of the short circuit may cause "pitting" of the instrument. Also, of course, it is difficult to regulate the temperature of the tip, so the tip may be either overheated or not heated enough.
It is also known in the prior art to heat a condenser tip by providing a resistive element in said tip.
It is known in the prior art to provide an electrically heated tip in a dental instrument by using a central resistive element in a cannula in a dental instrument tip. In the prior tip, a 22 gauge cannula was crimped to one end of a NiCr element and the other end of said element was crimped in a 25 gauge cannula. Current was carried to the NiCr element by the 22 gauge cannula. A 17 gauge cannula was crimped over the 25 gauge cannula and resistive element to act as a holder for the working heated length of 25 gauge cannula. The return path for the electric current began at the very tip (crimp of 25 gauge cannula to NiCr) and continued through the outermost 17 gauge cannula. The disadvantages of this design were that the NiCr proximal to the main crimp (17 gauge to 25 gauge) was thermally isolated and reached high temperatures since it was dissipating the same high linear power densities as the exposed tip. Also, flexure of the tip had a tendency to cause a short at the crimp.
In another prior art instrument that uses a resistive element in the tip, the tip comprises a conductive core within an electrically resistive material, and heat is generated when electricity passes through the resistive material.
The concentration of heat in the prior art device relies on current density concentration from cross-sectional changes in a material of uniform volume resistivity.
Such prior art devices have the disadvantages that heat is not always generated uniformly in resistive materials and hot or cold spots may form and the large amounts of resistive material needed to cover the outer surface of the tip require relatively large amounts of electricity to provide the necessary heat. Also, electrically resistive materials are not as resistant to corrosion, and cannot be shaped as easily as stainless steel which is conventionally used for such tips.
In addition, most such devices use alternating current and must therefore be attached to cumbersome wires which provide a conduit to the power source.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a heat condenser having a non-corrosive tip which can be shaped using conventional means, wherein said tip uses lower amounts of electricity than conventional resistive tips, wherein said tip is made of a heat and electrically conductive material which facilitates even heating of the tip, and wherein heating of the tip can more easily be controlled.

Battery powered condenser for root canals


Methods and systems for processing organic trans-resveratrol for use in dietary supplements is disclosed. The process begins with harvesting grapes, stems and leaves, placing them in a cloth sack and delivering the grapes, stems and leaves to a nearby processing facility within less than 25 minutes. Thereafter, grapes are pressed to extract the juice and the residual pomace of skin, seeds and stems is removed from the pressing cylinder, ground to a fine mesh powder (approximately 50 mesh size), mixed with a bioflavanoid compound and polygonum cuspidatum, handled in controlled temperatures between approximately 10.0° C. (50 degrees F.) to approximately 30° C. (86 degrees F.) and with humidity of the storage area at less than 35%. The process results in a high quality and high quantity yield of a stable, organic trans-resveratrol for use in dietary supplements that are bioavailable and easily absorbed by the consumer of the dietary supplement.

Resveratrol is a phytochemical that has many health benefits for mammals. Extensive studies have been performed on the mechanism of action and benefits of resveratrol to the consumer. There have also been extensive studies into the advantage of mammals consuming organic and naturally grown products, such as resveratrol. Organic products are grown free of pesticides and allowed to mature naturally. Studies have shown how this natural process boosts the plants own natural defense mechanisms against invading fungus, bugs, and bacteria. These phytochemicals have natural health benefits that translate to consumer of the phytochemicals, as reported by R. Liew in "Cardioprotective and Antiarrhythmic Effects of Resveratrol—a Modern Perspective on an Old Treatment," Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy, January 2009, Vol. 22, No. 6: 427-428.
Resveratrol is one such compound that is produced by grapes other fruits, nuts, and plants, such as polygonum cuspidatum, to defend the plant against invaders. Resveratrol has been shown to exist in two isomers, cis and trans. The trans structure of resveratrol has been shown to be an active anti-inflammatory and antioxidant that helps cells regulate internal harmful mechanisms according to G. Kaur et al. in "Effect of wine phenolics on cytokine-induced C-reactive protein expression," Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, July 2007, Vol. 5, No. 6: 1309-1317.
Trans-resveratrol is a sensitive molecule that degrades when exposed to light and heat. The trans structure of the molecule will degrade to a cis structure if it is exposed to UV light and temperatures above 110° F. according to Se Pu (Chinese Journal of Chromatography) 2004 November; 22 (6) 583-588. The trans structure of resveratrol has numerous health advantages in mammals that include antioxidant and anti-inflammatory protection for cells as reported by Trela, et al. in J. Argic. Food Chem. (1996) 44:1253-1257.
When growing, harvesting and processing grapes under strict guidelines, the amount of trans-resveratrol found in grapes can be increased resulting in an increase in the amount of trans-resveratrol in the final product. Improvements in the manufacturing process have also been made to enhance stability and absorption of the trans-resveratrol isomer.
Cis-resveratrol has minimal anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity which makes it inferior to trans-resveratrol in providing health benefits according to J. Pirkip et al. in "Resveratrol and its gylcon piceid are stable polyphenols," J. Medicinal Food 9 (1) 2006, 11-14.
It has also been shown that organic molecules increase the health of mammals consuming them over non-organic and processed foods according to R. F. Edlich, et al. in "Revolutionary advances in organic foods," Internal and Emergency Medicine, (2007), 2:182.
Thus, it has become an important focus in science and medicine to include organic molecules such as trans-resveratrol in the diet of man and animals in the form of dietary supplements.
Formulation, development and marketing of dietary supplements are flourishing commercial endeavors today. There remains great demand for high quality, effective dietary supplements. The current invention provides a very high quality dietary supplement containing a complex of trans-resveratrol derived from polygonum cospidatum, organic grape skins, vines and seeds. The present invention maximizes the absorption of trans-resveratrol and increases the bioavailability of trans-resveratrol, and other naturally occurring polyphenols such as catechin, epicatechin and OPCs (oligomeric proanthocyanidins), to the consumer of the dietary supplement.

Methods and systems for processing organic trans-resveratrol as dietary supplements


The maximum safe operating speed of flywheels and shafts made of low tensile strength material is often determined by the speed at which radial tensile stress exceeds a radial tensile stress limit for the material. Circumferentially wound fiber composite material, for example, has a relatively low tensile strength along the radial direction perpendicular to the fibers. To increase the maximum safe operating speed, it is therefore desirable to form a fiber composite flywheel or shaft with radial compressive prestress. Such a prestressed flywheel or shaft is made by placing a cylinder within a fiber composite annulus, injecting a bonding agent under pressure into the interface between the annulus and the cylinder, and maintaining the bonding agent under pressure while the bonding agent solidifies. Preferably, the cylinder and annulus are aligned in a concentric relationship during solidification by a chamber into which the cylinder and annulus are placed. The rim portion of a flywheel, for example, is formed from an outer ring (the annulus) and an inner ring (the cylinder, which is hollow in this case). The chamber is defined by a pair of plates which abut opposite faces of the rings, and by two concentric cylinders which limit the radial movement of the rings as the rings expand or contract, respectively, in response to the pressure of the bonding agent. The bonding agent is preferably a mixture of epoxy resin and chopped fiber or other randomly oriented epoxy reinforcing material.

