Methods for constructing and maintaining knowledge representation systems (KRS) are disclosed. The KRS is initially organized and populated using knowledge engineers. After initial organization, scientific domain experts digest and structure source texts for direct entry into the KRS using templates. These templates constrain both the form and content of the digested information, allowing it to be entered directly into the KRS. The methods disclosed herein permit the construction and maintenance of a much larger KRS than could be constructed and maintained using known methods. Fact type specific fact templates are completed, accepting predefined fact types found in predetermined information sources. Fact template may comprise a user interface that constrains user entry to one of a predetermined set of valid entries. The user interface may include a user field that permits entry of new information not included in the predetermined set of valid user entries.

The explosion of published information in the fields of biology, biochemistry, genetics and related fields (collectively referred to herein as "genomics") presents research scientists with the enormous challenge of searching and analyzing a massive amount of published information to find the particular information of interest. The majority of new genomics information is produced and stored in text form. Information stored in text form is unstructured and, other than key word searches of various types, relatively inaccessible to standard computer search techniques.
The process of culling and reviewing relevant information from the published literature is consequently a laborious and time-consuming one. Even the most basic queries about the function of a particular gene using even sophisticated key word searches often result in generating too many articles to be reviewed carefully in a reasonable amount of time, missing critical articles with important findings expressed in a non-standard manner and form or both.
Text storage was never designed for and has not proven adequate to the task of describing and clarifying the complex, interrelated biochemical pathways involved in biological systems. Examples of high-level computational tasks that cannot be performed on text-based databases include: a) computational identification of clusters of diverse functionally interrelated genes that occur in genomic data sets; b) systematic, principled prediction of gene function using computation over links between uncharacterized genes and other genes in the genome, using all functional relationships available in the literature rather than just the available experimental genomic data sets; c) novel biological inferences in the knowledge base, based on computation over large bodies of existing, explicitly entered content; and d) flexible computation of the genes that constitute biological pathways, based on criteria such as upstream versus downstream genes, transcriptional versus phosphorylation targets, membrane-bound versus nuclear genes, etc.
By limiting a researcher's ability to ask these types of questions when searching for information, the current text-based model of information storage is a serious obstacle to research in genomics. The ever-increasing volume of functional genetic data resulting from the biotechnology revolution further demonstrates how both the academic and industrial communities require a more readily computable means for archiving and mining the genomics information.
The desirability of placing the published genomics information into a structured format and thus allowing easier and more useful searches is known, for example by storing information extracted from text in a frame-based knowledge representation system. Although examples of frame-based knowledge representation systems are known in several fields, the difficulties in populating such a system with specific genomics information, leading to the creation of a true genomics knowledge base are substantial.
The process to populate a frame-based knowledge representation system (herein "KRS") with information, leading to the creation of what is called a "knowledge base," ("KB") is known as knowledge acquisition (KA). KA is recognized as a slow, difficult and expensive process. KA is a major and perhaps the major bottleneck in building functional and useful KBs. A consequence of the difficulties associated with KA is that most KBs are small and concentrate on a very limited domain of interest.
Known methods of performing the KA function require a knowledge representation expert or knowledge engineer (KE) with computer science training to work with the appropriate domain experts to manually capture and then organize the extracted information into the KRS. The KE transcribes, structures and embeds this information into the KB. KEs must have an understanding of the underlying formal machine representation of the KRS in order to extract the information from the text source and then insert the information into the KRS in a consistent, accurate and appropriate manner. Often the KE works closely with scientific experts to classify and categorize the information properly. The need for two highly trained individuals to work together to structure and enter the information makes this approach to populating a KRS extremely time consuming and expensive. These problems also greatly restrict the extent to which this process can be used as the amount of information to be captured increases.
As millions of findings must be captured and structured to create a KB of the size and scope necessary for useful genomics research, a method for efficiently and economically populating a genomics KRS with structured, codified information to create a usable KB is needed.

Computerized knowledge representation system with flexible user entry fields


A machine and method for a hydrostatic axial sliding bearing that has bearing and sealing functions and is capable of exhibiting reduced power losses. The hydrostatic axial sliding bearing of the machine is defined by axial sliding bearing surfaces that are separated by a fluid film and adapted for movement relative to each other during operation of the machine. The machine has first and second elements that define a first and a second of the axial sliding bearing surfaces. In combination, the first and second axial sliding bearing surfaces function as bearing and sealing surfaces for the hydrostatic axial sliding bearing. The machine is adapted so that the first and second axial sliding bearing surfaces move relative to each other in a first direction of motion, and at least the second axial sliding bearing surface has a surface profile with an oscillatory waveform in the first direction of motion.

The present invention generally relates to hydrostatic sliding bearings, including hydrostatic sliding bearings suitable for use in positive displacement machines.
Positive displacement pumps and motors, such as axial and radial piston machines, generally comprise an array of pistons that reciprocate within a cylinder block. In axial piston machines, the piston-cylinder combinations are parallel and arranged in a circular array within the cylinder block. An inlet/outlet port is defined at one end the cylinder block for each individual piston-cylinder combination, such that a fluid can be drawn into and expelled from each cylinder through the port as the piston within the cylinder is reciprocated. The end of the cylinder block containing the inlet/outlet ports defines an axial sliding bearing surface that abuts a surface of a valve plate, while the opposite end of the cylinder block is connected to a drive shaft for rotation of the cylinder block. The valve plate defines an inlet opening and an outlet opening that are sequentially aligned with the inlet/outlet of each cylinder, so that fluid is drawn into each cylinder through the cylinder's inlet/outlet port when aligned with the valve plate inlet opening and expelled from each cylinder through the cylinder's inlet/outlet port when aligned with the valve plate outlet opening. The mating surfaces of the cylinder block and valve plate are axial sliding bearing surfaces separated by a film of the fluid being worked on by the machine, defining a hydrostatic axial sliding bearing that is subjected to an axial load applied by the cylinder block to the valve plate. In addition to carrying this axial load, the axial sliding bearing must also minimize fluid leakage between the block and valve plate. Consequently, the axial sliding bearing has both a bearing function and a sealing function, which differentiates the hydrostatic axial sliding bearing from typical bearing applications that have only a load-bearing function.
While the axial sliding bearing of a positive displacement machine is often referred to as a hydrostatic bearing, it is well known that there are hydrodynamic effects present that influence the load-bearing and sealing functions of the bearing as the cylinder block rotates relative to the valve plate. Nonetheless, for convenience sliding bearings of positive displacement machines and similar applications will be referred to herein simply as hydrostatic bearings.
One end of each piston protrudes from the cylinder block and is coupled with a stationary swash plate inclined to the axis of the cylinder block, causing the pistons to reciprocate within the cylinder block as the block is rotated relative to the swash plate. The stroke length of each piston, and therefore displacement of the piston-cylinder combinations, can be made variable by changing the inclination (cam angle) of the swash plate. To provide this capability, the protruding end of each piston may be configured to have a ball-and-socket arrangement. The socket portion of this arrangement, or slipper, may have a planar surface that bears against the swash plate. The spherical mating surfaces of each piston-slipper combination and the planar mating surfaces of the swash plate and each slipper define axial sliding bearing surfaces, which are separated by a fluid film formed with, for example, the fluid being worked on. The resulting hydrostatic axial sliding bearings transfer the piston force to the swash plate during relative motion between the slipper and swash plate.
Axial sliding bearing surfaces similar to those described above can also be found in other machines, including other positive displacement machines such as bent axis piston machines, radial piston machines, vane type machines, gear machines, screw-type machines, etc.
The efficiencies of machines with sliding bearing surfaces are dependent on the torque losses attributable to each sliding bearing surface. For positive displacement machines, efficiencies are also dependent on power losses attributable to fluid leakage at the axial sliding bearing surfaces defined by the cylinder block and valve plate. Designs for axial sliding bearings are widely known and described in the literature. For example, descriptions of axial sliding bearings for different positive displacement machines can be found in Ivantysyn J. and Ivantysynova, M., Hydrostatic pumps and motors, New Delhi. Akademia Books International, ISBN-81-85522-16-2 (2001). Design principles and calculation methods typically assume that the gap height between the sliding bearing surfaces is uniform. Using the axial piston machine described above as an example, the sliding bearing surfaces of the planar mating surfaces of the cylinder block and valve plate and the planar mating surfaces of the slippers and swash plate are assumed to be parallel, and the sliding bearing surfaces of the spherical ball-and-socket mating surfaces of the pistons and slipper are assumed to be perfectly spherical and concentric. For manufacturing purposes, absolute deviations of flatness are defined in ranges of micrometers. It is also common practice to assume ideally smooth surfaces within the sizing process, and to allow a minimum surface roughness for manufacturing purposes, typically less than a one micrometer Ra and more typically in a range of thousandths to tenths of a micrometer, requiring an abrasive finishing operation such as lapping. Common design principles and calculation methods further assume that the fluid film between the sliding bearing surfaces is of constant thickness.
A disadvantage of the above commonly-used design approach is that, in the event of an asymmetrical bearing load during relative motion between the sliding surfaces, the surfaces will incline with respect to each other and form a gap of variable height, leading to hydrodynamic effects. In the case of axial sliding bearings used in positive displacement machines, inclination of the surfaces can lead to conditions with very low gap heights on one side and very high gap heights on the opposite side. Such conditions increase friction in areas of relatively small gap heights and increase leakage in locations of relatively large gap heights, resulting in increased power losses of the machine and reduced machine efficiency. This problem is common for all asymmetrically-loaded axial sliding bearings that have a sealing function in addition to a sliding bearing function.
In view of the above, there is a desire to minimize power losses, resulting from friction and/or fluid leakage, in machines with hydrostatic axial sliding bearing surfaces.