The United States Government may have rights in the invention pursuant to funding arrangements with the Department of Defense.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to flywheels and shafts, and more particularly to a fiber-reinforced composite flywheel or shaft, and a method for producing compressive prestresses in a fiber-reinforced composite flywheel or shaft. This invention may also be used to prestress other low tensile strength materials, for example ceramics, for use in a flywheel or shaft.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of electrical pulsed power generation, generators with increased power and energy storage capability are needed to satisfy a host of new applications. Laboratory electromagnetic accelerator experiments, such as impact fusion studies, require reliable high power sources, while other concepts, such as space launchers, may demand stored energies in the gigajoule range.
As described in Walls & Manifold, "Applications of Lightweight Composite Materials in Pulsed Rotating Electrical Generators" 6th IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, Arlington, Va (Jun. 29-Jul. 1, 1987), flywheels are attached to the rotors of pulsed power generators to increase energy storage capabilities. Flywheels function as reservoirs which store rotational kinetic energy. As energy is withdrawn from a spinning flywheel, its angular speed decreases; as energy is supplied to a spinning flywheel, its angular speed increases. Conventionally used steel flywheels, while improving the performance of generators, are limited due to their weight and relatively low maximum permissible tip speeds.
Composite materials, such as epoxy reinforced graphite fibers, have specific strengths about ten times greater than steel. Thus, energy storage flywheels made of hoop wound composite materials can be spun at higher tip speeds to achieve higher specific energy storage than steel flywheels.
The selection of a composite material for a pulsed power flywheel must take into account the magnetic field in the vicinity of the rotor as it spins. The use of a nonconductive composite flywheel and shaft reduces eddy current losses which could be generated as the magnetic field ramps up and down during excitation and discharge. These losses not only produce a drag torque on the rotor, but can also heat and damage the composite material. "KEVLAR," polyaramid fiber made by the Dupont Corporation, graphite, boron, or glass fiber are best suited for flywheel and shaft construction since they are relatively nonconductive.
When a nonconductive shaft and flywheel is used, it is also desirable to eliminate iron from the rotor of the generator completely and use an air-core magnetic circuit for exciting the rotor. This permits the flux density of the excitation field to be increased above the maximum level for iron core circuits, and when the increased flux density is coupled with the higher rotor speeds afforded by the composite flywheels, the generated voltage is substantially increased.
Composite materials, such as those mentioned above, exhibit phenomenal stiffness and strength in the axial direction of the fiber. These materials, however, are highly anisotropic. The transverse stiffness of a fiber composite can be thirty to forty times lower than the longitudinal stiffness, while the transverse strength can be two orders of magnitude lower than the longitudinal strength. Therefore, composite flywheels are typically constructed with the fibers wound predominantly in the circumferential direction (i.e., hoop wound). This construction results in less radial growth than a steel flywheel at any given speed. However, radial stress usually limits the flywheel's rotational speed due to the weak transverse strength of the composite material, and the severity of the problem usually increases with increasing flywheel thickness. Radial stresses produced by the rotation of the flywheel can cause the fibrous composite material to shred or crack circumferentially along the axis of the fibers.
To increase the maximum possible operating speeds of composite flywheels, they are usually constructed in an initial state of radial compression. As the flywheel's speed increases, the radial stress increases to zero, and then into the tensile region. Greater initial precompression leads to greater possible speeds, since the maximum tip speed is determined by the tip speed at which the radial stress exceeds the limit for the composite material.
Interference fits are commonly used to produce precompression. For example, two concentric annular sections of a flywheel have been assembled using an interference fit to produce radial compression in both sections. The interference fit is typically accomplished with tapered press fits rather than thermal fits, since fiber epoxy composites have coefficients of thermal expansion that are too low to provide a significant interface pressure. Interference fits produce a limited amount of precompression and satisfactory stress distribution. For tapered interference fits to be practical, however, the axial dimension of the annular sections must be relatively short to minimize axial assembly forces. Moreover, when a tapered interference fit is used, the assembly must be properly designed to guard against "growth mismatch" due to angular misalignment in the tapers. If not, the resulting uneven interface pressure could cause separation to occur at some portion of the interface, and such separation could lead to an unbalance which would damage the generator.
Fiber composite shafts present additional problems. A rotating shaft experiences radial, tangential, and bending stress. Therefore, more layers of fiber wound material are generally required to produce a shaft capable of performing well in the stressed condition. As stated previously, radial precompression produces flywheels having higher possible rotational speeds. Likewise, radial precompression produces shafts having higher terminal rotational speeds. Unfortunately, an interference fit which produces radial precompression between two annular sections of a shaft is impractical due to the long axial dimension of the shaft.

Methods for making reinforced composite flywheels and shafts

Board of Regents University of Texas System


Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and peer apparatus for implementing multi-channel voice mixing, which belongs to a network communication field. The method includes: obtaining, by each peer, voice mixing quality parameters of super peers which are determined from peers according to information processing abilities of the peers; obtaining, by peers with voice input in the peers, priorities of the super peers according to the voice mixing quality parameters, and selecting at least one super peer for voice mixing from all the super peers according to the priorities of the super peers; mixing, by the at least one super peer for voice mixing, audio data of each peer with voice input; and publishing mixed data. The present invention selects a super peer to replace the existing server for implementing multi-channel voice mixing and publishing mixed data. Thus, server costs and bandwidth resources can be saved.

At present, with the development of online communities and large-scale online games on the interne, the demand for multi-person voice is kept rising. In the conventional method, the streaming media system based on the Peer to Peer (P2P) communication network system may implement multi-person interconnection. The P2P streaming media system may be classified into three types according to topology structure: a system with a single tree topology, a system with a multi-tree topology and a system with a network topology.
In the P2P streaming media data distribution system based on the single tree topology, the data stream is transmitted from a parent peer to a child peer of a distribution tree.
In the P2P streaming media data distribution system based on the multi-tree topology, the multi tree topology makes a same peer set in different distribution trees. In this way, when a distribution tree is failed temporally, the peer may still obtain data from other trees. In addition, a peer of a tree which needs not to forward data stream and locates at a position of a leaf peer may locate at a position of an intermediate peer of another tree which needs to forward data stream. Thus, compared with the single tree topology, peer load balance performance of the multi-tree topology is greatly improved. For example, a same peer may be a child peer of two multicast trees, or be an intermediate peer of another multicast tree other than the two trees at the same time.
In the P2P streaming media system based on the network topology, a peer may collectively select one or more peers from a cooperative peer set as its serving peers. Different from the multi-tree topology, the cooperative peer set is not fixed in the network topology, and is changed with joining in/exiting state of the peer, load, packet loss rate, and so on. Besides, peers do not observe a strict parent-child relationship, and one peer may send data to or receive data from a peer. The problem of network topology is how to select a peer and how to dispatch data.
In the conventional method, the multi-person interconnection is implemented with the multi-channel audio mixing technique, which is also called multi-channel voice synthesis technique. The technique is on the basis of a server-client architecture, i.e., S-C architecture. Each peer establishes a connection relationship with the server, and the server implements the multi-channel voice mixing and then performs the distribution. Generally, the voice mixing schemes all adopt time domain sample value sum as its basic processing method. Since there is a quantization upper limit and lower limit in the digital audio signal, stack operation will cause a result overflow. Regarding to the result overflow, an overflow detection is first performed, and then saturation operation is utilized, i.e. the result exceeding the upper limit is set as an upper limit value. The upper limit value depends on the number of bits of a voice coder. In the same way, the result less than the lower limit is set as a lower limit value. This operation destroys the original time domain characteristics of the audio signals, introduces noises, and results in a phenomenon of popping sounds and discontinuous voices in some systems. With the increase of persons participating in the voice mixing, the frequency of overflow also increases. Meanwhile, because there is an upper limit of this method, and generally speaking, the upper limit is very low. In general, there is a phenomenon that many noises and discontinuous voices are generated when four clients participate in the voice mixing, resulting in that the voice flow can't be differentiated. In order to solve the above problem, the multi-channel audio mixing technique adopts a weighting calculation method.
In the process for achieving the technical solutions of the present invention, the inventor discovers that the method for setting up a server to mix voices and perform multi-channel distribution needs many server costs.

Method, system and peer apparatus for implementing multi-channel voice mixing

Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited


This disclosure includes technologies for deformation of 3D shapes using meta-handles. The disclosed 3D conditional generative system takes control points with biharmonic coordinates as deformation handles for a shape to train a network to learn a set of meta-handles for the shape. Further, each deformation axis of the latent space of deformation is explicitly associated with a meta-handle from a set of disentangled meta-handles, and the disentangled meta-handles factorize plausible deformations of the shape. Advantageously, an intuitive deformation of the shape may be generated by manipulating coefficients of the meta-handles, e.g., via a user interface.

In three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of a surface of a 3D object. 3D models have a wide variety of applications, e.g., in the medical industry, scientific researches, the engineering industry, the motion picture industry, the video game industry, the architecture industry, etc.
Many 3D models represent a 3D object with points connected by various geometric entities such as triangles, lines, curved surfaces, etc. For example, shell models, which represent the object's boundary instead of its volume, are widely used. Many shell models are built as textured polygonal models because they are flexible, and computers can render them quickly. Polygonal modeling with polygonal meshes is generally considered the most common 3D modeling approach. A polygon mesh is a collection of vertices, edges, and faces that define a polyhedral object's shape.
New polygonal meshes can be formed from scratch or by deforming existing polygon meshes. Generating a brand new mesh typically consumes high computing resources (e.g., CPU/GPU and memory) and requires precise mesh quality controls, which makes it impractical for some applications (e.g., video games). In contrast, the mesh deformation option is more practical and flexible. However, many conventional mesh deformation methods are difficult to use and often produce implausible deformations (e.g., after destroying the structural properties of the 3D object, such as symmetry).

Deformation with meta-handles of 3D meshes


The present invention provides a lithographic apparatus, including: a substrate table constructed to hold a substrate; a projection system configured to project a radiation beam through an exposure slit area onto a target portion of the substrate; a patterning device configured to import the radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned radiation beam, the patterned radiation beam at the target portion of the substrate being in focus over a depth of focus; and a measurement system that is arranged to measure a surface topography of at least part of the target portion, wherein the projection system is arranged to adjust a dimension of the exposure slit area to form an adjusted exposure slit area over which surface topography variations are equal to or smaller than the depth of focus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lithographic apparatus and a method for manufacturing a device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A lithographic apparatus may be used to apply a desired pattern onto a surface (e.g., a target portion of a substrate). Lithographic projection apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, a patterning structure may generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged by a projection system onto a target portion (e.g., comprising one or more dies and/or portion(s) thereof) of a substrate (e.g., a wafer of silicon or other semiconductor material) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (e.g., resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole matrix or network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system (e.g., one at a time).
Among current apparatus that employ patterning by a mask on a mask table, a distinction can be made between two different types of machine. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion at once. Such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper. In an alternative apparatus—commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatus—each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the radiation beam in a given reference direction (the "scanning" direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction; since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally <1), the speed V at which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. A radiation beam in a scanning type of apparatus may have the form of a slit with a slit width in the scanning direction. More information with regard to lithographic devices as here described can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,792, which is incorporated herein by reference.
As stated above, in a manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus, a pattern (e.g., in a mask) is imaged onto a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material (e.g., resist). Prior to this imaging procedure, the substrate may undergo various other procedures such as priming, resist coating, and/or a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures such as a post-exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake, and/or measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This set of procedures may be used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device (e.g., an IC). For example, these transfer procedures may result in a patterned layer of resist on the substrate. One or more pattern processes may follow, such as deposition, etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, chemo-mechanical polishing, etc., all of which may be intended to create, modify, or finish an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure or a variant thereof, may be repeated for each new layer. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing, whence the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc. Further information regarding such processes can be obtained, for example, from the book "Microchip Fabrication: A Practical Guide to Semiconductor Processing," Third Edition, by Peter van Zant, McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN 0-07-067250-4.
In the manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus, a height map of the target portion that is to be exposed is measured. Based on these measurements, the position and/or the orientation of the substrate with respect to the optical elements is adjusted, e.g., by moving the substrate table on which the substrate is positioned. Since a substrate is not a perfectly flat object, it may not be possible to position the layer of resist exactly in the focal plane of the optics for the whole target portion, so the substrate may only be positioned as well as possible. In order to position the top surface of the substrate, or the layer of resist, in the focal plane as well as possible, the substrate table may be translated, rotated or tilted, in all degrees of freedom.
Adjusting the height and the tilt of the wafer table according to the surface topography of a substrate can level such changes in the topography. Non-correctable focus errors (NCE) are defined as changes in the wafer surface topography that cannot be completely compensated. For a static exposure, the non-correctable focus errors correspond directly to defocus errors. During a scanned exposure the non-correctable focus errors change continuously as the exposure slit is scanned over a particular position of the wafer. In the latter case, the average value of the non-correctable focus errors over the exposure time defines the average defocus that the position concerned experiences during the exposure.

Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method


A heat processing apparatus includes a heating plate configured to heat the substrate; a cover configured to surround a space above the heating plate; an exhaust gas flow forming mechanism configured to exhaust gas inside the cover to form exhaust gas flows within the space above the heating plate; a downflow forming mechanism configured to form downflows uniformly supplied onto an upper surface of the substrate placed on the heating plate; and a control mechanism configured to execute mode switching control between a mode arranged to heat the substrate while forming the downflows by the downflow forming mechanism and a mode arranged to heat the substrate while forming the exhaust gas flows by the exhaust gas flow forming mechanism.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat processing apparatus and heat processing method for heating a substrate, which are used for manufacturing semiconductor devices while performing a coating/developing process on a substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a photolithography step for semiconductor devices, a resist is applied onto a semiconductor wafer (which will be simply referred to as "wafer" hereinafter) to form a resist film. Then, the resist film is subjected to a light exposure process in accordance with a predetermined circuit pattern. Then, the light-exposed pattern thus formed is subjected to a developing process to form a circuit pattern on the resist film.
In a photolithography step of this type, various heat processes are performed, such as a heat process (pre-baking) performed subsequently to coating of a resist or a chemical solution for, e.g., a BARC, a heat process (post exposure baking) performed subsequently to light exposure, and a heat process (post baking) performed subsequently to development.
In general, these heat processes are performed by a heat processing apparatus (hot plate unit) provided with a heating plate (hot plate) heated by a heater. Conventionally, in a heat processing apparatus of this type, the following gas flow control is typically adopted to perform a heat process on a wafer as uniform as possible. Specifically, during the heat process, the heating plate is covered with a cover, in which gas flows are formed from around the heating plate toward the center, and gas is exhausted upward from the center of the cover.
In recent years, circuit patters of semiconductor devices show rapid progress in decreasing the line width, in decreasing the size, and in increasing the degree of integration, which requires the process uniformity of heat processes to be further improved. However, by use of the gas flow control described above, it has become difficult to attain desired process uniformity, particularly uniformity concerning gas flows relative to a wafer, which is necessary to uniformize critical dimensions (CD). Accordingly, it is required to provide a technique for performing a heat process with higher uniformity. As a technique for realizing a heat process with higher uniformity, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-318091 discloses a technique for performing a heat process while supplying gas flows from above uniformly onto the entire surface of a substrate. According to this technique, since the gas flows uniformly strike the entire surface of the substrate, such as a wafer, it is possible to improve the process uniformity, particularly uniformity in the film thickness of a coating film.
However, devices for the next generation require very minute patterns with a CD value of 50 nm or less, in which even slight dust may cause a defect. Accordingly, it is necessary to swiftly remove sublimed substances and so forth generated by a heat process. In this respect, the technique disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-318091 mentioned above cannot sufficiently remove sublimed substances and so forth, and thus it may deteriorate the yield of products. Particularly, such deterioration in the yield due to sublimed substances is easily caused in a coating film for argon fluoride (ArF) having a short wavelength. This coating film is used for further improving the resolving power of light exposure in accordance with a CD for the next generation.
Further, depending on coating films, heat processes of this kind include processes that should give weight to CD uniformity and processes that should give weight to an improvement in the product yield by removing substances, such as sublimed substances, that generate dust. However, the technique disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-318091 mentioned above cannot address the latter type. Accordingly, there is a great demand for a heat processing technique that can address these two types.