Axial sliding bearing and method of reducing power losses thereof


A unit type clean room has a wide operation space while providing a high air cleaning effect, is unitized and can be easily installed. The unit type clean room is characterized by including: a machine room unit; a front room unit; and a clean room unit, wherein an air conditioner and a fixed air volume device are installed in the machine room unit, the air conditioner is connected to two HEPA filter units installed in the clean room unit via an air duct, the fixed air volume device is connected to a return air chamber installed in the clean room unit via a return air duct to circulate purified air, purified air is always retained in the clean room, and a front room and an air shower are placed in the front room unit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a unit type clean room.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, installing a clean room by newly building or rebuilding requires large equipment, and the clean room cannot be easily installed because of problems such as high costs or an installation location.
To solve such problems, a clean booth unit and a clean room including the same described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-272921 has been proposed as a clean room that can be installed at low costs without requiring much load of equipment.
However, the clean booth unit and a clean room including the same have a configuration in which a plurality of small clean booth units are arranged along an assembly line in the clean room and adjacent clean booth units successively suck air in the assembly of accurate instruments, and when many operators and operation steps are required, many clean booth units are required. Thus, although the costs of only one clean booth unit are low, requiring many clean booth units may finally cost high.


A nectarine tree which is of medium size and vigor, spreading, vase formed; foliated with medium size reniform glands; blooms medium season from medium size buds which are plump, appressed, pubescent and pink in color; and is a regular and productive bearer of medium size, symmetrical, uniform, globose, semi-freestone fruit having orange-yellow skin substantially overspread with red when the fruit is fully ripe.

This new variety of nectarine tree was discovered as a whole tree chance seedling in a block of RedGold nectarines by Mr. H. David Carlson of Yakima, Wash. in the year 1983. The RedGold nectarine block which had been planted in 1978 is located in the Parker Heights district of the Lower Yakima Valley near Parker, Wash. At the time of discovery the four (4) year old seedling was producing its second crop of fruit.
Asexual reproduction of the new variety was successfully accomplished in the year 1984 by budding to peach seedling stocks. The second generation asexually reproduced trees, upon maturity, have run true to the original seedling tree in all respects.
This present new variety of nectarine tree is of medium size and vigor, spreading and vase shaped. It is foliated with medium size, ovate, lanceolate, acutely pointed leaves having a crevate margin and reniform glands. The pink flowers are medium season from medium size, plump appressed and pubescent flower buds. It is a regular and productive bearer of medium size, symmetrical, uniform, globose, semi-freestone fruits. The attractive bright red fruits are underlaid with an orange-yellow ground color. The yellow flesh is mottled with red next to the stone which is brown in color.
The present variety of nectarine tree is further characterized by its fruit which ripens fourteen (14) days before the RedGold variety of nectarine thus providing a nectarine harvest and market availability intermediate and seven (7) days after of the popular Firebrite variety (unpatented) in the fruit growing areas of Eastern Washington.


A back-up control unit of a back-up power source device executes: a battery failure determination process of determining whether or not a battery failure has been detected by a failure detecting unit; when it is determined that battery failure has been detected in the battery failure determination process, a switching instruction determination process for determining, on the basis of an instruction signal from a monitor circuit, whether or not an instruction to switch to a P range has been made by a user; and when it is determined that a switching instruction has been made in the switching instruction determination process, a shifting instruction process for starting power supply from a back-up power source to a shift control unit and instructing the shift control unit to shift to the P range.

Patent Document 1, for example, is known as a conventional technique for supplying back-up power to a shift control unit included in a shift-by-wire device provided in a vehicle, as mentioned above. Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for supplying back-up power from a capacitor (a back-up power source) to an SBW-ECU (shift control unit) when a power source such as a battery, a wire in a power supply system, or the like provided in a vehicle has malfunctioned, i.e., in the event of a battery failure causing the supply of power from the battery to be lost. According to the technique disclosed in this document, a control signal from the SBW-ECU supplied with power switches the shift range of an automatic transmission to the parking range (P range), which makes it possible to safely park the vehicle.
However, as mentioned in the aforementioned document as well, a user of a vehicle may wish to specify the timing at which the shift range is switched to the parking range (P range) in order to park the vehicle in a predetermined location in the event of a battery failure. In this case, according to the technique of the aforementioned document, it is necessary to supply power from the back-up power source to the SBW-ECU from when the battery failure has occurred to when the parking range (P range) is switched to. There is thus a problem in that the capacity of the back-up power source must be high enough to provide the required supply. A higher capacity increases the size of the back-up power source.
For design purposes and the like, it is also conceivable that the back-up power source device which controls the supply of power from the back-up power source, such as a capacitor, to the SBW-ECU (the shift control unit), is provided separate from the shift control unit. Thus what is needed is a technique in which a back-up power source can be used efficiently in a situation where, in the event of a battery failure, the shift range is to be switched to the parking range in response to a user instruction, and where the back-up power source device and the shift control unit are provided separately.
Having been achieved on the basis of circumstances such as those described above, the technique disclosed in the present specification provides a back-up power source device which, in the event of a battery failure, can efficiently use a back-up power source for a shift control unit when switching a shift range to the parking range in response to a user instruction, and which can be made smaller.

Back-up power source device and back-up system


Articles having a component with a surface defining microstructured features can be formed using thermal transfer elements. One example of a suitable thermal transfer element includes a microstructured layer having a surface defining microstructured features imposed on the microstructured layer. The thermal transfer element is configured and arranged for the transfer of at least a portion of the microstructured layer to a receptor while substantially preserving the microstructured features of that portion.

This invention relates to methods and transfer elements for thermal transfer of layers, as well as the devices formed thereby. In particular, the invention relates to thermal transfer elements and methods for the thermal transfer of microstructured layers, as well as the devices formed thereby.
There is a general trend to reduce the size of many articles and devices used in industrial and consumer applications, particularly in electronics. In addition, a variety of articles and devices utilize modified surfaces. These articles and devices often require microstructured (and, in some instances, nanostructured) surfaces, layers, or components. For example, field emission devices used for articles, such as flat panel displays, can be formed using nanostructured elements (e.g., fibers, whiskers, or rods), as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,726,524, incorporated herein by reference. Nanostructured elements can also be used in, for example, catalyst systems, chemical sensors, and bioabsorption substrates. Microstructured surfaces and layers can be useful in, for example, electroluminescence devices, field emission cathodes for display devices, fluid control films having capillary channels, bioanalytical and biomolecular processing devices, and patterned electronic components and circuits.
In at least some instances, it is inconvenient, economically unfeasible, or difficult to form these microstructured and nanostructured elements, layers, surfaces, and components on a desired substrate. For example, the nanostructured elements of a field emission device may be difficult to form in a desired pattern on a substrate. Known techniques for patterning small features on substrates include, for example, ablation or adhesive lift-off techniques to remove a portion of a previously formed layer of microstructured or nanostructured elements. However, these methods may require multiple steps and may produce excessive waste materials.
Generally, the present invention relates to the formation of articles having a layer with a surface defining microstructured features, as well as thermal transfer elements and methods for making the articles. One embodiment is a thermal transfer element including a microstructured layer having a surface defining microstructured features imposed on the microstructured layer. The thermal transfer element is configured and arranged for the transfer of at least a portion of the microstructured layer to a receptor while substantially preserving the microstructured features of that portion. The thermal transfer element can include one or more additional layers such as, for example, a light-to-heat conversion layer, an interlayer, a release layer, and an adhesion layer.
Another embodiment is a method of making an article. A receptor substrate of the article is contacted with a thermal transfer element having a microstructured layer including a surface defining microstructured features imposed on the microstructured layer. At least a portion of the microstructured layer is then selectively transferred to the receptor substrate while substantially preserving the microstructured features of that portion. The transfer can be performed by selectively applying a heating element or by selectively illuminating an optional light-to-heat conversion layer of the thermal transfer element.
Yet another embodiment is an article having a substrate and a microstructured component having a surface defining microstructured features. The microstructured component is formed on the substrate by thermal transfer of at least a portion of a microstructured layer from a thermal transfer element.
A further embodiment is a method of making a thermal transfer element. A microstructured layer is formed on a substrate, optionally over a light-to-heat conversion layer, and with a surface defining microstructured features imposed on the microstructured layer. The microstructured features can be imposed on the microstructured layer by forming the layer on a substrate containing microstructured features or by modifying the surface of the layer after the layer has been formed. The microstructured layer forms at least a portion of the transfer unit of the thermal transfer element.
The above summary of the present invention is not intended to describe each disclosed embodiment or every implementation of the present invention. The Figures and the detailed description which follow more particularly exemplify these embodiments.

Thermal transfer of microstructured layers


A solid ink stick for use in an imaging device, such as a phase change inkjet printer, is provided. The solid ink stick has a retrieval feature located on a top surface thereof. When the ink stick is incorrectly loaded through the insertion opening of a feed channel of the printer, the retrieval feature has a vertical dimension such that the ink stick can be grasped, such as by two fingers of a user, to remove the ink stick through the insertion opening. The retrieval feature generally includes two lower surfaces interconnected with at least one upper surface.