Heat processing apparatus and heat processing method


The present invention relates to parenteral formulations for certain long chain saturated and monounsaturated fatty acid derivatives of 1-β-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (cytarabine). In particular, the present invention relates to a parenteral pharmaceutical composition and a method of the preparation thereof, in order to accommodate therapeutically effective doses of the said derivatives ameliorating compliance in treatment of cancer.

Cytarabine, also known as Ara-C or Cytosar, has long been known as a chemotherapeutic agent in the treatment of acute myelogenous leukemia. Cytarabine has the formula:

The active ingredients of the pharmaceutical composition of the present invention comprise cytarabine derivatives of the formula I:
wherein R1, R2 and R3 are independently selected from hydrogen and C18- and C20-saturated and monounsaturated acyl groups, with the proviso that R1, R2 and R3 cannot all be hydrogen.
Cytarabine has limited efficiency against solid tumors (Frei et al., Cancer Res. 29 (1969), 1325-1332; Davis et al., Oncology, 29 (1974), 190-200; Cullinan et al., Cancer Treat. Rep. 61 (1977), 1725-1726), and even in the treatment of leukemia cytarabine has found only limited use due to its very short biological half-life and its high toxicity.
With a view to overcome these difficulties, a number of workers have prepared and tested pro-drug derivatives of cytarabine. For example, Hamamura et al. investigated 3′-acyl and 3′,5′-diacyl derivatives of cytarabine (J. Med. Chem. 19 (1976) No. 5, 667-674). These workers prepared and tested numerous cytarabine derivatives with saturated or unsaturated ester groups containing from 2 to 22 carbon atoms, and they found that many of the compounds showed a higher activity against L1210 Leukemia in mice than the parent nucleoside alone.
Although work has continued on ester pro-drugs based on cytarabine, including 3′- and 5′-acyl derivatives (see, for instance, Rubas et al. in Int. J. Cancer, 37, 1986, pages 149-154 who tested liposomal formulations of 5′-oleyl-cytarabine against L1210 Leukemia and Melanoma B16) to date no such drugs have become available to the clinician.
A main reason why cytarabine is not used in the treatment of solid tumors is the rapid clearance of the active drug from cancer cells and plasma. It is apparently not possible to achieve significant intracellular levels of drug in the neoplastic tissue, even though the tumor in question is sensitive to cytarabine in vitro. We have earlier shown that the derivatives of formula I have prolonged half life and altered tissue distribution which are of great importance for the therapeutic effect of these products (WO 97/05154).
The development of resistant cancer cells is a severe problem in the current chemotherapy of cancer. It was found earlier that one of derivatives of formula I, elacytarabine (5′-O-(trans-9″-octadecenoyl)-1-β-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine), shows the same effect against Cis-platin resistant cells (NHIK 3025/DDP) and MDR resistant cells (A549) as against the corresponding non-resistant cell lines. This is because the ester derivatives are not substrates for the cellular drug-efflux mechanisms, such as the "gp 120 MDR pump", responsible for the phenomenon seen as multi drug resistance.
Nevertheless, formulation of a therapeutically effective amount of the poorly soluble derivatives of formula (I) into a pharmaceutical composition suitable for parenteral administration represents a problem. For the sake of intravenous administration of the said derivatives, the composition of the excipients should be selected so that the said derivatives are solubilised. The cytarabine derivatives of formula (I) are amphiphilic and have poor solubility both in water and in oils. This limits the choice of potential excipients that can solubilise them. As an example, elacytarabine has a solubility of <0.1 μg/ml in deionised water and <1 μg/ml in phosphate buffer pH 7.4 at 25° C. Also, earlier formulation studies showed that elacytarabine did not dissolve appropriately in soybean oil based emulsions, which confirms the low solubility of the drug in oils.
If the formulation is a particulate system, there are certain requirements for the size of the particles in the formulations for intravenous administration. Moreover, parenteral products must be sterile and often sterile filtration is the only viable method for pharmaceutical particulate systems. This means that the particle size of these formulations must be smaller than 220 nm (0.22 μm), which is the pore size of the sterile filters. In practice and for an industrial scale process, the particles should be much smaller to avoid filter clogging.
Another issue is that the daily recommended dose for intravenous elacytarabine when given as a single therapy is recently established at 2000 mg/m2. This means that for an average patient with a surface area of 1.8 m2, the total daily dose of elacytarabine will be 3600 mg. This introduces even further challenges: a) requirement of increasing the concentration of the drug in the formulation in order to limit the parenteral administration of unacceptably large volumes of liquids to the patients, b) avoiding the use of antioxidants and preservatives, which although added at small amounts, will add up to an unacceptable level of the total administered amount, and c) limiting the quantities of the added surfactants and co-solubilizers due to the same reason as above.
Finally, the ester derivatives of formula (I) are prone to hydrolytic degradation in physiological pH, the rate of which depends on the type of the derivative and the buffer. This represents further challenges both to the formulation and to the manufacturing process parameters. It is normally preferred that a pharmaceutical product be ready-to-use. If ready-to-use, then the said derivatives should be protected from hydrolytic degradation in the aqueous environment of the parenteral formulation during its entire shelf-life period.
The present invention presents a solution to all the above problems.

Parenteral formulations of elacytarabine derivatives


A pipeline strainer is provided having a cavity, a screen assembly disposed in the cavity, the screen assembly having an open first end and an open second end and a screen axis extending from the open first end to the open second end, a fluid inlet arranged at the open first end of the screen assembly, such that the fluid inlet is open to an interior of the screen assembly, a fluid outlet adjacent the open first end of the screen assembly. The fluid outlet is open to a straining surface of the screen assembly. A fluid axis extends from the fluid inlet to the fluid outlet where the fluid axis crosses the screen axis at or near the fluid inlet.

Pipeline strainers are used for removing debris from fluid lines. Such a strainer mechanically removes solids from a flowing fluid using a straining element. Typically, the solids are retained in the straining element while the fluid continues along the pipeline for use downstream in the fluid system. Removing solid debris from fluids helps protect pumps, steam traps, nozzles, and other pipeline equipment. Removing such debris further promotes a reduction in impurities in fluid flow.
Typically, the straining element is a tubular, or cylindrical screen positioned adjacent a drain or cleanout valve that can be opened to remove the debris. As debris builds up in the straining element, such debris may obstruct flow as it clogs the straining element. Accordingly, removal of debris at regular intervals may be required to allow the strainer to provide consistent flow.
One common design for such pipeline strainers is a Y strainer design. Such a strainer design has a strainer, typically provided in a cavity, extending at an oblique angle relative to the pipeline. In such designs, debris typically collects in the straining element towards a far end of the cavity as well as on the screen adjacent a fluid outlet. While the debris collecting at the far end of the cavity must be removed, debris collecting on the screen may obstruct flow while the cavity continues to have space for such debris, thereby prematurely obstructing the fluid outlet and leading to an unwanted excessive pressure drop in the fluid line.
In any pipeline strainer, the size of perforations in the straining element has a substantial effect on the performance of the strainer. Smaller holes will result in frequent cleaning and excessive pressure drop, while larger holes will allow larger debris to pass through unimpeded. Accordingly, because screens typically have fixed hole sizes, a straining element must be carefully selected for specific tasks, and changing operating conditions may result in a significant drop in performance. An improperly selected straining element may result in frequent clogging and increased cleaning requirements.
There is a need for pipeline strainers that can operate for longer time periods between cleaning intervals. There is a further need for a standard strainer that allows for adjustments for different implementations.


A non-contact type sensor that measures a liquid level in a non-contact fashion and outputs a measured value as a digital pulse is provided. Then, a sensor-output converting circuit is caused to input the digital pulse, which is output from the non-contact type sensor, into an existing central processing unit as an analogue voltage that corresponds to a duty factor of the digital pulse.

The present invention relates to a liquid level measuring system for measuring a residual quantity of a liquid such as a fuel stored in a tank.
The vehicle that uses a gasoline as the fuel to drive is equipped with a tank that stores the fuel. A fuel gauge used to check a remaining fuel in the tank all the time (referred to as a "liquid level gauge" hereinafter) is mounted on a dashboard. This liquid level gauge is operated based on an output of a resistance type liquid level sensor (referred simply to as a "resistance type sensor" hereinafter) that has a simple structure and is available inexpensively (see Patent Literature 1, for example).
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a liquid level measuring system including such resistance type sensor and the liquid level gauge in the prior art. This liquid level measuring system is constructed by connecting a measuring device main body 12 to a resistance type sensor 11 via a cord, or the like. The measuring device main body 12 consists of an input circuit 13, a central processing unit (abbreviated as "CPU" hereinafter) 14, and a liquid level gauge 15.
Details of the resistance type sensor 11 and the input circuit 13 are given as shown in FIG. 7. The resistance type sensor 11 consists of a moving contact that is operated together with a float arm that is floating on the liquid surface in the tank, for example, and a resistor that outputs a resistance value in response to its contact position when the moving contact moves and contacts the resistor, i.e., outputs a change of the voltage. In FIG. 7, the resistance type sensor 11 is illustrated in the form of a variable resistance.
The input circuit 13 functions to convert a change of the resistance value of the resistance type sensor 11 into the change of the output voltage. This input circuit 13 consists of a pull-up resistor 16 provided on the power supply side, a voltage smoothing capacitor 17, and resistors 18, 19 in combination.
The CPU 14 converts/processes an analog output voltage of the input circuit 13 into a digital pulse that corresponds to a swing angle of an indicator of the liquid level gauge 15. This process of converting the voltage into the digital pulse responding to the swing angle of the indicator in the CPU 14 is carried out by referring to a data table that is prepared in advance in a memory, or the like.
This data table has a format shown in FIG. 8, for example. A capacity (residual quantity) and a swing angle of the indicator in regarding to the resistance value of the variable resistor 16 and the input voltage value of the CPU 14 are listed in a tabular form every sender F, meter F, and meter 3/4.
Therefore, in this liquid level measuring system, as shown in FIG. 9A, the input circuit 13 outputs an analogue voltage in response to a change of the resistance value of the variable resistor as the resistance type sensor 11. As shown in FIG. 9B, this analogue voltage is in proportion to the change of the resistance value. As shown in FIG. 9C, the CPU 14 converts this analogue voltage into a digital pulse to operate the indicator of the liquid level gauge 15. As a result, the liquid level gauge 15 is able to indicate the liquid level.
Meanwhile, in the liquid level measuring system using such resistance type sensor, in some cases the correct measured results cannot be attained owing to the defective contact between the moving contact and the resistor, the earth (GND) floating, the connector contact failure, or the like.
For this reason, the liquid level measuring system of the non-contact and digital pulse output type, which does not have a contact mechanism consisting of the moving contact and the resistor, has been proposed in the prior art.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a liquid level measuring system of the non-contact and digital pulse output type in the prior art. This liquid level measuring system is constructed by connecting a measuring device main body 21 to a non-contact type sensor 20 via a cord, or the like. The measuring device main body 21 includes an input circuit 22, a CPU 23, and a liquid level gauge 24.
Details of the non-contact type sensor 20 and the input circuit 22 are given as shown in FIG. 11. Out of these elements, the non-contact type sensor 20, although not shown, is composed of a Hall IC and a magnet that is turned (moved) around this Hall IC. This magnet is fitted to an L-shaped arm 26 that has a float 25 at its top end.
Therefore, in this non-contact type sensor 20, a movement of the float 25 that moves vertically in response to the liquid level in the tank is transferred to the magnet via the L-shaped arm 26. The Hall IC functions to output a digital pulse a duty factor of which can respond to the movement (amount of turn) of the magnet.
This non-contact type sensor 20 senses a change of the liquid level as a magnetic change, then processes this sensed signal in a digital (PWM) fashion, and then outputs the resultant signal.
The input circuit 22 consists of a load resistor 27 used to extract a digital pulse voltage from a current output of the Hall IC constituting the non-contact type sensor 20, voltage-dividing resistors 28, 29 for generating a reference voltage from the power supply voltage, and a voltage-level converting portion 30 for comparing an output voltage of the Hall IC with the reference voltage. A pull-up resistor 31 is connected to the input side of the CPU 23.
The CPU 23 serves to convert the digital pulse output from the input circuit 22 into a digital pulse that responds to a swing angle of the indicator in the liquid level gauge 24. The digital pulse converting process is carried out by the CPU 23 in compliance with the data table that is prepared previously in the memory, or the like.
This data table has a format shown in FIG. 13, for example. The capacity and the swing angle of the indicator in regarding to the duty factor of the digital pulse input into the CPU are listed in a tabular form.
Therefore, in this liquid level measuring system, as shown in FIG. 12A, the Hall IC outputs a digital pulse current based on an output of the Hall element. Then, as shown in FIG. 12B, this digital pulse current is converted into the digital pulse voltage by using the load resistor 27. At that time, a level of the digital pulse voltage is set near a predetermined threshold voltage level (2.4 V).
Then, the digital pulse voltage that is subjected to the level adjustment is input into the voltage-level converting portion 30, and is compared with a reference voltage there (FIG. 12C). Then, as shown in FIG. 12D, only the digital pulse voltage that is in excess of this reference voltage is amplified up to a predetermined voltage level by the operation of the CPU 23, and then is transferred to the CPU 23.
The CPU 23 accepts the digital pulse voltage and operates the indicator of the liquid level gauge 24. As a result, the liquid level gauge 24 is able to indicate the liquid level. Patent Literature 1: JP-A-2001-171366.
However, in order to operate the liquid level gauge 15 based on the digital pulse in the liquid level measuring system having the resistance type sensor 11 in the prior art, (a) the input circuit 13 of the measuring device main body 12 shown in FIG. 7 must be changed to the complicated input circuit 22 in the measuring device main body 21 shown in FIG. 11, and (b) a software (the data table in FIG. 8) of the CPU 14 must be changed to a software (the data table in FIG. 13) of the CPU 23.
Such massive change is required of the hardware and the software, and thus such change is a serious obstacle to newly load the hardware and the software in the existing vehicle or load the hardware and the software in the newly developed vehicle. As a result, such a problem existed that the above obstacle constitutes a factor that delays quality improvement (non-contact measuring approach) of the liquid level measuring system.


One aspect of the invention is directed to a suspension and weigh system for use with a vehicle having weight bearing members. The system has a support connectable to the weight bearing members of the vehicle. The support has a length and a neutral axis along at least a portion of the length. A weigh system is coupled to the support and configured to measure and/or determine weight carried by the weight bearing members. The weigh system has a load sensor attached to the support and positioned substantially adjacent to the neutral axis. A data processor is coupled to the load sensor and configured to receive the output signal from the load sensor for determining the weight carried by the axles. In one embodiment, a display is coupled to the data processor and configured to display data related to the weight carried by the axles.

Weight regulations limiting the loaded weights of commercial vehicles are almost universally in effect. These regulations generally specify the maximum load of each vehicle axle as well as the maximum total load. Fines are usually levied against operators who are found violating these regulations. To maximize profits, vehicle operators normally load their vehicles as close as possible to the legal load limit. In order to do this, the vehicle operator must be able to accurately measure the vehicle's weight while the vehicle is being loaded.
On-board vehicle weighing systems have been developed to accurately measure the vehicle's weight, including while the vehicle is being loaded. In these on-board weighing systems, strain gauge-based sensors are generally secured to structural members of the vehicle, usually the axles. However, conventional strain gauges placed on tandem axles to measure loading experienced significant accuracy problems.
Other on-board load measuring systems utilize load cells placed on structural members between the axles and the load. However, these systems also have shortcomings. While these systems can be highly accurate, they typically are more expensive. In addition, they are difficult to retrofit on existing vehicles and cannot sense the extra weight added to a vehicle by dirt and other debris collected on the surfaces of the vehicle suspension beneath the load cells.
Other on-board load measuring systems measure the relative displacement of the springs or the relative displacement between the vehicle frame and axle. However, the accuracy of these devices is adversely affected by wear, friction and debris.