The present disclosure relates to one or more features on the surface, such as the top surface, of a solid ink stick that increase the ease of removal of an ink stick from an ink feed channel of an imaging device.
Certain imaging devices, such as solid ink or phase change ink printers, conventionally receive ink in a solid form, either as pellets or as ink sticks. The solid ink pellets or ink sticks are typically inserted through an insertion opening of an ink loader for the printer, and the ink sticks are pushed or slid along the feed channel by a feed mechanism and/or gravity toward a heater plate in the heater assembly. The heater plate melts the solid ink impinging on the plate into a liquid that is delivered to a print head for jetting onto a recording medium.
The correct loading and feeding of ink sticks has typically been accomplished by incorporating keying, guiding, alignment, or orientation features into the exterior surface of an ink stick. These keying features are protuberances or indentations that are located in different positions on an ink stick. Corresponding keys or guide elements on the perimeters of the insertion openings exclude ink sticks which do not have the appropriate perimeter key elements, and also ensure that the ink stick is properly aligned and oriented in the feed channel. These keying features are particularly important for color printers, which typically use four different colors of ink (cyan, yellow, magenta, and black).
The physical configuration of the ink stick generally provides all of the uniqueness to determine whether the ink stick is in the proper feed channel. However, this system is not foolproof, largely because the keying features are not extreme in their depths to avoid mass loss and reduce the vulnerability of the ink stick to fracture. Because the keying features are moderate and can be very similar across multiple product lines, incorrect insertions can occur. For example, because cyan, magenta, and black ink sticks are somewhat similar in color, they can be easily loaded into the incorrect feed channel. Even if an ink stick is placed in the correct feed channel, the ink stick may not be correctly oriented. An incorrectly oriented ink stick may not feed properly along the feed channel and/or may not engage the ink melter appropriately. In addition, encoding features on an ink stick that has been incorrectly oriented may not be positioned optimally in the feed channel to interact with sensors, resulting in faulty actuation of the sensors or no actuation at all. This causes a need to remove the ink stick out of the feed channel through the insertion opening.
Insertion openings typically offer very small clearances, and ink sticks are not generally shaped to enhance retrieval. U.S. Pat. No. 6,929,360 describes one method of retrieving an ink stick. The insertion opening itself is shaped to both provide guide elements and to provide a clearance space through which a tweezer-like removal tool can be inserted to grasp the ink stick and pull the ink stick through the insertion opening.
It would be desirable to provide an ink stick with integrated retrieval features, allowing the ink stick to be removed through the insertion opening with the human hand alone, i.e. without the need for additional tools.


A method for avoiding side collision of vehicles at cross roads (where two or more roads meet) by utilizing a side collision prediction algorithm. The method for avoiding side collision of vehicles includes the steps of controlling the movement of the vehicle that is compliant with the traffic light and has started moving, by either rapid acceleration or deceleration when the driver of a first vehicle is unable to promptly respond to a second vehicle approaching from the side (left to right or right to left) in violation of the traffic light signal, or in cases where a collision is unavoidable, by causing the collision to occur as far away from the occupant compartment of the first vehicle as possible to minimize any injuries of the passengers in the first vehicle.

As shown by FIG. 1, side collisions at crossroads are one of the most fatal types of accidents for passengers of the vehicle that is hit from the side. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to develop a technology that can reduce this type of fatality.
In particular, because the colliding vehicle approaches from the side in collisions involving crossroads, frequently the driver and the passengers of the vehicle being hit are unable to see the colliding vehicle.
Although side impact airbags are used to minimize injuries caused by side collisions, due to the structure of the automobile, there is a limit on how much crumple zone can be built in to minimize the impact of side collisions.
Generally, the conventional collision prevention systems installed in vehicles, such as BWS (Back Warning System) and CWS (Collision Warning System) are only capable of generating collision prevention information by detecting objects around the vehicle in a single direction. Accordingly, they are able to only detect a limited range of area for objects. Additionally, they were not capable of taking any active measures to prevent collision but are only able to provide warning.

Method for avoiding side collision of vehicles


A band measurement method for measuring a band available for communication with a target device connected via a network includes: transmitting a first request having a first data size and requesting a response having a fixed size to the target device via the network; determining a first time between the transmitting of the first request and the receipt of the response upon receipt of the response; transmitting a second request having a second data size and requesting a response having the fixed size to the target device via the network; determining a second time between transmitting of the second request and the receipt of the response upon receipt of the response; and calculating a first communication band available for transmitting data to the target device by dividing the difference between the first and second data sizes by the difference between the first and second times.

1. Field
The embodiments discussed herein are related to a technique for measuring a communication bandwidth available between devices.
2. Description of Related Art
With the diversification and complication of a network, a technique for accurately recognizing the network state is required. Examples of the network state include an available communication bandwidth. In a general technique that has been implemented so far, dedicated agents are required to be installed one for each in a measuring device and a measurement target device for measuring the communication bandwidth separately by the uplink and the downlink and perform time synchronization before performing measurement, which is not only time-consuming but also cannot measure at an arbitrary timing.
Alternatively, there is a technique by which only the measuring device is used to measure the communication bandwidth with the measurement target device. For example, packets differing in length between a local IP device and a remote IP device are transmitted, and the length and the response time of the transmitted packet are used to measure the communication bandwidth between the IP devices without differentiating the uplink and the downlink (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent publication No. 2002-217965). However, when the line segment is asymmetrical between the uplink and the downlink, such as an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), the uplink and the downlink are to be differentiated.

Band measurement method and storage medium


A display device includes a display panel having a display surface, a light guiding unit disposed at a display surface side of the display panel, the light guiding unit having an incident part and an irradiation part, the incident part being parallel to the display surface and facing the display surface, the irradiation part being parallel to the display surface and configured to emit a light entered from the incident part, the irradiation part having a plurality of irradiation surfaces whose positions in a direction orthogonal to the incident part differ depending on a position on the display surface, and a mirror configured to reflect an image projected from the display panel through the light guiding unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device for displaying an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a display device, for example, there is known a head-up display (HUD) device which is disposed inside of a vehicle and which is designed to project an image displayed on a display unit on a front window (e.g. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2007-65011 and 2011-53386).
Technologies disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2007-65011 and 2011-53386 are for displaying a virtual image approximately vertically on a road surface. Recently, however, efforts have been made for displaying a virtual image on a road surface by means of a vehicle-mounted head-up display device. In order to display a virtual image approximately vertically on a road surface, it is enough to dispose a display device such as a liquid crystal display device approximately vertically to the road surface. In order to display a virtual image on a road surface, instead, those skilled in the art may consider inclining a display surface of a display device toward the road surface, for example. In this case, depending on the viewing angle of the display device, the virtual image may be displayed insufficiently, or the transmittance and contrast of the display panel may decrease. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2007-65011 and 2011-53386 does not disclose or suggest displaying any virtual image on a road surface. There is a need for a display device for displaying a virtual image on a road surface.

Display device comprising a light guiding unit having a plurality of optical fibers that differ in length depending on a plurality of irradiation surfaces


An apparatus for handling sheets of paper has a depositing/dispensing unit for depositing papers put into the apparatus by an operator and for dispensing papers to an operator. Within the apparatus there is a counter unit, a storage box unit and a transporting unit that includes a robot hand for transporting papers between the units. A space is formed within the counter unit between a separating unit and a stacking unit within which the depositing/dispensing unit can move. Also, the space enables maintenance tasks to be performed easily by providing access to the components of the counter unit. The apparatus is capable of handling two kinds of paper in both depositing and dispensing transactions. The counter unit provided with locked covers that prevent access to spaces where paper to be deposited can be stored.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for handling sheets of paper that include a depositing/dispensing unit or port for allowing a customer to deposit sheets of paper into the machine or receive sheets of paper from the machine. Internally, the machine has a counter unit, a sheets of paper handling mechanism, a storage box or cash cassette, an inspecting unit and a transporting unit for transporting the sheets of paper between these units and the depositing/dispensing unit.
The machine is capable of handling two types of paper sheets and has a storage box or cash cassette that can be preloaded, securely locked, and placed in the machine for loading the machine with sheets of paper.
The counter unit of the machine has sensors for detecting the sheets of paper, and a method and apparatus for cleaning the sensors when their output drops from being blotted by dust or other matter.
2. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
An automatic transacting machine is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open No. 61-291370. The disclosed machine has a depositing/dispensing unit or port for the sheets of paper, an inspection unit, a storage box, and a transporting unit for transporting the sheets of paper between these units.
In operation, the disclosed machine handles a dispensing transaction by having the transporting unit put a predetermined number of sheets of paper into a hopper of the inspection unit. Thereafter, the inspection unit counts the sheets of paper to provide a number of sheets that corresponds to the amount of the request being made an operator in the transaction. Then, the sheets of paper are transferred from the inspection unit to the depositing/dispensing unit by the transporting unit. On the other hand, for a depositing transaction, the transporting unit transfers the sheets of paper received from the depositing/dispensing unit to the hopper of the inspection unit whereupon the sheets of paper are inspected and counted. Afterward, the counted sheets of paper are sent to a predetermined position in the storage box by the transporting unit.
The operation of the above disclosed machine in the dispensing transaction is relatively slow, because the sheets of paper must first be removed from the storage box and placed into the hopper of the inspection unit, before they are counted and transferred to the depositing/dispensing unit for delivery to the operator. The step of removing a predetermined number of sheets of paper for each dispensing transaction from the storage box is folloWed by, after the counting step, returning the excess sheets that were not dispensed in the transaction to the storage box. Accordingly, the sheets of paper are removed from and replaced in the storage box for the dispensing transactions.
Within the storage box of the known machine, compartments are provided for storing the sheets of paper to be used in the dispensing transactions, and for storing the sheets of paper that are rejected by the inspection unit. These compartments are fixed and located within the machine in fixed predetermined locations. The size of each compartment must be adequate for storing the sheets of paper to be dispensed, the rejected sheets of paper, and the sheets of paper deposited in a depositing transaction. Accordingly, the objective of minimizing the size of the storage box is constrained by having to provide an adequate size for each of the fixed compartments within the storage box.
As for the machine disclosed above, there is a further problem wherein little consideration has been taken into account for eliminating both the jamming of the counter unit of the machine and for obtaining easy access to the various components of the machine for conducting proper maintenance. For the above machine, it is necessary to use a special tool to correct for any jamming problems that occur within the counter. At times, it is necessary to also open the counter, but this requires opening the transporting unit also. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain easy access to the components of the above-disclosed machine, and to clear the counter when jamming occurs.
In the above-identified machine, sensors are provided for detecting the existence of the sheets of paper at several stacked sections located adjacent the counting unit. The detecting ability of these sensors drops, however, as the result of being blotted by dust or the like. Accordingly, the operation of the sensors becomes faulty or fails and maintenance must be performed to clean the sensors and restore them to proper operation.