Suspension system with neutral axis weigh system


A test element is disclosed for analyzing a human or animal body fluid sample. The test element includes a substrate carrying a test field with a reagent for effecting a detection reaction when exposed to the body fluid sample, and an optical data storage in which data regarding the test element, preferably calibration data, is stored. Accordingly, the data storage is a holographic data storage. A hologram reader also is disclosed for reading the data storage of such a test element. Moreover, a hologram label and a method for manufacturing a hologram label are disclosed, as is a medical product including a holographic data storage in which data regarding the product is stored.

For testing blood, interstitial fluid or other body fluids, it is customary to use test elements carrying test fields with reagents that effect a detection reaction when exposed to a body fluid sample. The detection reaction, for example, can lead to fluorescence or a color change that can be analyzed by photometry to determine an analyte concentration such as the concentration of glucose, lactate or hematocrit. Also known are detection reactions for electrochemical measurements of an analyte concentration. In either case, the detection reaction leads to a change in a parameter that can be measured physically, whereby the intensity of the change depends on the analyte concentration to be measured.
Typically, detection sensitivity varies substantially between production batches of test elements containing the reagents. For this reason, there is a need to have calibration data to be able to determine the analyte concentration with high precision when analyzing the result of the detection reaction from the extent of the change of the physical parameter such as a change of color. Calibration data of this type usually is determined for each production batch using calibration liquids of known analyte concentration. The calibration data is stored on a data carrier that is jointly distributed with the test element. The user or patient then transfers the calibration data to a measuring device. This often leads to higher complexity of the overall process, lower compliance by the patient and is prone to error and manipulation.
Such calibration data also allows using test elements with different reagents or detection reactions for concentration measurements of different bodily fluids such as blood, blood plasma, serum, urine, saliva, semen, lymph, synovial fluid, amniotic fluid, lacrimal fluid, cyst fluid, sweat or bile with respect to a broad variety of analytes, such as glucose, lactate, hematocrit, cholesterol or peptides.
An approach to circumvent the need for calibration data is to optimize production with regard to tolerances, which is usually unfavorable with respect to production cost and leads to large amounts of rejections. The calibration data can contain the information that is necessary to determine the analyte concentration from the result of the detection reaction.
EP Patent Application Publication No. 1574855 describes a system having a barcode containing calibration information that is fixed to the outside of a drum cartridge containing several test elements. It also is known to print barcodes directly on test elements. An important aspect of barcode-based data storage disclosed in the document is that the drum magazine has to be located precisely to avoid reading errors.
Although optical data storage by means of a barcode is inexpensive, the reading process of barcodes is prone to errors. This is especially true for analytical test elements where users handle the test elements, which may impair barcodes by fingerprints or scratches. In the best case, an error may be detected and the reading process repeated. Conversely, and in the worst case, erroneous calibration data is used that may cause incorrect measurement results. Moreover, standard barcode readers are rather large and require either a movement of the barcode or a scanning optic for a reading process.
Int'l Patent Application Publication No. WO 2008/151726 discloses cartridges carrying electronic or magnetic data storages such as electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROMS), radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, smartcards or memory chips. With these storage devices, calibration data stored therein can be more reliably retrieved. However, this advantage is offset by higher costs and impractical for consumables for single use such as, for example, single test elements. For the foregoing reasons, additional means of storing and retrieving information such as calibration data on an analytical consumable are needed.

Test element having an optical data storage, device for reading the optical data storage of the test element and measuring system thereof


A turbine pump includes a casing having an inlet, an outlet and front and rear arc-shaped pump passages and an impeller. The impeller has plural impeller partitions respectively disposed between every two of the blades thereby forming impeller grooves at front and rear sides of the partitions and an outer ring at the peripheral edge of the blades. Each impeller groove, each of pump passage and the outer ring form a space for circulating fuel. The outside diameter of the impeller is smaller than the pump passages so that the impeller does not contact the pump passages.

The present application is based on and claims priority from Japanese Patent Applications 2001-97181, filed Mar. 29, 2001 and 2002-27949, filed Feb. 5, 2002, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a turbine pump that is suitable to a fuel pump to be mounted in a fuel tank of an automotive vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,119 or its corresponding publication JP-A-299983 discloses a turbine pump or peripheral pump for a fuel pump to be mounted in an automotive vehicle. The disclosed turbine pump has an outer ring at the circumference of an impeller, which is disposed in chamber walls or a pump casing. The outer ring is disposed outside the spaces (hereinafter referred to the impeller grooves) between blades of the impeller in the radial direction. The outer ring, which is disposed around the impeller grooves, has axial end surfaces flush with the axial end surfaces of the blades. The outside diameter of the impeller is larger than the outside diameter of a pump passage that is formed in the casing and the outer ring is located close to the axial end surface of the pump casing.
In such a turbine pump, the axial distance between the impeller and the casing is arranged to be between several micrometers (xcexcm) and tens of micrometers to prevent high-pressure fuel from leaking from the outlet side of the pump to the inlet side thereof.
While the turbine pump is operating, the impeller moves in the axial direction due to the reaction of the pumping operation. Accordingly, the axial end surface of the outer ring of the impeller contacts the peripheral end surface of the casing.
Because the outer ring is located at the outermost portion of the impeller, the circumferential speed is so high that the outer ring is subject to wear, which lowers pumping capacity and the lifetime thereof.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems.
It is a main object of the invention to provide a reliable turbine pump which prevents the outer ring from wearing.
According to a main feature of the invention, an impeller of a turbine pump has a plurality of blades disposed in the circumferential direction thereof, a plurality of impeller partitions respectively disposed between every two of the blades thereby forming a plurality of impeller grooves at front and rear sides of the partitions and an outer ring disposed at the peripheral edge of the blades. Each impeller groove, each pump passage and the outer ring form a circular space for circulating fuel thereby pressuring and discharging the fuel. The outside diameter of the impeller is smaller than the outside diameter of the pump passages. Therefore, the peripheral portion of the impeller is disposed within the pump passages where the impeller does not contact any surface of the pump passages. It is more preferable that the axial ends of the outer ring are positioned within axial ends of the blades. In addition, the outer ring may have axial ends that are tapered off in the radially inward direction.


A modular luminaire assembly including a top mounting assembly, an optical assembly removably affixable to the top mounting assembly and an electrical assembly removable affixable to the optical assembly where the optical assembly is mechanically coupled to the top mounting assembly by a quick disconnect.

Luminaire assembly designs of the prior art include a housing for enclosing and protecting electrical components required for operation of the luminaire, and an optical assembly. The optical assembly is generally comprised of a lighting unit and a refractor for producing and directing light of various intensities. These prior art designs often utilize electrical assemblies that are wired directly to the lighting unit through the use of a plurality of wires, splicing means, and/or permanent connecting means.
Direct wired electrical assemblies of the type referenced above have heretofore been used to ensure proper electrical contact between system components. Those skilled in the art will recognize, however, that such prior art designs have resulted in increased installation and maintenance costs because of the minimal flexibility afforded by the mechanical design. For example, it is known by those skilled in the art that particular system components of the luminaire assemblies of the type referenced herein often require repair, replacement and adjustment. In high pressure sodium systems, for example, starters, ballasts and capacitors are known to require routine maintenance. Similarly, the wattage and/or voltage characteristics of the employed lighting units often require adjustment to provide the proper amount of illumination and to conserve energy. These maintenance procedures often include the disassembly of sometimes heavy and awkward parts as well as the removal, splicing and reconnection of electrical wires. Because of the direct wired design of the prior art systems, these maintenance procedures must also be performed on-site or, in the alternative, the luminaire must be temporarily disabled while the particular component is repaired in the laboratory or factory.
The optical units of the prior art luminaire assemblies are also known to those skilled in the art to require routine repair, replacement and maintenance. For example, it is known that refractors and lighting units often must be replaced when the surfaces are penetrated by foreign substances or, when they have been fractured as a result of weather conditions or tampering. These time-consuming and labor intensive maintenance procedures must again be performed on-site and on a regular basis.
It is appreciated by those skilled in the art that the maintenance procedures referenced above are, of course, further hindered during adverse weather conditions, including heavy winds, rain and snow as well as extreme temperature gradients. The maintenance complications inherent in the prior art luminaire assembly designs have resulted in increased labor and maintenance costs which, in turn, have caused purchasers and luminaire designers to turn their attention toward viable design alternatives.
In addition to hindering repair and replacement of components, luminaire assemblies of the prior art suffer from a lack of flexibility in design. These designs make insufficient use of subassemblies, though it is well known that flexibility increases with proper employment of subassemblies. For example, instead of individually mounting small components such as starters, ballasts and capacitors to a lighting unit, it may be possible to instead attach them to a base or platform. This platform would comprise a subassembly which is then mounted to the lighting unit. Modified or new electrical components may then be incorporated into the platform. The platform can be modified to accept the new component inexpensively and quickly without affecting any other part of the luminaire. Creation of the most efficient number and type of subassemblies is an important object of current designers.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,297,864 and 3,071,683 issued to Waldbauer and Queale, respectively disclose prior art luminaire designs of the type referenced above. The Waldbauer patent for example, discloses a luminaire having a lighting unit, a refractor, and an electrical assembly mounted on a pivoting door. The system components of the Waldbauer luminaire are directly wired to the lighting unit.
Similarly, the Queale patent discloses a luminaire having a lighting unit, a refractor, and an electrical assembly wherein the luminaire is pivotably affixed to the luminaire housing at one end. Again, the electrical components are directly wired to the lighting unit and thus require maintenance on-site.


This invention provides compositions comprising a protein, an absorption enhancer, a protease inhibitor, method for treating diabetes mellitus, comprising administering same, and methods for oral administration of a protein with an enzymatic activity, comprising orally administering same.

Due to improved biotechnology, the accessibility of biologically active peptides to the pharmaceutical industry has increased considerably. However, a limiting factor in the development of peptide drugs is the relative ineffectiveness when given perorally. Almost all peptide drugs are parenterally administered, although parenterally administered peptide drugs are often connected with low patient compliance.
Insulin is a medicament used to treat patients suffering from diabetes, and is the only treatment for insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Mellitus is characterized by a pathological condition of absolute or relative insulin deficiency, leading to hyperglycemia, and is one of the main threats to human health in the 21st century. The global figure of people with diabetes is set to rise to 220 million in 2010, and 300 million in 2025. Type I diabetes is caused primarily by the failure of the pancreas to produce insulin. Type II diabetes, involves a lack of responsiveness of the body to the action of insulin.
Approximately 20%-30% of all diabetics use daily insulin injections to maintain their glucose levels. An estimated 10% of all diabetics are totally dependent on insulin injections.
Currently, the only route of insulin administration is injection. Daily injection of insulin is causes considerable suffering for patients. Side effects such as lipodystrophy at the site of the injection, lipatrophy, lilpohypertrophy, and occasional hypoglycemia are known to occur. In addition, subcutaneous administration of insulin does not typically provide the fine continuous regulation of metabolism that occurs normally with insulin secreted from the pancreas directly into the liver via the portal vein.
The present invention addresses the need for an alternate solution for administration of insulin.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and compositions for oral administration


A chew toy comprises a generally spherical body having a plurality of circumferential channels for receiving and housing a plurality of rings therein. The plurality of channels are formed in an exterior circumferential surface of the body. The plurality of channels are formed parallel, perpendicular or diagonally to a central axis of the body. Each of the plurality of rings is defined by a toroidal form, each of the plurality of rings snap-fit into a corresponding one of the plurality of channels. Each one of the plurality of rings comprises a tasteful flavor appealing and attractive to a canine. Each one of the plurality of rings comprises a pleasant and appealing scent attractive to a canine.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to a canine chew toy, and more particularly, is directed to an apparatus and method of making a canine chew toy comprising a generally spherical body having a plurality of circumferential channels for receiving and housing a plurality of rings therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are numerous chew toys available in a variety of forms and sizes. To the applicant's knowledge, there are no canine chew toys available that provide the following advantages and overcome the problems, deficiencies and disadvantages associated with commonly available canine chew toys.
The present invention provides a canine chew toy comprising a generally spherical body having a plurality of circumferential channels for receiving and housing a plurality of rings therein. The channels and rings provide contrasting textures for a canine to chew, thereby stimulating muscle growth and strength in the jaw and neck muscles, and contributing to the overall dental health by aiding in removal of excess plaque and strengthening the teeth through exercise. Finally, the toy may be impregnated with a liquid (juice) substance pleasing and attractive to a canine. The canine chew toy may also be impregnated with a pleasing scent that is generally attractive to canines.
Consequently, there exists a continuous need for new ideas and enhancements for existing products in the pet chew toy industry.

Apparatus and method of making a pet chew toy


An intravenous solution bag includes a temperature sensing device in the form of a temperature sensing strip. The strip includes a temperature scale and corresponding temperature sensitive substances that change color or illuminate the scale indicators to visually indicate solution temperature. The strip may be formed integral with the bag, may be attached to the bag exterior surface, may be laminated to the bag exterior surface or may be encased with the bag within a solution bag liner. Further, the temperature sensing strip may be affixed to bottles containing intravenous or other solutions, where the strip is attached to the bottle exterior surface or to a label affixed to the bottle to measure and indicate temperature of fluid contained therein as described above. Moreover, the temperature sensing strip may be employed by a receptacle or delivery tube of an infusion apparatus to measure and indicate solution temperature prior to or during infusion. In addition, the temperature sensing strip may be disposed within thermal treatment system compartments to measure and provide a visual indication of medical item temperatures. Alternatively, the strip may be employed by a stand, plate, receptacle or other structure receiving a medical item or container to provide a temperature measurement and indication as described above. The structure may be a stand-alone unit or may be attached to a thermal treatment or other system to facilitate temperature measurement.