According to one or more embodiments of the disclosure, a device receives data regarding wireless communications between a wireless access point and a client. The device evaluates, based on the data, motion of the client relative to the wireless access point. The device makes, based on the motion of the client relative to the wireless access point, a determination that the motion of the client relative to the wireless access point will result in the wireless communications degrading as the client approaches the wireless access point. The device adjusts the wireless communications, based on the determination that the motion of the client relative to the wireless access point will result in the wireless communications degrading as the client approaches the wireless access point.

The Internet of Things, or "IoT" for short, represents an evolution of computer networks that seeks to connect many everyday objects to the Internet. Notably, there has been a recent proliferation of "smart" devices that are Internet-capable such as thermostats, lighting, televisions, cameras, and the like. In many implementations, these devices may also communicate with one another. For example, an IoT motion sensor may communicate with one or more smart lightbulbs, to actuate the lighting in a room, when a person enters the room.
With the proliferation of IoT devices to every walk of life, wireless networks are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. As a result, Wi-Fi access points (APs) can now be found in a wide variety of locations. Unfortunately, approaches taken by APs with respect to channel estimation typically operate under the assumption that a joining client is moving at a relatively slow speed. In the real world, however, there are many types of wireless clients that are moving at a very high speed, such as trains, automobiles, and the like. For these types of clients, a contradiction exists where the data link with the AP can actually fail, as the client gets closer to the AP.

Channel estimation for high-speed wireless clients


The present invention describes a synthetic non-viral vector composition for gene therapy and the use of such compositions for in vitro, ex vivo and/or in vivo transfer of genetic material. The invention proposes a pharmaceutical composition containing 1) a non-cationic amphiphilic molecule or macromolecule and its use for delivery of nucleic acids or 2) a cationic amphiphilic molecule or macromolecule that transforms from a cationic entity to an anionic, neutral, or zwitterionic entity by a chemical, photochemical, or biological reaction and its use for delivery of nucleic acids. Moreover this invention describes the use of these non-viral vector compositions in conjunction with a surface to mediate the delivery of nucleic acids. An additional embodiment is the formation of a hydrogel with these compositions and the use of this hydrogel for the delivery of genetic material. A further embodiment of this invention is the use of a change in ionic strength for the delivery of genetic material.

In 1972, Friedmann outlined the far-reaching opportunities for human gene therapy. Friedmann, T.; Roblin, R. Science 1972, 175, 949-955. Chromosomal deficiencies and/or anomalies, e.g., mutation and aberrant expression, cause many hereditary and non-hereditary diseases. Conventional medicine remains unable to treat many of these diseases; gene therapy may be an effective therapeutic option by either adding, replacing, or removing relevant genes. See Kay, M. A.; Liu, D.; Hoogergrugge, P. M. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 1997, 94, 12744-12746 and Huang, L.; Hung, M.; Wagner, E., Eds. Nonviral Vectors for Gene Therapy; Academic Press: New York, 1999.
Currently few organs or cells can be specifically targeted for gene delivery. There are established protocols for transferring genes into cells, including calcium phosphate precipitation, electroporation, particle bombardment, liposomal delivery, viral-vector delivery, and receptor-mediated gene-delivery. However, a main obstacle to the penetration of a nucleic acid into a cell or target organ lies in its size and polyanionic nature, both of which militate against its passage across cell membranes. Two strategies currently being explored for delivery of nucleic acids are viral and synthetic non-viral vectors, i.e., cationic molecules and polymers. A brief discussion of viral vectors, cationic lipids, and cationic polymers and there utility in gene therapy is presented below.
Viral Vectors
Viral vectors are viruses. Viruses, such as adenoviruses, herpes viruses, retroviruses and adeno-associated viruses, are currently under investigation. Currently, viral vectors, e.g., adenoviruses and adeno-associated viruses, have exhibited the highest levels of transfection efficiency compared to synthetic vectors, i.e., cationic lipids and polymers. Viral vectors suffer use in the Treatment of Human Diseases Drugs 2000, 60, 249-271; Smith, E. A. Viral Vectors in Gene Therapy Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 1995, 49, 807-838; Drumm, M. L.; Pope, H. A.; Cliff, W. H.; Rommens, J. M.; Marvin, S. A.; Tsui, L. C.; Collins, F. S.; Frizzell, R. A.; Wilson, J. M. Correction of the Cystic-fibrosis Defect in Vitro by Retrovirus-Mediated Gene Transfer Cell 1990, 1990, 1227-1233; Rosenfeld, M. A.; Yoshimura, K.; Trapnell, B. C.; Yoneyama, K.; Rosenthal, E. R.; Dalemans, W.; Fukayama, M.; Bargon, J.; Stier, L. E.; Stratfordperricaudet, L.; Perricaudet, M.; Guggino, W. B.; Pavirani, A.; Lecocq, J. P.; Crystal, R. G. In vivo Transfer of the Human Cystic-Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator Gene to the Airway Epithelium Cell 1992, 68, 143-155; Muzyczka, N. Use of Adenoassociated Virus as a General Transduction Vector for Mammalian Cells Curr. Top. Microbiol. Immuno. 1992, 158, 97-129; Robbins, P. D.; Tahara, H.; Ghivizzani, S. C. Viral Vectors for Gene Therapy Trends Biotechnol 1998, 16, 35-40; and oss, G.; Erickson, R.; Knorr, D.; Motulsky, A. G.; Parkman, R.; Samulski, J.; Straus, S. E.; Smith, B. R. Gene Therapy in the United States: A Five-Year Status Report Hum. Gene Ther. 1996, 14, 1781-1790.
Since the method infects an individual cell with a viral carrier, a potentially life threatening immune response to the treatment can develop. Summerford reviews gene therapy with Adeno-associated viral vectors. For additional details see Marshall, E. Clinical Research—FDA Halts All Gene Therapy Trials at Penn Science 2000, 287, 565-567 and Summerford, C.; Samulski, R. J. Adeno-associated Viral Vectors for Gene Therapy Biogenic Amines 1998, 14, 451-475. Several examples of viral vectors used for gene delivery are described below. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,362 to Wilson et al., an improved adenovirus vector and methods for making and using such vectors is described. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 6,268,213 to Samulski et al., describes an adeno-associated virus vector and cis-acting regulatory and promoter elements capable of expressing at least one gene and method of using the viral vector for gene therapy. Although the transfection efficiency is high with viral vectors, there are a number of complications associated with the use of viral vectors.
Cationic Lipids
The second strategy consists of using non-viral agents capable of promoting the transfer and expression of DNA in cells. Since the first report by Felgner, this area has been actively investigated. These cationic non-viral agents bind to polyanionic DNA. Following endocytosis, the nucleic acid must escape from the delivery agent as well as the endosomal compartment so that the genetic material is incorporated within the new host The mechanism of nucleic acid transfer from endosomes to cytoplasm and/or nuclear targets is still unclear. Possible mechanisms are simple diffusion, transient membrane destabilization, or simple leakage during a fusion event in which endosomes fuse with other vesicles. See Felgner, P. L. Nonviral Strategies for Gene Therapy Sci. Am. 1997, 276, 102-106; Felgner, P. L.; Gadek, T. R.; Holm, M.; Roman, R.; Chan, H. W.; Wenz, M.; Northrop, J. P.; Ringgold, G. M.; Danielsen, M. Lipofectin: A highly efficient, lipid mediated DNA-transfection procedure Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1987, 84, 7413-7417; Felgner, P. L.; Kumar, R.; Basava, C.; Border, R. C.; Hwang-Felgner, J. In; Vical, Inc. San Diego, Calif.: U.S. Pat. No. 5,264,618, 1993; Felgner, J. H.; Kumar, R.; Sridhar, C. N.; Wheeler, C. J.; Tsai, Y. J.; Border, R.; Ramsey, P.; Martin, M.; Felgner, P. L. Enhanced Gene Delivery and Mechanism Studies with a Novel Series of Cationic Formulations J. Biol. Chem. 1994, 269, 2550-2561; Freidmann, T. Sci. Am. 1997, 276, 96-101; Behr, J. P. Gene Transfer with Synthetic Cationic Amphiphiles: Prospects for Gene Delivery Bioconjugate Chem. 1994, 5, 382-389; Cotton, M.; Wagner, B. Non-viral Approaches to Gene Therapy Curr. Op. Biotech. 1993, 4, 705-710; Miller, A. D. Cationic Liposomes for Gene Therapy Angew. Chem. Int. 1998, 37, 1768-1785; Scherman, D.; Bessodes, M.; Cameron, B.; Herscovici, J.; Hofland, H.; Pitard, B.; Soubrier, F.; Wils, P.; Crouzet, J. Application of Lipids and Plasmid Design for Gene Delivery to Mammalian Cells Curr. Op. Biotech. 1989, 9, 480; Lasic, D. D. In Surfactants in Cosmetics; 2nd ed.; Rieger, M. M., Rhein, L. D., Eds.; Marcel Dekker, Inc.: New York, 1997; Vol. 68, pp 263-283; Rolland, A. P. From Genes to Gene Medicines: Recent Advances in Nonviral Gene Delivery Crit. Rev. Ther. Drug 1998, 15, 143-198; de Lima, M. C. P.; Simoes, S.; Pires, P.; Faneca, H.; Duzgunes, N. Cationic Lipid-DNA Complexes in Gene Delivery from Biophysics to Biological Applications Adv. Drug. Del. Rev. 2001, 47, 277-294.
These synthetic vectors have two main functions, to condense the DNA to be transfected and to promote its cell-binding and passage across the plasma membrane, and where appropriate, the two nuclear membranes. Due to its polyanionic nature, DNA naturally has poor affinity for the plasma membrane of cells, which is also polyanionic. Several groups have reported the use of amphiphilic cationic lipid-nucleic acid complexes for in vivo transfection both in animals and humans. Thus, non-viral vectors have cationic or polycationic charges. See Gao, X; Huang, L. Cationic Liposome-mediated Gene Transfer Gene Therapy 1995, 2, 710-722; Zhu, N.; Liggott, D.; Liu, Y.; Debs, R. Systemic Gene Expression After Intravenous DNA Delivery into Adult Mice Science 1993, 261, 209-211; Thierry, A. R.; Lunardiiskandar, Y.; Bryant, J. L.; Rabinovich, P.; Gallo, R. C.; Mahan, L. C. Systemic Gene-Therapy-Biodistribution and Long-Term Expression of a Transgene in Mice Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 1995, 92, 9742-9746.
Cationic amphiphilic compounds that possess both cationic and hydrophobic domains have been previously used for delivery of genetic information. In fact, this class of compounds is widely used for intracellular delivery of genes. Such cationic compounds can form cationic liposomes which are the most popular system synthetic vector for gene transfection studies. The cationic liposomes serve two functions. First, it protects the DNA from degradation. Second, it increases the amount of DNA entering the cell. While the mechanisms describing how cationic liposomes function have not been fully delineated, such liposomes have proven useful in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Safinya, C. R. describes the structure of the cationic amphiphile-DNA complex. See Radler, J. O.; Koltover, I.; Salditt, T.; Safinya, C. R. Science 1997, 275, 810-814; Templeton, N. S.; Lasic, D. D.; Frederik, P. M.; Strey, H. H.; Roberts, D. D.; Pavlakis, G. N. Nature Biotech. 1997, 15, 647-652; Koltover, I.; Salditt, T.; Radler, J. O.; Safinya, C. R. Science 1998, 281, 78-81; and Koltover, I.; Salditt, T.; Safinya, C. R. Biophys. J. 1999, 77, 915-924. Many of these systems for gene delivery in vitro and in vivo are reviewed in recent articles. See Remy, J.; Sirlin, C.; Vierling, P.; Behr, J. Bioconj. Chem. 1994, 5, 647-654; Crystal, R. G. Science 1995, 270, 404-410; Blaese, X.; et, a. Cancer Gene Ther. 1995, 2, 291-297; and Behr, J. P. and Gao, X cited above. Unlike viral vectors, the lipid-nucleic acid complexes can be used to transfer expression cassettes of essentially unlimited size.
Because these synthetic delivery systems lack proteins, they may evoke fewer immunogenic and inflammatory responses. However, the liposomes suffer from low transfection efficiencies. Moreover, as is the case with other polycations, cationic lipids and liposomes (e.g., Lipofectin®) can be toxic to the cells and inefficient in their DNA delivery in the presence of serum; see Leonetti et al. Behr, like Leonetti, reports that these cationic amphiphiles or lipids are adversely affected by serum and some are toxic. See Leonetti, J.; Machy, P.; Degols, G.; Lebleu, B.; Leserman, L. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 1990, 87, 2448-2451 and Behr, J. P. Acc. Chem. Res. 1993, 26, 274-278.
Behr discloses numerous amphiphiles including dioctadecylamidologlycylspermine ("DOGS") for gene delivery. This material is commercially available as TRANSFECTAM®. Vigneron describes guanidinium-cholesterol cationic lipids for transfection of eukaryotic cells. Felgner discloses use of positively-charged synthetic cationic lipids including N-1-(2,3-dioleyloxy)propyl-N,N,N-trimethylammonium chloride ("DOTMA"), to form lipid/DNA complexes suitable for transfections. Byk describes cationic lipids where the cationic portion of the amphiphile is either linear, branched, or globular for gene transfection. Blessing and coworkers describe a cationic synthetic vector based on spermine. Safinya describes cationic lipids containing a poly(ethylene glycol) segment for gene delivery. Bessodes and coworkers describe a cationic lipid containing glycosidic linker for gene delivery. Ren and Liu describe cationic lipids based on 1,2,4-butanetriol. Tang and Scherman describe a cationic lipid that contains a disulfide linkage for gene delivery. Vierling describes highly fluorinated cationic amphiphiles as gene carrier and delivery systems. Jacopin describes a cation amphiphile for gene delivery that contains a targeting ligand. Wang and coworkers describe carnitine based cationic esters for gene delivery. Zhu describes the use of a cationic lipid, N[1-(2,3-dioleyloxy)propyl]-N,N,N-trimethylammonium chloride for the intravenous delivery of DNA. See Behr, J. P.; Demeneix, B.; Loeffler, J. P.; Perez-Mutul, J. Efficeint Gene Transfer into Mammalian Primary Endocrine Cells with Lipopolyamine Coated DNA Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 1989, 86, 6982-6986; Vigneron, J. P.; Oudrhiri, N.; Fauquet, M.; Vergely, L.; Bradley, J. C.; Basseville, M.; Lehn, P.; Lehn, J. M. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 1996, 93, 9682-9686; Byk, G.; BDubertret, C.; Escriou, V.; Frederic, M.; Jaslin, G.; Rangara, R.; Pitard, B.; Wils, P.; Schwartz, B.; Scherman, D. J. Med. Chem. 1998, 41, 224-235; Blessing, T.; Remy, J. S.; Behr, J. P. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 8519-8520; Blessing, T.; Remy, J. S.; Behr, J. P. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 1998, 95, 1427-1431; Schulze, U.; Schmidt, H.; Safinya, C. R. Bioconj. Chem. 1999, 10, 548-552; Bessodes, M.; Dubertret, C.; Jaslin, G.; Scherman, D. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2000, 10, 1393-1395; Herscovici, J.; Egron, M. J.; Quenot, A.; Leclercq, F.; Leforestier, N.; Mignet, N.; Wetzer, B.; Scherman, D. Org. Lett. 2001; Ren, T.; Liu, D. Tetrahedron Lett. 1999, 40, 7621-7625; Tang, F.; Hughes, J. A. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1998, 242, 141-145; Tang, F.; Hughes, J. A. Bioconjugate Chem. 1999, 10, 791-796; Wetzer, B.; Byk, G.; Frederic, M.; Airiau, M.; Blanche, F.; Pitard, B.; Scherman, D. Biochemical J. 2001, 356, 747-756; Vierling, P.; Santaella, C.; Greiner, J. J. Fluorine Chem. 2001, 107, 337-354; Jacopin, J.; Hofland, H.; Scherman, D.; Herscovici, J. J. Biomed. Chem. Lett. 2001, 11, 419-422; and Wang, J.; Guo, X.; Xu, Y.; Barron, L.; Szoka, F. C. J. Med. Chem. 1998, 41, 2207-2215.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,185 to Epand et al., the inventors describe additional examples of amphiphiles including a cationic cholesterol synthetic vector, termed "DC-chol". The inventors describe, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,264,6184, more cationic compounds that facilitate transport of biologically active molecules into cells. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,169,078 and 6,153,434 to Hughes et al. disclose a cationic lipid that contains a disulfide bond for gene delivery. U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,761 to Gebeyehu et al. describes additional cationic amphiphiles suitable for intracellular delivery of biologically active molecules. U.S. Pat. No. 6,110,490 to Thierry describes additional cationic lipids for gene delivery. U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,938 to Unger, et al. discloses cationic lipid compounds that contain at least two cationic groups.
Cationic Polymers
Recently, polymeric systems for gene delivery have been explored. In Han's review, he discussed most of the common cationic polymer systems including PLL, poly(L-lysine); PEI, polyethyleneimine; pDMEAMA, poly(2-dimethylamino)ethyl-methacrylate; PLGA, poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) and PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone). See Garnett, M. C. Crit. Rev. Ther. Drug Carrier Sys. 1999, 16, 147-207; Han, S.; Mahato, R. I.; Sung, Y. K.; Kim, S. W. Molecular Therapy 2000, 2, 302-317; Zauner, W.; Ogris, M.; Wagner, E. Adv. Drug. Del. Rev. 1998, 30, 97-113; Kabanov, A. V.; Kabanov, V. A. Bioconj. Chem. 1995, 6, 7-20; Lynn, D. M.; Anderson, D. G.; Putman, D.; Langer, R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 8155-8156; Boussif, O.; Lezoualc'h, F.; Zanta, M. A.; Mergny, M. D.; Scherman, D.; Demeneix, B.; Behr, J. P. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1995, 92, 7297-7301; Choi, J. S.; Joo, D. K.; Kim, C. H.; Kim, K.; Park, J. S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 474-480; Putnam, D.; Langer, R. Macromolecules 1999, 32, 3658-3662; Gonzalez, M. F.; Ruseckaite, R. A.; Cuadrado, T. R. Journal of Applied Polymer Science 1999, 71, 1223-1230; Tang, M. X.; Redemann, C. T.; Szoka, F. C. In Vitro Gene Delivery by Degraded Polyamidoamine Dendrimers Bioconjugate Chem. 1996, 7, 703-714; Kukowska-latallo, J. F.; Bielinska, A. U.; Johnson, J.; Spinder, R.; Tomalia, D. A.; Baker, J. R. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 1996, 93, 4897-4902; and Lim, Y.; Kim, S.; Lee, Y.; Lee, W.; Yang, T.; Lee, M.; Suh, M.; Park, J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 2460-2461.
Some representative examples of cationic polymers under investigation are described below. For example, poly(β-amino esters) have been explored and shown to condense plasmid DNA into soluble DNA/polymer particles for gene delivery. To accelerate the discovery of synthetic transfection vectors parallel synthesis and screening of a cationic polymer library was reported by Langer. Wolfert describes cationic vectors for gene therapy formed by self-assembly of DNA with synthetic block cationic co-polymers. Haensler and Szoka describe the use of cationic dendrimer polymers (polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers) for gene delivery. Wang describes a cationic polyphosphoester for gene delivery. Putnam describes a cationic polymer containing imidazole for the delivery of DNA. See Lynn, D. M.; Langer, R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 10761-10768; Wolfert, M. A.; Schacht, E. H.; Toncheva, V.; Ulbrich, K.; Nazarova, O.; Seymour, L. W. Hum. Gene Ther. 1996, 7, 2123-2133; Haensler, J.; Szoka, F. Bioconj. Chem. 1993, 4, 372; and Wang, J.; Mao, H. Q.; Leong, K W. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001; Putnam, D.; Gentry, C. A.; Pack, D. W.; Langer, R. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 2001, 98, 1200-1205.
A number of patents are also known that describe cationic polymers for gene delivery. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,184 to Goldenberg et al. describes cationic copolymers of vinylamine and vinyl alcohol for the delivery of oligonucleotides. U.S. Pat. No. 5,714,166 to Tomalia, et al, discloses dendritic cationic-amine-terminated polymers for gene delivery. U.S. Pat. No. 5,919,442 to Yin et al. describes cationic hyper comb-branched polymer conjugates for gene delivery. U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,878 to Burgess et al. describes additional cationic polymers for nucleic acid transfection and bioactive agent delivery. U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,274 to Park et al. discloses a compound for targeted gene delivery that consists of polyethylene glycol (PEG) grafted poly(L-lysine) (PLL) and a targeting moiety, wherein at least one free amino function of the PLL is substituted with the targeting moiety, and the grafted PLL contains at least 50% unsubstituted free amino function groups. U.S. Pat. No. 6,210,717 to Choi et al. describes a biodegradable, mixed polymeric micelle used to deliver a selected nucleic acid into a targeted host cell that contains an amphiphilic polyester-polycation copolymer and an amphiphilic polyester-sugar copolymer. U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,987 to Park et al. discloses a positively charged poly[alpha-(omega-aminoalkyl) glycolic acid] for the delivery of a bioactive agent via tissue and cellular uptake. U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,956 to Scherman et al. describes a pharmaceutical composition useful for transfecting a nucleic acid containing a cationic polypeptide.
All of these polymers possess and rely on cationic moieties to bind DNA. Thus, the need exits for non-cationic polymers or macromolecules for gene delivery. Such polymers would also be advantageous over using viral vectors because the polymer delivery system would not expose the cell to a virus that could infect the cell.
The following is only a representative description of the potential therapeutic value of gene therapy. Gene therapy can be used for cancer treatment with recent papers describing its utility for prostate, colorectal, ovarian, lung, breast cancer. Gene therapy has been explored for delivery of vaccines for infectious disease, for lysosomal storage disorders, for dendritic cell-based immunotherapy, for controlling hypertension, and for rescuing ischaemic tissues. Gene therapy has also been explored for treating HIV. See Galanis, E.; Vile, R.; Russell, S. J. Crit. Rev. Oncol. Hemat 2001, 38, 177-192; Kim, D.; Martuza, R. L.; Zwiebel, J. Nature Med. 2001, 7, 783-789; Culver, K W.; Blaese, R. M. Trends Genet 1994, 10, 174-178; Harrington, K J.; Spitzweg, C.; Bateman, A. R.; Morris, J. C.; Vile, R. G. J. Urology 2001, 166, 1220-1233; Chen, M. J.; Chung-Faye, G. A.; Searle, P. F.; Young, L. S.; Kerr, D. J. Biodrugs 2001, 15, 357-367; Wen, S. F.; Mahavni, V.; Quijano, E.; Shinoda, J.; Grace, M.; Musco-Hobkinson, M. L.; Yang, T. Y.; Chen, Y. T.; Runnenbaum, I.; Horowitz, J.; Maneval, D.; Hutchins, B.; Buller, R. Cancer Gene Ther. 2003, 10, 224-238; Hoang, T.; Traynor, A. M.; Schiller, J. H. Surg. Oncol. 2002, 11, 229-241; Patterson, A.; Harris, A. L. Drugs Aging 1999, 14, 75-90; Clark, K. R.; Johnson, P. R. Curr. Op. Mol. Ther. 2001, 3, 375-384; Yew, N. S.; Cheng, S. H. Curr. Op. Mol. Ther. 2001, 3, 399-406; Jenne, L.; Schuler, G.; Steinkasserer, A. Trends Immunol 2001, 22; Sellers, K. W.; Katovich, M. J.; Gelband, C. H.; Raizada, M. K. Am. J. Med. Sci. 2001, 322, 1-6; Emanueli, C.; Madeddu, P. Brit. J. Pharmacol. 2001, 133, 951-958; and Schnell, M. J. FEMS Microbiol Lett 2001, 200,123-129.
Therefore, the need exists for new compositions and methods for gene delivery. New gene delivery compositions will find applications in medicine and gene research. The present invention fulfills this need and has other related advantages.