1. Technical Field
The present invention pertains to temperature sensing and monitoring systems. In particular, the present invention pertains to systems for measuring and displaying the temperature of intravenously delivered fluids and other medical items.
2. Discussion of Relevant Art
Intravenously delivered fluids and other medical items are generally required to have temperatures within specific temperature ranges in order to avoid serious injury to a patient. Although there exist warming systems to heat items to their corresponding temperature ranges, medical personnel generally do not have a manner in which to ascertain temperature of the items once the items have been removed from those systems. In addition, medical personnel generally do not have a manner in which to ascertain fluid temperature during infusion into a patient. The relevant art has attempted to overcome these problems by providing a manner in which to measure and indicate temperature of fluids prior to delivery to a patient. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 522,866 (Weinhagen et al), U.S. Pat. No. 803,352 (Meyer) and U.S. Pat. No. 2,204,764 (Mayo) disclose containers having thermometers attached thereto for indicating the temperature of fluid residing in the containers. The containers are constructed to enable the thermometer bulb to access the fluid for temperature measurement.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,976 (Parker) discloses a laminated digital thermometer secured to a container, such as a wine bottle or a baby bottle, for determining the temperature of a fluid contained therein. The thermometer is in the form of a digital thermometer strip providing a specific digital temperature indication of fluid within the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,360 (Suzuki et al) discloses a blood bag having a temperature-monitoring device in the form of a tag or label adhered to the bag outer surface. The temperature-monitoring device includes plural reversible temperature indicators each associated with a specific temperature range to indicate a current temperature of the blood, and an irreversible temperature indicator to indicate that the blood has currently or previously reached a predetermined temperature. The reversible indicators individually provide visual indications in response to the current blood temperature being within a corresponding range, while the irreversible indicator maintains a visual indication once the predetermined temperature has been reached.
With respect to ascertaining fluid temperature during infusion, U.S. Pat. No. 3,651,695 (Brown) discloses a temperature indicator for fluid conduits that changes color in response to temperature. A color reference chart is provided adjacent the indicator to indicate the temperatures corresponding to the color variations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,528 (Magliochetti) discloses an irrigation fluid delivery system including a fluid delivery tube having a temperature sensing device for measuring and providing a visual indication of the fluid temperature prior to delivery to a patient. The temperature sensing device is disposed in the tube in stripe form and typically exhibits at least one color change in response to a change in temperature to indicate fluid temperature.
The relevant art suffers from several disadvantages. In particular, the Weinhagen et al, Meyer and Mayo devices require special attachment mechanisms to affix thermometers to containers, while the containers are configured to provide the thermometers with access to the fluid, thereby increasing complexity and cost of these systems. Further, in the case of medical or sterile fluids, these systems enhance the possibility of fluid contamination, thereby risking injury to a patient. Moreover, since the thermometers tend to be rigid and fragile, the thermometers may be easily damaged during transport and/or storage of the containers. In addition, thermometer temperature indications tend to be difficult to read, thereby requiring additional time and complicating ascertainment of the fluid temperature.
Although the Parker and Suzuki et al temperature devices are less intrusive and display a specific digital temperature indication of a fluid, these devices operate within a narrow temperature range. Thus, the Parker and Suzuki et al temperature devices are limited in application to fluids having acceptable temperatures within a specific and narrow temperature range. If a fluid temperature extends beyond that narrow range, these devices do not provide a manner in which to indicate that temperature.
The Brown and Magliochetti systems do not provide a specific temperature indication. Rather, these systems employ color indications requiring users to reference or recollect the temperature color scheme, thereby requiring additional time and complicating ascertainment of fluid temperature.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to measure and numerically indicate a temperature of intravenously delivered fluids via a temperature sensing strip prior to delivery to a patient.
It is another object of the present invention to measure and numerically indicate a temperature of intravenously delivered fluids residing within containers (e.g., bags, bottles, etc.) via a temperature sensing strip attached to and in thermal relation with the container.
Yet another object of the present invention is to measure and numerically indicate a temperature of intravenous fluids during infusion to a patient via a temperature sensing strip attached to and in thermal relation with a fluid delivery tube.
Still another object of the present invention is to measure and visually indicate temperature of medical containers via a stand, plate, receptacle or other structure employing a temperature sensing strip.
A further object of the present invention is to measure and visually indicate temperature of medial items within a thermal treatment system via temperature sensitive strips residing within thermal treatment system compartments.
The aforesaid objects are achieved individually and/or in combination, and it is not intended that the present invention be construed as requiring two or more of the objects to be combined unless expressly required by the claims attached hereto.
According to the present invention, an intravenous solution bag includes a temperature sensing device in the form of a temperature sensing strip. The strip includes a temperature scale and corresponding temperature sensitive substances that change color or illuminate the scale indicators to visually indicate solution temperature. The strip may be formed integral with the bag, may be attached to the bag exterior surface, may be laminated to the bag exterior surface or may be encased with the bag within a solution bag liner. Further, the temperature sensing strip may be affixed to bottles containing intravenous or other solutions, where the strip is attached to the bottle exterior surface or to a label affixed to the bottle to measure and indicate temperature of fluid contained therein as described above. Moreover, the temperature sensing strip may be employed by an infusion apparatus to measure and indicate solution temperature prior to or during infusion. In this case, the strip may be affixed to a receptacle suspending a solution bag, or to a fluid delivery tube to measure and indicate temperature as described above. In addition, the temperature sensing strip may be disposed within thermal treatment system compartments to measure and provide a visual indication of temperatures of medical items residing within the compartments.
Alternatively, the strip may be employed by a stand, plate, receptacle or other structure receiving a medical item or container. The item is placed in the structure in thermal relation with the strip to facilitate a temperature measurement and indication as described above. The structure may be a stand-alone unit or may be attached to a thermal treatment or other system to facilitate temperature measurement.
The above and still further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of specific embodiments thereof, particularly when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals in the various figures are utilized to designate like components.

Method and apparatus for monitoring temperature of intravenously delivered fluids and other medical items


One or more members of a group are notified of an online status of a user. If a member of the group is off-line and has enabled a telephone notification option, a telephone message indicating the online status of the user is sent to the member. If the member of the group is online, an online message indicating the online status of the user is sent to the member.

The present invention relates to methods, systems, and articles for notifying of an online status of a computer user.
At the present time, instant messaging Internet products, such as those made available by America Online and Microsoft Corporation, notify subscribers already online as to when members of their buddy list have arrived online. A shortcoming of these products is that off-line subscribers are not notified of the online status of other members.
An example of a system for immediate pop-up messaging across the Internet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,478 to Aggarwal et al. This patent also discloses a method and infrastructure for continuously tracking and reporting the online status of users.

Method, system, and article for telephone notification of an online status of a user


The invention relates to a small-format yet high-performance two units or three units type zoom lens with a negative unit at the front, which has a zoom ratio of about 3, an angle of view of as wide as 60° at the wide-angle end and high image-formation capability, and is much less susceptible to chromatic blurring, with a compact lens barrel. The zoom lens comprises a first lens unit G1 of negative refracting power and a second lens unit G2 of positive power, wherein zooming is implemented by varying the space between the lens units. The first lens unit G1 is made up of one negative lens L11 and one positive lens L12, two in all, and satisfies specific conditions with respect to their refractive index and Abbe constant.

The present invention relates generally to a zoom lens and an imaging system that incorporates it, and more particularly to a zoom lens well suitable for use with electronic imaging systems such as digital cameras and video cameras, wherein depth size upon received at a collapsible lens mount is reduced by tweaks applied to an optical system portion such as a zoom lens, and an imaging system.
In recent years, digital cameras have attracted attention as next-generation cameras superceding silver-halide 35-mm film cameras. In addition, they are now available in some considerable categories covering every type from the business-application, multifunctional type to the portable low-end type.
In view of the portable, low-end type category in particular, one specific objective of the present invention here is to provide a technology of achieving video cameras and digital cameras that are slimmed down in the depth direction while getting hold of high image quality. The greatest bottleneck to slimming down the depth dimension of a camera is the thickness of an optical system, especially a zoom lens system, from the surface nearest to the object side to the imaging plane. The so-called collapsible lens barrel designed to flip an optical system out from within a camera body upon taking and flip it back in the camera body during taking-along is now in vogue.
Slimming-down and downsizing may be achieved by use of a smaller imaging device. However, its pixel pitch must be smaller so as to maintain the same number of pixels, and poor sensitivity must be compensated for by the optical system. This is also true of the influence of diffraction. Therefore, an optical system having a fast F-number is in need.
Some examples of a prior art relatively compact zoom lens having a fast F-number, a zoom ratio of as high as about 3 and a wide angle of view are shown in patent publications 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
In these zoom lenses, however, each of zoom lens-forming lens units has an increased axial thickness, offering a problem that even upon received at a collapsible lens mount, the dimension of the lens barrel in the thickness direction is not fully slimmed down, failing to make an associated camera sufficiently small.
Patent Publication 1
JP(A)2002-277740
Patent Publication 2
JP(A)2003-140041
Patent Publication 3
JP (A) 2004-4765
Patent Publication 4
JP(A)2004-61675
Patent Publication 5
U.S. Pat. No. 6,710,934

Zoom lens and imaging system incorporating it