Functional synthetic molecules and macromolecules for gene delivery


A display panel includes a first substrate, a second a second substrate a second a second substrate parallel and opposite to the first substrate, a liquid crystal molecules disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, a first and a second polarizers disposed over the first and the second substrates respectively. The first surface of the first substrate close to the liquid crystal molecules and a second surface of the second substrate close to the liquid crystal molecules includes a first alignment surface and a second alignment surface, wherein an angle between the alignment directions of the first and the second alignment surfaces is in a range of about 90°. The angle between a direction of the absorption axis of the first polarizer/the second polarizer and the alignment direction of the first alignment surface/the second alignment surface is in a range of about 45° respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display panel. More particularly, the present invention relates to a display panel of a liquid crystal display device.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, the application of liquid crystal material as liquid crystal display (LCD) has been broadly used in many display fields. The generation of LCD twisted nematic (TN), super twisted nematic (STN) LCD and double layer STN-LCD has evolved to the use of thin film transistor (TFT) as pixel switching elements. The conventional LCD has advantages of thin thickness, light-weight, low power consuming and radiation free compared to the conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) display. However, the conventional LCD at least has the problem of dependence of brightness and contrast ratio on view angle, and the problem of gray scale inversion.
FIG. 1A is a schematic explosive view illustrating a structure of a conventional LCD panel. Referring to FIG. 1A, LCD panel 100 generally includes an upper substrate 102, a bottom substrate 104, liquid crystal molecules 106 disposed between the substrates 102 and 104, polarizers 108 and 110 disposed above the substrate 102 and under the substrate 104 respectively, and a light source 112. In general, the bottom surface of the substrate 102 and the upper surface of the substrate 104 that are adjacent to the liquid crystal molecules 106 have to be rubbed to form an alignment surface for aligning the liquid crystal molecules 106. The directions D1 and D2 are perpendicular to each other, and they represent the rubbing directions of the bottom surface of the transparent substrate 102 and the upper surface of the substrate 104. As shown in FIG. 1A, the liquid crystal molecules 106 adjacent to the bottom surface of the substrate 102 and the upper surface of the substrate 104 are aligned parallel to the directions D1 and D2 respectively. Between the substrate 102 and 104, the liquid crystal molecules 106 are aligned in directions that rotate through 90° from the bottom surface of the substrate 102 to the upper surface of the substrate 104. In addition, the directions D3 and D4 of the absorption axis of the polarizers 108 and 110 are parallel to the directions D1 and D2 respectively.
In FIG. 1A, there is no voltage difference between the substrates 102 and 104. Therefore, when an unpolarized light source 112 passes through the polarizer 110, the polarization direction of the transmitted light is perpendicular to the direction D4. Then, the polarization direction of the transmitted light will be rotated by the liquid crystal molecules 106 and will be perpendicular to the direction D1 finally. Therefore, the transmitted light may pass through the polarizer 108 since the direction D3 of the absorption axis of the polarizers 108 is parallel to the direction D1.
FIG. 1B is a schematic explosive view illustrating an operation of a conventional LCD panel. In FIG. 1B, a voltage V is applied between the substrates 102 and 104, and thus the liquid crystal molecules 106 will be aligned parallel to the direction of the electric field generated by the voltage V. Therefore, when an unpolarized light source 112 passes through the polarizer 110, the polarization direction of the transmitted light is perpendicular to the direction D4. However, the polarization direction of the transmitted light is not rotated by the liquid crystal molecules 106 and will be still perpendicular to the direction D4 finally. Therefore, the transmission light can not pass through the polarizer 108 since the directions D3 of the absorption axis of the polarizers 108 is perpendicular to the direction D4. Accordingly, the brightness of the LCD panel 100 is dependent on the voltage V.
However, as shown in FIG. 1B, it should be noted that, only a middle portion of liquid crystal molecules 106 is aligned parallel to the direction of the electric field, the liquid crystal molecules 106 that near the bottom surface of the substrate 102 and the upper surface of the substrate 104 are still influenced by the rubbing directions D1 and D2 respectively. Therefore, a light leakage may be generated and the performance such as the contrast ratio of the LCD panel 100 may be reduced.
In order to improve the problem of the conventional LCD shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, an optical compensation film is developed. FIG. 2 is a schematic explosive view illustrating a structure of another conventional LCD. Referring to FIG. 2, except for the basic structure of the LCD panel 100, the LCD panel 200 further includes optical compensation films 212/214 disposed between the substrate 102/104 and the polarizer 108/110 respectively. The direction D5 and D6 of the absorption axis of the optical compensation films 212 and 214 are disposed the same as the directions D3 and D4. The optical compensation films 212 and 214 are provided for compensating the difference of the reflective index of the liquid crystal molecules 106 as shown in FIG. 1B. Therefore, the problem of light leakage is prevented and the performance such as the contrast ratio of the LCD panel 200 is enhanced.
However, the LCD panel 200 shown in FIG. 2 has the following disadvantages. FIG. 3A is a plot of a contrast ratio versus a viewing angle of the LCD shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 3B is a schematic diagram illustrating a definition of the coordinate system for the viewing angle. It is noted that, the viewing angle of the plot of FIG. 3A is defined in FIG. 3B, wherein the direction 312 is the observation direction of the observer, the azimuthal coordinate is defined as the angle between the X-axis (0 degree) and the projection of the direction 312 on the surface of the substrate 102 of the LCD panel 200, and the radial coordinate is defined as the angle between the direction 312 and the Z-axis (i.e., the normal of the surface of the substrate 102 of the LCD panel 200.) The X-axis and the Z-axis are also illustrated in FIG. 2. The diagram shown in FIG. 3A represents the contrast ratio of the LCD panel 200 versus the viewing angle of the direction 312, wherein the contrast ratio is defined as the ratio of the brightness of pixel in bright (without voltage between the substrates 102 and 104) to the brightness of the pixel in dark (with voltage between the substrates 102 and 104). It should be noted that, the contrast ratio of the hatched area shown in FIG. 3 is larger that 10, however, the contrast ratio of the area having an azimuthal coordinate is close to 270° is less than 10.
FIG. 4 is a plot illustrating a gray scale inversion phenomenon of the LCD shown in FIG. 2. As shown FIG. 4, it is noted that as the azimuthal coordinate is close to 90° or 270°, the gray scale inversion phenomenon is very serious since the gray scale of the marked areas 404, 404 shown in FIG. 4 varies many times.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an observer and the LCD shown in FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 5, the image displayed by the LCD 200 shown in FIG. 2 has a polarization direction D7 perpendicular to the direction D3. However, when the observer wears a pair of sunglasses 502, only a portion of the image having a polarization direction perpendicular to D8 may be observed since the conventional sunglasses 502 generally has an absorption axis with a direction D8 for filtering the sunlight. Therefore, the observed brightness of the image displayed by the LCD 200 may be reduced drastically.
Accordingly, an LCD for improving the low contrast ratio as the azimuthal coordinate is close to 270°, reducing the gray scale inversion problem and avoiding the reduction of brightness when a user views the LCD through a pair of polarized sunglasses is highly desirable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Display panel, and display device and electronic device using thereof


An embodiment of the present invention is directed to Branch Migration Tool that migrates accounts in an efficient manner. The Branch Migration Tool enables a user to select and copy key tables within the iDDA Global platform to a local instance. In addition, the Branch Migration Tool is transparent to clients with existing account numbers being retained.

International Demand Deposit Account (iDDA) is an application that maintains and runs a Demand Deposit Account business. This may represent a core cash accounting application for International regions (e.g., 122 branches). An International region may cover Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Western Hemisphere (non-domestic US) and Asia branches. iDDA provides multi-currency, multi-branch application processing batch and real time cash postings to customer accounts, calculates interest and provides reporting to customers and Lines of Business (LOBs) for various account types including Nostros.
Financial institutions and other providers may be subject to regulatory requirements that involve migration of accounts and balances off an iDDA Global Platform onto a Local instance of iDDA onshore. Current technologies require a manual approach of closing accounts and opening new ones with new account numbers, customer identifiers, etc. There are no products or solutions that facilitate the migration of existing accounts and balances from a Global instance to a Local instance.
These and other drawbacks exist.

System and method for implementing an international demand deposit account branch migration tool


The invention relates to accessing user interfaces for atmosphere controlling, particularly to comfortably accessing dedicated user interfaces of a complex atmosphere control system. A basic idea of the invention is to provide several user interfaces, each of which is provided for a certain control configuration for atmosphere control with an atmosphere creation system and to control the access to the user interfaces. In an embodiment of the invention, a system for controlling the access to a user interface for atmosphere control with an atmosphere creation system (10), which is provided to create atmospheres in an environment, is provided, wherein the user interface access control system comprises—several user interfaces (12), wherein each use interface is provided for a certain control configuration for atmosphere control with the atmosphere creation system, —several access control codes (14, 16), wherein each access control code is assigned to one of the several user interfaces, and —user interface access control means (18, 20) being adapted to receive an access control code and to access the user interface assigned to the received access control code.

Atmosphere controlling with an atmosphere creation system comprises the setting of desired atmospheres in an environment, in which the atmosphere creation system is installed. An example of an atmosphere creation system is a complex lighting system with dozens of light units. In order to create a desired lighting atmosphere, the lighting system may allow to comprehensively control the lighting parameters such as intensity and color in different areas of an environment, in which the lighting system is installed. Atmosphere control is however not limited to lighting atmosphere control, but comprises also audio, video, scent control and even HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning). In other words, atmosphere control as referred to herein comprises the technical control of everything, which is sensorial perceptible by creatures. WO2008/142644A1 discloses a system and method for the automatic creation of an atmosphere with an atmosphere creation system.
Creating desired atmospheres in environments is a topic, which becomes more and more interesting for retailers. An atmosphere may be for example related to the branding of a retailer, such as a certain color lighting created by a lighting system and a soundscape created by a sound system in a shop of the retailer. Especially, many branded retail chains are very particular about their brand image and, therefore, it might be of interest for them to keep it the same in all the stores in their retail chain. However, applying particularly branded atmospheres in shops nowadays is facing many challenges like complexity of the controller solutions (and reliability issues coming with it), not flexible and unfriendly user interfaces, large labor-intense installation and commissioning effort, a lot of effort for troubleshooting, difficult and labor intense scene creation process, high costs of atmosphere creation means such as luminaires as well as controls and user interfaces.
For example, having installed a flexible lighting system in a shop, users are often faced with an issue of expensive, not updatable and not customizable user interfaces for controlling the lighting system. Moreover, user interfaces are often not desired to be used by the shop personnel except for authorized persons in some cases. Remote controls for different areas in the store can get confused with each other, or misused by the personnel because there is no access control or simply get lost.

Controlling the access to a user interface for atmosphere control with an atmosphere creation system


A spark plug (1) includes a metallic shell (3) and a ground electrode (27) resistance-welded to the metallic shell (3). The ground electrode (27) is formed from a metal material in which precipitates PR containing at least one of an oxide, an intermetallic compound, etc., are precipitated in grain boundaries. The diameter of an equivalent circle of a precipitate PR having the greatest area is 50 μm or less, and the shortest distance between the precipitates PR is 2 μm or greater. The area occupied by the precipitates PR on the section of the heat-affected zone 27A is equal to 65% or more the area occupied by the precipitates PR (the diameter of an equivalent circle of a precipitate PR having the greatest area) on a section of the normal zone 27B.

A spark plug is mounted to, for example, an internal combustion engine (an engine) for igniting an air-fuel mixture contained in a combustion chamber. Generally, a spark plug includes an insulator having an axial bore; a center electrode inserted into a forward end portion of the axial bore; a metallic shell provided externally of the outer circumference of the insulator; and a ground electrode which is resistance-welded to a forward end portion of the metallic shell and forms a spark discharge gap in cooperation with the center electrode. Also, in order to improve corrosion resistance, the metallic shell to which the ground electrode is welded may be subjected to plating, such as zinc plating.
Meanwhile, since the ground electrode is disposed in such a manner as to project toward the center of a combustion chamber, the temperature of the ground electrode becomes very high during use. Accordingly, the ground electrode is apt to suffer a problem that crystals of a metal material used to form the ground electrode coarsen (so-called grain growth), potentially resulting in internal corrosion and a deterioration in durability.
In order to restrict grain growth, there has been proposed a technique for forming the ground electrode from a metal material in which precipitates of an oxide, a nitride, or an intermetallic compound of Y, Zr, etc., are precipitated in grain boundaries (refer to, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). According to the technique, in the process of coarsening of crystal grains at high temperature, the precipitates hinder the growth of crystal grains; as a result, grain growth is restrained, whereby internal corrosion or the like can be effectively prevented.


A heat exchanger core as prepared for handling and heat bonding has a pair of headers, a row of oval shaped fluid carrying tubes received at opposite ends in the headers, air centers interleaved with the tubes, oval shaped reinforcement tubes sandwiching the fluid carrying tubes and air centers, and processing straps wrapped about the core clamping the fluid carrying tubes and air centers together between the reinforcement tubes.

In the manufacture of heat exchanger cores such as motor vehicle radiators, it is common practice to employ channel shaped reinforcement members that sandwich alternately arranged oval tubes and air centers and contact at their ends with headers that receive opposite ends of the tubes. Processing straps are then wrapped about the thus formed core assembly so that the reinforcements apply a clamping load to hold the assembly tightly together for brazing in addition to later serving to protect the sides of the core as well as reinforce same. While this manner of construction has proven generally satisfactory, there remains the need for continuous improvement, particularly where the core and straps are of different material (e.g. aluminum and steel, respectively), and special reinforcements (and thus added tooling costs) are required to compensate for the differences in thermal expansion during brazing and/or usage. Moreover, as the core depth and thus the tube width is increased for increased performance, the outside tubes have a tendency to collapse along their long side and separate from their slots in the headers, thus resulting in leaks.


A trailing arm scraper assembly for a conveyor belt having an arm extending generally in the direction or normal travel of the belt, and a scraper blade mounted at one end of said trailing arm in a home position having a scraping edge forcibly engaging said belt surface. A blade-mounting block at the end of the arm has a stud element releasably mounting said scraper blade for replacement, and affording pivotal movement of said blade about a blade axis substantially parallel to its scraping edge. The scraper blade has resilient abutments to engage the blade-mounting block to yieldingly resist pivotal movement of said blade away from its home position upon encountering an obstruction on the belt surface as it travels past the blade, and to return said blade to its home position upon travel of the obstruction beyond the blade. The abutments allow greater pivotal movement when obstructions are carried by the belt traveling in a direction reverse to its normal travel. The blade is designed to wear away to provide fresh scraping edges conforming to the contour of the belt. A blade is shown with a uniform width for a set distance from the original scraping edge, and narrowing width beyond the set distance, so that excessive wear is indicated by a narrowing of the swath scraped by the blade.

In most of such conveyor installations, a secondary belt-cleaning function is performed as the belt leaves the head pulley in its return run. The secondary cleaning function is performed by a trailing-arm scraper which is pivotally mounted below the head pulley and has arms extending generally parallel to the return run for mounting scraper blades which are biased against the return run of the belt to remove debris which is not removed in the primary discharge operation on the head pulley. The trailing-arm arrangement for the secondary scraper permits splices or other obstructions projecting from the conveyor belt to displace the scraper away from the belt as the belt carries the obstructions into the path of movement of the blade. The trailing-arm scrapers are conventionally segmented, with each segment separately biased so that displacement of one segment may occur without losing the cleaning effect of the other segments.
In many prior scraper assemblies, the arm and blade were designed to allow pivotal movement or twisting of the blade about an axis perpendicular to the blade surface and parallel to the line of travel of the conveyor belt so that pivotal movement of the blade would cant the scraping edge for the apparent purpose of allowing the scraping edge to follow tilting movement of the moving belt. It has been found, however, that obstructions may also cant scraping edge of the belt, which is likely to detract from the operation of the scraping assembly and may cause the corners of the scraping edge to dig into the belt and cause premature wear.
My co-pending application, Ser. No. 07/457,112 filed Dec. 26, 1989, discloses an improved mounting arrangement for trailing-arm scrapers which facilitates installation removal and replacement of the scraper blades as they become worn or damaged in use. Prior to the invention, the most common mode for replacement of the worn blade was to replace the entire arm and blade assembly. In this mounting, the blade is firmly secured to the blade arm by a releasable connection, so that the blade assembly may be refurbished by mounting a replacement blade on the existing arm after it is removed from its operating position. While this mounting arrangement has proved helpful in solving the most common problems of trailing-arm scrapers, it has been found that in many installations, there are problems which arise when belt travel is reversed.
In normal conveyor installations, there are safety mechanisms to prevent belt reversal when power is removed from the driving pulleys, but in use, such safety devices become ineffective and frequently in older installations, particularly where the belt is used to convey material up an incline, when the belt is arrested, the conditions cause the belt to reverse its travel. When the belt is reversed, the trailing-arm scraper blades tend to dig into the belt and distort the belt, and when the reverse travel is severe and the belt has foreign objects projecting from it, the reverse travel of the belt causes the scraper blades to dig into the belt and damage the belt and sometimes damage the entire scraper blade assembly beyond repair.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,389 illustrates a mechanism which pivots the scraper arm away from the belt during reversal of the belt, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,525 illustrates a scraper device having shear pins which break to avoid damage to the scraper device or the belt. Other mechanisms have been provided which respond to the reversal of the belt to displace the scraper blade away from the belt when the belt is driven in the opposite direction. Such mechanisms have not been entirely satisfactory because of the modifications which must be made in the conveyor drive, or else because of the expense of the modified scraper assembly.


The invention provides, in one aspect, a multimedia content sharing system that includes (i) a shared content server which stores items of content (such as still, moving images and audio) and (ii) a plurality of nodes, each of which is in communications with the shared content server via cellular telephone and/or other data networks. The shared content server transmits items of content to a first set of the nodes “automatically,” e.g., without requests by users of those nodes for the items. At least one node in that first set displays the content of received items (e.g., on an LCD screen) and accepts user feedback in regard to those items. That feedback—which may be, for example, a command to copy an item into an “album”, to rotate an item on the display, to block another node from displaying the items, and/or to block a sender (or creator) of the item from sending further items of content from presenting—is transmitted back to the shared content server for distribution to other nodes, which alter their own respective displays of the items accordingly.

The invention pertains to digital media and more particularly, by way of example, to systems and methods for multimedia content sharing. The invention has application, by way of non-limiting example, in the sharing of images and other multimedia content between and among family, friends and other communities.
Digital cameras, both still and video, abound. One can hardly step into the streets of any modern city without witnessing multiple cameras in use. This has proven increasingly true since the advent of ultra-portable digital and video cameras, not to mention camera-equipped cell phones. The trend is likely to continue as manufacturers incorporate even better cameras into the ubiquitous cell phone.
The advances that have led to the upswing in picture-taking have not found parallel in picture sharing. Most users resort to printing their favorite pictures and hand-delivering, or mailing, them to friends and family. Those on the information superhighway may use e-mail to send photos but, as many will attest, e-mail client incompatibilies, image reader problems, firewall limitations, and lacking computer skills often frustrate recipients attempts to enjoy the fruits of these missives. While online photo sharing services, such as MySpace®, FaceBook®, help overcome some of these problems, they introduce new ones—not the least of which is nessitating would-be recipients to log on to their computers to see the latest uploads. So goes the art of passive viewing.
Video sharing technologies are even more wanting. The lack of e-mail support for all but the smallest of video files requires users to "burn" them into CDs or DVDs and hand-deliver or mail them to proposective recipients. Still, incompatibilies in storage formats and disk-reader capabilities often frustrate these efforts, as well. Those with sufficient skills may turn to online video sharing services, such as YouTube®, BlipTV®, to avoid these problems only to find, like users of their still photo sharing service counterparts, that they have introduced new ones.
In view of the foregoing, an object of the invention is to provide improved methods and apparatus for image sharing.
Related objects are to provide such methods and apparatus as can be used with still images, moving images (video), audio files, and other forms of multimedia content.
Further objects of the invention are to provide such methods and apparatus as reduce the potential that hardware, software and/or format incompatibilies will frustrate content sharing.
Yet other objects of the invention are to provide such methods and apparatus as can be easily used by young and old, those that are computer-savvy and not, alike.
Still yet further objects of the invention are to provide such methods and apparatus as bring together families, friends and other communities.
Yet still yet other objects of the invention are to provide such methods and apparatus as permit the sharing not only of multimedia content but, also, user feedback surrounding that content.

Systems and methods for multimedia content sharing


Methods of correction of rotational and linear misalignment in multi-link robots are provided. The method allows for precise orientation of an end effector to put or pick substrates at a target destination by correcting for both positional and rotational orientation errors. The method rotates a boom linkage to a position adjacent to the target destination, corrects for linear and rotational error by rotating a boom linkage as well as an upper arm link as well as extending or retracting a wrist member. Systems including long boom linkages are disclosed. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Conventional electronic device manufacturing systems may include multiple process chambers and load lock chambers. Such chambers may be included in cluster tools where a plurality of process chambers may be distributed about a transfer chamber, for example. These systems and tools may employ articulated multi-link robots, which may be housed within the transfer chamber and transport substrates between the various process chambers and load locks. For example, the robot may transport a substrate from chamber to chamber, from load lock to chamber, and/or from chamber to load lock. Efficient and precise transport of substrates between the various system chambers may be important to system throughput, thereby lowering overall operating costs. Furthermore, precise substrate placement may improve overall processing quality. In many systems, Selective Compliant Articulated Robot Arm (SCARA) robots 100 are employed as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. SCARA robots 100 employ three links driven by two motors. The three links comprise an upper arm link 102, a forearm link 104, and a wrist member 106 coupled to a waist 107. An end effector 108 may be coupled to the wrist member 106 and is adapted to carry a substrate 105 to a pick or place destination such as a process chamber 110. The first motor drives the waist 107 thereby allowing overall positioning of the robot 100 in an X-Y plane. The second motor drives all the kinematically-coupled arms 102, 104, 106 such that the wrist member 106 moves linearly away from the waist 107 along a linear axis 112. Problematically, such SCARA robots 100 suffer from a compromise between positional alignment and rotational alignment. For example, due to calibration and/or manufacturing tolerances, the linear axis 112 may be offset from a normal axis 114 of the chamber 110 such as is shown in FIG. 1A. Such positional alignment between the linear axis 112 of the robot 100 and the normal axis 114 of the chamber 110 may be corrected by rotation of the entire SCARA robot 100 relative to the waist 107, but only while introducing rotational error as is shown in FIG. 1B. Likewise rotational error may be corrected, but only by introducing linear positional error. In semiconductor manufacturing, orientation of the substrate within a chamber and from chamber to chamber may be important in terms of processing quality.
Accordingly, improved methods for efficient and precise orientation of substrates are desired.

Systems having multi-linkage robots and methods to correct positional and rotational alignment in multi-linkage robots


Non-limiting examples of the present disclosure enable creation and management of representations of content through the execution of copy actions, paste actions or a combination thereof. An indication of a copy action is received that copies a content portion. The copy action is analyzed to generate a (live) representation of the content portion. Other examples of representations are also generatable including a static representation and/or a live non-editable representation. As an example, a live representation is an editable and synchronized representation of the content portion that is synchronized with original source content. The live representation comprises a selectable data link that links back to the original source content and an editable representation of the content portion. In response to receiving an indication of a paste action, the live representation of the content portion is automatically rendered inline within a graphical user interface of a host application/service endpoint.

Traditionally, operations for copying and pasting content create a forked representation of that content, where an original source of the content does not remain synchronized with a version of that content which is pasted in another location. For example, if a user copies content from a word processing document and pastes that content in an email document, the word processing document will have the original content and email document will have a forked version of that content. Any changes made to the content in the email document will not change the original content within the word processing document. Forked representations of content not only hinder processing efficiency of both computing devices and associated users but also require that multiple different applications/services and documents be concurrently accessed to synchronize changes between different versions of the content. As such, processing for copying and pasting stands to be improved to enable synchronization between the different version of content.
Another technical challenge that arises with respect to copying and pasting content is the limited options when pasting copied content in another location/electronic document. Commonly, options for pasting copied content are limited to either: 1) an option that keeps a source formatting of the content; or 2) an option that pastes only the data of that content. However, as content collaboration is becoming more common, users are encountering different technical scenarios where they require more control over the formatting by which content is copied and pasted. In some technical instances, a user might even need to change formatting in real-time during editing. Therefore, management of copying and pasting of content stands to be improved.
Yet another technical issue that arises in collaborative scenarios pertains to the lack of contextual information surrounding content that is copied from one source and pasted in another. As many documents are accessed collaboratively, users may be copying content and pasting that content across any number of different documents. However, traditional actions for copying and pasting content do not provide insights that help users understand how content reached the state that it is currently in.

Creation and management of live representations of content through intelligent copy paste actions